Messages to the Multitude

THERE are many ways by which the true believer can “draw near to God.” The gates of the King’s palace are many; and through the love of Jesus, and the grace of His Spirit, it is our delight, by any of these gates of pearl, to enter, and approach our heavenly Father. Foremost among these is communion, that converse which man holds with God; that state of nearness to God, in which our mutual secrets are revealed — our hearts being open unto Him, His heart being manifested to us. Here it is we see the invisible, and hear the unutterable. The outward symbol of fellowship is the sacred Supper of the Lord, at which, by means of simple emblems, we are divinely enabled to feed, after a spiritual sort, upon the flesh and blood of the Redeemer. This is a golden gate of fellowship, a royal road which our feet delight to tread. Blessed are the feet that tread this sunny pathway. But we may as truly draw near to God if with sighs and tears we tread the pathway of penitence, when our desolate spirit longs for His sacred presence,

1 It was the desire of the publishers that the sermons should illustrate different periods of my long ministry. Hence this early one has in it allusions to events in the year 1859. It was preached in the’Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens, November 6, 1859.

and cries, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee!” Equally does a firm trust “draw near to God,” for it clings to Him. So often as we read the promise written in Holy Scripture, and are enabled to receive it and rest upon it as the very word of a covenant God, we do really “draw near” to Him.

Nevertheless, prayer is the best used means of drawin near to God. You will excuse me, then, if, in considering my text this morning, I confine myself entirely to the subject of prayer. It is in prayer, mainly, that we draw near to God; and certainly by each gracious man it can be said emphatically of prayer, “It is good for me to draw near to God.” Prayer is good for every man who knoweth how to practise that heavenly art, for in it he is privileged “to draw near to God.”

To assist your memories, that the sermon may abide with you in after-days, I shall divide my discourse in a somewhat singular manner. First, I shall look upon my text as being a touchstone, by which we may try our prayers, ay, and try ourselves too; then I shall take the text as a whetstone to sharpen our desires, to make us more earnest, and more diligent in supplication, because “it is good to draw near to God;” and then I shall have the solemn task, in the last place, of using it as a tombstone, with a direful epitaph upon it for those who do not know what it is to draw near to God; since “a prayerless soul is a Christless soul.”

I. First, you may regard my text as A TOUCHSTONE by which you may test your prayers, and try yourselves.

That is not prayer of which it cannot be said that there was in it a drawing near unto God. Come hither, then, with your supplications. I see one coming forward who says, “I am in the daily habit of using a form of prayer both at morning and at evening. I could not be happy if I went abroad before I had first repeated iny morning prayer, nor could I rest at night without again going over the holy sentences appointed for use at eventide. Sir, my form is the very best that could possibly be written; it was compiled by a famous bishop and confessor, who was glorified in martyrdom, and ascended to his God in a chariot of flame.” My friend, I am glad, if you use a form of prayer, that you use the best. If we have forms at all, let them be of the most excellent kind. So far so good. But let me ask you a question. I am not about to condemn you for any form you may have used; but tell me now, and tell me honestly from your inmost soul, have you drawn near to God while you have been repeating those words? for if not — oh, solemn thought! — all the prayers you have ever uttered have been an idle mockery. You have said prayers, but you have never prayed in your life. Imagine not that any enchantment resides in any particular set of words. You might as well repeat the alphabet backwards, or the “Abracadabra” of a wizard, as go over the best form in the world, unless there is something more than form in the act. Have you drawn near to God? That is the essential point. Suppose that one of us should desire to present a petition to the House of Commons. We wisely ask in what manner the petition should be worded, and we employ the prescribed phrases. Now, suppose that in the morning we rise and read this form, or repeat it to ourselves; and duly conclude with, “And your petitioners will ever pray,” and the like. Imagine that we do the same at night, and the next day, and the next, for many months. What have we done? One day, meeting a member of the House, we accost him, and astonish him by saying, “Sir, I wonder I have never had an answer from the House of Commons; I have been petitioning these last six months, and the form that I used was the most accurate that could be procured.” “But,” says he, “how was your petition presented?” “Presented! I had not thought of that; I have repeated the form of petition with much care. Is not that enough?” “No,” he would say. “You may repeat it many a long day before any good comes from it; it is not the repeating it, but the presenting of the petition, and having it pleaded by some able friend, that will get you the boon you desire.” And so it may be, my friend, that you have been repeating collects and prayers; and have ignorantly imagined that you have prayed, and yet have never prayed because you have not had to do with God in the whole business. Your prayer has never been presented to God.. You have not laid it before Jesus, the Great High-priest, and have not asked Him to take it for you into the sacred place where God abideth, and there to present the petition with His own merits before His Father’s throne. I will not bid you cease from your form; but I do beseech you, by the living God, either cease from it or else beg the Holy Spirit to enable you to draw near to God in it. I entreat you not to be vexed with me, so as to take what I may say for a piece of bitter censoriousness; I speak now as God’s own messenger in this matter. Your prayer has not been heard, and it neither can nor will be answered unless there be in it a true and real desire “to draw near to God.”

Keep reading