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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 55: 1909
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

Fear of Death

   (No. 3125)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1908, DELIVERED BY C. H.
   SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,

   ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17,1874.

   "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
   subject to bondage." Hebrews 2:15.

   IT is a very natural thing that man should fear to die, for man was not
   originally created to die. When Adam and Eve were first placed in the
   Garden of Eden, they were in such a condition that they might have
   remained there for a myriad years if they had kept their integrity.
   There was no reason why unfallen man should die--but now that we have
   sinned, the seeds of corruption are in this flesh of ours--and it is
   appointed unto men once to die. Yet, as if the body knew that it was
   not according to the first decree of Heaven that it should go to the
   earth and to the worms, it has a natural reluctance to return to its
   last bed. And this fear of death, so far as it is natural, is not
   wrong.

   In fact, it subserves a very high purpose in the economy of mankind,
   for there is many a man who might be tempted to end this mortal life
   were it not for the fear of death. And to end his life by his own hand
   would be a dreadful deed--it would prove that he was not the child of
   God, for "you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." I
   mean, of course, if such a deed were done by anyone in possession of
   his senses--I am not giving any judgment on those who are not in the
   possession of reason and who are not accountable for what they do. If
   any man in his sober senses were to commit suicide, we could entertain
   no hope of eternal life for him. Yet many would do so were it not that
   there is impressed upon them the fear of what would result from thus
   ending their being.

   So far, you see, the fear of death answers a good purpose and is, in
   itself, right. But it can very readily go beyond the point where it is
   right into the region wherein it becomes evil and I do not doubt that
   many godly persons have a fear of death about them which is very evil
   and which produces very evil effects. Some, no doubt, have been
   hindered from confessing Christ and following Him fully through fear of
   death, but not, perhaps, so much now, as in the days of the martyrs.
   Then there were heroic spirits that went willingly to the stake, or to
   some other painful form of death which the tyrant of the hour decreed.
   They cheerfully, with shouts of victory, laid down their lives which
   they did not count dear unto them for the sake of Jesus Christ!

   But there were timid spirits that shrank from such an ordeal--they
   loved life and they feared death, especially in the terrible forms in
   which it was thrust upon them. This shrinking would be wrong in any one
   of us. If the fear of death made us dishonor Christ, we would be guilty
   of deadly sin. If any man resolves to follow Christ, he must not love
   his own life in comparison with his love to Jesus Christ, but he must
   be willing to lay it down for the sake of Him who gave up His life upon
   the Cross for us.

   Fear of death also causes some Christian people to have to endure many
   needless sorrows. They are ill and likely to die and, instead of being
   in a calm and serene state of mind, as they ought to be, they are
   greatly perturbed and distressed. Even while they are well, if
   something happens that causes them to think upon their last hours, they
   are burdened and depressed. Now this sorrow is a sorrow of the flesh
   which ought to be avoided. We ought to seek for Divine Grace to conquer
   it so that we may not have the sorrow of the world which works death.
   This fear of death is very dishonoring to God. It looks as if you could
   trust Him in fair weather, but not in storms--could believe in Him
   while you are well and strong--but could not trust in Him when health
   and strength are failing you. Never forget what David said, "He that is
   our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the
   issues from death."

   We greatly glorify God when we can say with Job, "Though He slay me,
   yet will I trust in Him," but if we are afraid to die, it looks as if
   we had not a whole-hearted trust in God, or that perfect love to Him
   which casts out fear. And this fear of death also tends very much to
   dishonor our holy religion in the eyes of those who are not believers
   in Jesus. The calmness with which the Christian expects his end, or
   even the holy joy with which he anticipates it, is one of the things
   which ungodly men cannot comprehend--and even if they will not confess
   it, they are a good deal impressed by it and often feel their hearts
   longing to know that blessed secret which can make Christians look
   forward to their last days on earth in such a cheery spirit.

   The Christian who contemplates death with joy is a living sermon! He is
   a better defense of the Gospel than all the works that Butler and Paley
   and the other writers of Christian evidences have ever been able to
   compile. Therefore, dear Friends, the Church of Christ loses this
   defense and the world loses this evidence when we are troubled by the
   fear of death. This fear ought not to be found in Christians, but if it
   ever is, they ought to strive against it until they overcome it--

   " Why should we start, or fear to die?

   What timorous worms we mortals are!

   Death is the gate of endless joy,

   And yet we dread to enter there?

   The pains, the groans, the dying strife

   Frighten our approaching souls away-Still we shrink back again to a
   life,

   Fond of our prison and our clay." "How are we to get rid of this fear?"
   asks one. Well, let us never try to get rid of it, as some do, by
   forgetting all about death! That would be to live as the brutes that
   perish! They live their little day here without any thought beyond the
   present. The ox and the sheep go to the slaughterhouse without the
   power to look beyond the present life. I would not like to obtain peace
   of mind by descending to the level of those "dumb, driven cattle." Yet
   there are many men whose only peace arises from thoughtlessness and
   that is a sorry peace which cannot endure contemplation and
   consideration. Why, we know men who are bold enough in company and who
   can even blaspheme God--but set them down in a room by themselves,
   compel them to think in solitude even for a single hour--and you could
   not condemn them to a greater misery! They cannot bear the idea of
   parting with their present joys. Venturing into another world seems, to
   them, such a hazardous enterprise that they forget all about it and
   shut their eyes to all thoughts beyond this life!

   It is not in that way that Christians seek to overcome their fear of
   death. They are thoughtful and they wish to always ponder, to consider
   and to judge concerning the future as well as the present. They desire
   to look beyond this mortal state. They ask for brighter vision and
   clearer eyesight and do not need to shut their eyes to the future,
   whatever it may have in store for them!

   I am going to try to answer three questions concerning this fear of
   death. First, where shall we look to be delivered from it?Secondly,
   what shall we further think of to help us conquer it? And, thirdly,
   what shall we do to overcome it?

   I. First, then, WHERE SHALL WE LOOK TO BE DELIVERED FROM THE FEAR OF
   DEATH?

   The answer is, Beloved, that you must look for that where you are bound
   to look for everything, namely, TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, for there is
   no true deliverance from the fear of death except by looking unto Him
   whose death is the death of death! The verse before our text suggests
   this when it tells us that Jesus Christ became Man, "that through death
   He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
   and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime
   subject to bondage."

   How does Christ take away from us the fear of death? He does it, first,
   by taking away from us the sin which is the sting of death. To die
   forgiven, "accepted in the Beloved," is not really to die, but to
   depart out of this world unto the Father! Unforgiven sin is that which
   makes it hard to lay the head upon the dying pillow. But when sin is
   forgiven and we know that it is and we have perfect peace with God, we
   can even longfor that last evening of life to come that we may undress
   and sleep in Jesus! Be sure, Beloved, that you are forgiven--"make your
   calling and election sure." Know for a certainty that Jesus Christ's
   words apply to you, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes
   on Me has everlasting life." Rest completely upon that Sacrifice which
   He once offered upon the Cross when He made a full atonement for all

   who believe an Him! Understand that He has washed you from your sins in
   His blood and made you kings and priests unto God--and then I do not
   see how the fear of death can live in you any longer!--

   "If sin is pardoned, Im secure!

   Death has no sting beside.

   The Law gives sin its damning power,

   But Christ, my Ransom, died." Next, Christ has delivered you from the
   fear of death by changing the very character of death, itself You know
   what He said to Martha, "Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never
   die." And Believers never do die in the sense in which others die. They
   die in order to endure the penalty of sin, but for us, that penalty was
   borne by Christ! All our iniquities were laid upon Him and all the
   penalty of them was borne by Him. Death to the Believer is no
   penalty--it is a development from this time state to another and a
   higher one--a breaking of the shell that now confines us! It is a
   snapping of the cable that holds the vessel to the shore; a severing of
   the chain that holds the eagle to the rock. Death releases us so that
   we may soar away to that land of light and love where Jesus is, as John
   Newton sings--

   "In vain my fancy strives to paint

   The moment after death,

   The glories that surround the saint

   When yielding up his breath.

   One gentle sigh the fetter breaks!

   We scarce can say,' They're gone!

   Before the willing spirit takes

   Her mansion near the Throne." Death to the Believer is not an
   execution--it is his deliverance, his freedom from slavery and
   admission into the Glory of

   God!

   Christ has taken away the fear of death from those who truly know Him
   by assuring us that our soul shall not die or become extinct There is a
   vital principle within us, as He has said, "Because I live, you shall
   live also." One of His last solemn declarations was, "Father, I will
   that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that
   they may behold My Glory." We sorrow not as without hope concerning
   those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, for we know that they are
   forever with the Lord! "To be absent from the body and to be present
   with the Lord," is the Divine Revelation concerning all who are in
   Christ Jesus by a living faith! Because our souls shall never die, we
   are not afraid to venture into the world of spirits.

   Then there is that master doctrine of the Christian faith which was not
   revealed to men in all its fullness until Jesus came. I mean, the
   doctrine of the resurrection of the body. It is for this body that we
   have any fear--corruption, earth and worms are its heritage--and it
   seems a hard thing that these eyes, which have seen the light, should
   be blinded in the mold; that these hands which have been active in
   God's service, should lie still in the grave--and that these limbs,
   which have trodden the pilgrim path, should be able to move no longer.
   But courage, Believer! Your body shall rise again! Laid in the earth it
   may be, but keptin the earth it cannotbe! The voice of Nature bids you
   die, but the voice of the Omnipotent bids you live, again, for the
   trumpet shall sound and then the bodies of the saints shall rise--

   "From beds of dust and silent clay,

   To realms of everlasting day."

   This is our consolation, that, as Jesus Christ died and rose again from
   the dead, "even so they, also, who sleep in Jesus will God bring with
   Him." As we have this double comfort for soul and body, what more do we
   need?

   Thus I have shown you that to overcome the fear of death, we must look
   to Jesus Christ on the Cross atoning for us, in the Resurrection rising
   for us, in the Glory taking possession of our home for us and at the
   right hand of God preparing our place for us, possessing all power and
   using it so that He may bring us unto His eternal Kingdom--and soon to
   come again, in all the glory of the latter days, to raise the bodies of
   His people from the dead unless they are still alive at His coming.
   This is He who conquers for us the fear of death! It is to Him we are
   to look--"looking unto Jesus." Let your eyes be always looking to
   Him--then the fear of death will not make you subject to bondage.

   II. Now, secondly, WHAT SHALL WE THINK OF THAT MAY FURTHER HELP US TO
   OVERCOME THIS

   FEAR OF DEATH?

   First, let us remember that if we are called to die, we are called to
   do no more than Jesus Christ has done before us. When my body goes down
   to the grave, it will not be the first tenant of the sepulcher! Myriads
   of the saints have been there before and, best of all, the saints'
   Master and Lord has slept in the tomb! You remember that Jesus left the
   napkin folded by itself that mourners might use it in drying their
   tears--but the linen clothes, in which He had been wrapped-- remained
   together so that our last bed might be well-sheeted, that our last
   sleeping room might not be unfurnished. More than that--

   "There the dear flesh of Jesus lay, And left a long perfume."

   Should not the servant be as the Master? Does he ask for more? If the
   King, Himself, has passed this way, shall His bodyguard, His soldiers,
   His companions be afraid to pursue the same downward path? No, Beloved,
   as you follow the track of the Crucified to the tomb of Joseph of
   Arimathea, you may, yourself, walk safely there! If the footprints of
   the flock have often encouraged us, how much more should the footprints
   of the Shepherd! So, Believers, be not afraid to die, for Jesus died.

   Remember, also, that death will not separate us from the love of
   Christ, nor from Christ Himself He is with us now and He will be with
   us then. And after death we shall be with Him forever! He loves us
   today and He will love us tomorrow. He will love us all our lives. He
   will love us in death and He will love us throughout eternity! It was
   this Truth of God that Paul proclaimed when he wrote, "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." In one of his inventories of
   the Christian's possessions, he writes, "Life or death, or things
   present, or things to come; all are yours so death is yours if you are
   in Christ Jesus." If the pangs of death could separate the members of
   Christ's mystical body from their Head, it would be death, indeed. If
   that grievous sorrow could divide the heart of Jesus from the heart of
   His elect, then might we dread to die--but it is not so! If death makes
   any difference to us, the bonds that unite us to Christ shall become
   still firmer and the Revelation of Christ shall become yet
   brighter--and Jesus shall be nearer and dearer to us in our departure
   from earth than He ever was before! "Therefore comfort one another with
   these words."

   Next, let us remember that death will not even separate us from all our
   friends. It will take the wife from the husband and the child from the
   mother--and we must leave behind us many who have been our comrades in
   the battle of life. But, especially to you who are growing old, it
   ought to be a very comforting thought that probably most of your best
   friends have already crossed the river! If you were to count up those
   who have been dear to you from your youth up, you would find that the
   majority have gone on before you as you have advanced in years. And
   there are some above who, a long way behind our Lord, of course, will
   be among the dearest friends that we hope to see up yonder! The mother
   will find her babies who were lent to her for a brief season and then
   caught away to Heaven, safe on the other shore. And grandparents,
   parents, brothers, sisters and many a fellow Church member with whom we
   went to the House of the Lord in company--are all there ready to
   welcome us when we shall be newcomers in the Celestial City! Do not,
   therefore, have a fear of death because of the separation from friends
   below, but rather cheer yourself with the prospect of a blessed reunion
   with friends above! You may, perhaps, regret that you have to leave
   some behind, but think of the friends ahead and let your spirit rejoice
   to remember that you are going "to the general assembly and Church of
   the first-born which are written in Heaven." Again, I say to you,
   "Comfort one another with these words."

   I think the fear of death ought to vanish from us when we remember that
   it will be an answer to a great many of our prayers. I am not sure we
   always do right to sing such words as these--

   "Father, I long, I faint to see The place of Your abode."

   I remember a minister, an old friend of mine, who went into the pulpit
   one Lord's-Day morning, stood up and read that verse--

   "Father, I long, I faint to see The place of Your abode Id leave Your
   earthly courts and flee Up to Your seat, my God!'

   As he uttered those words, he sat down in the seat, fell back--he had
   gone to be with his God! We should not venture to say or sing such
   words as these unless we are fully prepared for such a sudden change as
   came to my aged friend. But how often you and I have prayed to be rid
   of troubles! Well, we shall be rid of them, then! How often have we
   prayed to be rid of sin! We shall be rid of it, then! We have prayed to
   be delivered from temptation--and we shall be--then. We have asked to
   be like Jesus and we shall be, then! We have prayed for a clearer
   vision of Him and we shall have it, then. Why, our prayers, except when
   we pray, "Let the whole earth be filled with Your Glory," can scarcely
   go further than when we say, "Let us be with You where You are." By our
   death, the Lord will answer our prayers. One kiss on our lips from His
   dear mouth will kiss away our soul and we shall be where we shall see
   His blessed face in all the splendor of His Glory! So then, if death is
   the answer to your prayers, why need you dread it?

   Remember, too, that death is attended by very special comforts. I
   remember a sermon by my grandfather which stuck in my youthful memory
   and is still fresh in my memory. I forget the text, but I think it was,
   "Grace to help in time of need." And at the end of the first head the
   old gentleman said, "But there is one kind of Grace that you do not
   want." Then he went on to a second head and mentioned another kind of
   Grace and, again, he said, "But there is one kind of Grace that you do
   not want." He had five or six heads to his discourse, but at the end of
   every one of them he said, "But there is one kind of Grace that you do
   not want." We were all wondering what he could mean and then he
   finished up with this remark, "You do not want dyingGrace till dying
   moments come!" There was truth in that observation!

   I may say to myself, "Do I feel, now, that I could die calmly or even
   triumphantly?" I may put the question if I like, but it is hardly a
   fair one, for I am not yet called to die! Yet my experience and
   observation of others lead me to believe that very remarkable Grace is
   often given to Believers in their last hours. I have seen the timid
   become more strong than the brave! I have seen the retiring become more
   bold than the courageous! And I have known some who seemed to be almost
   dumb, before, speak with matchless utterance! And some, whose faces
   have been lit up with supernatural joy--who, before, appeared to be
   amongst the doubting and the trembling ones of Christ's family. There
   are choice revelations, special manifestations, nearer approaches to
   Christ, wider outlets of love from Him and greater inlets into the soul
   of the brightness of His Presence in those times, than ever before!

   When the body is strong, it often seems like a thick wall that shuts
   out the light. But when disease comes and shakes the tenement, it makes
   great rifts in wall and roof--and through those rifts the Light of God
   comes streaming in as it had never come in before! I never can doubt
   the truth of our holy faith, or the reality of religion after what I
   have witnessed at the deathbeds of the Lord's people. I could tell you
   of one, who died this week, and who had long been a member of this
   Church. She was unconscious in her last hours, but up to the time when
   unconsciousness came on, it would have been a joy to any of you to see
   her! She almost incessantly requested her friends TO sing such songs
   as--

   "Safe in the arms of Jesus."

   As long as she could do so, she took her part, joining better than any
   of them in the real joy of the song, for they were sorrowful at the
   thought of losing one whom they loved--but she was joyful in the
   prospect of soon beholding the face of Him whom her soul loved so
   intensely! I believe there is no joy in life that equals the joy of
   departing Believers!

   You may visit the haunts of folly, if you will, and search for joy,
   there, but you shall not find any joy worth the having. You may go to
   the palaces of kings; you may go to bridal chambers; you may go where
   health, strength, fame and honor contribute to worldly mirth--but you
   shall not find such deep, intense joy anywhere else as you shall find
   in that room where the death-sweat is on the Believer's brow--and the
   Glory of Heaven is shining upon his face! I have heard some say that it
   was worth while to live for the sake of the joy they have had when they
   were dying! So there is no cause for a Christian to fear death if such
   an experience as this awaits him.

   But it is not so much the joy of dying that can console us as the life
   that is beyond death. I never like to hear people quote the first part
   of that text and omit the latter portion, "Eye has not seen, nor ear
   heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
   has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us
   by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
   of God." Christians know that there is a joy unspeakable and eternal
   which will be their portion as soon as they shall depart from this
   world to be with the Father. Well did we sing just now--

   "Let doubt, then, and danger my progress oppose, They only make Heaven
   more sweet at the close!

   Come joy or come sorrow, whate'er may befall An hour with my God will
   make up for them all."

   What will be the sensations of the first hour in heaven? I will not try
   to picture them--I will leave you to imagine them. But what will be
   your sensations when you realize that you are not merely to be there
   for an hour, or a day, or even for 70 years, but forever and ever? Of
   him that overcomes, Christ says, "He shall go no more out." He shall be
   blessed forever and ever in the Presence of his Lord! The righteous are
   to go "into life eternal." Take away that word, "eternal," and you have
   taken away our all! But while that remains, the Heaven of Heaven is the
   fact that it will last forever and ever! I cannot stay to speak at
   length upon all this, but I do entreat every child of God to think much
   upon these comforting themes and then, surely, he will be helped to
   overcome the fear of death.

   III. Now, thirdly, WHAT SHALL WE DO, as well as what shall we think of,
   IN ORDER THAT WE MAY OVERCOME THE FEAR OF DEATH?

   I would say, first, let us die every day. "I die daily," said the
   Apostle Paul. The man who practices dying every day, the man who has,
   as it were, a daily rehearsal of it, will not be afraid of the reality
   when it comes! We are wise to talk of our last hours, to be familiar
   with the thought of our departure from this world. Every night, when we
   go to our bed, we ought to have a rehearsal of death. We lay aside our
   clothes for the night just as we shall have to lay aside our bodies in
   death. I like that idea best on Saturday night, for then we take off
   our work-day clothes and they are put away--and we fall asleep. And
   then, in the morning, there are our Sabbath-Day garments laid ready for
   us and oh, what wonderful Sabbath-Day clothes we shall have when we
   awake in the morning in Heaven and are "arrayed in fine linen: clean
   and white," which is "the righteousness of saints."

   So, die daily, Brothers and Sisters, in this fashion! Get into the
   habit of so doing. I remember an old Christian woman who used to say
   that she had dipped her feet in the river of death every morning before
   she left her bedroom, so she did not mind when she was called to go
   through it, she was so accustomed to "die daily."

   The next piece of advice I have to give you is this--hold very loosely
   everything on earth. Have you a great many possessions and friends?
   Mind that you do not cling too closely to them, for there is danger
   about them all. As one once observed to a rich man who took him over
   his parks and gardens, "Ah, Sir, these are the things that make it hard
   to die!" The poor have little enough to leave and when they go, they
   have not the regrets which the covetous and avaricious rich man
   oftentimes has, or the man who has added field to field and farm to
   farm, till he owns all the land in the region where he lives. "Must I
   leave you? Must I leave you?" has often been the miser's cry, as he has
   tried to clutch his moneybags with his dying fingers! O Beloved, hold
   everything loosely! You are in a dying world and everything about you
   is like yourself--shadowy and fleeting. Do not build your nest here as
   if you were to abide here forever.

   We ought to live in this world like lodgers at an inn. There was a good
   bishop who used to say that he should like to die at an inn because he
   felt as if he should then be in a similar position, both literally and
   spiritually. And truly, that is the spirit in which Christians should
   always live. A man on a journey goes to an inn to spend a night--he
   does not trouble himself because the room is not quite to his taste,
   for he will be off in the morning. You, Believer, are only at an inn,
   so do not fret about the little inconveniences here, for you are to be
   off in the morning and, you may depend upon it that your Father' s
   carriage will be at the door at the right time--so have everything
   packed up ready for your departure! Do not go buying a lot of lumber
   here, for you cannot carry it with you! Have very little and have it
   all ready. And a very good thing is to send as much as you can on
   before you!

   Somebody said, the other day, that the best way to travel was to send
   all your goods on by the luggage train in advance and then go,
   yourself, by the first-class express passenger train. He explained that
   he meant that you were to give away as much as you could to the poor
   and to the Church of God--and so send it on by the luggage train. "What
   I spent, I had," said a man. "What I kept, I lost What I gave away, I
   have." And truly it is so when Believers die. Still is that theirs
   which they have given to God and to His poor, "but whose is that which
   they have left behind?" Perhaps some ungrateful heir will sinfully
   squander it. I have often admired the difference between a rich man's
   funeral and a poor man's. It grieves me, sometimes, to think of the
   rich man's funeral. What do the sons and daughters of the miser think
   about it? They are most concerned to get home to hear the reading of
   the will! But when the poor man dies, it is quite another matter. There
   is his daughter, Jane, who is employed as a servant--she contributes a
   little towards the cost of the funeral. Then there is a son, John, who
   has a wife and four or five children--but he pinches himself so as to
   contribute a little. All

   the children do something to help and those are honest tears that they
   shed for the poor old man, for they have nothing to gain by his
   departure and the grief at his funeral will be real and true. But
   whether you are rich or poor in this world's goods, make sure that you
   are among "the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

   But the main way to overcome the fear of death is to believe firmly in
   your Lord. You will generally find that in proportion as your faith
   gets stronger, your fear of death will vanish--and as your faith gets
   weak, fear will come in to take its place. Realize that Christ is your
   Savior, that He loves you and has given Himself for you--and saved you
   with an everlasting salvation! Realize that He has inscribed your name
   upon the palms of His hands. No, more--that He has engraved it upon His
   heart! Remember that although a woman may forget her sucking child,
   your Lord never can forget you and that He has said, "I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you"--and then will you be able to say, "Yes,
   though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
   evil: for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

   The next thing I exhort you to do is to walk much with God. Pray for
   Grace to never get out of fellowship with Him. You cannot have the fear
   of death while you walk with Him! There was a man, you remember, who
   never died--and the reason was because he walked with God! If any man
   would escape all dread of death, he must pursue Enoch's path. It is the
   only way to rise superior to the natural fear that comes upon us all at
   times.

   Next, to get rid of the fear of death, I urge you to serve God every
   day with all your might. Live each day as if it were to be your last
   day. If any Christian man knew that he had only one more day to live,
   what a great deal of work he would crowd into that day! Then do that
   everyday since any night, when you fall asleep, you may do so for the
   last time on earth! Press as much service as you can into each
   day--live at a quick rate, serve the Lord with all your heart, mind,
   soul and strength--and try to get a full day's work done in every day.

   I met, the other day, with a piece of poetry which struck me very
   forcibly. I wonder whether it will strike you in the same way as I read
   it--

   "'My work is done, I lay me down to die.

   Weary and travel-worn, Ilong for rest.

   Speak but the word, dear Master, and I fly,

   A dove let loose to nestle on Your breast.'

   'Not yet, My child; a little longer wait,

   I need your prayerful watch at Glory's gate.'

   'But, Lord, I have no strength to watch and pray,

   My spirit is benumbed and dim my sight.

   And I shall grieve Your wakeful love, as they

   Who in the garden slept, that paschal night.'

   'My child, I need your weakness, hour by hour,

   To prove, in Me, your weakness ispower.'

   'Not for myself, I urge the suit,

   But loved ones lose, for me, life's priceless bloom

   And tender, patient, uncomplaining, mute,

   Wear out theirjoy in my darkened room.'

   'Enough, My child! I need their love to you;

   Around your couch they minister to Me.'

   'It is enough, dear Master, yes, Amen!

   I will not breathe one murmur or reply.

   Only fulfill Your work in me and then

   Call me, and bid me answer, 'Here am I.'

   'My child, the sign I waited for is given.

   Your work is done. I need you now in Heaven.'" I admire that utterance
   of Mr. Whitefield, which I have quoted to you before, "I try to keep
   all my affairs so arranged that if I were to die at any time, they
   would be no trouble to those who come after me." He was so particular
   in his habits that he would not fall asleep if he had a pair of gloves
   out of place! And I like to feel that as far as it can be, all is right
   with my own affairs.

   I do not wonder that some Christian people would be afraid to die, now,
   for they remember that they have not made their wills. Simple as that
   remark may seem to be to you, it is a very important matter, for it is
   a terrible thing for a man to be taken suddenly ill and, instead of
   having to think about departing to his God, he has to send for a
   lawyer! And when his own wits are scarcely ready for it, he has to be
   planning about what is to be done for his wife and children and others
   whom he wishes to benefit. Get that matter settled as soon as you can
   and see to everything else that needs attention--so that you may be
   able to say--"Here am I, standing like a passenger at a railway
   station. My luggage is all ready and I am only waiting to step into the
   carriage and be gone." Happy man who is in that prepared state, for he
   need have no fear of death!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, if you would get rid of the fear of death,
   my last word of advice is, use the telescope very frequently. Look away
   up to the eternal hills where your heavenly inheritance lies, for all
   the Glory which Christ has with the Father is yours! You shall sit upon
   His Throne, even as He sits upon His Father's Throne. You shall he
   crowned, even as He is crowned. Look away from this mist and fog, this
   frost and snow--to the land where the sun goes down no more and the
   days of your mourning shall be forever ended! Let your spirit rejoice
   that as you are one with Jesus, you have already, by faith, taken
   possession of the land where you shall be no more subject to any pain,
   or trial, or sorrow, or sin, or death! Happy are the people who have
   such a blessed place to go to when they die!

   But I am afraid there are some here who have not any such prospect
   before them. To them I will repeat a simple story which I have told to
   some of you before. I have heard of a certain king who had a jester or,
   "fool," to make fun for him, as kings used to have. But this "fool" was
   no fool! He had much sense and he had thought wisely about eternal
   matters. One day when he had greatly pleased the king, His Majesty gave
   him a stick and said to him, "Tom, here is a stick which you are to
   keep till you see a bigger fool than yourself--and then you may give it
   to him." One day His Majesty was taken ill and it was thought that he
   would die. Many went to see him and Tom also went and said, "What is
   the matter, Your Majesty?" "I am going, Tom, I am going." "Where are
   you going?" asked Tom. "I fear it is a very long way," said the king.
   "And are you coming back, Your Majesty?" "No, Tom." "You are going to
   stay a long while, then?" "Forever," said the king.

   "I suppose Your Majesty has a palace ready over there." "No." "But I
   suppose you have provided everything that you will need there if you
   are going such a long way and never coming back? I suppose you have
   sent a good deal on and got everything provided for on ahead?" "No,
   Tom," said the king, "I have done nothing of the kind." "Here, then,
   Your Majesty, take my stick, for you are a bigger fool than I am."

   And if there is a man here who has made no provision for eternity and
   who has no mansion, no abiding place, no treasure, no Friend, no
   Advocate, no Helper there, he is a gigantic fool, be he who he may! The
   Lord give that fool a little sense and lead him to confess his folly
   and look to Jesus, who is Savior, Friend and Heaven all in one! God
   bless you, for Christ' s sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Pictures of Life

   (No. 3126)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 18, 1855.

   "What is your life?" James 4:14.

   [This Sermon was delivered by Mr. Spurgeon on the evening before he
   came of age, having been born on June 19, 1834. A much later Sermon on
   the same verse is #1773, Volume 30--WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? It was suggested
   by the sudden death of the Duke of Albany in 1884. A still later Sermon
   by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 13-17, #2242, Volume 38-- GOD'S WILL ABOUT
   THE FUTURE, was delivered in connection with the "Home going" of Mr.
   William Olney, and was published in the very week that the Beloved
   preacher was "called Home" in January 1892]

   IT well behooves me, now that another year of my existence has almost
   gone, standing on the threshold of a fresh era, to consider what I am,
   where I am going, what I am doing, whom I am serving and what shall be
   my reward. I will not, however, do so publicly before you--I hope that
   I may be enabled to perform that duty in secret. But rather let me turn
   this occurrence to another account by speaking to you of the frailty of
   human life, the fleeting nature of time, how swiftly it passes away,
   how soon we all shall fade as a leaf and how speedily the place which
   knows us now shall know us no more forever! The Apostle James asks,
   "What is your life?" and, thanks to Inspiration, we are at no great
   difficulty to give the reply, for Scripture, being the best interpreter
   of Scripture, supplies us with many very excellent answers. I shall
   attempt to give you some of them.

   I. First, we shall view life with regard to ITS SWIFTNESS.

   It is a great fact that though life to the young man, when viewed in
   the prospect appears to be long, to the old man it is always short and
   to all men life is really but a brief period. Human life is not long.
   Compare it with the existence of some animals and trees and how short
   is human life! Compare it with the ages of the universe and it becomes
   a span--and especially measure it by eternity--and how little does life
   appear! It sinks like one small drop into the ocean and becomes as
   insignificant as one tiny grain of sand upon the seashore!

   Life is swift. If you would picture life, you must turn to the
   Bible--and this evening we will walk through the Bible-gallery of old
   paintings.

   You will find its swiftness spoken of in the Book of Job where we are
   furnished with three illustrations. In the ninth Chapter and at the
   25th verse, we read, "Now my days are swifter than a post." We are,
   most of us, acquainted with the swiftness of post-conveyance. I have
   sometimes, on an emergency, taken post horses where there has been no
   railway, and have been amazed and pleased with the swiftness of my
   journey. But since, in this ancient Book, there can be no allusion to
   modern posts, we must turn to the manners and customs of the East. And
   in so doing, we find that the ancient monarchs astonished their
   subjects by the amazing swiftness with which they received
   intelligence. By well-ordered arrangements, swift horses and constant
   relays, they were able to attain a speed which, although trifling in
   these days, was in those slower ages a marvel of marvels, so that, to
   an Eastern, one of the clearest ideas of swiftness was that of "a
   post." Well does Job say that our life is swifter than a post. We ride
   one year until it is worn out, but there comes another just as swift
   and we are borne by it--and soon it is gone and another year serves us
   for a steed! Post-house after post-house we pass as birthdays
   successively arrive! We loiter not, but vaulting at a leap from one
   year to another, still we hurry onward, onward, ever onward! My life is
   like a post--not like the slow wagon that drags along the road with
   tiresome wheels, but like a post, it attains the greatest speed!

   Job further says, "My days are passed away as the swift ships." He
   increases, you see, the intensity of the metaphor, for if, in the
   Eastern's idea, anything could exceed the swiftness of the post, it was
   the swift ship. Some translate this

   passage as "the ships of desire," that is, the ships hurrying home,
   anxious for the haven and, therefore, crowding on all sail. You may
   well conceive how swiftly the mariner flies from a threatening storm,
   or seeks the port where he will find his home. You have sometimes seen
   how the ship cuts through the billows, leaving a white furrow behind
   her and causing the sea to boil around her. Such is life, says Job, "as
   the swift ships," when the sails are filled by the wind and the vessel
   dashes on, cleaving a passage through the crowding waves. Swift are the
   ships, but swifter by far is life! The wind of time bears me along. I
   cannot stop its motion. I may direct it with the rudder of God's Holy
   Spirit. I may, it is true, take in some small sails of sin which might
   hurry my days on faster than otherwise they would go but, nevertheless,
   like a swift ship my life must speed on its way until it reaches its
   haven. Where is that haven to be? Shall it be found in the land of
   bitterness and barrenness, that dreary region of the lost? Or shall it
   be that sweet haven of eternal peace where not a troubling wave can
   ruffle the resting glory of my spirit? Wherever the haven is to be,
   that Truth of God is the same--we are "as the swift ships."

   Job also says that life is "as the eagle that hastens to the prey." The
   eagle is a bird noted for its swiftness. I remember reading an account
   of an eagle attacking a fish hawk which had obtained some booty from
   the deep and was bearing it aloft. The hawk dropped the fish, which
   fell towards the water, but before the fish had reached the ocean, the
   eagle had flown more swiftly than the fish could fall and, catching it
   in its beak, it flew away with it. The swiftness of the eagle is almost
   incalculable--you see it and it is gone! You see a dark speck in the
   sky yonder--it is an eagle soaring. Let the fowler imagine that,
   by-and-by, he shall overtake it on some mountain's craggy peak--it
   shall be long gone before he reaches it! Such is our life. It is like
   an eagle hastening to its prey--not merely an eagle flying in its
   ordinary course, but an eagle hastening to its prey. Life appears to be
   hastening to its end! Death seeks the body as its prey--life is ever
   fleeing from hungry Death, but Death is too swift to be outrun--and as
   an eagle overtakes hisprey, so shall Death!

   If we require a further illustration of the swiftness of life, we must
   turn to two other passages in the Book of Job upon which I shall not
   dwell. One will be found in the seventh Chapter, at the sixth verse,
   where Job says, "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle," which
   the weaver throws so quickly that the eyes can hardly discern it. But
   he gives us a yet more excellent metaphor in the seventh verse of the
   same Chapter, where he says, "O remember that my life is wind." Now
   this excels in velocity all the other figures we have examined. Who can
   outrun the winds? Proverbially, the winds are rapid--even in their
   gentlest motion they appear to be swift. But when they rush in the
   tornado, or when they dash madly on in the hurricane, when the tempest
   blows and tears down everything--how swift, then, is the wind! Perhaps
   some of us may have a gentle gale of wind and we may not seem to move
   so swiftly. But with others who are only just born and then snatched
   away to Heaven, the swiftness may be compared to that of the hurricane
   which soon snaps the ties of life and leaves the infant dead. Surely
   our life is like the wind!

   Oh, if you could but catch these idea, my Friends! Though we may be
   sitting still in this chapel, yet you know that we are all really in
   motion. This world is turning round on its axis once every 24 hours and
   besides that, it is moving around the sun in the 365 days of the year.
   So that we are all moving--we are all flitting along through space--and
   as we are travelling through space, so are we moving through time at an
   incalculable rate! Oh, what an idea this is could we but grasp it! We
   are all being carried along as if by a giant angel with broad
   outstretched wings, which he flaps to the blast and, flying before the
   lightning, makes us ride on the winds! The whole multitude of us are
   hurrying along-- where, remains to be decided by the test of our faith
   and the Grace of God--but certain it is that we are all travelling! Do
   not think that you are stable, fixed in one position! Fancy not that
   you are standing still--you are not! Your pulses each moment beat the
   funeral marches to the tomb. You are chained to the chariot of rolling
   time--there is no bridling the steeds, or leaping from the chariot--you
   must be constantly in motion! Thus have I spoken of the swiftness of
   life.

   II. But next, I must speak concerning THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE, of which
   we have abundant illustrations. Let us refer to that part of Scripture
   from which I have chosen my text, the Epistle of James, the fourth
   Chapter, at the 14th verse--"For what is your life? It is even a
   vaporthat appears for a little time and then vanishes away." If I were
   to ask for a child's explanation of this, I know what he would say. He
   would say, "Yes, it is even a vapor, like a bubble that is blown
   upward." Children sometimes blow bubbles and amuse themselves. Life is
   even as that bubble. You see it rising into the air--the child delights
   in seeing it fly about, but it is all gone in one moment. "It is even a
   vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." But if
   you ask the poet to explain this, he would tell you that in the
   morning,

   sometimes at early dawn, the rivers send up a steamy offering to the
   sun. There is a vapor, a mist, an exhalation rising from the rivers and
   brooks, but in a very little while after the sun has risen, all that
   mist has gone. Hence we read of "the morning cloud and the early dew
   that passes away." A more common observer, speaking of a vapor, would
   think of those thin clouds you sometimes see floating in the air which
   are so light that they are soon carried away. Indeed, a poet uses them
   as the picture of feebleness--

   "Their hosts are scattered like thin clouds Before a Biscay gale."

   The wind moves them and they are gone. "What is your life? It is even a
   vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." So
   uncertain is life!

   Again, if you read in the Book of Ecclesiastes, at the sixth Chapter,
   and the 12th verse, you will there find life compared to something
   else, even more fragile than a vapor. The wise man there says that it
   is even "as a shadow'" Now, what can there be less substantial than a
   shadow? What substance is there in a shadow? Who can lay hold of it?
   You may see a person' s shadow as he passes you, but the moment the
   person passes away, his shadow is gone. Yes, and who can grasp his
   life? Many men reckon upon a long existence and think they are going to
   live here forever--but who can calculate upon a shadow? Go, you foolish
   man who says to your soul, "You have much goods laid up for many
   years-- take your ease! Eat, drink and be merry." Go and fill your room
   with shadows! Go and pile up shadows and say, "These are mine and they
   shall never depart." "But," you say, "I cannot catch a shadow." No, and
   you cannot reckon on a year, or even a moment, for it is as a shadow
   that soon melts away and is gone!

   King Hezekiah also furnishes us with a simile where he says that life
   is as a thread which is cut off You will find this in the prophecy of
   Isaiah, the 38th Chapter, at the 12th verse--"My age is departed and is
   removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off my life like a
   weaver." The weaver cuts off his thread very easily--and so is life
   soon ended.

   I might continue my illustrations at pleasure concerning the
   uncertainty of life. We might find, perhaps, a score more figures in
   Scripture if we would search. Take, for instance, the grass, the
   flowers of the field, etc.

   But though life is swift and though it is to pass away so speedily, we
   are still generally very anxious to know what it is to be while we have
   it! For we say if we are to lose it soon, still, while we live, let us
   live--and while we are to be here, be it ever so short a time, let us
   know what we are to expect in it.

   III. And that leads us, in the third place, to look at LIFE IN ITS
   CHANGES.

   If you want pictures of the changes of life, turn to this wonderful
   Book of poetry, the Sacred Scriptures, and there you will find
   metaphors piled on metaphors! And, first, you will find life compared
   to a pilgrimage by good old Jacob in the 47th Chapter of Genesis, and
   the 9th verse. That hoary-headed Patriarch, when he was asked by
   Pharaoh what was his age, replied, "The days of the years of my
   pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days
   of the years of my life been, and have not obtained unto the days of
   the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."
   He calls life a pilgrimage. A pilgrim sets out in the morning and he
   has to journey many a day before he gets to the shrine which he seeks.
   What varied scenes the traveler will behold on his way! Sometimes he
   will be on the mountains, but soon he will descend into the valleys.
   Here he will be where the brooks shine like silver, where the birds
   warble, where the air is balmy and the trees are green--and luscious
   fruits hang down to gratify his taste. And soon he will find himself in
   the arid desert where no life is found and no sound is heard except the
   screech of the wild eagle in the air. He finds no rest for the soles of
   his feet--the burning sky above him and the hot sand beneath him--no
   shade tree and no house to rest himself. At another time he finds
   himself in a sweet oasis, resting himself by the wells of water and
   plucking fruit from palm trees. At one time he walks between the rocks
   in some narrow gorge where all is darkness. At another time he ascends
   the hill Mizar! Now he descends into the valley of Baca and soon he
   climbs the hill of Bashan-- and a high hill is the hill Bashan--and yet
   again going into the mountains of leopards, he suffers trial and
   affliction.

   Such is life, always changing. Who can tell what may come next? Today
   it is fair, tomorrow there may be the blundering storm. Today I may
   lack for nothing, tomorrow I may be like Jacob with nothing but a stone
   for my pillow and the heavens for my curtains! But what a happy thought
   it is, though we know not how the road winds, we know where it ends! It
   is the straightest way to Heaven to go round about. Israel's 40 years
   wanderings were, after all, the nearest path to Canaan. We may have to
   go through trial and affliction. Our pilgrimage may be a tiresome one,
   but it is safe! We cannot trace the river upon which we are sailing,
   but we know it ends in floods of bliss at last! We cannot track the
   roads, but we know that they all meet in the great metropolis of
   Heaven, in the center of God's universe! God help us to pursue the true
   pilgrimage of a pious life!

   We have another picture of life in its changes given to us in the 90th
   Psalm, at the 9th verse--"We spend our years as a tale that is told."
   Now David understood about tales that were told. I daresay he had been
   sometimes annoyed by them and amused by them at other times. There are,
   in the past, professed storytellers who amused their hearers by
   inventing tales such as those in that foolish book, The Arabian Nights.
   When I was foolish enough to read that book, I remember sometimes you
   were with fairies, sometimes with genii, sometimes in palaces, and soon
   you went down into caverns. All sorts of singular things are
   conglomerated into what they call a tale. Now, says David, "we spend
   our years as a tale that is told." You know there is nothing so amazing
   as the history of the odds and ends of human life. Sometimes it is a
   merry rhyme, sometimes a prosy subject--sometimes you ascend to the
   sublime, soon you descend to the ridiculous. No man can write the whole
   of his own biography! I suppose if the complete history of a man's
   thoughts and words could be written, the world itself would hardly
   contain the record, so amazing is the tale that might be told. Our
   lives are all singular and must, to ourselves, seem strange--of which
   much might be said--our life is "as a tale that is told."

   Another idea we get from the 38th Chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah, at
   the 12th verse--"I am removed as a shepherd's tent." The shepherds in
   the East build temporary huts near the sheep which are soon removed
   when the flock moves on. When the hot season comes on, they pitch their
   tents in the most favorable place they can find and each season has its
   suitable position. My life is like a shepherd's tent. I have already
   pitched my tent in a variety of places, but where I shall pitch it,
   by-and-by, I do not know. I cannot tell. Present probabilities seem to
   say that--

   "Here I shall make my settled rest,

   And neither go nor come--

   No more a stranger or a guest,

   But like a child at home."

   But I cannot tell and you cannot, either. I know that my tent cannot be
   removed till God says, "Go forward." And it cannot stand firm unless He
   makes it so--

   "All my ways shall always be

   Ordered by His wise decree."

   You have been opening a new shop, lately, and you are thinking of
   settling down in trade and managing a thriving concern. Now paint not
   the future too brightly! Do not be too sure as to what is in store for
   you. Another has, for a long time, been engaged in an old
   establishment--your father always carried on trade there, and you have
   no thought of moving. But here you have no abiding city--your life is
   like a shepherd's tent! You may be here, there, and almost everywhere
   before you die. It was once said by Solon, "No man ought to be called a
   happy man till he dies"--because he does not know what his life is to
   be! But Christians may always call themselves happy men, here, because
   wherever their tent is carried, they cannot pitch it where the cloud
   does not move and where they are not surrounded by a circle of fire.
   God will be a wall of fire round about them and their Glory in the
   midst. They cannot dwell where God is not the bulwark of their
   salvation!

   If any of you who are God's people are going to move, or are going to
   change your employment, start a new business, or move to another
   county, you need not fear--God was with you in the last place and He
   will be with you in this! He has said, "Fear you not, for I am with
   you: be not dismayed, for I am your God." That is an often-told story
   of Caesar in a storm. The sailors were all afraid, but he exclaimed,
   "Fear not! You carry Caesar and all his fortunes!" So is it with the
   poor Christian. There is a storm coming on, but fear not--you are
   carrying Jesus--and you must sink or swim with Him! Well may any true
   Believer say, "Lord, if You are with me, it matters not where my tent
   is. All must be well, though my life is removed like a shepherd' s
   tent."

   Again, our life is compared in the Psalms to a dream. Now, if a tale is
   singular, surely a dream is still more so. If a tale is changing and
   shifting, what is a dream? As for dreams, those flutters of the
   benighted fancy, those revelries of the imagination--who can tell what
   they consist of? We dream of everything in the world and a few things
   more! If we were asked to tell our dreams, it would be impossible for
   us to do so. You dream that you are at a feast and lo, the food changes
   into Pegasus and you are riding through the air! Or suddenly
   transformed into a morsel for a monster's meal! Such is life. The
   changes occur as suddenly as they happen in a dream. Men have been rich
   one day and they have been

   beggars the next. We have witnessed the exile of monarchs and the
   flight of a potentate. Or in another direction, we have seen a man,
   neither reputable in company nor honorable in station, at a single
   stride exalted to a throne! And you who would before have shunned him
   in the streets, were foolish enough to throng your thoroughfares to
   stare at him! Ah, such is life! Leaves of the Sibyl were not more
   easily moved by the winds, nor are dreams more variable. "Boast not
   yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth." How
   foolish are those men who wish to pry into the future! The telescope is
   ready and they are going to look through it, but they are so anxious to
   see that they breathe on the glass with their hot breath--and they dim
   it so that they can discern nothing but clouds and darkness! Oh, you
   who are always conjuring up black fiends from the unknown deep and
   foolishly vexing your minds with fancies, turn your fancies out of
   doors and begin to rest on never-failing promises! Promises are better
   than forebodings! "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in
   the land and verily you shall be fed." Thus I have spoken of the
   changes of this mortal life.

   IV. And now, to close, let me ask, WHAT IS TO BE THE END OF THIS LIFE?

   We read in the Second Book of Samuel, Chapter 14 and verse 14--"We will
   surely die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be
   gathered up again." Man is like a great icicle which the sun of time is
   continually thawing and which is soon to be as water spilt upon the
   ground which cannot be gathered up again! Who can recall the departed
   spirit, or inflate the lungs with a new breath of life? Who can put
   vitality into the heart and restore the soul from Hell? No one! It
   cannot be gathered up again--the place that once knew it shall know it
   no more forever.

   But here a sweet thought charms us. This water cannot be lost, but it
   shall descend into the soil to filter through the Rock of Ages--at last
   to spring up a pure fountain in Heaven, cleansed, purified and made
   clear as crystal! How terrible if, on the other hand, it should
   percolate through the black earth of sin and hang in horrid drops in
   the dark caverns of destruction!

   Such is life! Then make the best use of it, my Friends, because it is
   fleeting. Look for another life because this life is not a very
   desirable one--it is too changeable. Trust your life in God's hands
   because you cannot control its movements. Rest in His arms and rely on
   His might, for He is able to do for you exceeding abundantly above all
   that you ask or think--and unto His name be glory forever and ever!
   Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM39.

   Verse 1. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my
   tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before
   me.This is what David said--what he had deliberately resolved upon and
   solemnly determined in his own mind! "I said, I will take heed to my
   ways." That is a good thing for all of us to resolve and to say--"I
   will take heed." To be heedless is to be graceless. No man ever does a
   good thing by accident. We shall, none of us, get to Heaven by
   blundering.

   "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue."
   The tongue may be a most powerful instrument of evil. Tongue sins are
   terrible sins. They are like sparks of fire which may set a whole town
   on fire. He that can take heed to his tongue will probably be able to
   manage all the rest of the members of his body. The tongue is the most
   unmanageable member of our frame and if we sin not with our tongue, we
   shall most likely be kept from sinning in other ways. "I will keep my
   mouth with a bridle," says David. It should be rendered, "with a
   muzzle." He did not mean that he would merely control his tongue, but
   that he would silence it altogether!

   "I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me." I
   do not know whether that was a right resolution on David's part.
   Tongues were meant to be used and there are often opportunities of
   using them to God's Glory even in the presence of the wicked.
   Sometimes, we are bound to use our tongue in rebuking their sin, yet we
   cannot criticize David' s resolution very much because when the wicked
   are before us, it may be only like casting pearls before swine if we
   begin to speak to them even upon the best themes. And we may be drawn
   away, by their company, to speak that which is questionable. So that,
   often, it may be best to keep our mouth muzzled while the wicked are
   before us.

   2. I was dumb with silenc. "I was as silent as if I had been dumb. I
   did not say a word." It seems to me that this silence of the Psalmist
   was partly sullen and partly judicious. "I was dumb with silence."

   2. I held my peace, even from goo . He was a total abstainer from all
   speech. Perhaps he felt that he could not speak a little without
   speaking too much and so he refrained from speech altogether. Yet we
   must not follow his example too closely in this matter, for there is a
   time for speech as well as a time for silence. It was not good for
   David to hold his peace even from good. It is good for us to hold our
   peace rather than speak unwisely, but it would be better for us to
   speak wisely, discreetly--as God' s Spirit should direct us.

   2. And my sorrow was stirre . It is a great relief to sorrow to be able
   to speak about it. Be not silent in your grief, lest your grief should
   burn too fiercely within your heart. It is often one of the signs of a
   failing mind when persons sit quite still and will not tell their grief
   to anyone. Tell your grief to your God, first of all, and you may also
   tell it with advantage to some sympathizing friend. But David felt that
   he could not speak, so his sorrow was stirred, troubled, agitated, like
   a pent-up fire that must sooner or later burst into a blaze.

   3. My heart was hot within me. While I was musing the fire burne .
   While he was musing, his heart was fusing and there was much that was
   most confusing to him. He saw the prosperity of the wicked and the
   oppression of the righteous. He heard the reproaches of the ungodly and
   he felt the stings of affliction and trial in his own soul. So, as he
   did not speak, his heart grew hot within him. "While I was musing the
   fire burned. [See Sermon #576, Volume 10--quiet musing]

   3. Then spoke I with my tongue. We say, "Murder will out," and so will
   misery. David's heart had become like a volcano and the fire burned so
   furiously within that he was obliged to let the burning lava flow
   forth--and so give his soul vent. There is no speech like that which
   comes from a hot heart! That shot from the tongue which has been made
   red-hot in the heart is sure to tell upon the adversary. "Then spoke I
   with my tongue." And what he said was not unwise. There was nothing of
   boasting or excitement in it--it was a very wise, plain, earnest
   prayer.

   4. LOR . That was a good beginning of David' s speech. When we turn our
   burning words towards God and not towards men, good will come of them.
   David's hot heart finds a vent Godward! This was the wisest thing that
   he could do, cry unto his God. "Lord."

   4. Make me to know my en. Did David mean to pray, "Let me die," like
   Elijah did? I am half afraid that he did. And many a time some of God's
   servants, in their great heats when their soul has been more full of
   passion than of faith have prayed in this sense, "Make me to know my
   end." Yet a better meaning may be put upon the Psalmist's words and we
   are bound to put the best meaning upon them that we can. He may have
   meant, "Let me know, Lord, that my sorrows will come to an end, that
   they are not to last forever." Death may be looked at through the glass
   of faith till it becomes even a goodly and desirable object! "Lord,
   make me to know my end."

   4. And the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I
   am. Our days are all measured. They do not come to an end by accident.
   As merchants measure their yards of silk or cotton goods, so does God
   measure out life to us. There is not half an inch more or less than God
   Himself determines that we shall have! If David wanted to know what the
   measure of his days was, he was trying to pry into the folded leaves of
   the future. Such prying is both wrong and futile-- and we may be
   thankful that we do not know what the measure of our days is in this
   sense! We do know that at their utmost, they are not likely to exceed
   the threescore years and ten, or the fourscore years, which now make up
   the ordinary measure of human life!

   5. Behold, You have made my days as an handbreadth. That is a very
   short measure--the breadth of a hand, the space that we can span with
   one of our hands--yet that is the true measure of our life! "You have
   made my days as an handbreadth."

   5. And my age is as nothing before You. What are 70 or 80 years, even
   if we live as long as that, out of the thousands of years that men have
   lived on the face of the earth? One man's life seems but a drop in the
   great ocean of human history. Yet what an insignificant thing human
   history itself is! Some thousands of years ago there were no men upon
   this earth, yet what is the history of the whole world compared with
   eternity? It is not worth speaking of! It is scarcely one tick of the
   clock of eternity! Why, this world is only like a newly blown bubble
   and the sun is but a spark fresh from the eternal fire. As compared
   with the eternal God, man is a nonentity, a nullity--and David was
   right when he said to the Lord-- "My age is as nothing before You."

   5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. SelaL When
   he is strongest, calmest, happiest. When he is in his prime, when he is
   at his best--his best, of which he is so vain--is itself vain! Whatever
   there may be true about man, this is true, that he is unstable and soon
   passes away. He is constant in nothing but his inconstancy. "Verily
   every man at his best state is altogether vanity."

   6. Surely every man walks in a vain show. [See Sermon #2346, Volume
   40--EARTH'S VANITIES AND HEAVEN'S VERITIES] This world is a mere
   theater and men strut across its stage acting their various parts. They
   come and they go as if they were mere figures moved by invisible wires!
   The most of men do not live at all, but only seemto live, for they have
   not the true, spiritual, eternal life within them. Every man walks like
   a performer in a pageant, or like those who march in a procession. We
   think we are standing still and watching others pass by, but we are,
   ourselves, part of the vain show and are passing away with the rest!

   6. Surely they are disquieted in vai. They fret, they fume, they vex
   themselves, but it is all in vain. They make a noise, so the Hebrew
   says, in vain. Hear the clamor of the streets. Hear the buzz of the
   Exchange. Hear the noise of war, the shouts of conflict--it is all in
   vain, it is all for nothing! You are troubled about your business,
   troubled about your children, troubled about your wealth, troubled
   about I know not what--surely you are disquieted in vain! Oh, that we
   could but believe that all this disquietude is only vanity! Then might
   we live much more peaceful lives.

   6. He heaps up riches and knows not who shall gather the . He has cut
   his corn and it stands in sheaves in the field, but his enemy comes and
   carts it away! Or if he has gathered it into his granary, it is
   consumed by rats or mice, or it becomes mildewed and useless! How many
   there are who spend their lives gathering wealth with the muck rake and
   then their sons come with the fork and shovel and scatter it quite as
   quickly as their fathers gathered it! What is the good of getting all
   this gold together--and stinting yourself in order to get it--when the
   one who has it after you will never thank you for it, or if he did, you
   would be dead and buried and would know nothing of his gratitude?

   7. And now, Lord, what do I wait fo? The Psalmist improves as he
   advances. Now you see that he is cut loose from the world. He has seen
   the vanity of man and he has seen the vanity of wealth, so he says,
   "'Now, Lord, what do I wait for? What is there here, in this land of
   shadows, that I should wait for? Why do I sit down where nothing good
   has ever come, or ever can come?" The ropes that held the balloon to
   earth are cut and up it mounts!

   7. My hope is in Yo . This is a glorious hope! This is a hope that
   finds its all in God! This hope will outlast death and the grave! This
   hope will be our treasure in eternity! Can each of you truly say this,
   "My hope is in You"? Let this be the language of your heart as you
   speak to your God, "This is what I wait for--that I may enjoy Your
   Presence here and that I may rejoice in Your Presence hereafter--I wait
   for the coming of my Lord! I wait for the time when the Lord shall call
   me Home."

   8. Deliver me from all my transgressions. That is a better prayer than
   if David had said, "Deliver me from all my sorrows." Now he has hit the
   very center of the target! "Deliver me from all my transgressions." So
   let each one of us pray at this moment, "O Lord, I do not ask to be
   saved from Your rod, but I do ask to be washed from my sin. Do what You
   will with me, but do forgive me, do sanctify me, do let me be washed in
   the precious blood of Jesus! 'Deliver me from all my transgressions.'"

   9. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. Do not let the wicked be
   able to say, "See the sadness of that man's countenance! Look how
   sullen he looks. His face is like a thundercloud--it is clear that a
   Christian has no joy." Let not the wicked be able to say that, my Lord,
   but save me from sin and give me the full joy of Your salvation and
   then they will not be able to reproach me.

   9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because You did i. You will
   understand this verse much better if we read it in another tense, as it
   should be read--"Now I will be dumb. I will not open my mouth because
   you did it." David was wrong the first time when he was dumb, but he is
   right this second time. Two things may be very much like one another
   outwardly, yet very different inwardly. There is a silence which the
   Christian ought to keep.

   10. Remove Your stroke away from me. The child of God who is perfectly
   resigned to his heavenly Father's will may yet pray to be delivered
   from his trouble. Prayer for deliverance from grief is quite consistent
   with perfect submission to the will of God. We may pray, for Jesus
   prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me."
   But we must take care to also add, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as
   You will."

   10. I am consumed by the blow of Your hant. "You have beaten me sorely!
   Oh, strike me not again!" This is good pleading, for God does not mean
   to consume His own children! He means to consume our sins--and when He
   makes us cry, "Deliver me from all my transgressions," and when we
   submit to His holy will, He will soon put His rod away. As soon as you
   are willing to bear it, you shall not have to bear it any longer. When
   you submit yourself to the stroke, then the stroke will cease to be
   given!

   11. When You with rebukes do correct man for iniquity, You make his
   beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity.
   Selah.When God whips His children, He does not play with them. God is
   in earnest even if we are not. And when He corrects us, He means us to
   feel His rod--and He means us to bear the scars it leaves upon us!
   There must be real strokes and real smarts before we are likely to be
   cured of sin and, sometimes, when He is dealing in chastisement with
   His people, He makes their beauty to depart like a piece of cloth or
   fur when the moth gets into it and utterly destroys it. What a poor
   thing beauty is if the moth can eat it up! If a little affliction can
   take away our beauty, we may well pray for that beauty for which Moses
   pleaded, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." That is a
   beauty of quite another kind--the beauty of Divine Grace which no moth
   can consume. But if we have not that, our beauty is a poor thing. Let
   no man, let no woman be vain of beauty which can so soon be gone!

   12. Hear my prayer, O LORD. David is dumb, yet he prays. Dumb as to
   complaints, but eloquent as to pleading with his God.

   12. And give ear unto my cry. The Psalmist goes from pleading to
   crying. And Believers often thus intensify their prayers. There is
   something more sorrowful, more earnest, more prevalent about crying
   unto God than mere ordinary praying. "Give ear unto my cry."

   12. Hold not Your peace at my tears. David goes still further, for the
   most eloquent things in the world are tears. They are the irresistible
   weapons of weakness. Many a woman, many a beggar, many a child has
   gained by tears what could not be obtained in any other way--so David
   pleaded most powerfully when he prayed, "Hold not Your peace at my
   tears."

   12. For I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers
   were. "You do entertain me in Your tent as I have entertained wanderers
   many a time. I have broken bread with You and eaten of Your salt. Be
   kind to the stranger and sojourner as You have bidden Your servants to
   be." Or does David mean that, as God is a Stranger in His own world, so
   are we while necessarily passing through it?

   13. Ospare mm. That is a singular petition, for just now he seemed to
   be wanting to get to the end of his days, yet he says, "O spare me,"
   like Elijah, who was afraid to die and so ran away from Jezebel and
   then prayed to God, "Let me die." So are God's children still a mass of
   contradictions--longing for death and yet, when death comes, they cry,
   "O spare me! O spare me!"

   13. That I may recover strength before I go from here and am no more.
   "Give me a little respite that I may take my nourishment and have my
   sleep before I go hence to be no more, for soon I shall do that. But
   first give me a little interlude, wherein I may again take my harp and
   sing to Your praise." If worldlings cannot understand this mingled
   experience, God's children know that this is only one of the many
   paradoxes with which they are perfectly familiar! In any case, may each
   one of us be ready when it shall be God's time for us to "go from here
   and are no more"!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Promise and Precedent

   (No. 3127)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 4, 1874.

   "He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive ofMine, and shall show it
   unto you." John 16:14.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon this passage, are as follows--
   Sermons #565, Volume 8--THE HOLY SPIRIT GLORIFYING CHRIST; #2212,
   Volume 37--"HONEY IN THE MOUTH!" and #3062, Volume 53--THE SPIRIT'S
   OFFICE TOWARDS DISCIPLES]

   JESUS CHRIST, our gracious Lord and Master, is here speaking of the
   Holy Spirit and He says of Him, "He shall glorify Me: for He shall
   receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." Our Lord Jesus Christ, in
   His own personal teaching, did not plainly declare all the Truths which
   He intended to reveal because the Holy Spirit was not then given to His
   disciples and they were not, at that time, able to receive all that He
   might have taught them. He Himself said to them, "I have yet many
   things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." The germ of
   everything that would be revealed was in the teaching of Christ, but
   not the full development of it. That was left till after the Holy
   Spirit had been given on the day of Pentecost. In the Acts of the
   Apostles, in their various Epistles and in the Apocalypse given to
   John, we have the full Revelation of the Truth of God--the Holy Spirit
   there taking of the things of Christ and revealing them to us and also,
   according to His promise, showing us, in the Book of the Revelation,
   "things to come."

   Note that our Savior did not go away from His disciples and leave the
   Spirit to come upon them without previously intimating to them the fact
   that He was coming. He prepared them for the change. While He was here
   upon earth, He was personally at the head of His people and as it was
   His purpose that the Holy Spirit should act as His Substitute during
   His absence, He informed His followers that it would be so. He told
   them that the Spirit of God would come, that He would more fully reveal
   the great Truths which He had Himself taught to His disciples and that
   He would apply the Truths already revealed to the hearts of His people
   so that they would be able to understand much that had, up to now, been
   beyond their comprehension. There was no separation of the dispensation
   of Christ from that of the Holy Spirit, but they were dovetailed and
   pieced into one another by these memorable words of the Lord Jesus just
   before He went to Gethsemane and Calvary--"He shall glorify Me: for He
   shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you."

   In considering this declaration of our Savior with regard to the Holy
   Spirit, we shall view it in three aspects, praying that God will make
   it a blessing while we are meditating upon it. We shall, first, view
   the text doctrinally. Secondly, considerit as apromise. And, thirdly,
   look upon it as aprecedent ormodel by which we should work.

   I. First, then, WE WILL VIEW THE TEXT DOCTRINALLY.

   This declaration of Christ contains some most important Doctrines and
   the best is this--that it is the office and aim of the Holy Spirit to
   glorify Jesus Christ No study in Scripture is more interesting or
   profitable to the Christian than the Revelation which is given to us
   concerning the Sacred Trinity and the various parts which the Divine
   Persons take in the work of our salvation. John Bunyan wrote a notable
   work upon the Trinity and the Christian--and nothing could be more
   appropriate, for there would be no Christian without the Trinity! It
   needs the Father, the Son and the Spirit to produce that noblest kind
   of man, a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! The various offices of the
   blessed Trinity in Unity are usually distinct and clearly defined, yet
   they sometimes intertwist and interchange, just as Jesus in our text
   bears witness to the Spirit and the Spirit continually bears witness to
   the Lord Jesus and glorifies Him. Brothers and Sisters, I pray you will
   remember that when the Spirit convicts the world of sin, it is in order
   that the convicted sinner may learn the preciousness of that Savior to
   whom the Spirit bears witness! When He convicts the world ofjudgment,
   it is not only

   that the Judge may be honored as He deserves to be, but also that the
   way by which judgment may be averted through the substitutionary
   Sacrifice of Christ may be made clear to the sinner's mind. And when He
   convicts the world of righteousness, what righteousness is it but that
   which Jesus Christ has worked out and brought in--that righteousness
   alone in which saved sinners are able to appear before God without
   spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The Holy Spirit always works with
   this aim and objective--to lead sinners to admire, adore and trust in
   Jesus Christ! His Omnipotence bends itself to this end--that Jesus
   Christ may be glorified in the hearts and lives of sinners saved by His
   Grace!

   I gather from our text another Doctrine, namely, that, any teaching
   which does not glorify Jesus Christ is not the teaching of the Holy
   Spirit. By this simple test, the humblest among us may be able to judge
   even that form of teaching which is most pretentious. And if it cannot
   endure this test, it may be rejected without hesitation! The poorest
   man who enters any assembly, if he hears a Doctrine that glorifies
   Christ, can say, "I may safely listen to this teaching, for the Spirit
   of God will set His seal to it." But if, on the other hand, amidst a
   blaze of intellectual splendor and a brilliant display of mere human
   knowledge, nothing is said that will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the
   true child of God says to himself, "What business have I to be in this
   place? This is not the company that is congenial to me, nor the
   teaching to which I ought to give heed. Here is neither the food for my
   soul nor yet the opportunity of glorifying my dear Lord and Master! I
   will leave this assembly and seek to find some other place where the
   Spirit of God is at work in His chosen ministry of glorifying Christ."
   Thus the great Doctrine that it is the Spirit's work to glorify Christ
   furnishes us with a spiritual detector by which we may discover what is
   true gold and what is counterfeit--and by which we may judge whether
   the voices that we hear are voices of the night which cry out to us to
   follow them in the darkness, or the voices of the dawning which herald
   the coming of the day!

   There is this further Doctrine in the text, that the Holy Spirit, in
   glorifying Christ, acts in sacred concert with the other Persons of the
   blessed Trinity, for Jesus said, "He shall receive of Mine." I am not
   going to explain this declaration of Christ. I cannot do so, for I do
   not, myself, fully understand it. All I can say is that the Holy Spirit
   is represented here as receiving the things of Christ. Now the Holy
   Spirit is continually spoken of in the Scriptures as Divine and He
   certainly is Divine--yet Christ here says that He receives or takes
   from the Father the things of Christ that He may show them to us. They
   are not His own things--things of His own devising or suggesting--but
   those which Christ calls His. So, just as Jesus said that He did not
   come in His own name, but in the name of the Father who had sent Him,
   so the Spirit of God does not come in His own name, nor come with His
   own message--but He receives the things of Christ and shows them to us.
   I delight in this sharing of the great work by the glorious Trinity in
   Unity! I love to see the Father, Son and Spirit all taking part in the
   salvation of the elect! Just as in the Creation, God said, "Let Us make
   man in Our image, after Our likeness," and there was a council held to
   decide as to that early work, so here it is not merely one of the
   Persons of the Trinity, but all Three who are concerned in the greater
   work of man's new creation! The Spirit receives from the Father the
   things of Christ and so it is as though God said, "Let Us make man new
   in Our image, after Our likeness." Father, Son and Spirit work together
   in perfecting the new creation--so let us always give undivided and
   equal honor to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit--

   "Give to the Father praise,

   Give glory to the Son,

   And to the Spirit of His Grace

   Be equal honor done."

   Further, I want you to notice that the Holy Spirit, being bent upon
   glorifying Christ, glorifies Him with His own things. Jesus says, "He
   shall receive of Mine." The Holy Spirit does not go after something
   apart from Christ in order to bring glory to Christ--if Christ is to be
   glorified, the crown must be made out of His own jewels--and the jewels
   must be found in His own mine! So, Beloved, in order to honor Christ,
   you must go to Christ--you must find Christ's honors in Christ Himself.
   Even the Holy Spirit, who is Omniscient, does not look outside of
   Christ in order to find something with which to glorify Him. "He shall
   glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine." And none of us can ever
   honor Christ by bringing anything to Him. If we want to honor Him, we
   must honor Him with that which is already His own. If I want to honor
   the Lord Jesus Christ at this moment, how can I do it better than by
   preaching of His own Person, His own Manhood, His own Godhead, His own
   life, His own death, His own Resurrection, His own Ascension and His
   own coming again in the glory of His Father with the holy angels? It
   must be with the things of Christ that we honor Christ!

   If the Holy Spirit willed to do so, He could bring forth matchless
   novelties in honor of Christ, but He does not will to do so. He honors
   Christ with that which is Christ's--and if you and I, standing in the
   pulpit or anywhere else, want to honor Christ, we must not seek to
   excogitate some brilliant thought from our own brain, or come before
   our fellows to display the results of our own wonderful culture--the
   grand flowers which we have grown in the well-tilled garden of our own
   highly educated minds! Oh no--Christ must have His own flowers to smell
   if He is to have a sweet and acceptable posy brought to Him! The
   ingredients of the incense put into His censer must be all His
   own--nothing else will be acceptable to Him. Even in the Song of
   Solomon, you remember that when Christ comes into His own garden, He
   says, "I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My
   honeycomb with My honey; I have drunk My wine with My milk." Nothing
   will so glorify Christ as that which is already His own! The Spirit of
   God knows this and, therefore, in order to glorify Christ, He takes of
   Christ's own things and of nothing else.

   Continuing a little further--this view of the Doctrine in the text--I
   would remind you that when the Holy Spirit wishes to glorify Christ
   with Christ's own things, He presents them to the hearts of
   Believers--"He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you."
   Without His Divine assistance, you cannot see it--not because it is not
   visible, but because your eyes are too dim to perceive it. The work of
   the Spirit of God is to shine upon the beauties of Christ so that we
   can see them. And when He does so illuminate them, it is a glorifying
   of Christ for us to see those beauties! It is not merely to Christ' s
   Glory for us to talk about them--that is another way of glorifying
   Him--but if you cannot talk, if you have no gifts of eloquence, notice
   this blessed Truth of God and be comforted by it--Christ is glorified
   by your seeing His Glory! Suppose that you are so slow of speech that
   you cannot even tell your own wife or child what you have seen of the
   beauties of Christ, yet the Holy Spirit has glorified Christ when He
   has shown those beauties to you. Perhaps you are only a poor servant,
   or a humble working man living and laboring in obscurity--or possibly a
   young child or a maiden scarcely known beyond your own family circle,
   yet believe me--when you see the Lord Jesus Christ in His beauty, as He
   is revealed to you by the light of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is
   glorified! It is true that He is glorified when I proclaim His dear
   name to the thousands who gather in this House of Prayer, but He is
   also glorified in that little bedroom of yours where, perhaps in the
   dead of night when you lie awake, you say to yourself, "Precious
   Christ, what a dear Savior You are to me!" When you get a fresh view of
   Him. When you catch a new ray of light streaming upon His blessed
   Countenance and you perceive a few more of those lines of love that are
   written there--Jesus Christ is glorified! I think this is part of what
   Christ meant when He said to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit,
   "He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it
   unto you."

   Oh, what a wondrous view of Christ the Holy Spirit sometimes gives us!
   As yet, however, I am afraid that very few of us have had more than a
   partial view of Him. Have you not sometimes stood upon a hill when it
   has been a day of mingled cloud and sunshine and there has been a break
   in the clouds--and the sun has shone through and that hill over yonder
   has been all ablaze with the golden sunlight--and that part of the
   landscape has been marvelously illuminated? All down the valley there
   was gloom. But presently the clouds shifted again and then the beams of
   light traveled down into the plains and the river flowing below flashed
   in the sunlight while the hill was once more enveloped in shade! As the
   clouds continued to move, the sunshine kept lighting up different parts
   of the landscape. It is just like that with regard to our view of
   Christ! The Spirit of God, who is the very perfection of light, shines
   upon Christ with a brilliance that the sun never possessed! Sometimes
   the Spirit shines upon Christ's Priesthood and oh, what a wonderful
   sight it is, then, for us to see Christ offering up Himself as the one
   great Sacrifice for sin! Another time it may be that the Spirit shines
   especially upon the prophetic Character of Christ and we then admire
   Him as revealing God to us and teaching us the Truth! Perhaps the next
   day the Spirit shows us Christ's royal Character and then we cry, or
   more probably we sing--

   "All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall! Bring
   forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of All! Babes, men and sires
   who know His love, Who feel your sin and thrall, Now joy with all the
   hosts above And crown Him Lord of All!'

   Sometimes a beam of light will shine upon Christ's hands that were
   pierced by the nails and then we wonderingly ask, "How could the hands
   of the Creator of the universe be thus nailed to the tree for us?" And
   soon the Spirit's bright light gleams upon the face of Jesus and we
   then--

   "See Divine compassion

   Floating in His languid eyes"

   as He bows His head to death for us. But what will it be if the Holy
   Spirit shall be pleased to give us a full view of Christ upon the
   Cross? Then will our happy spirits indeed glorify Him and each redeemed
   one will softly sing--

   "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,

   Which before the Cross I spend.

   Life, and health, and peace possessing

   From the sinner's dying Friend.

   Here I'll sit forever viewing

   Mercy's streams, in streams of blood.

   Precious drops! My soul bedewing

   Plead and claim my peace with God.

   Here it is I find my Heaven

   While upon the Cross I gaze--

   Love I much? I ve more forgiven.

   Im a miracle of Grace." Oh, for such a sight of Christ as that, for
   thus Jesus is glorified and we are truly blessed!

   II. Now secondly, I want to show you that THE TEXT MAY BE VIEWED AS A
   PROMISE. He shall--these are three of the blessed "shalls" and "wills"
   of Christ--"He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and
   shall show it unto you."

   Come, dear child of God, and lay hold of this precious promise of
   Christ! If you get the promise of a man and you believe that he is an
   honest man, you value his promise. But here you have the promise of
   your God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the faithful Promiser, so you may
   well prize that! Are you not sometimes the subject of grave doubts as
   to whether you really glorify Christ? If so, fall back upon His blessed
   promise. The Holy Spirit in you shall glorify Christ, for He shall take
   of the things of Christ and shall show them to you. Possibly you fear
   that in the days to come, you will bring no glory to Christ. You know
   your own feebleness, your lack of talent and your lack of opportunity
   for glorifying Christ. You have cried many a time--

   "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing

   My great Redeemers praise!

   The glories of my God and King

   The triumphs of His Grace!"

   Yet you grieve that you cannot glorify Him and you are afraid that you
   never will be able to do so. Listen to this precious promise again--"He
   shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto
   you," even to you, though you are His poorest, weakest, meanest child!
   Though you will not be able to say much about it to others, you will
   glorify Christ by looking at Him as He is revealed to you by the Holy
   Spirit! We honor the sun as we look at it, or bask in its beams--I do
   not know what else we can do to show our appreciation of the sun but
   lie in the sunlight and thank God for letting the sun shine upon us. I
   have often thought of the lilies and the roses in the garden and of how
   they praise the God who made them. Not by singing, as the birds do, nor
   by lowing, like the cattle, nor by clapping their hands in joy and
   exultation like the trees of the woods do--the lilies and the roses
   praise God by just receiving from Him everything that they possess,
   drinking in His dew and rain and sunshine and standing there in all
   their beauty pouring out the fragrance that He has poured into them!
   And that is how you must glorify Christ, my Brothers and Sisters who
   are in Him. See Christ as the Spirit shows Him to you! Receive of His
   fullness, pour out the Grace that He has poured into you--and you shall
   in this way glorify Christ!

   Now, Beloved, this promise is being daily fulfilled in all true
   Believers. God is being glorified in them by their sight of the Lord
   Jesus Christ as He is revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. As they walk
   to and from their daily work. As they sit down for a while to read
   their Bibles. As they kneel in prayer at their bedsides and are lost in
   wonder, love and praise at the Spirit's revelation of the beauties of
   Christ, Christ is being glorified by the Holy Spirit in them! Do not
   talk to me

   of your fine "altars" studded with all manner of precious gems, with
   flowers, candles and images thereon. Do not tell me about your grand
   cathedrals with all the splendor of their architecture! The best altar
   in the world is a broken and a contrite heart and the truest cathedral
   is a soul that is rejoicing in the indwelling God! When the Holy Spirit
   comes and reveals Christ in the soul, there is the Altar, there is the
   Temple, there is the true worship for which God cares beyond all
   else--and that is really glorifying Christ!

   As this promise is being thus constantly fulfilled, I am sure, Beloved,
   that it is most desirable that it should be more and more fulfilled
   and, therefore, I exhort you to plead it before God. Say, "Lord, will
   You graciously bid the Holy Spirit to glorify Christ in me and to
   reveal Christ to me more than He has ever yet done?" As you offer this
   prayer, if you really mean it, you will be more earnest than you have
   ever been in your meditation concerning Christ, in your searching of
   the Word to find out all that you can about Christ and in your
   fellowship with Christ. What a man truly prays for, he diligently seeks
   after until he obtains it if it really is in accordance with the will
   of God. If our minds are entirely occupied with the world, is it at all
   likely that the Spirit of God will show the things of Christ to us? We
   must give adequate space to the Spirit. We must give Him time and
   opportunities--putting other things away from us and placing our souls
   before the Spirit in a waiting and expectant attitude! As sensitive
   plates are put before that object which they are intended to reproduce,
   so let us be placed before the view of Christ which the Spirit of God
   desires to reveal to us-- then the image of Christ shall be imprinted
   upon us and thus He will first be glorified by our seeing Him in the
   light that the Spirit sheds upon Him, and then He will be further
   glorified by others seeing His likeness reproduced in us!

   I think I have clearly shown you that our text is a promise made by
   Christ to His disciples. And I have also shown you that it is a promise
   which ought to be pleaded at the Throne of Grace, so may I entreat
   every Christian here to really plead it? A promise is just like a
   check--but a check is of no real value unless it is taken to the bank
   and exchanged for cash. You know how we cash our checks--why do we not
   take God's promises to Him to have them fulfilled just as readily as we
   take man' s promises to the bank to have them fulfilled? I think that a
   good many long prayers which some consider very fine things, are merely
   exhibitions of uncertainty and unbelief. If I have a check about the
   genuineness of which there is some doubt--and I take it to the bank--it
   is probable that I shall be delayed some little time while there is a
   conversation between the clerks concerning it--a comparison of
   signatures, an examination of ledgers and ever so many other things.
   But if I have a genuine check about which there is no question
   whatever, what is the usual order of procedure? I go to the counter,
   put the check down, perhaps scarcely say a word except to indicate how
   I will take the change, pick up my sovereigns or bank notes and walk
   away! And that is how I like to pray--I ask God for what He has
   promised to give me. I believe that He will fulfill His promise and I
   go my way feeling sure that I have received that for which I asked! As
   a sensible man, when he has received from the bank clerk the change for
   his check, puts the money in his pocket and goes about his business, so
   should you act towards your God when you pray to Him. Say, "Lord, You
   have promised such-and-such a blessing to me. I come to You and plead
   Your own promise. And I believe that You will fulfill it to me." At all
   events, that is the way that I delight to pray.

   You ask me, "Would you not be longer in prayer than that?" No, not on
   that one occasion. I shall probably be at the bank with another check,
   presently, so I cannot afford to take more time than is necessary with
   this one. You can do a great deal of business at this blessed bank if
   you do it quickly! But if you waste your time loitering at the counter
   and chatting with the clerk, that is not the way to honor the great
   Lord of the bank! Some people seem to think that in prayer, they must
   go through the Westminster Assembly's Confession of Faith, or some
   similar compendium of Doctrine--but that is not real praying. If,
   however, you will do your business with your God just as you would do
   your business with your banker, you will be sure to come back to Him
   again and again, for there is no man who does so much of this sacred
   business of pleading with God as the man who is most successful with
   Him! If you have succeeded once in prayer, I guarantee that you will
   pray again! And after a second time of successful pleading, you will
   pray a third time more easily and more confidently! And God will take
   care that you shall have plenty of reasons for praying! Only do make it
   real praying. Say, "Lord Jesus, You have said that the Holy Spirit
   shall glorify You by taking of Your things and showing them to Your
   people. I believe it, Lord. Let me prove it to be true at the Communion
   Table tonight! Let me prove it to be true in my private devotions all
   through this week! Let me prove it to be true all through this year and
   all through my life." Pray thus, and then, according to your faith
   shall it be unto you!

   III. Now we shall think of the text in the last way which I indicated,
   AS A PRECEDENT FOR GLORIFYING CHRIST.

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I know that a great number of you who
   are now present wish above all things that the Lord Jesus Christ may be
   glorified in this world. And I also know that you who have tasted that
   the Lord is gracious have this for your highest ambition, that you may,
   by some means or other, by sickness or by health, by poverty or by
   wealth, by life or by death, bring glory to Him. Very well, then, that
   being the case, let this text be a guide to you in your efforts.

   In order to glorify Christ, it seems, first, that it will be wisdom on
   your part to rely upon the Holy Spirit You say that you want to glorify
   Christ--that is also what the Holy Spirit wants to do! That is what He
   has long been doing and is still doing--therefore cast in your lot with
   Him--get Him to help you do the same work as He is doing. I have
   sometimes seen some young fellows rowing upstream, and it has been a
   heavy task to them. But there has come along a barge pulled quickly by
   horses, or better still, a steam launch, and the young men have called
   out to those on board, "Throw us a rope, please!" And then those who
   were before toiling in rowing have gone along easily enough. So, when I
   see the Spirit of God contending against all opposition--steaming
   upstream, as it were--in order to glorify Christ. As I need to go
   upstream, too, for the same purpose, I seek to act in connection with
   His Omnipotence, so that He may work with me and that I may be drawn
   onward and upward by His almighty power! My Sister, do not go to that
   Sunday school class of yours again until you have asked the Holy Spirit
   to go with you! My Brother, do not go up those pulpit stairs again, nor
   even up the stairs of that infirmary where you go visit the sick, or of
   that prison where you go to visit the inmates without first saying,
   "Spirit of God, it is Your business to glorify Christ and that is also
   my business--so will You graciously go with me and go in me? Give me
   the right words to utter and the right spirit in which to utter them.
   You and I are perfectly agreed in what we are seeking in this matter.
   Oh, work by me so that Jesus Christ may be glorified!"

   I see also another thing in this precedent, which is that if I want to
   glorify Christ, I must first take care to apprehend Him clearly myself
   Two of Christ's declarations in the text show me this. The Holy Spirit
   does not glorify Christ till first He receives of the things of
   Christ--"He shall receive of Mine." And then He does not glorify Christ
   in us except by showing the things of Christ to us, so that if you and
   I want to glorify Christ, our first objective must be to see Him and to
   see His Glory for ourselves. You cannot, I think, do good to others to
   any great extent unless you are living in the light of God's
   Countenance. The Lord's general rule is first to give the provision
   into the disciples hands before those disciples are able to feed the
   multitude. Wait awhile, dear Brother, and go to your Lord and say to
   Him, "Lord, fill me with Your own fullness, for how can I hope to pour
   out to others till You have done so? Show me Yourself, for how can I
   describe You to others unless I have Your image very vividly revealed
   to my own mind and heart? If I am myself rejoicing in You, then shall I
   be able to tell others, with fluent tongue, how gracious You are. If I
   hear Your voice giving me a message to deliver from You, then shall I
   be able to tell the message with all the greater impressiveness and
   power because I received it first from You."

   The next point is also clear from the precedent of the text--that is,
   in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, having ourselves apprehended
   Christ--if we want to glorify Christ, we must tell others about the
   things of Christ "You have said that already," says someone. Very well,
   then, if I have. I will say it again because I do not know anything
   that needs more to be said nowadays than this--that the way for any of
   us to glorify Jesus is to show to others the things of Jesus. How many
   congregations there are in which the greatest treat to the people would
   be a sermon about the Lord Jesus Christ and especially about His
   substitutionary Sacrifice! I have heard it said that there are
   thousands of sermons preached about the Gospel, but very few in which
   there is the Gospel, itself. This will not do! Souls will never be
   saved that way! Nobody has ever had his hunger satisfied by hearing a
   discourse about bread! It is bread, itself, that is needed to feed the
   hungry, so keep on, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, giving the
   Bread of Life to starving souls! I know that many call us fools and say
   that we are the old stick-in-the-mud Puritans who never get any
   further--but never mind, dear Friends, what they say--keep on feeding
   the hungry! We do not mean to change our message even if all should
   reject it. Here we have stood, these many years, talking to you about
   Jesus Christ and Him Crucified--and if anybody heard us 20 years ago
   and shall come again now, he will hear just the same message as he
   heard then! Why do we not

   make progress, as others do? Simply because there is nothing which we
   should regard as progress except progressing in the knowledge of this
   precious Truth of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified!

   In the Infallible Truth of God, which has been revealed by the Holy
   Spirit, there is no possibility of progress or advance! He has been
   pleased to reveal the whole Truth, so there is nothing more to be
   revealed! We can continually search further and deeper into the Truth
   that has been revealed, and so may be enabled, by the help of the
   Spirit of God, to speak better concerning it, but better Truth we never
   shall have and "another Gospel" we never will declare! We should
   certainly be "accursed" if we did, for there is but one Gospel--and to
   that Gospel we shall remain steadfast, God helping us--even to the end.
   Hit that nail on the head again, Brother! Drive it in further and
   clinch it on the other side. Stick to the Gospel! It may be a long time
   before it wins, but it will win in the long run! Some say that it is
   going out of fashion, and that it is at a discount. We were told, the
   other day, that Calvinism is almost obsolete, but we do not mind what
   men say about it--we believe that it will yet see everything else
   obsolete! When modern culture has been blown away, like the thistledown
   from the side of the hill, the Gospel I have preached will stand like
   the eternal hills, themselves, outliving every opposition, for God
   Himself has piled this Truth like a mighty mountain and it shall stand
   fast till Christ Himself shall come! Not a jot or tittle of it shall
   ever pass away. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by taking of the
   things of Christ, so let us take care that we follow that precedent and
   glorify Christ in the same way!

   But with regard to the things of Christ, of course the Holy Spirit
   glorifies Christ by explaining them, by showing them to us. So,
   Beloved, your business and mine is to make the things of Christ plain
   to people as far as we can. Show them to them--turn them first one way
   and then another--try and get them to see all of them that there is to
   be seen. You have not wasted your time if you have taught one child to
   read and understand one verse like this, "The Son of Man is come to
   seek and to save that which was lost." You have done something that was
   worth doing if you have only whispered into one human ear this short
   message, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." In
   some way or other, keep on showing to saints and sinners the things of
   Christ! That will glorify Christ, somehow or other, both in them that
   are saved and in them that perish--and will be a sweet savor unto God
   in every place where Christ is made known! Keep on then, my dear fellow
   workers, at this blessed work of glorifying Christ!

   There are many of you who are doing this under great discouragements,
   but I pray you not to leave off doing it. It is the Holy Spirit' s way
   to continue this work unceasingly, so let it be your way, also, as long
   as you live! But take care that the things which you show to others are
   the things which you have really received yourself. You must have
   experimental religion, or else you cannot tell of it to others with any
   hope that they will accept it. How idle it would be for me to come here
   to preach to you of a way of salvation which I had never tried and
   proved in my own experience! It would be as foolish as for a sick man
   to stand before a company of his fellow patients and recommend to them
   a medicine which he had never taken! Do not be guilty of such
   inconsistency, dear Friends, but live upon Christ! Get more and more of
   Christ into your soul and then you will be able to go and say to
   others, "We have found Him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write! We
   have found Him whom God has set forth to be the Propitiation for our
   sins, the Healer of all our wounds, the Comforter in all our woes."
   They will probably say to you, "What do you know about all this?" Then
   you will begin to tell how you were broken down on account of sin and
   how Jesus met with you in His mercy and saved you with His great
   salvation! As you tell the story, they will want to know more and more
   about it, for personal narratives are always interesting! And then you
   will, by-and-by, see the tears glistening in their eyes as one or
   another tremblingly asks, "Would Jesus save me in that way? I wonder if
   I went to Him and confessed my sin, whether I, too, would receive
   pardon and become a child of God." Then you would seize the golden
   opportunity and, laying a loving hand upon his shoulder, you would say,
   "Come, dear Friend, let us kneel down and pray together. Let us
   together seek that dear Savior who has said, 'Him that comes to Me I
   will in no wise cast out.'"

   If you are moved to act and speak like that, I cannot tell how often
   God the Holy Spirit would glorify Christ by enabling you, first, to
   receive the things of Christ, yourself, and then to so show them to
   others that they would be moved to say, "We will go with you to the
   Cross of Calvary. We will go with you to the sinner's Savior. Where you
   were saved, there we, also, will be saved." How I wish that all in this
   congregation would make this resolve now through the effectual working
   of the ever-blessed Spirit, "Jesus is a great Savior! We will have Him
   as our Savior." How I wish that this sacred impulse might come upon all
   of us who are now in this building, that we might all be unhappy and
   unsatisfied until we found Christ! That is the way for you to glorify
   Christ, Sinner--not for you to bring Him any of your own goodness-- but
   to go to Him and take of His goodness! Not for you to try to make
   yourself better, but to come to Him just as you are, and accept Him as
   your Savior, to be your Lord and Master forever!

   May the Holy Spirit lead you to do so! Do it, blessed Spirit! You love
   to glorify Christ--here is Your opportunity in this vast congregation!
   Come and work this great work for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Good Cheer From Christ's Real Presence

   (No. 3128)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Immediately He constrained His disciples to get into the boat, and to
   go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He sent away the
   people. And when He hadsent them away, He departed into a mountain
   topray. And when evening was come, the boat was in the midst of the
   sea, and He alone on the land. And He saw them toiling in rowing, for
   the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the
   night He came to them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by
   them. But when they saw Him walking upon the sea, they supposedit had
   been a spirit, and cried out: for they all saw Him, and were troubled.
   And immediately He talked with them, and said unto them, Be of good
   cheer: it is I, be not afraid. And He went up unto them into the boat,
   and the wind ceased: and they were sorely amazed among themselves
   beyond measure, and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of
   the loaves: for their hearts were hardened." Mark 6:45-52.

   WE have here a word of comfort given to a shipload of Believers who
   were where their Lord had sent them. They had been unwilling to put out
   to sea, though it was probably calm enough at the time, but they did
   not wish to leave the Lord Jesus. He constrained them to go and thus
   their sailing was not merely under His sanction, but by His express
   command. They were in their right place and yet they met with a
   terrible storm. The little inland sea upon which they sailed lies in a
   deep hollow and from the shore there pours a sudden downdraft of
   tremendous wind for which it is not possible to be prepared. By one of
   these whirlwinds the whole sea was stirred up to boiling, as only those
   little lakes can be. So, though they were where Jesus bade them go,
   they were in desperate peril, and you, dear Friends, must not think
   that you are in a wrong position because you are in trouble. Do not
   consider that adverse circumstances are a proof that you have missed
   your road, for they may even be an evidence that you are in the good
   old way since the path of Believers is seldom without trial. You did
   well to embark and to leave the shore, but remember, though your Lord
   has insured the vessel and guaranteed that you shall reach your haven,
   He has not promised that you shall sail over a sea of glass. On the
   contrary, He has told you that "in the world you shall have
   tribulation"--and you may all the more confidently believe in Him
   because you find His warning to be true!

   Their Lord had bid His disciples make for the other side and,
   therefore, they did their best and continued rowing all night, but
   making no progress whatever because the wind was dead against them. It
   was with difficulty that they could keep what little way they had made
   and not be blown back again to the starting place. Probably you have
   heard it said that if a Christian does not go forward, he goes
   backward--that is not altogether true, for there are times of spiritual
   trial when if a man does not go backward, he is really going forward.
   "Stand fast" is a precept, which, when well kept, may involve as much
   virtue as, "press forward." A master of a steam vessel will put on all
   steam and drive right into the teeth of a hurricane and remain
   perfectly satisfied if the good boat can only keep from being driven on
   shore. The Apostolic crew rowed, and rowed, and rowed--and it was no
   fault of theirs that they made no progress, "for the wind was contrary
   unto them." The Christian may make little or no headway and yet it may
   be no fault of his, for the wind is contrary. Our good Lord will take
   the will for the deed and reckon our progress, not by our apparent
   advance, but by the hearty intent with which we tug at the oars!

   Often, when a Believer groans in prayer and cannot pray, he has offered
   the best prayer. And when he tries to win men's hearts and does not win
   them, his zeal is as acceptable as if it convinced a nation--and when
   he would do good and finds evil present with him--there is good in the
   desire. If he threw up the oars and drifted with the wind, that

   would be another thing, but if our Lord sees him, "toiling in rowing,"
   albeit no progress is made, He has never a word to say against His
   servant, but He will bid him, "be of good cheer."

   It does not appear, from the narrative, that the disciples had any fear
   about the storm except such as might naturally arise even in the minds
   of fishermen when they were dreadfully tossed upon the sea. They
   probably said to one another, "Did not our Master constrain us to set
   forth on this voyage? Though we met with this storm, we are not to be
   blamed." Certain Believers who have lately been brought to know the
   Lord, have been great losers in temporal things by becoming Christians.
   What then? Let them not be terrified by this fact--even Christ's boat
   is tossed with tempest. Let them row on against the wind and even if
   the storm increases in fury, let them not lose heart. One who knew the
   seas right well exclaimed, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in
   Him." And in so doing he glorified God and before long found himself in
   a great calm. Does Jesus bid us make for the shore? Then let us row on,
   even if we cannot make headway, for Jesus knows all about it and orders
   all things well.

   Why, then, did our Savior, when He came to this shipload of Apostles
   who had been toiling and rowing, say to them, "Be of good cheer"? They
   were bold, brave men, and were not at all afraid of the sea. What,
   then, did they fear? He would not have so spoken unless they had been
   afraid of something--and on looking at the text, we see, to our
   astonishment, that they were afraid of Jesus Himself. They were not
   afraid of wind and storms and waves and tempests, but they were afraid
   of their best Friend! That is the point which He aimed at by saying,
   "Be of good cheer: it is I, be not afraid." We will first think over
   the cause of their fear Then secondly, we will meditate upon the method
   by which Jesus cheered them. And thirdly, we will reflect upon the
   times when we shall needjust such a good word as this.

   I. First, then, dear Friends, consider with me THE CAUSE OF THEIR FEAR.

   If we had not sailed over the same lake--I mean if we had not suffered
   the same experience--it might have surprised us that they were afraid
   of their Lord. He was appearing for them and coming to their rescue. He
   was about to still the tempest for them, yet they were afraid of
   Him--of Him whom they loved and trusted. So blind were their eyes, so
   hardened were their hearts, that they were afraid of their Lord and
   afraid of Him when He was giving them the best reasons for trusting
   Him. Before their eyes He was displaying Himself as Lord over
   All--Master of wind and wave--and yet they were afraid of Him. The
   greatness of His power would have comforted them had they understood
   the Truth-- but they did not consider the miracle of the loaves and,
   therefore, they were in a state of perplexity and were sorely afraid.

   Meanwhile Jesus was acting in great gentleness to them. He was
   displaying His power, but it was not in a dazzling and overwhelming
   manner. Admire the sacred gentleness which made Him move as though He
   would have passed by them. If He had suddenly appeared in brilliant
   light in the middle of the boat, He might well have astounded them and
   driven them to fright. If, in a moment, He had shone forth just at the
   stern, or alighted from the heavens upon the deck, they would have been
   petrified with alarm! But He began by showing Himself on the crest of
   the billow--and one cried to his fellow, "Do you see that strange light
   yonder?" They watch and Jesus comes nearer! They can discern a figure.
   They can see a man step from wave to wave with majestic tread. In
   tenderness He will not flash upon them all at once. As when the morning
   breaks by slow increase of light, so Jesus came to His timid followers.
   Even then He moved as though He would pass by them, that they might not
   be alarmed by His appearing to bear down upon them as an adversary.
   Even thus He manifests Himself to us in the riches of His Grace in all
   wisdom and prudence!

   The fears of the trembling crew were sufficiently aroused by even
   seeing Him at a distance--they were so afraid that they cried out
   thinking that they saw a ghost. What would they have done had He not,
   in gentleness to their weakness, manifested Himself gradually to them
   and set Himself in a sidelight? Take what way the Master might, His
   disciples were still afraid--and we are not much wiser nor much more
   courageous than they were. The manifestation of the Christ of God to us
   in all His Glory will have to be by degrees as long as we are in this
   body and, perhaps even in Heaven. It may not be at the very first that
   we shall be able to endure the fullness of its joy. Even there He may
   have to lead us to fountains of water which at the first we did not
   discover and guide us into more and more of that superlative knowledge
   which will utterly eclipse all acquaintance that we have of Him now, as
   the sunlight puts out the stars!

   To return to our subject. The disciples were afraid of Jesus when He
   was revealing His power to help them, afraid of Him when He was acting
   in the gentlest possible manner toward them and treating them as a
   nurse does her child. Ah me, that we should be afraid of Jesus!

   The Lord, after all, was doing nothing more than they knew He could do.
   Twenty-four hours had not passed since they had seen Him perform a work
   of creation, for He had taken bread and fish and multiplied them so as
   to make a feast for five thousand men, besides the women and children,
   and to leave far more, when all had eaten, than had been in store when
   first the loaves and fishes had been counted! After this miracle, they
   ought not to have been surprised that He could traverse the sea! To
   walk on the waters is to suspend a law, but to make loaves and fishes
   is to exercise the supreme power of Creation which must forever remain
   with God, Himself! Knowing this, they ought not to have been
   astonished--not so soon, at any rate. The memory of that feast ought
   not to have vanished quite so quickly from their most forgetful minds.
   Yet when they saw Him, only doing what they knew He could do, only
   doing something not a jot more difficult than He was accustomed to
   do--they cried out for fear!

   Was it not because they dreaded contact with the spiritual, the
   mysterious and the supernatural Although we are now talking about them
   and, perhaps, half saying in our minds, "If we had been there, we would
   not have been afraid of Jesus and have cried out," we do not know what
   we say--it takes very little of the supernatural to make a man's flesh
   creep, let the man be who he may. When Belshazzar saw the handwriting
   upon the wall, he trembled most because of the mystery involved in a
   moving hand with which no visible body was connected. The unseen is the
   birthplace of fear. Imagination exaggerates and conscience whispers
   that some great ill will befall us. We are nearing the confines of the
   mysterious world where God and spirits dwell and, therefore, we
   tremble. Yet, Beloved, the spirit-world is the last thing which
   Christians should tremble at, for there can be nothing in the
   supernatural world which we have cause to dread! If there is such a
   thing as a ghost walking the earth, I, for one, would like to meet
   it--either at dead of night or noon of day!

   I have not the least particle of faith in rambling spirits. Those who
   are in Heaven will not care to be wandering in these foggy regions! And
   those in Hell cannot leave their dread abode. From where, then, shall
   they come? Are they devils? Even so--and what then? A devil is no new
   personage. We have fought with devils full often and are prepared to
   resist them, again, and make them flee! The Lord will tread Satan, who
   is the master of evil spirits, under our feet shortly. Why, then,
   should we be afraid of his underlings? Nothing supernatural should
   cause any Christian the slightest alarm. We are expressly forbidden to
   fear the fear of the heathen and that is one of their greatest
   horrors--their dread of witchcraft, necromancy and other supposed
   manifestations of evil spirits! We who believe in Jesus are to be
   ashamed of such superstitions, lest a lie should have dominion over us!

   If saintly spirits and holy angels can appear among men, what then? It
   would be a joy and a privilege to meet them! We are come to an
   innumerable company of angels--they bear us up in their hands lest we
   dash our feet against a stone.

   Brothers and Sisters, I am more afraid of the natural than of the
   supernatural! And far more fearful of the carnal than of the spiritual.
   Yet the disciples were afraid of Jesus because they were fearful of the
   supernatural--and when a person falls under that dread, he will be
   afraid of anything. We have known such persons to be frightened by
   cattle, alarmed by a cat and distressed at the croak of a raven. Some
   foolish ones have even died with fear at the click of an insect in an
   old post, for they call it a "death watch." Let us shake off all such
   childish folly, for if we once fall into it, we may even go the length
   of these Apostles and be afraid of our Master Himself!

   II. Let us consider, secondly, THE METHOD BY WHICH OUR MASTER CHEERED
   HIS FOLLOWERS WHEN THEY WERE AFRAID OF THE SUPERNATURAL.

   First of all, He assured them that He was not a disembodied spirit. He
   said, "It is I," and that, "I," was a Man who did eat and drink with
   them. A Man of flesh and blood whom they had seen and heard and
   touched. They were comforted when they knew that it was really no
   disembodied spirit, but a Man in flesh and blood.

   I beg you always to remember, dear Friends, concerning our Lord Jesus
   Christ, that He is not to be regarded as an unclothed spirit, for He
   wears a body like our own. It would greatly detract from our comfort if
   we doubted the real Personality of Christ and the truth of His
   Resurrection. Our Lord has taken into Heaven our human Nature in its
   entirety--body as well as soul--and He ever lives not as a spirit, but
   as a Man like ourselves, all sin excepted, and He lives there as the
   pledge that we shall be there, too, in the completeness of our manhood
   when the trumpet of the resurrection sounds.

   As a real Man, Jesus reigns above! He is no phantom, no ghost, no
   spirit, but a risen Man, touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
   who pities us and loves us, and feels for us! And in that capacity He
   speaks to us out of the glory of Heaven and He says, "It is I; be not
   afraid."

   Another thought lies on the surface of the passage, Jesus comforted
   them by the assurance that it was really Himself They were not looking
   upon a fiction, they were looking upon Christ Himself.

   Friend, be sure of the reality of the Christ you trust in! It is very
   easy to use the name of Jesus, but not quite so easy to know His
   Person. It is common to talk about what He did and not to feel that He
   lives just as truly as we do--and that He is a person to be loved and
   to be trusted in just as much as our own brother, or father, or friend.
   We need a real, living, personal Christ! A phantom Christ will not
   cheer us in a storm--it is rather the cause of fright than hope. But a
   real Christ is a real consolation in a real tempest. May every one of
   you, my Hearers, truly know the personal Savior to whom you can speak
   with as much certainty as if you could touch His hand!

   The Christ of 1900 years ago worked out our salvation, but the Christ
   of today must apply it, or we are lost. Seeing that He always lives, He
   is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him.
   Believe in His true Manhood and never allow your idea of Him to become
   thin and unsubstantial. Those are substantial Christians to whom Christ
   is substantial.

   But the pith of the comfort lay in this--He said, "It is I; be not
   afraid," which being interpreted means, it is Jesus, be not afraid.
   When our Lord met Paul on the road to Damascus, He said to him, "I am
   Jesus." But when He spoke to those who knew His voice and were familiar
   with Him, He did not quote His name, but said, "It is I." They were
   sheep that had been long enough with the Shepherd to know His voice and
   they had only to hear Him speak! And without a name being mentioned,
   they perceived that it was the Lord. To this conclusion they should
   have come at first. But as they blundered, and said, "It is a spirit,"
   the loving Master corrected them by saying, "It is I--it is Jesus." It
   is not possible for me to convey to you what richness of consolation
   lies in the thought that Jesus is Jesus, which is, being interpreted, a
   Savior! That one character and office is cheering, but the same is true
   of all the names He wears. All the glorious titles and the blessed
   emblems under which He is set forth are rich in good cheer!

   It is Jesus who walks the water of your trouble and comes to you--Jesus
   the Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Head over all things to
   His Church--the All-in-All of all His people!

   When Jesus wished to encourage John, in the first Chapter of the
   Revelation, the comfort He gave to him was, "I am the First and the
   Last." The comfort of the Lord's people lies in the Person and
   Character of Jesus. Here is their solace, "IT IS I." But what a big,
   "I," it is! Compound in one all that is conceivable of goodness, mercy,
   Grace, faithfulness and love--add perfect Humanity, infinite Godhead
   and all the sovereign rights, powers and possessions of the
   Highest--and these are all contained in the one little letter, "I,"
   when Jesus says, "It is I; be not afraid."

   You have not reached the bottom of it yet. "IAm." Literally rendered,
   the word which Jesus said was not, "It is I," but "I Am." When He would
   cheer His ancient people, the Lord bade Moses comfort Israel by saying,
   "I AM has sent me unto you." The self-existence of their God was to be
   the joy of the tribes. When Jesus said to those who came to take Him in
   the garden, "I Am," they fell backward. Such was the power of that
   word--but when He said to these, His cowering disciples, "I Am," they
   were drawn towards Him--and yet they lost not the awe which must always
   go with that incommunicable name, "I AM."

   Believer, Jesus says to you, "I Am." Is your wife dead? Is your child
   to be buried? Have your possessions failed? Is your health departing?
   Are your joys declining? Alas, it is a dying, fleeting world, but there
   is One who is always the same, for Jesus says to you, "I Am; and
   because I live, you shall live also." Be comforted--whatever else is
   gone, wherever else the arrows of Death may fly, your Jesus still
   lives! "I AM." Blessed word of rich comfort to be heard amid the
   darkness of the night by weary mariners whose spirits had been sinking
   within them!

   The glory of it all was brought out by the fact that "Jesus went up
   unto them into the boat." And as He stood amid them, the stillness all
   around proved that the "I AM" was there. Had He not moved upon the face
   of the deep, as once the Spirit moved there? And did there not come
   order out of the tempest's chaos even as at the beginning? Where the
   great "I AM" is present, the winds and the waves perceive their Ruler
   and obey Him!

   Then the disciples knew that Jesus was not only "I AM," but, "Immanuel,
   God with us." "I AM" had come to their rescue and was in the boat with
   them. Here, dear Friend, is your comfort and mine! We will not fear the
   supernatural, or the unseen, for we see Jesus and in Him we see the
   Father--and therefore we are of good cheer.

   III. Our third point for consideration is this--THERE ARE TIMES WHEN WE
   SHALL BE LIKELY TO NEED SUCH COMFORT AS THIS.

   Jesus spoke this message to Believers tossed with tempest--and we need
   it when we are depressed by the surroundings of these evil times. In
   seasons of depressed trade, great sickness, terrible wars and public
   disasters, it is balm to the spirit to know that Jesus is still the
   same. Sin may abound yet more, the light of the Gospel may burn low and
   the Prince of Darkness may widely sway his destroying scepter, but
   nevertheless, this Truth of God stands sure, that Jesus is the "I AM."
   At certain periods diabolical influence seems paramount, the reins of
   nations appear to be taken out of the hands of the great Governor and
   yet it is not so. Look through the darkness and you shall see your Lord
   amid the hurricane, walking the waters of politics, ruling national
   convulsions, governing, over-ruling, arranging all, making even the
   wrath of man to praise Him and restraining it according to His wisdom!
   Above the howling of the blast I hear His voice announcing, "It is I."
   When men's hearts sink for fear and the rowers feel their oars ready to
   snap by the strain of useless toil, I hear those Words which are the
   soul of music--"It is I; be not afraid. I am ruling all things. I am
   coming to the rescue of the boat, my Church--she shall yet float on
   smooth waters and reach her desired haven."

   Another time of need will surely be when we reach the swellings of
   Jordan. As we shall get near the spirit-world and the soul will begin
   to strip off her material garment to enter on a new form of life, how
   shall we feel as we enter the unknown world? Shall we cry out, "It is a
   Spirit!" as we salute the first who meets us? It may be so, but then a
   sweet voice will destroy death's terror, end all our alarms and this
   shall be its utterance, "It is I; be not afraid." This new world is not
   new to Jesus! Our pains and dying throes are not unknown to Him! The
   disembodied state, wherein the spirit sojourns for a while unclothed,
   He knows it all, for He died and entered into the spirit-land and can
   sympathize with us in every step of the way. In what sweet company
   shall we pass through the Valley of Death-shade! Surely its gloom will
   turn to brightness, as when a cavern, wrapped in blackness, is lit up
   with a hundred torches and myriads of gems sparkle from roof and walls!
   Passing through the sepulcher, its damp darkness shall flash and glow
   with unexpected joys and marvelous revelations of the Ever-Blessed
   because Jesus will be with us and, "the Lamb is the Light." If, in that
   dread hour, we shall feel the least trembling at our Lord as the Judge
   of all the earth, that dread shall vanish as He cries, "It is

   I."

   This comfort may serve us when we suffer great tribulation. May you, my
   Friend, be spared this trial if God so wills. But should it come, you
   will all the better understand me. They that "do business in great
   waters" know that our troubles are, at times, so pressing that we lose
   our heads and are not able to cope with our trials. Forebodings fill
   the air and our sinking spirits chill the very marrow of our life. We
   become like distraught men or, as David put it, we reel to and fro and
   stagger like a drunken man and are at our wits end. Then, ah then, the
   voices of our comrades in the boat are of little value--and even the
   echoes of former words from the Lord are of small account--nothing will
   serve but the present and sure consolations of the Lord Jesus. We must
   hear Him say, "It is I," or we shall faint outright. Then is the soul
   braced to breast the next billow and while she cries, "All Your waves
   and Your billows have gone over me," she is still able to add, "Yet the
   Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime; and in the night
   His song shall be with me." When Jesus is with a man, troubles have
   lost their power to trouble him!

   We shall need this same word of comfort whenever the Lord graciously
   reveals Himself to us. His Glory is such that we are not able to bear
   much of it. Its very sweetness overpowers the heart! Saints have had to
   ask for a staying of the intense delight which seemed to overbear their
   natural faculties. Those who have enjoyed those transporting
   manifestations can quite understand why John has written, "When I saw
   Him, I fell at His feet as dead." An awful delight--or shall I say a
   delightful awe?--throws the man upon his face. John had lain in Jesus'
   bosom and yet, when he had a clear manifestation of his glorified
   Savior, He could not bear it till His tender Friend laid His hand upon
   Him and said, "Fear not." So will it be with each of us when we are
   favored with the visits of the Well-Beloved--we shall greatly need that
   He should say to us, "It is I, your Brother, your Friend, your Savior,
   your Husband! Be not afraid. Great as I Am, tremble not in My Presence,
   for I am Jesus, the Lover of your soul."

   Once more, there is a day coming when the Son of Man will be revealed
   in the clouds of Heaven. We know not when it will be, but we are
   solemnly warned that when men look not for Him, He will suddenly
   appear. He will come as a thief in the night to the mass of men. But as
   for Believers, they are not in darkness that that day should come upon
   them as a thief--to them He comes as a long-expected Friend. When He
   comes there will be seen tokens--signs in the heavens above and in the
   earth beneath--which we shall recognize. We may then, perhaps, be
   distressed by these supernatural portents and begin to tremble. What,
   then, will be our delight when we hear Him say, "It is I; be not
   afraid!" Lift up your heads, you saints, for the coming of the Lord
   draws near and to you it is not darkness, but day! To you it is not
   judgment and condemnation, but honor and reward! What bliss it will be
   to catch the first glimpse of our Lord on the Throne! Sinners will
   wring their hands and weep and wail because of Him, but we shall know
   His voice and welcome His appearing! When the last trumpet rings out
   clear and loud, happy shall we be to hear that gladsome sound, "It is
   I; be not afraid." Rolling earth and crumbling mountains, darkened sun
   and blackened moon, flames of fire and shocks of earthquake, gathering
   angels and chariots of God--none of these things shall amaze us while
   Jesus whispers to our soul, "I Am," and yet again, "IT IS I; BE NOT
   AFRAID."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW14:22-33.

   Verse 22. And immediately Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a
   boat and to go before Him to the other side, while He sent the
   multitudes away. Immediately is a business word--Jesus loses no time.
   No sooner is the banquet over than He sends off the guests to their
   homes. While they are well fed, He bids them make the best of their way
   home. He who made the multitude sit down was also able to send the
   multitude away, but they needed sending, for they were loath to go.

   The sea must be crossed again, or Jesus cannot find seclusion. How He
   must run the gauntlet to get a little rest! Before He starts again
   across the sea, He performs another act of self-denial, for He cannot
   leave till He sees the crowd happily dispersed. He attends to that
   business Himself, giving the disciples the opportunity to depart in
   peace. As the captain is the last to leave the boat, so is the Lord the
   last to leave the scene of labor. The disciples would have chosen to
   stay in His company and to enjoy the thanks of the people, but He
   constrained them to get into a boat He could not get anyone to go away
   from Him at this time without sending and constraining. This loadstone
   has great attractions. He evidently promised His disciples that He
   would follow them, for the words are, "to go before Him unto the other
   side'" How He was to follow He did not say, but He could always find a
   way of keeping His appointments. How considerate of Him to wait amid
   the throng while the disciples sailed away in peace. He always takes
   the heavy end of the load Himself.

   23. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a
   mountain to pray: and when the evening was come, He was there alone.
   Now that the crowd is gone, He can take His rest--and He finds it in
   prayer. He went up into a mountain--in a place where He might speak
   aloud and not be overheard or disturbed. He communed with the Father
   alone. This was His refreshment and His delight. He continued therein
   till the thickest shades of night had gathered and the day was gone.
   "Alone," yet not alone, He drank in new strength as He communed with
   His Father. He must have revealed this private matter to the recording
   Evangelist and surely it was with the intent that we should learn from
   His example.

   We cannot afford to be always in company, since even our blessed Lord
   felt that He must be alone.

   24. But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves:
   for the wind was contrary. While Jesus was alone, they in the boatwere
   in the same condition, but not occupied with the same spiritual
   exercise. When they first left the shore it was fair sailing in the
   cool of the evening, but a storm gathered hastily as night covered the
   sky. On the Lake of Galilee the wind rushes down from the gullies
   between the mountains and causes grievous peril to little boats--
   sometimes fairly lifting them out of the water and soon submerging them
   beneath the waves! That deep lake was peculiarly dangerous for small
   craft. They were far from land, for they were "in the midst of the
   sea," equally distant from either shore. The sea was furious and their
   boat was "tossed with waves." The hurricane was terrible. "The wind was
   contrary," and would not let them go anyplace which they sought. It was
   a whirlwind and they were whirled about by it, but could not use it for
   reaching either shore. How much did their case resemble ours when we
   are in sore distress?

   We are tossed about and can do nothing--the blast is too furious for us
   to bear up against it, or even to live while driven before it.

   One happy fact remains--Jesus is pleading on the shore though we are
   struggling on the sea. It is also comfortable to know that we are where
   He constrained us to go (see verse 22), and He has promised to come to
   us in due time and, therefore, all must be safe though the tempest
   rages terribly.

   25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking
   on the sea. Jesus is sure to come. The night wears on and the darkness
   thickens. The fourth watch of the night draws near, but where is He?
   Faith says, "He must come." Though He should stay away till almost
   break of day, He must come. Unbelief asks, "How can He come?" Ah, He
   will answer for Himself! He can make His own way. "Jesus went unto
   them, walking on the sear He comes in the teeth of the wind and on the
   face of the wave! Never fear that He will fail to reach the
   storm-tossed boat. His love will find the way. Whether it is to a
   single disciple, or to the Church as a whole, Jesus will appear in His
   own chosen hour and His time is sure to be the most timely.

   26. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were
   troubled, saying, It is a spirit, and they cried out

   for fear [See Sermon #957, Volume 16--JESUS NO PHANTOM] Yes, the

   disciples saw Him--saw Jesus, their Lord--and derived no comfort from
   the sight! Poor human nature's sight is a blind thing compared with the
   vision of a spiritual faith. They saw, but knew not what they saw. What
   could it be but a phantom? How could a real man walk on those foaming
   billows? How could he stand in the teeth of such a hurricane? They were
   already at their wits' end and the apparition put an end to their
   courage. We seem to hear their shriek of alarm--" they cried out for
   fear'" We read not that " they were troubled"before. They were old
   sailors and had no dread of natural forces. But a spirit--ah, that was
   too much of a terror! They were at their worst now and yet, if they had
   known it, they were on the verge of their best! It is noteworthy that
   the nearer Jesus was to them, the greater was their fear. Want of
   discernment blinds the soul to its richest consolations. Lord, be near,
   and let me know You! Let me not have to say with Jacob, "Surely God was
   in this place; and I knew it not!"

   27. But immediately Jesus spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it
   is I; be not afraid. He did not keep them in suspense--"Immediately
   Jesus spoke unto them." How sweetly sounded that loving and majestic
   voice! Above the roar of waves and howling of winds, they heard the
   voice of the Lord. This was also His old word, "Be of good cheer." The
   most conclusive reason for courage was His own Presence. "It is I; be
   not afraid." If Jesus is near. If the Spirit of the storm is, after
   all, the Lord of Love, all room for fear is gone! Can Jesus come to us
   through the storm? Then we shall weather it and come to Him. He who
   rules the tempest is not the devil, not chance, not a malicious
   enemy--but Jesus! This should end all fear.

   28. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, bid me come
   unto You on the water Peter must be the first to speak--he is impulsive
   and besides, he was a sort of foreman in the company. The first speaker
   is not always the wisest man. Peter's fears have gone--all but one,
   "if"--but that, "if," was working him no good, for it seemed to
   challenge his Master--"Lordif it is You." What a test to suggest--"Bid
   me come unto You on the waters What did Peter need with walking the
   waters? His name might have suggested that like a stone he would go to
   the bottom! It was an imprudent request. It was the swing of the
   pendulum in Peter from despair to an injudicious venturing! Surely, he
   knew not what he said. Yet we, too, have put our Lord to tests almost
   as improper. Have we not said, "If You have ever blessed me, give me
   this and that"? We, too, have had our water-walking and have ventured
   where nothing but special Grace could uphold us. Lord, what is man?

   29. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the boat he
   walked on the water, to go to Jesus. When good men are unwise and
   presumptuous, it may be for their lasting good to learn their folly by
   experience. "He said, Come." Peter's Lord is about to teach him a
   practical lesson. He asked to be bid to come. He may come. He does
   come. He leaves the boat, he treads the wave. He is on the way towards
   his Lord. We can do anything if we have Divine authorization and
   courage enough to take the Lord at His word! Now there were two on the
   sea, two wonders! Which was the greater? The reader may not find it
   easy to reply. Let him consider.

   30. But when he saw the boisterous wind, he was afraid, and beginning
   to sink, he cried, saying Lord, save me! "But"--a sorrowful, "but," for
   poor Peter. His eyes were off his Lord and on the raging of the
   wind--"He saw the

   boisterous wind" His heart failed him and then his feet failed him.
   Down he began to go--an awful moment is this "beginning to sink, "yet
   it was only a "beginning." He had time to cry to his Lord who was not
   sinking. Peter cried, and was safe! His prayer was as full as it was
   short! He had brought his eyes and his faith back to Jesus, for he
   cried, "Lord!" He had come into this danger through obedience and,
   therefore, he had an appeal in the word, "Lord." Whether in danger or
   not, Jesus was still his Lord. He is a lost man and he feels it unless
   his Lord will save him--save him altogether, save him now! Blessed
   prayer--"Lord, save me." Hearer, does it not suit you? Peter was nearer
   his Lord when he was sinking than when he was walking! In our low
   estate we are often nearer to Jesus than in our more glorious seasons.

   31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and caught him, and
   said unto him, O you of little faith, why

   LITTLE FAITH AND GREAT FAITH and #2925, Volume 51--REASONS FOR DOUBTING
   CHRIST] Our Lord delays not when our peril is imminent and our cry is
   urgent--"Immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand" He first "caught
   him" and then taught him. Jesus saves first and upbraids afterwards,
   when He must do so. When we are saved is the fit time for us to chasten
   ourselves for our unbelief. Let us learn from our Lord that we may not
   reprove others till we have first helped them out of their
   difficulties.

   Our doubts are unreasonable--"Why did you doubt?" If there is reason
   for little faith, there is evidently reason for great confidence. If it
   is right to trust Jesus at all, why not trust Him altogether? Trust was
   Peter's strength, doubt was his danger. It looked like great faith when
   Peter walked on the water, but a little wind soon proved it to be
   "little faith." Till our faith is tried, we can form no reliable
   estimate of it.

   After his Lord had taken him by the hand, Peter sank no further, but
   resumed the walk of faith. How easy to have faith when we are close to
   Jesus! Lord, when our faith fails, come to us and we shall walk on the
   waves!

   32. And when they were come into the boat, the wind ceased. So that
   Peter's walk and his rescue had happened in the face of the tempest. He
   could walk the water well enough when his Lord held his hand--and so
   can we. What a sight! Jesus and Peter, hand in hand, walking upon the
   sea! The two made for the boat at once--miracles are never spun out to
   undue length. Was not Peter glad to leave the tumultuous element and,
   at the same time, to perceive that the gale was over? " When they were
   come into the boat, the wind ceased." It is well to be safe in a storm,
   but more pleasant to find the calm return and the hurricane end. How
   gladly did the disciples welcome their Lord and their Brother, Peter,
   who though wet to the skin, was a wiser man for his adventure!

   33. Then they that were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, Of
   a truth You are the Son of God. No wonder that Peter " worshipped Him,"
   nor that His comrades did the same! The whole of the disciples who had
   been thus rescued by their Lord's coming to them on the stormy sea were
   overwhelmingly convinced of His Godhead. Now they were doubly sure of
   it by unquestionable evidence--and in lowly reverence they expressed to
   Him their adoring faith, saying, " Of a truth You are the Son of God"
     __________________________________________________________________

The King's Mowings

   (No. 3129)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, EARLY IN THE YEAR 1872.

   "The king's mowings." Amos 7:1.

   CERTAIN lands belonged to the king so far that he always took the first
   cut of grass for himself and left any aftermath to those who worked
   upon the land. Now, our great King has His mowings, too. His Church is
   the field which He has enclosed and blessed. At set seasons the King
   takes His mowings. Lately, beyond any other time in my life that I
   remember, the King has been taking His mowings in and around the Church
   of which He has made me overseer. One has spent many hours at the
   bedsides of the dying and in trying to console the bereaved. Our loss,
   if I may venture to call it a loss, as a Church, at the opening of this
   year was extremely heavy. The King has been taking His mowings among us
   and has cut down here, one, and there, another. When churches commence
   with a great many young members, there would naturally not be so many
   deaths at first, but as we all grow old together, there must be a large
   proportion of removals from this world into the land above. I purpose
   to speak a little upon that subject and I shall do so in a threefold
   way-- first, by way of consolation. Then, by way of admonition. And
   then by way of anticipation.

   I. First, by way of CONSOLATION. It is a sorrowful matter that our
   Beloved Brothers and Sisters should be taken from us. We were not more
   but less than men if we did not sorrow. Jesus wept and by that act He
   sanctified our tears. It is not wrong, it is not unmanly--much less is
   it sinful for us to drop the tear of sorrow over the departed--yet let
   us help to wipe those tears away with a handkerchief of sacred
   consolations.

   First, seeing that "all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as
   the flower of grass," do you lament that the King has been mowing? Then
   let this thought chide you. The King Himself has done it There is no
   such abstract thing as death--an unloosed monster devouring the saints
   at will--"Drinking the blood of men and grinding their bones between
   his iron teeth." This is a poet's raving! No destroying angel is sent
   forth to slay the Israel of God! There is a destroying angel, it is
   true, but He comes not near those who bear the blood mark. It is not in
   the power of disease or accident to kill the children of God except as
   instruments in the Divine hand. No saint dies otherwise than by the act
   of God! It is always according to the King's own will--it is the King's
   own doing. Every ripe ear in His field is gathered by His own hand, cut
   down by His own golden sickle and by none other. Every full-blown
   flower of Grace is taken away by Him, not smitten with blight, or cut
   down by the tempest, or devoured by some evil beast--

   "When mortal main resigns his breath,

   'Tis God directs the stroke of death.

   Casual however the stroke appear,

   He sends the fatal messenger.

   The keys are in that hand Divine--

   That hand must first the warrant sign

   And arm the death, and wing the dart

   Which does His message to our heart." The Lord has done it, in every
   case, and knowing this, we must not even think of complaining! What the
   King does, His servants delight in, for He is such a King that, let Him
   do what seems good to Him and we will still bless Him--we are of the
   mind of him who said, "Though He slays me, yet will I trust in Him."

   Again, those who have been mown down and taken away are with the King.
   They are the King's mowings! They are gathered into His stores. They
   are not in "purgatory" (a Romanist lie). They are not in the limbus
   patran, much less are they in Hell. They are not wandering in dreary
   pathways amidst the stars to find a lodging place. Jesus prayed,
   "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me
   where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which You have given Me: for
   You loved Me before the foundation of the world." And this prayer has
   fixed the saints' abode! We shall enter into no question, now, about
   whether Heaven is a place, or where it is, or whether it is merely a
   state--it is enough for us that where Jesus is, there His people
   are--not some of them in lower seats, or in lower rooms, or sitting
   outside, but they are all where He is! That will certainly content me.
   And if there are any degrees in Glory, you who want the high ones may
   have them. The lowest degree that I can perceive in Scripture is, "that
   they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory"--and
   that lowest degree is as high as my most vivid imagination can carry
   me! Here is enough to fill our souls even to the brim.

   And now do you sorrow for those who are with Christ where He is? Do you
   not almost blame your tears when you learn that your beloved ones are
   promoted to such blissful scenes? Why, Mother, did you ever wish for
   your child a higher place than that it should be where Jesus is?
   Husband, by the love you bore your wife, you cannot grudge her the
   Glory into which she has entered! Wife, by the deep devotion of your
   heart to him who has been taken from you, you could not wish to have
   detained him a moment from the joy in which his soul now triumphs with
   his Lord! If he were gone to some unknown land, if you could stand on
   life's brink and hear the roaring billows of a dread mysterious ocean
   and say, "My dear one has gone, I know not where, to be tossed like a
   waif or stray upon yonder tempestuous sea," oh, then you might mix your
   own tears with the brine of that ocean! But you know where they are,
   you know with Whom they are and you can form some idea, by the joy of
   Christ's Presence here on earth, what must be their bliss above!--

   "Sounds of sweet melody fall on my ears. Harps of the blessed, your
   music I hear! Rings with the harmony Heaven's high dome, Joyfully,
   joyfully bring the saints Home."

   It is a sweet reflection, too, that although our dear friends have been
   cut down like flowers by the scythe, yet their lot is better than ours,
   though we are standing and blooming today. Life seems better than death
   and the living dog is better than the dead lion--but take into account
   the everlasting state--and who will dare to say that the state of the
   blessed is worse than ours? Will not all assert that it is infinitely
   superior? We are still suffering, but they shall smart no more. We are
   weak and tottering, but they have regained the dew of their youth! We
   know what need means and wipe the sweat of toil from off our face, but
   they rest in abundance forever! The worst of all is that we still sin
   and have to wrestle hard with doubts and fears. Satan still besets us,
   the world is around us and corruptions fester within us. But they are
   where not a wave of trouble can ever break the serenity of their
   spirit! They are beyond the barking of the Hell dogs and beyond the
   arrows of Hell's quiver, though there are archers who would shoot their
   darts into Heaven itself if they could! The ingathered ones are
   supremely blest! They are far beyond what we are in joy, knowledge and
   holiness! Therefore, if we love them, how can we mourn that they have
   gone from the worse to the better--and from the lower to the higher
   room?

   And, moreover, Brothers and Sisters, although some of you sorrow very
   bitterly because God has taken away the desire of your eyes with a
   stroke, let me remind you that you might have had a worse sorrow than
   this concerning them. Ah, the mother who has to mourn over an adult son
   who has become a profligate, has a thousand times more bitter pang than
   she has who seen her infant carried to the grave! The father who knows
   that his sons or daughters have become a dishonor to his name may well
   wish that he had long ago seen them laid in the silent tomb. And I have
   known men in the Church whom I would sooner have buried a thousand
   times over than have lived to see what I have afterwards seen in them!
   For years they stood as honorable professors--but they lived to
   dishonor the Church, to blaspheme their Lord, to go back into perdition
   and prove that the root of the matter was never in them! Oh, you need
   not weep for those in Heaven! Weep not for the dead, neither bewail
   them--but weep for the spirituallydead--weep for the apostate and
   backslider! Weep for the false professor and the hypocrite--"the
   wandering stars," "to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
   forever." If you have tears, go and shed them there--but for those who
   have fought the fight and won the victory, for those who have stemmed
   the stream and safely landed on the other side--let us have no tears!
   No, put away the sackbut and bring forth the clarion! Let the trumpet
   ring out jubilantly the note of victory! It is to them the day of

   jubilee--why should it be for us the hour of sorrow? They put on the
   crown and bear the palm branch in their hands-- why should we don the
   funeral weeds? There is infinitely more to rejoice in than there is to
   sorrow for! Therefore let our hearts be glad. The Lord has said to
   them, "Well done," and rewarded them according to His Grace--and this
   is infinitely better than that they should have lived to slip and
   slide!

   "But this is poor comfort," you will say, and therefore let me come
   back to the text and say that the King has taken His mowings. Sorrowful
   as we may be, it is not the worst sorrow that we could have, but
   whether or not, we must not grudge the King any whom He takes from us.
   All the friends we have are lent us. The old proverb says, "A loan
   should go laughing home," that is we should never be unwilling to
   return a loan, but cheerfully give it back to the lender. Our dear ones
   were lent to us and what a blessing they have been to us! The lamps of
   our house, have they not been the joy of our day? The Master says, "I
   need them back again," and do we clutch at them and say, "No, Master,
   You shall not have them"? Oh, it must not be so! Our dear ones were
   never half as much ours as they were Christ's! We did not make them,
   but He did! We never bought them with our blood, but He did! We never
   sweat a bloody sweat for them, nor had our hands and feet pierced for
   them, but He did! They were lent to us, but they belonged to Him! Your
   prayer was, "Father, let them be with me where I am," but Christ's
   prayer was, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be
   with Me where I am." Your prayer pulled one way and Christ's pulled
   another. Be not envious that Christ won the suit! If I ever enter into
   the Lord's Court of Chancery, if I find that Christ is on the other
   side, my Lord, I will not plead. You shall have Your will, for I and
   You and You and I are one--and if it is Your plea that all I love may
   be with You, so be it, for I shall be with You, too, before long, and I
   would not quarrel with Your wish. The King has let out this Church like
   a pasture to us and He says, "I must sometimes take My mowings." Well,
   He has so watered us and given us the smell of a field that the Lord
   God has blessed, that when He comes and takes His rent, we may not
   stand at the gate and forbid Him, but say, "Good Master, come and take
   which You will! Take your quit-rent, for the field is all Your own. You
   have dearly purchased it and You have tilled it with much
   diligence--take what You will, for it is Yours."

   And, let me add, to increase our comfort the King took His mowings at
   the right time. Out of those whom He has taken away from us, I think we
   must all confess that the Lord took them when they should be taken. In
   one case, a venerable Sister, who if she had lasted longer, would have
   been the prey of weakness and of pain--'twas well she fell asleep. In
   another case, a dear young friend was pining under that fell disease,
   consumption--her throat was scarcely able to receive nourishment--I
   think those who loved her best must have felt relieved when at last she
   fell asleep. Two Brothers rise before my mind's eye--the one struggled
   through life and wondered often that he did not sink before, for he was
   like a ship unfit for sea which every wave threatens to engulf! It is a
   wonder that he survived as long as he did. He served his Lord up to the
   last and when all was over, it was well. Another, whom I saw with an
   afflicting disease about him that had brought him very low, had led so
   gracious a life that he did not need to utter any dying testimony.
   Beloved Brothers, also, who were once with us in the College have
   fallen asleep, having finished their course and kept the faith.

   I may add that not only did the King take His mowings at the right
   time, but in every case I have now before my mind, He took them in the
   easiest way. He took them gently. Some have a hard fight for it at the
   last, but in these cases, though there were pains and dying strife, yet
   at the last their souls were kissed away by the dear lips of Him who
   named them by their names and said they were His! They fell asleep,
   some of them so sweetly that those who looked on scarcely knew whether
   it was the sleep of life or the deeper sleep of eternity. They were
   gone--they were gone at once to their Lord and their God! Putting all
   these things together--reflecting that the King has done it, that those
   He has taken away He has taken to be with Himself, that their present
   lot is an infinitely better one than anything beneath the moon and
   considering, too, that we must never grudge the King the heritage which
   He has so dearly bought, and that He took His mowings at the right time
   and took them in the happiest manner--we will no longer repine, but we
   will bless the

   Lord!

   II. And now, Brothers and Sisters, allow me for a few minutes to use
   the subject by way of ADMONITION.

   I hardly know whether, under this head, I have grouped together
   thoughts that are quite admonitory. The first one is to be very joyous.
   It is this--that as we belong to the King, our hope is that we shall be
   mown too!We are sitting on the banks of Jordan, especially some of us
   who are of riper years, waiting for a summons to the court of the
   Eternal King! It becomes a wonder, sometimes, with aged Christians, why
   they stay here so long. John Newton, I think, used to marvel at his own
   age! And Rowland Hill used to say that he half imagined they had
   forgotten him--and hoped they would soon remember him and send for him.
   Well, we have not quite gone that length--we who are young--but still
   we entertain the hope that some fair evening, calm and bright, the
   angel reaper will come with the scythe. Then shall we, having
   fulfilled, like the hireling, our day, lay down our tools of labor and
   take our rest. Then shall we put down our sword, take off our
   breastplate and unloose the shoes of iron and brass, for we shall fight
   no more, but take the palm and claim the victory before the House of
   God! Never let us look forward to this with dread. It is amazing that
   we should do so--and we would not if our faith were stronger. When
   faith vividly realizes the rest that remains for the people of God, we
   are tempted to long to be up and away! Then why should we wish to
   linger here? What is there in this old musty worn-out world--worm-eaten
   and full of holes, with its very gold and silver cankered--that can
   satisfy an immortal spirit? Let us away to the hills of spices and to
   the mountains of frankincense, where the King in His beauty stands with
   "helmed cherubim and sworded seraphim" and all the hosts that serve Him
   day and night, to behold His face, and evermore adore Him! Let us
   anticipate cheerfully the time when the King's mowings shall also
   include us!

   Brothers and Sisters, the admonition that arises out of all this is,
   let us be ready. Should not every Christian live every day as if he
   were going to die that day? Should we not always live as if we knew our
   last hour to be at the door? If a man in his right state were informed
   all a sudden, "You will die tonight!" He ought not to have to alter his
   mode of life one atom! He should be so living that he had nothing more
   to do but to continue his course. It is remarked of Bengel, the great
   critic, that "he did not wish to die in spiritual parade, but in the
   ordinary way--like a person called out to the street door from the
   midst of business--so much so that he was occupied with the collection
   of his proof-sheets at his dying season, as at other times." To me, it
   seems to be the very highest kind of death to die in
   harness--concluding life without suspending service. Alas, many are
   unready and would be sadly put about if the midnight cry were suddenly
   heard. Oh, let us see that everything is in order! Both for this world
   and the next, nothingshould be left to be hurried over in the last few
   hours. Christian, is your will made? Are your business affairs all
   straight? They ought to be-- everything ought to be as nearly as you
   can keep it in perfect order, so that you are ready to go at any
   minute. Mr. George Whitefield used to so live in anticipation of death
   that he said, "I never go to sleep at night with even a pair of gloves
   out of place." Oh, that we would be habitually ready and in
   order--especially in higher matters--walking before the Lord, as
   preparing to meet Him!

   Then, dear Friends, this departure of many of our fellow workers, while
   it admonishes us to be ready to go, at the same time teaches us to do
   twice as much while we are here, seeing that our numbers are being so
   constantly thinned. A brave soldier, in the day of battle, if he hears
   that a regiment has been exterminated by the enemies shot and shell,
   says, "Then those of us that survive must fight all the more bravely!
   There is no room for us to play at fighting. If they have slain so
   many, we must be more desperately valiant." And so, today, if one here
   or there is gone, a useful worker from the Sunday schools, or from the
   street preaching, then it is time our broken ranks were repaired! O you
   young men, I pray you, fill up the gap! And you young women who love
   the Savior, if a Sunday school teacher is gone and you are teaching,
   teach better! Or if you are not teaching, come and fill the place! My
   dear Brothers and Sisters, I pray for recruits. I stand like a
   commander in the midst of my little army and see some of the best
   smitten down--here one and there one--and what can I do, but as my
   Master bids me, lead you on and say, "Brothers and Sisters, step into
   their places! Fill the gaps in the ranks!" Do not let death gain upon
   us, but even as one goes into the Golden City, let another cry, "Here I
   am! Call me, also, to my reward!" As for us who are at work, we must
   labor more zealously than ever, we must pray more fervently than ever!
   When a certain great man suddenly died in the ministry, I remember, in
   my young days, an old preacher saying, "I must preach better than ever
   I did, now that Mr. So-and-So is gone." And you, Christian, whenever a
   saint is removed, say, "I must live the better to make up to the Church
   the loss which it has sustained."

   One other thought, by way of admonition. If the King has been taking
   His mowings, then the King's eyes are upon His Church. He has not
   forgotten this field, for He has been mowing it! We have been praying
   lately that He would visit us. He has come, He has come! Not quite as
   we expected Him, but He has come, He has come! Oh yes, and as He has
   walked these aisles and looked on this congregation, He has taken first
   one, and then another. He has not taken me, for I am not ready. And He
   has not taken you, for you are not quite ripe--but He has taken away
   some that were ripe and ready--and they have gone to be with Him where
   He is. Well, then, He has not forgotten us, and this ought to stimulate
   us in prayer! He will hear us! His eyes are upon us! !his ought to
   stimulate us to self-examination. Let us purge out

   everything that will grieve Him! He is evidently watching us. Let us
   seek to live as in His Presence--that nothing may vex His Spirit and
   cause Him to withdraw from us! Beloved, these are the words of
   admonition.

   III. And, now, a few more words by way of ANTICIPATION. I hardly know
   under what head to place them. What anticipations are there that come
   out of the mowing?

   Why these. There is to be an after-growth. After the King's mowings,
   there came another springing up of fresh grass which belonged to the
   King' s tenants. So we expect, now that the King has been mowing, that
   we shall have a fresh crop of grass! Is there not a promise, "They
   shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses?"
   Fresh converts will come and who will they be? Well, I look around, but
   I will not say, with Samuel, as I look at some young man in the
   gallery, "Surely the Lord has chosen him." Neither will I look down to
   someone in that area and say, "Surely the Lord has chosen him," but I
   will bless God that I know He has chosen some and that He means to make
   this fresh grass spring up to fill up the vacuum caused by the King' s
   mowings!

   Do you know who I should like to come if I might have my preference?
   Well, where the daughter has died, how glad I should be if the father
   came, or the brother came. And where the father has died, how I would
   rejoice if the son should come! And where a good woman has been taken
   away, how glad would I be if her husband filled up her place! It seems
   to me as if it were natural to wish that those who loved them best
   should occupy their position and discharge their work for them. But if
   that cannot be, I stand here tonight as a recruiting sergeant. My King
   in His wars has lost some of His men and the regiment needs
   replenishing! Who will come? I put the colors in my hat, tonight, but I
   will not stand here and tempt you with lies about the ease of the
   service, for it is hard service! Yet I assure you that we have a
   blessed Leader, a glorious conflict and a grand reward! Who will come?
   Who will come to fill up the gaps in the ranks? Who will be baptized
   for the dead, to stand in their place of Christian service and take up
   the torch which they have dropped? I will pass the question round and I
   hope that many a heart will say, "Oh, that the Lord would have me! Oh,
   that He would blot out my sins and receive me!" He delights in contrite
   hearts! He saves such as are of a contrite spirit. He will save whom He
   will have, but the way to be enlisted is plain! "Oh," you say, "what
   must I give to be Christ's soldier?" To be the queen's soldier, you do
   not give anything--you receive a shilling. You takein order to be a
   soldier of the queen, and so, to be Christ' s soldier, you must take
   Christ to be your All-in-All, holding out your empty hand and receiving
   of His blood and righteousness to be your hope and your salvation! Oh,
   that His good Spirit would sweetly incline your wills that one after
   another might be made willing in the day of His power! May He thus
   do--and our hearts will greatly rejoice!

   As I read the passage in Amos from which I have taken my text, I
   noticed something about caterpillars. (The marginal reading calls them
   "green worms"). It is said that after the King's mowings, there came
   the caterpillars to eat up the after growth. Oh, those caterpillars!
   When the poor Eastern farmer sees the caterpillars, his heart is ready
   to break, for he knows that they will eat up every green thing! And I
   can see the caterpillars here tonight. There is the great green
   caterpillar that eats up all before him--I wish I could crush him. He
   is called the caterpillar of procrastination! There are many, many
   other worms and locusts which eat up much, but this worm of
   procrastination is the worst, for just as the green blade is beginning
   to spring up, this caterpillar begins to eat. I can hear him gnawing,
   "Wait, wait, wait! Tomorrow, tomorrow! A little more sleep, a little
   more sleep, a little more sleep!" And so this caterpillar devours our
   hopes. Lord, destroy the caterpillar and grant that instead of the
   fathers, may be the children! Instead of the King's mowings, may there
   come up the after-growth who shall be a rich reward to the farmer and
   bring glory to the Owner of the soil!

   We have reason to pray that the Lord would send the dew and the rain to
   bring forth the after-growth. "He shall come down like rain upon the
   mown grass." Now this congregation is like mown grass. God has mown
   it--a rich mowing has the King taken from us. Now, my Brothers and
   Sisters, we have the promise--let us plead it before the Throne of God.
   All the preaching in the world cannot save a soul, nor all the efforts
   of men. But God's Spirit can do everything! Oh that He would come down
   like rain upon the mown grass right now! Then shall we see the handful
   of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains multiply till its
   fruit shall shake like Lebanon and they of the city shall flourish like
   grass of the earth. The Lord send it, the Lord send it now!

   If any would be saved, here is the way of salvation--"Believe on the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." To believe is to trust.
   What you have to trust in is this--that Jesus is God, that He became
   Man, that He suffered in the sinner' s place and that whoever believes
   in Him shall be forgiven because God has punished Christ instead of
   Believers. Christ bore God' s wrath instead of every sinner that ever
   did or ever shall believe in Him! And if you believe in Him, you were
   redeemed from among men. His substitution was for you and it will save
   you! But if you believe not, you have no part or lot in this matter.
   Oh, that you were brought to put your trust in Jesus! This would be the
   pledge of your sure salvation tonight and forevermore! God bless you,
   for Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: REVELATION 21

   Verse 1. And I saw a new Heaven and a new earth: for the first Heaven
   and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more
   sea.Astronomers tell us that within living memory several starry worlds
   have burnt out and vanished out of sight. The Apostle Peter has told us
   that this world will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterwards be
   renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first
   firmament and the first earth shall have become extinct. God means that
   this planet should continue to exist after it has had a new creation
   and renewed its youth. The regeneration of His people, their new birth,
   is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We
   have the first fruits of the Spirit and we groan within ourselves while
   we wait for the fullness of that new creation!

   "The first Heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
   no more sea," because the sea is the emblem of separation, destruction
   and unrest. The sea has her dead who shall be given up. The sea cannot
   now rest nor be quiet, but all shall be calm and tranquil in the new
   Heaven and the new earth!

   2. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
   out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husban. John saw, in
   vision, the glorified Church of God coming to dwell on the new earth,
   descending for a while from Heaven to be the very glory of the
   newly-created world!

   3, 4. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the
   tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
   shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their
   God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall
   be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be
   any more pain: for the former things are passed awa . When there shall
   be a new Heaven and a new earth, and the Church shall be in her new and
   glorified condition, then there will be no need for all those purifying
   forces which have been so active here below. There shall be no death,
   nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, nor trial of any kind--all shall be
   happiness for all shall be holiness! And then, as God dwelt of old
   among His people in the wilderness, and as Jesus Christ, the Word, was
   made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His Glory, so in
   that new world shall God reveal Himself to His people by a special
   indwelling and a peculiar nearness.

   5. And He that sat upon the Throne said, Behold, Imake all things new.
   [See Sermon #1816, Volume 31--sermon for a new

   YEAR'S DAY] And He said unto me, Write: for these words are

   true and faithfu. Once, the Lord might have said, "Behold, I make all
   things," but now He says, "Behold, I make all things new." Glory be
   unto the great Creator! Did not the morning stars sing together for joy
   when He made the world? But equal if not greater Glory must be ascribed
   to the great Regenerator, the New Creator! Shall we not all sing
   together to His praise? Yes, that we shall if we are numbered among the
   "all things" that He makes new!

   6. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning
   and the End. I will give unto him that is

   thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely. [See Sermon #1459,
   Volume 26--GOOD NEWS FOR THIRSTY SOULS] Probably John did not expect to
   hear that sweet Gospel message just then. The Lord Jesus Christ was
   speaking of lofty themes, of worlds newly made--and yet in the very
   middle of it all He puts this gracious promise! Let this be a pattern
   to all of you who are preachers or teachers--no matter what your
   subject may be, a Gospel promise or invitation is always in place and
   in season. You may put it among the most golden sentences like a
   precious stone in a setting of pure gold and it will never be out of
   order, come when it may. Men hate God without the slightest reason for
   doing so and God loves men without the slightest reason--there is every
   reason why men should love God, and not hate Him--yet they have hated
   Him without a cause. And there is every reason why God should hate man

   and not love him--yet He loves us so much that He gave His
   only-begotten Son to die, that whoever believes in Him may live
   forever!

   7. He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,
   and he shall be My son. What a wonderful word is that! "He shall be My
   son"--not My servant, but, "My son." God give us the faith to rise to
   this more than royal dignity! "As many as received Him, to them gave He
   power to become the sons of God."

   8. But the fearfu. No, that is not the right word, it is the cowardly,
   for there are many who are full of fear who are nevertheless most
   sincere and right in God's sight. "But the cowardly."

   8. And unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers. And the Apostle
   John tells us that "whoever hates his brother is a murderer."

   8. And whoremongers. Unchaste and unclean men and women.

   8. And sorcerer. Persons who profess to have communications with the
   dead. Necromancers, spiritualists and all people of that sort.

   8. And idolaters. That is, all who love anyone or anything more than
   God.

   8. And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
   fire and brimstone: which is the second death. That is the death that
   never dies--the death which is far more to be dreaded than the death of
   the body!

   9. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven
   vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
   here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. John had already
   caught a glimpse of "the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
   out of Heaven." And now this angelic messenger bids him come nearer and
   look more closely into this mysterious and glorious city "prepared as a
   bride adorned for her husband."

   10-13. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high
   mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
   out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like
   unto a stone most precious, even like ajasper stone, clear as crystal;
   andhad a wall great andhigh, andhad twelve gates, and at the gates
   twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the
   twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates; on
   the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three
   gates. God's Church glorified lies open to all quarters of the
   infinitude of space! It is no prison of souls that dare not go beyond
   its borders, but a many-gated city, so that the blessed spirits there
   can fly wherever they will!

   14. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the
   names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Not Peter only, but the whole
   of the twelve Apostles shall have their names in the foundations of
   that holy city!

   15. 16. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the
   city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lies
   foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured
   the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the
   breadth and the height of it are equal. It seems at first to be
   astounding that the height of a city should be equal to the length and
   the breadth of it, but if you have traveled in Italy, you must have
   seen many a city, perched upon a hill, which seemed to be even higher
   than it was broad or long, if you included the wall of the city and the
   houses, one above another, right up to the loftiest minaret or tower.
   Yes, like a priceless square casket made all of costly jewels is this
   wondrous city, equally glorious whichever way you look at it! "The
   length and the breadth and the height of it are equal."

   17, 18. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four
   cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel. And
   the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure
   gold, like unto clear glass. Such gold as never was, nor is, nor ever
   shall be on this earth until that time when God shall have purified it.
   Our gold is dull, opaque--light is blocked out by it. How many might
   see if it were not for the gold which blinds them and hides the Truth
   of God from them!

   19, 20. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with
   all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the
   second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the
   fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the
   eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the
   eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. You know that the stones
   of which this holy city is built are living stones. You and I, if we
   are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be there--living stones
   prepared by living Grace to have a name and a place in this living
   city! But what changes will have to be worked in us before we are fit
   to be put among these precious jewels! We are like poor blocks of
   common stone, but we do not know what we shall be like when we have
   been cut and polished on the great Lapidary's wheel. You may take a
   precious stone to a jeweler and ask him what its value is, but he will
   say, "I cannot tell what it is worth until it has been cut and
   polished." That is how the Lord will prove the value of His living
   stones. If He will but work upon us by His Grace, we cannot tell what
   He will make of us before He places us in the position He has appointed
   for us in the glorious city that rests upon these twelve precious
   foundations!

   21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each individual gate was
   of pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were
   transparent glas. John had already said that "the city was pure gold
   like unto clear glass" and now he says that "the street of the city was
   pure gold, as it were transparent glass." We do not always get such a
   combination as this here below, gold, precious and pure, yet unstained
   with blood and undimmed with the oppression of the poor-- delicate
   gold, "as it were transparent glass."

   22, 23. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the
   Lamb are the Temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither
   of the moon, to shine in it: for the Glory of God did lighten it, and
   the Lamb is the Light

   thereo. [See Sermon #583, Volume 10--THE LAMB--THE LIGHT] Yes, and

   the glorified Church, herself, because of this Light, sheds such a
   bright light on all within her that all the saints rejoice in her
   light!

   24, 25. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light
   of it and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into
   it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there
   shall be no night there. Shut gates signify war--open gates mean peace.
   There shall be no more fear of war, no Gog and Magog to gather together
   to battle, no Armageddon to be dreaded by the glorified Church of
   Christ who shall be in perfect peace forever.

   26, 27. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
   it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles,
   neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are
   written in the Lamb's

   Book of Life.

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

"In Remembrance"

   (No. 3130)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 5, 1873.

   "This do in remembrance of Me...This do you, as often as you drink it,
   in remembrance of Me." 1 Corinthians 11:24,25.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon this passage and verses before and
   after, are as follows--Sermons #2, Volume 1--THE REMEMBRANCE OF CHRIST;
   #2307, Volume 39--THE GREATEST EXHIBITION OF THE AGE; #2595, Volume
   44--WHAT THE LORD'S SUPPER SEES AND SAYS; #2638, Volume 45--THE RIGHT
   OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER and #3099, Volume 54--THE DOUBLE
   FORGET-ME-NOT]

   IT is a wonderful proof of the deep depravity of human nature that men
   have made so much mischief out of the too symbolical ordinances which
   were instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how the ordinance of
   Believers' Baptism has been perverted, twisted and turned aside
   altogether from its pristine use. And the ordinance of the Lord's
   Supper has been quite as shamefully misrepresented. In neither case is
   there any excuse whatever for this perversion, for in each instance the
   regulations for its observance are perfectly simple and clear. In the
   institution of the Lord's Supper there was not a solitary word said
   about the new rite being a sacrifice nor so much as a single syllable
   concerning an altar upon which it was to be offered. It was not
   instituted in the Temple at Jerusalem, but in the upper room of a
   private house. It was not ordained at a great Temple festival, but at
   the Passover Supper, when Christ and His disciples were gathered around
   a table to feast together according to the ancient Jewish custom. There
   was nothing said by our Lord about any repetition of His one great
   Sacrifice by the offering of the unbloody sacrifice of the "mass" of
   which the priests of Rome make so much. It is as simple and plain as it
   can possibly be--"This do in remembrance of Me." Those who stumble
   here, stumble, surely, in the light--and their eyes must be blinded,
   for there are no stumbling blocks in the ordinance itself.

   Observe that Christ does not prescribe anything in the Lord's Supper by
   way of elaborate ceremonies. There is nothing at all resembling the
   various intricate rules that are laid down for the celebration of the
   "mass" in the Church of Rome, or even for the celebration of the
   communion in the Church of England. Nothing is here ordered to be done
   except the breaking of bread and the eating of it--and the pouring out
   of wine and the drinking of it. And these two things are to be done in
   remembrance of Christ. He has not even laid down any rule with regard
   to the posture that is to be assumed by communicants. I have no doubt
   whatever that the disciples were reclining around the supper table in
   the usual Oriental manner, but Christ does not say that we are to
   recline, or kneel, or stand, or sit for the right observance of the
   ordinance. Nothing appears to be really essential to the right
   celebration of this Supper by Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ but
   just this--"Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this
   do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup
   when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood:
   this do you, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." How very
   little there is here of anything like a grand ceremony!

   And yet, mark you, there is a certain rubric with regard to the
   spiritualpart of the Lord's Supper which is not left to anybody's
   choice. It is essential--it is the very soul and marrow of the
   ordinance that we should remember Christ in it-- "This do in
   remembrance of Me." The external order may vary in certain respects,
   but the internal essence must be there, else you will have the mere
   dead carcass and you will have lost the soul, the spirit, the very life
   of the whole ordinance! Again and again our Savior says, "This do in
   remembrance of Me...This do you, as often as you drink it, in
   remembrance of Me." To remember Christ, then, is the main point in the
   right observance of this ordinance. To let the memory look Him in the
   face again, to put the finger once more into the print of the nails and
   to thrust the hand again into His side.

   Once again to adore the Savior whose head was crowned with thorns for
   us, but is now coroneted with Glory--to remember Him, to recall
   Him--that is our main business as we gather around His Table. May God
   graciously grant to us the Grace to attain to that which is the very
   essence, soul and life of the Lord's Supper, that is, the remembrance
   of Christ!

   I. And, first, let me remark, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that
   as we gather around the Lord's Table, OTHER MEMORIES WILL COME, BUT
   THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO CROWD OUT THE ONE MEMORY--"This do in
   remembrance of Me."

   Other memories will come--I am sure they will come to me and I believe
   that they will come also to my Christian Brothers and Sisters here. You
   will remember well the time when you did not know Jesus. With deep
   regret our memory will go back to the period when the little that we
   did know of Christ was misused. When we despised and rejected Him. When
   we had ill words for His people and hard words for everything that
   concerned Him. It is a profitable exercise for us to look unto the rock
   from which we were hewn and to the hole of the pit from which we were
   dug. That is not an ill memory with which to come to our Lord's
   Table--with our eyes full of the tears of repentance for our past sin,
   yet rejoicing that we are now washed and cleansed, although once we
   were defiled and altogether unfit to occupy the children's place!

   Will you not remember, too, the times when God's Spirit first began to
   work upon you and you hovered around the Cross and, in consequence,
   began also to hover around the Communion Table? Do you remember when
   you sat up in the gallery and looked down on the people of God who were
   gathered to remember their Lord in the observance of this ordinance?
   Your mother was there and perhaps your brothers and sisters were there.
   And maybe a wife was there, or a husband was there--and you felt the
   separation from them very sorely--and all the more because you feared
   that it might be the prelude to an eternal separation, when those who
   have been joined together by ties of blood must be separated from one
   another as far as Heaven is from Hell because they have never really
   been one in Christ Jesus! You remember the prayers that you used to put
   up, that you also might know Jesus as your Savior and might then be
   able to make a profession of your faith and come to His Table with your
   loved ones to remember Him. I remember well those times in my own
   experience. And as I recall them, I bless the Lord that He answered my
   prayers and set me, also, among His children.

   Do you not also recollect the time when you first came to His Table
   With some of you, it was in the first flush of your youth. You had
   heard of Jesus and believed on Him. Immediately you said, "I will be
   His disciple and I will take up His Cross and follow Him." You joined
   His Church and then, when the hour came that you should, for the first
   time, enjoy the privilege of fellowship with Him at His Table, you
   reckoned on it with eager anticipation. And you came to your first
   Communion service with much prayer and holy longing that you might meet
   your Lord there. It was a very precious season to you. Since then, you
   may have had better times than that, but probably none that you
   remember better, and none in which there was a greater freshness about
   your heart's affection for your Lord. The bloom was on the peach
   then--the dew of the morning was still on the field that the Lord had
   blessed. Possibly, some of that dew and that bloom has been brushed
   away by contact with the world, but it was very fresh and beautiful
   then. It cannot be unprofitable for you to remember the love of your
   espousals! And if that remembrance should lead you to do your first
   works with your first love, that memory will not be out of place even
   at your Lord's Table!

   And, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we are coming again to the
   Communion Table at the close of this service, there are hallowed
   memories that come to me, just now, of some who used to sit with us at
   this Table, some officers of the Church who sat on this platform and
   many members of the Church who sat down there, and there, and
   there--good men and true, and holy women, and young saints who rejoiced
   in Christ, workers of different sorts, and sufferers of different
   kinds--persons of differing rank and degree, but "all one in Christ
   Jesus"--and now they are enjoying the higher fellowship in the Kingdom
   of their Father above! They were ready "to depart and to be with
   Christ, which is far better," and that is now their blessed portion. I
   am sure that such memories as these must come to many of you, for some
   of you are occupying the very seats upon which they used to sit, or
   else next to you there sits one who did not sit there this time last
   year. Well, I do not think these are unprofitable memories, because
   they link us to those who have gone in to see the King--and help us to
   remember the mighty hosts of the redeemed who have triumphed through
   His Grace and are now

   with Him in His Glory! They also help us to realize the unity of the
   one Church of Jesus Christ, of which we sometimes sing--

   "One family we dwell in Him One Church above, beneath, Though now
   divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death."

   There also come to some of us the memories of dear ones who are not
   here, though their hearts are here, for sickness has detained them from
   the Communion Table these many days. Some of us who have experienced
   the bitterness of that deprivation feel intense sympathy with other
   sufferers who are kept away from the sacred feast. And we pray the
   Master to send home to each of them a blessing that shall fill their
   souls with rejoicing and their mouths with thanksgiving! As David
   ordained that those who tarried by the stuff should share equally with
   those who went down to the battle, so may those who are shut out from
   the public ministry and the observance of the ordinance with us here,
   have a special portion direct from the Master's own hand and heart!

   And as we sit here, some of us think with great pleasure of those who
   are sitting with us. I regret that we are so often tempted to remember
   the fault of our fellow Christians. Oh, may they be blotted from my
   memory forever! Let us treasure the virtues and excellences of our
   fellow members and search for signs of the Spirit's work in them! And
   remembering our own imperfections and failures, let us not fix our eyes
   upon their defects. But there are many sitting with us here who are
   monuments of God's Grace--and as we look at them, we recollect what God
   has done for their souls. Some dear Brothers and Sisters here have been
   made very useful to others during the past year. And if they turn their
   eyes a little, they can see many of their spiritual children sitting
   around them. I know that it is a joyous memory to them that the past
   year was a fruitful one in their portion of the Lord's vineyard! And I
   also bless God as I look many of you in the face, for I know that there
   is a love between us which many waters cannot quench because in this
   place God first spoke to your souls by the ministry of His Word. These
   memories are profitable ones and we do well to remember those who form
   a part of the one mystical body of Christ. Is it not a part of our
   communion that the members of Christ's body should commune with their
   follow members as well as with their glorious Head?

   One dark memory, however, crosses my mind, as I have no doubt it often
   crossed the minds of those who were with Christ that night when He
   said, "This do in remembrance of Me," and that was the remembrance of
   Judas. It was that sentence, "One of you shall betray Me," that made
   the night so sorrowful to they who were in that upper room--and Judas
   has had many successors in the Church. There have been those even high
   in official standing who, nevertheless, have bartered their Lord and
   Master for paltry silver. Alas! Alas, alas, while we remember those who
   have done so, it will not be with the self-righteousness that makes us
   think we should never have done it, but with the sacred caution which
   enquires, "Lord, shall I, also, do this thing?" And with the holy
   prayerfulness that cries, "Hold You me up, and I shall be safe."

   Now I think all these memories are natural, allowable and profitable,
   but they must be kept in a secondary place, and they must never crowd
   out the remembrance of Christ! He did not say to His disciples, "This
   do you in remembrance of one another," or, "in remembrance of your own
   conversion," or, "in remembrance of your former state of sin." No, He
   said, "This do in remembrance of Me." So I claim the first place for
   remembrance of the Master--and I say to these other memories, "Stand
   back! Stand back and let Him fill the central position, let Him occupy
   the Throne! If you will, you may sit upon the steps of His grand
   Throne, but upon that Throne of God you must not sit--that is for Him
   who says to His disciples, 'This do in remembrance of Me.'"

   II. Note, next, that THIS ORDINANCE IS VERY HELPFUL TO THAT ONE SACRED
   MEMORY--the memory

   of Christ.

   The emblems upon the Table--covered up from your sight at present, but
   to be visible soon--the bread and wine remind us that Jesus Christ was
   truly Man. When He came upon this earth, He was no phantom. Even after
   His Resurrection, when His disciples supposed that they had seen a
   spirit, He said to them, "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I
   Myself: handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you
   see I have." He took a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb and
   ate it in front of them. The Apostle John says that they had seen Him
   with their eyes and had handled Him with their hands. He was really God
   manifest in the flesh--and we are thankful that in this ordinance there
   are two material emblems set before us to remind us that although our
   holy religion is most deeply spiritual, yet it also touches the
   material, for Christ was verily bone of our bone and flesh of our
   flesh--Man of the substance of His mother--and as such He lived and as
   such He really died.

   These signs being laid upon a table are meant to show us, next, the
   familiarity of our blessed Lord with us. The bread is not elevated so
   as to be exhibited to you while you bow down before it as if it were
   your God, nor is the wine in the cup lifted up as an object of
   adoration and worship--but both these emblems are placed upon the
   Table--the bread to be eaten and the wine to be drunk. This is to
   remind us that the Word of God, Incarnate, Christ Jesus our Lord and
   Savior, was familiar with the sons of men. "He came unto His own." He
   was a Man among men. He was with them at their feasts and He wept with
   them at their funerals. He suffered hunger, thirst, weariness and pain
   as we do. He spoke familiarly yet faithfully with the poor sinful woman
   at Sychar's well. And He spoke in a similar style to the great
   multitude. He was no recluse! He was no Oriental potentate, guarded
   from the throng, but He was always among the people, healing their
   sicknesses and sympathizing with them in their sorrows!

   This is a great blessing to us because while Jesus thus comes near to
   us, we are thereby invited to draw near to Him. The bread is placed
   upon the Table, but the Table is not lifted up beyond our reach. And we
   are bid to gather round it and to eat the bread that is upon it--and so
   to have the most familiar acquaintance with that which is upon the
   Table. So, today, Jesus invites the sinful and the sorrowful to come to
   Him. "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
   give you rest." And as for His own people, He is so familiar with them
   that if there were anything He had not told them which was really for
   their good, He would tell them now. He said to His disciples concerning
   the many mansions in His Father's house, "If it were not so, I would
   have told you." And He also said to them, "Henceforth I call you not
   servants, for the servant knows not what his lord does: but I have
   called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I
   have made known unto you." Jesus Christ is not like Moses, whose glory
   repelled--His Glory attracts! He is the Good Shepherd who delights to
   fold the lambs in His bosom. He is the Man among men who loves men and
   loves to have men about Him, for His delights are still as they have
   always been--with the sons of men.

   This Truth ought to help us to remember our Lord--that He is truly Man,
   a Man among us, near to us, to whom we are very dear and who should be,
   and I trust is, very dear to us! He is our Brother, yes, He is nearer
   even than a brother, for He is a part of ourselves! Have I exaggerated
   in using that expression? No, for is He not our Head and are we not
   "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones"? And should we
   not, therefore, rejoice that we are reminded of this great fact by the
   homely tokens which set Him forth so familiarly in this ordinance?

   Then you will note, by-and-by, that the bread has to be broken and the
   wine poured forth to show the sufferings of the Savior. The bread
   itself is a most impressive type of suffering. The corn is buried in
   the dark earth, pinched by many a frost when it peers above the ground
   and exposed to many trials before it comes to its full growth. When it
   is ripe, it is cut down with a sharp sickle, threshed with many a heavy
   blow, then ground in the mill, the flour kneaded into dough, pressed
   into the shape of loaves, thrust into a hot oven and baked--and then in
   this last process, broken. Our blessed Master seemed to be passing
   through all that experience in His lifetime on earth. He actually used
   some of the processes that I have described as pictures of Himself, as
   in that notable instance when He said, "Except a corn of wheat fall
   into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings
   forth fruit." Especially was that last part of the process--the
   breaking of the bread as a type of His sufferings--illustrated
   throughout His whole life. When did He not suffer? What sorrows were
   crowded into the three years of His public ministry! His life was one
   of constant suffering and then at the last came the great climax of it
   all--and none of us can fully tell what was meant by Gethsemane and its
   bloody sweat, by Gabbatha and its terrible flagellation, and by
   Golgotha and its cruel and shameful death upon the accursed tree. There
   is, also, another most suggestive symbol of Christ's sufferings in the
   various processes that result in "the fruit of the vine" in the cup on
   the Communion Table. Both emblems impressively set forth our Savior's
   sufferings.

   But you have more than that, for you have Christ's death set forth in
   the instructive symbol of the bread separated from the wine. To mix
   them in one cup would be to spoil the whole metaphorical teaching of
   the ordinance! The blood with the flesh is life, but the blood drained
   from the flesh is death. The blood is represented by the wine byitselfn
   the cup--and the bread by itselfrepresents the flesh. And the two
   emblems together set forth death--a violent death--such a death as
   Jesus died. Did you not sing of it just now--

   "See from His head, His hands, His feet,

   Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did ever such love and sorrow meet,
   Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"

   Never forget that the punishment for sin is not simply suffering, but
   death. "The soul that sins it shall die." And it was not until Christ
   died that the debt, which was due from His people to the justice of
   God, was fully discharged. The two emblems in this ordinance,
   therefore, needed to be separate in order to set before us the death of
   our dear Lord and Savior--and so to help us to remember Him.

   Then, the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine symbolize
   our reception of Christ into our innermost selves. After looking at the
   signs, they who commune eat and drink thereof to show, as in a figure,
   how Christ is received into the soul. Faith must be the mouth of the
   soul and into that mouth we must receive Christ Himself and live upon
   Him. That new life, which God has created within us, must be fed and
   sustained by the grand Truth of the Atonement of Christ, the wondrous
   Doctrine of His Substitutionary Sacrifice on behalf of all who believe
   in Him. There is a very important point of instruction there and I pray
   that none of you may ever miss it.

   The thought also occurred to me that when the feast is over, and the
   bread is eaten, and the wine is drunk, no one ever says, "Where shall
   we find the bread for another observance of the Supper?" Or "From where
   shall we get wine that we may come again to celebrate this sacred
   feast?" No, for everybody knows that, practically, of bread there is no
   stint and of wine there is no limit--and so it seems as though, among
   other reasons, these two emblems were selected to teach us, by their
   plenteousness, the all-sufficiency of Christ. When we have spiritually
   fed upon Him tonight, there is as much for us to feed upon tomorrow!
   And when we have been drinking with joy in remembrance of Him, we may
   come and drink again and again, for this is a very sea of blessing of
   which we are bidden to drink. If you took a cupful of water from the
   sea, there would be so much the less there though none could tell the
   difference! But if you took an ocean full of love and joy out of the
   Redeemer, there would be none the less left in Him! It is true of His
   Grace that it is not diminished by all that His people receive of it
   and it never can be exhausted. 'Tis pleasant to gather fruit where
   there are many heavily-laden trees and to receive money from a store in
   which there is much left after we have had all we need. And it is
   pleasant to come and feast at a table that is still richly laden after
   myriads have been fed at it and that is still as full as ever though
   ten thousand times ten thousand saints have here been feasted to the
   full!

   Thus I think I have shown you, and I pray the Holy Spirit to show you
   that in this ordinance there is much to help us to remember our Lord
   and Savior.

   III. But now, Beloved, in the third place, it may be useful to you if I
   call to your mind anew the fact THAT THE REMEMBRANCE OF CHRIST IS, OF
   ITSELF, MOST NECESSARY FOR ALL BELIEVERS.

   For, first, the remembrance of Christ is the prolongation of the act of
   faith. What is faith but the first look at Christ? And what is
   remembering Him but continuing to look at Him? At any rate, if it is
   not the same thing, the one act leads up to the other, for never did
   any soul truly remember Christ without its faith growing. Come, then,
   to the Lord's Table, all you who are alive unto God through faith in
   Jesus Christ, and pray that here your faith may be greatly increased!
   You have believed on Him and He is made of God unto you, "wisdom,
   righteousness, sanctification and redemption." You have trusted in Him
   and you are pardoned, accepted, saved by Him. Come then to His Table,
   looking to Him as your Savior, looking to Him in whom you are accepted,
   looking to Him through whom you hope to enter into Heaven at the last!
   Let your remembrance be blessed to you as being the continuance of your
   first faith.

   Then, next, the remembrance of Christ is a very blessed stimulus to our
   love. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," some say. That is a
   questionable proverb in relation to our earthly friends, but I am sure
   that it never was true and never will be true with regard to Christ and
   His people! We must be with Him to really love Him--and the longer we
   are with Him, the more we shall love Him! And when we are with Him
   forever and forever without a break, then shall we love Him with all
   our heart, soul and strength--without coldness or chill forever.
   Remembrance of Christ will bring Him to you! It will hold up His
   portrait before your mind's eye and enable you to see His heart beating
   with love to you! It will make you feel that He still loves you
   although He reigns exalted high, and then your love will flow out to
   Him more freely in return.

   And, Beloved, there will be another good thing which will come out of
   this remembrance of Christ, for it will be the suggestion to you of
   renewed hope. When a man remembers that Jesus Christ is really his,
   then he says, "Have I such a Savior as this? Then, by-and-by, I shall
   be with Him where He is and I shall behold His Glory, for that is His
   prayer concerning me! His arm is strong enough to keep me. His heart is
   warm enough to love me. His eyes are bright enough to see me. I know
   that I shall be eternally saved by Him."

   It seems to me, also, that coming to this Communion Table to remember
   Christ, if we really do remember Him, is like a recall, as when you
   have heard the trumpet sound for the soldiers to come back to the
   standard. It is a recall from the world. It says to you, "Now forget
   your business, forget your pains, forget your family cares, forget
   everything but your Lord! Come back, poor perplexed Martha, and become
   like Mary and sit at Christ's feet. This do in remembrance of Him." It
   is a recall from self. You have been saying, "I have not grown in Grace
   as I hoped to do. My doubts are many, my sins innumerable, my spiritual
   state is not what I would like it to be." Then come back from all that
   to your Lord-- from the filthiness to the cleansing fountain, from the
   leprosy to the healing, from prison to the great Liberator, from your
   poverty to His wealth, from your lost estate to Him who is all your
   salvation and all your desire, and who says to you, "This do in
   remembrance of Me." It calls you back from introspection, from looking
   within to looking away to your Lord, looking off unto Jesus!

   And does not this remembrance call all of us back to our Lord from
   whatever we have been engaged in, even for His own name's sake? Have we
   been engaged in controversy? Have we been fighting for liberty of
   worship, for the severance of Church and State, for Calvinistic
   Doctrine, for some view of the Second Advent, or for any particular
   form of Doctrine? Then I think I hear the voice of Jesus saying, "Come
   back, My child, from the battlefield on which you have been contending
   with a brave and true heart for the defense of My faith--come back to
   Me. I call you now not to remember Doctrine, but to remember Me. "This
   do in remembrance of Me." So let us come together to His Table though
   we differ from one another in many respects. We can remember Him in
   unity here wherever else we may not be able to unite. And let us come
   back, too, from all our Christian labors. I would like to forget, at
   this Table, everything that is faulty in my own work, or in the work of
   my Brothers and Sisters, or in their characters--everything that might
   grieve, vex and annoy. We will try to put it all away from us, for just
   now our Lord's command to us is, "This do in remembrance of Me."

   I said that this remembrance was like a recall, to summon the soldiers
   back to the standard. But it also seems to me like the morning bugle
   sounding clearly throughout the camp to wake the soldiers. "This do in
   remembrance of Me." Christ has gone up into His Glory, away from the
   damps and mists of earth. Think, Beloved, of the Glory and brightness
   that abound where He stands, and of which He is the central sun! And
   from that glory, clear and shrill, as though it were the first notes
   from the archangel's trumpet, I hear the message sounding again and
   again, "Remember Me! Remember Me! Remember Me in My Glory as well as in
   My shame! Remember Me in my triumph as well as in my warfare. 'This do
   in remembrance of Me.'" If we have really believed in Jesus, let us
   come to His Table as though our communion here were the first course of
   that Everlasting Supper to which we shall sit down with Him above! Or,
   to change the figure and make it more correct, let this sad feast be,
   as one of the martyrs called it, the breakfast wherein we break the
   long fast of this world and feed on Heaven's bread with Christ, knowing
   that we shall soon be at the great marriage supper of the Lamb, who
   shall know no end and where we shall feast forever in His sight!

   Is it not true, then, that in this remembrance there is much that is
   precious, valuable and really necessary to all who believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ?

   IV. But now I must close by reminding you that THIS SYMBOLIC FESTIVAL
   IS HIGHLY BENEFICIAL IN REFRESHING OUR MEMORIES.

   I am sure we need this Supper, though it is but a material feast,
   because we are yet in the body. There are some people who, if they had
   the power, would be presumptuous enough to do away with Baptism and the
   Lord's Supper because they have been so grossly misused. But if they
   could blot them out, it would be an irreparable loss to the Church of
   Christ. These ordinances are the only link between the spirituality of
   our faith and materialism--and we must remember that God has not flung
   away materialism as a thing that cannot be bettered. He did curse the
   earth, once, and it still brings forth thorns and thistles, but He does
   not mean it to always remain under the curse. There will come a time
   when there shall be a literal new Heaven and a new earth--and here,
   where sin has triumphed--Grace shall reign. Believers are still here in
   the body, but Paul's words are as true, today, as when he wrote them,
   "Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is
   in you?" These very bodies of ours shall rise again from the grave!
   They may sleep

   in the dust for a while, but they shall come again from the land of
   their captivity and in our flesh shall we see God--and our body as well
   as our spirit shall enjoy an eternity of bliss with our Savior in His
   body as well as in His spirit in His great triumph! Of course it will
   not be such flesh as it now is, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the
   Kingdom of God. But still, it will be the same body, though it will
   have undergone a wonderful change. So I thank God for the two
   ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper because they teach me that
   nothing is common or unclean. They sanctify the rivers for me. They
   sanctify my daily bread for me. They make me feel not as if I lived,
   like a Brahmin, in a world where everything might pollute me, but like
   a Christian--in a world where Christ has lived and in a position in
   which everything may be to me "holiness unto the Lord" if my heart is
   right before Him!

   Not only is this symbolic festival beneficial to us because materialism
   still appertains to our bodies, but it is specially so because Jesus
   appointed it. He would never have appointed a needless ceremony! And He
   was no lover of useless ceremonies. He never wrote a Directorium (is
   not that the name of it?) giving instructions as to how to celebrate
   various ecclesiastical ceremonies! So, as He has ordained this
   memorial, He must have known that we needed it because of our
   forgetfulness. And we may be quite sure that as He has ordained it, He
   will make it answer the ends for which He instituted it!

   Besides, experience has taught many of us how valuable this ordinance
   is. I can bear my own witness that many and many a Sabbath, when I have
   found but little food for my own soul elsewhere, I have found it at the
   Communion Table. You know that sometimes we who preach the Gospel are
   not ourselves fed by it even when those who hear us may be feasting
   upon it--but the Master still presides at His own Table and He sees
   that the minister is fed as well as the rest of the communicants! I
   have been in a foreign land where there was no congregation to meet for
   public worship, but the two or three Believers who were there have
   always broken bread together each Sunday, and it has been to us quite a
   full service, most strengthening to the soul, when we have gathered
   around the Table of our Lord to do "this" in remembrance of Him!

   One other thing I will mention and that is how often has Christ set His
   seal to this Supper by blessing it, not only to those who were doing it
   in remembrance of Him, but even to those who were only spectators. It
   is an encouraging thought to us that the Spirit of God, while He has
   been hovering over the assembly of Believers in Jesus, has turned His
   eyes of pity upon those who were but observers looking on at the
   ordinance--and has made the symbols to be a sermon, and the communion
   service to be a most impressive discourse! And many there are now in
   Heaven who were led there through holy thoughts that were first
   implanted in their minds and hearts at the communion feast! And many
   others are on their way to Glory whose feet were first guided into the
   right road while they were watching others who had met together thus to
   remember their dear Lord and Savior! So prize this ordinance much,
   Beloved, because it is so highly beneficial to you in refreshing your
   memories and also because, incidentally, it may be made a means of
   blessing to others!

   I close by saying that it is clear, from our Lords command, that
   attendance at this ordinance is binding upon all Christians. "This
   do"--not, "This look at"--but, "This do in remembrance of Me." All who
   truly love their Lord should hear Him say to them, "If you love Me,
   keep My commandments." Some Believers neglect this ordinance. If any
   such are in this congregation now, I would say to them--Beloved
   Friends, you are losing a great blessing and you are disobedient to
   your Lord. Think what would happen if all other Believers were to do as
   you are doing. If they did (and they have as much right to do it as you
   have), then the Lord's Supper would cease to be celebrated and this
   showing forth of Christ's death which is to go on "till He comes,"
   would necessarily cease. Your abstaining from church membership and
   your neglect of the two ordinances appointed by Christ is an example
   which it would be disastrous for all others to follow! Do not imagine
   that this neglect on your part can be right, but end it at the first
   convenient opportunity. The observance of this ordinance will not save
   you. And if you are not already saved, you have no right to partake of
   it, but if you are saved, if you have really believed in Jesus, He says
   to you, "This do in remembrance of Me."

   Remember, too, that this ordinance is to be often observed by all
   Christians. Our Lord said to His disciples, "This do you, as often as
   you drink it, in remembrance of Me." I will not say that Christ
   actually laid down the rule that it should be observed often, but it
   seems to me that His words imply that it should be. And as often as it
   is observed, it should be in remembrance of Him. Do not live month
   after month without remembering Christ by means of these outward signs

   which He has Himself appointed as His special memorial! Remember Him
   often! Pray that memory may always bear His image on its very front,
   but do not neglect the helpful ordinance which the Lord Himself
   instituted for you.

   And then, last of all, never come to this Table except it is with the
   solemn determination that you will remember Him. You mock Christ if you
   regard this communion as anything other than the remembrance of Him.
   What is there in that bread? What is there in that wine? There is
   nothing whatever there but bread and wine after we have invoked a
   blessing upon them just as there was before! We pay these emblems no
   reverence of any kind, nor could we do so without being guilty of
   idolatry! There is nothing in the whole ordinance but a help to our
   memory and I have tried to explain to you how it does help the memory.
   But if you do not remember Jesus, if you have no faith in Him, if you
   do not love Him, if you do not cast yourselves wholly upon Him, what
   business have you at His Table? You have no part nor lot in this
   matter! Faith in Christ first, then Baptism, then the Lord's Supper!
   But neither of these ordinances is for unbelievers-- and whoever dares
   to observe them as an unbeliever, or to get others who believe not in
   Christ to observe them--is a profaner of the ordinances, a thief and a
   robber who is doing incalculable mischief to the souls of men! Come to
   Jesus first--believe in Him and you shall be saved. Go to the foot of
   the Cross, confessing your sins and trusting in Him who hung there--and
   then, after that, we are told to bid you remember all things that He
   has commanded you and to tell you that He has promised to be with us
   even to the end of the age!

   Observe you, then, these things in their right order! Faith in Jesus
   first and then obedience to Jesus and the remembrance of Jesus in His
   own appointed way. If you miss the all-important matter of faith in
   Jesus, you have gained the chaff, but lost the wheat--you have gained
   the salt, but it has no savor--you have a name to live, but you have
   not life eternal! God grant that none of us may be found thus lacking
   the one thing necessary, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Fainting Hero

   (No. 3131)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He was very thirsty, and called on the LORRD, and said, You have given
   this great deliverance into the hand of Your servant: and now shall I
   die of thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumncised?" Judges
   15:18.

   YOU will remember the occasion on which these words were spoken. Samson
   had been brought down from the top of the rock Etam, bound with cords
   by his own brothers, and given up as a captive into the hands of the
   Philistines. But no sooner did he reach the Philistines than the
   supernatural force of God's Spirit came upon him and he snapped the
   cords as though they had been but hemp and, seeing the jawbone of a
   newly-slaughtered donkey lying near at hand, he grasped that strange
   weapon and fell with all his might upon the hosts of the Philistines!
   And though, no doubt, they took to speedy flight, yet the one man,
   smiting them hip and thigh, left no less than a thousand persons dead
   upon the ground! And as he piled up the heaps of the slain, he looked
   with grim satisfaction upon the slaughter which he had worked, crying,
   "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of a
   donkey have I slain a thousand men." There was, perhaps, a little of
   vaunting and vain-glorying in his conduct, but in a moment, a sudden
   faintness came over him. He had been exerting himself most marvelously,
   straining every nerve and muscle, and now, being very thirsty, he
   looked round him for a stream of water, but there was none--and he felt
   as if, for lack of water, he would die and then the Philistines would
   rejoice over him! With that simple-minded faith which was so
   characteristic of Samson, who was nothing but a big child, he turned
   his eyes to his heavenly Father, and cried, "O Jehovah, You have given
   me this great deliverance, and now shall I die of thirst? After all
   that You have done for me, shall the uncircumcised rejoice over me
   because I die for lack of a drink of water?" Such confidence had he
   that God would interpose on his behalf.

   Now, my drift is the comforting of God's saints, especially in coming
   to the Table of their Lord. I have thought there may be many of you who
   are feeling in an unhappy and a distressed frame of mind and that by
   referring you to what God has already done for you, I might lead you to
   see a lighter estimate upon your present trouble and enable you to
   argue that He who has worked great deliverances for you in the past
   will not allow you to lack in the future!

   I. YOU HAVE ALREADY, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, EXPERIENCED GREAT
   DELIVERANCES.

   Happy is it for you that you have not had the grim task of slaying a
   thousand men, but there are "heaps upon heaps" of another sort upon
   which you may look with quite as much satisfaction as Samson and,
   perhaps, with less mingled emotions than his when he gazed on the
   slaughtered Philistines.

   See there, Beloved, the great heaps of your sins--all of them
   giants--and any one of them sufficient to drag you down to the lowest
   Hell! But they are all slain! There is not a single sin that speaks a
   word against you. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
   elect?" Another arm than yours has done it, but the victory is quite
   complete. Christ has returned with dyed garments from Bozrah. He has
   trodden the winepress of God's wrath and I may almost say that the
   blood which stains His apparel is the blood of your sins which He has
   utterly destroyed forever. Look at their number. Take all the years of
   your life and make each year a heap. Divide them, if you will, into
   groups and classes--put them under the heads of the Ten Commandments
   and there they lie, in ten great heaps, but every one of them
   destroyed!

   Think, too, of the heaps of your doubts and fears. Do you not remember
   when you thought God would never have mercy upon you? Let me remind you
   of the deep dungeon where there was no water when the iron entered into
   your soul. Some of us can never forget the time when we were under
   conviction of sin. Moses tied us up to the Halberts and took the
   ten-thronged whip of the Law of God and laid it upon our backs most
   terribly--and then seemed to wash us with brine as conscience reminded
   us of all the aggravations which had attended our sins! But though we
   feared we should have been

   in Hell. Though we thought that surely the pit would shut its mouth
   upon us, yet here we are living to praise God, as we do this day, and
   all our fears are gone! We rejoice in Christ Jesus. God "has not dealt
   with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."
   "Heaps upon heaps" of fears have we had--bigger heaps than our
   sins--but there they lie, troops of doubters. There are their bones and
   their skulls, as Bunyan pictured them outside the town of Mansoul, but
   they are all dead, God having worked for us deliverance from them!

   Another set of foes that God has slain includes our temptations. Some
   of us have been tempted from every quarter of the world, from every
   point of the compass. Sometimes it has been pride. At another time,
   despair. Sometimes it has been too much of the world and at other times
   it has been too little. Sometimes we have been too strong and puffed
   up. At other times we have been too weak and cast down. There has
   sometimes been a lack of faith and at other times our fervency may have
   been inflamed by the flesh. The best of men are shot at with the
   devil's worst darts. You have been tempted by Satan. You have been
   tempted by the world. Your nearest and dearest friends have, perhaps,
   been your worst tempters, for "a man's foes shall be they of his own
   household." There has not been a bush behind which an enemy has not
   lurked. There has been no inch of the road to Canaan which has not been
   overgrown with thorns!

   Now look back upon your temptations and where are they? Your soul has
   escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler and this night you
   can say, "They compassed me about like bees. Yes, like bees they
   compassed me about, but in the name of God have I destroyed them! I
   have passed safely where others have been ruined. I have walked along
   the walls of salvation when others have been lying at the foot, dashed
   in pieces by their presumption and their self-confidence-- 'heaps upon
   heaps' of my temptations have been slain and You, O God, have worked
   for me a great deliverance!"

   So let me say, in the next place, has it been with most of your
   sorrows. You sons and daughters of tribulation have sometimes sat down
   and said, "All these things are against us." You have lost children,
   friends have died, business has departed, wealth has melted--almost
   every comfort has had a blight upon it. Like Job's messengers, evil
   tidings have followed one another and you have been brought very low.
   But, Beloved in Christ Jesus, you have been delivered! "Many are the
   afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them
   all." It has been so in your case. Whatever form the affliction has
   taken, Mercy has taken a suitable form to meet it. When the arrow flew,
   God was your Shield. When the darkness gathered, He was your Sun. When
   you had to fight, He was your Sword. When you needed to be supported,
   He was your Rod and your Staff--

   "Thus far we'veproved that promise good Which Jesus ratified with
   blood. Still is He gracious, wise, and just And still in Him let Israel
   trust."

   I will let no man or woman in this congregation take a place before me
   in obligation to the Most High! Brothers and Sisters, we are all
   debtors, but I count myself most of all a debtor! I boast that I have
   nothing to boast of! I would desire to lie the lowest and to take the
   meanest place, for I owe most of all to the Grace of God! When I look
   back to my parentage, when I see from where the Lord has brought me and
   what He has done for me and by me, I can only say, "You have given to
   Your servant this great deliverance." And I suppose if all the people
   of God could meet here, one by one, they would each claim that there is
   something peculiar in their every case. Each one would say, "There is
   something in the deliverance God has worked for me that demands of me a
   special song"--therefore let the whole of us together, who have known
   and "tasted that the Lord is gracious," look back upon the past with
   thankfulness and praise to the Lord! II. YET FRESH TROUBLES WILL ATTACK
   YOU AND EXCITE YOUR ALARM.

   Thus, after his fight with the Philistines, Samson was thirsty. This
   was a new kind of trouble to him--he was so thirsty that he was afraid
   that he would die! The difficulty was totally different from any that
   Samson had met before. Shake those Samsonian locks in which your
   strength lies, but they cannot distil a single drop of dew to moisten
   your mouth! The strongest man is as much amenable to thirst as the
   weakest--and that arm which could slay a thousand Philistines, cannot
   open a fountain in the earth, or draw down a shower from the skies, or
   yield to thirst a single draught of water! He is in a new plight. Of
   course it seems to you to be a far simpler trial than he had known
   before, and so it was. Merely to get thirst relieved is not anything
   like so great a thing as to be delivered from a thousand Philistines!
   But I daresay, when the thirst was upon him and oppressed him, Samson
   felt that little present difficulty more weighty and severe than the
   great past difficulty out of which he had so recently been delivered!

   Now I think, Beloved, there may be some of you who have been forgiven,
   saved, delivered and yet you do not feel happy tonight. "God has done
   great things for you, whereof you are glad," yet you cannot rejoice.
   The song of your thanksgiving is hushed. A little inconvenience in
   getting into your pews, a hasty word spoken by somebody outside the
   gate, the thought of a child at home--something which is very little
   and insignificant compared with all that God has worked for you will
   sometimes take away the present joy and comfort of the great--the
   unspeakably great gifts which you have received! You may be sure of
   your standing in Christ and yet some little trouble keeps buzzing about
   your ears and may be distracting you even now. Let me say two or three
   words to you.

   It is very usual for God'speople, when they have had some great
   deliverance, to have some little trouble that is too much for them.
   Samson slays a thousand Philistines and piles them up in heaps--and
   then he must die for need of a little water! Look at Jacob--he wrestles
   with God at Peniel and overcomes Omnipotence itself--and yet he goes
   limping on his thigh! Strange, is it not, that there must be a touching
   of the sinew whenever you and I win the day? It seems as if God must
   teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within
   bounds! Samson seems to have crowed right lustily when he said, "With
   the jaw of a donkey have I slain a thousand men." Ah, Samson, it is
   time your throat became hoarse when you can boast so loudly! The mighty
   man has to go down on his knees and cry, "O God, this thirst will
   overcome Your hero! Send me, I pray You, a draught of water." God has
   ways of touching His people so that their energy soon vanishes. "In my
   prosperity I said, I shall never be moved...You did hide Your face and
   I was troubled." Now, dear child of God, if this is your case, I say it
   is not an unusual one. There is a reaction which generally follows any
   strong excitement. No doubt the excitement of having slain the
   Philistines would naturally be followed by depression of spirits in
   Samson. When David had mounted the throne of Judah, there came a
   reaction and he said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You
   must expect to feel weakest just when you are enjoying your greatest
   triumph!

   I have already said that the use of all this is to make a man feel his
   weakness. I hope it makes you feel yours. What fools we are, Brothers
   and Sisters and yet, if someone else were to call us fools, we would
   not like it--though I do not doubt but that we are very well named,
   whoever may give us the title--for the whole of Heaven cannot make us
   rejoice if we have a pain in our head and all the harps of angels and
   our knowledge of our interest in "the Glory that shall be revealed,"
   cannot make us happy if some little thing happens to go contrary to our
   minds! Somebody trod on the corns of your pride as you were coming in
   here--and if an angel had preached to you, you would not have enjoyed
   it because of your mind being discomposed. Oh, simpletons that we are!
   The table is daintily spread and the manna of Heaven lies close to our
   hands, but because there is a little tear in the garment, or a small
   thorn in the finger, we sit down and cry as though the worst of ills
   had happened to us! Heaven is your own and yet you cry because your
   little room is scantily furnished! God is your Father and Christ your
   Brother--and yet you weep because a baby has been taken from you to the
   skies! Your sins all forgiven and yet you mourn because your clothes
   are poor! You are a child of God, an heir of Heaven--and yet you sorrow
   as though you would break your heart because a fool has called you ill
   names! Strange is it and foolish--but such is man--strangely foolish
   and only wise as God shall make him so!

   III. If, my Brothers and Sisters, you are now feeling any present
   trouble pressing so sorely that it takes away from you all power to
   rejoice in your deliverance, I want you to remember that you ARE STILL
   SECURE! God will as certainly bring you out of this present little
   trouble as He has brought you out of all the great troubles in the
   past.

   He will do this for two reasons, both of which are found in the text.
   The first is because if He does not deliver you, your enemy will
   rejoice over you. "What?" said Samson, "Shall I die of thirst, and fall
   into the hands of the uncircumcised? Faint, weary, thirsty, shall I
   become their victim?--I who was once their terror and made the damsels
   of Gath and of Askelon to weep instead of to dance? Shall I be slain?"
   And what do you say? But hush your gloomy forebodings! If you perish,
   the honor of Christ will be tarnished and the laughter of Hell will be
   excited. Bought with Jesus' blood and yet in Hell--what merriment there
   would be in the Pit! Justified by the righteousness of Christ and yet
   lost--what a theme of scorn for fiends! Sanctified by the Spirit of God
   and yet damned--oh what yells of triumph would go up from the abode of
   Apollyon and his angels! What? A child of God forsaken of his Father? A
   jewel plucked from Jesus' crown? A member rent from Jesus' body? Never,
   never, never! God will never permit the power of darkness to triumph
   over the power of light. His great name He always has in respect and
   the ruin of the meanest Believer would be the cause of dishonor and
   disrespect to God--therefore you are safe! Oh it is such a blessed
   thing when you can run behind your God for shelter! Some youngster out
   in the street has been offending his fellow and is likely to receive a
   blow--but here comes his father--and he runs behind him and feels that
   there is no fear for him now! So let us shelter ourselves behind our
   God. Better than bronze walls, or castles, or high towers shall Jehovah
   be to us! And we may then look at all our enemies and say, as the Lord
   did to Sennacherib, "The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you
   and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head
   at you." The uncircumcised shall not rejoice! The daughters of
   Philistia shall not triumph! We are our God's and He will keep His own
   until the day when He shall display them as His jewels.

   That is one reason for confidence, but another reason is to be found in
   the fact that God has already delivered you. I asked you just now to
   walk over the battlefield of your life and observe the heaps of
   slaughtered sins, fears, cares, temptations and troubles. Do you think
   He would have done all that He has done for you if He had intended to
   leave you? The God who has so graciously delivered you up to now has
   not changed! He is still the same as He ever was. I have no doubt about
   the sun rising tomorrow morning--he always has done so since I have
   been able to see him. Why should I doubt my God, for He is more certain
   than the sun? The Nile ceases not to make Egypt laugh with plenty--men
   trust it. And why should not I trust my God who is a river full of
   water overflowing with loving kindness? If we never doubt God till we
   have cause to do so, distrust will be banished from our hearts forever!
   Of men, we speak as we find them--let us do the same with God. Was He
   ever a wilderness to you? When did He forsake you? When did your cries
   to Him return without an answer? Has He ever said, "I have blotted you
   out of My Book and I will remember you no more?" You have doubted Him
   wickedly and wantonly, but never have you had any cause for suspicion
   or mistrust! Now, since He is "the same yesterday, and today, and
   forever," the God who delivered you out of the jaws of the lion and out
   of the paws of the bear will yet deliver you out of your present
   difficulty!

   Do you think, dear Friend, if He does not do so, He will lose all that
   He has done for you! When I see a potter making a vessel, if he is
   using some delicate clay upon which he has spent much preliminary labor
   to bring it to its proper fineness--if I see him again, and again, and
   again molding the vessel--if I see, moreover, that the pattern is
   coming out--if I know that he has put it in the oven and that the
   colors are beginning to display themselves--I think were it common
   everyday ware I could understand his breaking up what he had done,
   because it would be but worth little. But since it is a piece of rich
   and rare porcelain upon which months of labor have been spent, I could
   not understand his saying, "I will not go on with it," because he would
   lose so much that he had already spent! Look at some of those rich
   vessels by Bernard de Palissy which are worth their weight in gold, and
   you can hardly imagine Bernard stopping when he had almost finished and
   saying, "I have been six months on this, but I shall never take the
   pains to complete it."

   Now God has spent the blood of His own dear Son to save you! He has
   spent the power of the Holy Spirit to make you what He would have you
   be and He will never stay His mighty hand till His work is done! Has He
   said and shall He not do it? Has He begun and shall He not complete it?
   God will have no unfinished works! When Jehovah's banner is furled and
   His sword is sheathed, then shall He cry--

   "'Tis done,

   For the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of My Son."

   In that day, every vessel that He prepared for Glory shall be in Glory,
   having been made perfectly meet for it. Do not, then, despair because
   of your present trouble!

   Doubtless some of you who are saying that I am speaking as one who does
   not know the occasion or the bitterness of your peculiar distress. My
   dear Friends, I do not care to know it. It is enough for me to know
   that if God has worked for His servants so great a deliverance as He
   has done, the present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst and I am
   sure He will not let you die of faintness, nor suffer the daughter of
   the uncircumcised to triumph over you. "Ah," says one, "it is all very
   well talking, but mine is a very, very, very peculiar case!" Well,
   then, dear Brother, there is a special reason why God should deliver
   you because if Satan could overcome you in that peculiar case, he would
   then say that he could have overcome all the saints if he could have
   got them into the same corner! And he would loudly boast just as though
   the whole had perished! But I do not think that your case is so very
   peculiar--it is only the way in which you look at it. The road to
   sorrow has been well trodden--it is the regular sheep path to
   Heaven--and all the flock of God have had to pass along it. So I pray
   you, cheer up your heart with Samson's words and rest assured that God
   will deliver you soon!

   And now, while I have been talking thus, the thought has again occurred
   to me that many people listen to me who are not Christians. My Friends,
   my great wonder is what some of you do without God! I can hardly
   understand how the rich man can have any comfort without God, for he
   must suffer from bereavement and bodily pain as well as the poor. Those
   silly butterflies of fashion who spend all their time in flitting about
   from flower to flower are so heartless and thoughtless that I can, to
   some extent, comprehend how they can do without God. With empty heads
   and silly hearts, men and women can make gods of anything! Their own
   pretty persons can be quite a sufficient object for their idiotic
   worship. But a man who stands right straight up, a sensible thinking
   man--a working-man, if you will--I do not mind whether he works with
   the dry heat of his brain or with the damp sweat of his face--I cannot
   understand how a man like this, with organs of thought and a reasoning
   soul, can go on without God! There must be pinches with some of you
   when you need a God. I would have been in a madhouse a dozen times if
   it had not been for my God. My feet would have altogether gone into the
   chambers of despair and I would have ended this life if it had not been
   for the faithful promises of the God who keeps and preserves His
   people! My life has not been a miserable, but a happy one! And yet I
   tell you that there have been innumerable times in it when I could not
   have done without my God. I do not understand what some of you who are
   always so pinched, do without God. There are many such here. You are
   poor. You are not often without sickness. You were born inheritors of
   maladies that make your life wretched. Your children are sickly about
   you. It is as much as you can do by Saturday night to make ends
   meet--you are frequently in debt--you are constantly in trouble. Oh, I
   cannot tell what you do without God! Why, you have nothing here, and no
   hope of anything hereafter! Poor Souls, I could weep for you to think
   that you are without God!

   And you will have to die soon. When the death-thirst is in your throat,
   what do you think you will do without God? To die in God's Presence is
   simply to let life blossom into something better than life--but to die
   without God must be horrible! You will not want your companions then!
   Strong drink will not pacify you then! Music will have no charms for
   you then! The love of a tender and gentle wife can yield you but sorry
   comfort then! You may lay your moneybags at your side, but they will
   not calm your palpitating heart then! You will hear the booming of the
   waves of the great sea of eternity! You will feel your feet slipping
   into the dreadful quicksand! You will clutch about you for help, but
   there will be none! Instead, invisible hands shall begin to pull you
   down and down through the dark sea! And you will descend to those
   darker depths where dread despair will be your everlasting heritage!

   But there is hope yet! Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall
   be saved! Turn your eyes to Christ, poor Sinner, as He hangs there
   suffering in man's place, taking human guilt on Himself and being
   punished for it as though it were His own! Trust Him, Sinner--and
   resting in Jesus you shall be saved!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM37.

   Verse 1. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be you envious
   against the workers of iniquity. They often seem to have the best of it
   in this life, but if it really is so, we must never forget that there
   is another life after this in which there will be no reason for the
   righteous to be envious of evildoers and workers of iniquity!

   2. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the
   green herl. It is very easy to cut down the grass with a sharp scythe.
   And when Death takes down his scythe and cuts down men as the mower
   cuts down the grass of the field, they fall, rank upon rank, to "wither
   as the green herb."

   3. Trust in the LORD, and do good. These are two good things to go
   together--faith and good works! "Trust in the Lord, and do good."

   3. So shall you dwell in the land Not merely on earth, but in the land
   of promise, the land which God has promised to His people. We dwell
   there by faith even now. Everywhere we find our God and wherever we
   find Him, it is Emmanuel's land to us.

   3. So and verily you shall be fed. "Verily, verily," is Christ's most
   solemn affirmation. [See Sermon #3053, Volume 53--jesus CHRIST'S IDIOM]
   David here says, "verily," because the statement

   he makes is absolutely true--"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall
   you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed."

   4. Delight yourself also in the LORD; and He shall give you the desires
   of your heart. [See Sermon #454, Volume 8--sunshine IN THE HEART] When
   all your heart's desires are fixed upon Him

   because He is your heart's delight, then you may give a loose rein to
   those desires without any fear that they will run away! When your
   heart's desires are of this sort, you shall have them, be they what
   they may! It is not every man who shall have the desires of his heart
   given to him, but only that man whose heart's delight is in his God.
   There is much in connection with the person praying which will help to
   decide whether he shall or shall not have his desires granted. What is
   the condition of the heart out of which the desires come? When the
   heart is full of delight in the Lord, its desires shall be pleasing in
   His sight and shall be granted.

   5. Commit your way unto the LORD.You who are just now in trouble. You
   who are walking in a rough way, commit that trouble and that way to the
   Lord! You who are in difficulty as to what is your right way, commit
   that difficulty to the Lord! Then, of course, you will not need to keep
   it yourself, nor to trouble your head about it. It does not need two to
   "care" when God is one of the two, so cast all your care upon Him, for
   He cares for you! His Grace is amply sufficient for every emergency
   that can possibly arise, so "commit your way unto the Lord." You have
   committed your soul to Him--then you can surely commit your business to
   Him, for that is a far inferior thing to your immortal soul!

   5. Trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. Your desire shall
   be brought to pass. Your safety shall be brought to pass. Your
   everlasting advantage shall be brought to pass. Your way shall be made
   passable to you--you shall find your way to Heaven.

   6. And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your
   judgment as the noonday. Are you misunderstood, misrepresented,
   slandered, laughed at? Leave it all with your God! Are you now walking
   in darkness? Trust in Him and He will bring you out into the Light of
   God in due time. We do not have morning light in the evening--morning
   light comes when the morning comes--and your deliverance shall come
   when it is the right time for you to have it.

   7. Rest in the LOR . That is a blessed state to reach. Notice the
   various stages that the Psalmist has mentioned. There was first, "Trust
   and do." Then there was, "Delight and have." Then there was, "Commit,
   and have it brought to pass." And now there is, "Rest in the Lord."

   7, 8. And wait patiently for Him: fret not yourself because of him who
   prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to
   pass. Cease from anger. That comes of fretting and of being in a
   hurry--and not resting and being patient--for when the mind is restful,
   we can bear injuries. "Cease from anger."

   8, And forsake wrath: fret not yourself in any wise to do evii. Very
   often our proverb is true, "The more haste, the less speed." And he who
   is in a hurry often does evil under the notion that it is the shortest
   way to get good--which it never is, for evil brings forth evil--and
   that perpetually.

   9, 10. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the
   LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the
   wicked shall not be: yes, you shall diligently consider his place, and
   it shall not be. The very place wherein he stood so high has utterly
   perished. How many instances there have been of men who have taken
   great pains to perpetuate their own names, yet their names are
   forgotten in the very place where they dwelt! God has a way of stamping
   out evil and putting an end to it--and when there has been great
   wickedness in the land, He knows how to make the very name of the
   wicked to rot.

   11-13. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight
   themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the
   just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him:
   for He sees that his day is coming. "His day is coming," and what a day
   it will be! When the day of the wicked shall come--the day of God's
   righteous vengeance--woe unto him; woe unto him!

   14-16. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to
   cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as are of upright
   conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their
   bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man has is better than
   the riches of many wicked. Not of one wicked man, only, but of "many
   wicked." Fortunes heaped upon fortunes as the result of evil-doing
   cannot equal the portion of the poorest of God's saints! A little with
   a blessing resting upon it is vastly better than much accompanied by a
   curse.

   17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholds
   the righteous. They would soon fall if they were not upheld--but they
   shall not fall, for God will make them to stand!

   18. The LORD knows the days of the upright. He knows our dark days and
   our bright days--and all our days that are yet to be as well as all our
   days that have been! The Lord knows all about all our days.

   18. And their inheritance shall be forevei. What they have, if it is
   really worth having, they shall keep forever. What God has given them
   in Christ, because they are His children, shall never be taken away
   from them, nor shall they be taken away from it--"their inheritance
   shall be forever." Men try to pass on their estates, but it is often an
   unsatisfactory system. Our estates are owned by God--upon the
   inheritance of every one of His people there is an inalienable
   ownership.

   19. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time If any shall say to
   them, "How is it that you are a child of God and yet you live in such
   an evil time?" they shall not be ashamed, but they will have an answer
   ready for them. They will tell them that many righteous men have lived
   in evil times, but they, themselves, have not been evil because of
   that. Where should bright lights be but in a dark place? Where should
   the salt be but where everything is going to corruption? "They shall
   not be ashamed in the evil time," for their God will still be their God
   and though everyone else may fail them, their God will not fail them.

   19-23. And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the
   wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of
   lambs: they shall be consumed; into smoke shall they be consumed. The
   wicked borrows, and pays not again: but the righteous shows mercy, and
   gives. For such as are blessed of Him shall inherit the earth; and they
   that are cursed of Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are
   ordered by the LORD. Oh, what comfort there is in this blessed
   assurance! Sometimes we know not which way to move, but we need not
   lack Divine guidance, for there is a special Providence which watches
   over every step of a gracious man. When we are right with God,
   everything is right with us. If our heart's desire is that we may walk
   in God's way, then God will take care that the way of His Providence
   shall be made plain to us and shall be full of love to us.

   23. And He delights in his way. God delights to watch the way that His
   children walk, even though their steps may falter and totter, for they
   are often like little children learning to walk and usually they are
   very weak and feeble. Yet, if it is a good man who is walking as he
   should walk, God "delights in his way."

   24. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD
   upholds him with His hand. He is like a little child who does not yet
   know how to stand alone, so his mother or nurse holds him up, or picks
   him up if he falls. God's arms are under His children's arms as He says
   by the mouth of the Prophet Hosea, "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking
   them by their arms." This is how He also teaches us to go--in wondrous
   condescension taking us by our arms!

   25. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the
   righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I have been young and
   though I am not yet old, I can truly say that I have never seen the
   righteous forsaken. I have, however, seen the seed of the righteous
   begging bread. David never saw that sad sight, but then he was a king,
   so he was not likely to see as many beggars as some of us do. Yet,
   still as a general rule it remains true that the God of the fathers
   does provide for their children. Of course, if the seed of the
   righteous become vicious and profligate, as they sometimes do,
   drunkenness will clothe them with rags and set them among the beggars
   of the street just as it would if they were the children of ungodly
   parents! And it may be mercy on the part of God that it should be so,
   as it was in the case of the prodigal, who never came to himself until
   he was in need--and his begging of bread was a blessing to him--for it
   brought him, at last, to beg to be received again into his father's
   household!

   26-27. He is always merciful, andlends; and his seed is blessed. Depart
   from evii. Do not remain near it, do not even look at it, do not parley
   with it--run away from it! "Depart from evil."

   27. And do goot. For you must do something, either good or evil. If you
   became an idler, even though you had departed from evil, you would not
   have become what God would have you to be. Negatives must be backed up
   with positives! "Depart from evil, and do good."

   27, 28. And dwell forevermore. For the LORD loves judgment, and
   forsakes not His saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of
   the wicked shall be cut off. Not, of course, if they themselves become
   righteous, for then they come under the Covenant of Grace and shall
   never be cut off.

   29-37. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.
   The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of
   judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall
   slide. The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him. The
   LORD will not leave him in his hands, nor condemn him when he is
   judged. Wait on the LORD, keep His way, and He shall exalt you to
   inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have
   seen the wickedin greatpower, andspreading himself like a green bay
   tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yes, I sought him, but
   he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
   for the end of that man is peace. He does not wither and vanish like a
   gourd of the night. He passes not away like that phantom bay tree which
   seemed so substantial, but really was not. His end is peace and "all is
   well that ends well," so all is well with him--and blessed is that
   man's life which came to such a blessed conclusion as this--"the end of
   that man is peace."

   38, 39. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of
   the wicked shall be cut off But the salvation of the righteous is of
   the LORD. That is why they are not cut off like the wicked, because
   God's salvation is in them. They would pass away, they would be but the
   mere dream and phantom that the prosperous wicked ones are, but God
   Himself is in them and, therefore, are they solid and substantial and
   their salvation is an everlasting salvation!

   39, 40 He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall
   help them and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and
   save them, because they trust in Him. That is the main point--"they
   trust in Him." One of the descriptions of Abraham is this, "Abraham
   believed God," and therefore he had God for his shield and his
   exceeding great reward. Are you trusting in God, dear Friends? Are you
   living a life of faith? Then the walk of faith will be followed, in due
   time, by the triumph of faith! Blessed are all they that put their
   trust in the Lord, and blessed forever shall they be.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Question for You

   (No. 3132)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   AUGUST 9, 1874.

   "Do you believe on the Son of God?" John 9:35.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon this question are as
   follows--Sermons #1088, Volume 18--THE ESSENCE OF SIMPLICITY; #2141,
   Volume 36-- THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS; #2667, Volume 46--A PRESSED MAN
   YIELDING TO CHRIST and #3008, Volume 52-- AN ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION]

   THIS blind man, whose eyes Christ had opened, was a very shrewd fellow
   and wonderfully straightforward and determined. What he did know could
   not be beaten out of him, neither could he be led to draw unfair
   inferences from what he knew. He would hold to what he clearly saw to
   be the fact. He believed Jesus to be a Prophet sent of God and he stuck
   to his belief whatever the Pharisees might say. Now I believe that is
   the kind of man to learn more of. The man who knows something and yet
   trifles with it, is not likely to be further instructed of God. Nothing
   is more displeasing to Him than trifling with what you have already
   learned, tampering with your conscience, not following the guidance of
   the Light of God which you have already received. But to him that has,
   and that uses aright what he has, more shall be given--and he shall
   have abundance. The honest and good ground was the sort of soil in
   which Jesus loved to sow the Good Seed of the Kingdom, so He thought it
   was worth His while to search for this man whom the Pharisees had
   excommunicated, that He might still further instruct him in Divine
   Truth. O dear Hearers, as far as ever you have received the Light, act
   up to it and praise God for the Light that He has given you! If you
   value the moonlight, He will give you sunlight before long. But be
   upright, straight, honest and sincere before the Lord, for He looks
   with hopefulness to the true and the upright, for these are the people
   whom He is most likely to bless.

   I. Our Savior, having found this man, put to him the question in my
   text, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" This question I am going to
   consider with you as the Holy Spirit shall help us. And first, I see
   here AN EXAMPLE OF WISE PERSONAL ENQUIRY.

   Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to this man personally because He meant to
   do him good. He did not invite him to listen to a sermon, though that
   also might have done him good, but He got him alone and put to him this
   pointed, personal question, "Do you believe on the Son of God?"
   Christian people, this method which Christ, Himself, used, you ought to
   employ more than you do! Talk to people personally and pointedly. Push
   them up in a corner from which they cannot easily escape. Whenever a
   sermon is preached, it is the preacher's duty to apply it to his
   hearers, but it is quite as much the duty of his Christian hearers to
   apply it to each unconverted person present by asking, "Do you believe
   on the Son of God?" Get hold of a man and do not let him go until you
   have put to him this personal question! Sunday school teachers should
   do this to each child in their classes--perhaps their work just needs
   that finishing stroke to make it effective. Parents, especially, should
   do this with every boy and girl in their family. It should be close
   personal work with each one. Teaching may be general but it should
   always be followed by a personal catechizing of those who have been
   taught.

   Our Savior put this question to the man when they were alone. He did
   not ask him this while there were dozens of people around them. It
   might have been very awkward for the man if He had done so. But,
   getting him by himself, Christ said to him, "Do you believe on the Son
   of God?" You, also, dear Friends, will find this to be a very useful
   way of working for Christ because it will often bring men to a crisis.
   They are, possibly, halting between two opinions. Perhaps in their own
   minds they have a sort of notion that they do believe in Jesus, and yet
   they really do not. So, when they are pointedly requested to say
   whether they do or do not believe in Him, it helps them to understand
   their true position and

   very frequently it drives them out of a wrong position into a right
   one! In the case of the man whose eyes Christ had opened, the question,
   "Do you believe on the Son of God?" led to the discovery of a very
   serious flaw in his condition. He was spiritually ignorant--he did not
   know the Savior even though He was standing close beside him and
   talking to him! He said, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on
   Him?" That lamentable ignorance on his part might not have been
   discovered by him if the question had not been so pointedly and plainly
   put to him--"Do you believe on the Son of God?" That question led to
   the removal of his ignorance, brought him into clearer Light and ended
   in his saying, "Lord, I believe," and in his falling down to worship
   the Savior of whose Deity he had just before been ignorant!

   May I, then, without enlarging upon this point, earnestly urge upon my
   Christian Brothers and Sisters the wisdom of often using this method of
   pushing the individual sinner up into a corner and saying to him, "Do
   you believe?" When we are publicly instructing people, we are very
   often like persons who are building a great bonfire. We bring barrels,
   wood, coals and I know not what else, and keep on heaping up the pile,
   yet there is no bonfire! What we need is a match to set light to the
   pile and, very often, that pointed, personal question, "Do you
   believe?" pressed right home upon the individual hearer is just like
   the lighted match thrust in among the combustible materials--and so the
   instruction already given becomes profitable and effective! Have you
   ever used this method, dear Friends? I believe that in many cases
   parents go on with family prayer and instructing their children in
   Divine things, yet their boy is not a decided Christian because his
   father does not take him into the study, or into the little quiet
   parlor and put his arms round his neck, and pray for him, and say to
   him, "My dear boy, have you really given yourself to Jesus Christ?" And
   when a mother does that, oh, how many boys and girls have been brought
   to Jesus by those earnest personal enquiries from a mother whose
   tearful eyes give still greater force to her loving entreaties! I think
   that most Sunday school teachers will tell you that when they have
   persistently charged home the Truth--of course, all other points being
   attended to as well--when they have persistently charged home the Truth
   upon the individual conscience, they have seen greater immediate
   results than they have had from their more general teaching.

   I pray God to make us ministers more personal in our preaching. I have
   sometimes felt, when I have heard a sermon, as if the people whom that
   sermon concerned must have lived on the moon or on the planet Saturn,
   but that they certainly did not live down here on this earth! The
   congregation was addressed as though we were all very good respectable
   people--but if the preacher had told us what we really were, somebody
   would have been sure to exclaim, "I can't hear such a preacher as that!
   He is so shockingly personal!" But to be personal, in the sense of
   being faithful to each one of our hearers, is a mark of excellence in a
   Christian minister. And instead of being condemned for being thus
   personal, we should be commended for being what we were intended to be!
   We were sent by God to be personal and to deliver personal messages, as
   Nathan did to David when he said to him, "You are the man." I wish it
   were possible for us, in a wise and prudent manner, to be more closely
   personal than we ever have been--and so to imitate our Savior's example
   of wise personal enquiry when He said to this man, "Do you believe on
   the Son of God?"

   II. Now, secondly, anyone who is thoughtful can perceive, in our
   Savior's question, AN INDICATION OF THE VITAL POINT OF CHARACTER.

   Jesus Christ said to this man, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" He
   had been aggrieved by the conduct of the Pharisees. They would not
   believe him. They had been prejudiced against him and they had put him
   out of the synagogue--so Jesus Christ seemed to say to him, "Yes, I see
   how wrongly they have acted towards you and I see how truthful and
   courageous you have been, but the Pharisees do not believe on Me and
   that is the reason of their prejudice against Me--but do you believe on
   Me?" It is quite possible for you not to take part with skeptics and
   opposers of the Gospel and yet, after all, you may not be, yourself, a
   Believer in Christ. So I put the question again to each one of you, "Do
   you believe on the Son of God?" I want this question to come home to
   you good, amiable, excellent people who never did oppose Jesus Christ
   in your whole lives and who do not intend to do so--and who are very
   vexed that there should be any Pharisees who do such things! Still, do
   you really believe in Jesus Christ yourselves? That is the vital point.
   It is not enough to be a non-opposer--you must personally be an
   adherent of the Lord Jesus Christ, for He said--"He that is not with Me
   is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me, scatters abroad."

   This man had also been suffering for Jesus Christ's sake. He had been
   browbeaten and abused by the Pharisees, and now he had been put out of
   the synagogue! But Jesus seems to say to him, "Yes, it is well that you
   should suffer for the Truth's sake, and for believing that I am a
   Prophet--but that is not enough. 'Do you believe on the Son of God?'"
   Some

   of you, perhaps, will persist in attending a place of worship, though
   you have to suffer a great deal at home because of it. And you continue
   to read the Bible and other religious books though you get laughed at
   for doing it. And you come regularly to the Prayer Meetings and the
   week-night services though there are many who consider you foolish for
   doing so. All that is well, but it is not enough! You might even give
   your body to be burnt for Christ's sake, but if you have not faith in
   Him, you would not thereby be saved. This is the point, "Do you believe
   on the Son of God?"

   This man could have replied to Christ's question, "I believe that You
   are a Prophet." But Jesus would still have said to him, "Do you believe
   on the Son of God?" To believe that Jesus is a good Man and a great
   Prophet, and that He was sent of God is not enough! Saving faith lays
   hold upon both Christ's Humanity and His Deity. We must believe in Him
   as the Son of Mary and the Son of God, truly Son of Man, yet just as
   truly Son of God. There must be genuine faith in the Deity of the
   Savior, or I do not see anything in the Word of God which gives even a
   glimmer of hope to the soul! So I press home the question upon each one
   here, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" "Well," says someone, "I
   believe the Bible. I am not an opponent of Christ and I have even
   suffered for Christ's sake." So far, so good! But, "Do you believe on
   the Son of God?" Have you given up all other ground of hope and
   committed your soul's eternal interests to that atoning Sacrifice which
   alone can reconcile you to God and enable God to look upon you with
   favor? If you have, it is well. But if you have not, it is far from
   well with your soul!

   This man might have said, "I have had my eyes opened. I was blind, but
   now I see." Yet Christ, who had opened his eyes, said to him, "Do you
   believe on the Son of God?" Perhaps someone here says, "I have given up
   drinking." I am glad to hear it, as glad as I am to hear that this
   blind man's eyes were opened! "Well," says another, "I am very
   different from what I was 12 months ago. Through attending the means of
   Grace, I have become, I trust, respectable. Whereas before I was
   disreputable and given over to every evil thing." I am glad of it! I
   say again, as glad as when I read that this blind man's eyes were
   opened. But, my dear Friend, that is not the main point. "Do you
   believe on the Son of God?" Morality is excellent as far as it goes,
   but without holinessno man shall see the Lord--and holiness far exceeds
   mere morality. Holiness can only be produced by a real change of heart
   and that real change of heart can only come through the regenerating
   power of the Holy Spirit which manifests itself through faith in Jesus
   Christ. Moral changes are commendable and we would be the last to say a
   word against them! But just as silver is not gold, so morality is not
   holiness, and the message we still have to deliver is this, "You must
   be born-again." So we press the question of the text home upon the
   conscience of everyone here because it concerns the vital point of
   faith in Christ. I am convinced that this question, "Do you believe on
   the Son of God?" is the most important question that a man can ever
   have to answer! This is vitally and overwhelmingly important. "I am a
   Churchman," says one. "I am a Nonconformist," says another. "I am a
   Calvinist," says one. "I am an Arminian," says another. Well now, I am
   not going to ask you anything about your belief on any of these points,
   though I know what I think is the right view concerning all of them.
   But I can tell you that you may go to Heaven or you may go to Hell
   either as a Churchman or as a Nonconformist, as a Calvinist or as an
   Arminian--but if you believe on Jesus Christ, you shall never perish,
   neither shall any pluck you out of His hands! It is believing on Him
   that is the all-important point, so I still urge each one of you to
   answer the question, "Do you believe on the Son of God?"

   III. Thirdly, the text seems to me to give A HINT AS TO THE
   REASONABLENESS OF BELIEVING IN JESUS

   CHRIST.

   Our Savior seems to say to this man, not in words, but in reality, "You
   have had your eyes opened. A great deal has been done for you. Now, do
   you believe on the Son of God? It is a natural inference, from the
   opening of the eyes of a man who has been born blind, that the One who
   has opened them is Divine--have you perceived that great Truth of God?
   Do you see it now?" "Why," I think I hear you all say, "He ought to see
   it! There ought certainly to be, in such a miracle as that, enough to
   convince him. He has been in darkness all his life, and now he has had
   his eyes opened, so that He who opened his eyes must be the Son of
   God." Very well, but what about yourselves? You say that you believe
   the Bible--then how is it that you do not believe on the Son of God?
   You say that the testimony of God in Scripture is true. Then why do you
   not believe it? Why do you not trust your soul to Him who you know is
   able to save you? You know what faith is--then why do you not exercise
   it? You know that the things which you are bid to believe are true.
   Then how is it that you do not believe these things? Some of you have
   heard the Gospel preached many hundreds of times. A hundred and more
   times every year I have tried to batter away at the doors of your
   hearts! And sometimes you have been a great deal impressed by the Truth
   that you have heard. You have gone home and prayed over the sermon, or
   you have sat here and wept under it. You have said truly that God has
   come very near to you--then how is it that you have not believed in
   Him? You have, perhaps, seen your daughter saved. Your wife, also, you
   know to be a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have seen your
   sister brought to Jesus. You remember what wonders of Grace God worked
   for your old father and how triumphantly your dear mother went home to
   Heaven! You believe that all this is true--then you are no atheist, no
   skeptic. You believe that Jesus Christ can save you and you also
   believe that He will save you if you trust Him. What reason can there
   be, then, why you do not trust Him?

   I sometimes hear a person say, "I cannot believe." Cannot believe the
   Truth of God? Do not tell me such a lie as that! A thing is true--then
   who dares to say that he cannot believe it? When you say that you
   cannot believe, it is a shamefully mean way of saying that you will not
   believe. God is true and all that God says is true--and it seems to me
   that being true, God ought to be believed and all that God says ought
   to be believed! If a man says to me, when I state a thing positively to
   him, "That is not true," I am not angry with him because it is clear to
   me that he does not know me and he may think that I can lie and I have
   no right to expect him to believe me until he knows me! But when he
   knows me and has become my friend and has found out my true character,
   if he then says to me, "I do not believe you," I feel hurt. But when a
   man says concerning what God, Himself, declares, "I do not believe it,"
   that is to charge God with lying and is such a great sin that God
   justly says, "He that believes not is condemned already"--as he rightly
   deserves to be-- "because he has not believed in the name of the only
   begotten Son of God."

   It is very sad to think that men will not believe the very God who made
   them! A friend who is here from Edinburgh told me, this afternoon, a
   pretty story which I wish I could tell you in Scotch, but it was
   somewhat to this effect. A Christian, walking down Princes Street,
   Edinburgh, one night saw a sight that attracted his attention. An old
   man and an old woman were evidently looking for somebody, so he asked
   them for whom they were looking. They said they were looking for their
   poor girl who was out upon the streets, leading a life of shame. He
   waited to see what would happen. By-and-by, they found her. And her
   father took hold of her with both his hands and said to her, "Lassie,
   will you no come home to your own father and mother?" She would not go
   home with them, but went away to her sin. Well now, it seems to me that
   God appears thus to lay hold of sinners and say to them, "Will you not
   come Home to Me in Heaven? Will you not come to My Son, Jesus Christ,
   who died to save just such sinners as you? Will you not yield to that
   gracious Spirit who loves to bring sinners to Jesus?" Christ seems to
   me to put it so to this man, "Your eyes have been opened-- do you not
   believe on the Son of God?" And He bids me remind you that you have had
   warnings, entreaties, invitations, privileges--you have seen the hand
   of God stretched out on your behalf--then will you not believe on His
   Son? Surely you are unreasonable if you do not!

   IV. But I must pass on. The text seems to me to give, in the fourth
   place, A SUGGESTION AS TO THE BEST GROUND FOR COMFORT TO A MAN WHO IS
   IN TROUBLE.

   Look at the man whose eyes Christ had opened. The Pharisees had cast
   him out of the synagogue and the consequence of his excommunication
   would be that nobody would employ him. "Oh, you are the man who was put
   out of the synagogue, are you not?" "Yes." "Well then, I can give you
   no work." He goes to an old friend and asks for lodging, but the friend
   says, "I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to tarry in my house. You
   have been put out of the synagogue and if I harbor you in my house, I
   also shall be excommunicated. You are now cut off from Israel, so I
   cannot have anything to do with you." So this poor outcast man, as he
   stands there, is full of trouble. Jesus Christ comes to him and, in
   order to comfort him, He says, "Do you believe on the Son of God"--as
   much as to say, "If you do, never mind the

   rest."

   Jesus did not ask him to comfort himself with the thought that he had
   done the right thing and had been straightforward about it--and if they
   had put him out, he could bear it--for he haddone the right thing.
   There is some comfort in that thought, but if we had no comfort except
   what we could get out of what we ourselves had done, it would be a
   miserable comfort indeed! Jesus did not say to this man, "Well, you are
   not like those prejudiced Pharisees who have put you out of the
   synagogue." There are some people who can always get comfort out of the
   badness of other people. They say, "Well, we are glad we are not like
   old So-and-So." Jesus did not wish him to get comfort in that way and
   He did not say to him, "Well, poor Man, they have put you out of the
   synagogue, but they cannot hang you, and they cannot stone you--they
   have done as much as they can do to injure you." There are some people
   who say, "Well, they have done

   all they can, now--they cannot do anything more to me." And they seem
   to be turned into Timons--men-haters--who hate their species and seem
   to get comfort for themselves by defying all mankind beside. That is
   not the way to get comfort!

   If you have been treated badly. If you are the odd one in the family.
   If everybody tries to take advantage of you. If you have been
   slandered. If your mistress is harsh and unkind. If your master is
   tyrannical. If your fellow clerks make you the butt of their jests--do
   not try to get comfort from any of the sources I have indicated--though
   a great many do so! But answer this question, "Do you believe on the
   Son of God?" If you do, then you are saved and you may well rejoice in
   that fact! Believer, you are one with Christ--rejoice in that! Your
   affliction is borne by Christ as well as by yourself-- rejoice in that!
   And rejoice also that as Christ is with you in your suffering, you will
   be with Him in His glory! Even now He has fellowship with you in your
   low estate--so rejoice in that! You have to go home tonight to those
   who mock at your religion, those who have no sympathy with you, whose
   every word is a taunt and whose every look is a sneer. Then when you
   get home, sit down quietly by yourself and say, "My name is written in
   Heaven, for I believe on the Son of God. And though the world knows me
   not, I remember that it knew Him not. It is enough for me to share the
   lot that was my Lord's, for the disciple is not above his Master, nor
   the servant above his Lord. Believing in Jesus, I can bear and forbear
   and wait until the Glory is revealed, for Jesus will never fail me, nor
   forsake me."

   If there are any of you in great trouble, I would like to remind you of
   this fact, that faith in Jesus is the best cure for every care, the
   best balm for every wound. Get away to Jesus--at the foot of His Cross
   is the best place for mourners. All our other sorrows die when Jesus'
   sorrows are revealed. Faith in Christ is what you need beyond
   everything else!

   V. The last point is this. When our Savior asked the man whose eyes He
   had opened, "Do you believe on the Son of God? it was AN INCITEMENT TO
   THE MAN TO CONFESS HIS LORD.

   Jesus seemed to say to him, "Do not hide that great Truth--do not keep
   that precious treasure to yourself." Immediately the man said, "Lord, I
   believe," and then, next, he practically proved that he meant what he
   said by falling down and worshipping the Lord. My dear fellow
   Christians, there may be some of you who have lately been converted to
   Christ, but you have kept the good news to yourself. Now, believe me,
   if it is genuine faith in Christ, you cannot conceal it! A man may put
   fire into the middle of a stack of hay and tell it not to shine, lest
   somebody should try to put it out. But it is not in the nature of fire
   to hide itself, so you will soon see that blaze. It is said that fire
   and a cough and love cannot be hidden. And certainly that is true of
   the holiest sort of love--love to Jesus. It is sure to reveal itself
   somehow or other!

   I knew a man who thought he would go to Heaven alone and never tell
   anybody that he was a Christian. But he lived in a village where there
   was a Prayer Meeting and he stole in once, and he liked it so much that
   he went again and sat in a quiet corner where he thought nobody would
   see him. But the Brother who was conducting the meeting said, "Will
   that friend in the corner be kind enough to engage in prayer?" He shook
   his head--he was like a snail in his shell and he did not mean to come
   out in that public fashion. But when he got outside, he thought to
   himself, "I am afraid I have almost denied the Lord Jesus by refusing
   to pray when I might have done so. However," he thought, "if I am asked
   again, (I hope I shall not be), I think I will just pray, but I shall
   not say much." He was asked another time, but again he was very timid
   and he did not pray. So, after the service, the leader said to him, "I
   am glad to see you here, dear Friend, though you do not pray with us.
   Do you like to be here?" He answered, "Oh, yes, I enjoy it very much."
   "Then," said the other, "I trust you know something about the Lord."
   And almost before he realized what he was doing, he had told all his
   secret out. He could not help it! And what is there, after all, that we
   should need to hide? If I really love my Savior and anybody says to me,
   "You also are one of His disciples," I ought gladly to answer, "Yes,
   yes, yes! And if He is not ashamed to acknowledge me as His disciple, I
   cannot be ashamed to acknowledge Him as my Master! Oh, that I may never
   put Him to shame! And, certainly, to confess Him as my Savior shall
   never make me ashamed."

   Why is it that some of you who believe in Jesus, are so backward in
   confessing your faith in Him? Do not profess to believe if you do not,
   but if you do believe in Jesus, I ask again, why are you so backward in
   confessing your faith? Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "Go you into
   all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." And then He
   told them what Gospel to preach, "He that believes and is baptized
   shall be saved." You see the two parts of it. "Ah," you say, "you
   Baptists make a great deal of Baptism." We Baptists do not make any
   more of Baptism than the Lord Jesus Christ has done! But I was not
   talking about Baptists, I was talking about the words of the Lord Jesus
   Christ as they are recorded in the New Testament. He says, "He that
   believes and is baptized shall be saved." Is not that plain? Someone
   asks, "Can we not be saved without being baptized? "I am not going to
   answer such a question as that! My business is to bid you listen to
   what Jesus Christ says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be
   saved." Give good heed to what Christ says, and raise no questions
   concerning it. For my part, I am going to run no risks and, therefore,
   I take the whole passage just as it stands! My Master alone knows the
   relative importance of the two parts of the message, but I am bound to
   deliver His message just as I have received it. Suppose I send a
   servant to my front door with a message and the person to whom it is
   sent says to her, "Your master did not mean all that," she would
   naturally say, "I have nothing to do with what my master means--I have
   only to tell you what he said." So say I concerning what my Master
   said--and what He said was--"He that believes and is baptized shall be
   saved." And He has also said, "Whoever, therefore, shall confess Me
   before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in
   Heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, (which is here the same
   thing as not confessing Him), Him will I also deny, (or, not confess),
   before my Father which is in Heaven." Come along then, you who have
   been hiding yourselves! Come forth and confess that Jesus Christ is
   yours!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN9.

   Verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from his
   birth. Therefore the man could not see Jesus, but the more important
   matter was that Christ could see the blind man! And you, dear Heart,
   may not yet have learned to look on Christ, but He can look on you in
   your blindness--and a look from Him will speedily work a wondrous
   change in you!

   2. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man,
   or his parents, that he was born blind?Many of Christ's disciples are
   still occupied in asking questions that serve no practical purpose,
   like this one, "Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he
   was born blind?"

   3. Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents. That
   is to say, sin on their part was not the cause of his blindness.

   3. But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. [See
   Sermon #2309, Volume 39--god's works made manifest] Human nature is a
   platform for the manifestation of Div ie

   work. The more in need you are, dear Friend, the more room there is for
   God's mercy to operate upon you.

   4-7. I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day: the
   night comes, when no man can work As long as I am in the world, I am
   the Light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground
   and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man
   with the clay, and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which
   is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed,
   and came seeing. "[See Sermon #1977, Volume 33--the blind

   BEGGAR OF THE TEMPLE AND HIS WONDERFUL CURE] Christ used very

   simple means to cure this man's blindness, very unlikely means,
   apparently, to produce the desired effect. It might have seemed,
   indeed, that the man would have been more in the dark than ever when
   his eyes were plastered over with clay, yet the Lord chose to work in
   that way. And so, when the poor preacher feels as if he was nothing and
   nobody, and that his method may rather hinder his Master's work than
   help Him, yet still his Lord can work through his weakness and get to
   Himself glory notwithstanding His servant's infirmities!

   8, 9. The neighbors, therefore, and they who before had seen him that
   he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This
   is he: others said, he is like he: but he said, I am he. "There is no
   question about my identity, I am the same man whom you have seen
   sitting and begging, and I now come before you with my sight fully
   restored."

   10, 11. Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He
   answered and said, a man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed
   my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I
   went and washed, and I received sight. It was only a short story, but
   it was very sweet to him, and he told it with no excess of detail, but
   with all its salient points. He was a sharp, shrewd man of few words,
   but those few words were weighty. Friend, when you tell the story of
   Christ and His love to you, do not embellish it with flowers of speech.
   There is enough in what Christ has done to make it shine without any
   fine words of yours. The beauty of Christ's work is such that it is
   most adorned when unadorned.

   12. Then said they unto Him, Where is He? He said, I know not. There
   are a good many things concerning Christ which you may not know, but if
   you know that He has opened your eyes, you may be well content with the
   knowledge of that until He shall be pleased to reveal more about
   Himself to you.

   13. They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blint. I am
   sure that this was a very distressing sight to them, for there was
   nothing that ever grieved their hearts more than for Christ's power to
   be displayed! They did not want to see the blind man whose eyes Christ
   had opened. If the miracle brought Christ any glory, it brought them
   just as much misery!

   14. 15. And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened
   his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received
   his sigh. That seemed to be the principal question with them--they
   always wanted to know the manner in which Christ's cures were worked.

   15. He said unto them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do
   see. That is shorter than his previous account of the miracle. When
   Pharisees ask a carping question, the shorter the answer, the
   better--it is a pity to cast pearls before swine.

   16. 17. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This Man is not of God
   because He keeps not the Sabbath day. Others said, How can a Man that
   is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They
   said unto the blind man again, What say you of Him, that He has opened
   your eyes! He said, He is a Prophet. He was a brave man, who dared to
   say what he believed whether he offended or pleased! He did not know
   much, but what he did know he did know, and he was quite certain about
   it. There are some men whose breadth of knowledge is as remarkable as
   its shallowness! It is like water upon the meadows when a river
   overflows its banks, and covers a wide area, but there is scarcely an
   inch of depth. Give us the narrower river that is deep and that can
   bear onwards to the ocean a noble fleet, rather than the wide expanse
   of useless, shallow water!

   18-21. But the Jews didnot believe concerning him, that he had been
   blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him
   that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your
   son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents
   answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was
   born blind: but by what means he now sees, we know not; or who has
   opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for
   himself.[See Sermon #1393, Volume 24--SPEAK FOR YOURSELF--A CHALLENGE!]
   They were timid, but they were also shrewd enough to let their son
   speak for himself, as he was quite able to do.

   22-24. These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for
   the Jews had already agreed that if any man did confess that He was
   Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his
   parents, he is of age, ask him. Then again called they the man that was
   blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this Man is
   a sinnei. They thought they could get over him by giving him a little
   of what they called good advice--"Praise God, but be quiet concerning
   this Man; depend upon it, He is a sinner."

   25-28. He answered and said, Whether He is a sinner or not, I know not:
   one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they
   to him again, What did He to you? How opened He your eyes? He answered
   them, I have told you already, and you did not hear: therefore would
   you hear it again? Will you also be His disciple? Then they reviled hi
   . Of course, that is the usual way with those who are in the wrong.
   Abuse the plaintiff when you cannot answer his case! "Then they reviled
   him."

   28-30. And said, You are His disciple but we are Moses' disciples. We
   know that God spoke unto Moses: as for this Fellow, we knnownot from
   where He came. The man answered and said unto them, Whyherein is a
   marvelous thing, that you know not from where He came, and yet He has
   opened my eyes. Where could He have come from but from God? Who could
   have worked such a miracle unless He had been sent from God?

   31-33. Now we know that God hears not sinners: but if any man is a
   worshipper of God, and does His will, him He hears. Since the world
   began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
   born blind. If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing. That was
   very forcibly spoken. Oh, that all of us whose eyes Christ has opened,
   would speak for Him as bravely as this man did! Our cure has been quite
   as clear and quite as notable as His was, so let us not be ashamed to
   testify for Him before gainsayers and opposers!

   34. They answered and said unto him, You were altogether born in sins,
   and do you teach us?"Such learned men as we are, with such culture and
   such penetration as we have, 'do you teach us?'"

   34. And they cast him out. It was a great mercy for him that they did
   excommunicate him! One of the greatest blessings that could come to him
   was that of being cast out of the synagogue, and being cast out of the
   society of such men as those Pharisees were!

   35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. Jesus knew all that had
   happened to this man, but someone probably related the story to Him.
   And our Lord knows all about each one of us and He knows whether anyone
   here is suffering for His sake or for the Truth's sake. Jesus knew that
   they had cast him out.

   35. And when He had found hi . For He always finds those whom the world
   or false professors have cast out.

   35, 36. He said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? He answered
   and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?He was a
   sensible man and he had the sense to perceive that knowledge rightly
   used leads to faith. He desired to know in order that he might believe.
   And if you ever say that you cannot believe, but are anxious to do so,
   then make enquiry as to what is to be believed--examine the evidence
   concerning it and so faith will come to you by the operation of God's
   good Spirit.

   37-40. And Jesus said unto him, You have both seen Him, and it is He
   that talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped
   Him. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they
   which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
   And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words, and
   said unto Him, Are we blind also?"Are we blind?" It seemed impossible
   to them that it could be so! Jesus answered them with scathing words.

   41. Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, you would have no sin: but
   now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains. "If what you have done
   had been done in utter ignorance, you would have been comparatively
   guiltless. But you have sinned against light and knowledge, with a most
   determined antipathy to the Grace of God and, therefore, your sin
   remains in all its scarlet hue to condemn you."
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Prayer for Believers

   (No. 3133)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT UNICORN YARD CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON
   WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 1855,

   [ON BEHALF OF THE GOSPEL MINISTERS' RELIEF SOCIETY.]

   "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on
   Me through their word." John 17:20.

   IN the very opening of this subject one feels inexpressibly delighted
   to see the wondrous love of our Savior towards His people. He here
   promises that He will intercede for each of them before His Father's
   Throne and He declares that this intercession also rises for those who
   are yet uncalled, unconverted and unregenerated! Mark the depth of His
   affection-- He spends all His time in continually interceding for His
   people. I marvel at the condescension of Jesus Christ, that His
   people's names are always on His lips. When we consider that
   notwithstanding all His exceeding Grace and affection towards them,
   they transgress and rebel, it appears amazing that He should mention
   their names, or that He should regard their persons! But when we
   remember that, day by day, in that land where there is no night, He who
   stands before His Father's Throne bears perpetually on His breast their
   names deeply cut in the precious jewels and stones of the breastplate,
   and always with outspread hands, pleads for them, we cannot but admire
   His love for them and feel a deep veneration for that Divine Grace
   which makes Him declare, "For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace and
   for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof
   goes forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
   burns."

   You must also note here the peculiar knowledge which our Savior, Jesus
   Christ, has of all His people, as well as His particular love for them,
   for He says He prays for those who are yet uncalled. Now, none of us
   who have faith in God, none of those called and led to believe in
   Jesus, are unknown to Him. He knows His redeemed as well in one
   condition as another. He knows which of two drunks shall turn and
   become one of His family. There are none so sunk in the depths of sin
   and wickedness that if they are His by the Covenant of His Grace, do
   not even now share in His intercession! He knows His Beloved when there
   is no visible mark by which to know them. He discerns His sheep when,
   to other people, they seem like wolves or goats. He recognizes His
   family when they are black as the tents of Kedar and He knows they
   shall be fair as the curtains of Solomon! He knows His children when
   they do not know themselves to be His, when they fancy they are lost
   beyond rescue, or when they foolishly conceive that they can save
   themselves. Yes, and when all hope fails them--when it seems that the
   Lord does not know them and the Gospel does not know them--when no
   Christian knows them and the minister can give them no comfort--Christ
   knows them even then, for it is still written, "I pray for them: I pray
   not for the world, but for those whom You have given Me out of the
   world; those who have not yet believed; but who shall believe through
   the word of those who are already called."

   Another thought before we pass to the subject, for we need to suggest a
   few of these thoughts just to start with, as they are in the text. The
   other thought is this--mark how Jesus loves all His people with the
   same affection. He could not pray for those few who, in His lifetime,
   had believed on Him without suddenly (to speak after the manner of
   men), recollecting that these were but a handful and, therefore, He
   stirs Himself up and says, "My Father, neither pray I for these, alone,
   but also for them who shall believe on Me through their word"--as much
   as to say, "These are not My special favorites because they are
   converted so early. I do not love these better than others. I pray also
   for those who shall yet be called. I pray as much for one of My people
   as for another." It is well said by the Apostle Paul, "there is no
   difference." And verily, Beloved, there is no difference in the
   affection of God towards His children! There is an elect out

   of the elect, I will acknowledge, as to gifts and standing and as to
   the labor they may accomplish in this world--but there is no election
   out of the elect as for a deeper extent of love! They are all loved
   alike! They are all written in the same book of eternal love and life.
   They were all purchased with the same precious blood of the Savior. One
   was not purchased with His foot, another with His hand, but all with
   His very heart's blood. They are all justified with the same
   righteousness, all sanctified by the same Spirit and they shall all
   enter the same Heaven! They are all saved by the same Grace, loved by
   the same love, heirs of the same inheritance--and Jesus Christ puts
   them all together when He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but
   for them, also, who shall believe on Me through their word."

   I. Let us now proceed to the text. The first thing we learn from it is
   this, that GOD LOVES HIS PEOPLE BEFORE THEY BELIEVE ON HIM.

   Jesus Christ would never pray for those whom He did not love. He is no
   hypocrite in His prayers. Some people are. Many prayers are not worth
   buying. Indeed, they are not worth taking gratis--they are not prayers
   at all! I have heard some pray for their Brothers in the ministry and
   at the same time they do not act with them, or for them. We have seen
   many bow the knee in prayer for such-and-such a person and when they
   rise, their knees are unbent, but their hands are raised to strike the
   very person for whom they were praying! We have too many hypocritical
   prayers that are good for nothing! We might roll many into a parcel and
   nobody would pick them up in the streets--they are worse than useless,
   they are absolutely wicked! For a man to bend his knees and utter the
   hypocritical language of affection before God which he never feels in
   his heart is little short of blaspheming God! We must have very light
   thoughts of God when we try to deceive Him with such prayers as these.
   But Jesus Christ never prayed a deceitful prayer. If He intercedes for
   any, He loves them. If He pleads for any, He has chosen them. If He
   asks His Father that they may be blessed, we are sure that He asks it
   from His heart. Christ's prayers all come from His inmost soul. You
   never hear Him mentioning anyone's name before the Throne of God whom
   He does not really love with an eternal affection. Hence, then, if
   Jesus Christ prayed for His people before they were called and before
   they believed--and if His intercession implies love--He must have loved
   His people before they believed on Him.

   This will very easily appear to you to be a Doctrine of Truth if we
   consider the Scriptures at large. Some men will talk against it as a
   wonderfully wicked Doctrine. I refer to those who believe in creature
   merit and who imagine that we are "made children of God" by some act of
   our own. But I think no sincere and earnest student of Scripture will
   ever believe that God commences to love His people when they begin to
   love Him! Such a thought would be utterly inconsistent with the Nature
   of God. Do you not know that God is an eternal, self-existent Being,
   that to say He loves now, is, in fact, to say He always did love, since
   with God there is no past and can be no future? What we call past,
   present and future, He wraps up in one eternal NOW. And if you say that
   He loves you now, you thereby say that He loved you yesterday, He loved
   you in the past eternity and He will love you forever--for nowwith God
   is past, present and future! Those who talk of God's beginning to love
   His people know not "what they say, nor whereof they affirm." They
   might speak of man beginning to love. They might speak of angels
   beginning to love. But of God we never can since He, without beginning,
   had a deathless love in His heart. He has an affection which has no
   source except in Himself. He could not begin, for He is without
   beginning of years and without end of days! From everlasting to
   everlasting He is God--and from everlasting to everlasting His mercies
   extend to His people.

   That is an argument, I think, that none can answer--that God loved His
   wandering people not only because Christ intercedes for uncalled ones,
   but because, from the very Nature of God, He must have loved them
   forever if He loves them at all. But we do not need this proof that God
   loved His people before they believed. Go to Calvary and you shall see
   the greatest proof. Did my Savior die for me because I believed on Him?
   No! I was not then in existence. I was not even formed, "and curiously
   worked in the lowest parts of the earth." Could the Savior, then, have
   died because I had faith when I was not in existence? Could that have
   been the origin of the Savior's love towards me? Oh, no! My Savior died
   for me long before I believed!

   "But," you say, "He foresaw that you would have faith and, therefore,
   He loved you." What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that
   I would get that faith, myself, and that I would believe on Him of
   myself? No, my Friends, Christ could not foresee that because no
   Christian will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and
   without the assistance of the Holy Spirit! I have met with a great
   many, and talked about the matter, but I never knew one who could put
   his hand on his heart and say, "I believed in Jesus without the
   assistance of the Holy Spirit." I have seen many dying men and asked
   them this question, and never did I meet with such an one. God foresaw
   that He would give you faith and

   therefore loved you--is not that absolutely absurd? It is as much as to
   say, I foresee I shall give a beggar a shilling when I go out of this
   place and, therefore, because I foresee that gift, I love him, or you
   foresee that you will give something tonight towards the Society for
   the Relief of Faithful Gospel Ministers and, therefore, you will then
   love God's ministers because you foresee you will give them something!
   My gift is not the cause of my benevolence, but my benevolence is the
   cause of my giving it! God does not love His people because they have
   faith--He loved them long before. Faith is the gift of God. Does my
   natural father love me because he fed me and because he clothed me? No,
   he clothed and fed me because he loved me--but his love was prior to
   his gift. His gifts did not draw his love to me because he loved me
   beforehe gave them. And if any man says, "God loves me because I can do
   this or that for Him," he talks nonsense! God cannot love me because of
   what He has given me Himself. You may say, "He loves me because I love
   Him," but God gave you that love! God does not love you because you are
   so holy--you are holy because God loves you! And your holiness is God's
   gift.

   In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God
   like unborn forests in the acorn cup--long before the echoes waked the
   solitudes, before the mountains were brought forth and long before the
   light flashed through the sky--God loved His chosen creatures! Before
   there were creatures, when the ether was not fanned by the angel's
   wings. When space itself had not an existence. When there was nothing
   save God alone--even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that
   deep quiet and profundity--His heart moved with love for His chosen.
   Their names were written on His heart and then were they dear to His
   soul! Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world, even
   from eternity. He purchased me with His blood. He let His heart run out
   in one deep gaping wound for me long before I loved Him! Yes, when He
   first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door and
   asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away and do despite to His
   Grace? Ah, I can remember that I full often did--until at last, by His
   effectual Grace, He said, "I must, I will come in"--and then He turned
   my heart and made me love Him! But even until now I would have resisted
   Him had it not been for His Grace. Well, then, since He purchased me
   when I was dead in sins, does it not follow as a necessary and logical
   consequence that He must have loved me? And therefore, the Savior said,
   "Neither pray I for these, alone, but for them also who shall believe
   on Me through their word."

   II. The second thing we learn from the text is THE USE OF A GOSPEL
   MINISTRY.

   Captious and quibbling persons will object, "You say that God loves His
   people and, therefore, they will be saved. Then what is the good of
   your preaching?" What is the good of your preaching? When I say that
   God loves a multitude that no man can number, a countless host of the
   race of men, do you ask me what is the good of preaching? What is the
   good of preaching? To fetch these diamonds of the Lord out of the
   dunghill, to go down to the depths, as the diver does, to fetch up
   God's pearls from the place where they are lying! What is the good of
   preaching? To cut down the good corn and gather it into the garner.
   What is the good of preaching To fetch out God's elect from the ruins
   of the Fall and make then stand on the Rock, Christ Jesus, and see
   their standing sure! Ah, you who ask what is the good of preaching
   because God has ordained some to salvation, we ask you whether it would
   not be a most foolish thing to say, because there is to be a harvest,
   what is the good of sowing? There is to be a harvest, what is the use
   of reaping? The very reason why we sow and reap is because we feel
   assured there is to be a harvest! And if, indeed, I believed there was
   not a number who must be saved, I could not go into a pulpit again!
   Only once make me think that no one is certain to be saved and I will
   not care to preach! But now I know that a countless number must be
   saved, I am confident that Christ, "shall see His Seed, He shall
   prolong His days." I know that if there is much to dispirit me in my
   ministry and I see but little of its effects, yet He shall keep all
   whom the Father has given Him--and this makes me preach! I come into
   this Chapel tonight with the assurance that God has some child of His
   in this place--not yet called--and I feel confident that He will call
   someone by the use of the ministry, so why not by me? I know there are
   not a few souls whom God has given me through my ministry, not only
   hundreds, but thousands. I have seen some hundreds of those who profess
   to have been brought to God through my preaching at Park Street and
   elsewhere, and with that confidence I must go on. I know that Jesus
   must have a "Seed." His people must increase and it is the very purpose
   of the ministry to seek them out and bring them into God's fold. Our
   Savior tells us the use of the ministry is that they may "believe on Me
   through their word."

   There is one peculiarity about this. Christ says, "They shall believe
   on Me through their word." Have you ever heard people call out about
   running after men? They say, "You are all running after such-and-such a
   man." What then, would you have them run after--a woman? You say, "The
   people go after one particular man." Whom else shall they go after?
   Some persons say, "We went to such-and-such a place and the people
   there love their minister too much." That would be

   very dreadful, but it is not so. As for ministers being in danger of
   being ruined by too much love, it very seldom falls to their lot! Very
   generally they get quite as many kicks as anything else--and if they do
   get too much love in any particular place, they get too much of the
   reverse somewhere else. If we get a little sweet, somebody else is sure
   to put in much that is bitter. Is it not singular that Christ should
   say, "They shall believe on Me through their word?" Now, do God's
   people believe on Christ through the word of the ministry? We know that
   our faith does not rest on the word of man, but on the Word of God. We
   do not rest on any man, yet it is through "their" word--that is,
   through the word of the Apostles--and through the word of every
   faithful minister!

   I take it that the Gospel is the minister's own word when he speaks
   from experience. What is in the Bible is God's Word. What God speaks to
   me by experience becomes my word as well as God's. And it is then
   "their" word when ministers come into the pulpit with God's Word in
   their hearts. I think a minister is not only called to preach what he
   finds in the Bible--the mere naked Doctrines--but what he has
   experienced in his own heart, what he has tasted, felt and handled. If
   he does this, he will be greatly in danger of being called an egotist.
   Very likely he will use too many, "I's." Well, he cannot preach John
   Smith's experience, or anybody else's experience--he can only preach
   his own--so then he will have to say, "I." But if he does not preach
   experimentally what he has felt, it will not be through his word! When
   we speak that which we know and testify that which we have seen and
   felt--if we say we know the Savior will pardon sinners because He has
   pardoned us--then it is not only God's Word, but it is also our word!
   If I say to a child of God, "Go, and cast your burden on the Lord and
   you will find relief, for I have done so," then it is not only God's
   Word, but my word.

   When he has proved the Savior's Word by experience, then it becomes the
   minister's word, as also when he has it manifested to him by the Holy
   Spirit. Some people say that these manifestations are all nonsense. I
   have heard many object to applied texts. Such men do not understand
   much about the real law of piety, or else they would see texts
   manifested to them at one time which they had never seen before. I know
   many of my ministering Brothers who now testify that they have
   sometimes taken a text and tried to break it. They have smitten it with
   a sledgehammer, but they could not get an atom off it. And they have
   had to throw it aside. But another time, my Friends, when that same
   text comes before us, though it seemed hard as granite when we took it
   up in our hands before, it now crumbles and breaks in pieces! Why?
   Because God's Holy Spirit shines upon it, now, and He did not do so
   before! And we might have continued hitting it till we broke the head
   off our hammer and not a scrap would have come off it--but the Holy
   Spirit's manifestation revealed the text--and most texts are to be
   learned so! It is not often by sitting down in deep thought that we get
   at the meaning--it is by leaving it until, in some hallowed hour of
   high spiritual communion, we get into the very secret chamber where the
   meaning of the text lies! In some solemn moment we dive down into the
   very depths where the meaning of the text is hidden. God teaches us the
   meaning and then it becomes our word! It is ours by application and we
   believe, my Brothers and Sisters, that sinners will be converted to
   God, not only by preaching the Gospel we find in the Bible, but by
   preaching the Gospel we find in our hearts, "known and read of all
   men"!

   Let us then come into our pulpits with this determination (I speak to
   my Brothers in the ministry), that by the help of God we will bring our
   own experience to bear upon it. We will sometimes talk of ourselves and
   not be ashamed of it, for whatever the Lord our God says unto us, not
   only in His Word, but by experience, and by His Spirit, that will we
   speak to the people.

   These two points I have mentioned--first, God loves His people before
   they have faith. And, secondly, the ministry has its use in bringing
   men to faith by "their word."

   III. Now, thirdly, notwithstanding this, GOD IS SUPERIOR TO THE
   MINISTRY AND DOES NOT REQUIRE IT. If He chose, He could do without His
   ministers.

   I have told you that ministers are necessary, in the present state of
   things, to bring men to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may have faith
   in Him. But when I said they were necessary, I spoke as men speak. With
   God, ministers are not necessary. He could do without them. I thought
   today, as I walked along, "God could do without me." I thought of many
   men who are preaching and I thought, "God could do without them--take
   them all away and God could do without them." I thought of some members
   of my Church, very dear to me, who seem to be pillars of it, and I
   thought, "What could I do without them?" And then the thought came
   across my mind, "God could do without them." The people of God would
   still be saved just as well without them, if God so pleased! God is
   enough in Himself, without the addition of any one of His preachers.
   When He made angels, it was not because He needed them. He could have

   accomplished His will without the wings of a flaming seraph and without
   the voice of a glorious cherub. When He made the stars, it was not
   because He needed them. He was Light, Himself, without the light of
   sun, moon, or stars. When He made man, it was not because He needed
   man--it was because He would make him--and for no other reason. There
   was no necessity for it. He would be the same eternal God were all His
   creatures dead. And if He were to blot out those lines of wisdom and
   Grace written in the universe, He would be just as glorious and great
   as ever! And God can do without His servants in the Gospel
   ministry--but this being a dispensation of means, He is not a God
   acting without means.

   God does notdo without them, though He could if He would. God elected
   His people without ministers. He did not need any ministers to help Him
   in that. He redeemed His people without ministers. What great Divine
   could have helped Christ to redeem His people? Yes, more, He can, if He
   pleases, call His people without ministers, for we know how some have
   become the subjects of Grace by the reading of the Word, without the
   assistance of the ministry! And some in the Sunday school have received
   the words of eternal life. This should make our pride subside at once.
   I know it is a great honor and should comfort us much to know that God
   is making use of us--but He could, if He pleased, well enough
   accomplish His ends and purposes without you and without me! If
   tomorrow we were laid in our coffins and if our people should go out
   weeping because their pastors were dead, God has other men whom He
   could raise up. Or if He did not choose to raise other men up, He could
   attain His ends without us. And possibly there is a time coming when
   Gospel ministers shall not be needed--when men shall need no man to say
   to his brother, "Know the Lord," for all shall know Him, from the least
   even to the greatest! There are happy days coming "when the earth shall
   be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
   When there shall be no need of the messengers upon the mountains to
   publish the glad tidings of salvation. When the sunshine of the Lord
   shall supplant our poor farthing rushlight and when Jesus shall "come
   in His Glory, and all His holy angels with Him." And we shall have too
   much to do to stand and admire Him without standing up to preach to men
   concerning Him who is present in their midst!

   IV. But then, our fourth point is that GOD WILL NEVER DO WITHOUT HIS
   MINISTERS AS LONG AS THIS

   DISPENSATION LASTS because Jesus Christ said, "Neither pray I for these
   alone, but for them, also, who shall believe on Me through their word."
   Hence it follows that there always will be, as long as this
   dispensation lasts, a people who are to be gathered and ministers to
   gather them in. As long as there are unsaved and unconverted persons
   who are the elect of God, there will be some ministers to preach to
   them. As long as there are those who are under conviction of sin, He
   will have some who will proclaim the message of pardon. Christ says in
   the text, "Neither pray I for these, alone, but for them, also, who
   shall believe on Him through their word."

   Someone may object, and say, "Yes, but 'their word' signifies the word
   of the Apostles." Then another might ask, "Are you the successors of
   the Apostles?" There has been a vast deal of fudge in these days about
   "the successors of the Apostles." We have people who pretend to be the
   successors of the Apostles. There are the Roman Catholics. But, I
   think, if Peter and Paul were to come and see those who claim to be
   their successors, they would think there was a mighty difference
   between themselves and them! By way of parable, suppose the Virgin
   Mary, Peter and Paul should come one Sunday and go to a certain
   cathedral? Well, when they entered, the Virgin would hear them singing
   together to her honor, and praise, and glory. She would nudge Peter and
   say, "What are these people doing? They are worshipping me! My Son said
   to me, 'Woman, what have I to do with you?' He never worshipped me! Let
   us get out of this place." But they stay a little longer and they hear
   one of them say that the Apostle Peter was the Head of the Church--and
   his successor, the Pope, was therefore the Head. Peter nudges the
   Virgin Mary and says, "What a lie that is! I was never Head of the
   Church at all! Did I not fall into sin? I, the Head of the Church? A
   pretty Head I was!" Soon afterwards, Paul hears them preaching
   justification by works. "Let's go," he says, "there is no Gospel here!
   I preached justification by faith without works, and they are preaching
   justification by works!" And so, upon that, they all three of them
   leave! By-and-by, they come to a place where they hear the people
   singing, "Glory, honor, praise and power be unto the Lamb that sits
   upon the Throne!" And they hear them speak of those who were "kept by
   the power of God through faith unto salvation." "Ah," says Peter, "this
   is the right place, and here I will stay."

   Those are the successors of the Apostles who are like the Apostles! Are
   those the successors of the Apostles who take our money from us by
   force to pay for their religion? Are those the successors of the
   Apostles who go to Brother So-and-So's house and take away his table
   and his spoon, and his candlestick, to pay rates for a religion in
   which he does not believe? I have never read about a church-tax in
   Corinth, or about the Apostle Paul seizing some property of someone in

   Jerusalem! Such men successors of the Apostles? They may be in
   godliness, for holy men are sometimes very much mistaken, but I say
   again, those who are like the Apostles are their successors--not men
   who are ashamed to speak to anybody else because they think they are
   above them--not those who cannot speak plain words! Have we not some
   ministers, to understand, whom you need to take a dictionary always to
   Chapel with you? Do you call them the successors of the Apostles? Your
   judgments answer, "No." A downright honest man who speaks what can be
   understood, who declares God's Gospel in unmeasured terms, as God would
   have him speak it--He is a successor of the Apostles! And it is through
   "their"word (the Apostles' word, and the word of the successors of the
   Apostles), that men are to be saved! Successors of the Apostles! I am
   as much a successor of the Apostles as the Bishop of Bath, the Bishop
   of London, or the bishop of anywhere else--and perhaps more so. We are
   all bishops who are called of God, ordained by the Most High! We trace
   our ordination to the hands of the Almighty who has put His hands on
   our head! There will always be successors of the Apostles! The
   Christian ministry shall never cease till the last period of time!
   Never has there been a spiritual night so dark as that there have been
   no stars to illuminate it--never a sky so clouded that the sun could
   not shine through it. There always have been some lights and, until the
   last hour, there always shall be some who are girded with the strength
   of the Omnipotent and made strong in the almighty God, Jehovah, who
   shall testify their word, which is, after all, God's Word, that thereby
   men shall be saved!

   Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters, having directed your attention to
   the fact that we are quite sure God will always have a ministry, and
   always use it--and since a ministry, under God, is necessary, though He
   could do without them, what should we do for them? I will tell you what
   some people say--starve them. I do not say it is so here, or with my
   people, but it is so in many country villages. Unfortunately, there are
   many farmers who could afford to give much to the cause of God, who,
   while their servant Betty sits in the gallery and pays her shilling a
   quarter for her pew, the master only pays a shilling a quarter, too.
   But Christ's ministers give themselves to the work because they feel
   they must preach--and they would rather preach on dry bread than be
   silent!

   We have formed this Society just to help them. I can assure you if any
   one of our dear friends stood in the position I have occupied for a
   single year, when you come to cast up your income, if you felt any
   benevolence, you would have very little left--indeed, you would have
   nothing left if you listened to the claims made upon you!

   Now, one other thought. If God sends ministers into the world to preach
   His Gospel, how ill does it become us to hurt them! "He that touches
   you, touches the apple of His eye." I have always felt very careful
   about touching a child of God. You know that there is nothing that puts
   a man so much on his mettle as to touch his children. I have seen a
   father calm and placid and very gentle--someone has touched his
   children--the father flashed into his face at once! Do what you
   like--touch his property, or his house and he may be vexed--but touch
   his child and then his fury comes up at once! He cannot stand that. Oh,
   my Friends, a heavy responsibility rests on the heads of some, even of
   God's people, if you view it in that light! Touch God's people? Touch
   God's chosen? Touch God's favorites? Touch God's darlings? Oh, let us
   take heed! We had better allow one to pass who professes to be a child
   of God, and is not, than that we should treat harshly or unkindly any
   of these who really are His! And I think if there is any difference in
   the case of Gospel ministers, this has a special force. We should,
   above all, seek not to injure their character by spreading evil reports
   against them. They will have enough of that from the wicked world! We
   had need be tender of them and plant a hedge around them to protect
   them in every way. They are the standard-bearers of Christendom and if
   the standard-bearer falls, what a disgrace it brings on everything! We
   ought to stand by them, pray for them, plead with God for them that He
   will hold up their hands.

   I have been talking about the Gospel ministry. What is it to do? Is it
   to bring men to faith in Christ? Now I am tonight to attempt to do it
   before I leave this place! Yes, and by Gods help, so I will.

   Now, a word or two very briefly to two or three characters. First,
   there is a man sitting here tonight who says he is "no worse than
   others" and who believes he shall enter Heaven as well as any other
   person. He says, "I do not see why any man should set himself above
   me." My mission from Heaven is, under the Holy Spirit, to knock your
   works down and bring you to faith in Jesus Christ! Remember that it is
   written in Scripture, "By the works of the law shall no flesh be
   justified." You cannot get to Heaven by your works! You might as well
   seek to mount the stars on a tread wheel as to go to Heaven by works,
   for as you get up a step, you will always come down as low as before!
   If you cannot be perfect, God will not save you by works. If you could
   truly say, "I never committed a sin in all my life and never had a
   wicked thought, and never shall have," possiblyyou then might be saved
   by works. But since that is impossible, if you trust in the law and

   hang yourself upon it, you shall find it will break by your weight. You
   stand on a sandy foundation and when the wind blows and the storm
   rises, you will be led to see it is a refuge of lies--that your
   confidence was ill founded, that your works were bad at the bottom,
   after all, and that though you fancied you were righteous, you were
   deceiving yourself and others--and must suffer the sentence of the
   wicked!

   Someone among you may say, "I know that I am a very great sinner, but
   then I intend to reform. I shall turn to Christ and then I shall be
   saved." You intend to reform, do you? So did the damned in Hell once!
   You intend to reform? So doubtless did Judas when he went and cast down
   the money in the Temple! But instead of his reformation being good, he
   went out and hanged himself. You intend to reform? Your intention is
   like a bubble blown by the mouth of a child, who shall soon be broken
   in the air! You intend to reform? Your reformation is like the smoke of
   a chimney which the wind shall sweep away. Suppose you do reform and
   you really get better? You think Jesus Christ will save you and so you
   will get to Heaven between the two? Have you never heard the old
   proverb, "Between two stools he came to the ground?" Verily, I tell
   you, that if you trust in two things, you will be lost! Works cannot
   help you. Any man who trusts so much as a single hair's breadth to his
   works is a lost soul! He who trusts to the least atom of works, though
   it is so small that he cannot discern it, will be lost! It must be--

   "Nothing in my hand I bring,

   Simply to Your Cross I cling"-- or else a man must be lost! For it is
   no use his trusting partly in works, and partly to the Savior. You must
   feel, "I am quite stripped of everything."

   I love to find those who have not got anything good at all about them.
   Some like to find something good in men before they preach to them, but
   I like to find men who think there is nothing good in them--and then to
   preach God's Sovereign Mercy to them. You who have any good of your
   own, throw it away! You who have nothing, come to Christ! I advise you
   who think you are good, not to say you are so when you are before God.
   If you were in a hospital and needed to be attended to, what would you
   do? Would you write over your bed, or tell your doctor you were not so
   bad, after all? You would be rather inclined to appear worse than you
   really were! See if you can describe yourself worse than you really
   are. You may say, "That is wicked advice." No, it is not, because I am
   quite sure you cannot do it. Go and write bad characters against
   yourselves tonight. I speak to you who know this is true--not to you
   who are deceiving yourselves with your own righteousness. You who now
   feel your need of a Savior, exaggerate that feeling before God, if it
   is possible. He who felt himself the most guilty of all sinners said,
   "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."

   If there is anyone here tonight who thinks himself, "the chief of
   sinners," I have called him and God has called him! I wish he would act
   like a man I once saw in the County Court, when I was sitting there. He
   said, "Make way! Make way! His Honor has called me." And He elbowed his
   way up, because the judge had called him! God says, "Come now, and let
   us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet,
   they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
   shall be as wool." Say, "Stand back, for God calls me and I will come!"
   Sinner, it is Jesus you must rely on, and it is not yourself. It is
   nothing that you have, or can have--it is nothing that you do, or can
   do--you can be saved by Jesus Christ alone. Have faith in Him and rely
   on the Savior. Do you feel your need of a Savior? Then come and cast
   yourself upon Him! Leave off being anythingand let Christ be
   everything! Leave off doing, and let Him do! Say--

   "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

   On Christ's kind arms I fall!

   He is my strength and righteousness,

   My Jesus and my all."

   If any are awakened tonight by my words, I have not done it, nor has
   the sinner done it--but to God's praise be it spoken! And to His name
   be all the glory!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Spirit's Work in the New Creation

   (No. 3134)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   JANUARY23, 1873.

   "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
   face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
   waters." Genesis 1:2.

   [See Sermons #660, Volume 11--LIGHT, NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL and #1252,
   Volume 21--THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION.]

   WE cannot tell how the Spirit of God brooded over that vast watery
   mass. It is a mystery, but it is also a fact. And it is here revealed
   as having happened at the very commencement of the Creation, even
   before God had said, "Let there be light." The first Divine act in
   fitting up this planet for the habitation of man was for the Spirit of
   God to move upon the face of the waters. Till that time all was
   formless, empty, out of order and in confusion. In a word, it was
   chaos. And to make it into that thing of beauty which the world is at
   the present moment, even though it is a fallen world, it was necessary
   that the movement of the Spirit of God should take place upon it. How
   the Spirit works upon matter, we do not know, but we do know that God,
   who is a Spirit, created matter, fashioned matter and sustained
   matter--and that He will yet deliver matter from the stain of sin which
   is upon it. We shall see new heavens and a new earth in which
   materialism itself shall be lifted up from its present state of ruin
   and shall glorify God! But without the Spirit of God, the materialism
   of this world would have remained forever in chaos. Only as the Spirit
   came, did the work of Creation begin.

   That fact I intend to use this evening, spiritualizing it. It is a
   literal fact and we are not to regard this Chapter of Genesis or any
   other part of Genesis as being a mere parable. But having said so, we
   think we may now say that these real facts may illustrate the work of
   God in the new creation and our main thought, just now, is that the
   work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of man is comparable to His work in
   Creation. As in various books by the same author you can trace the
   writer's idioms and as in many paintings by one great artist there are
   certain touches which betray the same hand, so in the great book of
   Nature we see traces of the same hand as in the book of Grace! And in
   this great picture of material beauty we may see the handiwork of that
   same Master Artist who has drawn lines and curves of spiritual beauty
   upon the souls of the redeemed!

   I. I am going, first, to try to draw A PARALLEL BETWEEN THE SPIRIT'S
   WORK IN THE OLD AND NEW CREATION.

   And first I want to remind you that as the movement of the Holy Spirit
   upon the waters was the first act in the six days work, so the work of
   the Holy Spirit in the soul is the first work of Grace in that soul.
   There may have been a thousand sermons heard, but there has been no
   effectual work within the soul until the Spirit of God comes there!
   Sabbaths may have passed over the man's head for 50 years and during
   every one of those Sabbaths that man may have been a regular attendant
   at the House of God--but there has been nothing savingly done for him
   unless the Spirit of God has entered into him and begun to work upon
   his soul. He may have been baptized and joined the Church and partaken
   of the Lord's Supper--but, for all that, his heart is still without any
   sort of form or fashion which God would have it to bear. It is
   void--there is no life of God within it, no faith in Christ, no true
   hope for the future. It is emptiness, itself, notwithstanding all that
   has been done, if the Spirit of God has not been at work in it!

   It is a very humbling Truth of God, but a Truth, notwithstanding its
   humiliating form, that the best man that mere morality ever produced is
   still "without form and void" if the Spirit of God has not come upon
   him. All the efforts of men which they make by nature, when stirred up
   by the example of others or by godly precepts, produce nothing but

   chaos in another shape! Some of the mountains may have been leveled,
   but valleys have been elevated into other mountains. Some vices have
   been discarded, but only to be replaced by other vices that are,
   perhaps, even worse. Or certain transgressions have been forsaken for a
   while, only to be followed by a return to the same sins, so that it has
   happened unto them, as Peter writes, "according to the true proverb,
   The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed
   to her wallowing in the mire." Unless the Spirit of God has been at
   work within him, the man is still, in the sight of God, "without form
   and void" as to everything which God can look upon with pleasure. What?
   Is it so when a man has made great efforts and has really done his
   best? Yes, for, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Even when
   the flesh does its best, its fairest offspring is still only flesh!
   Water will naturally rise as high as its own source, but without
   extraneous pressure, it will never rise any higher. And humanity may
   rise as high as humanity can rise, but it can never get any higher
   until the Spirit of God imparts a supernatural force to it. "Except a
   man be born-again (born from above), he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
   The very first act in the great work of the new creation is that the
   Spirit of God moves upon the soul as He moved upon the face of the
   waters.

   The second thing I ask you to note is that to this work nothing
   whatever is contributed by the man himself "The earth was without form
   and void," so it could not do anything to help the Spirit. "Darkness
   was upon the face of the deep." The Spirit found no light there--it had
   to be created. There was nothing whatever there to help the Spirit of
   God--no agencies at work to say to Him, "We have been preparing the way
   for Your coming. We needed Your assistance. We were waiting for You and
   we rejoice that You have come to finish the work that we have begun."
   There was nothing of the kind! And sad as the Truth is, in unregenerate
   man there is nothing whatever that can help the Spirit of God. The
   heart of man promises help, but, "the heart is deceitful above all
   things, and desperately wicked." The will has great influence over the
   man, but the will is depraved, so it tries to play the tyrant over all
   the other powers of the man--and it refuses to become the servant of
   the eternal Spirit of Truth! If I am never to preach the Gospel to a
   sinner till I see something in him that will help the Holy Spirit to
   save him, I shall never be able to preach the Gospel at all! And if
   Jesus Christ never saves a man till He sees something in that man that
   cries to Christ to save Him, then no man will ever be saved! We are, by
   nature, not merely like the man who was wounded on his way from
   Jerusalem to Jericho and who was left on the road half dead, but we are
   wholly "dead in trespasses and sins." And in the dead sinner there is
   nothing that can help his own resurrection! There is not a hand there
   to be lifted, nor even an ear to hear, nor an eye to see, nor a pulse
   that can beat. We do not exaggerate nor go beyond the Truth of God when
   we say this. And every man is thus dead till the Spirit of God comes to
   him! And when the Spirit comes to him, He finds nothing in the man that
   can co-operate with Him, and everything that is to be good must be
   createdin him, broughtto him and be infusedinto him. What is needed is
   not the flaming of sparks that have almost expired--not the
   strengthening of a life that was almost dead through faintness--the
   Spirit has to deal with death, rottenness and corruption! Man's nature
   is a morgue and a sepulcher--and a little Hell--and God's Spirit must
   bring to it that which is living, good and pleasing in God's sight if
   it is ever to be there!

   But more than that, in the old creation, not only was there nothing
   whatever that could help the Holy Spirit, but there seemed nothing at
   all suitable to the Spirit. I mean, for instance, that the Spirit of
   God is the Spirit of Order, but there was disorder. He is the Spirit of
   Light, but there was darkness. Does it not seem a strange thing that
   the Spirit of God should have come there at all? Adored in His
   excellent Glory in the Heaven where all is order and all is light, why
   should He come to brood over that watery deep and to bring the great
   work of bringing order out of chaos? And, in a similar fashion, often
   and often have we asked--Why should the Spirit of God ever have come
   into our hearts? What was there in us to induce the Spirit of God to
   begin a work of Grace in us? We admire the condescension of Jesus in
   leaving Heaven to dwell upon earth, but do we not equally admire the
   condescension of the Holy Spirit in coming to dwell in such poor hearts
   as ours? Jesus dwelt with sinners, but the Holy Spirit dwells in us. If
   it were possible for the condescension of the Incarnation to be
   outdone, it would be in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts
   of men! This is a miracle of mercy, indeed, for I say again, there is
   nothing in the heart by nature that can at all please the Holy Spirit,
   but there is everything there that can grieve Him! The Spirit would
   beget in us repentance for sin, but the heart is hard as a rock. The
   Spirit would work in us faith, but the heart is full of unbelief. The
   Spirit would make us pure, but the heart is fond of sin. The Spirit
   would lead us towards God, but all our passions incline us to run away
   from Him and to

   run to everything that is contrary to Him. Yet does the Spirit of God
   come and work in us while our heart is nothing but chaos and our nature
   is full of darkness! For this wonderful mercy, let us bless and love
   the Spirit of God!

   Notice, also, that the Spirit of God is as mysterious in His coming
   into human hearts as He was in His working in the old Creation. I said
   before that we cannot explain how the Spirit of God brooded over the
   face of the waters. Some try to fetch a meaning out of the Hebrew word,
   but I believe it helps them very little. It is one of the deep
   mysteries of Scripture. Ever must the contact of the Spirit with
   materialism remain a marvel--and can we ever tell how the Spirit of God
   comes and deals with sinful men? We know that our Savior, Himself, said
   to Nicodemus, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound
   thereof, but cannot tell from where it came and where it goes: so is
   everyone that is born of the

   Spirit."

   But mysterious as it is, it is real--as those who have experienced it
   know--and as those may see who will watch the effects which the Spirit
   produces upon the hearts of men. I would like to ask all in this
   present assembly whether they know anything about the mysterious
   working of the Holy Spirit in their souls. Beloved Hearers, there may
   be many things of which you may be ignorant and yet you may be none the
   worse for that ignorance. But if you are ignorant of the working of the
   Holy Spirit in your spirit, then you are ignorant of eternal
   life--ignorant of the one thing necessary to deliver you from Hell and
   lift you up to Heaven! Have you ever experienced within your spirit a
   Divine Power that turned you from your old habits and old ways--and
   that made such a radical change in you that you are no longer what you
   once were--a change that was practically to you a new birth, a new
   creation? I pray you not to deceive yourselves about this matter!
   Sinners had to be born-again in the Apostles' time and they must be
   born-again now if they are ever to see or to enter the Kingdom of God!
   It was necessary that they should be regenerated in the days of Christ,
   but it is equally necessary now. And it is not merely necessary for
   people who have been to prison or who have been thieves and drunks--it
   is equally necessary for you, the children of godly parents, for you
   respectable people, for you who have never done a dishonorable action
   in all your lives! You are not yet partakers of the Divine Nature
   unless the Spirit of God, in the deep mystery of His almighty power,
   has worked that new life in your soul! Solemnly have I asked myself
   this question, "Have I been born-again?" And I urge each one of you
   earnestly to examine yourselves upon this all-important matter. Do you
   know that this new life has been put within you? Let none of us be
   satisfied unless we know that it is so! What an awful thing it would be
   to be in doubt whether I am a child of God or not--whether I am on the
   road to Heaven or not! May God grant that none of us may be in such
   doubt, even for an hour--but may we have absolute certainty upon this
   point, mysterious though it is!

   We have so far noted that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
   waters as the first act of the six-days' work and that by this movement
   nothing on the earth contributed or was congruous, that this movement
   was a mystery and yet very real. Note, next, that this movement was
   most effectual. "The earth was without form, and void," but that did
   not defeat the purpose of the Spirit of God. "Darkness was upon the
   face of the deep," but He could work in the dark. The darkness did not
   hinder Him and, blessed be God, the deep depravity of our nature does
   not prevent the Holy Spirit from creating it anew in Christ Jesus!
   Without God, the turning of a heart of stone into flesh would surely be
   impossible! And if there had ever been an impossibility of
   impossibilities, I feel that the changing of my nature would have been
   that impossibility--and each Christian here may feel the same with
   regard to himself or herself. But nothing is too hard for the Lord!
   Though a man may have had no knowledge of the Gospel up to the time
   when the Spirit of God came upon him, or though he may have been as
   violently opposed to that Gospel as he possibly could be, yet let the
   Spirit of God savingly deal with that man and all hindrances disappear,
   all opposition gives way and the work of Grace is effectually
   accomplished! Light came when God said, "Let there be light." The
   waters were separated, the dry land appeared and the winged fowl, the
   fish that swim in the deep, the cattle that crowd the fields and man,
   himself, in the image of God-- all these came at the Lord's command!
   Chaos had become a garden and death blossomed into life!

   It only needed the Spirit of God to come and then the work was
   effectually done. And this is a point I want to mention as good cheer
   to some who are here. You may be dead in sin, but the Spirit of God can
   quicken you! Dear Brother, you may be preaching to those who are dead
   in sin, but preach the Gospel to them all the same! It is your business
   to preach the Gospel to dead sinners, for it is the Gospel that makes
   the dead to live! If we had to look for some natural goodness in the
   sinner before we preached the Gospel to him, we would never preach to
   him at all! But we have to go to him where he is, with darkness over
   his soul and ruin and confusion all around--and while we preach the
   Word, the Spirit of God accompanies it with saving power and the man is
   made to live--and he is fashioned in the image of God! Blessed be God,
   the Spirit's work is always effectual! It is possible to grieve and to
   resist the Holy Spirit, but when He puts forth His almighty power, then
   He is irresistible! The will is sweetly inclined and the man cries,
   "Great God, I yield, constrained by mighty love. I throw down my
   weapons of rebellion and I willingly go as Your gracious Spirit leads

   me."

   I want you to also notice that where the Spirit came, the work was
   carried on to completion. The work of Creation did not end with the
   first day, but went on till it was finished on the sixth day. God did
   not say, "I have made the light and now I will leave the earth as it
   is." And when He had begun to divide the waters and to separate the
   land from the sea, He did not say, "Now I will have no more to do with
   the work." He did not take the newly-fashioned earth in His hands and
   fling it back into chaos, but He went on with His work until, on the
   seventh day, when it was completed, He rested from all His work and,
   glory be to God, He will not leave unfinished the work which He has
   commenced in our souls! Where the Spirit of God has begun to move, He
   continues to move until the work is done. And He will not fail or turn
   aside until all is accomplished. How we ought to bless His name for
   this! If the Spirit of God ever did utterly leave His work in any man's
   soul undone, then each one here might feel, "He may leave it unfinished
   in me"--and there would remain no solid comfort for any one of us! If a
   child of God could ever fall from Grace, then you and I might be among
   the first to fall, but Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know
   them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternall ife; and they
   shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand."
   Rightly do we sing--

   "The work which wisdom undertakes Eternal mercy never forsakes/" As
   surely as there is a first day, there will come a seventh day in which
   God will rest because His work will be completed. And as surely as the
   Spirit of God has moved upon our soul and there has come to us light
   instead of darkness, so shall there be a day of rest in which we shall
   keep the Sabbath of God with Him forever, because the Spirit's work has
   been completed in us even as the work of Christ has been finished on
   our behalf.

   II. Now, having thus tried to draw a parallel between the Spirit's work
   in the old and the new Creation, let me go on to the practical part of
   this evening's meditation and try to show you, in the second place,
   that THE PARALLEL WE HAVE DRAWN FURNISHES MANY ENCOURAGEMENTS.

   And first, it furnishes encouragement to those distressed sinners who
   fear that they are utterly beyond the possibility of salvation. "I,"
   says one, "am conscious that there is no good in me of any sort
   whatever. And I am so wicked that grim despair has settled down upon my
   heart." Listen to the text, my Brother--"The earth was without form,
   and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Is not that an
   exact description of your heart? "Oh, yes," you say, "that is a
   terribly true picture of myself!" Well, what comes next? "And the
   Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." While there was
   confusion, while there was darkness--before there was any sort of
   preparation for the coming of the Spirit, any kindling of flambeaux
   with which to break the darkness, or anything that would have seemed
   like the beginning of order, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
   the waters! Then why should He not move in your soul? Others who were
   in just as sad a condition as you are now in, have been saved--then why
   should you not also be saved? You have been a gross sinner, but other
   equally gross sinners have received the Spirit of God, who has brought
   Christ to them--so why should not you? If you have been the vilest of
   the vile, there is one text that still gives you good cheer. It is that
   one where Paul speaks of himself as the chief of sinners and yet
   declares that he was saved. You cannot be a greater sinner than the
   chief of sinners! The chief is first of all and you can only be second
   to the chief. Or if you are even equal to him, God has proved His power
   to save you by saving Saul of Tarsus! Think of what Saul's case was
   like when he was on the road to Damascus. Why, if it were possible, it
   was more chaotic than chaos, itself, and darker than the primeval
   darkness! He was exceedingly angry against the people of God and was
   bent upon their destruction! Yet the Spirit of God came upon him and
   within a few minutes he was crying out, "Lord, what will You have me to
   do?"

   Let me further say to you, poor despairing Soul, suppose such an one as
   you are should be saved--would it not be a wonder of Grace? "Yes," you
   say, "it would, indeed." Well, God is the great Wonder-Worker! It is
   His delight to do things which are very wonderful, for these bring Him
   the most glory. Men can do commonplace things, but wonders are worked
   by God! If He were to save you, would you not forever feel indebted to
   His Grace? "Yes," you say, "that I should, if He would take such a
   black and sinful one as I am and save me." Very well. This is just what
   He wants in His

   children, that they should forever love Him and praise Him--and feel
   that they are under gracious obligations of love to Him. When God means
   to make a great saint, He often uses a great sinner as the raw
   material. It is the man who is greatly in debt who loves the friend who
   discharges his debt. If I were a physician and I wanted to establish my
   fame, do you think that I should trouble about you who have a finger
   ache or some other trifling complaint? No! If I wanted London to ring
   with the story of my cures, I would try to find out the man who is
   nearest to the gates of death, or one who is afflicted with many
   diseases at once, for if I healed him, all would be amazed and it would
   be reported everywhere, "This man has worked this great marvel." Now,
   Christ is the Physician and you are the patient. And the worse you are,
   the more glory can He get out of you! He is certainly able to save you,
   bad as you are, and so He will glorify His name as a Savior. "It shall
   be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be
   cut off." Thus I say unto you, O Soul, though you are empty of
   everything but sin, the Spirit of God can fill you with Grace! And
   though darkness enshrouds you, the Spirit of God can come upon you and
   make you light in the Lord! So you need not despair, but rather give
   your ear attentively to this promise of the Lord Jesus Christ--"He that
   believes and is baptized shall be saved." Or this, "God so loved the
   world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him
   should not perish, but have everlasting life." May the Spirit of God
   lead you to believe in Jesus!

   There is an equal encouragement in this text for those who are the
   people of God, or who once thought that they were, but who have fallen
   into a very sad and miserable condition. There are some who have walked
   in the Light of God and enjoyed sweet fellowship with Him, but they
   have been very careless, or they have neglected private prayer, or
   perhaps they have fallen into sin and now they have got into such a
   state of heart that they cannot see anything gracious in themselves.
   "Oh," says such an one, "I am worse than the sinner who never knew
   Christ! I feel as if I had played the apostate, like Judas, or as if I
   had turned aside, like Demas, loving the present world, or as if I were
   a tree without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I feel that
   in myself there is no order of Grace and no light of love." Listen,
   dear Friend, to my text--"And the earth was without form, and void, and
   darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
   upon the face of the waters." I bless God that I have many a time known
   what it is, when I felt most barren, to be made to blossom and bring
   forth fruit--and when apparently most dead, suddenly to be quickened
   into ecstatic life! And when I have, in my own estimation, lain at
   Hell's door, yet by one promise applied with power, by one flash of the
   Divine energy, to be lifted up and made to say, even in that place
   wherein my soul slept, like Jacob did at Bethel, "This is none other
   but the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven."

   Has not the Spirit of God often dealt so with you experienced saints
   who know what the ups and downs of the Christian life are? Has He not
   made you strong when you have been weak and made you to sing just after
   you had been sighing--and made the waters to be calmest just after the
   fiercest storm and your brightest days to follow just after the
   hurricane? Then have you rejoiced in the clear shining after rain, when
   the winter was over and gone and when the voice of the singing of birds
   was heard in your land! I know you have found it so! Then do you
   nowthink that the Lord waits to find some good thing in you before He
   will bless you? Did He not love you when you were in your blood, like
   an infant cast out into the field unwashed and unswaddled? Do you think
   that His arm is shortened, or that His love is diminished? You say that
   you have been unfaithful to Him, but He abides faithful! Your faith may
   seem to be dead, but "your life is hid with Christ in God." You feel so
   foul, but--

   "There is a fountain, filled with blood,

   Drawn from Immanuel's veins

   And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

   Lose all their guilty stains.'"

   Do not despair, dear Friend--look again to the Cross--begin again where
   you began before! Remember the simple

   story that I told you long ago of poor Jack the Huckster, [See Sermon
   #47, Volume 1--CHRIST'S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE.] who used to sing--

   "I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
   All-in-All."

   Get back to that point, dear Brother or Sister, and so you will get
   back to Light of God and once more you will realize that the Spirit of
   God is working within your spirit!

   I think our text also gives encouragement to those who are working for
   God. You are not now thinking about yourself. You have, by Divine
   Grace, advanced beyond that stage, and you are thinking about others.
   You are going to take a district and visit it--and there are places
   there that swarm with the worst of characters. You do not know any good
   people there who are at all likely to welcome and assist you. Go there,
   my dear Brother! Venture there, my dear Sister, without any fear,
   remembering that although "the earth was without form, and void, and
   darkness was upon the face of the deep, the Spirit of God moved upon
   the waters." Go to that dark spot, for the Spirit of God will go with
   you! He will guide you through the darkness and through the chaos--and
   will help and bless you. Missionaries have gone to lands where the
   people were cannibals, but they have not been unsuccessful. The Gospel
   has been carried to people who were so degraded that they did not seem
   to have any sense of possessing even a soul--yet the Gospel had not
   been without fruit among them! No race of men has ever been discovered
   that has been sunk too low for the Spirit of God to work upon them and
   to save them! Let us never despair of any, or think that they are
   beyond the Spirit's power.

   "But," says one, "I would like to speak to those who are willing to
   hear me and who are anxious to be saved." No doubt you would, for most
   people like easy work, but if the Lord sends you to those who do not
   wish to be saved, and who have no care at all about religion, you must
   not pick and choose your work--you must go where God sends you! Would
   you not like to go where God would get the most glory? Of course you
   would! Well, He gets the most glory when big sinners are saved, when
   those who hated Him most begin to love Him, when those who were most
   opposed to His Truth gladly receive it! Then there is the greatest
   triumph of His Grace and the greatest glory to His holy name. I have
   sometimes thought that I would like to have lived in England in the
   days of the Puritans. It must have been a great privilege to have heard
   some of those old masters of theology preaching the Gospel and to have
   mingled with the holy multitudes that worshipped God in those days when
   this land was a very Paradise. But there is more need of the preacher
   of the Gospel now than ever there was and, therefore, he ought to be
   glad to be where he is most needed. A good servant would rather that
   his master put him where there is plenty for him to do than let him be
   where there are more workers than work! I see the thick clouds of
   Popery spreading over the land in every direction and see scarcely
   anything in the signs of the times that tends to cheer one's heart. I
   see plenty of comfort in the Scriptures! I have abundant joy in the
   Lord and rest in Him, but as for the way in which things are going in
   all the churches--ah, Lord God, how has Your Spirit been restrained and
   how little work does He appear to be doing in these evil times! But
   because the times are dark, shall we despair? No, but still remember
   that when "the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon
   the face of the deep"--then "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
   the waters."

   Was it not so in Christ's own day and in the time of the Apostles? The
   world was sunk in sin, superstition and cruelty--but after Pentecost
   thousands were converted! Was it not so in Luther's day? The professing
   church, like another Samson, was lulled to sleep upon the lap of the
   Delilah of Rome! And the church's locks were utterly shorn--its
   strength was gone and it was delivered over to the Philistines. But, in
   due time, the Spirit of God came into the darkness and the great Truth
   that we are justified by faith--not by the works of the Law--was like a
   repetition of the ancient command and its sequel, "Let there be light,
   and there was light." Blessed be God, the darkness of those days could
   not keep back the light of Luther's preaching! Nor Calvin's clear
   transparent preaching and Zwingli's burning words! And if all England
   should become black as night and things grow worse, and worse, and
   worse, and worse, until they come to the worst--and Satan lords it over
   all--there would be no cause for fear even then! Fearlessly should the
   soldiers of Christ still go on, for the Spirit of God will again move
   when chaos and darkness reign! Be of good cheer, Brothers and Sisters
   in Christ! Pray on, work on, trust on and God will indeed bless you!

   I earnestly pray that those to whom I have spoken may receive whatever
   of the Truth of God I have uttered. And especially do I pray this for
   the seeking sinner. How I long that he may realize that the only power
   that can save him lies outside himself! If you are ever to be accepted
   before God, you will never be accepted through anything that you are in
   yourself. You will have to be accepted in Christ Jesus and, in order to
   be accepted in Christ Jesus, you must have faith in Jesus. If you are
   ever to be a living child of the living God, the Spirit of God must
   quicken you! There is in you nothing whatever that can recommend you to
   God. He and He, alone, must save you if you are ever to be saved.
   "Why," says one, "you drive me to despair by talking like that!" I wish
   I could drive you to such despair as would make you cease from your own
   works and leave off all ideas of self-salvation--and make you fall as
   one dead before the Throne of Mercy and cry, "Lord, save me, or I
   perish!" We cannot too plainly preach that salvation is of the Lord
   alone! Everything that is of

   Nature's spinning will have to be unraveled and the soul must be
   clothed in the spotless robe of the righteousness of Christ. You may
   build on the sandy foundation of creature merit, but all you build will
   surely come down! Oh, that you may cease from such foolish building and
   that you may build upon what Jesus Christ has done! There you will
   build upon the Rock, the real foundation! If the Spirit of God will
   enable you to build there, you will have built for eternity! May Grace,
   mercy, and peace be with you in so doing, through Jesus Christ our
   Lord! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM50.

   Verses 1-4. The mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the
   earth from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof Out of
   Zion the perfection of beauty, God has shined. Our God shall come, and
   shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him and it shall be
   very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from
   above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. To profess to be
   the people of God is a very solemn thing, for the Apostle Peter tells
   us that "judgment must begin at the house of God." Those who profess to
   be His people shall be like the wheat on the threshing floor. John the
   Baptist, preparing the way for the first coming of Christ, said of Him,
   "whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor."
   When He comes again, He will separate the precious from the vile, the
   true saint from the mere pretender!

   5, 6. Gather My saints together unto Me, those that have made a
   Covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His
   righteousness: for God is Judge, Himself Selah. He will not depute this
   office to another. He knows the details of each case, He knows the
   motives that have been at the back of every action, He knows the Law
   and He knows what sentence ought to be passed in every instance. "God
   is Judge, Himself."

   7-9. Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify
   against you: I am God, even your God. I will not reprove you for your
   sacrifices or your burnt offerings, to have been continually before Me.
   I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your
   folds. Observe what contempt God expresses in this Psalm for all mere
   ceremonial sacrifices. They were ordained by God and were acceptable to
   Him when offered with a right motive. But apart from that motive and
   apart from their spiritual significance, what was there in them to make
   them acceptable to the Most High? Does the Lord delight in the fat of
   bulls or the blood of goats? There can be nothing in these things, in
   themselves, that can please His infinite mind, so He says of them. "I
   will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your
   folds." Where the heart was not given with the offering, it could not
   be well-pleasing unto the Lord.

   10, 11. Fur every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a
   thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild
   beasts of the field are Mine. If any man thinks that he can make God
   his debtor by any offering that he brings to Him, what a great mistake
   he makes! Whatever you bring to God, you will only bring to Him what is
   already His! The silver and the gold are His as well as "the cattle
   upon a thousand hills." What we willingly bring to Him out of heartfelt
   gratitude, He will graciously accept, but if we imagine that there is
   any merit in what we give, He will have nothing to do with it.

   12, 13. If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is Mine,
   and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the
   blood of goats? "Think you that there is any offering that man can
   present to Me which can appease My wrath, or give Me pleasure?"

   14. Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay your vows unto the Most High.
   The offering of the heart is better than the gift from the purse. The
   praise and thanksgiving that come out of the very soul--these God will
   accept.

   15, 16. And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you and
   you shall glorify Me. [See Sermons #1505, Volume 25--

   PRAYER TO GOD IN TROUBLE AN ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE and #1876, Volume
   31--ROBINSON CRUSOE'S TEXT.] But unto the wicked, Godsays, What have
   you to do to declare My statutes, or thatyou should take My Covenant in
   your mouth? There were, in those days, wicked priests who taught the
   people what they did not themselves practice, just as there are, in
   these days, men who because of their official position, have dared to
   stand up and declare the Gospel of Christ by which they were not,
   themselves, saved! And in which, indeed, they were not even Believers!
   Are they the men to preach the Truth of God? Are they fit to teach
   others? Assuredly not! "Unto the wicked God says, "What have you to do
   to declare My statutes, or that you should take My Covenant in your
   mouth?"

   17-20. Seeing you hate instruction, and cast My words behind you. When
   you saw a thief then you consented with him, and have been partaker
   with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames
   deceit You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own
   mother's son. How, then, can you hope to please God with your formal
   ceremonies, with your mere attendance at the House of God while your
   heart is estranged from Him? You do but mock God with all this empty
   formalism!

   21. 22. These things have you done, andlkept silence, you thought that
   I was altogether such an one as yourself: but I will reprove you, and
   set them in order before your eyes. Now consider this. "'Consider
   this,' you who are full of heartless religiousness, you who are so
   particular in your observance of the outward forms of religion and yet
   do not think of God as you should--'consider this.'"

   22. You that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none
   to deliver. What a terrible God is this Jehovah whom we serve! If our
   hearts are not right towards Him, if we dare to mock Him with solemn
   sounds uttered by false tongues, this verse warns us as to how He will
   deal with us!

   23. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me and to him that orders his
   conversation aright will I show the salvation of Got. So that what God
   really desires is living, loving hearts and holy gracious lives and,
   therefore, if we do not give Him our hearts and our lives, our
   sacrifices and oblations are all in vain--they are an abomination in
   His sight!
     __________________________________________________________________

A Golden Sentence

   (No. 3135)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the will of HHim that sent Me,
   and to finish His work." John 4:34.

   [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon the same text, is Sermon #302,
   Volume 6--JESUS ABOUT HIS FATHER'S BUSINESS and another, upon verses31
   to 38, is#1902, Volume 32--MYSTERIOUS MEAT.]

   THIS text contains in it much consolation for those who are desirous of
   salvation, more of example to those who are saved and most of all of
   matter for praise concerning our Lord Himself, who is its Spokesman.

   I. Let us begin by noticing that THE TEXT CONTAINS MUCH CONSOLATION FOR
   THOSE ANXIOUS ONES WHO WOULD FIND MERCY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

   You who are trembling under a sense of sin will perceive that the work
   of saving souls is called by Christ, "His Father's will "I know you are
   very prone to imagine that Christ is full of pity, but that the Father
   is austere, severe, an avenging Judge. You slander your God by such a
   supposition! "The work of mercy is the will of Him that sent Me," says
   Christ. "All that I am doing, when I am seeking the soul's good of a
   poor sinful Samaritan woman at the place of this well is according to
   My Father's mind." Christ was not, as it were, introducing men to a
   mercy from which God would keep them, but He was bringing to
   reconciliation with God those concerning whom the benevolent will of
   God was that they should be saved--and more--concerning whom the
   effectual will of God was that they should also be brought into
   Covenant relation with Himself and should enjoy eternal life!

   Sinner, if you get into the garden of the Lord's Grace, you have not
   come there as an intruder. The gate is open. It is God's will that you
   should come in. If you receive Christ into your heart, you will not
   have stolen the treasure--it was God's will that you should receive
   Christ! If with broken heart you shall come and rest upon the finished
   Sacrifice of Jesus, you need not fear that you will violate the eternal
   purpose, or come into collision with the Divine Decree--God's will has
   brought you into a state of salvation! One of the most vain fears that
   a man can entertain is the dread that the Father will be unwilling to
   forgive or the equally absurd fear that he may possibly find a decree
   of God shutting him out when he is anxious to be reconciled. Where God
   gives the will to come to Jesus, we may be sure that the eternal
   purpose has gone before! O awakened Sinner, your anxious desire, your
   prayerfulness, your longing for God are but the shadows of the Divine
   Will upon your own will! Imagine not that you can get the best of God
   in the race of mercy--

   "No sinner can be beforehand with Thee-- Your Grace is almighty,
   preventing and free." If you desire, God has long ago desired. If you
   purpose in your heart, God has long ago purposed. You need never be
   troubled about Divine Predestination. The Gospel which we preach is
   that to which you should give your attention. Rest assured that God has
   never spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth and said, "Seek
   you My face in vain." He has never passed a secret decree in the
   council chamber who shall contravene the open promise of His mercy. "He
   that believes on the Son has everlasting life." If you come to Christ
   and cast yourself upon Him, you need entertain no suspicion that you
   are violating the will of God, for salvation is the will of God which
   Jesus Christ has come to fulfill!

   Another consolation is here given to every seeking soul, namely, that
   Jesus Christ is sent into the world on purpose to save. If I know that
   I am sick and that a physician has come into the street on purpose to
   heal, I feel no difficulty about inviting him into my house. If I know
   that I am poor and that a princely social worker has come with
   plentiful liberalities to distribute to the poor, I have no difficulty
   in asking of him! Why should I, if I know that he has come with the
   very

   objective and intent to do that which I need him to do? Now, wherever
   there is an empty sinner, a full Christ has come on purpose to fill
   that empty sinner! Wherever there is a thirsty spirit, the river of the
   Water of Life is poured out on purpose for that thirsty soul to drink!
   If you hunger after Christ, rest assured that Christ has met with you
   and discerns in you one of those whom He came to call. He would not
   have made you hunger, nor made you thirst, nor made you feel your
   emptiness if it had not been His intention to remove your hunger, slake
   your thirst and fill your emptiness to the full! Look upon the Savior
   as being commissioned by His Father to save sinners. Never indulge the
   thought that He came to save better ones than you are and that you are
   just beyond the pale of His mercy! Instead thereof, let your
   sinfulness, your nothingness, your conscious weakness, your utter ruin
   and Hell-deserving inspire you with a surer hope that you are such a
   sinner as Jesus Christ came to deliver! He came to seek and to save
   that which was lost. Who is more lost than you are? Believe, then, that
   He came to seek and to save you--and cast yourself upon Him--and you
   shall find it so!

   Perhaps the greatest consolation to a despairing sinner which this text
   affords is the delight which Jesus Christ experiences in the work of
   saving souls. It was His one objective. From of old He looked forward
   to the day when a body would be prepared for Him that He might come
   into the world to redeem His people. When the fullness of time was
   come, He was no unwilling servitor to our souls. "In the volume of the
   Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your will, O My God!" Down
   from the portals of the skies the Savior came with glad
   alacrity--willing, panting to save! When He was on earth, He was not
   loath to seek out the guilty--no, it was alleged against Him, "This Man
   receives sinners, and eats with them." He could have healed the leper,
   if He had pleased, while He stood at a distance, but He chose to touch
   Him when He healed Him, to show how near He had come to humanity, that
   He did not shrink from it, but that it was His delight to come into
   contact with all the woe and suffering of our fallen race! He did not
   retire from sinners to guard His holiness in solitude. He did not
   surround Himself with a bodyguard to keep off the throng, but there He
   was among them, surrounded by a press of common folks. Many thronged
   Him and some touched Him who received healing virtue through their
   believing touch. He was at the beck and call of everybody! He had not
   time so much as to eat. And when He did, through weariness, seek a
   little rest, they followed Him on foot and hounded Him with their
   entreaties. Yet He was never angry, but always full of compassion
   towards them.

   He was a willing Savior and found His soul's delight in winning souls.
   That great crowning work of suffering and death, by which souls were
   effectually redeemed, was no unwilling service. He said He had a
   baptism to be baptized with and that He was straitened until it was
   accomplished. The cup was bitter as Hell, but He longed to drink it.
   His death was to be at once the most ignominious and the most painful
   that could be devised, and yet He thirsted for it. "With desire I have
   desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer," said Christ to
   His disciples. He did not hide Himself away when He was hunted, but He
   went to the Garden of Gethsemane--and Judas knew the place--and when
   they found Him, He was willing to yield Himself up. No bonds could have
   bound Him, yet He bound Himself. They could not have dragged Him to the
   Cross, nor could myriads like them--but He went like a lamb to the
   slaughter--and like a sheep before her shearer He was dumb and opened
   not His mouth. All that wondrous passion upon Calvary was a freewill
   offering for us! It was a voluntary Sacrifice to the fullest possible
   extent. What if I say that even in His deepest agony, Christ had an
   unknown joy? I think we have too much forgotten the wonderful joy which
   must have filled the Savior's heart even when going to the Cross.
   Beloved, you cannot suffer for others if you have a benevolent nature,
   without feeling joy that you are taking the suffering from them! And we
   know that it was because of "the joy that was set before Him" that He
   "endured the Cross, despising the shame." As He dived into the black
   waves of grief, He could see the precious pearl which He counted to be
   of greater price than all--and that sight sustained Him with a latent
   joy, if I may so call it, which did not sparkle at the time, but which
   lay there slumbering within even when His soul was "exceedingly
   sorrowful, even unto death." And now that Christ has gone up on high,
   poor trembling Sinner, He has no greater joy than this--in seeing of
   the travail of His soul in souls redeemed by Him, both by price and by
   power, from death and sin! Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it would
   not be saved, but Jesus rejoices greatly over sinners who repent! This
   is His joy and His crown of rejoicing--even you poor tremblers who come
   and look to Him upon the Cross and find life in His death and healing
   in His wounds!

   I cannot bring out the comfort of this text to you as I could wish.
   Words fail me, but I would urge those of you who want to find peace and
   faith, to make a point of thinking very much about Christ. We not only
   lay hold on the Cross by faith, but it is the Cross which works faith
   in us. If you would think more often of the mercy of God and the will
   of God,

   and the mission of Christ, and the loving kindness of Christ, your soul
   would probably be led by the Spirit, by that course of thought, to
   believe in Jesus! Your constant dwelling upon your sin and your
   hardness of heart has a great tendency to drive you to despair. It is
   well to know your heart to be hard and your sin to be great, but as a
   man is not healed by simply knowing that he is sick and is not likely
   to get his spirits comforted by merely studying his disease, so you are
   not likely to find faith by raking amongst the filth of your fallen
   nature, or trying to find something good in yourselves which is not
   there and will never be there! Your wisest course is to think much of
   Jesus and look to Him. You will soon find hope in Him if you look for
   it there. You will soon discover grounds for comfort if you look to God
   in the Person of His Son. If you regard the will of God as it is
   revealed on Calvary, and read it in the crimson lines written upon the
   Savior's pierced body, you will soon perceive that His will is love.
   Turn away from the wounds which the old serpent has given you and look
   to the bronze serpent! Look away from your own death to the death of
   Jesus and recollect that your repentance, apart from Christ, will only
   be a legal repentance, full of bondage, and will be of no use to you.
   As old Wilcocks says, "Away with that repentance which does not weep at
   the foot of the Cross!" If you do not look to Jesus Christ when you
   repent, your repentance is not an evangelical repentance, but a
   repentance which needs to be repented of. Do, I pray you, receive the
   Truth which I have put before you, or rather, which the text so plainly
   presents to you. The salvation of sinners is the will of God, the work
   of Christ and the joy of Christ! Is not this good news?

   II. But I said that the text was MUCH MORE AN EXAMPLE TO BELIEVERS, and
   so it is.

   Note in the text, first of all, Christ's subservience. He says, "My
   meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." He says nothing about His
   own will. Thus early did He say, "Not My will, but Yours be done." The
   man of the world thinks that if he could have his own way, he would be
   perfectly happy--and his dream of happiness in this state or in the
   next is comprised in this--that his own wishes will be gratified, his
   own longings fulfilled, his own desires granted to him. This is all a
   mistake! A man will never be happy in this way. It is not by setting up
   his own will and crying, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," but perfect
   happiness is to be found in exactly the opposite direction, namely, in
   the casting down of our own will entirely and asking that the will of
   God may be fulfilled in us! "This is my meat," says the sinner, "to do
   my own will." Jesus Christ points to another table and says, "This is
   My meat, to do the will of Him that sent Me. My greatest comfort and
   the most substantial nourishment of My spirit are not found in carrying
   out My own desires, but in submitting all My desires to the will of
   God." Beloved, our sorrows grow at the roots of our self-will. Could a
   man have any sorrow if his will were utterly subdued to the will of
   God? In such a case, would not everything please him? Pain, if we did
   not kick against it, would have a wondrous sweetness. Losses would
   positively become things to rejoice in as affording opportunities for
   patience! We would even take joyfully the spoiling of our goods. When
   we have conquered ourselves, we have conquered all. When we have won
   the victory over our own desires and aversions, and have subdued
   ourselves, through Sovereign Grace, to the will of God, then must we be
   perfectly happy!

   Notice in the text, however, in the next place, not only subservience,
   but also a recognized commission. O Christian, cultivate full
   subservience to the Divine Will and let it also be your desire to see
   clearly your commission from on high! It is the will of God, yes, but
   it is well for us to add, "the will of Him that sent me." If I am a
   soldier, when I am sent upon an errand, I have not to consider what I
   shall do, but having received my commander's orders--I am bound to obey
   them. Do not many Christians fail to see their commission? It has come
   to be a dreadfully common belief in the Christian Church that the only
   man who has a "call" is the man who devotes all his time to what is
   called "the ministry," whereas all Christian service is ministry and
   every Christian has a call to some kind of ministry or another! It is
   not every man who will become "a father in Israel," for "you have not
   many fathers." It is not every man who can become even an instructor,
   or an exhorter, but each man must minister according to the gift he has
   received. You are a nation of priests! Instead of having some one man
   selected who becomes a priest and so maintains the old priestcraft in
   the Christian Church, Jesus our Lord and Head has abolished that
   monopoly forever! He remains the one great Apostle and High Priest of
   our profession and we in Him are made, through His Grace, kings and
   priests unto God. You are, each of you, as Believers, sent into this
   world with a distinct commission--and that commission is very like the
   commission given to your Master! In your measure, the Spirit of the
   Lord is upon you and He has sent you to bind up the brokenhearted, to
   proclaim liberty to the captives and to preach the acceptable year of
   the Lord! Into the Atonement you cannot intrude. Christ has trod the
   winepress alone and of the people there was none with Him. But in the
   place of service you will be no intruder, it is your dwelling place.
   You are called to follow Christ your Lord in all holy labor for souls.
   "As the Father has sent Me, even so send I you." Is not this a part of
   His dying commission, not to the Apostles, only, but unto all the
   saints? Let us endeavor to recognize this. When Christ was sent of God,
   He did not forget that He was sent. He did not come into this world to
   do His own business after He had been sent to do His Father's will. So
   you and I must not act as though we were living here to make money, or
   to bring up our families and make matters comfortable for ourselves. We
   are, if we are Christians, sent into the world upon a Divine errand and
   oh, for Grace to recognize the errand and to perform it!

   Further, notice the practical character of our Lord's observations on
   these two points. He says, "My meat is"-- what? To consider? To
   resolve? To calculate? To study prophecy as to when the world will end?
   To meditate upon plans by which we may be able, one of these days, to
   do something great? Not at all. "My meat is to do the will of Him that
   sent Me." The meat of some people is to find fault with others who do
   Christ's will--they never seem to have their mouths so well filled as
   when remarking upon the imperfections of those who are vastly better
   than themselves! This is like glutting one's self with carrion and is
   unworthy of a man of God! Did you ever know a man whom God blessed who
   had not some oddity or singularity? I think I never knew such a man or
   woman either! Whenever God blesses us, there is sure to be something or
   other to remind men that the vessel containing the treasure is an
   earthen vessel! Foolish people are so fond of crying, "Look at the
   meanness of the vessel," as though no treasure were contained within.
   Were they wise, they would understand that this is a part of the Divine
   appointment, that we should "have this treasure in earthen vessels,
   that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." Do you
   think you could do God's work better? I wish you would try! It is
   generally true that those who quibble at others find it inconvenient to
   walk in any path of usefulness at all.

   There are others, of a somewhat better disposition, who find it their
   meat to project new methods. They invent grand schemes! There is a
   house to be built for God's people to worship in--they always know how
   to build it! They say so many people are to give so much, and so many
   so much--the practical part of the business being how much they will
   give, themselves! But upon that point they have remarkably little to
   say. They are always talking of some grand scheme or other for
   impossible Christian union, or some magnificent but impracticable
   Christian effort. Our Lord was practical. You are struck, in the whole
   of His life, with the practical character of it. He was no visionary
   and no fanatic. Though His holy soul was on fire as much as the most
   fanatical zealot who ever lived, all His plans and methods were the
   wisest that could possibly be arranged, so that if men had sat down in
   their coolest prudence to devise schemes, had they been rightly led,
   they would have devised the very schemes which this warm-hearted,
   passionate Savior carried out! He did not theorize, but acted! My dear
   Brothers and Sisters, I hope we shall earn the same commendation!

   Many Christians are too fond of mysticisms, quibbling, oddities and
   strange questions which minister not unto profit. I heartily wish they
   would try to win souls for Jesus in the old-fashioned, Biblical way.
   Every now and then some particular phase of Truth crops up and certain
   Christians go perfectly mad about it, wanting to pry between leaves
   that are folded, or to find out secrets which are not revealed, or to
   reach some fancied eminence of self-conceited perfection in the flesh.
   While there are so many sinners to be lost or to be saved, I think we
   had better stick to preaching the Gospel! As long as this world
   contains millions of those who do not know even the elementary Truths
   of Christianity, would it not be as well for us, first of all, to go
   into the highways and hedges and tell men of our dying Savior, and
   point them to the Cross? Let us discuss the millennium, the secret
   rapture and all those other intricate questions, by-and-by, when we
   have got through more pressing needs! Just now the vessel is going to
   pieces--who will man the lifeboat? The house is on a blaze, and who is
   he that will run the fire-escape up to the window? Here are men
   perishing for lack of knowledge and who will tell them that there is
   life in a look at the Crucified One? He is the man who shall give men
   meat to eat! But all others, though they may carry a dish of most
   exquisite china, will probably give them no meat, but only make them
   angry at being tantalized with empty wind. Christ's satisfaction of
   heart was of a most practical kind--He was subservient to God as a
   commissioned Servant, and busy with actually doing the will of God!

   But the gist of the text lies here. Our Lord Jesus Christ found both
   sustenance and delight in thus doing the will of God in winning souls.
   Believe me, Brothers and Sisters, if you have never known what it is to
   pluck a brand from the burning, you have never known that spiritual
   meat which, next to Christ's own Self, is the sweetest food a soul can
   feed upon! To do good to others is one of the most rapid methods of
   getting good to yourselves. Read the diaries of Whitefield and Wesley
   and you will be struck with the fact that you do not find them
   perpetually doubting their calling,

   mistrusting their election, or questioning whether they love the Lord
   or not. See the men preaching to their thousands in the open air and
   hearing around them the cries of, "What must we do to be saved?" My
   Brothers and Sisters, they had no time for doubts and fears. Their full
   hearts had no room for such lumber. They felt that God had sent them
   into this world to win souls for Christ and they could not afford to
   live desponding, mistrustful lives. They lived unto God and the Holy
   Spirit so mightily lived in them that they were fully assured that they
   partook of His marvelous power! Some of you good people who do nothing
   except read little Plymouth books, go to public meetings,
   Bible-readings, prophetic Conferences, and other forms of spiritual
   dissipation, would be a good deal better Christians if you would look
   after the poor and needy around you! If you would just tuck up your
   sleeves for work and go and tell the Gospel to dying men, you would
   find your spiritual health mightily restored, for very much of the
   sickness of Christians comes through their having nothing to do! All
   feeding and no working makes men spiritual dyspeptics. Be idle,
   careless, with nothing to live for, nothing to care for, no sinner to
   pray for, no backslider to lead back to the Cross, no trembler to
   encourage, no little child to tell of a Savior, no gray-headed man to
   enlighten in the things of God, no objective, in fact, to live for, and
   who wonders if you begin to groan, to murmur and to look within until
   you are ready to die of despair? But if the Master shall come to you
   and put His hand upon you, and say, "I have sent you just as My Father
   sent Me--now go and do My will," you will find that in keeping His
   commandments there is great reward. You would find meat to eat that you
   know nothing of now.

   Let us have practical Christianity, my Brothers and Sisters! Let us
   never neglect doctrinal Christianity, nor experimental Christianity,
   but if we do not have the practice of it in being to others what Christ
   was to us, we shall soon find the Doctrines to be without savor and the
   experience to be flavored with bitterness! Christ found joy in seeking
   the good of the Samaritan woman. Her heart, up to now unrenewed,
   satisfied Him when He had won it to Himself. Oh, the joy of winning a
   soul! Get a grip from the hand of one whom you were the means of
   bringing to Christ--why, after that, all the devils in Hell may attack
   you, but you will not care--and all the men in the world may rage
   against you and say you do not serve God from proper motives, or do not
   serve Him in a discreet way--but since God has set His seal upon your
   work, you can afford to laugh at them! Do but win souls, Beloved,
   through the power of the Holy Spirit, and you shall find it to be a
   perennial spring ofjoy in your own souls!

   But, notice also that our Lord says, in addition to His finding it His
   meat to do God's will, that He also desired to finish His work. And
   this is our satisfaction--to persevere till our work is finished. You
   do not know how near you may be to the completion of your work. You may
   not have to toil many more days. The chariot wheels of eternity are
   sounding behind you. Hurry, Christian! Use the moments zealously for
   they are very precious. You are like the work-girl with her last inch
   of candle. Work hard! The night comes wherein no man can work. "I paint
   for eternity," said the painter, so let us do--let us work for God as
   those whose work will endure when selfish labors shall burn as wood,
   hay and stubble till the last tremendous fire. To finish His work! To
   finish His work! Be this our aim. When the great missionary to the
   Indians was dying, the last thing that he did was to teach a little
   child its letters. And when someone marvelled to see so great a man at
   such a work, he said he thanked God that when he could no longer
   preach, he had at least strength enough left to teach that poor little
   child. So would he finish his life's work and put in the last little
   stroke to complete the picture. It should be our meat and our drink to
   push on, never finding our meat in what we have done, but in what we
   are doing and still have to do--finding constantly our refreshment in
   the present work of the present hour as God enables us to perform
   it--spending and still being spent for Him. Never let us say, "I have
   had my day. Let the young people take their turn." Suppose the sun
   said, "I have shone so long, I shall not rise tomorrow"? Imagine the
   stars in their beauty saying, "We have for so long a time shot our
   golden arrows through the darkness, we will now retire forever." What
   if the air should refuse to give us breath, or the water should no
   longer ripple in its channels, or if all Nature should stand still
   because of what it once did--what death and ruin would there be! No,
   Christian, there must be no loitering for you--each day be this your
   meat--to do the will of Him that sent you and to finish His work!

   III. And now, lastly, I have not strength, neither have you the time to
   consider THE GLORY WHICH JESUS CHRIST SHOULD HAVE FROM us, when we know
   that He could truly say, "It is My meat to do the will of Him who sent
   Me, and to finish His work."

   How could He ever have loved us? It is strange that the Son of God
   should have set His affections upon such unworthy beings. I should not
   have wondered, my Brother, at His loving you, but it is a daily marvel
   to me that Jesus should have loved me. It is a wonder of wonders that
   He should come to save us--that when we were so lost and ruined that we
   did not even care about His love, but rejected it when we heard of it,
   and despised it even when it came with some degree of power to our
   hearts--that He should still have loved us notwithstanding all. "'Tis
   strange! 'Tis passing strange, 'tis wonderful!" Yet so it is. He has no
   greater delight than in saving us and in bringing us to Glory. Shall we
   not praise Him? Do not our hearts say within themselves, "What shall I
   do, My Savior to praise You? How shall I crown His head? How shall I
   show forth my gratitude to Him who found such delight in serving me?"
   Beloved, may the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
   Spirit which is given to us! From this day forth may it be our meat and
   our drink to do the will of Him that sent us--and to finish His work!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN4:1-39.

   Verses 1-3. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard
   that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus
   Himself baptized not, but His disciples), He left Judea, and departed
   again into Galilee. Our Savior was not a Man of strife. He was quite
   ready to contend with the Pharisees on fit occasions, but just then He
   avoided an encounter with them. Besides, one woman of Samaria, whom He
   was going to save, was worth more to Him than ten thousand Pharisees
   who would not be saved by Him! Most of the learning and culture of
   Palestine was possessed by the Pharisees, but Christ thought nothing of
   it in comparison with the soul of the one poor woman of Samaria whom He
   was going to save.

   4-7. And He must go through Samaria. There came He to a city of
   Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that
   Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus
   therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well, and it
   was about the sixth hour There came a woman of Samaria to draw water:
   Jesus said

   unto her, give Me a drink. [See Sermons #2570, Volume 44--JESUS SITTING
   ON THE WELL and #2423, Volume 41--THE MODEL SOUL-WINNER.] The "sixth
   hour" means noonday, and that was a very unusual

   time for a Samaritan woman to draw water. But the reason why she went
   at that unusual hour was because she was one whom other women shunned
   so that if she went to the well at all, she must go alone, for they
   would not be seen in her company. What a wonderful thing it is that
   this woman who was not thought to be fit company for her fellow
   creatures was nevertheless thought by Christ to be worth looking after
   and saving! But those who are the castaways of men are often among
   those who are the sought-out and chosen ones of Christ.

   8. (For His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat) This
   was quite a right thing for the disciples to do, for meat must be
   bought for men to eat. No doubt it is better to pray than to eat, but
   if one never ate, he would not long be able to pray. I have heard these
   disciples condemned for their worldliness and carnality, but I fail to
   see anything of the kind--it seems to me necessary that somebody should
   go into the city to buy meat--and although it is not the noblest kind
   of work, yet, being necessary, it may be the steppingstone to higher
   service.

   9. 10. Then said the woman of Samaria unto Him, How is it that You,
   being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews
   have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her,
   If You knew

   the gift of God [See Sermons #782, Volume 13--SAVING KNOWLEDGE and
   #2277, Volume 38--SYCHAR'S SINNER SAVED.] How much we lose through
   ignorance! Ignorance is often like a great stone laid upon the well so
   that the flocks cannot be watered--blessed is everyone who helps to
   roll away that stone! It is a great thing to know the gift of God--"If
   you knew the gift of God."

   10. And who it is that says to you, give Me a drink; you would have
   asked of Him, and He would have given you living watei. There are two
   things worth knowing--what Grace is and Who it is that gives it. Lack
   of this knowledge often leads to lack of prayer--and lack of prayer
   leads to lack of receiving. Perhaps someone asks, "Why does not God
   give without prayer?" Because it is not His will to do so! His will is
   that we should pray about everything. Did you ever notice that even
   when the harvest is ripe, it cannot be gathered in without prayer?
   Jesus said to His disciples, "The harvest is truly plenteous, but the
   laborers are few. Pray you, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He
   will send forth laborers into His harvest." Prayer seems indispensable!
   It is part of God's necessary machinery. He has pleased to make it so.
   But what condescension of love it is that the prayer of man should be
   necessary to effect the purposes of God! God

   even says to Christ, Himself, "Ask of Me and I shall give You the
   heathen for Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
   Your possession." So that, from the woman at the well up to the Lord
   Jesus, Himself, prayer seems to be the indispensable requisite of
   blessing!

   11. The woman said unto Him, Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and
   the well is deep: from where, then, have

   You that living water?[See Sermon #2897, Volume 50--THE SOURCE] You

   who reverence the majesty of Christ's Deity, the perfection of His
   Humanity, the glory of His atoning Sacrifice, the splendor of His
   Resurrection power--you who know from where He has this Living Water,
   the power to save and to bless--worship and adore Him with all your
   heart and soul!

   12-14. Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and
   drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered
   and said unto her, Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but
   whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never
   thirst.You know that there are some who preach of a salvation that does
   not save--they teach that one may be a child of God today and a child
   of the devil tomorrow! That is like the water in Jacob's well--"Whoever
   drinks of this water shall thirst again." But Christ's salvation is of
   a very different kind-- "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give
   him shall never thirst."

   14. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
   springing up into everlasting life. [See Sermons #770,

   Volume 13--THE WATER OF LIFE; #865, Volume 15--LIFE'S EVER-SPRINGING
   WELL and #1202, Volume 20--HOLY WATER.] The Grace of God is a living
   thing, a springing and abiding thing, an everlasting thing--and he that
   has it in his heart has that which has saved him forever!

   15. The woman said unto Him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst
   not, neither come here to draw. Christ's words were coming true. He
   said that if she had known, she would have asked. And then, in her poor
   groping way, she began to pray, hardly knowing what she was asking for!
   I advise you also to pray even before you quite understand your own
   prayers, before you are sufficiently instructed to know what you really
   need! Ask God to give you what you need. Very often we make a discovery
   of our needs through having them supplied.

   16-19. Jesus said unto her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The
   woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, You
   have well said, I have no husband: for you have had five husbands; and
   he whom you now have is not your husband: in that said you truly. The
   woman said unto Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a Prophet. She
   perceived that there was something about Him which marked Him out as a
   Prophet, so she seemed to say to Him, "As You are a Prophet, solve me
   this riddle."

   20-24. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and You say that in
   Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her
   Woman, believe Me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this
   mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you
   know not what: We know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
   But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
   the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship
   Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in
   spirit and in trut . Let us never forget this. Even if we all believe
   it, we do not always act according to that belief. For instance, we
   sing through a hymn, but it might almost as well be an old song, for
   our hearts do not go with the words. Or while our heads are bowed in
   prayer, perhaps our thoughts are back with our children, or our shops,
   or far away in some foreign land. Yet there is no benefit in coming up
   to a place of worship, or in listening to sermons and prayers, or
   joining in the singing of sacred songs unless our heart is there! Let
   us always remember this, and sigh and cry rather than rejoice if we
   have been up to the holy assembly and yet have not worshipped God "in
   spirit and in truth."

   26, 26. The woman said unto Him, I know that Messiah comes, which is
   called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus said
   unto her, I that speak unto you am H. Now she had made the greatest of
   all discoveries, for the Messiah, Himself, had come to her and told her
   "all things." This was her test of the Messiah and Christ had answered
   it!

   27. And about this time His disciples came and marvelled that He talked
   with the woman: yet no man said, What are You seeking? or, Why do You
   talk with her?They had too much respect for Him to ask such questions,
   except in their own hearts, but their Oriental prejudices made them
   marvel that He was talking with a woman!

   28-33. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city
   and said to the men, Come, see a Man who told me all things that ever I
   did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came
   unto Him. In the meanwhile His disciples prayed Him, saying, Master,
   eat. But He said unto them, I have meat to eat that you know not

   of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Has any man brought
   Him something to eat?They did not like to ask Him plainly, although
   they were very curious about the matter, they scarcely dared to pry
   further into it. And His next words may have deepened the mystery still
   further.

   34, 36. Jesus said unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that
   sent Me, and to finish His work. Say not you, there are yet four
   months, and then comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your
   eyes and look on the fields; for

   they are white already to harvest. [See Sermon #707, Volume 12--FIELDS
   WHITE FOR HARVEST.] "Look at those Samaritans trooping out of the city,
   drawn by that woman's testimony concerning Me. They are coming, at her
   invitation, to learn more about the Christ."

   36-38. AndHe that reaps receives wages, andgathers fruit unto life
   eternal: that both he that sows andhe that reaps may rejoice together.
   And herein is that saying true, One sows and another reaps. I sent you
   to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor: other men labored, and you
   are entered into their labors. The Prophets had spoken and written
   concerning the Messiah. Their words had prepared the minds of the Jews
   and also of the Samaritans, to receive the Gospel. So the great success
   of the Apostles must not be traced merely to their teaching, but also
   to the preparatory work of the other laborers who had gone
   before--"Other men labored, and you are entered into their labors." The
   Church is always ready to praise her reapers, but let her not forget
   her sowers. There are some of us who bring many souls to Christ, who
   are greatly indebted to the work which was done by other men who
   preceded us. There are some who, perhaps, have few conversions although
   they preach the Gospel faithfully--they are sowing and there shall come
   others, by-and-by, who shall reap bounteous harvests as the result of
   their sowing the Good Seed of the Kingdom! No matter who sows, or who
   reaps, the glory of the harvest shall be unto the Most High.

   39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the
   saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
     __________________________________________________________________

Lessons From the Malta Fire

   (No. 3136)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   JANUARY30,1873.

   "They kindled a fire, and received us, every one, because of the
   present rain, and because of the cold." Acts 28:2.

   As much as lies in us, we should seek to do good unto all men, and we
   can never know to whom we may be rendering service. These people of
   Malta never dreamed that they were entertaining an Apostle and it never
   entered into their heads that their simple act of hospitality would be
   recorded in the Sacred Scriptures--and that millions of eyes would read
   of--and millions of minds would think upon this kind act of theirs on
   behalf of this shipwrecked company! They really entertained an angel
   unawares, and they had many blessings in consequence, for we find that
   Paul afterwards healed the father of the chief of the island and others
   of the inhabitants who were suffering from various diseases. We can
   never tell how God may make return to us for acts of kindness which we
   may do to others, but just as it is said that curses, like chickens,
   come home to roost, and that he who throws a stone into the air will
   find it fall on his own head, so do good actions--deeds of kindness and
   charity--come back to us in some shape or other, even as Christ said to
   His disciples, "Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure,
   pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give
   into your bosom. For with the same measure that you mete withal it
   shall be measured to you again." It is the best way to bless ourselves
   to be earnest in blessing others! These hospitable people were bringing
   down upon the island of Malta untold benedictions while they were, in
   their simple kindness, entertaining shipwrecked mariners! At this
   season of the year, in the midst of such a city as this, abounding as
   it does with the poor and needy, there are abundant opportunities of
   using "the mammon of unrighteousness" well by relieving their
   needs--and what you possess would be made all the sweeter to yourselves
   through your ministering to others in their necessities. I am not,
   however, going to speak upon that matter just now--I intend to use the
   text in this manner. First, I am afraid we are very apt to grow
   spiritually cold and, therefore, next, the text suggests that we should
   be diligent in using means for getting spiritual warmth. And thirdly,
   as there are a good many in this world who are cold, as Paul and his
   companions were when they came shivering from the deep, it should be
   our constant duty to seek to kindle a fire and to receive them, every
   one, because of the cold.

   I. First, then, I am afraid that WE OURSELVES ARE VERY APT TO BE COLD
   SPIRITUALLY.

   First, because we are ourselves cold subjects--hot enough, perhaps, in
   temper, earnest enough in pursuit of business, fast enough where
   pleasure may draw us, but ah--how chilly, how wintry when we have to do
   with the things of God! I know that at one time we burned and flamed
   with sacred ardor, but we look back upon that period with the deepest
   regret that it should have gone by so long ago. Even now, when we are
   moved by an earnest discourse, or are gathered with faithful Brothers
   and Sisters, we begin to glow again, but how easy it is for us to get
   back to the icy state and to have our soul frozen so that it does not
   flow as freely as it should! Do you not find, Brothers and Sisters,
   that you never need make any effort to be dull in religious matters,
   but that the effort has to be made the other way--that you have to make
   an effort and need God's Grace to give you strength to make it towards
   holiness, towards fervency, towards enthusiasm? By nature, we are as
   hard, cold and dead as stones--and seem as if we never could be warm!
   And we never are unless God turns the heart of stone into a heart of
   flesh. And even then it often seems to grow hard and chill again, so
   that we need fresh Grace to warm our heart and to keep it beating at
   anything like the pace of life. I know not how it may be with you, dear
   Friends. Perhaps you have been so lifted up by Divine Grace that you
   have never wearied in the heavenly race. If so, you are very happy and
   privileged individuals! But there are some of us who, although we have
   not

   been allowed to actually stand still, have found our onward progress to
   be a hard climb up the Hill Difficulty because we are so lumpish and
   heavy. Often have we had to cry with Dr. Watts--

   "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,

   With all Your quickening powers,

   Kindle a flame of sacred love

   In these cold hearts of ours!

   Dear Lord! And shall we always be

   At this poor dying rate?

   Our love so faint, so cold to You,

   And Yours to us so great?"

   We are indeed cold subjects. Just compare your state of heart, for a
   while, with the ardor of Apostles, confessors and martyrs who lived and
   died for Jesus. Compare, or rather, contrast yourselves with some other
   children of God whom you have known, whose fervent prayers put you to
   shame and whose many acts of self-denial, and whose whole persevering
   service now rise before you to make you blush. Above all, contrast
   yourselves with your dear Lord and Savior. He was a veritable flame of
   fire, but what are you? Alas! Alas, what am I? Cold, cold, cold! Even
   His great love scarcely warms us to anything like true Christian
   affection! We can think of Hell with its unutterable horrors and yet be
   scarcely moved! We can think of Heaven with its indescribable glories
   and yet be scarcely affected. We can turn to You, O You blessed Christ
   of Calvary, and look upon Your ghastly wounds, yet is our soul scarcely
   made to melt! It is sad that it should be so, but mournfully true is it
   that we are cold by nature.

   But then, besides that, we live in a cold country. Who that has to move
   about in this world does not know that this is true? Not only are we so
   chilly by nature that even when we live in the torrid zone of revival,
   we can scarcely keep ourselves warm, but, alas, we are often compelled
   to be where everything is like the Arctic regions! You who have to
   spend most of your time in business, do you meet with many in the
   market or on the Exchange who help you to make progress in the Divine
   life? You who have to go to work with other workmen, do you meet with
   many who toil for their bread who speak earnest words for Jesus? I ask
   you who live as servants in the house, or you whose occupation calls
   you abroad, do you meet with many who aid you spiritually? Have you
   found this world helps you join to God? In the olden time, it was a
   world lying in the Wicked One and God's people were strangers and
   foreigners here--and I fear it is still so. Our very employments, as
   they engross our attention, take our thoughts away from higher things
   and so tend to chill us. How often does it happen that the possession
   of riches brings coldness to the heart and, on the other hand, if we
   grow poor, chill penury represses the genial currents of the soul and
   prevents them from flowing freely, as they ought to do. There is
   scarcely any position in life that can be said to minister to growth in
   Grace. How few heads encircled by a crown have ever been dedicated to
   God and how seldom have the beggar's rags covered the body of a truly
   gracious man! Everywhere it is a cold world in which we live--and we
   are cold subjects in a cold world.

   But then, besides that, there are very cold seasons that come upon us.
   There are times when everything seems chillier than usual. The Church
   at one time seems to be all in earnest--her Prayer Meetings are crowded
   and fervent, her ministry seems full of life, zeal and enthusiasm. The
   members seem to walk together in holy unity and love seeking what shall
   bring most glory to God. But the Church has her winters as well as her
   summers--after her revivals there will come years of dearth--seven
   years of famine after seven years of plenty! And the cankerworm will
   come and eat up the fruit of the land--and that by a long space
   together! When the Church as a whole is cold, it is not easy for us as
   individuals to be warm. I have often heard members of this Church say,
   when they have gone away to join other congregations, that they have
   felt as if they had suddenly dropped out of a conservatory into an
   ice-well. I can easily gauge the temperature of a congregation in any
   place where I go to preach. I can soon see that some are warm and
   hearty and ready to receive the Truth--while it is heavy work to preach
   to others because they evidently either do not understand or do not
   appreciate the Gospel--or if they do appreciate it, they have a
   peculiar way of preventing the preacher from seeing that they have any
   enjoyment of the Word of God that he has spoken. There are churches
   which always seem to be very cold and there are other churches that
   once glowed with summer heat that have now come into their wintry
   season.

   Let me add that there are not only these cold seasons in the Church as
   a whole, but we ourselves have our cold seasons. I suppose we are very
   much like one another, but sometimes, for some reason we scarcely know
   why, we are full of fervor and ardor. We are not only in the Spirit on
   the Lord's Day, but we are also in the Spirit all the days of the

   week! The candle of the Lord shines about our path. We walk in the
   light as God is in the light and we have fellowship with Him--and the
   blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. The Spirit of
   God is with us and the time of the singing of birds has come to us! At
   other times the desire to pray is within us, but we cannot pray. Gloomy
   doubts arise, or carking cares come crowding in upon us, or else a
   dreadful indifference which we cannot shake off steals over us like the
   sleepy fits which come on people when they need to be active, but their
   eyelids are so heavy that they cannot keep from sleep. This will happen
   again and again as we struggle against it and seek by any means and
   every means to keep ourselves spiritually warm. I suppose the
   experience of most of God's people will verify this.

   Thus I have tried to show you that we are cold by nature, we live in a
   cold country and there are cold seasons with us

   all.

   And then I may add that there are some persons who live in very cold
   corners. There are some who not only live in a country that is cold,
   but they are in the coldest part of that country. There may be a cold
   room that is more chilly than any other in the house and some of my
   friends seem to have lived in that particularly cold room. Good people
   as they are, if they speak to you, it is very frosty talk. They never
   greet you with that genial smile that is born of sunshine. They seem
   almost to prefer to have the temperature of winter in their souls. It
   is constitutional with them and they communicate that cold to those
   with whom they come in contact. I always like a room which has a sunny
   aspect, but I know some people who prefer a room that is darkened by a
   high brick wall. If they could have a room near the Old Bailey, with a
   clear view of the gallows, that is the kind of prospect that would
   please them! They like to think of the corruptions of their own heart
   and of the depravity that rages within--and no preaching will suit them
   unless it makes them thoroughly melancholy--and if it makes them
   unutterably wretched, they consider that the preacher is a deeply
   experienced man of God sent to instruct them! I shall not quarrel with
   these Brothers and Sisters--and if they prefer the room with the dark
   or wintry aspect, they may have it, as far as I am concerned. I shall
   be quite content to take the room with the sunnier aspect and to look
   out on green fields, waving trees, shining water--and to see the
   goodness, loving kindness and tenderness of the Almighty both in Nature
   and Grace.

   But, besides the fact that some people are in these cold corners
   constitutionally, others seem to have found their way there in the
   order of God's Providence. A wife who has become converted has a
   husband who has no desire towards the things of God and, therefore,
   opposes and vexes her continually. A Christian is living with another
   Christian of totally opposite views and Doctrines--they ought to have
   fellowship with one another, but they do not--and differences
   constantly come up. Then there is a Christian whose unhappy lot it is
   to live with persons who have no sympathy whatever with true religion.
   Another Christian man is thrown, not by his own choice, but unavoidably
   amongst those who continually ridicule him, or he is compelled to dwell
   with fellow Christians who are all of the cold school and who freeze
   him. Or what is perhaps quite as bad, a Christian is compelled to live
   where he has no one to assist him with a word of sympathy, none with
   whom he can take sweet counsel and walk to the House of God in company.
   These are some of those who live in a specially cold corner. And if you
   are among them, I would say to you that if you cannot get out of that
   cold corner, you must, above all others, kindle a fire because of the
   present cold! Above all others you must give good heed to what I shall
   have to say to you directly about maintaining the warmth of the heart.
   As you have the severer trial, you must be the more earnest in
   overcoming it!

   II. I will say no more about the cold lest you begin to shiver while I
   am speaking of it, but we will now come to THE KINDLING OF THE FIRE.
   Thank God He does not leave us without some means of becoming
   spiritually warmer! There is an abundance of fuel to overcome the cold.
   The Christian being subject to coldness of heart, God has provided him
   with the means of kindling a spiritual fire that may make him warm and
   keep him warm.

   The first great fire is the Word of God. "Is not My Word like a fire,
   says the Lord?" It is so in many ways, but especially because it has
   such a warming influence. When we are spiritually cold and we go to
   hear the Word preached, how it warms our hearts! Brothers and Sisters,
   have you not often proved it to be so? You have been trembling,
   downcast and almost distracted--and you have said, "I will go and
   enquire at the hand of the Lord," and God has given you a message that
   has so changed your feelings that you have gone out with unspeakable
   joy, blessing God that your feet have trodden that floor which has
   become sacred to you through the visitation of God's Spirit! It is not
   often that I can hear a sermon, but when I do, I have sometimes had
   seasons of very gracious refreshing to my soul. I remember one Sabbath
   morning listening to a man who was by no means literate. And as I
   listened, I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks as I realized
   afresh how precious Christ was to me! And I envied the good people who
   could hear the Gospel preached Sabbath by Sabbath and who had not to
   stand up and deliver it to others--and go without spiritual food
   themselves. I am sure you who love the Lord will bear witness that when
   Christ is preached, your heart is always warmed. The preacher may have
   spoken very simply and not have tried to display any of the graces of
   oratory, yet the sermon satisfied your soul because Christ was in it!
   But if there is no Christ in it, you go down the aisles saying, like
   Mary Magdalene, "They have taken away my Lord." It is Jesus Christ that
   you need and when you get the Truth about Him, and about the Father,
   and about the Spirit--when you get the Doctrine of electing love, of
   God's faithfulness, of God's Sovereignty, of God's Immutability and all
   those precious things of the Covenant of Grace, you feel somewhat as
   the two disciples did when, on the way to Emmaus, Jesus Himself talked
   with them and their hearts burned within them!

   Is it not very much the same also in reading the Word of God? I can
   speak more experimentally upon this than upon hearing the Word
   preached. Oh, to get one verse or perhaps only a few words in it--into
   your mouth and keep it there and roll it under your tongue as a sweet
   morsel! At first it tastes like wafers made with honey, and as you
   press it between the lips of meditation, and turn it over and over on
   the palate of mental discernment, at last you say, "How sweet are Your
   Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" So the Word of
   God begins to warm your heart. You asked if there was any love there,
   and now it begins to flame out towards God! You thought the Spirit of
   adoption was gone from you, but now you say, "Abba, Father," with no
   faltering tongue! Your faith, which seemed to be in a swoon, suddenly
   revives and gains new vigor. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, read the
   Scriptures diligently when you are passing through these cold seasons!
   Keep close to the fire of the precious promises and the other Divine
   messages and you will not be frost-bitten. That is one fire.

   There is another fire which is equally efficacious. If you would be
   warmed when your soul is cold, take yourself to prayer. Pray! Pray!
   Pray! Some have said that it is good only to pray when you feel moved
   to pray, but I would rather say that you should pray to feel moved to
   pray When you feel that you cannot pray is the very time when you
   should pray, for when you canpray there may be less need for prayer
   than when you feel that you cannot pray! Instead of its being wisdom to
   forsake the Mercy Seat, because you feel dead and cold, it is the most
   flagrant folly! A man might say to me, "If I put my hand near the fire
   when it is very cold, it pains my hand." No doubt it does, because the
   cold is in it! But you need to bear that pain in order to get the cold
   out. So, when we try to pray when we feel dead and cold, the very
   trying to pray makes us feel an inward pain--but we must try--and keep
   on trying. Prayer is our very life and is essential to our health and
   our growth. As Montgomery's well-known hymn reminds us, it is the
   Christian's--

   "Watchword at the gates of death-- He enters Heaven with prayer." If
   your heart is cold, multiply your seasons for prayer! Try praying with
   somebody else. Ask some Christian Brother to come to your room and pray
   with you. And you, my dear Sister, call in some Christian woman whom
   you know, and say to her, "Come, dear Sister, and let us pray
   together." Much blessing often comes through two or more Christians
   joining their supplications in private. But if that does not help you,
   I would urge you to get to the meeting where many gather together to
   pray. If you can do so, come to the Prayer Meeting and see if your
   heart does not burn within you there. I cannot promise that it will
   certainly be so, for some of our Brethren's prayers are not always
   fervent, but when the meeting is as it should be, we help one another
   to get warm and to stay warm! I cannot tell you how much I owe to the
   Monday evening Prayer Meetings and the other Prayer Meetings that are
   held so frequently in connection with our work here. I do hope that we
   shall never have them less frequently, for those Prayer Meetings have
   been the strength of this pulpit. The pillars on which our ministry
   rests are, under God, the prayers of our people! If you want to be warm
   spiritually, you must keep up the spirit of prayer!

   Next, I would say that in addition to hearing and reading the Word, and
   praying fervently, it will often tend to warm us to be much in
   meditation. Having read the Scriptures, keep them in memory. Turn them
   over and over in your minds and let your meditation grow beyond
   meditation into fellowship and communion with Christ. Sit down and
   think of Him and of His great love to you. Try to picture to yourself
   Gethsemane and Golgotha. Turn over in your mind the all-important
   Doctrine of the Atonement, and meditate upon its wonderful efficacy.
   Think of Christ's prevailing intercession for His people. Think of His
   Second Advent. If nothing else will warm a man's heart, surely the love
   of

   Christ will do it. There is such a warmth of love in the heart of
   Christ that it makes even the dead to live! Meditate perpetually upon
   Him and you shall not long have to complain that you are spiritually
   cold!

   I would also strongly recommend anyone who feels a chill in his heart
   to seek much fellowship with his feelow Christians. I believe, under
   God, there is scarcely any greater blessing to a Christian than to have
   those to speak with who can help him by telling him their experience.
   If two friends are walking together and one of them stumbles, the other
   can help to hold him up. I recommend you young Christians, especially,
   to seek suitable godly companions. We are companionable by nature and
   we are too apt to get the wrong kind of associates. But if we have
   Christian companions, true helpers in the Lord, we shall find the way
   to Heaven much smoother! Be as much as you can with the saints of God.
   I have sometimes spent an hour with a congenial spirit, a man whose
   heart has been warm with love to his Master, and when he has gone I
   have felt that I could bless God for having had the privilege of
   talking with him, yet that very man has said that he thanked God for
   that hour because of the good he had got from me--while it seemed to me
   as if I had got all the good and had given nothing in return.

   If all this should not sufficiently warm you, I would strongly
   recommend one fire which, under the blessing of God's Spirit, is sure
   to warm a Christian. And that is, kindle the flame of earnest service
   for God and your fellow creatures. You may rest assured that the best
   way of getting good is by doing good. I mean, of course, for the man
   who is saved, because he is a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Job's
   captivity was turned when he prayed for his friends, but not till then.
   Christ's disciples had all their baskets empty, but there was a boy in
   the crowd who had a few loaves and fishes. I have no doubt that the
   disciples, as well as the people were hungry, but they had nothing to
   eat except through feeding the multitude with the loaves and fishes
   that their Master had blessed. When the people were fed, the disciples
   also were fed--and when you are awake to the necessities of others and
   begin to help them, you will find God blessing you. I believe that many
   professing Christians are cold and uncomfortable because they are doing
   nothing for their Lord. But if they actively served Him, their blood
   would begin to circulate spiritually and it would be well with them.
   You know what the farmer in the country says to his boys, "You say that
   you can't warm yourselves by the fire? Well, then, just go out into the
   barn and do something that needs to be done, or go and attend to the
   horses in the stable." And very soon the boys feel a good deal warmer
   and it is only because they have had something to do! And Christian
   people who want the minister to preach to them this Doctrine and the
   other, if they had something to do for Christ, would be all the better
   for it. Let the preacher take care to keep up a good fire and put on
   plenty of the coals of sound Doctrine--but that alone will not warm the
   people! But the moment they begin to seek to do good to others, they
   will have kindled a fire which will warm themselves as well as others!

   III. Our third point is to be that like these barbarous people, we
   should not simply think of ourselves in the cold, but SEEK TO KINDLE A
   FIRE FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, because of the present cold.

   It is a very cold period, spiritually, just now. The professing Church
   seems to be frozen so hard that those fine skaters of modern growth
   have a fine sheet of ice on which to perform their wonderful
   evolutions. If God would send us a gracious thaw, they would soon
   disappear! When the Church is filled with the Spirit, her members do
   not find any room for these modern foolish notions about high culture
   which usually spring from ignorance of that which is really worth
   knowing. If God will give us back a really living Church, we shall soon
   find that these evils have vanished. Just as the iron gets bright when
   it gets hot, so let the Church of Christ get red-hot and it will soon
   throw off all this rubbish!

   What is the first thing towards warming people at the fire? The first
   thing is that we must get a flame. And though the Indians are said to
   make a flame by rubbing two pieces of wood together, I do not think
   that you and I will ever get it in that way. There is no way for us to
   get a revival-fire but from God, Himself. If anybody can "get up a
   revival," as it has been said that they do, in any other way, it is not
   worth having! The only kind of revival that is worth having is that
   which has come down from God, not that which has been got up by men.
   The fire which fell upon Elijah's sacrifice on Carmel was the fire of
   the Lord which fell from Heaven and which "consumed the burnt
   sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up
   the water that was in the trench." We need that kind of fire--and if we
   have only two or three praying people who feel that they would die of a
   broken heart if the Church of Christ should continue in the condition
   in which she now is, we shall soon see a different state of things! The
   heart of God is still moved by the prayers of His people! His hand is
   still stretched out in blessing in answer to the cries of His children!
   The kindling of the fire of revival must be from a live coal from off
   the heavenly altar!

   After you get a flame, you must remember that all fires begin with
   littles. At first you have only a little spark feebly glowing and you
   might put that spark out if you tried to make it into a big fire all at
   once. You must let it burn a little among the shavings and chips and
   wood--and then drop your coal on deftly, cunningly, tenderly--as if you
   loved the little fire too much to risk putting it out by putting on too
   much fuel at once. We must not despise the day of small things! We must
   give ourselves up to the full belief that God means us to do great
   things by doing them a little at a time. It is because we despise
   little things that we do not prosper as we might. You may have heard
   the story of a little child who was seen outside a door one day. A man
   had shot down a whole load of coals and she was with a little fire-pan
   taking some of them into the house. Someone said to the child, "Do you
   expect to get in all that load of coal?" "Yes," replied she, "if I keep
   on long enough." And there are many other great tasks that can be
   accomplished little by little. If we are prayerfully dependent upon
   God, great things can be done by any one of us! But let no one say, "I
   am going to do great things. I mean to have a glorious revival. There
   will be a great stir." I do not think there will be anything of the
   sort if it depends upon what you are going to do! I have more faith in
   good men speaking to their children about their souls and in godly
   women praying for their little ones--and in Sunday school teachers
   praying and laboring for the conversion of their scholars and in
   humble, consecrated men talking about Christ to scores, or hundreds, or
   thousands of people! That is how God usually sends revivals of
   religion--and the fire will soon spread when it begins to burn in that
   fashion! And then there is one thing that should always be done. Have
   you never seen your servants--or you, good housewives, have you never
   done it yourselves--have you never knelt down in front of the fire when
   it has been nearly out, and gently blown upon it? That is a fine way of
   getting a spark to grow into a fire. And in a Christian Church, those
   who often go down on their knees in prayer will soon blow the spark
   into living flame! Just what Mary does with the kitchen or parlor fire
   is what you must do in order to get the spiritual fire needed because
   of the present cold. On your knees you must fan it with your very
   life's breath--and then it will burn!

   But when it does burn, there must be fresh fuel for it. Paul knew this
   and, therefore, he set to work picking up sticks. When we once get
   God's revival fire to warm this cold world, the Church must find
   suitable fuel to feed it. We must get some from this Brother and some
   from another Brother, and from our good Sisters, too, and we ourselves
   must be the glowing coals. And if we can be kept close together and be
   fanned by the spirit of unity and by the breath of the Holy Spirit,
   there will soon be a blessed furnace heat that shall warm this cold
   earth--

   "Spirit Divine, attend our prayers,

   Make a lost world Your home.

   Descend with all Your gracious powers

   Oh come, Great Spirit, come!

   Come as the fire and purge our hearts

   Like sacrificial flame--

   Let our whole soul an offering be

   To our Redeemer's name."

   And perhaps while we are trying to gather all the fuel that we can, we
   may pick up a viper in the process. It was so in Paul's case and I
   should not wonder if it is so in ours. I have heard this fault found
   with revivals, that certain persons had been added to the Church who
   never ought to have been admitted. Very likely some people found fault
   with that Malta fire when, in the process of picking up sticks to feed
   it, a viper fastened on Paul's hand. I have noticed that whenever there
   is a revival in the Church, there is almost certain to be a hypocrite
   hidden away among the converts. If you have a garden, you must have
   noticed that the snails come out after rain--and after a revival, slimy
   hypocrites are pretty sure to appear--but what if they do? The Lord
   Jesus Christ did not leave off preaching because He knew that there was
   a Judas among His Apostles! And if we should have a Judas in our ranks,
   should that make us give up our work for Christ? No! But if there are
   in our midst some people who are good for nothing, let us try all the
   more to find out those who will be good for something. And if, in the
   course of the Lord's work, there should be unworthy persons added to
   the Church, so much the greater should be our anxiety that worthy
   persons should be added, too, to counterbalance the mischief that the
   others may produce!

   Oh, that we might have just now the gracious assurance sent from God
   that we are to have a still greater revival than any that we have ever
   yet experienced! As a Church we have lived in revivals for nearly 20
   years--there has never been a time, that I can remember, when there
   have not been souls converted in our midst. I do not know that there
   has ever been

   a Sabbath without a conversion in this place. I do not think there has
   been a sermon without a conversion. We cannot speak positively about
   every one of them, but we can say to our certain knowledge of many of
   them--and we have every reason to believe that it was the same
   concerning all the rest--that the message has had upon it the blessing
   of God. To Him be praise and to Him let us cry that everywhere that
   great prayer may be answered, "Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in
   earth as it is in Heaven."

   Thus have I used a very simple incident to set forth very important
   Truths of God. But, alas, there are some in this place to whom this
   subject may have seemed very uninteresting, for they are not themselves
   saved--they are not themselves converted. I would not have them go out
   of this building without reminding them that the Gospel is to be
   preached to every creature in all the world and, therefore, it is to be
   preached to them! And this is the Gospel--"He that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved." You will observe that I have not left out
   half of it. It is more than I dare to do to play with Christ's Gospel,
   or to clip one of its wings. Christ's own words are, "He that believes
   and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be
   damned." To believe is simply to trust Christ. To be baptized is to be
   immersed in water upon profession of your faith in Jesus Christ. May
   God grant to all of you Grace, first to believe in His Son, Jesus
   Christ, and then to confess that faith in His own appointed way, by
   being baptized in His name, and to Him be all the glory forever and
   ever. Amen.

   [Mr. Spurgeon's Exposition of Acts 28 was too long for insertion here.
   It must be used with a shorter sermon. The Exposition here given
   belongs to Sermon #3127, Volume 55--A PROMISE AND A PRECEDENT.]

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN16:1-14.

   Verses 1-3. These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be
   offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yes, the time comes
   that whoever kills you will think that he does God service. And these
   things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father,
   nor Me. True followers of Christ must not reckon upon having the
   world's commendation. At first the Jews persecuted the Christians. Then
   the Romans took up the cruel work and others have continued it, in some
   form or other, even to this day, for the persecution of the saints has
   not yet ceased. There are many who still have hard times and have to
   endure trials of cruel mocking for Christ's sake. If you resolve to
   follow Christ, men will be sure to call you old-fashioned, ridiculous,
   Puritan and I know not what besides--yet what does it matter to you if
   they do? Your Master foretold that it would be so.

   4. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you
   may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto
   you at the beginning because I was with yoi. Christ did not deceive His
   disciples concerning the treatment that would be meted out to them. He
   did not promise that the road to Heaven would be an easy path, or
   flatter His followers with the notion that the cross which they had to
   carry after Him, had no weight in it. "These things have I told you,
   that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of
   them."

   5, 6. But nowIgo My way to Him that sent Me, andnone of you asks Me,
   Where are You going?But because Ihave said these things unto you,
   sorrow has filled your heart. They were thinking more of their loss by
   His going away from them than of His gain in going back to His Father.
   If they had thought of the Glory into which He was so soon to enter,
   they would have ceased to sorrow and would have rejoiced with exceeding
   joy--but they seem to have loved themselves more than they loved their
   Lord--therefore His absence, which ought to have given them many
   reasons for rejoicing, became to them a cause for grief.

   7. Nevertheless I tell you the Truth. It is expedient for you that I go
   away. "It is not merely for My own Glory that I am going away, but My
   absence from you will be better for you than My continued bodily
   presence with you could possibly be."

   7. For if I go not away, the Comforter wiil not come unto you; but if I
   depart, I wiil send Him unto you. "And He will be of more service to
   you than I could be even if I were to remain with you." The Presence of
   the Spirit of God in the Church is better for the present dispensation
   than even the bodily Presence of Christ would be!

   8-12. And when He is come, He willreprove the world of sin, and of
   righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not on Me;
   of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more; of
   judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many
   things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. "You have not yet
   received the Spirit of God as you shall do after My departure--then
   your capacities shall be enlarged so that you shall be able to
   understand deep Truths of God which are altogether beyond your
   comprehension at present."

   13. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you
   into all Truth: for He shall not speak of

   HOLY SPIRIT--THE GREAT TEACHER--Read/download the entire sermon, free
   of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.orgj Is not that wonderful? As
   Jesus

   Christ said that He did not bear witness to Himself, but spoke the
   words which His Father had given Him, so the Spirit of God does not
   speak of Himself, but He bears witness to the Truth which Christ has
   revealed, and also makes known "things to come." But He will never
   reveal anything contrary to that which Christ has revealed in His Word.
   That which is to be revealed is that Truth which was from the
   beginning. As we are taught it by the Divine Spirit, it becomes fresh
   Truth to us, though it was always in Christ's eternal mind.

   14. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show
   it unto you. Oh, that this blessed Spirit may continually show the
   things of Christ to us!
     __________________________________________________________________

Soul Satisfaction

   (No. 3137)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." Psalm 35:3.

   [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is Sermon #384,
   Volume 7--FULL ASSURANCE.]

   THIS text may very properly be understood as a request that God would
   teach the soul to rest upon Him in temporal difficulties, straits and
   distresses. We are all apt to try to work out our own deliverance. We
   would go back to Egypt, or we would climb the rock on our right hand,
   or we would, if it were possible, force a passage on the left, but when
   the Red Sea rolls in front of us, when Pharaoh is behind and there are
   frowning rocks on the right hand and on the left, this most delightful
   Truth of God is learned--and probably it is the only occasion when we
   can learn it--God is our salvation! If you are in trouble, Christian,
   ask who brought you there, for He shall bring you out again. If you are
   sorely vexed and deeply grieved, why should you look to a human arm for
   succor, or why should you turn your eyes to the horses and to the
   chariots of Pharaoh? Lift up your eyes to the hills, from where your
   help came, and in the solemn silence of your soul hear the soft and
   cheering word, "I am your salvation; I have been with you in six
   troubles, and no evil has touched you; now I have brought you into
   another trouble, but I will deliver you out of them all; call upon ME
   in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you." O Believer, the
   strongest sinew in an arm of flesh will crack and the strongest band of
   human strength will give way! But trust in the Lord forever, for in the
   Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength! Learn to stand still and to see
   the salvation of God, as He says to you, "I the Omnipotent, I the
   Omnipresent, I who have servants everywhere will work your rescue, for
   I am your salvation."

   It is also very necessary for us to learn this verse in its teaching as
   to soul-matters, for no man is saved, or can be saved, unless he knows
   that God is his salvation. The greatest enemy to human souls--I think I
   am not wrong in saying this--is the self-righteous spirit which makes
   men look to themselves for salvation--

   "From the Cross uplifted high, Where the Savior deigns to die"-- there
   comes a voice, as soft as it is potent, "I am your salvation." But the
   sinner stops his ears and listens, perhaps, to the enchantments of
   Rome, or to the mutterings of some false priest, or to the equal lying
   of his own heart while these say, "We are your salvation." We must get
   away, Brothers and Sisters, from every form of confidence which would
   take us from the finished work of Jesus Christ! From the beginning to
   the end of the entire matter, the great "I AM," comprehends our whole
   salvation! Jesus, the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief," was,
   nevertheless, JEHOVAH, the "I AM," and as the "I AM," He speaks tonight
   to every soul that desires to know the way of salvation and He says, "I
   am your salvation."

   Sinner, there is no hope for you anywhere else! "Other foundation can
   no man lay than that is laid." Your hopes, poor Sinner, shall be
   baseless--they shall be as the fabric of a dream. Rest not in them, but
   forsake them, pitying your own folly for having ever trusted in them.
   Jesus bids you renounce them now. Flee away from everything which has
   up to now yielded you a gleam of comfort, or a ray of joy, to the
   wounds of Him who suffered in the sinner's place, and to the Cross of
   Him who was made a curse for us that we might be made a blessing! "I am
   your salvation." You are to trust now. Are you saying, "How can I be
   saved?" Jesus answers, "I am your salvation." Not "I will be," but "I
   am." Present salvation is stored up in Christ--

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

   There is life at this moment for you."

   "But," you say, "what am I to do? What am I to feel? What am I to be?"
   The answer is--

   "Nothing, either great or small, Nothing, sinner, no! Jesus did it, did
   it all, Long, long ago!"

   "Yes, but surely there is something needed to fit me for Him?" No, come
   just as you are. He does not say, "I will be your salvation when you
   have done this and that, so as to fit yourself for Me." No, but He
   says, "I am your salvation." If you do but trust Him unfeignedly and
   with your whole heart--He this moment forgives you, He this moment
   takes you into the family of Grace, regenerates you and makes you "a
   new creature" in Himself! May God grant that we may all spiritually
   learn this Doctrine, "I am your salvation."

   Not that I intend just now to use the text in this sense alone, though
   I think it is highly proper both in temporal and in spiritual dilemmas
   to feel that God is our salvation. Rather let me show you how it
   embodies a prayer of the Psalmist for the full assurance of faith. He
   is asking that, having believed in God, he may have a token for good,
   that he may be able to--

   "Read his title clear-To mansions in the skies."

   He wants to hear a still, small voice within him saying, "I am your
   salvation."

   I shall try, first of all, to describe the assurance intended in the
   text Secondly, to show its blessedness. And thirdly, to set forth the
   way of reaching it"

   I. First, let me DESCRIBE THE ASSURANCE INTENDED IN THE TEXT.

   "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." The assurance which the
   Psalmist seeks in this prayer is one concerning a very solemn business.
   People like to be sure about purchasing their estates. There is a deal
   of searching every time the land is bought, in order to see that the
   title is good, valid and indefeasible. Some persons are very particular
   about their bodily health and they occasionally like to have an
   assurance from the physician that every organ is in a sound condition.
   But in this Psalm David is perplexed, neither about his estate, though
   that was a kingdom, nor about his health, though that was more than a
   fortune to him--he is concerned only about his soul! O my Brothers and
   Sisters, if we ought to be sure anywhere, it is here! Would that we
   were half as diligent to make our "calling and election sure" as some
   are to make secure their bonds, mortgages and title-deeds! Not to be
   sure of Heaven? What a wretched state to be in! To have a question
   about my soul's eternal welfare--a dying mortal, whose breath may
   depart any second in the hour--oh, this is misery indeed! I had better
   know my true state. If it is bad, it will be well for me to know the
   worst of it while there is time, so that it may yet be mended. And if
   it is good, it will be a sweet thing for me to know that it is
   certainly so and then my "peace shall be like a river," and my joy
   shall flow on in perpetual waves of freshness! O my dear Hearers, make
   sure work for eternity! If you must trifle anywhere, never trifle here!
   This anchor, this bower-anchor, this sheet-anchor of the soul--see that
   you have a good cable to this! Let everything else go and now that the
   dread storm is coming on, see that the anchor holds within the
   veil--and see, also, that it is God's anchor of faith, worked in you by
   God the Holy Spirit! Breathe, I pray you, at the very outset of this
   address, the prayer, "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation."

   And you will notice, as it is about a very solemn business, so, also,
   it is an appeal to One who knows about it and who can speak on it with
   authority. Brothers and Sisters, if you should come to a minister,
   whoever he may be, and say to him, "Sir, I will tell you my evidence. I
   will relate my experience--tell me, are these the marks of a child of
   God?" You may deceive him in your statements and he himself may mislead
   you in his judgment. What would be the worth of the opinions of all the
   men in the world as to the state of a soul before God? Certainly it
   would be very suspicious and would give much cause for fear if God's
   people were afraid of me, for I should begin to be afraid of myself!
   But still, though they have accepted me, let me not therefore take it
   for granted that Godhas done so! I may stand well with His Church. I
   may be beloved by His servants, but for all that He may know that I am
   none of His! I may be rather more thickly coated with gilt than some
   others and yet I may not be real gold. I may be better made and
   varnished than some and, yes, I may be but an imitation and not the
   true wood! But it looks well, my dear Hearers, when you dare to come
   before God and have an investigation of your case. When a man is
   willing to have the title-deeds of his estate examined in any court in
   the world,

   1 should think that those deeds were thoroughly sound. When you can
   say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try

   me, and know my thoughts," or can even pray, as this text does, "Say
   unto my soul, I am your salvation," then there is hope for you!

   But observe that the evidence the Psalmist wants is personal
   assurance--"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." How many times have
   we to cry out against that bad habit of generalizing in religion!
   Beloved, let us repeat what we have said a thousand times before, that
   national religion is altogether a dream! That even the idea of family
   religion, excellent as it is, is yet often but a mere idea. The only
   godliness worth having is personal godliness and the only religion
   which will really effect salvation is that which is vital and personal
   to the individual. "You must be born-again." Now there is no way of
   being born-again by proxy. The Church of England may invent its
   "sponsors" at will, but God has nothing to do with such things! I pray
   you, never let the soul-damning lie of another man standing for you be
   tolerated in your soul for a single second! Another man cannot promise
   anything for you, or, if he should promise it, he would not be able to
   accomplish what he had promised. These works must be worked in you
   personally by God the Holy Spirit, Himself, or else you can never be
   saved. I love you to pray for your children. I am glad, poor woman,
   that you are anxious for your husband. It is a good thing that you,
   husband, should pray for your wife, but oh, remember, the salvation of
   another will be but poor comfort to you if you, yourself, should be
   cast into the everlasting burnings! Let your prayer be first for
   yourselves! Let that be the leading point and then you will breathe the
   prayer more hopefully for others. "Say unto my soul, I am your
   salvation. I hear that showers of mercy are dropping all around, let
   them drop also upon me. I hear that conversions are numerous, oh, if I
   am not converted, convert me! I know that You do great wonders,
   Lord--let me be a monument of Your power to save." It is personal
   assurance that the Psalmist needs!

   Observe, also, for it lies on the surface of the text, that it is an
   assurance sent, not to the ear, but to the heart. "Say unto my soul, I
   am your salvation." Now God does speak to us through our ears. When the
   Word is read or preached, we often get a blessing through hearing it.
   But if the words you hear merely come to the ear, it involves
   responsibility without insuring a blessing. Certain persons dream that
   God is their salvation! Go to bed and dream again, and dream fifty
   times, and when you have dreamed the same thing fifty times, there can
   and will be nothing but dreaming in it, after all! You who build on
   dreams had better mind what you are doing!

   "Well," says another, "but I heard a voice in the air." Nonsense! "But
   I did," you say. Superstition! "But I am sure I did." Well, what does
   it matter? I care not where the voice came from if you heard it only
   with your outward ears. It is as likely to have been the devil that
   spoke as anybody else, if, indeed, it was anybody at all! You are as
   likely to deceive yourself as anything in the world. The prayer of the
   text, is not, "Say to my ears," but, "Say unto my soul, I am your
   salvation." Do you understand what soul-talking is? Oh, dear, dear--the
   most of people do not understand anything that has to do with the
   spirit world--there are materialists in Christianity as well as in
   other matters. They suppose that to worship God means to sing in a
   certain way, to bend the knees and to say certain words. Why, you may
   do all that and yet there may not be a fraction of worship in it! And,
   on the other hand, you may worship God without any of it. A man may
   sing God's praises without ever opening his mouth! A man may pray unto
   God and yet never say a word, for it is soul-singing and soul-praying
   that God accepts! And when God speaks back again to the soul that has
   learned to talk with Him, He does not speak lip-language,
   tongue-language, or ear-language, but soul-language! I have already
   said that this soul-language sometimes takes the body of preaching, or
   of the Word of God and so becomes, as it were, a thing to appeal to the
   ears, but even then the letter kills--it is only the Spirit that makes
   alive. It is God's soul talking to man's soul that is needed here. And
   mark you, dear Friend, if ever God speaks to your soul, you will not
   have to ask who it is that speaks, for if ever the eternal God comes
   into direct contact with the human heart, there is no making a mistake!
   Do you understand this? Some of you think I am fanatical. I would to
   God you were all as fanatical! May you have God talking with your soul
   and may the Holy Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are born
   of God! Pray the prayer and may God hear it now, "Say unto my soul, I
   am your salvation."

   Then I want you to also notice that the prayer here offered is a
   present one. It means, "Say nowunto my soul, I am your salvation." It
   is not, "Do it by-and-by," but, "now, Lord, now!" Perhaps some of you
   have heard God's voice in years gone by, but now you have got into
   Doubting Castle. Well, you may pray this prayer right now, while you
   are sitting in the pew, and though none shall hear it but yourself, yet
   God's Spirit shall talk to you and you shall hear Him say, "I am your
   salvation," and then your heart shall sing, "I am my Beloved's and my
   Beloved is mine!" Pray the prayer now and it need not take a moment to
   be answered, for, while you are yet speaking it, you shall feel it. You
   will be bowed down under a sense of gratitude and yet you will be
   lifted up with a "joy unspeakable and full of glory," when you can

   sing--

   "While Jesus whispers I am His, And my Beloved's mine."

   Come, Believers, let us all pray this prayer, whether we have heard
   this voice before or not! O my God make us true Believers and may we
   all pray it now, "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." The preacher
   often needs to use this prayer himself. And he has no doubt that many
   of his Brothers and Sisters have been constrained to use just such a
   cry. Well, let it go up again tonight--"O God, give us back the love of
   our espousals, our first faith, our early joy and speak with Your own
   voice to our troubled hearts, and say to our souls, 'I am your
   salvation.'"

   II. And now shall we turn, very briefly, indeed, to the second point?
   It was to be THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE ASSURANCE ASKED FOR.

   I do not think I shall preach on that at all, but leave you to find it
   out for yourselves. You who know it know that I cannot describe it, for
   you cannot describe it yourselves. And you who do not know it would not
   understand it if I told you what it is. You will understand as much as
   this--that if you were able to feel tonight that God Himself had said
   to your soul, "I am your salvation," you would feel infinitely more
   happy than you do now. Some of you are very cheerful, but sometimes you
   do get troubled and cast down. You apparently have, I know, a great
   deal of hilarity and mirth about you, but at night, or in the early
   morning, or when you have to go to a funeral, you do not feel quite as
   you would like to feel. There is an aching void somewhere or other and
   you have not found out that which is to fill it yet. Now, if God,
   Himself, should say to you, "I am your salvation," would not that fill
   it? Oh, what a different life you would then lead! How happy you would
   be and, being saved, how holy you would try to be! And, being holy, how
   near to God you would try to live! "If I were but saved," says one,
   "then would I, indeed, praise the Lord as long as I had any being."
   Well, poor Soul, I pray that this may be your case--but the blessedness
   of it you must taste to know. "O taste and see that the Lord is good!"
   There is no other way of understanding it than this.

   I think I told you, once, the little story of the boy at the mission
   station who had received a piece of sugar from a missionary. When he
   went home he told his father that he had had something so sweet. The
   father asked if it were as sweet as such-and-such a fruit? Oh, sweeter
   than that! Was it as sweet as such another? Yes, much sweeter than
   that, and when the boy could not make his father understand how sweet
   it was, he ran down to the station and said, "Oh, Sir, would you give
   me another piece of that sweet stuff? Father wants to understand how
   sweet it is and I want to make him understand it, but I can't tell
   him." So he got another piece of sugar and back he went to his father
   with it. "Here, Father, now you will understand how sweet it is." A
   very good illustration is this of the text I just quoted, "O taste and
   see that the Lord is good!" Taste for yourselves--and then you shall
   know for yourselves.

   III. Now let us go to the third point without delay. HOW ARE WE TO GET
   THIS ASSURANCE? HOW SHALL THE BELIEVER KNOW THAT HE IS SAVED?

   The way to assurance is through the door of simple faith The Gospel is,
   "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." To believe is to
   trust Christ. Now, if I know that I trust Christ and that I have, in
   obedience to His command, been baptized, then God says I shall be saved
   and is not that enough for me? Ought it not to be, at any rate? If God
   says it, it must be true! I believe His Book to be Inspired and He has
   put it thus, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Well, if I do
   believe on Him, then I am not condemned. Conscience says, "You are a
   long way off being perfect." I know that. Ah, Conscience! I know it to
   my shame and to my sorrow, but the Word says, "He that believes on Him
   is not condemned." I do believe on Him and I am not condemned, let
   Conscience say what it likes! "Well, but" the devil says, "how can this
   be true?" That is neither my business nor yours, Satan! God says it is
   so and therefore it is so. That is enough for me! We take men's word,
   why should we not take God's Word? He who simply believes in Jesus
   Christ must have some degree of assurance, for the simple act of
   reclining, recumbently resting upon Christ, if it is done truly and
   sincerely is, in its measure, assuring to the heart. At any rate, it is
   the milk that brings the cream. Faith is the milk and assurance is the
   cream! You must get your assurance from your faith--and if it is a
   simple faith which relies entirely upon Jesus Christ, it will, if not
   directly, yet very speedily, bring you some degree of assurance of your
   interest in Christ.

   There are many good people who say, "We are trusting in Christ, and we
   hope we are Christians." They do not like to say that they know they
   are saved. They think they are very humble in saying, "We trust so. We
   hope so." Whereas

   there is nothing but pride, like a thick sediment, at the bottom of all
   that kind of talk! What right have I, when God tells me that a thing is
   so, to say that I hopeit is so? If I were to promise to give a
   subscription of ten pounds to a charity and the person to whom I
   promised it should say, "Well, I hope you will give it," I should
   answer, "But I have said that I will." "Yes, I hope you will." "But
   don't you believe me?" "Yes, I hope I do, but..." Why, if such talk as
   this prevailed among men of the world, they would be for showing the
   door to one another! It would be looked upon as an insult not to
   believe a man--and why should you treat God in a manner in which you
   would not like to be treated by your fellow men? God says that I am
   saved if I trust Christ. I do trust Christ and I am saved--if I am not,
   then God's Word is not true! It comes to that. Since his Word must be
   true--then if I really trust Christ and I know that I do--if whatever
   else I have left undone, my soul does cling to Him, sink or swim, not
   having the shadow of a hope anywhere but in His precious blood--and if
   I can say this, then I know I am saved, for God says I am! Experience
   and conscience may say whatever they like, but, "let God be true, and
   every man a liar."

   The way, however, to increase the measure of our assurance is to be
   found in more study of the Word of God. Some people have not the
   confidence they might have because they do not understand the Truth. I
   think that certain forms of Arminianism are injurious to the faith of
   the Christian--those forms, for instance, which deny the election of
   God, the effectual calling of the Holy Spirit and the final
   perseverance of the saints. These denials seem to me to cut from under
   a man's foot everything he has to stand upon! And I do not wonder that
   the man who believes them has no assurance. If I believe that God's
   children may fall away and perish, it seems to me that full assurance,
   at any rate, becomes an impossibility, for if they may fall, why may
   not I? What is there in me that I should stand where others fall? But
   when I rest alone upon the finished work and righteousness of Jesus and
   believe it is finished, then I can sing, "Now unto Him who is able to
   keep me from falling, and to present me faultless before the presence
   of His glory with exceeding joy, be glory, majesty, dominion and power,
   forever and ever. Amen." Study the Word much, dear Christian Brothers
   and Sisters. Never mind the magazines! Never mind the newspapers!
   Further than they are necessary to your business, you need not trouble
   yourself with them. We would, all of us, be a great deal better if we
   kept to the one Book. Let us be as expansive in our knowledge as
   possible, but let us keep the Bible as the sun and center of the solar
   system of our knowledge--and let everything we know revolve around that
   center! If we knew more of God, we might be content to know less of
   men.

   Next to this, I think if we would have full assurance established, we
   must be more in prayer than we are. You will not be in a healthy state
   if you live without prayer. You cannot live without it if you are a
   Christian--and I mean you cannot be healthy if you live without much
   prayer. I am persuaded that none of us pray as we ought. I am not given
   to bandying accusations against God's saints without thought, but I am
   afraid that this is not a praying age. It is a readingage, a preaching
   age, a working age, but it is not a praying age! When one reads of the
   Puritans prayers, one is astounded! Why, their public prayers were
   sometime three-quarters of an hour in length and sometimes one hour and
   a half by the clock. I do not like that. But their private prayers were
   far longer and days of fasting and of prayer were quite common things.
   I wish we could have a day of fasting and of prayer about this cattle
   disease, but I only say this by the way. I wish we all of us prayed a
   great deal more than we do. We just pray for a short season because we
   say that we are so busy, but we forget that the more we pray, the more
   we are able to work. The mower grudges not the time he spends in
   whetting his scythe, or the scribe the interval for mending his pen.
   Martin Luther, when he had twice as much to do as he usually had, said,
   "I must pray for three hours today, at least, or else I shall never get
   through my work." The more work he had, the more did he pray in order
   that he might be able to get through it! Oh, that we did the same! We
   would have more assurance if we were more on the mountain with God!

   Let me also advise you to attend an edifying ministry and to get with
   well-advanced Christians. Some of the young plants here, when they get
   moved away, suffer terribly from the cold. They come, perhaps, from the
   country full of doubts and fears, and then some of my good Brothers and
   Sisters get round them and talk to them, and cheer them up, and then
   they are so glad. Oh, that all Churches were warm-hearted, cordial and
   affectionate! There is so much stuck-upishness, so much keeping aloof
   from one another that there can be no talking, one to another, about
   the things of God! By the Grace of God we will try to break this down
   and get a little warm-heartedness to one another--and so we will hope
   to get the full assurance by talking to one another of the things of
   the Kingdom of God and so strengthening each other in our work.

   But, dear Friends, if you want to get full assurance, I can recommend
   to you another thing and it is this, work for Christ. We are not saved
   by works, but working for God brings us many blessings. Rest assured
   that if you spend and are spent for Christ, you shall never be out of
   spending money! If you lay out your strength for Him, He will lay in
   for you fresh stores of strength! He does not give us faith that we may
   bury it as the man buried his talent, but if we have five talents of
   faith and use them, He will give us five talents more--and so we shall
   have assurance if we use our faith well.

   And then, again, praise God for what you have. Old Master Brookes says,
   "If you only have candlelight, bless God for it and He will give you
   starlight. When you have got starlight, praise God for it and He will
   give you moonlight. When you have got moonlight, rejoice in it and He
   will give you sunlight. And when you have got sunlight, praise Him
   still more and He will make the light of your sun as the light of seven
   days, for the Lord, Himself, shall be the light of your spirit." Praise
   and bless Him and your assurance shall grow!

   Above all, press through ordinances, and means, and prayers, to the
   Person of Christ, Himself Thomas found that putting his finger into
   Christ's wounds was a cure-all for his unbelief. And so will you. Ask
   Him to--

   "Wrap you in His crimson vest, And tell you all His name."

   Pray Him to reveal Himself to you in His sufferings and in His Glory.
   Ask Him that you may read His heart, that He may speak to you and show
   you the great unspeakable love wherewith He loved you from before the
   foundation of the world. Then your communion with Christ shall be as
   eagle wings to bear you up to Heaven! Your fellowship with Jesus shall
   be like horses of fire to drag your chariot of flaming love up to the
   Throne of the Most High! You shall walk the mountain-top, talking with
   God, for you will have learned to commune with Christ! Your spirit
   shall make its nest hard by the Throne of the Most High. You shall get
   above the cares of earth, you shall mount beyond the storm and strife
   of worldly conflict and you shall even now bathe your soul in the
   unbroken sea of everlasting calm before the Throne of God!

   Let us ask Him to say to each of our souls tonight, "I am your
   salvation." Some of us are going to the Communion Table. Perhaps He
   will say it to us there. And if He does not, we will go home to pray.
   And if He does not speak to us then, perhaps in the night-watches He
   will say it. And when we awake, we will still plead on until those lips
   which said, "Let there be light," and there was light, shall again say,
   "Let there be light," to us, and we shall know that He is our
   salvation! May God bless you very richly for hearing this prayer, for
   Jesus' sake.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PHILIPPIANS 1:21-30; 2:1-11.

   Philippians 1:21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [See
   Sermon #146, Volume 3--the good man's life and death.] "To me to live
   is Christ." If he lived, he lived to know more of

   Christ studying His Person and learning by his happy experience so that
   he increased in his knowledge of his Lord and Savior. If he lived, he
   lived to imitate Christ more closely, becoming more and more conformed
   to His image. If he lived, he lived to make Christ more and more known
   to others and to enjoy Christ more himself. In these four senses, Paul
   might well say, "For to me to live is Christ"--to know Christ more, to
   imitate Christ more, to preach Christ more and to enjoy Christ more!

   "And to die is gain," because death, he felt, would free him from all
   sin and from all doubts as to his state in the present and the future.
   It would be gain to him, for then he would no longer be tossed upon the
   stormy sea, but he would be safe upon the land where he was bound. It
   would be gain to him, for then he would be free from all temptations
   both from within and from without. It would be gain to him, for then he
   would be delivered from all his enemies--there would be no cruel Nero,
   no blaspheming Jews, no false brethren then! It would be gain to him,
   for then he would be delivered from all suffering--there would be no
   more shipwrecks, no more being beaten with rods, or being stoned!
   Dying, too, would be gain for him, for he would then be free from all
   fear of death and, having once died, he would die no more forever. It
   would be gain to him, for he would find in Heaven better and more
   perfect friends than he would leave behind on earth. And he would find,
   above all, his Savior, and be a partaker of His Glory. This is a wide
   subject and the more we think over it, the more sweetness shall we get
   out of it.

   22. But if Ilive in the flesh. That is a very different thing from
   living to the flesh.

   22. This is the fruit of my labor He lived to work for Christ and to
   see souls saved as the fruit of his labor.

   22, 23. Yet what I shall choose I know not For I am in a strait between
   two, having a desire to depart, and to be

   with Christ; which is far better [See Sermons #274, Volume 5--PAUL'S
   DESIRE TO DEPART and #1136, Volume 19--"FOREVER WITH THE LORD."] There
   were the two currents flowing in opposite directions.

   The Apostle seemed to hear two voices speaking to him. One of them
   said, "Live, and you will gather the fruit of your labor. You will see
   sinners saved, Churches established and the Kingdom of Christ extended
   in the earth." The other said, "Die, and you will be with Christ!" So
   he knew not which to choose.

   24-26. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more necessary for you.
   And having this confidence, Iknow that I shall abide and continue with
   you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; that your rejoicing may
   be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you agai. The
   Apostle desired to die, yet he was willing to live. Death would have
   been gain to him, yet he would endure the loss of living if he might
   thereby benefit others. Let us also always prefer the welfare of others
   before our own--and care rather to serve others than to make ourselves
   ever so happy. Now the Apostle gives these saints at Philippi a loving
   exhortation.

   27. Only let your conversation be as it becomes the Gospel of Christ:
   that whether I come and see you, or else am absent, I may hear of your
   affairs that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving
   together for the faith of the Gospel. The unity of the Church is of the
   utmost importance. When there is a lack of brotherly love, the perfect
   bond is lost--and as a bundle of rods, when once the binding cord is
   cut becomes merely a number of weak and single twigs, so is it with a
   divided Church. May we always be kept in one holy bond of perfect union
   with each other!

   28. And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an
   evident token of perdition. "Away with them! Away with them!" cried the
   heathen. "Those who are not ashamed to acknowledge the Crucified Christ
   are only worthy of perdition." But of what was their courage a token to
   themselves?

   28. But to you of salvation, and that of Got. For when saints can bear
   fierce persecution without flinching, it is an evident sign that they
   are saved by the Grace of God!

   29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to
   believe on Hi . Which is a great gift.

   29. But also to suffer for His sake Which is a still greater gift!

   30. Having the same conflict which you saw in me, andnow hear to be in
   me. "The same agony," it is in the Greek, as if every Christian must,
   in his measure, go through the same agony through which the Apostle
   went striving and wrestling against sin, groaning under its burden,
   agonizing to be delivered from it and laboring to bring others out of
   its power.

   Philippians 2:1, 2. If there is, therefore, any consolation in Christ,
   if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
   affection and mercy, fulfill you my joy, that you be like-minded,
   having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Paul knew that
   these saints at Philippi loved him. They had sent once and again to
   relieve his necessities, so he pleaded with them, by their love to him,
   to love each other. He does as much say, "If you really love me, if it
   is not a sham, if you have any sympathy with me and with my labors and
   sufferings. If you really have the same spirit that burns in my breast,
   make my heart full of joy by clinging to one another, by being
   like-minded, 'having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.'"

   3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglorj. This would be a
   good motto for those who are intending to build new places of worship!
   Let them not be built through strife, because of a squabble among the
   people of God, but make sure that all concerned are actuated by right
   motives and seeking only the Glory of God. But sometimes, if one gives
   a guinea, another feels that he must give two, so as to excel him--this
   is giving out of vainglory. Let nothing be done in this way, but as
   unto the Lord and as in His sight, let us do all our works and give all
   our gifts.

   3, 4. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than
   themselves. Look not, every man, on his own things, but every man also
   on the things of others. Consider how you can help others and in what
   way you can prosper them both in temporal things and in spiritual. You
   are members of a body, so one member is not to think for itself
   alone--the unity of the whole body requires that every separate and
   distinct part of it should be in harmony with the whole.

   5-8. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who,
   being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
   but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a
   Servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in
   fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,
   even the Sermon #3137

   death Of the CrOSS. [See Sermon #2281, Volume 38--OUR LORD IN THE
   VALLEY OF HUMILIATION.] He humbled Himself, so be you not unwilling to
   humble yourself. Lower than the Cross, Christ could not go, His death
   was one of such extreme ignominy that He could not have been more
   disgraced and degraded. Be you willing to take the lowest place in the
   Church of God and to render the most humble service! Count it an honor
   to be allowed to wash the saints' feet. Be humble in mind--nothing is
   lost by cherishing this spirit, for see how Jesus Christ was honored in
   the end.

   9-11. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name
   which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should
   bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
   earth; and that every

   CHRIST--Read/download the entire sermon, free ofcharge, at
   http://www.spurgeongems.org.] Some foolish and superstitious persons
   make this

   passage a pretext for bowing their heads at the name of Jesus whenever
   it is mentioned. Nothing can be more senseless, because the passage
   means no such thing!

   What we are taught here is the great Truth of God that Jesus Christ,
   though once He stooped to the lowest shame, is now exalted to the very
   highest Glory and even the devils in Hell are compelled to acknowledge
   the might of His power! We are also to learn from this passage that the
   way to ascend is to descend. He who would be chief must be willing to
   be the servant of all. The King of kings was the Servant of
   servants--and if you would be crowned with honor, by-and-by, you must
   be willing to be despised and rejected of men now! The Lord give us
   this gracious humbleness of mind, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Mocking the King

   (No. 3138)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
   1, 1873.

   "And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. And when they
   had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in
   His right hand: and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him,
   saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon Him, and took the
   reed, and smote Him on the head." Matthew 27:28-30.

   [There are two other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon on verse 29--Sermons
   #1168, Volume 20--THE CROWN OF THORNS and #2824, Volume 49-- MOCKED OF
   THE SOLDIERS.]

   I AM certain that I would fail if I were to attempt to preach a sermon
   that should be worthy of such a text as this. I shall make no such
   attempt but, during the few minutes available for the address of this
   evening, I shall try to set forth our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, as
   He was when--

   "Sinnersin derision crowned Him." I pray the Holy Spirit to enable me
   to do this, for unless He shall do so, my words will be of no avail.

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have before us a King--such a King
   as was never known before! His pedigree is more glorious than that of
   any mere earthly monarch. His right to reign is indisputable. His power
   to subdue all to Himself is infinite, whether He chooses to use it or
   not. His Character is such as never belonged to any king before. He is
   as eminent in goodness as He is supreme in power--"the Son of the
   Highest," "who is over all, God blessed forever"--yet who became the
   Son of Man for our sakes! This is the King who is now before us.

   But what an enthronement was accorded to Him! See that scarlet robe? It
   is a contemptuous imitation of the imperial purple that a king wears.
   See that old chair into which the soldiers have thrust Him so that He
   may be seated upon a mockery of a throne? See, above all, that crown
   upon His head? It has rubies in it, but the rubies are composed of His
   own blood, forced from His blessed temples by the cruel thorns! Look,
   they pay Him homage, but the homage is their own filthy spit which runs
   down His cheeks. They bow the knee before Him, but it is only in
   mockery. They salute Him with the cry, "Hail, King of the Jews!" but it
   is done in scorn. Was there ever grief like His? It amazes us that such
   superlative goodness should have been treated with such fiendish
   malice, that such mercy should have been in such misery, that such
   majesty should have been reduced to such despising! Truly, He was
   "despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with
   grief." And they do not exaggerate who speak of Him as the Emperor of
   Sorrow and the enthroned Prince of Misery. Look at Him and then
   restrain your tears if you can. Gaze upon Him, you who love Him and who
   know how fair was His glorious Countenance before it was marred more
   than the face of any man--and see it all stained with His own
   blood--and then let your heart delight if it can. No, rather let me say
   indulge your griefs and let your sorrow flow in copious streams, for of
   all spectacles that were ever witnessed by human eyes, this surely is
   the most grievous!

   There are three things upon which I am going to speak. There are many
   other things to be seen in this strange exhibition of Majesty in
   misery, but these three things will suffice to occupy our thoughts at
   this time.

   I. The first is this. I see in our Savior thus mocked and put to shame,
   THE EMBLEM OF WHAT OUR SIN HAS DONE.

   Remember that Jesus Christ stood in the sinner's place. This is an old
   Truth of God with which you are very familiar, but of which you are
   never tired of hearing. Having been "made in the likeness of men, and
   being found in fashion as a Man," and having agreed to stand in the
   place of sinners as if He had been, Himself, a sinner, you see in Jesus
   Christ the full result of epitomized sin. Man wanted to be a king, or
   to be more than a king. "You shall be as gods," said the serpent

   to Eve in the Garden of Eden, insinuating that the great God was
   jealous of man and fearful that man would grow so great as to be His
   rival! Thus tempted, man put out his hand and touched the fruit of
   which he had been forbidden to partake. He had been a happy subject,
   but he hoped that he might become a happier king! It had been his
   delight to do the will of the Lord, but now he thought he would be able
   to do his own will and that he would be able to reign side by side with
   God, or even in His place!

   Ah, foolish man, see what kind of royalty it is that sin can bring you!
   Come here and see as in a mirror the image of the coronation which sin
   gives to man. See how it crowns him with mock dignity and honor. It
   makes him look like a king, but it is only a tinsel splendor--all
   outside show and sham. It gives him no royal rank or regal character in
   any case whatever. It is true that there is a crown upon man's head,
   but it is a crown of thorns and this is the only crown that sin can
   ever give to poor humanity. Man wanted to be lord of the earth and so
   he was in a certain sense, but his first act of lordship was to cause a
   blast and blight upon Paradise and to sow the earth with thorns and
   thistles so that from then on he should never eat bread without being
   reminded of his sin through the very sweat on his face! O yes, Man, you
   are a king! I can see your crown! Set great store by it if you
   can--proud, foolish monarch! You scorned to be a subject of the great
   Ruler of the universe and now you have become a monarch yourself!
   Behold your royal regalia! Especially notice your crown--a crown of
   thorns! This is how sin crowns us! We see the same thing in our Savior,
   when He stood in our place--He was mocked, despised, rejected, crowned
   with thorns--and this is what we become through sin. "Sin, when it is
   finished, brings forth death." Christ on the Cross is a yet fuller type
   of what man would have become had sin been let alone. It brings manhood
   ever lower and lower until it plucks his very life out of him and lays
   him dead beneath the clods of the valley. Sin's only throne is a mock
   one! Its only crown is a painful one and its only reward is sorrow and
   shame. In Jesus, mocked by the soldiers, we see what sin had brought
   our race to and all that sin could do for us.

   But our Lord, as a spectacle of shame, was also a Representative of all
   of us in another way as to what sin would make of us. In the time of
   His shame nobody had a good word for Jesus. All His disciples forsook
   Him and fled. He was deserted by all other men and given over to
   mockery. That is just what our condition would be apart from Christ!
   And, mark you, it is just what will be the condition of every sinner
   who has no share in Christ's substitutionary Sacrifice. The angels that
   kept their first estate must be ashamed of men--and redeemed men,
   themselves, will, throughout eternity, be ashamed of ungodly men.
   Daniel tells us that when men shall awake, after the
   resurrection--unforgiven, unsaved--they will wake up "to shame and
   everlasting contempt." Among the pains and miseries of the world to
   come, to the ungodly, this will perhaps be one of the most
   crushing--that the whole universe will ring with scorn of them! There
   will not be any beings capable of thought that will have any admiration
   for sinners, then! They will all wonder with the wonderment of contempt
   how men could ever have acted as they have done. I think some angel
   will say to them, "You, created by God and fed by His bounty, used your
   breath only to speak against the Most High. Though every day you owed
   every morsel that you ate and even the garments on your backs to the
   benevolence of God--the gifts of His charity--you ungratefully lifted
   up your heel against Him! You were constantly receiving favors from the
   plentiful Benefactor and yet were never grateful for them. Shame on
   you, you ungrateful men and women!" And then the angel might say, "And
   after you had sinned so foully, the Gospel was brought to you and you
   were bid to believe in Jesus. Christ crucified was set before you, but
   even that wondrous sight never touched your heart, or, if your heart
   was touched for a little while, the impression soon wore off, for you
   turned your back upon that wondrous sight and said, by your actions, if
   not by your words, that it was nothing to you that Jesus should die!"
   It seems to me that an angel, looking down upon a sinner who has
   rejected Christ, will think of him as some sevenfold atrocity of
   nature!

   My dear Hearers, do not think that I am speaking too strongly. I am
   not, for there can be no crime that can be equal to that of the
   rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by a sinner who has had the Gospel
   preached to him! It will be proven to be so in the world to come if not
   in this. And I believe that you impenitent sinners will be ashamed of
   yourselves, then, and that you will call upon the mountains and rocks
   to fall upon you, to hide you from the face of Him that sits upon the
   Throne, because you will feel so mean, so wretched, so contemptible
   even to yourselves as you remember that Jesus Christ upon the Cross,
   with unparalleled love, had no charms for you! You will then see what
   you do not appear to see now-- that you must have been the meanest
   creature that ever existed that you did not at once fly to His arms,
   kiss His feet and then and there say, "Blessed be God for such a
   Savior! I love Him and will spend and be spent for Him all my days."

   Jesus Christ there, as an object of shame and scorn, is only a picture
   and emblem of what every sinner is and what every sinner will be unless
   renewed by Grace--he will be an object of everlasting shame and
   contempt! How the very devils in Hell will mock him throughout
   eternity! He shall wear his mock crown--it will not even be a crown of
   thorns--it will be a circle of flames of fire! But how terrible will be
   the laughter of the fiends in the Pit as they gather around him and
   cry, "You would be your own master, would you not? You would be a king,
   would you not? You would not kiss the Son, you would not yield to His
   sway, you would have your own way! Now see what it has all come to--a
   crown of fire that cannot be quenched! You said that you could save
   yourself--why did you not do so? You said that you could make yourself
   fit for Heaven any day without a Savior--why did you not do so?" Such
   mocking as these, which will come as much from the man, himself, as
   from his companions in misery, will make him realize that the fruit of
   sin is shame--and that it is bitter beyond all description or
   imagination!

   II. Now, secondly, our Savior thus mocked, despised and rejected of
   men, gives us A PICTURE OF THE WORLD'S ESTIMATE OF HIM.

   Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth as the Savior sent
   from God, not, "to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
   might be saved." What does the world think of Him? He has lived upon
   the earth 33 years and all that time He has done nothing but deeds of
   kindness to all with whom He has come into contact. And now the world
   is about to give its verdict concerning Him. What eulogy will it pass
   upon this great Lover of humanity? What will it say to this grandest of
   all philanthropists? What are the rewards with which it will seek to
   ennoble Him? There they are! There they are! Coarse laughter and cruel
   mockery in the common room of the Praetorian guards! That is what the
   world thinks of Christ--it thinks nothingof Him! It ridicules and
   despises Him!

   "But," some of you say, "we have never treated Christ like that!"
   Listen, Sirs, there are some of you in this house who are quite
   indifferent to the Lord Jesus Christ. You pay some outward deference to
   religious worship, but you have never given your hearts to Christ. You
   have never spent even an hour in your whole lives in seriously
   meditating upon His blessed Person and His glorious work. You are not
   in a right state of heart to speak to His praise and glory, neither can
   you do anything to extend His cause and Kingdom in the earth. It is
   true that you do not blaspheme Him--you are not openly in opposition to
   Him, but you are just indifferent. Can there be anything much worse
   than indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ? He is so loving and gentle,
   and so tender of heart that to be indifferent to Him is to cut Him to
   the quick! Oh, had He been indifferent to us--when there was no other
   eye to pity us and no other arm to save us--if He had been indifferent
   to us, then, instead of meeting in this place tonight to hear of Him,
   we would, all of us, have been in Hell! But He was not indifferent to
   us, so let none of us be so cruel as to be indifferent to Him.

   There are some who are not indifferent, for they are opposed to
   Christ--not to the Christ whom they have imagined, but to the real
   Christ of Calvary! If they hear the Gospel preached simply as we find
   it in the Bible, they are very angry. They can admire any false gospel
   that men have manufactured, but the Gospel of the Bible does not suit
   them. When they listen to that, they are carried away with wrath and
   indignation. For instance, the great central Doctrine of
   Substitution--Christ suffering in the sinner's place--how many turn
   away with contempt from that plainly revealed Truth! Then the Doctrine
   of Justification by Faith, which is the very marrow of Christ's
   Gospel--how many are incensed at that and cry out against it! The true
   Christ, the real Christ--they are angry at every mention of Him!
   Perhaps there are some of you who have been persecuting your children
   because they have been speaking about the Savior. Do I address a
   husband who has spoken very bitterly to his wife because of her
   religion, or a brother who has been persecuting his sister because she
   is a Christian, or an employer who has been sneering at and ridiculing
   his godly employee? Do you not know that in acting thus, you are
   ridiculing Christ Himself? For, if these people are really followers of
   Christ, He counts that whatever is done to them is done to Himself. He
   said to Saul of Tarsus, "Why do you persecute Me?" Saul had no idea
   that he was persecuting the Lord--he thought it was only a few poor
   deluded men and women that he was hauling off to prison or to
   death--but it was Christ, Himself, in the person of His followers, whom
   Saul was persecuting! Take care what you are doing, I pray you, you who
   are thus persecuting the Christ of God, for it is very common for
   Christ, in this way, to receive from the world nothing but indifference
   and contempt, or actual opposition and persecution!

   And, alas, I grieve to have to say it, but I fear that Christ is
   crowned with thorns and mocked by a great many who scarcely think they
   are doing so. I mean, for instance, do you not feel that it is mocking
   the Savior to have His image set up in many countries as an idol to be
   worshipped? Even in our own land you may find tens of thousands bowing
   down before what they think to be the image of Christ or before a
   picture of His Cross! I would rather die a thousand deaths, if I could
   do so, than that anyone should set up my image and turn it into a god!
   Yet I am only a poor weak, sinful man and, therefore, so to degrade me
   would not matter much--but to take Jesus Christ, the pure and perfect
   Son of God, and make an idol of Him--a detestable loathsome thing, for
   such is an idol--must cut Him to the quick! It must daily crucify Him
   afresh and put Him to an open shame. If you will make idols, take
   devils and make idols of them! But to take the Son of God and make an
   idol of Him is infamous! When the poor heathen bow before their ugly
   idol of wood or stone, it is degraded by being put to such an evil
   use--but when the immaculate Son of God has His image prostituted to
   such a vile use as that of being made part of the machinery of
   idolatry, it is atrocious! Now is He mocked indeed!

   But there are other people who seem determined to mock Christ in other
   ways. He instituted the ordinance of Believers' Baptism to be the
   introductory rite into Church fellowship, but the mockers have changed
   the subject, mode and meaning of the ordinance and turned it into a
   piece of witchcraft which, they say, regenerates unconscious babies and
   makes them members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the
   Kingdom of Heaven! Christ also instituted a simple Supper of bread and
   wine to be a memorial of His death. But the mockers have changed that
   ordinance into the sacrifice of the "mass," a thing for "priests" to
   perform, saying that they make the bread and wine into the actual flesh
   and blood of Jesus Christ! Oh, these are dreadful horrors! I sometimes
   marvel that the earth does not open and swallow up these mockers and
   that Almighty God still allows these abominations to continue! Surely
   the mockery of Christ by the Praetorian guard was not such a crime as
   this! Then there are others who mock Christ in another way. They preach
   Christ but say that He is nothing but a man. They exalt His humanity,
   but deny His Deity! Is not this doing spiritually what the soldiers did
   literally? Such preachers put on Christ a purple robe but, as they deny
   His Deity, it is only a mock robe--it is not the true purple of
   Omnipotence and Omniscience which belongs to Him of whom the Psalmist
   said, "The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty." They put on Him
   the crown of humanity, but it is only a crown of thorns! They put in
   His hand a scepter, but it is nothing but a reed! Their christ is
   nothing but a man and not the co-equal and co-eternal Son of God,
   Christ Jesus our dear Lord and Savior! They have taken away the King's
   real regalia, His real scepter and His real crown--and thus they have
   degraded Him to their own level. Or rather, I should say that they
   would do so if they could! It is thus that Jesus is still mocked and
   shamefully entreated by some whose preaching consists of philosophical
   essays in which there is no mention of the precious blood of
   Christ--the Atonement and all the other grand old Doctrines of
   Christianity are utterly ignored! This is just imitating the Roman
   soldiers who set Christ up on an old chair and mocked Him with all the
   emblem of royalty travestied and with everything that constituted regal
   power and majesty taken away from Him.

   Worst of all, there are some professors who, in a certain sense, hold
   the Truth, but who hold it in unrighteousness! There are some who say
   that they love the Lord Jesus Christ and they will probably come with
   us to the Communion Table tonight pretending that they do love Him, yet
   knowing all the while that Christ has no real power over their lives. I
   marvel at some of you who can degrade yourselves by drunkenness and by
   even worse sins, or who can be guilty of dishonesty in business, or who
   live altogether graceless lives and yet dare to talk as if you were
   trusting in the precious blood and righteousness of Christ! Oh, how you
   mock Him and insult Him by acting thus! Never did the soldiers' spit,
   which ran down His blessed cheeks in that season of shame, dishonor Him
   as much as when His praises are sung here by you who will, tomorrow, be
   singing a lascivious song, or who even dare to come to His Table fresh
   from the haunts of sin! May God have mercy upon you and turn you from
   your evil ways, for, if He shall not do so, there shall be no
   punishment too stern to mark His sense of your gross insults to His
   Son! I charge you, in the name of the thrice holy Jehovah, if you are
   living in sin, to refrain from pretending to be saints! If you cannot
   keep close to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will not follow after
   holiness, I beseech you not to play the fool with God and the liar to
   yourselves by saying that Christ is your King! The devil is your king,
   so you cannot love the cup of the Lord while you love the cup of the
   drunkard! And you must not sit down to feast with the saints while you
   revel in uncleanness! How can you enjoy the pleasures of religion while
   you are satiated with the pleasures of the world?

   You think that I am speaking severely and so I am, for I sometimes feel
   almost brokenhearted over some whose inconsistencies make sad havoc in
   the Church, "of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
   weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ." Talk not of
   Roman soldiers mocking Jesus while there are wanton professors,

   while there are dishonest professors, while there are unforgiving and
   unchaste professors who dare even to come to the Table of the Lord! May
   God preserve all of us from ever mocking Christ in such a way as this!

   III. Time fails me, or it would do so if I lingered over this theme as
   I might and, therefore, my last point shall be this. The Lord Jesus,
   thus mocked and despised, is THE MODEL TO US OF WHAT OUR CONDUCT SHOULD
   BE.

   Oh, how He loved us! Oh, how He loved us! I cannot find any other
   sentence coming to my tongue but that same one a third time as I look
   at Him--oh, how He loved us! This is He whose "eyes are as the eyes of
   doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set," whose
   "lips are like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh," whose "head is
   as the most fine gold and His locks are bushy and black as a raven." He
   is the Altogether Lovely One, yet He was most shamefully treated--and
   He willingly endured it for our sake! There is a famous picture which
   represents the Savior wearing the crown of thorns. And at the bottom of
   it are these words, written in German, "I suffered this for you; what
   have you done for Me?" Count Zinzendorf, then frivolous and worldly,
   walked into the picture gallery and read those words. He stopped a
   while and then he went out a new man in Christ--to be a most devoted
   servant of the Lord for the rest of his days! I wish I could paint that
   picture now by my words so that Christ might be visibly set forth
   before you and that you might then hear Him say, "I suffered this for
   you; what have you done for Me?" What actions can ever be worthy of
   such self-sacrificing love? What gifts can ever be equal to such
   unparalleled affection? What high and fervent thoughts shall ever rise
   to the height of this great argument? What consecration shall ever be
   worthy of Him? What all-consuming zeal, eating us up for His sake,
   shall ever approach the ardor of His love for us? I ask you that say
   that you love Him, to judge for yourselves how you ought to act towards
   Him who was willingly put into the place of scorn for you!

   One or two things are perfectly clear. First, that none of us ought,
   henceforth, to ever court ease, pomp and show. When the Crusaders took
   Jerusalem and Baldwin was proclaimed king, he refused to have a crown
   put on his head, for he said, "How can I wear a crown of gold where my
   Master wore a crown of thorns?" I sometimes wonder how professing
   Christians can dress as finely as some of them do. I wish they had
   clearly before their eyes the likeness of their Lord dressed in the
   scarlet robe, crowned with thorns and made the subject of the soldiers'
   cruel mockery. They would not then care as they do now for those pretty
   things which, after all, are often only ugly things to those who have
   true taste. Jesus Christ would not pick out as His imitators those who
   make a grand display--He was notable for His poverty and His shame--but
   some professing Christians are never happy unless they are notable for
   show. Let us give all that sort of thing up for the love of Jesus
   Christ our Lord!

   Then, again, it is quite clear that we ought not to care about scorn.
   Scorn? Let us scorn scorn! Does the world laugh at us? Let us laugh at
   the world's laughter and say to it, "Do you despise us? It is not one
   half as much as we despise you! Our fathers despised your sword, O
   world--your dungeons, your racks, your gallows, your stakes--and do you
   think that we shall tremble at your scoffs and jeers?" Certain infidel
   writers, when they caricature Christian people or the Church as a
   whole, think they have done a clever thing--but how insignificant and
   trifling it all is--a thing scarcely worth mentioning! Our Lord was so
   scorned, that any satire we may have to endure will be only a
   compliment in comparison with what He had to bear! And present-day
   ridicule and scorn cannot mix a cup anything like that which He drank
   to the dregs. His cup was so bitter that anything they can give us to
   drink is comparatively sweet. They began so fiercely with Him that they
   cannot do anything as bad as that to us! They called the Master of the
   house, Beelzebub, so they cannot call His servants by any worse name
   than that! They mocked Him and put Him to death. They brought forth
   their sharpest weapons, first, so that the puny laughter and scorn that
   they bring against Christians, now, are really not worthy of a moment's
   consideration! Yet I know some who are very much troubled by them.

   "Ah," says one, "I am a Christian, I hope, but I have been
   misrepresented by those who ought to know what I really am." Well, but
   is that a new thing? You need not be astonished, for that is just what
   they did with Jesus. You might doubt whether you were a true servant of
   Christ if they did not tar you with the same brush that they used for
   Him! "Ah, but they say such cruel things about me and have such a way
   of jeering at me that it quite stings me." Just so, but if they even
   crown you with thorns, you may be sure that the points off the thorns
   are first broken off, for Christ had them on His head and He has taken
   away the sharpness of them! And if the ungodly mock you, it never can
   be with that refined irony with which the soldiers mocked Him when they
   said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Who is ashamed to be a Christian? Yes,
   who is ashamed to be a Nonconformist Christian? Who is ashamed to be
   called by the name of that Church to which he belongs? If there are any
   such here, let them sneak out the back way, for cowards are not needed
   in the army of God! But if you know that you are followers of Christ,
   glory in that blessed fact and never blush at being put to shame for
   it! No, rather count "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
   treasures in Egypt."

   Before I close, I just want to say that I think such a text as this
   ought to stir up all of us who love the Lord to be doing something for
   Christ that will demand self-denial I think it must be the reading of
   such a passage as this that has made some of our Brothers and Sisters
   go and labor among the very lowest of our population--where filth and
   vice abound. I can understand a delicately-nurtured lady devoting
   herself to such work as that, and a gentleman of the highest culture
   toiling heroically among the people in the worst slums in London, after
   having seen Christ wearing the crown of thorns. I can understand a
   missionary, for Christ's sake, living and laboring in the midst of
   tenfold filth in China and making himself a Chinaman among the Chinese
   that he may win them to the Savior. I can understand something of the
   spirit that has made men and women devote themselves entirely to the
   causes of Christ, going about preaching the Word, or ministering to the
   poor or the sick. I can understand how some have even gone to
   plague-infested cities and lived and died among the sick and the dying.

   When once we have seen Christ and His crown of thorns, there ought to
   be such enthusiasm as would make us capable of any deed of daring for
   Him! As I look at my Master's head environed with thorns, I feel that
   any man who loves the Savior must grow heroic at the sight if the
   Spirit of God will but help him to see it as he should. But, my
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is not for me to suggest what you
   should do, but for each one of you to suggest it to yourselves. But I
   would ask each one of you whether you cannot do something for Jesus
   which you have never done before. Make some sacrifice, wear a crown of
   thorns--I mean spiritually--for His sake. Go a step farther than you
   have ever gone before, plunge deeper into the waters of consecration,
   give yourselves up to Christ more completely from this night forward! I
   pray that you may. I pray the Spirit of God to enable you to do it and
   unto the Lord Jesus shall be honor and glory in compensation for His
   shame--and surely He richly deserves that compensation! May He have it
   now, for His own dear name's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS28.

   Verses 1-3. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island
   was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little
   kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us, every one, because
   of the present rain and

   because of the cold. [See Sermon #3136, Volume 55--LESSONS FROM THE
   MALTA FIRE.] And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks. It must
   have been a fine sight to see the great Apostle of the Gentiles
   gathering a bundle of sticks to put on the fire! But the men who can do
   great things are usually the men who do not disdain to do little
   things.

   3-5. And laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and
   fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast
   hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a
   murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers
   not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no har
   . Was not this a fulfillment of the Master's words concerning the signs
   following faith in Him? "They shall take up serpents." Whether this
   viper had bitten Paul so as to really fill his veins with venom, we do
   not know--but it is an equal miracle whether it had done so or not.
   Whether the sting had already poisoned him or not, his life was
   preserved, and that was sufficient.

   6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead
   suddenly: but after they had looked a

   great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and
   said that he was a go . Those who saw what had happened to him regarded
   it as so marvelous that they thought he must be one of their heathen
   deities who had come down to the earth! He was not a god, however--but
   he was a man of God, and God had preserved him in the hour of peril.

   7-10. In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the
   island whose name was Publius, who received us, and lodged us three
   days courteously. And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay
   sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and
   prayed, and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was
   done, others, also, which had diseases in the island, came and were
   healed: who also honored us with many honors; and when we de-

   parted, they loaded us with such things as were necessary. Happy island
   of Melita to have such a missionary driven on its shore, to heal the
   sick and preach the Gospel to the people! The calamities of ministers
   are often a benediction to the people. The shipwreck of Paul resulted
   in blessing to that island which otherwise it might have missed. Let
   us, as God's servants, leave ourselves in His hands and believe that He
   can sometimes use us better by means of a shipwreck than if He had
   given the winds and waves charge concerning us to bear us safely to our
   desired haven!

   11-13. And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria,
   which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And
   landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from there we
   fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south
   wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli Those who have ever been
   there regard the spot as almost sacred where Paul set his foot on his
   way to Rome. It is a place where there is an abundance of hot springs,
   a place which of old was frequented for healing. I have stood there
   with intense delight! "We came the next day to Puteoli."

   14. Where we foundbrethrei.. There were some Christians there. See how
   soon the Gospel had spread as far as to this seaport town? Probably
   some Christian sailors carried it there. Blessed will it be when the
   ships of Tarshish shall bear not only men especially set apart as
   missionaries, but when every sailor shall be a missionary for Christ!
   "We came the next day to Puteoli: where we found brethren."

   14. And were desired to tarry with them seven days. So they were able
   to have one Lord's-Day together! They were probably only a very small
   company of poor Christians, but what a joyful privilege it was for them
   to have the beloved Apostle with them for that memorable week in their
   lives!

   14. And so we went toward Rome. Now it was a marching band of soldiers
   taking them as prisoners to appear before the emperor at Rome.

   15. And from there, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us
   as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns: whom when Paul saw, he
   thanked God, and took courage. It must have cheered his heart to see
   that there were some who loved him sufficiently to make a weary tramp
   along the Appian Road to meet him and salute him in the name of their
   common Lord!

   16. And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to
   the captain of the guard: but Paul was allowed to dwell by himself with
   a soldier that kept him. This was a great favor, no doubt, but do not
   forget that he had to have his right hand chained to the left hand of
   the soldier day and night and that was not very pleasant either for him
   or for the soldier! Yet he thus had an opportunity of personal
   conversation with the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard and as they were
   continually being changed, Paul no doubt had opportunities of
   conversation with hundreds of them--and thus the Gospel was spread in a
   very unlikely quarter! Would you like to be chained to a soldier day
   after day, and month after month? There are some who would not have
   that experience for half an hour without putting the Gospel plainly
   before the soldier so that he should at least know what it is, even if
   he did not accept it. That is a wonderful way of preaching--man to man!
   When they were chained hand to hand, there was no getting away from
   what Paul had to say!

   17. And it came to pass, that after three days. That was quick work! He
   had only got into his house three days when he began to work. "After
   three days,"

   17. Paul called the chief of the Jews together. There are said to have
   been seven synagogues in Rome at that time, so the Apostle sent for a
   number of the chief men in the various congregations.

   17-20. And when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and
   brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or
   customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem
   into the hands of the Romans. Who, when they had examined me, would
   have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the
   Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not
   that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason,
   therefore, have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you:
   because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chai. They
   were all looking for the Messiah, for there was at that time a general
   expectation of His coming.

   21, 22. And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of
   Judea concerning you, neither any ofthe brethren that came showed or
   spoke any harm of you. But we desire to hear of you what you think for
   as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.
   Although men did not understand it, they spoke against it. This is
   often a blessing. This is the kind of advertisement that helps the
   Gospel, for if men will only be sufficiently interested in it to

   speak against it, they will be likely to come and hear it--and some of
   them will be almost certain to receive it. The Truth never spreads so
   fast as when men oppose it!

   23. And when theey had appointed him a day, there came many to him into
   his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified of the Kingdom of God,
   persuading them concerning Jesus, [See Sermon #1970, Volume 33--loving
   persuasion.] both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets,
   from morning till evening. It was a long and blessed day, a grand
   opportunity for Paul thus to be able, hour after hour, to expound the
   Gospel. But see the result--the result which always seems to follow the
   faithful preaching of the Truth.

   STOCK-TAKING--Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at
   http://www.spurgeongems.org.] And when they agreed not among
   themselves,

   they departed, after Paul had spoken one word, Well spoke the Holy
   Spirit by Isaiah the Prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this
   people and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and
   seeing you shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is
   waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
   they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
   ears, and understand with their heart, andshould be converted, and I
   should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of
   God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Oh, blessed
   confidence of the Apostle! If some reject the Gospel, others will
   receive it!

   29-31. And when he hadsaid these words, the Jews departed, andhadgreat
   reasoning among themselves. AndPaul dwelt two whole years in his own
   hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the
   Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus
   Christ. What a subject Paul had to preach about--"the Kingdom of God,
   and those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ," and how
   faithfully and fearlessly he proclaimed this great theme!

   31. With all confidence, no man forbidding hi .

   were spoken, and some believed not.
     __________________________________________________________________

A Promise for the Blind

   (No. 3139)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE BAPTIST CHAPEL, CHURCH STREET,
   BLACKFRIARS ROAD, ON TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 3, 1855.

   [ON BEHALF OF THE CHRISTIAN BLIND RELIEF SOCIETY.]

   "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
   the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the
   woman with child, and she that travails with child together: a great
   company shall return there." Jeremiah 31:8.

   POOR Israel, as a nation, had its ups and downs. It was sometimes in
   captivity and soon it experienced a deliverance. At one time it was
   diminished and brought low through affliction, persecution, or sorrow.
   At another, it was multiplied and increased exceedingly. It was the
   deliverance from one of these evil seasons that Jeremiah was
   commissioned to announce by the promise that the Lord's people would
   come again to their own land.

   Let us consider, for a few minutes, the circumstances of these
   Israelites. It must have been a sorrowful thing for them to dwell in a
   land that was not their own, to hear a language they didn't understood,
   to see the fierce inhabitants, their enemies, and the idolatrous
   worship of the heathen gods. We can well conceive of their mournful
   spirit and the feeling with which they gave utterance to their
   plaintive song, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yes, we
   wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the
   midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of
   us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing
   us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a
   strange land?" But God sent among them Prophets who told them that they
   would be restored and herein lay the glory of the promise--that it
   included all the captive people of God--whatever might be their rank or
   position! The blind, the halt and the lame would all come back. The
   hoary-headed man with his staff, equally with the young and
   vigorous--the lame as well as he who could run like the rabbit--all
   would come to the Mountain of the Lord! Nor should even women be left
   behind--"The blind and the lame, the woman with child and she that
   travails with child together: a great company shall return there." Had
   the Prophet not said that the blind and the lame would come, that their
   faces should be turned towards the holy city--had he not said that they
   would enter into the Temple of the Lord--they might have thought that
   being poor and blind, they would never be allowed to come unto the holy
   mountain, even Zion.

   But, my Friends, this text has a further prophetical signification in
   its reference to the gathering in of the Jews in the latter times. And
   with this we have more particularly to do. I believe in the restoration
   of the Jews to their own land in the last days. I am a firm believer in
   the gathering in of the Jews at a future time. Before Jesus Christ
   shall again come upon this earth, the Jews shall be permitted to go to
   their beloved Palestine. At present they are only at the entrance
   gates. I am told that the Jews have a practice of bringing some of the
   soil of their own country to England under the seal of the chief rabbi.
   And that at their death it affords them the highest joy to know that
   they will have a portion of this soil buried with them, even were it no
   more than sufficient to cover a sixpence. They have another idea--of
   course, it is a very foolish one--that every Jew dying in a foreign
   land travels underground direct to Palestine. It is because they love
   their country that they believe such a lie!

   But whatever may be our opinion respecting the Jews and their position,
   this I know--though they ought not to be fettered and oppressed, though
   they ought to have a vote in Parliament, though they ought to be freed
   from civil disabilities, yet they never can amalgamate with other
   nations. The time will come when they shall leave their sordid ideas in
   the pursuit of gain to secure the treasures of Paradise. They are now a
   scattered people and must be till the last times. Then

   suddenly they shall rise, touched by the influence of the Spirit of
   God, again to be His people. Their temple shall again resound with the
   worship of God and old Zion will be again built! Then may we truly
   expect the latter-day Glory shall come. Certainly, if I read my Bible
   aright, I must believe that the downtrodden, despised Jew shall again
   be glad and poor old Judea, that has been the scoff and scorn of
   mankind, shall again be lifted up and restored--and shall shine forth
   "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
   banners!"

   If it is so, mark you, the blind Jew and the lame Jew will as surely go
   to Jerusalem as any of the rest of the Jews! They will all go--the
   blind, the lame, the woman travailing with child will all meet in God's
   holy Temple.

   However, I leave this case of the Jews, their coming up from Babylon
   and the last gathering in of Israel. I know very little of them, but
   would rather speak of my text under another aspect. You know that God
   has a peculiar people, as much a chosen nation as the Jews ever were--a
   called and elected people whom the Father has chosen from before the
   foundation of the world--a redeemed people whom Jesus has purchased
   with His precious blood. They are a sanctified people because God has
   separated them from the rest of mankind. Well, all these people are to
   be brought in, to be gathered to Christ--everyone whom God has chosen,
   redeemed and sanctified shall come to Mount Zion! Blessed be God, they
   shall all come to this city above! God's wheat shall all be gathered
   into God's garner. The ransomed of the Lord shall all join the throng
   around the Throne of God forever--

   "To bless the conduct of His Grace, And make His glories known." My
   text says the blind and the lame shall meet there. Now I am about to
   speak, first of all, of the characters named in the text. And then I am
   going to try to show you the duties of Christians to the persons so
   designated, or spoken of, as the lame and the blind.

   I. First, I am to speak of THE CHARACTERS NAMED IN THE TEXT--"the blind
   and the lame."

   We will speak of the blind first. There are three classes of blind
   people--the physically blind, the mentally blind and the spiritually
   blind. In illustration, I would take you to the London Road and there
   you will find these three orders of blind people. There is the school
   for the blind, where you will find the physically blind. Just before
   you is the Roman Catholic Cathedral--there you will find the
   spiritually blind. And further on is the Bethlehem Hospital, commonly
   called Bedlam, where you will find the mentally blind. These are, then,
   the three divisions--the naturally, or physically blind, the mentally
   blind and the spiritually blind.

   Well, first, we refer to the physically blind. If chosen of God, they
   will love Him and they shall all come to Heaven. Ah, poor Adam, how
   many are the infirmities which your one sin has entailed upon your
   offspring! Oh, mother Eve, how did your act of transgression bring on
   us a train of woes! Lameness, blindness, deafness along with all the
   sad ailments of the paralytic, the dumb, the deformed! But all honor to
   the Second Adam! He overcomes these infirmities! He saves "the blind
   and the lame." Through His Sovereign Grace, He loves many of the poor,
   darkened sons of men. Blind men are not chosen for soldiers except in
   the army of God, but in that army He enlists many blind warriors and
   makes them the best of His soldiers! Yes, blind saints, God loves you
   and will not exclude you from Heaven! The man who has to go leaning on
   his crutch all through the journey of life is not refused at Heaven's
   door because of his crutches. You blind men, groping along in the
   world, when you arrive at Heaven's gate, are you to be excluded because
   of the lack of your eyes? Rather, the moment they come to its
   threshold, God speaks the word and the withered limb regains its
   strength, the dim eye its luster and thus, "the blind and the lame"
   become fitted to join the shining multitude around the Throne of God!

   We know that if we die aged, we shall not be aged in Heaven--there are
   no furrows on the brow of the glorified ones! Their eyes know no
   dimness--they know not what it is to have infirmities of body, for
   mortality is exchanged for immortality! It may be that we are weakly
   here. It may be that we have a feeble, diseased, emaciated body here.
   But there we shall have a spiritual body, like unto Christ's glorious
   body, clothed in light and majesty! We shall then be partakers of the
   bliss of Heaven, shining as the stars in the firmament forever and
   forever! Now, you physically blind, you who do not see the glorious
   rays of the sun, do not be downcast, but remember that there have been
   many illustrious saints who have endured the same calamity. Chief and
   foremost, remember the Blind Bard of Paradise, who, when his eyes were
   darkened, saw things that others had never imagined! I mean Milton.
   Though you are deprived of your temporal sight, you may see far into
   the deep things of God! Others have been blind as well as you. Many
   blind men have been great men. You

   physically blind, rejoice that blind though you are, if you look to
   Christ, by faith, you will join "the general assembly and Church of the
   first-born, which are written in Heaven."

   But, then, secondly, the mentally blindshall be restored. I have
   referred to Bedlam for an illustration. I do not mean, by that, to
   refer to those who have suffered the entire loss of their reason. It
   would be a very doubtful question to discuss whether a person born
   without the use of his natural reason can be an object of Divine Grace.
   It would lead to a great deal of discussion, without any practical
   result, so I leave it alone. But there is such a thing as practical
   mental blindness. There may be the master-mind, gigantic conceptions, a
   fruitful imagination with the power of leading and governing other
   minds--and yet there may be a degree of mental blindness. We are all
   somewhat blind. We have all, we must confess, an imperfect
   vision--except the "Pope" who claims to be infallible and, therefore,
   proves that he is more blind than the rest of us! There are some of us
   who feel our fallibility in point of judgment and who are obliged to
   acknowledge our ignorance and lack of clear mental perception.

   But, my Friends, some of the mentally blind shall enter Heaven. I now
   refer to those whose mental powers are very weak. I sometimes meet with
   these mentally blind people. They do not know much of their own
   language and, perhaps, have never put as many as a half a dozen words
   together in their lives in public. I once heard of one of these, an old
   woman, who had heard a most uninteresting discourse upon metaphysics,
   but she called it "a blessed sermon, for," she said, "the minister told
   us all about the Savior being both meat and physic, too." I think that
   was a good mistake! She, like many of the mentally blind, could not
   understand one-half of the words that are used by some of our
   preachers. She belonged to the somewhat mentally blind folk who have
   not had the benefit of teaching or training. Well, blessed be God, they
   do not need it to find the way to Heaven! "The wayfaring men, though
   fools, shall not err therein."

   Well, all these mentally blind shall come. There will be people in
   Heaven who never read a word in their lives. I know not how low the
   Grace of God can go. Some poor creatures who know nothing of the things
   of earth, even these may understand the Gospel, it is so plain! We do
   not need a giant intellect in order to grasp its Doctrines. Its element
   and substance is, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
   Believer, ignorant though you may be, you can comprehend this grand
   scheme of man's redemption, so do not say that because you are poor and
   ignorant, you will not enter Heaven!

   But, then, thirdly, there are the spiritually blind. Whenever you find
   a person spiritually blind, you ought to be very careful how you speak
   to him, or of him. I do think this is a matter in which we often fail.
   The discussion between Catholics and Protestants has been far from what
   it ought to have been. We seem bent upon forcing them to submit at once
   to our views, but this is wrong of us. We may condemn wrong principles,
   but let us always speak gently of the men who hold them. They are
   spiritually blind, so we should deal kindly with them, avoiding that
   bitterness of spirit which is so often manifested. Sick men will not
   take your medicine if you give them vinegar with it--give them
   something sweet with it and they will take it. So be kind and loving to
   the spiritually blind and they will be likely to give heed to you.

   To say nothing of the Church of Rome, the Puseyites, or Arminians--to
   go no further than the present congregation--there are many spiritually
   blind here! Oh, men or woman, do you see your lost and ruined state by
   nature? No. Did you ever, by faith, see Christ crucified on the Cross
   for man's redemption? No, you did not! Did you ever understand the
   sufficiency of the mediatorial Sacrifice of Christ? No, you did not!
   Did you ever realize what vital union with the Person of Christ means?
   No! Has the Holy Spirit ever spoken in your heart? You are obliged to
   confess that you know nothing about His purifying influence! Ah, then,
   you are blind--spiritually blind! Chapelgoer, churchgoer--having the
   form of religion without the power, you are blind as a bat which can
   only fly in the night! Or like the owl--when daylight comes, you will
   not be able to find your way. Unless the scales are removed from your
   eyes, you will be exposed to the Judgment of God! But if the Holy
   Spirit illuminates you, though now blind, you shall come to Zion with
   the rest of the chosen race!

   But my text also mentions the lame. These are not so much the subject
   of our consideration tonight and may, therefore, be passed over
   briefly. But many of the lame are to get to Heaven. Who are they? Well,
   Brothers and Sisters, there are some of God's people who are lame
   because they are weak in faith. We sometimes hear a great deal said
   about possessing a full assurance of being a child of God and then,
   every now and then, we hear of others who have a doubt, or only a hope,
   concerning their salvation. As good Joseph Irons used to say, "They
   keep hope, hope, hoping--hop, hop, hopping all their lives because they
   can't walk." Little-Faith is always lame. Yet, although some of you
   never could say with certainty that you are the people of God, yet one
   or another of you can say with sincerity--

   "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Your kind arms I fall; Be You my
   strength and righteousness, My Jesus, and my All."

   You lame ones, fear not--you will not be cast out! Two snails entered
   the ark--how they got there, I cannot tell. It must have taken them a
   long time. They must have started rather early, unless Noah took them
   part of the way. So, some of you are snails--you are on the right road,
   but it will take you a long while to get into the ark unless some
   blessed Noah helps you!

   Again, backsliders are lame. There are Christians to be found who
   believe that it is possible to fall from a state of Grace. Here I would
   speak cautiously. God's people cannot fall finally--but they can fall a
   long way. When a Christian falls, it is no light matter. I hear some
   talking of falling and getting up again, as if it were nothing. But let
   them turn to

   Hebrews 6:4 -6. [See Sermon #75, Volume 2--FINAL PERSEVERANCE.] But

   we will rejoice that--

   "Grace will complete what Grace begins, To save from sorrows or from
   sins."

   I do not say that a Christian may not fall and break a limb--but I do
   say that a child of God cannot fall, spiritually, and break his neck!
   He cannot fall without grievous injury. The result, in his experience,
   will be unhappiness and misery. Look at poor David--after falling into
   that great sin, his history was nothing but troubles from rebellious
   sons and enemies! You loving, living children of the blessed God, I
   know that you will not talk lightly of falling into sin. Backsliders,
   fallen ones, God will have mercy upon you if you are truly penitent. It
   is a glorious fact that the sorrowing backsliders shall not be left
   behind. Backsliders shall sing above, as God's restored children, whom
   He always has loved. Blind and lame ones, believe in the Lord and you
   shall be found amongst the followers of the Lamb at the last!

   II. Now secondly and very briefly, WHAT ARE OUR DUTIES TO THESE BLIND
   PEOPLE?

   I answer, first, to the spiritually blind, our duty is to pray for
   them. Yes, I believe we should never do anything without prayer.
   However much you may profess to love them, yet if you do not pray for
   them, I cannot believe what you say! An infidel once met a Christian
   and said to him, "You don't believe in the Bible. You don't believe in
   the Gospel!" "I do," the Christian replied. "Well, then, how is it that
   as I pass you in going to my business every day, you have never spoken
   to me concerning my soul? You don't believe the Bible!" "I do." "I
   cannot believe you," he said, "for if you do, you are very unfeeling."

   Now, Christians, if you believe that you have spiritually blind people
   around you, what is your duty towards them? Sirs, unless you feel a
   deep concern about their state, I fear that the heavenly Physician has
   not removed the spiritual cataract from your eyes! If we believe their
   position to be one of extreme peril--that they, for lack of the Light
   of God to guide them--are perishing, how we ought to exert ourselves on
   their behalf! The ministers do not feel enough for souls in this
   degenerate age, but keep on preaching, preaching, preaching, or read,
   read, reading their good-for-nothing manuscripts--and yet there is no
   increase to their churches! The minister is here in the pulpit and the
   people are down below in the pews. There is no golden link of sympathy
   between them. We need more of this sympathy! We need more intense love
   to souls, the souls of the ungodly! We need to go more to God's Throne
   to plead for you and then to plead with you! As God's ambassadors, we
   say with Paul, "We pray you, in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to
   God." It is no trifling matter to be spiritually blind! It is no light
   matter to have no eyes! No, the blind are sure not to enter Heaven if
   they die spiritually blind! They must have their eyes enlightened by
   God if they are to be found above! May the ever-blessed and glorious
   God awaken all the spiritually blind! May we who are ministers and all
   others who have the opportunity use it, under God's blessing, to throw
   the Light of God upon their dark minds! Try to get your neighbors to
   the House of God, but take care that it is a Gospel ministry to which
   you invite them! Take care that you prove the value of the Gospel you
   possess by your own consistent practice. Pray for them and it may be
   that God will give them repentance unto life.

   And then, next, our duty to the mentally blind is to be very charitable
   and try to instruct them. We must manifest, in all our dealings with
   them, a kindness of disposition, never attempting to thrash them into
   what we believe to be right. I do not believe in the utility of bigoted
   denunciations. I sometimes differ from my Christian Brothers, but I do
   not quarrel with them on that account. All I can say is, "Well,
   Brother, if you can't see it, I cannot help it. It is in the Bible and
   I can

   see it plainly enough." We, as Calvinists, believe that men cannot see
   the Truth of God unless it is revealed to them by God. We should,
   therefore, be the last to condemn the ignorant, but should do our
   utmost to instruct them and to open their eyes. It is of no use to
   attempt to force a man to believe. It has been said--

   "Convince a man against his will, He's of the same opinion still." So,
   whenever you get into an argument with a mentally blind man, suppose it
   to be a Roman Catholic, don't get cross with him. If you do, you will
   never make a friend of your opponent. Suppose others do not see as you
   do on some matters, on infant baptism or anything else--and I think we
   Baptists very often err in our temper in some of our discussions--
   well, don't try to compel them to see as you see! Brothers and Sisters,
   that is not the way to convince them of the Truth of our beliefs.
   Instead of acting like that, we should try to show them the Truth as it
   is in the Bible--and then they must shut their eyes or else see it. "It
   is there," you say--"if you can't see it, I shall not be cross or out
   of temper with you." Never let us be cross with the mentally blind. You
   know that the policeman, when he meets a man at night, turns his
   lantern straight upon the man's eyes--so must we turn the Light of
   Truth upon these blind eyes and not take out the truncheon to thrash
   them! We should also reflect that there was a time when we, too, knew
   nothing. It therefore behooves us to act kindly to the younger scholars
   in the school, seeing that we have not always been in the highest
   class.

   But now to conclude, we have to speak of our duty to the physically
   blind. There are some good people who would be glad to work for their
   living, but they are disabled through affliction. Among these are the
   blind. When I go among the sick and poor, I find so many to relieve
   that when I have given all I can afford, there is still more to do.
   Well, there they are, and to do them any permanent good you must give
   them something week by week. I was thinking, suppose another globe were
   created and rolled up alongside this world, so that when any in this
   world became sick, or blind, or helpless, we could put them over into
   the other world to get rid of them? Well, suppose that were done,
   Brothers and Sisters? You would soon want them back again! "There is
   dear Sister So-and-So. She is entirely dependent upon the charity of
   her friends, but she has such rich deep experience--we have derived so
   much comfort from her society that we must have her back." Then, if
   these poor sufferers were in another world, you would have no way of
   doing good by relieving them--and then you would wish you could do
   doing something for them for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
   would then have to complain, "Here is this shilling--I don't know what
   to do with it. Here I have money that I cannot use because there are no
   objects of charity to whom I can give it--I wish Jesus Christ would
   come down to earth again. Would I not minister to His necessities if He
   were here? Yes, that I would! I would give Him the best of things that
   were to be found anywhere. Then I would sit at His feet, washing them
   with my tears and wiping them with the hair of my head."

   You say that, but if all these poor blind people were in another world,
   there would be no one to whom you could minister for His sake, so Jesus
   Christ has sent some of them to us that we may have the opportunity of
   doing good to them and that, by-and-by, He may be able to say to us,
   "Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, My
   brethren, you have done it unto Me." He has cast some blind people upon
   the Church on purpose--to give us the treat of doing something for
   them. He has said, "The poor you have always with you." He allows you
   the opportunity of showing your love to Him by relieving those who need
   your help. When I hear of a church where they are all gentlemen, I
   always say farewell to that, for where there are no poor, the ship will
   soon sink! If there are no poor there, Christ will soon give them some
   if they are a real Gospel Church.

   Now, the reason we have a Blind Society is simply this--there are some
   good people who cannot help themselves because they are blind and
   helpless. There is one from my Church and some from other Churches. It
   is not a very large Society--it is all the better for that, for I find
   that in the great Societies, there is so much influence needed and so
   many votes required, that those who need help most cannot obtain it!
   And those who do not need it so much, but have the influence, get it
   all! Well, in this Christian Blind Relief Society, some of these poor
   blind people receive a trifle every week and I assure you they are all
   needy and deserving objects of your charity.

   This is what we ask you tonight to support. Jesus Christ stands at the
   door and says to you as you leave, "Give Me something, this night, if
   you love Me."

   I have to appeal so often, and am followed so much by my own people,
   that I have not the face to ask you for anything tonight, so Christ
   shall ask, instead, and I will ask next time. Remember the poor! Take
   care of the blind! EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:
   MATTHEW9:27-35;20:29-34.

   [The first page of the preceding Sermon shows that it was delivered in
   the year 1855, before the beloved preacher had come of age. The
   Expositions given by Mr. Spurgeon at that early period were not
   reported, as they were in the later years ofhis ministry. Consequently,
   two passages relating to Christ's healing of the blind have been
   selected from The Gospel of the Kingdom, the popular Exposition of the
   Gospel according to Matthew which was being prepared by Mr. Spurgeon
   almost up to the time of his Home-going in January, 1892. Readers will
   therefore have the opportunity of comparing the messages left on record
   by him near the beginning and near the close of his long and prosperous
   London pastorate.]

   Matthew 9:27. And when Jesus departed from there, two blind men
   followed Him, crying, and saying, You Son of David, have mercy on us!No
   sooner does Jesus move, than fresh candidates for His bounty appear!
   The blind seek sight from Him. Two sightless men had become companions
   in affliction--they may have been father and son. They were in
   downright earnest, for they "followed Him, crying, and saying, Have
   mercy on us." Persevering, vehement, yet intelligent was their appeal.
   They were of one mind in reference to Jesus and, therefore, they went
   one way and used one prayer, to one and the same Person. Our Lord is
   here called by His royal name--" You Son of David." Even the blind
   could see that He was a king's son! As Son of David, He is entreated to
   show mercy and act according to His royal nature. It is mercy which
   gives us our faculties and mercy alone can restore them. This prayer
   suits us when we perceive our own darkness of mind. When we cannot see
   our way into Truth, let us appeal to the Lord for gracious instruction,
   always remembering that we have no claim except that which originates
   in His mercy.

   28. And when He was come into the house, the blind men came to Him: and
   Jesus said unto them, Believe you that I am able to do this? They said
   unto Him, Yes, Lord. They were most eager for the gift. They gave Him
   no leisure--they pressed into the house where He had sought privacy and
   rest--they came to Him, even to Jesus Himself! The Lord would have them
   express their faith and so He makes inquiry of them as to what they
   believe about Himself. Jesus makes no inquiry about their eyes, but
   only about their faith--this is always the vital point! They could not
   see, but they could believe and they did so. They had a specific faith
   as to the matter about which they prayed, for our Lord put it plainly,
   "Believe you that I am able to do THIS?" They had also a clear view of
   the Character of Him to whom they applied, for they had already styled
   Him, "Son of David," and now they called Him, "Lord."

   29. Then touched He their eyes, saying, according to your faith be it
   unto yoi. Again He questions their faith and this time He throws the
   whole responsibility upon their confidence in Him. "According to your
   faith be it unto you." He touched them with His hand, but they must
   also touch Him with their faith! The word of power in the last sentence
   is one upon which He acts so continually that we may call it, as to
   many blessings, a rule of the Kingdom of God. We have the measuring of
   our own mercies--our faith obtains less or more according to its own
   capacity to receive! Had these men been mere pretenders to faith they
   would have remained blind. If we will not in very truth trust our Lord,
   we shall die in our sins.

   30. And their eyes were opened and Jesus immediately charged them,
   saying, See that no man knows i. They both saw the double miracle was
   worked at the same moment. Comrades in the dark, they are now
   companions in the light! Singular that for two souls there should thus
   be one destiny! It was a singular double fact and deserved to be made
   widely known, but our Lord had wise reasons for requiring silence. He
   "immediately charged them." He left them no option-- He demanded
   complete silence. He that opened their eyes closed their mouths. Jesus
   did not desire fame--He wanted less crowding, He wished to avoid
   excitement and, therefore, He was express and peremptory in His
   order--"See that no man knows it."

   31. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all
   that country. They most industriously published what they were told to
   conceal till "all that country"rang with the news! In this they erred
   greatly and probably caused the Savior so much inconvenience by the
   pressure of the crowd, that He had to leave the town. We may not hope
   that we are doing right if we disobey our Lord! However natural
   disobedience may appear to be, it is disobedience and must not be
   excused. Even if the results turned out to be advantageous, it would
   not make it right to break the command of our Lord. Silence is more
   than golden when our King commands it. He does not seek applause, nor
   cause His voice to be heard in the streets that He may be known to be
   doing a great work. His followers do well to copy His example.

   We do not wonder that our Lord's name became famous when there were
   such persons to advertise it. How earnestly and eloquently would the
   two formerly blind men tell the story of how He opened their eyes! We
   are not forbidden, but exhorted to make known the wonders of His Grace.
   Let us not fail in this natural, this necessary, this useful duty. More
   and more let us "spread abroad His fame."

   32. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed
   with a devil As a pair of patients leave the surgery, another poor
   creature comes in. Note the, "behold"" The case is striking. He comes
   not freely, or of his own accord--"they brought"him--thus should we
   bring men to Jesus. He does not cry for help, for he is "a dumb man.""
   Let us open our mouths for the dumb. He is not himself, but he is
   "possessed with a devil."" Poor creature! Will anything be done for
   him?

   33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spoke: and the multitudes
   marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. Our Lord does not
   deal with the symptoms, but with the source of the disorder, even with
   the evil spirit! "The devil was cast out"and it is mentioned as if that
   were a matter of course when Jesus came on the scene. The devil had
   silenced the man and so, when the Evil One was gone, " the dumb
   spoke."" How we should like to know what he said! Whatever he said, it
   matters not--the wonder was that he could say anything. The people
   confessed that this was a wonder quite unprecedented--and in this they
   only said the truth--"It was never so seen in Israel."" Jesus is great
   at surprises! He has novelties of gracious power. The people were quick
   to express their admiration, yet we see very little trace of their
   believing in our Lord's mission. It is a small thing to marvel, but a
   great thing to believe! O Lord, give the people around us to see such
   revivals and conversions as they have never known before!

   34. But the Pharisees said, He casts out devils through the prince of
   the devils. Of course they had some bitter sentence ready! Nothing was
   too bad for them to say of Jesus. They were hard pressed when they took
   to this statement which our Lord, in another place so easily answered!
   They hinted that such power over demons must have come to Him through
   an unholy compact with " the prince of the devils."" Surely this was
   going very near to the unpardonable sin!

   35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their
   synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every
   sickness and every disease among the people.

   Matthew 20:29, 30. And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude
   followed Him. And, behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside, when
   they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O
   Lord, You Son of David!On Jericho a curse had rested, but the Presence
   of Jesus brought it a blessing! We suppose He must go through Jericho
   as once before He must go through Samaria. Our Lord departed from
   Jerichoand a vast crowd attended Him, for His fame had spread far and
   wide. Nothing striking is noted concerning His doings till two beggars
   come upon the scene. Mercy needs misery to give it an occasion to work.
   Behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside. They could not behold
   Jesus, but we are asked to behold them. They had taken up a hopeful
   position, by the wayside, for there they would be likely to hear any
   good news and there they would be seen by the compassionate. They had
   ears if they had not eyes and they used their hearing well! On enquiry,
   they learned that Jesus passed by and believing that He could restore
   their sight, they grew earnest in prayer to Him--they cried out. Their
   plea was pity--"Have mercy on us."" Their appeal was to the royal heart
   of Jesus--"O Lord, You Son of David."" Our Lord's sermon was
   interrupted by the repeated outcries of these two blind beggars of
   Jericho. But this never displeased Him--neither would true preachers of
   the Gospel be disconcerted if some of their hearers were to cry out
   with similar eagerness for salvation.

   31. And the multitude rebuked them, told them they should hold their
   peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, You
   Son ofDavid/The crowd desired to hear Jesus, but could not do so
   because of the shouts of the blind men--therefore the multitude rebuked
   them. Did they upbraid them for ill manners, or for noise, or for
   harshness of tone, or for selfishly wishing to monopolize Jesus? It is
   always easy to find a stick when you wish to beat a dog. The people
   wanted them to be quiet and hold their peace--and found plenty of
   arguments why they should do so. This was all very well for those who
   were in possession of their faculties, but men who have lost their
   sight cannot be quieted if there is an opportunity of obtaining
   sight--and as that opportunity was rapidly passing away from these poor
   men, they became vehement in their earnestness! Unhindered by the
   threats of the crowd, they cried the more. Some men are urged onward by
   all attempts to pull them back. When we are seeking the Lord, we shall
   be wise to make every hindrance into a stimulus. We may well bear
   rebukes and rebuffs when our great aim is to obtain mercy from Jesus
   Christ!

   Unvarying was the blind beggars' cry--"Have mercy on us, OLord, You Son
   of David!" Variety of words they had no time to study. Having asked for
   what they needed--in words which leaped from their hearts--they
   repeated their prayer and their plea. And it was no vain repetition!

   32. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will you
   that I shall do unto you? Jesus stood still. At the voice of prayer,
   the Sun of Righteousness paused in His progress! Believing cries can
   hold the Son of God by the feet! He called them--and this because they
   had called Him. What comfort that call yielded them! We are not told
   that they came to Him. There is no need to tell us that. They were at
   His feet as soon as the words were uttered! How sadly blind are those
   who, being called a thousand times by the voice of Mercy, yet refuse to
   come! Our Lord enlightened minds as well as eyes and so He would have
   the blind men intelligently feel and express their needs. He puts to
   them the personal enquiry--" What will you that I shall do unto you?"
   It was not a hard question, yet it is one which many an attendant at
   our places of worship would find it difficult to answer. You say you
   "wish to be saved"--what do you mean by those words?

   33. They said unto Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. Just so.
   They needed no time for second thoughts. Oh, that our people were as
   quick to pray, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened!"They went straight
   to the point. There is not a word to spare in their explanatory prayer.
   No book was needed, no form of words--the desire clothed itself in
   simple, natural, earnest speech.

   34. So Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes: and
   immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Hi . So--that
   is, since they thus stated their desire and had so great a need, Jesus
   had compassion on them, pitying their loneliness in the dark, their
   deprivation of enjoyment, their loss of power to follow a handicraft
   and their consequent poverty. He touched their eyes. What hands were
   those which undertook such lowly fellowship with human flesh and worked
   such deeds of power! Immediately their eyes received sight. Only a
   touch and light entered! Time is not necessary to the cures of Jesus.
   Proof of their sight was at once forthcoming, for they followed Him. We
   best use our spiritual sight when we look to Jesus and keep close to
   His heels.

   Oh, that the reader, if he is spiritually blind, may ask for the touch
   of Jesus and receive it at once, for immediately he will receive sight!
   An inward light will, in an instant, shine forth upon the soul and the
   spiritual world will become apparent to the enlightened mind! The Son
   of David still lives and still opens the eyes of the blind! He still
   hears the humble prayer of those who know their blindness and their
   poverty. If the reader fears that he, too, is spiritually blind, let
   him cry unto the Lord at this very instant and he will see what he
   shall see--and he will forever bless the hand which gave sight to the
   eyes of his soul!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Glory of Our Strength

   (No. 3140)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 13, 1873.

   "For You are the glory of their strength." Psalm 89:17.

   THE Psalmist Ethan is here speaking of the Covenant people--the people
   of God, the people who know the joyful sound of the Covenant of Grace
   and who, therefore, walk in the Light of God's Countenance. It is said
   of these persons that God is the glory of their strength. All strength
   of every sort comes from God. Since He is the Author of all being, it
   is He who gives strength to every form of existence. Read the
   remarkable chapters which close the Book of Job and see how God there
   claims to have given strength to the eagle in her lofty flight and to
   the horse when he paws in the valley-- and leviathan and behemoth,
   those mighty creatures of the sea and the land! God claims to have
   given all the strength that there is in any of these members of the
   inferior creation and we are certain that He also lays an equally just
   claim to all the strength that there is in man. The power of the arms,
   the swiftness of the feet, the keenness of intellect--all these come
   from the Most High who has worked such wonders in the formation of the
   human frame! Whatever of vigor and capacity there may be in it, all
   must be traced to the almighty hand of God! Even the glory of man's
   physical strength, whether he knows it or not, belongs to God. He makes
   the young man vigorous and the full-grown man mature in strength, so He
   ought to have the service of the strength which He has, Himself,
   created!

   Equally is this true of all mental power. The craftsmen learn their art
   from God. Bezaleel and Aholiab were instructed of the Most High, "to
   work in gold, and in silver, and in brass," as truly as Moses was
   taught of God in the writing of the Law. The poet receives his power
   for grand conceptions from God, who is beyond all human conception! And
   he who is most learned in any particular science--the great discoverer,
   the man who measures the stars or maps the seas--receives all his
   mental strength from the Most High! It would be well if this were
   always remembered, for it often happens that men who are great in
   wisdom ascribe their greatness to themselves and then prostitute their
   native talents and their acquired knowledge to their own ambitious
   ends, or to some mean and groveling purpose. Oh, that all men would lay
   out their talents for God, for He is the great Householder who has
   given to one of His servants one talent, to another two and to another
   five talents--and who will, at His coming--require from them an account
   of what they have done with them! Oh, that all who are mentally strong
   would ascribe the glory of their strength to God!

   But there is a higher and nobler form of strength than either the
   physical or the mental. We rise into another realm when we come to
   speak of spiritual'things. There are some men whom God has raised up
   from spiritual death. When they "were yet without strength, in due time
   Christ died for the ungodly," and so He saved them from their death in
   sin and they have been made spiritually strong by God through the
   effectual working of His Son. By Divine Grace they are the sons of the
   Almighty God and they have become mighty through Him, so the glory of
   their strength is all to be ascribed to God. The Psalmist's
   declaration, "You are the glory of their strength," is true in
   reference to the whole of the spiritual seed--the Covenant people who
   are made strong in spiritual things by the Grace of God.

   I. Now, in trying to lead your thoughts into the meaning of this text,
   I want you first of all, by way of contrast, to spend a few minutes in
   considering the opposite of our text. God is the glory of our strength,
   but what I want you now to think of is THE SHAME OF OUR WEAKNESS.

   This is a very humiliating subject, but it is one that should never be
   far from our thoughts, for we shall never realize to the fullest, the
   glory of the strength which comes from God until we are deeply
   conscious of the shame of the weakness which is in our nature as the
   result of the Fall and of our own sin. What poor weak creatures we are!
   It is no shame to us

   that we have not the strength of the elephant or the lion. It is no
   shame to us that we have not the wings of eagles or of angels. It is no
   shame to us that we are often the sport of the elements, so that we
   shiver in the cold or are blistered in the sun. It is no shame to us
   that when the storm sweeps over the sea, it drives our navies before it
   like so many cockle-shells. It is no shame to us that there are many
   things in this world which are far more powerful than such a puny
   creature as man is! Such weakness as that which God intended us to have
   is no cause for shame--no, we turn to God in the full consciousness of
   it and remind Him that we are but animated dust and that He made us
   weak as we are--and intended us to be weak as we are! That is not where
   the shame lies. The shame lies in the moral weakness which is natural
   to us in our fallen state!

   I mean that, left to ourselves, we are weak enough to allow our baser
   spirits to be our masters and our meanest capacities to have the sway
   over our entire nature. God has put the earth under our feet, but we
   often put ourselves under the earth by permitting that which is earthy
   to dominate us. We have a nature that, in its origin, was akin to the
   Divine, yet how often we allow the passions of our fallen nature to
   control our whole being! We let that part of our nature which is worst
   be supreme over that which is best, yet it should never be so. Look at
   the weakness of the strongest man ever born of a woman! See him lying
   helpless at Delilah's feet and there committing suicide for I can call
   it by no other name--by revealing the secret of his strength and so
   delivering himself into the hands of the Philistines! Look at the
   weakness of the wisest man who ever lived and see how Solomon's heart
   was turned aside from God! Look at the weakness of one of the best of
   men who ever lived, the man who was as great as a saint as he was as a
   poet--David, the sweet singer of Israel--who was weak as water when
   left to himself! I need not mention other cases. God grant that we may
   not, ourselves, become instances of such weakness! But we have been, I
   do not doubt, in some way or other, foolish enough to let our baser
   passions consent to sin while our nobler spiritual nature has hated the
   evil thing and fought against it.

   Our weakness may also be seen in another way--we are very apt to be
   carried away by circumstances. We think we are standing very firmly,
   but a very slight change in our position or condition will affect us
   very seriously. It is really extraordinary how easily a holy man, who
   has been truly communing with God, will be put out of temper by a
   circumstance so infinitesimal in importance that he would be ashamed to
   have it known that he had been influenced by it! I think some of you
   must have known what it has been to have close fellowship with God and
   yet, afterwards, the merest trifle in the household has sufficed to rob
   you of all the good you had gained. Possibly if God should give you, at
   this service, a very special manifestation of His Presence and you were
   to meet with a great trial at home, you would be enabled to bear it
   with equanimity. Yet some little insignificant thing--I shall not
   conjecture what may cause you to lose your temper or put you off your
   guard in some other respect, or cause you to become concerned about
   other things than the highest and best things and effectually bring you
   down from your privileged position as follower of the Lord Jesus Christ
   to the common level--I was about to say of an ordinary worldling! Oh,
   how weak we are! How weak we are in such a case as that!

   It is also amazing to think how good men have been led into sin and
   overcome by the very smallest adversary. Look at Peter, for
   instance--bold, lion-hearted Peter. Who was it that led him to deny his
   Master? If some huge Roman legionary had come up to him with his drawn
   sword and said to him, "You Galilean, if you dare to say, 'I know
   Jesus,' this sword shall smite off your head," I should not wonder but
   that Peter would have been equal to that emergency and certainly he
   would have wished to have in his hand the sword with which he cut off
   the ear of Malchus so that he might at least defend himself. If the
   high priest had pointed to Peter and said, "I believe that yonder
   stands one of the men who were with Jesus of Galilee," it may be that
   he would have been bold enough to confess his Lord. But it was only a
   damsel, one of the high priest's maids who saw him as he was warming
   himself at the fire, and who said to him, "You, also, were with Jesus
   of Galilee"--and he denied it--and so the strong man was overcome! It
   is thus that little foes have frequently mastered us where great foes
   could not do so. I think it was Admiral Drake who, in a storm at the
   Nore, said to his sailors, "Surely we have not braved many tempests out
   in the open sea to come here to be drowned in a ditch." Yet it has
   often been so. Men who have done business in great waters, (who have
   encountered huge Atlantic waves of temptation), have nevertheless been
   allured into sin by a temptation that was utterly contemptible! And
   perhaps it was just because it seemed to them so contemptible that they
   became carnally secure and so it proved to be doubly dangerous to them.
   But

   oh, what weak creatures we must be when trifling circumstances can turn
   us aside and when little things suffice to conquer us!

   One thing in which we all betray our littleness is the readiness with
   which we fall into the gross sin of idolatry. We are, none of us,
   likely to bow down before blocks of wood and stone as the heathen do.
   Nor are we likely to worship the god made of bread which is the god of
   so many in this country--yet we are all too prone to make unto
   ourselves gods that are really idols! At one time it is favorite child
   who is thus worshipped. "There never was a fairer child than mine. She
   is more like an angel than a human being," says the fond and foolish
   mother whose heart is wrapped up in her little one! Then comes God's
   great hammer that breaks all idols--and the dead child is carried to
   the silent tomb. After such a painful experience as that, will the
   mother ever make an idol of another child? Yes, there are some who have
   done that, to their own confusion, time after time! If it has not been
   a little child who has been thus idolized, it may have been the partner
   of one's own life. Perhaps it has been some cherished idea which we
   have pursued with such avidity that it has became a god to us. It is
   very, very easy to put your trust in an arm of flesh--either your own
   or somebody else's. But as soon as you do that, you bring yourself
   under that ancient curse, "Cursed is the man that trusts in man and
   makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord"--for all
   trust in the creature is a subtle form of idolatry! After we have
   trusted in the creature once, twice, 20 times and been deceived, will
   we do it again? Yes, for such is the shame of our weakness that we
   still turn away from the eternal arm which can never fail us and cling
   to that poor puny arm of man that is often as false as it is weak! We
   still we make gods of things that are not gods, for, like the children
   of Israel, we are weak as water in this point also!

   There is another thing that shows the shame of our weakness, namely,
   our unbelief. Have you never caught yourself saying, "After this, I
   shall never have a doubt again"? I have frequently found some such
   expression as that come to my lips, for I have had such extraordinary
   deliverances and such proofs of God's gracious loving kindness that
   when I have received them, I have said, "Oh, what a blessed God! Oh
   what a faithful God! Oh, what a prayer-answering God!" And then the
   thought has come, "The next time I am in trouble, I shall not be so
   timorous and so unbelieving!" Yet I fear that many of you will have to
   join me in confessing with deep shame and confusion of face that it has
   only needed a new trial to come to us to cause us to find out that what
   we thought was strength was utter weakness! Have not you also found it
   so? Why, we are weaker even than our own children, for our children can
   and do trust their father! But sometimes we, the loved ones of Heaven,
   cannot and do not trust our Father who has never deceived us! We may
   well lament the shame of our weakness.

   If I were to keep on speaking of this part of my theme, I might show
   you that we are weak everywhere and weak in every way--weak to all good
   and weak in the presence of all evil if God once withdraws Himself from
   us. You who are most mighty in prayer, are you not sometimes weak when
   you are upon your knees? You who often bear testimony to Christ with
   much courage, are you not sometimes weak in holy boldness? You who can
   generally rejoice in the Lord, are you not sometimes weak and feeble
   through despondency? Apart from God, our whole head is sick, our whole
   heart is faint and we are a mass of misery and a heap of weakness!

   II. Now, having spoken thus by way of converse, I hope it is a fitting
   preparation for our dwelling a little while upon the second point which
   is, according to the text, THE GLORY OF OUR STRENGTH. True Believers,
   though they are a very feeble folk in themselves, are very strong when
   God is with them! They are so strong that their strength has a great
   glory in it of which we will now speak. The strength of the true
   Christian is so great that nothing can overcome him and he is more than
   a conqueror in every engagement into which he enters!

   What strength God gives to us, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, at
   the very first, when we rise out of the grave of our spiritual death.
   There we lie, bound hand and foot in that dark sepulcher--and a great
   stone is rolled over the mouth of it. The moment the Lord says to us,
   "Come forth," we open our eyes and begin to discover the gloomy grave
   in which we lie. Then and there God gives us the power to unbind
   ourselves, to remove the stone and to come forth into liberty! I mean
   that men, quickened by Divine Grace, deliver themselves from evil
   habits, from customs which had bound them as with bands of iron, from
   inveterate sins which had held them captive as in a net! They become
   free from all these things in the strength of the Holy Spirit when He
   has regenerated them and brought them up from their spiritual
   captivity. The achievements of a new-born soul, in its first conflicts
   with its old sins, are perfectly marvelous! There are many wonders in
   the Christian life, but I believe that the first stroke he gives when
   he is but newly born and, therefore weak, has a marvelous degree of
   power in it. Many men have been swearers. Many have been drunkards.
   Many have been guilty of all manner of evil, but those old sins have
   been laid dead at their feet by one blow struck in the power of the
   ever-blessed Spirit. Truly, the glory of the strength of the new-born
   child of God must lie in his God!

   The man being Divinely quickened, we now find him contending for the
   right. And wherever he contends, he over-comes!The world frowns on him
   and he laughs at the frown. Then it fawns on him and he despises its
   flattery. Sham faith soon yields to the enemy, but real faith wins the
   victory over the world! If the whole world should attack a true
   Believer, the Believer would overcome the world and break through all
   its toils. Faith also overcomes the flesh and that is no small victory.
   He who has true God-given faith in Christ contends with inbred
   corruptions, strong passions and the deceitful-ness that is engrained
   within the human heart. Where the life of God is in the heart, there is
   strength given to overcome the flesh. Though the man may have been
   sensual and devilish before conversion, Divine Grace is more than a
   match for the flesh and Grace gains the victory! It is a great thing to
   be able to overcome the world, the great world without and the little
   world within--but Satan comes into the field and sets himself among
   those who are arrayed against the Believer--and, blessed be God, the
   devil fares badly in the fight, for many a time the dread Apollyon who
   has stretched himself across the way and said that he would slay the
   saint, has himself been pierced by the Sword of the Spirit and has fled
   away wounded! What strength there must be in the Believer when he is
   able to overcome that accursed trinity of antagonists-- the world, the
   flesh and the devil!

   When God is in him, the Christian finds himself able to do anything.
   "By You," says David, "I have run through a troop, and by my God have I
   leaped over a wall." And God said, "Fear not, you worm Jacob, and you
   men of Israel, I will help you, says the Lord" and your Redeemer, the
   Holy One of Israel. "Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing
   instrument having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them
   small." Weak as we are, with God's help, nothing is impossible for us!
   What feats of valor some Believers have performed! Read the histories
   of the saints of the olden ages and think of the Apostles and their
   immediate followers. What strength was theirs and it was only faith
   that made them strong! You have read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, perhaps,
   till you have felt your blood boil with indignation and you have shut
   the book up and said, "I can read no more of the dreadful story lest it
   should disturb my dreams." But if you cannot even bear to think of the
   tortures which the saints underwent, what must it have been for them to
   bear them so heroically as they did? Women and even children defied
   their tormentors and there were saints who, in the midst of the fire,
   bravely quoted verses of Scripture against their persecutors and with
   holy joy sang Psalms in the midst of the flames! How the saints baffled
   Nero, Domitian and other cruel tyrants! The Inquisition, in its dreary
   vaults, almost rivaled Hell in its pains and torments, but it was not
   able to quench the noble spirit of God's faithful servants! The
   persecutors may do what they will, but only give us a band of men and
   women who have God's Spirit in them--and even though their foes may
   tear them limb from limb--they shall not conquer them! It is impossible
   that God's true saints should be overcome, for they have a glory of
   strength that nothing can destroy!

   Neither persecution, nor tribulation, nor nakedness, nor distress, nor
   famine, nor peril, nor sword, no, nor even death, itself, has been able
   to make the saints deny their Master! And we see the same strength
   upholding them still! I have, in my mind's eye now, one dear Sister, a
   member of this Church, in whom I have seen, within the last few days,
   the matchless way in which the saints can conquer death. When they have
   been almost worn out by disease and incessant pain. When sleep has been
   banished from their eyes. When their whole body has been only a road
   for the feet of pain to traverse--even then they have never been
   impatient and they have rejoiced in the prospect of departure--not
   merely because they wished to be free from pain, but because the
   Presence of Christ had already made them so happy that they longed to
   get to the fountainhead of those sweet streams which were even then
   making them glad! Death has never yet conquered a saint! The children
   of God have all been conquerors. Every sepulcher of a saint is but
   another monument of the victory of faith! "These all died in faith,"
   might be inscribed over the vast mausoleum of Believers--and then the
   palm branch might be put at the bottom of the inscription, for, dying
   in faith, they, every one of them, achieved the victory!

   Let me add that God's servants have a glory of strength which I must
   not even mention without much humbleness of heart. God's people are,
   through His Grace, so strong that they not only overcome the world, the
   flesh and the devil, but they overcome God Himself. Oh, matchless
   mystery, that the Omnipotent should yield to the Believer 's strength!
   Do you ask, "How is this?" Let me remind you of the Brook Jabbok and
   the memorable wrestling there when the Divine Wrest-

   ler said to Jacob, "Let Me go, for the day breaks," but the brave man
   of faith replied, "I will not let You go, except You bless me." And so
   he won the blessing--and with it came that new name, so full of
   meaning--"Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a
   prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed." Truly
   did Joseph Hart, write, concerning God-given faith--

   "It treads on the world and on Hell!

   It vanquishes death and despair!

   And what is still stranger to tell

   It overcomes Heaven by prayer!" Surely there is a great glory in the
   strength of a Christian when even Heaven is moved by the pleading voice
   of a true Believer!

   III. Now let us notice, in the third place--and may the Spirit of God
   give His own unction and power with the

   thought!--that Believers, thus having God-given strength, know that ALL
   THE GLORY OF THEIR STRENGTH

   LIES IN GOD.

   I hope you have understood this Truth of God even while I have been
   speaking about it, for it is true that the Christian has no other
   strength than that which has come from God. It is so in every
   individual Christian. The glory of any strength that he has must be
   given to God because God has given that strength to him. Have you all
   learned this lesson yet or are any of you proud of anything that you
   are, or of anything that you have done? Have you not yet learned the
   Truth of the text, "You are the glory of their strength"? Have you been
   foolish enough to say, "I preach well," or, "I work well," or, "I
   suffer well," or, "I am growing in Grace, so there is some credit due
   to me?" Dear Brother, if you talk like that, may the Lord deliver you
   from all such delusions! He is the glory of our strength--let us keep
   to that and never get away from it, for the Lord our God is a jealous
   God and He is especially jealous of His own glory! And if He sees that
   we give that glory to ourselves, or to any other but Himself, He will
   take away from us the strength that He gave and make us cry out once
   again because of our weakness. So do not destroy your own strength by
   taking the glory of it to yourself. Oh, how many a man has flung
   himself from the battlements of his pulpit by beginning to feel that he
   did it and that he had some strength of his own! How many a professor
   has marred a life of consistency in one dark hour--and the reason has
   been that self-sufficiency and carnal security were hidden away in his
   bosom--and at last betrayed him. When you are strong, then are you
   weak. But when you are conscious of weakness, then are you truly
   strong! While you lay the crown at the feet of Him who gave you the
   strength to win it, you will always be made strong. But as soon as you
   begin putting the crown on your own head, your strength shall be taken
   from you and if, like Samson, you go out to shake yourself as at other
   times, you will find that the Lord has departed from you to chasten you
   for your pride!

   Further, what is true of individual Christians is also true of a Church
   And I want to impress this Truth upon the members of this Church and
   upon the members of all other Churches. When God makes a Church strong,
   it is a very blessed and glorious thing--but the glory and strength of
   every Church must always lie in God. It never lies in the fact that
   there are many wealthy persons belonging to it. If God ever sees His
   people worshipping the golden calf, He will send a plague upon them to
   punish them for their idolatry! The glory of a Church must never lie in
   the fact that there are certain persons of intelligence connected with
   it. I believe that is the worm at the root of many Churches and that it
   will lead to their decay. Everything is done with the view of pleasing
   two or three people who are supposed to be very intellectual--yet those
   very people, if they are the Lord's people--do not need "intellectual
   preaching" at all! They have enough work for their intellect on the
   other six days of the week and they need the simple Gospel--plain
   spiritual food for their souls to feed upon on the Sabbath! There are a
   great many ministers who cause their hearers to break the fourth
   commandment for the labor involved in hearing them preach is indeed
   terrible--it must rack the soul instead of resting it! I should like to
   see a Lord's-Day Rest Society established to keep the people's mind at
   rest instead of their being tortured with all manner of quibbles and
   questions! They need to hear of Jesus Christ, for He is the true Rest
   for the soul and it is the very essence of the Divine Commandment to
   leave your own work and to rest in Christ! That is the way to keep the
   Sabbath holy and he who has not done that cannot know the true Sabbath
   rest which is the portion only of those who are resting in the Lord
   Jesus Christ!

   So it will not do to make the glory of our strength to lie in the
   wealthy people or the intelligent people. And it will not do to make
   the glory of our strength to lie in fine elocution. "The wisdom of
   words" appears to have strength in it,

   but when it makes the Cross of Christ of no effect, it is sheer
   weakness! It was one of the worst days that ever dawned upon the Church
   of Christ when it began to cultivate the art of oratory and turned
   aside to "enticing words of man's wisdom." But when men speak out of an
   overflowing soul of what God has done for them, that is the power which
   the Spirit of God gives to them and the power which He will bless to
   their hearers! They do not then try to use out-of-the-way words and
   nicely rounded sentences, nor to pile up perorations--for that is
   magnifying the preacher and dishonoring the Word that has come out of
   the mouth of God!

   The glory of our strength must never lie in any of these things--it
   must lie in God alone. If it does so lie, then we shall glory in the
   Gospel which is one of the great supports of our strength! We shall
   glory in the Cross of Christ which is the main strength of the Gospel.
   And we shall glory in the Holy Spirit, who alone can raise the
   spiritually dead, who alone can give the eyes that look to Christ upon
   the Cross and who alone can make the heart long after its Redeemer! O
   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have need to pray for God the Holy
   Spirit to work mightily among us! We have the Holy Spirit still with
   us, so we have no need to pray that He would come down from Heaven. He
   came down at Pentecost and He never went back to Heaven, so He is still
   here. He is in all His people! He is in this assembly right now. He
   dwells among us, though we are apt to forget that He does. We reckon
   that the glory of our strength lies in our ministers, or in our
   organizations, or in our creeds. We forget that the glory of our
   strength is spiritualand lies in the Holy Spirit, Himself, who is in us
   and who shall be forever in us if we are truly the Lord's! Cry mightily
   in prayer, Beloved, that this true glory of our strength may
   continually be revealed in our midst as a Church, for so often we
   restrain Him, grieve Him and bind Him, as it were, with chains! He
   cannot do many mighty works among us because of our unbelief. He
   withholds His richest blessings because of our sinfulness. Let us turn
   to Him again! O Lord, turn us and we shall be turned, and then we shall
   see the glory of our strength among us, and we shall give all the glory
   to Him who gives to us all our strength!

   I offered a prayer, this evening, (and I prayed in faith), that the
   Lord would, in His mercy, save some souls tonight. And I expect to hear
   that He has done so. I do not expect that blessed fact to remain
   concealed until we get to Heaven, but I expect to know tonightthat same
   of my hearers have come and found rest in Jesus!

   I think I hear someone say, "I would gladly be saved, but I am so
   weak." But the almighty Savior came to save weak sinners! "Oh, but I am
   so weak I do not feel any repentance." But Christ was exalted to give
   repentance! O poor weak ones, it is to just such as you are that Jesus
   says, "Look unto Me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." It is
   but a lookthat is needed--and even thatthe Holy Spirit gives you! He
   gives it to you now--He enables you now to look to Jesus, the great
   atoning Sacrifice! And as you look, you are saved in a moment, saved
   through His Grace by that simple looking unto Jesus! Oh, to leap out of
   death into life, out of thick darkness into unutterably glorious light
   in one moment! I pray that the Holy Spirit may speak to many a soul
   here through the words that I am now uttering. "Awake, you that sleep
   and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." The Lord
   grant that it may be so--and to Him shall be the glory, for He is the
   glory of our strength. Amen!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM89.1-38.

   Verses 1, 2. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever: with my
   mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I
   have said, Mercy shall be built up forever: Your faithfulness shall You
   establish in the very heavens.

   [See Sermon #1565, Volume 26--MASCHIL OF ETHAN, A MAJESTIC SONG.] So
   far,

   the gracious man declares the resolution of his heart to praise his God
   forever and gives the reason for that resolve. Now he quotes the Lord's
   Covenant with David.

   3, 4. I have made a Covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David,
   My servant, Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your
   throne to all generations. Selal. That Covenant, as you well know, was
   not only made with David, but it had a higher spiritual bearing, for it
   related to that great and glorious Son of David who still reigns and
   shall reign forever--and in whom every Covenant blessing is secured.

   5. And the heavens shall praise Your wonders, O LORD: Your faithfulness
   also in the congregation of the saints. It is often very profitable
   when we are enjoying fellowship with God, for us to speak to God and
   then wait for God to speak to us. It is so here, you see. First the
   Psalmist says that he will praise God forever. Then God tells him of
   His Covenant

   and explains to him the reason why mercy shall be built up forever. And
   then the man of God begins to praise God again. That will give you a
   hint for your own private devotion. Sometimes you feel that you cannot
   praise God and cannot pray to Him. Well then, if you cannot speak to
   God, sit still and let Him speak to you! Read a portion of Scripture
   and then, perhaps, some suggestive verse or word in it will set you
   praying. And then when you have prayed, stop a little while and read
   again--and so a blessed conversation shall be carried on between you
   and your God! Thus the Psalmist takes his turn again--"And the heavens
   shall praise Your wonders, O Lord: Your faithfulness also in the
   congregation of the saints."

   6, 7. For who in the Heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among
   the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? God is greatly to
   be feared. That is, reverenced.

   7-9. In the assembly ofthe saints, and to be hadin reverence ofall them
   that are about Him. O LORD God ofHosts, who is a strong LORD like unto
   You? Or to Your faithfulness round about You? You rule the raging ofthe
   sea: when the waves thereof arise, You still the . He lets them arise
   and He bids them sink down again. All the Providential dealings of God
   seem to be illustrated in the ever-varying phenomena of the sea. The
   Lord sometimes lets tempests arise in our circumstances, but soon with
   a Word He stills them and there is a great calm.

   10. You have broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain.The great
   crocodile of Egypt.

   10-12. You have scattered Your enemies with Your strong arm. The
   heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours: as for the world and the
   fullness thereof, You have founded them. The north and the south You
   have created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Your name. Oh,
   what a blessed spirit the spirit of true devotion is! There is such
   life in it that it seems to quicken all inanimate creation and make the
   rocks and mountains sing, the trees of the woods to clap their hands
   and the waves of the sea to praise the great Creator! So the whole
   world is like a great organ and man, guided by God's Spirit, puts his
   fingers on the keys and wakes the whole world to the thunder of
   adoration and praise! Oh to be taught of God to have a praiseful heart,
   for then all around us will be more likely to also praise Jehovah!

   13, 14. You have a mighty arm. [See Sermons #674, Volume 12--THE MIGHTY
   ARM and #1314, Volume 22 which has the same titlt.] Strong is Your
   hand, and high is Your right hand. Justice and judgment are the
   habitation of Your Throne: mercy and Truth shall go before Your face.
   There are wells of joy in this verse to those who know how to draw it
   up. It is a great delight to every man who is oppressed to know that
   justice and judgment stand, like armed sentinels, on either side of the
   Throne of God and to every human soul, conscious of unworthiness, it is
   an unspeakable delight that Mercy and Truth, like royal heralds, go
   before God wherever He goes! It has been well said that a God of all
   mercy would be an unjust God--but a God of all justice without mercy
   would be terrible, indeed!

   15-21. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall
   walk, O LORD, in the light of Your Countenance. In Your name shall they
   rejoice all the day: and in Your righteousness shall they be exalted.
   For You are the glory of their strength: and in Your favor our horn
   shall be exalted for the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of
   Israel is our king. Then You spoke in vision to Your holy one, and
   said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one
   chosen out of thepeople. Ihave found David My servant; with My holy
   oilhave I anointed him: with whom My hand shall be established: My arm
   also shall strengthen hi . David was a great blessing to the nation
   over which God made him king. Among the choicest gifts that God ever
   gives to men are men and, therefore, we read concerning Christ, "When
   He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
   men"--and those gifts were men, for, "He gave some, Apostles and some,
   Prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." These
   were the choice ascension gifts of Christ! Yet, while these verses
   primarily refer to David, the king of Israel, we must believe that a
   greater than David is here, even Christ, who deigns to call Himself
   God's Servant, who has been anointed by the Spirit of God, with whom
   God's hand is always established and who is ever strengthened by the
   arm of Omnipotence.

   22-25. The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness
   afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face and plague
   them that hate him. But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him:
   and in My name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in
   the sea and his right hand in the rivers. Do not believe, dear Friends,
   any of the prophecies that some men make concerning the destruction of
   the Kingdom of Christ and the failure of His Church-- but be certain
   that the Lord will not suffer Christ to fail or be discouraged--and
   rest assured that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands!
   The history of the Church of Christ is a history of conflict, but it
   shall be a history of victory before it is completed--"I will set his
   hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers."

   26-34. He shall cry unto Me, You are my fatheer, my God, and thee rock
   of my salvation. Also I will make him My first-born, higher than the
   kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and My
   Covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure
   forever, and his throne as the days of Heaven. If his children forsake
   My law, and walk not in My judgments; if they break My statutes, and
   keep not My commandments; then will I visit their transgression with
   the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My loving
   kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness
   to fail. My Covenant will I not break, or alter the thing that is gone
   out of My lips. If, then, you are in the Covenant, you will have the
   rod--you may rest sure of that! If you do not walk in God's ways, but
   break His statutes, you will not be allowed to go unchastened. If a
   father saw some boys in the street breaking windows or otherwise
   misbehaving themselves--and he gave one of the boys a box on the ears,
   you may be pretty certain that the boy is his own son. And when God
   sees men doing wrong, He often permits the wicked to go unpunished in
   this life--but as for His own people, it is written, "You only have I
   known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for
   all your iniquities." Our heavenly Father's hand still holds the rod
   and uses it when necessary--but it is in love that He corrects us. Let
   us, therefore, when He chastens us, plead the Covenant that is here
   recorded and say to Him, "You have said, 'Nevertheless My loving
   kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness
   to fail. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone
   out of My lips.'"

   35-37. Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.
   His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It
   shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in
   Heaven. Selah.
     __________________________________________________________________

Women's Rights--a Parable

   (No. 3141)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Moses brought their cause before the LORD." Numbers 17:5.

   BY the help of God the Holy Spirit, I want to use this incident which
   forms a kind of episode in the rehearsal of the history of Israel's 40
   years' wanderings in the wilderness, for a twofold purpose. First, let
   me indicate its general teach-ingand, secondly, let me take it as a
   ground of appeal to certain special classes.

   I. First, I will try to indicate ITS GENERAL TEACHING.

   I would ask your attention and exhibit for your imitation, the faith
   which these five young women, the daughters of Zelophehad, possessed
   with regard to the promised inheritance. You must remember that the
   children of Israel were still in the wilderness. They had not seen the
   promised land, but God had made a Covenant with them that they should
   possess it. He had declared that He would bring them into a land which
   flowed with milk and honey and there plant them. And that that land
   should belong to them and to their descendants by a Covenant of salt
   forever. Now, these women believed in this heritage. They were not like
   Esau, who thought so little of the inheritance which was his birthright
   that he sold it to his brother Jacob for a mess of pottage--they
   believed it to be really worth having. They regarded it, though they
   had never beheld it, as being something exceedingly substantial and so,
   thinking about it, they were afraid lest they should be left out when
   the land was divided. And though they had never seen it, yet, being
   persuaded that it was somewhere and that the children of Israel would
   have it in due time, their anxiety was they, having no brothers, would
   be forgotten in the distribution and so would lose their rights. They
   were anxious about an inheritance which they had never seen with their
   eyes and, therein, I hold them up to the imitation of this present
   assembly.

   There is an inheritance that is far better than the land of Canaan. Oh,
   that we all believed in it and longed for it! It is an inheritance,
   however, which mortal eyes have not seen and the sounds of which mortal
   ears have not heard. It is a city whose streets are gold, but none of
   us have ever walked them. Never has traveler to that country come back
   to tell us of its glories. There the music never ceases, no discord
   ever mingles in it, it is sublime, but no member of the heavenly choir
   has ever come to write out for us the celestial score, or to--

   "Teach us some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above."

   It is not a matter of sight--it must be to each one of us a matter of
   faith. By faith we know that there is another and a better land. By
   faith we understand that our disembodied souls shall mount to be with
   Christ and that, after a while, our bodies shall also rise to join our
   spirits so that body and soul may together be glorified forever in the
   Presence of our gracious Redeemer. We have never seen this land,
   however--but there are some of us who as firmly believe in it as if we
   had seen it--and are as certain of it and as fully persuaded as though
   these ears of ours had listened to its songs ofjoy and these feet of
   ours had walked its streets of gold!

   There was this feature, too, about the faith of these five women--they
   knew that the inheritance was only to be won by encountering great
   difficulties. The spies who came back from the land had said that the
   men who dwelt in it were giants. They said, "We were in our own sight
   as grasshoppers and so we were in their sight." There was many a man,
   in the camp of Israel, I have no doubt, who said, "Well, I would sell
   my share cheaply enough, for though the land is there, we can never win
   it! They have cities walled up to Heaven and they have chariots of
   iron--we can never win the land." But these women believed that
   although they could not fight, God could! And though they had never put
   their fingers to a more terrible instrument than a needle, yet did they
   believe that the same right arm which got itself the victory when

   they went with Miriam, dancing to the timbrels' jubilant sound, would
   get the victory, again, and bring God's people in and drive the
   Canaanites out even though they had walled cities and chariots of iron!

   So these women had strong faith. I would to God that you had the same,
   all of you, dear Friends, but I know that some of you who believe that
   there is a land which flows with milk and honey, are half afraid that
   you shall never reach it! You are vexed with many doubts because of
   your own weakness, which, indeed, should not merely make you doubt, but
   should make you utterly despair if the gaining of the goodly land
   depended upon your own fighting for it and winning it! But, inasmuch as
   "the gift of God is eternal life" and God, Himself, will give it to us,
   and inasmuch as Jesus has gone up on high to prepare a place for us and
   has promised that He will come again and receive us unto Himself that
   where He is, there we may also be, I would to God that our doubts and
   fears were banished and that we said within ourselves, "We are well
   able to go up and attack the land, for the Lord, even the Lord of
   Hosts, is with us! Jehovah-Nissi is our banner! The Lord Our
   Righteousness is our helper and we shall surely enter into the place of
   the beloved people of God and shall join the general assembly and
   Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven."

   I commend the faith of these women to you because believing in the land
   and believing that it would be won, they were not to be put about by
   the ill report of some who said that it was not a good land. There were
   10 out of the 12 who spied out the land who said, "It is a land that
   eats up the inhabitants thereof." They brought back an evil report.
   But, whoever may have been perverted by these lies, these five women
   were not. Others said, "Why, the land is full of pestilence and hornets
   and those who live in it now are dying," forgetting that God was making
   them die in order to bring in the children of Israel in their place.
   And so they said, "who cares to have a portion there? Give us the
   leeks, the garlic and the onions of Egypt--and let us sit again by the
   flesh-pots that we had at Rameses--but as for going on to this Canaan,
   we will never do it." But these five women, who knew that if there were
   troubles in the household, they would be sure to have their share of
   them, that if the bread ran short, theywould be the most likely to feel
   the straitness of it, and that if it were a land of sickness, theywould
   have to be the nurses, yet coveted to have their share in it, for they
   did not believe the ill report. They said, "No, God has said it is a
   good land, a land of hills and valleys, a land of brooks and rivers, a
   land of olive oil and honey, a land out of whose hills we may dig iron
   and brass--and we will not believe what you spies say--it is a good
   land and we will go in and ask for our share of it." So I commend their
   faith in this respect.

   I know that some of you are occasionally met by sneering skeptics and
   they say to you, "There is no such place as Heaven! We have never seen
   it--are you such fools as to believe in it? Are you going on a
   pilgrimage over hedge and ditch, helter-skelter, to a country that you
   know nothing of? Are you going to trust that old-fashioned Book and
   take God's Word, and nothing but His Word, and believe it?" Oh, I hope
   there are many of us--would that allof us were in that happy
   position--who can say, "It is even so!" Stand back, Mr. Atheist, and
   stop us not, for we are well persuaded that ours is no wild-goose
   chase! Stand back, Sir Ironical Skeptic! Laugh if you will. You will
   laugh on the other side of your face one of these days and we shall
   have the last laugh at that time! At any rate, if there is no Heaven,
   we shall be as well off as you will be, but if there is a Hell, where,
   O where will you be--and what will your portion be? So we go on our own
   way confident and sure, doubting nothing--believing as surely as we
   believe in our own existence that--

   "Jesus, the Judge will come To take His people up To their eternal
   home"--

   and believing that one hour with Him will be worth all the trials of
   the road--worth enduring ten thousand deaths, if we could endure them,
   in order to win it and that, moreover, by God's Grace we shall win it--

   "We shall behold His face,

   We shall His name adore!

   And sing the wonders of His Grace

   Henceforth forevermore!"

   So I hold up these daughters of Zelophehad to your commendation and
   imitation on account of their faith.

   But there was another point. Feeling certain concerning the land, we
   must next commend them for their anxiety to possess a portion in it.
   Why did they think so much about it? I heard someone say, the other
   day, speaking of certain young people, "I do not like to see young
   women religious--they ought to be full of fun and mirth and not have
   their minds filled with such profound thoughts." Now, I will be bound
   to say that this kind of philosophy was accredited in the camp of
   Israel and that there were a great many young women there who said,
   "Oh, there is time enough to think

   about the good land when we get there! Let us be polishing up our
   mirrors. Let us be seeing to our dresses. Let us understand how to put
   our fingers upon the timbrel when the time comes for it! But as for
   prosing about a portion among those Hivites and Hittites, what is the
   good of it? We will not bother ourselves about that." But such was the
   strength of the faith of the five women that it led them to feel a deep
   anxiety for a share in the inheritance. They were not such simpletons
   as to live only for the present. They had outgrown their babyhood--they
   were not satisfied to live merely for the day. They knew that in due
   time the tribes would cross the Jordan and would be in the promised
   land, so they began, as it were, like good housewives, to think about
   where their portion would be and to reflect that were they left out
   when the muster-roll was read--and should no portion be appointed for
   Tirzah, no portion for Milcah and no place for any of the five sisters,
   they would be like beggars and outcasts in the midst of the land! The
   thought of all others having their plot of ground and their family
   having none, made them anxious about it. O dear Friends, how anxious
   you and I ought to be to make our calling and election sure! And how
   solemnly should that question of the Countess of Huntingdon come home
   to our hearts--

   "But can I bear the piercing thought-- What if my name should be left
   out When You for them shall call?"

   Suppose I should have no portion in the skies? O you foundations of
   chrysolite and all manner of precious stones, you gates of pearl, you
   walls of jasper, must I never see you? O troops of angels and armies of
   the blood-bought, must I never wave the palm or wear the crown in your
   midst? Must the word that salutes me be that awful sentence, "Depart,
   you cursed, into everlasting fire"? Is there no place for me, no room
   for me in the inheritance of the saints?

   I do beseech you, never be satisfied till you can answer this question
   in the affirmative and say, "Yes, I have a place in Jesus' heart! I
   have been washed in Jesus' blood and, therefore, I shall be with Jesus
   where He is in His Glory when the fitting time comes." Oh, I would have
   you who are not sure about this, be as anxious as these women were! Let
   it press upon your hearts! Let it even take the color from your cheek
   sooner than that you should have an empty and frivolous gaiety and
   mirth which will entice you down to the Pit! Oh, make sure work for
   eternity! Whatever else you trifle with, seek to have an anchor that
   will hold you fast in the last great storm! Seek to be affianced unto
   Christ! Be sure that you are founded upon the Rock of Ages, where alone
   we can safely build for eternity!

   These women were taken up with prudent anxious thoughts about their own
   part in the land of promise--and they were right in desiring to have a
   portion there when they remembered that the land had been given by
   Covenant to their fathers. They might well wish to have a part in a
   thing good enough to be a Covenant blessing! The land had been promised
   over and over again by Divine Authority--they might well wish to have a
   share in that which God's own lips had promised! It was a land to bring
   them into which God had killed the first-born of Egypt and saved His
   people by the sprinkling of blood--they might well desire a land which
   cost so great a price to bring them to it! Besides, it was a goodly
   land. It was the most princely of all lands, peerless among all the
   territories of earth. Its products were most rich. The grapes of
   Eshcol--what could equal them? Its pomegranates, its olives, its
   rivers--the land that flowed with milk and honey--there was nothing
   like it in all the world! These women might well say, "Let us have a
   portion there!"

   And, my dear Hearers, the Heaven of which we have to tell you is a land
   so good that it was spoken of in the Covenant before the world was! It
   has been promised to the people of God ten thousand times! Jesus Christ
   has shed His precious blood that He might open the gates of it and
   bring us in! And it is such a land that if you had but seen it, if you
   could but know what it is, you would pine away in stopping here for
   it's very dust is gold, its meanest joys are richer than the transports
   of earth and the poorest in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he
   who is the mightiest prince in the kingdoms of this world! Oh, that
   your mouths were set a-longing after the feasts of Paradise! Oh that
   you pined to be where Jesus is and then, surely, you would be anxious
   to know whether you had a portion there!

   I hold these women up as an example because they believed in the unseen
   inheritance and they were anxious to get their portion in it.

   But I must commend them yet again for the way in which they set about
   the business. I do not find that they went complaining from tent to
   tent that they were afraid that they had no portion. Many doubters do
   that--they tell their doubts and fears to others, but they get no
   further. But these five women went straight to Moses. He was at their
   head, he was their mediator--and then it is said that "Moses brought
   their cause before the Lord." You see, these women did not

   try to get what they wanted by force. They did not say, "We will take
   care to get our share of the land when we get there." They did not
   suppose that they had any merit which they might plead, and so get it,
   but they went straight to Moses--and Moses took their cause and laid it
   before the Lord. Sinner, do you want a portion in Heaven? Go straight
   to Jesus and Jesus will take your cause and lay it before the Lord! It
   is a very sorry one as it stands by itself, but He has such a sweet way
   of so mixing Himself up with you and yourself with Him, that His cause
   and your cause will be one cause-- and the Father will give Him good
   success--and give you good success, too! Oh, that someone here would
   breathe the prayer, if he has never prayed before, "Savior, will You
   see that I have a portion in the skies? Precious Savior, take my poor
   heart and wash it in Your precious blood, change it by your Holy Spirit
   and make me ready to dwell where perfect saints are! Oh, undertake my
   cause for me, blessed Advocate, and plead it before Your Father's
   face!" That is the way to have the business of salvation effectually
   done! Take it out of your own hands and put into the hands of the
   Prophet like unto Moses, and you will surely succeed!

   Now, observe the success of these women. The Lord accepted their plea,
   for He said unto Moses, "The daughters of Zelophehad speak rightly."
   Yes, and when you cry to Him and when His dear Son takes your prayer to
   Him, God will say, "That sinner speaks rightly." Beat on your breast
   and cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and He will say, "That soul
   speaks rightly." Young woman, imitate these five sisters right now! May
   God the Holy Spirit bring you to imitate them by humbly offering your
   plea through the Mediator, Jesus Christ, and God will say, "Ah, she
   speaks rightly, I have heard her and I have accepted her." And then God
   said that these sisters should have their portion just the same as the
   men had--that they should have their share of land just as if they had
   inherited it as sons--and so will God say to every seeking sinner!
   Whatever may be the disability under which you labor. Whatever bar
   there may have seemed to be to your claim, you shall inherit among the
   children, you shall take your part and your lot among the chosen people
   of God! Christ has set your cause before His Father, and it shall be
   unto you, poor Sinner, according to your desire--and you shall have a
   part among the Lord's people!

   I wish I had power to press this matter more immediately home upon you.
   Many of us who are now present are saved. It is a great satisfaction to
   remember how large a proportion of my congregation has come to Christ,
   but ah, there are many, many here who are--well, what are they? They do
   not know that they have any inheritance! They cannot read their title
   clear to mansions in the skies and, what is worse, they are unconcerned
   about it! If they were troubled about it, we would have hope concerning
   them, but no, they go their way and, like Pliable, having got out of
   the Slough of Despond, they turn around and say to Christians, "You may
   have the brave country all to yourselves for all we care." They are so
   fond of present pleasure, so easily enticed by the wily whispers of the
   arch-enemy, so soon overcome by their own passions that they find it
   too hard to be Christians--to love Christ is a thing too difficult for
   them! Ah, may God meet with you and make you wiser! Poor Souls, you
   will perish--some of you will perish while you are looking on at this
   world's bubbles and baubles! You will perish--you will go down to Hell
   with this earth's joys in your mouths--but they will not sweeten those
   mouths when the pangs of Hell get hold upon you! Your life is short.
   Your candle flickers in its socket. You must soon go the way of all
   flesh. We never meet one week after another without some death
   occurring between. Out of this vast number, surely it is all but
   impossible that we should ever all meet here again! Perhaps before this
   day next week, some of us will have passed the curtain, will have
   learned the great secret and will have entered the invisible world!
   Whose portion will it be? If it is yours, dear Hearer, will you mount
   to worlds of joy, or shall--

   "Devils plunge you down to Hell In infinite despair?"

   God make that a matter of concern with us, first, and then may we come
   to Jesus and receive the sprinkling of precious blood! And thus may He
   make it a matter of confidence with us that we are saved through Him
   and shall be partakers with them that are sanctified!

   II. Secondly, I am going to use the whole incident as a GROUND OF
   APPEAL TO CERTAIN SPECIAL

   CLASSES.

   Does it not strike you that there is here a special lesson for our
   unconverted sisters Here are five daughters, I suppose young women,
   certainly unmarried women, and these five were unanimous in seeking to
   have a portion where God had promised it to His people. Have I any
   young women here who have not acted like that? I am afraid I have!
   Blessed be God for the many who come in among us who become solemnly
   impressed and give their young days to Jesus! But there

   are some, there may be some here, of another mind. The temptations of
   this wicked Metropolis, the pleasures of this perilous city lead them
   away from the right path and prevent them from giving a fair hearing to
   God's Word. Well, but you are here, my Sister, and may I, as a Brother,
   put this question to you? Do you not desire a portion in the skies?
   Have you no wish for Glory? Have you no longing for the everlasting
   crown? Can you sell Christ for a few hours of mirth? Will you give Him
   up for a giddy song or an idle companion? Those are not your friends
   who would lead you from the paths of righteousness! Count them not
   dear, but loathe them if they would entice you from Christ! But, as you
   will certainly die and will as certainly live forever in endless woe or
   in boundless bliss, do see to your souls! "Seek you first the Kingdom
   of God and His righteousness," and all other necessary things shall be
   added to you. You have come fresh from the country, young woman, and
   leaving your mother's care it is very likely that you have begun to
   absent yourself from the means of Grace, but I charge you not to do so!
   On the contrary, let this bind you to your mother's God and may you
   feel that whereas you may have up to now neglected God's House and
   profaned God's Day, yet henceforth, like the daughters of Zelophehad,
   you will seek to have a portion in the promised land!

   The subject bears another way. Has it not a voice, and a loud voice
   too, to the children of godly parents I like these young women saying
   that their father did not die with Korah, but that he only died the
   ordinary death which fell upon others because of the sin of the
   wilderness. And also their saying, "Why should the name of our father
   be done away from among his family because he has no son?" It is a good
   thing to see this respect to parents--this desire to keep up the honor
   of the family. I was thinking whether there may not be some here, some
   children of godly parents, who would feel it a sad thing if they should
   bring disgrace upon the family name? Is it so, that though your father
   has been for many years a Christian, he has not one to succeed him? O
   young man, have you no ambition to stand in his place, no wish to let
   his name be perpetuated in the Church of God? Well, if the sons have no
   such ambition or if there are none, let the daughters say to one
   another, "Our father never disgraced his profession. He did not die in
   the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord,
   but he served the Lord faithfully--and we will not let his name be
   blotted out from Israel! We will join ourselves to the people of God
   and the family shall be still represented." But oh, how I desire that
   the brothers and sisters would come together! And what a delightful
   thing it would be to see the whole family! In that household there were
   only five girls, but they all had their heritage. Father, would you not
   be happy if it should be so with your children? Mother, would you not
   be ready to say, "Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, according
   to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation," if you could see
   all your children brought in? And why not, my Brothers and Sisters, why
   not? We will give God no rest until it is so! We will plead with Him
   until they are all saved! And young people, why not? The Lord's mercy
   is not straitened! The God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob and your
   father's God, we trust, will be your God! Oh, that you would follow in
   the footsteps of your parents so far as they followed Christ! These
   daughters of Zelophehad seem to me to turn preachers--and I stand here
   to speak for them, and all five of them say to you--"We gained our
   inheritance by seeking for it through a mediator. Young women, brothers
   and sisters, you shall gain it, too, by seeking it through a Savior."

   And does not this text also speak to another class--to orphans These
   good girls had lost their parents, or otherwise the question would not
   have arisen. Father and mother had passed away and, therefore, they had
   to go to Moses for themselves. When the parents could not come to Moses
   for them, they came for themselves. Think of the skies a moment, some
   of you. Perhaps this morning you were in a very different place, but
   think of the skies a minute. No, I do not mean the meteoric stones! I
   do not mean the stars, nor yon bright moon--but I want you to think of
   your mother, who is yonder. Do you remember when she gave you the last
   kiss, bade you farewell and said, "Follow me, my children. Follow me to
   the skies"? Think of a father who is there. His voice, doubtless,
   helping to swell the everlasting hallelujah! Does he not beckon you
   from the battlements of Heaven and cry, "Children of my loins, follow
   me, as I followed Christ"? Some of us have an honored grandfather
   there, an honored grandmother there. Many of you have little infants
   there, young angels whom God lent you for a little time and then took
   them to Heaven to show you the way, to lure you to go upwards too! You
   all have some dear friends there with whom you walked to God's House in
   company. They have gone, but I charge you, by the living God, to follow
   them! Break not your households in two! Let no solemn rifts come into
   the family, but, as they have gone to their rest, God grant unto you by
   the same road to come and rest eternally too. Jesus Christ is ready to
   receive sinners! He is ready to receive you! And if you trust Him, the
   joy and bliss which your friends now partake of shall also be yours!
   Daughters of godly parents, children of those who have gone before to
   eternal Glory, I entreat you, look to Jesus! Go and present your suit
   to Him now. It shall surely prosper. If the question was once doubtful,
   it has now become "a statute of judgment." The Lord has commanded it!
   May God bless these counsels and exhortations to you, for Christ's
   sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS 1.

   Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.
   When that "beginning" was, we cannot tell. It may have been long ages
   before God fitted up this world for the abode of man, but it was not
   self-existent--it was created by God, it sprang from the will and the
   word of the all-wise Creator!

   2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
   face of the deep. When God began to arrange this world in order, it was
   shrouded in darkness and it had been reduced to what we call, for lack
   of a better name, "chaos." This is just the condition of every soul of
   man when God begins to deal with him in His Grace--it is formless and
   empty of all good things. "There is none righteous, no, not one: there
   is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are
   all gone out of the way."

   2. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. This was
   the first act of God in preparing this planet to be the abode of
   man--and the first act of Grace in the soul is for the Spirit of God to
   move within it! How that Spirit of God comes there, we know not. We
   cannot tell how He acts, even as we cannot tell how the wind blows
   where it wishes, but until the Spirit of God moves upon the soul,
   nothing is done towards its new creation in Christ Jesus!

   3, 4. And Godsaid, Let there be light: and there was light And Godsaw
   the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the
   darkness. "Light be." "Light was." God had but to speak the word and
   the great wonder was accomplished! How there was light before there was
   any sun--for the sun was not created until the fourth day of the
   week--it is not for us to say. But God is not dependent upon His own
   creation. He can make light without a sun! He can spread the Gospel
   without the aid of ministers, He can convert souls without any human or
   angelic method, for He does as He wills in the heavens above and on the
   earth beneath.

   5. And God called the light, Day, and the darkness, He called Night And
   the evening and the morning were the first da . It is a good thing to
   have the right names for things. An error is often half killed when you
   know the real name of it--its power lies in its being indescribable!
   But as soon as you can call it, "darkness," you know how to act towards
   it. It is a also good thing to know the names of truths and the names
   of other things that are right. God is very particular in the Scripture
   about giving people their right names. The Holy Spirit says, "Judas,
   not Iscariot," so that there should be no mistake about the intended
   person. Let us also always call persons and things by their right
   names--"God called the light, Day, and the darkness He called Night."
   "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Darkness first
   and light afterwards. It is so with us spiritually--first darkness,
   then light. I suppose that until we get to Heaven, there will be both
   darkness and light in us. And as to God's Providential dealings, we
   must expect darkness as well as light. They will make up our first day
   and our last day, till we get where there are no days but the Ancient
   of Days.

   6-8. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
   and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the
   firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
   the waters which were above the firmament and it was so. And God called
   the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second
   day. "The firmament"--an expanse of air in which floated the waters
   which afterwards condensed and fell upon the earth in refreshing
   showers. These waters above were divided from the waters below. Perhaps
   they were all one steamy conglomeration before, but now they are
   separated. Note those four words, "and it was so." Whatever God ordains
   always comes. You will find that it is true of all His promises, that
   whatever He has said shall be fulfilled to you, and you shall one day
   say of it all, "And it was so." It is equally certain concerning all
   His threats that what He has spoken shall certainly be fulfilled--and
   the ungodly will have to say, "And it was so." These words are often
   repeated in this Chapter. They convey to us the great lesson that the
   Word of God is sure to be followed by the deed of God. He speaks and it
   is done!

   9-13. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered
   together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
   And God called the dry land, Earth, and the gathering together of the
   waters He called Seas. And

   God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
   grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after
   his kind, whose seed is in itself; upon the earth: and it was so. And
   the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind,
   and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:
   and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the
   third da}. Having attended to the air, God further exercised His power
   by setting the earth in order. Observe the remarkable fact that no
   sooner had God made the dry land appear, than it seemed as if He could
   not bear the sight of it in its nakedness. What a strange place this
   world must have been with its plains and hills and rooks and vales
   without one single blade of grass, or a tree, or a shrub! So at once,
   before that day was over, God threw the mantle of verdure over the
   earth and clad its mountains and valleys with forests and plants and
   flowers, as if to show us that the fruitless is uncomely in God's
   sight, that the man who bears no fruit unto God is unendurable to Him.
   There would be no beauty whatever in a Christian without any good works
   and with no graces. As soon as ever the earth appeared, then came the
   herbs, the trees and the grass. So, dear Brothers and Sisters, in like
   manner, let us bring forth fruit unto God and bring it forth
   abundantly, for herein is our heavenly Father glorified--that we bear
   much fruit.

   14-19. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
   to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for
   seasons, and for days, andyears: and let them be for lights in the
   firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
   And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and
   the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set
   them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and
   to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from
   the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the
   morning were the fourth da. Whether the sun and moon are here said to
   be absolutely created, or whether they were only created so far as our
   planet was concerned by the dense vapors being cleared away so that the
   sun and moon and stars could be seen, is a matter of no consequence at
   all to us. Let us rather learn a lesson from them. These lights are to
   rule, but they are to rule by giving light. And, Brothers and Sisters,
   this is the true rule in the Church of God. He who gives most light is
   the truest ruler--and the man who aspires to leadership in the Church
   of God, if he knows what he is doing, aspires to be the servant of all
   by laying himself out for the good of all, even as our Savior said to
   His disciples, "Whoever of you will be the chief, shall be servant of
   all." The sun and moon are the servants of all mankind and, therefore,
   do they rule by day and by night. Stoop, my Brothers, if you wish to
   lead others! The way up is downward! To be great, you must be little.
   He is the greatest who is nothing at all unto himself, but all for
   others.

   20-23. And Godsaid, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
   creature that has life, and fowl that mayfly above the earth in the
   open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every
   living creature that moves, which the water brought forth abundantly,
   after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw
   that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and
   multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
   earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth da. There was no
   life in the sea or on the land until all was ready for it. God would
   not make a creature to be unhappy. There must be suitable food to feed
   upon and the sun and moon to cheer and comfort before a single bird
   shall chirp in the thicket or a solitary trout shall leap in the
   stream. So, after God has given men light, and blessed them in various
   ways, their spiritual life begins to develop to the glory of God. We
   have the thoughts that soar like fowl in the open firmament of heaven,
   and other thoughts that dive into the mysteries of God, as the fish
   dive in the sea. These are after-development, after-growths of that
   same power which at the first said, "Let there be light."

   24, 25. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature
   after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth
   after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth
   after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps
   upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was goot. There is
   as much wisdom and care displayed in the creation of the tiniest
   creeping insect as in the creation of leviathan himself. Those who use
   the microscope are as much amazed at the greatness and the goodness of
   God as those are who use the telescope. He is as great in the little as
   He is in the great. After each day's work, God looks upon it--and it is
   well for us, every night, to review our day's work. Some men's work
   will not bear looking at and tomorrow becomes all the worse to them
   because today was not considered and its sin repented of by them. But
   if the errors of today are marked by us, a repetition of them may be
   avoided on the morrow. It is only God who can look upon any one day's
   work and say of it, as a whole, and in every

   part, that it is "good." As for us, our best things need sprinkling
   with the blood of Christ which we need not only on the lintels and side
   posts of our house, but even on the altar and the Mercy Seat at which
   we worship God!

   26-28. And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness:
   and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
   ofthe air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
   creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His
   own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created
   He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
   multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over
   the fish ofthe sea, and over the fowl ofthe air, and over every living
   thing that moves upon the eartt. God evidently meant the two persons,
   male and female, to complete the man, and the entireness of the manhood
   lies in them both. The earth is completed now that man has come upon
   it, and man is completed when the image of God is upon him, when Christ
   is formed in him the hope of Glory, but not till then. When we have
   received the power of God and have dominion over ourselves and over all
   earthly things in the power of God's eternal Spirit, then are we where
   and what God intends us to be.

   29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,
   which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is
   the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to
   every beast ofthe earth, and to every fowl ofthe air, and to everything
   that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every
   green herb for meat: and it was s. Now you see God's commissariat. He
   has not made all these creatures in order to starve them, but He has
   supplied them with great variety and abundance of food, that their
   needs may be satisfied. Does God care for the cattle and will He not
   feed His own children? Does He provide for ravens and sparrows and will
   He allow you to lack anything, O you of little faith? Observe that God
   did not create man until He had provided for him--neither will He ever
   put one work of His Providence or of His Grace out of its proper
   place--but that which goes before shall be preparatory to that which
   follows after.

   31. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was
   verygoot. Taken in its completeness, and all put together, God saw that
   it was very good. We must never judge anything before it is complete.
     __________________________________________________________________

Established Work

   (No. 3142)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 20, 1873.

   "Establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our
   hands." Psalm 90:17.

   SOME of us have been to the grave this afternoon and the most forcible
   impression upon our minds at this time is that of our mortality. We
   cannot, in burying others, say, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust
   to dust," without thinking of the time when we, too, shall be laid in
   the silent grave. The thought that we are, yet are not, that we are but
   as shadows that flit across the path of life--coming, going, scarcely
   come before we are gone--the thought of our mortality has led us to ask
   concerning our work--Is that mortal, too? Will that die like ourselves?
   Some of us have darling objectives, high designs, great enterprises on
   our hearts--are all those shadows? We are as the grass of the
   field--are they also grass? Will the scythe that cuts us down cut them
   down, too? Truly, if we thought it would be so, it would give double
   bitterness to the remembrance of our own mortality to think that our
   work was mortal as well as ourselves!

   Perhaps it was that feeling which led Moses, the great Prophet-poet of
   the wilderness, to cry, "If we die, if we pass away, yet 'establish the
   work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.'" Every
   good man who is doing a good work has a sincere desire that his work
   should continue. This is not a wrong desire--it is in the highest
   degree right. We wish not to build with wood, hay and stubble--which we
   know will be consumed--and if our work is of that kind, we must not
   pray for its continuance. But if we believe that we are building with
   gold, silver and precious stones, we may pray, for the prayer is a most
   proper one, and the thought that suggests the prayer is a right one,
   "Establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our
   hands."

   At the same time, let me here remark that it is the work of God which
   is the ground of our confidence and peace, but our own work--even that
   which we dare ask God to establish--can never be such a comfort and
   stay to us, for it is always a cause of anxiety. It is a very strange
   thing that unconverted men should ever look to their own works for
   peace and comfort, since even to Christians their own works are rather
   a source of anxiety than of consolation. I feel sure that every true
   worker for God knows that it is so. The more you do for God, the more
   care you have pressing upon you. And though Grace enables you to cast
   that care upon Him whose work it really is, yet still does care
   naturally arise out of all work for God to those who are truly
   concerned in it. Hence our works never can become the source of our
   truest consolation. They may become evidences to us of God's Presence
   with us and may yield to our conscience a measure of peace, but still,
   the anxiety which will always spring out of good works will
   counterbalance any sort of comfort that can come from them! It is to
   God's work, not our own, that we have to look--"'Let Your work appear
   unto Your servants.' We are willing to work for You, Lord, but let us
   always have our eyes on Your work. We shall never serve You acceptably
   unless our eyes are directed towards what You have done for us rather
   than towards what we do for You. There is no glory in our work, but
   'let Your work appear unto Your servants, and Your Glory,' which always
   goes with it, 'unto their children.' Let us see Your glorious work,
   Your finished work--let us see it always, let us see it living, let us
   see it dying, and so we, Your servants, will praise You even when our
   hearts are anxious, believing that You will remove our anxiety-- 'Let
   Your work appear unto Your servants, and establish the work of our
   hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.'"

   I am going to try to answer three questions concerning our work for
   God. First, what part of our work can we ask God to establish Secondly,
   in what way is He likely to establish it? And, thirdly, if we are
   praying as Moses did, what ought to be our mode of action to correspond
   with such a prayer?

   I. First, then, WHAT KIND OF WORK CAN WE ASK GOD TO ESTABLISH? The
   ungodly must not pray, "Establish the work of our hands for us"--it
   would be blasphemy for them to do so! If the work is evil, God cannot
   establish it. Jesus Christ has been revealed to destroy all the works
   of the devil--and when He is destroying the works of the devil, He will
   destroy all the works that have been worked by men possessed by the
   spirit of evil. Nothing that has been worked unrighteously will be
   allowed to stand! Neither can we ask God to make it stand without
   supposing God to be such an one as ourselves, which He is not, and can
   never be. God will not help you in that which is wrong, ungodly one,
   however much you may try to interweave His holy name with your
   unrighteous actions!

   And remember, too, that God will never establish our works if they are
   intended to rival the works of His Son. Some people work very hard in
   trying to make a righteousness of their own, but if they could achieve
   their purpose, they would then be independent of a Savior. Their
   attempted obedience to the Law of God is intended to be a substitute
   for the perfect righteousness of Christ--and their tears and
   repentances are intended to be a substitute for the atoning Sacrifice
   of Christ. But do you suppose that God will ever take the side of those
   who desire to rival His Son and make the work of His Son needless? That
   can never be! Self-righteousness is the direst of insults to the Son of
   God! If I conceive myself to be righteous and meritorious in God's
   sight, I do, as far as in me lies, cast a reflection upon the wisdom of
   God, for I tell Him that although He provided a Savior, one was not
   needed--at any rate, not for me! I also insult the blood of Jesus, for
   I tell Him that it was shed unnecessarily--at least as far as I am
   concerned--for I have no sin needing to be washed away! I insult the
   Holy Spirit, too, for I tell Him that I do not need a new birth, for I
   am already as good as I need to be! Self-righteousness insults the
   Triune Jehovah and, therefore, we cannot ask God to establish it. If we
   were sensible, we should pray God to pull it down, every stick and
   stone of it! And rest assured, Sinners, that if God ever does save you,
   He will do that as one of the first things--for every stone that our
   fancied nobility has ever put upon its fellow with a view to building a
   refuge for ourselves, God will take down! Not one stone shall be left
   upon another if God is ever to save us. One of the most deplorable
   things that could ever happen to a man would be for him to be allowed
   to dwell comfortably in a refuge of lies until the storm of Divine
   Judgment should sweep both himself and his refuge away forever! Dear
   Hearer, may I ask whether your work is a self-righteous one, whether
   you are trying to save yourself? For if so, this prayer of Moses cannot
   properly be used by you, neither can God hear it with acceptance. No
   wicked works and no self-righteous works may we ask God to establish!

   But may we ask God to establish the ordinary works and engagements of
   our daily life? Yes, assuredly we may! If you are a servant of God, you
   have learned to eat and drink to His Glory and your most common actions
   are a part of the holy priesthood to which all Believers are called.
   You are yourself a priest and all that you do is a part of your service
   for God in His holy Temple, for God's Temple is not this Tabernacle,
   nor any other building. Wherever there is a true heart, there is a
   Temple for God--and wherever there is a renewed heart, there is a
   priest for God--and that is the only Temple and the only priest that
   God wants, with the exception of the Great High Priest, who stands for
   us before the Throne of the Most High. Well then, whatever you are
   doing, if you are doing it thus before God, you may ask Him to prosper
   and establish it. Why not? When Abraham's servant went down to
   Padanaram to find a wife for Isaac, he did not say, This matrimonial
   arrangement is secular business, so I must not pray about it." He did
   pray about it and God guided him and prospered his errand! And David,
   when he needed to know whether he should go to certain places to fight
   his enemies, enquired of the Lord, "Shall I go up?" And the Lord gave
   the answers to his petitions!

   We should do well to always make little things as well as great things
   the objects of prayer. I am afraid that many people fail for lack of
   due attention to little things. It is not always the great things in
   which a man slips, but it is often the little things which trip him up.
   Great matters he naturally takes to God, being diffident of his own
   judgment, but little matters he decides according to what he considers
   his own wisdom--and his own wisdom is generally nothing but the most
   arrant folly! The Israelites were never so grossly deceived as when the
   case seemed perfectly clear to them. There were the Gibeonites with old
   patched shoes upon their feet, so it was evident that they must have
   come from a distant land. They had dry and moldy bread, so no doubt
   what they said was true, that they had taken it hot out of the oven
   when they set out on their journey and it had become moldy from the
   long distance that they had carried it. There was no need for the
   people to call the priest and seek advice from God--the case was so
   clear that nobody could be deceived! Their own common sense was quite
   sufficient to guide them--so they thought! Had it been puzzling case,
   they would

   have asked the Lord to guide them, but being so very plain, they were
   deceived and made a great mistake. Take care to always consult God
   about those very plain things as you consider them!

   Still, Beloved, I would be very sorry to see this prayer limited to
   such matters as these. It should be used concerning them, but it must
   also be used to higher ends, or else it will be, to a large extent,
   wasted. True Christians live for God and work for God--and everyone of
   us who claims to be a Christian is either working for God or else an
   impostor. I repeat my declaration that the man who calls himself a
   Christian and yet does nothing for Christ is an impostor! He professes
   to be a fruit-bearing tree, yet he bears no fruit. He declares himself
   to be salt, yet he has no savor. He says that he is a light to the
   world, yet he never helps to remove its darkness by scattering his
   beams. But every genuine Christian is a worker for Christ, and work
   done for God is the kind of work which we may ask God to establish! And
   it is that work which will, in the highest sense, be established!

   What great works men have performed and yet how little has been the
   length of their endurance! When the great city of Babylon was built, we
   can scarcely conceive how vast it was, but where is it now? Its site
   may be known, but its power is gone. Its kings have long since passed
   away and its glory has departed. Then there was that mighty city of
   Nineveh, with all the power which was connected with the Assyrians.
   Then there was the Persian empire! And the Persian kings with great
   diligence built up very powerful states--yet they were not established
   by God and all the might of Persia melted away. The Romans also built
   up a vast empire. What a great metropolis they made Rome to be! As we
   walk amidst its massive walls, so stupendous that they look as if they
   must have been the work of giants, we see how the greatest works of men
   without God are not established! Let them build as solidly as they may,
   their mightiest works pass away like the child's sandcastles built on
   the beach that are washed away by the next tide! Nothing that man makes
   for man will endure! Build on, you despots, but Time, a mightier king
   than you, will pull down all that you put up! And the very revolutions
   of society, as men change from one phase of thought to another,
   overturn each other--and that which it seemed right to establish
   yesterday, it seems necessary to overthrow tomorrow! It is not merely
   empires that are thus cast down, but systems of religion and works that
   have apparently been done for God have gone, too! And schools of
   thought that ruled human minds have passed away--and now they are
   not--all this teaches us that only that which is really done for
   God--and that which is of God--will be established by God!

   This leads me to say that I think the work we may pray God to establish
   is, first, the work of soul-winning, the work of bringing sinners to
   the Savior. And, next, the work of building up of a Church. And then
   the work of testifying to the Truth as it is in Jesus--a work which is
   sadly neglected in these degenerate times. The work of
   soul-saving--when we have earnestly labored to bring sinners to faith
   in Jesus and have cried to the eternal God for the quickening power of
   His Holy Spirit to regenerate them--we may certainly pray God that that
   work may be established. And then, when we have gathered Christians
   together and God has given us Grace to put them in their places in His
   Church--and the Holy Spirit has rested upon us so that the work under
   our hands has been God's work as well as ours--we may certainly pray
   that God would build up His own Church and establish it. And when we
   have borne testimony to the Truth of God we may and we must very
   earnestly pray that that Truth may be spread still more widely, that it
   may not be forgotten by those who hear it, but may abide in their
   hearts--and that it may come to the front and influence men and women
   more than it has done up to now. Thus we may pray that our
   witness-bearing for Jesus may be established.

   I do not know what particular form of service may have fallen to the
   lot of my dear Brothers and Sisters here, but in any case, we may pray
   that what we have done for God may be established--only let us remember
   that God will only establish work that is really and truly done for
   Him. We can only pray to God, in the language of this prayer, to
   establish " the work of our hands." There must be real work and it must
   be two-handed work--we must throw our whole strength into it. I cannot
   expect God to establish that work over which I have trifled. If I have
   served God in such a way that it is palpable that I did not think the
   work very important, I cannot ask Him to establish it. We have a great
   deal of talking about the Gospel nowadays--we would have the Truth of
   God spread everywhere if talking would do it--but it is "the work of
   our hands" that is needed--real service, the putting out of our
   strength, the using of all our vigor, wit, wisdom and the skill of the
   craftsman who has been trained to some special form of handiwork. When
   a man throws his whole soul into what he has done for the Lord, so that
   he can claim that the work of his hands is real work done as unto the
   Lord, then he may ask God to establish it! But it must be work that is
   truly done, for I am afraid that there is a great deal talked about
   that is never done. I am not quite sure about those 30 persons who were
   said to have been converted the other night at a certain meeting. I
   cannot always rely upon the information received from a certain Brother
   who goes here and there and who is quite sure that so many were
   converted one night, and so many another night. I shall be glad if it
   is true, but I am not quite clear about it--there is a good deal of
   "flash in the pan" about his work. I read, in certain newspapers, of
   the work done by an earnest Brother well known to some of you--and I
   tried to find some trace of it, but I could not find any sign of it a
   few months afterwards. I am sorry to say that I have seen many churches
   "revived" until there has been nothing left of them. I am very dubious
   of a great deal that I have heard that seems to me like unholy
   boasting. If the work was exactly as it was said to be, there ought to
   have been a very great difference in certain towns from what there is
   now! My dear Brother, if God has done a great work by you, don't you go
   and brag about it! If it is necessary for you to sometimes tell what
   the Lord has done in saving souls through your instrumentality, tell it
   very discreetly, giving God all the Glory--not by blowing the trumpet
   and shouting, "Come and see our zeal for the Lord of Hosts" which, I
   believe, brings a blight and a blast upon everything that is done. God
   the Holy Spirit is displeased if we make a boast of any work that is
   done by us--and He will not establish any work of that sort. The real
   bona fide "work of our hands" God will establish, but He will not
   establish that which we try to puff into something important by pretty
   paragraphs in the newspapers about what wonderful things have been
   performed by us! The bare truth--plain transparent facts, we may
   give--but anything like exaggeration should be loathed by the Christian
   because it is untruthful! And it should be shunned by every wise man
   because it leads to bitter disappointment. God will only establish work
   that is really and truly done for Him.

   And I believe, further, that no work is ever really established by God
   unless it is founded upon the downright Truth of God. No doubt there is
   a great deal of work which God acknowledges although all in it is not
   His Truth. God prospered the work of Whitefield and the work of Wesley,
   but did that prove the truth of all that Whitefield or Wesley preached?
   No, but it proved that both of them had a measure of the Truth of God
   in their preaching--and that measure of Truth God blessed--but God
   would not establish anything that they taught in error. It may last for
   a while and some of it has lasted, I am afraid, much longer than is
   good for us, but sooner or later it will have to go. There was also
   Luther--he taught a great deal of the Truth of God and that Truth will
   last. But he also taught some error and the consequence is that there
   is a great deal today in Lutheranism which is doing much mischief! That
   will not last--it will have to go the way of all errors. That very
   point which God will destroy because it is erroneous may be that for
   which we contend with the greatest vigor! God will not establish any of
   His servants' work which is not the Truth--and I am sure that every
   faithful servant of His is glad of that. What a mercy it is, if I do
   some mischief when I am trying to do my Master's work, that the good
   work I do will last, but the bad I do, forgiven by His infinite mercy,
   shall by His great wisdom be swept away before long! Error shall not
   always remain to do mischief--it is the Truth of God that will abide.
   Therefore I think that we ought never to seek to do good by stating
   what is not true. There is a great deal of preaching of that which is
   not the Truth of God in the hope that it will be the means of
   converting people, but it is of no use. God will establish the
   Truth--but if we keep back any Scriptural Doctrines, or if we cut the
   corners off them in order to make them more acceptable to our
   hearers--God will not establish our work! He is the God of Truth and He
   will not set His seal to lies.

   Hence, Beloved, it is so important that every man who works for God
   should always seek to work in harmony with the Spirit of Truth. We have
   known some whose guiding star has been "policy." One of these has said,
   "Suppose I were to leave such-and-such a church which is, in part,
   erroneous--what would become of my work?" Dear Brother, are you going
   to do a wrong thing in the hope of saving your work? Have you
   subscribed to that wicked maxim, "Let us do evil that good my come"?
   After all, what have I to do with the consequences of right actions? Is
   it not my business, if I have learned any Truth of God, to follow it
   wherever it will lead me? It will not lead me into a morass, for it is
   God's Light and it will only lead me into God's way! If Heaven could
   only stand by a Christian telling a lie, in God's name let it fall, for
   the ruin of it would be a less calamity than for a true man to turn
   aside to falsehood! Stand upright and then shall you be as God would
   have you to be. But the double-minded, the wavering, those that lean
   first this way and then that, with craft trimming their sails to this
   wind and then adjusting them to that, where will they go? And how can
   we expect the God of Truth ever to establish such "policy" as that? Let
   our work be true work done in the Truth of God and with truthful maxims
   to guide us, for then we may bring it before God and say, "Establish
   the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands."

   Do not try to build too fast, as so many do, using untempered mortar
   which will not hold their buildings together. Do not try to build
   beyond or short of the foundation lines which Christ has laid down for
   you. You would not employ a bricklayer who said to you, "I can get a
   house up much more quickly than by ordinary methods. I don't need to
   use the plumb line to see whether the walls are straight or not--I do
   not trouble about how I put the bricks in the interior of the building.
   I can leave a blank here and a gap there--nobody will know it. There is
   no particular need why I should make the bricks fit, the one to the
   other--as long as I put a good facing on the front, that will do." Such
   a man as that may think that he has done well, but when the master
   comes, he says, "All this has to be cleared away before I can do
   anything. You have just been doing mischief and you have wasted all the
   day in which you ought to have worked." So, young man, if you go to a
   Church and want to see it quickly built up and begin to take
   unconverted people into membership, or get up a great excitement and
   receive a large number of persons without any careful examination, or
   preach what is not sound Doctrine so that big worldly people in the
   neighborhood come to hear you, and say, "See how fast he is building"--
   when the Master comes, He will point out what mischief you have been
   doing and He will send a better man to do the work! And that better
   man's chief trouble will be to get rid of what this fast builder has
   put up! Let none of us build like that, but may God give us the Grace
   to build what He can establish, for it is not everything that He can
   establish consistently with His own Character of Truth and uprightness.

   II. I must not devote more time to that point, but must notice,
   secondly, and briefly, THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD MAY ANSWER THE PRAYER,
   "Establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our
   hands."

   Possibly, for the establishment of our work, it may be necessary for us
   to die. Many a man is, perhaps unconsciously, hindering his own work.
   And if the work is to be established, it needs somebody else to come
   and do it. I may again use the very homely simile of a bricklayer. If
   he were to say to his master, "Let me finish the house that I have
   built," the answer would be, "I do not need you any longer, you have
   done your part of the work--other workmen must finish the building."
   So, sometimes, one good man is like the bricklayer and another good man
   roofs in what he has built, or does all the work in the interior of the
   house. There is a time for all of us to die for the good of our own
   work and, often, the removal of an eminent Christian is not the loss to
   the Church of Christ that we think it must be. Perhaps you have seen a
   great oak tree which has covered quite a large area with its
   widely-spreading branches--and when it has been cut down, you have all
   regretted it--it seemed as if there would be a huge gap. But there were
   a dozen little oaks that never would have come to anything because they
   could not get sunshine or rain while they were overshadowed by that
   great oak! And when that was cut down, all those others began to grow,
   so that, instead of one tree, you had a dozen. And the removal of one
   eminent Christian has often been the means of letting sunlight in to
   somebody who was obscured before, but who now, in the Providence of
   God, is made strong and useful. So it may be beneficial for some men to
   die in order that their own work may be established. If it is so with
   us, we may well be content to go to Heaven so that our prayers may be
   answered!

   But, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there are some very sweet
   thoughts connected with working for God. When a soul is saved by our
   means, our work is established, for Satan himself cannot undo that
   work! Death may take that Believer away, but that will be the
   completion of the work. Now the wheat is in the heavenly garner and the
   precious grain is laid up where no mildew can injure it. When the work
   done by good men and women is the means of bringing sinners to Christ,
   it is sure work. That is gold taken out of the mine which never can
   rust. Soul-saving work is lasting work and there is this further
   comfort--that every soul that is truly converted by God's Grace
   propagates itself. Let one sinner be brought to Jesus and he will bring
   another sinner. Light one candle and you may light 50 candles from it.
   One person may be converted to God through your kind, faithful words
   and earnest believing prayers--and that one person may bring another,
   and that one another, and that one another, and that one another, and
   so on in an endless chain of blessing to God's Glory!

   Remember too, that if we work for God as God wishes us to do, it is
   really God's work that we are doing. He who works truthfully, according
   to the principles laid down in the Scriptures, has God working in him,
   with him and by him--and all that is God's work will endure--you may
   rest assured of that! What he has done shall not be undone. Divine
   designs shall not be frustrated so that we may be sure that the work of
   our hands, in so far as it is God's work, will be established. Besides,
   God is alive to take care of the work that we do for Him. We die, but
   He does not. We leave the work in His hands--we could not leave it in
   better hands! He could have done the work without us if He had pleased,
   but although He has been pleased to use us, for a while, He can carry
   on the work without us when He takes us Home. If you have sought to
   teach the Truth of God for Christ, who is the Truth, to bring souls to
   Christ and to build up a Church for Christ, God will establish your
   work. It is true that there are many enemies to the Truth--devils and
   men of devilish spirit who would, if they could, tear down every stone
   that you have built up--but God shall make the wrath of even these
   enemies to praise Him and they shall become, perhaps unconsciously to
   themselves, the means of establishing your work!

   Meanwhile the wheels of Providence, [See Sermon #3114, Volume 54--GOD'S
   PROVIDENCE.] which are full of eyes, are grinding on in their majestic
   course on behalf of the work of God in which you are engaged! And all
   those eyes are looking onward towards the prosperity of that great
   cause which is so dear to your heart! Do not have any fear of failure,
   Beloved--if you have really worked for God, you have worked for a cause
   that cannot know defeat! It may not win tomorrow, or the next day, but
   God can wait. Age comes upon us, but nothing shall ever make Him
   decrepit. And through the course of ages, God can wait. I always feel,
   with regard to the causes in which we are engaged, when people tell us
   that we are in the minority, "Very well, we can be content to be in the
   minority at present, for the majority will be with us one day. We
   cannot doubt that when God is with us! Yes, and if we are alone with
   God, God makes majority enough for all true hearts. But even counting
   human heads, the Truth shall yet have the majority! God can wait--He
   knows how to convince gainsayers and bring them round to His side. Our
   little plans come to a end in a few years--we cannot afford to bring
   them out unless they do--but God can let His capital lie idle for
   thousands of years if it is necessary. He is so rich that it does not
   impoverish Him and He will get His interest by-and-by!

   God can wait and we must learn to wait, too. That work which produces
   no visible results at present is none the less a true work and an
   accepted work. If you teach the Truth and die--and that Truth appears
   to be forgotten, you have not lived in vain, for that Truth will spring
   up again in God's good time! They burnt Jerome of Prague. They took
   John Huss and when they fastened him to the fatal stake, he said, "You
   may burn the goose, today, but there shall come a swan that you cannot
   burn"--and that prophecy was fulfilled in Luther, whose crest was a
   swan. One good man dies and another comes. If there were not brave men
   of Truth to go down sapping and mining, there would not be other men to
   come afterwards to be acclaimed victors. In any great movement that
   succeeds, it is not the last man who deserves the credit--it is the men
   who went before at whom, perhaps, everybody howled. To be able to heed
   the Truth when everybody tries to hiss you down and not to care for
   their opposition, but to feel, "I have God's Truth and if all the
   devils in Hell were against me, God is with me and I am in the majority
   against them all," that is the spirit to have! And when we have that
   spirit, we may pray, "Establish the work of our hands for us; yes,
   establish the work of our hands," and it will be done!

   It is now some hundreds of years ago that certain believers in Christ
   were burnt to death upon the very spot on which this Tabernacle now
   stands. Nearly everybody agreed that they ought to be burnt to death,
   for they were called Anabaptists, though their belief was as nearly as
   possible the same as ours. Catholics and Protestants alike said, "Burn
   them, by all means, for this pestilent sect of Baptists is always
   testifying against everybody else!" And burnt they were at the Butts at
   Newington. Suppose they had said, out of the midst of the fire, "There
   will one day stand, on this very spot, a great House of Prayer wherein
   about six thousand Baptists shall meet at one time to hear the Gospel
   preached for which we are being burnt to death"? Men would have laughed
   them to scorn! But it has come true and if I were to say that the last
   trace of infant sprinkling will be swept from off the earth and that
   the last relic of Romanism, Episcopalianism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism
   and heathenism will be swept away and only be remembered by men to be
   loathed, I would no doubt be laughed at and disbelieved! But I would be
   speaking only the Truth of God. All errors will die in due time. They
   may live for a while and they may seem to conquer, but God will
   assuredly pierce them to the heart with His two-edged sword! His
   despised Truth must come to the front for as surely as God lives, so
   must His Truth live, for it is part of Himself! Be on God's side, I
   pray you, for that is the winning side! Be on God's side, old men, and
   also young men, I charge you, as you shall appear before the Judgment
   Seat of Christ--follow the Truth. Away with everything but the simple
   Truth revealed in the Scriptures! Put everything else aside and God
   will establish your work in the ages yet to come. Who knows how long
   those ages may be? Christ may not come tomorrow--He may wait a while
   but He will come one day. We

   are to live expecting Him to return. Yet perhaps He may tarry longer
   than we think--true work for Him will last until the trumpet of the
   Resurrection shall sound! If the work is of God, it will certainly
   endure.

   I have no time to speak on our third point, WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO IF THIS
   PRAYER OF MOSES IS OUR

   PRAYER, but I will say just this. If we want God to establish our work,
   we must take care not to pull it down ourselves by inconsistent living.
   We must not imagine that we can establish it by any wrong methods. We
   must leave God to establish it in His own way--and God often
   establishes His Truth by that which seems likely to throw it down. If
   we want God to establish our work, we must pray much about it and we
   must do it as His work and do it for His Glory and do it according to
   the rules which I have tried to lay down. If I leave only this one
   thought with you, that the Christian is to follow the Lamb wherever He
   goes and to be true to the light which God has given us in this sacred
   Book, I shall feel that this evening has been well spent.

   The Lord grant that all of us may be looking to His work for salvation
   and then be doing His work with both our hands and all our heart and
   praying God to establish it.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM142.

   [See Sermon #2282, Volume 38--DAVID'S PRAYER IN THE CAVE.]

   Verse 1. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the
   LORD did I make my supplication. Silent prayers are often true prayers,
   but there are times when, in extremity of suffering, it is very helpful
   to give expression to the soul's agony. I know some friends who can
   never pray to their own comfort except they can hear their own voices,
   and I believe that it is a good thing for the most of us to retire to
   some private place where we cannot be heard by men and where we can
   therefore freely use our voices in prayer. Very often the use of the
   voice helps to keep the thoughts from wandering and also gives
   intensity to the desires. You notice that David particularly mentions
   here that he cried unto the Lord with his voice. No doubt many of his
   prayers ascended to God from his heart without the medium of his voice,
   but here the cry with his voice went with the desires of his heart.

   2. I poured out my complaint before Him. That is a beautiful
   expression, "I poured out my complaint"--just as you turn a pitcher
   upside down and let all the contents run out! "I poured out my
   complaint." We are generally ready enough to do that, only we usually
   go to some friend, or to some enemy and pour out our complaint into his
   ear. But what is the good of doing that? David took a far wiser course!
   "I poured out my complaint before Hm."

   2. I showed before Him my trouble. Uncovered it and set it all out in
   order before Him. God could see it, yet David knew that it was his
   place and his privilege to spread it all out before Him.

   3. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path.
   Many of the Lord's saints know the meaning of that sentence, "My spirit
   was overwhelmed within me." They are like a vessel that has sunk in the
   sea and is completely covered by the waves. David was in such a plight
   as that--he did not know his own whereabouts, but here was the
   mercy--"Then You knew my path." It is much better that God should know
   our path than that we should know it ourselves, for we may know it and
   be driven to despair by our knowledge. But God's knowledge of it moves
   Him to uphold us in it, or to deliver us out of it.

   3, 4. In the way wherein I walked have they privately laid a snare
   forme. I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that
   would know m. "They were afraid to link themselves with me, lest, when
   I went down like a drowning man, they should be dragged down with me."

   4. Refuge failed me. "I could not run away--there was no place where I
   could find shelter."

   4. No man cared for my soul. "They were all hard, cold, ungrateful,
   treacherous."

   5. I cried unto You, O LORD. What a mercy that David was driven to do
   that! If there had been any earthly refuge, he would have fled to it.
   If there had been some human being at his right hand to help him,
   probably he would have trusted him. If any man had cared for his soul,
   perhaps he would have trusted in that person. But now that every
   earthly door was shut, he was obliged to turn to his God.

   5. I said, You are my refuge. "I can flee to You."

   5. And my portion in the land of the living. With both hands he lays
   hold of God and cries, "You are my refuge and my portion"--two glorious
   "mys"! Well did Luther say that the very pith of the Gospel lies in the
   little words, and it is the same with the Psalms.

   6. 7. Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my
   persecutors; for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prisoi.
   This is a suitable prayer for those who have troubled consciences, for
   those who are shut up in Doubting Castle and cannot get out without
   Divine assistance. "Bring my soul out of prison."

   7. That I may praise Your name. As soon as you are set at liberty, you
   ought at once to let your glad heart magnify the God who has broken
   your bonds and brought you out of prison!

   7. The righteous shall compass me about This is a beautiful idea. It
   seems to imply that they would be so astonished to find him at liberty
   that they would all come round him to hear his story! They would be so
   glad to see the mourner rejoicing that they would all begin to enquire
   what God had done for his soul.

   7. For you shall deal bountifully with me. In the 13th Psalm, David
   said, "I will sing unto the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with
   me." But here he looks into the future and sings, "You shalldeal
   bountifully with me."
     __________________________________________________________________

Shoes for Pilgrims and Warriors

   (No. 3143)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."
   Ephesians 6:15.

   THE Christian was evidently intended to be in motion, for here are
   shoes for his feet. His head is provided with a helmet, for he is to be
   thoughtful. His heart is covered with a breastplate, for he is to be a
   man of feeling. His whole nature is protected by a shield, for he is
   called to endurance and caution. And that he is to be active is
   certain, for a sword is provided for his hand to use and sandals with
   which his feet are to be shod. To suppose that a Christian is to be
   motionless as a post and inanimate as a stone, or merely pensive as a
   weeping willow and passive as a reed shaken by the wind, is altogether
   a mistake! God works in us and His Grace is the great motive power
   which secures our salvation, but He does not so work in us as to
   chloroform us into unconscious submission, or engineer us into
   mechanical motion--He orchestrates all our activities by working in us
   "to will and to do of His good pleasure." Grace imparts healthy life
   and life rejoices in activity! The Lord never intended His people to be
   automatons worked by clockwork, or cold and dead statues--He meant them
   to have life, to have it abundantly--and in the power of that life to
   be full of energy! It is true He makes us lie down in green pastures,
   but equally certain is it that He leads us onward beside the still
   waters! A true Believer is an active person--he has feet and uses them.

   Now, he who marches meets with stones, or if as a warrior he dashes
   into the thick of the conflict he is assailed with weapons and,
   therefore, he needs to be suitably shod to meet his perils. The active
   and energetic Christian meets with temptations which do not happen to
   others. Idle persons can scarcely be said to be in danger--they are a
   stage beyond that and are already overcome! Satan scarcely needs to
   tempt them--they rather tempt him and are a fermenting mass in which
   sin exceedingly multiplies--a decaying body around which the vultures
   of vice are sure to gather. But earnest laborious Believers are sure to
   be assailed, even as fruit bearing trees are certain to be visited by
   the birds. Satan cannot stand a man who earnestly serves God--he does
   damage to the arch-enemy's dominions and, therefore, he must be
   incessantly assailed. The Prince of Darkness will try, if he can, to
   injure the good man's character, to break his communion with God, to
   spoil the simplicity of his faith, to make him proud of what he is
   doing, or to make him despair of success. In some way or other he will,
   if possible, bruise the worker's heel or trip him up, or lame him
   altogether. Because of all these dangers, Infinite Mercy has provided
   Gospel shoes for the Believer's feet--shoes of the best kind--such as
   only those warriors wear who serve the Lord of Hosts!

   We shall at this time first examine the shoes and then try them on.

   I. Our first duty is to EXAMINE THE SHOES which are provided for us by
   our Captain. And in doing so we are delighted to find that they come
   from a blessed Maker, for the feet of the Believer are to be shod with
   a Divine preparation. Many preparations and inventions are used for
   protecting feet, but this is a preparation in which infinite skill has
   been displayed and the same wisdom put forth as in the Gospel, which is
   the masterpiece of God! Every portion of the Gospel is from God and all
   the influence which makes it a Gospel of Peace is His--and we are
   therefore thankful to find that we are to wear "the preparation of the
   Gospel of Peace." It would not be meet that he who is helmeted with
   Divine Salvation should be shod with a mere human production! Having
   begun in the Spirit, it would be strange to be made perfect in the
   flesh. We would not be like the image of the monarch's dream whose head
   was of fine gold and whose feet were part of iron and part of clay. We
   rejoice that all the pieces of armor which compose our panoply come
   forth from the celestial Armorer whose productions are without a flaw!

   We are glad to find that the shoes are made of excellent material, for
   they are composed of "the preparation of the Gospel of Peace"--and what
   better material can there be than the Gospel--the Gospel of Peace and
   that peace which grows out of the Gospel? This is what is meant. We
   believe in a Gospel which was formed in the purpose of God from all
   eternity, designed with Infinite Wisdom, worked out at an enormous
   expense, costing nothing less than the blood of Jesus, brought home by
   Infinite Power, even by the might of the Holy Spirit! It is a Gospel
   full of blessings, any one of which would outweigh a world in price--a
   Gospel as free as it is full, a Gospel everlasting and immutable, a
   Gospel of which we can never think too much, whose praises we can never
   exaggerate! It is from this choice Gospel that its choicest essence is
   taken, namely, its peace. And from this peace those sandals are
   prepared with which a man may tread on the lion and the adder, yes, and
   on the fierce burning coals of malice, slander and persecution! What
   better shoes can our souls require?

   What matchless material for girding the pilgrim's feet is that which is
   here mentioned, namely the peace which comes from the Gospel, the
   preparation of heart and life which springs of a full knowledge,
   reception and experience of the Gospel in our souls! What does it mean?
   It means, first, that a sense of perfect peace with God is the grandest
   thing in all the world with which to travel through life. Let a man
   know that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's name's sake, that he
   is reconciled to God by the death of His Son and that between him and
   God there is no ground of difference--and what a joyful pilgrim he
   becomes! When we know that as the Lord looks on us, His glance is full
   of infinite, undivided affection, that He sees us in Jesus Christ as
   cleansed from every speck of sin and as, "accepted in the Beloved," and
   that by virtue of a complete Atonement we are forever reconciled to
   God, then do we march through life without fear, booted for all the
   exigencies of the way, yes, ready to plunge through fire and water,
   thorn and thistle, bush and briar without fear! A man at peace with God
   dreads neither the ills of life nor the terrors of death! Poverty,
   sickness, persecution and pain have lost their sting when sin is
   pardoned! What is there that a man needs to fear when he knows that in
   no affliction will there be any trace of the judicial anger of God, but
   all will come from a Father's hand and work his lasting good! Goliath
   had armor of brass upon his legs, but he is better armed who wears a
   full assurance of peace with God through the Gospel! He shall tread
   down his enemies and crush them as grapes in the winepress! His shoes
   shall be iron and brass and, shod with them he shall stand upon the
   high places of the earth and his feet shall not slip. Achilles received
   a deadly wound in the heel, but no arrow can pierce the heel of the man
   whose foot is sandaled with reconciliation by atoning blood! Many a
   warrior has fainted on the march and dropped from the ranks exhausted,
   but no weariness of the way can happen to the man who is upheld by the
   eternal God, for his strength shall be renewed daily.

   The preparation of the Gospel of Peace here mentioned must be
   understood to comprehend more than the legal peace ofjustification by
   faith. If we would enjoy the fullest comfort of the well-shod pilgrim,
   we must have the exceeding peace which springs from intimate,
   undisturbed communion with God. We should pray not only to feel that we
   have been brought out of our natural enmity into peace with God, so as
   to be no more culprits but children, but also to dwell in the full joy
   of our new relationship. It is a sweet thing for a child of God to feel
   that he is so acting that his heavenly Father has no reason for walking
   contrary to him. You know right well that as a child of God, you will
   not be condemned and cast away as an alien--but you also know that as a
   child, you may greatly displease your Father and render it necessary
   for Him to frown upon you, and visit you with stripes--and this you
   should, with the utmost diligence and prayerful-ness, labor to prevent.
   There are times when the Lord of pilgrims hides His face from them in
   sore displeasure, and then it is very hard travelling. Life is "a great
   and terrible wilderness" when the Lord's Presence is withdrawn. The
   more a man loves the Lord, the more does he suffer when there is a
   temporary suspension of happy communion between his soul and Heaven--he
   cannot be happy again till he knows that he is fully restored to the
   paternal favor. O child of God, you will very soon have your feet torn
   with the briars of the way if you do not abide in fellowship with God!
   When Adam had lost his oneness with God, he found out that he was
   naked, and so will you if you lose your communion with Jesus. Where
   before you dashed onward as with a charmed life, treading the world and
   all its cares beneath your feet, you will find yourself pierced with
   many sorrows, bleeding with acute griefs, scratched, torn, lacerated
   with trials, losses, crosses and endless annoyances. If we continue in
   the love of Jesus, pleasing Him in all things, jealously watching and
   carefully observing His will, our mind will be kept by the peace of God
   which passes all understanding--and our road to Heaven will be a
   pleasant one! It may indeed be very rough in itself and in the judgment
   of others, but it will be so smoothed to us by the peace which reigns
   within that we shall glory in infirmity, exult in suffering and triumph
   in distress, knowing that

   the Lord is with us and no harm can come to us. Thus you see that the
   peace which comes ofjustification--and the fuller peace which arises
   from enjoying the love of God are a grand preparation for our life's
   journey--shoes for the feet unrivalled in excellence!

   It is also a grand sandal for a pilgrim's feet when the Gospel of Peace
   has fully conformed his mind to the Lord's will. Some children of God
   are not at peace with God because they do not fully acquiesce in the
   Divine purposes. To them the pilgrim path must be a painful one, for
   nothing can please them--their self-will creates swarms of vexations
   for them. But to hearts which have crucified self and yielded all to
   the will of God, the most thorny paths are pleasant. He who can say
   concerning all things, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your
   sight," is shod for all ways and weathers, and may march on undismayed.
   Fully conformed to the Divine will, saints are invulnerable and
   invincible, "none shall be weary nor stumble among them, neither shall
   the laces of their shoes be broken"--

   "They hold by nothing here below. Appoint their journey, and they go
   Through joy or grief they march the same, Triumphant still in Jesus'
   name."

   Surely it is when the heart is completely at one with God that the true
   beauty of the Christian character is seen! Then it is that the heavenly
   Bridegroom cries out, "How beautiful are your feet with shoes, O
   prince's daughter!" Then, too, the Church in her tribulation becomes
   bright and glorious, like her Lord, of whom we read, "His feet are like
   unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." Shod with perfect
   delight in the will of the Lord, we are able to surmount all the
   difficulties and trials of the way, for it becomes sweet to suffer when
   we see that it is the will of God. Resignation is good, but perfect
   acquiescence is better, and happy--thrice happy is the man who feels
   it! No silver sandals were ever so precious, no covering of golden mail
   adorned with precious stones were so glorious to look upon as a mind
   molded to the Divine Will, perfectly in tune with the mind of the Lord
   Most High!

   The preparation of the Gospel of Peace, you thus see, is, in many
   aspects, the fittest help for our journey to the promised land. And he
   who has his feet shod with it need not fear the flinty ways, the craggy
   rocks, or the thorny passes.

   But the Gospel of Peace has another side to it, for it not only brings
   us peace with God, but it inspires us with peace towards ourselves.
   Civil war is the worst of wars and for a man to be at discord with
   himself is the worst of strife. The worst peril of Christian pilgrimage
   is that which arises from the pilgrim's own self--and if he is ill at
   ease within himself, his course cannot be a happy one. The prayer of
   the evening hymn is very suggestive--

   "That with the world, myself and Thee, I, ever I sleep, at peace may
   be." It is a most necessary matter to have peace at home. It is a cruel
   case for a man when his own heart condemns him. To whom shall he look
   for a defense when his own conscience indicts him and all his faculties
   turn king's evidence against him? It is to be feared that many
   Believers habitually do that which they would not like to be questioned
   upon by the rule of the Word of God--they have to close their eyes to
   many passages of Scripture, or else they would be uneasy in their
   consciences. Brothers and Sisters, this makes wretched travelling! It
   is like walking through a wood with bare feet. If you cannot satisfy
   your own heart that you are right, you are in a sad case, indeed, and
   the sooner matters are altered the better. But if a man can say before
   the living God, "I know that what I am about to do is right and
   whatever comes of it, I have a pure motive and the Lord's sanction to
   sustain me in it," then he proceeds to action with a nimble tread. Such
   a pilgrim is girt for the roughest of ways and will hold on his way
   joyfully to the end. Rest of conscience shoes us right well, but a
   question as to the rightness of our procedure makes us barefooted.

   Come what may, if we order our ways with reverent regard to the Lord's
   commands, we shall be able to confront the future with serenity, for we
   shall not have to accuse ourselves of bringing ourselves into trouble
   by sin, or losing our joys by indulging in forbidden things. When the
   Believer falls into any trouble through having been zealous for God,
   then may he spread his complaint before God with the full expectation
   that He will bring him out of all his difficulties, for is it not
   written, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord...none of his
   steps shall slide"? Oh, to walk in such a way that your conscience is
   void of offense both towards God and towards man--then integrity and
   uprightness will preserve you and your goings will be established. "He
   will keep the feet of His saints." "He shall give His angels charge
   over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their
   hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone."

   While travelling through the mazes of life, another form of the
   preparation of the Gospel of Peace will be of essential service to us,
   namely, peace with our fellow men. The Gospel of Peace leads us into
   the closest bonds of amity with our fellow Believers, although, alas,
   it is not always possible to prevent offenses arising, even with the
   best of them! If we cannot make all our Brothers and Sisters amiable,
   we are at least to be at peace on our side--and if we succeed in this,
   no great disagreement can arise, for it always needs two to make a
   quarrel. It is well to go to bed every night feeling, "I have no
   difference in my soul with any of the members of Christ's body. I wish
   well to everyone and love them all in my heart." This would enable us
   to travel in right royal style over fields which now are often stony
   with controversy and thorny with prejudice. Theological conflicts and
   ecclesiastical squabbles would utterly disappear if we were shod with
   the true spirit of the Gospel of Peace. An unwillingness to think
   harshly of any Christian is a sandal most easy to the feet, protecting
   it from many a thorn. Wear it in the Church, wear it in all holy
   service, wear it in all fellowship with Christians and you will find
   your way among the brethren greatly smoothed! You will win their love
   and esteem before long, and avoid a world ofjealousy and opposition
   which would otherwise have impeded your course.

   It is well to travel girt with this shoe ofpeace with all mankind. "If
   it is possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men."
   It is barely possible, but aim at it--and if you do not perfectly
   succeed, try again. Unconverted men will not love your religion, for
   they are carnal. That you cannot help, but you must love them, carnal
   as they are, and by degrees you may win them to love both you and your
   Lord. If they will not live peaceably with you, yet give them your love
   and live peaceably with them. Be not easily provoked. Bear and forbear,
   forgive and love on, return good for evil, seek to benefit even the
   most unthankful and you will travel to Heaven in the most pleasant
   possible manner. Hatred, envy and persecution may come, but a loving
   spirit materially blunts their edge and oftentimes inherits the
   promise, "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies
   to be at peace with him." If you have to feel, "Now, I am going this
   part of the journey with the view of avenging a wrong," you will not
   journey pleasantly or safely! But if from the depth of your soul you
   can say, "When Christ made peace with God for me, He made peace between
   me and my bitterest foe," you will march on like a hero! Travel through
   the world as a sincere philanthropist, with your feet shod with love to
   all born of woman and your course will be happy and honorable. God
   grant us that loving spirit which comes of free Grace and is the work
   of the Holy Spirit, for that is a mystic sandal which gives wings to
   the feet and lightens a weary road.

   Having thus described these Gospel shoes, I should like to say that the
   feet of our Lord and Master were sandaled in this manner. He was the
   King of Pilgrims and to Him, the way was even rougher than it can be to
   us. But these were the shoes He wore and, having worn them, He counsels
   us to put on the same. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto
   you," He said. Always while He dwelt in this world He was in fellowship
   with God. He could truly say, "I came down from Heaven not to do My own
   will, but the will of Him who sent Me. He who sent Me is with Me. I am
   not alone because the Father is with Me." He always sought the good of
   His chosen--"having loved His own which were in the world, He loved
   them unto the end." And as for His enemies, He had only prayers and
   tears for them. He was at peace with all above, around and within Him.
   That peaceableness of His, that wonderful serenity, was one of the
   marvelous points in His Character. You never find Him worried,
   disturbed, flustered. No, that is ourinfirmity because we take our
   shoes off and are taken by surprise--but His feet were always shod--He
   dwelt in perfect peace and, therefore, He was the grandest Pilgrim and
   the noblest Worker. We cannot need to be better shod than our Lord was!
   Let us sandal our hearts with His peace and we shall be royally
   prepared for our journey!

   I may add that these shoes are such as will last all our journey
   through. We feel most comfortable in our old shoes, for they fit the
   foot so well, but they will at last wear out. These shoes of my text
   are old, yet always new and are like those which Israel wore in the
   wilderness, of which it is said, "Your shoe is not waxen old upon your
   foot." The everlasting Gospel yields us everlasting peace! The good
   news from Heaven never grows stale, neither will the peace which it
   brings ever become like the Gibeonites' "old shoes and patched." The
   man who wears the preparation of the Gospel of Peace was comforted by
   it when he was young and it still cheers him in his later days--it made
   him a good traveler when he first set out and it will protect his last
   footsteps when he crosses the river Jordan and climbs the celestial
   hills!

   Friends, are you all thus booted for your life-journey? See you well to
   it.

   II. We come now to our second business, LET US TRY ON THESE SHOES.

   Here our joy is great to find that they fit perfectly and need no
   tugging and straining to draw them on. By a miracle more strange than
   magic, the preparation of the Gospel of Peace suits every foot, whether
   it is that of a babe in Grace, or a strong man in Christ Jesus. No man
   can travel well, much less engage in battle successfully unless his
   dress is comfortable, especially that part of it which relates to the
   feet. And here we have the grand advantage that no foot was ever uneasy
   when once it had put on this shoe! Mephibosheths who have been lame in
   both feet even from birth have found this shoe works miracles and
   causes them to leap as harts upon the mountains! The Gospel of Peace
   helps all our infirmities, heals all the wounds of our old sins and
   suits itself to all our tender places. Whatever the weakness may be,
   the Gospel provides for it! Whatever the distress, its peace relieves
   it. Other shoes have their pinching places, but he who wears the
   preparation of the Gospel of Peace shall know no straitness of spirit,
   for the Gospel gives rest to our minds. Real Gospel really believed,
   means real peace! That which disturbs us is something alien to the
   Spirit of the Gospel, but the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Peace.
   Who would not wear such a shoe?

   The preparation of the Gospel of Peace is a wonderful shoe for giving
   its wearer a firm foothold. Surely it was of this shoe that Habakkuk
   sang when he said, "The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my
   feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high
   places." When persons are on slippery rocks, or dangerous eminences,
   where a fall would be fatal, it is well to be so shod that the feet get
   grip and hold. Nothing aids a man to stand fast in the Lord like the
   peace of the Gospel. Many professors are very soon thrown over--they
   are attacked with doctrinal error and they readily yield. They are
   assailed by temptation and their feet go out from under them. But the
   man who has perfect peace with God and who relies upon the Most High
   shall never be moved, for the Lord upholds him. His shoes have driven
   themselves into the eternal Truths of God and hold like anchors! Tell
   him the Atonement is not true, preach up to him the bloodless neology
   of modern thought and he ridicules the ineffectual attempt because he
   knows whom he has believed and feels a heavenly peace within flowing
   from the substitutionary Sacrifice. Tell him that the Doctrines of
   Grace are a mistake, that salvation is all of free will and man's
   merit, and he says, "No, I know better. I know the Doctrines of
   Sovereign Grace to be true by experience, I know I am God's chosen, I
   know that I am called, I know that I am justified, for I know that I
   have peace with God as the result of all these." You cannot move him an
   inch! His creed is interwoven with his personal consciousness and there
   is no arguing him out of it! In these days of skepticism, when no man
   seems to have any resting place, it is well to be so shod that you can
   and do stand on the Truth and cannot be blown about like thistledown in
   the breeze.

   The shoe of our text is equally famous for its suitability for marching
   in the ways of daily duty. Soldiers have little time for contemplating
   the comfort of their shoes, or their fitness for mere standing, for
   they have daily marching to perform. We, too, have our marching, and as
   far as some of us are concerned, they are no mere parades, but heavy
   marching involving stern toil and protracted effort. A soul at perfect
   peace with God is in a fit state for the severest movements. A sense of
   pardoned sin and reconciliation with God fits us for anything and
   everything. When the burden of sin is gone, all other burdens are
   light. Since we are no longer on the road to Hell, the roughest places
   of our pilgrimage do not distress us. In every sphere, a heart at
   perfect peace with God is the soundest preparation for progress and the
   surest support under trials. Try on these shoes, my Brothers and
   Sisters, and see if they do not enable you to run without weariness and
   walk without fainting. All earth cannot find their like--they are
   unrivalled--they make men like the angels to whom duty is delight!

   These Gospel shoes are also an effectual preservative from all the
   ordinary roughness of the road of life, although to most of us it is
   far from smooth. He who expects to find a grassy walk all the way to
   Heaven, well mown and rolled, or looks for a highway leveled by a
   steam-roller, will be sorrowfully mistaken. The way is rugged, like the
   goat tracks of Engedi, and oftentimes so narrow and so far on high that
   the eagle's eye cannot discern it! The blood of former pilgrims stains
   the way to Glory, yet from all perils to our feet, the preparation of
   the Gospel of Peace will guard us! From fears within and fighting
   without, Gospel peace will surely deliver us. Perhaps we are more vexed
   with little trials than with great ones--certainly we bear them with
   far less equanimity--but a peaceful heart protects alike from tiny
   thorns and terrible rocks. Everyday vexations as well as extraordinary
   tribulations we shall bear cheerfully when the Peace of God keeps our
   heart and mind!

   Beloved, this shoe is also good for climbing. Do you ever practice the
   holy art of spiritual climbing, God's blessed Spirit leading the way?
   Do you ever climb Mount Tabor to be transfigured with your Master? Have
   you watched with

   Him one hour and seen His conflict and His victory? Have you ever
   looked from Pisgah's glorious heights upon the goodly land and Lebanon,
   anticipating the glory to be revealed? Has your spirit ever been away
   there alone in mysterious communing with God upon the Hermons? I trust
   you know what climbing work means and that you have enjoyed rapt
   ecstatic fellowship with Jesus Christ. But of this I am sure, you can
   never mount on high if your feet are not shod with the Peace of God!
   Unshod with these sacred sandals, there is no climbing! Only those who
   delight themselves in the Lord God shall ascend the Hill of the Lord
   and stand in His Holy Place!

   The heart prepared by peace with God is shod suitably for running as
   well as for climbing. There are periods when all our energies must be
   put forth and we must rush forward at the heroic pace, for, at certain
   passages in life's campaign, things must be carried by storm and every
   faculty must dash forward at its swiftest speed. We cannot at all times
   keep up the swiftness, which, nevertheless, is occasionally required of
   us, but the man for a push and a dash is he whose soul abides in peace.
   Troubled in heart, our feet are blistered, our knees are weak and our
   movements are painfully slow. But the joy of the Lord is our strength
   and in the power of it we become like Asahel, fleet of foot as a young
   roe. Try on these shoes, my limping Brothers and Sisters! What do you
   say?

   Lastly, this shoe is good for fighting, and that I gather from Paul
   having put it among the armor. In the old style, fighting meant hand to
   hand and foot to foot, and then it was necessary for the feet to be
   well protected and, indeed, so well covered over as to be useful in
   assault, for the warriors kicked with their feet as well as struck with
   their hands--and many a foe was placed hors de combat with a heavy
   kick! Christians are expected to fight with their feet in the battle
   against sin and Satan! Indeed, they must fight with all their powers
   and faculties! That grand promise has been given to us, "The God of
   Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." What a tread we will
   give him when we once have the opportunity! We shall need to have our
   feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace to break that old
   dragon's head and grind his snares to powder! And God helping us, we
   shall do it! Our Covenant Head has trampled on the old serpent and so
   shall all His members.

   Let this suffice concerning these shoes, but a serious question
   suggests itself to me. Are there not some of you who have to travel to
   eternity and yet have no shoes for the journey? How can the unconverted
   man hope to reach Heaven when he has no shoes on his feet? How will he
   bear the troubles of life, the temptations of the flesh and the trials
   of death? I pray you, unconverted ones, look at yourselves and at the
   way--and see how impossible it is for you to accomplish the journey
   unless you go to Jesus and obtain from Him the Grace which will make
   you pilgrims to Glory! Go, I pray you, and find peace in Him--and then
   your life-journey shall be happy and safe, and the end eternal joy--for
   your feet will be shod with "the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EPHESIANS 6:10-24.

   Verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power
   of His might Everything depends upon that. Whether you are called upon
   to work, or to wait, or to watch, or to suffer, you have need to be
   strong. If you are not strong, the very armor that you wear will be a
   burden to you! It is of the utmost importance that Christians should be
   as strong in Grace as they can possibly be. And the power that is to be
   in them is to be the power of God--"the power of His might." What a
   wonderful power that is! The power of flesh is weakness and the power
   of man is fading, but the power of God is almighty and unchangeable!
   And if we can be girt about with this power, there is scarcely any
   limit to what we may successfully attempt.

   "Finally"--as if this were a matter of the highest importance, to be
   considered first and last--"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
   and in the power of His might." You know how strong Paul was--he was a
   veritable giant for Christ and he here calls upon his brethren to be as
   he was. He did not want to be brother to dwarfs, so he appealed to his
   brethren to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

   11. Put on the whole armor of Got. The armor of God will not serve you
   unless you, yourself, are strong. It needs a strong man to carry
   girdle, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet and sword. Let me impress
   upon you the fact that we must first of all get strong within and after
   that, "put on the whole armor of God," that armor which God has
   provided for the good soldiers of Jesus Christ--that armor which
   distinguishes men as belonging to the army of God. Do not merely

   put on a part of it, but put on the whole of it! Do not simply look at
   the armor and clean it up so as to keep it bright, but put it on, wear
   it--it is meant for you to use in the great battle for the right
   against the wrong! "Put on the whole armor of God."

   11. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devii. He
   will attack you sometimes by force and sometimes by fraud. By might or
   by sleight he will seek to overcome you and no unarmed man can stand
   against him. Never go out without all your armor on, for you can never
   tell where you may meet the devil. He is not omnipresent, but nobody
   can tell where he is not, for he and his troops of devils appear to be
   found everywhere on this earth.

   12. For we wrestle not against flesh and bloot. Our great fight is not
   against our fellow men. As Christians, we go not forth armed with sword
   and shield to fight against "flesh and blood."

   12. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
   the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
   places. Our battle is against evil wherever it is to be found, against
   evil in every shape and form. Evil is as much in the world today as it
   was in Paul's time and we must fight against it everywhere. We are not
   to shut our eyes to it, or try to patch up a compromise with it.
   Christians are bound to fight against evil principalities, evil powers,
   the evil rulers of the darkness of this world--and wicked spirits in
   high places.

   13. Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God. What stress the
   Apostle lays upon this point! He repeats the command he had just given
   and again emphasizes the fact that it is "the whole armor of God" that
   is to be worn. There are some professing Christians who only in part
   obey the injunction given here--but it is no use to wear a part of the
   Christian armor and to leave the rest of the soul unarmed. A little
   leak will sink a ship and the absence of one piece of the armor of God
   may cost a man his soul! "Therefore take unto you the whole armor of
   God."

   13. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
   all, to stanc. That is what we have to do--to keep our place and our
   standing as Christians right to the end. To be apparently pure and holy
   for a time is no use at all. Transient professors will find everlasting
   ruin, "but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."
   We are in God's army for life--we can never quit this warfare till God
   shall call us home!

   14. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with Truth. Let this
   girdle of the everlasting Truth of God brace you up. Let it tighten all
   the rest of your armor.

   14. And having on the breastplate of righteousnes. Let your heart be
   guarded by the knowledge that you are right with God--that you love
   that which is holy and true. Put on the righteousness of Christ,
   Himself, as the best possible protection for your heart.

   15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
   Rough roads grow smooth when these blessed Gospel sandals are on your
   feet. A little stone in the shoe will make the pilgrim's progress a
   very wearisome and painful one, so try to keep out all the
   stones--everything about which you have any scruple, or that you think
   may be wrong-- and walk in the safe and narrow way set forth in the
   Gospel of Peace.

   16. Above all. Over all, covering all from head to foot.

   16. Taking the shield of faith. [See Sermon #416, Volume 7--SHIELD OF
   FAITH.] For you need this shield to protect both your armor and
   yourself.

   16. Therewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
   wicked. Not only the fiery darts of the Wicked One, but those, also, of
   wicked men and wicked women who may throw at you afar, darts that are
   all ablaze which would burn as well as pierce you if you were not well
   guarded against them. Nothing can quench these fiery darts but the
   shield of faith!

   17. And take the helmet of salvatioi.. You used to wear the helmet of
   pride with its fine nodding plumes, but that has been taken off of you
   long ago. Now put on "the helmet of Salvation." This will effectually
   defend your head and no sword will be able to cleave through it to
   injure you. Your brain and everything that is connected with your
   mental powers will be right when you know that you are saved--and when
   the power of God's salvation is working within you!

   17. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. [See Sermon
   #2201, Volume 37--the sword of the spirit.] There is no sword like
   that! It pierces even to the dividing

   asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and is a discerner of
   the thoughts and intents of the heart. Nothing can resist the Word of
   God if it is only wielded aright. There is one more weapon in the
   heavenly armory.

   18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. When
   you cannot use your sword, and even when you can hardly grasp your
   shield, you can pray. That weapon of "all prayer" is of the handiest
   kind because it can be turned in any and every direction. "Praying
   always with all prayer"--groaning prayers, weeping prayers, prayers
   that are made up of single words, prayers that have not a word in them,
   prayers for others, prayers of confession, prayers of
   thanksgiving--"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
   Spirit."

   18. And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
   all saints. But will prayer for other people help us? Yes, very much!
   You will sometimes find that when you cannot pray for yourself, it is a
   good plan to pray for somebody else. Think of some child of God and
   pray for him or her--and then the fire of supplication will soon burn
   up in your heart! The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed
   for his friends and He will do the same for you. I have heard many of
   our members say that when they have felt bound in prayer, they have
   pleaded for their Pastor and afterwards they have been able to pray for
   themselves. I advise more of you to try that plan--it will do me good
   and then if it also does you good, there will be a double advantage in
   it! Paul was of the same mind as I am, for he added.

   19, 20. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may
   open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which
   I am an ambassador in bonds. "An ambassador in bonds!" Such a thing was
   never heard of in earthly courts! We never think of chaining an
   ambassador, but this is how men treated this great messenger from the
   court of Heaven!

   20-22. That therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak But that
   you also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother
   and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:
   whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our
   affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts. It is well for
   Christian people to know how it fares with their spiritual guides. Paul
   wished the Ephesian saints to know in what state of heart he found
   himself--that they might the more intelligently pray for him.

   23, 24. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the
   Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our
   Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. I am sure that we can heartily
   repeat that benediction. May the Lord send much of His Grace to all His
   people in every part of the earth who love Him in sincerity! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

"The True Sayings of God"

   (No. 3144)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 23, 1873

   "These are the true sayings ofGod." Revelation 19:9.

   BEFORE I use our text in a larger sense, it is due to our reverence for
   the Word of God to expound this short sentence in its immediate
   connection, for the angel here declared that certain things which had
   been spoken in John's hearing were "the true sayings of God." You will
   observe that he bade the Apostle "write" what he had heard. It was so
   weighty that John was not to trust it simply to his memory. It was so
   necessary that it should be remembered that he had to record it so that
   it might be handed down to future generations. "Write," said the angel,
   and then, as if to give John reasons for writing--reasons why these
   Truths of God should be permanently recorded--he added, "These are the
   true sayings of God."

   What were those true sayings? I shall not dwell long upon them, but
   just hastily allude to them. The first which appears in this Chapter is
   the great fact that God will judge and condemn the harlot church. There
   are two churches in the world today. The one is the Church of our Lord
   Jesus Christ composed of Believers in Him who worship God in spirit and
   in truth, whose creed is the Word of God and whose power for life and
   service is the indwelling Spirit of God. There is another church--you
   know what a shameful name is applied to her in this Chapter--and you
   also know that she deserves to be called by that name for she has,
   indeed, corrupted the earth with her fornication. In the old Jewish
   time, idolatry was called spiritual harlotry--and there are millions of
   idolaters daily bowing down before images, rags and bones that ought
   long ago to have been buried in the earth. The Church of Rome seems to
   have gathered up all the relics of the idolatries of other ages and
   then to have capped them by saying that a substance which is only bread
   before the "priest" consecrates it, becomes God afterwards and then the
   idolater eats his god--a monstrous piece of blasphemy and superstition
   unworthy of Dahomey itself! That is the harlot church which God will
   surely judge. And when He does, terrible will be that judgment! Among
   the tremendous things of the Last Day will be the total overthrow and
   utter destruction of this "mother of harlots and abominations of the
   earth." Come you out from her, O you people, lest you be partakers of
   her plagues, for terrible will her plagues be in the day when the Lord
   shall avenge upon her the blood of all His saints and martyrs whom she
   has slain. This, then, is one of "the true sayings of God."

   The next true saying is concerning the glorious and universal reign of
   the great God. For John "heard, as it were, the voice of a great
   multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
   thunders saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns." There
   has been a long war between God and idols of various names. Among the
   ancient idols were Baal and Ashtaroth, and Dagon--but all had to bow
   down before Jehovah. Then Jupiter, and Saturn, and Venus and Mars were
   worshipped as deities by the heathen. And now many gods and lords still
   dominate a large part of the human intellect. But they are all doomed
   to fall and the one invisible Creator of Heaven and earth, almighty and
   eternal, will yet reign throughout the whole universe without a rival!
   And then shall be heard again that great shout that John heard during
   the wondrous Revelation in the Isle of Patmos. "Alleluia: for the Lord
   God Omnipotent reigns." Let us never imagine that God's Throne is in
   peril! Let us never fancy that the Truth of God can be defeated. Truth
   is God's daughter and He covers her with His great shield and fights
   for her with His invincible Omnipotence! Do not tremble for the Ark of
   God--do not despair, or even despond--the Lord will win the victory
   over all the powers of evil! This, also, is one of "the true sayings of
   God."

   The next true saying was this, that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God--so
   called because of the atoning Sacrifice which He presented on
   Calvary--will have a full reward for all His sufferings--"For the
   marriage of the Lamb [See Sermon #2096,

   Volume 35--"THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB.] is come, and His wife has

   made herself ready...Blessed are they which are called unto the
   marriage supper [See Sermon #2428, Volume 41--the marriage supper OF
   THE LAMB.] Jesus Christ came into this world to find His

   beloved ones. And He found them in bondage--and having taken upon
   Himself their nature, He became their next of kin--and then, according
   to the ancient Law, He redeemed them and bought them unto Himself--and
   He has espoused unto Himself all those that trust in Him. All who
   believe in Him, in whatever visible Church they may be, make up the one
   Church of Jesus Christ which He has redeemed from among men with His
   precious blood. And in the latter days He will have that Church to be
   His reward. At present, Christ has but a poor reward for all His
   sufferings. Comparatively few reverence Him. His people are a feeble
   and scattered folk, but there are days coming in which the Lord Jesus
   Christ shall have all whom He bought with His blood. He shall have for
   Himself all whom He came to save. He shall not be disappointed--"He
   shall not fail, nor be discouraged." The Lord shall abundantly reward
   Him for all His agonies. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and
   shall be satisfied." This also is one of "the true sayings of God."

   This true saying also declares that in the latter days, when Christ
   comes again to this earth, He will find His Church here. He will bring
   with Him a part of that Church and He will find here part of that
   Church which shall be His bride forever and forever. A description of
   the purity which is her glory is given in the verse which precedes our
   text--"And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
   clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." So
   that the Church of Christ will be arrayed as brides should be in the
   garments of light and purity. She will also be chastely arrayed--not
   like the harlot church, in purple and scarlet--but "in fine linen clean
   and white." Christ's Church shall be a pure Church, a simple Church, a
   humble Church and yes, for all that, a beautiful Church in the eyes of
   Jesus Christ! She shall be a perfect Church and her beauty shall be her
   righteousness. And where shall she obtain that righteousness? It is
   said that it shall be given to her. It will not be any righteousness
   which she has manufactured, for each of her members has the same desire
   as Paul had when he wrote, "That I may win Christ, and be found in Him,
   not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is
   through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
   faith." The Church of God, then, when Christ receives her as His bride,
   will be dressed in the imputed righteousness which comes to her by
   faith! It is the righteousness which Jesus Christ spent His life to
   work out, the righteousness which never had a stain upon it, for Jesus
   Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and
   redemption. Oh, blessed be God for this glorious fact that Jesus Christ
   will have a Church of this kind forever! This also is one of "the true
   sayings of God."

   The practical point for us to remember is this--let us endeavor to get
   as far as we can from the meretricious church described in the 18th
   Chapter. If you read that Chapter through, you cannot mistake the
   church to which it refers, for the portrait is a photograph! Get as far
   as you can away from that mystery of iniquity! Shun Sacramentarianism
   as you would shun the plague! Abhor the priesthood as you would the
   arch-fiend himself! Turn away from all idolatry and worship God alone.
   Keep to the Bible and forsake everything that is of man's invention.
   Cleave to the simple teaching of God's Word in Doctrine, in practice,
   in the ordinances and in everything. Cling, in fact, to the pure Church
   of Jesus Christ. If you ask me where you can find that Church, I may
   tell you that you can find part of it here and parts of it scattered
   all over the land, and over a great part of the world. Believers in
   Christ are known to the Lord, for He knows them that are His. They are
   not as others are, for they have received an inner spiritual light and
   life. They no longer care for the world, nor for the world's religion.
   They seek to walk where Jesus Christ marked the way with His own
   pierced feet-- "These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes."
   This is the Church that loves the righteousness of Christ, the Church
   that preaches up Christ, her great Husband and Lord, the Church that
   magnifies His atoning Sacrifice, the Church that believes in His
   merits--not in human merits--and that trusts in His death and not in
   anything that men can do to save themselves! Cling to that Church,
   Beloved! Be numbered with it, give no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to
   your eyelids till you know that you are among those people to whom is
   granted the privilege of wearing the righteousness of Christ as "fine
   linen, clean and white." The Lord grant that in that dividing day, not
   one member of this assembly may be driven away with the beast and the
   false prophet, but may we all be found with the bride, the true,
   chosen, chaste, pure

   Church of Jesus Christ that has endeavored to follow Him through evil
   report and good report, never bowing at the feet of kings, never
   accepting their proffered gifts, but remaining true to God and Christ
   all her days!

   Having spoken thus upon the context of this passage, I desire now to
   address you, for a short time, upon these words as they refer to the
   entire canon of Scripture. I may take this blessed Book, this whole
   Inspired Bible, and say of its contents, "These are the true sayings of
   God." I want to make two remarks. The first is that some of these
   sayings have already been proven to be true. And the second is that the
   rest of them we are fully assured are true.

   I. First, then, SOME OF THE GREAT SAYINGS IN THIS BOOK WE HAVE PROVEN
   TO BE TRUE. There is nothing like tasting, and handling, and trying,
   and proving for ourselves what we find in the Scriptures!

   Among other things, this Book says that sin is an evil and a bitter
   thing. Some of us have proven that to be true, for sin became, when we
   were awakened by God's Spirit, our plague, our torment, our curse--and
   to this hour, though God has forgiven the sins of as many of us as have
   believed in Jesus Christ, we never sin without suffering injury as the
   result of it. I ask any child of God here whether he ever was a real
   gainer by sin. Was sin ever anything to you, Beloved, but a loss--an
   evil through and through? Have you not had to smart for it many and
   many a time? And do you not say, "Of all the evil things that ever came
   from Hell, there is none that can match sin"? Yes, we have proven that
   this saying of God is true.

   But more pleasant to talk of is another true saying of God which tells
   us that the blood of Jesus Christ speaks peace to the conscience. This
   Book tells us that the blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of
   Abel. It tells us that, "being justified by faith, we have peace with
   God through our Lord Jesus Christ." I put the question to those who
   have been justified by faith--those who have tested the power of the
   precious blood of Christ--has it not given you peace with God? My
   witness is that I never knew what peace of conscience meant until I
   learned what the Savior's blood had done for me. There is no peace like
   the peace that comes from trusting in Jesus! It is "the peace of God,
   which passes all understanding," which keeps our hearts and minds
   through Christ Jesus. No, more--the precious blood of Jesus, when it is
   applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, not only gives peace, but it
   gives a Divine exhilaration and sacred joy, as the Word says, "We also
   joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
   the Atonement." I appeal to your experience--is it not so? Have you not
   proven that saying of God to be a true saying? Oh, yes! There are
   scores and hundreds, and even thousands here who can repeat this saying
   and add, "Verily, we know it to be true in our own souls!"

   Further, God has told us in His Word that there is a cleansing power in
   faith, and hope, and love, and all the other Christian Graces. "This is
   the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." "Every man that
   has this hope in him purifies himself." I put it to you who have faith
   and hope--have you not always found that in proportion as you have
   these Graces in active exercise, you can conquer sin? Perhaps you have
   some besetting sin. If so, have you not always been able to tread it
   under your feet when you have stood at the foot of the Cross? When you
   have been full of love to Jesus, have you not also been most victorious
   over your inward corruptions, and most steadfast in resisting outward
   temptations? I know it is so! And there are some of us in whom the
   Grace of God has worked such great wonders--changing us from what we
   once were, turning us inside out, making us such new creatures--that if
   we were to meet our old selves tomorrow we would not know ourselves!
   When men tell us that the Gospel is not the power of God unto
   salvation, we ask them how it is that, every day in the week we hear of
   drunkards reclaimed, the unchaste made pure, thieves made honest and
   persons of detestable temper made gentle and amiable? And how it is
   that we so often hear of the conversion of a husband and father--and
   that the wife and children at home bear witness that the conversion is
   no sham but has made the cottage to be no longer a little Hell, but
   more like a Heaven upon earth? We say that the Doctrine which can make
   such changes in men cannot be an untrue Doctrine!

   When I have been troubled with skepticism, I have had to cure myself in
   this way. I have stood and looked up to the starry vault of Heaven and
   I have said, "Well, one thing I am clear about and cannot doubt,
   namely, that there is a God. All these wondrous worlds did not
   grow--somebody made them. And there is another thing about which I am
   clear-- and that is that I love this God, whoever He is, and that I
   believe Him to be a pure and holy Being! And I want to be the same as
   He is and whatever side He is on, I am on His side! I feel an honor and
   reverence for Him and desire to follow Him in that which is good and
   that which is true." Then I say to myself, "Did I always feel like
   that?" And I answer, "No, I did not. Now that which makes me range
   myself side by side with God for that which is good and true--hat which
   makes me love God cannot be a lie--it must be true! And as it was the
   Gospel of Jesus Christ that worked that change in my soul, that Gospel
   is true!" And so I get back again on firm rocky ground for my own soul
   to rest upon. And what I have said about myself is the witness of all
   who know the Lord. Their faith in God has had a sanctifying influence
   upon them and so they know, in their own experience, that this saying
   of God is indeed true!

   Another of "the true sayings of God" is this. He has said, "Ask, and it
   shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be
   opened unto you." We have done as He bade us and so we have proved the
   efficacy of prayer. It is all very well to sneer at answers to prayer,
   as some have done, and to propose various tests which none could accept
   unless they were idiots--but the question cannot be disposed of in that
   way. There are honest people about by the thousands who swear that God
   does hear their prayers. Not hear prayer? If any man were to say to me,
   "You have no eyes, you have no head, you have no arms, you have no
   legs," I would say to him, "I don't know how I can convince you that I
   have all these parts of the human body if you look at me, and then
   repeat your assertion, but I am absolutely certain that I have all
   these things. And if anyone says to me, "God has not heard your
   prayers," I answer, "Why, He hears them every day! I receive answers to
   prayer so constantly that I cannot doubt the fact any more than I can
   doubt my own existence." And I am not a solitary one in this matter. I
   am less than the least of all God's servants--and there are many men
   who are mighty in prayer, men who have their will of God, who go to Him
   in secret and ask what they will--and it is given to them. I could
   mention their names, but I will not. But even we who are among the
   feeblest of the Lord's people can tell of many answers to prayer that
   we have received. Many persons write to ask me to pray for certain
   special cases. I do not know why they do so, for my prayers can have no
   more effect than their own. And I often receive letters containing
   grateful thanks for answers that have been given to prayers that I have
   thus put up for others--and all these people are not fools! Some of
   them are such intelligent persons that they are regarded as leaders in
   their various circles! And others of them have, at any rate, managed to
   lead honest, sober, consistent Christian lives. And they believe that
   if they can join their prayers with those of another Brother in Christ,
   the Lord will grant their requests--and He does so constantly! They are
   not deceived by their own fancies or imaginations. Some people say,
   "They are mere coincidences which you call answers to prayer." Well,
   call them coincidences if you like, but to us they are no such thing
   whatever they may be to you! And while we pray and the answer
   comes--whether by a coincidence or not, it will not matter much to
   us--as long as we do really receive the answer and are made to rejoice
   in our souls, and to bless God for hearing our supplications! We have
   again and again proved that there is a God that hears prayer--and the
   promise to hear and answer prayer is among "the true sayings of God."

   Once again, we know that it is according to the teaching of God's Word
   that faith will sustain His people in the time of trouble and trial
   This Truth we have, ourselves, proven and we have seen it illustrated
   in other Christians. That same sustaining power is promised to us in
   the hour of death. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with
   you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you." David said,
   "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
   fear no evil: for You are with me." Now, if there is ever a time when a
   man is honest, one would think it is when he lies face to face with
   death! People cannot usually play the hypocrite then, though there have
   been some daring enough to do even that, but, for the most part, men
   are startled out of mere fancies when they come to the reality of
   departure out of this world. How fares it with Christians when they are
   about to die? Why, Beloved, we are not speaking about dreams, but of
   solid facts that we daily verify in our visitations of our flock when
   we say that they die joyfully! One of our dear Sisters who was known to
   some of you, has just been called Home. Through a long period of acute
   pain which rendered her condition unusually distressing, her joy and
   peace were almost too seraphic to be talked about! When I met some of
   her friends in the house, they said to me, "Well, Sir, we have derived
   more spiritual benefit in sitting here talking with our friend than we
   have got from any sort of religious exercise." Words have fallen from
   that humble woman's lips that would read like poetry--joyous words
   between the gasps for breath! And wonderful anticipations of the
   Glory-Land have been given to her in the midst of much physical
   weakness. And when we speak thus of one of our members, we may say the
   same of hundreds of them, for it is the usual experience with them on
   their deathbeds. I wish more of you could see them die and learn the
   way in which a Christian can expire. I always think, when I come away
   from the deathbed of a child of God, that I have added to my previous
   stack of facts proving the faithfulness of my God! I would believe the
   Bible without a single fact to back it up, but there is a vast quantity
   of external as well as internal evidences of the truth of the
   Scriptures. I would believe my God if He never gave me anything to see
   with my eyes or to hear with my

   ears. His own Word should be enough for me, but these blessed sounds
   and scenes, these cheering sights and holy triumphs make it not merely
   a matter of faith to believe the Gospel, but also a matter of common
   sense! It seems impossible to doubt when you see the evident power
   there is about true godliness and the majestic might that dwells in
   faith to strengthen the weak against the last grim foe. Yes, we have
   proven many of these things to be "the true sayings of God."

   Before I leave this point, I want to urge all Believers always to treat
   the Bible as if it were all true. Do not let any of it seem to be a
   romance to you, but regard it all as real and true. I wish people were
   more businesslike in dealing with the Bible and that they would use
   more common sense with regard to it. We sometimes fail to use it as if
   we really believed it. Some persons appear to imagine that the
   excellence of their prayer consists in its length--but if they had more
   real belief in prayer, it would probably not be so long. Whenever I go
   to a bank with a check, I pass it to the clerk at the counter, take up
   the cash he gives me and go about my business. That is how I like to
   pray. I take to the Lord one of His promises and I say to Him, "Lord, I
   believe Your promise and I believe that You will fulfill it to me." And
   then I go my way knowing that I have the answer to my petition, or that
   it will come in due time. To kneel down for a certain specified period
   and pour out a long string of selected sentences would seem to me a
   mere performance--and I would get nothing by it. "He that comes to God
   must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
   diligently seek Him." Do not let your praying be a mere ecclesiastical
   or religious engagement! Go to God as your Father and your Friend,
   fully convinced that your prayer will be answered. Thousands of prayers
   are never answered because those who present them do not expect that
   they will be answered. If a man prays to God and does not believe that
   God will answer him, He will not answer him. We must, without wavering,
   believe that God will hear us--and then He must hear us. Note that I
   say "must." But "must" is for the King! Yes, but He has bound Himself
   by His own Word--"What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe
   that you receive them and you shall have them." These are Christ's own
   words, not mine! And their meaning lies upon the very surface. Let the
   Christian pray in faith and then he will find that God will never run
   back from His Word, but will keep His promise to all His believing
   people!

   II. My second point was to be that THERE ARE SOME THINGS WHICH WE
   CANNOT PROVE JUST YET, BUT THEY ARE TRUE, FOR ALL THAT.

   Now let me tell you what will come true one of these days. Jesus Christ
   will come back to this earth. That same Jesus who went up from the top
   of Mount Olivet, will so come in like manner as He was seen to go up
   into Heaven. He will come with a mighty blast of the archangel's
   trumpet and in amazing pomp and splendor, attended by myriads of angels
   and vast hosts of the redeemed! But He will surely come! It may not be
   today. It may not be for many an age. But in such an hour as men think
   not, the Son of Man will come! When He does come, remember that if you
   are alive, you will have to stand before His judgment seat. But if you
   die before that time, your body shall rise again and your soul shall
   return to it--and there in your flesh shall you see the Son of God!
   That very Savior whom tonight I preach to you, who will save you if you
   believe in Him, will then come to sit upon His Throne. And if you have
   lived and died without believing in Him, He will come to judge you and
   to pronounce upon you that dreadful sentence, "Depart from Me, you
   cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
   Christ will come and you will all rise and either be accepted or
   condemned by Him! "These are the true sayings of God."

   Further, there will be a Heaven for all those who are found believing
   in Jesus. Christ will take them there to be with Him where He is, that
   they may behold His Glory. They shall enter into most blessed
   fellowship with Him in all His joys and glories--and that, world
   without end. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will miss all
   that--and where He is you will never come! The door will be shut
   against you and the outer darkness where there shall be weeping,
   wailing, and gnashing of teeth will be your portion forever, for this
   is another true saving of God, that there is a Hell for all who do not
   believe in Jesus. As surely as there was a place of bliss for Lazarus,
   so surely was there a place of woe for Dives. As certainly as there is
   a heavenly fold for the sheep of Christ, so is there a Hell for the
   goats. "These are the true sayings of God." Do not despise them! Do not
   doubt them! Some of you who are unconverted may be within a few minutes
   of death. I was struck, the other Monday night, when I was coming to
   the Prayer Meeting here, by the appearance of a poor man, one of our
   Church Members, who was sitting by the fire in the room behind looking
   very sickly. It was bitterly cold, but I soon saw that death was making
   him still colder. I felt that in a short time he would die, however
   much care we might take of him.

   We took him home in a cab and in a few hours he was gone. He was an old
   disciple so he had entered into his rest, but I thought, "It is strange
   that there should so often be deaths in this Tabernacle." Every now and
   then, while I am preaching the Word here, there comes to me a message,
   "There is a person dying here." Besides that, death makes havoc
   continually among our thousands of members--sometimes three or four die
   in one week. And out of this vast congregation, I do not know how many
   will die this week. Probably we shall not all of us see next Sabbath,
   but certainly we shall soon depart out of this world. We shall fly
   away, and where, where, where shall we go? I do not want to seem to be
   fanatical, but I will solemnly put this question to everyone here--as
   you do not believe that you will die like a dog, and as you do believe
   that you will live in another state--are you prepared for it? And as
   most of you, at any rate, believe that faith in Jesus is the only
   preparation for the future state--have you believed in Him? Have you
   sought God by prayer? Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior?

   If you are obliged to say, "No"--I cannot hold your hand, (there are
   too many for me to do that), nor can I take you by the buttonhole and
   detain you for a while, but I would gladly detain you as that ancient
   mariner detained the wedding guest, and say to you, "Are you wise to
   live in danger, every day, of death and judgment and yet to remain
   unprepared? Ought it not to be the first business of your life, by
   faith and prayer, to make your calling and election sure?" If you are
   wise men and wise women, surely a word will be enough for you. But if
   you are not wise, may God make you so! May He lead you, this very hour,
   to confess your sins and seek His mercy! And may every one of us be
   found in Christ in that great day! Then shall we rejoice forever in
   "the true sayings of God." The Lord grant it, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM119:89-104.

   Verse 89. Forever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in Heaven. It is not a
   changeable or vanishing thing--"Your Word is settled." Settled forever,
   settled "forever in Heaven." As God changes not, so the Word which He
   has spoken to His servants changes not. If the foundations of the faith
   could be removed, what would the righteous do? What would any of us do?
   But, with an eternally fixed Word of God, we have something solid to
   build upon, a foundation on which we may confidently rest our
   everlasting hopes.

   90. Your faithfulness is unto all generations. God, who kept His
   promise to Abraham, keeps it also to us though we are far down the
   ages. And He will keep it to our children and our children's children
   as long as the world endures, and then forever and ever! We need not be
   afraid to leave the generations to come in His hands. "Your
   faithfulness is unto all generations."

   90, 91. You have established the earth, and it abides. They continue
   this day according to Your ordinances: for all are Your servant. This
   material world whose laws appear to be so fixed, abides only because
   God has established it. But a day will come in which He will roll these
   things up like a worn-out vesture and He that sits upon the Throne of
   God shall make all things new. But at present we have, in the fixity of
   the laws of Nature, a type of the fixity of the promises and purposes
   of God.

   92. Unless Your Law had been my delights, I should then have perished
   in my affliction. Notice the love of God's servant to God's Word.
   "Unless Your Law had been my delights." The word is in the plural, for
   the Psalmist not only took a delight in it, but all his delights were
   there! It was the sea of happiness wherein he bathed his entire soul.
   "Unless it had been so," he says, "I should then have perished in my
   affliction." One of the best preservatives for the heart in times of
   trouble is an intense delight in the Word of God. Oh, to get away from
   this noisy world, from the turmoil of life and its endless discussions
   and controversies--and to sit down and quietly listen to what that Word
   has to say to us! This is the best way to recuperate drooping and
   fainting spirits.

   93. I will never forget Your precepts: for with them You have quickened
   me. Nothing makes a man remember the Word so well as the fact that it
   has quickened him. If you owe your spiritual life and the support of it
   to the Word of God, you will not forget that Word! If you feel that
   every time you come into contact with it, it inspires you with fresh
   life, you will be anxious to be often diligently reading it!

   94. I am Yours. That is a grand thing for anyone to be able to say!
   What a Heaven of bliss lies slumbering in these three words, "I am
   Yours."

   94. Save mm. That is a good argument. "'I am Yours by redemption, so do
   not lose me. 'I am Yours by a new creation, so let not the enemy steal
   me away from You. I am Your servant, so exercise a master's rights over
   me and protect me from all my foes. 'I am Yours, save me.'"

   94. For I have sought Your precept. Notice how the Psalmist here twice
   singles out the precepts rather than the promises--even hypocrites may
   love the promises, but only sincere Believers love the precepts. The
   true servant of God loves the burdens which his Lord and Master lays
   upon him and he only wishes that he had more strength to bear still
   more of them.

   95. The wicked have waited forme to destroy me. "They have lain in
   ambush, they have waited to catch me tripping, to ruin my character if
   possible, so what shall I do? Counterplot them? No. Watch them night
   and day? No. 'The wicked have waited for me to destroy me.'"

   96. But I will consider Your testimonies. There is something that seems
   to me calmly defiant about the Psalmist's resolve. He does not say,
   "The wicked are waiting to destroy me, but I will fight them." No, but
   he says, "I shall read my Bible and I shall follow its directions. I
   shall act in obedience to my God--and in that way I shall baffle them."
   To be obedient to God is the surest way to be victorious over wicked
   men! Keep God's Word and God will guard your head in the day of danger.

   96. I have seen an end of all perfection: but Your commandment. Ah,
   there I find perfection--"'Your commandment.'"

   96. Is exceedingly broa . It is so broad that there is no limit to it!
   One of the early fathers used to say, "I delight in the infinity of
   Scripture," and well he might, for there is no limit to it. Even one
   single text might suffice for a man's meditation for a whole year! If
   it did not, it would be because of the scantiness of the man's
   meditative power--not because of the exhaustion of the meaning of the
   verse.

   97. O how love I Your Law!The Psalmist breaks out into a transport of
   delight. He does not say how much he loved God's Law for the simple
   reason that he could not tell us that. But he says, "O how love I Your
   Law!"

   97. It is my meditation all the day. That is the best proof of the
   Psalmist's love of God's Law, for love shows itself by its constant
   familiarity with its chosen object. "'It is my meditation all the day.'
   Every day, wherever I may be, I turn my daily experience into
   instructive meditation upon Your Word." One of the best commentaries on
   God's written Book is God's Book of Providence when it is explained to
   us by His Holy Spirit.

   98. You, through Your commandments, have made me wiser than my enemies:
   for they are ever with me. David knew how well God's Word had
   instructed him, so first he declared that he was wiser than his
   enemies--and next, that he was wiser than his former instructors.

   99. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Your
   testimonies are my meditation. The man who rightly meditates upon this
   wondrous Book is, after all, the truly wise man. His wisdom is that of
   the heart, received by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and it has a
   power of understanding in it that will make him wiser than those who
   are merely book-learned or man-taught.

   100. I understand more than the ancients because I keep Your precepts.
   First his enemies, then his teachers--and now his elders, the
   ancients--he could excel them all and he gave the reason for it!
   "Because I keep Your precepts." Take this Book away and give the man
   all the human learning that he could ever acquire, and how little he
   would know, after all! But let him study the Book--and even in the
   absence of other books, (though that need not be the case with him),
   such a man will still be wise--wise for eternity!

   101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep
   Your Word. The Bible is a very sanctifying Book. If we keep its
   precepts, it holds us back from many things into which we might
   otherwise have run. "I have refrained my feet from every evil way."
   Notice the universality of the obedience of a true saint. He does not
   say, "I will avoid all sin except a certain one for which I have a
   great liking." Oh, no! "I have refrained my feet from every evil way,
   that I might keep Your Word."

   102. I have not departed from Your judgments: for You have taught me.
   Those who are taught of God are always well taught. They never unlearn
   what they have learned at the feet of Jesus. Those who backslide and
   apostatize were never truly taught of the Spirit of God.

   103. How sweet are Your Words unto my taste/Have you a spiritual taste,
   dear Hearer? It is one thing to hear the Word. It is another thing to
   taste it. Hearing the Word is often blessed, but tasting it is a more
   inward and spiritual thing--it is the enjoyment of the Truth in the
   innermost parts of our being! Oh, that we were all as fond of the Word
   as were the old mystics who chewed the cud of meditation till they were
   fattened upon the Word of the Lord and their souls grew strong in the
   Divine Love! I am sure of this--the more you know of God's Word, the
   more you will love it! It is ignorance that misses the sweetness of it.

   103. Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth/There is an indescribable
   sweetness in it. It is sweet to my heart and when I utter it, how sweet
   it is to my mouth! I heard one observe, the other day, that he noted a
   great difference between the preachers of his youth and many of those
   of the present day. He said, "the old men used to enjoy the Word so
   much while they were preaching it--they preached it with their eyes
   beaming with delight in it! You could see that if there was no savor in
   it for other people, there was a Divine Savor about it for the
   preachers themselves." This is the mark of the man who is taught of
   God--that the Word is sweet to his mouth when he preaches it to others
   as well as sweet to his taste when he meditates upon it himself!

   104. Through Your precepts I get understanding. The practical parts of
   God's Word not only appeal to our understanding but they give us
   understanding. That is a marvelous thing, but it is true. Sometimes
   when you are arguing with a man who is dull of comprehension, you are
   apt to say, "Well, I can give you arguments, but I cannot give you an
   understanding with which to appreciate them." But this Word can give us
   understanding--"Through Your precepts I get understanding."

   104. Therefore I hate every false way. The best test of a true
   spiritual understanding is an intense and vigorous hatred of everything
   that is false. The lover of the Truth of God is a follower of the Truth
   of God! He is not a man of craft and guile. He keeps to the straight
   line and in the long run it shall be proved that he is the man who is,
   indeed, taught of God.
     __________________________________________________________________

Paul in the Tempest

   (No. 3145)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they
   lightened the ship; and the third day we cast out with our own hands
   the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days
   appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be
   saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth
   in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, you should have listened to me,
   and not have sailed from Crete, and incurred this disaster and loss.
   And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of
   life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night
   the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul,
   you must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God has given you all them
   that sail with you. Therefore, Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe
   God, that it shall be even as it was told me." Acts 27:18-25.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, upon parts of this passage, are as
   follows--Sermons #1070, Volume 18--WRECKED, BUT NOT RECKLESS; #2952,
   Volume 51--THE CHURCH--THE WORLD'S HOPE and #1355, Volume 23--A CHEERY
   WORD IN TROUBLOUS TIMES.]

   HERE we see a Believer full of comfort cheering others. The words of
   good cheer now before us are from a man, but inasmuch as he does but
   repeat what the Lord had spoken to him, they are none the less
   precious. And they may be all the more profitable if they move us, by
   their example, to speak words of cheer to others.

   The Believer is sure to come to the front. He may be hidden away in the
   crowd and his condition and circumstances may put him in the rear rank
   for a time, but his light will by some means rise out of obscurity.
   Paul is nothing but a prisoner all the time the ship sails safely. He
   is courteously entreated, yet he holds rank among others who are being
   carried to Rome for trial. But the storm comes on and the ship is
   driven before the tempest--and he who was only a prisoner becomes
   practically the chief man in the ship! The owner, the captain, the
   centurion--these are very small figures in the picture. You scarcely
   notice them in the group huddled together in the laboring boat. Paul is
   the center of the whole company, the observed of all. He is as much the
   master of the ship as Caesar was when, in the tempest, he encouraged
   the mariners with the words, "Fear not, you carry Caesar and all his
   fortunes." Paul is greater than Caesar, for he says less of himself and
   more of the Eternal God. He is evidently reverenced and esteemed even
   by those who hold him in chains.

   Paul on board that vessel was strikingly like the Lord Jesus when He
   came into the ship upon the Galilean Lake. There are many parallels
   between every true Believer and his Lord. Albeit that He is great and
   everything about Him is colossal, we, if we follow Jesus, are like
   He--and in this world we are as He was--we are miniatures of His
   life-size portrait, shadows of His glorious Substance! When Paul, on
   board the ship, sees the fears of those about him and he lovingly
   cries, "Be of good cheer," his voice has a consoling ring borrowed from
   his Master's. If you, dear Friend, are thoroughly and strongly a
   Believer, you will find a place in which you shall illustrate to others
   the Character of your Lord. If I might so speak, on board that ship
   Paul was prophet, priest and king. In our text he spoke prophetically,
   for he declared to them their perfect safety. He acted like a priest in
   his prayers for them all and I had almost added that in his breaking of
   bread, he was dimly like Melchizedek--blessing men and refreshing them
   with bread and wine. As for the kingly office, was not Paul truly
   royal? No mortal brow was ever more worthy of a crown! Amid that
   crowded ship he was more imperial than Caesar--and all on board
   acknowledged it. They felt constrained to obey him, for he stood
   superlatively above them all--unassuming, modest, gentle, self-denying,
   sympathetic, yet evidently a superior being. If we had more faith, we
   would sink in our own esteem, but we would greatly rise in our
   influence upon others, for we, too, would dwell

   among men as prophets, priests and kings! Are not the saints the
   twice-born of a higher lineage and a nobler race--the excellent of the
   earth in whom is the delight of holy men?

   Let us think for a while of the Apostle's character as set forth in his
   cheery speech and view him under three aspects. First, let us see in
   him the avowed believer Secondly, let us consider him as the bold
   prophet. Thirdly, as the sympathetic comforter. May we, by God's good
   Spirit, be made to bear each of these characters!

   I. First, as we read our text, the Apostle will be seen as THE AVOWED
   BELIEVER. Hear him as he says, "I believe God, that it shall be even as
   it was told me."

   He commences his statement of his faith by saying that he believed God.
   We cannot have a better basis of faith than that! We must settle in our
   minds that there is a God, that the Word of God must certainly be true,
   absolutely infallible, and beyond all question. "I believe God"--if a
   man can say no more than this, it means, in the very mildest sense of
   it, he is on the way towards faith. But he who can say, "I believe
   God," in such a sense as the Apostle intended has reached to an eminent
   height of faith and has obtained the elements of spiritual strength.

   "I believe God." Sometimes it quite staggers me that it should be
   difficult for us to believe God. Dear Friend, do you not sympathize
   with me in my wonder? If our hearts and minds were as they should be,
   faith in God would be a matter of course! And even now, imperfect as we
   are, it ought to need a crushing argument to persuade us to entertain
   the slightest doubt of God. It is most of all surprising that God's
   children should ever doubt Him--especially those who have been so
   highly favored as some of us have been. Let preacher and hearer be
   amazed that we should ever dare to say that we find faith in God to be
   difficult. It is a grievous imputation upon God when we talk about
   faith as difficult!

   If we were to say of a neighbor, "I find it hard to believe him," I do
   not know what worse we could say of him. If a child were to say of his
   father, "You know my father--he is in high repute but I find it quite a
   struggle to believe him." What rumors would get abroad! What whispers!
   "That man's own child confesses that he finds it hard to believe him!"
   Will not this bring forth from us the blush of shame and the tear of
   repentance, to think that we would ever have spoken thus of God, our
   Father? Is there any proof of our fall more conclusive than this? Is
   there any token of the natural depravity of our heart more glaring than
   that we should be so out of order as to doubt the living God? Why do we
   not trust Him altogether and implicitly? How is it that when we get a
   great promise, we begin to say, "And is this true?" When we come into
   deep trouble, how is it that we mistrust His goodness? How is it that
   we do not rest in God in all things great or small? He that is true to
   His Covenant and to His oath will be true in the very jots and tittles
   of His promises! He that is true to Christ will be true to every member
   of Christ's body. He cannot lie! It is impossible that He should deny
   Himself--ought it not to be impossible for us to suspect Him? The
   Apostle is worthy to be called "the master of the sentences" in this
   brave utterance, "I believe God." Take this one line to heart, Beloved,
   and repeat it for yourself full many a time, "I believe God." Whatever
   else you question, always believe God!

   Paul's firm faith was grounded upon Revelation, for he says, "I believe
   God, that it shall be even as it was told me." He believed, then, that
   God had told him something. He says of a certain, "it," that it was
   told him. An angel had told him, but we need not envy him the channel
   of communication, since the written Word of God is a more sure word of
   testimony than anything else can be! Even the word which came on the
   holy mount in the Transfiguration, when Peter and James and John saw
   Christ in His Glory, though it was a true and pure and bright word, yet
   is it spoken of by Peter as second to the Scriptures! He says, "We have
   a more sure word of prophecy"--more sure, even, than speech heard by
   the ear! Nothing is so sure as the Revelation of the Inspired Book! The
   man who quibbles at the Inspiration of the Word of God has given up the
   very foundation of faith! You and I, kind Friend, at any rate, are able
   to say that we believe that God has told us something, for we accept
   the Bible as His Word to us--even to us! We are not of those who say of
   a certain Chapter, "That is for the Jews," for in Christ Jesus there is
   neither Jew nor Gentile, but all the promises are yes and amen in
   Christ Jesus to the glory of God by us. We are the true Israel who
   worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh--and the
   promises are sure to all the Seed. We believe in Inspiration and
   Revelation--and we ground our faith thereon, even as Paul did. "I
   believe that it was told me," is our unmistakable avowal.

   Observe carefully that Paul's faith, grounded upon God and the fact of
   a Revelation, went on to a conviction of the absolute certainty of that
   Revelation--"it shall be even as it was told me." "It shall be." You
   can apply this to everything that God has told you. Whatever promise He
   has made. Whatever declaration He has set forth in His Holy Word, it
   shall be even as it was told you! Just as when the press comes down
   upon the paper, the type leaves its own impression

   in each line and letter, so shall the eternal purpose and promise of
   God leave its impression in your life and mine, fulfilling in actual
   fact all that the Lord God has promised! We shall try the Word and we
   shall prove it true. We shall expect the promise to be faithful and we
   shall find it so. "It shall be as it was told'me." There shall be no
   errata at the end of the Chapter, no emendations and obliterations.
   What God has written, He has written, and it must be even so. Augustine
   wrote confessions and retractions at the close of his life--but not so
   Augustine's God! At the Last Day, when the roll of history shall be
   complete and, "finis," shall be put to it, it will tally with the
   forecasts of God's Word in every respect! Has He said and shall He not
   do it? Has He spoken and shall it not come to pass? Heaven and earth
   shall pass away, but God's Word shall never pass away! Here is the joy
   of the Believer--he can say, "I believe God, that it shall be even as
   it was told me."

   The faith of Paul was most blessedly comprehensive. I want you all to
   note that fact, for God had told him that He had given him all them
   that sailed with him--and Paul believed it for their comfort. It is a
   great thing for faith to make a sweep as wide as God's Word. I have
   known some to whom God has said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved, and your house." But they have only gone as far as,
   "you shall be saved," and according to their faith it has been to them!
   As yet, they have not believed the other three words, "and your house."
   And when their children grow up and grieve their hearts by their ill
   manners, what is the cause of it but the parents' unbelief? If we have
   not prayed be-lievingly for our children, is it any marvel that they
   are not saved?

   It often comes to pass that by clipping a promise, we shear off a
   blessing which we might have had if our faith had accepted the Sacred
   Word in its entirety. Oh, for a comprehensive faith as to all that is
   in the gracious Covenant! Have you looked long enough at the promise to
   see all that is in it? What sheaves of blessing are tied up in a single
   promise, though it may only consist of a dozen words! I like to make up
   my troubles into bundles. Do you ever do that? If a man has nine, ten,
   twelve, 14 parcels to carry, they may be all little ones, but what a
   worry they are to him! Here are some in this pocket, and some in
   that--and they are more than he can manage, for they drop about
   everywhere! If he is a wise man, he finds a bag and puts the separate
   items together. True, they are no lighter, but they are much easier to
   carry! Bind your troubles into one burden and then roll it upon the
   Lord! With your mercies, do just the opposite--cut the string and open
   the package--they will be no more, but they will give you more joy as
   you count them and examine them one by one. Take care that your faith
   grasps the whole mass of blessing stored away in the promise--and mind
   that you believe that it shall be even as God has told you.

   Further, note that Paul believed this when, to outward appearances,
   "all hope that they should be saved was taken away." Paul's faith hoped
   against hope. When Hope mourns, "I cannot find rest for the sole of my
   feet," Faith cries, "Use your wings." When there seems nothing for
   Faith to rest on but the bare Word of God, then Faith is glad, for now
   she can commune with her Creator without being entangled by outward
   means and instrumentalities! Did not the Lord hang the world upon
   nothing but His Word? And cannot we hang our souls there, too? It is
   grand to stand like the arch of Heaven, unpillared and yet unmoved,
   resting only upon the invisible God! Did I say, only?. Is not that
   resting upon everything that is worth trusting since God is All-in-All?

   Before we leave this point we ought to notice that while Paul thus
   believed God, that it would be as it was told him, he very plainly and
   boldly expressed this faith He did not conceal his confidence, but he
   proclaimed it even before those who did not share his belief. No matter
   whether they could sympathize with him or not, he spoke out boldly. He
   did not cast pearls before swine by needlessly parading his faith, but
   as it was necessary to speak of it for the comfort of others, he did
   not hesitate for a single moment, but confessed, in the hearing of
   soldiers and sailors, "I believe God."

   Nowadays, people are so dreadfully modest that they are afraid to
   glorify God. God save us from such cowardice! Infidelity brawls in
   every street--shall faith be dumb? If you believe, there is at this
   time a grave necessity that you should declare your faith, for unbelief
   is rampant. Look at the high-class reviews, look at popular
   literature--these things reek with unbelief of the worst kind! Alas
   that it should ever come to this--that men who call themselves
   Christians should lend their pens to suggest and spread infidel
   principles and even enter into pulpits to insinuate mistrust of the
   Truths of God which they were ordained to preach! Honesty seems to have
   fled from the earth and men have lost all conscience. Let us who
   believe in God speak out at once, though men will call us
   narrow-minded, destitute of culture, incapable of enlarged views and
   other pretty things! What does it matter what they say? All that they
   say or insinuate should only make us the more vehemently declare, "I
   believe God." Why it has become a rare thing to meet a man who believes
   anythingnow, for the reputed wise man of the period is he who says, "I
   do not believe in anything in particular. I hold certain views, but I
   am quite prepared to change them, for there is a great deal to be said
   on the other side." This is not after the manner of Christ, nor
   according to the ways of the faithful in the olden time, who held fast
   the form of sound words and were ready to die for the Truths of God
   which had taken possession of their souls. It is time now, if ever in
   the world's history, for those who are Believers to speak with all
   confidence. Fear nothing! Can there be anything to fear in believing
   God? Can there be any shame in avowing an implicit faith in the God of
   Truth? For my own part, I had rather be ridiculed for bigotry than be
   applauded for "advanced and liberal views." I would sooner be despised
   with the orthodox than reign with "the intellectual."

   II. We have thus gone over Paul's words as an avowed Believer. And now
   we may turn to look at him AS A BOLD

   PROPHET.

   Far be it from any one of us to set ourselves up as prophets, for
   thereunto we are not called. Yet every truly-instructed Christian is in
   some sense a prophet and may prophesy according to the proportion of
   faith, if he will follow the true method. Paul was not rash in his
   prophecies. He confined himself to revelation. He said, "It shall be."
   But what shall be? "It shall be as it was told me." You may always go
   that length--and you will be to many men a wonderful personage. If you
   go only as far as that, they will marvel that you dare say, "It shall
   be even as it was told me." We speak positively where they can only
   guess and dream. We cannot see behind that veil which hides the future,
   but we know what is to come as to some matters, for God has told us and
   we can, therefore, prophesy that it shall be according to His
   declaration. Learn from Paul not to be a presumptuous dreamer, but a
   prudent speaker.

   On what he foretold he staked the honor of God, for he said, "It shall
   be as it was told me." But why? Because "I believe God." If God is not
   worthy of belief, then it may not be as it was told me--but His Word
   must be fulfilled and His promise kept since He is a faithful God.
   Never recklessly compromise the honor of God by any rash assertion of
   your own! But you may always challenge the veracity of God as to His
   own promises or threats and be quite sure that He will vindicate both
   Himself and His servant by making it to be as He told you.

   The Apostle uttered this prophecy of his before all that were in the
   ship. Most of them were unbelievers, but he boldly said to them, "It
   shall be even as God has told me." Some of them were his superiors in
   station--officers of the Roman army--but he told them, "It shall be
   even as it was told me." It is sometimes hard to confess Christ in
   polite society, in the presence of those who are considered to be
   superior persons, but let not any believer in Him yield to fear. Say
   with David--

   "I'll speak Your Word, though kings should hear, Nor yield to sinful
   shame."

   Paul made his avowal of faith in the presence of very rough
   men--selfish sailors, cruel soldiers and criminal prisoners, but what
   of that? An avowal of faith in God might be made before all the fiends
   of Hell and you could not say a better thing before the angels of
   Heaven! In no place and in no company can the testimony of faith in the
   living God and His Son, Jesus Christ, be out of place. Therefore fear
   not to make it. My Friend, make the world conscious of your solemn
   conviction that God is to be believed. Protest and so act as a true
   Protestant! Confess Christ and so be His disciple, indeed! Speak that
   which He has told you in His Word like a prophet in the name of the
   Lord, and fear no man! Let the fear of God forbid all other fear.

   Paul so truly, so practically believed God that thepower of his faith
   told on all that were around him. If they did not themselves believe,
   yet that calm face amid the storm, that practical action in bidding
   them take bread and eat, that common-sense proceeding in cutting away
   the boat that the sailors might remain to manage the ship--all this
   made them see that he was not a man who merely talked of faith, but one
   to whom believing was part and parcel of his life, the fountain of the
   common sense which fitted him to be a leader! He acted like a man who
   believed in God in a business-like way. Faith was real in him and,
   therefore, practical. Many Christians appear to hold their religion as
   a pious fiction-- regarding the promises of God as pretty things for
   sentimentalism to play with--and His Providence as a poetical idea. We
   must get out of that evil fashion and make God to be the greatest
   factor in our daily calculations--the chief force and fact of our
   lives! We must, each one, boldly act on the conviction that "it shall
   be even as He has told me."

   Paul was all this while in trouble, for he was in the ship with those
   whom he comforted, suffering the same discomforts and yet he said, "I
   believe God." It is all very fine for one who has a good income, enjoys
   good health and is in excel-

   lent spirits to sit down by the side of some poor half-starved woman
   who is full of disease and near to death, and say, "My good woman, you
   should have faith in God." Do you hear that landsman teaching sailors
   how to go to sea? That is true faith which believes God when it is in
   the sinking ship, in the same peril and trouble with others and yet
   unmoved where they are filled with alarm! How I wish that each of you
   may be able to believe this!

   May God make you to be so far a prophet that you may be prophetic on
   several points! In the first place, always declaring that God will hear
   believing prayer and, next, that a wrong thing cannot have the Divine
   blessing resting upon it. Be prophet enough to say these two things and
   act upon them as downright matters of fact. You can also foretell that
   if the Gospel is faithfully and simply preached, with the Holy Spirit
   sent down from Heaven, it will win souls. You may prophesy that and
   never fail! And you may prophesy, also, that if the biggest sinner in
   the world will come to Christ, he shall be forgiven! That if the vilest
   heart will yield itself to the Savior, it shall be renewed! That if the
   most rebellious and obstinate man that ever lived is touched by the
   finger of God and is led to repentance and faith, he is capable of
   becoming one of the brightest of the sons of God! No one shall ever
   shame you by proving that you spoke falsely if you speak for God in
   this fashion! Speak out, then, and banish guilty silence.

   III. The Apostle may be viewed in a third character, as A SYMPATHETIC
   COMFORTER.

   They were all in trouble, for they were all in danger of drowning. The
   ship was going to pieces, death stared them in the face, dismay was
   written on every countenance, but Paul says to them, "Sirs, be of good
   cheer." Doubtless, his cheerful tones and manly voice helped to banish
   their fears and to prevent a panic. Beloved Christian Friend, should it
   not be our effort, wherever we are, to make troubled ones happy? Next
   to loving God, the first duty of a Christian is to spread peace on
   earth and goodwill to men. Whenever we meet with a person in trouble--I
   do not mean only spiritual trouble--we should administer relief. Even
   when we meet with a child who has lost a penny, or has broken a jug, we
   should take pleasure in soothing its grief. His mother will scold him,
   so buy him another jug, if you can, and try and cheer his little heart.
   What a mass of happiness you can buy for a few pence, if you will spend
   them on poor children.

   Where money is not needed, you may give sympathy and consolation, and
   these will be much valued. Do not reply that you are unable to act as a
   comforter. Learn the art. If you cannot speak well, there is a better
   way than speech. A little child once said to her mother, "Mother, I
   stopped with Widow Brown, for she said that I comforted her so." "Well,
   I daresay you did, my Dear," the mother replied. "But, Mother, I do not
   see that I am of any use to her, for I cannot tell her anything--but I
   put my cheek against hers and when she cries, I cry too--and she says
   that it comforts her." Exactly so. This little child shall lead us.
   Herein is wisdom. "Weep with them that weep." You cannot more
   effectually console them. Comfort others with the comfort with which
   you yourself are comforted of God, for Paul said, "Be of good cheer. I
   believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me." He had been
   comforted of the Lord and with this consolation he could cheer others.
   The Lord grant us Grace to be looking out for those who are in any sort
   of affliction, that we may cheer their hearts. But let us be doubly
   watchful over those in spiritual distress. Let no one in our
   neighborhood ever complain, "No man cares for my soul." Comfort God's
   people and labor at the same time to win sinners to Jesus--and the love
   of your heart shall bring untold blessings into your own bosom!
   Happiness is contagious and the cheerfulness of your piety will be so
   attractive that the careless and indifferent will be allured to the
   ways of piety. Do not run about with ill news, but make your
   communications joyous by mixing up the glad tidings of salvation with
   your cheerful daily talk! So shall you imitate your Lord and His
   Apostle by saying "Be of good cheer."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 90; ACTS27:1-26.

   Psalm 90 is entitled "A Prayer of Moses, the man of God," and it
   furnishes a suitable prayer for every man of God. Any men of God who
   have had experience as deep, trying and varied as that of Moses will be
   the better able to enter into the spirit of the Psalm.

   Psalm 90:1. LORD You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
   [See Sermon #46, Volume 1--the glorious habitaTION.] "This world in
   which we live is no home for our immortal

   spirits. You give us habitations for our bodies, but there are no
   dwelling places for our spirits that are of a nobler order. We dwell in
   You, O Lord; You are our home. Beneath Your wide wings we find blessed
   shelter and in communion with

   You our hearts are kept in perfect peace. Lord, You are the home of
   Your people in all generations--not only in the generations that are
   past, when Noah, and Abraham and Moses, and David, and all Your ancient
   servants found a refuge in You, but even to this day You are still our
   strong castle and our high tower, our refuge and place of defense, our
   dwelling place even in this generation."

   2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the
   earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
   When compared with God, those hoary hills are but as infants of a day,
   and the whole round world itself is but as a new-born child. "From
   everlasting" has He existed--when all created things slept in His
   Infinite mind like unborn forests sleep in an acorn cup and so on
   forever, "to everlasting"--when all created things shall have
   dissolved, when back to nothing this fair world shall have gone--God
   shall still be the same. He is a rock that cannot be removed. There is
   no terra firma upon this earth, but while all things are whirling
   around us, we find a firm dwelling place beyond the stars in the
   ever-living and Immutable Jehovah. No man's home is safe unless it is
   built on something more stable than this poor trembling earth, but he
   who rests on God and lives in God has the best of all habitations
   wherein to dwell in safety forever.

   3. You turn man to destruction; and say, Return, you children of men.
   Man is mortal, conspicuously so. As we walk about our streets, how we
   miss our old companions, one by one! They have returned to the bosom of
   mother earth from where they first sprang. The inhabitants of this
   world seem to pass in procession before our eyes--those who were here a
   few minutes ago are gone and another rank has come, and another, and
   another and they will soon all be gone--and we shall be gone too. He,
   then, who hopes to find a home among the sons of men will miss it, but
   he who makes the eternal God his habitation shall still be at home in
   the Lord even when wife, and child, and brother, and friend all sleep
   in the silence of the sepulcher.

   4. For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is
   past, and as a watch in the night. Our measurements of time are nothing
   to God. There is nothing past and nothing future with Him--all things
   are present in the eternal NOW of God. What a wonderful Truth this is
   of the eternal existence of God--and what boundless comfort it brings
   to the man who feels that this God is his God, his Father, his Friend
   and his All-in-All!

   5. 6. 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.
   Such is the best estate of man--a field bedecked with daisies, kingcups
   and other frail flowers, but the mower's scythe is near--you may hear
   him sharpening it! And soon along the sward, all the sons of men shall
   fall--and you who have found your hope, your Heaven, your confidence
   here--how poor will you be in the end thereof! But O you who have sent
   all your heart's desires upwards to your God, you who are living in the
   future, living in the infinite, how secure are you, for no rust shall
   fret your gold, no moth consume your garments! You are blessed indeed.

   7. For we are consumed by Your anger and by Your wrath are we troublet.
   Yes, if the Lord lets even a little of His wrath out for a while
   against His servants, how greatly do we suffer! Blessed be His name, it
   never is real anger against His own chosen people. He does but hide His
   love under the form of wrath, just as a father never really hates his
   child, and even though he is angry with him for his faults, and
   chastises him, yet there is more love than wrath in every blow of the
   rod. Still, it is a sad thing to lose the sense of God's love in the
   heart--it consumes us and troubles us. We could bear sickness, we could
   bear slander or persecution, or almost anything but the absence of the
   Light of God's Countenance! That is the worst of trials to His
   children.

   8-10. 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 awaj. A long life or a short life, what a little
   difference it makes when the last hour comes! The patriarch as well as
   the child descends to the grave and all, as they sleep in their
   separate graves, seem only to have lived for a little moment and then
   to have passed away.

   11. Who knows the power of Your anger? Even according to Your fear, so
   is Your wrath. God grant that none of us may ever know experimentally
   the power of His anger! But may we know it, as a matter of faith, so as
   to tremble concerning it, and so as to flee to Christ to be delivered
   from it! But what must it really be to feel the power of God's anger? I
   implore you never to believe any teaching that seems to make God's
   anger less terrible than you thought it to be. It is not

   possible to exaggerate here--the power of God's anger is immeasurable,
   and that is why the power of Christ's Atonement is infinite!

   12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto
   wisdom. That is the great matter, after all, to get the heart applied
   to wisdom, to learn what is the right way and to walk in it in the
   practical actions of daily life. It is of little use for us to learn to
   number our days if it merely enables us to sit down in self-confidence
   and carnal security! But if our hearts are applied to true wisdom, the
   Lord's teaching has been effectual.

   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. [See Sermons #513,
   Volume 9--THE YOUNG MAN'S PRAYER and #2987, Volume 52--THE "BEAU IDEAL"
   OF LIFE.] Dear young people, here is a suitable

   prayer for you to present to God--"O satisfy us early with Your mercy."
   Believe me, there is no joy for a lad like that of loving the Lord
   Jesus Christ while he is yet young! And O you maidens--there is no
   fairer jewel that you can ever wear than that of love to Jesus Christ--

   "'Twill save us from a thousand snares To mind religion young! Grace
   will preserve our following years, And make our virtues strong."

   And each one of us may pray this prayer. "Lord, now give us Your mercy!
   If we are unsaved, let us not remain so! If we have lost the comfort of
   Your Presence for a while, restore it to us now! Leave us not long in
   darkness, but satisfy us early with Your mercy!"

   15. Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us,
   and the years wherein we have seen evi. [See

   Sermon #1701, Volume 29--GLADNESS FOR SADNESS.] It is right, then, to

   pray for joy. Indeed, joy is so conspicuous a blessing to a
   Christian--it is so closely connected with the healthfulness of all his
   virtues that he should seek after it until he finds it!

   16. Let Your work appear unto Your servants, and Your glory unto their
   children. "Lord, let us see Your work here! Oh, for Your name's sake,
   take Your right hand and work mightily in our midst! Withdraw not the
   working of the Holy Spirit from us, Your people! Let Your work of
   conversion, Your work of edification, Your work of the conquest of the
   world appear unto Your servants!"

   17. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish
   the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hand. "Let
   not what we do for You fall to the ground like a badly-built wall! Let
   not our work be consumed in the great testing fire, 'but establish the
   work of our hands!'"

   Acts 27:1-3. And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy,
   they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius,
   a centurion of Augustus' band. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium,
   we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a
   Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. And the next day we touched
   at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty
   to go unto his friends to refresh himself Even a Roman centurion could
   see that Paul was no ordinary prisoner and that it was quite safe to
   allow him privileges which others might have abused.

   4-12. And when we had launched from there, we sailed under Cyprus,
   because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea of
   Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the
   centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us
   therein. And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarcely were
   come over against Cnidus, the windnot allowing us, we sailed under
   Crete, over against Salmone and, hardly passing it, came unto a place
   which is called the Fair Havens; near whereunto was the city of Lasia.
   Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous,
   because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them and said
   unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much
   damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.
   Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the
   ship, more that those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the
   haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart
   there also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to
   winter; which is an haven of Crete and lies toward the south west and
   north west. It was quite natural that the centurion should think that
   the master and the owner of the ship knew more

   about seafaring matters than Paul did, but the sequel proved that the
   Apostle knew more than they did, for he had access to information that
   was hidden from them.

   13. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had
   obtained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete.
   That was not the only voyage that commenced favorably and ended
   disastrously.

   14. But not long after that arose against it a tempestuous wind, called
   Euroclydon. And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into
   the wind, we let her drive. Apparently that was the only thing they
   could do. And, at times we may find that it will be well to follow
   their example. When we have done our best and can make no headway, we
   had better commit our vessel to the care of God and "let her drive"
   wherever He wills.

   16-19. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we
   had much work to come by the boat: which when they had taken up, they
   used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall
   into the quicksands, struck sail, and so were driven. And we being
   exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the
   ship; and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of
   the ship. They used all the means in their power and evidently Paul and
   his companions took their full share of the work that had to be done--
   "we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship."

   20-22. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no
   small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then
   taken away. But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of
   them, and said, Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have
   sailed from Crete, and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I
   exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of life
   among you, but only of the ship. Paul might well remind the officers of
   the wise advice he gave them in Crete, but he did not rest content with
   that, but went on to cheer them as far as he dared, though he again
   warned them that they would lose their ship. To prove that he was not
   speaking without due authority, he added--

   23-20. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am,
   and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; you must be brought before
   Caesar: and, lo, God has given you all them that sail with you.
   Therefore, Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be
   even as it was toldme. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.
   The next Chapter tells us that the "certain island was Melita, or
   Malta, as it is now called. In that respect, as in all others, Paul's
   prophecy was literally fulfilled, for the ship was lost, but all on
   board were saved.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Power of Christ's Presence

   (No. 3146)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 2, 1873.

   "Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is the
   Lord." John 21:7.

   I AM going to speak, on this occasion, to my Brothers and Sisters who
   are workers for Christ. When our Lord met His Apostles by the lake and
   provided for them that memorable meal, He did not think it out of place
   to say to Peter, "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep." These practical
   exhortations were regarded by Him as quite in keeping with holy
   fellowship and so, though we are coming to the Communion Table at the
   close of this service, I feel that I am only right in speaking upon
   practical matters to you, my fellow laborers and fellow soldiers in the
   work and warfare of Christ. And I pray that God will, through me, speak
   to all here who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

   You know that we read in the Gospels according to Luke and John, of two
   miraculous draughts of fishes. [See Sermon

   #443, Volume 8--THE TWO DRAUGHTS OF FISHES.] The one that is recorded
   in this Chapter from which our text is taken was, in several respects,
   similar to that which was worked at an earlier period of our Lord's
   history.

   Before He called His Apostles, He worked the miracle of giving them a
   great haul of fish after they had toiled all the night and had taken
   nothing. And then, after He had died upon the Cross and risen from the
   grave, He repeated the miracle in almost identical fashion. I think
   there was a great lesson which our Savior intended His disciples to
   learn from that repetition. The miracle was a picture--and He wanted
   them to look upon it and catch the idea it was meant to convey--and as
   they had probably not all caught it the first time, He held the picture
   up before them again, that they might have another opportunity of
   learning the lesson which He had intended it to teach them.

   You notice that in both instances they had toiled--they had toiled all
   the night--but they had toiled in vain. The night was the best season
   for fishing, as it still is. They had toiled in the place where they
   had often caught fish before, for they were experienced fishermen, apt
   at their craft. Yet after using all the means that had been successful
   at other times, they were unsuccessful, for they had taken nothing.
   They had toiled perseveringly, too, for it was not only at night that
   they had toiled, but all the night. From the time when they pushed
   forth from the shore, in the moonlight, until the morning star warned
   them of the dawning of the new day, they had toiled. Yet they had taken
   nothing.

   This teaches us that we may work for Christ and try to win souls for
   Him--and do that work at the best time, in the best way and even
   persevere in doing it--and yet be unsuccessful. We must be unsuccessful
   if, like the disciples, we are laboring without the Master's Presence.
   In both instances, the turning-point was when the Master came. On the
   first occasion, He borrowed Peter's boat and preached a sermon from it
   to the crowd upon the shore. And then He said to Peter, "Launch out
   into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." In the second
   case, He bade the disciples, "cast the net on the right side of the
   ship." But in both instances it was the appearance of Jesus that filled
   the netand filled it so miraculously that the despairing toilers of the
   night realized that Someone who was more than man had spoken to them--
   and they fell down to worship Him as Divine. So whenever Jesus comes to
   His workers, however unsuccessful they may have been, they are sure to
   succeed when He is there! Yes, and to succeed beyond their own
   expectations--just as the disciples were surprised that by the same
   hands which all night had taken nothing, 153 great fishes should be
   taken--and out of the same nets which were empty all the night, (save
   here and there a piece of tangled weed to mock their hopes), there
   should come so many great fishes upon which they and others might be
   feasted to their full! The Apostles could not do anything without their
   Lord and neither can we--so the main point for us to remember is that
   we need Jesus Christ to

   come into our midst--and this point I shall try to drive home with all
   my might, praying God the Holy Spirit to stir up the hearts of His
   people so that they may have a great longing to be useful in the
   winning of souls and realize that this can only be achieved by those
   who enjoy true fellowship with Christ!

   I. I want, first, to show THE DISSIMILARITY AND THE SIMILARITY OF OUR
   POSITION TO THAT OF THE APOSTLES UPON THIS OCCASION.

   First, there was a dissimilarity in which the advantage is altogether
   on our side. The Apostle Peter and his brethren had been fishing
   unsuccessfully, but they had not been commanded to fish. They may or
   may not have been right in fishing at that time, but at any rate, they
   were doing it on their own account. Peter said, "I am going fishing."
   It was his own work, done entirely in accordance with his own
   will--Christ had not bidden him go fishing. But in our case, Brothers
   and Sisters in Christ, we have our Lord's commission, "Go you into all
   the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." We have received
   this Divine commission, so that when we preach the Gospel, we are not
   fishing as amateurs or self-sent volunteers, but as those who are sent
   by the Most High to do His bidding. When He commissions anyone, there
   is a sort of implied guarantee that He will give him success. At any
   rate, He will not send His servant upon a fool's errand, but by some
   means or other, He who gives the authority will be sure to give the
   power that is needed to go with it. "Wisdom is justified of all her
   children." You, dear Brothers and Sisters, in trying to serve God, each
   of you in your proper sphere, have done what you were sent to do, for
   Jesus has said to you as He said to His disciples, "As My Father has
   sent Me, even so send I you." Remember that passage almost at the end
   of the Revelation, "Let him that hears, say, Come." Having heard the
   Gospel, you have tried to say, "Come," to the people and you have not
   gone beyond your commission in doing so, for you were commanded to do
   it! Every Believer is a priest--under the Christian dispensation there
   is no other priesthood save that of our Lord Jesus Christ and that
   which is common to every Believer in Him. So when you, having believed
   on Him, have gone to speak of Him to others, you have only exercised
   that royal priesthood which is rightly yours, for He "has made us kings
   and priests unto God." So, first, the Apostles went fishing without
   having any commission to fish and, therefore, they were unsuccessful.
   But we have an advantage over them because in the Gopelfishery, every
   true child of God who casts the net is commissioned by his Master to do
   so!

   The disciples also had not their Master with them. All the night when
   they were casting the net and drawing it in, and finding nothing in it,
   they were by themselves. But that is not the case with us. As a Church
   we can say that we have had the Master's Presence with us these many
   years. Oftentimes in our assemblies we have been as sure of His
   Presence as we can ever be sure of anything! Our hearts have been
   rejoiced, purified and sanctified by gazing upon Him by faith. There
   have been Prayer Meetings in which I hope all of us have felt bowed
   down and humbled like Peter was when the Master was in his boat. And
   there have been times of solemn rejoicing over converted sinners in
   which the Lord Jesus has been manifestly in our midst! His promise,
   "Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world," has been
   most graciously fulfilled in our experience and we, therefore, bless
   the Savior that we have not to wait for Him to come to us, for He has
   long been with us and has never left us! These many years the simple
   preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified has filled this House of
   Prayer as it is tonight. People know that there is nothing to be heard
   here but the old, old story "of the Crucified Savior, yet let the
   weather be as rigorous as it may, still will the crowds come to hear
   the Word of the Lord--and in this we do rejoice and evermore will
   rejoice! In this respect, also, we have the advantage over the
   fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.

   And so we have in another point--because the Master was not with them,
   they caught nothing--but it cannot be said of us that we have taken
   nothing. I do not know that it would be right for us to try to compute
   how many souls have professed to have found the Savior during the years
   in which we have worked together, but I believe, Brothers, we may say
   this to the Glory of God and to the honor of the simple Gospel that we
   have preached--the number who have joined this Church, alone, can only
   be spoken of by thousands. And if we were to speak of tens of
   thousands, yes, and many tens of thousands who here and elsewhere have
   found the Savior under the Word preached by us, we would not exaggerate
   in the least. We put the crown upon the head of our Master, but what
   joy we feel that it has been so! Suppose that He had left us? Vain
   would it have been for us to preach the Word, even with earnestness,
   for earnestness, alone, will not convert souls. There must be the
   Presence of Jesus to bless men--and it has been with us, year after
   year, even unto this day,

   glory be to His holy name! [The years referred to number approximately
   20.]

   In these points, then, our case is dissimilar to that of the Apostles
   when they were toiling all the night and had taken nothing.

   But we are precisely like the Apostles in certain other points, the
   first of which is that we would have taken nothing if the Master had
   not helped us. No child would have come from the Sunday school to say,
   "I love the Savior and wish to confess my faith in Him and to unite
   with the Church here." No young woman would have come out of that large
   and blessed Bible class if the Lord had not put the right words into
   the lips of the Sister who speaks for Him there. No young man would
   have been converted in our senior classes if the Spirit of God had not
   gone with the conductors. And from this pulpit no Word of Life would
   have been spoken if it had not been first given to us by God and then
   sent home to the hearts of our hearers by the Holy Spirit. We would
   have "taken nothing" without our Lord!

   And even now, Brothers and Sisters, our success is wonderfully like the
   non-success of the Apostles, for we have scarcely taken anything in
   comparison with what still needs to be taken! Even when we speak of
   tens of thousands converted, what are they in comparison with the
   millions all around us in this vast city? When God gives us an increase
   of a hundred or a 120 in a month, we are glad and thankful, but large
   as those numbers are, what are they compared with the perishing myriads
   of London alone? Why should we not have 3,000 converts in a day as on
   the day of Pentecost? Why is it that our Churches are not multiplied
   till they cover this city in every part? Why does not the old Church of
   Christ, (for such we are), the old Catholic and Apostolic Church of
   Christ, come more to the front instead of lingering in the background?
   It is because we have not yet the fullness of the Master's power as we
   must have it--and desire to have it to the praise of His Glory!
   Christ's Presence, if He would but come among us in the fullness of His
   strength, would do so much more for us than anything that we have ever
   seen--that we would be as much astounded by the increase as the
   Apostles were by the two great draughts of fishes! Christ had but to
   will it and the fish came swimming in shoals to the net--and He has but
   to will it and souls will be converted by millions to Himself and His
   Gospel! He had but to give His disciples the directions to where to
   cast the net and the same net that had been empty would become full.
   And He has but to teach His ministers how to preach, and touch their
   lips with a burning coal off the altar to fire them with a Pentecostal
   enthu-siasm--and they would speak in a way in which as yet they have
   never spoken and with a power they have never yet experienced! Such
   days are promised and they will surely come. We are not straitened in
   God. We are straitened in ourselves. If we have not those glorious days
   of ingathering, it is because some sin of ours still keeps the Master's
   Glory from us. Oh, let us turn to Him and may He graciously turn to
   us!--

   "Let our mutual love be fervent,

   Make us prevalent in prayers!

   Let each one esteemed Your servant

   Shun the world's bewitching snares,

   Lord, revive us,

   All our help must come from You!"

   II. Now, secondly, I have to speak upon THE MEANS WHICH WE ARE TO USE
   SO AS TO GAIN OUR MASTER'S PRESENCE. I have tried to show you that all
   our success must come from Him and all that He gives us must be
   ascribed to Him. So how can we secure His Presence? We have it in a
   measure--how can we have it more fully?

   Well, let us always remember that He comes just where He wills to come.
   There is absolute Sovereignty about the work of Christ in the Kingdom
   of His Grace. As the wind blows where it wishes, so does the Spirit of
   God work wherever He pleases. I do not think that we can always account
   for the great success of one preacher and the non-success of another by
   anything that we can see. We have to fall back upon the Sovereignty of
   God and say, "God wills it and, therefore, it is." He will have us know
   that Sovereignty is His Divine prerogative. He has the key of David--He
   opens and no man shuts. He shuts and no man opens. If He wills it, the
   rain shall descend steadily to make fat the fields. But if He wills it,
   He can restrain the dew of Heaven until the most fertile Church shall
   become barren as the mountains of Gilboa! He exercises His power not
   according to ourwill, but according to His own will--we must never
   forget that.

   At the same time, what course should we take in order to secure His
   Presence? I reply, first, that we had better go on with our work for
   Him. If we want Christ to bless us and we are doing work for Him, we
   had better keep on steadily doing it. These disciples of His had been
   fishing all night. Perhaps if they had not fished at night Christ would
   not have given them fish in the daytime. He does not often come to
   bless idlers--He acts Sovereignly, as I have said, but He gener-

   ally gives His blessing to those Churches that do the most for Him. I
   have always found that an earnest Gospel ministry and a prayerfully
   united Church will have God's blessing when others will not have it. Go
   on, Sunday school teachers, go on, tract distributors! Go on,
   Evangelists--go on, all of you who are laboring for Christ--keep, each
   one, to his own service and even if it has been night with you and you
   have taken nothing, still keep on at your toil! Probably the best way
   to bring the Master to you is to labor for Him with all your might.

   Sometimes, however, it will be necessary for us to wash or mend our
   nets. In the miracle recorded by Luke, we find that the fishermen,
   after toiling all night, were washing their nets--and either on that
   occasion, or on a similar one, some of them were mending their nets.
   Every Church needs to do that and every Church member, every Christian
   worker needs to do that. The preacher will do well to adopt another
   style--to study more diligently and to make himself more proficient in
   the knowledge of the Word. Sunday school teachers must more carefully
   study the lessons for their classes and go to their scholars better
   prepared for their work. Your nets will often need washing and mending
   if you are to be fishers of men--and all of you will be more likely to
   get the Master's blessing if you pay more attention to the means you
   are using for doing good in His service! Christ does not want slovenly
   work, nor is He likely to bless those who think that any kind of
   service will do for Him. I have heard of a preacher who thought that
   whatever came first into his head was good enough for his people. On
   one occasion, he informed one of his officers, at the end of his
   sermon, that he had never thought of it before he entered the pulpit.
   And the good Elder replied, "I thought so while listening to you. I
   thought that if you had considered it beforehand, you would never have
   said what you did." We all need to wash and mend our nets--I mean that
   we all need to do Christ's work in the best possible way--and that is
   the way in which we are most likely to be privileged with His Presence.

   On that first occasion, the fishermen had been listening to Christ's
   words, for they had, at His request, turned their boat into a pulpit in
   which He sat down and taught the people who stood on the shore. Was
   there any connection between that incident and the great haul of fish?
   I think there was and that if they had not granted Christ's request,
   and listened to His sermon, He would not have blessed them with that
   multitude of fish. At all events, I know that a worker will always be
   all the better for waiting a while and sitting as a learner at Christ's
   feet--reading the Word for Himself, or listening to the Truth as it is
   preached by some God-sent minister. The message may strike a keynote in
   your heart which shall so influence your whole life that, henceforth,
   you shall be in a different condition and more likely to be blessed of
   the Most High.

   Do you ask, "What is there that will bring Christ to a Church and keep
   Him there?" I reply, in a word, prayer. There is no force in nature
   that is equal to the power of prayer! The law of gravitation holds the
   planets in their orbits and links the sun to all the spheres that
   circle round him, but prayer has before now made gravitation, itself,
   cease to exert its energy! "Sun, stand you still upon Gibeon," said
   Joshua--who had first spoken to the Lord about the matter-- "and you,
   Moon, in the valley of Ajalon"--and sun and moon stood still! We speak
   that which, to many nowadays, only causes ridicule, but to our minds it
   seems ridiculous to doubt that God listens to the voice of men. When
   men are made in the image of God--twice-made and so made His
   children--surely their believing prayers shall move the heart of their
   heavenly Father! You remember what Christ said to His disciples, in His
   Sermon on the Mount? "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good
   gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
   Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" Of course He will listen
   to the voices of those whom He so dearly loves! You know, Beloved, that
   there is power in prayer. When Believers meet together and unitedly
   cry, "Lord, revive Your work. Put more power into the ministry. Make
   the hearts of Your people to be more full of love and zeal. Save the
   ungodly. Awaken the unconcerned!"--It will be done. It is not with us
   merely a matter of hope that earnest prayer will bring blessing to the
   Church and to the world--it is a matter of fact it must be so! The laws
   of Nature may be suspended, but laws that appertain to God's own
   Character for truth and faithfulness cannot be suspended. He would not
   be God if He did not answer prayer! His own promises bind Him to do so.
   O you that doubt Him, try Him! If any of you question the power of
   prayer, see what has already been done by it. As for you who are the
   servants of the living God and who have access to His Mercy Seat, you
   have but to ask and to receive--you have but to seek and to find--you
   have but to knock and the door shall be opened to you! Brothers and
   Sisters in Christ, join one another in praying Christ to come into our
   midst! Do pray for a blessing, pray mightily for it--and rest not day
   nor night till that blessing comes!

   We must, however, add to prayer the waiting for that blessing that we
   seek After Christ had ascended to Heaven, His disciples went to an
   upper room and waited there till the Holy Spirit was given to them on
   the day of Pentecost. They did not sit there thinking that perhaps the
   promised blessing might come, or might not come, but there they waited
   till they heard the "sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind" and
   the "cloven tongues, like as of fire, sat upon each of them." So let us
   come together in our assemblies expecting the blessing which the Lord
   has promised, for the blessing will certainly come if we believingly
   expect it. "Open your mouth wide," says God, "and I will fill it!" Oh,
   for the capacity to believe God, for assuredly God will never dishonor
   our faith!

   And then, to our expectation, we must add the opening of our own hearts
   to receive the blessing. We want the Savior to bless us and He says,
   "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice and
   opens the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he
   with Me." He is ready to bless you, Beloved--are you ready to be
   blessed by Him? O you that love Him, fling wide the doors of your heart
   and ask Him to come in! He has bought you with His heart's blood--will
   you not give Him your heart's best love? He is Himself your Beloved,
   your Husband, your All-in-All, so treat Him not as a stranger. Let Him
   not stand and knock any longer, but open wide the door and bid Him come
   in! Is it your will, dear Brothers and Sisters, to receive Him? Do you
   really want Him? Do you long for more of Him? You will have to be very
   prayerful and very careful if He does come to you, for He is a jealous
   lover--and when He dwells in the heart, He looks with severe eyes upon
   anything contrary to His will that is done by His own dear ones--just
   as a king will tolerate in a stranger what he would not endure from a
   courtier. I am afraid we sometimes pray for sanctifica-tion and do not
   really wish for it--and I am also afraid that we sometimes ask for a
   great blessing and do not really wish for it. Do you believe that
   Christ can come to us and bless us? Are you living as if you expected
   Him to come to you? If so, when He comes you will be overawed by the
   majesty of His Presence--and you will say with John, "It is the Lord."
   As we hear of blessing in the Sunday school, we shall say, "It is the
   Lord." As we hear of the work of Grace in the Bible classes, we shall
   say, "It is the Lord." And at every Church Meeting, as we hear the
   stories of those who have been brought to believe in Jesus, we shall
   say, "It is the Lord," for no one else could have worked so blessed a
   work in our midst!

   I wish I knew how to put this subject before you so that every
   believing heart would be affected by it to the highest possible
   degree--but I do not--and therefore, as we are coming to the Communion
   Table, I will try to use the sacred feast to stir up you who are
   serving Christ to pray for more of His Presence. You have here before
   you the memorials of His love to you. He gave His body to be broken for
   you, His heart to be pierced for you. Has Christ done all this for you
   and will you not do much for Him? You are saved, your sins are covered,
   you are His dear child--then will you not spend and be spent for Him?
   If the Master were to come and stand here tonight instead of me--and
   show you His pierced hands and feet and then were to call you, His own
   people, up, one by one and put such questions as these to you, (I will
   give you the questions directly)--I wonder how you would feel? You
   would come up these stairs dazzled with His beauty and overwhelmed with
   His love as He gazed upon you! And then He would say to each one of
   you, "My blood-bought one, what are you doing for Me? Are you feeding
   My sheep? Are you feeding My lambs?" I think I see you blush and hear
   you reply, "My dear Master, I have been with some of Your lambs this
   afternoon." "But did you really feed them?" "I spent a happy hour with
   them." "Well but did you feed them?" "I endeavored to do so, good
   Master, but I am ashamed to say that I did not feed them as I should
   have done." "But did you feed them as My lambs, and as I would have fed
   them? Did you love them? Did you speak affectionately to them? Did you
   tell them about Me? Did you try to bring them to Me? Did you pray over
   them? Did you send them away feeling that their teacher longed that
   they should all know the

   Savior?"

   Well, the Master is not here in bodily Presence and I will not put such
   questions to you, but I would like you to put them to yourselves and to
   think that you hear the Master putting them to you, even as of old He
   said, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" I think I hear Him call up
   some Brother and say to Him, "You who are redeemed by My precious
   blood, what have you done for Me?" I think I see you blush as He says
   to you again, "What have you done for Me?" At last you say, "I am a
   member of the Church." "But what have you done for Me?" "I sometimes
   put something into the offering box." "But what have you done for Me?"
   He shows His hands, lays bare His side and says, "I suffered this for
   you--what have you done for Me?" I fear that there are some members of
   this Church who would not like to be put to such a test as that! And
   for my own part, I would desire to say to the Master, "Give me a few
   more years in which to serve You better and give me more Grace that I
   may be more diligent in the service that You have allotted to me." And
   I pray you, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if you feel that
   you must present the same prayer, make this your solemn resolution
   that, by His Spirit's help, you will lay yourselves out--body, soul and
   spirit--for His dear sake.

   But, alas, there are some of you who do not love Him at all! Some of
   you to whom the Christ of God is quite a stranger. Oh, that your hearts
   were changed! For remember that He will soon come in His Glory and all
   His holy angels with Him! And you who will not now kiss the silver
   scepter of Mercy that He holds out to you in the preaching of the
   Gospel, must then feel the weight of that iron rod of Justice with
   which He will break the ungodly and dash them in pieces like a potter's
   vessels! Be wise, therefore, and trust the Savior now! The Lord grant
   that you may do so and then, having trusted Him for yourself, may you
   serve Him with all your heart and soul as long as you live on this
   earth--and then go to join that great multitude which no man can number
   of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues who stand before
   the Throne of God and before the Lamb--forever ascribing their
   salvation to His Grace!

   Have you ever heard the story of the poor man, in deep distress of
   mind, who one night dreamed a dream? He found himself outside the gates
   of Heaven and he sat down and wept, for he longed to enter. Presently
   he heard sweet music and saw a company of people approaching with palm
   branches in their hands. He asked who they were and one of them said
   that they were the noble army of martyrs coming to take their thrones.
   Then he wept much and said, "I cannot enter with you." While he sat
   mourning, he heard the trumpet sound, again, and another company came
   along singing, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." He said to them,
   "Who are you?" They replied, "We are the goodly fellowship of the
   Prophets and Apostles." And he wept again, for he said, "I cannot enter
   with you." Presently another company came, chanting the praises of the
   Grace of God. And he said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the
   preachers of the Word, and the deacons and elders of the Church." Again
   he said, "I cannot enter with you." He sat down and wept till,
   by-and-by, he saw a larger company coming, marching like an exceedingly
   great army, and singing sweetly as they came. In the very front rank
   was the woman that was a sinner, with her rich voice leading the song.
   And near her was the thief who, at the last, had prayed, "Lord,
   remember me." They came along right jubilantly and he asked them, "Who
   are you?" And they answered, "We are the company of great sinners,
   saved by great mercy." At once he said, "I can go in with you!"

   And, Brothers and Sisters, that is the company to which you and I
   belong! And when we enter Heaven, they will welcome us just as heartily
   as they did the martyrs, the Prophets and the Apostles! Jesus Christ
   came into the world to save sinners--and when sinners repent, there is
   joy in the presence of the angels of God, and joy in the heart of God,
   Himself, because they have sought His pardoning mercy! If any of you
   are not saved, it is not because there is any lack of mercy in the
   heart of God! If you perish, it is not for want of an open door set
   before you! So come in while you may!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN21.

   Verse 1. After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples
   at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed He Himself.May every
   one of you, my fellow disciples, realize that Jesus is showing Himself
   to you! He is only to be seen in His own Light. He must show Himself to
   us, or else we shall never see Him.

   2. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas calledDidymus,
   andNathanael of Cana in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee, and two other
   of His disciples. He had told them to go into Galilee and gave them the
   promise, "There shall you see Me." So now they were by the Galilean
   Lake. They were keeping their appointment with Christ and as He always
   keeps His appointment with His people, He was there to meet them as He
   had promised.

   3. Simon Peter said unto them, I am going fishing. They said unto him,
   We will go with you. Their Master had told them to wait, but they could
   not wait. Surely when they were in Galilee by His command, they might
   have trusted Him to supply their needs, but their faith was slack, so
   Peter said, "I am going fishing," and the others were much of the same
   mind--waiting had become weary work, as it often does with our faint
   hearts--so they said, "We will go with you."

   3. They went forth, and entered immediately into a ship; and that night
   they caught nothing. As is generally the case with us in our will-work
   and will-worship. When we are not guided of God, but go entirely
   according to our own mind and will it will be thus with us, also. Men
   attempt some business speculation without asking guidance of God and
   they make a miserable failure of it, so that it might be written of
   them as of the disciples, "That night they caught nothing."

   4. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the
   disciples knew not that it was Jesus. They were thinking of fishing, so
   they saw boats, nets and the sea. If they had been thinking of Jesus,
   they would have looked for Him--and when He came, they would have known
   Him.

   5. Then Jesus said unto them, Children, have you anymeat?"Have you
   anything to eat?"

   5. They answered Him, No. But that was not His fault.

   6. And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship,
   and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to
   draw it in for the multitude of fishes. He testified His Presence by
   crowning their exertions with His blessing. And soon they had a great
   catch of great fishes--a great contrast to their night of fruitless
   toil.

   7. 8. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is
   the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the lord, he girt his
   fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked), and did cast himself into
   the sea. And the other disciples came in the little ship, (for they
   were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits), dragging
   the net with fishe. We often come very slowly to Christ because we will
   drag that net with fishes. We have such a deal of care, anxiety, and
   trouble when we need not have any at all--and so we come slowly,
   "dragging the net with fishes."

   9. As soon, then, as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals
   there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Why did they want to go
   fishing on their own account? Christ had all that they needed ready for
   them--there was the fire and there were the fish cooking on it, ready
   for their breakfast. It was the Lord Jesus Christ's business to provide
   for them and He did so.

   10, 11. Jesus said unto them, Bring of the fish which you have now
   caught Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great
   fishes, an hundred and fifty and three and for all there were so many,
   yet the net was not broken. And there lay those 153 big fishes on the
   beach. Christ had no need of them but perhaps He condescended to use
   some of them for that morning meal, as He said to Peter, "Bring of the
   fish which you have now caught."

   12. Jesus said unto them, Come and dine. [See Sermon #2072, Volume
   35--BREAKFAST WITH JESUS.] Or, "Come and break your fast after your
   long night's toil." How they must have opened their eyes to see the
   fish ready cooked for them to eat!

   12. And none of the disciples dared ask Him, Who are You? knowing that
   it was the Lord. "It was the Lord"--"the Lord" who had asked them if
   they had any food, "the Lord" who had filled the net which had
   previously been empty, "the Lord" who had given them His own fish from
   His own fire that they might have breakfast with Him! O good Master, if
   we have been toiling all week and have caught nothing, call us now to
   come and eat of that which You have, Yourself, prepared!

   13-15. Jesus then came and took bread, and gave them some, and fish
   likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His
   disciples after that He was risen from the dead. So when they had
   dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love Me
   more than these?"More than this lot of fish, these boats, these nets?
   You gave them all up for Me once, but now you have taken to them
   again--do you really love Me better than your fishing and your fish?"

   15. He said unto Him, Yes, Lord; You know that Ilove You. He said unto
   him, FeedMylambs. [See Sermon #1684, Volume

   28--"FEED MY LAMBS"--A SUNDAY SCHOOL SERMON.] "Do not go after

   fish any more, but attend to My business--'feed My lambs.' The proof of
   your greater love to Me than to all worldly things will be found in
   your doing of the work which I have committed to your charge."

   16. He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, Do you
   love Me?[See Sermons #117, Volume 3--do you love

   ME? And #1281, Volume 22--"DO YOU LOVE ME?"] He said unto Him, Yes,

   Lord; You know that I love You. He said unto him, Feed My sheep. "Quit
   the sea. I am giving you no more business there--come now and be a
   pastor to My blood-bought sheep."

   17. He said unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love
   Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Do you
   love Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that
   Ilove You. [See

   Sermon #2669, Volume 46--COMFORT FROM CHRIST'S OMNISCIENCE.] Thrice

   he had denied his Lord, so thrice he must be questioned concerning his
   love to the Lord whom he said he did not even know. And then for the
   third time he was re-commissioned by his Lord.

   17-19. Jesus said unto hiim, Feed My sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto
   you, When you were young, you gird yourself, and walked where you
   willed: but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands,
   and another shall gird you, and carry you where you would not. This
   spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And When He
   had spoken this, He said unto him, Follow Me. Peter's death was to
   glorify God, so he might well be content, painful though it was to be.

   20, 21. Then Peter, turning about, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved
   [See Sermon #1539, Volume 26--"the disciple whom Jesus

   LOVED".] following; which also leaned on His breast at supper,

   and said, Lord, which is he that betrays you? Peter seeing him said to
   Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Our Lord never answered such a
   foolish, inquisitive question as this! And therefore--

   22. Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
   that to you? You follow Me. That is how Christ would answer any similar
   questions that we might put to Him. We need not concern ourselves so
   much about what is to happen to others until we have made our own
   calling and election sure. "What is that to you? You follow Me."

   23. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple
   should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If
   I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you? This is only one
   of many instances in which Christ's words have been twisted and made to
   mean something quite different from what He intended.

   24. 25. This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote
   these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are
   also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
   written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not
   contain the books that should be written. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

God's Glory in the Building Up of Zion

   (No. 3147)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "When the LORD shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His Glory."
   Psalm 102:16.

   THE Lord Himself must "build up Zion," or it will never be built up. He
   first planned it. He is the Architect of His own Church. He dug the
   foundations, i.e., has supplied the great Cornerstone. He, by His own
   power, creates each living stone, polishes it and fits it into its
   place. He cements the whole structure and as He first sketched the
   plan, so will He complete it in every iota to the praise and the glory
   of His wisdom, His Grace and His love. It shall be said of Zion, when
   all her walls are built and all her palaces completed--and when all her
   happy inhabitants have their mouths filled with song as they walk in
   white--"The Lord has built it, from the foundation even to the
   topstone." I remember seeing, close by the side of the Alps, a house
   which had upon its front, words to this effect, "This house was built
   entirely by the skill, wealth and industry of its inhabitants." It
   struck me as not being a very modest thing to put in front of one's
   house for, after all, the structure was not very marvelous . But when
   we look at the glorious architecture of the Church of God, it is no
   mean part of its luster that it may fittingly bear such an inscription
   as this, "This House was built entirely by the wisdom, the munificence
   and the power of the Infinite Jehovah."

   I. But while the text reminds us of this Truth which I hope we never
   can forget, it also brings to our minds three or four other Truths of
   God. And the first point of our discourse shall be ZION BUILT UP.

   I suppose we shall all consider that one essential to the building up
   of Zion would be practical conversion. It is of small avail for a man
   to say he is building up a church where the power of the Holy Spirit is
   not seen in calling sinners out of darkness into marvelous light. There
   may be periods in which conversions are few, but if instead of their
   being exceptional, this should come to be the rule in one's ministry,
   there would be grave cause to suspect that God was not working within
   the minister--certainly not in the sense of building up the Church. We
   find not infrequently, in Holy Scripture, that the fathers of
   households are called, "builders," and that the term, "the building of
   a house," is constantly used in respect to the birth and training up of
   a family. Now, in the great Christian family, our converts are the
   newborn children and a family is not built up for God except with these
   sons and daughters who are like stones polished after the similitude of
   a palace. We little know the blessing which young converts bring to us.
   They quicken the pulse of old Christians, they strengthen and confirm
   the faith of those who have long been walking in the Truth and they do,
   as it were, infuse new blood into the fellowship of the saints. They
   come to us as God's message from on high. They are tokens for good and
   whereas we might have thought, perhaps, that the triumphs of the Cross
   were confined to the heroic age when the Spirit of God was poured out
   in Pentecostal measure, yet as we see our sons and daughters converted
   and the great miracle of regeneration still being performed, we take
   heart and are of good courage to go on in the work of the Lord!
   Conversions we must have, for there is no building up of Zion without
   them!

   And then a public confession of faithmust follow conversion. Though the
   invisible Church of God is built up by conversions, the outward Church
   is only built up as men and women associate together in the holy
   society which we call "the Church." It is the duty of every
   Christian--no, it is the instinct of his spiritual life--to avow the
   faith which he has received! And avowing it, he finds himself
   associated with others who have made the same profession and he assists
   them in holy labor. When he is strong, he ministers of his strength to
   the weak. And when he is, himself, weak, he borrows strength from those
   who, just then, may happen to be strong in the faith. Where were our
   Christian institutions if Church fellowship were broken up? Plainly, if
   it is right for one Christian to remain out of Church fellowship, it is
   right for all! And then, if there were no Churches, there would be no
   institutions--and where would the Gospel, itself, be? I would not lay
   too much stress on the Church of God, but I venture to ask you, is it
   not written that she is "the pillar and

   ground of the Truth?" If, then, I withhold my confession of faith and
   my personal communion with the visible Church, I to that extent weaken
   the pillar and ground of the faith. We need confessions of faith as
   well as conversions.

   By a Church being thus formed in order to its being built up, something
   more is needed. We cannot build without union. A house is not a load of
   bricks, neither is the Church a mere conglomeration of human beings. A
   house must have its doors, its windows, its foundations, its rafters
   and its ceiling. So a Church must be organized--it must have its
   distinct offices and officers, it must have its departments of
   labor--and proper men must be found, according to Christ's own
   appointment, to preside over those departments.

   Our Savior was raised up on high to receive gifts for men and to give
   gifts to men. And those gifts are first, Apostles, then pastors and
   teachers, and Evangelists, and so on, "for the perfecting of the
   saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
   Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
   of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
   of the fullness of Christ." Some of the old Roman walls are compacted
   with such excellent cement that it would be almost impossible to
   separate one stone from another. In fact, the whole mass has become
   consolidated like a solid rock--so embedded in cement that you cannot
   distinguish one stone from another. Happy the Church thus built up,
   where each cares not only for his own prosperity, but for the
   prosperity of all--where if there is any joy in one member, all the
   members rejoice, and if there is sorrow in any one part of the body,
   all the rest of the body is in sorrow, too, "remembering them that are
   in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being
   yourselves also in the body." And yet, what are some churches but
   semi-religious clubs, mere conventions of people gathered together?
   They have not in them that holy soul which is the essence of unity!
   There is no life to keep them in entirety. Why, the body would soon
   become disjointed and a mass of rottenness if the soul were not in
   it--and if the Spirit of Christ is absent, the whole fabric of the
   outward church begins to fall to pieces--for where there is no life,
   there can be no true union!

   More than this, to build up a Church, there needs to be edification and
   instruction in the faith It is, I think, a matter for deep regret that
   this is not an age in which Christian people desire to be edified. It
   is an age in which they like to have their ears tickled and delight to
   have a multiplicity of anecdotes and of exciting metaphors--but they
   care little to be well instructed in the sound and solid Doctrines of
   the Grace of God. In the old Puritan times, sermons must have been
   tiresome to the thoughtless, but nowadays I think they are more
   tiresome to the thoughtful! The Christian of those days wanted to know
   a great deal of the things of God. And provided that the preacher could
   open up some mystery to him, or explain some point of Christian
   practice to make him holier and wiser, he was well satisfied, though
   the man might be no orator and might lead him into no fields of novel
   speculation. Christians, then, did not need a new faith but, having
   received the old faith, they wished to be well rooted and grounded in
   it and, therefore, they sought daily for illumination as well as for
   quickening! They desired not only to have the emotions excited, but
   also to have the intellect richly stored with Divine Truth--and there
   must be much of this in every Church if it is to be built up! There
   need certainly be no neglect of an appeal to the passions and no
   forgetfulness of what is popular and exciting--but with this we must
   have the solid bread-corn of the Kingdom of God, without which God's
   children will faint in the weary way of this wilderness!

   It does not strike me, however, that I have yet given a full picture of
   the building up of a Church, for a Church such as I have described
   would not answer the end for which Christ ordained it. Christ ordained
   His Church to be His great aggressive methodi n combating with sin and
   with the world that lies in the Wicked One. It is to be a light, not to
   itself, as a candle in a dark lantern, but a light unto that which is
   outside. Albeit we are not saved by works, yet the ultimate result of
   salvation must always be work. The causeof salvation lies in Grace, but
   the effect of salvation appears in working. As sure as ever the Grace
   of God fills a soul, that soul desires to see others brought in. That
   respectable church, that wealthy church which is quite satisfied to
   have no debt upon its own building, content if its minister is as
   sparsely remunerated as possible--without enthusiasm, without zeal,
   always harping on the string of prudence, conservatism and orthodoxy,
   having no care whatever to be aggressive--such a church needs to be
   built on other foundations, to get rid of its wood, hay and stubble,
   and to be built on gold, silver and precious stones, or otherwise it
   will not honor Christ!

   It strikes me that it is necessary for the edification of every
   Christian that he should have something to do. We learn to be soldiers
   by being drilled. No, the veteran is taught to fight by fighting! I
   think most ministers know that one of the best methods of learning to
   preach is to preach--and the best way of learning Christianity is to be
   a Christian practically. Said one, "If you would do good, be good." And
   I have sometimes thought if we would be good, we must do good--

   not to make us so, but as the best discipline to keep us in good health
   and good training! Do not let us hope that we ourselves can be devoted
   to God except by Christian service! And let us not hope that the Church
   can ever be so devoted except by casting about in the world to do for
   Christ whatever came to its hands.

   But I must go yet a step further. After a Church has become all that I
   have been describing, the next thing it ought to do should be to think
   of the formation of other Churches. The building up of an empire must
   often be by colonization. Her majesty's dominions, upon which we
   proudly say that, "the sun never sets," have been greatly enlarged by
   the sons and daughters of Britain who have gone to other lands. And the
   true process of increasing the Church of Christ must be by her forming
   colonies. Who dares to deny that in the building of many places of
   worship in England and elsewhere, the devil has had as much to do as
   Christ has had? I mean in our denomination, if not in any other. A
   great number of chapels have been as the result of schism, bad spirit,
   bickering, jealousy and I know not what--quarrelling and contending,
   perhaps, about some points of Truth which, if important, could not be
   so important as the spirit of love and of unity! Many and many a time a
   house has been dedicated to God when the first thought that led to
   it--and the last act that finished it--were simply a thought and an act
   of pride, or envy, or pure sectarian bigotry and nothing more! Now, I
   do not think, although He has no doubt overruled it for good, that this
   is legitimate. But for a number of Christian people associated together
   in a Church and finding that the Church has grown strong enough to be
   able to afford to lose them--for these to swarm off and form another
   Church and give of their substance to build another house--seems to me
   to be a legitimate and proper method in which Zion may be built up in
   these, our realms.

   II. THE BUILDING UP OF ZION IS, ACCORDING TO THE TEXT, CONNECTED WITH
   JEHOVAH'S BEING GLORIFIED.

   "When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His Glory." Ah,
   Brothers and Sisters! It would need a seraph to tell of all the Glory
   which has come to God through the building up of His Church. Heaven
   rang with acclamations when the angels first learned that God designed
   to have a Church on the earth. When they perceived, by the glimmering
   light of the first promise, that there was to be a Seed of the woman as
   well as a seed of the serpent, they began to hymn Jehovah's praise and,
   when Christ was given and so the foundation of the Church was actually
   laid, the Glory of creation was eclipsed and even the splendor of
   Providence might almost have been forgotten in the more transcendent
   Glory of Grace. God had done marvelously before, but never did He seem
   so Divine as when He gave His dear Son and when, in the holy life and
   dying pangs of the Son of His love, the foundation of the Church was
   laid! So, too, God is glorified in every single part of the building of
   His Church. There is not a stone quarried from the dark pit of Nature,
   or polished by the tools of Grace, or put into its position without
   fresh honor to God and new Glory to His name. He cannot be more
   glorious, but He appears more richly glorious in the building up of His
   Church. And what will be the Glory when the topstone is brought
   out--when the last elect one shall be cemented to the visible whole?
   What shall be the undying melody, the unceasing song of ages as to
   principalities and powers shall be made known, by the Church, the
   manifold wisdom of God?

   Sometimes, however, a suspicion has arisen in the minds of God's people
   that God was not glorified in His Church. And the text almost seems to
   hint, not that God is not glorified, but at any rate, that He is not so
   much glorified in the Church at one time as at another, for it says,
   "Whenthe Lord shall build up Zion," as if He were not always building
   up Zion, at least not to the same extent. We know from painful
   experience that there are lulls--seasons when a dead calm comes over
   the Church--and then, to the minds of many, Gods Glory is not revealed.
   In consequence thereof, the inhabitants of Zion hang their harps upon
   the willows and go a-mourning. And yet, had we more faith, and put
   sense more in the background, we might sing to our Well-Beloved a song
   touching His vineyard, even when the wild boar out of the forest is
   wasting her and her hedges are being broken down. The wave recedes, but
   the tide advances! The day may seem to be dark but every hour is
   bringing on the noon. God advances not by little steps. We must not
   judge Him by inches who is not even to be measured by leagues, nor by
   handfuls when the mountains are too small for His hands--and He took up
   the isles as a very little thing. Our belief is that the whole way
   through, God is building up His Church, and that He does appear in His
   Glory.

   Perhaps one or two thoughts may make this more clear to us. God often
   appears in Glory to me as one of His builders and I will tell you in
   what respect. When I have been sitting to see enquirers, I have
   sometimes found that God has blessed to the conversion of souls some of
   my poorest sermons--those which I thought I could weep over--which
   seemed

   more than ordinarily weak and lacking in all the elements likely to
   make them blessed, except that they were sincerely spoken. When I have
   seen that the work was done though the workman, naturally weak, was on
   that occasion more than usually depressed with infirmity, I have only
   been able to lift up my hands and say, "Now, Lord, You appear in Your
   Glory, since You do build up Zion and convert sinners by the most
   unlikely means--and Your Truth, apparently when most feebly spoken,
   works the mightiest results. This is to make Your name glorious,
   indeed!"

   Another thing has sometimes made one see God in His Glory. Persons have
   been brought up and educated under sermons that are as hostile to
   spiritual life as the plague is to natural life! They have, from their
   youth up, seen religion in all its gaudy show of symbolism and yet one
   hearing of the simple Gospel has been sufficient for their conversion.
   Perhaps the mere reading of a single text has untwisted the knots of 40
   years--and the despotism of the priesthood over the mind has fallen at
   the touch of a single passage of God's Word! The case of Luther is one
   instance of this, and in all such cases God appears in His Glory. If
   you will look at each conversion, and especially at the sudden
   conversion of those who for long years have been inured to the very
   reverse of the Gospel of Christ, you will see God appearing in His
   Glory!

   Think, too, of the agencies which are abroad hostile to the Church of
   God. The Jews were glad to see the walls of Jerusalem rise because they
   remembered Geshem, Tobiah, Sanballat and all the rest that laughed and
   jeered at them. Up went the walls though these enemies laughed--and the
   foxes did not break down the walls though Tobiah so ventured to
   prophesy. In this age, too, the Church is not without her adversaries
   and they are of a very dangerous sort. They are not always outspoken
   adversaries. Some of them teach us how to doubt--not because they
   doubt, they say, but because it is so healthy a thing for our minds to
   be rid of the bondage of old-fashioned dogmas! They are not themselves
   unsound, but still, if a Brother should happen to be so, they will
   defend him, thereby providing a defense for themselves when they should
   more fully need it. If they would only state what they believe, or what
   they do not believe, it would be easy to deal with these foes--but
   inasmuch as the whole thing is too shadowy and too vague, we feel as if
   we were under the plague of flies which were in Egypt when we have to
   deal with these minute adversaries!

   But let us reflect that notwithstanding all this, God is still building
   up His Church. Looking back over the last ten or 20 years, am I too
   sanguine if I say that the age is, after all, better than it was? I do
   not mean that the worldis better, but I do mean that as a whole, there
   is more evangelical preaching and more earnest pleading with God now
   than there were ten years ago. I am not given to complimenting, but I
   do feel that we have made an advance and that the Christian Church is
   more awake than it was. I grant you that the foes are more vociferous.
   So let them be! I suppose the nearer the moon gets to its full, the
   more the dogs bark, and the nearer the harvest is to getting ripe, the
   more numerous is the horde of birds that come to feed upon the grain.
   This must be expected--and God appears in His Glory the more His
   enemies surround His Church!

   Putting all these things together--poor instruments, poor materials and
   numerous foes--let us say that when God builds up Zion under such
   circumstances as these, He truly appears in His Glory!

   What a splendid thing was that--may we see it repeated in our own
   day--when the twelve Apostles first attacked Roman idolatry! The
   prestige of ages made the idolatry of Rome venerable. It had an
   imperial Caesar and all his legions at its back--and every favorable
   omen to defend it. Yet those twelve men, with no patronage but the
   patronage of the King of Kings, with no learning except that which they
   had learned at the feet of Jesus, with weapons as simple as David's
   sling and stone, went forth to the fight--and you know how the grisly
   head of the monstrous idolatry was, by-and-by, in the hands of the
   Christian champion as he returned rejoicing from the fray. So shall it
   be yet again, and then amidst the acclamation of myriads of witnesses,
   shall God appear in His Glory!

   III. With great brevity, let us now observe THE HOPE EXCITED. If God is
   glorified by the building up of Zion, then most certainly Zion will be
   built! If He is glorified by the conversion of sinners and by the
   banding together of converted men and women, then it seems but natural
   to hope, yes, with certainty we may concludethat the zeal of the Lord
   of Hosts will perform it!

   Let me suppose that you had been created as a solitary creature and
   that it had been made known to you, by the mouth of God, Himself, that
   it would be to God's Glory to create unnumbered worlds--would you be
   unreasonable in looking for the first day in which the heavens and the
   earth should be created? You would soon come to an absolute certainty,
   putting faith in the prophecy, that since God would be glorified in
   creating, He would create! And supposing when you saw the world
   created, you knew, from God's own mouth, that it would be to His Glory
   for Him to take the

   reins of human affairs and manage everything according to the counsel
   of His own will--you would feel persuaded that He would do it. Well,
   you are clearly informed here that it is for God's Glory to build up
   His Church! Then draw the inference--draw it boldly, no, draw it
   confidently, and say--"If it is for God's Glory, then it must and shall
   be done."

   I like the spirit in which Luther used to say that when he could get
   God into his quarrels, he felt safe. When it was Luther alone he did
   not know which way it would go, but when he felt that his God would be
   compromised and dishonored if such a thing were not done, and would be
   glorified if it were done, then he felt safe enough. So, dear Friends,
   in the great crusade of Truth, is not God with us beyond a doubt? The
   ship of the Church carries Christ and all His fortunes, so how can she
   be wrecked? The honor of the Church is intertwisted with the honor and
   glory of Christ--if she shall pass away, if she is deserted, then where
   is her Captain, her Head, her Husband? But as His honor must be safe,
   so shall hers be! Zion shall be lifted up, that God may appear in His
   Glory!

   IV. Our whole subject SUGGESTS AN ENQUIRY.

   Have I any part or lot in this work which is to bring glory to God? I
   may have to do with it in two ways, as a built one, and as a builder. I
   can have nothing to do with it in the latter capacity unless I have
   first had to do with it in the former. God will be glorified in the
   building up of Zion--shall I minister to His Glory by being part of the
   Zion that is to be built up? I remember to have heard one who
   half-solaced himself in the prospect of his eternal ruin. He was a
   hardened sinner, but he was trying to draw some sort of comfort from
   the thought that if he were lost forever, he should glorify Christ. I
   was startled! Horror seized me when he put it in that light. A Truth of
   God in some sense, I could not bear to see it so handled by him as to
   clothe it in the vestments of a lie. I was obliged to quote the other
   text, "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of
   him that dies." You do not find God ever speaking of deriving glory
   from the death of him that dies! You do not find that it administers
   anything of gratification to the Eternal Mind that a soul should
   perish. There is a glory to His Justice, doubtless--an awful splendor
   wrapped about the executioner's axe-- but it is a glory of which God
   says but little and of which my text says nothing at all! The true
   Glory of God is like the glory of the king who will not glory in the
   numbers executed upon the hill of death, but who glories in his
   subjects who are happy and blessed. God glories not in the soul whom
   there is a dire necessity to cast away, but in the soul whom Almighty
   Grace has chosen, redeemed and saved!

   I should think, Friend, if your reason is in a right state, that you
   will have some wish to glorify the God that made you. "The ox knows his
   owner, and the donkey his master's crib"--do you not know? Will you not
   consider? If you build a house, you expect some comfort from it. If you
   sow a field, you expect to gather some grain from it. And shall God,
   who has made you, who has put breath into your nostrils and who feeds
   you every day--shall He, then, have no honor out of you, no glory at
   your hands? Shall you be a valueless waif and a stray drifting along on
   the tides of time, with none to care for you because you have lost your
   compass and live not for the true objective of human life? May I ask
   you to put this question to yourselves?

   The enquiry whether you have anything to do or not with glorifying God
   in the building up of His Church may be very serviceable to you. If you
   find that you have no interest at all in the matter, may not that
   thought be blessed of God to make you start? Oh, that men would start!
   They sleep when everlasting wrath is impending! Oh, that they would
   feel the shock and avert the stroke! A startling preacher is needed by
   a slumbering age. Be startling preachers to yourselves just now. O men
   and women, there are some of you--it were hopeless to expect it were
   not so--in whom God will have no glory from your being built into His
   Church, for you are like the stones of the valley, which are not built
   up, but lie there useless, to be broken at last by the hammer when the
   Breaker shall come forth to the work of destruction! Would you glorify
   God, Sinner? Have you never heard the question asked of Christ by the
   Jews, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" And this
   was Christ's answer, "This is the work of God, (the chief work of all),
   that you believe on Him whom He has sent." If you would glorify God,
   humble yourself, bow the knee and kiss the Son and receive salvation
   from the Lord Jesus Christ! And then, being built upon this foundation,
   you shall glorify God!

   The enquiry shapes itself afresh. Have you anything to do with
   glorifying Godin respect ofbeing, yourself, a builder of Zionn It is a
   shame that these lips should have to say it, but we must speak the sad
   truth that there are some who profess to be built, but who are not
   building--some who say that they are servants, but are not serving.
   Some who profess to be in the vineyard, but are not working. Some who
   say they are soldiers, but are not fighting! My Brothers and Sisters, I
   count it to be one of the most precious parts of my spiritual heritage
   that I am permitted to serve Christ. And let me say that if my Lord
   Jesus gave me nothing else on earth but the privilege of serving Him, I
   would bless Him for it to all eternity! It is no mean honor to be a
   servant of the King of Kings! There is such pleasure in honoring Christ
   and in winning souls, that I can scarcely believe that any of you have
   ever tasted it if you are not hungering after more of it! Did you ever
   win a soul to Christ? Did you ever get a grip of the hand of spiritual
   gratitude? Did you ever see the tear starting from the eye when the
   convert said, "Bless you! I shall remember you in Heaven, for you have
   brought me to Christ"? Oh, my dear Friend, you will not be satisfied
   merely with this, for this is a kind of food that makes men hungry! Oh,
   that you had a rich banquet of it and yet wanted still more!

   The Church of Christ shall and must be built! Even if you and I sit
   still, it will be built. This a glorious Truth of God though it is
   often perverted to a mischievous end--the Church will be built, even
   without us, but oh, we shall miss the satisfaction of helping in its
   building! Yes, it will grow. Every stone will be put in its place and
   the pinnacle will soar to its predestinated elevation--but every stone,
   from foundation to pinnacle, will seem to say to you, "You had nothing
   to do with this! You had no hand in this!" When Cyrus took one of his
   guests round his garden, the guest admired it greatly and said he had
   much pleasure in it. "Ah," said Cyrus, "but you have not so much
   pleasure in this garden as I have, for I planted every tree in it
   myself." One reason why Christ has so much pleasure in His Church is
   because He did so much for it. And one reason why some saints will have
   a greater fullness of Heaven than others to rejoice in will be because
   they did more for Heaven than others did. By God's Grace, they were
   enabled to bring more souls there--and as they look upon the Church
   they may, without self-reliance or self-conceit, ascribing it all to
   Grace, remember what they were enabled to do as instruments in the
   hands of the Lord towards its building up. "When the Lord shall build
   up Zion, He shall appear in His Glory."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALMS123,124,125.

   Psalm 123:1. Unto You lift I up my eyes, O You that dwell in the
   heavens. Our eyes are far too apt to look below, or to look within, or
   to look around. But it is wisdom on our part to look up. There is
   always something blessed to see upward, especially when we look up to
   Him who dwells in the highest heavens--our Father, our Savior, our
   Comforter. There is little down here that is worth looking at, but
   there is everything for our comfort when we look up.

   2. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,
   and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hands of her mistress; so our eyes
   wait upon the LORD our God, until that He has mercy upon us. [See
   Sermon #2654, Volume45--wakeful

   AND WATCHFUL EYES.] This is what we are looking for-the mercy

   of the Lord our God. It comes from His great heart, through His
   almighty hands. A wave of His hand is sufficient to drive away all our
   troubles. When He opens His hand, He supplies the needs of every living
   thing, so mighty and so bountiful is He. Let us, therefore, keep our
   eyes upon our Lord's hands "until that He has mercy upon us."

   3. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us. The longing soul
   does not wait in utter silence without expressing its desires. I have
   heard of some who have said that their will was so fully conformed to
   God's will that they had left off praying to Him! Surely that was a
   Satanic delusion, for the will of Christ was perfectly conformed to
   that of His Father, yet for that veryreasonHe abounded in prayer! We
   must be in an evil case if we leave off praying. The Psalmist says that
   he and those who were like-minded with him waited until the Lord had
   mercy upon them, and then he began a sort of litany, "Have mercy upon
   us, O Lord, have mercy upon us." He uses the same words twice as if to
   express the greatness of his need, the clearness of his perception of
   what he needed, the earnestness of his desire and his expectation that
   his need would be supplied. In this verse and the previous one, we have
   the petition, "Have mercy upon us," presented no less than three times,
   for mercy is the greatest need of the best man who ever lived!

   3. For we are exceedingly filed with contempt. That is a sharp cutting
   thing, most trying to the soul that has to endure it, and many have
   been greatly depressed in spirit by the contempt that has been poured
   upon them. But, Lord, Your mercy is a cure for man's need of mercy.
   Your thoughtfulness of us will take off the edge from man's contempt of
   us.

   4. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are
   at ease, and with the contempt of the proud. It does not seem to be a
   desirable thing to be at ease, for it was such people who were the
   scorners of the Psalmist and his godly companions. Job also said, "He
   that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the
   thought of him that is

   at ease." In the stagnant air of a life of ease, all kinds of mischiefs
   breed--and especially that fever of pride which leads ungodly men to
   have contempt for God's people.

   Psalm 124:1-3. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may
   Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men
   rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick That is, alive.

   3. When their wrath was kindled against us. If it had not been God who
   had engaged to take care of His people, they would all have
   perished--and that God must be Jehovah. I wish that our translators had
   not been carried away by the superstition of the Jews and that they had
   used the word, "Jehovah," where it is employed in the original--then
   this verse and the previous one would have read, "If it had not been
   Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had
   swallowed us up alive," as some beasts, birds and fishes swallow their
   prey and as some men would do with us if they could, that is, swallow
   us up alive, making a short and speedy end of us, not waiting to tear
   us in pieces, but swallowing us whole and alive!

   4, 5. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our
   soul: then the proud waters had gone over our sou. The figure is
   varied. We are first likened to the lamb that is liable to be swallowed
   by the lion, and next we are compared to one who is in danger of being
   carried away by a devouring flood which shows no pity to any, but
   sweeps everything before it down to destruction.

   6. Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.
   Neither to Satan and his lieges, nor to wicked men, has God delivered
   us. We are not to be their prey, for God claims us as His own!

   7. Our soulis escapedas a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the
   snare is broken and we have escaped. [See Sermon #1696,

   Volume 28--THE BIRD ESCAPED FROM THE SNARE.] What a joyous song

   that is for the escaped soul to sing! Whenever a Christian has fallen
   into difficulties through not walking uprightly, when he has gone
   astray from the right path and has been caught in the fowler's net--and
   is in such trouble that he does not know what to do--then God comes and
   cuts the net, perhaps, with the sharp knife of affliction and the
   imprisoned soul again finds freedom from worldly associations and happy
   liberty in the service of God. I do not know a sweeter song than this
   that he and others of God's rescued birds can sing as they mount up
   into the clear light of God's Countenance, "Our soul is escaped as a
   bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we have
   escaped."

   8. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made Heaven and earth. This
   is a good lesson for us to learn from the past experience of the Lord's
   people. God and God alone did deliver His servants in the past and
   herein is our confidence for the present and the future--our help is in
   the name--the revealed and manifested Character--of Jehovah, the
   Creator of Heaven and earth!

   Psalm 125:1. They that trust in the LORD shall be as Mount Zion, which
   cannot be removed, but abides forever [See

   Sermon #1450, Volume 24--THE IMMOVABILITY OF THE BELIEVER.] What

   comfort there is in this verse to all who trust in the Lord! We never
   expect to see anyone tear up Mount Zion by the roots. The Romans have
   been there and plowed Mount Zion as a field, but they could not remove
   it--it is there still and the natural features are the same as they
   were in the days of Abraham and David. Mount Zion "cannot be removed
   but abides forever." Men have swept away much that was built on it, but
   Mount Zion is still there, nor shall any human power ever be able to
   remove it. And, glory be to God, neither men nor devils shall ever be
   able to remove us if we trust in the Lord, for we "shall be as Mount
   Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides forever."

   2. As the mountains are roundabout Jerusalem, so the LORD is roundabout
   His people from henceforth even forever [See Sermon #161, Volume 3--THE
   SECURITY OF THE CHURCH.] At Jerusalem there is first the deep valley
   around the hill. And then afterwards a range of encircling mountains,
   but the munitions of stupendous rock are nothing compared with those
   eternal ramparts which protect the people of God.

   3. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the
   righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands into iniquity. "The
   rod of the wicked" may fall upon the lot of the righteous, but it shall
   not "rest" there! The godly may be oppressed for a season, but that
   season shall not be too long for them to endure. God will not allow His
   servants to be tried above what they are able to bear, lest their faith
   should fail and, in order to escape from their oppressors, they should
   "put forth their hands unto iniquity."

   4. Do good, O LORD, unto those that are good, and to them that are
   upright in their hearts. The Psalmist prays to Jehovah to do good to
   those whom He has made good, for there are none who are naturally good.
   And there is a special goodness which He bestows upon those whom He has
   made good by the effectual working of His good Spirit. When they no
   longer lean this way or that way, but stand upright in their integrity,
   then shall they know this special goodness of the Lord.

   5. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways. Ways of policy,
   of lies, of self-seeking, of presumptuous sin, of backsliding.

   5. The LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. If they
   will work iniquity, they shall go with those that work iniquity! Each
   one shall go to his own company. If we have loved the people of God on
   earth and have walked in God's ways here, we may confidently expect to
   be gathered with His elect above. But if we have turned aside to
   crooked ways, what can we expect but that where the workers of iniquity
   go, we, too, shall go there? "As for such as turn aside unto their
   crooked ways, Jehovah shall lead them forth with the workers of
   iniquity."

   5. But peace shall be upon Israe. What a blessed benediction that
   is--peace! It is the one thing that we need above everything else. We
   are sometimes glad to know more, but we often tire even of knowing and
   would rather sit down as children who are satisfied with what they have
   been told by others who do know. We wish to be very useful in the
   world--and, blessed be God, we can never rest unless we are useful. But
   there are times of weariness when the best blessing for us--the
   blessing which shall most help to fit us for future service--is perfect
   peace, that peace of which our Savior said to His disciples, "Peace I
   leave with you, My peace I give unto you."

   Are all of you who are trusting in Christ in the enjoyment of that
   peace at this moment? If not, you are not living up to your privileges
   as Believers.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ's Ambassadors

   (No. 3148)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
   FEBRUARY 27, 1873.

   "Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
   you by us: we pray you in Christ's place, be you reconciled to God." 2
   Corinthians 5:20.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon, on verses 18 to 21, are as
   follows--Sermons #1123, Volume 19--GOD BESEECHING SINNERS BY HIS
   MINISTERS and #1910, Volume 32--THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL.]

   So, then, there is war between man and God. It seems preposterous that
   man should be in arms against his God, but it is all too sadly true.
   Shall the gnat contend with the flame? Shall an insect fight against an
   angel? Even this would not be as absurd as for man, who is utterly
   insignificant, to make war with God who is Infinite! Man, who is but as
   the ephemera of an hour, to enter into the lists against the dread,
   eternal and Almighty God? Accursed was that hour in which our first
   mother put forth her hand to take the forbidden fruit! From that moment
   war began between man and his Maker and from the Garden of Eden right
   on until now man has been an enemy of God! And although God has
   constantly returned good for evil, and is still the God of love and
   condescension, yet has man continued to fight against Him--there still
   is war between Heaven and earth. Otherwise, there would be no need for
   ambassadors between God and men. This would be proof enough that a
   state of war prevails. But, alas, in our own hearts we bear, each one
   of us, sad proofs of the enmity of man and God. And we see, besides, in
   our fellow men, ten thousand sorrowful instances which prove that they
   have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God and are not
   the friends of the great Friend of man.

   Our text tells us that the ministers of Christ, the Apostles and all
   others who are sent of God to preach the Gospel, are "ambassadors for
   Christ." In speaking upon that matter, we must make some references to
   ourselves and I especially shall have to ask the earnest prayers of the
   congregation for myself. I feel that I may well do so, for if Apostles
   said, "Brethren, pray for us," how much more may we, who are not worthy
   to be numbered among the least of our Master's servants, urge the same
   plea!

   In our text, I think I see, first, a great mercy implied. Secondly, a
   great office mentioned. And, thirdly, a great duty involved.

   I. First, here is A GREAT MERCY IMPLIED--"We are ambassadors for
   Christ."

   Well, then, it is clear that there is some hope of peace. When an
   ambassador comes upon the stage of action, it is evident that war is
   not to be waged to the bitter end. But observe that the ambassador is
   not an ambassador from man to God, but an ambassador from God to man!
   "We are ambassadors"--not for you, but "for Christ."

   I learn from this, then, that the peace proposed is one quite unsought
   by man. Man revolted against his Maker and was determined to continue
   in revolt. He was evil and would have remained evil if God had not
   interposed. Men go astray from God by nature, but they only return to
   God through Grace. Further, and yet further, and yet further, still,
   will they go away from God! Deeper and yet deeper will they plunge into
   the abyss of sin! It is easy for humanity to descend into Avernus, but
   for it to retrace its steps, "this is the work, this is the
   difficulty." And until God, Himself, comes in, man is as unwilling as
   he is unable and as unable as he is unwilling to make peace with his
   God! We might have thought, if we had not known the dread nature of
   sin, that the first thing Adam and Eve would have done, after they had
   transgressed their Maker's Law, would have been to cast themselves down
   at His feet and say, "We have taken of the fruit of the tree of which
   You have said that we must not eat." But instead of doing so, they ran
   away to try to hide themselves from His eyes--and when His voice was
   heard in the Garden and they were obliged to face Him--instead of
   frankly confessing their sin, the evil juice of that forbidden fruit
   had so poisoned their nature that they both began to make excuses! The
   man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the
   tree, and I did eat." And the woman would not bear the blame, herself,
   but cast it upon the serpent. There was clear evidence there that man,
   though he had become a rebel against his God, would not turn unto his
   God, confess that he had done wrong and beg for mercy. Never did a
   prodigal say, "I will arise and go to my Father," until the Grace of
   God had put that resolve into the prodigal's heart! The centripetal
   force, the force which makes us seek the center, is not in us--ours is
   centrifugal force which drives us further and yet further away from the
   great center of all Light, Truth, peace and purity. When God draws us,
   we shall run after Him--but until He does so--we shall still remain
   afar off from Him. So the sending of an ambassador from God shows
   clearly that it is not man who seeks peace.

   But then, on the other hand, it shows that God Himself is desirous of
   peace, yet not because it can make any difference to Him whether man is
   His enemy or not. It may make some difference to the candle if the moth
   flies into it. The moth will certainly be destroyed by the candle, yet
   the candle will still shine on, though its light may be in some measure
   diminished. But what difference can poor creatures such as we are make
   to God? The blasphemer curses God, yet the sun is just as bright as
   ever, the dewdrops of the morning are quite as sparkling as ever, the
   rivers still run on to the sea and the ocean remains the same as
   before! And as for God, Himself, His Glory continues undiminished and
   His holiness is untarnished. And though all men could be leagued
   together in one great conspiracy and should say concerning Jehovah and
   Christ, His Anointed, "Let us break their bands asunder and cast away
   their cords from us," what will come of their evil confederacy? "He
   that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in
   derision." His Glory will be just as great even if they determine to be
   damned! If they will go down to Hell, His Justice will be honored, for
   they richly deserve their doom. There is no reason, except in God's
   Grace, why He should send man an embassy of peace! Generally in war, it
   is the less who sends to the greater to entreat for peace. It is seldom
   that the victorious, while still they bear their banners on high,
   suddenly pause amid the battle and send an embassy to say to the
   vanquished, "Let there be peace between us." The conquerors usually
   wait till the beaten ones know that they are beaten and sue for
   terms--and they count it gracious on their part to be willing, in the
   full expectation of yet further victories, to pause awhile to discuss
   terms of peace. When the commander-in-chief has half won the campaign
   and sees with absolute certainty that he could utterly destroy his
   enemy, he does not hurry to put back his sword into its scabbard! But
   God does--just as though He had been defeated, or as though He was the
   weaker of the two combatants, or as though it would be to His best
   interest, He stops in the midst of the battle and sends an ambassador
   of peace to man! And we, His servants, are sent forth as "ambassadors
   for Christ" because God desires to be at peace with men!

   Why is this? Certainly not because He fears man, nor because He cannot
   do without man, nor because He cannot crush Him as an adversary--but
   simply because He is very tender, and full of pity and compassion. "As
   I live, says the Lord God," (and that is His own oath), "I have no
   pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
   way and live." He is a God who is terrible in His justice, but, "He
   delights in mercy." To bless men and make them happy is His continual
   joy--judgment is "His strange work." It is, as it were, His left-handed
   work--not that which He delights to do. Even when Justice compels Him
   to smite and to slay, He says but little about it and He usually does
   away with the very instruments that He has used for this purpose. Great
   armies and great nations have been raised up to be the scourges of God,
   but they have not been heard of afterwards, as though God were so
   loathe to smite that when He does so, He burns the rod directly--He has
   done with it, not caring to have it any longer in His sight! But when
   He comes to men in mercy, God is, as we say, "all there." He puts forth
   His Omnipotence in His works of love. He brings out His Omniscience, He
   employs all His attributes when He comes to bless men. Oh, yes! God
   delights in Grace and mercy, but He loves not wrath! And it is for that
   reason--because He is a God full of tenderness, compassion and
   pity--that He sends an embassy to men and makes His servants to be
   "ambassadors for Christ."

   And then, mark you, this also shows us that, as God desires peace,
   peace is possible. Sin has made a very great breach between God and
   man. God has been insulted to His face and that not merely once, nor
   twice, but thousands and millions of times! The sin of men would, if it
   could, become a deicide and kill God, Himself! And this, indeed, it did
   when it slew the Son of God on Calvary! Every sinner is guilty of high
   treason against the majesty of Heaven, for he does, as far as he can,
   snatch from God's hand the scepter of Sovereignty and plucks from His
   brow the crown of universal dominion! Sin is not a thing at which God
   can wink. We sometimes hear persons talk as though God could forgive
   sin without Christ's

   Atonement and without exacting any penalty for it--but that cannot be.
   Everyone who rules over men, though it is but over a petty nation or a
   small parish, knows that if the law has no penalties attached to it, it
   ceases to have any power. It would be a dreadful thing to live in any
   State where there were no punishments for law-breakers. I read the
   other day that perhaps it would be better to live where everyone was
   subject even to tyrannical law than to live where there was no law. It
   would be truly terrible to live in any place where good and bad would
   fare precisely alike--where there would be no prison--where the thief
   and the murderer and the drunkard would be left alone--where all would
   be regarded as on an equal footing, let them do what they might! Laws
   must be respected and the breakers of them must be punished.

   Now, if it is so in our imperfect civil communities, it must be much
   more so in God's government of the entire universe! It is not merely
   men with whom God has to deal, though they are to be counted by
   thousands of millions, but He has to deal with angels, good and bad.
   And we know not how many--perhaps innumerable races of beings--possibly
   very different from ourselves, yet like us in this respect, that they
   are under law and under God's government! It may be that every starry
   world teems with myriads of intelligent inhabitants--it is much more
   likely that it should be so than that it should not be so, seeing that
   God is not in the habit of creating anything in vain--and we can
   scarcely imagine that He has made all those mighty orbs to circle
   around His Throne without suitable inhabitants to render due homage to
   Him! It becomes incumbent, then, on God--I say this with the utmost
   reverence for His sacred Majesty, that as He is the Judge of the whole
   universe, He must do right. If one of our judges should say, "I never
   can pronounce a sentence of death upon a murderer--my heart is too
   tender for me to ever order the lash for the thief, or to send the
   wife-beater to prison." What would we say to him? Why, we would say,
   "Then, Sir, if your heart is so tender towards the bad, you are so
   cruel to the good that you must retire from the bench, for you are
   unfit to be a judge if you do not punish the guilty." We remember
   Abraham's question, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" We
   also read that "every transgression and disobedience received a just
   recompense of reward." As long as God is God, He cannot trifle with
   sin! You may trifle with it if you will, O foolish Sinner, but it will
   be at your own imminent peril! But God, the Omnipotent King, the Maker
   and Judge of All, will not trifle with it. He must crush rebellion. He
   must punish iniquity!

   "But," perhaps you say, "you started by telling us that there was hope
   of peace. But how can that be if the Law's sentence must be carried
   out?" I answer that this is the reason for our embassy--this is the
   great reason for which we are ambassadors for Christ--to say that, in
   Christ, God is able, without the violation of any demand of justice, to
   show the fullest mercy to sinners! Through the atoning Sacrifice of
   Jesus Christ, God's justice will suffer no blot, no slur if you--
   coming to Him and confessing your iniquities and believing in His
   Son--shall be completely pardoned and accepted. Salvation by
   Substitution was the grand invention of Omniscience--that Christ should
   bear--

   "That we might never bear His Father's righteous ire"--

   that on His back should fall the stripes that were due to us--that in
   His heart should be sheathed the fiery sword that ought to have been
   sheathed in our hearts! It was most just that Christ should stand in
   our place. If I am asked how His Substitution for us is consistent with
   justice, I reply--the first sin, by which we were ruined, was not
   committed by us personally, but it was committed by Adam, our
   representative. It is therefore perfectly consistent with the highest
   justice that, as we fell representatively, we should be lifted up
   representatively! We died through Adam's sin--we live again through
   Christ's life and death! And every soul that believes in Jesus may know
   that Christ was punished in his place. Christ, as his Representative,
   bore his griefs and carried his sorrows. Christ was wounded for his
   transgressions and bruised for his iniquities--and now all the sins of
   every such person are blotted out and forever cease to be because Jesus
   Christ bore the full penalty for them! The Believer's debt is paid, so
   it cannot again be demanded of any soul for whom Jesus died!

   These are the terms of peace, then, and this is the blessed Gospel of
   Peace--"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
   Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed
   unto us the word of reconciliation." This is the Gospel that we
   preach--that whoever believes in Jesus Christ is reconciled to God
   through the death of His Son. Peace is possible! O blessed news!
   Blessed are the people that know this joyful sound! Bright should be
   the eyes of those who see the feet of the messengers that bring the
   glad tidings of peace possible between man and God!--

   "How beauteous are their feet

   Who stand on Zion's hill!

   Who bring salvation on their tongues, And words of peace reveal!"

   Let me add to this the comforting assurance that peace has been
   effectually made already in tens of thousands of instances. There are
   many of us, now present, who are enjoying the peace that Christ has
   made on our behalf. Having looked, by faith, to His Sacrifice on
   Calvary, our sins have gone forever. Having rested where God has
   rested, even in Jesus, for Jesus is to God a Sacrifice of rest, we now
   feel perfect peace toward God! We are no longer His enemies, but love
   Him and desire to obey Him perfectly. And though we do still err and
   mourn a thousand imperfections, yet we can truly say that we do love
   Him and that we long to be like He is! Whatever He commands, we at
   least desire to do and by His Grace we are helped to do it. And
   whatever He forbids, we desire to abhor and to flee from it as from a
   poisonous serpent. Blessed be the name of God, we can speak to Him,
   now, without being afraid that He will destroy us, but saying, "Our
   Father, who are in Heaven, the Spirit of adoption in our hearts makes
   us say unto You, 'Abba, Father, we love You and adore You. Oh, for
   Grace to love You more!'"

   Thus much, then, upon the great mercy that is implied in the Apostle's
   declaration that we are "ambassadors for Christ."

   II. Now, secondly, we have here A GREAT OFFICE MENTIONED--"We are
   ambassadors for Christ."

   Why did God send ambassadors to men? He might have made peace without
   doing so, but He has chosen to put honor upon instrumentality and He
   has dealt with us as with reasonable beings. Further, why did God send
   men as His ambassadors? Would not angels have been better messengers?
   The probability is that an angel would have been quite unfit for such
   work as this. When a man, a sinful man who has, himself, been forgiven,
   talks to other sinners, he talks very tenderly and sympathetically--at
   least he ought to do so--and when he meets with any distressed souls,
   he recollects the time when he was in distress. And when he hears about
   their doubts and fears, he remembers his own. And when he mourns over
   their rebellions, he recollects what a rebel he used to be. And
   therefore he is gentle with them, and longs that, if possible, peace
   may be made between the rebel and his God. But if an angel had been
   Christ's ambassador, after he had preached most earnestly, you would
   always be able to make this excuse to him, "Ah, you cannot enter into
   our feelings, for you have never had our temptations and trials." As
   you went home, you would say to one another, "That was a grand oration
   that the angel gave us, but it did not help us much. It was all very
   well for him to talk as he did, but he has not a wife and children to
   provide for. He has no poverty to bear. He has not to feel the cold. He
   has not to suffer through being tempted, as we are, by evil passions
   and the like." Possibly, if an angel were to take my place here next
   Lord's-Day, there would be many of you who would be very pleased with
   the change. But I think by the time two or three Sabbaths had passed,
   you would want your old friend back again, because you would feel that
   there was, after all, a warmth of brotherhood within the human being's
   breast which you could never expect to find in cherubim or seraphim!
   When we, who once were enemies to God, tell you, who are still at
   enmity against Him, about our own rebellion and how it was ended by
   Divine Love, how the Lord melted us down by His Infinite Pity and
   abounding condescension--you will say to one another, "Let us also go
   to Jesus. Perhaps we shall find Him equally kind to us." You will be
   thus graciously drawn to the Savior by the example of another who was
   in a similar case to your own. And if we tell you what a loving Lord we
   have proved Him to be, how easy His yoke has been and how light His
   burden, perhaps some who are laboring and heavy laden, will say, "We
   also will accept His gracious invitation which says, 'Come unto Me, all
   you that labor and are heavy laden,' and He will give rest to us even
   as He has given it to these, His messengers." It was wise and kind, on
   God's part, to send men to be "ambassadors for Christ."

   That word, "ambassadors," suggests to us a few reflections. First,
   every true minister of Christ is engaged upon royal business. He is
   doing business for the King of Kings, the great Lord of All! He does
   not come in his own name, nor in the name of any church nor in the name
   of any earthly potentate, but he comes in the name of Him who made
   Heaven and earth and who governs all things by the word of His power! I
   will, therefore, listen to him, even though he may be an illiterate
   man, for he is the servant of God. If it was really the Gospel of Jesus
   Christ that I heard, little would it matter to me whether the lips that
   uttered it spoke in such tones as the golden-mouthed Chrysostom used of
   old, or in plain and rugged language like that of Simon Peter. It was
   his Master who sent him and it was his Master's business to choose whom
   He would have as His ambassador! Therefore let me see the Master in the
   man and hear the Master's voice in the

   Gospel which His servant preaches! And let me bless God both for the
   Gospel and for the man who preaches it. And let me pray that since he
   has royal business to do, he may have Grace to do it rightly.

   For, as it is royal business, it is important business. I know there
   are some who fancy that to some of us who have preached so long, it is
   easy work to deliver a sermon. Martin Luther used to say that he never
   went into his pulpit without having his knees knocking together through
   fear, although he was a man of dauntless courage. And I can assure you
   that I never address you without feeling that it would be better for me
   to engage in breaking stones on the road, or in any job, however hard
   it might be, than to have to preach the Gospel because if I am
   unfaithful to the many souls committed to my charge, what must be my
   portion at the last? Whether you think so or not, to me it seems that
   every sermon involves me in most dire peril unless Divine Grace makes
   me faithful. I have not, like a banker, to deal with gold and silver,
   but with immortal souls which are far more precious! Not with the
   interests of a State, in which my mistake might be rectified by some
   abler statesman--but I am concerned about souls which, if once lost,
   are lost forever! Since God has warned His watchmen against
   unfaithfulness, He may require the blood of souls at our hands if we
   warn them not--and He will call us to account if we have kept back any
   Truth that He has taught us. Sometimes, when we speak faithfully
   concerning error, people ask, "What need is there of such preaching as
   that? What have you to do with other people's religion?" Why, some of
   us were sent into the world for this very purpose--that we might have
   to do with other people's religion! No man under Heaven shall be able
   to say that we knew that he was believing a lie and yet did not tell
   him that it was a lie! Not our business to interfere with others when
   we were sent here on purpose to interfere? If Christ's ambassador sees
   others attempting to keep up the war between his King and the
   rebellious subjects in His Kingdom, it is his business to speak sternly
   of those enemies of God and man, and to plead with all his soul with
   the offending subjects to be at peace with his great King and Lord! So,
   as "ambassadors for Christ," we have royal business and we have
   important business--

   "'Tis not a cause of small import The pastor's care demands! But what
   might fill an angel's heart, And filled a Savior's hands."

   And next, all ambassadors have to act in accordance with their
   commission. An ambassador must never go beyond his commission. His
   power comes from his king--he has no power of his own. And if a man who
   professes to be Christ's ambassador, puts on the airs of priestcraft
   and says that he has authority in himself--do not believe him! I have
   all necessary authority! I speak according to this blessed Book, but I
   have none at all if I wander from it. Regard not a single syllable that
   any man, or even an angel from Heaven may say to you if it is not
   according to Scripture! But when the humblest of us speak according to
   God's Word, woe be to those who reject the Truth! The Gospel has such
   majesty in it that it demands acceptance from all who hear it!

   Again, an ambassador has nopower to make terms with men on his own
   account. The "ambassadors for Christ" have simply to declare God's
   terms of peace. How pleased some people would be if we could alter this
   Truth of God just a little and take the corners off that one--if this
   Doctrine were not so strict and if that precept were not so severe! But
   what have we to do with that? I have often said, when I have preached
   what I believed to be the Truth and men have found fault with me for
   doing so, "the fault is none of mine." If I send my servant to the door
   with a message and she delivers the message, saying word for word what
   I told her to say--and if the man at the door should be angry with her
   because of the terms of the message, it would be most absurd and wrong!
   Let him be angry with her master who sent her with the message! And if
   I speak God's Word and you object to it, your objection should be
   against my Master, not against me. I have nothing to do and no minister
   under Heaven has anything to do--but to preach that which is here in
   this Book and to explain it in the simplest language possible--and to
   enforce it in the most earnest manner that he can! And as long as he
   does that, he speaks with authority. But if he gets away from that, his
   word is of no more account than the songs that men sing in the
   street--and he deserves to have no respect from any man!

   Let it be remembered, too, that the ambassador will have to give an
   account of how he does his businessand, therefore, it is that I appeal
   to my beloved friends, the members of the Church, that we may always
   have their prayers. We shall have to report to our Master how men
   treated our message and whether they would have peace or not.
   Sometimes, while preaching, I have felt as if I could imitate that
   Roman ambassador who met a certain king and told him that the Romans

   forbade him to advance further. The king somewhat jested at the stern
   command of the Roman, but the ambassador stooped down and with his
   stick drew a ring in the dust round the king and said, "You must give
   your answer before you come out of that circle, for if you step over
   that line, the Romans will accept it as a signal of war." I have
   sometimes felt, when preaching to this great congregation, as if there
   were some who had to decide for God or for the world before they
   stepped out of this place, for God's ambassador had, as it were, drawn
   a line all round them and said to them, "choose this day whom you will
   serve. If Jehovah is God, serve Him. Or if Baal is God, serve him." As
   we have gone to our home, we have prayed, "O Lord, we have again told
   the people Your message! We have not told it with the broken heart that
   we wanted to feel, but we have truly told it as far as the matter of it
   is concerned, though we have failed in the spirit of our telling it.
   Now, O Lord, make the people willing in the day of Your power, to
   accept the peace that Christ has made, for unless You work in them by
   Your gracious Spirit, we shall have to cry, 'Who has believed our
   report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' for they will
   reject the Savior, refuse His peace and remain Your enemies even to the
   end of their lives." The "ambassadors for Christ" must give to their
   King an account of how they have done their work. May we be able to do
   it with joy and not with grief!

   So, then, you see that the ambassador needs to be careful at all points
   and he needs to be very faithful. If he should be unfaithful, surely it
   must be woe, woe, woe to him forever! The murderer of men used to be
   hung in chains as a terror to other evil-doers, but what shall be done
   to the man who is the murderer of souls by his unfaithfulness? As for
   anyone who buys "the cure of souls" in the market, so mercenary a
   beginning, so like to the proposal of Simon Magus, looks as though he
   who acted thus would prove to be like Simon, "in the gall of
   bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." "Ambassadors for Christ" must
   start right with clean hands. There must be no bribing in order to get
   into the ambassadorial office. And they must go on right--no frowns
   must ever make them turn aside from the Truth of God and no smiles must
   ever make them soften their speech so as to please the ungodly! If
   there is any place where the thunderbolts of Divine Wrath fall most
   heavily, it must be the head and heart of the man whose ministry was an
   unfaithful one and who went down to Hell with the blood of souls upon
   his skirts! Brothers and Sisters in Christ, pray for us! Pray for
   us!PRAY FOR US who are called to be ambassadors for Christ!" The choice
   even of a hymn has often been the means of the conversion of a soul. A
   sympathetic expression in prayer has given great comfort to mourners.
   Our very look has sometimes carried conviction to a hearer, though we
   did not know the person at whom we were looking. And our mode of speech
   and even our pronunciation has, under God, had some gracious results
   when He has willed to make it so! Pray for us, then, that we may be
   always so guided and directed by God that peace may be made between Him
   and thousands of immortal souls through our instrumentality!

   III. I will not detain you many minutes while I speak upon the last
   point which is A GREAT DUTY INVOLVED.

   And, first, to all to whom the "ambassadors for Christ" may come, let
   me say, give us a hearing. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ," so
   give us a hearing that we may deliver our message. Do not say, "We will
   not hear it." Shall we tell our great King that although He sent us as
   messengers of peace, the reply of the rebels was, "We do not even want
   to hear what the King has to say?" Even if you object to us, do not
   object to our message! Is there something objectionable about
   ourselves? We are sorry if it is so. But a sensible man, when he knows
   himself to be in danger, will be glad to accept help even from one whom
   he does not in all things admire. If you find fault with our tones and
   censure our manners, and bespatter our persons, do give good heed to
   our message! When Caesar swam across the river, he held up his
   Commentaries, so that they should not be injured by getting wet.
   Surely, if we had to swim through a sea of persecution, we would hold
   up the Gospel and pray that it might not be carried down by the flood.
   Strike us if you will, but hear our message! Yes, "hear, and your soul
   shall live." If it really is a message from God, hear it! Perhaps some
   of you say that you do not believe that it is God's message--but
   suppose it is? God grant that you may never know, by sad experience,
   what will follow the rejection of God's Word of Reconciliation!

   A gentleman from London one day met a poor countryman. It was a Sabbath
   and the person from London had come down for a holiday. When he met the
   countryman, thinking himself to be a very wise man, he said to him,
   "Well, Hodge, I suppose you have been taking a walk through the
   fields." "No, Sir," replied the man, I don't waste my time on the
   Lord's-Day in that way. I have been worshipping Him and listening to
   His Word." "So you shut yourself up in a stuffy building for a couple
   of hours and listen to somebody talking all because you believe the
   Bible? Don't you know that it is a pack of nonsense? The learned men
   have proved that it is so and everyone who believes it is a fool."
   "Yes," said Hodge,

   "very likely we are great fools. But yet, after all, we country people
   do know one or two things." "What do you know?" asked the gentleman.
   "Well, we know that it is a good thing to have two strings to your
   bow." "What do you mean, my good man?" "Well, I mean that I have got
   two strings to my bow. If this Book should not prove to be true, it has
   given me a deal of comfort and made me a better man than I was before I
   learned to value it. So that is one good thing. And if it should prove
   to be true, that is the second string to my bow--and what a blessed
   thing it will be to me that I have received it, and have enjoyed it!
   But look at you, Sir," he said, "you have not one string to your bow.
   If the Bible is not true, I am as well off as you are and I think I am
   happier, on the whole, than you are, whoever you may be. But if it
   should prove to be true, what will become of you, Sir?" That is the
   question that I should like to put to anyone who says that the Bible is
   not true. Suppose it should be true, Friend? What will become of you?
   We who know it is true ask you to listen to the Word.

   The next thing is, embrace the message. It does seem to me to be a most
   blessed message that I have to bring to everyone here. It is this--

   "There is life for a look at the Crucified One There is life at this
   moment for you."

   Whoever trusts Jesus Christ is at once forgiven and accepted! The war
   is over and peace is proclaimed the moment that the soul repents of sin
   and believes in Jesus Christ. There cannot be a simpler, sweeter and
   safer Gospel than that! Dr. Watts truly wrote--

   "Let everlasting glories crown

   Your head, my Savior and my Lord!

   Your hands have brought salvation down

   And writ the blessings in Your Word!

   What if we trace the globe around,

   And search from Britain to Japan?

   There shall be no religion found

   So just to God, so safe for man!" So embrace the message, we pray you,
   as you love your souls, and would not destroy yourselves! Accept the
   peace which the Gospel brings to you!

   And then, lastly, I say again to you who have embraced it, and who
   rejoice in it, pray for us, pray for us. I mean not for me, only, but
   for all who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or who teach it in any
   shape or form. I sometimes think that if all our friends knew our many
   anxieties, cares, and heartbreaks, they would never forget to pray for
   us. I thank God that many of you do remember us in your prayers, but
   there are some, perhaps, who forget that we are always in need of
   prayer--and if there is one person in this world who needs your prayers
   beyond all others, I am sure that I am that one! Think of the thousands
   of souls that gather here from Sabbath to Sabbath, drinking in every
   syllable that falls from our lips. Have you ever calculated how many
   thousands of persons pass through this place in one year? And then,
   week by week, the printed sermon goes over nearly the whole earth, not
   only in the English language, but in the language of all civilized men,
   almost without exception, so that no man knows where he may not find
   the sermon that was preached here. We constantly have information from
   persons who, for instance, have been lying dying of the yellow fever in
   the hospitals of Havana, or have been in Rio Janeiro, or in Australia,
   or have wandered into the vast prairies and have come across a log
   cabin and have found there that same word that was preached here within
   a short space of time after it dropped from our lips! Pray for us that
   all this may not be in vain!

   And then, Beloved, this Church has sent out hundreds of ministers who
   are now located in all parts of the world and, almost without
   exception, preaching that same Gospel that we have declared unto you!
   Think, also, of the thousands of members in this Church--some very good
   people and some very strange ones--many sick, some dying, and always
   some needing counsel, or warning, or exhortation that requires all our
   wit and wisdom--and a great deal more to say the right word at the
   right time! Then there is that which comes upon us daily--the care of
   scores and hundreds of churches which, if they have any trouble, resort
   to us and bring their burdens to one who is burdened enough already! We
   are wretched to the last degree if we have not your prayers! But if you
   pray for us, nothing can stagger us! If you uphold us by your prayers,
   God will make us strong! But if you leave us, we shall be weakness
   itself. Pray for us, for "we are ambassadors for Christ."

   There are strangers here to whom this part of my discourse may seem
   egotistic. I cannot help its seeming so to you! But I am speaking to my
   own friends here about what they know, but of which they sometimes need
   to be reminded. And if they will pray for me as the result of it, I
   shall not feel very much troubled in my conscience for having seemed to
   be egotistic to those who do not know. After all, our reliance is not
   even upon the prayers of the saints. God is our Helper, and we have
   done His work in reliance upon His Grace, but we shall be unfaithful
   tomorrow unless He shall guide and teach and uphold us. Therefore,
   again we say, Brethren, pray for us! By the love you bear to Christ,
   pray for us! Amen
     __________________________________________________________________

The Commissariat of the Universe

   (No. 3149)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "What You give them they gather." Psalm 104:28.

   THIS sentence describes the commissariat of creation. The problem is
   the feeding of the "creeping things innumerable, both small and great
   beasts," which swarm the sea, the armies of birds which fill the air
   and the vast hordes of animals which people the dry land! But in this
   sentence we have the problem solved, "What You give them they gather."
   The work is stupendous, but it is done with ease because the Worker is
   Infinite--if He were not at the head of it, the task would never be
   accomplished! Blessed be God for the great You of the text! It is every
   way our sweetest consolation that the personal God is still at work in
   the world--leviathan in the ocean and the sparrow on the bough may be,
   alike, glad of this, and we, the children of the great Father, much
   more!

   The notion of modern philosophers appears to be that the world is like
   a clock which an omnipotent phantom has set going and left to run on,
   each wheel acting upon its fellow by rigid law or, as a Brother
   remarked to me, they think the Lord has wound up the universe like a
   watch and put it under His pillow and gone to sleep! What do you think,
   Brothers and Sisters--do you find pleasure in a world bereaved of its
   God? To me, such philosophy is dreary, for my soul pines for an
   Infinite Love which will give itself to me and receive my love in
   return. I am orphaned, indeed, if my Maker will not pity me as His
   child and hear my prayers, compassionate my tears and succor and
   comfort me! Babes need a mother's heart as much as her hands. Would you
   wish to be a child brought up by machinery, washed by a millwheel,
   rocked by a pendulum, fed from a pipe, dressed by a steel hand and, in
   fine, committed to the care of a wonderful engine which could do
   everything except love you? You would miss the eyes which weep with you
   and smile upon you, the lips which kiss you and speak lovingly to you
   and the dear countenance which laughs as you are fondled and pressed to
   a warm bosom. No, I can neither accept a steam engine instead of my
   mother, nor a set of laws in exchange for my God! There is a God who
   cares for all His creatures and makes the grass to grow for the cattle
   and herbs for the service of man. There is a Father to whom we speak
   and who hears us! One who waters the hills from His chambers and
   satisfies the earth with the fruit of His works--to whom we may come
   boldly in every time of need! Because Jehovah lives, the creatures are
   fed! He gives them their daily food, they gather it and so the work is
   done.

   The general principle of the text is God gives to His creatures, and
   His creatures gather. That general principle we shall apply to our own
   case as men and women, for it is as true of us as it is of the fish of
   the sea and the cattle on the hills. "What You give them they gather."

   I. Our first point is this, WE HAVE ONLY TO GATHER, FOR GOD GIVES.

   In temporal things, God gives us day by day our daily bread, and our
   business is simply to gather it. In the wilderness, the manna fell
   outside the camp of Israel--they had not to make the manna, but to go
   out in the morning and gather it before the sun was hot. Providence has
   guaranteed to the child of God his necessary food. "Bread shall be
   given him; his waters shall be sure." Our part in the business is to go
   forth unto our labor and gather it. True, in some cases, necessary food
   is not gathered without excessive labor but this is occasioned by the
   injustice of man--not by the arrangements of God. And when true
   religion shall have fully operated upon all classes of mankind, none
   shall need to toil like slaves. They shall only need to perform such an
   amount of labor as shall be healthful and endurable. When no man
   oppresses his fellow, the work of gathering what God gives will be no
   hardship, but a wholesome exercise! The sweat of labor will then be a
   blessed medicine.

   In this light let us view our worldly business. We are to go forth unto
   our work and our labor until the evening and to expect that bounteous
   Providence will thus enable us to gather what the Lord, Himself,
   bestows. And if by this means He gives us food and raiment, we are to
   be therewith content. If our faith can see the hand of God in it all,
   it will be sweet to pick up the manna from the ground and eat it with
   gratitude because it tastes of the place from where it came.

   As to spirituals, the principle is most emphatically true. We have, in
   the matter of Grace, only to gather what God gives. The natural man
   thinks that he has to earn Divine favor, that he has to purchase the
   blessings of Heaven, but he is in grave error--the soul has only to
   receive that which Jesus freely gives! Mercy is a gift, salvation is a
   gift, all Covenant blessings are gifts! We need not bring a price in
   our hands, but come empty-handed and gather what is laid before us,
   even as the birds gather their food and the cattle on the hills feed on
   the grass which freely grows for them. This is one of the first
   principles of the Gospel. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is
   from above and comes down from the Father of Lights." And it is for us
   by faith to take our omer and fill it with the angels' food which has
   fallen all around us, take it into our tent and there feast, even to
   the fullest! 'Tis God's part to give, 'tis ours to gather. Faith's
   sphere is that of the fleece which absorbs the dew, or the pool which
   is filled with the rain. Believer, this is the rule in all spiritual
   things! You are to be a diligent gatherer and to strive after high
   spiritual attainments, but still remember that your heavenly Father
   knows what you have need of before you ask Him. These superior
   blessings are His gifts--and the surest way of obtaining them is to
   come to Him for them and receive them by faith. You have not to pluck
   Covenant blessings out of a closed hand--you have only to take from the
   Lord's open palm what He delights to bestow. For you to be straitened
   and poor gives no pleasure to Him. Rather will it delight Him to fill
   you with His favor and to enrich you with all the blessings of His
   Grace.

   If the calm quiet spirit of this thought could enter our minds, how
   happy we would be! We would then sit down at Jesus' feet with Mary and
   leave Martha to fret alone. Tomorrow morning, before many of our eyes
   are open, the sun will be rising and, as soon as his first beams salute
   the earth, the birds of every wing will awaken and, seeing the light,
   they will begin to sing! But where is your breakfast, little bird?
   Where is the food for today for the nest full of little ones? The birds
   do not know, neither are they anxious, but they gather the first seed,
   or crumb, or worm which they find and, continuing to do so all day
   long, they are satisfied. Yes, and when summer is gone and the long
   warm days are over, and cold winter sets in, the birds sit and sing on
   the bare boughs, though frost is on the ground, for they expect that
   God will give--and all they have to do is to gather! We may learn much
   from little birds--yes, even from little birds in cages, for if those
   who keep them should forget to give them seed and water, they must die,
   must they not? And yet they sing! They have no great store--perhaps not
   enough to last them another day--but it does not fret them, neither do
   they cease their music! I believe Luther well translated their song
   when he said that it meant this--

   "Mortal, cease from care and sorrow! God provides for the morrow."

   II. Secondly, it is certain that WE CAN ONLY GATHER WHAT GOD GIVES.
   However eager we may be, there is

   the end of the matter. The most diligent bird shall not be able to
   gather more than the Lord has given it--neither shall the most
   avaricious and covetous man! "It is vain for you to rise up early, to
   sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He gives His Beloved
   sleep." "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build
   it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain."
   What God gives you, you will be able to gather. But if you set about to
   heap up what your avarice lusts after, no blessing will attend it. What
   a difference is often seen in two men placed in the same position in
   life, with the same work to do and very much the same possessions! You
   see one of them working cheerfully, happy as a king, sweetening his
   bread with content and joy in the Lord--while the other murmurs and
   repines, envying those who are richer and filled with harsh thoughts of
   God. What makes the one happy and the other wretched? Truly, only that
   the one has the Grace of God to give him contentment and so is
   full--and the other has a brutish hunger and greed and so, is left to
   be his own tormentor. As it is with the poor, so is it with the
   rich--the heart has more to do with making us happy than our
   possessions have. He whose soul is full of God, faith and contentment,
   is a truly rich man! The reflection that we can, after all, gather no
   more than God gives, should make us restful and contented. It teaches
   us our dependence upon God and tends to lessen our self-confidence, to
   moderate our desires and to abate our cares.

   Recollect, dear Christian Friends, that the same remark holds good with
   regard to spirituals as well as temporals. You can only gather what the
   Lord grants you. Before preaching, I was trying to find food for you
   all and I began to

   pray for it because I remembered that I could only gather for you what
   the Lord my God gave me. If I bring more than that, it will only be
   chaff of my own and not good winnowed corn from His garner. I often
   need to think of this, for I have to feed a great multitude with
   spiritual meat almost every day in the week. Where is the poor minister
   to get the supply from if the Lord does not bring it to him? He waits,
   therefore, upon his God with humble faith and prayer, expecting that
   fit matter will be suggested. You also, dear Friends, can only obtain,
   when hearing the Word, what the Holy Spirit gives you. You may hear a
   thousand sermons, but you will gather nothing that will really quicken
   or feed your souls unless the Lord gives it to you. Unless the Spirit
   of the Lord puts fullness into the Word, all the hearing in the world
   will be worth nothing. The Holy Spirit must take of the things of
   Christ and reveal them to the inner man, or you will be surfeited with
   mere words, or puffed up with human opinions and nothing more! "What
   You give them they gather," and no more.

   So is it when you set out to work for the Lord Jesus Christ among the
   ungodly. You will win as many souls as God gives you, but no one will
   be converted by your own power. When we have reason to believe that the
   Lord has much people in a city, it gives us much comfort in going
   there. I always do my best for my congregations because I feel that
   they are always picked persons sent to me by my Master--if there are
   few, they are more than I can edify if He does not help me. And if
   there are many, so much the more help will my Lord afford me. I can
   only gather what the Lord gives. We may plant and we may water, too,
   but God must give the increase. We shall not be a sweet savor unto God,
   nor a savor of life unto life to any unless the almighty Spirit of the
   blessed God shall come forth and work with us.

   Should not this lead us to much prayer? No dependence should be placed
   upon man, or upon the outward form of worship, for the most successful
   preacher cannot, by his own power, quicken the dead sinner, or
   regenerate a depraved soul! The Holy Spirit must be with us, or we
   prophesy in vain. The most laborious reaper in the Lord's harvest
   cannot gather more sheaves than his Master gives him. Pray for him,
   then, that he may not miss his reward. Pray for him that he may be
   strong for labor, that his sickle may be sharp, his arm vigorous and
   his harvest plenteous--that he may bring in a glorious load of sheaves
   to the garner! As for yourselves, when engaged in any service for God,
   take heed that you rest not in yourselves, for you can receive nothing
   unless it is given you from above. Your words will be no better than
   silence, your thoughts no more than daydreams and your efforts wasted
   strength unless the Lord shall go before you. "Without Me you can do
   nothing" is a Truth of God you must never forget!

   III. Observe, thirdly, that WE MUST GATHER WHAT GOD GIVES or else we
   shall get no good by His bountiful

   giving.

   God feeds the innumerable creeping things, but each creature collects
   the provender for itself. The huge leviathan receives his vast
   provision, but he must go plowing through the boundless meadows and
   gather up the myriads of minute objects which supply his need. The fish
   must leap up to catch the fly, the swallow must hawk for its food, the
   young lions must hunt their prey. "What You give them they gather." God
   has not prepared, in His whole universe, a single corner for an idle
   being. In no society does the sluggard succeed and it is not desirable
   that he should. If a man will not work, he ought to die, for he is of
   no use alive--he is in everybody's way and, like a fruitless tree he
   cumbers the ground. God gives, but if a man will not gather, he
   deserves to starve.

   It is so in business. Everybody knows that we must be diligent there,
   for "the hand of the diligent makes rich." The Book of Proverbs deals
   very hard blows against sluggards--and Christian ministers do well to
   frequently denounce the great sin of idleness which is the mother of a
   huge family of sins. Idleness is a most contemptible vice--it covers a
   man with rags, fills him with disease and makes him a ready servant of
   the devil. It is a shameful thing that God, "who works up to now," and
   made us on purpose that we should work, should see us wasting time and
   strength and leaving good work unaccomplished. God will not feed you,
   idle man! His own verdict is, "if he will not work, neither let him
   eat." If you loaf about and say, "The Lord will provide," he will
   probably "provide" you a place in the workhouse, if not in the county
   jail! If the manna falls near him and the lazy man will not take the
   trouble to gather it, his omer will not be filled by miracle, neither
   will an angel be sent to carry bread and meat to his table. Up, you
   sluggard, and gather what the Lord has strewn!

   The law of Nature and Providence holds good in spiritual things. "What
   You give them they gather." There is a spirit abroad in the world--not
   so powerful now, thank God, as it used to be--which talks a great deal
   about Grace and Predestination, and therein I rejoice to hear what it
   has to say. But its inference from those Truths of God is that

   men are to sit still, to be passive in salvation and to look upon
   themselves as so many logs--as if they had no will in the matter, and
   were never to be called to an account concerning the Gospel which they
   hear! Now, this kind of doctrine virtually teaches that what God gives
   drops into our mouths and we need not gather it at all--the very
   reverse of the Savior's exhortation to labor for that meat which
   endures unto everlasting life! Sovereign Grace will not take us to
   Heaven by the hair of our heads, or save us in our sleep, whether we
   will or not! Such teaching would have been repudiated by the Apostles,
   for it acts like chloroform upon the conscience and plunges the soul
   into a deadly lethargy. The fact is, Brothers and Sisters, there is a
   Predestination and the Doctrines of Election and Effectual Grace are
   true--nor may we deny them! But yet the Lord deals with men as
   responsible beings and bids them "strive to enter in at the strait
   gate," and to "lay hold on eternal life." Such exhortations are
   evidently intended for free agents and indicate that our salvation
   requires energetic action! It would not appear from Scripture that we
   are to lie dormant and be merely acted upon, for "the Kingdom of Heaven
   suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Of men as well as
   of birds it is true, "what You give them they gather." God gives you
   faith, but you must believe! God gives you repentance, but you must
   repent! These Divine Graces are the work of God, but they are also the
   acts of man. How often shall we need to remind you, Brothers and
   Sisters, that the Holy Spirit does not believe for us? How can He? Is
   faith to be exercised by proxy? That cannot be! Neither does the Holy
   Spirit repent for us--it is absurd to entertain such a notion! We must,
   ourselves, personally believe and repent! If any man does not repent as
   his own act and deed, his repentance and faith are not such as are
   spoken of in Scripture, or required by the Gospel! Brothers and
   Sisters, we should pray, repent and believe as much as if all these
   were wholly our own, but we are bound to give God all the glory of
   them, because it is only by His Grace that we either can or will
   perform them! Men must hear the Word, for "faith comes by hearing." We
   must believe the Word, for "without faith it is impossible to please
   God." And we must repent of sin, for if sin is not forsaken, pardon is
   not given. We must fly to the City of Refuge, or the avenger of blood
   will destroy us! We must escape for our lives to the mountain, or the
   fire from God will overwhelm us in the City of Destruction. "What You
   give them they gather." We must gather, or we shall not have!

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we must not expect spiritual gifts
   without gathering them. For instance, our souls need food, but we may
   not expect the Lord to feed us unless we use the means, hear or read
   His Word, attend to private devotion and the like. These are channels
   of Grace to us and woe be to us if we neglect them! If you saw your
   friend so emaciated that you could count his bones--and so weak that he
   could scarcely stand--you would enquire what had reduced him so much,
   for he used to be a strong hearty man. You say to him, "My dear Friend,
   what can be the matter with you?" You expect him to tell you of some
   mysterious disease. But no, his tale is far more simple--he confesses
   that he does not eat, that he has given up having regular meals and
   very seldom takes an ounce of nourishment. You quite understand his
   feebleness and decline--he is injuring his constitution by denying it
   nutriment! Now, when a Christian complains that he is full of doubts
   and fears and has no joy in the Lord as he used to have, and no
   enjoyment in prayer or labor for Jesus--if you find out that he
   neglects all week-night services, never goes to the Prayer Meeting,
   reads anything rather than his Bible and has no time for
   meditation--you need not enquire further into his spiritual malady! The
   man does not gather what God provides! He lets the manna lie outside
   the camp and allows the water from the Rock to flow untasted! And he
   must not be astonished that his soul is not in a right condition.
   Christians will find that if they neglect the assembling of themselves
   together, as the manner of some is, and if they forget to wait upon the
   Lord and so renew their strength, they will fall into a miserable,
   weak, low condition--and their souls will be full of doubts, cares, and
   anxieties such as they never would have known if they had walked nearer
   to God and maintained intimate communion with the Savior!

   As it is with ourselves, so is it with us in reference to others. God
   will give us souls if we pray for them, but we must seek after them.
   When the Lord calls a man to speak in His name, He intends to give him
   some success, but he must be on the watch to gather it. Some ministers
   have preached the Gospel long, but have never seen much fruit because
   they never tried to gather it--they have had no meetings for enquirers,
   nor encouraged the young converts to come to them for help. What God
   has given them, they have not gathered. Many professors are always
   wishing that the Church would in-crease--they would like to see an
   aggressive work carried on against the world--why do they not set about
   it? Why stand they gazing up into Heaven? Do they expect to see souls
   converted without means? Dear Brothers and Sisters, it will not do for
   us to get silly notions into our heads! Up to this day God has been
   pleased to use instrumentality and until

   the Second Advent He will continue to do so! When the Lord descends
   from Heaven, it will be time enough for us to talk of what He will then
   do--but till He comes, let us continue to gather the souls He gives us.
   We are not in such great need of conferences about how to win souls as
   of men who will do it. I vote for less talk and more work! We cannot
   have too much prayer, but we certainly need more effort. The Lord said
   to Moses, "Why do you cry unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel
   that they go forward!" We cry, "Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!" and
   the Lord replies, "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion!" God is
   awake enough--the awaking is needed by us! We have been praying for His
   Spirit, and rightly enough, but the Spirit of God is never backward--we
   are straitened in ourselves! He would use us if we were vessels fit for
   His use. Oh, that we would yield ourselves fully to the Spirit of God,
   to be borne whichever way He wills, even as the clouds are driven by
   the wind! Then He would draw and we would run--He would give and we
   would gather!

   IV. The fourth turn of the text gives us the sweet thought THAT WE MAY
   GATHER WHAT HE GIVES. We have Divine permission to enjoy freely what
   the Lord bestows!

   Poor Sinner, whatever the Lord has given in His Gospel to sinners, you
   may freely gather. When the manna fell in the wilderness, no guards
   were appointed to keep the people away. No enquiry was made as to the
   character or experience of those who came to gather it. There it was
   and no one was denied. Over the heads of the people might have sounded
   the words, "Whoever will, let him come and take of the manna freely."
   Tests and qualifications there were none and yet the special design was
   the feeding of Israel. No discriminating Rabbi cried out, "You must not
   come unless you feel a law-work within and are sensible sinners." Not a
   word of the sort was whispered! And the Lord has appointed no one to
   keep sinners away from the Water of Life, but He has chosen many to bid
   poor souls draw near and drink! And the Holy Spirit, Himself, puts
   forth His power to draw men to it. Jesus says, "He that comes to Me I
   will in no wise cast out." And I, for one, have no commission to
   discourage any, nor will I. What He gives you, you may gather! The
   little birds ask no questions as to whether they may enjoy the seeds or
   the worms--they see the food and take it boldly--so, Sinners, it is not
   for you to raise difficulties about the mercy of God! Whoever believes
   on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved and that whoever is a wide
   word. You need not say, "I do not know whether I am elected." Neither
   can I tell you, nor can any other man. "The Lord knows them that are
   His," and none of us know anything about it except as far as His Spirit
   teaches us that we ourselves are His. Your thoughts should run in
   another direction--Christ Jesus came to save sinners--are you a sinner?
   "Whoever will, let him come." Are you willing? Then come along with you
   and quibble no longer!

   God does not guard His great garden of Grace as men protect their
   little patches of ground, wherein they hang up old garments or dead
   crows to keep the birds away. The Lord gives freely and upbraids not.
   Certain preachers hang up the dead black crow of their own morbid
   experience to scare away poor sinners from coming to simple faith in
   Jesus, but the Lord has no scarecrows in His garden! Do but come, you
   blackest of sinners, and He will receive you. The strangest bird, with
   speckled wings, may freely gather what mercy gives. Whatever is
   preached in the Gospel as the object of faith, everyone that believes
   may have. Whatever is promised to repentance, everyone that repents may
   have. And whatever is promised to coming to Christ, everyone that comes
   to Christ shall have. "What You give them they gather," for God gives
   it to be gathered! He gave the manna on purpose for it to be eaten! He
   would not have sent bread from Heaven if men had not needed it and if
   He had not meant to feed them. Grace must have been meant for
   sinners--it will suit no other persons. If I have a hard heart, the
   Spirit of God can soften it--why should He not do so? Here is a foul
   sinner and yonder is a fountain filled with blood which completely
   cleanses--why should he not wash? What was Christ meant for but to be a
   Savior? And if He is a Savior, why should He not save me? Surely, when
   I am thirsty and I see the water springing up before me, I may as well
   drink. Sinner, there is a spring open here by the Grace of our Lord
   Jesus! You have come this way and, therefore, I suggest to you and I
   pray the Spirit of God also to suggest it to you, that between the
   fountain and the thirsty soul there ought to be a connection begun at
   once! God invites you, your need calls you, may His Spirit draw
   you--for even now what He has given you may gather!

   V. The last thought is, GOD WILL ALWAYS GIVE US SOMETHING TO GATHER.

   It is written, "The Lord will provide." The other day, as I walked on a
   common, I picked up a dead sparrow. Going a little further, I found
   another. And my friend said to me, "I have found another." And he
   remarked, "It must have been a bad season; these birds must have been
   starved." "No, no," I said, "you are not going to pick up dead sparrows
   killed

   by the weather. That cottager over the hedge has some rows of young
   peas, and he keeps a gun." Men kill the birds-- God does not starve
   them.

   Brother, if you are under the guardian care of God you shall not want.
   If you are your own shepherd, you will probably stray into very lean
   pastures one of these days, but if the Lord is your Shepherd, you shall
   not want. He will make you to lie down in green pastures. "The young
   lions do lack and suffer hunger," for they try to take care of
   themselves. "But they that seek the Lord," although they are often very
   simple-minded people and easily imposed upon, "shall not want any good
   thing," for God will take care of them. I have often noticed how
   wonderfully poor widows manage to live and struggle through with large
   families. When they were dependent upon their husbands, they were often
   badly off. And when their husbands died, it seemed as if they must
   starve! But if they are Christian women, they look to God and God
   becomes their Husband--and He is a far better Husband than the man they
   have lost! When God takes the children in hand and becomes their
   Father, they cannot lack. Help is raised up in unexpected quarters and
   they are provided for-- they can scarcely tell how. If, in Providence,
   we have learned to live by faith in God, we may be sure that He will
   not fail us. "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to
   famish."

   Thus is it also in spiritual things. If you are willing to gather, God
   will always give. Go to the Bible and say, "Lord, give me a promise,"
   and you will find one suitable to your case. Go and hear His servants
   whom He has sent. Go with hearts ready to receive the Word and you will
   not return empty. The Lord will make us speak to your case as much as
   if we knew all about you! Bring your largest vessel with you and the
   Lord will fill it to the brim. Never does a Believer open his mouth
   wide but the Lord fills it! Be you ready to gather and you may be right
   well assured that the Divine fullness will never cease to supply your
   need!

   Thus, from a very simple text, we have had our lesson. Go home and feed
   upon what you have gathered--and take care to bless the name of the
   Lord!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM34.

   The title of this Psalm is, "A Psalm of David, when he changed his
   behavior before Abimelech (or, Achish); who drove him away, and he
   departed." It relates to a sad scene in David's life when he had to
   feign madness in order to escape from his enemies. But I notice that
   although the fact is recorded, yet David does not dwell upon it in the
   Psalm. He had acted as a fool or a madman, but he was not fool enough,
   or mad enough, to glory in his shame! I have heard some men, whose past
   lives have been very disgraceful, who, after their professed
   conversion, have seemed to make a boast of their sin. David does not do
   that, nor will any other right-minded person. Let us always be ashamed
   of our sin, even while we magnify the Grace of God which has saved us
   from it. Though we may feel that it is necessary to mention it in order
   to encourage others to hope in the mercy of God, yet we must take care
   that we never even seem to dwell upon it with any kind of gusto. Thus
   the Psalm begins--

   Verse 1. I will bless the LORD at all times."Whether the times are dark
   or light, whether I feel well or ill, whether the Lord deals with me
   graciously or severely, I will bless Him at all times."

   1. His praise shall continually be in my moutt. What a blessed
   mouthful! If we could but carry out this resolve of David, we would not
   find so much fault with others as we often do. We shall have little or
   no opportunity for grumbling and murmuring if praise to Jehovah shall
   continually be in our mouth!

   2. My soul shall make her boast in the LOR . All men are more or less
   given to boasting but it seems to be especially characteristic of
   Englishmen and Americans. Well, there is a right way of boasting. If
   you can truly say, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord," you may
   boast away as much as you like!

   2. The humble shall hear thereof, and be glat. Any other kind of
   boasting makes humble people sad, but when we boast in the Lord, the
   more we boast the more the humble rejoice!

   3. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name togethei. Let
   each one of us throw his stone upon the mound to make the heap as high
   as possible, for everyone has some peculiar cause for gratitude and
   thanksgiving.

   4. I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my
   fears. It was a very poor way of seeking the Lord when he had got into
   the hand of the Philistines and was planning in his own mind a
   disgraceful way of escaping

   from them. It was not that calm quiet calling upon God that one would
   have liked to see in David. Still, God heard him and that makes the
   deliverance all the more wonderful.

   5. They looked unto Him. [See Sermon #195, Volume 4--LOOKING UNTO
   JESUS.] "All these people that have come at my call to join me in
   praising the Lord--"They looked unto Him."

   5. And were lightened: and their faces were not ashamet. No, not one of
   them! If they looked to God, light shone from God upon their faces and
   their faces glowed with the holy radiance, so they had no reason to be
   ashamed.

   6, 7. This poor man cried, [See Sermon #2193, Volume 37--A POOR MAN'S
   CRY--AND WHAT CAME OF IT.] and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of
   all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that
   fear Him, and delivers them. David's deliverance had been so special
   that he could not help feeling that some special deliverer had been
   employed on his behalf--"the angel of the Lord" had been sent to his
   help. Then David, why did you act like a madman? Ah, that was through
   his lack of faith, yet even lack of faith must not make us rob God of
   His Glory. What though we were unbelieving, He was faithful! Therefore
   let us give Him His due recompense of praise. Let us try to blot out
   the remembrance of our own weakness with our tears, but let us not
   erase the memory of God's loving kindness to us.

   8. O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that
   trusts in Hi . You may not only believe that God is good, but it may
   become a matter of experience with you--"O taste and see that the Lord
   is good." You cannot see the goodness of God to perfection without
   tasting it, so use the sense of taste as well as that of sight! Some
   people want first to see, and then to taste, but David says, "Taste and
   see."

   9. 10. O fear the LORD, you His saints: for there is no want to them
   that fearHim. The young lions do lack They are strong, cunning,
   ravenous, yet they "do lack."

   10. And suffer hungerThey try to take care of themselves and,
   therefore, they get badly taken care of.

   10. But they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing. [See
   Sermon #65, Volume 2--lions lacking--but the children

   SATISFIED.] When God takes care of us, we are well taken care of,

   though we are not lions, but sheep--for we have a Shepherd, and the
   lions have not--so we "shall not want any good

   thing."

   11. Come, you children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the
   LORD. I should not wonder but that when David played the madman and
   scribbled on the doors of the gate, the children in the streets
   gathered around him and mocked him. Wherever we have done harm to any,
   let us try to do them good. So did David--he sought to gather the
   children about his knees and to talk to them--"Come, you children." He
   does not begin by saying, "Stand off, you children." There would be no
   teaching them in that way! You must seek to draw them to yourselves if
   you would draw them to your Lord. "Come, you children, listen to me: I
   will teach you the fear of the Lord." Though David had been anointed
   king, he remained a teacher of children! And the highest honor we can
   have is, for Christ's sake, to teach the little ones. Children love
   bright, happy teaching--they naturally desire life and happiness--so
   David begins.

   12. 13. What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he
   may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking
   guile. Children's tongues are very active and they need to be reminded
   that their tongues must be sanctified or they will say what is evil.
   David had both spoken and acted with guile at the court of Achish, so
   he particularly dwelt upon that matter. "Depart from evil"--run away
   from it--not merely do not do it, but get away from it! "Depart from
   evil, and do good."

   14. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous. He does not merely
   give a glance at them now and then, but His eyes rest on them. He is
   always watching them.

   15. And His ears are open unto their cry. The translators put in the
   words, "are open," but they were not needed.

   16. The face of the LORD is against them that do evil. You know what we
   mean when we say, "I set my face against it." So God sets His face
   against the wicked. Note how near both the righteous and the wicked are
   to an observing God. In the first case, His eyes are upon the
   righteous. In the second, His face "is against them that do evil."

   16. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. He will stamp
   them out as men do with fire. He will not even let them be
   remembered--He will use means to ensure that their unholy example shall
   die with them.

   17. Thee righteous cry and thee LORD hears, and delivers them out of
   all their troubles. That is something to teach the children--teach them
   from your own experience that God does hear and answer prayer. Teach
   them to always pray to God and to believe that prayer has real and
   beneficial results! "The Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their
   troubles."

   18. The LORD is near unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves
   such as are of a contrite spirit We often hear of people who die of a
   broken heart, but here we read about people who live with a broken
   heart. And it is the best way of living, too--with a heart that is
   broken for sin and broken from sin--a heart that in every portion of it
   feels the power of God!

   19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Do not tell the children
   that the good are always happy and that the good escape trial, because
   you will deceive them if you do. "Many are the afflictions of the
   righteous"--the happiness, the glory, the Heaven of the righteous is
   not here, but hereafter! "Many are the afflictions of the righteous."

   19. But. Blessed, "but."

   19. The LORD delivers him out of them all. Not only out of some of
   them, but "out of them all." The righteous do not get out of them by
   their own power, but the Lord delivers them--they have a Divine Helper!

   20. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. The righteous
   may have skin wounds and flesh wounds, but they shall not suffer any
   real hurt. God will not let His people be so injured as to be incapable
   of holiness. There shall be no bone-breaking in Christ's mystical body,
   even as not one of the bones of Christ was broken!

   21. Evil shall slay the wicked. Sin itself shall slaughter them.

   21, 22. And they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The LORD
   redeems the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him
   shall be desolate.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Never, No Never, No Never"

   (No. 3150)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
   16, 1873.

   "Let your conversation be without covetousness: and be content with
   such things as you have. For He has said, I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I
   will not fear what man shall do unto me." Hebrews 13:5, 6.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the whole or parts of these two
   verses, are as follows--Sermons #477, Volume 8--NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!
   NEVER! NEVER!; #1449, Volume 24--A VILE WEED AND A FAIR FLOWER and
   #1880, Volume 32--A LESSON AND A FORTUNE FOR CHRISTIAN MEN OF
   BUSINESS--.]

   WHEN the Lord foretold, through the mouth of His servant, the Prophet
   Isaiah, that He would "make unto all people a feast of fat things, a
   feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow," surely He
   must have had in His mind such precious Truths of God as this one which
   we have in our text, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." This is
   the very essence of consolation! I might truly say that it is the
   quintessence of delight! Here is solid spiritual food condensed into a
   very small space. Take these eight words and extract the marrow from
   them, or treat them as a honeycomb and get the sweetness out of them
   into your soul--and it will be full of content, no, more--it will be
   overflowing with sacred delight! "I will never leave you, nor forsake
   you."

   I. With such a text before us, we need no further preface, so we will
   at once begin our meditation upon the text. And first, I will ask you
   to VIEW THESE WORDS AS A QUOTATION.

   You observe that the Apostle writes, "He has said, I will never leave
   you, nor forsake you," from which it plainly appears that Paul was
   quoting from Holy Writ. This should teach us how necessary it is for
   us, also, to quote Scripture whenever we can. The Holy Spirit abounds
   in gracious thoughts and in fitting language in which to express those
   thoughts, so He has no need to make extracts from what He has
   previously said. Yet He pleases to do so. Instead of giving us a new
   promise, He here gives us an old one over again, as if to remind us
   that there are no better things in the world than the Words of God,
   Himself, and that the very noblest expressions are those which have
   been already used!

   Besides, the Holy Spirit here puts honor upon the Old Testament by
   quoting from it for the consolation of New Testament Believers. There
   are some persons who seem to think more of the New Testament than they
   do of the Old Testament. I have met with Christians in Germany with
   whom it has been quite a superstition that the Evangelists were
   superior to the Apostles and that the Apostles were superior to the
   Prophets. I trust that such notions as those will never spread among
   us! We see here that when an Apostle writes as an Inspired man, he
   quotes from the Pentateuch, he quotes from the Chronicles and he quotes
   from the prophecy of Isaiah--so that we are to honor the Old Testament
   and not to look upon it as a secondary book compared with the New
   Testament, but to reverence the Divine teaching in both portions of the
   Inspired Word.

   In addition to that, the Holy Spirit bids Paul apply this Old Testament
   promise to us to show us that the Words of God spoken to saints in the
   ancient times were spoken also to us, so that if the Lord gave a
   promise to Jacob, it was not meant to be restricted to Jacob, but to
   belong to all those who, like Jacob, can wrestle in prayer! And that if
   God spoke, as He did, a promise to Joshua, it was not intended to be
   only for Joshua, but for all who were in like circumstances to his.
   Scripture promises have, all of them, a message to all Believers--and
   if you believe in Jesus Christ--what God has said to other Believers of
   old He says this day to you!

   I think we may learn much from the fact that this promise is a
   quotation from the Old Testament. Where did Paul find it? It is not
   very easy to say, because it occurs in various places and the Apostle
   has not quoted it literally. He has given the sense rather than the
   exact words of the quotation. He may have quoted the Septuagint version
   rather than the Hebrew, for no doubt he was familiar with both. There
   is not any one text in the Old Testament of which you could positively
   say that it is the one he intended, but there are several passages, any
   one of which you might say, "The words are almost here, and the spirit
   and meaning of the passage are entirely here."

   One of the first passages which Paul may be supposed to have quoted is
   Genesis 28:15. The fugitive Jacob lies asleep, with a stone for his
   pillow. In his dream, he sees a ladder reaching from earth to Heaven.
   At the top of it stands the Almighty, who makes a Covenant with
   him--and among the other Covenant promises is this, "Behold, I am with
   you, and will keep you in all places where you go, and will bring you
   again into this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that
   which I have spoken to you of." Here you get the words, "I will not
   leave you." Does not that passage, in its proper connection, suggest
   that the promise is very applicable to young people starting out in
   life?Jacob was leaving his father's house under very unfavorable
   circumstance and he was going to a distant country where he had
   relatives, but strangers might have been kinder to him than Laban was,
   for he got all he could out of him and gave him as little in return as
   he could! So Jacob, starting for Padanaram, gets this promise from God,
   "I will not leave you."

   I can conceive of that promise coming to some young friend here. You
   have committed yourself to God's keeping. You are a Believer in the
   Lord Jesus Christ and now you are about to start on a new career. Some
   measure of trembling comes over you and you have been breathing this
   prayer to God, "O Lord, lead me in the way in which You would have me
   go--guide me in all my untrodden way." It is just possible that you are
   going to a distant land and you are a lover of your home, as Jacob was,
   and you feel some natural anxiety concerning the change that you are
   about to make. Here comes in the promise that is just suited to your
   case, "I will not leave you." Jacob proved the truth of that promise.
   Although he had many trials, which were, most of them, of his own
   making, yet never was he deserted by his God! In his old age, he said,
   "All these things are against me," but he was not speaking the truth
   when he said that, for even then everything was working for his good!
   And, notwithstanding his troubles, he died a blessed old man who was
   able to give blessings to others as well as to enjoy them himself. So,
   my dear young Friend, take this text as the Lord's promise to you for
   many years to come, "I will not leave you until I have done that which
   I have spoken to you of."

   There is a second passage which is more nearly to the point from which
   the Apostle probably quoted. That is Deuteronomy 31:6-8. Moses first
   speaks to the children of Israel and he says to them, "Be strong and of
   a good courage: fear not, nor be afraid of them: (that is, of the
   Canaanites) for the Lord your God, He it is that does go with you; He
   will not fail you, nor forsake you." Then turning to Joshua, Moses
   says, "The Lord, He it is that does go before you; He will be with you,
   He will not fail you, neither forsake you fear not, neither be
   dismayed." In Joshua 1:5, we find that the Lord repeated the promise to
   Joshua, "I will not fail you, nor forsake you." In the version which
   Paul may have read, the words here may have been identical with those
   he uses in writing to the Hebrews. What do we learn from the context of
   this passage? God was here speaking to those who were about to lose
   their leader and who would need this assurance. Moses was about to die.
   He had been the mainstay of the children of Israel and they had always
   looked up to him as their leader. Under God, Moses was the father of
   that nation and he carried them like children in his bosom. If they
   wanted water, it was he who smote the Rock to make the stream gush
   forth. If they needed that their enemies should be destroyed, it was he
   whose uplifted hands brought them the victory! Now Moses was about to
   go up to the top of Nebo and to die there--and the people greatly
   trembled at the prospect of losing him. But the Lord gave them this
   promise to console them, "I will not fail you, nor forsake you."

   Moses dies, but Moses' God does not die! The strong man, whose eyes had
   not waxed dim, and whose natural force had not abated, must look from
   the mountaintop upon the good land beyond the Jordan--and then his God
   must take away his soul as with a kiss--yet God would not be gone. He
   is the dwelling place of His people in all generations! You see then,
   dear Friend, what is the bearing of the text upon your experience. You
   have lost, or are about to lose, the mainstay of your house. Your
   father is failing in health and you cannot shake off from your mind the
   apprehension that in a few more days, you may have to pay a visit to
   the grave. One in whom you have rightly reposed much confidence and in
   whose presence you have felt that all was well, is soon to be taken
   away from you. But be not distressed as though God Himself were about
   to die, for Jehovah ever lives and He said to you, "I will not fail
   you, nor forsake you." You who are

   already, or who soon will be a widow, dry your eyes with this blessed
   handkerchief! You who are, or soon will be, a fatherless child, be of
   good comfort, for your Father in Heaven will not leave you nor forsake
   you! Perhaps I am addressing members of a bereaved Church. You have
   lost a man of God who went in and out among you as Moses did among the
   children of Israel in the wilderness--and you are asking, "Where is his
   successor to come from?" Perhaps there is a Joshua within sight, but
   you are half afraid as to whether he will have the power needed to
   carry on the great work. Trust that the God who was with Moses will
   also be with Joshua and take this promise home to your own heart--and
   say to each of your fellow members in the sorrowing Church that the
   Lord has said, "I will not fail you, nor forsake you."

   There is another passage from which Paul may have quoted, in the first
   Book of the Chronicles, in the 28th Chapter, at the 20th verse, where
   David says to his son, Solomon, "Be strong and of good courage, and do
   it: (that is, build the Temple) fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord
   God, even my God, will be with you; He will not fail you, nor forsake
   you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house
   of the Lord." I scarcely need indicate that the promise is applicable
   to any who are about to undertake some great enterprise for God's
   Glory. You have not to build a material temple, but you have, perhaps,
   to build up a spiritual Church, or to evangelize a wide district, or to
   gather together a class of young people--and you feel half afraid that
   you are unequal to the task--but will not this promise be like a girdle
   about your loins? Will it not strengthen you to do exploits when the
   Lord says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you"? Go in this your
   might, O you who are full of weakness and trembling! Go, for God bids
   you go and, therefore, let not your heart again ever fear!

   One other passage contains part of our text in another form. It is that
   well-known one in Isaiah 41:10--"Fear you not; for I am with you: be
   not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will
   help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My
   righteousness." There the promise is enlarged, but the sense of it is
   the same--it is a promise of the Divine Presence and of the Divine help
   to the Lord's tried and afflicted people!

   II. Now we will change the run of our thought and VIEW THESE WORDS AS
   AN ADAGE OR HOUSEHOLD

   WORD FROM GOD.

   I think this must have been a sort of proverb or common saying among
   the early Christians, "The Lord has said, I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you," and that it was one of the things that they constantly
   said, the one to the other. I wish that we had more such holy proverbs
   current among us nowadays--that our common sayings were more worth
   saying than they often are, and that our proverbial philosophy were
   more truly Christian philosophy!

   This saying, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," is peculiarly a
   saying of God. Paul puts a, "Thus says the Lord" to this saying--"He
   has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." To my mind, it
   invests these words with special power to my soul when I remember that
   it is God who speaks to me and to each of my fellow Believers, and
   says, "I--Isay this, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." As I
   repeat these words, they may not seem to you to have much power in
   them, but if the Holy Spirit will impress these simple syllables upon
   your heart, they will come to you full of the music of Heaven and you
   will realize that it is GOD who says, "I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you."

   Further, these words are remarkably forcible in the original. You
   probably have heard that in the Greek there are no less than five
   negatives. We cannot well translate them into English except in such
   language as that of the verse we were singing just now--

   "The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not
   desert to his foes! That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to
   shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake!"

   In our English language, two negatives would destroy each other, but it
   is not so in the Greek language--and the heaping up, as it were, of
   these denials on God's part of all thought of ever forsaking His people
   ought to be sufficient to satisfy even the most doubtful among us! If
   God has said, "I will not, not, NOT, no never forsake My people," we
   must believe Him! And we must chase away all thought of the possibility
   of the Lord's forsaking His servants, or leaving them to perish.

   These words also derive much of their preciousness as a Christian
   proverb from the fact that they relate to God Himself and His people.
   They are God's own words and they speak concerning Himself--"Iwill not
   leave you." This is not merely a promise of deliverance out of trouble,
   or of the presence of angels to bear us up in their hands lest we dash
   our

   feet against a stone. God is not here promising us any temporal
   mercies, nor indeed any spiritual mercies by themselves, but He is
   speaking concerning Himself, who is the Substance of all His own
   promises, but Infinitely greater than the promises! And He says, "I
   will never leave you, nor forsake you."

   And you will observe that this promise ensures to us God's Presence and
   God's help. "I will never leave you"--that is, "I will always be with
   you"--"nor forsake you." The force of that promise is, "Being with you,
   I will never let you work alone. I will help you. I will not desert you
   as to My Presence and I will not desert you as to My succor. I will be
   with you and I will help you in all that you have to do." This is a
   double promise and it is doubly sweet!

   Besides that, this promise wards off from us the most terrible calamity
   that could possibly occur to us. It may help to make this promise
   increasingly precious to us if we think for a minute what would become
   of us if God did leave us or forsake us. Then, indeed, might the
   heavens be hung with blackness and the light of the sun be put out
   forever if God should leave us! The straight road to Hell would be open
   before us and we should soon be going there if we were forsaken of God.
   It would have been far better to never have been born, or never to have
   known the way of life at all than, after all, to be deserted of God and
   be left to perish! Thank God that can never be the portion of anyone
   who has truly trusted in Him.

   Recollect also that, if He had not been God, He would have forsaken us
   long ago. Our patience with our fellow creatures holds out but a very
   little while. But it is because God is God and, therefore, changes not,
   that we are not consumed. Have you not done a thousand times enough to
   have made Him forsake you if He were like the sons of men? I confess
   sorrowfully that I know I have. And if He could turn from His eternal
   purpose, and if His everlasting love could change, then surely He would
   long ago have cast my poor soul far away from His Presence, to receive
   its well-deserved punishment! Is it not a blessed thing to think that
   the very thing that is most to be feared by any man can never happen to
   a Believer, for God has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
   you"? You well deserve to be forsaken of God, but He will never leave
   you! He will deal with you in the way of Grace, and not of Justice. If
   He left you, you would utterly perish, but He will not and cannot do
   so--you are too dear to Him for His heart to ever turn away from you.

   And while this promise averts from us the direst ill, it secures to us
   the richest possible blessing. To have God with us--is there anything
   beneath the sky--is there anything above the sky that is a choicer
   blessing than that? To be with God and to have God with us is the very
   Heaven of heavens! And he who has this blessing here has a veritable
   Heaven upon earth! No other blessings can ever be compared with this
   one. No mirth of them that make merry in the dance, or of those who
   shout by reason of wine can ever be likened to the holy excitement and
   enthusiasm of a soul that is in the Presence of God and knows that it
   is there! To be helped of God, which is the second part of the promise,
   is bliss indeed. What better help than that does anyone need? We are
   glad to be helped by our fellow Christians who have the ability to aid
   us--but to be helped of God is to have the Treasury of Heaven and the
   great deeps of Divine Omnipotence to draw upon! Whatever it is that we
   really need, we already have if God is with us, for, "no good thing
   will he withheld from them that walk uprightly." The best of blessings
   are secured to the man or woman to whom God has said, "I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you."

   Then, Beloved friends, this is a promise that only God could give. The
   husband whispers in the ear of his wife, "I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you," but he forgets the hour of death when he must go from all
   below. The mother, as she presses her child to her bosom, says, "I will
   never leave you, nor forsake you," but she knows not how soon that
   little child may be an orphan to need another's care. Friend says to
   friend, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," forgetting how
   changeable human friendships are, for many are the hearts that have
   been torn asunder by vows, honestly whispered at the time, which have
   been forgotten through the lapse of years, or have been treacherously
   broken. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," is not a promise for
   mortal lips to utter! Transient beings like ourselves must not venture
   to say, "I will never do this or that," for, alas, we know not what we
   may do, or may not do! Even though we think we shall never prove to be
   traitors, yet traitors we may prove to be. Or if not traitors, our
   power may fail so that we shall be unable to do what we have promised.
   But when Jehovah says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," it is
   a Divine Promise and He who utters it, Divinely keeps it! 'Tis a fit
   promise for God to speak and 'tis a fit promise for God's servants to
   hear. You have lost many of those dear to you, but you have not lost
   your God! They have gone from you, one by one, "as star by star grows
   dim," but His Light still shines on--and shall shine on forever!

   Further, Beloved, this choice promise provides against all troubles. We
   do not know what troubles may come upon us. Let us not think about
   them. They will come soon enough and it will be quite sufficient for us
   to trouble ourselves about them when they do come. But whatever they
   may be, "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." There
   may come to us great losses. Our riches may take to themselves wings
   and fly away--where we had large estates, we may be without a place
   whereon to lay our head. But "He has said, I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you." We may be the victims of cruel slanders and under the
   pressure of those slanders those that used to respect us may avoid
   us--and former friends may be alienated from us. But "He has said, I
   will never leave you, nor forsake you." We may have to suffer great
   pain and the earthly physician may be unable to relieve us. But God's
   promise will still avail us, for, "He has said, I will never leave you,
   nor forsake you." Sore sinking of heart may come upon us and all God's
   waves and billows may roll over us--but "He has said, I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you."

   In the course of our service for God, we may meet with many
   difficulties. Where we looked for helpers, we may find opponents. But
   let us still press onward, for, "He has said, I will never leave you,
   nor forsake you." We may have to move to distant lands, but "He has
   said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Days of weakness may
   come to us, when the pillars of the house shall tremble, when they that
   look out of the windows shall be darkened and our teeth shall fail
   because they are few. The infirmities of old age may tell upon us, but
   "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." And with old
   age may come the loss of children and friends till we seem left, "like
   the last rose of summer," or the last sere leaf of the woods in the
   autumn--yet "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." And
   then shall come the chill river of death and the gathering darkness of
   the night--but "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
   And after that shall come another world where our spirit shall fly
   through tracks unknown and where new and wondrous scenes shall burst
   upon our astonished view! And, in the fullness of time, Christ shall
   come and the last great battle shall be fought--but whatever is to be,
   or is not to be--a Christian has nothing to fear, for, "He has said, I
   will never leave you, nor forsake you." Come forth, you dragon bound
   with the chain and ravage the world again if so it must be! Rise,
   Antichrist, from your den amidst the seven hills! Pollute the Churches
   once again if you can! Let war and bloodshed, famine and pestilence
   break loose again with unknown fury--but whatever happens, in time or
   in eternity, "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you."
   "Therefore will we not fear, though the earth is removed, and though
   the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea." If the Lord of
   Hosts is with us, what grounds can there be for fear? I know of no
   supposable dangers, no imaginable troubles, no conceivable difficulties
   through which, and out of which, and beyond which this text will not
   carry us--if by faith we grasp it--"He has said, I will never leave
   you, nor forsake you."

   III. Now I must pass on to the next point. We have viewed these words
   as a quotation and as a proverbial saying. Now the practical outcome of
   this subject, according to the text, is that we are to VIEW THESE WORDS
   AS A MOTIVE FOR CONTENTMENT. "Let your conversation be without
   covetousness; and be content with such things as you have. For He has
   said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." That is to say, do not
   be grasping, do not be seeking to rake all the world to yourself, do
   not stretch out your arms, like seas, to enclose all the shore!

   "But," says one, "I have so very little." You have as much as God has
   been pleased to give you, so be content with such things as you have.
   "I wish I had a great deal laid by," says another. Do you need more
   than this--"He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you"? "I
   wish I had a large regular income," says another. This looks pretty
   regular, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Someone asks, "But
   does that mean temporal things? "Do you think that God will let your
   body die of starvation when He promises to take care of your soul?
   There is an ancient promise for the man who walks righteously and
   speaks uprightly--"Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure."
   And it shall still be so in this matter, also--the Lord will not leave
   you, nor forsake you if you trust in Him. It seems to me that the man
   who can claim this promise has his fortune made for him. If he had made
   large investments, they might turn out badly. If he possessed large
   estates, they might have to be sold. If he had wealthy friends, they
   might all forget him, for memories are not always very strong in the
   direction in which some people wish they might be. Many a man has
   fallen from the pinnacle of personal wealth to the pit of personal
   need--and many others who were waiting for dead men's shoes, have had
   to go barefoot to their own graves. It is poor confidence that trusts
   in men, but it is blessed confidence that rests in this glorious Truth
   of God, "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." "Trust
   in the Lord, and do good: so shall you dwell in the land, and verily
   you shall be fed."

   But I know how it is with many of us--we cannot live by faith! We are
   so apt to think that something to see and to handle is so much more
   satisfactory than a promise of God. But is not that a species of
   blasphemy? Is not God's promise better, more sure, more satisfactory,
   more ennobling, more Divine than anything that can be seen? O child of
   God, what more do you need than this gracious assurance, "I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you"? What though your wallet holds but little,
   if your God has said that He will fill it every morning and every
   evening, what more do you need? The children of Israel tried to store
   the manna, but it bred worms and stank, for they were to gather their
   daily supply morning by morning. There is many a man who has not been
   content to trust in God, so he has asked for something to look at and
   to handle--and he has had it and it has been a stench in his nostrils
   all his days! And he has never again been the man he was when he had
   not given way to an evil spirit of covetousness! I would rather be the
   poorest Christian in this world and live on this promise, than be the
   richest man that lives and not have this promise! And in saying this I
   am sure that I am speaking for every Christian here. Our true treasure
   is this, "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." That
   is our bank stock in the Bank of Heaven! All else that we have is but
   the spending money of a traveler when he stays at an inn. But we are
   soon to be up and away to the land where our true treasure lies, where
   our God and our Father lives who has said, "I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you"!

   IV. The last point is that THESE WORDS ARE TO BE VIEWED AS A REASON FOR
   COURAGE. So that we

   may boldly say, The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man
   shall do to me."

   If God says to me, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you," I never
   ought to be the victim of fear of man. Yet the fear of man that brings
   a snare is one of the curses of the lives of many professors. They are
   afraid of opposition and afraid of persecution--and although
   persecution is very mild nowadays compared with what it used to be,
   they are afraid of the public opinion in their little circle, afraid of
   the contemptuous remarks that will be made, afraid of the cold
   shoulder, afraid of the innuendoes and the dark hints, afraid to be
   thought to be one of those "vulgar people" who believe in the Lord
   Jesus Christ and who desire to follow Him "wherever He goes." That
   horrible fear of losing the respect of ungodly people still operates
   upon thousands and tens of thousands who, if they only realized the
   Truth of this promise, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you,"
   would, each one, say, "Let men think what they like of me. Let them
   call me a fool or a fanatic. Let them shun me, but what does it matter
   as long as You, my Lord, do not forsake me?"

   So, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let every one of us, first of
   all, fling away from our souls, by the power of God's Spirit, all
   desire to grasp this world and make that our god! Let us abhor
   covetousness. If God sends us wealth, let us reckon that we are only
   stewards of it and use it for His Glory. If He does not send it to us,
   let us be quite content to be without it, for it brings a heap of
   trouble with it! Let us always keep the world under our feet and reckon
   it to be unworthy of a Christian's craving!

   Then let us fling away all cowardice and boldly say that the Lord is
   our Helper, so we will not fear what man may do to us. Accursed be the
   lips of any minister who dares to say, "I must not utter that unpopular
   Truth of God for fear I should have the censure of the public press or
   public opinion." Shall such fear as that ever stop us from uttering
   what we believe to be true? If it does, how shall we be able to give in
   our account at the Last Great Day? I reckon it to be my business, as a
   man sent of God, never for a moment to consider how you or anybody else
   will like what I have to say in my Master's name, nor whether it shall
   be approved by this man or that, whether he is eminent in rank or
   eminent as a critic! No, let him be what or who he may, if I have done
   my Master's work faithfully, it matters not to me whether the man
   praises it to the skies or condemns it to the bottomless Pit! In the
   pulpit it does not concern me what man's judgment upon my message shall
   be--and you in the pews must never hesitate to take the consequences of
   doing what is right. Be just in your business, come what may of it! Be
   honest in your profession, carry out your principles and if that should
   involve loss, be content to lose! Whatever comes of it, be straight--as
   straight as though God had ruled you with His own Divine hand and there
   was ne'er a bend or crack in your character! Press onward towards the
   goal of sincerity and purity--and may God strengthen you to reach it!

   Though there are a thousand influences that might make a true man fall
   and cause a brave man to turn coward and might urge you to sell your
   principles, or at least to take off the sharp angles of them, do not do
   it--do not do it--by the love of God, do not do it! As "He has said, I
   will never leave you, nor forsake you," do not leave your God, do not
   forsake his Truth! Your fathers died rather than give up the Gospel.
   Your ancestors fought for it on many a bloody field. We have cast away
   the sword of the warrior and we have done well, for we fight not with
   carnal weapons, but, by the

   Grace of God we grasp "the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
   God"--and with brave hearts and strong we stand steadfastly for the
   faith! And so will we stand until the Truth shall win the day and the
   victory shall be unto the Captain of our salvation! Stand fast,
   Brothers and Sisters, in the name of God, and may the Lord bless you,
   for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 13:1-21.

   This is a practical Chapter at the close of this most instructive
   Epistle.

   Verse 1. Let brotherly love continue. The word, "continue," implies
   that the "brotherly love" exists. There are many things which might put
   an end to it, so see to it that as far as you are concerned, it
   continues. Under all provocations and under all disappointments, "let
   brotherly love continue."

   2, 3. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have
   entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound
   with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in
   the bod}. And being likely, therefore, to take your own turn of
   suffering and to need the sympathy of your fellow Christians. Show
   sympathy to others while they need it and they will gratefully remember
   you when you are in bonds or in adversity.

   4. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but
   whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And terrible will be their
   doom when God does judge them! They may think that because they sin in
   secret, they shall escape punishment--but it shall not be so. Whether
   men judge them or not, God wiljudge them.

   5. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with
   such things as you have: for He has said, I will never leave you, nor
   forsake you. Therefore you have a grand reserve! What you have in
   possession is only a little spending money to use on the road to
   Heaven, but "He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you." You
   may confidently fall back upon the Providence of God in all times of
   straitness and need.

   6-8. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not
   fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over
   you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow,
   considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same
   yesterday, and today and forever. [See Sermons #170, Volume 4--the
   immutability of

   CHRIST; #848, Volume 15--JESUS CHRIST IS IMMUTABLE and #2358, Volume
   40--THE UNCHANGEABLE CHRIST.] It is for your own benefit to remember in
   your prayers those who preach the Word of God to you, for what can they
   do without Divine assistance and how can you be profited by them unless
   they are first blessed of God? Remember them, therefore.

   9. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Do not put
   yourself into every man's hand to let him play with you as he pleases.
   The fish that never nibbles at the bait is not likely to be caught by
   the hook--and he who will not give heed to "divers and strange
   doctrines" is not likely to be carried away in the net of heresy!

   9. For it is a good thing that the heart is established with Grace, not
   with meats, which have notprofited them that have been occupied
   therein. Some in the Apostle's day made religion to consist almost
   entirely in observing certain rules as to what they ate and what they
   drank. "Be not so foolish," says Paul, "there is something better than
   that. Seek to have your heart established with Divine Grace."

   10. We have an altar, of which they have no right to eat which serve
   the tabernacle. Those who cling to the external and ceremonial
   observances of religion have no right to the privileges which belong to
   those who come to the spiritual altar--they cannot share that secret.

   11-14. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the
   sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.
   Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own
   blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him
   outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing
   city, but we seek one to come. Then, my Brother or Sister, do not look
   for a continuing city here. Do not build your nest on any one of the
   trees of earth, for they are all marked for the axe--and they will all
   have to come down, and your nest too, if you have built upon them.

   15. By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
   continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks

   to His name. [See Sermon #2048, Volume 34--A LIFE-LONG OCCUPATION.] If
   you are Believers in Christ, you are God's priests and this is the
   sacrifice that you are continually to offer--the fruit of your lips,
   giving thanks to God's name!

   16. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such
   sacrifices God is well please . We are to do good to others, to
   communicate [give] of our own good things to those who need them and to
   do this at some sacrifice to ourselves, "for with such sacrifices God
   is well pleased."

   17-19. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves:
   for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that
   they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable
   for you. Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all
   things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do
   this, that Imay be restored to you the sooner.You must have noted how
   often the Apostle asks for the prayers of those to whom he is writing.
   So we are following a good example when we ask you to pray for us.

   20, 21. Now the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
   Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
   Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do His
   will, working in you that which is ever pleasing in His sight, through
   Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. [See Sermons
   #277, Volume

   5--THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT; #1186, Volume 20--THE BLOOD
   OF THE COVENANT and #1368, Volume 23--THE GOD OF PEACE AND OUR
   SANCTIFICATION.]
     __________________________________________________________________

The Lord's Supper--simple But Sublime!

   (No. 3151)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING IN THE
   YEAR 1866.

   "This do you, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as
   often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the
   Lord's death till He comes." 1 Corinthians 11:25,26.

   [Mr. Spurgeon preached many times upon these and the preceding verses.
   The following sermons have already been published--#2, Volume 1--"THE
   REMEMBRANCE OF CHRIST; #2307, Volume 39--THE GREATEST EXHIBITION OF THE
   AGE; #2595, Volume 44--WHAT THE LORD'S SUPPER SEES AND SAYS; #2638,
   Volume 45--THE RIGHT OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER; #2872, Volume
   50-- THE LORD'S SUPPER; #3099, Volume 54--THE DOUBLE FORGET-ME-NOT and
   #3130, Volume 55--"IN REMEMBRANCE".]

   IT would be a waste of time and would tend to mar our fellowship with
   Christ, were I to attempt an enumeration of the errors and
   misapprehensions into which men have fallen concerning the objective of
   the Lord's Supper. There are some communities of men among us--and they
   seem to be multiplying--who turn the Communion Table into an altar and
   convert the bread and wine, which are but a memorial, into the
   semblance of a sacrifice. I will only say that into their secret may we
   never enter and with their confederacy may we never be united, for
   their table is the table of idolatry, and their altar is little better
   than a sacrifice unto devils! Such offerings cannot be acceptable unto
   God, for those who observe them turn aside altogether from the
   simplicity of the Truth of God unto the cabalistic devices of
   Antichrist.

   This simple feast of the Lord's Supper, consisting of the breaking and
   eating of bread, and the pouring forth and drinking of wine, has two
   objectives upon its very surface. It is intended as a memorial of
   Christ, and it is intended as a shouting or a manifestation of our
   faith in Christ, and of Christ's death, to others. These are the two
   objectives--"This do you in remembrance of Me"--and "Thus you proclaim
   the Lord's death till He comes."

   I. First, then, WE VIEW THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD AS BEING A MEMORIAL OF
   HIM. And as such, it is simple and very significant.

   How plainly it sets forth Christ's Incarnation! We take the bread. That
   bread, upon which we feed and which becomes assimilated with our flesh,
   is the type of the Incarnation of the Savior who veiled His Glory in
   our human clay. The same bread broken becomes the type of that body of
   the Savior rent and torn with anguish. We have there the nails, the
   scourge, the Cross--all set forth by that simple act of breaking the
   bread. And when the wine is poured out, there is no mystification, but
   rather the disclosure of a mystery. It represents the blood of Him who
   took blood in order that He might become one blood with us, His
   incarnate people and who, "being found in fashion as a Man," "became
   obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." So that just as the
   wine is pressed from the cluster and is poured forth into the cup, so
   was His blood pressed from Him in the winepress of Divine Wrath and
   poured forth that He might make Atonement for the sin of men. A child,
   standing by the Communion Table, and asking the question of his father,
   "What does this ordinance mean?" might very soon be told, "My Child, we
   break this bread to show how Jesus Christ's body suffered. And we pour
   out this wine in token that Jesus Christ poured forth his heart's blood
   for the sins of men." It is marvelous that men should have added so
   many things of their own invention to screen and veil this very simple
   and, therefore, very sublime ordinance! Brothers and Sisters, let us
   come to those two symbols and here discern Christ's body broken for our
   sin and view His blood streaming forth for our redemption!

   The type, however, is suggestive because it not only sets forth the
   suffering of Christ, but also the result of that suffering. It pictures
   the end as well as the means. That is to say, when I take that bread
   and eat it, and take that cup and drink from it, I bring to
   remembrance--to my own remembrance and the remembrance of those round
   about me--not

   merely the fact that Christ suffered, but that He suffered for me and
   that I had an interest in Him. Believe me, Beloved, this Truth of God
   is so simple, that while I speak, I can half fancy some of you saying,
   "Why does he not tell us something new?" But let me say to you, it is
   always a new Truth and there is no Truth which the Christian heart more
   readily forgets! Oh, that I could always feel that He loved me and gave
   Himself for me! I know He did--it is long since I had a doubt about
   it--but I do not always remember it. Going abroad into the world, how
   apt we are to let the remembrance of the Savior's love slip! The love
   of wife and husband follows us like our own shadow. The love of our
   dear child seems to encompass us like the atmosphere in which we live.
   But Jesus Christ is not visibly here and, therefore, the remembrance of
   Him requires spirituality of mind--and we are carnal--too often but
   babes in Grace, and so we forget His sufferings. And, worse still, we
   forget our interest in them! Oh, that I could have the Cross painted on
   my eyeballs that I could not see anything except through the medium of
   my Savior's passion! O Jesus, set Yourself as a seal upon my hand and
   as a signet on my arm, and let me wear forever the pledge where it is
   conspicuous before my soul's eyes! Happy is that Christian who can say,
   "I scarcely need that memorial." But I am not such an one and I fear,
   my Brothers and Sisters, that the most of us need to be reminded by
   that bread and wine that Jesus died--and need to be reminded, by the
   eating and drinking of the same, that, He died for us!

   I do not want to say a word tonight that shall have any oratory in
   it--any elocutionary display about it. I want to speak so plainly that
   those of you who are not Christians will say that it was a dry and dull
   sermon! I do not care what you say, or what you feel--if I can get each
   Believer here to just think over this thought and remember it--"The
   Lord of Glory loved me and gave Himself for me. That head which now is
   crowned with Glory was once crowned with thorns-- and crowned with
   thorns for me. He whom all Heaven adores, who sits upon the loftiest
   Throne in Heaven, once did hang upon the Cross in extreme agony for
   me--for me." I know you are apt to think that He died for so many that
   He had not a special end to serve in redeeming you, but it has been
   very beautifully said that as the love of Christ is Infinite, if you
   divide the Infinite by any number you please, (I do not care what the
   divisor is, whether it is ten, or whether it is twenty million), the
   quotient is Infinite and so, if the love of Jesus Christ, Infinite as
   it is, can be supposed to be divided among us, we would, each one of,
   us have an Infinite Love! It is our arithmetic that teaches us this,
   but, oh, if we do but know by experience the infinite depth, the
   amazing abyss of the love of Jesus to each one of us, our souls will be
   comforted and rejoice with unspeakable joy! The sign, then, is
   significant.

   But, in the next place, it is worthy of notice that the memorial which
   we are about to celebrate tonight is a joint one. There is something
   painful, but pleasing, when the father dies, for the children come
   together at the funeral and go together to his grave. Many family
   heartbreaks have been healed when the various members of the family
   have joined in a memorial to their father. The poor man's grave,
   especially, has much charm in it to me. Here come the sons and
   daughters and pool together their shillings to buy the grave and to buy
   the coffin. Often, over the rich men's grave, there is a squabble as to
   who shall share his wealth--but there is not any such quarrel in this
   case. The man has died penniless and John, Mary and Thomas all
   come--and they all see who can do the most in providing their father's
   grave. And if there is a tombstone, it is not only one who pays for it,
   but they all put their money together, so that Father's memorial may be
   shared by them all! How I like that thought! So in this ordinance, "we
   being many are one bread," and we being many are one cup. Brothers and
   Sisters, I cannot do without you! If I want to celebrate the Lord's
   death, I cannot go into my chamber and take the piece of bread and the
   cup and celebrate the ordinance alone--I must have you with me! I
   cannot do without you! And you, the most spiritually-minded of you, if
   you shut yourselves up in a cell and try to play the monk and the
   super-excellent, cannot keep this ordinance! You must have fellowship
   with other Believers! You must come down among the saints, for our
   Savior has given us this memorial which cannot be celebrated except
   jointly, by the whole of us together! You Christians must come together
   to break this bread and to drink of this cup. "This do you, as often as
   you drink it, in remembrance of Me." Did the Master foresee that we
   would be so apt to split up into sections? Did He know that we would be
   so apt to be individualized till we forgot to bear one another's
   burdens? And did He, therefore, while He made Baptism the personal,
   solitary confession of faith, make this Communion to be a united joint
   memorial in order that we might be compelled to come together--might by
   sweet constraint be driven to meet in the same place with one accord,
   or else be unable to make a memorial of His death?

   It is a joint memorial. You have thought that over. Well, now, let us
   try and link hearts together. Are there any differences between us
   tonight? I am not conscious, my Beloved, of any difference with any one
   of you. If I were, I would

   seek Grace to shake it off. And if you tonight are conscious of
   anything against any Brother or Sister with whom you will commune at
   the Table, I pray you now to put it all away before you come here.
   Remember that you must eat and drink jointly with that very friend with
   whom you have offended now and, therefore, make up the offense, and so
   come together. God has forgiven you so much that you may well forgive
   your Brother this little, supposing him to have offended you. Come,
   then, together, Beloved--together let us keep the feast!

   At the same time, I must not forget to remind you that while a united
   memorial, it is most distinctly a personal one. There can be no Lord's
   Supper, though we all meet, unless every man puts the bread into his
   mouth and unless each one of us, himself, drinks the wine. That cannot
   be done as a joint act. The bread is passed around and there must be a
   distinct reception on the part of every person here. So let us not lose
   ourselves in the crowd. We are drops in one great sea, but still we
   must remember that we are drops and, as no drop of the sea is without
   its salt, so let no one among us be without the salting influence of
   true communion with Jesus. Dear Friend, I cannot commune for you and
   you cannot commune for me. If you are all happy, I shall be glad, but
   it will be little benefit to me unless I can see the Savior, too, and
   so will it be with each one of you. Therefore let me pray you to cry
   unto God to give Divine Grace to you to now personally remember the
   Lord Jesus Christ--His love for you, His death for you, His rising for
   you. "He loved me and gave Himself for me!" let that thought be
   uppermost in your mind just now.

   Yet further, I must not fail to remind you that as a memorial of
   Christ, while it is very solemn, it is singularly happy Christ has
   ordained, as a memorial of His death, what? Why, a feast! Not a
   funeral, not a meeting together to sing dirges over His mangled body,
   or to go to a grave to weep! That might have been a memorial, but we
   have a better one--we have a happy one! It is very significant that
   after supper they sang a hymn. Singing then? Oh, yes, singing! Joy
   becomes a feast and joy is to attend our recollection of the woes of
   Jesus. The position which we ought to occupy at the Lord's Table also
   suggests that Christ meant us to be happy. Did He ordain that we should
   kneel? No, there is not a hint of it! Did He intend us to stand? There
   is not a syllable about it! How was the Lord's Supper originally
   received? The guests reclined around the table, leaning their heads in
   each other's bosoms! It was the easy posture of the ordinary feaster in
   Oriental nations. The most proper posture for us, seeing that we could
   not well lie along, is to sit in the easiest posture conceivable.
   Choose for yourselves--never mind what people say about reverence!
   Familiarity with Jesus is the highest reverence! Put your body at the
   Communion Table into the easiest possible position in which you can
   rest and you have then reached Christ's ideal.

   It is a feast where you are to be perfectly at ease, in contrast, mark
   you, with the Passover. There they stood, with their loins girt about,
   with their hats on and with their staves in their hands--and they ate
   like men in haste who had to go through the wilderness! Now, we have
   gone through the wilderness! We who have believed have entered into
   rest-- our Passover has been eaten. We fear not the destroying
   angel--he has passed over us. We are out of Egypt, we have entered into
   Canaan and though the Canaanite is still in the land, we are driving
   him out. We are not now keeping the Passover with haste, and fear, and
   confusion--it is the Lord's Supper of rest, and joy, and peace! For,
   "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
   Jesus Christ." It is a happy memorial! Joy becomes the face of everyone
   who shall come to the Table tonight, or at any other time!

   Well now, Brothers and Sisters, if to remember Christ is the objective
   of the Lord's Supper, then you will not have come here to any purpose
   unless you remember Him! So I pray you to put away every other thought.
   Have you doctrinal difficulties? Leave them till tomorrow! Have you a
   sick child, or does business go amiss? Well you will not relieve your
   cares by violating this sacred hour. Let these burdens be cast on Him
   who cares for you! One thing you have to do with, it is Jesus Christ
   crucified--crucified for you, received by you. Now blot out the other
   stars and let one star alone shine in the sky--the Star of Bethlehem!
   Bid farewell to every love but the love of Jesus and to every
   fellowship but fellowship with Him. Ask the Lord to take your heart as
   an arrow and fit it to His bow--and shoot it right up to where Christ
   is in Heaven. "Set your affection on things above." Many people
   misquote that, "Set your affections." Paul wrote no such thing! "Set
   your affection"--tie your affections into one bundle and make them one
   affection--and then set it upon things above. Let your whole heart lie
   in the bosom of the Savior. I pray the Master that we may not, one of
   us, hold back--not even you, Mrs. Much-Afraid, nor you, Little-Faith.
   Nor you, Ready-to-Halt--may you forget your crutches and may you now
   remember only Him who is the All-in-All of both the strong and the
   weak--

   "The strong, the feeble and the weak,

   Are one in Jesus now"

   and let them know it as they sit here and remember Him!

   II. The second objective of this Communion Supper is THE SHOWING OF
   CHRIST'S DEATH TILL HE COMES.

   "Till He comes." I must not say anything about that except that He will
   come! And I think that ought to be enough for Christians. To my great
   sorrow, I had sent to me this last week, two or three copies of a tract
   purporting, according to the title page to have been written by myself,
   prophesying the coming of the Lord in the year 1866. Now, you may
   expect to hear of me being in Bedlam [London insane asylum] whenever by
   my tongue or my pen, I give countenance to such rubbish! The Lord may
   come in 1866, and I shall be glad to see Him, but I do not believe He
   will. And one reason why I don't believe He will, I have told you
   before--it is because all these false two-penny-halfpenny prophets say
   that He will. If they said He would not, I would begin to think He
   would, but inasmuch as they are all crying as one man that He will come
   in 1866, or 1867, I am inclined to think He will not come at any such
   time! It seems to me that there are a very great many prophecies which
   must be fulfilled before the coming of Christ--which will not be
   fulfilled in the next 12 months. And I prefer, Beloved, to stand in the
   position of a man who knows neither the day nor the hour in which the
   Son of Man comes--always looking for His appearing, but never
   interfering with those dates and figures which seem to me to be proper
   amusement for young ladies who have nothing to do, and who take to them
   instead of reading novels. And for certain divines who have exhausted
   their stock of knowledge about sound Doctrine and, therefore, make up
   and gain a little ephemeral popularity by shuffling texts of Scripture
   as the Norwood gypsies shuffled cards in days gone by! Leave the
   prophets to divide the profits which they get from simpletons--and as
   for you, watch for Christ's coming, whether it shall be today, or
   tomorrow--and set no limits, and no dates, and no times! Only work
   while it is called today. Work so that when He comes, He may find you,
   as faithful servants, ready to come in to the wedding with Him. "Till
   He comes," then, the Lord's Supper is to be a showing forth of His
   death!

   Let us just notice how we show it forth.

   I think we show it to ourselves. The Lord's Supper may be celebrated
   without any spectators. It should be in public where it can be, but if
   there are none to look on, it may be otherwise. In Venice, in Milan, in
   Paris and in other cities where Romanism prevails, five or six of us
   have met together in our room at our hotel and we have had the true
   Lord's Supper there, though there were none to look on. And probably if
   there had been, in some cities where we have partaken of it, we might
   have been amenable to the law! 'Tis a showing forth of Christ's death
   to ourselves. We see the bread broken and see the wine poured out, and
   we ourselves see here, in symbol, Christ crucified! And we see as
   before our eyes, when we eat and drink, our interest in the Sacrifice
   offered upon Calvary!

   But next, we show it to God. We do, in effect, say before the
   all-witnessing Jehovah, "Great God, we break this bread in Your august
   Presence in token that we believe in Your dear Son. And we drink this
   wine here before You, You Searcher of Hearts, to solemnly say to You
   again, 'We are Yours, bought with Jesus' blood and washed clean in
   it.'" It is a showing of Christ's death to God!

   Moreover, it is a showing of it to our fellow Christians. We say to
   those who sit with us, "Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us join
   together. We join with you, why don't you join with us?" We say to you,
   'We love Him,' and you say the same to us. Together we clasp hands and
   renew our Christian fellowship with one another through renewing our
   fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We do, as it were, teach one
   another, admonish one another and comfort one another when we thus show
   forth the Lord's death.

   But besides showing forth Christ's death to ourselves, to our God and
   to our fellow Christians, we also show it to the world. We do, in
   effect, say to the world, "Here we show that we believe in Him whom you
   crucified. He who went outside the camp, the Man of Nazareth, despised
   and rejected of men, is our Master. You may trust in your
   philosophies--we trust in Him. You may rely upon your own merits,
   sacrifices and performances, but as for us, His flesh and His blood are
   our dependence. As we eat this bread and drink of this cup, Christ
   Jesus is set forth to you as being All-in-All to us--the bread which
   sustains our spiritual life and the wine which gives us joy, sacred
   exhilaration and delight."

   And then, in addition to saying this to the world, we also say it to
   sinners who may happen to be present, and to whom it may be blessed.
   How often within these walls has God blessed the breaking of bread to
   the conversion of souls! Let me refresh the memories of such. Some of
   you had been looking on from these galleries--you dared not come down
   with the people of God, but you did not want to leave. And so you sat
   and you looked on. And your mouths were water-

   ing, not for the bread and wine, but for Christ! You wanted Him and
   gradually you were like the robins in the cold wintry days. You first,
   as it were, tapped at the church's windowpane very gently and you were
   afraid, so you stepped back again. But all the world was cold and there
   was not a crumb for you anywhere else. Then you saw the open window of
   a gracious promise, "He that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out"
   and, pressed by absolute necessity, you came to Jesus! You came into
   the family circle of Jesus Christ's people and you feasted-and tonight
   you are glad!

   Well, dear Friends, as we come together at the Table, we will be
   remembering any among the onlookers who are not yet brought to Christ.
   We will think of them and we will breathe this prayer, "Lord, save
   them! As we show forth Christ, help them to see Him. May they say,
   'Yes, His body was broken for sinners, His blood was poured out for
   sinners, so we will trust Him.'" And if they trust Him, they shall be
   saved!

   Well, now, may we accomplish these two designs--to remember Christ and
   to show His death. We can only do it by His Spirit. Let us, with bowed
   head, ask for that Spirit. Let us seek that we may worship Christ in
   spirit and in truth while we receive the outward symbols of His
   suffering.

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

   Chapter 17:1. These words spoke Jesus, andlifted up His eyes to Heaven,
   andsaid, Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son; that Your Son also
   may glorify You. Christ's great intercessory prayer begins with His
   appeal to His Father to glorify His Son. Christ knew all that He would
   have to suffer during that "hour" to which He had looked forward to
   from eternity, but His eyes could see beyond the gross with all its
   shame, the crown with all its glory! The Son being glorified, He would
   also glorify His Father and there is a wondrous Glory that comes to the
   Father through the death of His Son upon the Cross.

   2. As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He shouldgive
   eternallife to as many as You have given Him.

   [See Sermon #566, Volume 10--GENERAL AND YET PARTICULAR.] Some people

   seem unable to see that there is perfect harmony between the general
   and the particular aspects of Christ's Atonement. As the one Mediator
   between God and men, He has absolute power over all men, to do with
   them as He wills, yet that power has a special relation to those whom
   His Father gave Him before the foundation of the world. And they are
   those who come to Him in accordance with His declaration, "All that the
   Father gives Me shall come to Me; and He that comes to Me I will in no
   wise cast out."

   3. And this is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true
   God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sen [See

   Sermon #2396, Volume 41--ETERNAL LIFE!] So that the only way to obtain
   eternal life is to know God the Father and God the Son--and the best
   way to know them is to ask God the Holy Spirit to teach us what is
   revealed concerning them in the Sacred Scriptures which He inspired
   holy men of old to write.

   4. 5. I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which
   You gave Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify You Me with Yourself with
   the Glory which I had with You before the world wa. As Christ had
   carried out His Father's will and done the work He had been sent to do,
   it was but right that He should go back to the Glory which He had, for
   a season, voluntarily laid aside. You notice that although He had not
   then died upon the Cross, He was so certain that He would there
   complete His great mediatorial work that He spoke of it as being
   already "finished."

   6. I have manifested Your name unto the men which You gave Me out of
   the world: Yours they were, and You gave them to Me; and they have kept
   Your wor. No one but Christ could or would have borne such a testimony
   concerning His fickle, feeble followers. Happy will it be for us if He
   can also say concerning us who profess to be His disciples, "They have
   kept Your word."

   7, 8. Now they have known that all things whatever You have given Me
   are of You. For I have given unto them the words which Yougave Me, and
   they have received them, andhave known surely that Icame out from You,
   and they have believed that You did send M. You see how the Truth
   reached these disciples. The Father gave the words to His Son in His
   mediatorial capacity. And He gave those words to His disciples--and
   they received them and believed that Christ was indeed the Sent One
   from the Father.

   9, 10. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which
   You have given Me; for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and
   Yours are Mine; andIam glorifedin thei. . [See Sermon #2331, Volume
   39--christ's pastoral prayer for his

   PEOPLE.] See what perfect union there is between the Father and

   the Son, and note their mutual relationship to the chosen people, "They
   are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine."

   11, 12. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world,
   and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom
   You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with
   them in the world, I kept them in Your name: those that You gave Me I
   have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the
   Scripture might be fulfille . So it is clear that Judas was not among
   those who were given to Christ by His Father--if He had been, He also
   would have been "kept."

   13. And now come I to You Christ looked beyond all that was to happen
   to Him before He could return to His Glory and, as He saw His Father
   waiting to welcome Him, He cried "And now come I to You." These might
   be appropriate words in the mouth of a dying Believer: "And now come I
   to You."

   13, 14. And these things I speak in the world, that they might have My
   joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world
   has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of
   the world. Never did anyone more thoroughly mix with men than Christ
   did--and never had anyone greater sympathy with human beings than He
   had--yet everyone knows that He never was "of the world." He was
   distinct from all who were round about Him and He says that His
   disciples were as He was. "They are not of the world, even as I am not
   of the world." Christ's people have a life that others have not. They
   have a relationship to God that others have not. They are swayed by
   motives which others understand not and they are journeying onward
   toward a perfection to which others do not even desire to attain! So
   they are not of the world and the world treats them as speckled
   birds--and hates them even as it hated their Lord and Master.

   15. I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You
   should keep them from evil. [See Sermons #47,

   Volume 1--CHRIST'S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE; #2355, Volume 40--CHRIST'S
   NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE PRAYER and #2703, Volume 46--THE PRESERVATION OF
   CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD.] Christ did not pray that there might

   be monasteries and nunneries where His servants might be shut away from
   the world, nor even that His followers might die in early youth and go
   home to Heaven! He prayed that, remaining in the world for gracious
   purposes--to be its salt and its light--they might themselves be kept
   from the evil that is in the world. It would be a dreadful thing,
   indeed, if the chosen people of God were to be overcome by the world.
   So Christ prayed that His Father would keep them from the evil, for He
   well knew that they could not be kept from it by any power that was not
   Divine. There is no less power needed for the preservation of a
   Believer than for his regeneration. The sustaining of a Saint is a
   constant miracle which can only be worked by God Himself.

   16, 17. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
   Sanctify them through Your Truth: Your Word is

   Truth. [See Sermon #1890, Volume 32--OUR LORD'S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE'S
   SANCTIFICATION.] Some men tell us that the Truth of God is in the Word,
   but that the Word is not the Truth. I read, the other day, that we
   might regard the Bible as a casket which contained the jewel of the
   Truth, but was not itself the jewel. Christ did not talk in that
   fashion, for He said to His father, "Your Word is Truth." This shows
   that God's Word is not merely the casket of Truth, but is the Truth
   itself!

   18. As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them
   into the worl. They are sent ones, even as Christ was the Sent One. As
   He is the Christ, they are Christians, anointed with the same anointing
   as He Himself is and they should endeavor to be in all respects
   missionaries to the world, even as Christ was God's great Missionary to
   the lost.

   19. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be
   sanctified through the Trut . "I set Myself apart wholly for them, that
   they also may be set apart for holy uses."

   20. Neither pray I for these alone. "For these who are already saved by
   My Word."

   20. But for them also which shall believe on Me through their wort. And
   so His blessed arm encircled not only the converts gathered to Him by
   His own personal ministry, but also those who should, in later days, be
   converted under His servants' ministry! And it always seems to me to
   have been great condescension on His part to have said, "I pray for
   them also which shall believe on Me through their word." We should have
   expected that He would have said, "through My

   word," and indeed, it is His Word that leads sinners to repent and to
   believe! Yet Christ puts this honor upon those who speak His Word out
   of the fullness of their hearts. They have by experience made it their
   own, so He calls it theirs and gives them this honorable position as
   the messengers of the Gospel of salvation.

   21. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You
   that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You
   have sent MM. I wish that we could see more of this blessed unity, yet
   it does exist, even if we cannot see it. Wherever there is any true
   spiritual life--it matters not how much it may be marred by
   denominational divisions--there is and there always will be, an
   essential unity. All Christians are one family in Christ. I do not mean
   all who call themselves Christians, but all who really are Believers in
   Christ. The inner life is one, the source of that life is one, the
   nourishment of that life is one and the end of that life is one--so
   that all who possess it must be one--one in Christ and one with one
   another, even as Christ is One with the Father.

   22. 23. And the Glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they
   may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and You in Me, that they may
   be made perfect in one. That is the real secret of the saints'
   unity--"I in them," together with the everlasting Union of Christ Jesus
   with the Father--"and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."

   23. And that the world may know that You have sent Me, andhave loved
   them as You have lovedMt. [See Sermon #1472,

   Volume 25--THE GLORY, UNITY AND TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH.] This is a

   great deep--the words are very simple and clear--but their meaning is
   unfathomable. Is it really true that the Father has loved His chosen
   ones as He has loved His only-begotten Son? It is such a wondrous thing
   that one might be willing to lie awake at night to meditate upon the
   amazing Truth here revealed in our Savior's words--"You have sent Me,
   and have loved them as You have loved Me."

   24. Father, I will that they also whom You have given Me, be with Me
   where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which You have given Me: for
   You loved Me before the foundation of the world. [See Sermons #188,
   Volume 4--the redeemers

   PRAYER and #1892, Volume 32--WHY THEY LEAVE US.] Some foolish folk

   talk about the saints being put away for a while into some purgatorial
   "limbo" in order that they may be made ready for Heaven but Christ
   speaks not so! He says, "I will that they...be with Me where I am." We
   care not to answer curious questions about the disembodied state--it is
   enough for us that Christ knows all and that we shall be with Him
   forever!

   What shall be the occupation of those who are with Christ? "That they
   may behold My Glory." There will be something worth looking at,
   something to be delighted with forever and ever! "The glory which You
   have given Me: for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." So
   God must have loved His people before the foundation of the world, for
   He has loved them as He has loved His Son! There was no beginning and
   there shall be no end to the Father's love to His people! He says to
   each one of them, "I have loved You with an everlasting love: therefore
   with loving kindness have I drawn You." Here are waters to swim
   in--plunge into them and revel in the bliss they are meant to convey to
   all who are in Christ Jesus!

   25-26. O righteous Father, the world has not known You: but I have
   known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. And I have
   declared unto them Your name, and will declare it: that the love with
   which You have loved Me

   may be in them, and I in them. [See Sermons #1378, Volume 23--THE
   RIGHTEOUS FATHER KNOWN AND LOVED and #1667, Volume 28--"LOVE AND I"--A
   MYSTERY.] How rich is this language! How musical! Surely,

   never did any human poem match this peerless prose of the Divine
   Teacher! And now, what a descent it is as we pass on to the next scene
   in His life!

   John 18:1, 2. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His
   disciples over the Brook Kidron, where was a garden, into the which He
   entered, and His disciples. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew
   the place. [See Sermon

   #2767, Volume 48--JESUS IN GETHSEMANE.] He was familiar with the

   Master's place of retirement for private prayer and he had, doubtless,
   heard the Master pray there. Yes, and many a Judas knows the place
   where the saints meet for worship and knows the Communion Table, too,
   and knows some of the most hallowed gatherings of God's people where
   they pour out their hearts in private prayer. And the pity is that
   knowing all that--the ancient Judas and the modern one do not savingly
   know the Master Himself!

   2. For Jesus ofttimes resorted there with His disciple. If ever any man
   might have lived without prayer, it was our Lord Jesus Christ! His
   Humanity was perfect, yet He abounded in prayer. And the nearer we grow
   to Christian perfection the more shall we pray. I heard of one who said
   that she was so perfectly acquiescent in the will of God that she had
   left off praying, she had got beyond that! What a fearful delusion! God
   save all of us from ever falling into it! Here is One who could say
   from His heart, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
   Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." He expressed in
   prayer His perfect acquiescence in His Father's will. Did Christ, our
   Lord and Master pray so, and will any who profess to be His followers
   speak so presumptuously as to say that they can live without prayer?
   God forbid!

   3. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the
   chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and
   weapons. What strange paraphernalia they brought with them to the
   Garden of Gethsemane-- "lanterns" to show them the way to the Sun of
   Righteousness. "Torches" with which to find out the bright Morning Star
   and, "weapons" with which to overcome the Lamb of God, who had nothing
   to oppose them with but His own innocence!

   4. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went
   forth and said unto them, Whom do you seek?It is a wonderfully
   suggestive thought that Jesus knew everything that would happen to Him.
   Martyrs and other sufferers for Christ's sake have had some measure of
   foresight of what they had to endure, but none of them could have so
   exquisite a foretaste of everything as our blessed Lord had. He knew it
   all--every single atom of pain, anguish and heartbreak. He knew it all,
   yet He calmly "went forth" to meet it and said to those who came to
   drag Him away to His death, "Whom do you seek?"

   5. 6. They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am
   He. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, stood with them. As soon, then,
   as He had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the
   ground. "Jesus said unto them, I Am," as though appropriating to
   Himself the name of Jehovah. And "they went backward, and fell to the
   ground," astounded and confounded! Even though He restrained His
   Omnipotence, He claimed the Omnipotent name, I AM, and before the
   majesty of that name they prostrated themselves upon the ground!

   7-9. Then asked He them again, Whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus
   of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He: if therefore
   you seek Me, let these go their way: that the saying might be fulfilled
   which He spoke, Of

   them which You gave Me have I lost none. [See Sermons #2368, Volume
   40--THE LIVING CARE OF THE DYING CHRIST and #2616, Volume 45-- CHRIST'S
   CARE OF HIS DISCIPLES.] That was a very gracious saying of

   Christ's, "If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way." This is
   what Christ says on His people's behalf to death and to the Law and the
   justice of God. And though this saying does not excuse the disciples'
   flight, it does make some sort of apology for their going away, every
   man to his own home. Christ knew that they would be safer there. One of
   them followed Him afar off instead of going his way--and you know what
   came of it. There is a time for openly following Christ, but there is a
   time when Jesus says, "Let these go their way." So, right to the end He
   takes care of His sheep and bids them scatter for a while now that the
   sword is about to enter their Shepherd's heart.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Lower Courts

   (No. 3152)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MARCH
   23, 1873.

   "For if our heart condemns, God is greater than our heart, and knows
   all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we
   confidence toward God." 1 John 3:20,21.

   [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, on verse 21, is #1855, Volume 31--WHAT
   IS THE VERDICT?.]

   THE fault of a very large number of persons is that they will not lay
   spiritual things to heart at all, but treat them in a very superficial
   manner--or, if they exercise any judgment concerning them, it is of the
   most superficial kind. Now this is very foolish because, to say the
   least, the soul is of some value. And if men lay to heart the loss of
   their bodily health or of their estate, much more ought they to lay to
   heart anything which concerns their soul. It is very wicked as well as
   very foolish because, in refusing to lay spiritual matters to heart, we
   virtually tell the God who made us that He is of no account to us, that
   we are quite indifferent to His Being, to His Character, or to His
   commands. It is telling Him that we do not desire to be obedient to Him
   and that if we have been disobedient to Him, we do not trouble
   ourselves about that. It is also as dangerous as it is foolish and
   wicked to be unconcerned about spiritual matters, for God will not be
   trifled with and, one of these days, those who would not lay eternal
   things to heart will find their souls full of anguish--and with remorse
   they will be visited for this lightness of theirs. Whereas, today, like
   those of old who were invited to the wedding of the king's son, they
   make light of it and go their way to their farm or to their
   merchandise, there will come a day when they would give all their farms
   and their merchandise if they might have but another hour's respite,
   another invitation of mercy and another opportunity to seek and find
   the Savior. I do pray that if any here have been among those who do not
   lay to heart the things that concern their immortal souls, they may not
   any longer be allowed to remain in the company of such vain and sinful
   persons, but may come out from that congregation of the foolish and
   begin to lay to heart the things which make for their eternal peace.

   Then, beloved Friends, there is another class of persons, very much
   superior to those of whom I have spoken, who nevertheless make a
   mistake of another kind. They do lay the things of God to heart and
   they are constantly weighing themselves in the balances of conscience.
   They look within again and again--they are not afraid of
   heart-searching-- indeed, they spend the most of their time in that
   stern occupation. Am I about to blame these friends? I must answer, "No
   and yes." I will not blame them for what they do, for they do the right
   thing--but I shall blame them for what they leave undone! Namely
   this--they forget that the tribunal of conscience, though a very
   important one, is not the supreme court and that, although it is well
   to try matters before the heart to see whether it condemns or acquits,
   yet there is another court, far higher than the court of the human
   heart--"God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." There are
   some good Christian people who are always distressed because they never
   take their cases into the supreme court and, on the other hand, I fear
   that there are some ungodly professors who are always presumptuously at
   ease because they have been satisfied with the verdict of the lower
   court, which is very liable to err in its judgment--and so they have
   never presented their case before the great Judge who cannot by any
   means make a mistake.

   I am going to speak of these two courts. First, of the lower court of
   the heart or conscience, and then of the higher court where He presides
   who is "greater than our heart, and knows all things." In speaking upon
   this subject, I shall mention four forms of verdict which may be given
   in the court of the heart. The first is a correct verdict against
   ourselves. The second is an incorrect verdict against ourselves, (the
   first verse of our text applies to both of these). The third is a

   correct verdict of acquittal, (that is in the second verse of our
   text). And then, lastly, I will say something about an incorrect
   verdict of acquittal, which, perhaps, our heart may sometimes give.

   I. First, then, the Apostle speaks of A CORRECT VERDICT AGAINST
   OURSELVES--"If our heart condemn

   us."

   There are some persons whose hearts justly condemn them and the voice
   of conscience is, in them, the Voice of God. The echo of the Divine
   sentence, "Depart, you cursed," is heard by them in the halls of
   conscience before the Voice of God has spoken it--strangely contrary to
   echoes among men, which always followthe voice. Conscience is saying,
   "You will be driven, O Man, from the Presence of God!" Now, in this
   case, the court of conscience sits under the King's arms with the marks
   of Divine Authority displayed above its head. And conscience sitting
   thus as a judge, judges rightly when it judges by the Word of God.
   Righteous judgment must not be according to man's whim or fancy, but
   according to the supreme Law of God--and the verdict of conscience is
   worth nothing unless it is so formed. The charge against the culprits
   is that they have broken God's Law and, in the case of many of them,
   that they have also rejected God's mercy. They have offended against
   the Law and the Gospel!

   There stands a prisoner at the bar and there sits conscience as the
   judge. And over its head I see tokens of God's Authority permitting
   conscience to judge him! The first witness that is called against the
   prisoner is memory. I put to it certain questions. "Memory, what have
   you to say concerning the life of this man? Has he kept God's Law?" And
   Memory answers truthfully, "No." "Has he then violated it?" "Yes,
   thousands of times." "How long is it since he began to violate it?"
   "From a child." "Has he continued to do so?" "Yes, to this very hour."
   "Has he not repented of his sin and craved forgiveness from God?" "No,
   he has pretended to repent. He has had twitches of conscience--he has
   been alarmed at times, but he has hardened his heart and gone back to
   his sin and done despite to the Spirit of God." "Memory, can you tell
   me how often the prisoner has broken God's Law?" "I cannot. Count the
   stars of the sky, or the sand by the seashore-- only then can you know
   how often he has sinned." "Against which of the commands has he
   offended?" "Against them all." "Can you give us some instances?"

   I will not ask Memory to expose any of you before this congregation,
   but I will ask your own memories to charge each one of you with your
   own sins whatever they may have been--that sin of licentiousness, that
   piece of trickery in trade, that angry thought, that hard word, that
   oppression of the innocent, that tempting of another to sin, that ruin
   of another in body and soul, that putting down of conscience on
   such-and-such a night when he struggled with you and would have had you
   cease from sin--that wicked resolve not to be melted down under a
   certain especially earnest sermon, that desperate determination not to
   feel the force of Divine Love even when it came so near to you as to
   graze you! Who of all the unpardoned sinners in the world has not some
   special sins to remember, to blush over and to weep over, yes, with
   tears of blood if that were possible? Ah, Memory, if you should tell
   all that you have recorded, your story would be too terrible for us to
   hear and we would have to close the court, or bid some withdraw out of
   hearing, for you would have much to tell which would not be fit for
   their ears to hear!

   Another witness is called, for it would not be right to condemn a man
   upon the evidence of only one witness, however excellent that witness
   might be. So I call the man's own knowledge into the witness box, and
   examine it. "What do you know, Man, concerning yourself? Are you at
   this moment a lover of God?" "No," he says. "Are you at this moment one
   who loves Christ? Are you at this hour one who desires to be reconciled
   to your Maker? Do you desire to glorify God? Do you desire to overcome
   all sin and to live in perfect holiness?" The answer is a negative in
   every case and the Judge hears this. It is not merely what the man has
   done, but what the man is--not merely what he was yesterday, or in his
   youth, but what he is today. He is still an enemy to his God and he has
   no love to his Maker! He is still content to lead an unholy life. So in
   the mouth of these two witnesses his guilt is established.

   But there are witnesses for the defense, so let them be heard. These
   are usually two--self-love and self-esteem. The man pleads that he is
   no worse than others! Yet a thief would not be allowed to escape
   punishment if he pleaded, "I am no worse a thief than my brother
   thieves." The man next says that he has done many good things, as if
   the keeping of one Law of God would be any excuse for having broken
   another. This is as if the thief should plead before the judge that he
   was not a drunk, or if he had committed burglary, that he had not been
   a murderer. Would this be accepted as an excuse? Then the man pleads
   that he has attended a number of outward religious ceremonies--which is
   just as if a thief should say that he washed his hands every morning
   and took care to shave himself at certain intervals. What would all
   that have

   to do with the offense laid to his charge? If those things were right
   things for him to do, he did well in doing them, but they could make no
   atonement for his offenses! Men will sometimes plead that, after all,
   it was more their misfortune than their fault that they fell into any
   sin at all. Yet man never considers such an excuse as that in reference
   to wrongs done to his fellow creatures--but the law deals with the
   offenses as having been willfully committed--and even so does God.

   The court, after having heard these two lying witnesses, whose
   testimony is worth nothing, considers its verdict and the heart
   condemns the prisoner at the bar. Now what says the text? "If our heart
   condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." So,
   if any man or woman here feels self-condemned, how much more must such
   an one be condemned by God! If you feel uneasy even now, what cause for
   disquietude must there be in prospect of the just judgment of God! If
   your bleary-eyed conscience, which never yet half-opened its eyes, has
   condemned you, what guilt must God see in you! If conscience has
   decided against you, knowing only half--no, perhaps not a millionth
   part of your criminality, how certainly will the unerring Judge of all
   the earth, who knows all things, decide against you! I would like to
   make those four words ring again and again in your ears, "God knows all
   things." Then He knows the sins that you have forgotten, or that you
   wish you could forget! Well, even if you have done so, they are fresh
   in His unfailing memory. Perhaps you cry, in the bitterness of your
   agony, "Cursed be the day wherein I committed them! Oh, for fountains
   of water to wash out the damning spots! But though I should redden the
   Atlantic and with the crimson ocean try to remove the accursed spots of
   sin, they would still remain! And even though I could not see them, yet
   still that Eye which through the murky night looks down on all and sees
   as through the brightest day, that Eye still sees my sins."

   "God knows all things."That is, He knows all about your sins of
   omission, the good things that you have not done, the righteous acts
   which you have failed to perform. He knows what your motives have been.
   He knows how that apparently good action of yours was based upon sheer
   selfishness--how your pretended religiousness was, after all, only
   varnished hypocrisy! O Sirs, unless this blessed Book is all fiction,
   there are some of you who are great fools, for while you are condemning
   yourselves, you are calmly sitting down in prospect of the eternal
   judgment as if you thought that God would acquit you! You have lost the
   case in the lower court, where the judge is partial and would give a
   verdict in your favor if possible. How, then, will you dare to stand in
   the higher court, where the verdict must go against you if your case
   remains as it now is? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
   "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all
   things." God grant that these words may not be forgotten, but may they
   be words that shall awaken some here whom God intends to bless!

   II. Now I must pass on to the second point--AN INCORRECT VERDICT
   AGAINST OURSELVES.

   Sometimes our heart condemns us, but in doing so, it gives a wrong
   verdict. And then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the
   case into a higher court, for "God is greater than our heart, and knows
   all things." This is giving another sense to the passage and almost all
   the great expositors say that there are two senses here--the legal
   sense and the evangelical sense. This evangelical sense was that which
   Luther was so bold in proclaiming. I will give you the meaning of the
   text in this way. The question before our heart is--are we Christians
   or not? Have we believed in Christ or not? Conscience takes knowledge
   of all our imperfections, failings, shortcomings--and says--"No, the
   man is not a Christian. He is guilty of such-and-such sins." And many a
   dear child of God, yes, and some of the best of God's children, have
   often had a verdict in the court of their own conscience which has been
   adverse to their hopes--the reason being that their conscience has been
   cognizant of only one side of the case, or they have forgotten some
   great and important Truth which ought to have been mentioned before the
   court--and then its verdict would have been different.

   I may have here many children of God who are condemned by their own
   conscience. And if I only looked within my own heart, it would condemn
   me. If I had to bring the evidences of my salvation from my prayers, my
   preaching, or my daily actions, my heart would condemn me! New evidence
   is sometimes brought into court which completely changes the aspect of
   the case. I daresay you have sometimes been a juryman and you would not
   like to tell your brother juryman how many times you have changed your
   mind while you have heard the evidence. But if you have listened to it
   attentively, I expect you have had half a dozen different opinions
   during the trial. You have heard the whole case against the prisoner
   and you have said to yourself, "He's certainly guilty." And you have
   thought, "Ah, Mr. Foreman, you shall have my verdict against him!" Then
   some evidence is brought which throws more light upon the case. And
   then something else is said in favor of the prisoner and you have said,
   "Ah, I was too much in a hurry," and before the whole case was
   finished, you have been quite satisfied that the man was innocent! It
   is just so with our heart--it condemns a man when it has only heard
   half the evidence. But happily, "God is greater than our heart, and
   knows all things."

   Here is the case. This man, a Believer in Jesus Christ, has been guilty
   of all these sins. He admits that he has. They are very many and very
   black, so it is a clear case that he should be condemned. No, it is
   not, for there is a circumstance that has not been mentioned yet. It is
   true that the man was deeply in debt to the Law of God, but his debt
   has been paid for him by his glorious Surety--and there is a receipt
   for it signed by God, Himself! Does not that alter the case? The debt
   is proved, it is true--but, as soon as the debt is proved, the receipt
   is produced to show that the debt has been discharged! The Christian
   comes into court and says, "I admit my guilt, but I plead that Christ
   suffered in my place. I confess my sin, but I also claim that it was
   laid upon Christ and though my heart condemns me, God is greater than
   my heart and He does not condemn me, for He looks upon His dear Son and
   sees me in Him, "accepted in the Beloved."

   A man is tried for a certain crime, but his counsel assures the court
   the man who committed that crime is dead and that the prisoner at the
   bar is not that man at all. A reliable witness is produced who
   testifies that he knew the other man well and that he saw him dead and
   buried. And another trustworthy person declares that the prisoner at
   the bar is a different man altogether. So it is with us today--every
   true Believer in Christ can say, "I was verily guilty, but I died with
   Christ and was buried with Him and now I am a new creature in Christ
   Jesus! Old things have passed away and all things have become new. I am
   no longer what I once was, for I have been begotten again unto a lively
   hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The case
   against the prisoner stands as it did before and the heart was right in
   condemning him--but now there is more light thrown on the subject and
   he can confidently ask, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
   elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ
   that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
   hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." Through the death and
   Resurrection of Christ and our union to Him, so that they are counted
   as our death and resurrection, we have passed into a state of
   justification! And through the substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ, the
   sin which was laid at our door has ceased to be and we are accounted
   righteous through the righteousness of Christ! So that, "if our heart
   condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things."

   Have you ever had a battle (I know you have, if you are a true child of
   God), with your own evidences? It is usually very poor work to turn
   over your own evidences. I believe that lawyers enjoy poring over musty
   old deeds because there are generally six-and-eight-pences or guineas
   to come to them as the result. But I cannot say that I am much
   interested in "rights, easements, hereditaments," and so on--and the
   experience of reading an old deed is very much like the experience of
   turning over your own evidences. You say, "I am a man of prayer." But
   what kind of prayer was it? Why, your thoughts were wandering all the
   time you were praying! "But," you say, "I do love God." "Ah," cries the
   devil, "and a precious kind of love it is! It needs a microscope to see
   it if there is any love there at all!" "Ah, but I do long after
   holiness." "You have nobody to bear witness to that but yourself," says
   the devil, "for as soon as a sin looks attractive to you, though you do
   not actually go to it, you know that your heart goes after it." "But my
   faith is fixed on Christ." "Ah, but where does your unbelief go? You
   would like to trust to yourself, after all, if you dared to do so!"
   Satan can generally beat us in an argument and when our own conscience
   also condemns us, the best thing is to go straight away to the Court of
   King's Bench and say, "The devil is too strong for us, so we will go
   where we can leave our case in the hands of our great Advocate who is
   more than a match for Satan."

   Then, Beloved, God can often see in His people the good which they
   cannot see in themselves. And I believe He likes best those people who
   think least of themselves. When you look into the mirror, do you see a
   very lovely face? Ah, then you have never really seen yourself! But if
   you look into the mirror and see yourself defiled and filthy--and then
   see the change that Christ works in you--you are one of those whom God
   loves because He loves those who are contrite in spirit and broken in
   heart--and who think little of themselves.

   "Well," says one, "I never had a doubt about my state. I have always
   felt sure that I was all right." Then, my Friend, if you never had a
   doubt about yourself, allow me to doubt for you. Ah, Beloved, it is not
   high thoughts that prove us to be Christians--it is lying humbly in the
   dust before the Mercy Seat that is one of the sure signs that we are
   the children of God! So although your heart condemns you, as my own
   heart and conscience have condemned me a thousand times, I trust that
   you can yet say with me--

   "Ido believe, I will believe

   That Jesus died for me!

   That on the Cross He shed His blood

   From sin to set me free."

   Savior, I will trust You and I do trust You. Lost and ruined, and
   guilty, and all but damned, I will still trust You--and so You cannot
   cast me away, for You have promised, "Him that came to Me I will in no
   wise cast out."

   So, you see, there is a blessedly comforting meaning in these words of
   the Apostle John as well as a meaning that should awaken us all to
   earnest concern about our real standing in the sight of God.

   III. Now, thirdly, we have A CORRECT VERDICT OF ACQUITTAL, "If our
   heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God."

   When is it that our heart does not condemn us? Of course it always
   condemns us i n some things. There may be people in the world who are
   perfect. I would like to have the pleasure of their acquaintance, yet I
   do not know whether they would like to have the pleasure of mine, for I
   am afraid that my imperfections and their perfections would make a
   quarrel, before long, and I do not know whether they would not be the
   people to quarrel first. Superior articles generally crack the soonest
   and whenever a Brother has had a very high polish on him and much
   varnish of the very first quality, I have generally proved him to be a
   hypocrite before long! Still, it is not my business to judge him--to
   his own Master let him stand or fall. If he is perfect, I say again
   that I should like to know him, for I know that I am not perfect.

   But our heart does not condemn us about some things. For instance, we
   ask, "Are we really sincere in our profession of religion?" and our
   conscience answers, "Yes, we do not make a profession of religion in
   order to gain by it, nor because it makes us respectable, nor because
   it brings us comfort and ease. God knows that we do it because we
   cannot help doing it! We love Christ and we must take sides with Him
   and unless we are utterly deceived, we are sincere in saying that we
   are followers of Christ." I am putting these words into the mouths of
   those of you who really feel that you ought to utter them. And I trust
   that each one of you will join me in saying, "I am a poor lost sinner,
   but I do trust in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I do hang upon
   Him as the only Savior. And if that is the faith that saves the soul, I
   certainly have exercised it. I have no reliance on any ceremony, or any
   doctrine, or anything that I can do, or feel, or say, or be-- nothing
   but the crucified, risen and glorified Christ is my confidence."
   Beloved, that is one thing in which our heart does not condemn us!

   And then, it is the same when we can add, "With all our imperfections,
   we feel that we do love God's people and we do love our feelowmen. We
   desire to relieve their distresses as far as we can. And as much as
   lies in us, we desire to promote the happiness and comfort of others."
   If a man cannot say this, he cannot claim to be a Christian because any
   man who lives for himself is no more a Christian than the devil is! The
   first objective of the Christian is to glorify God. And the next
   objective is to make other people happy. Those who never study other
   people in the household, but are selfish and let their narrow soul be
   confined within their own ribs, have nothing about them in common with
   a real Christian. If a man truthfully says, "I love others and I
   especially love the saints of God," then he may say that his conscience
   does not condemn him. I am not saying this on my own authority. Let me
   turn your attention to a few of the verses preceding our text, reading
   from the 14th verse--"We know that we have passed from death unto life
   because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in
   death...Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His
   life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But
   whoever has this world's good and sees his brother has need and shuts
   up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
   My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in
   deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and
   shall assure our hearts before Him." You see, this is the very evidence
   that God gives--that by our love to others, our hearts will be assured
   before Him and we shall have confidence concerning our own relationship
   towards God.

   There is one other thing about which our hearts do not condemn us--we
   do feel that we love holiness and love righteousness. And though we do
   not always act as we should, and have to mourn over our sins, yet we
   hate them and loathe ourselves for going into sin. We would, if we
   could, have perfect tempers. We would, if we could, act in perfect
   righteousness towards man and in perfect holiness towards God.

   It is the duty of a Christian to be strictly just in all his business
   transactions and not to ask, "What is the custom of the trade?" The
   customs of many trades are dishonest--and the usual modes of carrying
   them on are little better than systematic roguery. I have heard of men
   who mark a hundred as a hundred and twenty, and who mark goods as of
   certain

   lengths when they know they are not of such lengths. And they say, "It
   is the custom of the trade." Well, if it is the custom of your trade to
   lie, remember that it is God's custom to send all liars to Hell! A
   Christian has no right to lie even if all the world should concur in
   the lies! He should say, "No, I serve the God of Truth and, come what
   may, no lie shall defile my tongue, for Christ has cleansed it and made
   it His own."

   Our text says, "If our heart condemn us not," and we thus know that we
   are God's children, "then have we confidence toward God." I wish I had
   an hour in which to preach upon this part of the text, though I daresay
   you do not! But these words are full of comfort, "then have we
   confidence toward God." The man who has a clear conscience, like a
   little bird, to sing in his heart, has confidence toward God in this
   way. He knows that he is the Lord's and that God loves him. He knows
   that God will not do him any hurt and knows that God is blessing
   him--and will continue to bless him. He knows that God is his Father
   and his Friend and he, therefore, goes to God in great confidence about
   his troubles and tells them all to Him. He has much confidence in
   prayer and he may talk to God in prayer in a way which other people may
   think too familiar, yet it will not be so. His heart is right with God
   and, therefore, he has confidence toward God. He does not doubt God's
   faithfulness, or God's Truth, or God's power, or God's veracity. He
   simply confides in God and lets things go as they will, for he knows
   that God is ruling and overruling all--and he walks through the world
   with a childlike, restful confidence--knowing that God will keep him
   and preserve him even to the end. And when he has to die, he will die
   in confidence. And when he rises from the grave, he will rise in
   confidence. And when the world is all ablaze, he will behold the last
   great conflagration without alarm. And when he stands before the
   Judgment Seat of Christ, he will stand there without a tremor! He has
   confidence toward God, for he has peace within him.

   IV. Now I have very briefly to speak concerning AN INCORRECT VERDICT OF
   ACQUITTAL.

   There are some persons whose hearts do not condemn them for this
   reason--their hearts are hopelessly indifferent. God save you, my dear
   Hearers, from a heart which is so full of pride that it is, as David
   says, "as fat as grease," from a heart that is harder than adamant and
   from a heart that knows it is guilty, but will not condemn itself, but
   whispers, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace! There are tens of
   thousands of men walking the streets of London who are living
   habitually in the worst of sin, yet their hearts are so petrified and
   rendered so perverse from everything like right judgment, that they
   rarely, if ever, appear to condemn them!

   But I take leave to tell them that what little heart they have left
   does condemn them for this reason, that when a man's heart is right and
   does not condemn him, he has confidence toward God. Ask these men
   whether they have any confidence toward God. "God!" they say, "do not
   let us even hear His name! How do you know that there is a God?" Such
   men never feel so easy in mind and never are in such an argumentative
   mood as when some precious philosopher attempts to prove that there is
   no God--that is the very thing for them! Would not the devil's children
   ring all the bells for many a day if they could but prove that there
   was no God? What a jubilation there would be among the rogues, thieves,
   vagabonds and skeptics if they could once feel sure that there was no
   God! It would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us who
   love Him, but to them it would be the best thing that could happen
   according to their notions. And why? Because there is something within
   their heart that tells them, after all, that they are not right--and as
   they do not want to get right, they try to persuade themselves that
   there is no God! That is their way of getting a little sleep for their
   conscience.

   But they are not really as quiet as they think they are. Supposing I
   were to ask such a man who was so quiet and at ease, whether he would
   mind sitting down for half-an-hour when he got home to look into the
   future and see whether there is a judgment, a Heaven, and a Hell--what
   would be the result? "Not I," he says, "I am not going to bother myself
   about such things as those!" It is said that you ought not to talk
   about the gallows if you know that there is anybody present who had a
   relative who was hung. And these men, in like manner, do not like us to
   talk about judgment, Heaven, and Hell. O Sirs, you are like the silly
   ostrich that buries its head in the sand and hopes that nobody will see
   it! Why, if there are no such things, it will have done you good to
   have thought about them and to have confirmed yourself in the notions
   of which you boast so much!

   I also ask you to do another thing. You say that your heart does not
   condemn you, but will you, for a little while, contemplate death? We
   will let judgment alone for a minute. I suppose you believe that you
   will die--you have not yet discovered a patent for the preservation of
   highly-cultured intellects from the vulgar hands of the sexton, have
   you? You do not expect that education will keep you out of the tomb, do
   you? So will you think about death? "No," says the man,

   "I shall do nothing of the sort! It would give me the blues for a
   week." Ah, I see, I see! Your conscience has not acquitted you, after
   all, for, if it had, you would not be so unwilling to think about
   death! I do not object to think of death and there is no Believer in
   Christ here who objects to thoughts of death, but rather we pray, "So
   teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
   There must be something radically wrong about that supposed ease and
   peace of mind which will not bear contemplations of death and judgment.
   The fact is, you are condemned by your own heart for if you were not,
   you would have confidence toward God! And let me assure you that those
   who have once experienced confidence toward God, greatly rejoice in it!
   It is the joy of life and it will light up even the dark valley of
   death! Confidence in God is, in fact, the beginning of Heaven, and I
   think it is a part of the very fruition of Heaven itself!

   God bless you, dear Friends! May we all be led to faith in Jesus
   Christ! Remember that there is salvation in Him. Whoever trusts Jesus
   Christ is saved! Whoever relies upon His finished work shall never come
   into condemnation and even though his heart may sometimes accuse him,
   Christ will clear him from all guilt through His own most precious
   blood. May this be the happy portion of each one of you here! May each
   one to able to say--

   "In Christ I have believed, And through the spotless Lamb Grace and
   salvation have received! In Him complete I am."

   In closing my sermon, I ask every individual here that old and personal
   question, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" Somebody says, "Yes, I do
   believe in Him, glory be to His holy name." I hope there are many in
   this place who can truly say, "With all our hearts we do believe in
   Jesus Christ our Savior. We have a thousand infirmities, but we do
   trust in Him." Just a notch lower there is one who says. "I do believe
   in Jesus, but not as fully as I would like to." Ah, well, dear Brother,
   faith grows if is true faith! That is a good prayer, "Lord, I believe;
   help You my unbelief." I expect you will get higher, by-and-by, and be
   able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is
   able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

   Another friend says, "I hope and trust that I do believe in Jesus."
   Brother, get out of that stage, I implore you! I never like to "hope
   and trust" in that fashion. When I get to bed at night and say to
   myself, "Did I lock the door?" I am not content to lie there and say,
   "I hope and trust that I did." There may be a thief in the garden, so
   it will not be safe for me to "hope and trust" that all doors and
   windows are properly fastened. We like to be sure about these less
   important matters--how much more ought we to be sure about the
   salvation of our souls! If a man owes you a hundred pounds and someone
   says to you, "Is he solvent?" it is not very satisfactory if you can
   only say, "I hope he is." You will feel much easier in your mind when
   you knowthat he is solvent! And it is a great deal better to know that
   you are saved than to go on hoping and hoping, or saying, "I hope and
   trust it is all right." You are either saved or you are not saved--do
   get to know which is true! Give no rest to your eyes nor slumber to
   your eyelids till you really know that you are trusting in Jesus and,
   therefore, you are saved!

   Somebody a little lower down says, "I do not know whether I believe in
   Jesus or not." Well, if you do not know, nobody else can tell you. And
   I would recommend you to begin trusting Christ now. I always find that
   the shortest way to deal with doubt and fear is to say, "Well, if I am
   not a Believer in Jesus Christ, I will believe in Him now." So I urge
   you, my Friend, to go to Him and say--

   "Just as I am--without one plea But that Your blood was shed for me And
   that You did bid me come to You, O Lamb of God, I come."

   Begin tonight, dear Friend! If you fancied you did begin once before,
   begin again, now! And if you never did begin before, begin now!

   "Well," says another, "I am trying to believe in Jesus." That is
   another grade and it is all wrong, for a man cannot truly say that he
   is trying to believe in Jesus. What are you doing to help you to
   believe in Him? Are you hearing the Gospel earnestly? Are you searching
   the Scriptures for evidence concerning Christ? Or are you just doing
   nothing but saying "I am trying to believe?" Suppose I read an article
   in the newspaper and then say, "I am trying to believe it." Well, if I
   am searching for evidence and questioning others as to whether it is
   true or not, I speak correctly--but if I

   merely put the paper away and sit down and say, "I will try to believe
   it"--that is absurd! The fact is, you do not believe in Jesus or you
   would not say, "I am trying to believe in Him." "Well," says one, "I do
   not yetbelieve in Jesus, but I wish I did." I like to hear you say
   those last words, for when a man wishes to believe what is certainly
   true, I think he will soon believe it! There is many a man who has
   wished to believe a lie till he has believed it--and I think that a man
   who wishes to believe the Truth of God has the easier task of the two!
   May the ever-blessed Spirit lead you into a solemn conviction of the
   Truth as it is in Jesus!

   If there is one here who says, "I do not believe in Jesus and I do not
   want to believe in Him," may God have mercy upon that poor sinner and
   save him tonight--and God shall have the Glory both now and forever!
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Paul Cheered in Prison by His Lord

   (No. 3153)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing
   lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces by them, commanded the
   soldiers to go down and to take him by force from among them, and to
   bring him into the castle. And the following night the Lord stood by
   him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as you have testified of Me
   in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome. And when it was
   day, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a
   curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had
   killed Paul. And they were more than forty which had made this
   conspiracy." Acts 23:10-13.

   FROM the midnight whisper of the Lord to Paul we may draw forth sweet
   encouragement. Those of the Lord's children who have been engaged in
   His work and are called to suffer in it, have here a special word of
   consolation!

   Paul had been in a great tumult and had been roughly rescued from the
   wrath of the people by the chief captain who saw that otherwise he
   would be pulled in pieces. Paul was like the rest of us, made of flesh
   and blood and, therefore, liable to be cast down. He had kept himself
   calm at first, but still, the strong excitement of the day had no doubt
   operated upon his mind and when he was lying in prison all alone,
   thinking upon the perils that surrounded him, he needed good cheer--and
   he received it. The bravest man may find his spirit sinking after the
   battle and so perhaps it was with the Apostle.

   I. In this passage, we note the good cheer that came to Paul in the
   dungeon. This consisted, first, in HIS MASTER'S PRESENCE--"the Lord
   stood by him."

   If all else forsook him, Jesus was company enough! If all others
   despised him, the smile of Jesus was patronage enough! If the good
   cause seemed in danger--in the Presence of his Master victory was sure!
   The Lord, who had stood for him at the Cross, now stood by him in the
   prison. The Lord, who had called to him out of Heaven, who had washed
   him in His blood, who had commissioned him to be His servant, who had
   often sustained him in labors and trials, now visited him in his
   solitary cell! It was a dungeon, but the Lord was there! It was dark,
   but the Glory of the Lord lit it up with Heaven's own splendor! Better
   to be in a jail with the Lord than to be in Heaven without Him! The
   harps above could make no heavenly place without Jesus--and Jesus being
   there, the clanking fetters and the cold floor of the stony cell could
   not suggest a sorrow.

   "The Lord stood by him." This shall be said of each one who diligently
   serves God. Dear Friend, if you are a worker for the Lord Jesus, depend
   upon it, He will not desert you. If, in the course of your endeavors,
   you are brought into sadness and depression, you shall then find it
   sweetly true that the Lord stands by you. Did you ever forsake a friend
   who was spending his strength for you? If you have done so, you ought
   to be ashamed of yourself, but I think I hear you say indignantly, "No,
   I have always been faithful to my faithful friend." Do not, therefore,
   suspect your Lord of treating you ungenerously, for He is faithful and
   true. All your former helpers may desert you--Sadducees, Pharisees and
   scribes may all set themselves to oppose you--but with the Lord at your
   right hand you shall not be moved! Cheer up, desponding Brothers and
   Sisters--

   "God is near you, therefore cheer up, Sad soul!

   He'll defend you when around you Billows roll."

   II. The next comfort for Paul was the reflection that THE LORD'S
   STANDING BY HIM PROVED THAT HE KNEW WHERE HE WAS AND WAS AWARE OF HIS
   CONDITION.

   The Lord had not lost sight of Paul because he was shut up in the
   common jail. One is reminded of the Quaker who came to see John Bunyan
   in prison and said to him, "Friend, the Lord sent me to you and I have
   been seeking you in half the prisons in England." "No, verily," said
   John, "that cannot be! For if the Lord had sent you to me, you would
   have come here at once, for He knows I have been here for years!" God
   has not a single jewel laid by and forgotten. "You see Me" is a great
   consolation to one who delights himself in the Lord. Many and diverse
   are the prisons of affliction in which the Lord's servants are shut up.
   One may be lying in the prison of pain, chained by the leg or by the
   hand, through accident or disease. Or perhaps he is shut up in the
   narrow cell of poverty, or in the dark room of bereavement, or in the
   dungeon of mental depression--but the Lord knows in what ward His
   servant is shut up and He will not leave him to pine away forgotten,
   "as a dead man out of mind."

   The Lord stood by Paul despite doors and locks. He asked no warden's
   leave to enter, nor did He stir bolt or bar, but there He was--the
   Companion of His humble servant! The Lord can visit His chosen when
   nobody else could be allowed to do so because of contagion, or from
   fear of exciting the fevered brain. If we come into such a peculiar
   position that no earthly friend knows our experience--none having been
   tempted as we are--yet the Lord Jesus can enter into our special trial
   and sympathize in our peculiar grief. Jesus can stand side by side with
   us, for He has been afflicted in all our afflictions.

   What is more, that part of our circumstances which we do not ourselves
   know, Jesus knows, and in these He stands by us, for Paul was not aware
   of the danger to which he was exposed. He did not know that certain
   Jews, to the number of forty, had banded themselves together to kill
   him! But He who was his shield and his exceeding great reward had heard
   the cruel oath and arranged to disappoint the bloodthirsty ones. Dear
   Friend, the Lord knows all about your troubles before they come to
   you--He anticipates them by His tender foresight. Before Satan can draw
   the bow, the Preserver of men will put His Beloved beyond the reach of
   the arrow. Before the weapon is forged in the furnace and fashioned on
   the anvil, He knows how to provide us with armor of proof which shall
   burn the edge of the sword and break the point of the spear. Let us
   therefore sing with holy boldness, "In the time of trouble He shall
   hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide
   me. He shall set me up upon a rock." How safe we are, for Jehovah has
   said, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every
   tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall condemn."
   With joy, therefore, let us draw water out of these two wells of
   salvation--the Lord is present with us and He knows us altogether!
   Putting the two thoughts together, we may hear Him say to our inmost
   souls--

   "I, the Lord, am with you,

   Beyou not afraid!

   I will help and strengthen,

   Be you not dismayed!

   Yes, I will uphold you

   With My own right hand.

   You are called and chosen

   In My sight to stand!

   Onward then, and fear not,

   Children of the day!

   For His Word shall never,

   Never pass away."

   III. When the Lord Jesus came to Paul, He gave him a third reason for
   courage. He said, "Be of good cheer, Paul: for you have testified of Me
   in Jerusalem. THERE WAS MUCH COMFORT IN THIS ASSURANCE THAT HIS WORK
   WAS ACCEPTED OF HIS MASTER.

   We dare not look for much joy in anything that we have done, for our
   poor works are all imperfect. And yet the Lord sometimes gives His
   servants honey in the carcasses of lions which they have, themselves,
   slain, by pouring into their souls a sweet sense of having walked in
   integrity before Him. Before the Great Day of reward, the Lord whispers
   into the ear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Or He says openly
   before all men, "She has done what she could." Herein is good cheer,
   for if the Lord accepts, it is a small matter if men condemn! The Lord
   says to Paul, "You have testi-

   fied of Me in Jerusalem." The Apostle had done so, but he was too
   humble to console himself with that fact till his Lord gave him leave
   to do so by acknowledging the brave deed!

   Perhaps, dear Friend, you also shall be made to remember that you have
   borne witness for Jesus and that your life has not been altogether in
   vain. It may be that your conscience makes you more familiar with your
   faults than with your services, and you rather sigh than sing as you
   look back upon your Christian career. Yet your loving Lord covers all
   your failures and commends you for what His Grace has enabled you to do
   in the way of witness-bearing. It must be sweet to you to hear Him say,
   "I know your works; for you have a little strength and have kept My
   Word, and have not denied My name."

   Be faithful to your Lord, dear Friend, if you are now in prosperity,
   for thus you will be laying up a store of cheering memories for years
   to come. To look back upon a well-spent life will not cause an atom of
   legal boasting to an experienced Believer--but it will justly create
   much holy rejoicing! Paul was able to rejoice that he had not run in
   vain, neither labored in vain--and happy are we if we can do the same.
   If it is right for us to chasten our conscience on account of
   omissions, it must be lawful ground for thankful joy that our heart
   condemns us not, for then have we confidence towards God. [See Sermon
   #3152, Volume 55--THE LOWER COURTS.] If any of

   us should fall into straitened circumstances, it will be a comfort to
   be able to say, "When I was rich, I freely used my wealth for my Lord."
   If we are ill, it will be a satisfaction to remember that when we were
   in health, we used our strength for Jesus. These are reflections which
   give light in the shade and make music at midnight. It is not out of
   our own reflections that the joy arises, but out of the witness of the
   Holy Spirit that the Lord is not unrighteous to forget our work of
   faith and labor of love.

   IV. A fourth comfort remained for Paul in the words, "As you have
   testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome."
   The Lord would have us take comfort from THE PROSPECT OF FUTURE SERVICE
   AND USEFULNESS. We are not done with yet--and thrown aside as vessels
   in which the Lord has no more pleasure. This is the chief point of
   comfort in our Lord's word to the Apostle. Be of good courage, there is
   more for you to do, Paul. They cannot kill you at Jerusalem, for you
   must bear witness also at Rome.

   Brace yourself up, O weary, working Brother, for your day's work is not
   yet over and your sun cannot go down till, like Joshua, you have
   finished your conflict with Amalek! The old saying is true, "You are
   immortal till your work is done." Possibly not one half of your work is
   even begun and, therefore, you will rise again from sickness, you will
   soar above depression and you will do more for the Lord than ever! It
   will yet be said to you, as to the angel of the Church in Thyatira, "I
   know your works, and the last to be more than the first." Wycliffe
   could not die though the malicious monks favored him with their best
   wishes in that direction. "No," said the Reformer, "I shall not die,
   but live, and declare all the evil deeds of the friars." The sight of
   rogues to be exposed awakened his flickering life and revived its
   flame. Disease could not carry off Melancthon because he had eminent
   service yet to do, side by side with Luther. I have admired the way in
   which the great Reformer dragged his friend back to life by assuring
   him that the great work needed him and he must recover. "He devoutly
   prayed, 'We implore You, O Lord our God. We cast all our burdens on You
   and will cry till You hear us, pleading all the promises which can be
   found in the Holy Scriptures respecting Your hearing prayer, so that
   You must indeed hear us to preserve at all future periods our entire
   confidence in Your own promises. After this, he seized hold of
   Melanchthon's hand and said, 'Be of good courage, Philip, YOU SHALL NOT
   DIE.'" He prayed his friend back from the mouth of the grave and sent
   him on his way comforted with the truthful prediction that he had yet
   to bear more testimony for the Truth of God! Surely there is no
   restorative from sickness and no insurance for continued life like the
   confidence that our task is not done--and our race is not ended!

   Godly Whitefield, when smitten with a dangerous illness, rose again to
   renew his seraphic activities after his death had become matter of
   daily expectation. It is said, in connection with this event, that
   shortly after his recovery, a poor Black woman insisted on having an
   interview with him. On being admitted, she sat down upon the ground and
   looking earnestly into his face, said to him in broken language,
   "Massa, you just go to Heaven's gate, but Jesus Christ said, 'Get you
   down; you must not come here yet, but go first and call some more poor
   Negroes.'" And who would not be willing to tarry here to win more poor
   Negroes for Jesus? Even the bliss of Heaven may be cheerfully postponed
   for such a gain!

   Come, then, ailing and desponding one, there is no use in lying down in
   despair, for a life of usefulness is still in reserve for you! Up,
   Elijah, and no more ask to die, for God has further errands for His
   servant! Neither the lion nor the bear can kill you, O David, for you
   have yet to fight a giant and cut off his head! Be not fearful, O
   Daniel, of the rage of Babylon's drunken king, for you are yet to
   outlive the rage of hungry lions! Courage, O you mistrustful
   spirit--you have only run with the footmen as of yet--you shall yet
   contend with horses and prove more than a match for them! Therefore
   lift up the hands that hang down! "You must stand before Caesar." A
   Divine decree ordains for you greater and more trying service than as
   yet you have seen. A future awaits you and no power on the earth or
   under the earth can rob you of it--therefore be of good cheer!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS 25-26; 1 JOHN 4.

   Acts 25:1. Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days
   he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Porcius Festus had been
   appointed governor in the place of Felix who had left Paul a prisoner
   so as to please the Jews, though he would have been willing enough to
   release him if Paul or his friends would have given him a sufficiently
   heavy bribe. He had trembled as Paul had "reasoned of righteousness,
   temperance, and judgment to come," but his conscience had not been so
   quickened as to make him act justly towards the Apostle. Yet his
   unrighteous conduct was made to serve the Lord's purpose, which was
   that Paul should testify before one earthly ruler after another until
   he should ultimately appear before the cruel Nero, himself, at Rome.
   Paul was at Caesarea, but he was not at once brought before Festus.
   When the governor went up to Jerusalem, the Apostle's enemies renewed
   their plotting against him

   2, 3. Then the high priest and the chiefofthe Jews informedhim against
   Paul, and besought him, and desired favor against him, that he would
   send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him. They had
   been foiled in their previous attempt to assassinate the Apostle but
   their malice led them to try again to put him to death in that
   dastardly fashion.

   4, 5. But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that
   he himself would depart shortly there. Let them therefore, said he,
   which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if
   there is any wickedness in him. Whether Festus suspected their real
   reason for being so anxious for him to send for Paul, we cannot tell,
   but at any rate, their scheme was once more a failure.

   6, 7. And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went
   down unto Caesarea, and the next day sitting on the judgment seat
   commanded Paul to be brought AAnd when he was come, the Jews which came
   down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous
   complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.It was easy for
   them to lay many and grievous complaints against Paul, yet it was not
   only difficult but impossible for them to prove their charge against
   the Apostle!

   8, 9. While he answered for himself, "Neither against the law of the
   Jews, neither against the Temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I
   offended anything at all." But Festus, willing to do the Jew's
   pleasure. In that respect he was just like his predecessor, Felix. No
   doubt he took into account the number and position of Paul's accusers
   and thought it would be the wiser policy to side with them rather than
   with the prisoner and, therefore, "Festus, willing to do the Jews a
   pleasure."

   9-11. Answered Paul, and said, Will you go up to Jerusalem, and there
   be judged of these things before me? Then said Paul, I stand at
   Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I
   done no wrong, as you very well know. For if I am an offender, or have
   committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there
   are none of these things of which these accuse me, no man may deliver
   me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.As a freeborn Roman citizen, he had
   the right of appeal to the emperor--and that right he exercised. It may
   be that he also realized that this was the way in which the Lord's
   prophecy would be fulfilled--"Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have
   testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome."

   12. Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Have
   you appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shall you go. The die was
   cast--there was no need to argue the matter any further.

   13-16. And after certain days King Agrippa and Bernice came unto
   Caesarea to salute Festus. And when they had been there many days,
   Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain
   man left in bonds by Felix: about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the
   chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have
   judgment against him. To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the
   Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is

   accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for
   himself concerning the crime laid against him. Festus must have felt
   profound contempt for the chief priests and elders of the Jews who
   clamored for Paul's death even before he had been tried--and he made it
   very plain to them that this was not the Roman way even if it were the
   Jewish method of dealing with accused persons.

   17-19. Therefore, when they were come here, without any delay on the
   morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought
   forth. Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought no
   accusations of such things as I supposed: but had certain questions
   against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was
   dead,

   whom Paul affirmed to be alive. [See Sermon #2016, Volume 34--JESUS
   AFFIRMED TO BE ALIVE.] Festus may have supposed that they would have
   accused Paul of plotting against Rome, or of some other political
   crime. He would have thought such matters of far greater importance
   than the "certain questions against him of their own superstition, and
   of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Paul
   could make that affirmation with the utmost confidence, for Christ had
   appeared to him on the road to Damascus, proving without doubt that,
   though once dead, He was again alive.

   20-22. And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked'him
   whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.
   But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus,
   I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. Then
   Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow,
   said he, you shall hear him. So Paul's witness-bearing was made to
   spread still further! It is scarcely possible to conceive of any other
   circumstances in which the Gospel could have been made known to such an
   audience as the Apostle was, on the morrow, to have the opportunity of
   addressing!

   23. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great
   pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief
   captains and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was
   brought forth. It was such a congregation as Paul was only too glad to
   address--and the Gospel could not have had a nobler or worthier
   advocate--yet we do not read of any who were present yielding up
   himself or herself to the Lord Jesus Christ.

   4. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present
   with us, you see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews
   have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he
   ought not to live any longe. Festus took care that the Jews would not
   be able to forget that they had demanded the death of a man who had not
   even been put on trial.

   25-27. But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death,
   and that he himself has appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. I
   have nothing certain to write to my lord about him. Therefore I have
   brought him forth before you, and especially before you, O King
   Agrippa, so that after the examination has takenplace, Imight have
   something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner,
   and not to signify the crimes laid against him.The governor talked like
   a man of sense and he even went so far as to say that the prisoner
   before him "had committed nothing worthy of death."

   Acts 26:1. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, You are permitted to speak for
   yourself Then Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself.l do
   not suppose Agrippa imagined that Paul would take all the liberty that
   he did, but inasmuch as the king had said to him, "You are permitted to
   speak for yourself," Paul, who even when he was permitted to speak for
   himself, did not forget that he was the servant of God and used that
   liberty as the servant of God! And so he took the opportunity to seek
   to impress the Truth of God upon the conscience and heart of the king.
   Thus Paul answered for himself.

   2, 3. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for
   myself this day before you, touching all the things of which I am
   accused of the Jews: especially because I know you to be expert in all
   customs and questions which are among the Jews: therefore I beseech you
   to hear me patientl. It is always well to try to be on good terms with
   the person whom you wish to impress with the Truth of the Gospel. Paul,
   therefore, did not begin bluntly, as some foolish people would have
   done, but he addressed the king most courteously and respectfully. I
   think I see the little man, as he doubtless was, Paul--the man with
   feeble eyes and with no great bodily presence to command attention--yet
   bravely stretching out his hand and, like a preacher, thus addressing
   Herod Agrippa!

   4-7. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my
   own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the
   beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of
   our religion, I lived a Phari-

   see. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of
   God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly
   serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King
   Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. The Jews still had hope concerning
   the promise of the Messiah and all the promises in God's Covenant with
   them. And Paul says that for the sake of this hope he had been led to
   do that which had now brought him as a prisoner before the king.

   Notice that the fiction concerning "the ten lost tribes" has no
   foundation in Scripture. There are no lost tribes, several of them are
   mentioned by name in the New Testament. The Apostle James writes "to
   the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," and here Paul speaks of
   them as "our twelve tribes." The Jews whom we have among us at this day
   belong to all of the twelve tribes, as they will tell you if you ask
   them. There are no lost tribes yet to be discovered, neither are we, as
   a nation, those ten tribes that are supposed to have been lost! We are
   Gentiles and not Jews. The Apostle speaks here concerning the hope of
   the whole nation of the Jews. We who have believed in Jesus are the
   inheritors of that grand hope, as we have understood it correctly and
   have realized that it is fulfilled in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth,
   the only-begotten Son of God!

   8, Why shouldit be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should
   raise the dead?[See Sermon #1067, Volume 16--the

   RESURRECTION CREDIBLE.] That great fact of the Resurrection of

   Christ is the cornerstone of the temple of Truth, the keystone of the
   arch of the Gospel. The Apostles made this Truth of God very prominent
   in their preaching and here Paul began his address with it. It was the
   great difficulty of the Christian religion at that period, so Paul went
   straight to it at once.

   9, 10. I verily thought with myself, that Iought to do many things
   contrary to the name of Jesus ofNazareth. Which thing I also did in
   Jerusalem . For Paul was the kind of man who, if he thought he ought to
   do anything, he always did it. Even in his unregenerate state, his
   conscience, unenlightened as it was, swayed him. But now, with an
   enlightened conscience, he looked back upon that part of his life with
   deep regret--and he did not fail to acknowledge and mourn the wrong
   that he had ignorantly done to the Lord Jesus Christ and His faithful
   followers.

   10, 11. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received
   authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I
   gave my voice against them. And punished them often in every synagogue,
   and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against
   them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.Paul was a
   wholehearted man. Whatever he did, he did intensely, so that when he
   did wrong, he did it with a kind of madness. Such a furious hatred of
   Jesus of Nazareth was upon him that all Judaea was not large enough for
   the indulgence of his persecuting malice against the saints! And so he
   "persecuted them even unto strange cities."

   12-14. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission
   from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light
   from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining roundabout me and
   them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth,
   I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue,

   Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? [See Sermon #202, Volume 4--THE
   CONVERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS.] It is hard for you to kick against the
   pricks. He was like a stubborn ox kicking against the goads--the harder
   he kicked, the more the sharp points of the goads pricked him!

   15-18. And I said. Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom you
   persecute. But rise, and stand upon your feet: for I have appeared unto
   you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of
   these things which you have seen, and of the things which I will yet
   reveal to you. I will deliver you from the people, and from the
   Gentiles, unto whom now I send you, to open their eyes, and to turn
   them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that
   they may receive forgiveness ofsins, and inheritance among them which
   are sanctified by faith that is in Me. [See

   Sermon #1774, Volume 30--GOD'S WORK UPON MINISTER AND CONVERT.] Part

   of this address was spoken to Paul by Ananias when he came to open his
   eyes, hence some have thought that Paul here mixed up what was said to
   him by Christ and what was said by Ananias, yet all the while
   recognizing it as being virtually all one message from Christ--but I do
   not think so. I believe that Paul would have us understand that the
   Lord Jesus Christ actually said to him, on the road to Damascus, all
   that we have recorded here--and that when Ananias came to him, he,
   without having heard what the Lord had said to Paul, said the same
   thing to him--and this would be a kind of sign and token to the Apostle
   that what was said to him was really a message from God. How often this
   happens under every true Gospel ministry! The very thing that you were
   talking about while on your way to the service will be spoken to

   you by God's servant in the House of Prayer. That which you were
   reading before you came here may be the very subject selected for our
   present consideration, for God has a wondrous way of making one of His
   calls tally with another, so that the two meeting without any collusion
   on our part shall confirm and establish one another--and the more
   deeply impress the heart of the hearer!

   19-23. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the
   heavenly vision: but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at
   Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the
   Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet
   for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the Temple, and
   went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I
   continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none
   other thing than those which the Prophet and Moses did say should come:
   that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should
   rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the
   Gentiles. Paul stuck to the Scriptures and to the Gospel revealed in
   them--and was not speaking his own thoughts, ideas and notions--he was
   a herald proclaiming what his King bade him say and telling what the
   Grace of his Master made him only too glad to say!

   24, 25. And as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice,
   Paul, you are beside yourself Much learning is makingyou mad! But he
   said, Iam not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of
   truth and soberness. He had been "mad" once, as he had just confessed,
   but he had recovered from that madness. Now how calmly he replies to
   the taunt of Festus--there is nothing of anger or resentment about his
   dignified answer, "I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the
   words of truth and soberness."

   26, 27. For the king knows of these things, before whom also I speak
   freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from
   him; for this thing was not done in a corner King Agrippa--Now the
   Apostle comes to close grips with the king.

   27, 28. Believe you the Prophet? I know that you believe. Then Agrippa
   said unto Paul, "You almost persuade me

   to become a Christian.''" [See Sermon #871, Volume 15--TO THOSE WHO ARE
   "ALMOST PERSUADED."] A great deal of effort has been put forth to prove
   that Agrippa did not say anything of the kind, but that he was only
   laughing at Paul when he ironically said, "Are you going to make me a
   Christian so easily as this?" If so, the reply of Paul was singularly
   inappropriate, but taking Agrippa's words to be as they appear here,
   "You almost persuade me to become a Christian," Paul's answer can be
   well understood.

   29. And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also all that
   hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except
   these bonds. And in so speaking he skillfully hinted how unfairly he
   was chained before his judges--and yet how he wished ill to none, but
   only wished good to all!

   30, 31. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the
   governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them: and when they were
   gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man has done
   nothing worthy of death or of bonds. He had impressed Agrippa most
   favorably and it is quite clear that the king was not jesting with
   him--he was at least convinced that Paul had done "nothing worthy of
   death or of bonds."

   32. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at
   liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. But it was not God's
   purpose that Paul should be set at liberty--he must go to Rome and must
   there, before the emperor, himself, bear witness which he could not
   bear as a free man, but which the emperor must hear when Paul was
   brought before him as a prisoner who had appealed to him--and must
   therefore be heard in person!

   1 John 4:1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
   whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into
   the world. This is an injunction of which there is great need in the
   present day when so many accept anything that they hear from a "priest"
   or from a pastor without searching the Scriptures to see whether what
   they hear is in accordance with the Inspired Word of God!

   2. Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that
   Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Some say that Jesus Christ
   was not God. Others say that He was not Man, while some talk as if
   everything about Him was a mystery! But they who are truly sent by God
   declare plainly that Jesus Christ did literally come in the flesh--and
   such teachers are "of God."

   3. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the
   flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which
   you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the
   world. That was the form that antichrist took in John's day. It is
   constantly taking different forms, but it is always antichrist--against
   Christ.

   4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them. If you have
   a childlike spirit. If God has made you teachable as little children
   and His Spirit dwells within you, you will not be overcome by these
   false Prophets, but you will overcome them!

   4. Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.
   They may dupe the world, but they shall not dupe you. If it were
   possible, they would deceive the very elect, but that is not possible.

   5. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the
   world hears them. They are the world's prophets--they preach the
   world's doctrines, they flatter the world and the world likes that--so
   "the world hears them."

   6. We are of God: he that knows God hears us, he that is not of God
   hears us not. Hereby know we the spirit of Truth, and the spirit of
   error. They who accept the Apostolic teaching prove that they are "of
   God." There are some, nowadays, who say, "We accept the teaching of the
   Gospels, but we will have nothing to do with the Apostles and their
   Epistles"--thus they clearly show that they are not of God, for John
   says, writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit--"He that knows
   God hears us; he that is not of God hears us not."

   7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone
   that loves is born of God, and knows God. He who has the spirit of love
   within him "is born of God," "for love is of God." He who constantly
   seeks the good of others. He whose heart beats with love to those who
   are not within the narrow confines of His own ribs. He whose love goes
   forth to God and His people--and to the sons of men in general--this is
   the man who "is born of God, and knows God."

   8. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. He may be very
   orthodox, but if he does not love, he does not know God. And if he does
   not know God, what does he know? There is such a thing as holding the
   Truth of God in bitterness, but those who know God and are truly his
   children, hold the Truth of God in love.

   9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God
   sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Hi
   . That was the highest possible proof of love that even God could give
   us!

   10. 11. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,
   and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our

   sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
   [See Sermons #1707, Volume 29--"HEREIN IS LOVE"; #2447, Volume
   42--(same title) and #2394, Volume 41--LOVE'S CLIMAX.] As God "so loved

   us" when there was nothing lovable about us, and so loved us as to give
   His only-begotten Son to save us, "we ought also to love one another."

   12-14. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God
   dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
   dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And
   we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the
   Savior of the world. [See Sermon #2383, Volume 40--SEEING AND
   TESTIFYING.] John could testify as an eyewitness to the sufferings and
   death of Christ, for he stood at the foot of the Cross and saw the
   Savior die--and he had before laid his head upon his Master's breast.
   He knew that Christ was real flesh and blood and he knew that Christ
   really died, so he could truly say, "We have seen and do testify that
   the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world."

   15, 16. Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells
   in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that
   Godhas to us. Godis love, andhe that dwells in love dwells in God, and
   Godin him. This is a deep Book. The words are very simple and
   plain--mainly monosyllables, yet who among us can ever fathom the depth
   of this Epistle? May we fathom it so far as to plunge into its wondrous
   depths!

   17, 18. Wherein is our love madeperfect, that we may have boldness in
   the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There
   is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has
   torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. Questioning,
   mistrust, unbelief, doubt--all these die when we come truly and
   heartily to love our Lord! And in proportion as our love to Him burns
   like a flame of fire, it burns up all this wood, hay and stubble of
   trembling, slavish fear.

   19. We love Him because He first loved uS. [See Sermons #229, Volume
   5--LOVE; #1008, Volume 17--LOVE'S LOGIC and #2730, Volume 47-- THE
   SECRET OF LOVE TO GOD.] We Would never have loved Him unless He had
   "first loved us." His love to us begat our love to Him!

   20. If man says, Ilove God, and hates his brother, he is a liar John is
   very emphatic in his condemnation of such a man as that! Some of the
   most tender-hearted men in the world are the most blunt in their mode
   of speaking. And some of the most fawning flatterers are the most cruel
   in their hearts. We love John all the better because he writes so
   plainly, "If a man says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a
   liar."

   20. For he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love
   God whom he has not seen?Why, Sir, if you could see God, it is clear
   that you would not love Him. If you talk about your love to Him whom
   you have not seen, it is utterly false if you do not love men like
   yourself whom you have seen!

   21. And this commandment have we from Hi . That is, from the Lord
   Jesus, who again and again gave this commandment to His disciples.

   21. That he who loves God love his brother alsc. O lovers of God, prove
   the reality of your affection for Him by the genuineness of your love
   to your fellow men!
     __________________________________________________________________

Concerning The Forbearance Of God

   (No. 3154)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
   20, 1873.

   "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and
   long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to
   repentance?" Romans 2:4.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same verse, are as
   follows--Sermons #1714, Volume 29--EARNEST EXPOSTULATION and #2857,
   Volume 49-- GOD'S GOODNESS LEADING TO REPENTANCE.]

   IT is a great sign of love on God's part that He condescends to reason
   with men. When they had offended against Him, He might have said to
   them, "I will punish you for your offenses," and He might have gone His
   way until the day for carrying out His threat arrived. But instead of
   doing so, He is unwilling that any should perish. According to His own
   declaration, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would
   rather that he should turn unto Him and live. And, therefore, He pauses
   and expostulates. When a man has been greatly offended by another and
   is very angry with him, he does not usually stay to reason with his
   opponent--his anger is too hot for that. But if he is of a meek and
   gentle spirit, and anxious that the quarrel should be ended, he begins
   to reason with the other man and says to him, "Why did you act so
   unkindly towards me? Why did you treat me thus? You have acted most
   unjustly--have you no sense of right? I have not deserved this at your
   hands--why, then, did you thus deal with me? Come now, do you utterly
   hate or despise me, or why do you thus continue to annoy and provoke
   me?" In such a fashion as this, but with Infinite tenderness, the Lord
   reasons with sinners. So, dear Friend, if you are still unconverted,
   regard it as a clear proof of God's loving kindness toward you that He
   again sends to you the word of expostulation! Take it for granted that
   he desires your good and wishes you well, otherwise He would not have
   bid His servant say to you, "Do you despise the riches of His goodness
   and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of
   God leads you to repentance?"

   From the connection of our text, it would appear that there were some,
   in Paul's day, as there are in ours, who, seeing the great wickedness
   of mankind and observing that God did not at once destroy the ungodly,
   gathered from that fact that they, themselves, might sin with impunity.
   Seeing that God did not launch His thunderbolts at even the most gross
   sinners--and strike them with immediate and total destruction by
   pestilence, famine, or sword--these people wickedly said, "What does it
   matter what sins or crimes we commit? Evidently God is asleep, or winks
   at such deeds as these. Or perhaps there is no God at all! Anyhow, let
   us live in sin and take pleasure therein, for there will be no evil
   consequences to us if we do so. We may eat the fat, drink the sweet and
   enjoy ourselves to our hearts' content and there will be no one to call
   us to account." So that from the very fact that God was merciful and
   gracious, they inferred that they might be sinful and rebellious! And
   because God's foot was slow to come in vengeance, they imagined that
   God's hand would not be heavy when He did come, and they said, "Let us
   eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" It was to a sinner of this sort
   that Paul put the question, "Do you despise the riches of His goodness
   and forbearance and long-suffering?" I am going to put that question to
   you who are here--and I pray that the Holy Spirit may put it to the
   conscience of every unconverted man and woman!

   I. Now first LET US HONOR THE GOODNESS, FORBEARANCE AND LONG-SUFFERING
   OF GOD.

   The description given by the Apostle is threefold. "The riches of His
   goodness and forbearance and long-suffering." I shall probably not be
   wrong in saying that God's "goodness" may refer to the way in which He
   has overlooked all our past sins, so that He has not yet dealt with us
   in justice concerning them. His forbearance may refer to our present
   sins, the transgressions of this day and hour, and His long-suffering
   may refer to our future sins, for He knows that we shall

   continue to sin, yet He does not destroy us, but still bears with us.
   What a heavy weight is upon my mind and heart as I think of the
   forbearance of God towards the impenitent with regard to their past
   sins! Why, there are some of you who have committed sins that you would
   be ashamed to have mentioned--sins against light and knowledge, too,
   which you knew to be sins, not merely one or two, but very many! It
   would have been the easiest possible thing in the world for God to have
   destroyed you, yet He has not done so. How long can you keep your
   temper when you are provoked? Five minutes? Half an hour? "That is a
   long time," you say. Suppose you were insulted to your face, how long
   would you hold your peace and bear it? An hour? I fear there are not
   many of you who would do that, but that you would soon give an answer
   to the man who had dared thus to challenge you. What, then, shall I say
   of God, who has borne with some here thirty, forty, fifty, sixty,
   seventy, perhaps 80 years, in which the mere fact of their living has
   been an insult to Him, for they have lived in opposition to His will
   and His Law and have often defied Him to His face? And in their
   provoking blasphemy have even invited Him to damn their bodies and
   souls! Oh, the amazing mercy of a God who can bear with a sinner for 12
   months, who can even bear with him for 50 times 12 months and can still
   stand--and in tones of pity and entreaty say, "Come now, come even now,
   and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as
   scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like
   crimson, they shall be as wool."

   Then, next, it is no small mercy that God bears with your present sins,
   so despise not the riches of His forbearance to you now. Most of you
   have long been hearers of the Gospel. You are sitting in the place
   where you have sat and heard the Gospel preached hundreds of times--and
   the very pew you are sitting in might witness against you that although
   you have so long heard it, you have refused to obey it! You have
   promised better things, but you have never performed them. You have
   lied, not to men, but to God! You have lulled your conscience to sleep
   when God has spoken to you through it and you have even quenched His
   Holy Spirit when He has striven with you--yet up to this moment, God
   who, without uttering a word could send your guilty soul to Hell,
   forbears to do so! He cries, "How can I give you up?" He looks the
   rebel in the face and says to him, "How can I damn you? How can I cast
   you into Hell? My compassions are moved towards you. My repentings are
   kindled together." It is indeed great Grace for God to do this--and He
   is doing it now! Every moment that an unconverted man is out of Hell,
   God is manifesting towards him the riches of His forbearance. And it is
   no small strain upon Divine Mercy when men continue to sin
   notwithstanding this forbearance. The Roman lictors used to carry on
   their shoulders the rods with which prisoners were condemned to be
   beaten--and in the center of the rods was the axe for the final
   punishment of death. Those rods were bound with cords having many
   knots, and the lictors would slowly untie the knots while the judge
   waited to see if the prisoner would say something that would prevent
   him from being beaten--but when the last knot was untied, they bared
   his back to scourge him. The judge still looked at him to see if there
   was any sign of repentance--and if there was not any, then came the
   axe! So, with regard to some of you, God has been undoing the knots one
   by one--yes, and He has beaten you with more than one of His rods--you
   have suffered from sickness, poverty and many other tribulations. God's
   rods are smiting you now, but He is slow to take up the axe. He is
   stern in His judgment upon the impenitent, but He is full of pity and
   compassionate--and unwilling to deal the death-blow if it can be
   prevented! "Turn you," He says, "turn you from your evil ways; for why
   will you die, O house of Israel?" And with all the eloquence of words,
   He cries to men that they would turn unto Him and live!

   Then there is the long-suffering of God with regard to sins that are
   yet to be committed. O Sinner, you cannot promise that you will not sin
   in the future! You may foolishly say, "I will not," but the Ethiopian
   might sooner change his skin and the leopard his spots as that you, who
   are accustomed to do evil, might begin in your own strength to do well!
   The fountain of your heart is foul--so polluted streams must continue
   to flow from it. You are born of such a race and you have so added to
   your natural depravity by your constant sinfulness that you will still
   go on to sin until Grace changes and renews you! How is it that God,
   who knows this, does not strike you out of existence? Is He going to
   spare you for another year to still set your hard heart against His
   love? Sinner, does God mean to spare you for another seven years'
   fornication and lust? Will He permit you to live another 10 years to
   still be a thief? Shall you have another 20 years in which every
   Sabbath shall be spent in sin and in which almost every night shall see
   you reeling as a drunkard through the streets? Oh, if God knows that
   you will sin like this, how is it that He bears with you? If the
   destroying angel is told what you will be, he will stand with his sword
   drawn, or with his hand upon its hilt and say, "Commission me, dread
   Sovereign, to cleanse the earth of those who blaspheme Your name and
   break Your Law, and it shall be done!" But

   God says, "Put your sword into its sheath and wait a little longer!
   They shall have another appeal, another invitation and another
   entreaty." Oh, that these might be of use to them and that they might
   turn unto God, and live!

   Beside this threefold appeal in the text, God's goodness is manifested
   in great abundance. "Do you despise the riches of His goodness and
   forbearance and long-suffering?" Truly God's mercy to us has been like
   a mine of riches. What has God not done for some of us? If I were not,
   at this moment, a Believer, I would be, of all here present, one of the
   most ungrateful. I will state my own case knowing it to be similar to
   that of many others who are present. Cradled in the home of piety,
   nurtured with the most tender care, taught the Gospel from my youth up,
   with the holiest example of my parents, the best possible checks all
   around to prevent me running into sin--yet, notwithstanding all that,
   sinning and revolting more and more but checked by conscience, as when
   a steed tries to leap forth, but its rider reins it in--yet still
   resolved to sin--determined to go further and yet further into it and
   even being angry with God for checking sin, trying to get the bit
   between one's teeth and to run away from God and sin worse than before!
   Then struck down by the hand of God in sickness, alarmed, terrified,
   resolving to live differently--but being raised up to health again,
   shaking off serious impressions--and with a laugh going back to the
   follies of sin. Then once more rebuked, made to tremble, thunderstruck
   and awed before God--hearing of the precious Savior, yet putting Him
   off and saying that another day would be soon enough to be a Christian!
   That is my sad story until Sovereign Grace met with me. And that is
   also the story of many others present here!

   Yet all the while, God has kept you supplied with the blessings of
   Providence so that you have never suffered want. He has preserved you
   from the dangers and trials and troubles which a great many others have
   had to endure. He has placed you where an earnest Gospel ministry never
   lets you rest in your sin. He has put you where faithful friends plead
   with you with tears to care about your immortal soul. He has raised you
   up from sickness, perhaps preserved you in the day of battle,
   delivering you when many others died all around you. Has God done all
   this for you and are there in your mind no tender thoughts toward Him,
   no grateful memories of His great mercy? Oh think of where you might
   have been long ago! Might they not have said over your dead body,
   "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust?" Yes, long ago there
   might have been a portion for you in that dread place where the worm
   dies not and the fire is not quenched! Think of the gracious promises
   that are still proclaimed in your hearing, that if you return unto the
   Lord, He will have mercy upon you and will forgive you all your
   trespasses! Think of the Christ of God who died for sinners on the
   Cross. Think of the Spirit of God who has come down to earth to strive
   and plead with sinners. Think of the Father's almighty love which is
   bestowed upon all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, His Son.
   Oh, there have indeed been riches of mercy, riches of goodness, riches
   of forbearance, riches of long-suffering and, Man, do you despise all
   this? Woman, away yonder, do you despise all this? All this mercy has
   passed before you in one long panorama for many years--what do you say
   about it? Do you not say, "My God, forgive me that I have so long
   slighted You?" Or will you still despise the riches of His goodness and
   forbearance and long-suffering?

   I might, if I had time, try to measure the long-suffering of God. And
   if I did, I should need four lines. The excellence of God's goodness is
   manifested by four considerations. First consider the Divine Person who
   manifests it. Remember who God is! Think how great He is. No one likes
   to be insulted by his inferiors, then how can God bear to be insulted
   by the creatures whom He has made, the creatures who owe Him their very
   breath? How can God endure to be opposed and defied by one so utterly
   insignificant and unworthy as man is? Yet He does not crush His
   rebellious creatures as He well might.

   Think next of His Omniscience. We sometimes bear with people because we
   forget much of what they have said or done, but what would it be to
   have before your mind's eye all the evil speaking of 20 years ago and
   all the hard sayings and unkind acts of a long life of enmity against
   you? Yet, though God has all our sins always before Him and our most
   secret sins in the light of His Countenance, He still forbears to smite
   and destroy us!

   Think, too, how powerful He is--none can escape from Him when He
   pursues them. Moses could run away from Pharaoh and hide in the land of
   Midian, but where could we flee to escape from the vengeance of God if
   He had resolved at once to punish all those who had rebelled against
   Him? How could we have stood up against Him? Where are the bars of
   brass that could resist the Omnipotence of the besieging God? None of
   His creatures can stand against Him anymore than the stubble can stand
   against the flame, or the straw against the fire. And yet He has such
   forbearance that He has

   put up with us all these years! O blessed God, I love You for Your
   wondrous patience to me and to my fellow sinners that You still spare
   us though we have so sorely provoked You!

   Then take another measuring line and consider the being to whom God's
   goodness is manifested--that is, man. Think of what man is and then ask
   yourself if such a little insignificant creature dares to proclaim war
   against God! Has he the audacity to defy God and to say, "I will not do
   what You have bid me do?" Why, the ant that crosses your path on a
   summer evening is not half as insignificant in comparison with you as
   you are when compared with the Almighty God! And it is man who has
   received so much from God--man, who could not live an instant without
   God's permission and support--who stands up and says that he will not
   be God's servant and that he will not accept the Savior whom God has
   appointed! O you heavens, how is it that you do not fall and crush the
   miscreant? Great God, it is only because You are God that You put up
   with sinful men so long!

   Another measuring line is this--consider the conduct to which God's
   goodness is a reply. In other words, consider what sin i s. There is
   not a person here who has ever seen sin as it really is in God's sight.
   In the least sin there is more evil than there is even in Hell, for
   Hell is at least the vindication of Divine Justice, but sin defies that
   Justice. Sin is an unlimited and unmitigated evil. There are sins that
   are so wanton, so aggravating, so willful and men go so much out of
   their way to commit them! There are sins that are repeated over and
   over--even in spite of chastisement. There are some sins that are so
   polluting, so defiling in which a man degrades and ruins others as well
   as himself. And there are some sins so infamous that it is marvelous
   that God still bears with the men who commit them and that while He
   holds back the thunderbolts of Justice, He holds out the silver scepter
   of mercy and says even to the chief of sinners, "Believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved."

   Then if we needed one other measuring line, it would be the
   consideration of the gifts which God's goodness brings. Our common
   mercies--daily bread, raiment to put on, health for necessary labor,
   rescue from peril, preservation from death, the institution of the
   Sabbath, the gift of the Bible, the Gospel of salvation--these are
   immeasurable blessings! Who, then, can calculate the riches of the
   goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God?

   I cannot help feeling ashamed of myself while I am talking to you upon
   this theme, for I have a case to plead for God that I think I ought to
   plead much better than I do. And if I knew how to do it, I would do it,
   my gracious, blessed God! Alas, alas, there are some of you who treat
   God so ill, yet He has never done you any harm and He is always doing
   you good! If His service were slavery, I would not wonder if you did
   not serve Him. If to be His children were to be tortured and made
   unhappy, I could not so much blame you. But as His service is perfect
   freedom. As His love is ineffable bliss. As His Presence is Heaven
   begun below, why do you flee from that which is for your own highest
   happiness and run away from that which is all of God's mercy to you? O
   Sin, you have made men insane! You have given them over to a madness
   which makes them see no beauty in God, no charms in the Person of the
   Redeemer and no attraction in the salvation which He has bought with
   His own most precious blood! O Divine Spirit, I cannot plead as I
   would--You come and make men value as they ought, the riches of the
   goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God!

   II. Now let me briefly try to show you HOW MEN MAY DESPISE THE
   GOODNESS, FORBEARANCE AND LONG-SUFFERING OF GOD.

   First, many persons do it by never considering that they do receive
   goodness from God. They take all that God gives them as a matter of
   course and never think about it. If you have been very generous to some
   poor man and have relieved his needs for several years, I think you
   must sometimes feel grieved if you find that he takes it quite as a
   matter of course and never shows any gratitude to you, but expectsyou
   to still do just as you have so long done. You think to yourself, "I am
   not bound to help him. It is entirely an act of favor on my part." You
   do not like to say, "I will not give him anymore," but you are strongly
   tempted to say so. Now if you have been ungrateful to your God for all
   His goodness to you, I pray you not to continue so. The swine walk
   under the oak and eat up the acorns that fall from it, but never grunt
   out their thanks for them--will you be such swine as that? Oh, be not
   so! Rather imitate the little chicken which drinks out of the stream
   and then raises its head as if to thank God. I know that there are many
   here who would not like to be considered ungrateful, neither are they
   so to their fellow men. I know you would scorn such a character, yet
   you are ungrateful to your best Friend who has done far more for you
   than all the rest of your friends put together! Do not despise His
   goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering by allowing it to remain
   unnoticed.

   Some despise the long-suffering of God by opposing His design in it.
   The design of God's goodness is to make bad men into good men. The
   design of God's mercy to impenitent sinners is to make them penitent.
   You say to God, "I will not have You for my God" and He replies, "I
   will prolong your life. I will prosper you in business. I will multiply
   My favors to you." Yet you still say, "But I am not going to be moved
   by all this." God comes to your bedside when you are lying there very
   ill--the cold sweat of death is standing on your brow and He draws the
   fever from your system and again prolongs your life--and gives you
   another 10 years here, yet you say to Him, "I love You none the better
   even after doing all this for me." Is that right? God has been gently
   leading you, not driving you, but drawing you towards Himself out of
   love towards you--do not despise His loving kindness by pulling the
   other way.

   There are some who do even worse than this, for they pervert the
   long-suffering and forbearance of God into a reason for being
   unbelieving. They say to themselves, "We have got on very well in this
   world although we have never been religious. We have had a good time of
   it though we have never prayed. We have been raised up from sickness,
   though afterwards we never thought about religion anymore, so we may do
   as we like. God will not be angry with us, He will not stretch out His
   hand and smite us." Ah, I know nothing that is more perilous to an
   ungodly man than to go on prospering! But whenever I meet with an
   ungodly man who is in great trouble, I have a hope that God has chosen
   that man unto eternal life and that, therefore, He will not let him go
   to Hell, but puts bars and posts across the road to block the way to
   Perdition. But as for the man who is prosperous though ungodly, in
   regard to whom every wind seems to be favorable to his ships and every
   season gives him better crops than his neighbors have--and whose
   children are multiplied, and so on--do you know why God acts thus
   towards him? I can tell you.

   I have heard of a Christian woman who had a very wicked husband. He was
   a dreadful swearer and always opposed her in every good thing, yet she
   was the kindest wife that a man ever had. One night, or rather, early
   in the morning, as he sat drinking with his companions, he told them
   that he had a splendid wife and that if they were all to go home with
   him, even though it was two o'clock in the morning, if she had gone to
   bed, she would get up and prepare supper for them without showing the
   slightest sign of displeasure, but would, for his sake, wait upon them
   as if they were lords in the land! They went to the house and the
   husband called for his wife, as she had gone to bed. She put on her
   clothes, came down and got ready such things as she had--and made them
   all welcome. They asked her why she was so kind to one who was so
   brutal to her, but she would not answer. Another day she said to her
   husband, when he asked a similar question, "I have prayed for you
   thousands of times and I have done all I can to bring you to the
   Savior. Yet there is a dreadful fear in my mind that you will be lost.
   I am afraid you will continue to sin against God and that you will be
   sent to Hell, so I have made up my mind that I will make you as happy
   as you can be while you are here, for I fear that you will never have
   any happiness hereafter."

   And I believe it is for the same reason that God lets wicked men get
   rich. "There," says the Lord, "they shall enjoy themselves while they
   can. I will give them these things while they are here, for the time
   will come when I can show them no pity, but My inexorable Justice must
   drive them from all pleasure forever." I think if there had been any
   true manhood in that man whom I have mentioned, he would have said to
   his wife, "Woman, do you feel like that towards me? Have you loved me
   so much and prayed for me so long, and have you put up with any
   inconvenience so that you may do me good? Then, at any rate, I will be
   unkind to you no longer and I will hear what these things are that you
   say will make for my peace." A sane man would talk like that--and if
   you are sane, I pray you now to heed what your God says to you! This is
   how He put the case long ago and He might put it to you in the same
   way--"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and
   brought up children and they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows his
   owner and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know. My
   people do not consider." Which of you would keep an ox or a donkey if
   it never served you in any way? Which of you would suffer even a dog to
   be in your house if it always flew at you when you came near it? Yet
   God has put up with you, His ungrateful creatures, for these many
   years. Will you never kiss the hand that feeds you? Are you more
   asinine than a donkey? Are you more of a beast than the ox, itself, is?
   Oh, may God deliver sinners from continuing such injustice to Him and
   such cruelty to themselves!

   III. Now, lastly, LET US FEEL THE FORCE OF THE LEADING OF GOD'S
   GOODNESS--"the goodness of God leads you to repentance."

   It ought to be reason enough for our not despising God's goodness that
   it is a very unjust thing to despise it. I looked in classic history to
   see if I could find any parallel case to this between man and God--and
   I found one something like it. In Alexander's day, a soldier who had
   been shipwrecked, was hospitably received by a certain person who took
   him to his house and fed and clothed him. But as soon as the soldier
   was able to get back to Alexander, he misrepresented the case with many
   lies, and asked the great commander to give him the house of the man
   who had entertained him. When Alexander afterwards found out the
   ingratitude of the wretch who thus tried to deprive his host of his own
   house in order to get it for himself, he ordered him to be branded on
   the forehead so that he might be known everywhere as the ungrateful
   guest! But what branding iron and what coals of juniper shall ever be
   hot enough to brand the ungrateful being who was created by God, fed by
   God, put in the way of mercy, invited by Grace--and yet remained
   ungrateful?

   Seldom is man so ungenerous to his fellow man as man is to his God. The
   very men who would scorn to rob their fellow men of a farthing, go on
   robbing God without compunction all their lives! Men who are
   scrupulously just in their dealings with their fellow merchants will
   persist in injustice to the God who created them! Why is this base
   conduct? Oh, I pray you, continue it not! I would, with tears in my
   eyes, entreat you to continue it no longer. Are you not under great
   obligation to God? You know that He made you. Deep down in your soul
   there is a voice that says to you, "It is God who keeps you alive." You
   know that it is so! Then how can you imagine that the Creator and
   Preserver of all can be forgotten with impunity? Let me give you a text
   that will remind you how dangerous a thing it is to live in the neglect
   of God's goodness--"The wicked shall be turned into Hell," (especially
   notice the next words), "and all the nations that forget God." When I
   began to quote that text, you may have said to yourself, "I am not
   wicked. I do not do anything outrageous." But listen again to the rest
   of the verse, "and all the nations that forget"--not the nations that
   swear, or blaspheme, or rebel against God--but "all the nations that
   forget God." "That is only one text," you say. Ah, but here is another
   and there are many like it--"How shall we escape if we"--what? "If we
   neglect"--that is all--it is only a matter of neglect--"if we neglect
   so great a salvation?" Despising God by neglecting Him--despising Him
   by forgetting Him--this is a grievous kind of despising that will bring
   eternal ruin upon men!--

   "Lord, do You the sinner turn! Rouse him from his senseless state. Let
   him not Your counsel spurn, Rue his fatal choice too late!"

   It may seem to some of you, child's play to face this congregation and
   to speak as I am now doing. But the Lord knows it is no child's play to
   me! I feel that I am accountable to God for all of you who, within a
   short time, will have to stand before my Master's Judgment Seat. And if
   at the last tremendous day I were summoned to give an account of how I
   employed this opportunity of speaking to you. And if I should have to
   confess that I did not tell you plainly that the neglect of God would
   ruin you forever. If I should have to confess that I was cold and
   indifferent--as cold and indifferent as you now are--then my soul would
   be crimsoned with your soul's blood! But it cannot be, it shall not be
   so, for I do entreat you, by the living God and by the Christ who died
   to save sinners--by the certainty of death, by the certainty of
   judgment, by the splendors of Heaven and by the terrors of Hell--I do
   beseech you to consider the goodness and forbearance and long-suffering
   of God! Turn unto Him with weeping and with supplication and, above
   all, turn to the Gospel as it is here declared, "Believe on the Lord
   Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Or, to put it in Christ's own
   full way, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
   believes not shall be damned."

   The Lord bring you all to simple faith in Jesus Christ, His Son, then
   to obedience to Christ in the matter of Bapt-ism--and then may He
   preserve you by His Grace until life's last hour, never again to
   despise, but forever to adore the goodness, and forbearance, and
   long-suffering of God, for His dear name's sake!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS 4; 5:1, 2.

   Romans 4:1. What shall we say, then, that Abraham our father as
   pertaining to the flesh, has found?What blessings did really come to
   Abraham, the father of the faithful? What is the nature of that
   Covenant of Grace which God made with him?

   2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he has something to boast
   about, but not before God. Certainly, before God Abraham neither
   gloried nor yet was justified by his works!

   3. For what says the Scriptural That is the question for us always to
   ask, "What says the Scripture?"

   3. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
   There is no doubt about that point, for in Genesis 15:6 we read, "He
   believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness."

   4. Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of Grace, but of
   debt He gets what he earns, what he deserves to have! What he receives
   is "not reckoned of Grace, but of debt."

   5-8. 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. So then it seems that the blessings of
   salvation come to men through faith and not through their own
   efforts--not as the reward of merit, but as the simple gift of God's
   Grace!

   9. Comes this blessedness, then, upon the circumcision only, or upon
   the uncircumcision also? Is this blessing entailed upon the natural
   seed of Abraham, alone, or is it for others besides the Jews?

   9, 10. 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!\f you turn
   again to Genesis 15:6 and then to 17:10, you will find that Abraham was
   justified by faith before the rite of circumcision was instituted! The
   blessing came to him "not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision."

   11, 12. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
   righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being un-circumcised: that
   he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be 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 vital question is
   not, "How were we born?" Or, "What rites and ceremonies have been
   practiced upon us?" But, "Do we believe in God? Have we true faith in
   God's Word? Are we trusting our souls to the keeping of God's Son?"

   13. 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 fait. The Law was promulgated on Mount Sinai 400 years
   after the Covenant of Grace was made with Abraham, the father of
   Believers, and so made with all Believers, for they are his true
   seed--and God has entered into a Covenant of Grace and salvation with
   them.

   14, 15. For if they which are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void,
   and the promise made of no effect because the Law works wrath: for
   where no Law is, there is no transgression. So that the Law is not for
   justification, but for condemnation. It is the Law that reveals sin and
   that shows sin to be sin--so men can never become right with God by the
   Law.

   16. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by Grace, [See Sermons
   #1347, Volume 23--HOW IS SALVATION RECEIVED? and #2159, Volume 36--THE
   HOLDFASTS OF FAITH.] to the end the promise might be sure

   to all the seed That is, to all Believers who are the true seed of
   Abraham. He is the father of the faithful and if you are one of the
   faithful, he is your father! And the Covenant which God made with
   Abraham and his seed was made with you and on your account if you are,
   indeed, a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ!

   16-22. Not to those only who are of the Law, but also to those who are
   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) before Him whom he
   believed, even God, who quickens the dead and calls those things which
   are not, as though they were. 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 [See Sermons #733, Volume
   13--UNSTAGGERING FAITH and #1367, Volume 23--STRONG FAITH.] at the
   promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory
   to God; and being fuly persuaded that what He had promised, He was also
   able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for
   righteousness.O Soul, if you are like one who is dead. If you are
   devoid of all strength, Grace and savor--if you can but believe in God
   who can quicken the dead, if you will but trust your soul in the hands
   of Him who is able even to raise dry bones out of their graves and make
   them live--your faith shall be imputed unto you for righteousness! Your
   faith is that which shall justify you in the sight of God and you shall
   be "accepted in the Beloved." Oh, what marvels faith works! This is the
   root-Grace--all manner of good things spring from faith--but there must
   be faith as the root if there are to be other Graces as the fruit. Do
   your God the honor to believe Him--to believe that He cannot lie--to
   believe that He has never promised what He is not able to perform. If
   you will do that, it is clear that you are one of Abraham's seed and
   the Covenant made with Abraham was made with you also!

   23-25. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed
   to him; but for us, also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on
   Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for
   our offenses and was

   http://www.spurgeongems.orgj See the great Object of saving faith?
   Christ, once dead, has been raised from the dead--and if you would be
   saved--you must rely upon the crucified and risen Savior! If you thus
   believe that Jesus the Crucified is the Christ of God, the anointed
   Messiah and Redeemer, you prove that you are born of God! And if you
   trust yourself to the risen and glorified Christ, you have risen in Him
   and you shall rise to be with Him forever and ever.

   Romans 5:1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
   through our Lord Jesus Christ [See Sermon

   #1456, Volume 25--PEACE--A FACT AND A FEELING.] My Friend, are these

   words true concerning you? Can you put your finger on this verse and
   say, "this is true of me, 'Therefore being justified by faith, we
   have--I have--peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ'"? We who
   have believed in Jesus enjoy that peace--a deep, profound calm is upon
   our spirit whenever we think of God! We are not afraid of Him, We are
   not afraid to meet Him even on His Judgment Seat! "Being justified by
   faith, we have peace with God." Have you peace with God? Are you sure
   that you have it? If not, perhaps you are not justified by faith, for
   that is the root of it! "Being justified by faith, we have peace with
   God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

   2. By whom also we have access by faith into this Grace wherein we
   stand, and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. This is a golden
   staircase--justification brings peace and peace brings access into this
   Grace wherein we are established! And then comes the joy of hope--and
   that hope fixes its eyes on nothing less than the Glory of God. Grace
   is the stepping-stone to Glory--and they who are justified by faith
   shall in due time be glorified by love!

   or our justification. [See Sermon #2357, Volume 40--THE TWO PILLARS OF
   SALVATION].
     __________________________________________________________________

The Beatitudes

   (No. 3155)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, IN THE YEAR 1873.

   "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was
   seated, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught
   them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom
   of Heaven. Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
   Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are
   they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be
   filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed
   are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the
   peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are
   they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the
   Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and
   persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,
   for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great isyour reward
   in Heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you."
   Matthew 5:1-12.

   [In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
   sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
   discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
   he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
   some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
   purpose. There are now, however, four Sermons upon the Beatitudes,
   three of which have already been published--See Sermons #422, Volume
   7-- THE PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35--THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE
   BLESSED and #3065, Volume 53-- THE THIRD BEATITUDE--and this one.]

   ONE enjoys a sermon all the better for knowing something of the
   preacher. It is natural that, like John in Patmos, we should turn to
   see the voice which spoke with us. Turn here, then, and learn that the
   Christ of God is the Preacher of the Sermon on the Mount! He who
   delivered the Beatitudes was not only the Prince of Preachers, but He
   was, beyond all others, qualified to discourse upon the subject which
   He had chosen. Jesus the Savior was best able to answer the question,
   "Who are the saved?" Being Himself the ever-blessed Son of God, and the
   channel of blessings, He was best able to inform us who are, indeed,
   the blessed of the Father. As Judge, it will be His office to divide
   the blessed from the accursed at the last and, therefore, it is most
   meet that in Gospel majesty He should declare the principle of that
   judgment, that all men may be forewarned.

   Do not fall into the mistake of supposing that the opening verses of
   the Sermon on the Mount set forth how we are to be saved, or you may
   cause your soul to stumble. You will find the fullest light upon that
   matter in other parts of our Lord's teaching, but here He discourses
   upon the question, " Who are the saved?" or, "What are the marks and
   evidences of a work of Grace in the soul?" Who should know the saved as
   well as the Savior does? The shepherd best discerns his own sheep, and
   the Lord, Himself alone knows Infallibly them who are His. We may
   regard the marks of the blessed ones here given as being the sure
   witness of Truth, for they are given by Him who cannot err, who cannot
   be deceived and who, as their Redeemer, knows His own. The Beatitudes
   derive much of their weight from the wisdom and glory of Him who
   pronounced them and, therefore, at the outset your attention is called
   thereto. Lange says that "man is the mouth of creation, and Jesus is
   the mouth of humanity." But we prefer, in this place, to think of Jesus
   as the mouth of Deity and to receive His every Word as girt with
   Infinite Power!

   The occasion of this sermon is noteworthy. It was delivered when our
   Lord is described as "seeing the multitudes." He waited until the
   congregation around Him had reached its largest size and was most
   impressed with His miracles-- and then He took the tide at its flood,
   as every wise man should. The sight of a vast concourse of people ought
   always to

   move us to pity, for it represents a mass of ignorance, sorrow, sin and
   necessity far too great for us to estimate. The Savior looked upon the
   people with Omniscient eyes which saw all their sad condition. He saw
   the multitudes in an emphatic sense and His soul was stirred within Him
   at the sight. His was not the transient tear of Xerxes when he thought
   on the death of his armed myriads, but it was practical sympathy with
   the hosts of mankind! No one cared for them--they were like sheep
   without a shepherd, or like shocks of wheat ready to shale out for lack
   of harvesters to gather them in. Jesus therefore hastened to the
   rescue. He notices, no doubt, with pleasure, the eagerness of the crowd
   to hear--and this drew Him on to speak. A writer quoted in the "Catena,
   Aurea" has well said, "Every man in his own trade or profession
   rejoices when he sees an opportunity of exercising it. The carpenter,
   if he sees a goodly tree, desires to have it felled, that he may employ
   his skill on it. And even so the preacher, when he sees a great
   congregation, his heart rejoices and he is glad of the occasion to
   teach." If men become negligent of hearing and our audience dwindles
   down to a handful, it will be a great distress to us if we have to
   remember that when the many were anxious to hear, we were not diligent
   to preach to them. He who will not reap when the fields are white unto
   the harvest, will have only himself to blame if in other seasons he is
   unable to fill his arms with sheaves! Opportunities should be promptly
   used whenever the Lord puts them in our way. It is good fishing where
   there are plenty of fish and when the birds flock around the fowler it
   is time for him to spread his nets!

   The place from which these blessings were delivered is next worthy of
   notice. "Seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain." Whether or
   not the chosen mountain was that which is now known as the Horns of
   Hattim, is not a point which it falls in our way to contest--that He
   ascended an elevation is enough for our purpose. Of course this would
   be mainly because of the accommodation which the open hillside would
   afford to the people. And the readiness with which, upon some jutting
   crag, the Preacher might sit down and be both heard and seen. But we
   believe the chosen place of meeting had also its instruction. Exalted
   Doctrine might well be symbolized by an ascent to the mount--at any
   rate, let every minister feel that he should ascend in spirit when he
   is about to descant upon the lofty themes of the Gospel! A Doctrine
   which could not be hidden and which would produce a Church comparable
   to a city set on a hill, fitly began to be proclaimed from a
   conspicuous place! A crypt or cavern would have been out of all
   character for a message which is to be published upon the housetops and
   preached to every creature under Heaven!

   Besides, mountains have always been associated with distinct eras in
   the history of the people of God. Mount Sinai is sacred to the Law of
   God and Mount Zion symbolical of the Church. Calvary was also, in due
   time, to be connected with redemption and the Mount of Olives with the
   ascension of our risen Lord. It was meet, therefore, that the opening
   of the Redeemer's ministry should be connected with a mountain such as
   "the hill of the Beatitudes." It was from a mountain that God
   proclaimed the Law. It is on a mountain that Jesus expounds it! Thank
   God it was not a mountain around which bounds had to be placed--it was
   not the mountain which burned with fire from which Israel retired in
   fear! It was, doubtless, a mountain all carpeted with grass and dainty
   with fair flowers--upon whose side the olive and fig flourished in
   abundance except where the rocks pushed upward through the sod and
   eagerly invited their Lord to honor them by making them His pulpit and
   throne! May I not add that Jesus was in deep sympathy with Nature and,
   therefore, delighted in an audience chamber whose floor was grass and
   whose roof was the blue sky? The open space was in keeping with His
   large heart! The breezes were akin to His free spirit and the world
   around was full of symbols and parables in accord with the Truths of
   God He taught. Better than long-drawn aisle, or tier on tier of crowded
   gallery, was that grassed hillside meeting place! Would God we more
   often heard sermons amid soul-inspiring scenery! Surely preacher and
   hearer would be equally benefited by the change from the house made
   with hands to the God-made temple of Nature!

   There was instruction in the posture of the preacher. " When He was
   seated," He commenced to speak. We do not think that either weariness
   or the length of the discourse suggested His sitting down. He
   frequently stood when He preached at considerable length. We incline to
   the belief that when He became a pleader with the sons of men, He stood
   with uplifted hands, eloquent from head to foot--entreating, beseeching
   and exhorting with every member of His body, as well as every faculty
   of His mind. But now that He was, as it were, a Judge awarding the
   blessings of the Kingdom, or a King on His throne separating His true
   subjects from aliens and foreigners, He sat down. As an authoritative
   Teacher, He officially occupied the Chair of Doctrine and spoke ex
   cathedral, as men say, as a Solomon acting as the master of assemblies
   or a Daniel come to judgment! He sat as a refiner and His word was as a
   fire. His posture is not accounted for by the fact that it was the
   Oriental custom for the teacher to sit and the pupil to stand, for our
   Lord was something more

   that a didactic teacher--He was a Preacher, a Prophet, a Pleader--and,
   consequently, He adopted other attitudes when fulfilling those offices.
   But on this occasion He sat in His place as Rabbi of the Church, the
   authoritative Legislator of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Monarch in the
   midst of His people. Come here, then, and listen to the King in
   Jeshurun, the Divine Lawgiver, delivering not the Ten Commands, but the
   seven, or, if you will, the nine Beatitudes of His blessed kingdom!

   It is then added, to indicate the style of His delivery, that "He
   opened His mouth." And certain cavilers of shallow wit have asked, "How
   could He teach without opening His mouth?" To which the reply is that
   He very frequently taught, and taught much without saying a word since
   His whole life was teaching and His miracles and deeds of love were the
   lessons of a master instructor. It is not superfluous to say that "He
   opened His mouth, and taught them," for He had taught them often when
   His mouth was closed. Besides that, teachers are to be frequently met
   with who seldom open their mouths--they hiss the everlasting Gospel
   through their teeth, or mumble it within their mouths as if they had
   never been commanded to--"cry aloud, and spare not." Jesus Christ spoke
   like a man in earnest. He enunciated clearly and spoke loudly. He
   lifted up His voice like a trumpet and published salvation far and
   wide--like a Man who had something to say which He desired His audience
   to hear and feel! Oh, that the very manner and voice of those who
   preach the Gospel were such as to bespeak their zeal for God and their
   love for souls! So should it be, but it is not so in all cases. When a
   man grows terribly in earnest while speaking, his mouth appears to be
   enlarged in sympathy with his hearers--this characteristic has been
   observed in vehement political orators--and the messengers of God
   should blush if no such characteristic can be laid at their door!

   "He opened His mouth, and taught them"--have we not here a further hint
   that as He had from the earliest days opened the mouths of His holy
   Prophets, so now He opens His own mouth to inaugurate a yet fuller
   Revelation of God? If Moses spoke, who made Moses' mouth? If David
   sang, who opened David's lips that he might show forth the praises of
   God? Who opened the mouths of the Prophets? Was it not the Lord, by His
   Spirit? Is it not, therefore, well said that now He opened His own
   mouth and spoke directly as the Incarnate God to the children of men?
   Now, by His own inherent power and Inspiration, He began to speak, not
   through the mouth of Isaiah, or of Jeremiah, but by His own mouth! Now
   was a spring of Wisdom to be unsealed from which all generations should
   drink rejoicing! Now would the most majestic and yet most simple of all
   discourses be heard by mankind! The opening of the fountain which
   flowed from the desert rock was not one half as full of joy to men! Let
   our prayer be, "Lord, as You have opened Your mouth, open our hearts,"
   for when the Redeemer's mouth is open with blessings--and our hearts
   are open with desires--a glorious filling with all the fullness of God
   will be the result! And then our mouths shall also be opened to show
   forth our Redeemer's praise!

   Let us now consider the Beatitudes, themselves, trusting that by the
   help of God's Spirit, we may perceive their wealth of holy meaning. No
   words in the compass of Sacred Writ are more precious or more freighted
   with solemn meaning.

   The first word of our Lord's great standard sermon is, "Blessed." You
   have not failed to notice that the last word of the Old Testament is,
   "curse," and it is suggestive that the opening sermon of our Lord's
   ministry commences with the word, "Blessed." Nor did He begin in that
   manner and then immediately change His strain, for nine times did that
   charming word fall from His lips in rapid succession. It has been well
   said that Christ's teaching might be summed up in two words, "Believe,"
   and, "Blessed." Mark tells us that He preached, saying, "Repent, and
   believe the Gospel." And Matthew in this passage informs us that He
   came saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." All His teaching was
   meant to bless the sons of men, for "God sent not His Son into the
   world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be
   saved."--

   "His hand no thunder bears, No terror clothes His brow! No bolts to
   drive our guilty souls To fiercer flames below."

   His lips, like a honeycomb, drop sweetness. Promises and blessings are
   flowing out of His mouth. "Grace is poured into Your lips," said the
   Psalmist, and consequently Grace poured from His lips! He was blessed
   forever and He continued to distribute blessings throughout the whole
   of His life, till, "as He blessed them, He was taken up into Heaven."
   The Law

   had two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim--one for blessing and another for
   cursing--but the Lord Jesus blesses evermore--and curses not.

   The Beatitudes before us, which relate to character, are seven. The
   eighth is a benediction upon the persons described in the seven
   Beatitudes when their excellence has provoked the hostility of the
   wicked and, therefore, it may be regarded as a confirming and summing
   up of the seven blessings which precede it. Setting that aside, then,
   as a summary, we regard the Beatitudes as seven and will speak of them
   as such. The whole seven describe a perfect character and make up a
   perfect benediction. Each blessing is separately precious, yes, more
   precious than much fine gold. But we do well to regard them as a whole,
   for as a whole they were spoken, and from that point of view they are a
   wonderfully perfect chain of seven priceless links put together with
   such consummate art as only our heavenly Bezaleel, the Lord Jesus, ever
   possessed! No such instruction in the art of blessedness can be found
   anywhere else. The learned have collected 288 different opinions of the
   ancients with regard to happiness--and there is not one which hits the
   mark! But our Lord has, in a few telling sentences, told us all about
   it without using a solitary redundant word, or allowing the slightest
   omission! The seven golden sentences are perfect as a whole and each
   one occupies its appropriate place. Together they are a ladder of
   light--and each one is a step of purest sunshine!

   Observe carefully and you will see that each one rises above those
   which precede it. The first Beatitude is by no means so elevated as the
   third, nor the third as the seventh. There is a great advance from the
   poor in spirit to the pure in heart and the peacemaker. I have said
   that they rise, but it would be quite as correct to say that they
   descend, for from the human point of view they do so--to mourn is a
   step below and yet above being poor in spirit. And the peacemaker,
   while the highest form of Christian, will find himself often called
   upon to take the lowest place for peace's sake. "The seven Beatitudes
   mark deepening humiliation and growing exaltation." In proportion as
   men rise in the reception of the Divine Blessing, they sink in their
   own esteem--and count it their honor to do the humblest works.

   Not only do the Beatitudes rise, one above another, but they spring out
   of each otheras if each one depended upon all that went before. Each
   growth feeds a higher growth and the seventh is the product of all the
   other six! The two blessings which we shall have first to consider have
   this relation. "Blessed are they that mourn" grows out of, "Blessed are
   the poor in spirit." Why do they mourn? They mourn because they are
   "poor in spirit." "Blessed are the meek" is a benediction which no man
   reaches till he has felt his spiritual poverty, and mourned over it.
   "Blessed are the merciful" follows upon the blessing of the meek
   because men do not acquire the forgiving, sympathetic, merciful spirit
   until they have been made meek by the experience of the first two
   benedictions. This same rising and outgrowth may be seen in the whole
   seven. The stones are laid, one upon the other, in fair colors and
   polished after the similitude of a palace--they are the natural sequel
   and completion of each other--even as were the seven days of the
   world's first week.

   Mark, also, in this ladder of light, that though each step is above the
   other and each step springs out of the other, yet each one is perfect
   in itself and contains within itself a priceless and complete blessing.
   The very lowest of the blessed, namely, the poor in spirit, have their
   peculiar benediction and, indeed, it is one of such an order that it is
   used in the summing up of all the rest! "Theirs is the Kingdom of
   Heaven" is both the first and the eighth benediction. The highest
   characters, namely, the peacemakers, who are called the children of
   God, are not said to be more than blessed--they doubtless enjoy more of
   the blessedness, but they do not, in the Covenant provision, possess
   more.

   Note, also, with delight, that the blessing is, in every case, in the
   present tense--a happiness to be enjoyed and delighted in now! It is
   not "Blessed shallbe," but, "Blessed are." There is not one step in the
   whole Divine experience of the Believer--not one link in the wonderful
   chain of Divine Grace--in which there is a withdrawal of the Divine
   smile or an absence of real happiness! Blessed is the first moment of
   the Christian life on earth--and blessed is the last! Blessed is the
   spark which trembles in the flax and blessed is the flame which ascends
   to Heaven in a holy ecstasy! Blessed is the bruised reed and blessed is
   that tree of the Lord which is full of sap, the cedar of Lebanon, which
   the Lord has planted! Blessed is the babe in Grace and blessed is the
   perfect man in Christ Jesus! As the Lord's mercy endures forever, even
   so shall our blessedness!

   We must not fail to notice that in the seven Beatitudes, the blessing
   of each one is appropriate to the character. "Blessed are the poor in
   spirit" is appropriately connected with enrichment in the possession of
   a Kingdom more glorious than all the thrones of earth! It is also most
   appropriate that those who mourn should be comforted. That the meek,
   who renounce all self-aggrandizement, should enjoy most of life and so
   should inherit the earth. It is Divinely fit

   that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness should be
   filled--and that those who show mercy to others should obtain it
   themselves! Who but the pure in heart should see the Infinitely pure
   and holy God? And who but the peacemakers should be called the children
   of the God of Peace?

   Yet the careful eye perceives that each benediction, though
   appropriate, is worded paradoxically. Jeremy Taylor says, "They are so
   many paradoxes and impossibilities reduced to reason." This is clearly
   seen in the first Beatitude, for the poor in spirit are said to possess
   a Kingdom. And it is equally vivid in the collection as a whole, for it
   treats of happiness--and yet poverty leads the van and persecution
   brings up the rear! Poverty is the opposite of riches and yet how rich
   are those who possess a Kingdom! And persecution is supposed to destroy
   enjoyment and yet it is here made a subject of rejoicing! See the
   sacred art of Him who spoke as never man spoke! He can, at the same
   time, make His words both simple and paradoxical--and thereby win our
   attention and instruct our intellects. Such a Preacher deserves the
   most thoughtful of hearers.

   The whole of the seven Beatitudes composing this celestial ascent to
   the House of the Lord conducts Believers to an elevated table-land upon
   which they dwell alone and are not reckoned among the people. Their
   holy separation from the world brings upon them persecution for
   righteousness' sake, but in this they do not lose their happiness, but
   rather have it increased to them and confirmed by the double repetition
   of the benediction! The hatred of man does not deprive the saint of the
   love of God--even revilers contribute to his blessedness! Who among us
   will be ashamed of the Cross which must attend such a crown of loving
   kindness and tender mercies? Whatever the curses of man may involve,
   they are so small a drawback to the consciousness of being blessed in a
   sevenfold manner by the Lord, that they are not worthy to be compared
   with the Grace which is already revealed in us!

   Here we pause for now and shall, by God's help, consider one of the
   Beatitudes in our next homily.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW5:1-30.

   Verses 1, 2. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and
   when He was seated, His disciples came to Him: and He opened His mouth,
   and taught them, saying.Our Savior soon gathered a congregation. The
   multitudes perceived in Him a love to them and a willingness to impart
   blessing to them. And, therefore, they gathered about Him. He chose the
   mountain and the open air for the delivery of this great discourse--and
   we would be glad to find such a place for our assemblies--but in this
   variable climate we cannot often do so. "And when He was seated." The
   Preacher sat and the people stood. We might make a helpful change if we
   were sometimes to adopt a similar plan now. I am afraid that ease of
   posture may contribute to the creation of slumber of heart in the
   hearers. There Christ sat and "His disciples came to Him." They formed
   the inner circle that was ever nearest to Him--and to them He imparted
   His choicest secrets. But He also spoke to the multitude and therefore
   it is said that, "He opened His mouth," as well He might when there
   were such great Truths of God to proceed from it and so vast a crowd to
   hear them! "He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying."

   3. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
   This is a gracious beginning to our Savior's discourse, "Blessed are
   the poor." None ever considered the poor as Jesus did, but here He is
   speaking of a poverty of spirit, a lowliness of heart, an absence of
   self-esteem. Where that kind of spirit is found, it is sweet poverty!
   "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

   4. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. There is a
   blessing which often goes with mourning, itself, but when the sorrow is
   of a spiritualsort--mourning for sin--then is it blest, indeed!--

   "Lord, let me weep for nothing but sin And after none but Thee. And
   then I would--oh, that I might-- A constant mourner be!"

   5. Blessed are the meek The quiet-spirited, the gentle, the
   self-sacrificing.

   5. For they shall inherit the earth It looks as if they would be pushed
   out of the world but they shall not be, "for they shall inherit the
   earth." The wolves devour the sheep, yet there are more sheep in the
   world than there are wolves. And the sheep continue to multiply and to
   feed in green pastures.

   6. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousnes. Pining to
   be holy, longing to serve God, anxious to spread every righteous
   principle--blessed are they!

   6, 7. For they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful--those who are
   kind, generous, sympathetic, ready to forgive those who have wronged
   them--blessed are they.

   7, 8. For they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart It is
   a most blessed attainment to have such a longing for purity as to love
   everything that is chaste and holy--and to abhor everything that is
   questionable and unhallowed. Blessed are the pure in heart.

   8. For they shall see Got. There is a wonderful connection between
   hearts and eyes! A man who has the stains of filth on his soul cannot
   see God. But they who are purified in heart are purified in vision,
   too--"they shall see God."

   9. Blessed are the peacemakers. Those who always end a quarrel if they
   can. Those who lay themselves out to prevent discord.

   9-10. For they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they
   which are persecuted for righteousness 'sake, for theirs is the Kingdom
   of Heaven. They share the Kingdom of Heaven with the poor in spirit!
   They are often evilly spoken of. They have sometimes to suffer the
   spoiling of their goods--many of them have laid down their lives for
   Christ's sake. But they are truly blessed, for "theirs is the Kingdom
   of Heaven."

   11. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
   shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Mind, it
   must be said falsely, and it must be for Christ's sake, if you are to
   be blessed. There is no blessing in having evil spoken of you
   truthfully, or in having it spoken of you falsely because of some
   bitterness in your own spirit.

   12. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in
   Heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you. You
   are in the true prophetic succession if you cheerfully bear reproach of
   this kind for Christ's sake-- you prove that you have the stamp and
   seal of those who are in the service of God!

   13. You are the salt of the earth. Followers of Christ, "you are the
   salt of the earth." You help to preserve it and to subdue the
   corruption that is in it!

   13. But if the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salte ? A
   professing Christian with no Grace in him--a religious man whose very
   religion is dead--what is the good of him? And he is in a hopeless
   condition. You can salt meat, but you cannot salt salt!

   13. It is, therefore, good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be
   trodden under foot of men. There are people who believe that you can be
   children of God, today, and children of the devil tomorrow--then again
   children of God the next day and children of the devil again the day
   after. But believe me, it is not so! If the work of Grace is really
   worked of God in your soul, it will last through your whole life! And
   if it does not so last, that proves that it is not the work of God! God
   does not put His hand to this work a second time! There is no
   regeneration twice over--you can be born-again-- but you cannot be born
   again, and again, and again as some teach! There is no note in
   Scripture of that kind. Hence I do rejoice that regeneration once truly
   worked of the Spirit of God is an incorruptible Seed which lives and
   abides forever! But beware, professor, lest you should be like salt
   that has lost its savor and, therefore, is good for nothing.

   14. You are the light of the world. [See Sermon #1109, Volume 19--THE
   LIGHT OF THE WORLD.] Christ never contemplated the production of secret
   Christians--Christians whose virtues would never be displayed--pilgrims
   who would travel to Heaven by night and never be seen by their fellow
   pilgrims or anyone else.

   14, 15. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men
   light a candle[See Sermon #1594, Volume 27--the candle.] and put it
   under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that
   are in the house. Christians ought to be seen and they ought to let
   their light be seen! They should never even attempt to conceal it. If
   you are a lamp, you have no right to be under a bushel, or under a
   bed--your place is on the lamp stand where your light can be seen.

   16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
   works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. Not that they may
   glorify you--but that they may glorify your Father who is in Heaven.

   17, 18. Think not that I have come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets:
   I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you,
   Till Heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
   from the Law till all is fulfilled. No cross of a "T" and no dot of an
   "I" shall be taken from God's Law! Its requirements will always be the
   same--immutably fixed and never to be abated by so little as "one jot
   or one tittle."

   19. 20. Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least
   commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in
   the Kingdom ofHeaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, the same
   shall be calledgreat in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I say unto you, That
   except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
   and Pharisee. Who seemed to have reached the very highest degree of
   it--indeed, they thought they went rather over the mark than under
   it--but Christ says to His disciples, "Unless your righteousness goes
   beyond that."

   20. You shall in no case enter into the Kingdom ofHeaven. These are
   solemn words of warning! God grant that we may have a righteousness
   which exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, a righteousness worked
   by the Spirit of God, a righteousness of the heart and of the life!

   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
   Antiquity is often pleaded as an authority, but our King makes short
   work of "them of old time." He begins with one of their alterations of
   His Father's Law. They added to the saved oracles. The first part of
   the saying which our Lord quoted was Divine, but it was dragged down to
   a low level by the addition about the human court and the murderer's
   liability to appear there. It thus became rather a proverb among men
   than an Inspired utterance from the mouth of God. Its meaning, as God
   spoke it, had a far wider range than when the offense was restrained to
   actual killing, such as could be brought before a human judgment seat.
   To narrow a command is measurably to annul it. We may not do this even
   with antiquity for our warrant. Better the whole Truth newly stated
   than an old lie in an ancient language.

   22. But I say unto you, 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. Murder lies within
   anger, for we wish harm to the object of our wrath, or even wish that
   he did not exist--and this is to kill him in desire. Anger " without a
   cause"is forbidden by the Commandment which says, "You shall not kill,"
   for unjust anger is killing in intent. Such anger without cause brings
   us under higher judgment than that of Jewish police courts. God takes
   cognizance of the emotions from which acts of hate may spring and calls
   us to account as much for the angry feeling as for the murderous deed!
   Words also come under the same condemnation--a man shall be judged for
   what he "shallsay to his brother." To call a man, Raca, or a worthless
   fellow, is to kill him in his reputation. And to say to him, " You
   fool" is to kill him as to the noblest characteristics of a man. Hence
   all this comes under such censure as men distribute in their councils.
   Yes, and what is far worse--the punishment awarded by the highest court
   of the universe which dooms men to "Hell fire." Thus our Lord and King
   restores the Law of God to its true force and warns us that it
   denounces not only the overt act of killing, but every thought, feeling
   and word which would tend to injure a brother, or annihilate him by
   contempt.

   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 gif. The Pharisee would urge as a
   cover for his malice that he brought a sacrifice to make atonement, but
   our Lord will have forgiveness rendered to our brother, first, and then
   the offering presented. We ought to worship God thoughtfully and if, in
   the course of that thought, we remember that our brother has anything
   against us, we must stop. If we have wronged another, we are to pause,
   cease from the worship and hasten to seek reconciliation. We easily
   remember if we have anything against our brother, but now the memory is
   to be turned the other way! Only when we have remembered ourwrong doing
   and made reconciliation can we hope for acceptance with the Lord. The
   rule is--first peace with man and then acceptance with God. The holy
   must be traversed to reach the Holiest of All. Peace being made with
   our brother, then let us conclude our service towards our Father--and
   we shall do so with lighter heart and truer zeal. I would anxiously
   desire to be at peace with all men before I attempt to worship God,
   lest I present to God the sacrifice of fools.

   25, 26. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on 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 I say unto you, You shall by no means come out from there till
   you have paid the uttermost farthing. In all disagreements be eager for
   peace. Leave off strife before you begin. In law-suits, seek speedy and
   peaceful settlements. Often in our Lord's days, this was the most
   gainful way and usually it is so now. Better lose your rights than get
   into the hands of those who with will only fleece you in the name of
   justice and hold you fast so long as a semblance of a demand can stand
   against you, or another penny can be extracted from you! In a country
   where "just fee" meant robbery, it was wisdom to be robbed and to make
   no complaint. Even in our own country, a lean settlement is better than
   a fat law-suit. Many go into the court to get wool, but come out
   closely shorn. Carry on no angry suits in courts, but make peace with
   the utmost promptness!

   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.
   In this case our King again sets aside the glosses of men upon the
   commands of God and makes the Law to be seen in its vast spiritual
   breadth. Whereas tradition had confined the prohibition to an overt act
   of unchastity, the King shows that it forbade the unclean desires of
   the heart. Here the Divine Law is shown to refer not only to the act of
   criminal activity, but even to the desire, imagination, or passion
   which would suggest such an infamy! What a King is ours who stretches
   His scepter over the realm of our inward lusts! How Sovereignly He puts
   it--"But I say unto you"! Who but a Divine Being has authority to speak
   in this fashion? His Word is Law. So it ought to be, seeing He touches
   vice at the fountainhead and forbids un-cleanness in the heart. If sin
   were not allowed in the mind, it would never be made manifest in the
   body! This, therefore, is a very effectual way of dealing with the
   evil. But how searching! How condemning! Irregular looks, unchaste
   desires and strong passions are of the very essence of adultery--and
   who can claim a life-long freedom from them? Yet these are the things
   which defile a man. Lord, purge them out of my nature and make me pure
   within!

   29. 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. That
   which is the cause of sin is to be given up as well as the sin itself.
   It is not sinful to have an eye, or to cultivate keen perception--but
   if the eye of speculative knowledge leads us to offend by intellectual
   sin, it becomes the cause of evil and must be mortified. Anything,
   however harmless, which leads me to do, or think, or feel wrongly, I am
   to get rid of as much as if it were in itself an evil! Though to have
   done with it would involve deprivation, yet must it is dispensed with,
   since even a serious loss in one direction is far better than the
   losing of the whole man! Better a blind saint than a quick-sighted
   sinner! If abstaining from alcohol caused weakness of body, it would be
   better to be weak than to be strong and fall into drunkenness. Since
   vain speculations and reasoning land men in unbelief, we will have none
   of them! To "be cast into Hell" is too great a risk to run to merely
   indulge the evil eye of lust or curiosity.

   30. 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. The
   cause of offense may be rather active as the hand than intellectual as
   the eye, but we had better be hindered in our work than drawn aside
   into temptation. The most dexterous hand must not be spared if it
   encourages us in doing evil! It is not because a certain thing may make
   us clever and successful that we are to allow it--if it should prove to
   be the frequent cause of our falling into sin--we must have done with
   it and place ourselves at a disadvantage for our life-work rather than
   ruin our whole being by sin. Holiness is to be our first
   objective--everything else must take a very secondary place. Right eyes
   and right hands are no longer right if they lead us wrong. Even hands
   and eyes must go that we may not offend our God by them. Yet, let no
   man read this literally and, therefore, mutilate his body as some
   foolish fanatics have done! The real meaning is clear enough.
     __________________________________________________________________

The First Beatitude

   (No. 3156)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1873.

   "Blessed aire the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
   Matthew 5:3.

   [In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
   sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
   discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
   he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
   some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
   purpose. There are, however, five Sermons upon the Beatitudes, four
   ofwhich have already been published--See Sermons #422, Volume 7-- THE
   PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35--THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED;
   #3155, Volume 55--THE BEATITUDES-- #3065, Volume 53--THE THIRD
   BEATITUDE--and this one.]

   BEARING in mind the objective of our Savior's discourse, which was to
   describe the saved, and not to declare the plan of salvation, we now
   come to consider the first of the Beatitudes--

   "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

   A ladder, if it is to be of any use, must have its first step near the
   ground, or feeble climbers will never be able to mount. It would have
   been a grievous discouragement to struggling faith if the first
   blessing had been given to the pure in heart--to that excellence the
   young beginner makes no claim--while to poverty of spirit he can reach
   without going beyond his line! Had the Savior said, "Blessed are the
   rich in Divine Grace," he would have spoken a great Truth of God, but
   very few of us could have derived consolation from there. Our Divine
   Instructor begins at the beginning--with the very A B C of
   experience--and so enables the babes in Grace to learn of Him. Had He
   commenced with higher attainments, He would have had to leave the
   little ones behind. A gigantic step at the bottom of these sacred
   stairs would have effectually prevented many from beginning to
   ascend--but tempted by the lowly step, which bears the inscription,
   "Blessed are the poor in spirit," thousands are encouraged to attempt
   the heavenly way!

   It is worthy of grateful note that this Gospel blessing reaches down to
   the exact spot where the Law leaves us when it has done for us the very
   best within its power or design. The utmost the Law can accomplish for
   our fallen humanity is to lay bare our spiritual poverty and convince
   us of it. It cannot by any possibility enrich a man--its greatest
   service is to tear him away from his fancied wealth of
   self-righteousness, show him his overwhelming indebtedness to God and
   bow him to the earth in self-despair. Like Moses, it leads away from
   Goshen, conducts into the wilderness and brings to the verge of an
   impassable stream--but it can do no more! Joshua Jesus is needed to
   divide the Jordan and conduct into the promised land. The Law rends the
   goodly Babylonian garment of our imaginary merits into ten pieces and
   proves our wedge of gold to be mere dross. And thus it leaves us,
   "naked, and poor, and miserable." To this point Jesus descends-- His
   full line of blessing comes up to the verge of destruction, rescues the
   lost and enriches the poor! The Gospel is as full as it is free!

   This first Beatitude, though thus placed at a suitably low point where
   it may be reached by those who are in the earliest stages of Grace is,
   however, none the less rich in blessing. The same word is used in the
   same sense at the beginning as at the end of the chain of
   Beatitudes--the poor in spirit are as truly and emphatically blessed as
   the meek, or the peacemakers. No hint is given as to lower degree, or
   inferior measure, but on the contrary, the very highest benison, which
   is used in the 10th verse as the gathering up of all the seven
   Beatitudes, is ascribed to the first and lowest order of the
   blessed--"theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." What more is said even of
   the co-heirs with Prophets and martyrs? What more, indeed, could be
   said than this? The poor in spirit are lifted from the dunghill and
   set, not among hired servants in the field, but among princes in the
   Kingdom of God! Blessed is that soul-poverty of which the Lord Himself
   utters such good things! He sets much store by that which the world
   holds in small esteem, for His judgment is the reverse of the foo-

   lish verdict of the proud. As Watson well observes, "How poor are they
   that think themselves rich! How rich are they that see themselves to be
   poor! I call it the jewel of poverty. There are some paradoxes in
   religion which the world cannot understand--for a man to become a fool
   that he may be wise, to save his life by losing it, and to be made rich
   by being poor. Yet this poverty is to be strived for more than
   riches--under these rags is hid cloth of gold and out of this carcass
   came honey."

   The cause for placing this Beatitude first is found in the fact that it
   is first as a matter of experience. It is essential to the succeeding
   characters. It underlies each one of them and is the soil in which
   alone they can be produced. No man ever mourns before God until he is
   poor in spirit! Neither does he become meek towards others till he has
   humble views of himself. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness
   are not possible to those who have high views of their own
   excellence--and mercy to those who offend is also a Grace, difficult
   for those who are unconscious of their own spiritual need. Poverty in
   spirit is the porch of the temple of blessedness. As a wise man never
   thinks of building up the walls of his house till he has first dug out
   the foundation, so no person skillful in Divine things will hope to see
   any of the higher virtues where poverty of spirit is absent. Till we
   are emptied of self we cannot be filled with God. Stripping must be
   worked upon us before we can be clothed with the righteousness which is
   from Heaven. Christ is never precious till we are poor in spirit--we
   must see our own needs before we can perceive His wealth. Pride blinds
   the eyes and sincere humility must open them or the beauties of Jesus
   will be forever hidden from us. The strait gate is not wide enough to
   allow that man to enter who is great in his own esteem. It is easier
   for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man conceited
   of his own spiritual riches to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Hence
   it is clear that the character described in connection with the first
   Beatitude is essential to the production of those which follow--and
   unless a man possesses it, he may look in vain for favor at the hands
   of the Lord! The proud are cursed, their pride alone secures them the
   curse and shuts them out from Divine regard! "The proud He knows afar
   off." The lowly in heart are blessed, for to them and to their prayers
   Jehovah always has a tender regard.

   It is worthy of double mention that this first blessing is given rather
   to the absence than to thepresence ofpraisewor-thy qualities--it is a
   blessing not upon the man who is distinguished for this virtue or
   remarkable for that excellence-- but upon him whose chief
   characteristic is that he confesses his own sad deficiencies! This is
   intentional, in order that Grace may be all the more manifestly seen to
   be Grace, indeed, casting its eyes first, not upon purity, but upon
   poverty. Not upon showers of mercy, but upon those who need mercy. Not
   upon those who are called the children of God, but upon those who cry,
   "We are not worthy to be called Your sons." God wants nothing of us
   except our needs and these furnish Him with room to display His bounty
   when He freely supplies them! It is from the worse and not from the
   better side of fallen man that the Lord wins glory for Himself. Not
   what I have, but what I have not, is the first point of contact between
   my soul and God. The good may bring their goodness, but He declares
   that "there is none righteous, no, not one." The pious may offer their
   ceremonies, but He takes no delight in all their oblations. The wise
   may present their inventions, but He counts their wisdom to be folly.
   But when the poor in spirit come to Him with their utter destitution
   and distress, He accepts them at once! Yes, He bows the heavens to
   bless them and opens the storehouses of the Covenant to satisfy them.
   As the surgeon seeks for the sick and as the alms-giver looks after the
   poor, even so the Savior seeks out such as need Him--and upon them He
   exercises His Divine office. Let every needy sinner drink comfort from
   this well!

   Nor ought we to forget that this lowest note upon the octave of
   Beatitude, this keynote of the whole music gives forth a certain sound
   as to the spirituality of the Christian dispensation. Its first
   blessing is allotted to a characteristic, not of the outer, but of the
   inner man--to a state of soul and not to a posture of body--to the poor
   in spirit and not to the exact in ritual. That word, spirit, is one of
   the watchwords of the Gospel dispensation. Garments, genuflections,
   rituals, oblations and the like are ignored--the Lord's eyes of favor
   rest only upon broken hearts and humbled spirits before Him. Even
   mental endowments are left in the cold shade and the spirit is made to
   lead the van--the soul, the true man, is regarded and all besides left
   as of comparatively little worth! This teaches us to mind, above all
   things, those matters which concern our spirits. We must not be
   satisfied with external religion. If, in any ordinance, our spirit does
   not come into contact with the great Father of Spirits, we must not
   rest satisfied. Everything about our religion which is not heart work
   must be unsatisfactory to us. As men cannot live upon the chaff and the
   bran, but need the flour of the wheat, so do we need something more
   than the form of godliness and the letter of truth--we require the
   secret meaning, the

   grafting in of the Word into our spirit, the bringing of the Truth of
   God into our inmost soul--all short of this is short of the blessing!

   The highest grade of outward religiousness is not blessed, but the very
   lowest form of spiritual Grace is endowed with the Kingdom of Heaven!
   Better to be spiritual, even though our highest attainment is to be
   poor in spirit, than to remain carnal, even though in that carnality we
   should brag of perfection in the flesh. The least in Grace is higher
   than the greatest in Nature! Poverty of spirit in the publican was
   better than fullness of external excellence in the Pharisee. As the
   weakest and poorest man is nobler than the strongest of all the beasts
   of the field, so is the meanest spiritual man more precious in the
   sight of the Lord than the most eminent of the self-sufficient children
   of men. The smallest diamond is worth more than the largest pebble, the
   lowest degree of Grace excels the loftiest attainment of Nature! What
   do you say to this, beloved Friend? Are you spiritual? At least, are
   you enough so to be poor in spirit? Does there exist for you a
   spiritual realm, or are you locked up in the narrow region of things
   seen and heard? If the Holy Spirit has broken a door for you into the
   spiritual and unseen, then you are blessed even though your only
   perception as yet is the painful discovery that you are poor in spirit!
   Jesus on the mountain blesses you, and blessed you are!

   Drawing still nearer to our text, we observe, first, that THE PERSON
   DESCRIBED HAS DISCOVERED A

   FACT--he has ascertained his own spiritual poverty. And secondly, BY A
   FACT HE IS COMFORTED--for he possesses "the Kingdom of Heaven."

   I. The fact which he has ascertained is an old Truth of God, for the
   man was always spiritually poor. From his birth he was a pauper and at
   his best estate he is only a mendicant. "Naked, and poor, and
   miserable" is a fair summary of man's condition by nature. He lies
   covered with sores at the gates of Mercy, having nothing of his own but
   sin, unable to dig and unwilling to beg--and therefore perishing in a
   penury of the direst kind.

   This Truth is also universal, for all men are by nature thus poor. In a
   clan, or a family, there will usually be at least one person of
   substance. And in the poorest nation there will be some few possessors
   of wealth. But alas for our humanity! Its whole store of excellence is
   spent and its riches are utterly gone. Among us all there remains no
   remnant of good! The oil is spent from the cruse and the meal is
   exhausted from the barrel--a famine is upon us, direr than that which
   desolated Samaria of old! We owe ten thousand talents and have nothing
   with which to pay--even so much as a single penny of goodness we cannot
   find in all the treasuries of the nations!

   This fact is deeply humiliating. A man may have no money and yet it may
   involve no fault and, therefore, no shame. But our estate of poverty
   has this sting in it--it is moral and spiritual--and sinks us in blame
   and sin. To be poor in holiness, truth, faith and love to God is
   disgraceful to us. Often does the poor man hide his face as one greatly
   ashamed, but far more cause have we to do so who have spent our living
   riotously, wasted our Father's substance and brought ourselves to want
   and dishonor. Descriptions of our state which describe us as miserable
   are not complete unless they also declare us to be guilty! True, we are
   objects of pity, but much more of censure. A poor man may be none the
   less worthy of esteem because of the meanness of his apparel and the
   scantiness of his provision, but spiritual poverty means fault,
   blameworthiness, shame and sin. He who is poor in spirit is therefore a
   humbled man and is on the way to be numbered with those that mourn, of
   whom the second benediction says that, "they shall be comforted."

   The fact discovered by the blessed one in the text is but little known.
   The mass of mankind are utterly ignorant upon the matter. Though the
   Truth as to man's lost condition is daily taught in our streets, yet
   few understand it. They are not anxious to know the meaning of a
   statement so uncomfortable, so alarming--and the bulk of those who are
   aware of the Doctrine and acknowledge that it is Scriptural, yet do not
   believe it, but put it out of their thoughts and practically ignore it!
   "We see," is the universal boast of the world's blind men! So far from
   realizing that they are destitute, the sons of men are, in their own
   esteem, so richly endowed that they thank God that they are not as
   other men! No slavery is so degrading as that which makes a man content
   with his servility. The poverty which never aspires, but is content to
   continue in its rags and filth, is poverty of the deepest dye--and such
   is the spiritual condition of mankind.

   Wherever the truth as to our condition is truly known, it has been
   spiritually revealed. We may say of everyone who knows his soul
   poverty, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood has
   not revealed this to you." To be spiritually poor is the condition of
   all men--to be poor in spirit, or to know our spiritual poverty is an
   attainment especially granted to the called and chosen! An Omnipotent
   hand created us out of nothing and the same Omnipotence is needed to
   bring us to feel that we are nothing! We can never be saved unless we
   are made alive by Infinite Power, nor can we be made alive at all
   unless that same Power shall first slay us. It is amazing how much is
   needed to strip a man and lay him in his true place! One would think
   that so penniless a beggar must be aware of his penury, but he is not
   and never will be unless the eternal God shall convince him of it! Our
   imaginary goodness is more difficult to conquer than our actual sin.
   Man can sooner be cured of his sicknesses than be made to forego his
   bouts of health. Human weakness is a small obstacle to salvation
   compared with human strength--there lies the work and the difficulty!
   Hence it is a sign of Grace to know one's need of Grace. He has some
   Light of God in his soul who knows and feels that he is in darkness.
   The Lord Himself has worked a work of Grace upon the spirit which is
   poor and needy, and trembles at His Word. And it is such a work that it
   bears within it the promise, yes, the assurance of salvation--for the
   poor in spirit already possess the Kingdom of Heaven--and none have
   that but those who have eternal life!

   One thing is certainly true of the man whose spirit knows its own
   poverty--he is in possession of at least one Truth of God, whereas
   before he breathed the atmosphere of falsehood and knew nothing which
   he ought to know. However painful the result of poverty of spirit may
   be, it is the result of the Truth of God--and a foundation of Truth
   being laid, other Truths will be added and the man will abide in the
   Truth. All that others think they know concerning their own spiritual
   excellence is but a lie--and to be rich in lies is to be awfully poor.
   Carnal security, natural merit and self-confidence--however much of
   false peace they may produce--are only forms of falsehood, deceiving
   the soul. But when a man finds out that he is by nature and practice,
   "lost," he is no longer utterly a pauper as to the Truth of God--he
   possesses one precious thing at any rate--one coin minted by Truth is
   in his hand! For my own part, my constant prayer is that I may know the
   worst of my case, whatever the knowledge may cost me. I know that an
   accurate estimate of my own heart can never be otherwise than lowering
   to my self-esteem, but God forbid that I should be spared the
   humiliation which springs from His Truth! The sweet apples of
   self-esteem are deadly poison--who would wish to be destroyed by them?
   The bitter fruits of self-knowledge are always healthful, especially if
   washed down with the waters of repentance and sweetened with a draught
   from the wells of salvation! He who loves his own soul will not despise
   them. Blessed, according to our text, is the poor cast-down one who
   knows his lost condition and is suitably impressed thereby--he is but a
   beginner in Wisdom's school, yet he is a disciple and his Master
   encourages him with a benediction, yes, He pronounces him one of those
   to whom the Kingdom of Heaven is given!

   The position into which a clear knowledge of this one Truth has brought
   the soul is one peculiarly advantageous for obtaining every Gospel
   blessing. Poverty of spirit empties a man and so makes him ready to be
   filled! It exposes his wounds to the oil and wine of the Good
   Physician. It lays the guilty sinner at the gate of Mercy or among
   those dying ones around the pool of Bethesda to whom Jesus is known to
   come. Such a man opens his mouth and the Lord fills it--he hungers and
   the Lord satisfies him with good things! Above all other evils we have
   most cause to dread our own fullness! The greatest unfitness for Christ
   is our own imaginary fitness! When we are utterly undone, we are near
   to being enriched with the riches of Divine Grace. Out of ourselves is
   next door to being in Christ. Where we end, mercy begins, or rather,
   mercy has begun and mercy has already done much for us when we are at
   the end of our merit, our power, our wisdom and our hope! The deeper
   the destitution the better--

   "'Tis perfect poverty alone That sets the soul at large-- While we can
   call one mite our own We get no full discharge."

   If the heart is distressed because it cannot sufficiently feel its own
   need, so much the better--the poverty of spirit is just so much the
   greater and the appeal to Free Grace all the more powerful! If the need
   of a broken heart is felt, we may come to Jesus for a broken heart if
   we cannot come with a broken heart. If no kind or degree of good is
   perceptible, this also is but a clear proof of utter poverty--and in
   that condition we may dare to believe in the Lord Jesus! Though we are
   nothing, Christ is All. All that we need to begin with we must find in
   Him, just as surely as we must look for our ultimate perfecting to the
   same Source!

   A man may be so misled as to make a merit out of his sense of sin and
   may dream of coming to Jesus clothed in a fitness of despair and
   unbelief! This is, however, the very reverse of the conduct of one who
   is poor in spirit, for he is poor in feelings as well as in everything
   else and dares no more commend himself on account of his humility and
   despair than on account of his sins. He thinks himself to be a
   hard-hearted sinner as he acknowledges the deep repentance which his
   offenses call for. He fears that he is a stranger to that saved
   quickening which makes the conscience tender and he dreads

   lest he should, in any measure, be a hypocrite in the desires which he
   perceives to be in his soul. In fact, he does not dare to think himself
   to be any other than poor, grievously poor, in whatever light he may be
   viewed in his relation to God and His righteous Law. He hears of the
   humiliations of true penitents and wishes he had them. He reads the
   descriptions of repentance given in the Word of God and prays that he
   may realize them, but he sees nothing in himself upon which he can put
   his finger and say, "This, at least, is good. In me there dwells at
   least some one good thing." He is poor in spirit and from him all
   boasting is cut off, once and for all. It is better to be in this
   condition than falsely to account one's self a saint and sit in the
   chief places of the synagogue. Yes, it is so sweetly safe a position to
   occupy, that he who is fullest of faith in God and joy in the Holy
   Spirit finds it adds to his peace to retain a full consciousness of the
   poverty of his natural state and to let it run parallel with his
   persuasion of security and blessedness in Christ Jesus! Lord, keep me
   low! Empty me more and more! Lay me in the dust! Let me be dead and
   buried as to all that is of self--then shall Jesus live in me, reign in
   me and be truly my All-in-All!

   It may seem to some to be a small matter to be poor in spirit. Let such
   persons remember that our Lord so places this gracious condition of
   heart that it is the foundation stone of the celestial ascent of the
   Beatitudes--and who can deny that the steps which rise from it are
   sublime beyond measure? It is something inexpressibly desirable to be
   poor in spirit if this is the road to purity of heart and to the
   godlike character of the peacemaker! Who would not lay his head on
   Jacob's stone to enjoy Jacobs dream? Who would scorn the staff with
   which in poverty he crossed the Jordan if he might but see the Kingdom
   of Heaven opened as the Patriarch did? Welcome the poverty of Israel if
   it is a part of the conditions upon which we shall receive the blessing
   of Israel's God! Instead of despising the poor in spirit, we shall do
   well to regard them as possessing the dawn of spiritual life, the germ
   of all the Graces, the initiative of perfection, the evidence of
   blessedness!

   II. Having spoken thus much upon the character of those who are poor in
   spirit as being formed by the knowledge of a fact, we have now to note
   that IT IS BY A FACT THAT THEY ARE CHEERED AND RENDERED BLESSED-- "For
   theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

   It is not a promise as to the future, but a declaration as to the
   present--not theirs shall be, but "theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
   This Truth is clearly revealed in many Scriptures by necessary
   inference, for first, the King of the heavenly kingdom is constantly
   represented as reigning over the poor David says in the 72nd Psalm, "He
   shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the
   needy...He shall spare the poor and needy and shall save the souls of
   the needy." As His virgin mother sang, "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." Those who
   enlist beneath the banner of the Son of David are like those who of old
   came to the son of Jesse in the cave of Adullam--"Everyone that was in
   distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was
   discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain
   over them." "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." His title
   was "A Friend of Publicans and Sinners." "Though He was rich, yet for
   our sakes He became poor," and it is therefore right that the poor
   should be gathered unto Him. Since Jesus has chosen the poor in spirit
   to be His subjects and said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your
   Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom," we see how true it is
   that they are blessed.

   The rule of the Kingdom is such as only the poor in spirit will endure.
   To them it is an easy yoke from which they have no wish to be released.
   To give God all the glory is no burden to them. To cease from self is
   no hard command. The place of lowliness suits them, the service of
   humiliation they count an honor! They can say with the Psalmist (Psalm
   131:2), "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is
   weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child." Self-denial
   and humility, which are main duties of Christ's Kingdom, are easy only
   to those who are poor in spirit. A humble mind loves humble duties and
   is willing to kiss the least flower which grows in the Valley of
   Humiliation. But to others, a fair show in the flesh is a great
   attraction and self-exaltation the main object of life. Our Savior's
   declaration, "Except you are converted, and become as little children,
   you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," is an iron rule which
   shuts out all but the poor in spirit! But, at the same time it is a
   gate of pearl which admits all who are of that character.

   The privileges of the Kingdom are such as only the spiritually poor
   will value. To others, they are as pearls cast before swine. The
   self-righteous care nothing for pardon, though it cost the Redeemer His
   life's blood. They have no care for regeneration, though it is the
   greatest work of the Holy Spirit. And they set no store by
   sanctification, though it is the Father, Himself, who has made us meet
   to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light! Evidently
   the blessings

   of the Covenant were meant for the poor in spirit--there is not one of
   them which would be valued by the Pharisee. A robe of righteousness
   implies our nakedness. Manna from Heaven implies the lack of earthly
   bread. Salvation is vanity if men are in no danger. Mercy is a mockery
   if they are not sinful. The charter of the Church is written upon the
   supposition that it is formed of the poor and needy and is without
   meaning if it is not so. Poverty of spirit opens the eyes to see the
   preciousness of Covenant blessings. As an old Puritan said, "He that is
   poor in spirit is a Christ-admirer. He has high thoughts of Christ, he
   sets a high value and appreciation upon Christ, he hides himself in
   Christ's wounds, he bathes himself in His blood, he wraps himself in
   His robe. He sees a spiritual dearth and famine at home, but he looks
   out to Christ and cries, 'Lord, show me Yourself, and it suffices.'"
   Now, inasmuch as the Lord has made nothing in vain and since we find
   that the privileges of the Gospel Kingdom are only suitable to the poor
   in spirit, we may rest assured that for such they were prepared and to
   such they belong!

   Moreover, it is clear that only those who are poor in spirit do
   actually reign as kings unto God. The crown of this Kingdom will not
   fit every head. In fact, it fits the brow of none but the poor in
   spirit! No proud man reigns--he is the slave of his boastings, the serf
   of his own loftiness. The ambitious worldling grasps after a kingdom,
   but he does not possess one. The humble in heart are content and in
   that contentment they are made to reign! High spirits have no rest--
   only the lowly heart has peace. To know one's self is the way to
   self-conquest--and self-conquest is the grandest of all victories! The
   world looks out for a lofty, ambitious, stern, self-sufficient man and
   says he bears himself like a king and yet, in very truth, the real
   kings among their fellows are meek and lowly like the Lord of All--and
   in their unconsciousness of self lies the secret of their power! The
   kings among mankind, the happiest, the most powerful, the most
   honorable, will one day be seen to be not the Alexanders, Caesars and
   Napoleons, but the men akin to Him who washed the disciples'
   feet--those who in quietness lived for God and their fellow men,
   unostentatious because conscious of their failures, unselfish because
   self was held in low esteem, humble and devout because their own
   spiritual poverty drove them out of themselves and led them to rest
   alone upon the Lord! The time shall come when glitter and gewgaw will
   go for what they are worth and then shall the poor in spirit be seen to
   have had the Kingdom!

   The dominion awarded by this Beatitude to the poor in spirit is no
   common one. It is the Kingdom of Heaven, a heavenly dominion far
   excelling anything which can be obtained this side of the stars. An
   ungodly world may reckon the poor in spirit to be contemptible, but God
   writes them down among His peers and princes. And His judgment is true
   and far more to be esteemed than the opinions of men or even of angels!
   Only as we are poor in spirit have we any evidence that Heaven is ours.
   But having that mark of blessedness, all things are ours, whether
   things present or things to come. To the poor in spirit belong all the
   security, honor and happiness which the Gospel Kingdom is calculated to
   give upon earth! Even here below they may eat of its dainties without
   question and revel in its delights without fear. Theirs are also the
   things not seen as yet, reserved for future Revelation. Theirs the
   Second Advent, theirs the Glory, theirs the fifth great monarchy,
   theirs the Resurrection, theirs the Beatific Vision, theirs the eternal
   ecstasy!

   "Poor in spirit." The words sound as if they described the owners of
   nothing, and yet they describe the inheritors of all things! Happy
   poverty! Millionaires sink into insignificance! The treasures of the
   Indies evaporate in smoke while to the poor in spirit remains a
   boundless, endless, faultless Kingdom which renders them blessed in the
   esteem of Him who is God over all, blessed forever! And all this is for
   the present life in which they mourn and need to be comforted, hunger
   and thirst and need to be filled. All this is for them while yet they
   are persecuted for righteousness' sake. What, then, must be their
   blessedness when they shall shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of
   their Father and in them shall be fulfilled the promise of their Master
   and Lord, "to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My
   Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father on His
   throne"?

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW5:31-42.

   [Continued from Sermon #3155, Volume 55.]

   31, 32. It has been said, Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give
   her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto

   you, That whoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
   fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whoever shall marry her
   that is divorced commits adulter). This time our King quotes and
   condemns a permissive enactment of the Jewish State. Men were known to
   bid their wives, "begone," and a hasty word was thought sufficient as
   an act of di-

   vorce. Moses insisted upon "a writing of divorcement," that angry
   passions might have time to cool and that the separation, if it must
   come, might be performed with deliberation and legal formality. The
   requirement of a writing was to a certain degree a check upon an evil
   habit which was so engrained in the people that to refuse it altogether
   would have been useless--and would only have created another crime. The
   law of Moses went as far as it could practically be enforced. It was
   because of the hardness of their hearts that divorce was tolerated--it
   was never approved.

   But our Lord is more heroic in his legislation. He forbids divorce
   except for the one crime of infidelity to the marriage vow. She who
   commits adultery does, by that act and deed, in effect break the
   marriage bond--and it ought then to be formally recognized by the State
   as being broken. But for nothing else should a man be divorced from his
   wife. Marriage is for life and cannot be loosed except by the one great
   crime which severs its bond, whichever of the two is guilty of it. Our
   Lord would never have tolerated the wicked laws of certain of the
   American States which allow married men and women to separate on the
   merest pretext. A woman divorced for any cause but adultery, and
   marrying again, is committing adultery before God, whatever the laws of
   man may call it! This is very plain and positive--and thus a sanctity
   is given to marriage which human legislation ought not to violate. Let
   us not be among those who take up novel ideas of wedlock and seek to
   deform the marriage laws under the pretense of reforming them. Our Lord
   knows better than our modern social reformers. We had better let the
   Laws of God alone, for we shall never discover any better.

   33-37. 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; neither of 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 False swearing was forbidden of old, but every
   kind of swearing is forbidden now by the word of our Lord Jesus. He
   mentions several forms of oath and forbids them all--and then
   prescribes simple forms of affirmation or denial as all that His
   followers should employ. Notwithstanding much that may be advanced to
   the contrary, there is no evading the plain sense of this passage--that
   every sort of oath, however solemn or true, is forbidden to a follower
   of Jesus! Whether in court of law, or out of it, the rule is, "Swear
   not at all." Yet, in this Christian country we have swearing
   everywhere--and especially among law-makers! Our legislators begin
   their official existence by swearing. By those who obey the Law of the
   Savior's Kingdom, all swearing is set aside so that the simple word of
   affirmation or denial, calmly repeated, may remain as a sufficient bond
   of truth. A bad man cannot be believed on his oath and a good man
   speaks the truth without an oath--to what purpose is the superfluous
   custom of legal swearing preserved? Christians should not yield to an
   evil custom, however great the pressure put upon them! They should
   abide by the plain and unmistakable command of their Lord and King.

   38. You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a
   tooth for a tooh. The law of an eye for an eye, as administered in the
   proper courts of law was founded in justice and worked far more
   equitably than the more modern system of fines, for that method allows
   rich men to offend with comparative impunity. But when the lex talionis
   came to be the rule of daily life, it fostered revenge--and our Savior
   would not tolerate it as a principle carried out by individuals. Good
   law in court may be very bad custom in common society. He spoke against
   what had become a proverb and was heard and said among the people, "
   You have heard that it has been said." Our loving King would have
   private dealings ruled by the spirit of love and not by the rule of
   law.

   39. But I say unto you, That you resist not evil: but whoever shall
   smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other als.
   Non-resistance and forbearance are to be the rule among Christians.
   They are to endure personal ill-usage without coming to blows. They are
   to be as the anvil when bad men are the hammers, and thus they are to
   overcome by patient forgiveness. The rule of the judgment seat is not
   for common life, but the rule of the Cross and the all-enduring
   Sufferer is for us all. Yet how many regard all this as fanatical,
   utopian and even cowardly? The Lord, our King, would have us bear and
   forbear, and conquer by mighty patience. Can we do it? How are we the
   servants of Christ if we have not His spirit?

   40. And if any man will sue you at the law, and take away your coat,
   let him have your cloak, also. Let him have all he asks and more.
   Better lose a suit of clothes than be drawn into a suit in law. The
   courts of our Lord's day were vicious and His disciples were advised to
   suffer wrong sooner than appeal to them. Our own courts often furnish
   the surest method of solving a difficulty by authority, and we have
   known them resorted to with the view of preventing strife. Yet even

   in a country where justice can be had, we are not to resort to law for
   every personal wrong. We should rather endure to be put upon than be
   forever crying out, "I'll bring an action." At times this very rule of
   self-sacrifice may require us to take steps in the way of legal appeal,
   to stop injuries which would fall heavily upon others. But we ought
   often to forego our own advantage, yes, always when the main motive
   would be a proud desire for self-vindication. Lord, give me a patient
   spirit, so that I may not seek to avenge myself, even when I might
   righteously do so!

   41. And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him tw .
   Governments in those days demanded forced service through their petty
   officers. Christians were to be of a yielding temper and bear a double
   exaction rather than provoke ill words and anger. We ought not to evade
   taxation, but stand ready to render to Caesar his due. "Yield" is our
   watchword! To stand up against force is not exactly our part--we may
   leave that to others. How few believe the long-suffering, non-resistant
   Doctrines of our King!

   42. Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you
   turn not you away.Be generous. A miser is no follower of Jesus.
   Discretion is to be used in our giving, lest we encourage idleness and
   beggary. But the general rule is, "Give to him that asks you."
   Sometimes a loan may be more useful than a gift, do not refuse it to
   those who will make right use of it. These precepts are not meant for
   fools--they are set before us as our general rule--but each rule is
   balanced by other Scriptural commands and there is the teaching of a
   philanthropic commonsense to guide us. Our spirit is to be one of
   readiness to help the needy by gift or loan--and we are not exceedingly
   likely to err by excess in this direction--hence the boldness of the
   command.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Fourth Beatitude

   (No. 3157)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   DECEMBER 14, 1873

   "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
   shall be filled." Matthew 5:6.

   [In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
   sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
   discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
   he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
   some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
   purpose. There are, however, six Sermons upon the Beatitudes, five of
   which have already been published--See Sermons #422, Volume 7-- THE
   PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35--THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED;
   #3155, Volume 55--THE BEATITUDES; #3156, Volume 55--THE FIRST BEATITUDE
   ; #3065, Volume 53--THE THIRD BEATITUDE.]

   I REMARKED, on a former occasion, that each of the seven Beatitudes
   rises above the one which precedes it, and rises out of it. It is a
   higher thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness than to be meek,
   or to mourn, or to be poor in spirit. But no man ever becomes hungry
   and thirsty after righteousness unless he has first passed through the
   three preliminary stages--has been convinced of his soul poverty, has
   been made to mourn for sin and has been rendered humble in the sight of
   God. I have already shown that the meek man is one who is contented
   with what God has given him in this world, that he is one whose
   ambition is at an end and whose aspirations are not for things beneath
   the moon. Very well then, having ceased to hunger and thirst after this
   world, he is the man to hunger and thirst after another and a better
   one! Having said farewell to these gross and perishing things, he is
   the man to throw the whole intensity of his nature into the pursuit of
   that which is heavenly and eternal--which is here described as
   "righteousness." Man must first of all be cured of his ardor for
   earthly pursuits before he can feel fervor for heavenly ones. "No man
   can serve two masters." And until the old selfish principle has been
   driven out and the man has become humble and meek, he will not begin to
   hunger and thirst after righteousness.

   I. Proceeding at once to consider our text, we notice here, first, THE
   OBJECTIVE WHICH THE BLESSED MAN DESIRES. He hungers and thirsts after
   righteousness.

   As soon as the Spirit of God quickens him and really makes him a
   blessed man, he begins to long after righteousness before God. He knows
   that he is a sinner and that as a sinner he is unrighteous and,
   therefore, is condemned at the bar of the Most High. But he wants to be
   righteous. He desires to have his iniquity removed and the defilement
   of the past blotted out. How can this be done? The question which he
   asks again and again is, "How can I be made righteous in the sight of
   God?" And he is never satisfied until he is told that Jesus Christ is
   made of God unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and
   redemption." Then when he sees that Christ died in the sinner's place,
   he understands how the sinner's sins are put away--and when he
   comprehends that Christ has worked out a perfect righteousness, not for
   Himself, but for the unrighteous--he comprehends how, by imputation, he
   is made righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of
   Jesus Christ! But until he knows that, he hungers and thirsts after
   righteousness--and he is blessed in thus hungering and thirsting.

   After he has found Christ to be his righteousness as far as
   justification is concerned, this man then longs to have a righteous
   nature. "Alas," he says, "it is not enough for me to know that my sin
   is forgiven. I have a fountain of sin within my heart and bitter waters
   continually flow from it. Oh, that my nature could be changed so that
   I, the lover of sin, could be made a lover of that which is good! That
   I, now full of evil, could become full of holiness!" He begins to cry
   out for this and he is blessed in the crying--but he never rests until
   the Spirit of God makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. Then is he
   renewed in the spirit of his mind and God has given him, at least in
   measure, that which he hungers and thirsts

   after, namely, righteousness of nature. He has passed from death unto
   life, from darkness to light! The things he formerly loved, he now
   hates, and the things he then hated he now loves!

   After he is regenerated and justified, he still pants after
   righteousness in another sense--he wants to be sanctified. The new
   birth is the commencement of sanctification and sanctification is the
   carrying on of the work commenced in re-generation--so the blessed man
   cries, "Lord, help me to be righteous in my character. You desire Truth
   in the inward parts--keep my whole nature pure. Let no temptation get
   the mastery over me. Subdue my pride. Correct my judgment. Keep my will
   in check. Make me to be a holy man in the innermost temple of my being
   and then let my conduct toward my fellow men be in all respects all
   that it should be. Let me speak so that they can always believe my
   word. Let me act so that none can truly charge me with injustice. Let
   my life be a transparent one--let it be, as far as is possible, the
   life of Christ written over again." Thus, you see, the truly blessed
   man hungers and thirsts for justification, for regeneration, and for
   sanctification!

   When he has all of these, he longs for perseverance in Grace. He
   thirsts to be keptright. If he has overcome one bad habit, he thirsts
   to put down all others. If he has acquired one virtue, he thirsts to
   acquire more. If God has given him much Grace, he thirsts for more. And
   if he is, in some respects, like his Master, he perceives his defects
   and mourns over them--and goes on to thirst to be still more like
   Jesus. He is always hungering and thirsting to be made right and to be
   kept right. So he prays for final perseverance and for perfection. He
   feels that he has such a hunger and thirst after righteousness that he
   will never be satisfied until he wakes up in the image of his Lord,
   that he will never be content until the last sin within him is subdued
   and he shall have no more propensity to evil, but be out of gunshot of
   temptation!

   And such a man, Beloved, honestly desires to see righteousness promoted
   among his fellow men. He wishes that all men would do as they would be
   done by, and he tries, by his own example, to teach them to do so. He
   wishes that there were no fraud, no false witness, no perjury, no
   theft, no lasciviousness. He wishes that right ruled in the whole
   world. He would account it a happy day if every person could be blessed
   and if there were no need of punishment for offenses because they had
   ceased. He longs to hear that oppression has come to an end. He wants
   to see right government in every land. He longs for wars to cease and
   that the rules and principles of right, and not force and the sharp
   edge of the sword, may govern all mankind. His daily prayer is, "Lord,
   let Your Kingdom come, for Your Kingdom is righteousness and peace."
   When he sees any wrong done, he grieves over it. If he cannot alter it,
   he grieves all the more! And he labors as much as lies in him to bear a
   protest against wrong of every sort. He hungers and thirsts after
   righteousness. He does not hunger and thirst that his own political
   party may get into power, but he does hunger and thirst that
   righteousness may be done in the land. He does not hunger and thirst
   that his own opinions may come to the front, and that his own sect or
   denomination may increase in numbers and influence, but he does desire
   that righteousness may come to the fore. He does not crave for himself
   that he may be able to sway his fellow men according to his own
   desires, but he does wish that he could influence his fellow men for
   that which is right and true, for his soul is all on fire with this one
   desire--righteousness-- righteousness for himself, righteousness before
   God, righteousness between man and man! This he longs to see and for
   this he hungers and thirsts--and therein Jesus says that he is blessed.

   II. Now NOTICE THE DESIRE ITSELF.

   It is said that he hungers and thirsts after righteousness--a double
   description of his ardent desire for it. Surely it would have been
   enough for the man to hunger for it, but he thirsts as well. All the
   appetites, desires and cravings of his spiritual nature go out towards
   what he wants above everything else, namely, righteousness. He feels
   that he has not attained to it himself and, therefore, he hungers and
   thirsts for it. And he also laments that others have not attained to it
   and, therefore, he hungers and thirsts for them--that they, too, may
   have it.

   We may say of this passion, first, that, it is real Hungering and
   thirsting are matters of fact, not fancy. Suppose that you meet a man
   who tells you that he is so hungry that he is almost starving, and you
   say to him, "Nonsense, my dear fellow, just forget all about it! It is
   a mere whim of yours, for you can live very well without food if you
   like"? Why, he knows that you are mocking him! And if you could
   surprise some poor wretch who had been floating in a boat cast away at
   sea, and had not been able for days to moisten his mouth except with
   the briny water which had only increased his thirst--and if you were to
   say to him, "Thirst? It is only your fancy, you are nervous, that is
   all, you need no drink"-- the man would soon tell you that he knows
   better than that, for he must drink or die! There is nothing in this
   world that is more real than hunger and thirst--and the truly blessed
   man has such a real passion, desire and craving after righ-

   teousness that it can only be likened to hunger and thirst. He must
   have his sins pardoned, he must be clothed in the righteousness of
   Christ, he must be sanctified! And he feels that it will break his
   heart if he cannot get rid of sin. He pines, he longs, he prays to be
   made holy! He cannot be satisfied without this righteousness--and his
   hungering and thirsting for it is a very real thing.

   And not only is it real, it is also most natural. It is natural to men
   who need bread to hunger. You do not have to tell them when to hunger
   or when to thirst. If they have not bread and water, they hunger and
   thirst naturally. So, when the Spirit of God has changed our nature,
   that new nature hungers and thirsts after righteousness. The old nature
   never did, never could and never would--it hungers after the husks that
   the swine eat--but the new nature hungers after righteousness. It must
   do so, it cannot help itself. You do not need to say to the quickened
   man, "Desire holiness." Why, he would give his eyes to possess it! You
   need not say to a man who is under conviction of sin, "Desire the
   righteousness of Christ." He would be willing to lay down his life if
   he could but obtain it! He hungers and thirsts after righteousness from
   the very necessities of his nature.

   And this desire is described in such terms that we perceive that it is
   intense. What is more intense than hunger? When a man cannot find any
   nourishment, his hunger seems to eat him up--his yearnings after bread
   are terrible. I have heard it said that in the Bread Riots, the cry of
   the men and women for bread was something far more terrible to hear
   than the cry of, "Fire!" when some great city has been on a blaze.
   "Bread! Bread!" He that has it not feels that he must have it-- but the
   cravings of thirst are even more intense. It is said that you may
   palliate the pangs of hunger, but that thirst makes life, itself, a
   burden--the man must drink or die. Well now, such is the intense
   longing after righteousness of a man whom God has blessed! He wants it
   so urgently that he says in the anguish of his heart that he cannot
   live without it. The Psalmist, says, "My soul waits for the Lord more
   than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch
   for the morning."

   There is no other desire that is quite like the desire of a quickened
   man after righteousness and, therefore, this desire often becomes very
   painful. Hunger and thirst endured up to a certain point, involve the
   very keenest of pangs, and a man who is seeking the righteousness of
   Christ is full of unutterable woe until he finds it. And the Christian
   warring against his corruptions is led to cry, "O wretched man that I
   am!" until he learns that Christ has won the victory for him. And the
   servant of Christ desiring to reclaim the nations and to bring his
   fellow men to follow that which is right and good, is often the subject
   of unutterable pangs. He bears the burden of the Lord and goes about
   his work like a man who has too heavy a burden to carry! Painful,
   indeed, is it to the soul to be made to hunger and thirst after
   righteousness.

   The expressions in our text also indicate that this is a most energetic
   desire. What will not a man who is hungry be driven to do? We have an
   old proverb that "hunger breaks through stone walls" and, certainly, a
   man hungry and thirsty after righteousness will break through anything
   to get it! Have we not known the sincere penitent travelling many miles
   in order to get where he could hear the Gospel? Has he not often lost
   his night's rest and brought himself almost to death's door by his
   persistency in pleading with God for pardon? And as to the man who is
   saved and who desires to see others saved, how often, in his desire to
   lead them in the right way, will he surrender home comforts to go to a
   distant land? How often will he bring upon himself the scorn and
   contempt of the ungodly because zeal for righteousness works mightily
   within his spirit? I would like to see many of these hungry and thirsty
   ones as members of our Churches, preaching in our pulpits, toiling in
   our Sunday schools and mission stations--men and women who feel that
   they must see Christ's Kingdom come or they will hardly be able to
   live! This holy craving after righteousness, which the Holy Spirit
   implants in a Christian's soul, becomes imperious--it is not merely
   energetic, but it dominates his entire being! For this he puts all
   other wishes and desires aside. He can be a loser, but he must be
   righteous! He can be ridiculed, but he must hold fast his integrity! He
   can endure scorn, but he must declare the Truth of God! "Righteousness"
   he must have! His spirit demands it by an appetite that lords it over
   all other passions and propensities! And truly "blessed" is the man in
   whom this is the case.

   For, mark you, to hunger after righteousness is a sign of spiritual
   life. Nobody who was spiritually dead ever did this. In all the
   catacombs there has never yet been found a dead man hungering or
   thirsting--and there never will be. If you hunger and thirst after
   righteousness, you are spiritually alive! And it is also a proof of
   spiritual health. Physicians will tell you that they regard a good
   appetite as being one of the signs that a man's body is in a healthy
   state--and it is the same with the soul. Oh, to have a ravenous
   appetite after Christ! Oh, to be greedy after the best things! Oh, to
   be covetous after holiness--in fact, to hunger and thirst after
   everything that is right, good, pure, lovely and of good repute. May
   the Lord send us more of this intense hunger and thirst! It is the very
   opposite condition to that of the self-satisfied and the
   self-righteous. Pharisees never hunger and thirst after
   righteousness--they have all the righteousness they need and they even
   think that they have some to spare for that poor publican over yonder
   who cries, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" If a man thinks that he is
   perfect, what can he know about hungering and thirsting? He is already
   filled with all that he needs and he, too, thinks that he could give of
   his redundant riches to his poor Brother who is sighing over his
   imperfections! For my part, I am quite content to still have the
   blessing of hungering and thirsting, for that blessing stands side by
   side with another experience, namely, that of being filled--and when
   one is in one sense filled, yet in another sense one still hungers for
   more--this makes up the complete Beatitude! "Blessed are they who
   hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

   III. Having thus described the objective and the desire of the truly
   blessed man, I must now proceed, in the third place, to speak of THE
   BLESSING ITSELF, the benediction which Christ pronounces over those who
   hunger and thirst after righteousness. "They shall be filled."

   This is a unique blessing. No one else ever gets "filled." A man
   desires meat--he eats it and is filled for a little while--but he is
   soon hungry again. A man desires drink. And he has it, but he is soon
   thirsty again. But a man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness
   shall be so "filled" that he shall never again thirst as he thirsted
   before! Many hunger and thirst after gold, but nobody ever yet filled
   his soul with gold--it cannot be done. The richest man who ever lived
   was never quite as rich as he would have liked to be. Men have tried to
   fill their souls with worldly possessions. They have added field to
   field, farm to farm, street to street and town to town till it seemed
   as if they would be left alone in the land--but no man ever yet could
   fill his soul with an estate, however vast it might be! A few more
   acres were needed to round off that corner or to join that farm to the
   main body of his territory--or if he could only have had a little more
   upland he might have been satisfied--but he did not get it, so he was
   still discontented. Alexander conquered the world, but it would not
   fill his soul--he wanted more worlds to conquer! And if you and I could
   own a dozen worlds, were we possessors of all the stars and if we could
   call all space our own, we would not find enough to fill our immortal
   spirits. We would only be magnificently poor, a company of imperial
   paupers! God has so made man's heart that nothing can ever fill it but
   God, Himself. There is such a hungering and thirsting put into the
   quickened man that he discerns his necessity and he knows that only
   Christ can supply that necessity. When a man is saved, he has obtained
   all that he needs. When he gets Christ, he is satisfied. I recollect a
   foolish woman asking me, some years ago, to let her tell my fortune. I
   said to her, "I can tell you yours, but I don't want to know mine--mine
   is already made, for I have everything that I need." "But," she said,
   "can't I promise you something for years to come?" "No," I answered, "I
   don't need anything. I have everything that I need--I am perfectly
   satisfied and perfectly contented." And I can say the same tonight! I
   do not know anything that anybody could offer to me that would increase
   my satisfaction. If God will but bless the souls of men and save them,
   and get to Himself Glory, I am filled with contentment--I need nothing
   more. I do not believe that any man can honestly say as much as that
   unless he has found Christ. If he has by faith laid hold upon the
   Savior, then he has grasped that which always brings the blessing with
   it. "He shall be filled." It is a unique blessing!

   And the blessing is most appropriate as well as unique. A man is hungry
   and thirsty. How can you take away his hunger without filling him with
   food? And how can you remove his thirst without filling him with drink,
   at least in sufficient quantity to satisfy him? So Christ's promise
   concerning the man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is, "He
   shall be filled." He wants righteousness--he shall have righteousness!
   He wants God--he shall have God! He wants a new heart--he shall have a
   new heart. He wants to be kept from sin--he shall be kept from sin. He
   wants to be made perfect--he shall be made perfect. He wants to live
   where there are none that sin--he shall be taken away to dwell where
   there shall be no sinners forever and ever!

   In addition to being unique and appropriate, this blessing is very
   large and abundant. Christ said, "Blessed are they who hunger and
   thirst after righteousness: for they shall"--have a sup by the way? Oh,
   no! "For they shall"--have a little comfort every now and then? Oh, no!
   "For they shall be filled"--filled. And the Greek word might even
   better be rendered, "they shall be satiated." "They shall have all they
   need, enough and to spare! They who hunger and thirst after
   righteousness shall be filled--filled to the brim. How true this is!
   Here is a man who says, "I am condemned in the sight of God. I feel and
   know that no actions of mine can ever make me righteous before Him. I
   have given up all hope of self-

   justification." Listen, O Man, will you believe in Jesus Christ, the
   Son of God and take Him to stand before God as your Substitute and
   Representative? "I will," he says, "I do trust in Him, and in Him
   alone." Well, then, O Man, know that you have received from Christ a
   righteousness which may well satisfy you! All that God could rightly
   ask of you was the perfect righteousness of a man, for being a man,
   that is all the righteousness that you could be expected to present to
   God. But in the righteousness of Christ you have perfect righteousness
   of a man and more than that--you also have the righteousness of God!
   Think of that! Father Adam, in his perfection, wore the righteousness
   of man and it was lovely to look upon as long as it lasted. But if you
   trust in Jesus, you are wearing the righteousness of God, for Christ
   was God as well as Man. Now, when a man attains to that experience, and
   knows that having believed in Jesus, God looks upon him as if the
   righteousness of Jesus were his own righteousness--and in fact imputes
   to him the Divine Righteousness which is Christ's--that man is filled!
   Yes, he is more than filled, he is satiated! All that his soul could
   possibly desire, he already possesses in Christ Jesus!

   I told you that the man also wanted a new nature. He said, "O God, I
   long to get rid of these evil propensities. I need to have this defiled
   body of mine made to be a temple meet for You. I want to be made like
   my Lord and Savior, so that I may be able to walk with Him in Heaven
   forever and ever." Listen, O Man! If you believe in Jesus Christ, this
   is what has been done to you! You have received into your nature, by
   the Word of God, an incorruptible Seed, "which lives and abides
   forever." That is already in you if you are a Believer in Jesus and it
   can no more die than God, Himself, can die, for it is a Divine Nature.
   "The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away; but the Word of
   the Lord"--that Word which you have received if you have believed in
   Jesus--"endures forever." The water which Christ has given you shall be
   in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life! In the
   moment of our regeneration, a new Nature is imparted to us, of which
   the Apostle Peter says, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
   according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively
   hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
   inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away." And
   the same Apostle also says that Believers are "partakers of the Divine
   Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
   lust." Is not that a blessed beginning for those who hunger and thirst
   after righteousness?

   But listen further. God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the
   blessed Trinity, condescends to come and dwell in all Believers! Paul
   writes to the Church of God at Corinth, "Know you not that your body is
   the temple of the Holy Spirit?" God dwells in you, my Brother or Sister
   in Christ! Does not this Truth astonish you? Sin dwells in you, but the
   Holy Spirit has also come to dwell in you and to drive sin out of you.
   The devil assails you and tries to capture your spirit and to make it
   like those in his own infernal den--but lo, the Eternal has Himself
   come down and enshrined Himself within you! The Holy Spirit is dwelling
   within your heart if you are a Believer in Jesus! Christ Himself is "in
   you the hope of Glory." If you really want righteousness, dear Soul,
   surely you have it here--the nature changed and made like the Nature of
   God. The ruling principle altered, sin dethroned and the Father, the
   Son and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you as your Lord and Master!
   Why, I think that however much you may hunger and thirst after
   righteousness, you must count yourself well filled since you have these
   immeasurable blessings!

   And listen yet, again, my Brother or Sister in Christ. You shall be
   kept and preserved even to the end! He who has begun to cleanse you
   will never leave the work until He has made you without spot, or
   wrinkle, or any such thing. He never begins a work which He cannot or
   will not complete! He never failed in anything that He has undertaken
   and He never will fail! Your corruptions have their heads already
   broken and though your sins still rebel, it is but a struggling gasp
   for life. The weapons of victorious Grace shall slay them all and end
   the strife forever. The sins that trouble you today shall be like those
   Egyptians that pursued the children of Israel into the Red Sea--you
   shall see them no more forever. "The God of Peace shall bruise Satan
   under your feet shortly." And as surely as you have believed in Christ,
   poor imperfect worm of the dust as you are, you shall walk with Him in
   white on yonder golden streets in that city within whose gates there
   shall never enter anything that defiles, "but they which are written in
   the Lamb's Book of Life." Yes, Believer, you shall be near and like
   your God! Do you hear this? You hunger and thirsts after
   righteousness--you shall have it without stint, for you shall be one of
   the "partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." You shall be
   able to gaze upon God in His ineffable Glory and to dwell with the
   devouring fire and the everlasting burnings of His unsullied purity!
   You shall be able to see the God who is a consuming fire and yet not be
   afraid, for there shall be nothing in you to be consumed! You shall be
   spotless, innocent, pure, immortal as your God Himself--will not this
   satisfy you? "Ah," you say, "it satisfies me for myself, but I would
   like to see my children righteous too." Then commend them to that God
   who loves their father and their mother and ask Him to bless your
   children as He blessed Isaac for Abraham's sake, and blessed Jacob for
   Isaac's sake. "Oh," you say, "but I also want to see my neighbors
   saved." Then hunger after their souls! Thirst after their souls as you
   have hungered and thirsted after your own! And God will teach you how
   to talk to them and probably, as you are hungering and thirsting for
   their souls, He will make you the means of their conversion!

   There is also this Truth of God to solace you--there will be
   righteousness all over this world one day. Millions still reject
   Christ, but He has a people who will not reject Him. The masses of
   mankind at present fly from Him, but "the Lord knows them that are
   His." As many as the Father gave to Christ shall surely come to Him.
   Christ shall not be disap-pointed--His Cross shall not have been set up
   in vain. "He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the
   pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the
   travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Well may you groan
   because of the idols that do not fall, the oppressions that do not come
   to an end, the wailing of the widows, the weeping of the orphans and
   the sighing of those that sit in darkness and see no light. But there
   will be an end of all this. Brighter days than these are coming--either
   the Gospel will cover the earth, or else Christ Himself will personally
   come. Whichever it is, it is not for me to decide, but somehow or
   other, the day shall come when God shall reign without a rival over all
   the earth, you can be sure of that! The hour shall come when the great
   multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
   thundering, shall say, "Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"

   If we are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we are on the
   winning side! The battle may go against us just now. Priestcraft may be
   pushing us sorely and evils which our forefathers routed may come back
   with superior strength and cunning and, for a little while, the courage
   of the saints may be dampened and their armies may waver--but the Lord
   still lives and as the Lord lives, righteousness alone shall
   triumph--and all iniquity and every false way must be trampled
   underfoot! Fight on, for you must ultimately be victors. You cannot be
   beaten unless the Eternal, Himself, should be overthrown--and that can
   never be. Blessed is the man who knows that the cause that he has
   espoused is a righteous one, for he may know that in the final Chapter
   of the world's history, its triumph must be recorded! He may be dead
   and gone. He may only sow the seed, but his sons shall reap the harvest
   and men shall speak of him with grave respect as of a man who lived
   before his time and who deserves honor of those that follow him! Stand
   up for the right! Hold fast to your principles, my Brothers and Sisters
   in Christ! Follow after holiness and righteousness in every shape and
   form. Let no one bribe or turn you away from this blessed Book and its
   immortal tenets! Follow after that which is true, not that which is
   patronized by the great. That which is just, not that which sits in the
   seat of human authority. And follow after this with a hunger and a
   thirst that are insatiable and you shall yet be "filled."

   Would you like to be up there in the day when the Prince of Truth and
   Right shall review His armies? Would you like to be up there when the
   jubilant shout shall rend the heavens, "The King of kings and Lord of
   lords has conquered all His foes and the devil and all his hosts are
   put to flight"? Would you like to be up there, I say, when all His
   trophies of victory are displayed and the Lamb that was slain shall be
   the reigning Monarch of all the nations, gathering sheaves of scepters
   beneath His arms and treading on the crowns of princes as worn out and
   worthless? Would you like to be there then? Then be here now--here
   where the fight rages! Here where the King's standard is unfurled--and
   say unto your God, "O Lord, since I have found righteousness in Christ,
   and am myself saved, I am pledged to stand for the right and for the
   Truth so long as I live! So keep me faithful even unto death."

   As I close my discourse, I pronounce over all of you who are trusting
   in Jesus the fourth benediction spoken by Christ on the Mount of
   Beatitude, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness:
   for they shall be filled." Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW5:43-48; 6:1-4.

   Matthew 5:43. You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your
   neighbor, and hate your enemy. In this case a command of Scripture had
   a human antithesis fitted on to it by depraved minds--and this human
   addition was mischievous. This is a common method--to append to the
   teaching of Scripture a something which seems to grow out of it, or to
   be a natural inference from it--which something may be false and
   wicked. This is a sad crime against the Word

   of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will only father His own Words. He owns
   the precept, " You shall love your neighbor," but He hates the
   parasitical growth of, "hate your enemy." This last sentence is
   destructive of that out of which it appears legitimately to grow, since
   those who are here styled enemies are, in fact, neighbors! Love is now
   the universal Law of God and our King, who has commanded it, is Himself
   the Pattern of it. He will not see it narrowed down and placed in a
   setting of hate. May Grace prevent any of us from falling into this
   error!

   44, 45. But I say 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.
   Ours it is to persist in loving, even if men

   persist in enmity. We are to render blessing for cursing, prayers for
   persecutions. Even in the cases of cruel enemies, we are to "do good to
   them, andpray for them." We are no longer enemies to any, but friends
   to all. We do not merely cease to hate and then abide in a cold
   neutrality, but we love where hatred seemed inevitable. We bless where
   our old nature bids us curse and we are active in doing good to those
   who deserve to receive evil from us. Where this is practically carried
   out, men wonder, respect and admire the followers of Jesus! The theory
   may be ridiculed, but the practice is reverenced and is counted so
   surprising that men attribute it to some Godlike quality in Christians,
   and admit that they are the children of the Father who is in Heaven.
   Indeed, he is a child of God who can bless the unthankful and the evil,
   for in daily Providence the Lord is doing this on a great scale--and
   none but His children will imitate Him. To do good for the sake of the
   good done, and not because of the character of the person benefited, is
   a noble imitation of God. If the Lord only sent the fertilizing shower
   upon the land of the saintly, drought would deprive whole leagues of
   land of all hope of a harvest. We also must do good to the evil, or we
   shall have a narrow sphere--our hearts will grow contracted and our
   sonship towards the good God will be rendered doubtful.

   46. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you, do not
   even the publicans do the same?Any common sort of man will love those
   who love him. Even tax gatherers and the scum of the earth can rise to
   this poor, starveling virtue. Saints cannot be content with such a
   groveling style of things. "Love for love is manlike," but "love for
   hate" is Christlike. Shall we not desire to act up to our high calling?

   47. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?
   [See Sermon #1029, Volume 18--a call to holy livING.] Do not even the
   publicans do sO? On a journey, or in the

   streets, or in the house, we are not to confine our friendly greetings
   to those who are near and dear to us. Courtesy should be wide and none
   the less sincere because general. We should speak kindly to all and
   treat every man as a brother. Anyone will shake hands with an old
   friend, but we are to be cordially courteous towards every being in the
   form of man. If not, we shall reach no higher level than mere outcasts.
   Even a dog will salute a dog.

   48. Be you, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven
   is perfect. Or, " You shall be perfect." We should reach after
   completeness in love--fullness of love to all around us. Love is the
   bond of perfectness and if we have perfect love, it will form in us a
   perfect character. Here is that which we aim at--perfection like that
   of God. Here is the manner of obtaining it--namely, by abounding in
   love. And this suggests the question of how far we have proceeded in
   this heavenly direction, and also the reason why we should persevere in
   it even to the end--because as children we ought to resemble our
   Father. Scriptural perfection is attainable, it dies rather in
   proportion than in degree. A man's character may be perfect and entire,
   lacking nothing--and yet such a man will be the very first to admit
   that the Grace which is in him is, at best, in its infancy--and though
   perfect as a child in all its parts, it has not yet attained to the
   perfection of full-grown manhood. What a mark is set before us by our
   Perfect King who, speaking from His mountain Throne, said, "Be you
   perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect"! Lord, give
   what You command--then both the Grace and the Glory will be Yours
   alone.

   Matthew 6:1. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before
   men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward from your Father
   which is in Heaven."You cannot expect to be paid twice. If, therefore,
   you take your reward in the applause of men, who give you a high
   character for generosity, you cannot expect to have any reward from
   God." We ought to have a single eye to God's accepting what we give and
   to have little or no thought of what man may say concerning our
   charitable gifts!

   2. Therefore when you do your charitable deeds, do not sound a trumpet
   before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
   that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
   reward. And they will have no more! There is, in their case, no laying
   up of any store of good works before God. Whatever they may have done,
   they have taken full credit for it in the praise of men.

   3. But when you do charitable deeds, let not your left hand know what
   your right hand does. "Do it so by stealth as scarcely to know it
   yourself--think so little of it with regard to yourself that you shall
   scarcely know that you have done it. Do it unto God--let Him know it."

   4. That your charitable deeds may be in secret: and your Father which
   sees in secret, Himself, shall reward you openly. There is a blessed
   emphasis upon that word, "Himself," for if God shall reward us, what a
   reward it will be! Any praise from His lips, any reward from His hands
   will be of priceless value! Oh, to live with an eye to that alone!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Fifth Beatitude

   (No. 3158)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   DECEMBER 21, 1873.

   "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7.

   [In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
   sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
   discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
   he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
   some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
   purpose. There are, however, seven Sermons upon the Beatitudes which
   have already been published--See Sermons #422, Volume 7-- THE
   PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35--THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED;
   #3155, Volume 55--THE BEATITUDES; #3156, Volume 55--THE FIRST BEATITUDE
   and #3065, Volume 53--THE THIRD BEATITUDE; #3157, Volume 55-- THE
   FOURTH BEATITUDE--and this one.]

   I MUST take for granted the fact that you have heard the previous
   discourses upon the Beatitudes. If you have not done so, I cannot now
   repeat all that I have said, but I may remind you that I have compared
   the Beatitudes to a ladder of light, and I have remarked that every one
   of them rises above and out of those which preceded it. So you will
   notice that the character mentioned here is higher than those which had
   been given before--higher than that of the man who is poor in spirit,
   or who mourns. Those things concern himself. He is yet feeble and out
   of that weakness grows meekness of spirit which makes him endure wrongs
   from others. But to be merciful is more than that, for the man now not
   merely endures wrongs, but he confers benefits. The Beatitude before
   this one concerns hungering and thirsting after righteousness, but here
   the man has got beyond mere righteousness--he has risen beyond the
   seeking of that which is right into the seeking of that which is good,
   kind, generous and the doing of kindly things towards his fellow man.
   The whole ladder rests upon Divine Grace, and Grace puts every stave
   into its place. And it is Grace which, in this place, has taught the
   man to be merciful, has blessed him and given him the promise that he
   shall obtain mercy. It would be wrong to take any one of these
   benedictions by itself and to say that every merciful man shall obtain
   mercy, or to misquote any other one in the same way, for that would be
   to wrest the Savior's Words and to give them a meaning which He never
   intended them to convey. Reading these Beatitudes as a whole, we see
   that this mercifulness, of which I am about to speak, is a
   characteristic which has grown out of the rest--it has sprung from all
   the previous works of Grace. And the man is not merely merciful in the
   human sense--with a humanity which ought to be common to all
   mankind--but he is merciful in a higher and better sense with a mercy
   which only the Spirit of God can ever teach to the soul of man!

   Having noticed the rising of this Beatitude above the rest, we will now
   come to look at it more closely. It is necessary that we should be very
   guarded while speaking upon it and in order to be so, we will ask,
   first, who are these blessed people Secondly, what is their peculiar
   virtue And thirdly, what is their special blessingg

   I. WHO ARE THESE BLESSED PEOPLE--THE MERCIFUL THAT OBTAIN MERCY?

   You remember that at the commencement of our homilies upon this Sermon
   on the Mount, we noticed that our Lord's subject was not how we are to
   be saved, but who are saved. He is not here describing the way of
   salvation at all. That He does in many other places, but He here gives
   us the signs and evidences of the work of Grace in the soul. We would
   greatly err if we should say that we must be merciful in order to
   obtain mercy and that we must only hope to get the mercy of God through
   first of all being merciful ourselves. Now, in order to put aside any
   such legal notion--which would be clean contrary to the entire current
   of Scripture and directly opposed to the fundamental Doctrine of
   Justification by Faith in Christ--I ask you to notice that these
   persons are already blessed and have obtained mercy! Long before they
   became merciful, God was merciful to them. And before the full promise
   was given them, as in our text, that they

   should obtain yet further mercy, they had already obtained the great
   mercy of a renewed heart which had made them merciful! That is clear
   from the context of the text.

   For, first, they were poor in spirit, and it is no mean mercy to be
   emptied of our pride, to be brought to see how undeserving we are in
   the sight of God and to be made to feel our personal weakness and need
   of everything that might make us fit for the Presence of God! I could
   ask for some men whom I know no greater mercy than that they might be
   blessed with spiritual poverty--that they might be made to feel how
   poor they are--for they will never know Christ and they will never rise
   to be practically merciful till first they have seen their own true
   condition and have obtained mercy enough to lie down at the foot of the
   Cross--and there, with a broken heart, to confess that they are empty
   and poor!

   The connection also shows that these persons had obtained mercy enough
   to mourn. They had mourned over their past sins with bitter repentance.
   They had mourned over the condition of practical alienation from God
   into which sin had brought them--and they had mourned over the fact of
   their ingratitude to their Redeemer and their rebellion against His
   Holy Spirit. They mourned because they could not mourn more. And they
   wept because their eyes could not weep as they ought concerning sin.
   They had--

   "Learned to weep for nothing but sin, And after none but Christ"

   And it is no small blessing to have the mourning, the broken, the
   contrite heart, for this the Lord will not despise.

   They had also obtained the Grace of meekness and had become gentle,
   humble, contented, weaned from the world, submissive to the Lord's
   will, ready to overlook the offenses of others, having learned to pray,
   "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"--no small blessing
   this! They had indeed obtained mercy when their proud heart was brought
   low, their haughty spirit was bowed down and they had become meek and
   lowly, in measure like their Lord.

   They had obtained yet further Grace, for they had been taught to hunger
   and thirst after righteousness. They had a spiritual appetite for the
   righteousness which is of God by faith. They had also a sad hunger for
   the practical inwrought righteousness which is the work of the Spirit
   of God. They loved that which was right and they hungered to do it.
   They hungered to see others do right, they hungered to see the Kingdom
   of Righteousness established and the Truth of God prevailing over all
   the earth. Was not this, indeed, to obtain mercy? And if out of this
   grew the character of being merciful, it was not to be ascribed to
   anything in themselves, or regarded as a natural outgrowth of their own
   disposition, but as another gift of Divine Grace, another fruit which
   grew out of special fruits which had already been given! Was it not
   already said of these people, "There's is the Kingdom of Heaven"? Had
   they not obtained mercy? Was it not said of them, "They shall be
   comforted"? Who dares say they had not obtained mercy? Had it not been
   said of them, "They shall inherit the earth"? What do you call this but
   mercy? Had not the voice of Christ declared, "They shall be filled"?
   Was not this mercy to the fullest? And therefore I say that the people
   our text speaks of were a people who had already obtained mercy, who
   were themselves singular trophies of mercy! And the fact that they
   displayed mercy to others was inevitable as a result of what had been
   done for them and worked in them by the ever-blessed Spirit of God!
   They were not merciful because they were naturally tender-hearted, but
   merciful because God had made them poor in spirit! They were not
   merciful because they had generous ancestors, but merciful because they
   themselves had mourned and been comforted! They were not merciful
   because they sought the esteem of their fellow men but because they
   were themselves meek and lowly and were inheriting the earth--and
   wished that others could enjoy, as they did, the blessing of Heaven!
   They were not merciful because they could not help it and felt bound to
   be so from some constraint from which they would gladly escape--but
   they were joyfully merciful--for they had hungered and thirsted after
   righteousness and they had been filled!

   II. Now, secondly, WHAT IS THE PECULIAR VIRTUE WHICH IS HERE ASCRIBED
   TO THESE BLESSED ONES? They were merciful.

   To be merciful would include, first of all, kindness to the sons of
   need and the daughters of penury. No merciful man could forget the
   poor. He who passed by their ills without sympathy and saw their
   suffering without relieving them, might prate as he would about inward
   Grace, but Divine Grace in his heart there could not be! The Lord does
   not acknowledge as of His family one who can see his brother has needs
   and shuts up "his heart of compassion from him." The Apostle John
   rightly asks, "How dwells the love of God in him?" No, the truly
   merciful are considerate of those who are poor. They think of them.
   Their own comforts make them think of them. At other times, their own
   discomforts will. When they are sick and they are surrounded with many
   alleviations, they wonder how those fare who are sick and in po-

   verty. When the cold is keen about them and their garments are warm,
   they think with pity of those who shiver in the same cold, but are
   scantily covered with rags. Their sufferings and their joys alike help
   them to consider the poor. And they consider them practically. They do
   not merely say that they sympathize and hope others will help, but they
   give of their substance according to their ability, joyfully and
   cheerfully, that the poor may not lack--and in dealing with them, they
   are not harsh. They will remit, as far as they can justly do so,
   anything they may have demanded of them and will not persecute them to
   the utmost extremity, and pinch and cheat them, as those do who seek to
   skin a flint and to obtain the last morsel and the uttermost farthing
   from the poorest of the poor. No, where God has given a man a new heart
   and a right spirit, there is great tenderness to all the poor--and
   especially great love to the poor saints--for, while every saint is an
   image of Christ, the poor saint is a picture of Christ set in the same
   frame in which Christ's picture must always be set--the frame of humble
   poverty. I see in a rich saint much that is like his Master, but I do
   not see how he could truthfully say, "I have not where to lay my head."
   Nor do I wish him to say it. But when I see poverty, as well as
   everything else that is like Christ, I think I am bound to feel my
   heart specially going forth there. This is how we can still wash
   Christ's feet by caring for the poorest of His people. This is how
   honorable women can still minister to Him of their substance. This is
   how we can still make a great feast to which we may invite Him, when we
   call together the poor, the lame, the halt and the blind who cannot
   recompense us--and we are content to do it for Jesus Christ's sake. It
   is said of Chry-sostom that he so continually preached the Doctrine of
   almsgiving in the Christian Church that they called him the Preacher of
   Alms--and I think it was not a bad title for a man to wear.

   In these days, it has almost become a crime to relieve the poor. In
   fact, I do not know whether there are not some statutes which might
   almost render us liable to prosecution for it. I can only say that the
   spirit of the times may be wise under some aspects, but it does not
   seem to me to be very clearly the spirit of the New Testament. The poor
   will never cease out of the land and the poor will never cease out of
   the Church of Christ. They are Christ's legacy to us! It is quite
   certain that the Good Samaritan got more out of the poor man whom he
   found between Jerusalem and Jericho than the poor man got out of him!
   He had a little oil and wine, and twopence, the expenses at the
   inn--but the Samaritan got his name in the Bible and there it has been
   handed down to posterity--a wonderfully cheap investment! And in
   everything that we give, the blessing comes to those who give it, for
   you know the Words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, "It is more blessed
   to give than to receive." Blessed are they who are merciful to the
   poor!

   Next, the merciful man has an eager eye, a weeping eye for mourners who
   are round about him. The worst ill in the world is not poverty--the
   worst of ills is a depressed spirit. At least I scarcely know anything
   that can be worse than this, and there are even among the excellent of
   the earth some who seldom have a bright day in the whole year. December
   seems to rule the whole twelve months. By reason of heaviness, they
   are, all their life, subject to bondage! If they march to Heaven, it is
   on crutches as Mr. Ready-to-Halt did. And they water the way with tears
   as Miss Much-Afraid did. They are sometimes afraid that they were never
   converted. At another time, that they have fallen from Grace. At
   another time, that they have sinned the unpardonable sin! At another
   time, that Christ has gone from them and they will never see His face
   again. They are full of all manner of troubles--"they reel to and fro,
   and stagger like a drunken man, and are often at their wit's end."
   There are many Christian people who always get out of the way of such
   folks as these--or if they come across them, they say, "It is enough to
   give anybody the miserables. Who wants to talk with such people? They
   ought not to be so sad. They really ought to be more cheerful, but they
   are giving way to nervousness," and so on. That may be quite true, but
   it is always a pity to say it! You might as well tell a man when he has
   a headache that he is giving way to headache, or when he has the chills
   or the fever that he is giving way to the chills or the fever! The fact
   is, there is nothing more real than some of those diseases which are
   traceable to the imagination, for they are real in their pain, though
   perhaps as to their causes we could not reason about them.

   The merciful man is always merciful to these people. He puts up with
   their whims. He knows very often that they are very foolish, but he
   understands that he would be foolish, too, if he were to tell them so,
   for it would make them more foolish than they are! He does not consult
   his own comfort and say, "I want to get comfort from this person"--he
   desires to bestowcomfort. He remembers that it is written, "Strengthen
   you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees," and he knows that
   command, "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you
   comfortably to Jerusalem." He understands that as His Lord and Master
   sought after that which was wounded, bound up that which was broken,
   healed that which was sick and brought again that which was driven
   away, even so ought all His servants to imitate their Master by looking
   with the greatest interest after those who are in the saddest plight. O
   children of God, if ever you are hardhearted towards any sorrowful
   persons, you are not what you ought to be! You are not like your
   Master! You are not like yourselves when you are in your right state,
   for when you are in your right state, you are tender, full of pity and
   full of compassion, for you have learned from the Lord Jesus that the
   merciful are blessed, and that they shall obtain mercy! Possibly when
   you, too, come to be depressed, as you may--you may remember those
   jeering words and those unkind expressions which you used concerning
   others. When we get very big, it may be that the Lord will take us down
   and we shall be glad of any little mouse hole to hide our head. Some of
   us have known what it is to be glad of the very least promise if we
   could but get a hold of it. And we have run with eagerness to the very
   texts we used to point poor sinners to--and felt they were the very
   texts we needed. Dr. Guthrie, when he was very ill and about to die,
   said he liked to hear children's hymns, the little children's hymns.
   And the strongest men in the family of Christ often want the children's
   texts and the children's promises. Even the little children's promises
   suit big men when they are in that sad state. Be you merciful, even as
   your heavenly Father is merciful towards those who are cast down.

   This mercy extends itself, next, to the full forgiveness of all
   personal offenses against ourselves. "Blessed are the merciful," that
   is, those persons who do not take to heart any injuries that are done
   them, any insults, intended or unintended. A certain governor of
   Georgia, in Mr. Wesley's day, said that he would have his servant on
   board his vessel flogged for drinking his wine. And when Mr. Wesley
   entreated that the man might be pardoned on that occasion, the governor
   said, "It is no use, Mr. Wesley, you know, Sir, I never forgive."
   "Well, then, Sir," said Mr. Wesley, "I hope you know that you will
   never be forgiven, or else I hope that you have never sinned." So,
   until we leave off sinning, we must never talk of not forgiving other
   people, for we shall need forgiveness for ourselves! You will notice in
   many families that quarrels arise even between brothers and sisters,
   but let us always be ready to put aside anything that will make a scene
   or cause ill-feeling, for a Christian is the last person who should
   harbor unkind thoughts. I have occasionally noticed great severity
   towards servants who are sometimes thrown out of situations and exposed
   to many temptations, for a fault that might be cured if it were
   forgiven and if some kindly word were used. It is not right for any of
   us to say, "I will have everybody acting straight towards me, and I
   will let all know it. I am determined to tolerate no nonsense, not I--I
   mean to have the right thing done by all men towards me--and if not, I
   will set them straight."

   Ah, dear Friends, God never talked so to you! And let me also say, if
   that is the way you talk, it is not the language of a child of God at
   all! A child of God feels that he is imperfect and that he lives with
   imperfect people. When they act improperly towards him, he feels it,
   but at the same time he also feels, "I have been far worse to my God
   than they have been to me, so I will let it go." I recommend you, dear
   Brothers and Sisters, always to have one blind eye and one deaf ear. I
   have always tried to have them and my blind eye is the best eye I have,
   and my deaf ear is the best ear I have! There is many a speech that you
   may hear even from your best friends that would cause you much grief
   and produce much ill--so do not listen to it. They will probably be
   sorry that they spoke so unkindly if you never mention it, and let the
   whole thing die. But if you say something about it and bring it up
   again and again, and fret and worry over it, and magnify it, and tell
   somebody else about it, and bring half-a-dozen people into the
   quarrel--that is the way family disagreements have been made, Christian
   Churches broken up, the devil magnified and God dishonored! Oh, do not
   let it be so with us, but let us feel if there is any offense against
   us, "Blessed are the merciful," and such we mean to be.

   But this mercifulness goes much further. There must and will be great
   mercy in the Christian's heart towards those who are outwardly sinful.
   The Pharisee had no mercy upon the man who was a publican. "Well," he
   said, "if he has gone down so low as to collect the Roman tax from his
   fellow subjects, he is a disgraceful fellow! He may get as far as ever
   he can from my dignified self." And as for the harlot, it mattered not
   though she might be ready to shed enough tears to wash her Savior's
   feet, yet she was a polluted thing! And Christ, Himself, was looked
   upon as being polluted because He allowed a woman who had been a sinner
   to thus show her repentance and her love. Simon and the other Pharisees
   felt, "Such people have put themselves out of the pale of society, and
   there let them stay. If they have gone astray like that, let them
   suffer for it." There is still much of that spirit in this hypocritical
   world, for a great part of the world is a mass of the most awful
   hypocrisy that one can imagine! There are men that are living in vile
   sin, they know they are, and yet they go into society and are received
   as if they were the most respectable persons in the world! But should
   it so happen that some poor woman is led astray, oh dear, dear, dear!
   She is much too vile for these gentlemen to know anything about her
   existence! The scoundrels--to have an affectation of virtue while they
   are themselves indulging in the grossest vice! Yet

   so it is and there is a prudery about society which says at once, "Oh,
   we hold up our hands in horror at anybody who has done anything at all
   wrong against society, or the laws of the land."

   Now a Christian thinks far harsher things of sin than the worldling
   does. He judges sin by a much sterner rule than other men do, but he
   always thinks kindly of the sinner. And if he could, he would lay down
   his life to reclaim him, as his Master did before him! He does not say,
   "Stand by yourself! Come not near me, for I am holier than you!" But he
   reckons it to be his chief concern on earth to cry to sinners, "Behold
   the Lamb of God which took away the sin of the world." So the merciful
   Christian is not one who shuts anybody out. He is not one who thinks
   anyone beneath his notice. He would be glad if he could bring to Jesus
   the most fallen and the most depraved! And those dear Brothers and
   Sisters who are the most completely occupied in this holy work we
   honor, for the lower they have to go, the greater is their honor, in
   the sight of God, in being permitted thus to rake the very kennels of
   sin to find jewels for Christ, for surely, the brightest gems in His
   crown will come out of the darkest and foulest places where they have
   been lost! "Blessed are the merciful" who care for the fallen, for
   those that have gone astray--"for they shall obtain mercy."

   But a genuine Christian has mercy on the souls of all men. He cares not
   merely for the extremely fallen class, so called by the men of the
   world, but he regards the whole race as fallen! He knows that all men
   have gone astray from God and that all are shut up in sin and unbelief
   till eternal mercy comes to their deliverance. Therefore his pity goes
   forth towards the respectable, the rich, the great and he often pities
   princes and kings because they have so few to tell them the Truth of
   God. He pities the poor rich, for while there are efforts made for the
   reclaiming of the working classes, how few efforts are ever made for
   the reclaiming of peers and duchesses--and bringing such big sinners as
   the "Right Honorables" to know Jesus Christ? He feels pity for them and
   he feels pity for all nations--the nations that sit in heathen darkness
   and those that are locked up in Popery. He longs that Grace should come
   to all and that the Truths of the Gospel should be proclaimed in every
   street, and Jesus made known to every son and daughter of Adam! He has
   a love for them all. And I pray you, Brothers and Sisters, never to
   trifle with this true instinct of the new-born nature!

   The great Doctrine of Election is very precious to us and we hold it
   most firmly. But there are some, (and it must not be denied), who allow
   that Doctrine to chill their love towards their fellow men. They do not
   seem to have much zeal for their conversion and are quite content to
   sit down, or stand idle and believe that the decrees and purposes of
   God will be fulfilled. So they will, Brothers and Sisters, but it will
   be through warm-hearted Christians who bring others to Jesus! The Lord
   Jesus will see of the travail of His soul, but it will be by one who is
   saved telling of salvation to another, and that other to a third, and
   so on till the sacred fire spreads until the earth shall be girdled
   with its flame! The Christian is merciful to all and anxiously longs
   that they may be brought to know the Savior! And he makes efforts to
   reach them-- to the utmost of his ability, he tries to win souls to
   Jesus! He also prays for them. If he is really a child of God, he takes
   time to plead with God for sinners and he gives what he can to help
   others to spend their time in telling sinners the way of salvation and
   pleading with them as ambassadors for Christ. The Christian makes this
   one of his great delights, if by any means he may turn a sinner, by the
   power of the Spirit, from the error of his ways and so may save a soul
   from death and hide a multitude of sins!

   I have many more things to say about this mercifulness. It is so wide a
   subject that I cannot give all its details. It certainly means a love
   to God at bottom, which shows itself by merciful desires for the good
   of God's creatures. The merciful man is merciful to his beast. I do not
   believe in the piety of a man who is cruel to a horse. There is
   sometimes need of the whip, but the man who uses it cruelly surely
   cannot be a converted man! There are sometimes sights to be seen in our
   streets which may well provoke the God of Heaven to come down in
   indignation and punish the cruelty of brutal persons to brute beasts.
   But where the Grace of God is in our heart, we would not cause
   unnecessary pain to a fly! And if, in the course of the necessities of
   mankind, pain must be given to the inferior animals, the Christian
   heart is pained and will try to devise all possible means to prevent
   any unnecessary pain from being endured by a single creature that God's
   hands have made. There is some Truth of God in that saying of the
   ancient mariner, "He prays well who loves well both man and bird and
   beast." There is a touch, if it is not always of Grace, of something
   like Grace in the kindness of heart which every Christian should feel
   towards all the living things that God has made.

   Further, the merciful man shows his mercy to his fellow men in many
   ways of this kind. He is merciful to their characters, merciful in not
   believing a great many reports he hears about reputed good men! He is
   told some astonishing story very derogatory to the character of a
   Christian Brother and he says, "Now, if that Brother were told this
   story about me, I would not like him to believe it of me unless he
   searched it out and was quite sure of it. And I won't believe it of him
   unless I am forced to do so." It is a delightful thing for Christians
   to have confidence in one another's characters. Wherever that rules in
   a Church, it will prevent a world of sorrow. Brother, I have more
   confidence in you than I can ever have in myself! And as I can truly
   say that, you should be able to say the same of your fellow Christians,
   too. Do not be ready to receive such reports--there is as much
   wickedness in believing a lie as in telling it, if we are always ready
   to believe it. There would be no slanderers if there were no receivers
   and believers of slander, for when there is no demand for an article,
   there are no producers of it! And if we will not believe evil reports,
   the tale-bearer will be discouraged and leave off his evil trade. But
   suppose we are compelled to believe it? Then the merciful man shows his
   mercy by not repeating it. "Alas!" he says, "it is true and I am very
   sorry, but why should I publish it abroad?" If there happened to be a
   traitor in a regiment, I do not think the other soldiers would go and
   publish it everywhere and say, "Our regiment has been dishonored by one
   of our comrades." "It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest," and it
   is an ill professor who uses his tongue to tell the faults and failures
   of his brethren! Then suppose we have heard of such a thing--the
   merciful man feels it his duty not to repeat it! Many a man has been
   ruined for life through some fault which he committed when young, which
   has been severely dealt with. A young man has misappropriated a sum of
   money and has been brought before the magistrates and put in jail--and
   so made a thief for life. Forgiveness for the first action, with prayer
   and kindly rebuke, might have won him to a life of virtue, or (who
   knows?) to a life of piety. It is for the Christian, at any rate, not
   to expose, unless it is absolutely necessary, as sometimes it is--but
   to always deal towards the erring in the gentlest manner possible.

   And, Brothers and Sisters, we should be merciful to one another in
   seeking never to look at the worst side of a Brother's character. Oh,
   how quick some are to spy out other people's faults! They hear that Mr.
   So-and-So is very useful in the Church, and they say, "Yes, he is, but
   he has a very curious way of going to work, has he not? And he is so
   eccentric." Well, did you ever know a good man who was very successful,
   who was not a little eccentric? Some people are a deal too smooth to
   ever do much--it is the odd knots about us that are the force of our
   character! But why be so quick to point out all our flaws? No, you go
   out, when the sun is shining brightly, and say, "Yes, this sun is a
   very good illuminator, but I remark that it has spots." If you do, you
   had better keep your remark to yourself, for it gives more light than
   you do, whatever spots you may have or may not have! And many excellent
   persons in the world have spots, but yet they do good service to God
   and to their age, so let us not always be the spot-finders, but let us
   look at the bright side of the Brother's or Sister's character rather
   than the dark one, and feel that we rise in repute when other
   Christians rise in repute and that as they have honor through their
   holiness, our Lord is the glory of it, and we share in some of the
   comfort of it. And let us never join in the loud outcries that are
   sometimes raised against men who may have committed very small
   offenses. Many and many a time we have heard men cry, their voices
   sounding like the baying of a pack of hounds against some man for a
   mistaken judgment, or what was little more, "Down with him, down with
   him!" And if he happens to get into some pecuniary trouble at the same
   time, then he must surely be a worthless fellow--for lack of gold is
   with some men a clear proof of the lack of virtue, and lack of success
   in business is regarded by some as the most damning of all vices! From
   such outcries against good men who make mistakes, may we be delivered!
   And may our mercy always take the shape of being willing to restore to
   our love and to our society any who may have erred, but who,
   nevertheless, show hearty and true repentance and a desire to
   henceforth adorn the Doctrine of God their Savior in all things! You
   who are merciful will be ready to receive your prodigal Brother when he
   comes back to his Father's house. Do not be like the elder brother and
   when you hear the music and the dancing, ask, "What do these things
   mean?" but count it right that all should be glad when he who was lost
   is found, he who was dead is made alive again!

   I can only throw out hints that may suit one or another of you. My
   Brothers and Sisters, we ought to be merciful in the sense of not
   allowing others to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear. You
   know that there is such a thing as exposing our young people to
   temptation. Parents will sometimes allow their boys to start in life in
   houses where there is a chance of rising, but where there is a greater
   chance of falling into great sin. They do not esteem the moral risks
   which they sometimes run in putting their sons into large houses where
   there is no regard to morals and where there are a thousand nets of
   Satan spread to take unwary birds. Be merciful to your children--let
   them not be exposed to evils which were, perhaps, too strong for you in
   youryouth, and which will be too powerful for them! Let your mercy
   consider them and do not put them in that position.

   And as to your clerks, and servants, we sometimes, when we have
   dishonest people about us, are about as guilty as they are! We did not
   lock up our money and take proper care of it. If we had done so, they
   could not have stolen it. We sometimes leave things about and through
   our carelessness the suggestion may often come, "May I not take this
   and take that?" And so we may be partakers in their sins through our
   own lack of care. Remember, they are but men and wom-en--sometimes they
   are but boys and girls--so do not put baits before them, do not play
   cat's paw for Satan, but keep temptation from them as much as lies in
   you.

   And let us be merciful, too, to people in not expecting too much from
   them. I believe there are persons who expect those who work for them to
   toil 24 hours a day, or thereabouts. No matter how hard the task, it
   never strikes them that their servants' heads ache, or that their legs
   grow weary. "What were they made for but to slave for us?" That is the
   kind of notion some have, but that is not the notion of a true
   Christian! He feels that he desires his servants and his dependants to
   do their duty and he is grieved to find that many of them cannot, but
   when he sees them diligently trying, he often feels for them even more
   than they feel for themselves, for he is considerate and gentle. Who
   likes to drive a horse that extra mile that makes him feel ready to
   drop? Who would wish to get out of his fellow man that extra hour of
   work which is just that which makes him wretched? Putting all that I
   have said into one sentence, let us, dear Friends, be tender,
   considerate, kind and gentle to all.

   "Oh," says one, "if we were to go about the world acting like that, we
   would get imposed upon, we would be badly treated," and so on. Well,
   try it, Brother! Try it, Sister! And you shall find that any misery
   that comes to you through being too tenderhearted, too gentle and too
   merciful, will be so light an affliction that it will not be worthy to
   be compared with the peace of mind that it will bring you, and the
   constant wellspring of joy which it will put into your own bosom as
   well as into the bosoms of others!

   III. I shall close by briefly noticing THE BLESSING WHICH IS PROMISED
   TO THOSE WHO ARE MERCIFUL.

   It is said of them that "they shall obtain mercy." I cannot help
   believing that this means in this present life as well as in the life
   to come. Surely this is David's meaning in the 41st Psalm--"Blessed is
   he that considers the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of
   trouble...He shall be blessed upon the earth." Is that text gone
   altogether under the new dispensation? Are those promises only meant
   for the old legal times? Ah, Brothers and Sisters, we have the sun, but
   remember that when the sun shines, the stars are also shining--we do
   not see them by reason of the greater brightness, but every star is
   shining in the day as well as in the night--and increasing the light!
   And so, though the greater promises of the Gospel do sometimes make us
   forget the promises of the old dispensation, yet they are not
   cancelled! They are still there and they are confirmed--and they are
   made yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, unto the Glory of God by us! I
   firmly believe that when a man is in trouble, if he has been enabled,
   through Divine Grace, to be kind and generous towards others, he may
   look to God in prayer and say, "Lord, there is Your promise. I claim no
   merit for it, but Your Grace has enabled me, when I saw others in the
   same condition as I am, to help them. Lord, raise me up a helper!" Job
   seemed to get some comfort out of that fact. It is not our grandest
   comfort or our best. As I have said, it is not the sun, it is only one
   of the stars. At the same time, we do not despise the starlight. I
   believe that God will full often help and bless in temporal matters
   those persons whom He has blessed with a merciful spirit towards
   others.

   And often it is true in another sense that those who have been merciful
   obtain mercy, for they obtain mercy from others. Our Savior said,
   "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and
   shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For
   with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you
   again." There will be this sort of general feeling. If a man was
   sternly just and no more, when he comes down in the world, few pity
   him. But that other man, whose earnest endeavor it was to be the helper
   of others, when he is found in trouble, all say, "We are so sorry for
   him."

   But the full meaning of the text, no doubt, relates to that day of
   which Paul wrote concerning his friend, Onesipho-rus, "The Lord grant
   unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." Do not think
   that I am preaching up mercy as a meritorious work--I did my best at
   the outset to put all that aside. But, as an evidence of Grace,
   mercifulness is a very prominent and distinguishing mark. And if you
   need proof of that, let me remind you that our Savior's own description
   of the Day of Judgment runs thus, "Then shall the King say unto them on
   His right hand, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom
   prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry,
   and you gave Me food: I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink: I was a
   stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me: I was sick,
   and you visited Me: I was in prison, and you came unto Me." This,
   therefore, is evidence that they were blessed of the Father!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Sixth Beatitude

   (No. 3159)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
   27, 1873.

   "Blessed aire the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8.

   [In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
   sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
   discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
   he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
   some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
   purpose. There are, however, eight Sermons upon the Beatitudes--See
   Sermons #422, Volume 7--THE PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35--THE HUNGER
   AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED; #3155, Volume 55--THE BEATITUDES; #3156,
   Volume 55--THE FIRST BEATITUDE; #3065, Volume 53--THE THIRD BEATITUDE;
   #3157, Volume 55-- THE FOURTH BEATITUDE; #3158,.]

   IT was a peculiarity of the great Apostle and High Priest of our
   profession, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, that His teaching was
   continually aimed at the hearts of men. Other teachers had been content
   with outward moral reformation, but He sought the source of all the
   evil, that He might cleanse the spring from which all sinful thoughts,
   words and actions come. He insisted over and over again that until the
   heart was pure, the life would never be clean. The memorable Sermon
   upon the Mount, from which our text is taken, begins with the
   benediction, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," for Christ was dealing
   with men's spirits--with their inner and spiritual nature. He did this
   more or less in all the Beatitudes and this one strikes the very center
   of the target as He says not, "Blessed are the pure in language, or the
   pure in action," much less, "Blessed are the pure in ceremonies, or in
   raiment, or in food," but "Blessed are the pure in heart" O Beloved,
   whatever so-called "religion" may recognize as its adherent, a man
   whose heart is impure, the religion of Jesus Christ will not do so! His
   message to all men is still, "You must be born-again." That is to say,
   the inner nature must be Divinely renewed or else you cannot enter or
   even see that Kingdom of God which Christ came to set up in this world.
   If your actions should appear to be pure, yet if the motive at the back
   of those actions should be impure, that will nullify them all! If your
   language should be chaste, yet if your heart is reveling in fowl
   imaginations, you stand before God not according to your words, but
   according to your desires--according to the set of the current of your
   affections, your real inward likes and dislikes--you shall be judged by
   Him. Externalpurity is all that man asks at our hands, "for man looks
   on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart"--and the
   promises and blessings of the Covenant of Grace belong to those who are
   made pure in heart--and to no one else.

   In speaking upon our text, I want to slow you, first, that impurity of
   heart is the cause of spiritual blindness. And secondly, that the
   purification of the heart admits us to a most glorious sight--"the pure
   in heart shall see God." Then I shall have to show you, in the third
   place, that the purification of the heart is a Divine operation which
   cannot be performed by ourselves, or by any human method--it must be
   worked by Him who is the thrice-holy Lord God of Sabaoth!

   I. First, then, I have to remark that IMPURITY OF HEART IS THE CAUSE OF
   SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS--the cause of a very large part, if not of all of
   it.

   A man who is intoxicated cannot see clearly. His vision is often
   distorted or doubled. But there are other cups, besides those which
   intoxicate, which prevent the mental eyes from having clear sight. And
   he who has once drunk deeply of those cups will become spiritually
   blind, and others, in proportion as they imbibe the noxious draughts,
   will be unable to see afar off.

   There are moral beauties and immoral horrors which certain men cannot
   see because they are impure in heart Take, for instance, the covetous
   man, and you will soon see that there is no other dust that blinds so
   completely as gold dust. There is a trade which many regard as bad from
   top to bottom, but if it pays the man who is engaged in it, and he is
   of a

   grasping disposition, it will be almost impossible to convince him that
   it is an evil trade! You will usually find that the covetous man sees
   no charm in generosity. He thinks that the liberal man, if he is not
   actually a fool, is so near akin to one that he might very easily be
   mistaken for one. He himself admires that which can be most easily
   grasped--and the more of it that he can secure, the better is he
   pleased. The skinning of flints and the oppression of the poor are
   occupations in which he takes delight! If he has performed a dirty
   trick in which he has sacrificed every principle of honor, yet if it
   has turned out to his own advantage, he says to himself, "That was a
   clever stroke!" And if he should meet with another of his own kind, he
   and his fellow would chuckle over the transaction and say how
   beautifully they had done it. It would be useless for me to attempt to
   reason with an avaricious man--to show him the beauty of
   liberality--but, on the other hand, I would not think of wasting my
   time in trying to get a fair opinion from him as to the justice of
   anything which he knew to be remunerative. You know that some years ago
   there was a great fight in the United States over the question of
   slavery. Who were the gentlemen in England who took the side of the
   slave-owners? Why, mostly Liverpool men who did so because slavery paid
   them! If it had not done so, they would have condemned it. And I
   daresay that those of us who condemned it, did so the more readily
   because it did not pay us! Men can see very clearly where there is
   nothing to be lost either way, but if it comes to the a matter of gain,
   the heart being impure, the eyes cannot see straight! There are
   innumerable things that a man cannot see if he holds a sovereign over
   each of his eyes--he cannot even see the sun then--and if he keeps the
   gold over his eyes, he will become blind. The pure in heart can see.
   But when covetousness gets into the heart, it makes the eyes dim or
   blind.

   Take another sin--the sin of oppression. There are men who tell us that
   in their opinion, the persons who are in the highest positions in life
   are the very beauty and glory of the nation--and that poor people ought
   to be kept in their proper places because they were created on purpose
   so that "the nobility" might be sustained in their exalted position,
   and that other highly respectable persons might also gather to
   themselves any quantity of wealth. As to the idea of men needing more
   money for their services, it ought not to be encouraged for a single
   moment, so these gentlemen say! And if the poor needlewoman toils and
   starves on the few pence she can earn, you must not say a word about
   it--there are "the laws of political economy" that govern all such
   cases--so she must be ground between the wheels that abound in this age
   of machinery and nobody ought to interfere in the matter. Of course, an
   oppressor cannot or will not see the evil of oppression. If you put
   before him a case of injustice which is as plain as the nose on his
   face, he cannot see it because he has always been under the delusion
   that he was sent into the world with a whip in his hand to drive other
   people about, for he is the one great somebody and other people are
   poor nobodies, only fit to creep under his huge legs and humbly ask his
   leave to live. In this way, oppression, if it gets into the heart,
   completely blinds the eyes and perverts the judgment of the oppressor.

   The same remark is true concerning lasciviousness. I have often
   noticed, when men have railed at religion and reviled the holy Word of
   God, that their lives have been impure. Seldom, if ever, have I met
   with a case in which my judgment has deceived me with regard to the
   lives of men who have spoken against holy things. I remember preaching,
   once, in a country town just about harvest time--and in commenting on
   the fact that some farmers would not let the poor have any gleanings
   from their fields--I said I thought there were some who were so mean
   that if they could rake their fields with a small tooth comb they would
   do so. Thereupon a farmer marched noisily out of the place in
   anger--and when he was asked why he was so wrathful, he answered, with
   the greatest simplicity, "Because I always rake my fields twice." Of
   course, he could not perceive any particular pleasure in caring for the
   poor and neither could he submit with a good conscience to the rebuke
   that came home to him so pointedly! And when men speak against the
   Gospel, it is almost always because the Gospel speaks against them. The
   Gospel has found them out--it has charged them with the guilt of their
   sins and has arrested them! It has come to them like a policeman with
   his dark lantern and turned the bull's eye full upon their iniquity
   and, therefore, it is that they are so indignant. They would not be
   living as they are if they could see themselves as God sees them--they
   would not be able to continue in their filthiness, corrupting others as
   well as ruining themselves if they could really see! And as these evil
   things get into the heart, they are certain to blind the eyes.

   The same thing may be said with regard to spiritual Truth as well as
   moral Truth. We frequently meet with persons who say that they cannot
   understand the Gospel of Christ. At the bottom, in nine cases out of
   ten, I believe that it is their sin which prevents their understanding
   it. For instance, last Lord's-Day evening, [See Sermon #3154, Volume
   55--concerning the

   FORBEARANCE OF GOD.] I tried to preach to you upon the claims of

   God and sought to show you what right He has to us. There may have been
   some of my hearers who said, "We do not recognize the claims of God to
   us." If any one of you talks like that, it is because your heart is not
   right in the sight of God, for if you were able to judge righteously,
   you would see that the highest claims in all the world are those of the
   Creator upon His creatures and you would at once say, "I recognize that
   He who has created has the right to govern-- that He should be Master
   and Lord who is both greatest and best--and that He should be Lawgiver
   who is Infallibly wise and just, and always kind and good." When men
   practically say, "We would not cheat or rob our fellow men, but as for
   God, what does it matter how we treat Him?" The reason is that they are
   unjust in heart and their so called justice to their fellow men is only
   because their motto is, "honesty is the best policy," and they are not
   really just in heart, or else they would at once admit the just claims
   of the Most High.

   The great central Doctrine of the Atonement can never be fully
   appreciated until a man's heart is rectified. You have probably often
   heard such remarks as these, "I don't see why there should be any
   recompense made to God for sin. Why could He not forgive transgression
   at once and have done with it? What need is there of a substitutionary
   Sacrifice?" Ah, Sir! If you had ever felt the weight of sin upon your
   conscience. If you had ever learned to loathe the very thought of evil.
   If you had been brokenhearted because you have been so terribly defiled
   by sin, you would feel that the Atonement was not only required by God,
   but that it was also required by your own sense of justice! And instead
   of rebelling against the Doctrine of Vicarious Sacrifice, you would
   open your heart to it and cry, "That is precisely what I need!" The
   purest-hearted people who have ever lived are those who have rejoiced
   to see God's righteous Law vindicated and magnified by Christ's death
   upon the Cross as the Substitute for all who believe in Him, so that
   while God's mercy is displayed in matchless majesty, intense
   satisfaction is felt that there could be a way of reconciliation by
   which every attribute of God should derive honor and glory--and yet
   poor lost sinners should be lifted up into the high and honorable
   position of children of God! The pure in heart see no difficulty in the
   Atonement--all the difficulties concerning it arise from the lack of
   purity there.

   The same may be said of the equally important Truth of Regeneration.
   The impure in heart cannot see any need of being born-again. They say,
   "We admit that we are not quite all that we should be, but we can
   easily be made all right. As to the talk about a new creation, we do
   not see any need of that. We have made a few mistakes which will be
   rectified by experience. And there have been some errors of life which
   we trust may be condoned by future watchfulness and care." But if the
   unrenewed man's heart were pure, he would see that his nature has been
   an evil thing from the beginning and he would realize that thoughts of
   evil as naturally rise in us as sparks do from a fire! And he would
   feel that it would be a dreadful thing that such a nature as that
   should remain unchanged. He would see within his heart jealousies,
   murders, rebellions and evils of every kind--and his heart would cry
   out to be delivered from itself. But just because his heart is impure,
   he does not see his own impurity and does not and will not confess his
   need to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus. But as for you who are
   pure in heart, what do you now think of your old nature? Is it not the
   heavy burden that you continually carry about with you? Is not the
   plague of your own heart the worst plague under Heaven? Do you not feel
   that the very tendency to sin is a constant grief to you and that if
   you could but get rid of it altogether, your Heaven would have begun
   below? So it is the pure in heart who see the Doctrine of
   Regeneration--and those who see it not, see it not because they are
   impurein heart.

   The same remark is true concerning the glorious Character of our
   blessed Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Who has ever found fault with
   that except men with bat's eyes? There have been unconverted men who
   have been struck with the beauty and purity of Christ's life, but the
   pure in heart are enamored of it. They feel that it is more than a
   human life, that it is Divine and that God Himself is revealed in the
   Person of Jesus Christ, His Son. If any man does not see the Lord Jesus
   Christ to be thus superlatively lovely, it is because he is, himself,
   not purified in heart, for if he were, he would recognize in Him the
   mirror of all perfection and would rejoice to do reverence to Him. But,
   alas, it is still true that, as it is with moral matters, so is it with
   that which is spiritual and, therefore, the great Truths of the Gospel
   cannot be perceived by those whose heart is impure!

   There is one form of impurity which, beyond all others, seems to blind
   the eyes to spiritual Truth, and that is duplicity of heart. A man who
   is simple-minded, honest, sincere, childlike, is the man who enters the
   Kingdom of Heaven when its door is opened to him. The things of the
   Kingdom are hidden from the double-minded and the deceitful, but they
   are plainly revealed to the babes in Grace--the simple-hearted,
   transparent people who wear their heart upon their sleeve. It is quite
   certain that the hypocrite will never see God while he continues in his
   hypocrisy. In fact, he is so blind that he cannot see anything, and
   certainly cannot see himself as he really is in God's sight! The man
   who is quite satisfied with the name of a Christian, without the life
   of a Christian will never see God nor anything at all until his eyes
   are Divinely opened. What does it matter to anybody else what his
   opinion is upon any subject whatever? We would not care to have praise
   from the man who is double-minded and who is practically a liar, for
   while he is one thing in his heart, he endeavors to pass himself off
   for another thing in his life.

   Formalism, too, will never see God, for formalism always looks to the
   shell and never gets to the kernel. Formalism licks the bone, but never
   gets to the marrow. It heaps to itself ceremonies, mostly of its own
   invention, and when it has attended to these, it flatters itself that
   all is well, though the heart itself still lusts after sin. The widow's
   house is being devoured even at the very time when the Pharisee is
   making long prayers in the synagogue or at the corners of the streets.
   Such a man cannot see God! There is a kind of reading of the Scriptures
   which will never lead a man to see God. He opens the Bible, not to see
   what is there, but to see what he can find to back up his own views and
   opinions. If the texts he needs are not there, he will twist others
   round till he, somehow or other, gets them on his side. But he will
   only believe as much as agrees with his own preconceived notions! He
   would like to mold the Bible, like a cake of wax, to any shape he
   pleases, so, of course, he cannot see the Truth and he does not want to
   see it.

   The crafty man, too, never sees God. I am afraid for no man as much as
   for the crafty, the man whose guiding star is "policy." I have seen
   rough sailors converted to God and blasphemers, harlots and great
   sinners of almost all kinds brought to the Savior and saved by His
   Grace. And very often they have told the honest truth about their sins
   and have blurted out the sad truth in every outspoken fashion. And when
   they have been converted, I have often thought that they were like the
   good ground of which our Savior spoke--with an honest and good heart in
   spite of all their badness. But as for the men of snake-like nature,
   who say to you, when you talk to them about religion, "Yes, yes," but
   do not mean it at all--the men who are never to be trusted--Mr.
   Smooth-Tongue, Mr. Facing-Both-Ways, Mr. By-Ends, Mr. Fair-Speech and
   all that class of people--God Himself never seems to do anything but
   let them alone! And as far as my observation goes, His Grace seldom
   seems to come to these double-minded men and women who are unstable in
   all their ways. These are the people who never see God.

   It has been remarked by a very excellent writer, that our Lord probably
   alluded to this fact in the verse which forms our text. In Oriental
   countries the king is seldom to be seen. He lives in retirement and to
   get an interview with him is a matter of great difficulty. And there
   are all sorts of plots and plans, and intrigues and, perhaps, the use
   of backstairs influence. But in that way a man may at last get to see
   the king. But Jesus Christ says, in effect, "That is not the way to see
   God." No. No one ever gets to Him by craftiness, by plotting, planning
   and scheming--but the simple-minded man who goes humbly to Him, just as
   he is, and says, "My God, I desire to see You. I am guilty and I
   confess my sin, and plead with You for Your dear Son's sake, to forgive
   me." He it is who sees God.

   I think there are some Christians who never see God as well as others
   do--I mean some Brothers and Sisters who, from their peculiar
   constitution, seem naturally of a questioning spirit. They are
   generally puzzled about some doctrinal point or other and their time is
   mostly taken up with answering objections and removing doubts. Perhaps
   some poor humble country woman who sits in the aisle and who knows, as
   Cowper says, nothing more than that her Bible is true, and that God
   always keep His promises, sees a great deal more of God than the
   learned and quibbling Brother who vexes himself about foolish questions
   to no profit.

   I remember telling you of a minister, who, calling on a sick woman,
   desired to leave a text with her for her private meditation. So,
   opening her old Bible, he turned to a certain passage which he found
   that she had marked with the letter P. "What does that P mean, my
   Sister?" he asked. "That means precious, Sir. I found that text very
   precious to my soul on more than one special occasion." He looked for
   another promise, and against this he found in the margin T and P. "And
   what do these letters mean, my good Sister?" They mean tried and
   proved, Sir, for I tried that promise in my greatest distress and
   proved it to be true. And then I put that mark against it so that the
   next time I was in trouble, I might be sure that that promise was still
   true." The Bible is scored all over with those Ts and Ps by generation
   after generation of Believers who have tested the promises of God and
   proved them to be true!. May you and I, Beloved, be among those who
   have thus tried and proved this precious Book!

   II. Our second remark was that THE PURIFICATION OF THE HEART ADMITS US
   TO A MOST GLORIOUS SIGHT--"The pure in heart shall see God"

   What does that mean? It means many things. I will briefly mention some
   of them. First, the man whose heart is pure, will be able to see God in
   Nature. When his heart is clean, he will hear God's footfall everywhere
   in the garden of the earth in the cool of the day. He will hear God's
   voice in the tempest, sounding in peal on peal from the tops of the
   mountains. He will behold the Lord walking on the great and mighty
   waters, or see Him in every leaf that trembles in the breeze. Once get
   the heart right and then God can be seen everywhere! To an impure
   heart, God cannot be seen anywhere, but to a pure heart God is to be
   seen everywhere--in the deepest caverns of the sea, in the lonely
   desert, in every star that gems the brow of midnight!

   Further, the pure in heart see God in the Scriptures. Impure minds
   cannot see any trace of God in them. They see reasons for doubting
   whether Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, they doubt the
   canonicity of the Gospel according to John--and that is about all that
   they ever see in the Bible. But the pure in heart see God on every page
   of this blessed Book. As they read it devoutly and prayerfully, they
   bless the Lord that He has been so graciously pleased to reveal Himself
   to them by His Spirit and that He has given them the opportunity and
   the desire to enjoy the Revelation of His holy will.

   Besides that, the pure in heart see God in His Church. The impure in
   heart cannot see Him there at all. To them, the Church of God is
   nothing but conglomeration of divided sects. And looking upon these
   sects, they can see nothing but faults, failures and imperfections. It
   should always be remembered that every man sees that which is according
   to his own nature. When the vulture soars in the sky, he sees the
   carrion wherever it may be. And when the dove on silver wings mounts up
   to the azure, she sees the clean winnowed corn wherever it may be. The
   lion sees his prey in the forest and the lamb sees its food in the
   grassy meadow. Unclean hearts see little or nothing of good among God's
   people, but the pure in heart see God in His Church and rejoice to meet
   Him there!

   But seeing God means much more than perceiving traces of Him in Nature,
   in the Scriptures and in His Church--it means that the pure in heart
   begin to discern something of God's true Character. Any man who is
   caught in a thunderstorm and who hears the crash of the thunder and
   sees what havoc the lightning flashes work, perceives that God is
   mighty. If he is not so foolish as to be an atheist, he says, "How
   terrible is this God of the lightning and the thunder!" But to perceive
   that God is eternally just and yet infinitely tender--and that He is
   sternly severe and yet immeasurably gracious, and to see the various
   attributes of the Deity all blending into one another as the colors of
   the rainbow make one harmonious and beautiful whole--this is reserved
   for the man whose eyes have been first washed in the blood of Jesus,
   and then anointed with heavenly eye salve by the Holy Spirit! It is
   only such a man who sees that God is always and altogether good and who
   admires Him under every aspect, seeing that all His attributes are
   beautifully blended and balanced, and that each one sheds additional
   splendor upon all the rest. The pure in heart shall in that sense see
   God, for they shall appreciate His attributes and understand His
   Character as the ungodly never can.

   But, more than that, they shall be admitted into His fellowship. When
   you hear some people talk about there being no God and no spiritual
   things, and so on, you need not be at all concerned at what they say,
   for they are not in a position to warrant them in speaking about the
   matter! For instance, an ungodly man says, "I do not believe there is a
   God, for I never saw Him." I do not doubt the truth of what you say,
   but when I tell you that I have seen Him, you have no more right to
   doubt my word than I have to doubt yours! One day at an hotel dinner
   table, I was talking with a Brother minister about certain spiritual
   things, when a gentleman who sat opposite to us, and who had a table
   napkin tucked under his chin, and a face that indicated his fondness
   for wine, made this remark, "I have been in this world for 60 years and
   I have never yet been conscious of anything spiritual." We did not say
   what we thought, but we thought it was very likely that what he said
   was perfectly true--and there are a great many more people in the world
   who might say the same as he did! But that only proved that he was not
   conscious of anything spiritual--not that others were not conscious of
   it! There are plenty of other people who can say, "We are conscious of
   spiritual things. We have been, by God's Presence among us, moved,
   bowed, carried forward and cast down, and then lifted up into joy and
   happiness, and peace--and our experiences are as true phenomena, at
   least to us, as any phenomena under Heaven! And we are not to be beaten
   out of our beliefs, for they are supported by innumerable undoubted
   experiences." "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High
   shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." "But there is no such
   secret place," one says, "and no such shadow." How do you know that? If
   someone else comes and says, "Ah, but I am dwelling in that secret
   place and abiding under that shadow," what will you say to him? You may
   call him a fool if you like, but that does not prove that he is
   one--though it may prove that youare one, for he is as honest a man as
   you are--and as worthy to be believed as you are.

   Some years ago, a lawyer in America attended a religious meeting where
   he heard about a dozen persons relating their Christian experience. He
   sat with his pencil in his hand and jotted down their evidence as they
   gave it. At last he said to himself, "If I had a case in court, I
   should like to have these persons in the witness box, for I should feel
   that if I had their evidence on my side, I should gain the case." Then
   he thought, "Well, I have ridiculed these people as fanatics, yet I
   would like their evidence in court upon other matters. They have
   nothing to gain by what they have been saying, so I ought to believe
   that what they have said is true." And the lawyer was simple enough, or
   rather, wise enough--and pure enough in heart--to look at the matter
   rightly! And so he also came to see the Truth of God and to see God.
   Many of us could testify, if this were the time to do so, that there is
   such a thing as fellowship with God even here on earth, but men can
   enjoy it only in proportion as they give up their love of sin. They
   cannot talk with God after they have been talking filthiness. They
   cannot speak with God as a man speaks with his friend if they are
   accustomed to meet companions in the alehouse and delight to mingle
   with the ungodly who gather there. The pure in heart may see God and do
   see Him-- not with the natural eyes, and far from us is such a carnal
   idea as that--but with their inner spiritual eyes they see the great
   God who is Spirit! And they have spiritual, but very real communion
   with the Most High.

   The expression, "They shall see God," may mean something else. As I
   have already said, those who saw Oriental mo-narchs were generally
   considered to be highly-privileged persons. There were certain
   ministers of State who had the right to go in and see the king whenever
   they chose to do so. And the pure in heart have just such a right given
   to them to go in and see their King at all times. In Christ Jesus they
   have boldness and access with confidence in coming to the Throne of the
   heavenly Grace. Being cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus, they
   have become the ministers, that is, the servantsof God, and He employs
   them as His ambassadors and sends them on high and honorable errands
   for Him--and they may see Him whenever their business for Him entitles
   them to an audience with Him!

   And, lastly, the time shall come when those who have thus seen God on
   earth shall see Him face to face in Heaven. Oh, the splendor of that
   vision! It is useless for me to attempt to talk about it. Possibly
   within a week some of us will know more about it than all the divines
   on earth could tell us. 'Tis but a thin veil that parts us from Glory!
   It may be rent asunder at any moment and then at once--

   "Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in"-- the
   pure in heart shall fully understand what it is to see God/May that be
   your portion, Beloved, and mine, also, forever and ever!

   III. Now, lastly, and very briefly, I have to remind you that THIS
   PURIFICATION OF THE HEART IS A DIVINE

   WORK.

   And believe me when I tell you that it is never an unnecessary work. No
   man (except the Man, Christ Jesus), was ever born with a pure heart.
   All have sinned, all need to be cleansed--there is none good--no, not
   one!

   Let me also assure you that this work was never performed by any
   ceremony. Men may say what they please, but no application of water
   ever made a man's heart any better! Some tell us that in baptism, by
   which they mean baby sprinkling, as a rule, they regenerate and make
   members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom of
   Heaven! But those who are sprinkled are no better than other people.
   They grow up in just the same way as others. The whole ceremony is
   useless and worse than that, for it is clean contrary to the example
   and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ! No aqueous applications, no
   outward ceremonies can ever affect the heart!

   Neither can the heart be purified by any process of outward
   reformation. The attempt has often been made to work from the outside
   to the inside, but it cannot be done--you might as well try to give a
   living heart to a marble statue by working upon the outside of it with
   a mallet and chisel! To make a sinner pure in heart is as great a
   miracle as if God were to make that marble statue live and breathe and
   walk!

   The heart can only be purified by God's Holy Spirit. He must come upon
   us and overshadow us. And when He thus comes to us, then is our heart
   changed, but never before that. When the Spirit of God thus comes to
   us, He cleanses the

   soul. To follow the line of our Savior's teaching in the Chapter before
   us--by showing us our spiritual poverty-- "Blessed are the poor in
   spirit." That is the first work of God's Grace--to make us feel that we
   are poor, that we are nothing, that we are undeserving, ill-deserving,
   Hell-deserving sinners! As the Spirit of God proceeds with His work,
   the next thing that He does is to make us mourn--"Blessed are they that
   mourn." We mourn to think that we should have sinned as we have done.
   We mourn after our God. We mourn after pardon. And then the great
   process that effectually cleanses the heart is the application of the
   water and the blood which flowed from the pierced side of Christ upon
   the Cross. Here it is, O Sinners, that you will find a double cure from
   the guilt and from the power of sin! When faith looks to the bleeding
   Savior, it sees in Him not merely pardon for the past, but the putting
   away of the sinfulness of the present! The angel said to Joseph, before
   Christ was born, "You shall call His name, Jesus, for He shall save His
   people from their sins."

   The whole process of salvation may be briefly explained thus. The
   Spirit of God finds us with foul heart and He comes and throws a Divine
   Light into us so that we see that we are foul. Then He shows us that
   being sinners, we deserve to endure God's wrath and we realize that we
   do. Then He says to us, "But that wrath was borne by Jesus Christ for
   you." He opens our eyes and we see that "Christ died for us"--in our
   place! We look to Him, we believe that He died as our Substitute and we
   trust ourselves with Him. Then we know that our sins are forgiven us
   for His name's sake and the cry of pardoned sin goes through us with
   such a thrill as we never felt before! And the next moment the forgiven
   sinner cries, "Now that I am saved, now that I am pardoned, my Lord
   Jesus Christ, I will be Your servant forever! I will put to death the
   sins that put You to death and if You will give me the strength to do
   so, I will serve You as long as I live!" The current of the man's soul
   ran before towards evil, but the moment that he finds that Jesus Christ
   died for him and that his sins are forgiven him for Christ's sake, the
   whole stream of his soul rushes in the other direction towards that
   which is right! And though he still has a struggle against his old
   nature, yet from that day forth the man is pure in heart--that is to
   say, his heart loves purity, his heart seeks after holiness, his heart
   pines after perfection.

   Now he is the man who sees God, loves God, delights in God, longs to be
   like God and eagerly anticipates the time when he shall be with God and
   see Him face to face. That is the process of purification--may you all
   enjoy it through the effectual working of the Holy Spirit! If you are
   willing to have it, it is freely proclaimed to you. If you truly desire
   the new heart and the right spirit, they will be graciously given to
   you! There is no need for you to try to fit yourselves to receive them.
   God is able to work them in you this very hour! He who will wake the
   dead with one blast of the resurrection trumpet can change your nature
   with the mere volition of His gracious mind! He can, while you sit in
   this house, create in you a new heart, renew a right spirit within you
   and send you out as different a man from what you were when you came in
   as if you were a new-born child! The power of the Holy Spirit to renew
   the human heart is boundless! "Oh," says one, "would that He would
   renew my heart, that He would change my nature!" If that is your
   heart's desire, send up that prayer to Heaven right now! Let not the
   wish die in your soul, but turn it into a prayer and then breathe it
   out unto God and listen to what God has to say to you. It is
   this--"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your
   sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are
   red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Or this-- "Believe on the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved"--saved from your love of
   sin, saved from your old habits and so completely saved that you shall
   become one of the pure in heart who see God!

   But perhaps you ask, "What is it to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?"
   It is to trust Him, to rely upon Him. Oh, that we could all rely upon
   Jesus Christ now! Oh, that that troubled young man over there could
   come and trust in Jesus! You will never get rid of your troubles till
   you do! But, dear Friend, you may be rid of them this very moment if
   you will but believe in Jesus! Yes, though you have struggled in vain
   against your evil habits, though you have wrestled with them sternly
   and resolved, and re-resolved, only to be defeated by your giant sins
   and your horrible passions, there is One who can conquer all your sins
   for you! There is One who is stronger than Hercules, who can strangle
   the hydra of your lust, kill the lion of your passions and cleanse the
   Augean stable of your evil nature by turning the great rivers of blood
   and water of His atoning Sacrifice right through your soul! He can make
   and keep you pure within! Oh, look to Him! He hung upon the Cross,
   accursed of men, and God made Him to be sin for us, though He knew no
   sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was
   condemned to die as our Sin-Offering that we might live forever in the
   love of God. Trust Him, trust Him! He has risen from the dead and gone
   up into His Glory, and He is at the right hand of God pleading for
   transgressors. Trust Him! You can never perish if you trust Him, but
   you shall live with ten thousand times ten thousand more who have all
   been saved by Grace, to sing of a mighty Savior able to save to the
   uttermost all them that come unto God by Him!

   God grant that you may all be thus saved, that so you may be among the
   pure in heart who shall see God and never leave off seeing Him. And He
   shall have all the Glory! Amen and Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Call of "Today"

   (No. 3160)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 1,
   1873.

   Therefore (as the Holy Spirit says) "today if you will hear His voice,
   harden not your hearts." Hebrews 3:7.

   THE Holy Spirit says, "Today." There is a great talk about yesterday.
   There are some who will have it that there are none like the days that
   are past--"the good old times." There are some who glory in what they
   did years ago. Their work was done yesterday. They have long ago
   retired from the business of life, but still they are accustomed to
   indulge in the recollections of what they did in days gone by.
   Yesterday is also dwelt upon in lamentation and even in despair.
   Yesterday! Alas, opportunities are past. "The harvest is past, and the
   summer is ended, and we are not saved." Yesterday we lived in sin.
   Yesterday we rejected Christ. Yesterday we stifled conscience and,
   therefore, despair says that it is now all over. Time is gone. Closed
   forever are the gates of Mercy--the death warrant is signed--the
   gallows are erected for the execution.

   Now it is noteworthy that the Holy Spirit, neither that we may take
   comfort in it, nor despair about it, said not, "yesterday"--He said,
   "Today." He points us not to the past--(we shall have to look at that
   and weep over it, or bless God for it either with repentance or
   gratitude)--He points us not to the time of the Flood but to today. A
   very large proportion of mankind, you will find, delight in dwelling
   upon the word, "tomorrow." Oh what will they not do tomorrow! Sin shall
   be rejected tomorrow! The Savior shall be sought tomorrow! Clasped in
   the arms of faith, they will exult in the peace of Christ tomorrow!
   They will pray tomorrow! They will serve God tomorrow! Alas, of all the
   nets of Satan as a fowler for the souls of men, perhaps there is none
   in which he took in more that in this big net of procrastination. "I
   will--I will," and there it ends! "I go, Sir," and he went not. To
   resolve and re-resolve, and then to die--the same is the melancholy
   history of thousands of hearers who bid fair for Heaven a thousand
   times and yet will never enter there!

   Tomorrow! Oh, you cursed word, tomorrow! How has man made you cursed! I
   find you not in the almanac of the wise--you are only in the calendar
   of fools. Tomorrow! There is no such thing except in dreamland, for
   when that comes which we call tomorrow it will be today--and still
   forever, today, today, today. There is no time but that which is. Time
   was, is not--and time to come is not!

   Today is the only time we have. Happily for us, the Holy Spirit says,
   "TODAY IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE." Never do I find Him saying,
   "tomorrow." His servants have often been repulsed by men like Felix who
   have said, "Go your way for this time. When I have a more convenient
   season I will send for you." And never did any Apostle say, "Repent
   tomorrow, or wait for some convenient season to believe." The constant
   testimony of the Holy Spirit with regard to the one single part of
   time--which I have shown, indeed, to be all time, is--"Today if you
   will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

   Now I am trying to speak, tonight, not as though I were preaching at
   all. But I need to talk to you Christians, first, and then to you
   unconverted people very seriously--and may God the Spirit speak through
   the words.

   I. First to you that love the Lord, or profess to do so--Christian
   people I have to say to you tonight--THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, "TODAY."
   That is to say, that it is essential to duty that we attend to it at
   once. Every command of Christ bears date today. If a thing is right, it
   should be done at once. If it is wrong, stop it immediately! Whatever
   you are bound to do, you are bound to do now. There may be some duties
   of a later date, but for the present, that which is the duty, is the
   duty now. There is an immediateness about the calls of Christ. What He
   bids you do, you must not delay to

   do. The Holy Spirit says, " Today." And I would say this with regard to
   everything. Do you love the Lord? Have you ever professed His name?
   Then the Holy Spirit says, " Today." Hesitate not to take up His Cross
   at once and follow Him--the Cross of Him who was nailed to the Cross
   for you! The Cross of Him who, by His precious blood, has made you not
   your own, but His! Confess Him before men. Has He not said, "He that
   denies Me before men, him will I deny before My Father who is in
   Heaven"? Confess with your mouth, if you have believed with your heart.

   It is the immediate duty of the Believer to be baptized. "As soon as
   you believe in Christ you may." " Today," says the Holy Spirit. Having
   united yourself to the people of God, then whatever, according to your
   position and calling, is incumbent upon you, do it! Are you a young
   Christian--warm, fervent in spirit--and do your seniors call you
   impudent and dampen your ardor? Listen not to them! Go and do what is
   in your heart! I would give nothing for a man's zeal if that zeal does
   not make him sometimes indiscreet. Imprudence, so far from being a sin,
   is often an index of the possession of the highest Grace. No, David,
   imprudent as you are, take the smooth stones from the brook. Wait not
   till you have become a king or a gray-headed monarch about to resign
   the crown to Solomon. While you are ruddy and a youth, hesitate not!
   The Holy Spirit says, "Today." Or are you called in middle life? Your
   sun has already spent half its day. Is it suggested to you that you
   should seek your children's conversion? Plead at once that your little
   ones, so long neglected, may now be saved. The Holy Spirit says to you,
   parent, father, mother--"Today." Have you come into the midst of a
   multitude of workers of which you are the master seeking their good?
   Seek it today! Have you in your heart the intention to serve God when
   you have amassed so much wealth? What? Shall God be second? Shall
   mammon take the first place and Jehovah be put in the background? No!
   Let your gold come in second or not at all. Let your God come in now!
   The Holy Spirit says, "Today." "But there are urgent things pressing."
   If you can claim that they are duties, God forbid that I should bid you
   neglect them! But if they are covetous and lustful, put them aside and
   now, in the prime of your life, while yet the marrow is in your bones
   and your eyes are not dim, give to God what He claims of you TODAY!

   Have you lingered long upon the road and has the evening come, and has
   the sun almost touched the horizon, and is the red light gleaming in
   the sky? Then the Holy Spirit says to you, "O aged Christian, serve God
   today." I cannot comprehend the postponements of old age, yet do we
   frequently meet with them. There was an aged man who meant to devote
   all his substance to the Church of God, but he put it off and the thing
   was never done. There was another who meant to have spoken to his
   children. He would gather them together on a certain day and would
   speak to them and their children, for so had it come about that he was
   a grandfather, now, but he said he would do it, by-and-by--but the time
   never came. "Whatever your hand finds to do"--what do the Scriptures
   say? "Think about it?" No--"Do it." Give God your first and choicest
   thoughts! Many a man has thought over a good thing till the devil has
   come in with a second thought and the thing has never been done. I love
   that blessed thing that made Magdalene, or Mary--whichever it
   was--break the alabaster box over the Savior. She did not sit down to
   calculate, or the thing would not have been done! And this is
   especially incumbent upon the aged. You are not likely to be guilty of
   indiscretion--your blood is not hot--therefore you may fling the reins
   on the back of your zeal! You are not likely to exceed in your
   zeal--therefore go at once, I pray you!

   Oh, I wish Christians were in the habit of following the promptings of
   the Holy Spirit. Remember, there are many things He gives to us that we
   do not deserve at all or do not receive so as to carry them out. Be you
   not as the horse or mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must
   be held in with bit and bridle. Oh, be guided by gentler means, the
   softer touches of God's hand! The Holy Spirit says, "Today." Whatever
   Christian service may come across you, Christian Brothers and Sisters,
   let me urge you not to let the night pass away, nor tomorrow, until you
   have accomplished the whole of it. Get through it, dear Brothers and
   Sisters, get through it at once. The Lord knows when duty will be most
   acceptable to Him. The Lord loves fresh gathered fruit. You are not to
   store it up until the bloom is gone and say, "I will bring it
   tomorrow." The Holy Spirit says, " Today" WHATEVER IS TO BE DONE FOR
   THE LORD, LET IT BE DONE NOW!

   And then there is a second set of obligations which come upon the
   Christian--undoing. Now THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS TODAY." Have I done wrong
   towards my neighbor? Have I spoken an unkind word? Have I made an
   unjust speech? Let me make my peace with my friend. But when? "Let not
   the sun go down upon your wrath." I heard the other day that when a
   wasp had stung one, the sting would go away if the wasp died before the
   sun went down. And perhaps there may be about each one of us some bad
   habit, something we cannot justify ourselves in. Let us seek to be
   purged

   from it, for "the Holy Spirit says, Today."" Is there any sin to be
   conquered? There is no such time to kill sin as today. You will never
   kill this Amalekite as well as now. He will be off his guard if you
   smite him now. AT ONCE, THEN, STRIKE THE BLOW AGAINST THE SIN, WHATEVER
   IT MAY BE. There is no time for killing weeds in the garden of the soul
   like today! There is no time for throwing salt upon the field which is
   full of noxious poison like now. Never imagine that you will get rid of
   sin by degrees. I know some people have been cured of a taste for
   strong drink by degrees, and such things may be possible, but the
   Christian will find it easier to wean himself at once by a sacred total
   abstinence from everything that is sinful--for as long as you parley
   with the enemy, the enemy will still have power over you--and blessed
   is that man who does not begin to take off one finger of his right hand
   and then another and then another, but takes the axe and chops it off
   as one whole thing at once! "If your right hand offends you, cut it
   off." [Not to be taken literally.] Some think this is enough--"If your
   right hand offends you, cut the nails." It is not so. Oh, yes--for
   doing and for undoing--the Holy Spirit says, " Today.""

   But I cannot linger where there is so much to say. Remember, beloved
   Christian friends, that there are some duties which if you DON'T DO
   TODAY YOU WILL NEVER DO. I called upon a Christian some time ago and
   saw him looking very sorrowful. He was a man of earnest spirit, always
   trying to do good, and I was surprised to see sorrow on his face. But
   he said, "My dear Sir, I met with a very sad thing this morning. There
   is a man who has been doing certain errands around here, and I noticed
   him and felt a great concern about his soul. And yesterday I had
   resolved that when he came into the shop, I would speak to him. It has
   been my habit to speak to all I come in contact with. Well, I don't
   know whether I can excuse myself or not, but this man came upon his
   usual errands, but I was busy and did not speak to him as I designed. I
   intended to do it this morning, but his wife has come round and said he
   is dead. and I cannot forgive myself, for there is nothing else I can
   do for him, and I feel almost as though his blood will lie at my door."

   You cannot tell but what you will be in company this evening with
   somebody who will never have a warning if you do not give it tonight
   Never have another invitation to come to Jesus--and if you should hear
   tomorrow that your friend has suddenly dropped dead and that he was
   unconverted--it would cause you some regret and remorse that you had
   not spoken. Now, now, because it is "now, or never." If it might be,
   "Now or tomorrow," there might be some reason for delay, but it is not
   so! It is "now or never!" Therefore I pray you, Brothers and Sisters,
   (and I am speaking much more to myself than to you), to be instant in
   season and out of season. Oh, pity those poor souls who live in
   darkness and do not know our sweet Lord Jesus! "You are the light of
   the world." Defer not the light-giving lest the night come to them
   wherein you cannot help them!

   Notice again--WHEN WE INTEND TO DO CHRISTIAN SERVICE TOMORROW, AND DO
   IT FAITHFULLY

   AND WELL, YET WE SIN. There is a contract for certain steamers to carry
   her Majesty's mails and they are bound to leave Liverpool at such a
   time and arrive at New York so long afterwards. Suppose they leave six
   hours after the time? If they make the best voyage they can, they break
   the contract! And an action which is done tomorrow, but should have
   been done today, whatever is its acceptableness in itself, is faulty.
   It is as an untimely fruit, out of date. If I do not do till tomorrow
   what I ought to do today, I cannot do tomorrow's duties! I cannot
   possibly put Thursday's work into Friday. Cannot I call in help? Yes,
   but I am robbing my Master of my friend's service. I have work to do
   which never can be done in eternity unless it is done today. Throughout
   the whole of eternity I can never make up for that lost hour. The work
   of that hour is gone and can never be done. Eternal mercy can wipe out
   the sin and, blessed be God, it will--but there is the fact for all
   that. Therefore the Holy Spirit says, "Today." Today's work is to be
   done today--therefore let it is done.

   For, beloved friends, there is one remark with regard to service for
   God and that is, that DUTIES PUT OFF TEND TO THE HARDENING OF THE
   HEART. You begin to be familiar with the neglect of them and nothing is
   more injurious to the mind than familiarity with sin! To be acquainted
   with sin is to be made sinful! When I postpone a duty, I am acquainted
   with the neglect of that duty. How many times--(I will put a riddle to
   you if I can. You will probably remember it)--how many times does a man
   sin in an hour who does not perform the duties of that hour? There is
   one act of omission, which he has committed the first minute. He ought
   to have done it at once. Is there a sin each minute or is there a sin
   each tick of the clock? I would like you to think about that. It seems
   to me that we do not know how many sins there may be crowded into the
   neglect of a duty for an hour. And some have neglected duties for a
   week! They have disobeyed God for a week. Have you ever seen your child
   sin in that way? You have said, "John, go to the door!" Has he been an
   obstinate child and not gone but stood still? You say again, "John, go
   to the door!" Still he does not go. I wonder how long you would let
   your child stand still? I think I know some who could not manage for
   five minutes to keep their hands off him--and perhaps it is well they
   should not stand it long.

   But now God has had His hands off you, some professors, by the week
   together and the year together for what you know you ought to have
   done--and yet you have not done it. And all the while the Word of God
   says to you, "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts,
   as in the provocation." But you have still continued to tempt the Lord
   and tried Him, though by the wonders of His mercy He has kept His hands
   off. Don't provoke Him anymore, but go and say, "I have delayed too
   long. Now, Father, I will do what You bid me. Help me, by Your Grace,
   for I will not be a disobedient child anymore." Delay not, for you have
   already provoked Him too long! I have often pitied God, to think He
   should be so badly treated that His children, whom He treats so well,
   should make Him such poor return. Let us have sympathy with our dear
   heavenly Father and say, "We will grieve Him no more."

   There is one more thing that I want to say to you, dear Christian. I
   have been putting it very strongly today, but I have felt authorized to
   do so because the text puts it so. THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, "TODAY." The
   Holy Spirit! That clothes it with deep solemnity. The Holy Spirit! That
   is, the Divine Person of the Godhead concerning whom we find that there
   is a sin against Him which will never be forgiven! If we want to keep
   clear of that sin, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God! Be very tender
   concerning all sin--be tender most of all concerning this. Remember how
   the Holy Spirit loves you--how He loves you! Jesus Christ loved men so
   that He came and lived among them, but the Holy Spirit loves men so
   that He comes and lives in them! I wonder which is the more admirable
   in condescension--the Incarnation of the Son, or the indwelling of the
   Holy Spirit? They are both Divinely merciful and gracious. Grieve Him
   not, then--He is your Comforter--He is your Comforter! And have you
   vexed Him who dwells in you and shall be with you? The human heart
   never entertained so Divine a guest! Resist Him not. Yield to Him now,
   for that is the very point on which He lays stress. The Holy Spirit
   says, " Today." Now I have said in myself (and I pray God to help me
   carry it out) I will strive after more Grace and I will seek to do what
   good I can now. Dear Brothers and Sisters, let that not merely be a
   resolution, but let us practice it, for the Holy Spirit says, " Today."

   II. Now I am going to turn away from you Christians to talk to the
   unconverted a little, and I pray that what is said

   may go to their hearts. TO YOU UNCONVERTED SINNERS, THE HOLY SPIRIT
   SAYS, "TODAY." I asked a

   Brother why he was not present on a certain occasion and he said, "I
   never got an invitation." I am afraid there are some sinners that never
   come to Christ because they do not get an invitation. I know that is
   not the case with any sinner who is in the habit of coming to this
   house. I believe Christian ministers would do well, or, at any rate, no
   ill if they never preached anything but invitation! There is much more
   to preach to advanced people of God, but still there are men who all
   their lives have invited men to come to Christ, and I believe they do
   no ill to spend their whole time in that.

   Now the point in the invitation is--When is it? Somebody says, "Will
   you come to my house to dinner?" Well, if that is all he says, I do not
   come. But if he says, "I dine at half-past five," then he gives me the
   time of day and tells me when he wants to see me. You know if a person
   says, "Whenever you are going by this way I shall be glad to see you,"
   you never call in at all. But if a man says, "I shall be glad to see
   you at such-and-such a time," you understand his invitation. And now
   the Holy Spirit puts a time to the invitation. I am not invited
   tomorrow, but this first of May--this sweet May day, the Holy Spirit
   says to me, "Come to Christ, today." And He says to you tonight through
   these lips of mine, "Today, even now, come seek and find every good in
   Jesus joined." "Look unto Him and be you saved, all you ends of the
   earth." The time is fixed, and the time is fixed for today!

   Why did He fix today?. Well, first, it was His that mercy fixed it.
   Suppose He had said, "tomorrow"? It would have been unkind to detain
   you in the gall of bitterness all the night. You would have had a
   wretched night and have said, "I shall not live through it." You would
   have wanted Christian people to come and sit with you and pray with
   you, while you were under condemnation, that you might reach tomorrow
   morning! But He has not said to you that you have got to wait until you
   are seventeen, or to you, yonder, that you have got to wait until you
   are thirty. Oh, no! He says, "Today." And then it is in wisdom that He
   says "today," because it is wisdom to seek the Lord at once--for
   otherwise the thread of life may be snapped. Have you ever noticed how
   much more frail our life is than glass? I have seen thin Venice glass
   three or four hundred years old, but I never saw a man last that time!
   We are frail things. A moment's touch and we are dust. The Holy Spirit
   therefore does not put it off unwisely, but He says, "Today."

   And the Holy Spirit does it, too, in addition to His mercy and wisdom,
   out of love to holiness. He would be a partaker of our sin if He
   excused our living an hour in sin! He never does. If I had God's
   liberty to remain in sin a week, He would be a partaker in my sin. But
   He has bid us fly to the fountain now. Lovingly and yet with a sort of
   sternness does He bid me come today! "Today if you will hear His
   voice," forsake your sin and fly for refuge.

   I might mention other attributes of God which would move Him to put it,
   "Today," but I will not. If you are at all affected by what I have said
   (and I hope you may be) don't say, "Well, I will resolve to think about
   my soul" I have noticed so many people who have felt, "I'm a good
   fellow after all--I have made a splendid resolution, haven't I?" Just
   as I have seen men in commercial life head over heels in debt go to a
   loan society or raise a little money at their bankers, or perhaps do
   what is much the same thing without raising money at all--give a
   promissory note and say, "Well, I've paid that man!" when they have
   never paid him a penny, but have given him merely a bit of paper! They
   get on wonderfully easy because they have passed a bit of paper saying
   that they will pay at a certain time when they know that they never
   mean to do it! Resolutions are promissory notes that men give to God
   and nothing ever comes of them! I sometimes wish there was no "paper"
   in business--and certainly I wish there were no "resolutions" in
   religion. A resolution to repent may damn a man, but a belief would
   save him! A resolution to believe in Christ may only check the voice of
   conscience, but a belief would save! Your resolutions are of no use
   whatever--like draughts from Aldgate Pump--they are not worth thinking
   of! Oh, to have real practical obedience to Christ, for the Holy Spirit
   says, "Today."

   Let me just speak further to you for a moment or two. It does seem very
   sweet that the Holy Spirit says, "Today." Do you know what I would do
   if I were in your case and you in mine? I recollect when I sought the
   Lord I hoped that after some months of darkness I might get light, and
   it was according to my hope. Now if I had to seek Him over again, I
   would go and say, "Lord, You have said, 'Today.' Lo, I seek You today!
   And shall I say, 'Today,' and You say, 'Tomorrow?' Dear Savior, I trust
   You today! Today speak peace to my conscience! Today apply the blood of
   sprinkling and give my spirit rest." I would make a plea of it if I
   were you--for if a man made a great feast and said to the poor, "Come
   today," the poor would not expect to sit shivering there to get a meal
   tomorrow! But they would say, "Our invitation was today. There is food
   and drink today." So, Sinner, if you will come to the Lord and say, "My
   Lord, my Father, You have called me today--therefore today I feel Your
   love to me and I pray You, today, to put my sins away as far as the
   east is from the west"--God will keep His word and you will find speedy
   rest!

   Oh, some of you HAVE LIVED LONG ENOUGH WITHOUT GOD! Some of you have
   lived 50 years without God and long enough to be condemned! Oh, you
   would not like to be converted and then be of no service to your Lord
   at all, or only have given Him a few months of your life, would you? I
   pray you, think of this--the long time past which may have sufficed you
   to have worked the will of the flesh and the short time that is to
   come. Do you know how soon you are to die? Is there any man here who is
   certain that he will live to see another year? When the next service is
   held to watch the old year out and the new year in, will you be here,
   or where will you be? The Holy Spirit says, "Today." Every hour that
   passes is hardening you if you are remaining out of Christ! It becomes
   less probable that God will meet with you. There are so many more
   opportunities wasted, so many more appeals thrown away. O, dear
   Hearers, if God made you stand on this platform and said, "I will tell
   you who they are that will reject your message and perish," I would
   say, "Good Spirit, tell me no such thing! Conceal the secret! I do not
   wish to know it!" I think it would break my heart to look in some of
   your faces and think, "That man will be in Hell and be in anguish and
   ask for a drop of water to cool his tongue." I could not bear to feel
   that it would be so! And yet I feel morally certain it will be so with
   some of you. Oh, I am staggered when I feel how souls come into this
   Tabernacle (and some of you are always here) and do not get the
   blessing. I pray tonight that some of us may get the blessing!

   An incident occurred this afternoon. An aged minister, an excellent
   man, came into my vestry and shook my hand and said, "I have got this
   letter which I would like you to see." Well, I had many things to
   attend to, but he was so anxious and said, "I know you will like to see
   it," that I took the letter. Before I read it, he explained to me that
   he had a son who had made a profession of religion, but had gone aside
   from it, and it had pretty well broken his heart. At last, he was to go
   to America, and the father sent him away with a very heavy heart. The
   old man took off his spectacles. The letter was from his son and it
   said, "I went to hear Mr. Spurgeon, and I have not the slightest doubt
   that it has had an influence on my whole life. The text was, 'He is as
   a root out of a dry ground.' The sermon was divided into four parts." I
   remember the sermon well enough--I was suffering from great pain at the
   time. "The point which lasted longest was that in which he said that
   God had made Christ to grow up like a root, like a root out of a dry
   ground. He went on for 25 minutes"--(then he gave an opinion of my
   style which I won't read to you)--"but what surprised me most was that
   out of five or six thousand, he fastened his eyes on me though I was in
   the farthest gallery"--(the young man's name was Thomas So-and-So, the
   son of the Baptist minister)--"and suddenly he shouted out these words,
   'There's that wild, daredevil Tom! God means to save him and he will be
   a comfort to his father in his old age.'" The old gentleman, when I got
   to that, said, "And so he is." The letter went on, "I thought he was
   going to say my name. I trembled lest the people should know my name
   was Tom!"

   Well, that cheered my heart to think of that young fellow. And I
   thought I would have a shot at some of you tonight--and I pray that it
   may go right straight through your hearts!

   And now, this first of May, if you meet with God tonight, if you pray
   and believe in Jesus tonight, this will be your spiritual birthday! You
   will remember the night that Believers were baptized and that, that
   night Christ met with you. It is now 23 years, I think, within an hour
   or two, since I was also baptized on the first of May, confessing
   Christ in my early youth. And I will close my sermon by saying that if
   He had been a bad master I would have run away from Him. And if He had
   not kept His promises, I would not believe Him. But He has been a good
   Master and a dear Savior! I think it is 23 years during which I can
   bear an earnest testimony to the goodness and love of Christ. If you
   knew Him you would not live a minute without Him! "Ah," you say--"will
   He have me?" Will you have Him? That is the point! You won't have any
   wooing to do towards Christ. He loved sinners. He died for sinners.
   "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

   THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, TODAY. Do you say, Today, too? Amen and amen!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 3; 4:1.

   Hebrews 3:1. Therefore, holy brethren, partaker of the heavenly
   calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ
   Jesus. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling."
   What wonderful titles! "Holy brethren," made brethren in holiness and
   made holy in our brotherhood--"partakers of the heavenly
   calling"--called of God from among the worlds. Our occupation and our
   calling henceforth is to serve the Lord. Well, if you are holy
   brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, "Consider the Apostle and
   High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Think much of Him!
   Remember who it is you follow, with whom you are brethren! If you think
   little of your Leader, you will live but poor lives. Consider Him,
   often think of Him, try to copy Him. With such a Leader, what manner of
   people ought we to be?

   2, 3. Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was
   faithful in all His house. For this man was counted worthy of more
   glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who has built the house has more honor
   than the house. Moses was but a part of the house, after all--a
   prominent stone in the building--but Christ is the Builder! Not only
   the Builder of the house, but Foundation, Topstone of it! Then think
   much of Him. Get an high idea of Him as faithful unto God in
   everything. Moses kept the Law and was a good example to Israel save in
   some point of weakness, but Christ perfectly carried out His Father's
   commission and He is worthy of more honor than Moses.

   4-6. For every house is built by one man but He that built all things
   is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all His house, as a servant,
   for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but
   Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast
   the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. "But
   Christ as a Son"--far higher degree--"Christ as a Son over His own
   house," of which He is the heir, of which He is even now the sole
   proprietor--"whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the
   rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." None are truly Christ's but
   those who persevere in Grace. Men may be nominally Christ's, but they
   are not Christ's house unless they hold fast to the confidence and the
   rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Temporary Christians are not
   really Christians.

   7, 8. Therefore (as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you will hear His
   voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of
   temptation in the wilderness. You are His house, give Him rest, do not
   provoke Him! If you belong to Him, be holy, do not grieve Him. If you
   are His house, be not defiled--surely He should dwell in a holy place!

   9. Whien your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty
   years. Oh, children of God, you have, some of you, been more than forty
   years, now, in the Lord's service! Do not vex Him. You have been long
   called out of Egypt and brought into the separate place in this
   wilderness world--be careful to be fit for the Divine indwelling.

   10, 11. Therefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do
   always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I swore
   in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest). God grant that none of
   this congregation may be of that mind who, having named the name of
   Christ and being known as His people, continue to grieve Him one way
   and another--to put Him to the test by their doubts--to make Him angry
   by their sins. No, God grant we may be of another sort lest He should
   lift His hand and swear, "They shall not enter into My rest."

   12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
   unbelief, in departing from the living God. Here the charge is not to
   the outside world but to those whom he had called, "holy brethren." He
   drops the word, "holy," for there are some brethren, so-called, who
   would not deserve that name, and to them he speaks very pointedly,
   "Take heed, take heed, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
   unbelief." And how will that be shown? By wandering off, one way or
   another, away from the living God. If your God is not a living God to
   you in whom you live and move and have your being. If He does not come
   into your daily life, but if your religion is a dead and formal thing,
   then you will soon depart.

   13, 14. But exhort one another daily, while it is called, Today; lest
   any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are
   made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
   steadfast unto the end Not otherwise. Again I say they who do not hold
   on and hold out are not really partakers of Christ--we are made
   partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence
   steadfast unto the end. Those that fly to this Doctrine and that,
   unsettled spirits, wandering stars, mere meteors of the night--these
   are not Christ's, but we must hold the beginning of our faith steadfast
   unto the end.

   15. While it is said, Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your
   hearts, as in the provocation. Twice over we are warned of this, to
   avoid hardness of heart. God save us from ossification of heart,
   petrifaction of heart, till we get a heart of love or a heart of
   stone--may God save us from this.

   16. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that
   came out of Egypt by Moses. There were two--it was a slender remnant
   that were faithful!

   17. But with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that
   had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wildernes? God speaks very
   lovingly of the bodies of His saints, but see how He speaks of the
   bodies of apostates, "whose carcasses," as if they were no better than
   so many brute beasts, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness."

   18. And to whom swore He that they should not enter into His rest, but
   to them that believed not Sinning and not believing seem to go
   together. The 17th verse asks the same question as the 18th, but the
   answer is different. "With them that had sinned" says the 17th verse,
   "to them that believed not," says the 18th verse. Lack of faith brings
   lack of holiness, and when we abide in the faith we abide in obedience.

   19. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbeliel.

   Hebrews 4:1. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left of
   entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. I
   left out the, "us," because that is inserted by the translators and
   should not be there. The promise is left to somebody, it does not say
   to us--"a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you
   should seem to come short of it." Not come short of it but even seemto
   do so. God keep us from the very shadow of sin, from the very
   appearance of evil. "For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as
   unto them." In the old time that Gospel which was preached to them was
   preached to us--"but the word preached did not profit them, not being
   mixed with faith in them that heard it." God send us this holy mixture
   of the hearing and the believing, to our soul's salvation, to His
   Glory. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Positivism

   (No. 3161)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1875.

   "We know...And we know...And we know." 1 John 5:18-20.

   IT is remarkable how throughout the whole of John's Epistle he
   continually uses the word, "know." It has quite refreshed me to
   carefully read through the Epistle and to observe how, as the clock
   strikes the same note again and again, John seems to have kept to this
   monotone--"We know, we know, we know." In this age, when it is
   fashionable not to know anything, when the professedly learned would
   hold us in a state of perpetual doubt and our great poet tells us that
   there is more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds--and
   everybody seems to be bewitched with what is called "modern
   thought"--it is quite cheering to one's ears and delicious to one's
   heart to hear the bell strike out again and again, "We know, we know,
   we know"! After all, there is something certain somewhere, some grip
   for our anchor, some foundation to build our eternal hopes
   upon--something that can be trusted, something besides cloud and
   will-o'-the wisps! "We know, we know, we know." Take your pencils and
   read through this first Epistle of John and underline the word, "know,"
   and you will feel the force of our remark. Look at the second
   Chapter--"Hereby we do know that we know Him." "He that says I know
   Him." "Hereby know we that we are in Him." In the 13th verse we read,
   "Because you have known Him." "I write unto you, little children,
   because you have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers,
   because you have known Him that is from the beginning." "We have an
   unction from the Holy One and you know all things." "I have not written
   unto you because you know not the Truth, but because you, knowi t, and
   that no lie is of the Truth." And so in the third Chapter, verse after
   verse. "The world knows us not, because it knew Him not." "We know that
   when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He
   is." The fifth verse "You know that He was manifested to take away our
   sin." And so it is--on, on, on, all through the Chapter--"we know,"
   "you know," and "they know."

   And why is this? It seems to me, first, that John had the echo of his
   Master's words ringing in his ears. He laid his head upon his Master's
   bosom and caught his Master's spirit. Yes, more--his Master's thoughts!
   Yes, more--his Master's very words! Continually as you read John's
   first Epistle you are reminded of passages in his Gospel. The Epistle
   seems to be the essential extract of this Gospel. John, the Beloved of
   Jesus, reproduces his Master more fully than any other Apostle. Listen
   to the Master's words in the 14th Chapter of John, fourth verse--"I go
   to prepare a place for you. And where I go you know, and the way you
   know. Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we know not where you go, and how can
   we know the way?" (Seventh verse)--"If you had known Me, you should
   have known My Father also; and from henceforth you know Him and have
   seen Him." Hear how the know rings out! Again, attend to our Lord's
   prayer in the 17th Chapter of John--"Now they have known that all
   things whatever You have given Me are of You." "They have known s urely
   that I came out from You." "O righteous Father the world has not known
   You: but I have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me."
   The words of Jesus had so fastened upon John's mind and had so deeply
   impressed his heart, that when his soul needed words, it caught at
   those which had rooted themselves so firmly among the most happy
   memories of his life! I attribute the preponderance of the word,
   "know," which constitutes itself an idiom in the Epistle, to the fact
   that the expressions of the Master had been treasured up by the
   servant.

   Furthermore, John is one in whom we see very little of mental conflict.
   Thomas had brain in excess of heart and hence he had his doubts, and
   exclaimed, "Except I put my finger into the print of the nails, and
   thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." By-and-by he became
   a grand believer and, indeed, a very leader in true Doctrine, for he
   was the

   first that ever inferred the Deity of Christ from His wounds when,
   looking at the scars, he said, "My Lord and my God." John was too
   intimate with Christ to doubt. And he had too much heart to be a
   questioner, too much of earnest, intense, loving life to be subject to
   those diseases which spring from preponderance of intellect over
   affection. His soul was, like his Lord's, on fire with Divine Love, and
   it burnt up the chaff of doubt too rapidly for it even to have seemed
   to be there! It had only to be scattered over the flame to vanish at
   once. It is very beautiful to notice how positive John is in his
   writing. I like the commencement of his Epistle--it is so different
   from the wavering talk which we hear now-a-days! He begins thus, "That
   which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
   with our eyes, which we have looked upon (that is, intensely gazed
   upon) and our hands have handled of the Word of Life; that which we
   have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you also may have
   fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and
   with His Son Jesus Christ." Is not this true "positivism"? Where will
   you find it if you do not find it here? Speak of dogmatism! Here is
   dogmatic teaching, indeed! He does not hesitate, or fear, or doubt for
   one moment! His evidence is too sure and his conviction too firm! And
   hence it is that he rings out that bell so, clearly, "We know, we know,
   we know."

   The full assurance expressed by the word, "know," arises from the fact
   that perfect love always casts out hesitancy and doubt which are a form
   of fear and, as John tells us, "Perfect love casts out fear, because
   fear has torment." Love cannot endure a doubt. If love is crossed with
   doubt, it becomes jealousy, and that is cruel as the grave. A man had
   better meet a wolf in the depth of winter, or a bear robbed of her
   whelps, than a man in his jealousy, for his fury burns like coals of
   juniper which have a most vehement flame. Love must have certainty.
   Those whom we dearly love must be beyond suspicion as to their
   reciprocal affection. As to a doubt whether there is a Christ, or
   whether He is the Son of God, or whether He loved us and gave Himself
   for us, this may be indulged in by those who love not--but where love
   is supreme it sits in state like God upon the cherubim--and the Dagon
   of doubt falls down and is broken in pieces! If the church of the
   present age loved Jesus better, she would speak much more confidently
   about Him and, in so doing she would speak more like the oracles of
   God. But where the dampness of lukewarm affection settles down, the
   cold chill of doubt is sure to follow--and it is in these wintry nights
   of declining love to Jesus that the frost of unbelief binds up the
   rivers of spiritual life. If the Lord quickens the love of His Church,
   as soon as it is done, her sons say, as John did, "We know, and we
   know, and we know"--and the grand old positive spirit of Luther and of
   Calvin, blazing with the enthusiasm which came with Whitefield and
   Wesley, will come back to the Church--and God will bless the world
   thereby!

   I am about to speak upon the forms of Christian knowledge. "We
   know"..."and we know"..."and we know." Here I note, first, that
   Christians have this knowledge in seven different forms, of which the
   one draws on the other like golden links of a precious chain.

   I. And, first, we know, that is to say, we have INSTRUCTION. And herein
   we are saved from ignorance. The Christian is not ignorant of the
   Gospel and its great primary Truths of God, but he knows them by the
   teaching of the Holy Spirit and by searching the Word. That use of the
   term, we have frequently in this Epistle. I will give two examples. The
   10th verse of the Fifth Chapter--"We know that the Son of God is come,
   and that He has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is
   true." We know the fact of Incarnation and the mission of our Lord
   Jesus Christ, for we have been so informed by the Scriptures. In the
   16th verse of the Fourth Chapter we have another instance--"We have
   known and believed the love that God has to us." We know the love of
   God, for it is revealed and we accept the witness of the Spirit
   concerning it.

   We know the great facts of the Gospel and this is no small blessing.
   Myriads of our fellow creatures are unaware of the first principles of
   the faith, scarcely knowing that there is a God, and altogether
   ignorant of the wondrous plan of Redemption by the blood of Jesus. Even
   in this (so-called) Christian country, there is much ignorance about
   these things. I wish that Christian people would more frequently
   question others about what they know of Christ. No book is less read,
   in proportion to its circulation, than the Bible--and certainly no book
   is less understood! With all the preaching we have--and some of it is
   very excellent--there is a great ignorance of the rudimentary truths of
   the Gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere! One is surprised to find that
   the language which is used in the pulpit is not understood at all by
   the mass of the people. They do not know where the preacher is--he is
   somewhere up in the clouds--they learn nothing from his big words! They
   suppose it is all right, and very good, and they listen to it--but as
   far as instruction is concerned, many a preacher might almost as well
   speak in Syrian! "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound."
   It is a happy thing to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come
   in the flesh, that He took upon Himself the sins of His

   people, that He bore the wrath of God on their behalf, that by
   believing in Him, men are justified from all things from which they
   could not be justified by the Law of Moses. It is a blessed thing to
   know that "in Him we have redemption through His blood," and
   sanctification and eternal life! It is a blessed thing to know the Holy
   Spirit--to know that He converts the soul and comforts, illuminates,
   guides and sanctifies. It is well to know something of the future life.
   To know the Doctrine of Election, the Doctrine of Effectual Calling and
   the Doctrine of the Eternal Security of the Saints. Many there are who
   have not found out these Truths of God, but if we have done so, it is
   not a thing to boast of, but a matter to be very thankful for! I am
   afraid the Bible is so common that we are not duly grateful for it. And
   the preaching of the Gospel has become so usual a thing to us that we
   are not sufficiently mindful of the high privilege conferred upon
   anyone who is permitted to hear it. Be glad, dear Friends, that so far
   as instruction in the Gospel is concerned, we are not left in the dark,
   but we can say, thanks be to God, we know, for we have been
   taught--some of us from our youth up. We know, for we have searched the
   Scriptures. We know, for we have listened to a Gospel ministry. We
   know, for we have weighed, judged and studied these things for
   ourselves.

   II. There is a far higher knowledge than this, which I shall speak of
   secondly. By knowing is frequently meant APPREHENDING and
   understanding. This kind of knowledge is opposed to a mere hearing of
   Doctrine and facts without understanding their inner meaning. To wit, a
   man may know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died, but
   He may not understand the great Truth of Substitution and why Jesus
   died. Now, I do not say that any very deep understanding of the Truth
   is necessary to salvation, but I do say that it is an inestimable
   privilege to be able to go deep into these things and to know not
   merely the facts, but the reason of the facts--and the teaching of the
   facts. A nut is very well, but I prefer to crack the shell and get the
   kernel. It is delightful to read the Word, but to meditate upon it and
   understand it is the great matter! In instruction we are like the cow
   when cropping the grasses. But apprehension is like the same creature
   ruminating--when she lies down and chews the cud! It is then that the
   real nourishment is gained. John uses the word, "know," in that sense
   in the second clause of the 20th verse of our text--"And we know that
   the Son of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we may
   know." That is, He has taught us what is meant by His coming. From our
   very childhood we knew that Jesus came in the flesh, but perhaps it is
   only a little while ago that we understood how--

   "He bore, that we night never bear, His Father's righteous ire"--

   and how He stands as our Representative before the Throne of God at
   this moment. We know the Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness as a matter
   of fact, but, perhaps, we have not even now entered into the full sense
   of our acceptance in the Beloved. I urge upon everyone who knows the
   Truth of God to pray daily for a deeper understanding of its innermost
   meaning, that he may know the marrow and fatness of the Covenant, may
   dig into the mines of Revelation and turn up those masses of gold which
   surface readers never discover! The Scriptures do not at once yield up
   the whole of their wealth even to a student. He must dig and dig, and
   dig and dig again. Jerome used to say, "I adore the plenitude of Holy
   Scripture." And well he might, for there is a mighty fullness in it. I
   think it was Henry Martin who, when he had to translate the Bible into
   the Persian language, said that he never knew the Word so well as when
   he had to go over every syllable of it. You remember Uncle Tom spelling
   "L-e-t let, n-o-t not, y-o-u-r your, h-e-a-r-t-s hearts be troubled,"
   and so on, and how he said that every letter of it was sweet. After you
   have thought over a verse for hours, you feel persuaded that you have
   found out its full teaching. Perhaps you have looked to learned authors
   and noticed the correct text and many good thoughts thereon, and yet
   further on a new meaning pops up--and perhaps weeks after, when that
   text has been abiding under your tongue like a sweet morsel, you all of
   a sudden say, "I never saw this before! Here is something fresh and
   still more wonderful! Now I know the inmost sense of this delightful
   Scripture."

   How I wish that all Christians in this sense knew, so that they could
   say "We know, we know, we know." We ought not merely to assert our
   belief in an orthodox creed, but we should know the meaning of it. We
   should not merely confess that such-and-such are our doctrinal
   sentiments, but we should go into the Truths of God like bees into the
   cups of the flowers and find out where their honey lies! O that we
   could all feel that we have gone into the secret caves of Revelation,
   the Spirit of God holding a flaming torch and leading us into all
   Truth! O that we might all see the innumerable sparkles of those
   precious gems which glitter in the deep places where the lion's whelp
   has not trodden, far down where only the

   Spirit of God can lead--and where only an eye that has been touched
   with heavenly eye-salve can see! Oh, for a Church made up of people who
   understand and, therefore, know!

   III. We know by instruction and we know by apprehension, but there is a
   sweeter sense than this. We know, in a third sense, by personal
   acquaintance. You will find that meaning in such passages as the Second
   Chapter, at the 13th and 14th verses--"I write unto you, fathers,
   because you have known Him that is from the beginning." Our text is
   another specimen. "We know that the Son of God is come, and has given
   us an understanding that we may know Him." I will not quote all the
   texts--there are many of that kind. Thus we know the Lord Himself! A
   friend comes to you and he says, "Do you know such a person?" You say
   first, "I know there is such a person"--that is instruction. Being
   further asked, "But, do you know him?" You answer, "Well, I know that
   he was a fine tall man, a soldier in the infantry, and that he went to
   the Crimea." That is a sort of knowing him by apprehension, but does
   not fully answer the question, "Do you know him?" You say, "Well, I
   cannot say that I know him, for if I were to see him, I could not
   recognize him, I have never even spoken to him." To be acquainted with
   a man is a higher order of knowledge than the former, and in that sense
   Believers know God, know Jesus Christ and know the Holy Spirit. They
   are acquainted with God! "No, man has seen God at any time," but we
   have spoken to Him and He has spoken to us. We have not heard His voice
   with these ears, but we are sure that we have heard Him in our hearts.
   Our spirits know His voice. We have sometimes been bowed down with
   terror as He has spoken and brought us under the spirit of bondage. But
   now we know the sound of His voice as a Spirit of Love and we respond
   to it, crying, "Abba, Father."

   We know the voice of Jesus. We are like the sheep who will not follow a
   stranger, "for they know not the voice of strangers." But we know
   Jesus, and when He speaks to our souls we answer to His call. We not
   only know His voice, but we know Him. We have come into personal
   contact with the Christ of God, not in mere imagination, but in fact.
   As surely as we live, the eternal God in Jesus Christ has looked upon
   us and has touched us--no, more, has worked a miracle on us and has
   made us new creatures, "begotten us again unto a lively hope by the
   Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." I speak not of you all. I
   speak only of those of whom it is true that they do know the Lord. The
   Lord Jesus has become our familiar Acquaintance. We tell Him all our
   griefs. There is not a trouble but we carry to Him, not a sorrow but we
   pour it into His bosom! And He, on the other hand, reveals His heart to
   us, for "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him."

   True Believers, especially full-grown Believers, when they are advanced
   in the Divine Life, know the Lord Jesus Christ as they know their
   friends--yes, as they know their very selves! They speak with Him as a
   man speaks with his friend. They even know Him as they cannot know
   their friends, for they have received Him into themselves and they have
   become one with Him. They have eaten His flesh and drunk His blood--and
   He is in them and they in Him with an intimate knowledge excelling all
   other knowledge beneath the sun! Though they do not profess to know all
   that is to be known of Christ, for there is a love of Christ that
   passes knowledge, and heights and depths that are beyond all mortal
   ken, yet they do know Him and their daily aspiration is to know Him
   more and more fully!

   See, then, that as apprehension surpasses instruction, so acquaintance
   rises far beyond apprehension. May you and I know with this third
   knowledge and live in the sweet enjoyment of it all our days!

   IV. Out of this rises a fourth degree of knowledge, namely, that
   ofCERTAINTY as opposed to skepticism. When we are under instruction,
   doubts may arise. When we apprehend and understand, doubts may still
   trouble us. But when we come to be acquainted with Jesus, they are less
   likely to haunt us. Out of fellowship with Jesus springs the higher
   state of absolute certainty as to Divine things! John himself was very
   certain. I read to you the commencement of his Epistle just now, and
   you saw how confident he was. And we find him writing all through his
   Epistle with equal strength and force of assurance. He says in the
   Third Chapter, the fifth verse, "You know that He was manifested to
   take away our sin, and in Him is no sin." And in the 24th verse, "And
   hereby we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given
   us." In the Fifth Chapter read verse nineteen--"We know that we are of
   God." And few as he felt that his brethren were and the whole world
   engaged on the other side! In the spirit of Athanasius, he cries, "The
   whole world lies in the Wicked One." He allows no force to the evidence
   even of a contradicting world, because one man abiding in the Truth has
   more weight in his witness than millions under the power of the Father
   of Lies!

   Now Brothers and Sisters, this is a blessed state to get into--that of
   certainty! I am utterly amazed at hearing it continually asserted that
   the thoughtful public teacher must make great allowances for "the
   spirit of the age, which is one of

   earnest skepticism." I do not believe it! The spirit of the age is that
   of thoughtlessness and trifling! But what have I or any other Christian
   to do with the spirit of the age? The spirit which is in us by which we
   ought to speak is the Spirit of God--not the spirit of the age! In what
   spirit are Christian ministers to speak? The spirit of the first
   century, while the first century lasts, I suppose? The spirit of the
   second century when the second century comes in and so, from age to age
   the spirit of the Christian is to alter? Can it be so? You remember
   when they condemned Leighton because he did not speak according to the
   times? He replied, "If all of you are speaking for the times, let one
   poor Brother speak for eternity." Was he not correct? Surely the Spirit
   of the Truth of God never changes, for the Truth of God is Immutable!
   Surely the Spirit of God never alters, for He is Divine! Have we one
   medicine for one age and another medicine for another? Does it run
   thus--"Go you into all the world and adapt the Gospel to every
   century?" I find it not so written! Our standing orders are, Preach the
   Gospel, the Gospel, the sameGospel to every creature, thoughtful or
   thoughtless, philosophical or ignorant, civilized or uncivilized.
   Semper idem is the motto which the Gospel may write above her temples!
   There let it stand. She cannot alter. For her to alter were death to
   the Truth of God and treason to Christ! Though we believe not and
   though the age grows doubting, He abides faithful--He cannot deny
   Himself!

   Ah, Brothers and Sisters, if you are not certain about these things,
   may God grant that you may be certain! Oh, to be uncertain whether the
   Savior loved me and gave Himself for me--it would be as death to my
   soul! Some find delight in pulling down, as far as they can, the
   eternal pillars of the Temple, but to see a sacrilegious hand laid on
   the least of them is painful in the extreme! There hangs my hope on
   yonder bloody tree where the Incarnate God offered up expiation for my
   sin! If you can disprove the Doctrine of Atonement, my comfort is gone!
   I care no more to live, there remains nothing for me. Therefore is my
   soul driven back by sheer necessity to fundamental Truths of God and
   cannot be content till she casts away the rubbish of human opinion and
   gets down to the rock against the sheer granite of eternal Truths which
   God has spoken, which are, "yes," and, "amen," in Christ Jesus! Labor
   after this Brothers and Sisters! Let it not be to you a question
   whether there is such a thing as regeneration--it cannot be a question
   if you, yourself, are regenerate! It will not be a question whether
   there is such a thing as justification if you are justified! You cannot
   doubt as to sanctifica-tion if you are consciously sanctified, any more
   than angels in Heaven will doubt whether there is a Heaven while living
   there and enjoying the glory of it! May we get up to this fourth point,
   which is that of absolute certainty as opposed to skepticism.

   V. But now, fifthly, there is a knowledge of another kind, very useful
   in these days, namely, that ofDISCERN-MENT as opposed to a readiness to
   receive erroneous teaching. That meaning was intended by John. Read in
   the Second Chapter, beginning at the 18th verse--"Little children, it
   is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come,
   even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the
   last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they
   had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they
   went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
   But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things." He
   does not mean that the saints know everything, but they judge, they
   discern, they know the Truth of God from error. When Doctrine presents
   itself to you, you know whether it is of Christ or of antichrist, and
   act accordingly. You are able to judge, to discern, and to distinguish.
   In the Fourth Chapter you have it again, at the second verse--"Hereby
   know we the Spirit of God (or discern the Spirit of God). Every spirit
   that confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God."
   "Hereby," says he in the sixth verse, "know we the Spirit of Truth and
   the spirit of error." We know which is which, even as our Lord says--"A
   stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of
   strangers." And again, "I know My sheep, and am known of Mine." There
   is a spirit of discernment and it is needed much now-a-days. It comes
   to us in the following way--instruction, apprehension, acquaintance,
   certainty--these bring discernment to detect the false from the true.

   Very delightful, too, is it to my mind to see how the least instructed
   Christian who does not know his Lord and love Him, is not to be led
   astray. Mere professors like to hear a man who can speak fluently. And
   if he will use very pretty phrases and talk about waterfalls, and the
   rippling rills, and the skies, and the clouds and Heaven knows what
   besides of mimic poetry, they mightily cry up the orator! The child of
   God thinks not so, for he has another way of judging. He says when he
   hears such rhetoric, "There was nothing for me." "What do you mean?
   There were plenty of flowers." "I cannot eat flowers," he says. He
   judges whether he was fed or not, and he knows what he can eat. Nobody
   teaches sheep what is good for food and what is not--they know by
   instinct. I do not suppose they could preach a sermon upon healthy
   herbs and unhealthy plants, but they know by some means--and so do
   Believers. They could not write it down. They could not compose an
   essay upon discernment, but they know what they can feed upon and they
   know what they cannot feed upon--and they have very sure tests within
   them. "Ah," says the Believer, "that will not do for me. There is no
   Christ in it. Away with it." They listen to some humble preacher who
   loves Jesus Christ and lifts Him high, and they say, "Ah, well. He puts
   his h's in the wrong places and his grammar is deficient, but we were
   blessed, for when he exalted our Master and preached of Him, our very
   hearts danced within us for joy!" I have felt just that myself--I have
   sat and cried as if my heart would break to hear Jesus Christ spoken of
   by a plain working man--but have felt indignant when I have listened to
   a learned thinker confusing the minds of the simple by words worth
   nothing at all!

   Yesterday I was in a certain place, needing refreshment. It was pressed
   upon me to purchase something which was said to be very good to eat.
   And as far as I could make out, when I partook of it, it was nothing
   beaten up and blown out to a great size and a little sugar powdered
   over it! And it reminded me of the sermons that I have read in which
   there was nothing whatever--only blown out extensively, developed into
   a great size and a little sugar of rhetoric put to it! Hungry souls
   cannot feed on wind! They will not have it. They very soon go away. Of
   course the fine fashionable people--the empty professors who look for
   words, only, say, "Oh, you must not be uncharitable. We cannot expect
   doctrine in every sermon," and so on. Thus like the wild asses they
   sniff up the wind and are satisfied! But not so the people of God--they
   feel that time is too short and eternity too long--and Hell too
   terrible, and Heaven too precious--to have their Sundays frittered away
   by pretty little essays which have as much connection with
   Mohammedanism as with the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! There are
   plenty of such preachers around--and an abundance of gentlemen who will
   pat them on the back and say, "These are highly intellectual brothers
   and are fit to occupy large spheres."

   Our business is to preach Jesus Christ--and if we cannot preach Him,
   let us take to tailoring, or plowing, or cobbling, or some other honest
   way of earning one's livelihood! To preach anything else but Christ
   crucified is to betray our Lord and Master! And most assuredly to bring
   upon ourselves confusion and condemnation in the Last Great Day of
   account! Dear Brothers, may we have given to us the spirit of
   discrimination that we may know the precious from the vile, for if we
   do so as preachers we shall be as God's mouth! And may we as hearers
   have the same discrimination, that we may always be able to receive
   that which is of God, and to reject at once with solemn determination
   that which is according to the spirit of the world and not after Jesus
   Christ!

   VI. I pass on from that form of knowledge to another, which is
   this--knowledge in this Epistle is frequently meant ASSURANCE in
   opposition to anxiety. That is the frequent use of the term, here, as
   in the Second Chapter, the third to the eighth verses--"Hereby we do
   know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He that says, I know
   Him, and keeps not His commandments is a liar, and the Truth is not in
   him. But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God
   perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him." Then in the 14th verse
   of the Third Chapter--"We know that we have passed from death unto life
   because we love the brethren." In the 24th verse--"Hereby we knowthat
   He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us." Far too seldom
   do Christians reach this point. They should do so and they should come
   up the ladder by the steps I have described, but many seem to think
   that it is almost necessary for them to always say most timorously, "I
   hope I am in Christ. I trust I am saved." They dare not say, "I know
   that I am in Him, and that His Spirit is in me."

   Now, if they have never reached this rung of the ladder, God forbid we
   should condemn them, for some of God's children remain trembling and
   doubting for many a day, yet they should not be content to be there. It
   ought to be the desire and aim of every one of us to know whether we
   are saved or not, because it is not a question that we can afford to
   leave in doubt. Any person here who has invested his money in any
   commercial enterprise, who should have it hinted to him this evening
   when he reaches home, that it is an unsound concern, would not be at
   all likely to be quiet until he had discovered whether it was so or
   not. And, therefore, our soul's eternal interests, which are far more
   important, cannot be allowed to remain in suspense. As soon as ever the
   question is raised, a sensible man will be unsatisfied till it is
   settled! "Can it be settled?" someone asks. "Can it be?" Oh, Brothers
   and Sisters, believe me--many of us do know our calling and election!
   Why? Because God has given us Infallible tokens. He says, "Whoever
   believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life." We do believe
   in Him! We trust Him with all our hearts and God has said that we are
   saved and have everlasting life! Shall we doubt God? Then "we know that
   we have passed from death unto life because we love the breth-

   ren." If we feel a hearty love to God's people, Inspiration tells us
   that we have passed from death unto life! Shall we doubt it? No, we
   will believe it!

   "Well," says one, "that seems to me to be presumption." Do you think
   so? Suppose you promise your children tonight that you will take them
   out tomorrow morning and one of them says to you, "Well, Father, I hope
   you will." There is no joy in his countenance--why? Because he says he
   does not think you will. He is afraid it would be presumption to
   believe you! Do you not think it is presumption in him to doubt you?
   Look at that other little one. You say, "Jane, I shall take you out
   tomorrow." She claps her hands with delight! The thoughts of doubting
   you never enters her little head. Is she presumptuous? What?
   Presumptuous to believe her father? Surely it never can be presumption
   to believe God! To disbelieve God and to think highly of yourself--that
   is presumption! But to trust God and to believe His Word--is there any
   presumption in that? "Ah," says one, "but if I knew for certain that I
   was saved, I am afraid that I would grow careless." Why? Full assurance
   is the very thing that makes men watchful! They feel it such a great
   joy to be loved of God that they are afraid of doing anything to grieve
   Him! The man who does not know whether he has any money or not is not
   likely to be very watchful over the box which may, perhaps, contain
   something, or may not. But if he knows that he has a treasure there, he
   will take good care that nobody shall rob him of it! Brothers and
   Sisters, if we were slaves under the spirit of bondage and had to be
   whipped to do what was right by the fear of being sent to Hell, that
   would be one thing--but the children of God are not slaves--they are
   sons and daughters and because God's everlasting love to His own dear
   children can never turn into hate, do they, therefore, disobey their
   heavenly Father? God forbid! Assurance is the mainspring of holiness in
   a Christian!

   VII. The last work is this. There is another knowledge, namely, the
   knowledge ofUNSTAGGERING FAITH which knows a thing which is not AS YET.
   You have an instance in the second verse of the Third Chapter.
   "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it does not yet appear what
   we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like He,
   for we shall see Him as He is." Why, O great Apostle, did you not say,
   "We hope that when He shall appear"? No, no! He did not hope it at
   all--he knew it! He was sure of it. But do we not generally say, "We
   trust that when Christ shall appear it will be so?" So far true, but
   oh, it is better when faith reckons the things that are not as though
   they were. A man will take a thousand pound check from his neighbor and
   say, "I have the money." "My dear Sir, you have not! You have only a
   piece of paper." "Ah," he says, "but it has a good name to it. It is as
   good as gold." Surely the promise of a God that cannot lie is as good
   as the check!

   I bless God that for some little time instead of worrying myself about
   a thousand things which concern this Church, and the College, and the
   Orphanage, and the Colportage--whenever I have any sort of trouble, it
   has been my sweet privilege to breathe a prayer to God and leave all my
   anxieties at His feet. I do the best I can to keep things right and
   then I leave them with the Lord. If the works are not His work, then
   let them go to pieces! If they are, then He will attend to them. I am
   an instrument in His hands and as such I do the little I can, and leave
   the rest to Him. It is wonderful how smoothly things go when we trust
   them with the Lord! Your fidgeting and worrying do all the mischief!
   Something gets between the wheels and they will not work--and I will
   tell you what that something is--it is your own finger--and when you
   feel such a squeeze that you cannot bear it, it is a lesson to you.
   Take your finger out and let it alone. The best way to do with a great
   trouble is to pray to God about it and then put it on the shelf and
   never take it down again.

   You have come here on a week-night, some of you, with a heavy burden.
   All the time the preaching is going on, and the praying, and singing
   you have lost your load, or have not felt it. But just as you get
   outside, you say, "I have left my burden inside! Let me go and take it
   up again!" And you feel it on your mind as heavily as ever! Beloved,
   this is not the way to trust God. The way to trust Him is to cast your
   care on Him altogether. "All things work together for good to them that
   love God." Be sure that when you pass through the rivers they shall not
   overflow you, and through the fires, they shall not burn you. Be sure
   that as your days so shall your strength be. Be sure that God will
   bring you through, for He will deliver His people out of all troubles
   and give them a sure admittance into His eternal Kingdom and Glory. We
   should speak with certainty of troubles and trials--and deliverance
   from them--and of all the future we should say, as our text has it, "We
   know, and we know, and we know." That is how Paul spoke. "We know that
   all things work together for good." He did not say he thought it and he
   hoped it, but, "we know." "Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
   the evidence of things not seen," and by its assuring power "we know,
   and we know, and we know."

   Now, dear Hearer, if you are unconverted, what do you know? If you know
   not the Lord, what do you know? Nothing that is of any use to you
   spiritually, by any true knowledge. Oh that God might make you know
   this--that you are lost by nature and, unless forgiven, you will be
   lost forever and ever! And when you know that, I pray the Lord, by His
   Spirit, to make you know that there is a Savior--and that He is able to
   save unto the uttermost! And then may He make you know in the fullest
   sense that He loved you and gave Himself for you! So may you know Him
   and be found in Him when He comes in the clouds of Heaven. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Unfailing Help

   (No. 3162)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
   20, 1873.

   "And the King said, If the Lord does not help you, where can I find
   help for you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?" 2 Kings
   6:27.

   I READ in your hearing the very horrible incident connected with the
   siege of Samaria. I do not wonder that when the poor woman applied to
   the king he should have been horrified. He felt that her case, and the
   case of all about him was a desperate one, so he said, "If Jehovah does
   not interpose, what can I do?" The winepress is dry and the threshing
   floor is empty--there is nothing left to alleviate the horrors of
   famine. "If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you?"

   I. Now the CASE OF EVERY UNSAVED MAN IS A VERY TERRIBLE ONE. He is not
   in dread of immediate death by famine, but if he is at all awakened to
   know his true condition, he will labor under a fear of something worse
   than death, and worse than the need of bread. There is many a sinner
   that I have met with (and I know the feeling myself) who would be glad
   if death could end it and if that were all. But "there is the dread of
   something after death"--that wrath to come of which the Word of God
   speaks in such solemn tones--that fire that never shall be quenched,
   that worm that dies not--it is that which haunts the sinner's
   conscience when he is once awakened to know his condition! And horrible
   as the story was in Samaria, it is not worse than the horrible fate
   that awaits every man who lives and dies unsaved!

   Now it is no wonder at all, that when a man is awakened to see his
   great danger, standing as he does upon the edge of a precipice with a
   frightful gulf beneath him, he begins to appeal to anybody and
   everybody and to cry for help. So, tonight, I am going to begin by
   saying that in the case of the sinner, it is vain to look to man, for
   every honest man will have to say to such an one, "If the Lord does not
   help you, how can I help you?" You feel that you are in dreadful danger
   and you want to be saved--I beseech you, do not look to any of us, or
   to any of your fellow creatures for help, for we are quite powerless in
   the matter! God must save you! He must give you Christ or else you must
   die. We have no power to forgive your sins. There are some pretenders
   who surely ought to feel themselves out of place in this age, like owls
   in daylight, who still profess that they can pardon sin. It is a
   strange country, this. If a poor woman in a red cloak passes a farm and
   for sixpence tells a servant girl her fortune, she is put in prison.
   And I will not say but what she deserves it--yet a gentleman may stand
   up before his thousands and pretend to turn bread and wine into the
   flesh and blood of God, and to have power to pardon sin, and I have
   never heard of any punishment for so gross an imposition! It is
   infinitely more gross than anything the poor ignorant witch has ever
   practiced! It is not in us to pardon sin. If you had offended us, we
   might pardon your offenses against ourselves, but offenses against God
   must be forgiven by God, Himself.

   "Does not the power which rested in the Apostles to forgive sin still
   rest in the Church?" I think it does, but no Apostle ever had the power
   to pardon an impenitent soul! No Apostle ever had the power to pardon
   one who did not believe in Jesus. All that an Apostle could do was to
   say that he was pardoned when he saw that he believed and repented--and
   that same power belongs to us to this day--to declare, in God's name,
   that HE THAT BELIEVES IN HIM IS NOT CONDEMNED and that he that
   confesses his sin to God and forsakes it, shall find mercy--but with
   this exception (and it is no exception, at all) all power in the matter
   of pardoning sin rests with the eternal God and with Him, alone. It is
   certainly not in the power of any man to renew your nature! You cannot
   enter Heaven except you are born-again. Unconverted man, you must be
   made a new creature in Christ Jesus, but there is no man under Heaven
   that can create in you a new heart or a right spirit! Let a man first
   create as much as a fly and send it winging its way in the sum-

   mer's air and then let him talk about regenerating a soul. It is a
   stupendous work--a work to which only the Deity is equal! God alone
   creates or re-creates the soul of man! You look in vain, then, to
   any--even though they call themselves priests or bishops or Doctors of
   Divinity! Your fellow men cannot help you in the matter! You must be
   born-again from above, and the Spirit of God must do it, or your case
   is hopeless.

   But it is said, "Can we not pray for sinners?" Yes, blessed be God, we
   can, and THE PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN AVAILS MUCH. During this week I
   have had very many requests for prayers, and some of them from some of
   you now present. Such prayers as mine, indeed have gone up to Heaven
   for you, that you might find peace. But I charge you before God, put no
   superstitious confidence in myprayers or in the prayers of anybody!
   What could your mother's prayers do for you? Nothing at all unless you
   pray for yourself. If the Apostle Paul were here and pleading to God,
   what would be the use of his prayers? Just nothing unless the Lord
   moved you to make a personal confession of your sin and to believe
   personally in Jesus and personally to pray to Him! Now there is a great
   value in prayer. I value the prayer of a little child. The poorest
   Christian has power with God in supplication. We do not undervalue
   that, but still, if the Lord does not help you in answer to those
   prayers and if it does not become a personalmatter with yourself so
   that you pray, you will be guilty of a superstitious reliance upon the
   prayers of others--having made a god of them--and God will be grieved
   with you for having done so. No prayers of all the saints on earth
   could save a single soul unless that soul fled for refuge to the hope
   set before it in the Gospel in the Person of Jesus Christ.

   But perhaps there may be some persons here who will say, "Cannot you
   help me by giving me the ordinances of the Christian religion? Will not
   they help me?" Ah, Beloved Friends, if you are continually here in this
   place, I am sure you are not under that delusion! There is no ordinance
   in the Christian religion that belongs to unconverted people. Can you
   not be baptized? you ask. No, you have nothing to do with Baptism until
   you are a Believer in Jesus Christ! Perhaps there is no Popish error
   which has done more mischief to the Christian Church than that of
   giving baptism to unconverted persons--to persons who have no faith in
   Jesus--under the notion that it does something, for if it does
   nothingat all of any good! Why is it given? And to the extent to which
   it is believed that there can be any efficacy in it--to that extent it
   is mere Popery and Sacramentarianism and ought to be abandoned by the
   true Believer in Jesus Christ! I believe we should increase sin by that
   view, but certainly not wash it away, for you would have been guilty of
   having dared to take to yourself an ordinance which belongs to none
   except to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all their
   heart. "But may we not come to the Communion Table?" No, NO, NO! And if
   we dared to permit you--if we said, "Unconverted man, you may come to
   the Table," we would certainly be doing you no service whatever. On the
   contrary, we would be doing certain injury. Remember that dreadful
   text--"He that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to
   himself--"condemnation" it ought to be, for that is the real word
   there! The other is too forcible and I do but give the correct
   rendering. But I would not ask you to come and eat and drink
   condemnation to yourself, "Not discerning the Lord's body." Why I know
   unconverted people who seldom go to a place of worship all the year
   round and yet will go and take what they call, "the Sacrament," on Good
   Friday--choosing that day which they receive as the memorial of
   Christ's death in which especially to insult the Savior, for He never
   asked them to come to His Table living in sin, living in constant
   neglect of all religion and then to do Him this piece of
   impertinence--to go and intrude themselves into that sacred feast to
   which they are not bidden and to which they have no right to come!

   Oh, believe me, if you rely on Baptism and the Lord's Supper, you might
   as well rely upon the incantations of a witch or upon the spell of a
   Hottentot! There is nothing in a sacrament that can, in itself, save a
   soul! When you are saved, then these outward emblems remind you of
   Truths of God and help your memory and stir your minds. But until you
   are saved, to partake is profane! You must not touch these things! They
   are for the children, not for you--for those who are saved and not for
   you who are unreconciled to God! We may say, therefore, when you talk
   to us about coming to what are called sacraments--"We cannot help you.
   If the Lord does not help you, we cannot help you there."

   But there are some who will say, "But may we not join the Church of
   God?" I hope none of you, my brethren, are under the idea that if you
   are unconverted and join a church, that will help you. Oh, how I have
   wasted my labor here if I have led any of you to believe that! I charge
   you, if you are not a friend of Christ, not to come among his friends
   or declare yourself to be one by a lying profession! It is "a
   superfluity of naughtiness," for there can be NO EXCUSE FOR A

   MAN TO BE SERVING THE DEVIL AND THEN TO MAKE PRETENCE OF BEING A
   SERVANT OF CHRIST. A

   man may be damned fast enough without being a hypocrite! What need of
   that? Join yourselves to God's people when you have joined yourselves
   to Christ--but not till then.

   I fear there are some of you that make a profession and ought not to
   have done so. We labor with all our might to keep the Church pure, but
   what can we do? There was a Judas among the Master's twelve and we have
   Judases here and some whose lives are inconsistent--and glaringly
   inconsistent, I do not doubt--and yet they profess to be the people of
   God! O, dead professors, I would warn you! I desire to speak most
   solemnly and earnestly to you. Of all those who perish, it must go
   hardest with those of you who had a name to live and were dead, who
   said you were the servants of Christ while you were the enemies of the
   Cross of Christ! Be what you profess to be, or else give up your
   profession. Don't cry unto the Lord and insult His gracious name by
   making professions which you afterwards, by your life, deny. No, we
   cannot help you by receiving you into the Church. There is nothing we
   can do for you. And I venture to say this, unconverted man or woman--if
   we were, all of us who love the Savior, concerned about your soul--if
   we were to summon all the saints on earth to one general conclave and
   they were all at once to pray for you, (and God knows your soul is
   worth all that, for if all the Church labored but for one soul, it
   would be well repaid by winning that one soul), yet if the Lord does
   not help you, all His people cannot! It is not in the angels in Heaven,
   nor the white-robed hosts above, nor the saints below to do anything
   for a soul unless God, Himself, shall interpose to blot out that
   sinner's sin, to renew that sinner's nature and to lead the sinner
   personally to pray for himself! There is the case then.

   II. That leads me, secondly, to call every unconverted person's
   attention to the fact that he lies in the hands of God. "If the Lord
   does not help you, where can I find help for you?" You lie in the hands
   of God. Let us take you by the hand, now, and speak to you earnestly,
   my brother, my sister, whose conversion I anxiously desire, but whose
   conversion I cannot work, for God alone must do it.

   I remind you that you are in the hands of One whom you have offended.
   You have grieved God. From your youth up, perhaps, you have been
   indifferent to Him. You have used His name, perhaps, to curse with. His
   day has been the one above all others which you have chosen for the
   pleasures of the world. You have offended God and He is angry. This is
   not my word--it is written here--"He is angry with the wicked every
   day. If he turns not, He will whet His sword. He has bent His bow and
   made it ready." You are in the hands of the God whom you have offended!
   Just as a moth is beneath your finger and you can crush it or not, as
   you will, so are you absolutely in the hands of God--and in the next
   moment He can send you to Hell--and who would be able to say to Him,
   "What are You doing?" Or who would say that He was unjust?

   Remember next, that you have no claims whatever upon this God. He made
   you and as a creature, you might claim that He should treat you justly.
   I would not advise you to urge that claim, however, for JUSTICE IN YOUR
   CASE WILL MEAN DESTRUCTION. There is nothing due from God to you except
   anger. You deserve nothing at His hands. You are altogether in His
   hands, then--in the hands of an angry God and in the hands of One on
   whom you have no claim.

   And I should like you to feel the next thing I am going to say. Oh, if
   you were to feel it, it were enough to make you

   spring from your seat! THAT GOD IS LOOKING AT YOU NOW AND IS NEAR YOU
   NOW. Your elbow touches the

   next person in your seat, but that person is not so near to you as God
   is! In Him you live and move and have your being. It is not a case of
   God's coming to be with you. He is here--reading that thought that
   flitted through your mind just now and knowing the thoughts that you
   have before they are your own--thinking of you as if you were the only
   being in the world and He gave all His attention to you. Well now, such
   is the Omniscience of God, that He sees you as though you were His only
   creature and He had nothing else to do but to note your follies and
   faults. But, oh, while I thus speak, let me remind every man who thus
   feels that he is in the hands of God--you could not be in better
   hands--for God is very merciful and full of compassion! It will be no
   delight to Him to crush you. Sinner, it will give your God no joy to
   curse you! "As I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death
   of him that dies, but had rather that he turn unto Me and live." That
   is God's heart speaking out to you! You are in His hands and those are
   the hands of mercy.

   And let me remind you that He can save you though no man can. At this
   very moment HE CAN FORGIVE YOUR SINS and supply to you the new nature
   which you need--and everything that can make that new nature perfect
   and fit to dwell in Heaven! You have not gone too far in sin for His
   power. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. "All manner of sin and of
   blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." "Though your sins are as scarlet
   they shall be as wool." "Though they are red like crimson they shall be
   as snow." And everything is provided in order to this. Since God could
   not be unjust, it was necessary, if He pardoned sin in your case, that
   He should somehow or other vindicate His Law--and He has done so by
   giving His own Son to bleed and die on the Cross of Calvary! Jesus
   Christ has made it right with the Law of God! The Justice of God is
   magnified and the Mercy of God is now unfettered! And God can deal with
   sinners and blot out their sins like a cloud and their transgressions
   like a thick cloud.

   Let me call your minds back to Samaria. There was a poor woman whom the
   king could not help, but God could help her, for the very next morning
   after she met the king, there was such plenty in Samaria that they were
   selling fine flour dirt-cheap! It seemed as if God had literally pulled
   up the windows of Heaven and rained down plenty for them to eat, there
   was such plenty there! And so, poor starving dying Sinner, it is in
   God's power in a moment to fill you with the bread of Heaven, to give
   you such abundance of mercies, such a store of Grace and love, that you
   shall feel as if the windows of Heaven were opened on your account!
   Yes, God will give you what He never gave the people of Samaria--give
   you His own Son to be your soul's continuing, everlasting bread--and
   you shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness! GOD CAN DO IT. You
   are in His hands I say. He can leave you to perish, but, on the other
   hand, He is a gracious God and He has given His Son to die for you--and
   He is able to save!

   Now I think if God the Spirit is blessing the Word this moment, some of
   you are saying, "Then I will ask Him to have mercy upon me." Do so,
   dear Friend--do so! "I will wait till I get home." No, don't! Breathe
   the prayer now. Let it drop as a liquid prayer, if it will, from your
   eyes into the pew. God has a bottle for such tears. Ask Him now. Say,
   "Lord I am in Your hands. I know I cannot save myself. My fellow men
   cannot save me, but You can. I hear You have given Your dear Son to
   bleed for helpless, lost and ruined sinners. O, God, have pity upon me!
   If You do, I will bless You for it as long as I live! It is a poor
   thing to say, but yet it is all I can do. I do not deserve it, Lord. If
   You cast me forever from Your Presence, You will be just when You judge
   and just when You condemn. But save me, Lord, for Your sweet mercy and
   let me live and not die!" O, Souls, you shall not cry in vain! From the
   ends of the earth shall such a prayer be heard! You shall yet say like
   Jonah, "Out of the belly of Hell cried I and You heard me." God grant
   you Grace so to cry!

   III. Now my last point will help more fully to open up the way of
   salvation. There is one thing--this is the last point--there is only
   one thing which will prove fatal to all hope of God's saving you. There
   was one man in the city of Samaria that was not the better for flour
   being sold at so cheap a price. That poor woman who had complained to
   the king went and got her share of the meal. The poorest beggars in the
   darkest lanes of Samaria went swarming out and satisfied their hunger.
   And even lepers whom men would not touch--defiled and filthy--went into
   the tents and feasted to the full! There was only one man in all the
   city to whom that day, instead of being a blessing and a festival,
   became a funeral--one man--and that one man's story we read just now.
   He was a lord, so that it is not always the poor who are lost. I am
   afraid that there is a larger proportion of the lords lost than any
   other class. He was a lord. But it was not his being a lord that
   destroyed him--it was his being an unbelieving lord. He mocked the
   promise. He said it could not be. He jeered, jested, insulted--"If
   Jehovah should open windows in Heaven, might such a thing be?" But no
   one else. I do not find that anybody else was permitted to die or
   starve that day except that unbelieving man--and he was trampled to
   death in the gates of the city.

   Now I come here tonight to say, Beloved, guilty as we are and deserving
   God's wrath, yet the MERCY OF GOD IS

   EVER MORE ABUNDANT THAN THE MEAL WAS IN SAMARIA'S GATE. Every soul here
   that believes in Jesus

   shall have a share in it and the only man who shall not have a share in
   it is the man who will not believe, for, "He that believes not shall be
   damned." If you believe not, you shall not be established. To believe
   means to trust in Jesus. And none shall perish but those who refuse to
   trust Him. As many as shall rely on the Lord Jesus shall have their
   needs supplied even to the fullest.

   Now remember, I pray you, and very solemnly lay it to heart, that this
   man who died saw the provisions of mercy with his eyes and yet never
   tasted of them. Oh, I cannot bear to contemplate it--that I should have
   some here who have heard for many and many a Sabbath all about the
   Savior and His wounds and griefs and death for sinners--and should
   never have a share in the atoning Sacrifice! That they should hear
   about the Spirit of God and His regenerating and quickening influences
   and should never, themselves, be born-again--should hear about the
   pardon of sin and yet die un-forgiven--should hear about the justifying
   righteousness of Christ which is the most glorious of robes and should
   perish in their nakedness of their sins! It is a dreadful case to
   starve with bread within sight. The punishment of Tantalus was

   well conceived by the old heathen poets when they wanted to describe an
   unbearable torture. The water came up to his lips, but when he tried to
   drink, it receded. The bread was close against his mouth and fruit hung
   from boughs above his head, but the moment he lifted his hand to grasp
   it, the windswept the boughs away and he remained in perpetual hunger
   and thirst!

   Oh, it will be a shocking thing for us to live in that state! "You
   shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat thereof." You shall hear
   of Jesus but not have Him because you would not believe! You shall
   die--a Savior's name being whispered in your dying ears and yet no
   comfort shall come to your conscience in that Savior because you
   rejected Him. You shall wake up in another world and see Him on His
   Throne, but only to be condemned by Him! You shall look up from the
   bottomless pit and see the saints--only see them--but not partake of
   their bliss! God grant this may not be a prophetic declaration of what
   your future doom will be. May you not be unbelieving! Remember this
   man--he kept the gate and they rushed out, poor hungry starving souls,
   to get bread. They poured out like a mighty torrent so they could get
   food to eat, but there he stood, meager and gaunt, until he was
   trampled down and died! And to live in a revival, unmoved, seems to me
   to be the climax of misery--to hear, one after another, that people
   have come to Jesus and not to have come yourself! As I look round upon
   these seats, I bless God and thank Him that so many of you are putting
   your trust in Jesus for salvation. Yet if I kept on putting my finger
   along, I would have to stop here and there and say, "Ah, there is one
   that has not believed!" And there has been a rush to Christ in this
   Church--a mighty rush to Christ of poor sinners--yet some have not
   come! Truly, they might well say--

   "Lord, I hear of showers of blessing

   You are scattering full and free,

   Showers the thirsty land refreshing.

   Let some droppings fall on me!" "Even me." I hope they will pray that
   prayer tonight--"Even me." It would be a sad thing to see others saved
   while they are lost!

   One thing more and that is--remember that this man kept the gate. He
   was nearest to the outside of the city, but it was an unfortunate honor
   that the king should appoint him to keep the gate. I am always thankful
   when pew-openers are converted, and people who have to do with the
   management of a congregation. I am sure if they are not before they
   take office, they will not be afterwards. They have so much to do with
   thinking about other people and where to put them, that they cannot so
   well enjoy the service--and if they have not got a grip of the Gospel
   before they undertake such an office--I am often afraid they never
   will! And yet, surely, to be employed about the House of God, to be
   always there and to be helpful--to keep the gate and not get food
   ourselves seems a dreadful thing! I daresay you have often thought of
   what became of Noah's carpenters. They helped Noah to build the ark. He
   paid them wages, I do not doubt, and they built it--stout and trim
   vessel as it was. Very likely some of them, when the rains descended
   and the floods came, as they were sinking in the waters, could say, "I
   helped to build that ark, yet I am lost. I helped to caulk her and to
   tar her. I helped, when the beasts were coming in, to take fodder into
   the ark--and now I am lost." You subscribed to the building of a House
   of Prayer and never pray? You help to support the ministry, yet have no
   share in the good Truth of God? Oh, you will die--I am sure some of you
   will die with this upon your hearts--that you were made helpful
   outwardly, but inasmuch as you have never given your souls to Jesus and
   been led to trust in Him, you will perish as Noah's workmen did, having
   no part nor lot in this matter!

   Oh, when I see you all gathered together here, Sunday night after
   Sunday night, I call myself to account and ask,

   HOW LONG, HOW LONG WILL THESE PEOPLE REMAIN WITHOUT CHRIST, without
   God, without hope? Is

   there any part of the Gospel I leave out? Is there any flaw in my
   ministry that prevents their coming to Christ? Do I consult my own
   repute and try to make my words fine and polished? Now I think I can
   say before the Lord--if I knew any other style of preaching likely to
   bless you--whether it were the most refined, if I could reach it--I
   would try it! And if it were the most vulgar, I would not be ashamed of
   it though all the old reproach and rebuke should come upon me again--if
   I might but win your souls! Why will you die!? Young man yonder, why
   are you doing that in London which you would not have dared to do at
   home? Young woman yonder, why are you shaking off all serious thought
   and casting the reins on the neck of folly to run after destruction?
   Gray-headed man yonder, if you have not made peace with God, how can
   you delay? You have not many days to live, yet you are lost!

   Oh, all of you, what shall it profit you if you gain the world and lose
   your soul The sun has gone down--let it not rise again until you have
   sought the Savior! This is all you have to do--to confess your fault
   into the great Father's bosom and say, "I have sinned against Heaven
   and before You." And then to stand and look to Jesus bleeding and dying
   AND TRUST HIM WITH YOUR SOULS. God help you to do this for Jesus' sake.
   Amen and Amen!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 KINGS 6:1-23.

   Verse 1. And the sons of the Prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the
   place where we dwell with you is too small for us. It seems to have
   been a habit of the Prophets to gather about them companies of young
   men whom they instructed in the Holy Scripture and in the truths of
   Revelation. Many of these young men became Prophets and were the
   instructors of the people. Elisha, then, was the President of a College
   for young men who were being trained for the sacred ministry of God.
   They had grown so numerous that they were cramped in their lodging and
   they said, "The place is too small for us. Let us go, we pray you, unto
   Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a fit
   place there, where we may dwell." They were ready to work to build
   their own lodging. They do not appear to have gone into debt for it,
   and to have saddled themselves and the institution for many years
   afterwards, but they put their own shoulders to the wheel as good men
   should do when there is any work to be done for the cause of God!

   2, 3. Let usgo, weprayyou, unto Jordan, and take there, everyman a
   beam, andlet us make us aplace there, where we may dwell. And He
   answered, Go. And one said, Be content, Ipray you, and go with your
   servants. And he answered, I will gc. His presence would be an
   encouragement to them. His holy conversation would make their work more
   pleasant. They would also feel as if they were more truly working for
   God when they had the presence and the patronage of God's servant. He,
   on the other hand, was quite ready to go. God's ministers, if they are
   what they should be, are quite ready to help in any kind of work. We
   find Paul the Apostle picking up sticks to make a fire and we find
   Elisha going with his dear friends to the forest when they would cut
   down timber to make a house. We sometimes regret that spiritual work
   should so often have to come into contact with commonplace things and
   yet, so it is. Young Prophets must have a house and when we gather a
   congregation we must build them a meeting house. In this country we
   cannot meet every day in the open air, and we often regret this, yet I
   believe it is meant by God to be a discipline for His Church. If the
   Church cannot come into contact with common life without its
   spirituality being endangered, so much the worse for its spirituality.
   It must be flimsy stuff if it cannot bear the wear and tear of common
   life.

   4, 5. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down
   wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water:
   and he cried, and said, Alas, Master, for it was borrowed These young
   men were too poor to buy tools of their own and they, therefore, asked
   for a kindly loan of an axe-head that they might use it in the Lord's
   service. It was very natural, therefore, that this young man should
   regret that the axe which he had borrowed should fall off into the
   water. This made him say--"Alas!" Be very careful about loans. Be sure
   to repay them in due time and be very particular that nothing happens
   so that you cannot. He said, "Alas, Master, for it was borrowed!"

   6. And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the
   place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in there; and the iron did
   float God can do all things! He can make iron float--we cannot--and yet
   you see the Prophet did it and he did it by the use of a stick. He cut
   down a stick. Was there any connection between the stick and the iron?
   I can't see any and yet God does use means, and He would have us use
   means. "He cut down a stick and cast it in there, and the iron did
   float." If you're in great trouble tonight, have confidence in that God
   who can make the iron float! If you have some worry and you do not know
   how to meet it--some work and you do not know how to do it--look to Him
   who made the iron float and He can do the same for you. Trust Him, rest
   upon Him and see if He does not do it!

   7, 8. Therefore said he, Pick it up for yourself And he put out his
   hand and took it Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took
   counsel with his servants, saying, In such-and-such a place shall be my
   camp. Of course, he wanted to keep it secret and pounce upon Israel
   here and there without notice and so win an easy victory.

   9-11. And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware
   that you pass not such a place for there the Syrians are come down. And
   the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and
   warned him of and

   saved himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the
   king of Syria was sorely troubled by this thing. He could not
   understand how all his well-laid plans were baffled.

   11-12. And he called his servants and said unto them, Will you not show
   me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said,
   "None, my lord, O King. There is no traitor here. But Elisha, the
   Prophet that is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you
   speak in your bedchamber. For the Lord knows what we say in the
   bedchamber when no ears can hear! If we speak to ourselves, He hears
   it, and if we whisper in all quietness into the ear of one who will
   never repeat, it is written in the book of the Divine Record. "Elisha,
   the Prophet that is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that
   you speak in your bedchamber."

   13. Andhe said, Go andspy where he is, that I may send and fetch him.
   Not a very wise project, for if Elisha knew all about the words of the
   king, it was not very likely that he would catch him!

   13-15. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Do than. Therefore
   sent he there horses, chariots and a great host and they came by night,
   and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God
   was risen early, and gone forth, beheld, an host compassed the city
   both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my
   Master! What shall we do?That is a question we have often asked, "What
   shall we do?" We shall do nothing at all! What shall we do? If that
   were the question, we might sit down in despair! The proper question
   is, "What will God do? How will God deliver us?" But it is only the man
   of faith who thinks about God at all. How many there are of you who are
   in trouble and you are wondering how you shall get out of it. Poor
   things! Poor things! Oh, if we had but faith to look to that Omnipotent
   arm that is moving among us--and to that great and wise heart that is
   thinking of us--and then trust our case with Him!

   16, 17. And He answered, Fear not: for they that are with us are more
   than they that are with them. And Elisha prayed, andsaid, LORD, Ipray
   You, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of
   the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses
   and chariots of fire round about Elisha. More of the horses of fire
   than there were horses of flesh--more of the chariots of flame than
   there were chariots of iron!

   18, 19. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD and
   said, Smite this people, Ipray You, with blindness. And He smote them
   with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto
   them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I
   will bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. In
   all which--though I grant you it seems a stratagem--Elisha spoke
   neither more nor less than the truth. Dothan was not his city. Samaria
   was the city where the man of God dwelt. He was then outside Dothan and
   he said, I will bring you to the man whom you seek. He did lead them to
   him--took them to his own home, to the very place where he lived. I
   think I see him leading all these blind men--they had come to catch
   him--and he had caught them. And he led them to Samaria.

   20. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha
   said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD
   opened their eyes, and they saw and, behold, they were in the midst of
   Samaria. In the central square of the city. They opened their eyes and
   found themselves caught like rats in a trap. What cannot God do?

   21. And the king ofIsrael said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My
   Father, shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? His hand was on his
   sword. He would call his men to come forward with their lances. "My
   Father, shall I smite them?" See the fine spirit of the Prophet, the
   magnanimity of the man of God!

   22. And he answered, You shall not smite them: would you smite those
   whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow?For if
   you had conquered them in fair fight you would not think of killing
   them! I have captured them by God's power. I have taken them prisoners
   and they will not be put to death.

   22. Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and
   go to their mastei. This is the way of carrying on war, the best way in
   all the world--to conquer by Divine Grace, to conquer by kindness!

   23. And He prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten
   and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master.Now mark
   the consequences.

   23. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.No, they
   could not come any more to vex a people who had treated them so
   generously! And thus the man of God was master of the situation. His
   noble spirit was put to the front, and God was glorified!
     __________________________________________________________________

Cumbered With Much Serving

   (No. 3163)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1866.

   "Martha was cumbered about much serving." Luke 10:40.

   THE preacher will have one hearer tonight to whom his text will be
   amazingly applicable--himself! Here we have meeting after meeting and
   engagement after engagement. We are always working as hard as we can,
   but we have put on much extra canvas just now, serving much and not
   being exempt from Martha's sin of being cumberedwith much serving. I
   should not wonder but what there may be some others here besides the
   preacher who may have fallen into the same state of mind and, perhaps,
   just now while engaged more than ever in God's work, it may be well for
   us to pull ourselves up a little and look around us, and see what state
   we are in, lest, like Martha, we get more and more cumbered, till at
   last we speak as we ought not to speak and begin to upbraid others who
   are less wrong than ourselves!

   I. We will first say a little on this point--WHAT WAS IT THAT MARTHA
   WAS PROBABLY CUMBERED ABOUT?

   Her fault was not that she served. Oh, that is no fault! The condition
   of a servant should be the condition of every Christian. "I serve,"
   should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of God! It
   was not her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much.
   Let us do all that we possibly can--head, heart and hands--let every
   single power and passion of our nature be engaged in the Master's
   service! "Hereby shall you be My disciples, if you bring forth much
   fruit." It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for
   the Master. Happy Martha to have an opportunity of entertaining so
   blessed a Guest! And happy Martha, too, to have the spirit to throw her
   whole soul so heartily into the engagement. But her fault was that she
   grew "cumberedwith much serving," so that she forgot Him and only
   remembered the service! She overrode her union with Christ by her
   service of Christ--and herein was the mischief.

   I do not know what particular part of the service it was that cumbered
   her, but I do know that any part of it cumbers me, sometimes, and that
   as the minister of this Church, with our large college and with all
   sorts of work from morning till night, it is the easiest and most
   natural thing in the world to get "cumbered with much serving," and to
   get into such a state of head and heart that it is almost impossible to
   sit at the Savior's feet and at the same time to be serving Him as we
   ought to do. We ought to be Martha and Mary rolled into one. We should
   do much service and yet have much communion at the same time.

   Martha's fault, then, was that she grew cumbered. In thinking this
   matter over, I thought she might, perhaps, have been cumbered in this
   way. She was the housewife and there were a great many guests
   coming--more than she had expected--and she thought there was not
   enough in the house for them. "Surely," she said, "I have provided for
   only fifty, and here are a hundred! What shall I do? I did not ask that
   person over there to come, I am sure, but there is no getting rid of
   him. I wish I had laid in more store, I told Mary so. I told her there
   would be more, but she said, 'No, provide for only so many.' I do not
   believe there is enough." So she fretted over that--and any good
   housewife might be supposed to do the same. How often have you and I,
   who are serving God, fretted in the same way? We have said, "Oh, what
   can our poor little Church do? How can such a sum of money be raised?
   There is much more needed than we shall ever get!" The minister has
   come before his congregation and has felt--"One, two, three, four,
   five, yes, five loaves--and these only barley loaves--and a few fishes,
   and these but small. What are they among so many? I wish I had a
   narrower sphere of labor and had fewer people dependent upon my
   exertions!" This is how we have sometimes thought. Then at other
   seasons we have said--"How shall I keep on? I have so little strength.
   I have scarcely had power to do good up till now, how

   shall I be sustained to the end of the journey?" We begin calculating
   and fear there is not enough meat in the house. With a sincere desire
   that every child of God should be supplied and that not a single guest
   at the table should go unfed, we begin to be cumbered because we think
   there will not be enough!

   I do not know what it was that cumbered Martha, but I should not wonder
   if she got cumbered about the servants. She had said to one, "Now, you
   must prepare the dish and mind it is to be done in a certain way. And
   you, Mary, are to prepare the other dish, and you the other one." There
   is an old proverb which says, "The more servants, the more plagues." I
   do not think it is a true proverb, but some people have found it to be
   so. Perhaps Martha did. Perhaps there was one letting that roast burn,
   and another spoiling another roast--and so, turning round from one to
   another, Martha said, "It seems as if I ought to be everywhere. There
   is nothing done unless I am looking after all these people. They are
   sure to be getting into some mischief or other! I need a hundred hands
   to do everything myself, or else a hundred eyes to look after those who
   are doing it." How often Christian ministers, especially, and each
   Christian in his own position, gets into this same state. You think,
   "Surely I thought I could trust such-and-such a Believer with such a
   work, but how he blunders at it! I can never give it to him to do
   again!" Then you try another with a certain duty that is very important
   and that goes wrong. If you have a great machine to work, it is not
   often, but when there is some cog gets off, or some band that gets
   snapped, or some wheel that gets out of order--and when one has to look
   after all these things and to see not only to one's own personal work,
   but to the work of all these different people and to be sure that they
   are all kept in their proper place, it is no wonder that one sometimes
   feels--"Dear me! I cannot manage all these people!" And so one gets
   "cumbered with much serving."

   Moreover, very frequently you find that very sad and grave mistakes
   have been made in things which you thought nobody could make a mistake
   about. Perhaps you find out that you have been the author of the
   mistake, yourself, and then you are cumbered again. You say, "How can I
   set that right? How can I retrace that false step? By what possible
   means can I undo such-and-such a thing that has been done?" I suppose
   that if a captain in battle were to leave his position in the center of
   the camp and go flying about here and there, he would be pretty sure to
   lose the victory--and some of us do just that. We have not patience
   enough to sit still in the center and just to look to the work as a
   whole, and keep ourselves calm and quiet. We get cumbered over every
   little thing and about every trifle. We get cumbered, in fact, about
   the much serving. Now, there is a good motive at the bottom of all
   this--it is a desire to serve Christ well. It is a wish to do His
   service in the best, most useful, creditable and successful manner. But
   there is mischief in it, as we shall have to show, by-and-by. Oh, how
   my soul longs to have this Church a perfect Church! How I long to see
   everyone of you at work for Christ! How I desire myself, especially, to
   preach every time with fire, force and energy! And yet I go home to my
   bed, sometimes, and toss there because I cannot preach up to my own
   standard, imperfect as that is. And how I mourn sometimes over this or
   that Brother who does not seem to understand the dignity of his
   profession, nor live up to the holiness which becomes the anointed of
   God and the blood-washed in the fountain which Christ has filled. Oh,
   dear Friends, the being cumbered with much serving is so easy in my
   case, and I only instance myself because I know that a face answers to
   face in a glass, so the heart of man answers to man. I suppose you all,
   sometimes, get into this state--and in proportion as you are serving
   Christ will be your temptation to get cumbered with much serving!

   We have already said that you may be cumbered about a great many
   things. It is amazing how many things there are to cumber one even
   about an ordinary service. If you are responsible for the service, you
   are cumbered as to whether you have got the right text and as to
   whether you have selected the right hymns. You pray that God would
   bless the Word, and that is right enough, but you are cumbered about
   it. When the hymn is given out, you are cumbered, perhaps, as to
   whether it will be sung well, or whether the people will break down.
   Perhaps there is some discord and if you are anxious to have everything
   right, you get cumbered about that. Then you are cumbered, possibly,
   about where the people are to sit. Even such things as these will come
   across the mind and I should not wonder if my Brothers, the deacons and
   elders, get cumbered about them as well as the minister! They perhaps
   get to thinking--"Dear me, there is Mr. So-and-So over there. I am glad
   to see him here and I hope the Word will be blessed." Then you get
   wrong thoughts about such-and-such persons and wonder how they will
   like such-and-such expressions--and so on. And so, instead of enjoying
   the service and entering into the soul of it, you are thinking, "I hope
   it will all go well. I hope the preacher will not use some of those
   naughty sayings of his that shock the ladies. I hope he will not say
   any of his rough things tonight." And so you get cum-

   bered. Instead of enjoying the Word as it is preached, and receiving it
   as it is delivered, there is a anxiety about this and about that, and
   about 50 other things! And so we are cumbered with much serving.

   I have thus laid the stress upon the ministry, because that is the
   service of God in an especial manner. But you Sunday school teachers,
   if you are very anxious about your class--and remember, you ought not
   to be teachers if you are not anxious--you will, perhaps, get cumbered
   by the class by looking more to the outward items of your work than to
   the spirituality of it. You tract-distributors may be doing a great
   work, but you may get to be more careful about the externals of it than
   you are about the internals. You City Missionaries--for there are some
   such here--may also get to think more of the filling up of your journal
   and about paying a certain quantity of visits, than about living near
   to God and going in the strength of the Most High to your work. And if
   so, you will fall into the blunder of poor Martha. With all your zeal
   for Christ, you will disqualify yourself for any great usefulness and,
   instead of getting a word of comfort and commendation, you will only
   get a rebuke from the Lord who will warn you that Mary chose the good
   part, while Martha, in some degree, despised it! I hope you will not
   misunderstand me--I would not have you do less than you now do. No, the
   more the better! I would not for a moment dissuade you from the utmost
   possible efforts which your zeal can suggest. Far be it for me to say,
   "Slacken yourselves in your sowing, or stop yourselves in your
   plowing." No, go to the end of the field and back again--and have no
   rest until the day's work is over! On, on, on, as the racehorse to the
   finish line, as the arrow to the target! On, as the world speeds on
   evermore in its own predestinated orbit! On, for God calls you to work
   while it is called today! On, for souls are perishing! On, for He is
   worthy for whom you would do this and Christ deserves your utmost labor
   at the utmost power of your whole spirit. But oh, take care that these
   labors do not take the place of Christ! Take care that you do not
   forget the Master in thinking about the dinner that you are going to
   put on the table for Him. Remember that He is still to be first in your
   thoughts--first in the morning and last at night--and that after all,
   while it is good to serve, it must always be attended by sitting at the
   Savior's feet, or else you will not get a reward, but a rebuke.

   II. Anyone here can work out that thought if he understands anything of
   the spiritual life and, therefore, I will now

   notice, in the second place, WHAT MARTHA LOST WHILE SHE WAS THUS
   CUMBERED ABOUT WITH MUCH SERVING.

   She was losing what she could not get at any other time. Jesus Christ
   was not always at their house. She could at any time prepare a feast,
   but she could not, at all times hear His voice. His visits are not such
   everyday things with Believers that they can afford to lose them.
   Beloved, when we come to God's House and especially when we come to
   Christ's Table, I think we ought to say to ourselves, "Now, at any
   rate, I will bid my Martha-cares begone. I can attend to them when I
   have done. There is plenty of time, besides, for my cares, even for my
   cares for Christ. But now that the Lord is here, now that His people
   are met and He has promised to be with them, I shall have done with all
   my care and will give myself up to seek living and personal fellowship
   with Him. I will forget the dishes on the table, and the servants in
   the kitchen, and the fires, and everything else in the house--they must
   go as they may. I will give the best orders I can and then I will leave
   these things, for I am now going to get a privilege which I cannot
   always get--I am going to listen to His loving Words as they come
   welling up fresh from my Savior's heart. I am going to sit down right
   at His feet and drink in that which He would teach me." I think you
   will acknowledge that it is easier to serve than it is to commune. You
   will have observed that Joshua never grew weary when he was fighting
   with the Amalekites. It was hard work, but he did not get his arms
   weakened at it. But when Moses was on the top of the mountain in
   prayer, he had to have two others to hold his hands up! So is it with
   us. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner the soul tires of it.
   We could keep on preaching better than we could keep on praying and it
   is easier to pray in public than it is to pray in secret. And let me
   say that even in secret it is easier to pray aloud than it is to sit
   still in your communion with Christ in the solemn silence of the soul.
   The choicest fruits are generally the hardest to grow--and the most
   spiritual engagements are the most difficult for us to manage. Beloved,
   we ought to have an eye to this! We ought to take care that we do not
   neglect these merely external things which are good enough in
   themselves, these outward attending to ordinances, a sermon, and so
   on--but we ought also to take care that while we remember these in
   their proper places, we do not let these things crowd out better
   things, but see to it that we get to Christ and enjoy living, personal
   fellowship with Him!

   I am afraid, too, that at this time Martha was losing her reverence for
   her Savior You will ask how she did this. I do not like her expression,
   "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid
   her that she help me." I do not think she ought to have spoken so to
   her Savior. The words do not sound gentle. It seems as if she had got
   to be so familiar with waiting upon Him, that she had lost some of the
   due respect which she should have paid to the great Prophet of Israel,
   her Savior and her Lord! This is one of the great dangers of those who
   serve God in the engagements of the sanctuary. I have had to confess
   and have mentioned it at ministers' meetings often, and have heard
   others confess that familiarity with sacred things is a temptation,
   very often, to lead us to read our Bibles for our congregations and not
   for ourselves--and to pray ex officio instead of praying with our whole
   hearts to God, ourselves, as though we ourselves needed the blessing! I
   am sure, too, that this is true of all the other officials in God's
   House. If a man is not saved, and becomes a minister, I do not think
   there is a chance of his being saved afterwards--he had better be
   anything than be an unsaved minister! I have noticed the same thing
   with regard to pew-openers and such like persons who are not converted
   before they take their offices--and I pray that those of you who have
   the filling up of such positions, never to appoint unconverted people,
   for they may not be converted afterwards. They will be so busy putting
   people into their seats and doing different things, that they will be
   cumbered with much serving!

   I did once say, and gave very great offense, indeed, by it, that the
   people who take down my sermons ought to have the Grace of God in their
   hearts, or else they would not get a blessing, for certainly the
   mechanical act of writing must prevent the mind from entering in all
   its fullness into the meaning of the utterance! Our dear Brothers here
   who take such an interest in our services, and to whose kind care and
   watchfulness we owe so much of the quiet we enjoy on Sabbath days with
   our great crowds, I am sure will excuse me--indeed I will not asked to
   be excused--when I say they must mind that these things do not run away
   with their spirituality, for there is such a fear in serving Christ
   that familiarity with His service will tend to make us lose our respect
   for Him! God grant that instead of this, our reverence for Christ may
   grow more and more--and the more we serve Him, the more humbly may we
   lie down at His feet.

   But I think Martha was losing something more than this, and that was
   her humility. If she had had much humility, she would have known that
   Mary was quite as good as she was, herself, and even a little better.
   But instead of that she took it upon herself to call Mary to account
   and even to complain to Christ about her. Many of our complaints about
   ministers and other good people show our own lack of humility. When I
   think that my Brothers have many faults, I may well remember how many I
   have, myself--and instead of thinking how badly some people do, I ought
   to suspect that I might have done a great deal worse if I had been in
   their place! Indeed, it strikes me that the wise man is rather
   delighted that things are as well as they are, than displeased that
   they are not any better, for he knows that the best of men are but men
   at the best. He knows from his own experience that men are very likely
   to go fast in the way of error and to travel very slowly in the way of
   right--and so when he does see a cause prosper, or a holy deed done, he
   is grateful to God for it! Though he does wish that there were more,
   yet he is grateful to God that there is so much genuine piety, so much
   brotherly love, so much earnestness, so much prayerfulness as there is
   in the midst of the world. Let us not be so censorious, always judging
   this man and that man. If you had been in his place would you have done
   better? Have you to pay his wages at the last? Is he your servant? Then
   who are you that judge another's servant? To his own Master shall he
   stand or fall, and perhaps the very man you judge is more acceptable to
   God than you are! He does not serve so much as you do. He does not
   preach so many sermons, nor teach so many people, nor publish so many
   books and so on--but he sits more at Jesus' feet than you do, lives
   nearer to Christ and is bringing more honor to the Redeemer's name in
   his humble, quiet obscurity than you are with all your publicity and
   with all your work! It seems to me that we are in danger of losing our
   respect for our fellows if we think so much of ourselves.

   Does it not strike you, by the way, that very often when we get
   cumbered about much serving, there is pride at the bottom of it? Why do
   we want to serve God in this way or in that way? The preacher wants
   those who come to say, "What a capital sermon," and, "What a fine
   fellow he is!" Or, perhaps, the hearers want people to say when they go
   out, "Now I enjoyed it!" When we do all this and when we want to see
   our Sunday school class very numerous, and to see many conversions, is
   it not just possible that at the bottom of it all we think, "it would
   look so well and we should be able to say that there is so much done"?
   Brother, if you say you have never felt like this, I can only say that
   you must be a very superior person. I know I have often felt like it
   and I here make confession of that wicked vanity which is so very
   common a complaint among us! We get cumbered, not so much about whether
   Christ is served, but whether weshall be thought to have done anything
   and to have done it in a proper way! Oh, to shake one's self from all
   these beggarly rags of selfishness and to be content to do God's work
   to the best of one's ability and to say, "My Master, as to whether this

   looks well or does not look well in the sight of my fellows, is
   nothing! I gave it to You as You gave it to me. Accept it, my Master.
   Accept it because I love You and yet more, because You love me!"

   Martha, then, was losing a great deal, but in addition to all this, she
   was also losing communion with Christ. Mrs. Rowe says somewhere--"If
   all the 12 Apostles were to preach at the time when I ought to be in
   prayer, I would not leave my closet to hear one of them, or all of
   them." And another used to say--"I would not be kept out of my closet
   for all the world." But we are so easily turned away from sitting at
   Christ's feet to go to work! We so easily cut short the time of prayer
   for the sake of doing more for Christ! Communion with Christ is the
   most precious thing! And once lost, I do not care what you did in the
   time when you ought to have been communing with Christ--you may have
   won coppers, but you have lost sovereigns, for many have earned pence,
   but you have lost diamonds! For your own sake, and for the sake of
   those whom you would bless, you must see to it that sitting at the
   Savior's feet is not neglected, even though it is under the specious
   pretext of waiting upon Him. The first thing for our soul's health, the
   first thing for His Glory and the first thing for our own usefulness is
   to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus--and to
   see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and
   above everything else in the world!

   III. Having thus shown you what Martha lost, I would now like to OFFER
   SOME CONSIDERATIONS WHICH MAY PREVENT OUR BEING CUMBERED WITH MUCH
   SERVING.

   There is one consideration which has done me a deal of good and it is
   this--that the Lord Jesus got on very well before we were born, and it
   is very likely that He will get on exceedingly well when we are dead.
   When one thinks, "Oh, it is so important that such-and-such a point
   should be attended to. I must throw my whole strength into that." And
   then the next day there seems to be something else so very necessary to
   be done! And then something goes amiss there and something else
   here--because one cannot be everywhere--and one begins to be troubled.
   It might well be said to us at such a time, "Now, are you really such a
   very important person after all?" Before we were born, God's cause
   prospered and when we are dead, if we have been useful in our lives, we
   may, perhaps, leave a little gap for a little time, but it will soon be
   filled up and nobody will know it--and God's cause will go on just as
   well without us! "I hope I do not inconvenience you," said the gnat
   when he settled on the horn of a bull. "I did not know you were there,"
   said the bull. So, sometimes we seem to think, "I hope my absence will
   not cause inconvenience to such-and-such a cause." And we might very
   well be answered, "Why, nobody knew you had anything to do with it!
   What difference will yourabsence make?" I do not want you to be
   careless about things on this account, but I do want you not to be
   cumbered about them on this account. That is not a bad philosophy,
   though it is very often very wickedly applied--"It will be all be the
   same in a hundred years' time." Well, really, it will. Though the waves
   do go back, each one of them, after they have come up on the shore, yet
   none of them need regret that they die because every wave comes up
   beyond its fellow, and though there may be no advance in each one
   particular wave, but even a receding, yet the great ocean, itself, is
   going forward! And so, if one little particular part of the work that
   has been left to me does not go on as I could wish, yet, O God, the
   great sea of Your Church is going on in the fullness of its glory and
   it shall yet cover the sands of time and break upon the cliffs in an
   eternal spray of everlasting song! Let us be consoled in this matter.
   We are not such big bodies, after all, and if the thing which we devise
   may not succeed, yet that is not the main thing, for Jehovah still
   reigns and Christ still prospers!

   There is another consideration--namely, that it is pretty certain that
   if we have done our best for our Master, our fretting will not improve
   things. Farmers have been troubled, sometimes, when the rain has been
   coming on at harvest time, but I never remember to have observed that
   the glass went up on that account, nor have I ever head of a single
   raindrop whose little watery heart relented because of the sorrow of
   the agriculturist--it came down just the same. So, if our fretting over
   God's work would improve it, Brothers and Sisters, let us fret! Let us
   fret together in harmony! But if it really will not, and if after
   having done all we can in prayer and holy work, the thing does not go
   on quite as well as we could wish it, then let us say, "My Master, let
   it be according to Your will, and if it is according to Your mind, it
   is sure to be according to my mind, or if not, Lord, give me a better
   mind." May we be brought down to this--"Your will be done." If we had
   more of the spirit of Christian resignation, we should feel that as we
   cannot add one cubit to our own stature by our own thought, so neither
   can we add a single drachma of success to the Church of God by all our
   unbelieving cumbering of ourselves about much serving!

   Another consideration may help us--namely, that, after all, it is not
   our work, but His work in which we are engaged. I once heard a very
   pretty illustration from one of our ministers who said that he was
   moving his books from his study downstairs to another room which he had
   taken for his study upstairs, and his little boy said, "Papa, let me
   help you." The little boy was not able to do anything, but the father
   thought he must encourage his desire for industry and he said, "Yes,
   you can take that little book." But the boy did not like to take the
   little book--he wanted to be a man and carry a big book. So he took a
   big book and got it to the foot of the stairs--and there he sank down
   and began to cry, for he could carry it no further. "And what," said
   the father, "do you think it came to? Why, I had to carry the book
   upstairs and the boy, too!" So it is with us--we ask Christ to let us
   do something for Him and we are not satisfied to do only that--we have
   a natural and a very proper desire to be doing more. And so we
   undertake something which we cannot do and we sit down and fret as if
   the book never would get upstairs till we carried it up--and then the
   good Father comes along and takes the book and the little child, too,
   and carries both. Oh, instead of sitting down and crying, say, "My
   Father, I have the will to do this, but I cannot. Come and do it, my
   Father, for it is not my work, it is Your work." You remember how Moses
   put it. I have often put it in that shape, and may the Master forgive
   me if I have done it unbelievingly. Moses said, "Have I begotten all
   this people?" And often when the enormous weight of this Church has
   pressed upon my soul, I have said to Christ, "Lord Jesus, I never
   married this Church. It is no spouse of mine--it is Your wife and I am
   but as one that unties the laces of her shoes. I am but as one that
   pours water upon her feet that she may wash them. I am your present
   servant in the body, but the work is too much for me--You must do it. I
   have cared for Your flock till I could say that by night it has
   distressed me, and by day--

   'My joys and sorrows mingled seem

   As if they would consume me.'

   But, Lord, I never bought this flock with blood. I am not to have this
   flock at the last! It is no flock of Mine. I am only Your hired
   shepherd. You will give me my wage, but oh, it is Yours to keep off the
   wolf! It is Yours to preserve each lamb and carry it in Your bosom and
   gently to lead each troubled one in the whole flock." I think we must
   often do this-- throw it off upon our God, for it is His burden, not
   ours. Cast all our care on Him, for He cares for us. And especially
   leaving the serving of Himself to Him whose service and whose work it
   really is.

   Yet, again. Another thing that may comfort you is that sometimes when
   things are going very badly, as we think, they are really going best.
   We do not always know, I fancy, when things are prospering. We imagine
   that the Church is in good health because certain outward signs
   manifest themselves. Persons sometimes meet those of us who are rather
   stout, and they say, "How well you look!" I do not know about that. In
   our flesh there dwells no good thing. I am afraid that with some of us
   that is no very great sign of health and we might be glad enough to get
   rid of it. So sometimes when the Church seems to be in a prosperous
   condition, we congratulate ourselves upon its wonderful healthiness. I
   do not know that we ought to do that! Sometimes the corn is best when
   an onlooker who does not understand it thinks it is worst-- and
   sometimes when a little boat is borne on one side till she almost ships
   a sea through the tremendous gale that is blowing, the landsman thinks
   there is mischief ahead, but the old sailor who understands all about
   it says, "No, they are going at a great rate now." So, at times our
   ship lurches a bit, and seems as if it shipped whole seas of mischief,
   but it is then that the mighty breeze of the Divine Spirit is really
   given to us! Do you not think, Beloved, that some of the worst sermons
   that are ever preached, in the judgment of critics, are really the
   best? What a fool I have been dozens of times! I have thought in my
   conceit--"Well, now, that is a sermon that is likely to be blest"--and
   yet I have never heard of any blessing from it! I have thought at other
   times when I am finished, "Please, God, if I ever get that subject
   again, I will treat it better. What a poor sermon!" And yet two or
   three Church Meetings later, there will come one, two, three, perhaps
   half a dozen who were blessed and converted to God by my poor sermon.
   The Lord help me, then, to preach poor sermons and grant that I may
   always preach so that He will bless it, no matter whether I like it or
   whether you like it, as long as God is pleased to bless the sermon! I
   dare say you Sunday school teachers have often found that when you have
   done worst, God has done best, and He has permitted you to think it was
   worst in order that you might bring all the glory to His feet and
   praise His name!

   Should it not be one reason, then, why we should cast off our care,
   that we serve a very generous Master? There are some masters whom you
   cannot please--when you have done your best, they will still find some
   fault--for they have a quick eye for a fault. But our Lord Jesus seems
   as if He could not find fault with His people, and when we have done
   our best, though it is a poor, poor thing, yet He takes it and so
   transforms it by one touch of His own gracious and pierced hands, that
   we do not know it again! It is more His than ours and it is accepted by
   Him. He does not receive our works

   because of their intrinsic excellencies, but because He worked them in
   us and because the motive for which we have performed them is honorable
   to Himself. Master Brooks says that, "Fond friends will accept crooked
   sixpences, and a little piece of forget-me-not, and set great store by
   these love-tokens." Even so does the Savior! He takes our poor
   worthless works which have no intrinsic value in them and sets great
   store by them, saying of that cup of cold water which you gave away and
   which you never thought of again--"Inasmuch as you did it unto one of
   the least of these, My brethren, you did it unto Me." I do not doubt He
   will say at the last--"You did want to serve Me. You did long to honor
   Me and I accept it." John Bunyan says if you send a servant off for the
   doctor and you tell him to go on horseback as fast as ever he can--and
   there is but a very sorry nag in the stable, so the man uses the spur
   and the whip, and tugs at the bridle, but cannot make the horse go--you
   see that the man would go if he could, and so you do not blame him. So,
   he says, our poor flesh is that sorry nag, but the spirit is willing,
   and Jesus Christ looks on us and says--"Truly the flesh is weak, he
   would go if he could." And so He takes the will for the deed and does
   not blame us, but covers our faults in the mantle of His love.

   Now I hope we are beginning to feel better. I hope we are not going to
   leave off caring about the work, but only leave off being cumbered
   about it. I hope we shall be anxious to see souls saved and desirous to
   conduct all our labors for Christ in the best possible manner--but I
   hope we shall not sit down and worry ourselves as though there were no
   God to bless, no Christ to perfume our works with the incense of His
   merits and no Holy Spirit to make our very infirmities yield His Glory!
   Let us remember that our Father lives, that our God lives, that He who
   brings good out of evil lives. Let us set up our banners in His name
   and go forward rejoicing that He is with us and will be with us to the
   end!

   Come, you Marys--if you have been upbraided, mind not the unbraiding!
   Your living near to Christ is "that good part"-- always stay there.
   Serve the Master, but do not break your fellowship. Do all that in you
   lies for Christ, but also sit down under His shadow and let His fruit
   be sweet to your taste. If we sometimes did less, we should do more. If
   we had fewer outward engagement and more private dealings with God, we
   should be richer. The best commerce is commerce with Heaven. The
   richest merchants are those who negotiate with a Covenant God. Those
   who get the largest estates are those who have learned to traffic in
   Heaven's markets. If you would be strong, live upon the promises! If
   you would be happy, live with the Promise-Keeper. If you would be
   mighty to win souls, be mighty on your knees! And if you would be like
   your Master with a shining face among the multitude, be much with your
   Master where He is transfigured upon the Mount.

   I preach but poorly to you, but I must not begin to be cumbered about
   that. Here I would leave the matter, only I would to God that you all
   had an interest in the things I have been speaking of! Some of you do
   not care to serve God at all. You serve yourselves--you serve your own
   passions. May the Lord bring you to serve Him--and the door of service
   is at the Cross. The way to begin to be a servant is to go to the place
   where He took upon Himself the form of a Servant and was obedient unto
   death, even the death of the Cross. Trust Jesus. This is the work of
   God, if you would do it, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. May
   God enable you now to trust His dear Son with all your hearts! And then
   after that may you go and serve Him, and serve Him effectively--but God
   grant that you be not "Cumbered with much serving."
     __________________________________________________________________

The Mission of Affliction

   (No. 3164)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 8,
   1873.

   "Let him alone, and let him curse, for so the Lord has ordered him. It
   may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord
   willrepay me with good for his cursing this day." 2 Samuel 16:11,12.

   THE bright side of David's character was generally seen either when he
   was actively engaged or when he was greatly suffering. He was the man
   of action. When he ran to meet Goliath and returned with the giant's
   head in his hand, or when it was necessary that he should lead forth
   the hosts of God to war against Philistia, then David was in his
   element. He was one who never feared the face of man! He was
   courageous, dauntless and full of confidence in God.

   Equally well does he stand out in the time of his trouble. He will not
   lift up his hand against Saul even when the king is in his power. If he
   cuts off the skirt of Saul's robe, even then his heart smites him. When
   his adversaries are before him and with a blow he can put them to
   death, with unusual magnanimity he restrains his hand and will not
   touch them. Revenge was not in his spirit. He was full of gentleness
   and tenderness. It is well for men of this kind when they have
   something to do or something to suffer. And perhaps this may account
   for it, that men have to be very busy or very faithful if they are to
   avoid being sinful. There are spirits so ardent, so fervent, that
   unless they have either to do or to bear God's will with a high degree
   of intensity, they are lacking in brightness and cheerfulness. David
   was seldom at leisure without falling into mischief. His great sin, his
   grievous sin was on this wise. It was the time when kings went forth to
   battle, but David sent Joab to fight against Ammon and he stayed at
   home. We read that at eventide, "David arose from off his bed and
   walked upon the roof of his house." He had become luxurious and then it
   was that temptation came and he fell. His second great offense was very
   much after the same order. He had subdued all his enemies. The
   rebellion of Absalom was put down with a strong hand. All was quiet
   within and without--and then Satan moved him to number the people. He
   thought, "I am the king of a great country and I should like to know
   how many subjects I have. I should like to know how many troops I have.
   Joab, go and take a census and bring it to me, that I may understand
   how great I am."

   And then it was that God sent His servant to warn him that He would
   chasten him for his pride of heart. And He gave him the choice of three
   chastisements--one of which must fall upon the people. David was like a
   sword, which if hung up on a wall, would soon gather rust, but when he
   was moved to fight the Master's battle, he was of wondrous keen temper
   and could cut to the dividing asunder of the joints and the marrow! Let
   us dread, then, ease and repose--

   "For, more the treacherous calm I dread Than tempests hanging over
   head."

   Let us be afraid of having nothing to do and be thankful for something
   to sufferif we have not something to do actively, for let us alone and
   the best of us will corrode! And if I am addressing any man who has
   lately given up business and is enjoying repose, I would urge upon him
   the wisdom of seeking some service for Christ which would engage his
   faculties, for it is true of Christians as well as other people, that--

   "Satan always mischief finds, For idle hands to do."

   Our text tonight exhibits David in the time of his trouble. He is here
   so admirable and his conduct is here so commendable, that I hold him up
   as an example to all. There are four things in this transaction which
   we all ought to copy. The first was the absence of resentment from the
   heart of David. The second was his entire resignation to the Divine
   Will. The third was his expectancy from God, alone. And the fourth was
   his looking to the bright side and still having hope.

   I. First, then, ADMIRE DAVID AND THEN TRY TO COPY HIM IN THIS RESPECT.
   We read you the story just now. [The exposition was always read first,
   but printed at the end of the sermon.] Now the attack of Shimei upon
   David was very cowardly. David had been king for many years but you
   never hear a word from Shimei while the king was on his throne and in
   power. This man was skulking in the farthest corners of the land, no
   doubt often biting his tongue, but having too much sense to use it
   against the powerful king. But now that David is fleeing from the
   palace and his son is pursuing him, eager for his blood, out comes this
   coward from his skulking place and begins to accuse the king. Those who
   would not have dared to speak against David before, now abuse him to
   his face with opprobrious epithets! It is very hard to bear a cowardly
   attack. One is very apt to reply and use hard words to one who takes
   advantage of your position and deals you the coward's blow. Only the
   coward strikes a man when he is down. It is just possible that somebody
   here may be suffering from an injury which he knows the person
   responsible for it would not have dared to inflict in years gone by.
   That helps to make the blow more cutting--when it comes from a coward's
   hands.

   Besides being so cowardly, it was so brutal. We pity a man that is in
   distress. When a king has lost his throne. When a father has his own
   child in rebellion against him, one says, "Whatever may have been his
   fault, this is not the time to mention them." When the poor heart is
   bleeding and the man is already suffering the very extremity of misery,
   who would wish to add a single ounce to the crushing weight that he has
   to carry? Sympathy and common humanity seem to say, "Be quiet! Hush!
   Another time, when he mounts again to prosperity, then, if it is
   necessary, let us faithfully rebuke him for his faults, but not now. It
   is not seemly." If this dog of a Shimei must fly at David when he is
   suffering, most surely Satan, himself, must have set him on to
   aggravate to the last degree the miseries of David! And yet David has
   not one hard word to say against him. No, he becomes his advocate,
   bears with the brutal attack--cowardly as it was--betrays no temper,
   but peacefully, calmly, gratefully spares the life which was in his
   hands!

   Moreover, remember that the attack was especially a false one. He
   called David a bloody man and accused him of having destroyed the house
   of Saul. Nothing could have been more false, for when Saul was in
   David's power on two occasions, once in the cave and once when he lay
   asleep on the slope of the mountain, David did not put out his hand to
   touch the Lord's anointed! When Saul and Jonathan were slain on Gilboa,
   David sincerely mourned and wrote that pathetic elegy--the song which
   he bade them learn to sing in mourning for Saul who fell on the high
   places. And afterwards, when the Amalekite came with the crown of Saul,
   hoping to be rewarded, David had him put to death on the spot! When
   wicked men came with the head of Ishbosheth, hoping to gratify David,
   he slew them both for the murder. Moreover, he sought out Mephibosheth
   and though he was lame in both his feet and could not stand, he bade
   him sit at his table and did him honor. So far from being a bloody man,
   he had, on the contrary, even though hunted by Saul and his blood had
   been sought by the leader of that house, yet had he never returned evil
   for evil.

   It is very hard to be reproached for what you do not do. I do not know
   how, but somehow the falseness of an accusation does put a degree of
   sting into it. I have heard of a woman who was charged with a certain
   degree of dishonesty. Her minister said to her, "You need not be so
   grieved about it if it is not true." "No, Sir," she said, "I should not
   be grieved about it, if it were not true, but there's the point about
   it, it is true." And just so, if we were sensible, we should only feel
   those charges that are true--and the edge would be taken off others
   when we knew our conscience did not justify them. But it does not
   happen to be so. We do not hold the scales well. We feel that it is a
   very cruel thing to have things laid to our charge that we knew nothing
   of--and when our whole life has been in one direction--to have it laid
   to our door that we act quite contrary to that is a very stinging
   thing. Shimei, I suppose, could not have uttered anything that could
   sting David more to the quick than when he said to him, "You are a
   bloody man and have destroyed the house of Saul." Yet David did not put
   out his hand to him. He said, "Let him alone! Let him curse."
   Magnanimously he allowed him to escape unscathed, though Shimei cast
   stones and dirt upon him.

   Sometimes the way in which a thing is put is more cutting than the
   thing itself. For Shimei did not merely speak his charge against David,
   but he put it in the bitterest way, "Come out, come out!" as though he
   scorned him! And then he threw stones and dirt at him, as though he did
   not mind him now, as though he thought David the very dust beneath his
   feet and called him the offscouring of all things. Few among us can
   bear scorn. I suppose that a bitter sarcasm often stings where a
   downright charge, however false, might not have done so. A little bit
   of ridicule, with malice in it, will often wound, and little do we know
   how many may have gone with broken hearts all their days through unkind
   words that have been spoken, perhaps half in jest, but which, being
   taken in earnest, have made terrible wounds in the soul. Yet

   David would not be provoked by this man's lies nor by the tones in
   which he spoke them--but like a true king, all royal as he was, he
   said--"Let him alone. Let him curse. It is hard to bear, but I will
   bear it."

   Now remember that David could very easily have put an end to all this.
   It was in his power to put an end to Shimei at once. "Off with his
   head," said Abishai--and there would have been the end of the argument.
   Sometimes we are very patient with things we cannot cure. It is good
   sound doctrine, "What can't be cured, must be endured." And, "Stooping
   down as needs he must, who cannot sit upright." If you cannot prevent,
   you may as well forgive--every fool will adopt that unless he is a
   strange fool, indeed! But David could take this fellow's head off and
   that in a moment, and yet he said, "Let him alone. Let him curse." And
   this makes a splendid example. If you can revenge yourself, DON'T. If
   you could do it as easily as open your hand, keep it shut! If one
   bitter word could end the argument, ask for Divine Grace to spare that
   bitter word.

   Reflect, too, that David was urged by others to put an end to this man.
   Sometimes we readily follow advice, especially when there is something
   that we like in the advice. And who among us would not like the advice?
   I confess on reading the Chapter, that if I had been in Abishai's case,
   I am afraid I should have taken his head off first, and asked
   permission afterwards. I am afraid it would have been very bad and
   wicked, but in such a case as that, when my dear king for whom I had
   lived and would have died--such a blessed king as David--was scoffed at
   by such a dog as that--who would not have said, "Off with his head!"
   and have thought he did him too much honor in those rough days? Yet
   David said, "No, we must not follow bad advice, we must not let the
   zeal of earnest friends lead us too fast." If they are too fast, we
   must be too slow. In all matters of vengeance, if others would go
   forward, we must draw back and say, "Christ has bidden us forgive even
   to seventy times seven," and so will we do. Remember this is under the
   old dispensation, when the Law of God said, "An eye for an eye, a tooth
   for a tooth," and so on--and, therefore, David might have been more
   excused if he had avenged himself! But he seems to have caught, like a
   Prophet, the light of the coming time, and spared the man as Christ
   would have spared him, if He had been there. In this he is to be copied
   by us all!

   To gather all up in one, Beloved, if the trouble that comes to you,
   comes to you as a second cause, don't look at the second cause so as to
   quarrel with it and don't say, "I would not mind if it had not been
   So-and-So." That is why God selected So-and-So to chasten you, for when
   a father wants to make a child smart, he gets his heaviest rod! And so
   does God. He has taken up that instrument which will make you smart and
   cry out most! It is always foolish for us to fret about the second
   cause. If you threaten a dog with a stick, he bites the stick--but if
   he were a sensible dog--he would bite you, only he does not know any
   better and so he bites the stick! And if we rebel against the second
   cause we are in error. If there is anyone we should complain against,
   it would be God who uses the instrument! But as we cannot and would not
   if we could complain against Him, it is best for us to say as David
   did, "Let him alone! Let him curse! The Lord has ordered him. The Lord
   has ordered him."

   Now don't we tonight say, "I could have borne that other trial if God
   had sent that"? Well, accept your present trial and oh, if you are
   vexed with So-and-So, forgive him! There is a higher hand than his in
   this matter. It is a rough knife that you have been pruned with, but it
   is the gardener that used the knife--and your God is using this
   affliction for your good. Don't look at the affliction as much as at
   the end and at the design of God.

   It was very beautiful for David to make excuses for Shimei. Notice how
   he puts it. "Well, there is Absalom, my son--he is seeking my life. No
   wonder that this man should! He is no relation of mine! I could not
   expect love from him. And then, moreover," he said, "he is a Benjamite.
   Now God has been pleased to put me, David, into the place of Saul that
   was a Benjamite, and of course this man sympathizes with the tribe that
   has lost the royal crown." David put his finger on the secret. "The man
   has been a sufferer through me, therefore he is angry, he is estranged
   from me. I could not expect gentle treatment from him and I have
   unconsciously, without intending to injure him, taken away some
   authority from the family to which he belongs and, therefore, I can
   somewhat shut my eyes to his hard treatment of me and, at any rate, I
   will show that God is using him as an instrument and will freely
   forgive him." Now I am talking very simply and upon simple conduct, but
   I am sorrowfully conscious that a great many Christian people need to
   be preached to about giving lessons to others. As soon as ever a child
   learns to say, "Our Father, which are in Heaven," which is a little
   infant's prayer--he is taught to say, "forgive us our trespasses as we
   forgive those that trespass against us"--and yet I find that some who
   have been Christians for years--at least they say they have--if they
   get a little put out about some insignificant trifle, take a long time
   to get their feathers smooth again! Perhaps it is something they need
   hardly have noticed, Volume 55 www.spurgeongems.org 3

   and yet they will go fretting about it day after day! Oh, let us be men
   and women, and let us be Christian men and women, and let us be able to
   forbear! "In many things we offend all." "It is necessary that offenses
   come, but woe unto that man by whom the offense came." I think it is
   equal woe unto that man who will not let the offense go away. Someone
   says, "I suppose somebody must have been offended here." I am sure I
   don't know of anybody, but if the cap fits, let them wear it. May we
   always learn to forgive as we hope to be forgiven!

   II. Now the second thing is this--DAVID'S COMPLETE RESIGNATION TO THE
   DIVINE WILL. "It is enough for me that the Lord has bidden him," or, as
   in the 10th verse, "Let him curse, because the Lord has said unto him,
   'Curse David.'" David felt very keenly the wicked act of his enemy, but
   he felt that it was sent for his further chastisement and, therefore,
   he accepted it willingly. I daresay he said to himself, "I don't
   deserve this charge. It is a very base one, but if Shimei had known all
   about me, he might have charged me with something quite as bad as that
   and he would have been quite correct." When we are railed at by
   graceless men and they slander us, we may say to ourselves, "Well,
   well, if they did but know us better and could see our hearts, they
   could perhaps have said something worse against us--so we will be well
   content to bear this." For David, though Shimei did not know about it,
   had grievously sinned. It does not make Shimei's conduct any better,
   but David felt, "I have deserved this at the hands of the Lord, or
   something else if not on this particular occasion." Then feeling it was
   the Lord, he said to himself, "I do not see the meaning of this, but I
   am sure there is love in it. Did God ever do anything to His children
   except in love? I do not see the necessity of it, but I am certain
   there is wisdom in it. Did the Lord ever do anything to his children
   that was not right? I do not see the benefit that may come out of it to
   me, but did God ever exercise His children with fruitless trials?" Is
   there not a Divine necessity for all chastisements It is the Lord--that
   is enough for David.

   Brothers and Sisters, is that enough for you? The Lord has done it,
   shall I open my mouth again when I know my Father did it? Did He take
   my child? Well, blessed be His name that He loved my little one so
   well! Did He take my gold? Well, He only lent it to me and a thing
   borrowed ought to go laughing back to its owner! Let Him take back what
   He lent. He gives and, blessed be His name, He takes but what He gave!
   Therefore let Him still be praised! David seems to me, as it were, to
   have lain down before God under a sense of having done wrong in days
   gone past and said to Him, "My Father, chasten me just as You will. My
   rebellious spirit is humbled before You. If it is necessary for my good
   that I suffer from Your hand, this affliction and a thousand others, go
   on, go on! Your child may weep, but he will not complain. Your child
   may suffer, but he will bring no charge against You. What You please to
   do, it shall be my pleasure to bear. Your pleasure and my pleasure
   shall be one pleasure henceforth and forevermore. If the Lord has done
   it, so let it be."

   I invite every troubled Brother and Sister here to cry for Grace from
   God to be able to see God's hand in every trial and then for Grace to,
   seeing God's hand, submit at once to it!No, not only to submit, but to
   acquiesce and to rejoice in it! "It is the Lord, let Him do what seems
   good to Him." I think there is generally an end to troubles when we get
   to that, for when the Lord sees we are willing that He should do what
   He wills, then He takes back His hand and says, "I need not chasten My
   child--He now submits himself to Me. What would have been effected by
   My chastisement is already effected and, therefore, I will not chasten
   him." You know David was not long in the dark after he was condemned to
   be there. "Well," says the Lord, "if My child does not cry because he
   is left without a candle, he shall have his candle. Now I have tried
   him and proved him, he shall come before Me in the light."

   What is the use of our kicking and struggling against the Lord What
   benefit ever comes of our rebellion against Him? The ox and the mule
   which have no understanding have to be held in with bit and bridle.
   What comfort ever came to you from your rebellions and reluctances? And
   so with self-will and desiring to have your own way--what do you get
   from these but the scourge? Oh, it is the happiest and most blessed
   condition to lie passive in God's hands and know no will but His--to
   feel a self-annihilation in which self is not destroyed but is absorbed
   into God so that we delight in the inner man in the will of God and
   always say, "Father, Your will be done." This is a hard lesson--far
   easier to preach about than to practice--and a great deal easier to
   think of when you have learned it than to carry it out.

   I am often reminded of an old friend, Will Richardson, I used to talk
   with. He, said, "When it is winter time, I think I could mow and reap
   and fancy if you were only to give Will the sickle and scythe, what a
   splendid day's work he would do! That is in the winter, but in the
   summer I have not been half a day at work before I begin to feel that
   my poor old bones won't stand much more work and to think that I am
   hardly the man for a farm laborer." Now so it is with our own

   strength. If we fell back upon the strength of God, we would be strong
   when we are weak, but when we fancy we are getting stronger, we are
   very much weaker and might very often measure ourselves in the inverse
   ratio of what we think!

   III. DAVID IS TO BE IMITATED IN ANOTHER RESPECT, NAMELY, THAT HIS
   EXPECTATION WAS ONLY FROM GOD. Notice the text--"It may be that the
   Lord will look upon my affliction." There was Abishai ready to take off
   this man's head, but David said, "It may be that the Lord will look
   upon my affliction." He thought that when he was in such great trouble,
   God would surely have pity upon him! Oh, you tried ones, look away,
   once and for all, from man to your God! "My Soul, wait you only upon
   God, for my expectation is from Him." There are two ways of going to a
   place. One is to go round and the other is to go straight. Now the
   straight road is the shortest way. And there are two ways of getting
   help. The one is to go round to all your friends and get
   disappointed--and then at last go to God! The other is to go to God
   first. That is the shortest way. God can make your friends help you
   afterwards. Seek first God and His righteousness, and the help of
   friends will be added afterwards. Straight forward makes the best
   running. Out of all troubles, the surest deliverance is from God's
   right hand. Therefore from all troubles, the readiest way to escape is
   to draw near to God in prayer. Go, not to this friend or that, but pour
   out your story before God. Remember how the poet puts it--

   "Were half the breath thus vainly spent, To Heaven in supplication
   sent, Our cheerful song would oftener be, Hear what the Lord has done
   for me!"

   Human friends fail us! The strongest sinew in an arm of flesh will
   crack and the most faithful heart will sometimes waver--and when there
   is most need of our friends, we find that they fail us. But our God is
   eternal and Omnipotent-- who has ever trusted in Him in vain? Where is
   the man that can say, I looked upon Him and hoped in Him--and I am
   ashamed of my hope?

   The beauty of David's looking alone to God came out in this quite
   calmly and quietly. He said to himself, "God will get me out of this,"
   therefore he was not angry with Shimei. He did not want his head to be
   cut off or anything of the sort. "God will do it." Oh, that is the man
   for life, that is the man for death, that is the man for smooth waters
   and that is the man for storms who lives upon his God! If a man stays
   in that frame of mind, what can disturb him? Though the mountains were
   cast into the midst of the sea and the earth were moved, yet still
   would he in patience possess his soul and still be calm, for of such a
   man I may say, "His soul shall dwell at ease, his seed shall inherit
   the earth." At destruction and famine, he will laugh. God has given His
   angels charge concerning such a man to keep him in all his ways, for
   this is the man that dwells in the secret places of the most High and
   he shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty! The Lord says of him,
   "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. I
   will set him on high because he has known My name. He has proved it by
   trusting in Me and Me, alone. Therefore will I never fail him, neither
   shall he suffer long." "Trust you in the Lord, alone, for in the Lord
   Jehovah there is everlasting strength." Gather up your confidences,
   make them into one confidence and fix them all on Him! Lean not here
   and there--you will grow crooked in yourself and the staff you lean on
   shall turn to a spear and pierce you. Lean wholly upon God and, as He
   is everywhere, you shall stand upright in leaning upon Him. This shall
   be the uprightness of your ways that you stay yourself on the Rock of
   Ages. May we learn this lesson! It is a high one. May the Spirit of God
   teach it to us!

   IV. Now the last of the four lessons is this--DAVID LEARNED TO LOOK AT
   THE BRIGHT SIDE. What is the bright side of trouble? What is the bright
   side of your trouble, dear Friend? Well, I don't know what you would
   call the bright side, but David considered the bright side of his
   trouble to be the black side--and I think every man who walks by faith
   knows that to be so. If you read the text you see it at once, "It may
   be that the Lord will look on my affliction and will repay me with good
   for his cursing this day." Much as if he said, "though my affliction is
   so very bitter, God will pity me." So the black side is the bright one!
   "This man has cursed me. That will move God to come to my side and
   defend me." So the black side is the bright one again.

   There is a sailor and the tide has ebbed out altogether. "Now," he
   says, "is the turning." Those that watch at night are glad when it
   comes to the darkest, because they know it certainly cannot be
   darker--and they know that daylight is coming soon. The darkest part of
   the night is that which precedes the day. We have an old saying about
   the weather, "As the day lengthens, the cold strengthens." And so it
   does, but soon it will come to an end. The cold will soon yield. Be

   thankful when you have got into midwinter because you cannot go any
   deeper. Let us be glad of that. Now if in our blackest parts of sorrow
   there is brightness, there must be brightness elsewhere and, indeed, if
   we were half as inquisitive to find out that which will cheer us, as to
   discover that of which we may complain, we should soon have reasons of
   gratitude in the lowest and worst condition! We rummage our affairs to
   find out something to distress ourselves about, ambitious to multiply
   our sorrows, diligent to increase our distresses as though our woes
   were wealth and our sorrows were worth hoarding up! But if we turned
   that curiosity and inquisitiveness of ours into another channel, we
   would begin to find that there are diamonds in dark mines, pearls in
   rough oyster shells, rainbows that deck the brow of the storm and
   blessings that come to us in the garb of curses! We should soon have
   cause for joy. I suggest to our friends, therefore, the blessed habit
   of trying to find the silver lining of the dark cloud--to look away
   from the black surface into the bright gleam so that they may have
   reason to rejoice in the Most High!

   To conclude--David was a glorious man. If instead of having expectation
   from God he had only had confidence in his fellow men and had gone
   about always repining and mourning and finding out the dark side of
   everything--well, he would have been a very small Psalmist! In fact, I
   don't think he could have written a Psalm at all, except a poor one. He
   would have been a poor king--a mere pigmy--and would never have shone
   out as a saint. Now if you, dear Brother and Sister, want to shine
   before God and be among the illustrious elect who the Lord makes as
   stars in the Church's history, pray for patience towards men and
   patience towards God. Pray for bright eyes to find out the light even
   in the darkness. Pray to always lean wholly upon God and keep yourself
   upon Him. You will glorify God in that way and you will be the means of
   bringing others to God. Distrustful preachers do not win souls. Moaning
   and repining Sunday school teachers will not bring children to Christ.
   "The joy of the Lord is our strength." The patience which makes us
   possess our souls gives us the fullness of the blessing of the Lord!
   May the Lord teach us in that school--we are very foolish. The Lord
   strengthen us in His Grace--we are very weak. And may all of us on
   earth live quietly and happily the risen life which our Savior did!

   Now if I am speaking to any here tonight who are rebellious and do not
   love the Lord, I would remind them that there is a cure for these
   maladies--faith in Jesus Christ!He that believes in Him shall find the
   water that flowed from His pierced side to be the double cure of sin.
   May you have that cure--everyone of you--for Jesus' sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH43:1-7.

   In this Chapter the Lord comforts His people. By His Divine foresight
   He perceives that there are great and varied trials a little way ahead
   and, therefore, He prepares them for the ordeal. They are to go through
   rushing waters and flaming fires and He kindly bids them not to be
   afraid. How often in God's Word do we read those tender, gracious
   words, "Fear not"!Should not the trembling ones listen to the voice of
   their God and obey it when He says to them "Fear not" It is not right
   for you who fear God to fear anything else. Once brought to know the
   Lord, who can harm you? Abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, what
   danger need you dread? No, rather, be of good comfort and press forward
   with peaceful confidence, though floods and flames await you!

   To encourage His people to rise superior to their fears, the gracious
   God goes on to issue matchless promises-- " When you pass through the
   waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not
   overflow you." Present good--"I will be with you. "Absent danger--"they
   shall not overflow you." God stays His people's hearts by His own
   promises. In proportion to their faith, those promises will lift them
   up. If you do not believe the promise, you shall not be established by
   it. But if, with childlike confidence, you accept every Word of God as
   true, then His Word shall be to you the joy of your heart and the
   delight of your spirit, and you shall be a stranger to fear. The Lord
   proceeds, after giving those promises, to set before them what He
   Himself is and what He has done for them, and what they are to Him. He
   is speaking, of course, to Israel. And He says of Israel, His chosen
   nation, "I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you." What
   cause for fear now remains? All Believers are of the true Israel.
   Abraham was the father of the faithful. The faithful, or the believing,
   are, therefore, Abraham's seed according to the promise! The seed was
   not after the flesh, else would the children of Ishmael have been the
   heirs of the Covenant, but the true seed was born according to promise
   and in the power of God, for Isaac was born when his parents were old,
   by faith in the power of God! Isaac was

   not the child of flesh, but he was born according to promise, so that
   we who are not born of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,
   by His Spirit and according to the Divine promise, are the true
   children of Abraham! We are the spiritual Israel. Though after the
   flesh Abraham is ignorant of us, and Sarah acknowledge us not, yet are
   we the true seed of him who was the father of Believers. The literal
   Israel was the type of those chosen and favored ones who by faith are
   born-again according to promise. To these heirs, according to promise,
   the Lord said, "I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for
   you." Let us now meditate on this passage verse by verse.

   Verse 1. But now thus says the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and He
   that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have
   called you by your name; you are Mine. "Fear not" is a command of God,
   and is a command which brings its own power of performance with it.
   God, who created and formed us, says to us, "Fear not," and a secret
   whisper is heard in the heart by which that heart is so comforted that
   fear is driven away. Observe the tender ties that bind our God to His
   people--Creation, the formation of them for His praise--Redemption, the
   purchase of them for Himself and the calling of them by their name. The
   Lord remembers the bonds which unite us to Himself even when we forget
   them. He recollects His eternal love and all the deeds of mercy that
   have flowed from it. Though our memory is treacherous, and our faith is
   feeble, "yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself." Blessed be
   His holy name!

   2. 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. "
   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you." The godly have
   the best company in the worst places in which their lot is cast! God's
   Presence is all that we need even in the deepest floods of tribulation.
   This He has promised to us. He does not say what He will do for us, but
   He does tell us that He will be with us--and that is more than enough
   to meet all our necessities. "When you walk through the fire, you shall
   not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you." That is a
   wonderful picture of a man walking through the fire and yet not being
   burned--but there was a greater wonder that was seen by Moses which may
   well comfort us. He saw a bush that burned with fire and yet was not
   consumed! Now a bush in the desert is usually so dry that at the first
   application of fire, it flames, glows and is speedily gone! Yet you and
   I who are, spiritually, just as dry and combustible as that bush was
   naturally, may burn, and burn, and burn and yet we shall not be
   consumed, because the God who was in the bush is also with us, and in
   us! "Neither shall the flame kindle upon you." You shall come out of
   the furnace as the three holy children did, with not so much as the
   smell of fire upon you, for where God is, all is safe.

   3. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior: I
   gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you. "For I am the
   Lord your God." This is the grandest possible reason for not fearing!
   Fall back upon this when you have nothing else upon which to rely. If
   you have no goods, you have a God. If your gourd is withered, your God
   is still the same as He ever was! "For I am Jehovah, your God." "I gave
   Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you." And He has given
   infinitely more than that for us who are now His people, for He gave
   His only-begotten Son that He might redeem us with His precious blood!
   Now that we have cost Him so much, is it likely that He will ever
   forsake us? It is not possible!

   4. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable, and I
   have loved you: therefore will I give men for you, and people for your
   lif. How sweetly this verse comes home to those whose characters have
   been disreputable! As soon as they are truly converted to Christ, they
   become "honorable." "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been
   honorable." God does not call His people by their old names of
   dishonor, but He gives them the title of, "Right Honorable," and makes
   them the nobility of His Court. "Unto you that believe He is an honor,"
   and you have honor in Him and from Him.

   5-7. Fear not: for Iam with you: I will bring your seed from the east,
   andgather you from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to
   the south, Keep not back: bring My sons from far, and My daughters from
   the ends of the earth; even everyone that is called by My name: for I
   have created him for My glory, I have formed Him; yes, I have made Him.
   "Fear not: for I am with you." This is the second time that the blessed
   words, "Fear not," ring out like the notes of the silver trumpet
   proclaiming the Jubilee to poor trembling hearts! "Fear not, for Iam
   with you." The Lord seems to say to each troubled Believer, "My honor
   is pledged to secure your safety. All My attributes are engaged on your
   behalf right to the end. Yes, I am, Myself, with you, therefore, fear
   not." "I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not
   back: bring My sons from far, My daughter from the ends of the earth;
   everyone that is called by My name." Whatever happens, God will be with
   His Church. His own chosen people shall all be gathered in. There shall
   be no frustration of the Divine Purpose. From east or west, north or
   south, all His sons and daughters shall come unto Him, everyone that is
   called by His name. "For I have created him for My glory, I have formed
   him; yes, I have made him." And God will be glorified in His people!
   The object of their creation is the glory of their God, and that end
   shall, somehow or other, be answered in the Lord's good time. The Lord
   seems to dwell upon that note of the creation of His children for His
   own glory. This accounts for many of our troubles and for all our
   deliverances--it is that God may be glorified by bringing His children
   through the fires and through the floods. A life that was never tested
   by trial and trouble would not be a life out of which God would get
   much glory, but they that do business in the great waters see the works
   of God and His wonders in the deep, and they give Him praise and,
   besides, when they come to their desired haven, then they praise the
   Lord for His goodness and God is thereby glorified!
     __________________________________________________________________

Witnesses for God

   (No. 3165)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1875.

   "You are My witnesses, says the Lord." Isaiah 43:10.

   (Suggested by his being summoned to attend the police court as a
   witness).

   IT is some time since I have known what it is to be at leisure. One's
   time from morning till night is occupied in different departments of
   the Master's service and it has been peculiarly troublesome to me
   during the last week to be compelled to spend many hours in a police
   court. While sitting on the bench this text has again and again
   occurred to me--"You are My witnesses, says the Lord."

   A great trial is going on, of which all worlds constitute the jury--a
   great trial between the powers of evil and the one perfect Lord of
   Good. Slanders have been vented against the name and majesty of Heaven
   and plots have been invented with the intent to overthrow holiness and
   the Truths of God. The whole fraternity of Hell have stirred up their
   malicious craftiness to defame the God of Heaven and earth. We know
   which way the suit will be decided, for we know where the Truth lies,
   but lo, these many centuries the matter has been hanging in the
   balances. Sometimes it has seemed that Truth had gained the day, but at
   other times the powers of evil have come to the front. This trial is
   still proceeding. Satan brings up his witnesses, ready enough to lie
   and to establish the teachings of the Father of Lies and, on the other
   hand, the Lord brings up His witnesses to bear testimony for Truth and
   righteousness. There are many in this place of whom the text speaks.
   "You are My witnesses, says the Lord." We are summoned in this great
   trial of the ages to stand forward as witnesses for God.

   Very simply, indeed, let us talk of this matter.

   I. At the outset we will take the simple assertion that WE ARE
   WITNESSES and enquire what sort of witnesses we ought to be? I count it
   no small honor for the good Lord to call me as a witness in His case.
   Hence, I, for one, am a willing witness. I need no subpoena to compel
   me to come forward and bear such witness as I can for the glory of His
   great name! Such of you as can cheerfully come forward for the Lord
   should give their attention to the duty of witnesses. Let us see what
   are the main points of that duty.

   First, let us be present to witness, in our proper place, at the proper
   time. I know some Christians who are of a very "retiring"
   disposition--I believe that is their favorite word. I fear the Truth of
   God would say they are cowardly and, therefore, they are silent when
   their witness should be borne. They are willing enough to bear
   testimony when thousands are doing the same and they can shout,
   "Hosanna," when all the streets are ringing with it--but not so many
   are prepared to witness for Christ when the hoarse cry of, "Crucify
   Him! Crucify Him!" is heard on every side. If we are witnesses for God
   we are bound to be witnesses to all that we know, but flesh and blood
   will suggest to us to be out of the way when unpopular Truths are in
   question. Certain brethren find it convenient to insist upon quiet
   portions of the word of God and not on Truths which might cause them
   trouble and provoke discussion. That Doctrine which is already
   received, they will affirm because all men agree with them, but the
   very portion of Truth which most needs witnessing is shirked and even
   looked down upon with disfavor! Let us always be there when there is a
   witness needed to be browbeaten and abused because he states the
   unpalatable Truth of God! Never pick and choose in Truth, or in your
   witness to it. Or if you must make a choice, vindicate most that Truth
   which is most despised. If you happen to be where men are blaspheming,
   witness against that blasphemy, calmly but firmly. If you dwell where
   error is taught, wait till you have a fair

   opportunity and then stand up for Jesus! I do not say that you are to
   rush about like a knight errant, fighting with everybody--but when
   there is a demand for a witness upon any point of Truth, be you the man
   and witness a good confession for Jesus your Lord!

   Next, if we are witnesses for God, we should not only be in our place,
   but we should be willing to speak up when the time comes. No redeemed
   man must be in any degree an unwilling witness for his Lord. It is a
   pity when Truth has to be extracted from us with as much difficulty as
   a decayed tooth. That is the best wine which flows most freely from the
   grape and that is the best testimony which a man bears with cheerful
   spirit because he values the Truth in his own soul, and would have
   others prize it too! The thought that our Lord Jesus was silent for us
   should prevent our ever being silent towards Him. One word from His
   mouth in Pilate's Hall would have broken the spell which bound Him to
   death, but He would not speak it. And now, if one word from our lips
   would sign our death warrant, if it is a word for Truth and Christ, let
   us speak it and joyfully accept the consequences! God's true children
   are never born dumb--therefore speak out like a true man. What you
   know, tell! What God has taught you, teach! What you have learned in
   the closet, proclaim on the housetop! And what was whispered in your
   ear in communion with your God, blaze it abroad before all men! Speak
   up, speak up for Jesus!

   It is required of the Lord's witnesses that they speak the Truth, the
   whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. Every witness in the court is
   sworn to do that, and every child of God is bound by the most solemn
   obligations to his Lord to do the same. Our God never requires a man to
   tell a lie for Him. The Jesuits have held the theory that the end
   sanctifies the means. And so those--I was going to say, diabolical
   beings--suppose they are glorifying God when they heap lies, pile on
   pile! One of the chief qualifications for a priest is to be able to
   tell a lie without the slightest sign of blushing-- and I must give
   some of them credit for great proficiency in the art. Our Lord would
   not have us speak falsely for Him or even suppress the Truth to serve
   His cause! Occasions may sometimes arise when you feel--"Well, I don't
   know. My friend will be annoyed if I confess that Truth of God. So I
   think I will not exactly deny my belief in it, but I will depreciate it
   as a small matter of very slender importance." Thus you will do evil
   that good may come! Some say to themselves, "I am in a false position,
   but had I not better remain in it, for it gives me great opportunities
   for usefulness. It is true I do not believe in the teaching of my
   church, but may I not still belong to it? Her catechism and ritual do
   not represent my views and there are many persons of an opposite way of
   thinking who are very glad to use the very language which I profess to
   believe in and express, thereby, the most abominable of dogmas. All
   this is deplorable, but had I not better put up with it and go on as I
   am?"

   My dear Friend, I do not believe that God ever desires any of His
   people to occupy a position in which they cannot be strictly truthful!
   And I do not believe that He will justify them in retaining such a
   position. Whether I am useful or not is not one half as much my
   business as whether I am faithful and true. Equivocation and
   suppression of Truth cannot serve the cause of God! You are to speak
   the truth for God. He does not want you in one syllable or word to
   speak anything but the truth. And you are to bring out all His Truth as
   far as the Lord has taught it to you. Do not conceal anything on the
   ground of policy! At the same time do not exalt any one Truth out of
   its fair proportion. If a man's portrait had to be drawn, it would be a
   mistake to paint his nose and nothing else, or to make that organ so
   large that you could not see his eyes. Never distort the Truth of God.
   Some Doctrines fill up the background of a picture, but were never
   meant to stand in the front. Still, background, foreground and every
   part must be truthful. My Lord will not call liars to witness for Him,
   for they are detestable in His sight!

   Remember, also, that we must be personal witnesses. A witness the other
   day got as far as, "And he says to me, says he"--but he was immediately
   stopped with the sharp rebuke that it was not evidence and could not be
   listened to. In our courts of law we do not allow secondhand evidence.
   "No," says the judge, "what did you see yourself, my good man? We need
   to know that." It is so with regard to your witness for God. You must
   testify what you have seen and felt for yourselves. It is very easy to
   read biographies of good men and then come forward and talk
   experience--but it is a very wicked thing to do. Let your experience be
   your own and your testimony for God be what you have tasted and handled
   of His good Word. There is a vast difference between secondhand
   spiritual gossiping experience and the firsthand personal testing and
   trying of the promise and the Word of God. You cannot tell what power
   you will have with children if you tell them how the Lord dealt with
   you when you were a child--and upon the unconverted if you tell them
   what you have discovered of the folly of sinful pleasures and the
   emptiness of the world. Nothing is more useful to a young convert than

   to tell him how you found the Savior and what the Savior has been to
   you. In dealing with those who are doubting and desponding, your own
   trials and your own deliverances will be the most helpful subjects.
   Personal experience must furnish you with personal testimony--and this
   you must never withhold.

   In the matter of witnesses, there are great differences between one and
   another. Two witnesses may speak the truth, but you would far sooner
   believe one than the other because of the previous character of the
   witness. Good lawyers do not count heads--they weigh them--and if they
   have one man of known position and honesty, and he will assert such a
   thing, they scarcely need to support his evidence, whereas,
   half-a-dozen witnesses of rather a shady description will scarcely be
   able to prove a fact. In witnessing for God, the holier your character,
   the better. It does not do to say one thing with your mouth and another
   thing with your hand. Your witness for Jesus Christ in the school will
   be spoiled if at home there is no piety, if in business there is a lack
   of honesty. If your character is doubtful, you will rather damage than
   help the good cause. The devil once wanted to be a witness for Christ
   and some of us would have thought it would be a fine stroke of policy
   to put the devil into the box and make him speak the truth--but the
   Lord Jesus Christ would not have it. He said, "Hold your peace and come
   out of him." The Truth of God did not need any assistance from the
   Father of Lies! I do not invite the ungodly man to be a witness for
   Jesus Christ. Unto the wicked, God says, "What have you to do to
   declare My statutes?" Still, if you are a child of God, the weight of
   your evidence will be considerably lessened if your character is not
   pure. For your Lord's sake, then, I beseech you, watch your lives and
   walk according to His commands. Oh, never let it is said that Christ
   was wounded by us--by us for whom He died--by us who have leaned our
   heads upon His bosom! God grant that from first to last we may be
   mighty witnesses because our character is known and read of all men.
   May the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us, help us in this matter!

   One thing more. Every witness should be ready to bear
   cross-examination. Oh, how some Christians dislike this! Even as to
   joining a Church, I frequently hear my Brother ministers say that we
   should make the way into the Church as easy as possible, that we should
   not question the "dear young friends," and a lot of rubbish of that
   kind! I, on the other hand, believe that if they cannot give a reason
   for the hope that is in them, it is time they should learn! And if they
   cannot face their own Christian Brothers and Sisters and relate their
   experience, it is more their minister's fault than theirs! I am not
   going to gather together a horde of cowardly members, nor excuse any
   from declaring what the Lord has done for their souls! There are plenty
   of churches where young ladies and gentlemen are taken in because they
   write a very pretty little letter and some friend hopes they are all
   right, and so they are received--and thus we are inundated with people
   who never speak for Christ and tremble to call their souls their own!
   We have too much of this kid-gloved, lavender-watered religion, and for
   my part I would not care to march through the world with such a
   regiment of feather-bed soldiers! Give me the men who can bear
   persecution, who are ready to go into the streets and preach Christ at
   the corners, and are bold to speak a word for Jesus to anybody they
   shall meet! We need a race of heroes--of cowards we already have
   plenty! Dear Friends, we must bear to be cross-examined, for the world
   will cross-examine us with harsh words, sneers, insinuations,
   misrepresentations and lies. The more outspoken we are, the more of
   running the gauntlet we shall have to undergo--but we must be prepared
   for it. If our grandfathers, not without blood, passed to their thrones
   and we have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, shall we
   speak of Christ with bated breath, or dastardly consent to hold our
   tongues? "I had as well not be, as live to be in awe of such a thing as
   I, myself." Is a Christian to be afraid of man and conceal his
   principles for fear he should be ridiculed? God forbid! Leave shame for
   those who have no religion, or have a religion which is of no value!
   Let us be true witnesses for Christ in life and death, worthy of the
   ancestors that went before us and mindful of the eyes which rest upon
   us!

   II. We will now change the strain and dwell upon the fact that WE HAVE
   EVIDENCE TO GIVE. Let us enquire to what matters of fact we are able to
   bear witness?

   Let us think a little. Supposing us all to be Christian--we cannot all
   bear witness to precisely the same facts because there is a growth of
   experience--but there are some facts to which all of us who know the
   Lord can bear most positive testimony.

   First, we can bear witness to many of the attributes of God, as for
   instance, that He is true. We find Him stating in His Word that man is
   fallen--that his heart is deceitful. Is it so, Brothers and Sisters?
   What is your witness about yourselves? If you cannot speak of other
   people, how do you find it in yourselves? Truly I must bear painfully
   decided witness to the depravity of my heart! When I saw, or thought I
   saw, the evil of my nature, I was driven to despair by the sight!

   And though a sight of Jesus Christ has given me peace, yet I can never
   forget how vile my nature is. It only needs that God should withdraw
   His Grace and as the floods drowned all the world, so would the deeps
   of our depravity drown everything gracious within us! We know that God
   has spoken the Truth there because facts in our own case prove it. The
   Lord has promised that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall
   have eternal life. We have believed in Jesus Christ--have we found that
   new life has been bestowed to us? Let us speak out. Are we conscious of
   possessing a heavenly life? If there is anything true in the world, we
   are sure that this is so! Grace has changed us. Eyes have we with which
   we see the invisible! Ears have we with which we hear the eternal! We
   have learned to realize the things not seen as yet--our faith is "the
   substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen."
   There is a spirit life within us. We cannot describe it. We could not
   make another man who is unconscious of such a life know what it is--but
   that we have it is a certain fact and we bear willing witness to it!
   There are some who ridicule religion altogether and have ridiculed this
   fact among the rest, yet they have no right to do so. There are many of
   us who are as honest and trustworthy as other people, and almost as
   sensible. If we were to enter a witness box, our evidence would not be
   questioned--even those who ridicule us would believe us there--why do
   they not believe us now? Why they should think it proven that there is
   no such thing as a new life because they have not felt it, I cannot
   see! Negative evidence is worthless in such a case. If we bear
   testimony that we have felt it, it is fair that they should accept the
   testimony, whether they personally know the truth of it or not. At any
   rate, let us be very, very plain about it and say, "Yes, our God was
   true in what He said about our fallen state, and God is true in what He
   says about the renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit through faith in
   Jesus Christ."

   That God is true will also appear in His answering our prayers, His
   delivering us in time of trial, His fulfilling His promises and in many
   other ways. Whenever any of these occur to us, let us stand forth as
   witnesses and say, "Surely the Lord is true."

   We ought, also, to bear witness, Beloved, to the love of God. We have
   an old proverb that everybody should speak as he finds. Speak of the
   Lord as you have found Him. I am sure that this is more than I shall
   ever be able to do to my own satisfaction. My blessed God! Was there
   ever any like You? If the gods of the heathen were gods, yet were they
   not worthy to be mentioned in the same day with our blessed God! What
   love He has lavished upon some of us! I doubt not that all of you who
   know the Lord will echo my words, but I must say that the Lord
   surprises me every day with His loving kindness and His tender mercies!
   He melts me down by the fires of His Grace. I cannot understand why He
   is so good to me. If He had only pardoned His rebellious child and
   allowed Him to be a dishwasher in the royal kitchen, I would have
   kissed His feet with gratitude, but behold, He has said to me, "You are
   no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir, and a joint
   heir with Jesus Christ." If He had only permitted me to have one
   glimpse of His love, so as to let my soul know that I was not utterly
   lost, I would have praised Him to all eternity! Instead of which, He
   has made all His goodness pass before me and proclaimed His glorious
   name. As to His tenderness to me in Providence, His goodness in
   chastening, His gentleness in restoring me--I am overwhelmed with it!
   Blessed be His name! You may have what master you like, but He is mine
   forever! And you may worship what god you please, but I will have none
   but the Lord! You may praise up your beauties as you please, but my
   Beloved is altogether lovely!

   Again, Brothers and Sisters, we can testify to our Lord's wisdom, can
   we not? We younger folk cannot do it as well as our elders, but my
   veteran friends here who are getting into their sixties and seventies
   delight us when they speak of the wisdom of the Lord. You are living
   proofs that all the ways of the Lord are wise, for He has overruled all
   things for your good and here you are, to praise His name! By-and-by,
   when life's journey is more nearly over, we shall be able to tell to
   others yet more of that wisdom and prudence wherein the Lord has
   abounded towards us. For the present let us testify what we know.

   Beloved Friends, we can also bear witness to the Immutability of God.
   Of course, our span of life is so little at the longest, that we cannot
   bear much witness to the eternal unchangeableness of Jehovah. Still,
   take our 25 years of Christian experience--or some of you can take your
   fifty--has there been any change in your God? We are fickle as the
   winds that blow, but there certainly has been no change in Him! He
   loved us and He loves us still! He forgave us and He forgives us still!
   He chastened us and He chastens us still! And He sustained us and He
   sustains us still--

   "Immutable His will Tho' dark may be my frame, His loving heart is
   still Eternally the same!

   My soul thro'many changes goes, His love no variation knows."

   We have proved this by actual trial. Perhaps in the time of trouble we
   thought that His love was failing us, but in looking back we confess
   how wrong we were. There was as much love in the Lord's chastening as
   in His caresses. We were as much loved when we were hiding under the
   shadow of His wings as when we were reveling in the light of His
   Countenance. Blessed be His name, He changes not!

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, besides the things which have a manifest
   respect to God, in which we are witnesses to the Character of the Most
   High, there are other facts to which we testify and one is this--we can
   witness to the power of prayer. As I uttered that last word, my eye
   caught the glance of a Sister below me whom I will not indicate. She
   and I know how we wrestled together in prayer for a certain sick
   daughter and how the Lord heard us, so that I rose from my knees and
   said to her, "Go your way. You will find your daughter recovering when
   you reach the house." She knows that she found it so and how, since
   then, in many other ways, God has heard her prayers. I speak to some
   with whom prayer is an everyday matter--a commerce with God which they
   do not carry on at certain seasons, but all the year round--and if you
   do that, answers to prayer become so usual that you forget a large
   proportion of them and only the more singular abide upon your memory.
   If a man tells me that God does not hear prayer, I laugh in his face!
   He might as well tell me that the sun does not shine, or that twice two
   does not make four! God hears prayer every day and every hour of the
   day--and I know it--and a man might sooner beat me out of the belief
   that I exist than out of this knowledge that God listens to my
   requests! Upon this point I do not stand alone, for there are thousands
   who will unite in declaring, "Verily, there is a God that hears
   prayer!" When I hear Brothers and Sisters say how amazing it is that
   God has heard prayer, I think it far more amazing that they should talk
   so--for surely it is not surprising that Godshould keep His Word! No,
   these are the commonplace of genuine Christianity--a prayer-giving God
   working in the heart--and a prayer-answering God working both in
   Providence and in Grace. Brothers and Sisters, never be slow to bear
   your testimony to a prayer-hearing God.

   We are also quite clear upon the efficacy of the Gospel. Where the
   Gospel is truly preached, there will be results and where the Gospel is
   believed, it is the power of God unto salvation. Some here present are
   witnesses to that. You have taught a class in the school and you have
   seen the boys or girls converted to God. There are Brothers in
   connection with this Church who have evangelized the lowest parts of
   London, and they have seen those regions abound in precious fruit unto
   God! Others have introduced the Gospel to the utterly fallen and they
   have seen them reclaimed. The manhood which appeared extinct has become
   bright! The womanhood which seemed to be crushed out has shone like a
   precious jewel! God's Gospel has done wonders! It is not remarkable
   that a minister gets skeptical if he never sees conversions. The proof
   of the Gospel lies in what it does. If it does not save men from
   sinning, if it does not lift up the fallen, if it does not give light
   and joy to the despairing, then surely it lacks the evidences of its
   Divine mission--for even Jesus Christ, Himself, gave to His own mission
   this as the proof--"The deaf hear, the blind see, the lepers are
   cleansed, the poor have the Gospel preached to them." If these things
   are not true, now, we may doubt whether the Gospel which we preach is
   the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But we can bear witness and, oh, how
   joyfully we do it--that the Gospel has not lost its power!

   Another point. As God's witness we can speak to the sweetness of near
   communion with Him--a theme upon which I hardly dare to trust my
   wandering tongue. Oh, Brothers and Sisters, there is nothing like the
   joy which comes of high fellowship with God. Mr. Aitken told us the
   other afternoon that he would give us a recipe for being miserable. I
   think his words were--"be half-and-half Christians." He said, "If you
   are a worldling, you will get some sort of pleasure-- you will get the
   painted bubble, though it will soon burst, but you will get that. And
   if you are a genuine, thoroughgoing Christian you will get the joy of
   the Lord. But if you are a sort of neither-this-nor-the-other, you will
   get nothing." Have you never seen little boys, when they go to bathe in
   the morning, stand up to their knees shivering? Of course they shiver!
   The way to get warm is to plunge in head first. Some professors stand
   in very shallow water and they shiver and cry--

   "'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought"--

   and so on. Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, give yourself up wholly to
   Christ, and the joy of the Lord will be yours as it is ours! These are
   some of the things we can speak of.

   III. Very briefly, in the third place. When a witness is called for one
   side he is against the other side--so we also must remember that OUR
   EVIDENCE CONDEMNS THE OTHER SIDE.

   We are witnesses against sin. Sin comes with a painted face like
   Jezebel, but we witness that she is a destroyer and must die. The
   pleasures of sin are but a masquerade of misery. Happy they who never
   drink of the cup which this siren presents. May God grant that none of
   our young friends may try the pleasures of vice, for they are as deadly
   hemlock. Those who have been converted in later life bear very
   sorrowful witness that sin is misery and that the wages of sin is
   death.

   We bear witness also against self. Many say with the proverb, "Self is
   the man"--self will save! Self is righteous! But our witness is that
   self has no strength to perform his own resolutions, that self is a
   ragged beggar when he thinks himself a king--that self is emptiness and
   vanity, deceit and death! We bear that witness now and we always shall
   have to bear it!

   We bear our witness against unbelief. Is there any Christian here who
   has ever gained anything by being unbelieving? Has any child of God
   ever escaped from trouble by mistrusting the faithfulness of the Lord?
   No. We have been losers all round by our unbelief, but never gainers.
   Unbelief is a sorry cheat. Mr. Bunyan says that Incredulity was taken
   and condemned to be hung, but he very rightly said that he broke out of
   prison, "for he was a nimble-jack." The only part of "Pilgrim's
   Progress" that I felt inclined to find fault with was where Mr.
   Greatheart cut Giant Despair's head off--for to my knowledge he is
   still alive. But Bunyan sets that right by saying in his rhyme--

   "Sin can rebuild his castle, make it remain, And make Despair, the
   giant, live again!" Oh, that wretched unbelief! Brethren, let your
   witness against it be clear and distinct!

   Moreover, we bear testimony against Satan, whom we know to be a
   deceiver, a liar and a murderer. Evil is never good, nor dare we give
   place to it in order to turn it to useful ends. We must resist the Evil
   One, remain steadfast in the faith and always witness that he is the
   deadly foe of the soul, whatever disguise he may assume.

   IV. In closing, let me say that there are times when our witness is
   peculiarly valuable. Do you ask--And when is that? I reply, Your
   witness will be precious when others are sinfully silent. If you live
   in a place where there are few earnest Christians, and error abounds,
   be faithful, my Brother, my Sister. Your light is needed where lamps
   are few. You need not find fault with others, for that will not help
   the matter. If the place is dark, shine the more. If error prevails,
   hold forth the Truth. There is no argument against error equal to the
   Truth of God advocated, delighted in and practiced! Testimony becomes
   more precious as it becomes more scarce. You might have held your
   tongue, perhaps, had advocates been plentiful, but now that they are so
   few, be doubly earnest like your Divine Lord to bear witness to the
   Truth!

   Witnesses become valuable, again, in times of persecution. Have you
   been made to suffer for Christ's sake? Brother, Sister, be glad, for,
   "so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you." If you can be
   patient, if you can bear ridicule without resentment, if, being
   reviled, you do not revile again, you have a grand opportunity! The
   world looks on a man under scoffing and ridicule to observe how he
   behaves. And if he conducts himself like a Christian, it feels his
   power and respects his consistency. Give way a little, and you will
   have to give way more--and be despised! But adherence to principle
   commands respect. Put your foot down! Stand firmly where God would have
   you stand, and your testimony will gather value from the very ridicule
   which is poured upon it.

   My Brothers and Sisters, your testimony will be none the less valuable
   because you are poor Nothing does the Gospel more honor than the godly
   lives of humble Christians. It honors the Gospel when a man both wears
   a coronet and prays, but how few have done so! The poor man who is
   happy, contented, thankful and trustful is one of God's nobility, and
   the Church of God honors him! We rejoice to see such men standing in
   the witness box to declare the loving kindness of the Lord!

   Testimony becomes all the weightier as we grow older. People pay more
   attention to the words of experienced men. It is natural and right that
   they should do so. As years creep upon us, we ought to be all the more
   earnest that our testimony for God should be clear, solid and frequent.
   An aged Christian who has little or nothing to say for his Master is a
   sad drawback to young beginners. I very greatly deprecate the example
   of some who have long been professors, but who still remain babes in
   Christ, if they are in Christ at all. It is a great pity to see the
   head white with the sunlight of Heaven, and yet so little of Heaven in
   the daily conversation. Rise up, you grave and reverend sires, and
   declare the faithfulness of our God!

   Very choice, too, are the testimonies of the sick. It is a great trial
   when those whom we love are continually suffering. We wish we could
   bear their pains awhile and give them respite, yet no greater blessing
   can come to a man's house than an afflicted child of God. The tried
   ones go so deep, they speak so sincerely and so touchingly. There is no
   nonsense about their religion. Racking pain very soon drives away
   illusions, and pretences and shams do not stand before the solemn
   reality of continued sickness. Witnesses in the furnace of affliction
   are powerful indeed! We hear no songs in the night till breasts are
   pierced with the thorn. If there were not some who, like the Arab
   divers, plunge deep into the depths of sorrow, we should have fewer
   pearls but there are such and their testimonies are precious. When your
   turn and mine comes to go upstairs awhile and preach from our beds, God
   grant that we may deliver gracious sermons!

   Lastly, there is something peculiarly valuable about the testimony of
   the dying saint. The Lord might well say to these, "You are My
   witnesses." Some of us remember testimonies that we were privileged to
   gather up from dying men's lips and they have been great strengtheners
   to our faith. I remember a Brother who used to walk out to preach in
   the villages, a man of very little talent, but with a great heart. I
   hardly know any word of witness more powerful than the utterances of
   his last hours. He was blinded by disease, and when he heard a friend's
   voice he addressed him thus--

   "And when you see my eye strings break, How sweet my minutes roll! A
   mortal paleness on my cheek, But glory in my soul!" His tones ofjoy
   added deep solemnity to his words.

   Oh, those sweet testimonies of the dying, how we store them up!
   Children talk of Jesus in their last hours as wisely as old men.
   Mothers and fathers leave witnesses behind them precious as gems. But I
   refrain--you and I will go soon--may Divine Grace enable us to expire
   with a glad witness on our tongues!

   Alas, I recollect as I finish that some of you are not witnesses for
   God, for you know nothing about Him! Remember, if you are not witnesses
   for God, you will be prisoners at His bar and you must either occupy
   the witness box for God, or else take the prisoner's place--to be tried
   and found guilty! Oh, Sinners, I wish you would try our God, whose
   witnesses we are! If we had found Him untrue, we would tell you! If we
   had found that Christ could not save, we would tell you. If we had
   found that God could not pardon, we would tell you! If religion made us
   miserable, we would tell you, or you would find it out! If God could
   not be trusted in Providence and did not hear prayer, we would tell
   you, for we hope we would not maintain a lie! But we have no such
   disclosures to make! We bear our willing testimony for God! Remember,
   it is written, "Him that comes to Me, I will in nowise cast out." Go
   and test the veracity of that promise and God bless you, for Jesus'
   sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CHRONICLES 21:1-8.

   Verse 1. And Satan stood up against Israel, andprovoked David to number
   Israel Israel had greatly offended and grieved God, and it was to be
   punished. God punished one sin by another--the sin of David works for
   the chastisement of a sinful people.

   2. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number
   Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me,
   that I may know it. He had gotten proud. He had begun to depend upon
   the number of his people. In truth, it was a large population under his
   sway--five millions or more--and he who had been a shepherd lad, who in
   his early youth had trusted in his God--now thinking himself a great
   man, somewhat in the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, begins to say, "Behold,
   this great kingdom that I have gathered and founded."

   3. And Joab answered, The LORD make His people an hundred times as many
   more as they are: but, my Lord, the King, are they not all my Lord's
   servants? Why, then, does my Lord require this thing? Why will he be a
   cause of trespass to Israel? It adds greatly to a wrong action if we
   are checked in it--and especially if we are checked in it by a man who
   has not any conscience to spare, but yet, notwithstanding his
   roughness, such as Joab had, nevertheless expostulates with you, "why
   do this?" The people generally understood that when they were numbered,
   it was with a view to taxing them, it was with a view of showing
   David's sovereignty over them. Now David was not their sovereign, the
   Lord God was

   their King--David was but the Viceroy--and when he began to count them
   as though they were his own, it was a source of great indignation to
   the Most High. I am afraid when you and I begin to count up what we
   have done, begin to reckon upon how much we have given, or how much we
   have effected for God, we begin to appropriate a measure of glory to
   ourselves. We had better leave that alone, for although pride may not
   seem a great sin in the eyes of men, it is assuredly that which brings
   the utmost wrath from the Most High! He cannot endure pride, especially
   in those whom He has lifted up. He took David from the sheepfold--and
   if David has now become great--David must be brought down again.

   4-6. Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore
   Joab departed and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
   And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all
   they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men
   that drew sword; and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand
   men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them:
   for the king's word was abominable to Joab. So he did no more of it
   than he could possibly help.

   7, 8. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He smote Israel
   And David cried unto God, I have sinned greatly, because Ihave done
   this thing: but nowIbeseech You, do away the iniquity of Your servant;
   for Ihave done very foolishly. We read that David's heart smote him.
   Although he had gone wrong, he was, nevertheless, a good man, and when
   an ambitious man sins, it is a great sin, but it is not long that he
   continues in it--his conscience is awakened--the Spirit of God is in
   him. David's heart smote him. That is a terrible blow when your own
   heart smites you! If you never feel any other person smiting you, you
   will feel that.
     __________________________________________________________________

"A Greater Than Solomon"

   (No. 3166)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 29,
   1873.

   "The Queen of the South shall rise up in thejudgment with this
   generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts
   of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and, behold, a greater than
   Solomon is here." Matthew 12:42.

   WE cannot tell exactly who the Queen of the South was, nor exactly
   where Sheba lay. The expression used is Yemen, the south. Yemen is the
   name of a part of Arabia Felix and it would appear from the spices
   which the Queen brought with her that she came from that region. At the
   same time, the Abyssinians claim her as having been their queen. They
   say that she was converted through her conversations with Solomon, that
   afterwards the faith of God was preserved in the country, and hence
   that that famous Ethiopian, who was a eunuch of great authority under
   Candace in later times, was a proselyte to the Jewish faith on account
   of that faith existing in Abyssinia. We do not know. It may have been
   so and it is possible that the supposition of her having come from
   Arabia--and the supposition of her having come from Abyssinia may both
   be true--for it appears that the two countries were at one time under
   the same government, both shores of the Red Sea making up in far
   distant ages one empire. And she may have been the queen of both.

   Very extraordinary are the stories which tradition has handed down with
   regard to her--some of them not to be repeated--others of them, when
   repeated, not at all ministering to the profit of the hearer. They tell
   us of many things with which she tried Solomon. Among the rest there is
   a tale of her bringing some flowers, artificial flowers most
   beautifully made, so that no one could detect them and, putting before
   Solomon the real and the manufactured, she asked him which were the
   true flowers. The wise king simply ordered that the windows should be
   opened and he observed to which flowers the bees flew--and at once knew
   which were the true flowers of the gardens. Many other things are
   reported concerning attempts she made to test him, but the king in
   every case, of course, came off triumphant. Scripture has omitted these
   because they would be of no spiritual use to us--and the Book was not
   written to minister to curiosity, but to be helpful to the salvation of
   our souls.

   This evening all that we shall have to say about her will hang upon
   this fact--that she came from the very ends of the earth, from a far
   off and remote country--to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And that in this
   she rebukes persons who lived in the age of Christ and, I also think we
   had better come to make it practical, and say that she rebukes many of
   us.

   The points in which she rebukes us, or some of us, will be six. I will
   mention them one by one.

   I. The first is this. Her interest in Solomon was readily awakened. She
   heard different reports concerning him and she took an interest in
   them. She heard that he was the wisest of kings. Then she thought
   within herself, "I would like to know wherein he is wise, and be a
   partaker of his wisdom." She was told that he was the richest of
   monarchs. Then she thought, "I would like to see something of his
   glory--the vast magnificence with which he surrounds himself." Some
   talked about that wonderful house which he had built for his God--the
   Temple, a building so glorious that none had ever rivaled it, and she
   said, "I should like to see it." They spoke of the mighty stones which
   he had moved from afar, and squared and fashioned and dropped into
   their places without the use of hammer or engraving tools and she
   wondered how this was done. His wisdom, his wealth and his various
   building works, no doubt, were told to her again and again. And she
   sought out persons who could tell her yet more, gathered up all the
   information possible and took an interest in it. I do not see so very
   much that is commendable in that except that it shows that she was a
   woman of mind--a woman of intelligence--that while many of her day
   would have passed the matter over with, "Well, it may be so, but it is
   noth-

   ing to me," or would have made it a nine days wonder. She, on the other
   hand, had her whole mind stirred by it, thought it over, and laid it to
   heart.

   Here is the point, however, at which the Savior aimed when He said that
   she would rise up in judgment against many, "For," He said, "she took
   an interest in Solomon, but you take no interest in Christ." A greater
   than Solomon was in the streets of Jerusalem, but the mass of the
   people cared not who He was! He went up and down the sacred land
   proclaiming the Gospel--the bulk of the people took some interest in
   the bread and the fish with which He fed them, but not in the Doctrine
   which He taught! And while He claimed to be Divine, and asserted
   Himself to be the Son of David and the King of the Jews--and also to be
   the Son of God, God over All, blessed forever--great crowds turned away
   from Him as though it was nothing at all to them and utterly despised
   Him. Here was a woman, a stranger, a foreigner--not of Jewish race--and
   yet her enquiring mind rendered her inquisitive about the great king
   whose scepter of peace was swayed over so wide a territory! And here
   were those who were of the same race as Jesus, who saw Him at their
   doors and heard Him in their streets--and yet they passed Him by as
   though it were a mere trifle with which they had no concern!

   Now, in the present day, Jesus Christ is not here. He is risen and gone
   back to His Father But His Gospel is with us, and every day it is
   proclaimed. What multitudes gather together on the Sabbath, but out of
   the great city of London how comparatively few are those multitudes,
   for the mass of our fellow citizens do not attend the means of Grace at
   all. It seems to be no matter of curiosity to them to know who the
   Savior is, or how they can be saved by Him. It is enough to make the
   heart bleed to think that next door to places where the Gospel is
   proclaimed with the greatest power there will be found persons who
   actually never enter within the place where it is preached--and who
   have no care to enter, and who, if pressed to go and hear the Word,
   would say that they did not care to do so! Nor is it merely those that
   stay away. The worst of it is that many who do come yet come
   carelessly. Perhaps many of you are well acquainted with the letter of
   the Gospel, but you have never enquired into the spirit of it. You know
   that Christ is a Savior, but yet you do not know what it is to be
   saved! You hear that faith is the great instrument of salvation but you
   have no faith and do not practically know what faith is. You have never
   bestirred yourselves to make enquiry! You have not set yourselves down
   doggedly to search into Scripture and see what is the Truth of God. You
   have not turned over page after page to find what there is for you, or
   promise after promise to see what promise you might lay hold of and
   claim as your own. You have not stirred, though God is at your doors,
   though Christ is close to you, though the Kingdom of God has come near
   unto you! You are content to sit and listen to the Gospel which is more
   precious than diamonds, and yet treat it as though it were a common
   thing!

   What would the dying give if they could have their Sabbaths back again?
   What would the damned in Hell give if they could hear the Gospel once
   more? What would we, any of us, give in the Day of Judgment if we could
   once more stand where Mercy could deal with us and where the silver
   scepter could be extended to us with the blessed invitation, "Believe
   and live"? Ah, it seems to you, perhaps, child's play to preach and to
   listen to sermons, but a day will come when this will be the most
   solemn work of all! The greatest events of history are not the battles
   of the conquerors, not the changes of dynasties, but the preaching or
   the non-preaching of the Gospel--the putting of the candle into the
   candlestick, or the taking of the candlestick out of its place! The
   most important points in English history are the points where shone the
   light of Christ's Cross, or the eras wherein that light was dimmed by
   superstition! And to every unconverted person here the most important
   thing is, if he did but know it, that he is still within Mercy's
   reach--he is still where he may look to Jesus and be saved--he is still
   where he is wooed and entreated to turn from the error of his ways that
   he may live!

   But, alas, it does not seem so to the most of men. They are all agog
   about a racehorse or about a famous trial at law! They are all
   concerned to talk about the rise and fall of markets and even such
   silly things as the petty gossips of a street, or the little jangles of
   a family circle. All these are thought worthy of immortal souls--but
   that the eternal God bowed the heavens and came down to save men, that
   the Infinite became an Infant, that the Ever-Blessed stooped to be spit
   upon and to be despised and rejected of men, and that on the Cross He
   offered up a propitiatory Sacrifice for human guilt-- ah, this seems to
   be a mere trifle, a thing for poor religious people to think over, but
   not for your great wits and your smart intellects, not a subject worthy
   of the young man who is in the prime of his abilities, or worthy of the
   thoughtful man who is accustomed to revolve great themes in his mind! O
   Queen of Sheba, you do condemn this listless generation! We can
   scarcely get a hearing for Christ, the most of us who are Christ's
   servants, and those of us who do win a hearing

   have to strain our brain and tax our powers. Whereas if men were in
   their senses, they would be glad to hear Jesus preached in the humblest
   tone, and by the most illiterate of His ambassadors! Now we must seek
   for illustrations and parables and proverbs and goodly words, or else
   men's ears are like the adder's ears that are deaf and stopped. Oh, if
   they were but wise--they would be glad to learn about Jesus Christ even
   if the Gospel were put in the most dull form! And they would be pleased
   to find Him to be their Savior whoevermight conduct them to Him!

   Thus you see, then, first of all, the Queen of Sheba condemns many for
   lack of interest in the Gospel.

   II. Secondly, she equally condemns many for their lack of candor in
   judging about the Savior. She was a candid woman. There was a rumor
   about Solomon. Well, it is probable that she did not believe all the
   rumor as it came to her. In fact, she told Solomon she did not believe
   it. It seemed too good to be true, too great for her to receive it all.
   She knew, as we do, that things that travel generally, like snowballs,
   grow bigger as they roll, and that many a thing which is a Niagara ten
   thousand miles away would dribble into a very small lake if it were
   anywhere nearer home. Travelers proverbially take considerable license
   and we are obliged, and we usually do, perhaps, too much diminish their
   reports in order to get at the truth. Now, this woman was so candid
   that she desired to hear more, and whenever a Phoenician boat touched
   on her shore, she would enquire of those great navigators what they
   knew concerning the prince who was in alliance with Hiram, their king.
   Whenever a caravan came from the east, having crossed Solomon's
   territory to go south, she would get hold of the most intelligent
   persons of the caravan to learn a little more. And she weighed and
   judged and estimated. She was not prejudiced. While she would not
   swallow everything she was told, neither would she reject all, and say,
   "I won't believe a word of it."

   Oh, that men were candid toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ! But the
   mass of men are prejudiced--prejudiced against the Savior and against
   their own salvation. Men sit and make up their minds what the Gospel
   ought to be, and then they do not come to hear what it is but to judge
   what is preached by their own preconceived notions. Many are prejudiced
   by their education. The errors of their father they endorse and the
   mistakes of their mother seems to be a heritage entailed upon them.
   They are not manly enough to think. Oh, a great change would come over
   religious opinion in England if people were not led by that absurd idea
   that they ought to be just what their parents were! If we once could
   grow a race of men and women that would read the Scriptures for
   themselves, and judge of Doctrines for themselves, we would have grand
   times again! The most of men do not think. They want somebody to do
   their thinking for them and they go to the place of worship simply to
   suck in the thoughts of other people--not to judge for themselves! Oh,
   a sorry matter it is to have a set of followers of that sort! A far
   greater thing it is to be surrounded by independent spirits who have
   bowed themselves personally before the shrine of the Truth of
   God--sought for themselves to know what the Truth of God is-- asked for
   themselves the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and so have shaken
   themselves clear of prejudice and come into the clear Light of God!

   I am certain that if many who are now skeptics could but, by God's good
   help, consider the questions which now they think they have decided,
   they would alter their decision. I would like some men to think a
   little about the fact that there are hundreds and even thousands of men
   in this world of good repute--honest, sober men, the very best
   witnesses that a lawyer would desire to put into the box, whom
   everybody would believe--who all bear testimony that Jesus Christ has
   been most precious to them! Without any discrepancy in their
   statements, they declare that He gave peace to them when their
   conscience was disturbed, that He has cured in them the love of sin and
   incited them to seek after holiness. Now, it would be strange if all
   these people were mistaken! There must be somethingin their
   testimony--and every candid man ought to accept it as such and then go
   on to try for himself whether it is so or not! The Queen of Sheba had
   not many witnesses. Perhaps some of them were not very reliable. But
   about Christ we have all the Prophets, the Apostles, all the saints
   that followed after them and we have the witness and testimony of
   hundreds at the present day who are all rejoicing in Christ and who
   find Him to be precious to their souls! I do pray you, dear Hearers, if
   you do not know the Gospel, never rest until you do! And in your search
   after the Gospel, lay aside everything which would give a twist to your
   judgment. WEIGH AND PROVE AND TEST. "To the Law and to the Testimony."
   If what you hear preached is not according to that Word, it is because
   there is no Light of God in it. Be as judicious and as candid in
   weighing the evidences as was this Queen of Sheba!

   III. But now again, thirdly, the queen is to be commended and she
   judges us because after having her curiosity aroused, and having
   candidly weighed evidence, she proceeded to make personal
   investigation. She did not send an ambassador to see if it were true.
   That might have helped her, but it would not have satisfied her.
   Neither did she want to pick up further evidence from others. But, as
   long as the distance was, she set off to see for herself! There is
   nothing like that. If a man wants to know, he had better sift the
   evidence himself! "Seeing," she said, "is believing. I will try this
   matter and if I find it so, all very well--my assurance will be doubly
   sure."

   Now, in the matter of the things of Jesus Christ, it is hard to bring
   men to test Him themselves, and yet there is no other way of knowing
   Him. As I have already said, the Queen of Sheba might have known
   something about Solomon by sending an ambassador, but we cannot know
   Christ to any purpose by sending the best possible proxy. We must go to
   Him ourselves. Now every man shall be commended, as well as the Queen
   of Sheba, who shall say in himself, "I hear that faith in Jesus Christ
   quiets the conscience. My conscience is disturbed, so I will go and see
   what reason there is to trust in Christ. I will see who He is and what
   He has done. If I spend night after night in searching it out, I will
   find out what this plan of salvation is which, it is said, affords this
   peace. And I will try it for myself."

   O, Beloved, I am not afraid of what the result would be! It has never
   been my misfortune, yet, to meet with one who said, "I sought the
   Savior and I have not found Him," or, "finding Him I did not find peace
   to my spirit," No, and it shall not be so. No one that trusts in Him
   shall be condemned. There is the matter of faith in prayer, too. You
   are told repeatedly that there is a prayer-hearing God, that answers to
   prayer are received. Now, the best way about that is not to read an
   article against prayer, or to study a book on it, or to weigh
   theoretically the likelihood or the unlikelihood of the case, but to
   try it--try it for yourselves! And those who have resorted to God's
   Mercy Seat in prayer have unanimously been compelled to bear witness
   that there is a power in prayer. "Whether or not God can renew my soul
   if I go and confess my sin to Him is a question, but it is a question I
   mean to have solved." Every wise man will say that. "Whether or not
   there is power in the Gospel of Christ to lift me up from the ruins of
   the Fall and make me a new man, may be a question--but it is a question
   that I will try for myself. I will not leave it to the opinion of this
   or that. The sneer of the skeptic shall not make me doubt it and the
   assurance of the confident professor shall not make me certain of it. I
   will go and try for myself and see."

   I wish you would even come and try Christ with your hard questions, as
   this Queen of Sheba did Solomon. Come and see whetherHe can forgive
   great sins. Come andsee whether He can help you ingreat trials. Come
   and bring to Him your great doubts and your grievous distresses. Come
   and tell Him of your despair and your horrible thoughts, and the
   blasphemous questions that creep through your mind. Come and see
   whether He is a Savior able to save you. It will be a new thing if He
   shall have to say, "You are beyond My power. You have sinned beyond the
   reach of My love." Come and try Him, I say, with your hardest question
   and most difficult case--and you shall only prove the Truth of His
   Word--"Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." The Queen of
   Sheba went for herself, and that is the point. Come see for yourselves.
   May the Spirit of God help you to do so.

   IV. The fourth point in which she deserves our imitation is this--that
   in coming to Solomon she was not to be deterred by great difficulties.
   She was a queen. Must she leave her government? How can that be done?
   Suppose while she was away there should be a rebellion and a riot?
   Great lords and counselors might object to the absence of the supreme
   power, and there might come serious damage to the State through the
   absence of the royal authority. Never mind! She would waive that, and
   she considered that she could afford to run that risk if she might but
   know something of the wisdom of Solomon. Then it was a very long
   journey. Our Lord called it the ends of the earth, and journeys in
   those days were far longer than now--when they had to travel across
   deserts--places where there were no roads, scarcely a goat path. This
   great woman had to gather together a whole train of servants, for she
   could not travel as an ordinary person might. She must take with her,
   in fact, a very great army of attendants--and it might be that the
   tribes through whose territory she passed would rise in arms against
   her! She might be waylaid by robbers, or if not by ordinary robbers
   because her train was too strong, then the very strength of her train
   would provoke the hostility of the various kings through whose
   territory she passed.

   She must have been a bold woman to undertake such a journey. It must
   have been extremely expensive and wondrous-ly hazardous. And yet,
   whatever it might cost her, she was so enamored of wisdom, so fond of
   that which instructs the mind that she must go to hear for herself the
   wisdom of Solomon! But now-a-days, oh, how little a thing keeps men
   from seeking the wisdom of Christ who is far greater than Solomon! To
   go up to the house of God to hear about Him is sometimes wonderfully
   difficult. Persons go out on Monday to business who cannot go out on
   Sunday. It is raining on Sunday

   and it is very curious how rain on Sunday will keep some people
   in--their health is so weak--though the same rain on Monday does not
   affect them at all in that particular way! Have you never observed how
   some persons appear to be periodically ill on Sundays? That seems to be
   a favorite day for being ill! And then they will say they cannot walk
   so far and they would object to ride, the objection probably being to
   going at all! And then you will hear persons say, "Well, I found that I
   must stay at home with this child," or, "I had something that must be
   done in the family." You do not make those excuses if there is going to
   be a party to which you are invited, or if there is some festival to be
   held. Then they make up their mind to go. To go and hear some
   attractive man, or to hear the voice of some sweet singer--that may be
   managed! But to go and hear of Jesus Christ, well, they cannot--they
   cannot manage it. It is too difficult. There is a lion in the way--they
   cannot do it.

   And then, after they have heard of Christ, when it comes to following
   Him, you will hear them say, "Do you know, if I were really to believe
   the Gospel and follow Christ, why, my friends would altogether forsake
   me! I could not do it. I should sink in society. I should not be
   admitted into the circles where I am now received with admiration!" One
   man says, "I do not see how I could carry on my trade." Another says,
   "My mother would persecute me." Another observes, "I am sure my father
   and my brothers would ridicule me out of it. It could not be." They
   cannot make any journey to go to Jesus. They cannot bear any risks for
   Jesus, though the Queen of Sheba could risk everything to hear the
   wisdom of Solomon! Oh, in those old days when Christ was preached on
   the sly, down in the dark catacombs of Rome, servants at the peril of
   their lives stole away from their masters' houses at the dead of night
   to hear the Gospel preached! And in later times of persecution, every
   man that went to sermon went knowing that if he were
   caught--imprisonment, the rack and perhaps death would be the
   result--yet they chose to go! They hungered and thirsted after the
   Bread of Life! Then they followed the preacher--secret signals being
   given--and listened to him wherever the congregation was summoned.

   Do not those people put us to the blush? But now, when we have next to
   nothing to suffer--for really, persecution has become almost a myth
   compared with what it used to be when Smithfield's stakes became fiery
   chariots for God's Elijahs--now we find soft beings that do not dare to
   think! Oh, I would scorn to be what some people are--the slaves of
   their neighbors and their friends!They are always asking, "What will
   Mrs. Grundy say? What will fashion think about it? What will the
   neighbors think of it?" Why, to a brave spirit it might almost tempt us
   to do--I was going to say to do wrong, to escape from the shackles of
   always being bound by custom! But certainly in the doing right, he is
   not worthy of the name of man--and never shall be called a
   Christian--who is always putting such difficulties as these before
   himself and fearing the face of his fellow man! God grant us Grace to
   be willing to lose everything if we may find Christ-- and to sacrifice
   all esteem and friendship if we may but be honest and faithful servants
   of our great Lord and Master!

   V. Now, there is another point in which the Queen of Sheba is to be
   greatly admired. I will be brief upon it and it was this--that when she
   came to Solomon and had seen his wisdom, she was quick to acknowledge
   what she had learned. She said to Solomon that there was no spirit left
   in her at the sight of what she had seen and that the half had not been
   told her.

   Now here I shall speak rather to Christians who know Christ than to
   others. My dear Friends, there is among you who know the Lord a great
   deal too much reticence--quietness about what you know. I do not like a
   man who is so expressive that he says a great deal more than he knows.
   There are some such. On the other hand, it is an injurious thing to
   know much of the things of God, but to be anxious to conceal rather
   than to publish! If our religion had any lies in it, it might be well
   to hide it away. If our religion tended to sin, we might well be so
   ashamed of it as never to mention it. But since the telling of the
   Gospel can never do anybody any hurt--it must always do good since
   there is nothing in our religion we need to blush at, since there is
   everything in it of which we may glory and in which we may boast--we
   cannot too often publish abroad what we know concerning our dear Lord
   and Master. And I ask my dear Brothers and Sisters here. I ask them
   very gently, and pray that their conscience may give the answer--do you
   not think, dear Friends, that sometimes you have been too quiet about
   the things of God? In your own family circle, for instance, have you
   not said a great deal less than you ought to have said about the
   Master? "I have been afraid of being obtrusive," says one. A very
   proper fear, too, for some people--but that fear may be run too hard
   until we might be afraid of another thing, namely, "I was afraid of
   being cowardly." Do you not think that oftentimes when we say to
   ourselves, "I didn't want to intrude," the English of it is that we had
   not the courage to speak, or we thought it the easiest thing to hold
   our tongue? And may not it really be that we have not zeal enough? And
   if we had more love to Christ we would often speak where now we are
   very quiet? When you have weighed the things concerning Christ and,
   above all, have tasted them and tested them for yourself, is it not due
   to the Lord Jesus that you should bear your testimony?.

   There has been a great trial going on about the Savior, Jesus Christ,
   for many a day. Some say, "He is a good Man." "No," say others, "but He
   deceives the people." Some say, "He is the Son of God." Others say,
   "No, He is not." Now, if you know, and know by the best possible means,
   namely, by personal knowledge--by experience, by testing and trying--do
   not stand back, but go into court! Take your place as a witness and
   bear your evidence, for when the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the Glory
   of His Father, with all His holy angels with Him, I for one shall feel
   it a very sweet thing to be able to say, "There He is! There He is!
   They mocked Him, they despised Him, they called Him impostor. They said
   that He was not Divine--they would not have Him for their Savior. But I
   was accustomed to stand up and say I knew Him to be the chief among ten
   thousand and the altogether lovely." I think when I rise from my grave
   it will be no small consolation to feel, "I was on His side. I was
   always on His side. I stood up for Him. It was with a poor feeble
   testimony that was marred in a thousand ways, but still I was on His
   side." I should like--oh, my Brothers and Sisters, I would have all of
   you to be so bearing your witness for Jesus--so lovingly, so wisely, so
   continually, so honestly, so completely that when the Lord came, you,
   too, may be able to say, "I did not deny Him before men. I was not
   ashamed of Him. I did confess Him"--for then, remember, His promise is
   He will confess you before His Father and before the holy angels! When
   you shall come up ashamed, as it were, and trembling, and the question
   will be asked, "Who is this man? Does anybody know him?" and you feel
   in your soul, as it were, as if you expected to be unknown and to be
   driven into banishment, Christ will say, "O My Father, I knew him. I
   knew him. Angels, listen! I knew him. This poor man confessed me in
   Baptism." "This poor woman used to confess Me before her neighbors in
   the court." This merchant lost some of his trade because he followed Me
   so closely." "This little child acknowledged Me, though her father
   mocked Me." This young woman was accustomed to follow My rules and
   Laws, and to live near to Me though all around her were Godless and
   Christless." O, Beloved, do imitate, then, the Queen of Sheba--what you
   know, tell out! Admit it and glorify the greater than Solomon about it!

   VI. The last point about her was this--that after Solomon had told her
   all that she asked, she gave to Solomon so great a treasure that, rich
   as he was, it is said he had never had such a treasure before, or even
   afterwards--she brought to him such costly precious things and she gave
   them freely. He gave her abundance in return. In the exchange, I do not
   suppose she was a loser, but still her heart was so full of
   thankfulness for what she had learned that she could not but make an
   offering unto the king who had been her instructor. I wish all
   Christians would imitate her in this. If we have salvation from Christ,
   let us never count the giving of our substance to Him to be any
   hardship. Let us not need to be pressed to give, or begged to give, or
   incited to give by the example of other people--let us do it
   conscientiously, out of love to Him, doing it as unto Him.

   I heard of a gentleman some time ago who gave a sum of money to a
   Chapel and said to his minister that he might put that down as the
   widow's mite, but his minister said, "No, Sir, I don't think I would
   like to take so much as that from you." "How is that, Sir?" "Why," said
   the minister, "if you had given me only half the widow's mite, that
   would satisfy me." "What do you mean?" "Well," he said, "if you would
   give me £50,000 that would satisfy me well. That is half the widow's
   mite." "How so, Sir?" "Why," he said, "to my knowledge you are worth a
   hundred thousand pounds. The widow's mite was all that she had. I won't
   take as much as thatfrom you. I shall be quite satisfied if you will
   give half the widow's mite." I thought the man who called his offering
   by that sacred name, "the widow's mite," deserved the rebuke that he
   received! Though we have not to give all we have as she did, we should
   give till we feel it--and I think that we do not give much until we
   begin to feel the pinch--until we feel it! We have not done much for a
   friend if we have only given him our superfluities. True love proves
   itself when it comes to something like self-denial, but how few of
   God's servants ever reach to self-denial for Jesus? They could not
   remember, if they sat down, that they ever denied themselves a penny's
   worth of anything to eat or drink, or denied themselves a pound's worth
   of finery, or a comfort in their homes, or anything else for the sake
   of Christ! We should do better if we could get to feel that we love
   Christ so much that we could not give too much to Him.

   Oh, dear Brothers and Sisters, I invite you all--and I ask that I may
   be able myself--to give to our Lord, who is greater than Solomon, our
   whole being, every power of thought and expression, every faculty of
   affection or of judgment--all that we are and all that we have, for if
   we gave Christ our gold and nothing more, He would not accept it! He

   wants us to live from morning's light to evening's shade for Him--to
   eat and drink and sleep to His Glory--to do all to His honor. This is
   the obligation of the Christian and this his truest privilege. May the
   Spirit of God help us rise to this, so that when we came to see King
   Solomon and learn His wisdom, and behold the splendor of His palace, we
   may feel that He has got our hearts to be entirely His own, His portion
   and His treasure, forever and forever! God bless you, dear Friends,
   this night, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW12:38-42.

   Verses 38, 39. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
   answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from You. But He answered
   and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a
   sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the
   Prophet Jonas. The Pharisees change their manner, but they are in
   pursuit of the same object. How hopeless had the religionists of that
   age become! Nothing would convince them. They manifested their hate of
   the Lord Jesus by ignoring all the wonders He had worked. What further
   signs could they seek than those He had already given? Pretty enquirers
   these! They treat all the miracles of our Lord as if they had never
   occurred! Well might the Lord call them, "evil and adulterous," since
   they were so given to personal lasciviousness and were spiritually so
   untrue to God. We have those among us now who are so brazen as to treat
   all the achievements of Evangelical Doctrines as if they were nothing,
   and talk to us as if no result had followed the preaching of the
   Gospel. There is need of great patience to deal wisely with such.

   40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
   so shall the Son ofMan be three days and three nights in the heart of
   the earth. The great sign of our Lord's mission is His Resurrection and
   His preparing a Gospel of salvation for the heathen. His life is well
   symbolized by that of Jonah. They cast our Lord overboard, even as the
   sailors did the man of God. The sacrifice of Jonah calmed the sea for
   the mariners--our Lord's death made peace for us. Our Lord was a while
   in the heart of the earth as Jonah was in the depth of the sea but He
   rose again, and His ministry was full of the power of His Resurrection.
   As Jonah's ministry was certified by his restoration from the sea, so
   is our Lord's ministry attested by His rising from the dead. The man
   who had come back from death and burial in the sea commanded the
   attention of all Nineveh, and so does the risen Savior demand and
   deserve the obedient faith of all to whom His message comes!

   41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and
   shall condemn it because they repented at thepreaching of Jonas; and
   behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The heathen of Nineveh were
   convinced by the sign of a Prophet restored from burial in the sea. And
   moved by that event, they repented at his preaching. Without quibble or
   delay they put the whole city in mourning and pleaded with God to turn
   from His anger. Jesus came with a clearer command of repentance, and a
   brighter promise of deliverance--but He spoke to stubborn hearts. Our
   Lord reminds the Pharisees of this and, as they were the most Jewish of
   Jews, they were touched to the quick by the fact that heathens
   perceived what Israel did not understand, and that Ninevites repented
   while Jews were hardened!

   All men will rise at the judgment-- " The men of Nineveh shall rise."
   The lives of penitents will condemn those who did not repent! The
   Ninevites will condemn the Jews "because they repented at the preaching
   of Jonas." And the Jews did not. Those who heard Jonah and repented
   will be swift witnesses against those who heard Jesus and refused His
   testimony.

   The standing witness to our Lord is His Resurrection from the dead. God
   grant that everyone of us, believing that unquestionable fact, may be
   so assured of His mission, that we may repent and believe the Gospel.

   RESURRECTION is one proof. In fact, it is THE SIGN, although, as we
   shall see, it is supplemented by another. The two will convince us or
   condemn us.

   42. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this
   generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts
   of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than
   Solomon is here. The second sign of our Lord's mission is HIS KINGLY
   WISDOM. As the fame of Solomon brought the Queen of the South from the
   uttermost parts of the earth, so does the Doctrine of our Lord command
   attention from the utmost isles of the sea. If Israel perceives not His
   glorious wisdom, Ethiopia and Seba shall hear of it and come bowing
   before Him. The Queen of Sheba will rise again, and will "rise up"as a
   witness against unbelieving Jews, for she journeyed far to hear
   Solomon, while they would not hear the Son of God, Himself, who came
   into their midst. The superlative excellence of His wisdom stands for
   our Lord as a sign which can never be effectually disputed. What other
   teaching meets all the needs of men? Who else has revealed such Grace
   and Truth? He is infinitely greater than Solomon, who from a moral
   point of view exhibited a sorrowful littleness. Who but the Son of God
   could have made known the Father as He has done?
     __________________________________________________________________

The Christian's Helmet

   (No. 3167)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1866.

   "And for a helmet the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

   THE very mention of a helmet may well seem to REMIND EVERY CHRISTIAN
   HERE THAT HE IS A SOLDIER.

   I. If you were not soldiers, you would not need armor. But being
   soldiers, you need to he clad from head to foot in armor of proof. I
   suppose every Christian here knows, as a matter of theory, that he is a
   Christian soldier and that he has been enlisted under the banner of the
   Cross to fight against the powers of darkness until he wins the
   victory. But we all need to have our memories refreshed upon this
   matter, for soldiering, in time of war, at any rate, is not a very
   pleasant occupation--and the flesh constantly attempts to give it over.
   That "we have no abiding city here," is a Truth of God which we all
   know and yet the most of us try to make the earth as comfortable for
   ourselves as if it were to be our abiding residence! We are all
   soldiers--we know that--but still, too many Christians act as if they
   could be the friends of the world and the friends of God at the same
   time. Now, Christian, remember once and for all that you are a soldier!
   Did you dream, young man, that as soon as you were baptized and added
   to the Church, the conflict was all over? Ah, it was then but just
   beginning! Like Caesar, you then crossed the Rubicon and declared war
   against your deadly enemy. You drew your sword--you did not sheathe it.
   Your proper note on joining the Church is not one of congratulation, as
   though the victory were won, but one of preparation--for now the
   trumpet sounds and the fight begins! You are a soldier at all times,
   Christian! You ought to sit even at your table as a soldier sits and
   you should go out especially into the world as a soldier goes out.
   Never take off your armor, for if you do, in some unguarded moment you
   may meet with serious wounds! But keep your armor always about you and
   be watchful, for you are always in the midst of enemies wherever you
   may be! And even when the persons who surround you are your friends,
   there are still evil spirits, unseen of men, who watch for your
   tripping--and you must not put up your sword, for you are to wrestle
   against principalities, powers and spiritual wickedness in high
   places--against whom you must always be on the watch. You are a
   soldier, Christian-- remember that!

   Nor are you a soldier in barracks, or at home, but you are a soldier in
   an enemy's country. Your place is either in the trenches or else in the
   thick of the battle! You who are sick are like soldiers in the
   trenches. You are patiently hoping and quietly waiting, as it were,
   upon the ramparts, looking for the time to come. But others of you, out
   in business and engaged in the concerns of life, are like soldiers
   marching in a long file to the conflict, like the housemen dashing on
   to the front of the battle. More or less, according to your
   circumstances, you are all exposed to the foe and that at every period

   of life!

   Where are you, let me ask, but in the country of an enemy who never
   gives any quarter If you fall, it is death! The world never forgives
   the Christian--it hates him with a perfect hatred and it longs to hurt
   him. Only let the world see you commit half a stumble and they will
   soon report and magnify it! What might be done by other men without
   observation, if it were done by a Christian, would be noticed, reported
   and misrepresented. The world understands that you are its natural
   antagonist. Satan perceives in you a representative of his old enemy,
   the Lord Jesus, and you may rest assured that he will never give you
   quarter if once he gets an opportunity of destroying you! Mind the
   enemy, mind the enemy, for he is one of a malicious spirit!

   You have to fight with one, too, who never yet made a truce. You may
   come to terms and parley, but the powers of evil never do. You may hang
   out the white flag if you like. The foe may seem, for a time, as though
   he gave you credit,

   but never give your foe any credit! He hates you when he seems to love
   you best. "Dread the Greeks, even when they bring you gifts," said the
   tradition of old--and let the Christian dread the world most when it
   puts on its softest speeches! Stand, then, upon your guard, you
   warriors of the Cross, when least you fear, the cringing foe will come
   behind you and stab you under the pretense of friendship! Your Master
   was betrayed with a kiss, and so will you be unless you watch unto
   prayer.

   You have to do with an enemy who never can make anypeace with you, nor
   can you ever make anypeace with him. If you become at peace with sin,
   sin has conquered you--and it is impossible, unless you give up the
   fight and yield your neck to the everlasting thralldom--that there
   should ever be peace for so much as a moment. Oh, Christian, see how
   guarded you ought to be! How necessary to be clothed with your armor!
   How necessary to have it of the right kind, to keep it bright and to
   wear it constantly! You are a soldier, a soldier in battle, a soldier
   in the foeman's country, a soldier with a cruel and malicious enemy who
   knows neither truce nor parley, and who gives no quarter, but will
   fight with you till you die! Heaven is the land where your sword should
   be sheathed--there shall you hang the banner high--but here we wrestle
   with the foe and must do so till we cross the torrent of death. Right
   up to the river's edge must the conflict be waged. Foot by foot and
   inch by inch must all the land to Canaan's happy shore be won. Not a
   step can be taken without conflict and strife--but once there, you may
   lay aside your helmet and put on your crown, put away your sword, and
   take your palm branch--your fingers shall no longer need to learn to
   war, but your hearts shall learn the music of the happy songsters in
   the skies! This, then, is the first thought--that you are a soldier.

   II. But the second thought is BEING A SOLDIER, LOOK TO YOUR HEAD.

   Soldiers, look to your heads! A wound in the head is a serious matter.
   The head, being a vital part, we need to be well protected there. The
   heart needs to be guarded with the breastplate, but the head needs to
   be protected quite as much, for even if a man should be true-hearted,
   yet if a shot should go through his brain he would not be worth much as
   a soldier--his body would strew the plain. The head must be taken care
   of. There are a great many Christian people who never have any trouble
   with their heads at all. There are certain religionists who get their
   hearts warmed and then they think that that is enough. Now, give me
   above everything else a good warm heart, but oh, to have that warm
   heart coupled with a head that is well taken care of! Do you know that
   a hot head and a hot heart together do a deal of mischief, but with a
   hot heart and a cold brain you may do a world of service to the Master.
   Have right Doctrine in the head and then set the soul on fire and you
   will soon win the world! There is no standing in that man's way whose
   head and heart are both right--but to neglect the head has been a
   serious mischief with many Christians. They have been almost powerless
   for usefulness because they have not taken care of their brains. They
   have got to Heaven, but they have not got many victories on the road
   because their brains have been out of order. They have never been able
   to clearly understand the Doctrines--they have not been able to give a
   reason for the hope that is in them. They have not, in fact, looked
   well to the helmet which was to cover their heads!

   The text refers us to our head because it speaks of a helmet--and a
   helmet is of no use to any part except the head. Among other reasons
   why we should preserve the head in the day of battle, let us give
   these--the head is peculiarly liable to the temptations of Satan, of
   self and of fame. It is not easy, you know, to stand on a high pinnacle
   without the brain beginning to reel. And if God takes a man and puts
   him on a high pinnacle of usefulness, he had need to have his head
   taken care of. If a Brother is possessed of a considerable amount of
   wealth, there is a great danger in that wealth unless there is a wealth
   of Divine Grace as well as a wealth of gold. If a man is well spoken
   of, his sphere may not be very large, but if everybody praises him, he
   will also need to have his head well protected--for the little praise,
   even though it should come from fools--would be too much for a fool. If
   a man can stand commendation, he can stand anything. The severest trial
   which a Christian has to bear is probably the trial which comes from
   his kind but inconsiderate friends who would puff him up, if they
   could, by telling him what a fine fellow he is. If your friends will
   not do this, you will probably have a friend within who will do it for
   you--and if you should forget it, the devil will not! "What a capital
   sermon you gave us this morning, Mr. Bunyan," said a friend where John
   had been preaching. "You are too late," said Bunyan, "the devil told me
   that before I came out of the pulpit." Yes, and he will be sure to do
   it--and hence the need of having a helmet to put on the head so that
   when you are successful, when you are getting on in life, when friends
   are speaking well of you--you may not get intoxicated with it! Oh, to
   have a good, cool helmet to put on your brain when it begins to get a
   little hot with praise, so that you may still stand fast and not be
   borne down by vanity! O Vanity, Vanity, Vanity, how

   many you have slain! How many who then seemed upon the very brink of
   greatness have stumbled upon this stumbling-block--men who seemed as
   though they would enter Heaven--but a little bit of honor, some
   glittering bribe, a golden gift has turned them aside and they fail!
   Take care of your heads, Brothers and Sisters!

   And is not the head liable to attacks from skepticism? People who have
   no brains are not often troubled with doubts, but people who have
   brains have probably felt that whether they resolved to use them or
   not, the brains would use themselves. It is very good of our good
   fathers to tell us not to read dangerous books, very good of them,
   indeed! But we do read them for all that--and though we sometimes tell
   the young folks not to read this and that heretical treatise, and we
   wish they would take our advice--yet somehow or other they get hold of
   such things and will ponder them. Brothers and Sisters, I believe that
   in such times as these, when everything is so free, and when discussion
   is so common--we must expect that our young fellows will look at a
   great many things which they had better leave alone--and their heads
   will be endangered thereby, for the bullets of skepticism threaten to
   go right through their brains! Well, what then? As we cannot take
   Christians out of the way of the bullets, we should give them a helmet
   to preserve them from them! He who has a hope of salvation--a good hope
   that he is saved, a hope that he shall see the face of Christ with joy
   at last--is not afraid of all the quibbles of skepticism! He may hear
   them all and for a moment be staggered by them, as a soldier might be
   who had a sudden shock or even a wound, but after a while he recovers
   and feels sound enough to enter into the conflict again. And the
   Christian can say--

   "Let all the forms that men devise Assail my faith with treacherous
   art-- I'd call them vanity and lies, And bind the Gospel to my heart."

   It has been very well observed that a man is not often a very thorough
   democrat after he gets a little money in the bank. Well, I think it is
   very likely that when a man gets a little stake in his country, he
   begins to be, to the merest extent, conservative. As soon as ever a man
   gets a stake in Christianity and feels that he has got salvation in
   Jesus Christ, he gets to be very, very conservative of the
   old-fashioned Truth of God. He cannot give up the Bible, then, because
   it is a broad land of wealth to him! He cannot give up Christ, for He
   is his Savior, his salvation. He cannot give up a single promise
   because that promise is so dear to his own soul. The helmet of
   salvation, then, will preserve the head in times of skepticism!

   The head, again, is very greatly in danger from the attacks of personal
   unbelief. Who among us has not doubted his own interest in Christ?
   Happy are you who are free from such trouble! But there are seasons
   with some of us when we turn our title deeds over and we are sometimes
   afraid lest they should not be genuine. There are times when, if we
   could, we would give a world to know that we are Christ's, for at times
   we cannot--

   "Read our title clear To mansions in the skies."

   Well, Beloved, this is very dangerous to our heads, but the man who has
   got the helmet of a right, sound, God-given hope of salvation--who has
   received from God the Holy Spirit a helmet which I am going to
   describe, by-and-by--when these doubts and fears come, they may
   distress him for a little while, but he knows the smell of gunpowder
   and he is not afraid! In the midst of all of Satan's accusations, or
   the rising up of his old corruptions, or the threats of the flesh and
   of the world, he stands calm and unmoved because he wears as a helmet,
   the hope of salvation!

   Nor are these all the dangers to which the head is exposed. Some
   persons are attacked by threats from the world. The world brings down
   its double-handled sword with a tremendous blow upon the heads of many
   Christians. "You will suffer the loss of all things for Christ if you
   are such a fanatic as to do as you do. You will be poor, your children
   will need bread, your wife will be worse than a widow if you are such a
   fool." "Ah," says the Christian, "but I have a hope of salvation!" And
   the blow, when it comes, does not go through his head, but just falls
   on the helmet and the world's sword gets blunted. "I can afford to be
   poor," said Dr. Gill, when one of his subscribers threatened to give up
   his seat and would not attend if the doctor preached such-and-such a
   Doctrine. So says the Christian, "I can afford to be poor. I can afford
   to be despised. I have in Heaven a better and more enduring substance."
   So, by the use of this blessed helmet he is not destroyed by the
   threats of the world!

   We want our young people to wear this helmet, too, because of the
   errors of the times. The errors of the times are many. We have to deal
   not merely with skepticism, but with superstition. They are tempted on
   the one side, they are tempted on the other. This and that you will
   have cried up. "Lo here," and, "Lo there!" And there will be many
   misled who are not the people of God. "If it were possible, they would
   deceive the very elect"--but the elect are not deceived because their
   heads are not vulnerable to these errors, for they wear the hope of
   salvation and they are not afraid of all the "ites" or the "isms" in
   the world. The man knows he is saved. Once you get to know Christ
   personally and that He loved you and gave Himself for you--and then
   rejoice that you are forgiven and justified through Him--the world will
   count you stupid and obstinate, but you will stand firm and be able to
   resist all its sarcasm and its ridicule. He who has made a refuge of
   Jesus Christ may stand safe, whatever errors may invade the land!

   They tell us that the Church of God is in great danger and that Popery
   will spread over the land altogether. I believe it will, but that it
   will spread over the Church of God--no--I know far better than that!
   The Church of God can never be in danger! Every man in whom is the life
   of God would be as ready to die tomorrow for the Truth as our
   forefathers were in the Marian days! Rest assured there would still be
   found men and women to stand in the burning piles if the times required
   them--and our prisons would not long be without heavenly-minded tenants
   if the Truth needed to be defended by suffering, even unto death! There
   is danger, great danger! There never was such danger in modern times of
   Popery spreading over the land as now. But there is no danger to the
   man who has his helmet on! No, let the arrows fly thick as hail and let
   the foes have all political power and all the prestige of antiquity
   that they may--a little body of true-hearted Christians will still
   stand out at the thick of the onslaught and cut their way to Glory and
   to victory through whole hosts because their heads are guarded with the
   heavenly helmet of the hope of salvation! Soldiers, then, take care of
   your heads! I will say no more on that point.

   III. God has provided a covering for your heads, let us therefore now
   CONSIDER THE HELMET WITH WHICH

   HE WOULD HAVE YOUR HEADS PROTECTED.

   "The hope of salvation!" This is not the hope I spoke about this
   morning, for that was the hope that salvation was possible. This helmet
   is made up of an actual hope that, being already saved in Christ Jesus,
   you should abide unto eternal life. It is a personal hope, founded upon
   personal conviction--and is worked in us by the Holy Spirit.

   To begin, then, describing this helmet. Who is its Giver? You ask our
   friend, the soldier, where he gets his uniforms, and he answers that he
   gets them from the government stores. He gets his uniforms from Her
   Majesty. And that is how we must get our helmets. If any of you
   construct helmets of hope for yourselves, they will be of no use to you
   in the day of battle! The true helmet of hope must come from the
   heavenly arsenal! You must go to the Divine Storehouse, for unto God
   belongs salvation and the hope of salvation must be given to you by His
   free Grace. A hope of salvation is not purchasable. Our great King does
   not sell His armor, but gives it freely to all who enlist. They take
   the shilling and accept faith. They trust Christ and they are
   enlisted--and then the armor is given them gratis. From head to foot
   they are arrayed by Grace!

   Do you ask, who is the Maker of this helmet? Weapons are valued often
   according to the maker. A known maker gets his own price for his
   articles. Armorers of old took much trouble with the ancient helmets
   because a man's life might depend upon that very useful means of
   defense. So we have here the name of God the Holy Spirit upon this
   helmet! A hope of salvation is the work of God the Holy Spirit in our
   soul. It is the Spirit who brings us to Jesus, shows us our need of Him
   and gives us faith in Him--and it is that same Spirit who enables us to
   hope that we shall endure to the end and enter into eternal life. Be
   not satisfied with a hope which is natural, but have a hope that is
   supernatural! Rest not satisfied with that which is made in the
   workshop of Nature. Go not to those who buy and sell for themselves,
   but go to the blessed Spirit, who gives freely and upbraids not!

   Or would you inquire, further, of what metal this helmet is made? That
   it is made of hope, we are told, but it is of the utmost consequence
   that it is a good hope! Beware of getting a base hope, a helmet made of
   paltry metal. There were some helmets they used to wear in the olden
   times which looked very well, but they were of no more use than
   brown-paper hats. And when a soldier goes into the fight with one of
   those on, the sword went through his skull. Get a good helmet, one made
   of the right metal. This is what a Christian's hope is made of--he
   believes that Christ came into the world to save sinners. He trusts
   Christ to save him and he hopes that when Christ comes, he shall reign
   with Him. He believes that when the trumpet sounds, he shall rise with
   Christ and that in Heaven he shall have a secure dwelling place at

   the right hand of the Father. This hope is made up of proper and
   fitting deductions from certain truthful statements. That Christ died
   for sinners is true. That He died to save all who trust in Him is true.
   That I trust Him is true. Therefore that I am saved is true! And, being
   saved, that I shall inherit all His promises is a matter of course!

   Some people have a hope, but they do not know where they get it from,
   nor do they know a reason for it. When some people die, you hear it
   said, "I hope, I hope he is gone to Heaven." Well, I wish he may have
   gone, but I dare not say of some that I hope so, because hope must have
   a reason. An anchor is of no use without its barb. It must be able to
   hold fast. It must have, at any rate, the modern anchor--some weight
   about it with which it can hold to the bottom. Hope must have its barb,
   too! It must have its reason, it must have its weight. If I say I hope
   such-and-such, I am foolish for hoping it if I have not a reason for
   hoping. If you were to say you hoped the person sitting next to you
   would give you a thousand pounder, it would be a most absurd hope! You
   may wish it if you like, but what ground have you for the hope? But if
   somebody owes you a thousand pounds and you have his acknowledgement of
   the debt, you may then very well say that you hope it will be paid, for
   you have a legitimate right to expect it. Such is the Christian's hope!
   God has promised to save those who believe. Lord, I believe You--You
   have promised to save me, and I hope you will--I knowYou will! The
   Christian's hope is not a fancy, not a silly desire. It did not spring
   up in the night, like Jonah's gourd, and it will not wither in a night.
   The Christian's hope is something that will bear a crack from a club,
   or a cut from a sharp sword. It is made of good metal. John Bunyan said
   of a certain sword that it was "a true Jerusalem blade"--and I may call
   this a true Jerusalem helmet and he that wears it need not fear!

   Having shown the metal of which the helmet is made, let me now describe
   the strength of the helmet It is so strong that he who wears it is
   invulnerable under all sorts of assaults. He may stagger under a blow,
   but he cannot be hurt by it. Recollect what David said. All the
   troubles in the world once set on David and began to beat him--and they
   gave him many terrible blows. They thought they had certainly ruined
   him. David was bleeding and was full of wounds. He half thought he
   would die and he tells us, himself, that he would have fainted, only he
   had a bottle of cordial with him called faith. He says, "I had fainted
   if I had not believed." But just at the time when they thought he would
   faint and die, suddenly the old hero that slew Goliath made all his
   enemies fly before him as he cried, "Why are you cast down, O my Soul,
   and why are you disquieted within me? Hope you in God." And he laid
   about him right and left, as he should. "I shall yet praise Him who is
   the health of my countenance and my God." "Hope you in God," Christian!
   Oh that blessed word, HOPE! You know what the New Zealanders call hope?
   They call it in their language, "the swimming thought," because it
   always swims. You cannot drown it--it always keeps its head above the
   wave! When you think you have drowned the Christian's hope, up it
   comes, all dripping from the brine, and cries again, "Hope you in God,
   for I shall yet praise Him!" Hope is the nightingale that sings in the
   night. Faith is the lark that mounts up towards Heaven, but hope is the
   nightingale that cheers the valley in the darkness! Oh, Christian, be
   thankful that you have so strong a helmet as this which can bear all
   assaults and can keep you unwounded in the midst of the fray!

   This hope of salvation is a helmet which will not come off It is of
   main importance, you know, to have a helmet that will not be knocked
   off the first thing in the fight. That is why our policemen are dressed
   differently from what they used to be, because their hats used to get
   knocked off the very first thing. So it will be with some people's
   helmets if they have a commonplace hope--but the Christian wears a
   helmet that he cannot get off. There was once a good soldier of Jesus
   Christ--this soldier happened to be a woman, however, and some women
   are the best soldiers Christ ever had--they are His true Amazons! This
   good woman had been much attacked by a skeptical person and when she
   was very much confused with some of his knotty questions, she turned
   round and said to him, "I cannot answer you, Sir, but neither can you
   answer me, for I have a something within me that you cannot understand
   which makes me feel that I could not give up what I know of Christ for
   all the world." You see, he could not get her helmet off--and the devil
   himself cannot drag the Christian's helmet off when he has once got it
   fairly buckled on. The world can neither give nor take away the hope of
   a Christian! It comes from God and He will never withdraw it, for His
   gifts and calling are without repentance. Once let this helmet be put
   on and He will never remove it, but we shall hope on and hope always
   until we shall see His face at the last!

   I should like to go round among this regiment, as the commanding
   officers sometimes do, to have a look at you. This helmet is an
   old-fashioned kind of armor and in the old days the lieutenants and
   other officials, when they went round the regiment, used to look not
   only to see that the men had their helmets, but to see that they had
   oiled them, for in those

   times they used to oil their helmets to make them shine and to keep the
   various joints, buckles and so on, in good order. No rust was ever
   allowed on the helmets and it is said that when the soldiers marched
   out with their bronze helmets and their white plumes, they shone most
   brilliantly in the sun. David speaks, you know, of "anointing the
   shield." He was speaking of a bronze shield which had to be anointed
   with oil. Now, when God anoints His people's hope--when He gives them
   the oil of joy, their hope begins to shine bright in the light of the
   Savior's Countenance--and what a fine array of soldiers they then are!
   Satan trembles at the gleaming of their swords--he cannot endure to
   look upon their helmets. But some of you do not keep your hope
   clear--you do not keep it bright. It gets rusty out of use and then
   before long it gets to sit uncomfortably upon you and you get weary
   with the fight. O Holy Spirit, anoint our heads with fresh oil and let
   Your saints go forth tonight terrible as an army with banners!

   Do not let it be overlooked that the helmet was generally considered to
   be a place of honor The man put his plume in his helmet. He frequently
   wore his crest there and in the thick of the fight the captain's plume
   was seen in the midst of the smoke and dust of battle--and the men
   pressed to the place where they saw it. Now, the Christian's hope is
   his honor and his glory. I must not be ashamed of my hope! I must wear
   it for beauty and for dignity and he who has a right good hope will be
   a leader to others. Others will see it and will fight with renewed
   courage. And where he hews a lane of the foes, they will follow him,
   even as he follows his Lord and Master who has overcome and sits down
   upon His Father's Throne! I hope there are many Christians here who
   keep their helmets bright--and that there are many more who desire to
   have such helmets to protect themselves and to grace their profession.

   IV. YET THERE ARE SOME HERE WHO HAVE NO HELMETS. The reason is obvious.
   They are not Christ's soldiers.

   Of course the Lord Jesus does not provide anybody with armor but those
   in His service. But Satan knows how to give you a helmet, too. His
   helmets are very potent ones. Though the sword of the Spirit can go
   right through them, nothing else can. He can give and has given some of
   you a headpiece that covers your entire skull--a thick headpiece of
   indifference, so that no matter what is preached, you do not care.
   "What do I care?" you say--and that is your helmet.

   Then he puts a piece in the front of the helmet called a brazen
   forehead and a brow of brass. "What do I care?" That is your cry. Then
   he takes care to fit the helmet right over your eyes so that you cannot
   see--yes, though Hell itself is before you, you do not see it! "What do
   I care?" Then he also knows how so to fit the helmet that it acts as a
   gag to your mouth so that you never pray. You can swear through it, but
   you cannot pray! Still you stick to your old cry, "What do I

   care?"

   Ah, it is not very likely that any sword of mine will get at your head!
   Arguments will not move you, for that is a question that cannot very
   well be argued--"What do I care?" It is all very well for you to say
   that, but oh, I pray God the Holy Spirit to get at your head,
   notwithstanding that horrible helmet, for if not, God has a way of
   dealing with such as you are--when you come to die, you will sing
   another song! When you come to lie there upon that bed of sickness and
   the grim day of eternity is in view, you will not be able to say quite
   so gaily as you do now, "What do I care?" And when the trumpet rings
   through earth and Heaven and your body starts up from your grave--and
   you see the great Judge upon His Throne--you will not be able to say,
   then, "What do I care?" Your head will then be bare to the pitiless
   tempest of Divine wrath! Bareheaded, you must be exposed to the
   everlasting storm that shall descend upon you. And when the great angel
   binds you up with your fellows in bundles to burn, you will then feel
   that you are not able to say, "What do I care?" for cares will come
   upon you like a wild deluge when you are banished from His Presence and
   all hope is gone!

   Oh, I wish you would take off that helmet! May God grant you Grace to
   unbuckle it tonight, never to put it on again! Do care. You are not a
   fool, my Friend, are you? It is only a fool who says, "What do I care?"
   Surely you care about your soul! Surely Heel is worth escaping from!
   Surely Heaven is worth winning! Surely that Cross on which our Savior
   died is worth thinking of Surely that poor soul of yours is worth
   caring about! Do, I pray you, think, and not go hastily on. Oh, may
   Jesus Christ, who died for such as you are, bring you to trust Him! And
   then, unbuckling all that evil armor of, "What do I care?" you will bow
   before His Cross and kiss His hands--and He will put upon you the
   golden helmet of a hope of salvation and you will rise, one of the
   Kings own soldiers, to fight His battles and win an immortal wreath of
   everlasting victory! May it is so with every one of us!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

   1THESSALONIANS 5:1-28.

   Verses 1, 2. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no
   need that I write you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day
   of the Lord comes as a thief in the night It will be a great surprise
   to the wicked. It will take them by surprise. Just at that moment when
   they least expect it, Christ will come, and as the thief comes to
   destroy and to kill, so will the coming of Christ be the death of their
   carnal ease--the destruction of their earthly hopes!

   3. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction
   comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not
   escape. A terrible text that--"They shall not escape." They shall not
   escape by their own power or force or wisdom! They shall not escape
   even by the annihilation which they might well desire, but which shall
   not come to them. They shall not escape.

   4. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
   overtake you as a thief. You know that Christ will come. You expect the
   dissolution of this present state. To you, therefore, it will come as
   one who calls at daytime. You cannot know the hour. You must not know
   it. But since you know that He will come, and come to your joy--and
   since you are in the light, you look with gladness to that coming!

   5. 6. You are all the children oflight and the children ofthe day: we
   are not ofthe night, nor ofdarkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do
   othersIf we were children of the night, sleep is a proper occupation
   for the night, but as we are the children of the day, let us not sleep
   as others.

   6. But let us watch and be sobe. Watchfulness and sobriety are
   appropriate duties for the day. To be always serving our Lord with
   constancy and to keep ourselves from the fascinations of the world
   which make men's minds drunk--may these two things be our daily care.

   7. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that are drunk are
   drunk in the night There are a few who have reached to such a pitch of
   shameless idleness that they sleep in the day. And there are others who
   have come to such a state of debauchery that they are drunk in the day.
   But this is not the common way of things, nor even in the judgment of
   the most licentious of the world is this at all a proper state of
   things. "They that sleep, sleep in the night. They that are drunk are
   drunk in the night." Let us who are of the day be sober, and let us of
   course be awake, but let us be more than awake, since watchfulness is
   here joined to wakefulness and watchfulness in a soldier requires that
   his armor be on. So Paul pushes the parallel a little farther.

   8. But let us who are ofthe day, be sober, putting on the breastplate
   of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvatioi. Soldiers,
   when they sleep, take off their armor. But in the day when they are
   awake and on their guard they wear their armor and are ready for the
   fray. See how much is involved in Christian wakefulness. God help us to
   carry out every virtue to its legitimate consequences--not to be
   wakeful after a fashion, but wakeful after God's fashion!

   9. For Godhas not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
   Lord Jesus Christ In making us children of light, he gave evidence that
   our appointment was for the light--that His eternal ordinances were
   that through the light of Gospel Grace we should, by and by, enter into
   the light of eternal Glory. "God has not appointed us to wrath, but to
   obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."

   10. Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
   together with Him. They who have served their day and generation, when
   they sleep, are not parted from their Lord. They become not the
   children of the darkness by that fact, for He died for us, that whether
   we wake or sleep we should live together with Him. Whether we are
   living here or living there, we shall still live together with Him.

   11. Therefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, just
   as you also are doing. The more of this the better. Christian people
   should constantly converse with one another for mutual edification.

   12. 13. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among
   you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them
   very highly in love for their work's sake. You see, in the Church of
   old they edified one another, but for all that, they did not cast off
   God's ordinance of Christian ministry. There was rule in the Church,
   then, as there should be now--and the Apostle, when he speaks of this
   individual edification, this mutual instruction-- does not forget to
   notice those who were the pastors of the flock. He says, "Know them
   which labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
   and esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."

   13. And be at peace among yourselves. How can a Church prosper if it is
   not?

   14-16. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort
   the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See
   that none render evil for evil unto any man, but always follow that
   which is good both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore.
   Here follows a string of Christian precepts--a golden chain. "Rejoice
   evermore."

   17-19. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the
   will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit Do
   not despise His operations, either in yourselves or in your brethren.
   Do not quench Him by neglect, much less by open opposition!

   20-22. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things; hold fast that which
   is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil Not from that which other
   people choose to think evil, but from all real evil whatever it
   is--even from the very shadow that it casts and the shape which it
   assumes!

   23-26. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God
   your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
   coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is He that calls you, who also
   will do it Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy
   kiss. Give one another a hearty shake of the hands. That is the western
   interpretation of the eastern form. Outward forms differ. The inward
   sense abides the same. Let brotherly love continue in a hearty
   friendliness among yourselves.

   27, 28. I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the
   holy brethren. The Grace of our lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amei.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Scarlet Line in the Window

   (No. 3168)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "She bound the scarlet line in the window." Joshua 2:21.

   EVERY little incident in a remarkable conversion like that of the
   harlot Rahab is worthy of notice. The Apostle James selected her as an
   illustration of the fact that faith is always attended by good works,
   and he asks, "Was she not justified by works when she had received the
   messengers?" while Paul quotes her as an instance of justification by
   faith, and says, "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that
   believed not." If both these eminent Apostles found an illustration of
   an important Doctrine in her life, we may surely do the same. If the
   hiding of the spies under the flax had some significance, so also had
   the hanging out of the scarlet line.

   The two spies whom Rahab had concealed made an agreement with her that
   she should hang out a scarlet line in the window by which she had let
   them down, that they might know, in the day of battle, the house in
   which she dwelt. She fulfilled their request and displayed the chosen
   emblem. In connection with that scarlet line, I observe four things.

   I. First, I see here AN OBEDIENT BELIEVER.

   She was told to tie the scarlet thread in the window and she did
   it--there was exact obedience. It was not merely a thread, a line, but
   the scarlet line. She did not substitute a blue, or a green, or a white
   line. The order was this scarlet line, not another, and she took that
   particular one. Obedience to God will be very much seen in small
   matters. Love always delights to attend to the little things and
   thereby makes the little things great. I have heard of a Puritan who
   was charged with being too precise, but his answer was excellent, "I
   serve a precise God." The Lord our God is a jealous God and He is very
   jealous of His commands. It appeared a little mistake that Moses made
   when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, and yet he could not
   enter into the promised rest because of his offense! A small action may
   involve a great principle and it is for us to be very cautious and
   careful, searching out what the Master's will is, and then never
   halting or hesitating for any reason whatever, but doing His will as
   soon as we know it. Christian life should be a mosaic of minute
   obediences. The soldiers of Christ should be famous for their exact
   discipline.

   I commend scrupulous obedience to all of you and especially to those
   young people who have lately made a profession of their faith in
   Christ. Do not be as your fathers were, for the generation which is now
   going off the stage neither reads its Bible nor cares to know the
   Lord's will. If people searched the Scriptures, we would find them come
   together in union--but the least-read book in all the world, in
   proportion to its circulation, is the Word of God. It is distributed
   everywhere, but it is scarcely read anywhere with care and
   attention--and with a sincere resolve to follow its precepts at all
   hazards. You come and listen to us and we give you little bits taken
   from it here and there, but you do not get a fair notion of it as a
   whole. How can you? Ministers make mistakes and you follow them without
   enquiry. One elects this leader, and another that, to the creation of
   varieties of opinions and even of sects which ought not to be--and
   would not be if all stood fast by the standard of the Inspired Truth of
   God. If the Bible were but read and prayed over, many errors would die
   a speedy death and others would be sorely crippled. Had that Inspired
   Book been read in the past, many errors would never have arisen!
   Search, then, the Book of God, I pray you--and whatever you find there,
   be sure to attend to it! At all costs, keep to the Word of God.

   Notice, next, that hers was obedience in a very small matter. She might
   have said, "I do not think it is essential to tie a piece of line in my
   window. Can I not be preserved just as well without it, seeing that I
   believe in the God of Israel? I have faith and I have shown it by my
   works by hiding the spies--you cannot suppose for a moment that I shall
   perish simply because I have not complied with a regulation about a
   scarlet line!" In this way many, nowadays, enquire whether

   they may not omit those duties which they consider to be non-essential
   to salvation. Now this is a question which I never intend to answer for
   anybody else because I never intend to ask it on my own account!
   Whether or not a Believer will perish because some known duty or
   Scriptural ordinance is neglected, is a question which only selfishness
   would raise! Are we only to do that which will procure our progress, or
   secure our salvation? Are we so grossly selfish as that? Does a loving
   child say, "If I refuse to do my father's will, shall I not still be my
   father's child? Shall I not still be fed and clothed by him?" Only an
   evil child would talk thus! The true son enquires, "What would my
   father have me do? I will do it cheerfully for his sake. What does my
   father forbid? For what he forbids shall be hateful to me." Rise above
   all questions concerning essential and non-essential and learn to obey
   in all things--if it is only tying a scarlet thread in the window, or
   washing in water, do as you are bid--and in nothing rebel against the
   Word of the Lord!

   Remember, too, that this small matter of obedience, as some call it,
   had an important symbolical significance. I am not sure that the spies
   meant by it that the scarlet thread would be the same to Rahab as the
   blood on the lintel and on the two side posts had been to Israel in
   Egypt, but it does strike me as being very probable. Those two men were
   so acquainted with the Passover, the sprinkling of the blood and the
   consequent preservation of all in this house, that it was very natural
   that they should give Rahab a sign akin to the token which God had
   ordained for His people Israel when His angel passed them by in the day
   of doom. Therefore, trifling as the color of the cord might seem, it
   had a deep significance--and even so the commands of God, which are
   little in themselves--are great in symbolic teaching. Great errors have
   come into the Christian Church by the alteration of simple points in
   God's commands and, therefore, since a little thing in the sign may
   involve a great thing in the substance, it becomes us to cultivate
   exact obedience!

   "Oh," says one, "but I fear we shall always be in error." Assuredly we
   shall unless we endeavor to avoid it! Unless we give abundant attention
   to the Word of God, we shall fall into mistakes beyond number! Errors
   are unavoidable if we do not study our perfect Chart, even as it is
   certain that a man will lose his way if he never enquires about it. At
   any rate, we need not rush into mistakes by omitting to use our
   judgment and to inform our understanding. Ask the Lord to teach you by
   His Holy Spirit and you will not be taught wrongly. Commit yourself to
   His instruction and be willing to do what He teaches you--and you will
   not go amiss.

   This woman's obedience also arose out of real faith and was the
   exponent of that faith, for when she tied the scarlet line in the
   window, she expressed her confidence in the fact that Jericho would be
   destroyed and that she would be saved because she had received a
   promise to that effect. She would not have hidden the spies if she had
   not believed in their God! And after having done so, if her faith had
   failed her, she would not have complied with the Covenant requirement
   to hang the scarlet line in the window. Beloved, obey in faith! The
   obedience of the slave is worth little. The obedience of the child is
   precious, for it is the fruit of love. That keeping of God's Commands
   which comes of slavish fear lacks the very heart of obedience, for love
   is absent, but, as God's dear children, resting alone in Jesus and
   confiding in your Father's promise, feel that because you believe you
   must obey, not because you dread Hell or expect to win Heaven through
   any works of your own--but because you have believed in Jesus to the
   salvation of your soul and, therefore, it is your joy to do His
   bidding.

   Thus I have enlarged upon the first point of the text, that in the
   hanging out of the scarlet line, I discern an obedient Believer.

   II. Now, secondly, I see here AN APPROPRIATED COVENANT.

   These men had made a covenant with her that she would have her life
   spared, and the lives of her family, if she concealed their secret and
   if she tied a scarlet line in the window. As she tied up that line she
   did, as it were, say, "I claim the covenant that you have made with
   me." Beloved, let us speak about this for a moment, for we need more
   and more to be able to appropriate Covenant blessings. How do we
   appropriate Jesus? By simple faith. Faith is the hand which touches the
   head of the Great Sacrifice and lays sin upon it, that sin may no
   longer lie upon the sinner. Faith grasps Jesus as the Bread of Life and
   makes that Bread to be our own, that we may feed upon it and may live
   forever. Thus the grand thing for appropriating Christ is to obtain
   faith and to gain more and more faith. Do you remember when you first
   tied a scarlet line in your window and said, "Christ is mine"? I
   remember the very hour and the precise spot, but many cannot tell the
   moment or the occasion--nor need they agitate themselves about it if
   they still continue to tie that line in its place! Still, you do
   remember that there was such a time when you could say, "Jesus is
   mine." You apprehended Christ because He had apprehended you. If such
   an hour as that has never come to you, may it come even now! Jesus
   Christ can save you,

   but He must be appropriated, or He will be no Savior to you. Remember
   that God the Holy Spirit, Himself, though He is the Author of faith,
   cannot believe for you--you must personally believe for yourself.

   Certain persons talk very much of repentance as the gift of the Holy
   Spirit--their witness would be true if they would not exaggerate it so
   as to leave the impression on men's minds that the Holy Spirit repents
   and that the sinner has little or nothing to do with it, for that is
   not true! It is clear that the Holy Spirit has nothing to repent
   of--repentance is an act of the repenting sinner's own soul--and faith
   a personal exercise of the heart, "for with the heart man believes unto
   righteousness." If we do not, ourselves, repent and believe, Christ is
   not ours and we are none of His and neither shall we obtain any benefit
   from His life and death. Tie the scarlet line in your window, for it
   will not be tied there for you--you must do it with your own hands. And
   I do pray that even now you may have boldness through Christ to say,
   "Yes, Jesus shall be mine. I dare with humble confidence to appropriate
   Him for myself, since He is given freely to poor needy sinners--and I
   am such a sinner."

   Faith is the first and grandest way of tying the scarlet line in the
   window, but let your faith follow on in the use of the ordinances and
   means of Grace, for these assist her in laying hold upon Jesus. I have
   often found it most blessed to sit at the Communion Table and feel,
   while I ate the bread and drank the wine, that faith was in active
   exercise, so that I said to myself, "Yes, as certainly as this bread is
   put into my mouth and goes into my bodily system, so as to become a
   part of myself, so that nobody can ever take it away--even so I have by
   faith believed on and received into my soul the Incarnate God and in
   that way He has become mine so that none can separate Him from me, or
   me from Him." The ordinance itself will not give you Christ, but often
   does the symbol blessedly enable the soul to realize Jesus and
   contemplate Him so as to partake of Him. In that draught of wine, so
   typical of His blood, how often has our soul said, "I rest entirely
   upon the Redeemer's bloody Sacrifice. His substitutionary pangs, griefs
   and merits are all my trust before God and I receive them as my sole
   reliance for the remission of sin, and take them into my very self,
   just as I drink of this cup and thereby the juice of the vine courses
   through my veins." Continue, Beloved Friends, thus to appropriate Jesus
   Christ and let every communion season be a tying of the scarlet line
   afresh in the window!

   Let your whole life be a course of action correspondent to the belief
   that Christ is yours. I am afraid many Believers live as though Jesus
   Christ did not belong to them at all, nor yet the blessings of the
   Covenant. Do you think that we would be so desponding when we have
   losses in business if we really believed that all things are ours? And
   if we had tied the scarlet line in the window and appropriated all
   things as ours in Christ? Do you think we would be so soon flustered
   and made to doubt whether we are saved or not in times of temptation,
   if our faith took a firm grip of Christ and tied the scarlet line in
   the window fast and firm by claiming the Covenant of Grace as ours?
   Beloved, some of you have only appropriated a part of Christ! You
   believe you are pardoned, but you scarcely know that you are justified!
   You are justified and covered with His righteousness, but you have not
   laid hold upon the sanctification which Jesus gives you. You have a
   measure of Grace, but you have not yet believed that Christ can
   sanctify you wholly--spirit, soul and body. We are stinted and stunted,
   lean and lethargic because of our failure to grasp with holy confidence
   the Infinite Treasure which is stored up in our all-sufficient Lord! He
   is ours and all things are ours in Him! "According to your faith be it
   unto you," is the rule of that great house over which Christ presides.
   This woman took the covenant which she had made with these men to be
   hers and showed that she did so by tying the scarlet line in the
   window. The Covenant of Grace was made with her and she knew it--and
   believed it, in like manner! O Brothers and Sisters in Christ, by a
   living faith grasp the promises of God and claim them as your own!

   Here let me also say, let us do this by displaying a corresponding
   restfulness. After Rahab had tied the line in her window, we do not
   read that she did anything else except bring her father, her mother and
   her brethren under her roof. She did not make preparations to defend
   the house against the siege. There is no notification that she appealed
   to the king to have a special guard to protect that part of the wall. I
   do not believe that she had a solitary fear, or a moment's terror--the
   scarlet line was in the window and she felt secure! She had
   appropriated the promise and she believed it would not be broken. It is
   a high privilege to dwell peaceably and quietly in the finished work of
   Christ--and in the sure Immutable promise of God, who cannot lie. Why
   fret yourselves and question yourselves, and go about with a thousand
   anxieties when salvation's work was finished on the accursed tree and
   Christ has gone into Glory and has carried His perfect work before His
   Father's face? Why mourn and suspect your safety when the Lord has
   raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
   Him? We who have believed enter into rest! The peace of God is ours, so
   let us, by our resting, show that we have tied the scarlet line in our
   window, have claimed the finished work of Christ and, therefore, rest
   henceforth from our own works as God did from His!

   III. Thirdly, I see here AN OPEN DECLARATION.

   Rahab tied the scarlet line, not in some secret part of the house, but
   in the window. It was her public declaration of faith. I do not say
   that everybody understood what she meant by that--only those understood
   it who were in the secret with her--and that sufficed. She hung out the
   red signal from the window where it could be seen by those who needed
   to see it. It was not that she was ostentatious and wished to attract
   attention--but she was bound to make a public sign and she did it. Now,
   some of you believe in my Lord Jesus and yet you have never united with
   His people. You are resting in Him, but you are mightily afraid that
   anybody should know it. Be not ashamed of Jesus! The wonder is that He
   is not ashamed of you! If He was not ashamed to take upon Him your
   nature and die for you, you need never blush to acknowledge His name!
   Come forward, you trembling ones! Tie the scarlet line in your window
   and say, "We are His, and we confess it."

   Let it be a scarlet line that you tie in the window, however--namely an
   avowal of true faith in His precious blood, a declaration of confidence
   in atonement by blood--for there are some who profess a sort of faith,
   but it is not faith in the Substitution of Christ. It is unfashionable,
   nowadays, to believe in the old Doctrine of Atonement. Modern "culture"
   has expunged it, or altered it in such a way that no real Atonement is
   left. There are many who are too advanced to avow the old-fashioned
   Gospel, but as for us, we tie forever the scarlet line in our window
   and stand by the Truth once delivered to the saints! Our declaration of
   faith is that we believe in the real and literal Substitution of Christ
   who died, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." In
   the midst of a thousand new gospels--none of them worth the breath that
   utters them--we hold to that ancient Gospel of the Prophet Isaiah, "the
   chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are
   healed." Beloved Believer, if the Doctrine of the Sacrifice of Jesus
   Christ and His substitutio-nary Atonement is your hope, acknowledge it!
   Acknowledge it boldly and let there be no mistake about it in these
   evil times! Tie the scarlet line in your window and if nobody else will
   see it, your Brothers and Sisters will and be encouraged. If nobody
   else will be pleased with it, your God will smile upon you and you will
   be a sweet savor unto Him. No man that I know of saw the blood upon the
   lintel and the two side posts, at the dead of night, in the land of
   Egypt, for there were none abroad to look upon it--but God saw it, and
   it is written--"When I see the blood, I will pass over you." When God
   sees our simple confidence in His dear Son and perceives us resting
   upon His Word without the admixture of human reason and opinion, then,
   Beloved, He will accept us in the Beloved and our house shall stand
   when others fall!

   Every Christian ought to make his faith in the precious blood visible
   in many ways. It ought to be manifest in our common conversation. If we
   are resting in the blood of Jesus, we ought not to be able to talk a
   quarter of an hour without thoughtful persons perceiving that we are
   followers of Jesus. I have heard of a man who was so entertaining and
   instructive in his conversation that it was said that you could not
   stand under an archway for five minutes with him, to get out of the
   rain, without learning something from him. Every Christian ought to be
   of this sort in a higher style--so that you cannot be with him many
   minutes without perceiving him to be a man of God. Of course in the
   Church of Christ, the Christian ought to hang a scarlet line out of his
   door at once and let his fellow worshippers see that he is decided and
   resolute for the Lord, his God--and he ought to do the same in his
   business. Customers should soon see that in your shop the common tricks
   of the trade are detested! The scarlet line is over this door. In the
   house, the mistress in the management of her servants, the master as a
   husband and as a father should be known to be better than others. There
   is a certain sect of people called, "the peculiar people." I wish we
   were all peculiar people in this respect, that the blood mark set us
   apart as not our own, but bought with a price! The Lord grant that it
   may be so with us!

   IV. The last point is this. Here was A DEDICATED HOUSE--a house with a
   scarlet line in its window.

   Coming here, the other afternoon, and walking down one of the back
   streets, I amused myself by observing how many houses were insured. I
   noticed the marks of the different Insurance Companies. There was the
   sun on one, with his bright face looking down upon us, as much as to
   say, "There shall be no loss here." The globe, the star, the
   Phoenix--all were there as seals of safety. Now there was only one
   house in Jericho that was insured--and that had for its symbol and mark
   of insurance a scarlet line tied in the window! What a mercy it is when
   houses are insured by the Grace of God and dedicated to the Lord--the
   very houses and much more--the inhabitants of those houses! How can you
   dedicate a house? I was reading, the other day, that in Cromwell's time
   you could go down Cheapside at a certain hour in the morn-

   ing and you would see the blinds down at every house and hear the
   families singing, all the way along, "for," says an old Divine, "in
   those days, a drawn blind was the scarlet line in the window." People
   knew, as they passed along, that there was an altar erected to God in
   that house. I am afraid that there are a great many streets in our
   towns and cities which you might traverse at any hour of the day and
   not discover a solitary sign of family prayer going on. The practice
   has gone out of fashion even among many who profess to be the people of
   God--and farewell to any progress in godliness till we bring it back
   again!

   I believe that when the house and the Church pull together, things are
   right. But when religion is made to be a thing of the Church and not of
   the house--when the priest is looked to instead of the father, when men
   cease to be priests in their own houses--then the very sinews of vital
   godliness have been cut. If I had to give up all weekday services and
   shut up every place of worship in Christendom from Sunday to Sunday, I
   would prefer to do that rather than lose the morning and evening
   gatherings of devout households worshipping God! How much Scotland owes
   to her family devotions! You need not that I remind you of "The
   Cotter's Saturday Night." It is the very glory of that country that
   they worship God in their houses. "There is much formality about it,"
   cries one! Well, was there ever anything good which did not degenerate
   here and there? But I have witnessed, full many a time, the hearty
   devotion of morning and evening prayer in the North. I wonder how many
   houses represented by you come up to Matthew Henry's third standard. He
   says, "Those who pray, do well." You get up to that, I hope. "Those
   that read the Scriptures and pray, do better. Those that read the
   Scriptures and pray and sing, do best of all." I think so. This is the
   scarlet line with the threefold cord to it, and I would that every
   house hung out that scarlet line as meaning, "This house belongs to
   King Jesus. The devil need not trouble himself to come here, for the
   strong man armed keeps his goods in peace."

   The beauty of it was that all inside Rahab's house were saved. "Come
   in, dear Mother," she said. Who among us could bear the thought of our
   mother being lost? It breaks our hearts to think of such a thing! My
   mother lost? Oh, no, that must not be! And your father lost? Oh, have
   you an unconverted father? I beseech you, give no slumber to your
   eyelids till you have done all you can to set before him the way of
   peace and have pleaded for him before God with sighs and tears! And
   then she said, "Come in, dear brothers and sisters." I delight in Rahab
   for loving her household. If you have brothers and sisters who are not
   yet under the scarlet line, pray to God to bring them in that all your
   house may be dedicated to the Most High and, without exception, all may
   dwell beneath the blessed blood red token which Infallibly preserves
   all who are sheltered beneath it!

   I leave this point to notice that there are other things besides family
   prayer which should be like the scarlet line in the house. For
   instance, there should be in every Christian house a scarlet line put
   up in the selecting of the company that is kept. The Christian should
   carefully select his friends and associates. He should say, "He that
   tells lies shall not tarry in my sight." As for the drunkard, the
   swearer and those who use unchaste language, let them be what they
   may--they shall not visit within our doors--we will not tolerate them!
   If we are masters of our household, we try to find our children friends
   whom we should like to be their companions in eternity. Some parents
   introduce their children to young men and young women who happen to be
   "very respectable," as they say, but who are worldly and ungodly--and
   thus they do much to ruin them! It should not be so. Hang the scarlet
   line over the door and if they do not love that scarlet line, religious
   conversation will before long make the place too hot for them! If you
   talk much of Jesus, the frivolous will consider that they have notice
   to leave and stay away!

   A Christian's house should have a scarlet line over its reading. I
   confess to great sorrow whenever I see in a Christian's house, commonly
   laid about for the use of the girls, that dreadful rubbishing yellow
   stuff which pollutes every railway bookstall--much of it downright
   ungodliness and the best of it abominable nonsense--the reading of
   which is a sheer waste of time! When there are thousands of good and
   interesting books to be read, it seems a pity that Christian people
   should give their time to reading trash which cannot profit them. Let
   the asses have their thistles, I never grudge them! And so I will not
   say that worldlings should not read such books--they suit them--let
   them have them. I have never murmured at a farmer when I have seen him
   going along with his great mash of all manner of garbage to give to his
   hogs--as long as he did not give me a basin of it for dinner, I was
   satisfied to let the swine have their food! And there are a great many
   romances and a vast mass of literature which it is vain to deny to
   ungodly people, for it is after their nature. But as for us, let us
   have none of it! I should as soon expect to see the archangel Gabriel
   feeding out of a hog's trough, as

   to see one who is a joint-heir with Christ finding his pleasure in
   books that are half lewd and the other half absurd. Hang a scarlet line
   over your library door as well as everywhere else!

   So let it be with all amusements. There are some amusements that we
   cannot say are absolutely bad in themselves, but they lead to evil.
   They go up to the edge of the precipice--and there are many who only
   need to get so far and they are sure to fall over. Besides, they make
   the Christian so like the worldling that nobody could tell which is
   which! Now, tie the scarlet line up! I would do so even as to what
   pictures I would hang up in my house. I am often sad to see, especially
   in the houses of the poor--Roman Catholic pictures exhibited on the
   walls because they happen to be rather pretty and very cheap. Popish
   publishers have very cleverly managed to get up pictures of the Virgin
   and the lying fable of her assumption to Heaven and all sorts of
   legends of saints. And being brightly colored and sold very much under
   cost, these vile things have been introduced into thousands of houses.
   I have seen to my horror a picture of God the Father represented as an
   old man--a conception almost too hideous to mention--yet the picture is
   hung up in the cottages of England! Whereas the Lord has declared that
   we should make no image of Him, or represent Him in any way--and even
   the attempt is blasphemous! If you have a bad picture, no matter how
   good a work of art it is, burn it! And if you have a bad book, no
   matter how much it may be worth, do not sell it for somebody else to
   read--tear it in pieces!

   Let the Christian hang up the scarlet line and make certain that nobody
   shall be debauched in mind or body by anything that he tolerates in his
   house! I may seem to be too severe, but if my Master were to speak out
   of Heaven, He would not rebuke that as a sin on my part--rather He
   would say that we need to be much more precise and decided about evil
   things.

   Well, you shall do what you please--you have your own liberty--but, "as
   for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," and the blood red line
   shall be in my window! My father's father, do I not remember how, when
   I was a child, I used to hear his prayers for my father and for me?
   Well do I remember my father's conversion in answer to my grandfather's
   prayers. And my father, can I ever forget how he wrestled for us at the
   Mercy Seat and God forbid it should happen that in my son's house, in
   years to come, there should be no altar to my God! I would sooner be
   without a tent for myself than without an altar for the Lord! Wherever
   we are, we must hang up the scarlet line! We cannot expect a blessing
   if we do not. Of course I am not speaking to those who are not fathers
   or heads of households. If they are servants, they cannot help what is
   done in the house. If they are underlings who have not the power, they
   cannot arrange as they would. But I am speaking to those who fear the
   Lord and can do it. Do, Beloved, dedicate your house to God from the
   attic to the cellar. Let there be nothing even in the cellar which you
   would be ashamed for Jesus Christ to see. Let there be nothing about
   the house but what shall be so ordered that if your Lord should come,
   you could open your door and say, "Come and welcome, Master! There is
   nothing here that Your servant desires to conceal."

   Believe in Jesus, O you who know Him not! And you who know Him,
   practice what you know. And God bless you!

   Amen and Amen.--Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Version
   1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 CHRONICLES 21:9-20.

   Verses 9-11. And the LORD spoke unto Gad, David's seer, saying, Go and
   tellDavid, saying, Thus says the LORD, I offer you three things: choose
   one of them, that I may do it unto you. So Gad came to David and said
   unto him, Thus says the LORD, Choose.David was to choose where there
   was no choice, for everything proposed to him seemed to be equally
   bitter.

   12, 13. Either three years famine, or three months to be destroyed
   before your foes, while that the sword of your enemies overtake you, or
   else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence in the land,
   and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of
   Israel Now therefore advise yourself what word I shall bring again to
   Him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let
   me fall now into the hands the LORD; for very great are His mercies:
   but let me not fall into the hands of man. It shows how he was broken
   down. David's proud heart was humbled. He was entirely submissive to
   the will of God. He wished to fall into the hands of the Lord.

   14, 15. So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of
   Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to
   destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld. It is a very
   beautiful word--the Lord looked steadfastly on what was being done.

   15, And He repented Him of the evil, and said to the angel that
   destroyed, It is enough, stay now your hand. And the angel of the LORD
   stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. One of the old
   inhabitants of the land who had escaped destruction--and had his
   possession on the top of Mount Morah.

   16, 17. And David lifted up his eyes andsaw the angel of the LORD stand
   between the earth and the Heavens, having a drawn sword in his hand
   stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who
   were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces and said unto God, Is
   it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is that
   have sinned and done evil indeed, but as for these sheep, what have
   they done? Let Your hand, I pray You, O LORD my God, be on me, and on
   my father's house; but not on Your people, that they should be plagued.
   Here the great heart of the man who had sinned comes out again--he is
   no tyrant, after all--he is a worthy man to be the Viceroy of the Most
   High. He has the same spirit that Moses had when he cried, "If not,
   blot my name out of the Book of Life." He offers himself, not the
   innocent for the guilty, but, indeed, the guilty for the guilty! As far
   as he can, he will bear the consequences of his sin.

   18-20. Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that
   David should go up and set up an altar unto the LORD on the threshing
   floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of Gad,
   which he spoke in the name of the LORD. And Ornan turned back and saw
   the angel.He was busy at his threshing and he saw the angel standing by
   his own threshing floor .

   20. And his four sons with him hid themselves. There are great caverns
   hard by the spot and, no doubt, they ran into one of them.

   20-23. Now Ornan was threshing wheat. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan
   looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor and bowed
   himself to David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan,
   Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar
   therein unto the LORD: you shall grant it to me for the full price:
   that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Ornan said unto
   David, Take it and let my lord the king do that which is good in his
   eyes. So, I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the
   threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering. I
   give it all.And as we are told in the other narrative, as a king gives
   to a king, so did Ornan unto David. Probably he had been a king and
   David had dispossessed him in his conquest of Jebus, but now he proves
   that he had a royal heart and he offers to give all to King David.

   24, 25. And King Davidsaid to Ornan, No, but I will verily buy it for
   the fullprice: for I willnot take that which is yours, for the LORD,
   nor offer burnt offerings without cost. So David gave to Ornan for
   theplace six hundred shekels of gold by weight.Not paid then and there,
   for he did not carry that amount with him, but fifty shekels of silver
   were paid that moment to bind their bargain according to the narrative
   in the 2nd Book of Samuel.

   26, 27. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt
   offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and He
   answered him from Heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering. And
   the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword into the sheath
   thereo. That God had already done in His own intent and purpose, now He
   does it actually, just as before Jesus Christ, our great Sacrifice, was
   offered, God, in the eternal purpose, had stayed the sword of vengeance
   from His redeemed people and then actually did it when Christ, their
   Sacrifice was presented.

   28-30. At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in
   the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
   For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and
   the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place
   at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he
   was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Believer's Present Rest

   (No. 3169)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
   6, 1873.

   "We who have believed do enter into rest." Hebrews 4:3.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are Sermons #866,
   Volume 15--REST and #2090, Volume 35-- A DELICIOUS EXPERIENCE.]

   THE text does not say that we who have believed shall enter into rest.
   That is a very great Truth, but it is not the Truth that is taught
   here. We "do enter into rest," even in this present life! All who are
   Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are already enjoying rest of heart
   and, in proportion as faith possesses their souls, in that proportion
   they enjoy perfect rest. It is not a future privilege--it is a matter
   of present enjoyment. And I pray my Brothers and Sisters in Christ not
   to impoverish themselves by making the text apply to the future, but to
   seek for the spiritual enrichment which God has given them by accepting
   the text just as the Apostle wrote it and so realizing that "we who
   have believed do enter into

   rest."

   It appears from the connection in which these words appear that the
   type and pattern of all true rest for men was the rest of God at the
   end of the six days of Creation. After He had worked so wondrously and
   finished all His creative work, we read that the Lord "rested on the
   seventh day from all His work which He had made." It is not easy for us
   to understand how the rest of God could ever have been broken, yet
   there must have been a deeper kind of rest for Him on that seventh day
   than during the previous six days, for it is expressly said that God
   did rest then. Into that great mysterious deep we will not try to
   plunge, but we know that the Lord was pleased, then, to institute the
   Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of His own rest and that Sabbath was to
   be observed by all men--and especially by all the Lord's own people in
   perpetuity, as if, I think, He would not only commemorate His own rest,
   but would also indicate that He intended men to be partakers of it.

   God's grand ideal of man's happiness was that he could not only work,
   but that he should also rest. What a wonderful restfulness there seems
   to be in every part of Creation into which man does not come! Go into
   any part of the country where man is and there you find the plow
   cutting into the earth and the ox and the donkey and the horse
   toiling--and you meet with men and women in sickness and poverty and
   need. But get away into the woods, traverse the wilds of Nature and see
   how restful everything is there! Note how the birds seem to have little
   else to do but to sing God's praises. Mark how the very brooks warble
   as they flow and how all Creation that is untouched by man appears to
   delight in a deep profound calm and peace! Had there been no Fall, the
   world would have been all restful--there would have been no thorns or
   thistles to vex and wound and add to man's labor--and no need for us to
   be always asking for fresh water power and steam power with which to
   alleviate the burden of the toil ofman. Sweat from a weary brow, or the
   throbbing of a tired brain would have been altogether unknown! Earth
   would have kept her Sabbath even as God kept His. But sin has come into
   the world and from that blessed state of rest, man has fallen! Yet God
   is bringing us back to a rest similar to that--and all who have
   believed in Jesus have been brought into it. The Sabbath is to them the
   Divine memorial of God's rest, the type of their own and also a
   continual reminder of the spiritual rest which they have found in
   Christ!

   There is another type of rest given us in the Word, namely that of the
   children of Israel entering into the promised land. "If Jesus (that is,
   Joshua), had given them rest," says the Apostle, "then would he not
   afterward have spoken of another day." All the while the children of
   Israel were in the wilderness, they were constantly moving to and fro,
   dwelling in tents and enjoying but little comfort. Notwithstanding all
   the blessings with which God enriched them in the wil-

   derness, it wasa wilderness, and Moses truly called it, "the waste
   howling wilderness." They had no rest there and they were always
   looking forward to the land flowing with milk and honey to where they
   were journeying. Their eager longing was for a land where they could
   settle down, build houses, plant vineyards and dwell in quiet resting
   places. Canaan is, therefore, the type of the rest which God intends to
   give His people here. It is not the type of Heaven, except very
   imperfectly, for in Canaan there were Canaanites to be fought and to be
   gradually driven out. And there were some that were never driven out.
   But we thank God that there are no Canaanites to trouble the saints in
   Heaven. Canaan is the true pattern and type of the Believer's condition
   upon the earth We who have believed in Jesus have crossed the Jordan.
   He has divided it for us and we have entered into rest. It is true that
   the Canaanites are still in the land, but the Lord also is in the land
   and, by His Grace, we shall surely drive them all out. We ought not to
   say that we hope to reach Canaan's peaceful shore, by-and-by--we are on
   it now! If we have truly believed in Jesus, our condition is rightly
   typified by the Israelites in Canaan who had obtained their
   inheritance, for Jesus has obtained His inheritance and God "has raised
   us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
   Jesus."

   I. The gist of what I have been endeavoring to say to you is that there
   is a rest which belongs to all Believers now! And if they are living as
   they should live, they are in the enjoyment of it. I shall try, first,
   to DESCRIBE THIS REST FROM THE FAMOUS TYPE WHICH IS GIVEN OF THE REST
   OF GOD.

   That rest of God, at the end of the six days of Creation, was like the
   rest which the Believer enjoys, for it spoke of a work that was
   finished. I need not refresh your memory with the familiar story of the
   Creation--how the darkness had been divided from the light, how the
   waters above the firmament had been separated from the waters below the
   firmament, how the living creatures had begun to swarm in the deeps and
   how, with rapid wing, the fowls of Heaven were cleaving the air. I need
   not detail to you the springing up of the herb yielding seed after its
   kind, of the tree yielding fruit after its kind, the creation of
   cattle, of creeping things, of the beasts of the earth and of man, the
   masterpiece of God. And you know that when the sun set on the sixth
   day, God had finished all His work--there remained nothing to be
   completed. He had placed in the world all the creatures that were
   necessary to make up the complete circle of existence! There was no
   deficiency in any one, neither was there a lack of any one. The whole
   work of Creation was finished and, therefore, God rested--He had other
   work to do--but from that particular work He rested and kept the
   Sabbath.

   Now, can a Christian ever come to that condition? Yes, that is the true
   condition of every Christian. He sees the work of his own salvation
   complete--has he done it himself? Oh, no! If he had attempted to do it,
   he would have failed, and if any part of it had depended upon him, it
   would never have been accomplished. But the moment a sinner believes in
   Jesus, if he has been rightly instructed, he hears ringing from the
   Cross of Calvary that gladsome sentence, "It is finished!" And he knows
   that the Atonement is perfect, that the necessary justifying
   righteousness is completed, that every Covenant blessing is secured and
   guaranteed to him--and that all that was needed in order to lift the
   sinner from the very gates of Hell up to the Throne of God has been
   already worked out and brought in by the great Redeemer, the Incarnate
   Word of God! The worlds were framed by the Word of God and by that same
   Word of God men are saved. By that Word the darkness fled and life came
   and light--and by that same Word the darkness of our ruin has been
   dispelled and the light and life of our salvation have come to us!
   Beloved Believer, remember that you are not partlysaved, but you are
   wholly saved! The robe you wear today does not reach part of the way to
   cover you, but covers you from head to foot! The washing which the
   Savior has given you has not washed away a part of your spots, but you
   are clean every whit! And looking upon the work of your salvation as
   you receive it from the hands of Jesus, you may rest as God rested and
   keep a long and blessed Sabbath just as God has kept it! He rested
   because His creative work was finished--and you may rest because the
   work of your salvation is also finished!

   Another reason why God rested on the seventh day was that not only was
   the work finished, but all that was finished was good. We read that at
   the conclusion of His six days work, "God saw everything that He had
   made and, behold, it was very good." And, therefore, He rested. And oh,
   what rest a Believer gets when he looks on the finished work of Jesus
   Christ! And after examining every part of it, he is able to say of it
   all, "It is very good." To see Christ's work of covering sin and to
   note how His substitutionary Sacrifice has covered it so completely
   that even God Himself cannot see it, is indeed, "very good." To realize
   that Christ has sunk our sins into oblivion and made them cease to
   be--this also is, "very good." To look at Christ's justifying
   righteousness and to mark how perfect it is--not a thread missing, no
   part of the goodly texture having a flaw in it--this, too, is, "very
   good." To see Christ as our Prophet, Priest and King. To view

   Him in all His relationships and offices--this, too, is, "very good."
   Yes, Beloved, this is the way to get the Sabbatis-mos--the true rest
   which remains for the people of God! If we examine the work of Christ,
   both in its completeness and in all its details, as God the Father
   looked at His works and praised them all--if we let our judgment feel
   what a strong Rock we have on which to build our eternal peace--then,
   like the ever-blessed Jehovah, Himself, we shall rest and enter into
   His rest. Oh, that God would, by His Grace, enable us to do so!

   But, on further thinking this subject over, you will remember that
   God's great rest was not only connected with a work that was finished
   and a work that was in all respects good, but that it was also very
   closely connected with His holiness, for "God blessed the seventh day
   and sanctified it." And He has said to us, "Remember the Sabbath day to
   keep it holy." I speak with the utmost reverence and trembling before
   the Divine Majesty, yet I can truly say that there could have been no
   real rest even to God, Himself, if it had been conceivable that He
   could have been unholy. Perfect restfulness necessitates perfect
   holiness! Sin, which is inconceivable in connection with God, is
   inconceivable in connection with real rest. Hence, Beloved, to make a
   true Sabbath, there must be a sanctifying of the day--it must be a holy
   day if it is to be a restful day! It is no use for men to say that they
   can get a rest by spending the Sabbath in amusement--they never will.
   There is no perfect rest to our entire manhood except in holiness and
   holy exercises, alone, can give complete rest to our whole being. Let
   us always remember this and pant after holiness. Heaven and holiness
   are twin sisters. As God makes you holy, He will make you happy--and
   when He has made you perfectly holy, you shall he perfectly happy! No
   waves of sorrow will ever come where there are no waves of sin. When
   you have done with sinning, you shall have done with sorrowing--

   "There is sweet rest in Heaven; there is sweet rest in Heaven"--

   but it is because there is a blessed absence of all the sin which must
   forever mar our peace and restfulness!

   II. Now, secondly, I am going to DESCRIBE THIS REST FROM MY OWN
   EXPERIENCE AND FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF GOD'S PEOPLE GENERALLY. "We who
   have believed do enter into rest."

   First, we enter into rest concerning all dread of God and all terror on
   account of past sin. It is but a little while ago that our sins greatly
   alarmed us. We knew that God must punish us for them and, therefore, we
   could not rest. But those sins, which then disturbed us, have been
   forgiven--we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son--and now, we
   who have believed, have no dread of punishment, no fear of the wrath to
   come, for we have entered into rest! I can truly say that this is my
   condition. Is it not yours, also, my beloved Brothers and Sisters in
   Christ? If you really believe in Jesus, it must be!

   Next, we enter into rest concerning all fears as to the future. As to
   any trouble we may have in this life, we know that God will overrule it
   for our good. As to the pangs of death, we know that the Lord will be
   with us and will sustain us in the valley of death-shade and we have no
   fear of anything that may follow after death, for what can hurt or
   disturb those of whom Christ has said, "Father, I will that they, also,
   whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
   Glory"? We are delivered from all fear of judgment, for who shall
   condemn those whom God has justified, and whom He will glorify? All
   dread as to our past sin is gone from us forever! Concerning past sin,
   our soul is even as a new-born child--we are cleansed from it by the
   precious blood of Jesus! And as for the future, we have no more dread
   about it than the angels in Heaven have! They know that nothing can
   ever harm them, for they are God's own chosen ones--and so are we if we
   are Believers in Jesus Christ.

   We also now have rest from all our former sinful works. Once we were
   the slaves of our own evil passions and we were hurried here and there
   to degrading service by Satan and the lusts of the flesh. But now that
   the Son of God has made us free, we are free indeed! We find a joyous
   liberty in the ways of holiness and it is our constant delight to do
   the will of God. Thrice happy are we who have broken the bonds of sin
   and are no longer the servants of iniquity. And we are equally free
   from all servile works for self-salvation. Oh, I pity those poor people
   who are working to save themselves-- those who go to church or chapel
   and who are kept from this offense, or urged to that other apparent
   excellence simply because they hope for a reward thereby! Sons of
   Hagar, Ishmaelite children of the bondwoman, you can never be
   inheritors of the rest which is the birthright of Isaac and all the
   children of the freewoman! You must be cast out even as Ha-gar's son
   was. But the man who believes in Jesus knows that he is saved, so he
   has no need to try to save himself. That work is done and done forever!
   And now we work from life, not for l ife! Now we work because we are
   saved, not in order to be saved!Now we feel that we have not to win any
   merit by anything that we do, but that the Infinite Merit of Christ has
   already procured for us full acceptance with God. And what we have to
   do now is to prove our gratitude to God for the Divine work that is
   already completed. What a blessed thing it is to rest both from the
   sinful service of Satan and from the servile service of the Law!

   I trust that many Believers here can say that they have now come to
   rest from all ambitious, discontented works. The worldly man is never
   satisfied--he always wants to be greater, wiser, richer and more highly
   esteemed than he is. But he who truly believes in Jesus feels that God
   may do as He likes with him. If I am little, I thank God that He has
   many little ones whom He greatly loves. And if He makes me great, I
   thank Him because He will give me Grace to bear my greatness with
   becoming humility. If I am poor, I will bless the Lord that He has
   promised that at least bread and water shall be given to those who
   trust Him. If He makes me rich, I will ask Him to give me the Grace to
   use my substance for His Glory. It is a blessed thing to come to such a
   pass as this about all worldly things and leave the disposal of all of
   them with God.

   Some people are always fretting and fuming. They appear to have been
   born in stormy weather and to be perpetually agitated in mind so that
   they cannot rest. Only the other day, a gardener I knew of was
   complaining greatly of the heavy rain which had done some damage to the
   garden where he was working. A Quaker, who stood by, said to him,
   "Friend, you ought not to complain of the rain, for if it has not done
   this garden any good, it has done good to the fields of many of your
   neighbors. Therefore you ought to be glad on their account and to thank
   God." And then the good man very wisely added, "I do not think that,
   after all, we would have the weather any better managed by you than it
   is by God, if it could be put into your hands." That is the right way
   to look at all things--they are far better ordered by God than by any
   man! Christian, you could not order them better if you had the ordering
   of them, so be perfectly content and say, "Not my will, Lord, but Yours
   be done." The more faith grows, the more rest grows. But when our faith
   begins to forget the Lord and we commence to worry and to fret, then
   our rest goes at once. It is glorious to live exempt from care by the
   blessed power of prayer--to be able to take every trouble to God and
   leave it with Him. I know what it means to do so for I have sometimes
   had a church trouble or a household trouble and I have done my best
   with it--but bad has been my best and, at last, I have taken it to my
   God and I have said to Him--"Lord, I will not worry myself about that
   trouble anymore. I leave it with You--do what You please with it." And
   I have always found that the tangle has been unraveled when I have done
   that with it! There would always be a way found for us out of every
   trouble if we would trust wholly in God and not rely upon ourselves or
   our fellows!

   "We who have believed do enter into rest." I have already incidentally
   shown you that the rest of the Christian depends upon his believing,
   but I want just now to emphasize that fact. It is not as a doer that
   you will get rest, but as a Believer! It is not as a professor, it is
   not as anything else except as a Believer that you will obtain rest of
   heart. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I beseech you to hold fast
   your faith. There are many things that will tempt you to live by your
   experience, to live by your feelings and to live by your graces and
   your attainments--but remember that sentence that is again and again
   repeated in Scripture, "The just shall live by faith." Be like poor
   Jack the Huckster, whose one saying was--

   "I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
   All-in-All."

   Do not go an inch beyond that declaration--

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

   The moment you go beyond that, you may get some temporary excitement,
   as they do who profess to be perfect and who, in these modern days, are
   reviving old-fashioned heresies by professing that they are perfectly
   sanctified, which I venture to say they are not! You may get a
   delirious joy for a time, but it will evaporate before long. But
   keeping close to the Cross is the thing for me! I remember an old
   countryman saying to me, long ago, "Depend upon it, my Brother, if you
   or I get one inch above the ground, we get just that inch too high."
   And I believe it is so. Flat on our faces before the Cross of Christ is
   the place for us--realizing that we are nothing and that Jesus Christ
   is everything!

   "We who have believeddo enter into rest." Not we who have fltthis or
   that. Not we who thinkwe are somebodies. But we who know that we are
   nobodies and hang alone upon Christ! I suppose there never was a more
   restful period to any of us than when we lay in our mother's bosom and
   just drank in our life's nourishment from her. And there is never such
   a restful period to any child of God as when he is just a little babe,
   hanging on the bosom of his God and drinking in

   all he needs from the eternal fountains of Divine Love and Life! Oh, to
   be always such a blessed babe as that, relying upon my God for all the
   strength I need! Then may I utter Paul's paradox, "When I am weak, then
   am I strong." Though I am a fool, God is my Wisdom! Though I am nothing
   at all, God is my All-in-All. This is the way to enter into rest
   through believing!

   Now, lastly, let me remind you, Beloved, that this rest is perfectly
   consistent with labor. In verse 11 the Apostle says, "Let us labor,
   therefore, to enter into that rest." It is an extraordinary injunction,
   but I think he means, let us labor not to labor. Our tendency is to try
   to do somethingin order to save ourselves. But we must beat that
   tendency down and look away from self to Christ. Labor to get away from
   your own labors! Labor to be clean rid of all self-reliance! Labor in
   your prayers never to depend upon your prayers! Labor in your
   repentance never to rest upon your repentance and labor in your faith
   not to trust to your faith, but to trust only to Jesus! When you begin
   to rest upon your repentance and forget the Savior, away with your
   repentance! And when you begin to pray and you depend upon your prayers
   and forget the Lord Jesus, away with your prayers! When you think you
   are beginning to grow in Grace and you feel, "Now I am somebody," away
   with such spurious growth as that, for you are only being puffed up
   with pride and not really growing at all! Labor not to labor. Labor to
   keep down your natural self-righteousness and self-reliance. Labor to
   continue where the publican was and cry, "God be merciful to me a
   sinner." Labor to get where Mary was, sitting at the Master's feet and
   learning of Him. Labor not to grow upward in self-esteem, but to grow
   downward in humiliation-- growing continually less and less, and less
   in your own estimation--and always crowning Christ Lord of All!

   Labor also to show your gratitude to God for what He has done for you,
   and then labor to show your love to men. You must not suppose that when
   we enter into rest, it means that we are idle. Our Lord Jesus Christ
   said, "My Father works up to now, and I work." God rests, yet He works.
   Heaven is a place of rest, but it is not a place of idleness--there is
   still holy service to be done there, so you Christian people who are
   perfectly saved, devote all your strength to the winning of others for
   Christ! Show your love to Jesus by trying to find some of His lost
   sheep for Him. Awaken yourselves, my Brothers and Sisters who have
   entered into rest, and prove to mankind that the grand old Calvinistic
   Doctrine of a finished salvation does not breed sluggishness! Rise, I
   pray you, and show that the children of the freewoman are not slothful,
   but that the motive of gratitude to God is a higher and more potent one
   than the selfish motive of seeking to save yourselves! Let those who
   want to save themselves go and work for themselves, but as for you who
   are saved, go and work for Jesus! And let your deeds of holy heroism
   prove that you are constrained by love to Him to do all that you can to
   bring others to trust in Him! Now, as some of you are coming to this
   Communion Table, may it prove to be a feast of rest to your souls!
   Sitting, as you will be, in the posture of rest, eating the bread and
   drinking the wine which are the tokens of the finished work of Christ,
   may you have real rest in Him! And oh, that some poor sinner who has
   never believed in Jesus, may do so now, for thus shall he find rest
   unto his soul! The Lord grant it, for Jesus sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 2 CORINTHIANS 4.

   Verse 1. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received
   mercy, we faint not It is a very high privilege to be called to the
   work of the Christian ministry. And when the minister remembers what
   great mercy he has, himself, received, what sins have been forgiven,
   what favors have been bestowed--he has the very best incentives in all
   the world to pursue his ministry with diligence and with zeal. "We
   faint not," says the Apostle. We do not hang our harps upon the
   willows. We do not pray to be allowed to retire from the battle and
   give up the strife, but feeling how great has been the mercy of God to
   our own souls, we are stirred up to press forward with holy zeal to win
   the victory! We long that others may taste of the same good things on
   which we have feasted.

   2. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
   craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by
   manifestation of the Truth commending ourselves to every man's
   conscience in the sight of God. There have, alas, been many preachers
   who have handled the Word of God in the manner described by the
   Apostle. They have cut and trimmed the Truth in order to please their
   generation--they have kept back this, or have made unduly prominent
   that, instead of giving all the Truth of God its proper and
   proportionate prominence in their ministry. But such men have not,
   after all, won the respect of their hearers. There is an old story told
   of King John of England that when he was closely pressed by the barons,
   he wrote to the Emperor of Morocco and offered to turn Muslim and take
   an oath of allegiance to him if he would send an army to help him. And
   it is said that ever after the Emperor of Morocco abhorred and detested
   the very name of John, for he said he must be an abominable miscreant
   to be willing to change his religion for the sake of gain! Ah, my
   Brothers, we never gain any respect, even from the world, by seeking
   after it in this fashion! Be thoroughly honest, especially you who are
   in the Christian ministry. Be outspoken, blunt and plain--and then,
   even if men's prejudices condemn you, their consciences will commend
   you for speaking what you believe to be the Truth of God.

   3, 4. But if our Gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in
   whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe
   not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image
   of God, should shine unto them.

   [The following Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon parts of these two verses,
   are #2304, Volume 39--BLINDED BY SATAN; #2077, Volume 35--THE GOSPEL OF
   THE GLORY OF CHRIST and #1663, Volume 28--THE TRUE GOSPEL IS NO HIDDEN
   GOSPEL.]

   Without light from above, no man can perceive the beauties either of
   the Gospel or of Christ Himself. Until God the Holy Spirit sheds a
   spiritual light upon the Person, offices and work of Christ, men grope
   in the dark as blind men do. They see not the Truth of God. They are
   not persuaded of its excellence. Our ministry is to them a veiled
   ministry, they do not comprehend it. Let those who receive not the
   Gospel see what a miserable state theirs is--they are blinded by "the
   god of this world." He has such supremacy over their intellects that he
   has utterly perverted and ruined them!

   5. For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
   your servants for Jesus' sake. Hence we learn that anything like
   priestcraft is altogether foreign to the Bible. The "priest" preaches
   up himself, the extraordinary value of his ordination, the occult
   influences which flow from his touch, the mysterious power which dwells
   in baptismal water and in "consecrated" wafers and poured-out wine.
   This is preaching themselves with a vengeance! But Christ's Apostles
   preached not themselves--they preached up Christ and Him crucified.
   Paul wrote, "God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our
   Lord Jesus Christ." And this was the constant theme of all the
   Apostles. If they mentioned themselves at all, they simply said, as
   Paul does here, "Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."

   6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
   shined in our heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of
   God in the face of Jesus Christ. [See Sermon #1493, Volume 25--the
   glory of god in the face of jesus chrIST.] There is the very Glory of
   God in the face of Jesus Christ,

   for He is, "very God of very God," and he who will but think of the
   wondrous mystery of the Incarnate Deity and the simple but marvelous
   plan of salvation through Christ's atoning Sacrifice will see
   infinitely more Glory, there, than in all God's works in Creation or
   Providence. Well does Watts say--

   "The spacious earth and spreading flood

   Proclaim the wise and powerful God!

   And Your rich glories from afar

   Sparkle in every rolling star.

   But in Christ's looks a Glory stands,

   The noblest labor of Your hands,

   The pleasing luster of His eyes

   Outshines the wonders of the skies."

   7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of
   the power may be of God, and not of us. The original might very fairly
   be rendered, "We have this treasure in oyster shells," for, just as
   pearls are found in the shells of oysters, so God gives to those who
   preach the Word, the treasure of the Gospel, yet they are themselves
   nothing but the oyster shells, nothing but the earthen vessel in which
   God pleases to place His priceless treasures. If you have done anything
   in the service of God, my Brother, remember that you are nothing but
   the oyster shell--it is God's Truth that is the pearl in you! So while
   you are thankful for the honor that He puts upon you, mind that you
   give Him all the glory. It is well to take the right view of our own
   imperfections and infirmities, as Paul did when he wrote, "Most gladly,
   therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
   Christ may rest upon me." The infirmity of the creature leaves more
   room for the display of the greatness of the Creator, for if God can
   work such wondrous results by using such poor tools as we are, how
   great must be His power and skill!

   8. 9. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are
   perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down,
   but not destroyed"We are troubled on every side." There seems to be an
   allusion here to the Greek wrestling games. Sometimes in wrestling, a
   man would be gripped by his adversary so that he could scarcely move
   hand

   or foot, yet bravely says the Apostle, "We are not distressed," or, as
   the original seems to suggest, "We still have a plan of overcoming our
   adversaries. Though they seem to have got us entirely in their power,
   there is still something that we can do to obtain our release." And he
   goes even further than that, for he says, "We are perplexed"--it seemed
   as if there was nothing that he could do, yet he added, "but not in
   despair"--"not altogether without help," as the marginal reading
   renders it--for when he could do nothing, God could do everything! The
   death of creature-strength is the birth of Omnipotent Might!

   "Persecuted, but not forsaken"--having no man's face to smile upon him,
   but still rejoicing in the light of God's Countenance. "Cast down"--as
   if his antagonist had thrown him and he had fallen heavily upon the
   ground. Yet he says, as he springs up again, "Cast down, but not
   destroyed." Many a time the Christian wrestler is thrown by his foe,
   but he never has a final fall. As Paul, when he was stoned at Lystra
   and left for dead, rose up again, and soon went on with his work, so
   the Christian, when he has been cast down by trouble, often seems to
   gain new life and vigor--and to go on to serve his Master even better
   than he did before!

   10. Always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
   the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bod. The Apostles
   were always ready to die for Christ and, therefore, they were enabled
   to live so much like Christ--imitating His life and being prepared to
   follow Him even to the death whenever He called them to do so.

   11-14. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
   sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
   flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you. We having the same
   spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and,
   therefore, have I spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak knowing
   that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus,
   and shall present us with you. There is no possibility of serving God
   well, especially under great trials and persecutions, without a
   deeply-rooted confidence in the Truth of His Gospel. Once have a doubt
   concerning that and the strong sinews of our spiritual manhood are cut!
   Once begin to question the evidences of our holy religion and you
   cannot henceforth serve God as you did before! Oh, to be strengthened
   every day with might in the inner man--to feel that in our own
   experience we have continually fresh proofs of the Truth of the Gospel
   and that, whether we have trials or delights, we are thereby the more
   firmly rooted in faith, even as the trees are rooted both by the March
   winds and the April showers--and so rooted in faith that we grow into
   it and cannot be separated from it because it has become a part of
   ourselves! Religion is nothing to any of you unless it is woven into
   the very warp and woof of your being--it must go right into your very
   soul and become a vital part of you, or else you have never received it
   in Truth!

   15, 16. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant Grace
   might through the thanksgiving ofmany redound to the glory of God. For
   which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perishes, yet the
   inward man is renewed day by da}. The sickness that crumbles away the
   body of a Christian often confirms his soul in the faith that he
   received when he was strong and well. Some of the healthiest hours that
   God's people ever have are the hours of their sorest sicknesses. God
   often sends His people fevers to make them well. He sends them losses
   to make them rich. He takes away their earthly friends to bring them
   closer to their Best Friend and He brings them to their wits' end that
   they may begin to be truly wise! Often, when God strips us of all our
   worldly possessions, it is the most soul-enriching season we have ever
   known! But, on the other hand, the day of temporal prosperity has often
   been a day of spiritual poverty. Adversity has many a time been an
   angel in disguise, but prosperity has been the devil in a mask! Let us
   take care that we cleave closely to Christ under both experiences, for
   then both of them shall be sanctified to us.

   17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a
   far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Notice the antithesis
   here. "Light affliction"--a "weight of glory." "Affliction" is not set
   in contrast with peace, or freedom from affliction, but with "glory."
   The "light affliction" is "for a moment"--the "weight of glory" is
   "eternal." And then, as if this were not enough, the Apostle has to
   exhaust all ordinary powers of speech in order to adequately express
   the contrast between the, "light affliction" and the, "weight of
   glory." It is "far more exceeding"--not only a soul brim-full of bliss
   and overflowing, but far more than that if there can be such a
   thing--"a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

   18. While we look not at the things which are seei.. Alas for us if we
   did!

   18. But at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
   are temporal Temporal and temporary! See how they melt away, one after
   another!

   18. But the things which are not seen are eternal. [See Sermon #1380,
   Volume 23--VANITIES AND VERITIES.] The substance is beyond the river.
   The shadows are here. God help us to look for the substance and to
   claim it as our own--and let none of us try to grasp the shadows which
   would be worthless if we could ever hold them in our hands!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Novelties of Divine Mercy

   (No. 3170)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "His compassions...are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness."
   Lamentations 3:22,23.

   THE Book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah is very dolorous. When you
   look upon the dragons, owls, pelicans and bitterns of the wilderness,
   you have a fit picture of his mournful state. He was full of grief,
   like a bottle needing vent. His heart was ready to burst with wormwood
   and with gall.

   But the whole current changes when the Prophet brings to his
   remembrance the mercy of God! No sooner does he think of the
   compassions of the Most High than at once he takes his harp from the
   willows and begins to sing as joyously as ever that sweet singer of
   Israel, David, sang before him. And, truly, if we, too, instead of
   harping upon our miseries, would but reflect upon our mercies, we would
   exchange our mournful dirges for songs ofjoy!

   It is true that God's people are a tried people, but it is equally true
   that God's Grace is equal to their trials! It is quite true that
   through much tribulation they enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but then
   they do enter--and the thought of the Kingdom that is coming sustains
   them in their present tribulation! They wade through the waters of woe,
   often breast-deep, but the billows do not, and shall not, go over them!
   They shall still be able to sing even in the midst of the tempest. I
   would suggest to any here who are in the habit of complaining--and I
   would remind you that it is a very bad habit--and to any of you who
   have become chronic murmurers, that this temper of mind is exceedingly
   sinful. While, on the other hand, the remembrance of God's mercy and
   grateful talk about it is a virtuous habit--one which is honoring to
   God as well as strengthening and profitable to our own souls. Imitate
   Jeremiah, then, and if you can find no comfort in your present outward
   circumstances, meditate upon the unfailing mercies of God!

   What a blessed word that is which the Prophet here uses, "compassions"!
   David uses the word, "pity," more frequently, but he means the same
   thing. It is a humbling word, though exceedingly consolatory. I have
   often felt very deeply chastened in my own soul at the remembrance of
   the text, "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities
   them that fear Him." What? Is this the Lord's attitude towards even the
   strongest and the best of saints? Does God only pity them? Yes, it is
   even so--those that do exploits, those that lead the van in the day of
   battle, those to whom we look up with respect and admiration, God looks
   upon with Infinite Love--but that love still takes the form of pity. He
   can see their weakness where we only see their strength. He can
   discover their defects where we merely admire the work of the Holy
   Spirit in them. And, therefore, He regards them with pity. Yet it is a
   Father's pity, the pity of a Father who smiles at the weakness of the
   child, knowing that the attempt which it is making, though a feeble
   one, will educate it for something better! And foreseeing that it will,
   by-and-by, outgrow its weakness and be able to do greater things.

   God has compassion for the best of His people, but it is compassion
   prompted by love. It is not the pity that is akin to scorn, but the
   pity which melts from love, as the honey drops from the honeycomb. I
   would again ask our dear friends who are tried and troubled to think of
   the Infinite Pity of God towards them. He has smitten you, but still,
   not as hard as He might have done! Out of pity He has stayed His hand.
   He has spoken sharply to you through your own conscience, but if He had
   spoken as loudly as your sins deserved, there would have been loud
   thunder-claps instead of gentle admonitions! He has withered your
   gourds, but if He had done to you what stern justice might have
   demanded, it would not have been the gourd that would have withered,
   but you, yourself, would have wasted away!

   Admire the compassion of God toward you! Even if one child in your
   family is sick, they are not all sick. If the Lord has taken away one
   of your friends by death, there are many other friends still left to
   cheer and comfort you. You have had heavy losses in business, but you
   are not bankrupt. You are not in good health, but still, you have not
   been stricken

   with the diseases which have attacked some others--your pain is
   bearable. It is true that the weather is dull and heavy to your spirit,
   but it is not the blackness of "the valley of the shadow of death."
   Take heart even in the midst of affliction and chastisement, for the
   compassion of God is still to be seen!

   Moved by such thoughts as these, the Prophet penned the remarkable
   words before us, "His compassions are new every morning: great is Your
   faithfulness." I have been admiring the first sentence of the text
   which suggests to me the novelties of Divine Mercy. And as I speak upon
   it, I mean to get you to preach to yourselves, to wake up your
   recollections, to ask you to turn over a few pages in your old
   notebooks, to make you look at your diaries and remember what God has
   done for you since you first savingly knew His name.

   I. First, then, I want to remind you that GOD'S MERCIES ARE ALWAYS
   NOVELTIES--"They are new every morning."

   The water that is in the cistern may be sufficient for a long time, but
   if it is stored, it will not remain fresh. It may have been fresh the
   first morning it flowed into the cistern, but it will not be fresh
   tomorrow. And the longer it lasts, the more stagnant it will become.
   But the water that gushes from the springhead is always fresh! I drank
   of it when I was a boy. I went to it in the prime of manhood. I stoop
   to drink of it now that my hair is turning gray and it is still as
   fresh and sparkling as ever. God is not the cistern, but the Fountain!
   Our treasures which we lay up on earth are the stagnant pools, but the
   treasure which God gives us from Heaven, in Providence and in Grace, is
   the crystal Fountain which wells up from the eternal deeps and is
   always fresh and always new! There are no gray hairs upon the Angel of
   the Covenant, no wrinkles upon His brow. I may say of Him what the
   spouse in Solomon's Song says of her Beloved, "His locks are bushy, and
   black as a raven." Mercy is as old as eternity and is always God's
   darling attribute, yet it is always young, active and bright and fair!
   Mercy is not a tree that yields its fruit but once in the year--our
   trees bear such fruit as that which may be stored through the winter
   and kept till, perhaps, it becomes rotten. But the mercy of God is like
   the Tree of Life which bears its fruit every month--at all times and at
   all seasons we may have a share of the compassions of God--and we shall
   find that "they are new every morning."

   The thought that God's mercy is always new is a pleasing one, but that
   it is new every morning is very amazing. If you had to preach year
   after year, as some of us do, you would find it no small difficulty to
   have something new to say every Sunday. But God has something new for
   us every morning! I suppose the writers in our newspapers often have to
   exercise their brains to give us something new every day, but God, with
   the greatest ease, sends to the many millions of His people something
   new every morning! He does not need to repeat Himself. If He sends the
   same mercy, there is something about it which shows it to be fresh and
   new. God never gives us old money that has been worn and defaced--His
   mercy always comes to us fresh from the mint with all the brightness
   and clearness of new coinage! "His compassions are new every morning."
   Not only somemornings, but EVERY morning from the first of January to
   the last of December! God never has to stay His hand, He never has to
   pause to think of something fresh. His mercies come to us freely,
   spontaneously, "new every morning." Let us think for a little while
   what this means.

   In the first place, every morning brings a new mercy because every
   morning ends the night The night is the time of danger and dismay. Why
   do we ask, concerning the sick one, "How did he pass the night?" We
   seldom enquire, "How did he pass the day?" Is it not because somehow or
   other we connect the night with the idea of insecurity and danger? We
   wear the image of death upon our faces while we sleep--and how slight
   the difference is between a sleeping man and a dead man is plain to all
   beholders. Every morning we may say, "What a mercy that our bed did not
   become our tomb! What a mercy that in the night we were not alarmed
   with fire, that our couch was not consumed and ourselves in it-- that
   the house was not broken into by wicked men, that no convulsions of
   Nature terrified us, that no cry of anguish, like the shrieks that woke
   up every parent in Egypt, was heard in our house because our child was
   dying!" Such cries have been heard by some of us and we have had
   dreadful nights which we shall never forget! Let us live as long as we
   may, but every morning in which we wake without such alarms and tears,
   or after a quiet, restful night in which God has given to His beloved,
   sleep, we have had a new mercy and we may at once look up to the Lord,
   and say, "We praise You that another night is gone! Your mercies are
   new every morning."

   But every morning also brings a new mercy because every morning ushers
   in another day. That is a new reason for praise, for we have no right
   to an hour, or even a minute, much less to a day. To the sinner,
   especially, it is a great mercy to have another day of Grace, another
   opportunity for repentance, a new reprieve from death, a little more
   space in

   which to escape from Hell and fly to Heaven. Ah, Soul, suppose you had
   never seen the light of another rising sun but had heard, instead
   thereof, the dreadful sentence, "Depart, accursed one, into the
   darkness which shall never be pierced by a ray of light"? How terrible
   would have been your portion! So what a mercy it is that you are still
   spared!

   The Christian may thank God that he has another day in which he may
   walk with God as Enoch did, another day in which he may trust God as
   Abraham did, another day in which he may work for Christ as Paul did,
   another day in which he may reap the Gospel harvest, another day in
   which he may gather pearls for Immanuel's crown, another day in which
   he may be ripening for Glory, another day in which he may hold
   communion with his Lord, another day in which he may be making advances
   in the blessed pilgrimage towards the Celestial City! God gives us our
   days--may He teach us their value, for they are pearls of great price.
   And then as each new morning breaks, we may truly say to Him, "Your
   mercies are new every morning, for the morning has brought us another
   day."

   Further, a new mercy comes to us each morning, at least to the most of
   us, because each morning brings supplies for the day. I have often
   thought to myself, "What a mercy it is to know that when I wake there
   is a breakfast provided for me!" There are many, alas, who do not know
   from where their first meal in the day is to come. That is a sorrowful
   thing, and a very trying discipline--but it is certainly not the case
   with the most of us, for we always have enough for the next day in our
   cupboard. When we rise in the morning, we are not quite like the
   sparrows who have to seek their food. They begin to chirp as soon as
   they wake--there is nothing in their barn, yet they sing, as Luther
   understood then--

   "Mortal, cease from care and sorrow, God provides for the morrow." Then
   they set to work to find their daily bread and find it they do, for God
   feeds the fowls of Heaven--and your day's provision is waiting for you!
   There is the manna for you outside the camp and you know where to
   gather it. As you do so, remember the mercy of the Lord and bless His
   holy name!

   But you say that you have not all you could wish to have and,
   therefore, you are not happy. Ah, dear Friends, let us all obey the
   Apostle's injunction, "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith
   content." And let us all learn the lesson of which the Apostle wrote,
   "I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know
   both how to be abased and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all
   things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
   and to suffer need."

   Let me again remind you--because I am afraid some of you, especially
   those of you who have abundance, do not always remember it--that you
   are daily dependent upon God's Providence, that you as much receive
   your daily bread from God as if the ravens brought it, that you as
   certainly obtain all that you receive from the hand of God as if it
   dropped from the clouds, or as if the wind brought you quails! Be
   thankful, then, that as each day brings to your household fresh needs
   for daily bread, clothing and shelter, God is also pleased to give such
   mercies as you need every morning.

   In spiritual things, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, how richly may
   the text be illustrated! "His compassions are new every morning,"
   because every morning I commit fresh sins. Strange creature that I am,
   I can scarcely open my eyes to the light before my complex nature
   begins to display the darkness that still lingers within me! Miserable
   mass of humanity that I am by nature, I can hardly breathe without
   offending in the thoughts and imaginations of my heart. And even though
   I may watch my eyes, guard my tongue and keep the members of my body
   pure, yet still my heart goes a-wandering and my tongue, before long,
   speaks idle words! Yet the mercy is that with the new sin, there always
   comes the new pardon, for "His compassions are new every morning." So,
   before we leave our bedchamber, we go afresh to the--

   "Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins"-- and once
   again we wash and are clean! When we go forth to our business and tug
   and toil to earn an honest living, we are all too prone to wander from
   our God--yet even then we may still think of our blessed Master who
   girded Himself with a towel, poured water into a basin and washed His
   disciples' feet--and then said that they were clean every whit. We are
   like those disciples, for our daily pollutions need a daily cleansing.
   We have been once washed in the precious blood of Jesus and we are
   clean in the sight of God, but we need to be daily cleansed from our
   daily defilements--and every morning brings us this Divine Grace.

   Then, we scarcely leave our bedchamber, no, we do not leave it, before
   the new morning brings new temptations. Some mornings especially bring
   us temptations that we have never experienced before, insinuations gain
   an entrance into

   our mind which never perplexed us till that moment. We scarcely know
   how to deal with them--and young Christians, especially, are often
   staggered when these diabolical shafts are winging their way towards
   them! Then, when we go downstairs to begin the duties of the day, we do
   not know how long we shall be before we shall be sorely tempted to sin.
   If we did but know at what hour the tempter would come, we might be on
   the watch for him, but lo, Satan and sin come like a thief in the
   night! The time when a child of God is most likely to be tempted to sin
   is when he is in the holiest frame of mind. You may think that is an
   odd remark, but I make it as the result of my own experience. I have
   often found that when I have been nearest to God in prayer, or when I
   have most enjoyed a service, I have just then been met by somebody who
   said something gross, or wicked, or unkind. And I have been tempted to
   answer and perhaps have answered in a way for which I have afterwards
   been sorry. If you are like I, Beloved, you know that after having been
   lifted up by some ecstatic experience, you are not well prepared to
   meet these contrary individuals--so that in your moments of highest
   joy, something may occur to cause your feet to trip!

   Well, now, it is such a mercy for me to remember that when I begin each
   new morning, though I cannot tell what temptations may come to me, I do
   know that God's mercies are new every morning and, therefore, that
   there will be fresh Grace to enable me to resist the fresh temptations!
   We may rest assured that we shall be taken with no temptation but such
   as is common to man--and that God will, with the temptation, also make
   a way of escape for us. Put on the whole Gospel armor and then let the
   shafts of the tempter fall where they may--they shall not wound you. Or
   if a wound is received by you between the joints of your harnesses,
   there is a tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations--and a
   heavenly hand shall reach down with those healing leaves that your
   wounds may be healed. Let us be glad, then, that there is daily Grace
   to enable us to overcome daily temptations!

   We do not completely know, when we wake in the morning, what will be
   the particular tasks of the day, for each new day brings new duties.
   Even though we should know completely, as we do know in part, the
   service appointed for the day, yet it would be a sad thing to wake up
   to new duties and new responsibilities if we had not also, new strength
   with which to discharge them. Every day brings a new duty, or it may be
   an old duty in a new shape, cast in another mold. All that I did
   yesterday cannot exonerate me if I am idle today--and all the service
   that I did for my Master a year ago will not excuse me if I waste this
   year. I must take each hour of time on the wing and I must seek to get
   wealth from it as it passes by me. This is your consolation, Beloved,
   that there shall be daily strength given to you for the daily duty to
   which God calls you! Depend upon it, if God will allow us to work or
   fight for Him, He will not let us go in our own strength or at our own
   charges, but He will provide His soldiers with suitable weapons--and He
   will provide the workers in His vineyard with the best tools for their
   service. There is daily Grace, then, for daily duties.

   I might go on to mention that each day will bring its trials, anxieties
   and necessities, but I should also have to remind you that each morning
   brings the promise, "As your days"--note that the word is in the
   plural, not, as so many misquote it, "As your day," but, "As your days,
   so shall your strength be." As long as days shall last and till time
   shall be swallowed up in eternity, God's compassions shall be new every
   morning--to meet our new needs, our new relations, our new
   responsibilities, our new temptations and our new sins!

   II. Now, I will try to illustrate this subject in another light, for
   this text is like a kaleidoscope--you may turn it as many times as you
   will and there will constantly be a fresh form of beauty to be seen.
   Remember, therefore, that SOMETIMES THE MERCIES WE RECEIVE ARE ACTUALLY
   NEW IN THEMSELVES.

   You must all have had certain periods in your lives when new mercies
   were bestowed upon you. I cannot mention them all, but just think of
   the Ebenezers, the stones of help, all along your pathway--and the
   stones of Bethel that you have set up after some distinguishing favors
   which have made such days and nights memorable to you. Such mercies as
   these have been new in a peculiarly special sense.

   Sometimes the mercy is new in substance--you have received what you
   never received before. At other times the mercy is not so much new in
   substance as it is new in the way of its coming. I am sure that
   yesterday, when after praying for the last two or three months that God
   would remember the various works we have in hand--and we received a
   thousand pounds for the Stockwell Orphanage from some unknown donor--I
   felt that it was a new mercy of a very special character! Money has
   been sent to me, many times, for the Lord's work under my charge, but
   it has each time been sent in a different way, or in a different
   form--and each time it has well-near overwhelmed me! When I heard of
   the generous gift yesterday, I was sitting with a dear Brother who had
   just been saying to me, "My dear Friend, there are some people who

   say, 'Our Brother Spurgeon does not know where to stop--he is always
   going on from one good thing to another--if he should make a failure,
   it would be a very dreadful thing!' Now," said my Friend, "don't you
   think it would be a great catastrophe? What a large amount is required
   for the College!" And then he mentioned other things and closed by
   saying, "Suppose there should be a failure in the income?" I said, "I
   never suppose any such thing! I have no purpose to see and no end to
   gain, and no motive in carrying on all these institutions, but God's
   Glory. I was forced into these works against my will and God cannot
   leave me--He must carry on the work and I am persuaded that He will do
   so--my motive is Jehovah Jireh." Just at that moment, the post came and
   the letter was opened which told me about the thousand pounds. My
   Friend said, "My dear Brother, let us kneel down and praise the Lord
   for His mercy." And so we did. And with many tears he thanked God, oh,
   in such a warm-hearted manner--and he evidently felt how foolish it was
   to talk about things failing that are undertaken for God, because God
   is sure to help us! My Friend said it was a blessed means of Divine
   Grace to him and that he would remember that day as one of the choice
   days in his life in which God had showed that He would help those who,
   in His name, undertake work for the poor and needy and try to aid His
   cause. Well now, was not that a new mercy? It was not a new thing for
   us to receive help, but the mercy came in a new way--and it is in such
   a fashion as this that God's mercies "are new every morning."

   Then sometimes, when you do not get the mercy in exactly a new way, yet
   it seems new to you because you are in a new condition. You have more
   knowledge and can better comprehend the value of the mercy. You have
   more experience and can better understand your own need of the mercy.
   The mercy which comes to a young man of 20 has a special brightness
   about it--the mercy which comes to the same man at 70 may not have so
   much sparkle about it, but there will be, I think, if the man is a
   full-grown Christian--and age is not always identical with growth in
   Grace--a deeper and more solemn sense of obligation when the mercy
   comes to him. As we advance in life, the glitter of our thoughts may
   depart, but the solid gold of them will remain and increase and
   multiply--that is to say if we really grow mature in spirit as well as
   old in years. The Lord grant that we may! I am sure that the light in
   which the aged Christian man regards a mercy is, in some respects, a
   different light from that in which the young man regards it. The babe
   in Grace is very grateful for God's mercy and sees that the mercy is
   very precious. But the full-grown man in Christ Jesus has a gratitude
   of a far richer and deeper kind. Thus, this mercy of God is new to us
   because we see it in a new light and it finds us in a new state.

   III. Now, thirdly, to come to the practical point of my discourse, I
   want to ask this question--As GOD'S MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY MORNING, WHAT
   THEN?

   Then I call upon you for new praise. I ask in the name of Jesus Christ
   whose new mercies you and I, my Brothers and Sisters, are always
   receiving, that our hearts and our lips should praise Him hour by hour,
   and even moment by moment! Weave new crowns for Christ! Sing new
   sonnets in honor of His blessed Person and of the mercies which so
   constantly flow to us from Him--

   "Your mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,

   The joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue!

   Your free Grace alone, from the first to the last

   Has won my affections and bound my soul fast

   Great Father of mercies! Your goodness I own,

   And the Covenant love of Your crucified Son!

   All praise to the Spirit, whose whisper Divine

   Seals mercy, pardon and righteousness mine!" I ask you not merely for
   praise in words, but for praise in newactionswhich shall speak far more
   loudly than words. Be not content with what you have already done for
   God, but out of gratitude to Him be constantly doing something new if
   it is possible. As the soldier seeks to be always pressing forward, so
   let us be always trying to do more and more for God. Let us be even as
   the eagle when he soars to the skies, continually circling higher and
   higher. God grant that we may not rest on our laurels, saying, "We did
   such-and-such when we were young," or, "We gave so much yesterday to
   the cause of God," but, as the new mercies continue to come to us, let
   there constantly be on our part new returns of service for God.

   And I ask not only for new actions, but also for new faith. Let every
   new mercy confirm our confidence in the God of Mercy! All these
   compassions of our Covenant-keeping God are so many swift witnesses
   against our unbelief. All these loving kindnesses of the Lord are so
   many strong evidences for the confirmation of our confidence in Him.
   God may well say to us, "At what time have I been false to you? Have I
   received you for a season and then cast you away? Have I been slack in
   blessing you? Have I stinted you in mercy? Have I withheld My loving
   kindness from you?" You dare not say that God has been stingy towards
   you! His mercies have been "new every morning." Shall God, then, have
   to say to you, "You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither
   have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifice: but you have made Me
   to serve with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities"? Let
   not the Lord have to upbraid us thus but let our grateful enquiry be,
   "What shall we render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards us?"
   And so let us give Him new praise, new gratitude and new service to
   prove our gratitude!

   I ask you, then, for new confidence in God. Or if you cannot mount so
   high as that, at any rate I ask all here who have proved the
   faithfulness of God to offer to Him new prayers. If you have already
   been heard by Him, pray to Him again. The beggar in the street says to
   you, "Help me this time and I will never ask you to help me again."
   Talk not like that, O you who beg at God's door of Mercy, but--

   "From His mercy draw a plea, And ask Him still for more!"

   "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it," is the Lord's gracious
   exhortation and promise! Spread your wings and soar away to the very
   Throne of God and then expectthat He will still exceed your faith and
   do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or even think!

   Gathering up much matter into a little space, I ask of all Christians
   the exercise of a holy ingenuity in inventing new plans for honoring
   Christ. I ask the exercise of a holy perseverance in carrying those
   plans into action. I ask for the blazing of a holy zeal every morning
   to make the carrying out of those plans to be always earnest and
   fervent so that as the Lord's loving kindnesses are new every morning,
   so also may be our grateful recollections and our loving service!

   IV. I have no time left for speaking at length upon the second sentence
   of the text, GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS, though I had intended to do
   so. I shall, therefore, only utter these few remarks upon it.

   "Great is Your faithfulness," so great that there has never been an
   exception to it. You have never, O Lord, at any time acted towards any
   of Your people otherwise than according to Truth and righteousness! A
   man may be quite honest and upright, and yet if he conducts an
   extensive business, it will be very difficult for him to escape a
   charge of having sometimes overstepped the mark. He may never have done
   so, but still, it will be very difficult, especially if he has many
   employees, for him to escape the charge of having done so. But our God
   has had thousands of millions of people to deal with throughout all
   ages and yet there stands not beneath the cape of Heaven, nor yet above
   the stars, nor in Hell itself, a single soul who can say that God, in
   any transaction, has ever dealt with him otherwise than according to
   absolute faithfulness!

   But, further than that, no item in the whole roll of Divine promises to
   us has been unfulfilled by God. Old Joshua said to the children of
   Israel, "Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord
   your God spoke concerning you." If a man makes many promises, I will
   defy him to keep them all, because even if he is both able and willing
   to keep them, yet he will not always be able to remember them. But God
   remembers every promise that He ever made and He takes care to honor
   each of those promises in the experience of those who believe in Him!
   They who trust in the Lord shall find Him to be faithful, not only in
   great things, but also in little things! While He keeps the oath of His
   Covenant fast forever, His faintest Word shall abide firm and
   steadfast, and the least Truth which He has ever declared shall never
   grow dim.

   The glory of God's faithfulness is that no sin of man has ever made Him
   unfaithful. Unbelief is a most damning thing and yet, even though we
   believe not, God abides faithful! His children may rebel against His
   Law and they may wander far from His statutes. And He may chastise them
   with many stripes, yet He said, "My loving kindness will I not utterly
   take away from them, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail." God's saints
   may fall under the cloud of His displeasure and provoke the Most High
   by their transgressions--yet He will have compassion upon them, will
   turn unto them and say-- "I, even I, am He that blots out their
   transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember their sins." So
   no sin of man can make God unfaithful--

   "Let us, then, with gladsome mind, Praise the Lord, for He is kind--
   For His mercies shall endure, Ever faithful, ever sure."

   And, once again, no crisis that can by any possibility ever arise can
   compel God to be unfaithful to His people. Even though the whole world
   should go to wreck and ruin, yet He would still bear up the pillars of
   His people's hope. When His saints cannot be safe under Heaven, He will
   take them up to Heaven. When He shall bid the great fountains of fire
   leap up to consume this world and the elements shall melt with fervent
   heat, if we are alive and remain at the coming of the Son of Man, we
   shall be caught up together with the Lord in the air! God provided an
   ark for Noah before He sent the deluge. And He had a mountain refuge
   ready for Lot before He destroyed Sodom. If David must be driven from
   the court of Saul, he shall be sheltered in Engedi. And if, by-and-by,
   the Philistines shall come up against the land, God will still take
   care of His servant! At the worst pinch, God will always be there--you
   may reckon it as certain that He has never forgotten His people! When
   the clock strikes and the bell tolls the hour, God will arise for their
   defense and show Himself to be strong on behalf of all those who put
   their trust in Him!

   Settle it in your minds, Beloved, that God cannot lie! Believe every
   man to be a liar if you must, but never believe that God can fail you!
   If you speak in your soul after this fashion, "Sometimes I see the
   wicked prosper and I am in tribulation and distress. And my spirit
   says, 'Has God forgotten me? Will He give all the good things to those
   who curse Him and cause His people to be chastened forever?'" Say that
   to yourself very softly and then add, "Yet, though all things seem thus
   contrary to the Lord's people, I know that God is good to Israel, even
   to such as are of a clean heart." Say with Job, "Though He slay me, yet
   will I trust in Him...The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
   blessed be the name of the Lord." Say with old Eli, "It is the Lord:
   let Him do what seems good to Him." "In quietness and in confidence
   shall be your strength." "Trust in the Lord and do good; so shall you
   dwell in the land and verily you shall be fed." "Cast not away,
   therefore, your confidence, which has great recompense of reward." Hold
   to your faith as the ancient warrior hung to his shield, for therein
   lies your safety. God help you to cling to him! When you cannot rejoice
   in the light of His Countenance, trust in the shadow of His wings and
   even there, like David, you shall find a safe retreat!

   Here I leave the subject with you for your private meditations. And I
   pray God to quicken in every one of His people a life of holy joy and
   confidence. Oh, that all of you whom I am addressing knew at least
   somethingof the experiences of God's people! You who only live the life
   of sense and have no faith in Jesus, little know what I mean, for
   though I have talked largely of the sorrows of God's people, yet the
   joys of faith are unspeakable! One drop of God's Love would sweeten a
   sea of gall. Yes, I was almost about to say that even the pangs of Hell
   would lose their bitterness if a drop of the Love of Christ could once
   flow there and be tasted by those who are lost!

   Christian, you already know what it is to find roses among the thorns
   and to prove your pangs and your sufferings to be soul-enriching
   things--messengers from the King bringing you to His banquet of
   wine--and leading you to the discovery of the treasures which He has
   laid up for you. You know this, so tell it to the ungodly and perhaps
   their mouths will be set to watering after the good things of Christ's
   table! When they once long for them, they shall have them, for Christ
   never refuses a hungry one. And if there is such an one here, a poor,
   empty, destitute soul, remember, dear Friend, that Mercy's door stands
   always open and that Christ, the Host of the Gospel Inn, stands always
   ready to receive every soul that comes, having written this gracious
   promise over the door of the Inn, "Him that came to Me I will in no
   wise cast out."
     __________________________________________________________________

A Voice With Four Messages

   (No. 3171)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY
   31, 1873.

   "And He said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And,
   behold, the LORDpassed by, and a great and strong wind tore the
   mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD
   was not in the wind: and after the wind, an earthquake; but the LORD
   was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake, a fire, but the
   LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice.
   Andit was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his
   mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And,
   behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What are you doing here,
   Elijah?" 1 Kings 19:11-13.

   [Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon, upon verses 12 and 13, is #1668,
   Volume 28--THE STILL SMALL VOICE.]

   THERE may be a great deal more teaching in what Elijah saw and heard in
   the cave than I shall be able to bring out this evening. Indeed, I
   shall not attempt to exhaust the very wonderful practical sermon which
   was preached to the Prophet on the side of Mount Horeb, but in the
   still small voice I hear four messages.

   I. And first, THERE WAS A MESSAGE TO ELIJAH HIMSELF.

   He had, apparently, conceived the idea that the whole nation of Israel
   would be converted from idolatry by one grand display of Divine power.
   If it could once be indisputably proved that Baal was not God and that
   Jehovah, alone, was God, then he thought that, surely, the people would
   be convinced and would loyally return to their old Covenant with the
   one living and true God. But he found that it was not so. Although the
   fire of the Lord had fallen from Heaven and had consumed Elijah's
   sacrifice, burned up the very stones of the altar and licked up the
   water in the trench. And although the people had cried out, "Jehovah is
   God! Jehovah is God!" yet for all that, they forsook not Baal, nor the
   other idols that had been set up in the groves and on the high
   places--the sun-god was still worshipped and the God who made the sun
   was forgotten!

   Elijah seems to have also thought that a display of terrible severity
   was necessary to bring these people back to their allegiance to
   Jehovah. Hence he took the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the
   groves and slew them at the brook Ki-shon, not allowing any of them to
   escape. It must have been stern work for him to be the executioner of
   God's Justice, but he did it with a sacred zest, feeling that he was
   only slaying those who were the enemies of God--and that every blow he
   struck at those idolatrous priests was struck for the honor and glory
   of Jehovah! Yet that stern severity did not succeed as Elijah had
   expected it would. And one result of it was that Jezebel sent to
   threaten him with death. I think that possibly Elijah desired that God
   would inflict upon the people some still severer judgment. Yet I know
   not what calamities he would have had them suffer, for there had
   already been dire distress through the three years of drought! But even
   this had not driven the people from their idolatry. Perhaps Elijah
   would have had fire and sword sent among them to drive them from their
   idols and bring them back to the worship of Jehovah.

   But God here teaches Elijah that this is not His way of working. He
   does use the wind, the earthquake and the fire when He pleases, but
   these are not His most effective instruments. He does not do His
   mightiest works by them, but in quite another way--by a still small
   voice! Thus the Lord practically said to Elijah, "Gentler means must be
   tried with these rebellious people. My Glory will be promoted among
   them by other methods than you have as yet used, or than I have used by
   you as My servant. I have let them see that I am Lord and Master of the
   terrible forces of Nature. I have con-

   vinced them that I am a great God who can smite them as much as I
   please, but I have not thereby won their hearts-- there must be other
   methods used. The still small voice must be tried."

   You have, perhaps, noticed that Elijah's later ministry--although it
   still remained one of fire and although his was still the voice that
   cried in the wilderness as John the Baptist's was afterwards to do,
   "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God"--became, on the
   whole, much more gentle and tender. He seems to have devoted himself to
   the work of perpetuating the ministry among the people by founding
   schools for the young men who were called the sons of the Prophets.
   They evidently recognized him as their master and head, as they
   recognized Elisha after Elijah had been carried up to Heaven. The still
   small voice of prophetic teaching was to be tried! Judgments had
   apparently failed, for the hard hearts of the people had not been
   softened and subdued. Men had been terrified, but they had not been
   converted. They had been frightened out of their sins for a time, but
   they had speedily returned to them as swine that might be washed would
   soon be again wallowing in the mire! Satan had been dislodged from them
   for a little while, but he had returned and brought other devils with
   him--and so made his possession of them the more secure. Now other
   methods were to be tried--gentler, softer, quieter methods which would
   prove to be more efficient. I think that was the message of God to
   Elijah through the still small voice.

   II. Secondly, if I understand that voice aright, THERE WAS A MESSAGE IN
   IT TO ALL GOD'S MINISTERS.

   To all of us who preach the Word, or who try to teach it in any way,
   God seems to say, "Do not trust in great displays of force, in
   tremendous demonstrations of power--trust rather in the still soft
   influences of the distilling dew of God's Spirit and the gentle rain of
   the Gospel. Preach the Word to the sons and daughters of men." There is
   a temptation which assails all of us who preach to want to do some
   great thing. We fancy that if we could preach such a famous sermon as
   Jonathan Edwards delivered when he spoke of sinners in the hands of an
   angry God, when the people felt as though the very seats whereon they
   sat moved under them--and some of them even stood up and grasped the
   pillars of the building in their terror--we fancy that if we could but
   preach in such a style as that, then we should have lived to some
   purpose. Or we think that if we had the eloquence of Whitefield and
   could go and stand, as he did, on Kennington Common, and preach to
   twenty thousand people at a time--then we should have accomplished
   something worthy of our highest ambition! Or it may be that we have
   some famous sermons of which we think a good deal. Possibly there is a
   fine peroration, like the grand finale of the Crystal Palace
   fireworks--or there may be a great display of oratory all through the
   discourse. Or if we have been wise enough to leave out all that sort of
   thing, we may have tried to make the sermon one that would convince the
   judgment of our hearers, or force its way into their understandings by
   its sheer sledgehammer power--and we have hoped by preaching thus--to
   see our congregations converted.

   Now, if we have been long in the ministry, and if the Lord has given us
   true spiritual apprehension, we must have discovered how futile are all
   such hopes and expectations! There may be a great wind blowing while we
   are preaching such sermons, but the Lord is not in the wind. There may
   be a great earthquake and the people may shake and quake with terror,
   but the Lord is not in the earthquake! Our pulpit may be lurid with the
   fire of coming judgment, but the Lord is not in the fire. It is true
   that we are to preach the terror of the Lord, but like Paul, because we
   know the terror of the Lord, we are to "persuade men." Persuasiveness
   is to be one of the dominant notes in our preaching because of the
   terrible side of the Truth of God. We are not to conceal the threats
   that we find in the Word of God, for the gentle, loving Savior uttered
   very terrible words concerning the wrath to come, the worm that never
   dies and the fire that never can be quenched. At the same time, our
   main reliance must not be on that style of preaching, and our
   expectation of blessing must not depend upon our heaping up words full
   of alarm and terror and expressions intended to set forth the woes and
   horrors of impending judgment, for after all, we may alarm our hearers
   until they can be no longer alarmed! And we may make them weep in
   terror until they can weep no more! But instead of doing so, they may
   even scoff at that which once so greatly disturbed them.

   But the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified never loses its
   power! The telling over and over again of--

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

   never becomes a mere repetition if with warm heart and loving spirit we
   still cry to our hearers, "Behold the Lamb of God which took away the
   sin of the world." There may be no excitement in our congregation, no
   sensation may be created by our preaching, but the Lord will be in it!
   He always has been in such preaching as that and He always will be.

   A preached Savior must mean saved sinners before long, but even where
   sinners are not saved, if we faithfully, lovingly and earnestly preach
   the Gospel to them, we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them
   that perish as well as in them that are saved! So let us still be
   content to go on, and on, and on, and on--preaching Jesus
   Christ--praying for the Spirit of God to rest upon us while we tell
   over and over and over again how the Son of God loved us and gave
   Himself for us, asking the faithful to pray that God will bless the
   Word, seeking to make our own lives to be more like the life of Him
   whom we preach and trying by all lawful means to be the instruments
   that God will bless in saving at least some of our hearers! And we
   shall succeed in such a ministry as this if we have faith in God and
   faith in the message we are sent to deliver, for the Lord is still in
   the ministry of the still small voice! There have been many kinds of
   ministries in this world, but where has God ever been except in the
   ministry of the Truth as it is in Jesus? There have been ministries of
   learning, ministries of eloquence, ministries of philosophy and
   ministries that have made a fair show in the flesh--but, as a general
   rule--souls have not been saved by them. The true soul-winning
   ministries are the ministries of the still small voice, the ministries
   that proclaim the redeeming Grace and dying love of Jesus! And where
   those ministries are exercised, seeking souls will recognize the voice
   of God and give heed to it. So there was a message in the still small
   voice to every preacher of the Word of God!

   III. I think there was also, in that still small voice, A MESSAGE TO
   THE WHOLE CHURCH OF GOD.

   The Lord was not in the wind, nor in the fire, nor in the
   earthquake--but He was in the still small voice. Let us learn from this
   fact not to desire to see any great judgments fall upon any country,
   nor to see any extraordinary displays of Divine power abroad in the
   world with the idea that thereby God's Kingdom will come. We sometimes
   grow dissatisfied because God's cause is not advancing as fast as we
   think it ought to advance. Foreign missions are not as successful as we
   should like to see them and home missions do not prosper as we think
   they should. Then we remember the times when the cholera was rife in
   London and, remembering that the people seemed to be more tender in
   spirit, then, and more willing to listen to the Gospel, we have almost
   wished that some such visitation as that would come again to awaken the
   callous inhabitants of this sinful city and nation! Yet we must not
   cherish such a wish as that, for after all, the good that comes in that
   way is more apparent than real--and after the apparent softening, there
   often comes a hardening of the heart against the Truth. We have
   sometimes looked upon the nations of the earth and as we have seen them
   besotted with idolatry and given up to gross error, we have wondered,
   if war broke out, or pestilence, or there was some other form of the
   rod of God, whether there might not, then, be fresh doors opened for
   the preaching of the Word, and whether the people might not be more
   willing to listen to it when it was preached. It has, no doubt, been so
   in certain cases in the past, but let us not, even in our hearts, ever
   desire such calamities and chastisements to happen! But let us still
   place our confidence where the confidence of the early Christian Church
   was placed--in the Spirit of God working through the preaching of the
   Gospel by earnest, faithful men who had proved its power in their own
   hearts and lives!

   A further lesson to the Lord's people in the still small voice is this.
   It appears from what God said to Elijah that there was a work going on
   in Israel of which the Prophet knew nothing. There were 7,000 people
   whose knees had never been bent in the worship of the sun-god and whose
   lips had never kissed the idol. It is doubtless true today that there
   are thousands of whom we know nothing who are not partakers in the
   idolatry which causes us such sorrow of heart. What an accursed thing
   it is that idolatry of various kinds is so rampant today in this and
   other lands! O God of Elijah, put an end to it right speedily, we
   implore You! Yet, all the while that vile idolatry was spreading in
   Israel, the worship of the true God was being retained by 7,000
   faithful souls--though Elijah did not know that there was even one
   beside himself! How were they won to Jehovah? Certainly not by Elijah's
   impressive demonstration on the top of Carmel, for they were loyal to
   the Lord before that. Possibly they were not converted even by the
   three years drought--what, then, had made them so different from the
   bulk of their countrymen? The secret movement of the Spirit of God upon
   their hearts! Perhaps also the loving teaching of mothers by the
   fireside, the gracious influence of godly men and women upon their
   companions and of the worshippers of Jehovah upon men of the world who
   saw in them what they knew they did not themselves possess--and who so
   admired it that they enquired how they might also obtain such beauty of
   character--all these things had helped to range these 7,000 idol-haters
   on the side of Jehovah. The still small voice had been doing for Israel
   what Elijah could not do!

   Brothers and Sisters, a similar process is going on now! And I want to
   refresh your memories concerning it. Sometimes as we carefully examine
   the organized Christianity of the present day, we cannot discover any
   progress at all. It is a

   great pity and a cause for great sorrow that there should not be any
   visible progress. But for all that, let us hope that there is an
   underground work going on--a secret work of God's Grace proceeding in
   the hearts and lives of those by whom we are surrounded, although we
   can see no signs of it. You who put leaven in your bread know that you
   do not hear it making a noise during the night, but the leaven is
   working effectually although it is working silently. There is still an
   open Bible in our land and in many other lands besides. And so long as
   that is the case, you need not fear that Protestantism will die out, or
   that the lamp of the Truth of God will be put out! There is also more
   than an open Bible in this and other lands--there are many praying
   people who will take no rest and give God no rest until they see His
   cause

   and Kingdom prospering in the earth! [There is a very remarkable Sermon
   by Mr. Spurgeon upon this subject which ought to be widely circulated
   in these days of "arrested progress." See Sermon #2189, Volume 37--A
   CALL TO PRAYER AND TESTIMONY.] You may not know them and they may not
   be among the great ones of this world, but there are many who are
   crying day and night unto God for the preservation and the spread of
   His Truth! There are eyes that are weeping over sin and there are
   hearts that are near unto breaking for the longing that they have for
   the coming of the Redeemer's Kingdom. There are persons whose names
   will never be known to fame--some of the very poorest on the earth who,
   nevertheless, are speaking softly with their voices for Jesus and who
   are also speaking very powerfully by their lives for Jesus--as servants
   in the household, as toilers in the workshop, as poor humble bed-ridden
   sufferers who patiently endure great pain and privation because the
   Lord gives them the Grace to bear it for His sake!

   I believe in the power of these still small voices and I pray that the
   Church of God may never get the idea that she is to depend upon certain
   great orators and distinguished ministers. I fear that many of our
   friends across the Atlantic have fallen into most serious mistakes with
   regard to this matter, for when certain of their great preachers are
   absent, their places of worship are closed just as if God had gone away
   to the country or the seaside because Mr. So-and-So or Dr. So-and-So
   had gone there. I pray that you, dear Friends, may never put such
   confidence in any of us as to think that God could not work just as
   well by other people if He pleased to do so, or to imagine that we must
   come to you with most elaborately prepared sermons and always charm
   your ears with brilliant oratory. As for myself, I abhor all oratory or
   eloquence except that which comes straight from the heart! The Church
   of Jesus Christ has been greatly injured by the highly-polished sermons
   and speeches of famous orators. But let us, Brothers, always speak in
   the language that our heart prompts us to use. Let our very soul run
   over at our lips as it pours itself out like the gushing stream from an
   ever-flowing spring--for this is the best kind of eloquence with which
   we can plead with sinners to forsake their sins and turn to the living
   God! Let us be willing to be accounted weak and to have our speech
   called contemptible, as Paul's was, for God may then be pleased to
   bless us as He will not do in any other way.

   The point I want to emphasize is this, that the reliance of the Church,
   under God, must not be upon the voices that ring out, far and wide,
   like a peal of bells, nor upon the tongues that give forth the sweet
   music that pleases the ear! We must rely upon the Gospel, itself--upon
   the Gospel simply stated, upon the Gospel taught in the Sunday school,
   the Gospel explained at the family altar, the Gospel lived and loved by
   holy men and women! It is that which will do the work of God
   effectually and accomplish His glorious purposes of Grace. And I would
   have all of you who are thus seeking to serve your Savior, believe that
   His blessing will rest upon your service even though it may only seem
   to be as a still small voice! You, my dear Sisters, may not be able to
   preach a sermon, but you may do what is far better that that! The
   loving words that you may speak to your children. The helpful hymns
   that you may teach them as they gather around you. Your evening prayer
   with them as you lay them down to sleep and your own holy example will
   all be the still small voice in which God will speak to them! And you
   servant maids who help in caring for the children and you who teach in
   the day schools. And you who are anywhere brought into contact with
   your fellow men, can, by your words and by your actions, bear most
   important messages for God even though, in the judgment of mankind, you
   may be only like a still small voice that seems to have but little
   force in it! I wish the whole Church of Christ would realize that her
   greatest victories have usually been accomplished by those who did not
   seem, from a human standpoint, competent for the task and that she may
   still expect to see the grandest results coming to her by the use of
   ordinary means, by ordinary persons devoutly exercising, in the name of
   God, their ordinary functions in an ordinary way--the workers being,
   however, under the gracious influence of the Divine Spirit from whom
   all true power must come!

   IV. I shall now conclude my discourse by using the text in a fourth
   way. I believe there was, in that still small voice,

   A MESSAGE TO SINNERS.

   Now, in the scene which is here sketched by the Inspired pen, you have
   many things that you may well consider. The Prophet saw how the great
   and strong wind split the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces. He
   felt the earth reel beneath him and saw the valleys lifted to the
   hills--and the hills sunk into deep glens by the mighty forces of the
   earthquake. And he saw the forests on the hillsides all ablaze with
   fire--but God was not revealed to him in any of those terrible sights.
   It was only when the still small voice came that God spoke to him! And
   it is the same in many of those terrors that some seeking souls
   experience. Human nature is there. The devil is often there. But very
   frequently God is not there in any saving sense--so you need not, any
   of you, wish to feel those terrors! It is a great mercy when God brings
   His people to Himself by a smoother road than that. I know that some
   are brought to Him by that rough road and if they are, they may be
   thankful that they are brought to Him in any manner rather than left to
   perish in their sins. Yet if God, in His great tenderness to others,
   brings them to Himself gently, why should they regret it? Should they
   not be perfectly satisfied and even be doubly grateful to be saved
   without having to endure such trying experiences as many others have
   had? Beloved Friends, do not crave these experiences for yourselves,
   otherwise you may thereby provoke God to anger and He may chasten you
   in His hot displeasure. You are refusing to do what He bids you do,
   namely, trust His dear Son, Jesus Christ, and you are wanting Him to
   make you have these horrible feelings, which, if you did have them, you
   would be only too thankful to lose!

   Let me further say to you that if any of you have felt these dreadful
   terrors, I implore you not to place any reliance upon them! You will
   make a fatal mistake if you suppose that you are saved simply because
   you have been driven almost to despair! There can be no more insecure
   foundation for a hope of Heaven than to think that you are saved
   because you have realized that you were lost! It would be a very absurd
   idea for a man to conclude that he was in health because he had felt
   that he was ill, or for another to fancy that he was rich because he
   had felt that he was poor. There is a remorse which is near akin to
   repentance, but it is not the fruit of the Grace of God. There is a
   sense of sin which arises, not from the work of the Spirit of God, but
   from a man's own conscience--from conscience awakened, yet still
   unenlightened by God the Holy Spirit! There are few things more
   terrible than the awakened conscience of a man who still remains
   unbelieving. Yet some have had that dreadful experience and have even
   ventured to suppose that they were saved because they had passed
   through such a period of alarm and horror. If any of you have thus
   suffered, do not place any reliance upon that experience!

   When the still small voice, in which God is, really comes to you, do
   you know how it will come? Probably in the same way that it came to
   Elijah. It will address you personally so that you will begin to feel
   the personal bearing of the Truths of God to which you have been
   listening Sabbath after Sabbath. As the still small voice said to the
   Prophet, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" so will the Truth begin to
   question you and you will then hear every sermon for yourself--not for
   other people. When you read the Bible, you will read it for yourself,
   to find out what it says to you-- and through the Truth recorded there,
   God will speak to your soul.

   But, at first, that still small voice will not comfort you any more
   than it comforted Elijah. It will put searching questions to you
   concerning your character and conduct. It will make you look at your
   past life and cause you to sorrow over it. It will make you look at
   your present life and cause you to blush as you see how sinful it is.
   It will also make you remember how many years you have wasted in living
   for yourself and vanity--and not living unto God. The still small voice
   will make you realize at what a distance you are from God and what a
   change must be worked in you before you can be put among His children.
   It will also make you cast a glance forward to your future life and
   cause you to tremble at the prospect that lies before you! It will
   remind you that if you remain unconverted, you will go from bad to
   worse, you will heap up sin upon sin and your heart will get harder and
   harder until you are given up to final impenitence!

   After this stern message it will be a blessed thing for you if the
   still small voice gives you some measure of hope. It may be that there
   is nothing striking about what you are now feeling. It is no alarming
   sickness that you have had, it is no wonderful dream that has come to
   you in your sleep, it is no singular Providence that you have
   experienced--but some way or other, wherever you are, you feel ill at
   ease--you are troubled in spirit and cannot rest. Oh, what a blessed
   unrest that is which drives a sinner away from his sins! What a sweet
   bitter that is which makes a sinful soul sick of the world and makes it
   hunger and thirst after Christ! I pray the Lord to give this unrest and
   this hunger and thirst to many of you. I have known some who have had
   this experience so severely that they could not rest in the
   workshop--they have done their work, it is true--but it was with many a
   sigh between. Their very meals have seemed to lose the zest they once
   possessed. When they slept at night, their sleep was unrestful. And
   when they woke, their sorrow was still upon them. They felt that they
   could not endure themselves unless they could get right with God. That
   is the effect of the still small voice when God is in it!

   That voice will, before long, probably change its note in addressing
   some of you, for it will talk to you about redeeming Grace and dying
   love. It will speak to you about the sinner's Savior, the Savior for
   you--and you will be conscious of a blessed, gentle, persuasive
   influence inclining you to hear about Jesus, making you attentive to
   the Word and moving you to wish to believe in Jesus as your own
   personal Savior. And that voice will check you if you begin even to
   look back toward sin with any desire to return to it! And it will stir
   up within you more and more holy aspirations till, at last, it will
   lead you to really look to Jesus and live! And when you have looked to
   Him, all your life long you will continue to hear that voice--even when
   others do not hear it, you will. If you attempt to put out your hand to
   iniquity, you will draw it back with a start because of the warning
   that voice will utter. Oftentimes when others are busy only about the
   world, your mind will be soaring away to Heaven because that voice will
   be weaning you from the earth and wooing you to be up and away to your
   Father's house above!

   That still small voice will often tell you what to do. "You shall hear
   a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk you in it.'" If you
   happen to be where you cannot listen to the ministry of the Word, or
   are not profited by it, that voice will speak to you. As you read the
   Scriptures, that voice will speak to you with such power as no other
   voice ever had over your soul, for after all, it is the voice of Jesus!
   It is the voice of everlasting love! It is the voice that said upon
   Calvary, "It is finished!" It is the voice that said, "Come unto Me,
   all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It
   is the voice that pleads in Heaven, "Father, I will that they, also,
   whom you have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
   Glory."

   Do not, dear Friends, be listening for any other voices! Do not be
   expecting to have any other Revelation beside that which is recorded in
   this blessed Book! You not only have Moses and the Prophets, you also
   have Jesus and the Apostles, so listen to them! Let the still small
   voice reveal the Truth to you and ask not for any other message. This
   is the all-sufficient Guide for you with the illumination of the Holy
   Spirit, so do not seek for any other! If you have been saved by it, I
   charge you to obey it in every jot and tittle. Alter no ordinance of
   God and forget none of His precepts, but follow the Lamb wherever He
   goes. Wherever you see the print of His pierced feet, there put down
   your own feet. Do as He did. Be as He was. And then, soon, you shall be
   where He is! May His blessed Spirit and His still small voice be with
   you till you shall see His face without a veil between you, for His
   dear name's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 Kings 19.

   Verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how
   he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel was the chief
   patroness of the idolatrous prophets and, therefore, you may imagine
   how her wrath was stirred when her husband told her what Elijah had
   done to the men who ate at her table!

   2, 3. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the
   gods do to me, and more, also, if I make not your life as the life of
   one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose
   andran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and
   left his servant there. This is the man who could fearlessly face the
   450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the groves--and slay all
   of them at the Brook Kishon--the dauntless Prophet of Fire who dared to
   call King Ahab the troubler of Israel! Yet now he trembles before a
   woman's threats and arises and flees for his life! Verily, the best of
   men are but men at the best! And the strongest of men are weak as water
   when once the power of God is withdrawn from them. The high-strung
   tension on the top of Carmel was now to be followed by a not unnatural
   reaction--and the heroic Prophet was to sink into the lowest state of
   despondency. He left his servant at Beersheba.

   4. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came
   and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he
   might die. What inconsistent beings men are! Elijah had fled to save
   his life, yet, "he requested for himself that he might die"--that he
   might die because he was afraid of death--die under a juniper tree in
   the wilderness in order to escape death at the hands of Jezebel!

   4. Andsaid, It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not
   better than my fathers. [See Sermon #2725, Volume

   46--ELIJAH FAINTING.] This was the man who never died, yet, "he

   requested for himself that he might die." How gracious it is, on God's
   part, not to grant the requests of His people when they are unwise, as
   this petition of Elijah was! Had he known that he would go up by a
   whirlwind into Heaven, riding in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of
   fire, surely he would not have prayed after this fashion, "It is
   enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my
   fathers."

   5, 6. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an
   angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and
   behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at
   his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down agai. He was very
   sad at heart because of the apostasy of Israel and beside that, he was
   very weary, utterly exhausted by the tremendous excitement through
   which he had passed and by the long journey which he had already taken.
   So he did the wisest thing possible, "he did eat and drink, and laid
   him down again."

   7. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched
   him and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for yoi.
   God exercises foresight on behalf of His people which they cannot,
   themselves, exercise. He knows when we are to be called either to
   unusual service or unusual suffering and He prepares us for it. He not
   only gives us spiritual meat to eat because we know that we are hungry,
   but He also gives it to us because of our future needs which, for the
   present, are quite unknown to us.

   8, 9. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of
   that meat, forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God.
   And he came there unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word
   of the LORD came to him, and He said unto him, What are you doing here,
   Elijahi'!'"You, Jehovah's courageous Prophet, why have you fled? Why
   are you here when so much is necessary to be done for the apostate
   people? 'What are you doing here?' How come you are here, in a cave,
   when the nation needs your presence? 'What are you doing here,
   Elijah?'"

   10. And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of Hosts,
   for the children of Israel have forsaken Your Covenant, thrown down
   Your altars, and slain your Prophets with the sword; and I, even I
   only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. He despaired of
   the good cause and this was a great pity, for a man such as he was
   ought never to have given way to such feelings. Was not God with him?
   And where God is, must there not be victory?

   11-13. And He said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.
   And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the
   mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD
   was not in the wind: and after the wind, an earthquake; but the LORD
   was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the
   LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice. And
   it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle
   and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. And, behold, there
   came a voice unto him, and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? God
   will repeat His questions to His people if they have not due effect the
   first time, for He is very tender, full of pity and patient.

   14. And hesai. A second time pouring out the bitterness of his soul
   before his God.

   14. Ihave been veryjealous for the LORD God ofHosts because the
   children ofIsraelhave forsaken Your Covenant, thrown down Your altars,
   and slain Your Prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left;
   and they seek my life, to take it awaj. It was a good thing that Elijah
   could thus pour out his complaint into the sympathizing ear of the Most
   High. Such bitterness of soul as his is very apt to ferment and to
   breed all manner of ills! But when we can tell the Lord all that is in
   our heart--then a time of blessed relief is not far off!

   15. And the LORD said unto him, go, return on your way to the
   wilderness of Damascus. "Get back to your work, be not a deserter from
   the field of battle! Return, for you are needed for various duties."

   15, 16. And when you come, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Jehu
   the son of Nimshi shall you anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha
   the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah shall you anoint to be Prophet in
   your place. Thus there shall be a successor to carry on your work when
   you have done your part of it.

   17, 18. And it shall come to pass, that he that escapes the sword of
   Hazael shall Jehu slay: and he that escapes from the sword of Jehu
   shall Elisha slay. Yet Ihave left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the
   knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which has not
   kissed hi . How this gracious assurance must have revived the Prophet's
   spirit! He knew nothing about those 7,000 faithful Israelites, and he
   must have been amazed and delighted to hear of them! There

   was no need for him to say, "I, even I only, am left," for there was a
   noble band of stalwarts to stand up with him and defend the name and
   cause of Jehovah!

   19. So hie departed thence. Cheered and comforted, he went back to his
   work without uttering another word. And we do not read of his spirit
   flagging again. "So he departed thence."

   19, 20 And found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with
   twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: andElijah
   passed byhim, and cast his mantle upon him. Andhe left the oxen, andran
   after Elijah, andsaid, Let me, Iprayyou, kiss my father andmymother,
   and then I will follow you. Andhe said unto him, Go back again: for
   what have I done to you?The Lord wants no pressed men in His
   service--His soldiers must all be volunteers. But Elisha was a man of a
   true heart and a brave spirit, so we read--

   21. And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew
   them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave
   unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah
   and ministered unto hi .
     __________________________________________________________________

Bright Prospects for Young Believers

   (No. 3172)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   NOVEMBER 11, 1866.

   "But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise
   with healing in His wings; and you shall go forth and grow up as calves
   of the stall." Malachi 4:2.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are Sermons #1020,
   Volume 18--"THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS" and #1463B, Volume 25--THE RISING
   SUN.]

   THIS great promise was fulfilled at the coming of our Lord. There were
   many waiting for it, like Anna and Simeon, mourning the darkness in
   which they dwelt and scarcely cheered by a single star, for the voice
   of prophecy had ceased. Then suddenly Christ came and so the Sun of
   Righteousness arose upon those who feared the Lord! They went forth
   into blessed liberty, rejoicing in Him. And afterwards their light was
   greatly increased in brightness and their life in happiness as they
   grew in Divine knowledge and holiness. It is difficult for us to
   conceive the revulsion of feeling which must have come into the hearts
   of such patient waiters for the Lord as Anna and Simeon. They must have
   triumphed exceedingly, magnifying the Lord, with Mary, that at last He
   had come--the Light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the Glory of His
   people, Israel!

   This promise has also had a practical fulfillment in the deathbed
   experiences of God's people. Tortured with disease, they have been
   lying in the darkness and gloom of death. Perhaps fears have come in
   and physical infirmity has been the platform upon which Satan has
   planted his heavy guns of temptation. But suddenly a wondrous light has
   surprised them--their dying bed has become a throne of glory! They have
   found themselves arrayed in royal garments as though it were their
   coronation rather than their departure out of this world. They have
   been enabled to sit upright in the bed and to tell others that they had
   beheld the brightness of the coming Glory and that they had experienced
   in their souls the foretaste of unspeakable and Divine joys even before
   their bodies were released from infirmity and pain! Though the body has
   been bound fast with cords, the soul has mounted up as on the wings of
   eagles, in sacred rapture and holy bliss! The Sun of Righteousness has
   risen upon them! Before their earthly sun went down, the heavenly Sun
   lit up their sky with a sacred high, eternal noon! And unto you who
   fear the name of the Lord, whatever gloom may surround your departure
   from the earth, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in
   His wings and one day you shall find Him rise even upon your mortal
   bodies--

   "From beds of dust and silent clay To realms of everlasting day"--

   your very bodies shall wing their flight to dwell--

   "Forever with the Lord!"

   While the promise in the text has had these two fulfillments, there is
   no doubt that it awaits another. We are looking for the return of the
   Lord Jesus! And though, perhaps, we have no right to expect that He
   will come today or tomorrow--for there are many prophecies which
   apparently must be fulfilled before He comes, and which may require
   long periods of time--yet we are to expect Him and are to be as
   servants who know that their master will come to call them to account.
   Perhaps just when the Christian Church shall become most weary. When
   the hands of her ministers shall hang down through feebleness. When the
   warriors shall be "faint, yet pursuing," when Gog and Magog and the
   hosts of the enemy shall have gathered themselves together for battle
   and everything seems to forebode a long dark night for the Church and
   for the world--perhaps just then Christ will suddenly appear in the
   clouds of Heaven! Perhaps at such a time

   as that, the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings
   and the triumphant saints shall go forth to meet Him clothed with His
   brightness, sharing in His Kingdom! And as the next verse solemnly
   tells us, treading down the wicked who shall be as ashes beneath their
   feet in the day of their Lord's appearing! Perhaps this is to be the
   great fulfillment of the text.

   But I do not intend to dwell tonight upon any of these three probable
   fulfillments of the prophecy. I want rather to talk about matters which
   more nearly concern us just now and to put a few practical soul-matters
   before this entire congregation, hoping that God may press them home
   upon some--so that they may find healing beneath the wings of Christ
   tonight!

   I. The text speaks, you will observe, of a certain class of
   persons--THOSE WHO FEAR GOD'S NAME.

   The great multitude of people in the world do notfear the name of God.
   They do not care whether there is a God or not. If there were no God,
   their conduct would not be very different from what it is now. God is
   not in all their thoughts--they live as if they were their own creators
   and sustainers--and practically join in the language of Pharaoh, "Who
   is Jehovah that I should obey His voice?" Now, for such people, the
   Bible contains no blessing--why should it when they reject both it and
   the God who wrote it?

   But there are some in the world--thank God, more now, perhaps, than at
   any former period--who dofear God. Some have not advanced far in this
   heavenly wisdom--they are like scholars on the first form at school.
   They fear God just as much as this--that they would not willfully sin.
   They are checked from presumptuous sins by the fear of God and this is
   well. It is so good a thing that I believe it is like that smoking flax
   which Christ will not quench! And that man who really fears to sin
   because God would see him and who desires to do right because God would
   have him do right is not far from the Kingdom of God if, indeed, he is
   not actually in the Kingdom!

   Others have advanced so far in this fear that they have been brought
   into torment by it. They know that they have already sinned and they
   dread the thought of the terrible One who has said that, He "will by no
   means clear the guilty." They have heard the thunder of that dreadful
   verse, "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are
   written in the Book of the Law to do them"--and they therefore fear
   God. It is a fear that brings bondage, but even thatis better than no
   fear at all! They believe God and they tremble--and we are thankful to
   see them trembling, for now, perhaps, they will begin to say within
   themselves, "We will seek our Father's face! We will fly to Him and ask
   Him to save us from His own wrath through His Son."

   This fear in some, however, has happily advanced still further. They
   have come to fear God with a childlike fear. Their sin has been
   forgiven. They have put their trust in the Savior. They have heard the
   voice which said, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
   transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins." And now they fear God with
   a fear with which love is perfectly consistent--they fear Him as a
   loving, tender-hearted child fears to disobey a gracious, kind, wise,
   loving father. God is in their thoughts. No, more--God is in their
   hearts! They love Him. They could not bear to live without God--they
   would be orphans--their Father would be gone! Without God they would be
   poverty stricken, for their wealth is found in Him.

   I know there are some of you here who could do wonderfully well without
   a God. Indeed, you would be much happier than you now are if it could
   be proved that there is no God, for the thought of God is a bugbear to
   some of you and you try as much as possible to shut the ears of your
   soul against the cry of conscience when it tells you that there is a
   God--a God who will bring you into judgment for all your actions! Well,
   the promise in the text is not for you, but it is for those who realize
   that there is a God and who have respect unto His Word--who tremble
   before Him and yet who rejoice in Him, having been brought near to Him
   by the precious blood of Jesus--and having been reconciled to Him by
   Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and man. Dear Friend, if you do
   but fear God, take the text and live upon it! It is a precious hive of
   honey and you may extract the utmost sweetness from it! Let us go to
   it, now, and feed upon it as it is here given to us as food from Heaven
   for our souls.

   II. Having found out the persons to whom the text is addressed, let us
   next notice that according to this verse, SOME OF THOSE WHO FEAR GOD
   ARE IN THE DARK.

   They fear God, but they have not any happiness. They are doubtful,
   timid and possibly they are constitutionally dull and sad. Besides
   that, they are diseased and need the "healing" of which the text
   speaks. They are not what they want to be--they have a bad temper to
   struggle against, or some besetting sin to mourn over.

   Now observe the promise that is given to them, that they shall be
   visited in a remarkable manner by the Lord Jesus and that, in
   consequence of this visitation, they shall receive the two things that
   they specially need, namely, light and healing! They are in the dark,
   so they shall receive light and comfort! They are sick in soul, but
   they shall receive healing from Christ. The great blessing promised is
   that Christ shall appear to them, but see in what an aspect it is said
   that He shall appear. He is called, "the Sun of Righteousness." What a
   title for our blessed Lord! He who did hang upon Calvary in the
   thickest darkness was the Sun of Righteousness! He is sometimes
   compared to a star, but this figure is more full and more worthy of
   Him. Christ is the center of the universe! "Without Him was not
   anything made that was made." By Him all things consist." As the sun,
   with secret bands, keeps all the planets in their places and is the
   great regulator of the solar machinery, so is Christ the great center
   of the world--and especially of His own Church. Forth from the sun
   floods of heat and light are continually being scattered. We do not
   know that the sun borrows anything from any other source. He is himself
   the source, in his stupendous furnace, of the light and heat which
   gladden all the worlds of which he is the center and controller. So is
   it with our Savior--borrowing nothing, but having all fullness dwelling
   within Himself, He pours forth, out of His own inexhaustible heart of
   Infinite Mercy and Compassion--floods of light to make glad the
   ignorant and floods of heat to comfort the sorrowing!

   We can scarcely bear to look upon the sun! He is an orb of such
   surpassing splendor, giving out continually such vast masses of light,
   if I may use the expression and, oh, who could look upon the unveiled
   splendor of the Lord Jesus? Perhaps if we could see Him as He now is in
   Heaven, we might feel as if we were not prepared for so great a sight,
   our eyes not yet being strong enough to be able to bear the burning
   splendor of the great Sun of Righteousness! If you could get any
   adequate idea of the light and heat that come from the sun, you might
   thenform some faint conception of the--

   "Streams of mercy, never ceasing"-- which flood the universe from
   Christ, the great central orb of the Love of God! Oh, happy are they
   who bask in His beams! Blessed are they who walk in His light! Best of
   all and most happy are they who, like Milton's angel standing in the
   sun, dwell amid the very fullness of Christ's Glory where He sits upon
   His Father's Throne!

   Christ, then, is the Sun of Righteousness. Now, Sinner. Now, Trembler.
   If you fear God, Christ will be a sun to you! You will have no need of
   knowledge, then, depend upon it, for He shall teach you all things! If
   Christ shall arise upon you, you shall see your sins clearly enough,
   but you shall also see God and, therefore, you shall see hope! You
   shall see pardon, you shall see peace, you shall see Heaven! What will
   not the sun reveal? Everything is in darkness till he appears--but when
   he rises, everything is discovered. And oh, poor troubled Soul, you see
   nothing and you know but little until Christ comes to you! But if He
   shall arise upon you as the Sun of Righteousness, you shall know all
   that you need to know and perceive everything that is delightful and
   comforting--and so your heart shall be glad!

   But the figure employed in the text is a double one. It is said that
   sometimes in the East, after a long time of calm, the very air gets
   putrid and the glowing sand reflects the burning heat till, presently,
   a refreshing land breeze comes up with the sunrise. So Christ is here
   pictured as a sun--His beams being like the wings of some gigantic
   golden eagle--and those wings, like refreshing winds, bringing health
   to the poor sickly inhabitants of earth who are ready to die. Certainly
   when Christ comes in all His splendor of Light, for He is "the Light of
   the world," He comes also with health to sick souls! Do not believe,
   Soul, that your sickness is incurable, though Satan may tell you a
   thousand times that it is! If Christ comes to deal with you, Man,
   though your disease should be the deadly cancer of blasphemy, He can
   cure it! Though you should have the fever of drunkenness within your
   soul, Christ can heal you of that fiery malady! I ventured to say this

   morning that there is now no hospital for incurable souls [See Sermon
   #720, Volume 12--THE GOSPEL'S HEALING POWER.] because Christ can cure
   all manner of spiritual diseases!

   You perceive that the text does not say that they who fear the name of
   the Lord shall be cured of their spiritual maladies by what they do
   themselves. No, but that Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shall arise
   upon them and in His light they shall obtain the health they lack! Get
   Jesus, poor Soul, and you need not trouble yourself about much else.
   There is everything that a sinner requires in the Person of the
   appointed Savior. Arise, O You blessed Jesus Christ, like the sun upon
   the darkness, that some who are in this place may now leave their sins
   and rejoice in Your power to save!

   You perceive also that the way in which those who fear the Lord get
   light is not by their raising the sun--that would be impossible, but it
   is through the sun, itself, rising upon them. Some sinners seem to
   think that they are to get comfort and light for themselves--but it is
   not so--Christ must bring it all to you. You are not to bring anything
   to Jesus, but to come to His fullness to receive everything! Do you
   understand me, Man? Supposing that you are full of sin, full of
   hardness of heart and of everything that is bad and contrary to the
   mind of God, yet if you are saved, it will be by Christ appearing to
   your mind's eye--and that mind's eye seeing Him--and your soul trusting
   in Him. And if you do so, you are saved. "What?" you say, "is there
   nothing for me to do?" There is nothing for you to do in order that you
   may be saved, but believe in Jesus! You shall do many things afteryou
   are saved--I shall go on to tell you of them directly-- but the work of
   saving your soul does not rest with you. Christ is the Savior and He
   will do it all! You are not to help in that work--

   "It is not your tears of repentance or prayers

   But the blood that atones for the soul!

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

   Your weight of iniquities roll!

   We are healed by His stripes--would you add to the Word?

   And He is our righteousness made!

   The best robe of Heaven He bids you put on--

   Oh, could you be better arrayed?

   Then doubt not your welcome, since God has declared

   There remains no more to be done!

   That once in the end of the world He appeared

   And completed the work He begun." Imagine people lighting their candles
   after the sun has risen! "Oh," they say, "but we may as well add to the
   light." But do your candles add to the light when you have the
   sunlight? Do they not rather mock the light? Are they not an
   impertinence in the presence of the great orb of day? And, Sinner, do
   not light your candles to add to the light of the Sun of Righteousness!
   Do not bring your nothingness and your emptiness to add to the
   perfection of Christ's finished work! You cannot help Him to save you,
   so do not insult Him by attempting to do so! But just take the text and
   from your heart, pray, "O God, let the Sun of Righteousness arise upon
   me with healing in His wings, for I do--I trust and fear Your name!"

   I hope this Truth will not pass away from your memories. I feel so
   concerned lest any of you should miss the blessing that God is giving
   us just now. I know I have with me the opinion of hundreds who fear the
   Lord, that God is very mar-velously present with us as a Church and
   that He has been so for some little time. But I fear lest the cloud
   should pass away before the heavenly rain falls upon more of you! I
   trust that it will not, but that you may receive the blessing in your
   souls!

   ' III. Now I must go on to observe THAT WHICH IS TO FOLLOW IN THE CASE
   OF THOSE UPON WHOM THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ARISES. The promise to them
   in the text is, "You shall go forth and grow up as calves of the
   stall."

   It is a subject of great anxiety to earnest Church Officers as to what
   will become of our young converts. Many are added to our numbers who
   know but little of the Doctrines of Grace. Now you perceive that here
   is the blessing for them which may remove our anxiety--may all of you
   who have lately been converted share in that blessing!

   The promise is that they "shall go forth." Of course this means that
   they shall enjoy spiritual liberty. When Christ comes into the heart,
   whatever bondage there may have been there before, it all disappears in
   His Presence! Where Jesus comes, He is the true Liberator. No chains
   are worn in the court of King Jesus! The moment He enters the heart, He
   proclaims perfect emancipation and--

   "The prisoner leaps to lose his chains."

   Yet the realization of this emancipation may be gradual. And a true
   convert may be saying, "I wish I could enjoy the promises and go forth
   and walk at liberty in the green pastures." Well do I recollect when I
   heard some Believers singing--

   "Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given! More
   happy but not more secure, The glorified spirits in Heaven!"

   And I thought then, "Ah, I shall never be able to sing that! It is too
   high a note for me." But I can sing it now and sing it truthfully,
   too--and so will you who have but just seen Christ, be able to do--you
   shall go forth in the liberty with which Christ makes His people free!

   You shall go forth, too, in Christian ordinances. Perhaps you say, "I
   should be afraid to be baptized--it is such a solemn thing to profess
   death, burial and resurrection with Christ--I do not think I could dare
   to do that. And as to going before a Christian Church and avowing my
   faith in Jesus, I am afraid I could not do that--my lips would be
   tightly closed through fear. And I could not feel at liberty to come to
   the Master's Table. I would be so afraid of eating and drinking
   condemnation to myself, not discerning the Lord's body." Ah, poor
   Trembler, I know just how you feel! But when the Sun of Righteousness
   arises upon your soul, you will get liberty in all these matters and
   will go forth in obedience to your Lord's commands! If a stranger were
   to come to your house, he would stand at the door, or wait in the hall.
   If he were a person of any sense, he would not think of walking into
   your parlor, or your drawing room, or your bedroom, for he would not be
   at home there. But your child makes himself free in your house because
   he is at home. So is it with the child of God, for a child may come
   where a stranger may not venture to go! When the Holy Spirit has become
   to you the Spirit of Adoption, you will go forth to Christian
   ordinances without fear!

   So will it be with the Christian's inward privileges. I know you think,
   poor Seeker, that you never may "rejoice with unspeakable joy and full
   of glory." If you may but just get inside Christ's door, or sit at the
   end of His Table, you think you will be well content. Ah, but you shall
   not have any less privileges than the greatest of God's children! God
   makes no differences between His children as far as their privileges
   are concerned. He will not make us His hired servants, but we, even we,
   shall feast upon the fatted calf and shall have the music and the
   dancing as much as if we had never gone astray. Yes, young Christian,
   you shall go forth! You do not know what is before you. There is the
   goodly land and it is all yours! Do not imagine that you are always to
   be a babe in Grace--you shall grow and become, I hope, a full-grown man
   in Christ Jesus--yes, a father in Israel! Imagine not that you are
   always to be like that little green blade which is just peeping up
   above the cold sod--you shall one day be like the corn in the ear--yes,
   more! You shall one day be like the golden corn which bends its head
   through its ripeness and the glad harvest home shall be shouted over
   you. You shall not always be weak and feeble and afraid to enjoy your
   Christian privileges. You would not know yourself if you could see what
   you will yet be! The songs you are yet to sing, the grapes of Eshcol
   you are yet to pluck, the fair days ofjoy you are yet to spend, the
   feasts and banquets, the real enjoyments which you are yet to know on
   this side of the grave might well make you happy if you could but get a
   foretaste of them! Yes, you shall go forth--only have Christ as your
   Savior and there shall be no end to your happiness! Let the Sun of
   Righteousness but rise upon you and your light shall never be put

   out!

   But that is not all, for the text also says, "You shall grow up as
   calves of the stall." That is to say, these very people who are so
   timid, now, shall advance in the Divine Life at the fastest rate. The
   calf grows very rapidly and it ought to do so when it is put into the
   stall on purpose to help it to grow. The reference is to the calves
   that are stalled for fattening-- those that are fatted regularly,
   fatted abundantly by those whose aim it is to make them grow! So the
   text tells the young Christian that he shall grow like the calf in the
   stall. God's ministers shall feed him. God's Word shall be the granary
   out of which his food shall come and God's Spirit shall enable him to
   feed upon that food and make him grow! Christ Himself shall be that
   poor trembler's daily bread, his meat and his drink. He who feeds upon
   Christ must grow! It is no cause for wonder if the saints are fat and
   flourishing--and bring forth fruit in old age when they feed upon
   Christ! Whenever a Christian has to say, "My leanness, my leanness, woe
   is unto me," it cannot be because suitable food has not been
   supplied--it must be because he has not fed upon it--for if we have fed
   upon Christ Jesus, how can we help growing in faith, knowledge,
   holiness and every spiritual gift?

   I am hopeful, therefore, for our young members, that God will take care
   of them and that they will surprise us by the advance which they will
   make. I only hope that they will surpass all who have ever gone before
   them. Ah, dear young Friends, never take us as an example in stopping
   short of the Christian ideal! Follow us as far as we follow Christ! But
   go beyond the very best of us when you see that we come short of what
   we ought to be. I hope you will be more earnest, more prayerful, more
   conscientious, more diligent than any of us have been! May the next
   generation of Christians outshine the present one and so may it
   continue to be until Christ Himself comes and His Church shall be in
   her glory! Do you recollect that passage in the Revelation about the
   woman clothed with the sun? How bright she must be! But that is the
   Christian Church--and it is also you, in your measure, for you are to
   be clothed with the sun. Your brightness and holiness are to be such
   that men shall know that the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon you!
   You have not any light in yourselves, but when you receive the light
   from Christ, take care that you reflect it! How bright should those be
   who shine in the beams of Jesus Christ Himself!

   There is one translation of the last clause of the text which I should
   like to mention. It is thought by some eminent divines that the word
   rendered, "stall," also bears the meaning of, "yoke." If it is so, then
   the genuine Christian grows up like the heifers that wear the yoke.
   That is to say, he is a worker as well as a feeder. He grows, but he is
   willing to bear the yoke and serve his Lord. I would not thank God for
   the addition to this Church of a man who would be idle, captious,
   selfish. I would deprecate such a diminution of our strength, even
   though it might be an augmentation of our numbers. The members we want
   are those who are willing to consecrate themselves wholly to the
   Lord--and to whom religion is a reality! With many it is a sham, a mere
   pretence, a thing to make them appear respectable, but not a matter
   which eats up their life and takes away their energy, bearing them
   onward in service as in a chariot of fire! May you who are converted
   grow up as heifers that wear the yoke! May you plow to the end of your
   field and back again--and on and on, plowing in the Master's service
   till the time shall come for the yoke to be taken from your necks! The
   crest and the motto of the American Baptist Missionary Union should be
   ours--the crest is an ox standing between a plow and an altar, and the
   motto is--"Ready for either." May we be ready to be offered up in death
   or to serve God in life!

   Now I have to say this to you who fear the Lord and who are seeking to
   have Christ in your hearts--seek to get Him as the Sun of Righteousness
   shining within you. And ask, after you have Christ, that you may be
   helped to grow in Grace--that you may not be dull and heavy as some
   have been, that you may not be cumberers of the ground, that you may
   not be the mere baggage of Christ's army impeding the march of His
   heroes--but that you may be men and women who shall be swifter than
   eagles and bolder than lions--consecrated--to whom work shall be
   pleasure and loss shall be gain! Who, as the arrow speeds from the
   archer's bow, turning neither to the right nor to the left, shall speed
   onward to the prize of your high calling, thinking of nothing except
   winning Christ and being found in Him!

   May God grant us this blessing now! Let the prayer be breathed, "Arise
   upon us, Sun of Righteousness," and then let the other prayer follow,
   "Make us to go forth and to grow up like calves of the stall, and may
   we serve You, O God, and receive Your blessing world without end!
   Amen."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE10:25-42.

   Verses 25-28. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Him,
   saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto
   him, What is written in the La w? How do you read it? And he answering,
   said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
   all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and
   your neighbor as yourself And He said unto him, You have answered right
   this do and you shall live. Do any of you want to live by the Law?
   There is the Law. Does any man here pretend that he has kept it? Let me
   ask any man here who would justify himself by his own works--have you
   thought of God today? How much time have you spent with God? Or
   yesterday, how much of your time did you give Him--how many minutes?
   Would you venture to say that you spent a quarter of an hour in prayer?
   No. Perhaps if it comes to the truth, you did not spend five minutes.
   Now, if you loved God with all your heart and all your soul, and all
   your strength, and all your mind, do you think that five minutes would
   satisfy such a love as that? Oh, no, Sirs! You that are unconverted
   give God no love at all--and how can you think, therefore, that you are
   keeping His Law which puts it so strongly, "You shall love the Lord
   your God with all your heart? And with all your soul, and with all your
   strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself? Have
   you ever done that? Neither the first nor the second table have you
   kept intact!

   29. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my
   neighbor? The Savior then related this incident which I have no doubt
   was really a fact.

   30. And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to
   Jericho, and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and
   wounded him, and departed, leaving him half deat. It was a very
   dangerous road, a very lonely part--and robberies were very frequent
   there.

   31. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when
   he saw him, he passed by on the other side. He did not like the look of
   wounds and blood. It is a very convenient thing not to recollect the
   miseries of your fellow men. Do not think about their poverty--it might
   spoil your digestion! Do not think about their drunkenness--you might
   have to become a teetotaler! Do not think about their sin--you might
   have to go and preach in the street to them! You can live so easily and
   pleasantly, and even be a priest and be called, "His Reverence," if you
   are very careful which side of the road you take. "He passed by on the
   other side."

   32. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on
   him andpassed by on the other side. There are some whose looks are
   evidently esteemed by themselves to be so very precious that when they
   have given them, they give nothing more! He may have meant, "I will see
   into it." There are a great many who are very diligent in their
   promises to see into a case, but we do not see much come of what they
   say. They also pass by on the other side. Neither the priest nor the
   Levite acted as a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves.

   33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. He
   looked, approached, drew near, "came where he was."

   33. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him. He did not ask him
   how he got there, or say to him, 'Why, Man, you must have been very
   foolish to travel alone! My dear Friend, next time you come this way,
   you must come armed. Did you not know this was a very ugly part of the
   road? And I think you are ill-advised to have been travelling quite so
   late." Oh, we have many dear friends who always favor us with their
   rebukes when our wounds are bleeding! "He had compassion on him."

   34. And went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,
   andset him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of
   him. Oil and wine--two very good things for external application--and
   he used them for that. Wondrous healers, these were known to be. They
   were expensive things, too. He had brought them for his own comfort and
   he freely used them for this poor man. Then he set him on his own
   beast--so he had to walk. He accepted the inconvenience. He
   relinquished his own comfort for the sake of doing good. "And he
   brought him to an inn and took care of him"--perhaps he sat up all
   night with him. He took care of him after he had got him into the inn.
   He did not immediately commend him to the care of some paid person, but
   he first took care of him. But this good Samaritan had urgent business
   and was obliged to go about it.

   35. And on the morrow when he departed he took out twopence and gave
   them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatever you
   spend more, when I come again, I will repay you. "This is my piece of
   work. I want to finish it and as I cannot stay, will you kindly supply
   the ready money, and when I come again, I will repay you?"

   36. 37. Which, now, of these three, do you think was neighbor unto him
   that fell among the thieves? And he said, he that showed mercy on him.
   Oh, you lawyer, why did you not say, "The Samaritan"? Of course he did
   not like to use that word! Oh, no, we never mention them--the
   "Samaritans." "The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." So he
   would not honestly say, "The Samaritan," but he made a roundabout of it
   and said, "He that showed mercy on him."

   37. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do you likewise. May we all be
   enabled to do so by exercising constant love to those who are in need!

   38. Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain
   village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
   There were not so very many that kept open house for Christ. But Martha
   did. It was her house.

   39. And she had a sister calledMary, which also sat at Jesus 'feet and
   heardHis word. She was free to do so. It was not her house. She need
   not attend to the hospitalities of it. Her sister was quite equal to it
   and so Mary did well to avail herself of the opportunity of sitting at
   Jesus' feet and hearing His Word.

   40. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him and
   said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
   Bid her, therefore, that she help me. She wanted to get so much
   ready--to have everything nice. So she came almost scolding the Master!
   She was out of temper, surely, that day. She had gotten to be troubled.
   Dear Friends, it is not wrong to labor and to work and do all we can,
   but it is wrong to grow cumbered with it--to get fretful, anxious,
   worried about this thing and that! You will not do it any better. You
   will probably do less and you will do it worse. She was "cumbered about
   much serving."

   41, 42. And Jesus answered and said unto heer, Martha, Martha, you are
   careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary.
   "You have forgotten much. Looking after many things, you have failed to
   remember the chief, the onlynecessary thing."

   42. And Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away
   from her And so He let her still sit there and hear His blessed Words--

   "Oh, that I could forever sit With Mary at the Master's feet-- Be this
   my happy choice!"
     __________________________________________________________________

"As" and "So"

   (No. 3173)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   AUGUST 3, 1873.

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

   [Two other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are Sermons #483,
   Volume 8--LIFE AND WALK OF FAITH and #3030, Volume 53-- A CONSISTENT
   WALK FOR TIME TO COME]

   THIS is a very simple text, yet no human being has ever discovered its
   full meaning. It is a great deep--happy are they who know how to dive
   into its depths and to swim at ease in its lengths and breadths!
   Blessed are they who continually obey the exhortation which it
   contains, "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
   walk you in Him." The text divides itself into faith and practice. "You
   have received Christ Jesus the Lord," there is your faith. "Walk you in
   Him," that is to be your daily practice!

   The text also contains a model for that practice in the "as" and the
   "so" which are its cardinal points. "As you have received Christ Jesus
   the Lord, so walk you in Him." What we have done suggests the way in
   which we are to do what still lies before us. "As you have
   received...so walk."

   I. Notice in the text, first, THE FACT STATED. "You have received
   Christ Jesus the Lord."

   Whatever else you have done or have not done, you have received Christ.
   The act of faith was the putting out of your empty hands to receive all
   the fullness of the Godhead in receiving Christ. There are some
   precious experiences to which you have not yet attained, some lofty
   heights to which you have not yet climbed, but you "have received
   Christ Jesus the Lord." That is the distinguishing mark of all true
   Christians! Though you may not all belong to the same denomination, yet
   without a single exception this is true concerning you, whether you are
   old or young, whether you are well-instructed or ill-taught, whether
   you are full of faith or are troubled with many a doubt and many a
   fear, you "have received Christ Jesus the Lord."

   There is nothing in this fact to cause you one boastful thought. You
   have received, that is what emptiness does in order that it may be
   filled, that is what hunger does in order that its cravings may be
   satisfied, that is what the beggar in the street does when he craves
   and obtains alms. There is nothing of which you can glory in the fact
   that you have received, for I may further remind you that even your
   very receiving you have received! The faith by which you received
   Christ was as much the gift of God to you as was the Christ upon whom
   your faith was fixed. You know that it is so and, therefore, you also
   know that boasting is forever excluded from the fact that you are
   saved! You have received Christ Jesus, that is all. I hope you prize
   the Gift, and praise the Giver. I trust that you often cry with the
   Apostle Paul, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!" And that
   your soul makes her boast in the Lord concerning the Savior whom you
   have received, but no other boasting is permissible even for a moment!

   I remind you once more, Beloved, that, you have received CHRIST. It is
   true that you have received His Doctrines and that you still believe
   them. It is true that you have received His precepts and that you have
   obeyed them, though, alas, your obedience has been far from perfect. It
   is true that you have received His ordinances and that you have
   conformed to them by being baptized on profession of your faith in
   Him--and by sitting down with your fellow Believers at His Table. But,
   after all, the main point is that you have received Jesus Christ,
   Himself! Every word that He has spoken is sweeter than honey and the
   honeycomb, but sweeter far are the lips with which He uttered those
   words! Every command of His is to be esteemed more highly than the
   finest of fine gold, but as for the King who gave those commands, "He
   is altogether lovely." Human language cannot describe Him and yet you
   have received Him--His very Self--you have received into your hearts to
   dwell there as your only Lord and Master. You have received Him as your
   life, for you live through Him. And you receive Him day by day as the
   Bread of Life upon which your soul feeds and as the Water of Life which
   quenches the thirst of your soul. You have not merely received His
   offices, His gifts, His Grace, His promises, but you have received Him!
   He is the center of your confidence, the target of your hopes!

   The text says that you have received "Christ Jesus the Lord." Here are
   three out of His many names and, first, Beloved, you have received Him
   as Christ, the Anointed of God. You see in Him no amateur Savior,
   uncommissioned--but One sent by the Father, the authorized
   Representative of the Most High--the Christos, the Messiah, the Sent
   One, who could rightly apply to Himself the ancient promise, "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 brokenhearted, to preach
   deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to
   set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of
   the Lord." Christ came to this world because the Father sent Him. He
   said to the Jews, "I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but
   the will of Him that sent Me." He lived and died here because it
   pleased the Father for Him to do so. And He is still appointed by the
   Father to distribute unnumbered gifts to His people. "It pleased the
   Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." You believe that upon
   Christ, the Spirit rests without measure, that He is anointed with the
   oil of gladness above His fellows, and in receiving Him as the Anointed
   One, you also have an unction from the Holy One and, therefore, you
   also are anointed to be kings and priests unto God. So you have
   received Him as Christ, the Anointed.

   But you have also received Him as Jesus, and you love that charming
   name. No hymn more truly expresses your feelings than that one by John
   Newton which begins--

   "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a Believer's ears!

   It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fears."
   You also sing with Bernard of Clairvaux--

   "Jesus, the very thought of You

   With sweetness fills my breast.

   But sweeter far Your face to see

   And in Your Presence rest

   Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,

   Nor can the memory find

   A sweeter sound than Your blest name,

   OSavior of mankind!"

   You received Him as your Savior and, therefore, He has saved you from
   the penalty of sin and He will also save you from the dominion and
   power of sin. If you are saved, you are saved entirely through
   Jesus--and you do not need, and you do not desire any other Savior! You
   look to Jesus for all that can be comprehended in the word, salvation.
   His name means Savior and you have found Him to be a Savior to you. So
   you have received the anointed Savior, Christ Jesus.

   And you have received Him as the Lord. You have not accepted Him as
   merely one of many anointed Prophets, nor as a man sent from God, as
   John the Baptist was, but you worship Him as the Lord! And oh, how
   blessed it is to adore the Son of God! We cannot make any terms of
   peace with those who deny the Deity of Christ, nor ought they to want
   to be at peace with us, for if Christ is not the Son of God, we are
   idolaters. And if He is, they are not Christians! There is a great gulf
   between us and them and we do not hesitate for a moment to say on which
   side of that gulf we stand. That same Jesus who was nailed to the tree
   is to us both Lord and Christ. By faith we put our finger into the
   print of the nails and our hand into His pierced side--and never
   questioning the fact that He is truly Man, we rejoice to say to Him, as
   Thomas did, "My Lord and my God." Jesus Christ is, indeed, to us "very
   God of very God." This being so, we have received Him as our Lord to
   rule and govern us. In spiritual matters He is our only King--we
   acknowledge no master save Him who is The Master, of whom Martha said
   to her sister Mary, "The Master is come, and calls for you."

   No teacher has any right to impart to us any instruction except that
   which he has received from the only Infallible Teacher. "He is the head
   of the body, the Church," and we recognize no other headship. We
   joyfully acknowledge that He is our Sovereign Lord in the spiritual
   realm! He is the absolute Monarch of our soul! He is that perfect
   Husband who

   is the true Head of His mystical body, the Church. Oh, that we more
   fully carried out, practically, in every thought, wish and action of
   our entire life, all that is implied in receiving Jesus Christ as Lord!

   Beloved Friends, as I look round upon you all and gaze into your faces,
   this question rushes from my heart to my lips--Have all of you received
   Christ Jesus the Lord? Alas, I am sorrowfully persuaded that there are
   some of you who have not received Him! He has knocked again and again
   with those pierced hands of His, at the door of your heart, but you
   have not let Him in! This fountain of the Water of Life has flowed
   close to your feet, yet you have not drunk of it. Christ has been set
   before you as the Bread of Life sent down from Heaven, but you have not
   eaten of Him--you have refused Him even until now! "No," you say, "you
   are too severe in charging us with having refused Christ, for we have
   not done that!" Well, it seems to me that this is just what you have
   done, but I will put it more softly and say that, at any rate, you have
   not receivedHim. You have put Him off to a more convenient season which
   will probably never come to you. O poor Souls, poor Souls, how sad is
   your state in not having received Christ Jesus the Lord! Leaving out
   Heaven and eternity for the moment--and speaking only of today--how
   wretched you must be in not having received Christ! When I see a man
   who has never seen the sun, I pity him, but not as I pity you who have
   never seen the Sun of Righteousness! If I heard of a child who had
   never known a father's love and who had never looked up with affection
   into a mother's face, I would pity that poor orphan, but not as much as
   I pity you who are living without a Savior! If I knew a man who had
   never known what health was, but who, from the day of his birth, was
   always sickly and bowed down with pain and infirmity, I would pity him,
   but not as I pity you who are sick unto death, yet who will not accept
   healing from the Great Physician! May God look down upon you, now, not
   only with pity, as He always does, but also in the power of His
   Almighty Grace and turn the heart of stone to flesh and lead you to
   receive Christ Jesus as Lord! That is all you have to do--to receive
   Jesus as the parched earth receives the refreshing showers, and as the
   wilted lilies receive the reviving rain drops and lift up their
   drooping heads again. That is all you have to do--receive Jesus! A
   child can receive. The feeblest can receive. Yes, one lying at the
   point of death, the sick man dying of fever may receive the cooling
   draught that is put to his lips! This is all that is asked of you--that
   you will receive Christ Jesus the Lord! Oh, that you would all receive
   Him now! God grant that it may be so and He shall have the praise!

   II. Now, secondly, notice THE COUNSEL GIVEN--"so walk you in Him." The
   text not only reminds us of what we have done, but it also tells us
   what we are now to do!

   Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is not easy to decide whether this
   counsel is to be regarded as a permission or as a precept--"so walk you
   in Him." Taking them either way, the words are a sweet morsel in my
   mouth. Yet I think I prefer to regard them as a permission. Suppose I
   had been to Jesus as a poor sinner and that He had saved me and that He
   had then said to me, "there, you are saved, so go your way. You have
   been a prodigal, but you are forgiven. You have shoes on your feet, a
   ring on your finger and the best robe to cover your nakedness--now go
   and do what you can for yourself"? Well, it would have been Infinite
   Mercy that would have welcomed me and pardoned me, but how much more
   gracious and tender is the Lord's message, "Come, My child take up your
   abode with Me and wander away no more." It is thus that God speaks to
   all who have believed in Jesus, "You have received Jesus Christ the
   Lord, so now you may walk in Him and you may always walk in Him! What
   He was to you at the first, He may be to you, still, and He may be to
   you forever and ever! Did you at the first eat Him as the Bread of Life
   to your soul? Then go on still eating Him! Did you spiritually drink of
   Him as the Water of Life? Then still drink of Him. He is yours forever,
   so continue to draw from His fullness all that you need! As you have
   received Him, so keep on receiving Him." Surely, this is a most
   gracious permission as well as a very precious precept!

   "Walk in Him." Does not this mean, first, look upon Jesus Christ as
   your Way to Heaven and walk in Him? Look upon Him as your Forerunner
   and follow Him. Look upon Him as your Companion and lean upon Him. Look
   upon Him as your delight and live in Him, abide in Him! The expression,
   "Walk in Him," implies action and progress. Let your whole life be
   practically governed by your union with Christ, let your actions speak
   of your fellowship with Him. But walking also means progress, so do not
   stand still in Christ, but go on to know more and more of Him--make
   advances in the Christian life--"grow in Grace and in the knowledge of
   our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." There is also something of the idea
   of permanence in the precept, "Walk you in Him." It means go nowhere
   else, but continue in Him--let your ordinary life and your common
   conversation indicate your closeness of communion with Him!

   "Walk you in Him." I trust that at least some of us know what it is to
   "walk in Him." Though we could not tell to others all that it means,
   yet it is a blessed fact in our experience and we intend, by God's
   Grace, to "walk in Him" as long as we live. I think this is what
   walking in Him means--to wake up in the morning and to have our first
   thoughts full of the Savior--to seek His guidance and blessing in
   everything that is to happen to us during the day, to go down to our
   morning meal with our heart's affection fixed upon Jesus, to go off to
   the business or the workshop in the full consciousness that He is going
   with us--when our hands are busy and our mind is occupied with our
   trading or our working, still realizing that our heart is with our
   Beloved in the secret place where none can follow us, and so, as the
   hours run on, through the noontide heat, Christ is our shade and
   shelter, in the cool of the evening His company is our supreme delight
   and then, as we retire to our bed, our last thought being--

   "Howsweet to rest Forever on our Savior's breast!" Christian, this
   ought to be your way of living! And if you are right with God, this is
   the way in which you actually do live. You "walk in Him." What a lovely
   garden! What a delightful place! The air is balmy, the scenery all
   around is charming. There is nothing to distract, or disturb, or
   disgust--everything to delight, gratify and satiate the spirit--so
   "Walk in Him." Climb to every lofty hill of His Infinite Love, explore
   the deepest recesses of His eternal purposes so far as they are
   accessible to mortal man! And in this way, "as you have received Christ
   Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him."

   III. Notice, thirdly, THE MODEL WHICH IS PRESENTED TO US IN THE TEXT.
   "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in
   Him." The two emphatic words are, "as," and, "so." We are to walk in
   Christ Jesus as we received Him.

   There is great safety in going back to first principles. To make sure
   of being in the right way, it is well to look back to the gate by which
   we entered the way. You know how, in ordinary life, in the matter of
   mutual love, we often look back upon the early days of that experience
   as the sweetest. Not long ago I heard a good man, whose time had been
   very fully occupied in business so that for many a year he had scarcely
   been able to have a holiday, say that, when at last he did manage to
   take one with his wife, it was like his honeymoon. You also recollect
   how the Lord said to Israel, "I remember you, the kindness of your
   youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after Me in the
   wilderness." God likes us to go back in thought to the time when we
   began with Him--and I want to take you who are Christians back to your
   first love of God. Perhaps with some of you, religion has become a very
   mechanical sort of thing--you have become stereotyped in your religious
   observances. You need to go back to the place where you first received
   Christ Jesus the Lord and there refurbish your faith, love and all your
   other Divine Graces!

   So I ask you, how did you receive Christ? Possibly your first answer
   is, "I received Him in the depth of sorrow and humiliation of soul. I
   had been broken in pieces by the great plow of the Law and was rent and
   torn asunder by my own consciousness of guilt. I lay before the Cross
   moaning and roaring like a wounded beast and in my extremity I received
   Christ as being the very Savior that I needed. I felt myself to be less
   than nothing and I took Him to be my All-in-All. Shivering in my
   nakedness through sin, I took His righteousness as my perfect covering.
   Famished to death, I took Him to be both my life and the food of that
   life. I grasped Christ in my despair at finding there was nothing else
   to which I could cling! Out of the great deeps of my soul's distress, I
   cast myself upon His mercy, saying--

   "I can but perish if I go,

   I am resolved to try--

   ForifIstay away,

   I know I must forever die!'"

   Our daily walk in Christ must be very much like that. Not exactly so,
   for there should be no unbelief in it. As for myself, I must confess
   that I never realize Christ's preciousness so much as when I feel
   myself still to be apart from Him, an undeserving, ill-deserving,
   Hell-deserving sinner. Sometimes when our Lord gives us sweet
   enjoyments, we make too much of them by letting them come between Him
   and our souls. And when the Holy Spirit bestows upon us certain Graces,
   we think we are very fine fellows and carry our heads aloft very
   proudly--instead of giving all the Glory to His holy name. Now, if we
   ever act like that, we may rest assured that as we go up in our own
   estimation, Christ will go down-- and that would be a sorry thing,
   indeed! Grow in Grace, but not in self-esteem. Have more faith, but do
   not boast of having it. Be full of zeal, but not of conceit concerning
   it. Be as holy as it is possible for you to become, but do not prate
   and brag about your holiness as some have done. Be not like those who
   push with horn and with shoulder the weak ones of

   the flock because they have not attained to such heights as these
   strong ones profess to have reached--though, possibly, the feebler and
   humbler ones are really nearer to God than the boasters are! Lie low,
   Brothers and Sisters, lie low, for what the old Essex farmer used to
   tell me is true, "If you are one inch above the ground, you are just
   that inch too high." So lie low and thus continue to walk in
   Christ--yourself being nothing--and Christ being everything. You know
   that if you get to be something, Christ cannot then be everything to
   you. But if you are still nothing--and less than nothing in your own
   estimation--as you sink in self-esteem, your Lord will rise to His
   right position in your sight and so you will be walking humbly in Him
   as you ought!

   Think again how you received Christ. When you really did lay hold of
   Him by faith, I am sure that you received Him with great certainty.
   There was no mockery, no sham about your reception of Christ. You were
   a lost sinner and you were pointed to the only Savior--and you did
   really and truly look unto Him who said, "Look unto Me, and be you
   saved." Whatever else there was in your look, there was intense
   earnestness in it. There was no pretence or affectation about it, it
   was very real! Is all your religion as real as that first faith-look at
   Jesus was? Do you walk in Him as truly and as decidedly as you did that
   first day? My dear Brother, do you ever pray sham prayers? My dear
   Sister, do you ever sing sham praises? Is there not a very great risk
   of our making our religion into a mere shell with no life in it? May
   God save us from everything that would be such a sham as that and make
   us as sincere in our walk in Christ as we were in our first reception
   of Him! I know that I was most anxious to be certain that I had really
   believed in Jesus to the saving of my soul. I was not satisfied with
   just one look at Jesus, but I looked, and looked, again and again, with
   a holy anxiety lest I might possibly have been mistaken and not really
   have trusted Christ as my Savior. I wish we had more of that sacred
   anxiety concerning our walking in Christ.

   We were not only very sincere in our early repentance and faith, but
   our reception of Christ was very vital. Salvation was to us a matter of
   life or death. It was not something about which we were only slightly
   concerned. It would be well if we manifested a similar vitality about
   our daily walk in Christ. There are some professors whom I know who do
   not seem to me to be alive much above their ankles--they have not
   sufficient vitality to reach up to their knees so as to make them
   mighty in prayer. They are alive, I hope, but they remind me very
   vividly of a remarkable but gruesome picture of the Resurrection that I
   once saw. There were skeletons coming out of the graves, with the bones
   only partly covered with flesh. One man had a head without any eyes in
   it. Another was stretching out an arm that was all bone--and the rest
   of the figures in the picture were of a similar character. It was a
   strange conception on the part of the painter, yet I fear it was only
   too true a representation of the spiritual state of many nominal
   Christians! I hope they are really rising from among the dead, but they
   have not risen yet into fullness of life. Many professors appear to
   have a very low vitality, if they are alive at all! Their hearts are
   hard and stony, their consciences insensitive--sin does not shock them
   as it shocks the young convert--he is startled and alarmed at the very
   appearanceof evil--but theyhave become so callous that they walk
   unconcerned among scenes that ought to break their hearts! May the Lord
   save you, beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, from all such
   callousness as that! May you have the same tender sensitiveness to sin
   that you had when you received Christ Jesus the Lord. And as you then
   welcomed Him with warm, loving, overflowing emotion, so may you walk in
   Him, all your days, as one who is alive from the dead--thoroughly
   alive--with all your powers and faculties in active exercise and your
   whole soul brimming over with love to Him!

   Did you not also, Beloved, receive Christ very eagerly? Have you ever
   helped to feed a man who had long been without food? If so, you know
   that it is a great treat to see how eagerly he eats. He does not pick
   over the meat to see if it is well done--it is all well done to him. He
   does not leave a scrap of food upon the plate and he looks round to see
   if there is any more that he can beg. It was in such a fashion that we
   feasted upon Christ when we first received Him. We had been for months,
   perhaps even for years, longing with a great heart-ache to find the
   Savior. And when we did find Him and began to feast upon Him, we
   thought we never could have enough of Him! Do you recollect how eager
   you were in those days to go where you could hear the Gospel? You went
   to a place which was so crowded that you could not get a seat, but you
   did not mind standing in the aisle and you did not feel tired, then!
   But now you need a nice soft cushion to sit on and a cushion even for
   your feet--and you are weary long before the sermon is finished! In
   those early days you would have walked many miles to hear about Jesus
   Christ--and even if the preacher's language was somewhat rough and
   uncouth, what did you care about that, as long as he faithfully
   preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified? That is the way in which we
   should still eagerly walk in Christ, feeling that we can never have too
   much of His company, longing to be often where He meets with His
   people, delighting in His worship, charmed with everything He says and
   does! We received Christ eagerly, so let us walk in Him with the same
   eagerness and earnestness!

   Many of us also received Christ very resolutely. I know that I asked
   the question, over and over again, "Shall I go to Him?" And at last,
   when I was almost driven to despair, I cried, "I must, I will--

   "'I'll go to Jesus, though my sin Has like a mountain rose. I know His
   courts, I'll enter in, Whatever may oppose.'"

   That was how many of us received Christ Jesus the Lord. There were
   difficulties in our way, but we overcame them, for we were determined
   to be saved if it was possible. What sacred doggedness, what holy
   pertinacity will a soul bestow when it is resolved on being saved!
   Hunger will make a man break through stone walls and iron bars, but a
   soul that is hungering and thirsting after Christ does not know that
   there are any walls or bars, so overpowering is its eagerness to get to
   Him! It was with such eagerness as this that we received Christ Jesus
   the Lord. Are we just as eager to walk in Him? I know that some of you
   are sorely tempted--are you standing fast? Are you standing up for
   Jesus as you used to do when you first knew Him? Are you firm as a rock
   in your resistance to everything that is opposed to Him and to His
   Truth? You ought to be! Your song should still be that one of which you
   were so fond in those early days--

   "Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, I'll follow where He goes."

   A lion-like spirit was then in you! You would gladly have gone to
   prison for Christ's sake, or even to death if He had required it. If
   somebody had told me, when I was converted, that I should have to go to
   prison and lie there for 12 years as John Bunyan did if I became a
   Christian, I verily believe that I would have leaped for joy at the
   prospect of so high an honor! To be a martyr for the Truth's sake--the
   prospect looked glorious--the ruby crown glowed in the sunshine of our
   ardent anticipation and we envied those who had been privileged to wear
   it! It was so then. But, Beloved, is it so now? Can you cleave to
   Christ as tenaciously now as you did then? Can you bear to be in ill
   repute for His sake? Can you rejoice in being scoffed at because you
   are a Christian as you did when you received Christ Jesus the Lord? If
   you cannot, blush and be ashamed and, from henceforth, pray that with
   the same undaunted courage and determination with which you received
   Him, you may continue to walk in Him!

   I will not weary you by multiplying words, but I must ask whether you
   do not recollect how joyfully you received Christ. Ah, you cannot
   forget that, for in proportion to your sorrow before, was your joy when
   you accepted Christ as your Savior. No wonder you sang--

   "Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!" We are not
   surprised that Miriam and the women went out with timbrels and with
   dances when Pharaoh and all his host were drowned in the Red Sea. And
   we do not marvel at Miriam's jubilant song, "Sing you to the Lord, for
   He has triumphed gloriously," for our soul took a timbrel and our feet
   danced before the Lord as we sang unto Him who had triumphed so
   gloriously for us! As I go back and remind you of those early joys, I
   again ask you whether you are as joyous now as you were then? You ought
   to be a great deal more joyous, for you have had so much more cause to
   praise the Lord than you had then! Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us
   go again to Jesus as we went to Him at the first--let us go as poor,
   guilty, needy sinners to Jesus Christ upon the Cross just as though we
   had never gone before! If we do so, I can tell you what the consequence
   will be just as it was at the first. As we--

   "View the flowing Of our Savior's precious blood, With Divine assurance
   knowing He has made our peace with God"-- we shall feel as though we
   were young converts once again! We may be getting old and gray and,
   perhaps, cold as well as gray, but we shall become like little children
   again and we shall shout, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!" as the Son of
   David rides in triumph down the streets of our soul! Oh, that it may be
   so with many of us here! It ought to be so and it will be so if you
   walk in Christ Jesus the Lord as you received Him in the hour of your
   conversion!

   I will close my discourse when I have reminded you that when we
   received Christ Jesus the Lord, we received the whole of Him. We took
   Him for all that we knew of Him and we found that He was much more than
   we then thought He was. And we did not pick and choose and say, "We
   will have His pardon, but we will not have His sanctification." We took
   the many-sided Christ, the Christ of many glorious Characters, the
   Christ of ten thousand times ten thousand beauties! We took Christ to
   teach us, Christ to lead us, Christ to feed us, Christ to cheer us,
   Christ for us to obey and Christ for us to delight in--we took a whole
   Christ! And then we gave Him our whole selves. We said, "Lord, take us,
   body, soul and spirit." We prayed that the sacrifice might be bound
   with cords to the horns of the altar forever! We made no bargains with
   Him--we gave the freehold of our souls to Jesus--and of our bodies,
   too. And we only asked that we might not have a pulse beating except
   for Him, or our lungs heaving except as He was our very life. And we
   took Christ--at least I know I did--for better or worse, in health or
   in sickness, to have and to hold so that even death should never part
   us! We put our hand in His and asked Him to take us and keep us
   forever. And we took Him and said, "We will hold to You and will not
   let You go." Since then there has been many a tug from Satan, who has
   tried to drag us away from Christ, or to make us think that Christ was
   going away from us--but we have managed to hold to Him to this hour!
   Perhaps you feel as though you had only got a hold of the hem of His
   garment. If so, try to get a firmer hold on Him! Gasp Him, hold Him by
   the feet, throw your arms about Him and tell Him that without a smile
   from Him, your spirit cannot rest! Tell Him that you are sick in love
   and need His Presence, and must have it! And beg Him, by the roes and
   by the hinds of the field, to come to you. Say unto Him, "My Lord, if
   You love me, come and show Your love. If, indeed, there is between You
   and me a union of an eternal nature, come to me! Be not a stranger to
   Your own flesh, but be now as You were of old. Come to me again and let
   Your left hand be under my head while Your right hand does embrace me."
   Oh, for more of these blessed hungerings and longings! Beloved, we will
   never let Christ go! We took Him forever and we will hold Him forever!
   And, blessed be His name, He will hold us forever! We are in His hands
   and none can take us out. There shall we be when earth and Heaven are
   in a blaze! There shall we be when He shall sit upon His Judgment Seat!
   And there shall we be world without end. Amen!

   I leave this sermon with God's people, but I cannot help adding that I
   do earnestly pray that all of you may receive Christ Jesus the Lord.
   Oh, come to Him tonight! He is willing that you should have Him--and
   every soul that wills to have Christ may have Him, for, "the Spirit and
   the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that
   is thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the Water of Life
   freely." Amen, and Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 JOHN 3:10-21.

   Verses 10-12. In this the children of God are manifest and the children
   of the devil: whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he
   that loves not his brother For this is the message that you heard from
   the beginning, that we should love one another Not as Cain, who was of
   that Wicked One, and slew his brother And why did he slay him? Because
   his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Some people try
   to deceive us with the notion that all men are the children of God, but
   John, writing under the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, shows how false
   that idea is! Holiness and love distinguish the children of God from
   the children of the devil!

   13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. As Cain hated
   Abel, so worldlings hate the saints whose holiness is a continual
   rebuke to the ungodly.

   14-16. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
   the brethren. [See Sermon #2556, Volume 44--life

   PROVED BY LOVE] He that loves not his brother abides in death.

   Whoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer
   has eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive

   we the love of God, because He laid down His life for uS [See Sermons
   #2656, Volume 46--THE DEATH OF CHRIST FOR HIS PEOPLE and #2959, Volume
   51--GOD'S LOVE TO THE SAINTS] and we ought to lay down our

   lives for the brethren. Such self-sacrifice as this is the very highest
   form of love to the brethren and is a following of the example of
   Christ, who "laid down his life for us."

   17, 18. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother has
   need and shuts up his heart of compassion from him, how dwells the love
   of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
   tongue; but in deed and in

   Truth. Love that consists only of words is utterly worthless. If it is
   true love, it must prove itself by kind deeds and gracious actions.

   19. And hereby we know that we are of the Truth, and shall assure our
   hearts before Him. The love that will pass this test will bring a
   restful assurance of peace to the heart.

   20-22. For ifour heart condemns us, Godis greater that our heart,
   andknows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have
   we confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive of Him
   because we keep His commandments and do those things that arepleasing
   in His sight. It is not everyone who can have whatever he chooses to
   ask of God in prayer. This privilege is only granted to those who "keep
   His commandments and do those things that are

   23. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name
   ofHis Son, Jesus Christ, andlove one another, as He gave us
   commandment. Faith and love--faith in Christ and love to one
   another--are here most happily joined together! Let us never put them
   asunder.

   24. And he that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him.
   And hereby we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has
   given us. Though this great Truth of our dwelling in God and God
   dwelling in us is a great mystery, it is a mystery concerning which we
   need not be in doubt if we will learn of the Holy Spirit what He
   delights to teach us!
     __________________________________________________________________

Concentration and Diffusion

   (No. 3174)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and
   anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the
   house was filled with the odor of the ointment." John 12:3.

   YOU will notice, if you read the narrative attentively, that the two
   sisters and the brother who made up the favored household at Bethany,
   though all most truly loving Jesus, had each one a different way of
   showing that love. Even so, true children of God do not always feel
   moved to serve the Lord Jesus in the same fashion, or to express their
   love to Him in precisely the same manner.

   Martha served. She was the housekeeper and with much diligence made Him
   a supper. It would have been a sad omission had there been no table
   spread for so blessed a Guest--and who could prepare it as well as
   Martha? Sometimes we have heard people speak disparagingly of Martha,
   but truly they mistake the Lord, who never chided her for serving but
   for being on one occasion so cumbered by it as to think harshly of her
   sister. Martha, in this instance did not fall into the fault which her
   Lord once so gently chided--she did her part quietly and well and,
   thereby, set forth her attachment to Jesus in the most commendable
   manner. We have Sisters in the Church whose way of serving Christ is in
   the household, or by caring for the sick and the poor. Like Dorcas,
   they make garments for them, or like holy women of old, they minister
   to the Lord of their substance. Their work is with temporal'things, but
   they are none the less approved of their loving Master. Brothers, too,
   as deacons, may better honor the Lord by serving tables than they could
   by attempting to edify saints when the gifts suitable for that work are
   denied them. Each man and woman must labor according to his or her
   ability and calling.

   As for Lazarus, he was "one of them that sat at the table." We might
   hastily imagine that by sitting there he did nothing, but, my Brothers
   and Sisters, the people had come together very much to see Lazarus who
   had been raised from the dead-- and for him to sit there and to show
   himself--and especially to eat and to drink, was to do the best thing
   to convince onlookers that he was, indeed, alive! Our blessed Lord,
   Himself, when He rose from the dead, found it necessary to convince His
   disciples that He was really alive and in a real body and, therefore,
   He took a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb and ate before
   them all. When they saw Him eat, then they were sure that He lived! So,
   when Lazarus ate at the table, skeptics could not say, "It is merely
   his corpse, set upright to look like life, or a mere phantom to
   deceive." Lazarus eating and drinking was a testimony for Jesus and I
   would that we all knew how even to eat and drink to the Glory of God!
   There are some Christians who cannot do much or say much, but their
   godly lives, their patient suffering, their quiet holiness are good
   witnesses to Jesus. I have looked at the lilies and the roses in the
   garden and I have thought, "You toil not, neither do you spin. You
   preach not, neither do you sing, and yet you praise my Lord simply by
   being beautifuland by unconsciously shedding abroad the perfume which
   He gives you." May not some saints be glorifying God most truly though
   they can do no more than this? Besides, someone of the family was
   needed to keep the Master company and preside as host at the table--and
   who could do this but Lazarus, the master of the house? Anywhere else,
   Lazarus might have been out of place, but to me it appears most seemly
   that Lazarus should sit at the table--and if he modestly declined to
   take the head of it and sat with others, he was still bound to be
   there!

   But what shall Mary do? She need not be at the table, Lazarus was
   there. She is, perhaps, of small use in the kitchen--her abilities are
   slender in that direction. What shall Mary do? Her heart was very warm
   and she felt she must do something. She did not ask anybody, however,
   for her own mind was inventive. She knew that it was a usual custom
   with honored guests to anoint them with ointment. She perceived that
   this had not yet been done, or if done, not in the royal

   style which her love suggested. Perhaps she was very lovely and had
   been somewhat fond of adorning her person. Her long hair may have been
   much cherished and she may have been profuse in the use of perfume upon
   it. The thought strikes her--she will consecrate that hair to Jesus and
   that pound of fragrant salve which she had stored up for the
   beautifying of herself shall be spent upon Hm. It was very costly, but
   it had not cost a penny too much, now that it could be used upon Him.
   There was a pound of it, but there was none too much for Him. It was
   very sweet, but none too sweet for Him. She brings the pound of
   ointment and pours it upon His feet as He lies reclining at the
   table--and then begins to wipe His feet with the hairs of her head,
   consecrating her personal beauty as well as her valued treasure to Him
   whom she both loved and adored! She had found something to do and that
   something not the least of the three works of love!

   The service of the three members of that elect family made up a
   complete feast. Martha prepared the supper, Lazarus conversed with
   their honored guest and Mary anointed the Master's feet. Judge not one
   another, my Brothers and Sisters! Do, each one, what you feel you can
   do, and what the Lord expects of you--and look not on another's work
   with ungenerous eyes. Neither Martha, nor Lazarus, nor Mary complained
   of each other, but together they made the service complete! All members
   have not the same office, but each one must lovingly supplement the
   office of the rest and emulation and jealousy must never enter among
   us.

   We will now forget the others and look alone at Mary. We are struck
   with the service which she performed for Christ. It was somewhat
   singular, it was very demonstrative and it proved her love to be of no
   common kind. Other women besides Martha had made Him a supper. Other
   hosts besides Lazarus had sat at the table with Him. But no other had
   anointed His feet exactly in her fashion, though perhaps some may have
   come near to it. Mary was inventive, demonstrative, patient, ardent,
   enthusiastic. What she did was the deed of a soul all on fire--the deed
   of a woman filled with deep devotion and reverent love. There is an old
   proverb that "still waters run deep." Mary had these still waters
   within her heart--she sat at Jesus' feet and heard His Words! She was a
   woman of few words, but of many thoughts. She considered, she pondered
   and she adored. Mary among women is the counterpart of John among men
   and, perhaps, at this time she had even outrun the Beloved disciple in
   quick discernment of the Lord's true Nature. It seems to me that she
   had perceived His Godhead and understood more of what He was and what
   He was about to do than any other of the disciples did. At least I can,
   on that theory, better understand her deed of love. She devised a
   homage for Him which she would not have dreamed of presenting to any
   other than such an One as she perceived the Lord to be. Pondering many
   things within her soul and remembering what He had done for her,
   personally--and for her dear brother, Lazarus, whom she loved so
   well--she determined that a special mark of reverential homage should
   be paid Him. And she carried out the resolve. Deep thought led to
   burning love and burning love led to immediate action!

   Beloved Friends, the Church of Christ needs a band of men and women
   full of enthusiasm who will go beyond others in devotion to the Lord
   Jesus. We need missionaries who will dare to die to carry the Gospel to
   regions beyond. We need ministers who will defy public opinion and,
   with flaming zeal, burn a way into men's hearts. We need men and women
   who will consecrate all that they have by daring deeds of heroic
   self-sacrifice. Oh, that all Christians were like this, but we must at
   least have some! We need a bodyguard of loving champions to rally
   around the Savior, the bravest of the brave, Immortals and Invincibles,
   who shall lead the van of the armies of the Lord! Where are we to get
   them? How are they to be produced? The Holy Spirit's way to train men
   and women who shall greatly serve Christ is to lead them to deep
   thought and quiet contemplation. There they obtain the knowledge and
   vital principle which are the fuel of true zeal. You cannot leap into
   high devotion, neither can you be preached into it, nor dream yourself
   into it, or be electrified into it by revivalism! It must, through the
   Divine energy of the Holy Spirit, arise out of hard, stern dealing with
   your soul and near and dear communion with your Savior! You must sit at
   His feet, or you will never anoint them! He must pour His Divine
   teaching into you, or you will never pour out a precious ointment upon
   Him!

   This is a rather long introduction, but we will now leave it all and
   crave your attention for a little time to a short parable which appears
   to me to grow out of this incident.

   Mary took a pound of ointment and poured it all on Christ's feet--that
   is concentration. When she had poured it all out on Christ's feet, the
   whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment--that is
   diffusion. And the surest way to effective diffusion is perfect
   concentration.

   I. Let us speak a little first upon this CONCENTRATION.

   You desire, my Friend, to do something before you die which may prove a
   blessing to your family connections. The desire is good, but do not
   begin with diffusion--commence with concentration and let Mary be your
   model. She brought out all her ointment, the whole pound without
   reserve. Even so, consecrate to the Savior all that you have--every
   faculty, power, possession and ability! Half the pound of spikenard
   would not have sufficed. That half pound in reserve would have spoiled
   the deed. Perhaps we should never have heard of it at all if it had
   been less complete. Half a heart given to Christ? Tell it not in Gath,
   whisper it not in the streets of Askelon! Half a life given to Christ?
   Half your faculties, half your powers given to Christ? It is an
   unworthy gift! He gave you all and He claims all of you. O dear Soul,
   if you would fill the house with sweet odor, bring in your whole self
   and pour out your heart at His feet!

   Note that as she brought all, so she poured it all upon Jesus. She had
   no fear of the black looks of Judas, for the act was not meant for
   Judas--it was all for Jesus. I do not think she gave a thought to
   Martha, or Lazarus, or to any of them. The whole pound was for Jesus!
   The highest way of living is to live for Jesus and altogether for
   Jesus, not caring what this man says or how the other judges, but
   feeling that as He has bought us with His blood and we are His from the
   crown of our head to the sole of our feet, we, therefore, acknowledge
   no master but our Redeemer! Brothers and Sisters, do you live for Jesus
   in that fashion? Do we not perform many actions under the impulse of
   secondary motives? I like, for my part, sometimes to do an act of which
   I feel, "I do not consider whether this will benefit my fellow men. I
   am doing it only for Jesus. What comes of it--whether a soul shall be
   saved or not is not my main care--I am speaking this good word in His
   honor and if God accepts it, and it glorifies Jesus, my end is served."
   Oh, it is a blessed thing to feel that you are living, not as a servant
   of man, nor of the Church, nor of a sect, or party, but of Him whose
   precious blood has bought you!

   Concentrate all your faculties upon the Lord, Himself, and then consult
   not with flesh and blood. Mary did not wait for any advice about the
   matter. There is Jesus and there are His blessed feet inviting her to
   anoint them! She will not stop to enquire what Martha thinks, much less
   what Judas murmurs, but her heart tells her to do it. All her powers of
   love say to her, "Do it." And she brings out the costly perfume and
   pours it all on Him. When the criticism is given about the wasteful
   deed, she cares not to make an apology--and she needs not to do so. If
   for the moment the grumbling grated harshly upon her ears, her Master's
   look of love and that kind word, "Let her alone; against the day of My
   burying has she kept this," are quite enough for her. She did not aim
   at pleasing Judas and so, if Judas is not pleased, she is not
   disappointed! She did it for Jesus and Jesus, being pleased, she has
   gained all that she sought! Ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is what we
   must try to do--we must not always remain in leading-strings, asking
   other people what they think about our actions--if we know that a
   certain course is right, let us follow it and let others think and say
   what they choose!

   This concentration of everything upon Jesus is the only way of worthily
   serving Him. When we give Him all, we do not give Him a thousandth part
   of what He deserves! But to give Him half--to give Him a tithe, to give
   Him what we can easily spare--is a poor way of expressing our love to
   Him. Who else deserves a part of your service? If you have been
   redeemed from death and Hell, who else can claim a portion of your
   heart? Look at Him in His life of labor. Look at Him on the Cross and
   look at Him still remembering you before the Throne of God. Does He not
   engross your affections? Say, does He not throw another cord of love
   around you and bind you as a sacrifice to the horns of the altar?

   I will not linger longer on that point. Enough is as good as a feast.
   Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, concentrate all on Jesus!

   II. Now, consider what will come of it--namely, DIFFUSION. "The house
   was filled with the odor of the ointment."

   Mark that the house was not filled with the odor of the ointment
   through Mary's seeking. She did not run into every chamber and drop a
   little on the floor, so that every room might smell of it. She did not
   care whether the house was perfumed or not--she only wanted to anoint
   her Lord and, therefore, she poured all the ointment on His feet! The
   result was that the rooms were perfumed, but that was not her main
   objective. She did not tell everybody that she had precious ointment in
   store, but they knew it by her pouring it out. Whenever you hear a man
   boast that he is holy, remember that good scent needs no proclaiming!
   The only cart I ever meet with that rings a bell is the dust cart.
   Ifjewels and diamonds, or the bullion of the Bank of England are
   carried through the streets, no bell is rung. "Great cry and little
   wool" is a proverb which has had a new exposition in this country of
   late--a wonderful cry about holiness and wonderful little holiness to
   cry about, but a great deal to be wept over and lamented before the
   living God! To stand in every room and cry, "Spikenard! Spikenard!
   Wonderful spikenard!" would have been idle. Pour it on Jesus' feet and
   you will not have to say anything about it, for every room will be
   sweet with the smell thereof! We need, nowadays, dear Friends, to have
   a little less talk about what men are and much more actual living unto
   Jesus. The Lord work it in us by His Spirit!

   Why was it that Mary's spikenard perfumed all the house? And how is it
   that if there is true Grace in a man's life, it is sure to be felt and
   recognized without his saying much about it? We reply, because it is
   real Real religion is always influential. Sham religion has but sham
   power. You cannot get influence by saying, "I mean to influence
   So-and-So"-- as well hope to stop the sun and moon without Joshua's
   miraculous power! The power of religion within yourself will be very
   much the measure of the power which you exercise over others.
   Artificial flowers may be made so exactly like the real plants that you
   can scarcely detect them, but they lack the perfume of our garden
   favorites--and so also the mere professor has not the fragrance of real
   Grace and, consequently, no attractive and sweetening influence upon
   others! But where religion is real, true, heartfelt, deep--where there
   is strong, all-absorbing love to Christ--the sweet perfume of Divine
   Grace will give the man influence over his fellow men! I cannot tell
   you how it is that a man who lives near to God has this influence, but
   I know he has it. The camphor tree is full of camphor in all parts of
   it--branch, bark, root and flower are all full of camphor--and the man
   who really lives for Jesus is full of gracious influence in all places
   and times. May you and I be so!

   How was it that the rooms became filled with the odor? There is a law
   of Nature which chemists call the law of transfusion. If two gases of
   an entirely different nature are brought into contact, they commence at
   once to mix with one another and continue to unite till they are
   thoroughly intermingled. Thus flavors and odors diffuse themselves in
   the air. It is so with good and evil in the world. Insensibly, every
   man is the worse for coming in contact with a vicious example and,
   consciously or unconsciously, every man is swayed to some degree for
   good by the presence of a virtuous life. The law of transfusion enters
   into moral and spiritual matters as well as into the realm of
   chemistry--and if you walk with God, endeavor to preserve a blameless
   life and glorify Christ--influence will be yours without your seeking
   it! How far it will extend, God alone knows. It may reach far beyond
   what you suppose to be its sphere and may even teach some who are yet
   unborn who shall hear from others how you lived and how you glorified
   Christ!

   Besides, dear Friends, true piety is a very powerful essence and
   possesses great energy. There are perfumes in Nature like the attar of
   roses, of which the smallest drop will make a chamber smell for many a
   day. True holiness is such a mighty, pervading essence that if you
   possess it, it cannot be hidden--it will make itself known as a sweet
   savor even as far as Heaven! The life of God is in it and it must
   operate. In everything that is good, God lies hidden. The Spirit of God
   dwells in every gracious word, godly thought, holy deed and He is
   sweetness itself! The name of Jesus is as ointment poured forth--what
   must His Spirit be? Yet that Spirit is to be found in every true
   Believer!

   I want to close by asking you, dear Friends, how far, as yet, you have
   concentrated your love upon Christ and thus have influenced those who
   dwell in your house? I will only ask about your own house. Has your
   house been filled with the odor of the ointment? You do pray, but have
   your prayers been so mighty with God that they have brought down a
   blessing upon your family? You seek to avoid sin, you try to make your
   conversation pure, gracious, kind, cheerful, loving and Christlike--do
   you think that some in your house have been blessed thereby? I do not
   ask, "Have all been converted?" for though all the house was the better
   for Mary's ointment, yet Judas remained a traitor! I should not wonder
   if some in your house may have even disliked you the more for your
   piety--but still, the Lord frequently blesses godliness and makes it
   the means of conversion. O Woman, you may gain your husband by your
   piety! If he will not hear sermons, he will hear that quiet, loving
   life of yours! O Sister, you may win your brother by your love! He will
   not read pious books, but those letters of yours, those sweet words of
   tender rebuke and invitation--he does read them and he feels them, too,
   though you fear he does not! Father, those boys of yours are not yet
   what you could wish, but they must feel your godly example. Perhaps
   when you lie beneath the sod, they will recollect what you used to be.
   Fill the house with the odor of true religion! Fill the parlor and the
   drawing room, the bedchamber and the kitchen with hallowed
   conversation! I say again, not with mere talk and Pharisaic pretense,
   but with real holy living and true godly communion! And depend upon it,
   you are doing for your children and your servants the best thing in
   your power to do! Give them teaching, give them warning and entreaty,
   but still, the actual perfuming with godliness must arise from your own
   holy living--it must be begotten of the ointment poured on Jesus' feet!

   Ah, dear Friends, I wish that not only the house in which we may happen
   to dwell, but the workshop where we labor, the shop where we trade, the
   place of business where we associate with others might all be perfumed
   with Divine Grace! Christians are not to glide out of the way of their
   fellow creatures and shut themselves up in order to be pious any more
   than a soldier may hope to win the battle by running away! No, mix with
   your fellow men! If there are offices of trust to discharge, do not
   leave them to the lowest of the low to discharge them, but be willing
   to do public service for your country! But so do this that you shall
   spread abroad in every office the savor of honesty and integrity and
   make the rogue and the cheat ashamed of themselves. I would to God that
   every Christian Church were a living protest against all the evil of
   the times, a gracious disinfectant to stop the abounding corruption.
   There is an evil smell of sin perpetually reeking towards Heaven--and
   it needs that you Christians should live Christlike lives in public as
   well as in private until you fill this country with a healthier
   savor--and until England shall become a Christian country in fact, as
   well as in name. Would to God that the example of Christians might yet
   become so potent that all nations might feel its power, that wars might
   cease, that cruelties of every kind might come to an end and that the
   sweet savor of Jesus' name, manifested through His people, might
   perfume the whole world as though God had showered upon it ambrosia,
   essences and fragrances from the flowers of Heaven to sweeten it
   against the time when Christ Himself shall come and make it a marriage
   chamber for His chosen bride! God grant that the perfume of your
   holiness may reach the stars! That your lives may be so sweet that
   beyond these fogs and clouds, the sweet aroma of your Divine Grace may
   rise acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, for we are always a sweet
   savor unto Him if we live unto the Lord!

   I fear, however, that I may be addressing some whose lives are not a
   sweet perfume at all. Ah, take heed to yourselves! If you are living
   without God and without Christ--if you are living in any secret
   sin--take heed to yourselves! You may think that you will be able to
   conceal the ill savor of your sin, but you will not. How wonderfully
   does evil tell its own secret! The intolerable odor of many a secret
   sin has forced its way to notice. Beware you who would cover your sin!
   Beware, I pray you! For the task is hopeless. Dig, dig, dig, dig deep
   and in the dead of night cover up the sin, but like the blood of Abel,
   it cries from the ground! "Be sure your sin will find you out." If you
   are living now in sin and yet pretend to be virtuous, remember that if
   your hypocrisy is never found out in thislife, it will confront you at
   the Last Great Day! How terrible will be the resurrection of buried
   sins to men who know not Christ! They will wake up in the next world
   and find their sins howling around them like grim wolves--insatiable,
   fierce and terrible! Any one sin is able to destroy the soul, but what
   must it is to be surrounded by thousands, howling with terrible voices
   and eager to drag you down and tear you in pieces?

   It will be so with you, Sirs! It must be so with many of you unless you
   lay hold, now, upon the great salvation! Jesus Christ can drive away
   those wolves, can stop the ill savor of your sins! If you will trust
   Him, if you will yield your hearts to Him, He will deliver you! But if
   you will not, on your own heads be your blood!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN12:1-43.

   Verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany,
   where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom He raised from the dead.
   The days Christ was to spend upon the earth were getting to be very few
   so He paid another visit to that Bethany home where He was always so
   welcome--and more so than ever since He had raised Lazarus from the
   dead!

   2, 3. There theymade Him a supper, andMartha served, but Lazarus was
   one ofthem that sat at the table with Him. Then took Mary a pound of
   ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
   wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of
   the ointment. All the members of the re-united family were present--
   Martha busy as usual with the domestic duties which fell to her share.
   Lazarus in close attendance upon the Master who had worked so great a
   miracle upon him and Mary, in her own sweet and gracious way, pouring
   out the wealth of her affection in honor of the Master.

   4-6. Then said one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which
   would betray Him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred
   pence, andgiven to thepoor? This he said, not that he cared for
   thepoor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and took what was
   put therein. The question of Judas was a most unworthy one, but the
   motive that prompted the question was still worse. Little did he care
   for the poor, but if he could have had the proceed from the sale of
   that very costly ointment of spikenard, he would have made that an
   opportunity of enriching himself.

   7, 8. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of My burying has
   she kept this. For the poor you always have with you: but Me you have
   not always. Christ was Himself always caring for the poor, so He would
   not discourage any effort on their behalf, but just then one of His
   most devoted disciples desired to render to Him special honor--and He
   would not let her be rebuked--on the contrary, He pointed out the deep
   symbolical meaning of her loving action.

   9. Manypeople ofthe Jews knew that He was there: and they came not for
   Jesus 'sake, only, but that theymight see Lazarus, also, whom He had
   raised from the dead. Their curiosity was but natural, for few of them
   could have seen anyone who had been raised from the dead! It is well
   when a saved soul, who has been spiritually raised from the dead,
   becomes a center of attraction together with the Lord who has worked
   such a miracle of mercy upon him!

   10, 11. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus,
   also, to death; because that by reason of him many ofthe Jews went away
   and believed on Jesus. They would have committed a double murder if it
   had been possible, and would have put to death both Jesus and Lazarus,
   who was a living witness to the wonder-working power of the Christ whom
   they would not receive as the promised Messiah. When men hate Christ,
   they also hate those whom He has blessed--and will go to any lengths in
   seeking to silence their testimony.

   12, 13. On the next day manypeople 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 ofthe Lord. It is significant
   that John is the only one of the four Evangelists who mentions the palm
   fronds that were carried by the people in this triumphal procession in
   honor of Christ. And it was to John that the vision was given of the
   "great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and
   kindreds, and people, and tongues," who "stood before the Throne, and
   before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands,
   and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits
   upon the throne, and unto the Lamb."

   14-16. And Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat thereon; as it
   is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes,
   sitting on a donkey's colt. 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. It is strange that Christ's own disciples did not at once
   remember this plain Prophecy when it was so literally fulfilled, yet,
   before we condemn them, let us remember how "slow of heart" we also
   have been "to believe all that the Prophets have spoken."

   17. Thepeople therefore that were with Him when He called Lazarus out
   of his grave, andraised him from the dead, bare recort. They could not
   help testifying in His favor after they had seen Him work such a
   notable miracle as the raising of Lazarus from the dead!

   18, 19. For this cause the people also met Him, for that they heard
   that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore saidamong
   themselves, Perceive you how you prevail nothing? Behold, the worldis
   gone after Hint! When they saw our Lord riding in state through the
   streets and the people waving palm branches and shouting in His honor,
   they said, "The world is gone after Him." That was only very partially
   true, and for a very short time--but the day will come when the whole
   world shallgo after Him! Christ's Divine attractions shall be felt
   throughout the earth and all the Pharisees then in the world will not
   be able to prevent the people from going after Him! And--

   "Come what may

   To stand in the way

   That day the world shall see." 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 asked him, saying,
   Sir, we would like to see Jesu. They were proselytes who had learned to
   worship Jehovah. Something more than mere curiosity must have moved
   them to want to see Jesus! Having heard of His raising the dead, they
   had a desire and a very proper desire, to know more of Him, so they
   asked to be introduced to Him by one who, though not a Greek, had a
   Greek name, and who might have, therefore, served as a kind of bridge
   for these Greeks to reach the Savior.

   22, 23. Philip came and told Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip told
   Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son
   of Man should be glorifie . Christ's passion and death were getting
   very near when these

   Gentiles came to Him and He saw, in that company of Greeks, the
   vanguard of that great army that shall yet come to Him out of every
   nation under Heaven. In the prospect of that great ingathering, He
   looked beyond the impending shame and suffering and spoke even of the
   hour of His death as the time when He should be glorified!

   24. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a grain of wheat falls into
   the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it

   dies, it brings forth much fruit. [See Sermon #3024, Volume
   53--CHRIST'S DEATH AND OURS] This was Christ's way to Glory, and it
   must be our way to Glory, too. The grain of wheat must fall into the
   ground and die, or else it cannot bring forth fruit. Just so must it be
   with you and with me--and in proportion as we learn to die to self, we
   shall live to the glory of God!

   20. He that loves his life shall lose i. If you keep yourself to
   yourself, you will lose yourself.

   20. And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life
   eternal. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if we are really to glorify
   Christ on the earth, we must be willing to lose our reputation, our
   good name, our comfort and, indeed, everything that we have for
   Christ's sake! This is the only way to truly live. If for your own sake
   you begin to keep back anything from Christ, that is the way to die.
   You would then be like the grain of wheat that is laid by and preserved
   and which, therefore, can never grow or multiply. Surrender yourself!
   Be willing to be nothing! Be willing to die if only the Truth of God
   may live! Care nothing about honor and glory for yourself--care only
   about the honor and glory of your Master! Learn the meaning of the
   Master's paradox--as you bury yourself, you will multiply yourself. As
   you are put out of sight, like a grain of wheat that is sown in the
   ground, you have your only opportunity of growth and increase!
   Heavily-laden ears of corn shall spring up from the grain which has
   been buried in the earth.

   26-28. If any man serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there
   shall also My servant be. If any man serves Me, him will My father
   honor. Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me
   from this hour: but for

   this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Your name. [See
   Sermon #1391, Volume 24--A GOLDEN PRAYER.] In the 27 verse, our Savior
   asked Himself the question, "What shall I say?" here He gives His own
   answer, "Father, glorify Your name." When you know not what to pray
   for, you can always safely pray, "Father, glorify Your name." As you
   stand where the crossroads meet and you ask, "Which way shall I
   choose?" pray, "Father, glorify Your name." This incident seems like a
   rehearsal of Christ's passion. Here we see that natural fear of death
   which came across the Savior's mind because He was so really and truly
   Man. If His pains had not been real pains, but had been pleasant and
   congenial to Him, there would have been no self-sacrifice in His
   suffering. But the fact that they cast upon His spirit the dark shadow
   of death only proves to us what sharp pains they were--but instead of
   asking for a way of escape from them, He surrendered Himself to them,
   gave Himself up as a willing Victim with this prayer upon His lips,
   "Father, glorify Your name." And now see what happened.

   28, 29. Then came there a voice from Heaven, saying, Ihave both
   glorifiedit, and will glorify it again. Thepeople, therefore, that
   stood by and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel
   spoke to Him. This was one of the three occasions on which testimony
   was openly borne to Christ by His Father--first at His Baptism, then at
   His Transfiguration, and now here at the rehearsal of His great
   Sacrifice. [In Sermon #909, Volume 16--voices from the excellent
   glory.] Verily, He is the Son of

   God, and He is always well-pleasing to God! And God has glorified His
   name and will continue to glorify it through Jesus Christ His Son! We
   learn from this narrative that the voice of God is not understood by
   everybody. Some of those that stood by said that it thundered--and
   others said that an angel spoke to Him. It is necessary that you should
   be a child of God if you are to know your Father's voice! Though God is
   speaking at this moment in the clearest tones, none will recognize His
   voice, or understand His words, but those who are taught by His Holy
   Spirit.

   30, 31. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because ofMe, but
   foryour sakes. Now is thejudgment ofthis

   world [See Sermon #2338, Volume 39--THE CRISIS OF THIS WORLD.] Now

   shall the ruler ofthis world be cast out See how the eyes of faith
   reads things differently from the eyes of sense! You and I would have
   said, "Now is Christ coming to His lowest point. Now is His name to be
   cast out from among men and His cause to be crushed as the result of
   His death." But Christ reads the signs of the times very differently.
   "Now," He said, "in the hour of My shame, suffering and death, is the
   judgment of this world. Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out."
   It was only by Christ being apparently conquered that Satan could be
   really vanquished! And there is often no way of victory for a saint
   except through defeat. When self is slain, then do we truly live!

   32, 33. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples
   unto Me. This He said signifying what death He

   should di. [See Sermons #139, Volume 3--CHRIST LIFTED UP; #775, Volume
   13--THE GREAT ATTRACTION and #1717, Volume 29--THE MARVELOUS MAGNET.]
   The Pharisees said, "The world is gone after Him," but

   Jesus says, "No, not while I am riding in state through the streets of
   Jerusalem. But when I am lifted up and hung upon the Cross, then shall
   it, indeed, be true, 'I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw
   all peoples unto Me.'" The crucified Christ of Calvary is the mighty
   magnet that is to attract multitudes of trembling, doubting, ruined
   sinners who by Grace shall be drawn unto Him and find eternal life in
   Him!

   34, 35. 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. What a sad condition to be in--to not know where you are
   going! Are there not some of you whom I am now addressing who do not
   know where you are going? Yet if you would but take the trouble to
   look, you might easily know that as long as you continue in the paths
   of sin, you are going down to the chambers of death! Oh, that God's
   Holy Spirit would give you sufficient light to enable you to see where
   you are going! You surely do not want to take "a leap in the dark." Oh,
   that you may have the Grace to turn from the downward way and to seek
   the heavenward road!

   36-41. While you have light, believe in the light, thatyou may be the
   children oflight. These things spoke Jesus and departed, and did hide
   Himself from them. But though He had done so many miracles before them,
   yet they believed not on Him: that the sayings of Isaiah the Prophet
   might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report?
   And to whom has the arm ofthe Lord been revealed? Therefore they could
   not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes,
   and hardened their hearts; that they should not see with their eyes,
   nor understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal
   them. These things said Isaiah, when he saw His Glory and spoke of
   Him.[See

   Sermons #2413, Volume 41--DESPISED LIGHT WITHDRAWN and #1844, Volume
   31--ISRAEL AND BRITAIN--A NOTE OF WARNING.] You know that wonderful
   Sixth Chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, and you know how wonderfully he has
   spoken there of the Glory of Christ. But what a terrible thing it is
   that even Christ should be driven to blind men's eyes, to take the
   light away from them because they proved themselves unworthy of it! May
   that never be the case with any of us, but while we may see, let us
   see--and may God give us more light!

   42, 43. Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him;
   but because ofthe Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should
   be put out ofthe synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than
   the praise of God. What a shameful thing that was! Yet you will still
   find that there are many persons who, even though they believe the
   Truth, dare not proclaim it, but must hide in obscurity until the times
   grow easier. However, Christ's death fetched out many who had been His
   disciples in secret. Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus could not stay
   in the background any longer and, doubtless, the thoughts of many other
   hearts were then revealed.
     __________________________________________________________________

"Peace! Perfect Peace!"

   (No. 3175)

   AN ADDRESS PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   IN A SICK-ROOM AT MENTONE.

   "You will keep him in perfect peace (Margin: peace, peace), whose mind
   is stayed on You: because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3.

   [This Address is an interesting souvenir of an afternoon visit paid by
   Mr. Spurgeon to an invalid at Mentone, the late Giles Shaw, Esq., of
   Bewdley--brother-in-law of Miss Frances Ridley Havergal. The Address
   was delivered without preparation and followed immediately the singing
   of the hymn upon which it is based.]

   [A Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon Isaiah 26:3 is #1818, Volume 31--THE
   SONG OF A CITY AND THE PEARL OF PEACE. Expositions of the whole Chapter
   are included with Sermons #2430, Volume 41--CHRISTIANS AND THEIR
   COMMUNION WITH GOD and #2713, Volume 47--WALKING IN THE LIGHT OF THE
   LORD]

   AS WE have met together in this sick-chamber and you all wish me to
   talk with you, we will thoughtfully run over the hymn which you have
   just been singing. It is No. 730 in Sacred Songs and Solos, or No. 7 in
   The Christian Choir. May the Divine Teacher lead us into mines of the
   Truth of God and show us the deep things of God!--

   "Peace! Perfect peace! In this dark world of sin?

   The blood of Jesus whispers peace within." Peace, yes, perfect peace!
   What a Heaven lies within! Peace gleaming with a heavenly light even in
   the midnight of this world of care. We cannot enjoy true peace as long
   as sin remains upon the conscience. As well might the ocean be quiet
   while a tempest is raging, or the sea bird rest on the wave when the
   storm is mixing earth and sky! The more the conscience is enlightened,
   the more surely will it forbid peace as long as sin remains, for its
   honest verdict is that sin deserves God's wrath and must be punished.
   Every upright understanding assents to the justice of that dispensation
   by which "every transgression and disobedience received a just
   recompense of reward." To me, when convinced of sin, it seemed that God
   could not be God if He did not punish me for my sins. Because of this
   deep-seated conviction, that great Gospel Truth, "The blood of Jesus
   Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin," became a heavenly message,
   sweeter than the music of angels' harps! Then I saw, with glad
   surprise, that God in Christ Jesus is just and the Justifier of him
   whom believes." To me, the glorious Doctrine of Substitution was a well
   in the desert and it is still so. I believe it with my whole soul. An
   honest man, if he is in debt, will always be in trouble until the
   liability is removed. But when his debt is paid, he leaps into liberty
   and gladness! When I learned that my enormous debt of sin had been
   fully discharged by the Lord Jesus Christ, who did this for all
   Believers, then was my heart at peace! How much I wish that all of you
   may join me and Bishop Bickersteth in singing with emphasis--

   " Peace perfect peace! In this dark world of sin?

   The blood of Jesus whispers peace within!" The second verse goes on to
   speak of--

   "Peace! Perfect peace! By thronging duties pressed?

   To do the will of Jesus, this is rest" This peace is a present
   possession and may be enjoyed in the ordinary circumstances of life.
   Everyone who keeps house, every busy housewife, every man who is much
   occupied with his business, needs this verse--

   "Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed." To be closely
   pressed by a crowd of duties does not tend to peace of spirit. You do
   not know how to act through all you have to do and there seems so much
   to be done all at once. If the duties world come in regular order and
   you could take them as they come, you might be at peace, even though
   incessantly occupied. But when they come rushing in,
   helter-skelter--not only one thing, but 20 other things, all claiming
   to be done at once--then is the anxious soul apt to be dis-

   quieted! We are first wearied and then worried. To be perfectly at
   peace amid the hurry-burly of invading cares is a very blessed
   condition of soul--and the only way to reach it is described in the
   next line of the hymn--

   "To do the will of Jesus, this is rest." To be sure that what you are
   doing is what Jesus would have you do is peace! Happy soul that is
   doing what Jesus would have it do! I put up this little question in the
   Orphanage, for the children to read--"What would Jesus do?" This, if we
   have spiritual minds, will be one of the best guides for us when we are
   in difficulty as to what is the next thing for us to do. We would do
   good, but too many good things are present with us--which is to be
   first? To know the will of Jesus, and to do it, is to abide in the
   peace of God! What we cannot do, we shall leave to Him, being assured
   that our duty does not lie in the region of the absolutely impossible--

   "When obstacles and trials seem

   Like prison walls to be,

   I do the little I can do,

   And leave the rest to Thee."

   God comes in with His Grace where the impossible shuts us out. There
   are two things we need never worry about--what we can do and what we
   cannot do. What remains? The next verse is very sweet--

   "Peace, perfect peace! With sorrows surging round? On Jesus' bosom
   nothing but calm is found."

   Oh, those sorrows! Sorrows of sickness in ourselves and others.
   Bereavements, losses and crosses in daily life. Inabilities to succor
   and depressions of spirit. These last two are at times the worst of
   all, for then the sorrow gets right into the heart and becomes sorrow,
   indeed! All the waters in the ocean are as nothing to the vessel so
   long as they are kept outside--but when they break into the cabin of
   the heart's assurance and begin to fill the hold of the heart--then are
   we in peril--

   "Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round."

   This is the finger of God. It is not according to Nature for a man to
   be just as happy when he is in adversity as in prosperity. Even when
   "sorrowful" to be "always rejoicing" is a paradox realized only by one
   who knows that next line--

   "On Jesus' bosom nothing but calm is found." Wonderful position! We
   cease to marvel at the deep calm which comes of it. I have sometimes
   noticed very little chicks nestling under their mother's wings,
   thrusting out their little heads from under her feathers, looking so
   warm and cozy that they did not seem to know that it was cold in the
   big world outside! Near their mother's bosom they chirped quite happily
   and were altogether unaffected by the frosts of the night or the chills
   of the day. So we read, "He shall cover you with His feathers and under
   His wings shall you trust--His Truth shall be your shield and buckler."
   We get to Jesus and we find shelter and safety in Him, even as the
   little chicks beneath their mother's wings. Is it so with each one of
   you? A present salvation should yield you present consolation and it
   will do so if you act up to your position and privilege. Tell your
   sorrow to Jesus! Leave your sorrow with Jesus! Bear your sorrow for
   Him. Bear your sorrow with Him and then see what peace, what perfect
   peace, you will enjoy, even "with sorrows surging round!" The next
   verse will suit us who are, for a while, a thousand miles from home--

   "Peace! Perfect peace! With loved ones far away?

   In Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they." Yes, the dear wife is at
   home. We do not know how things are going there with the children, and
   the servants, and the workpeople. All sorts of things are left as
   burdens upon the beloved ones at home. We leave our beloved with our
   God and commend the household far away to God, who is present
   everywhere. A wandering son, a wayward daughter-- we leave them all
   with Jesus. It is ordained by the Providence of God that these loved
   ones should be far away and, therefore, it is right it should be so.
   Yes, that which God appoints is right--and must be right Distance
   ordained of Heaven is better than nearness of our own choosing! How
   sweet that line--

   "In Jesus'keeping we are safe, and they!" They are safe, too! It is all
   well with them. We cannot see them, but they are under the eyes of
   Jesus. They are as near to Him as we are and, in His keeping they are
   as safe as we are. When I was a very little child, I lived so long with
   my grandfather that he became everything to me. And when I left him, it
   seemed like going among strangers. And I remember that

   Grandfather tried to comfort me by saying, "Ah, Child! You are going
   away from Stambourne; but the same moon will shine where you are going!
   It will always be the same moon." Often I looked at the moon and
   remembered that Grandfather was looking at it, too, and we were not so
   very far away from one another. It is a sweet comfort to think that
   there is the same Providence watching over the loved ones far away on
   the other side of the globe, in Australia, as there is watching over us
   who are gathered here. The absence of friends must not break our inward
   peace.

   Some are naturally anxious and fretful and this comes out most in their
   thoughts of those who are away. I was just now talking to a friend who
   tries to leave her troubles with the Savior, but very soon takes them
   up again and bears them on her own back. She casts her burdens on the
   Lord and then bows her own weary shoulders to the load. This, she
   confessed, she had done many times. I said to her, "Do you keep your
   money in a bank?" "Yes," she replied. "Then," I said, "it is well for
   both of us that I am not your banker." "Why?" she asked. "Why," I
   replied, "if you were to place £100 with me, and then come back in five
   minutes and ask whether your money was safe, I should have to assure
   you that it could not be safer. Then you would probably want to see it
   and I would say, 'There is your money. You can draw it out at once.' I
   would not be best pleased if the next day you came again and repeated
   your question, and made a personal inspection. I am afraid I would say
   to you, 'You had better take your money and look after it yourself, for
   it is evident that you have little or no confidence in me.'" At any
   rate, however I might take it, it would be very provoking conduct. We
   must not talk of confidence in our Lord Jesus and then withdraw at the
   first sign of trouble or difficulty! "We are safe, and they." Will not
   an assured conviction of this Truth bathe us in seas of heavenly peace?
   The Lord make it so with us

   all!

   Now for verse five--

   "Peace! Perfect peace! Our future all unknown? Jesus we know, and He is
   on the Throne."

   That is the end of all doubts about the future, "He is on the throne."
   His hand is on the helm to steer the ship. He is in the place of
   sovereign government--nothing can happen but what He ordains or
   permits. Ah, dear Friends! Some of us have need to remember such a
   verse as this! We went home one year from this place, two of us, as
   happy as birds could be; and within a very few days one had lost his
   wife, and the other one dear friend, and then another. We will not try
   to peer through that telescope which would unveil the future. It may be
   that dark scenes will startle us before we reach the eternal light. We
   do not know, and need not wish to know, what is appointed for us--but
   this great and comfortable Truth of God meets it all--

   "Jesus we know, and He is on the throne."

   We can very well leave all things with our crowned Head! I suppose none
   of us would wish to contradict Hm, nor to have anything arranged
   otherwise than His loving mind appoints. If He stood by us this
   afternoon, and said to any one of us, "My Child, I have arranged your
   way in tender love and wisdom," no one of us would wish it to be
   otherwise. If He said to us, "I have appointed such-and-such," would we
   say to Him, as Joseph said to Jacob, "Not so, my Father," and would we
   wish Him to uncross the hands which He guides so wisely? Would we not
   ask for the cross-handed blessing? Let the King be a king, and do what
   seems good to Him! May we not only say that, but stand to it in the
   trying hour--

   "Peace!Perfect peace!Death shadowing us and ours?

   Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers." Death is the last
   enemy, but more--he is "the last enemy that shall be destroyed." He
   cannot touch a child of God! Only his shadow may fall upon us. How
   small a thing is this! The shadow of a sword cannot kill, the shadow of
   a dog cannot bite, the shadow of a lion cannot rend and the shadow of
   death cannot destroy!--

   "Death shadowing us and ours." Well, well, we are not silly babies that
   can be frightened at a shadow, for--

   "Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers." He did it by His own
   death and Resurrection! That Resurrection transformed death into quite
   another thing from what it was before. Death used to be as a black
   cavern in the mountains. Men said that many were the footsteps into it,
   but that there were none from it. It was an awful, all-devouring
   cavern, but Jesus has, by passing through it, turned the cavern into a
   tunnel! He went in at the gloomy side, but He remained not in the heart
   of the earth--He re-appeared at the other side. So that, death is now
   all on the way to Heaven and immortality!

   I have heard of an aged Christian Sister at Plymouth who had been for
   many years troubled with the fear of death, but she got over it and was
   very happy and very cheerful when speaking about her departure. She
   lived in a room of her own and one night she said to the friends in the
   house, "I believe I shall see the Lord tomorrow." It was on a Saturday
   night she spoke thus and, according to her wish, they did not disturb
   her in the morning. But as they did not hear anything from her as the
   day passed on, they went to her room about mid-day and, sure enough,
   she was with her Lord! On a piece of paper which lay on her bed, they
   found these lines written--

   "Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing,

   But gladly put off these garments of clay.

   To die in the Lord is a Covenant blessing,

   Since Jesus to Glory through death led the way."

   That is the way to look at it!--

   "Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours? Jesus has
   vanquished death and all its powers."

   Then comes the last verse--

   "It is enough! Earth's struggles soon shall cease, And Jesus calls us
   to Heaven's perfect peace."

   Dear Friends, it is very essential that we, as Christian people, should
   not only talk about this peace and believe in it, but that we should
   enjoy it and exhibit it! I believe that to some of you, the best way in
   which you can honor God and win others to Christ is by exhibiting a
   quiet, cheerful frame of mind, especially in sickness. Nothing is so
   convincing to ungodly men as to see Christians very calm in time of
   danger, very resigned in the hour of affliction, very patient under
   provocation and taking things altogether, as Christians should take
   them, as from the hand of God! They are struck with it, for it is so
   different from what they feel within themselves! When their earth
   shakes, when their foundations are removed, when their health is gone,
   when their earthly comforts are taken away--what have they left? But
   you and I have just as much left when all these things are gone as we
   had before! While we have earthly comforts, we have learned to see God
   in them all. And when they are taken away, we see them all in God. But
   the ungodly have not that wonderful sense of the full possession of all
   things which is the peculiar delight of the heirs of salvation!

   You and I are like Jacob. The Lord said to Him, "The land whereon you
   lie, to you will I give it." You have only to lie down upon a promise
   and you may claim it for yourself--it is yours by the Magna Charta of
   faith! Go to the Bible and whatever promise you find there addressed to
   a child of God, stretch yourself upon it and so make it your own--and
   it will be so! Remember how the Lord spoke to Abraham, "Lift up, now,
   your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward, and
   southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which you see,
   to you will I give it." Let us believe that God has given us all things
   in giving us His Son--

   "This world is ours, and worlds to come, Earth is our lodge, and Heaven
   our home."

   We must get this perfect peace of which we have now been singing and
   speaking. I admire in certain of the saints their self-command, their
   great quiet and deep restfulness of spirit. It is not everything, but
   it is a very great deal. It is all the more necessary just now because
   the world is in such a hurry. It is necessary to us when we are weak
   and suffering, and when we are surrounded by cares and sorrows. Yet it
   is quite as valuable when we are strong and young and comfort would
   tempt us aside. Oh, that the world may see that we have a peace that
   cannot be taken away from us by force or fraud! I do not quite like
   that saying of Addison, "Come here, young man, and see how a Christian
   can die." It looks too theatrical. But I should like it to be so with
   us that men might turn aside to see how a Christian can live! O Lord
   and Giver of peace, grant us Your peace, and Grace to keep it, even to
   the end!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HOSEA 14.

   Verse 1. O Israel, return unto the LORD your God, [See Sermon #2192,
   Volume 37--THE JOYOUS RETURN] Bless His name that He is still your Gil!
   However much you may have backslid-

   den, you have not lost your right to claim Him as your God, for He is
   yours eternally by a fixed promise. And because He is still your God,
   let His everlasting kindness entice you to come back to Him."

   1. For you have fallen by your iniquity. "You have lost your comforts,
   you have become a poor despicable creature. You have fallen by your
   iniquity--this is the eve of all the mischief--your sin is the seed of
   all your ruin! Get rid of that and you shall soon have your comforts
   back again."

   2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto Hi . See, He
   puts the words into your mouth, as if He felt persuaded that you would
   say, "Lord, I cannot pray an acceptable prayer," He makes one for you,
   so that you who have backslidden the most and have gone the farthest
   astray, may have no excuse--"Turn to the Lord: say unto Him."

   2. Take away alliniquity andreceive us graciously: so will we render
   the calves ofour lips. "Our thankfulness shall give You such hearty
   praise that it shall not be like the Jew's slender sacrifice, when he
   offered the turtle-doves or the young pigeons, but we will give You of
   our praise as hearty a sacrifice as when the devout Israelite brought
   the young bullock, the very best of his beasts to be offered upon the
   altar of his God. So we will offer to You the calves of our lips."

   3. Asshur shall not save us. Backslider, have you been putting your
   trust anywhere but in God, hoping to find comfort in the world and in
   sin? Then make this confession--"Asshur shall not save us."

   3. We will not ride upon horses. These were the confidence of the
   Egyptians--and the Israelites vainly tried to imitate their powerful
   and rich neighbors. So we will not put our confidence in the strength
   of cavalry.

   3. Neither wiil we say anymore to the work ofour hands, You are our
   gods. Happy is that man who turns aside from every idol and trusts in
   God alone! It is a mark of very black backsliding when we begin to make
   our business, our families, our pleasures and our bodily health the
   objects of such tender consideration that we virtually say to them,
   "You are our gods."

   3, 4. For in You the fatherless finds mercy. I will heal their
   backsliding I will love them freely: for My anger is

   turned away from him.[See Sermons #501, Volume 9--GRACE ABOUNDING and
   #920, Volume 16--BACKSLIDING HEALED] Everlastingly turned away through
   the complete and satisfactory Atonement of Jesus Christ!

   5. I will be as the dew unto Israee. The dew is God's gift and so is
   Divine Grace! The dew falls silently, yet copiously, and bedews both
   the leaf and the root sufficiently. "I will be as the dew unto Israel,"
   is a promise to the man of faith, the man of prayer, the man who can
   endure trial--"I will be as the dew unto Israel."

   5. He shall grow as the lily. It is "the daffodil" in the original, the
   yellow daffodil in the East springs up after a shower where you could
   not have perceived anything before. Yet there is the idea of frailness
   in that simile, so it is balanced by the next one.

   5. And cast forth his roots as Lebano . After you have grown upward,
   you must grow downward--and growing downward, though it may not be so
   pleasant--is quite as excellent as growing upward, so the promise to
   you is, "He shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
   Lebanon."

   6. His branches shall spread This is growing sideways. So the Believer
   spreads his branches by public profession and testimony after having
   become deeply rooted in the faith and having grown up in love to God!
   Then He begins to spread his shadow over the sons of men by telling--

   "To sinners round,

   What a dear Savior he has found." 6. And his beauty shall be as the
   olive tree. Which largely consists in its fruitfulness. That is always
   the most beautiful olive which bears the most fruit. So the fruitful
   Christian shall have the beauty of the olive tree. Besides, the olive
   is an evergreen and the Christian's beauty is of a kind that shall
   never fade. There is an old saying, "Beauty soon fades," but that does
   not mean the Christian's beauty, for that shall neverfade, neither in
   life, nor in death, nor in eternity!

   6. And His smell as Lebanoi. That is, the holy influence of his life
   and conversation shall be as fragrant to God and men as are the
   perfumes exhaled by the sweet flowers upon the side of Mount Lebanon.

   7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. His children, his
   servants, his congregation shall be blessed by his gracious influence.
   As the Upas tree drops with deadly poison, so the tree of Grace in a
   Christian drops living drops to fall on dead souls!

   7. They shall revive as the corn. Which suddenly springs up in the East
   after rain falls.

   7. And grow as the vine. The branches shall in their turn become
   fruitful.

   7. The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Our families and
   households should be so well-ordered that not only we ourselves,
   personally, but all in our household should have a heavenly influence,
   a blessed savor upon all around us.

   8. Ephraim shall say, WVhat have I to do anymore with idols?'[See
   Sermons #1339, Volume 23--IDOLS ABOLISHED and #2474, Volume 42--THE
   GREAT CHANGE] Let that question also go round our

   ranks, "What have I to do anymore with idols? I, who am bought with the
   precious blood of Jesus? I, who am named by the name of Jesus? I, who
   have been baptized into the Sacred Trinity--what have I to do anymore
   with idols?" You may make an idol of that boy or girl of yours. You may
   make an idol of that house or garden of yours. You may make an idol of
   that business or profession of yours. Do not do it, I entreat you, but
   rather say, "What have I to do anymore with

   idols?"

   8. I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. That
   is what Ephraim says, and this is what God says.

   8. From Me is your fruit found [See Sermon #557, Volume 10--WHERE TO
   FIND FRUIT] We are never so fruitful as when we get all our fruit from
   God! We always shine in borrowed light and we are always fruitful in
   borrowed fruitfulness.

   9. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he
   shall know them? For the ways of the LORD are righ. Did your murmuring
   spirit say that they were not right? Because you have had some sore
   trial, did your repining spirit say that they were not right? They are
   certainly right and you shall see that it is so one day! "The ways of
   the Lord are right."

   9. And the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall
   therein. Even in God's good ways, transgressors cannot stand--they fall
   even when they try to praise God, or to pray to Him--and this is a sad
   proof of man's deep depravity, that even when he is engaged in the
   worship of God, the thing which is, in itself, good, becomes obnoxious
   to God by reason of the sin which is certain to be mingled with it!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Beauty Of The Olive Tree

   (No. 3176)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
   17, 1879.

   "His beauty shall be as the olive tree." Hosea 14:6.

   [This Sermon was one of several preached by Mr. Spurgeon after various
   visits to the Riviera. He had intended to prepare a volume upon the
   olive, but illness and the pressure of other work prevented. He had
   revised nearly half of the manuscript of this discourse and the
   revision of the remainder has followed as closely as possible the lines
   laid down by him.]

   OUR present objective will be to bring out the resemblance in point of
   beauty between the godly man and the olive tree. But please note that
   the parallel does not hold good of all who profess and call themselves
   Christians--it is only true of those whose backsliding has been
   healed--to whom the Lord has been as a refreshing dew. It is the
   Believer in a healthy, growing and useful condition whose beauty is "as
   the olive tree."

   Things of beauty were evidently intended to be gazed upon. God created
   beauty on purpose that it might enchain our eyes, rivet our attention
   and command our thoughts. Whether it is the beauty of a tree or the
   beauty of a man, it was meant to be a joy forever, but this it cannot
   be if it is left unnoticed. Beautiful objects are intended to be
   thought upon and spoken of--and we shall not be doing ill if we now
   consider and commend a Christian. We shall be doing no dishonor to the
   Master if we admire the disciple, if we confess, at the very outset,
   that our whole intent is not to magnify Believers, but to glorify God
   in them. There is no beauty in anything which charms our eyes but what
   the Creator has put upon it and, assuredly, there is no spiritual
   beauty about any man but what the Holy Spirit has worked in him, "for
   we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." If
   the olive tree is beautiful, we are not so doting as to fall down and
   worship it! And if a man is made comely by the Grace of God, we do not
   worship the man, but we praise the Lord on his behalf! Glory be to God
   who has done such marvelous things for poor human nature that he has
   made it lovely--so lovely that even He, Himself, beholds a beauty in
   it, for remember that the text is not only the word of a Prophet, but
   the word of Jehovah, Himself, who says, "I will be as the dew unto
   Israel... and his beauty shall be as the olive tree."

   Having spent many months under the olive trees of the Riviera, my soul
   has them still in remembrance. From morning till sunset I have rested
   in the peaceful groves--at one time basking in the sunshine, and soon
   seeking the shade to escape the heat of the sun which gave to the
   invalid, summer in the months of winter! The very color of the olive
   tree rests the eyes. I delight in its emerald gray, its silver green,
   its unique foliage--and the song of the birds which sing among its
   branches refreshes the ears! As I have looked upon the olive trees and
   thought of them over and over again, my mind has sought for matter
   whereby I might edify the people of God. My observations have always
   been made with that desire. And as I now present them to my readers, it
   is with many prayers that they may minister Divine Grace to those who
   read them.

   I. The Believer in a healthy spiritual state, refreshed by the Holy
   Spirit as with the dew of Heaven, has a beauty like that of the olive
   tree in this respect, that IT IS A BEAUTY WHICH GROWS UPON YOU.

   Louis Figuier, in his, " Vegetable World," says peremptorily, "The
   olive is of a sober grayish green aspect and without beauty, having a
   rugged stunted aspect." We object to this verdict, but we freely admit
   that at first sight, there is little or nothing attractive about the
   olive tree. We have even heard persons pronounce it an unsightly tree
   which has quite disappointed them. We were sure that they had never
   sought its company and conversed with it hour after hour as we have
   done, or they would not have spoken so slightingly of what we have
   found, "a gracious tree for fruit, for leaf, for flower." Truth to
   tell, it is not the most shapely of the sons of the forest. And though
   the trees, as we are told in Jotham's

   parable, sought it for a king, it does not, like Saul, lift its head
   above its fellows. Neither does it, like Absalom, claim to be praised
   beyond all others for comeliness. It is not a tree which would at once
   strike the beholder with admiration, like some giant oak, or lofty
   elm--nor charm him with its elegance, like a weeping willow--nor
   astonish him with its grandeur, like a cedar of Lebanon. In order to
   perceive its beauty, you must linger a little. You must look and look
   again! And then, if you do not at last feel a deep respect for the
   olive, and a quiet delight in its beauty, it must be because you are
   not of a thoughtful spirit, or else because you have little poetry in
   your soul. The more familiar you become with the olive tree, the more
   will you take pleasure in it!

   Now all this is also abundantly true of the lively Christian who is
   full of the Grace of God. He may not at first charm you. Your
   prejudices may lead you to avoid, if not to oppose him. He appears to
   be somewhat singular and, perhaps, rugged. He differs materially from
   the rest of mankind, for he does not run with the multitude--and you
   are apt to think that his singularity is an affectation. Possibly, at
   first, he is somewhat cold and distant in his manner towards you. That
   is the way of many Christians until they know those to whom they are
   speaking, for they do not wish to cast their pearls before swine. As
   you watch them, you will perhaps, at first sight, see more of their
   imperfections than of their virtues--it being a habit with them not to
   parade their own attainments either by wearing professional
   phylacteries or by sounding a trumpet before them. They often put their
   worst foot foremost out of the very desire not to be seen of men in any
   Pharisaic fashion. Persevere, however, in observing the spiritual man
   and you will surely see much that is beautiful about him. Look and look
   again and, perhaps in time you will come to admire as an excellence
   that which you now think to be a defect! Be not in a hurry--the best
   things are not usually glittering and superficial in their attractions.
   A Christian is assuredly the noblest work of God! In Heaven, itself,
   there stands nothing superior in the way of a creature to a man of God!
   And on earth there is nothing that can match him. Watch, therefore, the
   believer in Jesus, for his moral beauty will repay your study.

   The olive grove is, to my mind, supremely lovely when the sun darts his
   beams through it in long slants of brightness so that you see here a
   golden lane of light, and there a mass of silver shadows directly
   beneath the trees. I do not know anything that charms me more than to
   look into the spotted shadow and light created by the irregular
   planting of a forest of olive trees! They are all the more delightful
   because of their disorder and the varied dark and bright hues which
   meet the eyes and gratify them with their exquisite checkered work. In
   like manner, when Christians enjoy the Light of God's Countenance and
   it is sunny weather with them, then will you see their beauty if you
   have true spiritual insight! When their faith is flourishing and their
   hope is beaming--then their love is full of freshness and the joy of
   the Lord flashes on them--then, if you have a spiritual eye for such
   beauty as angels care to gaze upon, you will wish to be numbered with
   good men and to mingle in their sacred society!

   Perhaps the finest idea of the beauty of olive trees is obtained when
   you see them in a mass. Stand upon the open common at Bordighera and
   look beneath you towards Ventimille and Mentone, marking where the
   mountains shelve to the sea and all their sides are clothed with olive
   groves--and you will clap your hands with delight! Before you is a very
   sea of olives, with billowy waves of silver brightness reaching as far
   as the eyes can see--with here and there a stately palm rising up above
   them all. Even thus, when we shall be privileged to look upon the
   entire Church of God gathered in one countless multitude at the last,
   what a sight it will be! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing
   out before the Lord and the mountains and the hills shall join their
   rapturous song. What a sight will that complete Church be to the pure
   eyes of holy men when they see all the trees of the Lord's right hand
   planting standing together in one glorious garden far excelling Eden
   before the Fall! Yes, the perfection of the Church of God and of each
   individual member of it will be seen at the last when the separated
   ones shall be gathered together in one great general assembly and the
   beauty of holiness shall be over them all! Till then, let us always
   believe that Christians are lovely objects to look upon. Some seek the
   company of the rich and the great, but it is cold comfort that any will
   gain from mere rank and birth. Some delight in the society of the
   witty, but their sparks, though they glitter for a moment, are too soon
   extinguished to minister comfort to mourning spirits. Some delight to
   associate with those who are highly esteemed among men, but surely, he
   is wiser who selects his companions from those who are precious in the
   sight of the Lord! O Beloved, whatever others may say of the people of
   God, and of the Church of God, let us each one say--

   "There my best friends, my kindred, dwell, There God my Savior reigns."

   There, then, is the first point of resemblance between the beauty of a
   Christian and the beauty of the olive tree. It grows upon you--the more
   you are with the excellent of the earth, the more will you delight in
   them!

   II. Secondly, in both the case of the olive tree and of the Christian,
   IT IS A BEAUTY OF A VERY SOBER KIND. The color of the olive foliage is
   a gray green or, if you will, an emerald drab. I do not quite know how
   to speak of it,

   but would remind you that it belongs to the same family as the ash and
   is of somewhat similar color, only of a lighter green--one side of the
   leaf being much paler than the other. I have heard giddy people observe
   that the olive groves are very dreary. These are the ladies and
   gentlemen who prefer the fashionable esplanades where they can display
   their fi-nery--or the deadly gambling saloons of Monte Carlo where they
   can ruin others, or be themselves ruined! Everyone to his taste--ours
   lies in another direction! In an olive grove, where all sounds are
   hushed but the singing of birds, I prefer to sit the whole day with a
   good book, or even without one, and muse the hours away and feel a deep
   serenity of soul akin to the everlasting rest. Truly, good Lord--

   "The calm retreat, the silent shade With prayer and praise agree, And
   seem by Your kind bounty made For those that worship Thee."

   If you want to see true beauty, you will find it in the olive gardens,
   but it will be of a serious quiet type--not the luxurious beauty of the
   orange or the lemon with their apples of gold, nor that of the goodly
   cedar with its regal dignity, nor even of the stalwart oak with its
   glory of strength! Much less of the flowers of spring which in the land
   of the olive rival the hues of the rainbow--but an unobtrusive, calm,
   rugged beauty, dearest to those who seek restfulness of heart and
   shrink from "the madding crowd's ignoble strife!"

   Thus far the true Believer and olive are like to the letter. There is
   nothing showy about him, but much that is serious and reposeful. He has
   thought of things and gone to the root of the matter. He has sorrowed
   under the burden of sin and the delight he has known in being delivered
   from it is a deep mysterious joy. His happiness does not display itself
   like the anemones and wild tulips which grow in such profusion on the
   terraces of Mentone, but it is content with more subdued tints which
   will last when flowers and their comeliness will be forgotten! The true
   Christian is not always smiling--he can laugh as every honest man can
   and should--but he is not a constant giggler and hunter after childish
   merriment as many are. His is real, substantial, thoughtful happiness
   which can bear the test of meditation and examination. He can give a
   reason for the hope that is in him. He does not need to dance and
   fiddle in order to enjoy himself. His joy is made of nobler stuff. It
   is such merriment as angels have when they see prodigal sons returning
   and rejoice before the Father's face! Give me the quiet delight of the
   genuine Christian. Oh, that some professors had more of it! Not so
   fast, good Friend, take your joy more calmly! Not quite so much fire
   and fury--pause for a little thought at least now and then. If you go
   too fast, today, you will be out of breath before tomorrow! You are so
   very joyful, disappointment, I fear, will tame you into despondency!
   "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." Believe and act
   according to the common-sense guidance of faith and go calmly through
   the world as God enables you, for if you do, you will have the beauty
   of the olive tree--and what more would you have?

   III. Thirdly, the beauty of the olive and the beauty of the Christian
   are alike in this respect, they are ever-abiding. You saw yonder plane
   or beech, a few months ago, adorned with luxuriant foliage. But there
   came a chilly blast and the leaves began to fall--and when you passed
   the other day, the tree was like a vessel in a storm under bare
   poles--not a green leaf was to be seen! In these wintry days you will
   see the trees lifting their naked arms into the frosty air as if they
   longed to be clothed once more. Not so the olive! Its leaf is always
   green and its branch never bare. No wintry wind ever strips its boughs
   and though it looks more full of foliage at some periods than at
   others, yet it always seems well clad and in flourishing condition!
   Perpetually it clothes the bare hills as with the downy feathers of the
   dove's breast and knows no nakedness. Such is the true Christian--he is
   evermore as a green olive tree in the courts of the Lord. You shall
   find him not always alike, happy, but always blessed! Not always alike,
   restful, but still at peace! Not always alike, useful, but still
   fruitful--always rejoicing in a blest estate such that even at his
   worst, he would not change with the proudest sons of earth! His
   branches may be at times disturbed and tossed about, but his heart is
   not troubled, nor his joy taken from him! At bottom, he still believes
   in God, rests in the Covenant promises and rejoices in Christ Jesus!

   Many professors know nothing of this constancy of joy. They rejoice for
   a season and then lose their first love. Like the deciduous tree which
   puts on its greenery in the early spring, but is stripped in winter, so
   do they lose their zeal, love, earnestness and joy. This is not as it
   should be with you who profess to be God's children! This is not having
   the dew of the Lord upon you! Final perseverance is the test of vital
   godliness! To continue in the Truth, grounded and settled--to abide in
   Christ Jesus, to constantly bring forth the fruits of the Spirit--this
   it is to be a Christian! Constancy is the beauty and glory of a
   Christian. We all like the man of whom we can say that we know where to
   find him, but there are some whom we never know where we can find them.
   And if we did, they would not be worth finding. He is the man who
   really adorns his profession who is consistent and persistent, who
   abides steadfastly in the Truth which he has received and is not
   "carried about with every wind of Doctrine." The Lord grant unto us the
   Grace to have a perpetual spiritual health which shall be our beauty,
   just as constant greenery is the beauty of the olive tree!

   IV. Let us now notice, in the fourth place, that the beauty of the
   Christian is like that of the olive tree IN ITS DELIGHTFUL VARIETY.

   Each season, each day and, I might almost say, each hour, the olive
   presents a new aspect.

   I have recently watched olive trees almost every day for three months
   and they always appeared somewhat different, varying in color and tint
   as the day was cloudless, overcast, or decidedly wet. Even the position
   of the sun caused a change in their appearance! And a little wind
   turning up the silver side of the leaves presented a new phase of
   beauty. After a shower of rain, the green appeared predominant, but on
   a hot and dusty day, the gray was in the ascendant. In the evening,
   they sometimes seemed dark or drab. And another time they wore a
   silvery sheen. Like certain other colors which vary with the light, the
   tint of the olive leaf is peculiar in yielding to its surroundings. I
   cannot describe it, for it seems as if it follows the mood of Nature
   and blends it with its own. I do not think I am very fanciful, but it
   seemed to me that this tree was in wonderful sympathy with the weather,
   the sun, the sky, the clouds, the morning and the evening!

   Even thus, Believers in Christ Jesus, if they are the right kind of
   Believers, when you come to know them, have peculiar lights and shades
   and differences of mood and temperament--but in each variation there is
   beauty. The true Christian is a Christian in all his moods and,
   therefore, is worthy of careful observation. When he is brightly happy,
   see how Grace sobers him! And when he has a heavy heart, see how that
   same Grace brightens his spirit. Watch him in the world and see how
   unworldly he is--observe him in the midst of his Brothers and Sisters
   and note how unreserved he is, even as a child is at home. On his knees
   or at his work in the house of God or in his own house, in controversy
   or in communion, at rest or in labor, he is always the same! Yet you
   constantly see a new phase of his character and scarcely know which one
   pleases you the most. There are sometimes strange lights glowing around
   Christian character and if you study the biographies of the godly, or
   watch the living saints, you will continually find fresh charms in
   them. I am old enough to be weary with observing the imperfections of
   my Brothers and Sisters in Christ--I prefer to spy out their
   excellences and to take delight in them. I find it better to think too
   well of God's people than to think too ill of them--and better to
   commend them and to help them by commending them, than to censure them
   and dispirit them by the censure. Do you the same! You will see some
   beauty even about the feeblest of God's own people if you will but
   watch them long enough-- and especially if you will study the lives of
   the saints given to us in the Inspired Word--you will not fail to see
   lights and shades which are only new forms of the same "beauty of
   holiness."

   The olive tree changes with the seasons. Just before I left Mentone, it
   had put forth new shoots and slender branches which drooped like the
   boughs of the weeping willow. In a few weeks, that same olive will be
   covered with a vast multitude of flowers--little white stars, countless
   in number--somewhat like the flowers of the lilac. Near each leaf, they
   tell me, there is a bunch of blossoms with a host of very tiny flowers.
   The whole tree becomes one great mass of bloom and whitens the ground
   with a snowfall of flowers. A very lovely sight is the olive tree in
   bloom! I do not doubt, however, that the peasants like best to see the
   fruit. The brown beads of the ripened olive have a beauty, too, and
   when these are gone, the foliage is still attractive. It does not
   matter to an olive tree whether it is spring, summer, autumn, or
   winter-- it is a thing of beauty and joy all the year round and every
   day of the year! And such is the Christian when the dew of the Lord is
   upon him! He has his changes, but he does not lose his beauty, though
   men do not always have the eyes to perceive it.

   Look at David, especially as he is revealed to us in the Book of
   Psalms. There you see him like a green olive tree in the courts of the
   Lord. Look at the blossoms of joy that are on him, covering him with a
   beauteous garment of praise!

   When you read the 103rd Psalm and similar joyous odes, he seems to be
   smothered with the delicious bloom which yields a most pleasing perfume
   of thanksgiving! Watch him at another time, when he is putting forth
   the green shoots of holy desire--his heart thirsting after God as the
   panting hart thirsts for the water brooks, his inmost soul longing to
   drink a deep draught of the Divine Grace that comes from the Most High!
   Then see him at another time when, as an old man, his fruit grows ripe
   and you observe his rich experience full of unction, bearing fruit unto
   the Lord. Everywhere David is beautiful, except when he sins--and so
   are all those who seek to follow David's Lord and make Him their
   All-in-All.

   Some Christians seem to be always the same. I wish I could always be
   the same by being always at my best, but it is very bad to always be
   the same at your worst! And I know some professors who appear to be
   just like that. They have a faulty string in their harp, yet they
   always want to play on that string whenever we are with them! Indeed,
   they seem to think that that particular string of theirs is the one
   upon which we all ought to play. And if our harp strings do not happen
   to be faulty like theirs, they fancy that our harp can scarcely be
   right--that our spot is not the spot of God's children. Yet you know
   that if one child in your family happens to have a defect somewhere or
   other, you would not think it essential or desirable that all of your
   children should have the same defect! It is well that they should all
   have the family likeness, but there is no need that there should be a
   family deformity peculiar to them all! Yet some Christians seem to
   think that there is such a need. I hardly think that many Christians
   are always at their worse, though, in another sense, I hope some are,
   because if they are ever worse than I have seen them, they must be bad,
   indeed! But I do wish we could all be always as we are at our
   best--only then I would wish that we could be something even better
   than that and keep on advancing "till we all come in the unity of the
   faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
   the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Yet it may be
   that these varying modes of feeling and ways of looking at things are,
   after all, as far as they are not sinful, the various parts that help
   to make up the complete beauty of the Christian character!

   V. Now, fifthly, (I hope you will not be wearied with so many
   divisions. I cannot help having them, for the olive tree has so many
   branches)--another point of resemblance between the olive and the
   genuine, lively, healthy Christian--and another point of beauty in each
   case is INDIVIDUALITY.

   I think no one ever saw two olive trees that were exactly alike. They
   are wondrously varied. The twists and turns of the branches, the
   singular way in which they grow down where you think they never can
   grow and the equally remarkable way in which they do not grow where you
   think they should--the curious shapes and the shapeless shapes that
   they take, I cannot describe to you--it would be necessary for you to
   see them to understand what I mean. Sometimes some of the branches seem
   as if they were turned to serpents, coiling themselves around the
   bigger branches. The olive trees always appear to me to be in an
   agony--twisting and turning like one in excruciating pain as if they
   remembered the griefs and woes of Him who sweat, as it were, great
   drops of blood when He agonized beneath the shade of the olives in
   Geth-semane!

   The trunk of the olive is often split into many separate parts and each
   part seems to be full of vitality. You scarcely ever see one that
   appears to be entire--they are rent and torn as though sundered by
   volcanic eruptions--and they are turned into all manner of shapes so
   that no one of them is like its fellows! Here and there one sees a
   young tree that seems, for a while, to have a definite shape and to
   grow up in some sort of comely form. But you see another by its side,
   still smaller, which has not grown three feet above the ground before
   it takes a twist and goes down again, and then comes up again, once
   more, forming letters something like a W, or an S, or a V, but never
   reaching the shape that you would have thought it might have done!

   This individuality in the olive tree is a part of the charm of the
   olive grove. And so it is among Christians. There are certain sets of
   professing Christians about who are very much of one type. You must
   have noticed them if you have gone about with your eyes open. There is
   a Methodist type, a Particular Baptist type, a Bible Christian type, a
   Church of England type and many others. Somehow or other, they are cut
   and trimmed according to certain prescribed rules and regulations--like
   the lines of little olive trees that we pass on our way to Mentone
   which have nothing of the grandeur and glory of the beautiful olive
   groves with which we are familiar. The more we get out of this attempt
   at securing uniformity, the better will it be for us and for the whole
   Church of God! Egyptian art laid down certain laws that had to be
   kept--the nose must bear such-and-such a proportion to the mouth, and
   the eye must be of just such-and-such a form

   and so on--and, therefore, Egyptian art remained forever where it was.
   True art knows that there must be individuality and that no rule can be
   made of universal application!

   It is so among Christians. Here is one man who is naturally of a
   cheerful spirit, yet he condemns himself because he does not mourn like
   his sorrowful Brother over yonder. But, my dear Friend, God did not
   intend you to be like he is! Here is another Brother who is naturally
   of a very desponding spirit and he often blames himself because he has
   not the exhilaration that he sees manifested in others. My dear Friend,
   you were not to be as they are and it is no use for you to try to
   imitate them! Be yourself, for that will be much better! I have
   sometimes compared myself with my fellow Christians until I have felt
   not only humbled, which is a good thing, but I have been despondent,
   which is a bad thing! I have found that the better plan is to remember
   that in a great house there are many different kinds of vessels and
   they are not all of the same size or shape because they are not all to
   be put to the same use! In a large garden there are various orders of
   flowers, but they are not all of the same color, neither do all exhale
   the same perfume, neither do their seeds, when they come to perfection,
   all assume the same form! So is it among Christians--there are some who
   sing sweet, solemn melodies with a strain of despondency always running
   through their matchless music, for to me it seems the sweetest of all
   harmonies. There are others who are more like the lark. As they sing,
   they soar! The Countess of Huntingdon was a singer of this sort and,
   therefore, she sang--

   "Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above."

   Well, shall I chide the lark because it is not a nightingale, or the
   linnet because it sings not like the canary or the goldfinch? No, let
   every bird have its own distinct note. Let every flower have its own
   special hue. Let every tree have its own peculiar form and let all the
   Lord's people grow as they are guided by the Divine Nature that is in
   them! And then one shall grow in this shape and another shall grow in
   that style, and others shall grow differently from either of them!
   Although there is not one olive tree that is exactly like another, yet
   all the olives are olives and you never mistake them for any other
   tree. And, in like manner, though no one Christian is exactly like
   another in all respects, yet they are all Christians and you should not
   be able to mistake them for worldlings! The all-important matter is not
   that you should be like I, or that I should be like you, but that both
   of us should be like Christ! "Ah, but then," you say, "we shall be like
   each other, shall we not?" No. It is strange, but it is quite true that
   Christians may be like Christ and yet very little like each other.
   There may be a thousand minor diversities in the imitators of the one
   great Exemplar--and the individuality of everyone of them shall be as
   definite as the identity of the whole of them as followers of Christ!

   VI. Sixthly, much of the beauty of an olive tree and much of the beauty
   of a Christian is found in the fact that THE OLIVE TREE IS FULL OF
   LIFE, AND SO IS THE CHRISTIAN.

   In the olive, it seems to be always a struggling life. It is true that
   it is full of life, but as you get a glimpse of some olive trees, you
   say to yourself, "That tree must have had a hard time of it." The
   gnarled and knotted old trunk is split up just as if an axe had been
   driven through it. You can see the white wood inside and on the surface
   the rugged bark appears in places as if it were rotten, yet you find
   that it is still alive. Then you see the branches that grow out of
   these various divisions of the trunk, twisting, twirling and wriggling
   in and out as if they lived in perpetual agony, for they have to draw
   oil out of the flinty rock. It would involve much hard labor for men to
   accomplish that task, yet the olive tree is continually doing it,
   yielding the precious oil which not only makes the face of man to
   shine, but which supplies him with food and light the whole year round!
   This the olive tree often does in a sterile soil where there appears to
   be no nourishment for it whatever. It seems as if the olive tree,
   though always in an agony, is always full of life. It is not an easy
   matter to kill an olive tree--even if you hew it down, yet leave the
   stump, or a portion of its roots in the ground--it will begin to sprout
   and grow again. If you let the tree stand for a thousand years or more,
   it will still bring forth fruit in old age! And when it is, at last,
   worn out and decayed, its children will have grown up into a fruitful
   grove all around it!

   The olive must live and it will live! And, to my mind, it is one of the
   beauties of the olive tree that under the sternest circumstances, it
   seems invincibly to live. And that is also the glory of a true
   Christian. He must live and will live. The Grace of God within him will
   enable him to live when men would think he must die. Persecute him, but
   the axe, or the stake, or even the lions have no terrors for him. Try
   to crush the Church of Christ and the more you try to crush it, the
   more it will live and flourish! Seek to exterminate the Christians and
   in the futile attempt you shall multiply them like the stars of the sky
   or the sands of the seashore! There is no way of killing the Life of
   God when it is once implanted in the

   heart of a Believer in Jesus! All the devils in Hell, if they set all
   their demoniacal powers to work to blow out the feeblest light that
   ever glowed in a Christian's heart, could not put it out even if they
   took an age to do it! The Christian must live, must grow and must bring
   forth fruit unto God! I love, therefore, to study the lives of
   Believers and to watch the struggles of the saints of God. You may
   study this conflict in your own heart and see how the Divine Life
   within you struggles on under affliction, adversity, trial and
   temptation--but conquers all! You may watch it also in your fellow
   Christians who are poor and despised, who have to suffer much sickness,
   pain, weakness and who, perhaps, are bedridden year after year--yet you
   will see how the Divine Life still lives and triumphs over all
   obstacles! Is there not a wondrous beauty in it upon which we delight
   to look and for which we praise God with all our hearts?

   VII. Now, seventhly--and coming to the number of perfection, we come to
   that which the olive tree might well regard as its greatest beauty,
   namely, ITS FRUITFULNESS. "Oh, yes!" the peasant says, "the olive is a
   beautiful tree, for it bears its berries full of oil and the olive crop
   is the best crop that can possibly be grown." There is no known root or
   seed that can be grown by the most skillful farming that can produce
   anything like so much return in a year as the olive does with little or
   no labor from its proprietor! It simply stands still and makes him
   rich. When he eats his bread, he uses no butter or animal fat as we do,
   but he spreads a little olive oil upon it and so is nourished by it.
   When he lights his lamp at night, he does not use the pungent petroleum
   that we burn--but he takes some good sweet olive oil and so gets all
   the light he needs! Mosquitoes and other insects sting him, or he has
   some irritation of his skin and he anoints his flesh with oil and
   obtains immediate relief. When he is sick, or his body is wounded, he
   anoints himself with oil and it proves to be one of the best medicines
   in the world! And, at any rate, it is not so disagreeable as some of
   the medicines of modern invention. If he is working a machine, the
   olive oil helps to prevent both the danger and the discomfort caused by
   the friction. In fact, the man puts the tree to so many uses that he
   says it is a lovely tree because its fruitfulness helps him in so many
   ways.

   In like manner, the most beautiful Christian in the world is the most
   fruitful one. Our old proverb is true, "Handsome is that handsome does"
   and, in the sight of God, those who do the most good works and who thus
   most glorify their Father who is in Heaven, are the most lovely of all
   Christians. It is not every Christian who is lovely in this way, but if
   you have the "dew" of which this Chapter speaks, if the roots of your
   spiritual nature are refreshed by the river of the Water of Life and
   if, by blessed fellowship with God and the entire consecration of your
   body, soul and spirit to Him, you bring forth an abundance of fruit
   unto God, then you have the beauty of the olive tree whose greatest
   glory is its fruitfulness!

   You may, perhaps, have stood in an orchard in the autumn when the
   apples are getting rosy red and are weighing down the boughs, so that
   they would break if the owner did not prop them up. Or you may have
   been in a cottager's garden and he has said to you, "Look at that tree,
   Sir. Ain't it a beauty?" Possibly you had not been thinking of the
   beauty of the tree, for you were admiring some of the lovely flowers
   that were growing at your feet--but the cottager does not care much
   about them--but he does care about those apples which are so abundant.
   After a good look at the tree so well laden with ruddy-cheeked fruit,
   you agree with him, for there is a practical beauty in the tree's
   fruitfulness. Try to have that beauty, dear Friends! To be commended
   for the eloquent way in which you speak, or for the elegant way in
   which you dress, or for the admirable way in which you practice
   deportment is praise that is empty as the wind! But to be useful in
   your day and generation--to glorify God by doing something to benefit
   your fellow creatures, instructing the ignorant, helping the poor and
   needy, bringing the lost and erring ones to the feet of Jesus--this is
   a practical kind of beauty that is worth having! Let your beauty in
   this respect, be as the olive tree.

   VIII. Eighthly, THE BEAUTY OF THE OLIVE TREE OFTEN LIES IN ITS PROGENY.

   The writer of the 128th Psalm says of the man who fears the Lord and
   walks in His ways, "Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides
   of your house: your children like olive plants round about your table."
   If you have ever been in the olive groves you must frequently have
   noticed around the parent olive tree, two, three, four, sometimes as
   many as eight, ten, or 12 little trees all growing up from the old
   root--some of them also beginning to bear fruit and standing there
   ready, when the old tree in the middle is taken away--to do all they
   can to supply its place. I have occasionally seen an olive tree felled
   and the white trunk left flat like a table, with several little trees
   growing all around it--and that sight seemed to bring the text I just
   quoted very vividly to my mind, "your children like olive plants round
   about your table." May your children, Beloved, be like young olive
   trees springing up around your table to bring forth fruit unto God when
   you have done with fruit-bearing! Or even like the old and young olive
   trees, may you all be fruitful together! It is to me a very beautiful
   sight to see a godly man succeeded by gracious sons and daughters. It
   is a privilege beyond comparison, a delight beyond description to see
   those whom you have nursed and nurtured come under the nurture and
   admonition of the Lord and be so taught in His ways as to become true
   disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ! The aged Apostle John wrote, "I
   have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in Truth." Do
   not you, dear parents, desire this joy for yourselves? I believe you
   will have it if the dew of the Lord is upon your souls.

   I have frequently heard it said that many children of professing
   Christian parents do not turn out well. How is this? We know that
   Solomon said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is
   old, he will not depart from it." Now I do not wish to say anything
   unkind or too severe, but I have noticed that in many such cases the
   children have not been trained up in the way they should go! The father
   was a very good man--so people said--yet he never had family prayer!
   How could he train up his children aright without it? No prayer in the
   family? Why, the training of a tree on a wall requires that you should
   have some shreds of cloth and some nails so as to fasten securely every
   little branch or shoot as it comes out! And I call family prayers our
   shreds and nails to help to train up our boys and girls as they begin
   to grow. Besides, if a professing Christian finds his children turning
   out ungodly, let him ask himself this question, "Did I ever personally
   pray with my sons? Did I ever personally plead with my daughters? Have
   I been loving and kind in my conduct towards my children?" If you
   cannot say, "Yes," to these and similar questions, then you did not
   train your child up in the way he should go!

   I verily believe that there are many fathers who make religion nauseous
   to their children. A young man said to me, "My father is a good man,
   but he will never let his children have any sport or mirth, and he
   condemns everybody who indulges in anything of the kind. His religion
   consists in saying, You shall not! You shall not! You shall not! You
   shall not!" Well, that may be Mosaic, but according to the religion of
   Jesus Christ, there is something else beside the negative! There is a
   positive joy and a real delight in true religion--and where that is set
   before our young people in a proper spirit, we may expect that God's
   Grace will bring them to desire the same joy and delight for
   themselves! We have proved that God often gives us the happiness of
   seeing that instead of the fathers, shall be the children whom He makes
   princes in the earth. He who loved Abraham loved Isaac, and loved
   Jacob, and loved Joseph, and loved Ephraim and Manasseh, for although
   Grace does not run in the blood, it often runs side by side with it.
   And when you once get God to be Friend of your family, it is not easy
   to get Him out of it. If His Grace calls the father, is it not likely
   to also call the son, and the grandson, and the children's children's
   children--not only unto the third and fourth generation, but as long as
   the earth remains? Yes, blessed be His name, it shall be so and this is
   one of the beauties of the life of a Christian--that his beauty is
   perpetuated through his progeny as he stands like an old olive tree
   with the young olives growing up around him and so "his beauty shall be
   as the olive tree."

   IX. Now, ninthly, I must remind you that THE BEAUTY OF THE OLIVE TREE
   SOMETIMES SUFFERS DECREASE.

   At Mentone, I went up a valley between the mountains and I came to an
   olive garden which certainly did not charm me by its beauty. The
   natives had been lopping the olives and they had cut them most
   mercilessly, hacking away huge branches here and there and leaving the
   poor trees standing there piteously lifting up their mutilated arms to
   Heaven as though they were imploring someone to take pity upon them and
   deliver them from their present wrenched condition! Why had they been
   lopped and cut about like that? Simply because some of the branches had
   ceased to yield fruit, so they had to be cut away. And then, where one
   old branch was cut off, there might come five or six smaller branches,
   all of which would, in due season, bear olive berries! So all that
   cutting and hacking and hewing was intended to improve the olive and
   make it much more beautiful by making it far more fruitful than it
   would otherwise have been.

   Christians do not look very pretty when they are thus lopped. You had
   better not come to see some of us when we are full of aches and pains,
   when the brain is so weary that we cannot think, when the breath is
   short and the throat is so dry that we cannot sing the high praises of
   our God! Do not say concerning any of your dear relatives who are very,
   very ill, "I cannot see much that is Christlike about them." Ah, dear
   Friend, they are under the rod and about the only thing a child can do
   when he is under the rod, is to cry! At least that is what I used to do
   when I was under the rod and I suppose that is what most of you would
   do under similar circumstances--there is not much else that seems in
   season then. The olive certainly does not look very lovely when it is
   being lopped, but remember this text, "Now no chastening for the

   present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it
   yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
   exercised thereby." So, then, you may expect to find fruit afterwards,
   and you may expect to see the beauty of the Christian afterwards, and
   not while they are under the pruning process. "Father!" said a child,
   "Did you not cut those fruit trees this morning?" "Yes, my Child, I
   did." "Why did you cut them, Father?" "To make them bring forth more
   fruit." "I thought so, Father, so, after dinner I ran down the garden
   to see if they had brought forth fruit, but there is not a single pear
   or apple on any of them." "No, dear Child," replied the father, "it is
   not immediately after the cutting that the fruit comes. We must wait
   till its proper season, and then I hope we shall see it." You all know
   how to interpret that little parable! Do not expect to see the full
   results of sickness and trial immediately, but believe that in due time
   they will be seen.

   X. Lastly, dear Friends, to me the very choicest beauty of the olive
   grove is that IT ALWAYS REMINDS ME OF

   THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

   This is also the point in which every Christian who has the dew of the
   Lord upon him has a beauty like that of the olive tree, namely, that he
   reminds those about him of his Master! They take note of him that he
   has been with Jesus. When you are under the olives, you cannot help
   thinking of Gethsemane, of the dark night in the garden, of the
   disciples asleep, and of our Savior, Himself, in an agony of grief. A
   poetess sweetly sings--

   "But you, pale olive, in your branches lie

   Far deeper spells than Prophet groves of old

   Can ever enshrine. I could not hear you sigh

   To the wind's faintest whisper, or behold

   One shiver of your leaves dim silvery green

   Without high thoughts and solemn of that scene

   When in the Garden the Redeemer prayed.

   When pale stars looked upon His fainting head

   And angels ministering in silent dread

   Trembled, perchance, within your trembling shade." Well, just as all
   right-minded people would be sure to think of Christ when under the
   olive groves, so ought we to compel men, whether they are right-minded
   or not, to think of the Lord Jesus Christ when they come into
   association with ourselves! Not because we are always talking about
   religion, but because we are always practicing it. And as frequently as
   we can, adding suitable verbal expression to the practical testimony of
   our lives--speaking and singing of our Beloved Lord whose name should
   never long be off our tongue!

   We should so act when we are provoked, bearing it so gently that
   observers should be compelled to say, "How Christlike they are!" We
   should, when offended, so readily, so truthfully, so thoroughly forgive
   the offenders that if they do not say, they should at least feel, "How
   Christlike they are!" We should be so unselfish, so generous, so
   anxious to serve others and to please them rather than ourselves. We
   should be so kind in our judgment, so truthful, so tender, so upright,
   so calm, so strong, so brave and yet so free from all Phariseeism and
   affectation that men should not have to look at us long before they
   would be obliged to say, "They have been with Jesus. They never learned
   that lesson anywhere but at the feet of the Crucified."

   The Lord bless you, dear Friends, and give you faith in Jesus! And
   then, by His Spirit, impart to you all this beauty of which I have
   spoken--and a great deal more of which no tongue can adequately
   speak--even the beauty of holiness-- and so your beauty shall be as the
   olive tree! God grant it for His dear Son's sake! Amen and Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Christ Seen as God's Salvation

   (No. 3177)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1909.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "My eyes have seen Your Salivation." Luke 2:30.

   [Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text are #1417, Volume
   24--"YOUR SALVATION" and #2293, Volume 39-- SIMEON'S SWAN SONG]

   THOUSANDS of times that song of Simeon has been sung by careless,
   thoughtless persons, but surely it is one of those songs that ought
   never to come except from believing lips. To make it merely a part of a
   liturgy and for shamelessly living men to say, "My eyes have seen Your
   Salvation," must be an atrocious sin before God! Let all who have
   ventured to use such words as these without having thought of their
   meaning, confess their sin before God and ask that He would make those
   words to be true which have up to now been so frivolously uttered and
   that before they close their eyes in death, they maysee God's
   Salvation!

   I. I shall, first of all, TAKE THE TEXT AS IT DROPS FROM SIMEON'S LIPS
   and follow his leading.

   We will start with Simeon's main idea. He came into the Temple. He saw
   there a little Babe and he recognized, in that newly-born Child, Jesus
   the promised Savior! And as he took up that Savior into his arms, he
   said, "Mine eyes have seen"--what? "Your Salvation," God's
   Salvation--not only the Worker of the Salvation, but the Salvation
   itself! From which I gather that wherever we see Jesus, we see God's
   Salvation, Wherever our eyes spiritually light upon the Christ of God,
   there we see God's Salvation! Whether in Bethlehem's manger, or on
   Calvary's Cross, or on yonder Throne of Glory from which He shall judge
   the quick and the dead--wherever we see Him, we see the Salvation of
   God!

   Let me then take your thoughts along the history of our Savior for a
   few moments. Far back into the ages, when as yet this world and sun and
   moon were not created--when God dwelt alone--then, in the foreknowledge
   of God, it was apparent that man would sin--that elect men, beloved of
   God, would fall in the common ruin. Then came the grand debate, the
   mighty question to be only solved by the supreme Intellect of Heaven,
   "How can sinners be reconciled to God?" And the Covenant was made, that
   ancient Covenant of which David sang, "ordered in all things and sure."
   Jesus, the Second Person of the blessed Godhead, entered into Covenant
   with His Father, that in the fullness of time, He would stand in the
   sinner's place and pay the sinner's debt--that He would head up in
   Himself as many as the Father gave Him and become the second and
   restoring Adam to them, though, through the first and falling Adam,
   they, with others, had been destroyed. Then, when the Covenant was
   signed and the Divine parties to that grand transaction struck hands
   and ratified the bond, my eyes, as they look into that vast eternity
   and, with holy curiosity, desire to scan that council cham-ber--my eyes
   perceive God's Salvation in the Person of Jesus Christ!

   This was all that could have been seen by faith, even after the world
   had been created and man had fallen, until that day when the fullness
   of time was come--when Jesus Christ, who had covenanted to save His
   people, came to perform the work. Oh, the grandeur of that day when
   angels came in haste to sing that the Babe was born in Bethlehem! Ah,
   Simeon! What you see there is not merely a Babe--a little Child hanging
   upon a woman's breast--it is the Word Incarnate, the Logos, without
   whom was not anything made that is made! He that spoke and it was done,
   lies there! He that said, "Light be," and light was--the Word that was
   with God when He balanced the clouds and when He fixed the sockets of
   the universe, even He is there in the Person of that Child! The Son of
   Mary is also the Son of God! And whenever you, Beloved, look to God
   Incarnate and understand that wondrous mystery, "The Word was made
   flesh and dwelt among us," and men chosen of Him beheld His Glory, "the
   Glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of Grace and
   Truth"--then when you see God in human flesh, you see God's Salvation!

   Follow with the eyes of your love that Babe when He had become a Man.
   See Him, in the obedience of 30 years to His reputed father, handling
   the saw and the hammer in the carpenter's shop of Joseph. "Being found
   in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself." See Him in the three years of
   His most blessed ministry! What work was crowded into those years! How
   did the zeal of God's house eat Him up! The dews fell upon Him in the
   night when He kept the sheep of God in the wilderness and on the
   mountain's brow shepherded them in His midnight prayers. Oftentimes the
   sweat fell from Him in that daily service which, as the Servant of
   servants, He rendered to all His brethren. None toiled as He did--none
   so arduously, none so perfectly, none so willingly, none with so
   complete a bending of His whole faculties to His all-absorbing work!
   Behold the righteousness of the saints--this work of Christ is making a
   robe in which the saints shall be arrayed. His active obedience renders
   unto God a recompense for our breaches of His holy Law. In Christ, the
   actively-obedient, you see God's Salvation!

   But oh, let your eyes swim with tears as you follow Him from His active
   to His passive obedience. I stayed midway in a verse just now, "Being
   found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself"--as you go on, you
   read--"and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."
   There He is in yonder garden among the olives! Do you hear His sighs,
   His deep-fetched groans? Do you mark the sweat drops of His blood as
   they fall upon the earth? He is pleading, "If it is possible, let this
   cup pass from Me." But it is not possible. Do you see Him hurried away
   with the felon's kiss still upon His cheek--hurried away by traitorous
   hands to Caiaphas--hurried to Pilate and Herod, one after the other,
   scorned and scoffed everywhere? He, whose visage is bright as the
   morning when the sun arises, and whose Countenance is like Lebanon,
   comely as the cedars--He it is that they make nothing of, and laugh and
   scoff at! Into His face, which angels look on with hushed awe, they
   cast their accursed spittle! They buffet Him and cry, "Hail King of the
   Jews." They mock His royalty with a crown of thorns and His priesthood
   by binding His eyes and saying, "Who is it that struck You?" Remember
   that He who is in this shame is God's Salvation! He is made lower than
   earth's basest menials that He might lift us higher than Heaven's
   brightest seraphs! He came down from where He was in Heaven's
   excellency to all this depth of shame--that out of all our shame He
   might lift us up to the supernal excellency!

   Then, at length, it comes to a climax and the patient Sufferer gives
   His hands to the iron and His feet to the nails. They lift Him up--He
   must die a felon's death! Outside the camp He must suffer. Made sin for
   us, He cannot be in the congregation. He must be numbered with the
   transgressors! Behold Him dying in bodily pains not to be readily
   described! But, the worst was this--God, to whom good men look for
   succor when they die, refused Him help! Jehovah, who never did forsake
   the virtuous, forsook Him, the most virtuous of all! He who is our
   castle and high tower, our rampart and defense in our extremity, hid as
   it were, His face from Him--and that bitterest of all cries, which
   contains in it as much grief as all the shrieks of the damned in Hell,
   went up, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" There He was, the
   forsaken One. Yet He was God's Salvation, for He was--

   "Bearing, that we might never bear, His Father's righteous ire"--

   enduring to be cast away from Heaven that we, base as we are, might be
   enfolded in the Divine bosom and loved with the Divine affection!

   Nor is this all. On the third day, He who on the Cross had conquered,
   rose to claim the victory. Behold Him! He is God's Salvation as He
   rises from the tomb. Where is your sting, O Death? Where is your
   victory, boastful Grave? Jehovah Jesus has saved us from death! He has
   risen from the sepulcher. Behold Him as He ascends! Let not your eyes
   be too dazzled with the Glory. He rides in solemn pomp up to Heaven's
   gate. Your ears can even now catch the echoes of that song, "Lift up
   your heads, O you gates; and be you lift up, you everlasting doors; and
   the King of Glory shall come in." He that enters there has saved us and
   has gone to receive gifts for men. His entrance there is the entrance
   of all His people, for He is their Representative and takes possession
   of Heaven on their behalf. Being there for us, we are saved! His
   Presence on the Throne is the Presence of God's Salvation!

   If time did not fail me, I would like to pursue the story and point you
   to Him, looking still like a lamb that has been slain, pleading with
   His never ceasing, ever-prevalent intercession. I would like to bid
   your faith anticipate the day when He shall come again, with no
   sin-offering, but unto salvation, when you and I, seeing Him, shall see
   God's Salvation-- when our bodies shall be perfected, no more to be
   weak and suffering, but made like His glorious body! Our Brothers and
   Sisters that have gone before us, who at this moment sleep in their
   silent tombs among the purple heather, or in the

   crowded cemetery, or in the chill vault--they, also, shall hear the
   sound of His Second Advent when the herald blast shall bid the world
   know that the Lord has come and--

   "From beds of dust and silent clay

   To realms of everlasting day"--

   they shall wing their triumphant way, for Jesus Christ shall be to
   them, as to us, God's Salvation! That was Simeon's idea, I think. I
   have but hammered out his ingot of gold a little to show you that where
   Jesus is, there is the Salvation of

   God.

   II. And now, in the second place, we shall TAKE SOME LEAVES OUT OF OUR
   OWN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

   The text says, "My eyes have seen Your Salvation." Simeon must not be
   allowed the monopoly of these words. I claim them, "My eyes have seen
   Your Salvation.''" Brothers and Sisters, many of you can, in a
   spiritual sense, use the same language as the Patriarch about to depart
   uses. You too, can say, "My eyes have seen Your Salvation." Will you
   turn over the book of your life awhile as I turn over mine?

   Well, we need not read those early pages, the pages of our estate of
   sin. Drop tears and blot them out! Dear hand of Jesus stained with
   blood, wipe down each one of them and blot them out forever! But what
   is this first bright page? It is the page where we began to live, the
   page that records our spiritual birth.And I think we shall find written
   somewhere across it, "This day my eyes beheld God's Salvation." Well do
   I remember that day! I had looked here and looked there. This was my
   question--I have offended God, how can He forgive me? It was no use to
   tell me God was merciful--I had an answer for that--"God is just." It
   availed nothing to say, "Sin is little," I knew better! It was heavy to
   me--what must it do to Him? The question I wanted to have answered
   was--How can God in justice pass by my iniquities? Then did I learn, as
   in a moment, this sweet story which has been my delight to tell in
   various forms a thousand times--that Jesus came and said, "I will be
   the sinner's Surety. I will stand in his place of curse and ruin and
   will bear for him the penalty of pain--for him I will even bear death."
   I learned that if I looked to Jesus--just looked, that was all--that if
   I simply trusted in Jesus, I would be saved! I looked and, happy day,
   my eyes saw God's Salvation! That blessed Doctrine of Substitution,
   that simple command, "Believe and live"--that was the glass through
   which my soul looked and saw God's Salvation!

   But if I remember rightly, a little further on--in my case it was not
   above a week after I had seen my sin forgiven, I felt myself in another
   difficulty. I found I could not do what I would. My will now was never
   to sin again, but I did sin. I willed to be holy, but I was not what I
   would be. I groaned and cried, "Where is salvation from this evil heart
   of mine, from this corruption of my nature?" And I remember well going
   to the same place where I had heard of the Savior and hearing the
   minister declare that if any man felt in himself the evil nature, he
   was not saved. "Ah," I thought, "I know better than that!" I could not
   be persuaded of that, for I knew I was saved as I had looked to Christ,
   but I did find that I was where Paul was when he said, "To will is
   present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." I
   seemed, then, to say to myself, "My will is so fickle, how can I hold
   on? My power is so feeble, how can I stand against

   sin?"

   Ah, and well do I remember the day when I could say in a more emphatic
   sense than before, "My eyes have seen Your Salvation." For, as I
   searched the Word, I perceived that as many as believed in Christ had
   eternallife and eternal lifeis not a life that lasts a little while--it
   is what it is said to be--everlasting life. Then I perceived in the
   Word that against this everlasting life the old body of sin and death
   would struggle, but that it was written that the new life was a living
   and incorruptible Seed "which lives and abides forever." And I
   discovered the Apostle's words, "Thanks be to God, which gives us the
   victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It was a grand discovery when I
   perceived that the life God had given me could not die any more than
   God could! That it was a beam from Himself! That He had made me a
   partaker of that Divine Nature since I had escaped the corruption that
   was in the world through lust. That the Spirit of the Most High was
   given to the Believer to dwell in him and to be with him forever! And
   that He who began the work had declared that He would carry it on and
   perfect it unto the day of the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
   Christ!

   When I learned those Truths of God, I felt as if I had not seen God's
   Salvation before. I had seen so little of it the first time--enough to
   make me leap for joy, it is true--but on the second discovery, I beheld
   that He who redeemed me from the guilt of sin would quite as certainly
   redeem me from thepower of sin That He who set me on the rock would
   keep me there! That He who put me on the road to Heaven had said about
   all His servants, "I will put My fear in their hearts, that

   they shall not depart from Me." That was a glorious discovery! None of
   your two penny-halfpenny salvations that some people profess to have,
   that only last for a day or two, or a few weeks at most and then
   depart--in Christ today and out of Christ tomorrow! Christ has pardoned
   their sin and yet they think He has not given them salvation! But to
   know that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." That
   He has said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." That
   "the righteous also shall hold on his way and he that has clean hands
   shall be stronger and stronger." That the Word of Christ stands sure,
   "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish,
   neither shall any pluck them out of My hands"--this is to see God's
   Salvation in a broader light! I pray that every hearer who has seen
   Christ may go on to see more of Christ till he has seen his full
   security in the Person of the Well-Beloved!

   But further on, (and it was with me a long time later), when I had
   discovered that the Christ who saved me from the guilt was also pledged
   to save me from the power of sin--then I found afresh that He was God's
   Salvation! I discovered partly through thought and partly through the
   clear testimony of the written Word, that every soul that believes in
   Christ, believes in Christ because God made Him believe in Christ That
   concerning that soul there was a purpose made by God that that soul
   should be a Believer--and that purpose was made from all eternity, and
   that purpose once made could never be changed! It was like the
   mountains of brass which could never be moved. I say that the salvation
   of the Believer in Christ did not rest on his own will, but on God's
   will! That the purpose that saved him was not his own purpose, even as
   it is written, "it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but
   of God that shows mercy." Why, I remember that was as good a discovery
   to me as the very first one that I made! It was almost like another
   conversion! I had been up to the ankles in the Water of Life before,
   but now I was up to my very neck! And what could I say but this--

   "I'm a monument of Grace, A sinner saved by blood! The streams of love
   I trace Up to the Fountain, God. And in His sacred bosom see Eternal
   thoughts of love to me"?

   Here it is that "my eyes have seen God's Salvation"--seen the source of
   it, the secret springs of it, the eternity of it, the immutability of
   it and the Divinity of it! I pray that every burdened child of God may
   also get to see that. Then will he indeed sing for joy of heart!

   Probably, dear Brothers and Sisters, we have not all gone further than
   that, if as far, but it is a very blessed thing when we are led to see
   another Truth of God, namely, that every quickened Believer is one with
   Jesus Christ. "We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His
   bones." The Christ in Heaven is the same Christ who is here on earth in
   all of His saved ones--they are all parts of Him. There is a vital
   union subsisting between them so that whatever Christ is, they are.
   They were one with Him of old, they were one in the grave, one when He
   rose, one when He triumphed over His foes and they are at this day one
   with Him as--

   "Now in Heaven He takes His seat, While seraphs sing all Hell's defeat"

   Every Believer is as much one with Christ as the finger is one with the
   body. If I lost my finger, I would not be a perfect man as to my body.
   And if Christ lost the meanest member of His body, it would be a part
   of Christ that would be lost--and Christ would not be a perfect Christ!
   We are one with Jesus by indissoluble, vital union--and if your soul
   perceives that, you will clap your hands and say to the Father--"I have
   indeed seen Your Salvation, for now I see that I am in Heaven." He "has
   raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
   Christ Jesus." We are saved and glorified in Christ Jesus as our
   Representative and Covenant Head!

   Not even yet have I exhausted this theme! And I only pray that you and
   I may go on to know yet more and more the heights and depths of God's
   Salvation! I was thinking just now before I began to preach that if
   ever you and I should be permitted to look down upon the world of
   misery--if in some future state we should ever gaze into that land of
   darkness and despair where sinners cast away from God are suffering the
   due reward of their sins--if our eyes should ever see their agonies and
   our ears should ever hear their cries of despair, we would, among other
   things, say, "My God, I never knew before how great Your Salvation is,
   for I also should have been there, but for Your mercy. Until I saw
   something of what Hell is, I could not tell how much I owed You. I
   could not say that in its heights and depths my eyes had seen Your
   Salvation."

   And, Brothers and Sisters, (to put a better, a more pleasing light upon
   it)--

   "When I stand before the Throne, Dressed in beauty not my own"

   when I shall see Him--and see Him I shall, for I can say with Job,
   "Whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not
   another." When you and I shall cast our crowns at His feet, when we
   shall raise our voices with all the white-robed throng in the
   everlasting hallelujahs, then we shall say, "My God, my Father, 'My
   eyes have seen Your Salvation.'"

   III. Time fails me, so I must pass on to spend a few minutes in a third
   portion of my topic. It is this--THERE ARE SOME HERE WHO HAVE NEVER
   SEEN GOD'S SALVATION.

   The Gospel is hid from them. And if it is hid, it is not hid because we
   have used hard words to hide it. "If our Gospel is hid, it is hid from
   them who are lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds
   of them which believe not." Blind Sinner, do you desire to see the
   Salvation of God? "Ah," you say, "If I know my own heart, I do." Why,
   then, can you not see it, Man? It is very plain. Ah, I see, your eyes
   are sealed up!

   The first seal I see on your eyes, like a fixed scale, (and oh, I wish
   I could take it off of you), is this--you do not even believe that you
   need any salvation. The man who does not believe he needs saving, of
   course will never see God's Salvation! In your heart you say, "I am
   rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." But my poor
   Friend, be persuaded to take God's opinion of you, which is much nearer
   the truth than yours. You are naked, blind, poor and miserable! You are
   lost, ruined and condemned, as it is written, "He that believes not is
   condemned already." Is that scale gone?

   Now I see another, (I wish that I could take that off, too), and that
   is, you know you are blind, but you say, "I must try and save myself"
   This is a very thick scale. You will never see while that is on your
   eyes! Do you not notice how Simeon put it--not, "My eyes have seen my
   own salvation,"" but, "My eyes have seen YourSalvation,"" that is,
   God's Salvation, the Lord's salvation! Let me tell you, poor Man, if
   ever you are saved, your salvation must be God's in the beginning,
   God's in the carrying on and God's in the concluding! No salvation will
   ever serve your turn but one which is Divine from top to bottom! If
   Nature's fingers could nimbly spin a garment that should cover human
   nakedness, it would be of no use. All that Nature spins, God must
   unravel before a soul can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ! It
   is not your doings, Man--it is Christ's doings that must save you! Not
   your tears, but Christ's blood! Not your feelings, not anything in you
   or from you! Listen you who have an ear to hear it--"Salvation is of
   the Lord"--from first to last!

   If that scale shall come off your eyes, I know that you will say, "Now
   I begin to see enough to know that I cannot see. I have just enough
   light to discover the darkness I am in. I see that none can save me but
   God. He must do it--but will He save me? Will He save me?" Lend me your
   finger, Man. Do you see? No, you do not, but there is the hem of Jesus'
   garment--touch that with your finger and you shall be restored to sight
   at once! I mean this--Jesus died to save such as you are--trust Him and
   you are saved! You are saved completely and at once! A physician who
   was under some concern of soul, asked his patient, who was a godly man,
   "Can you explain to me what faith is?" "Yes," said his godly patient,
   "I can let you see it very soon if God will let you see it. It is like
   this--I am very ill, I cannot help myself, I do not attempt to do it, I
   have confidence in you--I put myself into your care, I take what
   medicine you send me--I do what you bid me. That is faith. You must
   trust yourself in the hands of Christ like that." That is it. When you,
   my dear Friend, wholly and entirely trust yourself in the hands of
   Christ--then your eyes have seen God's Salvation!

   I have no time for more. I wish I had. But I want to say this final
   word to everyone who has seen God's Salvation. Perhaps one of you is
   poor. Well, go home tonight saying, "I am poor, but my eyes have seen
   Your Salvation." One of you, perhaps, is in suffering. Then say, "I
   feel ill. Never mind, my eyes have seen Your Salvation." And perhaps
   there are some warnings and intimations that make another of you think
   you will soon be called to die. Consumption is undermining your
   constitution--never mind, don't fret--your eyes have seen God's
   Salvation! How much better to die in an attic or in a ditch and see
   God's Salvation, than be carried in the most pompous manner to your
   grave a soul that knows nothing of God and of the Savior! O you that
   are much tried and much troubled, bear up, bear up! Your sorrow will
   not last much longer! When you and I get to Heaven, as I trust we
   shall, as I know we shall if we are resting on the Atonement of Christ,
   these troubles by the way will only be matter for us to talk of, and to
   say to one another, "How graciously the Lord has upheld us in His
   Providence, and how wonderfully He has brought us through every trial!
   Even in my poverty,

   my eyes saw His Salvation. In my sickness and in my death, I did but
   see it all the more clearly because of the clouds and darkness that
   were round about me!" God bless you, dear Friends! I earnestly pray
   that you may all see God's Salvation! May He hear the prayer, for
   Christ's sake! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE2:1-40.

   Verses 1-9. And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a
   decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And
   this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria). And
   all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went
   up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the
   city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house
   and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being
   great with child. And so it was, that while they were there, the days
   were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth
   her first-born Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in
   a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
   in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
   their flocks by night And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and
   the Glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sorely
   afraid. These men were probably poor and illiterate, but that did not
   hinder God from revealing Himself to them, nor prevent the coming of
   His Son to them! They were engaged in their ordinary calling, "keeping
   watch over their flocks by night," when this great blessing came to
   them. Seldom does such a blessing as this come to idlers. It was not
   while they were gadding abroad and wasting their time, but while they
   kept watch over their flocks that "the angel of the Lord came upon
   them." First one angel led the way and then a multitude of the heavenly
   host followed and these poor men, perhaps troubled with the common
   superstition of the Jews that the appearance of God, or any
   supernatural visitation, would always be followed by death, "were
   sorely afraid."

   10, 11. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you
   good tidings of greatjoy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
   born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
   The anointed Savior has full power to save, for He "is Christ the Lord"
   and, therefore, He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come
   unto God by Him.

   12. And this shall be a sign unto you--You shall find the Babe wrapped
   in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger [See

   Sermons #1026, Volume 17--JOY BORN AT BETHLEHEM and #1330, Volume
   22--THE GREAT BIRTHDAY] Not in marble halls, wrapped in purple and fine
   linen and welcomed by the great and mighty of earth! No, this greatest
   of all princes is born amid the poverty of our ordinary manhood! He is
   One chosen out of the people, the people's Savior--and a manger
   receives the people's King.

   13. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
   host praising Go . They could not stay behind! The news spread through
   Heaven that an angel had gone to announce the birth of Christ and the
   others flew through the pearly gates and hastened to overtake the
   herald--and reached him just as he had concluded his message--
   "Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host."
   These cohorts of the Lord came riding post haste, Praising God.

   13-17. And saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
   good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away
   from them into Heaven, the shepherds said, one to another, let us now
   go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which
   the Lord has made known unto us. And they came with haste and found
   Mary, and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger And when they had seen
   it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
   this Child. Good news is not to be kept to ourselves. When we have
   ascertained its truth we are to tell it to others, and we are
   especially to tell the goodness of salvation! Tell it, O you who know
   it in your own hearts by blessed experience! Tell it, though it will
   sometimes be with broken accents in the feebleness of your flesh, yet
   even then tell it in the ardor of your heart's affection and God will
   bless your testimony--and others will learn the Good News through you.

   18, 19. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were
   told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered
   them Weighed them, estimated them at their right value.

   19. In her heart. The best of coffers to lay up anything in is the
   heart! Happy are those who, like Mary, store up the things of Christ,
   not in their brain, though that would make them orthodox--but in their
   heart--for that will bring them salvation!

   20-24. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
   the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And
   when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child,
   His name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before He
   was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification
   according to the Law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Him to
   Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord; (as it is written in the Law of
   the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the
   Lord) and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the
   Law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. Our
   Savior put Himself under the Law for our sakes and in every jot and
   tittle He observed it. So we are delivered from its dominion, for if
   Christ has fulfilled the Law on our account, it has no more claim upon
   us. "You are not under the Law, but under

   Grace."

   25. And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
   [See Sermon #659, Volume 11--SIMEON] And the same man was just and
   devou. This combination makes up a complete character--"just" towards
   man--"devout" towards God. There are many who think they are just, but
   their justness does not extend to their fellow creatures, and they
   forget the claims of the Most High upon them. On the other hand, I have
   known men who have pretended to a vast amount of devotion, but who have
   never been just. Such persons are hypocrites, as the others are robbers
   of God! But he who is just and devout--just towards man and devout
   towards God-- has the character of a true man! Such was Simeon, "just
   and devout."

   25-29. Waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was
   upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he
   shouldnot see death before he hadseen the Lord's Christ. Andhe came by
   the Spirit into the Temple: and when the parents brought in the Child,
   Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the Law, then he took Him up
   in his arms and blessed God, and said, Lord, now let You Your servant
   depart inpeace, according to Your word. You see, dear Friends, he was
   not afraid to die and he knew that he could not die until he had seen
   the Messiah! Some of us, if we had a Revelation that on the occurrence
   of a certain event, we would die, might be filled with alarm or
   anxiety! But it is not so with holy Simeon--he rather longs to depart
   in peace. He looks upon the coming of "the Lord's Christ" with great
   joy because now he knows the battle of life for him will soon be over
   and that he will enter into his victory!

   30-34. For my eyes have seen Your Salvation, which You have prepared
   before the face of all people; a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
   Glory of the people Israel And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those
   things which were spoken ofHim. AndSimeon blessed them andsaid unto
   Mary, His mother, Behold, this Childis set for the fall and rising
   again of many in Israe. [See Sermon #907, Volume 15--CHRIST--THE RISE
   AND FALL OF MANY] There were many who fell through their offenses
   against Jesus, but blessed be His name, there are still many who rise
   through Him, rise first to newness of life on earth and afterwards to
   resurrection life in Glory! Jesus is set for both--He must be to one
   the savor of death unto death, and to another He must be the savor of
   life unto life.

   34. And for a sign which shall be spoken against How true has this
   been! The Cross has been to many a stumbling block, and to the worldly
   wise it has been foolishness. And so will it be to the world's end!

   35. (Yes, a sword shall pierce through your own soul, also) Great
   privileges often involve great troubles. Mary was highly favored and
   truly blessed among women, yet no woman ever had greater sorrow than
   she had!

   35. That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Christ's death
   revealed the thoughts of many hearts. It revealed the thoughts in the
   heart of Pilate, that he loved popularity better than the Truth of God.
   It revealed the thoughts of the heart of Judas, that he loved gold
   better than he loved his Master. It revealed the thoughts in the heart
   of Caia-phas, that he would keep to old customs rather than to the
   right. It revealed the thoughts in the hearts of the disciples and
   showed what poor timid, trembling hearts they had. Peter's impulsive
   spirit, too, was revealed in all its weakness by the death of the
   Savior. The Cross is the great touchstone! Wherever it goes, it tests
   and tries us--even as the crucible tries the metal that is put into
   it--and lets us know what manner of men we are. Do you love Christ? Do
   you glory in His Cross? Then it is well with you. But do you despise
   the Cross? Do you set up your own righteousness in opposition to it?
   Are you depending upon anything beside Jesus Christ and Him crucified?
   Then His Cross reveals you to be self-righteous

   and dead in trespasses and sins! Our Savior was not only to be received
   by men, but He was to be welcomed by women also, so now we read.

   36-40. And there was one Anna, a Prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel,
   of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age and had lived with her
   husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about 84
   years, which departed not from the Temple, but served God with fasting
   and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant, gave thanks,
   likewise, unto the Lord, and spoke of Him to all them that looked for
   redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things
   according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their
   own city Nazareth. And the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit,
   filled with wisdom: and the Grace of God was upon Him.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

   Genesis

   [1]1:2

   Numbers

   [2]17:5

   Joshua

   [3]2:21

   Judges

   [4]15:18

   2 Samuel

   [5]16:11-12

   1 Kings

   [6]19:11-13

   2 Kings

   [7]6:27

   Psalms

   [8]35:3   [9]89:17   [10]90:17   [11]102:16   [12]104:28

   Isaiah

   [13]26:3   [14]43:10

   Jeremiah

   [15]31:8

   Lamentations

   [16]3:22-23

   Hosea

   [17]14:6

   Amos

   [18]7:1

   Malachi

   [19]4:2

   Matthew

   [20]5:1-12   [21]5:3   [22]5:6   [23]5:7   [24]5:8   [25]12:42
   [26]27:28-30

   Mark

   [27]6:45-52

   Luke

   [28]2:30   [29]10:40

   John

   [30]4:34   [31]9:35   [32]12:3   [33]16:14   [34]17:20   [35]21:7

   Acts

   [36]23:10-13   [37]27:18-25   [38]28:2

   Romans

   [39]2:4

   1 Corinthians

   [40]11:24-25   [41]11:25-26

   2 Corinthians

   [42]5:20

   Ephesians

   [43]6:15

   Colossians

   [44]2:6

   1 Thessalonians

   [45]5:8

   Hebrews

   [46]2:15   [47]3:7   [48]4:3   [49]13:5-6

   James

   [50]4:14

   1 John

   [51]3:20-21   [52]5:18-20

   Revelation

   [53]19:9
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

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