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        Title: Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 13: 1867
   Creator(s): Spurgeon, Charles Haddon (1834-1892)
CCEL Subjects: All; Sermons;
   LC Call no: BV42
  LC Subjects:

               Practical theology

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

               Times and Seasons. The church year
     __________________________________________________________________

                          Good Cheer for the New Year

   A sermon

   (No. 728)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 6, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning
   of the year even unto the end of the year."- Deuteronomy 11:12.

   THE Israelites had sojourned for a while in Egypt, a land which only
   produces food for its inhabitants by the laborious process of
   irrigating its fields. They had mingled with the sons of Ham as they
   watched with anxious eyes the swelling of the river Nile. They had
   shared in the incessant labors by which the waters were preserved in
   reservoirs, and afterwards eked out by slow degrees to nourish the
   various crops. Moses tells them in this chapter that the land of
   Palestine was not at all like Egypt--it was a land which did not so
   much depend on the labor of the inhabitants as upon the good will of
   the God of Heaven. He calls it a land of hills and valleys, a land of
   springs and rivers, a land dependent not upon the rivers of earth but
   upon the rain of Heaven, and he styles it in conclusion, "A land which
   the Lord your God cares for: the eyes of the Lord your God are always
   upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."

   Observe here a type of the condition of the natural and the spiritual
   man! In this world in temporals and in all other respects the merely
   carnal man has to be his own providence, and to look to himself for all
   his needs. Hence his cares are always many, and frequently they become
   so heavy that they drive him to desperation. He lives a life of care,
   anxiety, sorrow, fretfulness and disappointment. He dwells in Egypt,
   and he knows that there is no joy, or comfort, or provision if it does
   not wear out his soul in winning it. But the spiritual man dwells in
   another country! His faith makes him a citizen of another land. It is
   true he endures the same toils, and experiences the same afflictions as
   the ungodly, but they deal with him after another fashion, for they
   come as a gracious Father's appointments and they go at the bidding of
   loving wisdom.

   By faith the godly man casts his care upon God who cares for him, and
   he walks without taking care because he knows himself to be the child
   of Heaven's loving kindness for whom all things work together for good.
   God is his great Guardian and Friend, and all his concerns are safe in
   the hands of infinite Grace! Even in the year of drought the Believer
   dwells in green pastures and lies down beside the still waters. But as
   for the ungodly, he abides in the wilderness and hears the mutterings
   of that curse, "Cursed is he that trusts in man, and makes flesh his
   arm. He shall be like the heath in the desert. He shall not see when
   good comes."

   Do you question my assertion, that Canaan is a fitting type of the
   present condition of the Christian? We have frequently insisted upon it
   that it is a far better type of the militant Believer here than of the
   glorified saint in the New Jerusalem. Canaan is sometimes used by us in
   our hymns as the picture of Heaven, but it is scarcely so. A moment's
   reflection will show that it is far more distinctly the picture of the
   present state of every Believer. While we are under conviction of sin
   we are like Israel in the wilderness--we have no rest for the sole of
   our feet--but when we put our trust in Jesus we do, as it were, cross
   the river and leave the wilderness behind.

   "We that have believed do enter into rest," for, "there remains a rest
   for the people of God." Believers have entered into the finished
   salvation which is provided for us in Christ Jesus! The blessings of
   our inheritance are in a great measure already in our possession. The
   state of salvation is no longer a land of promise, but it is a land
   possessed and enjoyed. We have peace with God! We are even now
   justified by faith. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." Covenant
   blessings are at this moment actually ours, just as the portions of the
   land of Canaan became actually in the possession of the various tribes.

   It is true there is an enemy in Canaan, an enemy to be driven
   out--indwelling sin which is entrenched in our hearts as in walled
   cities, and fleshly lusts which are like the chariots of iron with
   which we have to do war--but the land is

   ours! We have the covenanted heritage at this moment in our possession,
   and the foes who would rob us of it shall, by the sword of faith, and
   the weapon of all prayer, be utterly rooted out! The Christian, like
   Israel in Canaan, is not under the government of Moses now. He has done
   with Moses once and for all. Moses was magnified and made honorable as
   he climbed to the top of the hill and with a kiss from God's lips was
   carried into Heaven. Even so the Law has been magnified and made
   honorable in the person of Christ, but has ceased to reign over the
   Believer.

   And as Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when they came into
   Canaan, so is Jesus our Leader now. He it is who leads us on from
   victory to victory, and He will not sheathe His sword till He has taken
   unto Himself and given unto us, His followers, the full possession of
   all the holiness and happiness which covenant engagements have secured
   for us. For these and many other reasons it is clear that the children
   of Israel in Canaan were typically in the same condition as we are now
   who, having believed in Jesus, have our citizenship in Heaven!

   Beloved, those of you who are in such a state will relish the text. It
   is to such persons that the text is addressed. The eyes of the Lord,
   your God, are always upon you, O Believer, from the beginning of the
   year even to the end of the year! You who trust in Jesus are under the
   guidance of the great Joshua! You are fighting sin. You have obtained
   salvation! You have left the wilderness of conviction and fear behind
   you. You have come into the Canaan of faith, and now the eyes of God
   are upon you and upon your state from the opening of the year to its
   close.

   May the Holy Spirit bless us, and we shall, first, take the text as we
   find it. Secondly, we shall turn the text over. Thirdly, we shall blot
   the text out, and then, fourthly, we shall distil practical lessons
   from the text.

   I. First, we will consider THE TEXT AS WE FIND IT. The first word that
   glitters before us, like a jewel in a crown, is that word "eyes." "The
   eyes of the Lord." What is meant here? Surely not mere Omniscience. In
   that sense the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil
   and the good. God sees Hagar as well as Sarah, and beholds Judas when
   he gives the traitorous kiss quite as surely as He beholds the holy
   woman when she washes the feet of the Savior with her tears.

   No, there is love in the text to sweeten observation. "The Lord knows
   the righteous" with a knowledge which is over and above that of
   Omniscience. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, not merely to
   see them, but to view them with complacency and delight. He does not
   merely observe them, but observes them with affectionate care and
   interest. The meaning of the text, then, is first, that God's love is
   always upon His people. Oh, Christians, think of this (it is rather to
   be thought of than to be spoken of), that God loves us! The big heart
   of Deity is set upon us poor, insignificant, undeserving, worthless
   beings! God loves us, loves us forever, never thinks of us without
   loving thoughts, never regards us, nor speaks of us, nor acts towards
   us except in love!

   God is love in a certain sense towards all, for He is full of
   benevolence to all His creatures. Love is, indeed, His Essence--but
   there is a depth unfathomable when that word is used in reference to
   His elect ones who are the objects of distinguishing Grace, redeemed by
   blood, enfranchised by power, adopted by condescension, and preserved
   by faithfulness. Beloved, do not ask me to speak of this love, but
   implore God the Holy Spirit to speak of it to your inmost souls! The
   loving eyes of God are always upon you--the poorest and most obscure of
   His people--from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

   The expression of the text teaches us that the Lord takes a personal
   interest in us. It is not here said that God loves us, and therefore
   sends an angel to protect and watch over us--the Lord does it Himself!
   The eyes that observe us are God's own eyes! The Guardian under whose
   protection we are placed is God Himself! Some mothers put out their
   children to nurse, but God never does--all his babes hang upon His own
   breast--and are carried in His own arms. It is little that we could do
   if we had to perform everything personally and therefore most of the
   things are done by proxy. The captain, when the vessel is to be steered
   across the deep, must have his hour of sleep, and then the second in
   command, or some other, must manage the vessel.

   But you will observe that in times of emergency the captain is called
   up and takes upon himself personal responsibility. See him as he
   himself anxiously heaves the lead, and stands at the helm or at the
   look-out, for he can trust no one else in perilous moments. It seems
   from the text that it is always a time of emergency with God's people,
   for their great Lord always exercises a personal care over them. He has
   never said to His angels, "I will dispense with My own watching and you
   shall guard My saints." But while He gives them charge concerning His
   people, yet He Himself is

   personally their Keeper and their Shield. "I the Lord do keep it, I
   will water it every moment; lest any hurt it I will keep it night and
   day."

   You have sometimes, when you have been very sick, sent for a physician.
   And it may be that he has been engaged somewhere else, but he has an
   assistant who probably is quite as skillful as himself, yet, as soon as
   that assistant comes, such has been your confidence in the man himself
   for whom you have sent that you feel quite disappointed. You wanted to
   see the man whom you had tried in days gone by. There is no fear of our
   being put off with any substitute for our God!

   Oh, Beloved, when I think of the text, I feel of the same mind as Moses
   when God said, "I will send My angel before you." "No," Moses in
   effect, said, "that will not suffice: if Your Presence go not with us,
   carry us not up from here." My Lord, I cannot be put off with Gabriel
   or Michael! I cannot be content with the brightest of the seraphs who
   stand before Your Throne! It is Your Presence I want, and blessed be
   Your name, it is Your Presence which the text promises to give! The
   anxious mother is glad to have a careful nurse upon whom she may rely,
   but in the crisis of the disease, when the little one's life trembles
   in the balance, she says, "Nurse, I must sit up myself with the child
   tonight." And though it is the third, perhaps the fourth night, since
   the mother has had sleep, yet her eyes will not close so long as the
   particular point of danger is still in view.

   See, my Brethren, see the loving tenderness of our gracious God! Never,
   never, never, does He delegate to others, however good or kind, or to
   any secondary agents, however active or powerful--the care of His
   people! His own eyes, without a substitute, must watch over us!

   Further, the text reminds us of the unwearied power of God towards His
   people. What? Can His eyes always be upon us? This were not possible if
   He were not God. To be always upon one object, man can scarcely do
   that! And where there are ten thousand times ten thousand objects, how
   can the same eyes always be upon every one among so many! I know what
   Unbelief has said to you. He has whispered, "He brings forth the stars,
   He calls them all by their names, how, then, can He notice so mean an
   insect as you are?" Then we have said, "My way is passed over from God:
   God has forgotten me. My God has forsaken me!"

   But here comes the text. Not only has He not forgotten you, but He has
   never once taken His eyes off you! And though you are one among so
   many, yet He has observed you as narrowly, as carefully, as tenderly as
   if there were not another child in the Divine family--nor another one
   whose prayers were to be heard, or whose cares were to be relieved.
   What would you think of yourself if you knew that you were the only
   saved soul in the world, the only elect one of God, the only one
   purchased on the bloody tree? Why you would feel, "How God must care
   for me! How He must watch over me! Surely He will never take His eyes
   off such a special favorite."

   And it is the same with you, Beloved, though the family is so large, as
   if you were the only one! The eyes of the Lord never grow weary--He
   neither slumbers nor sleeps--both by day and night He observes each one
   of His people. If you put these things together--intense affection,
   personal interest, unwearied power--and then if you remember that all
   this time God's heart is actuated by unchanging purposes of Divine
   Grace towards you, surely there will be enough to make you lose
   yourself in wonder, love, and praise!

   You have sinned in the past of your history, but your sin has never
   made Him love you less because He never looked upon you as you are
   personally considered, naked, and abstract in yourself. He saw you and
   loved you in Christ in the eternal purpose even when you were dead in
   trespasses and sins! He has seen you in Christ ever since, and has
   never ceased to love you. It is true you have been very faulty (what
   tears this ought to cost you!) but as He never loved you for your good
   works, He has never cast you away for your bad works, but has beheld
   you as washed in the atoning blood of Jesus till you are whiter than
   snow--He has seen you clothed in the perfect righteousness of your
   Surety--and therefore looked upon you and regarded you as though you
   were without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

   Grace has always set you before the Lord's eyes as being in His dear
   Son all fair and lovely--a pleasing prospect for Him to look upon. He
   has gazed upon you, Beloved, but never with anger. He has looked upon
   you when your infirmities, no, your willful wickedness had made you
   hate yourself, and yet, though He has seen you in this doleful state,
   He had such a regard for your relationship to Christ that you have
   still been accepted in the Beloved!

   I wish it were in the power of mortal speech to convey the full glory
   of that thought, but it is not. You must eat this morsel alone. You
   must take it like a wafer made with honey and put it under your tongue
   and suck the essential

   sweetness out of it. The eyes of God, my God, are always upon His
   chosen, as eyes of affection, delight, complacency, unwearied power,
   immutable wisdom, and unchanging love.

   The next word that seems to flash and sparkle in the text is that word
   "ALWAYS." "The eyes of the Lord are always upon it." And it is added,
   as if that word were not enough for such dull ears as ours, "from the
   beginning of the year even to the end of the year." This is so plain
   and pointed that we may not imagine that any one single day, or hour of
   the day, or minute of the hour we are removed from the eyes or the
   heart of God! I tried to discover the other day what time there was in
   one's life when one could best afford to be without God. Perhaps
   imagination suggests the time of prosperity, when business prospers,
   wealth is growing, and the mind is happy.

   Ah, Beloved, to be without our God then, why it would be like the
   marriage feast without the bridegroom! It would be the day of delight
   and no delight, a sea and no water in it, day and no light. What? All
   these mercies and no God? Then there is only so much shell and no
   kernel, so much shadow and no substance. In the midst of such joys as
   earth can give in the absence of the Lord the soul can hear Satanic
   laughter, for Satan laughs at the soul because it has tried to make the
   world its rest and is sure to be deceived. Do without God in
   prosperity, Beloved? We cannot, for then we should grow worldly, proud,
   careless, and deep damnation would be our lot.

   The Christian in prosperity is like a man standing on a pinnacle--he
   must then be Divinely upheld or his fall will be terrible! If you can
   do without God at all, it certainly is not when you are standing on the
   pinnacle! What, then? Could we do without Him in adversity? Ask the
   heart that is breaking! Ask the tortured spirit that has been deserted
   by its friend! Ask the child of poverty who has not where to lay his
   head! Ask the daughter of sickness, tossing by night and day on that
   uneasy bed, "Could you do without your God?" And the very thought
   causes wailing and gnashing of teeth!

   With God pain becomes pleasure, and dying beds are elevated into
   thrones, but without God--ah, what could we do? Well then, is there no
   period? Cannot the young Christian, full of freshness and vigor, elated
   with the novelty of piety, do without his God? Ah, poor puny thing, how
   can the lamb do without the shepherd to carry it in his arms? Cannot
   the man in middle life then, whose virtues have been confirmed, do
   without his God? He tells you that it is the day of battle with him,
   and that the darts fly so thick in business, nowadays, that the burdens
   of life are so heavy in this age that without God a man in middle life
   is like a naked man in the midst of a thicket of briars and thorns--he
   cannot hope to make his way.

   Ask yon grey beard with all the experience of seventy years whether at
   least he has not attained to an independence of Divine Grace, and he
   will say to you that as the weakness and infirmity of the body press
   upon him it is his joy that his inner man is renewed day by day--but
   take away God, who is the spring of that renewal--and old age would be
   utter wretchedness. Ah, Brothers and Sisters, there is not a moment in
   any one day that you or I have ever lived that we could have afforded
   to dispense with the help of God! When we have thought ourselves
   strong, alas, we have been fools enough to think so--in five minutes we
   have done that which has cost us rivers of tears to undo! In an
   unguarded moment we have spoken a word which we could not recall, but
   which we would have recalled if we should have had to bite our tongues
   in halves to have had it unsaid.

   We have thought a thought when God has left us which has gone whizzing
   through our souls like a hellish thunderbolt making a fiery path along
   the spirit. We may well wonder how it is that the evil thought did not
   become a terrible act as it would have done if God, whom we had
   forgotten, had forgotten us! We need to set the Lord always before us.
   Let us then, when we wake in the morning, take this promise with us and
   say, Lord, You have said You will always be with us--then leave us not
   till the dews of evening fall and we return to our couch. Leave us not
   even when we are there, lest in the night, temptation should be
   whispered in our ears and we should wake to defile our mind with
   unholiness. Leave us never, O our God, but always be our very present
   help!

   Last year was, perhaps, the most gloomy of our lives. All the newspaper
   summaries of 1866 are like the prophetic roll which was written within
   and without with lamentations. The year has gone, and everybody is glad
   to think that we have entered upon a new one--yet, who knows but what
   1867 may be worse? Who can tell? Well, Brothers and Sisters, let it be
   what God chooses it shall be. Let it be what He appoints, for there is
   this comfort in the assurance that not a moment from this Sunday night
   on to December 31st , 1867, shall be without the tender care of Heaven.
   Not even for a second will the Lord remove His eyes from any of His
   people! Here is good cheer for us! We will march boldly into this

   wilderness, for the pillar of fire and cloud will never leave us! The
   manna will never cease to drop, and the Rock that followed us will
   never cease to flow with living streams. Onward, onward, let us go,
   joyously confident in our God!

   The next word that springs from the text is that great word JEHOVAH. It
   is a pity that our translators did not give us the names of God as they
   found them in the original. The word LORD in capitals is well enough,
   but that grand and glorious name of "Jehovah" should have been
   retained. In this case we read, "the eyes of Jehovah are always upon
   it." He who surveys us with love and care is none other than the one
   and indivisible God, so that we may conclude, if we have His eyes to
   view us, we have His heart to love us!

   And if we have His heart, we have His wings to cover us. We have His
   hands to bear us up. We have the everlasting arms to be underneath us.
   We have all the attributes of Deity at our command. Oh, Christian, when
   God says that He always looks at you, He means this--that He is always
   yours! There is nothing which is necessary for you which He will refuse
   to do! There is no wisdom stored up in Him which He will not use for
   you. There is no one attribute of all that great mass of splendor which
   makes up the Deity which shall be withheld from you in any measure. All
   that God is shall be yours. He shall be your God forever and ever! He
   will give you Grace and glory, and be your guide even unto death.

   Perhaps the sweetest word of the text is that next one--the eyes of
   Jehovah "YOUR GOD." Ah, there is a blessed secret! Why? Ours in
   Covenant! Our God, for He chose us to be His portion, and by His Grace
   He has made us choose Him to be our portion. We are His and He is
   ours--

   "So I my best Beloved's am, So He is mine."

   "Your God." Blessed be the Lord, we have learned to view Him not as
   another man's God but as our God! Christian, can you claim a property
   in God this day? Has your hand, by faith, grasped Him? Has your heart,
   by love, twisted its tendrils round Him? Do you feel Him to be the
   greatest possession that you have--that all creatures are but a dream,
   an empty show--but that God is your substantial treasure, your All in
   All?

   Oh, then, it is not an absolute God whose eyes are upon you, but God in
   Covenant relationship regards you. "Your God." What a word is this! He
   who is watching me is my Shepherd. He who cares for me is my
   Father--not my God, alone, by way of power--but my Father by way of
   relationship! He is One who, though He is so great that the Heaven of
   heavens cannot contain Him, yet deigned to visit this poor earth robed
   in mortal flesh that He might become like we, and He is now our
   God--the God of His people by near and dear relationship! In ties of
   blood Jesus is with sinners one, our Husband, our Head, our All in All!
   And we are His fullness, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.

   Thus the eyes of God, as the Covenant God of Israel, are upon His
   people from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I must
   now leave the text to talk to you alone by itself. Much more may be
   said, but better unsaid by me, if you let the text say it to you. Talk
   to the text, I pray you--let it journey with you till you can say of it
   as the disciples said of Christ, "Did not our hearts burn within us
   while He talked with us by the way?"

   II. We are now to TURN THE TEXT OVER, that is to say, we will misread
   it, yet read it rightly. Suppose the text were to run thus--"The eyes
   of the Lord's people are always upon Him from the beginning of the year
   to the end of the year"? Dear Friends, we like the text as it stands,
   but I do not believe we shall ever comprehend the fullness of it unless
   we receive it as I have now altered it, for we only understand God's
   sight of us when we get a sight of Him. God, unknown to us, is our
   Protector, but He is not such a Protector that we can comfortably
   repose upon Him.

   We mast discern Him by the eyes of faith, or else the mercy, though
   given by God, is not spiritually enjoyed in our hearts. Beloved, if God
   looks at us, how much more ought we to look at Him? When God sees us
   what does He see? Nothing--I was going to say--nothing, if He looks at
   us in ourselves. We are but that which is unworthy to be looked at.
   Now, on the contrary, when we look at Him what do we see? Oh such a
   sight, that I wonder not that Moses said, "I beseech You, show me Your
   Glory."

   What a vision will it be! Will it not be Heaven's own vision to see
   God? Is not it the peculiar prerogative of the pure in heart that they
   shall see God? And yet, I cannot understand it! Some of us have had the
   right to see God for years, and we have occasionally seen Him face to
   face, as a man speaks to his friend--by faith we have seen God, but,
   Beloved, what I cannot understand is that we see so little of Him! Do
   you ever find yourself living all day without God? Not perhaps
   absolutely so, for you would not like to go to business without a
   little prayer in the morning. But do you not sometimes get through that
   morning's prayer without seeing God at all?

   I mean, is it not just the form of kneeling down, and saying good words
   and getting up again? And all through the day, have you not lived away
   from God? This is a strange world to live in. There are not many things
   to make one happy, and yet somehow we forget the very things that could
   give us happiness and keep our eyes upon the frivolous cares and
   teasing troubles which distract us. So we even close the night--no
   taste of His love, no kiss of His lips that is better than wine. And
   our evening prayer--poor moaning it is, hardly a prayer.

   I fear it is possible to live not only days, but months at this dying
   rate! And it is horrible living, such horrible living that I would
   infinitely prefer to be locked up in the moldiest dungeon in which a
   man of God ever rotted and have the Lord's Presence, than I would care
   to live in the noblest palace in which a sinner ever sported himself
   without God. After all, that is it which makes life--life is the
   enjoyment of the Presence of God! It is not so with the worldling--he
   can live without God, like the swine, who, being contented with their
   husks, lie down and sleep and wake again to feed. But the Christian
   cannot live on husks--he has a stomach above them--and if he does not
   get his God he will be miserable.

   God has ordained it so that a spiritual man is wretched without the
   love of God in his heart. If you and I want present happiness without
   God, we had better be sinners outright and live upon this world than
   try to be happy in religion without communion with Jesus. Present
   happiness for a genuine Christian in the absence of Christ is an
   absolute impossibility! We must have God or we are, of all men, most
   miserable.

   Suppose that in this year 1867 we were, at any rate, filled with the
   desire to have our eyes always upon God from the beginning of the year
   to the end of the year--to be always conscious that He sees us, to be
   always sensible of His Presence--more than that, to be always longing
   to be obedient to His commands, always desiring to win souls for His
   dear Son from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? What a
   happy thing this would be! If we could abide in a spirit of
   prayerfulness or thankfulness, devout, consecrated, loving, tender, it
   would be a high thing to attain unto.

   Brethren, we believe in a great God who is able to do exceedingly
   abundantly above what we ask or even think. Why not expect great things
   from Him? I think of this blessing and I dare to ask for it--surely,
   then, He is able to give it. Do not let us stand back because of
   unbelief! Let us ask that as God's eyes will be upon us, our eyes may
   be upon Him. What a blessed meeting of eyes when the Lord looks us full
   in the face and we look at Him through the Mediator Christ Jesus, and
   the Lord declares, "I love you," and we answer, "We also love You, O
   our God!" Oh that we may be in harmony with the Lord our God and find
   ourselves drawn upwards and bound to Him!

   May the Lord be the Sun, and we the dewdrops which sparkle in His rays
   and are exhaled and drawn aloft by the heat of His love! May God look
   down from Heaven and we look up to Heaven, and both of us be happy in
   the sight of each other, delighting and rejoicing in mutual affection!
   This is what communion means. I have taken a long while to bring it to
   that one word, but that is what it means--

   "Daily communion let me prove With You, blest Object of my love." That
   was Toplady's desire, but I am afraid if I would express my own
   experience I must close with the other two of the verses where Toplady
   says--

   "But oh, for this no strength have I, My strength is at Your feet to
   lie."

   III. In the third place, we will imagine that WE BLOT THE TEXT OUT
   ALTOGETHER. Not that we can blot it

   out or would do so if we could, but we are to suppose that it is
   blotted out to imagine that you and I have to live all the year without
   the eyes of God upon us--not finding a moment from the beginning of the
   year to the end of the year in which we perceive the Lord to be caring
   for us or to be waiting to be gracious to us. Imagine that there is
   none to whom we may appeal beyond our own fellow creatures for help. Oh
   miserable supposition!

   We have come to the opening of the year, and we have to get through it
   somehow. We must stumble through January, go muddling through the
   winter, groaning through the spring, sweating through the summer,
   fainting through the autumn, and groveling on to another Christmas, and
   no God to help us! No prayer when God is gone, no promise when God is
   no more. There could be no promise, no spiritual succor, no comfort, no
   help for us if there were no God! I will suppose this to be the case
   with any one of us here.

   But I hear you cry out, "Imagine not such a thing, for I should be like
   an orphan child without a father! I should be helpless--a tree with no
   water to its roots." But I will suppose this is the case of you
   sinners. You know you have been living for 20, or 30, or 40 years
   without God, without prayer, without trust, without hope--yet I should
   not wonder

   that if I were solemnly to tell you that God would not let you pray
   during the next year, and would not help you if you did pray--I should
   not wonder if you were greatly startled at it! Though I believe that
   the Lord will hear you from the beginning of the year to the end of the
   year. Though I believe that He will watch over you and bless you if you
   seek Him, yet I fear that the most of you are despising His care,
   living without fellowship with Him, and so you are without God, without
   Christ, without hope, and will be so from the beginning of the year to
   the end of the year.

   There is a story told of a most eccentric minister, that walking out
   one morning he saw a man going to work and said to him, "What a lovely
   morning! How grateful we ought to be to God for all His mercies!" The
   man said he did not know much about it. "Why," said the minister, "I
   suppose you always pray to God for your wife and family--for your
   children--don't you?" "No," said he, "I do not know that I do." "What,"
   said the minister, "do you never pray?" "No." "Then I will give you
   half-a-crown, if you will promise me you never will as long as ever you
   live." "Oh," said he, "I shall be very glad of half-a-crown to get me a
   drop of beer."

   He took the half-crown and promised never to pray as long as he lived.
   He went to his work, and when he had been digging for a little while,
   he thought to himself, "That's a strange thing I have done this
   morning--a very strange thing--I've taken money and promised never to
   pray as long as I live." He thought it over, and it made him feel
   wretched. He went home to his wife and told her of it. "Well, John,"
   she said, "you may depend upon it, it was the devil! You've sold
   yourself to the devil for half-a-crown." This so bowed the poor wretch
   down that he did not know what to do with himself! This was all he
   thought about--that he had sold himself to the devil for money--and
   would soon be carried off to Hell.

   He commenced attending places of worship, conscious that it was of no
   use, for he had sold himself to the devil. He became really ill, bodily
   ill, through the fear and trembling which had come upon him. One night
   he recognized in the preacher the very man who had given him the
   half-crown, and probably the preacher recognized him, for the text was,
   "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
   his own soul?" The preacher remarked that he knew a man who had sold
   his soul for half-a-crown. The poor man rushed forward and said, "Take
   it back! Take it back!" "You said you would never pray," said the
   minister, "if I gave you half-a-crown! Do you now want to pray?" "Oh
   yes, I would give the world to be allowed to pray."

   That man was a great fool to sell his soul for half-a-crown! But some
   of you are a great deal bigger fools, for you never had the half-crown
   and yet you still do not pray! And I dare say you never will, but will
   go down to Hell never having sought God. Perhaps if I could make this
   text negative, and say to you, "the eyes of God will not be upon you
   from the beginning of this year to the end of the year, and God will
   not hear and bless you," it might alarm and awaken you.

   But though I suggest the thought, I would rather you say, "Oh let not
   such a curse rest upon me, for I may die this year, and I may die this
   day. O God, hear me now!" Ah, dear Hearer, if such a desire is in your
   heart the Lord will hear you and bless you with His salvation.

   III. Let us close with USING THE TEXT. The way to use it is this. If
   the eyes of the Lord will be upon us His people from the beginning of
   the year to the end of the year, what shall we do? Why, let us be as
   happy as we can during this year! You have your trials and troubles to
   come--do not expect that you will be free from them. The devil is not
   dead, and sparks still fly upward. Herein is your joy--the God and
   Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you.
   Up with your standard now and march on boldly!

   In the name of the Lord set up your banner and begin to sing! Away with
   carking care--God cares for us! The sparrows are fed, and shall not the
   children be? The lilies bloom, and shall not the saints be clothed? Let
   us roll all our burdens upon the Burden-Bearer. You will have enough to
   care for if you care for His cause as you should. Do not spoil your
   power to care for God by caring for yourself. This year let your motto
   be, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
   things shall be added to you."

   By anxious thought you cannot add a cubit to your stature, nor turn one
   hair white or black! Take, then, no anxious thought for the morrow, for
   the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Lean upon your
   God and remember His promise that as your day is so shall your strength
   be. "I would have you," says the Apostle, "I would have you without
   carefulness." He does not mean, I would have you without economy,
   without prudence and without discretion,

   but he means he would have you without fretfulness, without distrustful
   care. He would have you be without care for yourself, because the
   Lord's eyes will be upon you!

   Further, dear Friends, I would have you use the text by the way of
   seeking greater blessings and richer mercies than you have ever
   enjoyed. Blessed be God for His merciful kindness towards this Church.
   His loving kindnesses have been very many! His favors new every morning
   and fresh every evening--but we need more! Let us not be content with a
   February blessing, though that is generally the month in which we have
   had our refreshing. Let us seek to get a blessing to-day! I hope you
   will get it this afternoon in the Sunday school, you workers there. And
   I hope you will have it in the senior classes from the beginning of the
   year to the end of the year. Let there be no dullness, lethargy, and
   lukewarmness in the classes this afternoon!

   The Brother who has to address the school, will, I hope, speak to you
   with fervor and earnestness. There must be no coldness there. And I
   hope you who are preaching in the street, if it is possible in such
   weather, or going from house to house with tracts, or doing anything
   else, will have a blessing on this first Sunday of the year! But then,
   shall we grow cold next Sunday? Not at all! It is from the beginning of
   the year to the end of the year! Shall we endeavor to get up a little
   excitement and have a revival for five or six weeks? No, blessed be
   God, we must have it from the beginning of the year to the end of the
   year!

   While we have a spring which never grows dry, why should the pitcher
   ever be empty? Surely gratitude can find us fuel enough in the forests
   of memory to keep the fire of love always flaming. Why should we be
   weary when the glorious prize is worthy of our constant exertions, when
   the great crowd of witnesses hold us in full survey? May our Lord, by
   His Spirit bring you and me to a high pitch ofprayerfulness, and then
   let us continue in prayer from the beginning of the year to the end of
   the year!

   May God bring you and me to a high degree of generosity, and then may
   we be always giving from the beginning of the year to the end of the
   year every week, from the first to the last, always laying by in store
   as God has prospered us for His cause. May we be always active, always
   industrious, always hopeful, always spiritual, always heavenly, and
   always raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ
   Jesus!

   So may our gracious God deal with us from the beginning of the year to
   the end of the year through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                       Cheering Words and Solemn Warnings

   A sermon

   (No. 729)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 13, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Say you to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they
   shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill
   with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him."- Isaiah
   3:10,11.

   THERE are two classes mentioned here, the righteous and the wicked. And
   into these two orders the Book of God is accustomed to divide the whole
   population of the globe. It speaks but little of upper and lower
   classes. It says but little concerning the various ranks into which
   civil and political institutions have divided the race of man--but from
   its first page to its last it is taken up with this grand division--the
   righteous and the wicked. Very early in human history we find the "Seed
   of the woman," and the "seed of the serpent." And we meet with Cain,
   who was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother, because his own works
   were evil and his brother's righteous.

   While the deluge destroys the ungodly, Noah floats in the ark in
   security as the representative of the righteous. And when the
   destroying angel smites the rebellious Egyptians, Israel feasts in
   safety upon the Passover. The two races have always been in existence
   and at enmity. Israel was oppressed in Egypt, attacked by Amalekites in
   the wilderness, beset by foes in Canaan and carried away captive into
   Assyria or Babylon. In the nation of Israel itself the very heart of
   the people was depraved by an idolatrous seed and at length eaten out
   by the hypocrisy of a generation of vipers who were of Israel, but were
   not the Lord's chosen.

   In our own age, when the Church of God is found among the Gentiles, we
   see still the broad mark of distinction between men who fear the Lord
   and men who fear Him not. The line of nature and the line of Divine
   Grace run the same as ever--the seed of the woman and the seed of the
   serpent contend with each other still. And it is not the intent of God
   in His Providence that the line of demarcation should be withdrawn. He
   would not have His people enter into alliance with the camp of evil,
   but "come out from among them and be separate." Nonconformity, in its
   spiritual sense, is the duty of every Christian man. "Be not conformed
   to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your minds."
   The flood came upon the world when the sons of God were united with the
   daughters of men, and unholy alliances between the Church and the world
   provoked God to the highest possible degree. He will have the
   distinction maintained between the precious and the vile till time
   shall be no more.

   God of old divided light from darkness. The light He called Day, and
   the darkness He called Night. And He will not have us call light
   darkness, nor darkness light. He forbade the Jews to sow with many
   seeds intermingled, or the wearing of linsey-woolsey, because He would
   typically forbid unhallowed blending. He will have a seed that shall
   serve Him and that shall fear Him, and go outside the camp bearing the
   reproach of His dear Son, and these shall be evermore distinct from
   that other seed under the dominion of the prince of the power of the
   air, whose rebellious enquiry is, "Who is Jehovah that we should obey
   His voice?"

   A crimson line runs between the righteous and the wicked--the line of
   atoning sacrifice. Faith crosses that line, but nothing else can. Faith
   in the precious blood is the great distinction at the root, and all
   those Divine Graces which spring out of faith go to make the righteous
   more and more separate from the ungodly world. They, having not the
   root, have not the fruit. Do you believe on Jesus Christ? On whose side
   are you? Are you for us or for our enemies? Do you rally at the cry of
   the Cross? Does the uplifted banner of a dying Savior's love attract
   you? If not, then you remain still out of God, out of Christ--an alien
   to the commonwealth of Israel--and you will have your portion among the
   enemies of the Savior.

   This distinction is so sharp and definite that there are more who dwell
   in a borderland between the two conditions. There is a sharp line of
   division between the righteous and the wicked, as clear as that which
   divides death from life. A man cannot be between death and life--he is
   either living or dead. If there is but a spark of life he cannot be
   numbered

   with the dead--he lives, and he will, let us hope, live to a better
   purpose. But if he is dead and the vital spark is quite quenched--you
   may dress him as you will and hang ornaments on his ears, and fill his
   mouth with the sweetest dainties--but you cannot breathe into his
   nostrils the breath of life again. He is dead.

   A clear line of demarcation exists between life and death, and such a
   division is fixed by God between the righteous and the wicked. There
   are no "betweenities"! There are no amphibious dwellers in Divine Grace
   and out of Grace. There are no monstrous nondescripts who are neither
   sinners nor saints. You are, dear Hearer, this day, alive by the
   quickening influences of the Holy Spirit or else you are dead in
   trespasses and sins! He that is not with Christ is against Him. He that
   gathers not with Him scatters abroad, so that to every man, woman and
   child in this place, my text, with its double utterances, has a voice.

   If you are righteous, it shall be well with you. If you are not
   righteous, though you may think that you are not wicked and may feel
   indignant that the term should be applied to you--yet it must be and my
   text means you when it says, "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with
   him." There ought to be at the outset of our discourse this morning a
   great searching of heart, and each one should say to himself--

   "And what am I?--My Soul, awake,

   And an impartial prospect take.

   Does no dark sign, no ground of fear,

   In practice, or in heart appear?

   "What image does my spirit bear?

   Is Jesus form'd, and living there?

   Say, do His lineaments Divine

   In thought, in word, and actions shine?" Do not ask such questions and
   then leave their answer in cloudland! Rather wait at the Mercy Seat
   till you know for a certainty that Christ is yours and you are His.

   Dear Hearer, if there is a comfortable word spoken this morning, do not
   apply it to yourself! If you are not among the righteous--if you are
   not made righteous through the blood of Christ and through the
   transforming power of His Spirit--do not steal a dangerous consolation
   from the Word. On the other hand, if there is a dark and dreary threat,
   which in solemn truth applies to you, tremble at it but let it come
   home with power! For it may be that God will visit you in the whirlwind
   or in the storm of the threat, making the clouds of the text to be the
   dust of His feet--and while He rebukes you, you shall find it to be in
   love.

   If the Lord shall break your heart, consent to have it broken, asking
   that He may sanctify that brokenness of spirit to bring you in earnest
   to the Savior and that you may yet be numbered with the righteous ones.
   We shall now come, as God may help us, to the text.

   I. THE WELL-BEING OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Here let us read the words again,
   that we may get the fullness of their meaning. "Say you to the
   righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit
   of their doings." Observe attentively the fact mentioned, the great
   fact--it shall be well with the righteous! The statement is singularly
   simple. There are few adverbs or adjectives to describe, and,
   therefore, to limit the announcement. The statement is made broadly. It
   is almost as grand in its simplicity, as the saying, "Let there be
   light, and there was light."

   "It shall be well with them." That is the whole of the declaration. But
   the very fewness of the words creates and reveals a depth of meaning.
   Observe, then, we may gather from the fact that the text is without
   descriptive limits that it is well with the righteous ALWAYS. If it had
   said, "Say you to the righteous, that it is well with them in their
   prosperity," we must have been thankful for so great a gift, for
   prosperity is an hour of peril. Or if it had been written, "Say you to
   the righteous that it is well with them when under persecution," we
   must have been thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution
   is hard to bear!

   But when no time is mentioned, all time is included! When no particular
   occasion is singled out, it is because upon every occasion the saying
   is alike true--

   "Well when they see His face, Or sink amidst the flood. Well in
   affliction's thorny maze, Or on the mount with God."

   "Say you to the righteous, that it shall be well with them," from the
   beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the rising of the
   sun unto the going down of the same! From the first gatherings of
   evening shadows until the daystar shines! It shall be well with them
   when, like Samuel, God calls them from the bed of their childhood! It
   shall be well when, like David in his old age, he is stayed up in the
   bed to conclude his life with a song of praise! It shall be well if,
   like Solomon, they shall abound in wealth, and well with them if, like
   Lazarus, they shall lie upon a dunghill and the dogs shall lick their
   sores.

   It shall be well, if like Job they wash their feet with oil and their
   steps with butter! If the princes are before them bowing their heads,
   and the great ones of the earth do them obeisance. And it shall be
   equally well if, like Job in his trial, they sit down to scrape
   themselves with a potsherd, their children gone, their wives bidding
   them curse their God, their friends miserable comforters to them, and
   themselves left alone--it shall be well, always well!--

   "'Tis well when joys arise,

   'Tis well when sorrows flow,

   'Tis well when darkness veils the skies,

   And strong temptations blow." The text evidently means that it is well
   with the righteous at all times alike, and never otherwise than well,
   because no time is mentioned, no season is excluded, and all time is
   intended--

   "What cheering words are these!

   Their sweetness who can tell?

   In time, and to eternal days,

   'Tis with the righteous well."

   It shall be well with the righteous, especially in the future. The text
   says, "it shall be well with them." They often dread the future, but
   they certainly have no reason for unbelieving fear. It shall be well
   with the righteous. They may look forward to a day of trouble which
   they clearly foresee, but they have no reason for foreboding, for it
   shall be well with them in the coming struggle. And if, perhaps, on the
   heels of that trouble there shall come another and yet another, it
   shall still be well with them, for is it not written, "In six troubles
   I will be with you, and in seven there shall no evil touch

   you"?

   If they shall extend their vision to those years of coming
   decline--when the sere leaves shall cover their path, when the
   grasshopper shall be a burden, and the grinders fail because they are
   few and they that look out of the windows shall be darkened, it shall
   be well with them at eventide. Their last days shall be their best
   days. They shall dwell in the land Beulah, and sing upon the bank of
   Jordan, for their souls shall be ravished with foretastes of the rest
   which remains for the favored ones.

   Should the man of God extend his view yet further, and through the
   telescope of faith should gaze upon unknown worlds, he may discern
   distinctly, by the light of gracious promises, that it shall be well
   with him in the land of the hereafter! The text hints at no end. It
   does not say it shall be well with us up to a certain point, but beyond
   that the text says nothing. No, the words are simply and grandly, "it
   shall be," and nothing less. God's "shalls" must be understood always
   in their largest sense, and so we know that when the cycles of time
   shall cease, and the wheels of this huge engine shall go to rack, it
   shall be well with the righteous!

   Let the nations be dashed in pieces. Let there come terrific conflicts.
   Let Armageddon's last dread shout be heard. Let the Euphrates be dried
   up. Let the sea be licked up with tongues of forked flame. Let the very
   mountains melt like wax in the Presence of God! Let the elements be
   consumed with fervent heat--it matters nothing to the Christian what
   shall happen in all those days of dread catastrophe--for has not God
   said it shall be well with the righteous? Always well, then, and well
   in the future, we add, upon Divine authority.

   A wise man may say to us, "It is well," and his experience may be so
   little at fault that the utterance may be accurate. We ourselves may
   sometimes come to a fairly safe conclusion that things are well with
   us. But oh, how much better it is to have it under the hand and seal of
   Omniscience! He who searches the heart, who sees every secret thing,
   says that with the righteous it is well! It is the mouth of God that
   speaks the comforting assurance! Oh Beloved, if God says that it is
   well, ten thousand devils may say it is ill and we laugh them all to
   scorn! Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when
   the creatures contradict Him.

   It is, says God, at all times well with you, you righteous one! Then,
   Beloved, if you cannot see it, let God's Word stand in the place of
   your sight. Yes, believe it on Divine authority more confidently than
   if your eyes and your feelings told it to you. Whom God blesses is
   blest, indeed! And what His lips pronounces as the Truth is most sure
   and steadfast. It is well, we may rest assured again, with our best
   selves. The text does not say it is always well with our bodies, but
   our bodies are not ourselves--they are but the casket of our nobler
   natures--our soul is the true jewel. Our bodies are but the garments,
   our soul is the precious life which wears them for awhile. I understand
   the text to mean our nobler parts, our new God-given life--it shall be
   well with it.

   If it is passed through the fire, it is but to refine it of its dross.
   If it is compelled to take a pilgrimage through the floods, it is that
   it may come up like a sheep from the washing. It is always well with
   our better and nobler natures! If God is but with us to sanctify us and
   sustain us, the worst of circumstances shall work for our good. When I
   looked at the text, studying it as best I could, I thought, "Yes, and
   if God says it is well, He means it is well emphatically." It is well
   with weight. It is not a superficial statement--that it is apparently
   well--but it is a deep, true, lasting, sincere "well."

   Conceive, if you can, of the soul's being well in the best sense in
   which it could be well. Now all that you have imagined and more is true
   of the righteous--"it shall be well." It shall be so well with the
   righteous man in the sight of God as to the grand matter that it could
   not be better. He shall be as pure, as happy, as ennobled as a man
   could possibly be when Divine Grace has fulfilled its purpose in him.
   God has already given the Believer all that his heart can desire, for
   He has given him all things in Jesus. And He has insured to that man by
   oath and by Covenant all that he can ever want in time and eternity. In
   the best, highest, largest, truest sense of the term, it is well with
   the righteous!

   I want you to observe, before I leave this fact, that it is so well
   with them that God wants them to know it. He would have His saints
   happy, and therefore He says to His Prophets, "Say you to the
   righteous, it shall be well with them." It is not wise, sometimes, to
   remind a man of his wealth, and rank, and prospects--for pride is so
   readily stirred up in us. If a Brother is endowed with remarkable
   talents, he will generally find that out soon enough himself. It is
   dangerous, perhaps, to tell him so. But it is not dangerous to assure
   the Christian that it is well with him, for otherwise the Lord would
   not command us to repeat the assurance in the ears of the godly!

   The Lord would have every preacher comfort His people! He would have
   the Book, the good old Book itself, speak plainly to them of the
   dignity of their relationships, of the security of their portion, of
   the comfort of their present estate, and the glory of the world to
   come. "Say you to the righteous, it shall be well with them." Say it
   often and plainly, for the statement will be beneficial. I desired to
   have said this upon the present occasion in such a way that you could
   see it and feel it, and rejoice in it!

   Are you in Christ, my Brother, my Sister? Have you come to the fountain
   of His precious blood? Have you washed there? Have you trusted in
   Jesus? Now it may seem to you that everything goes amiss with you and
   the more you try to set matters right, the worse they become. But God
   has said to His servant, this morning, "Say you to the righteous, it
   shall be well with them," and I do say it, yet not I, but God says
   it--it shall be well with you--it is well with you! Oh that you would
   believe it! Ah, if you did believe it you would be so joyful!

   Well, and should not the righteous be joyful? Ought they not
   exceedingly to rejoice? The thought has been crossing my mind many
   times this week that I am not joyful enough, and that God's people, as
   a whole, are not joyful enough. Am I mistaken in that idea? What is the
   truest worship in the world? Why, it is joy in the Lord! "Rejoice in
   the Lord always." I believe that we adore God best and please Him most
   when the thought of Him does bring to our soul exalted pleasure. But
   alas, we give our God little of the sweet odors of our delight! We get
   to muddling our brains about our worldly estate, our sins, our
   conflicts and inward corruptions, and we forget what a good God we
   have--and His loving kindness is disregarded.

   What a blessed God is ours in Christ Jesus! A sea of never-failing
   delights! A river of boundless joys, forever flowing on! Blessed be the
   name of the Lord forever and ever! Let our hearts exult at the thought
   of His goodness and leap for joy at the sound of His name. God Himself
   is our exceeding joy! And then to help us in all our holy exultation He
   cheers us with these heavenly words, "It is well with you, My dear
   Child. It is well with you now, and shall be throughout eternity." A
   few minutes will scarcely suffice in full length to account for this
   Truth of God. As I have but so short a time, will you accompany me with
   earnest attention while I give a bare outline and hasty list of the
   causes of the Christian's joy? More than this it were vain to attempt.

   It is no wonder that it is well with the Believer when you consider
   that his greatest trouble is past. His greatest trouble was the guilt
   of sin. This threw him into the dungeon where there was no water, from
   which he has now escaped, for sin is pardoned and the repenting sinner
   is set free from the terrible bondage of the Law. Sin he mourns over,
   but he knows that the guilt of it was endured and taken away by the
   great Substitute! And he rejoices that he now stands an absolved person
   against whom the justice of God can bring no account, for he is
   completely forgiven! Do you not remember the time when you thought that
   if God would but forgive you your sins you would not make another
   stipulation? If He would command you to be a galley slave, yet if sin
   were pardoned, you felt you could tug the oar and bear the smart of the
   driver's whip right cheerfully, so long as the legal whip was taken
   away. Now, Christian, your sin is pardoned! That which separated you
   from God is gone! Your iniquity is forgiven through Jesus Christ, and
   none can lay anything to your charge.

   Then your next greatest trouble is doomed. Your second greatest trouble
   is indwelling sin. The power of sin plagues you now. Well, that is
   doomed! Christ, by His death, has driven the spear through the heart of
   sin as to its power over you. It shall not have dominion over you, for
   you are not under the Law but under Grace! The day is hastening on when
   you shall drop all tendency to sin. Oh, blissful hour! Oh, joyous
   change, when the tendency shall be all upward, all toward good, all
   toward God, and not one whisper of temptation toward evil! Not one
   carnal passion, not a thought of crime, not one unsubdued desire--but
   the whole soul, through and through, washed and cleansed and made like
   unto God! The holiness, without which no man can see the Lord, is
   guaranteed to every Believer in the Covenant, and so his second
   greatest mischief is moved away by the blessing of his God. This ought
   to make him a happy man! If neither the guilt nor the power of sin can
   curse him, he ought to rejoice!

   With regard to the Christian, he knows that his best things are safe.
   If the ship is wrecked, yet he never had his treasure on board this
   earthly vessel! If the thief should break through and steal, yet the
   thief cannot get at his jewels, for his jewels are hidden with Christ
   in God! If the moth should corrupt and fret his garments, yet his
   everlasting robe will never be moth-eaten, for that hangs up in the
   great House above ready for him that he may put it on after he has
   undressed himself and left his weekday garments in the tomb! His best
   things are all secure! Time cannot change them, nor death destroy them,
   or Satan rob him of them!

   As for his worst things, they only work his good. He has his worst
   things as other men, for he cannot always feast, but his worst things
   are among his mercies. He gains by his losses. He acquires health by
   his sicknesses. He wins friends through his bereavements, and he
   absolutely becomes a conqueror through his defeats! Nothing, therefore,
   can be injurious to the Christian when the very worst things that he
   has are but rough waves to wash his golden ships home to port and
   enrich him!

   My dear Friends, I was about to say of the Christian that it is so well
   with him that I could not imagine it to be better! He is well fed--he
   feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus! He is well clothed--"Bring
   forth the best robe, and put it on him"--he wears the imputed
   righteousness of Christ! He is well housed--he dwells in God who has
   been the Dwelling Place of His people in all generations. He is well
   married--his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ! He is
   well provided for--for the present, the Lord is his Shepherd and he
   will not want. And he is well provided for the future--

   "This world is his, and worlds to come. Earth is his lodge, and Heaven
   his home."

   Time would fail me to say that it must be well with the Christian,
   because God has put within him many Graces which help to make all
   things well. Has he difficulties? Faith laughs at them, and overcomes
   them. Has he trials? Love accepts them, seeing the Father's hand in
   them all. Has he sicknesses? Patience kisses the rod. Is he weary? Hope
   expects a rest to come. The sparkling Graces which God has put within
   the man's soul qualify him to overcome in all conflicts, and to make
   this world subject to his power in every battle. I mean that he gets
   good out of the worst ill, or throws that ill aside by the majesty of
   the life that is in him.

   Then mark how the Christian has, beside what is put within him by the
   Holy Spirit, this to comfort him--namely, that day by day God the Holy
   Spirit visits him with fresh life and fresh power! If our eternal life
   depended upon what we have within, apart from fresh spiritual help, we
   might find it to be far other than well with us. But the perennial
   fountains which winters' frosts cannot freeze, and which the burning
   heats of summer can never dry flow perpetually to

   us! We draw living waters from the depth that lies under the eternal
   fountain which couches beneath. The everlasting fullness of God, which
   is treasured up in the Person of Christ, is given over by an immutable
   Covenant to be the provision for the faithful! Fortifications of
   stupendous rocks are our secure dwelling places, and the inexhaustible
   fullness of God in Christ Jesus is our never-failing supply.

   Briefly let me run over a few things which the Christian has, from each
   of which it may be inferred it must be well with him. He has a Bank
   that never breaks, the glorious Throne of Grace. And he has only to
   apply on bended knee to get what he will. Over the door there is
   written, "Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find.
   Knock, and it shall be opened to you." He has ever near him a most
   sweet Companion, whose loving converse is so delightful that the
   roughest roads grow smooth, and the darkest nights glow with
   brightness. The coldest and most shivering days become warm when that
   Companion talks. "Did not our hearts burn within us while He spoke with
   us by the way?"--

   "Though enwrapt in gloomy night,

   We perceive no ray of light,

   Since the Lord Himself is here,

   'Tis not meet that we should fear.

   Night with Him is never night,

   Where He is, there all is light.

   When He calls us, why delay?

   They are happy who obey."

   The Believer has an arm to lean upon--an arm that is never weary, never
   feeble, never withdrawn--so that if he has to climb along a rugged way,
   the more rough the road the more heavily he leans, and the more
   graciously he is sustained. Moreover, he is favored with a perpetual
   Comforter--not an angel to whisper of Heaven, but God Himself, the
   blessed Paraclete, the Holy Spirit--to pour in oil and wine into every
   wound, and to bring to his remembrance the things which Christ has
   spoken. Why, Sirs, if there were anything that the Christian needed
   which were not supplied to him, I might admit that it must sometimes be
   ill with him! But when I read, "All things are yours, whether things
   present or things to come; or life or death, all are yours; and you are
   Christ's, and Christ is God's," truly I conclude that it is and must be
   well with the righteous!

   It is well with the righteous when he comes to die. Here we speak what
   we know, and testify what we have seen. The dying songs of saints are
   often in our ears. During nearly all the term of my ministry in London
   I have had the privilege of knowing a dear Friend in Christ Jesus to
   whom my heart has been greatly knit. One of the noblest and happiest of
   the sons of men. Yet it was not bodily vigor which made him so
   uniformly joyous, for as long as I have known him he has been of very
   weakly constitution--so that as often as the wintry months came on he
   has had to wend his way to Egypt, Madeira, or South America--there to
   pass through the winter in banishment, and return to his ministry as
   soon as the season allowed.

   A loving heart and a large mind were blended in him. He was always
   making friends, and I should say never lost one. He was deeply
   interested in the work here, and was much at home in the midst of this
   great assembly--for our songs and praises, which he compared to the
   noise of many waters--were sweet to his ears. Now it pleased the Lord
   but a day or two ago that be should fall asleep--much to my loss, but
   to his own eternal gain! He thought that perhaps he could labor through
   this winter and his soul was warmed by holy zeal to stay with his
   people if he could, and preach the Gospel which he loved so well.

   That zeal has cost his life. He wrote me one or two sweet letters on
   his dying bed, and when at last he closed his eyes, he uttered for his
   last testimony, words so like my own John Anderson that I am sure
   nobody could have invented them. His last words were "All right!
   Farewell!" Yes, that is how a Christian man can live! And how he can
   die! "It is all right," says he. "It is well with me. It is right
   here--I have done my work, and God accepts it! It is right up
   there--Christ has finished His work on my account, and now farewell,
   till we meet again." No tinge of sadness--no, not a whisper of
   grief--it is ALL, all, all right! He had served his Master long, and
   was glad to rest. He had fought his battle, and as the warrior sheathed
   his sword his eye caught the flashes of his Master's welcome, and he
   said to his comrades, "All right! Farewell!" He is with God, and we are
   following on! All right is it now, and all right it shall be with us,
   also, if we are depending upon the finished work of the Well-Beloved.

   Lastly, it is well with the righteous after death. His disembodied
   spirit is in Jesus' bosom! Is it not well? When the trumpet sounds, his
   spirit comes down to meet the risen body--to behold the glorious advent
   of the once despised Son of David! To reign with Him in His reign, and
   triumph in His triumph, and then to be caught up to sit upon His Throne
   and dwell with Him where the glorified Church is, world without end.
   "Say you to the righteous, it shall be well with

   them."

   We have only a word or two left concerning the ground upon which it is
   well with the righteous. The text says that "they shall eat the fruit
   of their doings." Dear friends, that is the only term upon which the
   Old Covenant can promise that it shall be well with us. But this is not
   the ground upon which you and I stand under the Gospel dispensation!
   Absolutely to eat the fruit of all our doings would be, even to us, if
   judgment were brought to the line and righteousness to the plummet, a
   very dreadful thing. Yet there is a limited sense in which the
   righteous man will do this. "I was hungry, and you gave Me meat: I was
   thirsty, and you gave Me drink," is good Gospel language. And when the
   Master shall say, "Inasmuch as you did this unto one of the least of
   these My people, you did it unto Me," the reward will not be of debt,
   but still it will be a reward, and the righteous will eat the fruit of
   his doings.

   I prefer, however, to remark that there is One whose doings for us are
   the grounds of our dependence, and, blessed be God, we shall eat the
   fruit of His doings! He, the Lord Jesus, stood for us and you know what
   a harvest of joy He sowed for us in His life and death! That living
   holiness, that dying obedience has purchased for us unnumbered
   blessings! His the smart, but ours the sweet. His the sweet, but ours
   the rest. As we sit down at Heaven's feasts, the food which we shall
   there eat will be the fruit of His doings. The joy we shall there
   receive will be the result of His griefs, and the "well done" will be,
   in its real merit, the reward of His righteousness.

   It shall be well with us, for we shall eat the fruits of our faith
   through the righteousness of Christ, the fruits of our love through His
   love to us, being with Him forever, and beholding His Glory. Time
   forbids a further enlargement. I have set you down in a garden of nuts,
   among groves of pomegranates--pluck and eat as you will--for all things
   are yours if you are numbered with the righteous!

   II. The second part of the text can only occupy a minute or two. It
   reveals THE MISERY OF THE WICKED. "Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill
   with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him." I need not
   be long, because you have only to apply the negative to all that I have
   already said about the righteous. Observe this--it is ill with the
   wicked--always ill with him.

   There is no time mentioned, all time is therefore meant. It is always
   ill with him, whether he is by prosperity made fat for the slaughter,
   or is made in adversity to feel the first drops of the eternal shower
   of Divine Justice. It is ill with the wicked on Divine authority. God
   says that it is ill--it must be very ill, then. It will be ill with him
   in the future. It shall always be ill with him. Worse and worse will
   his portion be till the worst thing of all shall come upon him. Beware,
   you that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces and there are none to
   deliver you!

   It is ill with their best nature. If their body is healthy, their soul
   is sick. If their feet dance, yet their souls are condemned. If their
   mouths can sing their wanton songs, yet the wrath of God abides upon
   their spirits. It is ill with them in the weightiest sense. Our words
   are only ounce words, God's words fall like avalanches! It is ill with
   you, O unconverted man, O unregenerate woman! It is ill in the most
   tremendous sense! It is ill, and you ought to know it, for God has told
   us to say it to you--"Woe unto the wicked--woe unto the wicked! It
   shall be ill with him."

   Oh that you felt this, for then you might escape from its future
   terror! If you did but know this mischief, the dread of it might drive
   you to the Savior! His heart is open, the gates of mercy are not shut!
   He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him! But
   why is it ill with the wicked? It must be ill with him--he is out of
   joint with all the world. Though ordinary creatures are obedient to
   God, this man has set himself in opposition to the whole current of
   creation. The man has an enemy who is Omnipotent, whose power cannot be
   resisted.

   He has an enemy who is all goodness, and yet this man opposes Him! How
   can it be well with the stubble that fights with the flame, or with the
   wax that strives with the fire? An insect fighting with a giant, how
   will it overcome? And you, poor nothingness contending with the
   everlasting God--how can it be anything but ill with you? It is ill
   with you, Sinner, because your joys all hang upon a thread. Let life's
   thread be cut and where are your merriments? Your dainty music, and
   your costly cups--the mirth that flashes from your wanton eyes, and the
   jollity of your thoughtless soul--

   where will this be when Death, with bony hands, shall come and touch
   your heart and make it cease its beating? It is ill with you because
   when these joys are over you have no more to come.

   You may have one bright chapter in the story, but ah, the never-ending
   chapter, it is woe, woe, woe from beginning to the end! The woe of
   death, and after death the judgment--and after judgment the woe of
   condemnation, and then that woe that rolls onward forever--eternal woe,
   never coming to a pause, never knowing an alleviation! God help you,
   Sinner, God help you to escape from this ill of yours! It is ill with
   you now. You have no Mercy Seat to go to to pour out your troubles
   before God. You have no Father in Heaven to help you in the sorrows of
   this mortal life. You have no Son of Man to tread the furnace with you
   when your afflictions are heated seven times hotter. You have no
   Comforter to bring home to you the promises--you have no promises that
   can be brought home to you!

   You have no faith to sustain you! You have no love to Christ to cheer
   you! You have no patience to support you! You have no hope of another
   and better world to make your eyes glad! You miserable wretch, where
   are you? If you ride in your chariot yet I will not envy you--I will
   prefer to be like rugged Lazarus rather than be as you are! And if you
   are in poverty, yet hope not to escape! You are wretched in your
   present poverty, but what will eternal poverty be, when you are driven
   from the Presence of God without hope to pine in vain for a drop of
   water to cool your parched tongue! It shall be ill with the wicked, and
   let no present appearance lead you to doubt it!

   You are like a field that is not plowed, overgrown with weeds--and you
   laugh at the field that has been tormented with the plowshare! But
   wait, O prosperous Sinner! Your time will come! When the weeds have
   gathered thick and foul, there will be a burning--for the great
   Husbandman will not forever endure the thorns and the thistles! And
   then you will wish that you, too, like the tried Christian, had known
   the plow of spiritual trouble and felt repentance for sin. The eyes
   that never weep for sin here will weep in awful anguish forever!

   It will do you good to taste a little of the brine of your tears here,
   or else you will have to drink them forever and forever in eternity! It
   will be a profitable thing for you to feel the wrath of God heavy on
   your spirit now, for if not, it will crush you--crush you down and down
   without hope, world without end! It shall be ill with you. I will not
   stop to picture your dying bed. I know one, not far removed from me by
   relationship, who, when he died had no bright hopes to gild the gloomy
   hour, but could only say in his last moments, "It is all dark! It is
   all dark!"

   And as he pointed to the fire grate that was without a fire he said,
   "It is dark like that black fireplace. I cannot see so much as a single
   spark of hope. Dark, all dark!" And so will it be with you! No, worse
   than that--it may be ghastly with the furnace blaze of Divine wrath!
   And as to the infinite future, I will not stop to speak of it. Forever!
   Forever! Forever! It shall be ill with the wicked. Oh, the wrath to
   come! The wrath to come!--

   "There is a death whose pang

   Outlasts the fleeting breath.

   Oh, what eternal horrors hang

   Around 'the second death'!

   Lord God of Truth and Grace,

   Teach us that death to shun

   Lest we be banish'd from Your face,

   And evermore undone."

   God help you to flee from His dreadful anger, while flee you may! And
   may all of us be found among the righteous with whom it is forever
   well! If so it be, unto God shall be all the praise, while immortality
   shall last and Heaven's high throne endure!
     __________________________________________________________________

                         Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

   A sermon

   (No. 730)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 20, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in
   Me."- John 14:1.

   THE disciples had been like lambs carried in the warm bosom of a loving
   Shepherd. They were now about to be left by Him and would hear the
   howling of the wolves and endure the terrors of the snowstorm. They had
   been like tender plants conserved in a hothouse, a warm and genial
   atmosphere had always surrounded them--they were now to endure the
   wintry world with its nipping frosts. And so it was to be proven
   whether or not they had an inward vitality which could exist when
   outward protections were withdrawn.

   Their Master, their Head, was to be taken from them. Well might they
   cry with Elisha, "My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel and the
   horsemen thereof!" We too, dear Friends, though we have not enjoyed,
   perhaps, so entire an immunity as did the Apostles, were at one time
   very graciously shielded from trouble. We had a summertime of joy and
   an autumn of peace far different than this present winter of our
   discontent. It frequently happens that after conversion, God, who
   tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, gives to the weaklings of the flock
   a period of repose during which they rejoice with David, "He makes me
   to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters."
   But for all of us there will come a time of trouble similar to that
   sorrowful occasion which led the Savior to utter these memorable
   heart-cheering words.

   If our conscious communion with Jesus should not be interrupted, yet
   some other form of tribulation awaits us, for the testimony of earth's
   poet that, "man is made to mourn," is well borne out by the inspired
   declaration, "man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards." We
   must not expect that we shall be exceptions to the general lot of our
   race! There is no discharge in this war. We must all be conscripts in
   the armies of grief. We, too, shall do battle with strong temptations
   and feel the wounds of adversity. Albeit that yonder ship so lately
   launched upon a glassy sea has all her streamers flying, and rejoices
   in a favorable wind--let her captain remember that the sea is
   treacherous, that winds are variable, and that the stoutest vessel may
   find it more than difficult to outride a hurricane.

   I rejoice to see the courage of that young man who has but just joined
   the army of the Church militant, and is buckling on the glittering
   armor of faith! As yet there are no dents and bruises on that fair
   helmet and burnished breastplate. But let the wearer reckon upon blows,
   and bruises, and bloodstains! No, let him rejoice if he endure hardness
   as a good soldier, for without the fight where would be the victory?
   Brethren in our Lord Jesus, without due trial, where would be our
   experience? And without the experience, where would be the holy
   increase of our faith, and the joyful triumph of our love through the
   manifested power of Christ?

   We must expect, then, to walk with our Lord to the gates of
   Gethsemane--both His and ours! We must expect to cross the Brook Kedron
   in company with our Master, and it will be well if we hear Him say to
   us as He did to His disciples on that eventful night, "Let not your
   hearts be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me." My
   Brothers and Sisters, some of us live at this hour in the midst of
   trouble. We do not remember any period more dark with portents of evil
   than the present watch of earth's long night. Few events have occurred
   of late to cheer the general gloom. Our hopeful spirit has been
   accustomed to say, all things considered, there are no times like the
   times present. Think about whether any times have been more vexatious
   and troublesome than those which just now are passing over our head.

   The political atmosphere is far from being clear, no, it is thick and
   heavy with death-damps of mutual distrust which bring no increase to
   England's greatness, but greatly the reverse. There are those who think
   that our trade, especially in its more speculative department, has
   become thoroughly rotten. And one thing is quite certain--many
   well-known infamous transactions have sapped the foundations of credit
   and stained our national honor. Is all England bankrupt, and our wealth
   a sham? Let us hope not.

   But who can see without alarm the great portion of our trade which is
   going from us through the folly of the many who combine to regulate
   what ought to be left perfectly free? If our trade continues much
   longer to depart from us, we shall become a generation of beggars who
   will deserve no pity because we brought our poverty upon ourselves.
   There are,

   we fear, dark days coming upon this land. In fact, the dark days are
   here, for in no year of the last twenty has there been, Brethren, such
   deep and wide-spread distress in London as at the present moment.

   I am far from endorsing all the fears of the timid, yet I do see much
   ground for pleading earnestly with God to send to our rulers political
   wisdom to end the bitter disputes of class with class, and to grant to
   our whole nation Divine Grace to repent of its many sins, that the
   chastening rod may be withdrawn.

   Apart from these, we have each a share of home-trials. Is there one
   here who is happy enough to wholly escape from the troubles of the
   earth? Some have the wolf at the door--shortness of bread just now is
   felt in the houses of many a Christian--some of you are compelled to
   eat your bread with carefulness. You go to your God in the morning and
   ask Him to provide for you your daily food, and repeat that prayer with
   more meaning than usual, for just now God is making us feel that He can
   break the staff of bread and send a famine in the land if He so wills
   it.

   Many who are not altogether poor are, nevertheless, in sorrow, for
   reverses in business have, during the last few months, brought the
   affairs of many of the Lord's people into a very perilous state, so
   that they cannot but be troubled in spirit. Vexatious abound and many a
   path is strewn with thorns. If this is not the shape of our trouble,
   sickness may be raging where penury has not entered. Beyond all these
   there may be afflictions which it were not well to mention--griefs
   which must be carried by the mother alone--trials which the father
   alone must bear, or sorrows in which none but the daughter can share.

   We all have our homes full of trials. Day by day this bitter manna
   falls around the camp. Trials arising among the Church of God are many,
   and we might add, that to the genuine Christian they are as heavy as
   any which he has to bear. I am sure, to those of us who have to look
   upon the Church with the anxious eye of loving shepherds, to those of
   us who are set by God for the guidance and rule of His people, there
   are troubles enough, and more than enough, to bow us to the earth. In
   the best-ordered Church, such as this is and long has been, it must
   needs be that offenses come. Sometimes it is a jealousy between
   Brothers. At another time a strife between Sisters.

   Sometimes it is this one who has fallen into gross sin (God forgive
   these who have pierced us through with many sorrows!) and another time
   it is a gradual backsliding which the pastor can detect, but which the
   subject of it cannot discern. Sometimes it is a heresy, which,
   springing up, troubles us. At another time it is a slander, which, like
   a deadly serpent, creeps through the grass. I have had little enough to
   complain of in these respects, but still such things are with us, even
   with us, and we must not count them strange, as though some strange
   thing had happened to us. While men are imperfect there will be sins
   among the best of them which will cause sorrow both to themselves and
   to those of the Lord's people who are in fellowship with them.

   Worst of all are soul troubles. God save you from these! Oh the grief
   of being conscious of having fallen from high places of enjoyment!
   Conscious of having wasted opportunities for eminent usefulness!
   Conscious of having been lax in prayer, of having been negligent in
   study, of having been--alas, that we should have to add it--unguarded
   in word and act! Ah, Friends, when the soul feels all this and cannot
   get to the blood of sprinkling as it would--cannot return to the light
   of God's countenance as it would desire--it is trouble, indeed! It is
   terrible to be compelled to sit and sing--

   "Where is the blessedness I knew, When first I sa w the Lord? Where is
   the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and His Word?"

   But my tale is all too long. It is clear that this mortal life has
   troubles enough. Suppose that these should meet and that the man, as a
   patriot, is oppressed with the ills of his country? Suppose, as a
   father and a husband, he is depressed with the cares of home? Or as a
   Christian he is afflicted with the troubles in the Church, and as a
   saint made to walk heavily before the Lord because of inward
   afflictions? "Why, then, he is in a sorry plight," you say. Indeed he
   is! But, blessed be God, he is in a plight in which the words of the
   text are still applicable to him--"Let not your heart be troubled: you
   believe in God, believe also in Me."

   Ceasing from this dolorous prelude, let us observe that the advice of
   the text is very timely and wise. Secondly, let us notice that the
   advice of the text is practicable. It is not given us to mock us--we
   must seek to carry it out! And lastly, and perhaps that last may yield
   us good cheer, the advice of the text is very precious.

   I. FIRST, THEN, THE ADVICE OF THE TEXT IS VERY TIMELY AND WISE. There
   is no need to say, "Let not your heart be troubled," when you are not
   in affliction. When all things go well with you, you will need another
   caution-- "Let not your heart be exalted above measure: if riches
   increase, set not your heart upon them." The word, "Let not your heart
   be troubled," is timely, and it is wise.

   A few minutes thought will lead you to see it. It is the easiest thing
   in the world, in times of difficulty, to let the heart be troubled. It
   is very natural for us to give up and drift with the stream, to feel
   that it is of no use "taking arms against"

   such "a sea of trouble"--that it is better to lie passive and to say,
   "If one must be ruined, so let it be." Despairing idleness is easy
   enough, especially to evil rebellious spirits who are willing enough to
   get into further mischief that they may have more with which to blame
   God, against whose Providence they have quarreled. Our Lord will not
   have us be so rebellious. He bids us pluck up heart and be of good
   courage in the worst possible condition--and here is the wisdom of His
   advice, namely, that a troubled heart will not help us in our
   difficulties or out of them.

   It has never been perceived in time of drought that lamentations have
   brought showers of rain, or that in seasons of frost, doubts, fears,
   and discouragements, have produced a thaw. We have never heard of a
   man, whose business was declining, who managed to multiply the number
   of his customers by unbelief in God. I do not remember reading of a
   person, whose wife or child was sick, who discovered any miraculous
   healing power in rebellion against the Most High. It is a dark night,
   but the darkness of your heart will not light a candle for you. It is a
   terrible tempest, but to quench the fires of comfort and open the doors
   to admit the howling winds into the chambers of your spirit will not
   stay the storm.

   No good comes out of fretful, petulant, unbelieving heart-trouble. This
   lion yields no honey. If it would help you, you might reasonably sit
   down and weep till the tears had washed away your woe. If it were
   really to some practical benefit to be suspicious of God and
   distrustful of Providence, why, then, you might have a shadow of
   excuse--but as this is a mine out of which no one ever dug any silver,
   as this is a fishery out of which the diver never brought up a
   pearl--we would say, "Renounce that which cannot be of service to you,
   for as it can do no good, it is certain that it does much mischief."

   A doubting, fretful spirit takes from us the joys we have. You have not
   all you could wish, but you still have more than you deserve. Your
   circumstances are not what they might be, but still they are not even
   now so bad as the circumstances of some others. Your unbelief makes you
   forget that health still remains for you if poverty oppresses you. And
   if both health and abundance have departed, you are still a child of
   God and your name is not blotted out from the roll of the chosen! Why,
   Brothers and Sisters, there are flowers that bloom in winter, if we
   have but grace to see them! Never was there a night so dark for the
   soul but what some lone star of hope might be discerned! And never a
   spiritual tempest so terrible but what there was a haven into which the
   soul could dock if it had but enough confidence in God to make a run
   for it.

   Rest assured that though you have fallen very low, you might have
   fallen lower if it were not that underneath are the everlasting arms. A
   doubting, distrustful spirit will wither the few blossoms which remain
   upon your bough, and if half the wells are frozen by affliction,
   unbelief will freeze the other half by its despondency. Brothers and
   Sisters, you will win no good, but you may get incalculable mischief by
   a troubled heart--it is a root which bears no fruit except wormwood!

   A troubled heart makes that which is bad worse. It magnifies,
   aggravates, caricatures, misrepresents. If but an ordinary foe is in
   your way, a troubled heart makes him swell into a giant. "We were in
   their sight but as grasshoppers," said the ten evil spies. "Yes, and we
   were but as grasshoppers in our own sight when we saw them." But it was
   not so. No doubt the men were very tall, but they were not so big,
   after all, as to make an ordinary six-foot man look like a grasshopper!
   Their fears made them grasshoppers by first making them fools. If they
   had possessed but ordinary courage they would have been men--but being
   cowardly they subsided into grasshoppers.

   After all, what is an extra three, four, or five feet of flesh to a
   man? Is not the bravest soul the tallest? If he of shorter stature is
   but nimble and courageous, he will have the best of it. Little David
   made short work of great Goliath. Yet so it is--unbelief makes out our
   difficulties to be most gigantic and then it leads us to suppose that
   never a soul had such difficulties before--and so we egotistically
   lament, "I am the man that has seen affliction." We claim to be peers
   in the realm of misery, if not the emperors of the kingdom of grief.
   Yet it is not so. Why? What ails you? The headache is excruciating?
   Well, it is bad enough, but what would you say if you had seven such
   aches at once, and cold and nakedness to back them?

   The twitches of rheumatism are horrible? Right well can I endorse that
   statement! But what then? Why there have been men who have lived with
   such tortures thrice told all their lives--like Baxter--who could tell
   all his bones because each one had made itself heard by its own
   peculiar pain. I know that you and I often suffer under depression of
   spirit and physical pain, but what is our complaint compared with the
   diseases of Calvin, the man who preached at the break of every day to
   the students in the cathedral, and worked on till long past midnight,
   and was all the while a mass of dis-ease--a complicated agony?

   You are poor? Ah yes, but you have your own room, scanty as it is, and
   there are hundreds in the workhouse who find sorry comfort there. It is
   true you have to work hard! Yes, but think of the Huguenot galley slave
   in the olden times, who for the love of Christ was bound with chains to
   the oar, and scarcely knew rest day nor night. Think of the sufferings
   of the martyrs of Smithfield, or of the saints who rotted in their
   prisons. Above all, let your eyes turn to the great Apos-

   tle and High priest of your profession, and "consider Him who endured
   such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be weary and
   faint in your mind."--

   "His way was much rougher and darker than mine, Did Christ, my Lord,
   suffer, and shall I repine?" Yet this is the habit of Unbelief--to draw
   our picture in the blackest possible colors--to tell us that the road
   is unusually rough and utterly impassable. He tells us that the storm
   is such a tornado as never blew before, and that our name will be down
   in the wreck register--that it is impossible that we should ever reach
   the haven.

   Moreover, a troubled heart is most dishonorable to God. It makes the
   Christian think very harshly of his tender heavenly Friend. It leads
   him to suspect eternal faithfulness and to doubt unchangeable love. Is
   this a little thing? It breathes into the Christian a proud rebellious
   spirit. He judges his Judge, and misjudges. He has not learned Job's
   philosophy. He cannot say, "Shall we receive good from the hand of the
   Lord, and shall we not also receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord
   has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord."

   Inward distress makes the humble, meek, teachable child of God to
   become a willful, wicked, rebellious offender in spirit. Is this a
   little thing? And meanwhile it makes the family and the outsiders who
   know the Christian to doubt the reality of those Truths of God of which
   the Christian used to boast in his brighter days. Satan suggests to
   them, "You see, these Christian people are no better sustained than
   others. The props which they leaned upon when they did not want them
   are of no service to them now that they do require them."

   "See," says the Fiend, "they are as petulant, as unbelieving, and as
   rebellious as the rest of mankind! It is all a sham, a piece of
   enthusiasm which will not endure an ordinary trial." Is this a small
   matter? Surely there are mouths enough to revile the Throne of God!
   There are lips enough to utter blasphemy against Him without His own
   dear children turning against Him because He frowns upon them. Surely
   they should be bowed to the earth at the mere suspicion that they could
   do such a thing, and cry to God to save them from a troubled heart lest
   they should rebel against Him!

   I feel, with regard to the Christian Church, that the truth which I am
   endeavoring to bring forward is above all things essential. The
   mischief of the Christian Church at large is a lack of holy confidence
   in God. The reason why we have had, as a Church, I believe,
   unprecedented prosperity has been that on the whole we have been a
   courageous, hopeful, and joyous body of Christian people who have
   believed in our own principles most intensely, and have endeavored to
   propagate them with the most vehement earnestness.

   Now I can suppose the devil coming in among us and endeavoring to
   dishearten us by this or that supposed failure or difficulty. "Oh,"
   says he, "will you ever win the victory? See! Sin still abounds,
   notwithstanding all the preaching and all the praying. Are not the
   jails full? Do you see any great moral change worked after all? Surely
   you will not make the advances you expected--you may as well give it
   up." Yes, and when once an army can be demoralized by a lack of
   spirit-- when once the British soldier can be assured that he cannot
   win the day--that even at the push of the bayonet nothing can await him
   but defeat, then the rational conclusion he draws is that every man had
   better take care of himself, and look to his heels and fly to his home.

   But oh, if we can feel that the victory is not precarious nor even
   doubtful but absolutely certain! If each one of us can rest assured
   that the Lord of Hosts is with us! That the God of Jacob is our refuge.
   That the most discouraging circumstances which can possibly occur are
   only mere incidents in the great struggle--mere eddies in the mighty
   current that is bearing everything before it. If we can but feel that
   sooner should Heaven and earth pass away than God's promise be broken!
   I say, if we can keep our courage up at all times--if from the youngest
   of us who have lately joined, to the venerable veterans who have for
   years fought at our side we can feel that we must win, that the
   purposes of God must be fulfilled, that the kingdoms of this world must
   become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ--then we shall see
   bright and glorious things!

   Some of you grow discouraged because you have taught in the Sunday
   school and you have seen no conversions in your class, and you want to
   sneak away among the baggage. Others of you have tried to preach in the
   streets and you did not get on, and you feel half inclined not to do
   anything more. Isn't this right? Some of you have not felt as happy
   with other Christian people as you would like to be. You do not think
   others respect you quite up to the mark that you have marked for
   yourselves on your thermometer of dignity, and you are inclined to run
   away. Isn't this right?

   Now I will boldly say to those of you who are inclined to run, run--for
   our resolution is to stand fast. Those who are afraid, let them go to
   their homes--for our eyes are on the battle and the crown. Those of you
   who cannot bear a little roughness and cannot fight for Christ, I had
   almost said, we shall be better without your cowardly spirits--but I
   would rather pray for you, that you may pluck up heart and cry with
   holy boldness, "Nothing shall discourage us." If all the devils in Hell
   should appear visibly before us, and show their teeth with flame
   pouring from their mouths as from ten

   thousand ovens, yet so long as the Lord of Hosts lives, by His Grace we
   will not fear, but lift up our banners and laugh our enemies to
   scorn!--

   "We will in life and death His steadfast truth declare, And publish
   with our latest breath His love and guardian care."

   There is a great deal more to say, but we cannot say it. Perhaps you
   will think it over, and perhaps you will perceive that of all the
   mischiefs that might happen to a good man, it is certainly one of the
   greatest to let his heart be troubled. And that of all the good things
   that belong to a Christian soldier, a bold heart and confidence in God
   are not the least! As long as we do not lose heart we have not lost the
   day. But if confidence in God departs, then the floods have burst into
   the vessel, and what can save it? What indeed, but that eternal love
   which comes in to the rescue even at our extremity?

   II. In the second place, THE ADVICE THAT IS GIVEN IS PRACTICABLE--it
   can be carried out. "Let not your heart be troubled." "Oh," says
   somebody, "that's very easy to say, but very hard to do." Here's a man
   who has fallen into a deep ditch and you lean over the hurdle and say
   to him," Don't be troubled about it." "Ah," he says, "that's very
   pretty for you that are standing up there, but how am I to be at ease
   while up to my neck in mire?"

   There is a noble ship stranded and liable to be broken up by the
   breakers, and we speak from a trumpet and say to the mariners on board,
   "Don't be alarmed." "Oh," they say, "very likely not, when every timber
   is shivering and the vessel is going to pieces!" But when He who speaks
   is full of love, pity, and might, and has it in His own power to make
   His advice become prophetic of deliverance, we need not raise
   difficulties, but we may conclude that if Jesus says, "Let not your
   heart be troubled," our heart need not be troubled!

   There is a way of keeping the heart out of trouble, and the Savior
   prescribes the method. First, He indicates that our resort must be to
   faith. If in your worst times you would keep your head above water, the
   life belt must be faith. Now, Christian, do you not know this? In the
   olden times how were men kept from perishing but by faith? Read that
   mighty chapter in Hebrews, and see what faith did--how Believers
   overcame armies, put to flight the army of aliens, quenched the
   violence of fire--and stopped the mouths of lions! There is nothing
   which faith has not done or cannot do! Faith is girdled about with the
   Omnipotence of God for her girdle. She is the great wonder-worker.

   Why, there were men in the olden times whose troubles were greater than
   yours, whose discouragement's and difficulties in serving God were a
   great deal more severe than any you and I have known, yet they trusted
   God! They trusted God, and they were not confounded. They rested in
   Him, and they were not ashamed. Their puny arms worked miracles, and
   their uplifted voices in prayer brought blessings from on high. What
   God did of old He will do now--He is the same yesterday, today and
   forever.

   Christian, betake yourself to faith. Did not faith bring your first
   comfort to you? Remember when you were in despair under a sense of sin?
   What brought you joy? Was it good works? Was it your inward feelings?
   The first ray of light that came to your poor dark spirit, did it not
   come from the Cross through believing? Oh, that blessed day when first
   I cast myself on Jesus and saw my sins numbered on the scapegoat's head
   of old! What a flood of light faith brought then! Open the same window,
   for the sun is in the same place and you will get light from it. Go
   not, I pray you, to any other well but to this well of your spiritual
   Bethlehem which is within the gate, the water of which is still sweet
   and still free to you.

   Ah, dear Friends, there is one reason why you should resort to faith,
   namely, that it is the only thing you have to resort to! What can you
   do if you do not trust your God? Under many troubles, when they are
   real troubles, the creature is evidently put to a nonplus and human
   ingenuity, itself, fails. We are like the seamen in a storm who reel to
   and fro and stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end. Oh let
   us, now that every other anchor is drug, cast out the great sheet
   anchor, for that will hold. Now that every refuge has failed, let us
   fly to the Strong for strength, for God will be our helper!

   Surely it ought not to be difficult for a child to believe his father!
   It should not, therefore, be difficult for us to trust in our God, and
   so to lift our spirits out of the tumult of their doubts. Somebody will
   say, "Well, I can understand that faith is a practical way of getting
   out of trouble, but I cannot understand how we are to have faith."
   Well, in this the Savior helps us. You remember what He said when the
   people were hungry--"Give you them to eat." "Ah," they said, "there are
   so many! How can we feed them?"

   The Master began by saying, "How many loaves have you?" That is just
   what He says here. He says, "It is faith that will get you out of
   trouble, but how much faith have you?" He answers for them, "You
   believe in God." I must do the same by you. Faith is that which will
   deliver you. You say, "Where am I to get it?" Well, you have some
   already, have

   you not? You have five barley loaves and a few small fishes. You are
   unbelieving creatures but you have some measure of faith. You believe
   that there is a God.

   "Yes," you say. You believe He is unchangeable. You believe that He is
   full of love, good and kind, and true and faithful. Now really, that is
   a great deal to begin with! You believe in God--the most of us believe
   in a great deal more than that--we not only believe in a God, and in
   the excellence of His Character, but we believe that He has a chosen
   people. We believe that He has made a Covenant with them, ordered in
   all things and sure. We believe that the promises of His Covenant will
   be fulfilled, that He never puts away His people. We believe that all
   things work together for good to them that love God. We believe that
   the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We
   believe that the Holy Spirit is given to dwell in His people.

   Now this is a great deal, a solid fulcrum upon which to place the
   lever. If you believe all that, you have only properly to employ this
   faith in order to lift your soul out of the horrible ditch of doubt and
   fear into which it has stumbled. You believe all this? Surely, then,
   there is some room for hope and confidence! The Savior goes on to say,
   "You believe in God," very well, exercise that same faith with regard
   to the case in hand. The case in hand was this--could they trust a
   dying Savior? Could they rest upon One who was about to be crucified,
   dead and buried--who would be gone from them except that His poor
   mangled body would remain in their midst?

   "Now," says Jesus, "you see you have had enough of faith to believe in
   God. Now exercise that same faith upon Me. Trust Me as you trust God."
   From this I infer that the drift of the exhortation I am to give you
   this morning is this. "You have believed God about other things.
   Exercise that same faith about this thing whatever it may be. You have
   believed God concerning the pardon of your soul, believe God about the
   child, about the wife, about the money, about the present difficulty.
   You have believed, concerning God, the great invisible One, and His
   great spiritual promises--now believe concerning this visible thing,
   this loss of yours, this cross of yours, this trial, this present
   affliction--exercise faith about that.

   Jesus Christ did, in effect, say to His people, "It is true I am going
   from you, but I want you to believe that I am not going far. I shall be
   in the same house as you are in, for my Father's house has many rooms
   in it. And though you will be here in these earthly mansions and I
   shall be in the heavenly mansions, yet they are all in the Father's
   house, for in My Father's house are many dwelling places." "I want you
   to believe," says Jesus, "that when I am away from you I am about your
   interests, I am preparing a place for you, and moreover that I intend
   coming back to you. My heart will be with you, and My Person shall soon
   return to you."

   Now then, the drift of that applied to our case is this--believe that
   the present loss you sustain, or the present discouragement which
   threatens to overwhelm you--believe that God has a high design in it!
   That as Christ's departure was to prepare eternal mansions for His
   people, so your present loss is to prepare you for a spiritual gain. I
   like that word of Christ when He says, "If it were not so I would have
   told you." When a man makes a general statement, if he knows an
   exception he ought to mention it. And if he does not mention it his
   statement is not strictly true. Jesus says, "If it were not so I would
   have told you."

   There is a great word of His which says, "All things work together for
   good to them that love God." A very awkward thing has happened to you.
   The trouble which you are now suffering is a very singular one. Now, if
   ever there had been any exception to the rule which we have quoted,
   God, in honor, would have told it to you when He made the general
   statement, "All things work together for good to them that love God."
   Such is His love and wisdom that if there had been one trial that could
   happen to one of His people which would not work for the good of that
   child of His, He would have said, "Dear child, there is an
   exception--one trouble will happen to you which will not work for your
   good."

   I am positive that there is no exception to the statement that all
   things work together for good to them that love God, because if there
   had been an exception He would have put it in--He would have told us of
   it that we might know how far to trust and when to leave off
   trusting--how far to rejoice and when to be cast down. Your case, then,
   is no exception to the rule! All that is happening is working for your
   everlasting benefit!

   Another place, however, another place will reveal this to you. Think of
   your Father's house and its mansions, and it will mitigate your griefs.
   "Alas for us if you were all, and nothing beyond, O earth!" There is
   another and a better land, and in your Father's house, where the many
   mansions are, it may be you shall be privileged to understand how these
   light afflictions, which are but for a moment, have worked out for you
   a far more exceedingly and eternal weight of glory.

   Before I close this point, let me say it ought to be a great deal
   easier for you and me to live above heart-trouble than it was to the
   Apostles. I mean easier than it was to the Apostles at the time when
   the Savior spoke to them and for forty days afterwards. You say, "How
   was that?" Why because you have three things which they had not. You
   have experience

   of many past troubles out of which you have been delivered. They had
   only been converted at the outside of three years. They had not known
   much trouble, for Jesus in the flesh had dwelt among them to screen off
   troubles from them.

   Some of you have been converted 30, 40--what if I say 60 years? And you
   have had abundance of trouble--you have not been screened from it. Now
   all this experience ought to make it easier for you to say, "My heart
   shall not be troubled." Again, you have received the Holy Spirit, and
   they had not. The Holy Spirit was not given, as you remember, until the
   day of Pentecost. His direct government in the Church was not required
   while Christ was here. You have the Spirit, the Comforter to abide with
   you forever! Surely you ought to be less distracted than they were!

   Thirdly, you have the whole of Scripture--they had but a part. They
   certainly had not the richest Scriptures of all, for they had not the
   Evangelists nor any of the New Testament, and having, as we have, all
   that store of promise and comfort, we ought, surely, to find it no hard
   work to obey the sweet precept, "Let not your heart be troubled."

   III. THE EXHORTATION OF THE TEXT OUGHT TO BE VERY PRECIOUS TO ALL OF US
   THIS MORNING,

   and we should make a point of pleading for the Holy Spirit's aid to
   enable us to carry it out. Remember that the loving advice came from
   Him who said, "Let not your heart be troubled." Who could have said it
   but the Lord Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief?

   The mother says to the child, "Do not cry, child, be patient." That
   sounds very differently from what it would have done if the
   schoolmaster had said it. Or if a stranger in the street had spoken.
   "Do not let your heart be troubled," might be a stinging remark from a
   stranger! But coming from the Savior, who "knows what strong
   temptations mean, for He has felt the same," it drops like virgin honey
   for sweetness, and like the balm of Gilead for healing power. Jesus
   says, "Let not your heart be troubled." His own face was towards the
   Cross. He was hard by the olivepress of Gethsemane. He was about to be
   troubled as never man was troubled, and yet among His last words were
   these, "Let not your hearts be troubled," as if He wanted to monopolize
   all tears and would not have them shed so much as one!

   He said it as if He longed to take all the heart-trouble Himself and
   remove it far from them. He said it as if He would have them exercise
   their hearts so much with believing that they would not have the
   smallest room left for grief! As if He would have them so much taken up
   with the glorious result of His sufferings in procuring for them
   eternal mansions that they would not think about their own present
   losses, but let them be swallowed up in a mighty sea of joyful
   expectation. Oh the tenderness of Christ! "Let not your hearts be
   troubled."

   He is not here, this morning, in Person, (would God He were!) but oh,
   if He will but look at us out of those eyes of His which wept, and make
   us feel that this cheering word wells up from that heart which was
   pierced with the spear, we shall find it to be a blessed word to our
   soul! Say it, sweet Jesus! Say to every mourner, "Let not your heart be
   troubled." Brothers and Sisters, the text should have to us the dignity
   of a command as well as the sweetness of counsel. Shall we be tormented
   with trouble after the Captain has said, "Let not your heart be
   troubled"?

   The Master of your spirit, who has bought you with His precious blood,
   demands that the harp strings of your heart should resound to the touch
   of His love, and of His love, alone. And will you surrender those
   strings to be dolorously smitten by grief and unbelief? No, rather like
   George Herbert, say, "My harp shall find You, and every string shall
   have its attribute to sing. At Your Word, instead of mourning, I will
   bring forth joy! As You bid me I will put off my sackcloth and cast
   away my ashes and I will rejoice in the Lord always, and yet again I
   will rejoice."

   Prize the counsel, because it comes from the Well-Beloved. Prize it,
   next, because it points to Him. He says, "You believe in God, believe
   also in Me." You know, if it were not for the connection which requires
   the particular construction here used, one would have looked to find
   these words, "You believe in Me, believe also in God." Jesus was
   speaking to Jews--disciples, who from their youth up had learned to
   believe in Emmanuel--believe in Me. There, there--there is the very
   cream of the whole matter! If you want comfort, Christian, you must
   hear Jesus say, Believe also in Me. You must approach afresh to the
   Fountain, and believe in the power of the blood! You must take that
   fair linen of His righteousness and put it on, and believe that--

   "With His spotless vesture on, You're holy as the Holy One."

   You must see Jesus dead in His grave and believe that you died there in
   Him, and that your sin was buried there in Him. You must see Him rise,
   and you must believe also in Him, that His resurrection was your
   resurrection, that you are risen in Him! You must mark Him as He climbs
   the starry way up to the appointed throne of His reward! This must be
   your belief, also, in Him, that He has raised us up together and made
   us sit together in heavenly places in Himself. You must see Him far
   above all principalities and powers--the ever-living and reigning
   Lord--and you must believe that because He lives you shall live, also.

   You must see Him with all things put under His feet, and you must
   believe that all things are under His feet for you--sin, death, Hell,
   things present and things to come--all subject unto the Son that He may
   give to you and to as many as the Father has given Him, eternal life!
   Oh, this is comfort! No place for a child's aching head like its
   mother's bosom! No shadow of a great rock in this weary land like our
   Savior's love consciously overshadowing us! His own side is the place
   where He does from the sun protect His flock. This is the pasture where
   He makes them lie down! This is the river from which He gives them
   drink, namely, Himself. Communion with Jesus is glory!

   The saints feast, but it is upon His flesh! They drink, but it is of
   His blood! They triumph, but it is in His shame! They rejoice, but it
   is in His grief! They live, but it is with His life! And they reign,
   but it is through His power! It is precious advice, then, because it
   comes from Him and points to Him.

   Once more, it is precious advice because it speaks of Him. It says. "In
   My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
   told you: I go to prepare a place for you." Jesus is here seen in
   action--anything which makes us remember Christ should be prized. Jesus
   Christ comes to comfort us--and that comfort is all about Himself. We
   should greatly prize it. We want to know more of Jesus. One great
   deficiency is our ignorance of Him, and if the advice of this morning
   is calculated to make us know Him better and value Him more, let us
   prize it! Think of all He said and did, and what He is doing for us
   now.

   Now let your thoughts see Him beyond the glittering starry sky with the
   many crowns upon His head. See Him as your Representative, claiming
   your rights, pleading before the Throne for you, scattering blessings
   for you on earth, and preparing joys for you above! That is the last
   thought, namely, that the advice is precious, because it hints that we
   are to be with Him forever. "An hour with my God," says the hymn, "will
   make up for it all." So it will. But what will an eternity with our God
   be? Forever to behold Him smiling! Forever to dwell in Him! "Abide in
   Me." That is Heaven on earth. "Abide in Me" is all the Heaven we shall
   want in Heaven!

   He is preparing the place now, making it ready for us above, and here
   below making us ready for it. Courage, then, Brothers and Sisters,
   courage! Let us not fret about the way--our heads are towards home. We
   are not outward-bound vessels, thank God. Every wind that blows is
   bringing us nearer to our native land. Our tents are frail, we often
   pitch and strike them, but we nightly pitch them--

   "A day's march nearer home."

   Be of good cheer, soldier! The battle must soon end. And that
   bloodstained banner, when it shall wave so high, and that shout of
   triumph, when it shall thrill from so many thousand lips, and that
   grand assembly of heroes--all of them made more than conquerors, and
   the sight of the King in His beauty, riding in the chariot of His
   triumph, paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem, and the
   acclamations of spirits glorified, and the shouts and joyful music of
   cheru-bims and seraphims--all these shall make up for all the battles
   of today--

   "And they who, with their Master,

   Have conquered in the fight,

   Forever and forever

   Are clad in robes of light." Be that, by God's Grace, ours. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                A Word in Season

   A sermon

   (No. 731)

   Delivered by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "When men are cast down, then you shall say, There is lifting up; and
   He shall save the humble person."- Job 22:29.

   ALTHOUGH we cannot take everything that Eliphaz the Temanite happened
   to say as being of Divine authority-- the immediate Inspiration of the
   Holy Spirit--yet in this case he evidently gives utterance to such a
   great and important Truth of God that we may regard these words of his
   as being the words of God, confirmed as they are by like sentiments to
   be found in other parts of the Scriptures. If you read the verse
   carefully you will sympathize with the perplexity of expositors who
   have been not a little puzzled to know which, out of three meanings, is
   the one intended. I shall not presume to pronounce an arbitrary
   decision, but after mentioning the three different constructions, I
   shall dwell upon the last, and amplify it for practical uses.

   The first is that this verse may be read by way of discrimination. When
   other men--the wicked and ungodly--are cast down, Believers, resting
   upon their God, shall be able to say, "There is lifting up." And
   instead of harboring a thought of despair, they shall cling to the
   promise that God will save the humble person. The text may thus
   indicate the distinction there is between the righteous and the wicked.
   When the flood came, the ungodly world was bowed down by fear, but Noah
   could say, "There is lifting up." And as the ark began to float upon
   the waters, his mind was perfectly convinced that God would save the
   humble.

   When the fiery sleet began to fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked
   were wise too late, and they, too, were filled with dismay. But Lot, as
   he escaped out of the city, could feel that there was for him "lifting
   up," and that God had saved out of the midst of destruction that
   "humble person," whose ears and heart had been vexed with the ungodly
   speeches of the Sodomites. Let us learn, therefore, and so leave this
   aspect of the text, that the Lord has put a difference between Israel
   and Egypt--a difference never so conspicuous as in time of trouble. He
   will not mete out the same measure to His friends as to His enemies.
   The black side of the pillar of Providence shall be turned towards the
   Egyptians, while the bright side shall shine fully and cheerfully into
   the faces of the Israelites.

   Just as the Red Sea is swallowing up God's foes, His friends upon the
   other bank shall be singing their psalms of victory and magnifying His
   power to save. Humble Christian, whatever may occur, you need never
   fear! If all the predicted tribulations which some men delight in
   anticipating should be fulfilled tomorrow, it would not matter to you.
   If the earth should rock and reel, if the sun should be turned into
   darkness and the moon into blood, and the stars should fall like fig
   leaves from the tree--you, if you could no longer be safe under
   Heaven--would be caught up into Heaven! But anyhow, God would be sure
   to preserve you. When the wicked are bowed down you shall be able to
   sing, "There is lifting

   up."

   The second way of reading the text is full of personal consolation.
   "When men are cast down"--appropriating the calamity when we,
   ourselves, are cast down, and leaving out the discrimination between
   the righteous and the wicked. When we, in common with the rest of
   mankind, suffer by the adversities incidental to all men--when we find
   out that we are "born to trouble as the sparks fly upward"--then our
   Father comes to our relief, cheers us with comfort and inspirits us
   with hope, sweetly whispering in our ears, "There is lifting up. Hope
   in God." After all the waves and billows had gone over the Psalmist's
   head, Hope rises up out of the deep and sings, as the waters stream
   from her hair, "Hope you in God, for I shall yet praise Him."

   And as her countenance glistens in the sun, and is made bright by the
   brine into which she has dived, she adds, "He is the help of my
   countenance and my God." Christian Brother, possibly you are at this
   very hour sorely cast down. You are reflecting upon yesterday's ills,
   or foreboding worse ills on the morrow. "What shall I eat? And what
   shall I drink?" may be questions which are pressing grievously on your
   mind. Parents may be here whose dear children are sick, or it may be
   worse than that. Perhaps there is a father whose rebellious son is
   vexing his heart and making his hair turn gray.

   You are bowed down, many of you. Some from one cause and some from
   another. Oh that your trials may bring your faith into exercise!

   You are in your Father's hands. He is the God of hope! Yes, and He is
   the God of patience and consolation. The Lord reigns--all things work
   together for good to them that love God. You may safely conclude that
   there is lifting up. Though you may now feel very humble under these
   afflicting dispensations, yet, as certainly as God's Word says, "He
   shall save the humble person," so certainly will he send salvation unto
   you. Be of good courage, then! Perhaps the text is God's message to
   your sinking spirits--"It is I. Be not afraid."

   The third way of understanding the text, however, is that upon which I
   wish to dwell. A practical obligation is here enforced. "When men are
   cast down"--that is, when other men are cast down, either by spiritual
   anxieties or by peculiar troubles of a worldly sort--then the
   Christian's business is to act the part of a comforter. He is to step
   in and say to his brethren or his neighbors, "There is lifting up." It
   should be his occupation to tell out this good news--this panacea for
   heart-troubles--God saves humble souls. There is no necessity for
   despair this side of Hell. As long as a man is in this trial state
   there is hope that his sackcloth may be put off, that he may be girded
   with gladness and made partaker of the fullness ofjoy!

   You will see then, Friends, that my intention is to address myself to
   Christians--earnestly exhorting them to look after opportunities for
   usefulness, that they may tell others of the glad tidings.

   I. To this end, FAVORABLE SEASONS, a well-timed occasion, a suitable
   hour should never be lost sight of. "When men are cast down." You
   cannot talk with some men until you find them cast down. They are too
   shy and reserved, too proud and unapproachable, or perhaps too profane
   and blustering to allow you to say a word to them about eternal things.
   But you can catch them sometimes. When sorrow has plowed the soil, the
   good seed may get, perhaps, into the heart that always was so hard.

   Now, Brethren, as you read it, "When men are cast down," you will do
   well to remember that these seasons frequently occur in the life of
   every man. Sometimes men are cast down because they have had losses in
   business, or have had sickness in the house. Or death has come and
   taken away a child, or they are infirm in body. Or maybe the cholera
   has been down the street, or something or other has occurred to alarm
   and agitate and dispirit them. They feel that this world is not the
   happy world they thought it was.

   Now is your opportunity! Now is your time! When men are cast down, then
   go to them and say, "There is lifting up." Tell them that there is
   another Lamp that was never kindled in this world, and never blown out
   in this world, either, which will gild the darkness of their poverty,
   of their sickness, and of their sorrow. Be sure not to let a single
   Providential opportunity escape you, but plunge in, now that God has
   made the breach in the sinner's city wall. Make haste now! Dash in, you
   soldiers of the Cross, sword in hand!

   Sometimes men are cast down when they have been listening to a very
   solemn sermon. God has helped the minister to sketch their portraits
   and they have sat and wondered at it. And though they have been
   careless before, yet now they begin to quake. Have you ever found your
   friends leaving the House of God thoughtful and serious--not chatting
   about a thousand frivolities, but saying to you, when you get
   home--"What a striking sermon!"? Why, such things occur here every day!
   The tear of penitence often waters this floor, and when it does not
   amount to that, though the sinner's goodness may be as the morning
   cloud and as the early dew, yet there are frequent times when our
   hearers are impressed and depressed.

   They sit in the pew and begin to think it is all wrong with them. Their
   soul is cast down, and they wish that they could find salvation. Now is
   your time, Christian! Now is your time! Do not lose it! Do not let them
   go behind those curtains, or outside those doors till you have told
   them that there is lifting up. When the darkness is around their
   spirits, point them to the great Light of the world. Tell them that
   "there is life for a look at the Crucified One," that there is life at
   this very moment for everyone who casts himself upon the Redeemer's
   finished sacrifice! These opportunities are very frequent, and if you
   think for a minute you will see that they are not to be despised by
   those of you who wish to win souls.

   If David would win the battle he must take care to remember God's
   advice. "When you hear the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry
   trees, then shall you bestir yourself." When you see the sign of an
   impression in a man's mind, then you should be active to seek to bring
   the Truth of God home to him, and to lead him to the Cross! For at such
   times

   men are willing to hear. They would stop their ears before, but now
   they will give you a comparatively cheerful audience. No, they are
   often even anxious to hear!

   They will send for the minister when they are sick. And at a funeral,
   what an opportunity the Christian minister may often have, and not the
   Christian minister only, but any of you! When God's great minister,
   Death, comes into a house, then remember they will want to hear you. A
   man's fellow workman, who chaffed the Christian and laughed at him,
   will be pleased enough to see him when the wife gets ill. And he will
   even ask him to come and tell her of the things which make for her
   peace. Never be slow to go, my Brothers and Sisters! If you can but
   find time, never miss one of these opportunities!

   Now that the fish are ready to take the bait, you Galilean fishermen
   let the nets be cast and the hooks laid, and seek if you can to catch
   souls! These opportunities, be it remembered, are sent by God for this
   very purpose. No doubt Providence is the handmaid of Grace. If
   Christians were but wide awake they would soon see that the wheels of
   Providence are all working to assist the Church of God. To an earnest
   Christian laborer everything is a tributary of labor. He knows how to
   use the roughest instruments. I will venture to say that the beasts of
   the field are in league with him and the stones of the field are at
   peace with him. For him cholera is less to be dreaded than to be turned
   to account--it will give him an entrance where he found none before.

   Even poverty, with all its drawbacks, may help the man of God who
   sincerely desires to bring souls to Jesus. Greatly as you dread the
   evils which are before you, yet may you have a holy skill to use them,
   as the mariner does an ill wind, just tacking about, and putting the
   sail so that the wind, which seemed to drive in his teeth, may help him
   towards his desired haven. At such times, then, when men are cast down,
   I say it to you, Brothers and Sisters, and especially would I say it to
   myself, let none of these favorable seasons be lost!

   II. The ACCEPTABLE TIDINGS we have to announce may now, for a few
   minutes, engage our thoughts. Do any of you say, "If we speak to these
   people, what are we to tell them?" You are to tell them that, "There is
   lifting up." That is the best and most opportune news you can bring
   them, after all. When men are not cast down we have to tell them that
   they ought to be. We have to deal out to them the Law of God, as the
   seamstress takes the sharp needle first and then draws the silken
   thread afterwards.

   But in this case, when a man is cast down, the needle has gone through.
   Men are impressed, thoughtful, anxious, and now the Gospel which we
   have to take to them is that there is lifting up. Of all things in the
   world to be dreaded, despair is the chief. Let a man be abandoned to
   despair and he is ready for all sorts of sins. When fear unnerves him
   action is dangerous. But when despair has loosed his joints and
   paralyzed his conscience, the vultures hover round him waiting for
   their prey. As long as a man has hope for himself you may have hope of
   him. But Satan's object is to drive out the last idea of hope from men
   that then they may give themselves up to be his slaves forever.

   Brothers and Sisters, let me just say to you who are in trouble--and I
   hope every faithful Christian will repeat what I say again and
   again--THERE IS HOPE. There is hope about your pecuniary difficulties,
   about your sickness, about your present affliction. God can help you
   through it. Do not sit down with your elbows on your knees and cry all
   day. That will not get you through it. Call upon God who sent the
   trouble. He has a great design in it. It may be that He has sent it as
   a shepherd sends his black dog to fetch the wandering sheep to him. It
   may be He has a design in making you lose temporal things that you may
   gain eternal things. Many a mother's soul had not been saved if it had
   not been for that dear infant which was taken from her bosom--not till
   it was taken to the skies did God give the attractive influence which
   drew her heart to pursue the path to Heaven!

   Do not say there is no hope! Other people have been as badly off as you
   are. And even if it should seem as if you have come to the end of your
   rope, yet still there is hope. Go and try again on Monday morning,
   [Prayer Meeting at the Tabernacle] my good Friend. God's Providence has
   a thousand ways of helping us if we have but the heart to pray. Are you
   in despair about your character? It may be that there is somewhere here
   a woman who says, "I have fallen. my character is gone. There is no
   hope for me." My Sister, there is lifting up! Some who have fallen as
   terribly as you have done have been restored by Sovereign Grace.

   And there may be one here who has been a drunkard, or about to become a
   thief--no one knows it, perhaps, but he is conscious of great
   degradation--and he says, "I shall never be able to look my fellow men
   in the face." Ah, my dear Friend, you do not know what Christ can do
   for you if you but rest and trust in Him! Supposing you should be made
   into

   a new creature, would not that alter the matter? "Oh!" you say, "but
   that can never be!" No, say I, but that shall be, for Christ says,
   "Behold, I make all things new." "If any man is in Christ Jesus, he is
   a new creature."

   There was an old fable about a spring at which old men washed their
   faces and then grew young. Now there is a spring which wells up from
   the heart of the Lord Jesus, and if an old sinner washes there, not
   only his face, but his whole spirit shall become like unto a little
   child, and shall be clean in the sight of God! There is hope still.
   "Ah," says one, "but you do not know my case." No, my dear Friend, and
   I do not particularly desire to know it, because this sweeping truth
   can meet it no matter what it may be!

   "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." "The
   blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Oh, what a
   precious Gospel I have to preach! I have not to preach a little Christ
   for little sinners, but a great Savior for great offenders! Noah's ark
   was not made to hold a few mites--the elephant went in, and the lion
   went in, and the largest beasts of prey went in--and there was found
   room for each of them. So my Master, who is the great Ark of salvation,
   did not come into this world to save a few of you who are little
   sinners--"He is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto
   God by Him."

   See Him yonder? See Him on the Cross in agonies extreme, bearing grief
   and torment numberless, and sweating in agony--all for love of you who
   were His enemies? Trust Him! Trust Him, for there is hope! There is
   lifting up! However bowed down you may be, there is in the Gospel, hope
   even for you! I seem as if I were walking along a corridor, and I see a
   number of condemned cells. As I listen at the keyhole I can hear those
   inside weeping in doleful, dolorous dirges. "There is no hope, no hope,
   no hope!"

   And I can see the warden at the other end smiling calmly to himself, as
   he knows that none of the prisoners can come out as long as they say
   there is no hope. It is a sign that their manacles are not broken, and
   that the bolts of their cells are not removed. But oh, if I could look
   in! I think I can, I think I can open the little wicket gate, and cry,
   "There is hope!" He who said there is no hope is a liar and a murderer
   from the beginning, and the father of lies! There IS hope since Jesus
   died! There is hope anywhere except in the infernal lake. There is hope
   in the hospital where a man has sickened, and is within the last hour
   of his departure. There is hope though men have sinned themselves
   beyond the pale of society.

   There is hope for the convict though he has had to smart under the
   lash. There is hope for the man who has cast himself away. Jesus is
   still able to save! "No hope" is not to be said by any of the mariners
   life brigade while he sights the crew of the sinking vessel. "No hope"
   is not to be said by any of the fire brigade while he knows there are
   living men in the burning pile. "No hope" is not to be said by any one
   of the valiant brigade of the Christian Church while the soul is still
   within reach of the sound of mercy.

   "No hope" is a cry which no human tongue should utter! "No hope" is a
   cry which no human heart should heed. Oh, may God grant us Grace
   whenever we get an opportunity to go and tell all we meet with that are
   bowed down, "There is lifting up." And tell them where it is likewise.
   Tell them it is only at the Cross! Tell them it is through the precious
   blood! Tell them it is to be had for nothing, through simply trusting
   Christ! Tell them it is of Free Grace, that no merits of theirs are
   wanted, that no good things are they to bring, but that they may come
   just as they are, and find lifting up in Christ!

   III. What JOYFUL EMPLOYMENT this is! I should like to go forth
   enlisting tonight! I shall not require you to wear scarlet. You shall
   wear what you like, but if I may but enlist you I shall be very happy.
   Christian men and women, all of you without exception, old and young, I
   want you! I know many of you are already engaged but I want you all to
   follow out the dictates of my text, "When men are cast down, then you
   shall say, There is lifting up; and He shall save the humble person."

   I want you to volunteer in this blessed enterprise, this heavenly
   mission of saying to cast-down ones, "There is lifting up." If you
   engage in this holy adventure there are several things which you will
   need. The first will be observation. You must have a quick eye to know
   when a man is cast down. Some people are so out of sympathy with souls
   that they do not know a broken heart from a hard heart--but there is a
   way of getting into such communion with people without even talking
   with them--that you know within a little who is impressed and who is
   not. I should like to have, all over the Tabernacle, a little lot of
   you Christian people like sentries, watching that young man who is here
   for the first time tonight.

   Watching that young woman who has been here for the last six
   weeks--watching your opportunity! As soon as ever you see the first
   wave of the Spirit's manifestation--the face is often the tell-tale
   sign of what is going on within--to

   speak to them. I want you to watch, so as to say, "Now that one is cast
   down I will break the ice, I will speak, and I will say, There is
   lifting up." You must have keen eyes to watch for the Spirit's work if
   you are to be fishers of men! Next to this you have need of deep
   sympathy. If you try to speak for Christ, and do it in a rough way, you
   had better hold your tongue.

   A person I saw only a day or two ago said that she was standing in deep
   thought after a sermon, under which she had been devoutly impressed,
   when a good friend accosted her in a gruff voice and with an uncouth
   manner, and said, "When are you coming forward to join the Church?" It
   was well meant. But it was done in such a way that every good
   impression melted before the repulsive tones. Speak gently and kindly,
   with tenderness and sympathy. You know what I mean. There is a world of
   difference between the putting on of a pretense of kindness and the
   real "kindness" which comes right down to a man and makes him feel that
   you really do sympathize with him, and can enter into all his griefs.

   Ask the Lord, Christian Friend, when you have got a quick eye for
   observation, to drop a tear with it, so that you may know how to weep
   with them that weep, and to speak gently. Another thing you will want
   will be knowledge. How can you tell them about the Savior if you do not
   understand, yourselves, how it is that He saves, or never proved the
   remedy you attempt to apply? Be well-instructed in the faith, and seek
   also to be well-instructed in the twists and turns of the human heart
   so that you may know how to follow up these persons when they will try
   to escape from their own mercy, and, if possible, to put from them the
   comfort which you have to bring them.

   In all this you will find great help from your own experience. No luau
   is so fitted to bring others to Christ as one who has come himself,
   though perhaps the means by which he was drawn may have been peculiar
   and somewhat different from the common course. It was said that Martin
   Luther was one of the best teachers for a minister. He had been so much
   troubled in getting peace for his own soul that he was singularly
   well-qualified to assist others who were struggling in the Slough of
   Despond. Make good use of your experience! Store up lessons from it so
   you will be making yourselves yet more and more serviceable as a helper
   to these distressed ones.

   Add to your experience assurance. The text does not tell us to say to
   these people, "I hope there may be lifting up," but, "There is lifting
   up." Full assurance makes a man strong. The Gospel is your lever, but
   full assurance must be the arm to work it with. Yes, and the fulcrum,
   too, upon which the lever must rest. Know yourselves to be saved! Do
   not live in the misty dungeon of doubt, where, "I hope so," is the only
   ray of light that breaks through the crevice, while, "I fear it is not
   so," is the reflection cast on the opposite wall. Come forth into the
   daylight that you may be sure of it. Then you will be able to speak
   boldly and so you will be likely to comfort those that are cast down.

   And do let me recommend promptness to you. There is nothing like
   quickness and decision in speaking when the opportunity presents
   itself. If you are about to seal a letter, you must bring down the seal
   while the wax is still hot enough to receive the impression. Do not
   procrastinate, and say, "Well, I should like to speak to that young
   man, but I will put it off till tomorrow." If he has the appearance of
   being impressionable tonight, look after him now! As "a bird in the
   hand is worth two in the bush," so a present opportunity is worth
   unspeakably more than any precarious venture that lies beyond your
   present reach. Do not let the time slip.

   While, however, it becomes you to be prompt, you need not be in a
   hurry. Calm self-possession is very preferable to impetuous haste. I
   remember seeing a doctor when there was an accident in the street. He
   proceeded immediately to the spot, but do you think he went rushing
   down to the man as if he would break his neck? No. On the contrary, he
   walked down very quietly and demurely to the chemist's shop where the
   man was lying, and I could not help thinking that this was a
   common-sense thing to do even in an emergency--for if he had run and
   got out of breath, he would not have been able to have done half so
   well when he got there as he was able to do by going steadily to his
   work.

   The feverish excitement of hurry you should avoid--but there must be no
   delay. Unseemly haste might spoil your aim because you would not be
   able to speak properly. But a senseless hesitancy would miss the golden
   opportunity, thwart the purpose altogether and leave you to regret that
   you had ever spoken at all. Still nothing will avail unless there is
   much prayer. We had need pray that God may give efficacy to the
   counsels He has given us, and reward our obedience to them with
   abundant fruit. Oh, Brethren, prayer is the grand thing, after all, for
   us who have no might of ourselves!

   It is wonderful what prayer can do for any of us. A dear Friend said
   the other day, "Look at Jacob. In the early part of his life there was
   much that was unseemly in his character, and very much that was unhappy
   in his circumstances. Crafty himself, he was often the victim of craft,
   reaping the fruit of his own ways. But one night in prayer--what a

   change it did make in him! Why it raised him from the deep poverty of a
   cunning supplanter to the noble peerage of a prince in Israel!"

   Bethel itself is hardly more memorable in his history than Peniel. And
   what might one night spent in prayer do for some of us? Supposing we
   were to try it instead of the soft bed! We need not go to the brook--it
   is enough that, like Jacob, we are alone in some place where sighs and
   cries would be heard by none but God. One night spent thus in solitary
   prayer might put the spurs on some of you, and make you spiritual
   knights in God's army, able to do great exploits. Oh, yes, may all
   other gracious exercises be started in prayer, crowned with prayer, and
   perfected by much prayer.

   IV. I must now close by noticing some STIMULATING MOTIVES to engage in
   this blessed employment. Remember, Christian Friend, your own case.
   When you were troubled in spirit did anybody speak to you? Then you are
   bound to repay the kindness by speaking to someone who is now in the
   same condition. Or do you say that nobody spoke to you? Well, then, I
   am sure you blame them for not doing so, and you may well see to it
   that you do not incur the same censure yourselves.

   I thank God that most of you do try to look after souls. But
   occasionally, very occasionally, it happens that a young convert will
   say to me, "I have been here six months, Sir, and no one has spoken to
   me." I sometimes ask them in what part of the Tabernacle they sit, and
   yet I do not like to know when I am informed. However, I will suppose
   that I have forgotten it now, or, at least I will forbear to indicate
   it tonight, but one of these times I shall make bold to say that there
   is a certain corner of the Tabernacle where nobody seems to care for
   souls. If I should do that, you know, it will be a cause of blushing
   and of shame to some of you!

   Do mend your ways before it comes to that. Oh, do not let there be a
   single spot in this place where it shall be possible for a person to
   sit even for a month without someone earnestly asking him about his
   soul! Do it wisely, prudently, gently--not rudely, but lovingly--not
   intrusively, but kindly. Who can tell how much good may be done by this
   simple means! Let it be done with a gracious motive, remembering how
   needful it was in your own case. Let it be done, moreover, with a
   grateful recollection of what you owe to Christ. Oh, you owe your own
   soul to Him! How can you repay Him but by bringing others?

   I beseech you, prove your gratitude--not by bringing the alabaster box
   and breaking it upon His head--but by bringing sinners whose penitence
   and faith shall be sweeter perfume even than the costly ointment which
   the woman poured on her Lord. Watch for souls out of gratitude to Him.
   Let me cheer you onward by the prospect of success. Perhaps the very
   first person you speak to may be given you for your reward! Possibly
   you may meet with a repulse. If so, try again, and yet again and
   again--as long as you have breath. But what if you should bring only
   one soul to Christ? It were a rich reward for a thousand
   disappointments! Remember, dear Friends, that it is for your own good.
   While you sleep you do not know whether you love Christ or not--but you
   would soon prove the sincerity of your love if you were trying to serve
   Him.

   You do not know what you can do till you have tried! He who can only do
   a little, if he does that little, will soon be able to do twice as
   much! If he still perseveres, he will be able to do four times as much
   presently, and his labors of love will increase and multiply till I
   know not what extent they may reach. You cannot preach, the most part
   of you. You could not go out into the street and proclaim the Word of
   Life, but you can talk to a neighbor--any or all of you! And since this
   is a thing that you can do, do it, I pray you! It may be breaking the
   ice for you, and by-and-by you will be able to swim in the deep waters
   and serve the Lord right well. To make a beginning, therefore, I ask
   you to do this small thing.

   Oh, my Christian Friends, shall the blood of souls lie on any of you?
   Would you wish to feel that you were responsible for the spiritual ruin
   of some person who sits next to you here? I wish I could always feel
   that I was clear of the blood of this congregation myself. I do seek to
   be. Yet I feel convinced that my own efforts for the conversion of men
   are so feeble that if I do not have the assistance of you all, I cannot
   reckon upon a blessing commensurate to the great assembly gathered
   here. But if you will help me! If you will each of you watch as some of
   you do! If you will each pray as some of you do! If you all catch the
   holy enthusiasm and are filled with the Divine fire, I know not what
   eternal purposes God may here fulfill, nor what glory He may bring to
   His name!

   You have, many of you, been Christians now for years. You are not
   young, raw recruits that need to be trained in the very elements of our
   spiritual warfare. You have seen battle. You have been in the midst of
   its din. I speak to you as to

   veterans--serve your God, now. By the blood that bought you, by the
   Spirit that quickened you, by the rest that is in store for you, by the
   Hell that awaits sinners if they perish--I charge you by the living
   God, the Judge of the quick and the dead--be instant in season and out
   of season! Be ever abundant in every good word and work! Be steadfast,
   immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord! And may His
   blessing descend upon the whole of our efforts, through His Divine
   Spirit.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            The Heart--a Den of Evil

   A sermon

   (No. 732)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 27, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
   fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."- Matthew 15:19.

   WE cannot too often insist upon it that religion is a matter of the
   heart. It is the besetting sin of man to forget that God is a Spirit
   and that worship rendered to God must be of a spiritual kind. Idolatry
   is the full carrying out of this mischievous propensity. Instead of
   adoring the Great Invisible and giving Him the love of the heart, man
   sets up a block of wood or stone, and, burning incense and performing
   genuflections before it, he cries, "This is my god." Where this
   idolatry does not assume the very grossest form it takes another which
   is equally as objectionable in the sight of God. Man pleads that he
   cannot worship God with his heart unless his memory is assisted by some
   outward object, and then he smuggles in his idol and gratifies his
   depraved nature with will worship and outward formalism.

   God requires soul worship and men give him body worship! He asks for
   the heart and they present Him with their lips. He demands their
   thoughts and their minds, and they give Him banners, and vestments, and
   candles. Where man is hunted by very shame from outward superstitions,
   he betakes himself to anything sooner than yield his heart's love to
   his Maker, submit his intellect to the great Creator's teaching, or
   render all his faculties to the service of the Most High. No matter how
   painful may be the mortification, rigid the penance, severe the
   abstinence--no matter how much may be taken from his purse or the wine
   vat, or the store--he will be content to suffer anything sooner than
   bow before the Most High with a true confession of sin, and trust in
   the appointed Savior with sincere childlike faith.

   In this age, as much as in past times, the watchmen of our Israel must
   insist upon the spirituality of worship, for the old paganism lives
   among us--altered in form but unchanged in spirit. We spoke of idolatry
   as being buried at Athens and consigned to its tomb at Rome, but it
   lives in the Puseyism of the present hour! Men are naturally idolaters
   and it is nothing but idolatry which nowadays, in the toyshops of the
   Tractarian, is polluting the simplicity of our worship by thrusting
   their childish symbols and emblems before the sublime Truth that God is
   to be worshipped in spirit, and only to be approached through the
   atoning sacrifice of His only begotten Son.

   This morning I trust I shall not be guilty of attracting your attention
   for a single moment to anything that is external, however gaudy or
   however simple. It is to the human heart that I ask you now to turn
   your eyes. It is to your own hearts, my Hearers, you that are converted
   and you that are not! It is to a consideration of your own inner
   natures that I entreat you now to turn your serious thoughts. My text
   is a looking glass in which every man may see himself. He may see not
   his face which he can see anywhere--but his heart, his moral nature,
   his innermost self. Here sin is in many a heart laid bare, turned
   inside out, anatomized and depicted by One who cannot lie and cannot be
   deceived.

   We shall come to the text at once, and observe, first, the humiliating
   doctrine which it teaches. Then we shall occupy the rest of your time
   by mentioning the kindred doctrines of which it reminds us.

   I. FIRST NOTICE THE HUMILIATING TRUTH which the Savior here sets forth.
   He tells us that out of the heart all sorts of moral evils proceed. He
   selects not the milder forms of sin but the grosser shades--adulteries,
   murders, blasphemies--these are words of no common import--and stand
   for sins of no common dye. The accusation laid against human nature
   here is one of the most solemn that could possibly be put into words.
   The Savior has not minced matters in any degree nor chosen smooth forms
   of speech. He has selected the grossest shapes of human sin and He has
   said that all these come out of the human heart.

   There have been men who have asserted that sins are merely accidents of
   man's position. But the Savior says they come out of his heart. Some
   have affirmed that they are mistakes of his judgment--that the social
   system bears so harshly at certain points that men can scarcely do
   otherwise than offend--for their judgment misleads them. The Savior,
   how-

   ever, traces these offenses not to the head and its mistaken judgments,
   but to the heart and its unholy affections. He plainly tells us that
   the part of human nature which yields such poisonous fruit is not a
   bough which may be sawn off, a limb which may be cut away--but the very
   core and substance of the man--his heart.

   He, in effect, tells us that lust does not come out of the eyes merely,
   but from the inmost nature of a depraved being. Murder comes not, in
   the first place, from the hasty hand but from a wild ungovernable
   heart. He declares that theft is not the mere result of a hasty
   temptation, but is the outflow of a covetous desire which dwells in the
   being of which disorganized affections are the real source. All the
   mischiefs mentioned in our text come out of man's essential self--that
   is what I understand the Savior to mean by the heart.

   The heart is the true man. It is the very citadel of the City of
   Mansoul. It is the fountain and reservoir of manhood and all the rest
   of man may be compared to the many pipes which run from the fountain
   through the streets of a city. The Savior puts His finger on the
   mainspring of the machine of manhood, and cries, "Here is the evil!"
   Like a great physician, He lays His hands upon the very core of human
   nature and exclaims, "Here is the disease." The leprosy of sin is not
   as to its primary seat in the head, nor the hand, nor the foot--but in
   the very heart. The poison is in the center, and consequently all the
   outlying members share in the poison.

   By the heart we usually understand the affections, and doubtless the
   affections of man are the sources of his crimes. It is because man does
   not love his Maker with all his heart, and soul, and strength--but
   loves himself--that he therefore breaks his Maker's Laws to please
   himself. It is because man does not love that which is right, and good,
   and true, but because he delights in that which is false and evil, that
   his actions become defiled. It comes to the same thing, you see,
   whether you interpret the word "heart" to mean the central core of the
   man, or to signify the affections. You come to the same result that it
   is the man's vital self which is wrong. It is manhood's real essence
   which is vitiated.

   Manhood in its most vital essence is corrupt through and through. To
   use the words of the infinite Jehovah Himself, "Every imagination of
   the heart of man is evil from his youth." "The whole head is sick, and
   the whole heart faint." "The heart is deceitful above all things, and
   desperately wicked." Observe with humiliation those foul streams which
   the Savior declares flow from the heart of man! He speaks of evil
   thoughts. Some make little of thoughts of evil, but God does not so
   judge. He judges an action not so much by the outward motions of the
   matter of the body by which the action is performed, as by the inward
   motion of the inner man by which that motion was instigated and
   dictated.

   Evil thoughts have in them the absolute essence of sin quite as surely
   as evil acts, for when we come to trace an action to its essential evil
   we have to look to the motive which dictates it--which motive brings us
   at once into the region of thought. So that evil thoughts, instead of
   being less evidently sinful than actions, are most clearly the very
   nest in which the principle and soul of sin is to be found.

   Men sometimes say, "We shall not be hanged for our thoughts." But it
   will be well for them to know that except they repent of them, they
   certainly will be damned for their thoughts! And even if those thoughts
   of theirs never shaped themselves into actions, yet their guilt would
   remain! If the men were shut up in cells so that they could not commit
   that which their nature instigated them to do, yet, as before the Lord,
   seeing they would have been such sinners outwardly if they could have
   been, their hearts are judged to be no better than the hearts of those
   who found opportunity to sin and used it.

   A vicious horse is none the better tempered because the kicking straps
   prevent his dashing the carriage to atoms. And so a man is none the
   better, really, because the restraints of custom and Providence may
   prevent his carrying out that which he would prefer. Poor fallen human
   nature behind the bars of Laws, and in the cage of fear of punishment
   is none the less a fearful creature. Should its master unlock the door
   we should soon see what it would be and do. Evil thoughts flow out of
   the heart. Such as evil thoughts of God, evil thoughts of man. Thoughts
   about evil, doting imaginations, and foul desires, the rolling of evil
   under the tongue as a sweet morsel, and such like. Many a man who has
   not committed an outward act of sensual lust has nevertheless thought
   it over and relished it, and so perpetrated it in his soul.

   Many a man who had not the courage to be a thief in very deed has
   nevertheless been a thief a thousand times over in his heart. And he
   who dared not blaspheme God with his lips has cursed God in his heart
   ten thousand times. These evil thoughts are signs of what is in the
   heart. They would not bubble up within us if they were not first there.
   They could not come into the mind if they were not essential to the
   soul.

   Our Lord next speaks of murders, by which He means, according to John's
   interpretation of it, every form of unjustifiable anger. Those
   ebullitions of evil temper in which we wish people were dead, or
   otherwise injured, and would gladly punish them if we could, are in the
   same class as murders. Murders, themselves, arise from the evil
   passions of the human heart. If the fire were not there, temptation
   could not fan it to a flame. Is it not because men love themselves
   better than their neighbors that they commit murder? It is clear to
   everyone that it must be so. Therefore it is the failure of the
   affections to work accurately which leads men to the commission of this
   terrible deed. An evil nature sits by the fireside and murders men in
   thought, and hurls daggers at them in the heart in words, because it is
   evil, self-loving, and vile!

   The inventory next mentions acts of unchastity. Men would never fall
   into evil lusts if it were not that they are dear to their hearts.
   Because these things are sweet to the heart, therefore men follow them.
   If the ox drinks water, it is because the ox thirsts. And if man goes
   after vice, it is because his soul longs after it. Those who never
   indulged in these actions may yet have meditated upon them--and in such
   a case the heart has committed uncleanness before God. So also the
   injuring of others by theft is from the heart. Is it not, again,
   because we love ourselves better than God, and better than others, that
   we are tempted to covet and led from covetousness to acts of
   dishonesty? And when it comes to the bearing of false witness, what is
   this, again, but an intense lie of one's own proper being, and a lack
   of love to our neighbors and our

   God?

   When the list closes with blasphemy, what is this but the heart setting
   itself up higher than God and then seeking to tread God beneath its
   feet by the use of opprobrious and wicked epithets concerning Him? The
   heart is at the bottom of it all. There would be no murder, no
   fornication--there could be no blasphemy if the heart were pure and
   right. If God were loved first and foremost, these offenses could not
   occur! But the heart is mischievous and therefore these things exist.
   The Savior does not stop to prove that these things come out of the
   heart--He asserts it--and asserts it because it is self-evident. When
   you see a thing coming forth, you are clear it was there first.

   Last summer I noticed hornets continually flying from a number of
   decayed logs in my garden. I saw them constantly flying in and out, and
   I did not think myself at all unreasonable in concluding that there was
   a hornet's nest there. I suppose that was the inference which everybody
   would have drawn. If we see the hornets of sin flying out of a man, we
   suppose at once that there is sin within him. Look at yonder spring--it
   is bubbling up with cool and fresh water--do you not conclude that
   somewhere or other there is a reservoir of this water from which it
   rises? If you did not conclude so, you would be so unreasonable that
   you might be the common butt of laughter.

   And when we know that all sorts of evil thoughts and murders, and
   lustful desires come from men's hearts, it is not at all a difficult
   conclusion that they must be in men. And inasmuch as all men, more or
   less, fall into these displays of sin, we conclude that there is in all
   men a great storehouse of sin--a secret fountain of sin--a mass of
   inward evil from which outward evil proceeds. If this needed any
   sustaining at all I might offer these few observations, namely, that
   nobody ever needs any training to commit sin. Albeit there may be
   schools of virtue--there is certainly no necessity to open a school for
   vice! Your child will have evil thoughts without your sending him to a
   diabolical infant school. Lads who have never seen the act of theft, or
   children who have been brought up in the midst of honesty will be found
   guilty of little thefts early enough in life.

   Lying and false witness, which is one form of lying, is so common that
   perhaps to find a tongue which never did bear false witness would be to
   find a tongue that never spoke! Is this caused by education or by
   nature? It is so common a thing that even where the ear has heard
   nothing but the most rigid truth, children learn to lie and men learn
   to lie and commonly do lie and love to tell an evil tale against their
   fellow men whether it is true or not--bearing false witness with an
   eagerness which is perfectly shocking! Is this a matter of education,
   or is it a depraved heart?

   Some men will willfully invent a slanderous lie knowing that they need
   not take any special care of their offspring, for they may lay it in
   the street and the first passerby will take it up and nurse it--and the
   lie will be carried in triumph round the world! Whereas a piece of
   truth which would have done honor to a good man's character will be
   left to be forgotten till God shall remember it at the Day of Judgment.
   You never need educate any man into sin. As soon as ever the young
   crocodile has left its shell, it begins to act just like its parent,
   and bites at the stick which broke the shell. The serpent is scarcely
   born before it rears itself and begins to hiss. The young tiger may be
   nurtured in your parlor, but it will develop, before long, the same
   thirst for blood at if it were in the forest.

   So is it with man! He sins as naturally as the young lion seeks blood
   or the young serpent stores up venom. Sin is in his very nature that
   taints his inmost soul. What is worse, it is certain that men sin under
   all conceivable circumstances. You have heard much romance about
   unsophisticated nature. It used to be a theory that the untutored
   savage saw God in every cloud and heard Him in the wind. But when
   travelers go to see these model, untutored savages, what miserable
   specimens of humanity they are! The very philosophers who once set them
   up as being models, change their minds and tell us that they are a
   connecting link between man and the ape.

   This is what unsophisticated nature becomes. The ragtags of
   conventionalism are taken away. The tricks of commerce are removed--and
   the child of nature is brought up naked--and a very pretty child he is!
   Let those who admire him live with him and see if the very brutes do
   not shame him! The character of the uncivilized man is generally such
   that it were impossible for us to describe it in your hearing, so
   degraded and so debased is savage man. Is he any better, however, if he
   is highly educated? I suppose there was no nation of antiquity more
   highly educated than the Greeks. And yet if history is credited, the
   private characters of her best philosophers such as Socrates and Solon
   were stained with vices revolting to the mind!

   In modern times there has been ample proof that neither ignorance nor
   learning are an effectual check to sin. The fool learns sin without his
   books and the scholar learns it none the less with all his lore. One of
   the most educated nations of modern times is the Hindu, and what is the
   moral character of the Hindu? Those who have been among the Hindus
   never dare to tell all that they have seen, and missionaries inform us
   in a whisper that what they have seen in the temples where the Hindus
   meet for worship, and where surely the better parts of their nature
   ought to be seen in the presence of their gods, is so utterly obscene
   that it is degrading to the mind to know that such a thing exists.

   "Yes," you say, "some races are vicious both when trained under a
   certain civilization and when left uncivilized. But how about Christian
   civilization?" Why, the so-called Christians are scarcely any better! A
   man with religion is not any better than a man without it unless that
   religion changes his heart and makes a new man of him. The heart under
   a Christian's coat is as vile as that under a Bushman's sheepskin
   unless Divine Grace has renewed it! If you take a child and tutor him
   in all the outward observances of our own holy faith--if you shall see
   that in everything he is brought up after the straightest sect that
   your judgment shall select--yet unless the Holy Spirit shall come and
   give him a new heart and a right spirit his heart will find out ways of
   showing its sin!

   No, it has been notorious that some who were brought up with
   Puritanical rigidity have been the most vicious in after life, and
   those who have not been so have become what is almost as
   detestable--hypocritical pretenders to a religion to whose real power
   they are strangers. "You must be born again," is a Truth of God which
   is as true in the Hottentot's kraal as it is in the midst of this
   congregation! And as true in the home of piety as it is in the haunt of
   vice. The old nature everywhere--wash it, cleanse it, bind it, curb it,
   or bridle it--is still the old fallen nature and cannot understand
   spiritual things!

   You may take the man and treat him as they did the demoniac of old. You
   may bind him with chains. You may seek to tame him down. But when the
   old evil spirit comes up again he snaps the bonds of morality and
   rushes away to one form of sin or another--either to the outward excess
   of his carnal passions--or else to the equally vicious excess of
   hypocrisy, formalism and self-conceit. These things may surely
   strengthen this Truth of God. Man sins in every place, in every shape.
   And yet more--he sins after he knows the mischief of sin! As the moth
   flies into the candle after singeing its wings, so man will fly into
   sin after he knows the bitterness of it. If he reforms as to one sin he
   takes up another till he does no better for himself than Dr. Watts's
   fever patient, of whom he says--

   "It is a poor relief we gain, To shift the place and keep the pain."

   They do so. They give up, perhaps, drunkenness. What then? Why then
   they become self-righteous. If you can drive a man from outward vice,
   how far have you improved him if he lives in inward sin? You have
   benefited him as far as the sight of man is concerned, but not before
   God. There was a man killed on Holborn Hill this week and I have heard
   that there was little or no external appearance of injury upon his
   body. He had been crushed between an omnibus and a cart, and all the
   wounds were internal. But he died just as surely as if he had been
   beaten black and blue, or cut in a thousand pieces. So a man may die of
   internal sin--it does not appear outwardly for certain reasons--but he
   will die of it just the same if it is within.

   Many man has died from internal bleeding, and yet there has been no
   wound whatever to be seen by the eyes. You, my dear Hearer, may go to
   Hell as well dressed in the garnishing of morality as in the rags of
   immorality! Unless the very center of your soul and the core of your
   being is made obedient to the living God, He will not accept you, for
   He looks not only to your outward actions, but to your heart's secret
   loyalty or treachery towards Himself. Man sins, moreover-- to close
   this very fearful impeachment against manhood--man sins not as the
   result of mistaken intellect, but as the result of his heart being
   vile.

   When a man sins by mistake. When he does not know it to be sin. When he
   sins thinking that he is doing right--as soon as he gets to know his
   error he forsakes the sin with horror, and flies to God with
   repentance. But this is never done by men naturally. The natural heart
   of man, if it finds out sin to be sin, very frequently feels all the
   more delight in it just as the Apostle Paul says he had not known lust
   unless the Law had said, "You shall not covet." Our corrupt nature
   loves forbidden fruit! Some people would not care to work on Sunday
   unless they had been commanded to rest. Many would never care to go to
   the Crystal Palace on any day in the week, but they crave to go on
   Sunday simply because it is forbidden.

   Some fellows are lazy enough on Monday and make a saint's day of it.
   And yet Sunday rest they oppose with all their might. It is strange
   that what God makes common, man wants to make special, and what God
   makes special, man wants to make common! As soon as ever a child is
   told he must not do such a thing, although he had never thought of
   doing it before, he wants to do it now. That is the nature of us. "When
   the Commandment came," says the Apostle, "sin revived, and I died."
   This is not the Law's fault, but ours. Cool water thrown upon unslaked
   lime produces a burning heat--it is not the fault of the water that the
   heat is produced--the lime, alone, is to blame. So the very command of
   God, "You shall not do this," or "You shall not do that," leads man
   into sin, and so it proves the innate and thorough viciousness of the
   nature of man.

   "I do not like it," says one. "I do not like to hear human nature
   spoken so evil of." And do you suppose I like to speak of it in this
   way? It is no more pleasing to me than to you. "Well, but," says one,
   "I believe in the dignity of human nature." Believe in it, my dear Man,
   and try and prove it if you can! Nobody will be more glad than I shall
   be to see any true dignity in anybody. But why do we speak like this?
   Why, because our solemn conviction is that we speak the Truth of God!
   We thus speak because we believe the Word of God teaches it. And,
   moreover, we know by sorrowful experience that if the charge is not
   true of others, it is certainly true of us.

   We have been preserved from known outward sin, but we have to mourn
   over the terrible evils of our heart. And being willing to endorse the
   indictment, and personally to plead guilty, we are the more confident
   in bringing it forward and saying, "This is the case with the whole
   race of man, without a single exception! We must all stand guilty
   before God." Not one heart by nature is right with God--Jew and Gentile
   are all under sin--"We are all gone out of the way, we are altogether
   become unprofitable: there is none that does good, no not one."

   II. We shall now turn aside to notice THE TRUTHS WHICH ARE CONNECTED
   WITH THIS HUMBLING

   FACT. First observe that receiving our Lord's testimony concerning our
   hearts--that they have become dens of evil, that out of them comes evil
   thoughts, fornication, theft, and so on--we are driven to believe in
   the doctrine of the Fall. If we are in this state, it is inconceivable
   that God should have made us so! A pure and holy Being must have been
   the creator of pure and holy beings.

   As Job says, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one."
   We may reverse the question and say, "How could an unclean thing come
   out of a clean thing?" The Holy God must be the Parent of holy
   children, and when God made manhood He must have made it perfect,
   otherwise He did not act according to His own Nature. It remains a
   marvelous riddle how man is what he is till you turn to this Book. And
   when you read the story of the Fall, the riddle is all unriddled! Then
   we see how that first parent of ours, who stood for us as our
   representative, sinned, and by that sin tainted the whole race, so that
   we, being born of him, are born in his image and in his likeness. And
   he being a rebel we are born rebels. He being a traitor we are born
   traitors, too.

   "Behold," says David, "I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my
   mother conceive me." There is the root of the matter! It is not by
   God's making that we are sinful--it is by Adam's unmaking of us and
   ruining of us that we come to be what we are--inheritors of original
   sin and corruption. If it shall be asked, How is this great mystery
   still further to be explained and the justice of it proved? We answer,
   that these are things too deep and too high for us--that we think

   we can see the justice of it and we have sometimes admired the mercy of
   it, too--but, nevertheless, we are not accustomed to dispute facts we
   cannot understand. But we believe them if God reveals them--and since
   it is revealed that by one man's transgression many were made sinners,
   we believe it, and raise no further question.

   We must leave the fact as a fact, feeling that it is a great deep. You
   ask an explanation of this, and refuse to believe till you understand.
   We are obliged to refer you to all other things in Nature which at the
   bottom must be matters of faith rather than of reason. There are ten
   thousand mysteries in Nature which you know are there, but which you
   cannot understand. You cannot even tell me what electricity is, nor
   what is the attraction of gravitation. There are these forces, for you
   see their effects, but how the forces first began you know not.

   And here is a great force which is in mankind--the force of evil--and
   you see its effects everywhere, but how it came there you could not
   have told unless God had said it came there through inheritance from
   your parents as the result of the fall of Adam! And there you must
   leave it and bow your heads. Only let this be remembered--if you would
   prefer every one of you to have stood or fallen for yourselves, it is
   more than probable you would have fallen--and if you had fallen, you
   would have fallen forever! The devils, angels as they once were, stood
   every one upon his own footing. When, therefore, the angels fell and
   became devils, they could never be saved--they were left forever to
   perish!

   But because we fell in another and did not fall, in the first place, in
   our own persons, it became possible to restore us by the merits of
   Another. And we have been restored in the Person of the Lord Jesus, so
   that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus is delivered from the fall of
   Adam and saved through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ! The way by
   which we are ruined was such a way that there was a possibility of our
   being rescued from it. But had we been ruined by our own actual sin at
   the commencement, it is probable our ruin would have been like that of
   those evil spirits for whom are reserved chains of fire and the
   blackness of darkness forever! This doctrine, then, of the evil
   character of man, necessitates the belief in the Fall.

   In the next place, this doctrine shows the need of a new nature. There
   is a young man here who says, "I mean to lead a perfectly pure and holy
   life. I resolve to serve God." Now should we dissuade such a man from
   the attempt? By no means! It has been sometimes said that we speak
   against morality. Never, never a word against it! But we have spoken
   against the attempt being made to produce purity from impurity! And we
   have said that such a nature as ours needs renewing before it will be
   holy. If it shall be said that we speak against navigation because we
   say that leaky vessels are not fit to put to sea, we are content that
   fools should so judge us! On the contrary, we hold that we are speaking
   for the true art of navigation when we say to the man with his
   water-logged vessel, "You must find another ship if you would navigate
   a boisterous ocean."

   Young man, you wish to be holy and pure? Then remember that if your
   heart is full of theft, murder, adultery, and so on, it will always be
   seeking to come forth from you in word and act--and your utmost
   endeavors will not be able utterly to restrain the outcoming of that
   which is there--according to Christ's word. You had better, then,
   instead of beginning in your own strength, stop awhile and count the
   cost. What if you could get a new heart and a right spirit? What if
   that nature of yours could be changed? What if the Divine One who made
   Adam perfect should make you anew? What if He should drop into you a
   new spark of life of a higher order than that which now possesses you?

   Then you would have a nature as inclined to holiness as your present
   nature tends to sin! Then you would, by force of a new nature, follow
   after that which is right, as you now naturally follow after that which
   is evil. "Oh," you say, "is this possible?" Possible? It is the Gospel
   of our salvation! We tell you that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus
   Christ shall be saved! And the process of salvation consists, in part,
   of the implantation of a new nature. By trusting in Jesus you come to
   love Him. And the love of Him, by the power of the Divine Spirit,
   becomes a master passion--a new heart by which you war with your old
   passions, trample them under foot, and subdue them!

   As soon as you clearly see in your soul, by the Holy Spirit, that Jesus
   loved you and gave Himself for you, your heart sings--

   "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." Then you have a new Object for your
   love! Instead of loving self, you love God in the Person of His Son,
   Jesus Christ. And that new love becomes to you the heart which
   overcomes the old corruption, and prompts you to walk in holiness

   and in the fear of God all your days. Oh, young Man, go not forth to
   this warfare till you have considered the charges! As good men as you
   have sought to fight with sin and have found its arm too strong for
   them! Come to the Cross and ask the Savior who fought, Himself, with
   temptation and overcame it! Ask Him to cleanse you from your past sins
   in His precious blood! Ask Him to let His Divine Spirit, who is the
   great Regenerator, enter into you and make you a new creature! And when
   you are a new creature then there shall be the new longings, the new
   hopes, the new fears which shall enable you to follow a new course to
   the glory of God.

   If your heart is evil, you must get a new heart or you cannot be holy.
   Do you not see how necessary it is that we should be regenerate or made
   new creatures, because such a heart as ours cannot possibly enter into
   Heaven? If the natural heart is a great barracks of evil--a sort of
   Thebes with a hundred gates from which black warriors of sin are
   continually streaming--how can such an abomination as that ever pass
   through the pearly gates and be where God is, before the Eternal
   Throne? O Sirs, these hearts of ours--these depraved affections must be
   slain! They must be crucified with Christ! They must be conquered, put
   down, stamped out, or how can we be where Jesus is? Who can do this but
   the Holy

   Spirit?

   He can do it, He can do it now! He can put into you a new heart which
   will begin fighting with this old heart at once! And which will go on
   fighting with it as long as you live--contending, struggling,
   wrestling--till at last it will drive the old loves out! Your
   affections will no more be set on self and on evil things, but you will
   become as pure as God is pure, because God Himself has renewed you in
   the spirit of your mind. Then you shall enter Heaven! Then you shall
   dwell with angels! Then you shall see God because you have been made
   perfectly like God by the work of the Holy Spirit!

   Reverence and esteem, dear Hearers, that blessed Spirit who can make
   new creatures of us! Pray to Him that the old man may die in us. That
   it may be crucified daily. That the old nature may be buried in the
   tomb of the Savior and that a new heart and right spirit in us may
   continually gather strength and force till they shall come to their
   ultimate perfection and we shall enter into our rest.

   There is another doctrine which receives also very great strength from
   this Truth of God. If man's heart is nothing but a source of blackness
   and sin, admire the Divine Grace of God! What should have led the Lord
   to save such creatures as we have described if they are, indeed, such
   creatures? What but Sovereign Grace could look on such wretches? Those
   who give glory to human merit always try to puff up human nature by
   speaking in its praise, but we who believe human nature to be utterly
   fallen and debased--we admire the wonderful kindness and matchless
   goodness of God--that He should ever have set His love upon such
   unworthy creatures!

   Paul is in admiration of it when he says, "His great love wherewith He
   loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." A heart full
   of evil thoughts, and yet He loved me! A heart full of fornication and
   adultery, and yet He loved me! A heart full of murder, and yet He loved
   me! A heart that could bear false witness, a heart that could
   blaspheme, and yet He loved us! O Brothers and Sisters, if we could see
   ourselves as God saw us in the Fall we should wonder how the eyes of
   Infinite Purity could have borne with us! How the heart of Infinite
   Love could have set itself upon us!

   You were not loved because of your goodness! You were not chosen
   because of anything in you that was lovely and amiable! You were loved
   because He would love you! You were chosen because He would do it for
   His name's sake--

   "He saw you ruined in the Fall, Yet loved you notwithstanding all. He
   sa ved you from your lost estate, His loving kindness, oh how great!"
   Why, Beloved, it must be Sovereign Grace from top to bottom! Grace must
   be the Alpha. Grace must be the Omega. If this is the true state of the
   case I do not wonder that so many kick against the doctrine of Election
   and the kindred doctrines of Grace when they have such a high opinion
   of themselves! But if God would make them see their own hearts then
   they would cry out, "God be merciful to me a sinner!"

   And then they would understand that if ever a man is saved, it is not
   by his own doing or his own willing, but by Divine Grace alone. It is
   not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that shows
   mercy, for He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. The
   Sovereignty of God would become an easy doctrine to believe if we felt
   the depravity of our own hearts! If we saw ourselves as in the glass of
   Scripture and abhorred ourselves in dust and ashes, then instead of
   having any claims upon God we should say, "Let Him do as seems Him
   good," and make our appeal not

   to His justice but to His unfathomable mercy, crying, "According to the
   multitude of Your loving kindnesses and Your tender mercies blot out my
   iniquities."

   Yet once again--how this doctrine illustrates the doctrine of the
   Atonement! Brethren, sin defiles us most horribly! Its act defiles our
   character, but its essence has ruined our nature! It appears from
   Christ's statement that we are defiled internally as well as
   outwardly--that sin is not only an eruption, as it were, upon the
   skin--but it is in the center of our nature. Behold, then, the need of
   the precious blood and admire its wonderful potency! The blood of God's
   own dear Son which streamed on Calvary's accursed tree cleanses us in
   our inner man. O matchless blood! O marvelous purification! Come here,
   Sinner--though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as wool. And
   though your heart itself is even more scarlet than your actions, He can
   cleanse your heart as well as your life!

   Christ can cleanse the fountain and the stream, too. He can remove the
   external leprosy and heal the internal leprosy, also. Both root and
   branch He bears away. O Souls, admire and wonder! Bow down with tears
   streaming from your eyes, and then look up with gladness to the Son of
   God made flesh, crucified for sinners! For whoever believes in Him
   shall not perish but have everlasting life. Come, you black-hearted!
   Come, you defiled and ruined sons of Adam! Come, you that are perishing
   at the gates of Hell shut out from hope! Come, you who like the men of
   Zebulun and Naphtali sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of
   death!

   Come and trust Christ, and He will send His Spirit upon you and give
   you new hearts and right spirits! From all your iniquities will He
   cleanse you! He will be the new Creator, for He sits on the Throne this
   day, and He says, "Behold, I make all things new." Oh that Jesus may
   make some new who are here this morning! I have laid the axe at the
   root of the tree--and every tree that is here must be cut down and cast
   into the fire unless Christ changes the nature of that tree--and makes
   it bring forth fruit unto righteousness. I have tried to show that man
   is utterly ruined in himself. That he has become like the ruins of
   Babylon where dwell hideous dragons and all manner of loathsome
   creatures.

   I will even liken him to the troubled sea whose waters cast up mire and
   dirt--where Satan dwells as a leviathan-- and with him creeping things
   innumerable, things obscene and horrible. I have tried, as far as I
   could, to preach the old unfashionable Truth of God, and I expect to be
   hated for so doing it! But now, over all, there comes the proclamation
   of mercy--that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself--not
   imputing their iniquities! And whoever believes in Him shall be
   delivered from the mischief of the Fall and lifted to dwell where God
   is--in perfect purity and happiness!

   What a wonder is this choice mercy, that a den of dragons should become
   a temple of the Holy Spirit! What a wonder that the heart, through
   which blasphemy raged, should become a soul in which Divine Grace
   reigns! That the profane mouth should become the organ of holy song! Oh
   what a thousand wonders, that that black heap of human na-ture--that
   dunghill of the heart--should yet be made pure as alabaster! That it
   should become glittering in holy light, and bright with Heaven, shining
   like pure gold, like transparent glass--and that the Holy Spirit
   Himself should agree to dwell where the devil dwelt!

   "Know you not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?"
   What wonder! Once they were the temples of lust, of anger, of evil
   speaking, of blasphemy! And yet they can be, and I trust now are, the
   temples of the Holy Spirit! Oh marvelous! Marvelous! Let us bless God,
   and ask that we may realize in ourselves this wondrous miracle to the
   praise and glory of His Grace, where He has made us accepted in the
   Beloved.
     __________________________________________________________________

                               Unstaggering Faith

   A sermon

   (No. 733)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, FEBRUARY 3 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead,
   when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of
   Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;
   but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
   that what He had promised, He was able also to perform."- Romans
   4:19-21.

   IT was God's purpose that Abraham should be a surpassingly excellent
   example of the power of faith. He was to be "the father of the
   faithful," the mirror, pattern and paragon of faith. He was ordained to
   be the supreme Believer of the patriarchal age, the serene and
   venerable leader of the noble army of Believers in Jehovah, the
   faithful and true God. In order to produce so eminent a character it
   was necessary that Abraham's faith should be exercised in a special and
   unequalled manner. The power of his faith could not be known except by
   putting it to the severest tests. To this end, among other trials of
   his faith, God gave him a promise that in his seed should all the
   nations of the earth be blessed, and yet for many a year he remained
   without an heir.

   The promise, when originally given, startled Abraham, but he did not
   doubt it. We read that he laughed--laughed with holy joy at the thought
   of so great and unexpected a blessing! It startled also his wife Sarah.
   She did, however, doubt it--when she laughed it was the laugh of
   incredulity. The fulfillment of the promise was long delayed. Abraham
   waited with patience, sojourning as a stranger in a strange land,
   having respect unto the covenant which the Lord had made with him and
   with his unborn seed.

   Not a shadow of doubt crossed the mind of the holy Patriarch. He
   staggered not at the promise through unbelief and though he came to be
   100 years old, and his wife Sarah was almost equally as advanced in
   years, he did not listen to the voice of carnal reason but maintained
   his confidence in God. Doubtless he had well weighed the natural
   impossibilities which laid in the way, but he overlooked the whole and
   being fully persuaded that if God had promised him a son the son would
   certainly be born, he entertained a holy confidence and left the matter
   of time in the hands of the Sovereign Ruler.

   His faith triumphed in all its conflicts. Had it not been that Sarah
   and Abraham were both at such an advanced age there would have been no
   credit to them in believing the promise of God. But the more difficult,
   the more impossible the fulfillment of the promise seemed to be, the
   more wonderful was Abraham's faith and he still held to it that what
   God had promised He was able to perform! If I may so say, there was in
   Abraham's case a double death to stand in the way of the promise--not
   one difficulty in itself insuperable, but two--two absolute
   impossibilities.

   And yet, though one impossibility might have been enough to stagger any
   man, the two together could not cause his faith to waver! He considered
   not the natural impediments. He allowed them no space in the
   account--they seemed to be less than nothing in the presence of the
   truth and power of the Almighty God. The Most High God had given a
   promise, and that fact overrode 10,000 adverse arguments! His was that
   noble confidence of which we sing--

   "Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to that alone. Laughs
   at impossibilities And cries, 'It shall be done!'"

   By such unquestioning confidence Abraham brought glory to God. It
   glorifies God greatly for His servants to trust Him--they then become
   witnesses to His faithfulness--just as His works in creation are
   witnesses of His power and wisdom. Abraham was a noble instance of the
   power which the truthfulness of God exerts over the human mind. When
   under all discouragements he still "believed God." His heart said of
   the living God, "He cannot lie. He will perform His promise." While
   glorifying God, Abraham reaped a present consolation to himself and in
   the end he had the joy of receiving

   the promise. His early laugh of joy was remembered and commemorated in
   his son Isaac, that child of promise, whose name was "laughter."

   The Patriarch himself became one of the most honored of men, for it is
   written, "Him that honors Me I will honor." Brothers and Sisters, this
   is the point to which I want to bring you--that if God intends to make
   you or me, any one of us, or all of us together to be distinguishing
   exhibitors of the Divine Grace of faith--we must expect to be passed
   through very much the same trials as Abraham. With regard to the object
   upon which our faith is exercised, it is most probable that we shall be
   made to feel our own weakness and even our personal death. We shall be
   brought very low, even into an utter self-despair.

   We shall be made to see that the mercy we are seeking of God is a thing
   impossible with man. It is very probable that difficulties will rise
   before us till they are enough to overwhelm us! Not only one range of
   mountainous impossibilities, but another will be seen towering up
   behind the first till we are pressed beyond measure and led to an utter
   despair of the matter as considered in ourselves. At such a crisis, if
   God the Holy Spirit is working with mighty power in us, we shall still
   believe that the Divine promise will be fulfilled. We shall not
   entertain a doubt concerning the promise! We shall remember that it
   remains with God to find ways and means--and not with ourselves. We
   shall cast the burden of fulfilling the promise upon Him with whom it
   naturally rests.

   Go on, then, in steady, holy, confident joy, looking for the end of our
   faith and patiently pleading until we reach it. The Lord will honor and
   comfort us in so doing, and in the end He will grant us the desire of
   our hearts, for none that trust in Him shall ever be confounded, world
   without end.

   Let us, this morning, firmly lay hold upon this general principle, that
   God will empty us of self completely before He will accomplish any
   great thing by us, thus removing from us every pretext for claiming the
   glory for ourselves. At such seasons of humiliation it is our privilege
   to exercise unabated faith, for the fulfillment of the promise is not
   imperiled, but rather may be looked upon as drawing near. May the Holy
   Spirit guide us while we endeavor to apply the general principle to
   distinct cases.

   First, we shall view it in application to the individual worker for
   Christ. Then, secondly, we shall take it in connection with the Church
   associated or Christian service. Thirdly, we shall apply it briefly to
   the case of a pleader wrestling with God in prayer. And, fourthly, we
   shall show its bearing upon the case of a seeker, showing that he,
   also, will have to feel his own natural death and utter helplessness,
   and then faith will find all needful Grace stored up in the
   promise-giving God.

   I. To THE INDIVIDUAL WORKER we have a message. I trust I address many
   Brothers and Sisters who have wholly consecrated themselves to the
   service of God and have been for months or years perseveringly toiling
   in the Redeemer's cause. Now, it is probable, very probable, indeed,
   that you are more than ever conscious of your own spiritual weakness.
   "Oh," you say, "if God intends to bless souls, I cannot see how they
   can be blessed through me. If sinners are to be converted, I feel
   myself to be the most unfit and unworthy instrument to be used by God
   in the whole world. If He shall be pleased to smile upon the endeavors
   of such an evangelist, or such a pastor, or such a zealous Christian, I
   shall be very grateful and not at all surprised. But if He should ever
   bless me it will be a most astonishing thing! I shall scarcely be able
   to believe my own eyes."

   Such a lowly sense of our own unfitness is common even at the beginning
   of real Christian labor and arises from the unexpected and novel
   difficulties with which we are surrounded. We are then unused to
   Christian labor, and whether we have to speak in public or to plead
   with individual sinners we do not feel at home with the work at first,
   and are oppressed with a sense of weakness. We have not gone this way
   before, and being quite new at the work, Satan whispers, "You are a
   poor creature to pretend to serve God. Go back to your retirement, and
   leave this service to better men."

   Dear Friends who are thus tempted, take comfort from the Word of God
   this morning! It is necessary to any great blessing that you should
   feel your weakness, and see death written upon all carnal strength.
   This is a part of your preparation for great usefulness! You must be
   made to feel early in the work, if you are to have an early blessing,
   that all the glory must be of God. Your fancied excellence must fade
   away and you, yourself, must become in your own esteem as feeble as a
   little child.

   I think, however, that a sense of weakness grows on the Christian
   worker. To continue in harness year after year is not without its wear
   and tear. Our spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak, and
   faintness in pursuing reveals to us that

   our own strength is perfect weakness. Personally, I feel my own
   spiritual inability much more strongly than I did when I began to
   preach the Gospel. There was a novelty and an excitement, then, about
   the exercise which gave a degree of spurious facility in it. But now it
   comes almost every day in the week twice each day. This constant
   utterance--the proclamation of the same Gospel--finds out the weak
   joints in our armor!

   One is not weary of it, thank God, but still there is a languor which
   creeps over us and the old novelty and flash which apparently helped us
   is now gone. And we feel much more vividly than at first that without
   the energy of the Holy Spirit we can do nothing, absolutely nothing.
   You experienced Sunday school teachers, and you parents seeking the
   conversion of your children are, I doubt not, much more conscious now
   that all your strength must come from above than you once were. You
   held as a sort of orthodox creed that you were nothing, but now you
   feel that you are less than nothing!

   The more earnest your labors for the Lord, the more clear will be your
   sense of your own nothingness. There are times when a lack of success
   or a withering of our cherished hopes will help to make us feel most
   keenly how barren and unfruitful we are until the Lord endows us with
   His Spirit. Those whom we thought to be converted turn out to be merely
   the subjects of transient excitement. Those who stood long, and for
   years appeared to honor the Cross of Christ, turn aside and pierce us
   through with many sorrows, and then we cry out, "Woe is me! How shall I
   speak any more in the name of the Lord?"

   Like Moses, we would have the Lord send by whomever He would send, but
   not by us. Or like Elijah we hide ourselves for fear, and say "Let me
   die, I am no better than my fathers." I suppose there is no successful
   worker who is quite free from times of deep depression, times when his
   fears make him say, "Surely I took up this work myself through
   presumption. I ran without being called. I have willfully thrust myself
   into a position where I am subject to great danger and great toil,
   without having the strength which is required for the place." At such
   moments it only needs another push from Satan, a little withdrawing of
   God's hand to make us, like Jonah, go down to Joppa and see if we can
   find a ship to take us away to Tarshish that we may no longer bear the
   burden of the Lord.

   My Brother, my Sister, I am not sorry if you are passing through this
   fiery ordeal. If your strength is dried up like a potsherd. If your
   strength is shriveled like a skin-bottle that has been hanging up in
   the smoke. If you feel as though your personal power was altogether
   paralyzed, I do not regret it! For know you not that it is in your
   weakness God will show His own strength, and when there is an end of
   you there will be a beginning of Him? When you are brought to feel,
   "Neither have I any strength, nor know I what to do," then will you
   lift up your eyes to the Strong One, from whom comes all your true
   help--and then will His mighty arm be made bare.

   In laying down the general principle drawn from the text we observed
   that there existed a double difficulty, and that even this did not
   abate Abraham's confidence. It may be that a sense of our own
   unworthiness is not our only discouragement, but that our sphere of
   Christian effort is remarkably unpromising. You did not know, my dear
   Friend, when you commenced your evangelistic efforts, how hard the
   human heart was. You were like young Melanchthon--you thought you could
   easily conquer the human heart. But you now discover that old Adam is
   too strong for young Mel-anchthon!

   You had heard of other Brethren who preached or taught without success,
   and you said to yourselves, "There must be something very wrong in them
   or in their doctrines. I will not fall into their errors. I, at least,
   will be wise and discreet. My methods shall be more Christ-like, more
   suitable, more effective. I shall surely win souls." But now you find
   that hearts with you are as hard as hearts with other men. In that
   little Sunday school class of yours the boys are still obstinate, the
   girls still frivolous. You had not reckoned upon this. You accepted it
   as matter of doctrine that they were depraved, but you supposed that
   under your treatment that depravity would soon disappear.

   You are disappointed, for the children seem even worse than others. The
   more you try to influence their hearts the less you succeed. And the
   more earnest your endeavors to bring them to Jesus the more, it seems,
   the sin that dwells in them is provoked. It is possible that you are
   called to labor where the prejudices of the people are against the
   Gospel, where the temptations and habits and ways of thought are all
   dead against the chance of success. We constantly meet with Brethren
   who say, "I could prosper anywhere else, but I cannot succeed where I
   now am." Perhaps they complain, "It is a population of working men,"
   and this they look upon as a dreadful evil, whereas I believe that no
   class will better reward the labors of the earnest preacher of the
   Gospel.

   Or else they say, "They are all rich people, and I cannot get at them,"
   whereas where there is a will there is a way. Or the neighborhood is
   subject to the influence of some established Church, or all taken up
   with other congregations. There is sure to be found difficulty, and
   Christian work never does succeed to any great extent until the worker
   perceives the difficulties and rates them at their proper rate. The
   fact is, to save a soul is the work of Deity! To turn the human will
   towards holiness is the work of Omnipotence! And unless you and I have
   made up our minds to that, we had better go back to retirement and
   meditation, for we are not ready for labor!

   You tell me your particular sphere is one in which you can do nothing.
   I am glad to hear it! Such is mine! Such is the true position of every
   Christian worker--he is called by God to do impossibilities--he is but
   a worm, and yet he is to thresh the mountains and beat them small. Will
   he do it? Yes, that he will, if his faith is equal to the work. If God
   but enables him to call in Divine strength, the absence of human
   strength will be gain to him! And the difficulties and impossibilities
   will only be as a platform upon which God shall be uplifted and God's
   strength the better displayed.

   Settle it in your heart, my dear Friend, that there is great labor to
   be accomplished if souls are to be won! And in that class, or that
   tract distributing, that hamlet, that preaching station, there is a
   work quite out of your reach. And if you do not enlist the power of a
   heavenly arm, you will come back and say, "I have labored in vain and
   spent my strength for nothing." It is well for you to know it. Here are
   you without power, and the work cannot help you, will not help you. It
   will bring every obstacle to impede you. You without strength and the
   work more than human! See your position and be prepared for it.

   Yet the godly worker has that which sustains him, for he has a promise
   from God! Abraham had received a promise. "In you and in your seed
   shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Grasping this with
   unrelaxing hold, he knew the difficulties and weighed them. But having
   done so, he put them away as not worth considering. God had said it,
   and that was enough for him! To him the promise of God was as good as
   the fulfillment! Just as in trade you often consider some men's bills
   to be as good as cash, so in this case God's promise was as good to
   Abraham as the fulfillment itself.

   Now, Brother, if you and I are to be successful in our work for God,
   we, too, must get hold of a promise. I think I hear you say, "If I
   heard a heavenly voice saying to me, 'Go and labor, and I will give you
   success,' I should doubt no more. If I could have a special revelation,
   just as Abraham had to him, personally, that would alter the case. But
   I have not received such a special promise, and am therefore full of
   fear." Now, observe--God gives His promises in many ways! Sometimes He
   gives them to individuals, at other times to classes of character--and
   which is the better of the two? I think you should prefer the second.

   Suppose God had given to you, personally, a promise, your unbelief
   would say, "Ah, it is all fancy. It was not the Lord, it was only a
   dream." But now God has been pleased to give the Revelation, in your
   case, to character. Shall I quote it? Here it is: "He that goes forth
   and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
   rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Now is not that yourself?
   Your name is not there, but your character is, for you have gone forth,
   you have wept, and you have carried forth precious seed. The Lord
   declares that such an one shall doubtless come again rejoicing!

   Now, although your name is not in the Book absolutely, it is there
   virtually, and the promise is just as sure to you. If any man of honor
   were to issue a promise that all persons appearing at his door at such
   an hour should receive relief, if he did not give relief to all who
   appeared, he would be quite as guilty of breach of promise as though he
   had picked out all the persons by name and given them the promise. The
   promise is not affected by the absence of the name if the character is
   there described.

   I will give you another promise: "My Word shall not return unto Me
   void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in
   the thing where I sent it." Have you delivered God's Word, my dear
   Friend? There is the question! If you have, then God declares it shall
   not return unto Him void! It shall prosper in the thing where He sent
   it. And that promise is quite as good as though your particular
   initials had been affixed to it, or it had been spoken to you by the
   voice of an angel in the visions of the night! A promise, however
   given, is equally binding upon a man of honor. And a promise from God,
   no matter how delivered, is sure of fulfillment!

   All you have to do is to lay hold upon it! I have gone forth weeping,
   and I have sown precious seed, therefore God says I shall come again
   rejoicing, bringing my sheaves with me! I cannot create the sheaves,
   and the sheaves as yet do not appear in the field, but I shall have
   them, for what God has promised He is able also to perform. The thing
   is to get a

   promise distinctly and clearly before your mind's eye and then to defy
   all discouragements! Oh my Brethren, may you be so weak that you may be
   as dead, and yet at the same time may you be strong in the Lord and in
   the power of His might because your faith has made the Omnipotence of
   God to be at your command!

   Abraham, having his full conviction that God would fulfill His own
   promise, was happy about it. He was cheerful, rejoicing, comforted,
   feeling as content to wait as he would have been to receive the
   blessing at once. He was always full of sacred joy and thus always
   glorified God. Those who saw the holy Patriarch's serenity of mind
   naturally enquired who was his God, and when they heard of the Most
   High they glorified the God of Abraham. In due season the promise came,
   and the patriarchal tent was glad with a gladness which never left it.
   Abraham spoke well of his God, and his God dealt well with him. I want
   you, Christian workers, to seek as before God to tread in the steps of
   Abraham. While fully aware that you are powerless in yourselves, rest
   upon the promise of God--go to your work counting no risks, making no
   calculations--but believing that where God's promise is concerned, the
   bare suspicion of failure is not to be endured.

   Perhaps next to Abraham there was not, in the olden times, a man of
   more childlike faith than Samson. One weeps over his many infirmities,
   but one admires the marvelous simplicity of his dependence upon God.
   When a thousand foes are in array against him he never calculates. He
   is all alone, unarmed and bound with cords. He snaps his bonds, and
   seizing the jawbone of an ass, he flies at the hosts of the armed men
   as if he had a thousand helpers--and they but an equal match for
   him--and heaps upon heaps he dashes them down till he cries, "With the
   jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I
   slain a thousand men."

   He was a man who, if God had said, "Shoulder the world like Atlas,"
   would have carried it as readily as he did the gates of Gaza. He had no
   thought but of God's power, and he was reckless of danger when he felt
   that God was with him. See him in that memorable death deed! See him
   taking hold of the pillars after he had been left of God, blind, and
   shut up in prison all those dreary months! He has even now enough
   confidence in God to believe that He will help him at the last! Depend
   upon it, Brethren, it is great faith that can believe in God after
   times of desertion.

   But look! He puts his hands upon those ponderous pillars! He prays, and
   then he tugs and strains! Down, down they come, and Israel's God is
   avenged upon Israel's foe! That is the kind of spirit I should like to
   get into my own soul--a spirit conscious that it can do nothing alone.
   Conscious that the work is beyond human possibility, but equally clear
   that it can do everything! That through God there is nothing beyond the
   range of its capacity.

   II. Dear Friends, members of this Church, I want your earnest attention
   while I try to show the bearing of this upon

   THIS CHURCH AND EVERY CHURCH IN A SIMILAR CONDITION. We have set our
   hearts upon a thorough revival of religion in our midst. Some of my
   Brethren associated with me in the Deaconship and Eldership have made
   this a matter of constant prayer to God--that we may see, this year,
   greater things than we have ever seen! And there are many in the
   membership of the same mind who have besieged the Throne of God with
   constant applications.

   It will be, as a preparation for the work which God will work among us,
   a very blessed thing for us as a Church to feel how utterly powerless
   we are in this matter. God has blessed us these thirteen years! We have
   enjoyed continued prosperity. We have scarcely known what to do with
   the blessing God has given us! Truly in our case He has fulfilled the
   promise, "I will pour out My blessing upon you so that you shall not
   have room to receive it." But I fear that our temptation is to lean
   upon an arm offlesh--to suppose there is some power in the ministry, or
   in our organization, or in the zeal which has characterized us.

   Brethren, let us divest ourselves of all that pride--that detestable,
   abominable, soul-weakening vice--which is as evil and as hurtful to us
   as it is abominable to God! We can no more save a soul than make a
   world, and as to causing a genuine revival by our own efforts, we might
   as well talk of whirling the stars from their sphere! Poor helpless
   worms we are in this matter. If God helps us we can pray, but without
   His aid our prayer will be mockery! If God helps us we can preach, but
   apart from Him our preaching is but a weary tale told without power or
   energy. You must, each of you, ask the Lord to take you down into the
   depths of your own nothingness and reveal to you your utter
   unworthiness to be used in His work! Try to get a deeply humiliating
   sense of your own weakness.

   As a Church we want to be kept low before the Lord. Why, what are we as
   a Church? There are some sad sinners among us who are such clever
   hypocrites that we cannot find them out! And there are others who walk
   so ill that we fear they are tares among the wheat. The best of us are
   far from being as good as we should be! We have all grave accusations
   to bring against ourselves. If the Lord Jesus were to write on the
   ground here and say, "He that is without fault among

   you, let him throw the first stone at lukewarm Christians," I do not
   know who is the oldest and whether he would try to go out first, but I
   should follow very closely at his heels! We are all verily guilty
   before the Lord! We have not done as we ought, nor as we might--we are
   unworthy that He should use us! And if He should write, "Ichabod," in
   letters of fire over this Tabernacle, and leave this House to be
   desolate as Shiloh was of old, He might well do it and none could blame
   Him. Let us all confess this.

   Next, there is not only difficulty in ourselves but difficulty in the
   work. We want to see all these people converted to God, and truly some
   of our hearers are hopeless enough, for I have been preaching to them
   for ten or twelve years and they are not a whit the better but the
   worse for it--they have grown Gospel-hardened! My voice used to startle
   you once, and the honest Truth of God made you feel--but it is not so
   now. You are as used to my voice as the miller to the click of his
   mill. You are made ready for the uttermost wrath of God--for there is
   no place that can prepare a man for Hell so readily as the place of
   rejected invitations and neglected admonitions.

   Yet, dear Hearers, we desire to see you converted, and by the Grace of
   God we hope to see it! But what can we do? The preacher can do nothing,
   for he has done his best to bring you to Christ and has failed. And all
   that any of our most earnest friends can suggest will fail, also. The
   work is impossible with us, but do we therefore give up the attempt?
   No, for is it not written, "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you
   My face in vain"? We cannot seek God's face in vain, and if this Church
   continues to pray as it has done, an answer of peace must be given us!
   We do not know how the promise is to be fulfilled, but we believe it
   will be fulfilled, and we leave it with our God.

   There is another promise, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and
   be satisfied." Christ must see of His soul's travail. He must see of it
   in this place, too! We expect to see men converted in this place, and
   to hear multitudes of sinners crying, "What must I do to be saved?" We
   have God's promise for it! We cannot do it, but He can. What shall we
   do? Why, just in joyous confidence continue steadfast, unmovable,
   always abounding in the work of the Lord! Go again to our knees in
   prayer feeling that the result is not haphazard! Jesus pleads His
   wounds and cannot be denied. The Lord cannot draw back from His Word.
   He must do according to His people's desires when He Himself writes
   those desires upon their hearts!

   And when they have grown into earnest striving, and wrestling, and
   mounted into believing expectations they must be fulfilled! If we can
   only get a dozen men and women among you really humbled before God to
   feel your own emptiness, and yet to believe the promise, I expect to
   see within the next few months a blessing of such an extent as we have
   never received before. God send this, and His be the glory!

   III. For a minute--if there had been time, I should have liked to apply
   this principle TO EVERY PLEADING SOUL that is wrestling with God in
   prayer, but as I have not the time I will dismiss it in these words.
   Dear Friends, if your heart has been set upon any special object in
   prayer. If you have an express promise for it (and mark, that is
   indispensable), you must not be staggered if the object of your desire
   seems farther off now than when you first began to pray. If even after
   months of supplication the thing should seem more difficult now of
   attainment than ever it was, wait at the Mercy Seat in the full
   persuasion that although God may take His time, and that time may not
   be your time, yet He must and will redeem His promise when the fullness
   of time has come.

   If you have prayed for the salvation of your child, or husband, or
   friend, and that person has grown worse instead of better, do not cease
   praying! If that dear little one has become more obstinate and that
   husband even more profane, still God must be held to His Word! And if
   you have the faith to challenge His attributes of faithfulness and
   power, assuredly He never did and never will let your prayers fall
   fruitless to the ground! And I repeat the word that you may be sure to
   carry that away with you--let not the fact that the answer seems
   farther off than ever be any discouragement to you. Remember that to
   trust God in the light is nothing--but to trust Him in the dark--that
   is faith!

   To rest upon God when everything witnesses with God is nothing, but to
   believe God when everything gives Him the lie--that is faith! To
   believe that all shall go well when outward Providences blow softly is
   any fool's play, but to believe that it must and shall be well when
   storms and tempests are round about you, and you are blown farther and
   farther from the harbor of your desire--this is a work of Divine Grace!
   By this shall you know whether you are a child of God or not--by seeing
   whether you can exercise faith in the power ofprayer when all things
   forbid you to hope.

   IV. I desire to spend the last five minutes in addressing THE SEEKER'S
   UNSTAGGERING FAITH. Surely among this throng there must be some of you
   who long to be saved! If so, it is likely that since you have begun to
   seek salvation,

   instead of being more happy, you are far more miserable. You imagined
   at one time that you could believe in Jesus whenever you liked--that
   you could become a Christian at your own will at any moment! And now
   you wake up to find that the will is present with you, but how to
   perform that which you desire, you find not!

   You desire to break the chains of sin, but those sins were far easier
   to bind than to loose. You want to come to Jesus with a broken heart,
   but your heart refuses to break. You long to trust Jesus, but your
   unbelief is so mighty that you cannot see His Cross--you cannot look
   with the look which makes a sinner live! Will you think me cruel if I
   say I am glad to find you in this poverty-stricken state? I believe
   that in your case you must know your own powerlessness, you must be
   brought to feel that as far as salvation is concerned you are dead,
   utterly dead.

   Every sinner must learn that he is by nature dead in trespasses and
   sins, and that the work of salvation is a work impossible to him--it is
   high above--out of his reach. I want you to know that more and more,
   and if it should drive you to a thorough self-despair, none will be
   more thankful than I shall be, for despair is the nearest way to faith
   in our philosophy. Self-despair throws a man upon his God. He feels
   that he can do nothing and he turns to One who can do all things. Now,
   Friend, if you are as I have said, convinced of your nothingness, the
   next thing is, can you find a promise?

   There is one I pray the Lord to give you this morning: "Whoever calls
   upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Have you called upon the
   name of the Lord? That is to say, have you cried to Him, "God be
   merciful to me a sinner"? Well, if you have not, I pray you do it now.
   If you so call you must be saved. True, you cannot save yourself! I am
   glad you know that. But what you cannot do, in that you are weak
   through the flesh, God will do, for there is His promise, "Whoever
   comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

   Now, will you come? If so, you cannot be cast out! "Whoever believes on
   Him is not condemned." Do you believe on the Lord Jesus? Do you take
   Him now to be your Savior? If you do, your personal lack of power shall
   be no hindrance. You have no power whatever, but there is none needed
   in you! When Christ raised the dead he did not rake among the ashes to
   find a lingering spark of vitality, but He said, "Live!" And if you are
   as dead as Lazarus of whom Martha said, "Lord, by this time he stinks,"
   the voice of mercy can yet make you live! Can you believe this? If you
   can believe in Jesus you shall be saved!

   If you can believe that Jehovah Jesus, the Son of God, can save you,
   and if you can rest upon His merits--though in you there is no grain of
   merit, though in you there is no vestige of power or spiritual
   strength--this shall not stand in your way! And though your sins are as
   damnable as those of Satan, and your iniquity of heart as deep as Hell
   itself, yet if you can trust in Jesus to save you, difficulty vanishes
   before the merit of His blood! I know you say, "If I felt happy I could
   trust Christ. If I felt tender, if I felt holy." No, Friend, you would
   not be trusting Christ, you would be trusting your feelings, and your
   tenderness would be your confidence!

   But now you have no feeling of tenderness or holiness that can
   recommend you to God. Come, then, as you are-- wretched, undone,
   self-condemned, and self-abhorred--come and cast yourself upon the
   mercy of God as He reveals Himself in the bleeding Body of His dear
   Son! And if you can do this you will glorify God. "Oh," you say, "how
   could such a poor soul as I am ever bring glory to God?" Sinner, I say
   it is in your power, if God enables you, to bring more glory to God in
   a certain sense than the living saint can, for the living saint only
   believes that God can keep him alive, but for you, under a pressing
   sense of guilt still to believe that Jesus can give you perfect liberty
   and save you--oh, this glorifies Him!

   There is not an angel before the Throne of God who can believe such
   great things of God as you can! An angel has no sin. He cannot,
   therefore, believe that Jesus can put away his sin, but you can. "If
   you believe in Jesus, though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as
   wool. Though they are red like crimson they shall be whiter than snow."
   If you do God the honor to believe that He can do what He has said--if
   you rest in Jesus--you shall have the comfort, He shall have the glory,
   and your soul shall have the salvation! Emptied of self you have no
   life, no strength, no goodness! In fact you have nothing to recommend
   you, but come as you are and the Lord will bless you and give you the
   desire of your heart, and unto Him be the glory! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                The Dawn of Revival, or Prayer Speedily Answered

   A sermon

   (No. 734)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, FEBRUARY 10, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and
   I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved."- Daniel9:23.

   PRAYER is useful in a thousand ways. It is spiritually what the old
   physicians sought after naturally--namely, a catholicon--a remedy of
   universal application. There is no ease of need, distress, or dilemma,
   in which prayer will not be found to be a very present help. In the
   case before us Daniel had been studying the book of Jeremiah, and had
   learned that God would accomplish seventy weeks in the desolation of
   Jerusalem, but he felt that there was still more to be learned, and he
   set his face to learn it.

   His was a noble and acute mind, and with all its energies he sought to
   pry into the prophetic meaning. But he did not rely upon his own
   judgment--he betook himself at once to prayer. Prayer is that great key
   which opens mysteries. To whom should we go for an explanation if we
   cannot understand a writing, but to the author of the book? Daniel
   appealed at once to the Great Author, in whose hand Jeremiah had been
   the pen. In lonely retirement the Prophet knelt upon his knees and
   cried unto God that He would open up to him the mystery of the
   prophecy, that he might know the full meaning of the seventy weeks and
   what God intended to do at the end of them, and how He would have His
   people behave themselves to obtain deliverance from their captivity.

   Daniel made his suit unto the Lord to unloose the seals and open the
   volume of the book, and he was heard and favored with the knowledge
   which he might have sought for in vain by any other means. Luther used
   to say that some of his best understandings of Holy Scripture were not
   so much the result of meditation as of prayer--and all students of the
   Word will tell you that when the hammers of learning and Biblical
   criticism have failed to break open a flinty text, oftentimes prayer
   has done it, and nuggets of gold have been found concealed therein. To
   every student of the Word of God who would become a well-instructed
   scribe we would say, "With all the means which you employ. With all
   your searching of commentaries. With all your digging into the original
   languages. With all your research among learned Divines, mingle much
   fervent prayer."

   As the Lord said to Israel, "With all your offerings you shall offer
   salt," so does wisdom say to us, "With all your searching and with all
   your studying, offer much prayer." Rest assured that the old maxim, "To
   have prayed well is to have studied well," is worthy to be written not
   only upon the walls of our studies but upon the tablets of our hearts.
   If you will place the Book of Inspiration before your attentive eyes
   and ask the Lord to open up its meaning to you, the exercise of prayer
   itself shall be blessed by God to put your soul into the best state in
   which to get at the hidden meaning which lies concealed from the eyes
   of the worldly wise--but which is clearly manifested to meek and lowly
   souls--when they reverently seek the guidance of their heavenly Father.

   The particular point in the text to which I would direct your
   attention, this morning, is that Daniel's prayer was answered at
   once--while he was yet speaking! Yes, and at the beginning of his
   supplication. It is not always so. Prayer sometimes tarries like a
   petitioner at the gate until the king comes forth to fill her bosom
   with the blessings which she seeks. The Lord, when He has given great
   faith, has been known to try it by long delays. He has suffered His
   servants' voices to echo in their ears as from a bronze sky. They have
   knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it
   were rusted upon its hinges.

   Like Jeremiah they have cried, "You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
   that our prayer should not pass through." Thus have true saints
   continued in patient waiting for months, and there have been instances
   in which their prayers have even waited years without reply! Not
   because they were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but
   because so it pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according
   to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to bid our patience

   exercise itself, shall He not do as He wills with His own? Beggars must
   not be choosers either as to time, place, or form. Brethren must not
   take delays in prayer for denial--God's long-dated bills will be
   punctually honored--we must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in
   the God of Truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers.

   We are dealing with a Being whose years are without end--to whom one
   day is as a thousand years--far be it from us to count Him slack by
   measuring His doings by the standard of our little hour! Unanswered
   petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers. They are
   not blown away by the wind--they are treasured in the King's archives.
   There is a registry in the court of Heaven where every prayer is
   recorded. O tried Believer, your sighs and your tears are not
   fruitless! God has a tear bottle in which the costly drops of sacred
   grief are put away and a book in which your holy groans are numbered!
   And by-and-by your suit shall prevail.

   Can you not be content to wait a little? Will not your Lord's time be
   better than your time? By-and-by He will comfortably appear, to your
   soul's joy, and make you put away your sackcloth and ashes of long
   waiting, and put on the scarlet and fine linen of full fruition!
   However, in the case of Daniel, the man greatly beloved, there was no
   waiting at all. In Daniel's case the promise was true, "Before they
   call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." The
   angel Gabriel was made to fly very swiftly, as though even the flight
   of an angel was hardly swift enough for God's mercy. Oh how fast the
   mercy of God travels, and how long His anger lingers!

   "Fly," He said, "bright spirit. Try your utmost power of wing! Descend
   to my waiting servant and fulfill his desire." Brethren, my heart's
   desires and earnest longings are that at the commencement of our
   supplication we may have an answer from the Throne of God! This is the
   commencement of our prayers only in a certain sense, for prayer has
   never ceased here--for the last few months the public meeting for
   prayer every morning and every night has been sustained by earnest
   Brothers and Sisters--but we are now at the commencement of a month of
   more special prayer and I pant for an early visitation of Divine Grace.

   It will be a very blessed encouragement to us, a stimulus to more
   intense ardor, an argument for greater confidence in God if we should
   be favored, with Daniel, to receive gracious answers to our
   supplications at their very commencement! In speaking of such a mercy,
   two points press for consideration. First, reasons for justly expecting
   so early a blessing. And secondly, forms in which we earnestly desire
   and hopefully expect it.

   I. First, have we any REASONS TO EXPECT THAT AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF OUR
   SUPPLICATION THE COMMANDMENT OF MERCY WILL COME FORTH? Rest assured
   that we have, if we are found in the same posture as Daniel, for God
   acts towards His servants by a fixed rule. Let self-examination be now
   in vigilant exercise while we compare ourselves with the successful
   Prophet.

   God will hear His people at the commencement of their prayers if the
   condition of the supplicant is fitted for it. The nature of such
   fitness we may gather from the state of Daniel's mind and the mode of
   his procedure. Upon this, our first noteworthy observation is that
   Daniel was determined to obtain the blessing which he was seeking. Note
   carefully the expression which he has used in the third verse--"I set
   my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication." That
   setting of the face is expressive of resolute purpose, firm
   determination, undivided attention and fixed resolute perseverance. "I
   set my face towards the Lord."

   We never do anything in this world until we set our faces thoroughly to
   it. The warriors who win battles are those who are resolved to conquer
   or die. The heroes who emancipate nations are those who count no
   hazards and reckon no odds, but are resolved that the yoke shall be
   broken from the neck of their country. The merchants who prosper in
   this world are those who do their business with all their hearts and
   watch for wealth with eagerness. The half-hearted man is nowhere in the
   race of life--he is usually contemptible in the sight of others--and a
   misery to himself. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well!
   And if it is not worth doing thoroughly, wise men leave it alone.

   Especially is this a truth in the spiritual life. Wonders are not done
   for God and for the Truth of God by men asleep upon their back, or out
   of their beds but still asleep! Souls are not saved by men who scarcely
   know or care whether they are saved themselves! Errors are not dashed
   from their pedestals by those who are careless concerning truth and
   count it of little value. Reformations have not been worked in this
   world by men of lukewarm spirit and temporizing policy. One fiery
   Luther is of more value than twenty like the half-hearted Erasmus who
   knew infinitely more than he felt, and perhaps felt more than he dared
   to express.

   A man, if he would do anything for God, for the Truth, for the Cross of
   Christ, must set his face and with the whole force of his will resolve
   to serve his God. The soldier of Christ must set his face like a flint
   against all opposition, and at the same moment set his face towards the
   Lord with the attentive eyes of the handmaiden looking towards her
   mistress. If called to suffer for the Truth of God, we must set our
   face towards this conflict as Jesus set His face towards Jerusalem. He
   who would conquer in this glorious war, and overcome the Lord at the
   Mercy Seat must be resolved! Resolved with his whole soul--resolved
   after matured thought--resolved for reasons which are too weighty for
   him to escape-- resolved that from the Throne of Grace he will not
   depart without the blessing.

   Never, never shall a man be unsuccessful in prayer who sets his face to
   win the promised mercy. Granted that you are seeking what you ought to
   seek for, that you are seeking it through Christ and by faith in Him,
   the one qualification to success that we recommend to you, Brothers and
   Sisters, is the setting of your faces towards the attaining of it. If
   there are but a dozen men in this, my Church, who have set their faces
   for a revival, we shall surely have it! Of this my heart knows no
   doubt. If there are but half-a-dozen, like Gideon's men that
   lapped--if, I say, there are but six who are unwavering, and will not
   be baulked by difficulties, or turned back by disappointments--as sure
   as God is God, He will hear the prayers of such!

   No, if it came down to but two or three, the promise is to two of us
   who are agreed as touching one thing concerning the kingdom. Yes,
   more--if two could not be found, if there were but one faithful saint
   left, provided that he were endowed with the spirit and ardor of
   Daniel--he would yet prevail as Daniel did of old! We must not fail in
   the setting of our face towards the Lord. I humbly but devoutly ask
   God, the Holy Spirit, to give you, my beloved in the Lord Jesus, both
   men and women, members of this Church, a solemn resolution that in the
   work in which we are engaged for God you will not be satisfied unless
   the largest answers are granted.

   This was the first proof that God might safely give Daniel the blessing
   at once, for the Prophet's heart was fixed in immutable resolve, and
   there was no turning him from the point. Now, if a beggar is resolved
   to have his request, you may as well give in at once--it is wasting
   both his time and yours to put him off with delays--we think it best to
   give it to him at once, and so does our heavenly Father with us.

   Next, Daniel felt deeply the misery of the people for whom he pleaded.
   Read that expression, "under the whole Heaven has not been done as has
   been done upon Jerusalem." The condition of that city--lying in ruins,
   her inhabitants captives, her choicest sons banished to the ends of the
   earth--afflicted him very sorely. He had not a light superficial
   acquaintance with the sorrows of his people, but his inmost heart was
   embittered with the wormwood and the gall of their cup. Brethren, if
   God intends to give us souls He will prepare us for the honor by
   causing us to feel the deep ruin of our fellow creatures, and the
   fearful doom which that ruin will involve unless they shall escape from
   it.

   I would have you school yourselves till you obtain a horror of the
   sinner's sin--surely not so strange a task if you remember your own
   former estate and present tendencies! How fiery was that oven through
   which your spirit passed when the hand of God was heavy upon you both
   by day and night? I want you, my Brothers and Sisters in the Lord
   Jesus, to get a clear view of the wrath of God which threatens your own
   children, your own friends, your fellow seat-holders, your neighbors,
   your kinsfolk--unless they are saved.

   If you could get into your heart as well as into your creed the sincere
   belief that, "the wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the nations
   that forget God." If you could remember that even those who hear the
   Gospel have no way of escape if they remain impenitent, and that if
   they reject Christ there remains nothing for them but "a fearful
   looking for ofjudgment and of fiery indignation." If your soul could be
   made to melt for heaviness because of the woes of lost spirits, and
   because so many of your fellow men will, within a little while, be
   lost--lost as these others are, past all recall, beyond all hope, or
   all dream of alleviation--surely you would become awfully earnest about
   souls!

   We would hear praying of a mighty sort if Believers sympathized with
   men in their ruin! Then groans and tears would not be so scarce! Then
   the soul, pouring out itself in groans which cannot be uttered, would
   be but an ordinary thing! Then shall we prevail with God through the
   precious blood of Jesus when we feel intensely the sinner's need! If
   there are some here who really feel the terrors of the world to come
   and are bound under those terrors, and moved to wait and wrestle at the
   Mercy Seat till souls are rescued from their sins, there is no fear but
   what at the very commencement of our supplication the commandment to
   bless us will go forth!

   In the next place, Daniel was ready to receive the blessing because he
   felt deeply his own unworthiness of it. I do not know that even the
   51st Psalm is more penitential than the chapter which contains our
   text. I bade you remark, while we were reading it, how the Prophet
   confesses the people's sin and styles it by three, four, five or more
   descriptive epithets, all expressive of his deep sense of its
   blackness. Read the chapter and note how he humbly acknowledges sins of
   commission, sins of omission, and especially sins against the warnings
   of God's Word and the entreaties of God's servants.

   The Prophet is very explicit. He lays bare his heart before the Lord.
   He tears off every film from the corruption of the people. He exposes
   the wound to the inspection of the Great Surgeon and asks Him to send
   it health and cure. I believe that the Lord is about to bless that man,
   personally, to whom He has given a deep sense of sin. And certainly
   that Church which is willing to make confession of its own sinfulness
   and unworthiness is on the eve of a visitation of love.

   Let us go, then, to our God--I pray that the Holy Spirit may enable us
   to go to Him--each man and woman making confession for himself apart.
   Individual confession is needed! I have sins which, perhaps, you might
   not discover in you. Sins, which it were not possible for you to commit
   because you are not placed in my station. You, too, have in your
   families, in your business, in your private and public lives, sins with
   which I am not acquainted. Each man has a point of sin where he is
   separated from his fellows. And each man must therefore make his own
   confession, apart, with the fullest honesty, with the deepest
   humiliation. And each one must add to his acknowledgements the humble
   prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my
   thoughts!"

   My dear fellow Members, are you conscious, each one, of your own
   personal iniquity towards the Lord your God? Then let not this day pass
   till a full confession has been made! And should there remain, dear
   Brethren, in us as a Church any transgression unconfessed, I hope the
   Lord may lead us to confess it. If we have been proud of our numbers.
   If we have been exalted by success. If there should be any bickering
   among us. If any Christian here has any ill feeling towards another,
   let not this day go down till all such evil is removed! I am very
   conscious that, in the midst of so large a Church, much sin may remain
   undetected. O for great searching of heart!

   Beloved, you will certainly spoil our hopes and cause us to miss the
   blessing unless every evil thing is put away. Let this be a day for
   purging out the old leaven that we may keep the feast not with the
   leaven of malice, but in holiness as becomes the disciples of Jesus.
   The idols must be utterly abolished! And till we put them all away we
   cannot expect to receive a blessing from the Lord our God. "O come, let
   us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." Let
   us bless His name for His exceedingly great goodness to us as a Church
   and sing of all His loving kindness which He has shown to us these 13
   years!

   Let us confess our unworthiness, our coldness, and deadness, and
   lethargy, and wanderings of heart, and the backsliding of many among
   us! And then, having confessed our faults, we may expect that at the
   very commencement God will visit us! When the vessel is empty, Heaven's
   fountain will fill it. When the ground is dried and chapped and begins
   to open her mouth with thirst, down shall come the rain to make fat the
   soil. When we feel a sense of need, deep and crushing, then shall a
   blessing shine forth from the Presence of the Most High. "At the
   beginning of your supplication the commandment came forth."

   But again, dear Friends, we have not exhausted the points in Daniel
   which deserve our imitation. You will notice that Daniel had a clear
   conviction of God's power to help His people in their distress. His
   lively sense of Divine power was based upon what God had done in the
   olden time. One is interested to note in the history of the Jews, how
   in every dark and stormy hour their minds reverted to one particular
   point of their history! Just as the Greek, in the days when Greece was
   living Greece, would remember Thermopylae and Marathon and feel his
   eyes sparkle and every sinew grow strong at the thought of the heroic
   day when his fathers slew the Persians and broke the yoke of the great
   king!

   So with nobler emotions, because more heavenly, the Israelite always
   thought of the Red Sea and what the Lord did to Egypt when He divided
   the waters, and they stood upright as a heap that His people might pass
   through! Daniel, in the prayer says, "You have brought Your people
   forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten You
   renown, as at this day." He lays hold upon that deed of ancient prowess
   and pleads, in effect, after this fashion: "You can do the same, O God,
   and glorify Your name anew, and assure deliverance to Your people."

   My Brothers and Sisters in the bonds of the Lord Jesus, you and I may
   at this moment draw comfort from the fact that this God who divided the
   Red Sea is our God forever and ever! And is at this hour as mighty as
   when He overthrew the horse and his rider in the mighty waters. We
   worship the God who loves His chosen now even as He did of old. It is

   written, "But as for His people, He led them forth like sheep," and so
   He leads us. He led them through the wilderness and brought them to the
   promised rest. And even thus will He bring us to our eternal home.

   O God, You that went forth before Your people, go forth before us after
   the same fashion! Though doubts and fears roll before us like a sea,
   remove them, we beseech You! Though our iniquities clamor behind us,
   swallow them up in the Red Sea of Jesus' blood! Though we march through
   the wilderness, yet give us Heaven's manna and let the Rock distil with
   living streams! Though we deserve not to be visited by Your love, yet
   are we not Your people and the sheep of Your pasture? Are we not called
   by Your name? Have You not bought us with Your blood? Bring us into the
   promised land! Give us the heritage of Your people and bless us with
   the blessings of Your chosen! We too, if we are sensible of past
   mercies to the Church of God, and to ourselves personally, shall then
   be ready to receive present mercy.

   But once more, the most apparent point about Daniel's prayer is his
   peculiar earnestness. To multiply expressions such as, "O Lord! O Lord!
   O Lord!" may not always be right. There may be much sin in such
   repetitions, amounting to taking God's name in vain. But it is not so
   with Daniel. His repetitions are forced from the depths of his soul, "O
   Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hearken and do!" These are the
   fiery volcanic eruptions of a soul on fire, heaving terribly! It is
   just the man's soul needing vent. Jesus Himself, when He prayed most
   vehemently, prayed three times, using the same words.

   Variety of expression sometimes shows that the mind is not altogether
   absorbed in the object, but is still able to consider the mode of its
   utterance. But when the heart becomes entirely swallowed up in the
   desire, it cannot stay to polish and fashion its words--it seizes upon
   any expressions nearest to hand--and with these it continues its
   entreaties. So long as God understands it, the troubled mind has no
   anxiety about its modes of speech. Daniel here, with what the old
   Divines would have called multiplied ingeminations, groans himself
   upward till he gains the summit of his desires!

   To what shall I liken the pleadings of the man greatly beloved? It
   seems to me as though he thundered and lightened at the gate of Heaven!
   He stood there before God and said to Him, "O You Most High, You have
   brought me to this just as you did Jacob to the Jabbok. And with You
   all night I mean to stay and wrestle till the break of day. I cannot,
   will not let You go except You bless me." No prayer is at all likely to
   bring down an immediate answer if it is not a fervent prayer. "The
   effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." But if it is
   not fervent we cannot expect to find it effectual or prevalent. We must
   get rid of the icicles that hang about our lips. We must ask the Lord
   to thaw the ice caves of our soul and to make our hearts like a furnace
   of fire heated seven times hotter.

   If our hearts do not burn within us we may well question whether Jesus
   is with us. Those who are neither cold nor hot He has threatened to
   spew out of His mouth! How can we expect His favor if we fall into a
   condition so obnoxious to Him? Our God is a consuming fire and He will
   not have communion with us until our souls grow to be like consuming
   fires, too. Unless we are warm with love to God we cannot expect the
   love of God to manifest itself in us to its highest degree.

   Now I know some of you are cold enough. But I thank God we have a great
   many very warm-hearted earnest Christians in connection with this
   Church--Christians, I will here make bold to say, that I never expected
   to live to see--such true and lovely saints. I have seen Apostolic
   piety revived in this Church! I will say it before the Throne of God--I
   have seen as earnest and as true a piety as Paul or Peter ever
   witnessed! I have seen in some here present such godly zeal, such
   holiness, such devotion to the Master's business as Christ Himself
   would look upon with joy and satisfaction. But there are others who are
   members of the Church who never enter heartily into our projects of
   labor, nor yet unite with our solemn assemblies of prayer.

   What shall I say of them? If I were to speak sharply they would only
   say that I scolded them with severity, and that might not serve my
   turn, for I desire their best interests. Shall I not rather say to
   them, "My dear Brothers and Sisters, if you are, indeed, with us. If
   you have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the
   Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, we do beseech you, ask the Lord
   to make you more earnest than the most earnest of us have ever been!
   And ask Him to make you, if you have been laggards, to now take the
   front place! If you have been slow either in the generosity of your
   giving, or in the earnestness of your pleading, ask the Lord that you
   may, from this day on, double your pace and do more in the time that
   remains for you in this life than others might be expected to do who
   have not before now been so backward as you have been!

   Of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum--if the whole
   Church in this place shall be brought to set its face to be conscious
   of the deep need of sinners, to confess its own sin, to be mindful of
   God's mercy, and to be vehemently, passionately in earnest for a
   blessing, I cannot, for my own part, see the slightest reason why at
   the commencement of the supplication the commandment should not go
   forth!--

   "Let us pray! The Lord is willing,

   Ever waiting, prayer to hear!

   Ready, His kind words fulfilling,

   Loving hearts to help and cheer." Thus much upon that first reason. We
   may expect a speedy answer to prayer when the condition of the
   suppliant is as God would have it.

   Secondly, I believe we have every reason to expect a blessing when we
   consider the mercy itself. That which we, as a Church, are seeking is,
   if I understand your hearts and my own, just this--we want to see our
   own personal piety deepened and revived, and we want to see sinners
   saved. Well, is not that, in itself, so good a thing that we may expect
   the Giver of every good and perfect gift to give it to us? We need not
   ask the sun to shine--is it not its very office as a sun to do so? We
   ask God to give us this good thing--is it not according to the Nature
   of the Father of Lights to bestow on us such mercies? We seek that
   which is for the good of His Church--the Church which He has purchased
   with His own

   blood!

   A brother once remarked in prayer that none of us would let our spouse
   ask again and again for any good thing and refuse her--if it were in
   our power to give her anything under Heaven we would feel it our
   greatest delight to do so! And shall the bride, the Lamb's wife, find
   her Husband less kind than we poor evil mortals are to our wives? No.
   If Christ's Church pleads with her own Husband, she cannot be refused!
   Depend upon it, her royal Husband will give her according to His
   infinite fullness! What we ask is for God's Glory. We are not seeking a
   gift which may glorify us or may exalt some one of our fellow men. We
   crave not victory for the arms of a warrior. We ask not success for the
   researches of a philosopher. We seek nothing which can bring honor to
   human prowess or to human wisdom. We seek that which will put crowns
   upon the head of our gracious God, and we seek it with the one pure
   desire that He may be glorified!

   Above all, we ask that which is dear to the heart of Christ. He is the
   Friend of sinners--for sinners He lived, for sinners He died, for
   sinners He rose, for sinners He pleads, for sinners He reigns in
   Glory--and if we come to God and say to Him, "By the blood and wounds
   of Jesus, by the griefs of Gethsemane, and by the groans of Calvary,
   hear us!" how can it be that we shall be kept waiting? No, I gather
   that if such is the burden of the prayer, at the beginning we shall
   receive it.

   Thirdly, there is another thing which encourages me, namely, the nature
   of the relations which exist between God and us. Is not that a choice
   word, "O man greatly beloved"? "Yes," you will perhaps say, "it is easy
   to understand why God should send so swift an answer to Daniel, because
   he was a man greatly beloved." Ah, has your unbelief made you forget
   that you are greatly beloved, too? You, my dear Brothers and Sisters,
   as a Believer in Jesus Christ, will not be at all presumptuous if you
   apply to yourself the title of, "Man, greatly beloved." I will ask you
   a few questions which will prove your title. Must you not have been
   greatly beloved to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ,
   as of a lamb without blemish and without spot?

   When God spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for you, must you not
   have been greatly beloved? Let me ask you about your experience. You
   lived in sin, and rioted in it. Must you not have been greatly beloved
   for God to have had patience with you? You were called by Grace and led
   to a Savior, and made a child of God and an heir of Heaven. Why, that
   proves, does it not, a very great and super-abounding love? Since that
   time, whether your path has been rough with troubles, or smooth with
   goodness, I have no doubt it has been full of proofs that you are a man
   greatly beloved! If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger! If He
   has made you poor, you have been greatly beloved in your poverty.

   I know this, when I look back upon my own life, I must confess my
   unworthiness and acknowledge my sin most sincerely. And yet I dare to
   feel and to say that I am a man greatly beloved of my God! He has given
   me such distinguished mercies to enjoy when I have deserved not even
   the least of them, that I cannot help saying, "He crowns me with loving
   kindnesses and tender mercies." I make my boast in the tender mercy of
   my God all the more freely because I am sure that you, my Beloved, also
   are specially beloved of Heaven!

   The more unworthy you feel yourselves to be, why, the more evidence you
   have that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to
   save such a soul as yours! The more unworthiness the saint feels, the
   more proof of the great love of God in having chosen him and called him
   and made him an heir of bliss. Now, if there is such love between God
   and us, let us ask very boldly. Do not let us go to God as though we
   were strangers, or as though He were unwilling to give--we are greatly
   beloved!

   "If He spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all,
   how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things." Come boldly,
   Brother! Come boldly, Sister, for despite the whisperings of Satan and
   the doubts of your own heart, you are greatly beloved! And Jesus says,
   "Ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." Who will refuse to
   ask when such encouragements are suggested to our minds? But enough! I
   am afraid I shall weary you on this point, and I need a long time on
   the second. But time has gone. Therefore a few minutes must suffice. O
   swift-winged Time, I could gladly delay you when such a theme is on
   hand!

   II. If we are to gain the blessing at the commencement, IN WHAT FORM
   SHOULD WE PREFER TO HAVE IT? Could I have my heart's desire, I would
   crave a blessing for every one of you. I wish the blessing would come
   on me at the commencement, that I might preach with more power and pray
   with more fervor, and that my own spiritual life might be of a more
   healthy and vigorous character.

   I wish the blessing might come on you, my dear Brethren, deacons and
   elders, for in the management of such a Church as this you need much
   more Grace than falls to the lot of ordinary men. I pray that you may
   be made examples to this flock, true guides in this, our Israel. I wish
   that the Holy Spirit may fall on all of you workers for Christ who will
   be here this afternoon. The Lord bless you Sunday school teachers. May
   you weep in your classes today! Pray for your children before you begin
   to talk with them! May my dear friends who teach our great classes of
   men and women have a rich blessing this afternoon!

   May it be seen in Mrs. Bartlett's class and Mr. Ranks' class and the
   others, that the Lord is with you, indeed, and of a truth. It would be
   a great token for good if this very day we felt the first waves of a
   great revival. I wish the Lord's power would come upon some of His
   people who do nothing--that they may be dreadfully miserable this
   afternoon--that they may be so unhappy that they cannot keep at home
   but be compelled to start out and do good! You who are working, may God
   help you to work with heart and soul, not doing it officially as of
   routine, but doing it with your very life, as though your heart's blood
   warmed in the work, and your soul's breath were in every word you
   spoke.

   You who do so little, O may the Master constrain you to amend your
   ways! It would be a very blessed sign of Grace if every one of us felt
   this day, "Perhaps there is something more I could do for Christ. I
   shall do it at once. Perhaps there is something I might give to Christ,
   some department of Christian labor shall have a special donation from
   me. Perhaps I have a talent which I have never used, like an old sword
   hanging on the wall. This day of battle every weapon must be used, and
   I have not used mine. Now, before the Lord I lift my hand to Heaven,
   and I ask that if I have anything, even though it is the smallest
   talent, if I have not used it, may He help me to use it at once."

   This is such a dark world that we must not waste the tiniest piece of
   candle. The night is so dark that even a glowworm must not refuse to
   give its feeble ray. Each one of us must give personal service to
   Christ! Do you not know that all God's people are priests? Those lying
   priests, nowadays, put on their gaudy trappings like the priests of
   Baal, and come forward and say, "We are priests." Priests of Dagon,
   priests of Baal, priests of Hell, but not God's priests! God's priests
   are those who are alive from the dead by the power of the Holy
   Spirit--and every man and every woman here who loves Jesus is a priest
   to God!

   brethren, God would have you all act as priests, and not to say, "We
   have a minister, let him serve God for us." I will have nothing to do
   with your responsibilities! Serve God yourselves! It is as much as I
   can do to serve Him--only by His Grace am I upheld under my own load.
   In fact, my own responsibilities are so heavy that I cannot bear them!
   But as for being a proxy for any one of you, I cannot be anything of
   the kind! Personally you were bought with blood! Personally you hope to
   enter Heaven! Personally, then, consecrate yourselves this day unto the
   Lord, and if you do so, oh, what a blessing it will be! May God send a
   new and quickened life into His people at the commencement of our
   supplication!

   1 was turning over in my mind how early and sweet a blessing it would
   be if the Lord would give us today, this morning, this evening, this
   afternoon, some conversions! Who shall we especially plead for? What
   kind of conversions do we desire? What if the Lord would call by Grace
   some of the children of the Church members? What a blessing that would

   be! Oh for salvation for our sons and daughters! Pray for them,
   parents! Pray for them! Pray now, and the Lord will hear you!

   Or suppose He were to give to some dear Brother here the soul of his
   wife for whom he has prayed so long? Or to some of you, my Sisters,
   your husbands who are still in the gall of bitterness? I would take it
   as a special favor if the Lord would give us our dearest friends. I
   look forward during this month with the hope that we may see some in
   our own households--our servants, our children--and our unconverted
   friends and acquaintances saved. But we are not selfish! We should
   think it a priceless blessing if some of you who have been seat-holders
   for years were to yield to Sovereign Grace!

   I am afraid for many of you because you have felt the power of the
   Gospel in a measure. But there is some darling sin you cannot give
   up--which sin will be your everlasting ruin! I remember M'Cheyne says,
   "Christ gives last knocks." That is a very sorrowful thought. He knocks
   at the door, but there is such a thing as a "last knock," and some of
   you will get your last knock before long. He will never knock again!
   You will never have another warning nor another invitation, but He will
   say, "Let him alone, let him alone." You, perhaps, will feel all the
   easier, but ah, if you do not wake here, you will wake up in Hell! And
   if before long God does not startle you into repentance, you will be
   startled into everlasting despair. O, may God give us your souls this
   day!

   It would be no small mercy if the Lord would give us many of the casual
   hearers who will be here tonight, or are now here this morning. I
   cannot understand why it is these aisles are always crowded, and why on
   Sunday night the doors have to be closed and thousands shut out! Why,
   men rush into this House as eagerly as if they came here to get gold
   and treasure! They seem so earnest and so eager, and push and tread,
   one upon another. Surely God must bless some of them! We never know who
   are here--men from the utmost ends of the earth--of all nations,
   kindreds, and tongues! Crowds who never heard the Gospel at all. I am
   so thankful to think of them, because when they do hear it, if they
   have never heard it before, they are, perhaps, more likely to be
   blessed by it than those who have grown hardened under the sound of it.

   O, for a mighty cry! A prevailing cry! A Heaven-shaking cry! A cry that
   would make the gates of Heaven open! A cry which God's arm could not
   resist! The cry of all the saints here, knit together in love, with
   holy vehemence, using the great plea of the atoning sacrifice and
   making this the burden of their cry, "O Lord, revive Your work in the
   midst of the years. In wrath remember mercy." Let the gracious
   visitation begin in this place! But if God so pleases, we shall be
   equally content if it begins anywhere else--let Him but throw the stone
   into the stagnant pool of His Church--and I can see the first circle
   going round these galleries and many of you saved! I can see the next
   circle enclosing the neighboring churches! I can see it spread over
   London--I can see the widening amphitheatre taking in the whole of this
   United Kingdom! I can see it cross the Atlantic--till all round the
   world God's kingdom spreads, and days of refreshing come from the
   Presence of the Lord!

   Now let us say in His sight, if He does not please to hear us at the
   commencement of the supplication, yet it is our desire to wait upon Him
   until He does. O You, our Beloved, if the day does not break nor the
   shadows flee away. If You will still remain hidden behind the mountains
   of separation, yet we wait for You as they that wait for the morning!
   And we watch and long as the watchman watches for the rising of the
   sun. But do not tarry, O our God! Make haste, our Beloved! "Be You like
   a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether," for Your name's
   sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                       Loving Advice for Anxious Seekers

   A Sermon

   (No. 735)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, February 17th, 1866, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
   liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."--James 1:5.

   IF YOU ARE acquainted with the context, you will at once perceive that
   this verse has a special reference to persons in trouble. Much-tempted
   and severely-tried saints are frequently at their wits' end, and though
   they may be persuaded that in the end good will come out of all their
   afflictions, yet for the present they may be so distracted as not to
   know what to do. How fitly spoken and how seasonable is this word of
   the apostle, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God;" and such
   wisdom shall the Lord afford his afflicted sons, that the trying of
   their faith shall produce patience, and they themselves shall count it
   all joy that they have fallen in divers trials.

   However, the promise is not to be limited to any one particular
   application, for the word, "If any of you," is so wide, so extensive,
   that whatever may be our necessity, whatever the dilemma which
   perplexes us, this text consoles us with the counsel, "If any man lack
   wisdom, let him ask of God."

   This text might be peculiarly comforting to some of you who are working
   for God. You cannot work long for your heavenly Lord without perceiving
   that you need a greater wisdom than you own. Why, even in directing an
   enquirer to the cross of Christ, simple work as that may seem to be, we
   shall often discover our own inability and folly. In rebuking the
   backslider, in comforting the desponding, in restoring the fallen, in
   guiding the ignorant, we shall need to be taught of God, or else we
   shall meet with more failures than successes. To every honest Christian
   worker this text speaks with all the soft melody of an angel's whisper.
   "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." Thy lips shall
   overflow with knowledge, and thy tongue shall drop with words of
   wisdom, if thou wilt but wait on God and hear him before thou speakest
   to thy fellow men. Thou shalt be made wise to win souls if thou wilt
   learn to sit at the Master's feet, that he may teach thee the art which
   he followed when on earth, and follows still.

   But the class of persons who just now win my heart's warmest sympathies
   are those who are seeking the Saviour; and, as the text says, "If any
   of you," I thought I should be quite right in giving seekers a share in
   it. They are seeking Christ, but they are in the dark: their soul
   desires Him, but it has little light, little guidance, and their cry
   is. "O that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to
   his seat!" I thought that this text might be as the balm of Gilead to
   some of these unwise ones, who have found out all of a sudden their own
   sin and folly. I thought it would say to them, "If you, poor si" Let us
   put ourselves, then, at once in order for this work of comforting
   seekers, and may God, the Holy Ghost, make it effectual.

   I. First, I shall call your attention to THE GREAT LACK OF MANY
   SEEKERS, NAMELY, WISDOM. This lack occurs from divers reasons.
   Sometimes it is their pride which makes them fools. Like Naaman, they
   would do some great thing if the prophet had bidden them, but they will
   not wash and be clean.

   The natural heart rebels against the simplicity of the way of
   salvation. "What! am I to do nothing but simply accept the
   righteousness already finished? Am I to leave off doing, and merely to
   look unto Him who was nailed to the tree, and find all my salvation in
   Him? "Well, then," saith the proud heart, "I cannot understand it." It
   cannot understand it because it doth not love it. Now, soul, if this be
   thy difficulty, and I believe, in nine cases out of ten, a proud heart
   is at the root of all difficulty about the sinner's coming to
   Christ--if this it is which turns you aside and makes you foolish, then
   go to God about it, and seek wisdom from Him. He will show you the
   folly of this pride of yours, and teach you that simply to trust in
   Jesus is at once the safest and most suitable way of salvation. He will
   make you see that if the way of salvation had been by doing, the method
   would not have suited you, for what could you do? If it had been by
   feeling, it would not have suited you either, for what can your hard
   heart feel? How can you make yourself tender of heart? But, seeing that
   it is by faith, it is therefore by grace. O that you may be made wise
   enough to stoop and kiss the silver sceptre which is outstretched to
   you, to come and buy this wine and milk, without money and without
   price, and accept with you whole heart, with intense joy, this perfect
   righteousness, this finished salvation which Christ hath wrought out
   and brought in for every seeking soul.

   Many persons also, are made foolish, so that they lack wisdom through
   their despair. Probably, nothing makes a man seem so much like a maniac
   as the loss of hope. When the mariner feels that the vessel is sinking,
   that the proud waves must soon overwhelm her, then he reels to and fro,
   and staggers like a drunken man, because he is at his wits' end. Ah!
   poor heart, when thou seest the blackness of sin, I do not wonder that
   thou art driven to despair; and when thy sins come howling behind thee,
   like so many ravenous wolves, all seeking to devour thee, I do not
   marvel that thou shouldst be ready even to lay violent hands upon
   thyself. It is no strange thing for men to be sorely tempted when they
   are under a sense of sin. And now thou knowest not what to do. If thou
   couldst be calm and quiet, we could tell you plainly the way of peace,
   and you might understand that there is no reason for despair, since
   Jesus died and rose again, and is "able to save to the uttermost them
   that come unto God by him;" but you cannot give us a calm hearing, for
   you are distracted, and you think that this comfort applies to
   everybody but you. You lack wisdom because you are in such a worry and
   turmoil. As John Bunyan used to say, you are much troubled up and down
   in your thoughts. I pray you, then, ask wisdom of God, and even out of
   the depths if you cry unto him, he will be pleased to instruct you and
   bring you out into a safe way.

   No doubt many other persons lack wisdom because they are not instructed
   in gospel doctrine. It is wonderful how Satan will plague many timid
   hearts with the doctrine of election. That doctrine, rightly
   understood, is full of comfort; but, distorted and misrepresented, it
   often appears to be a bolt to shut sinners out from mercy--the fact
   being that it shuts none out, but shuts tens of thousands in. Why, the
   very doctrine of the atonement is not understood by many, while they
   are under a sense of sin. If they could see that Christ took their sins
   and carried their sorrows; if they could perceive the meaning of the
   word, "substitution," light might break in. The window of the
   understanding is blocked up with ignorance, if we could but clean away
   the cobwebs and filth, then might the light of the knowledge of Christ
   come streaming in, and they might rejoice in his salvation. Well, dear
   friends, if you are be-mired and be-puzzled with difficult doctrine,
   the text comes to you and says, "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask
   of God."

   Ignorance also of Christian experience is another cause for the lack of
   wisdom. I have seen many enquirers who have told me what they have
   felt, and to them it was so amazing, that they half expected to see
   every individual hair of my head stand upright while they told me their
   feelings; and when I said, "Oh! yes, yes, I have felt just like that;
   that is the common way of most souls that come to Christ;" they have
   looked surprised beyond measure. The very road which is most safe, you
   think to be most dangerous; and that which leads to Christ, you fancy
   leads to hell. Little do you know the value of that stripping work
   which you so much dread. "Surely," say you, "I am being stripped that I
   may be cast away;" whereas the Lord only strips those whom he intends
   afterwards to clothe with the robe of his salvation. Those cuttings of
   the lancet are sharp, and you think that the surgeon means to kill, but
   he intends to cure. When God is making you feel the burden of your
   guilt , you suppose that now he has forgotten to be gracious, whereas
   it is now that he is gracious to you in very deed, and is using the
   best means of making you understand and value his grace. The way of
   life is a new road to you, poor seeking soul, and therefore you lack
   wisdom in it and make many mistakes about it. The text lovingly
   advises, "Ask of God;" "Ask of God." Very likely, in addition to all
   this, which may well enough make you lack wisdom, there are certain
   singularities in the action of providence towards you, which will fill
   you with dismay. Ever since you have begun to think about the Lord
   Jesus, things have gone cross with you in the outward world. You have
   not only trouble within, but, strange as you think it is, you have now
   trouble without: it partly arises from friends who say you are
   mad--would God they were bitten with the same madness!--partly from
   circumstances over which you can have no control. It is not at all
   unusual for God to make a complete shipwreck of that vessel in which
   his people sail, although he fulfills his promise, that not a hair of
   their heads shall perish. I should not wonder if he would cause two
   seas to meet around your barque, so that there should not be more than
   a few boards and broken pieces of the ship left to you, but oh! if you
   have faith in Christ, he will certainly bring you safe to shore. It is
   not at all an uncommon thing for the Lord to add to the inward
   scourgings of conscience the outward lashings of affliction. These
   double scourgings are meant for proud, stubborn hearts, that they may
   be humbly brought to Jesus' feet, for of us it may be said, in truth,
   as Solomon saith of the child, "Foolishness is bound in his heart; but
   the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." God is thus, dear
   hearer, bringing folly out of you by the smarts of his rod. It is
   written, "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil," and therefore
   the Lord is making your wounds to be black and blue, and I should not
   wonder if he will even let them putrefy, till you have to say with
   Isaiah, "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
   soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." Then
   it is that eternal mercy will take advantage of your dire extremity,
   and your deep distress shall bring you to Christ who never would have
   been brought by any other means. To close this somewhat painful
   picture. Many lack wisdom beause in addition to all their fears and
   their ignorance, they are fiercely attacked by Satan. John Bunyan tells
   us of Apollyon, that he said, "No king will willingly lose his
   subjects." Of course, he will not; and Apollyon, as he sees his
   subjects one after another desert him to enlist under the banner of
   King Jesus, howls at his loses, and he leaves no stone unturned to keep
   souls back from mercy. Just at that critical momen himself, "It is now
   or never. If I do not nip these buds, they will become flowers and
   fruits; but if I can bring in a withering frost, I shall kill the young
   plant." The great enemy makes a dead set at anxious souls. He it is who
   digs that Slough of Despond right in front of the wicket gate, and
   keeps the big dog to howl before the door, so that poor trembling Mercy
   may go into a fainting fit, and find herself too weak to knock at the
   door. "Now," saith he to all is servants, "shoot your arrows at that
   awakened soul; it is about to escape from me: empty your quivers, ye
   soldiers of the pit; launch your hot temptations, ye fiends of hell!
   Sting that soul with infidel insinuations and hideous blasphemies, for
   if I once lose it I have lost it forever; therefore, hold it, ye
   princes of the pit, hold it fast, if ye can." Now, in such a plight as
   that, with your foolish heart, and the wicked world, and the evil one,
   and your sins in dreadful alliance to destroy you, what could such a
   poor timid one as you do, if it were not for this precious word, "If
   any of you"--that must mean you--"If any of you lack wisdom, let him
   ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not"?

   II. We shall now mention the second point in the text. THE PROPER PLACE
   OF A SEEKERS RESORT--"Let him ask of God."

   My dear friends, bear me witness that it is my constant effort to teach
   you the spirituality of true religion, and the necessity of our own
   hearts having personal dealings with the living God. Now, though this
   you have heard thousands of times, I was about to say from me, yet,
   once again, I must remind you of it: the text says, "Let him ask of
   God." Now, you perceive, that the man is directed at once to God,
   without any intermediate object, or ceremony, or person. You are not
   told here to seek direction from good books; they may become very
   useful as auxiliary helps, but the best of human books, if followed
   slavishly, will mislead. For instance, I am sure that hundreds of
   persons have been kept in unnecessary bondage through that wonderful
   and admirable book, "Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the
   Soul." It has been the means of the conversion of hundreds; it has been
   profitable to thousands more; but there is a point in which it fails,
   so that, if you slavishly follow it, you may read the book through, and
   I undertake to say, you will not find comfort by following its
   exhortations. It fails, as all human guides must, if we trust in them
   and forget the Great Shepard of Israel. When a man is really under
   concern of soul, he is in a condition of considerable danger. Then it
   is that an artful false teacher may get hold of him, and cozen him into
   heresy and unscriptural doctrine. Hence the text does not say, "If any
   man lacks wisdom, let him ask his priest;" that is about the worst
   thing he can do; for he who sets himself up for a priest, is either a
   deceiver or deceived. "Let him ask of God," that is the advice of the
   Scripture. We are all so ready to go to books, to go to men, to go to
   ceremonies, to anything except God. Man will worship God with his eyes,
   and his arms, and his knees, and his mouth--with anything but his
   heart--and we are all of us anxious, more or less, until we are renewed
   by grace, to get off the heart-worship of God. Juan de Valdey says,
   that, "Just as an ignorant man takes a crucifix and says, This crucifix
   will help me to think of Christ,' so he bows before it and never does
   think of Christ at all, but stops short at the crucifix; so," says he,
   "the learned man takes his book and says, This book will teach me the
   mysteries of the kingdom,' but instead of giving his thoughts to the
   mysteries of godliness, he reads his book mechanically and stops at the
   book, instead of meditating and diving into the truth." It is the
   action of the mind that God accepts, not the motion of the body; it is
   the thought communing with him; it is the soul coming into contact with
   the soul of God; it is the spirit-worship which the Lord accepts.
   Consequently, the text does not say, "Let him ask books," nor "ask
   priests," but , "let him ask of God."

   Above all, do not let the seeker ask of himself and follow his own
   imaginings and feelings. All human guides are bad, but you yourself
   will be your own worst guide. "Let him ask of God." When a man can
   fairly and honestly say, "I have bowed the knee unto the Lord God of
   Israel, and asked him, for Jesus' sake, to guide me and to direct me by
   his Spirit, and then I turned to the Book of God, asking God to be my
   guide into the book," I cannot believe but what such a man will soon
   obtain saving wisdom.

   I beg to caution all of you against stopping short of really asking of
   God. I conjure you by the living God, do not be satisfied with asking
   of me. I am no priest, except as all believers are priests, thank God.
   I wear no title of ecclesiastical dominion. Be not content with asking
   my brethren, the deacons and elders: God has made many of them wise in
   helping souls out of difficulties; do not be satisfied with the advice
   of any man, however godly and holy, but go direct to the Lord God of
   heaven and earth, and say unto him, "Lord, teach thou me! Show me thy
   way, O God! Teach me in thy truth!" You are not bidden to go to any
   second-hand source of wisdom, but to God the only wise, who alone can
   direct you. "Let him ask of God."

   Such advice as this must be good. You cannot suspect us of any
   interested motive in exhorting you to this. It is your good which we
   seek, and not out own glory. It must be the best to go to
   head-quarters: you will surely be lead aright if so you seek direction.
   Some say, Lo, here! others say, Lo, there! But if you go to God, and
   then with his guidance study his word, you shall not fail of wisdom.
   How can you?

   Moreover, remember that there is one blessed person of the divine Unity
   who makes it his especial office to teach us! Hense, if you go to God
   for wisdom, you only go for that which it is his nature and his office
   to give. The Holy Ghost is given to this end: "He shall teach you all
   things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
   said unto you." When you go to God, you may say to him these words, "O
   Father, you have been pleased to reveal to us the Holy Spirit, who is
   to lighten our darkness, and to remove our ignorance. Oh, let that
   Spirit of thine dwell in me; I am willing to be taught by thy Spirit,
   through thy word, or through thy ministers, but I come first to thee
   because I know that thy word and thy ministers, apart from thyself,
   cannot teach me anything. O Lord, teach thou me." I do not mean by any
   word of mine to make you think little of Scripture--God forbid!--nor
   little of those who may speak to you with the Holy Ghost sent down from
   heaven, but I did mean to make you look even at that Book, and at God's
   ministers, as being subservient to the Holy Ghost himself. Go to him;
   ask him: for there in the Book is the letter that killeth; he, he alone
   can make you to know the living essence and the quickening power of
   that word. Without the Holy Ghost, my dear hearer, you must still be as
   blind with the light as you would have been without it. You will be as
   foolish after having been taught the gospel in the theory of it, as you
   were before you knew it. Let the Holy Spirit, however, teach you, and
   you shall know all things that are necessary for this life and
   godliness.

   Thus, then, we have brought two points before you: the great lack of
   the seeker is "wisdom;" and the right place to get that lack removed.

   III. Thirdly, THE RIGHT MODE IN WHICH TO GO TO GOD. "Let him ask." Oh!
   That simple word, "Let him ask"--"let him ask!" No form of asking is
   precribed, no words laid down, no method dictated, no hour set apart,
   no rubric printed; but there it stands in gracious simplicity, "let him
   ask." He

   who will not have mercy when it is to be had for the asking for,
   deserves to die without it. While I am thinking of this word, before I
   plunge into its fullest meaning, I may well say, if God will give
   wisdom to the seeker only because he asks for it, what shall I say of
   the folly which will not even ask to be made wise? May God forgive you
   such folly for the past, and deliver you from it for the future.

   The text says, "Let him ask," which is a method implying that ignorance
   is confessed. No man will ask wisdom till he knows that he is ignorant.
   Come, dear hearer, confess your ignorance into the ear of God, who is
   as present here as you are; say unto him, "Lord, I have discovered now
   that I am not so wise as I thought I was; I am foolish and vain. Lord,
   teach thou me." Make a full confession, and this shall be a good
   beginning for prayer.

   Asking has also in it the fact the God is believed in. We cannot ask of
   a person of whose existence we have any doubt, and we will not ask of a
   person of whose hearing us we have serious suspicions. Who would stand
   in the desert of Sahara and cry aloud, where there is no living ear to
   hear? Now, my dear hearer, thou believest that there is a God. Ask,
   then! Dost thou not believe that he is here, that he will hear thy cry,
   that he will be pleased in answer to thy cry to give thee what thou
   askest for? Now, if thou canst believe that there is a God, that he is
   here and that he will hear thee, then confess thy ignorance, and ask
   him now to give thee the promised wisdom for Jesus' sake.

   There is in this method of approaching God by asking, also, a clear
   sight that salvation is by grace. It does not say, "Let him buy of God,
   let him demand of God, let him earn from God." Oh! no--"let him ask of
   God." It is the beggar's word. The beggar asks an alms. You are to ask
   as the beggar asks of you in the street, and God will give to you far
   more liberally than ye to the poor. You must confess that you have no
   merit of your own. If you will not acknowledge that, neither will God
   hear your prayers; but come now with the acknowledgment of ignorance,
   with the confession of sin, and believing that God is the rewarder of
   them that diligently seek him, and he will even now give you the wisdom
   which saves the soul.

   Observe here, what an acknowledgment of dependence there is. The man
   sees that he cannot find wisdom anywhere else, but that it must come
   from God. He turns his eye to the only fountain, and leaves the broken
   cisterns. Do this, dear hearer. I feel as if the text did not want any
   explanation from me, but only wanted carrying out by you. Let him ask
   of God. I think I can hear fifty-thousand objections from different
   parts of the building. One is saying, "But I don't understand, ask of
   God." If thou has made some difficulties for thyself, if thou art such
   a fool as to be tying knots and wanting to get them untied before thou
   wilt believe in Jesus, then I have nothing to say to thee, except it
   were, beware lest thou dost tie a knot that shall destroy thy soul; but
   if thou be troubled with an honest objection, I say to thee now, in
   God's name, "Ask of God." You need not wait till you get home, you need
   not stay till you have left that seat, but now, silently, in your soul,
   as Hannah did when she went up to the tabernacle, breathe the prayer,
   "O God, teach thou me: lead me to the foot of the cross; help me to see
   Jesus; save my soul this day; end the doubtful strife; answer these
   questions; bring me, as an humble seeker, to lie before the footstool
   of thy sovereign mercy, and to receive pardon through the mediatorial
   sacrifice. "Let him ask--that is all--let him ask."

   IV. Fourthly, the text has in it ABUNDANT ENCOURAGEMENT for such a
   seeker.

   There are four encouagements here. "Let him ask of God, who giveth to
   all men." What a wide statement--Who "giveth to all men!" I will take
   it in its broadest extent. In natural things, God does give to all men
   life, health, food, raiment. Who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil
   and on the good;" who causeth the rain to descend upon the fields of
   the just and of the unjust. Every creature is favoured with divine
   benevolence; and there is not a creature, from the tiniest ephemera
   which creepeth upon the green leaf of the forest, up to the
   swift-winged angel who adoringly flies upon his Master's will, which is
   not made to partake of the gifts of the Great Father of Lights. Now, if
   God hath gifts for all men, how much more will he have gifts for that
   man who earnestly turns his tearful eye to heaven and cries, "My
   Father, give me wisdom, that I may be reconciled to thee through the
   death of thy Son"? Why, the grass, as Herbert says, never asked for the
   dew, and yet every blade has its own drop; and shall you daily cry for
   the dew of grace, and there be no drop of heaven's grace for you?
   Impossible. Fancy your own child saying, "My father, my father, I want
   to be obedient, I want to be holy;" and suppose that you have power to
   make your child so, could you find it in your heart to refuse? No; it
   would be a greater joy to you to give than it could be to the child to
   accept.

   But it has been said, the text ought not be understood in that broad
   sense. Very probably it ought not so to be. I conceive that there is
   implied the limitation that God giveth to all who seek. Though the
   limitation is not stated, yet I think it is intended, because of
   spiritual mercies God does not give to all men liberally. There are
   some men who live and die without the liberal favours of grace, because
   they wantonly and wickedly refuse them; but he gives to all true
   seekers liberally. We may take that view of it, and we may find you
   hundreds of witnesses to prove the truth of it, and can find them in
   this very place this morning. Here is one witness; I myself personally
   sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
   My dear brethern, and my sisters too, I know that you could spring up
   like a great army, if it were a fitting thing to asy you to do, and you
   could say, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.' The God of
   Jacob hath not despised nor abhorred the cries of his people.'" Now,
   soul, if God has heard so many who sought his face, why should he not
   hear you? Is it not a comfort to think that hundreds, thousands, and
   tens of thousands have gone to God, and there has never been a case in
   which he has refused one? Will he begin with you? Shall you be the
   first rejected seeker? Oh! then, what a strange destiny yours will be,
   to have to say to another world, "I am the first who sought grace, and
   found it not; I wept at the foot if the cross, and I found no mercy; I
   said, Lord, remember me,' but he would not remember me." You will never
   be able to say that. Hell will never make its boast over such a case;
   heaven will never have its honour tarnished by one such solitary
   instance. Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face evermore. Your
   hearts shall live that seek him.

   The next comfort is, he gives to all men liberally. God does not give
   as we do, a mere trifle to the beggar, but he bestows his wealth by
   handsful. Solomon asked for wisdom: God gave him wealth and power. In
   nearly every instance of prayer in the Old Testament, God gives ten
   times as much as is asked for. Jacob asked that he might have bread to
   eat, and raiment to put on: God made him to be two bands. The Lord will
   "do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." This is the
   divine habit. He not only redeems his promises, but when he might meet
   them in silver he prefers to pay them in gold. He is exceedingly
   bountiful. Dear hearers, we have found him so when we have tried him,
   and do you think that he will begin to be niggardly with you? If he
   should liberally forgive your sins, he will be none the poorer; if he
   withhold forgiveness, he will be none the richer. Why should he stint
   his favour? You want to wash away your sins: there is a river of grace
   to wash in. You want grace to refresh your souls: he has floods to pour
   upon the dry ground. We read of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Ho!
   ye leviathan sinners, here is an ocean of mercy for you to swim in. Ho!
   you elephantine sinners, here is an ark large enough to hold you and
   float you above the waters of the deluge! Ho! ye gigantic sinners,
   whose sins of pride reach up to heaven, and whose feet of lust are
   plunged in the mire of hell, the sacred hiding-place is large enough to
   hide even you. The Lord is great in mercy. Oh! who would not ask of so
   liberal a God, whose thoughts as the heavens are above the earth.

   It is added as a third comfort, "and upbraideth not." That is a sweet
   word. If you help a friend who is in debt, and wants to borrow money,
   you say, "Remember, I do not like it, you ought not to be in such a
   state." Your brother wants some aid; you have helped him many times,
   and will again, but still you upbraid him and tell him he is very
   imprudent; he ought not to get into these messes; he ought to manage
   his business better." If you do not tell him so with the mouth, you
   look at him, and he thinks to himself, "It's very kind of him to give
   me the help, but really it is very humiliating to me to have to ask him
   because I get so severe a lesson." I suppose we do right to upbraid. I
   have no doubt we do so with good motives. But God never does upbraid
   seeking souls. He giveth liberally, and does not dim the lustre of his
   grace by harsh rebukes. He does not say. "Ah! you sinner, how came you
   to commit such sin; I will forgive you, but ----------." The Father
   does not talk thus to the returning prodigal. One would have supposed
   that when the prodigal came back, the father would have said, "Well,
   dear boy, you are forgiven, but never let me see you do that again. How
   wrong of you to take that portion of my goods, and spend it in that
   way! I shall never be so well off as before; you have wasted half my
   living; and now think where you have been: what a dishonour you have
   cast upon your father's name and character through wasting your living
   with harlots. I forgive: I cannot forget." My brethren, it was not so.
   The prodigal remembered his sins, but his father forgot them all, and
   exclaimed with joy, "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was
   lost, and is found." O soul, if thou didst but know the heart of the
   Saviour, thou wouldst not tarry in sin. If thou couldst but know the
   overflowing love of the divine Father, thou wouldst not linger in
   unbelief."

   "His heart is made of tenderness,

   His bowels melt with love."

   Fool as thou art, be not such a fool as to be unwilling to ask for
   wisdom, but now breathe the prayer, "Teach me, O God, to trust thy dear
   Son this day."

   Then comes the last encouragement. "It shall be given him." Looking
   through my text last night, I asked the question--Is that last sentence
   wanted? "Let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and
   upbraideth not." Now, if the Lord gives to all men, he will certainly
   give to the seeker. Is that last promise wanted? And I came to this
   conclusion, that it would have not been there if it was not required.
   There are some sinners that cannot be contented to draw obvious
   inferences; they must have it in black and white. Such is the
   fearfulness of their nature, they must have the promise in so many
   express words. Here they have it, "it shall be given him." You are not
   left to suppose that it shall be, or infer that it may be, but it is
   written, "it shall be given him."

   But to whom shall it be given? If any of you lack wisdom. "Well," says
   one, "I am quite out of all catalogues; I am one by myself." Well, but
   you are surely contained in this "any of you." "Ah!" says one, "but I
   have a private fault, a sin, an offense which I would not dare to
   mention, which I believe has damned me for ever." Yet the text says,
   "If any of you." If I saw a door open, and it said "If any of you be
   hungry, let him come in here," I should not stop outside because I
   feared that I was not quite the person intended, I should say "It is
   their business who mean to keep me out, to be more specific in their
   invitation. They have put it 'any of you.' I am certainly one of the
   sons of men, and I will step in to the feast." Ah soul! if God had
   meant to shut thee out, he would have been more plain about it, but
   here is not a shutting-out word at all. It says, "If any of you lack
   wisdom"--well, that is you, surely--that lack of wisdom helps to
   include you within the boundary. It does not limit the character; it
   widens it to you, because you feel how foolish you are. The promise is,
   "it shall be given him." "Suppose I do not get it," you say. You must
   not suppose God to be a liar. How can you suppose such a blasphemy?
   "Let him ask of God, and it shall be given him." "But," says one,
   "suppose my sins should prove to be too great!" I cannot, will not
   suppose anything which can come in conflict with the positive word of
   God. "Let him ask of God, and it shall be given him." Do you think God
   does not mean what he says? O sinner, will you add to all your other
   sins this sin of thinking that God would lie? O man, he invites you to
   ask of him wisdom, and he says he will give it to you; doubt not the
   Lord, distrust not the veracity of Jehovah, but come at once humbly,
   trembling, to the foot of the Saviour's cross. View him lifted on high,
   as the great atoning sacrifice; look to his streaming wounds; behold
   his brow still covered with the crimson drops which flow from the
   wounds caused by his thorny crown. Look to him and live. There's life
   in a look at the Crucified One: look to him, and the promise is that
   you should be saved. I commend the text to the careful, thoughtful,
   believing acceptation of every sinner here. Ask that the sun may not go
   down until you each and all have received the promise which the test
   presents to you. May the Holy Spirit now give his own blessing, for
   Jesus' sake. Amen.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Matthew 5:1-12.
     __________________________________________________________________

                               A Happy Christian

   A sermon

   (No. 736)

   Delivered by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in
   drought, and make fat your bones; and you shall be like a watered
   garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."- Isaiah
   58:11

   IT is very important that our preaching should sometimes give
   descriptions of Christians in an unhealthy and sickly state. So many
   are in this condition that when we describe their symptoms they may
   discover themselves, and by Divine Grace be led to desire escape from
   it. The proper remedies being pointed out, and the Christian being
   earnestly exhorted to the use of them, I am quite sure that such
   ministry as describes the unhealthy state of the Christian's experience
   will be found useful. But I have sometimes thought--and I think you
   will, some of you, have noticed the same thing--that such preaching as
   continually dwells upon inward corruption and the innate baseness of
   the heart is very apt to lead men to think that it must always be so
   with them. The prevalence of unbelief, depression of spirit,
   backsliding and indifference to heavenly things becomes chronic, and
   they grow so familiar with reflecting upon it that they regard it as a
   state in which a Christian man may well be content.

   Now, when men come to think so, such ministry has done them a serious
   injury. When they flatter themselves that they outstrip their fellows
   in the humiliating experience of their own sinful passions. When they
   grow proud of those things which should cause them shame and begin to
   look down upon others who talk of holy joys and gracious liberties as
   mere recruits in the army of which they are the veterans, then I say
   that the ministry has been poison to them and the descriptions of
   carnal and devilish lusts they have listened to have fostered a
   wretched imagination! Instead of urging them to fight against sin, the
   sermons they have heard have only been rocking the cradle of their
   sloth, sewing pillows to their armholes, and saying to them, in some
   degree, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.

   It is not so popular a thing to do, but it is better in its influence
   to frequently hold up before the eye of the Christian the portrait of a
   Believer in a healthy state--to let all who belong to the Church
   understand that it is not necessary that we should be weak in faith, or
   that our hands should hang down, and our bones be feeble. There is a
   holier, happier, and more exalted state of triumphant faith, of sweet
   communion, and of hallowed earnestness! And such a state is attainable,
   no, it ought to be attained by all Christians! And when attained it
   ought to be their constant ambition never to backslide from it. Having
   once been placed upon the high mountain by a Divine hand, they should
   ever pray to be kept there, to the praise and glory of the Grace of
   God.

   We cherish a hope this evening, that by means of this text we may be
   able to give an humble portrait of what the Christian is in his
   happiest times! When the candle of the Lord shines round about him!
   When the visitations of the Holy Spirit refresh him, and when he
   rejoices in God with all his heart! Will you please observe in what
   connection this sunny sketch of prosperity occurs? It is set in a frame
   that excites the strong prejudice of some professing Christians. The
   setting is a framework of duties. You will perceive that the blessings
   are not promised to every Christian unconditionally, but it is fenced
   in with terms: "If you do this, and if you do that, then shall
   such-and-such blessings be yours."

   We are told that the heart is to be drawn from evil and that the soul
   is to be purged from the love of oppression, ostentation, and
   hypocrisy. There is to be a true and holy fast kept before the Lord,
   the soul being humbled and brought down to seek the Lord according to
   the spirit of righteousness, and not merely after the letter of the
   ordinances. Then, and not till then, shall the blessings here promised
   be enjoyed. Though salvation is of Divine Grace, the happiness of the
   Christian does depend upon his obedience.

   Our ultimate safety is of Sovereign Grace. No man shall exceed me in
   the plain declaration that in this respect works of any sort cannot
   touch our salvation! We are saved upon another footing than that of our
   personal graces. But it is quite as plainly the teaching of Holy
   Scripture that answers to prayer, the enjoyment of the Presence of God
   and a healthy state of spirit are very much dependent upon our cautious
   walking and our holy obedience to the Divine will.

   There is an "if here, and should any of us neglect and despise it, and
   fancy that we can still have our souls like "watered gardens," it will
   not be long before we shall find out our mistake!

   Suppose, however, dear Friends, that by Divine Grace we have been
   brought into communion with God. Suppose we have been clothed in the
   sackcloth of true penitence before Him, and girded with the garments of
   salvation. Suppose it has been our desire, as in God's sight, to walk
   as becomes the saints. Suppose, I say, we have been enabled by
   Grace--and it cannot be otherwise--to keep ourselves "unspotted from
   the world"--then that same Spirit who has sanctified us will, I am
   sure, fulfill to us the promises of the text.

   I must, therefore, address myself to those who are living in the faith
   and are walking conformably to their profession while I depict their
   happy state. Five distinct features of their felicity are mentioned.
   They are described as enjoying perpetual guidance, inward satisfaction,
   spiritual health, flourishing fruitfulness, and unfailing freshness of
   supply.

   I. These people who are thus full of God's Spirit are described as
   possessing CONTINUAL GUIDANCE. "The Lord shall guide you continually."
   There come to them, as to other men, dilemmas in Providence. Walking
   along the road of life you may suddenly reach a turn--two roads meet.
   Which is the way? Is it to the right hand or to the left? Possibly both
   may appear to be equally right. You ask friends or neighbors. They will
   readily enough mislead you with the best intentions. You consult your
   own heart, and if you follow its counsels you will discover yourself to
   be a fool! But, if your heart is true, and God's Grace is flourishing
   in your soul, you will not be long held in the dilemma.

   You will take the case before God. You will say as David did, "Bring
   here the ephod," and your Urim and your Thummim shall be with the Holy
   One and you shall hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way,
   walk you in it." It may be Providence will block up one of the two
   roads and point to the other. Or your judgment being further
   enlightened, you shall see that the one is right and the other wrong.
   Or, perhaps some stress shall be put upon your soul so that, though you
   hardly know why, you will feel that you must choose the right and leave
   the wrong. There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be
   delivered if you live near to God and your heart is kept warm with holy
   love. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God! Like Enoch,
   walk with God and you cannot mistake your road.

   The path of doctrine, also, is sometimes difficult. He who understands
   Divine Truth will, I am sure, be led to confess that he does not know
   everything. It is only the man who knows nothing about the Truth of God
   that thinks he can twist the doctrines around his finger and in a
   moment tell what is orthodox and what is heterodox. The true disciple
   of Jesus Christ often approaches a statement of the revealed Word with
   awe and reverence, desiring to ascertain what is the mind of God about
   it. A Truth often so nearly verges upon an error that the path is as
   narrow as a razor's edge, and only the Spirit of God can lead a man
   there.

   There is a path which the eagle's eye has not seen, the penetration of
   intellect cannot discover, the lion's whelp has not trodden--all the
   force of a man's mind has not been able to lead him into it--but if we
   wait upon God, He will show us the way! I believe that a spiritual mind
   is an orthodox mind. There is not much fear of our embracing any
   serious errors in the head when the heart is not in error, for there it
   is that heresies are born and bred--in that witch's caldron of our
   heart! Let the heart be constantly kept at the foot of the Cross, and
   let the Holy Spirit bedew it with His sacred influence, and though we
   may for a little time, through our lack of mental capacity, fail to
   understand the Truth, it will not be for long. The Holy Spirit will
   lead us into all Truth, and thus the text shall be fulfilled, "The Lord
   shall guide you continually," whether as relating to matters of
   Providence or to matters of doctrinal instruction.

   So shall it be likewise in matters of spiritual experience. Our
   experience often seems to be as though it had no rule. There is method
   in some men's madness, but it does appear as if there were no method in
   our experience. Today we are on the mountain, blessed of God with full
   assurance. Tomorrow we are in the glens beneath the dark shadow,
   wondering why, and asking if God has forgotten to be gracious. As when
   a child on a slate draws zigzag lines everywhere, but straight lines
   nowhere, so has it seemed with our life--as if we were farther back now
   than when we started! Our path has been like that of Israel in the
   wilderness, when the Lord led them about--but yet it is added that He
   guided them and instructed them.

   Brethren, if we are enabled by Divine Grace to seek close and vital
   union with Christ, and to live upon Him daily and continually, we may
   rest assured that whether our experience is gloomy or delightful,
   whether our inward conflicts or joys or sorrows, He will still be at
   the helm and will guide us continually. As I turned over this sentence
   I could not help feeling that it was like a wafer made of honey! It is
   all honey! "The Lord shall guide you." Not an angel, but JEHOVAH

   shall guide you! He said He would not go through the wilderness before
   His people--an angel should go before them to lead them in the way. But
   Moses said, "If Your Presence go not with us, carry us not up from
   here."

   Christian, God has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an
   angel's guidance! He Himself will lead the van! You may not see the
   cloudy, fiery pillar, but Jehovah shall never forsake you. Jehovah
   shall guide you continually. Notice the word shall--"The Lord shall
   guide you." How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God will not
   forsake us! His precious "shalls" and "wills" are better than men's
   oaths. "I will never leave nor forsake you." In one place He puts in
   five negatives, "I will not leave you; I will never, never, never,
   forsake you."--

   "The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

   I will not, I will not desert to his foes.

   That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake,

   I'll never, no never, no never forsake." Then observe that adverb
   "continually." We are not to be guided only sometimes, but we are to
   have a perpetual Monitor. Not occasionally to be left to our own
   understanding, and so to wander--but we are continually to hear the
   guiding voice of the Great Shepherd!

   And as we follow close at His heels we shall not err, but be led by a
   right way to a city to dwell in. You have been, perhaps, in a maze and
   you know how difficult it is to find your way to the center. But
   sometimes there is one perched aloft who sees the whole of the maze
   spread out before him like a map, and he calls out to you to turn
   either to the right or to the left. And if you attend to his directions
   you soon find the way. Even so the maze of life is only a maze to us,
   but God can see it all! He who rules over all looks down upon it as men
   look down upon a map. And if we will but look to Him, and if our
   communion is constantly kept up, we shall never err, but we shall come
   to the goal of our hopes right speedily by following His voice.

   Now, Brothers and Sisters, were this the whole of my sermon, and were I
   now to send you away, I think you would have heard enough if your faith
   can only grasp it. Never be afraid, my dear Friend, if you have to
   change your position in life! If you have to emigrate to distant
   shores. If it should happen that you are cast into poverty, or uplifted
   suddenly into a more responsible position than the one you now
   occupy--if you are thrown among strangers, or cast among foes, yet
   tremble not, for--"the Lord shall guide you continually." This is more
   than the statesman can say with all his craftiness! This is more than
   all the cunning men can say who use their wits to plunder their
   fellows! This is more than the wisest man can say who trusts in his own
   judgment! You have Infallible wisdom to direct you, Immutable love to
   comfort you, and eternal power to defend you. "Jehovah"--mark the
   word--"Jehovah shall guide you continually."

   II. The second blessing promised in the text is one which I trust we
   have enjoyed, and which some of us are enjoying even now--it is INWARD
   SATISFACTION. "And satisfy your soul in drought." It is a blessed thing
   to have the soul satisfied, for the soul is of great capacity. The
   whole world, someone has said, cannot fill a man's eye, because a man's
   eye can see so much. How much more, if it is the expression of his
   inward perception, is it true that the world cannot fill it? The soul
   is like the grave, it is never satisfied. It is like the horseleech
   which ever cries, "Give, give!" Lay your moneybags to your heart, and
   see if they will satisfy you! Your poor soul will say, "How can I be
   satisfied with this dull earth? What is there here to feed the soul
   with?"

   As well bring stones to a horse, as bring gold to a soul. There is
   nothing for a soul to feed upon in all the pomp of kings and pride of
   men--these are no food for the soul! As well feed eagles upon clods, as
   hope to feed immortal souls upon anything that is earth-born. The soul
   nerds more than all this! But the Christian has what his soul wants. He
   has, in the first place, a removal of all that which marred his peace,
   blighted his prospects, and made his soul empty and hungry. His sin is
   pardoned! He is reconciled to God! He is at peace with the Most High!
   The soul is never satisfied till it can place its head in the bosom of
   the Great Father of Spirits, and this the Christian can do.

   He is satisfied with God's dispensations. He believes that the present
   will work for his good and the future, too, even as the past has done.
   He is satisfied with God's love. It is a rich feast to him to know that
   God loves him. It is an infinite joy to the Christian to believe that
   he is one with Christ. That he is accepted in and through Jesus. That
   he is a member of His body and is united to Him--part of His flesh and
   of His bones. It is a satisfaction to the Christian to know that the
   Holy Spirit dwells in him, and that his body is a temple for the
   indwelling of Deity. He is satisfied with promises that can never be
   broken, with covenants that can never be violated, with oaths that
   stand fast like mountains, and with the Words of God which are great as
   the fathomless sea. He is satisfied with his God.

   The consequence of such a satisfaction as this is that the Christian is
   as well-satisfied at one time as at another if his soul is right. You
   see, the text says that he shall be satisfied in times of drought.
   Louth, I believe, translates the word, "severest droughts." The word
   seems to apply to places constantly subject to lack of moisture, as
   well as seasons exceptionally dry. Yet it is in the plural--the Hebrew
   plural being used to intensify as well as to multiply, so that it
   really reads thus: "In the worst times of distress the Christian is
   still satisfied."

   There are some houses in London which would tumble down if you were to
   remove those on either side that help to support them, but there are
   other houses which are self-contained. You might pull all the houses in
   the parish down if you liked, but it would not hurt them. Now, the most
   of men in this world are like houses in a row--they lean, one upon
   another. They are kept up by carnal comforts. But the Christian is
   self-sustained, and does not lean upon any arm of flesh. You ask, "What
   about his wealth?" He is rich in faith, and if all his property were
   gone he would still say, "I have not lost my God!"

   "But what about his family?" Well, he loves them, and if they were
   taken away he would weep as other men weep-- no, he would weep, but not
   as other men would weep--I may correct myself--for he would say, "The
   Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the
   Lord." He would still feel that he had not lost his Elder Brother. That
   he had not lost his heavenly Father. And that he was not an orphan in
   the world. "Well, but how about his health?" Well, he prizes that, but
   if pains of body distress him and he should be stretched upon a sick
   bed, he has a little secret which he cannot tell you, but which he
   knows himself, and which enables him to be more healthy when he is sick
   than he is when he is in health!

   And he can sing God's praises more sweetly, sometimes, in a cage of ill
   health than he did when he was in the open field of vigor! For many of
   God's birds sing best in cages, fly best when their wings are broken,
   get nearest to Heaven when they are rolled right down to the earth, and
   discern most of God, and see most of Him when they have lost the tokens
   of His love. You know we can see many things in the dark which we
   cannot see in the light. I question, indeed, whether we do not see even
   more in the dark than we do in the light--that is to say, we can see
   all those starry worlds, those unnumbered orbs floating in distant
   space--we can see them when the light is gone, but we cannot see them
   by day. So, when outward lights are taken away, the Christian often
   perceives more instead of less, through the inward light and the light
   of Heaven which God is pleased to give him.

   Is it not a blessed thing, dear Friends, to have a heavenly
   constitution, a satisfaction which does not depend upon outward
   circumstances? To be satisfied in times of plenty, why, any fool can do
   that! But to be satisfied in days of drought--this is the Christian's
   privilege, for he can say, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
   neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail,
   and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the
   fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in
   the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

   When the rancher walks out among his cattle, and sees them all in good
   health, and promising a good return--a fine investment for his
   labors--it is very easy for him to say, "Bless the Lord!" But when the
   cattle plague comes and empties all his stalls, and there are great
   heaps out in the field to show where the cattle are all buried, and
   there has been no compensation for them--how now, rancher? Can you now
   praise God and be satisfied in times of drought? And you, Friend, when
   you are in good full employment, and wages are high, and the house is
   well-furnished, and the cupboard is full--it is very easy, then, for
   you to kneel down at family prayer and thank God for His kindness.

   But how about when the husband is sick, when the funds have got very
   low, and when the little children look at their father wondering where
   the next meal will come from? To be satisfied even then that it is all
   right! Oh this is a grand thing! This is just the mark of difference
   between the Christian and the worldling. The worldling blesses God
   while He gives him plenty, but the Christian blesses Him when He smites
   him! The Christian believes God to be too wise to err and too good to
   be unkind! He trusts Him where he cannot trace Him. He looks up to Him
   in the darkest hour, and believes that all is well.

   O Christian, if your heart is right, you will understand this spiritual
   satisfaction, and your soul will be satisfied in times of drought!

   III. The next blessing is SPIRITUAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. "And make fat
   your bones." Note the figure. It is not "make fat your flesh." I am
   anything but sure that that would be a blessing in any sense. Certainly
   it is rather baneful than blessed, understanding it metaphorically, for
   when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked. Sometimes abundance in

   earthly things makes poverty in heavenly things. External richness and
   strength are often the signs of weakness in the inner man.

   But fatness here is to be upon the man's hardest and most necessary
   part of his frame. A man is really built up when his bones, the solid
   pillars of the house of his manhood, have been strengthened. Vigor has
   been put into his constitution where it was most required. His bones
   have been renovated and made strong. Oh, it is a grand thing when the
   soul is thus in spiritual health, when the bones are made fat! Do you
   know what it means, Christian? It is when you take a promise and it is
   applied with power, and you can feed on it! When you take a precept and
   feel the strength granted, by God's Grace, to go and fulfill it! When
   you turn to God's purposes and decrees and rejoice in them, seeing that
   you have a fair portion in them! Or turning to God's testimonies
   concerning your daily walk, you find just as much comfort in these as
   you did in those, and can bless God for ability given you to serve as
   well as for power to enjoy!

   I have lately read in the newspaper--I am sure I do not know whether to
   believe that it is true--an account of a youth in France, twenty years
   of age, who has been laying sleeping for a fortnight, nourished only
   upon a little gruel given with a spoon, and that he was in the same
   state a year ago for nearly a month. Whether this has actually occurred
   to anybody or not, I have known many cases of Christians who have hid
   like that spiritually, not for a fortnight only, but for a whole year!
   No, and not for a year only, but it is their general state. They come
   on Sunday and we have to feed them a little gruel with a spoon, and
   this lasts them till the next time there is a service.

   They live on nothing but thin liquid, and as might be expected, they
   have no strength. If you listen to them, you will hear them saying such
   words as these--

   " 'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought: Do I love
   the Lord or no, Am I His, or am I not?"

   They have no more health than that! Oh, that they could get strong! Oh,
   that God would make fat their bones, and then they would be able to
   sing Toplady's hymn--

   "My name from the palm of His hands,

   Eternity cannot erase.

   Impressed on His heart it remains,

   In marks of indelible Grace.

   Yes, I to the end shall endure,

   As sure as the earnest is given;

   More happy, but not more secure,

   Are the glorified spirits in Heaven." May we get out of a state of
   spiritual sickness, and may our bones grow fat so that we may be strong
   in the Lord and in the power of His might!

   The figure seems to me to indicate two or three things in one. There is
   health here--the soul is purged from its vices, sicknesses, and
   unbelief, pride, sloth, and such like. There is vigor here--no
   lukewarmness, being neither cold nor hot, no laxity nor indifference.
   There is growth--the man is not stunted--he does not think that he has
   come to perfection, and may therefore stop where he is. His bones grow
   fat. Inward satisfaction seems to be couched in the figure. The man is
   happy, perfectly happy! He is always rejoicing. He is not lean with
   fretting, but fattened with the oil of joy.

   Now, dear Christian Brothers and Sisters, I would earnestly ask you not
   to be content without the enjoyment of this blessing. The more one
   looks upon the world, the more one is convinced that Christian joy is,
   after all, Christian strength. Doubts and fears cut the very
   foundations of Christian power. Strong faith is that which wins the
   victory, while unbelief deprives us of all hope of conquest, and lays
   us groveling in the mire beneath the feet of our own very weakest foe.
   Oh, for more of this holy joy! I have told you how to get it. Fulfill
   the conditions we referred to in the former part of this discourse and
   then you shall have your bones made fat.

   IV. The fourth blessing is this, "AND YOU SHALL BE LIKE A WATERED
   GARDEN." This figure of a garden is a very sweet and attractive one. I
   need not tell you how much taste may be displayed and how much pleasure
   may be derived from the cultivation of such plots of ground. Our fancy
   is soon at work to invent a picture of flower beds, and fruit

   trees, shady walks, and pleasant fountains laid out close to some grand
   mansion and opening its fairest views to the best apartments of the
   palace.

   Such a garden needs constant care, and then, although it may be more
   beautiful at one season than another, it will never be like a wild
   heath, or totally bereft of charms. But alas, some professors of
   religion are not like this--there is little evidence of diligent
   cultivation in their character. Instead of flowers of some kind all the
   year round, it is hard to say that they ever show much bloom. Fruits
   you would never expect from them. But, dear Brethren, you know that it
   is a common thing for every Christian Church, whether it is a large
   mansion or a little villa, to have a garden surrounding it so that you
   may look out from the windows and see the various walks and the
   different plants that flourish there.

   I have seen some gardens attached to small houses where the owner has
   portioned off little plots to each member of his family. And thus I
   believe the home has been made more pleasant and happy. And oh, it is
   always a good thing when every member of the Church has a spot to
   engage his heart and hands, and when they can all look with so much
   more satisfaction upon the tender blossoms and the full-blown flowers
   because they have watched and tended and watered the plants with a
   ministry of love. This, though, is merely a hint by the way. It is not
   the exact meaning of the passage before us.

   Your own soul is to be under cultivation. The heavenly gardener shall
   rejoice in your bloom. An African traveler tells us that he has often
   seen the contrast between an unwatered garden and a watered garden, and
   has been much surprised at it. In the case of the watered garden there
   may be a spring just outside of it, and the master has diligently
   brought in the water every morning, or every evening. He has poured it
   into a trench, and made it run along, and so the plant receives the
   moisture, and bears fruit, forming a pleasant contrast to the arid
   desert outside.

   But there is another garden, with similar plants, apparently selected
   with the same care, but as it has not been watered. The traveler says
   that he has frequently observed the holes where the plant should be,
   without a vestige of the plant that has been perceptible. There was the
   trench where the water should have flowed. There were the paths in the
   garden. There was everything except this--there was no life, because
   there was no water. O Christians, you know what this means! When the
   Holy Spirit visits God's people, they are like a garden that is watered
   every day. They are green and flourishing, and their graces are an
   honor to the God who nourished them.

   But, if the Holy Spirit is taken away from them how different it is! If
   He were utterly withdrawn from us--which, thank God, He will not be--we
   should be just like the wilderness from which we were taken, and not a
   vestige of Divine Grace would remain. Christian, as all depends upon
   the watering of the Spirit, so make it a matter of soul-concern with
   you to be watered continually by God's Grace! Oh, do not trust to the
   stock you have, for it will fail you! Do not rely upon what your soul
   may find within itself as being its own wisdom and strength, or you
   will be deceived! Go to the Lord and pray that you may be as a watered
   garden--not as a garden only--but as a watered garden. So may each one
   of us do.

   V. Furthermore, there is the blessing of CONTINUED STRENGTH, CONTINUED
   FRESHNESS, AND CONTINUED SUPPLY. "As a spring of water whose waters
   fail not." There are many wells in the East which do fail, and many
   apparent springs which deceive the traveler. I observe that the margin
   has it, "whose waters deceive not, or lie not." When a caravan comes to
   a well, if there is no water in it the travelers are deceived. And if
   the farmer should come to a reservoir and find that the water is all
   gone, then the reservoir has lied unto him and deceived him.

   And how many a man who has appeared like a Christian has been but a
   mere deceiver? We looked into his conversation where there should have
   been a savor of godliness, but we found none. We hoped that in his
   actions he would be like the Master whom he professed to serve, but we
   saw none of that Master's likeness. We trusted that when he came into
   communion with the Church, he would add to its comfort and its
   usefulness, but he has merely added to its numbers, and has been an
   encumbrance upon its march. He has been a deceiver! His waters have
   lied to us.

   Not so God's true people--they shall not deceive. They shall have so
   much Divine Grace that when a Christian friend expects to find Grace in
   them, he shall not be disappointed. He shall be refreshed by their
   conversation. He shall be encouraged by their holy example. A spring of
   water is not dependent upon anything beyond itself. Deep down in the
   caverns of the earth great treasures of water have been prepared by God
   and the spring subsists upon its own secret source. And so does the
   Christian! God has provided in the covenant a depth of living water! It
   is one of the blessings pronounced upon Israel's sons.

   Christ Himself has declared that he who drinks of the water of life
   shall find it in him, "a well of water springing up into everlasting
   life." The reservoir must be filled at certain times, and then it gets
   dry, but the spring is filled from itself. So the Christian is not
   dependent upon the ordinances. He thrives upon them, but he is not
   dependent upon them. If, by Providence, he is denied the use of them,
   he has a spring within. No, he has a spring in the secret depths of the
   eternal love of God which wells up within him at all times, so that he
   becomes as "a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

   I do not know how some people who believe that a Christian can fall
   from Grace, manage to be happy. It must be a very commendable thing in
   them to be able to get through a day without despair. If I did not
   believe the doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints, I think I
   should be, of all men, the most miserable because I should lack any
   ground of comfort. Certainly I should not be able to understand this
   text. I could not say whatever state of heart I came into, I should be
   like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

   I should rather have to take the comparison of an intermittent spring
   that might stop on a sudden, or a reservoir which we had no reason to
   expect would always be full. If I speak to any Brother who has not
   received the doctrine of Final Perseverance, I ask him to look it once
   more in the face. Do you not think that when the Savior says, "But
   whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
   but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
   springing up into everlasting life," the interpretation of the figure
   necessitates the belief that Divine Grace is an enduring thing which
   cannot be destroyed?

   Does not the metaphor of the text, to understand it fully, seem to
   require you to believe that the Grace which God puts into men will
   continue there, will have in itself, through its Divine origin, a force
   and a vitality which will make it continue to spring up as the well
   does, without any outward pumping, or without any need of fresh supply
   from the depths of Deity? The Christian should be satisfied, and his
   piety should never come to an end! Come then, let us wrap our cloak
   about us with a word of joy and comfort, and go our way into the cold,
   bleak world rejoicing that if our hearts are right, we are resting upon
   the source of every precious thing!

   Let us go forth and rejoice that we have within us a life that can
   never die! That we have a something within us that can satisfy us in
   the worst of times! That God is with us, to be our Guide and our dear
   Companion! Being the favored sons of Heaven, and the heirs of
   immortality, let us eat our bread with joy! Let us cheer our poverty
   with hope! Let us make glad our times of trial with holy rejoicing! Let
   us rejoice in the Lord always, and shout for joy, and so may His
   blessed Spirit help us to live to His glory!

   I can only regret that such a text as this can have no bearing upon
   some of my Hearers. There are some of you to whom we shall have to read
   the text in the negative. "You shall not be guided by God, for you
   shall follow your own devices, and they shall lead you down to death
   and to the gates of Hell." O unconverted Sinner, tremble at this! You
   shall not be satisfied! There shall come a day of drought that shall
   dry up your body, though you flourished as a green herb. There shall
   come a time when your pleasures shall be of no use to you, when the
   hollow cheek and the blinding eye shall bring no comfort to you from
   without, but shall only work the end of all your joy.

   The text does not say that your bones shall be made fat--your flesh may
   be made fat--but only that you may be fattened for the slaughter! You
   may have outward good, but only that you may be more wretched when you
   have to go and leave it. There shall be no inward peace, no spiritual
   joy. There is no promise to you that you shall be a watered garden. You
   will not ask of God, and you shall not have. You do not knock, and the
   door shall not be opened. You do not seek, and you shall not find. You
   shut your ear against God and He will shut His ear against you. You
   refused the Cross of Christ, and therefore you shall lose the crown of
   Heaven and shall not know joy because you do not know heart-sorrow.

   You do not hate sin, you shall not, therefore, enjoy the bliss of
   righteousness. And you shall not be as a spring of water whose waters
   fail not. The little joy you have, all brackish as it is, shall be
   denied you at the last. You shall cry for a drop of water to cool your
   tongue, but you shall find none. Oh, terrible is your present state,
   but more terrible by far is the future which looms in the distance! Do
   you not hear the breaking of the waves of the unknown sea? You must go
   down into it! Do you not even now hear the booming of its awful billows
   upon the cliffs of time? What if it should be a sea of fire to you
   forever? What if every billow in that sea of flame should break over
   you, and you be cast into it, but not drowned, shipwrecked and
   lost--and not annihilated? What if you must be drifting forever across
   that fiery sea, with the word of Divine wrath driving you on, never to
   find a haven?

   Sinner, there is hope yet! This is not the realm of despair! Not yet
   has the great iron key grated in the lock to shut you forever in the
   dungeon! It is said of Christ that, "He opens and no man shuts." He can
   open Heaven to you! Trust Him with your whole heart, mourning for sin
   and hating it. Rest in His blood! Find a shelter beneath His Cross, and
   He will not, cannot cast you away, for "He is able to save them to the
   uttermost that come unto God by Him." May you so come, and then may
   your Christian life be filled with happiness, and overflowing with joy,
   so that you may sing in the words of David, with which I close--"Surely
   goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will
   dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
     __________________________________________________________________

                                God--All in All

   A sermon

   (No. 737)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, FEBRUARY 24, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hides
   His face, who then can behold Him? Whether it is done against a nation,
   or against a man only."- Job 34:29.

   WE commenced our special services with a sermon of encouragement, by
   which we were reminded of the rapid answer which Daniel received to his
   prayer, [Sermon #734--The Dawn of Revival, Or Prayer Speedily Answered]
   and were led to hope that the Lord intended, at the very commencement
   of our supplications, to send forth a commandment of mercy. Since then,
   God has done great things for us, of which we are glad. Few of you,
   probably, are aware of the numerous conversions which God has worked in
   this place during the past two weeks. We are not fond of publishing
   numbers, nor of making estimates, but it suffices you to know, and us
   to say, that the Lord has made bare His arm and led forth captive souls
   from the bondage of sin.

   Many fathers and mothers here have had to weep for joy because their
   children have declared themselves to be on the Lord's side. Satan's
   kingdom has been weakened, and the armies of the Lord have been
   increased. There has been joy among the angels this week, and joy in
   the heart of the great Father--for many lost ones have been found! Let
   us give unto the Lord the glory which is due unto His name. Let us
   rejoice and be glad in the Lord!

   And now, halting in the midst of our career, like an army with uplifted
   banners, resting on the wing like a lark when mounting towards Heaven,
   let us give a tongue to our gratitude, and sing aloud unto God our
   Strength. We cheerfully confess that neither our own arm nor our own
   strength can give us the victory! Unto Jehovah be all glory! Let us
   hear the voice which says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My
   Spirit, says the Lord," and let each Believer here prostrate himself in
   reverence before the Throne of the great King, and thank Him with heart
   and soul for all the mercy and goodness which He has made to pass
   before us! With one united heart let us ascribe unto the Lord honor and
   glory, and dominion and power.

   This grateful waiting upon the Lord will renew our strength in such a
   manner that though we run, we shall not be weary, and though we walk,
   and the walk is long and the road is rough, we shall not faint. Waiting
   upon the Lord does not give us a merely spasmodic energy with which we
   may begin and continue for a little season, and then grow cold-- but
   waiting upon the Lord gives a constant flow of vigor so that we go from
   strength to strength until in Zion we appear before God.

   This topic seemed to thrust itself upon me as most suitable for our
   consideration during our present special efforts. My intention is, as
   God shall help me, to magnify the name of the Lord our God by directing
   your devout attention to the fact that without the Lord there is
   nothing good, nothing strong, nothing effectual! But where He works
   nothing can stand against Him--no powers of evil can impede the
   workings of his royal hand. Our entire dependence upon God, who is our
   All in All--that is the thought of the morning--and that thought the
   text illustrates in two ways.

   We are made to see the all-sufficiency of God to us, and our dependence
   upon Him--first, in His effectual working, "When He gives quietness,
   who then can make trouble?" Secondly, in His Sovereign withdrawals,
   "When He hides His face, who then can behold Him?" And, thirdly, we are
   reminded that this is true not only upon the small scale of the
   individual, but upon the great scale of nations, "Whether it be done
   against a nation, or against a man only."

   I. First, then, the eye of Faith beholds the all-sufficiency of
   Jehovah, and our entire dependence upon Him, as she marks HIS EFFECTUAL
   WORKING. "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" This
   unanswerable question may be illustrated by the Lord's works in Nature.
   The world was once a tumultuous chaos--fire and wind and vapor strove
   with one another--contention and confusion ruled the day. Who was there
   that could bring that heaving,

   foaming, boiling, raging mass into quietude and order? Who could
   transform that sea of molten lava into rock solid as granite, fit to
   become the foundations of a habitable globe?

   Who could cool that boiling surface into an Eden where God might walk
   with man at the cool of the day? Who could calm that ocean of fire,
   lashed into terrific tempest by whirlwind and tornado, and make it into
   a terra firma, fixed and stable? The Holy Spirit brooded upon it, and
   by His mysterious energy before long He brought order out of confusion.
   And now this fair round world of ours, with all its matchless beauty of
   landscape and rolling flood, fixed and firm, has become a standing
   proof that when God gives quietness, none can disturb it!

   Only let the great Preserver of men relax the command of quiet, and
   there are fierce forces in the interior of the earth sufficient to
   bring it back to its primeval chaos in an hour. But while His fiat is
   for peace, we fear no crash of matter and no wreck of worlds. Seed time
   and harvest, summer and winter, cold and heat do not cease. The economy
   of man's era remains beneath the calm radiance of sun and moon
   unmolested by the fear of returning chaos or the rebellion of terrific
   elements.

   Passing on to the age of man we see the Lord in the day of His wrath
   pulling up the sluices of the great deep, and at the same moment
   bidding the clouds of Heaven discharge themselves so that the whole
   world became once again a colossal ruin. The proud waters went over the
   abodes of men and even the tops of the mountains were covered by the
   imperious billows! The Lord had but to will it, and the waters were
   eased from off the face of the earth and once again the dry land
   appeared while the world bloomed with joyous springs, blushed with
   fairest summers, and with glad ripening autumns, while over all, the
   Covenant bow was seen in the cloud--the token that the Lord had given
   quietness to the earth, and that none again should be able to disturb
   her.

   Have the proud waters prevailed since that day? Has the sea dared to
   leave its appointed channel? Do not the waves in their greatest fury
   pause when they reach the boundary appointed by the Most High? Tempest
   and storm obey the voice of the Lord who sits upon the flood, the Lord
   who sits King forever. Further down in history the Red Sea asks of us
   the same question, "When He gives quietness, who then can make
   trouble?" He led His people forth from Egypt's bondage, but Pharaoh
   said, "I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil." He
   had, however, reckoned without the Lord of Hosts and when the pillar
   came between the two armies, turning its black dark side to Pharaoh's
   horsemen, and its side of brightness and of comfort to Israel's ranks,
   then there might have been heard a voice, "When He gives quietness, who
   then can make trouble?"

   When down into the depths of the sea the ransomed flock descended, the
   floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the
   heart of the sea. The rattling chariot was heard and the horse hoof
   sounded on the pebbly bed of the frightened sea. Will not Pharaoh break
   the peace of the chosen flock, and drive them back to slavery? Hark to
   the cracking of whips and the shouts of the horsemen! How is it now
   with Israel? Wait, O Unbelief, and see the salvation of God! When the
   mighty waters cover all the hosts of Egypt there comes up from the
   depths where sleep the proud warriors with the waves as their winding
   sheets, "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?"

   Glancing far on in history, and passing by a thousand cases which are
   all to the point, we only mention one more, namely, that of Sennacherib
   and his host. The marbles which are preserved to us, and have been
   excavated from the heaps of Nineveh, are more than sufficient proofs of
   the power and of the ferocity of the Assyrian monarch. He came even to
   Lachish, destroying the nations with fire and sword! And then he sent
   his Lieutenant, Rabshakeh, to Jerusalem, to overthrow it. Rabshakeh
   scarcely thought that little city to be worth the toils of battle! He
   thought to conquer it with his blasphemous tongue, and leave the sword
   in its scabbard. He thought to swallow it as a dog swallows his
   meat--to devour it as an ox eats grass. How scornfully, he asked: "Who
   is Jehovah?" How he boasted of the easy overthrow of the gods of the
   heathen.

   "Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of
   Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are
   they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land
   out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"
   But the Lord had heard his blasphemies and answered the prayers of
   Hezekiah! And all the force of Assyria could not cast a single mound
   against Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow there, but in the stillness of
   the night God put a hook into the enemy's nose and thrust a bridle
   between his jaws, and sent him back with shame to the place from where
   he came. "When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?"--

   "There is a stream whose gentle flow

   Supplies the city of our God,

   Life, love, and joy, still gliding through,

   And watering our secure abode." "Look upon Zion, the city of our
   solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a
   tabernacle that shall not be taken down. Not one of the stakes there
   shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords there be broken.
   But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and
   streams, where shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship
   pass there. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the
   Lord is our King, He will save us. Your tacklings are loosed. They
   could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail:
   then is the prey of a great spoil divided: the lame take the prey."

   They that hoped to spoil Jerusalem are spoiled themselves, and the
   robbers who thought to destroy the peace of the Church of God have
   their own peace and their own lives taken from them. All history
   declares the Truth that when God determines to set a hedge around any
   people, it is not possible for any power, human or infernal, to break
   through that hedge. "I will be a wall of fire round about you, and a
   glory in your midst," is a blessed promise, which ensures quietness to
   those who dwell within its glorious protection.

   1. We shall reflect upon this Truth of God as it applies, first, to
   God's people. My Beloved, if your gracious Lord shall give you
   quietness of mind, who, then, can cause you trouble? Some of us know
   what it is to walk in the light of Jehovah's countenance. Let us now
   bear our experimental witness to this fact. You have had, my dearly
   Beloved in the Lord, stern tribulations. You have seen wave after wave
   rolling up and threatening to go over you. And all these billows have
   gone over your head. You have been deserted by friends--they have been
   unfaithful.

   You have lost kindred--you have wept over their tombs. You have lost
   property--your gold and silver have taken to themselves wings and fled
   away. You have been broken in health, and you have been broken in
   spirit, too. But, when the Lord has lifted up the light of His
   countenance upon you, were you not of the same mind as Habakkuk, that,
   "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
   vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
   meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
   herd in the stalls," yet still you could rejoice in God? Beloved, a
   glimpse of our heavenly Father's face even sweetens affliction--

   "The bitterest tears,

   If He smile but on them,

   Like dew in the sunshine,

   Grow diamond and gem."

   We have found it sweet to be afflicted when we have enjoyed the
   Presence of God in it. And we have counted it all joy when we have
   fallen into many temptations because, in our hour of extremity and
   peril, the Savior has been unspeakably the more precious! In the
   absence of all other joys, the joy of the Lord has filled the soul to
   the brim. You know very well, dear Friends, that if the Lord is
   withdrawn, no comforts can make up for His absence. But if all earthly
   comforts are taken, you will not utter so much as a single murmuring
   word. If the Lord will but fill the vacuum with Himself, you will say,
   "Lord, I thank You that there was more room for You--more room for Your
   fullness--when the creature failed

   me."

   Added to this, when the Lord gives quietness, slander cannot give us
   trouble. It has ever been the lot of God's people, the more they have
   served God the more falsely to be accused of men. And I doubt not, that
   when the dog is barking, he imagines that the good man who rides by is
   sorely troubled by the noise. And yet, if the Lord does but smile, it
   little matters though every tongue in the world should be set a-lying
   against us! And when every mouth should be black with curses, we may
   then say as David did--"They return at evening: they make a noise like
   a dog, and go round about the city," and then he adds, "Let them
   return, and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the
   city."

   So would the Christian give a license to those who slander him! If it
   were not for the sin of it on the part of his enemies, he could even
   rejoice to be evilly spoken of for Christ's sake, and count it all joy
   when he was shamefully treated for his Master's cause. The face of God
   sheds such a holy light into the soul that the clouds of slander cannot
   hide it. Yes, and at such times you may add to outward troubles and to
   the slanders of the wicked man, all the temptations of the devil. But
   if the Lord gives quietness, though there were as many devils to attack
   us as there are stones in the pavement of the streets of London, we
   would walk over all their heads in unabated confidence.

   Let Satanic temptations come. Let them fly about as thick as
   hailstones! If God but lifts up the shield, they shall be but as
   hailstones that rattle on the roof while the man is safe beneath.
   Perhaps you think Luther's expressions, when he speaks about the
   temptations of Satan, to be too highly drawn, and so they may be in
   your experience, but they were not in his. He stands as a monument, in
   his biography, of the power of the comforts of God to keep a man calm
   when all earth and all Hell are against him.

   There was Luther. It did not matter that the enraged Pope issued a
   thousand bulls. That every priest gnashed his teeth at Luther. That
   most of men cried, "Away with him! It is not fit that he should live."
   What cared Luther any more for all they said than for the chirping of
   so many grasshoppers in the field, or the croaking of so many frogs in
   the pond? Let them say what they will, "if God gives quietness, who
   then can make trouble?" I know that I am now touching the experience of
   many of God's people, but I will go a little further. Even inbred sin,
   which is the worst of ills, will cause the Christian no trouble when
   the light of Jehovah's Countenance is clearly seen.

   "Oh," says the soul, "I cried but yesterday, 'O wretched man that I am!
   Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' And there I stopped.
   But now my God has whispered in my ear, 'You are Mine,' and I will not
   stop at that verse any longer, but I will go on to the next! 'I thank
   God, through Jesus Christ my Lord.' 'Thanks be unto God that gives us
   the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' I will no longer look upon
   my enemies and say, 'They are many and strong,' but I will look to my
   strong Helper, 'and in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.' "

   "I am as a wonder unto many; but You are my strong refuge," said David.
   And so will the Christian say! Beset with all sorts of temptations from
   within, yet he overcomes through the blood of the Lamb. And God gives
   such a quietness in resting in the finished work of Jesus, and in the
   sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that, imperfect as we are, we yet
   have power by His might to seize the crown of righteousness and to be
   raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, even
   before the day of glory shall dawn, and the shadows of mortality flee
   away.

   2. Beloved Friends, I thank God that my text is equally true of the
   seeking sinner. If the Lord shall be pleased to give you, poor troubled
   Heart, quietness this day in Christ, none can make trouble in your
   soul. What a mercy it is for you that God can give you peace and
   quietness! Some of you have been, during the last fortnight, much
   troubled. The arrows of God are sticking fast in you. Your very flesh
   faints as though it could not much longer bear the strain of your
   spiritual griefs. Now the Lord can bind you up. He will bind up the
   broken in heart, and heal their wounds. He can do it effectually, so
   effectually that no wound ever bleeds afresh after He has bound it up.

   "Ah," you say, "but there is His Law, that dreadful Law of ten
   commands! I have broken that a thousand times." But if the Savior leads
   you to the Cross He will show you that He fulfilled the Law on your
   behalf--that you are not yourself under the Law any longer, but under
   Grace! The law is a taskmaster, but the taskmaster can only rule his
   own slaves. And when you believe in Jesus, you are no more a slave, but
   a child, and the taskmaster has no further power over you from now on
   and forever! To see the Law fulfilled by Christ--what a sight is that!
   It is a vision which gives such joy and Grace that you could stand
   where the seer of Horeb stood, and need not say as he did, "I do
   exceedingly fear and quake," but rather say, with our hymn-writer--

   "Bold shall I stand in that great day For who at all to my charge can
   lay? Fully absolved through Christ I am From sin's tremendous curse and
   blame."

   "Yes, yes," you say, "well, I thank God for that, but my conscience, my
   conscience will never let me be in quietness." Oh, but my Master knows
   how to talk with your conscience. He can say to it, "I have blotted
   out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your
   sins." He can take His precious blood, which is better than the balm of
   Gilead, and He can apply it to the wounds of your conscience. And as
   soon as Conscience feels the power of the blood, all its wounds close
   up directly, and the heart rejoices, saying, "If Jesus paid my debts,
   then paid they are! If Jesus died for me, then God will never make me,
   die, and Jesus, too, for payment He will never demand twice--first at
   my bleeding Surety's hands, and then at mine."

   When Conscience enters into the wounds of Christ, how happy it is! It
   is like the dove that dwells in the cleft of the rock, and builds its
   nest there and sits all day uttering its soft turtle notes for very joy
   and gladness. O poor Heart, Mr. Conscience and you will shake hands
   well enough if you will stand at the foot of the Cross and do it.
   Conscience is a dreadful thunderer to a sinner unreconciled--but to a
   sinner who has seen the great Atonement, and felt the power of

   the blood, Conscience becomes a generous friend! And let me say, dear
   Friend, if the Lord gives you quietness so the Law and Conscience will
   be at peace with you, so will that Book of God be.

   Some of you, whenever you turn the Bible over, can find nothing but
   threats in it. Each page cries out against you, "I bear a curse for
   you." Oh, but if you can only come to Jesus and rest in Him, then the
   page shall glisten with blessings, and glow with benedictions! You
   shall find that it utters peace to the men of peace, and good tidings
   of great joy to those who look alone to the Redeemer's blood. Still I
   think I see you shake your head and say sorrowfully, "Oh, but I shall
   never get much quietness at home, for I have ungodly friends and they
   tell me I am religion-mad."

   Ah, my dear Friend, if the Lord gives you quietness, your ungodly
   friends will give you very little trouble, for you will have Grace to
   bear with them. If they shall revile you, you will turn their reviling
   into joy, thanking God that you are accounted worthy to be reviled for
   Jesus' sake. And in the midst of it you will sometimes take an
   opportunity of speaking a good word for your Master, and so be thankful
   that you are placed where you are needed. We ought to be glad to be
   cast as a pound of salt amid the corruption which salt destroys--and we
   should be thankful that we are set as a light in a dark place--where a
   lamp is most required.

   In this light the persecuted Believer may even look upon his painful
   position as a desirable one, for the practical usefulness which it puts
   in his way. If Jesus Christ is your Companion, you may walk unharmed
   through Vanity Fair, if your path should lie through it, and you need
   not care for all the fools that pluck at your garment. Through a shower
   of mud it is safe and blessed traveling if Jesus is our Companion. I
   hope you are not one of those who would choose to walk with Him in
   silver slippers, and who would leave Him if He came in poverty and
   shame! If so, you do not know the love of Jesus at all. Through briars
   and thorns lies the path of love, and yet that thorny road is Paradise
   if Jesus does but tread it with us and permit us to lean upon His arm.

   The more severe the troubles of life become, the higher shall your
   comforts rise if Jesus is with you. Tried soul, rest in Jesus! Only
   cast yourself on Him, confide entirely in Him, and you shall find that
   the peace which He gives you none can take from you.

   3. Now this text, which thus belongs to the saint and to the seeking
   sinner, I think is equally true, on the larger scale, to the Christian
   Church. I could not omit saying this out of thankfulness to God for the
   quietness which He has for years been pleased to give to us as a
   Christian community. During thirteen years and more we have been knit
   together as one man, while we have lived to see certain sects that were
   "the one and only church"--that railed almost with the mouth of a
   Sanbahat and Tobiah at all other Christians as worldly schematics,
   while they themselves were Scriptural, immaculate, the "Brethren," the
   "Perfect Ones"--we have seen them torn to pieces till there is scarcely
   a remnant of them left, with all the elements within them of internal
   discord which will dash them yet more completely into shivers.

   By the Grace of God we who, as a single Church, are almost as numerous
   as some of their parties, have been kept in holy peace and quietness,
   working incessantly for the cause of God without dissension and without
   strife. And though we are not free from ten thousand faults, yet I have
   often admired the goodness of God which has enabled us to hold with a
   hearty grip each other by the hand, and say, "We love each other for
   Jesus' sake, and for the Truth's sake, and hope each of us to live in
   each other's love till we die, wishing, if it were possible, to be
   buried side by side."

   I do thank God for this, because I know there is more than enough of
   evil among us to plant a root of bitterness in our midst. We who bear
   office in the Church have the same nature as others, and therefore,
   naturally, every man of us would seek to have the supremacy, and every
   man, if left to himself, would also indulge an angry temper and find
   many reasons for differing from his Brother. We have all been offended
   often, and have as often offended others. We are as imperfect a band of
   men as might be found, but we are one.

   We have each had to put up with the other, and to bear and forbear. And
   it does appear to me a wonder that so many imperfect people should get
   on so well for so long. I read over the door of our Tabernacle this
   text--"When the Lord gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" When
   some of our members were first taken into the Church, the pastor had a
   very suspicious character with them. It was said, "Well, if Mr.
   Spurgeon receives such a man who has been so great a trouble in our
   Church, then he will be the beginning of wars at the Tabernacle." But
   those very persons who came with that doubtful character have become
   the most zealous of our working community, and instead of differing and
   disagreeing, have felt that there is so much to do that it would be a
   pity to spend one grain of strength in quarrelling with other children
   of God!

   How good it is to use our swords upon the devil and his allies, and not
   to blunt their edges upon our fellow Christians! Possibly, my Brethren,
   many of you do not sufficiently prize the peace which reigns in our
   Church. Ah, you would value it if you lost it! Oh, how would you prize
   it if strife and schism should come in! You would look back upon these
   happy days we have had together with intense regret, and say, "Lord,
   knit us together in unity again. Send us love to each other once more."
   In a Church, love is the essential element of happiness, and if any of
   you have violated it, or sinned against it, ask for Grace to repent of
   your mistake and let us "love one another with a pure heart fervently,"
   walking in love, "as Christ also has loved us and gave Himself for us."

   Let us have that fervent charity which is the perfect bond, abounding
   in our hearts yet more and more by Jesus Christ. I shall leave this
   first point when I have briefly drawn three lessons from it. "When the
   Lord gives quietness, who then can make trouble?" The first lesson is,
   those who have peace should, this morning adore and bless God for it. O
   God, when we remember what our trouble was before we knew a Savior!
   When we recollect what the tempest was when You did hide Your face from
   us, we cannot but be glad, exceedingly glad, that now You speak kindly
   and favorably unto us!

   You who will not thank God for peace deserve to hear war in your
   streets again. You who will not thank Him at the place of the drawing
   of water because the noise of the archers has ceased--you deserve to
   have your hearts again plowed up by the hosts of the enemy. Praise Him,
   then, my Brothers and Sisters! From your hearts praise Him! Secondly,
   be hopeful, you who are seeking peace, whether for others or for
   yourselves. Do not despair of any soul, however near to death and Hell
   it may be--God can make quietness even in the heart that is ready to
   die. Lastly, give up all other peace but that which the Lord gives to
   every Believer. If you have a quietness which God has not created,
   implore the Lord to break it! If you have a peace which did not come
   from Heaven, it is "peace, peace, where there is no peace," and the
   Lord deliver you from it.

   II. Now let us turn to the second point. The all-sufficiency of God is
   seen, secondly, IN HIS SOVEREIGN WITHDRAWALS. God does sometimes hide
   His face from His people, and then, as His saints well know, nothing
   can enable them to behold Him or to be happy. You know God doctrinally,
   but what are the Doctrines of Grace to a soul when God hides His face?
   You may accept and hold fast the orthodox Gospel, but is the purest
   evangelical Truth anything but a cloud without rain unless the Lord
   Himself shall appear?

   In vain, dear Friends, is all our experience to help us see God if He
   hides His face, for though we have tried and proved His faithfulness,
   yet if He does not continue to smile, we grow to be as unbelieving and
   as doubting as ever we were. At such times outward mercies are all in
   vain. Though today we can see God's hand in the loaf of bread and in
   the cup of cold water, yet if God hides His face, though there should
   be a stalled ox before us, and a feast fit for kings, yet we should not
   see our Father's love in them. Christian, you know well that if God
   takes Himself away and hides within His secret places, and speaks no
   more to you, neither earth nor all the sky can afford you one delight.

   Now, Sinner, this is strikingly true in your case. If God shall be
   pleased to withdraw Himself from you, you cannot behold Him. If He
   should take the Gospel from you, what then? He may do it. He may send
   you across the seas as an emigrant. He may put you in some country
   village where there is no Gospel preaching. He may make you live in a
   situation where you cannot get out to hear a faithful Gospel preacher,
   and then what will you do? Still worse may it be with you! The Lord may
   let you continue under the ministry, and the ministry may be full of
   blessing to others, and yet be fruitless to you.

   If God does but leave you to the corruptions of your own heart, dear
   Friend, it will be quite enough to secure your ruin. Then the tears of
   mothers, the counsels of friends, and the appeals of pastors shall all
   be powerless to touch your heart. The appeals of the Book of God,
   itself, shall never move your conscience--you will go headlong to your
   own destruction if God withdraws His face from you. Remember, my dear
   Hearer, this is possible! There is a point, we know not when, a place
   we know not where, where God may end your day of sensibility by saying,
   "I will let that sinner alone." Then the cloud shall rain no more rain
   upon your desert soul--no more seed shall be scattered upon the highway
   of your thankless heart.

   Shall horses run upon a rock? Shall men plow there with oxen? If you
   will not repent, God will not always waste the Gospel ministry upon
   you. He shall let that Gospel become a "savor of death unto death" to
   you, till you loathe it yourself as you become a Sabbath-breaker, or
   give yourself up to doubt and sin. O Sinner, I long that you may feel
   how abso-

   lutely you are in the hands of God! Should the sun go down all the
   candles in the world cannot light up the landscape. And if God shall
   desert the soul, all human power must fail to give it comfort. What a
   mercy it is that the Lord has not deserted you as yet, that still does
   His good Spirit strive and dwell with the chief of sinners. Still the
   cry is heard, "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your
   hearts."

   Yet I pray you remember that if you do harden your hearts, the Lord may
   do with you as He did with His people of old and swear in His wrath
   that you shall not enter into His rest. I have no doubt, dear Friends,
   that as this is true of the saint and the sinner, it is true of the
   Church. If God shall hide His face from a Church, who then can behold
   Him? Let me endeavor to set that Truth in two or three words before
   you. If we as a Church prove unfaithful--if we let go of our first
   love--if we do not plead in prayer, and seek the conversion of souls,
   God may take away His Presence from us as He has done from Churches
   that were once His Churches, but which are not now!

   The traveler tells you that as he journeys through Asia Minor, he sees
   the ruins of those cities which once were the seven golden
   candlesticks, where the light of the Truth of God shone brightly. What
   will they now say of Thyatira? Where will they find Laodicea? These
   have passed away, and why not this Church? Look at Rome, once the glory
   of the Christian Church, her many ministers, and her power over the
   world for good--and now she is the place where Satan's seat is--and her
   synagogue is a synagogue of Hell! How is this? She fell! She departed
   from her integrity! She left her first love, and the Lord cast her
   away.

   Thus will the Lord deal with us if thus we sin. You know that terrible
   passage--"Go you now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My
   name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My
   people Israel." God first of all had the tabernacle pitched at Shiloh,
   but Shiloh was defiled by the sin of Eli's sons. That tabernacle was
   taken away and Shiloh became a wilderness. So may this flourishing
   Church become. If justice should thus visit you, you may hold your
   Prayer Meetings--probably those will soon cease--but of what avail will
   your formal prayers be? You may get whom you will to preach, but what
   of that?

   I know what you would do, if some of us were fallen asleep, and the
   faithful ones buried--if the Spirit of God were gone, you would say,
   "Well, we are still a large and influential congregation. We can afford
   to get a talented minister, money will do anything." And you would get
   the man of talents, and then you would want an organ and a choir, and
   many other pretty things which we now count it our joy to do without.
   Then, if such were the case, all these vain attempts at grandeur would
   be unsuccessful, and the Church would before long become a scorn and a
   hissing, or else a mere log upon the water.

   Then it would be said," We must change the management," and there would
   be this change and that change. But if the Lord were gone, what could
   you do? By what means could you ever make this Church to revive again,
   or any other Church? Alas for the carnal, spasmodic efforts we have
   seen made in some Churches! Prayer Meetings badly attended. No
   conversions, but still they have said, "Well, it is imperative upon us
   to keep up a respectable appearance. We must collect the congregation
   by our singing, by our organ, or some other outward attraction." And
   angels might have wept as they saw the folly of men who sought after
   anything except the Lord, who alone can make a house His temple--who
   alone can make a ministry to be a ministration of mercy. Without whose
   Presence the most solemn congregation is but as the herding of men in
   the market, and the most melodious songs but as the shouting of those
   who make merry at a marriage.

   Without the Lord, our solemn days, our new moons, and our appointed
   feasts are an abomination such as His soul hates. May this Church ever
   feel her utter, entire, absolute dependence upon the Presence of her
   God, and may she never cease humbly to implore Him to forgive her many
   sins, but still to command His blessing to abide upon her.

   III. The time is gone, but I want just to say these two or three
   words--namely that, depend upon it, THIS IS TRUE OF A NATION as well as
   of any one Church and of any one man. At this particular time, though
   there is perhaps more Christian effort made in England than has been
   made for many years, there is also probably as little of the Divine
   blessing resting upon that effort as ever was known. It is a melancholy
   fact that with all the wonderful increase of accommodations which have
   been made in London for the worship of God, there is absolutely a
   greater deficiency now, owing to the increase of the population--a
   greater deficiency in the means of Grace now than there ever was.

   It is also a notorious fact that of the new Churches which have been
   erected, you might go into many of them and not find enough to make a
   respectable gathering in a vestry, so that, even though tens of
   thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds have been contributed for
   mere bricks and mortar, in connection with the Episcopalian
   Establishment,

   these have merely been a spurious addition to the spiritual supply, but
   not a real one! It is easy to raise money, but it is not easy to find
   men! And while it is easy to get an architect to build a Church, none
   but God Himself can find a minister who will reach the dense masses of
   our heathendom around us and compel them to come in and worship.

   The lack of men is the great crying need of the age, and that need is
   sent to us because we do not pray to God enough to send us men! We do
   not pray for men, when God does send them, that they may be helped as
   they should, and consequently much of the Church's effort is thrown
   away. Beloved, I want to see something done in this London, and how is
   it to be done? There are thousands of Christians, tens of thousands of
   Christians in London, and yet the cause does not spread, or very
   slowly! What is the cause?

   Jonah shook Nineveh from end to end, and yet a hundred thousand
   followers of Jesus cannot do it! Paul, marching along the Apian way at
   Rome, marked an era in Rome's history--and yet there are many ministers
   of Christ who thread our streets, and yet what are we all put together
   for real power? We do not seem to amount in this great city, all of us,
   to anything more than a mere chip in the porridge! We scarcely affect
   the population at all. Oh, it is strange, it is passing strange! For it
   is the Gospel which we preach! We know it is the Gospel, and some of us
   do try to preach it with all our might. But if God withholds His face,
   what can be done?

   Yet, Brethren, this can be done--we will cry to the Lord until He
   reveals His face again. We will give Him no rest till He establishes
   and makes His Church a praise in the earth! O Christian men and women,
   if you could realize the situation! A city of three millions, not
   wholly given to idolatry, but still very much given to sin--and we
   ourselves so weak in the midst of it! If we could but realize this
   position and then take hold upon the Omnipotent arm, and by an
   overcoming faith, such as only God could give to any one of us, believe
   it possible for the Lord Jesus to save this city! And then go forward
   boldly expecting Him to do it, we might see more than we have ever
   seen!

   And now, what if I prophesy that we shall see it! What if I say that if
   God will but stir up His people everywhere for prayer, He will do a
   work in our day that shall make both the ears of him that hears it to
   tingle, not with horror, but with joy? He will yet let the world know
   that there is a God in Israel! Verily, that which hinders is our lack
   of faith, for if the Son of Man should descend among us, would He find
   faith on the earth? O unbelieving Church! O thankless generation! You
   are not straitened in God--you are straitened in your own hearts! And
   if you could but believe Him, and so prove Him by your faith, He would
   yet open the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing, such that
   you should not have room enough to receive!

   This, then, is the matter, and we leave it with you. We are utterly
   dependent upon God--absolutely must we rest on Him. But this is as it
   should be, for it were better to trust in the Lord than to have
   confidence in man--better to trust in the Lord than to have confidence
   in princes. Through the blood of Jesus let us rest in Divine love and
   give the Lord no rest till He makes bare His arm in the midst of this
   land! May the Lord give His blessing to our words, for Jesus' sake.
     __________________________________________________________________

                           Grieve Not the Holy Spirit

   A sermon

   (No. 738)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 3, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the
   day of redemption.."- Ephesians 4:30.

   IT is a very clear proof of the Personality of the Holy Spirit that He
   can be grieved. Now, it would be very difficult to imagine an
   influence, or a mere spiritual emanation being grieved. We can only
   grieve a person, and, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit may be grieved, we
   see that He is a distinct subsistence in the sacred Trinity. Rob Him
   not of the glory which is due to Him but be ever mindful to do Him
   homage. Our text, moreover, reveals to us the close connection between
   the Holy Spirit and the Believer. He must take a very tender and
   affectionate interest in us since He is grieved by our shortcomings and
   our sins. He is not a God who reigns in solitary isolation, divided by
   a great gulf, but He, the blessed Spirit, comes into such near contact
   with us, takes such minute observations, feels such tender regards that
   He can be grieved by our faults and follies.

   Although the word, "grieve," is a painful one, yet there is honey in
   the rock! For it is an inexpressibly delightful thought that He who
   rules Heaven and earth, and is the creator of all things, and the
   infinite and ever blessed God, condescends to enter into such infinite
   relationships with His people that His Divine mind may be affected by
   their actions! What a marvel that Deity should be said to grieve over
   the faults of beings so utterly insignificant as we are! We may not
   understand the expression literally, as though the sacred Spirit could
   be affected with sorrow like to human sorrow, but we must not forego
   the consolatory assurance that He takes the same deep interest in us as
   a fond parent takes in a beloved but wayward child! Is not this a
   marvel? Let those who cannot feel, be unmoved. As for me, I shall not
   cease to wonder and adore!

   I. The first point which we will consider this morning, is THE
   ASTOUNDING FACT that the Holy Spirit may be grieved. That loving,
   tender Spirit who, of His own accord, has taken upon Himself to quicken
   us from our death in sin and to be the Educator of the new life which
   He has implanted within us--that Divine Instructor, Illuminator,
   Comforter, Remembrancer whom Jesus has sent forth to be our abiding
   Guide and Teacher--may be grieved! He whose Divine energy is life to
   our souls, dew to our graces, light to our understandings and comfort
   to our hearts may be vexed by us! The heavenly Dove may be disturbed!
   The celestial Fire may be dampened! The Divine Wind may be resisted!
   The blessed Paraclete may be treated with despite!

   The loving grief of the Holy Spirit may be traced to His holy Character
   and perfect attributes. It is the nature of a holy being to be vexed
   with unholiness. There can be no concord between God and Belial. A
   Spirit immaculately pure cannot but take umbrage at uncleanness, and
   especially must He be grieved by the presence of evil in the objects of
   His affections. Sin everywhere must be displeasing to the Spirit of
   holiness, but sin in His own people is grievous to Him in the highest
   degree. He will not hate His people, but He does hate their sins--and
   hates them all the more because they nestle in His children's bosoms.

   The Spirit would not be the Spirit of Truth if He could approve of that
   which is false in us. He would not be pure if that which is impure in
   us did not grieve Him. We could not believe Him to be holy if He could
   look with complacency upon our unholiness. Nor should we think of Him
   as being perfect if our imperfection could be regarded by Him without
   displeasure. No, because He is what He is--the Holy Spirit and the
   Spirit of holiness--therefore everything in us which falls short of His
   own Nature must be grievous to Him. He helps our infirmities, but He
   grieves over our sins. He is grieved with us mainly for our own sakes,
   for He knows what misery sin will cost us. He reads our sorrows in our
   sins.

   "Ah, silly sheep," He seems to say, "I know the dark mountain upon
   which you will stumble. I see the thorns which will cut you, and the
   wounds which will pierce you! I know, O wayward child, the rod which
   you are making for your own back by your follies! I know, poor erring
   one, into what a sea of trouble you will plunge yourself by that
   headstrong

   will, that quick temper, that love of self, that ardent pursuit of
   gain." He grieves over us because He sees how much chastisement we
   incur, and how much communion we lose.

   When we might have been upon the mountain of fellowship, we are sighing
   in the dungeon of despondency, and all because, from motives of fleshy
   ease, we preferred to go down By-Path Meadow, and forsake the right way
   because it was rough. The Spirit is grieved that we should thus bring
   ourselves into the darkness of a loathsome dungeon, and subject
   ourselves to the blows of the crab tree club of giant Despair. He
   foresees how bitterly we shall rue the day in which we parted company
   with Jesus and so pierced ourselves through with many sorrows. He
   foresees that the backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways,
   and grieves because He foresees the backslider's grief. A mother's
   grief for the wrongdoing of her prodigal son is not so much the pain
   which he has directly occasioned her, as the sorrow which she knows
   that he will bring upon himself.

   David did not so much lament his own loss of his child, as Absalom's
   death, with all its dread results, to Absalom himself. "O my son
   Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!" Here is deep sorrow. But the next
   sentence shows that it was by no means selfish, for he is willing to
   take a greater grief upon himself--"Would God I had died for you, O
   Absalom, my son, my son!" Such is the holy grief of the Spirit of God
   for those in whom He dwells. It is for their sakes that He is troubled.

   Moreover, it is doubtless for Jesus Christ's sake that the Spirit is
   grieved. We are the purchase of Jesus' death upon the tree--He has
   bought us dearly and He should have us altogether for Himself--and when
   He does not have us completely as His own, you can well conceive that
   the Spirit of God is grieved. We ought to glorify Christ in these
   mortal bodies! It should be the one end and object of our desire to
   crown that head with gems which once was crowned with thorns. It is
   lamentable that we should so frequently fail in this reasonable
   service. Jesus deserves our best--every wound of His claims us, and
   every pang He bore, and every groan that escaped His lips is a fresh
   reason for perfect holiness and complete devotion to His cause! And,
   because the Holy Spirit sees us so traitorous to the love of Christ, so
   false to that redeeming blood, so forgetful of our solemn obligations,
   He grieves over us because we dishonor our Lord.

   Shall I be wrong if I say that He grieves over us for the Church's
   sake? How might some of you be useful if you did but live up to your
   privileges! Ah, my Brethren, how the Comforter must surely grieve over
   those of us who are ministers, when He sets us as watchmen and we do
   not watch and the Church is invaded! When He commissions us as sowers
   of the good seed, and our hands are only half filled, or we scatter
   cockle and darnel instead of sowing the good wheat! How must He grieve
   over us because we have not that tenderness of heart, that melting of
   love, that vehemence of zeal, that earnestness of soul which we ought
   to exhibit! When the Church of God suffers damage through us--the
   Spirit loves the Church and cannot endure to see her robbed and
   despoiled, her children left to wander, her wounded sons unsuccored,
   and her broken hearts unhealed--because we are indifferent to our work,
   and careless in our labor for the Church, the Holy Spirit is much
   displeased.

   But it is not only with ministers, but with all of you, for there is a
   niche that each of you should fill. And if that is vacant the Church
   loses by you--the kingdom of Christ suffers damage, the revenue which
   ought to come into Zion is cut short--and the Holy Spirit is grieved.
   Your lack of prayer, your lack of love, your deficiency in
   generosity--all these may be sad injuries to the Church of God--and
   therefore is the loving Spirit of God much disquieted once more. The
   Spirit of God mourns over the shortcomings of Christians for sinners'
   sakes, for it is the Spirit's office to convict the world of sin, of
   righteousness, and of judgment. But the course of many Believers is
   directly counter to this work of the Spirit. Their lives do not convict
   the world of sin, but rather tend to comfort transgressors in their
   iniquity.

   We have heard the actions of professors quoted by worldlings as an
   excuse for their sins. Openly profane persons have said, "Look at those
   Christians! They do so-and-so, why may not we?" It is ill when
   Jerusalem comforts Sodom, and when the crimes of the heathens find
   precedents in the sins of Israel! It is the Spirit's work to convict
   the world of righteousness, but many a professor convicts the world of
   the opposite. "No," says the world, "there is no more righteousness to
   be had in Christ than anywhere else, for, look at those who follow Him,
   or pretend to do so--where is their righteousness? It does not exceed
   that of the scribes and Pharisees."

   The Spirit of Truth convicts the world of judgment to come--but how few
   of us help Him in that great work! We live and act and talk as if there
   were no judgment to come--toiling for wealth as if this world were all
   careless of souls, as though Hell were a dream! Unmoved by eternal
   realities, unstirred by the terrors of the Lord, indifferent to the
   ruin of

   mankind, many professors live like worldlings and are as unchristian as
   infidels. This is an indisputable fact, but one to be lamented with
   tears of blood! Brothers and Sisters, I dare not think how much of the
   ruin of the world must be laid at the door of the Church! But I will
   dare to say this, that although the Divine purposes will be fulfilled,
   and God will not miss the number of His chosen, yet the fact that this
   London of ours is now rather a heathen than a Christian city can be
   laid at no one's door but that of the professing Church of God and her
   ministers!

   Where else can it be? Is the city wrapped in darkness? It need not have
   been so. If we had been faithful it would not have been so! If we are
   faithful in the future it shall not long remain so. I cannot imagine an
   Apostolic Church, set down in the midst of London, and filled with the
   ardor of the first disciples, remaining long without influencing
   sensibly upon the masses. I know the increase of our population is
   immense--I know that we are adding every year a fresh town to this
   overgrown city. But I will not--I dare not tolerate the idea that the
   zeal of God's Church, if at its right pitch, is too feeble to meet the
   case! No, there is wealth enough among us, if it were consecrated, to
   build as many Houses of Prayer as shall be needed.

   There is ability enough among us, if it were but given to the ministry
   of the Word, to yield a sufficiency of preachers of the Cross. We have
   all the pecuniary and mental strength that is needed. The point in
   which we fail is this--we are straitened in spiritual power!
   Poverty-stricken in Divine Grace! Lukewarm in zeal, meager in
   devotedness, staggering in faith. We are not straitened in our God, we
   are straitened in our own hearts. Brethren, I believe the Spirit of God
   is very greatly grieved with many Churches for the sake of the sinners
   in their congregations who are scarcely cared for, seldom prayed for,
   never wept for. Would that the thought of this might move us and our
   Brethren to mend our ways.

   II. Secondly, let us refer to DEPLORABLE CAUSES which produce the grief
   of the Holy Spirit. The context is some assistance to us. We learn that
   sins of the flesh, filthiness, and evil speaking of every sort, are
   grievous to Him. Note the preceding verse: "Let no corrupt
   communication proceed out of your mouth." Let a Christian fall into the
   habit of talking in a loose, unchaste style. Let him delight in things
   that are indecorous, even if he shall not plunge into the commission of
   outward uncleanness, and the Spirit of God will not be pleased with
   him.

   The Holy Spirit descended upon our Lord as a Dove. And a dove delights
   in the pure rivers of water and shuns all kinds of filthiness. In
   Noah's day the dove found no place for the sole of its feet on all the
   carcasses floating in the waste. And even so, the heavenly Dove finds
   no repose in the dead and corrupt things of the flesh. If we live in
   the Spirit, we shall not obey the desires of the flesh. They who walk
   after the flesh know nothing of the Spirit. It appears, from the
   thirty-first verse, that the Holy Spirit is grieved by any approach to
   bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice.

   If in a Christian Church there shall be dissension's and divisions. If
   Brother shall speak evil of Brother, and Sister of Sister, love is
   absent--and the Spirit of love will not long be present. The dove is
   the emblem of peace. One of the early fruits of the Spirit is peace. My
   dear Friends, I hope as a Church if there is any secret ill feeling
   among us, any hidden root of bitterness--even though it may not yet
   have sprung up to trouble us--it may be removed and destroyed at once!
   I do not know of any such abominable thing, and am happy to be able to
   say so. I trust we walk together in holy unity and concord of heart. If
   any of you are conscious of bitterness in ever so small a measure,
   purge it out lest the Spirit of God be grieved with you and grieved
   with the Church of God for your sake.

   I have no doubt it greatly grieves the Spirit to see in Believers any
   degree of love of the world. His holy jealousy is excited by such
   unholy love. If a mother should see her child fonder of someone else
   than of her--if she should know that it was more happy in the company
   of a stranger than when in the bosom of its own parent--she would feel
   it a very hard trial to bear. Now the Spirit of God gives to Believers
   celestial joys and abounding comforts. And if He sees us turn our back
   upon all these to go into worldly company, to feed greedily upon the
   same empty joys which satisfy worldlings, He is a jealous God and He
   takes it as a great slight put upon Himself.

   What? Does the Good Shepherd load the table with Heaven's own dainties,
   and do we prefer to devour the husks which the swine eat? When I think
   of a Christian man trying to find his enjoyment where the lowest of
   worldlings find theirs, I can scarcely imagine him to be a Christian!
   Or, if he is, he must very greatly grieve the Spirit of God. Why, you
   set the world, which you profess to have found empty, vain, and
   deceitful--you set that before the choice things of the kingdom of
   Grace! And while you profess to be, "raised up to sit together with
   Christ in heavenly places," you still grovel in the dust as others do!

   What does the world say? "Ah, ah," they say, "Here is one of those
   Christian people coming after a little happiness! Poor soul! His
   religion gives him no joy and, therefore, he is looking for a little
   elsewhere. Make room for him, poor fellow, he has a hard time of it on
   Sundays." Then the notion goes abroad that Christians have no joy in
   Christ! That we have to deny ourselves all true happiness and only get
   a little delight by stealth, when we do as others do. What a libel is
   this! And yet how many professors are responsible for it! If we live in
   communion with Jesus we shall not hanker after the world. We shall
   despise its mirth and trample on its treasures. Worldliness, in any
   shape, must be very grievous to the Spirit of God--not only the love
   ofpleasure, but the love of gain.

   Worldliness in Christian men and women in imitating the world in
   dress--worldliness in luxury, or in conversation--must displease the
   Spirit of God because He calls us a peculiar people, and He tells us
   to, "come out from among them and be separated, and touch not the
   unclean thing." And then He promises, "I will be a Father unto you, and
   you shall be My sons and daughters." And if we will not be separate how
   can we expect Him to be otherwise than grieved? Israel was constrained
   to quit Egypt for the wilderness, and God said, "I remember you, the
   love of your espousals, when you went after Me in the wilderness."

   He seems to dote upon Israel's early separation to Himself! And so I
   believe the Lord delights to see His people severing fond connections,
   giving up carnal pleasures, and going outside the camp bearing the
   reproach of Christ. It ravishes the heart of Jesus to see His Church
   forsake the world! Here are His own words to His bride, "Hearken, O
   daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own
   people, and your father's house; so shall the king greatly desire your
   beauty." He loves to have His saints entirely to Himself! He is a
   jealous Savior, and hence Paul says he labored that he might, "present
   the Church as a chaste virgin unto Christ."

   Jesus wants to have our chastity to Himself maintained beyond suspicion
   that we may choose Him as our sole possession, and leave the base
   things of the earth to those who love them. Beware, my Brothers and
   Sisters, of grieving the Holy Spirit by worldliness! Moreover, the
   Spirit of God is greatly grieved by unbelief. What would grieve you
   more, dear Friend, than to have your child suspect your truthfulness?
   "Alas," cries the father, "Can it have come to this, that my own child
   will not believe me? Is my promise to be thrown in my teeth and am I to
   be told by my own son, 'My father, I cannot trust you'?"

   It is not come to that with any of us, as parents, yet, and shall it be
   so with our God? Alas, it has been! We have done despite to the Spirit
   of Truth by doubting the promise and mistrusting the faithfulness of
   God! Of all sins, surely this must be one of the most provoking. If
   there is the virus of diabolical guilt in anything, it must be in the
   unbelief--not of sinners--but of God's own people! Sinners have never
   seen what saints have seen--never felt what we have felt, never known
   what we have known--and, therefore, if they should doubt, they do not
   sin against such light, nor do despite to such invincible arguments for
   confidence as we do. God forgive our unbelief, and may we never grieve
   His Spirit anymore!

   Further, the Spirit is doubtless grieved by our ingratitude. When Jesus
   reveals His love to us, if we go away from the chamber of fellowship to
   talk lightly and forget that love. Or if, when we have been raised up
   from a sickbed we are no more consecrated than before. Or if, when our
   bread is given us and our water is sure, our heart never thanks the
   bounteous Giver. Or if, when preserved under temptation we fail to
   magnify the Lord--surely this, in each case, must be a God-provoking
   sin! If we add pride to ingratitude we sorely grieve the blessed
   Spirit. When a saved sinner grows proud he insults the wisdom of the
   Spirit of God by his folly, for what can there be in us to be proud of?

   Pride is a weed which will grow in any soil. Proud of the mercies of
   God? As well be proud of being in debt! Why, some of us are so foolish
   that God cannot exalt us, for if He did we should straightway grow
   dizzy in the brain, and should be sure to fall! If the Lord were to put
   so much as one gold piece of comfort into our pockets, we should think
   ourselves so rich that we should set up in business on our own account,
   and cease from dependence upon Him! He cannot indulge us with a little
   joy--He has to keep us as the father in the parable did the elder
   brother, who complained, "You never gave me a kid, that I might make
   merry with my friends."

   Oh it is sad that we should be so foolish as to become proud of our
   graces! This is a great grief to the Spirit in a private person, and
   even more so when it becomes the fault of an entire Church. If you as a
   Church shall boast that you are numerous, or generous, or rich, it will
   be all over with you. God will abase those who exalt themselves! If
   your soul can make her boast in the Lord, you may boast as much as you
   will. But if you glory in anything else, God will hide His face,

   and you will be troubled though your mountain once stood so firm that
   you dreamed it could never be moved. I cannot give you a full list of
   all the evils which grieve the Spirit of God, but let me mention here,
   particularly, one--a lack of prayer.

   This is grievous, either in the Church or in an individual. Does not
   this touch some of you? How little do some of us pray! Let each
   conscience now be its own accuser. My dear Brother, how about the Mercy
   Seat? How about the closet and secret communion with God? How about
   wrestling for your children? How about pleading for the pastor? Have
   you not been backward in interceding for the conversion of your
   neighbor? Could you read the story of Abraham's interceding for Sodom
   and say that you have interceded for London like that? Can you read of
   Jacob at the brook Jabbok, and say that you ever spent an hour, much
   less a night, in wrestling with the Angel? The prayerlessness of this
   age is one of its worst signs, and the prayerlessness of some of our
   Christian Churches looks as if God were about to withdraw Himself from
   the land!

   In many Churches, as I am told, they have a difficulty in getting
   enough men to attend the Prayer Meetings to carry them on. I know of
   some--"Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of
   Askelon!"--I know of some Churches that have given up Prayer Meetings
   because nobody comes! Ah, if this case were a solitary one, it ought to
   be daily mourned over--but there are scores of Churches in the same
   condition--the Lord have mercy upon them and upon the land in which
   such Churches dwell!

   To sum up many things which might be said, I think the Holy Spirit will
   be grieved with any one of us if we shall indulge any known sin, let it
   be what it may. And I will add to that, if any one of us shall neglect
   any known duty, let it be what it may. I cannot imagine the Spirit of
   God being pleased with a Brother who knows his Master's will, and does
   it not. I know the Word says that he shall be beaten with many stripes.
   Surely, beating with stripes must be the result of grief on the part of
   the hand that administers such stripes. Let any person or any Church
   know good and do it not, and to him or to it, it shall be sin! And that
   which might not be sin in the ignorant, will become sin to those
   blessed with

   light.

   As soon as your conscience is enlightened and you know the path of
   duty, you need not say, "Others ought to do it," (so they should, but
   to their own Master they must stand or fall). If your judgment is
   enlightened, make haste and delay not to keep the Commandments of God.
   John Owen, in his treatise upon the Holy Spirit, makes a remark that he
   believes the Spirit of God was greatly grieved in England by the public
   affirmation in the articles of the doctrine that the Church of God has
   power to decree rites and ceremonies for herself. God's Word is the
   only rule of God's Church. Inasmuch as the Church of England, so
   called, claims to be her own lawmaker, she has grieved the Spirit!

   When a Church claims to itself the right to judge what are to be its
   own ordinances instead of willingly and obediently acknowledging that
   she has no right of choice whatever--but is bound to obey the revealed
   will of her Great Head--she sins terribly! It is the duty of all
   Christians to search the Word as to what are the ordinances which God
   has fixed and commanded. And being once clear as to the rule of the
   Word, it is ours to obey it! If you see infant Baptism in the Word, do
   not neglect it! If it is not there, do not regard it!

   Here I must give utterance to a thought which has long followed me.
   Perhaps the present sad condition of the Christian Church, and the
   prevalence of the dogma of "baptismal regeneration," may be traceable
   to the neglect that reigns in the Church almost universally with regard
   to the great Christian ordinance of Believers' Baptism. Men laugh at
   all talk about this as if the question were of no importance. But I
   take leave to say that whatever may be the Truth of God upon that
   ordinance, it is worth every Believer's while to find it out.

   I meet constantly with people who have no sort of faith in infant
   Baptism, and have long ago given it up. And yet, though they admit that
   they ought to be baptized as Believers, they neglect the duty as
   unimportant. Now mark it-- when the Last Great Day shall reveal all
   things, I am persuaded it will reveal this--that the Church's
   supplanting the Baptism of Believers by that of infants was not only a
   great means in the original establishment of Popery, but that the
   maintenance of the perverted ordinance in our Protestant Church is the
   chief root and cause of the present revival of Popery in this land.

   If we would lay the axe to the roots of Sacramentarianism, we must go
   back to the old Scriptural method of giving ordinances to Believers
   only--the ordinances after faith--not before faith. We must give up
   baptizing in order to regenerate and administer it to those alone who
   profess to be already regenerate. When we all come to this we shall
   hear no

   more of "baptismal regeneration," and a thousand other false doctrines
   will vanish away. Lay down the rule that unbelievers have no right to
   Church ordinances, and you put it out of the power of men to establish
   the unhallowed institution of a State Church! For, mark you, no
   National Church is possible on the principle of Believers' Baptism--a
   principle much too exclusive to suit the mixed multitude of a whole
   nation.

   A State Church must hold to infant Baptism! Necessarily it must receive
   all the members of the State into its number--it must or else it cannot
   expect the pay of the State. Make the Church a body consisting only of
   professedly faithful men, believers in the Lord Jesus, and let the
   Church say to all others, "You have no part nor lot in this matter
   until you are converted," and there is the end of the unholy alliance
   between the Church and the world which is now a withering blight upon
   our land. Errors of doctrine, practice, and polity may cause the dew of
   Heaven to be withheld. You will say, "Such errors did not hinder
   revivals in other days!"

   Perhaps not, but God does not always wink at our ignorance. In these
   days no one needs to be ignorant about the mystery of "baptismal
   regeneration"--the error has worked itself to its full development and
   reached such a climax that every Christian man ought to give it his
   most earnest consideration. Guilt will come upon us if we are not
   earnest in seeking out the roots of an evil which is the cause of such
   deadly mischief in the land. If, as a Church, we are clear in our
   testimony on this point, I entreat you to see if there is any other
   error with which you may be charged. Is there a part of Scripture which
   we have not attended to? Is there a Truth of God which we have
   neglected? Let us hold ourselves ready to relinquish our most cherished
   opinions at the commands of Scripture, whatever they may be.

   I say to you what I say to others--if the form of our Church
   government, if the manner of our administration of Christian
   ordinances, if the doctrines we hold are unwarranted by the Word of
   God--let us be faithful to our consciences and to the Word and be ready
   to alter, according to our light. Let us give up the idea of
   stereotyping anything! Let us be ready at any moment and every moment
   to do just what the Spirit of God would have us do! For if not, we may
   not expect the Spirit of God to abide with us. O for a heart to serve
   God perfectly! O that such a heart were given to all His people so that
   they were ready to renounce authority, antiquity, taste, opinion, and
   bow before the Holy Spirit alone! May the Church yet come to walk by
   the simple rule of God's Book and by the light of God's Spirit, and
   then shall we cease to grieve the Holy Spirit!

   III. Thirdly, and very briefly--much too briefly--THE LAMENTABLE RESULT
   of the Spirit's being grieved. In the child of God it will not lead to
   his utter destruction, for no heir of Heaven can perish. Neither will
   the Holy Spirit be utterly taken away from him, for the Spirit of God
   is given to abide with us forever. But the ill-effects are nevertheless
   most terrible. You will lose, my dear Friends, all sense of the Holy
   Spirit's Presence--He will be as one hidden from you--no beams of
   comfort, no words of peace, no thoughts of love.

   There will be what Cowper calls, "an aching void which the world can
   never fill." Grieve the Holy Spirit and you will lose all Christian
   joy. The light shall be taken from you and you shall stumble in
   darkness. Those very means of Divine Grace which once were such a
   delight shall have no music in your ears. Your soul shall be no longer
   as a watered garden, but as a howling wilderness. Grieve the Spirit of
   God, and you will lose all power. If you pray, it will be a very weak
   prayer--you will not prevail with God. When you read the Scriptures you
   shall not be able to lift the latch and force your way into the inner
   mysteries of the Truth of God.

   When you go up to the House of God, there shall be none of that devout
   exhilaration, that running without weariness, that walking without
   fainting. You shall feel yourself like Samson when his hair was
   lost--weak, captive, and blind. Let the Holy Spirit depart and
   assurance is gone! Doubts follow, questions and suspicions are
   aroused--

   "Do I love the Lord or no? Am IHis, or am Inot?"

   Grieve the Spirit of God, and usefulness will cease. The ministry shall
   yield no fruit. Your Sunday school work shall be barren. Your speaking
   to others and laboring for others souls shall be like sowing the wind.
   Let a Church grieve the Spirit of God, and oh, the blights that shall
   come and wither her fair garden! Then her days of solemn assembly shall
   have no acceptance with Heaven! Her sons, although all of them ordained
   as priests unto God, shall have no acceptable incense to offer.

   Let the Church grieve the Spirit, and she shall fail to bless the age
   in which she lives. She shall cast no light into the surrounding
   darkness. No sinners shall be saved by her means. There shall be few
   additions to her number. Her mission-

   aries shall cease to go forth. There shall be no marriage feasts of
   communion in her house. Darkness and death shall reign where all was
   joy and life. Brothers and Sisters, Beloved in the Lord, may the Lord
   prevent us from grieving His Spirit as a Church, but may we be earnest,
   zealous, truthful, united, and holy so that we may retain among us this
   heavenly Guest who will leave us if we grieve Him.

   IV. Lastly, there is one PERSONAL ARGUMENT which is used in the text to
   forbid our grieving the Spirit-- "Whereby you are sealed unto the day
   of redemption." What does this mean? There are many meanings assigned
   by different commentators. We shall be content with the following--A
   seal is set upon a thing to attest its authenticity and authority. By
   what can I know that I am truly what I profess to be-- a Christian by
   profession? How do I know whether I am really a Christian or not? God
   sets a seal on every genuine Believer--what is it? It is the possession
   of the Holy

   Spirit of God!

   If you have the Holy Spirit, my dear Friend, that is God's seal set
   upon you that you are His child! Do you not see, then, that if you
   grieve the Spirit you lose your seal, and you are like a commission
   with the seal torn away? You are like a note of hand without a
   signature! Your evidence of being God's child is the Spirit, for if
   "any man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is none of His." If you have
   not the Spirit in you, that will be decisive evidence for you that you
   do not belong to Christ, for you lack the groundwork of true assurance,
   which is the indwelling Presence, power, and enjoyment of the Spirit.

   Moreover, I have said a seal is used for attestation, and so it is, not
   only to you, but to others. You say to the world around, "I am a child
   of God." How are they to know it? They can only judge as you must judge
   yourself, by looking for the seal. If you possess the Spirit of God,
   they will soon see you to be a Christian. If you have it not, whatever
   else you have, you will soon be discovered to be a forgery, for you
   lack the seal. Beloved, all Church history proves this, that when the
   Christian Church has been filled with the Spirit of God, the world has
   confessed her pedigree because it could not help doing so. But when the
   Church has lost her enthusiasm and fervor because she has lost the
   heavenly fire, then the world has asked, "What is this Christian Church
   more than the synagogue of the Jews, or the company of Mahomet?"

   The world knows God's seal! And if it does not see it, it soon despises
   that society which pretends to be the Church of God and has not the
   mark and proof of it. The same truth holds good in all cases. For
   instance, in the matter of the Christian ministry. When I first came to
   minister in London there was some little talk about my being ordained.
   "If I am ordained of God, I do not need human ordination. And if, on
   the other band, God has not called me to the work, no man or set of men
   can do it." But it was said, "You must have a recognition service, that
   others may signify their approval!"

   "No," I said, "if God is with me, they will recognize me quickly enough
   as a man of God. And if the Lord's Presence is denied me, human
   approval is of little worth." Brethren, if you profess to be called to
   any form of ministry, your only way of proving your call will be by
   showing the seal of the Spirit! When that seal is affixed to your
   labors, you will require no other recognition! The camp of Dan soon
   recognized Samson when the Spirit came upon him, and when he went among
   his enemies--the Philistines--with the jaw-bone of an ass, they soon
   recognized him as they saw him piling the slain heaps upon heaps!

   This is how the Christian man or minister must compel the recognition
   of his status and call. Knights of the Cross must win their spurs upon
   the battlefield. The only way for a Christian to be discerned to be a
   Christian, or for a Church to be manifested as a Church of God is by
   having the Spirit of God, and in the name of the Spirit of God doing
   exploits for God and bringing glory to His holy name! Once more, a seal
   is used for preserving, as well as for attesting. The Easterner seals
   up his moneybags to secure the gold within, and we seal our letters to
   guard the enclosure. A seal is set for security.

   Now, Beloved, as the only way by which you can be known to be a
   Christian is by really possessing the supernatural power of the Holy
   Spirit, so, also, the only way by which you can be kept a Christian,
   and preserved from going back to the world is by still possessing that
   same Holy Spirit. What are you if the Spirit of God is gone? Salt that
   has lost its savor. With what can you be salted? "Trees twice dead,
   plucked up by the roots...wandering stars, to whom is reserved the
   blackness of darkness forever." The Holy Spirit is not to you a luxury,
   but a necessity--you must have Him or you die-- you must have Him, or
   you are damned! Yes, and with a double damnation.

   Here comes in this choice promise that the Lord will not leave you, and
   will not forsake you--but if He did leave you forever, there would
   remain no more sacrifice for sin--it would be impossible to renew you
   again unto repentance,

   seeing that you would have crucified the Lord afresh, and put Him to an
   open shame. Grieve not, then, that Spirit upon whom you are so
   dependent! He is your credentials as a Christian! He is your life as a
   Believer! Prize Him beyond all price! Speak of Him with bowed head,
   with reverent awe! Rest upon Him with childlike, loving confidence!
   Obey His faintest monitions--neglect not His inward whispers. Turn not
   aside from His teachings in the Word, or by His ministers.

   And be as ready to feel His power as the waves of the sea are to be
   moved by the wind, or a feather to be wafted by the gale. Hold
   yourselves ready to do His bidding. As the eyes of the handmaiden are
   to her mistress, so let your eyes be unto Him. When you know His will,
   ask no questions, count no costs, dare all hazards, defy all
   circumstances! Let the will of the Spirit be your absolute law, apart
   from gain or loss, apart from your own judgment or your own taste. Let
   the will of the Spirit, when once plainly perceived by you, be
   instantly obeyed, and try to perceive that will. Do not willfully shut
   your eyes to an unpleasant duty, or close your understanding to an
   unwelcome Truth. Lean not to your own understanding! Consider that the
   Holy Spirit alone can teach you, and that those who will not be taught
   of Him must remain hopelessly foolish.

   Oh, if I might but live to see the Church of God recognize the power of
   the Holy Spirit! If I could but see her cast aside the grave clothes
   which she has so long persisted in wearing! If I could see her put no
   confidence in State or power--rely no longer upon eloquence and
   learning! If I could see her depend upon the Holy Spirit, even though
   her ministers should again be fishermen and her followers should again
   be the "base things of this world, and the things that are not"! Even
   though she should have to be baptized in blood. Even though the
   Man-Child should excite the dragon's wrath and he should pour floods
   out against her--yet the day of her final victory would have dawned--if
   she did but obey the Spirit!

   If only her directories, creeds, rules, prayer books, rubrics, and
   canons were cast to the winds, and the free Spirit of the living God
   ruled everywhere! If, instead of the decrees of her councils and the
   slavish bondage of priestcraft and ritual, she would only embrace the
   liberty with which Christ has made her free, and walk according to His
   Word and the teachings of her heavenly Teacher--then might we hear the
   shout of the King in our midst, and the battlements of error would
   fall! God send it, and send it in our time, and His shall be praise!

   I fear there are some here who do not grieve the Spirit, but do worse
   than that--they quench the Spirit--they resist the Spirit. May the Lord
   grant them forgiveness of this great sin, and may they be led to the
   Cross of Christ to find pardon for every sin! At the Cross, and there
   alone, can everlasting life be found. God bless you for Jesus' sake.
   Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                The Sin Offering

   A sermon

   (No. 739)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 10, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people; then let
   him bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without
   blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering."- Leviticus 4:3.

   In the previous chapters of the book of Leviticus you read of the burnt
   offering, the peace offering, and the meat offering--all types our Lord
   Jesus Christ as seen from different points of view. Those three
   sacrifices were sweet savor offerings, and represent the Lord Jesus in
   His glorious Person and perfect righteousness as an offering of a sweet
   smell unto God. The chapter before us, the whole of which we shall
   require as a text, describes the sin offering, which, although quite
   distinct from the sweet savor offerings, is not altogether to be
   separated from them, for the Lord Jesus Christ viewed in any light is
   very dear unto His Father.

   And even when beheld as a sin offering, He is elect and precious unto
   God, as we shall have to show you in the type before us. Still, the sin
   offering does not set forth the acceptance of the substitute before the
   Lord, but rather brings out the abhorrence which God has towards sin,
   the putting away from His holy Presence of everything upon which sin is
   laid. This morning, if God shall enable us, we hope to impress upon
   your minds, first of all, the great evil of sin. And secondly, the
   great and wonderful power of the blood of atonement by which sin is put
   away.

   Without any further preface we shall invite you, in meditating upon the
   type before us, first, to consider our Lord Jesus as made sin for us.
   Secondly, we shall ask you to observe, carefully and prayerfully, His
   blood in its efficacy before the Lord. And thirdly, we shall bid you
   look at His substitution in the shame which it involved.

   I. First, Brethren, let us, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, view our
   blessed Lord as made sin for us, as He is here typified in the bull.

   1. His personal Character is set forth before us in the victim chosen,
   namely, a young bull without blemish. It was a bull, the most valuable
   of the sacrifices--an animal laborious in life and costly in death. It
   was a young bull in the fullness of its strength and vigor. It was
   without blemish and the slightest fault disqualified it from being laid
   upon the altar of God. Behold, O Believer, your Lord Jesus, more
   precious by far than ten thousands of the fat of fed beasts! A
   Sacrifice not to be purchased with gold, or estimated in silver! Full
   of vigor, in the very prime of manhood, He offered up Himself for us!

   Even when He died, He died not through weakness, for that cry of His at
   His death, "with a loud voice," proved that His life was still firm
   within Him and that when He gave up the ghost, His death was not one of
   compulsion but a voluntary expiring of the soul. His glory is as the
   firstling of the bull, full of vigor and of strength. How distinctly
   was our Lord proved to be without blemish! Naturally born without
   sin,practically He lived without fault. In Him there was neither
   deficiency nor excess. In no virtue did He come behind, and no fault
   could be found in Him. The prying eyes of the prince of this world
   could find nothing in Him, and the still more accurate search of the
   all-seeing God found no fault in

   Him.

   This spotlessness was necessary, for how could He have been made an
   offering for our sin if it had not been true that personally, "He knew
   no sin"? Shall one bankrupt stand in the debtor's court as a substitute
   for another? How shall one penniless wretch pay the debt of another who
   is about to be cast into prison? If the king requires service of any
   man, how shall another from whom service is equally due, offer himself
   as a substitute for him? No, the Savior of others must have no
   obligations of His own. He must owe no personal debts. There must be no
   claims on the part of justice against Him, on His own account, or He
   cannot stand "the Just for the unjust," to expiate the sins of men.

   You holy souls, feast your eyes upon the spotless Son of God! You pure
   in heart, delight your purified vision with a sight of His perfections!
   You shall one day be like He--this will be your Heaven! Meanwhile make
   it your rapture, your

   Paradise on earth, to gaze upon the unrivaled beauties of the
   Altogether Lovely. "In Him was no sin." In Him was all excellence. His
   body and soul are alike--white as the lily for holiness--though made by
   suffering red as the rose. Alabaster and bright ivory overlaid with
   sapphires are but dull and soiled types of His purity. Come, you virgin
   souls, and let the eyes of your holy love survey Him that you may see
   how fit He was to suffer as "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to

   God."

   The act of transference of sin to the victim next calls for our
   attention. You will have noticed, in reading the chapter, that our
   Lord's being made sin is set forth to us by the very significant
   transfer of sin to the bull, which was made by the priest, or by the
   elders of the people, as the case might be. We are expressly told, "He
   shall lay his hands upon the bull's head," which act, our good Dr.
   Watts has interpreted in his well-known verse--

   "My faith would lay her hands

   On that dear head of Yours,

   While like a penitent I stand;

   And there confess my sin."

   This laying of the hand does not appear to have been a mere touch of
   contact, but in some other places of Scripture has the meaning of
   leaning heavily, as in the expression, "Your wrath lies hard upon me"
   (Psa. 88:7).

   Surely this is the very essence and nature of faith, which does not
   only bring us into contact with the great Substitute, but teaches us to
   lean upon Him with all the burden of our guilt, so that if our sins are
   very weighty, yet we see Him as able to bear them all! And mark, the
   whole weight of our iniquity taken off from us, who must have been
   crushed to the lowest Hell thereby, and laid on Him who took the weight
   and bore it all, and then buried it in His sepulcher forever! From of
   old it was decreed, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

   Jehovah made to meet upon the head of the Substitute all the offenses
   of His covenant people. But each one of the chosen is brought
   personally to ratify this solemn covenant act of the great God, when by
   Grace he is enabled by faith to put his hands upon the head of the
   "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." My fellow
   Believers, do you remember that rapturous day? My soul recalls her day
   of deliverance with delight! Laden with guilt and full of fears, I saw
   my Savior willing to be my Substitute, and I laid my hand, oh, how
   timidly at first, but courage grew and confidence was confirmed!

   I leaned my soul entirely upon Him, and now it is my unceasing joy to
   know that my sins are no longer imputed to me, but laid on Him! And
   like the debts of the poor wounded traveler, Jesus, like the good
   Samaritan, has said of all my future sinfulness, "Set that to my
   account." Oh, blessed discovery, sweet solace of a repenting heart!--

   "My numerous sins transferred to Him, Shall never more be found! Lost
   in His blood's atoning stream Where every crime is drowned!"

   We must now beg your notice of the sins transferred. In the case of the
   type, they were sins of ignorance. Alas, the Jew knew nothing about a
   sin offering for sins of presumption but there is such a sin offering
   for us. Our presumptuous sins were laid on Christ. Our willful sins.
   Our sins of light and knowledge are pardoned by His blood. The mention
   of sins of ignorance suggests a very comfortable reflection, that if
   there are any sins which I know not, they were, notwithstanding my
   ignorance, laid on my Substitute and put away by His Atonement. It is
   not sin as we see it which was laid on Christ, but sin as God sees
   it--not sin as our conscience feebly reveals it to us, but sin as God
   beholds it--in all its unmitigated malignity and unconcealed
   loathsomeness.

   Sin in its exceeding sinfulness Jesus has put away. Not sham sin, but
   real sin--sin as before the Lord, sin as sin-- Jesus has made an end
   of. Child of God, you will not misuse this Truth of God and deny the
   need of repentance, for you well know that you cannot practically feel
   the power of this blood except as your sin is known to you. This,
   indeed, is intimated in the type, for, according to verse fourteen, the
   bull was only offered when the sin was known. It was to be laid by the
   elders upon the head of the bull when the sin was no longer hidden from
   the eyes of the congregation.

   Sin unknown, the sacrifice is unheeded. It is only as you know and
   perceive sin that you can consciously know and prize the Atonement by
   which it is taken away. Mark, it is when you perceive sin that then you
   are to trust the blood-- not when you perceive holiness in yourself,
   and goodness and virtue--but when you perceive sin, and iniquity, and
   de-

   filement! It is then you are to lay your hands upon the head of the
   great Atoning Sacrifice. Jesus is a sinner's Savior. "If any man sin,
   we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."

   It is not written, "If any man is holy, he has an Advocate," but, "if
   any man sins, we have an Advocate," so that in all our sin and
   iniquity, blackness and defilement--when overwhelmed with our own
   vileness--we may still come to Christ and believe that our most
   horrible and detestable sins were laid upon Him. And over and above
   that, those sins which we do not feel, which may be even more
   detestable, even those, and what is more, the sinfulness of our nature
   it-self--that black and polluted fount from which the streams of our
   trespasses take their rise--the guilt of all actual and original sin
   was laid upon Jesus and by Him forever put away!

   Passing on, still keeping to the same point, we would remark that the
   sin was laid upon the bull most conspicuously "before the Lord." Did
   you notice the frequent expressions: "shall bring him to the door of
   the congregation before the Lord"? "Kill the bull before the Lord"?
   "Shall sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord, and shall put
   some of it upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the
   Lord"? Clearly the most important part of the sacrifice was not before
   the people, but before the Lord. All that the onlookers outside could
   have seen was the bull, when dead, carried by the priests outside the
   camp.

   Some of them who came nearer might have seen the pouring of the blood
   at the bottom of the bronze altar, but they certainly never did and
   never could see the priest sprinkle the blood towards the veil, nor yet
   see him put it upon the horns of the golden altar--for the court of the
   priest was concealed from their view. We are very much mistaken if we
   think that the ceremonies of Jews were much seen by the people. They
   were mainly unseen except by the priests. The ritual of the Old
   Covenant must have been very little a matter of sight, for the
   Israelite, pure and simple, never penetrated beyond the first court. He
   stood before the bronze altar and he never went further.

   All that was done in the next court of the priests, and especially all
   that was done in the Most Holy Place, must have been entirely a matter
   offaith to all the people. The fact was, the sacrifices were not so
   much for men to look at as for God Himself to gaze upon, and though
   this may seem to you a strange observation, there is no little value in
   it. You will hear men nowadays say that the purpose of Atonement has
   reference to men and not to God. Depend upon it, there is a fatal error
   in this doctrine and we must denounce it!

   Although its advocates take some few expressions of certain of our
   hymns and pretend to believe that we teach that the blood placated an
   angry God, we never taught anything of the kind and they know we never
   did! Yet we are not to be frightened into denying or qualifying our
   assertion that the action of God towards man has been wondrously
   affected by the Atonement of Christ. God the Judge would have condemned
   us to punishment had not Jesus suffered in our place, so that, in
   justice, we might be permitted to go free. Not only is man made willing
   to love God by the manifestation of the love of God in Christ Jesus,
   but it has become possible for God to extend the hand of amity towards
   sinful man through the Atonement! And this would not have been
   possible, consistently with the Divine attributes, if it had not been
   for the atoning Sacrifice.

   We must still stand to it, that the blood is not merely a comfort to
   the wounded conscience, but is really a satisfaction to Divine Justice.
   It is a covering, a propitiation, a Mercy Seat for the Most Holy God.
   That is a striking passage concerning the Passover and the destroying
   angel in Egypt. Thus spoke Jehovah, "When I see the blood, I will pass
   over you." It was not, "When you see the blood." The spared ones did
   not see the blood at that moment, for, you will remember, they were all
   inside the house feasting upon the lamb. The father of the family had
   put the blood outside upon the lintel and the side-posts, not for the
   inmates to see, but for God to see!

   And so, though a sight of the precious blood, thanks be to God, does
   bring us faith, and joy, and peace, yet the real work of our salvation
   is not the effect of the blood upon us, but the effect of the blood
   upon God Himself! Not, it is true, a change produced in God, but a
   change which is thus produced in the action of Divine Justice. Apart
   from the blood we are guilty and condemned--washed in the blood, we are
   accepted and beloved. Without the Atonement we are aliens and
   strangers, heirs of wrath even as others. But, as seen in the eternal
   covenant purpose, through the precious blood of Jesus, we are accepted
   in the Beloved. The great stress of the transaction lies in its being
   done "before the Lord."

   Still, further, carefully observe that as soon as ever the sin was thus
   "before the Lord," laid upon the bull, the bull was slain. "He shall
   lay his hands upon the bull's head, and kill the bull before the Lord."
   So, in the fifteenth verse, "The

   elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the
   bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord."

   Ah, yes. As soon as the sin is transferred, the penalty is transferred,
   too. Down fell the pole-axe the minute that the priestly hands had been
   laid on the bull. Unsheathed was the bloody knife of sacrifice the
   moment that the elders had begun to lean upon the sacrificial head. So
   was it with our Savior. He must smart, He must die--for only as dying
   could He become our sin offering. Ah, Brethren, those who would preach
   Christ, but not Christ crucified, miss the very soul and essence of our
   holy faith. "Let Him come down from the Cross, and we will believe in
   Him," is the Unitarian cry! Anything but a crucified God!

   But there, indeed, lies the secret of that mystery, and the very core
   and kernel of our confidence. A reigning Savior I do rejoice in! The
   thought of the splendor yet to come makes glad our eyes! But after all,
   it is a bleeding Savior that is the sinner's hope. It is to the Cross,
   the center of misery, that the sinner turns his eyes for comfort,
   rather than to the stars of Bethlehem, or to the blazing sun of the
   millennial kingdom. I remember one joining this Church who said, "Sir,
   I had faith once in Christ glorified, but it never gave me comfort. I
   have now come to a faith in Christ crucified, and I have peace."

   At Calvary there is the comfort, and there only. That Jesus lives is
   delightful! But the basis of the delight is, "He lives who once was
   slain." That He will reign forever is a most precious doctrine of our
   faith, but that the hand that wields the silver scepter once was
   pierced, is the great secret of the joy! O Beloved, abide not in any
   place from which your eye cannot behold the Cross of Christ! When you
   are thinking of the doctrines of the Gospel, or the precepts of the
   Word, or studying the prophecies of Scripture, never let your mind
   relinquish the study of the Cross! The Cross was the place of your
   spiritual birth! It must ever be the spot for renewing your health, for
   it is the sanatorium of every sin-sick soul.

   The blood is the true balm of Gilead. It is the only catholicon which
   heals every spiritual disease. Come, sin-sick Soul, and breathe the air
   which was purified when the blood of the heart of Jesus fell from His
   wounds to the ground, for no spiritual disease can abide the Presence
   of the healing blood. Hasten, you weak ones, to Calvary, and partake in
   God-given strength and vigor! It is from Calvary that you shall see the
   Sun of Righteousness arising with healing beneath His wings! The
   beloved Physician meets His patients at the foot of the Cross and
   relieves them from all their ills.

   I shall not ask you to dwell on any further details of the type, as
   they refer to the Substitution, but I cannot leave the topic till I
   have asked each one this all-important question--"Is the Lord Jesus
   made a sin offering for you? It is written, "He has made Him to be sin
   for us," and from this it appears that sin was laid upon Jesus by God
   Himself. But still it is true that each Believer by faith lays his own
   sins there, and the hymn, "I lay my sins on Jesus," is quite
   Scriptural. Have you, dear Friend, seen your sins laid on Jesus?

   Has your faith laid its hands upon His head? My dear Hearers, we shall
   soon, each one of us, have to pass through the vale of death. It may be
   but a very short time before some of us will know what are the
   solemnities of our last, departing hour. Are you ready? Quite ready?
   You have been a professor for years--are you ready now to die? Can you
   hope that if at this moment the summons were given, sitting where you
   are, can you hope you are so really and truly resting in the precious
   blood that sin would not disturb your dying peace because it is
   forgiven and put away?

   Search the ground of your hope, I pray you, and be not satisfied unless
   your faith is surely built upon the Rock of Ages. Get as much assurance
   as you can, my Brothers and Sisters, but beware of presumption! I have
   seen some of those fine Christians who will not say--

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

   and I think very little of them. It is their boast that no hymns will
   suit them but those which are full of assurance and conscious
   enjoyment. I admire their confidence, if it is the fruit of the Spirit.
   But I fear, in many cases, it is the offspring of proud, unhumbled
   self-conceit. I know that in shaking times, when I am sorely vexed with
   bodily pain and mental distractions, I am glad enough to say--

   "Let me hide myself in You!

   Let the water and the blood,

   From your riven side which flowed,

   Be of sin the double cure,

   Cleanse me from its guilt and power!"

   Without boasting, I can declare as much about strong faith in God as
   most men. And I can usually rejoice in the fullest confidence of my
   acceptance in the Beloved. But there are times with me of deeply awful
   depression of spirit, and horror of great darkness--and at such periods
   my joyous confidence takes the form of humbly pleading the blood once
   shed for sinners, and saying, with a broken heart--

   "Nothing in my hands I bring: Simply to Your Cross I cling."

   It seems to me, that humbly resting upon Jesus is the best position for
   us. And I ask each of you, very affectionately, whether that is your
   position at this present moment? Does your heart rejoice in the
   Substitute? Do you rejoice in the language of these two precious
   verses?--

   "When Satan tempts me to despair, And tells me of the guilt within,
   Upward I look, and see Him there Who made an end of all my sin. Because
   the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free, For God, the
   Just, is satisfied To look on Him, and pardon me."

   II. Let us turn to the second part of the subject. The chapter sets
   forth before us the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus. As soon as
   the bull was slain, the priest carefully collected the blood. The bull
   was slain in the court of the Israelites. Look, there it lies at the
   foot of the bronze altar, with the blood in a basin. The priest passes
   into the court of the priests, passes by the golden altar of incense
   which stood in the holy place, and proceeds to dip his finger in the
   basin and to sprinkle the blood seven times towards the veil which
   concealed the Holy of Holies. Whether the blood fell on the veil or not
   we are not certain. But we have good reason to believe that it was cast
   upon the veil itself.

   The veil, of costliest tapestry, would thus become by degrees more and
   more like a vesture dipped in blood. Seven times towards the veil the
   blood of the sin offering was sprinkled by the priest. Why did he begin
   there? It was to show that our communion with God is by blood. The veil
   was not then, of course, torn. It showed that the way of access to God
   was not then revealed. The sprinkling of the blood showed that the only
   thing that could open the way of access to God was the blood--that the
   blood, when it should be perfectly offered, seven times
   sprinkled--would tear the veil.

   The blood of Jesus has to the letter fulfilled the type. When our Lord
   had sprinkled, if I may say so, seven times His own heart's blood upon
   the veil, He said, "It is finished," and, "the veil of the temple was
   torn in two from the top to the bottom." Beloved, through the perfect
   offering of the precious blood we have access with boldness into this
   Divine Grace where we stand! And we who have faith in that blood have
   intimate communion with the living God, and come near to His Mercy Seat
   to talk with Him who dwells between the cherubim, as a man talks with
   his friend.

   The priest began at the innermost point because the first thing which a
   Christian loses through sin is communion with God, and free access to
   Him. And consequently the first thing to be restored to him must be
   this communion with his God. Suppose, my Brother, my Sister, you
   backslide. There are some things which you will not lose at once. You
   will still be able to pray in a feeble style. You will still have some
   sense of acceptance, but certainly your enjoyment and fellowship with
   God will be suspended as soon as you have fallen from your first
   estate. Therefore the blood is sprinkled upon the veil to show you that
   through the blood, and through the blood only, you can renew your
   access!

   You advanced Christians. You who have lived in the very heart of God
   and have stood like Milton's angel in the sun. You who have been made
   to sit at the banqueting table and to drink of the wines on the lees
   well refined. You who have been the King's favorites, and, like
   Mephibosheth, have always been made to sit at the King's own table and
   to eat of the choice portions of His dainties--if you have lost your
   heavenly fellowship--it is through the blood, and through the blood
   alone, that you can again have access unto the heart of God!

   The next act of the priest was to retire a little from the veil to the
   place where stood the golden altar of incense, adorned with four horns
   of gold, probably of a pyramidal shape, or fashioned like rams' horns.
   And the priest, dipping his finger in the basin, smeared this horn and
   the other, until the four horns glowed with crimson in the light of the
   golden candlestick. The horn is always, in the Oriental usage,
   indicative of strength. What was the blood put upon the

   altar for, then? That incense altar was typical of prayer, and
   especially of the intercession of Christ--and the blood on the horn
   showed that the force and power of all-prevailing intercession lies in
   the blood!

   Why was this the second thing done? It seems to me that the second
   thing which a Christian loses is his prevalence in prayer. First he
   loses communion with God when he backslides. The next thing he loses is
   his power in supplication. He begins to be feeble upon his knees. He
   cannot win of the Lord that which he desires. How is he to get back his
   strength? Here the great Anointed Priest teaches us to look to the
   blood for renewed power, for look, He applies the blood to the horns of
   the altar and the sweet perfume of frankincense ascends to Heaven and
   God accepts it! O Beloved, think of this! Christ's intercessory power
   with God lies in His precious blood, and your power and mine with God
   in prayer must lie in that blood, too.

   Oh, to see the horns of that altar smeared with blood! How can you ever
   prevail with God unless you plead the blood of Jesus? Believer, if you
   would overcome in prayer, tell the Lord of all the groans of His dear
   Son! Never dream of arguing except with arguments fetched from Jesus'
   wounds! These are potent pleas with God--the bloody sweat, the
   flagellation, the nails, the spear, the vinegar, the Cross--these must
   be the mighty reasons with which to overcome the Infinite One. Let the
   altar of your incense be smeared with blood!

   This being finished, the priest goes backwards still further and enters
   the court of the Israelites. There stood the great altar of brass,
   whereon was consumed the burnt offerings. And now the priest, having
   his basin full of the blood of which only a small quantity had been
   used in sprinkling the veil and touching the horns of the golden altar,
   pours the whole of the remaining blood in a great stream at the foot of
   the altar of burnt offering. What does that typify? Did He not thus
   teach us that the only ground and basis (for mark, it is put at the
   foot of the altar), of the acceptance of our persons and of our thank
   offerings is found in the blood of Jesus?

   Did it never strike you how the whole tabernacle must have been smeared
   with blood everywhere? Blood was on every side! The priest himself,
   when at his work, with garments on which showed every stain, must have
   looked as though all besmeared with gore! You could not look at his
   hands or at his vestments without seeing blood everywhere! Indeed, when
   consecrated, he had blood on his ear, blood on his foot, blood on his
   hand--he could not be made a priest without it. The Apostle says,
   "Almost everything under the Law was sprinkled with blood." It was
   blood, blood everywhere!

   Now, this could have been very far from a pleasant sight, except to the
   spiritual man who, as he looked at it, said, "What a holy God is the
   God of Israel! How He hates sin! See, He will only permit sinners to
   approach Him by the way of blood!" And then the inquiring mind would
   ask, "What blood is this which is here intended?" We know that the
   blood of bulls and of goats was but the visible symbol of the
   sufferings of Jesus, the great Sacrifice, whom God has set forth to be
   a propitiation for our sins. All the blood-marks pointed to the "Lamb
   of God, which takes away the sin of the world."

   Let us rejoice in the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without
   blemish and without spot, who was foreordained from the foundations of
   the world, but was manifest in these last days for us! Will you now
   make a summary of what has been spoken? Come with me outside the
   Tabernacle. Let us begin at the opening in its curtains leading to the
   outer court. We have sinned, and desire acceptance with God--that must
   be the first blessing. The bronze altar of burnt offerings is standing
   before us, and we wish to offer our thank offering, may we do so? How
   can we be accepted?

   Look at the bottom of the altar! What do you see there? A pool of blood
   all around it, as though the altar stood in blood! What does this mean?
   Surely the blood of Jesus is the basis of our acceptance before God,
   and here we stand as citizens of Heaven, not accursed, but beloved! Not
   rejected and abhorred, but elect and blessed through the blood which is
   the ground of our acceptance as Believers and citizens of Zion!

   Now we have come so far, we remember that we are not only citizens of
   the new Jerusalem, but priests unto God, and as priests we desire to
   enter the court of the priests. And there is the golden altar, but
   where is our power to minister before the Lord? How shall we approach
   with the love of our hearts, our joyful thanks, and our fervent
   intercessions? Behold the answer to our inquiries! Observe with joy the
   blood-marks on the four horns! It is not our prayers that will be in
   themselves prevalent, nor our praises, nor our love--but the BLOOD
   gives prevalence, acceptance, and power to all! Come here, then, and
   let us lay our heart itself, all bleeding, upon that altar and let our
   prayers and praises rise to Heaven, like pillars of smoke, accepted
   through the blood!

   But, Beloved, this is not all. We are something more than priests--we
   are children of God, dear to His heart! Let us, then, seek fellowship
   with our Father who is in Heaven. How can we enter into the Most Holy
   Place and commune with

   the God who hides Himself? What is the mode of entrance into that which
   is within the veil? We look, and lo, the veil is torn! And on the
   floor, right across where the veil used to hang, we see a line of
   blood, where, times without number, the blood had been sprinkled! And
   on the two pieces of the veil through which we pass, we can see many
   distinct traces of blood--yes, and when we come right up to the Mercy
   Seat we can see the blood there, too!

   What does this mean but that the blood is the means of access to God,
   and by no other means is He to be approached? When we shall be nearest
   to God and see Him face to face, and dwell with Him in Heaven forever,
   it will be because Jesus Christ loved us and died for us, and sprinkled
   His blood for us that we be permitted to have this close and wonderful
   communion with God which even angels never had--for even they can only
   veil their faces with their wings, and must not dare to look upon God
   as we shall do, when our eyes shall see Him as our Father and our
   Friend!

   Thus I have tried to set forth the threefold prevalence of the precious
   blood, but let it not be forgotten that the blood also put away sin!
   For you find at the end of the chapter, "His sin shall be forgiven."
   First forgiven, then accepted, then prevalent in prayer, and then
   admitted into access with boldness to God--what a chain of blessings!
   All, all through the blood of Jesus!

   III. Thirdly, the most painful part of our sermon remains, while I beg
   you to view the shame which our Lord endured. While it is all so well
   for us, so sweet for us, I want you now to reflect how bitter, how
   shameful it was for our Lord! The offerer who brought the sin offering
   has been forgiven. He has been accepted at the bronze altar. His
   prayers have been heard at the golden altar, and the veil has been
   sprinkled on his behalf. But what of the Victim itself? Draw near and
   learn with holy wonder!

   In the first place, albeit that our Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for
   us, it is noteworthy that, though nearly all the bull was burned
   outside he camp, there was one portion left and reserved to be burnt
   upon the altar of burnt offering-- the fat. Certain descriptions are
   given as to the fat which was to be consumed upon the altar, by which
   we believe it was intended to ensure that the richest part of the fat
   should be there consumed. As much as if God would say, "Though My dear
   Son must be made sin for this people, and consequently I must forsake
   Him, and He must die outside the camp, yet still He is most dear and
   precious in My sight. And even while He is a sin offering, yet He is My
   beloved Son in whom in Himself I am still well pleased."

   Brethren, whenever we speak about our Lord as bearing our sins, we must
   carefully speak concerning Him--not as though God ever did despise or
   abhor the prayer of His afflicted Son, but only seemed to do so while
   He stood for us-- representatively made sin for us, though He knew no
   sin. Oh, I delight to think that the Lord smelled a sweet savor unto
   God, even as a sin offering! The fat, the excellence of His heart, the
   consecration of His soul were acceptable to God and sweet in His esteem
   even when He laid upon Him the iniquity of His people!

   Still, here is the shameful part of it--the priest then took the bull,
   and gathering up all the innards, every part of it, the skin, the
   dung--all mentioned to teach us what a horrible thing sin is and what
   the Surety was looked upon as being when He took our sin--he took it
   all up, and either himself personally, or assisted by others, took it
   away out of the camp. We are told that in the wilderness, so large was
   the camp that it may have been the distance offour miles that this bull
   had to be carried.

   I think I see the sad procession--the priest all smeared with blood,
   carrying the carcass of the bull, taking it right away down the long
   line of tents. First through the abodes of one tribe and then of
   another--through the long streets of tents--while the people stood at
   their doors and saw the ghastly sight. It was killed at the altar of
   burnt offering. Why was it not burnt there? That altar was holy, and as
   soon as ever sin was laid upon the bull, it ceased to be any longer
   looked upon as a holy thing! It could not, therefore, be burnt in the
   holy place. It must be taken away. So the priest carried it away--a
   terrible load--till he reached the usual place where the ashes were
   kindled, and he put the bull there, and heaped the hot ashes upon it
   till the whole smoked up to Heaven, and was utterly consumed as a sin
   offering.

   My Beloved, try if you can, to grasp the idea of Jesus being put away
   from God! I cannot give you the thoughts, but if you could hear the air
   pierced with the dreadful cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabacthani?" "My God,
   My God, why have You forsaken Me?" you would see Christ put away
   because He was made sin. It was not possible for God to look upon sin,
   even when it was in Christ, with anything like complacency. "It pleased
   the Father to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief." If you have read
   the order of the burnt offering, you will have noticed that when the
   bull of the burnt offering was

   offered, it was washed, to show the perfection of Christ as He is a
   sweet savor, all pure and clean. But in this case there is added that
   humiliating word, "with the dung."

   What a humiliating type of Christ! Ah, but what are your sins and mine
   that were laid upon Jesus? How could our iniquities and transgressions
   be better set forth than by that bleeding, mangled mass which the high
   priest had to carry out away from the camp, as though it were a thing
   abhorred, which could not be endured in the camp any longer? It is your
   Savior made sin for you and put away on your behalf!

   After the removal, they gathered the hot ashes, they kindled the fire,
   and burnt it all. See here a faint image of the fire which consumed the
   Savior upon Calvary! His bodily pains ought never to be forgotten
   because there is so intimate a relation between physical suffering and
   mental grief that it were hard to draw the line. But still the
   sufferings of His soul must have been the very soul of His sufferings!
   And can you tell what they were?

   Have you ever suffered from a raging fever? Have you felt at the same
   time the pangs of some painful disease? Has your mind refused to rest?
   Has your brain been tossed like the waves of a sea of fire within your
   head? Have you questioned whether you should lose your reason or not?
   Have you ever been near unto distraction? Have you ever been near unto
   the breaking of the cords of life? If so, you may feebly guess what He
   suffered when He said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto
   death." And when He "began to be sorrowful and to be very heavy." Those
   were the coals of juniper which were being heaped over the sin
   offering.

   As you see Jesus scourged by Herod and by Pilate, and afterwards
   bleeding on the accursed tree, you see the fire of Divine wrath
   consuming the sin offering because our sin had been laid upon Him. I
   will not dwell longer on this, only ask the Holy Spirit to make you
   feel the shame that Christ suffered for you. Sometimes I cannot grasp
   the thought, when I have tried to think that He who made the heavens,
   to whom the whole blue arch is but as a span, and the depths of the
   seas as the hollow of His hand, should be made flesh! And then suffer
   for such an insignificant worm as I am!

   That He should suffer, however, never amazes me so much as that He
   should bear my sin. Oh, marvelous! The angels say, "Holy! Holy! Holy!
   Lord God of Sabaoth!" What could they have said when He, whom they
   hymned as "glorious in holiness," bowed His head and gave up the ghost,
   because "made sin for us"? Blessed Son of God! Where we cannot
   understand we will adore!

   The Apostle Paul suggests to us the most practical conclusion of our
   sermon. He tells us that as our Savior, having given His blood to be
   sprinkled within the Tabernacle for us, was then taken outside the
   camp, so it is our duty, yes, and our privilege, to go forth unto Him
   outside the camp also, bearing His reproach. You have heard how He was
   reproached for you! Are you unwilling to be reproached for Him? You
   have heard how He went outside the camp in that shameful manner! Are
   you unwilling to go outside the camp for Him? Too many Christians try
   to be Christians in the camp, but it cannot be done. "Be not conformed
   to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your minds."

   There is so much of worldly conformity among us! But the promise is not
   to worldly-minded Christians, but, "Come you out from among them. Be
   you separate. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and
   will be a Father unto you." How much we lose by affinities with the
   world! How much of distance there is between us and God because of the
   nearness there is between us and the world! Come out, you lovers of the
   Savior, and tread the separated way which your Savior walked before
   you!

   And now, should there be any here who are unsaved, I should not wonder
   but what some of them will make the remark, the almost, no, the quite
   profane remark, "Why, he spoke so much of blood!" Ah, Sinner, and we
   need to speak much of it to you, for it is your only hope! God will
   either have your blood or Christ's blood, one of the two. If you reject
   Christ, you shall perish in your sin. "The blood is the life thereof,"
   says the Word of God. And your life must be taken unless Christ's life
   shall avail for you. The very heart of Christ was broken to find out
   the way to save a sinner. And, Sinner, there is no other!

   If you refuse the purple road, you shall never reach the pearly gate.
   Trust in the blood of Jesus! Do you doubt? How can you? Is there not
   efficacy enough in the blood of the Son of God to take away sin? Do you
   contradict God's declared Truth, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
   cleanses us from all sin"? Oh, believe it, and cast your soul upon it,
   and we will meet within the veil, one of these days, to sing, "To Him
   that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood...to Him be
   glory forever and ever." Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                              Stephen's Martyrdom

   A sermon

   (No. 740)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 17, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into
   Heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand
   of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man
   standing at the right hand of God."- Acts 7:55,56.

   TRUE Christian zeal will seek to do the highest work of which
   sanctified humanity is capable. Stephen is first heard of as a
   distributor of the alms of the Church to needy widows. He exercised
   what was virtually, if not nominally, the deacon's office. Being grave,
   and not double-tongued, and holding the mystery of the faith in a good
   conscience, he was well fitted for his work. Doubtless he used the
   office of a deacon well, and so purchased to himself a good degree and
   great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

   Although the burdensome duty of serving tables might well have excused
   him from other service, we soon find him, full of faith and power,
   doing great wonders and miracles among the people. And not content with
   that, we see him defending the faith against a synagogue of subtle
   philosophical deniers of the Truth of God. These, with their allies,
   made the valiant deacon the object of their attack, and he at once rose
   to be an irresistible witness for the Gospel. Stephen the deacon became
   Stephen the preacher! This holy man not only used such gifts as he had
   in one department, but having abilities for a more spiritual form of
   service, he laid them at once upon the altar of Christ.

   Nor is this all, he had a higher promotion yet--when he had thus become
   Stephen the wise apologist and brave defender of the faith he did not
   stop there--he mounted to the highest rank of the Christian army! He
   gained the peerless dignity, the foremost nobility, the brightest
   glory--I mean the martyr's name and honor. Stephen the deacon is first
   Stephen the preacher, and afterwards Stephen, God's faithful and true
   witness, laying down his life that he may seal his testimony with his
   blood.

   Put a man without zeal into the front place and he will gradually
   recede into his native insignificance, or only linger in the front to
   be an impediment and a nuisance. But put a man into the rear of the
   army of God's elect, and if his soul is full of holy fire you will hear
   of the unknown Samson in the camps of Dan, and, before long he will
   dash into the vanguard and make the enemies of God's Church know that
   the Holy Spirit still dwells in the midst of Zion in the men whom He
   has chosen!

   If there are any of my Brothers and Sisters here whose abilities are as
   yet dormant, I trust that, without ambitiously seeking the chief places
   of the synagogue, if they have been useful in any one walk of life they
   will enquire whether they may not have talents for a yet wider sphere.
   In these evil days we have need to use every soldier in the army to the
   utmost of his capacity. When the world is so dark we had need that
   every lamp should give some light. We need that each lamp should burn
   as much oil as it will carry and that its light may be of the brightest
   possible kind.

   Stephen, as a martyr, is set before us in the words of our text. I
   shall not so much look upon him as witnessing for the Truth, as ask you
   to look, first, at the power of the Holy Spirit in him that you may
   learn to rely upon that Divine power. Secondly, I shall ask you to look
   at the Source of his dying comfort that you may learn to gaze upon the
   same ravishing vision! And, thirdly, I shall bid you notice the effect
   of this heavenly comfort upon him in the hope that we may live in peace
   and fall asleep in ease by faith in the same great Sight which cheered
   his dying eyes.

   I. First, then, this morning, I shall want every devout mind to OBSERVE
   THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS DEVELOPED IN STEPHEN'S DEATH IN ORDER
   THAT WE MAY LEARN TO RELY UPON THAT POWER. Here our grapes hang in
   clusters and we would have you note them one by one! I would have you
   observe, first, that although Stephen was surrounded by bitter enemies,
   no doubt railing and caviling and muttering their observations to
   disturb him and distract his mind, yet his defense is wonderfully
   logical, clear, consecutive, and forcible.

   If you read the seventh chapter through, you might think it was
   delivered from this pulpit to an audience as affectionate, appreciating
   and attentive as you may be! It does not read like an address delivered
   to a furious mob of bigots, gnashing their teeth at the lone, brave
   man. In calm, cool, deliberate, bold, stinging language he deals with
   them fearlessly and without reserve. He takes the sharp knife of the
   Word and rips up the sins of the people--laying open the inward parts
   of their hearts--and the secrets of their souls.

   Between the joints and the marrow he deliberately inserts the two-edged
   sword and discovers the thoughts and intents of their hearts. He could
   not have delivered that searching address with greater fearlessness had
   he been assured that they would thank him for the operation! The fact
   that his death was certain had no other effect upon him than to make
   him yet more zealous. What secret spirit helped him thus to speak? Had
   he prepared that speech with long elaboration and forethought? Had that
   oration been carefully composed, revised, and learned by heart?

   Far from it! He was not so unmindful of our Savior's words, "But when
   they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for
   it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is
   not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you."
   Seized upon, doubtless, without previous notice, and dragged before the
   council without being allowed a moment for deliberation, Stephen stood
   up and defended himself with the Truth of God as it is in Jesus! He
   spoke with all the skill of a practiced debater, with all the
   deliberation of one laboriously prepared, and with all the vigor of one
   whose zeal was like a fire in his bones!

   To what do we trace this mouth and wisdom which his enemies could not
   deny? To what, indeed, but to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit exerts
   such a power over the human mind that when it is His will He can enable
   His servants to collect their scattered thoughts, to concentrate all
   their powers upon one topic, and to speak the words of Truth and
   soberness with unaccustomed power. Moreover, the Lord can also touch
   the stammering tongue and make it as eloquent as the tongue of Isaiah
   of old to proclaim the Truth of God in the name of the Lord.

   I will not argue, my Brethren, that a minister, when called to speak
   for Christ, ought at all times to speak extemporaneously. I am so far
   removed from that opinion that I conscientiously believe that when we
   have the opportunity for studying the Word, if we waste it in idleness
   it is mere presumption to trust to the immediate inspiration of the
   moment. But I will say as much as this, that if the Christian minister,
   or if any one of you are called to speak for your Master-- when you can
   have had no preparation, you may confidently depend upon the Spirit of
   God to help you in your hour of difficulty--yes, and I will go farther
   and say that if more of our ministers believed in the power of the
   Spirit of God to help them in their preaching, their preaching would be
   more effective and God would own it more greatly to the conversion of
   souls.

   It seems to me a curious piece of absurdity, if not a specimen of
   blasphemy, for a preacher to ask the help of the Holy Spirit in his
   preaching, and then to pull his manuscript out of his pocket! Where is
   the room for the Holy Spirit to work? Have they not bolted and barred
   the door against Him? What thoughts can He suggest? What emotions can
   He excite? The paper is the guide of the hour. Why, then, should they
   mock the Holy Spirit by asking for His assistance--an assistance which
   they will not follow? Or, if I shall have committed every word to
   memory and prepared every sentence, and then shall come into the pulpit
   and ask to have an anointing from the Holy One to help me to speak,
   what do I but ask Him to do what I do not want Him to do, since I can
   do quite as well without Him as with Him, and should be thrown out of
   my course if He did assist me?

   It seems to me that after due study of the Word, if the preacher--if
   you, dear Friend, the teacher--will cast yourself upon the teaching of
   the Spirit of God, though distractions may occur, though in the
   congregation or in the Sunday school class there may be much to throw
   you off track and to make you lose the thread of your discourse. If you
   can rest upon the Spirit of God, He will enable you to speak with
   power, point, propriety, and personality. It is better to be taught of
   the Holy Spirit than to learn eloquence from the rules of oratory or at
   the feet of masters of rhetoric. The Spirit of God needs to be honored
   in the Church in this respect. I am quite sure that if He were more
   glorified we should find more who spoke with power--because we should
   find more who spoke with the Holy Spirit. Let this first remark stand
   with you for what it is worth, and I am persuaded that there is far
   more in it than some will care to see.

   Notice next the energy of the Holy Spirit conspicuously displayed in
   the manner and bearing of the martyr. What a right royal and triumphant
   bearing the man has! He does not stand in the midst of the raging
   multitude with his eyes fixed upon the ground as though, humbly patient
   and doggedly resigned, he felt crushed and overwhelmed. Neither does

   he cast his eyes around to observe a gap in the dense ring of cruel
   persecutors! He has no wish to elude the penalty of witness-bearing. He
   gazes steadfastly up into Heaven. They may gnash their teeth but they
   cannot disturb that settled gaze!

   Their noise and vehemence may roar like the raging waves of the sea,
   but from the serene depth of his inward peace his soul looks upward to
   the Eternal Throne and is ravished with unutterable delight. He
   despises the tumult of the people, not because he is contemptuous
   towards them, but because his whole soul is swallowed up in blissful
   adoration of his God! He looks up to Heaven and what he beholds through
   its opened portals makes him careless of the bloodthirsty foes below.
   Wondrous picture!

   Behold the man of shining countenance steadfastly looking up as though
   he tracked the road through which his soul would soon wing its way! As
   though he saw the angelic bands ascending and descending to minister to
   him! As though he held perpetual and abiding fellowship with the great
   Father of spirits, and was not to be disturbed or distracted by the
   rage of men. The bearing of many of the martyrs has been singularly
   heroic. You will be struck, in reading "Foxe's Acts and Monuments," to
   find how many of the most humble men and women acted as if they were of
   noblest blood. In every age the line of martyrs has been a line of true
   nobility.

   When the King of France told Bernard Palissy that if he did not change
   his sentiments he should be compelled to surrender him to the
   Inquisition, the brave potter said to the king, "You say I shall be
   compelled, and yet you are a king! But I, though only a poor potter,
   cannot be compelled to do other than I think to be right." Surely the
   potter was more royal than the king! The cases are numberless and
   should be as household words among you, in which humble men, feeble
   women and little children have shown a heroism which chivalry could not
   equal.

   The Spirit of God has taken the wise in their own craftiness and
   answered the learned out of the mouths of babes. The answers of
   uneducated persons among the martyrs were frequently so pat to the
   point and hit the nail so well on the head that you might almost
   suppose they had been composed by an assembly of Divines! They came
   from a better source than that, for they were given by the Holy Spirit!
   The bearing of the bleeding witnesses for our Lord has been worthy of
   their office and right well have they earned the title, "The noble army
   of martyrs."

   Now, my Brothers and Sisters, if you and I desire to walk among the
   sons of men without pride, but yet with a bearing that is worthy of our
   calling and adoption as princes of the blood royal of Heaven, we must
   be trained by the Holy Spirit. Those men who are cowardly, whose
   profession of religion is so timid that you scarcely know whether they
   have made it or not--those men who go cap-in-hand to the world, asking
   leave to live--know nothing of the Holy Spirit! When the Holy Spirit
   dwells in a man, he knows the right and holds the right and is not the
   servant of men.

   Most humble among the humble in all things else, when it comes to a
   matter of conscience he owns no master but his Master who is in Heaven!
   No child of God need fear the face of the great, for he is greater than
   they--he is God's true aristocrat! God has put within him a spirit of
   uprightness and sternness for the right which the world cannot bend,
   let its blasts howl as they will. I pray God we may learn the manliness
   of Christianity, for much injury has been done to the faith by
   professors adopting another mode of procedure and fawning and cringing
   before the mighty.

   That upward glance seems to say to us: "Eyes up, Christian! Eyes up!
   Let your heart go up to Heaven! Let the desires mount! Let the whole
   soul fly towards Heaven." With Heaven in our sight we may walk through
   the crowds of men as a lion walks through a flock of sheep, and our
   fellow men shall involuntarily acknowledge our power. The power of the
   Spirit was also very conspicuously seen in the case of Stephen in
   another respect, namely, in the calm and happy spirit which he
   manifested. I see no fear! I mark no sign of trepidation! He wipes no
   hot sweat from his brow! He faints not, much less does he offer any
   plea by which he may escape from their cruel hands.

   He never walked out of that gate of Jerusalem with a more joyous and
   tranquil spirit on the brightest day of summer, than on that occasion
   when they dragged him out to die--still, resigned, calm, and happy! It
   is a great thing for a Christian to keep himself quiet within when
   turmoil rules outside. When the mind gets distracted we are not able to
   judge of what is wise. A disturbed and distracted spirit generally
   rushes in foolish haste to escape from the difficulty, and so falls
   into sin in some form or other.

   To be calm amid the bewildering cry. To be confident of victory. To be
   still and know that God is God. To stand still with the children of
   Israel at the Red Sea and see the salvation of God. All this is hard,
   so hard that only the Divine Dove, the Comforter, can bring us from
   above the power to be so! But when once the art of being still is fully
   learned, what strength and bliss is in it! How many of us, in the face
   of death, could return death's stony gaze? If it were now de-

   creed that at this moment you must lay down your life, could you smile?
   Why, the mere thought of it disturbs you, but the fact would alarm you
   beyond degree.

   But not so Stephen! His soul rests at anchor in an unruffled haven. Oh,
   it is in these solemn moments of test when we are not merely talking of
   death and vaingloriously boasting of our love to Christ, but when death
   actually comes and our love is sternly put to the trial--it is then
   that the Omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is seen--when He gives to His
   servants that sweet peace which none can know but the man who enjoys
   it! I have not yet declared all the glorious works of the Holy Spirit
   upon this first Christian martyr. In addition to the accuracy of his
   defense, and the royalty of his manner, and the happiness of his
   spirit, the Spirit of God was even more clearly seen in his holy and
   forgiving temper.

   In Stephen's dying prayer he imitates his Lord: "Lay not this sin to
   their charge." He stood erect when he prayed for himself, and I know
   not that he spoke aloud. But when it came to praying for the multitude
   around him, his spirit acquired a greater vehemence and earnestness. We
   are told, in the first place, that he knelt down, as if to make them
   see how he prayed. And then he prayed with a loud voice that they might
   hear as well as see. He spent his last breath in a loud cry to
   Heaven--that his murder might not be laid at the door of his
   persecutors!

   O sweet Spirit of the Son of Man lingering still on earth! "Father,
   forgive them, for they know not what they do," has been the pattern and
   the forerunner of ten thousand prayers of a similar heavenly character!
   It has been the mark of a Christian to die patiently with forgiveness
   on his lips. Thousands of those who wear the ruby crown this day and
   are--

   "Foremost of the sons of light, Midst the bright ones doubly bright,"
   passed away from earth with just those very words upon their lips!
   Surely this is a work of the Holy Spirit, indeed! We can scarcely
   forgive those who offend us but a little. We find it not altogether
   easy to live at peace with all men--but to die at peace with them and
   to die at peace with our murderers--what shall I say of it? Surely this
   is what the world cannot understand--a celestial, a Divine
   virtue--which must be implanted in human hearts by God Himself!

   Note, once more, the power of the Spirit was seen in enabling
   Stephen--at such a juncture when the stones were rattling about his
   ears and his body was bruised and mangled by them--to pray one of the
   most prevalent prayers that ever went up to Heaven! The prayer we have
   just mentioned did not die in the air outside Jerusalem's gate--it
   passed through the gate of pearl--it reached the heart of God and it
   obtained an answer! See that eager, impetuous, young man yonder, about
   thirty years of age? The clothes of the witnesses are laid down at his
   feet!

   He desires to have a prominent part in stoning the hated Nazarene. He
   is one of the most fiery of those ferocious bigots. He belongs to the
   synagogue of Cilicia, and, having been defeated in argument, he
   rejoices that harder weapons are at hand. He is glad to see the heretic
   die. He gloats his eyes with the spectacle, for he feels that Moses and
   the Law, and the rabbis and the traditions are this day avenged! Mark
   that young man well, for Stephen's prayer is meant for him, though he
   knows it not. It may be that he heard the plaintive petition and
   despised it. It is just possible that having heard it he went away to
   sneer at it and to remark upon the hypocritical character of those
   disciples of Jesus who could lisp their Leader's dying words as if they
   were their own.

   Yet I think that blessed petition must have rankled in his heart. He
   must have felt that there was a spirit there far better than his own.
   Whether or not that prayer remained with him just then, in after years
   he must have looked upon Stephen as being, if anyone was, his spiritual
   father by whose dying prayer he was begotten unto God! In speaking of
   his conversion, surely Paul must have thought within himself it was the
   prayer of Stephen that was the means of changing Saul the persecutor
   into Paul the Apostle of the crucified Son of God!

   Ah, well, my Friends, you and I cannot always prevail in prayer, even
   in sunny weather. What a grand Spirit must that be who could help
   Stephen to unlock Heaven's gates in the dreary article of death! To
   have power with God to pluck the Savior by the sleeve and to bring Him
   to save this guilty, raving persecutor just when the stones were
   falling upon him and his flesh was being battered and bruised! O
   blessed Spirit, though the outward man decays, You do renew the inner
   man day by day!

   Behold, Beloved, how independent of outward circumstances the Holy
   Spirit can make the Christian! See what a bright light may shine within
   us when it is all dark outside! See how firm, how happy, how calm, how
   peaceful we may be when the world shakes to and fro, and the pillars of
   the earth are removed! See how even death itself, with all its terrible
   influences, has no power to suspend the music of a Christian's heart,
   but rather makes that music become more sweet,

   more clear, more heavenly till the last kind act which death can do is
   to let the earthly strain melt into the heavenly cho-rus--the temporal
   joy into the eternal bliss! Let us have confidence, then, in the
   blessed Spirit!

   Are you looking forward, my dear Friend, to poverty? Does your business
   decline? Do you see clearly before you that you will have to put up
   with the woes of penury? Fear not! The Divine Spirit can give you, in
   your need, a greater plenty than the rich have in their abundance! You
   know not what joys may be stored up for you in the cottage which Divine
   Grace will make the cottage of content.

   Are you conscious of a growing failure of your bodily powers? Do you
   expect to suffer long nights of languishing and days of pain?

   Oh, be not sad! That bed may become a throne to you! You little know
   how every pang that shoots through your body may be a refining fire to
   consume your dross--a beam of glory to light up the secret parts of
   your soul! Are the eyes failing? Do you expect blindness? Jesus will be
   your light! Do the ears fail you? Do you hear but few sounds? Jesus'
   name will be your soul's best music and His Person your dear delight!
   Socrates used to say--"Philosophers can be happy without music." And we
   Christians can be happier than philosophers when all outward causes of
   rejoicing are withdrawn! In You, my God, my heart shall triumph come
   what may of ills without! By Your power, O blessed Spirit, my heart
   shall be exceedingly glad even should all things fail me here below.

   May this first point be practically serviceable to you! Trust the Holy
   Spirit! Rely firmly upon Him and He will not suffer you to be
   confounded.

   II. THE SOURCE OF RICHEST COMFORT WILL NEXT BE INDICATED WITH THE HOPE
   THAT WE MAY LEARN TO LOOK THERE. It was the end and aim of the Holy
   Spirit to make Stephen happy. How could this be done? By revealing to
   him the living and reigning Savior at the right hand of God! Whether or
   not Stephen saw literally with his eyes the Lord Jesus standing at the
   right hand of God we do not know. It is possible that what is meant
   here is that his faith became so unusually strong that he had the most
   clear and vivid sense of Christ's reigning in Heaven--so much so that
   it might be fitly said that he actually saw the Lord Jesus standing at
   the right hand of God.

   If it were really a supernatural vision, you and I have no ground to
   expect a repetition of it, but, if it were a vision of faith, as I
   think it was, there is no sort of reason why we should not enjoy it
   even now! If we have like precious faith with Stephen, since it is a
   great fact that Christ is there, there is no reason why our faith
   should not see what Stephen's faith saw! And there is no reason that
   this very day our soul's eyes may see Jesus, and our souls may receive
   the same joy and gladness of a sight of Christ which Stephen obtained!

   What, then, did Stephen see? He saw first, that Jesus was alive. This
   is no small thing--

   "He lives, the great Redeemer lives! What joy the blest assurance
   gives!" Alive, too, after the Crucifixion! Stephen knew that Christ had
   died upon the Cross. In that fact was the confidence of his soul. But
   he saw that, though once dead and buried, Jesus still lived! Here was
   great comfort for Stephen. He was not serving a dead Christ! He was not
   defending the honor of a departed Prophet! He was speaking for a Friend
   who still existed to hear his pleadings and to accept his testimony!

   Stephen argued within himself, "If Christ lives after crucifixion, why
   should not Stephen live, through Christ, after stoning? If the nails of
   the Cross sufficed not to leave the Savior dead, neither shall the
   stones from the Jews avail to rob Stephen of resurrection! Jesus rises
   from His grave, and Stephen shall rise also! No mean assurance was
   this! It is a rich source of comfort for you and me this day if
   conscious of our frailty and of the near approach of mortality--because
   Jesus lives we shall live also!

   Moreover, Stephen not only saw Jesus living, but he knew that Jesus saw
   him and sympathized with him! Is not that the meaning of the attitude
   which the Lord assumed? We are told that our Lord sits at the right
   hand of God, "expecting till His enemies are made His footstool," and
   yet in the text He is not seen as sitting, but as standing. Why
   standing? One of the old fathers says it was as though the Lord Jesus
   stood up in horror at the deed which was being done--as though He were
   about to interpose to help His servant die, or to deliver him out of
   their hands. He stands up, actively sympathizing with His suffering
   witness.

   Well, Beloved, this is just what we see in Heaven. The Man of Sorrows
   is alive and sympathizes with His people still! Though raised to the
   Throne of Glory, He is not forgetful of our shame and sorrow. Think
   not, O child of earth that the

   Son of Man has forgotten what temptation means and is now a stranger to
   human weakness and infirmity! "In all your affliction He is afflicted."
   He deeply sympathizes with every one of His tried Brothers and Sisters,
   "and in His measure feels afresh what every member bears."

   Suppose not that He is an unthoughtful, uncaring spectator of your
   trials, child of God! Christ has risen from His Throne to assist you!
   He stands at this moment, in the hour of your extremity, ready to help
   you. He will send you comfort when you need it, and He will see that
   your strength shall be to your day. What a sight was this for the dying
   Stephen! Jesus is living and living with the same love in His heart
   which He showed on earth--with the same tender sympathy which He
   manifested among the twelve when He lingered among the sons of men. The
   brightest point in the vision was this--Stephen saw Jesus standing at
   the right hand of God. That was the point in dispute.

   The Jews said the Nazarene was an impostor. "No," said Stephen, "there
   He is! He stands at the right hand of God." To Stephen's mind the point
   was settled by what he saw. This was the main thing--the only thing,
   indeed, that Stephen cared for--he craved to have his Lord exalted and
   he saw Him exalted! The people rage! The rulers take counsel together,
   but yonder is the King upon the holy hill of God! Beyond a doubt He is
   a reigning monarch, and to Stephen's heart this was all he wished.

   If any fear had been felt by Stephen, it was not for himself--it was
   for the Church. He thought, "These wolves tear me first, but what will
   become of the rest of the sheep? How will any escape from their fangs?"
   He looked up and there stood the Shepherd looking down upon the wolves,
   and saying to His dearly-purchased sheep, "Fear not, little flock; for
   it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." That seems
   to me to be the grandest part of the vision-- Christ living, Christ
   loving, and Christ REIGNING--the triumphant Savior at the right hand of
   God!

   My Brothers and Sisters, this doctrine has been to my own soul the only
   one which has cheered me in times of extreme deep depression of spirit.
   As I have told you before, so I tell you now--I have known what it is
   to be brought so low in heart that no promise of God's Word gave me a
   ray of light--nor a single doctrine afforded me a gleam of comfort. And
   yet, so often as I have come across this text, "Wherefore God also has
   highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name," I
   have always found a flood of joy bursting into my soul, for I have
   said, "Well, it is of no consequence what may become of me if my name
   is cast out as evil, and if I myself am left in darkness. If pains
   should multiply, if sorrows should increase beyond number, it does not
   matter--I will not lift up a finger so long as my Lord Jesus is
   exalted."

   I believe that every genuine Christian heart that loves the Savior
   feels just that. Like the dying soldier in the hour of battle who is
   cheered with the thought, "The general is safe. The victory is on our
   side. My blood is well spent, my life well lost, to win the victory."
   Let Christ reign and I will make no bargain with God as to myself! Let
   Jesus be King the whole world over--I care for nothing else! Let Him
   wear the crown! Let the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hands! Let
   His covenant purposes be fulfilled! Let His elect be saved! Let the
   kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
   Christ, why, what matters it even though ten thousand of us should go
   pining through the valley of the shadow of death? Our lives and deaths
   would all be well spent to earn so great a reward as to see Jesus
   glorified! I would like to put this telescope, then, to the eye of
   every sorrowing Christian here, because having had so sweet an
   influence upon my own heart, surely it might comfort theirs.

   Dear Friend, you are troubled this morning. You are cast down. You do
   not prosper as you could wish in heavenly things. Well, but Christ is
   not troubled. He is not cast down! And the great fight, after all, goes
   rightly enough. God's great purposes are subserved. Christ is
   glorified! Here are two or three pearls for you--gaze upon them, and
   prize them. First, remember that your exalted Savior is exalted to
   intercede for you. If He has power, He uses it in prayer for you.
   Christ has no merit which He does not plead for you.

   Jesus has received no reward in consequence of His death which He will
   withhold from you. Dear to the Father He is, but He uses that influence
   on your behalf. Joseph said to the butler, "Speak for me when it shall
   be well with you." But the butler forgot him. It is well with Jesus
   today, and, depend upon it, it is well with you, also, for the
   Well-Beloved cannot forget you! And as He always has the Father's ear,
   He will pray the Father for you and whatever you need shall surely be
   given you.

   Remember, too, that Christ has this power not only to intercede for
   you, but to prepare a place for you. Christian, Christ is a king of
   boundless wealth and He desires to use the wealth of His royal treasury
   to furnish that mansion of

   yours most richly--so as to make it worthy of the Giver who shall
   bestow it upon you! Moreover, Jesus is in Heaven as your
   representative. You are virtually in Heaven at this very moment in
   God's esteem. Your Representative is there. My Captain is in Heaven,
   why should I fear? How can God give Heaven to the head, and Hell to the
   foot? As sure as Christ is there, every one of those who are virtually
   united to Him shall be there also!

   Only prove that Christ is in Heaven and you have proven that every
   Believer must be there, too! Christ's body cannot be mangled. You
   cannot cut the spiritual body of Jesus into pieces and throw one limb
   of it into Hell, while the head goes up to Heaven. Because He lives, we
   shall live also! And it is His will that where He is, there should also
   His people be. Jesus is in Heaven full of power--there to intercede, to
   represent, to prepare--and that far-reaching power darts its rays down
   to earth. The keys of Providence swing at the belt of Christ!

   Believe it, Christian--nothing occurs here without the permit or the
   decree of your Savior who loved you and gave Himself for you. Does the
   enemy rage? Jesus will put a bit between his jaws and turn him back.
   "Surely the wrath of man shall praise You: the remainder of wrath shall
   You restrain." Your Lord Jesus Christ has all power in Heaven and in
   earth--and all this power He will exert to bring every one, even the
   weakest of His children, into His bosom. Blessed be the sweet love of
   God which has given us an Omnipotent Shepherd to watch over us by night
   and by day! His head is crowned because He has conquered all His foes.

   Surely, we may see in that crown of victory the indication that no foe
   shall ever be able to conquer us! I wish that I could bring out to you
   the sweetness of the thought of Jesus glorified as I have enjoyed it in
   my own heart. It charms me to think, sometimes, that as surely as sin,
   death, and Hell are under the feet of the Son of Man, so surely shall
   these very feet of mine he set upon the dragon's neck. If I am in
   Christ, as certainly as Jesus is a conqueror, so shall I be more than a
   conqueror through Him that has loved me!

   What sweeter sight could Stephen see than this, when the enemy was at
   his worst, still Christ was unconquered! And Stephen could read in that
   the fact that Stephen would be unconquered, too! The stones that felled
   and crushed him would not destroy him! The voice of his blood would cry
   from the ground and the spiritual Stephen would become the victor over
   the hosts of error! The Truth would spring out of the dust and blossom
   like a sweet flower, and God would be glorified when His servant was
   slain!

   Thus I have indicated to you the delightful vision which can give us
   comfort. Lord, open our eyes to see it!

   III. Finally, THE COMFORT ITSELF is worth a moment's consideration. We
   do not find that the appearance of Jesus in the heavens stopped the
   stones. When the Son of Man came into the furnace with Shadrach,
   Meshach, and Abed-nego, the fire did not burn the three holy children,
   but on this occasion, though the Son of Man was there, the fire did
   burn Stephen.

   Stephen's life is not spared. He dies as certainly as if Jesus had not
   been there. That is the plan of the present dispensation. The Lord
   Jesus does not come to us to forbid our suffering, nor to remove our
   griefs, but He sustains us under them. We beseech the Lord thrice that
   this or that may depart from us. It does not depart--that is not the
   general way with God--but we get the answer, "My strength is sufficient
   for you. My strength shall be perfect in weakness." It was so with
   Stephen.

   The stones fell. They beat about his head. They stopped his eloquent
   tongue. They dashed into his heaving lungs. They bruised his tender
   heart. There lay his mangled corpse--an object of love and of
   lamentation to the saints that were at Jerusalem. The love of Christ
   had not preserved the flesh. And who ought to expect it? We have heard
   it said, "If Christ died for His people, how is it that they die?" Such
   questioners forget that the people of God must die because Jesus died!
   The death of the flesh is no bad thing, but a blessing! It behooves us
   to tread in the Savior's steps that we also may die unto the flesh, but
   be quickened in the Spirit.

   The death of Stephen we do not look upon as a calamity. The death of
   the flesh was but a necessary fellowship with the crucified Redeemer,
   for Stephen did not die as to his spirit--that enjoyed immortality
   which the rugged masses of rock which were heaved upon him could not
   injure. Stephen's glorious comfort was in being sustained within,
   though not shielded from without--in being preserved as to his inner
   man, though the outer man was bruised and battered. This is the comfort
   you and I may expect.

   Through the darts we must go and they must stick in our flesh--but they
   shall not poison the blood of our soul. Beneath the storm of hail we
   must stand and yet no hailstones shall be able to strike our heart to
   injure it. Through the fur-

   nace we must go and the smell of fire must pass upon us--but we shall
   come out of the flaming heat uninjured by the blazing fire. 'Tis ours
   to suffer and yet to conquer, to die and yet to live, to be buried and
   yet to rise again! How sweetly is Stephen's triumph pictured in those
   last words, "He fell asleep." This is the life as well as the death of
   a Christian!

   When the world has been most in arms against a Believer it is wonderful
   how God has given sleep to His beloved. How the saint has rested with
   perfect composure in the sight of his enemies and his cup has run over
   in the time of drought! Calmly on the bosom of his God he has laid his
   head and left his troubles for his God to bear. This shall be the death
   of the Christian. Let his death be as painful as that of Stephen's, it
   shall be quite as composed. He shall shut his eyes to earth and open
   them to Heaven!

   His body shall but sleep in that royal sepulcher where Christ Himself
   once reposed, to be awakened by that heavenly trumpeter who shall bring
   the tidings of resurrection to the sleeping myriads of the saints!
   Courage, Brothers and Sisters, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us and
   because Christ up yonder is triumphant for us! Let our tribulations
   abound--our consolations also shall abound by Jesus Christ--and we
   shall be more than conquerors through Him that has loved us!

   I wish you all had a share in these precious things. If you had, it
   would not matter how badly I spoke of them--they would charm your
   souls. But if you do not understand them, I pray that you may. May the
   Spirit of the Lord open your eyes to see the power of the Spirit and
   the glory of Christ! And may you and I before long see Him face to face
   in Paradise. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                               A Troubled Prayer

   A sermon

   (No. 741)

   Delivered by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Look upon my affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins." Psalm
   25:18.

   IF this Psalm were, indeed, written by David at the time when his son
   Absalom had raised the rebellion against him, we can readily understand
   the distinction which he draws between his "affliction," and his
   "pain." It is a great "affliction" to have a son become a rebel and
   that subjects who owed so much to their monarch should become traitors
   against his gentle government. "Pain" was the acute sensation which
   David's own heart experienced as the result of such calamity. He knew--

   "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child."

   None of us can guess the "pain" which David must have felt from the
   "affliction" of having such a son as Absalom, and the "pain" of mind,
   again, which he felt in being betrayed by his familiar counselor,
   Ahithophel, and in being forsaken by his subjects who in former days
   had honored him and rejoiced in him. He asked the Lord, therefore, to
   look not only upon the trouble, but also upon the misery which the
   trouble caused him. "If needs be," says the Apostle, "we are in
   heaviness through manifold temptations"--as if not only the temptations
   were to be observed, but also the heaviness consequent thereof. So here
   we may bring before God's notice not only our trial, but the inward
   anguish which the trial occasions us.

   I can understand, also, why David should add, "And forgive all my
   sins," because he knew that the revolt of Absalom was mysteriously
   connected with the Divine purpose as a chastisement for his sin with
   Bathsheba. He recollected how Nathan had told him that he should have
   war all the days of his life--and now he remembered it all--the
   bitterness of gall sickened his soul as he remembered that sin which
   had once been so sweet to his taste. He went back to the fatal day and
   the tears stood in his eyes as he thought of all the filth and guilt of
   his conduct--what a traitor he had been to Uriah--how he had dishonored
   the name of God in the midst of the whole land!

   Well might he have said, "Lord, when You look upon this well-deserved
   affliction, and when You see the pain with which it brings my soul,
   then, though it will bring my sin to Your mind as it does to mine, yet
   let forgiveness blot it out. Yes, not for that sin only, but for all
   others that have preceded or followed it grant me a gracious
   pardon--forgive, I pray You, all my sins."

   1. It is well for us, dear Friends, WHEN OUR PRAYERS ABOUT OUR SORROWS
   ARE LINKED WITH PRAYERS ABOUT OUR SINS--WHEN, BEING UNDER GOD'S HAND,
   OUR SOUL IS NOT WHOLLY TAKEN UP WITH OUR PAIN, BUT WE ALSO REMEMBER OUR
   OFFENSES AGAINST GOD. I do not think it would have been worth one's
   while to have preached from the text if it had only said, "Remember my
   affliction and my pain." But when it is, "Look upon my affliction and
   my pain; and forgive all my sins," the two things put together are very
   instructive.

   Let us seek to get some edifying counsel from them. Our sorrows are
   profitable when they bring our sins to our minds. Some sorrows may do
   this by giving us lime for thought. A sickbed has often been a place of
   repentance. While the man was occupied with his daily work and the
   active labor of his hands, or could be from morning till night at
   business, sin escaped his notice. He was too busy to care about his
   soul. He had too much to do with earth to remember Heaven. But now he
   cannot think of business, or if he does he can get no profit or
   satisfaction from all his thoughts--now he cannot go to his work but
   must lie upon his bed until his health is recovered.

   And oftentimes the quiet of the night, or the stillness of the day
   which once was given up to toil and drudgery has been blessed of God to
   work a solemn stillness in the soul in which the voice of God has been
   heard, saying, "Turn unto Me! Turn unto Me! Why will you die?" Some of
   you do not often hear God's voice. You are in the midst of the clitter-

   clatter of this great city and the roar and din of it are so
   perpetually ringing in your ears that the still small voice of your
   heavenly Father you do not hear. And it may, perhaps, be a great mercy
   to you if, in your own house, or in the ward of an hospital, you may be
   compelled to hear Him say, "Turn unto Me! Turn unto Me! For I will have
   mercy upon you!"

   Other afflictions remind us of our sins because they are the direct
   result of transgression. The profligate man, if God should bless those
   scourges of the body which have even sprung from his own vices, may
   find the disease to be a cure for the misdemeanors which produced it.
   We ought to thank God that He will not let us sin without chastisement.
   If any of you are sinning and find pleasure without penalty in the
   self-indulgence, do not congratulate yourself upon the apparent
   immunity with which you violate the laws of virtue--for that is the
   badge of the reprobate.

   To sin and never smart is the mark of those who will be damned. Their
   smart, like their doom, being in reserve and stored up for sorer
   judgment. But if any man among you here is now smarting for the sin he
   has committed, I will not say, let him be hopeful, but I will say, let
   him be thankful! Let him remember that evidently God has not quite
   given him up--He has touched him with the rod, but He has not thrown
   the reins upon his neck! He has put a curb in his mouth and He is
   pulling him up sharply. God grant that it may be blessed to turn him
   from his wild career.

   The extravagant man who has spent his money and finds himself in rags
   ought to look upon his sins through his rags. His present poverty may
   well remind him of his previous prodigality. The man who has lost a
   friend through ingratitude and now needs a friend but cannot find one,
   may thank himself for it, and be reminded of his baseness by his
   bankruptcy. There are many other sins, though we have not time to
   mention them, which are evidently the fathers of sorrows. And when you
   get the sorrowful offspring you should think of the guilty
   parentage--and if you would be rid of the child, go to God and ask Him
   to deliver you from the sin and divorce you from the transgression that
   produced it.

   Other sorrows, likewise, remind us of our sins because they bear their
   likeness. It has been well remarked that oftentimes when God would
   punish us He just leaves us to eat the fruit of our own ways. He has
   nothing more to do than to let the seed which we have sown ripen, and
   then allow us to eat it. How often in reading the Holy Scriptures may
   you observe the quality of men's sins in the nature of their
   punishment! Jacob deceived his father, and what then? Why, he was
   always being deceived all his life long!

   He was a great bargain-maker, so everybody cheated him, of course! He
   would use his wily cleverness and as he would be clever and supplant,
   he had to become a dupe and be supplanted. That was the misery of his
   life because it was the besetting sin of his character. Now when a man
   loses money, loses it continually--notwithstanding all the skill and
   efforts he can employ--I would have him ask himself whether there may
   not have been some sin in connection with his money which has brought
   the punishment on him. He may have loved it too much! He may have
   obtained it in an illegal way! He may not have used it when he had it
   in a proper spirit--it may have been dangerous for it to remain with
   him lest it should have corroded his heart by its own cankering.

   The losses a man suffers in business, I doubt not in many cases, and I
   am sure of it in some cases, ought to make him look earnestly at the
   way in which they came upon him. When we have heard of some who have
   gained wealth by one speculation and have lost it again by another
   speculation, I think it ought to be made the subject of enquiry with
   them how far their dealings were lawful, if indeed it were lawful for
   them to have entered upon such traffic in any shape or form. The
   question must be asked whether God may not have had a controversy with
   them in their counting-house. Is this an obligation with money?

   Surely it often is so with the rearing of your family. If your
   affliction should come through your children turning out evil in life,
   or through what is a far lighter affliction--though, perhaps, you may
   not think it so--through your children dying in infancy, you may say to
   yourselves, "How have I behaved towards those children?" Is my child
   willful and disobedient? Then how about the training and the management
   that I have observed? Is my child perverse, vicious, worldly? How about
   my example as it was seen at the family hearth? May not my boy's sins
   be only a reproduction of my own? Might not the fledglings that I have
   hatched roost in my family, disturb my peace, and bring me sorrow? May
   not my daughter's stubbornness of heart be only my own obduracy that
   breaks out in the girl?

   Might I not hear the voice of God saying to me, "See how you treated
   Me, and is it not meet you should eat the fruit of your own ways? You
   are a father, and how do you like to be thus treated--to be slighted in
   your discipline, and your affections set at nothing?" So I might
   continue, passing from our households to our respective positions in
   society. We sometimes find ourselves unable to maintain our station.
   With chagrin and mortification we have to take a lower place,

   and may we not then ask, Did we acquit ourselves before God in all that
   we might have done in our former standing? Did the rank we held elevate
   us and puff us up with vanity?

   At any rate, we may bring ourselves to great searching of heart. When
   sorrow takes any particular shape it suggests its own particular
   questions. The problem must be studied to get at the solution. With
   regard to sickness, I am not certain whether the chastening hand of God
   for sin ought not to be more immediately recognized than is now, for
   the most part, common among us. In one sense God never punishes His
   people for sin. There is nothing vindictive in the rod He uses, and
   nothing expiatory in the sufferings they endure. God's redeemed people
   were punished in Christ and it cannot be, therefore, that the penalty
   of the Law is exacted on them a second time.

   Yet there is a sense in which the Church of God, under paternal
   discipline, is continually exercised with chastisement. Do you remember
   the Apostle's words about the Corinthian Church? They had fallen into a
   very lax method of receiving the Lord's Supper. They brought, everyone,
   his own bread and wine. Some of them were full, and others were hungry,
   beside which, other breaches of Church order were rife among them. And
   the Apostle says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you,
   and many sleep."

   Therefore I gather that sickness, at any rate, in the early Church, was
   likely to be sent by God upon the members for ecclesiastical offenses.
   I am not sure whether in like manner sacred corrections, though in a
   way not so easily discoverable, may not still be in exercise among the
   members of the Christian Church. I see that in ordinary Providence God
   visits men, and as there is a special Providence for His people, surely
   there is nothing harsh or unwarrantable in attributing a strong flood
   of adversity, as well as a refreshing stream of prosperity, to the hand
   of the Lord!

   When a Christian, therefore, finds himself chastened in his body, he
   should go to God with this question, "Show me why You contend with me.
   Why do You lay Your rod upon me, my Father? You do not afflict
   willingly, nor grieve the children of men. It is not from the heart, as
   though You had ceased to love. It must be from Your unerring judgment
   where in measure You do rebuke. Tell me, therefore, my Father, what is
   the cause? If You see a reason, tell me what that reason is--

   'The dearest idol I have known,

   Whatever that idol is,

   Help me to tear it from Your throne,

   And worship only You.' "

   Our sins, then, may sometimes be discovered by the very image of our
   sorrows. What a great blessing it is to us when our sorrows remind us
   of our sins by driving us out of an atmosphere of worldliness! There is
   our nest, and a very pretty, round, snug nest it is. And we have been
   very busy picking up all the softest feathers that we could find, and
   all the prettiest bits of moss that earth could yield. And we have been
   engaged night and day making that nest soft and warm. There we intended
   to remain. We meant for ourselves a long indulgence, sheltered from
   inclement winds, never to put our feet among the cold dewdrops, nor to
   weary our pinions by mounting up into the clouds.

   But suddenly a thorn came into our breast. We tried to remove it but
   the more we struggled the more it chafed, and the more deeply the thorn
   fixed itself into us. Then we just began to spread our wings and as we
   mounted it would seem as though the atmosphere had changed, and our
   souls had changed, too, with the mounting, and we began to sing the old
   forgotten song--which in the nest we never should have sung--the song
   of those who mount from earth and have communion with the skies.

   Yes, when God is pleased to take away our health, our comfort, our
   children, our friends, it very frequently happens that then we think of
   Him! We turn from the creature with disgust. We leave the broken
   cisterns because they hold no water and begin to look out for the
   overflowing Fountain. And so our sorrows, driving us to God, make us,
   in the light of His Countenance, to behold and to grieve over our sins.
   This is a great blessing to us! Sometimes, again, our sorrows remind us
   of our ingratitude. You are unwell--now you recollect how ungrateful
   you were for your health. You are poor--"Ah," you think to yourselves,
   "I used to grumble once over a good meal that I should be glad to have
   now."

   "Ah," you say, "those garments that I used to think so shabby--how much
   I should prize their warmth now!" It is said that we never know the
   value of mercies till we lose them. It is a great shame that such a
   proverb should be true. We ought to be grateful to God without needing
   the bitter teaching of adversity. Our sorrow thus administers a
   rebuke-- and kindles in us a remembrance of the goodness that we had
   never welcomed with our praise till the shadows fell upon us--and the
   night hid it from our view.

   No crime among men is accounted more base than ingratitude, but few
   sins we less bewail before God. Bunyan has well said that he who
   forgets his friend is ungrateful to him, but he that forgets his Savior
   is unmerciful to himself. And I remember some other author who says
   that we are never surprised at the sunrise of our joys, as we are at
   their sunset. On the contrary, when storms of sorrow burst upon us we
   are sorely amazed, but when they pass away we take it as a matter of
   course. You all know how sad a blemish it was upon the character of
   Hezekiah that he rendered not again unto the Lord according to the
   benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up in vainglory. The
   provocation of a thankless heart to a merciful God is no light matter.
   As the guilt is heavy, let our repentance be sincere.

   Sometimes, again, sorrow reminds us of the sin of need of sympathy with
   those in like sorrow. "Ah," says one, "I used to laugh at Mrs.
   So-and-So for being nervous. Now that I feel the torture, myself, I am
   sorry that I was ever hard upon her." "Ah," says another, "I used to
   think of such-and-such a person that he must be a fool to be always in
   so gloomy a state of mind! But now I cannot help sinking into the same
   desponding frames, and oh, I would to God that I had been more kind to
   him!"

   Yes, we would feel more for the prisoner if we knew more about the
   prison! We would feel more for the poor if we understood more of the
   pangs of need. Our sorrows may often help to remind us of our harshness
   towards some of the best of God's afflicted ones. And I think, also,
   that affliction may be sent to admonish us of our neglect of Divine
   teaching. "Why that rod?" "Why that whip and that bridle?" Because I
   have been like the horse and the mule which have no understanding! Had
   I listened to the voice of God that I heard from the pulpit. Or had I
   hearkened to the counsels given to me in the pages of Scripture. Or if
   I had even noticed the dictates of my own conscience--yes, had I been
   more jealous of the motions of the Holy Spirit in my soul--I might
   never have entailed all this trouble upon me.

   You know the old fable we used to read in our school books about the
   boy in the apple tree who would not come down when the good man with
   soft words admonished him. Then the man took to throwing turfs at him,
   but still he would not heed. And at length the man betook himself to
   stones and compelled him to come down. Oh, when God betakes Himself to
   stones, and we get cut with them, we might well say to ourselves, "Ah,
   light afflictions, you would not do! We laughed at the kind words, and
   even the turfs which struck our conscience without wounding our flesh
   would not do! And now He has come to blows with us!

   God is always loath to use the rod. He is an unwise father who never
   chastens, but a much worse father he who chastens for nothing. God will
   chasten His people, but it takes Him a long time to bring Himself to
   use the rod. He does not wish to strike His children. He delights in
   their happiness and not in their sorrow. And when at last He does come
   to it, it is--if I may use such an expression in reference to
   Him--because our ill manners force Him to it. O Christian, in these
   your sorrows, be humble before the Lord your God. But still use Job's
   enquiry, "Show me why You contend with me."

   I wish that some here, who have not the fear of God before their eyes,
   would look at it in this light. If you are inclined to pray about your
   troubles, take your sins into consideration, too. If you feel that you
   must go to God under the particular trial which is vexing you at
   present, go to Him about your besetting sins as well. Make the two into
   one bundle and go to Him, and say, "Look upon my affliction and my
   pain; and forgive all my sins."

   This, then, is our first remark. It is fit that our sorrows should
   bring our sins to remembrance.

   II. Secondly, IT IS WELL WHEN WE ARE AS EARNEST ABOUT OUR SINS AS WE
   ARE ABOUT OUR SORROWS. This is the mark of a genuine penitent. I think
   you will have noticed in the late "Report" of the chaplain of Newgate
   the remark that many of the prisoners will pretend very great
   repentance when the chaplain is talking to them about spiritual things.
   But the chaplain can very readily discover those who are not truly
   penitent by their constantly trying to bring him round to tell them
   something about their punishment.

   Before the trial they frequently ask for information as to what term of
   imprisonment--how many months or years they are likely to get. Then,
   when they are undergoing punishment they frequently try to get some
   trifling favor through the means of the chaplain, showing that they
   think more of the punishment than of the theft. They are like the
   unhappy wretch in the condemned cell who often repents of the gallows
   that is to end his career, but does not repent of the murder that cut
   short his victim's life. There are many such.

   So, if I go to God and only ask to have my sorrows taken away from me,
   what is that? I am no true penitent! I am like the child who cries
   bitterly because he smarts, but when the smart is over, he goes back to
   the offense again. If we were true children of God and had a truly
   repentant spirit, we should feel the rod to be less than nothing
   compared with

   the sin. We should say, "Lord, strike me! If You have but forgiven me I
   can bear the strokes! Strike, Lord, strike as hard as You will, for my
   sin is forgiven."

   A good child will say, "My Father, you have forgiven me the offense.
   Ah, well, if I must be chastened, I will cheerfully bear it, for my
   sorrow is not that I smart, but that my sin should have caused you to
   be angry, and to make me smart." This, then, is the mark of a genuine
   penitent--that he is as earnest about his sins as he is about his
   sorrows. Your trials have never worked in you what they were meant for
   until it is so. God sends your trial to make you see yourself-- your
   weaknesses, your folly, your sinfulness, your distance from Him. And
   when those sins, those sweet sins of yours become bitter--when your
   soul nauseates and loathes them--then, probably, your affliction will
   be taken from you.

   But if you still yield to your sins with your left hand and would
   gladly lay hold of God's mercy with your right, there is need that the
   rod be laid on your back again, and again, and again--for you have not
   yet feared the rod nor Him that has appointed it! Let any of you who
   are in trouble here, mend your prayer tonight. If you have been saying,
   "Lord, take away the sickness from my dear child," you should say,
   "Lord if it is Your will, heal my child, but forgive my sin."

   Or if any of you are very poor tonight, or if you are not well and you
   have a sense of sin, I pray you, I entreat you, as you kneel by your
   bedside--which I trust you all will--while you ask God to restore your
   health, or to remove your poverty, be quite as earnest about the
   forgiveness of your sins, or else it will betoken two things--that you
   are not a genuine penitent, and that, therefore, the affliction has not
   worked in you its great design.

   III. But, thirdly, IT IS WELL TO TAKE BOTH SORROW AND SIN TO THE SAME
   PLACE. It was to God that David took his sorrow. It was to God that
   David took his sin. Observe, then, we must take our sorrows to God. Ah,
   my dear Sister over yonder, where do you take your sorrows? Why, to
   your next door neighbor, to Mrs. This, and to Mrs. That! We are very,
   very fond of pouring out our tales of woe into the ear of some earthly
   friend. That may be a slight relief if discreetly done, but I think the
   verses of the hymn is not wrong which says--

   "Have you no words? Ah, think again Words flow apace when you complain,
   And fill your fellow creature's ear With the sad tale of all your care.
   Were half the breath thus vainly spent To Hea ven in supplication sent,
   Our cheerful song would oftener be 'Hear what the Lord has done for
   me.'"

   Some children run and tell Mother, or tell Father. Do you the same! Go
   and tell your Father--you can tell your brethren afterwards if you
   will--but you had better let your Father know first. I think we should
   often hesitate to mention our troubles lest we should depress our
   fellow creatures. I am sure we should hesitate to mention them to men
   if we made it a rule first to bring them before our God. Your little
   sorrows you may take to God, for He counts the hairs of your head! Your
   great sorrows you may take to God, for He holds the world in the hollow
   of His hand! Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you
   shall find Him willing and able to relieve you!

   But we must also take our sins to God. Possibly this is a more
   difficult point. The sinner thinks that he must fight this battle for
   himself, wrestle with his own evil temper himself, and he himself must
   enter into conflict with his lusts and his besetting sins. But when he
   comes into the fight he soon meets with defeat, and then he is ready to
   give it all up. Take your sins to God, my Brothers and Sisters. Take
   them to the Cross that the blood may fall upon them to purge away their
   guilt and take away their power. Your sins must all be slain.

   There is only one place where they can be slaughtered--the altar where
   your Savior died. If you would flog your sins, flog them with the whip
   that tore your Savior's shoulders. If you would nail your sins fast,
   drive the same nails through them which fastened your Lord to the
   Cross. I mean let your faith in the great Surety, and your love to Him
   who suffered so much for you, be the power with which you do conflict
   with evil. It is said of the saints in Heaven, "They overcame through
   the blood of the Lamb." That is how you must overcome! Go to Jesus with
   your sins!

   No one else can help you. You are powerless without Him. You may
   confess all your sins to Him with a view of leaving them all with Him.
   He receives sinners! He receives their sins, too, when they are brought
   to Him in penitence. God has made to meet upon Him the iniquity of all
   His people, and you may take your sins and leave them in the hands of
   Jesus, who will counter-plead them with His merits and put them away in
   His mercy. And so shall you come away rejoicing!

   And, as we have remarked that we are not to take up the battle with our
   sorrows alone, nor with our sins alone, we may further say that the
   most sorrowful and the most sinful are welcome to the Lord Jesus.

   The most sorrowful may come! I mean those in despair. Those who are at
   their wits end. Those poor souls, who, through superabundant
   difficulty, are ready to do the most unreasonable things--ready, it may
   even be, to give way to that wicked, Satanic temptation of rushing from
   this present life into a world unknown by their own hands! Go,
   sorrowful one, go now to Jesus, whose tender heart will feel for you!
   Has your friend forsaken you? Have your lover and your acquaintance
   become your enemies? Seek no human sympathy just now, but first and
   foremost, in a flood of tears, reveal your case to the great invisible
   Helper.

   Kneel down and tell Him all that racks your spirit and fills your
   tortured mind, and plead the promise that He will be with you, and you
   shall find Him true though all else be false. And, as the most
   sorrowful, so the most sinful are welcome to Christ--the sinful
   certainly, but the most sinful especially. If your sin has become so
   outrageous that it were wrong for me to mention it here. If it has
   become so tremendous in its power, that, like the chain and ball at the
   convict's foot, you cannot escape from it, yet still come with all your
   sins to Jesus! You vilest sinner out of Hell! You who are nearest to
   the gates of perdition! You who have had fellowship with devils till
   you have become almost a devil yourself! You who have lain steeped in
   the scarlet of sin till it has ingrained and entered into the very warp
   and woof of your being! You who are all over black within and
   without--go to the Savior, and take these words in your mouth--"Look
   upon my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins."

   And suppose the two conditions should have met in your heart--that you
   are at the same time the most sorrowful and the most sinful? Still go!
   The gates of Mercy are very wide! When Christ opened the Holy of Holies
   He did not make a little slit, but the veil of the temple was rent in
   two from the top to the bottom so that the biggest sinner that ever
   lived might come through it to the blood-sprinkled Mercy Seat. Oh, the
   amazing mercy of God! "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so
   high are His ways above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts."
   Sin is, after all, a thing of the creature, but mercy is an attribute
   of the Creator, and the Creator's attribute swallows up the creature's
   fault. Thus says the Lord, "I will take away their iniquities and cast
   them into the depths of the sea." The most sorrowful and the most
   sinful may go!

   And let us add that God can, with equal ease, remove our sorrows and
   our sins. It is wonderful how difficulties fly when Omnipotence
   encounters them! The sick man who has been given up by the physician
   has often recovered. And it has been, perhaps, his mercy that the
   physician gave him up, for where man has come to an ending, God has
   come to a beginning. The old proverb says that, "Man's extremity is
   God's opportunity," and most certainly that is true. God has but to
   will it and fevers fly and diseases disappear. As the soldier goes at
   the captain's bidding, so does God say to Death, "Go," and he goes, or
   "Come," and he comes. Thus is it in our circumstances. How very often a
   day which opened as black as gathering clouds could make it has ended
   with a bright sunset! How frequently the beggar has found himself
   lifted up from the dunghill and made to sit among princes!

   I should not wonder but what some of you, in looking back and
   remembering the circumstances you are now in, are quite surprised to
   find yourselves where you are. This very morning I was talking with a
   gentleman who said to me, "I cannot bear waste in my household, and one
   reason is this--if ever there was a poor wretch who could live on hard
   fare once, and envy the very dogs a piece of bread, I am just that
   one--but God has been pleased to prosper me, and I often look back upon
   that season of poverty and of need, and thank Him for having helped me
   through it."

   Well, you see, dear Friends, that God can turn the wheel and make the
   bottom spoke to be the uppermost one, and He can do it all in a few
   days. Come, then, though sin and sorrow rest like a double burden upon
   our body and soul--let us go to Him and say, "Look upon my affliction
   and my pain; and forgive all my sins."

   IV. Perhaps our last observation is more strictly to the text than
   anything else. It is that WE ARE TO GO TO GOD WITH SORROWS AND WITH
   SINS IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT. You notice that all that David asks about his
   sorrow is, "Look upon my afflictions and my pain." But the next
   petition is more express, definite, decided, plain--"Forgive all my
   sins."

   Some people would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain, and
   look at my sins." But David does not say so. He says, "Lord, as for my
   affliction and my pain, I do not say much about that--Lord look at it.
   I will leave that to You. I should be glad to have it removed. Do as
   You will. Look at it. Consider it. But as for my sins, Lord, I know
   what

   I want there--I must have them forgiven. I cannot bear them." A
   Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin. He can bear that
   his troubles should continue, but he cannot endure the burden of his
   guilt, or the weight of his transgressions.

   Here are two guests come to my door. Both of them ask to have a lodging
   with me. The one is called Affliction. He has a very grave voice, and a
   very heavy hand, and he looks at me with fierce eyes. The other is
   called Sin, and he is very soft-spoken, and very fair, and his words
   are softer than butter. Let me scan their faces. Let me examine them as
   to their character. I must not be deceived by appearances. I will ask
   my two friends who would lodge with me to open their hands. When my
   friend Affliction, with some little difficulty, opens his hand, I find
   that, rough as it is, he carries a jewel inside it, and that he meant
   to leave that jewel at my house.

   But as for my soft-spoken friend, Sin--when I force him to show me what
   that is which he hides in his sleeve--I find that it is a dagger with
   which he would have stabbed me. What shall I do, then, if I am wise?
   Why, I should be very glad if they would both be good enough to go and
   stop somewhere else, but if I must entertain one of the two, I would
   shut my door in the face of smooth-spoken Sin and say to the rougher
   and uglier visitor, Affliction, "Come and stop with me, for maybe God
   has sent you as a messenger of mercy to my soul." "Look upon my
   affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sin." We must be more
   express and explicit about sin than we are about trouble. Take the two
   expressions together. Use them and whether you blend, or contrast them,
   either or both will prove to be full of instruction.

   Before I close my sermon and dismiss this assembly, it may be necessary
   to notice some among you who have no affliction or pain. In too many
   instances I am afraid you have sin, so the latter part of the text will
   well suit your case. But oh, if you have not any affliction or pain,
   nor yet any cause of fear because your sins are forgiven, let me then
   suggest to you that you should be exceedingly happy! Your cup should
   overflow with joy.

   I do not think, Brothers and Sisters, that you and I rejoice enough.
   When engaged this morning, seeing enquirers coming in one after
   another, I thought within myself, "I have known the time, when I first
   began to preach the Gospel, that one soul God had given me as a fruit
   of my ministry made me so happy that I was ready to leap out of the
   body. Truly it is a happy thing to be the means of bringing one soul to
   Christ." The poet says that--

   "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." But a thing of Divine Grace is
   much more truly so, for the things of beauty here on earth may be
   consumed--but a work of Grace is everlasting! To be the means of saving
   one soul ought to set a silver bell ringing in your hearts that will
   never stop!

   You will say, "I am very poor, and very sick, but I have not lived for
   nothing, there will be one gem in the Redeemer's crown that came there
   through my instrumentality. There will be one voice in the orchestra of
   the skies, which, humanly speaking, would not have been there if the
   Lord had not enabled me, by His Grace, to be the means of bringing that
   soul to Christ." This ought to make us joyful! But then I thought, here
   have I been seeing thirty today, and most of them owed their conversion
   to the preaching of the Gospel here, and I have seen, perhaps, in my
   little lifetime, several thousands of souls and know of many others
   whom I never saw, who have been brought to Christ through our
   instrumentality.

   What? And down-hearted, and sometimes wretched, and distracted with
   care after this? I thought to myself, what a fool I am! And I suspect
   that if you and I, or any of us, were to consider the goodness of God
   to us, the fact that our names are written in Heaven, that Christ is
   ours, that Heaven is ours, that we are the children of God, and that we
   are justified by faith--we should say, "Why, why am I moaning and
   groaning about these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, and
   which will work out for me a far more exceedingly and eternal weight of
   glory? Come, my Soul, take down the harp and let your fingers roam
   among its strings. Say with old Herbert--

   "My God, my God, My music should find You And everything shall have its
   attribute to sing."

   So, if we cannot go to God, asking Him to look on our affliction, let
   us ask Him to look upon our joy and to help us to increase it, and to
   grow in it, and then to keep us from sin in the future and to lead us
   in the paths of duty and of blessed service, to the honor of His name
   and the comfort of our own souls. May the Lord give you, in parting,
   His own blessing.
     __________________________________________________________________

         A Sermon to Open Neglecters and Nominal Followers of Religion

   A Sermon

   (No. 742)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, March 24th, 1866, by

   C. H. SPURGEON,

   At the Agricultural Hall, Islington

   "But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the
   first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and
   said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to
   the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and
   went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say
   unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That
   the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
   For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him
   not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye
   had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe
   him."--Matthew 21:28-32.

   THE SIGHT OF THIS VAST ARENA, and of this crowded assembly, reminds me
   of other spectacles which, in days happily long past, were seen in the
   amphitheatres of the old Roman Empire. Around, tier upon tier, were the
   assembled multitudes, with their cruel eyes and iron hearts; and in the
   center stood a solitary, friendless man, waiting till the doors of the
   lion's den should be uplifted, that he might yield himself up a witness
   for Christ and a sacrifice to the popular fury. There would have been
   no difficulty then to have divided the precious from the vile in that
   audience. The most thoughtless wayfarer who should enter into the
   amphitheatre, would know at once who was the disciple of Christ and who
   were the enemies of the Crucified One. There stood the bravely-calm
   disciple, about to die, but all around, in those mighty tiers of the
   Colosseum, or of the amphitheatre of some provincial town, as the case
   might be, there sat matrons and nobles, princes and peasants, plebeians
   and patricians, senators and soldiers, all gazing downward with the
   same fierce, unpitying look; all boisterous for their heathen gods, and
   all vociferous in the joy with which they gazed upon the agonies of the
   disciple of the hated Galilean, butchered to make a Roman holiday.
   Another sight is before us to-day, with far more happy associations;
   but alas! it is a far more difficult task this day to separate the
   chaff from the wheat, the precious from the vile, than in the day when
   the apostle fought with beasts at Ephesus. Here, in this arena, I hope
   there are hundreds, if not thousands, who would be prepared to die for
   our Lord Jesus; and in yonder crowded seats, we may count by hundreds
   those who bear the name and accept the gospel of the Man of Nazareth;
   and yet, I fear me, that both in these living hills on either side, and
   upon this vast floor, there are many enemies of the Son of God, who are
   forgetful of his righteous claims--who have cast from them those cords
   of love which should bind them to his throne, and have never submitted
   to the mighty love which showed itself in his cross and in his wounds.
   I cannot attempt the separation. You must grow together until the
   harvest. To divide you were a task which at this hour angels could not
   perform, but which one day they will easily accomplish, when at their
   Master's bidding, the harvest being come, they shall gather together
   first the tares in bundles to burn them, and afterwards the wheat into
   Jehovah's barn. I shall not attempt the division, but I shall ask each
   man to attempt it for himself in his own case. I say unto you, young
   men and maidens, old men and fathers, this day examine yourselves
   whether you be in the faith. Let no man take it for granted that he is
   a Christian because he has helped to swell the numbers of a Christian
   assembly. Let no man judge his fellow, but let each man judge himself.
   To each one of you I say, with deepest earnestness, let a division be
   made by your conscience, and let your understandings separate between
   him that feareth God and him that feareth him not. Though no man
   clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side, shall go through
   the midst of you to set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh
   and cry for all the abominations of this city, let conscience take the
   inkhorn and honestly make the mark, or leave the favored sign unmade,
   and let each man question himself this morning, "Am I on the Lord's
   side? Am I for Christ, or for his enemies? Do I gather with him, or do
   I scatter abroad?" "Divide! divide!" they say in the House of Commons;
   let us say the same in this great congregation this day. Political
   divisions are but trifles compared with the all-important distinction
   which I would have you consider. Divide as you will be divided to the
   right and to the left in the great day when Christ shall judge the
   world in righteousness. Divide as you will be divided when the bliss of
   heaven, or the woes of hell, shall be your everlasting portion.

   If the whole of us were thus divided into two camps, and we could say
   these have made a covenant with God by sacrifice, and those on the
   other hand are still enemies to God by wicked works, looking at the
   last class we might still feel it necessary by way of personal
   application to make a division among them; for although all unbelievers
   are alike unpardoned and unsaved, yet they are not alike in the
   circumstances of their case and the outward forms of their sins. Alike
   in being without Christ, they are still very varied in their mental and
   moral condition. I trust I was guided by the Spirit of God to my text
   this morning, for it is of such a character, that while it enables me
   to address the whole mass of the unconverted, it gives me a hopeful
   opportunity of getting at the conscience of each by dividing the great
   company of the unconverted into two distinct classes. O that for each
   tribe of unbelievers, there may be a blessing in store this day.

   First, we shall speak to those who are avowedly disobedient to God;
   and, secondly, to those who are deceptively submissive to him.

   I. First, we have a word for THOSE WHO ARE AVOWEDLY DISOBEDIENT TO GOD.
   There are many such here. God has said to you as he says to all who
   hear the gospel, "Son, go work to day in my vineyard;" and you have
   replied, perhaps honestly, but certainly very boldly, very unkindly,
   very unjustly, "I will not." You have made no bones about it, but given
   a refusal point-blank to the claims of your Creator. You have spoken
   your mind right out, not only in words, but in a more forcible and
   unmistakable manner, for actions speak far more loudly than words. You
   have said, over and over again, by your actions, "I will not serve God,
   or believe in his Son Jesus." My dear friend, I am glad to see you here
   this morning, and trust that matters will change with you ere you leave
   this hall; but at present you have not yielded even an outward
   obedience to God, but in all ways have said, "I will not." Practically
   you have said, "I will not worship God, I will not attend a place of
   worship on the Sunday--it is a weariness intolerable to me. I shall not
   sing the praise of my Maker--I will not pretend to bless the God for
   whom I have no love. In public prayer I shall not join--I have no heart
   for it. I shall not make a pretense of repeating morning and nightly
   prayer in private--what is the good of it? I will not pray at all; I do
   not believe in its efficacy, and I will not be such a hypocrite as to
   follow a vain practice in which I have no belief whatever. As for what
   is called sin, I love it and will not give it up." You are proud of
   being called an honest man, for you own the claims of your fellow men
   upon you, but you scorn to be thought religious, for you do not admit
   the rights of your Maker. To the righteous requests of others you yield
   a cheerful obedience, but to the just and tender requests of God you
   give a plain and evident denial. As clearly as actions can speak, you
   say by your neglect of the Sabbath, by your disregard of prayer, by
   your never reading the Bible, by your perseverance in known sin, and by
   the whole course of your life, "I will not." Like Pharaoh, you have
   demanded, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice?" You are of
   the same mind as those of old, who said, "It is vain to serve God, and
   what profit is there if we keep his ordinances?"

   Moreover, my friend, you have not as yet given an assent to the
   doctrines of God's Word; on the contrary, intellectually as well as
   practically, you go not at God's bidding. You have set up in your mind
   the idea that you must understand everything before you will believe
   it--an idea, let me tell you, which you will never be able to carry
   out, for you cannot understand your own existence; and there are ten
   thousand other things around you which you never can comprehend, but
   which you must believe or remain for ever a gigantic fool. Still you
   cavil at this doctrine and that doctrine, railing at the gospel system
   in general; and if you were asked at a working man's conference, why
   you did not go to a place of worship, you would perhaps say that you
   kept away from worship because you did not like this doctrine or that.
   Let me say on my own account, that as far as I am personally concerned,
   it is a very small consideration to me whether you do like my doctrine
   or do not; for your own sake I am anxious above measure that you should
   believe the truth as it is in Jesus; but while you live in sin, your
   dislike of a doctrine will very probably only make me feel the more
   sure of its truth, and lead me to preach it with more confidence and
   vehemence. Think you that we are to learn God's truth from the likings
   or dislikings of those who refuse to worship him, and want an excuse
   for their sins? O unconverted men and women, it is very long before we
   shall come to you to learn what you would have us preach, and when we
   fall so low as to do that, you yourselves will despise us. What! shall
   the physician ask his patient what kind of medicine he would wish to
   have prescribed? Then the man needs no physician, he can prescribe for
   himself. Show the doctor out at the back door directly. What is the use
   of such a physician? Of what service is a minister who will truckle to
   depraved tastes and sinful appetites, and say, "How would you like me
   to preach to you? What smooth things shall I offer you?" Ah souls! we
   have some higher end to be served than merely pleasing you. We would
   save you by distasteful truths, for honeyed lies will ruin you. That
   teaching which the carnal mind most delights in, is the most deadly and
   delusive. With many of you, your beliefs, and tastes, and likes, must
   be changed, or else you will never enter heaven. I admit that in a
   measure I like your honesty in having said outright, "I will not serve
   God;" but it is an honesty which makes me shudder, for it betrays a
   heart hard as the nether millstone.

   Again, you have said, "I will not serve God," and up to this time it is
   very possible that you have never been in the humor to repent of having
   said it, for the ways of sin are sweet to you, and your heart is fixed
   in its rebellion. You have never felt that conviction of sin, which the
   Holy Spirit has wrought in some of us; if you had felt it, you would
   soon have been shaken out of your "I will not." If God's power of
   grace, of which thousands of us bear witness that it is as real a power
   as that which guides the stars or wings the wind--if God's almighty
   grace should once get a hold of you, you would no longer say, "I do not
   believe this or that;" for, as tremblingly as any of those whom you now
   despise, you would cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" Up till now
   you have never felt that power, and therefore I cannot wonder that you
   do not acknowledge it, although the testimony of honest witnesses ought
   to have some weight with you. You are practically, intellectually, and
   avowedly no Christian; you have never deceived yourself and others by
   making a profession which you do not honor, but you have gone on in
   your own chosen path, saying with more or less resolution, in answer to
   every call of the gospel, "I will not."

   We said just now that the answer of the son to his father as recorded
   in our text was very plain; it was not, however, very genuine, or such
   as his father might have expected. His father said, "Son, go work to
   day in my vineyard;" and the son rudely said, "I will not, that is
   flat;" and without another word of apology or reason went his way. This
   is not quite as it should be. Is it? Even so, my friend, you may have
   been too hasty and so have been unjust. Is it not very possible you
   have denied to God and to his gospel the respect which both really
   deserve? You have spoken very plainly, but at the same time very
   thoughtlessly, very harshly to the God who has deserved better things
   of you. Have you ever given the claims of the Lord Jesus a fair
   consideration? Have you not dismissed the gospel with a sneer quite
   unworthy of you? Have you not been afraid to look the matters between
   God and your soul fairly in the face? I believe it to be the case of
   hundreds here; I know it to be the case of thousands and tens of
   thousands in London. They have put their foot down, and they have said,
   "None of your religion for me! I have made up my mind and I will never
   alter; I hate it and will not listen to it." Does no small voice within
   ever tell them that this is not fair to themselves or to God? Is the
   matter so easily to be decided? Suppose it should turn out that the
   religion of Jesus is true, what then? What will be the lot of those who
   despised him? My hearer, the religion of Jesus is true, and I have
   proved its truth in my own case; do, I pray you, consider it, and do
   not trifle away your immortal soul. Thus saith the Lord, "Consider your
   ways."

   It is now time for me to tell the openly ungodly what is his real
   state. You have been more than a little proud of your honesty; and
   looking down upon certain professors of religion you have said, "Ah! I
   make no such pretences as they do, I am honest, I am." Friend, you
   cannot have a greater abhorrence of hypocrites than I have; if you can
   find a fair chance of laughing at them, pray do so. If by any means you
   can stick pins into their wind-bags, and let the gas of their
   profession out, pray do so. I try to do a little of it in my way, do
   you do the same! You and I are agreed in this, I hope, in heartily
   hating anything like sham and falsehood; but if you begin to hold your
   head up, and think yourself so very superior because you make no
   profession, I must take you down a little by reminding you that it is
   no credit to a thief that he makes no profession of being honest, and
   it is not thought to be exceedingly honorable to a man that he makes no
   profession of speaking the truth. For the fact is, that a man who does
   not profess to be honest is a professed thief, and he who does not
   claim to speak the truth is an acknowledged liar; thus in escaping one
   horn you are thrown upon another, you miss the rock but run upon the
   quicksand. You are a confessed and avowed neglecter of God, a professed
   despiser of the great salvation, an acknowledged disbeliever in the
   Christ of God. When our Government at any time arrests persons
   suspected of Fenianism, they have no difficulty about those gentlemen
   who glory in wearing the green uniform and flaunting the big feather.
   "Come along," says the constable, "you are the man, for you wear the
   regimentals of a rebel." Even so when the angel of justice arrests the
   enemies of the Lord, he will have no difficulty in accusing and
   arresting you, for, laying his hand upon your shoulder, he will say,
   "You wear the regimentals of an enemy of God; you plainly, and
   unblushingly, acknowledge that you do not fear God nor trust in his
   salvation." No witnesses need be called concerning you at the last
   great day; you will stand up, not quite so bravely as you do to-day,
   for, when the heavens are on a blaze, and the earth is rocking to and
   fro, and the great white cloud fills the field of vision, and the eyes
   of the great Judge shall burn like lamps of fire, you will put on a
   different mien and a different carriage from that which you maintain
   before a poor preacher of the gospel Ah! my ungodly hearer, with such a
   case as thine there shall be no need to judge, for out of thine own
   mouth shalt thou be condemned.

   Yet I came not here to tell you of your sins only, but to help you to
   escape from them. It is necessary that this much should be said, but we
   now turn to something far more pleasant. I am in hopes this day that
   some of you will listen to that little word in the text, "afterward."
   He said, "I will not; but afterward he repented, and went." It is a
   long lane, which has no turning, let us trust that we have come to the
   turning now. There is space left you for repentance; though you may
   have been a drunkard, or a swearer, or unchaste, the die is not yet
   cast, a change is yet possible. May God grant that you may have reached
   the time when it shall be said of you, "Afterward he repented; he
   changed his mind; he believed upon Jesus, and obeyed the word of the
   Lord, and went." Perhaps the son in the parable thought a little more
   calmly about it. He said to himself, "I will consider the matter,
   second thoughts are often best. I growled at my good father, and gave
   him a sharp answer, and I saw the tear standing in the good man's eye.
   I am sorry I grieved him. The thought of grieving him makes me change
   my mind. I said No' to him," said he, "but I did not think about it. I
   forgot that if I go and work in my father's vineyard, I shall be
   working for myself, for I am his eldest son, and all that he has will
   belong to me, so that I am very foolish to refuse to work to my own
   advantage. Ah! now I see my father had my advantage at heart, I will
   even go as he bade me." See, he shoulders his tools, and away he
   marches to labor with all his might. He said, "I will not," but he
   repented and went, and it is admitted by all that he did the will of
   his father. Oh, I hope that many a man and woman now in this
   Agricultural Hall will this day cry, "I do retract what I have said. I
   will go to my Father, and will say to him, I will do thy bidding. I
   will not grieve thy love. I will not lose the opportunity of advancing
   my soul's best interest; I obey the gospel command.'" I will suppose
   that I see one such before me, and I will speak to him. Perhaps he
   said, "I will not," because he really did not understand what religion
   was. How few after all know what the way of salvation is; though they
   go to church, and to chapel, they have not yet learned God's plan of
   pardoning sinners. Do you know the plan of salvation? Hear it and live
   by it. You have offended God; God must punish sin; it is a fixed law
   that sin must be punished; how then can God have mercy upon you? Why,
   only in this way: Jesus Christ came from heaven and he suffered in the
   room, place, and stead of all who trust him; suffered what they ought
   to have suffered, so that God is just, and yet at the same time he is
   able to forgive the very chief of sinners through the merits of his
   dear Son. Your debts, if you be a believer in him, Christ has paid on
   your behalf. If you do but come and rest upon Jesus and upon Jesus
   only, God cannot punish you for your sins, for he punished Jesus for
   them, and it would not be just of him to punish Christ and then to
   punish you, to exact payment first from the Surety and afterwards from
   the debtor. My dear hearer, whoever thou mayst be, whatever thy past
   life may have been, if thou wilt trust Christ, thou shalt be saved from
   all thy sin in a moment, the whole of thy past life shall be blotted
   out; there shall not remain in God's book so much as a single charge
   against thy soul, for Christ who died for thee, shall take thy guilt
   away and leave thee without a blot before the face of God. Read the
   last verse of my text, and you will see that it was by believing that
   men entered into the kingdom of God of old, and it is still by
   believing that men are saved. "Behold the Lamb of God," said John the
   Baptist, and if you look to that bleeding Lamb, you shall live. Do you
   understand this? Is it not simple? Is it not suitable to you. Will you
   still refuse to obey it? Does not the Holy Spirit prompt you to relent?
   Do you not even now say, "Is it so simple? I will even trust in Jesus:

   'Guilty, but with heart relenting,

   To the Savior's wounds I'll fly.'

   I will come, by God's help, this morning, lest death should come before
   the sun sets. I will trust Christ to save me. Precious way of
   salvation! Why should I not be saved?"

   It is possible too, that you may have said, "I will not," because you
   really thought there was no hope for you. Ah! my friend, let me assure
   you--and oh! how glad I am to be able to do it--that there is hope for
   the vilest through the precious blood of Jesus. No man can have gone
   too far for the long arm of Christ to reach him. Christ delights to
   save the biggest sinners. He said to his apostles, "Preach the gospel
   to every creature, but begin"--where? "begin at Jerusalem. There live
   the wretches who spat in my face. There live the cruel ones that drove
   the nails throught my hands. Go and preach the gospel to them first.
   Tell them that I am able to save, not little sinners merely, but the
   very chief of sinners. Tell them to trust in me and they shall live."
   Where are you, you despairing one? I know the devil will try to keep
   the sound of the gospel from your ears if he can, and therefore, I
   would "cry aloud and spare not." O ye despairing sinners, there is no
   room for despair this side the gates of hell. If you have gone through
   the foulest kennels of iniquity, no stain can stand out against the
   power of the cleansing blood.

   "There is a fountain filled with blood,

   Drawn from Immanuel's veins,

   And sinners plunged beneath that flood,

   Lose ALL their guilty stains."

   Oh, I trust, now that you know there is hope for you, you will say, "I
   will even come at once, and put my trust in Jesus."

   While I would thus encourage you to repent of your neglect of God, let
   me invite you to come to Jesus, and press it upon you yet again. Ah! my
   dear friend, you will soon be dying, and though some wicked men, in
   their stupid insensibility, die very calmly, and as David said, "They
   are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other
   men, but their strength is firm," yet, whether they perceive it or not,
   it is a dreadful thing to die with unpardoned sin hanging about you.
   What will your guilty soul do when it leaves the body? Think of it a
   minute. It is a matter worthy of your thought. Some of you, in all
   probability, will die this week. It is not probable that so many
   thousands of us will march through a whole week, and be found alive at
   the other end of it. Well then, as we may some of us go soon, and all
   of us must go ere long, let us look before us and think a bit. Imagine
   your soul unclothed of the body. You have left the body behind you, and
   your disembodied spirit finds itself in a new world. Oh, it will be a
   glorious thing if that separated spirit shall see Jesus whom it has
   loved, and fly at once into his bosom, and drink for ever of the
   crystal fountain of ever-flowing bliss: but it will be a horrible thing
   if instead of it, your naked shivering spirit should wake up to find
   itself friendless, homeless, helpless, hopeless, tormented with
   remorse, afflicted with despair. What if it should have to cry out
   forever, "I knew my duty but I did it not, I knew the way of salvation
   but I would not run in it. I heard the gospel, but I shut my ears to
   it. I lived and at length left the world without Christ, and here I am,
   past hope, no repenting now, no believing now, no escaping now, for
   mercy and love no longer rule the hour." Have pity on thyself, my
   hearer. I have pity on thee. Oh, if my hand could pluck thee from that
   flame, how cheerfully would I do it! Shall I pity thee and wilt thou
   not pity thyself? Oh, if my pleadings should by God's grace persuade
   you to trust in Christ this morning, I would plead with you while
   voice, and lungs, and heart, and life held out! But oh, have pity on
   thyself! Pity that poor naked spirit which so soon will be quivering
   with utmost agony, a self-caused agony, an agony from which it would
   not escape, an agony of which it was warned, but which it chose to
   endure sooner than give up sin and yield to the scepter of sovereign
   grace.

   I would fain hope that you are saying, "I do now repent, and by God's
   grace I will go." If so, let me tell you there are a great many in
   heaven who once, like you, said, "I will not," but they afterwards
   repented and are now saved. I will give you one picture. Yonder, I see
   a company of men on horseback, and there is one, the proudest of them
   all, to whom they act as a guard; they are going to Damascus, that he
   may take Christians to prison and compel them to blaspheme. Saul of
   Tarsus is the name of that cruel, murderous persecutor. When Stephen
   was put to death, God said to this man Saul, "Go, work in my vineyard,"
   but Saul said plainly, "I will not," and to prove his emnity, he helped
   to put Stephen to death. There he is riding in hot haste, upon his evil
   errand, none more set and determined against the Lord. Yet my Lord
   Jesus can tame the lion, and even make a lamb of him. As he rides
   along, a bright light is seen, brighter than the sun at noonday; he
   falls from his horse, he lies trembling on the ground, and he hears a
   voice out of heaven, saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
   Lifting up his eyes with astonishment, he sees that he had ignorantly
   been persecuting the Son of God. What a change that one discovery
   wrought in him. That voice, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," broke
   his hard heart, and won him to the cause. You know how three days after
   that, that once proud and bigoted man was baptized upon profession of
   the faith of Christ, whom he had just now persecuted! and if you want
   to see an earnest preacher, where can you find a better than the
   apostle Paul, who, with heart on fire, writes again and again, "God
   forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
   Christ." I hope there is a Saul here, who is to be struck down this
   morning. Lord, strike him down! Eternal Spirit strike him down now! You
   did not know perhaps, that you had been fighting God, but you thought
   the religion of Jesus to be a foolish dream. You did not know that you
   had insulted the dying Savior; now you do know it, may your conscience
   be affected, and from this day forth may you serve the Lord.

   I must leave this second point when I have just said this. If there be
   one here who after a long refusal, at last relents, and is willing to
   become a servant of God by faith in Jesus Christ, let me tell him for
   his encouragement, he shall not be one whit behind those who have been
   so long making a profession without being true to it, for the text
   says, "The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom;" but what else?
   "Go into the kingdom" before those who made a profession of serving
   God, but who were not true to it. You great sinners shall have no back
   seats in heaven! There shall be no outer court for you. You great
   sinners shall have as much love as the best, as much joy as the
   brightest of saints. You shall be near to Christ; you shall sit with
   him upon his throne; you shall wear the crown; your fingers shall touch
   the golden harps; you shall rejoice with the joy which is unspeakable
   and fall of glory. Will ye not come? Christ forgets your past ill
   manners, and bids ye come to-day. "Come," saith he, "unto me all ye
   that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Thirty years
   of sin shall be forgiven, and it shall not take thirty minutes to do it
   in. Fifty, sixty, seventy years of iniquity shall all disappear as the
   morning's hoar-frost disappears before the sun. Come and trust my
   Master, hiding in his bleeding wounds.

   "Raise thy downcast eyes, and see

   What throngs His throne surround!

   These, though sinners once like thee,

   Have full salvation found.

   Yield not then to unbelief;

   He says, There yet is room:'

   Though of sinners thou art chief,

   Since Jesus calls thee, come."

   II. Bear with me a little time while I speak to the second character,
   THE DECEPTIVELY SUBMISSIVE, by far the most numerous everywhere in
   England, probably the most numerous in this assembly. Oh! you, my own
   regular hearers, you who have heard my voice these thirteen years many
   of you are in this class. You have said to the Great Father, "I go,
   sir!" but you have not gone. Let me sorrowfully sketch your portraits:
   you have regularly frequented a place of worship, and you would shudder
   to waste a single Sunday in an excursion, or in any form of Sabbath
   breaking. Outwardly you have said," I go, sir." When the hymn is given
   out, you stand up and sing, and yet you do not sing with the heart.
   When I say, "Let us pray!" you cover your faces, but you do not pray
   with real prayer. You utter a polite, respectful "I go, sir," but you
   do not go. You give a notional assent to the gospel. If I were to
   mention any doctrine, you would say, "Yes, that is true. I believe
   that." But your heart does not believe: you do not believe the gospel
   in the core of your nature, for if you did, it would have an effect
   upon you. A man may say, "I believe my house is on fire," but if he
   goes to bed and falls to sleep, it does not look as if he believed it,
   for when a man's house is on fire he tries to escape. If some of you
   really believed that there is a hell, and that there is a heaven, as
   you believe other things, you would act very differently from what you
   now do. I must add that many of you say, "I go, sir," in a very solemn
   sense, for when we preach earnestly the tears run down your cheeks, and
   you go home to your bedrooms, and you pray a little, and everybody
   thinks that your concern of mind will end in conversion: but your
   goodness is "like the morning cloud and the early dew." You are like
   dunghills with snow upon them: while the snow lasts you look white and
   fair, but when the snow melts the dunghill remains a dunghill still.
   Oh, how many very impressible hearts are like that! You sin, and yet
   you come to a place of worship, and tremble under the word; you
   transgress, and you weep and transgress again; you feel the power of
   the gospel after a fashion, and yet you revolt against it more and
   more. Ah! my friends, I can look some of you in the face and know that
   I am describing some of your cases to the letter. You have been telling
   lies to God all these years, by saying, "I go, sir," while you have not
   gone. You know that to be saved you must believe in Jesus, but you have
   not believed. You know that you must be born again, but you are still
   strangers to the new birth. You are as religious as the seats you sit
   on, but no more; and you are as likely to get to heaven as those seats
   are, but not one whit more, for you are dead in sin, and death cannot
   enter heaven. O my dear hearers, I lament that ever I should be called
   to say such a thing as this, and not be more affected by the fact; and,
   wonder of wonders, that you, some of you, know it to be true, and yet
   do not feel alarmed thereby! It is the easiest thing in the world to
   impress some of you by a sermon, but, I fear me, you never will get
   beyond mere transient impressions. Like the water when lashed, the
   wound soon heals. You know, and you know, and you know; and you feel,
   and feel, and feel again, and yet your sins, your self-righteousness,
   your carelessness, or your willful wickedness, cause you, after having
   said, "I go, sir," to forget the promise and lie unto God.

   Now, I spoke very honestly to the other class, and must be equally
   plain with you. You, too, criminate yourselves. There will be no need
   of witnesses against you. You have admitted that the gospel is true.
   You did not quarrel with the doctrine of future punishment or future
   glory. You attended a place of worship, and you said that God was good
   and worthy to be served; you confessed that you owed allegiance to him,
   and ought to render it. You have even knelt down and in prayer you have
   said, "Lord, I deserve thy wrath." The great God has only to turn to
   some of your formal prayers to find quite enough evidence to secure
   your condemnation. Those morning prayers of yours, those evening
   prayers, hypocritical every one of them, will be more than sufficient
   to condemn you of your own mouth. Take heed! take heed, I pray you,
   while you are yet in the land of hope.

   All this while, as the thirty-second verse reminds me, while you have
   remained unsaved, you have seen publicans and harlots saved by the very
   gospel which has had no power upon you. Do not you know it, young man?
   You, I mean, the son of a godly mother? You know that you are not
   saved, and yet you had a drunken workman in your father's employment,
   and he has been these last few years a sober Christian man, he is
   saved, and you perhaps have taken to the habits which he has forsaken.
   You know that there have been picked off of the streets poor fallen
   women who have been brought to know Christ, who are among the sweetest
   and fairest flowers in Christ's garden now, though they were once
   castaways; and yet some of you respectable people who never committed
   any outward vice in your lives, are still unconverted, and still saying
   to Christ, "I go, sir," but you have not gone. You are still without
   God! Without Christ! Lost, lost, lost! Yet fairer outward characters
   could scarcely be found. I could fain weep for you! Oh! beware, beware
   of being like the apples of Sodom, which are green to look upon, but
   when crushed, crumble to ashes. Beware of being like John Bunyan's
   trees that were green outside, but inwardly rotten, and only fit to be
   tinder for the devil's tinder-box. Oh! beware of saying as some of you
   do, "I go, sir," while you go not. I sometimes see sick people who
   quite alarm and distress me. I say to them, "My dear friend, you are
   dying; have you a hope?" There is no answer. "Do you know your lost
   state?" "Yes, sir. "Christ died for sinners." "Yes, sir." "Faith gives
   us of his grace." "Yes, sir. They say, "Yes, sir; yes, sir; yes, sir;
   yes, sir; yes, sir." I sometimes wish before God they would contradict
   me, for if they would but have honesty enough to say, "I do not believe
   a word of it," I should know how to deal with them. Stubborn oaks are
   leveled by the gale, but those who bend like the willow before every
   wind, what wind shall break them? O dear brethren, beware of being
   gospel hardened; or, what is the same thing, softened but for a season.
   Beware of being a promising hearer of the word, and nothing more!

   I do not mean to close my discourse by speaking to you in this
   apparently harsh way, which; harsh as it seems, is full of love to your
   soul. I have a good word for you too. I trust that you, in this
   Agricultural Hall, will have a change wrought in you by the Holy Ghost,
   for although these many years you have made false professions before
   God; there is yet room in his gospel feast for you. Did you notice the
   text? "The publicans and sinners enter into the kingdom of heaven
   before you." Then it is clear you may come after them, because it could
   not be said they entered before you, if you did not come after them. If
   the Lord shall break your heart, you will be willing to take the Lord
   Jesus for your all in all in just the same way as a drunkard must,
   though you have not been a drunkard. You will be willing to rest in the
   merit of Jesus just as a harlot must, though you have never been such.
   There is room for you, young people, yet, though you have broken your
   vows, and quenched your convictions. Ay, and you grey-headed people may
   be brought yet, though you have lived so long in the outward means, but
   have never given up your hearts to Jesus. Oh, come! This twenty-fourth
   day of March, may the Lord bring you in this very place may the Lord
   lead you to say silently, "By the grace of God I will not be an open
   pretender any longer; I will give myself up to those dear hands that
   bled for me, and that dear heart that was pierced for me, and I will
   this day submit to Jesus' way.

   The fact is, to close the subject, there is, my dear friends, the same
   gospel to be preached to one class of men as to every other class. I
   pray God the day may never come when we shall be found in our preaching
   talking about working classes, and middle classes, and upper classes. I
   know no difference between you, you are the same to me when I preach
   the gospel, whether you are kings and queens, or crossing sweepers;
   satin and cotton, broadcloth and fustian, are alike to the gospel. If
   you are peers of the realm, we trim not our gospel to suit you, and if
   you are the basest of thieves, we do not exclude you from the voice of
   mercy. The gospel comes to men as sinners, all equally fallen in Adam,
   equally lost and ruined by sin. I have not one gospel for Her Majesty
   the Queen, and another gospel for the beggar-woman. No, there is but
   one way of salvation, but one foundation, but one propitiation, but one
   gospel. Look to the cross of Christ and live. High was the brazen
   serpent lifted, and all that Moses said was, "Look." Was a prince of
   the house of Judah bitten, he was told to look; without looking his
   lion standard of costly emblazonry could not avail him; was some poor
   wretch in the camp bitten, he must look, and the efficacy was the same
   for him as for the greatest of the host. Look! look! look to Jesus.
   Believe in the Son of God and live! One brazen serpent for all the
   camp, one Christ for all ranks and conditions of men. What a blessing
   would it be if we were all enabled to trust Christ this morning! My
   brethren, why not?--He is worthy of the confidence of all. The Spirit
   of God is able to work faith in all. O poor sinner, look to him! Dear
   hearers, I may never speak to some of you again, and I would therefore
   be pressing with you; by the hour of death, by the solemnities of
   eternity, I do implore and beseech you accept the only remedy for sin
   which even God himself will ever offer to the dying sons of men, the
   remedy of a bleeding Substitute, suffering in your room and stead,
   believed on and accepted in the heart. Cast yourself flat upon Christ.
   The way of salvation is just this--rest alone upon Christ! Depend
   wholly upon him. The negro was asked what he did, and he said, "I jest
   fall down on de rock, and he dat is down on de rock cannot fall no
   lower." Down on the rock, sinner! Down on the rock! The everlasting
   rock of ages! You cannot fall lower than that. I will conclude with a
   well-known illustration. Your condition is like that of a child in a
   burning house, who, having escaped to the edge of the window, hung on
   by the window-sill. The flames were pouring out of the window
   underneath, and the poor lad would soon be burnt, or falling would be
   dashed to pieces; he therefore held on with the clutch of death. He did
   not dare to relax his grasp till a strong man stood underneath, and
   said, "Boy! drop! drop! I'll catch you." Now, it was no saving faith
   for the boy to believe that the man was strong--that was a good help
   towards faith--but he might have known that and yet have perished; it
   was faith when the boy let go and dropped down into his big friend's
   arms. There are you, sinner, clinging to your sins or to your good
   works. The Savior cries, "Drop! drop into my arms!" It is not doing, it
   is leaving off doing. It is not working, it is trusting in that work
   which Jesus has already done. Trust! that is the word, simple, solid,
   hearty, earnest trust. Trust and it will not take an hour to save you,
   the moment you trust you are saved. You may have come in here as black
   as hell, but if you trust in Jesus you are wholly forgiven. In an
   instant, swifter than a flash of lightning the deed of grace is done. O
   may God the Spirit do it now, bringing you to trust, that you may be
   saved.

   PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON--Psalm 103.
     __________________________________________________________________

                           Ephraim Bemoaning Himself

   A sermon

   (No. 743)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 31, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Agricultural Hall, Newington

   "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: You have chastised
   me, and I was chastised as a bull unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn You
   me, and I shall be turned, for You are the Lord my God."- Jeremiah
   31:18.

   THE heathen described their fabled deity, Jove, as sitting far aloft
   regardless of the common affairs of this lower world. Upon a few kings
   and princes he might turn an observant eye, but the most of men were
   creatures far too insignificant to affect the mind of Jove. Whether
   they lived or died was nothing to him--they fulfilled their destinies
   and passed away, while Jove remained serenely still, or nodded as his
   august will might be.

   Not such is Jehovah, the God of Heaven and of earth! He compasses our
   path and our lying down, and is acquainted with all our ways. "The ways
   of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his going."
   He regards the cries of the afflicted. "He heals the broken in heart,
   and binds up their wounds." "Though the Lord is high, yet has He
   respect unto the lowly." Though He is so great a God that the Heaven of
   heavens cannot contain Him, yet He deigns to dwell with the man who is
   of a contrite and humble spirit.

   God has not left us as the ostrich leaves her young. Say not that we
   are left without a Friend to care for us--our Maker has not gone away!
   He has not shut up the gates of Heaven! He has not closed His ear from
   hearing, neither has He restrained His hand from helping us! Still does
   He hear His Ephraims when they bemoan themselves, and He sends them the
   mercy for which they pine. Let us conceive, as far as may be, of the
   nearness of God to every mourning soul, for it is marvelous and worthy
   of admiration.

   When her Majesty, some months ago, heard of the desolation which had
   been caused by an accident in the pits, her tender heart hastened to
   the relief of the widows and the fatherless, but at the moment of the
   calamity she was not on the spot in person. She could not be in the pit
   to hear the groans and sustain the faith of the dying. No, she could
   not be in the cottage to mark the tears of the widow and to cheer her
   with heavenly promises. But our God is on the spot where calamity
   occurs, for in Him we live and move and have our being! He is the
   greatest of comforters, and He is also the most approachable.

   He is "a very present help in time of trouble." He needs no messengers
   to bear to Him the news of our grief or penitence, for He is not far
   from any of us. Mourner, your sigh is known to God as soon as you have
   heaved it! No, before your grief thus found a vent He saw it struggling
   within you! Yes, and the grief which you cannot express in words God
   can see and interpret! He knows the language of our grief, the meaning
   of our tears. Blessed be the ever-present God that He is upon the spot
   where the bemoaning of penitents are heard and bends a gracious ear to
   the cry of His children!

   This morning my first desire is that each of us may feel that God is
   here and may be reached by us--that whatever our condition of mind may
   be, the Lord is well aware of it--and that if there should be caused by
   this service even so much as the faintest ripple of a desire towards
   Him, He will note it in His book--and if that desire should increase
   into a wave of prayer, it will not be lost upon Him. "He will regard
   the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer."

   I shall now, as I am strengthened by God, first ask your kind attention
   to a sinner bemoaning himself. Secondly, I shall wish you to remember
   God as hearing Him. And thirdly, our largest subject probably will be
   God fulfilling the desire of that bemoaning penitent, and turning him
   effectually from his sins.

   I. First, observe carefully, A SINNER BEMOANING HIMSELF. Last Sunday we
   preached upon two sinners, but we had little or no bemoaning [#742--"A
   Sermon to Open Neglecters and Nominal Followers of Religion.] One of
   them said, "I will not go," and the other said, "I go, Sir," but went
   not. We are a stage farther this morning. We introduce to you one whose
   heart has been affected by Divine Grace--whose conscience has been
   awakened, whose soul has been quickened--and we find him, according to
   the expressive word of the text, "bemoaning himself."

   The very word is doleful to the ear--it reminds us of the mourning of
   doves--we cannot pronounce it without feeling that it reveals a depth
   of sorrow. It is a word which tells of pain, anguish, fear,
   restlessness, sad remembrances, terrible forebodings and raging
   desires. Ephraim was "bemoaning himself." Viewing the sorrow before us,
   we note that he who bemoaned himself was bowed down with a peculiar
   grief. He did not lament for his children with the bitter weeping of
   Rachel. He did not mourn oven friends and kinsfolk withered under the
   blast of death. He was not as one crying out through pangs of bodily
   pain because a limb was crushed, or a bone was broken.

   He bemoaned himself, but not because he had lost his goods. Not because
   the ship had foundered at sea, or the house was wrapped in flames, or
   his riches had taken to themselves wings and flown away. No, his sorrow
   was of another kind. He bemoaned himself with a more mysterious and
   more bitter grief. The cause of the sorrow lay within--he was
   "bemoaning himself! This is, I say, a peculiar sorrow--one which the
   most of men look down upon with scorn. I pray God, my Hearers, that you
   may not be strangers to it for, unless you bemoan yourselves you shall
   never make the angels merry, for their rejoicing is over "one sinner
   that repents."

   There is no weight of glory for those who have never mourned the weight
   of sin! If you have never bemoaned yourself you have never enjoyed
   peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The sorrow of the text is
   that of a soul visited by God the Holy Spirit--the inward grief of a
   man who has been convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
   It is bitter sorrow, but so blessed are its results that I will call it
   a bitter sweet! It brings darkness with it, but it is the darkness of
   the last hour of the night which heralds the dawn of the day! Godly
   sorrow is well-founded sorrow. I will try to describe its sources.

   When a sinner bemoans himself in this way, "Alas! Alas!" he says, "I
   have found out that all is true which I have oftentimes been told by
   God's ministers. I have, indeed, offended my Maker! I have grieved the
   God who gave me my being! I have made my best Friend to be my enemy
   because of my sin. I have set myself in opposition to the King of
   kings! I cannot fight it out with Him, for He is too great for me. What
   shall I do? To where shall I fly? It is surely true and just that He
   should punish me, and woe is me, for I cannot bear His anger! If my
   ribs were iron and my flesh were granite, I should dissolve in the heat
   of His wrath. I can no more resist Him than flax can stand against
   fire, or stubble against the flame.

   "Woe is me! I have roused Omnipotence to be my enemy! I have set all
   Heaven in array against me! I cannot resist, and I cannot escape--what,
   then, shall I do? Shall I promise that I will be better? Alas, my
   reformations cannot blot out my past sins, for my old offenses will
   still demand a punishment even if I commit no more! But worse and
   worse, I now discover that my nature is full of sin and will rebel
   continually! Thorns and thistles will grow in the accursed soil of my
   heart, no matter what I do to pluck them up by the roots! I am not only
   thus an enemy to God by my actions, but by my very nature. Woe is me!
   Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then might
   I, who have been accustomed to evil, learn to do well. Alas, I am a
   traitor to my God, a stranger to peace and happiness, a slave to sin,
   in bondage to evil."

   To the mind in this state it is no wonder if the thought occurs, "Oh,
   that I had never been born! Would to God I had been created a dog or a
   toad sooner than have become a sinful man, for I see my end, my
   dreadful end! I shall march on from bad to worse, and when I shall die
   the wrath of God will come upon me to the uttermost! Forever shall I be
   banished from all hope of happiness. I cannot endure the wrath to come!
   To where shall I fly, or what shall I do? If I try to pray, my lips
   refuse to express my heart's desires--no, I cannot tell what to desire
   nor how to pray. Alas! Alas! I am undone, indeed! I am lost! Lost!
   Lost! Would God that there were mercy for me."

   There is good ground in the sinner's state for all his bemoaning. The
   fears to which I have given utterance are all reasonable and
   well-grounded--fears so truly the offspring of a sound judgment and an
   enlightened conscience that if, dear Hearer, you have never felt
   them--I pray that you may do so before you sun has set! This sorrow is
   humble sorrow. Notice, it is not written, "I hear Ephraim excusing
   himself," or "flattering himself," or "making new resolutions," but, "I
   have heard him bemoaning himself."

   When God the Holy Spirit gives genuine conviction of sin to a man, how
   he changes in his own esteem! He finds that all his righteousnesses are
   just a bundle of filthy rags. He thought them to be clean, white
   vestments, fair as the robes of the redeemed in Heaven. And he was
   proud to think of arraying himself in them. But when he unpacked them
   in the daylight he saw them to be full of holes, reduced to rags and
   tatters and, what was worse, polluted with horrible filth! So he threw
   them all away and fell to bemoaning himself.

   An awakened conscience does not say, "I could not help it, it was my
   nature, I was led into it by my passions. I was tempted by my
   circumstances." No, it gives up all excuses because it sees their
   hollowness. "I sinned," says the man, "I knew it was sin. I chose it
   willfully. I might have avoided it, but I would not. I set darkness for
   light and light for darkness. I am a willful offender." Instead of
   laying a flattering unction to his soul, he sees sin to be exceedingly
   sinful and laments it.

   My Hearers, am I describing some of you? I trust, before the Lord, some
   of you can see your own photographs here, and if so, I have joyful news
   from the Lord for you, for broken hearts shall be bound up by the Lord
   Jesus Himself--and eternal life shall be given you if you rest in Him!
   Please notice that this sorrow was thoughtful sorrow, for Ephraim
   reviews his past life--"You have chastised me." What came of it? Why,
   "I was chastised," and that was all. Are there not some of you in this
   Hall who might say, "Great God, You Yourself must deal with me, for
   none but Yourself can ever save me. I have been laid upon a bed of
   sickness, and I have recovered from it. And there was an end of the
   sickness, but I was none the better for it.

   "I lost my wife, I buried my children, I have suffered hard blows, but
   that is all--all my afflictions have produced no good result. Lord, I
   have had sickness after sickness but I am rather worse than better!
   Like a bull unaccustomed to the yoke, beaten but not subdued, struck
   but still obstinate." The more the untrained bull is goaded, the more
   it kicks, and it will not wear the yoke with patience. Have you not
   been like it? When you have heard a sermon, you have laughed at it!
   When your mother's tears have fallen for you, you have despised them.
   When your wife's prayers have gone up to Heaven, you have turned them
   into ridicule. You have been chastised and chastised, but no good has
   followed it.

   Some of you have wearied the Lord with your iniquities, till He asks,
   "What shall I do with you?" Take heed, for patience endures not
   forever! The Lord will not always plow upon a rock. He will not always
   sow upon the thankless sand. "For the earth which drinks in the rain
   that comes often upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom
   it is dressed, receives blessing from God. But that which bears thorns
   and briars is rejected, and is near unto cursing, whose end is to be
   burned." I trust that many of you are sensible that no outward
   Providences, persuasions, or preaching will suffice to save you--you
   need effectual Grace to convert your soul or you will perish forever.

   I beg you to notice the bemoaning of the text in one more respect,
   namely, that it was hopeless and yet hopeful. Eph-raim says, "Lord, it
   is of no use to chastise me, for I only get worse. But do You turn me,
   and I shall be turned." I was staying one day at an inn in one of the
   valleys of Northern Italy, where the floor was dreadfully dirty. I had
   it in my mind to advise the landlady to scrub it, but when I perceived
   that it was made of mud, I reflected that the more she scrubbed the
   worse it would be.

   The man who knows his own heart soon perceives that his corrupt nature
   admits of no improvement. There must be a new nature implanted, or the
   man will be only "washed to deeper stains." "You must be born again."
   Ours is not a case for mending, but for making new. The meaning of the
   prayer in my text is, "Lord, do not chastise me, but turn me. Do it
   Yourself, and then it will be done. Turn me, and I shall be turned, but
   if You do not do it I am past hope." O troubled Soul, if the Lord shall
   put His hand to the work this morning, what a wonderful change will He
   work in you! But only His own right hand can do it. Pray, then, this
   prayer--

   "'Turn me, and I shall be turned." "No outward forms can make you
   clean, Your leprosy lies deep within."

   No resolving of yours can cleanse you any more than the Ethiopian can
   make himself white by resolving to be so! Only the Holy Spirit can
   purify you with the blood of Jesus. He who gives life to the dead can
   give spiritual life to you. He can take away the heart of stone and
   give you a heart of flesh! I invite you, therefore, to pray, "Turn me,
   O God, and I shall be turned." And I bid you exercise the appropriating
   Grace of faith and say, "for You are the Lord my God." Are you made
   willing to take Jehovah to be your God today, my Hearer? Are you
   willing to give up the world, its pleasures, and its gains?

   Are you willing to give up self, fashion, pomp, self-indulgence, and
   sin in every shape? If you are, then I beseech you wait not till you
   get home, but, standing or sitting where you now are, let Ephraim's
   bemoaning prayer be yours, "Turn me, Lord! Convert me! Make a new man
   of me! Turn me, and I shall be turned--for You can do it so that it
   will be well done, thoroughly done, effectually done, permanently done,
   unhesitatingly done. Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be

   turned, even I. Though I have been set on mischief. Though none beside
   could ever move my flinty soul. Though I was so dogged and resolved
   that one might as well have tried to rule the winds or command the
   tempest as to curb my will, yet, Lord You can do it."

   I see at this moment some of you dashing at full speed down the hill
   like wild horses, and none can restrain you. In vain we may call to
   you! In vain we throw fences across the road--you leap over every
   barrier, determined to be lost! But let Almighty Grace interpose! Let
   the Lord Himself appear! He can twist His hand in the neck which seemed
   clothed with thunder! He can throw back the maddened steed! He can
   thrust the bit of Divine Grace into its foaming mouth and constrain the
   once untameable being to bear the yoke of love. May such a feat of
   Grace be performed in some sinner's heart this day!

   II. I do not know where Ephraim was when he bemoaned himself, but I SEE
   THE LORD OBSERVING HIM. I know not where some of you hide yourselves
   now that you are pricked in your conscience. Some retire to their
   bedrooms. Some shut themselves in their closets. Many a countryman has
   wept behind the hedge, or climbed into a hayloft, or leaped into a saw
   pit to pray. It little matters where you seek the Lord. He will be sure
   to see you--and even if it is in the crowded street of Cheapside or
   Cornhill--if your soul is in prayer, all the din of noisy London cannot
   stop the prayer from reaching the ear of God!

   You know, Mothers, how quick you are at night to hear your children if
   they are ill. If you had a nurse, she might slumber on--but as for you,
   with little Jane upstairs sick--if you fall asleep, the faintest noise
   wakes you. Yet you are not one-half so wakeful as God is! For He
   neither slumbers nor sleeps. When your heart begins to say, "My God, my
   God, I would be reconciled! My Lord, I would be cleansed," the Lord is
   waiting to be gracious. Before you call, God hears you, for He is a God
   ready to pardon.

   Observe that God heard all that Ephraim had to say. I do not know that
   anybody else cared to do so, and so, if you have not a Christian
   friend, although I am sorry for you, I would say never mind--God is
   enough for you without a friend! No one else might have understood
   Ephraim if they had heard him, but God knew all about him and He
   understood him well. If you cannot utter your prayer in good English,
   never mind. Breathe it out anyway--God can understand it. Broken
   prayers are the best prayers. Do not suppose that you require fine
   words and elegant phrases in order to affect the Lord. Your tearful
   eyes shall be more mighty than trope or metaphor, and your heavy sighs
   shall be more eloquent than the polished period and lofty climax of the
   orator.

   Only prostrate your soul before God with humble heart and downcast eyes
   and your Father will accept you. What man among you can stand against
   his children's tears? When King Henry II in the ages gone by was
   provoked to take up arms against his ungrateful and rebellious son, he
   besieged him in one of the French towns, and the son, being near unto
   death, desired to see his father and confess his wrongdoing. But the
   stern old sire refused to look the rebel in the face. The young man,
   being sorely troubled in his conscience, said to those about him, "I am
   dying. Take me from my bed and let me lie in sackcloth and ashes, in
   token of my sorrow for my ingratitude to my father."

   Thus he died, and when the tidings came to the old man outside the
   walls that his boy had died in ashes, repentant for his rebellion, he
   threw himself upon the earth like another David, and said, "Would God I
   had died for him!" The thought of his boy's broken heart touched the
   heart of the father. If you, being evil, are overcome by your
   children's tears, how much more shall your Father who is in Heaven find
   in your bemoaning and confession an argument for the display of His
   pardoning love through Christ Jesus our Lord?

   This is the eloquence which God delights in--the broken heart, and the
   contrite spirit! He heard and He understood all that Ephraim said, and
   He was moved by it. Did you note that word, "I have surely heard
   Ephraim"? As if nothing were more sure! If God should not hear the
   music of Heaven, He would hear the prayers of penitents! If the booming
   of the storm and the roar of the tempest, when the thunders roll like
   drums in the march of the God of armies--if the clapping of the
   thousand hands of the roaring sea when it rejoices in its strength
   should not be heard by the Eternal ear-- yet, surely, the bemoaning of
   a single sinner should be regarded!

   The crash of thunder is to the Lord no more than the sound of the
   falling of a sere leaf on a still summer's eve, but the cry of one of
   His children peals through Heaven, and moves the Infinite heart, so
   that swift on wings of love the God of mercy flies. Nor is it mere
   pity. God gives to us practical aid--He gave to Ephraim what Ephraim
   asked for. Our God is full of compassion. He is a terrible God when He
   has to deal with sin--thunderbolts are in his hands, and lightning

   flashes from His eyes of fire, "for our God is a consuming fire." But
   when He has to deal with penitents His name is Love. He rides in a
   chariot of mercy and holds out a silver scepter of Divine Grace!

   O seeking souls, Jehovah will hear you through the merits of His Son!
   Seek His face and you shall not seek in vain!

   III. Let us now turn to the third point and view THE LORD WORKING IN
   HIS EFFECTUAL GRACE. Beloved Friends, recollect that the only turning
   in the world that is saving and Divine is the turning of the heart. As
   for a mere change of notions--the turning of the head--many mistake it
   for conversion, but it is quite another matter. "Oh, yes!" says a man,
   "I used to be an Arminian, now I have become a Calvinist." Or, "I used
   to be a Churchman, and now I have joined the Baptists." Or, "I used to
   be a Papist, and I have become a Protestant." Well, and what difference
   will that make if you have not a new nature?

   A thief is a thief, whatever name he may bear--no change of name will
   make him honest. You may be quite as bad in one denomination as in
   another, for hypocrisy and formalism are found among all sorts of
   professors. If you take a raven and put it in a brass cage, or a silver
   cage, or a golden cage--it is still a raven--and so, if you, join this
   Church or that Church, unless your nature is changed, you are an
   unsaved sinner! Let me add that thought is a useful thing to have the
   outward conversation changed, yet that is not enough. It is a great
   blessing when a drunkard becomes a teetotaler. It is a great blessing
   when the thief becomes honest. It is a great blessing when any vice is
   given up, and the opposite virtue is carried out--but that is not the
   matter. "You must be born again."

   All the changes that you can ever work in yourselves will not avail for
   your entering Heaven. Go to St. Paul's Cathedral and see the statues in
   white marble--they are not living men, and you cannot make them so.
   Wash them, clothe them, paint them! Do what you will with them, still
   they cannot join in the songs or prayers of living men, because they
   are marble and not alive. Even so is it with you, unregenerate ones.
   You have no spiritual life in you--we would have you washed, we would
   have you moralized, for that is a good thing--even a corpse should he
   clean! But all the washing and the cleaning will not make you live! You
   must have the Divine influence from on high. No turning is good for
   anything everlastingly except the renewing of the inward nature by a
   work of Divine Grace in the soul.

   How is this done? This is the work, this is the difficulty! I will show
   you God's mode of working as briefly as I can. The Lord's way of
   turning a man in the main is much as follows, but the exact method
   varies in each case. If a man is going on in any one road and you want
   to turn him, the first thing is to stop him. What would one of you
   think if tomorrow, as you were walking to your labor, you should
   suddenly see the earth open before you as though a volcano had split
   open the earth from its lowest depths? I warrant you would go no
   further in that way! You would stand with hair on end and gaze down in
   into the dread abyss, or fly back in alarm.

   This is exactly what happened to me when God turned me. I went on easy
   enough in my sins. I thought them pleasant, and that I should continue
   in them--till, by God's Grace I came to feel that Hell was a real
   thing, and that I was on the brink of it! I saw clearly that if the
   brittle thread of my life were snapped, infinite misery would be my
   portion in the place where fiends forever bite their bonds of iron,
   unable to escape or to endure! Oh, how a distinct sight of wrath to
   come stops a man! How he pauses when he perceives in his own soul that
   the wages of sin are death! A sight of the everlasting burnings makes
   him cry "STOP!" and though, before, he went on gaily dancing to
   destruction, he now waits awhile, puts his finger to his brow, takes
   counsel with his cooler judgment, and says to himself, "Now what shall
   I do?"

   When a man is awakened by the Holy Spirit to feel that Hell is his just
   desert, it is no wonder that his mind is turned from the love of sin to
   a perfect horror of it. "Oh," he says, "if Hell is kindled by my sin,
   how can I love the sin which prepared such wrath for me?" The old
   naturalist, Ulysses Androvaldus, tells us that a dove is so afraid of a
   hawk that she will be frightened at the sight of one of its feathers.
   Whether it is so or not, I cannot tell. But this I do know, that when a
   man has had a thorough shaking over the jaws of Hell he will be so
   afraid of sin that even one of the feathers of it, any one sin, will
   alarm and send fear through his soul! This is a part of the way by
   which the Lord turns us when we are, indeed, turned.

   Furthermore, the awakened conscience is led to see the real nature of
   sin. We have all seen bears in a pit, and lions in stone, and have seen
   them without alarm. But I can readily imagine that if a lion were
   suddenly to leap from my platform into the midst of this throng you
   would regard it with a very different eye! A wild beast let loose among
   you would be a very different thing from what it is in a picture or a
   statue. Now sin, as the preacher talks of it, is to most of you like a
   painted lion. But when a man feels it in his own soul as an evil full
   of mischief, it is a very different thing. We are like the

   man in the fable who warmed a frozen viper in his bosom--when it came
   to life he knew its poisonous nature, for he felt the venom in his
   veins.

   Men, before God quickens them, nurse the viper of sin in their bosom,
   and say, "Look at its azure scales. How fair it is to look upon! Do you
   suppose so harmless a creature could ever do me injury?" They put it in
   their bosom with much fondness. But when it bites them, and the hot
   poison runs through their veins and conscience is thoroughly awake,
   then they loathe it and cast it from them, or rather would do so if
   they could! But as Laocoon, in the old story tried in vain to tear the
   serpent's coils from his limbs, so is it with them until Divine Grace
   comes to their aid. At any rate, a true sight of sin soon turns a man
   most thoroughly from his former love of it.

   There once lived a great religious impostor, of whom it is said--

   "O'er his features hung The veil, the silver veil which he had flung In
   mercy there, to hide from mortal sight His dazzling brow, till man
   could bear its light." When that veil was at last uplifted, the foulest
   leprosy was seen! So Sin comes to men covered with its silver veil, and
   it whispers with softest accents sweet as music, "Trust me, I cannot
   deceive you. I bring you richest joy. See how the cup sparkles, how the
   wine moves itself aright! How merry is the dance! How joyous is the
   chambering and the wantonness!" But ah, when once that silver veil
   comes off, and sin's leprous brow is seen, then man, enlightened by his
   God, turns from it, crying," Get you behind me, Satan."

   As John said of Jezebel, "Throw her down," so do men abhor the accursed
   thing that by her witchcrafts could lead their souls to destruction. A
   sight of Hell and a sense of sin are great means in the hands of God to
   turn the sinner from his ways. The grand turning point I have not come
   to yet--it is a sight of Christ on the Cross. If you ever, by the eyes
   of faith, see Jesus Christ dying for you, sin will never be sweet to
   you again. What was it slew our blessed Lord? It was our sin--

   " 'Twere you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were! Each
   of my crimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear."

   When we discover that our iniquities put our dearest and best Friend to
   death, we vow revenge against our iniquities, and from that day forth
   hate them with a perfect hatred. Let me illustrate this very simply.
   Here is a knife with a richly-carved ivory handle, a knife of excellent
   workmanship. Yonder woman, we will suppose, has had a dear child
   murdered by a cruel enemy. This knife is hers. She is pleased with it,
   and prizes it much. How can I make her throw that knife away? I can do
   it easily, for that is the knife with which her child was killed. Look
   at it. There is blood still upon the handle. She drops it as though it
   were a scorpion--she cannot bear it.

   "Put it away," she says, "it killed my child! Oh, hateful thing!" Now,
   sin is such a thing--we play with it till we are told it was sin that
   killed the Lord Jesus, who died out of love to us--pure, disinterested
   love. Then we say, "Hateful thing, get you gone! How can I endure you?"
   Remember how Mark Anthony stirred up the Romans to a fury against
   Caesar's murderers? Holding up the mantle of dead Caesar, he pointed to
   the tears and gashes in the garment--"In this place ran Cassius' dagger
   through. Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed." And thus he
   inflamed the multitude to such a pitch of fury that they snatched up
   the seats around them, and away they went to the houses of the
   conspirators to set them on a blaze.

   Ah, if my lips could speak as my heart bids them, I would cry, "See
   there the wounds of the Son of God! Behold the crimson stains which
   mark His blessed body! Mark the crown of thorns! Gaze upon the pierced
   hands! Weep over the nailed feet! See the deep gash which the lance
   made in His side! Sin did this cruel work, this bloody deed! Down with
   our sins! Drag them to the Cross! Slay them at Calvary! Let not one of
   them escape, for they are the murderers of Christ!" This is the way in
   which the Lord turns the sinner, and he is turned, indeed.

   Further, one of the most blessed ways by which God makes the sinner
   turn is this--He manifests His everlasting love to him. You remember
   the fable of the traveler going along wrapped up in his cloak, and the
   contest between the wind and the sun as to which should get his cloak
   from him? The wind blustered and blew with a cold driving rain but the
   traveler wrapped his cloak about him the more tightly, and went
   shivering on his journey. The wind could not tear away

   the garment. Then the genial sun burst forth, and shone full upon the
   traveler's face. It dried his garments and cheered him with its warmth.
   By-and-by the traveler loosed his cloak and at last threw it off--the
   sun's kindness had won the day.

   Now, when God's Law blusters about a sinner, it sometimes happens that
   he says, "I will go on in my sins." But when God's love comes, who can
   stand against it? "I have loved you with an everlasting love," says God
   to the sinner. "Is it so?" cries the renewed heart. "Then, Lord, I
   cannot be Your enemy any longer." Oh, if some of you did but know that
   God has chosen you from before the foundation of the world! If you did
   but know that you are His darlings, His favor-ites--that He gave His
   own Son to die for you! Oh, if you did but know that your name, your
   worthless name, is written upon the hands of Christ--would you not love
   Him then?

   I pray that He may reveal that love to you today, and, if He does, you
   will sing--

   "Your mercy is more than a match for my heart, Which wonders to feel
   its own hardness depart. Dissolved by Your goodness, I fall to the
   ground, And weep to the praise of the mercy I've found." When this
   sense of love has done its work, new loves and new desires fill the
   soul and the man is a new man. Some worldlings cannot make out why
   Christians abstain from certain pleasures. "Why," they say, "I am not
   going to deny myself of every pleasure!" Do not you know, my dear
   Friends, that it is no denial to us to go without sin? It is no denial
   to the sheep to live without licking blood, because the sheep would
   dread the sight of blood! It desires the sweet green grass, but does
   not care for carnage. So when God gives us new hearts and right
   spirits, we do not find it a denial to renounce sin-- our tastes are
   changed--our new loves and our new desires are not those of our former
   estate!

   There may be a gentleman here who has risen in the world. He was once a
   farmer's boy, but now he rides in his carriage. When he was a farmer's
   boy, he used to think what a grand thing it would be to be a king and
   swing on a gate and eat bacon all day long. But now I will be bound to
   say he does not want to swing on a gate, and has little relish for the
   rustic dainty of which he was once so fond. He has reached a different
   rank of society, and his tastes and habits are all different.

   So is it with the Christian. God makes a king of him, and how can he go
   back to play with beggars? God has put a heavenly nature into him, and
   he abhors to grovel in the dust of sin. Dear Friends, I would to God
   that you might know your standing in Christ--sons of God, heirs with
   Christ, joint heirs with Him--and when you do it will turn you away
   from the base things of sin and you will be turned, indeed!

   Once more, and I shall not detain you. There is something which binds
   the Christian very fast to holiness and restrains him from sin, and
   that is the prospect of yon bright world to which he is wending his
   way. This week I had my faith much strengthened in visiting a sick
   woman. I would gladly change places with her. Glad enough should I be
   to lie upon that sick bed and die in her room, for though she has been
   long on the borders of the grave, and knows it--knows that each hour
   may probably be the last--her joy is so great, her bliss is so
   abundant, that you have only to speak with her and her joy overflows!

   She told me, "I prayed that if God would spare me, He would give me one
   soul, and He has given me five converts while I have been on this bed!"
   And I did not wonder at it, as I saw the five dear friends sitting in
   the room. I did not wonder at it--it was enough to make one a Christian
   to see her joy and her peace, and hear her talk so confidently about
   the time when she should see her Lord and be in His embrace forever!
   "Ah," says the devil to the Christian, "I will give you so much if you
   sin." Our reply is, "What could you give me compared with our
   inheritance? O Fiend, you bring me counterfeit riches, but I can count
   down ten thousand times as much in real solid gold!

   "You proffer me your paste gems, but here are diamonds and pearls of
   the first water and of the rarest value! Away with you, you tempter!
   You know not how to tempt a Christian! For his gains are greater than
   anything you can give him." Surely this would turn your hearts, my
   Hearers, if you could but know and feel the glory of our inheritance!
   If you had a vision of the land of the hereafter, where the birds of
   Paradise forever sing, and the sun forever shines, and the day is never
   ended, surely sin would no longer enchant you. "We are on our journey
   home," say the host of the elect. The city which has foundations has
   turned their stops from sin, and they are turned, indeed, so that they
   never can be turned back again.

   Now I have done, but I do not like to send you away without making
   again the personal enquiry. Are you bemoaning yourself? Do you desire
   to be turned? Would you have these gracious motives operating upon you?
   Then do not put it off, but this moment breathe the silent prayer,
   "Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned." I have a great desire in my
   heart. I should like to tell you of it--it is that there should be more
   converted in this place than ever were converted at one time in any
   place since the world was--for never before was such an audience
   gathered to hear one man! Whether that desire shall be granted I do not
   know, but if we have faith enough for it, it may come, and it will
   come! Why should

   it not?

   Oh, that some great sinners might be saved, for they always make the
   best saints! Oh, that the Lord might take some of the ringleaders in
   the devil's army and make them lieutenants in His service! None so
   brave for Christ as those who were brave for sin! You great
   sinners--may great mercy meet with you! Remember the way of salvation
   is this--Trust Jesus and you shall be saved! Look to Him I have
   pictured just now bleeding, groaning, dying on the tree! Look, look,
   and live! Only depend upon Him! Only give your heart to Him, and rest
   in Him, and it is not possible that one should perish who comes to
   Jesus and puts his trust in Him!

   Brethren, pray for us! If you, the members of this Church, do not pray
   for me, I feel I shall have much to lay to your charge. Never was
   anyone called to so great a work as this. I have, this morning, 20,000
   claims upon your prayers! I beseech you by the living God pray for me!
   It were better for me that I never were born than to have this
   responsibility upon me if I have not your prayers! Who can tell?--the
   service of this morning may, when it is thought over and remembered by
   the hearers--bring forth fruit a hundred-fold, and God shall have the
   glory! Do pray for me! And, Sinner, unconverted Sinner, do pray for
   yourself, and may God hear you for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

              Jesus At Bethesda--or, Waiting Changed for Believing

   A sermon

   (No. 744)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 7, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Agricultural Hall, Newington

   "After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to
   Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool which
   is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these
   lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,
   waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a
   certain season into the pool and troubled the water: whoever then first
   after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatever
   disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity
   thirty-and-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that
   he had been now a long time in that case, He said unto him, Willyou be
   made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the
   water is troubled, to putme into thepool: but while Iam coming, another
   steps down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up your bed, and
   walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and
   walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath."- John 5:1-9.

   THE scene of this miracle was Bethesda, a pool, according to the
   Evangelist, adjoining the sheep market, or near the sheep gate--the
   place through which, I suppose, the cattle consumed by the inhabitants
   of Jerusalem would be driven-- and the pool where, perhaps, the sheep
   intended for sale to the offerers in the temple were washed. So common
   was sickness in the days of the Savior that the infirmities of men
   intruded upon the place which had been allotted to cattle! And the
   place where sheep had been washed became the spot where sick folk
   congregated in great multitudes, longing for a cure. We do not hear
   that anyone remonstrated at the intrusion, or that public opinion was
   shocked. The needs of mankind must override all considerations of
   taste. A hospital must have preference over a sheep market.

   This day you have another case in point. If the physical infirmities of
   Jerusalem intruded into the sheep market, I shall ask no excuse if, on
   these Sundays, the spiritual sickness of London should demand that this
   spacious place, which has up to now been given up to the lowing of
   cattle and to the bleating of sheep, should be consecrated to the
   preaching of the Gospel--to the manifestation of the healing virtue of
   Christ Jesus among the spiritually sick!

   This day there is, by the sheep market, a pool, and impotent folk are
   here in exceeding great multitudes. We might never have heard of
   Bethesda if an august visitor had not condescended to honor it with His
   Presence--Jesus, the Son of God, walked in the five porches by the
   pool. It was the place where we might expect to meet Him, for where
   should the Great Physician be found if not in the place where the sick
   are gathered? Here was work for Jesus' healing hand and restoring word.
   It was but natural that the Son of Man, who "came to seek and to save
   that which was lost," should make His way to the laver-house by the
   side of the pool. That gracious visit is Bethesda's glory.

   This has lifted up the name of this pool out of the common rank of the
   springs and waters of the earth! O that King Jesus might come into this
   place this morning! This would be the glory of this Hall for which it
   should be famous in eternity! If Jesus would be here to heal, the
   remarkable size of the congregation would cease to be a wonder! The
   renown of Jesus and His saving love would eclipse all else, as the sun
   puts out the stars. My Brethren, Jesus will be here, for there are
   those who know Him and have power with Him, who have been asking for
   His Presence. The Lord's favored people, by prevailing cries and tears,
   have won from Him His consent to be in our midst this day, and He is
   walking amid this throng as ready to heal and as mighty to save as in
   the days of His flesh!

   "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," is an
   assurance which comforts the preacher's heart this morning! A present
   Savior--present in the power of the Holy Spirit--shall make this day to
   be remembered by many

   who shall be made whole. I ask the earnest attention of all, and I
   entreat of Believers their fervent assisting prayers while I first bid
   you observe the sick man. Secondly, direct your attentive eye to the
   Great Physician. And, thirdly, make an application of the whole
   narrative to the present case.

   I. In order to observe THE PATIENT, I shall ask you to go with me to
   the pool with the five porches, around which the sick are lying. Walk
   tenderly among the groups of lame and blind! No, do not close your
   eyes. It will do you good to see the sorrowful sight--to mark what sin
   has done and to what sorrows our father Adam has made us heirs. Why are
   they all here? They are here because sometimes the waters bubble up
   with a healing virtue. Whether visibly stirred by an angel or not it is
   not necessary for us to discuss. But it was generally believed that an
   angel descended and touched the water--this rumor attracted the sick
   from all quarters.

   As soon as the stir was seen in the waters the whole mass probably
   leaped into the pool--those who could not leap themselves were pushed
   in by their attendants. Alas, how small the result! Many were
   disappointed. Only one was rewarded for the leap! Whoever first stepped
   in was healed, but only the first. For the poor and meager chance of
   winning this cure, the sick folk lingered in Bethesda's arches year
   after year. The impotent man in the narrative had most likely spent the
   better part of his 38 years in waiting at this famous pool, buoyed up
   by the slender hope that he might one day be first of the throng.

   On the Sunday mentioned in the text, the angel had not come to him, but
   something better had come, for Jesus Christ, the angel's Master was
   there! Note concerning this man that he was fully aware of his
   sickness. He did not dispute the failure of his health--he was an
   impotent man--he felt it and he admitted it. He was not like some
   present this morning who are lost by nature, but who do not know it, or
   will not confess it. He was conscious that he needed heavenly help, and
   his waiting at the pool showed it.

   Are there not many in this assembly who are equally convinced on this
   point? You have for a long time felt that you are a sinner and have
   known that unless Divine Grace shall save you, you can never be saved.
   You are no atheist, no denier of the Gospel--on the contrary, you
   firmly believe the Bible and heartily wish that you had a saving part
   in Christ Jesus--but for the present you have advanced no further than
   to feel that you are sick, to desire to be healed, and to admit that
   the care must come from above. So far, so good, but it is not good to
   stop here. The impotent man, thus desiring to be healed, waited by the
   pool expecting some sign and wonder. He hoped that an angel would
   suddenly burst open the golden gates and touch the waters which were
   now calm and stagnant, and that he then might be healed.

   This, too, my dear Hearers, is the thought of many of those who feel
   their sins and who desire salvation. They accept that unscriptural and
   dangerous advice given to them by a certain class of ministers--they
   wait at the pool of Be-thesda--they persevere in the formal use of
   means and ordinances, and continue in unbelief, expecting some great
   thing. They abide in a continued refusal to obey the Gospel and yet
   expect that all of a sudden they will experience some strange emotions,
   feelings, or remarkable impressions! They hope to see a vision, or hear
   a supernatural voice, or be alarmed with deliriums of horror.

   Now, dear Friends, we shall not deny that a few persons have been saved
   by very singular interpositions of God's hand in a manner altogether
   out of the ordinary modes of Divine procedure. We should be very
   foolish if we were, for instance, to dispute the truth of such a
   conversion as that of Colonel Gardiner, who, the very night when he
   made an appointment to commit sin, was arrested and converted by a
   vision of Christ upon the Cross, which, at any rate, he thought he saw,
   and by hearing or imagining that he heard the voice of the Savior
   tenderly pleading with him. It were idle to dispute that such cases
   have occurred, do occur, and may occur again.

   I must, however, beg unconverted people not to look for such
   interpositions in their own cases. When the Lord bids you believe in
   Jesus, what right have you to demand signs and wonders instead? Jesus
   Himself is the greatest of all wonders! My dear Hearer, for you to wait
   for remarkable experiences is as futile as was the waiting of the
   multitude who lingered at Bethesda waiting for the long-expected angel,
   when He who could heal them stood already in their midst, neglected and
   despised by them!

   What a piteous spectacle, to see them gazing into the clouds when the
   Physician who could heal them was present! But they offered Him no
   petitions and sought no mercy at His hands. In dealing with the method
   of waiting to see or to feel some great thing, we remark that it is not
   the way which God has bid His servants preach. I challenge the whole
   world to find any Gospel of God in which an unconverted man is told to
   abide in unbelief Where is the sinner told to

   wait upon God in the use of ordinances so that he may be saved? The
   Gospel of our salvation is this--"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
   you shall be saved."

   When our Lord gave His commission to His disciples, He said, "Go you
   into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." And what
   was that Gospel? Tell them to wait in their unbelief in the use of
   means and ordinances till they see some great thing? Tell them to be
   diligent in prayer and read the Word of God, until they feel better?
   Not an atom of it! Thus says the Lord, "He that believes and is
   baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."
   This was the Gospel and the only Gospel which Jesus Christ ever bade
   His ministers preach! They who say, "Wait for feelings! Wait for
   impressions! Wait for wonders!" preach another Gospel which is not
   another!

   The lifting up of Christ on the Cross is the saving work of the Gospel
   ministry, and in the Cross of Jesus lies the hope of men! "Look unto Me
   and be you saved, all the ends of the earth," is God's Gospel. "Wait at
   the pool," is man's Gospel, and has destroyed its thousands. This
   ungospel-like gospel of waiting is immensely popular. I should not
   wonder if well near half of you are satisfied with it. O my Hearers,
   you do not refuse to fill the seats in our places of worship! You are
   seldom absent when the doors are open! And there you sit in confirmed
   unbelief--waiting for windows to be made in Heaven--and neglecting the
   Gospel of your salvation! The great command of God, "Believe and live,"
   has no response from you but a deaf ear and a stony heart while you
   quiet your consciences with outward religious observances!

   If God had said, "Sit in those seats and wait," I would be bold to urge
   it upon you with tears. But God has not said so! He has said, "Let the
   wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let
   him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him." He has not
   said, "Wait," but He Has said, "Seek you the Lord while He may be
   found, call you upon Him while He is near." "Today if you will hear His
   voice, harden not your hearts." I find Jesus saying nothing to sinners
   about waiting, but very much about coming. "Come unto Me, all you that
   labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." "If any man
   thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink." "The Spirit and the bride
   say, come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is
   thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life

   freely."

   Why is this "signs and wonders" way so popular? It is because it
   administers to the conscience. When the minister preaches with power
   and the hearer's heart is touched, the devil says, "Wait for a more
   convenient season." Thus the arch enemy pours his deadly drug into the
   soul and the sinner, instead of trusting in Jesus on the spot, or
   falling on bended knees, with tearful eyes crying for mercy, flatters
   himself because he is in the use of the means. Which use of means is
   well enough as far as it goes, but which is bad as bad can be when it
   comes into the place of Christ Crucified! A child ought to hear its
   parent's command, but what if the child puts hearing into the place of
   obeying? God forbid that I should glory in your listening to the Gospel
   if you are hearers only--my glory is in the Cross--and unless you look
   to the Cross, it were better for you that you had never been born!

   I ask the candid attention of everyone who has thus been waiting while
   I mention one or two points. My dear Friend, is not this waiting a very
   hopeless business, after all? Out of those who waited at Bethesda, how
   very few were ever healed? He who stepped down first into the pool was
   cured, but all the rest came up from the pool just as they went in. Ah,
   my Hearers, I tremble for some of you--you Chapel-goers and
   Church-goers, who have for years been waiting-- how few of you get
   saved! Thousands of you die in your sins, waiting in wicked unbelief. A
   few are snatched like brands from the burning, but the most of those
   who are hardened waiters, wait, and wait till they die in their sins. I
   solemnly warn you that, pleasing to the flesh as waiting in unbelief
   may be, it is not one which any reasonable man would long persevere in!

   For, my Friend, are not you in your own person an instance of its
   hopelessness? You have been waiting for years! You can scarcely
   remember when you first went to a place of worship. Your mother carried
   you there in her arms, and you have been nurtured under the shadow of
   the sanctuary like the swallows that build their nests under God's
   altars-- and what has your unbelieving waiting done for you? Has it
   made you a Christian? No! You are still without God, without Christ,
   without hope! I shall put it to you in God's name--what right have you
   to expect that if you wait another thirty years you will be at all
   different from what you are now? Are not the probabilities most strong
   that at 60 you will be as graceless as you are at thirty?

   Let me say it--and I dare say it without egotism--some of you have
   listened to the Gospel preached to you in no mincing manner. My dear
   Hearers, I have been as plain with you as I know how to be! I have
   never shunned to declare the

   whole counsel of God, nor even to pick out an individual case and deal
   with it closely. Short of actually mentioning people's names, I have
   hardly stopped. I have sought to commend the Gospel to the conscience
   of every man as in the sight of God. Remember the warnings you had in
   Exeter Hall--some of you remember how you broke down in the Surrey
   Gardens! [See first six volumes (7he New Park Street Pulpit)]

   Remember the invitations which have already come to you in this very
   Hall! And if all these have failed, what more is to be done in the way
   of hearing and waiting? Many of you have listened to other preachers,
   equally earnest, equally tender, perhaps more so. Now, if all these
   have had no effect upon you--if waiting at the pool has done nothing
   for you--is it not a forlorn and helpless mode of procedure? Is it not
   time that something better were tried than merely waiting for the
   troubling of the water? Is it not time that you remembered that Jesus
   Christ is ready to save you NOW, and that if you now trust in Him, you
   shall this day have everlasting life?

   There lies our poor friend, still waiting at the water's edge. I do not
   blame him for waiting, for Jesus had not been there before and it was
   right for him to seize even the most slender chance of a cure. But it
   was sad that Jesus should have been so slighted. There He went,
   threading His way among the blind, and the halt, and the lame, and
   looking benignly upon them all, but none looking up to Him! Now, in
   other places, soon as Jesus made His appearance they brought the sick
   in their beds and laid them at His feet and as He went along He healed
   them all, scattering mercies with both His hands!

   A blindness had come over these people at the pool. There they were,
   and there was Christ who could heal them, but not a single one of them
   sought Him! Their eyes were fixed on the water--expecting it to be
   troubled! They were so taken up with their own chosen way that the true
   way was neglected. No mercies were distributed, for none were sought.
   Ah, my Friends, my sorrowful question is--shall it be so this morning?
   The living Christ is still among us in the energy of His eternal
   Spirit! Will you be looking to your good works? Will you be trusting to
   your Church attendance and your Chapel-goings? Will you rely upon
   expected emotions, impressions, and fits of terror--and let Christ, who
   is able to save to the uttermost--have no glimpse of faith from any
   eye, no prayer of desire from any heart? If it shall be so, it is
   heartbreaking to think of it!

   Men, with an Almighty Physician in their house, dying while they are
   amused with a hopeless quackery of their own inventing! O poor Souls,
   shall Bethesda be repeated here this morning, and Jesus Christ, the
   present Savior, be again neglected? If a king should give to one of his
   subjects a ring, and say to him, "When you are in distress or disgrace,
   simply send me that ring and I will do all for you that is needful"--if
   that man should willfully refuse to send it, but purchase presents, or
   go about to do some singular feats of valor in order to win his
   monarch's favor, you would say, "What a fool he is! Here is a simple
   way, but he will not avail himself of it! He wastes his wits in
   inventing new devices and toils away his life in following out plans
   that must end in disappointment." Is not this the case with all those
   who refuse to trust Christ? The Lord has assured them that if they
   trust Jesus they shall be saved--but they go about after ten thousand
   imaginings, and let their God, their Savior, go!

   Meanwhile the sick man, so often disappointed, was growing into deep
   despair. Moreover he was becoming old, for 38 years is a long time out
   of a man's life. He felt that he should soon die. The brittle thread
   was nearly snapped, and so as the days and nights wearily wore on,
   though he waits, it became heavy work to wait. My Friend, is not this
   your case? Life is wearing away with you. Are there not gray hairs here
   and there? You have waited all this while in vain, and I warn you that
   you have sinfully waited. You have seen others saved. Your child is
   saved, your wife is converted, but you are not. You are waiting, and
   will wait, I fear, till the tune of, "Earth to earth, dust to dust,
   ashes to ashes," and the mold shall rattle on your coffin lid, and your
   soul shall be in Hell!

   Do not, I pray you, play with time any longer. Say not, "There is time
   enough," for the wise man knows that time enough is little enough. Be
   not like the foolish drunkard who, staggering home one night, saw his
   candle lit for him. "Two candles!" he said, for his drunkenness made
   him see double, "I will blow out one," and as he blew it out, in a
   moment he was in the dark. Many a man sees double through the
   drunkenness of sin--he thinks that he has one life to sow his wild oats
   in--and then the last part of life in which to turn to God. And, like a
   fool, he blows out the only candle that he has, and in the dark he will
   have to lie down forever. Hasten, Traveler! You have but one sun, and
   when that sets, you will never reach your home. God help you to make
   haste now!

   II. Let us look at THE PHYSICIAN Himself. As we have already seen, our
   Lord, on this occasion walked, forgotten and neglected, through that
   throng of impotent folk, no one crying, "Son of David, have mercy upon
   me!" No struggling woman seeking to touch the hem of His garment that
   she might be made whole! All were desirous of being healed, but, either
   no one knew or no one trusted Him. What a strange, soul-sickening sight
   it was, for Jesus was quite able and willing to heal and to do it all
   without fee or reward! And yet none sought Him.

   Is this scene to be repeated this morning? Jesus Christ is able to save
   you, my Hearers. There is no heart so hard that He cannot soften it.
   There is no man among you so lost that Jesus cannot save him. Blessed
   be my dear Master, no case ever did defeat Him! His mighty power
   reaches beyond the uttermost of all the depths of human sin and folly.
   If there is a harlot here, Christ can cleanse her! If there is a
   drunkard or a thief here, the blood of Jesus can make him white as
   snow! If you have any desire towards Him, you have not gone beyond the
   reach of His pierced hands If you are not saved, it is certainly not
   for want of power in the Savior!

   Moreover, your poverty is no hindrance, for my Master asks nothing from
   you--the poorer the wretch, the more welcome to Christ! My Master is no
   covetous priest who demands pay for what He does--He forgives us
   freely--He wants none of your merits, nothing whatever from you! Come
   as you are to Him, for He is willing to receive you as you are. But
   here is my sorrow and complaint--this blessed Lord Jesus, though
   present to heal--receives no attention from the most of men! They are
   looking another way, and have no eyes for Him. Yet Jesus was not angry.
   I do not find that He upbraided one of those who lay in the porches, or
   that He even thought a hard thought of them. I am sure that He pitied
   them, and said in His heart, "Alas, poor Souls, that they should not
   know when mercy is so near!"

   My Master is not wrathful with you who forget Him and neglect Him, but
   He pities you from His heart. I am but His poor servant, but I pity
   from my inmost heart those of you who live without Christ. I would
   gladly weep for you who are trying other ways of salvation, for they
   will all end in disappointment. And if continued in, will prove to be
   your eternal destruction! Observe very carefully what the Savior did.
   Looking around among the whole company, He made an election. He had a
   right to make what choice He pleased, and He exercised that sovereign
   prerogative! The Lord is not bound to give His mercy to everyone, or to
   anyone! He has freely proclaimed it to you all--but as you reject it He
   has now a double right to bless His chosen ones by making them willing
   in the day of His power.

   The Savior selected that man out of the great multitude, we know not
   why, but certainly for a reason founded in Divine Grace. If we might
   venture to give a reason for His choice it may be that He selected him
   because his was the worst case, and he had waited the longest of all.
   This man's case was in everybody's mouth. They said, "This man has been
   there 38 years." Our Lord acted according to His own eternal purpose,
   doing as He pleased with His own. He fixed the eyes of His electing
   love upon that one man, and, going up to him, He gazed upon him. He
   knew all his history. He knew that he had been a long time in that case
   and therefore He pitied him much. He thought of those dreary months and
   years of painful disappointment which the impotent man had suffered,
   and the tears were in the Master's eyes. He looked and looked again at
   that man, and His heart yearned towards him.

   Now, I know not whom Christ intends to save this morning by His
   effectual Grace. I am bound to give the general call, it is all that I
   can do! I know not where the Lord will give the effectual call which
   alone can make the Word saving. I should not wonder if He should call
   some of you who have been waiting long. I will bless His name if He
   does. I should not marvel if electing love should pitch upon the chief
   of sinners this day! If Jesus should look on some of you who never
   looked on Him, His look shall make you look, and His pity shall make
   you have pity upon yourselves, and His Irresistible Grace shall make
   you come to Him that you may be saved!

   Jesus performed an act of Sovereign distinguishing Grace. I pray you do
   not kick at this doctrine! If you do, I cannot help it, for it is true.
   I have preached the Gospel to every one of you as freely as man can do
   it, and surely you who reject it ought not to quarrel with God for
   bestowing on others that which you do not care to receive! If you
   desire His mercy, He will not deny it to you. If you seek Him He will
   be found of you. But if you will not seek mercy, rail not at the Lord
   if He bestows it upon others! Jesus, having looked upon this man with a
   special eye of regard, said to Him, "Will you be made whole?" I have
   already hinted that this was not said because Christ wanted
   information, but because He wished to arouse the man's attention.

   On account of its being a Sunday, the man was not thinking of being
   cured, for to the Jew it seemed a most unlikely thing that cures should
   be worked on a Sunday. Jesus, therefore, brought his thoughts back to
   the matter in hand, for,

   mark you, the work of Divine Grace is a work upon a conscious mind, not
   upon senseless matter. Though Puseyites pretend to regenerate
   unconscious children by sprinkling their faces with water, Jesus never
   attempted such a thing--Jesus saves men who have the use of their
   senses--and His salvation is a work upon a quickened intellect and
   awakened affections. Jesus brought back the wandering mind with the
   question, "Will you be made whole?" "Indeed," the man might have said,
   "indeed, I desire it above all things--I long for it--I pant for it."

   Now, my dear Hearer, I will ask the same question of you. "Will you be
   made whole? Do you desire to be saved? Do you know what being saved
   is?" "Oh," you say, "it is escaping from Hell." No, no, no! That is the
   result of being saved, but being saved is a different thing. Do you
   want to be saved from the power of sin? Do you desire to be saved from
   being covetous, worldly-minded, bad-tempered, unjust, ungodly,
   domineering, drunken, or profane? Are you willing to give up the sin
   that is dearest to you? "No," says one, "I cannot honestly say I desire
   all that." Then you are not the man I am seeking this morning!

   But is there one here who says, "Yes, I long to be rid of sin, root and
   branch. I desire, by God's Grace, this very day to become a Christian
   and to be saved from sin." Well, then, as you are already in a state of
   thoughtfulness, let us go a step further and observe what the Savior
   did. He gave the word of command, saying, "Rise! Take up your bed and
   walk." The power by which the man arose was not in himself, but in
   Jesus! It was not the mere sound of the words which made him rise--it
   was the Divine power which went with it. I believe that Jesus still
   speaks through His ministers. I trust that He speaks through me at this
   moment, when in His name I say to you who have been waiting at the
   pool, wait no longer, but this moment believe in Jesus Christ! Trust
   Him now!

   I know that my words will not make you do it, but if the Holy Spirit
   works through the words, you will believe. Trust Christ now, poor
   Sinner! Believe that He is able to save you. Believe it now! Rely upon
   Him to save you this moment. Repose upon Him now! If you are enabled to
   believe, the power will come from Him, not from you, and your salvation
   will be effected, not by the sound of the word, but by the secret power
   of the Holy Spirit which goes with that word. I pray you observe that
   although nothing is said about faith in the text, yet the man must have
   had faith. Suppose you had been unable to move hand or foot for 38
   years, and someone said at your bedside, "Rise"? You would not think of
   trying to rise, you would know it to be impossible!

   You must have faith in the person who uttered the word, or else you
   would not make the attempt. I think I see the poor man--there he is, a
   heap, a writhing bundle of tortured nerves and powerless muscles--yet
   Jesus says, "Rise!" and up he rises in a moment! "Take up your bed,"
   says the Master, and the bed is carried! Here was the man's faith! The
   man was a Jew and he knew that, according to the Pharisees, it would be
   a very wicked thing for him to roll up his mattress and carry it on
   Sunday. But because Jesus told him, he asked no questions, but doubled
   up his couch and walked. He did what he was told to do because he
   believed in Him who spoke. Have you such faith in Jesus, poor Sinner?
   Do you believe that Christ can save you? If you do, then I say to you
   in His name, trust Him! Trust Him now! If you trust Jesus, you shall be
   saved this morning--saved on the spot, and saved forever!

   Observe, beloved Friends, that the cure which Christ worked was
   perfect. The man could carry His bed! The restoration was proved to a
   demonstration! The cure was manifest! All could see it! Moreover, the
   cure was immediate. He was not told to take a lump of figs and put it
   on the sore and wait. He was not carried home by his friends and laid
   up for a month or two, and gradually nursed into vital energy. Oh, no!
   He was cured then and there! Half our professing Christian imagine that
   regeneration cannot take place in a moment, and, therefore, they say to
   poor sinners, "Go and lie at Bethesda's pool. Wait in the use of
   ordinances. Humble yourself. Seek for deeper repentance."

   Beloved, away with such teaching! The Cross! The Cross! The Cross!
   THERE hangs a sinner's hope! You must not rely on what you can do, nor
   on what angels can do, nor on visions and dreams, nor on feelings and
   strange emotions, and horrible deliriums! You must rest in the blood of
   my Master and my God, once slain for sinners! There is life in a look
   at the Crucified One, and there is life nowhere else! I come to the
   same point, then, upon the second head as the first. Thus says the
   Lord, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth."

   III. Thirdly, we have to APPLY THE INSTANCE IN THE TEXT TO THE PRESENT
   OCCASION. I hope, Believers, your hearts are going up in prayer this
   morning. What a scene is before us! If someone had told us that this
   mass of people would have gathered to listen to the Gospel, are there
   not hundreds who would have doubted it? Mark this, we have had nothing
   novel to attract this multitude--nothing by way of gorgeous
   ceremony--there is not even the swell of

   the organ! I declined its pealing notes lest we should seem to depend
   in the slightest degree from a thread even to a shoe lace, upon
   anything but the preaching of the Gospel!

   The preaching of the Cross is enough to draw the people, and enough to
   save the people, and if we take to anything else we lose our power and
   shear away the locks which make us strong. The application of the text,
   this morning, is just this--Why should we not, on this very spot, have
   instantaneous cures of sick souls? Why should there not be scores,
   hundreds, thousands, who shall this morning hear the gracious words,
   "Arise, take up your bed and walk"? I believe it is possible! I hope it
   will be done!

   Let me talk with you who doubt this matter. You still think that you
   must wait--you have had a sufficient spell of waiting, and you are
   getting tolerably weary--but still you stick to the old plan. Hopeless
   as it is, you still catch at it as drowning men do at straws. But I
   want to show you that this is all wrong. Regeneration is an
   instantaneous work, and Justification an instantaneous gift. Man fell
   in a moment. When Eve plucked the fruit, and Adam ate it, it did not
   require six months to bring them into a state of condemnation. It did
   not require several years of continued sin to cast them out of
   Paradise. Their eyes were opened by the forbidden fruit. They saw that
   they were naked and they hid themselves from God. Surely, surely,
   Christ is not to be longer about His work than the devil was about his!
   Shall the devil destroy us in a moment and Jesus be unable to save us
   in a moment?

   Ah, glory be to God, He has power to deliver far more than any which
   Satan uses for man's destruction. Look at the Biblical illustrations of
   what salvation is. I will only mention three. Noah built an ark--that
   was a type of salvation. Now, when was Noah saved? Christ has built the
   ark for us. We have nothing to do with building it. But when was Noah
   saved? Does anyone say, "He was safe after he had been in the ark a
   month and had arranged all the things and looked out on the deluge and
   felt his danger." No! The moment Noah went through the door, and the
   Lord shut him in, Noah was safe. When he had been in the ark a second
   he was as secure as when he had been there a month.

   Take the case of the Passover. When were the Jews safe from the
   destroying angel who went through the land of Egypt? Were they safe
   after the blood which was sprinkled on the door had been looked upon
   and considered for a week or two? Oh, no, Beloved! The moment the blood
   was sprinkled, the house was secured. And the moment a sinner believes
   and trusts in the crucified Son of God he is pardoned at once--he
   receives salvation in full through Christ's blood. One more instance,
   the bronze serpent. When the bronze serpent was lifted up, what were
   the wounded to do? Were they told to wait till the bronze serpent was
   pushed into their faces, or until the venom of the serpent showed
   certain symptoms in their flesh?

   No, they were commanded to look. They did look. Were they healed in six
   months time? I read not so, but as soon as their eyes met the serpent
   of brass, the cure was worked! And as soon as your eyes meets Christ,
   poor Trembler, you are saved! Though yesterday you were deep in your
   cups, and up to your neck in sin, yet if this morning you look to my
   once slain but now exalted Master, you shall find eternal life! Again
   take Biblical instances. Did the dying thief wait at the pool of the
   ordinances? You know how soon his believing prayer was heard, and Jesus
   said, "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise." The three thousand at
   Pentecost, did they wait for some great thing? No, they believed, and
   were baptized!

   Look at the jailer of Philippi. It was the dead of the night, the
   prison was shaken, and the jailer was alarmed, and said, "Sir, what
   must I do to be saved?" Did Paul say, "Well, you must use the means and
   look for a blessing upon the ordinances"? No! He said, "Believe in the
   Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house," and that
   very night he baptized him. Paul did not take the time about it that
   some think so exceedingly necessary. He believed as I do, that there is
   life in a look at Jesus. He bade men look, and looking they lived!
   Possibly you will see this still more clearly if I remind you that the
   work of salvation is all done. There is nothing for a sinner to do in
   order to be saved--it is all done for him.

   You need washing. The bath does not need filling. "There is a fountain
   filled with blood." You need clothing. You have not to make the
   garment, the robe is ready. The garment of Christ's righteousness is
   woven from the top throughout--all that is needed is to have it put on.
   If some work remained for you to do it might be a lengthened process,
   but all the doing is accomplished by Christ. Salvation is not of works,
   but of Grace, and to accept what Christ presents you is not a work of
   time. Once more, let me say to you that regeneration itself cannot be a
   work of a long time, because, even where it seems to be most gradual,
   when looked at closely, it turns out in its essence to be the work of a
   moment.

   There is a dead man. Now, if that man is raised from the dead there
   must be an instant in which he was dead, and another instant in which
   he was alive! The actual quickening must be the work of a moment. I
   grant you that at the first the life may be very feeble, but there must
   be a time when it begins. There must be a line--we cannot always see it
   ourselves, but God must see it--there must be a line between life and
   death. A man cannot be somewhere between dead and alive. He either is
   alive or he is dead. And so you are either dead in sin or alive unto
   God, and quickening cannot involve a long period of time.

   Finally, my Hearers, for God to say, "I forgive you," takes not a
   century nor a year. The judge pronounces the sentence, and the criminal
   is acquitted. If God shall say to you this morning, "I absolve you,"
   you are absolved, and you may go in peace. I must bear faithful witness
   as to my own case. I never found mercy by waiting. I never obtained a
   gleam of hope by depending upon ordinances. I found salvation by
   believing. I heard a simple minister of the Gospel say, "Look and live!
   Look to Jesus! He bleeds in the garden, He dies on the tree! Trust Him!
   Trust to what He suffered instead of you. And if you trust Him, you
   shall be saved."

   The Lord knows I had heard that Gospel many times before, but I had not
   obeyed it. It came, however, with power to my soul, and I did look, and
   the moment I looked to Christ, I lost my burden. "But," says one, "how
   do you know?" Did you ever carry a burden yourself? "Oh, yes," you say.
   Did you know when it was off? How did you know? "Oh," you say, "I felt
   so different. I knew when my burden was on, and, consequently, I knew
   when it was off." It was so in my case, too. I only wish some of you
   felt the burden of sin as I felt it when I was waiting at the pool of
   Bethesda. I wonder that such waiting had not landed me in Hell! But,
   when I heard the word, "Look!" I looked, and my burden was gone! I
   wondered where it had gone--I have never seen it since, and I never
   shall see it again! It went into the Master's tomb, and it lies forever
   buried there.

   God has said it, "I have blotted out like a cloud your iniquities, and
   like a thick cloud your sins." Oh, come, you needy, come to my Master!
   You that have been disappointed with rites and ceremonies, and
   feelings, and impressions, and all the hopes of the flesh--come at my
   Master's command, and look up to Him! He is not here in the flesh, for
   He has risen. But He has risen to plead for sinners, and, "He is able
   to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
   lives to make intercession for them." Oh, if I could know how to preach
   the Gospel so that you would feel it, I would go to any school to
   learn! The Lord knows I would willingly consent to lose these eyes to
   get greater power in my ministry. Yes, and to lose arms, legs, and all
   my members!

   I would be willing to die if I could but be honored by the Holy Spirit
   to win this mass of souls to God! I implore you, my Brothers and
   Sisters, you who have power in prayer, pray the Lord to bring sinners
   to Christ! Let me say, solemnly, to you who have heard the Word of God
   this day, I have told you the plan of salvation plainly. If you do not
   accept it, I am clear of your blood, I shake my garments of the blood
   of your souls. If you come not to my Lord and Master, I must bear swift
   witness against you at the Day of Judgment!

   I have told you the way--I cannot tell you it more simply--I beseech
   you to follow it! I entreat you to look to Jesus! But if you refuse it,
   at any rate, when you shall rise from the dead and stand before the
   Great White Throne, do me the justice to say that I did entreat and
   persuade you to escape, I did impress upon you to flee from the wrath
   to come! The Lord save each one of you, and His shall be the praise
   ever more. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                       The Unsearchable Riches Of christ

   A sermon

   (No. 745)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 14, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Agricultural Hall, Newington

   "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this Grace
   given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
   of Christ."- Ephesians 3:8.

   THE Apostle Paul felt it to be a great privilege to be allowed to
   preach the Gospel. He did not look upon his calling as a drudgery or a
   servitude, but he entered upon it with intense delight. All God's
   truly-sent servants have experienced much delight in the declaration of
   the Gospel of Jesus, and it is natural that they should, for their
   message is one of mercy and love. If a herald were sent to a besieged
   city with the tidings that no terms of mercy would be offered, but that
   every rebel without exception should be put to death, I think he would
   go with lingering footsteps, stopping by the way to let out his heavy
   heart in sobs and groans.

   But if he were commissioned to go to the gates with the white flag to
   proclaim a free pardon, a general act of amnesty and oblivion, surely
   he would run as though he had wings on his heels. With a joyful
   alacrity he would tell his fellow citizens the good pleasure of their
   merciful king! Heralds of salvation, you carry the most joyful of all
   messages to the sons of men! When the angels were commissioned for once
   to become preachers of the Gospel, and it was but for once, they made
   the sky ring at midnight with their choral songs, "Glory to God in the
   highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

   They did not moan out a dolorous dirge as of those proclaiming death,
   but the glad tidings of great joy were set to music and announced with
   holy mirth and celestial song. "Peace on earth! Glory to God in the
   highest" is the joyous note of the Gospel--and in such a key should it
   ever be proclaimed! We find the most eminent of God's servants
   frequently magnifying their office as preachers of the Gospel.
   Whitfield was accustomed to call his pulpit his throne--and when he
   stood upon some rising knoll to preach to the thousands gathered in the
   open air--he was more happy than if he had assumed the imperial purple,
   for he ruled the hearts of men more gloriously than does a king!

   Carey was laboring in India and his son Felix had accepted the office
   of ambassador to the king of Burmah--Carey said, "Felix has driveled
   into an ambassador"--as though he looked upon the highest earthly
   office as an utter degradation if for it the minister of the Gospel
   forsook his lofty vocation. Paul blesses God that this great Grace was
   given to him, that he might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
   riches of Christ! He looked upon it not as toil, but as a Divine Grace.

   Aspire to this office, young men whose souls are full of love to Jesus!
   Fired with sacred enthusiasm, covet earnestly the best gifts, and out
   of love to Jesus try whether you cannot in your measure tell to your
   fellow men the story of the Cross. Men of zeal and ability, if you love
   Jesus, make the ministry your aim! Train your minds to it! Exercise
   your souls towards it, and may God the Holy Spirit call you to it, that
   you also may preach the Word of reconciliation to the dying thousands.
   The laborers still are few--may the Lord of the harvest thrust you into
   His work.

   But while Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success in it
   greatly humbled him. The fuller a vessel becomes the deeper it sinks in
   the water. A plenitude of Grace is a cure for pride. Those who are
   empty, and those especially who have little or nothing to do, may
   indulge a fond conceit of their abilities because they are untried. But
   those who are called to the stern work of ministering among the sons of
   men will often mourn their weakness, and in the sense of that weakness
   and unworthiness they will go before God and confess that they are less
   than the least of all saints.

   I prescribe to any of you who seek humility, try hard work! If you
   world know your nothingness, attempt some great thing for Jesus. If you
   would feel how utterly powerless you are apart from the living God,
   attempt especially the great work of proclaiming the unsearchable
   riches of Christ! You will come back from the proclamation thankful
   that you

   were permitted to attempt it, but crying, "Who has believed our report?
   And to whom is the arm the Lord revealed?" And you will know, as you
   never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are!

   Although our Apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness, there is one
   thing which never troubled him--he was never perplexed as to the
   subject of his ministry. I do not find the Apostle in all his writings
   proposing to himself the question, "What shall I preach?" No, my
   Friends, he had been taught in the college of Christ, and had
   thoroughly learned his one Subject, so that preferring it beyond all
   else, he said, with solemn decision, "I determined not to know any
   thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." From his first
   sermon to his last, when he laid down his neck upon the block to seal
   his testimony with his blood, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but
   Christ!

   He lifted up the Cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled on it. His
   one and only calling here below was to cry, "Behold the Lamb! Behold
   the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world." I pause, to
   ask, on my own account, the prayers of God's people yet again, that the
   Holy Spirit may be my Helper this morning. O deny not my earnest
   request! I call the attention of you all to this great master subject
   which engrossed all the powers and passions of such a one as Paul. And
   I shall beg you to notice first, a glorious Person mentioned--the Lord
   Jesus Christ. Secondly, unsearchable riches spoken of. And thirdly,
   which shall make our practical conclusion--a royal intention
   implied--the intention which Jesus had in His heart when He bade His
   servants preach His unsearchable riches.

   I. First then, may the Spirit of God strengthen us in our weakness
   while we try to speak upon THIS GLORIOUS PERSON, the Lord Jesus Christ.
   The Lord Jesus Christ was the first promise of God to the sons of men
   after the Fall. When our first parents had been banished from the
   Garden all was dark before them. There was not a star to gild the
   cheerless midnight of their guilty and despairing souls until their God
   appeared to them, and said in mercy, "The Seed of the woman shall
   bruise the serpent's head."

   That was the first star which God set in the sky of man's hope. Years
   rolled after years and the faithful looked up to it with comfort. That
   one promise stayed the soul of many a faithful one so that he died in
   hope, not having received the promise, but having seen it afar off, and
   having rejoiced in its beams. Whole centuries rolled away, but the Seed
   of the woman did not come. Messiah, the great bruiser of the serpent's
   head, did not appear. Why did He tarry? The world was foul with sin and
   full of woe! Where was the Shiloh who should bring it peace? Graves
   were dug by millions. Hell was filled with lost spirits, but where was
   the Promised One, mighty to save?

   He was waiting till the fullness of time should come. He had not
   forgotten, for He had God's will in His inmost heart. His desire to
   save souls was consuming His heart. He was but waiting until the word
   should be given. And when it was given, lo, He came delighting to do
   the Father's will! Do you seek him? Behold, in Bethlehem's manger
   Emmanuel is born, God is with us! Before your eyes He lies who was both
   the Son of Mary, and the Son of the Blessed! An Infant, and yet
   Infinite, of a span long, and yet filling all eternity, wrapped in
   swaddling cloths, and yet too great for space to hold

   Him!

   Thirty and more years He lived on earth. The latter part of His life
   was spent in a ministry full of suffering to Himself, but filled with
   good to others. "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten
   of the Father, full of Grace and truth." Never man spoke like that Man,
   He was a Man on fire with love. A Man without human imperfections, but
   with all human sympathies. A Man without the sins of manhood, but with
   something more than the sorrows of common manhood piled upon Him. There
   was never such a Man as He, so great, so glorious in His life, and yet
   He is the pattern and type of manhood. He reached His greatest when He
   stooped the lowest. He was seized by His enemies one night when
   wrestling in prayer. He was betrayed by the man who had eaten bread
   with Him. He was dragged before tribunal after tribunal through that
   long and sorrowful night and wrongfully accused of blasphemy and
   sedition.

   They scourged Him, though none of His works deserved a blow! But still
   the plowers made deep furrows on His back. They mocked Him. Though He
   merited the homage of all intelligent beings, yet they spat in His
   face, and smote Him with their mailed fists, and said, "Prophesy, who
   is he that smote You?" He was made lower than a slave. Even the abject
   opened their mouths with laughter at Him, and the slaves scoffed at
   Him. To end the scene, they took Him through the streets of the
   Jerusalem over which He had wept--they hounded Him along the Via
   Dolorosa, out through the gate, to the mount of doom.

   I think I see Him, with eyes all red with weeping He turns to the
   matrons of Salem, and cries, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me,
   but for yourselves, and for your children." Can you see Him bearing
   that heavy Cross, ready to

   faint beneath the burden? Can you endure to see Him, when, having
   reached the little mound outside the city, they hurl Him on His back,
   and drive the cruel iron through His hands and feet? Can you bear to
   see the spectacle of blood and anguish as they lift Him up between
   Heaven and earth, made a Sacrifice for the sin of His people?

   My words shall be few, for the vision is too sad for language to
   depict. He bleeds, He thirsts, He groans, He cries--at last He dies--a
   death whose unknown griefs are not to be imagined, and were they known
   would be beyond expression by human tongue.

   Now, it was the history of the Crucifixion which Paul delighted to
   preach--Christ crucified was his theme--this old, old story, which you
   have heard from your childhood, the story of the Son of God who loved
   us and gave Himself for us. You all know that our Lord, after He had
   been taken down from the Cross and laid in the tomb, lingered there but
   a few short hours. And then on the third day rose again from the dead,
   the same, yet not the same--a Man, but no more despised and rejected.
   He communed with His servants in a familiar and yet glorious manner for
   forty days, and cheered and comforted their hearts. And then, from the
   top of Olivet, in the sight of the company, He ascended to His Father's
   Throne.

   Follow Him with your hearts if you cannot with your eyes. Behold Him as
   the angels meet Him, and--

   "Bring His chariot from on high, To bear Him to His Throne. Clap their
   triumphant hands, and cry, 'The glorious work is done.'"

   There He sits--faith sees Him this very day--at the right hand of God,
   even the Father, pleading with authority for His people. He rules
   Heaven, and earth, and Hell, for the keys thereof swing at His
   waist--waiting till, on the flying cloud, He shall descend to judge the
   quick and dead, and distribute the vengeance or the reward. It was this
   glorious Person of whom Paul delighted to speak!

   He preached the doctrines of the Gospel, but he did not preach them
   apart from the Person of Christ. Do not many preachers make a great
   mistake by preaching doctrine instead of preaching the Savior?
   Certainly the doctrines are to be preached, but they ought to be looked
   upon as the robes and vestments of the Man Christ Jesus, and not as
   complete in themselves. I love justification by faith--I hope I shall
   never have a doubt about that grand Truth of God! But the cleansing
   efficacy of the precious blood appears to me to be the best way of
   putting it. I delight in sanctification by the Spirit--but to be
   conformed to the image of Jesus is a still sweeter and more forcible
   way of viewing it.

   The doctrines of the Gospel are a golden throne upon which Jesus sits
   as king--not a hard, cold stone rolled at the door of the sepulcher in
   which Christ is hidden. Brethren, I believe this to be the mark of
   God's true minister that he preaches Christ as his one choice and
   delightful theme. In the old romance they tell us that at the gate of a
   certain noble hall there hung a horn, and none could blow that horn but
   the true heir to the castle and its wide domains. Many tried it. They
   could make sweet music on other instruments. They could wake the echoes
   by other bugles. But that horn was mute, let them blow as they might.
   At last, the true heir came, and when he set his lips to the horn,
   shrill was the sound and indisputable his claim.

   The true minister is he who can preach Christ. Let him preach anything
   else in the world, he has not proved his calling, but if he shall
   preach Jesus and the resurrection, he is in the Apostolic succession!
   If Christ crucified is the great delight of his soul, the very marrow
   of his teaching, the fatness of his ministry--he has proved his calling
   as an ambassador of Christ. Brethren, the Christian minister should be
   like these golden spring flowers which we are so glad to see. Have you
   observed them when the sun is shining? They open their golden cups and
   each one whispers to the great sun, "Fill me with your beams!" But when
   the sun is hidden behind a cloud, where are they? They close their cups
   and droop their heads.

   So should the Christian feel the sweet influences of Jesus--so
   especially should the Christian minister be subject to his Lord. Jesus
   must be his Sun and he must be the flower which yields itself to the
   Sun of Righteousness. Happy would it be for us if our hearts and our
   lips could become like Anacreon's harp which was wedded to one subject
   and would learn no other. He wished to sing of the sons of Atreus, and
   the mighty deeds of Hercules, but his harp resounded love alone. And
   when he would have sung of Cadmus, his harp refused--it would sing of
   love alone. Oh, to speak of Christ alone-- to be tied and bound to this
   one theme forever--to speak alone of Jesus and of the amazing love of
   the glorious Son of God, who, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes
   became poor." This is the subject which is both "seed for the sower,

   and bread for the eater." This is the live coal for the lips of the
   preacher, and the master key to the heart of the hearer. This is the
   tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of
   Heaven! Lord, teach it to us more and more, and we will tell it out to
   others!

   Before I leave this subject I feel bound to make two or three remarks.
   You will perceive that the Apostle Paul preached the unsearchable
   riches of Christ, not the dignity of manhood, or the grandeur of human
   nature. He preached not man, but man's Redeemer. Let us do the same.
   Moreover, he did not preach up the clergy and the church, but Christ
   alone. Some of the gentlemen who claim to be in the Apostolic
   succession could hardly have the effrontery to claim to be the
   successors of Paul.

   I believe that our modern "priests" of Rome are in the Apostolic
   succession--I have never doubted that they are the lineal successors of
   Judas Iscariot who betrayed his Master! But no other Apostle would
   endure them for so much as an hour. If Paul had been their leader would
   he have preached the unsearchable riches of priestcraft as they do? Do
   not they preach up their own priestly power? Did Paul do this? Is not
   their one great theme the unsearchable riches of baptism? The
   unsearchable riches of the Eucharist, the blessed bread and the blessed
   wine? The unsearchable riches of their confession and absolution? The
   unsearchable riches of their albs, and their dalmatics, and their
   chasubles and I know not what else of the rags of the Whore of Babylon?

   A fine day is this in which we are to go back to the superstitions of
   the Dark Ages--so dark that our forefathers could not bear them--and
   for the unsearchable cunning of priests are to give up the unsearchable
   riches of Christ! We are told that the Reformation was a mistake--but
   we tell these false priests to their faces that they are liars and know
   not the Truth of God! Beloved, Paul cared nothing for priestcraft! And
   this Book has not a word in it in favor of priestcraft. With Paul and
   with this Book all believers in Jesus are priests, and God's only
   clergy.

   Paul never posted bills upon the walls of Jerusalem, with black crosses
   on them, warning men that they would not be able to meet Christ at the
   Day of Judgment if they did not keep Good Friday! But I will tell you
   what Paul did--he wrote to the Galatians, "You observe days, months,
   and times, and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have bestowed upon
   you labor in vain."

   This whole abomination of ritualism was the utter abhorrence of the
   Apostle. In its first form of Judaism it stirred up his whole soul with
   indignation. It brought the blood into his cheek. He never was mightier
   in denouncing anything than when dealing heavy blows at ceremonialism!
   He said, "Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but
   faith that works by love." Paul preached up no priest whether he lived
   at Rome or Canterbury! He exalted no class of men arrogantly pretending
   to have power to save. He would have been out of all patience with a
   set of simpletons decked out as Guys [effigy of Guy Fawkes paraded and
   burned on Guy Fawkes Day] and dressed up as if they were meant to amuse
   children in a nursery! He never taught the worship of these
   calves--Jesus alone was his subject, and the unsearchable riches of His
   Grace.

   Mark you, on the other hand, Paul did not preach up the unsearchable
   riches of philosophy, as some do. "Yes," say some, "We must please this
   thinking age, this thoughtful people. We must educate a people who will
   reject all testimony because they will not be credulous--who will
   believe nothing but what they can understand, because, indeed, their
   understanding is so amazingly clear, so perfect, so all but divine!"
   Not so, the Apostle. He would have said to these philosophical
   gentlemen, "Stand away. I have nothing at all that can make me kindred
   with you. I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, not the
   uncertainties of philosophical speculation! I give the people something
   to believe, something tangible to lay hold of, not superstitious, it is
   true, but Divinely accredited! Not concocted by the wisdom of man, but
   revealed by the wisdom of God."

   My dear Friends, we must come back to the Gospel of Paul, and may God
   bring all His ministering servants more and more clearly back to it
   that we may have nothing to preach but that which clusters around the
   Cross! Nothing but that which glows and glistens like a sacred halo of
   light around the head of the Crucified One--that we may lift up nothing
   but Jesus, and say, "God forbid that we should glory, save in the Cross
   of our Lord Jesus Christ."

   II. Secondly, Paul preached THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST. Paul had
   no stinted Savior to present

   to a few. No narrow-hearted Christ to be the head of a clique. No weak
   Redeemer who could pardon only those little offenders who scarcely
   needed it. He preached a great Savior to the great masses! A great
   Savior to great sinners. He preached the Conqueror with dyed garments,
   traveling in the greatness of His strength, whose name is "mighty to
   save."

   Let us enquire in what respects we may ascribe to our Lord Jesus the
   possession of unsearchable riches. Our answer is, first, He has
   unsearchable riches of love to sinners as they are. Jesus so loved the
   souls of men that we can only use the "so," but we cannot find the word
   to match it. In the French Revolution there was a young man condemned
   to the guillotine and shut up in one of the prisons. He was greatly
   loved by many, but there was one who loved him more than all put
   together.

   How do we know this? It was his own father, and the love he bore his
   son was proved in this way: when the lists were called, the father,
   whose name was exactly the same as his son's, answered to the name and
   the father rode in the gloomy wagon out to the place of execution. And
   his head rolled beneath the axe instead of his son's, a victim to
   mighty love. See here an image of the love of Christ to sinners--for
   thus Jesus died for the ungodly, viewed as such. If they had not been
   ungodly, neither they nor He had needed to have died. If they had not
   sinned, there would have been no need for a suffering Savior, but Jesus
   proved His boundless love in, "that while we were yet sinners, Christ
   died for us."

   Your name was in the condemned list, my fellow Sinner, but, if you
   believe in Jesus, you shall find that your name is there no longer, for
   Christ's name is put in your place, and you shall learn that He
   suffered for you, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring you to
   God. Is not this the greatest wonder of Divine love, that it should be
   set upon us as sinners? I can understand God's loving reformed sinners
   and repenting sinners--but here is the glory of it--"God commends His
   love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners [yet sinners!] Christ
   died for us." O my Hearers, from my inmost heart I pray that this
   boundless wealth of love on the part of Jesus to those who were rebels
   and enemies may win your hearts to love the heavenly Lover in return!

   In the next place, Jesus has riches of pardon for those who repent of
   their sins. My Lord Jesus, by His death, has become immensely rich in
   pardoning power--so rich, indeed, that no guiltiness can possibly
   transcend the efficacy of His precious blood. There is one sin which He
   never will forgive--there is but one--and I am convinced that you have
   not committed that sin against the Holy Spirit if you have any feeling
   of repentance or desire towards God. For the sin which is unto death
   brings death with it to the conscience, so that when once committed the
   man ceases to feel. If you desire pardon, Sinner, there is no reason
   why you should not have it, and have it now!

   The blood of Christ can wash out blasphemy, adultery, fornication,
   lying, slander, perjury, theft, murder. Though you have raked in the
   very kennels of Hell till you have blackened yourself to the color of a
   devil, yet, if you will come to Christ and ask mercy, He will absolve
   you from all sin! Do but wash in the bath which He has filled with
   blood and "though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
   snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Do not
   misunderstand me, I mean just this--that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
   not meant exclusively for you respectable people who always appear to
   be so religious--but for you who are irreligious! For you who are not
   even moral, or sober, or honest!

   I tell you the Gospel of Christ is meant for the scum of the
   population! It is meant for the lowest of the low, for the worst of the
   worst. There is no den in London where the Savior cannot work! There is
   no loathsome haunt of sin too foul for Him to cleanse. The heathen
   dreamed of their Hercules that he cleansed the Augean stables by
   turning a river through them, and so washing away the filth of ages. If
   your heart is such a stable, Christ is greater than the mightiest
   Hercules-- He can cause the river of His cleansing blood to flow right
   through your heart, and your iniquities, though they are a heap of
   abominations, shall be put away forever! Riches of love to sinners as
   such, and riches of pardon to sinners who repent are stored up in the
   Lord Jesus.

   Again, Christ has riches of comfort for all that mourn. Have I the
   happiness of having before me some who mourn before the Lord? Blessed
   are you, for you shall be filled! What is the cause of your weeping? Is
   it your sin? Christ has a handkerchief that can wipe away such tears.
   He can blot out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your
   iniquities. Do but come to Him, and your deepest sorrow shall disappear
   beneath the influence of His sympathetic love. Are you sorrowful
   because you have lost a friend? He will be a Friend to you. Have you
   been deceived and betrayed? My Master can meet that craving of your
   nature after friendship and sympathy. Confide in Him, and He will never
   forsake you.

   Oh, I cannot tell you how rich He is in consolation, but the Holy
   Spirit can tell you. If you do but get Jesus, you shall find, as
   Bernard used to say, that He is "honey to the mouth, music to the ear,
   and Heaven to the heart." Win Christ, and you shall want nothing beyond
   Him. Lay hold of Him, and you shall say with the Apostle, "I have
   learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content," for He has
   said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you."

   My Master's unsearchable riches are also of another kind. Do you thirst
   for knowledge? Jesus has riches of wisdom! The desire to know has sent
   men roving over all the world, but he who finds Jesus may stay at home
   and be wise. If you sit at His feet, you shall know what Plato could
   not teach you, and what Socrates never learned. When the old school men
   could not answer and defend a proposition, they were apt to say, "I
   will go to Aristotle: he shall help me out." If you do but learn of
   Christ, He shall help you out of all difficulties--and that which is
   most useful for your soul to know--the knowledge which will last you in
   eternity, Christ shall teach you!

   Think not that the Gospel of Christ, because it is simple, is therefore
   mere child's play. Oh, no! It has that in it which an angel's intellect
   unillumined of the Holy Spirit might fail to master. The highest ranks
   of seraphim, still lost in wonder, gaze upon it. Come to my Master and
   you shall be made wise unto salvation. Let me not weary you with so
   great a message. Perhaps I tell it badly, but the matter of it is
   worthy of your ears, and worthy of your hearts. My Master has riches of
   happiness to bestow upon you. After all, he is the rich man who wears
   heart's-ease in his button hole. The man who can say, "I have enough,"
   is richer than the peer of the realm who is discontented.

   Believe me, my Lord can make you to lie down in green pastures, and
   lead you beside still waters. There is no music like the music of His
   pipe when He is the Shepherd and you are the sheep, and you lie down at
   His feet. There is no love like His--neither earth or Heaven can match
   it. If you did but know it, you would prize it beyond all mortal joys,
   and say with our poet--

   "Such as find You find such sweetness Deep, mysterious, and unknown.
   Far above all worldly pleasures, If they were to meet in one;
   MyBeloved,

   Over the mountains haste away." I speak experimentally. I have had more
   joy in half-an-hour's communion with Christ than I have found in months
   of other comforts. I have had much to make me happy--many successes and
   smiles of Providence which have cheered and comforted my heart. But
   they are all froth on the cup, mere bubbles--the foam of life, and not
   its true depths of bliss. To know Christ and to be found in Him--oh,
   this is life! This is joy! This is marrow and fatness, wine on the lees
   well refined! My Master does not treat His servants churlishly. He
   gives to them as a king gives to a king. He gives them two Heavens--a
   Heaven below in serving Him here, and a Heaven above in delighting in
   Him forever.

   And now I shall close this poor talk of mine about these priceless
   riches by saying that the unsearchable riches of Christ will be best
   known in eternity. The riches of Christ are not so much to be enjoyed
   here as there. He will give you by the road and on the way to Heaven
   all your needs. Your place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks,
   your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure. But it is
   there, there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of them that
   triumph, the shout of them that feast!

   My dear Hearer, if you get Christ you have obtained riches which you
   can take with you in the hour of death. The rich man clutched his bags
   of money, and as he laid them on his heart, he murmured, "They will not
   do, they will not do. Take them away!" If you receive Jesus into your
   heart, He will be death's best antidote. When your disembodied spirit
   quits this poor clay carcass, as it must, what will your silver and
   gold do for you then? What will your farms and your broad acres do for
   you then? You must leave them all behind. Even if men buy you a coffin
   of gold, or bury you in a tomb of marble, yet of what good will that
   be? But oh, if you have Christ, you can fly up to Heaven, your
   Treasure, and there you shall be rich to all the intents of bliss world
   without end!

   Now, dear Friends, if I could have spoken as I would have spoken, I
   would have done so, but the subject would have been the same. Paul
   preached the Gospel better than I do, but even he could not preach a
   better Gospel. Let me close this point by a few words. My Master has
   such riches that you cannot count them! You cannot guess them, much
   less can you convey their fullness in words. They are unsearchable! You
   may look, and search, and weigh, but Christ is a greater Christ than
   you think Him to be when your thoughts are at their greatest. My Master
   is more able to pardon than you to sin! He is more able to forgive than
   you to transgress. My Master is more ready to supply than you are to
   ask, and ten thousand times more prepared to save than you are to be
   saved!

   Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. Your highest estimates
   will dishonor Him. When you put the crown on His head, you will only
   crown Him with silver when He deserves gold. When you sing the best of
   your songs, you will

   only give Him poor, discordant music compared with what He deserves.
   But oh, do believe in Him, that He is a great Christ, a mighty Savior!
   Great Sinner, come and do Him honor by trusting in Him as a great
   Savior! Come with your great sins and your great cares, and your great
   needs! Come, and welcome! Come to Him now, and the Lord will accept
   you, and accept you without upbraiding you.

   III. Lastly, there must have been A ROYAL INTENTION in the heart of
   Christ in sending out Paul to preach of His unsearchable riches because
   every man must have a motive for what he does. And beyond all question,
   Jesus Christ has a motive. Did you ever hear of a man who employed a
   number of persons to go about to proclaim his riches, and call hundreds
   of people together, and thousands, as on this occasion, simply to tell
   them that So-and-So was very rich? Why, the crowds would say, "What is
   that to us?"

   But if at the conclusion, the messenger could say, "But all these
   riches he presents to you, and whoever among you shall desire to be
   made rich, can be enriched now by him." Ah, then you would say, "Now we
   see the sense of it! Now we perceive the gracious drift of it all."
   Now, my Lord Jesus Christ is very strong, but all that strength is
   pledged to help a poor weak sinner to enter into Heaven. My Lord Christ
   is a great king, and He reigns with irresistible power--but all that
   Sovereign power He swears to give to Believers to help them to reign
   over their sins. My Lord Jesus is as full of merit as the sea is full
   of salt, but every atom of that merit He vows to give to sinners who
   will confess that they have no merits of their own, and will trust in
   Him!

   Yes, and once more, my Lord Christ is so glorious that the very angels
   are not bright in His Presence, for He is the Sun, and they are but as
   twinkling stars. And all this glory He will give you, poor Sinner, and
   make you glorious in His glory if you will but trust Him! There is a
   motive, then, on our Lord's part for bidding us preach a full Christ. I
   think I hear a whisper somewhere--there is a poor heart standing
   crowded in the aisle, and it is saying to itself, "Ah, I am full of
   sin. I am weak. I am lost. I have no merit." My dear Hearer, you do not
   need any merit, nor any strength, nor any goodness in yourself, for
   Jesus presents you with an abundance of all these in Himself!

   I will not care whether I have money in my own purse or not, if I have
   a kind friend who says, "All that I have is yours." If I may go and
   draw upon him whenever I please for whatever I wish, I will not desire
   to be independent of him, but I will live upon his fullness. Poor
   Sinner, you must do the same. You do not need merits or strength apart
   from Christ. Take my Master, and He will be enough for you while you
   shall joyfully sing, "Christ is my All."

   Two or three words, then. The first is this--How rich those must be who
   have Christ for a Friend! Will you not seek to be friends with Him? If
   it is true that all Christ has He gives to His people--and this is
   asserted over and over again in this Book--then, oh, how unspeakably
   blessed must those be who can say, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His!"
   They who get Christ to be their own, properly are like the man who,
   having long eaten of fruit from a certain tree, was no longer satisfied
   with having the fruit, but he needed take up the tree and plant it in
   his own garden!

   Happy those who have Christ planted as the Tree of Life in the soil of
   their hearts! You not only have His Grace, and His love, and His merit,
   but you have HIMSELF! He is all your own. Oh, that sweet word, Jesus is
   mine! Jesus is mine! All that there is in His Humanity, in His Deity,
   in His living and in His dying--in His reigning and in His second
   Advent--all is mine, for Christ is mine!

   How foolish, on the other hand, must those be who will not have Christ
   when He is to be had for the asking! Who prefer the baubles and the
   bubbles of this world, and let the solid gold of eternity go by! O
   Fools! You play with shadows and miss the substance! You dig and toil,
   and cover your faces with sweat, and lose your nightly rest to get this
   world's fleeting good, while you neglect Him who is the eternal good! O
   Fools and slow of heart! You court this harlot world, with her painted
   face, when the beauties of my Master are infinitely more rich and rare!
   Oh, if you did but know Him! If you could but see His unspeakable
   riches you would fling your toys to the wind and follow after Him with
   all your heart and soul.

   "But may I have Him?" asks one. May you, indeed? Who is to say no to
   you? Did not you hear the sweet notes of the hymn just now, "Come and
   welcome. Come and welcome"? When Heaven's big bell rings, it always
   sounds forth that silver note for sinners--"Come and welcome! Come and
   welcome!" Leave your sins, leave your follies, leave your
   self-righteousness! Jesus Christ stands at the open door of Divine
   Grace more willing to receive you than you are to be received by Him.
   "Come and welcome, come and welcome." At the top of the Hospice of St.
   Bernard, in the storm, when

   the snow is falling fast, the monks ring the great bell and when the
   way cannot be seen, the traveler can almost hear the way to the house
   of refuge across the snowy waste.

   So would I ring that bell this morning. Poor lost Traveler, with your
   sins and your fears blowing cold into your face, "Come and welcome.
   Come and welcome," to a Savior once dead and buried for you, but now
   risen and pleading at the right hand of God! If you cannot see your
   way, yet hear it. "Hear, and your soul shall live. And He will make an
   Everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." You
   need nothing but Christ, dear Heart. You need pump up no tears of
   repentance to help Christ, for He will give you repentance if you seek
   it of Him. You must come to Him to get repentance! You must not seek
   that Gospel blessing anywhere but at the Cross.

   You will need no Baptisms and Lord's Suppers to rely upon. It will be
   your duty as a Believer to profess your faith in Him and to remember
   Him at His table, but these things will not help your salvation. You
   will be saved by Jesus and by Him alone. You need experience no
   terrors. You need undergo no preparation. Christ is ready to receive
   you now. Like the surgeon whose door is open for every accident that
   may occur. Like the great hospitals on our side the river, where, let
   the case be what it may, the door swings open the moment an entrance is
   demanded--such is my Master. Unsearchable riches are in Him, though
   unsearchable poverty may be in you--

   "Let not conscience make you linger,

   Nor of fitness fondly dream,

   All the fitness He requires,

   Is to feel your need of Him--

   This He gives you,

   'Tis His Spirit's rising beam."

   All this week long I have been fretting and worrying because I cannot
   preach to you as I wish. And when each of my sermons, here, has been
   over, I have wished that I could preach it again in a more earnest and
   fervent manner. But what can I do? O my Hearers, I can preach Christ to
   you, but I cannot preach you to Christ! I can tell you that if you
   trust Him you shall be saved. I can declare to you that as the Son of
   God now risen He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to
   Him--but I cannot make you come!

   Yet, I thank God that since last Sunday I have heard of some who have
   come! I have heard good news of some who, by the Holy Spirit's power,
   have believed in Jesus! Are there no more eyes that will look at my
   Master's wounds? Are there no more hearts that will fall in love with
   my Master's beauties? Must I come a wooing for Him, and get so small a
   return? Must it be ones and twos out of the 20,000 of you? God forbid
   it! God send us a greater rate of fruit than this! A hundred-fold
   harvest to a hundred-fold congregation! Pray, Believers, pray for a
   blessing! Pray that God may strike these lips dumb before next Sunday
   if He will do more good by some other preacher than by me!

   Ask nothing for me, but ask large things for my Lord, for the Crucified
   One! Pray that these great gatherings may not be without a permanent
   result which shall tell upon the impiety of this city! Yes, and tell
   upon the piety of it, too, slaying the first, and stimulating the
   second! God send forth the Spirit of His Grace, and unto Him shall be
   the praise, world without end. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                        The End of the Righteous Desired

   A sermon

   (No. 746)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 21, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Agricultural Hall, Newington

   "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like
   his."- Numbers 23:10.

   CARLYLE, in his "History of the French Revolution," tells us of a Duke
   of Orleans who did not believe in death. And when his secretary
   stumbled on the words, "The late King of Spain," he angrily demanded
   what he meant by it. The flattering attendant replied, "My Lord, it is
   a title which some of the kings of Spain have taken."

   In all this assembly I have not such a lunatic! For you unanimously
   believe that the entire race of men await alike the inevitable hour. We
   know that all our paths, wind as they may, will lead to the grave. A
   certain king of France believed in death, but forbade that it should
   ever be mentioned in his presence. "And if," said he, "I at any time
   look pale, no courtier must dare, on pain of my displeasure, to mention
   it in my presence." Thus imitating the foolish ostrich, which, when
   pursued by the hunter, and utterly unable to escape, is said to hide
   its head in the sand fancying that it is secure from the enemy which it
   cannot see.

   I trust I do not address today any men so idiotic as to desire to
   forget the certainty of death, or to thrust the fact from their
   remembrance. I trust that, being sane men, you desire to look in the
   face the whole of your future history, both in the present world and in
   worlds beyond the region of sight. And, foreseeing that soul and body
   must part in the article of death, you are desirous to consider that
   event that you may be prepared for it. You desire to take death into
   your reckoning that it may not surprise you. He who should go upon a
   long journey and provide for every difficulty on the road but one,
   would probably find the journey a failure. If, with a rolling chariot
   for the solid ways, he had forgotten to find the means of crossing the
   last river which would divide him from the country which he sought, he
   would be disappointed after all his pains.

   If you have provided for life, but have not also prepared for death,
   what better will you be, my Hearer, than such a foolish traveler? We
   have heard of one, who, going into a tavern, ordered according to his
   wildest wishes and feasted sumptuously on the best the house afforded,
   hour after hour. But when the host came with the bill, he told him that
   he had no money, and had quite forgotten the reckoning, thinking it
   quite enough to attend to the eating and drinking while these were the
   order of the day, without perplexing himself about the unknown future.
   Alas, my Hearer, are you living in this inn of life, forgetting the
   reckoning? Do you go from cup to cup, from merriment to merriment,
   feasting as though there were no day of account appointed for you?

   If so, are you fool or knave, or both? For a man who would enjoy life,
   and yet shirk the account of his responsibilities with which the scene
   must close, is either foolish, or knavish, or both. Surely, since we
   must die. Since "there is no discharge in this war." Since every man
   must be a conscript to the army of Death. Since whether it is tomorrow
   or the next day, or in a few years time, every one of us must pass
   through the iron gate--it behooves us, knowing the fact, to take it
   into our account--to be diligent in forestalling its demands and
   providing for its emergencies.

   And yet I should not wonder if many here almost shudder at the subject
   which I am now introducing, so unaccustomed are they to it! Or, if they
   listen to it, they consider it to be especially applicable to those by
   whom they are surrounded, but they fail to see its application to
   themselves. Young's verse is true--"All men think all men mortal but
   themselves." They regard others as having death written upon their
   brow, but they imagine that they, at least, shall last for years to
   come! They will not dare admit that they are immortal, yet alas, they
   act as if they thought they were so. And trifling away year after year,
   suffer life itself to disappear without improvement.

   I beseech all honest and wise hearts at this hour to reflect upon their
   latter end. Prepare now that you may be ready when the final summons
   shall be sounded, and may God grant you Divine Grace that the words of
   this morning may be made helpful to your preparations. Balaam, though a
   base man, was no fool. He had thoughts of death. He did not shut

   his eyes to what he did not like. He believed that he should die, and
   he had desires about it--and though those desires were never realized,
   but the reverse--yet he had wit enough to gaze upon the tents of God's
   chosen Israel and to say from his heart, "Let me die the death of the
   righteous, and let my last end be like his!"

   I shall regard this exclamation as having in it a double wish. First, a
   wish concerning death, and secondly, a wish concerning the after death.
   When these have been spoken upon as the Holy Spirit may help me, I
   shall try to make some practical use of the whole.

   I. First, dear Friends, Balaam's WISH CONCERNING DEATH. He anxiously
   desired that he might die such a death as the righteous die. Truly we
   commend his choice, for, in the first place, it must, at the least, be
   as well with the righteous man when he comes to die, as with any other
   man. By the righteous man we mean the man who has believed in Jesus
   Christ and so has been covered with Christ's righteousness, and washed
   in His most precious blood, and moreover, has by the power of the Holy
   Spirit received a new heart, a righteous heart, so that his actions are
   righteous both towards God and man.

   Such a man, being righteous by faith in Jesus Christ unto perfect
   justification, and righteous also in act and spirit through
   sanctification of the Holy Spirit, is alone the truly righteous man!
   Such a man must be right at last, and this you will see clearly by the
   following story. A certain carping infidel, after having argued with a
   poor countryman who knew the faith, but who knew little else, said to
   him, "Well, Hodge, you really are so stupid that there is no use
   arguing with you, I cannot get you out of this absurd religion of
   yours." "Ah, well," said Hodge, "I dare say I am stupid, Master, but do
   you know we poor people like to have two strings to our bow?"

   "Well," said the critic, "what do you mean by that?" "Master, I'll show
   you. Suppose it should all turn out as you say. Suppose there is no
   God, and there is no hereafter, don't you see I am as well off as you
   are? Certainly, it will not be any worse for me than it will be for you
   if we, both of us, get annihilated. But don't you see if it should
   happen to be true as I believe, what will become of you?"

   Clearly in either case it must be right with the righteous, for if he
   should have ignorantly received a cunningly devised fable, yet, seeing
   according to his own experience it makes him a better and a happier
   man. So far so good--he is no loser here--and he will be certainly at
   the last in no worse a position than the man who rejected the holy and
   comfortable influences of what he styled a deception.

   While, if the religion of Jesus should be true--ah, ghastly, if for you
   who doubt it!--if it should all be true, ah, then your weeping and your
   wailing at the discovery will be a terrible contrast to the joy and the
   glory which God has reserved for them that love Him! Upon the very
   lowest possible ground it will be well with the righteous, as well at
   any rate as with the best of other men. There is this to be said for
   the righteous man--he goes to the death chamber with a quiet
   conscience. It has been clearly ascertained that in the event of death
   the mind is frequently quickened to a high degree of activity, so that
   it thinks more, perhaps, in the course of five minutes than it could
   have done in the course of years at other times.

   Persons who have been rescued from drowning have said that they
   imagined themselves to have been weeks in the water, for the thoughts,
   the many views and visions, the long and detailed retrospect seemed to
   them to have required weeks--and yet the whole transpired in a few
   seconds! Frequently towards the last, the soul travels at express
   speed, traversing its past life as though it rode upon lightning. Ah,
   then how blessed is that man who, looking back upon the past, can see
   many things of which conscience can approve! And how accursed must that
   man's deathbed be who has to look back upon a youth spent in folly, a
   middle life of sin, and an old age of iniquity!

   What will it be, my Hearer, if, when you lie dying there should rise up
   before your memory those whom you led into sin, seduced to vice, or
   taught in profligacy! A grim assemblage must gather around some men's
   beds when guilt, like a grim chamberlain, shall usher them in, one by
   one, and call out their names with horrible distinctness, and tell out
   their doings and dealings with the wretch who shivers on the brink of
   death accused by so many, and unable to answer one of a thousand. I
   picture such a man traveling over the wastes of remorse, hounded by the
   wolves of his past sins--rushing with desperation into a destruction
   still worse than his present woe--all unable to endure the horrible
   baying of his old sins, much less to endure their sharper fangs when
   they shall tear him in pieces and there shall be none to deliver!

   But the righteous man knows that though his sins were as scarlet, they
   have been made white as wool through the precious blood of Christ! And
   moreover, by the power of the Holy Spirit, his life has been kept from
   the vices of the

   world and he has been enabled to serve his Lord. This surely must help
   to make soft his dying pillow. He remembers those holy days of sacred
   worship, those gatherings around the family altar, that child taught to
   pray, that young man won from folly and led in the paths of
   righteousness. Above all he remembers the love visits which the Lord
   Jesus has paid to his favored soul! And so, perfectly at peace,
   forgiving all men their offenses as he desires to be forgiven, and
   conscious that his Father has forgiven him, he can sleep upon his dying
   bed as softly as on the stillest night of his life. "Let me," in this
   sense, "die the death of the righteous."

   Again, the righteous man, when he dies, does not lose his all. With
   every other man the sound of "earth to earth, dust to dust, and ashes
   to ashes," is the end of present seeming wealth and the beginning of
   eternal and real need. But the Christian is not made a bankrupt by the
   grave--death to him is gain. "Go," said the dying Saracen hero,
   Saladin, "take this winding sheet and as soon as I expire, bear it on a
   lance through all the streets, and let the herald cry as he holds aloft
   the ensign of death, 'This is all that is left of Saladin, the
   conqueror of the East.' " He need not have so said if he had been a
   Christian, for the Believer's heritage is not torn from him, but opened
   up to him by the rough hand of Death! The world to come and all its
   infinite riches and blessedness are ours in the moment of departure.

   It is written upon the tomb of Cyrus, "Stranger, here lies Cyrus, who
   gave the empire to the Persians. Grudge him not the little earth that
   covers him." But the Christian lies not there under the tombstone--he
   is not here, for he is risen! He has left his poor worn garments here
   to be washed, and cleansed, and purified--and by-and-by, when they are
   whiter than any fuller can make them--he will come to take his garments
   again. But meanwhile the Christian is not buried here, nor is the tomb
   his sole possession--his treasure is in Heaven, and he is gone where
   his wealth is stored. Who would not wish to die a death which would be
   a gain to him? Are you not conscious, some of you, that death would be
   a horrible loss to you? It would shut up forever all the outlets of
   your present mirth and all the sources of your present joy. Alas for
   you! For the day of the Lord to you will be darkness and not light!

   "Let me die the death of the righteous" may well be our wish because he
   dies with a good hope. Peering into eternity, with eyes marvelously
   strengthened, the Believer frequently beholds even while he is yet
   below, something of the glory which is to be revealed in him. Have you
   ever heard the songs of dying women, and seen their glowing
   countenances as they thought they could hear the angels and all but see
   the invisible glory? Have you ever seen their beaming eyes and heard
   their memorable words, so rich, so original, so quaint, so wet with the
   dew of Heaven that they could not have borrowed them? Ignorant,
   unlettered persons have I heard say in their dying moments words which
   were worthy of the most refined poetry.

   Have you ever seen the gray-headed man who, in his weakness, had come
   to talk as a child, suddenly clothed with patriarchal dignity, as,
   stretching out his bony hand he has exclaimed, "Yea, though I walk
   through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You
   are with me. Your rod and Your staff they comfort me"? It is sweet to
   die with Canaan's happy land in view--to melt into eternal bliss as the
   twilight of the morning melts into opening day! It must be a dreary
   thing to die believing in annihilation, or expecting a doom still
   worse! My Hearer, will this be your death? Will you hear the warning
   cry of the angel: "One woe is past, and, behold, there come two woes
   more"?

   Death is past, but the Judgment and the pit are yet to come. God forbid
   that such horrors should freeze the genial current of my soul, but may
   bliss eternal be my prospect from the top of my expiring Pisgah. Let me
   die as the Christian whose eye is resplendent with visions of light,
   and whose heart is fired with the confidence of seeing his Redeemer and
   being made like He is, to dwell with Him world without end!

   Moreover, Beloved, the Believer dies in the arms of a Friend. I do not
   say in the arms of a mortal friend, for it has fallen to the lot of
   some Christians to be burnt at the stake. And some of them have rotted
   to death in dungeons. But yet I will repeat it, every Believer dies in
   the arms of a Friend--the best of friends, the Friend that sticks
   closer than a brother. Precious is communion with the Son of God, and
   never more so than when it is enjoyed upon the verge of Heaven--

   "Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are,

   While on His breast I lean my head, And breathe my life out sweetly
   there."

   Jesus is a Friend who is most practically friendly, for the righteous
   man, in the most calm and business-like manner, leaves his wife and his
   children in the hands of God and quotes the promise, "Leave your
   fatherless children, and let your widows trust in Me."

   He would gladly live, perhaps, to comfort the partner of his bosom a
   little longer, and to see the children of their mutual love brought up
   to riper manhood. But since he must go, how often does God enable him
   to forget all care, to cast it so completely into the hands of Christ,
   that he sings, "All is well!" I have sometimes heard from dying saints
   sentences like these, "My business is all settled, I never want to hear
   again of the stock, of the farm, or of the shop, or of the family, I
   have put it all away. God will provide for those I have left behind and
   I have nothing now to do but just to hear the summons, 'Come up
   higher,' and then to enter into my Father's house."

   My Hearers, I am not giving you an exaggerated picture! I am not
   telling you some wondrous stories of remarkable departures! I am
   telling you what is the common way of the dying of the righteous, which
   I trust commends itself to your conscience as being naturally that
   which righteous men might expect to feel when returning to their God.
   The Christian dies in peace, and often in triumph. According to the
   state of his body, or the disease by which he may be taken off, his
   feelings will vary between peace and triumph. Sometimes the death scene
   is still as a summer's evening, and the Christian crosses the Jordan
   almost dry shod. Or if there is a storm, and Jordan overflows its
   banks, the Believer, resting upon the everlasting arms, feels the
   bottom of the river and finds it good.

   At times, however, God has been pleased to give to His people Divine
   Grace to mount to Heaven in a chariot of fiery joy, so that their dying
   bed has been a throne, and their chamber a palace of glory. These
   instances are not uncommon, they are probably the rule--but in all
   cases there is a strong, deep current of pure and precious peace which
   glides along the valley of death and makes glad the follower of the
   Lamb--"Let me die the death of the righteous," for such dying is the
   dawn of bliss, the beginning of immortal glory!

   Lastly, when the good man dies, he dies with honor. Who cares for the
   death of the wicked? A few mourning friends lament for a little time,
   but they almost feel it a relief within a day or two that such a one is
   gone. As for the righteous, when he dies there is weeping and mourning
   for him! Like Stephen, devout men carry him to the sepulcher and make
   great lamentation over him. See the funeral of the tares? They are
   hurried up in heaps, they are thrown over the garden wall, they are
   burned, and no one regrets them. They were no blessing in living--they
   are no lamentation in dying.

   Did you ever see the funeral of the wheat, if such I may call it? Here
   come the golden sheaves! The wagon is heavy with the precious freight:
   on the top stands one who gives a cheery note, and all around the
   harvest men and village maidens dance or shout for joy as they bring
   home the shocks of golden corn to the garner! Let me be gathered home
   with the triumphant funeral of the wheat which man values--garnered by
   angels, housed with songs of saintly spirits-- and not cast away as a
   reprobate and worthless thing, like the weeds of which men are thankful
   to be rid.

   May it be yours and mine, when we depart, to be remembered by those
   whom we have succored in their need, whom we instructed in their
   ignorance, whom we comforted in their distress! May we not depart from
   this world shaken off from it, as Paul shook the viper from his hand,
   but may our ashes be gathered up as sacred dust, precious in the sight
   of the Lord! Let me, in that sense and every other, "die the death of
   the righteous." I need not tarry long on this point. Any one of these
   suggestions might suffice to incite, even in such a man as Balaam, a
   desire to "die the death of the righteous." Surely it will kindle in
   you the same longings.

   II. Balaam spoke concerning the godly man, of HIS LAST END. I do not
   know that this wicked prophet, whose eyes were once opened, knew
   anything about this latter end as I shall interpret it, but you and I
   know, and so let us use his words, if not his thoughts. We do not
   believe that death is the last end of men. Those who do believe it are
   welcome to their belief. We certainly shall not wish to deprive them of
   it. When a dog has his bone, let him keep it--we envy not his
   enjoyment. If ungodly men delight in the thought of dying like brutes,
   perhaps they know their own value best and know what would be best for
   society if it should happen to them. So they, having made their choice,
   shall keep it if they will.

   As for us, we believe ourselves to be immortal--that God has endowed us
   with a spiritual nature which shall outlive the sun, outlast the stars,
   and run on existing with eternity. Like the years of God's right hand,
   like the days of the Most High, God has ordained the life of souls to
   be. Now, I can well believe that the most of us wish that our position
   after death may be like that of the righteous. The first consideration
   in death is that the spirit is disembodied. What a spirit is

   like without a body you and I cannot guess. It is, of course, not a
   thing to be seen, or heard, or touched, or handled. It is quite out of
   the realm of materialism and quite beyond the reach of the senses.

   Yet you and I are conscious that there is an immaterial something
   within us infinitely more precious than these poor clay hands, and
   feet, and eyes of ours. This immaterial something will leave the body,
   and it will be naked--not a thing to be desired, for even Paul says,
   "Not that we would be unclothed." He did not desire the disembodied
   state for its own sake, nor should we. Those disembodied saints who are
   now in Heaven are happy, perfectly happy as to their souls, but they,
   as to their manhood, are not yet made perfect. They, without us, the
   Apostle says, cannot be made perfect. Until we all are gathered in and
   the Resurrection Day comes, they are without bodies, and are, as it
   were, but half men.

   All the powers they have are full of happiness, but they are waiting
   for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body which will be at
   the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is there desirable
   in the state of the Christian when his spirit is disembodied? I should
   desire to be like a Christian in the disembodied state, because he will
   not be altogether in a new and strange world. Some of you have never
   exercised your spirits at all about the spirit-world. You have talked
   with thousands of people in bodies, but you have never spoken with
   spiritual beings. To you the realm of spirit is all unknown, but let me
   tell you, Christians are in the daily habit of communing with the
   spirit-world, by which I mean that their souls converse with God! Their
   spirits are affected by the Holy Spirit. They have fellowship with
   angels who are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that
   are the heirs of salvation.

   Now, when some of you enter into the spirit-world, you will say, "I
   never was here before. This is a foreign land to me." I can conceive
   that you will call for some companion. "Is there anyone here with whom
   I have had dealings?" And there will be a voice heard, "Yes, I have
   often spoken to you, and you to me." "Who is that?" It is Satan or some
   evil spirit with whom, alone out of all spirits you have ever had
   communion. He will be the only friend to meet you--and what a friend!
   Your grim companion, your fellow sinner, and your fellow prisoner
   forever!

   But a Christian in the disembodied state, if I may so imagine it, might
   cry, "Where are my friends? I have been here before! Where are those
   with whom aforetime I had fellowship?" And a response will come from
   the ministering angels, and there, above all, will be the blessed
   Spirit of God! There will be God Himself, and the Spirit of the
   ever-living Christ. All these will make up sweet company for the
   Believer. After the soul has left the body, we believe that it at once
   appears before God, and receives by anticipation what will be its final
   sentence. To the righteous soul there is no sleeping in the grave, no
   delay in "purgatory" before he enters into Heaven. "Today shall you be
   with Me in Paradise," is the portion of all who trust in Jesus.

   Now, think, dear Hearer, your disembodied spirit will have to appear
   before the fiery eyes of God! What, then, is your relation to God this
   morning? Why, some of you never think of Him! Some of you, I almost
   blush to say it, have cursed Him to His face, and have even asked Him
   to damn you! Ah, He will do it, except you repent! But how delightful
   must it be for a man to say, "I am going up to God. He is my Father. It
   is no more terror to me than for a child to go home from school. I am
   going to my God with whom I am reconciled by the precious blood of
   Jesus. I have known my God, He is no stranger to me. I saw Him in
   Christ, and I trusted Him. And all my life long I learned to see Him in
   the works of nature. I could say of the mountains and the valleys, 'My
   Father made them all.' I was never so happy as when thoughts of God
   came flowing into my spirit. My spirit has dwelt with God when in the
   body. It is not afraid to fly up to God now that it has left the body
   behind it."

   Surely, in the prospect of such a judgment, each man may say, "Let my
   last end be like his!" After the judgment is pronounced, the
   disembodied spirit dwells in Heaven. Some of you could not be happy if
   you were allowed to enter that Heaven. If you could be admitted between
   those pearly gates which forever exclude pollution, sin, and shame, you
   could not be happy there. Shall I tell you why? It is a land of spirit,
   and you have neglected your spirit! Some of you even deny that you have
   a spirit, and I do not wonder that you say so because I do not suppose
   that you have ever exercised it. But let a man who has delighted to
   commune with the Holy Spirit enter into the spirit-world, and he will
   be in his element!

   Besides, the world to come is a holy world. The engagements of
   disembodied spirits are all pure and lovely. What will that man do who
   loved drunkenness, who indulged in unclean habits? He will be out of
   his element. If he could be in Heaven, as Whitfield used to say, he
   would ask God to let him out, and would run into Hell for shelter, for
   Heaven would be a dreadful place to an ungodly man! There is a dream
   which is told (I tell it not for the dream, but for the moral

   of it) of a young woman who imagined that she was in Heaven unconverted
   and thought she saw upon the pavement of transparent gold, multitudes
   of spirits dancing to the sweetest music.

   She stood still, unhappy, motionless, silent, and when the King said to
   her, "Why do you not partake in the joy?" she answered, "I cannot join
   in the dance, for I do not know the measure. I cannot join in the song,
   for I do not know the tune." Then said He in a voice of thunder, "What
   are you doing here?" And she thought herself cast out forever. Ah, dear
   Hearer! Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. If you do not
   learn Heaven's language on earth you cannot learn it in the world to
   come! If you are not holy you cannot be with holy saints. What a misery
   would it be for you to be always with those who are praising and
   serving God if you know nothing of His love. If you have never praised
   Him on earth, you will not readily take to it there. You would be
   strangers in a strange land!

   Ah, trouble not yourselves, that shall never be your portion. "Except a
   man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," much less can he
   ever enter there. After awhile our bodies will be raised again. The
   soul will re-enter the body, for Christ has not only bought the souls
   of His people, but their bodies, too. Think of that tremendous day,
   when the trump shall be heard, shrill as a clarion, ringing through
   earth and Heaven, and Hell, "Awake, you dead! Awake, you dead! And come
   to judgment! Come to judgment, come away!" Then up will start the
   bodies of the wicked. I know not in what shapes of dread they will
   arise, nor how they will appear.

   What forms of ghastliness they will put on or what horrors will wreathe
   their brows, I cannot tell. But this I know, that when the righteous
   shall rise they will be glorious like the Lord Jesus! They shall have
   all the loveliness which Heaven itself can give them. Their body here
   is but a shriveled grain sown in the earth. Their next body will be as
   much more glorious than that as the sweetest flower of spring is fairer
   than the shriveled seed that was cast into the mold. It will be a
   glorious body, raised in honor, raised in power, raised no more to die!
   Oh, glorious hour! "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall
   stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
   destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see
   for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another."

   Would you not wish to rise in the image of Christ as the righteous
   will? Remember you must rise from the grave very much what you are when
   put into it. I think I see a perfect model of a city before me,
   containing all that is to be built. Here I see a temple of alabaster,
   and there a dunghill. The architect is bid to produce on the largest
   scale, in the purest marble, that city as modeled before him. Rest
   assured that he will produce the temple as a temple, only far more
   splendid, and the dunghill as a dunghill, only 10,000 times more
   loathsome! Now, which are you in that model? For this life is a model
   of the life to come, and it is written, "He that is filthy, let him be
   filthy still, and he that is holy, let him be holy

   still."

   Ah, my Hearer, you may well wish to be holy here that you may be holy
   there! To be pure here, that you may be pure there! To be godlike on
   earth, that you may be godlike in Heaven. "Let my last end be like that
   of the righteous." Let me wave the palm of victory! Let me wear the
   crown of triumph! Let me be girt about with the fair white linen of
   immaculate perfection! Let me cast my crown before Jehovah's feet! Let
   me swell the everlasting song! Let my voice make one in that eternal
   chorus, "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" Oh,
   how will I sing! How sweetly shall my voice be attuned to notes of
   gratitude! How will my heart dance with ecstasy before that throne!
   "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like
   his!"

   III. As this is the last occasion of my preaching in this great hall I
   shall venture to trespass a little longer, and on the third head I
   shall most earnestly ask your solemn attention for a few minutes
   longer. We have to make A PRACTICAL USE OF THE WHOLE.

   Behold the vanity of mere desires. Balaam desired to die the death of
   the righteous, and yet was slain in battle fighting against those
   righteous men whom he envied. There is an old proverb which says,
   "Wishers and woulders make bad housekeepers." And another which
   declares, "Wishing never filled a sack." I commend the truth of those
   proverbs to you now. Mere desiring to die the death of the righteous,
   though it may be natural, will be exceedingly unprofitable. I beseech
   you stop not there! Have you ever heard the old classic story of those
   ancient Gauls who, having once drunk the sweet wines of Italy,
   constantly, as they smacked their lips, said one to another, "Where is
   Italy?" And when their leaders pointed to the gigantic Alps crowned
   with snow, they said, "Cannot we cross them?" Every time they tasted
   the wine the questions were put, "Where is Italy? And cannot we reach
   it?" This was good plain sense. So they put on their war harness and
   marched to old Rome to fight for the wines of Italy.

   So, my Brothers and Sisters, every time you hear of Heaven, I should
   like you, with Gothic ardor, to say, "Where is it? I gladly would go."
   And happy should I be if men here would put on the harness of the
   Christian, and say, "Through floods and flames for such a conquest, to
   drink of such wines well refined, we would gladly go to the battle that
   we may win the victory." Oh, the folly of those who, knowing and
   desiring this, yet spend their strength for nothing! The Roman Emperor
   fitted out a great expedition and sent it to conquer Britain. The
   valiant legionaries leaped ashore, and each man gathered a handful of
   shells, and went back to his ship again--that was all.

   Some of you are equally foolish. You are fitted by God for great
   endeavors and lofty enterprises, and you are gathering shells! Your
   gold and your silver, your houses and your lands--they are mere empty
   shells--and Heaven and everlasting life you let go. Like Nero, you send
   to Alexandria for sand for your amusements and send not for wheat for
   your starving souls! O fools and slow of heart! When shall God, who
   gave you souls, give those souls wisdom that you may seek after the
   true treasure, the real pearl, the heavenly riches?

   "Well," cries one, "how is Heaven to be had?" It is to had only by a
   personal seeking after it. I have read of one who, when drowning, saw
   the rainbow in the heavens. Picture him as he sinks! He looks up, and
   there if he sees the many-colored bow, he may think to himself, "There
   is God's covenant sign that the world shall never be drowned, and yet
   here I am drowning in this river." So it is with you! There is the arch
   of God's promise over you, "God so loved the world, that He gave His
   only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
   have everlasting life." And yet, because you believe not in Him, you
   will be drowned in your sins.

   "I would gladly enlist, then," says one, "in the army of Christ, and
   fight for Heaven." Come on, then, I am Christ's enlisting officer
   today. "What am I to give?" says one. Give? Give nothing. "But I have
   many good works." These are not to be brought as a price for Heaven. "I
   have my prayers and my tears of repentance." These cannot avail
   meritori-ously--if you want to be a Christian, you must come to Christ
   with empty hands! You know how the recruiting sergeant makes a
   soldier--not by asking the man to give him something, but by getting
   him to take the Queen's shilling. Take Christ--that is God's enlisting
   money--and you are enlisted! Do not bring anything, but take the water
   of life freely. If you will trust the Lord Jesus, and take Him to be
   your salvation, you are then enlisted as a soldier of Jesus. Oh, may
   you have Grace to do that!

   But remember, all soldiers have to fight! One of the first things you
   will have to do, if you become a Christian, is to carry a Cross. Ah,
   you do not like it. "His yoke is easy, and His burden is light." Take
   it upon you--and yet to carnal shoulders the Cross is very galling--and
   nothing but Divine Grace can make it light. You will have to give up
   your sins! You will have to give up your empty pleasures. You will have
   to, from now on, bear witness for Christ before a crooked and perverse
   generation. Do not expect to be Christ's soldier and yet not wear His
   uniform. No, you must put on his regimentals. You must wear His
   crest--His crest is the Cross. You must take His shield, the shield of
   faith, and His sword, which is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of
   God. And resting alone on Him, depending alone upon His merit, you
   shall certainly win the victory!

   My Brethren, what a blessing it will be if you and I shall ever reach
   the land of triumph. You remember Bunyan's picture. He says he saw a
   brave palace and as he looked up he could hear happy spirits singing on
   the top. They walked in white, clad in royal robes. And as he heard
   them singing, he longed to be with them. Going up to the door, he
   noticed that it was beset with armed men--a great host with pikes, and
   halberds, and swords--pushing back all who desired to come. Presently
   he saw a man of bold countenance, covered with armor, go up to a man
   who sat at a table with a writer's ink-horn, and he heard him say, "Set
   down my name, Sir." And as soon as the name was set down, the man drew
   his sword and began to hack and hew right and left, cutting himself a
   way right through the midst of his enemies.

   After being covered with sweat and blood, and many wounds, he at length
   forced an entrance. And Bunyan says, "I did hear them sweetly sing at
   the top, 'Come in! Come in! Eternal glory you shall win.' " I am this
   morning the man with the writer's ink-horn. Is there anyone here who
   will say, "Set my name down, Sir"? I trust it will be so. I trust the
   Holy Spirit will win your hearts for Jesus! That you will rest in Him
   alone! But the moment your name is down, remember then the battle
   begins--then, with your sword drawn, you must begin to contend with
   your besetting sins! You must have done with your old ways, and must
   fight against them. You will have to cut as never soldier did, for you
   will have to wound yourself! It will be your own arms and eyes that
   will have to be given up! Your own sins that will have to be slain!
   But, oh, the victory will make amends for it all!

   It was but the other day that on this floor men wrestled for the
   mastery--a dangerous sport in which few of us would like to take a
   share--but I do not doubt that to those who gained the victory, the
   victory seemed an ample compensation. Certainly to Rome's old
   legionaries, when they rode through the streets, and all the people
   climbed to the very chimney tops to see them ride the streets of Rome,
   it was enough reward for all their hardships. But the triumphs of
   Heaven, the shouts of angels, the songs of the redeemed, the
   hallelujahs, the bliss forever, the glory without end! Oh, those will
   be an abundant recompense to the humble followers of the Lamb!

   Be of good courage, my Brothers and Sisters! Follow the Captain of your
   salvation! Forward to the fight, to the victory, and to the crown! And
   may the Lord so bless you, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                       "Make This Valley Full of Ditches"

   A sermon

   (No. 747)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, APRIL 28, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And he said, Thus says the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For
   thus says the Lord, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain
   yet that valley shall be filled with water, that you may drink both
   you, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in
   the sight of the Lord: He will deliver the Moabites also into your
   hand."- 2 Kings 3:16-18.

   MANY useful lessons might be gathered from this narrative if we had but
   time. Upon the very surface we are led to observe the weakness of man
   when at his utmost strength. Three kings, with three armies
   well-skilled in war, were gathered to subdue Moab, and lo, the whole of
   the hosts were brought to a standstill by the simple circumstance that
   there was a lack of water. How easily can God nonplus and checkmate all
   the wisdom and the strength of mankind! In circumstances of need how
   utterly without strength men become!

   A sere leaf in the hurricane is not more helpless than an army when it
   finds itself in a wilderness and there are no springs of water. Now
   they may call their soothsayers but these cannot deliver them. The
   allied sovereigns may sit in solemn conclave but they cannot command
   the clouds. In vain your shields, O you mighty! In vain your banners,
   you valiant hosts! The armies must perish, perish painfully, perish
   without exception, and all for lack of so simple but so necessary a
   thing as water! Man would gladly play the god and yet a little water
   will lay him low.

   We may also learn here how easily men in times of difficulty, which
   they have brought upon themselves, will lay their distress upon
   Providence rather than honestly see it to be the result of their own
   foolish actions. Hear the king of Israel cast the blame upon Jehovah:
   "For the Lord has called these three kings together, to deliver them
   into the hands of Moab." Providence is a most convenient horse to bear
   the saddles of our folly. As I said in the reading, if we prosper and
   succeed, we proudly sacrifice to our own wisdom. But if shame and loss
   follow our folly, then we complain of an unpropi-tious Providence. Alas
   for man, that he will even rail against his God rather than acknowledge
   himself to be in error!

   Yet we see, on the other hand, that the truly spiritual are, by their
   misfortunes and their necessities, driven nearer to God. I do not find
   Jehoshaphat, himself, enquiring for a Prophet of God until there was no
   water. And then he said, "Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord, that
   we may enquire of the Lord by him?" When tribulation drives us to the
   Lord, it is an unspeakable blessing and makes affliction prove to us
   one of our greatest mercies. It is a good wave that washes the mariner
   on the rock--it is a blessed trouble which blows the Christian nearer
   to his God. If you are led to set loose by the world through your
   losses and your crosses, be thankful for them, for, if you have lost
   silver, you have gained that which is better than gold! If, like the
   dove to the cleft of the rock your soul flies to God, driven homeward
   by stress of weather, then be thankful for the tempest for it is safer
   and better for you than the calm.

   But we have no time to dwell on these topics. I rather call your
   attention to the three kings standing at the door of Elisha's tent.
   They had paid him no deference before. He had not been made chaplain to
   the forces, but he had followed the camp as a volunteer and lived in
   obscurity. The poor wise man is precious in the hour of peril! God
   knows how to bring His servants to honor, and he who poured water on
   the hands of the Lord's servant, Elijah, has three kings waiting at his
   door! Observe that he addressed the king of Israel very sharply,
   indeed, for sinners can claim but little respect from the servants of
   God--no more than rebels can expect to be treated with profound
   courtesy by loyal soldiers.

   The Prophet evidently was much disturbed in his mind by the sight of
   the son of Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah never spoke better than when his
   fiery soul was thoroughly excited. But Elisha was a man of a milder
   mood and a gentler spirit, and therefore feeling that his blood was hot
   and his soul stirred, he did not venture to prophesy. He felt within
   himself, "I am not in the right mood. If I were to speak, I might utter
   my own words rather than the words of my Master. I feel so

   angry at the very sight of that wicked Jehorarn, that I might perhaps
   say what I should be sorry for in after days." Therefore Elisha makes a
   pause. "Bring me a minstrel," says he.

   There was doubtless in the camp some holy songster, some Asaph, some
   Reman, some sweet Psalmist of Israel. And when he laid his fingers
   among the harp strings and began to sing one of David's wondrous
   strains, the Prophet grew more calm and composed. "Sing us one of the
   songs of Zion," was doubtless his request to the minstrel. And, when
   the soft sweet strain had soothed the tumult of his storm-tossed
   passions, the Prophet rose to declare the will of Jehovah. His words
   were short, but full of force: "Make this valley full of ditches, for
   thus says the Lord, that valley shall be filled with water."

   He would not speak until he felt the Divine flame. In the same spirit
   as those disciples who tarried at Jerusalem until they had received
   power from on high, he waited until his mind was in a fit state to
   receive the Holy Spirit and be the vehicle of the Divine mind to those
   who were round about him. It is well for us, if we have to preach or
   pray, always to ask the Spirit to help our infirmity and tune our
   hearts to the right key--for though our God can use us in any frame of
   mind, yet we must all be aware that there are certain states in which
   we become more adapted to be the vehicle of blessing to our fellow men.

   The whole of this story may be made useful to ourselves and therefore
   we shall notice, first, our position as set forth by the condition of
   these kings. Secondly, our duty as told us by the Prophet. Thirdly, the
   Lord's modes of operation as here described, and then, fourthly, our
   further desire for something yet greater than the supply of our merely
   pressing necessities.

   I. First, then, let us review OUR PRESENT POSITION. The armies of these
   kings were in a position of abject dependence--they were dying of
   thirst. They could not supply their need. They must have from God the
   help required or they must perish. My Brothers and Sisters, this is
   just the position of every Christian Church. Every truly Christian
   Church not only is dependent upon God, but feels it, and there is a
   grave difference between the two. For some Churches whose creed is
   orthodox upon this point, nevertheless act as if they could do as well
   without the Holy Spirit as with Him.

   I trust we may never be brought into such a condition. Remember, my
   Brethren, unless our religion is altogether hypocrisy and a lie, we
   have the Holy Spirit. It is not we may have Him and be thankful, but we
   must have the Holy Spirit's power and Presence, and the assistance of
   the Most High, otherwise our religion will become a mockery before God,
   and a misery to ourselves. We must have the aid of the Holy Spirit, for
   ours is not a mechanical religion. If our worship consisted in the
   reading of forms, "appointed by authority," we could do exceedingly
   well without the assistance of the Spirit of God.

   If we believed in the manipulations of priestcraft, and thought that
   after certain words, and genuflections, and ceremonies, all was
   done--it would matter little to us whether we had the conscious
   Presence of God or not. If we could regenerate by water applied by
   hands saturated with the oil of apostolic succession, we should have no
   particular need to pray for the benediction of the Holy Spirit! And if
   the utterance of certain words, even if by profane lips, could turn
   bread and wine--oh, horrible dogma!--into the flesh and blood of the
   Lord Jesus Christ, we could wondrously well afford to dispense with the
   Spirit of God.

   But we cannot thus deceive ourselves. Ours is not a religion of
   mechanics and hydrostatics--it is spiritual, and must be sustained by
   spiritual means. If our religion were, on the other hand, one of mere
   intellectualism, we should only need a well-trained minister who had
   passed through all the grades of human learning--who had stored himself
   with the best biblical criticism and was able to instruct and
   illuminate our understandings, and we--if we were men of judgment
   ourselves, could profit exceedingly well. Our faith standing in the
   wisdom of man, the wisdom of man could easily be found, and our faith
   could be confirmed.

   But if, my Brethren, our faith stands not in the wisdom of man nor in
   the eloquence of human lips, but in the power of God, then in vain do
   we make a profession unless the Holy Spirit dwells in our inner man. So
   dependent is the Christian Church upon the Holy Spirit, that there
   never was an acceptable sigh heaved by a penitent apart from Him. Never
   did a holy song mount to Heaven except He gave it wings! Never was
   there true prayer or faithful ministry except through the power and
   might of the Holy Spirit!

   Sinners are never saved apart from the Spirit of God. No moral
   persuasion, no force of example, no pretence of logic, no might of
   rhetoric ever changed the heart. The living Spirit alone can put life
   into dead souls. And when those souls are

   quickened, we are still as dependent as ever upon the Spirit of God. To
   educate a soul for Heaven is as much a Divine task as to emancipate a
   soul from sin. To comfort a desponding Christian. To strengthen his
   weak hands and confirm his feeble knees. To brighten the eyes of his
   hope and to give him nerve to hold the shield of his faith--all these
   are the work of the Spirit of the living God!

   O Christian, with all the power you have received, you have not
   strength enough to live for another second, except as the Spirit of God
   quickens you! All your past experience, all that you have learned and
   acquired must go for nothing, except, daily and perpetually, moment by
   moment, the Spirit of God shall dwell in you and work in you mightily,
   to keep you still a pilgrim traveling to the gate of Heaven. Thus, as
   each individual is dependent, the whole Church is dependent in a
   ten-thousand-fold measure. Without the Spirit of God we are like a ship
   stranded on the beach when the tide has receded. There is no moving her
   until the flood shall once again lift her from the sands. We are like
   that frozen ship, of which we read the other day, frost-bound in the
   far-off Arctic Sea! Until the Spirit of God shall thaw the chilly
   coldness of our natural estate, and bid the life-floods of our heart
   flow forth, there we must be--cold, cheerless, lifeless, powerless. The
   Christian, like the mariner, depends upon the breath of Heaven, or his
   ship is without motion.

   We are like the plants of the field and this genial season suggests the
   metaphor--all the winter through vegetation sleeps wrapped up in her
   frost garments--but when the mysterious influence of spring is felt,
   she unbinds her cloak to put on her vest of many colors, while every
   bud begins to swell and each flower to open. And so a Church lies
   asleep in a long and dreary winter until God the Holy Spirit looses the
   bands of lethargy, and hearts bud and blossom and the time of the
   singing of birds is come.

   This doctrine has been preached hundreds of times, and we all know it,
   but for all that, we all forget it. And especially when we are in
   earnest about our work, and perceive our personal responsibility there
   is no truth that needs to be insisted upon more thoroughly than this,
   "Without Me, you can do nothing." Until we are utterly empty of self we
   are not ready to be filled by God! Until we are conscious of our own
   weakness we are not fit platforms for the display of the Divine
   Omnipotence! Until the arm of flesh is paralyzed, and death is written
   upon the whole natural man, we are not ready to be endowed with the
   Divine life and energy.

   II. We now proceed to note OUR DUTY as the Prophet tells it to us. The
   Prophet did not tell the kings that they were to procure the
   water--that, as we have already said, was out of their power--but he
   did say, "Make this valley full of ditches," that when the water came
   there might be reservoirs to contain it. They that pass "through the
   valley of Baca make it a well"--that is their business. "The rain also
   fills the pools"--that is God's business. If we expect to obtain the
   Holy Spirit's blessing, we must prepare for His reception.

   "Make this valley full of trenches" is an order which is given me this
   morning for the members of this Church. Make ready for the Holy
   Spirit's power! Be prepared to receive that which He is about to give!
   Each man in his place and each woman in her sphere make the whole of
   this Church full of trenches for the reception of the Divine floods.
   Before the Nile begins to rise, you see the Egyptians from either side
   of the banks making ready--first the deep channel, and then the large
   reservoir, and afterwards the small canals, and then the minor pools.
   For unless these are ready the rising of the Nile will be of little
   value for the irrigation of the crops in future months.

   When the Nile rises, then the water is received and made use of to
   fertilize the fields--and so, when the treasury of the Spirit is open
   by His powerful operations, each one of us should have his trench ready
   to receive the blessed flood which is not always at its height. Have
   you ever noticed the traders by the river's side? If they expect a
   barge of coals, or a vessel laden with other freight, the wharf is
   cleared to receive it. Have you not noticed the farmer just before the
   harvest-time--how the barn is emptied, or the brick yard is made ready
   for the stacks? Men will, when they expect a thing, prepare for the
   reception of it. And, if they expect more than usual, they say, "I will
   pull down my barns and build greater, that I may have where to bestow
   my goods."

   The text says to us, "Prepare for the Spirit of God." Do not pray for
   it, and then fold your arms and say, "Well, perhaps He will work." We
   ought to act as though we were certain He would work mightily--we must
   prepare in faith. Have you ever read that text, "Enlarge the place of
   your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of yours
   habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your
   stakes"? What for? "For you shall break forth on the right hand and on
   the left." You are to enlarge your tent first, and then God will send
   those that will fill it. But the most of people say, "Well, you know,
   of course, if God sends a blessing, we must then enlarge."

   Yes, that is the way of unbelief, and the road to the curse. But the
   way of faith and the road to the blessing is this-- God has promised
   it--we will get ready for it! God is engaged to bless, now let us be
   prepared to receive the blessing! Act not on the mere strength of what
   you have, but in expectation of that which you have asked. Act for God
   on the faith of what He will give, rather than on the faith of what you
   have as yet obtained. Count God's notes of hand as cash. Believe that,
   with God, a promise is as good as the fulfillment and act when you have
   the promise as you would have acted if you had already seen the promise
   fulfilled. Prepare for a blessing! Prepare largely!

   "Make this valley full of ditches," not make one trench, but as many as
   possible. For God, when He works, works like a God! As a king gives not
   stintedly, like a beggar, so God, in His gifts, is not restrained.
   Giving will not impoverish Him, and withholding will not enrich Him.
   Expect great things from a great God! "Make this valley full of
   ditches." Have a holy covetousness of the Divine blessing. Never be
   satisfied with what God is doing in the conversion of souls--be
   grateful, but hunger after more. If He gives ten souls, ask for a
   hundred! If He gives a hundred, ask for a thousand! If a thousand, ask
   for ten thousand! Insatiable as the grave ought the Christian's heart
   to be with regard to the glory of God!

   Here we may swallow the horseleech, indeed, and say, "Give, give,
   give," with greater vehemence every day, and yet shall not God chide us
   for the largeness or the importunity of our desires. Open your mouth
   wide, for God will fill it! "Make this valley full of ditches."
   Moreover, prepare at once--not dig trenches in a month's time, but
   "make this valley full of ditches" now. Oh, that little word "now!" it
   is often the saving word to sinners, and to the Christian it is the
   quickening word. Tomorrow! Who shall tell how many souls it has
   destroyed, devouring them as the grave devours the slain! Alas, for the
   mischief's of that demon word, tomorrow.

   And who shall say how many Christian Churches have been deprived of
   blessed enlargements by the policy which said, "Wait a little!" Away
   with this horrible advice! Wait? Impossible! Death waits not! Hell
   makes no pause! Sin stays not its mad career! If the devil, and death,
   and Hell would wait, we might have an excuse for loitering. But,
   meanwhile, "Forward!" must be our motto! Now, even now, my Brothers and
   Sisters, prepare for the blessing, for God is ready to give it when we
   are ready to receive it! When the valley is full of ditches, the
   ditches shall be filled! When the wells are made in the valley of Baca,
   then shall the pools be filled.

   Furthermore, prepare actively. Ditch-making is laborious work. God is
   not to be served by child's play, or sham work with no toil in it. When
   a valley is to be trenched throughout its whole length, all the host
   must give themselves to the effort, and none must skulk from the toil.
   I believe with all my heart in the Spirit of God--but I do not believe
   in human idleness. Celestial power uses human effort. The Spirit of God
   usually works most where we work most. With regard to our own
   salvation, the meritorious part of that is finished for us. But still
   it is written, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
   And the reason given is, "For it is God which works in you both to will
   and to do of His good pleasure."

   We work because God works. To loiter because God works, is wicked
   reasoning! Do not tell me that because God will fulfill His own
   purposes, therefore His people may go to sleep! It never was His
   purpose to lull His people to slumber. But His great design is the
   education of an intelligent host of co-workers with Himself. The Lord
   has made us and ordained us that we, in our measure, may work together
   with Him. It is His office to bless our efforts, but it is at once our
   privilege and our duty, each one of us, to yield ourselves as the
   instruments of the Divine purpose. I want every Christian man here to
   feel that if the Lord is about to bless this Church, or His Church at
   large, there must be, on the part of every one of us, a shouldering of
   the spade, and a going forth to diligent, continuous, persevering
   service in the name of the Master, according to His will.

   Give me a lazy Church and say nothing about the Spirit of God--the
   Spirit of God and lazy Churches are a long way off from each other! But
   give me an earnest Church and the Spirit of God, and who knows what may
   come of such a blessed union! Let but men be prepared to labor, and God
   is prepared to bless their labor, for is it not written, "Paul plants,
   and Apollos waters"--and what happens?--"God gives the increase." He
   seldom denies the increase where there is a planting Paul and a
   watering Apollos! Earnest efforts and believing dependence upon God are
   sure to be attended with a blessing.

   Let me, however, interpret these words, "Make this valley full of
   ditches," a little more plainly and pointedly. If we are to have a
   blessing from God, we are, every one of us, to have a trench ready to
   receive it. "Well, how shall I have mine ready?" one says. My answer
   is, have large desires for a blessing--that is one trench you can all
   dig. Brethren, is it not

   true that some of you do not want a blessing? If the Lord should give
   you an unusual blessing, you would hardly thank Him--for you have never
   hungered and thirsted after it. There are some professors who do not
   want to be too thoroughly Christian. They are quite afraid of having
   too much of the Spirit of God! They are for ankle-deep religion, and
   they had rather not wade further into the stream lest they should be
   carried away by the current. It would be inconvenient to such persons
   to have much Divine Grace. Do not be afraid, you will not get it! In
   fact, it will be a question, before long, whether you have any at all!

   But if a true Believer desires much Grace he shall have it. Enlarge,
   then, your desires, my Brothers and Sisters! Ask for much likeness to
   your Master, much fellowship with your Divine Lord. Ask for great
   faith! Ask for clear hope! Ask for intelligent views of the Truth of
   God! Ask for a burning sense of the value of those Truths. "Ask what
   you will, and it shall be done unto you." Do not stint yourselves, but
   "make the valley full of trenches." If there is any attainment which
   has seemed to you, up till now, to be impossible, long after it! If it
   is any height of virtue, if it is any excellence of loveliness, or any
   eminence of Divine Grace, let your soul be enlarged. "I speak," says
   Paul, "as unto my children" (so may I speak to many among you), "be you
   also enlarged." "You are not straitened in the Lord, nor in us, but you
   are straitened in your own heart." Make the valley of your soul as full
   as possible of the reservoirs of longing desire for a blessing.

   Next, add to these desires, faithful, vehement, and constant prayers.
   "You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss." Make your heart full
   of prayer, and, my Brethren, you need not say that you have not
   subjects for supplication. If you have all you need yourselves, pray
   for others! Go to God for your children's salvation. Oh, that our
   children might be God's children! They counted the family of Curio
   happy, of old, because there were three orators in it, the grandsire,
   the father, and his son. But that is a far happier family where there
   are three generations of Christians--when the promise is made true,
   "Instead of the father, shall rise up the children"--when the holy
   cause descends as an heirloom from the father to the son, and from the
   son to the next generation--and the next! Pray for this, and be not
   content without it.

   Then plead for your servants, your kinsfolk, and your neighbors. Set
   your heart upon special cases. Yearn over those cases, and when you see
   those converted, long after more! Then make your valley full of new
   trenches, for this is a day of Grace, an hour of blessing, and the Lord
   will give you according to your faith. Furthermore, if desires and
   prayers are good, yet activity is even more so. Every Christian who
   wants to have a blessing for himself or for others, must set to work by
   active exertion, for this is the word, "Make this valley full of
   ditches."

   If you cannot dig a deep trench, dig a shallow one. And if it cannot be
   as broad as you wish, let it be as wide as you can make it. I mean
   this--some of you young men might preach--you have the ability, you
   have the time for study. I want you to lay out your talents in that
   holiest of enterprises--in the street corners, anywhere--proclaim
   Christ! Some of you ought to be teaching in Sunday schools, but you are
   putting that talent aside--it is rusting, it is spoiling, and you will
   have no interest to bring to your Master for it. I want that Sunday
   school talent to be used! I long to see the Sunday school trench
   deepened and lengthened by everyone doing his share.

   Many of you might do good service by teaching senior classes at your
   own houses. This work might be most profitably extended. If our
   intelligent Christian Brethren and Matrons would try to raise little
   classes of six, eight, ten, or twelve at home, I know not what good
   might come of it. You would not be interfering with anyone else, for in
   such a city as this, we may all work as hard as we will and there is no
   chance of interfering with each other's labors. This sea is too large
   here for us to be afraid of other folks running away with our fish! I
   want to see our whole system of trenches enlarged!

   Some, of you, perhaps, will do best in tract distribution. Well, do
   it--keep it up, but mind there is something in the tract--and that is
   not always the case! Mind there is something worth reading which will
   be of use when read. Do not give away tracts which are more likely to
   send the readers to sleep than to prayer. Some of them might be useful
   to physicians, when they cannot get their patients to sleep by any
   other means. Get something useful, interesting, telling, Scriptural and
   give it away largely out of love to Jesus. And if these labors do not
   suit your taste, talk personally to individuals. Christ at the well!
   What a schoolmaster for us! Talk to the one woman, the one child, the
   one butler, the one laborer, whoever he may be. He who makes one blade
   of grass grow that would not otherwise have grown, is a benefactor to
   his race--and he who scatters one good thought which would not else
   have been disseminated--has done something for the kingdom of Christ.

   I cannot tell you what is most fit for everybody to do, but if your
   heart is right there is something for each one. There are so many
   niches in the temple, and so many statues of living stone to fill those
   niches to make it a complete temple of heavenly architecture. You and I
   must each find our own niche. Remember, Christian, your time is going.
   Do not be considering always what you ought to do, but get to work!
   Shut your eyes and put your hands out, and "Whatever your hand finds to
   do, do it with all your might." The very first Christian effort will
   do, only do it with all your might! Do it in the name and strength of
   God. "Make this valley full of ditches."

   I would ask God to make this Church full of workers, to turn out the
   drones and multiply the bees. We do not want drones here! We want only
   those who will bring their share of honey to the common hives--I mean
   their share of glory to the Lord Jesus Christ! If you are not saved, we
   will long for your salvation and be glad that you come among us, and
   hope that God will bless you. But if you are a Church member, and do
   nothing, the Lord have mercy upon your miserable soul!

   One thing more, and I leave this point. With all the work that the
   Church does in making the valley full of ditches, we must take care
   that we do it in a spirit of holy confidence and faith. These ditches
   were to be dug not because the water might come, but because they were
   sure it would come! So we must work for Christ, not because we may win
   souls, but because we must. A minister was asked to what point he
   reached in his faith when he was preaching. He said he prayed, and he
   hoped God would bless the word, and God did bless the word in a
   measure, according to his faith. But there was another whose
   conversions were about ten times as numerous in one month as the other
   good man's in a year, and when he was asked in what style he preached,
   whether he hoped he would have a blessing, he said, "No, I do not hope
   anything about it. When I go into the pulpit, I am sure of being
   blessed, because I am preaching God's Word, and have in faith sought
   His help."

   Preaching in faith is sure to be honored of God, and all Christian work
   ought to be done in the spirit of confidence. Who are the soldiers that
   win a battle? Not those who walk to the fight half afraid of defeat,
   but those men who are like the English trumpeter who could sound a
   charge but had never learned to sound a retreat! Those are true
   Christians who do not know how to be beaten, who cannot doubt God's
   promise, who do not understand how the Gospel can be preached in vain!
   They are they who do not know how it is possible that Jesus Christ,
   with His Omnipotent arm, can fail to see of the travail of His soul,
   but who believe that "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His
   hand," and who expect Jehovah to follow with a Divine result that which
   is done to His glory.

   Oh, to dig ditches with the confidence that God, who bade us dig them,
   will be quite sure to fill them! This is faith's true place--may we not
   be slow to occupy it.

   III. Thirdly, a few words about the DIVINE OPERATIONS. Observe, my
   Brethren, how sovereign the operations of God are. When Elijah wanted
   rain, there was a cloud seen and he heard a sound as of abundance of
   rain, and by-and-by the water descended in floods. But when God would
   send the water to Elisha, he heard no sound of rain, nor did a drop
   descend. I know not how it was that the trenches were filled. Whether
   down some deep ravine the ancient bed of a dried up torrent, God made
   the mighty flood to return as He did along the bed of Kishon of old, I
   do not know. But by the way of Edom the waters came obedient to the
   Divine command!

   God is not tied to this or that mode or form. He may in one district
   work a revival, and persons may be stricken down, and made to cry
   aloud. But in another place there may be great crowds, and yet all may
   be still and quiet, as though no deep excitement existed at all. God
   blesses often by the open ministry, and frequently by the personal and
   more secret action of His people. He can bless as He wills, and He will
   bless as He wills! Let us not dictate to God. Many a blessing has been
   lost by Christians not believing it to be a blessing because it did not
   come in the particular shape which they had conceived to be proper and
   right.

   To some the Divine work is nothing unless it assumes the form which
   their prejudice has selected. Oh, be thankful if it comes! I have been
   greatly rejoiced at some of the conversions at the Agricultural Hall. I
   hoped to have heard of many who never went to a place of worship
   getting a blessing. I dare say we shall hear of them, but curiously
   enough, the most of those I have heard of are those who have been here
   before, or who have been regular attendants elsewhere for years. I did
   not go abroad to look after my own children, but it is very odd--they
   say if you want to know something about your own house, you must go
   away from home. And so, I suppose, in order to be the means of
   conversion of some of you, it must needs be that I go afield.

   Well, so long as God sends blessing, it is not for you or I to have any
   choice about it! Perhaps if I pray for my own children, He may bless
   somebody else's children. If I am seeking the good of a child, perhaps,
   then, many are blessed to an old man--for many a sermon to the young
   has been made useful to the old. I do not know that prayer does always
   fall in the same place from which it ascends. Prayer is like a cloud
   rising from the earth, sure to come back again in rain, but not always
   bound to return to the same spot. Many of you are praying for a husband
   or a wife. God has never blessed your husband or wife, but He has
   remembered others out of regard to your prayer, and, when you come to
   Heaven, you will be content so long as your prayer was answered. Be
   thankful for revival, Brothers and Sisters, but do not set up your will
   as to how it shall come. "You shall not see wind, neither shall you see
   rain. Yet that valley shall be filled with water."

   Notice, next, that as the blessing comes Sovereignly, so it comes
   sufficiently--there was enough for all the men, for all the cattle, and
   all the beasts. They might drink as they would, but there was quite
   enough for all. Let us wait, then, in prayer upon God, and prepare to
   be heard, for God has great floods of Divine Grace to give according to
   His riches in glory! By Christ Jesus will He deal out large things to
   those whose faith is large. Observe that this flood came very soon, for
   the Lord is a punctual paymaster. Moreover, it came certainly--there
   was no mistaking it, no doubting it! And so shall God's blessing wait
   upon the earnest prayers and faithful endeavors of Christian people--a
   blessing such as the greatest skeptic shall not be able to deny! Such
   as shall make the eyes of timidity to water, while he says to himself,
   "Who has begotten me these?"

   You have only to look up to God and work for God, and you shall have
   such a blessing as shall make you wonder at it. Did you notice the
   word, "Behold," in one of the verses following my text? It is a hint
   that the whole hosts were amazed at it. God will amaze His Church with
   what He will bestow, if they only have the confidence to act as though
   they believed His promise and could not think that He would be less
   gracious than His word. Thus I have spoken to you about your duty and
   about the Divine mode of operation. Brothers and Sisters, we must have
   the blessing in this particular Church! It were enough to break one's
   heart even to suppose it possible that we should not!

   God knows with what earnest desires and endeavors I went to the
   Agricultural Hall to preach the Gospel, and with how simple and sincere
   a motive you went there, too! We certainly did not journey so far for
   our own comfort, but for the honor and glory of our Master. And God's
   Word must be followed with a blessing. "Thanks be unto God, which
   always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of
   His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor
   of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish, to the one
   we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of
   life unto life."

   But I cannot and will not harbor a mistrustful suspicion about the
   blessing of God resting upon that action, and knowing, as I do, that
   many of you are really solemnly in earnest with an Apostolic
   earnestness! I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I am
   certain God will not withhold the dew, nor keep back the rain. For He
   never did say to His people, "Seek you My face" in vain! Zion has not
   conceived the wind, nor shall she bring forth a dream. As soon as Zion
   travailed, she brought forth children. The earnest agony of a living
   Church must bring forth fruit unto God, or else the Bible is no longer
   reliable, and the promise of God no longer sure. But He changes not,
   and therefore we will look for the blessing, knowing that it must come.

   IV. Lastly, the Lord bade His servant tell them that not only should
   there be water, but he said, "This is but a light thing in the sight of
   God. He will deliver the Moabites also into your hand." GREATER THINGS
   are behind, and are to be expected. If the Christian Church universal
   were prepared for a blessing, God would not only give to it a revival
   in its own border, but make short work, by its means, of all His
   enemies. At the present moment the Moabites are exceedingly bold, they
   invade us on all sides! Especially do they prevail in the form of
   Romanists, sneaking into a Protestant Church that they may be fed upon
   the fat of the land.

   Ah, my Brethren, a revived church will soon make short work of
   Puseyism. Let the Church of God be cold, and dead, and powerless, and
   Popery will soon spread. Look at Holland. Thirty or forty years ago how
   little there was of Romanism in that fine old Protestant country, and
   now, because philosophy and rationalism have entered into so many of
   the pulpits and put away the Gospel, Romanists have multiplied like the
   grass of the field! But only give us the old-fashioned Gospel which
   they used to preach under the "Gospel Oak," and out in the open fields,
   where thousands flocked to hear it! Only give us the Truth as it is in
   Jesus, and as Samson tore the lion, so would the Church tear heresy in
   pieces!

   Behold, the evil of the day shall disappear as a moment's foam melts
   back into the wave that bears it if Jehovah does but visit us. These
   forgers of lies are but of yesterday, and a thing of nothing! Their
   doctrines are the baseless fabric of a vision, without even reason,
   much less Scripture, to back them up! No, let Israel dig the trenches,
   and the swords of her warriors will soon find out the hearts of Moab's
   mightiest one. So with sin, there is no way of putting down sin except
   by getting the Church of God revived. I am ashamed of some Christians
   because they have so much dependence upon Parliament and the law of the
   land.

   Much good may Parliament ever do to true religion except by mistake. As
   to getting the law of the land to touch our religion, we earnestly cry,
   "Hands off! Leave us alone!" Your Sunday bills and all other forms of
   acts-of-Parliament-religion, seem to me to be all wrong! Give us a fair
   field and no favor, and our faith has no cause to fear. Christ wants no
   help from Caesar! Let our members of Parliament repent of the bribery
   and corruption so rife in their own midst before they set up to be
   protectors of the religion of our Lord Jesus! I should be afraid to
   borrow help from government, it would look to me as if I rested on an
   arm of flesh instead of depending on the living God. Let the Lord's Day
   be respected, by all means, and may the day soon come when every shop
   shall be closed on Sunday--but let it be by the force of conviction and
   not by force of the policeman!

   Let true religion triumph by the power of God in men's hearts, and not
   by the power of fines and punishments. Oh, for more dependence upon the
   living God, and less reliance upon an arm of flesh, and we shall see
   yet greater victories won by King Jesus! So, my Brethren, let us dig
   the trenches and continue to ask God to send us the water! And as for
   the Moabites out yonder, whatever shape the sin may take--let us depend
   upon it--the Church of God is enough, through the power of God who
   dwells in her, to put down sin, and win the kingdom for Christ!

   I would to God that some here who belong to the Moabites, I mean you
   unconverted people, might be brought to know the Savior! Some of you
   know the way well enough, but need the will to run in it. O may the
   Spirit of God give you that will! A simple trust in Jesus will save
   you! God grant it to you! After faith, you shall work out of love to
   Jesus. But all your works before you trust in Him will do no good. Come
   to Him! Trust in Him! Make your heart this morning full of trenches,
   full of great desires, longings and prayers! If so, God will fill your
   soul, for He hears the humble, and despises not their tears. May God
   bless you, one and all. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                                 Self-Humbling

   A sermon

   (No. 748)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MAY 5, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God
   when you heard His words against thisplace, and against the
   inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your
   clothes, and wept before Me; Ialso have heardyou, says the Lord."- 2
   Chronicles 34:27.

   JOSIAH was very earnestly engaged in a devout work for God--he was
   cleansing, beautifying, and repairing the Temple at Jerusalem. While
   this was being done, a copy of the Book of the Law being found, it was
   carried to the king, and the king at once diligently perused it. While
   reading it he discovered certain terrible penalties threatened to
   idolaters and other offenders, and knowing that his subjects had for
   successive years been guilty of the offenses thus condemned, he felt
   persuaded that the righteous judgments of God would come upon them.
   Greatly alarmed, though himself personally innocent of the guilt, he
   tore his clothes, wept, and humbled himself before the Most High.

   Now, it seemed a strange thing, did it not, that so good a man,
   personally clear from blame, engaged in one of the holiest of works
   with a sincere heart devoting himself to the cause of his God, should
   meet with so sad and depressive a discovery just in the very midst of
   his prosperous labors? Was there not another time that the Law could
   have been sent to him with its condemning power? Were there not other
   offenders far more grossly erring than he who might have been humbled?
   Why need this king, with his large, royal, tender heart all consecrated
   to God, to be set a weeping and to be made to go softly in the
   bitterness of his soul just in the very moment of enthusiastic and
   successful labor?

   I take it that the reason was this--God had much love towards Josiah,
   and, having honored him to rebuild the Temple, He knew the natural
   tendency of the human heart to pride, and therefore, with a holy
   jealousy for one whom He loved so well, He sent him this discovery of
   the Book of the Law to keep him humble at the time when otherwise he
   might have been exposed to peril by the lifting up of his heart. You
   remember, beloved Friends, the case of Hezekiah, when God raised him up
   from the sick bed. It is said he rendered not recompense to God
   according to the benefit received, for his heart was lifted up within
   him. And then God sent him a message by the Prophet to tell him that
   the treasures of his house should be carried away into Babylon and his
   sons should be captives to serve the king of Babylon. Thus the Lord
   administered a check after the sin had broken out.

   But in the case before us, the Lord preferred a preventive to a cure,
   and sent a check before the mischief had occurred, and so the holy
   worker became also the humble penitent--and there was blended in the
   life of Josiah, like the blending of the drops of rain with the gleams
   of sunlight--a fair rainbow of many virtues. For you see him toiling
   for his Lord with all his might and yet bowing himself in dust and
   ashes, as an humble suppliant before the Throne of heavenly Grace.
   Learn from this that you and I, in the midst of a career of success
   from God, when our heart is most pure and most right, must not
   therefore expect that all things will go smoothly, but may rather, for
   that very reason, expect to experience humiliating circumstances.

   Like Paul, when favored with an abundance of revelations, we may expect
   a "thorn in the flesh," lest we should be exalted above measure.
   Disclosures of our own weakness and sinfulness are often made to us at
   the very time when God is honoring us most. In order that our vessel
   may be able to endure a strong and fair wind of Divine favor, the Lord
   in infinite wisdom causes us to be ballasted with grief or trial. This
   morning I cannot enter into the whole of my text, but I shall ask your
   attention to Josiah's humbling himself. In this matter we shall note,
   first, the acceptable act. Secondly, the powerful reasons which exist
   for our imitating it. And, thirdly, the encouraging results which
   followed--some of them are clear in his case, and others we may expect
   in our own.

   I. First, we have to speak upon THE ACCEPTABLE ACT which Josiah
   performed. I say an act, not a Grace or a state. It is not said that
   Josiah was humble. He was so, or he would not have trembled at God's
   Word. All Graces are in

   all Christians in a measure. In every Christian there is the germ of
   every virtue. Just as in every well-formed child there is every muscle
   and sinew, and nerve and bone. Although all are far from being
   developed, yet they are there. So in each Christian there exists
   humility, with all the kindred Graces, though it is as yet in some
   scarcely perceptible, and in others is far removed from perfection.

   Josiah certainly possessed the Grace of humility. It is not said that
   his soul was in a state of habitual humility, although he ought to have
   been. We ought always to be, in a certain sense, in the valley of
   humiliation. Pride is never to be excused in the Believer. There is
   never a moment when we may safely be lifted up. Always lowly should we
   be in our own esteem. He that thinks himself to be something when he is
   nothing, deceives himself. And as we are always nothing in ourselves,
   it would be well for us to know and to feel this, and not to be
   self-deceived or lay a flattering unction to our hearts. What is
   mentioned in the text is an act, not a Grace, not a state, but an act.
   We have before us the Grace of humility in Josiah, acting after its own
   nature to produce the state of humility in his soul.

   He humbled himself, that is, he set to work to cure himself of any
   remaining pride, and to educate in himself the humility which the Grace
   of God had worked in him. He humbled himself. He confessed his share in
   the sin which God condemned. He acknowledged on his own part the
   justice of God in threatening such punishments. He stripped himself of
   his royal array. He made no mention of services which he had rendered
   to God in the Temple. He mentioned not his own generosity in having
   given of his treasures to the decorations of the House of the Lord. He
   came as that poor publican is described as coming in our Lord's famous
   parable, not "daring to lift so much as his eyes towards Heaven, but
   smiting upon his breast, and crying, God be merciful to me a sinner."

   So that, Brethren, I want you, this morning, not so much to enquire
   whether you have humility, for I know that if you are Believers,
   humility is somewhere in your heart. I do not ask you whether you are
   in an humble state this morning--it may be you are not. But I want you
   to accompany me in an act of humiliation--in the bowing of your souls
   before the Lord--each man and each woman, according to the experience
   of each, bowing low and reverently before the majesty of the Most High
   that we may obtain from God the mercies which each of us may need.

   1. Concerning this action, then, I have to mention, in the first place,
   that it was a real and personal act. The text says, "Because your heart
   was tender, and you did humble yourself." You did not talk about
   humbling yourself, but you did humble yourself. You did not bid others
   do it, but you did humble yourself. It became to you a personal matter
   of obligation, and you did not postpone that obligation, or look at it,
   and commend it, and say, "When I have a more convenient season, I will
   send for you." You did humble yourself, really, sincerely, truly, and
   in very deed--you did, in your own proper person, bow yourself to the
   very dust before the Most high."

   Brethren, I fear lest the habit of preaching to you may lead me to
   forget my personal share in this and other holy exercises. I pray God
   it may not! And on the other hand it is possible that you may criticize
   the style in which I address you, and so may forget that my style is
   not the business in hand. We are now to have respect to a very solemn
   obligation of which our text reminds us. I pray you let us come
   honestly to the work, and may God's Holy Spirit help us, and may each
   one here be willing now to have it said of him, "You did humble
   yourself."

   2. Observe, too, that as the work was real and personal, so it was
   voluntary. "You did humble yourself." It is not said that God humbled
   him, by which it is not implied that the Grace of God did not assist
   him, that the Spirit of God was not the author of his humility, but it
   is implied that God did not by any overt and open judgment of
   Providence cause Josiah to be humbled. Have you ever noticed the
   difference between being humble and being humbled? Many persons are
   humbled who are not humble at all. Pharaoh was humbled, oh, how
   humbled, when he saw that even the flies and lice could vanquish both
   himself and his men-at-arms!

   How humbled was he when he found that the God of Heaven could send
   plague after plague upon him, and make the proud lips that said, "Who
   is Jehovah that I should obey His voice?" cry, "Entreat the Lord that
   there be no more mighty thunderings and hail!" He must have been
   humbled, but he was not humble! And when the chill waters rolled over
   him in the Red Sear and he died with a proud spirit he had been
   humiliated to the last degree. Even so, God may humble some of us. He
   may take away our property, and we may be humbled by being poor. He may
   be pleased to strip us of that which is now the object of our boasting,
   and we may be humbled by its loss.

   But the duty to which I call you this morning is that of humbling
   yourselves before judgment comes to deal with you, as, mark you, it
   surely will unless you attend to the gracious precept, and humble
   yourselves under the mighty hand of

   God. We must all either break or bow. Let us bow cheerfully. "Let us
   kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and we perish from the way." It is a
   voluntary humiliation of soul which is inculcated by the example of
   Josiah, and may the Spirit of God make us willing in the day of His
   power, that we may willingly humble ourselves before God.

   3. It was, moreover, a sincerely devout act on the part of Josiah. He
   humbled himself, we are told, "before God." It is true he did put on
   sackcloth and tear his clothes, and his humiliation was apparent to
   men, but the soul of his humbling was before God alone. It is vain to
   put on sackcloth and to bow your head like a bulrush before man, unless
   your heart abases itself before God. Outward mourning and fasting are
   not humiliation--neither does God care for them if the heart is absent.
   "Tear your hearts, and not your garments." Let your souls be humbled
   and your spirits contrite.

   Dear Friends, we need more and more to walk in our religion before God.
   Away with that holiness which consists in respect to the forms and
   customs of society! Away with that religion which flaunts itself before
   the staring eye of a fellow mortal. We need that Divine Grace which has
   respect to the God who sees in secret! We need more and more, in fact,
   of spiritual worship, for they who worship God the Spirit must "worship
   Him in spirit and in truth." Your hymns are no songs of praise unless
   they are sung unto God! Your prayers are no prayers unless you seek the
   face of the God of Israel! And your humbling is nothing but another
   form of pride unless your souls have a reverent and deep respect unto
   the Lord.

   4. Once again, the act on the part of Josiah was a very deep and
   thorough one. He did not try to humble himself, but he did it. This I
   gather from the repetition of the fact in the text. Where Inspiration
   mentions a thing twice, it is because God would have our notice drawn
   to it. It is written, "You did humble yourself before God." And again,
   "And humbled yourself before Me." It was not garment-tearing merely, it
   was heart-breaking! Josiah was really broken in heart. He did not
   struggle to get himself down where he should be--he was down--at the
   foot of the Mercy Seat he cast himself as a true broken-hearted
   penitent.

   Brethren, it is an easy thing to say, "I would be humble," but to be
   humble before God is another thing. To begin the sacred work of
   humiliation before the Most High is no great thing. But to continue in
   it until at last you can say, "Out of the depths have I cried unto You,
   O God"--this is a blessed work, and you need the assistance of the
   Spirit of God in it! We are all, at certain times, conscious of our
   weakness, but we forget the humbling fact--our humility is like the
   morning cloud and the early dew which passes away. To have this
   inwrought into the spirit till the whole heart becomes thoroughly
   self-mortified and pride is excluded and shut out--this it is that we
   want--and this it is that will win the blessing.

   Beloved Friends, let me say to you that the Grace of humility, of which
   I spoke in the first place, is exceedingly sweet before God, and where
   it does not exist, a man cannot humble himself. Let me also remark that
   the state of humility is much more blessed than the mere act of
   humiliation and should be the condition of every Christian at all
   times. We ought always to walk humbly before the Lord. But if we are
   not in the state of humility, we must exercise the act of humility in
   order to bring us into it.

   We ought always to be clean but as we are not always so, through
   contact with this evil world, there must be a time for cleansing. So we
   ought to be always humble, but as we are not so, there must be a time
   for humbling ourselves. Now, let no man or woman in this place be
   exempt from the work before us, for here is a king, an eminent person,
   and yet he humbles himself! Sons of the earth, will not you do the
   same? Here is one engaged in the greatest of works, yet he humbles
   himself! Let no pastor, no minister, no elder, no deacon--let no
   earnest evangelist, let no successful laborer as a private Christian,
   fancy himself excused. Josiah bowed! Who dares stand erect?

   Let each heart in its own place bow before the Most High. Here is one
   who was pure in his life. He feared God and died in the act of
   fulfilling his treaty with his eastern allies--defending his country
   against the tyrant Pharaoh-Necho-- who sought to keep him from the
   battle by pretending to have been sent by God. He lived a saint, and
   died as a patriot king might wish to die, and yet he humbles himself
   before the Most High! O Friends, do not we perceive that this example
   demands of us immediate imitation? The Lord lead us into it.

   II. Grant me your earnest attention while I give a few POWERFUL REASONS
   why we should perform the same act as this, which is recorded of
   Hezekiah.

   1. My Brethren, reasons for humbling ourselves are more abundant than
   the time allowed me in which to urge them upon you. In the first place,
   a deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the
   punishment which it deserves

   should make us lie low before the Throne of God. We have sinned. We
   have erred and strayed from His ways like lost sheep--we who are now
   present. We have sinned as Christians. Alas that it should be so!
   Favored as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful--privileged beyond
   most we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who among us,
   though he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, will not
   blush when he looks back upon the past?

   As for our days before we were regenerate, may God blot them out--may
   they be forgiven and forgotten. But since then, though we have not
   sinned as before, yet there has been this peculiar aggravation of our
   sins that we have sinned against light and against love--light which
   has really penetrated our minds, and love which we have been able to
   recognize and in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of
   a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins, to my mind, cheaply,
   compared with the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had
   communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom.

   Look Brethren, at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look
   at his repentance and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans
   out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears as they fall upon the
   ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music
   of his harp! We have erred. Let us, therefore, seek the spirit of
   penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's denying his
   Master. Remember, it is written, "He wept bitterly." Have we no such
   offenses to weep over? Are there no denials of our Lord to be lamented
   with tears?

   Think, Brethren, these sins of ours deserve nothing less than the
   hottest Hell! These sins of ours, before and after conversion, would
   consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the
   Sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands
   from the burning! Is there no help here towards the work of
   soul-humbling? My Soul, bow down under a sense of your natural
   filthiness and worship your God!

   2. Let us reflect upon another humbling subject--our origin and our
   end. Here are we, the offspring of a day! We are unclean things brought
   out of an unclean thing--children that are corrupters--the seed of
   evildoers! What are we at the best but mere animated earth? And before
   long we shall be brought into that lowly bed where the worms shall be
   under us, and the worms shall cover us! We shall become a puff of wind,
   a handful of brown dust--and shall we glory? We who sprang from
   nothing, and must go back to nothing, shall we boast in ourselves? O
   worm of the dust, know yourself, and cease from pride!

   3. I would remind you also, my dear Brothers and Sisters, of that
   Sovereign Grace which has made us to differ. I frequently find that a
   sense of God's amazing love to me has a greater tendency to humble me
   than even a consciousness of my own guilt. Think, my Brethren, what you
   are by Grace! You were chosen of God according to His purpose--chosen,
   not for good in you, but chosen because He would choose you--because,
   "He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and will have
   compassion on whom He will have compassion." You were "not redeemed
   with corruptible things, as silver and gold...but with the precious
   blood or Christ."

   You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's
   only-begotten Son! Think of that! And, as Jesus stooped for you, bow
   yourselves in lowliness at His feet. You are now a child of God! A
   favorite of the skies, on the road to Glory--with a heritage beyond the
   black river which shall be yours when suns and moons have paled their
   waning light. You are to dwell forever near to God and to be like He!
   Surely the thoughts of such amazing goodness will make the vessel,
   laden so heavily with mercy, sink in the water even to its bulwarks!
   Surely you will feel that you must bless and magnify God, because you
   are less than the least of all His mercies.

   4. Further, let me ask you to think of the greatness of God. It is not
   in my power by words to bring before you that tremendous subject. But
   if I could put you in the position of Job, when he said, "I have heard
   of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You," you would
   be certain to add with that Patriarch, "Therefore I abhor myself, and
   repent in dust and ashes."--

   " Great God, how infinite are You! What worthless worms are we!"

   5. Once more, think of the life and death of the Savior. See your
   Master taking a towel and washing His disciples' feet! And, follower of
   Christ, will you not humble yourself? No, see Him all His life long. Is
   not this sentence the compendium of His biography--"He humbled himself?
   Was He not here on earth always stripping--taking off first one robe of
   honor and then another, till, naked, He was fastened to the Cross, and
   then emptied out His inmost self, pouring

   out the floods of His life-blood from His heart, and giving up all for
   us, till they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave?--

   "His honor and His breath Were taken both away, Joined with the wicked
   in His death, And made as vile as they."

   How low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud? Stand,
   my beloved Brothers and Sisters, at the foot of the Cross and count the
   purple drops by which you have been cleansed! See the crown of thorns!
   Mark still the relics of the spit on those blessed cheeks! Go round the
   Cross and mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrim-soned
   rills! See hands and feet given up to the rough iron and His whole self
   to mockery and scorn! See the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes
   of inward grief showing themselves in His outward frame! Hear the
   shrill shriek, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" and if you
   do not lie prostrate on the ground before that Cross, you have never
   seen it. If you are not humbled in the Presence of Jesus, you do not
   know Him.

   I pray the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary, and I know our
   position will no longer be that of the inflated, pompous man of pride,
   but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much, because much
   has been forgiven him. I would, however, warn the inexperienced
   Believer concerning this act of humbling--do not make mistakes about
   it. Do not mistake sham humility for real humility. There is a cant of
   humility which is infamous. People will say in prayer, "Your poor
   dust," and use all sorts of depreciating expressions when they are as
   proud as Lucifer! They will say before the Lord things concerning
   themselves which they are very far from believing, for from their
   manner and bearing it is clear that their estimate of themselves is far
   from being too low.

   There are others who think that laziness is humility. They cry, "Oh, I
   could not do this! I could not do the other!" when they might do it,
   and should do it, and ought to do it, and could do it, God the Holy
   Spirit helping them. But they shirk every duty because they have a
   sense of inability, and they cover their idleness with the mantle of
   supposed humility. Moses was rebuked by God very strongly when he made
   excuses and would gladly have avoided going into the great work to
   which the Lord had called him. Let us not raise questions with our God
   when He calls us to labor, but let us say, "Here I am, send me." Do not
   fall into that miserable counterfeit humility, but like men, use all
   your strength for Jesus!

   Again, do not mistake unbelief for humility. "I hope I am." "I trust I
   am," and expressions of that kind, savor far more of distrust of God
   than of humility of spirit, for the best form of humility is compatible
   with the highest degree of faith. In fact, that is not true faith, but
   spurious, which is not humble. And that is not genuine humility of the
   loveliest type which is not confident in God. Faith and humility should
   always walk together. Let the Grace in you be real Grace, and to that
   end ask the Spirit of God to work it in you.

   Let me add, dear Friend, if you find it difficult to humble yourself
   before God, stand to it the more earnestly, for the more difficult it
   is, the more you need it. If your soul were humble it would easily
   humble itself, but because it is proud, it needs humbling. And for this
   reason it finds the duty irksome and displeasing to the flesh. Mortify
   your pride, my Brothers and Sisters! Let your souls be mortified on
   account of sin! And if you cannot yourself do it, you know where your
   strength lies--fly to your Master for strength and you shall have
   enabling Grace.

   Again, let me say, in order to humble yourselves exercise all your
   faculties. Let your memory bring before you your past offenses. Let
   your understanding form a proper judgment of your position as a
   creature, as a sinner, and now as a dependent servant. Your
   understanding will greatly help you, for true humility is forming a
   just estimate of oneself-- and to humble oneself is to bring oneself
   down to the place where one ought to be. Let your hopes and your fears,
   let your affections and your passions, let all the powers of your
   intellect and heart agree to this--that now before God you will humble
   yourself as Josiah did. I have given you the reasons. May God apply
   those reasons with power by His Holy Spirit!

   III. Lastly, I have to encourage our friends to this duty by
   ENCOURAGING RESULTS. I think it was Bernard, or one of the preachers of
   the Middle Ages who said, "There is one thing to be said for humility,
   that it never can by any possibility do one harm." If a man goes
   through a door, and he has the habit of stooping his head, it may be
   the door is so high there is no need for stooping, but the stooping is
   no injury to him. But if the door should happen to be a low one, and he
   has the habit of holding up his head, he may come into sharp contact
   with the top of the door! True humility is a flower which will adorn
   any garden. This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of
   life, and you will find an

   improvement in every case. Whether it is prayer or praise, whether it
   is work or suffering, the salt of humility cannot be used in excess.

   1. But there are positive advantages connected with it, for, first,
   humiliation will often avert judgment. How many times in the history of
   the Israelites, when they were given over to their enemies, their
   humbling themselves at once drove away the invaders and set them free
   from the scourge? Perhaps some of the most remarkable cases which I can
   quote are those of wicked men, for their cases show the power of
   humiliation with God where there is nothing else to work upon

   Him.

   Rehoboam had set up a false worship, and "did evil in the sight of the
   Lord." Therefore God was provoked with Rehoboam and with Judah, and
   Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up and ravaged Judea, and was about to
   capture Jerusalem. But we read that Rehoboam and Judah humbled
   themselves before God, and the Lord said that Shishak should not touch
   Jerusalem, and moreover the Lord visited the land with favor, and it is
   said, "also in Judah things went well." This mercy was granted, not
   because of any good thing in Rehoboam or his people, but only because
   they humbled themselves.

   A more remarkable case, still, is that of Ahab. Ahab had killed Naboth
   to obtain his vineyard. And when he entered that vineyard, stained with
   innocent blood, Elijah met him with the cutting question, "Have you
   killed, and also taken possession?" And Ahab's proud and haughty spirit
   was cowed with fear of Elijah, and he cried, "Have you found me, O my
   enemy?" Elijah delivered the terrible sentence of God to him, that the
   whole of his household should die, and that Jezebel should be eaten by
   dogs in that very vineyard. Ahab could no longer, after hearing that
   sentence, keep up his bronze countenance. And we read, "And it came to
   pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put
   sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went
   softly."

   Then the Lord said unto Elijah, "Do you see how Ahab humbles himself
   before Me? Because he humbles himself before Me, I will not bring the
   evil in his days." So that this basest of all men, this wicked Ahab,
   whose name stands infamous in the Chronicles of the Kings, yet obtained
   a blessing from God when he humbled himself! As for God's people, when
   the Lord has been about to strike them, He has usually stayed His hands
   when they have humbled themselves. See the case of Hezekiah, which we
   have already mentioned. Hezekiah humbled himself, it is said, because
   of the pride of his heart, and the Lord said this evil should not be
   brought upon him in his day. And Josiah, in this case, also turned
   aside the sword of the Lord from the Israel of his own day because he
   humbled himself.

   My dear Friends, you are under the paternal discipline of God and He
   will make you feel His chastening rod! But if you humble yourselves,
   you put the rod away. You know, with your own children, if you feel
   compelled to chasten, yet, when you see softness and tenderness of
   heart and a sweet readiness to confess the fault, it goes against your
   heart that the rod should be used, and you put it away, for humble
   sorrow is all that you wanted to produce. And if the effect is there
   already, there is no need of further sternness. So the Lord turns away
   the chastisement from His people when they humble themselves.

   2. Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it. The
   old philosophers were accustomed to assert, as a law of matter, "Nature
   abhors a vacuum." This old dictum is out of date nowadays, but it is
   still true spiritually. So, then, if you and I empty ourselves, depend
   upon it, God will fill us! Divine Grace seeks out and fills a vacuum.
   Make a vacuum by humility, and God will fill that vacuum by His love.
   He who desires sweet communion with Christ should remember the words of
   the Lord, "To this man will I look, even to Him that is poor and of a
   contrite spirit, and trembles

   at My Word."

   "He has respect unto the lowly: but the proud He knows afar off."
   Stoop, my dear Friend, if you would climb to Heaven! Do we not say of
   Jesus, "He descended that He might ascend"? So must you! You must go
   downwards, that you may grow upwards, for the sweetest fellowship with
   Heaven is to be had by humble souls, and by them alone. I believe that
   God will deny no blessing to a thoroughly humbled spirit. "Blessed are
   the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven," with all its
   riches and treasures. The whole treasury of God shall be made over by
   deed of gift to the soul which is humble enough to be able to receive
   it without growing proud because of it.

   3. Further, my dear Brethren, the act of humiliation will be very
   blessed to you and to me because it will improve our spiritual health.
   To humiliate yourself is as necessary in this wicked world as it is for
   traveler's through African jungles to take, every now and then, a
   draught of quinine. The bitterness of humility is a tonic to the
   spirit. I know of no

   man who is so courageous before his fellow man as he that bows before
   his God. My knee shall bend to God, and God alone. But if my knee never
   bends to God, you may depend upon it, it will soon be bending when I do
   not want it to do so--it will tremble before the face of man.

   If you fear God with a deep and powerful fear, you shall fear nobody
   else. You should be able to say, before a fierce tyrant like
   Nebuchadnezzar, with the three holy children, "Be it known unto you, O
   king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image
   which you have set up." The fear of God is the death of every other
   fear. Like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it. Nothing
   makes a man so vigorous and strong, with the exception of faith, as
   humility! And even faith itself cannot be strong where humility is
   weak.

   4. Once more, usefulness will be promoted by humility. There are some
   professors whom God cannot bless because they would grow intolerably
   proud if they were blessed. I heard a dear Brother say that he believed
   God blessed us all up to the full measure and extremity of what it was
   safe for Him to do, and I believe He does so. If you do not get a
   blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one! If our
   heavenly Father were to let you be successful in His holy war, you
   would run away with the crown yourself--and meeting with an enemy you
   would fall a victim--and so you are kept low for your own safety.

   When a man is sincerely humble, and never ventures so much as to touch
   a grain of the praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do
   for him. Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of Grace, and
   fits us to deal with our fellow men. Everybody gets as far as ever he
   can from a proud man. I confess, myself, I have a great pleasure in
   seeing proud men--when I can hardly discern them with a powerful
   telescope! Nearer than this would be far less agreeable. We mind not
   how near we come to gentle and meek spirits, for these are company for
   angels.

   Proud spirits do not like to deal with great sinners. "Stand by, I am
   holier than you," is not the language for a man who would be useful.
   What do you think, would a Pharisee make a city missionary? Look at the
   fine gentleman, bloated with self-importance! What a useful preacher he
   would make, would he not? Send him after the poor fallen girls at
   midnight meetings! Better send a peacock! "Stand by, I am holier than
   you." Why the man who feels thus is out of place in the service of
   God--he is more fit to play lackey to the world's vanities, than to
   talk of being a soldier of the Cross.

   Just as the excess of pride disables, so an abundance of humility of
   spirit will fit you for any kind of Christian work to which the Holy
   Spirit may call you. Let us humble ourselves then, dear Friends, that
   God may exalt us in due time by giving us to see the result of our
   work. I know not how to plead any further, but I commend to the Holy
   Spirit for fulfillment. My deeply anxious desire for myself and for
   you, my Brothers and Sisters in the common faith, is that we may all be
   brought, like Josiah, to humble ourselves before God.

   There is yet a word which I desire to speak to those who are not saved.
   I do not say to you, begin with humbling yourselves. Your hope lies in
   Jesus Christ. "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you ends of the
   earth." That is the Gospel. Your salvation lies not in you but in
   Jesus. At the same time, an humble and a contrite spirit will be a very
   ready way of leading you to Christ, and therefore I beseech you,
   cultivate this spirit. There is a story narrated in the classic history
   of Augustus Caesar that a most troublesome pirate had destroyed many of
   the Roman vessels, and therefore Caesar, having hunted him in vain for
   some time, offered a reward of ten thousand talents for the pirate's
   head.

   Now the pirate, knowing the case to be hopeless, and perhaps somewhat
   relenting, came himself before Caesar and laying his head down before
   him in the dust, he said, "Ten thousand talents! I have brought the
   pirate's head." Caesar looked at him with astonishment, and said, "You
   have trusted the generosity of Caesar, and no man shall trust that in
   vain. You are pardoned. Here are the 10,000 talents, too." Now, Sinner,
   I would advise you to follow his example. Shrewd and sensible was
   that--be you as wise. God will have your head of you, no, your
   soul--but go yourself with it, submit yourself!

   After that evil May day in our English history when the apprentices had
   done so much mischief by destroying the foreigners' houses and burning
   them, in a riot, a commission sat to try them, and a number of them
   were summoned to the Guildhall. But when they appeared with ropes about
   their necks, confessing that they deserved to be hanged, a free pardon
   was accorded to very many of them. Come, poor Soul, the Lord will never
   swing you up if you will put the rope round your own neck. If you will
   bring your own head, He will never take it off your shoulders. Come
   just as you are, confess the wrong, and trust to the liberality of God
   in Jesus Christ and you shall not find Him condemning. You proud ones
   who are self-righteous will perish, but you who are humble, by trusting
   in Jesus, shall be saved!

   Yonder is a sinking ship! The vessel is going down rapidly, and I see
   two men equally anxious for life. One of them puts on his garments,
   heavy with gold lace. He loads himself with jewels. He fills his
   pockets with his gold and his silver, and leaps into the sea. You know
   what will become of him! He has weighted himself for destruction. But
   here is another who takes off not only such jewelry as he may have upon
   him, but he strips himself even to his last rag and then casts himself
   naked into the sea. If any man can swim, it is he.

   So you do the same, poor Soul! If you have a rag of self-righteousness,
   off with it! If you have anything whatever of your own to depend upon,
   off with it! And if any man can swim in the sea of Divine Love, you are
   the man! And, let me add, a naked spirit was never drowned there. Lay
   hold on Jesus with nothing of your own in your hands, and "you shall
   never perish, neither shall any man pluck you out of His hands." May
   God bless these words to us all for His love's sake. Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                        The Righteous Holding On His Way

   A sermon

   (No. 749)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MAY 12, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "The righteous also shall hold on his way."- Job 17:9.

   WE are thrice happy in having a goodly number of young beginners in our
   midst. Our springtide is cheered and beautified with many blossoms of
   hopeful converts. They have just begun to go on pilgrimage and would be
   as happy as the birds of the air were it not that some of them are
   grievously afflicted with the fear that they shall not hold out to the
   end. This is one of their daily torments, that, after all, they shall
   be false to Christ--that the Grace of God will fail them, or that they
   will fail to depend upon it--that having begun well they shall
   by-and-by be hindered and shall not obey the truth.

   Now, perhaps a little plain conversation upon that subject may help to
   relieve them of their fears. Ignorance about Divine Truth is not bliss
   and is not the friend to bliss--"the soul without knowledge is not
   good." The more we know concerning the doctrines of the Gospel the
   better for our comfort if by faith we are able to receive them. Many
   and many a doubt and fear now oppressing the people of God might be
   driven like chaff before the wind if they were but better established
   in the Truths of God relating to the points under their consideration.
   If they did but know more fully what God has revealed they would
   tremble less at what Satan suggests.

   It is, therefore, with the view of very simply talking about this
   matter of holding on the way of the heavenly pilgrimage that I have
   taken this text this morning. May God the Holy Spirit bless it to us.
   First, we intend to say, this morning, that the Believer must hold on
   his way--it is necessary that he should do so. Secondly, it is
   exceedingly difficult for him to do so--the perseverance of the saints
   is surrounded with enormous perils. Yet, thirdly, this perseverance is
   guaranteed by Divine promise. But, fourthly, it is only guaranteed to
   certain persons whose character is described in the text as being "the
   righteous." These shall hold on their way.

   I. First, then, it is absolutely essential to final salvation that we
   should be PARTICIPATORS IN FINAL PERSEVERANCE. It has been said by some
   that he who once believes is therefore saved. I shall not deny the
   truth of that statement--but it is an unguarded mode of speech-- and
   does not place the truth in the most Scriptural form. I would
   infinitely prefer to assert, that, "He who truly believes, shall by
   Divine Grace continue to do so, and therefore shall be saved."

   It is not true that, supposing a man did once believe and then became
   altogether an unbeliever, he should be saved. If that were possible,
   that the Believer should altogether fall from the Grace of God and
   become in all respects changed into an unbeliever, he would be damned.
   On this point the Word of God is very clear and decided--read the 24th
   verse of the 18th chapter of Ezekiel: "But when the righteous turns
   away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according
   to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All
   his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned: in his
   trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in
   them shall he die."

   If it were possible for one who had entered upon the way of
   righteousness--truly entered upon it--to turn from it, utterly and
   totally, the consequences must be his final destruction, for Paul tells
   us, "It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they
   crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open
   shame" (Heb. 6:4-6). That is not the point we raise at all in the
   discussion of final perseverance. We do not admit the possibility of
   total apostasy in the case of the real Believer in Jesus, but believe
   that he will hold on his way and so be saved, but only saved by being
   enabled to hold on his way.

   We hold that in order to ultimate salvation it is absolutely
   indispensable that everyone who is a Believer should continue to be a
   Believer-- that he who is made by Grace to be holy, should continue to
   be holy--that he in whom the Divine life is placed, should never lose
   that Divine life. It is the keeping of that life which we believe
   ultimately ends in perfection and everlasting bliss.

   1. The necessity of final perseverance is very clear if you look at the
   representation of the Believer in the Word of God. He is frequently
   compared to a traveler. And no traveler reaches his journey's end
   merely by starting upon the road. If it should be a journey of seven
   weeks' length, if he shall sit down after journeying six weeks, he
   certainly will not reach the goal of his desires. It is necessary, if I
   would reach a certain city, that I should go every mile of the road.
   One mile would not take me there, nor if the city were a 100 miles
   distant, would 99 miles bring me to its streets. I must journey all the
   length if I would reach the desired place.

   Frequently, in the New Testament, the Christian is compared to a
   runner--he runs in a race for a great prize. But it is not by merely
   starting. It is not by making a great spurt. It is not by distancing
   your rival for a little time and then pulling up to take a breath, or
   sauntering to either side of the road, that you will win the race! We
   must never stop till we have passed the finish line. There must be no
   loitering throughout the whole of the Christian career, but onward,
   like the Roman charioteer, with glowing wheels, we must fly more and
   more rapidly till we actually obtain the crown.

   The Christian is, sometimes, compared by the Apostle Paul, who somewhat
   delights to quote from the ancient games, to the Grecian wrestler or
   boxer. But it is of little use for the champion to give the foe one
   blow or one fall--he must continue in the combat until his adversary is
   beaten. Our spiritual foes will not be vanquished until we enter where
   the conquerors receive their crowns, and therefore we must continue in
   a

   fighting attitude. It is in vain for us to talk of what we have done or
   are doing just now--he that continues to the end, the same shall be
   saved-- and none but he.

   The Believer is commonly compared to a warrior. He is engaged in a
   great battle, a holy war. Like Joshua, he has to drive out the
   Canaan-ites that have chariots of iron, before be can fully take
   possession of his inheritance. But it is not the winning of one battle
   that makes a man a conqueror! No, though he should devastate one
   province of his enemy's territories, yet, if he should be driven out
   by-and-by, he is beaten in the campaign and it will yield him but small
   consolation to win a single battle, or even a dozen battles, if the
   campaign, as a whole, should end in his defeat.

   It is not commencing as though the whole world were to be cleared by
   one display of fire and sword, but continuing, going from strength to
   strength, from victory to victory, that makes the man the conqueror of
   his foe. The Christian is also called a disciple or scholar. And who
   does not know that the boy, by going to school for a day or two does
   not, therefore, become wise? If the lad should give himself most
   diligently to his grammar for six months, yet he will never become a
   linguist unless he shall continue perseveringly in his classic studies.

   The great mathematicians of our times did not acquire their science in
   a single year--they pressed forward with aching brow. They burnt the
   midnight oil and tortured their brains. They were not satisfied to
   rest, for they could never have become masters of their art if they had
   lingered on the road. The Believer is also called a builder, and you
   know of whom it was said, "This man began to build, but was not able to
   finish!" The digging out of the foundation is most important, and the
   building up of stone upon stone is to be carried on with diligence--but
   though the man should half finish the walls, or even complete them--yet
   if he does not roof in the structure, he becomes a laughing stock to
   every passer-by.

   A good beginning, it is said, is more than half. But a good ending is
   more than the whole. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.
   In every aspect of the Christian, continuance in faith and well-doing
   is essential to his safety--without a perpetual perseverance his
   profession is of no value. We will look at one more illustration and
   see this most clearly. Take that simple metaphor of wheat--of what
   value is the corn in the blade or even in the ear? What man can live
   upon the green blade or the half-formed ear?

   The joyous shout of the reaper is only evoked by the full corn in the
   ear, and you, young Believer, you, growing Christian, must press
   forward and ripen into the perfection of your Christian manhood, for it
   is only then that the shout of "Hallelujah," and "Glory to God," shall
   be fully heard. Take the Christian in any way in which God describes
   him, and he is one in whose ear is whispered the words, "Forward!
   Onward!" He is not one who can say, "I have attained." In a certain
   sense it is true he is saved, but as to his ultimate salvation--his
   perfection before the Throne of God can only be worked in him by the
   continual, sustained, and abiding work of the Holy Spirit.

   2. But the fact that final perseverance is absolutely necessary is also
   clear if you, for a moment, take into consideration the nature of the
   case and suppose that the man did not persevere. Imagine a man who
   started with sincere simple faith in Christ, and with a new heart, and
   a right spirit. Imagine him to have gone back to the world--can you
   suppose that he will enter Heaven? He has deserted good for evil. He
   has shut his eyes to the light and gone back to the darkness from which
   he professed to have escaped. He has, not ignorantly, but knowingly and
   deliberately quenched within his soul the spark of heavenly flame.

   He knew that the road led to Hell, and he turned from it. He knew that
   the other path led to Heaven, and he ran in it--but after awhile he
   tired, he fainted, and he deliberately set his face Hell-ward and gave
   up eternal life, pawning and throwing it away like Esau for a mess of
   pottage! Do you think it could be said otherwise of him than it was of
   that selfsame profane Esau, that he found no place for repentance,
   though he sought, sought it diligently and with tears? For this man,
   you see, has denied the Lord that bought him! He said he rested on
   Christ and depended on His precious blood. But he deliberately denies
   the faith, deliberately returns either to the beggarly elements of his
   own self-righteousness to rest under the Law, or else to plunge again
   into open sin, and follow the devices of his flesh.

   What shall be said of this man, but that his last end shall be worse
   than the first? Enter Heaven? How can it be? It is the place of the
   perfect, and this man, so far from being perfect, does not even press
   towards it! He has turned aside from perfection, he has given up
   everything which constituted him a partaker of the inheritance of the
   saints in light! He has, after being illuminated, gone back to
   darkness--after being quickened, has gone back to the tomb! What
   remains for him? Take the case into consideration, and you will see at
   once the impossibility of a non-persevering Christian entering into
   Heaven.

   3. Thirdly, I must strengthen that consideration by reminding you that
   we have very express declarations in Scripture about professors, and
   about Believers, too, if such could be, who do not persevere. Do you
   not recollect the Savior's words, "No man, having put his hand to the
   plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God"? (Luke 9:62). Do
   you not remember that terrible sentence about the salt, "Salt is good:
   but if the salt has lost his savor, with what shall it be seasoned? It
   is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it
   out"? To the same effect is that fearful warning, "Remember Lot's
   wife!" She came out of the city of destruction, but she looked back,
   and became a pillar of salt as an everlasting warning to us against so
   much as the thought and look of apostasy.

   Then comes in that warning where we are told concerning some, that it
   is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, and that word of
   Paul, "For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it,
   and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives
   blessing from God: but that which bears thorns and briars is rejected,
   and is near unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."

   And that of Peter, in his second Epistle, and second chapter: "For if
   after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the
   knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
   therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
   beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
   righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
   commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according
   to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the
   sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

   Supposing a man, then, to have been washed in the blood of Jesus, to be
   quickened of the Spirit of God--supposing him to have gone back and to
   have entirely and totally lost all Divine Grace. He would be the
   hopeless man, beyond the reach of mercy, damned while yet living, a
   living Hell even in the midst of this world! O Beloved, how necessary,
   then, is it that the Christian should persevere and hold on even to the
   end!

   4. I would have you observe the form of many of the promises, and as we
   have little time this morning, I ask you to read the second and third
   chapters of the Book of Revelation. There are some very choice promises
   made to the seven Churches, and they are all put in this shape, "To him
   that overcomes will I give," and so on. Not to him that begins the
   fight. Not to him that buckles on his harness. Not to him that
   proclaims war, but "to him that overcomes will I give." The promises
   are reserved for such, and you know how, in contradistinction to such
   promises, it is written, "If any man draw back, My soul shall have no
   pleasure in him."

   Brethren, before I leave this subject this morning, there is something
   which I wish to press upon your minds. It is not very pleasant, but it
   is necessary for us to hear it. Let me remind you of some whom you
   yourselves have known who did appear to be among the most gracious and
   excellent of the earth. Those who are at this moment so far cast off as
   to have become entirely forgetful even of the outward forms of
   religion, and have gone aside, by fearful sins, we fear, into
   perdition!

   That, mark you, has happened in some cases after many years of
   profession--the vessel has been wrecked at the harbor's mouth! The fire
   of religious excitement burned all day, at least, so they said (we do
   not search hearts), and it went out at night, just when it was most
   required, when the chamber, the chill, cold chamber, most needed the
   genial flame. Doubtless John was right when he said, "They went out
   from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they
   would no doubt have continued with us."

   What a dreadful thing, not to persevere, and yet to have had the name
   of a Christian! When a man goes up a ladder, if he shall fall at the
   first step, that is bad. But if he shall fall when he has nearly
   reached the top, what a falling is there! God save us from it! If ever
   I prayed in my life, I think I did this morning when we were singing
   those words, "Let us not fall! Let us not fall!" Oh, to fall backward
   into perdition is the worst way of falling into Hell! Christian, it is
   not with you that you may persevere or not--it is not an optional
   blessing--you must persevere or else all you have ever known and felt
   will be good for nothing. You must hold on your way if you are
   ultimately to be saved.

   Let me here say, and I leave the point, that I do not assert that a
   Christian must daily make progress in Divine Grace. He ought to do so.
   He should do so--but even if he should not do so, he will not be cast
   away for that. Neither do I assert that a Christian should always be
   conscious that he is in the way, for many of the best of God's saints
   are tormented with many doubts and fears. Nor do I say that every
   departure from the way of God is inevitably fatal--far from it, for
   many have departed for a season--and have been brought back and
   restored as penitent backsliders.

   Christian went down By-path meadow, and yet returned to the right road.
   That is a very different case from Demas, who forsook the way to dig in
   the silver mine and perished in it. The general current of the soul,
   however, must be onward--the general current and tendency of the
   Believer must be in the way of Truth--both as to his heart and his
   life. And if it is not so, whatever boasts he may make about his
   faith-- whatever experiences he may think he has had--if he does not
   hold out to the end, there is no salvation, no Heaven, no bliss for
   him.

   II. Secondly, it is possible that I may plunge thoughtful minds into
   deeper gloom, still, while I remind you that while final perseverance
   is necessary, IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. The way itself renders it so.
   The way to Heaven is no smooth-shaven lawn, no well-rolled gravel
   path--it is a rough road, up-hill, down dale, across rivers and over
   mountains. He that would get to Heaven must have the spirit of
   Hannibal, who, when he led his troops over the Alps, said, "I will
   either find a way, or I will make one." You will need all the fortitude
   that Divine Grace, itself, can give you in order to reach, along such a
   road, the city of your desire.

   Moreover, the road is long. It is a life-long road. To keep near to God
   by the space of a week is not the easiest thing conceivable. To deny
   one's passions, to overcome one's evil desires for the space of a month
   might be difficult, but this is for life--we shall not be able to lay
   down this charge till we lay down our bodies! Here we stand upon our
   watchtower, not by day alone, though the hot noontide might make us
   faint, but until the evening star arises, and onward through the dark
   night till the gleams of morning come! And so, day after day, from the
   first childhood of our spiritual existence until we have matured into a
   ripe old age, it is watching, watching continually, and laboring and
   pressing forward.

   My Brothers and Sisters, I do not know how it is with some of you, but
   I feel this and must confess it, that in the early part of our
   Christian career there is a freshness and a novelty about everything
   which enables us to travel readily. But after awhile--there is no
   monotony, it is true, except in ourselves--but it begins to be heavy
   work to hold on in the ways of the Lord. It ought not to be so, but,
   alas, it is so! And we have to cry to the Strong for strength that we
   may be renewed, or else the length of the way would wear us out.

   Besides that, the road is so contrary to fallen nature! It is a way
   offaith. If it were a way of sight, one might walk in it easily, but it
   is a way of faith from the beginning to the end! "The just live by
   faith"--not a way of sensible comforts, not always a way of joyful
   experiences--but frequently a path of deep tribulation, solemn
   heart-searching, bitterness, and of gall. It is a way outside the camp
   where none can sympathize with you. It is a way of scourging and of
   flagellation even from the hand of the great Father Himself who hides
   Himself from us for a season. It is a way so contrary to flesh and
   blood that he who holds out in it has received power from on High, and
   has the Holy Spirit within him!

   God Himself must dwell in a persevering Christian's heart! The Hebrew
   word for hold on in the text is very expressive. It signifies to hold
   with strength, to hold toughly, to hold as with the teeth, resolving
   never to let go, but ever to go on. Beloved, we must hold on with tooth
   and nail! If we cannot run, we must walk. If we cannot walk, we must
   clamber on hands and knees up the hill. And if we cannot even do this,
   we must stand fast! All Christians who have had any experience of
   Divine life will say that from the way itself it is no easy thing to
   continue in it.

   Then, take into consideration, in the next place, as to our
   difficulties, our flesh--that heavy load which we have to take along
   this weary way. We have constitutional sins, any one of which, if left
   unwatched for a little season, would cause us to make shipwreck of our
   faith! Some of us are constitutionally idle, we would scarcely do
   anything unless the solemn obligation of duty compelled us. Others are
   constitutionally angry--quick tempered--and for them to become like
   little children (which they must do if they would be saved) is no easy
   task.

   Some, I know, are naturally desponding. Their eyes have always a blue
   tinge, everything looks blue as they look abroad, and it is not so easy
   for them to trust in the Lord and do good, waiting patiently for the
   Lord's appearing. These natural infirmities and weaknesses of ours
   render it hard to drag our flesh along the road to Heaven. Besides
   this, who does not know that he bears a cage of unclean birds within
   himself? If my pas-

   sions were all naturally on God's side, and would, without Grace, run
   towards Heaven, then there might be no difficulty in holding on the
   way. But, alas, the whole of our nature, when let alone, strains and
   tugs to go back to the land of Egypt!

   And sometimes it seems as if our baser passions would get the victory
   and compel us to wear, once more, the galling yoke, and to fret under
   the fierce bondage of the Pharaoh of Hell. It must not be, it shall not
   be! But, O God, save me from that evil man, myself. "O wretched man
   that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Paul said
   so, and we have often had to say it. And when living nearest to God, we
   have had to groan most over indwelling sin! Besides our flesh, however,
   my Brothers and Sisters, we are all conscious of other foes in our way
   to Heaven. For instance, there is the world. Can you mix with it and
   obtain from it any quickening in the spiritual life?

   You are compelled to mix in it. Your business calls you. Common society
   demands of you that you should, in some measure, mix with the world,
   for if you are not to speak to sinners, you must go out of the world
   altogether. But is it not hard work, after a week, perhaps, of toil
   with ungodly, blaspheming workmen, to come up to the House of God with
   the mind quite calm? To be in business with its worries, and its cares,
   and in the world with its customs, and its maxims, and still to be a
   child of God is not easy!

   Ah, you must be a child of God, indeed, to remain true in such a world
   as this! Sometimes the world persecutes the Christian. And it is not
   always the easiest thing to fight with old Giant Grim and keep the
   middle of the way and overcome him. Then there is that Vanity Fair, and
   he is a man, indeed, who can turn a deaf ear to all that crying, "Buy,
   buy, buy!" Worst of all there is Madam Bubble with her sweet speech,
   and her words softer than butter, while inwardly they are drawn swords.
   You know how Mr. Standfast had to take to his knees before he could get
   rid of that old witch when she offered him all sorts of delights,
   having caught him just in the frame for it, when he said he was as poor
   as an owlet, and weary and faint. Then it was she offered him all that
   is fleshly and pleasant--only tears and prayers got him out of that
   difficulty. "The righteous shall hold on his way." O God, You have said
   it, but if You had not said so, we should have declared that in such a
   world as this it would be impossible for a Christian, through a life of
   trial, to maintain his integrity!

   Then there is the devil. We put him last, for he is the most terrible
   foe. When he stretches his feet across the middle of the way and swears
   that he will spill our souls and we shall go no farther. When he brings
   the past up and tells us of our unfaithfulness. When he insinuates that
   there is no hereafter, that there is no Heaven, and that our faith is
   all a foolish invention, and an old wives' fable. And then when he
   holds out present enjoyment and present gain and tells us that if we do
   not get these we shall have nothing--and hisses out the accusation that
   we are hypocrites, and I know not what--ah, then, unless we carry the
   true Jerusalem blade of the Word of God, and have the Grace of God to
   nerve our arm while we wield that sword of the Spirit, we shall not be
   "more than conquerors," but die on the road!

   It is difficult for us to persevere for awhile, but it is difficult in
   the extreme to do so to the end. To get to Heaven is no child's work.
   He that gets there will have to fight for every inch of the road. And
   when he gets there, oh, how he will clap his hands as he looks back
   upon the danger! How he will shout with them that triumph when he once
   finds himself emancipated from 10,000 dangers, and "with God eternally
   shut in."

   III. Thirdly, and, I trust, most comforting to our souls, the
   PERSEVERANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN IS GUARANTEED. Would you

   prefer to hear one or two of the passages of Scripture read which
   guarantee the perseverance of Believers? I have little time this
   morning, but here is one, the 32nd chapter of Jeremiah, 40th verse:
   "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not
   turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear into their
   hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."

   There is a double blessing--God will not depart from His people--His
   people shall not depart from Him. Thus doubly are they kept by Divine
   Grace. Our Savior's words in the sixth chapter of John, at the 39th and
   40th verses, are sweetly to the same import: "This is the Father's
   which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose
   nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the
   will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son, and
   believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at
   the last day."

   You know that memorable passage a little farther on--the 10th chapter
   of John, 28th and 29th verses: "And I give unto them eternal life; and
   they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My
   hand. My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man
   is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." If more were needed,
   you might turn to that inexpressibly precious passage in the eighth
   chapter of Romans, where, towards the close, the Apostle, having
   challenged Heaven, and earth, and Hell, to condemn the Believer, says,
   "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
   principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
   height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
   from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

   The beloved Apostle John, to quote from him once more, has told us in
   the 19th verse of the second chapter of his first Epistle, "They went
   out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they
   would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out that they
   might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But you have an
   unction from the Holy One, and you know all things."

   These are just a handful of texts, and a mere handful from a vast mass.
   So clear is the doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints that I
   venture to assert boldly that if the Bible does not teach it, it does
   not teach anything at all! If that is not a clear doctrine of
   Revelation, then neither is the doctrine of the Deity of Christ, nor,
   indeed, any doctrine, and the Bible must be a mere wax nose, to be
   molded according to our will.

   But, Beloved, there are these considerations which make the
   perseverance of the Christian certain to us. Unless the Christian shall
   persevere, the eternal purpose of God will be defeated! For from the
   beginning God has chosen His people unto holiness, to be set apart for
   His service, to be purified by His Grace that they may be presented at
   last without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. If Believers do not
   persevere, we have shown that they must perish as other apostates do!
   Therefore, since the purpose of God for the sanctification and safety
   of His chosen cannot be frustrated, and the design of the Most High
   stands fast, we believe that the righteous shall hold on his way.

   In addition to this, the work of Jesus Christ would be of no use unless
   the blood-washed held on their way. The Lord Jesus has redeemed His
   people from among men! But, if, though they have been redeemed, they
   should not persevere unto the end they would perish--then it would
   follow that Christ shed His blood in vain! Then He bought those whom He
   will never have! He suffered for the sins of men who afterwards have to
   suffer for their own sins--which always seems to us to be a supposition
   filled with blasphemous impossibility--that Christ should be a Surety
   for men's sins, and be punished in their place, and yet those men
   should be punished for the sins which were laid upon their Scapegoat!

   Such must be emphatically the case, Brethren, unless those who are
   redeemed by blood persevere to the end. Jesus has evidently taken their
   sins, and taken them in vain and suffered for them in vain. He has been
   their Substitute, and yet these men perish! Moreover, through the
   righteousness of Christ, Believers are justified--they are declared to
   be no longer under the Law. But if they do not persevere in holiness,
   they perish! How can he perish who is justified? How shall he be
   condemned who is not under the Law, and consequently has no Law which
   can condemn him? The thing becomes impossible! We are involved in a
   mesh of difficulties, a labyrinth from which we cannot escape if we
   suppose it to be possible for a saint to finally fall from Grace.

   Moreover, all true Believers are one with Christ. They are married to
   Him. Shall Christ lose His spouse? They are members of His body-- they
   are declared to be parts of Himself! And shall Christ be dismembered?
   Shall He be a dislocated, disjointed, broken-up humanity? No! The
   Church is His fullness--the fullness of Him that fills all in all. If
   Jesus saves not His Church, He is not a perfect Christ--He is a maimed
   and wounded Savior! My Brothers and Sisters, the Lord Jesus Christ has
   gone to Heaven as our Representative--He represents every Believer.
   Does He represent those who shall ultimately be cast into Hell? Has He
   gone to prepare a place for Believers? Yes! Then they shall have the
   place prepared for them, for otherwise the places will be prepared, but
   the people will not come.

   Has he not said that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come
   unto God by Him? How, then, shall it be possible for those who have
   come to God by Him to perish, seeing He ever lives to make intercession
   for them? Paul uses an overwhelming argument which I cannot this
   morning open up in full, but it has a triple power about it. "If," said
   he, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of
   His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
   If when we were enemies, without a thought towards God, He reconciled
   us, much more will He save us now that we are His children!

   If we were reconciled, much more shall we be saved, which is by far the
   least difficult work of the two! And if the death of Christ sufficed to
   reconcile us, what shall not the life of the Glorious, Immortal Savior
   do? Surely if the death has done so much, the life shall do yet more,
   and it shall be true as it is written, "Because I live, you shall live
   also." Further, my Brethren, as we have spoken of the Father and of the
   Son, there is the Holy Spirit's work to be taken into consideration. He
   dwells in us! Shall He be expelled? It is written that we are the
   temples of the Holy Spirit--shall the temples of the Holy Spirit become
   like the temples of Jove or of Saturn? Shall they be given up to the
   moles and the bats, degraded and defiled? God forbid!

   He that dwells there will drive out the foe and maintain a shrine for
   Himself in purity. The Holy Spirit has begun to sanctify us. Will He
   begin and not conclude? Shall the Holy Spirit be defeated by the devil
   and the flesh? Shall the banner of the devil be hung in Satan's hall
   because he has overcome the elect? Beloved, God gave the victory to
   Satan for a moment in the garden of Eden, but with the determination to
   win it from him. And He has bound captivity captive, and there shall be
   none of the spoils of the elect left in the hands of the enemy. God
   shall be conqueror all through the campaign--and at the last the Spirit
   shall not be defeated in a single heart where He came to dwell!

   Let us rejoice, then, that when we consider the work of the Father,
   Son, and Holy Spirit, it does seem impossible that the righteous should
   be lost. They must, therefore, hold on their way. Beloved, let us fall
   back upon this Truth of God in our times of worst discouragement. And
   if any say, "This is not a practical truth, but calculated to lull us
   into slumber," let us prove, by our activity, that they err, not
   knowing the Truth of God. I can never conceive that it dispirits the
   soldier, when he is fighting, to tell him that he must win the victory!

   This is what Cromwell's ironsides said when they saw the great general
   riding along the ranks, "'Tis he!" they said, "'tis he!" They felt the
   victory was sure where Cromwell was, and like thunderbolts they dashed
   upon their enemies until, as thin clouds before the tempest, the foemen
   flew apace. The certainty of victory gives strength to the arm that
   wields the sword. To say to the Christian you shall persevere till you
   get to the journey's end--will that make him sit down on the next
   mile-stone? No! He will climb the mountain, wiping the sweat from his
   brow! And as he looks upon the plain he will descend with surer and
   more cautious footsteps, because he knows he shall reach the journey's
   end.

   God will speed the ship over the waves into the desired haven--will the
   conviction of that on the part of the captain make him neglect the
   vessel? Yes, if he is a fool! But if he is a man in his wits, the very
   certainty that he shall cross the deep will only strengthen him in time
   of storm to do what he would not have dreamt of doing if he had been
   afraid the vessel would be cast away. Brothers and Sisters, let this
   doctrine impel us to a holy ardency of watchfulness, and may the Lord
   bless us and enable us to persevere to the end.

   IV. Lastly, PERSEVERANCE IS GUARANTEED, BUT NOT TO EVERYBODY. There are
   some here who are not believers in Christ. A text rose up last night
   out of the Bible and struck me very painfully. I was afraid, as I read
   it, that some of you would persevere to the end and would go to Hell,
   for I read these words, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still." I
   wondered whether Christ would say that of some of you. I am afraid for
   you. You have been warned. You have heard the Gospel. You have been
   entreated to wash in the Fountain but you will not come. You have put
   off many and many a stroke of conscience, and said, "Go your way. When
   I have a more convenient season I will send for you."

   Now, mind, mind lest Christ should say, "Let him alone. He is unjust,
   let him be unjust still. He is prayerless, let him be prayerless still.
   He never feels the Word, let him be unfeeling still. He is a tearless,
   Christless soul--he shall be so forever." God forbid it! Do not any of
   you who are in that case go home and talk about the comfortable
   doctrine I have preached! If it is nothing to you, you are like the
   poor shivering outcast in the street who sees Christmas festivities
   through the window in which he has no share.

   Go home, and God break your heart over this! May God cause you to mourn
   that there is no gracious perseverance for you, because you have no
   Grace to persevere in! And that if you persevere in the road you are
   now in, it will only be to keep to the road of destruction that will at
   last end in the dreadful terminus of Hell-fire. There are, on the other
   hand, some of you who have made a profession of faith. It may be these
   hands baptized you in the name of the Lord Jesus, in this pool beneath.
   Ah, well, Christ has not said that you shall all persevere. Perhaps you
   made a profession merely to please parents, or friends, or to do what
   seemed to be a custom with others.

   Perhaps you never had a deep sense of sin. Perhaps you never did rest
   in Christ. I pray God that you may not persevere, but may repent and
   begin anew! Do not say, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. Come
   as a poor sinner to Christ and you will never be cast away! But it you

   merely make a profession of a notional religion that you have in your
   head, and not in your heart, it will be all ill with you at the last.
   You will be like the plant which had not much earth--when the sun
   arose, the root was scorched and the plant withered away.

   May God give you Grace--may you be deeply rooted with Divine Grace in
   your heart. But it is to you who have faith in God--it is to you that
   this final perseverance is promised! And I ask you to come this morning
   and take it. "How," you say, "shall I take it?" Why, come to Jesus just
   as you did when you first came! That is the true final perseverance--to
   come always to Christ, having nothing in self, but having all in Him! I
   hope you and I feel, this morning, that the sweet verse of Toplady
   still fits our case--

   "Nothing in my hand I bring--

   Simply to Your Cross I cling.

   Naked, come to You for dress.

   Helpless, look to You for Grace.

   Foul, I to the Fountain fly--

   Wash me, Savior, or I die."

   Keep to that, never get an inch beyond that. Stand at the foot of the
   Cross and view the sin-atoning blood! Rest there living! Rest there
   dying! And then when your spirit mounts to Heaven, may your last song
   be of being washed in blood. And in Heaven may it be said of you as of
   your fellow sinners, "They have washed their robes, and made them white
   in the blood of the Lamb." The Lord bless you and keep you, and cause
   His face to shine upon you, and give you peace. Amen and Amen!
     __________________________________________________________________

                              A Triumphal Entrance

   A sermon

   (No. 750)

   Delivered on Thursday Evening, DECEMBER 13, 1866, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift them up, you everlasting doors!
   And the King of glory shall come in."- Psalm 24:9.

   ON Monday evening we expounded this Psalm. We then enlarged upon the
   glorious ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and His triumphal entrance
   within the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, to which we believe this
   verse is to be referred. Having on that occasion endeavored to set
   forth the literal and proper meaning of the words, amplifying them at
   some length, we trust we may be permitted to use them tonight rather by
   way of accommodation while we speak on quite another subject, and give
   a different turn to the flow of our thoughts. Not that we wish to
   supersede the natural sense of the prophetic song, although we think
   that without violence, and even with profit, we may borrow a sentence
   from it to point a moral of practical godliness.

   It is worthy of observation that the Scotch commentator, Dixon, gives
   what I am about to suggest to you as the true meaning of the text, as
   also do some one or two other authors, to say nothing of our hymn
   writers who claim poetical license for the boldness of their
   paraphrases. I should myself very strongly object to tamper with the
   literal sense. The allusion of the Psalmist, no doubt, is primarily to
   the ascension of the Ark of the Covenant into Mount Zion, where it was
   permanently to be lodged, and that historical fact was a type of the
   ascension of Christ into the Jerusalem which is above, where He sits as
   the Representative of His people. Let the meaning be fully understood
   and admitted, then we shall feel at liberty to use the words we here
   find for certain practical purposes.

   Give ear then, dear Friends, to the doctrine which I am anxious to set
   before you. The Lord Jesus Christ, in order to our salvation, must not
   only enter into Heaven but He must enter into our hearts. He must not
   only sprinkle the blood within the veil, but He must sprinkle the blood
   within our conscience. All that Christ has done for us will be of no
   use unless there shall be a great work done in us. It is not only
   Christ on the Cross who is our hope, but "Christ in you," says the
   Apostle, "the hope of glory.

   At the time of conversion, Jesus Christ enters into the soul, and it is
   by such a triumphant entrance, when His Word comes into our hearts,
   that we get the personal knowledge of salvation.

   I. First, then, THE GREAT THING TO BE DESIRED BY EACH OF US IS THE
   ENTRANCE OF THE KING OF GLORY INTO OUR SOULS. Brethren, what if I
   should say that Heaven would not be Heaven without this? Certainly
   there would be no happiness here on earth, no Heaven below to any one
   of us unless we had Christ in our hearts!

   There is nothing but mischief in man's heart when Christ is not there
   and another lord usurps dominion over Him. In vain is the Gospel
   preached to any one of the sons of men so long as they, like the strong
   man armed, keep the gates of the castle of their heart. The eyes of the
   understanding are blind to the way of peace. Until Christ shall come
   and take that castle by storm, there is no doing anything for that
   man--the spirit that works in him is the "spirit that works in the
   children of disobedience"--he is deceived by Satan and made a willing
   slave to that tyrant of evil.

   What you need, Sinner, for your salvation, is that Christ should come
   unto you, for if He should come unto you, then that dead soul of yours
   would live. His Presence is life. He quickens whom He will. In Him was
   life, and the life was the light of men. When He comes into a soul,
   spiritual life is there. The sinner wakes up to consciousness and rises
   from the grave over the mouth of which his reckless indifference, like
   a great stone, has been rolled, and he cries, "What must I do to be
   saved?" When Christ comes into the heart, sin is seen to be sinful. In
   the light of the Cross man begins to repent. He sees that his sin has
   slain the Savior, and he loathes it. He now seeks to be delivered both
   from its guilt and from its power.

   The coming of Christ does that. It takes away the guilt of man. Christ
   in the heart, revealed to the soul, speaks peace to the troubled
   conscience. We look to Him and are lightened, and our faces are not
   ashamed. We see the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness in
   Christ. Here we wash and are made clean--as for the reigning power of
   sin, nothing can ever conquer that but the incoming of Christ. If a man
   serves an evil master, the only way of getting rid of that hated despot
   is to bring in the rival Sovereign. "No man can serve two masters." The
   introduction of the King of Glory, Christ Jesus, is the sure way of
   casting out that old master, Satan, the prince of the power of the air.

   When the Lord Jesus comes, bringing life, and light, and pardon, He
   puts down the power of sin and every blessing comes in His train. Oh,
   when Christ rides through the streets of our souls they are strewn with
   flowers of hope and joy! Then we hang out the streamers of our sacred
   bliss! We sing of His praise! We are ready to dance before Him for holy
   mirth! Then straightway we love purity and seek for perfection! Then we
   adore the living God whom we had before forgotten, but of whom we can
   now say, "Our Father who are in Heaven." We receive the spirit of
   adoption to which we had been strangers before!

   Then, as soon as Christ has entered our heart, our course is
   heavenward--our way is towards our Father's face, whereas before, with
   our backs to the Sun of Righteousness--we wandered into denser gloom.
   And we would have found our way into outer darkness where there is
   weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. O Sinner, if you could but
   get Christ into your heart, you would say, "I have all things, and
   abound. I

   am full!" But until then you will be naked and poor, and miserable. Or
   if you are, indeed, a living soul, you will be uneasy and dissatisfied
   until Christ has entered into you with all His glorious train, His
   Spirit and His Word. You will be like a house without a tenant, cold,
   cheerless, dilapidated, desolate. Your heart will be as a nest without
   a bird--a poor, sad thing! You will be like a body without the soul
   that quickens it.

   But if Jesus comes, He will make a man of you after another sort than
   that frail image which your father Adam bequeathed you. He will make
   you new in the image of Him who created you. "Behold, I make all things
   new," He says. Oh, you cannot tell the influences of His scepter when
   He sits upon the throne of the heart! You cannot tell what showers of
   mercy, what streams of benediction, what mountains of joy, and hills of
   happiness shall be yours when Jesus comes and reigns in your soul!

   This, then, is the great business that we ought to see to--that Jesus
   Christ should come unto us--not merely that we should hear of Him with
   the ear, or talk of Him with the tongue, but that we should have Him as
   a priest before the altar, as a king upon the throne of our heart, the
   chief and highest in the reverence and the affection of our inmost
   soul.

   II. Secondly, THERE ARE IMPEDIMENTS TO CHRIST THUS COMING INTO OUR
   HEARTS. The text speaks, you notice, about "doors" and "gates." Surely,
   if there were doors and gates that needed to be lifted up before Christ
   could enter into Heaven, much more are there doors and gates that must
   be opened to receive Him into our hearts! Remember that when Jesus
   Christ went up into Heaven, the doors were lifted up, and the gates
   were opened, and they have never been shut since.

   There is no passage that says, "Down with your heads, you gates, and be
   you fast closed, you everlasting doors!" Not a word of that sort.
   Heaven's gates are open wide. What, then, is shut? Why, the gate of the
   human soul, the door of the human heart. There are many gates and
   doors, bars of iron, and bolts of triple steel that stand in the way of
   Christ. Sometimes it is our wicked prejudice. We do not want to know
   the Gospel. We are confirmed in our own self-righteousness, or we hold
   the traditions of our fathers who trusted in some outward forms and
   ceremonies. We do not want to know Christ.

   Perhaps the very name of the preacher of the Gospel is hateful to us,
   and the name of the place where Christ is lifted up is detestable to
   us. What a blessing it is to us when these gates of prejudice are taken
   away, and the hearing ear is given, and the soul pants to know what
   this Gospel is! Alas, though, it too often happens that when prejudice
   is removed, there then remains the gate of depravity--our love of sin
   is a strong barrier. We should soon have hailed Christ were it not that
   we had harbored an old foe of His. We do not care to give up our former
   love to lay hold of the true Bridegroom of men's souls.

   The great difficulty in the way of sinners getting to Heaven is that
   they love sin better than they love their souls. A little drink, a
   little merriment, a favorite lust, a Sunday holiday--any of these
   trifling joys, these groveling husks that are only fit for swine--will
   keep souls from Christ and prevent their laying hold of eternal life.
   Man loves his own ruin! The cup is so sweet, that though he knows it
   will poison him, yet he must drink it! And the harlot is so fair, that
   though he understands that her ways lead down to Hell, yet like a bull
   he follows to the slaughter till the dart goes through his liver! Man
   is fascinated and bewitched by sin. He will not give up the insidious
   pleasures which are but for a season, and to gain them he will run the
   risk of the everlasting ruin of his undying soul. Oh, when God takes
   away the love of sin, then the gates are lifted up and the doors are
   opened. What is there that could prevent our welcoming Christ if we did
   but hate our sins?

   Another great door is our love of self-righteousness. Though I have
   spoken of the love of sin as the strongest door, ought I not to correct
   myself, and say that, perhaps, the love of our own righteousness is a
   stronger door still? Men may give up their grosser sins while they will
   hold fast to their fair, but carnal righteousnesses. Yet your own
   righteousness will as certainly destroy you as your iniquities. If you
   rest upon what you have done, however good in your own eyes, or however
   praiseworthy in the esteem of your fellow men that doing may be, you
   rest on a foundation that will certainly fail you. Your merits or your
   demerits are alike useless for salvation. God grant that we may no
   longer boast of ourselves, but put away the Pharisee's pride and never
   utter the Pharisee's prayer. The doors must be lifted up.

   Then, again, there is that door which I may call the iron gate that
   enters into the city, the innermost door of all, the key of which it
   is, indeed, hard to turn--the door of unbelief. Oh, that unbelief! It
   is the ruin of souls, and ah, what trouble, and labor, and anxiety it
   gives to us who are ministers of the Gospel! When talking with anxious
   enquirers we are often amazed at the ingenuity with which they resist
   the entrance of Light and Truth into their hearts. I do not think I
   have ever been so much astonished at the invention of locomotive
   engines, electric telegraphs, or any other feats of human mechanism as
   I have been at the marvelous ingenuity of simple people in finding out
   reasons why they should not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!

   After we have proved to them to a demonstration that it is both the
   most reasonable and the fit thing in the world to trust themselves with
   Christ, they ask, "Why this?" Or, "Why that?" Or they argue, "But one
   thing, and but another." We may patiently go through the whole process
   again, and even when that is done there comes another, "but." I have
   hunted these people till they have got to their holes, and I have tried
   to dig them out, and unearth them, but I find that they can always
   burrow faster than I can follow them. It is only the Grace of God that
   can deliver us from this ruinous thing, unbelief!

   You would count it a strange thing, if, when a man condemned to be
   hanged had a pardon presented to him, he were so ingenious as to find
   out reasons why he should not escape the gallows! And when these
   reasons were all refuted, their fallacy exposed, and the good tidings
   confirmed, he should keep on finding out more reasons why the sentence
   of execution should be carried into effect! You would say, "Why,
   foolish man, let these sophistries alone. Put your wits to better use.
   Get your liberty first, and then enquire into the manner it was
   procured afterwards." Men will not take God at His word, and trust
   Christ at His call. That great doctrine of, "Believe and live," they
   will reject.

   Still, still they will object! O that these gates and doors were all
   removed! Do not, I beseech you, my dear Hearers, do not let me talk
   about this matter as though I were speaking to people on the moon. It
   is into your own hearts that admission is sought, and remember that
   there are doors which keep Christ out. There are gates and doors which
   some of you willfully close against Him. Though in His stead I have
   stood these many Sundays knocking as best I could at the door--no, not
   I, but Christ knocking there through me--you have resisted every
   appeal. You know that His head is wet with dew and His locks with the
   drops of the night, yet you have kept these doors fastened still.

   They have shaken sometimes a good deal. They have almost seemed to me
   as if they were on the jar--I have hastened to see if I could not put
   my finger in at the hole of the door--but could not do so. I wish my
   Master would! How is it that with such a Friend outside, standing there
   in such a lovely attitude, laden with blessings, and ready to enter
   that He may bless you--how is it that still you will invent further
   bars, and make fresh locks to keep Him out?

   III. Our third point is this--IN ORDER FOR CHRIST TO ENTRER WE MUST BE
   WILLING TO REMOVE THESE BOLTS. You will notice that the text says,
   "Lift up your heads, O you gates," as if the gates were to lift their
   own heads up. It is addressed to them as though they were to get out of
   the way. Continually, dear Friends, I have to tell you that salvation
   is by Divine Grace--emphatically I shall have to impress this upon you
   presently. Yet, at the same time, we never did say, and we hope we
   never shall say that we see no necessity to make any appeals to your
   will.

   We never said that God would save you against your will. We never
   thought so. We never believed that a man was plunged into the blood of
   Jesus Christ if he was unwilling to be washed in it. We never believed
   that a man had the robe of righteousness put on him by force, he,
   meanwhile, resisting with all his might. We never believed that there
   were pilgrims on the road to Heaven who went there driven like convicts
   in the chain gang, instead of marching willingly and cheerfully towards
   their desired rest. We never meant to say that you were mere machines
   whom God had deprived of free agency, or that in order to make you
   saints He made you blocks of wood or pieces of marble.

   No! We have been in the habit of addressing you as reasonable beings,
   and of talking to you as those who had a will to choose or to refuse.
   We have tried, with the motives of the Gospel, to influence that will.
   Let us remind you that the gates are bid to lift up their
   heads--therefore, in God's name, Sinner, be willing! Be willing that
   Christ should enter into your heart, for, remember, He never does enter
   against our will. He makes us willing in the day of His power, but
   willing we must be. True, willingness is His gift, but we are made
   willing. In the case of every soul that comes to Christ there is first
   given to him the willing mind.

   "Oh!" says one, "I am willing enough!" Thank God for that, dear Hearer,
   for the most of men will not come unto Him that they may have life.
   "Oh!" says another, "I am sure my will is good to come to Christ!" I am
   glad to hear that, for there is a question we have often to ask, "Will
   you be made whole?" But there are some men who do not want to be made
   whole, and would rather hobble on their crutches, cripples as they are!
   They would rather indulge their inclination as sinners than be purified
   and brought into the obedience of faith.

   Among those I address tonight there may be individuals, perhaps, who
   would not like to have their conscience touched. Here is one man who is
   making money in a bad trade. "Oh," he says, "I do not want that
   preacher to make me uneasy!" There is another man here who has been
   getting so used to his sinful pleasures that it would now be
   inconvenient for him to give them up. He has even made an appointment
   that he feels he must keep, and if he were apprehensive that the Grace
   of God might come and overtake him tonight, he feels as if he would
   rather not. Do not be frightened! It will not occur to you, for the
   Lord will first give you this premonition of His intending to bless
   you. He will make you long to be blessed. Before He puts that cup of
   cooling water to your month, He will make you thirsty.

   Before He enriches you with His treasure He will make you feel that you
   are naked, and poor, and miserable. Before Christ goes through the
   gate, the inhabitants of the city shall be willing to receive Him. No,
   with outstretched hands they shall look over the battlements and say,
   "Come in, King of Glory! I long to see You! Come, and welcome! I will
   throw the gates of my soul wide open to receive You, do but come! I
   long for You! I watch for Your coming as they that watch for Your
   appearing! Yes, more than they that watch for the morning light."

   IV. Fourthly, while you must thus be made willing, IT IS GRACE THAT
   MUST ENABLE YOU TO BE SO. Notice, "Be you lift up, you

   everlasting doors." "Lift up your heads." "Be you lift up." We speak to
   a man as a man, and so we must speak to him. Next to this we speak of
   what God can do, blessed be His name, as a God, when He comes to deal
   with us, making us willing. And then coming in, with that great arm of
   His power, entirely to remove those gates which creature strength could
   not push an inch out of the way.

   I think I see the inhabitants of that city when the cry is heard, "Lift
   up your heads, O you gates!" trying to lift them up! Trying with all
   their might, but they cannot do it. The gates are too heavy. The bars
   seem to be rusted. The bolts are fast in their places. The people cry,
   "How shall we ever open the gates of this city, and how can we let in
   the King?"--when an invisible Spirit stands by the side of the wall
   amid all the struggles, and as He puts out His power, the gates go up,
   and the doors fly wide open!

   This is how it is with the sinner. God the Holy Spirit comes in and
   helps our infirmities. And what we could not do because we are weak
   through the flesh, He helps us to do. The love of sin is given up to
   begin with, and then the Holy Spirit enables us to give up the sin
   which we no longer love. Unbelief becomes to us a burden, and we cry,
   "Lord, I believe, help You my unbelief!" and He does help that unbelief
   and we do believe! That which we could not do, we do! He who made us
   willing, makes us able! Where the will is present, the power is not
   withheld. When God has subdued the obstinacy of your heart, He will
   speedily overcome the infirmity of your hands. If you are thirsty, you
   shall drink. If you are hungry, you shall eat. If you would have
   Christ, you shall have Christ, for if you can not open the gates, He
   can.

   The difficulty with these gates is that they are everlasting! Though I
   cannot say that the gates which shut Christ out of our hearts are
   everlasting in one sense, yet they certainly are as old as our own
   nature--for the old inbred corruption of that stood out against Christ.
   And they are such perpetual gates that they never would have been
   removed if it were not for the Grace which came to remove them. And
   they are everlasting in such a sense that they will be there in time
   and there in eternity. The man who will not have Christ now, will not
   have Him when he comes to die, and will not have Him in eternity. Even
   then the gates will still shut out the Savior. The Savior will be
   forever a stranger and an alien to that man's heart! May God give to
   you who have been shutting Him out the will to open the door, and then
   may He come and say, "Be you lift up, you everlasting doors," and may
   Jesus Christ come in!

   V. Not to linger, however, on any one point, let us proceed to notice
   the willingness of Christ to enter. We have shown you that it should be
   our great desire that Christ should come in, but that there are
   obstacles. We know that we must be willing to remove them, and that
   Divine Grace will come to our assistance. What next?--JESUS WILL ENTER.
   There is no difficulty put here after once the gates are lifted up.
   There is no suspicion nor surmise that He will not enter. It seems to
   follow as a matter of course. "And the King of Glory shall come in."

   Oh, yes! When the gates are opened, He shall come in! He was willing to
   come in before. He had sent His servants, and said to them, "Open the
   gates." He had finished the work which He came to do. He was waiting to
   be gracious. There was never any unwillingness in Him! The
   unwillingness was all in us! And as soon as ever that unwillingness is
   taken away, and the gates are opened, the King of Glory shall come in.
   May the Lord bless me in speaking for a moment to some here who are
   willing to have the Savior, but who think that He will never come into
   their hearts.

   O Beloved, do not suffer this infernal suggestion to depress your
   spirits! Are you poor? Believe me, it does not matter what dress you
   wear, nor in what humble cottage you live, nor how your face may be
   begrimed with your toil if you are willing! The King of Glory will come
   in! He loves to live in those men's hearts whose bodies, like His own,
   suffer fatigue, and wear the garments of the workman. Perhaps you say,
   "But my body has been defiled with sin." But where He comes He cleanses
   the house by His Presence!

   You never hear it said, "The world is not fit for the sun, because it
   is so dark, for where the sun comes he makes light." And if after a
   long winter the world has grown cold and frostbitten, it is not said of
   the spring, "You must not come, for the world is not fit for you!" No,
   but the genial influences of spring loosen the rivers, and clothe the
   earth with verdure, and bid the bonds of frost be removed! And so
   spring makes a palace fit for herself and strews it with flowers from
   her own hands.

   My Master will come into your house and live, though you are not worthy
   that He should come under your roof. He was born in a manger where the
   horned oxen fed. He will be born in your heart, where devils once
   dwelt. My Lord, when He does stoop, may well stoop as low as He can. It
   is the greatest wonder that He should stoop at all--not that He stoops
   in any one particular direction, for, after all, though some of you may
   have been gross offenders, while others of us, from our youth up, have
   never uttered an oath, nor entered upon a lascivious action--yet there
   is not so much difference between you and us as that it should seem
   strange that He should come to you.

   If you are black in one sense, we are black in another. And if you have
   been a drunkard, well, I have been an unbeliever. And if you have been
   a thief, well, I have played false to God. And if there is one sin into
   which I have not plunged, I have plunged into another. We are very much
   alike, after all, and it is not so wonderful a thing, if we once get
   our hearts filled with the true wonder that Christ should have saved
   sinners at all, that He should condescend to display that wonderful
   Grace by saving those who, in the recklessness and daring of their
   crimes, are ostensibly such great sinners! Jesus Christ will come in.

   "Well, but suppose He should not?" says one. Ah, never suppose what
   cannot be! "Him that comes unto Me, I will in nowise cast out." Why,
   the very angels must sometimes be astonished as they say, "Lord, here
   is such a one coming--shall we shut the gate?" "No," says He, "for I
   have said that him that comes, I will in nowise cast out." Surely, when
   the angel of mercy saw Saul of Tarsus coming, he said, "Lord, here is a
   man who has had his garments spattered with the blood of Stephen! Here
   is that fierce wolf who has whetted his fangs in the blood of many of
   the saints! Here comes this blasphemer, this persecutor--must not he be
   excluded?"

   No. The gate stood open and he found admittance. And as he entered he
   turned round, and said to the others who were timidly standing outside,
   "I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all
   longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe." O
   Soul, if you desire to have Christ, there is no reason why you should
   not have Him! No, you shall have Him! If you have got so far, by His
   Grace, as to have said, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you
   lift up, you everlasting doors," then "the King of Glory shall come
   in," and you shall find a Savior in your heart if you are but willing
   to receive Him there.

   VI. And now, lastly, observe that our text says, "THE KING OF GLORY
   SHALL COME IN. This title belongs to the Savior. It proclaims Him in
   His highest authority. How shall I interpret this to you? The weight,
   the exceeding eternal weight of glory which belongs to the King of
   Glory, I cannot explain. O that your thoughts may excel my words! I
   think I hear a cry, "Behold, your King comes! The King! The King! Stand
   back, make way! The King comes."

   There is a moment's bustle, and it is succeeded by a breathless pause.
   Everyone forgets the business in which he was engaged and loses the
   thread of thought in which he was absorbed. All eyes turn, as if by
   instinct, to look from what direction that cry has broken on their
   ears: "THE KING OF GLORY!" A thrill passes through your nerves, a shock
   goes to your heart as you listen to the note which tells of His high
   prerogative. "Who is this King of Glory?" What peerless Prince is this,
   with a name above every name, and a royalty higher than the kings of
   the earth?

   "THE LORD OF HOSTS, HE IS THE KING OF GLORY." And while you look, He is
   near. You look, you gaze, you behold the pageantry of His high estate,
   and awe stifles your breath, admiration chains your senses. "Could I
   have one wish," said that eloquent preacher at the Hague, Mr. James
   Saurin, "Could I have one wish to answer my proposed end of preaching
   today with efficacy, it would be to show you God in this assembly." And
   I say to you, Brothers and Sisters, could I present at the door of your
   hearts the King of Glory, and constrain you to see Him, you would not
   hesitate, but open wide the gates to admit Him!

   Behold the King! Resplendent with all the glory which He had with the
   Father before the foundation of the world! Invested with all the
   offices of dignity which Jehovah has put upon Him! Wearing all the
   brilliant trophies of His victorious achievements. Hark! Hark! The
   trumpeters proclaim Him! Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, in loud
   and swelling notes announce His advent! The acclamations of the
   redeemed, a vast throng, greet Him! And He rides in triumph straight up
   to your heart!

   One glance at Him, Sinner, shows you plainly that He challenges your
   submission by all the grandeur of His title, by all the illustrious
   insignia of His solemn functions, by all the renown of His mighty acts.
   As the King of Glory, He must come in--

   "Butknow, nor of the terms complain, Where Jesus comes, He comes to
   reign. To reign, but not with partial sway, Thoughts must be slain that
   disobey." As liege subjects, then, you must yield Him all your homage.
   Oh, are you willing that the priest should come in? "Yes," you say,
   "that is what I want. I want Christ to come in with His precious blood,
   like a priest, and sprinkle me with hyssop, and take away my sins." He
   will come as a priest, but not if you refuse him as your King.

   "Yes," says another, "I am quite willing to receive Christ as a
   prophet. I want to understand the doctrines. They have puzzled me a
   great deal, and I want to comprehend them." Well, Christ will come as a
   prophet, but He will not come as a prophet unless you are willing to
   receive Him, also, as your King. O Sinner, Jesus Christ must have the
   mastery in your heart, or you shall not have Him at all! Come, now, you
   have followed your own will--that must be given up. Do you not like
   that yoke? Do you say, "No, I never did wear one"? You must wear it, or
   you will be lost.

   Look at it, now--see how softly it lies! It will never gall your
   shoulders. "My yoke is easy: My burden is light." Now, you know you
   have been your own master and what incessant mutiny there has been in
   your members. Your own will has been too impotent a ruler to hold the
   reins of government or maintain peace. You know very well that your own
   passions have made a great slave of you. Why, the man who gives way to
   drunkenness--where is there a worse slave in the world than he? Or,
   take the man who has a passionate temper--why, he does and says a
   thousand things that he is disgusted with afterwards--but he seems to
   be driven by his foolishness without the slightest self-control. A
   worse slavery than that of any galley slave that was ever chained to
   the oar, is that slavery of a bad temper.

   Now, would it not be better to be a servant of Christ than to be the
   slave of your own hateful lusts, or your own capricious whims? I know
   what you will say--you cannot serve King Jesus, for your companions
   would laugh at you, and hold you up to ridicule. Oh, what a
   mean-spirited creature, then, you must be! And so will you let any
   peering fool be your chieftain, and become the vassal of any man bolder
   in wickedness than you are? Why, Sir, do you call yourself an
   Englishman? Are you a man at all, that you can yield yourself up to be
   chaffed after this fashion? What? Would you let the gibes or taunts of
   a workmate restrain you from following what you believe to be good?

   Why, I am ashamed of you! Putting aside Christianity altogether, I
   blush for you as a coward. Surely, you might say to them, "What do I
   care for your laughs, I can always give you as good as you send, only I
   take care it shall not be in your spirit. I can hold my own, and if you
   choose to serve the devil, surely it is a free country. I have as much
   right to serve the King of Glory as you have to serve the Prince of
   Darkness. If you choose to go to Hell, let me go to Heaven, surely, you
   will not pass a law against that!"

   There are workmen, I believe, and men of business, and gentlemen, as
   they are called, of the upper circles who are the most abominable
   tyrants in their dealings with one another. If you choose to be a
   Christian, you are sure to get the cold shoulder among the upper
   classes. No, but the very working men, who prate their democracy, will
   not let you be a Christian without meeting you at the shop door and
   saying, "Ah, here is a Presbyterian," or "a Methodist," or something of
   the sort. What is this but trampling upon liberty of conscience with
   arrogant tyranny? How can we boast of our love of freedom while such a
   state of things prevails? Surely, a man has a right to his religion,
   and you have no right to interfere with him about it.

   But now, my dear Friend, you are afraid of being laughed at. Let me ask
   you, which is better, to be a servant of man or a servant of Christ?
   Whichever way you may judge, you can never enter Heaven's door, to wear
   Christ's crown unless you are here willing to be Christ's servant, and
   to bear Christ's Cross. "Well, but I do not like this. I do not like
   that." Refer to the Bible--that is the Master's Book. As it is written
   there, so let your life and actions be ruled. You remember what the
   mother of Jesus said to the servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee?
   "Whatever He says unto you, do it." I do not see how you can serve
   Christ if there is anything in that Book which you see to be there, and
   yet willfully neglect.

   Perhaps there are some of you whom that sentence will hit very hard. I
   know persons who say they are Baptists in principle, but they have
   never been baptized! Baptists without any principle at all, I call
   them--persons who know their Master's will, but who will not obey it. I
   can make great excuses for Brethren who do not see it. I think they
   might see it if they liked. But if they do not discern the precept, I
   can understand their not obeying it. But when people know their Lord's
   will, and do it not--though I am sure I would not wish to speak hastily
   on such a matter--I am not certain whether willful disobedience to a
   known command of Christ may not be a token of their rejecting Christ
   altogether. I should not like to run the risk for myself, at any rate.

   I should feel it unsafe to say that I believed I was saved, while there
   was some command of my Lord which I could obey, which I clearly saw to
   be my duty, and yet to which I solemnly declared I would withhold my
   obedience. Surely, in such a case, I have not let Christ come into my
   heart! If you would have Christ, He will be absolute Lord and
   Master--every humor and stubbornness of yours must be set aside--for
   where He comes He comes to reign. As He makes His entrance, He comes as
   the "King of Glory." That is to say, He must be a glorious King,
   glorious to you--One whom you seek to glorify.

   You must not receive Him as though He were some paltry potentate that
   you did not care for, but He must be full of glory to you--the
   "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
   Prince of Peace"--you must receive Him into your heart! Not as men
   receive a common guest, but as men receive their dearest and most
   honored friend--one whom they love and reverence with all the powers of
   their nature. He must be the King of Glory to you. And from now on it
   must be your desire to glorify Him. This is not a hard thing to ask,
   for oh, it is the pleasure, it is the ante past of Heaven! It is
   unspeakable bliss to live to the glory of Christ!

   Even when one is suffering, suffering is sweet if it brings Him honor!
   If one is despised for Christ, it is delightful to be reproached if it
   does but make Him more glorious--

   "If on my face for Your dear name, Shame and reproaches be, I'll hail
   reproach, and welcome shame, If You remember me."

   Oh, to glorify Christ! I think Heaven would lose half its charms for me
   if I could not glorify Christ there. And the vast howling wilderness
   were Heaven on earth to me if I might but glorify His name here below!
   To glorify Christ is far more to the Christian's mind than harps of
   gold, streets of crystal, or gates of pearl. This is the true music of
   the soul! The true excitement of triumph! The true chorus of
   eternity--that He ever lives, that the crown is on His head--that God
   also has highly exalted Him. Oh, this is our exultation, this is our
   joy, our triumph, our blessedness! If

   we can but promote His glory, the place where we can best promote it
   shall be our Heaven. The sick bed, the hospital, or the poor house
   shall be our Heaven, if we can there best serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
   who is the King of Glory.

   The year is fast drawing to a close. We call it "the year of Grace,
   1866." Oh, that it may, indeed, be "the year of Grace" to some
   unconverted persons here! It may be that I am not casting my net
   tonight where there are many such to be found. Most of you, my Hearers,
   are members of the Church of Christ. You are saved, I trust. Still
   there are sure to be here and there, like weeds growing in a garden of
   flowers, some who are still strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ. I would
   to God that the Holy Spirit would move them to say, "Come in, Savior!
   Let the King of Glory come in!"

   Oh, let this true saying of the faithful and true witness be your
   encouragement: "If any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will
   come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." What a blessed
   thing! You breakfasted with the devil, and dined with the world--what a
   mercy if you should sup with Christ! And what a blessed supper you
   would have! Why, when you woke tomorrow it would be to breakfast with
   Christ! It would be to hear Him say, "Come and dine," and then to sup
   with Him again, and so on until you come to eat bread at the marriage
   supper of the Lamb!

   May the Lord bless you. And if He grants me my heart's desire, you will
   each of you say to your souls, "Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift
   them up, you everlasting doors! And the King of Glory shall come in."
     __________________________________________________________________

                              More Than Conquerors

   A sermon

   (No. 751)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MAY 19, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
   loved us."- Romans 8:37.

   THE distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of
   Christ and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return. First,
   faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the
   Apostle, "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me." Then love gives the
   countersign and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in
   return. "We love Him because He first loved us." "God is love," and the
   children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love--the love of
   Christ constrains them. They believe in Jesus' love and then they
   reflect it. They rejoice that Divine love is set upon them. They feel
   it shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to
   them, and then by force of gratitude they love fervently the Savior
   with a pure heart.

   In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian
   religion, this double mark was very clearly to be seen in all believers
   in Jesus. They were men who knew the love of Christ and rested upon it
   as a man leans upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried. They did not
   speak of Christ's love as though it were a myth to be respected, a
   tradition to be reverenced--they viewed it as a blessed reality and
   they cast their whole confidence upon it, being persuaded that it would
   bear them up as upon eagles' wings, and carry them all their days. They
   were assured that it would be to them a foundation of rock against
   which the waves might beat, and the winds blow, but their soul's
   habitation would stand securely if founded upon it.

   The love which they felt towards the Lord Jesus was not a quiet emotion
   which they hid within themselves in the secret chamber of their souls,
   and which they only spoke of in their private assemblies when they met
   on the first day of the week and sung hymns in honor of Christ Jesus
   the Crucified. It was a passion with them of such a vehement and
   all-consuming energy that it permeated all their lives, became visible
   in all their actions, spoke in their common talk, and looked out of
   their eyes--even in their most common glances. Love to Jesus was a
   flame which fed upon the very marrow of their bones, the core and heart
   of their being, and, therefore, from its own force burned its way into
   the outer man and shone there.

   Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal and mark of all genuine
   Christians. Because of their dependence upon Christ's love they dared
   much! And because of their love to Christ they did much. Because of
   their reliance upon the love of Jesus they were not afraid of their
   enemies! And because of their love to Jesus they scorned to shun the
   foe even when he appeared in the most dreadful forms. The Christians of
   the early ages sacrificed themselves continually upon the altar of
   Christ with joy and willingness. Wherever they were they bore testimony
   against the evil customs which surrounded them.

   They counted it foul scorn for a Christian to be as others were--they
   would not conform themselves to the world-- they could not, for they
   were transformed by the renewing of their minds! Their love to Christ
   compelled them to bear their witness against everything which
   dishonored Christ by being contrary to truth, and righteousness, and
   love. They were innovators, reformers, image-breakers everywhere! They
   could not be quiet and let others do as they pleased while they
   followed out their own views. And their protest was continual,
   incessant, annoying to the foe, but acceptable to

   God.

   In every place the Christian was a speckled bird, because love to Jesus
   would not allow him to disguise his convictions. He was everywhere a
   stranger and an alien because the very language of his everyday life
   differed from that of his neighbors. Where others blasphemed, he
   adored. Where others used oaths habitually, his "yes" was yes, and his
   "no," no. Where others girt on the sword, he resisted not evil. Where
   others were, each man, seeking his own and not his

   brother's welfare, the Christian was known as being one whose treasure
   was in Heaven, and who had set his affections upon things above.

   This love to Jesus made the Christian a perpetual protestor against
   evil for the sake of Jesus. It led him yet further-- he became a
   constant witness to the Truth of God which he had found so precious in
   his own soul. Christian men were like Naphtali, of whom it was said:
   "Naphtali is a hind let loose he gives goodly words." Tongue-tied
   Christians, silent witnesses, were scarcely known in Apostolic days.
   The matron talked of Christ to her servants. The child, having learned
   of Jesus, spoke of Him in the schools.

   The Christian workman at the shop testified, and the Christian minister
   (and these were many in those days, for all men ministered according to
   their ability) stood in the corners of the streets, or met in their own
   hired houses with tens or twenties, as the case might be. They were
   always declaring the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ, and of His
   death and Resurrection and of the cleansing power of His blood. The
   love of Jesus, I have said at the commencement, was a real passion with
   those men and their confidence in Jesus was real and practical. And
   therefore their testimony for Jesus was bold, clear, and decided.

   There was a trumpet ring in ancient Christian testimony which startled
   the old world which was lying in a deep sleep, dreaming filthy dreams.
   That world loved not to be so aroused, and turning over in its sleep,
   muttered curses deep and many and vowed revenge against the disturber
   who dared break its horrible repose. Meanwhile believers in Jesus, men
   not satisfied with witnessing by their lives and testifying by their
   tongues in the places where their lot was cast, were continually
   commissioning fresh bands of missionaries to carry the Word into other
   districts.

   It was not enough for Paul to preach the Gospel at Jerusalem or
   Damascus, he must journey into Pisidia and Pam-phylia. He must journey
   to the utmost verge of Asia Minor, and then, so full of Christ is he
   that he dreams of eternal life, and when he falls asleep, he sees in a
   vision a man of Macedonia across the blue Aegean, entreating him, "Come
   over and help us." And with the morning light Paul rises, fully
   resolved to take ship and preach the Gospel among the Gentiles.

   Having preached Christ throughout all Greece, he passed over to Italy,
   and though chained, he entered as God's ambassador within the walls of
   the imperial city of Rome! And it is believed that after that, his
   sacredly restless spirit was not satisfied with preaching throughout
   Italy, but he must cross into Spain, and it is said even into Britain
   itself. The ambition of the Christian for Christ was boundless! Beyond
   pillars of Hercules, to the utmost islands of the sea, believers in
   Jesus carried the news of a Savior born for the sons ofmen!

   Those were days of ardor. I fear these are days of lukewarmness. Those
   were times when the flame was like coals of juniper which have a most
   vehement heat, and neither shipwreck, nor peril by robbers, nor peril
   by rivers, nor peril by false brethren, nor the sword itself, could
   stay the enthusiasm of the saints, for they believed, and therefore
   spoke! They loved, and therefore served--even to the death.

   Thus I introduce to you our text. Behold the men and their conflict for
   Christ! It was natural, it was inevitable that they should provoke
   enmity. You and I do not love Christ much, nor believe much in His
   love--I mean the most of us. We are a sickly, unworthy, degenerate
   generation. We let the world alone. The world lets us alone. We conform
   a great deal to worldly customs and the world is not annoyed by us. We
   do not dog the world's heels, perpetually declaring the Truth of God as
   we ought to do, and therefore the world is not impatient with us--it
   thinks us a very good sort of people, a little whimsy, crazed about the
   head perhaps, but still very bearable and well-behaved--and so we do
   not meet with half the enemies which they did of old because we are not
   half such true Christians, no, not one-tenth such saints as they!

   But if we were more holy, in proportion as we were so we should meet
   with the same battle, though it may be in another shape. Though I spoke
   thus censoriously of all, there are some few here, I trust, who have
   been enabled by Divine Grace to know the power of the love of Jesus and
   who are living under its influences, and contending for the sovereignty
   of the thorn-crowned King! These are they who will endure the same
   fight in other forms as the conflict of Apostolic days, and these are
   they who may use, without falsehood, the language of my text: "In all
   these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

   I will ask you, this morning, as we are assisted by the Holy Spirit,
   first, to consider the victories already won. Secondly, the laurels of
   the fight. Thirdly, the men who won them, and fourthly, the power by
   which the conquest was achieved.

   I. First, this morning, we shall view THE VICTORIES ALREADY WON by
   those who have been possessed by the love of Jesus. Look attentively at
   the champion. It needs no stretch of the imagination to conceive this
   place to be a Roman amphitheatre. There in the midst of the arena
   stands the hero. The great doors of the lion's dens are lifted up by
   machinery, and as soon as the lairs are open, rushing forth with fury
   come bears and lions, and wild beasts of all kinds, that have been
   starved into ferocity, with which the champion is to contend.

   Such was the Christian in Paul's day, such is he now. The world is the
   theater of conflict--angels and devils look on. A great cloud of
   witnesses view the fight--and monsters are let loose against him, with
   whom he must contend triumphantly. The Apostle gives us a little
   summary of the evils with which we must fight, and he places first,
   "tribulation." The word "tribulation," in the Latin, signifies
   threshing, and God's people are often cast upon the threshing floor to
   be beaten with the heavy flail of trouble. But they are more than
   conquerors since they lose nothing but their straw and chaff, and the
   pure wheat is thus separated from that which was of no benefit to it.

   The original Greek word, however, suggests pressure from without. It is
   used in the case of persons who are bearing heavy burdens, and are
   heavily pressed upon. Now, Believers have had to contend with outward
   circumstances more or less in all ages. At the present day there are
   very few who do not at some time or other in their lives meet with
   outward pressure--either from sickness or from loss of goods, or from
   bereavements--or from some other of the thousand and one causes from
   which affliction springs. The Christian has not a smooth pathway. "In
   the world you shall have tribulation," is a sure promise which never
   fails of fulfillment.

   But under all burdens true Believers have been sustained. No
   afflictions have ever been able to destroy their confidence in God. It
   is said of the palm tree that the more weights they hang upon it the
   more straight and the more lofty does it tower towards Heaven. And it
   is so with the Christian. Like Job, he is never so glorious as when he
   has passed through the loss of all things--and at last rises from his
   dunghill more mighty than a king! Brethren, you must expect to meet
   with this adversary so long as you are here, and if you now suffer the
   pressure of affliction, remember you must overcome it and not yield to
   it. Cry unto the Strong for strength--that your tribulation may work
   out for you patience, and patience experience--and experience hope that
   makes not ashamed.

   The next in the list is "distress." I find that the Greek word rather
   refers to mental grief than to anything external. The Christian suffers
   from external circumstances, but this is probably a less affliction
   than internal woe. "Straitness of place" is something like the Greek
   word. We sometimes get into a position in which we feel as if we could
   not move, and are not able to turn to the right hand or to the left.
   The way is shut up. We see no deliverance and our own consciousness of
   feebleness and perplexity is unbearably terrible.

   Do you ever get into this state in which your mind is distracted and
   you know not what to do? You cannot calm and steady yourself. You
   would, if you could, consider calmly the conflict and then enter into
   it like a man with all his wits about him. But the devil and the
   world--outward trial and inward despondency combined--toss you to and
   fro like the waves of the sea, till you are, to use John Bunyan's Saxon
   expression, "much tumbled up and down in your mind." Well, now, if you
   are a genuine Christian you will come out of this all right enough. You
   will be more than a conqueror over mental distress.

   You will take this burden, as well as every other, to your Lord, and
   cast it upon Him. And the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to be the
   Comforter, will say to the troubled waves of your heart, "Be still."
   Jesus shall say, as He walks the tempest of your soul, "It is I, be not
   afraid." And though the outward tribulation and the inward distress
   meet together like two contending seas, they shall both be calmed by
   the power of the Lord Jesus.

   The third evil the Apostle mentions is "persecution," which has always
   fallen upon the genuine lovers of Christ. Their good name has been
   slandered. I should blush to repeat the villainies which have been
   uttered against the saints of the olden times. Suffice it to say there
   is no crime in the category of vice which has not been falsely laid to
   the door of the followers of the pure and holy Jesus. Yet slander did
   not crush the Church! The fair name of Christianity outlived the
   reputation of the men who had the effrontery to accuse her.
   Imprisonment followed slander, but in prisons God's saints have sung
   like birds in cages--better than when they were in the fields of open
   liberty!

   Prisons have glowed into palaces, and been sanctified into the dwelling
   places of God Himself--more sacred by far than all the consecrated
   domes of gorgeous architecture! Persecution has sometimes taken to
   banishing the saints--but in their banishment they have been at
   home--and when scattered far and wide they have gone everywhere
   preaching the

   Word and their scattering has been the gathering together of others of
   the elect. When persecution has even resorted to the most cruel
   torments, God has had many a sweet song from the rack. The joyful notes
   of holy Lawrence, broiling upon the gridiron, must have been more sweet
   to God than the songs of cherubim and seraphim--for he loved God more
   than the brightest of them--and he proved it in his bitterest anguish!

   And holy Mr. Hawkes, when his lower extremities were burnt and they
   expected to see him fall over the chain into the fire, lifted his
   flaming hands, each finger spurting fire, and clapped them three times,
   with the shout of, "None but Christ, none but Christ!" God was honored
   more by that burning man than even by the ten thousand times ten
   thousand who ceaselessly hymn His praises in Glory. Persecution, in all
   its forms, has fallen upon the Christian Church, and up to this moment
   it has never achieved a triumph, but rather it has been an essential
   benefit to the Church, for it cleared her of hypocrisy. When cast into
   the fire the pure gold lost nothing but its dross and tin which it
   might well be glad to lose.

   Then the Apostle adds "famine." We are not exposed to this evil so much
   nowadays, but in Paul's time those who were banished were frequently
   carried to places where they could not exercise their handicraft to
   earn their bread. They were taken away from their situations, from
   their friends, from their acquaintances. They suffered the loss of all
   their goods and consequently they did not know where to find even the
   necessary sustenance for their bodies. And no doubt there are some now
   who are great losers by their conscientious convictions--who are called
   to suffer, in a measure, even famine itself. Then the devil whispers,
   "You ought to look after your house and children. You must not follow
   your religion so as to lose your bread." Ah, my Friend, we shall then
   see whether you have the faith that can conquer famine! A faith that
   can look gaunt hunger in the face--look through the ribs of the
   skeleton, and yet say, "Ah, famine itself I will bear sooner than sell
   my conscience, and stain my love to Christ."

   Then comes nakedness, another terrible form of poverty. The Christian
   banished from house to house and prevented from working at his trade,
   was not able to procure necessary funds and therefore his garments
   gradually fell to rags, and the rags, one by one, disappeared. At other
   times the persecutors stripped men and women naked to make them yield
   to shame. But nakedness, even in the case of the most tender and
   sensitive spirits, though such were exposed to this evil in the olden
   days, was unable to daunt the unconquerable spirit of the saints! There
   are stories in the old martyrologies of men and women who have had to
   suffer this indignity, and it is reported by those who looked on that
   they never seemed to be so gloriously arrayed! For when they were stood
   naked before the whole bestial throng, that they might gaze upon them
   with their cruel eyes, their very bodies seemed to glow with glory, as
   with calm countenance they surveyed their enemies, and gave themselves
   up to die.

   The Apostle mentions next to nakedness, peril--that is, constant
   exposure to sudden death. This was the life of the early Christian. "We
   die daily," said the Apostle. They were never sure of a moment's mercy
   for a new edict might come forth from the Roman emperor to sweep the
   Christians away. They went literally with their lives in their hands
   wherever they went. Some of their perils were voluntarily encountered
   for the spread of the Gospel--perils by rivers and by robbers were the
   lot of the Christian missionary going through inhospitable climes to
   declare the Gospel. Other perils were the result of persecution, but we
   are told here that Believers in Jesus so steadily reposed upon Christ's
   love that they did not feel peril to be peril--and the love of Christ
   so lifted them up above the ordinary thoughts of flesh and blood, that
   even when perils became perils, indeed, they entered upon them with
   joy, out of love to their Lord and Master.

   And to close the list, as if there were a sort of perfection in these
   evils, the seventh thing is the sword, that is to say, the Apostle Paul
   singles out one cruel form of death as a picture of the whole. You
   know, and I need not tell you, how the noble army of my Master's
   martyrs have given their necks to the sword as cheerfully as the bride
   upon the marriage day gives her hand to the bridegroom. You know how
   they have gone to the stake and kissed the firewood. How they have sung
   on the way to death, though death was attended with the most cruel
   torments. And you know how they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy,
   even to leaping and dancing at the thought of being counted worthy to
   suffer for Christ's sake.

   The Apostle tells us that the saints have suffered all these things put
   together. He does not say in some of these things we are conquerors,
   but in all! Many Believers literally passed through outward need,
   inward trial, persecution, need of bread, lack of raiment, the constant
   hazard of life, and at last laid down life itself--and yet in every
   case through the whole list of these gloomy fights--Believers were more
   than conquerors. Beloved, this day you are not, the most of you, called
   to peril, or nakedness, or sword. If you were, my Lord would give you
   Grace to bear the test! But I think the trou-

   bles of a Christian man at the present moment, though not outwardly so
   terrible, are yet more hard to bear than even those of the fiery age!

   We have to bear the sneer of the world--that is little--its
   blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its
   hypocrisy are far worse! O Sirs, your danger is lest you grow rich and
   become proud! Lest you give yourselves up to the fashions of this
   present evil world and lose your faith! If you cannot be torn in pieces
   by the roaring lion, you may be hugged to death by the bear! And the
   devil cares little which it is so long as he gets your love to Christ
   out of you, and destroys your confidence in Him. I fear that the
   Christian Church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft
   and silken days than she was in those rough times! Are there not many
   professing Christians whose methods of trade are just as vicious as the
   methods of trade of the most shifty and tricky of the unconverted?

   Have we not some professed Christians who are worldly altogether? Whose
   non-attendance at our meetings for prayer, whose want of liberality to
   Christ's cause, whose entire conduct, indeed, proves that if there is
   any grace in them at all, it is not the Grace which conquers the world,
   but the pretended grace which lets the world put its foot upon its
   neck? We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and
   are more likely to be ruined than ever, unless our faith in Jesus is a
   reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame.

   We are likely to become bastards and not sons, tares and not wheat,
   hypocrites with fair vineyards, but not the true living children of the
   living God! Christians, do not think that these are times in which you
   can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardor? You need these
   things more now than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display His
   Omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer
   things as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through
   Him that loved us."

   II. I shall with great brevity turn to the second head of the
   discourse. Let us inspect THE LAURELS OF THE FIGHT. Up to now Believers
   have been conquerors, but the text says they have, been "more than
   conquerors." How is that? The word in the original is one of the
   Apostle Paul's strong expressions. It might be rendered, "more
   exceedingly conquerors." The Vulgate, I think, has a word in it which
   means, "over over-comers," over and above conquering. For a Christian
   to be a conqueror is a great thing--how can he be more than a
   conqueror?

   I think in many respects, first, a Christian is better than some
   conquerors because the power by which he overcomes is far nobler. Here
   is a champion just come from the Greek games. He has well-near killed
   his adversary in a severe boxing match, and he comes in to receive the
   crown. Step up to him, look at that arm, and observe the muscles and
   sinews. Why, the man's muscles are like steel, and you say to him, "I
   do not wonder that you beat and bruised your foe. If I had set up a
   machine made of steel that worked by a little watery vapor, it could
   have done the same, though nothing but mere matter would have been at
   work.

   "You are a stronger man and more vigorous in constitution than your
   foe--that is clear--but where is the particular glory about that? One
   machine is stronger than another. No doubt credit is to be given to you
   for your endurance, after a sort, but you are just one big brute
   beating another big brute. Dogs, and bulls, and gamecocks, and all
   kinds of animals would have endured as much, and perhaps more." Now,
   see the Christian champion coming from the fight, having won the
   victory! Look at him! He has overcome human wisdom--but when I look at
   him, I perceive no learning nor cunning. He is a simple, unlettered
   person who knows that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
   Yet he has won the victory over profound philosophers--then he is more
   than a conqueror!

   He has been tempted and tried in all sorts of ways, and he was not at
   all a crafty person. He was very weak, yet somehow he has conquered.
   Now this is being more than a conqueror--when weakness overcomes
   strength--when brute force is baffled by gentleness and love! This is
   victory, indeed, when the little things overcome the great things! When
   the base things of this world overthrow the mighty, and the things that
   are not bring to nothing the things that are! Yet this is just the
   triumph of Divine Grace. The Christian is, viewed according to the eye
   of sense, weak as water. Yet faith knows him to be irresistible.
   According to the eye of sense he is a thing to be trampled upon, for he
   will not resist. And yet, in the sight of God he becomes in this very
   way, by his gentleness and patience, more than a conqueror!

   The Christian is more than a conqueror, again, because the conqueror
   fights for victory--fights with some selfish motive. Even if the motive
   is patriotism--although from another point of view, patriotism is one
   of the highest of worldly virtues--yet it is only a magnificent
   selfishness by which one contends for one's own country instead of
   being subject to the far more generous cosmopolitan thought of caring
   for all men. But the Christian fights neither for any set

   of men nor for himself--in contending for the Truth of God he contends
   for all men, but especially for God! And in suffering for the right he
   suffers with no prospect of earthly gain.

   He becomes more than a conqueror both by the strength with which he
   fights and the motives by which he is sus-tained--which are better than
   the motives and the strength which sustain other conquerors. He is more
   than a conqueror because he loses nothing even by the fight itself.
   When a battle is won, at any rate the winning side loses something. In
   most wars the gain seldom makes any recompense for the effusion of
   blood. But the Christian's faith, when tried, grows stronger! His
   patience, when tempted, becomes more patient! His graces are like the
   fabled Anteus, who, when thrown to the ground, sprang up stronger than
   before by touching his mother, Earth.

   The Christian, by touching his God and falling down in helplessness
   into the arms of the Most High grows stronger by all that he is made to
   suffer. He is more than a conqueror because he loses nothing even by
   the fight, and gains won-drously by the victory. He is more than a
   conqueror over persecution because most conquerors have to struggle and
   agonize to win the conquest. But, my Brothers and Sisters, many
   Christians, yes, and all Christians--when their faith in Christ is
   strong and their love to Christ is fervent--have found it even easy to
   overcome suffering for the Lord. Look at Blandina, enveloped in a net,
   tossed upon the horns of bulls, and then made to sit in a red hot iron
   chair to die, and yet unconquered to the end!

   What did the tormentors say to the emperor--"Oh, Emperor," said the
   tormentors, "We are ashamed, for these Christians mock us while they
   suffer your cruelties." Indeed, the tormentors often seemed to be
   themselves tormented-- they were worried to think they could not
   conquer timid women and children. They devoured their own hearts with
   rage! Like the viper which gnaws at the file, they broke their teeth
   against the iron strength of Christian faith! They could not endure it
   because these people suffered without repining, endured without
   retracting, and glorified Christ in the fires without complaining!

   I love to think of Christ's army of martyrs! Yes, and of all His Church
   marching over the battlefield, singing as they fight--never ceasing the
   song, never suffering a note to fall--and at the same time advancing
   from victory to victory chanting the sacred hallelujah while they tramp
   over their foes. I saw one day upon the lake of Orta, in northern
   Italy, on some holy-day of the church of Rome, a number of boats coming
   from all quarters of the lake towards the church upon the central islet
   of the lake. It was singularly beautiful to hear the splash of the oars
   and the sound of song as the boats came up in long processions, with
   all the villagers in them, bearing their banners to the appointed place
   of meeting. As the oars splashed they kept time to the rowers, and the
   rowers never missed a stroke because they sang--neither was the song
   marred because of the splash of the oars--but on they came, singing and
   rowing!

   And so has it been with the Church of God. That oar of obedience, and
   that other oar of suffering--the Church has learned to ply both of
   these, and to sing as she rows: "Thanks be unto God, who always makes
   us to triumph in every place!" Though we are made to suffer, and are
   made to fight, yet we are more than conquerors, because we are
   conquerors even while fighting! We sing even in the heat of the battle,
   waving high the banner and dividing the spoil even in the center of the
   fray. When the fight is hottest we are then the most happy! And when
   the strife is most stern, then most blessed! And when the battle grows
   most arduous, then, "calm mid the bewildering cry, confident of
   victory." Thus the saints have been in those respects more than
   conquerors.

   More than conquerors I hope, this day, because they have conquered
   their enemies by doing them good, converting their persecutors by their
   patience. To use the old Protestant motto, the Church has been the
   anvil, and the world has been the hammer--and though the anvil has done
   nothing but bear the stroke, she has broken all the hammers as she will
   do to the world's end! All true Believers who really trust in Jesus'
   love, and are really fired with it, will be far more glorious than the
   Roman conqueror when he drove his milk-white steeds through the
   imperial city's streets. Then the young men and maidens, matrons and
   old men gathered to the windows and chimney tops and scattered flowers
   upon the conquering legions as they came along.

   But what is this compared with the triumph which is going on even now
   as the great host of God's elect come streaming through the streets of
   the New Jerusalem? What flowers are they which angels strew in the path
   of the blessed! What songs are those which rise from yonder halls of
   Zion, jubilant with song as the saints pass along to their everlasting
   habitations!

   III. The time has almost failed me, and therefore, in the third place,
   but two or three words. Who are THE PERSONS THAT HAVE CONQUERED?
   Attentively regard these few words which I utter. The men who conquered
   in the fight up till now have been known only by this--the two things I
   mentioned at the first--men who believed in Christ's love to them, and
   who were possessed with love to Christ! There has been no other
   distinction than this. They have been rich--Caesar's household yielded
   martyrs. They have been poor--the inscriptions on the tombs of the
   catacombs are few of them spelt correctly--they must have been very
   poor and illiterate persons who constituted the majority of the first
   Christian Churches, yet all classes have conquered.

   At the stake bishops have burned and princes have died. But more
   numerous, still, have been the weavers and the tailors, and the
   seamstresses. The poorest of the poor have been as brave as the
   wealthy! The learned have died gloriously, but the unlearned have
   almost stolen the palm. Little children have suffered for Christ. Their
   little souls, washed in the blood of Jesus, have also been encrimsoned
   with their own! Meanwhile, the aged have not been behind. It must have
   been a sad but glorious sight to see old Latimer, when past seventy,
   putting off all his garments but his shirt, and then standing up and
   saying, as he turned round to Mr. Ridley, "Courage, Brother! We shall
   this day light such a candle in England as, by the Grace of God, shall
   never be put out."

   Oh, if you wish to serve my Master, old men, you have not passed the
   prime of your days for that! Young men, if you would be heroes, now is
   the opportunity! You who are poor, you may glow with as great a glory
   as the rich! And you who have substance may count it your joy if you
   are called in the high places of the field to do battle for your Lord!
   There is room for all who love the Lord in this fight, and there are
   crowns for each. O that God would only give us the spirit and the
   strength to enlist in His army and to fight till we win the crown! I
   leave that point, beloved Friends, hoping that you will enlarge upon it
   in your thoughts.

   ' IV. And now to close. The Apostle distinctly tells us, THE POWER,
   MYSTERIOUS AND IRRESISTIBLE,

   WHICH SUSTAINED THESE MORE THAN CONQUERORS, was, "through Him that
   loved us." They conquered

   through Christ's being their Captain. Much depends upon the leader.
   Christ showed them how to conquer by personally enduring suffering and
   conquering as their Example. They triumphed through Christ as their
   Teacher, for His doctrines strengthened their minds, made them strong,
   made them angelic, made them Divine--for He made them partakers of the
   Divine Nature.

   But, above all, they conquered because Christ was actually with them!
   His body was in Heaven, for He has risen, but His Spirit was with them.
   We learn from all the history of the saints that Christ has a way of
   infusing supernatural strength into the weakest of the weak. The Holy
   Spirit, when He comes into contact with our poor, wavering, feeble
   spirits, girds us up to something which is absolutely impossible to man
   alone. You look at man as he is, and what can he do? Brethren, he can
   do nothing! "Without Me, you can do nothing." But look at man with God
   in him and I will reverse the question--What can he not do?

   I do not see a man burning in yonder fires, I see Christ suffering in
   that man! I do not see a martyr in prison so much as the Divine power
   laughing at the thought of imprisonment and scorning iron bands. I do
   not so much see a simple-minded virgin, uneducated, contending with
   sophists and cavilers as I see the Spirit of the living God speaking
   through her simple tongue--teaching her in the same hour what she shall
   speak--and proving the Truth of God that the foolishness of God is
   greater than the wisdom of man, and the feebleness of God is stronger
   than the power of man!

   Oh, it is glorious to think that God should thus take the meanest,
   poorest, most feeble things and should put Himself into them, and then
   say, "Come on, all you that are wise and great, and I will baffle you
   through those that are foolish and feeble! Now, come, you devils of
   Hell! Come, you men of earth who breathe out threats, and foam with
   cruelty! Come all of you, and this poor defenseless one shall laugh you
   all to scorn, and triumph even to the last!"

   It is the power of Christ! And did you notice the name by which the
   Apostle called our Lord in the text? It is so significant that I think
   it is the key to the text, "Through Him that loved us." Yes, love
   yielded them victory! They knew He loved them, had loved them, always
   would love them! They knew that if they suffered for His sake it was
   His love which let them suffer for their ultimate gain, and for His
   permanent honor. They felt that He loved them. They could not doubt it!
   They never mistrusted that fact and this it was that made them so
   strong.

   O Beloved, are you weak today? Go to Him that loved you! Does your love
   grow cold today? Do not go to Moses to get it improved. Do not search
   your own heart with a view of finding anything good there, but go at
   once to Him that

   loved you! Think, this morning, of our Lord's leaving Heaven and of His
   Incarnation upon earth. Think especially of the bloody sweat of
   Gethsemane, the wounds of Calvary, the dying thirst, the, "My God! My
   God! Why have You forsaken Me?" Think of all that! Get Christ's love to
   you burnt into your inmost consciousness, and in the strength of this
   fear no difficulties, dread no tribulations, but march to your
   life-battle as the heroes of old went to theirs--and you shall return
   with your crowns of victory as they returned with theirs!

   And you shall find that verse which we just now sang to be most
   divinely true--

   "And they who, with their Leader, have conquered in the fight, Forever
   and forever, are clad in robes of white."
     __________________________________________________________________

                             The King In His Beauty

   A sermon

   (No. 752)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MAY 26, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land
   that is very far off."- Isaiah 33:17.

   WHEN the Assyrians had invaded Judea with an immense army and were
   about to attack Jerusalem, Rabshakeh was sent with a railing message to
   the king and his people. When Hezekiah heard of the blasphemies of the
   proud Assyrian, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went into the
   house of the Lord and sent the elders of the priests, covered with
   sackcloth, to consult with Isaiah the Prophet. The people of Jerusalem,
   therefore, had seen their king in most mournful array, wearing the
   garments of sorrow and the weeds of mourning. They were, however,
   cheered by the promise that there should be so complete a defeat of
   Sennacherib that the king should again adorn himself with the robes of
   state and appear with a smiling countenance in all the beauty ofjoy.

   Moreover, through the invasion of Sennacherib, the people had not been
   able to travel. They had been cooped up within the walls of Jerusalem
   like prisoners. No journeys had been made, either in the direction of
   Dan or Beersheba. Even the nearest villages could not be reached--but
   the promise is given that so completely should the country be rid of
   the enemy that wayfarers should be able to see the whole of their
   territory--even that part of the land which was very far off. It would
   be safe for them to make long voyages--they would no longer be afraid
   of the oppressor, but should find the highways, which once lay waste,
   to be again open and safe for traffic.

   In these days of Gospel Truth, dear Friends, we see in this text a
   meaning far surpassing that which gladdened the citizens of Zion. We
   have a nobler King than Hezekiah! He is the King of kings and Lord of
   lords! We have seen our well-beloved Monarch, in the days of His flesh,
   humiliated and sorely vexed, for He was "despised and rejected of men,
   a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He whose brightness is as
   the morning wore the sackcloth of sorrow as His daily dress. Shame was
   His mantle, and reproach was His vesture. None was more afflicted and
   sorrowful than He. Yet now, inasmuch as He has triumphed over all the
   powers of darkness upon the bloody tree, our faith beholds our King in
   His beauty, returning with dyed garments from Edom, robed in the
   splendor of victory!

   No longer does He wear the purple robe of mockery, but He is clothed
   with a garment down to the feet, and gird about the paps with a golden
   girdle. We, also, His joyful subjects who were once shut up and could
   not come forth, are now possessed of boundless Gospel liberty. Now that
   we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, we freely possess to its
   utmost bounds the Covenant blessings which He has given to us. We
   rejoice that if the land of happiness should sometimes seem very far
   off, it is nevertheless our own and we shall stand in our lot in the
   end of the days. The Savior highly exalted--and ourselves at a happy
   liberty--these are two rich themes for thought! May God the Holy Spirit
   grant that we may find wines on the lees well refined stored in the
   text.

   I. Proceeding, without further preface, to the text itself, we remark
   that WE HAIL THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS OUR KING. We--I must not speak
   for you all--I wish I could, but there are some here, at any rate, who
   have bowed the knee to that great Son of David who is the Son of God.
   There are some here who delight to feel that Jesus is their heart's
   Lord, the unrivalled Master of their affections. I speak of such--we
   hail Immanuel as King!

   His right to royalty lies first in His exalted Nature as the Son of
   God. Who should be king but Jehovah? And, inasmuch as Jesus Christ is
   very God of very God, let Him reign! Let His kingdom come! Let Him in
   all things have the preeminence. Bow down, you creatures of His hand,
   and do Him homage for the Lord is King forever and ever! Hallelujah!
   Let His opposers tremble at the unchangeable decree, for the Son of God
   must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet! It is not to be
   endured that God should not be King in His own world! Neither will it
   forever be allowed that God, in the earth which He has fashioned,
   should be forgotten or blasphemed.

   He who is God over all, blessed forever, shall yet be worshipped by
   every knee, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord! Jesus has a
   right to reign because He is the Creator. "Without Him was not anything
   made that was made." Shall not the Potter exercise lordship over His
   own clay? If the Son of God has made and formed us, shall He not
   command us? Who are the potsherds that shall set themselves in array
   against Him? Surely He shall break them as with a rod of iron and dash
   them into shivers!

   Besides this, the Lord Jesus is the Preserver of all men, for by Him
   all things consist. It is by virtue of His intercession that the barren
   trees are not cut down. By the force of His tender love sinners are
   spared upon the earth. Should He not reign? If the breath of our
   nostrils is in His keeping and we are, ourselves, the sheep of His
   pasture, should we not cheerfully yield to His generous rule? Besides
   this, and over and above the natural rights of Christ to reign, He
   governs by virtue of His Headship of the mediatorial kingdom. He is not
   merely King because He is God, but He is King in His complex Nature as
   God and Man.

   Here He has the rights of Divine delegation, for God has made Him King.
   Some of the worst of tyrants have delighted to call themselves kings by
   Divine right. Emperors by the will of God. Monarchs by the Grace of
   God, and the like. It may be so. I doubt not many of earth's tyrants
   require much Grace, lest their crimes should bring them to speedy ruin!
   And doubtless it is sometimes the will of God to inflict great scourges
   upon guilty nations! But, my Brothers and Sisters, Jesus Christ is no
   despotic claimant of Divine right--He is really and truly the Lord's
   Anointed! "It has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness
   dwell."

   God has given to Him all power and all authority. As the Son of Man, He
   is now head over all things to His Church, and He reigns over Heaven,
   and earth, and Hell with the keys of life and death at His side. "The
   government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called
   Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
   Prince of Peace." We recognize Him as King by Divine right. We see in
   Him most clearly that true Deity which "does hedge a king," and we
   meekly bow before Him whom God has "appointed to be a Prince and a
   Savior, to give repentance and remission of sins."

   Certain princes have delighted to call themselves kings by the popular
   will, and certainly our Lord Jesus Christ is such in His Church. If it
   could be put to the vote whether He should be King in the Church, every
   believing heart would crown Him. O that we could crown Him more
   gloriously than we do! We should count no expense to be wasted that
   could glorify Christ! Suffering would be pleasure and loss would be
   gain if thereby we could surround His brow with brighter crowns and
   make Him more glorious in the eyes of men and angels. Yes, He shall
   reign! Long live the King! All hail to You, King Jesus! Go forth, you
   virgin souls who love your Lord! Bow at His feet! Strew His way with
   lilies of your love and the roses of your gratitude! "Bring forth the
   royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all."

   Moreover, our Lord Jesus is King in Zion by right of conquest. He has
   taken and carried by storm the hearts of His people and has slain their
   enemies who held them in cruel bondage. In the Red Sea of His own
   blood, our Redeemer has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins--shall He not
   be King in Jeshurun? He has delivered us from the iron yoke and heavy
   curse of the Law--shall not the Liberator be crowned? We are His
   portion whom He has taken out of the hand of the Amorite with His sword
   and with His bow--who shall snatch His conquest from His hand? All the
   rights of conquest support the Throne of the Lord's Anointed, for God
   has declared that He will give Him a portion with the great, and He
   shall divide the spoil with the strong.

   We are that spoil! We are trophies of His victory! We are the treasure
   for which He laid down His life that He might redeem us unto Himself!
   We, therefore, who have believed in Him, accept Him to be King and do
   not, for a moment, question His right. We see Him to be established
   upon the Throne of His Father, and rejoice that though the people rage,
   and the kings of the earth take counsel together, yet has the Lord set
   His King upon His holy hill of Zion, and said: "You are My Son. This
   day have I begotten You." All hail, Jesus, King of our souls!

   Now, my Brethren, in this great kingdom of our Lord Jesus, it behooves
   us, since we thus verbally acknowledge Him to be King, to distinctly
   understand what this involves. We look upon the Lord Jesus as being to
   us the Fountain of all spiritual legislation. He is a King in His own
   right--no limited monarch--but an autocrat in the midst of His Church,
   and in the Church all laws proceed from Christ and Christ only. As for
   us, His people, we reject with scorn and disdain all the spiritual
   legislation of kings and parliaments, of bishops and councils!

   We are loyal subjects of political rulers in political things and none
   honor the king more than we do! In whatever State the Christian is
   cast, he counts it to be his Christian duty to submit himself to the
   powers that be. But, within the Church of God we know no royal sway of
   Caesar! We have another King, one Jesus! Let Caesar mind his own, and
   never venture to touch the crown-right of Jesus. Away with that base
   Erastianism which has laid the Church of God at the foot of kings and
   princes, so that they, indeed, can put their feet upon the neck of the
   free bride of our Lord Jesus Christ! We deny that either king or
   parliament can legislate for Christ's Church! For Thomas Cranmer's
   church they may if they please, but for Christ's Church, never!

   In the midst of those Churches which are true to Christ's authority,
   the Bible is the only statute book, and the living Jesus the only
   Lawgiver! As Christ alone is the Fountain of all spiritual legislation,
   so He alone gives authority to that legislation. If we are commanded to
   baptize, we baptize not because we have been authorized by a
   consistory, or have been licensed by a bishop or a presbytery, but we
   baptize because Christ has said, "Go you therefore, and teach all
   nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
   of the Holy Spirit."

   If we come together to break bread, it is not in the name of a
   denomination or a court, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! If
   you rest any church practice upon the authority of Augustine,
   Chrysostom, or Calvin, or Luther, or base your faith upon some living
   preacher and depend upon the force of his oratory, or upon the cogency
   of his argument, you put Christ out of His proper place. The reason why
   we should believe revealed Truth of God is because Jesus has borne
   witness to it. His ipse dixit is the great ground of all our theology,
   for He is "the Word of God," and His regal supremacy is the argument
   for obedience to His commands.

   Where you have no command from Christ, your teaching is nothing. Stand
   away, Sir! You have no place here! Where you have no teaching of Christ
   at your back, your word is the word of maw, and nothing more! It is not
   a word before which the subjects of King Jesus can bow themselves. If
   Christ is King, we receive both laws from Him and the force which makes
   the law--its dominion over our consciences. If He is King, my Brethren,
   it should be our joy to obey Him. We have nothing to do with setting up
   our opinions and views, and thoughts and tastes where He alone is
   supreme. When we turn to this good and blessed old statute Book, we
   must do what He bids us do in it. We are not to cut, and pick, and
   choose, and take this and leave the other--for the royal imprimatur is
   put upon every page of the Bible, and it is our part, like little
   children, obedient to a gentle parent, to subject our wills at once. We
   should, like Mary, sit at Jesus' feet to learn, and then rise and carry
   into practice what we have learned in so good a school.

   Once more, if Jesus is King, then He is the Captain in all our warfare.
   When we fight, my Brothers and Sisters, if we contend after our own
   ways, with our own weapons, and not under the guidance of Christ, we
   may expect defeat! But if we follow Christ, believing the Truth of God
   because He has revealed it, and contending for the Truth as His Truth--
   careless of man's esteem, and only caring for the esteem of
   Christ--then we shall be honored of Him in the day when He shall put
   the laurel upon the head of the conquerors. May God grant us Divine
   Grace to be such!

   I am afraid that many Christians do not understand the mediatorial
   royalty of Christ in the Church. I see so many of them acting as if
   they were not subjects of a King at all, but were mere bandits fighting
   on their own account, doing just according to their own judgment. I
   hear so many professors quoting this man's authority, and that man's
   that I am of the same mind as the Apostle who spoke of some of whom he
   said he feared lest their faith should stand in the wisdom of maw, and
   not in the power of God! If it does so, you forget that your faith and
   everything else must stand in Christ, and that Christ must in all your
   Graces and in all your actions be acknowledged as Head over all things
   to His Church, which is His body, or else you err, not holding the
   Head.

   We are the spouse, He is the Husband. He loves and cares for us, but
   the wife's business is to be obedient to her lord. Let us not prove
   unfaithful to the marriage bond and violate the conjugal vow by being
   unkind, unfaithful, and disobedient to our Husband. But by His Grace
   let us watch to know His will, make haste to do it when it is
   known--and ever ask Him to teach us His way and guide us in His paths
   till He takes us to His rest. We sincerely and cheerfully acknowledge
   our Lord Jesus Christ to be a King--our King.

   II. Secondly, WE DELIGHT TO KNOW THAT OUR KING POSSESSES SUPERLATIVE
   BEAUTY. There is a natural beauty which belongs to our Beloved. Who can
   be more beautiful than God, who is "glorious in holiness, fearful in
   praises, doing wonders"? There is a natural beauty in the Character of
   Christ. Indeed, so beautiful is that Character that those who have
   railed most against Christianity have scarcely had the heart to say a
   word against Christ--and they

   have first been compelled to belie the narrative of His life before
   they could raise objections against Him. Perfect in love, goodness, and
   truth--never spoke man like this Man! Never was there a character which
   could rival His inimitable excellence.

   But the beauty intended in the text is not that of His Nature and His
   Character, but the beauty of position. As I told you in regard to
   Tiezekiah, the people could see his beauty and character as well when
   in sackcloth as in cloth of gold. But the beauty they were to see was
   the public state of royalty and happiness--and such is the beauty which
   we believe our Lord Jesus now has. He had this glory originally. He
   speaks of the glory which He had with His Father before the world was.
   From of old He was inconceivably great. The cherubim and seraphim
   hastened to obey Him who sat upon a throne, high and lifted up, whose
   train filled the temple. Who is like unto You, O Lord? Among the gods,
   who is like unto You?

   He was the express image of His Father's Person, and the brightness of
   His Father's glory. And you know how He came from Heaven, undressing
   all the way--taking off robe after robe, and jewel after jewel--till
   here He wrapped His Godhead in a veil of our inferior clay! He cast off
   even the beauty which naturally belonged to His Manhood, and though He
   was fairer than any of the children of men, yet His visage became more
   marred than that of any man. You know at last how, having given His
   back to the scourgers, and His cheek to them that plucked off the
   hair--hiding not His face from shame and spitting--He at last consented
   that the cold seal of death should be set upon His blessed visage. And
   though He saw no corruption, yet did He sleep in the somber depths of
   the tomb. Here was His humiliation.

   But, Beloved, our King is now in His beauty. He was in His beauty at
   the moment of the Resurrection, when the watchmen, in terror, fled far
   away, or, fainting, became as dead men. He somewhat hid His
   Resurrection splendor when He sojourned for forty days below. Yet it
   must have been a lovely sight to see Him at Emmaus when He was known of
   the disciples in breaking of bread. Or, again, when He took a piece of
   a fish and a part of a honeycomb, and did eat before them. Oh, happy
   was Thomas, though to be chided for his unbelief, he was privileged to
   put his finger into the print of the nails, and to thrust his hand into
   the wound of that blessed body!

   How that body must have sparkled with glory in the eyes of seraphs when
   a cloud received Him out of mortal sight, and He ascended up to Heaven!
   Brothers and Sisters, it is yonder that the King is in His beauty! He
   is now crowned with the crown which God has given Him as a reward for
   His tremendous labors and His terrible sufferings. Now He wears the
   glory which He had with God before the earth existed, and yet another
   glory above all--that which He has well earned in the fight against
   sin, death, and Hell.

   Hark how the song swells high! It is a new and sweeter song--"Worthy is
   the Lamb that was slain, for He has redeemed us unto God by His blood!"
   Hark how the hallelujah, which went up before of old time, has a
   sweeter note to it, when they sing, "For you were slain." More deep and
   more melodious are the harpings of the harpers, and the swells of that
   song which is comparable to great thunders, and to the mighty waves of
   the sea--

   "Worthy is He that once was slain, The Prince of Peace that groaned and
   died. Worthy to rise, and live, and reign At His Almighty Father's
   side."

   The King this day wears the beauty of an intercessor who can never
   fail, of a prince who can never be defeated, of a conqueror who has
   vanquished every foe, of a Lord who has the heart's allegiance of every
   subject, of a well-beloved who is adored in the depths of all
   regenerate hearts.

   Jesus wears all the beauty which the pomp of Heaven can bestow upon
   Him, all the glory which 10,000 times 10,000 angels can minister to
   Him. The chariots of the Lord are 20,000, even thousands of angels!
   Jesus is in the midst of them as in the Holy Place. You cannot, with
   your utmost stretch of imagination, conceive the beauty which now
   adorns our King! Yet, Brethren, there will be a further revelation of
   it when He shall appear on earth in His glory, for He is yet to descend
   from Heaven in great power. "We believe that You shall shortly come to
   be our Judge." We expect to see the King on earth again. It may be as a
   King to rule over all the nations. It may be, it must be, as a Judge to
   separate the people as the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.

   Oh, the splendor of that glory! It will ravish His people's hearts! But
   those who in derision crowned Him, mocking, thus, His gracious claim,
   shall weep and wail because of Him when they shall look on Him whom
   they have pierced but find no salvation, seeing they rejected Him in
   the day of Grace. Amid the splendors of that day it shall be the joy of
   the

   Christian to see the King in His beauty! Nor is this the end, for
   eternity shall sound His praise: "Your throne, O God, is forever and
   ever!" Forever shall Christ be fair and lovely in the esteem of His
   Father, in the sight of all intelligent spirits, lovely to the ends of
   the universe, lovely while the cycles of ages shall roll, chief among
   10,000, and altogether lovely! Thus Beloved, the King is arrayed in
   rarest beauty.

   III. Furthermore, THERE ARE SEASONS WHEN WE SEE THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY.
   We see the King in His

   beauty at this moment, not with these eyes, but with the far clearer
   spiritual eye of faith. Eyes are impediments to spiritual sight! Faith
   is the true eyeball of the soul. Confidence in God substantiates the
   things that are not seen--gives solid form and shape to that which eye
   has not beheld.

   Let me tell you briefly when some of us have seen the King in His
   beauty. We saw Him in that day when He pardoned us of all our sins. You
   remember it! That day when Jesus met you and you were able to cast all
   your sins on Him and see them all forgiven! Did you ever see such a
   lovely sight before? Well do I recollect that day! Well will some of
   you remember the time when you laid your sins on Jesus, the appointed
   Lamb of God. You had had many friends but never such a friend as He.
   You had derived much comfort at different times, but never such comfort
   as He gave you. Oh, those dear wounds, that crown of thorns on His
   head, that blood-sprinkled Person!

   How you could have kissed those feet! With what alacrity would you have
   broken the alabaster box of precious ointment, to have poured it on His
   head, if you could have done so! He was precious to you. He is precious
   now at the bare recollection of that happy day. When the king writes
   the felon's pardon, how fair is his handwriting! When the King says, "I
   have blotted out your sins like a cloud," even the weak and bloodshot
   eyes of a penitent sinner can discern the inexpressible loveliness of
   such a gracious Lord. But, dear Brethren, Jesus Christ was seen by us
   in His beauty more fully when, after being pardoned, we found how much
   He had done for us!

   You had no idea, when you were first saved, that there was so much in
   store for you. You conceived that if your sins were forgiven it would
   be all you wanted. But lo, you found you were made a child of God,
   introduced into the family of the Most High! You discovered that you
   were covered with a robe of righteousness, that your feet were set upon
   the Rock of Ages, that a new song was put into your mouth, and that you
   had a portion in the skies! Do you remember, some of you, when, first
   of all, you learned the doctrine of Jesus Christ's eternal love to you?
   I know it came to my mind, when first I understood it, like a new
   discovery! Columbus, when he discovered America, could not have been so
   overjoyed as my heart was when I learned the lesson of those words,
   "Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving
   kindness have I drawn you."

   Oh, you saw the King in His beauty when you discovered that not only
   had He loved you with an everlasting love, but always would He do so!
   That from His bosom He never could or would divorce you! That you were
   His in time and would be His in eternity. Do you remember when you
   could grasp that glorious Truth of God--

   "Immutable His will, Though dark may be my frame, His loving heart is
   still Eternally the same: My soul through many changes goes, His love
   no variation knows."

   Let me say to you, Beloved, the more you know about Christ, the less
   you are satisfied with superficial views of Him. And the more deeply
   you study His transactions in the Everlasting Covenant, His engagements
   on your behalf as the eternal Surety, and the fullness of His Grace
   which shines in all His offices, the more will you be seeing the King
   in His beauty. Be much in such outlooks! Long more and more to see
   Jesus!

   There are times also, when, in our contemplations, we see His beauty.
   Meditation and contemplation are often like windows of agate and gates
   of carbuncle through which we see the Redeemer. Meditation puts the
   telescope to the eye, and enables us to see Jesus after a better sort
   than we could have seen Him if we had lived in the days of His flesh.
   For now we see not only Jesus in the flesh, but the spiritual Jesus. We
   see the spirit of Jesus, the core and essence of Jesus, the very soul
   of the Savior. O happy are you that spend much time in contemplations!
   I wish that we had less to do, that we might do more of this heavenly
   work. Would that our conversation were more in Heaven and that we were
   more taken up with the Person, the work, the beauty of our Incarnate
   Lord. More meditation, and you would see the King in his beauty better.

   Beloved, it is very probable that we shall have such a sight of our
   glorious King as we never had before when we come to die. Many saints,
   in dying, have looked up from amid the stormy waters and have seen
   Jesus walking on the waves of the sea and heard Him say, "It is I, be
   not afraid." I have heard expressions from some dying men and women
   that I never read in the best written book. They have seemed to me as
   if they knew more about my Master than I had ever learned, or than the
   old Divines, or the best of writers had ever been able to communicate.
   Ah, yes! When the tenement begins to shake, and the clay falls away, we
   see Christ through the rifts, and between the rafters the sunlight of
   Heaven comes streaming through!

   But, Brethren, if we want to see the King in His beauty we must go to
   Heaven for it, or the King must come here in His Person. It may be He
   will spare us till He comes. But, just as likely is it that He will
   take us away to see Him where He is. Do you ever long for Him? Do you
   ever grow weary of this prison? Do you ever pant to see your Beloved?
   Those sweet words of our hymn, do they ever come across your mind?--

   "My heart is with Him on His Throne,

   And ill can brook delay.

   Each moment listening for the voice,

   'Rise up, and come away.'"

   He is our Husband, and we are widowed by His absence! He is our Brother
   sweet and fair, and we are lonely without Him! Thick veils and clouds
   hang between our souls and their true life--when shall the day break
   and the shadows flee away? When shall the veil be torn again and the
   glory of God be seen? When shall we leave these childish things, leave
   the glass in which we see our Beloved darkly--and see Him face to face?
   Oh, long-expected day begin! My eyes shall see the King in His beauty.

   As I pause over this verse, I would like to ask every hearer here
   whether he expects to see the King with joy? You never will unless you
   see Him here on earth as your Savior. You must see Him by faith in His
   sufferings or else you will never see Him by sight in His beauty. Let
   the question go along these seats, "Shall my eyes see the King in His
   beauty, or, must I say with Balaam, 'I shall see Him, but not near. I
   shall behold Him, but not now. I shall see Him as a Judge, but His
   beauties shall increase my alarm. I shall flee from Him and say to the
   rocks and to the hills, hide me from the face of Him that sits on the
   throne.' "

   Dear Hearer, I hope that will not be your dreadful lot! Look to Him
   this morning by faith, for He is still able to save to the uttermost
   them that come unto God by Him! Cast your spirits upon His finished
   work this moment, and then joyfully sing--

   "There shall my disimprisoned soul

   Behold Him and adore,

   Be with His likeness satisfied,

   And grieve and sin no more.

   Shall see Him wear that very flesh

   On which my guilt was lain;

   His love intense, His merit fresh,

   As though but newly slain.

   These eyes shall see Him in that day,

   The God that died for me;

   And all my rising bones shall say,

   Lord, who is like to You?"

   IV. THE EXCEEDING GLORY OF THIS SIGHT may well detain us for a minute
   or two. I shall set out this exceeding glory to you by way of contrast.
   What a sight that was which Abraham beheld one morning when he lifted
   up his eyes "and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all
   the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country
   went up as the smoke of a furnace."

   I think I see the Prophet all alone, gazing upon the dreadful sight. He
   had interceded and wrestled with God with arguments, and yet Sodom and
   the cities of the plain are all gone! A fire-shower has destroyed them,
   and their smoke darkens the sky. Can you put yourself in such a
   position and on a far more terrible scale look at the judgments of the
   lost, of which we are told in the book of the Revelation--"their smoke
   goes up forever and ever"? What a vision! And you would have been
   there, not as a spectator, but yourself dwelling with everlasting
   burnings unless love had delivered you!

   Contrast what you deserve with what Divine Grace has prepared for you!
   O Believer in Christ, no smoke of furnace, no terrors of devouring
   flame, but for you the promise--"Your eyes shall see the King in His
   beauty." Glory be to super abounding Grace, that, "where sin abounded,
   Grace did much more abound." Contrast this again with another sight.
   The prophet Ezekiel was taken to the temple and after seeing the image
   of jealousy set up, he was shown yet greater abominations. Behold,
   there was a hole in the wall, and within were all forms of creeping
   things and abominable beasts, and a voice said to the Prophet, "I will
   show you greater abominations than these," and he saw yet filthier and
   fouler forms of idolatry.

   You and I have been like that Prophet--we have had to gaze into our own
   hearts, and we have seen the idols there! And as we have looked longer,
   we have seen worse idols than we had seen before. And if your daily
   experience is like mine, you have often heard that mysterious voice,
   "Son of man, I will show you greater abominations than these." Yet,
   although all this inbred sin was within us--and some of it is still
   there--yet our eyes shall see the King in His beauty! What a change
   from fighting with corruption to full communion with Christ! What an
   exchange from a sense of sin to the perfect image of our best Beloved!
   Rejoice, then, dear Brothers and Sisters, exceedingly, when you look at
   the contrast!

   Again, let me try to show you the great beauty of this sight by
   comparison. Our Lord had a very remarkable sight when He was taken up
   to an exceedingly high mountain and He was shown all the kingdoms of
   the world and the glory thereof by the Evil Spirit. A fair sight--you
   and I might be glad of the vision--though not of the temptation which
   followed it. But among all that was to be seen from this mount of
   temptation, there is nothing to equal the sight of the King in His
   beauty! Verily I say unto you that all the kings of the earth, in all
   their splendor, with all their hosts and armies in their glittering
   array are not to be compared to Him who is altogether lovely!

   Compare yourself, again, with the queen of Sheba. She came from afar to
   see the wisdom of Solomon, but, behold, a greater than Solomon is to be
   seen by you! When she saw the king's riches, and his servants, and his
   pomp, no heart was left in her. But Solomon, in all his glory, was not
   arrayed like the Savior of men! He was not worthy to be a waiting
   footman at the table of our great King! Even the sight that Moses saw
   hardly bears comparison. He looked from Pisgah upon the land that
   flowed with milk and honey and he tracked the land from Lebanon's
   snow-crested peaks far away to the blue sea, and to the tawny desert
   that goes down to Egypt.

   With joyful eyes he beheld the cities where the tribes would dwell and
   saw the hills which are round about Jerusalem. But he died and entered
   not into the land. You and I see Jesus! And in that day we enter fully
   into possession of Him! All the milk and honey that ever flowed in
   Sharon's plains, or Eshcol's valleys never could be compared for a
   single second to the everlasting joy and beatific blessedness that are
   to be found in a sight of Christ! I think our sight of Christ will be
   even nearer and clearer than that of John in Patmos, though that is the
   nearest approach to it. John saw his Master but for a season--we shall
   behold Him forever and see the Savior in His own Person--not a mere
   picture upon the camera of the imagination.

   V. Lastly. From the text it appears that THIS SIGHT OF CHRIST EMINENTLY
   AFFORDS LIBERTY TO THE

   SOUL. When we see not Christ, we cannot receive the possessions of the
   Covenant. But when we get a view of the King in His beauty, then we see
   the land that is very far off. A sight of Christ gives us a view of the
   dim past--a view of electing love we sweetly enjoy when we see the King
   in His beauty. And the future, which is dark with excessive
   brightness--that we also see when we see Jesus and know that we shall
   be like He when we see Him as He is.

   If we live near to Jesus we shall count no Covenant mercy too great for
   Him to bestow. "He that spared not His own Son, but freely delivered
   Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all
   things?" Do any of you want to enjoy the high doctrine of eternal love?
   Do you desire liberty in very close communion with God? Do you long to
   understand mysteries? Do you aspire to know the heights, and depths,
   and lengths, and breadths? Then, Beloved, you must get to see the King
   in His beauty! He who understands Christ receives an anointing from the
   Holy One by which he knows all things.

   Christ is the great master key of all the chambers of God. There is no
   treasure house of God which will not open and yield up all its wealth
   to the soul that lives near to Jesus! O that He would dwell in my
   bosom! Would that He would make my heart to be His house, His dwelling
   place forever! Open the door, beloved Hearers, and He will come into
   your souls. He has long been knocking and it is this which He has
   wanted--that He may sup with you--and you with Him.

   He sups with you because you have the house or the heart, and you with
   Him because He brings the provision. He could not sup with you if it
   were not in your heart, you finding the house. Nor could you sup with
   Him, for you have a bare cupboard and He must bring the provision with
   Him.

   Fling wide, then, the portals of your soul! He will come with that love
   which you long to feel! He will come with that joy with which you
   cannot work your poor depressed spirit! He will bring you joy which now
   you have not! He will come with His flagons of wine and sweet apples
   and cheer you till you shall have no other sickness but that of love
   overpowering, love Divine! Only open the door, then, and have no other
   sickness than that of love. Only open the door, then, to Him! Drive out
   His enemies! Give Him the keys of your heart and He will dwell there
   forever--and your eyes shall see the King in His beauty!

   May the Lord give His blessing to these few remarks of mine and cause
   them to live in His people's souls so that they may live near to Him
   and dwell in Him. You who never knew the Lord, take my word for it, you
   do not know what happiness is! If you have never seen my Lord, you have
   never seen anything worth seeing! If you have never rested in Him you
   have not cast your anchor where it will hold. O hunger after Jesus!
   Long for Jesus! Never rest till you win Him! He is waiting to receive
   you--He has a great heart to receive sinners--

   "He sits on Zion'shill, And receives poor sinners still." Do but come
   to Him. As for your sin and your righteousness--throw both of those
   away--come to Him as you are--He will never reject the soul that longs
   to be saved entirely by Him. May God bless you, for Jesus' sake! Amen.
     __________________________________________________________________

                  Nazareth--or Jesus, Rejected by His Friends

   A sermon

   (No. 753)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JUNE 2, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
   filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city. And
   they led Him unto the brow of the hill on which their city was built,
   that they might throwHim down over the cliff. Thenpassing through the
   midst of them He went His way."- Luke 4:28-30.

   JESUS had spent several years in retirement in the house of His reputed
   father at Nazareth. He must have been well known--the excellency of His
   Character and conduct must have attracted notice. In due time He left
   Nazareth, was baptized by John in Jordan, and began at once His work of
   preaching and working wonders. The inhabitants of Nazareth, no doubt,
   often said to one another, "He will be sure to come home and see His
   parents. When He comes we will all go to hear what the carpenter's son
   has to say."

   There is always an interest in hearing one of the lads of the village
   when he becomes a preacher, and this interest was heightened by the
   hope of seeing wonders such as Jesus had worked at Capernaum. Curiosity
   was excited--everybody hoped and trusted that He would make Nazareth
   famous among the cities of the tribes. Perhaps He would settle down
   there and attract a crowd of customers to their shops by becoming the
   great Physician of Nazareth, the great Wonderworker of the district.

   By-and-by, when it so pleased Him, the famous Prophet came to His own
   city, and, when the Sunday drew near, the interest grew very intense as
   men asked the question, "What do you think, will He be at the synagogue
   tomorrow? If He shall be there, He must, by some means, be induced to
   speak." The ruler of the synagogue, sharing in the common opinion, at
   the proper point of the service, when he saw Jesus present, took up the
   roll of the Prophet and passed it to Him, that He might read a passage,
   and then speak according to His own mind upon it.

   All eyes were opened. No sleepy people were in the synagogue that
   morning when He took the roll, unfolded it like one who was well
   accustomed to the Book, opened it at a passage most pertinent and
   applicable to Himself, read it, standing, thus paying respect to the
   Word by His posture. And then, when He had folded up the Book, He took
   His seat--not because He had nothing to say--but because it was the
   good practice in those days for the preacher to sit down and the
   hearers to stand. A method much to be preferred to the present one in
   some respects, at any rate, when the preacher is lame, or the hearers
   drowsy.

   The passage which Jesus read to them, I have said, was very suitable
   and applicable to Himself. But the most remarkable point, perhaps, was
   not so much what He read as what He did not read, for He paused,
   almost, in the middle of a sentence: "To proclaim," said He, "the year
   of the Lord," and there He stopped. The passage is not complete unless
   you read the next words, "and the day of vengeance of our God." Our
   Lord wisely ceased reading at those words, probably wishing that the
   first sermon He should deliver should be altogether gentle, and have in
   it not so much as a word of threatening.

   His heart's desire and prayer for them was that they might be saved,
   and that instead of a day of vengeance it might be to them the
   acceptable year of the Lord. So he folded the Book, sat down, and then
   began His exposition by opening up His own commission, He explained who
   the blind were, who the captives were, who the sick and wounded and
   bruised were, and after what sort the Grace of God had provided liberty
   and healing and salvation.

   They were all wonder struck! They had never heard anyone speak so
   fluently and with so much force--so simply, and yet so nobly. All eyes
   were fastened and everybody was astonished at the Speaker's style and
   matter. Soon a buzz went round the synagogue, for each man said to his
   fellow, "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called
   Mary? And His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His
   sisters, are they not all with us? From where, then, has this Man all
   these things?"

   They were astonished and envious, too. Then the Speaker, feeling that
   it was not the object of His ministry to astonish people but to impress
   their hearts, changed His subject, and charged with tremendous vigor
   upon their consciences. For if men will only give the minister their
   wonder, they have given him nothing! We desire you to be convicted, and

   converted, and short of this, we fail. Jesus turned from a subject
   glowing with interest, fruitful with every blessing-- seeing that to
   them it was no more than pearls to swine--and He spoke to them
   personally, pointedly, somewhat cuttingly, as they thought. "You will
   surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Yourself: whatever we
   have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country."

   And then He plainly told them that He did not recognize their claims,
   that albeit He might have been bred in that district, and have lived
   with them, yet He did not recognize from that reason any obligation to
   display His power to suit their pleasure. And He gave an instance in
   point--He showed that Elijah, when God, "the Father of the fatherless,
   and the Judge of the widow"--would bless a widow was not sent to bless
   a widow of Israel, but a Gentile woman, a Syro-phenician, one of the
   accursed Canaanites!

   To none of the widows of Israel "was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a
   city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow." Then, again, He
   mentioned that Elisha, the servant of Elijah, when he had healing to
   give to lepers, did not heal an Israelite leper--he healed not even
   those lepers who came with the good news that the Syrian host had fled.
   But he healed a stranger from a far country, even Naaman.

   Thus the Savior set forth the doctrine of Sovereign Grace! Thus He
   declared Himself to be free to do as He would with His own. And this,
   with other circumstances connected with the sermon, so excited the
   anger of the entire congregation that those eyes which had looked upon
   Him with wonder, at first, now began to glare like the eyes of beasts!
   And those tongues which were ready to have given Him applause began to
   howl forth indignation!

   They rose up at once to slay the Preacher! The curiosity of yesterday
   was turned into the indignation of today, and whereas, a few hours ago
   they would have welcomed the Prophet to His own country, they would now
   think, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" is too good for Him. They drag Him
   out of the synagogue--breaking up their own worship, forgetful of the
   holiness of the day to which they paid such wonderful respect--and they
   compelled Him forth to cast Him, as malefactors sometimes were from
   lofty rocks, from the brow of the hill on which their city was built.

   He evaded them and escaped, but what a singular termination to such a
   beginning! Why, you and I would have said, What a fruitful field have
   we here! The best of Preachers! And one of the most desirable of
   audiences--a people all attentive, every ear open, almost every mouth
   open, so wonder-struck are they with Him--with His mode of address and
   with what He has to say! There will be innumerable conversion here!
   Nazareth will become the stronghold of Christianity! It will be the
   very metropolis of the new faith!

   But no such thing--such is the perversity of human nature--that where
   we expect much, we get but little. And the field which should have
   brought forth wheat a hundred-fold, yields nothing but thorns and
   thistles. My design is, as God may help me, to make an application of
   this narrative to the hearts and consciences of some now present--some
   who are doing with the Savior somewhat in the same manner as these men
   of Nazareth did with Him in the days of His flesh. We shall consider,
   first of all, who were these rejecters of Christ. Secondly, why this
   rejection. And thirdly, what came of it.

   I. First, then, WHO WERE THESE REJECTORS OF CHRIST? I ask the question
   because I am persuaded that they have their types and representatives
   here at the present moment. They were, dear Friends, first of all,
   those who were nearest related to the Savior. They were the people of
   His own town. Ordinarily, you would expect fellow townsmen to show a
   man the most kindness. He was come unto His own, and though His own
   received Him not, this was a subject of wonder that they should not do
   so!

   Now, there are some in this house this morning who are not Christians.
   They are not with Christ and consequently they are against Him. But
   still they are the nearest related to Christ of any unconverted people
   in the world because from their childhood they have attended religious
   worship. They have joined in the songs, and prayers, and services of
   the Lord's House.

   Moreover, they are fully persuaded of the authenticity and Divinity of
   the Word of God, and they have no doubt but what the Savior was sent
   from God and that He can save, and is the appointed Savior. They are
   not troubled with doubts. Skeptical thoughts do not perplex them. They
   are, in fact, Agrippas, almost persuaded to be Christians. They are not
   Christians, but they are the nearest related to Christians of any
   people living upon the face of the earth.

   You would naturally expect that they would be the best people to preach
   to, but they have not proved to be so. They have not proved to be so in
   my case, for some such attending here are less likely to be brought to
   a decision than those who are afar off. You know to whom I refer, for
   some of you, as you look me in the face, might well think, "Master, in
   saying so, you rebuke us, also."

   These people of Nazareth, again, were those who knew most about Christ.
   They were well-acquainted with His mother and the rest of His
   relatives. They knew His whole pedigree. They could tell at once that
   Joseph and Mary were of

   the tribe of Judah. They probably could tell why they came from
   Bethlehem and how it was that they once sojourned for awhile in Egypt.
   The whole story of the wondrous Child was known to them.

   Now, surely these people, not needing to be taught the rudiments, not
   requiring to be instructed in the very elements of the faith, must have
   been a very hopeful people for Jesus to preach to! But alas, they did
   not prove to be so! I have many here who are wonderfully like they. You
   know the whole story of the Savior and have known it ever since your
   childhood. More than that, the doctrines of the Gospel are
   theoretically well understood by you. You can discuss Gospel Truths,
   and you delight to do so, for you take a deep interest in them.

   When you read the Scripture it is not to you a dark, mysterious volume,
   which you cannot at all comprehend--you are able to teach others what
   are the first principles of the Truth of God. And yet, for all that,
   how strangely sad it is that, knowing so much, you should practice so
   little! I am afraid that some of you know the Gospel so well that for
   this very reason it has lost much of its power with you, for it is as
   well known as a thrice-told tale.

   If you heard it for the first time, its very novelty would strike you,
   but such interest you cannot now feel. It is said of Whitfield's
   preaching that one reason of its great success was that he preached the
   Gospel to people who had never heard it before. The Gospel was, to the
   masses of England in Whitfield's day, very much a new thing. The Gospel
   had been either expunged from the Church of England and from
   Dissenters' pulpits, or where it remained it was with the few within
   the Church and was unknown to the masses outside.

   The simple Gospel of "believe and live," was so great a novelty, that
   when Whitfield stood up in the fields to preach to his tens of
   thousands, they heard the Gospel as if it were a new revelation fresh
   from the skies! But some of you have become Gospel-hardened. It would
   be impossible to put it into a new shape for your ears. The angles, the
   corners of the Truth of God, have become worn off to you. Sundays
   follow Sundays, and you come up to this Tabernacle--you have been here
   long. You take your seats and go through the service and it has as much
   become routine with you as your getting up and dressing yourselves in
   the morning.

   The Lord knows I dread the influence of routine upon myself. I fear
   lest it should get to be a mere form with me to deal with your souls,
   and I pray God He may deliver you and me from the deadly effect of
   religious routine. It were better if some of you would change your
   place of worship rather than sleep in the old one. Go and hear somebody
   else if you have heard me long and obtained no blessing. Rather than
   get in those pews and perish under the Word, lulled by the Gospel which
   is meant to arouse you, go elsewhere, and let some other voice speak to
   your ears, and let some other preacher see what God may do by him. O
   may the Spirit of God but save you, and it shall be equal joy to me
   whether you be saved under someone else, or under my own word. Yet here
   is the matter--it is sad, indeed, that men so nearly related to
   Christianity, who know so much about Christ--should yet reject the
   Redeemer.

   Again, these were people who supposed that they had a claim upon
   Christ. They did not feel that it would be a great kindness on the part
   of the Lord Jesus to heal their sick. They no doubt argued, "He is a
   Nazareth man, and of course He is, in duty, bound to help Nazareth."
   They considered themselves as being, in a sort, His proprietors who
   could command Him to help them.

   I have sometimes feared that you who are children of godly parents, or
   seat-holders, or subscribers to various religious objects, in your
   hearts imagine that if any are to be saved, surely it must be
   yourselves! Yet your claim has no basis to rest upon! I would to God
   that you were not only almost, but altogether saved, every one of you.
   But perhaps the very fact that you think you have a claim upon Divine
   Grace may be the stone which lies in your path, because you think,
   "Surely Jesus Christ will cast an eye of favor upon us, even if others
   perish!"

   I tell you He will do as He wills with His own and publicans and
   harlots will enter into the kingdom of Heaven before some of you if you
   think that you have any right to mercy! For the mercy of God is God's
   sovereign gift and He will have you know it to be so. He has said
   it--said it as with a voice of thunder, "I will have mercy on whom I
   will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
   compassion." If you kick against His sovereignty, you shall stumble at
   a stone upon which you shall be broken.

   Oh, but if you can feel you have no claim upon God! If you can put
   yourself into the position of the publican who dared not lift up so
   much as his eyes towards Heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
   "God be merciful to me a sinner," you are in a position in which God
   can bless you consistently with the dignity of His own sovereignty! O
   take up the position which Grace accepts! Beggars, and such you must
   be, must not be choosers. He who asks for Grace must not set himself up
   to dictate to his God. He who would be saved, though he is unworthy,
   must come to God upon the footing of a suppliant and humbly plead, that
   for mercy's sake, the Lord's love would be manifested towards him.

   I fear that there may be a spice of this kind of spirit in the minds of
   some of you, and if so, you are the people who have rejected Christ.
   Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! We call the skies and the round
   earth to witness! Here are

   those that are near to being Christians. They know the Gospel by the
   letter of it, and they think they have a claim upon the Savior, and yet
   they remain disobedient to the Divine command, "Believe and live." They
   turn upon their heels and reject the Savior, and will not come unto Him
   that they might have life! Hear it, I say, O heavens, and be
   astonished, O earth!

   II. Secondly, we are to explain the reasons WHY THEY THUS REJECT THE
   MESSIAH. The reasons will be

   applicable to some of you, you unconverted people, who are sitting
   here! Sometimes the Spirit of God comes with a melting power over an
   audience and makes men feel the Truth which is meant for them. Pray, my
   dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that such may be the case
   now--that our unconverted friends who give us so much concern because
   of their enmity to Jesus--may be impressed with the remonstrances now
   addressed to them.

   Why did they reject Christ? I think they did so under a very complex
   feeling not to be accounted for by one circumstance. Several things
   went to make up their wrath and enmity. The fire of their anger fed
   upon several kinds of fuel. In the first place, I should not wonder but
   what the groundwork of their dissatisfaction was laid in the fact that
   they did not feel themselves to be the persons to whom the Savior
   claimed to have a commission.

   Observe He said, in the 18th verse, that He was, "anointed to preach
   the Gospel to the poor." Now, the poorest ones in the synagogue may
   have felt pleased at that. But as it was almost a maxim with the Jewish
   doctors that it did not matter what became of the poor--for few but the
   rich could enter Heaven--the very announcement of a Gospel for the poor
   must have sounded to them awfully democratic and extreme--and must have
   laid in their minds the foundation of a prejudice. He meant, of course,
   the "poor in spirit," whether they are poor in pocket or not, for those
   are the poor whom Jesus comes to bless.

   But the use of expressions so contrary to all that they had been
   accustomed to hear made them bite their lips while they said within
   themselves, "We are not poor in spirit, but have not we kept the Law?"
   Did not some of them say, "We have worn our phylacteries and made broad
   the borders of our garments. We have not eaten except with washed
   hands. We have strained out all gnats from our wine. We have kept the
   fasts, and the feasts, and we have made long prayers-- why should we
   feel any poverty of spirit?"

   Therefore they felt there was nothing in Christ's mission for them.
   When He next mentioned the broken-hearted, they were not at all
   conscious of any need of a broken heart. They felt heart-whole,
   self-satisfied, perfectly content. What is the use of a preacher? Who
   is to preach to the broken-hearted when all his hearers feel that they
   have no cause to rend their hearts with repentance? Then when He spoke
   of captives, they claimed to have been born free and not to have been
   in bondage to any man. They rejected with scorn the very idea that they
   needed any liberator, for they were as free as free could be.

   When Jesus further spoke of the blind--"Blind!" they said, "does He
   insult us? We are far-seeing men! Let Him go and preach to some of the
   outcasts who have become blind, but as for us, we can see into the very
   depths of all mysteries. We need no instruction and opening of eyes
   from Him." When at last He spoke of those who had been bruised, as
   though they had been beaten with stripes for their sins--"We have no
   sins," they said, "for which we should be bruised. We have been
   honorable, upright people, and never have been chastened by the scourge
   of the Law. We need no liberty for them that are bruised. What is the
   acceptable year of the Lord to us, if it is only for bruised captive
   ones? We are not such."

   At a glance you perceive, my Brethren, the reason why in these days
   Jesus Christ is rejected by so many Church-going and Chapel-going
   people. Here you see the reason why so many of your respectable
   attendants at our places of worship reject salvation by Grace--it is
   because they do not feel that they need a Savior. They think that they
   are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing! But they
   know not that they are naked, and poor, and miserable. They claim to be
   intelligent, thoughtful, and enlightened. They do not know that until a
   man sees Christ, he walks in darkness and is stone blind, and beholds
   no light. They are not bruised, they say. Would to God they were! God,
   perhaps, has left them because it was of no use to bruise them--and why
   should they be struck any more?

   They only revolt more and more because they feel no smarts of
   conscience, no terrors of God's Law. Therefore Jesus Christ is a root
   out of a dry ground to them. They despise Him, as the healthy man
   laughs at the physician, and as the man that is rich cares not for the
   alms of the benevolent. Ah, but my dear Friends, let me remind you that
   if you do not feel your need of a Savior, the need exists for all that!
   You were born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and no baptismal waters
   can wash away your defilement. Beside this, you have sinned from your
   youth up in heart, and word, and thought-- and you are condemned
   already because you have not believed on the Son of God!

   Although you may not have been openly wicked, yet there is a text which
   I must bring to your remembrance--"The wicked shall be turned into Hell
   with all the nations that forget God." That last list includes you, my
   Hearer--you who forget, and postpone, and trifle--you who wait for "a
   more convenient season." It includes you who live with the Gospel

   before you and yet do not comply with its commands, but say to your
   sins, "I love you too well to repent of you," and to your
   self-righteousness, "I am too fond of this foundation to leave it to
   build upon the foundation which God has laid in the Person of His dear
   Son."

   Ah, my dear Hearers, it is the self-conceit which makes the empty bag
   think itself full and which makes the hungry man dream that he has
   feasted and is satisfied. It is self-righteousness which damns the
   souls of thousands! There is nothing so ruinous as this presumptuous
   self-confidence. I pray the Lord may make you feel yourself to be
   undone, ruined, lost, cast away, and then there is no fear of your
   rejecting Christ, for he that is perfectly bankrupt is willing to
   accept a Savior! He that has nothing of his own falls flat before the
   Cross and takes gladly the "all things" which are stored up in the Lord
   Jesus! This is the first and perhaps the greatest reason why men reject
   the Savior.

   But, secondly, I entertain little doubt but what the men of Nazareth
   were angry with Christ because of His exceedingly high claims. He said,
   "The Spirit of Jehovah is upon Me." They started at that. Yet they
   might be willing to admit that He was a Prophet, and so, if He meant it
   in that sense, they would be patient. But when He said, "The Lord has
   anointed Me to preach," and so on, claiming to be no other than the
   promised Messiah, they shook their heads and mur-muringly said, "He
   claims too much."

   When He placed Himself side by side with Elijah and Elisha, and claimed
   to have the same rights and the same spirit as those famous ones--and
   by inference compared His hearers to the worshippers of Baal in
   Elijah's day--then they felt as if He set Himself up too high, and put
   them down too low. And here, again, I see another master reason why so
   many of you good people, as you would be thought to be, reject my Lord
   and Master.

   He sets Himself too high. He asks too much of you. He puts you down too
   low. He tells you, you must be nothing-- and He must be everything. He
   tells you that you must give up that idol god of yours, the world, and
   the pleasures of it, and that He must be your Master, and not your own
   wills. He tells you that you must pluck out the right eye of pleasure
   if it comes in the way of holiness, and rend off the right arm of
   profit rather than commit sin. He tells you that you must take up your
   cross and follow Him outside the camp--leaving the world's religion and
   the world's irreligion.

   He tells you you must no longer be conformed to the world, but become,
   in a sacred sense, a Nonconformist to all its vanities and maxims,
   customs and sins! He tells you that He must be the Prince Imperial in
   your souls and that you must be His willing servants and His loving
   disciples. These are claims too high for human nature to yield to them!
   And yet, dear Hearer, remember that if you do not yield to them, a much
   worse thing awaits you!

   Kiss the Son, kiss His scepter now, I say! Now, bow down and
   acknowledge Him, for if not, beware "lest He be angry, and you perish
   from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little." Those who kiss
   not the scepter of silver shall be broken with the rod of iron! They
   who will not have Christ to reign over them in love shall have Him to
   rule over them in terror in the day when He puts on the garments of
   vengeance and dyes His vesture in the blood of His foes!

   O acknowledge Him as He is covered with His own blood lest you have to
   acknowledge Him when He is covered with yours! Accept Him while you
   may, for you will not be able to escape from Him when those eyes, which
   are like eyes of fire, shall flash devouring flame upon His
   adversaries! Alas, this is a fruitful source of mischief to the sons of
   men! They cannot give King Jesus His due, but would gladly thrust the
   Lord of Glory into a corner. Oh, base hearts to kick against so dear,
   so great, so good a King!

   Thirdly, another reason might be found in the fact that they were not
   for receiving Christ until He had exhibited some great wonder. They
   craved for miracles. Their minds were in a sickly state. The Gospel,
   which they did need, they would not have! The miracles which He did not
   choose to give, they eagerly demanded. Oh, how many there are nowadays
   who must see signs and wonders, or else they will not believe! I know
   you, young woman, you have set this in your heart before you, "I must
   feel as John Bunyan felt--the same horror of conscience, the same gloom
   of soul--or else I will never believe in Jesus."

   But what if you never should feel it, as probably you never may? Will
   you go to Hell out of spite with God, because He will not do for you
   just what He did for another? A young man yonder has said to himself,
   "If I had a dream, as I hear So-and-So had, or if there should happen
   to me some very remarkable event in Providence which should just meet
   my taste! Or if I could feel today some sudden shock of, I know not
   what, then I would believe." Thus you dream that my Lord and Master is
   to be dictated to by you! You are beggars at His gate, asking for
   mercy, and you must draw up rules and regulations as to how He shall
   give that mercy!

   Do you think that He will ever submit to this? My Master is of a
   generous spirit, but He has a right royal heart and He spurns all
   dictation and maintains His sovereignty of action. But why, dear
   Hearer, do you crave for signs and wonders? Is it not enough of a
   wonder that Jesus bids you trust Him and promises that you shall be
   saved at once? Is not this enough of a sign that God has proposed so
   wise a Gospel as that of, "Believe, and live"? Is not this enough--is
   not the

   Gospel its own sign, its own wonder, and its own proof, because he that
   believes has everlasting life? Is not this a miracle of miracles, that,
   "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
   whoever believes in Him might not

   perish"?

   Surely that precious word, "Whoever will, let him come and take the
   water of life freely," and that solemn promise, "Him that comes unto
   Me, I will in nowise cast out," are better than signs and wonders! A
   truthful Savior ought to be believed. He never did lie. Why will you
   ask proof of the veracity of One who cannot lie? The devils themselves
   declared him to be the Son of God--and will you stand out against Him?
   Sovereign, mighty, Irresistible Grace, come and conquer this wickedness
   in the hearts of men and make them willing to trust Jesus, whether they
   see signs and wonders or

   not!

   Again, and perhaps this time I may hit the head of the nail in some
   cases, though I suppose not in many in this place--part of the
   irritation which existed in the minds of the men of Nazareth was caused
   by the peculiar doctrine which the Savior preached upon the subject of
   Election. I question whether that was not at bottom the real sting of
   the whole matter. He laid it down that God had a right to dispense His
   favors just as He pleased and that in doing so He often selected the
   most unlikely objects. For instance, a widow in idolatrous Sidon had
   her needs supplied in famine, while the widows of Israel were left
   without meal.

   At another time under Elisha, when God would heal a leper, He left the
   Israelite lepers to die, but a leper who came from the idolatrous land
   of Assyria, and who had been accustomed to bow in the house of Rimmon
   received healing! Now they did not like this. And I suppose even in
   this congregation, though you are pretty well accustomed to strong
   statements upon the Sovereignty of God, and we are not ashamed to
   preach Predestination and Election as clearly as we preach any
   doctrine--yet there are some who are mightily uneasy when the doctrine
   is preached and feel as if they could almost slay the preacher because
   the doctrine is so offensive to human nature!

   Everywhere you will notice that the church of Rome has not half the
   hatred to Lutheranism that it has to Calvinism. It is the Doctrine of
   Grace, which is the soul of Calvinism, that is the poison of Popery!
   Rome cannot endure the Truth that God will save where He wills--that He
   has not given salvation into the hands of priests, nor given it to our
   own merit or our own will to save us. God holds the keys of the
   treasury of Divine Grace and distributes as He pleases. This is the
   doctrine which makes men so angry that they know not what to say of it!

   But, my dear Hearer, I trust this is not the reason why you refuse to
   believe in Jesus, for if it is, it is a most foolish reason! For while
   this is true, there is yet another Truth that, "Whoever believes in
   Jesus Christ, shall not perish." While it is true that the Lord will
   have mercy on whom He will have mercy, it is equally true that He wills
   to have mercy, and has already had mercy on every soul that repents of
   its sin and puts its trust in Jesus! Why cavil at a Truth of God
   because you cannot understand it? Why kick against the pricks to your
   own wounding, when the pricks remain as sharp as ever and will not be
   moved by all your kicking?

   The Lord of Hosts has purposed it to stain the pride of all glory, and
   to bring into contempt all the excellency of the earth: "It is not of
   him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy." The
   Lord will bring down the high tree, dry up the green tree, and make the
   dry tree to flourish that no flesh may glory in His Presence, so that
   the Lord may be exalted. Bow, then, to Sovereign Grace! Should He not
   be King? Who else should rule but God? And if He is a King, has He not
   a right to forgive the felon condemned to die and yet give no reason to
   you? Leave that question, and all others, and come to Jesus, whose open
   arms invite you!

   He says, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
   will give you rest." If you wait till you have solved all difficulties,
   you will never come at all! If you refuse Christ till you understand
   all mysteries, you will perish in your sins! Come while the gate is
   opened and while the lamp holds out to burn! He has said it, "Him that
   comes unto Me, I will in nowise cast out."

   I must still mention another reason for the quarrel of the Nazarenes
   with our Lord. It was probably because they loved not such plain,
   personal speaking as the Savior gave them. Some hearers affect great
   delicacy. You must not call a spade a "spade." It is an "agricultural
   implement," and only to be spoken of in dainty terms. But our Lord used
   no fine talk. He was a plain speaking Man, and He spoke to men plainly.
   He knew that men would go to Hell, let Him be as plain as He might, and
   therefore He would not let them have the excuse that they could not
   understand the preacher.

   He put the Truth of God so clearly that not only could they understand
   it, but they could not misunderstand it if they tried. His preaching
   was most personal. "You will say." He did not speak about Capernaum but
   all about Nazareth, and this helped, also, to make them angry. Once
   again He gave a hint that He meant to bless the Gentiles. Elijah had
   fed and Elisha had healed a Gentile, and this undoubted fact made the
   Jew set his teeth, for he feared that the monopoly of blessing was to
   cease, and that gifts of Divine Grace were to be given to others
   besides the sons of Israel. A Gentile dog

   was to be admitted into the family, to be permitted not only to eat the
   crumbs that fell from the table, but to be changed into a child--the
   Jews could not bear it.

   Now there is a great deal of this monopolizing spirit among
   self-righteous people. Why I have heard people say-- shocked I have
   been to hear it--"Oh, they are having meetings for getting together
   these girls off the street. It is no use--you may try, but it is no use
   trying to reform them. And then here are other people looking after
   these low characters, going into those nasty back slums. Well, if
   people get there, they ought to be there! We ought not to lower
   ourselves to look after such good-for-nothing people. There is the
   Church--if they do not choose to go--let them stay away."

   As to going after the very lowest, some people turn up their noses at
   the very idea of it. This is just the horrible old Jewish monopolizing
   of the Gospel--as if these people were not as good as you, for all
   their sins and for all their poverty. But though their vice may happen
   to be outward, it is not a whit more detestable than the pride of some
   people which make a boast of a self-righteousness which does not exist.
   I do not know which God looks upon with the greater abhorrence--the
   open sinner or the openly good living person whose inward pride stands
   out against the Gospel! It matters nothing to the physician whether he
   sees the eruption outside the skin or knows it to be inside. Perhaps,
   he thinks, it may be harder to get at the second than at the first.

   Now, our Lord Jesus Christ will have you to know, however good you are,
   that you must come to Him just as the vilest of the vile must come. You
   must come as guilty--you cannot come as righteous. You must come to
   Jesus to be washed. You must come to Him to be clothed. You think you
   do not want washing. You fancy you are clothed, and covered, and
   beautiful to look upon. But oh, the garb of outward respectability, and
   of outward morality often is nothing but a film to hide an abominable
   leprosy till God's Grace changes the heart! God requires truth in the
   inward parts, and in the hidden part He will make us to know wisdom.

   But this superficial England of ours is perfectly satisfied with
   outside gentility, and you may be as rotten as you will within the
   heart. The living God will have no pretence--you must be born again!
   This doctrine, too, is one which people cannot endure! They will say
   hard things of the preacher, and for this reason they reject Christ.
   But in so doing they reject their own mercy! They reject the only hope
   of Heaven, and they seal their own destruction! I wish the time did not
   fly quite so rapidly when I have such a subject as this. I seem to have
   the consciences of some of you here, and I am hammering away as with a
   big sledge hammer, but I am afraid there is very little effect produced
   because the iron is cold.

   O that the Lord would thrust you into the furnace and make you like
   melted iron! Then the hammer of the Gospel and the Law together might
   well beat you into something like an evangelical shape, and you might
   be saved. God's arm is strong enough! God's fire is fierce enough to
   melt even the iron of self-righteousness!

   III. And now, WHAT CAME OF IT? This came of it. First of all, they
   thrust the Savior out of the synagogue and then they tried to hurl Him
   down the brow of the hill. These were His friends--good, respectable
   people--who would have believed it of them? You saw that goodly company
   in the synagogue who sang so sweetly, and listened so attentively.
   Would you have guessed that there was a murderer inside every one of
   their coats? It only needed the opportunity to bring the murderer
   out--for there they are--all trying to throw Jesus off the cliff!

   We do not know how much devil there is inside any one of us. If we are
   not renewed and changed by Divine Grace, we are heirs of wrath even as
   others. The description which is given in Romans, that second chapter,
   that awful chapter, is a truthful picture of every child of Adam. He
   may look respectable. He may seem to be a lamb, and to be so quiet that
   a weaned child might play in the cockatrice's den. But he is a deadly
   cockatrice for all that.

   The snake may sleep and you may play with it, but let it wake and you
   will see that it is a deadly thing. Sin may lie dormant in the soul,
   but there may come a time when it will wake up. And there may come a
   time in England when those good people who hang on to the skirts of
   Christ, and attend our places of worship may actually develop into
   persecutors. It was once so in England. The people who used to hear the
   Gospel at the close of Henry the Eighth's day--the people that were so
   pleased to hear Hugh Latimer under Edward the Sixth--were quite as
   ready to carry firewood under Queen Mary, and to burn the servants of
   the Lord.

   My dear Friends, your opposition to Christ may not take that active
   form, but unless you are converted you are enemies to Jesus. You deny
   it? I ask you why, then, do you not believe in Him? Why do you not
   trust Him? You are not opposed to Him, why do not you yield to Him? As
   long as you do not trust Him, I can only set you down as His enemy. You
   give this clearest proof of it--you will not even be saved by Him! If
   there were a man drowning, and another man put out his hand, and he
   said, "No, I will not be saved by you, I would sooner be drowned," what
   a proof that would be of enmity! What proof could be more sure?

   That is your case--you refuse to be saved by Christ's Grace. Oh, what
   an enemy of Christ at the bottom of your heart you must be! But what
   came of it? Why, though they thus thrust Him out, they could not hurt
   the Savior. The hurt

   was all their own. Christ did not fall from the hill. He escaped by His
   miraculous power--and the Gospel will not be hurt even though you
   reject it and do worse than reject it--and set yourself in opposition
   to it.

   Jesus Christ glides through the midst of His enemies uninjured. Through
   the persecutions of Nero and Diocletian, the true Christ of God went on
   His way. Through all the burnings of Mary, and the hangings of
   Elizabeth, right on through the times of Claverhouse and his dragoons,
   the good old Gospel remained unconquered by its foes! It abides still
   to this very day the same! It escapes from all the anger of its most
   virulent foes.

   But what became of them? Well, they had rejected Christ, and He left
   them--left them unhealed because of their unbelief. That will be your
   case. And now it is 1,860 years ago and the souls of all these men of
   Nazareth have appeared before the Judgment Seat. And in a few more
   years, when the great trumpet shall sound, all those men who tried to
   throw Christ down over the cliff will have to look at Him. And they
   will see Him seated where they cannot grasp Him, nor abuse Him, nor
   cast Him down.

   What a sight it will be for them! Will they say to one another, "Is not
   this Joseph's son?" When they see Him sitting on the Throne of His
   glory, and all His holy angels with Him, will they say, "His mother, is
   she not with us, and His brothers and his sisters?" Will they, then,
   say to Him, "Physician, heal Yourself"? Oh, what a change will come
   over those bronze brows! How for every sneer there will be a blush, and
   for each word of anger there will be cries, and weeping, and wailings,
   and gnashing of teeth!

   My Hearers, the same thing will happen to you! Within a few more years
   you and I will have mixed our bones with mother earth. And then after
   that shall come a general resurrection. We shall live and stand in the
   latter days upon the earth and Christ will come in the clouds of
   Heaven. And you who heard the Gospel and despised Him, what will you
   say? Have your apology ready, for you will soon be called upon to say
   why judgment should not be pronounced upon you. You cannot say you did
   not know the Gospel or that you were not warned of the result of
   rejecting it! You have known. What more could you have known? But your
   heart would not receive what you knew.

   When the Lord begins to say, "Depart, you cursed," what claim will you
   have not to be numbered with that accursed company? It will be in vain
   to say, "We have eaten and drunk in Your Presence, and You have taught
   in our streets," for that will be an aggravation that the kingdom of
   Heaven came so near unto you and yet you received it not! And when the
   thunderbolts are launched and He who was once the Lamb so full of mercy
   shall shine forth as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, full of
   majesty--that thunderbolt shall be winged with extra force and speed
   with this tremendous fact--that you rejected Christ, that you heard Him
   but turned a deaf ear to Him--that you neglected the great salvation,
   and did despite to the Spirit of Grace!

   As I cannot even hope to find words that can have the force of God's
   own language, I shall close this sermon by reading you these few words
   which I beg you to lay to your heart. They are in the first chapter of
   Proverbs, at the 24th verse: "Because I have called, and you refused, I
   have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded. But you have set at
   nothing all My counsel, and would have none of My reproof, I, also,
   will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes; when
   your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a
   whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they
   call upon Me, but I will not answer. They shall seek Me early, but they
   shall not find Me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose
   the fear of the Lord: they would none of My counsel: they despised all
   My reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and
   be filled with their own devices."

   God save you from that curse.
     __________________________________________________________________

                            The Saint and the Spirit

   A sermon

   (No. 754)

   Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JUNE 9, 1867, by

   C.H.SPURGEON,

   At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

   "But you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you."- John
   14:17.

   THE Holy Spirit, although He is the most active, most potent, and most
   real Worker in the world, is not discerned by the mass of mankind. The
   great majority of men are affected only by what they see, or hear, or
   feel. Their life is confined to the narrow range of their senses. "What
   shall we eat?" Or, "What shall we drink?" Or, "With what shall we be
   clothed?"--these are the trinity of questions which absorb the
   attention and effort of the worldly. If they can see a thing, they
   believe in it! If they can hear the sound of it, they recognize it. If
   they can discern its shape, they put it down as real. They know not
   that the things which are seen are temporal, and therefore shadowy--and
   that the things which are not seen are the only substantial things,
   because they exist forever.

   There they are, owlets fluttering in darkness, earthworms confined to
   their groveling sphere, mere moles borrowing in the dark earth. They
   have no eagle wing to bear them aloft, no eagle eyes with which to see
   afar off. Because the Holy Spirit is neither seen with the eye nor
   heard with the ear, therefore the world cannot receive Him because it
   sees Him not, neither knows Him. There are a few nobler spirits in the
   world whose souls are above mere dead matter, who mount into the
   spirit-world, in a certain sense. They recognize the existence of the
   soul and believe in its immortality and grandeur, but still, never
   having believed in the Spirit of God, their eye is blind to the first
   and chief of spiritual beings. Whatever else they see, they see not
   Him, and though they hear some voices from the land unknown, yet they
   hear not the Divine voice.

   Celestial influences pass over them as sound through a forest which
   stirs not so much as a single leaf--no power or passion of their spirit
   being moved by the Holy One of Israel. They can think of things
   sublime, and philosophize upon spiritual topics. Their theories are
   plausible and sometimes they speak as though they were among the number
   of God's enlightened, but still, having no faith, they are without the
   Holy Spirit. Feeling none of His Divine energy they have no life in
   Him, no love to Him, and the affections not being moved, none of the
   other powers yield to the mighty influence of the glorious Spirit of
   the living God.

   Beloved Friends, the vital distinction between the man of God and the
   man of the world is this: the man of God knows the Holy Spirit, for He
   is with him and dwells in him. But the man of the world knows not the
   Holy Spirit. He may know His name, but he is not personally acquainted
   with that Glorious One, because he sees Him not, neither knows Him.
   Mere outward distinctions, such as may be caused by Baptism or the
   participation of the Lord's Supper, are nothing at all apart from the
   Holy Spirit.

   Mere nominal distinctions, caused by wearing the name of "Christian,"
   or the name of Mohammedan, are just superficial, surface works. But if
   you know the Holy Spirit you are a new creature in Christ Jesus! You
   have passed from death unto life! You shall never come into
   condemnation. If you know not the Spirit, then you are carnal and
   sensual, and not having the Spirit you are dead in sin.

   You have not the Spirit which quickens and the flesh can profit you
   nothing. Whatever you may have attained in depth of knowledge or in
   excellence of morality, or in boldness of profession--you have
   foolishly begun to build your house at the top instead of at the
   bottom! And your house, lacking a foundation, will fall to pieces--and
   all your building shall be but as the card house of little children, or
   the sand-built tower of the fool which falls in the day of the storm.

   The great question which I want to raise in every heart this morning
   will be this: Do you know the Spirit of God? Does He dwell with you? Is
   He in you? If you have not the Spirit of Christ, you are none of His.
   But if the Spirit is in you, the body, indeed, is dead because of sin,
   but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. You are a living child
   of God if the Spirit of God dwells in you--without Him you are dead
   while you live.

   In trying to show this morning, so far as our poor powers can show,
   what it is the Believer knows of the Holy Spirit, I shall first say
   that the Believer knows the Holy Spirit by virtue of His operations.
   Secondly, and better still, he knows the Holy Spirit by virtue of His
   personal indwelling. And, thirdly, that the Believer shall know the
   Holy Spirit yet better, for the text says, He "shall be in you."

   I. First, the Holy Spirit is known to Believers, and is with Believers
   THROUGH HIS OPERATIONS IN THEM AND UPON THEM. My Brothers and Sisters,
   we have seen the operations of the Holy Spirit in the Church at large.
   It was the Holy Spirit who at the very first formed the Church. It is
   He who called out the chosen ones, quickened them, made them living
   stones fit to be built together for a habitation of God through the
   Spirit. It is He who binds these living stones together, for all
   Christian unity comes from Him as the Spirit of Peace, the Holy Dove
   proceeding from the Father.

   The first manifest dedication and consecration of the Church of the
   Lord Jesus was at Pentecost, and here the Holy Spirit was the great
   active Agent. You have not forgotten those words, "When the day of
   Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
   And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty
   wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
   appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each
   of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

   On that day the ascended Savior, having obtained gifts for men,
   fulfilled that ancient promise pronounced by the mouth of the prophet
   Joel, "I will pour out My Spirit upon flesh." There had been no Church
   of God composed of Par-thians, Medes, Elamites, and dwellers in
   Mesopotamia if the Spirit of God had not then been poured out upon the
   first few hundred chosen souls that they might be messengers of mercy
   unto others, to bring in the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Since
   then, dear Friends, the Holy Spirit has been a gracious Agent in
   supplying the Church with her ministry.

   There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. "And there are
   differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are
   diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in
   all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to
   profit. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom. To
   another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. To another faith by
   the same Spirit. To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. To
   another the working of miracles. To another prophecy. To another
   discerning of spirits. To another many kinds of tongues. To another the
   interpretation of tongues. But all these works that one and the
   selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He wills."

   "Having, then, gifts differing according to the Grace that is given to
   us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of
   faith. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teaches,
   on teaching. Or he that exhorts, on exhortation. He that gives, let him
   do it with simplicity. He that rules, with diligence. He that shows
   mercy, with cheerfulness." In all our efforts let us depend upon Divine
   power, for without it we are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
   The gentle dews of Barnabas are useless without the dew of the Spirit,
   and Boanerges' thunder is all in vain unless the lightening of the Holy
   Spirit shall go with it.

   Brethren, the more than golden treasure of the Church is the Holy
   Spirit! The treasury of the Church is not under the lock and key of the
   State--her caskets of wealth are not to be opened by the power of the
   policeman or by an Act of Parliament. The true treasury of the Church
   is not even found in the gold and silver which may voluntarily be given
   to her-- in the power and energy of the Holy Spirit are the riches of
   the Church of God! That is a rich Church which shall meet in a barn or
   under the blue vault of Heaven if the Holy Spirit is there! But that is
   a poor Church with "Ichabod" legibly written across its wall, which,
   with all its wealth, its intelligence, and its respectability, is
   devoid of the Spirit of the living God.

   This is the Church's power, her energy, her life, the earnest of her
   future glory, the present power by which she is to resist and conquer
   her foes. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church is as
   manifest to many of us as any other great fact can possibly be. Even
   when we have doubted whether we, ourselves, possessed the Spirit, we
   have been charmed to see His work in others. We have seen conversions,
   which nothing but Omnipotence could have worked! We have seen Graces
   exemplified in Christians which unaided human nature could not have
   produced! We have seen virtues in our fellows which we have delighted
   to admire! We have coveted earnestly the good gifts God has given to
   them--we have not envied them nor sought to make their excellencies to
   appear less beauteous than they are--on the contrary, we have seen,

   to the honor and praise of God, such virtues and excellencies in
   Believers as have compelled us to feel that the Holy Spirit is still in
   the midst of His people!

   Thus we know the Holy Spirit because we can distinctly recognize His
   action in the Church of God. We can discern it on every page of
   history. We see it in our own times. We have seen it graciously in
   revivals--we hope to see it yet more. And, as a Church, meeting in this
   place, I am sure we can bear our testimony, even thousands of us, that
   the Holy Spirit has been here, blessing us, indeed, and of a truth!

   But, Beloved, no man knows the Holy Spirit to any great extent by mere
   observation of His work in the Church. Let me come closer to your souls
   and deal more personally with your inward experiences. The only way to
   know the Holy Spirit is by feeling Him at work in your own souls. Now,
   the works of the Holy Spirit within a regenerate man are very many. It
   is not possible for me to mention them all, but at the commencement let
   me say that the most of them find an illustration in the work of the
   Holy Spirit upon the Person of our Lord, who is our Covenant Head and
   Representative.

   What the Spirit did for Jesus, the Mediator, the Head of the body, He
   repeats after the manner and the measure of each man in each member of
   the body of Christ. The same oil bedews the skirts of the garment as
   that which fell so copiously upon the Head. The same Spirit descends to
   the very meanest Christian as that which was upon Christ, the Anointed
   One of God. Now, you will remember that the Holy Spirit was concerned
   in the very birth of our Lord on earth. The angel said to Mary, "The
   Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall
   overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of
   you shall be called the Son of God."

   Our Lord was born into this world through the marvelous, mysterious,
   secret operation of the Divine Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary
   but He is the Son of the Highest. Our Lord might have addressed the
   Holy Spirit and said, "A body have You prepared Me." Beloved, anything
   like a new birth in you and me is also of the Holy Spirit! Christ was
   not born at Bethlehem without the Spirit of God, and neither is He born
   in our hearts. The Christ in the manger is begotten by the Holy Spirit,
   and the Christ in every humble heart comes there by the same Divine
   agency.

   In us Christ must be conceived. In us Christ must be formed. And this
   it is that Paul longed for when he said, "I travail in birth till
   Christ be formed in you the hope of glory." It is the Spirit's work,
   then, to bring Christ to any one of us, and to make us to know Christ
   and every good desire towards Jesus. Much less every real reception of
   Jesus into the soul is the work of the Spirit of Grace. When our Lord
   was grown up and had come to those years in which He exercised His
   public ministry, although He was baptized by man with water, He was
   also baptized with the Holy Spirit. In the midst of Jordan, you will
   remember, when He was fulfilling all righteousness, He saw the heavens
   opened, and lo, the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove and
   did rest upon Him.

   That was His consecration to His work. That was the anointing which
   commissioned and qualified Him as the Servant of God. He was that day
   publicly and effectually set apart by the Holy Spirit to be distinctly
   the great Captain of our salvation, the Apostle and High Priest of our
   profession! Beloved, it is thus that you and I must be separated from
   the world by the Holy Spirit resting upon us! With all His dove-like
   influences He must descend into our souls, that from then on we may not
   serve sin but become the servants of God. It is only in the power of
   His Divine anointing that we can have power to minister in the Lord's
   House as the sent servants of the Master of the household.

   Then, in Jesus Christ's three and a half years of ministry, the power
   by which He worked miracles, and the power by which He preached is
   ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself said that He cast out devils
   by the Spirit of God--it was His own declaration. So, albeit that as
   God He could work what miracles He willed, yet He chose to use the
   Divine power of the Holy Spirit of God in the working of many of His
   wonders.

   Beloved, you have not forgotten the famous text of His sermon at
   Nazareth, which is appropriate to the point in hand, "The Spirit of the
   Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good
   tidings unto the meek. He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to
   proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
   that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

   Did the Master work in the power of the Spirit of God, and shall not
   the servants do so? If you would work such works as Christ did, you
   must work them in the power which Christ bestowed so abundantly on His
   Church when He ascended to His Father. If you would be here on earth
   wonder-workers to arouse the dead, to open blind eyes, and to set at
   liberty the captives--and to this you are ordained in your measure even
   as He was, every one of you--then you must have the power of the Holy
   Spirit resting upon you, for only by that power can you lead the life
   of Christ on earth!

   The resurrection of Christ from the dead is sometimes in Scripture
   ascribed to the Holy Spirit. You will recollect that passage in the
   eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, at the 11th verse: here
   you are promised that the same power which "raised up Christ from the
   dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." Our resurrection from the
   death of sin is worked in us by the Holy Spirit. There is no rising out
   of the grave of sin unless the voice shall say, "Lazarus, come

   forth."

   And with that voice, there must go that irresistible life-giving power
   without which the dead in sin will remain dead until they corrupt and
   are cast into Tophet where their worm dies not, and their fire is not
   quenched. See then, Beloved, from the birth of Christ to His
   resurrection, He was pleased to put honor upon the Holy Spirit by
   receiving abundantly of His power. He was anointed as Man with the oil
   of gladness above His fellows, and though able, as God, to have done as
   He pleased, independently, yet in order that the unity of the blessed
   Trinity might be manifest to us, Christ went not without His Father's
   sending, and spoke not His own words, but His Father's words. And so
   the power which rested upon Him, which He chose to use, was the power
   of the Holy Spirit.

   Now, as the strength of the Head, so must the strength of the members
   be. As the Head was anointed of the Spirit, so must the members be
   anointed in like manner. As the Head rose from the dead, so must the
   members rise by the same power--by the energy of that Holy Comforter
   who has been shed abroad upon the people of God. By virtue of the Lord
   Jesus Christ's ascension we must be sustained and perfected that the
   many Brethren may in all things be made like to the Elder Brother.
   There is much more in this illustration than I can bring forth,
   therefore I leave it with you as a goodly dish to feed upon at your
   leisure.

   In enlarging upon the operations of the blessed Spirit, dear Friends,
   if you and I know the Spirit of God at all, we shall know Him first as
   having operated upon us to convict us of our sin. I trust I shall never
   be second to anyone in preaching plainly that whoever believes in the
   Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life. Yet I cannot but think that
   many, in their over-zeal for preaching up the simplicity of faith, have
   fallen into grievous error by disparaging repentance of sin, and
   setting at nothing all idea of a sinner's coming to Jesus because sin
   has become loathsome and unbearable. Beloved, no one ever did come to
   Christ nor ever will until he feels his need of Jesus Christ!

   Though it is the duty of the minister to preach the Gospel to every
   sinner, yet that Gospel never can be and never will be of any value to
   a soul until that soul is emptied of self, made to see its sin and to
   abhor it. Now, if ever you and I have spied out our disease, have seen
   the blotches of our spiritual leprosy, have been made to know that it
   is more than skin-deep and lies far down in the very core of our being.
   If ever we have been made to feel that the whole head is sick and the
   whole heart is faint (and I am sure we must feel this before we can
   savingly put our trust in Jesus), this is the finger of God, this is
   the work of the Spirit of God in the soul!

   "When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall convince the world of
   sin." And if you have been convinced of sin, the Spirit of God has come
   to you. There is no convincer like the Spirit. Beloved, I may tell you
   of your sins--I do try to do so as plainly as I know. I may set before
   you the heinousness of sin as against a just, and holy, and merciful
   God. I may try to show you the bitterness of sin in its eternal
   results. But all this is nothing until the Holy Spirit comes--and then,
   without words or with them, by whichever way He chooses to act--He can
   make your soul shake! He can make your whole heart quiver till
   rottenness enters into your bones.

   I pray God that all of us may feel this in such a measure as He may
   think fit to show it to us. But you will never doubt the existence of
   the Holy Spirit after such an experience of His power as a consuming
   fire and a rushing mighty wind! When He wields the sword of the Spirit,
   the Word of God, and drives that sword through you again, and again,
   and again, you will know Him beyond a question! When He takes the great
   sledge hammer of the Law and breaks you in pieces, and pounds you like
   wheat in a mortar with the pestle--you will never have doubts about His
   power! You will know Him, for He is with you and has bowed you in the
   dust by His Presence.

   But next, if you know the Holy Spirit, you will also know Him as the
   great Revealer of Christ. There is the serpent lifted up on the pole in
   the midst of the sin-bitten, dying, host. But, Brothers and Sisters,
   many may die, albeit that the bronze serpent is within view, unless
   someone shall direct their eyes to the spot. How many have I known,
   who, when they have been told about Christ and the plan of salvation,
   have said, "Where is He?" And they have turned their poor bewildered
   glances everywhere except to the right place! And even when their eyes
   have had a little light, they have been looking for quite another
   Christ than the one who is set before them in the Gospel.

   Oh, I remember how long I looked for Christ but could not find Him, and
   when at last I did spy Him, I perceived how near He was while my eyes
   were looking a long way off for Him--looking up into Heaven or into my
   own soul! But of this I am conscious at this moment--that I never could
   under any ministry have been enabled to spy out my Lord Jesus if it had
   not been that the Holy Spirit cast a ray of light upon Christ and
   opened my eyes so that I could perceive Him! It is our duty to set
   forth Christ very plainly, manifestly, crucified, in the congregation.
   But Jesus Christ is never seen by any light which comes from either the
   minister or his hearer--the light must come from the Holy Spirit.

   When the Holy Spirit shines full upon the crown of thorns and the five
   wounds and the mournful countenance of the Man of Sorrows, oh, how the
   wounds glisten, and how fair is Jesus to a poor sinner's tearful eyes!
   But without that light a man may sit at the foot of the Cross and see
   nothing, and even die in his darkness and sin. Brethren, if you have
   ever put your trust in Jesus, you will know the Holy Spirit who worked
   your faith in you and led you to trust in the finished salvation of our
   exalted Savior!

   Since that blessed day, have we not often known the Spirit as our
   helper in prayer? I went to my chamber and I bowed upon my knees and
   tried to cry unto God, but though I sought to pray, I could not till on
   a sudden I found a Friend. It is written, "The Spirit also helps our
   infirmities...for He makes intercession for the saints according to the
   will of God." What delightful praying it is when the Holy Spirit
   indites the prayer so that we have nothing to do but just to read what
   He writes--to utter what He suggests, to speak out what He speaks--to
   be the ram's horn trumpet and He the breath that causes the sound! Oh,
   it is rapturous praying when the Spirit helps you pray!

   Ah, Beloved, you know what this means, some of you. When you have had
   wrestling times like Jacob at Jabbok's brook. When you have been able
   to say, like Luther, "I have overcome, I have had my desire of God," to
   what did you ascribe your prevalence, your moving that arm which moves
   the world, but to the Holy Spirit, who is the great Helper of His
   people in times of prayer? Yes, we know the Spirit in that respect, for
   He is with us daily.

   Then, when we rose from our knees, we opened the Scriptures and began
   to read, and the Spirit of Truth acted as Interpreter. He wrote the
   Book, and therefore He understands its meaning. What Bible readings
   those are when the Spirit of God is the Expositor! It is poor reading
   when you merely sound the words and find not the Spirit! The letter
   kills, the Spirit is life. When "a glory gilds the sacred page,
   majestic like the sun"--when every letter reflects the light of Deity,
   and every Word glows in the Presence of the living God like the bush at
   Horeb's mountain that glowed with living fire--ah, then, Bible readings
   become soul-fattening times and the soul, being taught of God, sees the
   Father, has communion with the Son, and is filled with life, and light,
   and joy ineffable!

   You may say, perhaps, the Spirit of God is with us in these solitary
   and secret engagements and so we know Him, but is He with us in public?
   Ah, Beloved, you know not the Spirit unless you have often recognized
   Him in His operations as the great Calmer and Quieter of His people's
   minds when under distractions. It is perfectly marvelous how a soul
   that is like the Lake of Galilee, tossed with a thousand waves, becomes
   smooth as a sheet of glass when the Holy Spirit breathes upon it.
   Cares, losses, woes, brokenness of heart--every shape of human misery
   yields to the soft whisper of the Spirit of God! Oh, if you do not know
   the Comforter, I pity you!

   You may have a thousand friends, but they are nothing compared to this
   one Comforter. All the remedies of other comforters can only be applied
   to the ear, but this celestial medicine affects the heart itself with
   matchless power of consolation. He does not merely give us something
   out of which we may draw comfort, but He actually comforts us for He
   reaches the secret spring of our being and sheds a sacred peace abroad.

   Yes, we know the Heavenly Dove! We have known Him when we have heard
   the slander of the many, and fear was on every side. We have known Him,
   for He has helped us to say--

   "If on my face, for Your dear name, Shame and reproach shall be, I'll
   hail reproach, and welcome shame, If You remember me."

   We have known Him when we have lost much. When friend after friend has
   been hurried away to the grave. When there has been disappointment
   without, and dismay within, we have turned to Him and have rested in
   the infallible promise of an immutable God, "I will not leave you
   comfortless: I will come to you." I trust you know the Holy Spirit as
   the Comforter!

   More especially is the Spirit known to Believers as their Sanctifier.
   In a certain sense we are sanctified by the blood of Jesus and by the
   election of the Father. We are set apart by election to be made holy
   through the blood by the power of the Holy Spirit. This third kind of
   sanctification which consists in the subjugation of inbred sin, and in
   the victory of the new life over the old nature--this is the daily work
   of the Spirit of God in the soul. It is the Spirit's work to check the
   unruly passion, to put the bit into the mouth of the fiery desire! It
   is the Spirit's work to feed the new-born soul, to give it energy and
   vigor, to give it victory over the old enemy.

   And, glory be to God, it will be the Spirit's work, one day, to make us
   exactly like our Master! We shall be fashioned into His image--we are
   to be melted and poured anew into the mold--and made like the
   First-born among many Brethren! And while we shall give the Savior the
   praise for having washed us in His blood, yet we shall also bless the
   Holy Spirit who has worked all our works in us, and worked in us to
   will and to do according to the good pleasure of the Father--

   "Andevery virtue wepossess, And every victory won, And every thought of
   holiness, Are His, and His alone."

   My dear Brethren, I have not time to mention at length the multiform
   and hallowed works of the Spirit in us, but I trust you know them so
   well that you know Him by them. Suffice it to say that if you would
   receive blessing from the ministry, it must be through the power of the
   Spirit. And if, on the other hand, you would minister with power to
   others, you must wait upon that Spirit for your help. If we are ever to
   be lifted up from selfishness to disinterested sacrifice. If we are
   ever to be raised from cowardly doubts and fears to dauntless courage.
   If ever we are to arise from worldliness and carnality into heavenly
   mindedness and true spirituality. If ever we are to shake off the
   serpent slough of our old nature, and put on the pure vesture of
   Christ's likeness. If ever, in fine, we are to be delivered from this
   present evil world and to be filled with all the fullness of God, we
   must find our strength for each and all in the power and energy and
   quickening Spirit of the living God.

   I leave this point, only endeavoring to urge each one to enquire, "What
   do I know of all this?" I am afraid many of you know nothing at all
   about it. You are a good sort of people. You were sprinkled when you
   were infants and have been regularly to Church or Chapel all your
   lives. You do not owe anything and live as you should live in many
   respects. But you think that outward morality and outward religion are
   everything. You use your hymnbooks and prayer books, and behave
   yourselves like respectable people--but if you have not the Spirit you
   are lost.

   The external without the inward is good for nothing. It is all good for
   nothing. A wagonload of profession is not worth an ounce of Divine
   Grace--"You must be born again." The Holy Spirit must come into your
   souls, or else, if for a 1,000 years you could persevere in the most
   reputable external religion, you would end where you began--or in
   something worse, namely, in weariness of flesh about such empty
   things--or in a self-righteousness which would be more damnable,
   perhaps, than open sin.

   Beware of resting in anything short of the indwelling Spirit. You must
   have the Spirit! You cannot pass the gate of pearl without it. You
   cannot know Christ without it. "Except a man be born again, he cannot
   see the kingdom of God." This is no slight change which can be easily
   worked. You must be made new creatures--old things must pass away--and
   all things must become new. This is a work that your free agency cannot
   accomplish. This is a work that your poor weakness, which you call
   strength, will never be able to achieve. You must, therefore, have
   power from above. God must come into contact with you! The Eternal
   Spirit must dwell in your soul or else you can never dwell in Heaven!
   Let this be laid home to your heart and God bless the thought to your
   soul's profit.

   II. Very briefly, in the second place, the chosen of God not only know
   the Spirit by His operations which they have seen in the Church, and
   which they have felt in themselves, but, THEY KNOW HIM BY HIS PERSONAL
   INDWELLING IN THEIR SOULS. I shall not attempt to preach upon this
   great mystery, but I should like you to catch the thought and to hold
   it in your hearts. You know that Jesus Christ gave us His righteousness
   and His blood, and He did a great deal more and then gave us Himself.
   "He loved us, and gave Himself for us."

   You have learned to distinguish between the gifts of Christ, and Christ
   Himself. Now, the Holy Spirit gives us His operations and His
   influences, for which we should be very grateful. But the greatest gift
   is not the operation nor the influence, but Himself, which "dwells with
   you and shall be in you." The great Covenant gift is the Holy Spirit
   Himself.

   Do you understand that Truth of God? It is asserted many times in
   Scripture that the bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holy
   Spirit. God dwells in you! You are the temples of God!

   Now, do not cut that down and say that it means that He influences us
   and operates upon us. It does mean that, but it means a great deal
   more. It means literally this--that the Holy Spirit, the third Person
   of the sacred Trinity, actually dwells in every regenerate man and
   woman--that He has made our bodies to be His shrine and He is the
   indwelling Lord. Do you perceive this grand doctrine? I say again, not
   merely the Graces of God, nor the operations of the Spirit, but the
   Spirit Himself dwells in us! He is everywhere. He