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  AN ALL-ROUND MINISTRY
  by C.H. Spurgeon
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Spurgeon's addresses to pastors and students on the nature of effective
Christian ministry, emphasizing that faith in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit
is the indispensable foundation. He calls ministers to a well-rounded approach
that combines doctrinal fidelity, pastoral care, and evangelistic zeal.

  Chapters: 13

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. p
    2. Faith
    3. "Forward!"
    4. Individuality, and Its Opposite
    5. How to Meet the Evils of the Age
    6. "A New Departure"
    7. Light. Fire. Faith. Life. Love.
    8. Strength in Weakness
    9. What We Would Be
   10. Stewards
   11. The Evils of the Present Time, and Our Object,
   12. The Preacher's Power, and the Conditions
   13. The Minister in These Times

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  CHAPTER 1: P
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Prefatory Note THE publication of the present volume carries out a purpose which
was in the mind of MR. SPURGEON many years ago. It was his intention to issue,
in this form, a selection from his Presidential Addresses at the Annual
Conferences of the Pastors' College. The first Address here given was delivered
in the year 1872, and the last in 1890, so that the series embraces many of the
most memorable utterances to the members of the old College Association as well
as three of the "Inaugurals" at the meetings of the new Evangelical Association.
"C. H. Spurgeon's Final Manifesto," The Greatest Fight in the World, is not
included in this volume, as it is published separately. (Price 6d., and 1s.)
Though there is here the special, personal appeal to his own men, the subjects
dealt with concern the whole Christian ministry at home and abroad, using the
term "ministry" in its widest sense as applying to all servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The clergy and ministers of all denominations, home and foreign
missionaries, open-air preachers, Sunday-school and Bible-class teachers,
tract-distributors, and Christians of all ranks will here find much that will
help them to exercise that "all-round ministry" of which MR. SPURGEON himself
was so earnest an advocate and so bright an example.


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  CHAPTER 2: FAITH
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Chapter 1 Faith

NOW that the time has come for me to address you, my beloved brethren, may God
Himself speak through me to you! Now, to us the covenant belongs, for it has
been decided—and the apostle has declared the decision in the name of God,—that
"to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as
of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. . . . And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise."—Galatians 3:16; Galatians 3:29. We are altogether saved by faith. The
brightest day that ever dawned upon us was the day in which we first "looked
unto Him, and were lightened." It was all dark till faith beheld the Sun of
Righteousness. The dawn of faith was to us the morning of life; by faith only we
began to live. We have since then walked by faith. Whenever we have been tempted
to step aside from the path of faith, we have been like the foolish Galatians,
and we have smarted for our folly. I trust we have not "suffered so many things
in vain."—Galatians 3:4. We began in the Spirit, and if we have sought to be
made perfect in the flesh, we have soon discovered ourselves to be sailing upon
the wrong tack, and nearing sunken rocks. "The just shall live by faith," is a
truth which has worked itself out in our experience, for often and often have we
felt that, in any other course, death stares us in the face; and, therefore, "we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."—Galatians 5:5.
The object of our preaching, as well as its doctrine, is faith; for we reckon
that we have done nothing for sinners until, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we
bring them to faith; and we only reckon that our preaching is useful to saints
as we see them increase in faith. As faith is in our hand the power with which
we sow, and as the seed we sow is received by us by faith, and steeped in faith,
so the harvest for which we look is to see faith springing up in the furrows of
men's hearts to the praise and glory of God. Our work especially requires faith.
If we fail in faith, we had better not have undertaken it; and unless we obtain
faith commensurate with the service, we shall soon grow weary of it. It is
proven by all observation that success in the Lord's service is very generally
in proportion to faith. It certainly is not in proportion to ability, nor does
it always run parallel with a display of zeal; but it is invariably according to
the measure of faith, for this is a law of the Kingdom without exception,
"According to your faith be it unto you." It is essential, then, that we should
have faith if we are to be useful, and that we should have great faith if we are
to be greatly useful. For many other reasons besides usefulness,—namely, even
for our being able to hold our own against the enemies of the truth, and for
ability to stand against the temptations which surround our office,—it is
imperative upon us that we should have abundant confidence in the living God.
We, above all men, need the mountain-moving faith, by which, in the old time,
men of God "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped
the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to
flight the armies of the aliens." I. I mean first to speak, concerning faith,
under the head of this question,—WHEREIN AND UPON WHAT MATTERS HAVE WE, AS
MINISTERS, FAITH, OR GREAT NEED OF IT? We believe in a God of purposes and
plans, who has not left a blind fate to tyrannize over the world, much less an
aimless chance to rock it to and fro. We are not fatalists, neither are we
doubters of providence and predestination. We are believers in a God "who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." We do not conceive of the
Lord as having gone away from the world, and left it and the inhabitants thereof
to themselves; we believe in Him as continually presiding in all the affairs of
life. We, by faith, perceive the hand of the Lord giving to every blade of grass
its own drop of dew, and to every young raven its meat. We see the present power
of God in the flight of every sparrow, and hear His goodness in the song of
every lark. We believe that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;"
and we go forth into it, not as into the domains of Satan where light comes not,
nor into a chaos where rule is unknown, nor into a boiling sea where fate's
resistless billows shipwreck mortals at their will; but we walk boldly on,
having God within us and around us, living and moving and having our being in
Him, and so, by faith, we dwell in a temple of providence and grace wherein
everything doth speak of His glory. We believe in a present God wherever we may
be, and a working and operating God accomplishing His own purposes steadfastly
and surely in all matters, places, and times; working out His designs as much in
what seemeth evil as in that which is manifestly good; in all things driving on
in His eternal chariot towards the goal which infinite wisdom has chosen, never
slackening His pace nor drawing the rein, but for ever, according to the eternal
strength that is in Him, speeding forward without pause. We believe in this God
as being faithful to everything that He has spoken, a God who can neither lie
nor change. The God of Abraham is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and He is our God this day. We do not believe in the ever-shifting views of the
Divine Being which differing philosophies are adopting; the God of the Hebrews
is our God,—Jehovah, Jah, the Mighty One, the covenant-keeping God,—"this God is
our God for ever and ever: He will be our Guide even unto death." Next to this,
our faith most earnestly and intensely fixes itself upon the Christ of God. We
trust in Jesus; we believe all that inspired history says concerning Him; not
making a myth of Him, or His life, but taking it as a matter of fact that God
dwelt in very deed among men in human flesh, and that an atonement was really
and truly offered by the Incarnate God upon the cross of Calvary. Yet, to us,
the Lord Jesus Christ is not alone a Savior of the past. We believe that "He
ascended up on high," and "led captivity captive," and that "He ever liveth to
make intercession for them that come unto God by Him." I saw, in the cathedral
at Turin, a very remarkable sight, namely, the pretended graveclothes of the
Lord Jesus Christ, which are devoutly worshipped by crowds of Romanists. I could
not help observing, as I gazed upon these relics, that the ensigns of the death
of Christ were all of Him that the Romish Church possessed. They may well show
the true cross, for they crucify Him afresh; they may well pray in His
sepulchre, for He is not there, or in their Church; and they may well claim His
graveclothes, for they know only a dead Christ. But, beloved brethren, our
Christ is not dead, neither has He fallen asleep; He still walks among the
golden candlesticks, and holds the stars in His right hand. We have an equal
confidence, beloved brethren, in the Holy Spirit. We unfeignedly believe in His
Deity and personality. We speak of His influences, because He has influences,
but we do not forget that He is a Person from whom those influences stream; we
believe in His offices, for He has offices, but we rejoice in the Person who
fills them, and makes them effectual for our good. Devoutly would each one of us
say, "I believe in the Holy Ghost." Yet, my brethren, do you believe in the Holy
Ghost? "Yes," you say unanimously, spontaneously, and emphatically. "Yes," say I
also; but be not grieved if I ask you yet again if you verily and indeed believe
in Him; for there is a believing and a believing. There is a believing which I
have concerning a man, for which I may have but slender grounds, and upon which
I would not risk a single penny of my substance; but it is another form of
believing in a man when I feel that I could trust my very life with him, being
assured that he would be true to me, and prove both an able and a willing
helper. Have we such a reliance upon the Holy Ghost? Do we believe that, at this
moment, He can clothe us with power, even as He did the apostles at Pentecost?
Do we believe that, under our preaching, by His energy a thousand might be born
in a day? If we all so believe, we are happy to be in such an assembly, for the
majority of Christians, if under one sermon even a dozen persons were to cry
out, "What must we do to be saved?" would exclaim exactly as the unbelieving
Jews did, "These men are full of new wine." They would condemn the whole
transaction as the result of dangerous excitement; they would never imagine it
to be of the Lord. For this reason, I mournfully conclude that there is not, in
the Church, such a belief in the Holy Ghost as there ought to be; and yet, as
certainly as we hear the voice which saith, "Power belongeth unto God;" as
surely as we hear the Divine voice of the Son, saying, "Ye believe in God,
believe also in Me;" so truly does the third Person of the blessed Trinity claim
our loving confidence, and woe be unto us if we vex Him by our unbelief! When we
have a full faith in the Triune God, then shall we be "strong in the Lord, and
in the power of His might." But, in these days, the self-styled "men of
progress", who commenced with preaching the gospel, degenerate as they advance,
and their divinity, like the snail, melts as it proceeds. I hope it will never
be so with any of us. I have likened the career of certain divines to the
journey of a Roman wine-cask from the vineyard to the city. It starts from the
wine-press as the pure juice of the grape; but, at the first halting-place, the
drivers of the cart must needs quench their thirst; and when they come to a
fountain, they substitute water for the wine which they have drunk. In the next
village, there are numbers of lovers of wine who beg or buy a little, and the
discreet carrier dilutes it again. The watering is again and again repeated,
till, on its entrance into Rome, the fluid is remarkably different from that
which originally started from the vineyard. There is a way of "doctoring" the
gospel in much the same manner. A little truth is given up, and then a little
more, and men fill up the vacuum with opinions, inferences, speculations, and
dreams, till their wine is mixed with water, and the water none of the best.
Many preachers—and I speak it with sorrow,—have built a tower of theological
speculations, upon which they sit, like Nero, fiddling the tune of their own
philosophy while the world is burning with sin and misery. They are playing with
the toys of speculation while men's souls are being lost. Brethren, our faith
also, resting upon the doctrines of the gospel and upon the God of the gospel,
embraces the power of prayer. We believe in the prevalence of supplication. I am
afraid that this belief is going out of fashion in the so-called Christian
world. The theory of some is, that prayer is useful to ourselves, but that it
cannot be operative upon God; and much is said about the impossibility of the
Divine purposes being changed, and the utter unlikelihood of a finite being
affecting God by his cries. We also hold that the purposes of God are not
changed; but what if prayer be a part of His purpose, and what if He ordains
that His people should pray when He intends to give them blessings? Prayer is
one of the necessary wheels of the machinery of providence. The offering of
prayer is as operative in the affairs of the world, and the production of
events, as the rise of dynasties or the fall of nations. We believe that God in
very truth hearkens to the voices of men. Brethren, we ought not always to
profess our ability to prove Scriptural truths to ungodly men, for many of those
truths lie outside the region of their understanding. I should not try to prove
to a blind man that the grass is green and the sky is blue, because he can have
no idea of the proposition which I am proving. Argument in such a case is folly
on both sides. To us, at any rate, prayer is no vain thing. We go to our
chambers alone, believing that we are transacting high and real business when we
pray. We do not bow the knee merely because it is a duty, and a commendable
spiritual exercise; but because we believe that, into the ear of the eternal
God, we speak our wants, and that His ear is linked with a heart feeling for us,
and a hand working on our behalf. To us, true prayer is true power. Now, having
detailed the great points of our faith, let me say, brethren, we believe, hence,
on account of all this, that, notwithstanding the slenderness of our stores, the
Great Shepherd of the sheep will grant us an all-sufficiency with which to feed
His people. Believing in God All-sufficient, we expect to see our loaves and
fishes multiplied; consequently, we do not lay by in store, but deal out at this
present all that we have. I saw in Rome a fountain, which represented a man
holding a barrel, out of which a copious stream of water was perpetually
running. There never was much at any one time in that marble barrel, and yet it
has continued to yield a stream for four or five hundred years. So let us pour
forth from our very soul all that the Lord imparts to us. For twenty years and
more, I have told out all I know, and have run dry every time, and yet my heart
still bubbles up with a good matter. I know some brethren in the ministry who
are comparable to the great tun of Heidelberg for capacity, and yet the people
do not receive so much gospel truth from them as from preachers of very inferior
capacity who have formed the habit of giving out all they have. We believe that
the Spirit of God will be in us a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life, and we act according to that conviction. We do not expect to have much
goods laid up for many years; but, as we live by daily bread, so upon
continually new supplies do we feed our people. Away with the musty,
worm-breeding stores of old manna, and let us look up day by day for a fresh
supply! Faith leads us to believe in difficulties being overruled to promote
success. Because we believe in God, and in His Holy Spirit, we believe that
difficulties will be greatly sanctified to us, and that they are only placed
before us as stepping-stones to grander results. We believe in defeats, my
brethren; we believe in going back with the banner trailed in the mire,
persuaded that this may be the surest way to lasting triumph. We believe in
waiting, weeping, and agonizing; we believe in a non-success which prepares us
for doing greater and higher work, for which we should not have been fitted
unless anguish had sharpened our soul. We believe in our infirmities, and even
glory in them; we thank God that we are not so eloquent as we could wish to be,
and have not all the abilities we might desire, because now we know that "the
excellency of the power" shall "be of God, and not of us." Faith enables us so
to rejoice in the Lord that our infirmities become platforms for the display of
His grace. Brethren, we believe that even our enemies shall, in God's hands,
subserve our highest interests; they are yoked to the car of God. Perhaps, of
all the powers which effect the Divine purposes in the world, no one does more
than the devil himself. He is but a scullion in the Eternal's kitchen; he
unwillingly performs much work to which the Lord would not put His own children,
work which is just as needful as that which seraphim perform. Believe not that
evil is a rival power of equal potency with the good God. No, sin and death are,
like the Gibeonites, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Divine
purposes; and, though they know it not, when the Lord's enemies rave and rage
most, they fulfil His eternal purposes to the praise of the glory of His wisdom
and grace. If our gospel be true, it will yet come to the front, and God will
work for us; therefore are we "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord." If we do not see souls saved today or tomorrow, we will still
work on. Ours is not the unrequited toil of Sisyphus rolling uphill a stone
which will rebound upon us, nor that of the daughters of Danaus who sought to
fill a bottomless vessel. Our work may no more quickly appear than the islands
which the coral insects are building below the blue waves of the Southern sea;
but the reef is rising, far down the foundation of the massive structure is
laid, and its walls are climbing to the surface. We are laboring for eternity,
and we count not our work by each day's advance, as men measure theirs; it is
God's work, and must be measured by His standard. Be ye well assured that, when
time, and things created, and all that oppose themselves to the Lord's truth,
shall be gone, every earnest sermon preached, and every importunate prayer
offered, and every form of Christian service honestly rendered, shall remain
embedded in the mighty structure which God from all eternity has resolved to
raise to His own honor. It works in us, first, a glorious independence of man.
We are glad of earnest helpers, but we can do without them. We are grateful for
our good deacons, but we dare not make flesh our arm. We are very glad if God
raises up brethren in other churches who will fraternize with us, but we do not
lean upon them. The man who believes in God, and believes in Christ, and
believes in the Holy Ghost, will stay himself upon the Lord alone. He does not
wish to be solitary, or to be singular, yet can he by himself contend for his
Master; and when he has most human helps, he sedulously endeavors still to wait
only upon God. If you lean upon your helpers when you have them, it may be that
you will realize the terrible meaning of that ancient word, "Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." As the apostle saith, "It
remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;" so may we
say that it remaineth, that we who have zealous helpers be as though we had
none, and to let our confidence in God be as simple, and our own selves be as
free of all carnal confidence, as if we stood like Athanasius against the world,
and had no one to speak a good word for us, or to bear a portion of our burden.
God alone suffices to bear up yon unpillared firmament. He alone balances the
clouds, and upbears them in the heavens. He kindles the lamps of night, and
gives the sun his flames of fire. God alone is sufficient for us, and in His
might we shall achieve the purpose of our being. True faith in God will also
make us abundant in good works. The eleventh of Hebrews is a chapter dedicated
to the glorification of faith; but if I assert that it records the good works of
the saints, can anybody contradict me? Is it not as much a record of works as of
faith? Ay, verily, because where there is much faith, there shall surely ere
long be abundant good works. I have no notion of that faith which does not
produce good works, especially in the preacher. I question whether, as channels
for damnation, Satan has upon earth more apt instruments for breeding
infidelity, and for causing men to regard the gospel with contempt, than those
who profess to believe it, and then act as though the belief were a matter of no
consequence whatsoever. But our faith makes us abundant in good works. May I say
to you, if you are doing all you possibly can for Christ, endeavor to do yet
more? I believe a Christian man is generally right when he is doing more than he
can; and when he goes still further beyond that point, he will be even more
nearly right. There are scarcely any bounds to the possibilities of our service.
Many a man, who now is doing little, might, with the same exertion, do twice as
much by wise arrangement and courageous enterprise. For instance, in our country
towns, a sermon delivered on the village green would, in all probability, be
worth twenty sermons preached in the chapel; and, in London, a sermon delivered
to a crowd in a public hall or theatre may accomplish ten times as much good as
if it had fallen on the accustomed ears of our regular auditors. We need, like
the apostles, to launch out into the deep, or our nets will never enclose a
great multitude of fishes. If we had but the pluck to come out of our
hiding-places, and face the foe, we should soon achieve immense success. We need
far more faith in the Holy Ghost. He will bless us if we cast ourselves entirely
upon Him. Well, brethren, to sum up a great many things in one, faith is to us a
great enlargement of our souls. Men who are morbidly anxious to possess a
self-consistent creed,—a creed which they can put together, and form into a
square, like a Chinese puzzle,—are very apt to narrow their souls. Fancying that
all truth can be comprehended in half-a-dozen formulae, they reject as worthless
every doctrinal statement which cannot be so comprehended. Those who will only
believe what they can reconcile will necessarily disbelieve much of Divine
revelation; they are, without knowing it, following the lead of the
Rationalists. Those who receive by faith anything which they find in the Bible
will receive two things, twenty things, ay, or twenty thousand things, though
they cannot construct a theory which harmonizes them all. That process of
theory-making is an expensive folly, the invention of middle terms is a waste of
ingenuity; it were far better to believe the truths, and leave the Lord to show
their consistency. Faith is also our refreshment. Our faith in God relieves us
of our weariness. Even natural fatigue is sometimes overcome by faith.
Certainly, faintness of spirit needs no better restorative than reliance upon
God. Close to the Colosseum there stands the ruin of an ancient fountain and
bath called the Meta Sudans. Here came the. gladiators who escaped with life
from the struggles of the amphitheatre; covered with blood, and begrimed with
sweat and dust from the arena, they plunged into the bath, and felt delicious
refreshment. Faith in God is just such a laver to our hearts. First, it claims
to be well-founded. I put it to you, brethren, in very simple words. Is the
living God worth trusting? Does Omnipotence deserve that you should lean upon
it? Does Omniscience warrant you in believing it? Does Immutability justify you
in depending upon it? Why, if I were to bring here the best man of woman born
whose name should be to you the synonym for virtue, and if I were to advise that
you should trust him with your lives, I must speak with bated breath, for who
shall trust in man? Ay, and if there stood here Gabriel, the angelic messenger
of God, and he should tell us that he would zealously defend us, I might
hesitate ere I said to you, "O sons of men, rest in angelic strength, and rely
on seraphic zeal!" But when I speak of the Father, the Incarnate Son, the
ever-blessed Spirit, who shall venture to hint a limit to our trust in God? What
logician shall accuse us of folly in confiding in the Divine Trinity? I never
feel, when I meet with intellectual men, who look down upon me as a mere
preacher of platitudes, that they have any right to do so. To them I give place
by subjection, no, not for an hour. I have rather to check a propensity to look
down on them than to subdue any feeling of inferiority. To us, the truths of the
gospel are absolute certainties for which we do not crave tolerance, but to
which we demand submission. If any shall brand us with epithets, such as
"bigot", "vulgar dogmatist", or "mere echo of departed Puritanism," (and all
these have been used,) we will only reply, "You may apply to us what opprobrious
titles you please, but we know that, if we were to express the truth about you,
there is no adjective of contempt which you do not deserve; and, therefore,
because we know of no language sufficiently strong to set forth our abhorrence
of your false doctrine, we will let you pass in silence." Though we may be
confounded in argument, we cannot be confounded in experience, or driven from
that which we have tasted and handled of the good Word of God. Neither are we
confounded in our faith. We know that our faith is well-founded, and, therefore,
we hear it say, "Do not treat me as if I were a dream. Do not deliver your
message with bated breath. Tell it out boldly, for he who contradicts it is a
liar!" If it be of God, it must be true. We are not adherents of an infallible
church which founds its faith on its own authority, or of an infallible Pope who
fancies himself to be the image of truth; if such were our boast, the world
might well laugh us down; but, having learned God's truth by Divine revelation,
we defy the 'world's sneer, and we do not even say, "By your leave, gentlemen."
No, but with or without your leave, we will speak what God has revealed to us.
And so faith says, in the third place, "Give me a wider range. Trust your God
far more." We have only waded ankle-deep in faith as yet. We thought the water
very cold and chill when we timorously ventured in; but having tried it up to
the ankles, we have found it good and pleasant. Let us advance until we are
breast-deep, yea, and deeper. Blessed is that man who gets his feet off the
bottom, and swims in the stream where he has no hope but his God, and no
confidence and no helper but the Invisible One who sustaineth all things. Faith
cries, "Trust me, my son, to make you preach better. Have more enterprise. Be
more daring. Do not fight your own battle in the church-meeting, leave it to
your God; trust all with Him. Do not be afraid to go and speak to that
foul-mouthed man; I will give you the right word to say to him. Trust me, and go
with prudence but with zeal into the darkest haunts of vice. Find out the worst
of men, and seek their salvation. There is nothing you cannot do if you will but
trust in God." Brother, your failure, if you fail, will begin in your faith. The
air says to the eagle, "Trust me; spread thy broad wings; I will bear thee up to
the sun. Only trust me. Take thy foot from off yon rock which thou canst feel
beneath thee. Get away from it, and be buoyed up by the unseen element." My
brethren, eaglets of Heaven, mount aloft, for God invites you. Mount! You have
but to trust Him. An unknown glory rests upon Him, and the radiance thereof
shall come upon you if you only know how to trust Him. I pray the Lord to endow
this College with faith. May we be both established and endowed,—established on
a rock, and endowed with the blessings of the covenant of grace! Remember,
brethren, that you and I are committed to faith now; it is too late for us to
retire. We are in the condition of Bunyan's pilgrim; we must go forward. There
are many perils before us, the Valley of the Shadow of Death lies on ahead;
arrows will fly very thickly around us as we traverse its, shades. 'Tis hard
going on, but we cannot retrace our steps, for we have no armor for our backs.
Suppose we should take to reasoning, suppose we should give up the fundamentals
of our faith, what would remain to us? For my part, I should have nothing
beneath the sun to do but to take the rope of Judas, and to end a miserable
life, for only my faith makes it worth my while to live. If faith were gone, I
would entreat permission to expire; to be extinct, were better than to live if
these things be but a delusion after all. It must be onward with us, for in the
case of brethren of this College, the most unsafe thing for us is to think of
turning back. One or two of our former comrades have gone aside from us; I
cannot judge their hearts, but I fear they have also gone aside from God. I will
not say more of them than this,—they are the last men you would envy if you knew
their whole history. If any men bear upon them, even in this life, the evident
mark of God's disapprobation, it must be those who have known the truth, and
defended it, and yet, for lucre's sake, or ambition's sake, have turned aside
from it. If it were fitting, I could write narratives of apostate experiences
which would harrow up your feelings, and they would relate to men into whose
faces I have looked as I now look into yours, and who were familiar with me, but
with whose names, once well-beloved, I am ashamed now to be associated. God have
mercy upon them! It is all that I could say if I had to write their epitaphs,
"God have mercy upon them!" FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT= "Well, brethren, you and I
are committed to the onward course, we cannot go back; neither can we turn to
the right hand or to the left. What shall we do, then? Shall we lie down, and
fret? Shall we stand still, and be dismayed? No! In the Name of the Lord, let us
again set up our banner, the royal standard of Jesus the Crucified. Let us sound
the trumpets joyously, and let us march on, not with the trembling footsteps of
those who know that they are bent upon an enterprise of evil, but with the
gallant bearing of men whose cause is Divine, whose warfare is a crusade.
Courage, my brethren; behold, the angels of God fly in our front, and, lo, the
eternal God Himself leads our van. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of
Jacob is our refuge." "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Blessed faith!
God grant us more of it, for Christ's sake! Amen.


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  CHAPTER 3: "FORWARD!"
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Chapter 2 "Forward!"

BRETHREN, the substance of my address, this morning, will be found in the words
of God to His servant Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go
forward." "Forward" is the watchword of our Conference, let it ring through your
ranks. Onward, ye elect of God! Victory is before you; your very safety lies in
that direction. To retreat is to perish. You have most of you read the story of
the boy, in an American village, who climbed the wall of the famous Natural
Bridge, and cut his name in the rock above the initials of his fellows, and then
became suddenly aware of the impossibility of descending. Voices shouted, "Do
not look down, try and reach the top." His only hope was to go right up, up, up,
till he landed on the top. Upward was terrible, but downward was destruction.
Now, we, dear brethren, are all of us in a like condition. By the help of God,
we have cut our way to positions of usefulness; and to descend is death. To us,
forward means upward; and therefore forward and upward let us go. While we
prayed, this morning, we committed ourselves beyond all recall. We did that most
heartily when we first preached the gospel, and publicly declared, "I am my
Lord's, and He is mine." We put our hand to the plough then; thank God, we have
not looked back yet, and we must never do so. The only course open to us is to
plough right on to the end of the furrow, and never think of leaving the field
till the Master shall call us home. But this morning you committed yourselves
again to the Lord's work; you did not deliberate, or consult with flesh and
blood; but you plunged right in, renouncing all for Jesus; and except ye be
reprobates, ye have enlisted for life in His service. You are the branded
servants of Christ, bearing in your bodies His mark. You have now no liberty to
serve another, you are the sworn soldiers of the Crucified. Forward is your only
way; you are shut up to it. You have no armor for your backs; and whatever
dangers lie in front, there are ten thousand times as many behind. It is onward
or nothing; nay, onward or dishonor; onward or death. I. First, dear brethren, I
think it necessary to say to myself and to you that we must GO FORWARD IN OUR
MENTAL ACQUIREMENTS. Dear brethren, we must cultivate ourselves to the highest
possible point, and do this, first, by gathering in knowledge that we may fill
the barn; then, by acquiring discrimination that we may winnow the heap; and,
lastly, by a firm retentiveness of mind, which lays up the winnowed grain in the
storehouse. The three points may not be equally important, but they are
necessary to a complete man. Be well instructed in theology, and do not regard
the sneers of those who rail at it because they are ignorant of it. Many
preachers are not theologians, and hence the mistakes which they make. It cannot
do any hurt to the most lively evangelist to be also a sound theologian, and it
may often be the means of saving him from gross blunders. Nowadays, we hear men
tear a single sentence of Scripture from its connection, and cry, "Eureka!
Eureka!" as if they had found a new truth; and yet they have not discovered a
diamond, but only a piece of broken glass. Had they been able to compare
spiritual things with spiritual, had they understood the analogy of the faith,
and had they been acquainted with the holy learning of the great Bible students
of past ages, they would not have been quite so fast in vaunting their marvelous
knowledge. Let us be thoroughly well acquainted with the great doctrines of the
Word of God, and let us be mighty in expounding the Scriptures. I am sure that
no preaching will last so long, or build up a church so well, as the expository.
To renounce altogether the hortatory discourse for the expository, would be
running to a preposterous extreme; but I cannot too earnestly assure you that,
if your ministries are to be lastingly useful, you must be expositors. For this
purpose, you must understand the Word yourselves, and be able so to comment upon
it that the people may be built up by the Word. Be masters of your Bibles,
brethren; whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the
writings of the prophets and apostles. "Let the Word of God dwell in you
richly." I said that, next, we must learn always to discriminate between things
that differ; and at this particular time, this point needs insisting on very
emphatically. Many run after novelties, charmed with every new thing; learn to
judge between truth and its counterfeits, and you will not be led astray. Others
adhere to old teachings, like limpets stick to the rock; and yet these may only
be ancient errors: wherefore, "prove all things," and "hold fast that which is
good." The use of the sieve and the winnowing fan, is much to be commended. A
man who has asked the Lord to give him clear eyes, by which he shall see the
truth, and discern its bearings, and who, by reason of the constant exercise of
his faculties, has obtained an accurate judgment, is one fit to be a leader of
the Lord's host; but all ministers are not thus qualified. It is painful to
observe how many embrace anything it if be but earnestly brought before them.
They swallow the medicine of every spiritual quack who has enough of brazen
assurance to appear to be sincere. I say to you, as Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, "Brethren, be not children in understanding;" test everything that
claims your faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the faculty of discerning
between good and evil, so shall you conduct your flocks far from poisonous
meadows, and lead them into safe pasturage. When men change often, they
generally need to be changed in the most emphatic sense. Our "modern thought"
gentry are doing incalculable mischief to the souls of men. Immortal souls are
being damned, yet these men are spinning theories. Hell gapes wide, and with her
open mouth swallows up myriads, yet those who should spread the tidings of
salvation are "pursuing fresh lines of thought." Highly-cultured soul-murderers
will find their boasted "culture" to be no excuse in the day of judgment. For
God's sake, let us know how men are to be saved, and get to the work; to be for
ever deliberating as to the proper mode of making bread while a nation dies of
famine, is detestable trifling. It is time we knew what to teach, or else
renounced our office. "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth," is the motto of the worst rather than of the best of men. Are they
to be our model? "I shape my creed every week," was the confession of one of
these divines to me. Whereunto shall I liken such unsettled ones? Are they not
like those birds which frequent the Golden Horn, and are to be seen from
Constantinople, of which it is said that they are always on the wing, and never
rest? No one ever saw them alight on the water or on the land, they are for ever
poised in mid-air. The natives call them "lost souls"—seeking rest and finding
none; and, methinks, men who have no personal rest in the truth, if they are not
themselves unsaved, are, at least, very unlikely to be the means of saving
others. He who has no assured truth to tell must not wonder if his hearers set
small store by what he says. We must know the truth, understand it, and hold it
with firm grip, or we cannot be of service to the sons of men. Brethren, I
charge you, seek to know, and, knowing, to discriminate; having discriminated, I
charge you to "hold fast that which is good." Keep in constant operation the
three processes of filling the barn, winnowing the grain, and storing it in
granaries, so shall you mentally "go forward." I am beginning at the bottom, but
all these matters are important, for it is a pity that even the feet of this
image should be of clay. Nothing is trifling which can be of any service to our
grand design. Only for want of a nail the horse lost its shoe, and so became
unfit for the battle; that shoe was only a trifling rim of iron which smote the
ground, and yet the neck clothed with thunder was of no avail when the shoe was
gone. A man may be irretrievably ruined for spiritual usefulness, not because he
fails either in character or spirit, but because he breaks down mentally or
oratorically; and, therefore, I again remark that we must improve in utterance.
Brethren, we should cultivate a clear style. When a man does not make me
understand what he means, it is because he does not himself know what he means.
An average hearer, who is unable to follow the course of thought of the
preacher, ought not to worry himself, but to blame the preacher, whose business
it is to make the matter clear. If you look down into a well, if it be empty, it
will appear to be very deep; but. if there be water in it, you will see its
brightness. I believe that many "deep" preachers are simply so because they are
like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few
stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two. If there be living water in your
preaching, it may be very deep, but the light of the truth will give clearness
to it. At any rate, labor to be plain, so that the truths you teach may be
easily received by your hearers. Among many other things, we must cultivate
persuasiveness. Some of our brethren have great influence over men, and yet
others with greater gifts are devoid of it; these last do not appear to get near
to the people, they cannot grip them, and make them feel. There are preachers
who, in their sermons, seem to take their hearers one by one by the buttonhole,
and drive the truth right into their souls, while others generalize so much, and
are withal so cold, that one would think they were speaking to dwellers in some
remote planet, whose affairs did not much concern them. Learn the art of
pleading with men. You will do this well if you often see the Lord. If I
remember rightly, the old classic story tells us that, when a soldier was about
to kill Darius, his son, who had been dumb from his childhood, suddenly cried
out in surprise, "Know you not that he is the king" His silent tongue was
unloosed by love to his father, and well may ours also find earnest speech when
the Lord is seen by us crucified for sin. If there be any speech in us, this
will arouse it. The knowledge of "the terror of the Lord" should also bestir us
to persuade men. We cannot do other than plead with them to be reconciled to
God. Brethren, mark those who woo sinners to Jesus, find out their secret, and
never rest till you obtain the same power. If you find them very simple and
homely, yet if you see them really useful, say to yourself, "That method will do
for me;" but if, on the other hand, you listen to a preacher who is much
admired, and on enquiry you find that no souls are savingly converted under his
ministry, say to yourself, "This style is not the thing for me, for I am not
seeking to be great, but to be really useful." Brethren, let none excel us in
power of speech; let none surpass us in the mastery of our mother-tongue.
Beloved fellow-soldiers, our tongues are the swords which God has given us to
use for Him, even as, it is said of our Lord, "Out of His mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword." Let these swords be sharp. Cultivate your powers of speech,
and be amongst the foremost in the land for utterance. I do not exhort you to
this because you are remarkably deficient; far from it, for everybody says to
me, "We know your College men by their plain, bold speech." This leads me to
believe that you have the gift largely in you, and I beseech you to take pains
to perfect it. Let the points I shall mention here come home to those who shall
require them, but I assure you I have no special persons among you in my mind's
eye. We desire to rise to the highest style of ministry; but even if we obtain
the mental and oratorical qualifications I have mentioned, we shall fail, unless
we also possess high moral qualities. There are evils which we must shake off,
as Paul shook the viper from his hand, and there are virtues which we must gain
at any cost. Self-indulgence has slain its thousands. Let us tremble lest we
perish by the hands of this Delilah. Let us have every passion and habit under
due restraint; if we are not masters of ourselves, we are not fit to be leaders
in the Church of Christ. We must also have our tempers well under restraint. A
vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are as easy as an old shoe
are generally of as little worth. I would not say to you, "Dear brethren, have a
temper;" but I do say," If you have one, control it carefully." I thank God when
I see a minister have temper enough to be indignant at wrong, and to be firm for
the right; still, temper is an edged tool, and often cuts the man who handles
it. "Gentle, and easy to be entreated," preferring to bear evil rather than
inflict it, this is to be our spirit. If any brother here naturally boils over
too soon, let him mind that, when he does do so, he scalds nobody but the devil,
and then let him boil away as fast as he likes. At the same time, we should
avoid everything like the ferocity of bigotry. There are religious people about,
who, I have no doubt, were born of a woman, but they appear to have been suckled
by a wolf. I have done them no dishonor by that comparison, for were not Romulus
and Remus, the founders of the city of Rome, nourished in that fashion? Some
warlike men of this order have had power to found dynasties of thought; but
human kindness and brotherly love consort better with the Kingdom of Christ. We
are not to be always going about the world searching out heresies, like terrier
dogs sniffing for rats, and to be always so confident of our own infallibility
that we erect ecclesiastical stakes at which to roast all who differ from us,
not, 'tis true, with faggots of wood, but with those coals of juniper, which
consist of strong prejudice and cruel suspicion. And, dear brethren, we must
acquire certain moral faculties and habits, as, well as put aside their
opposites. He will never do much for God who has not integrity of spirit. If we
be guided by policy, if there be any mode of action for us but that which is
straightforward, we shall make shipwreck before long. Resolve, dear brethren,
that you can be poor, that you can be despised, that you can lose life itself,
but that you cannot do a crooked thing. For you, let the only policy be honesty.
Having the integrity and the courage, dear brethren, may you be gifted with an
unconquerable zeal! Zeal,—what is it? How shall I describe it? Possess it, and
you will know what it is. Be consumed with love for Christ, and let the flame
burn continuously; not flaming up at public meetings, and dying out in the
routine work of every day. We need indomitable perseverance, dogged zeal, and a
combination of sacred obstinacy, self-denial, holy gentleness, and invincible
courage. IV. Above all these things, we need TO GO FORWARD IN SPIRITUAL
QUALIFICATIONS, the graces which must be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit
Himself. This is the main matter, I am sure. Other things are precious, but this
is priceless. Believers of another school dwell much—and rightly and blessedly
so—upon the glorious work of the Spirit of God. They believe in the Spirit of
God as a cleansing power, sweeping the Augean stable of the soul, and making it
into a temple for God. But frequently they talk as if they had ceased to sin, or
to be annoyed by temptation; they glory as if the battle were already fought,
and the victory won. Yet let us also learn what we can from these brethren. All
the truth they can teach us, let us know. Let us become familiar with the
hilltops of salvation, and the glory that shines thereon,—the Hermons and the
Tabors, where we may be transfigured with our Lord. Do not be afraid of ever
growing too holy, or of being too full of the Holy Spirit. Brethren, know man,
in Christ, and out of Christ. Study him at his best, and study him at his worst;
know his anatomy, his secrets, and his passions. You cannot gain this knowledge
from books; you must have personal acquaintance with men if you are to help them
in their varied spiritual experience. God alone can give you that wisdom which
you will need in dealing wisely with them, but He will give it to you in answer
to believing prayer. Last Sunday night, I had a text which mastered me: "No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father." I told the people that poor sinners, who had
gone to Jesus, and trusted Him, thought they knew Him, but that they knew only a
little of Him. Saints of sixty years' experience, who have walked with Him every
day, think they know Him; but they are only beginning to know Him yet. The
perfect spirits before the throne, who have been for five thousand years
perpetually adoring Him, perhaps think they know Him, but they do not to the
full. "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father." He is so glorious, that only the
infinite God has full knowledge of Him, therefore there will be no limit to our
study, or narrowness in our line of thought, if we make our Lord the great
object of all our thoughts and researches. V. I have not finished my message,
for I have further to say, GO FORWARD IN ACTUAL WORK. We want facts,—deeds done,
souls saved. It is all very well to write essays, but what souls have you been
the means of saving from going down to hell? Your excellent management of your
school interests me, but how many children have been brought into the church by
it? We are glad to hear of those special meetings, but how many have really been
born to God in them? Are saints edified? Are sinners converted? To swing to and
fro on a five-barred gate, is not progress; yet some seem to think that it is. I
see them in a kind of perpetual Elysium, humming over to themselves and their
friends, "We are very comfortable." God save us from living in comfort while
sinners are sinking into hell! In traveling along the mountain roads in
Switzerland, you will continually see marks of the boring-rod; and in every
minister's life there should be traces of stern labor. Brethren, do something;
do something; DO SOMETHING. While Committees waste their time over resolutions,
do something. While Societies and Unions are making constitutions, let us win
souls. Too often we discuss, and discuss, and discuss, while Satan only laughs
in his sleeve. It is time we had done planning, and sought something to plan. I
pray you, be men of action all of you. Get to work, and quit yourselves like
men. Old Suwarrow's idea of war is mine: "Forward and strike! No theory! Attack!
Form column! Fix bayonets, and charge right into the very centre of the enemy."
Our one aim is to save sinners, and this we are not merely to talk about, but to
effect in the power of God. I plead this day for those who cannot plead for
themselves, namely, the great outlying masses of the heathen world. Our existing
pulpits are tolerably well supplied, but we need men who will build on new
foundations. Who will do this? Are we, as a company of faithful men, clear in
our consciences about the heathen? Millions have never heard the Name of Jesus.
Hundreds of millions have seen a missionary only once in their lives, and know
nothing of our King. Shall we let them perish? Can we go to our beds and sleep,
while China, India, Japan, and other nations are being damned? Are we clear of
their blood? Have they no claim upon us? We ought to put it on this
footing,—not, "Can I prove that I ought to go?" but, "Can I prove that I ought
not to go?" When a man can honestly prove that he ought not to go, then he is
clear, but not else. What answer do you give, my brethren? I put it to you man
by man. I am not raising a question among you which I have not honestly put to
myself. I have felt that, if some of our leading ministers would go forth, it
would have a grand effect in stimulating the churches, and I have honestly asked
myself whether I ought to go. After balancing the whole thing, I feel bound to
keep my place, and I think the judgment of most Christians would confirm my
decision; but I hope I would readily, and willingly, and cheerfully, go abroad
if I did not feel that I ought to remain at home. Brethren, put yourselves
through the same process. We must have the heathen converted; God has myriads of
His elect among them, we must go and search for them somehow or other. Many
difficulties are now removed, all lands are open to us, and distance is almost
annihilated. True, we have not the Pentecostal gift of tongues; but languages
are now readily acquired, while the art of printing is a full equivalent for the
lost gift. The dangers incident to missions ought not to keep any true man back,
even if they were very great, but they are now reduced to a minimum. There are
hundreds of places where the cross of Christ is unknown, to which we can go
without risk. Who will go? I wish that our churches would imitate that of Pastor
Harms, in Germany, where every member was consecrated to God in deed and of a
truth. The farmers gave the produce of their lands, the working-men their labor;
one gave a large house to be used as a missionary college, and Pastor Harms
obtained money for a ship which he fitted out, to make voyages the to Africa,
and then he sent missionaries, and little companies of his people with them, to
form Christian communities among the Bushmen. When will our churches be equally
self-denying and energetic? Look at the Moravians, how every man or woman
becomes a missionary, and how much they do for the Lord in consequence. Let us
catch their spirit. Is it a right spirit? Then it is right for us to have it. It
is not enough for us to say, "Those Moravians are very wonderful people." We
ought to be wonderful people, too. Christ did not purchase the Moravians any
more completely than He purchased us; they are under no more obligation to make
sacrifices than we are. Why then this backwardness? When we read of heroic men
who gave up all for Jesus, we are not merely to admire, but to imitate them. Who
will imitate them now? Come to the point? Are there not some among you willing
to consecrate yourselves to the Lord? "Forward" is the watchword today! Are
there no bold spirits to lead the van? Pray all of you that, during this
Pentecost, the Spirit may say, "Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work
whereunto I have called them." "Brethren, on wings of love mount upward, and fly
forward. Amen.


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  CHAPTER 4: INDIVIDUALITY, AND ITS OPPOSITE
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Chapter 3 Individuality, and Its Opposite WHEN the late excellent Field-Marshal,
Sir John Burgoyne, took the chair at the Tabernacle, at a lecture by Mr. Henry
Vincent, he discharged his duty as chairman briefly, but admirably, by saying
that, as chairman, he looked upon himself as merely called upon to ring the bell
to announce the starting of the train. That is somewhat my position with regard
to this Conference, only it rises to a higher degree of responsibility, because
your President has not only to start the train of good thoughts and words for
this week, but to a large measure he will give a tone for better or worse to all
that shall follow. I am, therefore, more like the pitch-pipe of the olden times,
which gave the key-note to the singers in the gallery, and through them to the
whole congregation, and I feel inexpressibly anxious that the key-note should be
a right one. Brethren, a measure of the sense of responsibility is helpful, and
in many ways qualifies a man for saying the right thing; but it may be pushed
too far, it may go beyond humbling the mind, and reach to the crushing of the
spirit; it may so overwhelm you with the feeling of what is to be done as
utterly to disqualify you for the doing of it. I am somewhat in that condition
as to my part in this Conference to-day. I pine to inspire and not to repress
your zeal, I long to lead you into the highest spiritual condition, and not to
divert your attention to lower matters, and these strong desires master me; my
heart conquers my head, and disturbs the equanimity so needful for the creation
and utterance of thought. However, I shall do my best, and leave myself in the
hands of our great Illuminator, the Holy Spirit, that He may speak through me as
He wills. Perhaps my one thought will come better if I give you a text from the
1st of Corinthians, the 15th chapter, and 10th verse, 1 Corinthians 15:10 : "I
labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I." "I, yet not I;"—I to the very
full, every bit of me: Paul, once the Pharisee, the blasphemer, the persecutor,
called now to be an apostle, who finds it cause of joy that this grace is given
unto me to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; I, not a
whit behind the very chief of the apostles: and yet not I, for I feel myself to
be nothing, yea, and less than nothing, and Christ is all and in all. So it is
I, yet not I. Brethren, I hope that, however useful God may have made us in our
several spheres, we do not conceive ourselves to be vastly important, for indeed
we are no such thing. The cock was of opinion that the sun rose early every
morning on purpose to hear him crow; but we know that Sol did nothing of the
kind. The world does not revolve, the sun does not blaze, the moon does not wax
and wane, the stars do not shine, entirely for the especial benefit of any one
brother here, however admirable he may be in his own place; neither does
Christendom exist for the purpose of finding us pulpits, nor our own particular
church that it may furnish us with a congregation and an income; nay, nor does
even so much as one believer exist that he may lay himself out for our sole
comfort and honour. We are too insignificant to be of any great importance in
God's vast universe; He can do either with us or without us, and our presence or
absence will not disarrange His plans. Upon this matter of individuality, note
first, the necessity of an earnest sense of our individual interest in the
gospel which we preach. Brethren, we shall never preach the Savior of sinners
better than when we feel ourselves to be the sinners whom He came to save. A
penitent mourning for sin fits us to preach repentance. "I preached," says John
Bunyan, "sometimes, as a man in chains to men in chains, hearing the clanking of
my own fetters while I preached to those who were bound in affliction and iron."
Sermons wrung out of broken hearts are often the means of consolation to
despairing souls. It is well to go to the pulpit, at times, with "God be
merciful to me a sinner" as our uppermost prayer. Some mourners will never be
cheered till they see the preacher smite upon his own breast, and hear him
confess his personal sense of unworthiness. We must never preach to others with
a counterfeit voice, narrating an experience which we have not ourselves
enjoyed; but if we feel that we have back-slidden to any degree, we must either
rally to the mark, or penitently speak from the standpoint we actually occupy.
On the other hand, if we have grown in grace, it is wicked to conceal what we
have tasted and handled, and affect a mock humility; in fact, we dare not do so,
we cannot but speak what Christ has taught us. We must speak out of the
God-given fulness within, and not borrow from another; better far to be silent
than to do that. We must be true to our personal condition before God, for
perhaps the Lord allows the state of heart of His ministers to vary on purpose
that their roving paths may lead to the discovery of His wandering sheep. I have
sometimes traversed a portion of the pilgrim path by no means to be desired, and
I have groaned in my soul, "Lord, why and wherefore is it thus with me?" And I
have preached in a way which made me lie in the dust, fearing that the Lord had
not spoken by me, and all the while He was leading me by the hand in a way that
I knew not, for the good of His own. There have come forward, ere long, one or
two who have been just the people God intended to bless, and they were reached
by the very sermon which cost me so much, and grew out of an experience so
exceedingly bitter. Brethren, this personality of life in Christ being well kept
in our minds, it will be well for us never to forget our personal commission to
preach the gospel. for I hope you have each of you received such a personal
commission, and know it; or else why are you here? Leave the ministry, brethren,
if you have not received it of the Lord. I preach—I dare to say it—because I can
do no otherwise; I cannot refrain myself; a fire burns within my bones which
will consume me if I hold my peace. Every God-sent Christian minister is as much
called to preach the gospel as was that apostle to whom Ananias spoke concerning
"the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way." This makes our
preaching a solemn business. Suppose that, this morning, in going down the
stairs of this College alone, an angel should meet you, and lay his hand upon
you, and say, "The Lord God Almighty hath sent me to commission you to preach
the gospel henceforth." Brother, you would feel a burden laid upon you, and yet
you would feel renewed confidence and ardour. But no mere angel's hand has
touched thee, brother; the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who redeemed thee with His
most precious blood, has laid this "necessity" upon thee. The pierced hand,
which gave thee healing, has appointed thee to thy Lord's service, and made thee
a chosen vessel to bear His Name. Hear afresh from His lips the commands, "Feed
My sheep" and "Feed My lambs," even as Peter did by the Sea of Galilee.
Brethren, in connection with our individuality, we ought to feel a great respect
for our own sphere of labour. You who are pastors are not only set to be
watchmen for souls, but to be watchmen for the souls in particular places. You
brethren, as a whole, are to go into all the world to preach the gospel, but
each one of you must feed that flock of Christ over which the Holy Ghost has
made you an overseer. There your principal labors must be expended, for there
your principal responsibilities lie. I would have every brother think very
highly of the position in which God has placed him. If I am a sentinel, set to
guard the army at a certain point, I know that every post in the whole cordon is
important; but I am not to dream that mine is not so. If so, I may be inclined
to sleep, and the foe may surprise the camp at the point which I ought to have
guarded. I am to feel as if the whole safety of the entire camp depended upon
me;—at least, I ought to be as zealous and as watchful as if it were so. You see
the links of that chain; each one of them has a certain strain upon it. Suppose
that one of them should say, "I may rust through; it does not matter, for many
other links are strong." No, my friend, the chain depends upon each link; and
so, for the completeness of church work, and for the perfect edification of the
body of Christ, a great weight of responsibility lies upon you. I am very
responsible; I admit it, but you have each one your measure of responsibility,
which you cannot shift to another's shoulders. If all the rest of the world
should be blest, and the hamlet to which you minister should be unvisited, the
general revival would be no joy to you if your negligence had made your little
vineyard a mournful exception to the rule. You might rejoice in the increase of
blessing elsewhere, but the deeper would be your regret that you had none of it
at home. A dear brother said to me, "I wish you would go abroad, and preach the
Word;" and he urged as a reason that my people would appreciate me better if
they had less of me. I:replied that I did not want my people to appreciate me
any more, for they go already as far in that direction as would be safe, and I
assured him that I should stop at home for fear they should appreciate me more.
I might have rambled all the world over, and done great good, if that had been
my calling; but the day will declare whether I have not been more in the path of
duty and real usefulness by fostering Institutions at home, and scattering the
Word by my printed sermons far more widely than I could have done with my voice.
Be it so or not, brethren, when you know which part of the Lord's work He has
committed to you, give your whole soul to it. Going through the famous factory
at Sevres, the other day, I noticed an artist painting a very beautiful vase. I
looked at him, but he did not look at me; his eyes were better engaged than in
staring at a stranger. There were several persons at my heels, and they all
looked at him, and made various observations, yet the worker's eye never moved
from his work. He had to paint the picture upon that vase, and what benefit
would he get from noticing us, or from our noticing him? He kept to his work. We
would fain see such abstraction and concentration in every man who has the
Lord's work to do. "This one thing I do." Some frown, some smile, but "this one
thing I do." Some think they could do it better, but "this one thing I do." How
they could do it, may be their business; but it certainly is not mine. Come fair
or come foul, my comrades, hold ye the fort. Some men attempt to excuse their
own negligence by blaming the times. What have you and I to do with the times,
except to serve our God in them? The times are always evil to those who are of
morbid temperament. A scholar tells us that he once read a passage from a book
to a worthy gentleman of the desponding school; it described "these days of
blasphemy and rebuke,"—I think that is the correct expression,—and lamented the
failure of the faithful from among men "Ah, how true!" said the worthy man, "it
is the precise picture of the times." "What times?" exclaimed the scholar.
"These times, of course," was the reply. "Pardon me," said the scholar, "the
sentiment was delivered about four hundred years ago; examine for yourself the
date of the volume." The benefit of railing at the times it would be hard to
discover, for railing does not mend them. What have you to do with the times? Do
your own work. Charles the Twelfth of Sweden had his secretary sitting by his
side writing from dictation, when a bombshell fell through the roof into the
next room. The secretary, in alarm, dropped his pen, upon which the king
exclaimed, "What are you doing?" The poor man faltered, "Ah, sire, the bomb!"
The king's answer was, "What has the bomb to do with what I am telling you?" You
will say that the secretary's life was in danger. Yes, but you are safe in any
case, for you are side by side with Jesus in holy service, and no evil can
befall you. Watch on, and work on, even to the crack of doom. Leave the times
and the seasons with God, and go on with your work. Carlyle speaks somewhere of
the house-cricket chirping on while the trump of the archangel is sounding;—who
blames it for so doing? If God had made you a house-cricket, and bidden you
chirp, you could not do better than fulfil His will. As He has made you a
preacher, you must abide in your vocation. Even if the earth should be removed,
and the mountains should be cast into the midst of the sea, would that alter our
duty? I trow not. Christ has sent us to preach the gospel; and if our life-work
is not yet finished, (and it is not,) let us continue delivering our message
under all circumstances till death shall silence us. Keep your adaptation for
your work up to the highest pitch. Be not in so much hurry to do that you forget
to be,—so anxious to give out that you never take in. This is the haste which
makes no speed. Old Nat had a large wood pile before him, and he sawed very hard
to make that pile smaller. His saw wanted sharpening and re-setting, and it was
dreadful work to make it go at all. An honest neighbor stepped up to him, and
said, "Nat, why don't you get that saw sharpened? You want to get that put to
rights, and then you could do a deal more than you are now doing." "Now then,"
replied Nat, "don't you come bothering here. I have quite enough to do to saw
that pile of wood, without stopping to sharpen my saw." It is unnecessary to
point the moral of that anecdote; take note of it, and act accordingly in
future. It is a waste of time, not an economy of it, to dispense with study,
private prayer, and due preparation for your work. Once more, remember our
personal responsibility. I shall not trust myself to go very deeply into this
question, but every brother should remember that, however well or ill another
man may do his work, it can have no effect whatever upon our own personal
responsibility before God. Some blame others with a kind of silently-implied
belief that they are thereby praising themselves; for, if we censure the methods
adopted by other workers, we tacitly suggest that our own modes are—or, if we
had any, would be—superior to theirs. Well, brother, it may be so. It may be
that others are not wise, are scarcely sound, are fanatical, erratic, and the
like; but what hast thou to do with them? To their own Master they shall stand
or fall, and God's grace is able to make them stand; but your supposed wisdom,
which leads you to criticize them, may prove a snare to you, and make you fall.
You have yet to bring your work before God, to be tried by fire. Souls are
entrusted to you, and for these you must give account. God does not mean to
bless those souls by anybody else, they are to be converted through you; so, are
you acting, living, and preaching in such a way that God is likely to convert
them through you? That is the question for each one of us to answer. I feel that
this matter of personality may be pressed very earnestly upon you, my brethren,
in all five of its points; and in all it will be useful. If our individual
responsibility be rightly felt, we shall refrain from judging others. We are all
too ready to ascend the judgment-seat. One man judges his fellow, and condemns
him because he has had so few additions to his church. I should myself be sorry
if I saw few conversions, and I should severely censure myself; but I should be
very, very wrong if I were to utter an indiscriminate censure upon others. Our
brother's congregation may be smaller than ours; the people's hearts may have
been long steeled by a cold, dead, stereotyped ministry, and it may be that
there is a good deal of work to be done before they will become interested in
the gospel, much less affected by it. Possibly it may happen that the preacher,
who has one convert, might say as the lioness did about her one cub, when the
fox boasted that she had so many, "One, but that one is a lion!" The minister,
whose whole year's work ended with one convert, and that one was Robert Moffat,
did not reap a scanty harvest. Our individuality will preserve us, by God's
grace, from envying others. This vice is loathsome, and eats as doth a canker.
"Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?"
I have known persons utter sentiments which condemned themselves merely with the
view of injuring others. They cared not if they perished, like Samson, so long
as they pulled the house down upon others. An ancient story tells us that a king
invited to his palace two men, one of whom he knew to be the slave of envy.
"Now," said he, "I will give you whatever you please, upon the condition that
this man shall choose first, and his companion shall have twice as much as he."
The first man was envious: he desired great wealth, but he could not endure that
the other man should have double. He therefore thought that he would reduce what
he asked for, but this also left his companion his superior; and as the fable
goes,—for peradventure it was only a fable,—his envy so prevailed that he chose
to have one of his eyes torn out that the other man might be rendered totally
blind. Somewhat similar is the spirit of those who oppose others upon principles
fatal to their own work. Brother, do not so. If thy neighbor be honored of God,
thank God for it; if thou art not so honored, be humbled, and pray more
earnestly. If the blessing comes not to thee, still rejoice that it gladdens thy
comrade. In any case, do not envy others. Dear brethren, I have said enough upon
this first point, and I shall not be so long upon the other lest I should weary
you. I wish, however, that what I have said may abide in the hearts of us all.
Let us all feel, dear brethren, that, though we have each one a work to do, and
are personally fitted to do it, we are not the only workers in the world.
Brother, you are not the only lamp to enlighten earth's darkness, you are not
the only sower to sow the field of the world with the good seed, you are not the
only trumpet through which God proclaims His jubilee, yours is not the only hand
by which He feeds the multitudes. You are only one member of the mystic body,
one soldier of the grand army. This thought should encourage you, and relieve
the despondency engendered by loneliness. When God sent the flies, and locusts,
and caterpillars to conquer Egypt, Pharaoh might have ridiculed any one of those
insignificant warriors, and said, "What can this caterpillar do? I defy the Lord
and His caterpillars." But the caterpillar might have answered, "Beware, O king,
for there are ten thousand times ten thousand of us! We come in mighty armies,
and will cover all the land. Weak as we are one by one, the Lord will evidence
His omnipotence by the multiplication of our numbers." Thus was it in the early
days of Christianity. Christians came into Rome,—a few poor Jews they were, and
they dwelt in the Ghetto, in obscurity; by-and-by, there were more. Meanwhile, a
few had passed over into Spain; soon there were more. A few had reached Britain;
soon there were more. The nations, angry at this invasion, set to work to
destroy those pests of society, which turned the world upside down. They
tormented, burned, and destroyed them; but they continued to come in shoals and
swarms, and though they were slain without mercy, there were always more to
follow. The foes of God could not possibly stand against the vast host that
pressed forward. "The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that
published it." Even so it is at this day. You are not alone in sounding the
praises of Christ, your voice is but one, of a mighty orchestra. The whole world
is full of the praises of God: "their line is gone out through all the earth;
and their words to the end of the world." Brethren, we are not alone. Legions of
angels are all around us. Hosts of glorified spirits look down upon us. We are
surrounded with a mighty band of helpers. We are compassed about with a great
cloud of witnesses; wherefore, "let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus." It is very blessed to feel that God is behind
you, that God is in you, and that He is working with you. Mr. Oncken, in the
early days of his preaching at Hamburg, was brought up before the burgomaster
many times, and imprisoned. This magistrate one day said to him, in very bitter
terms, "Mr. Oncken, do you see that little finger?" "Yes, sir." "As long as that
little finger can be held up, sir, I will put you down." "Ah!" said Mr. Oncken,
"I do not suppose that you see what I see, for I discern not merely a little
finger, but a great arm, and that is the arm of God, and as long as that arm can
move, you will never put me down." The opposition which is waged against the
true minister of Christ does not, after all, amount to more than the
burgomaster's little finger, while the power which is with us is that eternal
and onmipotent arm whose forces sustain the heavens and the earth. We need not,
therefore, fear. God's presence makes us bold. Let the Uhlan in the late war be
our example. Picture him, a solitary man, brave and cool, riding upon a fleet
horse. He is going along one of those interminable French roads which have no
variety, except that now and then one poplar may be half an inch taller than
another; he rides hard and fearlessly, though there are foes on all sides. That
one man passes through a hamlet, and frightens everybody. He enters a town. Is
he not foolhardy? All alone he has ridden up to the Town Hall, and demanded beds
and stores. Why is he so bold? They are all afraid of him, evidently. Ask the
man why he is so daring, and he replies, "There is an army behind me, and
therefore I am not afraid." So must you, dear brother, be one of the Uhlans of
the Lord God Almighty, and never be afraid, for the eternal God will be your
rearward. "All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth," says our
Commander; "go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." I feel as if He were
here, this very morning, looking on you as His soldiers, and saying, "Conquer in
My Name." Go, then, my brethren, ride to those villages, and arouse them. Go to
those towns, and summon them to surrender. Go to the great cities, and say to
the people in them, "Christ demands that you yield your hearts to Him." Do this,
and He will make your word effectual. Where God chooses to dwell, there is a
palace; His presence glorifies the place of His abode. Is there anything very
wonderful in the architecture of Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon? Yet,
from the utmost ends of the earth, admirers of the world's great poet will come,
because Shakespeare once lived there. Suppose Shakespeare were there now! What
would his admirers do then? Now, this day, brethren, our poor humble
constitutions and frames and bodies,—be they what they may,—are the temples of
the Holy Ghost. It is not only that He was there;—that fact makes us respect the
very ashes of the saints, but He is there now. May we never have to lament His
absence! You may often see a fine house, of which the owner is dead, only the
picture of him hangs on the wall; but our delight is that the living Christ is
in us now by the power of His Spirit. I went to the monastery which adjoins the
church of St. Onofrio, in Rome, some years ago, and they showed me there the
rooms in which Tasso lived, and they had so skillfully drawn his likeness on the
wall, that it looked for all the world as if Tasso were there. There were also
his bed, and his pen, and his inkstand, and some of the paper on which he wrote;
but there were no fresh stanzas of "Jerusalem Delivered" to be heard. Even so,
we may have the likeness of Christ in our theological knowledge of Him, in our
power of speaking for Him, we may have the pen with which He used to write, and
we may have the paper on which He was accustomed to write in hearts that were
interested in the gospel; but no "Jerusalem Delivered" will be produced, unless
Jesus Himself is there. Brethren, we must have Christ in us, the hope of glory;
the Spirit dwelling in us, the pure, the ever-flowing life, or our lives will be
failures. O Lord, abide with us, and abide in us! FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT= "I
must conclude with the remark that it is a very delightful thing to feel that
all the work we are doing is Jesus Christ's work. All the sheep we have to
shepherd are His sheep; the souls we have to bring to Him were bought with His
blood; the spiritual house that is to be built is for His habitation. It is all
His. I delight in working for my Lord and Master, because I feel a blessed
community of interest with Him. That is not my Sunday-school, it is my Lord's;
and He says, "Feed My lambs." It is not my church, but His; and He cries, "Feed
My sheep." Mine are His, and His are mine; yea, all are His. In the days when
servants used to be servants, and were attached to their masters, one of our
nobility had with him an old butler who had lived with his father, and was
getting grey. The nobleman was often much amused with the way in which the good
old man considered everything that was his master's to be his own. I was not
only pleased with the story, but it touched my heart when I heard it. His
lordship once said to him, "John, whose waggon is that which has just come up
loaded with goods?" "Oh!" said he, "that is ours. Those are goods from our town
house." His lordship smiled, and as a carriage came up the drive, he said,
"John, whose coach is that coming into the park?" "Oh!" said he, "that is our
carriage." "But," said the master, "there are some children in it, John; are
they our children?" "Yes, my lord, they are our children, bless them, I will
run, and bring them in." My Lord Jesus, how dare I have the impertinence to
claim anything which is Thine? And yet, when I gaze upon Thy Church, I am so
completely Thy servant, and so wholly absorbed in Thee, that I look upon it as
mine as well as Thine, and I go to wait upon Thy beloved ones. Yea, Lord, and
all these my brethren are going, too. Come with us, Lord, for Thy love's sake!
Amen.


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  CHAPTER 5: HOW TO MEET THE EVILS OF THE AGE
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Chapter 4 How To Meet the Evils of the Age

BELOVED friends, allow me to welcome you all most heartily. I have already
received a blessing in the prayers which have been offered; and we have all, I
think, enjoyed the earnest of a Divine refreshing during the first hallowed hour
of our meeting. Let us continue in the believing confidence that He, who has
already deigned to visit us, will tarry with us until the time shall come for us
all to say," Let us go hence." Still, it is a wise thing to admit that these
days have their own peculiar perils and trials. The kaleidoscope shifts, the
scenes presented to our gaze are changed, whether for good or evil; good has
infinite varieties, and so has evil. We are not troubled, as our Puritan
forefathers were, by persecution and oppression such as would take from us our
civil rights and our liberty to worship God. Evil has assumed quite another form
with us, and we must meet it as we find it. The battle-front is altered, but do
not imagine that the conflict will be less severe. I look for a sterner struggle
than we have ever yet engaged in, and we must be prepared for it. During the
progress of a battle, the Duke of Wellington was observed riding along the lines
to a certain part of the field, and a soldier said to his fellow, "There goes
the Duke, and there's sure to be warm work." Brethren, we have evidence that the
Lord Jesus is with us, let us therefore set the battle in array. He is not a
general who rides about for mere parade, He means fighting wherever He comes,
and we may expect warm work. When He girds His sword upon His thigh, and rides
forth on His white horse, you may rest assured that His sword will smite
heavily, and His arrows will fly thick and fast, while on the other hand His
enemies will furiously rage. The worst of it is, that the growth of
sacramentalism in the Established Church is not like that of the mistletoe or a
fungus upon an oak, it is a real and legitimate branch of the parent stem. There
is no man living, and there never was a man, and never can be one, who believes
the whole of the Book of Common Prayer in its natural signification. The only
way in which it can be done is by some such device as that of the two nuns who
had borrowed a mule which would not go without being sworn at. As neither of
them could be so profane as to swear, one good sister pronounced the first
syllable of the French word sacre, and the other finished it, and thus between
the two the mule was made to go. So must it be with belief in the Prayer-book,
no one man can believe it all; possibly High Church, Low Church, and Broad
Church can manage it between them. But if I were driven, at the point of the
bayonet, to certify that one of the parties was a grain or two more consistent
with the Prayer-book than the others, I must declare in favor of the High Church
party. It is true that the Articles are against them, but what are the Articles?
They are only read over perhaps once in a lifetime. The. mischief is in the
Catechism and. the service book which are in constant use. We have not to deal
with a parasitical evil, but with a natural offshoot of the national vine, which
will remain as long as the Book of Common Prayer is unrevised; and when will it
be revised? This superstition, too, is in harmony with the innate idolatry of
the human heart; it offers gratification to the eye and to the taste, it sets up
a visible priest and outward symbols, and these man's fallen heart craves after.
It offers to save men the necessity of thought by offering an outward service,
and furnishing a priest to do their religion for them; but, alas! it takes man
off from the real and spiritual, it consoles him without true regeneration, and
buoys him up with hope though he has not submitted himself to the righteousness
of Christ. It is too often progress from the truth, which, being interpreted, is
progressing backwards. They talk of higher thought, but it is an ascending
downwards. I must use their terms, and talk of progress; but their progress is a
going from, and not a going to, the place of our desires. Evidently, it is
progress from usefulness. They invite us to follow them in their advance towards
a barren Socinianism, for thither the new theology tends, or to something worse.
Now, we know, at the present time, certain ancient chapels shut up, with grass
growing in the front of them, and over the door of them is the name Unitarian
Baptist Chapel. Although it has been said that he is a benefactor of his race
who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, we have no desire
to empty our pews in order to grow more grass. We have in our eye certain other
chapels, not yet arrived at that consummation, where the spiders are dwelling in
delightful quietude, in which the pews are more numerous than the people, and
although an endowment keeps the minister's mouth open, there are but few open
ears for him to address. Besides, we are invited to follow the guidance of men
who are not qualified to be leaders. I have waited, with a good deal of
interest, to see whether modern thought would be capable of producing a man, a
man of mark, of profound mind, and philosophic genius; but where is he? Where is
the man who will found a school, and sway his fellows; a man for the orthodox to
tremble at, a great Goliath, head and shoulders above his fellows? Truly, there
are some who think they have power, and so they have amongst those young
gentlemen whose moustachios are on the point of developing; but they have no
influence over those who read their Bibles, have had experience, and are
accustomed to "try the spirits." We are invited, brethren, most earnestly to go
away from the old-fashioned belief of our forefathers because of the supposed
discoveries of science. What is science? The method by which man tries to
conceal his ignorance. It should not be so, but so it is. You are not to be
dogmatical in theology, my brethren, it is wicked; but for scientific men, it is
the correct thing. You are never to assert anything very strongly; but
scientists may boldly assert what they cannot prove, and may demand a faith far
more credulous than any we possess. Forsooth, you and I are to take our Bibles,
and shape and mould our belief according to the ever-shifting teachings of
so-called scientific men. What folly is this! Why, the march of science, falsely
so-called, through the world, may be traced by exploded fallacies and abandoned
theories. Former explorers, once adored, are now ridiculed; the continual
exposure of false hypotheses is a matter of universal notoriety. You may tell
where the learned have encamped by the debris left behind of suppositions and
theories as plentiful as broken bottles. As the quacks, who ruled the world of
medicine in one age, are the scorn of the next, so has it been, and so will it
be, with your atheistical savants and pretenders to science. But they remind us
of facts. Are they not yet ashamed to use the word? Wonderful facts, made to
order, and twisted to their will to overthrow the actual facts which the pen of
God Himself has recorded! Let me quote from "Is the Book Wrong?" by Mr. Hely
Smith, a pamphlet worthy of an extensive reading:— So the bubbles go on
bursting, and meanwhile more are being blown, and we are expected to believe in
whatever comes, and wait with open mouth to see what comes next. But we shall
not just yet fall down and worship the image of human wisdom, notwithstanding
all the flutes, harps, sackbuts, psalteries, dulcimers, weekly papers, quarterly
reviews, and boastful professors. Show us a man of science worthy of the name,
and then we will not follow him if he dares to oppose revealed truth; but show
us one in whom the next generation will believe; at present, there is not one
alive worthy to be compared with Newton and other master-minds reverent to the
Scriptures, compared with whom these men are mere pretenders. See, my brethren,
we have unbelief, scientific and otherwise, to contend with, and we must meet it
in the Name of the Lord. The fourth evil is one to which I call your very
earnest attention, the growth of wickedness in the land, especially in two
forms, which we ought not to overlook. One is, the growing worldliness among
professing Christians. They are indulging in extravagance in many ways; in
luxurious habits, dress, equipages, feastings, and so on, and wasting the
substance of which they are stewards. When a man is giving liberally to the
cause of God, I count it very foolish to forbid his spending liberally in other
ways, for men usually spend by scale. It would be absurd to hold up a wretched
miser, who gives nothing either to God or man, as an example to a liberal
spender; but there is too much of ostentatious extravagance abroad, which wastes
the Master's money in worldly pleasures and doubtful amusements, yea, and
amusements worse than doubtful. Some, who are called ministers of Christ, have
in these days even defended amusements which.moralists have felt bound to
abandon, but let us hope that such ministers will not repeat the mistake. We
must be careful, wise, and yet decided in our dealings with this growing evil,
or we shall lose all spirituality from the churches. I was in France, at the
Carnival at Mentone, and I remarked again and again that I saw no sign of
intoxication. All day long, the peasants and townspeople amused themselves with
masks, and music, and confetti,—amusements fit for little children; but I saw no
drunkenness, and do not think there was any. Yet France is a Popish country: do
we not blush to think that it should excel us in so ordinary a virtue as
sobriety? One of my friends said to me, "If this Carnival had been held in
England, these people would all have been drunk before they started the
procession." Several years ago, when staying on the island of Heligoland, I
noticed with regret a regulation that no more than four English sailors should
come ashore at one time, and then each one must be attended by a soldier till he
returned to the boat. I saw hale and hearty sailors come to the little town, and
walk up the street; but how differently they reeled back, and how difficult it
seemed to get them safely away! Are our fellow-countrymen to become the scorn of
mankind for their drunkenness? The world will begin to cry shame upon the
Christian Church unless something is done in this matter. Consider the suffering
and poverty which arise out of the waste of money involved in this vice, and the
crime which is its inevitable result. The whole land reeks before the Lord, and
is corrupt with this sin. If Christians do not labour to stay this evil, who
will do it? If ministers do not seek to the utmost of their ability to apply a
remedy, the world will think that their outcry against unbelief and other evils
is not very sincere. He who does not cry out against the wolf cannot surely be
at enmity with the lion. It is evident enough that the gospel meets
superstition. In the Revelation we read, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," and we
see her cast like a millstone in the flood. But was it not because, as we read a
little before, "I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth"? Between the
flight of the angel and the fall of Babylon there was an intimate connection. If
you were to enter a ruin, and could not bear the hooting of the owls and the
presence of the bats, and wanted to disperse them, if you could let the blessed
light shine into the deserted halls, the bats and owls would soon find their
wings. Let the flambeaux blaze in every corner, and the creatures of darkness
will quit the scene. Do you wish to put an end to baptismal regeneration, the
lie of lies? Proclaim spiritual regeneration by the Holy Ghost, and exalt the
work of the Spirit of the Lord. Would you make men see through the sham of
Romish and Anglican priesthood? Proclaim the everlasting priesthood of our great
Melchisedec. If you would end belief in sacraments, proclaim the substance, of
which ordinances can never be more than the shadow. You will find men turn away
from the husks when you set before them solid food, God by His Spirit being with
you to give them the wisdom to discern between things that differ. I give the
progressive gentlemen at motto to be engraved on their escutcheon, for which I
hope they will be very grateful; it is this,—"Ever learning." It is their boast
that they are ever learning. Accept it, gentlemen, but take the whole of it:
"ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2
Timothy 3:7.) They themselves confess that they do not come to definite
knowledge, for they are always telling us that what they teach to-day they may
repudiate to-morrow, for a process of development is going on, so that, having
commenced with the oyster of Calvinism, they may yet reach the superlative
manhood of atheism, for where else will it stop? Preach the truth with all your
hearts as God teaches it to you, and this plague will be stayed. As to that
terrible matter of drunkenness, I believe there are many palliations for the
disease, but I am equally certain that there is no complete and universally
applicable cure for it except the gospel. The best way to make a man sober is to
bring him to the foot of the cross. It is a practical question, well worth your
pondering, whether, in order to bring him there, it may not be necessary to get
him sober first, for we cannot hope to see men converted when they are drunk.
You may find it wise to use with vigor all the appliances which the temperance
movement has so amply provided; but whether you personally agree to do so or
not, if you see others earnestly warring with the demon of drink, even though
they use weapons which you do not admire, do not despise them, nor treat them
otherwise than as allies. Let your own personal habits be such as shall tend to
overthrow the evil, and to encourage those who are laboring to that end. Let the
current and tone of your conversation be always friendly to the man who fights
this foe, even if he does not come upon your platform, for the enemy is so
strong and so all-devouring that no honest helper may be scorned. But, after
all, the gospel is the needle-gun of the conflict. If you could make every man
in England sign the pledge of total abstinence, you could not secure sobriety
for any length of time, since pledges are too often broken; but if men's hearts
are changed, and they become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, then the
stamina of principle will, by Divine grace, be given to the mental constitution,
promises will be kept, and vices will be forsaken. To begin with, we must have
more knowledge of the gospel. It is not every minister who understands the
gospel; many ministers, who understand its elements, have never attempted to
grasp and to preach the whole of it, and even he who knows most of it needs to
understand it better. You must preach the whole of the gospel. The omission of a
doctrine, or an ordinance, or a precept, may prove highly injurious. Even points
which others think trivial must not be trivial to the man who would make full
proof of his ministry. To accomplish this, we are bound to search and study in
order to know more and more of the inspired Word. Have you not found that the
precious gospel is like a cavern into which you must enter bearing the torch of
the Holy Spirit, who alone can show you all things? Were you not astonished as
you stood in the first chamber, and saw its clear soft silver light? What
treasures were all around you, for all its walls were slabs of silver, and the
roof was hung with filagree of the precious metal! "I have found it! I have
found it!" you cried, for very joy. But, just then, one of the shining ones
touched you on the shoulder, and said, "Come hither, and I will show thee
greater things than these." You passed through a portal hitherto unobserved,
and, lo! there opened up another chamber, more lofty and more spacious than the
last. The floor, the roof, and the pendant stalactites were all of gold,—pure
gold, like unto transparent glass; and then you said, "Now have I entered the
innermost shrine of truth." Yet was there more to be seen, for again the shining
one touched you, another secret door flew open, and you were in a vast hall,
where every form of precious stone flashed forth upon you; rubies, and jaspers,
and emeralds, and amethysts emulated each other's beauties, while all in a blaze
of light the terrible crystal and all manner of choice gems made the cavern to
shine like a thousand firmaments crowded with stars. Then you marvelled indeed.
And now, perhaps, having seen such treasures, you are of opinion that nothing
more remains; but no mortal hath fully seen God's glory as yet, and the Divine
Spirit waits to lead you by study and prayer to a yet clearer vision of the deep
things of God. Secondly, we must seek after a deeper and more experimental
acquaintance with the gospel. The word "experimental" is one which theology has
manufactured; but it is not correct, for true religion is no expemnent. Surely
it is a well-ascertained fact, a force the result of which may safely be
predicted, for no cause more certainly ensures its effect. But we mean
"experiential"—that which groweth out of experience,—pardon the uncomely
coinage. Does a man know any gospel truth aright till he knows it by experience?
Is not this the reason why God's servants are made to pass through so many
trials, that they may really learn many truths not otherwise to be apprehended?
Do we learn much in sunny weather? Do we not profit most in stormy times? Have
you not found it so—that your sick-bed—your bereavement—your depression of
spirit, has instructed you in many matters which tranquillity and delight have
never whispered to you? I suppose we ought: to learn as much by joy as by
sorrow, and I hope that many of my Lord's better servants do so; but, alas!
others of us do not; affliction has to be called in to whip the lesson into us.
Such a criticism would justly apply to many preachers. They do not treat the
gospel as a practical thing, or as a matter of fact which immediately concerns
the people before them. If the gospel referred only to certain unclothed
humanities in the bush of Australia, they could not themselves appear to be less
interested in it. A pleading experimental sermon from them we could not expect,
nor even the simple gospel, except so far as they may occasionally condescend to
men of low estate by abasing themselves from the serenities in which their
highnesses exist in order to consider a few of the depravities of the lower
classes! This will never do. No; we must have personal experience of the things
of God. As to our own depravity, we must feel it, and mourn it; and as to the
glorious power of the grace of God, and the wondrous riches of Christ, we must
go on to realize these in our own souls more and more, if we are to preach with
power, and meet the evils of the times. A woman was once very busy in fetching
out of her burning house her pictures and her choicest pieces of furniture. She
had worked a long while, toiling hard to save her little treasures; when, on a
sudden, it came to her mind that one of her children was missing. The child had
been left in the burning house; and when the mother rushed back again, that
chamber had long ago been consumed, and the child had, doubtless, perished. Then
did she wring her hands, and bitterly bewail her folly. She seemed to curse
every bit of furniture that she had saved, and wished that she had not saved it,
because, by looking after such poor stuff, she had lost her child. Even so,
every little piece of curious learning, and quaint proverb, and deep doctrine,
that you manage to save from the fire, will only accuse your conscience if you
let men's souls perish. We must have them saved; and it is infinitely better
that fifty of those admirable discourses upon a difficult point should lie by
till we are dead than that we should bring them out, and waste fifty Sundays
when precious souls are waiting for the good news of mercy. Keep to the gospel,
then, more and more and more. Give the people Christ, and nothing but Christ.
Satiate them, even though some of them should say that you also nauseate them
with the gospel. At every meal, set out the salt without prescribing how much.
If they do not like it (and there are creatures that cannot endure salt), give
them all the more of it, for this is according to your Lord's mind. Some
preachers remind me of the famous Chinese jugglers, who not long ago were
everywhere advertised. One of these stood against a wall. and the other threw
knives at him. One knife would be driven into the board just above his head, and
another close by his ear, while under his armpit and between his fingers quite a
number of deadly weapons were bristling. Wonderful art to be able to throw to a
hair's breadth and never strike! How many among us have a marvellous skill in
missing! "Be not afraid," says the preacher, "I am never personal. I never give
home-thrusts." Stand quite still, my friend! Open your arms! Spread out your
fingers! Your minister has practised a very long while, and he knows how to
avoid troubling you in the least with truth too severely personal. Brethren,
cultivate that art if you desire to be damned, and wish your hearers also to be
lost; but if you want to be the means of saving both yourselves and them that
hear you, cry to your Lord for faithfulness, practicalness, real heart-moving
power. Never play at preaching nor beat about the bush; get at it, and always
mean business. Plutarch tells us of two men at Athens who were nominated for a
public office. One of them was famous for his oratory; and to gain the election,
he gave a description of what he could and would do if the citizens would choose
him. He would have charmed them with his fine promises, but they knew him too
well. His rival was a man of few words, and simply said, "All that this
gentleman has said, I mean to do." Now, be ye of that kind, not speakers of the
Word only, but doers also. I need scarcely add to you, brethren, that we must be
more and more simple and clear in the preaching of the gospel. I think we are
pretty clear and plain already; but, sometimes, young men are fascinated by some
famous preacher whose style is grandiose, sublime, or involved. They see the
thing done very splendidly, and as they look on, they marvel, and by degrees
they think they will try that style, too; and so they put on the seven-league
boots, large enough for them to live in, and the result is ridiculous, nay,
worse than that, it is spiritually useless. When a man tries to do the
magnificent, with elaborate sentences, and pompous diction, and grandeur of
manner, it must and will come to nought. There is also a tendency, among some
young gentlemen, to go off into excessive quotation of poetry. There are
superfine young men who probably were born with a rose between their lips, and
with a nightingale singing above their bed when first their infant cries were
heard, and they seem to be consecrated to the sublime and beautiful. Every
breeze wafts to them from the mountains of Araby the sweet odors of poetic
thought. It was concerning a man of this school that Samuel Butler wrote,— "For
rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope." That style of
speaking is very fine, brethren; but do not you be beguiled by it. As much as
ever you can, avoid all artificial oratory, or what simpletons nowadays mistake
for eloquence. The word is shamefully misused; but, in the common acceptation of
the term, the most detestable thing is eloquence. Speak from your heart, and
never mind about eloquence. Do not speak after the manner of the orator; speak
as a lover of souls, and then you will have real eloquence. The oratory which
allies itself with the dancing-master, and practises before a looking-glass, and
is fond of classical quotations, and obscure verses from unknown poets, is for
ever to be abhorred by you. Perishing sinners do not want your poetry, they want
Christ. If you are poetical, ride on the back of your poetry, but do not let it
ride you. What you have to do is to be the means of saving souls, and look you
well to that. If soldiers can win a battle and sing sweetly at the same time, by
all means let them sing; but if it so happens that, while regarding the
harmonies, they miss a cut at their enemies, let the singing come to an end at
once. There, young warrior, give over your crochets and quavers, and vault into
your saddle! Regard your pulpit as your steed, and dash into the battle like
Khaled of old, smiting right and left with dauntless valour; and when you come
back, you will have more honour from your Master than he will who stayed at home
to arrange the plumes of his helmet, and then at length rode out bedizened to
admiration, only to come home like that inglorious hero of whom the poet sings,—
"The King of France with forty thousand men. Went up a hill, and so came down
agen."

I am afraid that there are some ministers who get into a pulpit, intending to
stick there. There is no moving them, and they never move the people. It is
sometimes remarked to me, "Some of your men move about a good deal." "Yes," I
reply, "many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." I like the
self-sacrifice of a man who feels that he can move, and will move when he can do
more good elsewhere. Never move or stay for selfish reasons, but hold yourself
at your great Captain's beck and call. An old Scotch minister, as he was riding
along, saw, according to his own description, something coming which greatly
alarmed him. It was a gipsy riding aloft upon an ass which he had loaded high
with faggots. The beast, which the minister was riding, was alarmed as well as
its rider, set its feet down very firmly, and put its ears back, after the
manner of amiable horses! "And," said the minister in describing it, "I prepared
myself for a fall, so that I fell somewhat more easily." "But," said a friend,
"I should have got off." That idea had never crossed the worthy man's mind. So
it is with some ministers, they prepare themselves to be dismissed by their
people, but never propose to remove of their own will. It is within my knowledge
that a brother, not of our Conference, said to his people, when they were in a
most earnest manner endeavoring to get rid of him, "It was the Spirit of God
that brought me here, and I shall never go till the Spirit of God leads me to go
away, and that will be a very long while." The last sentence cast suspicion on
all that preceded it, for, surely, he could not foretell what the mind of the
Spirit might be. Stay or move, brethren; go to Africa, or America, or Australia,
or flit from. John O' Groat's house to the Land's End, only do accomplish your
mission, and glorify God. Be holy, be gracious, be prayerful, be disinterested,
be like the Lord Jesus; thus only will your lives be consistent with the gospel
you are called to preach. Brothers, I beseech you keep to the old gospel, and
let your souls be filled with it, and then may you be set on fire with it! When
the wick is saturated, let the flame be applied. Fire from Heaven is still the
necessity of the age. They call it "go", and there is nothing which goes like
it; for when fire once starts upon a vast prairie or forest, all that is dry and
withered must disappear before its terrible advance. May God Himself, who is a
consuming fire, ever burn in you as in the bush at Horeb! All other things being
equal, that man will do most who has most of the Divine fire. That subtle,
mysterious element called fire,—who knoweth what it is? It is a force
inconceivably mighty. Perhaps it is the motive force of all the forces, for
light and heat from the sun are the soul of power. Certainly fire, as it is in
God, and comes upon His servants, is power omnipotent. The consecrated flame
will, perhaps, consume you, burning up the bodily health with too great ardour
of soul, even as a sharp sword wears away the. scabbard; but what of that? The
zeal of God's house ate up our Master, and it is but a small matter that it
should also consume His servants. If, by excessive labour, we die before
reaching the average age of man, worn out in the Master's service, then, glory
be to God, we shall have so much less of earth and so much more of Heaven! And
suppose we should be abused, misrepresented, and slandered for Christ's sake,
then glory be to God that we had a reputation to lose for His sake, and blessed
be our Lord who counted us worthy to lose it! Be on fire within yourselves with
perfect consecration to God, and then you will blaze in the pulpit. "There are
the evils, brethren. I have tried to set them forth; you will not forget them.
But we have, only one remedy for them; preach Jesus Christ, and let us do it
more and more. By the roadside, in the little room, in the theatre, anywhere,
everywhere, let us preach Christ. Write books if you like, and do anything else
within your power; but whatever else you cannot do, preach Christ. If you do not
always visit your people (though I pray God you may not be blameworthy there),
yet be sure to preach the gospel. The devil cannot endure gospel preaching;
nothing worries him so much as preaching. The Pope cannot bear it; nothing makes
him so ill as preaching. Preaching is our great weapon, so use it perpetually.
Preaching is the Lord's battering-ram, wherewith the walls of old Babylon are
being shaken to their foundations. Work on with it, brothers, work on. Preach,
preach, preach, preach, preach, preach, till you can preach no more, and then go
above to sing the praises of God in Heaven, and to make known to the angels the
wonders of redeeming love.


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  CHAPTER 6: "A NEW DEPARTURE"
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Chapter 5 "A New Departure" BELOVED fellow-servants of Christ, our work requires
us to be in the best possible condition of heart. When we are at our best, we
are feeble enough; we would not, therefore, fall below our highest point. As
instruments, we owe all our power for usefulness to the Divine hand; but, since
tools should always be kept in order, we would have our spirit free from rust,
and our mind sharp of point and keen of edge to answer at once to the Master's
will. It is because I fear we do not always keep up to the mark that the subject
for this morning's address shall be "A New Departure," or, in other words, a
renewal, a revival, a starting afresh, a return to our first love, even the love
of our espousals, when first our soul was wedded to our Redeemer's work. I do
not know, my brethren, that we can expect to see energy continuous at its full
in any one of us. I suspect that he who burns like a seraph knows moments in
which the flame somewhat abates. As the sun itself is not at all times alike
powerful, so the man who, like the shining light, shineth more and more unto the
perfect day, is not uniformly bright, nor always at his noon. Nature does not
hold the sea for ever at flood; ebbs intervene, and the ocean pauses a while ere
it returns again to the fulness of its strength. The vegetable world has its
winter, and enjoys a long sleep beneath its bed of snow. It is not wasted time,
that ebb or that winter; flood and summer owe much to ebb and frost. I suspect
that, because we are in affinity with nature, we, too, shall have our changes,
and shall not abide at one elevation. No man's life is all climax. Let us not
despond if, just now, our spirit is at a low ebb; the tide of life will roll up
as before, and even reach a higher point. When we stand leafless and apparently
lifeless, our soul having become like a tree in winter, let us not dream that
the axe will cut us down, for our substance is in us though we have lost our
leaves, and before long the time of the singing of birds will come, we shall
feel the genial warmth of returning spring, and our lives shall again be covered
with blossoms, and laden with fruit. In religious affairs, history shows us that
churches have their palmy days, and then again their times of drought. The
Universal Church has been thus circumstanced; it has had its Pentecosts, its
Reformations, its revivals; and between these there have been sorrowful pauses,
in which there was much more cause for lamentation than for rejoicing, and the
Miserere was more suitable than the Hallelujah. I should not, therefore, wish
any brother to condemn himself if he is not conscious just now of possessing all
the vivacity of his youth.—he may find it return before our meetings close. I
would have the husbandman long for spring, and yet not despair because of the
present cold; so would I have a man lament every degree of decline, and yet not
despond. If any man walk in darkness, and see no light, let him trust in God,
and look to Him for brighter days. For my own part, I would have remained a
young man if I could, for I fear I am by no means improved by keeping. Oh, that
I could again possess the elasticity of spirit, the dash, the courage, the
hopefulness of days gone by! My days of flying are changed to those of running,
and my running is toning down to a yet steadier pace. It is somewhat cheering
that the Scriptures seem to indicate that this is progress, for such is the
order which it prescribes for saints: "They shall mount up with wings as
eagles;" away they go, out of sight. In your first sermons,—how you mounted up!
Your first evangelistic efforts,—what flights they were! After that, you
slackened and yet improved your pace; but it grew more steady, and perhaps more
slow, as it is written: "They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint." God grant that we may not faint; and if our running days are
over, may we walk with God as Enoch did, till the Lord shall take us home! The
natural wear and tear of an active life also tend to our running down. Some of
our people think that we have little or nothing to do but to stand in the
pulpit, and pour out a flood of words two or three times a week; but they ought
to know that, if we did not spend much time in diligent study, they would get
poverty-stricken sermons. I have heard of a brother who trusts in the Lord, and
does not study; but I have also heard that his people do not trust in him; in
fact, I am informed that they wish him to go elsewhere with his inspired
discourses, for they say that, when he did study, his talk was poor enough, but
now that he gives them that which comes first to his lips, it is altogether
unbearable. If any man will preach as he should preach, his work will take more
out of him than any other labour under heaven. If you and I attend to our work
and calling, even among a few people, it will certainly produce a friction of
soul and a wear of heart which will tell upon the strongest. I speak as one who
knows by experience what it is to be utterly exhausted in the Master's service.
No matter how willing we may be in spirit, the flesh is weak; and He who made a
tender apology for His sleeping servants in the garden knows our frame, and
remembers that we are dust. We need that the Master should say to us, every now
and then, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while;" and
He does say so, for He is not a hard taskmaster, and whoever may use the lash,
and cause the weary steed to die in harness, our gentle Lord doth not so. I do
not wonder that some brethren run down through want of association with others
of warm heart and of kindred spirit. I will give you another lighthouse
illustration; a gentleman, who called to see the keepers of a lone light, said
to one of them, "I suppose, after all, you fellows are quite happy in this
tower?" "We might: be happy," replied the man, "if we had a chat with one
another; but my mate and I have not exchanged a word with each other for a
month." If you are banished to a country place, where you have no superior or
even equal mind to converse with, no intellectual or spiritual friend near at
hand, I can feel for you. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the
countenance of his friend," and when that sharpening is missed, it is no marvel
that the mind grows dull. We cannot live alone, brethren, and yet a dreadful
solitude as to our higher cares is one of our sorest trials. Oh, for a twin
spirit to converse with! The worst of it is that, if we have few to refresh us
with their conversation, we have many to vex us with their chatter; and when we
would fain be uplifted to noble themes, we find ourselves dragged down by the
dreary gossip of a hamlet. What wonder if, with such surroundings, we lose
force, and run down! May not self-indulgence have mixed with unbelief? Have we
made provision for the flesh? Have we lost the intimacy with Jesus which we once
enjoyed? Have we violated the consecration with which we started? If so, the
blue mould will settle on the unsound place. Selfishness will mar our strength,
and destroy our usefulness. I will not suppose that this is the case with any of
you; or, at least, I will only suppose it, and let it remain a supposition.
There is an evil under the sun which is as terrible as an open
catastrophe,—indeed, it works greater ill to the church in the long run,—and
that is, when a man's ministry is eaten through and through with spiritual dry
rot. When men drift into this condition, they generally adopt some expedient to
hide it. Conscience suggests that there is something or other wrong, and the
deceitful heart labours to conceal or palliate this fact. Some do this by
amusing themselves with hobbies instead of preaching the gospel. They cannot do
the Lord's work, so they try to do their own. They have not honesty enough to
confess that they have lost gospel power, so they ride a hobby; and it is a very
mild form of evil when they raise some side issue, which has no other fault
about it than that it diverts them from the main point. Many are these
playthings; I have no time to mention more than one. I have been amused by
observing the manner in which speculators have been taken in when they have left
the old ship of the gospel to become prophets. The beast of the Revelation was
reported to be Napoleon I., and then the creature suddenly reappeared in his
nephew, Napoleon III. By-and-by, the deadly wound was healed, and the Prince
Imperial wore the dreadful honours of the prophetic book; but the prince is now
dead, and it will be needful for the seers to invent a new theory. There is no
fear but what they will do it before long; and, meanwhile, "our Israelitish
origin" will do to fill up the time. In the story of Sindbad the Sailor, it is
said that, as they sailed along, they saw an island, and at the sight thereof
they greatly rejoiced. The crew left the ship, and feasted on the island, and
were going to take possession of it in the name of the king, when suddenly it
began to quiver and to plunge, and finally it went down altogether, for it was a
whale's back, and not an island at all! I have known brethren disport themselves
upon the back of some novel speculation, when suddenly the facts of history have
gone against them, and the whole thing has gone down very like a whale. I have
mentioned one of the more harmless hobbies, but some have taken to fancies which
have bred greater mischief. Speculation is an index of the spiritual poverty of
the man who surrenders himself to it. His flour has all been used, so he tries
plaster of Paris; he has no more gold or silver, so he coins the baser metals.
He cannot prophesy after the measure of faith, so he exercises his immeasurable
imagination. His own experience does not serve him with topics for his ministry,
and therefore he takes airy flights into regions of which he knows nothing. When
the heart has got out of order, and the spiritual life has run down, men soon
fall into actual doctrinal error, not so much because their head is wrong, for
many of them have not erred very much there, but because their heart is in an
ill condition. We should never have known that some men had brains at all if
they had not addled them. Such departers from the faith usually fall by little
and little. They begin by saying very little concerning grace. They serve out
homoeopathic doses of gospel: it is marvellous what a very small globule of the
gospel will save a soul, and it is a great mercy that it is so, or few would be
saved. These snatches of gospel, and the preacher who gives them, remind us of
the famous dog of the Nile, of whom the ancients said that he was so afraid of
the crocodiles that he drank of the river in a great hurry, and was away from it
directly. These intellectual gentry are so afraid of the critical crocodiles
that the moment they touch the living water of the gospel they are away again.
Their doubts are stronger than their beliefs. The worst of it is that they not
only give us very little gospel, but they give us much that is not the gospel.
In this they are like mosquitoes, of whom I have often said that I do not mind
their taking a little of my blood, but it is the poison which they put into me
which is my great cause of quarrel with them. That a man should rob me of the
gospel, is bad enough; but that he should impregnate me with his poisonous
doctrine, is intolerable. God forbid that we should ever try to cover our
decline of heart by the invention of our self-conceit! I hope that, when our
ministry begins to lose power, we shall be driven to our knees, and to our God,
that He may quicken us again by His good Spirit. This is necessary on account of
our own happiness; for I appeal to any brother who declines in heart, and grows
weak in faith, and doubtful in spirit, whether he is not unhappy. Do you not
derive the purest joy and the most solid satisfaction from walking with God?
Indeed, those who are "called to be saints" are doomed to be unhappy apart from
Christ. It is a doom which destiny has fixed upon you that, if you depart from
Christ, you must depart into hell; for it is hell for you to depart from Christ.
If, therefore, in any measure, you have roamed away from Christ, mind that you
fly home again to Him at once. Last year, when sojourning in the South of
France, I went for a mountain ride to the foot of Castiglione, an old,
half-deserted town. It was clear and bright at the time, and while the friends
who were with me went up the hill to survey the place, I remained a little lower
down. I soon observed that the clouds were coming from the other side of the
mountains, and in a few minutes I was in a fog, chilled to the bone. I could
just see Mentone under the bottom of the clouds, and I said to my man-servant,
"Get the horses in, for I must get down again into the sun at once." Soon, the
fog was all round me, and I hastened to descend until I reached the sunlight
again. You must feel like that, my brethren; if you are caught in a mist, and a
chill is upon you, you must hurry back to Christ. You may joyfully repose in
Him, and find every blessing and comfort surrounding you; but if you have
climbed into high notions, and entered upon the cold regions of speculation, you
must hasten down again. You must say of the old gospel," I can see the blessed
spot of my repose, and I will get back to it at once." This is wise advice for
those who are conscious of lost comfort through leaving the good old way. Dear
brethren, have we ever reached our right condition as compared with our early
ideal of what we hoped to be? Do you recollect when you first entered the
College or the ministry? Do you remember what a high standard you set up for
yourself? You did well to fix the mark high; for, if you aim at the moon, you
will shoot higher than if you fired at a bush. You did well to have a high
standard, but you do not well to fall short of it; and, yet, who does not fall
short even of his own ideal? Do you not wish to hide your head when you contrast
yourself with your Lord? He saved others, and therefore could not save Himself;
but we are keen to guard ourselves and our reputations, and often act as if we
thought self-preservation the highest law of nature. Our Lord endured great
contradiction of sinners against Himself, while we are provoked if we are
thwarted in any degree. He loved His sheep, and followed them when they went
astray; but we have far too little pity even upon those who gather at our call.
We are far, far, far below the true glory of the Well-beloved, and even fall
short of our poor ideal of Him. Neither in private in His prayers, nor in public
in His life, or His ministry, or His teaching, do we approximate to Him so
nearly as we should; and yet, to fall short of likeness to Him, ought to make us
blush and weep. We cannot afford, therefore, to run down. Beloved brethren, we
cannot afford to remain in any state lower than the very best; for, if so, our
work will not be well done. Time was when we preached with all our might. When
we began to preach, what preaching it was for zeal and life! In looking back, it
must increase our self.-humiliation if we perceive that, in our younger days, we
were more real and intense than we are now. We preach much better, so the
critics say; and we know that there is more thought and more accuracy in our
sermons, and that we use better elocution than we did in our young days; but
where are the tears of our early ministry? Where is the heart-break of those
first sermons in our first sphere? Where is the passion, where is the
self-annihilation that we often felt when we poured out our very life with every
syllable we spoke? Now, sometimes, we go into the pulpit resolved that we will
do as we did then, just as Samson went out to shake himself as he had done
aforetime. He had snapped the cords and bands before, and he was going to do the
same again; but the Lord had departed from him, and he was weak as another man.
Brethren, what if the Lord should depart from us? Alas for us, and for our work!
A man ought to take care of himself, merely as a man, for the sake of himself
and his household; but much more should a man, who is a minister, take care of
himself for the sake of those who are committed to his charge. A captain, in the
South Seas, was observed to go beyond the usual point for turning into the
harbour, taking a longer but a safer course. On someone remarking to him that he
was too careful, he replied, "I have so many souls on board, I cannot afford to
run any risk." How many souls there are on board of some of our vessels! How
many souls—ay, notwithstanding that the doctrine is unfashionable, I repeat
it,—how many souls, not of creatures which will die out like cats and dogs, but
of priceless, immortal beings, are committed to our charge! Since, upon our
ministry, under God, hang everlasting things,—life and death, Heaven and
hell,—what manner of persons ought we to be? How careful we ought to be as to
our inner health! How anxious to be always at our very best! If I were a
surgeon, and I had to operate upon a patient, I should not like to touch either
the knife or his flesh if I felt bilious, or if my hand was quivering; I would
not like to be in any but the calmest, coolest, most forceful condition, at the
moment in which the difference of a hair's breadth might touch a vital chord,
and end a precious life! God help all soul-physicians to be always at their
best! When a Spartan was asked what were the boundaries of his country, he
replied, "The limits of Sparta are marked by the points of our spears." The
limit of our church is also determined by the points of our spears; but our
weapons are not carnal. Wherever we go, we preach Christ crucified, and His word
of solemn proclamation, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The
enquirer turned, and said to the Spartan, "You have no walls to Sparta." "No,"
he replied, "the walls of Sparta are the breasts of her sons." We have no
defences for our churches, either in Acts of Parliament or enforced creeds; but
the regenerated hearts and consecrated spirits of men, who resolve to live and
die in the service of King Jesus, have hitherto sufficed, in the hands of the
Spirit, to preserve us from grievous heresy. I see no beginning to this
business, this battle of truth commenced so long ago; and I see no end to it,
except the coming of the Master and the eternal victory. Yet some trembling
persons say we ought to stop, and let the young men already in College learn a
trade, and forego the ministry, lest England should become over-ministered; and
they add that there is no use in preparing men for the foreign fields, for the
Missionary Society is in debt, and its expenses must be curtailed. God bless the
Missionary Society! But the condition of a Society is not the limit of our
personal endeavour; besides, the Society will soon throw off its burden. If you,
my brethren, are worthy of your calling, you will be bravely independent, and
not hang too much upon the help of others. Sparta could not have been defended
by a race of timid creatures armed with pointless spears, neither can young men
of timorous spirit do great things for God. You must be braced to heroism,
brethren, if you are to meet the demands of the hour. May God make the feeblest
among you as David, and the house of David as God! (Zechariah 12:8.) We shall
see that it is a fit time if we take an outlook upon our own nation.
Politically, we have come back to a condition in which there will be a respect
for righteousness, justice, and truth, rather than for self-assertion, and
national gain, and conquest. We shall, I trust, no longer be steered by a false
idea of British interests, and the policy which comes of it; but by the great
principles of right, justice, and humanity. This is all I want to see: parties,
as such, are nothing to us; nor individual statesmen, except so far as they
represent right principles. We are for those who are on the side of justice,
peace, and love. And now, instead of lying still year after year, and making no
progress,—no laws amended, no home legislation attended to, but time wasted upon
glittering foreign adventures,—something will be done that is worth doing.
Whatsoever things are honest, true, kind, humane, and moral, may reckon on our
aid. We are on the side of temperance, and therefore on the side of the
limitation of the abominable traffic which is ruining our country; and we are
opposed to all that licenses vice among men, or allows cruelty to animals. We
are up to the hilt advocates of peace, and we earnestly war against war. I wish
that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war,
believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed, and that,
if a nation is driven to fight in its own defence, Christianity stands by to
weep and to intervene as soon as possible, and not to join in the cruel shouts
which celebrate an enemy's slaughter. Let us always be on the side of right.
To-day, then, my brethren, I beg you to join with me in seeking renewal. Now is
the time for a man to buckle on his harness, and bestir himself. Let us begin it
with repentance for all our mistakes and shortcomings. Let each one do this for
himself. You remember how the ancient giant fought with Hercules, and the hero
could not overcome him, because every time he fell he touched his mother earth,
and received new strength. Let us, too, fall upon our faces, that we may rise
invigorated; let us go back to our first simple faith, and recover our lost
strength. Men who have been sore sick have cried, "Take me back to my native
air, and I shall soon be well. Among the buttercups and daisies of the meadows,
in which I used to play when I was a child, and near the brook where I caught
the minnows, I shall soon revive." Ah! it does our soul good to get back to our
days of child-like faith, when we sang,— "Just as I am,—without one plea But
that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of
God, I come." This will help you to renew your youth: it seems an easy way, but
it is the only way. Return, my brethren, to your earliest Bible-readings, when
you were wont to let the promise lie under your tongue as a dainty morsel. Ah!
this Book, as I turn it over, wakes up many a memory; its pages glow with a
light which I cannot describe, for they are set with stars which in my many
hours of gloom have been the light of my soul. I did not then read this divine
volume to find a text, but to hear my Lord speak to my own heart; I was not then
as Martha, cumbered with much serving, but as Lazarus, who sat at the table with
Jesus. It would be well for many to get back to their first prayers and
watchfulness, and all else that is good. It may cost you a great deal to be set
right again. John Bunyan speaks of the pilgrim who lost his roll, and had to go
back for it, so that he travelled three times over the road, and then found the
sun setting ere he reached his lodging. But cost us whatever it may, we must get
right with God. I read a dream, the other day, which was the means of a man's
conversion. He thought that he was going with his friend into one of the Eastern
towns, and as he was about to enter, the portcullis above the gate began to
fall. As it descended, he stooped; but it fell so fast that he could not get
through, stooping, kneeling, crouching, or even lying down. He felt that he must
enter, so he made a desperate effort. He had on a very fine laced vest, and he
pulled that off, but the portcullis still descended, till he found that the only
thing he could do was to strip himself, and then, close to the earth, and grazed
by the gravel, he crept through. When he was safely inside the gate, a shining
one covered him from head to foot with glittering garments. It may be that, in
order to get right with God, we shall have to part with that fine vest, that
splendid theory, that love of popularity, that rhetorical flourishing; but, oh!
if we once get through that gate, and God covers us with the robe of acceptance
in the Beloved, it will well repay us for anything that the struggle may cost
us. It is expected of us, brethren, that from this time we rise to a higher
point. It is the Lord's due, if we think of what He has done for us. Some of my
comrades in arms, now before me, have gone through battles as hard as any men
may wish to fight; and after such success as they have had, they must never say
die. After what the Lord has done for us, we must never strike our flag, nor
turn our backs in the day of battle. Sir Francis Drake, when it was feared that
he would be wrecked in the Thames, said, "What! have I been round the world, and
am I now to be drowned in a ditch? Not I." So say I to you, brethren: you have
done business in stormy waters, and will you sink in a village pond? We shall
not be worse treated than we have been. We are now in fine fighting trim, for we
are hardened by former blows. A great pugilist at Rome was so battered, his
nose, eyes, and face were so disfigured, that he was always ready to fight,
because he said, "I cannot look worse than I do." Personally, I am in much the
same plight. Men cannot say anything worse of me than they have said. I have
been belied from head to foot, and misrepresented to the last degree. My good
looks are gone, and none can damage me much now. In the Name of the
Ever-blessed, we this day again set up our banners. Our watchword is "Victory."
We mean to win for the grand old cause of Puritanism, Protestantism,
Calvinism,—all poor names which the world has given to our great and glorious
faith,—the doctrine of Paul the apostle, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. We can both strike, and bear the strokes which are returned.
Through Divine grace, we have given to us both energy and patience; we can work,
and we can wait. May the Divine life in us put forth its mightiest force, and
make us strong to the utmost of human possibility, and then we shall gain the
victory, and give all the glory of it to our omnipotent Leader. The Lord be with
you, beloved! Amen.


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  CHAPTER 7: LIGHT. FIRE. FAITH. LIFE. LOVE.
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Chapter 6 Light. Fire. Faith. Life. Love.

I NEVER needed help more than now, and never felt so utterly unfitted to give
the key-note to the Conference. As you grow more numerous, more gifted, and more
experienced, I feel more and more my unworthiness to stand foremost, and to lead
your ranks. However, I will trust in God, and believe that He will, by His Holy
Spirit send a word that shall be encouraging and quickening. Those who truly
serve God are made to feel more and more forcibly that "life is real, life is
earnest," if it be indeed life in Christ. In times of great pain, and weakness,
and depression, it has come over me to hope that, if I should again recover, I
should be more intense than ever; if I could be privileged to climb the pulpit
stairs again, I resolved to leave out every bit of flourish from my sermons, to
preach nothing but present and pressing truth, and to hurl it at the people with
all my might; myself living at high pressure, and putting forth all the energy
of which my being is capable. I suppose you, too, have felt like this when you
have been laid aside. You have said to yourselves, "Playtime is over with us, we
must get to work. Parade is ended, now comes the tug of war. We must not waste a
single moment, but redeem the time, because the days are evil." When we see the
wonderful activity of the servants of Satan, and how much they accomplish, we
may well be ashamed of ourselves that we do so little for our Redeemer, and that
the little is often done so badly that it takes as long to set it right as we
spent in the doing of it. Brethren, let us cease from regrets, and come to
actual amendment. I have heard of ministers who are most lively when playing
croquet or cricket, or getting up an excursion, or making a bargain. It was said
of one, in my hearing, "What a fine minister he would have been if he had only
been converted!" I heard it said of a very clever man, "He would have been a
great winner of souls, if he had only believed in souls; but he believed in
nothing." It is said of the Russian peasants that, when they have done their
work, they will lie on the stove, or around it, and there sleep hour after hour;
and there is a current opinion among them that they are only awake when they are
asleep, and that their waking and working hours are nothing but a horrible
dream. The moujik hopes that his dreams are facts, and that his waking
sufferings are merely nightmares. May not some have fallen into the same notion
with regard to the ministry? They are asleep upon realities, and awake about
shadows; in earnest about trifles, yet trifling about solemnities. What God will
have to say to those servants who do their own work well, and His work badly, I
will not attempt to foreshadow. What shall be done to the man who displayed
great capacity in his recreations, but was dull in his devotions; active out of
his calling, and languid in it? The day shall declare it. Let us arouse
ourselves to the sternest fidelity, labouring to win souls as much as if it all
depended wholly upon ourselves, while we fall back, in faith, upon the glorious
fact that everything rests with the eternal God. Possibly some brother will
say," I have done all that I could do." That may be his honest opinion, for he
could not have preached more frequently, or held more meetings. Perhaps it is
true that he has held enough meetings, and the people have had quite enough
sermons; but there might have been an improvement in the spirit of the meetings,
and in the sermons, too. Some ministers might do more in reality if they did
less in appearance. A Bristol Quaker—and Quakers are very shrewd men,—years ago
stepped into an alehouse, and called for a quart of beer. The beer frothed up,
and the measure was not well filled. The Friend said to the landlord, "How much
trade art thou doing?" "Oh!" he answered, "I draw ten butts of beer a month."
"Dost thou know how thou mightest draw eleven butts?" "No, sir; I wish I did."
"I will tell thee, friend; thee can do it by filling thy pots." To any brother
who says, "I do not know how I can preach more gospel than I do, for I preach
very often," I would reply, "You need not preach oftener, but fill the sermons
fuller of gospel." The Saviour at the marriage-feast said, "Fill the waterpots
with water." Let us imitate the servants, of whom we read, "They filled them up
to the brim." Let your discourses be full of matter,—sound, gracious, and
condensed. Certain speakers suffer from an awful flux of words; you can scarcely
spy out the poor little straw of an idea which has been hurried down an awful
Ganges or Amazon of words. Give the people plenty of thought, plenty of
Scriptural, solid doctrine, and deliver it in a way which is growingly
better,—every day better, every year better,—that God may be more glorified, and
sinners may more readily learn the way of salvation. I. I commend to you most
earnestly the acquisition and distribution of LIGHT. But, brethren, see to it
that you have, in a sevenfold degree, light of a higher kind. You are to be,
above all things, students of the Word of God; this, indeed, is a main point of
your avocation. If we do not study Scripture, and those books that will help us
to understand theology, we are but wasting time while we pursue other
researches. We should judge him to be a foolish fellow who, while preparing to
be a physician, spent all his time in studying astronomy. There is a connection
of some kind between stars and human bones; but a man could not learn much of
surgery from Arcturus or Orion. So, there is a connection between every science
and religion, and I would advise you to obtain much general knowledge; but
universal information will be a poor substitute for a special and prayerful
study of the Scriptures, and of the doctrines contained in the revelation of
God. We are to study men and our own hearts; we ought to sit as disciples in the
schools of providence and experience. Some ministers grow fast because the great
Teacher chastens them sorely, and the chastening is sanctified; but others learn
nothing by their experience, they blunder out of one ditch into another, and
learn nothing by their difficulties but the art of creating fresh ones. I
suggest to you all the prayer of a Puritan who, during a debate, was observed to
be absorbed in writing. His friends thought he was taking notes of his
opponent's speech; but when they got hold of his paper, they found nothing but
these words, "More light, Lord! More light, Lord!" Oh, for more light from the
great Father of lights! Get plenty of light, brethren, and when you have
obtained it, give it out. Never fall into the notion that mere earnestness will
suffice without knowledge, and that souls are to be saved simply by our being
zealous. I fear that we are more deficient in heat than in light; but, at the
same time, that kind of fire which has no light in it is of a very doubtful
nature, and cometh not from above. Souls are saved by truth which enters the
understanding, and so reaches the conscience. How can the gospel save when it is
not understood? The preacher may preach with a great deal of stamping, and
hammering, and crying, and entreating; but the Lord is not in the wind, nor in
the fire;—the still small voice of truth is needed to enter the understanding,
and thereby reach the heart. People must be taught. We must "go, and teach all
nations," making disciples of them; and I know of no way in which you can save
men without teaching on your part, and discipleship on theirs. At this time,
there is a great necessity for giving much light, for a fierce attempt is being
made to quench or dim the light. Many are scattering darkness on all sides.
Therefore, brethren, keep the light burning in your churches, keep the light
burning in your pulpits, and hold it forth in the face of men who love darkness
because it favors their aims. Teach the people all truth, and let not our
distinctive opinions be concealed. There are sheep-stealers about, who come
forth in the night, and run away with our people because they do not know our
principles,—the principles of Nonconformists, the principles of Baptists, or
even the principles of Christianity. Our hearers have a general idea of these
things, but not enough to protect them from deceivers. We are beset, not only by
sceptics, but by certain brethren who devour the feeble. Do not leave your
children to wander out without the guardianship of holy knowledge, for there are
seducers abroad who will mislead them if they can. They will begin by calling
them "dear" this, and "dear" that, and end by alienating them from those who
brought them to Jesus. If you lose your members, let it be in the light of day,
and not through their ignorance. These kidnappers dazzle weak eyes with flashes
of novelty, and turn weak heads with wonderful discoveries and marvellous
doctrines, which all tend towards division, and bitterness, and the exaltation
of their own sect. Keep the light of truth burning, and thieves will not dare to
plunder your house. II. I have now, in the second place, to plead with you that
you gather and use in your ministry much heavenly FIRE. Upon this subject, you
will perhaps expect me to speak guardedly; for you have seen the mischief of
wild fire, and the perils of strange fire, and possibly you are anxious; to know
what I think of a certain "army" which abounds in fire, and blazes away most
marvellously. I shall express no opinion, except that none of the supposed evils
of fire are equal to those of lukewarmness. Even fanaticism is to be preferred
to indifference. I had sooner risk the dangers of a tornado of religious
excitement than see the air grow stagnant with a dead formality. It is far
better for people to be too hot than to be lukewarm. "I would thou wert cold or
hot" is Christ's word still, and it applies to preachers as well as to others.
When a man is freezingly cold in the things of Christ, we know where he is; and
if another is red-hot, or even at a white heat, and is thought to be too
enthusiastic, we know where he is; but when a minister preaches in such a way
that, at the close of his sermon, you say, "This is neither cold nor hot," you
go away feeling that you have had enough, or even too much of it. There was
nothing to excite you; you could almost wish to have been made angry rather than
to have been lulled by such discoursing. A lukewarm sermon sickens every healthy
mind. Brethren, we must, first of all, take care that we have the fire burning
in our own souls. I am happy to know that there are very few, if any, among you
who are utterly cold; for you go to be warmed into earnestness if we set about
it aright. It is very hard to warm a stone. You may clothe a man in blankets
until he is fairly warm, because there is life in him; but you cannot heat a
stone in that fashion. Life always begets a measure of warmth, and the
possibility of more; and as you have life, there is within you the capacity for
heat. Some preachers are of such a cold nature that no known means could warm
them. It is dreadful work to listen to a sermon, and feel all the while as if
you were sitting out in a snowstorm, or dwelling in a house of ice, clear but
cold, orderly but killing. You have said to yourself, "That was a well-divided
and well-planned sermon, but I cannot make out what was the matter with it;" the
secret being that there was the wood, but no fire to kindle it. A great sermon
without heart in it reminds one of those huge furnaces in Wales, which have been
permitted to go out; they are a pitiful sight. We prefer a sermon in which there
may be no vast talent, and no great depth of thought; but what there is has come
fresh from the crucible, and, like molten metal, burns its way. I once knew a
lad who, when he used to go home from the smithy where he worked, was roughly
handled by the boys of the village, till his master suggested to him a plan of
defence, which was wonderfully efficacious. He took a rod of iron, and just
before he started to go home, he blew up the fire, and made the iron hot. When
the boys came round him, he warned them not to touch his stick; and after once
feeling it, they obeyed the admonition, and respectfully kept their distance. I
do not quote the example with any commendation of the actual fact, but with this
moral in view,—heat your sermon red-hot, and it will be likely to be remembered
by all who come into contact with it. Everything gives way before fire. Let it
be carefully remembered that our flame must be kindled from on high. Nothing is
more to be despised than a mere painted fire, the simulation of earnestness.
Sooner let us have an honest death than a counterfeit life. The imitation of
Baxter is detestable; but to be like Baxter is seraphic. If you would be like
Whitefield, I would say be Whitefield. Let the fire be kindled by the Holy
Ghost, and not by animal passion, the desire of honour, emulation of others, or
the excitement of attending meetings. Let the terrible example of Nadab and
Abihu for ever put away strange fire from our censers. Burn because you have
been in solemn fellowship with the Lord our God. Why are many earnest ministers
worn and weary till heart and brain give way? They would be of little use if
they did not run such a risk. All men, who are eminently useful, are made to
feel their weakness in a supreme degree. Can the Spirit of God, even the
Infinite Deity, ride in such frail chariots as these, without straining the
axle, and making the whole machine to quiver, as if it would be utterly
dissolved beneath its sacred burden? When God visits us with soul-saving power,
it is as though devouring flame came forth from Heaven, and made its abode in
our bosoms; and where this is the case, there may well be a melting away of all
strength. Yet let it be so: we humbly invite the sacred burnings. Herod was
eaten of worms, being cursed of God; but to be consumed by God for His own
service, is to be blessed to the full. We have a choice between these two, to be
eaten up by our corruptions, or by the zeal of God's house. It needs no
hesitation, the choice of every man among us is to be wholly the
Lord's,—ardently, passionately, vehemently the Lord's servants, let the Divine
fervour cost us what it may of brain, and heart, and life. Our only hope of
honour, and glory, and immortality lies in the fulfilment of our dedication unto
God; as devoted things, we must be consumed with fire, or else be rejected. For
us to turn aside from our life-work, and to seek distinction elsewhere, is
absolute folly; a blight will be upon us, we shall not succeed in anything but
the pursuit of God's glory through the teaching of the Word. "This people have I
formed for Myself," saith God; "they shall shew forth My praise;" and if we will
not do this, we shall do less than nothing. For this one thing we are created;
and if we miss this, we shall live in vain. III. The next thing necessary to us
is FAITH; I might say the first, second, third, and last thing is FAITH.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God;" and if we are pleasing God, it
is not by our talent, but by our faith. When these "cultivated" persons speak of
us, they manifest great scorn, and affect to believe that we are natural fools.
Ah, dear! People are not always what they are thought to be, and it may happen
that a man sees himself as in a glass when he thinks he is looking out of the
window at a neighbour. It is a sign of great weakness when persons are full of
contempt for others. If, in any Review or pamphlet, a writer parades his
culture, you may be sure that he has been lying fallow of late, and his
affectations are the weeds which have come of it. If it came to a fair contest
upon the matter of education and culture, the orthodox would be quite able to
hold their own. Boasting is sorry work; but, sometimes, persons must be answered
according to their folly, and I say boldly that, in any sort of mental
tournament, we should not tremble to tilt with the men of "modern thought." Be
it so or not, it is ours to believe. We believe that, when the Lord our God gave
forth a revelation, He knew His own mind, and that He expressed Himself in the
best and wisest manner, and in terms than can be understood by those who are
teachable and truthful. We therefore believe that no new revelation is needed,
and that the idea of other light to come is practically unbelief in the light
which now is, seeing the light of truth is one. We believe that, though the
Bible has been twisted and turned about by sacrilegious hands, it is still the
infallible revelation of God. It is a main part of our religion humbly to accept
what God has revealed. Perhaps the highest form of adoration possible, on this
side the veil, is the bowing of our entire mental and spiritual being before the
revealed mind of God; the kneeling of the understanding in that sacred presence
whose glory causes angels to veil their faces. Let those who please to do so,
worship science, reason, and their own clear judgments; it is our delight to
prostrate ourselves before the Lord our God, and to say, "This God is our God
for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." We must have faith,
not only in the form of fixity of creed, but also in the shape of constant
dependence upon God. If I were asked what is the sweetest frame within the whole
compass of human feeling, I should not speak of a sense of power in prayer, or
abundant revelation, or rapturous joys, or conquest of evil spirits; but I
should mention, as the most exquisite delight of my being, a condition of
conscious dependence upon God. It has been often associated with great pain of
body and deep humiliation of spirit, but it is inexpressibly delightful to lie
passive in the hand of love, to die into the life of Christ. It is blessed to
feel that: you do not know, but your Heavenly Father knows; that you cannot
speak, but that "we have an Advocate;" that you can scarcely lift a hand, but
that He worketh all your works in you. The entire submission of our soul to our
Lord, the full content of the heart with God's will and way, the sure reliance
of the mind upon the Lord's presence and power,—this is the nearest approach to
Heaven that I know; and it is better than rapture, for one can abide in it
without strain or reaction. "Oh, to be nothing, nothing; Only to lie at His
feet!"

It is not so sublime a feeling as soaring aloft on the wings of eagles; but for
sweetness,—deep, mysterious, indescribable,—it bears the palm. It is a
blessedness which can bear to be thought of, a joy which never seems to be a
stolen one; for surely a poor, frail child of God has an unquestioned right to
depend upon his great Father, a right to be nothing in the presence of the
all-supporting One. It is essential that we should exhibit faith in the form of
confidence in God. Brothers, it would be a great calamity if it could be said of
any one of you, "He had an excellent moral character, and remarkable gifts; but
he did not trust God." Faith is a chief necessary. "Above all, taking the shield
of faith," was the apostolic injunction. Alas! some men go to the fight, but
leave their shield at home. It would be dreadful to think of a sermon as being
all that a sermon ought to be in every respect except that the preacher did not
trust in the Holy Spirit to bless it to the conversion of souls; such a
discourse is vain. No sermon is what it ought to be if faith be absent: as well
say that a body is in health when life is extinct. It is admirable to see a man
humbly conscious of his own weakness, and yet bravely confident in the Lord's
power to work through his infirmity. We may glory at large when God is our
glory. Attempting great things, we shall not overdo ourselves in the attempt;
and expecting great things, we shall not be disappointed in our expectation.
Nelson was asked whether a certain movement of his ships was not perilous, and
he replied, "Perilous it may be, but in naval affairs nothing is impossible, and
nothing is improbable." I make bold to assert that, in the service of God,
nothing is impossible, and nothing is improbable. Go in for great things,
brethren, in the Name of God; risk everything on His promise, and according to
your faith shall it be done unto you. Let us attempt great things, for those who
believe in the Name of the Lord succeed beyond all expectation. By faith, the
worker lives. The right noble Earl of Shaftesbury said, the other afternoon, of
Ragged-school teachers and their work, "It was evident to all thinking persons
that we had a great danger in the ignorance of the children of the lower
classes, and so the senators began to think of it, and the philosophers began to
think of it, and good men of all sorts began to think of it; but while they were
all engaged in thinking, a few plain, humble people opened Ragged-schools, and
did it, This is the kind of faith of which we need more and more; we need so to
trust in God as to put our hand to the plough in His Name. It is idle to spend
time in making and altering plans, and doing nothing else; the best plan for
doing God's work is to do it. Brothers, if you do not believe in anybody else,
believe in God without stint. Believe up to the hilt. Bury yourselves, both as
to your weakness and your strength, in simple trust in God. "Oh!" said one, "as
to that man, there is no telling what mad thing he will start next." Let the
sneer pass, though it may be as well to say, "I am not mad, most noble Festus;
but carry out works of truth and soberness." The end of all things will show
that faith in God is sanctified common sense, without an atom of folly in it. To
believe God's Word, is the most reasonable thing we can do; it is the plainest
course that we can take, and the safest policy that we can adopt, even as to
taking care of ourselves; for Jesus says, "Whosoever will save his life shall
lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." Let us
stake all upon the faithfulness of God, and we shall never be ashamed or
confounded, world without end. IV. It is time for me to talk of the fourth
thing, namely, LIFE. The preacher must have life; he must have life in himself.
Are you all alive, my brother? Of course you have been quickened as a plain
believer; but, as a minister, are you altogether alive? If there is a bone in a
man's body which is not alive, it becomes the nidus of disease; for instance, a
decayed tooth may cause more serious injury than most people imagine. In a
living system, a dead portion is out of place, and is sure sooner or later to
create intense pain. It is a wise arrangement that it should be so, for decay
has a tendency to spread, and mischief might be caused imperceptibly if pain did
not sound the alarm bell. I hope that any part of our soul which is not truly
alive may pain us till the evil is removed. Labour to be alive in all your
duties. John Bradford, the martyr, used to say, "I never go away from any part
of the service of God till I feel thoroughly alive in it, and know that the Lord
is with me in it." Carry out this rule conscientiously. In confessing sin, go on
confessing till you feel that your tears have washed the Saviour's feet. In
seeking pardon, continue to seek till the Holy Spirit bears witness to your
peace with God. In preparing a sermon, wait upon the Lord until you have
communion with Christ in it, until the Holy Spirit causes you to feel the power
of the truth which you are to deliver. "Son of man, eat this roll." Before you
attempt to give out the Word to others, get it into yourself. Is there not too
much dead praying, and dead preaching, and dead church work of all sorts? Do you
not know churches which are like the ghostly ship in the legend,—the captain,
the mate, and all the crew are dead men? "The mariners all do work the ropes As
they've been wont to do; They raise their limbs like lifeless tools,— They are a
ghastly crew. "The body of my deacon's self Stands by me knee to knee: The body
and I pull at one rope, But nothing of life have we." This is a grim business,
but I have beheld such a sight, though never have I seen a ghost. I recollect,
long ago, preaching for a church which was almost defunct externally, and
altogether defunct internally; and after the service, during which I felt a
terrible chill of soul, I went into the vestry, and there I saw two important
persons leaning heavily against the mantelpiece. I said to them, "Are you the
deacons of the church?" They answered, "Yes, sir." I replied, "I thought so!" I
did not explain further. These pillars of the church evidently needed propping
up; but sluggish ease will not do in the work of the Lord. Be full of life at
all times, and let that life be seen in your ordinary conversation. It is a
shocking state of things when good people say, "Our minister undoes in the
parlour what he has done in the pulpit; he preaches very well, but his life does
not agree with his sermons:" Our Lord Jesus would have us perfect even as our
Father who is in Heaven is perfect. Every Christian should be holy; but we are
laid under a sevenfold obligation to it: how can we expect the Divine blessing
if it be not so? God help us so to live that we may be safe examples to our
flocks! V. The last thing, but not the least important, of which I have to
speak, is LOVE. Assuredly, we must abound in love. It is a hard thing for some
preachers to saturate and perfume their sermons with love; for their natures are
hard, or cold, or coarse, or selfish. We are none of us all that we ought to be,
but some are specially poverty-stricken in point of love. They do not "naturally
care" for the souls of men, as Paul puts it. To all, but especially to the
harder sort, I would say,—Be doubly earnest as to holy charity, for without this
you will be no more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Love is power. The
Holy Spirit, for the most part, works by our affection. Love men to Christ;
faith accomplishes much, but love is the actual instrument by which faith works
out its desires in the Name of the Lord of love. I can truthfully say that I do
not know anybody in all the world with whom I would like to change places. "Ah!"
say you, "that is very likely, for you have a fine position." I am quite of that
opinion; but I thought just the same of my little pastorate at Waterbeach, and
it was with the utmost reluctance that I removed from the first to the second. I
still retain the belief that there were people in my first congregation whose
like I shall never see again, and that, as a position of usefulness, there are
great attractions about that Cambridgeshire village. It is a rule to which I
know of no exception that, to prosper in any work, you must have an enthusiasm
for it. Above all, we must feel an intense love to God. Our dear brother, who
led us in prayer this morning, rightly spoke of the power which girds us when we
burn with love to God. Why is it that so many say to children and young people,
"You must love Jesus in order to be saved "? That is not the gospel. The gospel
is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." We are careful
to state the matter correctly to the grown people; why give it inaccurately to
the young? If we make a difference at all, it will be wiser to tell the children
to believe, and the old people to love: the error will be less injurious, for
love is the great lack of most men. The holy grace of love needs to be more
preached among us, and more felt by us. "Oh!" said a woman, when she was
speaking of the Lord to her minister, "He has heard my prayer many a time, and I
can have what I want of Him, for, by His grace, I am very thick with Him." She
meant that communion had wrought sweet fellowship, and so her prayers were
heard. Oh, that we lived on familiar terms with the Well-beloved, and felt His
love within our bosoms always! Love to God will help a man to persevere in
service when otherwise he would have given up his work. "The love of Christ
constraineth us," said one whose heart was all his Master's. I heard one say,
the other day, that "the love of Christ ought to constrain us." This is true,
but Paul did not so much speak of a duty as of a fact; he said, "the love of
Christ constraineth us." Go on, brethren, preaching the same gospel; but preach
it with more faith, and preach it better every day. Do not draw back: your place
is to the front. Qualify yourselves for larger spheres, you who are in little
places; but do not neglect your studies to look after better positions. Be
prepared for an opening when it comes, and rest assured that the office will
come to the man who is fit for the office. We are not so cheap that we need go
hawking ourselves in every market; the churches are always on the lookout for
really efficient: preachers. Men whose fitness for the ministry is doubtful are
at a great discount nowadays; but for men of ability and usefulness there is
great demand. Brethren, consecrate yourselves to God afresh. Bring hither new
cords; and bind the sacrifice again to the altar! Struggle as it may, anxious to
escape the knife, fearful of the fire, yet bind it with cords, even with cords
to the horns of the altar; for until death, and in death, we are the Lord's.
Entire surrender of everything to Jesus is our watchword this day. Only may the
Lord accept the living sacrifice, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.


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  CHAPTER 8: STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS
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Chapter 7 Strength in Weakness MY DEAR BRETHREN,—I greatly value your prayers,
and I feel intensely grateful for that Benjamin's share in them which is ever my
portion. I never consciously needed your intercessions more than I do just now,
for I may say with the psalmist, "He weakened my strength in the way." After my
severe illness, I am trembling like a child who is only just commencing to use
his feet. It is with difficulty that I keep myself up; what can you expect from
one who can scarcely stand? During the last six weeks, I have considered from
day to day what to say to you, but nothing has come of my consideration. My
meditations have been a failure. I have gone to the pits and found no water, and
returned with my vessel empty. My brain has been so occupied with sympathy for
the poor body that it has not been able to mount aloft with the eagle, nor even
to plume its wings for the lower flight which I must needs attempt this morning
One thing, however, is clear,—I am in special communion with my subject, and can
speak, as the good old people used to say, "experimentally." I cannot, however,
draw much aid from that fact; but I cast myself upon the power Divine, which has
so many times been displayed in weakness. "The Lord hath been mindful of us: He
will bless us." Let it be understood, at the commencement, that OUR TEXT IS NOT
TRUE IN EVERY SENSE IN WHICH IT MIGHT BE READ. Some brethren are weak with an
emphasis, and always so; but I have never yet discovered that they are strong,
except in the sense of being headstrong and willful. If obstinacy be strength,
they are champions; and if conceit be strength, they are gigantic; but in no
other respect are they strong. Brethren, we must strive against all weakness
which leads to sin, lest to us also some Delilah should bring destruction.
Samson's unshorn locks denoted his Nazarite consecration, and if we ever become
weak through failure of consecration, such weakness will be fatal to true
usefulness. If the man who had "none of self, and all of God," grows downward
till he craves for "some of self, and some of God," he is in a sad condition. If
he, who once lived to win souls, now lives to win silver and gold, his money
shall perish with him; if he, who once was famous for devotion to his Master,
becomes his own master, he shall be infamous; for I trow that, even if we do
nothing wrong in the eyes of man, it is wrong enough to have declined from
whole-hearted service for God. It is this that demons laugh at, and that angels
marvel at;—a man of God living like a man of the world! Even the Lord Himself
stays a while to ask, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The holy and the zealous
grieve if they see a minister of Christ ministering to his own ambition. We are
only strong as our consecration is perfect. Unless we live wholly for God, Gut
strength will suffer serious leakage, and our weakness will be of that kind
which degrades the believer till the ungodly scornfully inquire, "Art thou also
become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" And, dear friends, there is a
kind of weakness which I hope none of you will ever cultivate, though it seems
greatly in favor at the present day, namely, weakness of faith; for when I am
weak in faith, then I am not strong in the Lord. When a man doubts his God, he
weakens himself. A little time ago, persons who were full of distrust and
unbelief were regarded as the possessors of a deep experience; but I hope the
age has for ever gone by in which unbelief shall be regarded as a qualification
for eminent saintship. If the gospel message were, "He that doubteth, and is not
baptized, shall be saved;" there are many who have made their calling and
election sure; but while ours is a gospel of faith, unbelief can never be
regarded with complacency. Faith is our battle-axe and weapon of war; woe to the
warrior who forgets it! Therefore, brethren, let us separate between weakness
and weakness,—the weakness which is the token of strength, and weakness in faith
which is the indication of spiritual decay. We want, brethren,—oh, how we would
pine for it!—to be delivered from all weakness of the spiritual life. We want to
outgrow the weakness natural to us as babes in Christ, so that we may become
young men who are strong; yea, we need to go beyond this, and to become
fully-developed men in Christ Jesus, "strong in the Lord, and in the power of
His might." If we are weak in that respect, we are strong nowhere. As ministers,
we ought to covet all the spiritual strength which God is ready to bestow. Would
to God that the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in us, found nothing within to impede
Him, and nothing to restrain His influences! Oh, that the full Godhead of the
blessed Spirit might as much manifest itself in these mortal bodies of ours as
once the Godhead of the second Person of the Trinity manifested itself in the
person of Christ Jesus, the Son of man! I mean not, of course, miraculously, nor
in any way to make us rival the incommunicable glories of our Divine Master; but
even to its fullness I would that our nature, like the bush in Horeb, were aglow
with the indwelling Deity. Never mind though the bush should be consumed; it
were well to be consumed so long as the Spirit of God would dwell in us, and
manifest His power. A second observation must be brought before you before I
actually come to the text. THERE IS ANOTHER FORM OF IT WHICH IS CLEARLY TRUE.
"When I am strong, then am I weak." That is true, almost as true as Paul's
declaration, "When I am weak, then I am strong;"—of course, not true in all
senses, but so nearly correct that I would recommend its acceptation as a
proverb worthy to be quoted with the text itself. Since we left the college
benches, we have seen many strong men. I think I see one sitting down in his
study. He has been reading the Reviews and Quarterlies, and a little of the
latest modern thought: now he is looking out for a text. He perfectly
understands it, whatever it may be. At any rate, if he does not understand it,
who does? When he falls upon his text, he interprets it, not at all desiring to
know what the men of God who lived before him have said upon it, for they were
of a darker age, and he lives in the nineteenth century, that world of wonders,
that region of wisdom, that flower and glory of all time. Now you shall see what
you shall see when this cultured divine comes forth from his chamber as a giant
refreshed with new wine. No dew of the Spirit of God is upon him, he does not
require it; he drinks from other fountains. He speaks with astounding power, his
diction is superb, his thought prodigious! But he is as weak as he is polished,
as cold as he is pretentious; saints and sinners alike perceive his weakness,
and by degrees the empty pews confirm it. He is too strong to ask to be
strengthened of the Lord, and therefore he is too weak to bless a congregation.
He seeks another sphere, and another, and yet another; but in no position is he
powerful, for he is too strong in self. His preaching is like a painted fire, no
one is either cheered or alarmed by it. I have known preachers who have been
very weak, and yet they have been used of the Lord. For many, many years, my own
preaching was exceedingly painful to me because of the fears which beset me
before entering the pulpit. Often, my dread of facing the people has been
overwhelming. Even the physical feeling, which came of the mental emotion, has
been painful; but this weakness has been an education for me. I wrote, many
years ago, to my venerable grandfather, and told him of many things that
happened to me before preaching,—sickness of body, and terrible fears, which
often made me really ill. The old gentleman wrote back, and said," I have been
preaching for sixty years, and I still feel many tremblings. Be content to have
it so; for when your emotion goes away, your strength will be gone." When we
preach and think nothing of it, the people think nothing of it, and God does
nothing by it. An overwhelming sense of weakness should not be regarded as an
evil, but should be accepted as helpful to the true minister of Christ. An
American divine, who says a great many things that are wise, and a few which are
otherwise, says that the best preparation for preaching is to get a good night's
rest, and to eat a good breakfast. According to his opinion, a fine constitution
is a most efficient help to preaching the gospel. If you know nothing of the
headache, and nothing of the heartache, and never allow anything to disturb the
equilibrium of your mind, you may expect to be a very successful minister. It
may be so. I would not depreciate health, appetite, a bounding spirit, and a
good Saturday night's sleep; but these things are not all, nor much. Mens sana
in corpore sano, by all means; but where that has been a good deal relied upon,
it has displayed itself in fine sensational sermons; but, brethren, I question
whether the next generation will say that it has proved itself fruitful in
spiritual teaching which will feed the soul or move the conscience. Many of the
noblest specimens of our sermonic literature have come from men who were patient
sufferers. Men who have had the most touching pathos, the highest spirituality,
the most marvelous insight into the deep things of God, have often known little
of bodily health. Calvin labored under many fierce disorders, yet shall we ever
see his like? Robert Hall was rarely free from pain, but who ever spoke more
gloriously? And here I would mention one whom all of us love, Charles Stanford,
who grows sweeter and sweeter as he grows weaker and weaker, and who sees all
the more clearly now that his eyes grow dim. My brethren, physical force is not
our strength; it may be our weakness. Health is to be desired, and carefully
preserved where we have it; but if we lose it, we may count it all joy, and look
forward to be able to exclaim with Paul, "When I am weak, then am I strong." In
some form or other, we must be tried. A preacher who has no cross to carry, a
prophet of the Lord without a burden, is an unprofitable servant and a burden to
the church. Permit me here to say that, whenever a brother gets to be so strong
as to talk much of his own holiness, then also he is weak. I have not observed
yet that anybody who has had grace to make into flags has won the more victories
in consequence. I have required, as far as I am concerned, all my grace to make
into a sword; I have wanted all my power for real fighting; but, as to making a
single banner out of it to display before men, I have not yet attained unto
that, and must still take a very lowly position among the servants of God.
Coleridge was once asked whether he believed in ghosts, and he said that he did
not, for he had seen too many of them! If anyone asked me if I believed in.
perfect men, I should have to say that I have seen too many of them to believe
in them. A ghost is a wonderful affair, and when you see it at first, it makes
each particular hair of your head "to stand on end, like quills upon the fretful
porcupine." But this does not occur a second time, for a suspicion of hollow
turnip and candle steals over you. We heard of one, the other day, who even
dared to squirt carmine over a spirit which had been conjured from the vasty
deep at a séance. I have sometimes ventured to oppose a perfect man, and the
warmth of his temper has been evidence to me that, while he may have been upon
the verge of perfection among his own friends, he had not absolutely reached
that consummation when exposed to the colder judgment of strangers. The
pretender to perfection has usually avoided me from a distaste to my
Protestantism against his holiness; and I have not bewailed my loss. I am not in
love with that perfection which talks about itself. There is little virtue in
the beauty which calls attention to itself; modest beauty is the last to extol
its own charms. A number of persons, in company, were boasting of their graces
and attainments, and only one brother sat silent. At last, one said to him,
"Have you no holiness?" "Yes," he said, "but I never had any to boast of." All
the holiness that can be had let us have, and let us press on toward perfection;
but let us still recollect the fact that, when we are strong, then we are weak;
that, when we think we have reached perfection, the blue mould of pride is
coming over us. We have not afforded ourselves a complete inspection, or we
should have found some fault to repent of, some evil yet to struggle against. I.
Here is, first, A DEPRESSING EXPERIENCE: "When I am weak." When is that? Truly
we are so always. Is there ever a time when the strongest Christian is not
comparatively weak? This was Paul's worry, and it was sent to keep him humble.
Paul might have gloried in wrestling with the devil; but this "thorn in the
flesh" was a wretched business. To grapple with a great temptation, and to hurl
it to the ground, has a grandeur in it which inspires you; but; it is very
different when you are assailed by a thing so small that you despise yourself
for taking notice of it, and yet it frets your soul. You say to yourself, "How
weak I am! Why am I thus irritated and disturbed? If anyone else made half this
fuss about a little thorn, I should say, 'You ought to know better;' and yet
here am I, a preacher of the gospel, greatly tried by a trifle, and beseeching
the Lord thrice to take it away from me, for I cannot bear it." Do we ever get
into such a condition? I wish that, at such a time, we would confess our abject
weakness, and cast ourselves upon God, for then should we be made strong. But,
dear brethren, having said this much by way of caveat, lest I should lead any of
you to despair, let me now ask, Have we any of us fully felt the measure of our
responsibility? If there be one such here, let him speak; but I shall not
believe him. We have not done what we should have done, what we could have done,
nor what we ought to have done, nor what we will yet do in God's strength.
Perhaps we have worked up to the full of what was expected of us in quantity;
but how about the quality? It may be we have attended quite enough meetings, and
delivered quite enough sermons; but then, has this been done in an apostolic
spirit, and night and day with tears have we warned men, and pleaded with them
as in the sight of God? Our responsibilities, when they are thoroughly felt,
crush us, and then are we weak indeed; but this weakness is the road to
strength. "When I am weak, then am I strong." Sometimes we grow depressed and
weak because our sphere of labor seems specially difficult. This is not the time
to dilate upon the peculiar trials of cur pastorates. Ministers in London could
tell a tale that would astonish you, for they see things which are their burden
day and night. As for our country brethren, what some of: them have had to put
up with! They cannot move the deacons and the church at all, perhaps the deacons
wish to move them; they cannot get at the people, and though they preach their
hearts out, they preach to empty pews. If we could only put certain men into the
positions which their brethren faithfully occupy under great discouragement,
they would know themselves better, and leave off boasting, and instead of
finding fault, they would wonder that so much has been accomplished under such
circumstances. By that way also we become strong; when God makes us feel that
our work is impossible to us without His aid, then are we driven to His
strength. In addition to this, it may be that reproach comes undeservedly. A
scandalous story from the father of lies may be forged against you, and you may
be quite unable to defend yourself'. You fear lest, in trying to erase the blot,
you might spoil the page. Hearts are broken over this matter. Oh, how weak a man
becomes when this is the case; he may half feel himself guilty after having
heard the accusation repeated again and again:, although all the while he is as
pure as the driven snow. This brings a weakness which may paralyze a man. Oh, to
be strong in the Lord at such times! Certain brethren know nothing of this
experience, they are not weak at all; but despise such confessions. Have you
never met with preachers who can keep on and on, though they never did say
anything, and never will? Yet they never know what it is to be weak; they are
just as able today as ever they were. I have heard of an old Scotch preacher,
whose divisions were very numerous, and whose subdivisions were almost
innumerable; so one day the people, one by one, went away, until at last the boy
took the keys up, and said to him, "You can lock the church up when you have
done." Some are so very long in saying nothing, and are so surely emptying their
places, that it would be wise to hand them the keys so that they might retire
when they are quite through. II. I conclude by speaking upon THE BLESSED
EXPERIENCE: "When I am weak, then am I strong." How is it, and how can it be?
Next, we are strong when we are weak because we gain our strength by prayer, and
our weakness is our best argument in supplication. Jacob never conquered until
he limped, nay, until he fell. When the sinew shrank, the suppliant triumphed.
When you are engaged in prayer, plead your strength, and you will get nothing;
then plead your weakness, and you will prevail. There is no better plea with
Divine love than weakness and pain; nothing can so prevail with the great heart
of God as for your heart to faint and swoon. The man who rises in prayer to
tears and agony, and feels all the while as if he could not pray, and yet must
pray,—he is the man who will see the desire of his soul. Do not mothers always
care most for the tiniest child, or for that one which is most sick? Do we not
spend the greatest care upon that one of our children which has the least use of
its limbs; and is it not true that our weakness holds God's strength, and leads
Him to bow His omnipotence to our rescue? Besides this, another form of strength
comes of weakness, for by it our sympathy is educated. When you and I become
weak, and are depressed in spirit, and our soul passes through the valley of the
shadow of death, it is often on account of others. One Sabbath morning, I
preached from the text, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" and though
I did not say so, yet I preached my own experience. I heard my own chains clank
while I tried to preach to my fellow-prisoners in the dark; but I could not tell
why I was brought into such an awful horror of darkness, for which I condemned
myself. On the following Monday evening, a man came to see me who bore all the
marks of despair upon his countenance. His hair seemed to stand upright, and his
eyes were ready to start from their sockets. He said to me, after a little
parleying, "I never before, in my life, heard any man speak who seemed to know
my heart. Mine is a terrible case; but on Sunday morning you painted me to the
life, and preached as if you had been inside my soul." By God's grace, I saved
that man from suicide, and led him into gospel light and liberty; but I know I
could not have done it if I had not myself been confined in the dungeon in which
he lay. I tell the story, brethren, because you sometimes may not understand
your own experience, and the perfect people may condemn you for having it; but
what know they of God's servants? You and I have to suffer much for the sake of
the people of our charge. God's sheep ramble very far, and we have to go after
them; and sometimes the shepherds go where they themselves would never roam if
they were not in pursuit of lost sheep. You may be in Egyptian darkness, and you
may wonder why such a horror chills your marrow; but you may be altogether in
the pursuit of your calling, and be led of the Spirit to a position of sympathy
with desponding minds. Expect to grow weaker, brethren, that you may comfort the
weak, and so may become masters in Israel in the judgment of others; while, in
your own opinion, you are less than the least of all saints. Oh, it is a
blessing when God casts a godly man into the middle of a mass of misery, and
keeps him there! It may not be a pleasant thing for him, but it will bring a
sevenfold reward in the end. I am glad that Howard felt that he must go through
all the prisons in Europe. He had a comfortable home of his own, and yet he must
roam through France, and Germany, and Russia, poking his nose into every
pestilential dog hole where prisoners were to be found. He makes himself
familiar with the unimaginable horrors of dungeon life, and suffers fevers born
of the jail filth. He has a choice nose for the worst atmosphere; the fouler it
is, the more needful that he should breathe it, for he has a passion for the
discovery and destruction of prison cruelty. He comes home, and writes a book
upon his pet subject: and then, after a little while, he is off again, and at
last he dies a martyr to the cause he has espoused; yet it was worth while to be
a Howard who could live and could die to rescue his fellow-men. Mr. Howard, it
is because you are so very weak, and suffer so much from prison-on-the-brain,
that you are strong; you will accomplish reforms while others are talking of
them. I daresay there were some who said, "These things must be gradually
ameliorated by the progress of better principles, and we must try new notions by
degrees." Yes, this gradual reform is a prudent idea; but then Mr. Howard is
such a weak-minded man that he goes raking up horrible stories, and insisting
upon it that murder by imprisonment must cease at once. Brethren, may you become
weak in like fashion,—almost out of your minds with restless resolve to save
souls! If you break loose in an absurd way, and set the chill proprieties
a-trembling, and the imbecilities ridiculing, it will cause me great joy. Little
do I care if you become fools for Christ's sake. When our weakness verges upon
fanaticism, it may have all the more power about it. Mr. Plimsoll did nobly when
he stood up and pleaded against coffin-ships; but he was never so strong as when
he lost himself, and broke the rules of the House of Commons in the ardor of his
passion. It was very weak of him, but in that weakness lay his strength. Give us
more of the speech which comes of a burning heart, as lava comes of a volcanic
overflow. When the truth conquers us, we shall conquer by the truth. "When I am
weak, then am I strong." Because I cannot do much, therefore I will do all I
can. Because I have little power, therefore I will use all the power I have. Do
not the tradesmen say that "a nimble nine-pence is better than a lazy half-crown
"? I am sure it is so. A sense of weakness may bestir us to a bravery which else
we had not known. Look at our own country, ages ago, when Spain tried to destroy
her. See the Invincible Armada! Huge ships burden the sea, and Papal warriors
are speeding to seize the prey. England must do her best. On the one side is
Spain, mistress of empires, and on the other is a poor little island, with a
brave queen, it is true, but with an army and navy slender to the last degree.
The monster ships are off Plymouth; here they come, like a half-moon, or like
jaws opening to swallow us up. What is happening in Britain? Why, everybody is
preparing for the battle, and every man and every woman on the island will fight
to the death. All the seafaring folk are on the alert. Our sailors in their
diminutive vessels are hovering round the huge galleons, waiting for an
opportunity to strike a blow, and the opportunity comes: "Look how the Lion of
the sea lifts up his ancient crown, And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay
lilies down."

God watches over England. He blows with His wind, and the sea covers the:
Armada, and Spain is smitten, and England is saved. It was a sense of weakness
that aroused the valor of our forefathers, and stirred the saints to cry to God
for help. Go to, ye mighty ones, ye are not strong. Come ye up, ye weak ones, to
the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty, for ye are
"strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=
"And this, last of all, is the reason why we are strong when we are weak,
namely, because the sacrifice is being consummated. When was Christ strongest
but when He was weakest? When did He shake the kingdom of darkness but when He
was nailed to the tree? When did He put away sin for His people but when His
heart was pierced? When did He trample upon death and the old dragon but when He
was Himself about to die? His victory was in the extremity of His weakness,
namely, in His death; and it must be the same with His trembling Church. She has
no might; she must suffer, she must be slandered, and derided, and so the Lord
will triumph through her. The conquering sign is still the cross. Wherefore,
brethren, let us be perfectly content to decrease even unto the end, that our
right royal Lord and King may gloriously increase from day to day. Amen.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: WHAT WE WOULD BE
========================================================================

Chapter 8 What We Would Be*("misc/aarm08.htm" \\l "note") THIS ASSEMBLY begins
to be venerable. For years, we were a band of young men; but now, our own sons
are with us, comrades of our ministry, and we feel that we are, no longer
striplings. We have not yet reached the sere and yellow leaf, nor have we come
to our dotage, or our anecdotage; but we are tending toward maturity, and are
impressed with the conviction that, if ever we are to do anything for our Lord
Jesus, we must do it at once. To us remains no time for loitering, or even for
leisure. To me, at least, eternity seems so near that I cannot frame an excuse
for delay. "Now or never," sounds sternly in my ears. RETROSPECT This will be a
healthy feeling for the younger brethren, who are flushed with their first
victories. Let them rise to a higher scale of expectancy, lest they readily
become self-satisfied, and thus destroy all hope of a great life. Believe me,
young brother, as our years sober us, we become more and more aware of our
imperfections, and feel less and less inclined to admire our own performances.
To me, a retrospect means a hearty psalm of praise, and a deep sigh of regret.
Unto the Lord be glory forever; but unto me belong shame and confusion of face.
With regard to the prospect before us I may be supposed to be a prophet of evil;
but I am not. I mourn the terrible defections from the truth which are now too
numerous to be thought of in detail; nevertheless, I am not disquieted, much
less dispirited. That cloud will blow over, as many another has done. I think
the outlook is better than it was. I do not think the devil is any better: I
never expected he would be; but he is older. Brethren, whether that is for the
better or for the worse, I do not know; but, assuredly, the arch-enemy is not
quite such a novelty among us as he was. We are not quite so much afraid of that
particular form of devilry which is raging now, because we begin to perceive its
shape. The unknown appeared to be terrible; but familiarity has removed alarm.
At the first, this "modern thought" looked very like a lion; the roaring thereof
was terrible, though to some ears there was always a suspicion of braying about
it. On closer inspection, the huge king of beasts looked more like a fox, and
now we should honor it if we likened it to a wild cat. We were to have been
devoured of lions, but the monsters are not to be seen. Scientific religion is
empty talk without either science or religion in it. The mountain has brought
forth its mouse, or, at any rate, the grand event is near. Very soon, "advanced
thought" will only be mentioned by servant girls and young Independent
ministers. It has gradually declined till it may now be carried off with the
slops. There is nothing in the whole bag of tricks. Lovers of the eternal truth,
you have nothing to fear! God is with those who are with Him. He reveals Himself
to those who believe His revelation. Our march is not to and fro, but onward
unto victory. "The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no
more for ever." Other enemies will arise, even as Amalekites, Hivites,
Jebusites, Perizzites, and all the rest of them, rose up against Israel; but, in
the Name of the Lord, we shall pass on to possess the promised heritage.
PROPOSAL

Brethren, let us look well to our own steadfastness in the faith, our own holy
walking with God. Some say that such advice is selfish; but I believe that, in
truth, it is not selfishness, but a sane and practical love of others which
leads us to be mindful of our own spiritual state. Desiring to do its level
best, and to use its own self in the highest degree to God's glory, the true
heart seeks to be in all things right with God. He who has learned to swim has
fostered a proper selfishness, for he has thereby acquired the power of helping
the drowning. With the view of blessing others, let us covet earnestly the best
blessings for ourselves. PERSONAL AMBITION

One thing is past all question; we shall bring our Lord most glory if we get
from Him much grace. If I have much faith, so that I can take God at His word;
much love, so that the zeal of His house eats me up; much hope, so that I am
assured of fruit from my labor; much patience, so that I can endure hardness for
Jesus' sake; then I shall greatly honor my Lord and King. Oh, to have much
consecration, my whole nature being absorbed in His service; then, even though
my talents may be slender, I shall make my life to burn and glow with the glory
of the Lord! This way of grace is open to us all. To be saintly is within each
Christian's reach, and this is the surest method of honoring God. Though the
preacher may not collect more than a hundred in a village chapel to hear him
speak, he may be such a man of God that his little church will be choice
seed-corn, each individual worthy to be weighed against gold. The preacher may
not get credit for his work in the statistics which reckon scores and hundreds;
but in that other book, which no secretary could keep, where things are weighed
rather than numbered, the worker's register will greatly honor his Master. NEED
OF GREAT CARE

Need I affectionately call upon you, my brethren, to stir up the gifts which are
in you? Cultivate your natural and gracious qualifications for the ministry. The
pastor knows far more than when he left College; has he learned all he ought to
have learned in that interval? No doubt many of our brethren— "Grow wiser than
their teachers are, And better know the Lord."

I am not so sure about those who are the most eager to assert this of
themselves. Real progress may be usually reckoned by the gauge of humility. He
knows most who is most aware that he knows little. We have all great need of
much hard study if our ministry is to be good for anything. We have heard of the
French peasants who sent to the Pope for a cure. "who had finished his
education." They complained that their pastor was always studying, and they
wanted a man who knew all that was necessary, and consequently needed no time
for books and thoughts. What fools they must be in that part of France! We need
exactly the kind of preacher whom they despised. He who has ceased to learn has
ceased to teach. He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the
pulpit. I hope it will never get to be your notion that only a certain class of
preachers can be soul-winners. Every preacher should labor to be the means of
saving his hearers. The truest reward of our life work is to bring dead souls to
life. I long to see souls brought to Jesus every time I preach. I should break
my heart if I did not see it to be so. Men are passing into eternity so rapidly
that we must have them saved at once. We indulge no secret hope which can make
it easy to lose present opportunities. From all our congregations a bitter cry
should go up unto God, unless conversions are continually seen. If our preaching
never saves a soul, and is not likely to do so, should we not better glorify God
as peasants, or as tradesmen? What honor can the Lord receive from useless
ministers? The Holy Ghost is not with us, we are not used of God for His
gracious purposes, unless souls are quickened into heavenly life. Brethren, can
we bear to be useless? Can we be barren, and yet content? Brethren, I long that
we may all be "apt to teach." The Church is never overdone with those whose
"lips feed many." It should be our ambition to be "good stewards of the manifold
grace of God." We all know certain able ministers who are expositors of the
Word, and instructors of believers. You always bring something away when you
hear them. They trade in precious things; their merchandise is of the gold of
Ophir. Certain passages of Scripture are quoted and set in a new light; and
certain specialties of Christian experience are described and explained. We come
away from such preaching feeling that we have been to a good school. Brethren, I
desire that we may each one exercise such an edifying ministry! Oh, that: we may
have the experience, the illumination, the industry needful for so high a
calling! Oh, for more richly-instructive sermons! Brethren, look at many modern
sermons! What fire and fury! What flash and dash! What is it all about? To what
purpose is this display? We often meet with sermons which are like
kaleidoscopes, marvelously pretty, but what is there in them? See, there are
several bits of colored glass, and one or two slips of mirror, and other
trifles, and these are put into a tube! How they sparkle! What marvelous
combinations! What fascinating transformations! But what are you looking at? You
have not seen any more after twenty displays than you saw at first; for indeed
there is no more. Some preachers excel in quotations of poetry; and others excel
in apposition and alliteration, or in the quaintness of the division of their
texts. Many are great in domestic sorrows, and death-bed spectacles, and
semi-dramatic picturings. Very telling, very sensational; and, under gracious
direction, useful in its own measure; but when souls are to be saved, and saved
souls are to be fed, more solid matters must take a prominent place. We must
feed the flock of God. We must deal with eternal verities, and grapple with
heart and conscience. We must, in fact, live to educate a race of saints, in
whom the Lord Jesus shall be reflected as in a thousand mirrors. FATHERS The
parental relation is one which requires much of us. A father should be a stable
and established man. Something of solid worth and substantial judgment is looked
for in a father. Many a preacher we could not call "father"; it would seem too
ridiculous. The trifler, the brother of many ways of thinking, and the man who
is of an angry spirit, are out of the list when we read over the roll of
fathers. Something of weight, kindliness, dignity, steadiness, and
venerableness, goes to make up our idea of the father. Great truths are very
dear to him, for he has had experience of their power for many years. When some
of the boys tell him that he is behind the times, he smiles at their superior
wisdom. Now and then, he tries to show them that he is right, though it is hard
to make them see it. The boys think the fathers fools; the fathers do not think
that of them,—there is no need. True fathers are patient; they do not expect to
find old heads on young shoulders. They have the knack of waiting till tomorrow,
for time brings with it many instructions; and while it may demonstrate the
true, it may also explode the false. Father is not blown about by every wind of
doctrine, neither does he run after every new thing which is cried up by the
skeptical or by the fanatical. A father knows what he does know, stands by what
he has verified, and is rooted and grounded in the faith. Does any brother
exclaim, "I should like to fill a father's place in my church, for then I could
rule it"? This is a sorry motive, and one which will disappoint you. The father
of a family usually finds that his pre-eminence is one of superior self-denial,
rather than of self-assertion. The best of fathers do really rule, but they
never raise the question of "Who is master?" In a well-ordered house, "baby is
king." Have you not seen how everything is set aside for him? The warmest
welcome is for that little stranger, and the movements of the household are
guided by his needs. If you were as great an autocrat as the King of the
Cannibal Islands, it would make no difference,—baby must be attended to. What
means this? Why, that the poorest, weakest, and most easily offended person in
the whole church must rule you if you are a true father! You will study the most
wayward, and yield your personal pleasure for the good of the most faulty.
Somebody asked, "Why should we deny ourselves alcoholic drink because
weak-minded persons are overcome by it? That would be to make the weakest
persons the virtual rulers of our conduct, which would be absurd." Just so; but
the absurdity appertains to the family of love. Our domestic affairs must seem
absurd to unsympathetic strangers. Who likes to tell them to the uninitiated? It
would be casting pearls before swine. I would say,—All hail to the absurdities
of holy love: long may they reign! Baby is king: the weakest rule our hearts.
The pace of the whole flock is slackened, lest we overdrive the lambs. Our
ruling is carried out by seeing that none tread down the weak, and by setting
the' example of the greatest self-forgetfulness. He is not fit to be a father
who does not see that this is the imperative law of love, and is, indeed, the
secret: of power. We lay ourselves down for all men to go over us if thus they
may come to Jesus. A father must possess wisdom. But in this matter many are
deceived, for they aspire to it from a wrong motive, and so become foolish. If
you had wisdom, my brother, what would you do with it? Would you so use it as to
make others feel your superiority? If so, you have little wisdom as yet. A
minister's wisdom lies in endeavoring to be wise for others, not cunning for
himself. Some use their wisdom in a very unwise way, and curse the church which
they should bless. And so you would go about the church, and put everybody
right, being so wise yourself! Herein is often great folly. A man I have heard
of said, "I am not at all afraid of thieves breaking into my house. If I heard a
burglar, I should touch this button, and in a moment an electric current would
explode dynamite in the cellar, and that would blow up the burglar and the whole
establishment." You laugh; but we have met with ministers who have acted in much
the same manner. I am sorry to know a brother who has performed this feat in
five or six churches. The moment he thinks that a member, especially a deacon,
has gone wrong, he blows the whole thing to pieces, and calls it faithfulness.
This is not acting the part of a wise father. If we have wisdom, we shall
maintain peace, and shall attempt reforms with gentleness. Fathers do not kill
their children because they are unphilosophical, or unsound in theology, or
somewhat disobedient in conduct. You know the weighty responsibility of a father
towards his children; such is ours. I do not think that any of us would dare to
say to our people, "Follow me in all thing? And yet their tendency is to follow
the pastor. In this tendency lies influence for the holy, and a dreadful power
for mischief for the careless. Many beginners take readily to an earthly model;
they find it more natural to copy a godly man, whom they have seen, than to
imitate the Lord Jesus, whom they have not seen. I do not commend them in this;
but so it is, and we must be tender toward this weakness so that it may not
become the occasion of evil. Children first obey their parents, and so learn the
law of the Lord, and no doubt many of the weaker sort learn the way of holiness
from their spiritual guides. A painter, who afterwards becomes a great original,
is in his earliest days a disciple of a certain school of art; it is so in
religion. The babe in grace is taught to walk by an older brother, and
afterwards takes his own path. I believe that many weak ones in our churches are
seriously injured, if not entirely broken down, by following the example of
their ministers in matters wherein they come short of the Lord's mind. How
grievous it would be; if any believers were dwarfed through our conduct! May we
not fear that there are some in our churches today who are not what they might
have been had we properly guided them? No doubt some have been coddled into
weakness, and others have been allowed to grow more in one direction than in
others. Do you say, "We cannot help this; it is no business of ours "? I tell
you it is our business. Strangers may talk in a careless way, but fathers are
conscious of great responsibility as to their children. If a family is not well
ordered, a wise father begins to mend his own ways. If our people do wrong, we
fret and blame ourselves. If we were better, our church-members would be better.
It is little use to scold them; our wiser way is to humble ourselves before God,
and find out the reason why our ministry does not produce better results. We had
need be kind and courteous, for even such a small thing as shaking hands, or
giving a nod, may have an influence. One who is now a member of our church told
me that he had often stood to shake hands with me at the back gate, as I left
the building, long before he had come inside to hear me preach. The mere fact of
a kindly' notice which I gave him on going out had made him think of me, and
inclined him to hear. He assured me that this simple matter was the first link
between him and religion. He was drunken, and wretched, and ungodly; but he had,
by a happy accident, become the friend of a minister of Christ, and this bond,
though slight as a spider's thread, was the beginning of better things. Never be
stiff and proud. "Be pitiful, be courteous." Children expect kindness from a
father; let them not he disappointed. It is ours to be all things to all men, if
by any means we may save some. On the other hand, survey the picture of a father
who sees his child returning from the error of his way. In the New Testament,
you see the portrait divinely drawn. When the prodigal was a great way off, his
father saw him. Oh, to have quick eyes to spy out the awakened! The father ran
to meet him. Oh, to be eager to help the hopeful! He fell upon his neck, and
kissed him. Oh, for a heart overflowing with love, to joy and rejoice over
seeking ones! As that father was, such should we be; ever loving, and ever on
the outlook. Our eyes, and ears, and feet should ever be given to penitents. Our
tears and open arms should be ready for them. The father in Christ is the man to
remember the best robe, and the ring, and the sandals; he remembers those
provisions of grace because he is full of love to the returning one. Love is a
practical theologian, and takes care to deal practically with all the blessings
of the covenant, and all the mysteries of revealed truth. It does not hide away
the robe and ring in a treasury of theology; but brings them forth, and puts
them on. But lest you should feel pleased with the fact that you desire this
high honor, and fancy that the mere aspiration will fulfil itself, let me remind
you how the Savior lived. He never settled down in desires and resolves, but
girded Himself for constant service. He said, "My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent Me, and to finish His work." Soul-winning must be meat and drink to
us. To do the Lord's work must be as necessary as food to us. His Father's work
is that in which we also are engaged, and we cannot do better than imitate our
Lord. Tell me, then, how Jesus set about it. Did He set about it by arranging to
build a huge Tabernacle, or by organizing a monster Conference, or by publishing
a great book, or by sounding a trumpet before Him in any other form? Did He aim
at something great, and altogether out of the common line of service? Did He bid
high for popularity, and wear Himself out by an exhausting sensationalism? No;
He called disciples to Him one by one, and instructed each one with patient
care. To take a typical instance of His method, watch Him as He paused in the
heat of the day. He sat upon a well, and talked with a woman,—a woman who was
none of the best. This looked like slow work, and very commonplace action. Yet
we know that it was right and wise. As the Lord shall help us, let us lay our
all upon the altar, and only breathe for Him. Certain of you will go abroad,
some of you may find a grave on the banks of the Congo. We cannot all do this;
but, brethren, we must all live unto the Lord, and lay down our lives for the
brethren. The Thames and the Clyde must have their consecrated ones as well as
the Congo and the Ganges. London and Bristol must witness to as true a heroism
as Canton and Calcutta. Because we belong to Christ, the zeal of the Lord's
house must eat us up. FPRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT= "I wish I could have spoken to
you with all my strength, but it may be that my weakness may be used of God to
greater purpose. My thoughts are few by reason of pain, which disorders my head;
but they are all on fire, for my heart remains true to my Lord, to His gospel,
and to you. May He use every man of us to the utmost of our capacity for being
used, and glorify Himself by our health and our sickness, our life and our
death! Amen.

NOTE * This address was delivered in great pain. It is not what we desired it to
be. Our anguish made it hard to think, and almost impossible to think
connectedly. Almost all that had been prepared was forgotten, and no new springs
of thought could make channels for themselves while the mind was smothered up in
physical suffering. The address may be regarded as a literary curiosity,—the
talk of a man who could with difficulty keep himself from tears through acute
suffering, and yet was resolved to take his part in a meeting which he had
anticipated with solemn interest for months before. We may add that the revising
of the address was accomplished under much the same conditions as the delivery
of it.—C. H. S.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: STEWARDS
========================================================================

Chapter 9 Stewards MY BELOVED BRETHREN,—I might even say with Paul, "My
dearly-beloved and longed-for,"—it gives me intense delight to look into your
faces once again; and yet I feel weighted with a solemn responsibility in having
to direct your thoughts at this time, so as to give the key-note to our solemn
Conference. I ask your continued prayers that I may speak aright, saying the
right thing in the right way. "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers
of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in
stewards, that a man be found faithful." We are MINISTERS. The word has a very
respectable sound. To be a minister, is the aspiration of many a youth. Perhaps,
if the word were otherwise rendered, their ambition might cool. Ministers are
servants: they are not guests, but waiters; not landlords, but labourers. The
word has been rendered "under-rowers", men who tug at the oars on the lowest
bench. It was hard work to row a galley; those rapid strokes consumed the
life-forces of the slaves. There were three banks of rowers: those on the upper
bank had the advantage of fresh air; those who were beneath them were more
closely shut in; but I suppose that the lowest bank of rowers would be faint
with heat, as well as worn out with sore travail. Brethren, let us be content to
wear out our lives even in the worst position, if by our labour we can speed the
passage of our great Caesar, and help the progress of the trireme of the Church
in which He has embarked. We are willing to be chained to the oar, and to work
on through life to make His barque cleave the waves. We are not captains, nor
owners of the galley, but only the oarsmen of Christ. The text, however, does
not call us simply ministers or servants, but it adds, "of Christ." We are not
the servants of men, but of the Lord Jesus. Esteemed sir, if you think, because
you subscribe to my support, that I am bound to do your bidding, you are under a
mistake. Truly, we are "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake;" but, in the
highest sense, our sole responsibility is to Him whom we call Master and Lord.
We obey superior orders; but we cannot yield to the dictation of our
fellow-servants, however influential they may be. Our service is glorious,
because it is the service of Christ: we feel honoured in being permitted to wait
upon Him whose shoe's latchet we are not worthy to unloose. 1. First, a steward
is a servant, and no more. Perhaps he does not always remember this; and it is a
very pitiful business when the servant begins to think that he is "my lord." It
is a pity that servants, when honoured by their master, should be so apt to give
themselves airs. How ridiculous Jack-in-office makes himself! I do not refer now
to butlers and footmen, but to ourselves. If we magnify ourselves, we shall
become contemptible; and we shall neither magnify our office nor our Lord. We
are the servants of Christ, and not lords over His heritage. 2. A steward is a
servant of a peculiar kind, for he has to superintend the other servants, and
that is a difficult thing to do. An old friend of mine, who is now with God,
once said, "I have always been a shepherd. Forty years I was a shepherd of
sheep, and another forty years I was a shepherd of men, and the last flock was a
deal more sheepish than the first." This witness is true. I think I have heard
that a sheep has as many diseases as there are days in the year; but I am sure
that the other sort of sheep are liable to ten times as many. A pastor's work is
an anxious one. All sorts of difficulties occur with our fellow-servants; and,
alas! unwise stewards make a great many more than there need be by expecting
perfection in others, although they do not possess it themselves. Our
fellow-servants are, after all, wisely selected; for He who put them into His
household knew what He was doing; at any rate, they are His choice, and not
ours. It is not our place to find fault with our Lord's own election. It is very
common with some to revile the Church; but as the Church is the bride of Christ,
it is rather dangerous work to criticize the Lord's beloved. I feel towards the
Church somewhat as David felt towards Saul; I dare not lift up my hand against
the Lord's anointed. Better far will it be for us to find fault with ourselves
rather than with our people, when there is anything wrong with them. The other
servants will take their cue from us. A steward, who is dull, inert, and slow,
will have a slow team of servants about him, and the business of his lordship
will fare badly. Those who travel must have noticed that the servants in a hotel
are very much like the landlord; if the landlord is cheery, attentive, and
obliging, all the maids and waiters partake of his geniality; but if he looks
sourly at you, and treats you with indifference, you will find that the whole
establishment is of a disdainful order. A minister soon gets round him people
like himself: "like priest, like people." Oh, that we may always be alive and
earnest in the service of the Lord Jesus, that our people may be alive also! I
have read of a Puritan divine, that he was so full of life that his people said
he lived like one who fed on live things. Oh, for a life sustained by living
bread! 3. Next, remember that stewards are servants under the more immediate
command of the great Master. We should be as the steward who daily goes into his
lord's private room to receive orders. John Ploughman was never in the squire's
parlour, but the steward is often there. If he neglected to consult the squire,
he would soon be doing amiss, and involving himself in heavy responsibility. How
often ought you and I to say, "Lord, show me what Thou wouldst have me to do!"
To cease to look up to God, so as to learn and practise His will, would be to
quit our true position. What shall be done to a steward who never communicates
with his master? Give him his wagers, and let him go. He who does his own will,
and not his master's, is of no value as a steward. 4. Again, stewards are
constantly giving account. Their account is given as they go along. A
businesslike proprietor requires an account of outgoings and incomings, from day
to day. There is great truth in the old proverb that "short reckonings make long
friends." If we make short reckonings with God, we shall be long friends with
Him. I wonder if any of you keep account of your faults and shortcomings.
Perhaps the time will be better spent in constant efforts to serve your Master,
and increase His estate. We ought each one to ask himself, "What am I doing by
my preaching? Is it of the right kind? Am I giving prominence to those doctrines
which my Lord would have me put in the forefront? Am I caring for souls as He
would have me care for them?" It is a good thing thus to review one's whole
life, and enquire, "Do I give sufficient time to private prayer? Do I study the
Scriptures as intensely as I should? I hurry about to many meetings, but am I in
all this fulfilling my Master's orders? May I not be gratifying myself with the
appearance of doing much, whereas I should really be doing more if I were more
attentive to the quality than to the quantity of the work?" Oh, to go often to
the Master, and to be right and clear in our accounts with Him! We ought to
increase our capital stock. Are all the young brethren doing that? Are you
increasing in gift and capacity? My brethren, do not neglect yourselves. I
observe that some brethren grow, and others stand still, dwarfed and stunted.
Men, like horses, are very disappointing creatures; good colts drop suddenly
lame, or develop a vice of which they were never before suspected. Alas! too
many young men destroy our hopes; they are extravagant in their expenses, make
an unfortunate marriage, fall into ill humours, wander after novel opinions,
give way to laziness and self-indulgence, or in some other way fail to improve
themselves. Yet the most needful and profitable labour is that which we spend
upon our own mental and spiritual improvement. Whatever you do, take heed unto
yourselves, and to your doctrine. Those who neglect thinking in order that they
may be everlastingly "jawing", are very foolish; they resemble a bailiff who
does nothing on the farm, but talks at great length about what ought to be done.
Dumb dogs cannot bark, but wise dogs are not always barking. To be always giving
out, and never taking in, tendeth to emptiness. As a trustee, if my course of
action is disputed, I keep to the letter of the bond; and if any quarrel over
it, they must take their complaints to the proper Court, for I have no power to
alter the record. We are simply administrators; and if we are not allowed to
act, we will throw the whole thing into the heavenly Chancery. The dispute is
not between us and modern thought, but between God and the wisdom of men. "Oh!"
they say, "it is barbarous to go on prosing with this old, old story." We care
not how old the story is; since it came from God, we repeat it in His Name. Call
it what you like, it is in the Book from which we derive our authority. "But you
surely have a judgment of your own?" May be we have, and as much of it as those
who oppose us; but our judgment does not invent a trust, it simply guides us in
the carrying of it out. Stewards must keep to their orders, and trustees must
carry out the terms of their trust. 6. A steward's business is to dispense his
master's goods according to their design. He is to bring forth things new and
old; to provide milk for babes and strong meat for men, giving to each one his
portion of meat in due season. At some tables, I fear the strong men have been
waiting a long time for the meat, and there is small hope of its yet appearing;
the milk-and-water is more plentiful by far. Someone went to hear a certain
preacher, last Sunday, and complained that he did not preach Christ. Another
remarked that perhaps it was not the due season; but, my brethren, the due
season for preaching Christ is every time you preach. God's children are always
hungry, and no bread will satisfy them but that which comes down from Heaven.
Brethren, take care that you use your talents for your Master, and for your
Master only. It is disloyalty to our Lord if we wish to be soul-winners in order
to be thought to be so. It is unfaithfulness to Jesus if we even preach sound
doctrine with the view of being thought sound, or pray earnestly with the desire
that we may be known as praying men. It is for us to pursue our Lord's glory
with a single eye, and with our whole heart. We must use our Lord's gospel, and
our Lord's people, and our Lord's talents, for our Lord, and for Him alone. 8. I
shall cease from this picture when I have said that the steward represents his
master. When the master is away, everybody comes to the steward for orders. He
had need to behave himself well who represents such a Lord as ours. A steward
should speak much more carefully and wisely when he speaks for his lord than
when he speaks on his own account. Unless he is guarded in his utterances, his
lord may be forced to say to him, "You had better speak for yourself: I cannot
allow you thus to misrepresent me." My beloved brethren and fellow-servants, the
Lord Jesus is compromised by us if we do not keep His way, declare His truth,
and manifest His spirit Men infer the Master from the servant; are they not to
be excused if they so do? Ought not the steward to act after his master's
manner? You cannot dissociate the squire from the steward, the Lord from His
representative. A Puritan was told that he was too precise; but he replied, "I
serve a precise God." We should be gentle, for we represent the gentle Jesus. We
should be zealous, for we represent One who was clad with zeal as with a cloak.
Our best guide, when we are uncertain as to what to do, will be found in the
answer to the question, "What would Jesus do?" When deliberating about going to
a place of amusement, you may end the deliberation by saying, "I will go if my
Master would have gone." If moved to speak with warmth, take heed that it is
only such warmth as your Lord would have exhibited. The second part of my
address will be occupied with OUR OBLIGATIONS AS STEWARDS. "It is required in
stewards, that a man be found faithful." It is not required that a man be found
brilliant, or that he be found pleasing to his associates, or even that he be
found successful. All that is required is, that he be found faithful, and,
truly, this is no small matter. It will need the Lord Himself to be both our
wisdom and our strength, or we shall surely fail. Many are the ways by which we
may come short of this requirement, however simple it may seem to be. Brethren,
our Master "endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself," and shall we
be weary and faint in our minds? How can we be stewards of the gentle Jesus if
we behave ourselves haughtily? Let us never ride the high horse, nor attempt to
be lords over God's heritage; for He will not have it so, and we cannot be
faithful if we give way to pride. We are stewards, and not masters, and hence we
must trade in our Master's Name, and not in our own. It is not ours to fabricate
a religion, but to proclaim one; and even that proclamation is not to be made by
our own authority, but it is ever to be based on that of our Lord. We are
"labourers together with Him." If a brother sets up in business for himself, he
will make a mess of it, and fall into spiritual bankruptcy before long. His
credit will soon run out when his Master's Name is gone. We can do nothing in
our heavenly merchandise without our Lord. Let us not attempt to act on our own
account, but keep our place near our Chief in all lowliness of mind. 3. We shall
not be found faithful stewards if we are idlers and triflers. Do you ever meet
with lazy ministers? I have heard of them; but when mine eye sees them, my heart
abhors them. If you plan to be lazy, there are plenty of avocations in which you
will not be wanted; but, above all, you are not wanted in the Christian
ministry. The man who finds the ministry an easy life will also find that it
will bring a hard death. If we are not labourers, we are not true stewards; for
we are to be examples of diligence to the King's household. I like Adam Clarke's
precept: "Kill yourselves with work, and then pray yourselves alive again." We
shall never do our duty either to God or man if we are sluggards. 4. When we
misuse our Master's property, we are false to our trust. We are entrusted with a
certain amount of talent, and strength, and influence, and we have to use this
trust-money with a single purpose. Our purpose is to promote the Master's honour
and glory. We are to seek God's glory, and nothing else. By all means, let every
man use his best influence on the right side in politics; but no minister has
liberty to use his position in the church to promote party ends. I do not
censure workers for temperance; but even this admirable movement must not push
out the gospel: I trust it never does. I hold that no minister has a right to
use his ability or office to cater for the mere amusement of the multitude. The
Master has sent us to win souls: all is within the compass of our commission
which tends towards that end; but that is chiefly our work which drives directly
and distinctly at that end. The danger lies, at this time, in setting up
theatricals, semi-theatricals, concerts, and so forth. Until I see that the Lord
Jesus Christ has set up a theatre, or planned a miracle-play, I shall not think
of emulating the stage or competing with the music-hall. If I mind my own
business, by preaching the gospel, I shall have enough to do. One object is
enough for most men: one such as ours is enough for any minister, however many
his talents, however versatile his mind. 5. If we would be faithful as stewards,
we must not neglect any one of the family, nor neglect any portion of the
estate. I wonder whether we practise a personal observation of our hearers. Our
beloved friend, Mr. Archibald Brown, is right when he says that London needs not
only house-to-house visitation, but room-to-room visitation. We must in the case
of our people go further, and practise man-to-man visitation. By personal
intercourse alone, can certain persons be reached. If I had a number of bottles
before me, and were to play upon them with a fire-engine, how much of the water
would be lost; if I want to make sure of filling them, I must take them up one
by one, and carefully pour the liquid into them. We must watch over our sheep
one by one. This is to be done not only by personal talk, but by personal
prayer. Brethren, let us hunt up destitute localities, and see that no district
is left without the means of grace. This applies not only to London, but also to
villages, hamlets, and little groups of cottages. Heathenism hides away among
the lone places, as well as in the crowded slums of our mammoth cities. May
every piece of ground be rained upon by gospel influences! But you are, perhaps,
moved to answer me by saying, "Do not you, yourself, hold a high position in
your own church?" I do; but how have I gained it? I gave no power but that which
gentleness and love have brought me. How have I used my influence? Have I sought
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 fulfil 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 ye not like unto them.
Strive not, and yet wink not at sin. 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 labour 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. 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 Saviour
says, "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find
watching: verily 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, ye
angels, and principalities, and powers! This is the man whom the King delighteth
to honour." 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 honour 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 whithersoever He goeth!
Brethren, can ye abide in your steadfastness? Can ye 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. 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."


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  CHAPTER 11: THE EVILS OF THE PRESENT TIME, AND OUR OBJECT,
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Chapter 10 The Evils of the Present Time, and Our Object, Necessities, and
Encouragements*("misc/aarm10.htm" \\l "note")

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 honour from it: the prophecy has proved to be true, and I am content to have
it so. 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 quarrelled
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 labour 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 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.

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 saith the Lord;"
but, "Thus saith modern thought." When I note the clamour 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 cock; 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
endeavoured to cheer him by the fact that, when the wind was blowing, the cock
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 to-day, and for ever." 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. 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. 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 exchequer 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." Another great evil of the times is the insatiable craving
for amusements. That men should have rest from labour, 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 Thy 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. Another of
our difficulties lies in the lack of intense piety in many of the churches.
Numbers of our brethren and sisters to-day 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
enquiry 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 favour 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. 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 enquire 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. 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 wherewith
to believe is extinct; they have played with words till 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." 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 savour of Christ," as well in those that perish as in those
that are saved. The preaching of Jesus Christ is the burning of sweet odours
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 savour of rest unto Him. 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 thy 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 thyself 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! 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. 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. Let us not judge ourselves by others, and say, with deadening
self-complacency, "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 endeavoured 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. 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 wilful 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, till 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 Ghost
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. 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 pecuniary 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 labourers. 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! 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. In
the next place, labour 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. 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
dishonour 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. 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 centre 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. 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." 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 succour. Be sure that you are with
God, and then you may be sure that God is with you.

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.


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  CHAPTER 12: THE PREACHER'S POWER, AND THE CONDITIONS
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Chapter 11 The Preacher's Power, and the Conditions of Obtaining It

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. 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 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 for ever 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. 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 pretence; 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. In this grand, yet
delicate labour, 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 labour 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! 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 spake of the Holy
Spirit,— "'Tis Thine 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 labour must be in vain,
and our hopes must end in disappointment. 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. 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. 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. 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 Saviour; 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! This supernatural force is the power of the Holy Ghost,
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 dwelleth 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 Thy glory! 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 pretence 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 pretence of wisdom! 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. 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. 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. 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 trembleth at My Word."
When George Fox was called a Quaker, because he trembled at the Name of God, the
title was an honour 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 Saviour was the aspen, whose leaves continually quiver; and he that
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. 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 dishonoured; 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? 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, whilst
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 shewbread, must be baked in the centre of
our nature by the heat that is put there by the in-dwelling Spirit. Follow me,
my brethren, while I speak upon THE POWER THAT IS NEEDED WHEN WE ARE DELIVERING
THE MESAGES ITSELF. 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. 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. 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. 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 dishonouring 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.
This suspicion is born of want 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. 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 Ghost will not bless men of this sort. He
spake by an ass once, but that ass showed its sense by never speaking any more.
I know creatures of a similar kind that are not half so wise. 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 remaineth 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 art 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." 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 pretence 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 endeavours 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 neighbourhood, 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." 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. 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 Ghost 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 ye 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! 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. 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 judgmatical frame of
mind." No good will come of your warm-hearted address. 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 art 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. For large blessing, we must have union
among our people. God the Holy Spirit does not bless a collection of quarrelling
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 "endureth all things, hopeth 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. 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 behaviour. 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. 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, "Thou shouldest 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 laboured 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 grovelling object
were your aim. Believe for great things of a great God. 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. 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 ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons
and. daughters, saith 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 thy 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 ere 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 ye 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.


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  CHAPTER 13: THE MINISTER IN THESE TIMES
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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.
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. 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 "hath 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 hath 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."
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 till 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. 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 fancied 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. 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. 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 saith, "He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not
of God heareth 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 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 straightway 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. 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. 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 thy 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. 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. 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 ye
reconciled to God." Our Lord Jesus lays His pierced hands upon our shoulders,
and He says, "As the Father hath 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 taketh 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. 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 till we have brought them
home upon our shoulders rejoicing; for so was it with our Lord. 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. 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. 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. Ofttimes 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 for
ever. 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." 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 alway, 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 enquire,
"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 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 Ghost 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. Now for two or three words to finish with, upon OUR
POSITION INDIVIDUALLY. Peradventure, some sentence may come with power to this
man and to that. 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. 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. 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, "Thy people shall be willing in the day
of Thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: Thou
hast the dew of Thy youth"? Wherefore, be of good courage, and go on your way
singing,— "The winds of hell have blown, The world its hate hath shown, Yet it
is not o'erthrown. Hallelujah for the Cross! It shall never suffer loss!" The
Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.

NOTE * The Salt-Cellars. Being a Collection of Proverbs, together with Homely
Notes thereon, By C. H. SPURGEON. 2 vols.


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