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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 63: 1917
   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
     __________________________________________________________________

Our Glorious Leader

   (No. 3545)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 4, 1872.

   "And when He had thus spoken, He went on ahead, ascending up to
   Jerusalem." Luke 19:28.

   A VERY beautiful spectacle it is to see the Lord Jesus marching in
   front and His followers eagerly following on behind. They were going up
   to Jerusalem, where it is true, He would receive some honor, but also
   where He would be betrayed into the hands of cruel men and put to a
   shameful death--but He went on ahead of them. As the shepherd goes
   before the sheep, not driving, but leading. As the captain goes before
   his soldiers as taking the post of danger, so our Lord went on before
   them. It was far better that He should go first than that they should,
   for the disciple is never more out of place than when he outruns his
   Master. If he will follow his Master's commands, he shall do well. But
   if he shall follow his own devices and invent his own way, he shall do
   badly. The pilgrimage behind the cloud is a safe one, but a rush before
   the cloud will end in a disaster. The Master must go first, not the
   disciple. But then, when the Master advances, it is right to see the
   disciple follow, ready of foot, quick at his Master's heel, delighted
   with his Master's company. One likes to think of that journey up to
   Jerusalem, with Jesus Christ just a little ahead in the front, and His
   disciples closely following Him. I thought it was a picture that might
   serve us as a model throughout the whole year. I am not going to talk
   to you long at this time, but wish just to sketch that picture before
   your mind's eyes and say, " So be it unto each one of us." May Jesus be
   with us. May Jesus lead the way. And may His own Divine Spirit give us
   Grace to follow Him--not like Peter, afar off--but as loving disciples
   who keep closely under their Master's guidance! From the beginning of
   the year to the end of the year may we rejoice to feel that He goes
   ahead of us, but may we also, with cheerful willingness, follow close
   behind! I present it to you, I say, as the picture for this New Year of
   Grace, and may it be verified in your experience.

   Very simply, then, I shall try to call attention to the blessed fact
   that Jesus goes ahead of us and, having done so, I shall ask you, in
   the second place, to seek after a sweet sensation of this Truth of God.
   And the first Truth, then, to consider is--

   I. THE BLESSED FACT--He went ahead of them.

   We have already said that He was going the way of suffering. He was
   going up to Jerusalem to suffer. When you are in the way of suffering,
   He will go before you. He was always in the way of service. There was
   more to be done at Jerusalem before He had finished His course. May we,
   in the way of service, always find Him going before us. And He was
   also, in the third place, on the way to death--and if we have any fears
   about our passage through the river, may this console us--He went
   before us!

   To begin, then, at the beginning, here is the blessed fact that Christ
   has gone ahead of us in the way of suffering. He has done so by His own
   actual experience while He was here in the flesh. "He was a Man of
   Sorrows and acquainted with grief." "In all our afflictions He was
   afflicted." "He Himself took our sicknesses and carried our sorrows."
   Rest assured that in whatever way of suffering you have to go in
   consequence of your being a child of man, and especially in consequence
   of your being a child of God, you will find that Christ has gone that
   way ahead of you! Are you full of bodily pain, stretched upon the bed?
   Are you apt to think that none ever suffered as you do? He suffered
   more than you! He went ahead of you along that flinty pathway. The
   pangs of His death must have been extreme. And remember His Passion in
   the Garden, His agony in Gethsemane. You have not in this matter yet
   come to having drops of blood oozing in sweat from your countenance.
   No, He has gone ahead of you there. In all the pangs of your bodily
   frame, Jesus has preceded you. Read the 22nd Psalm, with all its
   wonderful expressions--"I am poured out like water, and all My bones
   are out of joint." "You have brought Me into the dust of death." He
   knew the fever and its thirst upon the Cross when He was dying there.
   He said, "You have brought Me to the dust of death." You have not one
   suffering that may be imagined to be more exquisite than what He
   endured! Your griefs are molehills compared with the Alps of His
   sufferings!

   But you will say that it is not exactly the pathway of personal bodily
   pain you are traversing, but you have endured much in the sufferings of
   others you have lost. You have had half your heart, perhaps, taken away
   at one time. Friend after friend has been carried to the tomb! But He
   went ahead of you in this pathway, also. Did you never read where it is
   written, "Jesus wept?" "Behold how He loved him," said the Jews, as
   they beheld Him at the sepulcher of the most-beloved Lazarus. He knows
   what bereavements means as well as you--He has ahead of you. "Ah" you
   say, "but in consequence of the bereavement I have suffered, I am left
   a widow. How shall I be provided for? In addition to the woe of the
   loss, I have to look forward to the future! Will these hands be able to
   find me daily bread? My garments may become, by degrees, more and more
   thin and time-worn. I fear cold, nakedness and hunger." And suppose it
   should come to that, as it will not, I trust, yet He went ahead of you!
   You are not so poor as He. Hear His voice tonight, "Foxes have holes,
   and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have not
   where to lay My head." To pay the common tax, He must borrow money from
   the fish of the sea. His garment was the common seamless robe of
   peasants. He was but poorly clad--He was in all respects the child of
   poverty. First cradled in a manger, and then laid for His last sleep in
   a borrowed grave, for still He had not where to lay His head. In the
   sleep of death, Jesus went ahead of you! O son of poverty, O daughter
   of need, you may see the print of His footsteps all along that thorny
   way!

   "Yes," says one, "but still there is added to poverty in my case the
   fact that I have been forsaken by friends, and I am very fearful that
   even those who stood somewhat faithful to me will soon grow weary, and
   I shall be left alone." And did you never hear Him say, "And I shall be
   left alone, and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me"? And
   have you never read how they all forsook Him and fled, and Peter denied
   Him with oaths and curses and, worst of all, Judas, who had been
   trusted with His little stock, sold Him for the price of a slave? "He
   who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me." Ingratitude
   most cruel, treachery most base! Your Lord has suffered it! You may see
   the prints of His pierced feet along that pathway if you will but look
   for them. Jesus went ahead of you in actual suffering. And what if you
   have been serving your Lord with zeal and fervor, and you have been
   reproached, even by those who love Him? You have met with the cold
   shoulder where you expected to find encouragement. If your motives have
   been misrepresented by the very persons who ought to have supported you
   in your ardor, ah, what then? Was not He also a reproach among His
   mother's brethren? When His zeal had eaten Him up, they said that He
   was mad--and even His mother and His brethren stood outside desiring
   that they might see Him because they thought Him bereaved of His wits!
   And if the wicked world has reproached you, did they not call the
   Master of the house, "Beelzebub"? Shall they have soft names and
   honorable titles for the men of His household? If they said of Him, "He
   has a devil, and is mad, why listen to Him?" do you think they will say
   great and flattering things of you? O you that are made ashamed for His
   sake, and made a spectacle unto men and unto angels, be not afraid! No
   strange thing has happened to you! Thousands of saints have passed
   along this road and, chief of all, your Master, Christ, has gone ahead
   of you! In the path of suffering, then, Jesus has gone ahead of us from
   the fact of having actually and literally experienced what we suffer!

   He has gone before in another sense, namely, that now, though He reigns
   exalted high in the highest heavens, He still goes ahead of us in the
   intense sympathy of His sacred heart. Jesus is not separated from His
   people by the mere fact of distance. "Lo," He has said, "I am with you
   always, even to the end of the world," and you know what mysterious,
   yet real union exists between Christ, the Head, and all His members. It
   came out clearly in the case of Paul, when Jesus said to Him, "Why do
   you persecute Me?" He was persecuting only a few poor people in
   Jerusalem, or in Damascus, whom he despised, but Christ said, "Why do
   you persecute Me?" because persecuting the saints was persecuting
   Christ! Christ suffering in His members. Christ suffering on the Cross
   was the Head suffering, but when His people were torn to pieces in the
   amphitheatre, when they were burned tat Smithfield, and when, today,
   they are hooted and made a jest of, it is Christ suffering--still
   suffering in His members--and when any child of God suffers in any
   righteous cause, whenever affliction comes upon a saint in any form,
   Christ sympathizes with him. Rest assured--

   "In every pang that rends the heart, The Man of Sorrows bears His
   part." In all their affliction He was afflicted. A finger never suffers
   without the brain participating--and no humble member of the true
   Church of Christ ever suffers without Christ, the glorious Head,
   suffering in sympathy therewith.

   Now this is very cheering to those who have faith to receive it,
   because very much of the heart-breaking that comes into the world is
   from a sense of loneliness. When men feel that somebody sympathizes
   with them. When those who are being beaten feel that others smart as
   they do, then they take courage. Oh, there is One who loves you more
   than you can love yourself, who sympathizes with you, you suffering
   saint, from the Throne of His Glory! Be you, therefore, glad! Be of
   good courage and let this comfort your heart!

   There is a third way in which Christ goes ahead of us in the path of
   suffering--that is, in the matter of Providence. While He has Himself
   suffered, and sympathizes, in a third respect He always goes ahead of
   us in our sufferings, in preparing them for us, and preparing us for
   them. Our Lord has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us--and I
   believe He has prepared all the road as well as a place at the end of
   it. You shall find, O child of God, when you come into the deep waters,
   that Christ is there--there by His Grace and Spirit, and there, also,
   by His Providence, to take care of you. It was appointed that Jacob and
   his tribes should all go down to Egypt. To Egypt they must go, but
   Joseph went down there before them and became lord over all Egypt--not
   for his own sake, but for the sake of his brothers, for all the wealth
   of Egypt shall be used, if necessary, in order that Jacob and all his
   household shall be preserved during the time of famine! Now if there is
   an Egypt to which you are to go, Jesus, your Joseph, has gone before
   you to make it ready for you, to find you a Goshen and to nourish you
   there till such day as you shall come from it. God, even your Savior,
   Jesus, leads the van! As the cloud, like a mighty banner of fire, went
   through all the mazes of the winding way of Israel over the desert, so
   Jesus marches before us, the Leader, the Standard-Bearer among ten
   thousand, always in the front and with His eternal power and Godhead
   making straight the pathway for His people's feet! Let us be of good
   courage, then, in this respect. In the matter of suffering, He went
   ahead of you.

   But now realize here the retrospect. If He goes ahead of you, then
   follow Him. You love not suffering. It were not suffering if you did
   love it, but still, if Jesus leads, look not to the way. It were better
   that that way should be full of thorns and briars which would tear your
   flesh, and Christ be with you, than that it should be a long green
   pathway, and your Shepherd lead you not! Go on! He went to His
   sufferings without a murmur. Moreover, even His flesh shrank and, at
   last, He said, "Not My will, but Yours be done." Say you, the same. Dot
   you fear as you enter into the cloud? Within that cloud shall be the
   secret tabernacle of the Most High, wherein He will reveal Himself to
   you as He never did before! Some of us owe much to the anvil and the
   hammer, and the fire, much to suffering, much to trials--and we thank
   God we had them! And you will yet have to do the same, but, oh, stay
   not back! Remember, after all, a lack of resignation will not assist
   you in your suffering, but, on the contrary, nothing makes suffering so
   light as resignation to it--and a perfect acquiescence in the Divine
   Will does much to take away the gall from the cup! You must go where
   Jesus leads--go, therefore, willingly, cheerfully, trustingly and even
   joyfully, for it is a triumph to a Christian to bear the cross after
   Jesus-- and to be crucified and buried with Him were a high honor to
   any child of God. Go on, then, for Christ leads the way!

   But now I must not tarry so long on that part, but I observe it is said
   Christ leads the way in serviceas well as in suffering. He was going up
   to Jerusalem to accomplish the rest of His life-work before He
   surrendered His Spirit to His Father. Now you and I, and each of us,
   have a service to perform. We were redeemed and with a price that we
   might serve the Lord. We are a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. We
   have a priesthood to fulfill. All God's children, all God's servants
   are priest and kings, and they have a rule to discharge, and a
   priesthood to fulfill. Now we are beginning a new year of service. It
   will be a very sweet thing to us if we can know that Jesus Christ has
   gone ahead of us in the path of service. Beloved, I might take the same
   Truth of God and say that He has actually gone before us in having
   fulfilled the same service. If there is any good thing for you to do,
   Christ has done it before you! Are we called to preach the Gospel? You
   know how He was anointed to preach glad tidings to the poor. Are you
   called to teach the little ones? Did not He say, "Suffer the little
   children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the
   Kingdom of Heaven"? Have you to feed the hungry? On what a large scale
   did He do it! Have you to visit the sick and to minister to their
   needs? Oh, how many thousands owed their opened eyes or restored limbs
   to Him! Christ's life anticipates all the service of the Church. One
   might very easily, in taking the life of Christ, find all the
   operations of a truly active Church prefigured there--all of them.
   There is nothing new under the sun, and when a man has found something,
   and thought, "Here is something that is fresh," you shall find Christ
   has looked after the halt, the blind and the lame before you--and if
   you seek to raise the fallen woman, you will be made to remember Him
   who said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." I should be
   afraid to undertake any service in which I could not see that He has
   gone before. What Christ has done, it is right for us to do, save only
   in that work of Expiation where we cannot help Him. There He treads the
   winepress alone, and of the people there is none with Him--but in all
   in which He is our Exemplar, it is always a safe thing for us to follow
   very closely--and we shall find that He has gone before us!

   And truly He goes before us in all our works by His Holy Spirit
   actively proving His Divine sympathy still with us. I do not look upon
   the Church of God as so many pious men and women at work by themselves,
   but I see God working by them, working in them, working through them!
   They are the workers to the eye, but no further. It is God who works in
   them to will and to do of His own good pleasure! If Satan saw in the
   work only the man, he would laugh at him, but he perceives "the hand of
   Joab" is there--a mightier hand than the hand of man and, therefore, it
   is that he is often put to the rout. O you that speak for Jesus, that
   pray for Jesus, that give to His cause and work for His name, let this
   be your joy and your comfort--that Jesus Christ is with you and goes
   ahead of you in all this service!

   And so He does in His Providence. If we had but eyes to see it, and
   could know all things, we would perceive that when we come to preach
   the Gospel, God has been preparing men's hearts to receive it. Many a
   time a man will come up to the House of Prayer, and he has a trouble
   that has been plowing up and down, and the minister has got a handful
   of seed to sow, which the birds would have devoured if they had fallen
   on hard soil--only God has plowed the man and made him like soil, ready
   to receive it! He has gone ahead of us! If ever I see these benches
   full, I feel a little distressed, and yet elated, because I always
   reckon that I have got a picked congregation and each man is sent with
   a design. Though there may not be salvation in every case, yet there
   are some to whom God will bless the Word, to which the Word will be
   fitted to the very letter, for God will guide the preacher and
   oftentimes as much reveals Himself from the pulpit as ever a
   Nebuchadnezzar' s dream was revealed again by Daniel when it was gone
   altogether from his mind. You shall be sure that God is in the Word if
   it comes home to you in that way! And if you are a Christian worker,
   you may expect that the Providence of God will prepare men's hearts for
   that work which you are trying to do!

   I would that the Church of God would now recollect that assuredly God
   is going ahead of her in all her service at this moment. The world is
   prepared for the Gospel if we were but willing to present the Gospel to
   the world! When our Lord Christ came into this world there was a
   universal peace, and the peace of the public mind and the state of the
   public pulse was just suitable for the preaching of the Gospel by the
   Lord and by His Apostles--and there is some such suitability as that
   now. Chains that long have galled unhappy nations have been filed
   through. The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light--they
   have demanded liberty and won it with a good right hand--and mean to
   hold it! And now is the time when the darkness flies and light comes
   for those who have the still brighter light of the everlasting Gospel
   of the ever blessed God to spring into the gap and proclaim salvation
   by a Crucified Redeemer to all the sons of men! Up, Churches of London,
   and to your work! Even now the very demand for education among you, and
   the stir that there is among the people, the breaking up of hoary
   systems of abomination, the motion and commotion--all this means good
   to you! You have been embedded in the ice and frozen up these long
   wintry days, but, lo, the sun has risen and the long summer days shall
   soon come and your boat shall be freighted and put out to sea--and
   bring a blessed cargo of souls home to God their Father! Let us be up
   and doing, for Jesus goes ahead of us in the matter of Providence. May
   He help us to keep always near Him. What He would have us do, oh, may
   we do it! Word for word what He would have us speak, thought for
   thought what He would have us think, act for act what He would have us
   do! Let us never have a glorious Leader and be a laggard people. Oh,
   for the Grace that is in Him to bedew us plenteously, that as He goes
   ahead of us we may follow Him in the path of service!

   Now very briefly upon one other point, which was the path of death. Our
   Lord was going to Golgotha, and there was to be, as far as this world
   was concerned, the end of His journey. To the Cross He must be nailed,
   and in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the Lord Jesus must sleep.
   Death is not a pleasant thing. It matters not how you gild the pill, it
   is a pill. If the Lord comes not, however, before that time we shall
   have to pass through death, and we shall find it, if we are His people,
   to be infinitely less painful than the fear of death! We feel a
   thousand deaths in fearing one, and if our faith were greater, we would
   have no fear of death. "Ah," says one, "what I dread is parting,
   leaving my friends." He went before them--He parted from them all, and
   from His mother. And He said to John, "Behold, your mother," and to His
   mother," "Woman, behold your son," as the light faded from His eyes. He
   went ahead of us in the path of death. "Ah, but I cannot bear to think
   of the pain of dying," says one. You will never have such pain as His
   in death--He went ahead of you. He had a sense of sin in dying. He was
   made a curse for us, as it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangs
   on a tree," but no curse can ever light on you, Believer. The blessing
   is yours because the curse was His! Oh, He has gone ahead of you--He
   has gone where you shall never go, for He suffered the wrath of God,
   which you never shall suffer, for that wrath is gone and passed away
   forever! There are none of the surroundings of a dying bed which can
   suggest such horror as that which surrounded the death of our Lord--so
   that He has gone ahead of you in everything that might alarm you in the
   prospect of your departure. He has gone ahead of you. Be content to
   follow Him to the grave. It is no more--

   "A charnel-house of sense,

   Relics of lost innocence,

   The place of ruin and decay;

   The imprisoning stone is rolled away."

   It is now a nest of sweetness since Jesus laid in it. The grave is no
   longer unfurnished--there are His grave clothes left for you and,
   moreover, the stone being rolled away, you have the promise that you
   shall come out of it again! When the trumpet of the archangel sounds,
   those poor bones shall arise and the body that was sown in weakness
   shall be raised in power! What joy it is, then, to think that He went
   ahead of us and how obediently, no, triumphantly, may we follow Him,
   even to death itself! Here, then, is the blessed fact, in suffering, or
   service, or departure, Christ goes ahead of us! Now the point we close
   with is this--

   II. MAY WE, ALL OF US, HAVE A SWEET REALIZATION OF THIS TRUTH DURING
   THIS YEAR.

   We believe a good deal of Doctrine which we have never yet realized. We
   know much to be food which we have never fed upon. Many Christians are
   like those who have sacks of flour in the house, but no bread. They
   have nothing available for present food. Some are like rich men that
   may happen to be abroad with thousands in gold, but no small silver, no
   spending money. May you be able to coin the bullion of precious promise
   so as to use it in the journey of life. May you make practical
   application of precious Truths of God, tasting the honey, drinking the
   wine and being satisfied with them. Now, then, to realize that Christ
   goes ahead of us is to realize that we are never alone. If I am in my
   study, and a problem staggers me, I am not alone--my Lord will teach
   me. You are in your little chamber with the needle, working hard for
   very scanty pay. You have to suffer--you have not got to suffer that
   alone. "I am with you when you pass through the fire; you shall not be
   burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you." But you have got to
   go into the workroom and there are those that point at you, and they
   have a jest for you, whom they know to be a follower of Christ. You
   have not to bear that alone! He has the heaviest end of that cross and
   He is persecuted in His persecuted members. But you are busy in
   business, and your cares afflict you. Blessed be God you have not got
   to bear those cares alone! No, nor yet at all, for concerning them He
   has said, "Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." I have
   got to come here and preach. Who is sufficient for these things? But I
   am not to preach alone--"My Grace is sufficient for you." His strength
   shall be made perfect in your weakness. You have to go to that Sunday
   school class. Oh, how incorrigible those boys are and how careless
   those girls--but you have not got to win those souls alone--Jesus will
   go and His Spirit will be there, and you shall be helped in your work!
   Do try and realize all through this year that you are never alone. Not
   only is it, "You, God, see me," but it is this, "Fear not, I am with
   you; be not dismayed, I am your God." And Christ is not with you
   behind, or pushing you into the danger, but He is with you ahead of
   you--He goes ahead of you--He is the shield catching the fiery darts
   upon Himself! You shall come behind the screen and be sheltered by His
   precious promise.

   I do not know where you may be this year, but let this thought abide
   with you--He will be with you! Perhaps you will cross the sea. Your lot
   may be to help to colonize some distant land. Over the sea and on the
   billows, and on the shore so strange to you--He will be your near
   Companion! Perhaps this year there is a trial awaiting you, very heavy,
   or perhaps a temptation arising out of some new joy or fresh
   prosperity. Do not fear it--you shall be safe on the hilltops of joy
   and in the Valley of Humiliation. He is with you anywhere! A child is
   told, perhaps at nightfall, that he has to go a considerable distance.
   It is to a lonely farmhouse and the little one trembles to go across
   the moor in the dark. "Oh," the mother says. "but Father is going with
   you." Oh, then that changes the aspect of everything! The boy is
   pleased to go! Even the dangers that seemed so great, only attract him
   now--he will be glad to be with his father. Through the moor land of
   another year, you have to go, and it may be dark and cold, but your
   heavenly Father and your blessed Elder Brother will be with you!
   Therefore, be not afraid. You will have to contend this year for "the
   faith delivered once for all to the saints," and to do much service,
   too. If you are to render a good account at the year's end, you are to
   try and live this year, not at a slow rate, like the cold-blooded frog,
   but to have hot blood in you! Regulated by prudence, and yet boiling
   over with a burning zeal, you are to serve the Lord! And it may be you
   think you cannot do it. Is anything impossible when He helps you? Is
   any sacrifice impossible when it is for Him? Is any difficulty
   insurmountable when He, Himself, gives the all-sufficient strength? Oh,
   this is a very choice thought, though a very simple one, that Jesus
   will be with you all the year through!

   The only other thought is, take care that you abide with Him. He is a
   quick walker. Idle souls will be left behind. He is a holy liver.
   Unclean spirits will find Him part company with them. Be you watchful,
   vigilant, sober, careful, zealous, and seek to have perpetual
   fellowship with Jesus Christ. I am sure those are the happiest that
   live nearest to God! I am certain of it. I do know it is not the
   wealthiest who are the happiest. It is not those who have the most
   health that are always happiest, and those who are most esteemed among
   their fellow men. There is one rule without any exception--he who lives
   nearest to God has the most of that profound peace of God which passes
   all understanding. He says to you, "Abide in Me." May His words abide
   in you! May you abide in Him and may this be to each one of you, and to
   this Church, the very happiest year we have ever had! Oh, that some
   poor sinner would seek the Savior! May the Lord's lovely attractions
   entice Him!

   And I shall close by saying this--that if any soul longs for Christ,
   Christ is already longing for Him--and if you have a half of a desire
   towards Him, He has a heart full of desire towards you! There never was
   a soul that had a head start on Christ in the matter of desire for
   salvation. God grant you Grace to touch Jesus and then to follow after
   Him, and to make His blessing abide with you, both now and forever.
   Amen and amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 35, HEBREWS 12:1-6.

   Verse 1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.
   They shall be so glad that they shall inspire gladness where all was
   desolation, brooding, melancholy and dragon's howls. "The wilderness
   and the solitary place shall be glad for them."

   1. And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. God's people
   are a happy-making people. They are a blessing in themselves and they
   shall be a blessing to others till all shall say, "These are the seed
   that the Lord has blessed." "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as
   the rose."

   2. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing:
   the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellence of Carmel
   and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of
   our God. A wonderful sight to see, for there is one of the most lovely
   sights in the world when the Glory and excellency of God are to be seen
   in the works of His Grace in His own people. It is such a sight that it
   makes men first rejoice in their hearts and then rejoice with their
   tongues. They shall "rejoice with joy and singing," which is the double
   rejoicing of the heart and of the lips. Well, these must be a favored
   people who, wherever they go, can make others glad after this fashion!
   Brothers and Sisters, they must be full or they could not overflow!
   They must be alive, or else they could not quicken the desert places.
   They must be in flower, blooming like the rose, or they could not make
   the wilderness so full of verdure. The Lord grant that we may be in
   that state, that we may be able to go into the wilderness. There are
   some of God s people that cannot trust themselves to go where they are
   needed because they have not Divine Grace enough. They are so weak that
   they are like the weak man standing on the river s brink who cannot
   leap in to pull out a drowning man for fear he should be pulled in
   himself. But, oh, they are blessed, indeed, who dare go into the
   wildernesses and into the solitary places, and carry the transforming
   benediction of Heaven with them till the wilderness changes its
   dress--and the brown of the arid sand gives place to the ruddiness of
   the rose--because God has come there with His people!

   3. Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Are
   there such here tonight? No doubt there are-- weak at work and weak at
   praying. The two things go together--weak hands and feeble knees. May
   they both be strengthened!

   4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not:
   behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense;
   He will come and save you. It is very singular how salvation and
   vengeance are so often associated together in Scripture. It is the day
   of salvation, "and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who
   mourn." Vengeance upon the false is the best consolation to the true!
   When God smites the sham, even to the heart, then does He bless those
   in which His Truth is found. "He will come and save you."

   5. 6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
   deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
   the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break
   out, and streams in the desert See what the Presence of Christ does?
   See what the presence of Christ's people will do when He comes in them
   and with them! They make the wilderness rejoice. But, besides that, the
   dwellers that are found in the wilderness--these lame and deaf
   people--get the blessing. Oh, may God make us to be a desert to others
   of this sort!

   7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
   springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall
   be grass with reeds and rushes. The greenest spots your eyes ever
   rested upon are just there where the grass is so rooted in the morass
   that it is always green with a delicate tinge, and the reeds and rushes
   spring up abundantly. O God, make poor parched hearts to become like
   this! You barren ones, you desolate ones--He can give you the best
   verdure that is possible! Your hearts shall be as green and fresh as
   the spots where there is grass with reeds and rushes.

   8. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The
   Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it: but it shall be
   for others: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Oh,
   what a blessing that is to us poor fools! We could err anywhere. To err
   is human and we seem to have come in for a double share of it. The more
   we look at our lives, the more we see the folly of our hearts. What a
   mercy it is that when we walk in the way of faith, in the way of
   Christ, fools as we are, we shall not err!

   9, 10. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go on it,
   it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there. And the
   ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and
   everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness,
   and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Like frightened things. They
   kept us company part of our road, but when the Lord appeared, they took
   to themselves wings and fled away. We could not tell where they were
   gone. We were surprised to find that they had quite vanished. Oh, for
   the appearing of the Lord tonight to His mourning people who may be
   here!

   HEBREWS 12:1-8.

   Verse 1. Therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a
   cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
   does so easily beset us. Or. "entangle us."

   1-3. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
   Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the
   joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and
   is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God. For consider Him
   who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest you be
   wearied and faint in your minds. The Lord does not wish His people's
   hands to hang down and their knees to become weak, so in this passage,
   as in many others, He administers gracious remedies! Among the rest, He
   bids us consider His own dear Son. Shall we faint under our small
   afflictions when He endured so well under His heavy burdens? Come, be
   strengthened, my weak heart--

   "His way was much rougher and darker than thine-- Did Christ, your
   Lord, suffer, and will you repine?'

   4. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. It has
   hardly come to blows and bruises yet--certainly not to bloody strokes!
   You have not yet lost blood for Christ.

   5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto
   children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord, nor faint
   when you are rebuked of Him.Neither think too little of it, nor too
   much of it--too little of it by despising it and not listening to the
   voice of the rod, nor too much of it by fainting when you are rebuked
   of

   Him.

   6. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He
   receives. Oh, what comfort there is here! Whenever we are under the
   scourging hand of God, how we ought to be cheered with the thought that
   this is a part of the heritage of the children! There are Elis who
   spoil their children. God is not one of them. He spares not the rod and
   the more He loves, often the more He corrects. A tree of common fruit
   may be left alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the
   very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning--and I have noticed that in
   those countries where the best wine is made, the vinedressers cut the
   shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is
   a vine there at all unless you watch very carefully! They must cut them
   back sharp to get sweet clusters. The Lord does thus with His beloved.
   It is not anger. Afflictions are not always anger. There are often
   tokens of great love!
     __________________________________________________________________

Assurance Sought

   (No. 3546)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

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

   DAVID knew where to run to for shelter in his hour of difficulty. Many
   were there that opposed him. He had been much slandered. His course was
   rough. So, after spreading his case before the Lord, as Hezekiah did
   Rabshakeh's blasphemous letter, he turns to the Most High and he cries
   to Him for succor with one request, as if this would suffice to relieve
   him from all his troubles--"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." He
   thus invokes God to give him a word from His own mouth, to take the
   buckler and the sword in his defense, and to be his Champion. "Oh, my
   God, speak to my soul some assuring word and it shall be enough for
   me!" It is a sign of adoption, a mark of the residence of the Spirit of
   God within us, if in our times of trouble we fly to our God! Soul, can
   you find any difficulty in doing so? Is this not one of your spiritual
   instincts? Then, be afraid lest you are an alien, and no true-born
   child, for the true-born child seeks its Father's face, cries out for
   its Father's notice and creeps into its Father's bosom!

   This short prayer I commend to everyone present--to saint and sinner,
   to the young and the old, to those who are assured and to those who are
   doubtful--"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." It appears to me to
   imply certain doctrines, to express certain desires, and to suggest
   certain practical lessons upon which we may profitably meditate.

   I. "SAY UNTO MY SOUL, I AM YOUR SALVATION."

   Is it not very clear on the surface of the text that we need salvation?
   Salvation is the great necessity of the human race. We need to be saved
   from the consequences of the Fall, from the results of our own
   transgressions, from the penalties due to our guilt, the indwelling
   power of sin and the domination of our corrupt nature. You all know
   this by the witness of conscience. Therefore I need not argue or
   attempt to prove it. The main question is whether we know it
   experimentally, for it is one thing to know the letter, but quite
   another thing to know the spirit--one thing to know a matter with the
   head--and another thing to be affected by it in a lively manner in the
   soul. Answer me, then, have you learned experimentally that you need to
   be saved? Did you ever see your past sins in their true color? Did you
   ever behold what a future sin opens up before you, till you did start
   back alarmed and terror-stricken? Have you perceived that you need just
   such a salvation as Christ came to bring? Truly we never seek it till
   we see we need it! We are usually driven into the Port of Grace by a
   storm. It is not often that we fly to Christ if there is any other door
   open. In the sore straits of poverty, we have to cry to Him for
   sustenance. When we are sick we resort to Him for health and cure.

   Moreover, Beloved, we continue to require a continuous salvation. It is
   well for the Christian to remember that in a certain sense he, too,
   needs to be saved--not from Hell, for we are saved from that--nor from
   the guilt of our sins, for, thank God, that is purged by the blood once
   shed for our remission. But we need to be saved every day from the
   temptations that assail our souls, from the trials that beset our path,
   from the corruptions of our nature. Mr. Whitefield said he hoped he was
   converted, but conversion was a thing to take place every day--not
   regeneration, mark you--that is once and for all. But conversion,
   "Why," he said, "I need to be converted from lying too late in bed in
   the morning, and converted from idleness all the day long." So do we!
   There is something or other we need to be converted from, some wrong
   thing that we need to be saved from--and until we get within the gates
   of pearl we shall still have need to cry for salvation from some evil
   that harasses us! Salvation by blood we have--salvation by the might
   and power of the Holy Spirit, who is to conquer and to destroy all our
   dire iniquity and innate depravity--we still need! Do we feel that we
   need it? Believer, do you feel that you need it? Beware of getting
   spiritually rich in yourself! Nothing is so near akin to soul-poverty
   as this! Beware of thinking that you are increased in goods. You are
   near to bankruptcy when you thus make account of your possessions. I
   counsel you, therefore, to still bow your knee and cry unto the great
   Savior, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" That prayer should never be in
   advance of the most advanced Christian!

   Another Doctrine lies on the surface of the text. His own personal
   salvation should be the matter of a man's highest thoughts and greatest
   earnestness. "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation," should be the
   uppermost and the uttermost cry of your heart. Ask not the Lord to make
   you rich--you may well reckon that this would involve too high a
   position and too heavy a responsibility for you to bear with
   equanimity. Seek not a pinnacle from which you might be in peril of
   falling. Did you ask to be learned in all the knowledge and languages
   of the ancients? You might miss the road to Heaven, for oftentimes the
   shepherds are guided to the place where the Holy Child is, while the
   wise men miss their way, going to Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem! I
   will not crave the Lord to give me food for my vanity, or good fortune
   for my wishes, or anything beside for which my passions yearn, but,
   "Lord, give me salvation!" This is a gift I must have. It is essential
   to my instant and my endless welfare! Let not Your servant be put off
   with any inferior blessing. If You please to keep me poor on a scanty
   pittance, or bid me toil hard for slender wages, so let it be. Yet deny
   me not a draught from the upper springs! Give me the heritage of Your
   chosen. Grant me Your salvation!

   Salvation! Oh, salvation! This should be the chief, the insatiable
   longing of each man's spirit! Alas, for the ignorance and callousness
   that can trifle with salvation as though it were a matter of no
   immediate concern. Are you mad enough to imagine that whether you have
   an interest in Christ or not, is a question that may be solved in a few
   minutes in a fearful emergency upon a dying bed? Ah, it is not so!
   Wisdom should urge us, or peril should drive us to seek shelter from a
   calamity that would leave us a total wreck! Nothing lies so near to our
   interest and our happiness--nothing, therefore, should press so closely
   on our hearts as to be in Christ and be made, through Him, partakers of
   everlasting life! Dear Hearer, this question, then, I press upon you.
   Be pleased to answer it. Have you been led by the Spirit of God to see
   to this, your first concern? Are you saved? Or are you anxious to be
   saved with an anxiety that will not rest or abate? Are you striving and
   struggling in your heart to find the Savior, without whom you are
   utterly lost, ruined and undone? Unless God' s Holy Spirit clothes it
   with power, preaching reaches no farther than the ears! Oh, that He
   would speak to your souls! With what energy you would then be filled!

   A third Doctrine is couched in these words. Salvation, if it is worth
   the having, must come entirely from the Lord, Himself. "Say unto my
   soul, I am your salvation." The eyes of the suppliant here is evidently
   turned to God alone, and rightly so, for salvation comes not from the
   hills, nor from the multitude of the people, not yet from the prowess
   of individuals. Surely in the Lord, alone, is the salvation of Israel.
   Never did salvation spring from the devices of this poor heart. In vain
   do you seek to obtain it by any religious ceremonies, or by any bodily
   exercises. The source and fountain of salvation are only to be found in
   the eternal purpose of God! In the Covenant of God it was resolved, in
   the Wisdom of God it was planned, in the great Redemption of God it was
   effected and by the Spirit of God it is applied! Jonah went to a
   strange college to learn this masterpiece of sound theology, that
   salvation is of the Lord. As for Israel, he could destroy himself, but
   he could never save himself. In his God he found help, in his God
   alone! Happy the man that knows this! Thrice happy he who knows it
   experimentally! He will turn his eyes to the Lord alone.

   My Hearer, are you seeking salvation by works--by anything that is
   meritorious or meretricious? You are spending your money for that which
   is not bread! Are you seeking a knowledge of salvation by your own
   feeling? Do you consult your frames of mind, hopeful or desponding, as
   one marks the rise or fall of a barometer? Do you dream of being
   prepared for Christ and fitting yourself to receive mercy? This is to
   impose on yourself and to insult the Savior! Christ needs nothing from
   you--He comes to bring everything to you! Even your sense of need He
   gives you. All your fitness is to be unfit! All your preparation for
   washing is to be foul! All your prerequisite for enriching is to be
   poor as poverty can make you! Come as you are to your God through
   Christ, the Mediator, and in Him you shall find salvation! Do notice
   particularly that the words are not, "Say unto my soul, I am your
   Savior," but more than that--"I am your salvation." As if God were not
   only the Giver of salvation, but absolutely salvation itself. To get a
   hold of Christ is to get salvation! To get God on our side is to be
   saved! Salvation does not merely come from God as a gift--it absolutely
   involves the appropriation of God, Himself, as the portion of one's own
   soul! How wonderful this is! Who can find God? Who can imagine, much
   less describe, His Infinite perfections? Salvation proceeding from THE
   LORD, from JEHOVAH, from the GREAT I AM, communicates the wealth of His
   adorable attributes. "Say unto my soul, I"--our translation reads--"I
   Am." Ask, what are You, Lord? The answer comes, "I Am your salvation."
   No title, however noble, could enhance the description! He is the "I
   Am." His existence is original and pure. "He sits on no precarious
   throne, or borrows leave to be. "From everlasting to everlasting He is
   God the Most High. To Him there is neither past nor future, but one
   eternal

   Now."

   The God who can save us must be the only true and living God. So great
   a salvation you cannot realize without a clear apprehension of Jehovah
   in all His attributes! And if any speak of Christ as delegated Deity,
   discredit His eternal power and Godhead, or deny that He made the
   heavens and the earth and bears them on His shoulders, they bring to us
   a Christ who cannot save! We must have a Redeemer as mighty as the
   Creator and the Preserver. We must have the strong Son of God, Immortal
   and Eternal, to rescue our souls from going down into the pit of Hell!
   If you are leaning on any arm but an eternal one, it will fail you!
   Poor silly heart, if you are depending on anything for salvation but
   the same God who bears the earth' s huge pillars up, your dependence
   will fail you when most you need its help! The strongest sinew of an
   arm of flesh will crack--even an angel's wing will flag and the earth,
   itself, will grow dim with years! This globe, with all her granite
   rocks, shall melt with a fervent heat! The eternal God must be your
   refuge, and underneath you must be the everlasting arms, or else the
   salvation you pretended to have is worse than useless! "Say unto my
   soul, I, the glorious Jehovah, I am your salvation."

   These doctrines may seem to some of you so commonplace that you will
   say, "We have heard them ten thousand times." But I refer to them now
   to press the question--Do you know the vital force of these great
   Truths of God in your own hearts? Beloved, let each man, let each
   woman, enquire, "Do I know my need of salvation? Do I know that it must
   come from God? Have I got it from Him? Have I applied directly to Him
   for it? Have I received it at His hand in such a way that I have seen
   the Glory of God therein, so that my salvation shall be to me for a
   name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off?" If you have
   had no dealings with God, your soul is in bad plight. Let us turn now
   to observe--

   II. THE DESIRE EXPRESSED IN THE TEXT.

   It was David' s wish not only to have God for his salvation, but to
   know it for a fact, and that on the most conclusive evidence, with the
   best possible assurance, by a positive communication from
   GodHimself--"Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." There are some who
   doubt whether full assurance of faith can be obtained. They need not
   discredit an attainment which multitudes possess and daily enjoy!
   Others suppose that if they could experience a full assurance, it would
   be dangerous--and yet there are thousands of the saints who, so far
   from finding the privilege perilous, constantly prove its sanctifying,
   elevating power while they walk by faith and live near to God! Some
   have conjectured that any man who knew himself to be saved would
   inevitably grow listless in character and negligent of his conduct, but
   it is not so. A man who knows that an estate is really his own, does
   not become indifferent about its culture. He tills and farms it all the
   more sedulously. The fact is this--he who knows himself to be
   saved--being rid of that curse and burden of fear which often renders
   him incapable of serving God, passes beyond the sphere of a servile
   bondage! No more does he selfishly seek his own interest. His labor is
   free, cheered by love and lightened by song--

   "Now for tie love I bear His name What was my gain, I count my loss."

   Out of sheer gratitude he devotes himself to the service of the good
   God, by whom so great a blessing has been bestowed. If your confidence
   in your own salvation makes you walk without tenderness of conscience,
   then rely upon it-- you have mistaken vain boasting for pure faith, and
   haughty presumption for true assurance! They who are really possessed
   of this Grace are always very tender of the Lord's will. It compels
   them to walk humbly with God. A king's courtier knows that conduct is
   expected of him far beyond that of ordinary subjects. He would not
   encroach upon the freedom he enjoys in approaching his sovereign, lest
   by any negligence or impropriety he should forfeit the good esteem and
   grateful smile of his royal master. He is not afraid that the king
   would kill him, nor is he in terror as if his majesty were a tyrant.
   But he is jealous of himself, lest he should provoke the king to take
   away the light of his countenance from him. And to any child of God who
   has once enjoyed the favor of Heaven's eternal King and basked in the
   light of that Countenance which beams with Grace and Glory, there is no
   attraction in all the world that can compare with the peace and
   pleasure in which he abides! True assurance of faith is a humble thing,
   a comforting thing, a sanctifying thing--and it should, therefore, be
   the desire of all faithful hearts.

   This assurance of which the Psalmist speaks is a personal matter, "Say
   unto my soul, I am your salvation." Oh, Beloved, we must have personal
   dealings with our God! No proxy will avail. Churches may invent what
   ordinances they please to gratify their notions of expediency, but
   there can be no sponsors in godliness--the thing is irrational, it is
   impossible! Every vow and every offering, to be acceptable, must have
   its own proper individuality. No eyes but your own can acceptably weep
   for your sin. No heart but your own can acceptably be broken and
   contrite for your transgressions. You yourself must repent! Even the
   Holy Spirit cannot repent for you, as some seem to imagine. He works
   repentance in you, but you must, yourself, repent. And as to faith,
   that must be the looking with the spiritual eyes to Christ, and resting
   on Him with your whole heart. Another cannot do it for you. National
   religion--if it is depended upon for personal acceptance--is the most
   deceitful of all delusions! What use is it that we call ourselves a
   Christian nation if God does not call us so? Might we not be pronounced
   a heathen nation if we were polled? Take a survey of this great city
   and see how many there are who never enter a House of Prayer, who spend
   the entire Sabbath in idleness, or seek their own pleasure in sensual
   pursuits! What multitudes there are who scarcely know the name of
   Jesus! Are these Christians? It is a pity we should lend the slightest
   sanction to such an empty profession. While men live as heathens, we
   ought to deal with them as such, and seek to convert them from darkness
   unto God's marvelous Light! And as to the religion which descends in
   families, this will not suffice, though it is perpetuated from
   generation to generation. Not a drop of true religion comes in the
   blood! You are all born of a corrupt stock and you naturally bear the
   image of the earthly! If, however, you are born of God, it is not of
   flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God! "You must be
   born-again" is as true of the child of a long generation of godly
   ancestors as it is of the young Hottentot in the kraal who never heard
   the Savior's name. "You must be born-again" is of universal
   application! There must be a personal work of the Spirit of God in each
   individual soul, and the assurance we ought to pant after is our own
   personal assurance, our own individual interest in the salvation of
   Jesus Christ!

   Have you thought of this, dear Hearer, or, thinking of it, have you
   trifled with it? Let me urge you, since you will have to die alone.
   Since through the iron gates you must pass as solemnly as others. Since
   in the awful balances you must be weighed alone and before the last
   tribunal you must come as a separate spirit, I beseech you seek Christ,
   seek union with Him, that so you may have a blessed Companion in your
   death and in your everlasting destiny! These vast congregations are
   made up of units! Oh, that I knew how to reach your conscience one by
   one! O Man, awake to righteousness! Your brother's conversion, your
   sister's salvation, your mother's piety, your father's Grace--how will
   these avail you? Thank God if you have such relatives, for therein God
   has been so kind to you. But how will they comfort you if you are cast
   out? What drops of water can they administer to your burning tongue if
   you are cast away into the place of torment? Oh, I beseech you, be
   eager, be earnest, be anxious with a sacred covetousness to make your
   own calling and election sure! It is a personal assurance that we must
   seek after--so shall our souls be joyful in the Lord--and in His
   salvation we shall exceedingly rejoice.

   But, remember, lest any should be mistaken, that the assurance David
   sought was purely spiritual. When he says, "Say," it is, "Say unto my
   soul." We do not expect that God will make fresh Revelations to us. We
   are far from believing that voices heard or visions seen, or supposed
   to be seen, or dreams, can give any satisfactory evidence of the Divine
   Love to any man. I am ashamed of such ministers as would encourage
   their hearers in the conviction that their fancies are to be taken as
   assurances from God! Why, were you to dream tonight that you were in
   Hell, thank God it would not send you there! Or were you to dream that
   you were in Heaven, it would not carry you there. If you think that you
   see angels, or that you hear voices--well, there is much pretence in
   your tales, but little profit you will ever derive from them. Think as
   you like about your own experiences, but attempt to build any inference
   upon them and your construction will prove a baseless fabric. Such
   things furnish no grounds of dependence. Whether there may ever be
   supernatural manifestations of this kind to some men, or whether they
   can have a good effect upon their minds, are questions which I will not
   discuss, but that these visionary things can afford any evidence of the
   favor of God, I utterly deny! The voice which alone can confirm you is
   the voice of God to your soul, to your mind, to your spirit--not to
   your ears, not to your eyes! Salvation is a spiritualthing. It belongs
   not to external sounds, nor to external impressions upon the eyes.
   There is an eye inside the eye, an ear far quicker than this organ of
   sense. It is with that inner eye that you must see God, and with that
   inner ear that you must hear the voice of God saying unto your soul, "I
   am your salvation." Be sure that you cultivate always a spiritual
   religion. "God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him
   in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him." The
   assurance that comes from God is addressed to the heart, to the mind,
   to the conscience, to the soul--it is purely spiritual. Seek not,
   therefore, after visions, fancies, miracles, signs and wonders, but
   believe when God speaks to your heart, according to all the statutes
   and testimonies, the precepts and promises which are contained in the
   sure Word of Revelation.

   And now mark this well, the assurance craved is Divine. "Say unto my
   soul, I am your salvation." Do you ask in what manner does God,
   Himself, tell a man that He is his salvation? He does it simply enough
   through His Word. If I read in God's Word, I shall not find my name
   enrolled there among the saved--if I did, I would be suspicious that
   perhaps I was not the person intended. I should be rather dubious as to
   the spelling of the name, or I might be apprehensive that there was
   another individual of that same name. But when I find myself properly
   and fully described, then I cannot doubt my own identity. For instance,
   it is written, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Very
   well, I have believed--I know I have--I know I trust Christ with all my
   heart. I have also, in obedience to His Word, been baptized. Therefore,
   if the testimony of God's Word is true--plain and designed to make
   mistakes impossible--that, "he that believes and is baptized shall be
   saved," the conclusion is reached, the problem is solved, the evidence
   is transparent! When you find a description answering to yourself, you
   have only to accept the distinct statement of God's Word. And, mark
   you, God's Word in that old Book--this blessed Bible--is as good as if
   He rent the heavens and spoke right out from the excellent Glory! It is
   just as sure and as steadfast to the souls who believe it to be His
   Word as if He did speak with a trumpet, or as if He sent a message
   through an angel! "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life."
   You have but to make sure that you believes on the Son, and you have
   God's assurance that you have everlasting life! But, over and above the
   testimony or Word, which is as clear as a mathematical
   demonstration--though Euclid is not more reliable than Moses and the
   Prophets--there comes a vital force to God's people with the Word,
   compelling them to perceive the meaning and to accept it. This
   mysterious energy comes from the Holy Spirit, Himself! Of this we
   cannot speak to those who have not proved it, for we only know it and
   understand it by its effect--quickening us, enlightening our
   understanding, speaking to us--and saying of God to our soul that He is
   our salvation!

   Moreover, it is an immediate assurance. "Say unto my soul, I am your
   salvation." That is a pressing cry for prompt succor. It meant in
   David's case that present moment. We, reading it, take it for this very
   hour. Beware of postponing the expectation of assurance until when you
   are about to die! You have no more reason to expect it, then, than to
   expect it now! If you are content to live in doubt and slur over the
   disquietude of your soul in the vigor of your days, you will probably
   be haunted with gloomy misgivings when the time of your departure
   arrives. It is your duty and your privilege as a Believer not to stand
   wavering over God' s promise, but, knowing it is truthful, to accept it
   with unstaggering faith! I can understand a man doubting whether he is
   truly converted or not, but I cannot countenance his apathy in resting
   quiet till he has solved the riddle. You may say--

   "'Tis a point I long to know."

   But, oh, Beloved, how can you trifle, how can you give sleep to your
   eyes till you have known it? Not know whether you are in Christ or not?
   Perhaps unreconciled, perhaps already condemned, perhaps upon the brink
   of Hell, perhaps with nothing more to keep you out of Tophet than the
   breath that is in your nostrils, or the circulating drop of blood which
   any one of ten thousand haps or mishaps may stop, and then your career
   is closed--your life story ended! What? Sit on such a volcano, take it
   easy on the brink of such a precipice and content yourself with merely
   saying, "I am but a doubting one"? I entreat you, I beseech you, shake
   off this sluggishness! Ask the Lord to say unto your soul tonight, "I
   am your salvation." He is able and He is willing! You know that,
   Beloved. He will do it for you when you eagerly seek it from Him. How
   often does He suddenly disperse the doubts that overshadow us like
   clouds? An autumnal day like yesterday-- what a strange, fitful
   atmosphere we breathed! How fiercely the wind blew--how heavily the
   rain fell! And then, how quickly afterwards the soft sunshine made the
   earth look cheerful and the heart of man feel glad! Perhaps you may be
   dull and heavy, or the raindrops of your weeping and the winds of your
   fears howling about you. All of a sudden the rain may stop, the clouds
   disperse, the clear shining come about you. God, by His dear Son,
   through His Spirit, may shine unto your soul at once. You may come in
   very heavily burdened, and go out very light-hearted! You may be
   exceedingly depressed and, all of a sudden, your soul may be like the
   chariots of Amminadab. Your attire may be changed from mourning to
   dancing with unspeakable joy and full of glory! You may rejoice in
   tribulation if the light gleams from His chambers. Pray, then! Let your
   soul now breathe out the prayer, "Oh, my God, if indeed I have relied
   upon Your dear Son to be All-in-All to me, whisper to my heart the full
   assurance of my everlasting safety and my present acceptance in the
   Beloved."

   The Lord answer such a petition to every troubled spirit. And now--
   III. WHAT LESSON DOES THE TEXT TEACH?

   Surely it teaches us this--if we need blessings from God, let us pray
   for them. David needed assurance, he needed comfort and he prayed for
   both one and the other. The quickest road to spiritual wealth is
   prayer! Every prayer is like a ship sent to the Tarshish of spiritual
   riches to bring us back treasures better than gold or silver, or
   precious stones. Let us not be lax in the commerce, lest our wealth
   decline. Every cry to God from the true heart brings a result. You see
   the men in the belfry sometimes down below with the ropes. They pull
   them and if you have no ears, that is all you know about it. But the
   bells are ringing up there--they are talking and discoursing sweet
   music up aloft in the tower. And our prayers do, as it were, ring the
   bells of Heaven! They are sweet music in God's ears and as surely as
   God hears, He answers, for, indeed, in Scripture, to hear and to answer
   are precisely the same things! Praying breath is not spent in vain.
   They who truly cry shall find that passage true, "The righteous cry,
   and the Lord hears them, and delivers them out of all their troubles."
   If a man may have anything for the asking, and he will not ask, he
   deserves to go without! Why, if you may have assurance of every
   precious thing merely for the asking--and assuredly you may--if you
   will not knock and intercede at Mercy' s door, if you are such a fool,
   who is to be blamed but yourself? Be much in prayer, Beloved. What I
   say to you I say especially to myself. Yet I would press this home upon
   Believers with the more earnestness because these times are so full of
   labor and anxiety that they rob Christians of the opportunity for much
   prayer. Oftentimes, too, we get so fatigued and weary that we have not
   the inclination to pray as we should. I like to think of Welch, who
   used to cast a Scotch plaid over the bed where he rested at night, and
   would always rise in the night and cast this plaid about him, and pray
   for one or two hours. And he says in his biography, "I cannot
   understand how a man can sleep through the night without prayer." That
   is a point to which few of us have ever thought of coming! David
   Brainerd, too, speaks of rising one morning by four of the clock, and
   the sun had not risen at six, and he says that in those two hours of
   prayer he had so wrestled with God that he was wet with perspiration!
   Such was the earnestness of his spirit as he pleaded before the Lord. I
   am afraid we do not practice much of this sacred importunity. We are
   sad hands at this devout exercise, whereby saints became famous in the
   days gone by. God restore to us the spirit of prayer, and all other
   blessings will come as the result.

   Another lesson is this. Let everyone of us be satisfied we get a word
   from God. This was all David needed. Would God only say, though not do
   anything? He did not ask Him to interfere practically, or put out His
   hand to help, but only to say. If you go into the city, you may find
   plenty of merchants who, by simply writing their names, can enable you
   to get from the bank shovelfuls of gold. Think you not, then, that
   God's promises always stand to us as good as their fulfillment? Will
   you blow upon His credit? Will you refuse to take Him at His word? I
   think I heard a Brother ask, the other day, I know I did--at family
   prayer--that we might trust God where we could not see Him. I have
   heard that prayer many times before. I have prayed it myself, I am
   sorry to say. But is it not rather a wicked prayer, if you scan it
   narrowly? Should anyone say at our Monday night Prayer Meeting, "Grant,
   O Lord, that we may be able to trust our minister when we cannot see
   him"? I think I would want to know a little about what that Brother
   thought of me! I am sure if I prayed like that for any of you, I would
   be likely to see you in the vestry before long to learn my cause for
   suspecting your character! How dare we, then, pray such a thing about
   our God?

   Yet I suppose this never struck us in that light. It seemed very
   proper. That is just because we have not learned yet to believe in God.
   If the Son of Man were to come into this world, would He find pure
   faith among His disciples? Talk of Diogenes with his lantern looking
   for an honest man! Were God to look with the sun, He could hardly
   discover a believing man. Mr. Muller, of Bristol, believes in God for
   the support of his benevolent institution--and God supplies him with
   all his needs. But whenever you speak about him you say, "What a
   wonderful thing!" Has it come to this, that in the Christian Church it
   is accounted a marvel for Christians to believe in the promises of God,
   and something like a miracle for God to fulfill them? Does not this
   wonderment indicate more clearly than anything else how fallen we are
   from the level of faith at which we ought constantly to live? If the
   Lord wants to surprise His people, He has only at once to give an
   answer to their prayers! No sooner had they obtained their answer than
   they would say, "Who would have thought it!" Is it really surprising
   that God should keep His own promise? Oh, what unbelief! Oh, what
   wretched unbelief on our part! We ask and we receive not because we do
   not believe in God! We waver--we must not expect to receive anything at
   His hand except what He chooses to give as a gratuity, an act of
   Sovereign Mercy, not a covenanted blessing. We do not get what we might
   have as the reward of faith because we have not got the faith that He
   honors!

   I like that story of a godly old woman, who, when told of God's
   answering prayer, supplemented with a reflection, "Is not that
   wonderful?" She replied, "No, it is just like Him. Of course, He
   answers prayer! Of course, He keeps His promise!" We ought to consider
   it a right, natural, and blessed thing that believing prayer should be
   answered, and that faith should have its reward. Christian, rest
   content with a Word from God and be satisfied therewith. And as for
   those of us who have been living in the enjoyment of the full assurance
   of our own salvation (and, God be praised, there are some of us who do
   not often have doubts and fears), how thankful we should be! God likes
   to give to those who are grateful. Men like to put their jewels into a
   good setting and a grateful heart is a fit setting for so gracious a
   mercy! God loves to pour the river of His bounty along the channel of
   Grace in the soul. Be thankful, and you will keep your assurance--
   perhaps, keep it untouched till you die. It is a rare thing, I suppose,
   though I have known one or two holy men of God who have told me that
   they did not remember, for the space of 30 years, having been left to
   question their interest in Chr-ist--they had enjoyed unbroken communion
   with Him. Why, then, should they doubt it? May we even come to that
   assurance, if so it pleases the Master!

   In what way, however, can we better show our gratitude than by
   comforting andassisting such as have not this blessing?--

   "Thousands in the fold of Jesus This attainment never could boast. To
   His Name eternal praises, None of these shall ever be lost-- Deeply
   graven

   On His hands, their names remain."

   Have you faith? You are saved, even if your faith should not develop
   into assurance. As the Puritan well said, "Faith is necessary to the
   being of a Christian. Assurance is necessary to his well-being." Yet,
   mark you, it is a great necessity. Let us try to comfort, then, such as
   are distracted, distressed and bowed down. When the Lord sees that we
   are using our strength and our joy for the help of the rest of the
   family for whom He cares, He will give us yet more abundantly, and make
   us to be stewards of the manifold Grace of God in the midst of the
   Church! Thus shall we glorify His name while we cultivate happiness in
   our own bosoms.

   I would that all whom I now address could have this assurance. Some of
   you, alas, have not faith. "All men have not faith," said the Apostle.
   Too true is this testimony! Soul, would you have faith? Consider what
   it is. You have to believe in God made flesh. Think of the Son of God
   bleeding on the Cross. It is at the foot of the Cross that faith is
   brought to light. If you would get faith, Christ must give it to you.
   Look to Him for the power to believe as well as for the Grace to
   receive all the benefits that follow. May He give it to you now! To
   you, oh, Seeker, He will give it. While you are seeking salvation, you
   shall find it near you. He will say to your soul, "I, even I, am your
   salvation." May it be so with many here. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Simple Fact and Simple Faith

   (No. 3547)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 18 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this
   Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by Him all that
   believe are justified from all things from which they could not be
   justified by the Law of Moses." Acts 13:38,39.

   APOSTOLIC preaching was widely different from the common sermonizing of
   this age. Doubtless, when the Apostles addressed assemblies of
   Believers, they took distinct subjects and kept to them, opening up and
   expounding the particular Truths of God they had in view. But when
   speaking to the outside world, and making their appeals to unbelievers,
   they do not usually appear to have selected any one Doctrine as their
   topic. The manner in which they preached did not so much consist in
   inculcating a specific Doctrine and showing the inferences that would
   naturally arise from it, as it did in declaring certain facts of which
   they had been actual witnesses, themselves, and had been chosen to bear
   witness to others. Turn to Peter's sermon at Pentecost, or the same
   Apostle's sermon to Cornelius, or to the record of Paul's preaching at
   Perga or at Antioch. You will find these discourses were an argument
   from the Scriptures that as God had of old promised to send a Savior,
   so Jesus Christ had come into the world, had lived a holy life, had
   been put to death, being falsely accused, had been laid in the grave,
   after three days had risen again and that afterwards He had ascended,
   according to the testimony of the Prophets. Of Him they spoke, that
   whoever believed in this Man, who was very God, should certainly be
   saved by Him. This was the declaration which they made. I do not find
   them, as a rule, expounding the Doctrine of Election in promiscuous
   assemblies of unbelievers, or arguing the subtle questions of free
   agency and Predestination, or striving about words to no profit, to the
   subverting of the hearers. Their resolute purpose was to declare those
   things that pertain directly to the salvation of the soul, this being
   the all-important matter which they would have all men to heed. Thus
   they charged everyone who heard them, at the peril of his soul, to
   accept the Revelation and embrace the faith of the Gospel!

   Listen to the Apostle Paul in that famous 15th Chapter in the First
   Epistle to the Corinthians which is usually read at funerals. He says
   there--"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I
   delivered unto you." Now you expect him to begin a long list of
   Doctrines, but instead of that, he says, "How that Christ died for our
   sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that on
   the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures." This it is
   that he emphatically describes as the Gospel! To assert these facts, to
   exhort men to believe them and to put their trust in the Man who thus
   lived, and died, and rose again, was the preaching of the Gospel which
   of old shook the hoary systems of superstition, fastened though they
   seemed to be upon their thrones most securely! This preaching it is
   which enlightened the darkness of heathendom and made, in those first
   ages of Christianity, the whole world to be astonished with the light
   and the Glory of Christ!

   Let us, then, strive to imitate the Apostles, and endeavor to preach a
   simple Gospel sermon, if not with their ability, or with their
   Inspiration, yet with their earnestness and with the same desire as
   burned within their bosoms--that men may be saved thereby! We shall
   accordingly have to deal, first, with the history of Jesus, whom we
   hold forth as a Savior Secondly, with the claims of Jesus. And thirdly,
   with the blessings which Jesus brings. In respect to--

   I. THE HISTORY OF JESUS, if you will kindly refer to your Bibles, you
   will find that the Apostle here commenced his sermon by noticing that
   many Prophets had gone before to speak concerning the coming of Jesus.
   In the 23rd verse he especially mentions the promise made to David,
   that of his seed God would raise up a Prince and a Savior to the house
   of Israel. Let me remind you, Brothers and Sisters, that full often in
   the world's history, sages have appeared claiming a Divine Inspiration,
   whose announcements fostered the hope of a coming Man who should redeem
   the world from thrall-dom, and become the Savior of our race. All the
   Seers whose eyes were anointed of God to look into the future, heralded
   the advent of a Great Prophet, a Prince and a Savior, whose claims to
   homage it would be alike perilous and preposterous to reject! These
   Prophets appeared at divers times and various places, and without any
   collusion they have, one and all, proclaimed the same thing! The most
   of them sealed their witness with their blood. "Which of the Prophets
   did not your fathers slay?" Yet in the teeth of extreme suffering, or
   of violent death, they seem to have been compelled by a Divine furor
   within them to proclaim, even to the last, that One was coming who
   would overturn the old reign of terror and the old order of outward
   ceremonies, to introduce a spiritual kingdom, and to redeem the world
   from its sins and sorrows!

   In the favored land of Judea, that bright star of hope beamed most
   brightly through the dark night of long years and dreary watches. At
   length there appeared a remarkable individual who had been foreshown by
   some of these Prophets. They had signified that before the promised
   Man, the Messiah, arrived, there would be a harbinger--one like unto
   Elijah. Elijah would come first. Now the Tishbite, whose career had
   been so memorable in Israel, was a man of much sanctity, but little
   polish. His raiment was rough, his diet frugal, his bearing austere and
   his address earnest or even vehement. He seemed to be fire embodied, if
   such a thing could be--so strong was his passion and so dauntless his
   courage! He laid the axe at the root of every sin, nor did he quail
   before any man's face, however high his station or lofty his
   pretensions. Let him but detect a wrong, he denounced it with all his
   might! Eighteen centuries have transpired since there appeared in the
   wilderness, near the river Jordan, a man whose raiment was of camel's
   hair and whose meat was locusts and wild honey. John the Baptist, a
   child of the desert, ascetic in his habits, with a ministry all his
   own, rebuked the vices of the age with a defiant air and summoned men
   to repentance in trumpet tones till the whole of Judea was startled
   with the phenomenon--and the multitudes poured forth from town and
   village to hear his preaching, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
   hand." The one culminating point of his exhortations was this, "Behold
   the Lamb of God!" Look for Him, gaze at Him, resort to Him. He takes
   away the sin of the world. John's mission it was to make straight in
   the wilderness a highway for the coming of the Lord, whose shoe laces
   he declared himself not worthy to unloose!

   At length the Savior came--the Savior long promised. From the privacy
   of His home at Nazareth, where He had been brought up, He came to the
   river of Jordan. Of His miraculous birth and His Infancy I forbear to
   speak. He appeared in the wilderness where John ministered by the fords
   of Jordan, and demanded Baptism--and as He came up out of the water,
   the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and a Voice was heard
   by many witnesses, "This is My beloved Son. Hear you Him." This Man,
   this wonderful Individual who had now become openly manifest, lived for
   three years a public life of extraordinary benevolence in which there
   was a combination of deep humility and Divine Power-- the most
   memorable life on record! Imagination has never dreamed its equal!
   Those who have thought much on virtue have been utterly unable to
   construct the story of a life out of their invention that could at all
   resemble it, or compare with it for purity or symmetry--a life in which
   there was not so much any one prominent virtue, as all the virtues
   Divinely blended! As gentle as a lamb, as bold as a lion, stern against
   hypocrisy, always tender towards the sinner, especially when the
   teardrop of repentance glistened in the eyes. A Man who tore to pieces
   all the old formalities, denounced the learning of the Rabbis and came,
   with nothing but His own force of Character and the Witness of God, to
   speak Truths of God which, like light, are self-evident Truths which
   stand the test of time and weather the changes of circumstance-- Truths
   which will endure unimpaired when this old world has passed
   away--Truths which have set free human minds from the shackles of
   superstition! Truths which have gladdened the daughters of despair!
   Truths which have always been most acceptable to the poor and needy!
   Truths which have elevated humanity from the very hour in which they
   were first proclaimed! Truths which have drawn disciples through the
   ages and have filled Heaven with His admirers who fall down before the
   glorious Son of God and worship Him! Truths of God, I say, which will
   yet make this world bright in the light of Heaven!

   Now that Man lived a perfectly blameless life--so blameless that when
   His enemies sought His death, they could not find anything to lay to
   His charge and, therefore, by false witnesses they accused and
   condemned Him. The great point in His history to which we always call
   your most devout attention, and to which the Apostles always bore the
   most vehement testimony, was this--that He was crucified. It would be
   policy, some suppose, to conceal this. This great Teacher, this
   Promised One, this Divine Man--for He was Man, yet God, perfect God and
   perfect Man--actually died a felon's death! He was taken by wicked
   hands, scourged, mocked, made to carry His Cross, and then on Calvary
   was fastened to the tree and there He died. But we must tell you the
   interpretation which lends a charm to the information. He died there as
   a Substitute for man. He had no guilt of His own, but He was appointed
   by God to bear all the sins of all His people-- of all men, in fact,
   who will believe on Him! He was punished that they might not be
   punished. He bore the penalty for all Believers, that they might be
   released from the dread punishment that justice demanded of them. He
   did, in fact, go up to that tree with the load of all the guilt of all
   who had believed and all who should believe piled upon His shoulders!
   And owing to the excellence of His Nature, being God, His sufferings
   made Atonement for all the guilt of all that vast multitude! It was as
   much a vindication of God's Justice as if all those ten thousand times
   ten thousand had been cast into Hell forever. Here was the fact. The
   punishment due to all those souls was put into one bitter cup and
   Jesus, on the Cross, put that cup to His lips and--

   "At one tremendous draught of love He drank damnation dry"

   --drank to the very dregs all the wrath which God had towards His
   offending, sinful, guilty and condemned people! And they were,
   therefore, clear. This is the great Doctrine of the Cross. "God was in
   Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
   trespasses unto them." When taken down from the Cross, He was laid in a
   tomb. There His sacred body remained for three days but on the morning
   of the third day, by His own Eternal Power and Godhead, He rose again
   from the grave, since He could not be held by the bands of death. And
   now He lives--henceforth He ever lives! At this moment, the Man who was
   born of the Virgin at Bethlehem, who was put to death in weakness by
   Pontius Pilate, but was raised in power having ascended on high after
   His Resurrection, sits at the right hand of the Father, whereas Man,
   though God, He incessantly pleads with God for us, and by His eternal
   merit saves as many as put their trust in Him. These are historical
   facts which the Gospel holds forth to be surely believed. Some think
   them old wives' fables. Let them think so--they miss the benefit which
   simple faith would certainly confer. On their own heads be the blame,
   for on their own souls will come the smart! Many of us can vouch, with
   our hands on our breasts, that we have proved the Truth of all that is
   written in the Book. These precious Truths of God have exerted a potent
   spell over our own lives. Our believing them has enabled us to overcome
   our passions and it has been the leverage which has lifted us up out of
   our depravity. These verities are our unfailing solace while as
   creatures we are subject to vanity--and in the hour of death they shall
   be our succor and support as tens of thousands before us have found
   them to be! With the history of Jesus thus clearly in our view, let us
   now ask--

   II. WHAT ARE THE CLAIMS OF JESUS?

   He claims, as the Ever-Living One, that we should accept Him as being
   what He professes to be, if we would derive any benefit from Him. He
   professes to be the Messiah, anointed and commissioned of God. Do you
   believe that? Reading the prophecies concerning Him, can you see how
   exactly He fits them as the key fits the wards of the lock? If you see
   that, I am glad. Moreover, He demands that you should receive Him as
   God. This is His profession, that He is God Over All, blessed forever,
   God Incarnate. He trod the waves of the Lake of Gennesaret. He raised
   the dead. He healed the sick. He multiplied the loaves and fishes. He
   stayed the winds. He lulled the storm. He has done all things that only
   God can do! He was Almighty, even here below as a Man. Accept Him,
   then, as very God. If you do so intelligently, sincerely, I am glad.
   And now will you accept Him as your Priest, and none upon earth beside?
   To have Him, you must renounce all else, for know of a surety our High
   Priest will not stand side by side with any other priest! Resort to Him
   only for Atonement, for intercession, for benediction. He offered
   Himself as a Sacrifice, gave Himself up for the sins of His people.
   Believe in Him as your Priest, and in His sufferings and death as your
   Sacrifice. Away, you priests of Rome! Begone, you priests of every
   other order! Away with every vain pretender to the priesthood! To Him
   who has entered into the holy place not made with hands pertains the
   exclusive privilege of the priesthood! Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
   only Priest over the house of God. His people become priests through
   Him--everyone of them. Yes, kings and priests after the Melchisedec
   type, but we acknowledge no priestcraft now. The religion of Jesus
   disavows and denounces all prelatic pretences. It proclaims forever the
   putting down of the hierarchy of men, with all their empty conceits and
   their inflated arrogance, their frocks and their robes, their lawn
   sleeves and their fine millinery, their vain boasting and their
   sanctimonious finger play--with all the preternatural influence that is
   supposed to emanate from a bishop's hands! Jesus is the only Priest!

   Will you take Him to be such? Then I rejoice that you are thus
   enlightened! Yet know that He claims to be your King. You must do what
   He bids you. You must be His subject, observe His statutes and keep His
   commandments. Are you His subject? He will be your Friend. You shall
   even be His brother or sister and you shall live near to Him as one
   dear to Him, in affectionate communion with Him. Though He is in
   Heaven, yet will He reveal Himself to you on earth. Now, are you
   willing to accept Him as such--your Prophet, so that you shall believe
   what He teaches you? Your Priest, so that you shall confide in His
   mediation. Your King, so that you shall serve Him. And oh, in what
   accents of tenderness does Jesus claim that we should trust Him! This
   is a blessed message to some of you who may not have heard it before.
   If you will but trust this glorious Man, this blessed God, you shall
   this moment be saved! To trust Him is what He demands. He said, "I am
   God; rely upon Me implicitly. I am perfect Man. I died for My enemies
   out of love to them. I have all power given to Me in Heaven and in
   earth, and with My blood sprinkled on My Father's Throne, I reign
   supreme in the realm of mercy. Only trust Me, and I will save you--save
   you from the guilt of the past, save you from the power of passion in
   your soul, save you from the dominion of sin--and in the future I will
   change you. I will make you a new man. I will give you a new heart and
   a right spirit. All of My Grace shall be yours, if you will but trust
   Me."

   Even the power to trust Jesus--He gives--for it is all of His Grace
   from first to last! But whoever trusts Him shall be saved. My Master
   has a right to this, and nothing short of this will He take, for these
   are His own words, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to
   every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; He
   that believes not shall be damned." He does not admit of any medium!
   You must either believe or not believe--and if you believe not, His
   wrath falls upon you." He that believes not has made God a liar because
   he has not believed on His Son, Jesus Christ." "He that believes on Him
   is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already." "He
   that believes on Him shall never perish; he shall never come into
   condemnation, for he has passed from death unto life." I do hope I am
   making this plain. It is my fervent desire and my heart's prayer that
   you may all know the Gospel if you never knew it before. If you have
   known it before, I would that you might discern it more clearly. Should
   you reject it, the fault shall not be mine. God is my witness--I have
   eschewed every idea of trying to be eloquent or oratorical in my
   preaching! I care nothing whatever about the gaudy show of
   speechmaking. I only want to tell you these Truths of God in
   unvarnished speech. It may be that they awaken prejudice and you who
   listen to them, perhaps, are saying they are dull and trite. Such trite
   truisms, however, contain the very pith and marrow of the Gospel
   whereby you can be guided to Heaven! Dull as you may account them, if
   rejected, dark and dreary, indeed, will be the ruin of your souls. I
   charge you, therefore, before Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
   and the dead, that you remember these few simple things, seeing they
   involve your hope or your despair, your salvation or your condemnation
   for eternity! Door of Heaven, there is none but this! Gate of Paradise,
   there is none beside it! "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
   Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed
   unto us the word of reconciliation." He has devised for us a way of
   redemption. Trusting in Him, we shall be saved! Rejecting Him, we are
   lost!

   Jesus claims of you that you do not trust in yourselves. That you do
   not think that you are good enough. That you should not imagine that
   you ever can be good enough of yourselves. That you rely not in any
   ceremonies. That you will not depend upon any man. That you do not
   encourage a hope of Heaven by any reasoning or resolution of your own,
   but that you just put your sole trust in Him! Though it seems too good
   to be true, yet true it is, that if you are the worst of sinners,
   defiled with vilest lusts and degraded with heaviest crimes--though
   your sins are of scarlet dye, and their remembrance haunts you like
   ghostly specters--yet if you will trust in Jesus, whom God has set
   forth for a Propitiation, you shall have perfect forgiveness from God,
   the eternal Father, and power shall be given you to overcome those very
   trespasses to which you were prone, that you fall not into them again!
   Oh, glorious Gospel of the ever-blessed God! Would that men had hearts
   to receive and welcome its gracious provisions!

   III. THE BLESSINGS WHICH JESUS CHRIST BRINGS TO ALL WHO TRUST HIM.

   This may well exceed our power to enumerate them. "By this Man is
   preached unto you forgiveness of sins. "Not lenience, but pardon--the
   forgiveness of all sins! From your childhood to your old age! The sins
   of fourscore years, if you have lived so long! Your public
   misdemeanors, your private trespasses, your overt acts, your secret
   thoughts, your uttered words, your smothered wishes--the whole catalog
   all unrolled of your transgressions and obliquities shall be at once
   blotted out from the book of God's remembrance, if you trust in Jesus
   Christ! They shall not be laid to your charge. However black the list,
   or long the inventory, do but trust in this Man and they shall be all
   forgiven you! He that confesses his sin and comes to Jesus shall find
   mercy, shall find mercy now! Is there one here who feels his guilt?
   What grateful news this must be to his aching heart! I wish that you
   all knew how guilty you have been, and how deeply stained you are. A
   real broken-hearted sinner is a gem wherever you meet with him. There
   is no music in the world like the notes of pardon to the
   conscience-stricken self-convicted sinner! Jesus gives pardon for all
   sin. To those that believe in Him, He gives immediate pardon--not
   pardon in prospective, not pardon to be revealed when you come to die,
   but pardon now--pardon reaching sins yet to come, pardon comprehending
   the whole of your sinful life, given into your hands to be read by the
   eye of your faith and to be as distinctly known as though it were
   delivered to you on parchment written by an angel's hand, sealed with
   the Savior's blood! Christ Jesus will give a pardon which shall never
   be revoked! A pardon that cannot hereafter be cancelled. God never
   plays fast and loose with men. Whom He once pardons, He never condemns.
   If He pronounce a man forgiven, forgiven he is and forgiven he shall be
   when the world is on a blaze! What unspeakable joy shall fill the soul
   of him who hails this hallowed hour a pardon from the skies! His burden
   gone! His manacles struck off! His fetters loosed! The fever cured! His
   health restored! How he will leap with delight! Dance with pleasure and
   sing with holy mirth! Believe in the slain but ever-living Son of God,
   poor Sinner, and this heavenly rapture shall be yours to prove!

   This is a pardon of pure good will that retains no dregs of animosity.
   A man forgives his child and foregoes the rod, but he may say, "I shall
   not forget your conduct, for in the future I cannot trust you." But
   when God forgives, He does not reproach. He takes the prodigal to His
   bosom. He does not seat him at the end of the table to remind him of
   his waywardness, but He kills the fatted calf for him to convince him
   of his welcome! In some of us who were the very chief of sinners, He
   puts such confidence that He gives a commission to preach the Gospel to
   others by which we are saved ourselves--and sends us about the business
   which lies nearest to His heart--and most concerns His own Glory. Oh,
   yes, it is a blessed pardon which sweeps the whole extent of human ruin
   and redeems us, restores us and recoups us for the losses we sustained
   by sinning! And not only so, but by Him, by Jesus, all who believe are
   justified as well as forgiven--justified from all things which we could
   not be justified by the Law of Moses. Here we have a comparison, or
   rather a contrast. What does this mean? When men came to the altar,
   according to the Law of Moses, they brought a bullock which they
   offered for their sin. This done, with what feelings would they depart
   from the altar? Conscious of guilt the man came-- convinced that he had
   complied with a statute, he went away. But his conscience was not
   cleansed! The stain was not removed. Though the blood of the beast
   quieted some of his scruples and eased some of his terrors, it did not,
   could not, give him perfect peace! He must have known that the blood of
   bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer could not take away sin,
   neither could it atone for its guilt or eradicate its venom.

   By so much is the Gospel of Christ better than the Law of Moses. If you
   will come and trust Christ, you shall feel that you are no longer
   guilty! Up till now you have lived in guilt and sin. Henceforth the
   whole force of sin upon the conscience shall be gone! You shall have
   peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord! You shall feel that for
   the past it is so obliterated that you have it no longer on your
   conscience. You can sing--

   "Thro' Jesus' blood, I'm clean." What a mercy this is--this perfect
   cleansing of the conscience from guilt! He that come to the altar under
   Moses' Law did not always feel that he could come to God. The blood was
   sprinkled and there was the way of access--but only the High Priest
   went within the veil once in the year. The Law of Moses could not so
   justify a man as to let him have access to the Mercy Seat, but Jesus
   Christ so justifies His people that they come right up to God and speak
   to Him as a child to a father! They tell Him all their needs and
   weaknesses, all their gratitude and joy. Into His very ears they pour
   out their loving hearts. How sweet the access of the creature, man, to
   his Covenant God, when once he knows Christ! I do avow that some of us
   have as truly talked with God as ever we spoke to men--and have been as
   sure that we were in the Presence of our heavenly Father, and as
   conscious of that wonderful overshadowing as ever we have been
   conscious that we have been in fellowship with any man or woman born!
   Oh, if you did but know it, God would not seem far off from you when
   you once trusted Christ! You would not think of Him as the God of
   Thunder driving His rattling car over the sky with a flashing spear of
   lightning, but you would sing of Him--

   "The God that rules on high,

   And thunders when He pleases,

   That rides upon the stormy sky

   And manages the seas.

   This awful God is ours,

   Our Father and our Love--

   He will send down His heavenly powers

   To carry us above."

   You would see Him everywhere about you with the eyes of your spirit and
   rejoice in Him!

   They who came by the Law of Moses to the altar were not justified from
   apprehensions of the future--but each worshipper, as he went home after
   all the killing of lambs, and rams, and bullocks--was afraid to die.
   But he that trusts in Jesus feels that, as far as the future is
   concerned, he is perfectly secure. "Now," he says, "God has promised to
   save those who trust Christ. I trust Christ--God must save me. He is
   bound by His Justice to do so." On the lion of Justice rides the fair
   maid of Faith, and she has no fear! While God is just, no disciple of
   Jesus can be destroyed! What if Justice charges me with being a sinner?
   I reply, "'Tis true I am, and yet I am not amenable to judgment, for
   all my sins are taken from me. They were laid on my blessed Surety! I
   have not one left. Christ has been punished for my sins--shall two be
   punished for one offense? Shall my Substitute die, and I die, too?
   Shall Christ be condemned and I be condemned, too, for the one and same
   offense? God is not so unjust as to punish first the Substitute, and
   then the man for whom the Substitute stood."

   Oh, this is something to roll back on! This is a pillow for an aching
   head! This is a safe boat to sail in amidst the storms of life and
   across the seas of death. Jesus Christ in my place, outside the gate of
   the city, poured out His heart's blood as God's great Victim! I trust
   in Him. Trusting in Him, I cannot perish! He has sworn and will not
   change His mind! By two Immutable things wherein it is impossible for
   God to lie, He has given strong consolation to them who flee for refuge
   to the hope set before them in the Gospel! Oh, Beloved, surely we can
   live on this promise, and on this promise die!

   Would to God that you all trusted Him! May full many of you trust Him
   now for the first time. The preaching of this Gospel is trustworthy
   because the promise is trustworthy. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
   Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who
   believes. Do you believe? Say, "Yes," or, "No," for there are signs
   following in either case. Say "Yes," and say it now! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS 13:14-42.

   Verses 14, 15. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch
   in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and sat down.
   And after reading of the Law and the Prophets. From which there were
   always two appointed lessons, one from the writings of Moses, and
   another from one of the Prophets. And on this day it was probably the
   First Chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, or the First Chapter of the
   Book of the Prophet Isaiah--"the rulers of the synagogue sent unto
   them."

   15. The rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, You men and
   brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
   They were seen to be Jews who were traveling, and they were invited by
   the minister who conducted the service, to stand up and say anything
   they had to say. "Then Paul stood up and, beckoning with his hand,
   said--

   16. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of
   Israel, and you that fear God, give audience. You, who, though
   Gentiles, have come to worship Jehovah, God of Israel--"men of Israel."

   17. 18. The God ofthispeople ofIsrael chose our fathers, and exalted
   thepeople when they dwelt as strangers in the land ofEgypt, and with an
   high arm brought He them out ofit. And about the time offorty years
   suffered He their manners in the wilderness. You that are familiar with
   your Bibles will be struck with the great likeness of this sermon by
   Paul to that of Stephen. It seems to run on the same lines. Stephen
   gave the history of Israel to the Israelites. Paul does the same. Ah,
   we can never tell how great was the influence of that dying Stephen
   upon this living Paul! Paul is the continuation of Stephen. His blood
   was not lost in that day when they stoned him to death. From his ashes
   sprang this mighty preacher of the Word of God!

   19-22. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan,
   He divided their land to them by lot And after that He gave unto them
   judges for about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until
   Samuel the Prophet And afterwards they desired a king: and God gave
   unto them Saul, the Son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the
   space offorty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up unto
   them, David, to be their king; to whom also He gave testimony, and
   said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart,
   which shall fulfill all My will All this would be very pleasing to the
   Jews. They were never weary of hearing the ancient history of
   themselves as a chosen people. Paul ingratiates himself with them. The
   Gospel that he had to preach was bitter to them, but he gilds the pill!

   And we must do what we can lawfully and properly do to win the
   attention of men and their kindly feeling to us, although we must
   faithfully preach the Gospel. Now he got as far as David into history.
   Now we will step to Christ.

   23-25. Of this man's seed has God according to His promise raised unto
   Israel a Savior--Jesus--after John had first preached before His coming
   the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John
   fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think you that I am? I am not He.
   But, behold, there comes One after me, whose shoes of His feet I am not
   worthy to loosen. He brings in the testimony of John, who was
   universally respected among them. They regarded him as the last of the
   Prophets, and so Paul still tries to win their kind feelings.

   26, 27. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whoever
   among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent For they
   that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not,
   nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, they
   have fulfilled them in condemning Him. Not knowing it, they have
   fulfilled the prophecies of old in condemning Jesus, the Son of David!

   28, 29. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired
   they Pilate that He should be slain. And when they had fulfiled all
   that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him
   in a sepulcher. You see he has given the story of Christ--His life, His
   death, His burial, His Resurrection.

   30, 31. And He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from
   Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. He does
   not expect them to believe without proofs, but he adduces the proof of
   the Resurrection in the many witnesses who saw Him after He had risen.

   32-37. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which
   was made unto the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us, their
   children, in that He has raised up Jesus again: as it is also written
   in the Second Psalm, You are My Son, this day have I begotten You. And
   as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to
   return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will give You the sure
   mercies of David. Therefore He also says in another Psalm, You will not
   allow Your Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served
   his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto
   his fathers, and saw corruption. But He, whom God raised again, saw no
   corruption. So that David was not speaking of himself, but he was
   speaking of another and higher David, his greater Son, the Son of God,
   begotten of the Father!

   38. Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this Man is
   preached unto you the forgiveness of sins-- Now they have it. Now he
   brings it out very clearly, indeed! Glad tidings are now ringing in
   their ears!

   39. And by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from
   which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses. The sins which
   the Law of Moses did not propose to touch, yes--all sins which the Law
   of Moses could only typically remove--all these sins are now really
   taken away by this glorious Son!

   40. 41. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of
   in the Prophets: Behold, you despisers, and wonder, andperish: for I
   work a work in your days, a work which you shallin no wise believe,
   though one were to declare it unto you. You cannot imagine anything
   more appropriate to the occasion, more properly set forth, more bold,
   more clear--but these men were not prepared to receive it.

   42. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles
   besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.
   They are earnest hearers who want to hear the same sermon again! But
   perhaps they did not expect to hear the same words, but to get the same
   sense and have it explained more fully that they might the better grasp
   it. Oh, what a mercy it is when the congregation is going away, if
   there are some that stay behind, anxious to learn more!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Saint's Trials and the Divine Deliverances

   (No. 3548)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY 11, 1872.

   "I cried unto God... You led Your people like a flock by the hand of
   Moses and Aaron." Psalm 77:1-20.

   THIS Psalm describes the condition of a child of God under deep
   depression of spirit. He is much tried and bowed, and yet, at the same
   time, the saint at last gets the victory and, before the Psalm is over,
   the clouds are all removed from the sky and the heart rejoices in the
   sunlight of Divine Love. It is known to every Believer that the
   experience of a Christian is very variable. We are like our own strange
   weather in this land. South winds blow and all is warm and balmy, but
   in a few hours the north wind comes, or the cutting east wind--and soon
   the ground is covered with snow or hard white frost--and yet, perhaps,
   in another day or two there will be a storm! Some Believers have all
   spiritual weathers in a week. Being somewhat excitable, perhaps
   naturally, they readily take to themselves wings and mount aloft, but
   then as a high soar is often followed by a great fall, these very
   Believers are soon sighing and crying out of the very depths and half
   doubt whether they are the people of God at all! Nor must I say that is
   common to merely excitable people. Some of the very noblest heroes in
   the Christian army have had a very dark experience to go through. If
   you read the life of Martin Luther, of whom we may well say that never
   braver soldier fought beneath the banner of the Cross, you will find
   him the subject of the most terrible exercises. He was strong in his
   God, but he was very weak in himself--subject to ferocious
   temptations--temptations the like of which probably few of us have ever
   known because we are not men of his gigantic mold, and God does not
   allow trials to come upon us which were only suitable for him. He
   oftentimes seemed to lie at Hell's gates, but then, again, the man
   seemed as if he had looked Heaven in the face and lived in perpetual
   communion with his God!

   John Bunyan's description of the progress of the pilgrim to Heaven
   would lead us to expect that there would be changes, for at one time we
   find the pilgrim safely housed in the Palace Beautiful--all around him
   is redolent with the odor of flowers and the song of birds--next day he
   descends to the Valley of Humiliation. Even there he has a conflict or
   two, but a little farther on he comes to the Valley of Death Shades and
   there he has to fight for every step, while darkness surrounds him and
   the adversary of souls comes forth to meet him! We are uphill and
   downhill all the way to Heaven! Like the children of Israel, our path
   to Canaan lies through a wilderness, and though, blessed be God, the
   Grace of Heaven has made the wilderness to rejoice and blossom as a
   rose, yet are there fiery serpents in it and it is a wilderness, after
   all. Notwithstanding all that God does for us while in it, this state
   in this present world is a state of bondage. "We that are in this body
   do groan, being burdened"--longing for the time of the home-bringing,
   when we shall come to our own country and be at rest forever and
   forever!

   Now at this time I shall not attempt to describe all the spiritual
   conflict with error. If I am not able to describe that--(and who
   is?)--I can at least speak with a measure of assurance of the spiritual
   experience of some of God's servants, for I will go no deeper than I
   have gone, myself, and if I do that, I shall be able to speak with some
   measure of assurance.

   First, then, let us make the remark that the child of God may undergo
   great spiritual trials. But, secondly, we shall ask you to consider the
   conduct of the child of God when in the condition--very different from
   that of the worldly man. And, thirdly, we shall notice those springs of
   comfort which relieve saints in that spirit, and will relieve us also.
   First, then--

   I. A TRUE CHILD OF GOD MAY UNDERGO VERY DEEP MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL
   TRIALS.

   No superficial trials, such as are common to men, but really
   overwhelming trials seem to come to those who are favorites of Heaven,
   who lean their heads on Jesus' bosom, and are among the most gracious
   of the Lord's chosen. Asaph's trial was no light one--it was a great
   grief that came upon him. From some words in the Psalm, one would think
   it was a personal disease under which he was suffering. But from other
   words it would seem to be a deep affliction that had come upon his
   family and those he loved. This had caused him to be depressed in
   spirit and heavy in soul to a very solemn degree, for he declared that
   his sore ran in the night, and ceased not. He complained that his
   spirit was overwhelmed. Don't, therefore, conclude that you are no
   child of God because the joys you once had are gone! I am delighted
   when I have been with young Christians full of their first joy--and I
   earnestly pray that it will be very long before those joys are
   dampened, but at the same time, it may be prudent to let them know that
   should those joys depart, it will be no evidence whatever that God's
   love is departed, too! We must always beware of living by feeling. It
   is pleasant in summer, but it is an ill way of living in the winter of
   the soul. We walk by faith, not by sight, nor yet by feeling, for we
   remember that our feelings are often of a very mixed character--and
   what we think to be holy joy may be, some of it, animal excitement--
   may not be altogether that joy of the Lord which is our strength.
   Don't, don't, I beseech you, base your evidence of the possession of
   salvation upon your joy, because if you do, you will be in sad trouble
   when your joy varies or flies. Build your hope on something better than
   unsubstantial delights, namely, on the finished work of faith, such as
   the poor publican had, still crying, even in your best frames, "God be
   merciful to me a sinner! God be merciful to me a sinner," for between
   here and the gates of Heaven you will have to go by a weeping cross,
   perhaps many times--and if the Lord loves you more than others, you
   will have more trials than others--strange trials shall come to you!
   Therefore, regard it not as though some strange thing had happened to
   you. Some of the best of God's people may pass through the deepest
   trouble.

   And remark, next, that this may not only be very deep, but very
   frequent. It appears to have been so with Asaph. He describes himself
   as being by day and by night vexed with his trouble. It was not a
   transient cloud--it was a heavy storm that brooded over his spirit. For
   40 days and nights the heavens seemed to pour down their torrents and
   his soul felt no rest. Do not wonder if you sometimes shall come into
   that condition. I pray you may not, but if you do, I say be upon your
   guard not to condemn yourself! You remember how holy Job's friends,
   when they saw him upon a dunghill scraping himself with a potsherd,
   began to tell him that he must be a hypocrite, or he would not be
   there? How could he be what he professed to be, and yet be there? Now
   that is exactly what the devil will tell you! If you are in deep trials
   and are on a dunghill, too, he will say that--and perhaps some of your
   Christian friends will say the same. It will be very ungenerous and not
   like Christ if they do. Worst of all, perhaps you, yourself, will think
   the same. But let the warning of this evening help to keep you from
   such a temptation. It is no evidence whatever that God has no love to
   you if He chastens you, for remember who it was--that it was none other
   than a great servant of God who said, "All the daylong have I been
   plagued and chastened every morning." And He who was still greater,
   even your blessed Lord and Master, was the "Man of Sorrows" and the
   acquaintance of grief. Do not, then, for your own soul's sake, permit
   an insinuation as to God's love being shown in your happiness, or His
   hatred being manifest in your depression of spirit! Do not allow it to
   cross your mind! Some of the best of God's servants have, moreover, not
   only been in the deeps, and been there long, but when in such a
   condition they have refused to be comforted. Read the second verse--"My
   soul refused to be comforted"--as if he had put away everything that
   could cheer him! A man of God, and a poet, too--a man Inspired and who
   could cheer others, as he has done by the sweet lays which he has left
   us in the Book of Psalms--yet when these sweet things were brought
   before him, he said, "Put them away!"

   And have you never known, O you advanced Christians--(I know you
   have)--what it is to say of a promise, "No. It is very precious, but I
   am afraid I should deceive myself if I were to think, 'That is mine.'"?
   You have found the word come very preciously home to your soul when you
   have heard a sermon--and then at night, when you have tossed upon your
   bed, you have said--"I am afraid it would be nothing better than
   presumption if I were to suck in all the consolation out of that." All
   the while the comfort was yours, and you might have had it--the sweets
   were meant on purpose for you--and yet you could not take them! Now
   there zssomething good about that. A holy anxiety is a thing that is
   desirable, and I would never preach up the full assurance of faith so
   as for a moment to speak a word against that holy anxiety! My soul has
   often said, "I will not be comforted till Jesus comforts me"--put away
   the peace that many have spoken and said, "No! No peace shall ever come
   to my soul except the peace, the Master's peace--peace from His own
   lips by His own Spirit. And I believe that is right, but sometimes that
   anxiety may be carried to an unbelieving extent and state! We set up
   tests for ourselves that are not warrantable and condemn ourselves when
   God does not condemn us! And though we are the precious children of
   God, comparable to fine gold, we reckon ourselves to be as the earthen
   vessels, the work of the hands of the potter. It is very easy to write
   bitter things against yourself when the clouds of darkness are hanging
   over your soul. This good man did so--he refused to be comforted.

   When this occurs, it is not at all remarkable if the grief of soul that
   is caused in the man should break his sleep. Observe how he puts it,
   "You hold my eyes waking." The eyelids--those guards of the eyes were
   made to keep their station. The eyes would still be open. There was no
   rest for the man. And who can rest when he does not know that he is a
   saved soul? Let me doubt whether I am God's child, and dare I rest? I
   am often astounded at the ease with which some men talk of their doubts
   and fears. Do not know whether you are saved or not, and yet go to
   sleep? Perhaps you may wake in death! An enemy to God, or afraid that
   you may be, and yet find rest? My dear Brothers and Sisters, I will not
   condemn your doubts, but I must condemn you if you can be in ease at
   all while you are under them, for surely this is a matter of the first
   importance--"Am I His, or am I not?"

   Am I really regenerate, or is it all pretence? Am I made to seem to
   live, while I am dead? Or am I truly one of these whom God has made to
   be a new creation in Christ Jesus? Now when a man gets really disturbed
   about that, and that is the question, and he is afraid lest God' s
   mercy and God' s promise should not be to him, that he is left to
   himself to perish--when a man is in that state, he cannot rest--he must
   then feel that until this quarrel is over and this problem is decided,
   he can find no rest for the soles of his feet.

   Moreover, in such circumstances, it may sometimes occur that the good
   man cannot tell his story to anybody else. So it is here--"I am so
   troubled that I cannot speak"--dare not tell it to anybody else--too
   great a grief to be unburdened. He could whisper it low at the
   Redeemer's feet, "My Lord, have pity on Your servant," but he cannot
   come and tell others because he does not know that any other has been
   through the same. He is afraid that his course is singular and so
   remarkable that if he were to mention it, his Brothers and Sisters
   would shun him! Besides, perhaps he has begun to mention it to some and
   they, not understanding him, have given him such a harsh reply that he
   shrank altogether from them. There are many fat cattle that push and
   push with horn and shoulder the lean ones of God's flock, and 'tis ill,
   'tis ill when we do this." He that is troubled in spirit and cast down
   is often as a lamb despised by those who are at ease. He may be the
   best man of the whole company and yet, if he were to tell his
   experience, they would think him to be the worst. He may be the best in
   the whole Church and yet such may be the turmoil of his soul,
   sometimes, that were he to narrate his experience, many who are not to
   be compared with him for a moment would fight shy of him altogether! He
   has a grief within him which he cannot tell.

   And now comes one other point, and this, perhaps, is the worst phase of
   the depression through which this man of God may go, namely, that even
   that which ought to comfort him, will minister to his yet greater
   grief. He says, "I remembered God, and was troubled." Why, Brothers and
   Sisters, our thoughts of God are refreshing to us, they always should
   be! Just as good meat ought to nourish the body (only when the body is
   sick, that good meat turns to mischief), so thoughts of God ought
   always to delight our soul--and I rejoice that they do for the most
   part. In our pilgrimage there is nothing yields us such a delightful
   song as the thought of our God, the Father, the Savior, and the blessed
   indwelling Spirit! But when the soul is sick, and a gracious soul may
   get sick in that way, the very thoughts of God become a trouble. See
   how it is. You will think, "He is very just--how can I stand in His
   sight?" But He is very gracious. Yes, and how gracious He has been to
   me, and how unworthily have I made any return for that Grace! He is
   loving, ah, and very loving. How can I expect that I should taste of
   that love after the poor return I have made? And shall every attribute
   of God's will at such times seem to be black against you. His very
   faithfulness you will feel. "Ah, if He is faithful to His promise, what
   part and lot shall I have in that promise? It must be, after all, a
   mere delusion of mine that my name is written in His Book! How can it
   be that I shall have a share among His chosen?" Whereas, when the soul
   is right, every attribute of God is cheering, when once it gets in
   darkness, and gets away from the foot of the Cross--gets away from
   looking with a poor sinner's tearful eyes to the sinner's Savior,
   simply and alone, shall every attribute of God's seem to roll with
   thunder and flash with lightning on his spirit! I do know what this
   means. I have stood and seen the storm fly over my head, cloud on
   cloud, blacker and yet blacker, and my spirit crushed and utterly
   broken, until not a hope was left! Then have I seen one rift in the
   midst of the cloud, and a lone star shining there, the Star of
   Bethlehem and, looking up, all seemed calm beneath my soul, even on
   that sea! Just then the storm stopped at sight of that star and there I
   seemed to see the love of God to the very guiltiest of men, to the
   off-scouring of sinners and the refuse--and resting as a little child,
   humbly, simply, and alone, upon what the Master did for sinners on the
   Cross--joy and peace have come back! But many and many, and many a
   child of God has known what it is to see every hope blasted, all
   experience gone and all Grace withered--that is, apparently so, for it
   was not really so--because after all, perhaps we are never richer than
   when we think we are the poorest of all, never so well clad as when we
   know we are naked in ourselves, never so near to God as when we feel we
   are near to Hell if the Grace of God does not interpose!

   Thus I have given you but a very brief outline of the mental and
   spiritual trials through which an heir of Heaven may sometimes pass.
   Now, secondly--

   II. WHAT IS THE STATE OF THE CHILD OF GOD WHEN HE GETS INTO THIS
   DEPRESSION OF SPIRIT?

   Well, I will tell you what a man does when he is not a child of God. He
   cries, with Pliable, "The first time I get out of this, if I get out on
   the side nearest my house, you may have the brave country to yourself,
   for I am not going floundering through this bog of mud." Anybody's dog
   will follow me if I feed it, but only my own dog will follow me if I
   beat it. And any man will be a Christian, or profess to be one, while
   it is all joy, and silver slippers, and gravel walks--but only the man
   who really loves God, who says, "All the daylong have I been plagued
   and chastened every morning"--it is only the man of God who can say,
   "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him--if He takes away my comfort,
   and I have no joy but in Himself, still will I cling to Him."

   Now Asaph did not go off, as many men would, to worldly pleasures to
   make up his loss. He did not say, "Well, well, I am not as happy as I
   used to be in my religious profession--I shall go to a theater, or find
   joyful companions, or stick to business to drown my thoughts." No, no.
   He, just as the child which has been chastened by its parent (if it is
   what it should be) can only find comfort by clinging to the very parent
   that chastened it, and ask for a loving, forgiving kiss! And even so it
   is with the chastened child of God--he clings to God the more, the more
   he is made to smart. So the first thing Asaph did was he prayed. "I
   cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice." Oh, sweet
   consolation of prayer! Would not some hearts be utterly broken if they
   could not pray? This is the sweet vent that we get for our fermented
   griefs. Our spirits are soon at rest when we can but pray. Let us pray!
   "Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe God; believe also in Me."
   You see how Asaph puts it twice, "I cried unto God with my voice even
   unto God with my voice." He betook himself to prayer!

   The next thing he did was, he betook himself to meditation. "I
   remembered God." (Fifth verse). "I have considered the days of old, the
   years of ancient times." (Sixth verse). "I call to remembrance my song
   in the night. I commune with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent
   search." He began to meditate more, to meditate on his God--to meditate
   on what God had done for other saints--to meditate upon his own former
   joys and helps in times of trouble, and to meditate upon the sweet
   songs which he had then uttered when he, himself, had been in trial
   before. Now this was a sweet way of gaining consolation. Does the Lord
   smite me? Well, then, I will think of the day when He caressed me! Am I
   in trouble, and has He put me in it? Then I will think of the times
   when I was in troubles, before, and He brought me out of them! He has
   been with me in six troubles--will He leave me in the seventh? I have
   gone through the waters. He was there with me--will He leave me now
   that He has brought me so far? Can it be that with so long a time of
   love, He will now desert His child? This gathers force. Aged Christian,
   you are 60 or seventy. You expect to live another ten years, and God
   has preserved you for seventy--cannot you trust Him for the other ten?
   After so much kindness in the past, will He cease now? Oh, it is good
   to go over these things and then to recollect when, in years gone by,
   you were in as bad a condition as you are now, and you sang all the
   while! Ah, dear Friend, you lost one you dearly loved, but you were
   supported. What? Are you going to sink now? Why, the time was when you
   could play the man for Christ! Why, you ran the risk of losing all that
   you had for His name' s sake--and are you going to throw down your
   weapons now? You are like the old navigator who had been round the
   world and when he got into the Thames coming home, the wind blew. "Oh,"
   he said, "Have I been round the world, and am I going to drown in a
   ditch? Not I!" And so I say to you--have you passed through all these
   troubles and difficulties and are you going to be lost, after all?
   Remember your song in the night, and begin to sing again! Let the new
   song be in your mouth. One who long loved music said, "Glory be to You
   for all the Grace I have not tasted yet!" If you cannot sing of what
   you are tasting, think of what you are to taste in the Glory Land that
   is before you, when you get there! Be of good comfort--meditation shall
   console you!

   Then this man of prayer, after using prayer and meditation, betook
   himself to these employments. If you notice, he spent his time in
   self-examination--"In communion with my own heart and my spirit, I made
   diligent search." Show me why You contend with me. Lord if I am
   chastened, tell me why. If I have lost the light of Your Countenance,
   why do You hide Yourself from me? For what sin is it that You are
   rebuking me? What Grace is it that You would strengthen in me? What
   idol is it that You would take away from me? What duty have I
   neglected, of which You would remind me? I commune with my own heart,
   and look within to see if there is the cause of the distress--and look
   up to God, my Father, and say, "Why do You leave me? Why have You
   forsaken me?" And then I repeat to myself, "Why are you cast down O my
   Soul? Why are you disquieted within me?" "Oh," says one, "I don't care
   much about self-examination. Mark you, I do not think much of your
   religion." There are a great many people in the world in trade that do
   not like looking at their books and when a man does not want to know
   the position of his trade, I think we can, most of us, make a pretty
   shrewd guess at where he is! And when a man is afraid of
   self-examination, when he is afraid of a heart-searching discourse or
   heart-searching Providence, he may be pretty sure there is something
   rotten within. God deliver us from being unwilling to know the very
   worst of our position! May we be always anxious to know the worst, than
   for a moment to be flattered! Let us, then, if we would get comfort,
   get to self-examination!

   And then, once again, in time of trouble this man of God took
   toholyarguments and devout reasoning. Here is the question, Will the
   Lord cast off forever? He may put His child aside for a moment, but can
   He quite forget? Can He quite leave? Can He ever cast off those that
   are His own beloved? Will He be favorable no more? He has said, "For a
   small moment have I forsaken you," but will He make that small moment
   into forever? I know He turns a deaf ear to His people for a
   moment--but will He never hear prayer again? Has He not said that He is
   a God that hears prayer? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Oh, it is a
   grand thing when a man says--"Can it be that God has left off being
   merciful? Is not His very name, ' Love' ?" That is His very Nature. He
   delights in mercy--can it be true that God has left off His mercy? It
   cannot be! Is His mercy clean gone forever? Does His promise fail
   forevermore? Another question--Can it be that God won' t keep His Word?
   Will His promise be broken? I know it may tarry awhile, but can it be
   that it shall fail, and fail forevermore? And then He puts it again,
   "Has God forgotten to be gracious--got out of the habit of being
   gracious? He used to be always gracious to those who sought His
   face--has He forgotten it? Is it possible? Has He, in anger, shut up
   His tender mercy? Can it be? Can it be?" Oh, Beloved, if we were
   sometimes thus to school ourselves and cross-question our own unbelief,
   the Holy Spirit would give us comfort. "Can the woman forget her
   sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her
   womb? Yes, she may forget, yet will not I forget you. I will never
   leave you, nor forsake you." They that trust in the Lord shall not want
   any good thing. "Fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed, 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." Is all this nothing? Are
   these promises, and ten thousand more, only so many words and so much
   chaff? O you wicked unbelief! The virgin daughter of Zion has shaken
   her head at you, and laughed, because you have not a foot to stand
   upon-- no argument to defend yourself. Away with you, you lie, you
   child of Hell! Away with you! I must believe in my God. I will fall
   back into His arms. I will confide, again, in His eternal faithfulness.
   Is He a God, and can His love grow weary of saving? He is not a man
   that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. Has He
   said, and will He not do it? Yes, He will do it, and to the last jot
   and tittle shall His Word be fulfilled and His promises shall be kept
   for they are yes and amen in Christ Jesus to the Glory of God by us.
   God grant us Grace thus to battle with unbelief! And now, in the third
   place, as we have seen the man in his condition and what he does, let
   us now consider--

   III. SOME OF THOSE COMFORTABLE THINGS WHICH MAY HELP US OUT OF THAT
   POSITION, or help us not to fall into it! First, observe that the great
   source of comfort, to the tried Believer--any Believer--is to be found
   of God. All those questions were about his God. "I will remember the
   years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of
   the Lord. I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate also on
   all Your work, and talk of Your doings." If you get to meditating on
   your own works, you won't get much comfort out of them! And if you get
   to talking of your own doings, you are brewing for yourself bitter
   drinks. But when the soul looks at God, at God's Mercy, God's Grace,
   and Christ the Incarnate God, and the finished work of Christ--at His
   merits--then it is that the soul is comforted! All that there is in us
   that may be seen in a time of depression is of man. We must look right
   away to Him in whom our hope lies. I will not lift up my eyes to
   anything else. From where comes my help? My help comes from the

   Lord, who has made Heaven and Earth! Child of God, store your mind with
   His knowledge and His Glory. Seek to know the Lord Jesus! Ask to be
   instructed in the knowledge of Him, for then in the times of difficulty
   you will have a store ready to your hand--great reasons for consolation
   which will be comfortable to your spirit!

   But do you notice how he dwells upon the works of God and the power of
   God "You are the God that does wonders; You have declared Your strength
   among the people. Lord, You can help me. My case is difficult, but You
   are strong enough. You are able to help me." Oh, this is the way to get
   comfort--to know the power of God, which is past finding out. One thing
   especially the Psalmist dwelt upon, and that is Redemption--"You have
   with Your arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph." When
   there is no light anywhere else, there is at Calvary! Look there to the
   Paschal Lamb, and to the going out of Egypt by blood, and to the
   ransoming of His people. Do you think that Christ bought you with His
   blood and that you should lie in Hell and perish? Do you believe in
   redemption of that kind which does not redeem? Have you a Savior who
   came to save those whom He never will save? Do you believe in such a
   Savior? Then I marvel not at your doubts and fears! But if you have
   reliance upon the mighty God, in whose hands the pleasure of the Lord
   must prosper, and who shall see His Seed and rejoice in the travail of
   His soul, then, leaning on Him whose hands were stretched to the nail
   for you, you have good ground for joy, confidence and peace! Study the
   Atonement, study the Redemption, study the Cross and you will be
   readily comforted!

   At the close of the Psalm, Asaph, after his usual habit, takes himself
   away to the Red Sea and suggests as a ground for comfort what God did
   there. There were His people--slaves, and in bondage--and He brought
   them out. He will bring you out! Pharaoh was very strong and he said,
   "I fear not the Lord, neither will I let the people go." But God was
   stronger than Pharaoh and He will be stronger than the devil and all
   your enemies! Then they came out and there was the Red Sea before them,
   and how could they get through the sea? "The waters saw You, O God; the
   waters saw You, they were afraid." You have many troubles and many
   sins--they will fly before the Presence of God! Then they came into the
   wilderness--how could they ever traverse that? Then the Lord was
   pleased to send them their bread each morning, and to continually give
   them their water. Whereas their clothes could not be very speedily
   replenished, their garments grew not old, so to speak. They had no
   guide, no one with them that could well conduct them through the
   wilderness, but the fiery, cloudy pillar went before them! They never
   went a step awry, for that fiery, cloudy pillar led them all the way.
   Now your condition is the same as theirs--and you shall have the same
   supplies. Be not cast down! Rejoice in the Lord and go forward. "He led
   His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron"--so the Psalm
   closes--and He will lead you, and lead you safely! They set out to go
   to the land of Canaan, and to the land of Canaan they came. And if you
   are resting upon the blood of Christ, and depending upon His eternal
   merit, He shall surely bring you in and you shall stand in your lot in
   the end of the days! Therefore comfort one another with these words and
   be of good cheer!

   But as for those who have no Savior, I know of no comfort for them in
   the time of trouble. Unbeliever, you shall live without consolation.
   You shall die without consolation, and live forever after--without
   consolation! May you turn. "Turn you, turn you! Why will you die?" May
   the Lord bring you to see that in Christ, alone, is your help found.
   Get Him to be your comfort from this day forth, and forever! Amen,
   amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS26:1-28.

   Three times we have in Holy Writ a graphic report of the conversion of
   Paul. This may be accounted for partly from its being one of the most
   remarkable events of early sacred history, Paul having had a greater
   effect upon the Christian Church than any other living man. At the same
   time I think it teaches us that the Holy Spirit sets especial store by
   the facts connected with this very remarkable conversion. If He gives
   it three times in the sacred Volume, we ought to give it a triple
   attention and see if we cannot learn from it.

   Verses 1-3. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, You are permitted to speak for
   yourself Then Paul stretched forth his hand and answered for himself: I
   think myself happy, King Agrippa. because I shall answer for myself
   this day before you touching all the things whereof 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
   patiently. With what courtesy does he speak! Paul is bold, but see how
   he is all things to all men! And he begins an address for his life with
   great adroitness and skill--teaching us that we are to use all the
   courtesies of life to those to whom they belong, and never to cause
   needless irritation. There is enough offense in the Cross of itself,
   without our being offensive when uplifting it.

   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 strictest sect of
   our religion Ilived a Pharisee. 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 setting God day and night, hope to come.
   For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. For the
   Pharisees did hold very firmly the doctrine of the resurrection of the
   dead, and Paul often instances this, as being the very thing, though no
   longer a Pharisee, to which he was glad to give witness.

   8-11. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God
   should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do
   many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I
   also did in Jerusalem; 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 I punished them often
   in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being
   exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange
   cities. He had the courage of his convictions. Believing a thing, he
   did not let it lie idle. He regarded the Christians as a pestilent sect
   and, therefore, he hunted them down. He abhorred the name of Jesus of
   Nazareth as that of an imposter and, therefore, he determined that no
   stone should be left unturned to overthrow His power.

   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? It is hard for you to kick against
   the pricks. Not, "It is hard for Me to bear it," but, "It is hard for
   you," as if, though conscious of being persecuted, our Lord, in that
   Divine Unselfishness which is so natural to Him, forgot the kicks that
   were given to Him and only thought of the injury which Saul was doing
   to himself, when, like an ox that strikes out against the goad, he
   injured himself.

   15-28. 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 those things in the which I
   will yet reveal to you: delivering you from thepeople, and from the
   Gentiles, unto whom 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 of sins, and inheritance among them which are
   sanctified by faith that is in Me. 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 Judea, 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 things than those which the Prophets 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. And as he thus spoke for himself, Festus
   said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside yourself; much learning
   has made you mad! But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but
   speak forth the words of truth and soberness. 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, believe you the prophets? I know that you
   believe. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost you persuade me to be a
   Christian.
     __________________________________________________________________

Little, But Lovely

   (No. 3549)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
   you the kingdom." Luke 12:32.

   How kind and tender Jesus was towards His disciples! When He spoke
   sternly, it was to the outside multitude. Many a time was His spirit
   moved to rebuke them sharply. Very familiarly, however, did He unbend
   Himself in the presence of the few attached followers who were gathered
   round Him and drew near to Him--His chosen, His beloved. To them He
   unveiled His heart. To them He disclosed the things which He had
   received of the Father. From then, He kept back nothing that pertained
   to their welfare. "If it were not so, I would have told you," was once,
   at least, His confidential expression. He thus abode with them as a
   Friend, as an elder Brother, as a loving Father. It is really pleasant
   to observe how much He thought of them--how deeply He sympathized with
   them--how far He was from despising them. The great ones of the earth
   would have shrugged their shoulders and sneered at the poor helpless
   band that gathered around the Prophet of Nazareth. Not so the Divine
   Master. Without for a moment concealing the fact that they were a
   little flock, He looks upon them fondly and applies to them invitingly
   the very epithet their enemies would have used resentfully--
   "little"--as He says, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good
   pleasure to give you the kingdom."

   Few in number they were, He calls them a flock. Thus He takes upon
   Himself the office of a shepherd and by implication He guarantees to
   them feeding and folding, solace and safeguard! And He speaks of
   "little" with a liking. As we often employ diminutive words to express
   endearment, calling those we love by little names, so does the Savior
   here seem to dwell upon the littleness of those He loves. The original
   word might be properly rendered, "very little." "Fear not, tiny flock."
   There is a double diminutive on which He seems to harp, although it had
   a pleasant ring about it. So mothers are known to call their baby
   children by bantling names in their fondness for the wee creatures. But
   far surpassing woman' s love, our Savior's strong affection can no
   rival know. In mild accents, He seems to say, "Never mind how few you
   are, or how despised. Your feebleness gives you a warmer place in My
   heart and makes Me press you more closely to My bosom. Hush, hush. Be
   still. Fear not, little flock."

   And, oh, how ready He is with a reason to revive their confidence! "It
   is your Father's good pleasure." Thus does our beloved Lord recognize
   His own intimate relation with His disciples. "It is your Father's good
   pleasure." And who was their Father but the God and Father of our Lord
   Jesus Christ? He might have said, "It is My Father's good
   pleasure"--but then this was the sweeter way of putting it--"It is your
   Father's good pleasure." They would know that their Father was His
   Father when He thus said, "yourFather." But had He said, "MyFather,"
   they might not have so quickly recollected that He was also their
   Father or, pondering it, they might have had some doubt on the subject.
   What He does, therefore, is, in effect, to call Himself their Brother,
   for if His Father is their Father, then He, Himself, must be their
   Brother. They are near kinsmen! He puts Himself on an equal footing
   with them when so speaking! At once He lifts them up to Himself while
   He goes down to them. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the kingdom." Must it not have been delightful to be on such friendly
   terms with the blessed Lord of Life when He was Incarnate here on
   earth--to have been able to say with John, "The Word was made flesh,
   and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory-- the Glory as of the
   Only-Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and truth"? Not that we have
   any need to fret because we have not that privilege, for we have a
   higher one, inasmuch as Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go
   away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." It
   was better, therefore, for us that Jesus should go in order that we
   might have the abiding Presence of the Holy Spirit, not only to dwell
   with us, but also to be in us! Oh, that we might realize and enjoy the
   Comforter's Presence at this time! It were ill for us to miss the
   Savior's company without having the consolation of the Spirit! To be
   without the bodily Presence of the Lord and without the
   spiritual'Presence of the Holy Spirit were a double loss! Rather let us
   rejoice that He is in us, and shall be with us evermore. In the
   Presence of the Comforter we have a higher grade of communion with God
   than even in the solacing society of the Son of Man. He has gone from
   us, but He has left the words of His comfort to cheer us. In the power
   of the Holy Spirit, then, let us talk with one another concerning these
   words, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure
   to give you the kingdom."

   Our attention is here drawn, first, to a little flock and a Great
   Shepherd. And then to a great fear--what if I say a variety of
   fears--and a still greater consolation.

   I. IT WAS A LITTLE FLOCK to whom the Savior spoke. Did He mean, by so
   designating them, that they were few in point of number? Our Savior's
   ministry, so far as conversion was concerned, was far from being
   prolific in its immediate results. The zeal of the Great Preacher
   painfully contrasted with the apathy of the hearers. The Prophet had
   foreseen the haze that would overhang the mental atmosphere. "Who has
   believed our report?" He exclaimed! How few out of Israel were gathered
   to Him as the fruit of words such as never man spoke, and works such as
   none but God ever did! It is not recorded of our Savior that He ever
   preached a sermon through which three thousand were converted. He left
   that to one of His servants, as if He meant to fulfill that word,
   "Greater things than these shall you do, because I go unto My Father."
   He would put that honor on His servants and take the disappointment, as
   He did the shame and the suffering, to Himself. Such is always His
   loving way. He will take the bleak side of the hill and the rough part
   of the battle for Himself. If there is any softer road to take, or any
   higher honors to win, He will give them to His servants. His converts
   were few--they were a little flock. Some of you may be residing in
   localities where there are but a few Believers meeting together. The
   company looks slender. Do not, I pray you, give place to despondency.
   You can surely worship God in sincerity and truth, though you may lack
   the excitement of a crowd. Perhaps you live where there are so few that
   you can hardly assemble a congregation. Why think yourself denied the
   privilege of communion with Christ because there are only one or two
   gathered together in His name? Some of the happiest days Believers have
   ever known have been alone with Christ! The richest displays of
   Christ's love have been unfolded to the twos and threes and the small
   family gatherings. He has kept His word to the letter, "Where two or
   three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of
   them." Should you happen to belong to a larger company, you are not,
   therefore, shut out from the promise bequeathed to the few. A church of
   five or 5,000 Brothers and Sisters is still a little flock! Compared
   with the vast outlying mass of unbelievers, it is positively
   infinitesimal! Think of the millions that know not God--the hundreds of
   millions that are content to worship idol gods that their own hands
   have made! Take all Christendom into account and assume for the moment
   that every nominal professor were a true convert to Christ--the Church
   would form but a feeble minority-- it would be but a little flock.
   Though the day shall come when the Lord will multiply us and increase
   us greatly in the earth beyond all present computation, yet to this
   hour the Church of God is only a little flock--and this is sometimes an
   excuse for distrust and a cause of fear.

   Not merely in their number were our Lord's immediate followers little.
   They did not represent much of this world's wealth.They had left all
   that they had. But their little all did not count for much. An old boat
   or two upon the lake, some nets, a little fishing tackle, and a few et
   ceteras--surely they were not much to leave! Their capital and their
   income were alike limited. Their treasurer never had a heavy purse to
   carry, though he took care to help himself out of its contents. The
   disciples of Jesus were poor, very poor. They were somewhat akin to
   their Master, who had not where to lay His head.

   Nor from their socialposition could they exert much influence. Most of
   them were Galileans--countrymen from the most countrified part of the
   whole country and, as such, little esteemed. They spoke, no doubt,
   broad country dialects, and were looked upon as unlearned and ignorant
   men by those who heard them. When the Holy Spirit was on them, they
   spoke with great power, but there was not a "D. D." among them, nor yet
   a professor from any university! They had not a solitary rabbi that
   could be put in the front, neither was there one that could have been
   called rabbi, if others had chosen to call him so. No prestige did they
   derive from rank or title, no princes of the blood, no knights or
   esquires were associated with them--they were all common peasants and
   fishermen. And I daresay many fears would cross their minds and many
   gloomy apprehensions would haunt them as they contemplated the strange
   adventure on which they were called to go forth. They were to preach
   the Christ of God, and to convert the world to Him--yet see what lowly
   people they were! Had they been brought up in the schools of
   philosophers, had they been the sons of kings or princes, had they the
   wealth of Croesus at their control, they might have said, "We can do
   something!" But poverty, ignorance and obscurity combined to make them
   seem little in the eyes of their fellow men! Therefore, the Savior
   says, "Fear not, little flock!" Against all adverse circumstances,
   there stands the actual promise! Be sure of this--the Kingdom of God is
   yours and you will win the day! Your father in Heaven can do without
   the dignity, the wealth and the learning of this world. He has resolved
   to give you the Kingdom, so you shall assuredly have it!

   Now the Church of God has not much improved in those respects. The
   aristocracy of the age and the celebrities of the time, those who
   occupy high places in fashion or in talent, look down contemptuously on
   the followers of Jesus. We are not put out of countenance. We know full
   well that not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are
   chosen. Still, God has chosen the poor of this world. Meek and lowly
   though they are, He enriches them with the gifts of His Kingdom. The
   Church in the aggregate, like its individual members, is small--small
   in number and in influence--a "little flock." And there is another
   littleness which is common among Christ's followers. They are very
   little in matters of Grace.They think and know themselves to be little.
   The greatest among them generally think themselves the least. One who
   came not behind the chief of Apostles thought himself not worthy to be
   called an Apostle, such was his sense of un-worthiness. Little and
   little worth the Lord's people account themselves to be. But in point
   of age, of growth, of experience, some of them are little--very little.
   They have only lately been born-again. They are babes in Grace. Jesus
   meant them when He said, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your
   Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom"--yes, you-- you who are
   new-born sons and daughters! Some, too, are little, not so much because
   they have been recently converted, as because they have made slow
   progress. They are of a desponding spirit, and their faith is very
   feeble. Perhaps they have not walked with God as they should and yet,
   although they may have little love, little hope, and little joy, little
   usefulness, and little holiness, compared with what they ought to have,
   still if they are Believers, if they are the sheep that hear Christ's
   voice, know their Shepherd and follow Him--even to them He says, "Fear
   not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the kingdom." He will not destroy you because you are not what you
   should be in point of attainment! What though you are as smoking flax
   when you ought to be a burning and a shining light, He will not quench
   you! Though you are a broken reed in the music when you ought to be a
   full pipe organ, pouring forth volumes of praise, He will not break
   you, but He will make something of you yet! Though you have such little
   faith that you do not know whether you have any or not, He knows! A
   drop of water is as much water as the whole volume of water in the sea,
   and a particle of Grace is as truly Grace as the great store of Grace
   laid up in the Everlasting Covenant! A diamond as small as a pin's head
   is as much a diamond as the Koh-I-Noor, so the smallest faith, though
   it is like a grain of mustard seed, is faith which can move mountains!
   Jesus knew this--hence He would speak comfortably to those who are
   little as yet, "Fear not, you weak and trembling ones! It is your
   Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Your weakness shall not
   witness against you."

   Now is not this very precious, that little as the flock may be, the
   Great Shepherd speaks to them so kindly? "Fear not, little flock," He
   says. And, oh, how His greatness must have struck them as He thus
   spoke! They looked on Him and saw that He was not little. He had become
   like themselves in poverty and obscurity, but still there was a
   Divinity in His Character that could not be eclipsed. He was not little
   in His birth. "Where is He," asked the wise men from the East, "who is
   born King of the Jews?" Nor was He little in His wisdom, for when but
   12 years old, the doctors in the Temple were astonished at His
   understanding and answers! He was not little in His power. Did He not
   teach as one having authority? Did He not heal all manner of sickness
   and all manner of disease as though no symptom could baffle His skill
   or resist His fiat? He was not little in His influence over men's
   hearts--He could turn their current like rivers of water whichever way
   He would. They had a Great Shepherd--He could protect them, He could
   provide for them, He could lead them on--He could give them the victory
   and surely bring them into the rest which He had promised them! I feel
   just now as though the Master stood among us and we were the little
   flock, conscious that we could do nothing, devise nothing, develop
   nothing apart from Him. Are there great destinies before us? Is the
   world to be converted? Surely we are the last people that could ever be
   able to accomplish it! His Presence is our encouragement. Looking up
   here and seeing Him standing in the midst, hard by these emblems of His
   body and blood, we hear His voice saying, "All power is given unto Me
   in Heaven and in earth. Go you, therefore, and teach all nations,
   baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
   Holy Spirit." Behold the baptized Christ giving to His own baptized
   disciples His own commission! "Go, preach the Gospel to every
   creature." He vouchsafes, moreover His own authority, "He that believes
   and is baptized shall be saved; He that believes not shall be
   condemned." He is the Commander-in- Chief of the little company of
   nonconformists to the world's religion, the Leader of the little band
   of those who desire to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, the Lord and
   Master of all those who espouse His Cross, rejoice in His name and are
   not ashamed to bear His reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse
   generation! The Lord grant that the sweetness of these words may come
   home to the hearts of all of you who are the people of His pasture and
   the sheep of His hand. Let us turn our attention to--

   II. THE GREAT FEAR AND THE GREAT CONSOLATION IMPLIED IN OUR text. "Fear
   not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
   the kingdom."

   One fear which often agitates God's servants is that which is alluded
   to in the foregoing paragraph--an undue anxiety about temporal things.
   A fretfulness that distracts one's own mind and greatly dishonors
   God--a disposition utterly unworthy of the sincere Believer! Christ
   deals with it in these words, "Seek not what you shall eat, or what you
   shall drink; neither be you of a doubtful mind. Why, child, know this,
   it is not only your Father's good pleasure to give you bread and water,
   but the kingdom!" You ask, "Will His bounty provide me with food
   convenient and raiment fit?" No, question it not, since He thus
   promises to put a crown upon your head and give you a mansion in the
   skies! Surely He who takes the trouble to give you a Kingdom hereafter
   will not let you starve on the road to it! When Saul went out to seek
   his father' s donkeys, Samuel met him and anointed him to be king, and
   after that Saul never fretted about his father' s donkeys anymore! Are
   you worrying yourselves about the losses you have had, and the best way
   of trying to recover them? Here are tidings for you. It is your
   Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Does not that awaken a
   new and nobler ambition in your breasts? Never mind the donkeys, now,
   we have other aims and other prospects to engage our thoughts! Affairs
   of high estate have drawn my mind away from paltry things. Oh, heir of
   Heaven, you cannot afford to pine and chafe over the little annoyances
   of this fleeting life! I remember hearing of a crossing-sweeper who was
   pursuing his humble avocation with great diligence. He had a valuable
   broom, which he would not have lost or spoiled without much grief. To
   him the few pence that purchased it were of great importance. But
   someone--a solicitor of the town tapped him on the shoulder and said,
   "My good Friend, is your name So-and-So?" "Yes." "Did your father live
   in such a place?" "He did." "Does your brother live in such a place?"
   "He does." "Then I have the pleasure to tell you that you have come
   into an estate worth £10,000 a year." I have been told he walked away
   without his broom! And I can hardly doubt it, for I do not think I
   would have shouldered the broom, myself, if I had been in his position!
   Oh, Christians, let me pluck you by the sleeve and tell you of princely
   possessions for which you may well turn aside from your present paltry
   pickings! They are not worthy to be compared! Jesus Christ informs you
   that "your Father has given you a kingdom which is infinitely more than
   all the gold of this world." You may well say--"Let those who will,
   fret about these earthly things--I will not. I have a kingdom in
   waiting! I will look out for that inheritance and I will begin to
   rejoice in it." Thus does Christ put to sleep one of His people's
   fears!

   Another fear we have arises from watching the clouds, forecasting
   storms and anticipating trouble. Some of us must confess that we have
   our desponding moments. One is vexed because he sees his trade
   gradually slipping away and he anxiously asks, "What shall I do in
   future years?" Another, with a large family growing up around him,
   perplexes himself with the question, "What shall I do with those boys
   and girls of mine?" As he watches the various tendencies in the young
   people, he wonders which way they will go, and he begins to fret. He
   does not commit his cause to God, but he disquiets himself in vain.
   This is unwise. Others find that their health declines--symptoms of
   consumption or some other fell disease alarm them, and they say, "What
   shall I do when this gets worse? How shall I bear it?" "Perhaps I may
   have painful operations to endure," says one. "Perhaps," says another,
   "I may have to lie bedridden by the year, together--what shall I
   do--oh, what shall I do?" Our Lord Jesus Christ counsels you what to
   do. He says, "Let not your heart be troubled." Don't fear. Have you not
   always found up to now that God has helped and succored you in every
   grievous plight? You have been foolish enough to dread a thousand
   dreary ills that never happened to destroy your peace, save in your
   dreams--like boys in a fog, before whose eyes huge monsters seem to
   rise, till they come up to the objects of their dread surprise--and
   find they are not monstrous scares, but modest friends who come to
   greet them. You have often been the victims of your own credulity in
   the past, cheated by your fears! May it not be the same in the dilemma
   to which just now your gloomy fancy points? This I know--when we are in
   our right mind, we cast our care on God. Let the Lord do as He wills to
   us! He will never be unkind to us! He has always been our Friend--He
   will never be our foe! He will never put us into the furnace unless He
   means to purge the dross out of us. Nor will there be one degree more
   heat in that furnace than is absolutely necessary--there will always be
   mercy to balance the misery--and strength supplied to support the
   burden to be borne. Cheer up, then! "Fear not, little flock." Let us,
   for the time being at any rate, shake off all these fears and let us
   revel in our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Rough may
   be the road, but sure will be the end--we are going to the kingdom!
   When they fetch a foreign princess over to this land to be married to a
   princely husband, the ship may be tossed on the sea and the tempest
   rage with fury, but doubtless the bride would say, "I may well bear
   this slight inconvenience with equanimity--I am on the way to be made a
   queen." We are on board ship today. We are going to a land where we
   shall all be princes and kings--as many as believe in Jesus! Come, let
   us pluck up heart! What though the accommodation are sparse, the
   passage rough and the wind boisterous, there is a kingdom in prospect!
   So let us make the best of the voyage. Be not faint-hearted yourself,
   but help others to be cheerful. With a pilgrimage, rather than a voyage
   in his view, our sacred songster has helped our mirth in his hymn as he
   sings--

   " With a scrip on my back and a staff in my hand,

   I march on in haste through an enemy's land--

   The way may be rough, but it cannot be long,

   So 1ll smooth it with hope, and 1ll cheer it with song" And somewhere
   or other in this congregation, I think I can hear the hoarse voice of a
   desponding Believer saying, "Ah, I am not troubled about worldly
   things! I am not distressed about any trials that may or may not happen
   to me here below. I have a worse fear haunting me! My terror is more
   terrible. Suppose I should not be in Christ after all?" The fear lest I
   have not really believed in Jesus, that I have not experienced a saving
   repentance, that I have not laid hold upon eternal life, distracts me.
   Well, precaution is better than presumption--it is better to go fearing
   to Heaven than to go presuming to Hell! I would rather be haunted with
   fears all my life and yet found, at length, when the shadows flee,
   among those who are God's delight, than I would be inflated with a
   dauntless confidence all my days, but undeceived at last when the light
   breaks in and be left in lonely horror, the victim of despair! Tell me
   now, dear Friend, what it is you fear. Do you fear Hell? Let me ask you
   another question--Do you fear sin? If you fear sin, the Lord takes
   pleasure in you. The Lord takes pleasure in them who fear Him, and in
   them who hope in His mercy. Your doubts are very painful to bear, no
   doubt, but for all the distress they cause they will not destroy your
   soul! Doubting, like a toothache, is more distracting than dangerous. I
   never heard of its proving fatal to anybody yet. There are fluids of
   the body which serve as safety valves to the constitution. They ward
   off worse ills. An anxious solicitude whether you are, indeed, a child
   of God, of which we would by all means have you relieved as soon as
   possible, may have a salutary effect, nevertheless, upon your mind. It
   may make you walk more carefully, pray more fervently and live more
   scrupulously as one who pines for communion with God! I think I have a
   commission to say to everyone here who fears sin, and trembles lest he
   or she should not be found at God's right hand when He gathers His
   saints together to Himself, "Fear not, for it is your Father's good
   pleasure to give you the kingdom." If you fear because you feel your
   unworthiness, it is a blessed fear! Trust in the worthiness of Christ
   and your fear shall give place to faith! Of if you fear because you
   perceive your feebleness, I am not surprised. Look to Christ's strength
   and His succor shall be your solace! Your heavenly Father will, of His
   own good pleasure, give you the Kingdom of God.

   Or do I hear anyone say, "Well, Sir, my fear is not as to the sincerity
   of my present profession. I trust I am a Christian. I know that I have
   believed in Jesus, and I do believe in Him. But my serious misgiving is
   lest I should not hold on to the end." Beloved Friend that is a fear
   you ought not to entertain! Never fear it again as long as you live! If
   there is anything taught in Scripture for certain, it is the Doctrine
   of the Final Perseverance of the Saints! I am as sure that Doctrine is
   as plainly taught as the Doctrine of the Deity of Christ. Words cannot
   put it more distinctly than God has graciously revealed it. Hear what
   Christ says. "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never
   perish; neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." "Being confident
   of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will
   perform it until the day of Jesus Christ"--cast not, I beseech you, any
   suspicion upon the fidelity of our Lord! A question may be raised
   whether the work is begun by Him, but if He has begun it, there can be
   no question about His completing it! He never forsakes the work of His
   hands, or begins to build, and then proves unable or unwilling to rear
   the superstructure. Lay that fear aside and account it a folly! Do you
   doubt--whether you are now saved, or whether you shall hold out to the
   end? Then I counsel you to go back to the Cross and begin again as a
   penitent sinner, to put your trust in a pardoning Savior. Full many a
   time I have to do that. I see my evidence cut down like the grass,
   wither like hay and perish like the green herb. What else, then, can I
   do, but hurry off to the foot of the Cross, there to stand, and thus to
   say, "Here I come, a sinner, seeking succor from You, my Lord, from
   You. I come afresh as though I had never come to You before. If You
   have never washed me, wash me now! If I have never rested in You, here
   do I lay me down beneath Your shadow. To Your Cross I cling." You will
   find your fears vanish when you come to the Cross anew. Do this, I pray
   you, Brothers and Sisters, as often as you get into the dark for a
   while, for, notwithstanding all fears to the contrary, it really is
   "your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." You have not to
   earn it by your labor, or merit it as a prize--else you might despond,
   or even despair. What is now amiss, I cannot guess, since He will give
   it to you freely of His own Grace. It is not the Judge's good pleasure
   to award you the kingdom, but it is "your Father's good pleasure to
   give you the kingdom." Therefore, repose in the Grace of God, rely on
   the precious blood of Christ and cast your fears to the winds!

   I think I hear a sigh. It is a sickly thought, and it comes from one
   who has a sickly frame. "My fear is about dying. How shall I stand the
   last dread hour of parting life? Shall I bear up in the weakness of
   that mortal agony? Perhaps, after all, I shall sink as one who is
   vanquished in the fray." Beloved Brother, there is a peril more
   perilous than death! "What is that?" you ask. Why, I answer, Life! To
   live! To live well! There is the point--to live well. If you do succeed
   in this, you shall find that to die is nothing but just closing up your
   life's story. Be it your main care to run the race with honor, then you
   shall finish your course with joy! You may leave the dying till the
   time to die comes, if you will see to the living while the time to live
   lasts! There is one kind of Grace of which we have no immediate need
   today, that is dying Grace. We shall not require the timely succor till
   the time of our departure is at hand. Or if we crave it we shall not
   have it. Does any one of you put himself on his dying bed in
   imagination, to forestall the terrors that his fancy paints? He does a
   very foolish thing. You cannot know what sort of summons you will get
   to quit your fleshly tabernacle--what sharp pains you may be called to
   bear--or what sweet comfort may be provided to cheer your spirit when
   heart and flesh shall fail. Serve God now with all your strength! Rest
   in the precious blood now! Seek present communion with your living,
   loving Lord. Doubt not that He will supply you with sufficient Grace
   for all your future needs! You know not of the good He has in store. As
   time and space contract, your mind will expand to survey the eternity
   beyond. As the film comes over these dull organs of sight, the eyes of
   your understanding will be opened. As you near the banks of Jordan, the
   fair fields on yonder side will break on your ravished view. You know
   nothing of them yet. Full many, I guarantee you, who depart this life
   hear the songs of angels long before their ears are closed to the
   sounds of earth! And oh, how precious Christ becomes to them! We have
   seen the flush of glory on their faces! I should think they hardly knew
   at what moment they entered Heaven, for before they left earth, the
   radiance of that bright realm dawned upon them in such visions of
   Glory! They were lifted up to Pisgah' s summit and they looked down on
   this poor earth from an elevation at which we who still sojourn in the
   valley do greatly marvel--

   "Jesus cam make a dying bed

   Seem soft as downy pillows are!

   While on His breast Ilean my head,

   And breathe my life out sweetly there." Why, some of us have known
   Believers who, after trembling all their days, triumphed in their last
   hours! In the prime of their strength they were frightened of a
   mouse--but in the extremity of their weakness they became so strong
   that they could face a legion of foes! Nothing could dismay them. Mr.
   Fearing, who fell over a straw, and said he should never reach the
   Celestial City, was the very man who died like a giant, singing and
   shouting with all his might! God is pleased to let some of His servants
   live in the dark--and die in the light. I think some of us have our
   candle lit at one watch of the night, some at another. You may have
   begun your spiritual life in the dark and your path has grown brighter
   and brighter. Or you may have begun in the light and have since passed
   through seasons in which darkness has prevailed, or the lamp that
   guides your feet has dimly burned. God puts some of His bravest
   servants to bed in the dark because they can bear it, but others
   cannot. They cross over the river and angels come to meet them. Do not
   darken your days with direful dreams of dreaded death! Perhaps you will
   die in your sleep and never know a pang. Perhaps you never will
   die--Christ may come and take you to Himself. It may prove such a
   glorious thing to die, that you may say, with Halliday, "Call this
   dying? Then it is worthwhile to live, to die like this!" Death may have
   more of translation than of dissolution in it. If the dogs of Hell howl
   at you, bid them hold their tongue. Your Father's good pleasure will
   not be frustrated--your fair prospects will not be disappointed. Does
   Conscience accuse you of slips and falls? Tell Conscience of the
   precious blood, and say, "My Father's good pleasure will rescue His
   ransomed child from all his sins." Do doubts and fears come up like a
   swelling torrent? Stem them all with this blessed assurance--"God's
   counsel will stand, and He will do all His pleasure. We who have put
   our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ shall assuredly possess the Kingdom
   of God forever and ever!"

   Oh, how I wish you, all of you, belonged to the number of Christ's
   sheep! Oh, that everyone of you had the promise of the kingdom! The
   Lord bring you to the feet of Jesus! May the Lord show you what sinners
   you are and what a Savior He is! Would to God you might all believe in
   Him and pass from death unto life! The fearless transgressor shall fail
   without help, while the fearful disciple shall be fondled with Fatherly
   care. Herd together, you little ones, as a flock--the heritage is
   reserved for you. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
   kingdom."
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An Earnest Entreaty

   (No. 3550)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His
   wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their
   trust in Him." Psalm 2:12.

   LET us have a little quiet talk tonight. I have known a simple, earnest
   conversation turn the whole current of a man's life. I recollect a good
   man, who lived at a certain market town in Suffolk. He was no preacher,
   as far as I know. He had never tried to preach, yet he was a mighty
   soul-winner. He had noticed how commonly it happened in that town, as
   in most of our smaller towns, that the lads, as they grew up, sought
   employment in London, or in some other large center of industry and,
   consequently, they left their home, their parents, guardians and the
   associations amidst which they had been trained, to enter a new
   sphere--where they would lack much of the oversight that had hitherto
   checked them when prone to wander. His watchful eyes and ever-listening
   ears having ascertained within a little when any young man was going,
   he sent a polite invitation to tea. And at that tea table the words he
   used to speak, the cautions he gave, and the necessity he urged of
   being decided for Christ before leaving, and especially the earnest
   prayer with which he concluded the evening--these things have been
   remembered by scores of young men, who, on removing to the larger
   towns, could never shake off the impression which his quiet, devout
   conversation had made! Some of them even traced their conversion to
   God, and their subsequent perseverance in the paths of righteousness,
   to the evening they had spent with that humble, but wise and earnest
   individual! I wonder whether any of us remember, in our young days, any
   such talk as that which exerted an influence upon us? I wonder more if,
   instead of trying to preach anything great tonight which is not much in
   my line, I try to talk very seriously and pointedly to all present who
   are unconverted, whether God will not bless it by His Holy Spirit and
   make it a turning point to decide the present course and eternal
   destiny of some of my hearers?

   Our text contains some very sound advice. Let us ask--to whom was it
   originally addressed And to whom is it appropriately addressed now?

   I. TO WHOM WAS IT ADDRESSED.

   "Kiss the Son, lest He be angryr Look at the 10th verse, "Be wise now,
   therefore, O you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth." Thus
   to monarchs and potentates of this world--to those who made and those
   who administered the laws, in whose hands were the liberties, if not
   the lives of their subjects--were these words spoken! People make a
   great fuss about a sermon preached before Her Majesty. I must confess
   to having wasted a shilling once or twice over those productions. I
   could never make out why they should not have been sold for a
   halfpenny, for I think better sermons could have been bought for a
   penny. But, somehow, there is always an interest attached to anything
   that is preached before a king or a queen, and still more so if it is
   pointedly preached to a king. Now this was a little private advice
   given to kings and judges. Still, it offers counsel by which persons of
   inferior rank may profit. You, Sir, are not so great in station but
   this advice may be good enough for you! If it was meant for those who
   sat on thrones, wielded scepters and exercised authority, you will not
   have to humble yourself much to listen earnestly, and receive
   gratefully this admonition of wisdom!

   Let me take you by your coat, and hold you for a minute, and say, Be
   wise now. This is the day for reason. Exercise a little judgment--put
   on your considering cap--do not spurn the monition, or put it on one
   side with a huff and a puff, as though it were not discreet or urgent.
   This was language meant for kings--listen to it--it may be a royal word
   to you! Perhaps--for strange things happen--it may help to make you a
   king, too, according to that saying which is written, "He has made us
   kings and priests unto God." The language which would command the
   attention of kings would certainly claim heed of such humble and
   obscure persons as are here assembled! Surely, when the expostulation
   proceeds from the mouth of God, and when it is spoken to the highest in
   the world, you might account it a privilege to have the matter made
   privy to yourselves! And as it intimately concerns you, there is the
   more cause that you take heed thereunto.

   The words were spoken to those who had willfully opposed the reign of
   our Savior, the Son of God, the Lord's Anointed. They had determined to
   reject Him. They said, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away
   their cords from us." A terrible, a disastrous course to resolve upon
   in the teeth of a destiny that no plot can hinder, no confederacy can
   avert! Hence, the caution and the counsel appeal to all or to any who
   have been opposers of Christ and of true religion. I do not suppose
   there are many such here, who are actively and ostensibly revolting
   against the Gospel, yet there may be some such and, if there are, I
   would sound an alarm and ring loudly the warning, "Be wise now,
   therefore! Be instructed! Do listen a little!" It is good to be zealous
   in a good cause. But suppose it is a bad cause? Saul of Tarsus was
   vehement against Christ, but after some consideration, he became quite
   as enthusiastic for Him. It may cost you many regrets another day to
   have been so violent against that which you will find out to have been
   worthy of your love rather than of your fierce opposition! Every wise
   man, before he commits himself to defend or withstand a policy, should
   make quite sure, as far as human judgment can, whether it is right or
   wrong--to be desired, or to be deprecated! Surely I do not speak to any
   who would willfully oppose that which is good. Or, if prejudice has
   prompted you, there is all the more reason why your judgment should now
   be impartial. Stop, therefore, and give ear! It may be your relenting
   will be kindled, and wisdom will enlighten your heart. These words were
   spoken to those who ought to have been wise--to kings and judges of the
   earth. Those mighty ones had been mistaken, otherwise the rebuke would
   have been untimely and superfluous--"Be wise now, therefore, O you
   kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth." It appears they had
   rebelled-- partly through ignorance, but mainly through jealousy and
   malice--they had rebelled and revolted against the Christ of God.
   Doubtless they did not rightly understand Him. Perhaps they thought His
   way was hard, His Laws severe, His government tyrannical. But He meets
   your wild rage with His mild reasoning! To the gusts of your passion,
   He responds with the gentle voice of His mercy, "Be wise, O you kings;
   be instructed, you judges of the earth." Learn a little more. Get a
   little more knowledge--it may correct your vain imaginations. A ray of
   light shining into your minds might make you shudder at the darkness in
   the midst of which you dwell! A view of the right might, perhaps, show
   you that you have been wrong. It might take the tiller of your soul and
   turn the vessel around into another course. We are, none of us, so wise
   but we could profit by a little more instruction! He that cannot learn
   from a fool, is a fool himself. When a man says, "I know enough," he
   knows nothing! He who thinks that his education is "finished," had need
   begin his schooling afresh, for a fair start he has never yet made.
   With a sound basis, the edifice of education may proceed
   satisfactorily, but it never can be completed. Excelsior is the
   student's motto. He sees higher and higher altitudes as he rises in
   attainment--and as long as he sojourns in this world, fresh fields of
   enquiry will continue to open up before him!

   Once again, I believe the words of our text leave an especial reference
   to those who are thoughtless and careless about their best interests.
   The kings of the earth were deliberating how they might successfully
   oppose Christ, but they were strangely and culpably negligent of their
   real interest. Hence the remonstrance, "Be wise now; be instructed, you
   judges of the earth." The general lack of intelligence in the present
   day with respect to religion is, to my mind, appalling. The knowledge
   with which most men are content is superficial in the extreme. They do
   not think! They do not take the pains to make reflections and draw
   inferences from the facts within their reach, but they allow themselves
   to drift with the tide of what is called "public opinion." Were it the
   fashion for people to carry brains in their heads, some religions which
   are now very rife would soon come to an end! I have stood aghast with
   wonder and with awe at the sublime folly of mankind, when I have seen
   how eagerly and devoutly they will bow down before baubles and street
   shows, while they vainly imagine that they are worshipping God! Have
   they no brains within their skulls? Have they no faculty of thought?
   Have they no reasoning power? What singular defect can be traced to
   their birth, or with what fatal folly have they renounced their
   commonsense? Ought we to pity, to chide, or to scorn them? In
   indictments for witchcraft, I suppose, you punish the impostor as a
   knave, while you laugh at the victim as a dupe. But in cases of
   priestcraft, you divide the scandal more equally. So the Sunday
   theatricals run their course till the force of thought, the voice of
   conscience, and, I might add, the love of liberty, shall pronounce
   their doom! People do not think. Some of them are of the religion of
   their ancestors, whatever that may be! You hear of Roman Catholic
   families and Quaker families. Not conviction, but tradition shapes
   their ends. Others are of the religion of the circle in which they
   live, whatever that may be. They are good Protestants, they say--had
   they been born in Naples, they would have been as good Papists! Or had
   they been born at Timbuktu, they would have been as good heathens--just
   about as good in any case! Thought, reason, or judgment never entered
   into their reckoning. They go up to their place of worship--they pray
   as others do, or they say, "Amen," in the service. Thought they have
   none. They sing without thought, hear without thought and as the thing
   is to be done, I suppose, they preach without thought!

   Talk of preaching, I have specimens at home of sermons which can be
   bought for nine pence each. They are underlined, so that the proper
   emphasis is apparent--and the pauses to be made between the sentences
   are fairly indicated. Preaching made easy! We shall be favored, one of
   these days, with preaching machines--we have already got down to
   hearing machines. The mass of our hearers is not much more animated
   than an automaton figure. Life and liveliness are lacking in both.
   Preaching and hearing may both, perhaps, be done by steam! I would it
   were not so. Men are evidently thoughtful about other things. Bring up
   a sanitary problem and there are men that will work it out somehow. Is
   some new invention needed, say, a gun or a torpedo, to effect wholesale
   destruction of life? You shall find competitors in the arena, vying,
   one with another, in their study of the murderous science! Man seems to
   think of everything but of his God--to read everything but his
   Bible--to feel the influence of everything but the love of Christ, and
   to see reason and argument in everything except in the inviolable truth
   of Divine Revelation. Oh, when will men consider? Why are they bent
   upon dashing into eternity thoughtlessly? Is dying and passing into
   another world of no more account than passing from the parlor to the
   drawing room? Is there no hereafter? Is Heaven a dream and Hell a
   bugbear? Well, then, cease to play with shadows! No longer foster such
   delusions! Be these things true or false, your insincerity is alike
   glaring. Like honest men, repudiate the Scriptures if you will not
   accept their counsel. Do not pretend to believe the solemnities of
   God's Word and yet trifle with them! This is to stultify yourselves,
   while you insult your Maker! I appeal to the conscience of every
   thoughtless person here, if reason or commonsense would justify such
   vacillation. Having thus tried to find out the people to whom my text
   applies, let me now direct your attention to the advice it gives them.

   II. THE ADVICE WHICH IS GIVEN.

   The advice is this--rebel no more against God. You have done so, some
   of you actively and willfully. Others of you, by ignoring His claims
   and utterly neglecting His will. It is not right to continue in this
   rebellious state! To have become entangled in such iniquity is grievous
   enough, but to continue therein any longer were an outrageous folly and
   a terrible crime. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
   Do you say, "We hear of advice and are willing to take it-- our anxiety
   now is to find out the way in which we can become reconciled to God.
   How can we be restored to friendship with Him whom we have so bitterly
   wronged and so grossly offended?" Here is the pith of the advice. "Kiss
   the Son, pay Him homage, yield the affectionate fealty of your hearts
   to the Son of God." Between you and the great King, there is an awful
   breach. You can obtain no audience of Him. So grievous has been your
   revolt, that He will not see you. He has shut the door and there cannot
   be any communication between you and Himself. He has hung up a thick
   veil, through which your prayers cannot penetrate. But He refers you to
   His Son. That Son is His other Self--One with Himself in essential
   Deity, who has condescended to become man, has taken your nature into
   union with Himself, and in that Nature has offered unto Divine Justice
   an expiatory Sacrifice for human guilt. Now, therefore, God will deal
   with you through His Son. You must have an Advocate--as many a client
   cannot plead in court, but must have some counselor to plead for him
   who is infinitely more versed in the law and better able to defend his
   cause than he is--so the Lord appoints that you, if you would see the
   face of your God, must see it in the face of Jesus Christ! The short
   way of being at peace with God is not to try and mend your ways, or
   excuse yourself, or perform certain works, or go through certain
   ceremonies, but to repair to Christ, the one and only Mediator, who
   once was fastened to the Cross, being put to death in the flesh, but
   quickened by the Spirit. He is now at the right hand of God, and you
   are required to worship Him, to trust in Him, to love Him. Thus do, and
   the reconciliation between you and God is effected in a moment! The
   blessed Jesus will wash you from your guilt, and the righteousness of
   Christ will cover you with beauty which will make you acceptable in the
   sight of God. "Kiss the Son." It means render Him homage, just as in
   our own country they speak of kissing the Queen's hands when certain
   offices are taken and homage is required. So come and kiss the Savior!
   No hard work this! Some of us would gladly forever kiss His blessed
   feet It would be Heaven enough for us. Oh, come and pay your homage to
   Him! Acknowledge that Christ is your King! Give up your life to His
   service. Consecrate all your powers and faculties to do His will. But
   do trust Him. "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." That
   is the true kiss! Trust Him, rely upon Him, depend upon Him--leave off
   depending upon yourself, and rely upon Jesus! Throw yourself flat down
   upon the finished work of Christ! When you have so done your faith has
   reconciled you to God, and you may go your way in peace. Only go your
   way henceforth to serve that King whose hand you have kissed, and to be
   the willing subject of that dear Redeemer who ought to have you because
   He bought you with His precious blood!

   This advice is urgent. Do it at once. I am not speaking, now, after the
   fashion of the orator, but I am talking to you as a friend. I wish I
   could pass along those aisles, or over the tops of those pews, and
   gently take the hand of each one, and say, "Friend, God would gladly
   have you reconciled to Him, and it only needs the simple act of
   trusting Jesus and accepting Him to be your Leader and your King." Do
   it now. If it is ever worth doing, it is worth doing at once! It is a
   blessed thing to do. Why delay? It is a simple thing to do! Why
   hesitate? It is the very least thing God could ask of you, and even
   that He will not require you to do in your own strength. Are you
   willing, but weak? He will help you to do what He commands you to do!
   Now, as you sit in your pew, what say you to this? "I will think it
   over," says one. Does it need any thinking over? If I had offended my
   father, I should wish to be at peace with him immediately--and if my
   father said to me, "My son, I will be reconciled to you if you will go
   and speak to your brother about it," well, I would not think it
   difficult, for I love my brother as well as my father, and I would go
   to him at once--and so all would be well. God says, "Go to Jesus. I am
   in Him. You can reach Me there--go round by His Cross--you will find Me
   reconciled there. Away from the Cross I am a Judge and my terrors will
   consume you. With the Cross between you and Me, I am a Father, and you
   shall behold My face beaming with love to you." "But how am I to get to
   Jesus?" you ask. Why, have I not told you?--simply to trust Him--to
   rely upon Him! Faith is trusting Christ. This is the Gospel, "Believe
   in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Put your entire
   trust in Him. Renounce all lordship that has ever been exercised over
   you by any other master and become Christ's servant! Rely on Him to
   land you safely at the right hand of God, and He will do it. "Kiss the
   Son." Oh, Friend, I cannot make you do it--it must be done of your own
   will. God alone can lead that will of yours to yield itself up to
   Christ's will! But I pray you do it--kiss the Son, and do it now!
   Pursuing our quiet talk, I come to my third point, which is--

   III. HOW IS THIS ADVICE PRESSED HOME UPON US?

   The vanity of any other course is made palpable. Be reconciled to God
   because there is no use in being at enmity with Him. The kings of the
   earth opposed God, but while they were plotting and planning, God was
   laughing. "Yet," says He, "have I set My King upon My holy hill of
   Zion." I think if I were a king and had the misfortune to be driven to
   go to war, I would not like to fight one that had ten times my own
   strength! I would rather engage in a somewhat equal combat, with a
   prospect that by dint of valor and good generalship, victory might be
   gained. To contend against Omnipotence is insanity! For any man, I care
   not who he may be, to put himself in opposition to God is utter folly!
   I have often watched, as doubtless you have done, the foolish moth
   attracted by the glare of the candle or the gas. He plunges at it, as
   though he would put it out, and he drops, full of exquisite pain, upon
   the table. He has enough wing left to make another dash at the flame,
   and again he is filled with another pain, and unless you mercifully
   kill him outright, he will continue as long as he has any strength to
   fight with the fire which destroys him! That is an apt picture of the
   sinner's life--and such will be the sinner's death! Oh, do not so, dear
   Friend--do not so! Speak I not with voice of reason when I thus
   dissuade you? If you must fight, let it be with someone that you can
   overcome. But sit down now and reckon whether you can hope to win a
   victory against an Almighty God! End the quarrel, Man, for the quarrel
   will otherwise end in your death and eternal destruction!

   We are further pressed to the duty commanded by the claims of the Son.
   "Kiss the Son." As I read the words, they seem to me to have a force of
   argument in them which explains itself and vindicates its own claims.
   Kiss! Kiss whom? "Kiss the Son." And who is He? Why, He is Jesus, the
   Well-Beloved of the Father! And among the sons of men, the Chief among
   ten thousand, and the altogether lovely! Surely Christ is such a
   princely One that He ought to receive homage of mankind! He has done
   such great things for us and He has shown such good will towards us,
   that to pay Him reverence seems not so much the call of duty as the
   natural impulse of love! The worship which is His due should flow
   spontaneously from the instincts of Grace rather than be exacted by the
   fiat of law! Even those who have denied the authenticity of Inspiration
   have always been charmed with the Character of our Lord, and you will
   notice that the most astute opponents of Christianity have had little,
   if anything, to say against the Founder of it, so transparent His
   virtue, so charming His humility. Oh, Kiss the Son, then! He is
   God--trust Him. He is Man, a perfect Man--confide in His friendship. He
   has finished the work of human redemption, therefore, hail Him as your
   King and pay your homage to Him now! Oh, that God's eternal Spirit may
   lead you so to do without hesitation or objection!

   Were I talking to some of you in a quiet corner I might gather an
   argument from the simplicity of the promise here offered you. "Kiss the
   Son." Is that all? Pay Jesus homage. Is that all? The Emperor of
   Germany, in the olden times when Popes were Popes, had offended his
   Unholiness--and before he could be restored to favor, he had to stand
   for three days (I think it was) outside the castle gate, in the deep
   snow, in the depth of winter, and do penance. I have seen, myself, in
   Rome and elsewhere, outside of the older churches, places uncovered and
   exposed to wind and rain, to the heat of summer and the frost of
   winter, where backsliders were made to stand, sometimes for years,
   even, before they were restored, if they had committed some offense
   against ecclesiastical statutes! You will sometimes see in old country
   churches of England little windows that run slanting and just look
   toward the communion table, through which poor offenders who professed
   repentance, after some months of standing in the church yard, or
   perhaps outside of it, were at last allowed to take a peep at the
   altar, at the expiration of their weary term of penance! All this is
   contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, for the spirit of the Gospel is,
   "Come, now, and let us reason together; though your sins are as
   scarlet, they shall be as wool." The spirit of my text is, "Kiss the
   Son, now"--and that is all. Though those lips were once blaspheming,
   let them kiss the Son! Though these lips have uttered high words and
   proud words, or perhaps lying and lascivious words, "Kiss the Son." Bow
   down at those dear pierced feet and trust Emmanuel, and acknowledge
   yourself His servant, and you shall be forgiven--forgiven at once,
   without delay and this night you shall be accepted in Christ! I am
   right glad I have got so good a message to tell! I would that you would
   receive it with gladness. May it drop like the snowflakes on the sea,
   which sink into the waves. May each invitation sink into your soul,
   there to bless you henceforth and forever!

   Moreover, the exhortation of our text is backed up with felicitations
   for those who yield to it. "Blessed are all they who put their trust in
   Him." Those of you who do not know anything about trusting in Christ
   must have noticed how joyously we sang that hymn just now--

   "Oh, happy day that fixed my choice

   On You, my Savior and my God!

   Well may this glowing heart rejoice,

   And tell its raptures all abroad." Don't you think there was some
   fervor in our tones? Was it not sung as if we meant it? If nobody else
   meant it, I did! And I could see by the look of your eyes that a good
   many of you were stirred with grateful recollections. It was the
   happiest day in all our lives when Jesus washed our sins away! Far be
   it from us to deceive any of you by saying that to be a Christian will
   save you from the sorrows of the world, or from trials and
   tribulations, from physical pain or from natural death. Nothing of the
   kind! You will be liable to sickness and adversity in their manifold
   forms, as other men are, but you will have this to comfort you in every
   dark, distressing hour--that these light afflictions, which are but for
   a season--will come to you from a loving Father s gentle hand, with a
   gracious purpose, and they will be dealt out to you in weight and
   measure according to His judgment, while some sweet consolations will
   always be sent with them. And, above all, there is perpetual joy and
   perennial satisfaction in that man ' s heart who knows that he is right
   with God. Although his house may not be as he would have it, yet he has
   accepted God ' s way of reconciliation--he is reconciled by the blood
   of Christ! God loves him and he loves God! He is confident, therefore,
   that whether he lives or dies, he must be blessed, because he is at
   peace with God! Oh, happy day, happy day, thrice happy day, when a man
   comes into this blessed state! I have heard many regret that they have
   pursued the pleasures of sense and been fascinated with them, but I
   never yet heard of one who had found the dear delights of faith pall on
   his taste! It has never fallen to my lot yet to attend a dying bed
   where I have heard a Christian regret that he put his trust in his
   Savior! Neither have I ever heard at any time of anyone who died
   believing in Jesus who has had to say, "Had I but served the world with
   half the zeal I served my God I should have been a happier man." Oh,
   no! Such bitter reflections on misspent and misused talents befit the
   worldling, and the world s poet put it into the dying man s mouth in
   another form from that in which I gave it, for, "what we might have
   been," and, "what we might have done," make the sum of life ' s
   bewailing when death in view makes such repentance unavailing! The
   Christian ' s satisfaction is, on the other hand, only shaded by the
   wish all feel that they had loved the Savior more intensely, trusted
   Him more confidently and served Him more diligently! Never have I heard
   any other kind of compunction and self-reproach.

   "Come along, then, Friend, Come along," they say to us! "What matters
   so long as you are happy?" I have often heard them say so. And let me
   say to you, if that is one of your slogans and you really do seek after
   happiness, you cannot do better than pay homage to the Son of God, end
   the awful rupture between you and your Creator, and henceforth put your
   trust in Him. One other motive I must mention. "Kiss the Son, lest He
   be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a
   little." A striking expression! If Christ gets a little angry, men
   perish from the way! Then what must His great anger be? If His anger,
   kindled but a little, burns like a devouring fire, and men perish from
   the way of life, and from all hope of salvation, what must His great
   wrath be? Is there a fear suggested here that anybody will provoke
   Christ to fiercer anger? There is. Alas, there is! Shall I tell you the
   likeliest person to do it? Not, I think, that abandoned sinner who was
   born and bred in an immoral atmosphere and has followed a vicious
   course to the present hour. To him I would say, "Come to Jesus, and He
   will wash you now, and cleanse you from all your pollution." But the
   man I tremble for as most likely to make Him swear in His wrath is such
   a one as I was--privileged with godly parents, watched with jealous
   eyes, scarcely ever permitted to mingle with questionable associates,
   warned not to listen to anything profane or licentious--taught the way
   of God from his youth up! In my case there came a time when the
   solemnities of eternity pressed upon me for a decision and when a
   mother s tears and a father s supplications were offered to Heaven on
   my behalf. At such a time, had I not been helped by the Grace of God,
   but had I been left alone to do violence to conscience, and to struggle
   against conviction, I might have been at this moment perhaps dead,
   buried, and doomed, having, through a course of vice, brought myself to
   my grave! Or I might have been as earnest a ringleader among the
   ungodly as I desire to be for Christ and His Truth! When there is light
   given, when one is not left to grope in darkness, when conscience is
   kept tender, a little provocation may then very much anger Christ!

   I am afraid some of you young people that are growing up here stand in
   deep need of remonstrance. You have got good parents. You have been
   instructed in the Scriptures from your infancy and you have had great
   many deep impressions while sitting in these pews listening to the
   sound of the Gospel--and yet you are playing with them, you are
   trifling with them! Nothing bad about you, so you think. You are not
   conscious of having grossly violated any moral law. But have you never
   heard of a gentleman in India who had a tame leopard that went about
   his house? It was as playful as a cat, and did no one any harm till one
   day, as he lay asleep, the leopard licked his hand and licked until it
   had licked a sore place and tasted blood. After that there was nothing
   for it but to destroy it--for all the leopard-nature was aroused by
   that taste of blood! And some of you young people, with all the godly
   associations that are round about you, will--I am always afraid--get a
   taste of the devilry outside, of the world ' s vice and sin. And then
   there is the leopard ' s nature in you. If you once get the taste and
   flavor of it, you will be prone to be always thirsting for it. Then,
   instead of the hope we now cherish, that we shall soon see you at your
   parents ' side, serving Christ--see you take your father ' s place,
   young man, in later years--see you, young woman, grow up to be a matron
   in the Church of God, bringing many others to the Savior--we may have
   to lament that the children are not as the parents, and cry, "Woe is
   the day that ever they were born." I, therefore, want you to decide,
   lest you perish from the way--from the way of God and the way of
   righteousness--while His wrath is kindled but a little, lest He say,
   "Let them alone," and throw the reins on your neck, for if He should
   once do that, woe the day! Nothing can happen worse to a man than to be
   left to himself. Kiss the Son, then!

   Affectionately and earnestly do I entreat you--not standing here
   ex-officio to deliver pious platitudes, but from my very soul, as
   though I were your brother or father, I would say, Young man, young
   woman, kiss the Son now! Yield your heart up to Jesus now! Blessed are
   they who trust in Him now. Oh, tonight, tonight, tonight--your first
   night in Grace, or else your last night in hope! Tonight, tonight! The
   clock has just struck. It seemed to say, "Tonight." God help you to
   say, "Yes, it shall be tonight, for God and for Christ!"--

   "Songs of triumph then resounding

   From your happy lips shall flow!

   In the knowledge of salvation

   You true happiness shall know,

   Through Christ Jesus,

   Who alone can life bestow."

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 7:36-48.

   Verse 36. And one of the Pharisees desiredHim that He would eat with
   him. AndHe went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat They sat
   according to the Eastern custom of sitting, which was rather lying at
   length, with the feet far out upon the couch or sofa.

   37. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner In a
   particular sense, a sinner--one whose very trade was sin.

   37. 38. When she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's
   house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at His feet,
   behind Him, weeping. As she could do, you see, without coming into the
   room, except for a few yards, especially if the Savior ' s feet were
   close against the door.

   38. And began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the
   hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the
   ointment For water she gives her tears, for a towel, her hair--to heal
   the blisters of His weary pilgrimage, there are her soft lips for
   liniment and then, for ointment, comes this precious salve.

   39. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spoke within
   himself, saying, This Man, if He were a Prophet, would have known who
   and what manner of woman this is who touches Him; for she is a sinner
   "She is a sinner, and does He let her touch Him, kiss His feet and show
   such tokens of affection? What Man must He be who allows a harlot's
   kiss, even though it is upon His feet?" Ah, poor foolish Pharisee! He
   judged according to the sight of the eyes, or else he might have known
   that the best of men would never be angry at a harlot's tears, for the
   tears of repentance, come from whatever heart they may, are always like
   diamonds in the esteem of those who judge rightly.

   40-42. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, Ihave something to say
   unto you. Andhe said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
   which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other
   fifty. And when they had nothing to pay--And were, therefore, likely to
   be cast into prison, and to be sold as slaves.

   42-43. He frankly forgave them both. Teel me, therefore, which of them
   will love him most Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom
   he forgave most AndHe said unto him, You have rightly judged. There
   were no bonds, no promises of what they would do in the future, but he
   frankly forgave them both.

   44. And He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, See you this
   woman? I entered into your house--And it was, therefore, your duty to
   attend to Me.

   44. You gave Me no water for My feet Though that was the common custom.

   44. 45. But she has washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the
   hairs of her head You gave Me no kiss. Which was the customary welcome
   to every honored guest--a kiss upon the cheek or upon the forehead.

   45. But this women since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss My
   feet She has done what you ought to have done; she has done it better
   than you could have done it; she has done it when there was no claim
   upon her to do it, except that she has been forgiven much, and,
   therefore, loved much.

   46. My head with oil you did not anoint This, too, was the usual
   custom.

   46-48. But this woman has anointed My feet with ointment Therefore I
   say unto you, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved
   much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And He
   said unto her, Your sins are forgiven.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Gospel in Power

   (No. 3551)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
   28, 1872.

   "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only," etc., [down to] "from
   the wrath to come" 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10.

   A WORKMAN likes to see that he has been doing something. It is very
   dispiriting if he has spent much toil and can see no result. God's
   workmen by faith would continue still to labor, even if they saw
   nothing come of it, but it is much more comforting, much more easy for
   them to continue in service when they see that God is blessing them.
   Now it is not wrong for a Christian minister to speak about the
   conversions that have been worked under his ministry, for Paul says
   that he would have done so, only that others did it so constantly that
   there was no need of it. Paul, however, would not, under any
   circumstances, have done a wrong thing and, therefore, we gather that
   it is sometimes most allowable that we should see what has been done
   and should speak of it--and the more especially because if any good is
   done by any ministry, it is God that has done it--and all the glory is
   due to Him and to Him, alone!

   Not to speak of what God has done would be ingratitude. It might have a
   semblance of humility, but in reality it would be disloyalty to the
   Most High. Paul, therefore, did not hesitate to speak of his converts
   at Thessalonica and of their good character--and of the good fruit
   which they had borne and the way in which they had spread abroad the
   Gospel. He did not boast--he gave God the glory of it, but he did speak
   of what had been done. And we think we may do the same in any measure
   in which God shall bless our work--any one of us may tell of it to the
   praise and glory of God and to the encouragement of our fellow
   laborers. Now the Apostle in this passage tells us what God had done at
   Thessalonica. We will proceed at once, for our text is long--we will
   proceed at once to the handling of it.

   And you will note that he tells us, first, what he had preached at
   Thessalonica. Then how it had come to the people. And thirdly, what had
   been the result of this to themselves. And fourthly, what had been the
   result of it to other people. First, the Apostle tells us--

   I. WHAT WAS PREACHED AT THESSALONICA. He says, "Our Gospel"--(note that
   word)--"Our Gospel came not unto you in word only." Why does Paul call
   it, "our Gospel"? He did not invent it! He did not think it out and
   make it fresh every Sunday. No, it was Christ's Gospellong before it
   was Paul's Gospel. Yet he calls it our Gospel by way of distinction,
   for there were other gospels. There were those who came and said, "This
   is the Good News!" And others, on the other hand, who said, "Thisis the
   Good News," but Paul says that there was another Gospel and he adds,
   "Yet not another, but there are some that trouble you." He, therefore,
   put down his foot and he said, "Bring what gospels you like, each of
   you, but I have a Gospel which I preach, distinct from yours, and that
   Gospel it is which I have preached to the Thessalonians and which has
   not come to them in word only." In these times, Beloved, there must be
   made a distinction between men's gospel and God's Gospel, for nowadays
   man's gospel is popular enough. Somebody thinks until his head aches
   and he gets into nonsense--and then he comes and brings this forward as
   something fresh. Men go to the bottom of a subject until they stir the
   mud at the bottom and cannot see their own way, themselves, and nobody
   else can ei-ther--and then forthwith they come out with something
   marvelous! And, having used some words that are hard to pronounce and
   harder still to understand, they earn a cheap name for being great
   scholars and profound divines. Well, let such go their way--that is
   their gospel, but we have another Gospel from that--one which we have
   gained in another way and which we desire to propagate in another
   fashion! Paul said, "our Gospel," then, by way of distinction.

   But he also meant this--it was his Gospel because it had been committed
   to him. He had received it as a sacred deposit. He was, as it were, a
   steward for God--put into commission to preserve and keep alive the
   Truth of God in the world--and Paul did keep it unadulterated, so that
   when he closed his life he could say, "I have fought a good fight. I
   have kept the faith." Whoever may have adulterated the Gospel, Paul did
   not. He gave it forth as Christ gave it to him. Oh, that each one of us
   who is called to preach the Gospel and, indeed, every church member
   would feel that the Truth of God is committed to us to keep it in the
   world! Our grandfathers kept it at the stake and on the cruel rack--and
   when they went in their chariots of fire to Heaven, they left the Truth
   to their sons to preserve. Handed down to us in the long line of
   martyrs and confessors, Covenanters and Puritans, what will we do with
   it now? Will we not feel that all the cost expended on it in the
   centuries past demands of us that we should spend the same--if there is
   a necessity for it--even our blood and that, while we live, it shall
   never be said that in our life, in our prayer, in our conversation, or
   in our preaching, the Gospel suffered anything at our hands? "I know
   whom I have believed," said Paul, and, "I am persuaded that He is able
   to keep that which I have committed to Him." Or rather, as some read
   it, "He is able to keep my deposit, that which He committed to me to
   keep. Christ also will keep and preserve the Gospel pure and clear,
   even until time's latest hour." The Lord grant it, for His name's sake!

   But I think the Apostle used the term, "our Gospel," not only for
   distinction and because he felt it was committed to his trust, but
   because he had enjoyed it, himself, and had experienced it. What right
   has any man to preach that which he has not himself enjoyed and made
   his own? I have heard of a certain physician who usually tried his own
   medicines upon himself--and surely this should always be the practice
   of those who serve the heavenly Physician. How shall we come and preach
   of the Balm of Gilead, which is to heal all wounds, if our wounds are
   unhealed? What a wretched case must that man be in who talks of
   regeneration, but is not born-again! Who preaches faith, but has never
   believed! Who talks of pardon, but has never been washed in the
   precious blood! Who speaks of the righteousness of Christ, but is
   shivering in the nakedness of his own corruption! Ah, wretched man, to
   be a herald of good news while he, himself, partakes not therein!
   Ezekiel, before he had to go and speak of the message of God, had that
   message given to him, and what was said? "Son of man, eat this roll."
   He had to take the message written on the roll and eat it--and when it
   was in his own body--then it was that he could tell it out with great
   power! It is a good old saying, "If your preaching is to go to the
   heart, it must come from the heart." It must first have moved our souls
   before we can ever hope to move the souls of others!

   The Lord is my witness that in preaching to you here, Beloved, these
   many years, I have preached to you what I have tasted and handled of
   the good Word of God. I have preached the Doctrine of human sin, for I
   have felt its power, felt its bitterness and shame, and lain in the
   dust before God, even in despair. I have preached to you the power of
   the precious blood to cleanse from sin, for I have looked to Christ's
   dear wounds and found cleansing there. We have only spoken to you what
   we have, ourselves, known and felt, and proved to be true--and I would
   go to my chamber this night wretched, indeed, if I had no other
   assurance of the Truth of God of my message than that which I could
   find in the experience of other men! Now many of you are engaged in
   preaching Christ to others and in teaching Christ to the children in
   the schools. Always speak out of the fullness of your own hearts, for
   when you can say, "I have tried this. I am rejoicing in this," then
   your words will be pretty sure to come with power to the hearts of
   those that hear you. The man who desires to bring others to Christ
   should imitate Elisha, the Prophet, who, when he found the child dead
   in the bed and that it could not be raised to life by any other means,
   went and put his mouth upon the child's mouth, his hands upon the
   child's hands and his feet upon the child's feet--and then, by-and-by,
   the life was restored to the child. We must feel an inward sympathy
   with those whom we would bring to Christ! And then we must tell out
   from our own soul what we know about the Savior and it will be sure to
   come with freshness and with power, God, the Holy Spirit, blessing it!
   This, then, I think, was Paul's reason for calling it, "our
   Gospel"--the Gospel committed to him and the Gospel which he had tasted
   and handled personally. Now I shall want you to observe in the second
   place--

   II. HOW THE GOSPEL CAME TO THE THESSALONIANS. He describes it as coming
   in four degrees. First, he says, "It came not in word only, but in
   power and in the Holy Spirit." And, fourthly, in much assurance. Now
   these four words enable me to divide the present audience. To all who
   have been here present, who have been sitting in these pews for any
   length of time, our Gospel has certainly come in the Word of God. They
   have all heard it--heard it, too, so as to understand the run, the gist
   of it. They have heard it in many forms and shapes commending itself to
   their attention. But, oh, it is to be feared that there are some to
   whom it has come in word only and it is, indeed, to the preacher (and
   more still it should be to those who are in such plight) sad that this
   life-giving Word should be only a word. There was the

   Gospel feast and the message was sent, but they who were invited came
   not to the feast. They heard the message--that was all. Here are sick
   men lying at Bethesda's pool--they see the water and that is all--but
   they step not in and are not healed. Oh, to lie sick, with healing
   within reach! To be hungry and bread hard by! To be thirsty, with the
   stream flowing at one's feet and not to drink! Remember dear Hearers,
   that if the Word of God comes to you as word only, today, it will one
   day be something more than that, for it is an undoubted Truth of
   Scripture that hearers are responsible for what they hear. "Take heed
   how you hear!" shall have to be answered for at the Day of Judgment.
   "You heard the Gospel, but you rejected it!"--shall be one of the
   charges brought against those who listened to it--and it shall be more
   tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than it shall be for such an one! I would
   now like to divide the congregation upon this question, "How many are
   now here to whom the Gospel has come in word, only?" Let conscience
   speak! Let each man put his hand upon his heart and answer, "Is that my
   case?" If so, may it not be your case any longer, no, not a single day
   longer, but may the Word of God come to you in another way!

   But there were, secondly, some to whom it came in power. Now there are
   hearers to whom the Gospel comes with an awakening power. They used to
   be careless, but they cannot be, now! They hear the words, "Eternity!
   Eternity! Eternity," ringing in their ears and it startles and awakens
   them. They cannot be at ease while they are at enmity with God! They
   feel that their nest is stirred up. It has come with power to them.
   More than that, there are some to whom the Word has come with crushing
   effect--it has struck them down! It has bruised their righteousness. It
   has dashed to shivers their hopes of themselves and though they have
   not looked to Christ for the true hope, yet they feel the power of the
   Gospel which lays all other hopes in the dust! Ah, I know some of you
   have felt the power of the Gospel, for you went home and prayed,
   perhaps dozens of times--after hearing the sermon! You have gone up to
   your chambers and you have begun to pray, but the next morning you have
   forgotten. Your goodness has been like the morning dew and has melted
   when the heat of the day's cares have come upon it. Alas! Alas! Alas!
   In many a furrow we have sown in vain! We have cast the Seed on stony
   ground, we have thrown it on the highway side and we have lost our
   pains--nevertheless, we are to continue to preach the Gospel, for in
   some it will come with a greater power than this!

   Again, I would entreat another division of the house. I know there are
   some who will come under this head. They are not saved, but still they
   cannot ridicule it--they cannot pass it off with indifference. It is
   like a sharp two-edged sword--it pierces, cuts and wounds. I pray God
   it may kill them spiritually, that they may yet be made alive!

   Now the third degree of the coming of the Word to Thessalonica was that
   it came in the Holy Spirit. Ah, here is the blessed way, for if it
   shall come in any other power than this, it will come in vain! But if
   it comes in the Holy Spirit, oh, then--then its end is achieved, for
   the Holy Spirit quickens men by a mysterious operation which we cannot
   describe-- but which some of us have felt! It comes upon men and
   creates in them a new life and whereas they were dead in sin, they
   begin to live as they never lived before! That same Spirit then
   enlightens them, showing them a thousand Truths of God in a light in
   which they never saw them before. They find they have entered into a
   new world. They have passed from darkness into marvelous light! Then
   the Spirit of God begins to purify them. He purges them from this sin
   and that and He refines and renews them. He is in them as a Spirit of
   burning--consuming sin--a cleansing Spirit purging them from
   unrighteousness! Then He comes as a consoling Spirit and gives them joy
   and peace, lifts them up above their cares, their temptations, their
   doubts and fills them with a preface of eternal bless! Oh, blessed is
   that man to whom our Gospel comes with the Holy Spirit! Beloved, we do
   not wonder if persons sneer at the Gospel in itself, or if others hear
   it and are unaffected by it, for the Gospel, in itself, is like a sword
   without a warrior's arm to wield it. But when the Spirit of God comes,
   man is a doubter no longer! When He lays home the Truth of God, He cuts
   so to the dividing of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, so that men
   are convinced, converted, saved--and the Truth is to them, indeed a
   living thing! Pray, O beloved members of this Church, pray that the
   Word of God, even our Gospel, may come with the Holy Spirit!

   But there was a fourth class to whom the Word came in a yet higher
   degree, for it is added, "and with much assurance." To all Christians
   it comes with the Holy Spirit, but to some with a still greater degree
   of spiritual power! They believe the Gospel, but they do not believe it
   timidly--they accept it as a matter of firm, solid, indisputable fact!
   They grasp it as with an iron hand and their own interest in it does
   not remain a question. No, they know whom they believe and are
   persuaded that He is able to keep that which they have committed to
   Him. They believe in Christ with the faith of Abraham, which staggered
   not at the promise through unbelief. Clouds and darkness have gone away
   from their sky and they see the clear blue ether of God's own Presence
   above them. They rejoice in the Lord always, and again they do rejoice.
   There are some such in this house. I bless God for every one of them.
   May there be many more, for you that possess full assurance are the men
   who are strong for service! Having the joy of the Lord in your souls,
   it becomes your strength as you go forth to fight the Master's battles
   because you feel the Master's Love! The Lord give us many, many such in
   the Church, to whom the Word of God shall come with the Holy Spirit and
   with much assurance! Now this is how the Word of God came to them. I
   must pass on to the third point, and that is--

   III. WHAT HAD BEEN THE RESULT OF THIS IN THEMSELVES?

   You will kindly observe that the Apostle first says, "You became
   followers of us and of the Lord." A man, when he is first converted, is
   not fit to be a leader--he has to be a follower. We do not take
   recruits and make them captains! They must be drilled. They must go
   into the rank and file a bit. So one of the first things that Divine
   Grace does is to make a man a disciple, that is, a learner--and then he
   sees in God's Word what his life and conduct should be and, looking
   about him, he sees some whom God has blessed with His Grace whose life
   and conduct is according to the Word--and he follows God's servants,
   but not slavishly. He draws a distinction between them and their Master
   and only follows them as long as they keep company with their Lord.
   "You became followers of us and of the Lord." Brothers and Sisters, I
   know that many of you here present, when the Word of God came to you,
   became followers of holy men. If you heard of any good action, you
   desired to imitate it. If you read any biography that told of noble
   deeds, you aspired to emulate such deeds. And when you read the
   Character of your Lord and Master in the four Evangelists, you asked
   that you might have Grace to live a life of self-sacrifice, of devotion
   to God and of philanthropy to men. Well, this is no mean work of Divine
   Grace when a man is brought to be a follower of that which is good.

   At the same time he tells us that these people received the Word of God
   "in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." I know that there
   are some in this house who, when they received the Gospel, had to
   suffer for it, but they rejoiced to do so! From the day in which they
   publicly put on Christ, they were jeered--they became subjects of
   derision. Some have gone back from us because they could not bear the
   perpetual taunt, but others of you have been kept by the Grace of God
   and made able to bear any stigma or any sneer! And, indeed, is it not a
   small thing to bear the jests and jeers of men if the heart is right
   towards God? What do we care--what should we care though all men point
   the finger and should hiss because of it? Be true to God, Believer, and
   to your conscience, too, and you may well receive the Word "with joy of
   the Holy Spirit," even "in much affliction"! This is one proof of every
   Christian minister's ministry, when he can point to a people who have
   become followers of that which is good and have continued to follow
   when they have been made to suffer for it!

   But it appears that these people at Thessalonica went farther. They
   grew out of being followers in some sense and, therefore, became
   leaders. "So that you were examples to all Believers in Macedonia and
   Achaia." Now it is a very easy thing for a Christian to be an example
   to a sinner. He ought to be--and he is not a Christian if he is not. I
   won't give twopence for your religion if you do not set a fair example
   to the ungodly. But it is a higher degree of Divine Grace when a man
   becomes an example even to Christians--when he is such a Believer that
   others may look upon him as the typical Christian, for that is the word
   used here--may regard him as the type of what a Christian ought to be!
   Paul says that some of those degraded idolaters to whom he had preached
   the Gospel, first followed him and the Lord, and afterwards grew in
   Grace so that they stood in the front rank and became an example to
   Believers! Let me hold this up, Beloved, to your emulation. Let none of
   us be content to be according to the ordinary cold Christianity of this
   age! What cold, poor stuff it is! If the Lord, Himself, should come,
   would He find faith in the earth? Where is the zeal of the days gone
   by? Where is the ardor, where is the courage of the ages that have
   gone? If these things are found nowhere else, O my Brother, seek to
   have them in your own soul! Ask God, if you are compelled to see others
   decline, that you may not decline, for God's Grace can make you an
   example to the rest of His people! There are such here tonight of whom
   I might speak-- only the Lord bless them and keep them as they are--for
   I have seen Apostolic Christianity here! If I have seen it nowhere
   else, I have seen it here among some of my Brothers and Sisters here
   present, whose service for the Lord shall be remembered in the Day of
   Account! They wish it not to be known here, nor will it be, but they
   have, with tears and prayers, devoted themselves to Christ and served
   Him well--and He will remember them in that Day.

   Further, the Apostle goes on to tell us what was done by these
   Thessalonians--that they turned from idols. Oh, that God might turn all
   of us from every idol that we have! We do not worship gods of wood and
   stone, but how many professors are there still who worship learning?
   Let them seek it, but let them not worship it! There are some that
   worship fame, others that worship pleasure. This city is full of
   idolaters from end to end! When the Grace of God comes, it makes men
   worship the unseen God and leave their idols to those that choose them.
   Turning from idols, it appears that these people served the living God.
   They did not merely acknowledge that He was the living God, but they
   began to serve Him! They put forth their strength in His cause. So will
   it be among us wherever the Word has come with the Holy Spirit--we
   shall spend and be spent in the service of our Creator and Redeemer!
   And he adds that they waited for the coming of the Lord. Oh, this is a
   high mark of Grace, when the Christian expects his Lord to come--and
   lives like one that expects Him every moment! If you and I knew tonight
   that the Lord would come before this service was over, in what state of
   heart should we sit in these pews? In thatstate of heart we ought to
   be! If I knew that I would see my Lord before another sun should rise,
   how would I preach? I ought to preach just in that way as though He
   were sure to come at once and there could be no doubt about it! We
   would hold very loosely the things of this world if we knew that Christ
   was speedily coming--and so loose we ought to hold them! We would care
   but little for the discomforts of life if we knew that it would all be
   over and Christ would come very shortly--so little ought we to think of
   life's discomforts. Blessed is that man whose soul is always looking
   for the coming of the Lord! He may not study texts of Scripture to know
   the times and seasons, but if he is always expecting that his Lord may
   come at any time, and shall live under the feeling of that belief and
   in the power of it, he will be the holy man! "What manner of persons,"
   says Peter, "ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?"
   Such we desire to be by the power of the Holy Spirit! Thus we have
   noticed what the Grace of God did for the Thessalonians themselves. Now
   let us mark--

   IV. WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THIS TO OTHERS?

   And here I wish to speak practically to the members of this Church.
   Thessalonica was a seaport. It was also a principal town in Macedonia.
   Therefore, whatever was done in Thessalonica was pretty sure to be
   known throughout Macedonia and the rest of Greece. If the Church at
   Thessalonica had been a dull, sleepy Church, as some Christian Churches
   are, it would have lost a fine opportunity of doing good--but being a
   thoroughly awake Church, really full of God's own power--from that
   Church was sounded forth the Word of God throughout all Greece! And
   when the ships left that port they carried the tidings to Asia Minor
   and to other lands, so that Thessalonica became the starting point for
   the heralds of the Cross. Now if there is any place in the world that
   ought to feel its responsibility, it is London. We are not egotistical,
   I think, when we say that it is the very heart of the world! Whatever
   is done here is sure to be known and an earnest Church in London is
   only what it should be! A Church in London of any prominence that is
   sleepy, dull, and cold will have a very heavy account to render when
   the great Master shall come! The Church at Thessalonica sounded forth
   the Gospel involuntarily, and also voluntarily. They did it
   involuntarily, for their very lives spoke! If they did not preach, they
   were so full of faith, good works and holiness, that other people
   talked about it. And the matter was known and the work of God in the
   hearts of the Church could be perceived in the lives of the
   members--and so it went out. Oh, how happy would any pastor be whose
   people should be so godly, so united, so generous, so persevering, so
   prayerful, so full of faith and of the Holy Spirit that everywhere they
   should be spoken of and through them, through their conduct, the Word
   of God should be sounded abroad! See to that, my Brothers and
   Sisters--see to it. God has placed us where we are observed by many.
   Give them something to observe worth seeing! With the eyes of a
   multitude of witnesses upon us, let us run with patience the race that
   is set before us!

   But then the Church at Thessalonica sent out the Word voluntarily. I
   have no doubt that if they had any men among them that could preach the
   Gospel, they bade them go and preach it! And if any went on their
   travels, whether they were sea captains or merchants who went from
   place to place, or persons of influence, or whatever they might
   be--they said to them, "Wherever you go, keep up the propaganda. Preach
   the Gospel! Tell of Jesus Christ! Be, all of you, missionaries." Now in
   this I can rejoice and will rejoice that it has been so among us. At
   this present moment I suppose that not less than 300 of our sons that
   have been borne upon our knees are preaching the Gospel while I am
   preaching here--I mean ministers of Christ preaching the Gospel!
   Besides that, all round these streets are our Evangelists preaching at
   street corners. There ought to be more of them. Some of you that come
   to hear me on Sunday nights ought not to come. If you have got the
   Grace of God in your heart, come and get enough spiritual meat to feed
   you, but remember that London is perishing for the lack of the Gospel!
   How dare you, then, sit still to enjoy the Gospel while men are
   perishing? There are lodging houses that are accessible! There are
   halls, large and small! There are the street corners! There are all
   sorts of places where Jesus can be preached! Oh, let us labor with all
   our might to make Him known throughout the length and breadth of this
   great city!

   At this moment we have our sons, the sons of this Church, preaching in
   Australia, in America--an abundance of them there, preaching the Gospel
   of Christ--in the islands of the Pacific--all through every portion of
   our Dominions. God be thanked that there are so many, but there ought
   to be many more. I propound as a theory, not that a Christian man ought
   to say, "Am I called to preach the Gospel?" but that he ought to say,
   "Am I excused from preaching the Gospel?" The old plan was for young
   men to preach before the Church to see if they could preach. I think we
   must bring them all up to make them prove that they cannot preach. Now
   Mr. Oncken has been blessed in Germany, as you knew, to the raising of
   many Baptist Churches, and he always works upon this theory--Every
   member of the church must say, when he comes in, what he can do. If he
   says he cannot do anything, and he is old, and infirm, and bed-ridden,
   very well, he can serve God by patiently suffering. But if he has any
   ability and says, "I cannot do anything," then the reply is, "You
   cannot come into the Church." We cannot have any drones--we must have
   all working bees in the hive. I think it would be a good resolution for
   the Tabernacle to expel every member that is not doing something or
   other for the Lord Jesus Christ. I am afraid some of you would have to
   go!

   Well, we won't move that resolution, but we will move another--that
   every member who has been a drone up till now shall pray to be a bee!
   That everyone who has done nothing shall ask the Lord to help him to
   begin! That those who have done half as much as they could, will do the
   other half! And that those who are doing all they can will always try
   to do a little more, for it is always that point of doing more than you
   can do that, in the long run, is the best kind of doing--for then you
   have to lean upon God's strength when you have gone to the limit of
   your own--and there is the point where the results are pretty sure to
   follow! I ask the prayers of the dear Brothers and Sisters who have
   been with us--some of them 16 and 17 years in this service--that God
   would not stay His hand in our midst. That as He has multiplied us to
   an unexampled company of some 4,500 persons or thereabouts in
   membership, that He may give us unexampled Grace! That our zeal and
   earnestness, and enthusiasm may be in proportion to the number and that
   the success achieved for God may be commensurate with the
   responsibilities laid upon us. I sound the clarion again tonight! As
   God said, "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward," so
   would I speak to you. Forward in God's name! Forward! The world still
   lies in the Wicked One. Forward, you light-bearers! Scatter the
   darkness! Satan still laughs at God! Forward, with the invincible
   weapon of the Cross and put him to flight!

   Now sound your trumpets around the walls of Jericho--continue still to
   compass it. Now let the trumpet sound and the wall shall fall flat to
   the ground by the power of the eternal God. Forward! I hear the angels
   say it! Forward! I seem to hear innumerable spirits say, beckoning us
   like the Man of Macedonia, who beckoned Paul across the sea, Forward!
   The very powers of Hell behind us might well drive us on. Forward! The
   love of Christ within us shall impel us and let each man and women here
   that has been redeemed by blood, resolve tonight, in Jehovah's
   strength, to do for God and for His Truth something more than yet we
   have thought of--to the praise of the Glory of His Grace! God bless
   you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

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

   Verse 1. Paul, andSilvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church of the
   Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ:
   Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus
   Christ. Paul is very full of Christ. His heart is full of love to God
   our Father and, therefore, it is that twice over in as many lines he
   mentions both names. He uses no vain repetitions, as the heathen
   do--his inmost soul is taken up with communion with the Father and with
   the Son--and so in one single verse he twice gives us their names!

   2-4. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in
   our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor
   of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of
   God and our Father Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
   Paul had a very high opinion of the Church in Thessalonica and no doubt
   it deserved it. See how he speaks of it--with such confidence.
   "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." Their character was
   such that he felt sure that he saw the mark of God's elect about them
   and he speaks most positively of them--perhaps more positively than he
   does of any other Church. Well, there were three grand signs. There was
   the work of faith, the labor of love and the patience of hope. And
   where we see three works of the Spirit, we may be fully persuaded that
   electing love is there.

   5. For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
   and in the Holy Spirit And in much assurance; as you know what manner
   of men we were among you for your sake. Paul never had a happier time
   in preaching, it would seem, than when he preached to these
   Thessalonians! He felt a power resting upon him. He spoke the Gospel
   with great positiveness and assurance and, consequently, the people
   received it in power--and the assurance of the hearer made the
   assurance of the speaker! It is a great mercy when it is so.

   6. And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the
   Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.Ah, dear Friends,
   we read of one that he was more honorable than his brethren because his
   mother bore him with sorrow. And so when faith is born in the heart in
   the midst of affliction, it is a very precious faith. It is faith,
   indeed. "Having received the Word in much affliction with joy." I seem
   to see that joy of theirs floating, like Noah's ark, above the floods
   of their affliction. It seems to be a contradiction that we can be in
   affliction and yet be full of joy. But many a Believer will tell you
   that there is no contradiction in it. He knows what it is to be
   sorrowful and yet to be always rejoicing!

   7. So that you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and
   Achaia. Brothers and Sisters, let us not only be Christians, but let us
   be examples of Christians! They are sure to pick out the best for an
   example. Oh, that we might be such that if God, Himself, were to select
   Christians to show what they are like, He might select us to be
   examples!

   8-10. For from you the Word of the Lord has sounded out, not only in
   Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God
   has spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they
   themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had unto you,
   and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
   And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even
   Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come.Paul here states that
   all the Churches abroad knew what a wonderful time he had had with the
   Thessalonians and with what alacrity they had received the Gospel--and
   how they had turned away from their idols in thorough earnest to become
   worshippers of the living God! This was a great comfort to Paul and he
   speaks about them here with great joy!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Soul's Desertion

   (No. 3552)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "My beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone." Solomon's Song 5:6.

   The happiest condition of a Christian out of Heaven is to live in the
   conscious enjoyment of the Presence of the Lord Jesus. When the love of
   Christ is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, the Believer
   need not envy an angel his harp of gold! It matters not what may be his
   outward trial, the Holy Spirit is able to make the heart live above all
   surrounding circumstances, so that we can have summer in the midst of
   winter and pluck our ripest fruits when there are neither leaves nor
   fruits upon the tree. But the Christian is unhappy--unhappy to the
   utmost degree--whenever he loses the sense of the Presence of his Lord.
   Then the pillars of his house are made to tremble, his fresh springs
   are dried up, the sun is hid from his eyes and the sky is so dark
   overhead that he walks, rather wanders, about a world which cannot
   render to his soul any substantial comfort. Were he a worldling, he
   could live upon the world, but having been taught by Divine Grace to
   aspire after something nobler and better, the loss is exceedingly
   grievous to his spirit. I question whether the most of Christians do
   not sometimes lose the enjoyment of the Lord's company. I question yet
   further whether there are not very many professors who live contentedly
   under that loss--nor can I account for this, except on the supposition
   that they can have known but little of that Presence in their best
   estate. Otherwise, they must be in a most sickly and slumbering
   condition of soul, gradually becoming worse and worse--or else they
   never could bear to have things as they are with them. It seems to me
   that a real Believer in a sound state of health no sooner loses the
   Presence of his Lord than he begins to cry for Him. Where has Christ
   gone? Why have I lost sight of Him? The sounds of His footsteps still
   linger in the ear. The Believer wakens and starts, and asks himself,
   "How is this? Where has my Beloved gone? What is it that has chased Him
   from me? I cannot live if He leaves me, therefore, let me speedily seek
   Him and never rest until once more I am restored to full communion with
   Him." Let me, then, talk a little with such Believers as have lost, for
   awhile, the comfortable Presence of their Lord. The first question
   shall be--

   I. WHY WAS THE BELOVED GONE?

   According to the text, He was gone. Read the preceding verses, or
   perhaps you have them upon your memories. The spouse had been asleep.
   This was the beginning of the mischief. "I sleep, but my heart wakes."
   If we begin to fall asleep, we must not wonder if we miss the
   quickening and comforting influences of our Lord's Presence. Jesus
   Christ did not put us in His Church that we might sleep away our time
   on earth. Do not fancy that such an active spirit as that which burned
   and blazed in our Savior's flesh can be content to hold communion with
   lazy sluggards who toss upon their bed and say, "Yet a little more
   sleep and a little more folding of the arms to slumber." It is the
   active Christian who keeps pace with Christ! Christ is a quick
   walker--if you crawl along the path of duty, He will soon leave you
   behind--until you begin to enquire, "Where is He gone," and quicken
   your pace to overtake Him. Are there any here who have missed Christ's
   Presence, and who may trace it to the fact that they have been drowsy
   in prayer of late, heavy in all the exercises of study and duty, and,
   in fact, altogether sleepy? Have they been without care for the
   conversion of others, having scarcely any concern, even, about their
   own children? Are they, perhaps, indifferent to the welfare of Christ's
   Church, feeding little upon the Word and resorting but little to the
   assemblies of the saints? Marvel not if the Beloved withdraws Himself
   when His spouse does nothing but nod and sleep, instead of keeping
   company with Him in active service!

   After the spouse had fallen asleep, her Beloved came and knocked at the
   door, saying, "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled,
   for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the
   night." Yet she refused to open the door to him. Surely this is another
   sin which drives Christ away--when admonished for falling into a drowsy
   state, not to regard it. Depend upon it, there is extreme peril to a
   soul that does not accept the warning. Awful as it is to sin when
   unwarned, it is still more horrible to persevere in sin in the teeth of
   rebuke and after gentle, loving expostulations. What? Did conscience
   prick me and will I not be scrupulous? After having seen my fault and
   smarted for it, do I still persist in it? Have I been lukewarm and
   indifferent? Does the Holy Spirit visit me, remonstrate with me, and
   make me feel that I am gradually backsliding and little by little
   declining? Have I vowed and resolved that I would seek spiritual
   recovery and am I still as dull, careless, and unconcerned as ever?
   This argues ill and argues ill for my soul! The Beloved will not put up
   with these rebuffs forever. Out of love to us, He will hide His face.
   If we grieve Him, He will go. If we walk frowardly towards Him, He will
   soon walk frowardly towards us. These are God-provoking sins! It is a
   defying of His Spirit when you thus spurn His gentle admonitions!

   Note, further, that the spouse, when her Beloved knocked at the door,
   made idle excusesthat she had taken off her cloak and her sandals, and
   could not put them on. She was taking her rest upon her couch and could
   not bring herself to come to the door to let him in. Ah, how often
   self-indulgence lies at the bottom of the sin that drives Christ away!
   A Believer cannot let his lower nature get the uppermost and yet find
   that he is walking agreeably to the Lord's mind. Your spiritual nature
   ought to keep your mental nature under control--and your mental nature
   ought to keep your bodily or animal nature entirely in check. A man who
   is a thinker and a philosopher will scorn to let the mere passions
   govern him, but a true Christian, having a yet higher spirit within him
   than the mere mind, having that new living Seed within himself which
   comes from God, and leads him to God, should not and must not allow his
   baser nature to reign supreme! If we indulge the flesh, depend upon it,
   Christ will not be with us! He does not come to dwell with swine, but
   with men--but not with men of the earth, earthy, except in order to
   renew them and make them like Himself, who is the Second Man, the Lord
   from Heaven--to make them heavenly. If your conversation is to be with
   Christ, your conversation must be in Heaven! If you would enjoy the
   sunlight, you must not bow your face down to the earth. If you seek to
   be enriched in the things of God, you must not be forever groping among
   the dark pits and bogs, and morasses of earth. Oh, Soul, are you
   indulging yourself and taking things easy? Carnal security is one of
   your worst enemies! Do I hear any man say, "It is enough, my Soul--you
   have much spiritual goods laid up for many years--take your ease"? Do
   you think that there is no need for you to watch? Do you think you have
   become so experienced that there is no occasion for you to be much in
   prayer, for a word with you is as an hour with some? Do you imagine
   that there is no cause for you to be continually striving against your
   besetting sin because you have got such complete mastery over these
   infirmities? Oh, when we talk so, we betray the darkness in which we
   are living, the self-deception we are fostering, the corruption we are
   degenerating into and the desertion we are provoking! Such backsliding
   as this will soon make Jesus hide His face from us!

   Beloved, the simple reason of Christ's conscious absence from our souls
   is, in most cases, sin. I say in most cases, for sometimes Christ may
   hide Himself in absolute Sovereignty, but I am always jealous lest we
   should charge God foolishly. You are so apt to put too many saddles on
   that stalking horse! There are such multitudes of professors who would
   even excuse their sins upon the plea of a Divine Sovereignty which
   exposed them to temptation, that I scarcely like to mention it. I
   believe that God does not afflict willingly or arbitrarily the children
   of men. Neither does Christ hide His face from His people for
   nothing--but your sins have separated between you and your God. He
   chastises us, not as silly parents may do, out of mere spleen or
   caprice, or to please themselves, as the Apostle seemed to think some
   fathers did in his day, for he says, "They verily chastened us after
   their own pleasure." But when God chastens us, it is for our profit.
   Our good is His aim and His end in using the rod of correction. He
   makes us smart for the sin which seemed sweet. He nauseates our palate
   with the bitter fruits of disobedience, that we may afterwards relish
   the peaceable fruits of righteousness!

   Now, Beloved, in each individual case, the hiding of the Lord's face
   may be occasioned by a different sin. It is very probable that my Lord
   thinks that to be a high sin in me which He would take little notice of
   in you. It is equally possible that He may think that to be peculiarly
   offensive in you which He would not visit in my case with stripes, for
   according to our constitution, our office, our experience, our light
   and our several circumstances, our transgressions may be estimated. You
   are not provoked, perhaps, by a good deal of noise from one of your
   children, but half that noise from another of your children would
   exceedingly vex you. Because the one happens to be of a quick,
   impetuous temperament, you set it down to natural disposition, but the
   other, being of gentler habit and quieter mood, you upbraid him for his
   excitement, as if it were of evil prepense and intended to aggravate
   and annoy! So you may have a confidential servant in your family, from
   whom you may reasonably expect more care, thoughtfulness and
   circumspection than you look for in any of the other servants. The more
   trust you repose, the more scrupulousness you require. Let us, then,
   each one according to his position, seek Grace to walk uprightly,
   carefully, tenderly. It has been well said that what an ordinary
   subject might do or say, one of the Cabinet Council must not even
   think. The favorite of kings has a dangerous path to walk-- and though
   it is a blessed privilege to be the favorite of Heaven, it involves a
   very solemn responsibility. "You only have I known of all the
   inhabitants of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your
   iniquities." You can see defilement on a white slab which you would not
   have noticed on the common soil--and so there are sins which spoil the
   character of saints that would hardly be observed in ordinary society.
   The Presence of Christ can only be preserved with incessant
   watchfulness and inviolate fidelity. The sacred Dove is soon disturbed.
   The Beloved is soon awakened and made to stir. Hence it should be our
   cry, "I charge you by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that you
   stir not up, nor awake my love until he please." Having thus considered
   the cause why the Beloved is gone, let us enquire-- II. WHAT ENSUES
   UPON THE WITHDRAWAL OF HIS PRESENCE?

   Great mistakes have been made upon this subject. Some have supposed
   that Believers suddenly cease to be followers of Christ, go back into
   the world, apostatize and perish! But the Lord does not desert His
   people after this fashion. He has not cast away His people whom He did
   foreknow, and He never will! Has He put His hand to the work of their
   salvation? He will not permanently turn away from them! When he turns
   away, it is always with a gracious motive--hence the consequences,
   though often very sad--are notfatal. The withdrawal of His conscious
   Presence is not intended to slay us, though it brings us very low and
   would leave us a prey to destruction were it not that He stays His hand
   in time, and gives Grace to keep the soul alive under His desertion!

   As soon as Christ is gone, there is a suspension of those influences
   that once made the Christian happy and strong. The Holy Spirit no
   longer comforts the soul. The Word does not enliven or invigorate. The
   sweetest sermons fail to cheer the heart. Even the promises of God's
   Holy Book are like lanterns without candles--they bring no light. When
   Christ hides His face from a disciple, his spirits flag and he feels a
   general depression. He cannot pray as it was his habit to do-- he
   cannot preach as he once did. The holy duties to which he tenaciously
   clings become rather a burden than a pleasure. Instead of those
   delightful walks he had alone when his soul went up to God in quiet
   meditation, he finds his thoughts all dissipated, scattered here and
   there. Nor can he by any means concentrate--far less can he make his
   thoughts soar and mount towards Christ. He goes to his Bible--not as
   often as he did, nor yet so solemnly as he did--but the Book does not
   speak to him. God answers him neither by Urim nor by Thummim, nor by
   open voice. And now he does not seem to have the illuminations of God's
   Spirit. He does not dive into the meaning of the Word as once he did.
   Providence, again, seems dark. The secret of the Lord does not appear
   to be with him as it formerly was. He has no enjoyment. The soul
   follows after God after a fashion, but, alas, he has to cry, "Why are
   you cast down, O my Soul, and why are you disquieted within me?" Thus
   Divine Influences are, for a while suspended.

   Then it follows that he loses much of his assurance. He used to know he
   was a Christian. Now he begins to sing, "'Tis a point I long to know."
   So he has to furbish up his old evidences and eat some of the stale
   food that he used to care little for when he used to live upon a daily
   portion from the King, even a portion from the King's table. He sits
   down in the ashes and is glad to sit there. Sometimes he mourns because
   he cannot mourn, and frets because he cannot fret. While he sees his
   sin, he is afraid he has not a true feeling of it. Though he still
   looks to the Cross of Christ and to the precious blood of Atonement, he
   does not seem to have the power of looking that he once had, nor to
   derive that comfort from casting himself upon the finished work which
   before he did when Jesus Christ was manifestly with Him.

   But perhaps it will aid you in realizing the dark features of this
   desertion if I use a little simile. You see full often a house that is
   left by its former tenant and is shut up. Jesus Christ never altogether
   leaves a heart of which He has once taken possession. There is one room
   in a Believer's soul which the Holy Spirit never quits. Where He comes,
   He comes to abide and to abide forever! Still, that room is so secret
   that while He resides there, the whole house may look as if it was
   deserted. Compare that empty house with a cheerful home. What a
   contrast between its previous and present condition! Why, the joy has
   gone from it/The blinds are drawn down--or, perhaps, the windows stare
   at you in their desolation. The house looks unfurnished. It is no
   longer an ornament to the street. Its decorations have vanished since
   its inhabitants have fled. The house is there, with all its capacities,
   but the home, with all its vivacities, is lacking. The life and the
   loveliness have gone from it! And so a child of God soon loses all his
   joy and comfort when the Tenant of his soul is withdrawn. No sparkling
   of the eyes, no singing of the great hallelujahs, no sounding of the
   cymbals, even the high-sounding cymbals. He will be glad enough to get
   a note out of the harp, now! He cannot get up to those glorious songs
   which once made his spirit keep tune with the angels because the joys
   of Heaven had come down to earth!

   Then the house, being empty, is sure to get into a state of filth.
   There is nobody to clean the dust--all sorts of spiders and foul things
   get into the corners and crannies--and the longer the house is shut up,
   the more these creatures multiply. Down in the cellar there is a little
   vegetation--long yellow stalks and roots trying to live--left there by
   some old inhabitant. But there is nothing fair, nor beautiful. All is
   uncomfortable. So it gets to be in our hearts! All sorts of evils
   spring up. Evils we little suspected, which would have been kept in
   check by the Presence of Christ, begin to multiply and increase upon
   us, and the little good that is in us seems to be an unhealthy sprout
   bringing forth nothing unto perfection!

   Then a house with nobody in it decays. How the metal rusts! How the
   paint gets stained! How the wood begins to rot! How the whole thing has
   a damp kind of smell! It is all going to ruin. Why, 10 years of
   habitation would not do so much mischief as these 12 months of shutting
   up. When Jesus Christ is gone, everything is amiss--love nearly
   expires, hope scarcely glimmers, faith is well-nigh paralyzed, no Grace
   is in lively exercise! Without the life of God in the soul, there is a
   total collapse and a chill strikes right through the spirit. Has the
   house been long empty? The boys outside are pretty sure to mark it for
   their sport, and to break the windows. In fact, it stands exposed to
   all sorts of outward damage. So, too, with malice and mischief, the
   devil will come upon a man when he knows that he has lost the light of
   God's Countenance. What a horrible old coward he is! When the child of
   God is rejoicing in the company of Christ, he has not often to
   encounter Satan. The accuser of the Brothers and Sisters well knows how
   to time his tactics and his temptations! But when he sees that the Lord
   has departed, then Satan takes courage and attacks the child of God to
   his serious damage and hurt! I heard the other day of a good country
   plowman who told a story of victory over temptation in his own simple
   style. He was a man who feared God above his neighbors and seemed to
   live above the world in spiritual things. A minister asked him if he
   did not get tempted and worried sometimes by Satan. "Yes," he said, "I
   have known much about being tempted by Satan in my time. Why, Sir, 10
   years ago I was threshing in this barn, here, and the devil came upon
   me with a strong temptation. It plagued and worried me so, that I could
   not get rid of it--till at length I put down my flail and got away into
   a corner, just beyond the wheat there--and I wrestled with God against
   Satan until I gained such a victory that I came back to my place
   rejoicing! Many a time since that," said the old man, "he has lurked
   about my path, but I never stop to parley. I repeat the promise by
   which I found a way of escape that day in this barn, and I feel myself
   made strong by the remembrance of that victory." Yes, and just so when
   we can remember some of those occasions when we seemed to overcome
   temptation by private communion with God, then we get strong, but--

   "Let the Lord be once withdrawn

   And we attempt the work alone,

   When new temptations spring and rise--

   We find how great our weakness is." Like Samson, when his hair was
   lost, we think we shall defeat Satan as at other times, but we--

   "Shake our limbs with vain surprise,

   Make feeble fight and lose our eyes." When houses have been long left
   without tenants and look deserted, they get up a rumor that they are
   haunted. And I am sure that when a heart has been left by Christ and
   there have been no comfortable enjoyments of His Presence, our souls do
   get haunted with strange, mysterious doubts and fears, vexations and
   forebodings which you cannot grapple with--horrors that do not take any
   shape, troubles that ought not to be distressing, alarms that are made
   up of shadows--dangers that have not any real existence! Oh, that
   Christ were there! As phantoms would all vanish in the sunlight, so
   would all these dreary doubts and dismal dilemmas be chased away if
   Christ returned! Oh, that our poor empty house could once more have its
   gates flung wide open and that the King would come to dwell in His own
   palace and make it all bright and lustrous with His Presence! Master,
   see how sick we are without You! Come, blessed Physician! Jesus, see
   what wretched beings we are if You withdraw! Come, our Beloved, come to
   us! Let the sad effects of Your departure quicken Your footsteps and
   bring You over the mountains of division to the longing spirits of Your
   fainting children! Passing on, let us enquire--

   III. WHAT COMFORT IS THERE FOR A SOUL WHEN THE BELOVED HAS WITHDRAWN
   HIMSELF AND

   IS GONE?

   Let me reply, there is no comfort at all that will be of any service to
   you unless you get Him back. Ah, but if a wife loves her husband, and
   he is gone, we may quote the old song--

   "There is nae luck about the house When thegudeman'sawa'."

   The dear man, the joy of her heart, being gone, she could not make
   anything go well. And so, where the loving heart has lost its Beloved,
   its best Beloved, there seems to be no joy anywhere! Nothing can make
   up to a regenerate soul for the loss of the society of her Lord. And
   yet some considerations may help to stay us while we are seeking for
   it. Though He is gone, He is still our Beloved. Though we cannot see
   Him, yet we love Him! And if we cannot enjoy Him, we thirst after Him!
   And that is some consolation, though it is a poor consolation, to think
   it has not quite lost all its life, for it has got life enough to
   smart, life enough to be in pain and life enough to feel itself in
   exile until Christ's return! I think, too, there is some comfort in
   this--that though He is gone, He is gone out of love. Was it in a tiff
   of anger? Yet it was rather a rebuke of our sins than a rejection of
   our persons. Christ withdraws because He wants to bring us to our
   senses and to draw us more closely to Himself. He knows that if we were
   to have enjoyments and yet walk in sin, this would be highly dangerous
   and, therefore, these enjoyments must be withheld till the heart is
   broken and the soul abhors itself in dust and ashes!

   It is some comfort also, that though He is gone, He is not gone out of
   earshot. Jesus Christ can still hear the cry of His people. No, He is
   not gone beyond the reach of His eyesight. He is looking upon His poor
   deserted one to see what the effect of His hiding Himself is.

   And there is this to be said, that He is not so far gone but that at
   any moment He can return, and His return can at once make our souls
   like the chariots of Aminnadib! He can rise upon our darkness and that
   in the next instant if so it pleased Him. He is gone, but He is not
   altogether gone. He has not taken His love from us, nor shall His
   loving kindness utterly fail. Still on His hands He bears the marks of
   His passion for our salvation. Still on His breastplate glitter the
   jewels that bear our names. He cannot forget us, though He hides
   Himself! He may be asleep, but it is in the same vessel with us--and
   near the helm. He may appear to have utterly deserted us, but, "can a
   woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on
   the son of her womb?" Yes, they may forget, but Christ shall never
   forget His saints! But now, lastly--

   IV. WHAT IS OUR DUTY IN SUCH A PLIGHT?

   If he is gone, what then? I answer--our duty is to repent of that which
   has driven Him away. We must institute a search at once! Bunyan
   describes the citizens of Mansoul as searching for the cause why
   Immanuel had withdrawn Himself, and they took Master Carnal-Security
   and burned his house, and hanged him on a gallows on the site where the
   house stood, for it was through feasting with him that the Prince was
   angered, and His subjects lost His Presence. Search yourselves if you
   are not as happy as you were--if you are not living as near Heaven-Gate
   as you were, search yourselves.

   And having done so, and found out the evil, ask for Divine Grace to be
   purged of it. Oh, you will fall into that evil, again, if you trust to
   your own strength! But in reliance upon the Holy Spirit's power, you
   can overcome it--you can put your foot upon the neck of this evil and
   so destroy it that it shall not molest you again!

   And then, Beloved, let me earnestly entreat you--and I am speaking more
   to myself, perhaps, than I am to any of you--to stir up your whole soul
   to recover lost ground. Be ashamed that there is any lost ground to
   recover. Oh, it is easier to lose Christ than it is to find Him after
   we have lost Him. It is easier to go straight on in the strength of
   Grace than it is to have to go back to find your roll which you have
   lost under the settle in the Harbor of Ease, and then, after going
   back, to have to go over the same ground again! When you have got the
   wings of an eagle, what blessed work it is to soar and to pass over
   long tracks of country! But when the eagle wing is gone and you have to
   limp painfully along, like David, with broken bones, it is hard work.
   But, Beloved, if you have slipped at all, ask for Grace to recover now!
   For my own part, I feel I have so little Grace that I have none to
   lose. As to falling back--oh, what should we be if we fell at all back,
   for we are back enough now! We are nowhere at all in comparison with
   the saints of God in the olden times. We are but beginners and babes,
   but where, where, where shall we be if we are to go still farther back?
   No, no, Sovereign Grace, prevent so dreadful a catastrophe! Press
   forward!

   And, Brothers and Sisters, will it not be a great thing and a right
   thing for us to endeavor to set apart much time for special prayer that
   we may have lost Grace restored Should we not set ourselves to this one
   thing--that we must get back, by the simplicity of faith, to the foot
   of the Cross? And by the earnestness of love, unto the bosom of the
   Master once more--and that we will not be satisfied with preaching, and
   praying, and going to places of worship, or with ordinances, or with
   anything--until we get Christ back again? Oh, my Soul, I charge you be
   content with nothing till you get your Lord again! Say, with the good
   housewife I spoke of just now, whose husband was away from home, "Yes,
   this room shall be decorated, and every part of the house shall be
   cleansed, but, ah, the joy of my heart will be to see him return! And
   until he comes, the house cannot be cheerful and joyous." It is so with
   our souls. We must have the King back, and back soon! And when He does
   come back, we must hold Him fast and not let Him go. Charge your souls
   to be more careful in the future, lest you again provoke Him to
   jealousy.

   Alas, for those who never knew my Lord! Oh, may they seek Him early and
   find Him speedily! If it is sad to lose His Presence for awhile, what
   must it be to live and die without Christ? Oh, that is a black word for
   anyone to have written on his brow, "Without Christ." If you are in
   that condition, dear Hearer, may Divine Grace bring you to Christ, and
   Christ to you, that you may enjoy the fellowship of His love! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: SONG OF SOLOMON 2:1-7; 3:1-5.

   SONG OF SOLOMON 2.

   Verses 1, 2. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As
   the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.It is the
   nature of love to make the thing beloved like itself. If Christ is a
   lily, He makes His people lilies, too. Certainly He is the lily of the
   valley, and before long His Church is able to say, "As the lily among
   the thorns, so am I," while for the present, Jesus says it. She is
   among the thorns, thorns that hurt and vex her. The people of God are
   still in the tents of Kedar, still among the wicked, having their ears
   vexed with their filthy conversation. But the lily is all the more
   beautiful on account of the thorns that make the background--and so
   your piety may be all the more resplendent because of the evil men
   among whom you sojourn.

   3. As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved
   among the sons. The citron tree towered aloft in the midst of the
   forest and it was covered with its golden apples. Such is Jesus Christ,
   the most lovely of all objects, and though there are some that pretend
   to contend with Him, yet to the Believer, rivals are left in the
   distance--no--they are altogether forgotten! "As the apple tree among
   the trees of the woods, the most distinguished and the most lovely, so
   is my beloved among the sons." How do you know?

   3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was
   sweet to my taste. I know his loveliness, for I have felt it, and I not
   only have comfort without, but I have food within.

   4, 5. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was
   love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of
   love. A strange thing is this love of Christ, for, as Erskine puts it--

   "When well, it makes me sick; When sick, it makes me well."

   There is no infirmity which this love of Christ cannot care, no
   conflicting passion which it cannot remove and, on the other hand, a
   great amount of this love shed abroad in the heart will often prostrate
   the Christian with excess of delight, till he is ready to cry out, with
   good Mr. Welsh, the Scotch pastor, "Hold, Lord! Hold! It is enough!
   Remember I am but an earthen vessel and if I have too much of Glory, I
   shall not live." I am afraid we shall not often have to say this, yet
   there are times when the Believer's joy knows no bounds and his
   hallowed delight in his God is so excessive that he needs to have some
   supernatural support to enable him to endure the delight which his
   Father gives him!

   6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand does embrace me.
   The hand with which He smites His enemies cannot smite me, for it is
   under my head, my sweet support. And His right hand, the hand with
   which He blesses, the hand of His power and His Glory, does embrace
   each one of His people.

   7. I charge you, Oyou daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the
   hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till he
   please. The next passage we shall read is at the commencement of the
   Third Chapter, and presents quite a different scene. Perhaps you will
   scarcely think it is the same person that writes it, but, oh, we are
   very variable! See now how that sunshine has just gilded that side of
   the house and, in another minute--see--it melts away and has gone
   again! Just so is it with our experience. We rejoice for a few moments,
   but soon the clouds hang heavy over us and we scarcely know what and
   where we are! The Spouse has now altered, but her Husband never does
   alter, for the Lord, the King, abides still the same, and herein is our
   joy.

   SONG OF SOLOMON 3.

   Verses 1-3. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I
   sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, andgo about the city
   in the streets, andin the broad ways I willseek him whom my soulloves:
   Isought him but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city
   found me: to whom I said, Saw you him whom my soul loves?The same
   question over and over again--only that one thought, "Where is He?"
   Ministers were nothing. Streets of ordinances were nothing. What the
   soul needed was to find a personal Christ, and to have personal
   fellowship with Him.

   4. It was but a little that Ipassed from them, but I found him whom my
   soulloves; Iheld him and wouldnot let him go. Jacob's wrestling is
   succeeded by Jacob's vows.

   4. UntilIhad brought him into my mother's house, andinto the chamber
   ofher that conceivedme. Fellowship that is sweet to me must be sweet to
   others of my Brothers and Sisters, therefore will I bring Him to the
   Church, and tell to all the assembled people how sweet, how delightful
   He is to my soul!

   5. I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the
   hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my love, till he
   please.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Fullness and the Filling

   (No. 3553)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And ofHis fullness have we all received, and Grace for Grace" John
   1:16.

   ONE Sabbath I was staying in an Italian town on the other side of the
   Alps. Of course, the whole population was Romish. Two or three of us,
   therefore, being Protestants, held a little service for the worship of
   God in the simple manner that is our habit. After this, I went out for
   a walk. The weather being hot and sultry, I sought the outskirts of the
   town to get to as quiet and cool a spot as possible. Presently I came
   to an archway at the foot of a hill where there was an announcement
   that any person who would climb the hill with proper intentions should
   receive the pardon of his sins and five days' indulgence. I thought I
   might as well have five days' indulgence as anybody else, and if it
   were of any advantage, to have it laid by in store. I cannot tell you
   all I saw as I went, first one way, and then another, up that hill.
   Suffice it to say that there was a series of little churches, through
   the windows of which you might look, as one in his boyish days looked
   through a peepshow. The whole scene and circumstance of the Passion and
   death of Christ were thus modeled, beginning with His agony in the
   Garden, where He was represented in a figure as large as life, with the
   drops of bloody sweat falling to the ground. The three disciples were a
   stone's throw off, and the rest of the Apostles outside the garden
   wall. Every feature looked as real as if one had been standing upon the
   spot! I scrutinized each group narrowly and carefully read the Latin
   text which served as an index, till I reached the top of the hill,
   where I saw a garden, just like an English garden, and as I pushed open
   the door I faced these words, "Now there was a garden, and in the
   garden there was a new sepulcher." Walking down a path I came to a
   sepulcher--so I stooped down and looked in--as Peter had done. There,
   instead of seeing a picture of the corpse of Christ, I read in gilded
   letters these words--of course, in the Latin tongue--"He is not here,
   for He is risen! Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Passing on, I
   came to a place where His Ascension was represented. On the summit was
   a large church, into which I entered. No one was there, yet the place
   for me had a marvelous interest. High up in the ceiling there swung a
   rude representation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and round it were statues
   of the Prophets, all with their fingers pointing up to Him. There was
   Isaiah, with a scroll in his left hand, on which was written, "He was
   despised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with
   grief." Further on stood Jeremiah, and on his scroll was written,
   "Behold and see if there was ever sorrow like unto My sorrow, which was
   done unto Me." All round the church I read in great words, that were
   large enough to be seen, though they were blazoned on the top of the
   ceiling, "Moses and all the Prophets spoke and wrote concerning Him."

   Now, though I cannot take you to see that remarkable sight, which I
   shall never forget, I would gladly bring before your mind's eye
   something like it. Suppose that all the saints who lived from the days
   of Adam, down to the times when Malachi closed the Old Testament--all
   the saints who lived in Christ's time and then on through the early
   ages of the Church in the days of Chrysostom, and Augustine, and all
   the holy men who afterwards gathered around the Reformers, and all who
   in every place have served God since then--suppose they all stood in
   one vast circle? To whom do you suppose they would, every one, point?
   To whom would they all bear witness? Why, with outstretched arm,
   everyone of them would turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and speak His
   praise! Could you then enquire into their individual history, you would
   find among them characters exceedingly diverse, though all remarkably
   beautiful. Some renowned for courage, others for gentleness. Some for
   patient endurance, others for diligent labor--and yet all inspired by a
   common faith-- all of them aglow with fervent gratitude! All of them
   looking with steadfast gaze and intense love towards ONE from whom they
   had received every gift that profited them--and that One, Jesus Christ,
   the Son of God, the Savior of men! The rule would admit of not a single
   exception. From each man in his own proper position, from every man in
   his own particular calling, from all the individuals severally in their
   own personal experience, the innumerable voices--distinct, but blending
   in chorus--would go up from earth to Heaven, saying, "Of His fullness
   have we all received, and Grace for Grace." Then I think from the
   excellent Glory would come a response. The inhabitants of Heaven would
   echo back the strain, "Of His fullness have we all, the glorified
   spirits, received, and Grace for Grace." This is the testimony of the
   Church militant, andof the Church triumphant! Yes, it is the testimony
   of all who in every place and at every time have come and put their
   trust under the shadow of His wings!

   Our text seems to suggest two thoughts--the fullness and the
   filling--upon each of which I will attempt to say a little, a very
   little. With so infinite a theme, we can do no more than children do
   when they take up a little seawater in a shell--their tiny scoop cannot
   embrace the ocean. I stand on the narrow edge of a vast expanse and
   leave the boundless depths to your contemplation! His fullness! An
   inexhaustible reservoir! Our flling!An illimitable endowment! Beloved,
   the river of God, which is full of water, can well supply the little
   canals that are fed from such a fountain with Grace for Grace!

   I. I said THE FULLNESS. It is His fullness, the fullness of Jesus
   Christ, the Son of God. Oh, what a fullness He has! The fullness which
   belongs to Him personally Note this well! Forget it not! Our Redeemer
   is essentially God. By Nature He is Divine. He has condescendingly
   taken upon Himself our nature and He is most truly and assuredly Man.
   Very God! For to Him belong all be attributes of Jehovah. Very Man! For
   when He took our flesh and blood, He accepted the entire sympathies of
   our creatureship. In His complex Nature, He possesses fullness. In Him
   dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He has the fullness of
   Omnipotence and all power is given unto Him as Mediator in Heaven and
   in earth. Omnipresence is His to perfection, "for where two or three
   are gathered together in My name, there am I (He said) in the midst of
   them." He has essential wisdom. Even when on earth, "He did not commit
   Himself, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should
   testify of man, for He knew what was in man." In Him is fullness of
   justice. The Father has given all judgment unto the Son. "Shall not God
   judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained,
   whereof He has given assurance unto all men in that He has raised Him
   from the dead?" In Him is fullness of mercy, for, "through this Man is
   preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." The attributes of God make
   up a perfect total. The unity, with all its uniqueness, is His!
   Divisions and sub-divisions are ours. The fractional parts of which we
   take account are but the breaking up of a great fact to our weak
   understanding. Think as you may, your thoughts cannot describe or
   compass God, for God is all that is good and blessed! And as is God, so
   is Christ--all the Divine Attributes are contained and represented in
   Christ Jesus in their fullness--not diminished by His humiliation, but
   resplendent by His triumph!

   "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead." He is the express
   Image of the Father's Person, the brightness of His Father's Glory--not
   more Glory--but the brightness of His Father's Glory. What confidence
   this ought to inspire in our hearts! The fullness from which you and I
   derive the Divine Grace we receive is none other than the Infinite
   fullness of God Over All, blessed forever, whose name is Immanuel, God
   With Us! There was also a fullness in Christ in respect to His Manhood.
   Nothing was lacking to Him that is involved in being by Nature and
   Constitution a perfectMan. He was pure. He did not inherit any sin. His
   disposition did not tend towards any evil. Still, all that pertains to
   the original creatureship of man as created by God did Christ possess
   in the fullness of development. Hence, my Brothers and Sisters, there
   is in Him at this moment a fullness of sympathy. He is not such a High
   Priest as cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but He
   was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin! Do not
   suppose that Jesus is less human than you are, yourselves--He is fully
   human. Do not imagine that He is less tender than you would be towards
   the weak and suffering--He is full of tenderness. His heart melts with
   love. A mother has often a tenderness that we do not find in a father.
   Masculine strength and courage do not always blend with the gentle,
   sympathetic qualities of woman. Howbeit when God created man in His own
   image, male and female created He them. The virtues, if I may say so,
   of both sexes were combined in our Lord--the suavity as well as the
   staunchness--the feminine as well as the masculine of our common
   humanity! Human nature in its totality and completeness was fully
   possessed and thoroughly represented by Him. The sympathetic nature
   which melts at a tear and smiles at the joy of others, was as truly His
   as the heroic nature that parleys not with fear, but acts with
   promptitude and suffers with fortitude, like a warrior in the hosts of
   the Lord! There is thus a fullness of humanity as well as a fullness of
   Divinity in Christ Jesus, our Savior--a fullness of perfection in His
   blessed Person which may well fix your trust and rivet your admiration!

   In our Lord, likewise, there is what I may venture to call, for lack of
   a better word, an acquired fullness. He has sojourned on earth and
   rendered entire and undeviating obedience to the Law of God, having
   taken upon Himself the form of a Servant, and by His righteousness
   earned wages--a fullness, an everlasting wellspring of merit!
   Throughout His whole life He honored the Divine Law and glorified God
   on the earth. In doing His Father's will, His action was so voluntary
   and so vicarious, that He has accumulated an inexhaustible fund of
   merit which all of us who believe in His name may plead before the
   Father's Throne. More especially did His death consummate the obedience
   and constitute its sterling worth, its intrinsic virtue. His death,
   with all its surroundings--from the bloody sweat in the Olive Garden to
   the last cry, "Into Your hands I commend My spirit"--was sublime. All
   through the scourging and the spitting, the shame, the wounding, His
   Crucifixion, the thirst, the desertion and the death, itself, He was
   working out an Atonement for us--

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

   And now with Him risen from the dead, raised to the right hand of the
   Majesty on high, there is a fullness of prevalence in His intercession
   when He pleads His blood--a fullness of cleansing power when the Spirit
   applies the blood to the guilty conscience--a fullness of peace to the
   heart when His blood speaks better things than that of Abel! In that
   fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins there is a
   fullness that never can be exhausted by all the sin of man! He has
   finished the work which His Father gave Him to do. Now the Covenant is
   ratified with Him that He shall see of the travail of His soul and
   shall be satisfied. In these respects we are convinced that there is an
   acquired as well as a personal fullness in our precious Lord!

   No less has He a fullness of dignity, of high prerogative. He is a
   Prophet. By Him are all His people taught, warned, counseled and
   encouraged with a blessed hope. He is a Priest, and by Him they are
   cleansed from sin and consecrated to God. Moreover, He is also a King,
   spreading the patronage of protection over all His liege subjects and
   ordaining peace for them. Under His beneficent rule, they prosper! You
   good Shepherd! You great Shepherd of the sheep! There is no office or
   obligation that was necessary for our welfare, but You have taken it
   and undertaken it on our behalf! You are to us all that we require and
   all that we could desire! Join all the qualities involved in name or
   fame that commend themselves most closely to your heart, because they
   meet your necessities, or draw forth your sympathies, and you shall
   find that He comprises them all in liberal, lavish fullness! Nor has
   His prerogative any limit. As a Priest, who has once offered a
   Sacrifice of everlasting prevalence, His absolution or His benediction
   is final and irrevocable! As a Prophet, His authority is
   unimpeachable--the authority with which He teaches allows of no appeal.
   As a king, He has right as well as might on His side. In the midst of
   Zion, willing subjects yield to His beneficent sway! In the outer
   world, reluctant rebels must submit themselves to His scepter! He is no
   Priest whose vain pretense has no valid prescript. He is no Prophet
   whose teaching is uncertain in its tone, or limited in its range. He is
   no King whose prerogative is not sanctioned by His wisdom and whose
   government awakens no fealty of love. But in the administration of all
   His offices, our Lord Jesus Christ shows a fullness of qualification
   and gives a fullness of satisfaction! In such respects He has no
   rival--nor is there any room for a rival to arise!

   And let me say here that the power with which our Lord exercises these
   offices may well command our devout confidence. Do you need to learn
   the truth? Oh, come to the Prophet of Nazareth, and you shall find that
   there is a satiety of truth in His teaching such as was never found in
   heathen groups, or even to the same extent in Hebrew Seers! Or do you
   need acceptance before God. Oh, then, come you to the Priest who is not
   of the tribe of Levi, but a Priest after the order of Melchisedec,
   whose royalty confers dignity on His sacerdotal office! He can present
   your sacrifice with the much incense of His merit that is acceptable
   before the Throne of God. Or do you need strength? Do you need one to
   fight your battles, to take hold of the shield and the buckler, draw
   out the spear and handle the bow? Behold, the Hero of Israel, whose
   exploits are told in your songs--Jesus, the King by right of conquest,
   as well as by right Divine--has a fullness of power and majesty with
   which no adversary can overcome! He reigns! His reign is the
   consolation of His people, the guarantee of their peace! These are bare
   outlines. Time would fail me to enumerate all His offices. They are
   very numerous but, however numerous, Christ possesses them all! He
   enjoys the prerogatives peculiar to them all in the fullest degree. He
   possesses the power to exercise them all to the fullest extent!

   But in Christ there is verily a blessed fullness of every kind of
   perfection. Whatever there may be that is lovely or of good repute is
   to be found in Christ. All that is virtuous or amiable in the character
   of men--all that is noble and illustrious in the endowments that Heaven
   bestows on the most privileged of creatures--our Lord possessed. It was
   said of Henry the Eighth that if all the likenesses of tyrants had been
   lost out of history, they might have been reproduced out of the one
   character of that monstrous tyrant-king! So if all the holy features of
   Patriarchs and Prophets, of saints and martyrs that ever lived were
   blotted from the canvas of history, they all might be painted afresh
   from the one life of the Divine Person of our ever-adorable Lord Jesus
   Christ! In Him there was not only one perfection, but all perfections
   meet and blend to make up one matchless perfection. There was not one
   sweet alone in Him, but in Him all sweets combine in a perfect
   sweetness! John has love, Peter courage, Paul zeal--each saint has his
   own peculiarity, but in Christ all the qualities of goodness and Grace
   converge! He exhibits them in the highest degree and the purest
   harmony. After such manner are they incorporated in Him as to produce a
   Character the like of which was never known before, nor ever shall be
   witnessed again!

   And never forget that a fullness of the Holy Spirit abides in Christ.
   The Lord gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He has the residue
   of the Spirit. His is the head upon which the anointing oil is fully
   poured. We, who are but as the skirts of His garments, are favored with
   some droppings thereof, but the fullness of the anointing of the Spirit
   was bestowed upon Jesus Christ our Lord--and from Him, His members must
   receive the portion they enjoy!

   His fullness! I linger on the word, for I revel in the meditation. Such
   a fullness as admits of no diminution, for it is an abiding fullness!
   What though all the saints of every age have come to Christ, and drawn
   their supplies from Him, He is just as full as ever! Think not that
   those who first came drank of a copious fountain that has been partly
   drained by the myriads who have since slaked their thirst. The Apostles
   received of His fullness and so do we! They without prejudice to us--we
   without prejudice to those who shall follow after us. When I came to
   Christ 1800 years after the Apostles came, yet I received of the
   fullness at just the same rate as when Peter, John, or Paul received
   it. Should this dispensation last another thousand years, and some
   poor, trembling wretch should come to the foot of the Cross to receive
   mercy, he will not receive Christ half-full, but He shall receive of
   Christ's fullness, for it is an abiding fullness! It is never less than
   full-- never can be more than full. In Him there is an Infinity of
   Grace and Truth. Such fullness is there in Him at all times, under all
   your circumstances of trial, yes, and under all conditions of sin, too!
   The fullness of Christ to supply will always exceed the faith of the
   Believer to seek. And when you feel your emptiness more than you ever
   did before, then you will set the most store upon His abounding towards
   us in all wisdom and prudence. Considering, then, His abiding fullness,
   His inexhaustible fullness, His available fullness, I entreat you to
   avail yourself of this fullness now without demur, without delay! As
   there is a fullness, so there is--

   II. A FILLING.

   This is to be our second part. I must speak of it with brevity. "Of His
   fullness have we all received." Surely, then, all the saints were empty
   before! You are empty, my Brother, and so was Abraham, so was Paul.
   Grace, the free Grace of God, has made all the difference between Peter
   and Judas, though the one repented and the other despaired--the one
   traveled the heavenly road--the other went down quickly to Hell. They
   stood on equal footing in transgression, till Grace made them to
   differ! What radical difference is there between one man and another
   from a legal point of view?

   "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." All alike have to
   come to Christ, empty of merit, or they would never come at all! That
   was a pretty tale we heard the other day, and it points to a right good
   moral. A worthy, consistent, industrious woman was married to a low,
   worthless, dissipated husband. Both of them, however, were alike
   ignorant of the Gospel. They came together to the House of Prayer. They
   heard together the tidings of mercy. They each believed and each of
   them received the Savior--and they both were saved the same way--they
   both found mercy on the same terms! To the rich, free, Sovereign Grace
   of God they cried with one another in ascribing the praise. That is a
   fact. It occurred last week. I do not know whether this makes it more
   convincing to you, but I might say, as Elihu said to Job, "Lo, all
   these things works God oftentimes with men, to bring back his soul from
   the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living!"

   Observe that the filling is universal. All the saints partake of it.
   "Of His fullness have we allreceived." There are manifold diversities
   of experience among the Lord's people, but in some things they share
   and share alike. Some saints do not undergo the stress of trial and
   tribulation that others pass through. Here, however, there is no
   partiality. They have, everyone of them, received out of Christ's
   fullness! Not one of them could do without receiving it! Not one of
   them could receive it from any other hand than that of the Divine
   Benefactor! They earned it not. They accepted it. They received it from
   Jesus Christ!

   This is peculiar to the saints. While it says, "Of His fullness have we
   all received," manifestly a certain body of people have become
   partakers of a privilege which it is no less evident that all men have
   not received. What thousands and tens of thousands there are who, when
   invited to the Gospel feast, reject the call, "make a wretched choice,
   and rather starve than come." "We all!" That is, all of those who have
   believed! And who are, "we," or what are "we," that such Grace should
   be given to us in preference to anybody else? Ah, Brothers and Sisters,
   little cause enough have we for self-satisfaction! On the score of
   deserving, no choice had ever fallen on us! We were the vilest, the
   least worthy, the least attractive and, in some respects, the least
   hopeful! Oh, Grace, it is your practice to come into the unlikeliest
   hearts, and it is the glory of Divine Love to find in darkest spots a
   home! "We all"--we who were once dead in trespasses and sins. We who
   were once lost like the prodigal son, lost like the wandering sheep,
   lost like the piece of money--we who needed seeking, needed finding,
   need saving--yet of His fullness have we allreceived. Recollect that
   the reception is peculiar to Believers--it does not go beyond them.

   Be it clear, however, that there is, and must be, a personal reception
   in every case. "Of His fullness have we all received." No one of us can
   receive it transmitted from another, but each one of us receives it
   directly from Him. Your father's Grace cannot save you! It was a wise
   speech of the wise virgins. When the foolish virgins said to them,
   "Give us of your oil," they replied, "Not so, lest there be not enough
   for us and you; go rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves."
   Family piety involves responsibilities, but it cannot stand in the
   place of personal godliness! Dear Hearer, you must go to Christ for
   yourself! All who ever were saved have done so, and you certainly will
   not be saved unless you are led to do the same! It is a personal
   filling. "Of His fullness have we all received."

   The bounty is gratuitous. Notice the next words, "and Grace for Grace."
   It is not said, "Of His fullness have we all purchased," nor, "Of His
   fullness have we all earneda share." It is all passive. We have
   received. What does the vessel do to fit itself for the water that
   flows into it? Why, it does nothing! All its doing can fit it to recede
   is an undoing--that is to say, it empties itself to prepare itself to
   be filled. Oh, if any of you desire to find Jesus Christ, the doing
   must be in the way of undoing! You must be emptied to be filled! The
   preparation is a consciousness that you are not prepared! In such
   unpreparedness you are prepared for Christ! This is an enigma and a
   riddle. Those who think themselves prepared for Him are not--but those
   who know that they are not prepared are just the souls upon whom His
   Grace will come! Poverty, not riches. Blindness, not sight. Emptiness,
   not fullness. Sinfulness--not virtue--these are the things Christ looks
   for. He is come to seek and to save that which was lost--not that which
   had won victories! Not that which was splendid in its own esteem, but
   that which was defeated, ruined, lost! If you are lost, He comes to
   seek and to save such as you are! Oh, you who were once lost, but now
   are found, bless His name that you have received of His fullness!

   "And Grace for Grace!"What do these words mean? We can only just touch
   them as a swallow with its wing touches the pool--we cannot pretend to
   enter into their depth. "Grace for Grace." Does that mean that those
   who receive Grace under the old dispensation were afterwards led to
   receive the Grace of the new dispensation? Does it mean that we who
   have the Grace of conviction, with the Holy Spirit as a spirit of
   bondage, shall receive, by-and-by, the spirit of liberty, and get out
   of conviction, through conversion, into full pardon and enjoyment of
   peace with God? Is that the Grace, when Grace turns into Glory and we
   come before the Throne of God? Does it mean Grace by degrees--Grace
   upon Grace--a little Grace to begin with, and more Grace afterwards?
   "He gives more Grace." Grace following on Grace and, further on,
   superabounding Grace, when Grace turns into Glory and we come before
   the Throne of Grace forever and ever? Does it mean that God leads us
   on, step by step, adding to our spiritual wealth, initiating us first
   into simple things and afterwards leading us into deeper matters?
   "Grace for Grace."

   Yes, it means that, but it means more! God gives Grace in preparation
   for further Grace--the Grace of a broken heart--to make room for deep
   repentance and abhorrence of sin! The Grace of hatred of sin to make
   way for the Grace of holy and careful walking, humiliation and faith in
   Jesus! The Grace of careful walking to make room for the Grace of close
   communion with Christ! The Grace of close communion with the Lord Jesus
   Christ to make room for the Grace of full conformity to His Image!
   Perhaps the Grace of conformity to His Image to make room for the
   higher Grace of brighter views of Himself and still closer incomings
   into the very heart of the Lord Jesus! It is Grace that helps us on in
   Grace. When a beggar asks you for a penny, and you give him one, he
   does not ask you for a sixpence. Or if you give him a shilling, he
   would not consider that an argument why you should give him a
   sovereign! But you may deal thus with God--if you have only got, as it
   were, an ounce of Grace, that is a reason why you should then pray God
   for a greater weight of Grace--and afterwards for a far more exceeding
   and eternal weight of glory! Believe that He gives Grace for Grace--
   that is, Grace that you may open your mouth for more Grace! The Grace
   you have expands your heart and gives you capacity for receiving yet
   more Grace. Do you not send your child to school to learn his ABCs? You
   may call that the Grace of learning his alphabet. Yes, but it is
   preparatory to his learning to read the spelling book. Well, but why
   does he learn to read the spelling book? Why, that is a preparation for
   something else! So one Grace gives us a preparation for another Grace,
   and thus as we have more Grace, we realize the blessedness of this
   Divine filling out of His fullness!

   Or, suppose we read the passage thus--Grace answerable to Grace Even
   this will admit of two constructions. Let God give me Grace to be a
   preacher--He will surely give me Grace to discharge the office! Perhaps
   He has given you Grace to teach in a Sunday school? Then you need a
   further supply of Grace to enable you to be an efficient teacher!
   Perhaps you have the Grace of resignation to suffer for Christ's sake.
   You will need the Grace of patience to support you in the midst of pain
   or persecution! You are called to pray, and you yield yourself up to be
   a wrestler with God in prayer. This is a great Grace. Oh, may you have
   Grace answerable to that Grace, that when you get with the Angel by the
   brook Jabbok, you may take hold of His strength, plead His promise, His
   Covenant, His oath and never let Him go until He blesses you! Thus, a
   halt and fainting Jacob comes off as a prevailing Israel! May we thus
   always have Grace answerable to Grace! "Grace for Grace" may imply
   Grace received by us answerable to the Grace that is in Christ. Oh,
   that we Christians had Grace in some measure commensurate with the
   Grace that is treasured up for us in Him! All that is in Him belongs to
   you. Then the degree of your daily supplies ought to be proportionate
   to His ample, unlimited wealth and fullness!

   A young heir to a large estate, though not of full age, generally gets
   an allowance made to him by the executors, or the trustees, or the
   Court of Chancery, suitable to the position he is presently to occupy.
   If he has £100,000 a year in prospect, he would hardly be limited to a
   penny a week, like a poor man's child. We cannot suppose that he would
   have a mean allowance made him such as would barely enable him to live
   in a humble cottage on the rich domain he is entitled to. Oh, no, that
   would be a meager pittance out of all proportion to his position. When
   I see one child of God always mourning, another always doubting, and
   yet another always scheming--I feel a kind of disappointment--I see
   they are living below their privileges! They do not seem to have Grace
   in possession answerable to the Grace they have had. We always advocate
   propriety, on the part of all our people, of living within their
   incomes, but I will defy the child of God to live beyondhis income in a
   spiritual sense! You that have but little spending money are like the
   elder brother in the parable. You say, "You never gave me a kid that I
   might make merry with my friends." And your Father replies, "Son, you
   are always with Me and all that I have is yours." If you do not have
   it, it is your own fault--it is all there and is freely yours! You have
   but to ask, and you shall receive--to seek, and you shall find. Oh,
   could we once get Grace in us at all like the Grace that is in Christ,
   what Christians we would be! No longer starlight Christians and
   moonlight Christians, but sunlight Believers, letting our light shine
   before the sons of men! Oh, to be among the three Mighties of our royal
   David! May each of us covet such a position as this and God grant it to
   us for His love's sake!

   "Grace for Grace" obviously means Grace in abundance. Like the waves of
   the sea, when one comes, there is another close behind it. Before you
   can say that one is gone, there is another coming to fill its place.
   There they come. Who shall count them? In long succession, wave follows
   wave. So is God's Grace. "Grace for Grace." One Grace has hardly come
   into your soul but there is another one! You have heard the story of
   Rowland Hill having a hundred pounds entrusted to him for the benefit
   of a poor minister. He thought that if he sent him the hundred pounds,
   it would be too large a sum to give him all at once--he would scarcely
   know how to handle it and, perhaps, he would not be as thankful for it
   as if he had it doled out in smaller amounts. So he sent him five
   pounds, and wrote in the letter, "More to follow." Letters did not come
   often in those days of nine penny or eighteen penny postage, but in
   about another week he forwarded another five pounds, and a note with
   it, "More to follow." After a short interval he did the same, again,
   still saying, "More to follow." So it went on for a long time, always
   with, "More to follow," till the dear good man, I should think, must
   have been at his wits' end to know what could follow when so many good
   presents came to one who needed them so much!

   Now that is just how God has done with me, and I believe He is doing
   the same with all of you who are His people. He has sent you a mercy
   and when He has sent it, you might have seen, if you had looked at the
   envelope, that it was an earnest of further benefits and
   benefactions--"More to follow." The mercy you have received today has
   written upon it legibly, "More to follow," and that which will come
   tomorrow will have upon it, "More to follow." "Grace for Grace." Oh,
   sing unto Him a new song! Let Him have fresh songs for fresh mercies
   and, as He multiplies the mercy, so do you multiply the praises you
   ascribe to His name!

   "Grace for Grace!" Does it not mean Grace from Him to produce Grace in
   us We receive from the fullness of Christ, of His Grace, in order that
   it may be a living seed that shall produce Grace in us as its natural
   fruit! The Grace of gratitude should be produced in us by the Grace of
   generosity from God. We ought to be gracious with a holy joyfulness for
   all His goodness. I hope we shall have the Grace of patience under all
   sufferings and the Grace of zeal in all our labors. At a time like
   this, my Brothers and Sisters, when we are seeking the conversion of
   sinners with special efforts, may we have Grace from Jesus that shall
   make all the Graces fruitful and fragrant in us! So shall we be to the
   Savior as a garden of olives and pomegranates, of lilies and sweet
   flowers--and may He take a delight in us! When Cyrus took the Greek
   Ambassador through his garden, he challenged him to admire its charms.
   The Spartan approved all he saw, but still his admiration was cool and
   critical. "This garden," said its master, "yields me more pleasure and
   satisfaction than you can imagine, or I can express." "And why?" asked
   the visitor. "Because," replied Cyrus, "I planted every tree in it
   myself. I planned all the paths and all the flowers have I reared. No
   hand but mine has dug the soil, tended the plants, pruned the trees, or
   done anything but my own." As toil and his trouble thus endeared the
   place to the king, so, truly, Christ can say when He looks upon His
   people, "There is a fruitful branch there--I pruned that. He was sick,
   long laid aside from business. He feared his family would be starved--I
   was pruning him, then, but I love the fruit that is on him because I
   know how it came there. That plant yonder which is blooming now and
   shedding such a sweet perfume of love, well do I recollect when it was
   drooping and ready to die. I came and watered it. She, timid disciple,
   would say, 'Blessed be the gentle hand that shed the dew and poured
   nourishment on my poor, parched and withered root!'" Yes, the Savior
   gives us "Grace for Grace" that we may produce Grace! I leave the
   thought with you for meditation, and the issues for your edification,
   only praying that His Holy Spirit may work in you "Grace for Grace."

   Oh, that all of you might receive Grace from Him. You will never get
   Grace anywhere else! Go to Him at once by faith, with humble prayer.
   Plenteous Grace with Him is found--all the Grace you shall ever require
   between now and Glory, you shall find stored up in Him! His Grace is
   our benediction. Of it may you one and all partake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

Our Magnificent Savior

   (No. 3554)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JANUARY 28,1872.

   "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His
   knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many, for He shall bear
   their iniquities."

   Isaiah 53:11.

   EVERY word of the text is peculiarly full of meaning. There are
   passages of Scripture which are like the rooms of a royal palace which
   may not have in them gold and silver, though there are precious things.
   But this text is the strongroom of the King's house--the richest,
   rarest treasures are here! When we preach the Doctrine of our text, we
   are preaching the very marrow of all theology--the very pith of the
   Gospel--the essential oil of the good news which brings salvation! I
   shall not, tonight, therefore, have any time to give you illustrations,
   nor shall we have any time for anything like oratory--but simply to
   speak right on, in explaining the deep Truths of God which lie before
   us. May God open our ears and may every heart receive the Truth which
   is able to save your souls, for I may truly say when preaching upon
   this text, "Incline your ears and come unto me. Hear, and your soul
   shall live," for we are upon the main business of your souls, and
   treating upon that which God sets forth as the only way of redemption
   for the sons of men!

   There are two points in the text. You observe there are two persons.
   There is the Lord Christ, and there are the many. We will take these
   two persons in order and you will perceive in a moment that these are
   both represented in a threefold character. And our first point will be
   the Lord Jesus in His threefold Character. And the second will be the
   many in their threefold character. To begin, then, where all
   mustbegin--

   I. OUR BLESSED LORD HIMSELF IN HIS THREEFOLD CHARACTER.

   You have Him here in a threefold Character. First, the Servant--"My
   righteous Servant." Secondly, the Sin-Bearer--"He shall bear their
   iniquities." Thirdly, the Justifer--"He shall justify many."

   To begin, then--Christ, the Servant--"My righteous Servant." Be
   astonished, O you heavens! He that distributes crowns and thrones and
   is, "God Over All, Blessed Forever," designs to become a Servant! He
   came into this world and "was made in fashion as a Man and, being found
   in fashion as a Man, He became obedient"--obedient to His Father's
   will, "obedient even unto death."

   Think of Christ for a few minutes and you perceive that first, He is a
   Servant unto God. In a certain sense He became the Servus servorum--the
   Servant of servants--washing our feet and wiping them with a towel. But
   now in the text He is represented as serving God. Whereas we were
   servants that ran away from our Master, Christ came to take our place!
   Whereas we were disobedient servants, He came to fulfill our obedience
   for us--took our position of service of which we had proved ourselves
   to be unworthy. He served His Father and did His will. According to the
   verse which precedes the text, He served God not only with His body,
   but--with His soul--and yet again in the verse in which our text is
   found, "He shall see of the travail of His soul." The service that
   Christ rendered to God was partly that of His body, for He suffered
   weariness in the diligent obedience to His Father's will. But His mind
   went with it--every power and every passion of His Nature was sweetly
   obedient to the Divine Will! The zeal which He had for God's Glory ate
   up not only His body, but His very soul! He served God, as alas, we do
   not as we should--with all His heart, and soul, and strength!

   And note He was an ardent Servant, for the text speaks of the travail
   of His soul. Read it as the labor of His soul, as if He threw His soul
   so fully into it that His soul labored in the service of God! Or read
   it, if you will, as travail, and you know the meaning of that word,
   which we will cover with a veil. The whole of His powers and faculties
   were full of pain that He might serve His God. He suffered in His
   service and He served in His suffering--not only with all the power He
   had, but bowing the fullness of His strength into the service which He
   rendered unto God. In the text He is called a righteous Servant, as if
   He had rendered an account unto God, and God had found it in every jot
   and tittle to be correct--a righteous Servant, fulfilling all
   righteousness, carefully doing so--a righteous Servant without any need
   to add a word about some little slips or failings, for in Him was no
   sin--no sin in His life and no sin in Himself. The prince of this world
   searched Him, but he found nothing in Him--He was without the slightest
   offense--"holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners." Christ,
   then, as a Servant to God was an accepted Servant. We know He was, for
   God Himself calls Him, "My righteous Servant." Now think--I will not
   enlarge further--think, Beloved, of this. This is your Lord, whom
   angels worship, become an obedient Servant unto God for your sake and
   discharging His work so as to get the reward of, "Well done, good and
   righteous Servant!" His merits are yours, Believer! All that He has
   done is yours! You are "accepted in the Beloved." The Lord receives you
   for Jesus' sake and in Christ He is well-pleased with you. There is a
   sweet Truth of God to begin with! Roll it under your tongue as a dainty
   morsel. "He is My righteous Servant."

   But the text takes Christ in His second Character and we must be brief
   on each--as the Sin-Bearer. "He shall bear their iniquity." The most
   wonderful thing in all this Book of wonders is this--that God should
   become Man and then, as Man, should bear the sin of His people. We have
   heard, sometimes, foolish persons ask, "Where is the Doctrine of
   Substitution in Scripture?" to which I would answer, "Where is it not?"
   Take it out of the Scriptures and there is positively nothing left! It
   is the main and cardinal Doctrine of Revelation that Christ stood in
   the sinner's place! And throughout this Chapter it is the wonderful
   teaching, over and over, and over and over again. "The chastisement of
   our peace was upon Him." "He was numbered with the transgressors." "He
   bore the sin of many," or, as in our text, "He shall bear their
   iniquity." It does not say, "He shall bear the punishment of their
   iniquity"--that is true and follows as a matter of course--but the
   iniquities of His people were in very truth laid upon Him! And as in
   type upon the scapegoat, the sins of Israel were laid, so in truth, and
   not in type, nor metaphor, nor figure, but in very deed and of a
   truth--the sins of God's people were transferred from them and laid
   upon the head of Christ, the Son of God, who stood in their place.
   Words cannot be more plain! "He shall bear their iniquities." When did
   He bear their iniquities? I answer, in a certain sense He bore them
   from of old, for He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
   world--but in actual fact He bore them through His painful life. Read
   these words--"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
   yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." That
   thirst, that hunger, those pangs He felt often throughout His life of
   weariness and woe--those were caused by sin being laid upon Him! It was
   not possible that He should be perfectly happy while sin was upon
   Him--it would have been impossible for Him to have been unhappy had not
   sin been imputed to Him.

   He bore our sins, next, at the judgment seat of Pilate and of Herod. I
   beg you to follow the words of the text, "He was oppressed, and He was
   afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the
   slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not
   His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall
   declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the
   living." And why? "For the transgression of My people was He stricken."
   He was numbered with the transgressors when He stood at Pilate's bar.
   He was condemned to die a malefactor's death and on the Roman records
   there stood the name of Jesus of Nazareth, condemned to die because He
   had been accused of saying that there was another King, and that
   another Kingdom was about to be set up. He was bearing our sins before
   Pilate's bar.

   But especially upon the tree, for there we have it, "When You shall
   make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." "He, His own
   Self, bore our sins in His own body up to the tree," and on the tree,
   always being a Sin-Bearer up to that moment when He said, "It is
   finished"--for then He bore sin no longer. He cast it all away into His
   own sepulcher! Into the wilderness of forgetfulness did He hurl it--and
   now the sin of His people cannot be found! It has ceased to be. Christ
   has "finished transgression." He has made an end of sin and brought in
   everlasting righteousness for His people.

   Now let us pause here a little and think over this wondrous mystery.
   The way in which God is pleased to save us from our sin is by laying
   our sins on His own Son and making Him suffer for those sins as if
   those sins had been His own! Why, do you think, did He choose such a
   method? Was is not thus? First, thus He satisfied His own Justice. Why,
   Brothers and Sisters, if we had lain in Hell forever, yet Divine
   Justice would not have been fully justified, for after thousands of
   years of suffering, there would still remain an eternity of debt due to
   God's Justice, and the debt would not be paid! And let me say, if God
   had annihilated all the sinners that ever lived in one stroke, He would
   not have so honored His Justice as He did when He took sin and laid it
   on His Son--and His Son bore Divine Wrath which was due to that sin!
   For now there has been rendered unto Divine Justice a full equivalent,
   a complete recompense for all the dishonor which it suffered-- and I
   know of no other conceivable way by which such a recompense could have
   been rendered--

   "He to the utmost farthing paid

   Whatever His people owed."

   He suffered what they should have suffered, and now God's Law stands in
   all its integrity. It has not dismissed the penalty. The penalty has
   been executed! The sword has awakened against the Shepherd, although
   the stroke was due to the flock!

   Moreover, God, in choosing Christ to suffer in our place has been
   pleased to lay help upon One that is mighty, upon One that is mighty to
   save. O my Soul, delight in the thought that Christ was my Substitute!
   If I had been told that an angel had done his best to save me, I would
   feel unsafe. If I had been told that all the holy men in all the world
   had striven to save me, I would have felt insecure. But if the very
   Christ of God, Himself, the Eternal One, has deigned to bear my
   iniquities, why, then, should I fear? The mighty Savior, the Almighty
   Savior, can surely put away my sins! There is help laid upon One that
   is mighty!

   The Lord also laid our sins upon Christ because it was Christ's desire
   that it should be so. Do you remember how He said, "I have a baptism to
   be baptized with"? It was the baptism of His sufferings! "And how am I
   straitened till it is accomplished!" And long before that He had said,
   "Lo, I come; in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight
   to do Your will, O God, yes, Your Law is in My heart." And then He
   adds, "Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You
   prepared Me." And He longed to come, and in that body, bear His
   people's sins! And in that body prove that He had a love for them which
   many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown, for down into
   the deeps He would go with His beloved Church and never come up again
   until He could bring her up with Him, as He has done, to the praise of
   the Glory of His Grace! Therefore, you see, God is honored, His Grace
   is honored, we, ourselves, are comforted by have a mighty Savior, and
   Christ's own longings are contented by having sin laid upon Him.

   Moreover, Beloved, the forgiveness of sin, through laying it upon
   Christ, is made to show to all mankind and to all other created
   intelligences the tremendous evil of sin. Here were a people whom God
   desired to save, but He could not. His Justice did, as it were, tie the
   hands of His Mercy. Sin was so hateful to Him that He could not blot it
   out and forget it. He must punish it and I know not of any way by which
   He could have shown His abhorrence of sin so greatly as when He bruised
   His own Son! A man may show his indignation about a crime in many ways,
   but surely in none so much as when he sees that crime upon his son, and
   he says, "No, I cannot reveal my love to you. While that crime is upon
   you, you must suffer for it," and--

   "Heaven's Eternal Darling bleeds."

   Because sin was laid on Him and the Father would not smile! He cried,
   "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" A greater Abraham
   unsheathed His knife to slay a greater Isaac, and no angel intervened!
   The Savior died the death! These are words that we speak. Do we know
   their meaning? When you are racked with pain, you begin to guess the
   pain the Savior suffered and, perhaps, when we are, ourselves, in the
   pains of death, we shall begin to have a little more fellowship with
   Jesus. But all for our sakes the blessed Lord bore the Wrath of God
   that God might show that sin, even when laid upon His Son by
   imputation, was so horrible to Him that He would not let Him escape! He
   must be bruised. "It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He has put Him
   to grief."

   And don't you think, Beloved, that God chose this way of pardoning sin
   to show His great love as well as His great abhorrence of sin? Behold
   how He loves us! What manner of love is this that God has shown to
   us--that when we were yet enemies, He gave His Son to die for us? There
   is one sweet reason that Jesus gives why He died for His people. You
   remember it. He loved His Church and gave Himself for it, that He might
   present it to Himself, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing."
   There is no washing for His Church like the washing in His blood! Even
   if you, Believer, should wash your face in your tears, you would stain
   your face in the washing! But washed in the blood of Jesus, there
   remains no trace or speck of sin! Surely the very angels are not so
   comely as the Church is, now that Christ has cleansed her. The heavens
   are not pure in His sight and He charged His angels with folly--but the
   blood-washed Church is pure and no folly is charged on her! Her
   righteousness is the righteousness of her Creator, and her purity is
   the holiness of God, Himself!

   Surely the Lord was pleased to adopt this way of pardon for one other
   reason--that you and I might have strong consolation and that, having
   strong consolation, we might also have strong reason for devoting
   ourselves to Christ's service/There are those who think that pardon
   through atoning blood will make men live in sin. They little know what
   is in the heart of the redeemed, for, being bought with such a price,
   we would be perfect if we could! So much has been done for us that if
   we could do for Christ ten thousand times more than we have ever done,
   we would only rejoice to do it, cost what it may! You know when a man
   is under burden of sin, he cannot serve his God well, because, he says,
   "I would serve Him but my sins are so many." But when his sins are laid
   on Christ, then he says, "Now I can give all my strength to the Glory
   of God. I have no sin to fret about, now--it is laid on Jesus. There is
   nothing, now, to make me dread an angry God, for the anger of God is
   turned away and in Jesus Christ I am a justified man." This I might
   enlarge, but I must not. You see Christ as the Sin-Bearer, bearing our
   sins on the Cross.

   Now the third aspect under which He appears is this--He is seen in the
   text as a Justifer. "By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant
   justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." Christ is Himself
   just, and yet the Justifier. Jesus Christ needed not to have worked out
   a righteousness! He needed not to have become Man! He needed not to
   have been obedient to the Father. "God Over All, Blessed Forever." He
   has, therefore, a righteousness to give away--one which He does not
   need for Himself. This is the root and bottom of it--He has a
   righteousness which He does not need for Himself and He, therefore,
   gives it to us and becomes the Lord, Our Righteousness! And every soul
   to whom Jesus gives His righteousness is righteous at once! This is
   God's way of making men righteous, not by their own deeds, but by the
   deeds of Jesus. He imputes to us what Christ has done! He takes the
   righteousness of the Lord Christ and gives it to the sinner, blots out
   the sinner's sin and makes the sinner righteous in a moment before His
   sight! The text says He shall do this to many--not to all, for, alas,
   tens of thousands die condemned--but to many. Blessed word is that! Why
   not to me? If it is God's decree that Christ shall justify many, why
   should not I be one among them? And if He will justify all who know
   Him--(by His knowledge shall He justify them)--O my Soul, study Christ!
   Endeavor to be His disciple! Sit at His feet! Learn of Him! Know Him,
   for then He will justify you and make you just in the sight of God!

   Remember, Beloved, that this is the reward that Christ has for His
   death. "He shall see of the travail of His soul." How? Why, "by His
   knowledge shall He justify many"! It is Christ's delight to take a
   sinner and to make him just. This is the spoil which He divides with
   the strong! Because He poured out His soul unto death and was numbered
   with the transgressors, and bore the sin of many, He makes men just!
   And this is His sure reward--He asks no better--He who believes on Him
   who justifies the ungodly is saved by that belief! This is Christ's
   Glory, Christ's delight, the fullness of Christ's satisfaction--that He
   justifies many! Oh, that He might get that satisfaction in this house
   tonight that many poor condemned souls might know Him and be made just
   by Him! Then would His heart leap for joy! The joy that was set before
   Him when He died would then come to Him!

   I have thus briefly set forward Christ in His threefold capacity--a
   Servant, a Sin-Bearer and a Justifier. Now, with brevity, we are to
   look at--

   II. THE MANY IN THEIR THREEFOLD CHARACTER.

   And in the text we see them, first, as needing Justification. Secondly,
   as receiving knowledge. And thirdly, as justified. Now we begin,
   tonight, this second head where God began with us. We see the many
   needing Justification. Christ would not have come to justify the
   just--they do not need it. The whole have no need of a physician.
   Suppose a man is brought up before a court of justice. He is justified,
   or reckoned to be just, if he is proved not guilty. But we, before the
   court of God, are all guilty! Therefore, Justification cannot come in
   that way to us. Our only hope of Justification lies in this--God says,
   "That man's sins I laid upon Christ. I punished Christ for that man. He
   is not guilty. Christ was obedient in that man's behalf. Christ's
   obedience is that man's obedience. He is just in Christ's
   Righteousness. I take him not as what he is, but as what his Sponsor
   is, even Christ! What his Surety is, what his Substitute is." As, for
   instance, in the old ballot days, when men had to go to war, if the
   number was called out and a substitute was provided, the person
   providing the substitute was said, by the law, to discharge his duty to
   his country. I believe that some time ago in the Northern States a
   person who had found a substitute to go to fight in the South, heard
   after a while that his substitute was dead. On a second drawing being
   made, this man was drawn, but he said, "No, I am dead. Number so-and-so
   went to the war and is dead. That is me. My substitute is dead." So
   when God's justice calls to me, a sinner, I do not answer to it! Why?
   Christ answered on my behalf long ago and died for me! I am dead with
   Christ. "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." There is no legal
   charge that can be brought because Christ has stood in my place, been
   punished in my place, been reckoned as if He were I, and now, this day,
   I am reckoned as if I were in Christ's place, even as He was reckoned
   to be in my place. You see where we begin, then. We begin needing
   Justification, for we have, first of all, the sin of our first parents.
   "All we like sheep have gone astray." We have, next, our own sins. "We
   have turned, everyone, to his own way." We have many sins of omission
   and of commission. "The Lord has laid on Him our iniquities." Whether
   they are iniquities of excess or of shortcoming, they are both laid
   upon Jesus Christ's head. We were guilty--we were so guilty, that by
   ourselves considered, we were under condemnation! "He that believes not
   is condemned already," and if we had remained as we were, we were heirs
   of wrath, even as others! And our sin deserved the same punishment as
   others.

   O you who are guilty, hear tonight what good news there is in this for
   you! Christ came to justify the ungodly. The Redeemer died for those
   who have no righteousness of their own. "Scarcely for a righteous man
   will one die; perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But
   God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
   Christ died for the ungodly." Christ came to bring a righteousness to
   those who have none--to save the sinful, the vile, the
   Hell-deserving--He came to give them His Righteousness, and to take
   upon Himself their sins. Oh, the wonders of Divine Grace--that whereas
   we need Justification, we are the very people He came to justify!

   And now note, in the second place, these people in their second stage.
   They are instructed--they are made to know. The text says, "By His
   knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many." That is to
   say--(you may read it as you have it in our version, if you like, but
   you will understand it better if you read it--and it will be quite as
   correct --thus)-- "by the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant
   justify many. "That is to say, when the soul knows Christ, knows Him,
   believes Him, learns Him and trusts Him, then it is justified! You see
   there are no doingsin the process--there are no feelings in the matter.
   It is knowing, which is another word for believing--for we know Him
   when we believe Him! And we inevitably believe Him when we truly and
   really know Him. The heart understands Christ through hearing--and
   through the hearing of Him, it comes to believe Him! And when the heart
   knows Christ and believes Him, it is then justified. But suppose the
   text means this, "By His knowledge"--(that is, the knowledge which He
   gives)--"He justifies many." That knowledge is contained in His
   Word--it fell from His own lips--you have heard it tonight! We have
   preached it to you! It is not the knowledge Moses brought--it is the
   knowledge that Christ brought. "Whoever believes on Him is not
   condemned." May it be knowledge to your soul by His teaching it to your
   soul! By His Divine Spirit, He teaches to profit. But, dear Hearer, do
   see this--the whole way of my getting the result of Christ's Sacrifice
   is by knowing and believing--not by doing! We are justified by faith,
   and not by the works of the Law. "By the works of the Law shall no
   flesh be justified." "By the Law is the knowledge of sin." "Grace and
   peace come by Jesus Christ," and they come to us through believing or
   through knowing--by knowing Him, by being made to know, through Him,
   that we are justified!

   And please notice the peculiar Character in which Christ is known to
   the justified. They know Him as God's Servant and they know Him as
   bearing their iniquities. Some persons think a great deal of Christ in
   His Glory, and of Christ in His Second Advent. God forbid that I should
   have you forget Him in those Characters, or in any other! But the
   soul-saving aspect of Christ is not His Glory, nor His Second Advent,
   but Christ the Servant and Christ the Sin-Bearer. It is from the Cross
   that the words come, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you ends of
   the earth." "I, if I am lifted up"--not on the Throne, but on the
   Cross--"I, if I am lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." "God forbid
   that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Let
   who will preach Christ exalted, "we preach Christ Crucified, to the
   Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto us who
   are saved, the Wisdom of God and the Power of God." Do let me make this
   very clear, for, perhaps, some soul might get the Light of God tonight!
   You have many sins upon you, Man. You can never get them off by any
   doings of your own! No obedience, or tears, or anything else which you
   can do, can make one spot of sin stir an inch! You are black as night,
   black as Hell, and you cannot make yourself white! But here it is--if
   you will know Jesus, if you will hear of Jesus, if you will believe on
   Him--believe what He teaches. If you will believe that He is God's sent
   Servant, that He is the Propitiation for sin, that He is the
   Sin-Bearer-- and if you will trust Him with your sin, and with your
   soul--you are saved! No spot of sin remains on you! This moment you are
   saved, for He shall justify, that is, make just, and that is an
   instantaneous work! A man may have been a condemned sinner five minutes
   ago, but the moment that he knows Christ, he is a justified soul! By
   that very knowledge, or, as I have said, by that faith, by that simple
   dependence on the Christ whom he has learned to know, the man is just
   and he may go on his way rejoicing!

   So I shall close with that third aspect of the many. It is said, "He
   shall justify them. "What a grand word it is! "He shall justify them."
   He shall make them just. It is a forensic, legal term. He shall make
   them just before the Court of God. Now notice in the text the sins
   mentioned were real. The bearing of sin by Christ was real. Therefore
   the Justification in the text is real. You see that thief on the cross?
   What a wretch he is! He has been guilty of every crime. His sins are
   real. But he believes in Jesus, Jesus the dying Savior, and his sins
   are forgiven! Now listen. That thief is a just man. "Why," you say, "He
   has done no just action." I grant you that. He would if he could. He is
   now willing to confess the Master, for he speaks a word of rebuke to
   the thief on the other side of the Cross. But I do not say he is just
   because of that He is just because of nothing that he has done, but he
   is just because he believes in the dying Savior! And you, poor Sinner,
   though you have never done a good work in your life, though you deserve
   to be damned to all eternity, though you have lived in everything that
   is vile, if you, this night, trust your soul to Jesus, and know Him,
   Jesus justifies you and you are really just!

   And, what is more, you are forever just. You have a Justification that
   will never wear out, a Righteousness that will outlast time itself! The
   tooth of decay shall never harm it, nor rust corrupt it, nor moth
   consume it. You are just and just forever! Do you understand me? I will
   make it plain, and put it in words that cannot be misunderstood. The
   soul that believes in Jesus is so justified that none can even lay
   anything to his charge. "Why," says one, "the man has been a very
   guilty man and lived a horrible life." So had Paul. He had been a
   foaming persecutor, raging against God's saints. But listen to
   Paul--"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" Is not he
   afraid to say that? No, because he goes on to say, "It is God who
   justifies." Suppose the judge says in court, "That man is clear." It is
   no use anybody getting up and saying, "Let me come into the witness
   box--I have something against him." You are out of order, Sir. The
   judge says he is clear and that is enough. God says of the guiltiest
   soul, "I laid that man's sins on Christ. I punished Christ for that man
   and that man is clear." And if God says you are clear, who shall lay
   anything to your charge? Listen again. A Believer cannot be condemned.
   Do you doubt it? Paul shall speak again "Who is he that condemns?" Why,
   Paul, you have done much that you deserve to be condemned for! Oh, but
   here it is. "It is Christ who died; yes, rather, that is risen again,
   who sits at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
   He means this--"How can you condemn me? Christ was condemned for me! He
   died. He rose again. That proved that I, myself, am not condemned! He
   had paid the debt, otherwise He had not been allowed to rise! He has
   gone into Heaven to plead for me, and He will be the Judge. And if He
   died for me, do you think that He who alone can condemn will condemn
   those whom He died for? Will He cast away His own chosen--condemn a
   limb of His own body and reject out of His own mouth the very soul to
   whom He said, 'I have forgiven you, and blotted out your sin.'"? It
   cannot be!

   The Believer, then, cannot be accused. He cannot be condemned and,
   consequently, he cannot be punished. What shall he be punished for?
   "For his sins," says one. He has not any! He has not any--they were
   laid on Christ! "He shall bear their iniquities." Can a sin be in two
   places at once? If my sins are on Christ, they cannot be on me. If God
   has laid the weight of my guilt on Christ and Christ bore it and made
   an end of it, then I am clear of it as though I never sinned! Glory be
   to God for such a Gospel as this--to think that a soul, condemned and
   lost by nature, should be made completely clean through the purging of
   the great atoning Sacrifice of our dear Lord and Master! For, mark you,
   there is more than that, for when Christ justifies a man, He not only
   blots out his sin, but he is a just man, and the man is treated
   henceforth as if he were justNow the just shall be rewarded--the just
   shall have the favor of God! The just shall enter Heaven--and so shall
   you, poor guilty Sinner! If you trust Christ, that Righteousness of
   Christ becomes yours! I could preach all night upon such a subject, but
   I should weary you. I should not weary myself in thinking it over,
   though, nor should you in meditating upon it! It is enough to make
   Heaven ring again and again with melody! I am sure it is God's Gospel,
   for nobody could have invented it--a plan so just to God, so safe to
   man!

   And I am all the more sure it is God's Gospel because there are many
   that hate it! They cannot bear it! How can they? They are righteous in
   themselves and hope to enter Heaven by their own works! They go about
   to establish their own righteousness, but this is as it always has
   been. As it was in Paul's day, so it is now--and this only confirms our
   confidence in the Gospel that we preach! Believing this, I can go to my
   bed and fall asleep in peace, not caring whether I wake again or not
   this side Heaven. Believing this, doubts and fears prevail not, for my
   soul flies to the atoning Sacrifice, again, and tells the devil that my
   sins are no longer mine, but Christ's, or rather that they were imputed
   to Him, and laid upon Him and that He was punished for them in my
   place, and I am clear for Christ has suffered for me! Believe this,
   dear Heart--believe it! You have never heard a better Gospel! You have
   heard it better preached--but never better news came to your ears than
   this! And until you get to Heaven, you will never hear music that can
   beat this--the music of a Savior's wounds, groans and death in a poor
   sinner's place! I know what you will do if you believe it. You will go
   home glad of heart and the moment you get home you will say, "I am a
   saved soul, for I have done with my former sins."

   "'Now for the love I bear His name,

   What was my gain I count my loss,

   My former pride I call my shame,

   And nail my glory to His Cross. Oh, you will have done with your old
   companions! The love of Christ will constrain you. Nothing cleanses the
   Augean stable of human nature like a stream of love and blood made to
   run through it! When Christ's sacrifice comes to a soul, it casts out
   sin and Satan, sets the man working at once--and none can work so
   vigorously as those who feel that they owe all to the Grace of God, who
   feel that they have nothing to do to save themselves--they are saved!
   That work is all done forever! And now, out of gratitude, they give
   their whole life, and soul, and strength to spread abroad the Gospel of
   Jesus, now, and make God's names famous, even to the end of time! God
   bless you, dear Hearers. May this all be yours, for Christ's sake.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

With Golden Band Girded

   (No. 3555)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "He was girded about the chest with a golden band." Revelation 1:13

   [The original title of this sermon was WITH GOLDEN GIRDLE GIRT.]

   BE assured, my Brothers and Sisters, the more real Jesus Christ is to
   us, the more power there will be in our religion. Those men whose
   religion lies in believing certain doctrines and contending for certain
   modes of expression, may be strong enough in bigotry, but they often
   fail entirely in developing the spirit of true Christianity. There may
   be minds so constituted that they can live under the power of an idea
   and they might possibly be able to die for it. But these, I think, must
   be comparatively few. To draw out enthusiasm among men, there must
   generally be a man as leader and commander in whom the people can
   implicitly trust, to whom they will voluntarily tender obedience.
   Individual men have worked wonders. The thoughts which they incarnated
   may have been, in themselves, strong, yet their strength was never so
   forcible as when the men who represented those thoughts were present to
   give them currency. Then the blood of the many was stirred and every
   man's heart beat high. The presence of Oliver Cromwell in a regiment
   was equal to any ten thousand men. He had only to appear and all his
   soldiers felt so sure of victory, they would dash upon the cavaliers as
   some mighty tornado, driving them like chaff before the wind! The
   presence of Napoleon at any moment in a battle was almost always
   sufficient to turn the scale. Let but "the little corporal" appear and
   wave his sword, and men seemed to lose all sense of their own personal
   danger and rushed into the very mouth of death to gain the victory! In
   those old days of the Huguenots when they were warring for their
   liberties, what shouts there were, what beating of hearts, what a
   glamour of trumpets, what exultation, when Henry of Navarre came riding
   down the ranks! Then each man felt he had a giant's arm and, as he rode
   to battle, struck home for God and for the truth as he gave out his
   watchword, "Remember St. Bartholomew!"

   Now the force of the religion of Jesus, under God the Holy Spirit, it
   seems to me, is never fully brought out except when our faith greets
   the Lord Jesus Christ as a Person and holds to Him as a personal Leader
   and Commander, loving Him and devoting ourselves to Him as an
   ever-living, ever-gracious Friend. It is not by believing a set of
   ideas and trying to be enthusiastic over them, that our courage rises
   or our prowess succeeds. Rather let us feel His Presence, though we
   cannot see His face, and remembering that there is such an One as Jesus
   of Nazareth, who became a Baby in Bethlehem for us--who lived, and
   toiled, and suffered for us--then laid bare His chest to the spear and
   gave up His life for us. We grow strong when we thus think of Him as
   our Savior, when His thorn-crowned head rises before our mind's eye,
   when we look into that face so marred with shame, and pain, and
   cruelty, till we are compelled to cry out, "Oh, my Savior, I love You,
   and for the love I bear Your name would gladly learn what I can do to
   honor You, and I will do it! Point out to me how much of my substance I
   should place upon Your altar, and I will be glad to place it there! Put
   me into the place of suffering, if necessary, and I will account it a
   place of honor, for if You are there, I can look into Your dear face
   and think that I am suffering for You--fire shall be then like a bed of
   roses to me--and death, itself, seem far sweeter than life!"

   We need to have more open testimony concerning the Person of our Lord
   Jesus Christ! I am persuaded of that and we have need, private
   Christians, to live more in fellowship with Him, the Son of God, the
   Man, Christ Jesus, who has redeemed us from wrath, and through whose
   life we live! To Him now--to Him exclusively let all your thoughts be
   turned. Oh, that you may discern the Image which stood on that Lord's
   Day clearly before the view of John, the eyes of your understanding
   being opened, and your whole soul being attentive to the Revelation! It
   is but one part of John's description of our Lord Jesus Christ in
   Heaven to which I propose to direct your attention. "He was girded
   about the chest with a golden band." What did this golden band signify?
   And what are the golden lessons to be gathered from it? I. THE GOLDEN
   BAND.

   What did it mean? It was designed, first, to set forth our Lord's
   exceelence in all His offices. He is a Prophet. The Prophets of old
   were often girded about with leather bands, but our Savior wears a
   golden band, for He, above all other Prophets, is vested with
   authority! What He declares and testifies is true. Yes, it is the pure
   Truth of God, unalloyed with tradition or superstition. He makes no
   mistakes. There is no treachery to taint His teaching. Sitting at His
   feet, you may accept every word He utters as Infallible. You need not
   raise a question about it. The band of golden truth is round about Him.
   He is also a Priest. The high priest of old wore a band of many colors
   for glory and for beauty. Our Lord Jesus Christ wears a band superior
   to this. It is of the pure gold, for among the priests He has no peer.
   Of all the sons of Aaron, none could vie with Him. They must first
   offer a sacrifice for their own sins. They needed to wash their feet in
   the laver, and to be touched with the cleansing blood. But Jesus Christ
   is without spot, or blemish, or any such thing--

   "Their priesthood ran through several bands For mortal was their race."

   But Jesus is Immortal and about Him, He wears the golden band to show
   that He excels all the priests of Aaron's line. As for those persons
   who, in modern times, pretend to be priests, our Lord Jesus Christ is
   not to be mentioned in the same day with them. They are all deceivers!
   If they knew the Truth of God, they would understand that there is no
   class of priests now. All caste of priesthood is forever abolished!
   Every man that fears God, and every woman, too, is a priest according
   to the Word of God which is written, "He has made us kings and priests
   unto God." The priesthood is common to all the saints--not confined to
   some! But He wears a golden band among them. Their priesthood would be
   nothing without His. He has made them priests. They derive their
   priesthood entirely from Him, neither could they be acceptable before
   God if they were not accepted in the Beloved. He is a King as well as a
   Prophet and a Priest, and that band, being made of gold, signifies His
   supremacy over all other kings! He is mightier far than they--"the Lord
   mighty in battle." "King of Kings" is His name, and the burden of the
   music of Heaven is this, "King of kings, and Lord of lords." The day
   shall come when He shall grasp His scepter and break the kingdoms of
   earth like a potters' vessels with His rod of iron! He is this day King
   of the Jews, but He shall openly be so proclaimed. In that day kings
   shall bow down before Him and He shall gather up sheaves of scepters,
   while many crowns shall be upon His glorious brow! There is no kingdom
   like the Kingdom of Christ. Other kingdoms come and go like the
   hoar-frost of the morning, or the sheen upon the midnight waves, but
   His Kingdom stands forever and ever! It shall endure from everlasting
   to everlasting! As Prophet, Priest and King, He wears a band of gold to
   show His supremacy in office above all others!

   The golden band, moreover, bears witness to His power and authority.
   Men were often girded with bands when they received office. The Prophet
   Isaiah said of Eliakim that he received a band of power and dominion.
   Keys were hung upon the band. The housewife's band with her keys
   signified her authority over her servants. The keys at the band of
   great men signified their power in their various offices, and when we
   sometimes sing--

   "Lo, in His hand the sovereign keys Of Heaven, and death, and Hell," we
   recognize this meaning of Christ's golden band, that all power given
   unto Him in Heaven and in earth. He is the universal Lord. Up in Heaven
   He enjoys an authority that is undisputed. Angels bow before Him--and
   on the sea of glass they cast down their crowns and cry, "Hallelujah!"
   Here on earth all Providence is ruled by the Man whose hands were
   pierced. All this dispensation is an economy of mediatorial government,
   over which Jesus Christ presides. He puts down one and sets up another.
   He makes the wheels of Providence revolve. Everything occurs according
   to His decree and purpose. In all things He rules and He overrules them
   for the good of His Church, even as Joseph governed Egypt for the good
   of the seed of Abraham! What a comfort it is, Beloved, for us to think
   of the authority and the power of our Lord Jesus Christ! He who had not
   where to lay His head. He who was despised and rejected of men. He who
   was a working Man--the carpenter's Son. He who felt the pangs of
   hunger, endured the pains of weariness, was neglected, condemned,
   opposed and cast out by His countrymen and His kinsmen--it is He who is
   now undisputed Master and unrivalled Lord everywhere! No name is as
   famous as that one once branded with infamy--the name of Jesus--whom
   sinful men rejected, holy angels now adore! On earth He was condemned
   and crucified. In Heaven He is hailed with highest honor. Look up to
   that golden band! See how He descended, step by step, into the meanest
   depths of humiliation. Then mark how He ascended with rapid flight to
   the towering heights of exaltation! Follow Him. With Him take your lot.
   Be willing to be made of no repute in this day of reproach that you may
   be a partaker of His Glory in the day of His appearing!

   Girded thus about with a golden band, we have a vivid representation of
   His activity. The band was used by the Easterns to bind up their long
   flowing robes. The Hebrew did not usually wear a band indoors. It was
   only when on a journey, or when engaged in some manual labor that he
   thus adjusted his attire. So our Lord's having a golden band signifies
   that He is still ready to serve His servants, to engage on their
   behalf. You remember how He once took a towel and girded Himself. That
   was with kind intent to wash their feet. Now it is no more with a linen
   towel, but with a band of gold that He prepares Himself to work on the
   behalf of His beloved! He stands not in Heaven with flowing garments,
   as though all work were done, but He stands there girded about the
   chest that He may be still ready and show Himself strong on behalf of
   His people. Be this your comfort--Jesus has not forgotten to plead for
   you before His Father's Throne. He never holds His peace, and never
   will. As long as you have a cause to plead, Christ will be your
   intercessor! Whatever you need, He is waiting to supply. As long as you
   have a sin to confess, Christ will be your Advocate with the Father to
   purge your guilt and purify your souls. As long as you are persecuted
   on earth, there will be a Christ to represent you in Heaven. As long as
   you are in this vale of tears, He, girded with a golden band, will be
   the Angel of God's Presence to succor and to save you! In all your
   afflictions He was afflicted, and He will still bear and carry you as
   in the days of old.

   Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, how people do sometimes talk about the
   Christian Church, as if Jesus Christ, who died for us, were still dead!
   What gloomy forebodings I have read during the last few months! Not
   that I have believed a word, or taken dreams for disasters. I have not
   even credited their sadness with too much sincerity! I rather thought
   they wrote for a party purpose, with motives of policy. Were we to
   believe half we read, Protestantism, in a few years, would become no
   more! We might have the Pope preaching in St. Paul's Cathedral! Not a
   few would be doomed to burn in Smithfield, and we know not what pains
   and penalties we shall be subject to! Evidently the Church of Christ is
   quite unable to take care of herself. Unless she is provided with so
   many hundreds or thousands of pounds, she must go to the dogs--for
   money, the love of which used to be the root of all evil--somehow or
   other, is now found out to be the root of all good! As for the good men
   who have prayed earnestly and worked so zealously, they are all going
   to leave off praying and preaching, too, when the State pay is stopped!
   So all the piety towards God and all the good will towards men will
   come to an end! Well, I suppose this would be very likely if Jesus
   Christ were dead, but as long as He is alive, I think He is quite able
   to take care of the golden candlesticks Himself! And the Church of God
   will probably be no worse in the next few years than it has been in the
   years that have passed. No, I will venture to prophesy that the less
   help she seeks from the world, and the more she leans upon her God, the
   brighter will be her future! Should the very foundations of society be
   shaken and the worst calamities befall us--such as we hope will never
   come--yet over the ashes of all earthly renown and government
   patronage, the supernal splendor of the immortal Church of God would
   glow forth with clearer brilliance and brighter glory! She has Long
   been like a ship tossed in the tempest and not comforted. She has
   plowed her way, and the spray that has broken over her has been
   blood-red with martyr's gore--but she has still kept on her course
   towards her desired haven! He that is with her is greater than all they
   that are against her! So shall it be till the world's end!

   Look, then, Beloved, to the golden band of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
   as you perceive that He is still active to maintain His own cause, to
   deliver His people and to prosper His Church, you need not be afraid!
   And does not the golden band imply His enduring love? The heart was, in
   old times, and still is among ourselves, supposed to be the dwelling
   place of the affections. What, do you think, is the ruling passion in
   the heart of Christ? What is it that inflames the bosom of Him who was
   once the Man of Sorrows, but now is King of kings and Lord of Lords? He
   is girded about the chest with a band of gold. He never ceases to love
   His people. The band is an endless thing--it goes right around a man.
   Christ's heart always keeps within the sacred circle of undiminished,
   unchanging, undying affection for all whom His Father gave Him, for all
   whom He bought with His precious blood! Never doubt the faithfulness of
   Christ to you, Beloved, since faithfulness is the band of His loins.
   Never think that a promise will fail, or that the Covenant will be
   broken. Trusting in Him, you will never be allowed to perish. It cannot
   be! While He wears that golden band, He cannot prove faithless. That
   heavenly decoration is a goodly order. Invested therewith, He cannot
   forget or prove untrue to those whom He has engaged to protect. Though
   Heaven and earth shall pass away, not one Word of Grace shall fall to
   the ground. The sun and moon shall expire--dim with age, they will
   cease to shed their light abroad--but the love of Jesus Christ shall be
   as fresh and new as in the day of His espousals, and as delicious as
   when you first tasted of it! Yours shall it be forever and ever to
   inherit and enjoy!

   In days of yore, moreover, the band was the place where the Eastern
   kept his money. It was his wallet. Some of the Orientals keep their
   cash in their turbans--in our Savior's day it was carried in the band.
   When our Lord speaks in Matthew about His disciples going without purse
   or scrip, He mentions there that they are not to carry silver or gold
   in their bands. This golden band, then, to use a simple word, may
   represent the wallet of the Lord Jesus, and we infer from its being
   golden that it is full of unequalled wealth and unsurpassed riches.
   Jesus Christ bears about Him all the available supplies that can be
   needed by His people. What a multitude of people He has to support, for
   on Him all His saints depend! They have been drawing upon Him all their
   lives and so they always will. They are "gentlemen commoners," as one
   used to say, upon the bounty of God's Providence. We are pensioners
   upon the beneficence of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has supplied us until
   now. Oh, how much Grace you and I have needed to keep us from starving,
   from sinking, from going down to the pit of Hell! And we have had all
   we needed! In fearful temptations our foot has not slipped. We have
   passed through many trials, but without being crushed. Arduous has been
   our service, but as our day, our strength has been. We should long ago
   have broken any earthly bank and drained the contents, but Christ has
   been to us like an ever-flowing fountain, a wellhead, a redundant
   source communicating enough and to spare! What a source! What ready
   relief for every emergency Christ has at His command! Oh, Brothers and
   Sisters, have you but little Grace? Whose fault is it? Not your Lord's!
   Oh, you who have no spending money! You who are full of doubts and
   fears! You who have slender comfort and little joy! You who are saying,
   like the elder son in the parable, "You never gave me a kid that I
   might make merry with my friends"!--whose fault is it? Does not your
   Father say, "Son, you are always with Me, and all that I have is
   yours"? It you are poor in spiritual things, you made yourselves poor,
   since Christ is yours and with Him all things are yours! Do enjoy what
   God has given you! Take the good that God provides! Seek to live up to
   your privileges. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!
   As that golden band gleams from afar, say in your spirit--

   "Since Christ is rich, can I be poor? What can I need besides?"

   And now let me briefly point out to you--

   II. THE GOLDEN LESSONS to be gathered from these five meanings of the
   golden band.

   It will refresh your memories if I remind you that we showed how the
   golden band set forth the excellency of Christ in all His offices. The
   golden lesson, then, is--Admire Him in all His offices! He who loves
   Christ will never be tired of hearing about Him. Doubtless when Jacob's
   sons came back and told him that Joseph was lord over all Egypt, after
   hearing the story once, the old man would be sure to say, "Oh, tell me
   that again!" I will be bound to say that as he sat in that tent of his,
   he would ask first one, and then another, to tell the tale--and so he
   would try to pump them with questions. "Tell me, Judah, now how did he
   look? Has he grown stouter or thinner since the day he left me and I
   never thought to see or hear of him anymore? Tell me, Simeon, did he
   sit on a throne? Was he really like a king? Tell me, Levi, what did the
   Egyptians seem to think of him? Had they a high estimation of his
   character? Tell me, Zebulon, how did he speak? In what terms did he
   speak of his old father? Was there a tear in his eyes when he referred
   to Benjamin, your other brother, the little one whom his father would
   not spare?" Surely I might draw that picture without being suspected of
   exaggeration. It would be all true. He loved his son so dearly and
   doted upon him so fondly that he could not know too much-- no, he could
   not know enough about Joseph! Anybody that had anything to tell about
   Joseph would be sure to be welcome! So with every renewed heart--if
   there is anything to be learned about Jesus, you will want to know it!
   Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us cultivate this spirit more and more.
   Let us live in the study of the life of Jesus. These are things the
   angels desire to look into. Do you not desire to look into them, too?
   Watch your Master. Let your experience, as it alters and ripens, reveal
   to you fresh beauties in your Lord. As you turn over page, after page,
   of Scripture, search after Jesus in it as men search after gold--and be
   not content unless you see your Savior's face revealed on every page!

   Does the golden band indicate His power and authority? The golden
   lesson is that you trustHim. If all power is His, lean on Him! We do
   not lean on Christ enough. The remark of the Church was, "Who is this
   who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved?" Lean on Him!
   He will never sink under your weight. All the burdens that men ever had
   to carry, Christ carried, and He certainly will carry yours. There can
   be no wars and lighting that perplex you which did not perplex Him, for
   in the great fight which comprehended yourselves, and the great warfare
   for all His saints, He overcame. Nothing, then, can be difficult to
   Him. How often we weary ourselves with walking when we might ride--I
   mean, we carry our troubles when we might take them to Christ! We fret,
   and groan, and cry--and our difficulties do not get any the less. But
   when we leave them with Him who cares for us, and begin to trust, like
   a child trusts its father, how light of heart and how strong of spirit
   we become! The Lord give us to watch that golden band carefully, and as
   we see the power of Jesus Christ may we come to lean upon that power
   and trust Him at all times.

   Or did the golden band signify His activity? The golden lesson is that
   we imitate Him. Christ is in Heaven, and yet He wears a band.
   Christian, always keep your band round your loins. "Stand, therefore,
   with your loins girded about," says the Apostle, "and your lamps
   trimmed." This is not the place for the Christian to unbind. Heaven is
   the place of rest for us--not this world of temptation and of sin.
   Always stand ready to suffer or to serve! At the Master's gate, watch
   and wait to do His bidding. Never, on weekdays, and much less on
   Sabbath days, let your spirits be out of order for Christian service!
   We ought so to live that if called to die at any minute, we would not
   need to say a prayer--ready for Heaven, ready for a life of service or
   for a death of glory! The true way for a Christian to live in this
   world is to be always as he would wish to be if Christ came at that
   moment. And there is a way of living that style--simply depending upon
   the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ--and then going out into
   daily service for Him, moved by love to Him, saying to Him, "Lord, show
   me what You would have me do." I wish we always were as I have thus
   said we always should be. The Lord can teach us! Let us ask Him to
   teach us the lesson.

   We told you, moreover, that the golden band indicated His enduring
   love, inasmuch as it is girded about His chest. Well, then, the golden
   lesson is, let us love Him in return. Let us wear the golden band, too.
   Oh, Beloved, love Him with all your heart, and soul, and strength! Let
   no rival come between you and Jesus. Keep your heart chaste for the
   Well-Beloved. My greatest longing is that I may present you as a chaste
   virgin unto Christ, that there may be nothing by way of error in
   respect to Doctrine or to holiness of life that may disturb the full
   union of your souls with Jesus. Oh, to see that golden band, and as we
   see it, to feel that He has belted us about after the same manner! "I
   am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine." I am not the world's, nor is
   the world for me--I belong to Jesus, and Jesus belongs to me! May that
   be the deep feeling and the truthful expression of everyone of you.

   And then does the golden band suggest to us the wealth of Christ, as
   being His wallet, let it be our golden lesson to rejoice in Him. If He
   is so rich, and all that He is and all that He has belongs to us, bring
   here your choicest music and let your souls be glad in the name of the
   Lord! Why are you bowed down? Why distressed? Has your Lord withdrawn,
   or has He changed? Is He deaf, or is His arm shortened that He cannot
   deliver? No, but let the children of God be joyful in their King. If
   you cannot be glad in what is created, be glad in the Creator Himself!
   If you cannot drink of the streams, go and drink of the
   fountainhead--the water is sweeter and better there. Blessed wreck
   which makes us lose everything and cling to our God, for the loss will
   be a gain if we get nearer to God, love Him better and prize His
   friendship more!

   Ah, me, the day will come when those of you who do not love Christ will
   have to look on Him and you will see that golden band, then, but it
   will bring no comfort to you! You despised Him, therefore in that band
   there will be no love to you, no blessing for you, no power for you!
   But what will there be? Why, that very band, since it is made of
   faithfulness, will show Him faithful to His threats! Those who hear
   Christ preached and reject Him will find that word true, "He that
   believes not shall be damned." Nothing but condemnation can be the lot
   of the man or woman who despises pardon and treats forgiveness with
   contempt. When simply to trust Christ saves the soul, to distrust Him
   is the direst and most damnable of sins! It is suicidal! Unbeliever,
   you refuse to pass through the only door that can lead you to Heaven!
   Well, if you never enter there, your blood be on your own head. Oh,
   that Grace may lead you just now to seek salvation! The Man with the
   golden band can save you, and none but He! Look to Him. Behold Him as
   He hangs upon the tree with hands and feet fastened there. Look and
   trust--trust and live! The Lord incline your hearts to espouse and not
   eschew His rich mercy, for His own dear name's sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 11

   Verse 1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding
   His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach in
   their cities. Whatever He commanded, He Himself did. He was always the
   example as well as the legislator of His people. How well it will be
   for us who are called upon to teach others, if we can teach them as
   much by what we do as by what we say! "When Jesus had made an end of
   commanding His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to
   preach in their cities."

   2, 3. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he
   sent two of his disciples. And said unto Him, Are You He that should
   come, or do we look for another?Poor John! His spirit was brave enough
   amid the wilds when he was by the riverside, but shut up in prison, it
   was probably otherwise with him. Those bold spirits, when they lose
   liberty, are apt to be depressed. Perhaps, too, John sent the disciples
   as much for their sakes as for his own. At any rate, what a question it
   was to put to our Lord, "Are You He that should come, or do we look for
   another?" I would call your attention to the quietness of our Savior's
   mind--the absence of anything like anger. See how He answers them.

   4-6. Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those
   things which you do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and
   the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are
   raised up, and thepoor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is
   he who is not offended because of Me. Now if it had been the very least
   of us who had been attempting to do such service for God, and we had
   been questioned about what we were doing, should we not have felt hurt
   and grieved? And maybe there are some who would not have given an
   answer, especially if they were dignified with the name of an office.
   But our blessed Lord does not take a huff at it. He is not vexed, but
   He answers with the utmost gentleness, not by a word of authority
   commanding John to believe, but by an exposition of those blessed seals
   of Grace which were the best evidence that He was, indeed, the Messiah.
   He pointed to the very miracles which prophecy declared the Messiah
   would perform--and He did this with that graciousness of temper which
   was always about our Divine Master, in which let us copy Him.

   7-11. And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes
   concerning John, What went you out into the wilderness to see? A reed
   shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in
   soft raiment? Behold, they who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
   But what went you out to see? A Prophet? Yes, I say unto you, and more
   than a Prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My
   messenger before Your face, which shall prepare Your way before You.
   Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there has not
   risen a greater than John the Baptist notwithstanding he that is least
   in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. Never did our Savior bear
   a more emphatic testimony to John than on this occasion! And it is
   remarkable that it should have followed upon the heels of John's doubt
   and John's question! How generously the Master repays His servant--not
   in his own coin, but in the heavenly coin of love! He seems to say,
   "Through the infirmity of your flesh you have been half-inclined to
   question Me, but through the strength of My Grace I turn round and
   extol you. Time was when you could say, 'He must increase, but I must
   decrease,' and now I turn round and say to those whom you have sent,
   and to those who saw your messengers, that there is none like you." Not
   even Moses, himself, is greater than John the Baptist! Though he who
   has entered into the Light and the Glory of the Kingdom of Grace since
   the coming of the Master is greater than he!

   12-15. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of
   Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the
   Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it,
   he is Elijah, who is to come. He that has ears to hear, let him hear
   But how many there are that have ears and do not hear! The external
   organ is affected, but the internal ear of the soul is not reached at
   all! Blessed are they who, having ears, do in very truth, hear.

   16, 17. But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like unto
   children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows and
   saying, We have piped unto you, and you have not danced; we have
   mourned unto you, and you have not lamented. The children would not
   agree! Whatever game was proposed, some of them would not follow it. At
   one time they imitated the pipers, and then the others would not dance.
   Then they imitated the lamentations of a funeral, and then the others
   would not join them.

   18, 19. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has
   a devil The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a
   man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
   There was no pleasing them! And there is no pleasing people, now,
   whoever it is that God sends. One man is much too homely. In fact, he
   is vulgar. Another is much too rhetorical. In fact, his rhetoric runs
   away with him. One man is doctrinal. Oh, he is dogmatic! Another man is
   practical. He is much too censorious. Another man is full of
   experience. He is mystical. Oh, surely God, Himself, cannot please the
   evil tempers of ungodly men! One thing is that He does not try to do
   so, nor do His servants, if they are truly sent of Him. That is a
   matter about which they have small concern.

   19. But wisdom is justified of her children.Whoever Christ sends, He
   sends in wisdom, and there is an adaptation about each of His servants,
   even if men do not perceive it. The day shall come when wisdom shall be
   justified of her children.

   20-24. Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty
   works were done, because they repented not Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe
   unto you Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had
   been done in Tyre and Sidon, they wouldhave repentedlong ago in
   sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for
   Tyre and Sidon at the Day of Judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum,
   which are exalted unto Heaven, shall be brought down to Hell for if the
   mighty works which have been done in you, had been done in Sodom, it
   wouldhave remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be
   more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment, than for
   you.There was a tenderness about the tone of Christ when He spoke thus.
   The words are burning, but the eyes were full of tears. He could not
   contemplate the possibility of the Gospel being rejected without a
   broken heart. He sighed and cried as He bore testimony against those
   who refused Eternal Life. With what tenderness must Christ regard some
   that are present here tonight, whose privileges from their childhood
   until now have been so great that they could scarcely be greater--and
   yet they seem determined to reject the admonitions of love and trample
   over tenderness in their desperate resolve to perish! God have mercy
   upon such.

   25. At that time Jesus answered He seemed to answer Himself. He
   answered to the thoughts that passed through His own mind. "At that
   time Jesus answered."

   25-27. And said, I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth,
   because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have
   revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in
   Your sight. All things are delivered unto Me of My father: and no man
   knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save
   the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal Him. Did the Lord Jesus
   Christ, in His address to Bethsaida and Capernaum awaken in His own
   mind all those difficulties that hover round about the Doctrine of
   Predestination? Did it not seem strange that God should send the Gospel
   to people who rejected it, and did not send the Gospel to a people who
   would have received it? How can these things be? And the dear Savior
   answers the question to His own mind by falling back upon that other
   sublime Truth and to Him, full of thanksgiving--the Infinite
   Sovereignty of God! I do not know what some of us would do if we did
   not believe that Truth of God. There are so many things which puzzle
   us--so many questions, but the Judge of all the earth must be right. He
   must! He will do as He pleases with His own, and it is not for us to
   question the prerogatives of the Most High. Now the Savior at last
   seems to give vent to His soul in one grand burst of Gospel preaching!
   And whenever you and I get worried about any Doctrine, it is always
   well to come back to the simplicity of the Gospel and proclaim it
   again.

   28. Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
   give you rest. There is no rest in the difficulties of metaphysics!
   There is no rest in the labors of human merit! "Come unto Me, and I
   will give you rest."

   29. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in
   heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls. First He gives rest to
   all who come. But afterwards there is a second rest which they find who
   become obedient and bear His yoke. The rest that comes of pardoned sin
   is sweet, but the rest that comes of conqueredsin through obedience is
   sweeter still. The rest He gives is precious, but there is rest upon
   rest, as there is Grace upon Grace, and let us go in for the highest
   form of that rest! "You shall find rest unto your souls." The very
   innermost part of your being shall be full of peace.

   30. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Blessed be His name,
   we have found it so!
     __________________________________________________________________

Absconding and Apostasy

   (No. 3556)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1917

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   "Will you also go away?"

   John 6:67.

   No mischief that ever befalls our Christian communities is more
   lamentable than that which comes from the defection of the members. The
   heaviest sorrow that can wring a pastor's heart is such as comes from
   the treachery of his most familiar friend. The direst calamity the
   Church can dread is not such as will arise from the assault of enemies
   outside, but from false Brothers and Sisters within the camp. My
   eminent predecessor, Benjamin Keach, though arrested, brought before
   the magistrates, imprisoned, pilloried and otherwise made to suffer by
   the Government of the times for the Gospel Doctrines that he preached
   and published, found it easier to brook the rough usage of open foes
   than to bear the griefs of wounded love, or sustain the shock of
   outraged confidence. I should not think his experience was very
   exceptional. Other saints would have preferred the rotten eggs of the
   villagers to the rooted animosities of slanderers! Troy could never be
   taken by the assaults of the Greeks outside her walls. Only when, by
   stratagem, the enemy had been admitted within the citadel, was that
   brave city compelled to yield. The devil, himself, is not such a subtle
   foe to the Church as Judas, when, after the supper, Satan entered into
   him. Judas was a friend of Jesus. Jesus addressed him as such. And
   Judas said, "Hail, Master," and kissed Him. And it was Judas who
   betrayed Him! That is a picture which may well appall you--that is a
   peril which may well admonish you! In all our churches, among the many
   who enlist, there are some who desert. They continue awhile, and then
   they go back to the world. The radical reason why they retract is an
   obvious disagreement. "They went out from us because they were not of
   us, for if they had been of us, doubtless they would have continued
   with us." The unconverted adherents to our fellowship are no loss to
   the Church when they depart. They are not a real loss, any more than
   the scattering of the chaff from the threshing floor is a detriment to
   the wheat. Christ keeps the winnowing fan always going. His own
   preaching constantly sifted His hearers. Some were blown away because
   they were chaff. They did not really believe. By the ministry of the
   Gospel, by the order of Providence, by all the arrangements of Divine
   Government, the precious are separated from the vile, the dross is
   purged away from the silver that the good seed and the pure metal may
   remain and be preserved! The process is always painful. It causes great
   searching of heart among those who abide faithful--and occasions deep
   anxiety to gentle spirits of tender, sympathetic mold.

   I trust, dear Friends, that you will not think I harbor any ungenerous
   suspicions of your fidelity because my text contains so pointed and so
   personal an appeal to your conscience. There is more of pathos than of
   pardon in the question as our Lord put it, "Will you also go away?" He
   addressed the favored twelve. I put it to myself. I put it to those who
   are the officers of the Church. I put it to every member without
   exception--Will you also go away? But should there be one to whom it is
   peculiarly applicable, I do not desire to flinch from putting the
   question most personally to that one, "What? Are you going? Do you mean
   to turn back? Do you mean to go away?"

   Let us approach the enquiry sideways. Will you alsogo away? "Also"
   means as well as other people. Why do others go? If they have any good
   reason, perhaps we may see cause to follow their example. Look
   narrowly, then, at the various causes or excuses for defection. Why do
   they renounce the religious profession they once espoused? The
   fundamental reason is lack of Grace, a lack of true faith, an absence
   of vital godliness. It is, however, the outward reasons which expose
   the inward apostasy of the heart from Christ of which I am anxious to
   treat. I. WHY SOME LEAVE CHRIST

   Some there are in these days, as there were in our Lord's own day, who
   depart from Christ because they cannot bear His Doctrine. Our Lord had
   more explicitly than on any former occasion declared the necessity of
   the soul's feeding upon

   Himself. They probably misunderstood His language, but they certainly
   took offense at His statement. Hence there were those who said, "This
   is a hard saying; who can hear it?" So they walked no more with Him.

   There are many points and particulars in which the Gospel is offensive
   to human nature and revolting to the pride of the creature. It was not
   intended to please man. How can we attribute such a purpose to God? Why
   should He devise a Gospel to suit the whims of our poor fallen human
   nature? He intended to save men, but He never intended to gratify their
   depraved tastes. Rather does He lay the axe to the root of the tree and
   cut down human pride. When God's servants are led to set forth some
   humbling Doctrine, there are those who say, "Ah, I will not assent to
   that!" They kick against any Truth of God which wounds their
   prejudices! What say you, Brothers and Sisters, to the claims of the
   Gospel on your allegiance? Should you discover that God's Word rebukes
   your favorite pleasure, or contradicts your cherished convictions, will
   you forthwith take offense and go away? No, but if your hearts are
   right with Christ, you will be prepared to welcome all His teaching and
   yield obedience to all His precepts. Only prove it to be Christ's
   teaching and the right-minded professor is ready to receive it. That
   which is transparent on the face of Scripture, he will cordially
   accept, as he says, "To the Law and to the testimony! If they speak not
   according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." As
   for that which is merely inferred and argued from the general drift of
   Scripture, the true heart will not be hasty to reject, but patient to
   investigate, like the Bereans, who, "were more noble than the Jews of
   Thessalonica, because they searched the Scriptures to see whether these
   things were so." Oh, that the word of Christ may dwell in us richly!
   God forbid that any of us should ever turn aside offended because of
   Him--His blessed Person, His holy example, or His sacred teaching! May
   we be always ready to believe what He says and prompt to do what He
   commands!

   Remember, Brothers and Sisters, that the Gospel commission has three
   parts to which the minister has to attend. We are first, to go and
   preach the Gospel. "Go you, and disciple all nations. "The second thing
   is "baptizing them." And the third thing is "teaching them to observe
   all things whatever I have commanded you." As willing disciples of
   Jesus, let us press forward, listening to His voice, following in His
   footsteps and accounting His revealed will as our supreme law! Far be
   it from us to go back, to repine, or to desert Him, then, because we
   are offended at His Doctrines!

   Others there are who desert the Savior for the sake of gain. Many have
   been entangled in that snare. Mr. By-Ends originally went on pilgrimage
   because he thought it would pay. There was a silver mine on the road
   and he purposed to survey that and see whether silver might not be
   obtained, as well as the Golden City beyond! He came, if I remember
   rightly, of a family that got its living by the waterman's
   business--looking one way and pulling another. He was apparently
   striving for religion, though he had his eyes all the while on the
   world! He was for holding with the hare, and running with the hounds.
   So when he came to a point where he must part with one or the other, he
   considered upon which the whole would be most profitable--and he gave
   up that which appeared to involve loss and self-sacrifice--and kept to
   that which would, as he called it, help him in the "main chance," and
   assist him to get on in the present life. Sincerely do I trust there is
   no one among us but what despises Mr. By-Ends and all of his class! If
   you would make money--and there need be nothing sinful in that--do let
   it be made honestly! Never let riches be pursued under the pretence of
   religion! Sell your wares and find a market for your merchandise, but
   do not sell Christ, nor barter a heavenly birthright for a worthless
   bribe. Put what goods you please into your shop window, but do not put
   a canting, hypocritical expression on your face, or "wear a holy look,"
   with a view of turning godliness into gain! God save us from that
   arrant villainy! May it never have a footing in our midst!--

   "Neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
   Invisible, except to God alone." Does any man join a church for the
   sake of the respectability it implies, or for the standing it may give
   him, or for the credit he may get? He will soon find that it does not
   answer his purpose. Then away he will go! But the graver probability is
   that he will be thrust out with shame!

   Some leave Christ and go away terrified by persecution. Nowadays it is
   supposed that there is no such thing. But that is a mistake, for though
   martyrs are not burned at Smithfield, and the Lollards' Tower is now a
   place for show (a memorial of times long ago), the harass, the cruelty
   and the oppression are far enough from being obsolete! Godless husbands
   play the part of petty tyrants and will not permit their wives the
   enjoyment of religion, but make their lives bitter with a galling
   bondage. Employers full often wreak malice on servants whose piety
   towards God is their sole cause of offense. Worse still, there are
   working men who consider themselves intelligent who cannot allow their
   fellow workman liberty to go to a place of worship without sneers,
   jeers, and cruel mocking! In many cases the mirth of the workshop is
   never louder than when it is turned against a Believer in Christ. They
   count it rare fun to hunt a man who cares for the salvation of His
   soul. They call themselves, "Englishmen," but certainly they are no
   credit to their country! Look at the base-born, ill-bred cowards!
   Yonder is an atheist! He is raving about his rights because the
   magistrate will not believe him on his oath--he claims liberty of
   conscience to be a heathen, but denies his comrade's right to be a
   Christian! Look at that little party of British workmen--they belong to
   the Sabbath Desecration Society. They are petitioning Parliament to
   open museums and theaters on Sundays, and at the same time they are
   hounding to death a poor fellow who prefers going to Chapel. They air
   their own self-respect by the oaths they utter, while they betray their
   self-abasement by the scorn they vent on those who presume to sing a
   hymn! They hail the drunk as a chum and scorn the sober man as a fiend!
   I wonder that there is not more honorable feeling, more good faith and
   true fellowship among our skilled workmen than to allow of one man
   being made the butt of a whole community! God give you Grace to bear
   such persecutions as these! If they cut us to the quick, may we learn
   to bear them with equanimity, and even to rejoice that we are counted
   worthy to suffer for the Savior's sake!

   Some of us have had to run the gauntlet for many years. What we have
   said has been constantly misrepresented. What we have endeavored to do
   has been misjudged and our motives have been misunderstood. Yet here we
   are, as happy as anybody out of Heaven! We have not been injured by any
   or all the calumnies that have been heaped upon us. Our foes would have
   crushed us but, blessed be God, He cheered us often when we were cast
   down. The Lord give you, in like manner, strength of mind and courage
   of heart to bear the trial manfully! Then you will care no more for the
   laughter and the sneers of men than you do for the noise of those
   migratory birds high overhead which you hear on an autumn evening as
   they are making their weary journey to a distant clime! Take heart,
   Brothers and Sisters! Fear God and face your accusers. True courage
   grows strong on opposition. Never think of deserting the army of
   Christ! Least of all should you play the coward because the insolence
   of some ill-mannered bully. Let not your faith be vanquished by such
   scoffing. Alas, that so many a cowardly spirit has gone away for the
   sake of carnal ease--and deserted Christ when His dear name had become
   the drunk's jest and the derision of fools!

   And there are people who forsake true religion out of sheer levity. I
   know not how to account for some men's defections. If you take up the
   list of wrecks, you will notice some that have gone down through
   collisions, and others through striking rocks--but sometimes you meet
   with a vessel "foundered at sea." How it happened, no one knows. The
   owner, himself, cannot understand it. It was a calm day and there was a
   cloudless sky when the vessel sank. There are some professors who,
   concerning faith, have made shipwreck under such apparently easy
   circumstances, so free from trial, so exempt from temptation, that we
   have not seen anything to awaken anxiety on their behalf, yet all of a
   sudden they have foundered! We are startled and amazed. I remember one
   that fell into a gross sin, of whom a Brother unwisely said, "If that
   man is not a Christian, I am not." His prayers had certainly been
   sweet. Many a time they have melted me down before the Throne of Grace
   and yet the life of God could not have been in his soul, for he lived
   and died in flagrant vice-- and was impenitent to the last! Such cases
   I can only attribute to a sort of levity which can be charmed with a
   sermon or a play. They can take a pew at the Chapel or a box at the
   opera with equal nonchalance and eagerly follow the excitement of the
   hour, "everything by turns, and nothing long." "Unstable as water, they
   shall not excel." At the spur of a moment they profess Christianity,
   they do not espouse it--and then, without troubling themselves to
   renounce it--they drop off into infidelity. They are soft and malleable
   enough to be hammered into any shape. Made of wax, they can be molded
   by any hand that is strong enough to grip them! The Lord have mercy
   upon any of you who may happen to be of that species! You spring up
   soon, and suddenly you wither! Hardly is the seed sown before the
   sprout appears. What a wonderful harvest you promise! But ah, no sooner
   has the sun risen with a burning heat than, because there is no earth,
   the good seed withers away! Pray God that you may be plowed deep, that
   the iron pan of rock underneath may be broken right up, that you may
   have plenty of subsoil and root--that the verdure you produce may be
   permanent! Want of principle is deadly, but the lack is far too common.
   Never cease to pray that you may be rooted and grounded, established
   and built up in Christ, so that when the floods come and the winds
   blow, you may not fall with a great destruction, as that house fell
   which was built upon the sand!

   And, oh, how many leave Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments! I
   will not enlarge upon this. Certain, however, it is that the pleasures
   of sin for a season fascinate their minds till they sacrifice their
   souls at the shrine of sordid vanity! For a merry dance, a wanton
   amusement, or a transient joy that would not bear reflection, they have
   renounced the pleasures that never pall, the immortal hopes that never
   fail--and turned their backs upon that blessed Savior who gives and
   feeds the tastes for unspeakable joys, for joys full of glory! In our
   pastoral oversight of a Church like this, we have painful evidence that
   a considerable number gradually grow cold. The Elders' reports of the
   absentees reiterate the vain excuses for nonattendance. One has so many
   children. The distance is too great for another. When they joined the
   Church their family was just as large, and the distance was just the
   same! But the household cares become more irksome when the concern for
   religion begins to flag--and the fatigue of travelling increases when
   their zeal for the House of God falters. The Elders fear they are
   growing cold. No actual transgression can we detect, but there is a
   gradual declension over which we grieve. I dread that cold-heartedness!
   It steals so insensibly, yet so surely over the entire frame. I do not
   say that it is worse than open sin. It cannot be. Yet it is more
   insidious. A flagrant delinquency would startle one as a fit does a
   patient, but a slow process of backsliding may steal like paralysis
   over a person without awakening suspicion. Like the sleep which comes
   over men in the frozen regions, if they yield to it, they will never
   wake again! You must be awakened, or else this supineness will surely
   end in death! "Gray hairs were upon him here and there, and he knew it
   not." Is it so with any of you, dear Friends? Are you going aside by
   slow degrees? He who loses his substance little by little presently
   becomes a bankrupt, and painful is the discovery when the end comes!
   How miserable must a spiritual bankruptcy be to him who wastes by
   degrees his heavenly estate, if he ever had any! No words can describe
   it. God preserve us from such a catastrophe!

   Some have turned aside, who allege that they did so through change of
   circumstances. They were with us when their means of livelihood were
   competent, if not affluent. From reverses in business, they have sunk
   in their social position. Hence they do not like to come into
   fellowship with us as they were known to do. Now from my inmost soul I
   can say if there are any persons that grew poor, I, for one, do not
   think one atom the less of them, or hold them in less esteem, however
   impoverished they may have become! Do not tell me that you have no
   clothes fit to come in, for any clothes that you have paid for are
   creditable. If you have not paid for them, I cannot make excuses for
   you. Be honest. Wool or fustian need not shame you, but for fineness or
   fashion I should certainly blame you! I am always glad to see Brothers
   and Sisters sitting here, as I sometimes do, in their smock frocks. One
   good friend is rather conspicuous in that line. The wholesome whiteness
   of his rural garb is rather attractive. If he has paid for it, he is a
   far more respectable man than anyone that has run into debt for a suit
   of broadcloth that he cannot pay for! And I rejoice to think that I am
   not merely expressing my own feeling, but that which is shared by the
   whole community! We all delight to see our poor Brothers and Sisters.
   If there are any of you suffering from a sensitiveness of your own, or
   a suspicion of our reflections, the sooner you get rid of such foolish
   pride, the happier you will be! You are jealous of being thought
   respectable? Don't you know that a man is respectable for his
   character--not for the money he has got in his pocket?

   Others forsake Christ because they have become rich and increased in
   goods. They did not scorn the little conventicle when they were plain,
   plodding people--but since fortune has smiled on them and they have
   moved their residence from a terrace to a mansion, and they have taken
   to keep a carriage--they feel bound to move in another circle! To the
   parish church, or to some ritualistic church in their neighborhood,
   they go once on the Sunday. They patronize the place by their
   presence--they show themselves among the elite of that locality. They
   bow and bend, and face about to the east, as though they had been to
   the manner born. They are too respectable to go into the little Baptist
   Chapel. They receive visitors in the afternoon, dine late, and
   dissipate Sabbath hours in the frivolous presence of showing off their
   gentility! Well, I think their departure is not to be lamented. When
   gone they are certainly no loss to anybody. We sigh for them as we
   would for Judas or Demas! They have fallen foul of what they thought
   their good fortune but of what has proved to be their ruin! Those who
   have true principles, when they rise in the world, see more reason why
   they should spend their wealth and their influence in aiding a good
   cause. Principle would prevail over policy to the end, if in their
   hearts they believed the Truth of God as it is in Jesus! It were no
   dishonor to a prince to go and sit down side by side with a pauper,
   were they both true followers of Jesus Christ! In old times, when our
   sires met in caves and dens of the earth, they met the liege and the
   lowly, the bond and free. Or when, in even earlier ages, the Christians
   gathered in the catacombs, men out of Caesar's household, now a chief,
   then a senator, soon a prince of the blood, came and sat down in those
   caves, lighted up with the dim candle, to listen while some unshod but
   Heaven-taught man declared the Gospel of Jesus with the power of the
   Holy Spirit! That they were illiterate, I am quite sure, for on looking
   over the monuments that are found in the catacombs, it is rare to find
   one inscription that is thoroughly well spelt. Though it is evident
   enough that the early Christians were an illiterate company of men, yet
   those that were great and noble did not disdain to join with them, nor
   will they if the light of Heaven shines and the love of God burns in
   their hearts!

   Unsound Doctrine occasions many to apostatize. There is always plenty
   of that about. Deceivers will beguile the weak and some have been led
   aside by modern doubt--and modest infidelity has its partisans. They
   begin cautiously by reading works with a view to answer scientific or
   intellectual skepticism. They read a little more and dive a little
   deeper into the turbid stream, because they feel well able to stand
   against the insidious influence. They go on till, at last, they are
   staggered. They do not go to those who could help their scruples, but
   they continue to flounder on till at last they have lost their
   footing--and he that said he was a Believer has ended in stark atheism,
   doubting even the existence of a God! Oh, that those who are well
   taught would be content with their teaching! Why meddle with heresies?
   What can they do but pollute your minds? Were I to get black, I imagine
   that I could wash away all the soils, but I would be sorry to black
   myself for the sake of washing! Why should you be so unwise as to go
   through pools of foul teaching merely because you think it easy to
   cleanse yourself of its pollution? Such trifling is dangerous! When you
   begin to read a book and find it pernicious, put it aside. Someone may
   upbraid you for not reading it all through, but why should you? If I
   have a roast on my table of which the smell and the taste at once
   convince me that it is putrid and unwholesome, should I show my
   discretion by fairlyeating it all before giving my judgment that it is
   not fit for food? One mouthful is quite enough! And one sentence of
   some books ought to be quite enough for a sensible man to reject the
   whole mass! Let those who can relish such meat have it, but I have a
   taste for better food. If it is your duty to expose these evils,
   encounter them bravely, with prayer to God to help you. But if not, as
   a humble Believer in Jesus, what business have you to taste and test
   such noxious fare when it is exposed in the market? Keep to the study
   of the Word of God!

   I will not continue in this strain. It is painful to me, if not to you.
   I will condense into a few sentences my answer to the second enquiry--

   II. WHAT BECOMES OF THEM?

   Those who go aside--what becomes of them? Well, if they are God's
   children, I will tell you what becomes of them, for I have seen it
   scores of times. Though they go aside, they are not happy. They cannot
   rest, for they are miserable even when they try to be cheerful. After a
   while they begin to remember their first Husband, for then it was
   better with them than now. They return, but there are scores and
   scores, to say nothing of the shame which they have to carry with them
   to their grave, who are never the men they were before! They have to
   take a second place among their comrades. And even should Sovereign
   Grace so wonderfully bless their painful experience that they are fully
   restored, they can never mention the past without bitter regret. Their
   by-path serving for others' beacon, they will say to young people,
   "Never do as I have done. Nothing good, all mischief, comes of it." In
   the vast majority of cases, however, they are not the Lord's people. So
   this is what comes of it. Those who prove traitors to a profession they
   once made are the hardest people in the world to impress. Doubtless
   some of you, when you lived in the country, used always to be punctual
   at your usual places of worship, but since you have come to London,
   where your absence from any sanctuary is unnoticed, you rarely enter
   the courts of the Lord's House--nor would you have been here tonight
   but for some special inducement--some country cousin or some particular
   friend having brought you. Though unknown to me, God scans your path.
   Well, here you are, and yet it may be to little profit. You have had
   counsels and cautions in such profusion that it is like pouring oil
   down a slab of marble to admonish you. May God in His Omnipotent Mercy
   break your stubborn heart, or there will be no hope for you! Such
   people frequently lose all conscience. They can go a deal further in
   talking against religion than anybody else. They will sometimes venture
   to say they know so much about it that they could expose it. Their
   boasts and their threats are alike unmeaning--but as boys whistle while
   they walk through the churchyard to keep their courage up, so do their
   vain talk and their senseless stories betray their stifled fear. They
   speak contemptuously of God while they justify themselves in a course
   of which their own conscience upbraids them! They go back--alas, some
   of them to prove themselves the most abandoned sinners in the world!
   The raw material out of which the devil constructs the deadliest fabric
   is that which was presumed to be the most saintly substance.

   There could not have been a Judas to betray Christ had he not first
   been distinguished as an Apostle, who ventured to kiss his Master. You
   must pick him from among the Apostles to make an apostate. As the
   ringleaders of riotous transgression, when converted, often make the
   best revivalist preachers, so those who seem to be the most loyal
   subjects of Christ, when they become renegades, prove to be the
   bitterest foes and the blackest sinners! Painful reminiscences rush
   over one's mind. Standing here now in the midst of a great Church, I
   call to mind things that have harrowed up my soul. God grant I may not
   see the likes of them again! They go away! Ah, me, full many of them go
   away to die in blank despair. Did you ever read the life of Francis
   Spira? If you want to sleep tonight, do not take up that memoir! Did
   you ever read the life of John Child, a Baptist minister of about 200
   years ago? Mr. Keach gives it in one of his works. He was a man who
   knew the Truth of God and, to a great extent, had felt its power. But
   he went aside from it and before he came to die, his expressions were
   too terrible to listen to. The remorse and despair of his spirit chased
   everyone away. At last he laid violent hands upon himself. For a man,
   after having once looked Christ in the face and kissed Him, to betray
   Him and crucify Him afresh, to hang himself is not to be wondered at!
   To eat at the Lord's Table, to drink of that cup of blessing, to mingle
   with the saints, join in their prayers and their hymns, professing to
   be a disciple of Christ and then to go back and walk no more with Him,
   is to venture on a course of no ordinary danger! The swing of the
   pendulum, if it has been lifted high and let go, is so much the greater
   on the other side. I marvel not that any man should be precipitated
   into flagrant sin who willfully renounces his vows of consecration to
   Jesus!

   And oh, when his eyes are opened and his conscience is awakened, how he
   wishes that he had never been born! Could he terminate his existence
   and annihilate his anguish-smitten soul, then the direst act of
   desperation by which he could end a life he could not mend, might be
   accounted wise. But no, that is impossible! The relief he seeks, he
   cannot find when he takes the dreadful leap from suffering here to an
   aggravated form of misery hereafter, ten thousand times worse to
   endure! He seals his doom and makes his own damnation sure, as he
   raises against himself a murdering hand. Do I address anyone here
   bereft of every ray of hope and shivering on the brink of cold despair?
   Hold now, I would cry in your ears-- do yourself no harm! You can do
   yourself no good! Think not to cure your woes by committing another
   crime--

   "It were madness thus to shun the living light, And plunge your guilty
   soul in endless night."

   While there is life there is hope! Jesus Christ can forgive you. Return
   to Him. He can wash you in His blood. He can make you clean, though
   your sin is as scarlet. But, oh, do not trifle, make no delay! Tarry no
   longer in your present condition, otherwise maybe you will fill up the
   measure of your iniquities before you are aware, and you may taste,
   even in this world, some beginning of the wrath to come! If not rescued
   as a trophy of Grace right speedily, you may become a monument of God's
   wrath--a beacon to deter others from daring to turn aside! I speak
   solemnly, but I cannot help it. So intensely do I feel the terror of
   that woe, and so confident am I that some of you are making light of
   it, that I would go down on my knees and entreat you with tears to
   remind you what you are doing. You are on a steep plane and you are
   going down, down, down! Your feet are even now on the slippery places
   from which multitudes have been cast down into destruction! How are
   they brought into desolation as in a moment! The Lord make haste to
   deliver you! May He stretch out His hand and receive you! I can only
   call out to you. You seem to have got where I cannot reach you. Do not
   venture a footstep further on that dangerous road. Look to Jesus, look
   to Jesus! He can redeem your life from the pit of Hell by His Sovereign
   Grace, but He alone! Then as a wandering sheep, brought back to the
   fold, you shall adore His name!

   Our third point is this--

   III. WHY SHOULD WE NOT GO AWAY AS THEY HAVE GONE?

   Were we left to ourselves, I cannot tell you any reason why we should
   not go as they have gone. Nor, indeed, could I tell you why the best
   man here would not be the worst before tomorrow morning, if the Grace
   of God left him. John Bradford, you know, as he saw the poor criminals
   taken away to Tyburn to be executed, used to say, "There goes John
   Bradford, but for the Grace of God." Verily each one of us might say
   the same! To abide with Christ, however, is our only security--and we
   trust we shall never depart from Him. But how can we make sure of this?
   The great thing is to have a real foundation in Christ to begin
   with--genuine faith, vital godliness. The foundation is the first
   matter to be attended to in building a house. With a bad foundation
   there cannot be a substantial house. You require a firm bottom, a sound
   groundwork, before you proceed to the superstructure. Do pray God that
   if your religion is a sham, you may find it out now! Unless your hearts
   are deeply plowed with genuine repentance, and unless you are
   thoroughly rooted and grounded in the faith, you may have some cause to
   suspect the reality of your conversion and the verity of the Holy
   Spirit's operation in you. May the Lord work in you a good beginning,
   and then you may rely upon it, He will carry it on to the day of Jesus
   Christ!

   Then remember, dear Brothers and Sisters, if you would be preserved
   from falling, you must be schooled in humility and keep very low before
   the Lord. When you are half an inch above the ground, you are that
   half-inch too high. Your place is to be nothing! Trust Christ, but do
   not trust yourself. Rely on the Spirit of God, but do not rely on
   anything that is in yourself--no, not on a Grace you have received, or
   on a gift you possess! Those do not slide who walk humbly with God.
   They are always safe whose entire dependence is upon God. Be jealous of
   your obedience! Be circumspect! Be careful! Take heed to
   yourselves--your walk and conversation cannot be too cautious. Many are
   lost through being too remiss, but none through being too scrupulous.
   The statutes of the Lord are so right that you cannot neglect them
   without diverging from the path of rectitude. Watch and pray! God help
   you to watch, or else you will get drowsy. Never neglect prayer. That
   is at the root of every defection. Retrogression commonly begins at the
   closet. To restrain prayer is to deaden the very pulse of life! "Watch
   unto prayer."

   And I beseech you, dear Friends, do shun that company which has led
   other people astray. Parley not with those whose jokes are profane.
   Keep right away from them. It is not for you to be seen standing, much
   less to be found sitting down with men of loose manners and lewd
   converse! They can do you no good, but the evil they can bring upon
   you, it would not be easy to estimate. You may have heard the
   story--but it is so good it will bear repeating--of the lady who
   advertised for a coachman, and was waited upon by three candidates for
   the situation. She put to the first one, this question, "I want a
   really good coachman to drive my pair of horses and, therefore, I ask
   you how near you can drive to danger and yet be safe?" "Well," he said,
   "I could drive very near, indeed! I could go within a foot of a
   precipice without fear of any accident so long as I had the reins." She
   dismissed him with the remark that he would not do. To the next one who
   came, she put the same question. "How near could you drive to danger?"
   Being determined to get the position, he said, "I could drive within a
   hair's breadth, and yet skillfully avoid any mishap." "You will not
   do," she said. When the third one came in, his mind was cast in another
   mold, so when the question was put to him, "How near could you drive to
   danger?" he said, "Madam, I never tried. It has always been a rule with
   me to drive as far off from danger as I possibly can." The lady engaged
   him at once!

   In like manner, I believe that the man who is careful to run no risks
   and to refrain from all equivocal conduct, having the fear of God in
   his heart, is most to be relied upon. If you are really built upon the
   Rock of Ages, you may meet the question without dismay, "Will you also
   go away?" and you can reply without presumption, "No, Lord, I cannot,
   and I will not go, for to whom should I go? You have the words of
   eternal life." And may the very God of Peace wholly sanctify you! 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! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

An Urgent Necessity

   (No. 3557)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JULY31, 1870.

   "It is time to seek the Lord till He comes and rains righteousness upon
   you." Hosea 10:12.

   HOSEA uses a great many figures taken from farming. He describe the
   seeking of the Lord in the former part of this verse as plowing, and
   sowing, and breaking up fallow ground. I suppose he intends by this to
   describe conviction of sin, humiliation of soul as the work that plows,
   the reception of the Truth of the Gospel by faith in Jesus Christ as
   sowing, for this introduces the Living Seed into the soul. And he here
   gives two reasons why this matter of seeking the Lord should be
   attended to at once. His first reason is the season. "It is time to
   seek the Lord." The second is a very gracious expectation that God will
   rain righteousness upon us. First, then, the Prophet reasons that we
   should seek after the Lord because it is--

   I. THE TIME TO SEEK GOD.

   "It is time to seek the Lord." I wish you to reflect, first, that we
   yet have time. It might have been otherwise. We might have been cut
   down in our sins. Many of our neighbors and acquaintances have died.
   Some of them, we have reason to fear, died in their iniquities and were
   taken away with a stroke. We, too, have passed through dangers. Some
   have escaped in shipwreck. Some have been in imminent peril in
   accidents--some of us have come into the very jaws of death in serious
   sickness. We might almost sing, or quite sing--

   "Lord, and am I yet alive? Not in torment, not in Hell? Still does Your
   good Spirit strive With the chief of sinners dwell?" We yet have time.
   Let no person living say he has not time, for while life lasts, hope
   lasts. The sentence, "Depart, you cursed," is not yet pronounced by
   Christ's lips on you. Pronounce it not on yourselves! Do not conclude
   your case to be hopeless and make it hopeless, but rather believe that
   being in the assembly of God's people, listening to the testimony of
   His Grace, you are still on praying ground and pleading terms with
   God--and you yet have time given you to seek the Lord! The most aged
   need not despair! The most guilty need not conclude that their day of
   Grace is over! Until that iron bar shall fasten the door and you are
   shut in the pit of Hell forever, let not Satan persuade you that you
   are beyond all hope! While the Gospel note rings from the silver
   trumpet of gracious invitation, "He that has ears to hear let him
   hear," you yet have time--time to seek the Lord!

   This time is given you for this very purpose. You think, perhaps, that
   your prolonged life is given you that you may mature your plans, that
   you may rectify mistakes of business, that you may accumulate more
   money, or perhaps you are gross enough to think that the best way of
   using time is to get earthly pleasure out of it--and indulge animal
   passions and appetites! Ah, Sirs, it is not so! To whatever use you put
   this talent of time, God's long-suffering has been your salvation. By
   it God teaches you to repent while He permits you to live! His
   long-suffering is not that you may provoke Him further, but that you
   may cease to provoke Him! He cuts not down the tree that it may spread
   its useless branches and cumber the ground yet worse, but if, perhaps,
   being dug about a little longer, it may bring forth fruit! It is the
   very motive why the Intercessor pleads, "Spare it yet another year." He
   spares you that you may not depart hence till you are ready to depart.
   He gives you space, not for sin, but for repenting opportunity! Not for
   perpetrating worse offenses, but for turning from your evil ways! Your
   time has this mark on it, if you would but see it, "Repent! I give you
   space. Repent! Take heed you waste it not." There is encouragement to
   every unconverted person in this thought! If this time is given you to
   repent in, then rest assured that, repenting and believing in Jesus,
   you will be accepted! If the judge stands at the criminal's door and
   waits, and says he waits there until he is willing to receive the
   pardon he grants, and if the criminal is anxious to receive the pardon,
   there can be no difficulty in the way! The very waiting of the judge at
   the door proves that he does not want to execute the sentence--only
   desires to see some symptom of contrition, some tokens of turning from
   the evil way and gives space if, perhaps, these token may become
   apparent. Hear you, then, oh, unconverted ones! Hear you, then, and
   trifle not with the space allowed you!

   It is time to seek the Lord, says the text. Surely it is high time! Not
   only the time, but high time. It is high time, you young ones, that you
   seek the Lord, for Satan is on the watch for you if, perhaps, your
   unwary footsteps may be decoyed into the paths of evil--evil which, if
   you are not delivered from, you will have to regret ever having trodden
   to life's latest hour! Oh, if you would be kept from the snare of the
   fowler, you young ones, it is time you seek the Lord--high time! Now
   when you are leaving your mother's roof--going away from a father's
   gentle guidance, it is time to seek the Lord. I would press this on any
   young man here just launching into life, or that marriage, or that
   business he entered upon--it is time to seek the Lord! Set up God's
   altar when you set up a house, and before you trade for yourself,
   consecrate yourself and your substance to God, who can bless you and
   will!

   But, oh, you that have passed now into middle life, have you spent
   forty years in sin? It is high time you sought the Lord! Your best days
   have been given to provoking Him. Will you not give the rest, such as
   they are, to His service? Oh, that His Spirit might compel you to do
   so. And you that lean upon the staff, you who have come to the verge of
   human life, is it not high time to seek the Lord? I see your sun going
   down--the sky is scarcely bright, the red rays betoken that the sun is
   hiding itself. Oh, before the dark, dark, endless night comes on, seek
   the Lord while yet He may be found! Be grateful for having been spared
   so long. Oh, be not so ungrateful as to use so long a life all for sin,
   for remember, it will be then all used for your own destruction! You
   have been a fool long enough! Gray hairs and foolery are not well
   matched. You have long enough sported on the brink of Hell--will you
   not start back from it? By God's long-suffering and patience, I beseech
   you remember it is high time for you to seek the Lord.

   And you in whom I mark that treacherous spot upon the cheek that marks
   the worm beneath, and you with the pre-ternaturally bright eyes that
   indicates the fire of consumption within, it is time you sought the
   Lord! And you whose crumbling frames, or aching bones or relaxed
   sinews, or trembling nerves, all betoken how weak your body is and how
   readily it may be crumbled back into the dust--these tokens from the
   Lord are upon you--it is time you sought Him! He knocks gently as yet,
   and gives you warning. Take heed, He will soon come and remove the
   house of the wicked, and the tabernacle of the ungodly, and your souls
   must appear before His Judgment Seat! It is high time you sought the
   Lord. And, oh, all of you ungodly ones who listen to my voice, and have
   listened to it so long, I have asked the Lord to teach me how to preach
   that I may somehow get at your hearts. I seem not to have learned the
   art as yet. May His Spirit come and give the right word with a barbed
   shaft that shall plow its way right through your armor and pierce its
   way through all the hardness of your heart until it breaks the
   conscience and wounds you--and compels you to cry for mercy! What? All
   the years at Park Street, Exeter Hall and the time at the Surrey
   Gardens--and ever since this Tabernacle has been built--and yet
   unsaved? It is time to seek the Lord! The very seats you sit on cry out
   against you, some of you, and I, unwilling as I am to speak it, I must
   be a swift witness against some of you, for to the best of my ability I
   have pointed you to Christ, I have warned you of danger, I have told
   you of your great peril, I have warned you of the terrible punishment
   of sin, I have entreated you to fly to Jesus! It is time, you
   Gospel-hardened ones, that you sought the Lord! If your lusts are gods,
   serve them! But decide and choose this day--and may God choose for you
   whom you will serve! It is high time as well as time to seek the Lord!

   Remember, too--and here is something solemn, but something sweet as
   well--it is God's time, for these are God's words put into the
   Prophet's mouth--it is time to seek the Lord! God says, "It is time."
   When God says it is time, why, then, when I come, I cannot be denied!
   God says, "It is time." Then if I do not come, I provoke Him! Hear you
   these words, you that are dull of hearing, and you whose hearts have a
   thick crust! Hear you, for Jehovah speaks to you this day. "Today, if
   you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation."
   "Today"--He limits the time-- "Today, if you will hear His voice,
   harden not your hearts, for if you do so, the day will come when He
   will deal with you as He did with His people, Israel, who, having long
   provoked Him, received this as His answer to their face, "He swore in

   His wrath that they should not enter into His rest." Not yet has He
   spoken, but He may, and that awful voice which comes from Solomon's
   Proverbs may come to you. "Because I have called and you refused, I
   stretched out My hand and no man regarded it, I also will mock at your
   calamity; I will laugh when your fear comes." "Today is the accepted
   time; today is the day of salvation."

   Once more only. It is time to seek the Lord, and it is but time. It is
   but a time. You have not given to you eternity in which to seek the
   Lord. It is the time, and the time is limited. It is still time, but it
   is limited. To some of you it is most limited. It is time to seek the
   Lord. The vessel lies in the harbor and the favorable wind would take
   her out to sea and bear her on to her port, but the sailor sleeps--the
   captain observes not the wind. The sails are furled. Tomorrow the wind
   has changed. Now he may do as he will, but he is land-locked, and there
   must he remain. He cannot put out to sea, for he cannot command the
   gale. So is it with you--there is a time which God appoints you. Tis
   now! Slight it and it may never come again! It is but a time. Oh, take
   this mercy at the flood--miss it not, I pray you. While God waits, come
   you, lest there should come an hour when you shall knock at His door
   and the voice shall be heard, "Too late, too late! You cannot enter
   now." Ah, I would I had but power to put this as I should, and so that
   you would feel it, but, perhaps, you will feel it when I would wish you
   had no need to do so--I mean on your dying bed.

   The Puritans tell a story of a woman convinced of sin on her deathbed,
   who lived near Cambridge, who was visited by several ministers, all of
   whom had great skill in comforting seeking souls. When five or six of
   them had spoken gently and comfortingly to her, she opened her eyes
   upon them with a glare, and all she said was this, "Call back the time,
   call back the time, for otherwise I am damned!" And so she died. And
   there are many, I hear, who might say that. "The time is gone! The time
   is gone! I cannot call it back!" Oh, take it on the wing while yet it
   is time to seek the Lord. You know, perhaps, the story of the traveler
   on the prairie, when a fire in the distance could be seen. The prairie
   was on a blaze, and he knew that his only hope for life was to fight
   fire with fire. He searched for his matches. If he could make a ring
   around him and burn the grass so that when the fire came up, it would
   have nothing to feed upon, then he might escape. He found but three
   matches in his box. He took one and struck it with some degree of care,
   but, alas, before he could light the train which he had laid, the match
   had gone out. He took another, and this time, very tremblingly, with
   much of tremulous anxiety about him, struck it. There was a light--he
   thought he was safe, but a gust of wind blew it out. And now all
   depended on the last match! He would be burnt to ashes, with no help,
   no pity from a friend, if that match failed him. Down he falls and
   breathes the prayer--"God help me, God help me! Grant this may
   succeed." He struck it! You may guess with what care he had laid all
   the grass around it, and then he struck it as though he were loath to
   run the terrible risk, but he praised God when he saw its success and
   that his life was saved!

   You have but one match left, O Sinner! Use it well--one light, one
   time--the time to seek the Lord. Oh, seek Him now--tonight! This moment
   in the pew say, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" Is that your prayer?
   'Tis well. God hear and answer it! But now I must, by your patience,
   speak for a little while upon the second part of the text. There is
   another reason given for seeking the Lord--and that is--

   II. THE BLESSED EXPECTATION.

   It is that in due time He will rain righteousness upon us! I understand
   by this that the plowing and the sowing are ours, but these are nothing
   without the heavenly rain of Grace. But God will be sure to send that
   in due time. In fact, our plowing and sowing are results and tokens of
   His Grace, and the Grace of comfort will come where the Grace of
   humiliation has already come. When it says, "righteousness," I think it
   means to assure us that God can, in a way of righteousness, be gracious
   to us. Through His dear Son, who bore the punishment of our sins, God
   can righteously rain upon sinners. Now just a moment or two. You say
   you have not Grace. You say you are not what you should be. 'Tis even
   so. But seek the Lord and He will rain righteousness upon you! Observe
   all Divine Grace must come from Him. Rain comes from God. He rains it.
   Every drop of Grace comes from Heaven. You, Sinner, can never get any
   Grace unless He gives it you! Remember this, and wait upon Him for it
   now. It must be heavenly Grace, or it will be no Grace at all. It can
   come to you. There are some parts on earth that never could be watered
   if it did not rain. Nobody would ever think of watering the hilltops.
   But He waters His hills from His chambers. We cannot give Grace to
   you--you are in such a desolate, lonely, mountainous place, but He can
   get to you and He will! See how it is He will rain righteousness upon
   you. Then, as there is a straight way for rain even to the wilderness,
   so is there a straight way for God's Grace to drop into your
   desertheart. Rain comes Sovereignly as God wills it, where He wills it,
   when He wills it. And in degree and duration according to His will. So
   does Grace. Lift up your soul, then, to Him for it, and bow your head,
   feeling that you deserve it not!

   But in the metaphor of rain there is the idea of plenteousness. He will
   rain righteousness upon you. If you have no Grace, He will give you
   much Grace if you have great needs. He will give you great supplies. He
   will rain it upon you. God is not stinting in His love--He will not
   give you a drop or two, but He will give you a sea of mercy. "I will
   pour water upon him who is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." Now
   is not this good reason for seeking the Lord? You cannot get Grace
   anywhere but from the Lord. God can give it to you very abundantly. It
   is in His hands to give or not as He wills. Oh, seek it. He holds the
   stars! He guides the clouds! He wing the tempest! Seek Him for His
   Grace--He will give it to you. It can come from none besides. But it
   will come. There is the mercy of it. And you are told in the text to
   seek it until it does come. Seek Him until the Grace comes! I have
   known a sinner cry to God once, and mercy has come immediately, but
   there have been many cases where souls have cried again and again, and
   only after a long while have they had success. I saw as I came here
   tonight--it all happened in a moment--I saw a little child just come
   home from school, I suppose. A very little child and she tapped at her
   mother's door, and the mother did not come, and she did what was the
   best thing to do under the circumstances--cried as loud as ever she
   could--and her mother came to her! If you have knocked at Mercy's door
   and Mercy has not come, cry for it! Oh, a groan, a tear, a cry, a sigh
   will quicken the steps of Mercy! God cannot linger when a sinner cries.
   When a sinner weeps, Christ will soon have pity on him. But, anyhow,
   keep on till He comes. Seek till He rains righteousness upon you.

   Elijah got the fire in prayer very soon, but he did not get the rain
   very soon. He had to say to his servant, "Go and look towards the sea."
   There was Elijah, with his head between his knees, in mighty prayer,
   but not a drop of rain or sign of a cloud. "Go again, go again," he
   repeated till he had commanded his servant seven times--and then there
   is a cloud the size of a man's hand! Sinner, have you prayed? Pray
   again. Have you prayed twice? Pray again! Has it come to three times?
   Pray again! Has it come to four times? Pray again! Does it amount to
   six times? Pray again! Let there be no stint in prayer. You have kept
   God waiting long enough. You must not marvel if He should now tarry
   awhile. Pray again! Pray again! Say, "I am resolved that I will not
   give it up until You shall rain Your comfort, Your righteousness, Your
   Grace, upon me." He will surely do it and you do not know how soon--you
   do not know how soon--you will get comfort. And when it comes it will
   make up for all delays. You know the woman, when the child is born,
   remembers no more the travail, for joy that a man is born into the
   world--and, oh, when Christ is yours, you will forget your travail in
   your joy and your rejoicing!

   I am thinking just now of Columbus and his crew. They had sailed long
   across the Atlantic, and had not found the golden land, the El Dorado,
   and so the sailors talked of going back, and many a scheme he had, by
   which he tempted them a little further on to that unknown shore! At
   last it came to this, they mutinied--they would go no further! They
   would not seek the land again--why should they drift away and be lost
   forever? He said, "Give me but three days, and if between now and the
   third day we see not the shore, then we will reverse the helm." Within
   those three days there stood the fair shores of the New World before
   the mariners' eyes! Suppose they had turned back the second day, and
   had gone home and never found it? Well, I don't know that it would have
   mattered much to those sailors. Somebody else would have found it, but
   you are, perhaps, within three days now of being accepted in the
   Beloved--perhaps within three hours! Pray God that it may be within
   three minutes! And will you not go on little farther? Will you not
   still cry and will you not take the Gospel step, the grand step of
   believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do, and you shall be saved! That
   brings you to the El Dorado, to the land of gold, to the land of mercy,
   to the bosom of Christ, to the safety of the blessed, to the security
   of the Glory that shall be revealed hereafter! Oh, Sinner, be not
   discouraged, but seek the Lord, for you have His promise He will be
   found of you!

   Some even of God's servants have been a good while seeking and they
   have not found Him. When that dear martyr of Christ, Mr. Glover, lay in
   prison, he was in a very sad state of heart, and he said, "I love Him,
   and I will burn for Him, but, oh, that I had some glimpses of His
   face!" And his fellow sufferer who lay in prison with him used to tell
   him, "He will appear to you--you shall have joy." But day after day all
   through that weary time spent in prison, he would constantly be saying,
   "Am I His? Has He forgotten to be gracious? Has He shut up the heart of
   His compassion?" "But," said Glover, "if He never speak comfortably to
   me again, I know His Truth and I know His Gospel, and I will burn for
   Him. By His Grace, I will never turn away!" And the morning came on
   which he was to be burned--and he awoke withsome heaviness of his
   spirit. There seemed to be no comfort in any promise to which he
   turned, and prayer brought no relief. And they came and put the chains
   on him, and they led him out. He came to where the stake was and where
   the firewood was and he was about to strip and put on his shirt for the
   burning--and suddenly he leapt up and said, "He is come! He is come! He
   is come! Glory be unto His name!" His friends had asked him to give
   some sign that his spirit had revived--and he stood and burned as
   though he scarcely felt the fire, singing Psalms and praying!

   And so it will be with every earnest seeker. If the looks of love have
   never come to you for years, you will have them yet, for never soul
   believed but what was safe! Some have believed, but not been
   comfortable, but they are safe--the comfort will come. Only seek
   Sinner, for He will rain righteousness on you--

   "So I must maintain my hold,

   'Tis the goodness makes me bold;

   I can no denial take,

   For I plead for Jesus' sake."

   Oh, Sinner, never let go! Cling close to Christ and He cannot cast you
   away, for this is His promise, "Him that comes, I will in no wise cast
   out." Come, then, and the Lord bless you! Amen and amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: DEUTERONOMY32:1-39.

   A very marvelous Chapter it is--a song and a prophecy, in which the
   poet-seer seems to behold the whole future spread before him as in a
   map--and it is so vivid to him that he describes it rather as a matter
   present or past, than as a thing which is yet to be. It is the story of
   God's dealing His chosen and peculiar people, Israel, from the
   beginning to the end. The commencement is exceedingly noble.

   Verses 1-3. Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O
   earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my
   speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender
   herb, and as the showers upon the grass because I will publish the name
   of the LORD: ascribe you greatness unto our God. All through, the song
   is for the glorification of God! Not a syllable, indeed, in which man
   is held up to honor, but the Lord, alone, is exalted in His dealings
   with His people. He is the Rock. All other things are the mere cloud
   that hovers on the mountain's brow. But--

   4. He is the RockImmutable, eternal.

   4. His work is perfect. Sometimes very terrible and very mysterious,
   but His work is perfect,

   4. For all His ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity,
   just and right is He. But as for His people, what a contrast between
   them and their God!

   5. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of His
   children: they are a perverse and crooked genera-tion.What a stoop from
   the God of Truth, without iniquity, to a people full of iniquity--a
   perverse and crooked generation! We never know so much of our own
   vileness as when we get a clear view of the excellency of God. What
   said Job? "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my
   eyes see You, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

   6. Do you thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He
   your Father who has bought you? Has He not made you, and established
   you?Who made the Jews to be a people? Who set Israel apart to be a
   nation? Who, but God, who bought them with a price when they came out
   of Egypt and, in his fatherly care, led them through the wilderness?

   7. 8. Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations:
   askyour father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell
   you. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when
   He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people
   according to the number of the children of Israel God's first point in
   the government of the world was His own people. Everything else was
   mapped out after He had set apart a place for them--a place sufficient,
   large, fruitful and in an admirable position, that there they might
   multiply and enjoy all the good things which He so freely gave them.
   And to this day dynasties rise and fall, kings reign or are scattered
   by defeat, only with this one point in God's eye and purpose in His
   mind--the upholding of the Church in the world--the spread of His
   glorious

   Truth!

   9-12. For the LORD'S portion is Hispeople; Jacob is the lot ofHis
   inheritance. He foundhim in a desert land, and in the waste howling
   wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the
   apple ofHis eye. As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her
   young, spreads abroad her wrings, takes them, bears them on her wings:
   So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
   This is the history of the tutoring of Israel in the wilderness. When
   they came out of Egypt they were a mere mob of slaves, degenerate by
   the debasing influence of long bondage. They had to be trained before
   they were fit to be a nation. Now in all this, let us try to see
   ourselves. What has God worked for those of us who are His people in
   bringing us out from the bondage of sin? And how graciously does He
   this day preserve us as a man guards the apple of ''his eye"? No sooner
   does anything come near the eye than up goes the hand instinctively to
   shield the eye. And let anything happen to the people of God--and the
   power of God is ready at once for their defense. An eagle has to teach
   her young eaglets to fly. She will take them on her wings, so they say,
   and cast them off, and let them flutter, and then dash down and come
   under them and bear them up again till she has taught them to use their
   wings. And the Lord has been doing this with many here--apparently
   casting them off, only that, when they fall, underneath them may be the
   everlasting arms. We have to be trained to faith. It is a difficult
   exercise for such poor creatures as we are. We are being trained for it
   at this day. After they had thus been tutored, they were brought into
   the promised land, which Moses never entered, but yet in his vision of
   prophecy he sees it all.

   13, 14. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might
   eat the increase of the fields: andHe made him to suck honey out of the
   rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; curds from the cattle, milk of
   the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and
   goats, with the choicest wheat: and you did drink the pure blood of the
   grape. It was a very fruitful land, abounding not merely in
   necessaries, but in luxuries. Palestine gave to its inhabitants all
   that heart could wish, and for a long time, while they were faithful to
   God, they lived in the midst of plenty.

   15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. "The little holy nation"--for I
   suppose that is the meaning of "Jeshurun." It is a diminutive
   word--"the little religious nation waxed fat. It abounded in
   prosperity. It grew stout and kicked."

   15. You are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with
   fatness: then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the
   Rock of his salvation. Alas, alas! Alas! They set up calves in Bethel.
   They turned aside to Ashtoreth, and worshipped the Queen of Heaven!

   16. 17. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with
   abomination provoked they Him to anger They sacrificed unto
   devils,Demons--not to God.

   17. Not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly
   up, whom your fathers feared not There is nothing new in religion that
   is true. The truth is always old. But only imagine a new God! And
   verily we have had lately some new fashions brought up--some new styles
   of worship. I think they call them mediaeval. They certainly are no
   older than that--"new gods that newly came up, whom your fathers feared
   not."

   18. Of the Rock that begat you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten
   God that formedyou. Israel was nothing apart from God--a little tribe
   of people--nothing to be compared with the great nations of the earth.
   Its only reason for existence was its God. He was its center, its
   light, its glory, its power. They had got away from Him that formed
   them.

   19. 20. And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them, because of the
   provoking ofHis sons, and ofHis daughters. And He said, I will hide My
   face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very
   forward generation, children in whom is no faith. There is the
   mischief--lack of faith. Lack of faith leads to all manner of sin. Oh,
   that we had a strong elastic faith to realize the unseen God and keep
   to purely spiritual worship, not needing symbols, signs and outward
   tokens--all of which are abominable in His sight, but worshipping the
   unseen in spirit and in truth. But the Lord said--

   21. They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they
   have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to
   jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to
   anger with a foolish na-tion.And so the idolatrous nations came and
   conquered Judea. One after another they trampled down the holy city and
   let them see that God could use the nations that they despised to be a
   scourge upon them!

   22-25. For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn unto the
   lowest Hell and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on
   fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischief upon them;
   I will spend My arrows upon them--they shall be burnt with hunger, and
   devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction. I will also
   sendthe teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the
   dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the
   young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
   Now read the story of the destruction of Israel and Judea--the
   overthrow of these two kingdoms--and you will see how, word for word,
   all this came true!

   26, 27. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
   remembrance of them to cease from among men. Were it not that I feared
   the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves
   strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD has
   not done all this. God always looks out for some reason for mercy when
   He is dealing with His people--and He found it here--that the heathen
   nations would not admit that God had thus been chastening His erring
   people, but would begin to ascribe their victories to their own demon
   gods! Therefore He said He would scatter them.

   28-30. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any
   understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood
   this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a
   thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had
   sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?That little people would have
   been victorious over all their enemies if God had still been with them,
   but they were defeated and scattered because they had grieved the Lord.
   Oh, what strength Believers might have if they would but believe! If we
   could but cast ourselves upon God in simple, childlike faith, we might
   play the Samson over again and smite our thousands! But we, too, have
   little faith in God, even those who have most of it--and when the time
   of trial comes, we also are a stiff-necked and unbelieving generation,
   as our fathers were!

   31-34. For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves
   beingjudges. For their wine is of the wine of Sodom, and of the fields
   of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are
   bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of
   asps. Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My
   treasures?What an awful text! God lays man's sins by--seals them up
   among their treasures, that they should not be forgotten--and He will
   bring them to account.

   35, 36. To Me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide
   in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things
   that shall come upon them make haste. For the LORD shall judge His
   people. He will not always let His enemies triumph over them. He will
   come back to His people whom He seemed to cast away. "The Lord shall
   judge His people."

   36. And have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power
   is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. He seemed very angry, but
   how soon He comes back in love and tries His people over again.

   37-39. AndHe shallsay, Where are their gods, theirrock in whom they
   trusted? Which did eat the fat oftheir sacrifices, and drank the wine
   oftheir drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be
   yourprotection. See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with
   Me. I kill, and I make alive: I wound, and I heal; neither is there any
   that can deliver out of My hand
     __________________________________________________________________

A Plea From the Cross

   (No. 3558)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THE LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
   JANUARY29, 1871.

   "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34.

   To the godly heart there is a brighter light on Calvary than anywhere
   else beneath the sun. He who often resorts to Golgotha, if his spirit
   is right, must be wise. It is the University of Saints! He who would
   know sin--its heinousness, its penalty--must see the Son of God making
   Expiation for it by His death on the accursed tree. He who would know
   love--the love which many waters cannot quench, and which the floods
   cannot drown--must read it in the Savior's face--or, if you will,
   written in crimson lines in the Savior's heart, pierced with the spear.
   He who would know how he may get his sin forgiven, must resort to the
   Cross. There, and there only, is seen the way by which sin can be
   pardoned and the sinner accepted with God! And he who, finding pardon
   there, would seek to be useful to his fellow men and bring them into
   the same condition, must, himself, keep near that Cross, that he may
   speak much of it and, in the power of it, may be able to persuade and
   to prevail with the sons of men. Abide at the Cross, Beloved--there is
   no air so healthy and quickening as that which is breathed there! There
   was the birthplace of your hope! There its native air! There must be on
   earth, the climax of your joy! Live upon a Crucified Savior as you live
   by a Crucified Savior!

   And now this word which we hear at Calvary, the first word of our
   Savior after He had been fastened to the Cross-- this word I shall not
   attempt to fathom, or go into the depths of it, but shall rather touch
   the surface of it, skimming it, and uttering a few such sentences, as
   it were, one after the other that have arisen to my mind while
   listening to the voice of our Lord in this, His plaintive cry, "Father,
   forgive them, for they know not what they do." I will suppose that I
   have many here, and I fear I need not make it a supposition, who as yet
   are unpardoned, unreconciled to God. Will you come with me and make a
   pilgrimage to Calvary? Will you look at your Savior? He has just come
   up the hill of doom! They have thrown Him upon His back. There is the
   Cross--the executioners have stretched out His hands and His feet--they
   have taken the nails--they have driven them through His hands and feet!
   He is fastened to the wood, and now as they are lifting Him up, before
   it jars into the ground, you hear Him cry, "Father, forgive them, for
   they know not what they do." I want you to learn a few lessons out of
   this. And the first shall be, see here--

   I. THE SAVIOR'S LOVE TO SINNERS.

   It is His last hour, but He thinks of them! He had searched for them in
   His health and strength. He went about doing good. He came to seek and
   to save the rebellious and He had spent His active life in their
   service. He is about to die, but the ruling passion is strong in death.
   He is still seeking sinners and if He can preach no more, yet He can
   pray! And if He will not speak to them, yet He can speak to God
   forthem, and so He continues to show which way His heart runs, by the
   prayer for those that nailed Him to the wood, "Father, forgive them,
   for they know not what they do." He had been 30 years in their midst
   and His holy soul had been much vexed by them. He had endured the
   contradiction of sinners against Himself, but you see He has not cast
   them off--He has not turned His love to wrath. He is not weary of them,
   but He still pleads, "Father, oh, forgive them." What love is this! One
   would suppose that the pain which He then felt might have distracted
   His mind from others, and His prayer might have been for Himself, that
   patience might be given, that strength might be sustained! But no,
   oblivious of Himself, His only care is still for those He seeks--the
   sinful sons of men! Just as an arrow from a bow shot forth with such
   force that it speeds onward to its target, His whole strength and soul
   speeds onward to the mark of the salvation of the sons of men! One
   thing, one thing only, does He do--He seeks their good! And I say
   again, if not now by active ministering to them, yet by ministering
   forthem, He prays "Father, forgive them."

   It is one thing to love persons at a distance and to have philanthropic
   desires for their good--it is quite another thing to live with them and
   still have the same fondness towards them. And it is quite another
   thing by far to receive bad treatment from them--contumely, scorn and a
   worse thing even than that, to be about to receive your death from
   them--and still to pray for them! But such is the perseverance of
   Jesus' love that it cannot be turned aside. They have spit into His
   face, but still He prays for them. They have scourged Him with their
   cruel lashes. They have hounded Him along the streets. They have, at
   last, pierced His hands and feet, and stripped Him! And they now hang
   Him up upon the Cross between Heaven and earth--but still nothing can
   diminish the flame of His love, nor turn aside His heart's desire from
   them--it is still for them He lives, for them He dies. "Father, oh,
   forgive them," is the sign and proof that He is still holding to the
   one great work He undertook! Now I would, O Sinner, I would that you
   would learn this lesson. Herein is love, behold what love! Will you not
   come and share in it? What keeps you back? Can you hold your heart from
   Imma-nuel? Can you refuse to love such a dear lover of the sons of men?
   I think if our hearts were not adamant or worse, they would melt at the
   sight of the pleading love of Jesus upon the Cross. Come, Soul, have
   done with your hardness--let a drop of Christ's blood melt that heart
   of yours! Have done with your carelessness--let a spark of love set
   your heart on fire towards Him! Are you afraid to come, afraid of Him
   who died for sinners, afraid of love, terrified at mercy? Oh, be not
   so, but come and welcome! Put your trust in Him who, with His dying
   breath, proves the strength of His Almighty love by pleading for His
   foes! Let that stand for the first remark. Here is the strong love of
   Christ. Here, next, we see--

   II. HOW LOVE SHOWS ITSELF.

   How did Jesus prove His love in this last great moment? It was by
   prayer! Love shows itself in prayer. Prayer, alone, would not be a
   sufficient proof of love, but He who dies and prays, whose life is a
   prayer, and whose death is a prayer, proves His love by adding to His
   life and death the vocal utterance of both in this cry, "Father,
   forgive them." If Jesus Christ would prove His love to you, He does it
   by praying for you. Observe, then, the extreme value of prayer. It is a
   ripe fruit of the Cross. It is, if I may call it so, a golden apple of
   the Cross--intercessory prayer! See, then, Sinner, the need there is
   for you to pray. If Jesus prays and proves His love by prayer, and if
   the saints on earth who love you pray for you, depend upon it, prayer
   is no light thing. Bend those knees of yours, lift your eyes to Heaven
   and let a prayer go up from the depths of your spirit, "Father, forgive
   me! Your Son has prayed, so pray I. He says, 'Father, forgive them,'
   and I pray, 'Father, forgive me.'" Ought not this to bring every sinner
   to his knees? Would it not, if men were in their senses? Would not the
   sight of a dying Christ pleading for the guilty make the guilty plead?
   Oh, who can restrain prayer for himself when Jesus leads the way? When
   He says, "Forgive them," will you not say, "Amen"? Oh, deserve you not
   right well to perish if you cannot join your assent to the Divine
   Intercession of the pleading Savior! Sinner, I beseech you now, in the
   secret of your soul, to pray, "Father, forgive me." "God, be merciful
   to me, a sinner." Is there no woman, is there no man, that could pray
   that now? You need not speak--let but your lips move. But, oh, since
   Jesus Christ tonight is set forth before you in the delightful attitude
   of an Intercessor praying for the guilty, I implore you pray for
   yourselves-- and may God send you, this night, an answer of peace--may
   your pardon be signed and sealed to the comfort of your spirit!

   And now leaving that observation, we pass to the next. We saw the love
   of Jesus. We saw how that love shows itself in prayer. See next--

   III. WHAT IT IS THE SAVIOR ASKS.

   He asks forgiveness, "Father, forgive them." If the Savior should pray
   for all of us here present, He need not amend that prayer. It was
   suitable to those who nailed Him to the tree. They needed pardon for
   the murder of their Savior. It was suitable to the clamoring multitude,
   who had said, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." They needed forgiveness for
   that blood which they then brought upon themselves, but it is equally
   suitable to each one here present, "Forgive them." May I ask you to
   look back upon your past lives? Have you been kept from grosser sins?
   Thank God for it, but your sins of heart, of mind, of tongue, your sins
   of omission. What? Are these nothing? God grant you may feel them to be
   something and may you feel, tonight, that what you need is even as if
   you had been an open offender--you need forgiveness and if, perchance,
   there are some here who have gone into open sin with a high hand and an
   outstretched arm, yet, my Brother, yet my Sister, this prayer needs no
   enlargement to suit you, "Father, forgive them." "Father, forgive
   them," forgiveness covers all! A man receipts a bill. He puts his name
   at the bottom. If that bill were for ten thousand pounds or ten pence,
   it is the same, the receipt has covered all--and Jesus' hand, when He
   puts it with the bloody red nail prints upon the greatrecord of our
   sins, draws a red line down the page and blots out the whole--and
   leaves not a single sin on the page! "Though your sins are as scarlet,
   they shall be as wool; though they are red like crimson, they shall be
   whiter than snow." Oh, the greatness of that word, "forgiven"! Blessed
   be the Lord Jesus for praying such a prayer as that! Do you know, I do
   not think it need be altered for the best man and the best woman here,
   for even our best things need forgiveness. When you have prayed the
   best prayer you ever prayed, you might well ask God to forgive it! If
   you have preached the best sermon you ever preached, you may ask to be
   forgiven it, for some sin has mingled with your holiest action, so
   forgiveness is needed at best, and always needed at the worst--needed
   today, tomorrow and all through life, and needed when the breath leaves
   the body--always needed that blessed prayer that sweeps the compass of
   mortal existence--that comprehends so much, "Father, forgive them."
   This is the great thing love asks, for the forgiveness of those for
   whom she pleads. But passing on you will observe--

   IV. FOR WHOM IT IS THAT OUR SAVIOR, IN THIS CASE, OFFERED THE PETITION.
   "Father, forgivethem, for they know not what they do." Now that little
   word, "them," is a great word because it is so little. "Father, forgive
   them." The Savior is explicit--He does not mention the names of the
   four soldiers who pierced His hands and feet. No. He meant them, but He
   meant more. He does not mention the names of these in the crowd who
   were gazing upon Him with insolent stare--He meant them. He does not
   mention those that had cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him"--He had meant
   them. He does not say, "Father, forgive them, for they knew not what
   they did"--for that would look as if He only prayed for sins that had
   already been committed. He does not say, "Father, forgive them, for
   they know not what they shall do," for that would look as if He only
   prayed for sins that would be committed! But He says, "Father forgive
   them, for they know not what they do." And putting it thus in the
   present, it seems as though the petition had one hand to reach out to
   the past sins of mankind before He died, and another hand to the sins
   to come of mankind after He had offered the Sacrifice. "They know not
   what they do." It is put so indefinitely, the, "them," and the, "do,"
   the tense of the verb and the pronoun--they are so indefinite that I
   bless God for the wide extent of their range! "Father, forgive them,
   for they know not what they do." Who, then, is included in that word,
   "them"? I venture to say every man that is willing to be
   included--every man that feels he is included! Did you slay Christ?
   Have your sins caused Him to die? Do you know, tonight, that your sins
   fastened Him to the cruel tree? Could you join in the hymn we sung just
   now? Then, when Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
   what they do," He included youin that prayer, and mein that prayer, and
   tens of thousands besides in that word, "them."

   Yet, yet you will observe in that word He put it specially. He does not
   exclude any, but He does include some more peculiarly than others, for
   His prayer is for those who knew not what they did. Can I get in there?
   I think I can. I believe that most here present can. I do not think all
   the sons of men can--Judas, for instance, I fear he did know what he
   did, and deliberately sold his Lord and Master. I am half afraid that
   Pilate, to a great extent, knew what he did, and there are some of whom
   it is written, "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you shall
   pray for it." A great Doctrine, but it is in the Word--a terrible
   Doctrine, but there it stands! You know how Peter put it in that first
   sermon. He said, "I know, my brethren, that through ignorance you did
   it, as did also your rulers"--as if he felt that had they known what
   they did, their sin had been unpardonable. And the Apostle Paul,
   himself, speaking of his own persecution, said, "Because I did it
   ignorantly, in unbelief." There is a deliberate Crucifixion of Christ
   as Christ, knowing what you are doing--doing it out of sheer malice to
   the Christ of God, out of intense hatred to Him, to Him
   personally--which is unpardonable, for this reason, that the man who
   commits it never repents. Could he repent, the pardon were sure, but
   the capacity to do that argues incapacity to ever be made penitent. The
   man is given over, hardened--he perishes in his sin!

   But the Lord Jesus in this prayer felt that those around Him did not
   know what they were doing--the most of them did not know He was God's
   Son. They would not have crucified Him had they known--they would not
   have crucified the Lord of Glory. They did know--most of them
   knew--that He was a righteous Man and they must have felt they were
   doing very wrong in putting Him to death, but they did not recognize
   Him as the Messiah and as the Son of God-- otherwise the most of them
   would have held back their hand. Now, though I have sinned against
   light and knowledge, and you have done the same, my Brothers and
   Sisters, yet in our past sin we did not deliberately intend to put
   Christ to death. We did not, like Satan of malicepropense, desire to
   overthrow the Kingdom of God and Christ. Blessed be God, He saved us
   from that! We went far, very far, horribly far, but restraining Grace
   kept us back from that, and the Savior puts it there--makes such the
   object of His prayer. I do not say He excludes those who did it
   knowingly, but He does include peculiarly those who did not know what
   they did--whose sin, to a great extent, as to its far-reaching
   heinousness was wrapped in ignorance. He says, "Father, forgive them,
   for they know not what they do." Then the prayer of love is offered for
   a vast company of sinners in darkness and ignorance, who have sinned,
   but who have not been allowed utterly, knowingly, willfully, viciously
   to crucify the Son of God and put Him to an open shame!

   Now I want you to notice what this prayer of love admits. There is
   something in it that ought never to be forgotten. "Father, forgive
   them, for they know not what they do." You see, then, this prayer, even
   of a patient, loving, gentle Savior, who wishes to plead all He can on
   the behalf of those for whom He prays--this prayer admits that they
   need to be forgiven who have sinned ignorantly. Some people have
   thought, "If I did not know it to be sin to the full extent, then it
   was not sin." Ah, not so! It wassin, for Christ asks to have it
   forgiven! If I, doing what I did not fully understand, yet did wrong, I
   am not excused the wrong because I did not know to the fullest extent
   how wrong it was. I am just as guilty as if I did know, from some
   points of view, though not from others, but from any point of view, I
   still need to be forgiven. Ignorance of the law does not prevent the
   guilt of him who breaks it. As you know, my Brothers and Sisters, human
   law, the law of the land, for instance--never takes ignorance of the
   law as a complete excuse for the breach of the law! The laws of England
   always assume that every man knows the law. The law is made--it is a
   public law and he who breaks it cannot go before the Magistrate and
   say--"I did not know it was the law; you must discharge me." The
   Magistrate may, as a man, say, "Well, if you did not know it was law,
   there is some excuse for you." As a Magistrate, he must not say that,
   for the law judges the man on its own self as publicly known, and does
   not allow for the excuse of not knowing the law.

   If the Savior, in His infinite mercy, said, "Father, forgive them, for
   they know not what they do," it was a plea--of course, but not a plea
   of law. Sinai has no room for that excuse, for Sinai says, "If you
   don't know, you ought to have known." And in this particular case,
   especially, if they did not know Christ to be God, they ought to have
   known it. The prophecies were so clear. The Person of Christ so exactly
   fitted in to every type and every prophetic declaration, that it was "a
   willful blindness that had happened unto Israel." They ought to have
   known it. One sin is never an excuse for another sin. It was a sin for
   them not to know! That sin, therefore, did not excuse them for
   committing the other. It is only Sovereign Grace that brought that in
   as a plea--it is not justice, nor is it law--it the heart of mercy that
   pleads that.

   What I want you to notice, now, then, is though I did not know when I
   sinned as child and as a young man all that was meant by sin, though I
   especially did not know that I was crucifying Christ, yet the guilt is
   just the same as before God, and I need to be forgiven for it, or else
   it will be laid to my charge and I shall be punished as surely as God's
   Law stands fast. Do you think the Savior would say, "Father, forgive
   them," if it were not a wrong? He never prayed a superfluous prayer!
   The prayer, "Forgive," is a sentence in itself, teaching us that sins
   of ignorance are sins. Oh, my dear Hearers, there are none of us who
   know to the full extent the sin of our sin! The most tender heart here
   does not know the blackness of its sin! I have sometimes talked with
   persons under conviction who have told me what dreadful sinners they
   were, and they have looked a little surprised when I have said, "But
   you are ten times worse than you think you are." No, they scarcely
   thought that could be possible, yet I would venture to say that to the
   most tender-hearted penitent that ever lived, you have no idea, my
   Friend, of the aggravation of your sin, nor is it possible you should
   have, nor do I know that it is desirable. So long as you know enough of
   your sin to hate it, and to flee to Christ for the pardon of it, that
   will suffice. But, oh, the scholarship that would be needed to
   understand all the depths of sin, it were the scholarship of the Cross
   over again--you would have need to die like Christ to know what sin
   means in its infinite, its boundless guilt! Do not ask to know that,
   but do pray that the Lord would search you and forgive you your sins.
   You did not know of pardoned sins you have committed, manifold sins
   that have passed by your notice, that you have not observed and,
   consequently, could not have confessed in particular. Beseech the
   Savior, whose cry is, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
   they do," to pray for unknown mercy by His unknown agony for your
   unknown sin! It is a wondrous prayer, this, but we cannot stay much
   longer on it.

   We make yet another remark, "Father forgive them for they know not what
   they do." V. THIS PRAYER WARNS US.

   I have felt intense pleasure in thinking it over, but at the same time
   that pleasure has been mingled with great bitterness. There is such a
   warning there, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"
   It does not say, as I have already said, that if they didknow, Christ
   would not pray for them, but it does seem to hint that. In the
   background I seea something--not that every sin committed against light
   is unpardonable--God be thanked that is not so, but some sins committed
   against light and knowledge so harden the heart that the man never
   repents! He never will, he will go to Hell hardened like steel! And I
   am afraid some of you are in great likelihood of committing it. Those
   who have not heard the Gospel cannot very readily commit this, unless
   their conscience has been desperately violated, but some of you who
   have been hearers often, and perhaps were once professors--who have
   knowingly chosen the wrong path and have deliberately sacrificed your
   character for drink or gain or lust--I will not say that you have
   passed that boundary, but I do tremble as I hear the booming of that
   text, "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you shall pray for
   it," even as I hear the Master's words, "Father, forgive them, for they
   know not what they do." But these persons knew what they did, did it
   deliberately, did it over again and again, and again--perhaps went to
   the Lord's Table and deliberately went to their uncleanness, stood up
   in public, it may be, and then deliberately went to their filthiness.
   Or they listened to the sermon on Sunday and they said, "I'll do
   better"--and then deliberately went on Monday to their drunken
   companions again! Oh, Man, you may have stood in the street, perhaps,
   and said to yourself, "Now, which shall it be? I feel as if I were
   called to serve God, but yet how can I give up such-and-such a darling
   lust?" There is a point in men's lives wherein if they deliberately
   choose the wrong, knowing it is wrong, with the Light of God shining on
   their eyeballs--yet they deliberately give up Christ, Heaven, pardon
   and they choose Hell and their own delusions--I fear that with many
   from that hour the wax is cooled upon their death warrant and it will
   never be reversed, for this text, though it gently flows from the
   Savior's lips and drops like dew, has about it the lightning flash and
   thunderbolt that startles, "Father, forgive them, they know not what
   they do."

   But there are some who know what they do and take the hammer and nail
   Christ up to the Cross! They take a spear and pierce His side and do it
   knowing what they are doing! And all the while they are glibly talking
   of religion, taking the Bible to make jokes out of it, taking the very
   ministers they once professed to love and scoffing them, taking the
   Doctrines of the Gospel and making these a cloak for their sins--these
   men--what will I say of them? God have mercy upon them, but I fear, I
   fear, that He never will, for they will never seek it, and He will
   never grant it! Could they seek it, He would give it. While a man can
   seek, he shall find. While a heart can melt, God will pity. There is
   never a contrite soul but what God looks with love upon it. But here is
   the mischief, for these men, who know what they do, repent not, but are
   seared as with a hot iron--they become wandering stars, for whom is
   reserved the blackness of darkness forever!

   But I must close here. This shall be a closing word. At the same time,
   you see the text woos. It warns, but it woos. How it woos the ignorant,
   especially! "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Oh,
   some of you have dropped in here tonight who, perhaps, don't often
   listen to the Gospel. You have been living a life of sin. You knew it
   was sin, You knew it was sin, but you did not know that you were
   nailing Christ to the Cross. You sought your own pleasure, you sought
   your own gratifications. You have been very guilty. You have lived a
   careless, Godless, Christless life, but still you did not mean to sin
   against God so as to crucify Christ. You see you have done so--now you
   feel you are guilty of it--but before, you had not that Light of God
   that you now have. Then Jesus says, "Come to Me, come to Me! My prayer
   goes up to Heaven for you, you ignorant one." Sinful, but without
   light, Jesus intercedes! Oh, join your prayer with the prayer of Jesus,
   and say, "Father, forgive Your ignorant child, Your sinful, wayward
   child. I do not plead, 'I knew not what I did,' but Christ pleads it
   for me! I plead that Jesus died. Oh, for His sake, have pity! Hear His
   blood as it drops from His hands and feet; hear it and plead for me,
   'Father, forgive them.'"

   Oh if you will seek the Lord, you shall have Him! If you will but turn
   your eyes to Him upon the Cross, you shall live! Whoever among you in
   this house will but trust Him, shall find Him able and willing to save
   to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Oh, come and welcome,
   come and welcome! And may God grant that you may come tonight--

   "But if your ears refuse

   The language of His Grace,

   And hearts grow gross like stubborn Jews,

   That unbelieving race.

   The Lord in vengeance dressed

   Will lift His hand and swear

   'You that despised My promised rest

   Shall have no portion there."

   God bless you. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27:32-49.

   Verse 32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by
   name: him they compelled to bear His Cross. Perhaps they were afraid
   that Christ would die from exhaustion, so they compelled Simon to bear
   His Cross. Any one of Christ's followers might have wished to have been
   this man of Cyrene, but we need not envy him, for there is a cross for
   each of us to carry. Oh, that we were as willing to bear Christ's Cross
   as Christ was to bear our sins on His Cross! If anything happens to us
   by way of persecution or ridicule for our Lord's sake, and the
   Gospel's, let us cheerfully endure it! As knights are made by a stroke
   from the sovereign's sword, so shall we become princes in Christ's
   realm as He lays His Cross on our shoulders.

   33, 34. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is
   to say, a place of a skull, they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with
   gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink Golgotha was
   the common place of execution for malefactors, the Tyburn or Old Bailey
   of Jerusalem, outside the gate of the city. There was a special
   symbolical reason for Christ's suffering outside the gate, and His
   followers are bid to "go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His
   reproach" (Heb 13:11-13). A stupefying draught was given to the
   condemned, to take away something of the agony of crucifixion--but our
   Lord came to suffer--and He would not take anything that would at all
   impair His faculties. He did not forbid His fellow sufferers drinking
   the vinegar mingled with gall ("wine mingled with myrrh," Mark 15:23),
   but He would not drink thereof. Jesus did not refuse this draught
   because of its bitterness, for He was prepared to drink even to the
   last dreadful dregs the bitter cup of wrath which was His people's due.

   35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots:
   thatit might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, They parted
   My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. There
   is a world of meaning in that short sentence, "and they crucified Him,"
   driving their bolts of iron through His blessed hands and feet,
   fastening Him to the Cross and lifting Him up to hang there upon a
   gallows reserved for felons. We can scarcely realize all that the
   Crucifixion meant to our dear Lord, but we can join in Faber's prayer--

   "Lord Jesus!May we love and weep,

   Since You, for us, are crucified." Then was fulfilled all that our Lord
   had foretold in Chapter 20:17-19, except His Resurrection, the time for
   which had not arrived.

   The criminals' clothes were the executioners' profits. The Roman
   soldiers who crucified Christ had no thought of fulfilling the
   Scriptures when they parted His garments, casting lots, yet their
   action was exactly that which had been foretold in Psalm 22:18! The
   seamless robe would have been spoiled if it had been torn, so the
   soldiers raffled for the vesture, while they shared the other garments
   of our Lord. The dice would be almost stained with the blood of Christ,
   yet the gamblers played on beneath the shadow of His Cross. Gambling is
   the most hardening of all vices. Beware of it in any form! No games of
   chance should be played by Christians, for the blood of Christ seems to
   have bespattered them all.

   36. And sitting down they watched Him there. Some watched Him from
   curiosity, some to make sure that He really did die, some even
   delighted their cruel eyes with His sufferings--and there were some,
   hard by the Cross, who wept and bewailed, a sword passing through their
   own hearts while the Son of Man was agonizing even unto death!

   37. And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS, THE
   KING OF THE JEWS. What a marvelous Providence it was that moved
   Pilate's pen! The representative of the Roman Emperor was little likely
   to concede kingship to any man, yet he deliberately wrote, "This is
   Jesus, the King of the Jews," and nothing would induce him to alter
   what he had written! Even on His Cross, Christ was proclaimed King, in
   the sacerdotal Hebrew, the classical Greek, and the common Latin, so
   that everybody in the crowd could read the inscription! When will the
   Jews admit Jesus as their King? They will do so one day, looking on Him
   whom they pierced. Perhaps they will think more of Christ when
   Christians think more of them--when our hardness of heart towards them
   has gone, possibly their hardness of heart towards Christ may also
   disappear.

   38. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right
   hand, and another on the left As if to show that they regarded Christ
   as the worst of the three criminals, they put Him between the two
   thieves, giving Him the place of dishonor. Thus was the prophecy
   fulfilled, "He was numbered with the transgressors." The two
   malefactors deserved to die, as one of them admitted (Luke 23:40, 41),
   but a greater load of guilt vested upon Christ, for, "He bore the sin
   of many," and, therefore, He was rightly distinguished as the King of
   Sufferers, who could truly ask--"Was ever grief like

   Mine?"

   Verses 39, 40. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their
   heads, and saying, You who destroys the temple, and builds it in three
   days, save Yourself If You are the Son of God, come down from the
   Cross. Nothing torments a man when in pain more than mockery. When
   Jesus Christ most needed words of pity and looks of kindness, they who
   passed by, reviled Him, wagging their heads. Perhaps the most painful
   part of ridicule is to have one's most solemn sayings turned to scorn,
   as were our Lord's words about the temple of His body--"You who
   destroys the temple, and builds it in three days, save Yourself." He
   might have saved Himself--He might have "come down from the Cross"--but
   if He had done so, we could never have become the sons of God! It was
   because He was the Son of God that He did not come down from the Cross,
   but hung there until He had completed the Sacrifice for His people's
   sin. Christ's Cross is the Jacob's ladder by which we mount up to
   Heaven! This is the cry of the Socinian today, "Come down from the
   Cross. Give up the atoning Sacrifice and we will be Christians!" Many
   are willing to believe in Christ, but not in Christ Crucified. They
   admit that He was a good Man and a great Teacher, but by rejecting His
   vicarious Atonement, they practically un-Christ the Christ, as these
   mockers at Golgotha did.

   41-43. Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes
   and elders, said, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the
   King of Israel, let Him now come down from the Cross and we will
   believe Him. He trusted in God: let Him deliver Him now, if He will
   have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. The chief priests, with the
   scribes and elders, forgetting their high station and rank, joined the
   ribald crew in mocking Jesus in His death pangs! Every word was
   emphatic--every syllable cut and pierced our Lord to the heart. They
   mocked Him as a Savior--"He saved others; Himself He cannot save." They
   mocked Him as a King--"If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come
   down from the Cross, and we will believe Him." They mocked Him as a
   Believer--"He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have
   Him." They mocked Him as the Son of God--"For He said, I am the Son of
   God." Those who say that Christ was a good Man, virtually admit His
   Deity, for He claimed to be the Son of God. If He was not what He
   professed to be, He was an impostor. Notice the testimony that Christ's
   bitterest enemies bore even as they reviled Him-- "He saved others."
   "He is the King of Israel" (R. V.) "He trusted in God."

   44. The thieves, also, who were crucified with Him, cast the same in
   His teeth. The sharers of His misery, the wretches who were crucified
   with Him, joined in reviling Jesus. Nothing was lacking to fill up His
   cup of suffering and shame. The conversion of the penitent thief was
   all the more remarkable because he had but a little while before been
   among the mockers of his Savior! What a trophy of Divine Grace he
   became!

   45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto
   the ninth hour Some have thought that this darkness covered the whole
   world, and so caused even a heathen to exclaim, "Either the world is
   about to expire, or the God who made the world is in anguish." This
   darkness was supernatural--it was not an eclipse. The sun could no
   longer look upon its Maker surrounded by these who mocked Him. He
   covered his face and traveled on in tenfold night, in very shame that
   the great Sun of Righteousness should, Himself, be in such terrible
   darkness.

   46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
   Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani? That is to say, My God, My God, why have
   You forsaken Me?In order that the Sacrifice of Christ might be
   complete, it pleased the Father to forsake His well-beloved Son. Sin
   was laid on Christ, so God must turn away His face from the Sin-Bearer.
   To be deserted of His God was the climax of Christ's grief, the
   quintessence of His sorrow! See here the distinction between the
   martyrs and their Lord--in their dying agonies they have been Divinely
   sustained--but Jesus, suffering as the Substitute for sinners, was
   forsaken of God! The saints who have known what it is to have their
   Father's face hidden from them, even for a brief space, can scarcely
   imagine the suffering that wrung from our Savior the agonizing cry, "My
   God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

   47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This Man
   calls for Elijah. They knew better, yet they jested at the Savior's
   prayer. Wickedly, willfully and scornfully, they turned His death
   shriek into ridicule!

   48, 49. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, and filled
   it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink The rest
   said, Let Him be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him. A
   person in such agony as Jesus was suffering might have mentioned many
   pangs that He was enduring, but it was necessary for Him to say, "I
   thirst," in order that another Scripture might be fulfilled. One of
   them, more compassionate than his companions, ran, and took a sponge,
   and filled it with vinegar, from the vessel probably brought by the
   soldiers for their own use, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to
   drink. It always seems to me very remarkable that the sponge, which is
   the very lowest form of animal life, should have been brought into
   contact with Christ, who is at the top of all life. In His death the
   whole circle of Creation was completed. As the sponge brought
   refreshment to the lips of our dying Lord, so may the least of God's
   living ones help to refresh Him, now that He has ascended from the
   Cross to the Throne!
     __________________________________________________________________

The Pierced Heart of Jesus

   (No. 3559)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Then came the soldiers and broke the legs of the first, and of the
   other which was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw
   that He was dead already, they broke not His legs, but one ofthe
   soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith there came out
   blood and water. And he that saw it bares record that his record is
   true: and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you might
   believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be
   fulfilled. A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another
   Scripture says, They shall look on Him whom they have pierced." John
   19:32-37.

   WHAT a wonderful conjunction of Prophecy and Providence! I want you to
   behold it, and admire it. Two texts of Scripture predict, the one in
   Exodus the other in Zechariah (such a long interval having occurred
   between the distinct records), the former that not a bone of the
   Paschal Lamb should be broken--the latter that He should be pierced.
   How were these two to be fulfilled in the minuteness of one incident?
   The rough Roman soldier comes with the iron bar to break the bones of
   the three prisoners who have been crucified. He has orders to break
   their legs. The well-disciplined soldier acts almost mechanically,
   according to orders. Roman discipline was of the very sternest kind.
   Will not the soldier, therefore, break the legs of Jesus? No! Moved by
   some strange impulse, he marks that one of the three, Jesus, who is
   called Christ, is already dead. Though commanded to break His legs, he
   forbears--but, most likely to clear himself of all doubt on that point,
   he pierces His side with a spear! The willfulness of the soldier,
   wavering though wanton, thus fulfilled both the prophecies of which he
   must have been, himself, totally ignorant! And this was brought about,
   first, by his not doing what he was ordered to do and, secondly, by
   doing what he had not been ordered to do! Oh, how inscrutable the
   mystery of Providence! How marvelously does God rule the sons of men
   while He leaves them to their own free will! Did not this soldier act
   altogether as a free agent, whether following the dictates of his
   reason or the impulse of his temper, when he thus unwittingly, by his
   singular conduct, verified to the letter the words of Prophecy as
   precisely and entirely as if he had been a mere puppet moved with wires
   at the instigation of another mind and another hand than his own? This
   was not an accidental circumstance, or a singular coincidence--it was
   Providence--a sublime purpose of God brought to pass by simple means.
   Irregularities among men do not disorganize the ordained purposes of
   Heaven, and what we think to be chaos is a well-ordered system far
   beyond our imagination, into which we vainly attempt to peer.

   I need not detain you with any speculations arising out of the piercing
   of our Savior by the spear. It has been, I think, very soberly argued
   that in all probability the physical cause of our Savior's death was a
   broken heart. In a scientific treatise by one who had studied the
   anatomy of the subject, and investigated cases which appeared, after
   death, to bear some resemblance to our Savior's case, it has been shown
   that when, on the heart being pierced, a small portion of blood and
   water has flowed, death has been traceable to a broken heart with
   intense grief. So, if we may assign a physical cause to the death of
   our Lord, it appears most probable to have been so occasioned. It was
   anguish that, in the first stage, produced a bloody sweat in
   Gethsemane, and in the last stage ruptured His heart. Not, however,
   that I am inclined to attach any importance to such arguments or
   speculations. For my part I do not see that there is any analogy, or
   that analogy need be sought between the case of the Savior and the case
   of any common man. The anatomist would be baffled with an analysis! The
   body of any ordinary person would exhibit symptoms of corruption. From
   this, He that hung upon the Cross was exempt. When death comes, and the
   vital spark quits the human frame, the process of decomposition
   speedily begins. But our Lord saw no corruption! Overshadowed as was
   His virgin mother by the Spirit at her conception,

   His birth was predicted as "that holy thingwhich shall be born of you."
   Through the entire course of His life on earth, the Spirit rested upon
   Him in a special manner. And even after His soul had left His body, the
   Spirit preserved and kept that body so that the prophecy was fulfilled,
   "Neither will You suffer Your Holy One to see corruption." Hence you
   search in vain for a parallel. The disparity of any instances that
   might be sought for is so palpable that you really have not any data to
   start with, or any premises to reason upon in the effort to judge of
   what happened in the anatomy of the sacred body of our blessed Lord.
   Instead of following speculations which rather belong to the physician
   than the theologian, I desire the Spirit of God to conduct us into some
   spiritual reflections arising out of the piercing of the heart of Jesus
   Christ by the soldier's spear. One observation, I think, lies upon the
   very surface of the narrative. I. EVEN AFTER OUR LORD'S DEATH, MEN
   RUDELY ASSAILED HIM.

   Was it not enough that they had scourged His back? Did it not suffice
   that they had put a crown of thorns on His head? Was it not sufficient
   that they had nailed His feet and His hands to the Cross? And yet after
   they were satisfied that the life had been forfeited to the law, and
   the body was already dead, nothing could content human cruelty till His
   heart was pierced with the lance! Say, now, was not this man who
   pierced Christ's heart a fair, though a foul, sample of our sinful
   race? His heartless act a type of our headstrong profanity? We, too,
   after the Savior's death, have pierced Him! Shall I show you how? The
   crime is so common that you come to condone it. His Godhead is His
   Glory. Deny His Deity and you not only detract from His dignity, but
   you make Him unworthy of our confidence! This is to thrust the spear
   into His very heart! Your tone is treacherous when you say, "He is but
   a Man. Though an admirable Teacher, I can only regard Him as a finite
   creature." Oh, how many people go up and down among us professing to be
   members of a Protestant Church and Believers in the Scripture, who yet
   will not acknowledge the miracles of Christ to be authentic, worked in
   token of His own Personal authority, bearing the witness of His Father,
   and conveying a clear proof that He was the Son of God? The Lord have
   mercy upon those who in this respect pierce our dear Redeemer afresh!
   If any of us have been guilty of this sin, may we be converted from our
   dangerous error, and led to avow Him, like Thomas, "My Lord and my
   God."

   They pierce Him, too, who attack the Doctrines which He taught, and the
   testimony which He delivered. The Truth of God was in Christ's
   heart--it was written there. Whatever He preached with His lips, He
   sanctified with His life. His heart was a fountain whence came all
   those Doctrines which reveal the Father to us. If men attack any Truth
   revealed to us by Christ, they do in effect what the soldier did in
   fact--they do spiritually as this Roman soldier did literally--they
   thrust at His heart! If you disparage the words that Jesus spoke, or
   call in question the Truth that He showed to His disciples and made
   manifest in the Word of God, what is there left of that mission in
   which He made known the will of God, the Father? To proclaim this Truth
   He came! To bear witness to this Truth He died! He witnessed a good
   confession before Pontius Pilate. If you touch those Doctrines, you
   touch the apple of His eye--no, you pierce His heart again! How do they
   also thrust at His heart who persecute His people! And has He not often
   been wounded thus through all the centuries that have transpired since
   He ascended up on high to the Father's right hand? Saul of Tarsus
   pierced His heart, for Jesus said, "Why do you persecute Me?" The
   sufferings of the men and women, hauled to prison, and beaten in the
   synagogue, and compelled to blaspheme, were injuries wantonly and
   wickedly done to Christ, Himself! And what shall we say of the martyrs,
   their groans in the prisons, their cries at the rack, their pangs at
   the stake, their blood so cruelly shed--have not all these touched the
   Savior's heart?

   So, too, every rude jeer and ribald jest, every hard word and bitter
   taunt aimed at a follower of Christ is a reproach of the dear Lord and
   Master for whose sake it is meekly borne. But on their part, "who whet
   their tongue like a sword," it is aimed at the heart of Jesus, on whom
   they cannot otherwise wreak their vengeance, now, for He cannot
   henceforth suffer, except in sympathy with the sufferings of His
   saints!

   And there is yet another class of persons who, although Christ's
   sufferings are over, still continue to pierce Him. They are such us
   pretend to be His disciples, but they lie and practice a foul
   hypocrisy! Are there any such present? I tremble as I ask the question.
   As there were false apostles of yore, so there are foul apostates in
   these days! Their profession is only the prelude to their perfidy. They
   make solemn pledge to obey Him, but, like Judas, they only wait for a
   suited opportunity to betray Him. They will sell the Savior for
   silver--only let the price be high enough--their principle is low
   enough! Their conscience will not hesitate to "crucify the Lord afresh,
   and put Him to an open shame." Oh, you inconsistent professors! Oh, you
   graceless men and women! How dare you come to the Table of His
   fellowship? Youhave a name to live, and yet you are dead! You are
   crucifying Him! You are piercing Him! The guilt of the Roman soldier
   clings to you!

   I fear, too, there is another class that pierces His heart--it includes
   those who refuse to believe in His willingness to forgive them. When
   under conviction of sin, it may be difficult to believe that one can be
   pardoned, but when the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us
   and His infinite condescension that brought Him to suffer for us--it
   does seem unbelievable that any should doubt Him! Yet there are some
   who link their chains, sit down in despair, and say, "He is not willing
   to forgive." So unkind, ungenerous a thought as that--that He is
   unwilling to forgive--pierces Him to the heart and cuts Him to the
   quick! I know some of you do not mean this. You are startled, now that
   you think what you are doing. I pray the Lord you may humbly trust Him!
   Oh, do not doubt Him--the Son of God, who suffered for His enemies,
   surrendering His life, even for the ungodly! Will you, can you still
   distrust Him? Will you doubt the testimony which God has given
   concerning His Son? Were it not far better that you honored Him by
   casting yourselves at His feet? Angels that sing His praises night and
   day unceasingly do not honor Him more than you will do, if, all black
   and defiled as you are, you will come and trust Him that He can wash
   you and make you whiter than snow! Oh, do this and pierce His heart no
   more!

   Some men pierce the heart of Christ through their carelessness. They
   trifle and even scoff because they have not known Him, or sought by any
   means to learn what claims He has upon their homage. They disparage
   those Divine features of His ministry which they have never properly
   understood. So they pierce the heart of Christ out of ignorant
   prejudice! They are unacquainted with the Gospel. All that they have
   heard or read about it has been from the tongue or pen of opponent or
   satirist, and then, catching their temper, they have joined in reviling
   it! Alas, too, there are some who malign the Savior out of mere malice.
   Though they know better, yet they willfully blaspheme His name. Stop,
   oh, stop, and pierce Him no more, I pray you, lest He that has meekly
   endured so long as the Lamb of God, should suddenly stir Himself up as
   the lion of the tribe of Judah and make you feel the terror of His
   Power, who will not feel the majesty of His love! So much for our first
   point. Even after Jesus' death, there are those who still pierce Him.
   Our second thought is such as I am charmed to give you.

   II. THESE ATTACKS UPON THE SAVIOR ARE OVERRULED TO DISPLAY HIS GRACE
   THE BETTER.

   His heart is pierced, it is true, but with what result, my Brothers and
   Sisters? Does there flash from it fire? Does the peal of thundering
   wrath roll over the sinner's head? Ah, no! It is like the sandal tree
   that perfumes the axe that wounds it. That spear, no sooner is it
   withdrawn from the wound, than there gushes a fountain of blood and
   water. The attacks that are made upon Jesus Christ only display His
   virtues. Observe how this is brought about. If the Truth of God is
   attacked, and the Gospel is assailed, what is the immediate
   consequence? Why, then, the saints search deeper into it, so they come
   to understand the Doctrine better! They learn the arguments by which it
   is sustained and they love the Truth of God with fonder, as well as
   stronger convictions, till they feel moved to sacrifice themselves for
   it! The heart of Christ was opened by the spear, and often the heart of
   the Truth of God is revealed by the opposition brought to bear against
   it. They think to confute our Doctrines--they do but confirm our faith
   in their verity! Where they think they shall prove us fools, they help
   to make us sages! They drive us to the root of the matter and they
   rather establish us in the precious Truth! The March wind tears not up
   the oak, but roots it more firmly in its native soil. So shall it ever
   be with attacks made upon our Lord and Master! We shall understand Him
   the better and discover more of the Scriptures that were fulfilled in
   Him!

   Moreover, it often happens that when Christ is opposed by persecution,
   the Gospel is proclaimed with more zeal, and diffused with more
   rapidity. The saints who were, in early days, persecuted in Jerusalem,
   went everywhere preaching the Word of God. What if I say the spear of
   persecution does, as it were, set the atoning blood flowing more freely
   among the sons of men, and make the purifying water of the Savior's
   Sacrifice to be dispersed over a wider area, and among a larger
   population? Shall I compare the persecuted Church to an oppressed
   nation, and remind you that, like Israel in Egypt, the more they were
   oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew? The spear let loose the
   blood and water from the heart of Jesus, and the spear of persecution
   lets loose the Gospel--and compels Christian men who might have rested
   in inglorious ease to go forward and laboriously dispense the Gospel of
   salvation, telling the Grace of God to perishing men! So, too (but let
   no man turn this into evil), the very sin of men which does wound
   Christ becomes the means of magnifying God's Grace! Though it is a vile
   thing to say, "Let us sin that Grace may abound," yet is it a most
   glorious Truth of God that where sin abounds, Grace does much more
   abound! Thus the cleansing power of the blood becomes more renowned by
   reason of the sin that made this wondrous Sacrifice necessary. Perhaps
   we had never known the Savior so well if we had not seen sin so clearly
   in the lives of the pardoned ones, who afterwards were washed, cleansed
   and sanctified by His purifying energy. The very opposition that comes
   forth is overruled for His triumph! The stronger His foes, the louder
   the shout of victory when He returns from the strife!

   And when the Church is assailed (which is one way of piercing Christ)
   she gets some immediate benefit from the grievous trial, for
   persecution acts like a great winnowing fan that drives the chaff away
   from the floor on which the pure grain is housed. It is to the Church
   like a refiner's fire. The mere dross is separated. The faithless, who
   are found among the faithful, soon apostatize, while the sterling gold
   and silver, the genuine lovers of Christ, are purged and purified by
   the ordeal through which they are compelled to pass! Oh, blessed
   Savior, they do pierce You, and pierce You they may, but You are
   honored, for their bitter reviling elicits Your sweet virtue! They may
   thrust their spears into Your very heart, but by giving forth Your own
   energy of love and mercy, and greeting them with salvation, You do
   conquer those who thought to conquer You! Put these two things together
   Brothers and Sisters--man still continuing to wound the Savior--and the
   more redundant display of the Savior's Grace as the consequence! Then
   find a total if you can.

   Another thought, which diverges a little from the last, may help us to
   pursue our meditation. Since the soldier sent His spear into the
   Savior's heart--

   III. THE WAY TO THAT HEART IS OPEN.

   It was always open, in fact, for He always loved the sons of men, but
   now you can see it open! It was no little wound that was made by the
   lance, for into it, we read, Thomas put His hand. What a gaping fissure
   must that have been into which the Apostle might put his palm! "Reach
   here, your hand, and thrust it into My side." He still lives, as no one
   of us could live, with a passage to the heart always open! In His very
   flesh He testifies to us today that His heart is ready to receive any
   message that His children may choose to send--and equally ready to
   respond with the love that has its fountain there! Behold the open
   heart of Jesus! It is open that all the Divine Grace that is within it
   may freely flow to undeserving sinners. Think not, Sinner, that you
   have need to open Jesus' side. The blood has flown freely. Say now,
   will you come and wash in it? You have not to beg for cleansing, as
   though it were a gift hardly to be obtained by importunity-- it flows,
   it still flows! He is willing--as willing as He is able, and as able as
   He is willing--to cleanse you from your guilt! Whatever there may be in
   the heart of Christ, it all flows out! The precious liquid is kept
   within, but set loose for every needy, thirsty soul. His heart is open!

   It is open for the doubter t o put his hand into it now. Where are you,
   Thomas? Do you ask some hard thing and say, "Except I see this and
   that, I will not believe"? Oh, Trembler, weighed down by your sins and
   your weakness, do you not see Him this day in Glory, with His heart
   still open towards you? Put your hand into the wound and say, "My Lord
   and my God." Accept your Savior without hesitation or delay! Come and
   find rest in Him. His side is open for your hand to reach His heart. It
   is open--that side is open--for those who pierced Him to look in to see
   what they have done, and lament it. But see how tender is His heart,
   and go to Him without fear. You pierced Him--look at Him and mourn
   because you did so. You sinners, though you did put your Lord to death,
   His heart is open to you! He invites you to come and receive His mercy
   that He has treasured up for you. Oh, come, come! He will receive you
   now. His heart is open to sympathize with the griefs and woes, the
   prayers and pleadings, the desires and longings of all His people!

   You know we have to get to some men's hearts through their ears, and
   through their eyes. In not a few of our callous race, these passages
   are choked up. You show them sorrow, and they see it without emotion.
   You cannot reach their heart. If you tell them a pitiful tale of deep
   distress, they hear it with indifference, for somehow the story loses
   its way in the mazes of the ear--it does not reach the heart. Far
   otherwise is it with your Lord. His heart is so accessible that you
   need not fear He will not hear you, or that He will not heed your
   faintest cry! You will feel that you can come close, straight, quick to
   Him, by a near passage you reach His very soul at once. Say not, then,
   that no one sympathizes with you! Jesus does! He cannot fail to pity,
   solace, or to cheer. His pierced heart sympathizes far more quickly
   than the most tender heart that ever lived before or after. His love
   passes the love of women, tender as that is. There is no love like that
   of Him with the open heart--the love of Jesus with the opened
   heart--with the open side!

   I cannot express to you what I see in this bare fact, this blessed
   Truth. I wish I could. But it would be still better if you could see
   the same. Oh, I can come to Him, now, and put my prayers into His
   side--can come and put my desires into

   His side! Oh, Jesus, "all my desire is before You, and my groans are
   not hid from You. I have but five senses, You have a new one--You have
   a new way to Your heart such as we poor mortals have not. I and my
   Brothers and Sisters may be inattentive, but You never are. You are He
   of the wounded heart--forever sympathetic--forever full of gentleness!"

   I might linger on this thought, but I prefer leaving it to your
   meditation, lest I should darken it with words. So let us finish with a
   last reflection.

   IV. A WOUND IN CHRIST'S SIDE REVEALS THE HEART OF JESUS IN ITS
   PRECIOUSNESS.

   That spear did, as it were, break the alabaster box and let out the
   sweet perfume. What, then, was there in the Savior's heart? Men carry
   in their hearts that which is dearest. The true man is what he is at
   the heart's core. What was our blessed Redeemer's life-thought--the
   compelling motive of His life-work? Upon what did He most of all
   concentrate the desires and affections of His heart? See you not that
   when pierced, there flowed forth blood and water? Those two things,
   then, must have been the nearest to the purpose of His heart. Hence I
   discern that in my Lord's heart, there was, first, a strong
   determination to purge sinners from their guilt by His blood. The
   atoning Sacrifice is not merely the hand blood of the Savior's work,
   nor is it merely the foot blood of the Savior's journeying through the
   vale of tears--it was His heart's blood, indicative of heart-work--it
   was the blood of Redemption shed for us. He loved that work. He was
   straitened till He could accomplish it. And let me tell you it is
   Christ's joy to wash you from your sin! Start not back because your
   conscience is troubled. He has opened a fountain for your
   uncleanness--in the very midst of the house of David has He opened it.
   He delights to take away your guilt--

   "Dear, dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till
   all the ransomed Church of God Is saved to sin no more."

   It has not lost its power! Then let it plead for me! To me let it be
   precious! Let me feel its potent virtue. By it may I have boldness.
   Like the Apostle, may I say, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
   God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is he that condemns? It is
   Christ that died." Oh, to have the blood applied to the conscience!
   Rest not till you hear it speak peace through your whole nature, till
   you see the curse removed and are assured that there now is, therefore,
   no condemnation for you because you are in Christ Jesus! It is Christ's
   heart-work to redeem His people by His blood. Oh, that He may now see
   of the travail of His soul in your redemption!

   Moreover, Beloved, in Christ's heart there was the water as well as the
   blood. He would have His people sanctified as well as pardoned. He
   would deliver them from the power as well as from the guilt of sin! I
   believe this is very near Christ's heart. That He may present His
   Church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, is His design as
   well as His desire. His Spirit is working to this end. That He might
   not allow so much as a single stain to rest upon the nature of His
   people is alike the pleasure and the purpose of Christ! He has put
   their guilt away by the Sacrifice of Himself. This is done. Yet He
   continues to demand their self-sacrifice, that He may put away their
   evil propensities, the fruit of their first father's fall. My Soul,
   glorify the pierced heart of Christ! Give Him to see in yourself the
   effect of the water that flowed from His heart! "Be you holy," He says,
   "as I am holy." "Be you perfect," He says again, "even as your Father
   which is in Heaven is perfect." Deny the flesh with its affections and
   lusts! Separate yourselves from sinners! Avoid partaking of other men's
   sins! Like Christ, be you "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
   sinners." This can only be effected by the Spirit's vital application
   of the Savior's atoning death. Stay at the foot of the Cross. Live
   under the influence of His Passion. Pray that you may rise out of this
   world's fading, failing vanity, into newness of life through His
   pierced heart! In other words, let us stand in penitence before the
   Crucified One and mourn that we pierced Him. But let us stand in His
   Propitiation, rejoicing that His piercing has procured our pardon!

   So let us go on our way, resolved, by His help, that we will glorify
   Him "in all manner of holy conversation and godliness." For, "He that
   saw it bares record, and his record is true, and he knows that he is
   telling the truth, that you might believe." May you believe, may you
   all believe the record is true! Believing, you shall have life through
   His name! Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW27:50-66.

   Verse 50. Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up
   the ghost Christ's strength was not exhausted--His last word was
   uttered with a loud voice, like the shout of a conquering warrior! And
   what a word it was, "It is finished"! Thousands of sermons have been
   preached upon that little sentence, but who can tell all the meaning
   that lies compacted within it? It is a kind of infinite expression for
   breadth, and depth, and length, and height altogether immeasurable!
   Christ's life being finished, perfected, completed--He yielded up the
   ghost--willingly dying, laying down His life as He said He would! "I
   lay down My life for the sheep. . .I lay it down of Myself. I have
   power to lay it down and I have power to take it again."

   51-53. And, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top
   to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks were split, and
   the graves were opened; and many of the bodies which slept, arose and
   came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went into the holy
   city, and appeared unto many. Christ's death was the end of Judaism--
   "The veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom." As
   if shocked at the sacrilegious murder of her Lord, the Temple tore her
   garments, like one stricken with horror at some stupendous crime. The
   body of Christ being rent, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from
   the top to the bottom. Now was there an entrance made into the Holiest
   of All by the blood of Jesus--and a way of access to God was opened for
   every sinner who trusted in Christ's atoning Sacrifice!

   See what marvels accompanied and followed the death of Christ--"The
   earth did quake, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened."
   Thus did the material world pay homage to Him whom man had rejected,
   while Nature's convulsions foretold what will happen when Christ's
   voice once more shakes not the earth only, but also Heaven! These first
   miracles worked in connection with the death of Christ were typical of
   spiritual wonders that will be continued till He comes again--rocky
   hearts are split in two, graves of sin are opened, those who have been
   dead in trespasses and sins, and buried in sepulchers of lust and evil,
   are quickened and come out from among the dead, and go into the holy
   city, the New Jerusalem.

   54. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching
   Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared
   greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.These Roman soldiers had
   never witnessed such scenes in connection with an execution, before,
   and they could only come to one conclusion about the illustrious
   Prisoner whom they had put to death--"Truly this was the Son of God."
   It was strange that those men should confess what the chief priests and
   scribes and elders denied, yet since their day it has often happened
   that the most abandoned and profane have acknowledged Jesus as the Son
   of God, while their religious rulers have denied His Divinity.

   55-56. And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed
   Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him: Among which was Mary
   Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James and Joses, and the mother of
   Zebedee's children. We have no record of any unkindness to our Lord
   from any woman, though we have many narratives of the loving ministry
   of women at various periods in His life. It was meet, therefore, that
   even at Calvary, "many women were there beholding afar off." The ribald
   crowd and the rough soldiers would not permit these timid, yet brave
   souls, to come near. But we learn from John 19:25 that some of them
   edged their way through the throng till they "stood by the Cross of
   Jesus." Love will dare anything.

   57, 58. When the evening was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea,
   namedJoseph, who also, himself, was Jesus ' disciple. He went to
   Pilate, and begged for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the
   body to be delivered. This rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, a
   member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, was Jesus' disciple, "but secretly for
   fear of the Jews" (John 19:38). Yet when his Lord was actually dead,
   extraordinary courage nerved his spirit and he boldly went to Pilate
   and begged for the body of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus are types of
   many more who have been emboldened by the Cross of Christ to do what,
   without that mighty magnet, they would never have attempted! When night
   comes, the stars appear--so in the night of Christ's death, these two
   bright stars shone forth with blessed radiance! Some flowers bloom only
   at night--such a blossom was the courage of Joseph and Nicodemus.

   59, 60. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean
   linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in
   the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and
   departed.Our King, even in the grave, must have the best of the
   best--His body was "wrapped in a clean linen cloth, and laid in
   Joseph's own new tomb, thus completing the fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9.
   Some see in this linen shroud an allusion to the garments inwhich
   priests were to be clothed. Joseph's was a virgin sepulcher, wherein up
   to that time no one had been buried, so that, when Jesus rose, none
   could say that another came forth from the tomb instead of Him.

   That rock-hewn cell in the garden sanctified every part of God's acre
   where saints lie buried. Instead of longing to live till Christ comes,
   as some do, we might rather pray to have fellowship with Jesus in His
   death and burial.

   61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over
   against the sepulcher. Love and faith were both typified by these two
   Marys sitting over against the sepulcher. They will be the last to
   leave their Lord's resting place, and the first to return to it when
   the Sabbath is past! Can we cling to Christ when His cause seems to be
   dead and buried? When the Truth of God is fallen in the streets, or is
   even buried in the sepulcher of skepticism or superstition, can we
   still believe in it and look forward to its resurrection? That is what
   some of us are doing at the present time. O Lord, keep us faithful!

   62-64. Now the next day, that followed the day of preparation, the
   chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we
   remember that that Deceiver said, while He was yet alive, After three
   days I will rise again. Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made
   sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and
   stealHim away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so
   the last error shall be worse than the first. Those punctilious priests
   and Pharisees, who were so scrupulous about keeping the Sabbath, did
   not mind profaning the Day of Rest by holding a consultation with the
   Roman governor! They knew that Christ was dead and buried, but they
   still stood in dread of His power. They called Him a "deceiver," and
   they even pretended to "remember" what "He said, while He was yet
   alive." At His trial, their false witnesses gave another meaning to His
   words, but they knew all the while that He was speaking of His
   Resurrection, not of the Temple on Mount Zion! Now they are afraid
   that, even in the sepulcher, He will bring to nothing all their plans
   for His destruction. They must have known that the disciples of Jesus
   would not steal Him away and say to the people, "He is risen from the
   dead"--so they probably feared that he really would come forth from the
   tomb! Whatever conscience they had, made great cowards of them, so they
   begged Pilate to do what he could to prevent the rising of their
   Victim.

   65, 66. Pilate said unto them, You have a watch: go your way, make it
   as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing
   the stone, and setting a watch. The chief priests and Pharisees wanted
   Pilate to make the se-pulcher sure, but he left them to secure it.
   There seems to have been a grim sort of irony about the governor's
   reply, "You have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as you can."
   Whether he meant it as a taunt, or as a command to secure the
   sepulcher, they became unconsciously witnesses that Christ's
   Resurrection was a supernatural act! The tomb in the rock could not be
   entered except by rolling away the stone, and they guarded that by
   sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

   According to the absurd teaching of the Rabbis, rubbing ears of corn
   was a kind of threshing and, therefore, was unlawful on the
   Sabbath--yet here were these men doing what, by similar reasoning,
   might be called furnace and foundry work, and calling out a guard of
   Roman legionaries to assist them in breaking the Sabbath!
   Unintentionally, they did honor to the sleeping King when they obtained
   the representatives of the Roman emperor to watch His resting place
   till the third morning, when He came forth Victor over sin, and death,
   and the grave! Thus once more was the wrath of man made to praise the
   King of Glory, and the remainder of that wrath was restrained.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Strait Gate

   (No. 3560)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will
   seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Luke 13:24.

   THE precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ are dictated by the soundest
   wisdom. He has given us Divine Prescriptions for the health of our
   souls and His Commandments, though clothed with Sovereign Authority,
   are spoken in such infinite kindness that we may regard them as the
   advice of a true and faithful Friend. This is not a legal, but a Gospel
   exhortation, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." He, Himself, is
   the only gate, or the door, by which we can find admission, and the way
   to enter in through Jesus Christ is not by working, but by believing!
   Then, as to the strife we are urged to carry on, it is an earnest
   endeavor to steer clear of all the rocks, shoals and quicksands of
   popular fallacies and deceitful traditions, and to sail in the deep
   waters with His Covenant for our chart, and His Word for our compass,
   in simple obedience to His statutes, trusting to Him as our Pilot,
   whose voice we always hear, though His face we cannot see. The storm
   signal may well awaken your fears, but the cry of peril had need excite
   your caution. The mere mention sounds like a menace. "Many shall seek
   to enter in, and shall not be able." Listen to that warning, lest you
   be among the, "many" that founder--perhaps you shall be among the few
   that escape. Listen to what Jesus tells you shall come to pass with the
   multitude, that it may never come to pass with you as individuals. Mark
   now--

   I. A GATE WHICH IT IS MOST DESIRABLE TO ENTER.

   Surely "many" would not seek to enter if they were not convinced of the
   desirableness of passing through it! The very fact that so many,
   although they fail, will at least seek to enter, proves that there is a
   desire, a reason and a motive why men and women should aim to enter.

   This gate--that is, Christ--it is most desirable for us to pass through
   because it is the gate of the City of Refuge. Cities of refuge were
   appointed for men-slayers, who, when they were pursued by the avenger
   of blood, they might pass the gate and be secure within the sanctuary
   or city. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is intended as a refuge for those
   who have broken the Law of God, whom vengeance is pursuing, who will
   certainly be overtaken, to their eternal destruction, unless they fly
   to Christ and find shelter in Him. Outside of Christ the sword of fire
   pursues us swift and sharp. From God's wrath there is but one
   escape--and that is by a simple faith in Christ. Believe in Him and the
   sword is sheathed, and the energy and the love of God will become your
   everlasting portion! But refuse to believe in Jesus and your
   innumerable sins, written in His book, shall be laid at your door in
   that day when the pillars of Heaven shall reel and the stars shall fall
   like withered fig leaves from the tree! Oh, who would not wish to
   escape from the wrath to come! Mr. Whitefield, when preaching, would
   often hold up his hands and cry, "Oh, the wrath to come! The wrath to
   come! The wrath to come!" There is more weight and meaning in these
   words than tongue can tell or heart conceive. The wrath to come! the
   wrath to come! When past that Gate, like Noah after he had passed into
   the ark, you are safe from the overwhelming de-luge--you are sheltered
   from the devouring conflagration which shall consume the earth--you are
   rescued from the death and the doom that await the countless multitudes
   of the impenitent! Who would not wish to enter where there is
   salvation, the only place where salvation can be found?

   It is desirable to enter this gate because it is the gate of a home.
   There is sweet music in that word, "home." Jesus is the home of His
   people's hearts. We are at rest when we get to Christ. We have all we
   need when we have Jesus. Happiness is the portion of the Christian in
   this life while he lives upon his Savior. I have seen outside in the
   night refugee crowds of persons waiting an hour beforehand, till the
   doors were opened. Poor souls! Shivering in the cold, but in
   expectation of being warmed and comforted in a little time for a little
   while, when they would be admitted. What do you think, Ohomeless men
   and women--were there a permanent home for you, a home from which you
   never could be banished, a home into which you could be introduced as
   dear children--would it not be worth your while to wait for a long time
   at the door, and to knock again and again right vehemently, could you
   but ultimately gain admission? Jesus is a home for the homeless, a rest
   for the weary, a comfort for the comfortless. Is your heart
   broken--Jesus can comfort you! Have you been banished from your family,
   or one by one have the dear ones been taken to their last resting
   place? Do you feel solitary, friendless, cheerless, accounting "the
   black flowing river" to be preferred before this troubled stream of
   life, and that pitiless society of men and women, all eager for gain
   and gaiety, reckoning nothing of your griefs or your groans? Oh, come
   to Jesus! Trust in Him and He will light up a star in the black
   midnight sky! He will kindle a fire in your hearts that shall make them
   glow with joy and comfort, even now! It were worthwhile to be a
   Christian, irrespective of the hereafter. Such present comfort as a
   belief in Jesus imparts is an inestimable compensation! This is the
   gate of refuge, and it is the gate of a home.

   Moreover, it leads to a blessed feast. We read just now of the supper
   that was spread. Jesus does not feed our bodies, but He does what is
   better--He feeds our minds. A hungry stomach is terrible, but a hungry
   heart is far more dreadful, for a loaf of bread will fill the one, but
   what can satisfy the other? Oh, when the heart gets to craving, and
   pining, and yearning after something it cannot get, it is like the sea
   that cannot rest--it is like the grave that never can be filled--it is
   like the horseleech, whose daughters cry, "Give, give, give!" Happy the
   man who believes in Jesus, for he becomes at once a contented man. Not
   only does he find rest in Christ, but joy and gladness, peace and
   abiding satisfaction are the portion of his lot. I tell you what I do
   know--and I would not lie, even for the Lord, Himself--I tell you that
   there is a mirth to be found in faith in Christ which cannot be
   matched! Speak of their buoyant spirits who make merry in the dance, or
   of the festive glee of those that are filled with wine? It is but the
   crackling of a handful of thorns under a pot-- how soon it is gone! But
   the joy of the man who meditates on the love of Christ which embraces
   him, on the blood of Christ which cleanses him, on the arm of Christ
   which upholds him, on the hand of Christ which leads him, on the crown
   of Christ which is to be his portion--the joy of such a man is
   constant, deep, overflowing, beyond the power of expression! The
   poorest Christian in all the world--bedridden, living on parish
   allowance, full of pains and ready to die--when his heart is stayed
   upon Christ, would not change places with the youngest, brightest,
   richest, noblest spirit to be found outside the Church of God! No,
   kings and emperors, boast no more of your beggarly crowns--their
   glitter will soon fade! Your purple robes will soon be moth eaten! Your
   silver shall soon be cankered--of your palace, not a stone shall be
   left upon its fellow! Bitter shall be the dregs of your wine cups and
   all your music shall end in discord! I tell you that the poorest of all
   the company of the faithful in Christ Jesus excel you, and "would not
   change their blest estate for all that earth calls good or great." So
   abundantly worthwhile is it to come to Christ for the happiness, as
   well as the repose, which we find in Him.

   Well likewise, dear Friends, may men desire to pass through the strait
   gate, knowing it is the gate which leads to Pa-radise.There was one
   gate of Paradise through which our father--Adam--and our
   mother--Eve--went weeping as they left the Garden all behind them to
   wander into the desert world. Can you picture them to yourselves, with
   the cherubim behind them and the flaming sword bidding them be gone,
   for Paradise was no place for rebels? Men have wandered up and down the
   world since then to find the gate of Paradise, that they might enter
   yet again. They have scaled the peaks of Sinai, but they have not found
   it there. They have traversed the tracks of the wilderness, weary and
   footsore, jaded and faint, but they have found no gate to Paradise
   anywhere in all their expeditions. The scholar has searched for it in
   the ancient books. The astronomer has hunted for it among the stars.
   Sages, as they were called, have sought to find it by studying their
   arts--and fools have tried to find it among their viols and their
   bowls. But there is only one gate! Look, there it is! It is in the form
   of a cross, and he that will find the gate of Heaven finds the Cross
   and the Man that did hang thereon! Happy he who can come up to it and
   pass through it, reposing all his confidence in the Atonement once made
   by the Man of Suffering on Calvary's tree. On earth he is saved, and in
   the article of death he shall pass through that gate of pearl
   unchallenged, walk the streets of gold unabashed and bow before the
   excellent Glory without a fear! He is free in Heaven. The Cross is a
   mark of a citizen of the skies! Having truly believed in Jesus,
   everlasting happiness is his beyond all doubt! Who, then, would not
   pass through the strait gate?

   And who would not wish to pass through it when he considers what will
   be the lot of those outside the gate? How we tremble at the thought of
   that outer darkness where shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing
   of teeth! There aremany enquiries, nowadays, about eternal punishment.
   Oh, Brothers and Sisters, do not rashly or carelessly challenge the
   bitter experience of such condemnation! Speculate as you will about the
   Doctrine, but I pray you do not trifle with the reality. To be lost
   forever, let that mean what it may, will be more than you can bear
   though your ribs were iron and your bones were brass. Tempt not the
   avenging angel! Beware that you forget not God, lest He tear you in
   pieces and there be no one to deliver you! By the living God, I pray
   you fear and tremble, lest you be found out of Chris in the day of His
   appearing. Rest not, be not patient, much less merry, till you are
   saved! To be in danger of the fire of Hell is a peril that no heart can
   adequately realize, no language fitly paint! Oh, I beseech you, halt
   not, give yourself no rest till you have got beyond that danger! Flee
   for your lives, for the fiery shower will soon descend! Escape! God, in
   His mercy, quicken your pace that you may escape soon, lest the hour of
   mercy cease and the Day of Judgment come! Surely these are reasons
   enough for wanting to pass in at the strait gate! Observe still further
   what our Lord tells us.

   II. THERE IS A CROWD OF PEOPLE WHO WILL SEEK TO ENTER AND WILL NOT BE
   ABLE. Who are these? If you look closely at the crowd who this day seek
   to pass, I think you will see a considerable difference between seeking
   and striving. You are not merely advised to seek--you are urgently bid
   to strive. Striving is a more vehement exercise than seeking. Are you
   among those who coolly seek admission because, forsooth, they suppose
   it is the proper thing? Many there are who come up to the gate of mercy
   and seek to enter, not striving, not particularly anxious, certainly
   far enough from being agitated. And when they look at the gate, they
   object to the lintel because it is too low, nor will they deign to
   stoop. There is no believing in Jesus with a proud heart! He that
   trusts Christ must feel himself to be guilty, and acknowledge it. He
   never will savingly believe till he has been thoroughly convinced of
   sin. But many say, "I will never stoop to that. Unless I have something
   to do in the work, and share some of the merit, I cannot enter." No,
   Sirs, some of you are quite unable to believe in Christ because you
   believe in yourselves! As long as a man thinks himself a fine fellow,
   how can he think well of Jesus? You eclipse the sun! You hold up your
   own little hands before the sunlight-- how can you expect to see? You
   are too good to go to Heaven, or, at least, too good in your own
   apprehension. Oh, Man, I pray God will prick that bubble, that blown-up
   bladder, and let out the gas so that you may discern what you really
   are, for you are nothing, after all, but a poor worm, contemptible,
   notwithstanding your conceit and pride, in spite of your poverty, an
   arrogant worm, that dares to lift up its head when it has nothing to
   glory in! Oh, bow yourself in lowly self-abhorrence, otherwise you may
   seek to enter, but shall not be able!

   Some are unable to enter because the pride of life will not let them.
   They come to this gate in their carriage and pair, and expect to drive
   in, but they cannot get admission. There is no different way of
   salvation for a peer of the realm than for a pauper in the workhouse!
   The greatest prince that ever lived must trust Jesus just as the
   poorest peasant does. I recollect a minister once telling me that he
   attended the bedside of a very proud woman, of considerable wealth, and
   she said to him, "Do you think, Sir, that when I am in Heaven, such a
   person as Betty--my maid--will be in the same place as I am? I never
   could endure her company here. She is a good servant in her way, but I
   am sure I could not put up with her in Heaven." "No, Madam," he said,
   "I do not suppose you will ever be where Betty will be." He knew Betty
   to be one of the humblest and most consistent of Christian women
   anywhere--and he might have told her proud mistress that in the sight
   of God, meekness is preferable to majesty. The Lord Jesus, in the day
   of His coming, will wipe out all such distinctions as may very properly
   exist on earth, though they cannot be recognized beyond the skies. Oh,
   rich man, glory not in your richest! All your wealth, if you could take
   it with you, would not buy a single paving stone in the streets of
   Heaven! Do not trust in this poor stuff! Oh, lay it aside as a crown of
   glorying, and pass humbly through the gate with Lazarus!

   Some are unable to enter because they carry contraband goods with them.
   When you land in France, there stands the gendarme who wants to see
   what you are carrying in that basket. If you attempt to push by, you
   will soon find yourself in custody. He must know what is
   there--contraband goods cannot be taken in. So at the gate of mercy
   which is Christ, no man can be saved if he desires to keep his sins. He
   must give up every false way. "Oh," says the drunk, "I'd like to get to
   Heaven, but I must smuggle in this bottle somehow." "I would like to be
   a Christian," says another. "I do not mind taking Dr. Watts' hymns with
   me, but I should like, sometimes, to sing a Bacchanalian song, or a
   light serenade." "Well," cries another, "I enjoy myself on Sunday with
   God's people, but you must not deny me the amusements of the world
   during the week--I cannot give them up." Well then you cannot enter,
   for Jesus Christ never saves us in our sins--He saves us from our sins.
   "Doctor," says the fool, "make me well, but I'd like to keep my fever."
   "No," says the doctor, "how can you be well while you keep the fever?"
   How can a man be saved from his sins while he clings to his sins? What
   is salvation but to be delivered from sin? Sin lovers may seek to be
   saved, but they shall not be able--while they hug their sins--they
   cannot have Christ! Some of you are in this grievous predicament. You
   have been attending this House of Prayer a good long time. I do not
   know what hinders you, but this I do know, there is a worm somewhere
   eating out the heart of that fair looking apple. Some private sin that
   you pamper is destroying your souls! Oh, that you had Grace to give it
   up and to come in by the strait gate, trusting in Jesus Christ!

   Not a few are unable to enter in because they want to postpone the
   matter until tomorrow. Today, at any rate, you are engaged with other
   plans and projects. "A little longer let me revel in some of the
   sensual enjoyments of life, and afterwards I will come in."
   Procrastinators are among the most hopeless of people! He that has
   "tomorrow" quivering on his lips is never likely to have Grace reigning
   in his heart.

   Others, and these are in the worst plight of all, think that they are
   in and that they have entered. They mistake the outside of the gate for
   the inside! A strange mistake to fall into, but many do thus delude
   themselves. They rub their backs against the posts and then they tell
   us they are as near Heaven as anybody else. They have never passed the
   thre-shold--they have never found shelter in Christ--albeit they may
   have felt wonderfully excited at a revival meeting, and sung as loudly
   and lustily as any of the congregation--

   "Ido believe, I will believe."

   There is a considerable show of reformation about them. Although they
   have not got a new garment, they have mended up the old one. They are
   not new creatures, but still, they are better behaved creatures than
   they were before! And they are, "all right." Be not deceived, my dear
   Friends! Beware of mistaking a work of nature for the operation of
   God's Grace. Do not be taken in by the devil's counterfeits. They are
   well made--they look genuine--when they are brand new they shine and
   glitter like fine gold, but they will not stand the test! Everyone of
   them will have a nail driven through them one day--they will never pass
   current with God. If you have a religion, let it be real and true, not
   feigned and hypocritical! Of all cheats, the man who cheats himself is
   certainly the least wise and, I think he is the least honest. Do not
   play the knave with your own soul! Suspect yourself too much rather
   than too little. Better journey to Heaven in terror of Hell than dream
   of the happy land while drifting in the other direction. "Ah, that
   deceit should steal such gentle shapes!" Be on your guard, everyone of
   you. Let not anyone deceive himself!

   Thus it is that a crowd--I had almost said a countless crowd--of people
   nowadays seek to enter in, but for manifold reasons they are not able
   to do so. And yet there is a more appalling aspect to the same fact.
   "Many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."
   The dying are not able. Panic-stricken, the dying man sends for the
   minister whom he never went to hear when his health was good and hours
   hung heavy in his hands. The charm of Sundays lay in their
   dissipation--an excursion up the river, or a cheap trip to Brighton and
   back--anything, everything, sooner than hear the Gospel! He never read
   his Bible. He never prayed. Now the doctor shakes his head and the
   nurse suggests that they "fetch a clergyman." Poor soul! She means
   right, but what do you think he can do? What can we ministers do for
   you? What can any man do for his fellow creature? "None of us can by
   any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." He
   begins to seek, when, alas, he cannot think, poor fellow, for he is in
   articulo mortis, with the throes of his last struggle! His head swims,
   pains grow at his vitals, a glassy film is over his eyes, rambling
   words fall from his lips. Could he think, he has got something else to
   think about than the dread future that awaits him! Look at his weeping
   wife. See those dear children, brought in to get a last kiss from their
   father? Were his mind more vigorous, it were not likely to be taken up
   with spiritual thoughts--there is too much in the solemn farewell to
   occupy the moments left in preparation for the future. "Pray for me,
   Sir," he says, with fainting, failing breath. Yes, he is seeking to
   enter in! In 99 cases out of a 100 I fear the answer is, he shall not
   be able. Little hope have I for deathbed repentances. Never trust to
   them, I beseech you!

   Such a vestibule as a deathbed you may never have. To die in the street
   may be your lot. Should you have a deathbed, you will have something
   else to think about besides religion. Oh, how often have I heard
   Christian men say, when they have been dying, "Ah, Sir, if I had a God
   to seek now, what a misery it would be! What a blessing it is that,
   with all the cares that now come upon me, I have a sure and certain
   hope in Christ, for I found Him years ago." Oh, dear Hearers, do not be
   among those who postpone and procrastinate, till, in a dying hour,
   after a fashion, you seek to enter and find you shall not be able!

   Some years ago I was awakened about three o'clock in the morning by a
   sharp ring of the doorbell. I was urged without delay to visit a house
   not very far off London Bridge. I went and up two flights of stairs I
   was shown into a room, the occupants of which were a nurse and a dying
   man. There was nobody else. "Oh, Sir," she said, "Mr. So-and-So, about
   half an hour ago, begged me to send for you." "What does he want?" I
   asked. "He is dying, Sir," she replied. I said, "I see that. What sort
   of a man was he?" "He came home last night, Sir, from Brighton. He had
   been out all day. I looked for a Bible, Sir, but there is not one in
   the house. I hope you have got one with you." "Oh," I said, "a Bible
   would be of no use to him, now! If he could understand me, I could tell
   him the way of salvation in the very words of Holy Scripture." I spoke
   to him, but he gave me no answer. I spoke again--still there was no
   reply. All sense had fled. I stood a few minutes gazing at his face,
   till I perceived he was dead--his soul had departed. That man in his
   lifetime had been known to jeer at me. In strong language he had often
   denounced me as a hypocrite. Yet he was no sooner smitten with the
   darts of death than he sought my presence and my counsel, feeling in
   his heart, no doubt, that I was a servant of God, though he did not
   care to acknowledge it with his lips. There I stood, unable to help
   him. Promptly as I had responded to his call, what could I do but look
   at his corpse and go home again? He had, when too late, sighed for the
   ministry of reconciliation, sought to enter in, but he was not able.
   There was no space left him, then, for repentance--he had wasted the
   opportunity. Therefore, I pray and beseech you, my dear Hearers, by the
   near approach of death--it may be much nearer than you think--give
   earnest heed to these things! I look round in this building and note
   the pews and sittings from which hearers, whose faces were once
   familiar to us have gone--some to Glory, some I know not where. God
   knows. Oh, let not the next removal, if it is yours, vacate the seat of
   a scoffer, or of a neglecter, or of one who, having been touched in his
   conscience, silenced the secret monitor and would not turn! As the Lord
   lives, you must turn or burn! You must either repent or be ruined
   forever! May God give you wisdom to choose the better part!

   It appears from Scripture that even after death there will be some who
   will seek to enter and shall not be able. I do not attempt to explain
   what I cannot understand, but I find the Master represents those on the
   left hand asking a question, "When saw we You hungry, and fed You not?"
   As if they had some glimmering hope that the sentence upon them might
   be reversed. And I read in another place of those who will come and
   knock at the door, and say, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But the Master of
   the house, having already risen up and shut the door, will answer,
   "Verily, I say unto you, I know you not." Is there, then, such a thing
   as prayer in Hell? When the soul has passed out of the body without
   hope, will it seek for hope hereafter? Perhaps so. Did not the rich man
   pray to Abraham to send Lazarus? It is but natural to expect that, as
   they doubted God's promises on earth, they may doubt God's threats in
   Hell, and may hope, perhaps, that there will be a way of escape. They
   will seek, they will seek, but they shall not be able, not able to
   enter Heaven! They said they were not able on earth--they shall find
   they are not able in Hell, either! Non possumus is the sinner's cry.
   "We are not able to leave our sins! We are not able to believe! We are
   not able to be serious! We are not able to be prayerful!" And then, how
   it will be thrown back into their teeth! Not able to enter Heaven, not
   able to escape from torment, not able to live, not able to die--not
   able because the gate of Heaven admits no sinner who has not been
   washed in the Redeemer's blood! Back with you, Sir! You would not come
   to the Fountain, you would not wash! Back with you! You are not able!
   Not able because Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, and
   you never thought of preparation! Away with you, Sir! How can you enter
   when you are not prepared? Heaven is a place for which a fitness is
   needed. Men cannot enjoy that which would be contrary to their natures.
   Away with you, Sirs! You could not enjoy Heaven if you were admitted,
   for you are not changed in heart! Away with you!

   What? Do you linger? Do you cry? Do you pray? Do you weep? Do you
   entreat? Away with you! No, the angels shall sweep you away, for is it
   not written--You yourselves shall be thrust out--unceremoniously driven
   and scourged away from the gate of Glory because you would not come to
   the gate of Grace? These are terrible things to utter. I well might
   shrink from speaking thus, were it not that fidelity to your souls
   makes such demands that I must ring the warning. If you die without
   faith in Christ, behold there is a gulf fixed between you and Heaven. I
   do not know what that means, but I know what idea it gives to me, and
   should give to you. Between Heaven and Hell there is no traffic! None
   ever passed from Hell to Heaven--

   "There are no acts of pardon passed In the cold grave to which we
   hasten! But darkness, death, and long despair

   Reign in eternal silence there!"

   They would gladly pass the gulf--were it fire, they could be glad to
   pass it! Were it full of torments, many and manifold as a Spanish
   Inquisition could invent--they would be glad to bear them--could they
   but hope to cross the gulf. But no, the voice is heard--an angel's
   voice--"He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; he that is unjust,
   let him be unjust still." The wax has cooled--you cannot alter the
   impression. The die is cast--you cannot remold it. The tree has
   fallen--there it lies.

   I wish I could speak now in words that would burn their way right into
   your inmost hearts. Alas, I cannot. I must, however, just repeat the
   text again, and leave it with you. "Many shall seek in that dread day
   to enter, but shall not be able. Oh, enter then, enter! Enter now,
   while yet the gate stands wide open and mercy bids you come! Make haste
   to enter while yet the avenging angel lingers, and the angel of mercy
   stands with outstretched arms and cries, "Whoever will, let him come
   and take of the water of life freely." May God, the ever-blessed
   Spirit, without whom no warning can be effectual, and no invitation can
   be attractive, sweetly compel you to trust Christ tonight! Here is the
   Gospel in a few words-- Jesus suffered the wrath and torment we justly
   merited. He doubtless bore the penalty of your transgressions if you
   penitently believe in His Sacrifice. When you trust in Him for pardon,
   'tis proof your sins were laid on Him for judgment! You are, therefore,
   a forgiven man! A pardoned woman! You are saved--saved forever! If you
   have a simple, child-like trust, you may go home singing for joy of
   heart, knowing that you have already entered the strait gate! And Grace
   on earth and glory in Heaven lie before you! May God bless you richly,
   and may you adore Him gratefully, for His dear name's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

The Drawings of Love

   (No. 3561)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1917.

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes, Ihave loved you
   with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn
   you." Jeremiah 31:3.

   From the context it is clear that this passage primarily refers to
   God's ancient people, the natural descendants of Abraham. He chose them
   from of old and separated them from the nations of the world. Their
   election fills a large chapter in history and it shines with
   resplendent luster in prophecy. There is an interval during which they
   have experienced strange vicissitudes, been visited with heavy
   chastisements and acquired an evil reputation for the perverseness of
   their mind and the obstinacy of their heart. Yet a future glory awaits
   them when they shall turn unto the Lord their God, again, be restored
   to their land and acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as the King of the
   Jews, their own anointed King. Without abating, however, a jot or
   tittle from the literal significance of these words as they were
   addressed by the Hebrew Prophet to the Hebrew race, we may accept them
   as an Oracle of God referring to the entire Church of His redeemed
   family and pertaining to every distinct member of that sacred
   community. Every Christian, therefore, whose faith can grasp the
   testimony, may appropriate it to himself. As many a Believer has heard,
   so every Believer may hear the voice of the Holy Spirit sounding in his
   ears these words, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
   therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you."

   There are two things of which we propose to speak briefly tonight--the
   unspeakable blessing--"I have loved you with an everlasting love." And
   the unmistakable evidence--"therefore, with loving kindness have I
   drawn you."

   How exceedingly great and precious this assurance! How priceless this
   blessing to be embraced with the love, the everlasting love of God! Our
   God is a God of Infinite Benevolence. Towards all His creatures He
   shows His goodwill. His tender mercies are over all His works. He
   wishes well to all mankind. With what force and with what feeling he
   asserts it! "As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the
   death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live"
   (Ezekiel 33:11). And whoever of the whole human race, penitent for past
   sin, will turn to Jesus, the Savior of sinners, he shall find in Him
   pardon for the past and Grace for the future! This general Truth of
   God, which we have always steadfastly maintained, which we never saw
   any reason to doubt and which we have proclaimed as widely as our
   ministry could reach, is not at all inconsistent with the fact that God
   has a chosen people among the children of men who were beloved of Him,
   foreknown to Him and ordained by Him to inherit all spiritual blessings
   before the foundation of the world! As an elect people, they are the
   special objects of His love. On their behalf the Covenant of Grace was
   made. For them the blood of Christ was shed on Calvary. In them the
   Spirit of God works effectually to their salvation. Of them and to them
   it is that such words as these are spoken, "I have loved you with an
   everlasting love"--a love far superior to mere benevolence--towering
   above it as the mountain above the sea! A kinder love, deeper, far
   sweeter than that bounty of Providence which gilds the earth with
   sunshine, or scatters the drops of morning dew--a love that reveals its
   pre-ciousness in the drops of blood distilled from the Savior's heart
   and manifests its personal, immutable favor to souls beloved in the
   gift of the Holy Spirit which is the seal of their redemption and the
   sign of their adoption. So the Spirit, Himself, bears witness with our
   spirit that we are the children of God! Now think for a little while
   of--

   I. THIS INESTIMABLE BLESSING.

   Let us consider the text word by word. "I have loved you," Who is the
   speaker "I," the great "I am," Jehovah the Lord! There is but one God,
   and that God fills all things. "By Him all things were made, and
   through Him all things consist." He is not far away, to be spoken of as
   though He were at an infinite distance from us, though Heaven is His

   Throne--for He is here with us. We live in Him, move in Him and have
   our being in Him. Imagination's utmost stretch fails to grasp any true
   conception of what God is. The strong wing of reason, though it were
   stronger than that of the far-famed albatross, would utterly fail if it
   should attempt to find out God. Incomprehensible are you, O Jehovah,
   Your Being is too great for mortal mind to compass! Yet this we
   understand--Your voice has reached us--from the excellent Glory it has
   broken in tones distinctly on our ears--"Yes, I have loved you."
   Believer in Christ, have you heard it? The love of any creature is
   precious. We prize the love of the beggar in the street. We are
   flattered by it. We cannot estimate it by silver or gold. Most men
   court the acquaintance or esteem the friendship of those among their
   fellow creatures who are in anyway distinguished for rank, for
   learning, or for wealth. There is a charm in living in the esteem of
   those who, themselves, are estimable, but no passion of our nature will
   supply me with an adequate comparison when I ask what must it be to be
   loved with the love of God! To be loved by Him whose dignity is beyond
   degree, whose power to bless is infinite, whose faithfulness never
   varies, whose Immutability stands fast like great mountains--to be
   loved by Him who dies not, and who will be with us when we die, to be
   caressed by Him who changes not in all our cares, to be shielded by His
   love when we stand at the Judgment Seat and pass the last dread ordeal
   that responsible creatures have to undergo! Oh, to be loved of God! Had
   you the hatred of all mankind, this honey would turn their gall into
   sweetness! It were enough to make you start up from the dungeon of
   wretchedness, from the chamber of poverty--yes, or from the bed of
   death! How like an angel you might feel--and know that such you are--a
   prince of the blood Imperial! If this is true of you, my Friend, in
   unspeakable joy you may emulate the bliss of blest spirits who see
   Jehovah and adore Him before His Throne!

   Who is loved? "Ihave loved you." Drink that in if you can, Christian!
   Come to that wellhead--here is joy for you, indeed! Repeat the words to
   yourself with fitting emphasis, "Yes, I have loved you." Is it not
   amazing that the Mighty God should love any of the race of Adam--so
   insignificant, so ephemeral, so soon to pass away? Did an angel love an
   ant creeping on an anthill, it were strange, though the disparity is
   comparatively trivial between these two--but for the eternal God to
   love a finite man is a marvel of marvels! And yet had He loved all men
   everywhere, save and except myself, it had not so amazed me as when I
   grasp the Truth in relation to myself that He has loved me! Let me hear
   His voice saying, "Yes, I have loved you," and forthwith I sit down
   abashed with humility and overwhelmed with gratitude, to exclaim with
   David, "What am I, and what is my father's house, that You have brought
   me here? Why have You loved me?" Surely there was nothing in my natural
   constitution, nothing in my circumstances, nothing in my transient
   career that could merit Your esteem or regard, O my God! Why, then,
   have You spoken thus unto Your servant, saying, "I have loved you"?

   Oh, how well I could imagine His having rather said to one and another
   of us, "I have despised you!" You were, perhaps, once a drunk, yet He
   loved you! A swearer, yet He loved you! You had a furious temper, yet
   He loved you! And you have, even now, infirmities and imperfections
   that make you sometimes loathe yourself and lie down in shame, weary of
   life, chafed with the conflict in which you have to fight with such
   besetting sins day by day--evil thoughts and evil desires so degrading
   to your nature, so disgusting to yourself, so dishonoring to your God.
   Still, He says, "Yes, I have loved you." Come, Brothers and Sisters,
   hear the Word of God and heed it! Do not fritter away the sweetness of
   the text with annoying questions! Here it is. In large and legible
   letters it is written. Come to this wellhead and drink! Take your fill
   and slake your thirst with this Divine Love. If you believe in Jesus,
   what though you are poor, obscure, illiterate and compassed with
   infirmities which make you despise yourself, yet He who cannot lie
   says, "I have loved you." These words have been said to a
   Magdalene--they have been spoken to one possessed with seven
   devils--they were whispered in the heart of the dying thief! Within the
   tenfold darkness of despair, itself, they have sounded their note of
   cheer. Blessed be the name of the Lord, you and I can hear the voice of
   His Spirit, as He bears witness with our spirit, "Yes, I have loved
   you." What a disparity by Nature, what a conjunction by Grace between
   these two, the, "I," and the, "you"--the Infinite "I" and the
   insignificant "you"--the first Person so grand, the second person so
   paltry!

   Whenever I attempt to speak about God's love, I feel that I would
   rather hold my tongue, sit down to ponder and ask Believers to be kind
   enough to join me in meditation rather than wait upon my feeble
   expressions. If the love of God utterly surpasses human knowledge, how
   much more a mortal's speech? What is it He bestows? That God should be
   merciful to us is a theme for praise. That He should pity us is a cause
   for gratitude. But that He should love usis a subject for constant
   wonder, as well as praise and gratitude! Love us? Why, the beggars in
   the street may excite our pity, and towards the criminals in our jails
   we may be moved with compassion--but we feel we could not lovemany whom
   we would cheerfully help. Yet God loves those whom He has saved from
   their sins and delivered from the wrath to come! Between that great
   heart in Heaven and this poor throbbing, aching heart on earth there is
   love established--love of the dearest, truest, sweetest and most
   faithful kind! In fact, the love of woman, the mother's love, the love
   of the spouse--these are but the water--but the love of God is the
   wine! These are but the things of the earth, but the love of God is the
   celestial! The mother's love mirrors the love of God, as the dewdrop
   mirrors the sun, but as the dewdrop compasses not that mighty orb, so
   no love that beats in a human bosom can ever compass, as no words can
   express the height, length and breadth of the love of God which is in
   Christ Jesus our Lord!

   "Yes, I have loved you." Oh, come near then, Christian! Your Father, He
   that chastened you yesterday, loves you! He whom you forget so often
   and whom you have offended so constantly, yet loves you! You know what
   it is to love. Translate the love you bear to your dearest friend and
   look at it and say, "God loves me better than this." Do you think there
   are some you could die for cheerfully, whose pain you would freely take
   if you could ease them of it for a while, upon whose weary bed you
   would cheerfully lie down if a night of suffering could be spared him?
   Your Father loves you better than that and Jesus proves it to you! He
   took your sins, your sorrows, your death, your grave, that you might be
   pardoned, accepted and received into Divine favor--and so might live
   and be blessed forevermore!

   Passing on with our meditation, let us observe that there is
   incomparable strength, as well as inexhaustible sweetness in this
   assurance, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." That word,
   "everlasting," is the very marrow of the Gospel. Take it away, and you
   have robbed the sacred Oracle of its most Divine part! The love of God
   is "everlasting." The word bears three ideas within it. It has never
   had a beginning. God never began to love His people. Before Adam fell.
   Before man was made, or the mountains were brought forth. Before the
   blue heavens were stretched abroad, there were thoughts of love in His
   heart towards us! He began to create, He began actually to redeem--but
   He never began to love. It is eternal or "everlasting" love which glows
   in the bosom of God towards every one of His chosen people! Some of our
   hearers, strange to say, take no delight in this Doctrine. But if you
   know that everlasting love is yours, you will rejoice to hear it
   proclaimed again and again! You will welcome the joyful sound. Ah,
   God's love is no mushroom growth. It sprung not up yesterday, nor will
   it perish tomorrow but, like the eternal hills, it stands fast. You
   were loved of your God before He had fashioned Adam's clay, or ever
   this round world was rolled from between His palm to spin in its mighty
   orb! Long before the stars began to shine, before time was, when God
   dwelt in eternity all alone, He loved you, then, with an everlasting
   love!

   The second idea is that He loves His people without cessation. It would
   not be everlasting if it came now and then to a halt--if it were like
   the Australian rivers which flow on, become dry and flow on again. The
   love of God is not so. It swells and flows on like some mighty river of
   Europe or America, ever expanding, mighty, joyous river returning again
   into the eternal ocean from where it came. It never pauses. Christian,
   your God's love to you is always the same. He cannot love you more! He
   will not love you less! Never, when afflictions multiply, when terrors
   frighten you or when your distresses abound, does God's love falter or
   flag. Let the rod fall ever so heavily upon you, the hand that moves,
   like the heart that prompts the stroke, is full of love! Judge not the
   Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His Grace. Whether He brings
   you down into the depths of misery, or lifts you up into the seventh
   Heaven of delight, His faithful love never varies or fluctuates--it is
   everlasting in its continuity.

   And, being everlasting, the third thought is, it never ends. You will
   grow gray soon, but the love of God shall still have its locks bushy
   and black as a raven with the verdure of youth! You will die soon, but
   the love of God will not expire. Your spirit will mount and traverse
   unknown tracts but that love shall encompass you there! And at the bar
   of judgment, amidst the splendors of the Resurrection Morning in the
   Millennial Glory, and in the eternity that shall follow, the love of
   God shall be your unfailing portion! Never shall that love desert you.
   A destiny how splendid! For your soul an heritage, how boundless! Stand
   tonight on your Pisgah and lift up your eyes to the north, and the
   south, to the east and the west, for the infinite prospective that lies
   before you is all your own inheritance! God began not to love you, nor
   will He ever cease to love you! You are His and you shall be His when
   worlds shall pass away and time shall cease to be! There is infinitely
   more solace and satisfaction here than I can bring out. I must leave it
   with you and commend it to your meditation. I am sure there is no more
   delightful manna for the pilgrims in the wilderness to feed upon than
   this

   Doctrine applied to the heart! The love of God towards us personally in
   Jesus Christ is an everlasting love. Now we come to the second point,
   which is--

   II. THE UNMISTAKABLE MANIFESTATION, the manifestation by which this
   love is made known. Good peopleoften get puzzled with the Doctrine of
   Election. In their simplicity they sometimes ask, "How can we know
   whether we are the Lord's chosen, or ascertain if our names are written
   in the Lamb's Book of Life?" You cannot scan that mystic roll, or pry
   between those folded leaves. Had you an angel's wing and a seraph's
   eye, you could not read what God has written in His book! The Lord
   knows them that are His. No man shall know by any Revelation save that
   which the Holy Spirit gives according to my text. There is a way of
   knowing and it is this--"Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn
   you." Were you ever drawn? Have you been drawn with loving kindness If
   so, then there is evidence that the Lord loved you with an everlasting
   love! Be ready, therefore, to judge yourselves. You are challenged with
   this pointed question--Were you ever Divinely drawn? Say now, Beloved,
   have you experienced this sacred attraction that made you willing in
   the day of His power? Were you ever drawn from sin to holiness You
   loved sin once--in it you found much pleasure. There were some forms
   and fashions of vice and folly which were very dear to your heart. Have
   your tastes been changed and your track been turned by the Sovereign
   charm of this Divine loving kindness? Can you say, "The things I once
   loved, I now hate. And what gave me pleasure, now causes me a pang"? Is
   it so? I do not ask you whether you are perfect and upright. Alas, who
   of us could answer this question otherwise than with blushes of shame?
   But I do ask if you hate sin in every shape and desire holiness in
   every form? Would you be perfect if you could be? If you could live as
   you like, how would you like to live? Is your answer, "I would live as
   though it were possible for me to serve God day and night in His
   Temple, without a wandering thought or a rebellious wish"? Ah, then, if
   you have been thus drawn from sin to holiness by the way of the Cross,
   no doubt He loved you with an everlasting love and you need not
   discredit it! You may be as sure of it as if an angel should come and
   drop a letter into your hands on which those words would be inscribed!
   Yes, still surer, for the angel might have missed his way, but God's
   Word cannot err! If you are thus drawn, He has loved you with an
   everlasting love!

   Listen again. Have you ever been drawn from self to Jesus? There was a
   time when you thought yourself as good as other men. Had the bottom of
   your heart been searched, there would have been found written there, "I
   do not see that I am so great an offender as the most of my neighbors.
   I am respectable, upright, moral. I should hope it would speed well
   with me at the last, for if I am not, now, all that I should be, I
   shall try to be good and by earnest endeavors, joined with fervent
   prayers and repentance, I hope to fit myself for Heaven." Oh, that you
   may be drawn away from all such empty conceit and led to rest your hope
   solely on that blessed Man who sits at the right hand of God, crowned
   with Glory, though He was once fastened to the Cross, despised and
   rejected of men and made to suffer as a scapegoat for our sins! This,
   Beloved, would be a sure sign that you had renounced yourself and
   closed in with Christ. You must have been loved with an everlasting
   love. It is as impossible for any of the elect of God to come to Christ
   and lay hold on Him without Divine drawing, as it would be for devils
   to feel tenderness of heart and repentance towards God! If you can say
   from your heart--

   "Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Your Cross I cling,"then His
   drawing may suffice as the proving that He loved you with an
   everlasting love!

   Have you ever been drawn from sight to faith, from consulting your
   creature faculties to confidence in God? You used to depend only on
   what you called your common sense. You walked by the judgment of your
   own mind. Do you now trust in Him who truly is, though He is
   invisible--who speaks to you, though His voice is inaudible? Have you a
   sense, day by day, of the Presence of One Supreme whom you cannot hear
   nor see? Does the unseen Presence of God affect you in your actions? Do
   motives drawn from the next world influence you? Do you, in the day of
   trouble, lean upon an arm of flesh, or cry and pray, and make
   supplication to the Almighty? Have you learned to walk in dependence
   upon the living God, even if His Providence seems to fail you and gives
   a lie to His promises? Know, then, that a life of faith is a special
   gift of God--it is the fruit of Divine Protection so you are enabled to
   walk with God--and He deigns to befriend you so you may humbly but
   safely conclude that your name stands inscribed in the records of the
   chosen! To be drawn into a life of faith is a blessed evidence of
   Christ's love.

   Are you, moreover, day by day being drawn from earth to Heaven? Do you
   feel as if there were a magnet up there drawing your heart so that when
   you are at work in your business, in your family with all its cares,
   you cannot help darting a prayer up to the Most High? Do you ever feel
   this onward impulse of something you do not understand, which impels
   you to have fellowship with God beyond the skies? Oh, if this is so,
   rest assured that it is Christ that draws you! There is a link between
   you and Heaven--and Christ is drawing that link, and lifting your soul
   forward towards Himself. I love that sweet hymn and I hope you love the
   sentiment of it--

   "My heart is with Him on the Throne.

   And ill can brook delay!

   Each moment listening for the voice,

   'Make haste and come away!'"

   If your heart is here, below, then your treasure is here. But if your
   heart is up there--if your brightest hopes, your fondest wishes are in
   the heavenly places--your treasure is manifestly there and the
   title-deeds of that treasure will be found in the eternal purpose of
   God whereby He ordained you unto Himself that you might show forth His
   praise! Thus have I tried to show you that those who are thus drawn may
   be assured that they were loved with an everlasting love. And now will
   you further observe that it is with loving kindness they are drawn?

   Some people are frightened into religion. Beware of any religion that
   depends upon exciting your terror! Some people's religion consists
   entirely of doing what they think they must do, though they do not like
   it. They are afraid of punishment, or they are anxious for a reward.
   Such is not the religion of Jesus Christ! It is said that the soldiers
   of Persia were driven into battle and that the sound of the whips of
   the generals could be heard even while the battle was raging-- lashing
   on the unwilling ranks to fulfill their part in the fray! Not so went
   the Greeks to battle. They rushed like lions amidst a flock of sheep to
   tear their prey. They fought for their country, for their temples, for
   their lives, for all that they held dear--and right cheerily from such
   an impulse within did they engage in the war. The difference between
   the Greeks and the Persians is just the difference I want to describe
   among the professed followers of our Lord. The genuine Christian serves
   God because he loves Him, not that he fears Hell, for he knows that he
   has been delivered from condemnation, being washed in Jesus' blood! He
   serves God not that he expects to earn Heaven--he scorns the idea.
   Heaven is not to be merited by our poor paltry works. And besides,
   Heaven is his inheritance since Christ has given it to him, having made
   his title sure! He serves God because he loves Him. He is drawn by a
   sense of the love of God towards him to love God in return. Who is the
   best servant? Not, surely, the man who only does what he is paid to
   do--who serves you for his wage and who would betray your interest to
   benefit himself! Rather is he the true servant who would cling to you
   in all your fortunes or misfortunes, through good or through evil
   report.

   Some of the old-fashioned servants were so attached to their masters
   that they were reckoned on and regarded as members of the family. Those
   are the true servants of Christ who love Him and render Him their
   services, not menially for the pay they count upon, but loyally because
   their hearts are faithful and true to Him! They love Him so that they
   could not turn aside from Him, or seek another Lord. Say now, are you
   thus drawn with loving kindness? What a lovely word this, "loving
   kindness," is! "Kindness," seems to be like some huge opal or some
   sparkling diamond, a Koh-I-Noor, and love seems to be like fine gold to
   encircle it! I think I could stand and look at that word, "loving
   kindness," till with sacred enchantment I burst into a song! There is
   such a charming sweetness and yet such an immutable stability in the
   Grace of God which it reveals that our rapture is kindled as often as
   we review it! Of that loving kindness I have tasted here below and of
   that loving kindness I hope to sing in yonder skies in worthier notes
   than this weak voice can now compass! The loving kindness of the Lord,
   as it beams from His eyes, as it is communicated by His helping hands,
   as it is expressed by His gentle, tender voice, quickens the soul in
   the path of duty and restrains it from falling into sin! How can I do
   this great wickedness, how can I sin against so almighty a Friend whose
   kindness to me is so gratuitous, so constant, and so exceedingly
   generous?--

   "Now for the love I bear His name,

   What was my gain, I count my loss!

   My former pride I call my shame,

   And nail my glory to His Cross.

   Yes, and I must and will esteem

   All things but loss for Jesus' sake!

   Oh, may my soul be found in Him And of His righteousness partake!"

   Thus clearly and thus surely may you judge for yourselves whether you
   are God's chosen or not. Are you drawn and how are you drawn? Is it
   with loving kindness? These are the two points that melt and fuse in
   experience. As before that God whose eyes of fire search you through
   and through, I do conjure you to judge and righteously judge right now
   as to your own condition! Be not satisfied to rest peacefully until you
   can say, "Thanks and praise to God's eternal love, I am drawn by Grace!
   By Divine Grace I am constrained. From now on I freely yield myself up
   to Christ to be His servant, His disciple, His friend, His brother,
   forever and forever. The Lord has appeared unto me, saying, 'Yes, I
   have loved you with an everlasting love.'"

   Do I hear a sigh come up from some in this assembly? A sigh which,
   being interpreted, would say, "Alas, for me this sacred solace was
   never mine! I was never drawn. I feel no love, no such melting favors
   as your description of loving kindness ever dawned on me. But, ah, I
   wish I were drawn, that I had a part among that blessed throng who
   shall forever see His face! Oh, that I could believe that I, though the
   meanest of them all, should find my name written in the Lamb's Book of
   Life!" Why Friend, with you it would seem the drawing has begun! Surely
   God's loving kindness has made your mouth water! I rejoice exceedingly
   over those who hunger after the Bread of Life, for they shall speedily
   be filled! Right well I know my Master will give it to them. If you
   desire Christ, depend upon it, Christ desires you! No sinner was ever
   beforehand with Christ. When you are willing to have Him, He is
   evidently willing to have you! You had not put out one hand towards Him
   if He had not already put two hands on you! Oh, if you will but trust
   the bleeding Lamb--believe that He can save you--and trust in Him to
   save you with unfeigned confidence, then you are already drawn! This is
   proof positive that God has loved you from before the world's
   beginning!

   Oh, how I would that some might be drawn tonight! Some who have been
   great and grievous sinners. There are many such among the chosen
   vessels of mercy. God grant some of you young people may be drawn. And
   you who, though no longer young, are still without the blessing, I
   cannot bear the thought that you should tarry longer uncalled by
   Sovereign Grace. May the Holy Spirit attract you! May you feel in your
   heart the wish to belong to Christ--the desire to be counted among them
   when He makes up His jewels. Turn that wish into a prayer! Bow your
   head, now, and pray with this petition. God will hear your secret
   sighs. He does not reject sincere prayers, however badly they may be
   worded. If you can get no further than a sigh, it has its value in His
   kind esteem. The tear that fell just now upon the floor of the pew was
   not lost, for an angel tracked and treasured it and carried it on high.
   God will accept you if you will accept Christ. If you trust Jesus now,
   'tis done! You are saved! The moment a sinner believes and trusts in
   Christ, he is saved--saved forever! In that moment his iniquity is
   blotted out and he is accepted in the Beloved. From that moment he
   might sing--

   "'Tis done, the great transaction's done! I am my Lord's and He is
   mine! He drew me and I followed on, Glad to obey the voice Divine!"

   The Lord appear to you, speak to you and bless you, saying to you,
   "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving
   kindness have I drawn you." Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 7:13-23.

   13, 14. Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and
   broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are which go
   in there because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leads
   unto life, and few there are that find it Be up and on your journey.
   Enter in at the gate at the head of the way and do not stand
   hesitating. If it is the right road, you will find the entrance
   somewhat difficult and exceedingly narrow, for it demands self-denial
   and calls for strictness of obedience and watchfulness of spirit.
   Nevertheless, "enter you in at the strait gate." Whatever its drawbacks
   of fewness of pilgrims, or straitness of entrance, yet choose it and
   use it! True, there is another road, broad and much frequented--but it
   leads to destruction. Men go to ruin along the turnpike road but the
   Way to Heaven is a bridle path. There may come other days when the many
   will crowd the narrow way, but at this time, to be a popular road, it
   must be broad--broad in doctrine, so-called, in morals and in
   spirituals. But those on the strait road shall go straight to

   Glory--and those on the broad road are all abroad. All is well that
   ends well! We can afford to be straitened in the right way rather than
   enlarged in the wrong way because the first ends in endless life and
   the second hastens down to everlasting death! Lord, deliver me from the
   temptation to be "broad," and keep me in the narrow way, though few
   find it!

   15. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
   inwardly they are ravenous wolves. We have need of our judgments and we
   must try the spirits of those who profess to be sent of God. There are
   men of great gifts who are "false prophets.'' These affect the look,
   language and spirit of God's people, while really they long to devour
   souls, even as wolves thirst for the blood of sheep. "Sheep's clothing"
   is all very fine, but we must look beneath it and spy out the wolves! A
   man is what he is inwardly. We had need beware. This precept is timely
   at this hour. We must be careful, not only about our way, but about our
   leaders! They come to us--they come as prophets--they come with every
   outward commendation but they are very Balaams and will surely curse
   those they pretend to bless!

   16. You shallknow them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from
   thorns, or figs from thistles?Their teaching, their living and their
   effect upon our minds will be a sure test to us. Every doctrine and
   doctrinaire may thus be tried. If we gather grapes from them, they are
   not thorns. If they produce nothing but thistledown, they are not fig
   trees. Some object to this practical method of test, but wise
   Christians will carry it with them as the ultimate touchstone. What is
   the effect of modern theology upon the spirituality, the prayerfulness,
   the holiness of the people? Has it any good, effect?

   17. 18. Even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt
   tree brings forth evil fruit A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
   neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Every man produces
   according to his nature, he cannot do otherwise. Good tree, good fruit.
   Corrupt tree, evil fruit. There is no possibility of the effect being
   higher and better than the cause. The truly good does not bring forth
   evil--it would be contrary to its nature. The radically bad never rises
   to produce good, though it may seem to do so. Therefore, the one and
   the other may be known by the special fruit of each. Our King is a
   great Teacher of prudence. We are not to judge, but we are to know--and
   the rule for this knowledge is as simple as it is safe. Such knowledge
   of men may save us from great mischief which would come to us through
   associating with bad and deceitful persons.

   19. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast
   into the fire. Here is the end to which evil things are tending. The ax
   and the fire await the ungodly, however fine they may look with the
   foliage of profession. Only let time enough be given and every man on
   earth who bears no good fruit will meet his doom! It is not merely the
   wicked, the bearer of poison berries, that will be cut down, but the
   neutral, also--the man who bears no fruit of positive virtue must also
   be cast into the fire!

   20. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. It is not ours to
   hew or to burn, but it is ours to know. This knowledge is to save us
   from coming under the shadow or influence of false teachers. Who wants
   to build his nest upon a tree which is soon to be cut down? Who would
   choose a barren tree for the center of his orchard? Lord, let me
   remember that I am to judge myself by this rule. Make me a true
   fruit-bearing tree.

   21. Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enterinto the
   Kingdom ofHeaven, but he that does the will of My Father who is in
   Heaven. No verbal homage will suffice! "Not everyone that says." We may
   believe in our Lord's Deity and we may take great pains to affirm it
   over and over again with our, "Lord, Lord"--but unless we carry out the
   commands of the Father, we pay no true homage to the Son! We may
   acknowledge our obligations to Jesus and so call Him, "Lord, Lord"--but
   if we never practically carry out those obligations, what is the value
   of our admissions? Our King receives not into His Kingdom those whose
   religion lies in words and ceremonies, but only those whose lives
   display the obedience of true discipleship!

   22. 23. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
   prophesied in Your name? And in Your name have cast out devils? And in
   Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them,
   I never knew you: depart from Me, you who workiniquity!An orthodox
   creed will not save if it stands alone, neither will it be sure to do
   so if accompanied by official position and service. These people said,
   "Lord, Lord," and, in addition, pleaded their prophesying or preaching
   in His name. All the preaching in the world will not save the preacher
   if he does not practice what he preaches! Yes, and he may have been
   successful--successful to a very high degree--"and in Your name have
   cast out devils"--and yet, without personal holiness, he who casts out
   devils will be cast out himself! The success boasted of many have had
   about it surprising circumstances of varied interest--"and in Your name
   done many wonderful works"--and yet the man may be unknown to Christ!
   Three times over the person is described as doing all "in Your name,"
   and yet the Lord, whose name he used so freely, so boldly, knew nothing
   of him and would not allow him to remain in His company! The Lord
   cannot endure the presence of those who call Him, "Lord, Lord," and
   then work iniquity! They professed to Him that they knew Him, but He
   will "profess unto them, I never knew you." How solemn is this reminder
   to me and to others! Nothing will prove us to be true Christians but a
   sincere doing of the Father's will! We may be known by all to have
   great spiritual power over devils and men--yet our Lord may not
   acknowledge us in that Great Day, but may drive us out as impostors
   whom He cannot tolerate in His Presence!
     __________________________________________________________________

Peter Walking on the Sea

   (No. 3562)

   A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1917.

   DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, bid me come unto
   You on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out
   of the ship, he walked on the water. But when he saw the wind
   boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying
   Lord, save me!" Matthew 14:28-31.

   A FEW reflections will be sure to cross the mind of any thoughtful
   reader of this narrative.

   I. THE MIXED CHARACTER OF THE BELIEVER'S EXPERIENCE is here very
   palpably suggested to us. Peter was undoubtedly a bold believer in
   Jesus Christ. He addresses his Master devoutly, calling Him, "Lord"--a
   name of reverence, the use of which evidences the change that had been
   worked in his character, and the obedient spirit it had produced. But
   the misgivings implied in that, "if--"if it is You"--savors rather of
   unbelief! And yet we find this hesitancy immediately followed by an
   expression of such strong confidence that we marvel at the request he
   uttered, "Bidme come to You on the water."Then cheered by the Lord's
   prompt answer, "Come," we find him showing his courage by descending
   from the vessel, setting foot on the sea and actually walking on the
   water! Thus did he participate in the wonder which Christ worked and
   share in the miracle of subduing the elements. His valor, however, soon
   evaporates. For, "when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was
   afraid." The faith that buoyed him up gave place to a fear that bowed
   him down. He who was walking on the liquid wave, one instant, is
   sinking beneath the surge the next! The gallant cry, "Bid me come to
   You on the water," is quickly exchanged for the grievous wail, "Lord,
   save me!" So great his pluck, so dire his panic! And is this a common
   experience? Are all God's people thus subject to changes--alternating
   between calm trust and cowardly fear? Can they be neither one thing or
   the other--neither altogether believing or totally unbelieving? We
   think it is even so. We will not say how much frailty of the creature
   is mixed up with fealty to Christ in the best of men, nor how far the
   Grace of God may protect us from the guilt of double-dealing in the
   conduct of our lives. But we do mournfully confess that in our own
   experience, the good and the evil contend for the mastery and,
   sometimes, it seems but the turning of a hair which shall vanquish!
   Fully assured, though, we are that the new life which has been
   implanted in us will ultimately gain the victory, but not less fully
   conscious are we that disasters and defeats are constantly occurring on
   our path to triumph.

   Our trophies are never won without troubles. He that knows anything, it
   seems to me, of what it is to live by faith, will find throughout his
   earthly career a continual conflict. He may never fall so low as to
   doubt his interest in Christ, yet he may sometimes wet his couch with
   tears and wonder if God has forgotten to be gracious. He may be enabled
   to hold on his way for years without a slur on his character, yet will
   he often have to engage in such terrible struggles against inbred
   sin--and to endure such sore pressure from troubles without--that he is
   compelled to cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me
   from the body of this death?" One day you may be on Tabor's summit
   witnessing your Master's Transfiguration, and another day you may be in
   the Valley of Humiliation, groaning in spirit, diminished and brought
   low through oppression, affliction and sorrow! One day you may be as
   strong as a giant and all things seem possible to you--and another day
   you may be as weak as a baby and weep for the joys that are fled! You
   may one day "surname yourself by the name of Israel" and another day
   call yourself, "the worm Jacob," fearing lest you should be trodden
   down by the common ills of life and utterly crushed! Our way to Heaven
   is uphill and downhill. Our life is made of checkered materials--it is
   not all of one fabric. Sometimes full of hope, we bound forward with
   elastic step--soon the sun ceases to shine, the big raindrops fall, the
   vapors rise and we sit down with folded arms and fixed eyes, wearing a
   sad, leaden cast! As in our experience, so in our nature, good and evil
   meet, but cannot blend--they areat constant variance. I mention this
   well-known fact because it may serve to comfort some of the younger
   sort who but of late have begun to go on pilgrimage. They fancied that
   since they were born-again, and enlisted in Christ's army, they would
   never afterward have to fight with sin within--though, perhaps, they
   might be tempted--their soul would never give any consent to it. They
   boasted when they put on the harness, as though they had taken it off.
   They sowed today and they expected to reap their harvest tomorrow! They
   had scarcely got loose from the shore, yet they expected to soon reach
   the port. When the vessel is a little buffeted and heaved to and fro by
   contrary winds, they cannot understand it! Beloved, it is so with all
   of us! Those saints of God who appear to you to be favored with
   perpetual sunshine could tell you quite another tale. Some whom God
   highly honors in public, He often deeply humbles in private. He has a
   way of taking His children behind the door and making them see some of
   the abominations within them, while at the same time He is giving them
   to see the beauties of Christ and enabling them to feed on Him. Do not
   think that yours is an extreme case because your spiritual life is one
   of much contest with sin. So far from being extreme, I believe it is
   but a specimen of the way in which the Lord deals with all His beloved
   ones.

   There I leave that first observation. Peter is at one moment confident,
   another instant he is dismayed. At one moment he is treading the waves
   like a miracle worker, and the next instant he is sinking like an
   ordinary being! And so it is with us--sometimes aloft, and soon crying
   out of the depths, "Lord, save me!"

   And for our second reflection, we observe that--

   II. FAITH LOVES VENTURESOME SERVICE.

   Peter, when full of faith, said to his Master, "Lord, if it is You, bid
   me come to You upon the water." Faith seems to have a secret instinct
   revealing her military and royal character. In the old wars of Troy we
   read of one who, being told by a prophet that the war would not be to
   his honor, sought to escape from the Greek ranks and hid himself among
   the daughters of the king. But he was discovered by Ulysses, who sent a
   peddler, or one disguised as such, to sell various wares--and while the
   maidens at the gate came to buy the various trinkets in which they
   delighted, there was placed in the basket a trumpet, or a sword, and
   the young hero, disguised as he was, yet let out his taste and chose
   the warlike implement. It was his nature to do so--and he was
   discovered by the choice! Now, amidst ten thousand allurements, faith
   is quite certain to choose that which appertains to boldness and to
   venturesomeness. John is full of love, he stays in the vessel. But
   Peter abounds in faith and he must be doing some high action congruous
   to the nature of faith and, therefore, he says, "Lord, if it is You,
   bid me come unto You on the water." That is the kind of thing for faith
   to do. Anybody can walk on the land, but faith is a water-walker!She
   can do, and act, and work where others fail. Remember it is not said in
   Scripture that faith will pluck up mustards seeds, or that it will
   remove molehills. These little things are not the sphere for faith, but
   it is written, "You shall say unto this mountain, Be you moved from
   here; or this sycamore tree, Be plucked up by the roots." Faith loves
   to deal in great things, in marvelous adventures, in projects beyond
   human power! We are not to come to God and ask Him to do for us what we
   can do for ourselves. There is no room for the exercise of faith where
   reason and human strength will suffice. Faith is a vessel expressly
   built for the deep seas. She is not a coaster, to keep close to the
   shore--she pushes out where she can neither see the shore nor fathom
   the depth--for she has a compass on board, and she looks up to the
   stars which God has fixed for her guidance! She has, too, a blessed
   Pilot, so she feels herself secure and all at home in the wild waste of
   waters, with no human eyes to gaze upon her, and no human hands to
   help.

   "If it is You," said Peter, "let me come to You on the water." If you
   have faith in God and that faith is in active exercise, I am persuaded
   you will feel an instinct within you prompting you to dare something
   more than others have ventured to attempt, eager to honor Jesus Christ
   more than anyone else would think possible, who had little faith or no
   faith at all! What a blessed instinct it is which impels some of our
   Brothers, as it frequently has done, to leave their native country and
   go out to preach the Gospel in regions beyond the sea! Not building
   upon another man's foundation, but, like the bold Apostle, seeking to
   extend the bounds of Immanuel's Kingdom. How blessed it is when some
   Brother or Sister finds it in their heart to consecrate more of their
   substance than is ordinary to the Lord's work, not grudging what they
   can spare, but glorying over what they can sacrifice! Yes, and blessed
   it is when faith kindles to furnace heat and stimulates one to
   undertake a work for which he, alone, would be incompetent. God
   preserve such a man! How I rejoice at every mention of our brother
   Muller at Bristol! What lessons of trust in God's promise and His
   Providence has he taught to Christians and Christian Churches! How
   graciously has Christ made him to walk on the water! How securelyhas he
   sped his course these many years as safe on the flowing current of
   subscriptions as if he were proceeding on the solid bases of a rich
   endowment! How wonderfully his orphanage has been supported! He walks
   on waves in very truth! This sole dependence upon the eternal
   Providence of a faithful God is indispensable to us. I trust we are not
   entire strangers to it in our measure and degree. It is no novelty to
   us to put our foot down on what we thought to be a cloud, and find that
   God had placed a rock there, to walk right on in the dark, and see the
   midnight turn to noonday--to rest on the invisible and prove it to be
   more substantial than the visible--to depend upon the naked promise of
   the Covenant-Keeping God and reap greater riches than all the treasures
   that could come from relying on an arm of flesh! Faith then, is a
   venturesome thing and if any of you have not yet been nerved with
   courage because you believed, I pray that your faith may grow till you
   feel compelled to attempt more than of your own unaided strength you
   can possibly do!

   Brothers and Sisters, undertake something for Christ. Is there a
   Brother here who ought to preach, but is too timid? I hope his faith
   will overcome his diffidence. Is there a Sister here who ought to take
   a class in the school, but she is shy and hesitant? I hope her faith in
   the Savior will get fresh impetus from her love to souls. "Such trust
   have we through Christ to Godward." Oh, that you may all be urged by
   strong convictions to attempt something in His service! And may you be
   taught by the Holy Spirit to set about it wisely! And may you be
   enabled by that sufficiency which is of God to do it effectually!
   Though you may often have stumbled, in plain paths, you shall be able
   to walk on the water in safety when and where Jesus bids you! I say
   this advisedly, for, venturesome as Peter's faith was, he would not
   make a move without first having the Master's permission. "If it is
   You, bid me." We must not fondly imagine that we can do whatever we
   choose, but we may fairly expect that whenever God allots us a work, He
   will give us adequate Grace to accomplish it. Peter walking on the sea
   without Divine Permission would be a presumption to attempt and an
   impossibility to perform! But Peter, with Christ's assurance, might
   have walked across the Atlantic, itself, if his faith had not failed!

   So it is with you. If your Lord has called you to a work, rely upon Him
   for the power to achieve it--He will not forsake you! But if it is
   merely your own whim or caprice which has thrust you into a position
   for which you are not qualified, you have no right to reckon upon the
   Divine Aid to speed your false steps! Blessed is he who goes to his
   Father and asks His counsel, for he shall always find that where God
   gives us guidance, He will give us Grace!

   But--

   III. FAITH REALLY DOES WORK WONDERS.

   This is our third observation. Peter came down from the vessel. I think
   I see him bounding over the bulwarks. How strange he must have felt
   when that water in which he had been so often swimming became as solid
   marble under his feet! How elated he must have felt--a man with his
   temperament would naturally feel--when he began to walk and found the
   water like a sea of glass beneath his tread! It was a marvelous thing
   to do. Others have made their way through the sea, but Peter walked
   over it. The laws of gravitation were suspended for his support!
   Picture the scene. What Jesus was doing, Peter was doing. Faith made
   Peter to be like his Lord. There were two walking, the one by His own
   Infinite Power, the other by the power imparted to him--the power of
   faith!

   Remember that faith will make any of us like Christ. "He that believes
   on Me, the works that I do shall he do also," said the Master, "and
   greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father." It
   does often seem impossible in certain conditions to act in a
   Christ-like spirit, but faith can make you walk the waves of the sea!
   Your Lord was patient in poverty--faith can make you walk that wave and
   be patient and contented, too! Christ was loving and gentle under the
   most fearful and multiplied provocations--faith can give you that same
   gentleness of spirit and lowliness of mind--you can walk those billows,
   too! Our Lord, in the midst of prosperity, refused worldly honor. When
   they sought to make Him a king, He hid Himself from the temptation. And
   you in the high places of the earth, tempted by wealth, with flattery
   poured into your ears, may still walk, as Jesus did, safely through it
   all if you have but faith in God, faith in the blessed Spirit, faith in
   Him who is always with you, even to the end of the world! There is
   nothing Christ did, except the great Atoning work, which His people
   shall not do in and through Him, by the exercise of their faith! What a
   blessing it would be if God's people really believed the power that
   lies in them by the energy of faith! So many of us give up, succumb,
   lie down as if we were weak--but we are not weak. When we are weak in
   ourselves, then are we strong! This is no empty fiction, but a certain
   fact--we are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Let not,
   therefore, the Believer think that he can only do what another man can
   do. He is of a nobler race! God dwells in him! Oh, what a glorious
   thought that is--God dwelling in a man! That wonderful word,
   "enthusiasm"--so often turned to ridicule and used as a term of
   reproach--what does it mean but God in a man? Enthusiasm! When God is
   thoroughly in a man and the man knows it, then he is not cowed or put
   back by difficulties, or daunted by sneers! He is not so mindful of his
   feebleness as to excuse himself from effort, or to imagine that he can
   do nothing. In the confidence of that power which inspires him, he
   marches boldly on, fully assured that victory awaits him--and for that
   victory he rests not till he realizes it--it is given to his
   confidence! So does God requite and reward the man that puts his trust
   in Him. May we always have enough of faith to be doing wonders. Some
   poor souls have enough faith to carry them to Heaven. Others have just
   enough faith to maintain decent character. But he shall be honored of
   God who has such implicit, heroic and enduring faith that he can dare
   jeopardize, do exploits and bear sufferings because his Lord is with
   him! We must attempt some things which look like impossibilities, or we
   shall never keep up the espritof the true soldiers of the Cross. We
   pass on to make a fourth remark.

   IV. INTO THE SOUL OF THE MOST FAITHFUL AND CONFIDENT DISCIPLE, UNBELIEF
   GENERALLY

   FINDS SOME DOOR OR OTHER FOR ENTRANCE.

   Peter had looked at the waves and his faith was just strong enough to
   believe that Jesus could make him walk on the sea, but he had never
   taken the winds into his calculation! Had he thought of the winds as
   well as the waves, and reposed upon Jesus for the whole, I have no
   doubt his faith would have held out and not have so fearfully given
   way. The first two or three steps on the water had exhilarated him and
   made him feel what wonders he was doing--but there came a rough blast
   which threatened to overthrow him--and as he could scarcely stand
   against so rude a wind upon so slippery a floor he began to be afraid.
   Something occurred which he had not foreseen and in strange surprise,
   he yielded to blank unbelief! Thus it often comes to pass with us. We
   arrange our faith according to our estimate of the perils and
   perplexities that lie in our path. We even plan the events that will
   probably happens to us and we feel sure that we can trust God in all
   these circumstances--but a fresh contingency arises upon which we had
   never reckoned, a wind which we had not thought of--and forthwith our
   courage fails, we do not trust God for that! I wish we had a faith
   which was free from arithmetic and totally independent of weights and
   measures--a faith that trusted God for ten thousand things as readily
   as for one--that would rest upon God for a century as securely as for a
   day! I wish we had a faith that would just cast itself, sink or swim,
   into the sea--believing in God that whether the winds were blowing or
   not, whether the waves were raging or not--everything is easy to
   Omnipotence, and nothing can compromise the faithfulness of the Most
   High. But, alas, my Brothers and Sisters, we are always being startled
   by some new prodigies! Perhaps we are too fond of calculating changes,
   predicting probabilities and forestalling the future. Hence comes our
   chagrin when we are frustrated or disappointed. If we walked on,
   leaving everything to His Divine Decree and watchful Providence,
   confiding in our heavenly Father's wisdom and His love, we need never
   be amazed or bewildered--our faith would be equal to any rumor or riot
   that might arise!

   Just as unbelief introduced into Peter's mind a terror of the wind, and
   upset him at once, so the devil has ways of finding some point or other
   upon which to overthrow our faith. I have sometimes been full of joy in
   the Lord and I have usually noticed that depression of spirits almost
   invariably follows--and that from some circumstance which at other
   times would not have caused me the slightest disturbance! Satan knows
   how to use any trivial thing to spoil the luster of our faith and the
   placidity of our joy. With what subtlety he will assail you! A
   difficulty you have been laboring under may have been removed by God's
   Providence. You may be very grateful and ready to set up your stone of
   thankfulness, and to praise the name of the Lord. Soon a new difficulty
   will be suggested. While you are blessing God for all His mercy, all of
   a sudden some trouble like a squall occurs! It may not be worth
   mentioning, but it will assume such strange proportions that it covers
   up all your joys and leaves you a prey to unbelief! How watchful we
   ought to be against unbelief, for of all sins, this is one of the most
   heinous! Like Jeroboam, of whom we read that he sinned and made Israel
   to sin, unbelief is itself a sin and becomes the parent of all sorts of
   sins. We sometimes talk to one another about our doubts and fears as if
   they were infirmities to be pitied rather than crimes to be loathed,
   but we seldom talk to each other about the delinquencies of our
   conduct, such as angry tempers, hasty words, harsh judgments,
   unbecoming levity, or lax conversation. No, we would be ashamed to
   confess transgressions that are far too common among people professing
   godliness. Why is it that we do not blush to acknowledge our doubts
   that mistrust God and our fears that stagger at His promise? Are they
   not quite as much sins against the commandment of the Lord and the duty
   of every faithful Christian as drunkenness, or dishonesty, or any
   offense against the moral law? To doubt the faithfulness of God is
   atrocious! Who can estimate theamount of virus there is in the sin of
   unbelief? It would stab at the very heart of God! It would pluck the
   crown from the head of Jehovah! Let us hate unbelief with all our
   hearts and watch against it. Remember that it can attack us from any
   quarter of the compass unless we keep perpetual guard. Those of us who
   have been boldest in the Lord's battle, and foremost in His service,
   may yet be overtaken with this sin, succumb to its debasing influence
   and be left in the rear, shorn of honor and covered with shame! And now
   for a fifth reflection--

   V. IF AT ANY TIME FAITH SEEMS TO BE OVERTURNED BY AN INVASION OF
   UNBELIEF, IT THEN

   SHOWS ITS TRUE CONQUERING CHARACTER.

   Peter was soon made to doubt, but with what ease did he begin to pray!
   I like to think of the spontaneous character of Peter's prayer. He
   begins to sink and he prays in a minute! He no sooner finds himself
   going down, than he says, "Lord, save me!" This shows what a living
   thing his faith was. It might not always walk the water, but it could
   always pray, and that is the better thing of the two! Your faith may
   not always make you rejoice, but if your faith can always make you
   trust the precious blood, that is all you need! Your faith may not
   always take you to the top of the mountain, and bathe your forehead in
   the sunlight of God's Countenance, but if your faith enables you to
   keep on the straight road that leads to eternal life, you may bless God
   for that! To walk on water is not an essential characteristic of faith,
   but to pray when you begin to sink, is! To do great wonders for Christ
   is not indispensable to your soul's being saved, but to have the
   faculty of always turning the heart to Him in time of distress is one
   of the sure marks of Divine Grace in the soul. I am sure Peter did not
   intone his prayer on that occasion. I am quite certain that he did not
   believe in having to search for music to which to set that prayer. It
   just came up from his heart. And are not these the very best prayers,
   that well up from the soul, freely flowing forth from the lips because
   the heart compels the tongue to speak? The heart, knowing its own
   bitterness, reveals it unto the Most High. Beloved, are you prayerful
   in such a respect as that? I think it is a blessed plan to set apart
   time for prayer, and so to take your half-hour, or your hour, as you
   may be able, for secret devotion, but better than the set time for
   prayer is the spiritof prayer. While a regular habit of prayer is a
   great help to piety, the spiritof prayer promotes habitual, continual
   communion with God!

   I once asked, down at Wootton-Under-Edge, where Mr. Rowland Hill's
   study was, and they told me that was a question which they could not
   answer. "Why, how is that? Did he never study his sermons? Oh, yes, he
   was always studying his sermons--it did not matter whether he was in
   the parlor or in the paddock, attending to his correspondence, or
   looking after the cows, going out into the village to buy goods, or
   walking in the garden amidst flowers and fruits--he was always studying
   his sermons, so that he was one of the readiest of preachers! That is
   one of the best habits that a man can cultivate. So they said it was
   with his prayers. He was not a man who shut himself up for prayer, but
   he seemed to be always praying wherever he went! He would be often
   heard saying true prayers when others fancied his mind must be full of
   other thoughts. The story that is related of him at Mr. George
   Clayton's chapel in York Street, you will, most of you, remember, for I
   have repeated it several times. After he had been preaching, he
   lingered about the building so long that the pew-opener went to him and
   told him that it was time to close the place. The old gentleman was
   found tottering round the pews singing to himself--

   "And when I shall die,

   'Receive me,' I'll cry!

   For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why.

   But this thing I find,

   We two are so joined,

   That He won't be in Glory and leave me behind."

   This peculiar practice of conversing, as it were, with oneself--of
   repeating texts of Scripture or verses of hymns, the propensity to pray
   with the heart and lift up the thoughts continually to God--well, it
   seems to me an indication of spi-ritual-mindedness above any common
   level! "Know," says David, "that the Lord has set apart him that is
   godly for Himself." But how should the man thus set apart behave
   himself? The Psalmist will tell you, "Commune with your own heart upon
   your bed and be still." Oh, for a mind always active, never stagnant,
   always tranquil! Oh, for the wings of a dove! Take a pigeon. Put it
   away in a cage--send it a distance in the country. Keep it there
   awhile. Then, on a certain day, let it loose--you will soon know where
   its home is, for it mounts up, flies its circuit, takes its bearings,
   surveys its course,and then away it pursues its trip through the air
   till it reaches the dear old dove-cote! Does your soul make its way to
   the ark, and return to its rest with a like sacred instinct? All
   through the day you may be taken up with many cares. The shop or the
   warehouse, the nursery or the kitchen, may be your cage. There comes a
   moment when you are let loose and you get free. Where does your soul
   fly? Flies it off like a dove, to its resting place? When it see the
   crows on the wing, if anybody asked me what trips they were taking, I
   could not tell them. But if they would wait till evening I would
   quickly solve the riddle, for then they would be quite sure to be
   seeking their nests. Does your heart, in the time of trouble, fly away
   to God? Does your spirit in the hour of distress seek the Rock of
   Refuge and speed to the Great Deliverer? Then are you like Peter! You
   may not always walk on the waves, but you can always say, "Lord, save
   me!" Can you say that from your very soul, resting on the Savior's
   mighty arm? Then you have the essence of a faith which will lead you
   through growth in Grace up to the perfection of Glory!

   VI. OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS EQUALLY KIND, BOTH TO STRONG FAITH AND TO
   LITTLE FAITH.

   Strong faith says, "Bid me come to You on the water." Now Christ
   sometimes refuses to answer prayer after its own kind. The prayer of
   anger, in which James and John entreated that fire might come down from
   Heaven to destroy the Samaritans, He rejected. The prayer of ambition,
   when the two sons of Zebedee craved a place, one on His right hand and
   the other on the left, in His Kingdom, was denied. But the prayer of
   faith, though it looked bold and venturesome, our Lord received
   graciously and answered speedily! "Bid me come to You on the water."
   "Come," said Jesus. Is strong faith represented here by any of you? If
   you ask a great thing of God, you shall have it!If you have but faith
   in Jesus, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you,
   for the desire of the righteous shall be granted. "Delight yourself,
   also, in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."
   Have you a great plan of usefulness! Have you an intense anxiety for
   soul-winning! Have you a strong yearning for the evangelization of your
   district! Believe, fear not to tempt fortune, for all things are
   possible to him who believes! The hands of Christ are pledged to faith.
   He will honor the trust you repose in Him. If you will but repose in
   Him, He cannot, will not deny you. True faith is His own work. If He
   has worked the prayer in you, He will surely answer it. Go forth, then,
   in this, your might of faith, and the Lord be with you!

   But perceive you not how kind He also was to little faith?No sooner
   does Peter begin to sink and cry, "Save me," than there is manifest
   good will and quick help in the Savior's movement. "Immediately Jesus
   stretched forth His hand and caught him." Our Lord did not pause to
   parley. He did not upbraid him, or say, "Peter, you have dishonored Me
   by your unbelief." He did not accuse him harshly, rebuke him sternly,
   or punish him severely, leaving him to go down twice, and pulling him
   up the third time thus inflicting in him the pangs of death without its
   extreme penalty. Ah, no, the prompt help was ready for the pressing
   emergency. The sinking one was made to stand. After that He said, "O
   you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Christ gives liberally and
   upbraids not--or when He does upbraid, it is always after His large
   generosity has abated the grievance. He gives the choice portion and
   then chastens us for our profit. He does not make us wait till we are
   submerged again and again, but He listens at once to the feeble cry of
   His sinking servants, and not till after He has delivered them does He
   expostulate with them. Aesop tells a story of a man who saw a boy
   drowning, and sat on the shore and lectured him upon the imprudence of
   venturing beyond his depth. And there are some people who do the same
   with poor sinking souls! They tell them of what they ought to have
   done, of what they have not done, and of what they ought now to do,
   which they cannot do--but they do not stretch out their hand to help
   them. They observe the burden which is too heavy to be borne, but they
   lift not a finger to lighten it! Our Lord takes off the burden first,
   sets His servant on his feet and then gives him a word of counsel or of
   rebuke. Go to Him, then, Little Faith! Go to Him before you retire to
   your rest. Tell your Savior of the grief that distracts you, of the woe
   that overwhelms you. Confess your sins, acknowledge your inability to
   rescue yourself and cast yourself, now, upon the gracious promise of
   the loving God! Whether you are strong or weak, my Brother, my Sister,
   repair to the same place, for Jesus stands at the gate of mercy's house
   willing to receive all those who come to Him!

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW14:25-27.

   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 mustcome." 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 sea." 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 Yes, the
   disciples saw Him--they 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. Lack of
   discernment blinds the soul to its richest consolations. Lord, be near,
   and let us know You! Let us not have to say with Jacob, "Surely God was
   in this place and I knew it not!"

   27. But straightway Jesus spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it
   is I; be not afraid. He did not keep them in suspense-- "Straightway
   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 His old word, also, "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.
     __________________________________________________________________

Cheering Congratulation

   (No. 3563)

   A SERMON DELIVERED

   BY C. H. SPURGEON,

   AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

   "Blessed is he who transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered."
   Psalm 32:1.

   MEN have, all of them, their own ideals of blessedness. Those ideals
   are often altogether contrary to the sayings which our Savior uttered
   in His Sermon on the Mount. They count those to be blessed who are
   strong in health, who are abundant in riches, who are honored with
   fame, who are entrusted with command, who exercise power--those, in
   fact, who are distinguished in the eyes of their fellow creatures! Yet
   I find not such persons called, "blessed," in God's Word, but
   oftentimes humble souls who might excite pity rather than envy, are
   congratulated upon the blessings which they are heirs to and which they
   shall soon enjoy. To the penitent there is no voice so pleasant as that
   of pardon! God, who cannot lie--who cannot err--tells us what it is to
   be blessed. Here He declares that, "blessed is he whose transgression
   is forgiven; whose sin is covered." This is an oracle not to be
   disputed. Forgiven sin is better than accumulated wealth The remission
   of sin is infinitely to be preferred before all the glitter and the
   glare of this world's prosperity. The gratification of creature
   passions and earthly desires is illusive--a shadow and a fiction--but
   the blessedness of the justified, the blessedness of the man to whom
   God imputes righteousness is substantial and true! How apt we are to
   say in our hearts, "Would God Adam had never fallen, for blessed must
   be the man who never sinned!" Could any man have attained to a perfect
   life which deserved commendation at God's hands, blessedness would
   surely glow around him like a halo! At his feet the earth would
   blossom! In his nostrils the air would breathe sweet odors and his ears
   would be regaled with the sweet singing of birds--"content, indeed, to
   sojourn while he must, below the skies, but having there his home."
   Such a man would feel and find the beams of brightness playing over the
   entire expanse of life and the thrill of gladness filling his heart
   with unbroken peace! The mountains and hills would break forth into
   singing and all the trees of the field would clap their hands, to
   multiply his inlets to happiness. But it is not of such imaginary bliss
   that our sacred Psalmist loves to sing, because, however true, it would
   be a mere mockery to tell us, who are so deeply fallen, of sweet
   delights that those, alone, could know who never fell! Our time of
   probation is over. We of mortal race were proved, tried and condemned
   long ago. It is not possible, now, for us to have the blessedness of
   uncorrupted innocence. And yet, thank God, blessedness is still
   possible to us, sinners though we are! We may hear the voice of the
   Ever Blessed of God pronouncing us to be blessed! His mercy can secure
   to us what our merit could never have earned, for so it is written,
   "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered."
   May everyone of us partake of this blessedness and know and rejoice in
   the full assurance of it!

   Now the observations I address to you shall be very simple. But if they
   come home to us as true, and we can grasp them with a lively faith,
   they will be none the less gratifying to us because they seem common.

   I. EVIDENTLY THERE IS FORGIVENESS WITH GOD--TRANSGRESSION MAY BE
   FORGIVEN.

   It is spoken of here, not as a flight of fancy, or a poetic dream. It
   is not an imaginary or a possible circumstance, but it is described as
   a fact that does occur, and has been the happy lot of some who knew its
   sweet relief and felt its strange felicity--"Blessed is he whose
   transgression is forgiven." Do take the words with all their weight of
   meaning, for though taught in our catechisms, embodied in our creeds,
   and admitted in our ordinary conversation on religious subjects, the
   belief in the forgiveness of sins is not always sincere and hearty.
   When the guilt of sin is felt and the burden of sin grows heavy--and
   when the wound stinks and is corrupt, as the Psalmist says--we are very
   apt to doubt the possibility of pardon, or, at least, of our own
   pardon. Under deep conviction of sin and a sense of the peculiar
   heinousness of our own guilt, there is a haze and more than a haze--a
   thick fog which hides the light of this Doctrine from our view! We
   think all men pardonable except ourselves. We can believe in the
   Doctrine of Forgiveness of Sin for blasphemers, for thieves, for
   drunkards, even for murderers--but there is some particular aggravation
   in the sins which we have committed thatappear to us to admit of no
   place of repentance, to find no promise of absolution. So, writing
   bitter things against ourselves, we become our own accusers and our own
   judges--and seem as if we would even become our own executioners! In
   our distraction we are thus prone to doubt that our transgression can
   be forgiven.

   And, Beloved, I am not sure that those of us who are saved do not,
   sometimes, have misgivings about this grand Truth of God. Although I
   know that I am saved in Christ, yet at times when I look back upon my
   life, and especially dwell upon some dark blots which God has forgiven,
   but for which I can never forgive myself--the question comes across me,
   "Is it so? Is that really blotted out? It was so, crimson, So
   scarlet--can it be that the spot is entirely gone?"We know that being
   washed in the blood of Christ, we are whiter than snow, but it is not
   always that our faith can realize the forgiveness of sins while our
   heart and conscience are revolving the flagrancy of their guilt. It
   should not be so! We ought to be able to bear, at one and the same
   time, a vision of sin in all its horror and a full view of the
   Sacrifice for sin in all its holiness and acceptance to God! We ought
   to be able to feel that we are guilty, weak, lost and ruined, yet to
   believe that Christ is not only able to save to the very uttermost, but
   that He has saved us--we ought to be able to confess our crimes while
   we cast ourselves without a question into His blessed arms! I trust
   that we can do this, but, alas, a fly may find its way into the
   sweetest pot of ointment! A little folly may taint a good reputation
   and an unworthy doubt may tarnish the purest faith--so it may be
   profitable to remind even the forgiven man that forgiveness of sin is
   possible, that forgiveness of sin is presented in the Gospel as a
   Covenant Blessing, that forgiveness of sin is the possession of every
   Believer in Jesus, that his sin has gone entirely and irreversibly and
   that for him all manner of sin has been forgiven, blotted out and put
   away through the precious blood of Jesus, seeing that he has believed
   in God's great propitiatory Sacrifice!

   Perhaps there has strolled into this sanctuary tonight some professing
   Christian who, though a true child of God, has foully stained his
   profession. It may be, my dear Friend, that in your weakness, and to
   your shame--and to your confusion of face--you have forsaken God and
   have fallen into sin. You knew better, you who have instructed others,
   you who would have denounced such conduct with great severity in your
   fellow creatures, have fallen into the transgression, yourself, and now
   you are conscious that both the sin and its results are very bitter.
   You are smarting under the rod, your bones have been sorely broken and,
   perhaps, while I am speaking, it seems as if my words were putting them
   out of joint again where there had been a little healing! Beloved
   Brother or Sister in Christ, if your sin is a public sin, a grievous
   sin, a black and foul sin--if it is a sin which conscience cannot for a
   moment tolerate, a sin which God's people must detest, even though it
   is in you who are dear to them, let me entreat you not to suffer the
   deceitfulness of sin to drive you to despair! In the anguish of
   remorse, do not shun the Mercy Seat! Doubt not that the Lord is still
   ready to pardon you. Let not Satan persuade you that you have sinned a
   sin which is unto death/No, come to the Cross of Christ! The blood of
   Jesus was real and it was really shed to wash away real sin, not sin in
   the abstract, as we talk of it here, but sin in the concrete as you
   have committed it--such sin as yours--no, yoursin, that special sin,
   that degrading sin, that sin which you are ashamed to mention! That sin
   which makes you now, even at the very thought of it, hang your head and
   blush. Know of a truth that your sin is pardonable! Do you ask me why I
   draw this inference from my text? I answer that it was penned by David
   when his crimes were complicated, his character corrupted and his case
   seemed beyond the possibility of a cure! "Deliver me from
   bloodguiltiness, O God!" Whatever your sin may have been, it can
   scarcely have exceeded his in atrocity! You know how he added sin to
   sin--you know how high he stood and how low he sunk--and you know how
   sweetly he could sing, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven;
   whose sin is covered." It shines forth more clearly, now, than ever it
   shone before! Sin is pardonable! The Lord God is merciful and gracious!
   Hear the heavenly invitation, "Come, now, let us reason together;
   though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as wool; though
   they are red like crimson, they shall be whiter than snow." Hear
   Jehovah's voice out of Heaven, "I, even I, am He that blots out your
   iniquities for My name's sake: I will not remember your sins."

   With such a peerless proclamation of perfect pardon we leave this
   point. We trust, however, that you will not leave it till you have
   proved its preciousness and its power.

   Observe now that the pardon being proved, the--

   II. BLESSEDNESS MAY BE ENJOYED.

   So much sadness comes from a sense of sin that it is not easy for a
   penitent to regard pleasure as within his reach, or for a criminal to
   imagine that cheerfulness can become his habitual condition. How have I
   heard a man say, "Were God to forgive me, I do not think I could be
   happy, such is my sin that though it should be put away, the memory
   wouldhaunt me, the disgrace would distract me--my own conscience would
   confound me, I never could blend with the blessed ones." Is not this
   just what the prodigal said, "I am not worthy to be called your son;
   make me as one of your hired servants"? He could not think so well of
   his father as to suppose that he could receive him again into his
   affections as his child and, therefore, he would be content to take the
   yoke of service, and to be a hired servant of his father's. Not a
   servant born in the house, though these were common enough among the
   Jews--but a hired servant, willing to be even with the lowest class of
   servants--so that he might but live in his father's house! I know that
   this is often the feeling of humble souls, but look at the text and
   observe the blessed Truth of God which it teaches. You may not only be
   forgiven, my dear Friends, but you may enjoy, notwithstanding your past
   sin, blessedness on earthOh, look up through those tears! They can all
   be wiped away! Or should they continue to flow in a long life of
   penitence, if they do but fall upon the Savior's feet, which you would
   gladly wash with the tears of your affection and wipe with the hairs of
   your head, you shall find those tears to be precious drops! Though
   evangelical repentance may be compared to bitter herbs in one respect,
   to be eaten lamenting, yet in another respect there is no Grace as
   sweet as repentance! In Heaven, it is true, they do not repent, but
   here on earth it well becomes the saints. It is sweet here below to sit
   and weep one's heart away in sorrow for sin at the foot of the Cross of
   Christ, saying, "with my tears, His feet I bathe." And although we
   shall have done with it when we reach those blissful shores, until
   then, repentance shall be the occupation of our lives!

   But, dear Friends, you may suppose that as sincere repentance always
   leads to great searching of heart, it cannot be blessed--yet it really
   is so. Repentance, as we have already said, is a sweet Grace. You
   remember that the prodigal shed his tears, his best tears, in his
   father's bosom, when he put his face, as it were, close to his father's
   heart, and sobbed out, "Father, I have sinned!" Oh, what a place for
   repentance is the bosom of God, with His love shed abroad in the heart,
   making you contrite and moving you to say, "How could I have sinned
   against so good a God? How could I be an enemy to One who is so full of
   Grace? How could I run away and spend my substance with harlots, when
   here was my Father's deep care for my welfare? How could I choose their
   base love, when a love so pure, so true, so constant, was waiting for
   me?" Oh, it is a holy sorrow that has a clear life ensuing and I tell
   you that, however deep your repentance may be, it shall not stand in
   the way of your being blessed, but shall even prove to be one
   contributory stream to the blessedness of your experience!

   Does the memory of your sins haunt you, and do you feel that you shall
   always hang your head as one whom pardon could not purge? Not thus did
   the Apostle Paul reflect on his many sins. Though he bewailed the
   wickedness of his heart, and was ashamed of the evil he had done, yet
   his humility after he was converted took the form of gratitude,
   cheering his very soul with the most lively impulse! While confessing
   that he was the very chief of sinners, at the same time and in the same
   breath he said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
   acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
   Conscious of his own infirmities, he could exclaim, "O wretched man
   that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Yet,
   confident of his full redemption, he could add, "I thank God, through
   Jesus Christ our Lord." Moreover, hurling defiance at all his accusers,
   he asks, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" No
   bolder or more triumphant champion of Divine Grace than that Apostle
   who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious--but now
   rejoices to bear record, "I obtained mercy that, in me, Jesus Christ
   might show forth all long-suffering as a pattern to them who should
   hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." What? Though your past
   offenses are ever so rank, and your present shame should sting you with
   ever so much poignant sorrow, yet with thrills of bliss you shall prove
   the full blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose
   sin is covered!

   I think I hear one say, "Few men have fallen more deeply into sin than
   I have. If converted, I might be pointed out as an illustrious monument
   of Divine Grace. Yet, what with vanities which have matured into vices,
   and passing follies which have grown into positive evil habits, it is
   not likely I should ever attain the same eminence in Grace as those who
   were trained from childhood in the sanctuary and never lived a
   dissolute life, or risked a desperate death, as I have done." Let me
   assure you that this is a great fallacy! The heights of Glory are now
   open to those who once plunged into the depths of sin. Say not, slave
   of Satan, that you cannot be a soldier of the Cross! You can be a
   heroic soldier! You may win a crown of victory. Why needyou be weak in
   faith? You cannot be languid in love. Great sinner as you are, you have
   in this, a sort of advantage--you will love much because you have had
   much forgiven you. Surely, if your love is warmer than that of others,
   you have the mainspring of zeal, the mightiest force within to mold
   your future course! Instead of being less than others, you should seek
   to outdo them all, not out of carnal emulation, but out of holy strife.
   I counsel you, poor Sinner, when you come to Christ, do not try to hide
   yourself in some obscure corner, but come to the light, that you may
   have near and intimate fellowship with your Lord. For the love you have
   to Him, show kindness to His lambs. By your generosity to His
   disciples, show your gratitude to the Master. Grudge no service. Be
   ready to spend and to be spent--yield yourself a living sacrifice to
   Him who redeemed you from your sins and restored you to His favor.

   I liked what one said to me today when I was seeing enquirers who are
   seeking membership with us. "By God's Grace," he said, "I will try to
   make up for lost time." Let this be your resolve, dear Friends! If you
   are called by Grace when the day is far spent and the time in which you
   can hope to serve your Lord is getting brief, do not waste an
   opportunity, but engage with all your heart and soul in the work of
   faith and labor of love for the Lord Jesus! Some of us were called at
   the first or second hour of the day and while we were yet children, we
   found some employment in the vineyard. Still, we cannot serve Christ as
   we would. Oh I wish I had a thousand tongues that I might proclaim His
   love, and could live a thousand lives to proclaim His Grace among the
   sons of men! But as for you, whose time must, in the course of nature,
   be so short--you who have given so much of your lives to Satan--do not
   let Christ now be put off with the little end, but give him the very
   best of your love, the fat of your sacrifice, the strength and soul of
   your being!

   And as to the matter of enjoyment, I cannot believe for a moment that
   when a great sinner is blessed with a great pardon, he should fail to
   have the fullness of joy which so Divine a benefit must properly
   excite. My observation has been that the joy of those who have been
   graciously forgiven after having greatly transgressed, rather exceeds
   than falls short of the joy of such as are more gradually brought into
   Gospel liberty! Oh, no, my Master will not adjudge you to take a second
   rank!

   He who was by birth an alien, and in open rebellion an enemy to God,
   shall have all the rights of citizenship and partake of all the
   privileges of the saints! Not he who, like Samuel, was lighted on his
   couch in childhood by the lamps of the sanctuary, is more welcome at
   the Father's board than the returning prodigal! Such blessedness is in
   store for some of you. You have fallen. You have lost your character.
   You have stifled the voice of your own conscience. You have forfeited
   all title to self-respect. But by Christ, redeemed, in Christ,
   restored, this infinite blessedness shall be your portion! Have you
   been put out of the Church? Have your Brothers and Sisters been
   compelled to withdraw from fellowship with you because of your flagrant
   sin? Have you been convicted of a crime and suffered a term of
   imprisonment? There is yet a blessedness possible to you! There may
   have strayed in here one who from the fold has wandered very far.
   Though you have forfeited your good name, I simply and sincerely point
   out to you the means whereby you may yet transform your blighted life
   into a blessed life! Glory to God and peace to your own soul shall
   immediately follow your trust in the Sacrifice of Christ! "Blessed is
   he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Seems it not
   to you that this is the very fountain of all blessings? You come here
   to the stream head, to the source of the great wide river of mercies!
   Those of you, therefore, who believe in the forgiveness of sins should
   not be satisfied till you have the title deeds, enjoy the possession,
   and revel in the blessedness of this reconciliation to God! "If am a
   Christian," said a Sister to me hesitantly. "But I do not like that
   ugly ,'if,'" she added--"I must get rid of it." So she prayed the Lord,
   "Let there be no 'if between me and You." I would have you pray in like
   manner. Oh, those horrible, "ifs"! They are spiritual mosquitoes that
   sting and harass us--they are like stones in our shoes--you cannot
   travel with them. Hear what David says--"Blessed is the man unto whom
   the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile."

   Still enlarging upon our last point, rather than venturing on to
   anything fresh, observe--

   III. THAT THE STATE OF FORGIVENESS IS EVIDENTLY A STATE OF BLESSEDNESS
   IF WE REMEMBER THE CONTRAST IT INVOLVES.

   Ask the sinner, conscious of his guilt and its penalty, who is
   bemoaning himself and crying out--"God, be merciful to me a
   sinner!"--what would you think if your condition could be changed and
   your conscience cleansed by one line of the pen, or by one word of the
   lips that can pronounce a pardon? Would not that be blessed beyond
   wishful thought or wakeful dream? "Oh," you say, "I would count no
   penance too severe, no sacrifice too costly, if I might but get my sins
   cancelled, forgiven and completely obliterated!" Look at poor
   Christian, wringing his hands, sighing and crying. Why was it? He
   needed to have his burden taken off. Had you spoken to him, he would
   have told you he was willing to go through floods and flames if he
   could get relief from his burden and be clean rid of it. Seeing how
   every anxious soul longs for forgiveness, clearly it must be a state to
   be greatly desired, and those who do attain it find it to be full of
   gladness, delight and rejoicing! It is, indeed, blessed to have sin
   forgiven, but, oh, how wretched to face its infamy, to feel
   itsmalignity, to fear its terrible penalty! Witness a soul in
   despair--that is a dreadful sight! I think I would sooner walk 50 miles
   than see a despairing soul! I have seen several such shut up in the
   iron cage. You may talk, talk, talk and try to give some cheer, but it
   is of no use. No promises can comfort. The Gospel, itself, seems to
   have no charm. Were you to put the question to a despairing soul,
   "Would it be a blessed thing to have sin forgiven?" sharp, quick, and
   decided would the answer be. Not the lips only--the heart would express
   itself in every muscle of the face, in every limb of the body--the
   nerves all tingling with joy, the eyes shining with gleams of Heaven!

   Ask dying sinners, stung with remorse at the memory of their lives, and
   filled with dread at the prospect of the future, whether it is not a
   blessed thing to have sins forgiven. Through they may have trifled up
   to now, the hour of death forbids dissembling. Now the vanities of time
   pass like a shadow and the realities of eternity come up like a
   spectra. "Too late!" they cry. "Too late!Had we but fled to Christ
   before! Had we but turned our eyes to Him in years gone by, then hope
   would have cheered us in this extremity!" But it is not death they
   dread so much as the after-death--not present dissolution, but (shall I
   say it?) the damnation that may follow. Unforgiven sin! Who can paint
   the sentence it must meet? Could we peer into that world where wicked
   spirits are tormented always and forever, and there ask the question,
   "Would it be a blessed thing to be forgiven?" Ah, you can guess the
   answer. I pray you, Friend, tempt not the terror for yourself. Trifle
   not with kind entreaty--know that 'tis treason to do so! The pardon
   spurned will recoil on your own head. You will bewail in everlasting
   misery the mercy that, through your willfulness, was unavailing.
   Blessed must he be whose sins are forgiven, for it enables him to
   escape from the horrible doom of the impenitent!

   But you shall have a witness nearer at hand. You know, as a fact
   recorded in the Gospels, that the Son of Man had power on earth to
   forgive sins. You know, too, from the testimony of the Acts of the
   Apostles, that His Name--by faith in His Name--is invested with the
   same power. By the ministry of the Holy Spirit, one may hear now, as in
   days of yore, a voice of Divine Authority saying, "Your sins are
   forgiven you; go in peace." It was only last week I met with one who
   had been forgiven on the previous Sunday. The sweet relief, the calm
   belief and the true blessedness of that man was such that you could see
   it flashing from his eyes and animating every faculty of his being! The
   whole man was so full of joy that he did not know how to contain
   himself! The drift of all his conversation was, "I have found Christ! I
   have laid hold on eternal life! I have trusted in Jesus! I am saved!"
   His joy, though uttered in part, was unutterable! I sympathized in his
   ecstasy, remembering that it was so with me. I wanted to tell everybody
   that Christ was precious--and was able to save! Oh, yes, the young
   convert is a good witness, though the old Christian is quite as good!
   It is a blessed thing to have had 50 years' enjoyment of the
   forgiveness of sin! I have half a mind to call some of our venerable
   friends up here to bear their witness. I am sure they would not
   stammer--or had they lost the power of ready speech through infirmity
   of this flesh, their testimony would be sound and vigorous--for they
   would tell you unhesitatingly how blessed is he whose transgression is
   forgiven, whose sin is covered! I wish I had time to show you that
   forgiveness of sin is not only blessed of itself,but--

   IV. ALL THE FORGIVEN HELP TO SWELL THE TIDE OF BLESSING.

   A thousand felicities follow in its train! He who is forgiven is
   justified, acquitted, vindicated, sent forth without a stain or blemish
   on his reputation. He is regenerated, quickened, invigorated and
   brought into newness of life! More still, he is adopted, initiated into
   a Divine Family, invested with a new relationship and made heir of a
   heritage entailed by promise. The work of sanctification begun in him,
   here, will one day be completely perfected. He who is forgiven was
   elected from before the foundations of the world. He was redeemed with
   the precious blood of Jesus. For him, Christ stood as his Sponsor,
   Surety and Substitute at the bar of Justice. To the forgiven man all
   things have become new. Our Lord Jesus Christ has raised him up and
   made him sit in heavenly places with Him. He is even now a son and
   heir, a child of God, a prince of the blood imperial, a priest and a
   king who shall reign with Christ forever and ever! He who is washed in
   the precious blood is favored beyond any words that I can find to
   express. Ten thousand blessings are his portion. "How precious!" such a
   pardoned one may exclaim. "How precious are Your thoughts unto me, O
   God! How great is the sum of them!"

   But the--

   V. BLESSEDNESS OF THE MAN WHOSE TRANSGRESSION IS FORGIVEN, WHOSE SIN IS
   COVERED,

   WILL BE MAINLY SEEN IN THE NEXT STATE.

   That disembodied spirit, clear of spot or blemish, washed and whitened
   in the blood of the Lamb, passes without fear into the invisible world.
   It trembles not, though it appears before the eyes of Justice. No award
   can come to the forgiven soul except this, "Come, you blessed of My
   Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you." We commit the body of
   the forgiven sinner to the grave in "sure and certain hope of a joyful
   resurrection." We give his flesh to be the food of the worms and his
   skin may rot to dust--but though worms destroy his body--yet in his
   flesh shall he see God, whom his eyes shall see for himself and not
   another! I was astonished some little time ago when I heard a good
   pastor, standing by the coffin of an honored minister, say, "There lies
   nothing of our Brother." Not so, I thought! The bodies of the saints
   were purchased by Christ--though flesh and blood cannot inherit the
   Kingdom of God, neither can corruption inherit incorruption, yet there
   will be such a marvelous change pass over the body of the forgiven
   sinner that the same body changed, but still the same body--shall be
   reunited with the disembodied spirit to dwell at God's right hand!
   Listen! Listen! The trumpet sounds! Oh, my Brothers and Sisters, we can
   but speak in prose. These great scenes we shall, all of us, see! We
   shall then think after another fashion. The trumpet sounds! The echo
   reaches Heaven. Hell startles at the sound to its nethermost domains.
   This trembling earth is all attention. The sea yields up her dead. A
   great white cloud comes sailing forth in awful majesty. Upon it there
   is a Throne, where Jesus sits in state! But his heart has no cause to
   quake whose sins are all forgiven! Well may the ransomed soul be calm
   amidst the pomp and pageantry of that tremendous day, for He who sits
   upon the Throne is the Son of Man, in whose blood we have been washed.
   Lo! This is the same Jesus who said, "I have forgiven you." He cannot
   condemn us! We shall find to be our Friend whom others find to be their
   Judge. Blessed is that man who is forgiven! See him, as with ten
   thousand times ten thousand others pure as himself and like to himself,
   who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
   Lamb! He ascends to the Celestial City, a perfect man in body and in
   soul, to dwell forever there! Hark to the acclamations of the ten
   thousand times ten thousand, the sound of the harpers harping with
   their harps, and the song that is like great waters. Write yes, write
   now, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from
   their labors, and their works do follow them." But doubly blessed are
   they, then, that they rise from the dead! Once they were sinners washed
   in blood, but then, in body and in soul they shall have come, through
   the precious blood, to see Jesus face to face!

   Oh, how I wish that all of us knew this blessedness! Seek it, Friends,
   seek it! It is to be found. "Seek you the Lord while He may be found;
   call you upon Him while He is near." I am especially encouraged in
   preaching the Gospel this evening, because I have just been seeing some
   who have been recently converted. There are hearers of the Gospel among
   you who have been listening to me for many years. Often have I feared
   that, in your case, I had labored in vain. But I have great hope, now,
   concerning some of you. The Lord keeps bringing in the old hearers of
   eight, nine, and ten years' standing. Oh, I pray the Lord to save every
   one of you and bring you into the fold! I do long and pant that I may
   present you all before my Master's face with joy! Even should you go
   and join other churches, and serve the Lord elsewhere, that will cause
   me no sorrow or regret. But God forbid that any of you should despise
   mercy, reject the Gospel and die in your sins! May you prove the
   blessedness of pardon, and then shall we meet, an unbroken
   congregation, before the Throne of

   God.

   The Lord grant it, for His Name's sake. Amen.

   EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW10:37-42.

   37. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and
   he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Christ
   must be first. He herein claims the highest place in every human
   breast. Could He have done so had He not been Divine? No mere Prophet
   would talk in this fashion! Yet we are not sensible of the slightest
   egotism in His speech, neither does it occur to us that He goes beyond
   His line. We are conscious that the Son of God has a right to speak
   thus, and only He.

   We must earnestly beware of making idols of our dearest ones by loving
   them more than Jesus. We must never set them near the Throne of our
   King. We are not worthy to dwell with Christ, above, or even to be
   associated with Him here, if any earthly object is judged by us to be
   worthy to rival the Lord Jesus.

   Father and mother, son and daughter--we would do anything to please
   them--but, as opposed to Jesus, they stand nowhere and cannot, for an
   instant, be allowed to come in the way of our supreme loyalty to our
   Lord.

   38. And he that takes not his cross, and follows after Me, is not
   worthy of Me. Here our Lord, for the second time in this Gospel brings
   in His death. At first He spoke of being taken from them--but now of
   the Cross. There is a cross for each one which he may regards as "his
   cross." It may be that the cross will not take us up, but we must take
   it up, by being willing to endure anything or everything for Christ's
   sake. We are not to drag the cross after us, but to take it up!
   "Dragged crosses are heavy; carried crosses grow light." Bearing the
   cross, we are to follow after Jesus--to bear a cross without following
   Christ is a poor affair. A Christian who shuns the cross is not
   Christian--but a cross-bearer who does not follow Jesus equally misses
   the mark! Is it not singular that nothing is so essential to make a man
   worthy of Christ as bearing his cross in His tracks? Yet it is
   assuredly so. Lord, You have laid a cross upon me--do not permit me to
   shirk it, or shrink from it!

   39. He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life
   for My sake shall findit. If to escape from death, he gives up Christ,
   and so finds a continuance of this poor mortal life--by that very act
   he loses true life. He gains the temporal at the expense of the
   eternal! On the other hand, he who loses life for Christ's sake does in
   the highest sense find life, life eternal, life infinitely blessed! He
   makes the wisest choice who lays down his life for Jesus and finds life
   in Jesus!

   40. He that receives you receives Me, and he that receives Me receives
   Him who sent Me. What blessed union and hallowed communion exist
   between the King and His servants! The words before us are especially
   true of the Apostles to whom they were first addressed. Apostolic
   teaching is Christ's teaching. To receive the 12 is to receive their
   Lord Jesus, and to receive the Lord Jesus is to receive God, Himself.
   In these days certain teachers despise the Epistles which were written
   by Apostles, and they are, themselves, worthy to be despised for so
   doing! This is one of the sure tests of soundness in the faith. "He
   that is of God hears us," says John. This bears hard on modern critics
   who in a hypocritical manner pretend to receive Christ and then reject
   His Inspired Apostles!

   Lord, teach me to receive Your people into my heart, that thus I may
   receive You. And as to the Doctrine which I hold, be pleased to
   establish me in the Apostolic faith.

   41. He that receives a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a
   Prophet's reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a
   righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. Men may receive a
   Prophet as a patriot, or a poet--that is not the point in hand. The
   Prophet must be received in his highest character, "in the name of a
   Prophet," and for the sake of his Lord! And then the Lord, Himself, is
   received, and He will reward the receiver in the same way in which His
   Prophet is rewarded. If we cannot do all the good deeds of a righteous
   man, we can yet partake in his happiness by having fellowship with him,
   and by uniting with him in vindicating the faith and comforting his
   heart. To receive into our homes and our hearts God's persecuted
   servants is to share their reward. To maintain the cause and character
   of good men is to be numbered with them in God's account. This is all
   of Grace, since the deed is so little and the recompense so large!

   1917

   ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE SUSPENSION OF PUBLICATION:

   It is with sincere regret that the Publishers announce the suspension
   of publication of C. H. Spurgeon's Sermons. This step is rendered
   necessary by the present shortage of paper and other difficulties due
   to war conditions. There are still a number of the Rev. C. H.
   Spurgeon's Sermons which have never been issued in printed form, and it
   is hoped that when peace returns, it will be possible to publish these
   in some attractive form. The last issue of these Sermons, for the
   present, will be that of May 10th.

   It is hoped that the suspension of publication will not in any way tend
   to lessen the world-wide ministry of these Sermons. Practically all the
   back numbers may still be obtained, so that those who know and
   appreciate the blessing which has been forthcoming from these weekly
   messages may still provide for their needs by selecting from the
   earlierissues.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture Commentary

   Psalms

   [1]2:12   [2]32:1   [3]35:3   [4]77:1-20

   Jeremiah

   [5]31:3

   Hosea

   [6]10:12

   Matthew

   [7]14:28-31

   Luke

   [8]12:32   [9]13:24   [10]19:28   [11]23:34

   John

   [12]1:16   [13]19:32-37

   Acts

   [14]13:38-39

   1 Thessalonians

   [15]1:5-10

   Revelation

   [16]1:13
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

References

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   7. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=14&scrV=28#xviii-p0.1
   8. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=12&scrV=32#v-p0.1
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  10. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=19&scrV=28#i-p0.1
  11. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Luke&scrCh=23&scrV=34#xiv-p0.1
  12. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=1&scrV=16#ix-p0.1
  13. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=John&scrCh=19&scrV=32#xv-p0.1
  14. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Acts&scrCh=13&scrV=38#iii-p0.1
  15. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=1Thess&scrCh=1&scrV=5#vii-p0.1
  16. file:///ccel/s/spurgeon/sermons63/cache/sermons63.html3?scrBook=Rev&scrCh=1&scrV=13#xi-p0.1