What Is the Wedding Garment?

“And when the king came into see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” — Matthew xxii. 11-13.

Two Sabbath mornings ago I preached from this parable, and I trust many were encouraged by it; but I noticed among inquirers who came to see me afterwards, a desire to know about the wedding garment; for they feared lest, in coming to join the church, they should come like the man of whom I shall now speak. Many true hearts are extremely sensitive to the impression of fear, and they seem to be on the watch for reasons for anxiety. I do not condemn them; on the contrary, I wish there were more of such holy tremblers. It is much better to be afraid of being wrong than to be indifferent as to what you are. I perceive among the very best of the saints a considerable number who are deeply anxious as to their state before God. Those who will one day be cast out of the wedding feast are feeding themselves without fear, while those who have the most right to enjoy the banquet are full of gracious anxiety. Solomon says,” Happy is the man that

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feareth alwaj “: he will cling closely to his God and that will make him happy; he will not rmi risks like the presumptuous, and so he will be happy. Holy fear spreads few banquets, but it takes care that when there is a feast we go to it in a wedding garment.

My chief object this morning will be to allay the fears of gracious ones. If they understand what the wedding garment really is, they will probably discover that they are wearing it; and, if not, they will know in whose wardrobe that garment of joy is to be found, and they will gladly ask to be arrayed therein. May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, give a wedding joy this morning to each wedding guest, by causing him to see for certain that he is clothed in the wedding robe.

Immediately after our text, we find these solemn words: ‘•^ Many are called, but few are chosen.” This is a conclusion drawn from the whole parable, in which we see processes at work which separate the chosen few from the many wdio are called. A distinction was made by the summoning of the invited guests. The simple delivery of the invitation set a difference between the loyal and the rebellious — a distinction most marked and decisive. So it is in the preaching of the gospel: we preach it to every creature within our reach. Lovingly, tenderly, earnestly; not so well as we would, but still with all our heart we call men to the royal feast of grace; and straightway the very invitation begins to gather out the precious from the vile. Pure gospel preaching is very discriminating. You can tell Cain from Abel as soon as the sacrifice is the subject. R;eachsdv:ajjiiii-by grace, and you find that some will not have it at any price, others postpone alFconsidcration of it, and a third party raise questions without end. Still do men make light of it, and go their way to their farms and to the,ir merchandise. Thus, dear friends, every Sabbath day, without our attempting to sit in judgment on men, the gospel is in itself a rehning fire. In the gospel the Son of David has a throne of judgment as well as of mercy. When men will not have Christ and lis grace, the Word preached by his humble servant drives them away, and they go with the chaff. But the work of discrimination is not finished after the gospel has been heard and men have been brought into the church. Alas! even in the chui’ch division has to be made; indeed, it is there that this is most fully carried out. “His fan is in his handj, and he will throughly purge his floor.” If he uses a scourge nowhere else, he will be sure to use it in his own temple. Among the sheep there are goats; among the virgins there are foolish ones 5 and among the guests at the wedding feast there are those whoaye not on the wedding garment. Until we come to heaven itself we shall always discover necessity for the work of self-examination. Even in the apostolic college, Judas carried on his knavery, as if to warn us that no rank in service, no honor among brethren, no length of experience can screen us from the necessity of saying, ‘^ Lord, is it I? “when his warning voice saith, “One of you shall betray me.’^ In our text we see a man who has hearkened to the invitation and has come into the feast, and thus has passed the first test; and yet he is imable to abide the second; he has been received by the servants, but he cannot deceive their master. The king detects him as a spot in the feast, and he is cast out from the palace of mercy into the outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. May hoiie’df us be of this sort.

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I shall endeavor to answer four questions naturallyarising out of the parable. First, What is meant hij the hinges coming in f — ‘’ when the king came in to see the guests “; secondly, What is the tvedcling garment f thirdly, Who is he that hath it not f and fourthly, Why did he stand speechless when he was asked, ‘^ How earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?”

I. May the Holy Spirit help us while we consider,

first, WHAT IS MEANT BY THE KINGS COMING IN.

“The king came in to see the guests.” They were all reclining at the tables, for “the wedding was furnished with guests.” They gathered while the sun was up, but darkness covered the world outside when “the king came in to see the guests.” They had feasted, and now the king came to honor the assembly.

It was the crown and the culmination of the feast. No matter how dainty the viands, nor how bright the hall, the feast has not reached its height till his majesty appears in gracious condescension. It is so with us, beloved, in reference to our greater King. When we are gathered in this house, which has often proved to us a palace of delights, we never reach the height of our desire till the Lord manifests himself to us. You delight to hear the preacher, and to join in the song, and to say Amen to the prayer, but these are not all. Your heart and your flesh cry out for God, for the living God; you look to behold the King in his beauty. When the glorious Father reveals himself in Christ Jesus, then the Sabbath is a high day, for our prayer is answered, “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.” Our glorious King is not always equally manifest in our solemn assemblies. Doubtless because of our sins he hideth himself. In truth he is always with us; for the feast is his, and the hall is

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his, and every guest is brought in by his grac<?, and every dish on the table is placed there by his love; but yet there are times when he is specially seen among his people. Then our communion with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ, is sweet indeed.

These are seasons of gracious visitation: times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. When the King comes into the assembly, the preaching of the word is in demonstration of the Spirit, and in power. Then the day of Pentecost has fidly come: the Spirit is abundantly outpoured, souls are saved, saints are edified, and Christ is glorified. The spiritual soon detect the divine presence, and the shout of a King is heard in the camp. When I think of it, my heart cries out with Isaiah, “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!” The presence of our God brings with it heavenly happiness, solemn content, and overflowing joy. Well does Dr. Watts sing: —

“The King himself comes near,
And feasts his saints to-day;
Here we maj sit and see him here,
And love, and praise, and pray.

*’ One day amidst the place

AVhere my dear God hath been
Is sweeter than ten thousand days
Of pleasurable sin.”

Beloved friends, you know better than I can tell you when the King is near, and you know sorrowfully when he is not in the assembly. Alas, from how many congregations is he absent, and that absence unmourned! When the Lord is gone we spread our sails, but there is no wind: we bring the sacrifice, but there is no fire. The wedding Avoiild have been a failure without guests; but what would the feast have been if the host had refused to come in and see the guests? But the King came in in due time. Ay, came in among that crowd of wayfarers gathered from the highways at a moment’s notice, and his presence crowned the festival with honor and rapture.

This coming in to see the guests indicates a glorious revelation of himself. When the King saw the guests, the guests saw him; but, inasmuch as his sight of them was the more important sight of the two, the chief thing is mentioned while the minor matter is implied. Do we know what it is to see God? This is the special privilege of the pure in heart. When the Lord’s way is in the sanctuary, then his sanctified ones behold him. Spiritual eyes have looked to Jesus by faith, and he saith, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.’^ Have you never been like John in Patmos, ready to swoon away because of the revelation of the Father in Christ? When Jesus has been set forth evidently crucified among us, we have in him beheld the face of the great King, and our hearts have leaped for joy, so that we have been ready to leap into heaven itself if the word had been given. When Augustine read those words, “Thou canst not see my face and live,” he was bold enough to answer, “Let me die to see thy face.”

Blessed vision!

‘’Lord, let me see thy beanteons face!
It yields a heaven below;
And angels round the throne will say,
‘Tis all the heaven they know.”

The King delights to see his guests, and his guests de-

light to see him. Then is our worship full of bliss, and no place out of heaven is so like to heaven as the place of our assemblies. We read in the Gospel of John: “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord j” and well they might be. Then are we glad also when we distinctly discern him as our Lord and our God. My own soul knows this joy unspeakable, but because it is unspeakable, I say no more.

For the King to come in and see the guests includes a manifestation of special favor. He comes in, not to judge the guests, but to look upon them. You that were here last Thursday might will remember my text: “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” The Lord is accustomed to look with favor upon those who love his name, for he is pleased with them. O brothers and sisters, when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; when the Father lifts upon us the light of his countenance, then our summer weather is come. Can anything be compared with the favor of God! The smiles of kings, the friendships of emperors — do not mention them in the same day. Some of you know that the Lord loves you; yea, that he loved you from before the foundation of the world, and he will love you when the world has ceased to be. Oh that the King would come here this morning in that sense, and look into all your faces, and give you all the full assurance that you are in his heart, and shall be there to all eternity! Oh that this whole church may be a living temple in which the Lord shall delight to dwell; may every stone of it be brilliant with the reflected light of his favor; may all our testimonies and labors be acceptable unto him, and may he be very gracious at the voice of our cry! O

Jehovah, manifest thyself here as thou didst between the cherubim? For thy sake we have borne reproach 5 Lord, be our glory! We have held fast thy truth; we beseech thee, let the light of thy countenance encourage us!

But here is the solemn point to which I call your attention: this visitation brings with it dJilM-^f discovery and searching of heart When the king comes in to see the guests, the light grows stronger and hidden things are revealed; for all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. When the Lord visits his church, his fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem; then the man without a wedding garment is winked at no longer. You can go on sleeping as a church when God is away, and no members will fall off j for those who know not the Lord will come in and go out among you as aforetime. The dead will remain quiet till the Lord sounds the trumpet of resurrection: mere professors will not know that they are making a false profession, but will remain at ease in our solemn feasts. But when the King comes in all things are changed. ‘^ Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth! for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s sope.” You cannot receive abimdant spiritual life into the church without the discernment of the unworthy, and the expulsion of the spiritually dead. One goes away because he is offended at the doctrine, another is grieved at the heart-searching experience, and a third feels himself too sternly rebuked as to his life. Thus the Lord’s visitation of grace becomes an assize of judgment, and the finger of the Lord writes upon the wall,^/.^ Thou art weighed in the balfmce,jmiilliJoun If

the LordouF^od were to come into his church to-day there would be an awful shrinkage among the number of his guests; a panic would seize the assembly, and the door would be blocked with men hastening to escape his eye.

Look how the king’s discernment is recorded in the text. One man only had refused to put on a wedding garment; but the king at once fixed his eye upon him. The Saviour, by a kind of heavenly charity, mentions only one intruder, but I fear we must regard the one as a type of many. If the King should come in at the time of our commmiion, I am afraid he would detect more than one. Still, if there were but one, he would concentrate his gaze upon that one, and speak to him by himself. If you are the only person who has dared to enter the church knowing that you are not converted, the King will spy you out. If you make a profession of religion out of bravado, and keep it up by sheer deceit, you may hide yoiu’self away among your family connections, or think that your respectability will screen you; but you are mistaken. You have to deal with one whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and he will so unmask you that you will not have a word to say in your own defence. This is a solemn matter. It will not make the true-hearted wish the King to stay away, but those who are wilful deceivers may well tremble. The King does come to this church. He is specially present in the midst of this people, and the consequence is that his judgment is strict with us. I have seen the rod of his discipline here in a very striking manner. I have seen the fair professor wither in the heat of love, and the rootless Christian dried up in the noontide of grace. He might have gone on very well in any other church, but he has not been able to abide the brandished sword of the Spirit, and its

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dividing asunder soul and spirit, joints and marrow. He has not been able to sit it out, but has been obliged to go away and find an easier rest. Just in proportion as we really have the King in the midst of us making glad the saints, we shall have the King in the midst of us discerning the false and casting them out, first into the outer darkness of the world, which lieth in the wicked one, and at last into the outer darkness of weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Still, be the result what it may, our prayer this morning is, “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.”

II. Now I would answer the second question: what IS THE WEDDING GARMENT? You are probably aware that this has been a point greatly disputed among theologians. Is the wedding garment justification, or sanctification, or what? I am not going to be theological and bring doctrinal matters to the text; but I shall read the parable as it stands, and interpret its details by its general run. It is called a ^^«(;ef?f?m garment” — a garment suitable for a marriage feast. Let us translate the figure, rather than attempt to rivet a doctrine to it. What does a wedding garment mean? What is that which we must have in connection with our Lord’s marriage or be cast out for ever %

I think I may say plainly that it must signify a dlstinguishing marlc of grace. Everybody does not wear a wedding garment: her who wears it has put it on because he is a wedding guest. You know the wedding guest at once by his attire, fle dresses in a way which woidd be considered singular if he were so arrayed every day. Your steady citizen indidges in a white waistcoat on the nuptial occasion, but he never dreams of going down to his office in the city in such gear. True members of the

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church of God wear a distinguishing mark. If you are not different from other people, you have no right in the church of God. If a servant can live with you for years and never discover your love to God, I should think there is none to discover. If you are just the same as those you lived with in your former days, if you have undergone no change, and are like the rest of men, you have not the distinguishing mark which sets forth your right to be in the church of God. There ought to be a something about us which sets us apart — a something which can be seen and understood by common people, even as a wedding garment could be seen, and its meaning at once perceived. Your religion uiust not require a microscope to perceive it, nor shoidd it be so indistinct that few can discover any meaning in it. j It should be as visible as the white garment which was worn JbyEasterns at a marriage. Is it so ^^“”^

I may boldly add here that the wedding garment was a distinguishing mark of grace; for as these people were fetched in from the highways they could noi: have provided themselves with wedding garments. It is the custom in the East for a king to provide robes for his guests; therefore this wedding garment was a mark of grace, freely given and received. Is there, then, a something about you which the Lord in love has given you? Do you differ from others, not in natural attainments, but in spiritual grace? Does the difference mainly lie in what God himself has done for you? That is the question involved in the symbol of the wedding garment. Do you differ from what you used to be? Do you differ from what you were years ago? Do you differ from those with whom you used to associate, so that you seek other company and turn aside from those

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who once were charming fellows to you? If so, you have on the wedding garment. It is a distinguishing, mark. I do not mean to put this in a way that would grieve anybody here unle£:s they ought to be grieved; but if they ought to be grieved, then we would have them cry to God for renewal by his grace. May the Lord make you to wear his livery! May he give you the spot of his children, and cause you no longer to be of the world! A distinguishing mark is plainly the first meaning of the wedding garment.

In the next place, it was a symbol of respect for the hing. To be fit for his company, the dress must be special. The absence of such a dress was, in the case before us, the badge of irreverence and disloyalty. This man said to himself: ‘^ I will feed at th3 feast without acknowledging its intent. Whoever stops me, I will push my way in, and I shall sit there in my every-day garments, to let the king know that I do not respect him intlie least, and will not wear the robes he provides.” It is as if you had lost a son, and some wretched man should say, “I will attend the funeral in a wedding suit. I shall thus wound the feelings of the mourners, and show my contempt for the whole afi’air.” What an insult it would be! To turn the picture. Suppose you were being married, and somebody forced his way into the wedding dressed in mourning, with crape upon his hat, and black kid gloves upon his hands. What a wanton insult! If such impudence were met with a horse-whip, who would be surprised? Now, this man acted in that fashion: he had no respect for the king: he showed his traitorous nature in the worst possible manner, spiting the king in his own halls upon a tender occasion. Dear friends, I trust that you can truly say, ‘’ I have on the wedding garment of reverence for the King. I do not despise the Lord God; but I bow before him in true worship. I would come into his church, not to dishonor him, but to give glory to his name.” The wedding garment was a token of respect to him who had provided the feast and presided over it: judge you this day whether you have on the wedding garment, by inquiring whether you honor and reverence the Lord God, and labor to be obedient to him in all things.

The wedding garment was, moreover, a tohen of Jionor for the prince. Those who put on the wedding garment did as good as say, ‘^ We join in the joy of the prince, and come hither to-day to show our attachment to him, and to wish him joy of his bride.’’ My hearers, do you feel a love to the Lord Jesus Christ? Many do not. I grieve to say we have a race of men sprmig up nowadays who call themselves Christians, who pour contempt upon his precious blood, and ridicule the substitutionary sacrifice. Dreadful assertion! but it is a matter of fact. The name of Jesus, why, it is to our lives what the sun is to the sky, what the nvers are to the plains. Nothing makes us so glad as thoughts of Jesus. I am sure when I hear a sermon about Christ, my Master, my very heart grows warm within me. Is it so with you? Well, then, you have on the wedding garment; that is to say, you do truly, though it be but in a simple way, pay homage to the Prince of Peace j you love the name and person of Jesus, and you come into his church because you do so.

The wedding garment also signified a confession of sympathy IV ith the great occasion. Every man who ate of the fatlings, every man who drank of the wines, every man who gave his presence, was a helper in the honors

of that wedding feast, save only this one intruder, who would not even pretend to join in the joy, for he refused the simple aet of putting on a robe fit for the feast. Dear friend, do you feel sympathy with the Lord’s purposes of grace! Do you rejoice that Jesus finds a bride among our race I Do you bless God for the covenant of grace, which includes incarnation, redemption, and sanctification! Do you bless the name of the incarnate God for taking into everlasting union with himself a people prepared of the Lord f Well, then, you are in sympathy with the marriage of the Lamb, and you have a right to be present at the feast. You evidently wear the wedding garment which denotes your joy in Christ, your interest in his church, your part and lot in the joyous work of his salvation.

The wedding garment means, in a word, conformity to the requirements of the occasion. It was a wedding, and the guests must put on a suitable dress. This man refused to put it on. He was jproud.andwoiild not wear the gift of grace; he was self-willed, and must needs be singular, and show his independence of mind. The regulation was by no means irksome, and to the rest of the guests the commandment was not grievous; but this man would have his own way in defiance of the lord of the feast. What could come of such folly “? Now, beloved, one of the requirements of the feast is, that you with your heart believe on the Lord Jesus, and that you take his righteousness to be your righteousness. Do you refuse this I If you will not accept the Lord Jesus as your substitute, bearing your sins in his own body on the tree, you have not the wedding garment. Another requirement is that you should repent of sin and forsake it; and that you should follow after holiness, and endeavor to copy the example of the Lord Jesus. You are to possess, as the work of divine grace, a godly and upright character. Have you such a character? Even though you are not perfect, yet, inasmuch as you follow after righteousness, you have the wedding garment. You say that you are a Christian; do you live like a Christian? Are you in a position and condition which agree with the gospel feast? If so, you have on the wedding garment.

Those who came unto the feast were, when they came, both bad and good; so that the wedding garment does not relate to their past character, but relates to something with which they were invested when they came to the banquet. The putting on of a wedding robe cannot refer to an elaborate ceremony, or a feat of the intellect, or to a deep experience of the heart; and yet it involved joining in the wedding, or not joining in it. It involved reverence for the king, and homage to the prince, and sympathy with the whole matter. Look well to yourselves, and see whether you truly yield yourselves to the Lord, and agree with him in the whole matter.

III. Thirdly, WHO IS THE MAN THAT HAS NOT ON
THE WEDDING GARMENT %

I should say, first, lie is the man tvlio rejects GocTs revealed gosjoel that he may foUoiv his own thought and his own wisdom. He says that he is loyal to Christ, and he expects all his fellow guests to be firm friends with him, for is he not in the banquet as much as they are f But he does not mean by loyalty what they mean by it. He is among believers, but he is not truly of them. He talks about atonement; he does not mean substitution. He talks about the divinity of Christ; he does not mean the Grodhead of Christ. He talks about justification by faith 5 but he does not mean the old-fashioned doctrine.

He speaks of regeneration, but means evolution. He girds liiuiself with the garniemt of philosophy, but he refuses the robe of revelation, for the cut of it is too old-fashioned for him. He is no more a wedding guest than he is a merry-andrew; perhaps, not so much so. He wears raiment in which the robe of righteousness and the garments of gladness are not to be seen. The looms of free grace and dying love have never woven him a wedding dress. His robe is not of God’s provision; it is from his own wardrobe. He glories in his own culture, and not in the revelation of God, nor yet in the work of divine grace upon the heart. He is in the church, but he is not in Christ. He has a name to live, but he is dead.

The next person who has not on the wedding garment is the man lulio refuses the righteousness of God because he has a righteousness of his own. He thinks his work-day dress good enough for Christ’s own wedding. What does he want with imputed righteousness? He scouts it as immoral. He who is himself immoral! What does he want with the precious blood of Jesus? He does not need to be washed from crimson stains. He writes a paper against the sensuousness of those persons who

‘’There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immamiers veius.”

His own righteousness, though it be of the law, and such as Paul rejected, he esteems so highly that he counts the blood of the covenant an unholy iln%! Ah me, the insolence of self-righteousness! Its pride is the very chief of sins, for it slights the righteousness of God. Practically, the self-righteous man does not see any wedding in the gospel system; he does see anything in the gospel to make him glad, nothing for him to sing about, nothing to make him shout for joy of heart. He will not praise the Prince. Not he! He is under the law, and he is content to be a slave; he is trying to save himself by his own works, and law knows no holidays. He is not a wedding guest, but a mere drudge.

Another sort of person has profession ivitliout feelwg. If he were outside of the church his conscience might trouble him: he has come inside of it, and now he says to himself, “It is all right.’^ He does not care to watch his feelings; he never had any: he would rather not have any. To the power of the Word he is a stranger, though he knows the letter of it. As to repentance, and the burden of sin, he never knew them, and does not want to know them. He thinks Mr. Bunyan must have been superstitious or morbid when he wrote ‘’ Grace Abounding.” Joy in the Lord is equally a thing unknown to him, for he hates all excitement. He has no solemn depressions and no raptures, for he has no spiritual life. As he has no holy feeling, so he has no holy action: he is a Christian, he says; but having put up the sign-board, he drives no trade. His religion operates far more upon his boots and his hat than it does upon his heart; that is to say, he comes out respectably dressed on a Sunday, but his religion never affects his conduct. Nobody can find much fault with him, except that he is as dead as a door nail. He commits no gross sin, he certainly performs no brilliant deeds of piety. Spiritually he is a very well washed corpse — that is all.

We have others who are in the church, who thinh that ivhatthey have done themselves or what nature has done for them, is quite enough. They do not seek anything supernatiu’al. They do not want any wedding garment more than their every-day coats. They are quite reputable in appearance even now, and with a little touching up they will be good enough without the new birth, and without the Holy Spirit. Alas, my hearers! all that nature can ever do for you will leave you on the wrong side of heaven. You may cultivate nature to its utmost, it will never bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. “Ye must be born again.” If you hac not come into living contact with a living Saviour by the work of the Holy Ghost you may be in the Church, but you are not in Christ, and have not on the wedding garment.

Why, some dare to come into the church who have not even common moraUfi/, It is shocking we should have to say it, but nowadays, we meet with those who call themselves Christians who can drink upon the sly, who can commit uncleanness with their bodies, who can be dishonest in their trading, who can be liars, who can hate their own flesh and blood and be at enmity with their brethren, and yet dare to come to the communion table. In the highlands of Scotland it was at one time difficult to get Christian people to come to the Lord’s Table, for they so trembled under a sense of their unworthiness. We do not want to push this too far, but that is a great deal better than that unholy daring, which is to be found in the minds of so many who serve Christ and Belial. God save his church from degradation! Unholy professors have not on a wedding garment: their outward robes by no means befit the King’s feast; but they are a dishonor to him.

I do not see how that man can be said to have on a wedding garment tvJio taJces no interest in the worh of the church. You see when a man put on the wedding garment, he did as good as say, ^’ I am interested in the wedding. I wish God’s blessing to the bride and bridegroom.” But many come in now to the King’s feast who do not care a snap of the finger for the church of God, nor for Christ either. They come in because a sort of selfishness makes them anxious to be saved; but as to the bride, the Lamb’s wife, they do not care whether she starves or flourishes. Sad and wretched business this! If members of the church only can distribute tracts or attend meetings for prayer — if they are doing this, and show an interest thus in the wedding — they have on the wedding garment. But if all they do is simply to hear, either to criticise or to enjoy, but never work for Christ, nor pray for Christ, they have no sympathy in the wedding feast, and therefore they have not on a wedding garment.

IV. To close, WHY WAS this manpchless f We do not often meet with people who have no excuse. Excuse-making is the easiest trade out. A man can make an excuse out of nothing at all, or out of what is less than nothing, out of a direct lie. But here was a man who could not speak. Why was that?

AVell, I think, first, the affront was too ‘bare-faced, “How camest thou in hither %” If he did not like the king he could have kept outside. There was no need why he should come in at all, and there display his malice. If any of you are resolved to be lost, you need not add to your eternal ruin by making a profession of religion, for hypocrisy is a superfluity of naughtiness. But this man wilfully refused the wedding garment. Now, those dear soids I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon do not wilfully refuse the Lord’s grace: I am sure they do not. Oh no, they are afraid they are not right, but they do not wish to be wrong. Such are not among those whom this parable condemns.

WHAT IS THE WEDDING GARMENT? 0Q9

Next, the affront was so audacious. ^^IIow earnest thou in hither? “said the king. He must have pushed by the deacons at the door. The fellow would come in. When the king said, “Bind him hand and foot,” I think it was because he had used hand and foot to get in. He would get in; he said, “I will get in. I will defy the king to his face, and sit in among his guests without a wedding garment.” You, dear friend, do not wish to do that: I am sure it is the last thing you would do. Why we have to persuade you to come in at all; for you are so tenderly jealous lest you should be mistaken. Do not let this parable condemn you.

But why was this man speechless? I answer once more, because it was the hing himself tvlio spoke to him. Ah! if I speak to you, what am I but flesh and blood? You do not mind me! But if the King himself were here to-day, and he said to any one of you, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?” the tone of his voice, the glory of his presence, would flash in upon your hearts, you would be obliged to feel it, and you could not invent an answer. If you do not love him, if you have no reverence for him, no sympathy with his Son, you will be speech] ess before his bar.

Lastly, the reason why he was speechless was because, even if he could have spoken and been free from terror, tJiere was nothing to be said. He could not cry, ^’ Lord, I did not know it.” He saw all the rest with wedding garments on. He could not say, “Lord, I could not get a wedding garment “: each one had received a garment gratis, and he might have received the same. He could not say, “Lord, I was pushed in here by somebody else.” No, he had willingly chosen to come, and to defy

210 W/JAT IS THE WEDDING GARMENT?

the rule The guests had all looked at him: some had edged a little waj off from him. Some had tenderly said, Brother, will you not put on the wedding garment % “He answered, “No,” ^’ Will you not go out before the king comes in? “^^ Why,’’ he said, “I came on purpose to defy him. I mean to keep my place.” I do not wonder that the king said, “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Our Lord Jesus Christ says very strong things about the future of the wicked. I have been accused of representing the state of the lost in too horrible a manner. I have never gone beyond the dreadful descriptions given by our Lord himself. Do not risk your eternal future. Come to the church of God and join it, but do not join it unless you love the Lord. Do not come to the gospel feast unless you reverence the King 5 unless you love the Prince; unless you are in sympathy with the great work of grace which is pictured as a wedding feast. If you have sympathy with the wedding, love to the bridegroom, and delight in the bride, then come and welcome; for you have the wedding garment. I am thinking just now of all those other hundreds of people at the wedding, all of them clothed with the wedding garment. What joy they felt! Many had been bad, and all had been poor: but they all had the wedding garment, and not one of them was cast out. If you will but put your trust in Jesus, and so honor the Son; and rest in the love of the Father, and so honor the King, it is written, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” God bless you for Jesus sake! Amen.

“LET HIM DELIVER HIM NOW.’^

Ju7W 17, 1888.

‘’He trusted in God; let Mm deliver him now, if lie will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God.” -Matthew xxvii. 43.

These words are a fulfilment of the prophecy contained in the twenty-second Psalm. Read from the seventh verse — “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” Thus to the letter doth our Lord answer to the ancient prophecy.

It is very painful to the heart to picture our blessed Master in his death-agonies, surrounded by a ribald multitude, who watched him and mocked him, made sport of his prayer and insulted his faith. Nothing was sacred to them; they invaded the Holy of holies of his confidence in God, and taunted him concerning that faith in Jehovah which they were compelled to admit. See, dear friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suff’ers so bitterly to make atonement for it! See, also, the shame of sin, since even the Prince of Glory, when bearing the consequences of it, is covered with contempt! Behold, also, how he loved us! For our sake he “endured th cross, despising the shame.” He loved us so much that even scorn of the most cruel sort he deigned to bear, that he might take away our shame and enable us to look up unto God.

Beloved, the treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ by men is the clearest proof of total depravity which can possibly be required or discovered. Those must be stony hearts indeed which can laugh at a dying Saviour, and mock even at his faith in God! Compassion would seem to have deserted humanity, while malice sat supreme on the throne. Painfid as the picture is, it will do you good to paint it. You will need neither canvas, nor brush, nor palette, nor colors. Let your thoughts draw the outline, and your love fill in the detail; I shall not complain if imagination heightens the coloring. The Son of God, whom angels adore with veiled faces, is pointed at with scornful fingers by men who thrust out the tongue and mockingly exclaim, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.’^

While thus we see our Lord in his sorrow and his shame as our substitute, we must not forget that he also is there as our representative. That which appears in many a psalm to relate to David is found in the Gospels to refer to Jesus, our Lord. Often and often the student of the psalms will say to himself, Of whom speaketh the prophet this? “He will have to disentangle the threads sometimes, and mark off” that which belongs to David and that which relates to the Son of God; and frequently he will not be able to disentangle the threads at all, because they are one, and may relate both to David, and to David’s Lord. This is meant to show us that the life of Christ is an epitome of the life of his people. He not only suffers for us as our substitute, but he suflG^rs before us as our pattern. In him we see what we have in our “Z^r IIIM DELIVER IIIM A’OIF.” 213

measure to endure. “As he is so arc we also in this world.” AVe also must be crucified to the world, and we may look for somewhat of those tests of faith and taunts of derision which go with such a crucifixion. “Marvel not if the world hate you.” You, too, must suffer without the gate. Not for the world’s redemption, but for the accomplishment of divine purposes in you, and through you to the sons of men, you must be made to know the cross and its shame. Christ is the mirror of the church. What the head endured every member of the body will also have to endure in its measure. Let us read the text in this light, and come to it saying to ourselves, “Here we see what Jesus suffered in our stead, and we learn hereby to love him with all our souls. Here too, we see, as in a prophecy, how great things we are to suffer for his sake at the hands of men.” May the Holy Spirit help us in our meditation, so that at the close of it we may more ardently love our Lord, who suffered for us, and may the more carefully arm ourselves with the same mind which enabled him to endure such contradiction of sinners against himself.

Coming at once to the text, first, observe the achiowledgment with which the text begins: “He trusted in God.” The enemies of Christ admitted his faith in God. Secondly, consider the test which is the essence of the taunt: “Let him deliver him, if he will have him.” When we have taken those two things into our minds, then let us for a while consider the answer to that test and taunt: God does assuredly deliver his people: those who trust in him have no reason to be ashamed of their faith.

I. First, then, my beloved brethren, you who know the Lord by faith and live by trusting in him, let me invite you to OBSERVE THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT which these mockers made of our Lord’s faith: “He trusted in God.” Yet the Saviour did not wear any peculiar garb or token by which he let men know that he trusted in God. He was not a recluse, neither did he join some little knot of separatists, who boasted their peculiar trust in Jehovah. Although our Saviour was separate from sinners, yet he was eminently a man among men, and he went in and out among the multitude as one of themselves. His one peculiarity was that “he trusted in God.” He was so perfectly a man that, although he was undoubtedly a Jew, there were no Jewish peculiarities about him. Any nation might claim him; but no nation could monopolize him. The characteristics of our humanity are so palpably about him that he belongs to all mankind. I admire the Welch sister who was of opinion that the Lord Jesus must be Welch. When they asked her how she proved it, she said that he always spoke to her heart in Welch. Doubtless it was so, and I can, with equal warmth, declare that he always speaks to me in English. Brethren from Germany, France, Sweden, Italy — you all claim that he speaks to you in your own tongue. This was the one thing which distinguished him among men — “he trusted in God,” and he lived such a life as naturally grows out of faith in the Eternal Lord. This peculiarity had been visible even to that ungodly multitude who least of all cared to perceive a spiritual point of character. Was ever any other upon a cross thus saluted by the mob who watched his execution? Had these scorners ever mocked any one before for such a matter as this? I trow not. Yet faith had been so manifest in our Lord’s daily life that the crowd cried out aloud, “He trusted in God.”

How did they know? I suppose they could not help seeing that he made much of God in his teaching, in his life, and in his miracles. Whenever Jes spoke it was always godly talk; and if it was not always distinctly about God, it was always about things that related to God, that came from God, that led to God, that magnified God. A man may be fairly judged by that which he makes most of. The ruling passion is a fair gauge of the heart. What a soul-ruler faith is! It sways the man as the rudder guides the ship. When a man once gets to live by faith in God, it tinctures his thoughts, it masters his purposes, it flavors his words, it puts a tone into his actions, and it comes out in everything by ways and means most natural and unconstrained, till men perceive that they have to do wdth a man who makes much of God. The unbelieving world says outright that there is no God, and the less impudent, who admit his existence, put him down at a very Ioav figure, so low that it does not affect their calculations; but to the true Christian, God is not only much, but all. To our Lord Jesus, God was all in all; and when you come to estimate God as he did, then the most careless onlooker will soon begin to say of you, “He trusted in God.”

In addition to observing that Jesus made much of God, men came to note that he was a trusting man, and not self-confident. Certain persons are very proud because they are self-made men. I will do them the credit to admit that they heartily worship their maker. Self made them, and they worship self. We have among us individuals who are self-sufiicient, and almost all-sufficient; they sneer at those who do not succeed, for they can succeed anywhere at anything. The world to them is a football which they can kick where they like. If they do not rise to the very highest eminence it is simply out of pity to the rest of us, who ought to have a chance. A vat of suffincj ferments within their ribs! There was nothing of that S(;rt of thing in oui’ Lord. Those who watched him did not say that he had great self-reliance and a noble spirit of self-confidence. Ko, no! They said, “He trusted in God.” Indeed it was so. The words that he spake he spake not of lam self, and the great deeds that he did he never boasted of, but said, “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” He was a truster in God, not a boaster in self. Brethren and sisters, I desire that you and I may be just of that order. Self-confidence is the death of confidence in God; reliance upon talent, tact, experience, and things of that kind, kills faith. Oh that we may know what faith means, and so look out of ourselves and quit the evil confidence which looks within!

On the other hand, we may wisely remember that, while our Lord Jesus was not self-reliant, he trusted j and was by no means despondent: he was never discouraged. He neither questioned his commission, nor despaired of fulfilling it. He never said, “I must give it up: I can never succeed.” No; “He trusted in God.” And this is a grand point in the working of faith, that while it keeps us from self-conceit, it equally preserves us from enfeebling fear. When our blessed Lord set his face like a flint; when, being baffled, he returned to the conflict; when, being betrayed, he still persevered in his love, then men could not help seeing that he trusted in God. His faith was not mere repetition of a creed, or profession of belief, but it was childlike reliance upon the Most High. May ours be of the same order!

It is evident that the Lord Jesus trusted in God cpenltf, since even yonder gibing crowd proclaim it. Some good

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people try to exercise faith on the sly: they practice it ill snug corners, and in lonely hours, but they are afraid to say much before others, for fear their faith should not see the promised fulfilled. They dare not say, with David, “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.” This secrecy robs God of his honor. Brethren, we do not glorify our God as he ought to be gloriiied. Let us trust in him, and own it. Wherefore should we be ashamed? Let us throw down the gauge of battle to earth and hell. God, the true and faithfid, deserves to be trusted without limit. Trust your all with him, and be not ashamed of having done so. Our Saviour was not ashamed of trusting in his God. On the cross he cried, “Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breast.” Jesus lived by faith. We are sure that he did, for in the Epistle to the Hebrews he is quoted as saying, ^’ I will put my trust in him.” If so glorious a personage as the only -begotten Son of God lived here by faith in God, how are you and I to live except by trust in God? If we live unto God, this is the absolute necessity of our spiritual life: “the just shall live by faith.” Shall we be ashamed of that which brings life to us? The cruel ones who saw Jesus die did not say, “He now and then trusted in God”; nor “He trusted in the Lord years ago “; but they admitted that faith in God was the constant tenor of his life: they could not deny it. Even though, with malicious cruelty, they turned it into a taunt, yet they did not cast a question upon the fact that ‘•’’ he trusted in God.” Oh, I want you so to live that those who dislike you most may, nevertheless, know that you do trust in God. When you come to die, may yoiu’ dear children say of you, “Our dear mother did trust in the Lord “! May that boy who has gone furth« est away from Christ, and grieved your heart the most, nevertheless say in his heart, “There may be hypocrites in the world, but my dear father does truly trust in God!” Oh, that our faith may be known unmistakably! We do not wish it to be advertised to our own honor. That be far from our minds. But yet we would have it knoTvii, that others may be encouraged, and that God may be glorified. If nobody else trusts in God, let us do so; and thus may we uplift a testimony to the honor of his faithfulness. When we die, may this be our epitaph — “He trusted in God.”

David, in the twenty-second Psalm, represents the enemies as saying of our Lord — ‘^ He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him.” This practical faith is £>ure to be known wherever it is in operation, because it is exceedingly rare. Multitudes of people have a kind of faith in God, but it does not come to the practical point of trusting that God will deliver them. I see upon the newspaper placards, Startling News! People in the Planets! “Not a very practical discovery. For many a day there has been a tendency to refer God’s promises and our faith to the planets, or somewhere beyond this present every-day life. We say to ourselves, “Oh yes, God delivers his people.” We mean that he did so in the days of Moses, and possibly he may be doing so now in some obscure island of the sea. Ah me! The glory of faith lies in its being fit for every-day wear. Can it be said of you, “He trusted in God, that he woidd deliver him “? Have you faith of the kind which will make you lean upon the Lord in poverty, in sickness, in bereavement, in persecution, in slander, in contempt? Have you a trust in God to bear you up in

LET HIM DELIVER IIIM NOW:’ 219

holy living at all costs, and in active service, even beyond your strength? Can you trust in God definitely about this and that? Can you trust about food, and raiuient, and home? Can you trust God even about your shoes, that they shall be iron and brass, and about the hairs of your head that they are all numbered? What we need is less theory and more actual trust in

God.

The faith of the text was personal: “that he would deliver him:^ Blessed is that faith which can reach its arm of compassion aroimd the world, but that faith must begin at home. Of what use were the longest arm if it were not fixed to the man himself at the shoulder? If you have no faith about yourself, what faith can you have about others? ‘’ He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him.” Come, beloved, have you such a faith in the living God f Do you trust in God through Christ Jesus that he will save you I Yes, you poor unworthy one, the Lord will deliver you if you trust him. Yes, poor woman, or unknown man, the Lord can help you in your present trouble, and in every other, and he will do so if you trust him to that end. May the Holy Spirit lead you to first trust the Lord Jesus for the pardon of sin, and then to trust in God for all things.

Let us pause a minute. Let a man trust in God; not in fiction, but in fact, and he will find that he has the solid rock under his feet. Let him trust about his own daily needs and trials, and rest assured that the Lord will actually appear for him, and he will not be disappointed. Such a trust in God is a very reasonable thing, its absence is most unreasonable. If there be a God, he knows all about my case. If he made my ear, he can hear me; if he made my eye he can see me; and therefore he perceives my condition. If he be my Father, as he says he is, he will certainly care for me, and will help me in my hour of need, if he can. We are sure that he can, for he is omnipotent. Is there anything unreasonable, then, in trusting in God that ho will deliver us? I venture to say that if all the forces in the miiverse were put together, and all the kindly intents of all who are our friends were put together, and we were then to rely upon those miited forces and intents, we should not have a thousandth part so much justification for our confidence as when we depend upon God, whose intents and forces are infinitely greater than those of all the world beside. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man; it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.^’ If you view things in the white light of pure reason, it is infinitely more reasonable to tiust in the living God than in all his creatures put together.

Certainly, dear friends, it is extremely comfortable to trust in God. I find it so, and therefore speak. To roll your burden upon the Lord, since he will sustain you, is a blessed way of being quit of care. We know, him to be faithful, and as powerful as he is faithful j and our dependence upon him is the solid foundation of a profound peace.

While it is comfortable, it is also ‘uplifting. If you trust in men, the best of men, you are likely to be lowered by your trust. We are apt to cringe before those who j)atronize us. If your prosperity depends upon a person’s smile, you are tempted to pay homage even when it is undeserved. The old saying mentions a certain person as “knowing on which side his bread is buttered.” Thousands are practically degraded by their ‘’LET HIM DELIVER IILM NOW.’’ 221

trusting in men. But when our reliance is upon the living God, we are raised by it, and elevated both morally and spiritually. You may bow in deepest reverence before God, and yet there will be no fawning. You may lie in the dust before the Majesty of heaven, and yet not be dishonored by your humility; in fact, it is our greatness to be nothing in the presence of the Most High.

This confidence in God makes men strong. I should advise the enemy not to oppose the man who trusts in God. In the long run he will be beaten, as Haman found it with ]Iordecai. He had been warned of this by Zeresh, his wife, and his wise men, who said, ‘’ If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jcavs, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.’^ Contend not with a man who has God at his back. Years ago, the Mentonese desired to break away from the dominion of the Prince of Monaco. They therefore drove out his agent. The prince came with his army, not a very great one, it is true, but still formidable to the Mentonese. I know not what the high and mighty princeling was not going to do; but news came that the King of Sardinia was coming up in the rear to help the Mentonese, and therefore his lordship of Monaco very prudently retired to his own rock. When a believer stands out against evil he may bo sure that the lord of hosts will not be far away. The enemy shall hear the dash of his horse-hoof and the blast of his trumpet, and shall flee before him. Wherefore be of good courage, and compel the world to say of you, “He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him.”

II. Secondly, I want you to follow me briefly in considering THE TEST WHICH IS THE ESSENCE OF THE TAUNT which was hurled by the mockers agamst our

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Lord — ‘’’’ Let Lim deliver him now, if lie will have him.” Such a test will come to all believers. It may come as a tamit from enemies; it will certainly come as a trial of your faith. The arch-enemy will assuredly hiss out “Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”

This taunt has about it the appearance of being very log- ’ ical, and indeed in a measure so it is. If God has promised to deliver us, and we have openly professed to believe the promise, it is only natural that others should say, “Let us see whether he does deliver him. This man believes that the Lord will help him; and he must help him, or else the man’s faith is a delusion.” This is the sort of test to which we ourselves would have put others before our conversion, and we cannot object to be proved in the same manner ourselves. Perhaps we incline to run away from the ordeal, but this very shrinking shoidd be a solemn call to us to question the genuineness of that faith which we are afraid to test. “He trusted on the Lord,” says the enemy, ‘^ that he would deliver him: let him deliver him;” and surely, however malicious the design, there is no escaping from the logic of the challenge.

It is peculiarly painful to have this stern inference driven home to you in the hour of sorrow. Because one cannot deny the fairness of the appeal, it is all the more trying. In the time of depression of spirit it is hard to have one’s faith questioned, or the ground on which it stands made a matter of dispute. Either to be mistaken in one’s belief, or to have no real faith, or to find the ground of one’s faith fail, is an exceedingly grievous thing. Yet, as our Lord was not spared this painful ordeal, we must not expect to be kept clear of it, and Satan knows well how to work these questions, till the poison ‘’LET IlIM DELIVER 11 IM NOW:’ 223

of them sets tlic blood on fire. “fie trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him;” he hurls this fierj dart into the soul, till the man is sorely wounded, and can scarcely hold his ground.

The taunt is specially ^omedf and personal. It is put thus: He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him; “” Do not come to us with your fiddle-faddle about God’s helping all his chosen, Here is a man who is one of his people, will he help him f Do not tolk to us big things about Jehovah at the Red Sea, or in the Desert of Sinai, or God helping his people in ages past. Here is a living man before us who trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him now.” You know how Satan will pick out one of the most afflicted, and pointing his fingers at him will cry, ‘’’ Let him deliver HIM.’^ Brethren, the test is fair. God will be true to every believer. If any one child of God could be lost, it would be quite enough to enable the devil to spoil all the glory of God for ever. If one promise of God to one of his people should fail, that one failure would suffice to mar the veracity of the Lord to all eternity; they would publish it in the ^’Diabolical Gazette,” and in every street of Tophet they woidd howl it out, ^’ God has failed. God has broken his promise. God has ceased to be faithfid to his people.” It would then be a horrible reproach — ‘^ He trusted in God to deliver him, but he did not deliver him.”

Much emphasis lies in its being in the present tense: “He trusted in God that he woidd deliver him: let him deliver him now.^^ I see Thee, O Lord Jesus, thou art not now in the wilderness, where the fiend is saying, ‘’If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Ko. Thou art nailed to the tree; thine enemies have hemmed thee in. The legionaries of Rome are at the foot of the cross, the Scribes and Pharisees and raging Jews compass thee about. There is no escape from death for thee! Hence their cry — ‘’Let him deliver him nowP Ah, brothers and sisters! this is how Satan assails us, using our present and pressing tribulations as the barbs of his arrows. Yet here also there is reason and logic in the challenge.

If God does not deliver his servants at one time as well as another, he has not kept his promise. For a man of truth is always true, and a promise once given always stands. A promise cannot be broken now and then, and yet the honor of the person giving it be maintained by his keeping it at other times. The word of a true man stands always good: it is good now. This is logic, bitter logic, cold steel logic, logic which seems to cut right down your backbone and cleave your chine. ‘’ He trusted on the Lord that he woidd deliver him: let him deliver him now.” Yet this hard logic can be turned to comfort. I told you a story the other day of the brother in Guy’s Hospital to whom the doctors said he must undergo an operation which was extremely dangerous. They gave him a week to consider whether he would submit to it. He was troubled for his young wife and children, and for his work for the Lord. A friend left a bunch of flowers for him, with this verse as its motto, ^’ He trusted in God; let him deliver him now.” “Yes,” he thought “nowP Li prayer he cast himself upon the Lord, and felt in his heart, ‘’Come on, doctors, I am ready for you.” When the next morning came, he refused to take chloroform, for he desired to go to heaven in his senses. He bore the operation manfully, and he is yet alive. ^’ He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him” then and

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there, and the Lord did so. In this lies the brunt of the battle.

A Christian man may be beaten in business, he may fail to meet all demands, and then Satan yells, ^’ Let him deliver him noivJ^ The poor man has been out of work for two or three months, tramping the streets of London until he has worn out his boots; he has been brought to his last penny. I think I hear the laugh of the Prince of Darkness as he cries, Let him deliver him 720wJ^ Or else the believer is very ill in body, and low in spirit, and then Satan howls, Let him deliver him notvJ^ Some of us have been in very trying positions. We were moved with indignation because of deadly error, and we spoke plainly, but men refused to hear. Those we relied upon deserted us; good men sought their own ease and would not march with us, and we had to bear testimony for despised truth alone, until we were ourselves despised Then the adversary shouted, “Let him deliver him ??o?/’.” Be it so! We do not refuse the test. Our God whom we serve will deliver us. We will not bow down to modern thought nor worship the image which human wisdom has set up. Our God is God both of hills and of valleys. He will not fail his servants, albeit that for a while he forbears that he may try their faith. We dare accept the test, and say,” Let him deliver us noiv.^^

Beloved friends, we need not be afraid of this taunt if it is brought by adversaries; for, after all, the test will come to us apart from any malice, for it is incviiahh. All the faith you have will be tried. I can see you heaping it up. How rich you are! What a pile of faith ‘Friend, you are almost perfect! Open the furnace door and put the heap in. Do you shrink? See how it shrivels! Is there anything l:f+? BrinT hither a ma;?-

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nifying glass. Is this all that is left? Yes, this is all that remains of the heap. You say, “I trusted in God.” Yes, but you had reason to cry, ^’ Lord, help my mibelief.” Brethren, we have not a tithe of the faith we think we have. But whether or not, all our faith must be tested. God builds no ships but what he sends to sea. In living, in losing, in working, in weeping, in suiFering, or in striving, God will find a fitting crucible for every single grain of the precious faith which he has given us. Then he will come to us and say — You trusted in God that he would deliver you, and you shall be delivered now. How you will open your eyes as you see the Lord’s hand of deliverance! What a man of wonders you will be when you tell in your riper years to the younger people how the Lord delivered you! Why, there are some Christians I know of who, like the Ancient Mariner, could detain even a wedding guest with their stories of God’s wonders on the deep.

Yes, the test will come again and again. May the gibes of adversaries only make us ready for the sterner ordeals of the judgment to come. 0 my dear friends, examine your religion. You have a great deal of it, some of you; but what of its quality? Can your religion stand the test of poverty, and scandal, and scorn? Can it stand the test of scientific sarcasm and learned contempt? Will your religion stand the test of long sickness of body and depression of spirit caused by weakness? What are you doing amid the common trials of life? What will you do in the swellings of Jordan? Examine well your faith, since all hangs there. Some of us who have lain for weeks together, peering through the thin veil vrhich parts us from the unseen, have been made to feel that nothing will sufiice us but a promise which will answer the taunt,” Let him deliver us nowP

III. I shall finish, in the third place, dear friends, by noticing the answer to the test. God docs deliver those who trust in him. God’s interposition for the faithfid is not a dream, but a substantial reality. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” All history proves the fixithfulness of God. Those who trust God have been in all sorts of troubles; but they have always been delivered. They have been bereaved. What a horrible bereavement was that which fell to the lot of Aaron, when his two sons were struck dead for their profanity in the presence of God! And Aaron held his peace “! What grace was there! Thus will the Lord sustain you also, shoidd he take away the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Grave after grave has the good man visited, till it seemed that his whole race was buried, and yet his heart has not been broken; but he has bowed his soul before the will of the ever-blessed One. Thus has the Lord delivered his afflicted one by sustaining him. In other ways the bush has burned, and yet has not been consumed. Eem ember the midtiplied and multiform trials of Job. Yet God sustained him to the end, so that he did not charge God foolishly, but held fast his faith in the Most High. If ever you are called to the afflictions of Job, you will also be called to the sustaining grace of Job. Some of God’s servants have been defeated in their testimony. They have borne faithfid witness for God, but they have been rejected of men. It has been their lot, like Cassandra, to prophesy the truth, but not to be believed. Such was Jeremiah, who was born to a heritage of scorn from those whose benefit he sought.

Yet he was delivered. He shrank not from being faithfid. His com-age could not be silenced. By integrity he was delivered.

Godly men have been despised and misrepresented, and yet have been delivered. Remember David and h«is envious brethren, David and the malignant Saul, David when his men spake of stoning him. Yet he took off the giant’s head; yet he came to the throne; yet the Lord built him a house.

Some of God’s servants have been bitterly persecuted, but God has delivered them. Daniel came forth from the lions’ den, and the three holy children from the midst of the burning fiery furnace. These are only one or two out of millions who trusted God and he delivered them. Out of all manner of ill the Lord delivered them. God brought this crowd of witnesses through all their trials unto his throne, where they rest with Jesus, and share the triumphs of their Master at this very day. O my timid brother, nothing has happened to you but what is common to men. Your battle is not different from the warfare of the rest of the saints; and as God has delivered them he will deliver you also, seeing you put your trust in him.

But Gods tvays of deliverance are his own. He does not deliver according to the translation put upon “deliverance” by the ribald throng. He does not deliver according to the interpretation put upon “deliverance” by our shrinking flesh and blood. Pie delivers, but it is in his ovn way. Let me remark that, if God delivers you and me in the same way as he delivered his own Son, ive can have no cause of complaint. If the deliverance which he vouchsafed to us is of the same kind as that which he vouchsafed to the Only Begotten, we may well ‘’LET HIM DELIVER IIIM NOWy 229

be content. Well, what kind of a deliverance was that? Did the Father tear up the cross from the earth? Did he proceed to draw out the nails from the sacred hands and feet of his dear Son? Did he set him down upon that ‘’green hill far away, beyond the city wall, ‘^ and place in his hand a sword of fire with which to smite his adversaries? Did he bid the earth open and swallow up all his foes? No; nothing of the kind. Jehovah did not interpose to spare his Son a single pang; but he let him die. He let him be taken as a dead man down from the cross and laid in a tomb. Jesus went through with his suffering to the bitter end. O, brothers and sisters, this may be God’s way of delivering us. We have trusted in God that he would deliver us; and his rendering of his promise is, that he will enable us to go through with it; we shall suffer to the last, and triunipli in so doing.

Yet God’s way of delivering those who trust in him is always the lest way. If the Father had taken his Son down from the cross, what vrould have been the result? Redemption miaccomplished, salvation work midone, and Jesus returning with his life-work unfinished. This would not have been deliverance, but defeat. It was much better for our Lord Jesus to die. Now he has’ paid the ransom for his elect, and having accomplished the great purpose of atonement, he has slept a while in the heart of the earth, and now has ascended to his throne in the endless glories of he.wen. It was deliverance of the fullest kind; for from the pangs of his death has come the joy of life to his redeemed. It is not God’s will that every mountain should be levelled, but that we shoidd be the stronger for cliinbing the Hill Difficulty. God will deliver; he must deliver, but he will do it in

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our caseSj as in the case of our Lord, in the best possible manner.

Anyhow, he will deliver his chosen: the taunt of the adversary shall not cause our God to forget or forego his people. I know that the Lord will no more fail me than any other of his servants. He will not leave a faithful witness to his adversaries. ^’ I know that my Avenger liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth j and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another j though my reins be consumed within me.” Is this also your confidence 1 Then do not sit down in sorrow, and act as though you despaired. Quit yourselves like men. Be strong, fear not. Cast yourselves on the love that never changeth and never fainteth, and the Lord will answer all the revilings of Rabshakeh, and the blusterings of Sennacherib.

There are times when we may use this text to our comfort. ^’ Let him deliver him now,” saith the text, ^’if he will have him.” You, dear friends, who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ before, how I wish you could try him now! You feel this morning full of sin, and lull of need. Come, then, and trust the Saviour now. See whether he will not save you oiotv. Is there one day in the year in which Jesus cannot save a sinner? Come and see whether the 17th of June is that day. Try whether he will not deliver you now from the guilt, the penalty, the power of sin. Why not come? You have never, perhaps, been in the Tabernacle before, and when coming here this morning 3”ou did not think of finding the Saviour. Oh, that the Saviour may find ‘’LET /JIM DELIVER HIM NOlVr 231

you! Jesus Christ is a Saviour every day, all the year round. Whoever cometh to him shall find eternal life now, ‘’’’ Oh,” you say, ‘^ I am in such an unfit state; I am in all the deshabille of my carelessness and godlessness.” Come along, man, come along, just as you are. Tarry not foi* improvement or arrangement, for both of these Jesus will give you; come and put your trust in the great Sacrifice for sin, and he will deliver you — deliver you now. Lord, save the sinner, noivl

Others of you are the children of God, but you are in peculiar trouble. Well, what are you going to do? You have always trusted in God before; are you going to doubt him now? 0 my dear sir, you do not know my distress; I am the most afilicted person in the Tabernacle.” Be it so; but you trusted in the Lord the past twenty years, and I do not believe that you have seen any just cause for denying him your confidence now. Did you say that you have known him from your youth up? What! you seventy years of age? Then you are too near home to begin distrusting yoiu’ heavenly Father. That will never do. You have been to sea, and have weathered many a storm in mid-ocean, and are you now going to be drowned in a ditch? Think not so. The Lord will deliver you even now. Do not let us suppose that we have come where boundless love and infinite Vvisdom cannot reach us. Do not fancy that you have leaped upon a ledge of rock so high as to be out of reach of the everlasting arm. If you had done so I would sttll cry — Throw yourself down into the arms of God, and trust that he will not let you be destroyed.

It may be that some of us are in trouble about the church and the faith. We have defended God’s truth as well as we could, and spoken out against deadly error

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but craft and numbers have been against us, and at present tilings seem to Lave gone wrong. The good are timid, and the evil are false. They say, “He trusted in God: let him deliver him now.” Sirs, he will deliver us now. We will throw our soul once more into this battle, and see if the Lord does not vindicate his truth. If we have not spoken in God’s name we are content to go back to the dust from whence we sprang; but if we have spoken God’s truth we defy the whole confederacy to prevail against it.

Peradventure I speak to some missionary, who is mourning over a time of great trial in a mission which is dear to his heart. Ah, dear friend! Christ intended that the gospel should repeat his own experience, and then should triumph like himself. The gospel lives by being killed and conquers by defeat. Cast it where you will, it always falls upon its feet. You need not be afraid of it under any trial. Just now, the wisdom of man is its worst foe, but the Lord will deliver it now. The gospel lives and reigns. Tell it out among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth from the tree, and fi’om that tree of the curse he issues his supreme commands. The self-same day in which Jesus died, he took with him into his kingdom and his inmost paradise a thief who had hung at his side. He liveth and reigneth for ever and ever, and calleth to himself whomsoever he hath chosen. Let us drown the taunts of the adversary with our shouts of Hallelujah! The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen!