forgetting that the Master is coming. "He will not come yet," whisper

forgetting that the Master is coming. "He will not come yet," whisper

pre-eminence? Ask those who are round about me. But I forbear, and

return to what I was saying: we must not allow sin to go unrebuked.

Yield in all things personal, but be firm where truth and holiness are

concerned. We must be faithful, lest we incur the sin and penalty of

Eli. Be honest to the rich and influential; be firm with the wavering

and unsteady; for the blood of these will be required at our hand.

Brothers, you will need all the wisdom and grace you can get in order

to fulfill your duties as pastors. There is an adaptation to rule men

which would seem to be quite absent from certain preachers, and the

place of it is supplied by an adaptation to set a house on fire, for they

scatter firebrands and burning coals wherever they go. Be you not

like unto them. Strive not, and yet wink not at sin.

7. Some neglect their obligations as Christ's stewards by

forgetting that the Master is coming. "He will not come yet," whisper

some; "there are so many prophecies to be fulfilled; and it is even

possible that He will not come at all, in the vulgar sense of the term.

There is no particular need for us to make haste." Ah, my brethren! it

is the unfaithful servant who says, "My Lord delays His coming."

This belief allows him to put off labor and travail. The servant will

not clean the room by daily duty, because the Master is away; and the

servant of Christ thinks that he can have a great clear up, in the form

of a revival, before his Lord arrives. If we would each feel that each

day may be our last day, we should be more intense in our work.

While preaching the gospel, we may some day be interrupted by the

blast of the trumpet, and the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom comes; go

you out to meet Him."

This expectation will tend to quicken our pace. The time is short;

our Lord is at the door; we must work with all our might. We must

not be eye-servants except in this sense that we labor in the Lord's

presence since He is so near. I am impressed with the rapid flight of

time, the swift approach of the last great audit. These Annual

Conferences return so speedily: to some of us, it seems only a day or

two since last year's gathering, the last of them hastens on. I shall

soon be giving in the account of my stewardship; or, if I should

survive for a while, others of you may be summoned to meet your

Lord; you will soon go home to your Lord if your Lord does not soon

come to you. We must work on from hour to hour with our eye upon

the audit, that we may not be ashamed of the record which will be

found in the volume of the book.

We ought to pray much about this faithfulness to our

stewardship, for the penalty of unfaithfulness is terrible. In the

Doges' Palace at Venice, we have seen the portraits of those

potentates ranged in long succession round a great hall; one square

is noteworthy, for it is a blank. If you do not look at any one of the

portraits with attention, you will be sure to fix your eye upon that

blank, and ask, "What means this?" There are the Doges in all their

splendor, and there is this vacant place. Marinus Falierus dishonored

his office, and the great council of the city ordered his effigies to be

blackened over. Shall this be the portion of any steward here? Shall

we be immortal in disgrace? Shall everlasting shame and contempt

be measured out to us as traitors to our Redeemer? Remember the

word of the Lord Jesus, when He says of the unfaithful servant, that

his Lord shall "cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with

the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Can

any of you fathom that abyss of horror?

The reward of all faithful stewards is exceeding great: let us aspire

to it. The Lord will make the man who was faithful in a few things to

be ruler over many things. That is an extraordinary passage where

our Savior says, "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when

He comes shall find watching: truly I say unto you, that He shall gird

Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth

and serve them." It is wonderful that our Lord has already served us;

but how can we comprehend that He will serve us again? Think of

Jesus rising up from His throne to wait upon us! "Behold!" He cries,

"here comes a man who served Me faithfully on earth; make way for

him, you angels, and principalities, and powers! This is the man

whom the King delights to honor." And, to our surprise, the King

girds Himself, and waits upon us. We are ready to cry, "Not so, my

Lord." But He must, and will, keep His Word. This unspeakable

honor He will pay to His true servants. Happy man, to have been the

poorest and most despised of ministers, to be now served by the King

of kings! Oh, to be of the number of those who follow the Lamb

wherever He goes! Brethren, can you abide in your steadfastness?

Can you drink of His cup, and be baptized with His baptism?

Remember that the flesh is weak. The trials of the present age are

peculiarly subtle and severe. Cry to the Strong for strength, and yield

yourselves to His almighty love.

Beloved brethren, we are bound to go forward, cost us what it

may, for we dare not go back; we have no armor for our backs. We

believe ourselves to be called to this ministry, and we cannot be false

to the call. We are sometimes charged with saying terrible things

about Hell. We will not justify every expression we may have used,

but we have never yet described misery so deep as that which will

await an unfaithful minister. Ah, my brethren, the future of the lost

surpasses all conception, if we view it by the light of the expressions

used by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! The almost grotesque figures

of Dante, and the horrors depicted by the mediaeval preachers, do

not exceed the truth taught by our Lord when He spoke of the worm

which dies not, and the fire which is not quenched. To be cast into

outer darkness, to crave in vain for a drop of cold water, or to be cut

asunder, are unrivaled horrors. Alas, that men will run the risk of

these! A thousand times, alas! that any minister should do so; that

any mortal man should climb the pinnacle of the temple, and from

thence cast himself down to Hell. If I must be a lost soul, let me be

lost as a thief, a blasphemer, or a murderer, rather than as an

unfaithful steward to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to be a Judas, a

son of perdition, indeed.

Remember, if any of you are unfaithful, you win for yourselves a

superfluity of condemnation. You were not forced to be ministers.

You were not compelled to enter upon this sacred office. By your own

choice you are here. In your youth, you aspired to this holy service,

and thought yourselves happy in attaining your desire. Brethren, if

we meant to be untrue to Jesus, there was no necessity to have

climbed this sacred rock in order to multiply the horrors of our final

fall. We could have perished quite sufficiently in the ordinary ways of

sin. What need to qualify ourselves for a greater damnation? This

will be a dreadful result if this is all that comes of our College studies,

and our burning of the midnight oil in acquiring knowledge. My

heart and my flesh tremble while I contemplate the possibility of any

one of us being found guilty of treachery to our charge, and treason

to our King. May the good Lord so abide with us that, at the last, we

may be clear of the blood of all men! It will be seven heavens in one

to hear our Master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Chapter 10. THE EVILS OF THE

PRESENT TIME, AND OUR OBJECT,

NECESSITIES, AND ENCOURAGEMENTS

(NOTE: Although this address was delivered before the resolution of

the Baptist Union, Concerning the "Down-grade" Controversy, was

passed, nothing has occurred to require any softening, but much to

emphasize it. The evils spoken of were at first denied, but surely

none can now question that they exist, abound, and triumph.—C. H.

S.)

It is not possible for us to converse together, during such a time

of intense excitement, without alluding, or at least seeming to allude,

to matters which are just now the subjects of severe controversy. It

will be thought that things spoken by me this day are aimed at

individuals who may not be in my mind at all. I am awkwardly

circumstanced, and I might, therefore, speak with great reserve; but

such is not my habit: as a rule, I blurt out my thoughts, for I have

nothing to conceal. I have no intent to wound anyone, but I cannot

help it if I do. I do not say this by way of apology, for I am now past

all need of apology, and I have become a chartered libertine in the

speaking of my mind, since I have found it utterly impossible to

please, let me say or do what I will. One becomes somewhat

indifferent when dealing with those whom every word offends. I

notice that, when I have measured my words, and weighed my

sentences most carefully, I have then offended most; while some of

my stronger utterances have passed unnoticed. Therefore, I am

comparatively careless as to how my expressions may be received,

and only anxious that they may be in themselves just and true.

Certainly, my criticisms have cost me more pain than they have

inflicted. At the first, I said that he who ventured on the task which

was laid upon me would get no honor from it: the prophecy has

proved to be true, and I am content to have it so.

I have now nothing to gain, and I have nothing to fear. I can

never endure worse misrepresentation than has already befallen me.

It is not my intention to say anything upon the burning question

which distinctly refers to the Baptist Union; and if I go beyond that

intent, it will be the current of the hour which bears me away, and no

resolve of my own. I make these remarks by way of introduction, that

your minds may be led out of the clamor of the fight into the hush of

quiet thought.

I would also add a word of caution to heated minds. Can we not

draw a distinction between men and their opinions? An old Scotch

wife once quarreled with her minister. I think the difference arose

out of some business transaction; perhaps the poor preacher was

slow in his payments, or she had not been up to the mark in the

goods supplied to him; but, anyhow, she felt bitterly towards him.

Yet she came constantly to hear him preach; and when he asked her

how she could abuse him as she did, and yet always attend his

ministry, she answered, "Man, my quarrel is with you, not with the

gospel." Our case is exactly opposite to hers. Our quarrel is not with

the men, but with that other gospel, which is not another, with which

they trouble us. Away with personalities, but let us earnestly contend

for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It may not be easy to

keep clear the distinction between the men and their opinions; but,

at any rate, let us labor to do so. Let us grind the falsehood to

powder, but desire from our inmost souls the good of those who are

deluded by it. I have heard of a stone being broken to atoms on the

breast of a man, yet he who wielded the hammer hurt not the man in

the least degree. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with

spiritual wickedness. We fight neither with small nor great, save only

with the deadly error which seeks to be king in Israel.

I desire so to speak to you, that you may be girded for the battle

against all sin and false doctrine, and be prepared to follow your

Divine Lord in all His sacred warfare. May you go back to your

several spheres of service feeling that you have wasted no time in

coming up to this Conference, but that you have been inspirited and

stimulated by communion with each other and your Lord. God help

me so to speak as to give a healthy tone to our fellowship!

I want to speak to the times. We are exhorted to be "abreast of the

age": I will look into its breast, and see whether it has there a sound

mind, or an evil heart of unbelief. My subject is—THE EVILS OF

THE PRESENT TIME.

Nobody can question that there are evils which are constant

throughout the ages; and, on the other hand, there are certain

intermittent fevers which rage only at intervals. There are evils of all

seasons: evils of winter, evils of summer, evils of autumn, evils of this

springtide. Certain evils abound at this particular period, with which

we were not so familiar twenty years ago. We meet now with error,

and with sin, in forms which they did not commonly assume in the

early years of our ministry. Truth is one and the same in all eras, but

falsehood changes its shape, and comes and goes like the fashions of

dress. To evil things also there is a season, and a time for every

doctrine which is not from Heaven.

I suppose you have met, in your pastoral work, with the great evil

of questioning fundamental truth. Brethren have always differed on

minor points, and it has not been unusual for us to meet each other,

and discuss matters of doctrine upon the basis of Holy Scripture. All

were agreed that, whatever Scripture said, should be decisive; and we

only wished to ascertain what the Lord had revealed. But another

form of discussion has now arisen: men question the Scriptures

themselves. A deacon of one of our churches said, the other day,

concerning a certain doctrine, "Even if the Bible said so, I would not

believe it." This is a new thing in our Israel. To some, the teaching of

Scripture is not of final authority: their inner consciousness, their

culture, or some other unknown quantity, is their fixed point, if they

have a fixed point anywhere. The fount of inspiration is not now

within the Book, and with the Holy Spirit, but within the man's own

intelligence. We have no longer, "Thus says the Lord;" but, "Thus

says modern thought."

We used to debate upon particular and general redemption, but

now men question whether there is any redemption at all worthy of

the name. We used to converse upon which aspect of the atonement

should be made most prominent, but in the vicarious sacrifice we all

believed. Alas! we have fallen upon days in which substitution is

denied, and the doctrine of the putting-away of sin by the blood of

our Lord Jesus is spoken of in opprobrious terms. We described

justification by faith under various figures in days gone by; but now

men are among us who set it quite aside. The other day, a certain

preacher informed us that, even if a stoner should truly repent and

believe on his dying bed, he would yet have to suffer for a while in

the next world. Thus salvation by faith is made to give place to a sort

of purgatory. This is not to differ about the faith, but altogether to

renounce it. It is not in our denomination alone or chiefly that these

evils exist, but they are everywhere. I know not what our brethren

mean when they deny the general prevalence of unbelief. Are they

willfully deaf and blind? Do they live on the dark side of the moon?

You must have noticed, in the newspapers, apologies for

Mohammedanism and Buddhism, in which these religions are

praised to the disparagement of Christianity: this is a sign of the

times. Scribes are taking up their pens to write upon themes which

would not have been touched by the secular papers years ago; and

they are only touched now because there is an unbelief abroad which

creates a market for anti-Christian literature. Those against whom

we fight today are striking at the life of our religion. They are not

cutting off its horns, but tearing out its heart.

When I note the clamor for "progress in theology," and mark the

changing nature of modern opinion, I am reminded of the story of a

prudent churchwarden who trembled for the spire of the parish

church. A vane was to be placed on high; and when he saw it upon

the ground, it struck him as being far too large to be safely fixed

upon the spire. I suppose it was the image of Peter's rooster; and

when the good man looked upon it, he did not weep, but he

trembled. "Surely," he said, "when the North wind blows, it will tear

down the vane, and the steeple, too." He who had to fix the vane

endeavored to cheer him by the fact that, when the wind was

blowing, the rooster would turn round, so that the full force of the

gale would not come upon it. That was a comfortable consideration,

and it brought a grand idea into the churchwarden's mind. Those

four letters, N., E., S., W., were of considerable size, and would offer

a serious opposition to the wind: could not these also be made to

revolve? Certainly this might mitigate the danger; but of what use

would the vane be? Even so, they are trying, in certain quarters, to

make the cardinal points of truth go round with the wind. To this, we

object. Let the weathercocks spin round as much as they please, but

we must have fixed points of faith. Unless we have infallibility

somewhere, faith is impossible. The true faith teaches us facts which

cannot be questioned. Where is faith to build if there be no rock, and

nothing left us but shifting sand? As for us, we find infallibility in the

Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and our one desire is to

have them opened up to our minds by the Holy Spirit. Those who

choose to do so may invent a changing gospel; but we believe in

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

We are tried, at this time, by the way in which many attack the

truth by misrepresenting it, and wickedly distorting it. They

designedly harp upon someone doctrine as though it were all we

believed; or, at least, the chief point of our teaching. They know that

we hold much more of truth, and that we do not make this one point

prominent; but this they willingly forget, that they may make up a

case against us. It is easy to paint all a man's features, and yet to

caricature him by putting one feature out of proportion to the rest:

this is what our opponents do. To give an instance: the doctrine of

eternal punishment has been scarcely raised by me in this

controversy; but the "modern thought" advocates continue to hold it

up on all occasions, all the while turning the wrong side of it

outwards. The terror of "the wrath to come" is brought to the front,

as if this was our main teaching, and as if its dread forewarning was

peculiar to the orthodox doctrine. Can they assure us that there is

nothing terrible connected with their own beliefs as to the future of

the wicked? If one who holds either of the new views will state his

belief clearly, it will be fairly open to much the same criticism as that

by which we are castigated. We, at least, do not teach that sinners,

who die penitent and believing, will need to undergo long purgatorial

pains before they enter Paradise. Our hope is larger than that

hideous dogma. Do any of these gentlemen teach that sin does not

entail terrible consequences? If they dare not say as much, why do

they turn their spurious humanity in our direction, and grow

indignant at us? They will claim at other times that, upon the point

of future judgment, the difference is a matter of degree; but it is not

sincere on their part to forget this fact when they are laboring to

make us the objects of the world's obloquy. This, however, does not

matter much to us, for we do not flinch from truth because it is

terrible; but it shows the style of men who oppose us.

It is the same with other doctrines which we hold; they are

constantly being misrepresented, or, at least, misinterpreted. If our

opponents would state the case fairly, we should not mind it; but this

would not serve their purpose. One said, the other day, "I hate that

text which says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'" "Why?"

said a friend; "what is the difficulty to your mind?" The reply was, "I

cannot see why God should hate Esau." "Nay," said our friend, "I am

not at all surprised that God hated Esau, but I am greatly amazed

that God loved Jacob." That is indeed a marvel of grace; the other is

one of the common-places of justice. Truth thus has its coat turned

inside out, and then is dragged up and down the street in scorn. They

make a straw man, and carry him about as a guy, hoping afterwards

to burn him. This is fine sport for children, but great folly in men.

While we do preach "the terror of the Lord," I may say of myself,

and of you also, that "we persuade men" in all tenderness. We do not

worry them to Christ; but, with much gentleness and patience, we

endeavor to draw them with love, and urge them on with tearful

anxiety. We are under trembling apprehensions of the wrath to

come, and therefore we are in downright earnest. We have no

pleasure in their death. Do our enemies dare to think that we have?

We grieve to think of their dying in their sins. It is ungenerous to

represent us as cruel because we are honest in our interpretation of

the threatenings of Scripture.

Yet misunderstanding and misrepresentation form an evil which

we have to deal with constantly. I have no doubt that you find it in

your churches, weakening your testimony, shaking the unstable, and

causing unbelief in many minds. Our gospel is adapted to meet this

difficulty. Let us not distrust it; but, at the same time, let us not shut

our eyes to the fact that this form of evil is rife among us, and must

be met in the Name of the God of truth.

Another great evil is the want of decision for the truth among

truly good men; those who are our brethren in the faith of our Lord

Jesus, but who do not seem to have made up their minds as to

separation from error. Good, easy men, they are all for peace!

"Sitting on the fence" seems to be a popular position among

professors just now. After next Monday's Union Meeting, several

brethren may have made up their minds; but, until then, they will sit

uneasily upon the fence. I have, with commendable forethought,

endeavored to drive a number of tenterhooks and other useful nails

into the top of that fence, to assist them in retaining their hold; but I

fear they are not deeply grateful to me. Theirs is a position which I

never was able to occupy myself, and therefore I have no very

profound sympathy with them. One or two learned divines are trying

their utmost to get down on both sides of the fence; but it is a

perilous experiment. Some are trying to get down on the winning

side, and others would prefer to keep their judicious position world

without end. Neutrals, in the end, have the respect of neither party;

and, assuredly, they are the difficulty in every controversy.

There will always be trouble in the churches so long as men are

afraid to denounce sin and error. A negro preacher, in a certain

village, said that among, his flock he carefully abstained from

preaching against the sin of stealing chickens, because it seemed so

much to damp brotherly fellowship! Many a preacher touches the

matter of strong drink very tenderly because certain of his supporters

are in "the trade." Is there not a great deal of this suppression of

unpalatable, truth? Are not many unfaithful as to the sins around

them? They are "all things to all men," but it is not that they may

"save some." I have heard it whispered that it is in order that they

may save a sum to the treasury of the church. Are not important

persons too much consulted? Is not position more valued than piety?

Is there enough of downright faithfulness to truth and to Christ at all

hazards? Brethren, we want grace to say, "I can be poor; I can be

ridiculed; I can be abused; but I cannot be false to my Lord."

I make no personal reference, but I see the spirit of compromise

concerning holiness and sin, truth and error, far too prevalent. The

spirit of compromise comes not of the Spirit of God, but of the spirit

of the world. It is always wisest and best to exhibit clear decision

upon fundamental points; we must draw the line distinctly, and then

stand to it firmly. Do not alter your course because of winds and

currents. Do not try to make things pleasant all round. Do not be like

the fellow, in one of the American towns, who saw a traveler leaning

against a lamp-post, weary and worn with his journey. The traveler

inquired of him how far it was to such a place, and was told that it

was ten miles. The weary traveler sighed, and said, "I shall never

hold out. I shall faint on the road." "Ah!" said his sympathizing

informant, "I did not know you were quite so far gone, I will knock

off three miles, and make it seven for you." Of course, this operation

in words did not alter the fact, nor really reduce the ten to seven. Yet

this is the method of some weakly, amiable souls; they tone down

truth, forgetting that their tone does not affect the fact. This

obligation is too severe; and, therefore, it is suggested that it may be

somewhat relaxed. This doctrine is too stern; so make it wear a

milder aspect. This manner of pleasing everybody at any cost is the

style of the period. If sin, and human depravity, and so forth, are

strongly spoken of in the old theology, run off to the new, and soften

matters. If the punishment of the impenitent too much alarms men,

treat it lightly, and spirit it away; who wants to win converts by fear?

Yes, yes; "make it seven." But what avail your soft words? The

distance is all the same for your lying; and when the deceived one

finds it to be so, he will pour no blessings upon your heads. May the

Lord save us from the doom of deceivers of souls! May we be

watchmen who will be clear of the blood of all men! Be decided

yourselves; and then, like men who themselves stand fast, you will be

able to help others whose feet are slipping.

Another great evil of the times is the insatiable craving for

amusements. That men should have rest from labor, and that they

should enjoy such amusements as refresh both body and mind,

nobody wishes to deny. Within suitable bounds, recreation is

necessary and profitable; but it never was the business of the

Christian Church to supply the world with amusements. Did Christ

found His Church that it might offer to the public tableaux vivants,

and living waxworks? A Dissenting congregation, to my own

knowledge, commenced a series of special services with a social

meeting, and the evening was spent in various silly dissipations; and

among other things the assembled friends played at "Musical

Chairs"! I do not know whether you understand what that childish

game means. Think of ministers of the gospel and officers of a church

playing at "Musical Chairs"! There is a bill extant which states that,

next week, there is to be a "Punch and Judy" show in the same place

of worship (so-called)! This is to go on side by side with the

preaching of Your bleeding sacrifice, O Christ of God! No, brethren,

let me correct myself; the preaching of Christ usually ceases when

these frivolities come in. These things are so opposed in spirit, that

one or the other will have to be dropped; and we know which it will

be.

What is to be next done in our chapels? To what length of

tomfoolery will ministers of the gospel yet go? Amusements beneath

the contempt of idiots have been tolerated in our schoolrooms. It has

not come to that yet with us, personally; but, brethren, we ourselves

have to battle hard against it, for the people are all agog for these

vanities, and there are so many societies and institutions more or

less remotely connected with our churches that it is difficult for us to

keep them all. from wandering. Brethren, we are not here to play

away our time, but to win souls for Jesus and eternal bliss. By the

solemnities of death, and judgment, and eternity, I beseech you, keep

yourselves clear of the follies, the inanities of the day. Remark with

interest how "the wisdom of this world" and the follies of it seem to

be blessing companions, and turn from them both with equal

loathing.

Another of our difficulties lies in the lack of intense piety in many

of the churches. Numbers of our brethren and sisters today are

living, in a high degree, to the glory of God. I thank God that there is

now as much of holy activity and hearty consecration as in any

former period in the history of the Christian Church. Among us are

men and women whose names will go down to posterity as examples

of devotion. God has not left Himself without witness. But do you not

notice how superficial is the religion of the mass of professors? How

many servants might live in so-called Christian families without

perceiving any difference between these houses and those of world-

lings? Is not family prayer neglected in many instances? Have we not

members who are never seen at a prayer-meeting? When inquiry is

made, do you not find that the richer sort could not attend because

the dinner-hour is at the same time as the gathering for prayer? No

doubt they will be most careful to worship the God they favor most.

In other cases, you find that busy men, who could not come out to

pray, were quite able to attend a concert. Public dinners and sing-

songs are more important ceremonials with many than the offering

of prayer to God. Do we not meet with church-officers who say

openly that they do not care for such old-fashioned things as prayer-

meetings? This is a wretched sign of declension, and it is frequently

to be seen. Our churches may well cause heartache to their pastors;

but, for the most part, in such cases the pastors themselves have so

much backslidden that they care nothing about it.

In reference to ministers, many church-members are indifferent

as to the personal piety of the preacher; what they want is talent or

cleverness. What the man preaches does not matter now; he must

draw a crowd, or please the elite, and that is enough. Cleverness is

the main thing. One would think they were looking for a conjuror

rather than a pastor. Whether he preaches truth or error, the man is

held in admiration so long as he can talk glibly, and keep up a

reputation as a speaker. If we had truer piety in members and

deacons, pretenders would soon take their wares to other markets.

Alas! I fear there has been great laxity in the admission of members,

and the quality of our churches has become defiled and debased by

"the mixed multitude," among whom all manner of evil finds a

congenial dwelling-place. Unhappy leader, who has an Achan in his

own camp! Better that Demas should forsake us, than that he should

abide with us, and import the world into the church. How many

ministers are weak for warfare with sin because they are not

supported by a godly people, and their hands are not held up by

praying brethren!

Not to make my jeremiad too long, I will mention only one more

sad evil of the times; that is, the stolidity of the people outside with

regard to the gospel. Compared with what it used to be, it is hard to

win attention to the Word of God. I used to think that we had only to

preach the gospel, and the people would throng to hear it. I fear I

must correct my belief under this head. If the gospel does not attract

men, nothing will; I mean, nothing which can do them good.

Personally, I have no reason to doubt the attractiveness of the old,

old gospel; but I am assured that some of my brethren, who faithfully

preach the gospel of Christ, do not find the people flocking about

them. We all feel that a hardening process is going on among the

masses. In this vast city, we have street after street where the people

are living utterly regardless of the worship of God. Those who attend

church or chapel are marked men; and if you were to inquire for

them, they would be pointed out to you as remarkable individuals. A

curious circumstance came under my own notice lately; it seems that

men may come to hear a preacher on a week-evening with less

suspicion than on the Sunday. One who had attended a week-night

service was asked to come on the Sabbath, but he replied, "Oh, no; I

have not gone so far as that yet!" Attendance at a place of worship on

the Sunday has in London become, to many people, a profession of

religion. Merely to hear Spurgeon on a Thursday, is a different

matter! It is a fact that thousands of persons live close to our notable

sanctuaries, and never dream of entering them. Even curiosity seems

dulled.

Why is this? Whence this distaste for the ordinary services of the

sanctuary? I believe that the answer, in some measure, lies in a

direction little suspected. There has been a growing pandering to

sensationalism; and, as this wretched appetite increases in fury the

more it is gratified, it is at last found to be impossible to meet its

demands. Those who have introduced all sorts of attractions into

their services have themselves to blame if people forsake their more

sober teachings, and demand more and more of the noisy and the

singular. Like dram-drinking, the thirst for excitement grows. At

first, the fiery spirit may be watered down; but the next draught of it

must be stronger, and soon it is required to be over-proof. The

customary gin-drinker wants something stronger than the pure

spirit, deadly though that draught may be. One said, as she tossed off

her glass, "Do you call that gin? Why, I know a place where, for

three-pence, I can get a drink that will burn your very soul out!" Yes,

gin leads on to vitriol; and the sensational leads to the outrageous, if

not to the blasphemous. I would condemn no one, but I confess that

I feel deeply grieved at some of the inventions of modern mission

work.

Apart from this intoxicating sensationalism, there is a sort of

heaviness in the air. Do you not feel it? We are getting into the

condition into which Germany fell not long ago. To this day, when

talking with a German who is about joining our church, I usually find

that he has lived in a country town. The devout German villager still

attends public worship, but in the large towns a practical atheism is

supreme. Why is this? The ministers have done it. They preached the

people out of their faith in the Scriptures; they taught them to be

doubters. The most mischievous servant of Satan that I know of is

the minister of the gospel, who not only doubts the truth in his own

soul, but propagates doubt in the minds of others by his criticisms,

innuendoes, and triflings with words. Some ministers believe

nothing except that nothing can be believed. Such a man's conscience

is withered. In some modern ministers, the faculty with which to

believe is extinct; they have played with words until they cannot be

true if they try. Against this evil I have protested with my whole soul.

People say, "Why did you not speak against these things twenty-five

years ago?" I answer, "These evils were scarcely apparent then."

Things are not now as in our early ministry. There has been a sudden

growth of the toadstools of error. I never heard of Universalism then,

nor of post-mortem salvation, nor of probation in the next state.

Until very lately, I have not heard of ministers holding up the blood

of Jesus to scorn. I will not, however, repeat the sad facts which have

of late come to my knowledge, and pierced my heart. The times are

out of joint. The world may well be careless, for the Church in many

places is full of unbelief. I trust the present hurricane of evil may

soon pass over; but anyone who has his wits about him will

sorrowfully admit that the good ship of the Church is now tossed

about with contrary winds, and needs that her Lord should come,

and say to the winds and the waves, "Peace, be still." So far, I have

borne before you "the burden of the Lord."

In these evil times, we have still—ONE ABIDING OBJECT.

Whatever the season may be, the farmer has still his land to until.

In summer and in winter his work may vary, but his object is the

same. It is the same with the servants of our Lord Jesus. Whatever

others may do, we have lifted our hand unto the Lord, and we cannot

go back. We are still guided by that one purpose which brought us

first into the sacred ministry we dare not look back from the plough,

nor turn aside from the furrow.

How do you, at this time, look at your life's mission? What is that

mission? What are you at? I think I hear you answer, "Our chief end

is to glorify, God." We do not regard it as our first business to convert

sinners, nor to edify saints; but to glorify God. If we have preached

God's truth, and on any one occasion no souls have been saved

thereby, we are still "unto God a sweet savor of Christ," as well in

those that perish as in those that are saved. The preaching of Jesus

Christ is the burning of sweet odors before the throne of God, and to

the Lord it is evermore an acceptable oblation. The sacrifice of Jesus

is that which makes the world bearable to a holy God, and the

preaching of that sacrifice is a savor of rest unto Him.

This is a kind of lactometer by which we can test the quality of

any doctrine, "Does it glorify God?" If it does not glorify God, it is not

genuine gospel, and it will not benefit us or our hearers.

It is for us to keep our one object, come what may. The fisherman

goes forth with his nets upon a calm, bright, summer's day. "Now,

boatman, take your guitar. Sit upon the bench, and delight us with

sweet music." He answers, "I am not a musician, but a fisherman." A

storm-cloud darkens the sky and the rain and sleet drive down.

"Now, boatman, quit the deck. Make all trim above, and shelter

yourself below." He smiles, and answers, "I am no yachtsman out on

a pleasure-trip, but I am here to fish; and fish I will." Over go the

nets!

Our sacred fishing may be better carried on in a storm than in a

calm. When the waters sleep, the fish seem to sleep also, or they are

hidden in silent deeps far out of our reach. A dead calm is our enemy,

a storm may prove our helper. Controversy may arouse thought, and

through thought may come the Divine change. In any case, we must

win souls. Whatever comes of it, we are bound to catch men for

Jesus. Repentance and faith must be insisted on; the new birth, with

its loathing of sin and trust in Jesus, must be ever set before our

people. For this end were we born, and for this purpose were we sent

into the world, that we might bear witness to grand soul-saving

truths, that by the knowledge of these things God may be glorified

among men.

Besides this, we have an intense desire to build up the Church;

and it strikes me that, for this object, it is of perpetual necessity that

we continue to preach always the same gospel. Is there to be no

progress? Yes, within the lines of revealed truth; but there must be

no departure from fixed principles. A boy at school commences with

his first book in arithmetic; in due time, he needs another; but

suppose that the second book put into his hand contradicted the

first, where would the scholar find himself? Suppose you assure him

that the multiplication table is worn-out, and that men now know

better than to say that twice two are four! What progress could he

make? A consistent ministry, carried out through many years

preaching of the same truth, must, with God's blessing, produce a

result upon a congregation.

A noble building is possible when the walls rise course upon

course upon a fixed foundation; but what result can those produce

who constantly change their teaching? What can they do who are

"ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth"?

True progress is out of the question when everything is moving, road

as well as carriage. There is a story told of a man who married his

fourth wife, who had brought him money. The like had been the case

with each of her predecessors. A friend said to him, "You seem to

make a good thing of your wives, whether they live or die." "Alas!"

answered the much-married man, "what with the expense of

marrying them, and the expense of burying them, there is not much

profit about them after all." I should think it is much the same with

the new creeds with which men fall in love one after the other. What

with the trouble of learning the new doctrine, and the trouble of very

soon burying it to make room for another, there is not much profit.

Weaving comes to nothing if it be constantly pulled out again.

If we would, as wise master-builders, really build up the Church,

we must be careful as to our foundation at the first; and upon that

foundation we must keep on building to the end. As far as I am

concerned, the things which I taught at the first are those wherein I

abide until this day. If I had chosen a new object, I might have

selected new means for promoting it; but those truths which were for

the glory of God thirty years ago, still produce the same result. We

work to the same end, and trust in the same power, wherefore we

change not our teaching.

Brethren, let me take you further, and speak upon—OUR

URGENT NECESSITIES.

If we are to pursue our holy calling with success, we need to be

better men. Brethren, I do not depreciate you; far from it. But,

personally, I feel that, as the times grow sterner, I must cry to God

for more grace, that I may be more able to cope with them. You can

always cut a hard thing with something still harder. The granite Alps

can be pierced by the diamond. Oh, for grace to be equal to the worst

case which can arise! Whatever we already possess of capability or

fitness is the Lord's gift, and He is able to grant us far more. He who

gave us life can give it to us "more abundantly." The capacities of a

man, when God takes him in hand, are not to be estimated by the

man, but by God Himself. It was prettily put, at the meeting last

night, by one of the brethren, when speaking of the cloud "like a

man's hand"; he said that it was the Lord's work, but a man's hand

was in it. The blessing comes from the Lord alone, but its sign is

often the little cloud, like a man's hand. Oh, to have our hands ready

for the Lord's work; neither folded in indolence, nor hanging down in

despair, but lifted up in holy pleading and full consecration.

Brethren, let it be a main business with us to be ourselves more holy,

more gracious, and therefore better fitted for our work. It does not

yet appear what we can be. Oh, for high aspirations!

Let us not judge ourselves by others, and say, with deadening

self-delight, "We are getting on well as compared with our brethren.

There are not many additions to our churches, but we are as

successful as others." O brothers, if some are still further behind in

the course, that does not increase our hope of winning the race!

While I was ill, a friend endeavored to comfort me by remarking that

many suffered far more than I did. He looked unutterable things

when I replied, "None but a fiend could derive comfort from the

greater agonies of others." Shall we, if we have but little of God's

blessing, be thankful that others have still less? Did you tell me that

John Johnston's potatoes are smaller than mine? I am not going to

have my potatoes judged by John Johnston's; my standard as a

gardener is not the worst specimen, but the best. Let us measure

ourselves by our Master, and not by our fellow-servants: then pride

will be impossible, but hopefulness will be natural. We are capable of

much greater things; let us attempt them. It is time for us to live, for

we are growing old.

This done, let us get clearer views of what we believe. A drunken

John Brown gets to his own house at four o'clock in the morning, and

says to the servant at the door, "Where does John Brown live?" "O

sir, don't talk like that," says the servant, "you know that you are

John Brown yourself." "Well," says he, "I know that; but I want to

know where John Brown lives." There is an inebriation of "modern

thought" which maunders much in that manner. John Brown of the

New School does not know where John Brown lives. Where he lived

yesterday, he knows; but where he lives today, it would be hard to

tell. Many are spiritual gipsies. They camp behind any hedge, but

they abide nowhere, their theology consists of a few sticks and bits of

canvas. It is easily upset, but then it is as easily set up. Well may they

sing—

"We've no abiding city here!"

They prefer the chase after truth to truth itself; it is clear that

such a chase has not much of reality in it, for the man is pleased that

his prey should perpetually escape him. In olden times, the prophet

was a seer; but, nowadays, a prophet is one who is too cultured to see

anything. A man who protests that he has too much light to be sure

that he sees anything is the favorite of certain intellectual hearers.

David said, "I believed, therefore have I spoken;" but he was

peculiar: our "thoughtful men" now speak because they doubt, and

not because they believe.

The next thing necessary for the present time is that we should

have more faith. We need to believe more intensely in God, so as to

trust Him more practically and more unquestioningly. The things

which we believe must become more real to us. I fear we often use

words without feeling their true meaning. This is terrible. It is a sort

of willful murder to expel the soul from pious phrases, and still to use

them. Let us be honest about the things of God; let us mean all that

we say, and say only what we mean. It is a shocking thing for a man

to talk all manner of Evangelical, gracious, and sanctifying things,

and yet to mean nothing by them. I fear our pulpits are not free from

such word-mongers. Let us not hold forth shadows before the people.

Let them, at any rate, be no shadows to us, but downright facts. You

have heard of the old Scotch lady who was making her will. She was

leaving £500 to this person, and £1,000 to another, until at length

the lawyer remarked, "Have you as much money as this?" "May be

not," said the old soul, "but it will show them my liberal intentions."

It is to be feared that many preach Evangelical doctrine, not because

they believe it, but that they may please the Evangelical. This will

never do. Let us never lie open to such a suspicion. Let the doctrines

we declare be as dear to us as our life, and as real as our own flesh

and blood. We believe all Scripture to be true. When the Bible says

that a man is lost, we believe that the loss is real and tremendous.

Heaven and Hell are realities with us, even though to others they

may be dreams. To us Christ is a real Christ; and the Holy Spirit

within a man brings real life from the dead. If we do not preach

realities, I pray God we may be driven out of the ministry, in which

we are only treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.

We need also more love to souls. We shall never save more until

we love more. There is a good story told by our brother Archibald

Brown; I will not attempt to tell it in his presence; but it was

something like this:—A man was accidentally buried by a fall of

earth, and many were greatly energetic to dig the poor fellow out.

One fellow stood by, scarcely as much concerned about the matter as

many others were, until a woman rushed out of the crowd, and laid

hold on him, and said in his ear, "It's your brother Bill that's in

there!" Those few words wrought a marvelous change in the man; his

coat was off in an instant, and he was down in the sewer working like

a Trojan. If we would save our hearers from the wrath to come, we

must realize that they are our brothers. We must have sympathy with

them, and anxiety about them; in a word, passion and compassion.

May God grant these to us!

There must be also a more thorough spirit of self-sacrifice. I must

speak tenderly here, because I am among brethren whose life is one

of perpetual sacrifice in a financial sense. With scarcely enough to

keep body and soul together, they work on without complaint year

after year. If they could gain a hundred times their present income in

any other calling, they would not quit the pulpit and the pastorate.

The work of Christ is more to them than their necessary food. Thank

God, this Conference is well supplied with men who count all things

but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their

Lord. But, my brethren, sacrifice is needed every day, that we may

keep up the abundance of our service. Here also we have many who

excel. They are not loiterers, but laborers. He who has an easy time

of it, in his ministry here, will have a hard time of it in the account to

be rendered by-and-by. I fear the idea of the ministry with some men

is as much on the down-grade as their doctrine is. Their gentlemanly

indifference reminds me of the British workman, who observed, "I

have such a good master that I do not know how to do too much for

him, but I'll take precious good care I don't." Into that spirit may we

never enter! Let us live intensely for our Lord!

But, beyond surrendering ease, we must be prepared to give up

everything else: our name, our repute, our friendships, our

connections, must all go without reserve, if Christ's cause needs

them. Sooner than deny the truth, we must forego every meed of

honor, every particle of deserved esteem, every rag of repute. You

have heard almost too often the classic story of Curtius leaping into

the gulf in the Forum at Rome. There is a chasm in the Forum at this

hour. Who will devote himself for his people and his God? Curtius

does not stipulate that he shall be wholly engulfed except the pennon

upon his lance, which shall remain above ground as his memorial.

No, he takes the leap, and finds immortal renown in being

completely swallowed up. In the battle for the truth, let your

personal comfort and reputation go to the winds. Let not the sacrifice

be thought worthy of two thoughts. The weakness of many men is

that they think so long that they do nothing. The blood of the martyrs

is scarce among us. It will destroy our ministries if we begin thinking

of the cost of honesty. Shall we have before our eyes the fear of a

large subscriber, and become afraid of offending him by our fidelity?

By that very thought, we have already offended God. Brethren, let us

fear no loss, because we have nothing to lose, seeing that all we

possess is Christ's already.

"There, take an inventory of all I have,

To the last penny; 'tis the King's."

My Lord, for You I will rejoice to be "the off-scouring of all

things," that I may be found faithful to You and to Your truth, even to

the end.

I will give you a little advice, which may be suitable for such a

time as this. I would recommend you to go over the fundamental

truths with your hearers very carefully. The bulk of the people do not

know the first principles of the gospel. We assume too much when

we take it for granted that our hearers, all of them, understand the

gospel. Some of the old-fashioned dame-school teachers had a

curious way of treating their scholars. They asked Mary to read a

passage from a book, but Mary had not yet mastered her letters, and

therefore she could not read as she was bidden to do. She was called

a naughty child, and put into a corner, and told to study her book.

She could do nothing at it, for she did not know the letters! If we

have not taught our people their letters, how can we expect them to

understand the truths that we preach? Let us go over the foundation

truths again and again.

The simplest doctrines would be great novelties in some pulpits I

could mention. A king once asked a courtier what made a certain

French preacher so famous. "Your majesty," said the nobleman, "he

preaches the gospel, and that is the scarcest thing in France." How

true of many English pulpits today! Go over the elementary truths

with your people. Make them know the first principles of the faith. It

will not weary your hearers, it will bless them, and many of them will

be delighted. Repeat the fundamentals, too; often, if you can. In the

days of old-fashioned farming, they dropped three beans into the

hole. And why? One was for the worm, another for the crow and

number three perhaps would grow. Let us be liberal with the seed,

for the evil powers are liberal with worms, and crows, and thorns.

Let others go forth to shine; you are sowers, and must "go forth to

sow." Repeat yourselves if necessary. Paul wrote to the Philippians,

"To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but

for you it is safe."

In the next place, labor distinctly for the immediate salvation of

your hearers. Take aim. At Waterloo, they say that, for every man

who was killed, his full weight in lead had to be fired. We must

improve upon this, and use arms of precision. We must get at the

people each time we address them. It is wise to make definite

characters the point of attack. We must look to the application of

each sermon. I have known a true doctor, in a very critical case, act

the part of nurse as well as surgeon, and personally see his liniments

and poultices applied to his patient. This personal care gives surgery

its best chance. We have great need to be very specific in applying

truth to our hearers. If a doctor should prescribe a bitter medicine

for children, to be taken every three hours, and then should leave it

to the youngsters to take it themselves, I fear the doses taken would

be small and few. Even so is it with unpalatable truth; we must not

only set it forth in general terms, but we must measure it out in doses

to each individual. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this must

be our daily work. We want our hearers saved, and saved at once;

and towards this design we must drive with all our power.

Let us inculcate with all our might the practice of holiness.

Holiness is the visible side of salvation. I thought it no ill sign when

the preaching of holiness was pushed even to an extreme. I trembled

at the fanaticism, but I thanked God for the earnestness out of which

it grew. Let us seek the utmost degree of holiness. The doctrines of

grace should be accompanied by ethics of the purest kind. We have

been clear upon the fact that good works are not the cause of

salvation; let us be equally clear upon the truth that they are the

necessary fruit of it. What is the use of our churches if they are not

holy? What is the use of ourselves if we are not holy? Holiness is

practical orthodoxy, and it should walk hand-in-hand with doctrinal

orthodoxy. We must not only have a high-toned morality, but a

consecrated morality, quickened by the Spirit of God;—and that is

holiness.

To this end, I would exhort you to be careful about the admission

of members into the church. Doubtless there are some in our ranks

who ought not to be there. This is to their own hurt, to the dishonor

of the Lord Jesus, and to the injury of the church itself. Unconverted

member's lower the whole tone of the church. How low that tone has

now become, let spiritual men judge for themselves. If the members

were converted, they would make short work of many of the

ministers; but the people are like their priests. Many are the letters of

sympathy which my protests upon this matter have drawn forth. It is

clear that lax doctrine and lax living are pretty frequently associated.

A weeping Hannah writes me concerning her husband who has been

for years a lay preacher, but who now spends his evenings far into

night at the billiard-table, for which he acquired a taste when he

went in for new theology and religious entertainments. Many have,

gone from the prayer-meeting to the amateur theatricals of the

Mutual Improvement Society, and thence to the playhouse itself.

This seems to be natural, if not inevitable. Oh, that we had a purer

membership to work with! Do what we may, Judas will come in; but

let us not invite him: let us not make it easy for a betrayer of Christ to

be comfortable with us. To mix up the world with the church, is a

crime; it brings with it an awful curse, and acts upon godliness as a

blast and a mildew. Let the door of the church be opened to all

sincere souls, but closed against all whose hearts are in the world. It

is not even for the worldling's good that he should hold the form of

godliness while he is a stranger to its power. As you love your Lord,

and value men's souls guard well the entrance of the church.

As to yourselves, I would recommend entire separation from

those who would be likely to injure your spiritual life. I would no

more associate with one who denied the faith than with a drunkard

or a thief. I would guard my spirituals as jealously as my morals. A

loyal man is not at home in the company of traitors. There are

associations with the ungodly into which we must needs go, unless

we get out of the world altogether; but there are others which are

optional, and here we should dare to be scrupulous. A godly minister

once said of a certain preacher, "I would not permit such a man to

enter my pulpit. I am as jealous of my pulpit as of my bed." I do not

think he was too rigid. We should guard ourselves against

compromising the truth of God by association with those who do not

hold it, especially at such a time as this.

Next, we must bind ourselves more closely together, and seek to

render help to each other, and to all who are of the same mind in the

Lord. Denominational divisions sink in the presence of the truth of

God. To my mind, the grand distinction to be now observed is found

in Evangelical doctrine, of which our Lord's substitutionary sacrifice

is the center and the soul. Where we see faithful brethren struggling,

we ought to lay ourselves out to help them, for they are sure to be the

objects of inveterate opposition. Lovers of the old faith should stand

shoulder to shoulder, to remove the injustice of the past, and

frustrate the opposition of the future. The struggle before us is

severe; let us, at any rate, economize our strength by union.

Lastly, let me leave with you—WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

The times are bad, but they have been bad before. You have to

fight with Apollyon, but many have met this arch-enemy before your

day. Gird up the loins of your mind, and stand fast, for the Lord is

greater than the times. The days are evil, but evil days are followed

by good days. History repeats itself, and this is one of the points in

which history is very persistent. Let me read you a cheering passage

from Witherspoon:, "Nothing is impossible to the power of God. I

add, that the most remarkable times of the revival of religion, in this

part of the United Kingdom, immediately succeeded times of the

greatest apostasy, when 'truth' seemed to be 'fallen in the street, and

equity could not enter.' This was the case immediately before the

year 1638. Corruption in doctrine, looseness in practice, and slavish

submission in politics, had overspread the Church of Scotland; and

yet, in a little time, she appeared in greater purity, and in greater

dignity, than ever she had done before, or, perhaps, than ever she has

done since that period. Let no Christian, therefore, give way to

desponding thoughts. We plead the cause that shall at last prevail.

Religion shall rise from its ruins; and its oppressed state at present

should not only excite us to pray, but encourage us to hope for its

speedy revival."

Make the most of prayer. I have received much encouragement of

late, from friends in many different quarters, by the assurance that

our conflict for the gospel is continually mentioned in their prayers.

The praying heart of God's people is with us. Prayer is the master-

weapon. We should be greatly wise if we used it more, and did so

with a more specific purpose.

In New England, a certain church had elected a young man

named Mr. Stoddard to be its pastor. After a while, the people found

out that their new preacher was not a real Christian. What did they

do? Did they find fault, and quarrel? No, they were wiser folks. One

Sabbath night, when his day's work was over, the young minister saw

the people flocking to the meeting-house. He was surprised at their

coming in such numbers to a service at which he was not himself to

preside. "Why are they meeting?" he asked. "Sir," said one, "they are

coming together to pray that their minister may be converted."

Young Stoddard went within doors, sought his chamber, prayed for

himself, and found eternal life. Before the hour of prayer was over,

he was converted, and went down to the meeting to tell the glad

tidings. Was not that a glorious work of grace? Might we not win

more victories if we more constantly used this weapon of all-prayer?

All Hell is vanquished when the believer bows his knee in

importunate supplication. Beloved brethren, let us pray. We cannot

all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all

be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be

prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than

with men. Prayer links us with the Eternal, the Omnipotent, the

Infinite; and hence it is our chief resort. Resolve to serve the Lord,

and to be faithful to His cause, for then you may boldly appeal to

Him for support. Be sure that you are with God, and then you may be

sure that God is with you.

CHAPTER 11. THE PREACHER'S POWER,

AND THE CONDITIONS OF OBTAINING

Brethren, we want to do our work rightly and effectively, and We

Cannot Do it Without Power. Of course, no work of any kind is

accomplished in this world without a certain expenditure of force,

and the force employed differs according to the matter in hand. The

sort of power of which we feel the need will be determined by our

view of our work; and the amount of power that we shall long for will

also very much depend upon our idea of how that work should be

done. I speak as unto wise men, who know their object, and know

also whence their strength must come. I speak also to men who mean

to use their office as in the sight of God; but yet I think it desirable to

stir up your pure minds, by way of remembrance, and put you and

myself in mind of the grand design for which we need power.

We could be ministers, as some men are ministers, without any

particular power, either natural, or acquired. Merely to perform

services (to use an ugly word) "perfunctorily" does not require

special endowments. Any speaking machine might do as well. There

are ministers whose sermons, and whose whole services, are so much

a matter of routine, and so utterly lifeless; that if power from on high

were to come upon them, it would altogether bewilder them. Nobody

would know them to be the same persons; the change would seem

too great. The same things are said, in the same tone and manner,

year after year. I have heard of a preacher, whom one of his people

likened to a steeple, which had but two bells in it, for, he said, "It is

always, 'Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong.'" "Oh!" said his

friend, "you ought to be abundantly grateful that you have as much

variety as that, for our man has only one bell, and his note is forever,

'Ding, ding, ding, ding.'"

When this is the case among Nonconformists, it ruins the

congregations, for it is death to every possibility of collecting people

to hear; and still more is it murder to all hope of their being

improved if they do hear. I should think it is by no means difficult,

with a liturgy, to be read without much alteration all the year round,

to become a fine example of either the Ding dong, or the Ding, ding;

but with us, whose devotion is of a free sort, there is less excuse for

monotony, and if we fall into the fault, the result will be more

disastrous. It is possible, even without a liturgy, to pray in a very set

and formal style; indeed, it is so possible as to be frequent, and then

the long prayer becomes a severe infliction upon an audience, and

the shorter prayers are not much better. When I have thought of the

preaching of certain good men, I have wondered, not that the

congregation was so small, but that it was so large. The people who

listen to them ought to excel in the virtue of patience, for they have

grand opportunities for exercising it.

I have frequently said of myself that I would not go across the

road to hear myself preach; but I will venture to say of certain

brethren that I would even go across the road in the other direction

not to hear them preach. Some sermons and prayers lend a color of

support to the theory of Dr. William Hammond, that the brain is not

absolutely essential to life. Brethren, I trust that not even one of you

will be content with mechanical services devoid both of mental and

spiritual force. You will, none of you, covet earnestly the least gifts

and the dullest mannerisms, for you can obtain them without the

exertion of the will. You desire to do your Master's work as it ought

to be done, and therefore you long for excellent gifts, and still more

excellent graces. You wish that people may attend to your discourse,

because there is something in it worthy of their attention. You labor

to discharge your ministry, not with the lifeless method of an

automaton, but with the freshness and power which will render your

ministry largely effectual for its sacred purposes.

I am bound to say, also, that our object certainly is not to please

our clients, nor to preach to the times, nor to be in touch with

modern progress, nor to gratify the cultured few. Our life-work

cannot be answered by the utmost acceptance on earth; our record is

on high, or it will be written in the sand. There is no need whatever

that you and I should be chaplains of the modern spirit, for it is well

supplied with busy advocates. Surely Ahab does not need Micaiah to

prophesy smooth things to him, for there are already four hundred

prophets of the groves who are flattering him with one consent. We

are reminded of the protesting Scotch divine, in evil days, who was

exhorted by the Synod to preach to the times. He asked, "Do you,

brethren, preach to the times?" They boasted that they did. "Well,

then," said he, "if there are so many of you who preach for the times,

you may well allow one poor brother to preach for eternity." We

leave, without regret, the gospel of the hour to the men of the hour.

With such eminently cultured persons forever hurrying on with their

new doctrines, the world may be content to let our little company

keep to the old-fashioned faith, which we still believe to have been

once for all delivered to the saints. Those superior persons, who are

so wonderfully advanced, may be annoyed that we cannot consort

with them; but, nevertheless, so it is that it is not now, and never will

be, any design of ours to be in harmony with the spirit of the age, or

in the least to conciliate the demon of doubt which rules the present

moment.

Brethren, we shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we

have done with it, by God's grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible.

We shall not fall into the error of that absent-minded doctor who had

to cook for himself an egg; and, therefore, depositing his watch in the

saucepan, he stood steadfastly looking at the egg. The change to be

wrought is not for the Divine chronometer, but for the poor egg of

human thought. We make no mistake here; we shall not watch our

congregation to take our cue from it, but we shall keep our eye on the

infallible Word, and preach according to its instructions. Our Master

sits on high, and not in the chairs of the scribes and doctors, who

regulate the theories of the century. We cannot take our key-note

from the wealthier people, nor from the leading officers, nor even

from the former minister.

How often have we heard an excuse for heresy made out of the

desire to impress "thoughtful young men"! Young men, whether

thoughtful or otherwise, are best impressed by the gospel, and it is

folly to dream that any preaching which leaves out the truth is

suitable to men, either old or young. We shall not quit the Word to

please the young men, nor even the young women. This truckling to

young men is a mere pretense; young men are no more fond of false

doctrine than are the middle-aged; and if they are, there is so much

the more necessity to teach them better. Young men are more

impressed by the old gospel than by ephemeral speculations. If any

of you wish to preach a gospel that will be pleasing to the times,

preach it in the power of the devil, and I have no doubt that he will

willingly do his best for you. It is not to such servants of men that I

desire to speak just now. I trust that, if ever any of you should err

from the faith, and take up with the new theology, you will be too

honest to pray for power from God with which to preach that

mischievous delusion if you should do so, you will be guilty of

constructive blasphemy. No, brethren, it is not our object to please

men, but our design is far nobler.

To begin with, it is our great desire to bear witness to the truth. I

believe —and the conviction grows upon me—that even to know the

truth, is the gift of the grace of God; and that to love the truth, is the

work of the Holy Spirit. I am speaking now, not about a natural

knowledge, or a natural love to Divine things, if such there be; but of

an experimental know ledge of Christ, and a spiritual love to Him:

these are as much the gift of God in the preacher, as the work of

conversion will be the work of God in his hearers. We desire so

thoroughly to know, and so heartily to love the truth, as to declare

the whole counsel of God, and to speak it as we ought to speak it.

This is no small labor. To proclaim the whole system of truth, and to

deal out each part in due proportion, is by no means a simple matter.

To bring out each doctrine according to the analogy of faith, and set

each truth in its proper place, is no easy task. It is easy to make a

caricature of the beautiful face of truth by omitting one doctrine and

exaggerating another. We may dishonor the most lovely countenance

by giving to its most striking feature an importance which puts it out

of proportion with the rest; for beauty greatly consists in balance and

harmony. To know the truth as it should be known, to love it as it

should be loved, and then to proclaim it in the right spirit, and in its

proper proportions, is no small work for such feeble creatures as we

are.

In this grand, yet delicate labor, we have to persevere year after

year. What power can enable us to do this? While so many complain

of the monotony of the old gospel, and feel a perpetual itching for

something new, this disease may even infect our own hearts. This is

an evil to be fought against with our whole being. When we feel dull

and stale, we must not imagine that the truth of God is so; nay,

rather, by returning more closely to the Word of the Lord, we must

renew our freshness. To continue always steadfast in the faith, so

that our latest testimony shall be identical in substance with our first

testimony, only deeper, mellower, more assured, and more intense—

this is such a labor that for it we must have the power of God. Do you

not feel this? I pray you, feel it more and more. O brethren, if you

propose to be true witnesses for God, your proposal is a very glorious

one, and it will tend to make you feel the truth of what I am about to

say, namely, that a more than human power must guide you, and

make you sufficient for the difficult enterprise!

Your object is, however, so to bear your personal witness that

others may be convinced thereby of the truth of what is so sure to

your own soul. In this there are difficulties not a few, for our hearers

are not anxious to believe the revelation of God; some of them are

desirous not to do so. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an order went

forth that everybody should go to the parish church, at least once on

the Sunday. Of course, the bulk of the people were still Romish, and

it went much against the grain for them to attend the Reformed

service. I have read that, when Romanists did go to the service

prescribed by law, many of them put wool into their ears, that they

might not hear. In a moral sense, this practice is still in vogue.

Certain parts of the truth men will hear, but other portions are

disagreeable to them, and their ears are dull of hearing. You know—

for you believe in the original sin of men, (about the only thing

original there is in many)—how Satan has most effectually blinded

the minds of the ungodly, so that, speak we as wisely as we may, and

as persuasively as we can, nothing but a miracle can convince men

dead in sin of the truth of God. Nothing less than a miracle of grace

can lead a man to receive what is so altogether opposite to his nature.

I shall not attempt to teach a tiger the virtues of vegetarianism;

but I shall as hopefully attempt that task as I would try to convince

an unregenerate man of the truths revealed by God concerning sin,

and righteousness, and judgment to come. These spiritual truths are

repugnant to carnal men, and the carnal mind cannot receive the

things of God. Gospel truth is diametrically opposed to fallen nature;

and if I have not a power much stronger than that which lies in moral

suasion, or in my own explanations and arguments, I have

undertaken a task in which I am sure of defeat. Well said the writer

of one of our hymns, when he spoke of the Holy Spirit—

"'Tis Your the passions to recall,

And upward bid them rise;

And make the scales of error fall

From reason's darkened eyes."

Except the Lord endow us with power from on high, our labor

must be in vain, and our hopes must end in disappointment.

This is but the threshold of our labor: our inmost longing is to call

out a people who shall be the Lord's separated heritage. A new theory

has lately been started, which sets forth as its ideal a certain

imaginary kingdom of God, unspiritual, unscriptural, and unreal.

The old-fashioned way of seeking the lost sheep, one by one, is too

slow: it takes too much time, and thought, and prayer, and it does

not leave space enough for politics, gymnastics, and sing-song. We

are urged to rake in the nations wholesale into this imaginary

kingdom by sanitary regulations, social arrangements, scientific

accommodations, and legislative enactments. Please the people with

the word "democratic", and then amuse them into morality. This is

the last new "fad." According to this fancy, our Lord's Kingdom is,

after all, to be of this world; and, without conversion, or the new

birth, the whole population is to melt into an earthly theocracy.

Howbeit, it is not so.

It seems to me that the Lord will follow up the lines of the Old

Testament economy still, and separate to Himself a people who shall

be in the midst of the world as the Lord's kings and priests—a

peculiar people, zealous for good works. I see, in the New Covenant,

not less, but even more, of the election of grace, whereby a people is

called out, and consecrated to the Lord. Through the chosen ones,

myriads shall be born unto God; but, besides these, I know of no

other kingdom. Brethren., the election of grace, which is so often

denounced, is a fact which men need not speak against, since they do

not themselves desire to be elected. I never can make out why a man

should cavil at another's being chosen when he does not himself wish

to be chosen. If he wishes that he were chosen to repentance, if he

desires holiness, if he longs to be the Lord's, and if that desire be

true, he is chosen already. But seeing that he does not desire

anything of the kind, why does he rail at others who have received

this blessing? Ask an ungodly man whether he will take up the

humble, often-abused, and persecuted position of a lowly follower of

Christ, and he scorns, the idea. If it were possible for him to get into

that position for a time, how gladly would he shuffle out of it! He

likes to be "in the swim," and to side with the majority; but to be a

live fish, and to force his way up the stream, is not according to his

desire. He prefers a worldly religion, with abundant provision for the

flesh. Religious worldliness suits him very well; but to be out-and-out

for Jesus, called out from the world, and consecrated to obedience, is

not his ambition.

Do you not see, in this, your need of an extraordinary power? To

call men out to a real separation from the world, and a true union

with Christ, apart from the power of God, is an utterly futile effort.

Go, and whistle eagles into an English sky, or beckon dolphins to the

dry land, or lure leviathan until you can play with him as with a bird,

and then attempt this greater task. They will not come, they have no

wish to come; and even so our Lord and Master warned the Jews

when He said, "You will not come unto Me that you might have life."

They will read the Bible: "You search the Scriptures, for in them you

think you have eternal life;" but they will not come to the Lord

Himself; that is too spiritual a matter for their tastes. No, the

command, "Repent you, and believe the gospel," is too hard, too

sharp, too humbling for them. Is not this enough to appal you? Dare

you go forward unless your Lord shall gird you with heavenly power?

Stop! We have only yet begun. They are called out; but there is

something further to be done through the instrumentality of our

ministry: our hearers have to be born again, and made new creatures

in Christ Jesus, or else our preaching has done nothing for them. Ah,

dear friends, we get into deep waters when we come to this great

mystery! Does any unregenerate man know the meaning of being

born again? Ask the learned doctors whether they know anything

about it, and they will try to conceal their ignorance beneath a sneer.

Ask them if they think there is anything in it, and they will perhaps

reply, "Yes, there must be such a phenomenon, for many respectable

and even scientific people have professed to be the subjects of it."

Still, they smile, and express their wonder that it is so. The

confession of many a candid scientist is that it may be so, but he is

not himself able to comprehend it. Why, then, do they not hold their

tongues? If they have not experienced the new birth, that fact is no

proof that others have not. Why do they sneer as if they were our

superiors? The regenerate in this matter are necessarily their

superiors. A person who has only one eye is a king among blind men;

let not the blind affect to despise him. If any of us have personally

experienced the new birth, even though we may be ignorant of many

other things, we are in this point better instructed than those who

have never felt the Divine change.

But, just in proportion as you know what it is to be born again,

you will feel that herein is a task indeed. How sublime a position for

you to become, under God, the spiritual parents of men! You could

not create a fly, much less could you create a new heart and a right

spirit. To fashion a world, has less difficulty in it than to create a new

life in an ungodly man; for, in the creation of the world, there was

nothing in the way of God; but, in the creation of the new heart, there

is the old nature opposing the Spirit. The negative has to be removed

as well as the positive produced. Stand and look that matter over,

and see if you are at all able, in and of yourself, to work the

conversion, or regeneration of a single child in your Sunday-school.

My brethren, we are at the end of ourselves here.. If we aim at the

new birth of our hearers, we must fall prostrate before the Lord in

conscious impotence, and we must not go again to our pulpits until

we have heard our Lord say, "My grace is sufficient for you: for My

strength is made perfect in weakness."

Supposing that to be done, remember that those who are brought

to God are to be kept and preserved to the end; and your longing is

that your ministry should be the means of keeping them from

stumbling, and holding them fast in the way of righteousness even to

the end. Do you propose to do that of yourself? How presumptuous!

Why, look at the temptations which pollute this city; and I suppose

that the seductions of evil are much the same in smaller towns, and

in the villages, though differing in form. Their name is legion, for

they are many. Look at the temptations which assail our youth in the

literature of the hour! Have you even a slender acquaintance with

popular literature? Do you wonder that weak minds are made to

stumble? The wonder is that any are preserved. Yet this is only one of

the many death-bearing agencies.

How great is the leakage in our churches! The most faithful

minister has to complain of the loss of many who appeared to run

well, but have been hindered, so that they do not obey the truth. The

great heap that we have gathered upon the threshing-floor is sadly

diminished when He comes whose fan is in His hand. But we do

propose, nevertheless, to be the means, in the hands of God, of

leading the sheep of Christ into green pastures, and continuing to

lead them, until they feed on the hilltops of Heaven with the great

Shepherd Himself in their midst. But what a task we have

undertaken! How shall we present them to Christ as pure virgins?

How can we keep them from the pollution of the all-surrounding

Sodom? How shall we, at the last, be able to say, "Here am I, and the

children You have given me"? Brethren, we cannot do it at all; but

the Lord can do it, through us, by the energy of His grace.

If you have half a-dozen converts, how greatly you will praise

God, if you pass, with that half-a-dozen at your side, safely through

the gate of pearl! Certain of us know many thousands whom we have,

instrumentally, brought to the Savior; but unless we have a power

infinitely greater than our own, how shall we shepherd them to the

end? We may announce them as our converts, we may associate with

them as workers, and feel thankful for them as fellow-heirs; and yet

bitter may be our disappointment, when all comes to all, and they

turn aside unto perdition. How grievous to be, to all appearance, rich

in usefulness, and on a sudden to find that our converts are like

money put into a bag that is full of holes, and that our treasured

converts fall out, because they were not truly gathered to the Lord

Jesus after all!

"Who is sufficient for these things?" We are weak, exceedingly

weak, every one of us. If there is any brother here who is weaker than

the rest, and knows that he is so, let him not be at all cast down

about that, for you see, brethren, the best man here, if he knows what

he is, knows that he is out of his depth in his sacred calling. Well, if

you are out of your depth, it does not matter whether the sea is forty

feet or a full mile deep. If the sea is only a fathom deep, you will

drown if you be not upborne; and if it be altogether unfathomable,

you cannot be more than drowned. The weakest man here is not, in

this business, really any weaker than the strongest man, since the

whole affair is quite beyond us, and we must work miracles by Divine

power, or else be total failures. We have all set up in the Divine

profession of working by omnipotence; or, rather, of yielding

ourselves up to omnipotence that it may work by us. If, therefore,

omnipotence be not within hail, and if the miracle-working power is

not within us, then the sooner we go home, and plough the fields, or

open shop, or cast up accounts, the better. Wherefore should we

undertake what we have not the power to perform? Supernatural

work needs supernatural power; and if you have it not, do not, pray

you, attempt to do the work alone, lest, like Samson, when his locks

were shorn, you should become the jest of the Philistines.

This supernatural force is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power

of Jehovah Himself. It is a wonderful thing that God should

condescend to work His marvels of grace through men. It is strange

that, instead of speaking, and saying with His own lips, "Let there be

light," He speaks the illuminating word by our lips! Instead of

fashioning a new Heaven and a new earth, whereto dwells

righteousness, by the mere fiat of His power, He couples Himself

with our weakness, and so performs His purpose! Do you not marvel

that He should treasure His gospel in these poor earthen vessels, and

accomplish the miracles, which I have very briefly described, by

messengers who are themselves so utterly unable to help Him in the

essential parts of His heavenly work? Turn your wonder into

adoration, and blend with your adoration a fervent cry for Divine

power. O Lord, work by us to the praise of Your glory!

We now purpose to consider the way in which we are to obtain

the power we so much desire. WE NEED TO FEEL IT WITHIN

OURSELVES WHEN WE ARE RECEIVING OUR MESSAGES. In

order to have power in public, we must receive power in private. I

trust that no brother here would venture to address his people

without getting a message fresh from his Lord. If you deliver a stale

story of your own concocting, or if you speak without a fresh

anointing from the Holy One, your ministry will come to nothing.

Words spoken on your own account, without reference to your Lord,

will fall to the ground. When the footman goes to the door to answer

a caller, he asks his master what he has to say, and he repeats what

his master tells him. You and I are waiting-servants in the house of

God, and we are to report what our God would have us speak. The

Lord gives the soul-saving message, and clothes it with power; He

gives it to a certain order of people, and under certain conditions.

Among those conditions I notice, first, a simplicity of heart. The

Lord pours most into those who are most empty of self. Those who

have least of their own shall have the most of God's. The Lord cares

little what the vessel is, whether golden or earthen, so long as it is

clean, and disengaged from other uses. He sees whether there is

anything in the cup; and if so, he throws it all out. Only then is the

cup prepared to receive the living water. If there was something in it

before, it would adulterate the pure water of life; or if what was there

before was very pure, it would, at least, occupy some of the room

which the Lord seeks for His own grace. The Lord therefore empties

us, that we may be clear from prejudice, self-sufficiency, and

foregone conclusions as to what His truth ought to be. He would

have us like children, who believe what their father tells them. We

must lay aside all pretense of wisdom. Some men are too self-

sufficient for God to use. If God were to bless them largely, they

would talk in Wolsey's style of "Ego et rex meus" (I and my king); but

the Lord will have none of it. That straight-backed, upstart letter "I"

must bow itself down into its lower-case shape, and just look like a

little pot-hook (I) of a thing, and be nothing more. Oh, to be rid of

self! Oh, to quit every pretense of wisdom!

Many preachers are very superior persons; and so, when they get

God's message, they correct it, and interpolate their own ideas; they

dream that the old gospel cannot be quite suitable to these

enlightened days, when "everything is done by steam, and men are

killed by powder." They not only interpolate, but they omit, because

they judge that certain truths have become obsolete by the lapse of

time. In this way, what with additions and subtractions, little is left

of the pure Word of God. The apostles are generally the first to be

sent adrift. Poor Paul! Poor Paul! He has come in for very hard lines

just lately; as if the Spirit of God did not speak through Paul with as

much authority as when He spoke through the Lord Jesus. Note well

how our Lord deigns to put Himself on a level with His apostles

when He says," The Word which you hear is not Mine, but the

Father's which sent Me;" and in His great intercessory prayer He

prayed for those who would believe on Him through the apostles'

word, as much as to say that, if they would not believe on Him

through the word of the apostles, they would not believe at all. John,

speaking of himself and his fellow-apostles, has said by the Holy

Spirit, "He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God hears not

us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." This

is the test of believers at the present time; the rejection of the

apostles condemns the modern school.

Brethren, may the Lord give us great humility of mind! It ought

not to be an extraordinary thing for us to accept what God says. It

ought not to take much humility for such poor creatures as we are to

sit at the feet of Jesus. We ought to look upon it as an elevation of

mind for our spirit to lie prostrate before infinite wisdom. Assuredly,

this is needful to the reception of power from God.

I have noticed, too, that if God's power comes to a man with a

message, he not only has child-likeness of mind, but he has also

singleness of eye. Such a man, trying to hear what God the Lord shall

speak, is all ear. He honestly and eagerly desires to know what God's

mind is, and he applies all his faculties to the reception of the Divine

communication. As he drinks in the sacred message, with a complete

surrender of soul, he is resolved to give it out with the entire

concentration of his mental and spiritual powers, and with a single

eye to the glory of God. Unless you have but one eye, and that one

eye sees Christ and His glory in the salvation of men, God will not

use you. The man whose eyes cannot look straight on, must not be

admitted as a priest unto the living God.

There are certain defects which cut a man off from the Divine

employ, and anything like a sinister motive is one of them. If you aim

at making money, winning ease, securing approbation, or obtaining

position, or even if you aim at the exhibition of rhetorical talent, you

will not be fit for the Master's use. God would not have us entangled

with subordinate designs. You do not keep a servant to go to the door

that people may say, "What a fine girl she is, and how charmingly she

dresses!" You may smile if it is so, and put up with it:; but your sole

wish is to have your message promptly and faithfully delivered. How

contemptible it is when a minister so acts as to give the idea of

childish display! He stands up to deliver his Lord's message, but his

hope is that people will say, "What a nice young man! How properly'

he speaks, and how prettily he quotes Browning!" Self-display is

death to power. God cannot greatly bless men with such small ideas.

It is beneath the dignity of the Godhead for the Lord largely to use an

instrument so altogether unadapted for His sublime purposes.

Beloved, I notice that God imparts His messages to those who

have a complete subordination to Him. I will tell you what has often

crossed my mind when I have talked with certain brethren, or have

read their lucubrations; I have wondered which was the Master, and

which was the servant—the man or God. I have been sorry for the

errors of these brethren, but I have been far more distressed by the

spirit shown in those errors. It is evident that they have renounced

that holy reverence for Scripture which is indicated by such an

expression as this, "that trembles at My Word." They rather trifle

than tremble. The Word is not their teacher, but they are its critics.

With many, the Word of the Lord is no longer enthroned in the place

of honor, but it is treated as a football, to be kicked about as they

please; and the apostles, especially, are treated as if Paul, and James,

and John, were Jack, Tom, and Harry, with whom modern wise men

are on terms of something more than equality. They pass the Books

of Scripture under their rod, and judge the Spirit of God Himself.

The Lord cannot work by a creature that is in revolt against Him. We

must manifest the spirit of reverence, or we shall not be as little

children, nor enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

When some men come to die, the religion which they have

themselves thought out and invented will yield them no more

confidence than the religion of the Roman Catholic sculptor who, on

his death-bed, was visited by his priest. The priest said, "You are now

departing out of this life;" and, holding up a beautiful crucifix, he

cried, "Behold your God, who died for you" "Alas!" said the sculptor,

"I made it." There was no comfort for him in the work of his own

hands; and there will be no comfort in a religion of one's own

devising. That which was created in the brain cannot yield comfort to

the heart. The man will sorrowfully say, "Yes, that is my own idea;

but what does God say?" Brethren, I believe in that which I could not

have invented. I believe that which I cannot understand. I believe

that which compels me to adore, and I thank God for a rock that is

higher than I am. If it were not higher than I am, it would be no

shelter for me.

"But still," says one, "we must be earnest students of the

literature of the period, and of the science of the age." Yes; I did not

say you were not to be so; but keep them in subordination to the

Word of God. When the Israelites took captives in battle, it

sometimes happened that, among the prisoners, there was a woman

whom the captor might desire to marry, and the Lord did not forbid

the alliance; but have you ever noticed the command for her to shave

her head, and pare her nails? This must be done most carefully with

all the literature of this period, whether it be secular or religious,

whether it deals with fact or with fiction. The shaving will need to be

very close, and the paring to be very careful. Even when these

operations are performed, a wise man will still see reason to question

whether the subject of them had not, after all, be better let alone.

There is an instructive precept of the ceremonial law which shuts out

some things from ever being used in the service: of the Lord. I quote

it with trembling: "You shall not bring the hire of a harlot, or the

price of a dog, into the house of the Lord your God." I question

whether, in quoting certain poets and authors, we may not be

contravening this statute. When men's lives have been foul, and their

principles atheistic, there should be great hesitation as to quoting

their language. The blasphemer of the living God is hardly to be

mentioned in the Lord's house, however fine may have been the

product of his rebellious heart. At any rate, all that is of man, even

the best of men, must be altogether subordinate to the Word of the

Lord.

I have mentioned simplicity of character, singleness of eye, and

subordination of mind; and next to these, I notice, also, that, if God

will speak to us, there must be a deep seriousness of heart. Let me

remind you again of that text which I mentioned a minute ago: "To

this man will I look, even to him that trembles at My Word." When

George Fox was called a Quaker, because he trembled at the Name of

God, the title was an honor to him. The man was so God-possessed

that he quaked, as well he might. Habakkuk describes the same

feeling as having been his own, and this is no unusual experience

with the true child of God. In fact, God never comes to us without

causing us to tremble. The old Romish legend is that the tree that

bore the Savior was the aspen, whose leaves continually quiver; and

he who bears Christ within him, and feels the weight of the Divine

glory, must be filled with awe. Our brother Williams just now said

that he feared and trembled for all the goodness that God had made

to pass before him-this is my feeling, and yours also. We are so weak,

and these Divine inspirations are so weighty, that we are subdued

into awe, and there is no room for levity.

Brethren, avoid anything like trifling over sermon-making.

Someone says, "Well, I take very little time over my sermon." Make

no boast of that; it may be your sin. Listen! If a man had been put

apprentice to cabinet-making, and had worked at it for a lifetime, it

may be that he would have a great deal of skill and a store of

prepared material, so that he could turn out a choice piece of

workmanship in a short time; but you must not, therefore, think that

you could do the same, and that cabinet-making is mere child's play.

A certain minister may quickly compose a sermon, but you must

remember that this is the result of the labor of many years. Even he

who, according to common parlance, speaks quite

extemporaneously, does not really do so; he delivers what he has in

previous years stored up. The mind is full of corn, and, therefore,

when you put a sack in the proper place it is filled with flour in a

short time. Do not regard preparation for the pulpit as a trifling

thing; and do not rush upon your holy duties without devout

preparation for the hallowed service. Make your waiting upon God a

necessity of your calling, and at the same time the highest privilege of

it. Count it your joy and honor to have an interview with your

Master. Get your message fresh from God. Even manna stinks if you

keep it beyond its time; therefore, get it fresh from Heaven, and then

it will have a celestial relish.

One thing more upon this head. This power, which we so greatly

need in getting our message, will only come where there is a

sympathy with God. Brethren, do you know what it is to be in tender

sympathy with God? Perhaps no man among us knows what perfect

sympathy with God means; yet we must, at least, be, in such accord

with God as to feel that He could not do or say anything which we

would question. We could not doubt any truth which He could

reveal; neither, in our heart of hearts, would we quarrel with

anything which His will could appoint. If anything in us is not in

perfect agreement with the Lord, we regard it as evil, and groan to be

set free from it. If anything in us contends against God, we contend

against it, for we are one with God in intent and desire. We hear

much, nowadays, of sympathy with man; and, in a measure, we agree

with it. Sympathy with the fallen, the suffering, the lost, is good; but

my sympathies are also with the Lord my God. His Name is

dishonored; His glory is trailed in the mire. It is His dear, bleeding

Son who is used worst of all. Oh, to think that He should love so well,

and yet be refused! That such beauty as His should be

unacknowledged, such redemption rejected, such mercy scorned!

What are men, after all, compared with God? If they are like myself,

it were a pity that they were ever made! As for God, does He not fill

all things with goodness as well as with being?

To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the

head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God's

glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list. We think too

much of God to please this age; but we are not ashamed. Man has a

will, and oh, how they cry it up! One said, the other day—and there is

some truth in it, too, "I attribute a kind of omnipotence to the will of

man." But, sirs, has not God a will, too? What do you attribute to that

will? Have you nothing to say about its omnipotence? Is God to have

no choice, no purpose, no sovereignty over His own gifts? Brethren,

if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, "I am

God, and there is none else."

I can hardly tell you how high a value I set upon this enthusiasm

for God. We must be in harmony with all His designs of love towards

men, while in secret we receive His message. To become apparently

warm in the pulpit, is, not of much account unless we are much more

intense when alone with God. Heart-fire is true fire. A housewife,

who perseveres in the old method of making her own bread, does not

want a great blaze at the mouth of the oven. "Oh, no!" she says, "I

want to get my faggots far back, and get all the heat into the oven

itself, and then it becomes of use to me." Sermons are never baked by

the fire and flash at the mouth; they must be prepared through the

heating of the inmost soul. That precious Word, that Divine

showbread, must be baked in the center of our nature by the heat

that is put there by the in-dwelling Spirit.

The Lord loves to use a man who is in perfect sympathy with

Him. I would not say anything unfitting, but I believe that the Lord

finds pleasure in the sympathy of His children. When you have been

very heavy of heart, even to weeping, if your little child has said,

"Dear father, don't cry," or has asked, "What are you crying for,

father?" and then has broken out into sobbing himself, have you not

been comforted by him? Poor dear, he does not understand what it is

all about; but you say, "Bless you, my dear child;" and you kiss him,

and feel comfort in him. So does the Lord take up His poor weeping

minister into His bosom, and hear him cry, "Lord, they will not come

to You; Lord, they will not believe You. They are running after evil,

instead of to You. Lord, if I gave them a play, or a peepshow, they

would come in crowds; but if I preach Your dear Son, they will not

hear me." The great God enters into your sorrows, and finds a sweet

content in your heart's love. God is not a man; but as man was made

in the image of God, we learn something of Him from ourselves. He

loves to clasp a sympathizing one to His heart, and then to say, "Go,

My child, and work in My Name; for I can trust My gospel in your

hands." Be with God, and God will be with you. Espouse His cause,

and He will espouse yours. There can be no question about this.

Follow me, my brethren, while I speak upon THE POWER THAT

IS NEEDED WHEN WE ARE DELIVERING THE MESSAGES

ITSELF.

If there is to be a Divine result from God's Word, the Holy Spirit

must go forth with it. As surely as God went before the children of

Israel when He divided the Red Sea, as surely as He led them

through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire, so surely must

the Lord's powerful presence go with His Word if there is to be any

blessing from it. How, then, are we to get that priceless blessing?

Great natural forces are in the world, and when engineers wish to

employ those forces, they go to work in a certain manner suitable

thereto. They cannot create power by mechanism; but they can

utilize it, and economize it. For instance, the wheel and pulley do not

produce power; but, by diminishing friction, they prevent the waste

of power, and this is a great matter. We, also, can be great gainers by

using methods to minimize friction with this present evil world, with

which we unavoidably come into contact. Your own experience will

teach you the wisdom of this. Look earnestly to that holy

separateness of spirit which shall preserve you from the distracting

and down-dragging tendencies of things seen. Happily, there is

another kind of friction which has great power in developing latent

force. Just as a certain form of electricity is produced by friction, so

can we obtain power by coming in contact with God, and by means of

the spiritual effect of truth as it operates upon a willing and obedient

heart. To be touched by the finger of God, yes, to come into contact

with even the hem of our Master's garment, is to obtain heavenly

energy; and if we have much of it, we shall be charged with sacred

strength in a mysterious but very palpable way. Be much with God in

holy dialogue, letting Him speak to you by His Word while you speak

back to Him by your prayers and praises. So far, you will obtain

force.

The greatest generator of force which is available to man is heat. I

suppose that nothing produces so much power for human purposes

as fire; and even so, the burning and consuming element in the

spiritual world is a great factor in the development of spiritual

strength. We must be in downright earnest, and must feel the

burnings of a zeal which consumes us, or we shall have little force.

We must decrease; we must be burning if we would be shining lights.

We cannot save our lives and save others; there must be a

destruction of self for the salvation of men.

Many other things suggest themselves to me on this point; but I

waive them all, to come distinctly to the one most real and most

sufficient power, namely, the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory

evermore!

In order to have the Holy Spirit with us, there must be a very

close adhesion to the truth of God, with clearness, boldness, and

fidelity in the utterance of it. Do not dream that, to have a formal

creed, or a something which is said not to be a creed, but "a

declaration", or some other style of confession—I know not how to

mention the nondescript invention—is enough. Without intensely

hearty belief of truth, these precious documents are wretched affairs.

Declarations of the kind I refer to may be compared to flags, which

may be useful if carried by brave standard-bearers; or they may be

tawdry ornaments, used for meaner ends. A teacher was once

instructing a class in patriotism and nationality. He happened to see

the national flag hanging up upon the wall, and he asked a child,

"Now, my boy, what is that flag?" "It is the English flag, sir." "And

what is the, use of it?" The truthful boy replied, "It is used to cover

the dirty place in the wall behind it." I need not interpret the parable.

Let modern ecclesiastical history point the moral.

Do not let it be true of any of you, that a loudly-professed

orthodoxy is a mere coverlet for error, which is secretly held. No,

dear brethren, stick to the truth, because the truth sticks to you.

Wherever it leads you, follow it; down into the valley, or aloft upon

the hills. Follow close at its heels, and only fear to be left behind in its

course. When the road is miry, never fear that you will ever be hurt

by the splashes of truth.

The truth of God is the best of all guests; entertain it, as Abraham

did the angels. Spare not the best you have for its maintenance; for it

leaves a rich blessing with those who deny themselves for it. But do

not entertain any of the inventions of man; for these will betray you,

as Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss. Do not be dismayed by the

caricatures of truth which are manufactured by malicious minds.

Nowadays, it is the policy of men to misrepresent gospel doctrines.

They remind me of Voltaire, of whom it is said that he could take any

book that he read, and make whatever he liked out of it, and then

hold it up to ridicule Remember the Roman practice in persecuting

times; they wrapped the Christians in skins of bears, and then set

dogs to tear them to pieces. They treat us the same, morally, if we

hold by unpopular truth. I have seen myself in several skins lately; I

can only say they were no skins of mine. I return them to those who

arrayed me in them. If our declarations of truth are fairly and

honestly stated, and then argued against—well and good; but when

they are misrepresented, and tortured to mean what we never meant

them to mean, then we are not careful to reply. When this happens to

you, count it no strange thing. Reckon that, because they cannot

overcome 'the truth itself, they fashion an image of it stuffed with

straw, and then burn it with childish exultation. Let them enjoy their

game as they may.

Brethren, I do not believe that God will set His seal to a ministry

which does not aim at being strictly in accordance with the mind of

the Spirit. In proportion as a ministry is truthful, other things being

equal, God can bless it. Would you have the Holy Spirit set His seal

to a lie? Would you have Him bless what He has not revealed, and

confirm with signs following that which is not truth? I am more and

more persuaded that, if we mean to have God with us, we must keep

to the truth. It is an almost invariable rule that, when men go aside

from the old faith, they are seldom successful in soul-winning. I

could appeal to all observers whether it is not so, whether men,

powerful in other ways, do not become barren and unfruitful as to

the salvation of others when they become doubters rather than

believers. If you inquire into the worm which has devoured the root

of their usefulness, you will find that it is a want of faith upon some

great, cardinal principle—a want of faith winch may not be displayed

in their public ministry, but lurks within, poisoning their thoughts.

You must be with the Holy Spirit if you are to have the Holy Spirit

with you.

Beloved, have a genuine faith in the Word of God, and in its

power to save. Do not go up into the pulpit preaching the truth, and

saying, "I hope some good will come of it" but confidently believe

that it will not return void, but must work the eternal purpose of

God. Do not speak as if the gospel might have some power, or might

have none. God sends you to be a miracle-worker; therefore, say to

the spiritually lame, "In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise

up and walk," and men will rise up and walk; but if you say, "I hope,

dear man, that Jesus Christ may be able to make you rise up and

walk," your Lord will frown upon your dishonoring words. You have

lowered Him, you have brought Him down to the level of your

unbelief and He cannot do many mighty works by you. Speak boldly;

for if you speak by the Holy Spirit, you cannot speak in vain.

Oh, that we could make our people feel that we believe what we

are saying! I have heard of a little girl, who said to her father, who

was a minister, and who had been telling her a story, "Pa, is that real

or is it preaching?" I cannot object to your smiling at my anecdote;

but it is a thing to weep over, that preaching should be suspected of

unreality. People hear our testimony, and ask "Is it a matter of fact,

or is it the proper thing to be said?" If they saw a statement in a

newspaper, they would believe it; but when they see it in a sermon,

they say, "It is a pious opinion."

This suspicion is born of lack of fidelity in ministers. I saw, just

now, outside the shop of a marine-store dealer, a placard which runs

thus: "Fifty tons of bones wanted." "Yes," I said to myself, "mostly

backbones." Fifty tons of them! I could indicate a place where they

could take fifty tons, and not be overstocked. As for us, let us be able

to say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." Let us have a genuine

faith in everything that God has revealed. Have faith, not only in its

truth, but in its power; faith in the absolute certainty that, if it be

preached, it will produce glorious results.

Closely adhering to the truth by a dogged faith, we are in the

condition in which God is likely to bless us. But then, there must be,

in the preaching, a concentration of heart upon the business in which

we are engaged. We shall never do well in our sacred calling if half

our energy goes to something else. The man who is doing half-a-

dozen things generally fails in them all. Of course he does. We have

not enough water in our streamlet to drive more than one mill; if we

let it run over one wheel, that one wheel will turn to purpose; but if

we divide the water, it will do nothing. God's message deserves every

fragment of my ability; and when I deliver it, I ought to be "all there,"

every bit of me; none of me should go astray or lie asleep. Some men,

when they get into the pulpit, are not there. One said to me, in

conversation, "I do not know how it is, but I feel so different when I

shut that pulpit-door." I answered, "Have the door taken off." That

might not, however, produce the effect; it would have been better if it

could have been said of him as of Noah, "the Lord shut him in."

Do not some show, by their manner of preaching, that their heart

is not in it? They have come to preach, and they will get through

what they have to say; but their deepest thoughts and liveliest

emotions would come out better at a political meeting. They have not

all their wits about them when preaching. They remind me of the

legend of the two learned doctors down in the fen country, who

thought that they would have a day's shooting of wild ducks. They

were extremely learned, but they were not at home in common

pursuits. They came to a piece of water, into which it was necessary

for them to wade to get at the ducks; and one said to the other, "I

have not put on my water-boots." The other replied, "I have forgotten

my boots, too; but never mind." They both waded in, for they were

keen sportsmen. They reached a sufficient nearness for shooting the

ducks. Then one whispered, "Now, brother, fire at them." The

brother replied, "I've forgotten my gun; haven't you brought yours?"

"No," said the other, "I did not think of it." There were fine

sportsmen for you! Their deep thoughts had made them unpractical:

their Hebrew roots had displaced their common sense. Have you

never seen such preachers? They are "not there ": their minds are in

the profound abysses of critical unbelief. The Holy Spirit will not

bless men of this sort. He spoke by an donkey once, but that donkey

showed its sense by never speaking any more. I know creatures of a

similar kind that are not half so wise.

Now, dear friends, see what I am driving at. I hope that I shall not

miss it. It is plain to every thoughtful mind that, if we are not

altogether in our work, we cannot expect a blessing. God the Holy

Spirit does not work by a torso, or a bust; He uses our whole

manhood. See a tradesman in one of our poorer districts, on a

Saturday night, outside his shop. He walks up and down, and cries,

"Buy, buy," with vehemence; he salutes every passer-by; he presses

his commodities; he seems to be everywhere at once; he compels

men to come in; he urges each one to be a purchaser. So, also, must

we serve the Lord with all diligence, if we hope for success in our

sacred calling.

If we would have the Lord with us in the delivery of our message,

we must be in dead earnest, and full of living zeal Do you not think

that many sermons are "prepared" until the juice is crushed out of

them, and zeal could not remain in such dry husks? Sermons which

are studied for days, written down, read, re-read, corrected, and

further corrected and emended, are in great danger of being too

much cut and dried. You will never get a crop if you plant boiled

potatoes. You can boil a sermon to a turn, so that no life remains in

it. I like, in a discourse, to hear the wild-bird notes of true nature and

pure grace; these have a charm unknown to the artificial and

elaborate address. The music which we hear of a morning, in the

spring, has a freshness in it which your tame birds cannot reach; it is

full of rapture, and alive with variety and feeling. It is a treat to hear

a really good local preacher tell out his experience of how he came to

Christ; and relate it in his own hearty, unaffected way. Nature beats

are all to nothing. A simple, hearty testimony is like grapes cut fresh

from the vine: who would lay a bunch of raisins by the side of them?

Give us sermons, and save us from essays! Do you not all know the

superfine preacher? You ought to listen to him, for he is clever; you

ought to be attentive to his words, for every sentence of that paper

cost him hours of toilsome composition; but somehow it falls flat,

and there is an offensive smell of stale oil. I speak advisedly when I

say that some speakers want locking out of their studies, and turning

out to visit their people. A very good preacher once said to me, "I feel

discouraged; for, the other Sunday, I did not feel at all well, and I

preached a sermon without much study; in fact, it was such a talk as

I should give if I sat up in bed in the middle of the night, and in my

shirt-sleeves told out the way of salvation. Why, sir, my people came

to me, and said, "What a delightful sermon! We have so enjoyed it!" I

felt disgusted with them. When I have given them a sermon that took

a full week, and perhaps more, to prepare, they have not thought

anything of it; but this unstudied address quite won their hearts." I

replied to him, "If I were you, I would accept their judgment, and

give them another sermon of the same sort."

So long as the life of the sermon is strengthened by preparation,

you may prepare to the utmost; but if the soul evaporates in the

process, what is the good of such injurious toil? It is a kind of murder

which you have wrought upon the sermon which you have dried to

death. I do not believe that God the Holy Spirit cares one single atom

about your classical composition. I do not think that the Lord takes

any delight in your rhetoric, or in your poetry, or even in that

marvelous peroration which concludes the discourse, after the

manner of the final display at old Vauxhall Gardens, when a

profusion of all manner of fireworks dosed the scene. Not even by

that magnificent finale does the Lord work the salvation of sinners. If

there is fire, life, and truth in the sermon, then the quickening Spirit

will work by it, but not else. Be earnest, and you need not be elegant.

The Holy Spirit will help us in our message, if there is an entire

dependence upon Him. Of course, you all accept this truth at once;

but do you entirely depend upon the Holy Spirit? Can you, dare you,

do that? I would not urge any man to go into the pulpit, and talk out

whatever first came into his head, under the pretense of depending

upon the Holy Spirit; but, still, there are methods of preparation

which denote the utter absence of any trust in the Holy Spirit's help

in the pulpit. There is no practical difficulty in reconciling our own

earnest endeavors with humble dependence upon God; but it is very

hard to make this appear logical, when we are merely discussing a

theory. It is the old difficulty of reconciling faith and works. I heard

of a good man who had family prayer, and commended his house

and household to the care of God during the night-watches. When

burglaries became numerous in the neighborhood, he said to a

friend, "After you have asked the Lord to protect your house, what do

you do?" His friend answered that he did nothing more than usual.

"Well," said the first, "we have put bolts, top and bottom, upon all

the doors, and we have a lock and also a chain; beside that, we have

the best patent fastenings on all the windows." "All that is well

enough," said his friend; "is not that enough?" "No," said he; "when

we go to bed, my wife and I have two bolts on the door of the

bedroom, and a lock and chain on the door. I have also got a spear-

head fixed on a pole, and my wife has an electric apparatus which

will ring a bell, and give an alarm outside." His friend smiled, and

said, "And all that is faith in God, is it?" The good man replied, "Faith

without works is dead." "Yes," said the other, "but I should think that

faith with so many works would be likely to be smothered."

There is a medium in all things. I should not pray God to take

care of me, and then leave my front door unfastened and my window

open. So I should not pray for the Holy Spirit, and then go into the

pulpit without having carefully thought upon my text. Still, if I had

prepared thoughts and expressions so minutely that I never varied

from my set form, I should think that my faith was, to say the least,

encumbered with more works than would allow her much liberty of

action. I do not see where the opportunity is given to the Spirit of

God to help us in preaching, if every jot and tittle is settled

beforehand. Do let your trust in God be free to move hand and foot.

While you are preaching, believe that God the Holy Spirit can give

you, in the selfsame hour what you shall speak; and can make you

say what you had not previously thought of; yes, and make this

newly-given utterance to be the very arrowhead of the discourse,

which shall strike deeper into the heart than anything you had

prepared. Do not reduce your dependence upon the Holy Spirit to a

mere phrase; make it more and more a fact.

Above all, dear friends, if you want the blessing of God, keep up

constant communion with God. We get into fellowship with God at

this Conference; do not let us get out of communion with God when

we go home. When may a Christian safely be out of communion with

God? Never. If we always walk with God, and act towards Him as

children towards a loving father, so that the spirit of adoption is

always in us, and the spirit of love always flows forth from us, we

shall preach with power, and God will bless our ministry: for then we

shall know and utter the mind of God.

I must add here that, if we are to enjoy the power of God, we must

manifest great holiness of life. I would not ask any brother to profess

that he has a higher life than other believers; for, if he did so we

might suspect that he had no very eminent degree of humility. I

would not invite any brother to talk about having more holiness than

his brother-ministers; for, if he did so, we might fear that he hung

out the outward sign because the inward grace was absent. But we

must have holiness to a high degree. Unholy living! How can God

bless it? I heard of one who, on the Sabbath morning, said to his

people, "I was at the play last night, and I saw So-and-so ;" and he

used what he saw as an illustration of his subject. It saddened me to

hear the story: may the like never be done again! But, alas! acts of

worldly conformity are not only tolerated nowadays; they are, in

some quarters, commended as signs of a large mind. If a man can

enjoy the theater, it is his own concern but when he invites me to

hear him preach, I decline to accept his invitation.

Even worldlings look with scorn upon loose habits in a preacher. I

know a certain clergyman who is fond of cards. Speaking to a man-

servant, a friend said, "Where do you go on Sunday? I suppose you

attend the church;" the place being very near. "No," said the man, "I

never go and hear that gentleman." "Why not?" "Well," he said, "you

know he is very much taken up with card-playing." "'Yes," said my

friend, "but you play cards yourself." This was the answer, "Yes, I

play cards; but I would not trust my soul with a man who does it. I

want a better man than myself to be my spiritual guide." The remark

is open to many criticisms, but there is about it a ring of common

sense. That is how the world regards matters. Now, if even men of

the world judge trifling preachers to be unfit for their work, depend

upon it the Holy Spirit has not a better opinion of them, and He must

be sorely vexed with unspiritual, unholy intruders into the sacred

office. If we can lie, if we can be unkind to our families, if we do not

pay our debts, if we are notorious for levity, and little given to

devotion, how can we expect a blessing? "Be you clean, that bear the

vessels of the Lord." As I have said before, He does not mind what

the vessel is, even though it be but of earth or of wood; but it must be

clean. It is not fit for the Master's use if it is not clean. Oh, that God

would keep us pure, and then take us in His own hand for His own

purposes!

Once more, if we are to be robed in the power of the Lord, we

must feel an intense longing for the glory of God, and the salvation of

the sons of men. Even when we are most successful, we must long for

more success. If God has given us many souls, we must pine for a

thousand times as many. Satisfaction with results will be the knell of

progress. No man is good who thinks that he cannot be better. He

has no holiness who thinks that he is holy enough, and he is not

useful who thinks that he is useful enough. Desire to honor God

grows as we grow. Can you not sympathize with Mr. Welch, a Suffolk

minister, who was noticed to sit and weep; and one said to him, "My

dear Mr. Welch, why are you weeping?" "Well," he replied, "I cannot

tell you;" but when they pressed him very hard, he answered, "I am

weeping because I cannot love Christ more." That was worth weeping

for, was it not? That man was noted everywhere for his intense love

to his Master; and, therefore, he wept because he could not love Him

more. The holiest minister is the man who cries, "O wretched man

that: I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" No

common Christian sighs in that fashion. Sin becomes exquisitely

painful only to the exquisitely pure. That wound of sin, which would

not be a pin's prick to coarser minds, seems a dagger's wound to him.

If we have great love to Jesus, and great compassion for perishing

men, we shall not be puffed up with large success; but we shall sigh

and cry over the thousands who are not converted!

Love for souls will operate in many ways upon our ministry.

Among other things, it will make us very plain in our speech. We

shall say to ourselves, "No: I must not use that hard word, for that

poor woman in the aisle would not understand me. I must not point

out that recondite difficulty, for yonder trembling soul might be

staggered by it, and might not be relieved by my explanation." I

heard a sentence, the other day, which stuck to me because of its

finery rather than its weight of meaning. An admirable divine

remarked, "When duty is embodied in a concrete personality, it is

eminently simplified." You all understand the expression; but I do

not think that the congregation to which it was addressed had more

than a hazy idea of what it meant. It is our old friend, "Example is

better than precept." It is a fine thing to construct sounding

sentences, but it is only an amusement; it ministers nothing to our

great end. Some would impress us by their depth of thought, when it

is merely a love of big words. To hide plain things in dark sentences,

is sport rather than service for God. If you love men better, you will

love phrases less. How used your mother to talk to you when you

were a child? There! do not tell me. Don't print it. It would never do

for the public ear. The things that she used to say to you were

childish, and earlier still, babyish. Why did she thus speak, for she

was a very sensible woman? Because she loved you. There is a sort

of tutoyage, as the French call it, in which love delights.

Love's manner of addressing men disregards all the dignities and

the fineries of language, and only cares to impart its meaning, and

infuse the blessing. To spread our heart right over another heart, is

better than adorning it with the paint and varnish of brilliant speech.

If you greatly love, you are the kind of man that knows how to feel for

men, and with them. Some men do not know how to handle a heart

at all. They are like a stranger at the fish-market, who will so touch

certain fish that they at once erect their spines, and pierce the hand

that touches them. A fishwife is never hurt in that way, for she knows

where to take them. There is a right way of handling men and

women, and the are is acquired through intense love. How do the

mothers of England learn to bring up their children? Is there an

academy for maternal tuition? Have we founded a guild of

motherhood? No; love is the great teacher, and it makes the young

mother quick of understanding for her babe's good. Get much love to

Christ, and much love to immortal souls, and it is wonderful how

wisely you will adapt your teaching to the needs of those around you.

I will mention a few things more which are necessary to the full

display of the power which regenerates sinners, and builds up saints.

Much care should be bestowed upon our surroundings. Brethren, do

not think that if you go, next Lord's-day, to a place you have never

visited before, you will find it as easy to preach there as it is at home

among a loving, praying people. Are you not conscious, when going

into some assemblies, that they are cold as ice-wells? You say to

yourself, "How can I preach here?" You do not quite, know why, but

you are not happy. There is no quickening atmosphere, no refreshing

dew, no heavenly wind. Like your Lord, you cannot do anything

because of the unbelief around you. When you begin to preach, it is

like speaking inside a steam-boiler. No living hearts respond to your

heart. They are a sleepy company, or a critical society; you can see it,

and feel it. How they fix their eyes on you, and concentrate their

spectacles! You perceive that they are in what a countryman called "a

judgmental frame of mind." No good will come of your warm-

hearted address.

I have had great success in soul-winning, when preaching in

different parts of the country; but I have never taken any credit for it,

for I feel that I preach under great advantages; the people come with

an intense desire to hear, and with an expectation of getting a

blessing; and hence every word has its due weight. When a

congregation expects nothing, it generally finds nothing even in the

best of preachers; but when they are prepared to make much of what

they hear, they usually get what they come for. If a man goes fishing

for frogs, he catches them; if he fishes for fish, he will catch them, if

he goes to the right stream. Our work is, no doubt, greatly affected,

for good or evil, by the condition of the congregation, the condition

of the church, and the condition of the deacons.

Some churches are in such a state that they are enough to baffle

any ministry. A brother-minister told me of a Congregational chapel

in which there has not been a prayer-meeting for the last fifteen

years; and I did not wonder when he added that the Congregation

had nearly died out, and the minister was removing. It was time he

should. What a blessing he will not be somewhere else! "But," said

he, "I cannot say much about this state of things; for, in my own

church, I cannot get the people to pray. The bulk of them have not

been in the habit of taking public part in the prayers, and it seems

impossible to get them to do so. What shall I do?" "Well," I replied,

"it may help you if you call in your church-officers on Sunday

mornings, before the service, and ask them to pray for you, as my

deacons and elders do for me. My officers know what a trembling

creature I am; and when I ask them to seek strength for me, they do

so with loving hearts." Don't you think that such exercises tend to

train men in the are of public prayer? Besides, men are likely to hear

better when they have prayed for the preacher. Oh, to get around us a

band of men whose hearts the Lord has touched! If we have a holy

people about us, we shall be the better able to preach. Tell me not of

a marble pulpit; this is a golden pulpit.

A holy people, who are living what you preach, make the best

platform for a pleader for Christ. Christ went up into the mountain,

and taught the crowd; and when you have a company of godly people

around you, you do, as it were, go up into the mountain, and speak

with the people from a favored elevation. We need a holy people; but,

alas! there is too often an Achan in the camp. Achan is more

generally harbored than he used to be, because goodly Babylonish

garments and wedges of silver are much in request, and weak faith

feels that it cannot do without these spoils. Carnal policy whispers,

"What shall we do with the chapel debt if the wealthy deacon leaves,

and his silver goes with him? We should miss the respectability

which his wife's goodly Babylonish garment bestows upon the place.

We have very few wealthy people, and we must strain a point to keep

them." Yes, that is the way in which the accursed thing is allowed to

debase our churches, and defeat our ministries. When this pest is in

the air, you may preach your tongue out, but you will not win souls.

One man may have more power for mischief than fifty preachers

have power for good. May the Lord give you a holy, pleading people,

whom He can bless!

For large blessing, we must have union among our people. God

the Holy Spirit does not bless a collection of quarreling professors.

Those who are always contending, not for the truth, but for petty

differences, and family jealousies, are not likely to bring to the

church the dove-like Spirit. Want of unity always involves want of

power. I know that some churches are greatly at fault in this

direction; but certain ministers never have a harmonious people,

although they change frequently; and I am afraid it is because they

are not very loving themselves. Unless we are ourselves in good

temper, we cannot expect to keep the people in good temper. As

pastors, we must bear a great deal; and when we think we have borne

as much as possible, and cannot bear any more, we must go over it

again, and bear the same things again. Strong in the love which

"endures all things, hopes all things," we must quietly resolve not to

take offence; and, before long, harmony will be created where

discord reigned, and then we may expect a blessing.

We must plead with God that our people may be all earnest for

the spread of the truth and the conversion of sinners. How blessed is

that minister who has earnest men around him! You know what one

cold-hearted man can do, if he gets at you on Sunday morning with a

lump of ice, and freezes you with the information that Mrs. Smith

and all her family are offended, and their pew is vacant. You did not

want to know of that lady's protest just before entering the pulpit,

and it does not help you. Another dear brother tells you, with great

grief, (he is so overcome that it is a pity his voice does not fail him

altogether,) that one of the best helpers is very much hurt at your not

calling to see him last Friday, when you were a hundred miles away

preaching for a struggling church. You ought to have called upon him

at any inconvenience, so the brother will tell you, and he does his

duty with a heart "as cool as a cucumber."

It may even happen that, when you come down from the mount

where you have been with God, and preached with your soul on fire,

that you come right down into a cold bath of common-place remark,

which lets you see that some of your hearers are out of sympathy

both with your subject and yourself. Such a thing is a great

hindrance, not only to your spirit, but to the Spirit of God; for the

Holy One notices all this unkind and unspiritual behavior. Brethren,

what a work we have to do! What a work we have to do! Unless the

Spirit of God comes to sanctify these surroundings, how can it ever

be done? I am sure you feel the necessity of having a truly praying

people. Be much in prayer yourself, and this will be more effectual

than scolding your people for not praying. Set the example. Draw

streams of prayer out of the really gracious people by getting them to

pray whenever they come to see you, and by praying with them

yourself whenever you call upon them. Not only when they, are ill,

but when they are well, ask them to join in prayer with you. When a

man is upstairs in bed, and cannot do any hurt, you pray for him.

When he is downstairs, and can do no end of mischief, you do not

pray for him. Is this wise and prudent? Oh, for a pleading people!

The praying legion is the victorious legion. One of our most urgent

necessities is fervent, importunate prayer.

Brethren, in addition to cooperation in service, we need that our

friends should be looking out for souls. Whenever a stranger comes

into the chapel, somebody should speak to him. Whenever a person

is a little impressed, an earnest brother should follow up the stroke.

Whenever a heart is troubled, some genial voice should whisper

words of comfort. If these things were so, our ministry would be

quadrupled in effort, and the result would be fourfold. May all our

chapels be co-operative stores for zeal and earnestness, wherein not

one man only, but every man is at work for Christ!

I have done when I say just this. Let each man bethink him of the

responsibility that rests upon him. I should not like to handle the

doctrine of responsibility with the view of proving that it squares

with the doctrine of predestination. It does do so, assuredly. I believe

in predestination without cutting and trimming it; and I believe in

responsibility without adulterating and weakening it. Before you, the

man of God places a quiver full of arrows, and he bids you shoot the

arrow of the Lord's deliverance. Bestir yourself, and draw the bow! I

beseech you, remember that every time you shoot there shall be

victory for Israel. Will you stop at the third shooting? The man of

God will feel angry and grieved if you are thus straitened, and he will

say, "You should have smitten five or six times, and then Syria would

have been utterly destroyed." Do we not fail in our preachings, in our

very ideal of what we are going to do, and in the design we set before

us for accomplishment? Having labored a little, are we not very

satisfied? Shake off such base content! Let us shoot many times.

Brethren, be filled with a great ambition; not for yourselves, but for

your Lord. Elevate your ideal! Have no more firing at the bush. You

may, in this case, shoot at the sun himself; for you will be sure to

shoot higher, if you do so, than if some groveling object were your

aim. Believe for great things of a great God.

Remember, whether you do so or not, great are your

responsibilities. There never was a more restless time than now.

What is being done today will affect the next centuries, unless the

Lord should very speedily come. I believe that, if we walk uprightly

and decidedly before God at this time, we shall make the future of

England bright with the gospel; but trimming now, and debasing

doctrine now, will affect children yet unborn, generation after

generation. Posterity must be considered. I do not look so much at

what is to happen today, for these things relate to eternity. For my

part, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next fifty years; but

the more distant future shall vindicate me. I have dealt honestly

before the living God. My brother, do the same. Who knows but what

you are come to the kingdom for such a time as this? If you have grit

in you, quit yourself like a man. If you have God in you, then you may

yet do marvels. But if not, bent, doubled up, proven to be useless,

you shall lie on that foul dunghill which is made up of cowards'

failures and misspent lives. God save both you and me from that

disgrace!

I would enhance our sense of responsibility by the remembrance

of the death-beds of our people. Unless we are faithful to them, it will

be a painful sight to be present when they come to die. Suppose that

any one of our hearers should stretch out his bony hand, and say, "I

am lost, and you never warned me; you always gave me some idea

that it might be a little way roundabout, but I should get right all the

same; and I chose the roundabout way of 'the larger hope,' instead of

the Divine hope that is set before us in the gospel." I would rather

never have been born than have anybody speak thus to me when he

shall come to die. My brother said to me, the other day, what Charles

Wesley said to John Wesley, "Brother, our people die well!" I

answered, "Assuredly they do!" I have never been to the sick-bed of

any one of our people without feeling strengthened in faith. In the

sight of their glorious confidence, I could sooner battle with the

whole earth, and kick it before me like a football, than have a doubt

in my mind about the gospel of our Lord. They die gloriously. I saw,

last week, a dear sister, with cancer just under her eye. How did I

find her? Was she lamenting her hard fate? By no means; she was

happy, calm, joyful, in bright expectation of seeing the face of the

King in His beauty. I talked with a tradesman, who fell asleep not

long ago, and I said, "You seem to have no fears." "No," he said, "how

can I have any? You have not taught us what will make us fear. How

can I be afraid to die, since I have fed these thirty years on the strong

meat of the Kingdom of God? I know whom I have believed." I had a

heavenly time with him. I cannot use a lower word. He exhibited a

holy mirth in the expectation of a speedy removal to the better world.

Now, dear brethren, suffer one last word. You and I will ourselves

soon die, unless our Master comes; and blessed will it be for us if,

when we lie in the silent room, and the nights grow weary, and our

strength ebbs out, we can stay ourselves upon the pillows, and say,

"O Lord, I have known You from my youth, and hitherto have I

declared Your wondrous works; and now that I am about to depart,

forsake me not." Thrice happy shall we be if we can say, in the last

article, "I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God."

Brethren, I resolve, God helping me, to be among those that shall

walk with our Lord in white, for they are worthy. "These are they," it

is said, "who have not defiled themselves," entered into no contracts

and confederacies that would have stained their consciences, and

polluted their hearts. These are they who have walked apart for His

dear sake, obeying this word, "Come out from among them, and be

you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I

will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My

sons and. daughters, says the Lord Almighty." A special enjoyment of

adoption is given to the conscience that is true to the separated path,

and is; never degraded by compromise. God help you to be faithful in

this matter! I believe that, in fidelity, will be your power. "You may

well make a little slit in your conscience," said one to a Puritan, "for

other people make great rents in theirs." But the godly man thought

not so; and I would remind you of that solemn word, "I the Lord your

God am a jealous God." This jealousy burns like coals of fire, and it is

cruel as the grave; for God is so sternly jealous of those He loves

much, that He will not bear in them that which He will endure in

others. The greater His love, the more fierce His jealousy if in any

way His chosen depart from Him.

I shall be gone from you before long. You will meet, and say to

one another, "The President has departed. What are we going to do?"

I charge you, be faithful to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and

the doctrine of His grace. Be you faithful unto death, and your

crowns will not be wanting. But, oh! let none of us die out like dim

candles, ending a powerless ministry in everlasting blackness. The

Lord Himself bless you! Amen.

Chapter 12. THE MINISTER IN THESE

TIMES

Beloved brethren, I desire, on this occasion, to say something that

shall be suitable for the times. I have never, according to the current

phrase, preached to the times, but yet I would speak for the times,

believing that a timely word now may bless all times to come. The

times impress me in so many ways, and in such various modes, that I

must take up a roving commission, and touch briefly upon a wide

range of matters, instead of confining myself to one subject. Accept

from me "here a little, and there a little," instead of much upon one

subject.

First, let us reflect upon OUR LORD'S POSITION TOWARDS US.

Here we have many points which must be boldly maintained in our

preaching. Be assured that we cannot be right in the rest, unless we

think rightly of HIM. In forming your system of astronomy, where do

you put the sun? If you are not clear on that cardinal matter, your

scheme will be a failure. If you have not found out the true

"tabernacle for the sun," I am not very particular as to where you put

Mars or Jupiter. Where is Christ in your theological system? How

does He stand in your thoughts? Whereabouts is Jesus in reference

to yourself, and your work, and your fellow-men?

Many are the aspects under which we must regard our Divine

Lord, but I must always give the greatest prominence to His saving

character as Christ our Sacrifice and Sin-bearer. If ever there was a

time when we should be clear, pronounced, and vehement upon this

point, it is now. Now the banner of the cross must lead the way. We

cannot afford to put the atonement upon the shelf as a truth to be

taken for granted, and left among the curiosities of unpractical belief.

We cannot now afford to use orthodox words and phrases upon this

subject as one might repeat the language of a liturgy; we must

livingly and intensely believe the truth ourselves, and we must

enforce it with the full energy of our being. The vital truth of our

Lord's expiation must be preached often, clearly, and with emphasis;

and, if it be not so, we have not correctly learned Christ, neither shall

we successfully teach Him. To attempt to preach Christ without His

cross, is to betray Him with a kiss.

I observe that certain persons claim to believe in the atonement,

but they will not say what they mean by it. May not this mean that

really they have no clear knowledge of it; and, possibly, no real faith

in it? Every man has a theory of what he knows; at least, he can give

a statement of what he understands. We have heard of the men of

Athens, and of their altar erected "to the unknown God": in England,

we have philosophical people who believe in an unknown atonement.

We conceive that, in this way, they "ignorantly worship." Robertson,

of Brighton, was orthodox compared with many in this advanced

age; but one said of him that he taught that our Lord did something

or other, which in some way or other was more or less connected

with our salvation. Flimsy as that was, it is better than the doctrine of

this hour. Some now think it absurd to believe that what was done at

Calvary, nineteen centuries ago, can have any relation to the sins of

today. Others, who speak not quite so wildly, yet deny that our sins

could be laid on the Lord Jesus, and that His righteousness could be

imputed to us; this, they say, would be immoral. The ethical side of

the atonement is frequently held, and beautifully and strikingly

shown to the people; but we are not satisfied with this one-sided

view of the great subject. Whatever may be the shadow of the

atonement—by which we mean its ethical influence—we believe that

there was a substance in the atonement; and if that substance be

removed, the shadow is gone also.

We have no home-made theory; but our solemn witness is, that

He "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Even if

it be called immoral, as some have impudently asserted, we yet

believe that God "has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;

that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "The

chastisement of our peace was upon Him," for "the Lord has laid on

Him the iniquity of us all" It would do us all good to look through the

texts, in the Old and New Testaments, which refer to this

fundamental truth; they are many, and definite. If we use language in

its natural sense, we cannot get away from the assured belief that the

Scripture teaches us to come to God through Jesus Christ, believing

that He took our sin upon Himself, and suffered on its account, that

He might render to God's moral government a recompense for the

dishonor which man's rebellion had put upon it. Through His blood,

there is forgiveness; and by reason of His vicarious satisfaction, guilt

is put away, and the believer is "accepted in the Beloved."

Those who set aside the atonement as a satisfaction for sin, also

murder the doctrine of justification by faith. They must do so. There

is a common element which is the essence of both doctrines; so that,

if you deny the one, you destroy the other. Modern thought is

nothing but an attempt to bring back the legal system of salvation by

works. Our battle is the same as that which Luther fought at the

Reformation. If you go to the very ground and root of it, grace is

taken away, and human merit is substituted. The gracious act of God

in pardoning sin is excluded, and human effort is made all in all,

both for past sin and future hope. Every man is now to set up as his

own savior, and the atonement is shelved as a pious fraud. I will not

foul my mouth with the unworthy phrases which have been used in

reference to the substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ; but it

is a sore grief of heart to note how these evil things are tolerated by

men whom we respect.

We shall not cease, dear brethren, in our ministry, most definitely

and decidedly to preach the atoning sacrifice; and I will tell you why I

shall be sure to do so. I have not personally a shadow of a hope of

salvation from any other quarter: I am lost if Jesus be not my

Substitute. I have been driven up into a corner by a pressing sense of

my own personal sin, and have been made to despair of ever doing or

being such that God can accept me in myself. I must have a

righteousness, perfect and Divine; yet it is beyond my own power to

create. I find it in Christ: I read that it will become mine by faith, and

by faith I take it. My conscience tells me that I must render to God's

justice a recompense for the dishonor that I have done to His law,

and I cannot find anything which bears the semblance of such a

recompense until I look to Christ Jesus. Do I not remember when I

first looked to Him, and was lightened? Do I not remember how

often I have gone as a sinner to my Savior's feet, and looked anew at

His wounds, and believed over again unto eternal life, feeling the old

joy repeated by the deed? Brethren, I cannot preach anything else,

for I know nothing else. New dogmas may or may not be true; but of

the truth of this doctrine, I am sure.

If anybody here is preaching the atonement, but does not like it, I

dare not advise him to cease preaching it, but the words tremble on

my lips. I am firmly persuaded that the unwilling or cold-hearted

preacher of any doctrine is its worst enemy. It comes to this, in the

long run, that the wounds of truth in the house of its false friends are

worse than those given it by foes. If you do not love the cross in your

heart's core, you had better let it alone. I can truly say that I preach

the atonement con amore, with all my heart. Some seem to think that

we poor souls, who are of the Puritanic school, are "cabin'd, cribb'd,

confined" by harsh dogmas, from which we would gladly escape.

They imagine that we have to check every rising aspiration of our

nobler selves, so as to preserve the tyranny of a certain iron system.

John Calvin is supposed to ride us like a nightmare, and we lead

dogs' lives under his lash. Brethren, it is far otherwise. Little do these

slanderers know of our happiness and peace. If they feel more joy in

preaching than we do, their felicity is great; but, from their tone and

style, I should greatly question it. Observers will have noticed that

the joyous element has gone out of many pulpits. The preacher does

not enjoy his own subject, and seldom speaks of having been in the

Spirit while he was discoursing. He likes twenty minutes' preaching a

great deal better than forty; and he is peculiarly apt to merge his two

week-night services into one. Nobody enjoys modern doctrine, for

there is nothing to enjoy. The people have to do their best with that

soup of which our friend spoke last night so admirably—the soup

made from a borrowed bone, which had been lent out for a similar

purpose on six previous days, so that the flavor of meat no longer

remained upon it. No, my brothers; let our opponents dismiss from

their minds all pity for our enslaved condition under the old gospel.

We are the free men, whom the Lord makes free, and all are slaves

besides. I would like to rise from my bed, during the last five minutes

of my life, to bear witness to the Divine sacrifice and the sin-atoning

blood. I would then repeat those words which speak the truth of

substitution most positively, even should I shock my hearers; for how

could I regret that, as in Heaven my first words would be to ascribe

my salvation to my Master's blood, my last act on earth was to shock

His enemies by a testimony to the same fact?

Next, we hold that Christ Jesus is the sole Mediator and High

Priest. And this makes us look with indignation upon the claims of

superstition. We have in England still, what we thought, in our

younger days, had become extinct, namely, the gospel of priestcraft—

the priestcraft of old Rome, without its venerableness of age. There

are men among us who claim to be priests in a sense other than that

in which all believers are priests unto God. According to this dream,

our Lord Jesus is not, in Himself, an all-sufficient Mediator; that is

to say, He may go a certain distance Godward; but, manward,

between sinful man and the Lord Christ, there is a gap which can

only be filled by a participator in a imagined apostolical succession.

Of course, the sacraments, duly administered, are described as

certain conduits of grace. Still we hear the words, "Baptism, wherein

I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of

the Kingdom of Heaven." In priestly hands, bread and wine undergo

a miraculous change, very near akin to Popish transubstantiation.

Sacraments are magnified, because they are administered by priests,

and thus they are but a footstool upon which the priest can mount a

little higher. The church, the altar, the priest, these are cried up

beyond measure; yet these are not our Lord Jesus, but rivals to His

priesthood. We hear it asserted, and our poor are continually taught

it, that anyone who undertakes to teach the gospel, though he can

prove his doctrine from the Bible, and may have an evident blessing

resting on his ministry, is to be denounced as a schismatic, unless he

has received episcopal laying on of hands. To break bread together as

believers in the Lord Jesus, is not allowable to ordinary Christians;

and if they dare to do so, they are guilty of schism—an awful crime,

which would seem to be several degrees worse than adultery or

murder. You might be forgiven, and it might even be difficult to keep

you from the sacraments, though guilty of fornication; but schism, if

persevered in, puts you beyond hope.

Brethren, let us bear most earnest protests against this revived

superstition. Let us tolerate nothing between the soul and Christ. It

may be that, in London, this priestly assumption does not come so

closely and vexatiously under your notice; but many brethren in this

room have to see it before their eyes every day, and to feel its iron

hand laid upon their poorer people. Wherever they go, they find

claims put forth which uplift a certain class of men into Brahmins,

whose blessing is indispensable. Sinners may not come to Christ

directly, on their own account; the way to salvation is set forth as

being by the appointed priest. Earnestly protest against this error.

Even when it is accompanied by a measure of gospel teaching, it is

deadly.

We must be zealous to have no measure of complicity in this

superstition. My brethren, be not priests yourselves. It is very

possible to give yourselves the airs of hierarchs, even though you are

avowedly nothing more than Nonconformist pastors. There is a style

of dress—the affectation of it is not praiseworthy. There is a style of

language—the imitation of it is not commendable. There is an

assumption of superiority, looking down upon the common people as

mere laity; this piece of pompousness is ridiculous. Avoid the way of

certain clerics who seem intent on making their people feel that a

minister is a dignified individual, and that the rest of the members of

the church should hardly venture to differ from him. Say what we

like about all believers in Christ being a generation of priests, we still

find vain fellows among us who would be thought of as possessors of

a mystic specialty. Our office, as pastors, deserves to be respected,

and will be if properly carried out; but I have observed that some

who are very anxious to magnify their office, really try to magnify

themselves. Yet, as the official has gone up, the man has gone down.

One has wondered how so small a man has obtained so great an

office. I heard, yesterday, a question to which I have not yet found a

satisfactory answer; it was this: "Which is worse, the man who can

preach and won't preach, or the man who cannot preach and will

preach?" We have, I fear, some of the latter sort among us; but if they

suppose that the mere fact of their being chosen to a pastorate has

endowed them with peculiar powers, they deceive themselves.

Let me say, very softly and whisperingly, that there are little

things among ourselves which must be carefully looked after, or we

shall have a leaven of Ritualism and priesthood working in our

measures of meal. In our revival services, it might be as well to vary

our procedure. Sometimes shut up that inquiry-room. I have my

fears about that institution if it be used in permanence, and as an

inevitable part of the services. It may be a very wise thing to invite

persons, who are under concern of soul, to come apart from the rest

of the congregation, and have conversation with godly people; but if

you should ever see that a notion is fashioning itself that there is

something to be got in the private room which is not to be had at

once in the assembly, or that God is more at that penitent form than

elsewhere, aim a blow at that notion at once. We must not come back

by a rapid march to the old way of altars and confessionals, and have

Romish trumpery restored in a coarser form. If we make men think

that conversation with ourselves or with our helpers is essential to

their faith in Christ, we are taking the direct line for priestcraft. In

the gospel, the sinner and the Savior are to come together, with none

between. Speak upon this point very clearly, "You, sinner, sitting

where you are, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, shall have eternal

life. Do not stop until you pass into an inquiry-room. Do not think it

essential to confer with me. Do not suppose that I have the keys of

the Kingdom of Heaven, or that these godly men and women

associated with me can tell you any other gospel than this, 'He who

believes on the Son has everlasting life.'"

In the next place, let us see to it that we set forth our Lord Jesus

Christ as the infallible Teacher, through His inspired Word. I do not

understand that loyalty to Christ which is accompanied by

indifference to His words. How can we reverence His person, if His

own words and those of His apostles are treated with disrespect?

Unless we receive Christ's words, we cannot receive Christ; and

unless we receive His apostles' words, we do not receive Christ; for

John says, "He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God hears

not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error."

We must love and reverence all the teaching of our Lord; and we

build our houses on the sand if we do not. It is as important to know

Christ as the truth, as it is to know Christ as the way and the life.

Some excellent brethren seem to think more of the life than of the

truth; for when I warn them that the enemy has poisoned the

children's bread, they answer, "Dear brother, we are sorry to hear it;

and, to counteract the evil, we will open the window, and give the

children fresh air." Yes, open the window, and give them fresh air, by

all means. You cannot do a better thing, in view of many purposes;

but, at the same time, this ought you to have done, and not to have

left the other undone. Arrest the poisoners, and open the windows,

too. While men go on preaching false doctrine, you may talk as much

as you will about deepening their spiritual life, but you will fail in it.

While you do one good thing, do not neglect another. Instead of

saying that the life is more important, or the truth is more important,

or the way is more important, let us be united in the firm belief that

they are each one equally important, and that one cannot be well

sustained and thoroughly carried out without the rest.

Some quit the teaching of Christ out of sheer wantonness, and

childish love of novelty. To younger brethren, false doctrine comes as

an infantile disease, a sort of inevitable spiritual measles. I wish

them well through with the disorder, and I trust it will leave nothing

bad behind it. With deep anxiety, I have watched over minds infected

with this raging epidemic; and I have rejoiced as I have seen the rash

of unbelief come out beautifully, and have heard the patient say,

"Thank God, I shall never go back to that any more." Still, it is a pity

that so many should find it needful to traverse the foul way which

has bemired others. They remind me of a certain worldly lady, to

whom her minister, remarking her great gaiety, said, "Solomon has

said, 'Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.'" "Yes," she replied, "I know

what Solomon has said; but he found it out by his own personal

experience, and I should like to do the same." She was no Solomon,

assuredly; for they who have wisdom will profit by the experience of

others. If you have seen others go abroad for wool, and come home

shorn, prudence would suggest that you need not go also.

Some fall into doubt through an inward crookedness. Certain

men start new doctrines because "something is rotten in the state of

Denmark," and out of rottenness fungoid growths must come. You

may have read Pliny's "Natural History." If you have not read it, you

need not do so, for the history is not generally natural, but fabulous.

Pliny tells us that, when the elephant goes to a pool of water, and

sees himself in it, he is moved with such disgust at his own ugliness,

that he immediately stirs the water, and makes it muddy, that he

may not see himself. Such an elephant never lived; but I have seen

men who have been very comparable to it. Holy Scripture has not

agreed with them—so much the worse for Holy Scripture! Such-and-

such doctrines do not suit their tastes, so they must be

misrepresented, or denied. An unregenerate heart lies at the bottom

of "modern thought." Men are down-grade in doctrine because they

were never put on the up-grade by the renewal of their minds.

Some, I doubt not, have tinkered up Christ's teachings, and

Christ's gospel, from a desire to do more good. Things are allowed to

be said and done at revivals which nobody could defend. Do you

notice, at the present moment, the way the gospel is put? I am

uttering no criticism upon anyone in particular, but I continually

read the exhortation, "Give your heart to Christ." The exhortation is

good, but do not suffer it to cover over the gospel word: "Believe on

the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." In the Sunday-school,

the teaching often is, "Dear children, love Jesus." Now, this is not the

gospel. The love of Jesus comes as a fruit, but the gospel is, "Believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." If we think that we

shall do more good by substituting another exhortation for the gospel

command, we shall find ourselves landed in serious difficulties. If,

for a moment, our improvements seem to produce a larger result

than the old gospel, it will be the growth of mushrooms, it may even

be the growth of toadstools; but it is not the growth of trees of the

Lord. Let us keep close to Christ as our infallible Teacher in these

days of peril, and be exceedingly jealous of the truth, else we may be

duped, as Pompeii tricked certain cities that would not admit his

troops. He said, "I don't ask you to allow my armies to be billeted

upon you; but here are a few sick and wounded men, for whom I ask

that you will allow them to rest among you." When the invalids were

within the walls, they opened the gates, and the inhabitants were

easily subdued. Keep out the little errors for which sympathy is

asked; or, if not, your citadel will be captured before you are aware of

the attack. Stand fast in the faith once for all delivered to the saints,

and let no man spoil you by philosophy and vain deceit.

Next, brethren, we must growingly insist that Christ is the one

Law-giver and only Ruler in the Church. We have systems of religion

among us in which the whole organization is an invention; it could

not have been discovered in the Bible, but has been brought to it to

have a text hung round its neck as a label. We have, for our

neighbors, religionists who would hardly attempt to prove that their

system was ever sanctioned by our Lord and His apostles. This has

been the case for so long a period that we have been obliged to

tolerate all kinds of things; but to tolerate is not the same thing as to

approve and imitate. We should, in our own churches, keep to

apostolic precedent, and follow the rule of Christ in all things. No

venerable name is sufficient authority for going aside from Holy

Scripture. "To the law and to the testimony;" if a doctrine or a

ceremony is not there, it is nowhere for you and for me. Our sole

authority is the Word of the Lord.

Worse still will it be if we dare to make omissions in the known

rules of Christ. I am sorry that there are disputes in the Church as to

baptism and the Lord's supper; but it is not a moot point in the

Church of Christ whether baptism and the Lord's supper are to be

practiced at all. How, then, can these ordinances be set aside by

those who admit that they are Scriptural? I heard of one saying, "If

Jesus were here now, He would see the evil that has come from those

two institutions, and He would set them aside." We cannot endure

such a sentence. Surely, we are not revisers of the teachings and

doings of our Lord. Have you not, in your congregations, good

people, who will say, "Yes, dear sir, I know that believers' baptism is

in the Word; I am quite clear upon that; but I have never yet

attended to it"? Have you impressed upon that person's mind the

willful disobedience involved in such neglect? It is not the case of a

person who says, "I do not see such an ordinance to be commanded

in the Word of God;" that would be a sin of ignorance. But he says,

"It is there," yet he neglects it, and boasts that he can be saved

without it. Do not be in a hurry to confirm that statement, for it may

turn out that the man who says, "I believe in Jesus," and then

willfully refuses to keep His known commandments, is not saved.

Assuredly, such a man is not saved from willful disobedience. What

sort of faith is that which does not work by love, but sets up its own

will in opposition to the precept of Christ? We must protest against

all tampering with the law of the great Head of the Church. I mention

the point of baptism merely as an example; but upon every other

point of sacred rule we must be earnestly urgent. Christ is Lord as

well as Savior. He has not come into His house to be trifled with, and

to have His words shuffled like a pack of cards.

You may quit the rule of your Lord in another way. A brother is

going to decide upon his course of action on a certain important

Christian matter; but he first wants to know what is the opinion of

gentlemen who subscribe considerable sums to church work. If any

one of you does this, I shall cry, "Who is your master, after all? Judas

with his bag in the corner, or the Christ whom he kisses with a

traitor's kiss?" Be true, and dare all things. If we do not do so, Christ

Jesus is not Law-giver to us. Scorn the bribe, though it be a covert

one, and lose all for truth, if need be.

Our Lord also stands before us as our example and pattern. We

preach the grace of God, and the blood of Christ; but if any suppose

that we do not preach Christ as an example, they know nothing of

our ministry; for we insist upon it that faith must obey her Savior's

will as well as trust His grace. We have had some among us, like, the

old Scotchwoman, who said, "It was a good sermon, all but the duties

at the end." It may be possible that we put the precept in such a way

that we countenance the suspicion that we are legal in spirit; this we

must carefully avoid. We would preach Christ as the perfect pattern,

that saints may long to be conformed to Him. Men must have the

spirit of Christ, or they are lost. There is no Heaven to be found in a

mere forensic justification, apart from a spiritual work within the

soul—a change of heart, and a renewal of mind.

Once more, I trust that we shall always hold Christ as Lord and

God. Whatever else He is, He is Lord and God to us. Therefore He is

to be spoken of and thought upon with deepest reverence of soul.

The spirit that trifles with the Word of God, and the things of Christ,

is almost more vicious than the action which comes out of it. I have

read many things which I have shuddered at; but I have shuddered

much more at the state of mind into which a man must have come to

be able to write them. Let us cultivate the highest reverence for our

Divine Lord, and the surest confidence in His power, and in His

ultimate victory. Trust in that hand which He keeps on the helm.

Have no shadow of a doubt that His wisdom and might will cause all

things to end well. Go, therefore, and speak in His Name. When you

have done stating a doctrine, command your hearers, in the Name of

Jesus, to believe it. Be daring enough for that. As the apostles

commanded lame men to stand, and even dead men to live, so, in the

Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, command sinners to turn unto

Him, and to live. He who gives you faith will answer to His own

word.

Now let us turn our earnest attention to the subject OF OUR

POSITION TOWARDS OUR LORD. The position of the Christian

minister towards Christ is a theme upon which one might speak in

many ways, and for many a day, and yet barely do more than touch

the fringe of it.

The most striking view of it comes before us in meditating upon

the fact, that, as He stood in our stead, we also stand in His stead. To

our hearers we can truly say, "We pray you, in Christ's stead, be you

reconciled to God." Our Lord Jesus lays His pierced hands upon our

shoulders, and He says, "As the Father has sent Me into the world,

even so send I you." We are commissioned to plead for Christ, even

as He is commissioned to plead for us. For Him we climb those

stairs, to point that sick and ignorant woman to the blood of

reconciliation. For Him we stand in the pulpit, and speak of sin, and

righteousness, and judgment to come. In His place we cry, "Behold

the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world!" Beloved

brethren, do we always feel that we are not only laboring for Christ,

but in His stead? Could we set forth some of our sermons as having

been preached in Christ's stead? Should we not expect our own

conscience to cry out against us if we were to make such a claim for

those discourses? Some of our hearers would think, if they did not

say so, "If that sermon is in Christ's stead, there is an awful falling off

from what it would have been had Jesus spoken on His own

account." Of course, there would necessarily be a falling off in Divine

authority and ability; but there should be none as to truthful and

earnest purpose.

We must plead with men in Christ's stead; and that will prevent

partiality. We shall not give all our thoughts to the wealthy and

educated few; but, as Jesus did, we shall care for the many. James

the fifth of Scotland was known as "the poor mans king," because

every peasant, who desired it, could get an audience with him. The

Lord make us the poor men's preachers! for how else can we be in

Christ's stead? In His ministry, the poor had the gospel preached

unto them. If there be one of our flock more sick, more poor, more

ignorant than another, let us, for the Lord's sake, seek him first. Let

us assume no upstart dignity, but feel at one with the forlorn, the

poor, the fallen, even as Jesus did.

If we be in Christ's stead, we shall not bully, but tenderly

persuade. We shall have true sympathy, and so we shall plead with

sinners unto tears, as though their ruin were our woe, and their

salvation would be our bliss. We shall weep over them, because Jesus

would have done so; and we shall be patient with them, because of

His Divine long-suffering. We shall watch for opportunities, and use

them with perseverance; for so would Jesus have done. We shall deal

with our hearers as a shepherd with his lost sheep, and we shall

never rest until we have brought them home upon our shoulders

rejoicing; for so was it with our Lord.

This position of ours, in Christ's stead, is greatly responsible; we

shall need great grace to bear its weight. Behave yourselves,

Christian brethren, for you bear a great Name. Do not disgrace the

Name of the holy Jesus. It was shameful of Sheridan, when he was

picked up in the gutter, to give his name to the constable as

"Wilberforce." What a cruel wrong to our Lord Jesus, for a harsh, or

proud, or idle minister to give in his name as acting in the stead of

Christ! God forgive the wrong: it is a very heinous one. If you are

indeed in Christ's stead, what manner of persons ought you to be!

May God help you to be worthy of the embassage on which you are

sent!

Therefore, brethren, we must love sinners for Christ's sake. Are

there not a great many in your congregation whom you could not

love for any other reason? Could the Lord Jesus Christ ever have

loved you for your merit's sake? He loved you and me for a reason

which He found in His own heart; and so must we love our hearers,

from causes which are not so much in them as in our own hearts. He

"loved me, and gave Himself for me;" and if now He says to me,

"Love others, and give yourself for them," shall I not do it? Every

angry temper must be chased out. The fallen, the frivolous, the

captious, the indifferent, and even the malicious must share our love.

We must love them to Jesus. With cords of a man and bands of love

must we draw them. Our mission is to perpetuate on earth the love of

the Savior.

Further than this, your relation to Christ is of such a sort that you

are to "fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ for His

body's sake, which is the Church." His atoning griefs are finished;

into that winepress, none of us can set a foot. But those sufferings by

which men are won to Christ are far from being finished. All the

martyr host have bled and died to keep the truth alive for us, that by

the truth men may still be brought to Jesus. Every sufferer who bears

pain, or slander, or loss, or personal unkindness for Christ's sake, is

filling up that amount of suffering which is necessary to the bringing

together of the whole body of Christ, and the upbuilding of His elect

Church. "Oh!" cries one minister, "I have been shamefully treated."

Yes, and worthier men have been even more evilly entreated than

you have. You need not look among your fellow-soldiers for equals in

suffering: consider how your Lord Himself "endured such

contradiction of sinners."

When Alexander led his men into Persia, and they had to cut

through a very mountain of ice and snow, they were ready to turn

back, and therefore Alexander alighted from his horse, and took an

ice-ax in his hand, and went forward, often up to his waist in snow,

cleaving the blocks of ice, and leading the way. Then the

Macedonians felt that they would cut through the world with

Alexander in front of them. With Christ your Lord cleaving His way

by the agonies on the cross, will not you follow where He leads, and

fill up the measure that may be wanted of toil, and labor, and

suffering, for the salvation of those whom He has redeemed by

blood? Nothing was more affecting in our supplications this morning

than the prayers of those who had been great sufferers. Through

suffering comes blessing. When our Lord means to give His

household wine, that our festivals may be full of gladness, what does

He do? He says, "Fill the waterpots with water." We must be filled

with affliction to the brim. We must have as much of it as we can

hold, and then He will say, "Draw out now." This is His beginning of

miracles; and some of us rejoice that it was not only wrought at Cana

in Galilee, but it is still wrought in this island of the sea.

Do you not think that we all make mistakes as to what will be a

blessing? In the matter of faith-healing, health is set before us as if it

were the great thing to be desired above all other things. Is it so? I

venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to

any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. Sickness has

frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has. If

some men, that I know of, could only be favored with a month of

rheumatism, it would, by God's grace, mellow them marvelously.

Assuredly, they need something better to preach than what they now

give their people; and, possibly, they would learn it in the chamber of

suffering. I would not wish for any man a long time of sickness; and

pain; but a twist now and then one might almost ask for him. A sick

wife, a newly-made grave, poverty, slander, sinking of spirit, might

teach lessons nowhere else to be learned so well. Trials drive us to

the realities of religion. You may feed on chaff until you have real

work to do, or real grief to bear; but then you want the old corn of the

land, and you must have it, or else you will faint and fail

Our afflictions come to us as blessings, though they frown like

curses. I have heard of one who was generous, but extremely

eccentric. A man, who was deeply in debt, passed his door, and he

knew that the poor debtor was terribly exercised about the matter.

One day, this odd man of wealth, generous as he was, was so cruel as

to throw a heavy bag at the poor debtor. The man was hurt by the

missile, and looked round to see what it was. He saw no man who

had inflicted the injury. He picked up the bag. He heard the chink of

the coin, and when he opened the bag, he found enough to pay his

debt, and he heard a voice saying, "Keep it for yourself." He never

summoned that man for an assault; but thanked him for the gift.

Often has Providence, with a rough hand, thrown countless gain in

our way in the form of the trial of our faith, which is much more

precious than gold. Blessed be the Lord, our temporary bruise is

soon forgotten, but the spiritual gain abides forever. In any case, the

cause of our Lord Jesus Christ is our cause, and we are linked with

Him in a fellowship which cannot be broken, whatever it may

involve. We have counted the cost, and we can say, "From henceforth

let no man trouble me. I am the branded slave of Jesus, and my ear is

bored for Him."

Furthermore, brethren, our position towards our Lord will

become most practical when we realize what He has done for us. I do

not think that we always clearly perceive what He has actually

accomplished on our behalf. We say, "We are poor, but Christ makes

us rich." Why do we not say, "We are rich, for Christ has made us so

"? Our poverty has passed away, and we have become rich in Christ.

Brethren, He has called us "out of darkness into His marvelous

light." We are apt, when we preach from the text, to enlarge

considerably upon nature's darkness; but would it not be as well to

be even more full upon the "marvelous light "? Have we the present

experience which would lead us to do so? Why do we make so very

vivid that word of the apostle, "When I am weak"? Can we not

equally dwell upon the next words, "then am I strong"? Our Lord's

blessings are realities, and not fancies; let us so treat them. "Blessed

are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they

shall be filled;" why spend all the time on the hunger and the thirst?

Are we not filled? If not, Lord, fill us! But if we are filled, let us feel

and preach the sweetness of the Heavenly bread, and commend it

with glad hearts to our hearers. Brethren, let us get on the bright side

of our religion, and not be always harping upon what we are in

ourselves. "The darkness is past, and the true light now shines." We

are now in Christ Jesus. We were all that is evil, but we are washed,

cleansed, sanctified. Oh, for the rich enjoyment of the present

blessings of the covenant! Oh, for grace to speak as we find! As

Abraham's servant took care to talk largely of his master's riches, and

to show the precious things which he had brought with him from his

house, so let us try to win hearts for our great Lord, by showing who

He is, and what He has, and what we personally know thereof.

I think, again, that we shall do well to stand towards Christ as

those who are conscious of His power and presence. Brethren, our

Lord is with us. The best of all is, that He is with us indeed and of a

truth. If we are with Jesus, and preach His truth, Jesus is assuredly

with us; for He said, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of

the world." That promise was not a pretty piece of romance: it is true

that He is with us at this hour. Let us believe it, and act accordingly.

If we do not always feel His brightness, let us, like the flowers, turn

towards the sun. When the sun is not shining, the flowers know

where there is most of light, and their faces turn that way. Let us be

true heliotropes, or turners to the sun. When we get into the pulpit,

let us look Christward and lean Christward. What a wondrous place

the pulpit is when Jesus is there! In the study, when we sit down, and

begin to rub our foreheads, and anxiously inquire, "What shall we

preach about?" let us turn towards our Lord, and pray with our

window open towards His cross and His throne. May we ever feel an

influence drawing us Christ-ward when the Bible is open before us! If

it be so, our weakness will all vanish, for His strength will be

remembered.

When you are contemplating the great struggle against sin, and

are making up your account as to the forces that are on the right side,

fail not to remember Jesus. You have put yourself down: that

amounts to less than nothing. Now you put down your deacons: after

estimating them lovingly, they are as nothing, too. You have made an

item of praying friends and workers, and so on; but the total sum is

just a line of ciphers. What do all these noughts amount to? Your

distrust cries out, "I have here nothing, and nothing, and nothing."

That is a poor reckoning for you to rely upon; but you have not done

yet. What are you going to put before all these noughts? Where will

you place the Infinite One? If you put him after these ciphers, like a

figure in decimals, you reduce the one to the ten thousandth! Each

nothing set before THE ONE robs Him of glory, and diminishes Him

But if HE be put first, before the ciphers, what a sum you have! This

is not fancy; it is sound arithmetic. Go and test it, and see if it does

not turn out to be mathematically true in the spirit world. Powerless

as we are alone, our Lord is with us.

Some preachers evidently do not believe that the Lord is with

their gospel, because, in order to attract and save sinners, their

gospel is insufficient, and they have to add to it inventions of men.

Plain gospel preaching must be supplemented—so they think.

Bridget was very busy catching and killing flies. Her mistress said to

her, "Bridget, what are you doing?" She answered, "You see, ma'am,

we have bought some fly-papers, and we must have the flies caught

on them; and as they don't go on of themselves, I am sticking them

on." I should not care for fly-papers of that sort. If the gospel must be

a failure unless we attract the people by some extraneous method, it

is a poor business. If the fly-paper does not attract the flies, and hold

them, we may as well burn the flypaper. If your gospel cannot bring

the people to hear you, and if, when they come, your gospel will not

impress and convert them, well, then, give it up. Open a coffee-shop,

or start in the ginger-beer line; but do not call your useless talk the

blessed gospel. If you are not conscious of a supernatural power and

presence with the Word of the Lord, let it alone. A man said to me,

"You told a dead sinner to believe." I pleaded guilty, but told him I

would do it again. He said, "I could not do it, I should feel that it was

of no use to do so." I answered, "Possibly, it might be of no use for

you to do it, for you have not the necessary faith; but, as I believe

that God bids me do so, I deliver the message in the Name of the

Lord, and the dead sinners believe and live." I do not trust in the

dead sinner's power to live, but in the power of the gospel to make

him live. Now, if your gospel has not the power of the Holy Spirit in

it, you cannot preach it with confidence, and you are tempted to have

a performance in the schoolroom to allure the people, whom Christ

crucified does not draw. If you are depending on sing-song, and

fiddles, and semi-theatricals, you are disgracing the religion which

you pretend to honor.

Once more, dear friends, our position towards our Lord is that of

waiting for His coming. I do not know how far the most of you are

warmly affected towards the blessed truth of the Second Advent; but

I trust that many of you believe it, and are enlivened by faith in it.

That great hope is gaining ground among lovers of Evangelical

doctrine. At first, ministers seemed half-afraid of this grand belief,

because of the fanaticism which is supposed to grow out of it. Certain

charlatans also do great harm by pretending to know the day and the

hour when the Lord will come. Times and seasons are not with us;

but the Lord will come. He is on His way even now, for He says, "I

am coming quickly." Our Lord may come right soon; certain signs

raise our hopes very high. The love of many waxes cold, and the devil

is doubly busy; and this last is no doubtful sign. When you see a

farmer beginning to burn the gates, and break down the hedges, and

unroof the barns, and so on, you say., "That fellow's lease has run

out." Satan has great wrath when he knows that his time is short In

the case of the demoniac child, we read, "As he was yet a-coming, the

devil threw him down, and tare him." He knew that he was about to

be expelled, so he did his worst. The double veiling of the heavens

only brings on that darkest part of the night which precedes the

dawn of day. When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses appears; and

the same is true of our still greater Deliverer. Let us take courage,

and be of good heart; for while we lift Christ on high, and glorify His

Name, He is on the way to take up the quarrel of His covenant, and

utterly to rout His foes.

Now for two or three words to finish with, upon OUR POSITION

INDIVIDUALLY. Perhaps, some sentence may come with power to

this man and to that.

Let me say to you, brethren, be self-contained. I would to God

that we had among us more men in the fullness of spiritual and

mental vigor. The want of the period is brethren who know the

gospel for themselves, who have had a personal experience of its

power, who have tested it as silver is tried in a furnace of earth, and

who set such a value upon it, that they would sooner part with life

than give it up. We have too many in our company who will go right

if they are led aright, and who are sure to swim in the right direction

if the current is strong enough to carry them with it; these are all

very well when the wind blows from the right quarter, but they are of

small use in ill weather. At this hour, there is a call for men who can

breast the torrent, and swim up stream. We need heroes who would

just as soon go alone, if necessary, as march with a thousand

comrades. We need men who are doing their own thinking, and do

not put it out, as families do with their washing. They have thought

out the truth; and, having gone to God about it, and felt the power of

it in their own souls, they are not now to be moved from the hope of

their calling. They are pillars in the house of our God, abiding, in

their places; and not mere caterpillars, crawling after something to

eat. We need captains for the good ship who know their longitude

and latitude, and can tell whence they came, and to what port they

are steering. Our Commander needs warriors true as steel for this

hour of conflict.

"You that are men, now serve Him

Against unnumbered foes."

A man is now more precious than the gold of Ophir. To be

dependent upon the judgment of friends or foes in these days, is to

be but half a man. Let us stand before the living God in our integrity,

and seek no patronage from societies or individuals. Are you all in

this state? I fear that the God-dependent are still few. We have

members of our churches who do not know a good sermon until they

have consulted that dear old gentleman who is their oracle. Some

ministers have no opinion until they have been to "the fraternal

meeting." They must hear the bell of the leading sheep before they

know which way to go; for the Master's voice they neither hear nor

know. O brother, you will need the Spirit within your own soul; for

the right path runs through a solitary land, and if you dare not travel

alone, you will never reach the Celestial City!

In the next place, we must learn, in these times, to be selective in

our companionships. When a man is himself right, let him not

compromise himself by association with those who are not clear in

their standing. Why be drawn down by holding on to the wreck

which is sinking? Continual consorting with those who have no

sympathy with the great truths of the gospel, is running into

perpetual peril. For my part, I find association with persons of loose

views a thing too painful for me. Worldly-minded men are wretched

company for spiritual minds. Gordon Cumming describes a territory

in Africa as "a forest of fish-hooks, relieved with patches of

penknives." Men of new views, loose habits, and unspiritual talk, are

quite as uncomfortable as acquaintances; especially when they

pretend to be very orthodox, and yet believe nothing of the old faith.

Clear yourselves of all connections which bring your own faithfulness

into question. Do not talk about separation from that which is evil,

and then remain in fellowship with it. Be as chaste in your

companionships as in your own persons, or evil will come of it.

Furthermore, be sanctified in life. I cannot say that word with too

much emphasis. I would drive that nail home. Be you holy, for you

serve a holy God. If you were making a present to a prince, you

would not find him a lame horse to ride upon; you would not offer

him a book out of which leaves had been torn, nor carry him a

timepiece whose wheels were broken. No, the best of the best you

would give to one whom you honored and loved. Give your very best

to your Lord. Seek to be at your best whenever you serve Him. Pray

Him to make you perfect in every good work to do His will, and then

present yourself unto Him a living sacrifice. Let no one of us preach a

sermon, and have to feel afterwards, "I could have done better than

that, but it was good enough for so poor an audience." On a

Wednesday evening, in a cottage, with no more than half-a-dozen

present, and those old women, do your utmost. Our richest fruit is

poor enough. Give your second-best never. Keep you to the very first

and fullest that you can produce for Christ; let your whole life be the

noblest exertion of which you are capable. I said, last night, that the

minister who can do any more, and does not do it, is a sluggard. It is

so. We must do all that we can do, and do it in our ablest way, or we

are idle. He has come up to Christ's mark, who can truly say that he

can do no more, and that, if he could do anything more, he would do

it at once. How few of us could conscientiously claim to have come so

far!

Be diligent in action. Put all your irons into the fire. Use every

faculty for Jesus. Be wide-awake to watch opportunities, and quick to

seize upon them. Believe that the smallest sphere has in it or around

it glorious openings for enlargement. In a very small village, infinite

results may be realized. If one place be evangelized, strike out for

another; and ever, like the dwellers on a common, keep up a rolling

fence, which encloses a little more and a little more. Content with

what we are doing must be far from us, while there is yet very much

land to be possessed. May you feed your flocks as pastors, and

increase them by being evangelists! In this respect, be fruitful, and

multiply, and replenish the earth. We must use every energy, and be

of an adventurous and industrious spirit in these days, that we may

checkmate the incessant activities of the prince of darkness.

Lastly, I desire to send you away with this in your ear, yes, with

this in your heart, be confident in spirit. We are not going to show

the white feather, nor even to tolerate a trembling thought. Years

ago, they used to charge me vehemently with being too flippant and

jocose; but of late the charge has shifted, and I am reviled as

despondent, bilious, and morose. I conceive that my innocence is

clear. Have you read The Salt-Cellars, written by a morose person

who never smiles, who is a pessimistic alarmist, dreaming of awful

catastrophes which never occur? The description must have been

originally meant for someone else. I protest that I am quite as merry

as may be fit. If I have undergone so great a reformation of manners

as to have swung round from cheerfulness to gloom, it is singular

that I am not in the least aware of it. I cannot endorse the statement

that I have lost my tendency to humor, for I feel very much the other

way; and were I not watchful, I should become too hilarious.

I have received a measure of pity because I am in opposition to so

many; but the pity may be spared, or handed over to those on the

other side. Years ago, when I preached a sermon upon Baptismal

Regeneration, my venerable friend, Dr. Steane, said to me, "You have

got into hot water." I replied, "No; I do not feel the water to be hot.

The truth is far otherwise. I am cool enough; I am only the stoker,

and other folks are in the hot water, which I am doing my best to

make so hot that they will be glad to get out of it." We do not wish to

fight; but if we do, we hope that the pity will be needed by those with

whom we contend. The hot water does not come near to me, nor even

does a breath of steam blow in my eyes. I am content with that which

must inevitably come to the man who protests in downright earnest;

that is to say, I am content to be criticized, misunderstood, and

misrepresented. The cost was counted long ago, and the estimate was

so liberal that there is no fear of its being exceeded. "I know whom I

have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I

have committed unto Him against that day."

There is no room for fear; at least, I see none while we hold fast to

the truth. You never met an old salt, down by the sea, who was in

trouble because the tide had been ebbing out for hours. No! He waits

confidently for the turn of the tide, and it comes in due time. Yonder

rock has been uncovered during the last half-hour, and if the sea

continues to ebb out for weeks, there will be no water in the English

Channel, and the French will walk over from Cherbourg. Nobody

talks in that childish way, for such an ebb will never come. Nor will

we speak as though the gospel would be routed, and eternal truth

driven out of the land. We serve an almighty Master. Pompeii, when

asked what he would do if his foes attacked him, replied, "Sir, if I

stamp my foot, all Italy will swarm with soldiers." Thus he boasted;

but it is no boast to say that, if our Lord does but stamp His foot, He

can win for Himself all the nations of the earth against heathenism,

and Mohammedanism, and Agnosticism, and Modern-thought, and

every other foul error. Who is he that can harm us if we follow Jesus?

How can His cause be defeated? At His will, converts will flock to His

truth as numerous as the sands of the sea. Is it not written, "Your

people shall be willing in the day of Your power, in the beauties of

holiness from the womb of the morning: You have the dew of Your

youth"? Wherefore, be of good courage, and go on your way singing—

"The winds of Hell have blown,

The world its hate has shown,

Yet it is not overthrown.

Hallelujah for the Cross!

It shall never suffer loss!"

The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge!

Amen.

-----

MONERGISM BOOKS

An All Around Ministry by C. H. Spurgeon, Copyright © 2019

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