Those rich men who serve the Lord

My dear brethren, the trials of faith are usually those of poverty, and right gloriously does faith behave herself when she trusts in the Lord, and does good, and is fed even in the land of famine; but it is possible the ordeal of prosperity is far more severe, and it is hence a greater triumph of faith, when the rich man sets not his heart upon uncertain riches, and does not suffer the thick clay of this world to encumber his pilgrimage to heaven.

It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand, some spilling will usually occur; but where grace makes rich men, and men in high position of power and authority to act becomingly and graciously, then grace is greatly glorified. You who are rich should see your danger; but let the case of Joseph be your encouragement. God will help you, seek you his merciful aid. There is no need that you should be worldly, there is no need that you should sink the Israelite in the Egyptian. God can keep you, even as he kept Job, so that you shall be perfect and upright, and yet be exceeding great in possessions. Like Joseph you may be at once richer and better than your brethren. It will be very hard, and you will need very, very much grace, but the Lord your God will help you, and you shall learn, like Paul, how to abound; and, like Joseph of Arimathea, you shall be both a rich man and a devout disciple.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Joseph's Bones," delivered December 18, 1870. Image by Fang Guo under Creative Commons License.

A High Standard

Compare yourself with Paul, with John, with Brainerd or Rutherford, and even that is ill advice, for what were the best disciples compared with their Master? There must be no lower standard for us than the perfection of Christ. No attainment must ever satisfy us until we are conformed to his image who is the firstborn among many brethren. You will tell me I am holding up a high standard. I am; but then you have a great helper, and I will show you in a moment how you may be of good cheer concerning this business.

To purge out the old leaven many sweepings of the house will be wanted; one certainly will not suffice. You must search, and search, and search on, until you get to heaven. The motto of your life must be, “Watch, watch, watch.” For, mark you, you are sure to leave some leaven, and if you leave a little it will work and spread. Sin has evermore a swelling tendency, and until the Holy Spirit has cut up the last root of sin, evil will grow up again in the heart, at the scent of water it will bud and put forth once again its shoots. Here is work for all time, enough to keep us busy till we land in eternity.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Purging Out The Leaven," delivered December 11, 1870. Image by Sean McGrath under Creative Commons License.

What does he think of Christ?

Is yonder person a condemned or uncondemned man? Ask him what he thinks of Christ. If he replies honestly, he says, “I do not accept God’s testimony about Jesus Christ; I do not receive Jesus as my Savior.” Either he claims that he does not need a Savior or else he does not feel that Jesus is the Savior he needs. He rejects the testimony of God concerning Christ. Is not that enough to condemn a man?

If a man in the very presence of the judge committed theft or murder, he would condemn himself; but is it not a still higher offense than this, in the very presence of God to do despite to his Son, by practically declaring his work and blood to have been unnecessary? Is it not the height of daring that a soul should stand in the presence of the God of mercy and hear him say in his word, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” and that the soul should reply, “I have nothing to do with the Lamb of God”? What further witness do we want with regard to your enmity to God? He that will not believe in Christ would murder God if he could. His not believing in Christ is virtually to make God a liar.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Essence Of The Gospel," delivered December 4, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.

Praise Until The End

Let the book of Psalms stand as an image of the Christian’s life. If we began with the blessing of the man who delights in the law of the Lord; if we proceeded to obtain the blessing of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; if our soul learned to pant for her God as the hart for the waterbrooks; and if we went onwards till we sang, “he crowneth me with lovingkindness and tender mercies,” let us not pause now, but advance to the hallelujahs of the closing pages of our book of life-psalms.

He who ends this life with praising God will begin the next life with the same delightful employment. As our latter days are nearer the land of light, let them be fuller of song. Let us begin below the music which shall be prolonged through eternity. Like the birds, let us welcome the break of day, which faith in the close of life gladly perceives to be very near.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Our King Our Joy," delivered November 27, 1870. Image by Jeff under Creative Commons License.

Repentance and Faith

Repentance is always the companion of faith. They go hand in hand. Let no man speak evil of repentance. I have been grieved within my heart when I have heard some revivalists, by innuendo at the least, speak against repentance. You will never enter heaven without repentance; and if your faith do not lead you to hate sin, and do a great deal more than merely change your mind, as these modern fanatics say, you will find it is a faith which will never estrange you from the corruptions of the flesh, enamour you of the holiness of the Spirit, and conduct you to the heaven of God’s presence. You must hate sin; you must perceive the evil of it, and you must turn from it and live, according to the instincts of the divine life communicated, as well as according to the ordinances of the divine rule made known unto you, or else you are no child of God.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Personal Application," delivered January 16, 1870. Image by joiseyshowaa under Creative Commons License.

The Determination of Christ

With what ardor did the Savior burn! Would God that selfsame fire dropped into my soul, and utterly consumed me as a living sacrifice. This would produce in each of us an abiding pertinacity. Defeated in one place we should try in another. It would be with us a determination never to be overcome in doing good. Like Jesus who sought the souls of men, not in a languid search, but over hill and dale till he went down into death’s cold shade, and traversed the sepulcher that he might deliver them, so we also in honor and dishonor, in evil report and good report, in poverty and wealth, in life and death, should still be seeking the glory of God, and the salvation of the sons of men.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Saint One With His Savior," delivered November 20, 1870. Image by under Creative Commons License.

The simplicity of the Gospel

The great wonders of apostolic times were mainly wrought by men who were illiterate in the world’s judgment; they had been taught of Christ and so had received the noblest education, but in classical studies and in philosophical speculations they were but little versed, with the exception of the apostle Paul, and he came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Yet the apostles and their followers preached with such power, that the world soon felt their presence. On the slabs of stone which mark the burial places of the early Christians in the catacombs of Rome, the inscriptions are nearly all ill spelt, many of them have here a letter in Greek and there a letter in Latin, grammar is forgotten, and orthography is violated, a proof that the early Christians who thus commemorated the martyred dead were many of them uneducated persons: but for all that they crushed the wisdom of the sages and smote the gods of classic lands. They smote Jupiter and Saturn, until they were broken in pieces, and Venus and Diana fell from their seats of power....

Even thus at this hour the culture so much vaunted in certain places is opposed to the simplicity of the gospel. Therefore I say we do not despise true learning, but we dare not depend upon it. We believe that God can bless and does bless thousands by very simple and humble testimonies; we are none of us to hold our tongues for Christ, because we cannot speak as the learned; we are none of us to refuse the Lord’s message to ourselves because it is spoken by an unlettered messenger. We are not to select our pastors simply because of their talents and acquirements; we must regard their unction, we must look at their call, and see whether the Spirit of God is with them; if not, we shall make learning to be our brazen serpent, and it will need to be broken in pieces.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Iconoclast," delivered November 13, 1870. Image by José Luis Mieza under Creative Commons License.

Seek the Spirit

Beloved, the Holy Spirit sometimes is represented as the wind, the life-giving breath. He blows upon the valleys thickly strewn with slain, and they are quickened to life. You and I, though we are made to live, often feel that life to be flagging, and almost dying. The Spirit of God can quicken us, revive in us the spark of divine life, and strengthen in our hearts the life of God. Pray for this quickening breath, and, my brother, God will give it you. As surely as you sincerely pray you shall have and feel the revival of the life within.

The Spirit of God is sometimes compared to water. It is he who applies the blood of Jesus and sanctifies us. He cleanses us, fertilises us. Well, he will come to us in that capacity. Do we feel that our sin has much power over us? O Spirit of God, destroy thou sin within us and work in us purity. Thou hast already given us the new birth by water and the Spirit, go on and complete thy work till our whole nature shall be fashioned in the image of the Great Firstborn. You shall have it if you seek it; God will give you this Spirit if this you seek for.

The Holy Ghost is revealed to us under the image of light; he illuminates the mind, he makes our natural darkness flee. Wait upon him, O child of God, that you may be led into all truth. He can make that which now perplexes you to become plain; he can uplift you into truths which are now too high for your attainment. Wait upon him! As a child of God, long to be taught of God. I do not know how to express to you the sense I feel just now of the deep condescension of God in promising to give us the Holy Spirit. He has given us his Son, and now he promises his Spirit. Here are two gifts, unspeakable in preciousness. Will God, in very deed dwell with man upon the earth? Will God dwell in man? Can it be that the infinite Spirit, God over all, blessed for ever, will dwell in my poor heart, and make my body to be his temple? It is certainly so; for as sure as it is that God will give good things to those that ask good things, he will surest of all give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for the Holy Spirit. Sit not in the dark then when the light of God will break upon you if you seek it.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Right Replies to Right Requests," delivered November 6, 1870. Image by Ragnar Jensen under Creative Commons License.

Mercy nailed Him to the tree

Can any man see the Son of God expiring upon Calvary, bearing the sin of man, and say that those for whom he died were worthy that Christ should die for them? It is downright blasphemy to connect any idea of merit with a gift so vast and free as the gift of Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins. Why, sirs, had we every one of us been perfect, and had we kept God’s laws without omission, even as seraphs do in heaven, we should still have only done what was our

duty to have done; and there could have been no merit about our service which could deserve that Christ should die for us. Should the Eternal God ever be thought to be such a debtor to his creatures that he must needs veil his splendor in human form, and be despised and rejected and spat upon?

Shall it be said that the Son of God owes to man that he should bleed and die for him? I shudder while I raise the question or suggest the thought. It must be pure, spontaneous, disinterested mercy that nailed the Savior to the tree. Nothing could have brought him from the throne of glory to the cross of woe but grace, unalloyed, unbounded grace.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Dei Gratia," delivered October 30, 1870. Image by George Lu under Creative Commons License.

Cancelled guilt

We lament for sin, and we do well. I hope we shall till we reach the gates of heaven. Sin can never be too much lamented or repented of; but at the same time we are not so to mourn over sin as to forget that Jesus died, and thereby cancelled all our guilt. No, with every note of lamentation lift up the joyful strain of triumph, for iniquity is gone, Christ has finished transgression, made an end of sin, and he that believeth in him is not condemned, neither can he be, world without end.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jesus No Phantom," delivered October 2, 1870. Image by Indy Kethdy under Creative Commons License.

The Lovingkindness of the Lord

The lovingkindness of the Lord is a topic that can be reached by the babe in grace, and yet will not be superfluous to the most advanced. There are topics in Scripture so profound and surrounded with such metaphysical difficulties, and rendered so much more perplexing by the wisdom, or the unwisdom, of divines, that one might almost say to the Christian thinker, “You may pass those by, for you will never get much out of them; the quartz is too hard; there is too little gold to pay for breaking up.” But when you come to this subject the unskilled convert may sit down and meditate on the lovingkindness of God, and be edified; while at the same time the most proficient Scholar in the school of Christ shall find something fresh and new every time he meditates thereon.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Think Well and Do Well," delivered October 23, 1870. Image by Mike Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com, under Creative Commons License.

Integrity in our Business

Would you be willing now to be made whole?

I can imagine that you say, “I want to be like Jesus, I anxiously desire it,” and yet permit me gently and affectionately to whisper in your ear that if you knew what I meant, if you knew what Jesus was, I am not so sure that your will would very vehemently incline that way... let me remind you that when a man is whole, complete, and what a man should be, there are certain evil propensities which are expelled, and certain moral qualities which he is sure to possess. For instance, if a man be made whole before God he is made honest before men.

No man can be said to be whole while he is still guilty of injustice in his trading, in his thinking, in his conversation, or in his actions towards his neighbors. Sinner, you have been in the habit of perpetrating in your business much that would not stand the tests of God’s all-searching eye. You often say in your trading things that are not true; you excuse them by the assertion that others do the same. I am not here to listen to your excuse, but I am about to ask you earnestly, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Art thou desirous to be made from this time a thoroughly, strictly, punctiliously honest man? No more lying puffs; no more exaggerations; no more overreaching, and taking of advantage; come now, what think you of this state of things? Why, there are some who could not carry on their business at this rate; “the trade is rotten, and if you do not fall into its practices you cannot make a living; the district is low and beggarly, and none can thrive in it but cheats; we should have to shut up the shop if we were perfectly honest.” “Why,” cries one, “I should be eaten up alive in this age of competition. I cannot believe that we are to be so excessively conscientious.”

I see how it is, you do not want to be made whole.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Singular But Needful Question," delivered October 16, 1870. Image by Richard Conlan under Creative Commons License.

Not a luxury but a necessity

Remember, my brethren, it was the Holy Spirit who first of all regenerated us. If we have indeed been born again from above, our new birth was by the Holy Ghost: “Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” are we made this day spiritual men. If, therefore, we have not the Spirit, or it be possible that the Spirit be taken from us, the very essence of our spiritual life is gone; we are utterly dead, we are no longer numbered with the living people of the living God. The Holy Ghost is not to us a luxury, but a necessity. We must have the Spirit of God or we live not at all in a spiritual sense. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his; without the supernatural work of this divine person upon our nature we are not numbered with the family of God at all.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Most Needful Prayer Concerning The Holy Spirit," delivered October 9, 1870. Image by Francesco Sgroi under Creative Commons License.

Our Sins Wiped Out

In some parts of Scripture we read of sin being “wiped out,” and the expression is remarkably expressive. Sometimes the wiping out refers to the housewife’s meaning of the word — when the dish is wiped out and turned bottom upwards; so can God take our sinful souls and wipe them right out, so that they shall be perfectly clean, and the pot which was filthy and had death in it, shall be “holiness unto the Lord.” At other times the wiping out refers to the erasure of notes made upon tablets. Some writings were cleared off with a sponge; at other times, if the tablet was of wax, and the marks were made with an iron pen, or stylus, then the wax was softened and smoothed again, and all evidence of the record totally disappeared.

Though our sins be written with an iron pen, and graven with the point of a diamond upon the very horns of our altars, yet will the Lord make the record to disappear when his mercy is revealed to our faith. He blots out the handwriting, which was against us, he puts it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; he makes our sins, like clouds, to pass away for ever. God can, O sinner, wipe out your transgressions so that they shall not exist, through the precious blood of Jesus be can finish your transgressions, and make an end of all your sin.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Done In A Day, But Wondered At Forever," delivered September 25, 1870. Image by Rietje Stewart under Creative Commons License.

Serve Him with Joy and Gladness

Jesus the infinite deigned to be an infant; he who sustains all things was laid upon a woman’s breast. There is no man more a man than Jesus, and yet in no respect is he other than equal with God. Let us then accept the rule of Jesus. This is the ladder that Jacob saw, the bottom of which rests on the earth, near to you — your feeble feet may reach it; but the top doth reach to heaven, and now between earth and heaven, between man and God, there is a ladder that never can be broken, by which sinners may ascend to the glory of God. O love him, then; with all your hearts cherish the name and honor of the incarnate God, Immanuel. Because he is so unspeakably glorious and gracious, serve him with joy and gladness.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Negociations Of Peace," delivered September 18, 1870. Image by under Creative Commons License.

Weapons of the Holy War

The club of Cain may lay Abel level with the dust, but it does not silence him; from the ground the blood of Abel continues still to cry. Martyrs may be consigned to the prison, and dragged from the prison to the stake, so that to all appearance a full end is made of the good men, but “even in their ashes live their wonted fires.” At the stake they find a platform with a boundless auditory, and from the grave their teaching cries with louder voice than from the pulpit. Like seeds sown in the earth they spring up and multiply themselves. Others arise to bear the same witness, and if need be to seal it in the same fashion.

As Pharaoh’s mighty hosts could not combat with the hail and the lightnings which plagued the fields of Zoan, and as all their chivalry could not put to flight the darkness that might be felt, even so when God sends his truth with power upon a land, battleaxe and buckler are vain in the opposers’ hands. Our appointed weapons of attack are not carnal, neither can they be withstood by shield or armor; our bowstrings cannot be broken, or the edge of our sword blunted. Let but the Lord furnish his ministers, as he did at Pentecost, with wondrous words instead of shields, and spears, and swords, and these weapons of the holy war will prove themselves to be irresistible. Fight on, O preacher; tell forth the story of the cross; defy opposition and laugh persecution to scorn, for, like thy Master, thou shalt, as his servant, ascend above all thine enemies, lead thy captivity captive, and scatter good gifts among the sons of men.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Unrivalled Eloquence of Jesus," delivered September 18, 1870.

Opportunities

Let seed unsown be this day steeped in tears of deep regret. The old Covenanters used to tell with joy the story of Mr. Guthrie, who lost his way one night on a moor. His companions went on, and he missed them. When he at last rejoined them, having found the way, he showed them that it was a blessed piece of providence. Said he, “I wandered across the moor till I came to a little cottage where was a sick and dying woman. The priest was just administering to her extreme unction, and when he went out I went in. She was troubled in mind, I told her the gospel, and she believed in Jesus. I found her in a state of nature, I preached the gospel to her until I saw her in a state of grace, and when I came away I left her in a state of glory.”

Yes, God will make us miss our way that souls may find theirs. He will put us into positions where we may find out his banished ones. He will bring them into contact with his earnest people in ways which will conduce to the saving result. Let us be on the look-out. He who observes his opportunities will find them plentifully given him. God devises for us, and we have but to follow the trail of providence.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Means For Restoring The Banished," delivered September 11, 1870. Image by Forest Wander under Creative Commons License.

His perfect justice

...[H]e so arranges all things, that apparently without effort the government of providence embraces all interests, wrongs none, but yields justice to all. Men are so little in the way of God that he never finds it needful to perpetrate an injustice even on a single man, and he has never caused one solitary creature to suffer one unnecessary pang. Herein is his greatness, that it comprehends all littlenesses without a strain: the glory of his wisdom is as astonishing as the majesty of his power, and the splendours of his love and of his grace are as amazing as the terror of his sovereignty. He may do what he wills, for none can stay him; but he never wills to do in any case aught that is unjust, unholy, unmerciful, or in any way inconsistent with the perfection of his matchless character. Here let us pause, and worship. I at least must do so; for my soul’s eyes ache, as though I had been gazing at the sun.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Unconquerable King," delivered September 4, 1870. Image by Forest Wander under Creative Commons License.

The mercies of God

Everything in God is on a grand scale. Great power — he shakes the world; great wisdom — He balances the clouds. His mercy is commensurate with his other attributes, it is Godlike mercy! Infinite mercy! You must measure his Godhead before you shall compute big mercy. My soul, think for awhile, thou hast drank out of this exceeding great and wide sea, and it is all thine to drink from for ever. Well may it be called “abundant,” if it be infinite. It will always be abundant, for all that can be drawn from it will be but as the drop of a bucket to the sea itself. The mercy which deals with us, is not man’s mercy, but God’s mercy, and therefore boundless mercy....

God’s mercy is always special, but his mercy in Christ is specially special. I know not how else to describe it. His mercy in nature is bright, his mercy in providence is conspicuous, but his mercy in his dear Son, his mercy in the incarnate God, his mercy through the perfect sacrifice, this is mercy’s best wine kept to the last, mercy’s “fat things full of marrow.” When I see Jesus descending from heaven to earth, Jesus bleeding, Jesus paying all the debts of his people, I can well understand that the mercy of God in Christ must be abundant mercy.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A String Of Pearls," delivered August 28, 1870. Image by Forest Wander under Creative Commons License.

In the beauty of holiness

“O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

This is the only beauty which he cares for in our public services, and it is one for which no other can compensate. Beauty of architecture and apparel he does not regard; moral and spiritual beauty is that in which his soul delighteth. Worship must not be rendered to God in a slovenly, sinful, superficial manner; we must be reverent, sincere, earnest, and pure in heart both in our prayers and praises. Purity is the white linen of the Lord's choristers, righteousness is the comely garment of his priests, holiness is the royal apparel of his servitors. “Fear before him, all the earth.” “Tremble” is the word in the original, and it expresses the profoundest awe, just as the word “worship” does, which would be more accurately translated by “bow down.” Even the bodily frame would be moved to trembling and prostration if men were thoroughly conscious of the power and glory of Jehovah.

Men of the world ridiculed “the Quakers” for trembling when under the power of the Holy Spirit; had they been able to discern the majesty of the Eternal they would have quaked also. There is a sacred trembling which is quite consistent with joy, the heart may even quiver with an awful excess of delight. The sight of the King in his beauty caused no alarm to John in Patmos, and yet it made him fall at his feet as dead. Oh, to behold him and worship him with prostrate awe and sacred fear!

From The Treasury of David, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, exposition of Psalm 96:9. Image by chantrybee under Creative Commons License.

Simply put

A person may be very industrious indeed in what he does, but if he follows a method which never can produce the result he desires, he must not be surprised when he is disappointed. You are a seeker, and I am glad you are; but if you will not put your trust in Jesus, and lay your burden down at the cross where he offered the great sacrifice, it is no marvel if you continue to seek in vain. It will be a great sorrow, but it will not be a great wonder, if you become at last despairing, and are shut up in the iron cage. O man, O woman, break away from this. May God’s Holy Spirit come to your rescue now! Give up thine own ideas of how to get peace, take God’s method of salvation, and lay hold on eternal life by trusting in the Savior slain.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Seeking For Jesus," delivered August 21, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.

The Trumpet Shall Sound

How does Paul put it? ““Absent from the body;”” but you have hardly said that word, when he adds, ““present with the Lord.”” The eyes are closed on earth and opened again in heaven. They loose their anchor, and immediately they come to the desired haven. How long that state of disembodied happiness shall last it is not for us to know, but by-and-by, when the fullness of time shall come, the Lord Jesus shall consummate all things by the resurrection of these bodies.

The trumpet shall sound, and as Jesus Christ’’s body rose from the dead as the first-fruits, so shall we arise, every man in his own order. Raised up by divine power, our very bodies shall be reunited with our souls to live with Christ, raised however, not as they shall be put into the grave to slumber, but in a nobler image. They were sown like the shrivelled seed, they shall come up like the fair flowers which decorate your summer gardens. Planted as a dull unattractive bulb, to develop into a glory like that of a lovely lily with snowy cup and petals of gold. Sown like the shrivelled barley or wheat, to come up as a fair green blade, or to become the golden ear. ““It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.””

Come, my soul, what a promise is given thee in God’’s word of the life that is to come! A promise for my soul, did I say? A promise for my body too. These aches and pains shall be repaid; this weariness and these sicknesses shall all be recompensed. The body shall be re-married to the soul, from which it parted with so much grief, and the marriage shall be the more joyous because there never shall be another divorce. Then, in body and in soul made perfect, the fullness of our bliss shall have arrived.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Profit Of Godliness In The Life To Come," delivered June 19, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.

Quick to Criticize?

We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness towards our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet very immature in heart. He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more; he overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. As he has sometimes to say of himself, ““This is my infirmity,”” so he often says of his brethren, ““This is their infirmity;”” and he does not judge them as he once did.

I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Ripe Fruit," delivered August 14, 1870. Image by Georges Nijs under Creative Commons License.

Christ Our Intercessor

Now our Lord Jesus Christ not only prays for those whom we pray for, but he prays for those we never thought of praying for. There are some whom he mentions before the eternal throne whom we have never mentioned, who have never yet been observed by any interceding Christian, whose cases have never impressed a single godly heart, yet Jesus knows them: and does he cry to God for them, and shall there not come to them grace in due season? Ay, my brethren, I rejoice in this, that where through ignorance or through the narrowness of my charity my prayer has never stretched itself, the prayer of the great High Priest who wears the Urim and Thummim can yet reach, and the salvation of God shall come to such. I doubt not Jesus might well have said to Paul, ““I have prayed for thee, and therefore thou shalt be mine,”” and in many other cases the like is true.

The intercession of our Lord is a mighty power, and as it wins gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, apostles, and preachers, and teachers, are called forth by divine grace. Not our colleges, our councils, our societies, or our conferences, but the intercession of Jesus is the mainstay of our strength, the secret cause of the calling of men into the mystery of the gospel.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "An Encouraging Lesson From Paul's Conversion," delivered August 7, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.

Working with Him

My brother, if thou shalt win a soul by thy work, it is God’’s work; if thou shalt instruct the ignorant, thou dost it, but it is God that doeth it by thee if it be rightly done. Learn to acknowledge the hand of God, and yet do not draw back thine own. Learn to put out thine own hand, and yet to feel that it is powerless unless God make bare his arm. Combine in thy thoughts the need of the all-working God and the duty of thine own exertion.

Do not make the work of God an excuse for thine idleness, neither let thine earnest activity ever tempt thee to forget that power belongeth unto him. The Savior is a model to us in putting this just in the right form. It is God’’s work to open the blind eye; if the eye has been sealed in darkness from the birth no man can open it, God must do it; but yet the clay and the spittle must be used, and Siloam’’s pool must be resorted to, or the light will never enter the sightless eye.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Spur," delivered July 31, 1870. Image by Luis Argerich under Creative Commons License.

He made an end of sin

Some hope much from the mercy of God, but the law knows nothing of clearing the sinner of guilt by a sovereign act of mercy - that cannot be done; for then God’’s justice would be impugned, his law would be virtually annulled. He will by no means clear the guilty. Every transgression must have its just recompense of reward, so that the absolute mercy of God as such is not the way out of the guilt of sin, for that mercy is blocked up by avenging justice, and over the face of that star of hope called absolute mercy there passes an eclipsing shadow, because God is righteous as well as gracious.

There is no way by which a sinner can escape from the guilt of sin but that which is revealed in Jesus Christ. God has sent forth his Son, his only Son. The Word was made flesh and came under the law: upon that mysterious being who combined both Godhead and manhood in one person, the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all. By imputation the transgressions of his elect have been laid upon their Covenant Head, so that he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many. He voluntarily undertook to be the substitute and covenant surety of his chosen; and in this way, by the transferring of sin from the sinner to Christ, the sinner ceases to be regarded as a sinner, and his guilt is removed. Here is the way for that sinner to approach the Father. His sin is laid upon Christ, who became the substitute for all sinners that ever have believed or ever shall believe on him, and he himself is clear....

Now, where is the sin of his people? He hath cast it into the depths of the sea. By bearing its punishment he has caused it no more to exist; it is as though it had never been; it is annihilated, it is gone, if it be searched for, it cannot be found. Jesus Christ by his taking the sin and then discharging all the liability that was due to God from that sin, has for ever finished transgression —— mark the word, made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness for his people. Now, sinner, if thou wouldst get away from thy sin, Christ is the way; this is the way by which thou canst escape from it.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Way," delivered July 24, 1870. Image by Kevin Dooley under Creative Commons License.

His Great Patience

Reflect again, my brethren, upon the unevangelical spirit which these apostles often showed. On one occasion even John, as mild and gentle a spirit as any of them, asked to be permitted to call fire from heaven to destroy certain Samaritans who would not receive the Savior because his face was set towards Jerusalem. Jesus the friend of sinners calling fire from heaven! This might suit Elias, but was not after the manner of the meek and lowly Prince of Peace. It would have been quite foreign to all his purposes, and contrary to his entire spirit; yet the two sons of thunder would hurl lightning on their Master’’s foes. He might well have spoken to them as bitterly as David did to the sons of Zeruiah, when in their hot rage they would have slain their leader’’s foolish foes; he might have said, ““What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zebedee?”” But he merely said, ““Ye know not what spirit ye are of.””

Read the ninth chapter of Luke, which is full of the failings of the disciples, and notice how John and the rest forbade the man who was casting out devils in Jesus’’ name. With the true spirit of bigoted monopoly that will not tolerate anything outside the pale of orthodoxy, they said, ““We saw one casting out devils in thy name;”” and instead of rejoicing that there were some beyond our company who were assisted by the Master’’s power, and were glorifying the Master’’s name, ““we forbade him because he followeth not with us.”” Their Lord, instead of angrily upbraiding their intolerance, gently chid them with the sentence, ““Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.”” Remember, also, how the disciples put away the mothers of Israel when they brought their tender offspring to receive the Savior’’s blessing; this showed a very unevangelical spirit. They would not have their Lord interrupted by the cries of babes, and thought the children too insignificant to be worthy of his consideration. But, though our Lord was much displeased with the disciples, yet he only said, ““Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.””

But, my brethren, it must have wanted great patience for our dear Lord and Master, who himself would not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, to bear with these rough men who pushed the little ones on one side, who would gag the mouths of those who were doing good in their own way, and who would even call fire from heaven upon poor ignorant sinners. Admire much his patience with their impatience, and see how ““Like as a father pitieth his children, so he pitied them,”” because he knew they feared him in their hearts, and their faults were rather infirmities than rebellions.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Tender Pity Of The Lord," delivered July 17, 1870. Image by tylerdurden1 under Creative Commons License.

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The way of Jesus

Courtesy is not inconsistent with faithfulness. It is not needful to be savage in order to be sanctified. A bitter spirit is a poor companion for a renewed heart. Let your determination for principle be sweetened by tenderness towards your fellow men. Be resolute for the right, but be also gentle, pitiful, courteous. Consider the meekness as well as the boldness of Jesus. Follow peace, but not at the expense of holiness. Follow holiness, but do not needlessly endanger peace.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Winnowing Fan," delivered July 10, 1870. Image by O Palsson under Creative Commons License.

If not for His Blood...

“If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Psalm 130:3)

If Jah, the all-seeing, should in strict justice call every man to account for every want of conformity to righteousness, where would any one of us be? Truly, he does record all our transgressions; but as yet he does not act upon the record, but lays it aside till another day. If men were to be judged upon no system but that of works, who among us could answer for himself at the Lord's bar, and hope to stand clear and accepted? This verse shows that the Psalmist was under a sense of sin, and felt it imperative upon him not only to cry as a suppliant but to confess as a sinner. Here he owns [admits] that he cannot stand before the great King in his own righteousness, and he is so struck with a sense of the holiness of God, and the rectitude of the law, that he is convinced that no man of mortal race can answer for himself before a Judge so perfect, concerning a law so divine.

Well does he cry, “O Lord, who shall stand?” None can do so: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Iniquities are matters which are not according to equity, what a multitude we have of these! Jehovah, who sees all, and is also our Adonai, or Lord, will assuredly bring us into judgment concerning those thoughts, and words, and works which are not in exact conformity to his law. Were it not for the Lord Jesus, could we hope to stand?

From exposition of Psalm 130 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon in "The Treasury Of David." Image by Michael Osmenda under Creative Commons License.

Let us not forget His mercies!

Our aptness to forget God’s mercies, is, alas! too conspicuous. It has been said that the annals of a prosperous and peaceful country are singularly uninteresting; does this arise from the fact that we do not make memoranda of our mercies, or at least if we do they are far more readily blotted out than the record of our sorrows? We trace our joys in the sand, but we write our afflictions on marble. We forget the streams of mercy, never ceasing, which flow so continually parallel with our pathway. If we thus ungratefully forget, it should cause us serious reflections, when we see that God does not forget.

Here in this Book he brings to his people’s memories all the mercies they have received, because they were always present before his own mind. The child may forget the kindness of its mother, but the mother doth not forget what she bore, and what she has sacrificed for her child. The friend may forget what he has received, but it is not likely that the benefactor will forget what he has bestowed. If God’s memory therefore records all that he has given me, let me be ashamed to let my memory suffer these things to slip. What God counts worthy of his divine recollection let me record on the pages of my memory, and often let me peruse the record.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Pilgrim's Grateful Recollections," delivered July 3, 1870. Image by Dino Quinzani under Creative Commons License.

A Good Soldier Of Jesus Christ

“A good soldier of Jesus Christ.” —2 Timothy 2:2, 3.

Paul does not appear to have pictured true believers as sluggards sound asleep upon the downiest beds; his description of a Christian in the text is that of a soldier, and that means something very far different either from a religious fop, whose best delight is music and millinery, or a theological critic who makes a man an offender for a word, or a spiritual glutton who cares for nothing but a lifelong enjoyment of the fat things full of marrow, or an ecclesiastical slumberer who longs only for peace for himself. He represents him as a soldier and that, I say, is quite another thing.

For what is a soldier? A soldier is a practical man, a man who has work to do, and hard, stern work. He may sometimes when he is at his ease wear the fineries of war, but when he comes to real warfare he cares little enough for them; the dust and the smoke, and the garments rolled in blood, these are for those who go a soldiering; and swords all hacked, and dented armor, and bruised shields, these are the things that mark the good, the practical soldier. Truly to serve God, really to exhibit Christian graces, fully to achieve a life-work for Christ, actually to winsouls, this is to bear fruit worthy of a Christian.

A soldier is a man of deeds, and not of words. He has to contend and fight. In war times his life knows little of luxurious ease. In the dead of night perhaps the trumpet sounds to boot and saddle, just at the time when he is most weary, and hemust away to the attack just when he would best prefer to take his rest in sleep. The Christian is a soldier in an enemy’s country always needing to stand on his watchtower, constantly to be contending, though not with flesh and blood, with far worse foes, namely, with spiritual wickednesses in high places.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Good Soldier Of Jesus Christ," delivered June 26, 1870. Image by mr-football under Creative Commons License.

Better Than Life

...[T]here can be such a thing as overvaluing this life, and multitudes have fallen into that error. Those overvalue it who prefer it to eternal life. Why, it is but as a drop compared with the ocean, if you measure time with eternity. Seventy or eighty years of dwelling here below, what are they when compared with infinite ages of existence in the presence of the Most High? I reckon that this present life is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

When men in fearful moments have denied the faith for the sake of saving their lives, they have overvalued this life; when to preserve themselves from the sword, or the fire, or the tortures of the rack, they have denied the name of Jesus, they have made a mistake and exchanged gold for dross. Alas, how many of us, in like condition, might have fallen into the same error! They overvalue this life who consider it to be a better thing than divine love, for the love of God is better than life — his lovingkindness is better than life itself. Some would give anything for their lives, but they would give nothing for God’s love.

From a sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled "The Profit Of Godliness In This Life," delivered June 19, 1870. Image by Alyson Hurt under Creative Commons License.

I Will Praise Thee

The museum of grace is richer than that of nature. A heart broken on account of sin is a far greater wonder than the rarest fossil, whatever it may tell of ancient floods of the sea or convulsions of the land. An eye that glistens with the tears of penitence is a greater marvel than the cataract of Niagara, or the fountains of the Nile. Faith that humbly links itself to Christ has in it as great a beauty as the rainbow, and the confidence which looks alone to Jesus, and so irradiates the soul, is as much an object for admiration as is the sun when he shineth in his strength. Talk not of the pyramids, the Colossus, the golden house of Nero, or the temple of Ephesus, for the living temple of God’s church is fairer far. Let others glory in the marvels they have seen but be it mine to say unto my Lord, “I will praise thee, for thou hast done wonderful things...."

From a sermon entitled "A Blessed Wonder," delivered June 12, 1870. Image by Beverly & Pack under Creative Commons License.

The Sad Wonder

If there be anything under heaven that I am as sure of as I am of the demonstrations of mathematics, it is the fact that God hears prayer. Answers to prayer have come to some of us not now and then, on rare occasions, so that after a series of years we have a few facts to collate, but they come to us as ordinary circumstances of everyday life.

God has heard for us prayers about great things and prayers about little things; prayers about things that we could reveal to others, and prayers about secret matters in which none could join us. We have had so many answers to prayer that the fact is far beyond any further question with us; and yet there may be a matter pressing upon our heart for God’s glory, and it may be a subject about which we could plead a precise promise, such as this — “If two of you are agreed as touching anything concerning my kingdom, it shall be done unto you,” and yet we are half afraid that our prayer will not be heard: the husband afraid that the conversion of his wife will never occur; the wife fearful that that swearing husband of hers will not after all yield to the importunate entreaties which she has addressed to heaven; a teacher in a Sunday-school class still afraid that his children, though often prayed for, will not be converted. We have many prayers, but how little faith is mingled with them!

From a sermon entitled "The Sad Wonder," delivered June 12, 1870. Image by Patrick Doheny under Creative Commons License.

By Jesus' help

Sin, like an iron net, encompassed us and held us fast; nor could we be free, struggle as we might, until that pierced band which took away the guilt of sin also released us from its power. By Jesus’ help habits which seemed invincible were soon overcome; customs which bound us fast were broken as Samson snapped the green withs; we were free by the power of God’s Holy Spirit from the service of Satan and were enlisted under the banner of Christ. Oh, what freedom is this! The Lord continue to give us more and more of it till the last link of sin’s cruel chain shall be removed and our freedom of holiness shall be complete.

From a sermon entitled "Bands Of Love," delivered June 5, 1870. Image by William and Lisa Roberts under Creative Commons License.

Light blogging - summer vacation!

We've been enjoying a bit of summer vacation and hope to see you all online soon. Be sure to stay in the Word and live in God's grace!

The matchless wisdom of God

The serpent was exceeding wise, but God was wiser far. Satan’s craft was dexterous, but God’s wisdom was infinite in its prescience. Wisdom has outmatched craft. Is it not glorious to think that this world where God was dishonored most is the world where he shall be most revered? There is no such display of the attributes and perfections of Godhead in the whole universe beside as there is here. On our blighted soil God has stood foot to foot with moral evil. God incarnate, the Son of God has sustained the conflict, and won the victory, for while the heel of Christ was bruised, the head of the dragon has been most effectually broken! A triumph that God would have us commemorate in time and in eternity, has come through the sin that threatened the destruction of the world.

From a sermon entitled "Angelic Studies," delivered May 1, 1870. Image by Dennis Wong under Creative Commons License.

The Blameless One

So blameless was the conduct of this most blessed Man of Nazareth throughout his entire career, that even those who accept not his deity, do homage to his integrity. We have had in our own day, and in our midst, we grieve to say, some who have blasphemed our faith with bitterest words, but even they have paused as if they stood abashed when they came to survey the character of him whose divinity and mission they refused to acknowledge. They have seen about his life a something that they saw nowhere else, and if they have not adored they have admired. There was a condemnation of sin in his very look. The Pharisees felt it. They could not meet or encounter him without discovering and exposing what hypocrites they were. All sorts of men felt it. They could not fail to see through the purity of his life what crooked, ugly, deformed lives their own were in comparison with his, and thus the very existence of Christ, and the example of Christ, condemned sin.

From a sermon entitled "How God Condemned Sin," delivered May 8, 1870. Image by Andy Fitzsimon under Creative Commons License.

Unspeakable Gift

He is God’s unspeakable gift. Heaven itself is nothing as compared with him, and if a man had to wade breast deep through a thousand hells to come at Christ, it were well worth the venture, if at the last he might but say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.”

Jesus is so precious that he cannot be matched. There is none like him. The fairest of the fair are uncomely and deformed when compared with him. As Rutherford would say, “Black sun, black moon, black stars, but, O bright, infinitely bright Lord Jesus.” “He is the express image of his Father’s person, and the brightness of his Father’s glory.” Ye shall find none that can be likened unto him, if ye ransack time and space. Miss him as your Savior, and you have lost the only salvation possible; gain him, and you will want no other, for he is made of God unto you “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption,” and all your souls can want; yea, be himself is all. If heaven find earth were sold, ye could not match Christ in any market if ye gave the price of heaven and earth for his like. If you search eternity, and ransack immensity, there shall ne’er be found one fit to be second to him, he is so precious.

From a sermon entitled "Three Precious Things," delivered May 8, 1870. Image by Ed Siasoco under Creative Commons License.

The source of fear

Adam never was afraid of his God till he had broken his commands. When the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of day, and Adam heard the Almighty’s foot-fall, he hastened to commune with God as a dear child talks with a loving father. But the moment he had touched the fruit that was forbidden, he ran away and hid himself, and when God said, “Where art thou, Adam?” Adam came cringing and trembling, for he was afraid of God. It is sin, consciousness of sin, that “makes cowards of us all.” Though he who made us is a consuming fire, and we should always have a holy awe of him, yet the fear that gendereth bondage would never have come into our spirit if we had not first of all transgressed his law. Sin is the mother of the fear which hath torment.

From a sermon entitled "Away With Fear," delivered April 10, 1870. Image by David Hopkins under Creative Commons License.

Let us preach everywhere

All over England, in our cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, there are tens of thousands who never will hear the gospel while open-air preaching is neglected. I believe that God allows us to preach in churches and chapels, but I do not believe that we have any apostolical precedent for it, certainly none for confining our ministry to such places. I believe that we are allowed, if it promote order and edification, to set apart buildings for our worship; but there is no warrant for calling these places sanctuaries and houses of God, for all places are alike holy where holy men assemble.

It is altogether a mischievous thing that we should confine our preaching within walls. Our Lord, it is true, preached in the synagogues, but he often spake on the mountain’s side, or from a boat, or in the court of a house, or in the public thoroughfares. To him an audience was the only necessity. He was a fisher of souls of the true sort, and not of the modern order, who sit in their houses and expect the fish to come to them to be caught.... The minister who does his duty, goes out into the highways and hedges; he goes into all the world; he preaches whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, and delights to make hills and woods ring with the message of peace.

From a sermon entitled "The Model Home Mission And The Model Home Missionary," delivered April 14, 1870. Image by Richard Outram under Creative Commons License.

Grace from first to last

Many nowadays appear to leap into peace without any convictions of sin — they do not seem to have known what the guilt of sin means; but they scramble into peace before the burden of sin has been felt. It is not for me to judge, but I must confess I have my fears of those who have never felt the terrors of the Lord, and I look upon conviction of sin as a good groundwork for a well-instructed Christian. I observe as a rule that when a man has been put in the prison of the law, and made to wear the heavy chains of conviction, and at last obtains his liberty through the precious blood, he is pretty sure to cry up the grace of God, and magnify divine mercy. He feels that in his case salvation must be of grace from first to last, and he naturally favors that system of theology which magnifies most the grace of God. Those who have not felt this, whose conversion has been of the more easy kind, produced rather by excitement than by depth of thought, seem to me to choose a flimsy divinity, in which man is more prominent, and God is less regarded.

I am sure of this one thing, that I personally desire to ascribe conversion in my own case entirely to the grace of God, and to give God the glory of it; and I dread that conversion which could in any degree deprive God of being in his everlasting decrees the cause of it, by his effectual Spirit the direct agent of it, by his continued working through the Holy Ghost the perfecter of it. Give God the praise, my brethren. You must do so, if you have thoroughly experienced what God’s anger means, and what the turning away of it means.

From a sermon entitled "A New Song For New Hearts," delivered May 1, 1870. Image by Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin under Creative Commons License.

The balance of our spiritual life

It is not an easy thing to maintain the balance of our spiritual life. No man can be spiritually healthy who does not meditate and commune; no man, on the other hand, is as he should be unless he is active and diligent in holy service. David sweetly sang, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;” there was the contemplative, “he leadeth me beside the still waters;” there was the active and progressive: the difficulty is to maintain the two, and to keep each in its relative proportion to the other. We must not be so active as to neglect communion, nor so contemplative as to become unpractical.

From a sermon entitled "Martha And Mary," delivered April 24, 1870. Image by Jean-Raphaël Guillaumin under Creative Commons License.

If He does not wash you...

If a man profess to be a Christian, and is not in his walk and conversation holier than other men, that man’s profession is vain. There are some who seem to think that we are to come to Christ as sinners, and then after having believed in him are to live as we did before. But, my brethren, it is not so. Christ saves his people from their sins. When you hear the complaints of God’s servants concerning their temptations and their indwelling sins, you are not to conclude from that sin has dominion over them, or that they have not overcome sin, or that they are not other men than they once were. Nay, my brethren, I believe the holier a man becomes the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him; but he is in very truth a far better man, he is a spiritual and holy man.

If Jesus wash you not, so that you become godly and upright, you may depend upon it you have no part in him. If he do not wash that tongue, and cleanse away those angry, or idle, or filthy words; if he do not wash that hand, and render it impossible for it to perform a dishonest or unchaste act; if he do not wash that foot and render it impossible it should be able to carry you to the haunts of vice and criminal amusement, you have no part in him. It is all worthless for unconverted persons to be baptised and come to his table, for if be has not sanctified you in some measure he has not justified you. If you are not a changed man, neither are you a saved man, and if you do not aspire after holiness, neither need you hope that you shall have a part in the heaven of the blessed. “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”

From a sermon entitled "The Sine Qua Non," delivered April 17, 1870. Image by Eduardo Wickboldt under Creative Commons License.

Remembering all God's attributes

The effeminate and sentimental talkers of this boastful age represent God as though he had no attribute but that of gentleness, no virtue but that of indifference to evil; but the God of the Bible is glorious in holiness, he will by no means spare the guilty, at his bar every transgression is meted out its just recompense of reward. Even in the New Testament, wherein stands that golden sentence, “God is love,” his other attributes are by no means cast into the shade. Read the burning words of Peter, or James, or Jude, and see how the God of Sabaoth abhorreth evil! As the God who must do right, the Lord cannot shut his eyes to the iniquities of man; he must visit transgression with its punishment. He has done it, has done it terribly, and he will do it; even to all eternity he will show himself the God that hateth iniquity and sin. What, then, is to become of man? “All we like sheep have gone astray;” sin must be punished; what, then, can become of us? Infinite love has devised the expedient of representation and substitution.

From a sermon entitled "Individual Sin Laid On Jesus," delivered April 10, 1870. Image by Steve Jurvetson on flickr under Creative Commons License.

Still with us!

At this day he is with us, and will be with us even to the end of the world. Christ’s existence is not a fact confined to antiquity or to remote distance. By his Spirit he is actually in his church; we have seen him, though not with eyes; we have heard him, though not with ears; we have grasped him, though not with hands; and we feed upon his flesh, which is meat indeed, and his blood, which is drink indeed. We have with us at this very day Jesus our friend, to whom we make known our secrets, and who beareth all our sorrows. We have Jesus our interpreting instructor, who still reveals his secrets to us, and leads us into the mind and name of God. We have Jesus still with us to supply us with strength, and in his power we still are mighty. We confess his reigning sovereignty in the church, and we receive his all-sufficient succours.

The church is not decapitated, her Head abides in vital union with her; Jesus is no myth to us, whatever he may be to others; he is no departed shade, he is no heroic personification: in very deed there is a Christ, and though others see him not, and even we with these eyes see him not, yet in him believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, I trust it will never be so with us, that as we go about our life work our religion shall melt into fiction and become nothing but mere sentiment, nothing but thought, and dream, and vision; but may our religion be a matter of fact, a walking with the living and abiding Savior. Though Moses may be gone, and Elias may be gone, yet Jesus Christ abideth with us and in us, and we in him, and so shall it be evermore.

From a sermon entitled "Jesus Only," delivered April 3, 1870. Image on flickr by Steve Jurvetson under Creative Commons License.

Let us send for Him!

We have sinned, great God, and we confess the sin. What preparation, then, can we make? Suppose we sit down and investigate our case. Can we plead extenuations? Can we urge excuses or mitigations, or hope to escape by promises of future improvement? Let us give up the attempt, my brethren. We have gone astray wilfully and wickedly, and we shall do it again, and it is of no use for us to set up any kind of defense that is grounded upon ourselves. How, then, can we be prepared to meet our God? Hearken. There is an Advocate, and it is written, “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” Let us send for him.

From a sermon entitled "Prepare To Meet Thy God," delivered March 27, 1870. Image by Trey Matula under Creative Commons License.

If He be your intimate friend...

When you know a man, if he be your intimate friend, you trust him, you love him, you esteem him, you are on speaking terms with him; you not only bow to him in the street, but you go to his house, you sit down with him at his table; at other times, you hold counsel with him, or you ask his assistance; and he comes to your house, and you hold familiar association the one with the other. Such the good understanding there is between you and the man of whom it may be truly said that you know him. On such terms must the soul be with Christ. He must not be merely an historic personage of whom we read in the page of Scripture; but a real person, with whom we can speak in spirit, commune in heart, and be united in the bonds of love. We must know him, his very person, so as to love and to trust him as a real Lord to us. Judge, then, each one yourselves, whether you really and indeed in this sense “know” Christ.

Do distinguish, however, between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. We may know very much about many of our great men, though we do not know them. Now, it will never save a soul to know about Christ. The only saving knowledge is to know him, his very self, and to trust him, the living Savior, who is now at the right hand of God. To him it is we speak. With him in very deed we commune.

From a sermon entitled "Sincerity And Duplicity," delivered March 6, 1870. Image by Tom Chambers under Creative Commons License.

He saw that tear

When you let fall a tear because you could not understand the word, Jesus saw that tear; when you groaned because you could not get satisfaction of heart, he heard that groan. Never true heart seeks Christ without Christ’s being well aware of it. Well may he know of it, for every motion of a trembling heart towards himself is caused by his own love. He is drawing you, though you perceive not the hands of a man which encircle you. He is the hidden loadstone by which your heart is moved. I know it is night with you, and you grope like a blind man for the wall; but if your heart says, “O that I could but embrace him! O that he were mine! If I could but find rest in him, I would give all that I have.” Then be assured that Jesus is close to you: your prayers are in his ear, your tears fall upon his heart; he knows all about your difficulties, all about your doubts and fears, and he sympathises in the whole, and in due time he will break your snares, and you shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation.

From a sermon entitled "Nathanael And The Fig Tree," delivered March 20, 1870. Image by dingbat2005 under Creative Commons License.

Are we still running?

Think, beloved, each one of you who are Christ’s, how much you may have backslidden of late. Have you not become lax in prayer? You maintain the habit of it, and you could not give that up, but you have not that power in prayer you once had. You still read the word, but mayhap the Scripture is not so sweet to you as it was aforetime. You come now to the communion table, you have not learned to forsake the assembling of yourselves together there; but oh, the face of the King, in his beauty, have you seen that as once you did?

Perhaps you still are doing a little for his cause, but are you doing what you once did or all you might do? Instead of going on unto perfection, is not your growth stunted? Must you not confess that you are not a runner towards heaven so much as a loiterer in the road thither? Do these accusations evoke no confessions? I fear the most of us, if we came to search, would have to say, “I do remember when the love of my espousals was upon me, and my heart was warm with love to Christ; but now, alas! how slow are my passions in moving towards him! O that I could feel once again the glow of my first love, and that my spirit did rejoice in him as on the day of my conversion.”

From a sermon entitled "Backsliding Healed," delivered March 13, 1870. Image by David Baron under Creative Commons License.