Are you indeed alive unto God? Can you say with truth, "I was dead,
so poor a thing that it is not worth seeking? Is your soul of so little consequence, that it is not worth a struggle to have it saved? Oh, turn! turn before it be too late! God is not willing that you should perish. "As I live," He says, "I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies." Jesus loves you, and grieves to see your folly. He wept over wicked Jerusalem, saying, "I would have gathered you - but you would not be gathered." Surely if lost, your blood will be upon your own heads. "Awake, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." (Ezek. 18"32; Matt. 23:37; Eph. 5:14.)
Believe me, believe me, true repentance is that one step that no man ever repented of. Thousands have said at their latter end, they had "served God too little." But no person ever said, as he left this world, that he had cared for his soul too much. The way of life is a narrow path - but the footsteps in it are all in one direction - not one child of Adam has ever come back and said it was a delusion. The way of the world is a broad way - but millions on millions have forsaken it, and borne their testimony that it was a way of sorrow and disappointment.
3. Let me, in the third place, speak to those who are LIVING.
Are you indeed alive unto God? Can you say with truth, "I was dead, and am alive again. I was blind - but now I see"? Then allow the word of exhortation, and incline your hearts unto wisdom.
Are you alive? Then see that you prove it by your actions. Be a consistent witness. Let your words, and works, and ways, and tempers all tell the same story. Let not your life be a poor torpid life, like that of a tortoise or a sloth - let it rather be an energetic stirring life, like that of a deer or bird. Let your graces shine forth from all the windows of your life, that those who live near you may see that the Spirit is abiding in your hearts. Let your light not be a dim, flickering, uncertain flame; let it burn steadily, like the eternal fire on the altar, and never become low. Let the savor of your religion, like
Mary's precious ointment, fill all the houses where you dwell. Be an epistle of Christ so clearly written, penned in such large bold characters - that he who runs may read it. Let your Christianity be so unmistakable, your eye so single, your heart so whole, your walk so straightforward that all who see you may have no doubt whose you are, and whom you serve. If we are quickened by the Spirit, no one ought to be able to doubt it. Our conversation should declare plainly that we "seek a country." (Heb 11:14.) It ought not to be necessary to tell people, as in the case of a badly painted picture, "This is a Christian." We ought not to be so sluggish and still, that people shall be obliged to come close and look hard, and say, "Is he dead or alive?"
Are you alive? Then see that you prove it by your growth. Let the great change within become every year more evident. Let your light be an increasing light, not like Joshua's sun in the valley of Ajalon, standing still - nor like Hezekiah's sun, going backwards - but ever shining more and more to the very end of your days. Let the image of your Lord, wherein you are renewed, grow clearer and sharper every month. Let it not be like the image and superscription on a coin, more indistinct and defaced the longer it is used. Let it rather become more plain the older it is, and let the likeness of your King stand out more fully and sharply.
I have no confidence in a standing-still religion. I do not think a Christian was meant to be like an animal, to grow to a certain age, and then stop growing. I believe rather he was meant to be like a tree, and to increase more and more in strength and vigor all his days. Remember the words of the Apostle Peter, "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity." (2 Peter 1:5, 6, 7.) This is the way to be a useful Christian. People will believe you are in earnest when they see constant improvement, and perhaps be drawn to go with you. This is one way to obtain comfortable assurance. "So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly." (2 Peter 1:11.) Oh, as ever you would be useful
and happy in your religion, let your motto be, "Forward, forward!" to your very last day.
"People observe actions, a great deal more than words." - Leighton.
I entreat all believing readers to remember that I speak to myself as well as to them. I say the spiritual life there is in Christians ought to be more evident. Our lamps need trimming - they ought not to burn so dim. Our separation from the world should be more distinct - our walk with God more decided. Too many of us are like Lot - lingerers; or like Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh - borderers; or like the Jews in Ezra's time - so mixed up with strangers, that our spiritual pedigree cannot be made out. It ought not so to be. Let us be up and doing. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. If we really have life, let us make it known.
The state of the world demands it. The latter days have fallen upon us. The kingdoms of the earth are shaking, falling, crashing, and crumbling away. (Isaiah 24:1, etc.) The glorious kingdom that will never be removed is drawing near. The King Himself is close at hand. The children of this world are looking round to see what the saints are doing. God, in His wonderful providences, is calling to us, "Who is on my side? Who?" - Surely we ought to be, like Abraham, very ready with our answer, "Here am I!" (Gen. 22:1.)
"Ah!" you may say, "These are ancient things - these are brave words. We know it all. But we are weak, we have no power to think a good thought, we can do nothing, we must sit still." Hearken, my believing reader. What is the cause of your weakness? Is it not because the fountain of life is little used? Is it not because you are resting on old experiences, and not daily gathering new manna - daily drawing new strength from Christ? He has left you the promise of the Comforter. "He gives more grace" - grace upon grace to all who ask it. He came "that you might have life, and have it more abundantly." "Open your mouths wide," He says this day, "and they shall be filled." (James 4:6; John 10:10; Ps. 81:10.)
I say to all believers who read this paper, if you want your spiritual life to be more healthy and vigorous, you must just come more boldly to the throne of grace. You must give up this hanging-back spirit - this hesitation about taking the Lord at His own word. Doubtless you are poor sinners, and nothing at all. The Lord knows it, and has provided a store of strength for you. But you do not draw upon the store He has provided - you have not, because you ask not. The secret of your weakness is your little faith - and little prayer. The fountain is unsealed - but you only sip a few drops. The bread of life is before you - yet you only eat a few crumbs. The treasury of heaven is open - but you only take a few pennies. "O you of little faith, why do you doubt?" (Matt. 14:31.)
Awake to know your privileges - awake, and sleep no longer. Tell me not of spiritual hunger, and thirst, and poverty - so long as the throne of grace is before you. Say rather, that you are proud - and will not come to it as poor sinners. Say rather, you are slothful - and will not take pains to get more.
Cast aside the grave-clothes of pride - which still hang around you. Throw off that Egyptian garment of indolence - which ought not to have been brought through the Red Sea. Away with that unbelief, which ties and paralyzes your tongue. You are not straitened in God - but in yourselves. "Come boldly to the throne of grace," where the Father is ever waiting to give, and Jesus ever sits by Him to intercede. (Heb. 4:16.) Come boldly, for you may, all sinful as you are - if you come in the name of the Great High Priest. Come boldly, and ask largely, and you shall have abundant answers - mercy like a river, and grace and strength like a mighty stream. Come boldly, and you shall have supplies exceeding all you can ask or think. "Hitherto you have asked nothing. Ask and receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:24.)
If we really are alive and not dead, let us strive so to carry ourselves that people may know whose we are. While we live, may we live unto the Lord. When we die, may we die the death of the righteous. And
when the Lord Jesus comes, may we be found ready, and "not be ashamed before Him at His coming." (1 John 2:28.)
But, after all, are we alive or dead? That is the great question!
ENDNOTES/QUOTES * " It is not a little reforming will save the man, no, nor all the morality of the world, nor all the common graces of God's Spirit, nor the outward change of the life: they will not do, unless we are quickened and have a new life wrought in us." - Usher's Sermons.
* " Man's understanding is so darkened that he can see nothing of God in God, nothing of holiness in holiness, nothing of good in good, nothing of evil in evil, nor anything of sinfulness in sin. Nay, it is so darkened that he fancies himself to see good in evil, and evil in good, happiness in sin, and misery in holiness." - Bishop Beveridge on the Articles.
*" How wonderfully doth the new-born soul differ from his former self. He liveth a new life, he walketh in a new way, he steereth his course by a new compass and towards a new coast. His principle is new, his pattern is new, his practices are new, his projects are new, all is new. He ravels out all he had wove before, and employeth himself wholly about another work " - George Swinnocke 1660
*"I cannot pray, but I sin: I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin: I cannot give alms, or receive the sacrament, but I sin, nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of, my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer." - Bishop Beveridge
*"Woe is me, that man should think there is anything in me! He is my witness, before whom I am as crystal, that the secret house-
devils, that bear me too often company, that the corruption which I find within, make me go with low sails." - Rutherford's Letters.
*"I am sick of all I do, and stand astonished that the Redeemer still continues to make use of and bless me. Surely I am more foolish than any man; no one receives so much and does so little." - Whitefield's Letters.
* " If we be still our old selves, no changelings at all, the same men that came into the world, without defalcation of our corruptions, without addition of grace and sanctification, surely we must seek us another Father, we are not yet the sons of God." - Bishop Hall. 1652.
"If thou hast anything less than regeneration, believe me, thou canst never see heaven. There is no hope of heaven till then, till thou art born again." - Archbishop Usher's Sermons.
* " There is not one good duty which the natural man can do. If it should be said to him, Think but one good thought, and for it thou shalt go to heaven, he could not think it Till God raise him from the sink of sin, as he did Lazarus from the grave, he cannot do anything that is well-pleasing to God. He may do the works of a moral man, but to do the work9 of a man quickened and enlightened, it is beyond his power." - Usher's Sermons.
" Nature can no more cast out nature, than Satan can cast out Satan." - Thomas Watson. 1653.
" Nature cannot raise itself to this, any more than a man can give natural being to himself." - Archbishop Leighton.
* " Then do we begin to live, when we begin to have union with Christ, the Fountain of Life, by His Spirit communicated to us: from this time we are to reckon our life." - Havel.
" Christ is an universal principle of all life." - Sibbs. 1635.
* " Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to regenerate men, and as it were to bring them forth anew, so that they shall be nothing like the men they were before." - Homily for Whitsunday.
* " All hangs upon this hinge. If this be not done, ye are undone - undone eternally. All your profession, civility, privileges, gifts, duties, are cyphers, and signify nothing, unless regeneration be the figure put before them." - Swinnocke. 1660.
" Believe me, whatsoever thou art, thou shalt never be saved for being a lord, or a knight, a gentleman or a rich man, a learned man or a well-spoken eloquent man ; nor yet for being a Calvinist, or a Lutheran, an Arminian, an Anabaptist, a Presbyterian, an Independent, or a Protestant, formally and merely as such; - much less for being a Papist, or of any euch grossly deluded sect: but as a regenerate Christian it is that thou must be saved, or thou canst have no hope." - Richard Baxter. 1659.
* " If your state be good, searching into it will give you the comfort of it. If your state be bad, searching into it cannot make it worse; nay, it is the only way to make it better; for conversion begins with conviction." - Bishop Hopkint. 1680.
* "Men who are prejudiced observe actions a great deal more than words." - Leighton.
» " To create or bring something out of nothing, is beyond the power of the strongest creature. It is above the strength of all men and angels to create the least blade of grass; God challenged this as His prerogative royal (Isaiah xL 26.)
Consider Your Ways
"Thus says the Lord Almighty: Consider your ways!" Haggai 1:7
Beloved Friends and Brethren, I wish to write a few words to you about your souls. I want those souls to be saved. And I invite you all to take the advice I give you today, and that is, to "Consider your ways." I write to you because the time is short. The day of grace is slipping away - the day of judgment is drawing near - the thread of life is winding up - a few more short years, and every soul of us will have gone to his own place - we shall each of us be in heaven or hell! I dare not wait until you pay attention to my sermons. By all means I must try to save some of you. If you will not consider, when I speak to you from the pulpit, it may be you will consider when I speak to you in print. I cannot reach your hearts, I know well. It is not in me, it needs the finger of God. But I can set before you my earnest wishes for every class among you, and I will do it - the Lord being my helper. Bear with me if I say things that sound sharp and hard. Set it down to my concern for your salvation; I mean it all for your good. I write no other things but what I have gathered from the Bible, and as such I commend them to your consciences. Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things.
There are some true Christians among you whom I long to see more holy and more bright. You are they who have found out your own sinfulness and lost estate, and really believe on Jesus for the saving of your souls. The eyes of your understanding have been opened by the Spirit - He has led you to Christ, and you are new men. You have peace with God. Sin is no longer pleasant to you - the world has no longer the first place in your heart - all things are become new. You have ceased from trusting in your own works. You are willing to stand before the bar of God, and rest your soul on the finished work of Him who died for the ungodly. This is all your confidence, that you
have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. I thank God heartily for what He has wrought in your souls, but I ask you also to consider your ways.
Brethren, I write to you about your sanctification. There are those who think that you are a class in our congregations that require little writing to - you are within the pale of salvation - you may be almost let alone. I cannot see it. I believe you need your minister's care and exhortation as much as any, if not more. I believe that on your growth in grace and holiness, not merely your own comfort, but the salvation of many souls, under God, depends. I believe that the converted members of a Church should be preached to, spoken to, warned, counseled, far more than they are. You need many words of direction. You are still in the wilderness. You have not crossed Jordan. You are not yet at home. I see Paul beseeching the Thessalonians that as they have received of Him, how they ought to walk and please God, so they would abound more and more. I see him warning them not to sleep, as others do, but to watch and be sober. I see Peter telling believers to give diligence to make their calling and election sure; to go on adding one grace to another - to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ.
I wish to follow in their steps. I would remind you "that this is the will of God, even your sanctification," and I ask you to make it plain that it is your will too. You were not chosen out of the world to go to sleep, but that you might be holy. You were not called of God that you might sit still, but that you might walk worthy of your calling. Recollect those solemn words, "He that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." (2 Peter 1:9.) Why do I say these things? Is it because I think that you do not know them? No! but I want to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Is it because I wish to discourage the poor in spirit, and make the heart of the righteous sad? No indeed! I would not willingly do this. Is it because I think true Christians can ever fall away? God forbid you should suppose I mean such a thing. But I say what I say because I am jealous for my Lord's honor.
I wish the elect of God to be indeed a holy nation, and the sons of adoption to live as becomes the children of a King. I want those who are light in the Lord to walk as children of light, shining more and more every day. And I say it for the good of the world. You are almost the only book that worldly people read. Surely your lives should be epistles of Christ, so plain that he who runs may read them. The world cares little for doctrine - the world knows nothing of experience - but the world can understand a close walk with God. And not least I say it because of the times you live in. I write it down deliberately, I believe there never were so many lukewarm saints as there are now. There never was a time in which a low and carnal standard of Christian behavior so much prevailed. There never were so many babes in grace in the family of God; so many who seem to sit still, and live on old experience; so many who appear to have need of nothing, and to be neither hungering nor thirsting after righteousness, as at the present time. I write this with all sorrow. It may be too painful to please some. But I ask you, as in God's sight, is it not true?
There is a generation of Christians in this age who grieve me to the heart. They make my blood run cold. I cannot understand them. For anything that man's eye can see, they make no progress. They never seem to get on. Years roll on, and they are just the same - the same besetting sins, the same infirmities of disposition, the same weakness in trial, the same chilliness of heart, the same apathy, the same faint resemblance to Christ; but no new knowledge, no increased interest in the kingdom, no freshness, no new strength, no new fruits, as if they grew. Are they not forgetting that growth is the proof of life - that even the tree grows, and the snail and the sloth move? Are they not forgetting how awfully far a man may go, and yet not be a true Christian? He may be like a wax figure, the very image of a believer, and yet not have within him the breath of God - he may have a name to live, and be dead after all.
Brethren, these are the reasons why I write so strongly. I want your Christianity to be unmistakable. I want you all to grow really, and to