The Dumb Singing

‘Thethe ees of the blind shall be opeaed, and the etefs of Ibo deaf stall bts instopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters bro;*. out, a id streams in the desert.” — Isaiah, xxxv. 5, 6.

What a dilFerence grace makes, whe ver it enters the heart! We find here the blind spoken of; but they are not blind when once grace has touched the.r eyes; then “the eyes of the blind are opened.” AVe read also of the deaf; but they are not deaf after grace has upon them* “the ears of the deaf are unstopped.” Here are men who have been lame before; but when once the omnipotent influence of divine grace has come upon them, they leap like a hart. And those who were dumb once, so far from being dumb any longer, have experienced a change that must be radical, for its effects are surprising. The tongue of t):e dumb not simply speaks, but it sings.

Grace makes a great difference in a man, when it enterj’ into him. How vain, then, are the boasts and professions ot some persons, who assert themselves to be the children of God, and yet live in sin. There is no perceivable difference in their conduct; they are just what they used to be before their pretended conversion; they are not changed in their acts, even in the least degree, and yet they do most positively affirm that they are the called and living children of God, although they are entirely unchanged. Let such know that their pretensions are lies, and that falsehood is the only groundwork that they have for their hopes; for, wherever the grace of God is, it makes men to differ. A graceless man is not like 9 gracious man: and a gracious man is not like a graceless otk*

We are “new creatures in Christ Jesus.” When CtocI Jooka upon us with the eye of lo e, in conversion and regeneration he makes us as opposite from what we were before as hgh is from darkness, as even heaven itself is from hell. God changes man. He works in him a change so great, that no reformation can ei en so much as thoroughly imitate it; it is in entire change — a change of the will, of the being, of the desires, of the hates, of the dislikings, and of the likings. In every respect the man becomes new when divine grace enters into his heart. And yet thou sayest of thyself, “I am conveiled,” and remain what thou wast! I tell thee once again to thy face, that thou sayest an empty thing; thou hast no ground for saying it. If grace permits thee to sin as thou wast wont to do, then that grace is no grace at all. That grace were not worth the having which permits a man to be, after he receives it, what he was before. No, we must ever hold and teach the great doctrine of sanctification. Where God really justifies he really sanctities too; and where there is the remission of sin, there is also the forsaking of it. Where God hath blotted out transgression, he also removeth our love of it, and maketh us seek after holiness, and walk in the ways of the Lord, I think we may fairly infer this from the text, as a prelude to the observations we have to make concerning it.

And now I shall want you, fiist of all, to notice the sort of people xohom God has chosen, to sbig his praises, and to sing them eternally. Then, in the second place, I shall enter into a more fall description of the dumb people here described. Then, thirdly, I shall try to notice certain special times and seasons lohen those dimib p)eople sing more sweetly than at others.

I. First, then, the persons avhom God hath chosen to SING HIS SONGS FOR EVER. “The touguc of the dumb shall sing.” We may make this the first point. There is no difference, by nature, between the elect and others; those who are now glorified in heaven, and who walk the golden streets clad in robes of purity, were by nature as unholy and defiled, and as far from original righteousness, as those who, by their own rejection of Chi-ist, and by their love of sin, have brought t.Mem selves iiUo the pit of eternal torment, as a puuisliment for theii iniquities. The only reason uhy there is a difference between riTif DCUli SINGING. i ‘2 1

those who are in heaven and those who are in hell, rests with divine grace, and with divine grace alone. Those in heaven must inevitably have been cast away, had not everlasting mercy stretched out its hand and redeemed them. They were by nature not one whit siiy)ei’ior to others. They would as certainly have rejected Christ, and have trodden undej- foot the blood of Jesus, as did those who were cast away, if grace, free grace, had not prevented them from committing this sin. The reason why they are Christians is not because they did naturally will to be so, nor because they did by nature desire to know Christ, or to be found of him; but they are now saints simply be cause God made them so. He gave then a the desire to be saved: he put into them the will to seek after him; he helped them in their seekings, and afterward brought them to feel that peace which is the fruit of justification. But by nature they were just the same as others; and if there is any difference, we are obliged to say that the difference does not lie in their favor. In very many cases, we who now “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” were the very worst of men. Theie are multitudes that now bless God for their redemi)tion, who once cursed him; who implored, as frequently as they dared to do, with oaths and swearing, that the curse of God might rest upon their fellows and upon themselves. Many of the L(jrd’s anointed were once the very castaways of Satan, the sweepings of society, the refuse of the earth, those whom no man cared for, who were called outcasts, but whom God hath now called desired ones, seeing he hath loved them.

I am led to these thoughts from the fact that we are told here that those who sing were dumb by nature. Their ping. ing does not come naturally from themselves; they were not born songsters; no, they were dumb ones, those whom God would have to sing his praises. It does not say the tongue <if the stammerer, or the tongue of him that blasphemed, oi the tongue of him that misused his tongue, but “the tongue of the dunib,” of those who have gone furthest fri in any thought of singing, of those who have no power of will to sing — the tongue of such as these shall yet be made to sing God’s p’aises. Strange choice that God has made! Strange, for its graciousness! strangely manifesti.ig the sovereignty of

122 THE DTjjni singing.

his will! God would build for hiuiself a palace in heav(?ti of living stones: where did he get them? Did he go to the quarries of Paros? Hath lie brought forth the richest and the purest marble from the quai-ries of perfection? No, ye saints, look to “the hole of the pit whence ye were digged, and to the rock whence y6 were hewn!” Ye were full of gin; so far from being stones that were white with purity, ye were black with defilement, seemingly utterly unfit to be stones in the spiritual temple, which should be the dwelling-place of the Most High. And yet he chose you to be trophies of his grace, and of his power to save. When Solomon built for himself a palace, lie built it of cedar: but when God would build for himself a dwelling for ever, he cut not down the goodly cedars, but he dwelt in a bush, and hath preserved it as his memorial for ever: “The God that dwelt in the bush.” Goldsmiths make exquisite forms from precious metals; they fashion the bracelet and the ring from gold: — God maketh his precious things out of base material; and from the black pebbles of the defiling brooks he hath taken up stones, which he hath set in the golden ring of his immutable love, to make them gems to sparkle on his finger for ever. He hath not [selected the best, but apparently the worst of men, to be the inonuments of his grace; and when he would have a choir in heaven that should with tongues harmonious sing his praisee — a chorus that should for ever chant hallelujahs loudei- than the noise of many waters, and like great thunders, he did not send Mercy down to seek earth’s songsters, and cull from those who have the sweetest voices: he said, “Go, Mercy, and find out the dumb, and touch their lips, and make them sing. The virgin tongues that never sang my praise before, that have been silent till now, shall break forth in rhapsodies sublime, and they shall lead the sor.g; even angels shall but attend behind, and catch the notes fiom the lips of those who once were dumb.” “The tongue of the dumb shall sing” God’s praises in heaven.

O! what a fountain of consolation this opens for you and for me! Ay, beloved, if God did not choose the base things of this world, he would never have chosen us; if he had respect, unto the countenances of men, if he were ji respectei yf persons, where had you and I been this day; we had never been instances of his love and mercy. No, as we look ujk)P ourselves now, and remember what we once weie, we are often obliged to say,

“Depths of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for mo?”

How many times we have sung at the Lord’s table — at th sacramental supper of our Master —

“Why was I made to hear thy voice
And enter while there ’s room,
While thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve then come?”

And we have joined too in singing —

“‘Twas the same love that spread the foast,
That sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.”

Grace is always grace, but it never seems so gracious as when we see it brought to our unworthy selves. Ay, niy friends, you may be Arminians in your doctrine, but you never can be Arminians in your feelings; you are obliged to confess that it is all of grace, and cast away the thought that it was of your foreseen faith or of your foreseen good works that the Lord chose you. We are obliged to come to this, to feel and know that it must have been of mercy, free mercy, and of that alone; that we were not capable of doing good works Vt’ithout his grace preventing us before good works, and without his grace also in good woi’ks, enabling us to do them; and, therefore, they never could have been the motive to divine love, nor the reason why it flowed toward us. O! ye unworthy ones, ye saints that feel your deep natural depravity, and mourn over your ruin by the fall of Adam, lift up your hearts to God! He hath delivered you from all the impediments which Adam cast upon you; your tongue is loosed, it is loose now; Adam made it dumb, but God hath loosed it; your eyes that were blinded by Adam’s fall are opened now; he hath lifted you from the miry clay. What Adam lost for us, Christ hath i-egained for us; he hath plucked us out ot the pit, and “set us upon a rock, and established our goings, and hath put a i isv song into our mouth, even praise for eveiuiore.” Yes, “the tongue of the dumb shall sing-.”

And then just another hint here, before I leave this point* How this ought to give you encouragement in seeking to do good to others! Why, my brethren, I can never think any man too far gone for divine mercy, since I know that Go:’ saved me. Whenever I have felt desponding about any of my hearers, who have for a long time persevered in guilt, I have only had to reach down my own biography from the shelves of my memory and just think what I too was, till grace redeemed me, and brought me to my Saviour’s feet; and then I have said, “It will be no wonder if that man is saved; after what he hath done for me, I can believe any thing of my Master. If he hath blotted out my transgressions, if he hath clean melted away my sin, then I can never despair of any of my fellow-creatures; I may of myself, but I can not of them.” Remember, they may be dumb now, but he can make them sing. Your son John is a sad reprobate; keep on praying for him, mother; God can change his heart. Your daughter’s heart seems hard as adamant; he who makes the dumb sing can make rocks melt. Believe in God for your children as well as for yourselves; trust him; take their cases before his throne; rely upon him that he can save them, and believe that in answer to earnest prayer, he also will do it. And if you have neighbors that are full of the pestilence of sin, whose vices come up before you as a stench in your nostiils, yet fear not to carry the gospel to them; though they be harlots, drunkards, swearers, be not afraid to tell them of the Saviour’s dying love. He makes the dumb sing; he does not ask even of them a voice to begin with; they are dumb, and he does not ask of them even the power of speech, but he gives them the power. O! if you have neighbors who are haters of the Sabbat haters of God, unwilling to come to the house of God, despising Christ: if you lind them as far gone as you can find them, recollect, he maketh the dumb to sing, and therefore, he can make them live. He wants no goodness in them to befflc with; all he wants is just the rough, raw material, unhewn uncut, unpolished. And he does not want even good mate rial: bad as the material mav be, he can make it into something inestimably precious, something that is worthy of the Saviour’s blood. Go on; fear not! If the dumb can sing, then surely you can never say that any man need be cast awa)’.

11. I am now to enter into sotne rather more lucid description of these dumb people. Who are they?

Well, sometimes I g”.t a good thought ont of old Master Cruden’s Concordance. I beHeve that is the best commentary to the Bible, and I like o study it. I opened it lately at this passage, and I found Master Cruden describing different kinds of dumb people. He says there are foui- or five different sorts; but I shall name only four of them. The first sort of dumb people he mentions are those that can not speak; the second sort are those that won’t speak; the third sort are those that nare not speak; and the fourth sort are those that have got nothing to say, and therefore they are dumb.

1. The first sort of people who sliali sing are those V)ho can not sieak. This is the usual acceptation of the word dumb: the others are, of course, only figurative applications of the term. We call a man dumb when he can not speak. Now, spiritually, the man who is still in his trespasses and sins is dumb; and I will prove that. He is dead; and there is none so dumb as a dead man. We used to hear in our childhood that they buried none but deaf and dumb persons in certain churchyards. It was intended to tickle our childish fancies, iuid misled us a little; but the meaning was, that none but dead ]’eople were buried theie; none are so dumb as those who an? dead. “Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction ‘?” The word of God assures us that unregeneraio men are spiritually dead; it follows, then, that they must bo spiritually dumb. They can not sing God’s praises; they know him not, and, therefore, they can not exalt his glorious name. They call not confess their sins; they can utter the mere words of confession, but they can not really confess, for they do not know the evil of sin, nor have they been taught to feel what a bitter thing it is, and to know themselves as sinners. But “no man can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Ghost;’- »nd these pople can not do so truly. Perhaps, it may bo, they can talk well on the doctrines; but they can not ui)o.ik them out of the fulness of their hearts, as living and vital principles which they know in themselves. They can not join in the songs, noi can they take part in the conversation of a Christian. If they sit down with the saints, perhaps th«v have culled a few phi-ases from the garden of the Lord, which they u«e and apply to certahi things which they do not know any ihing about. They talk a language the meaning of which they do not comprehend — like Milton’s daughters reading a language to their father which they did not understand. Still, so far as the essence of the matter is concerned, they are dumb. But, hail to sovereign grace! “the tongue of the dumb shall sine!” God will have his darlincrs made what they should be. They are dumb by nature, but he will not leave them so; they can not now sing his praises, but they shall do it; they do not now confess their sins, but he will bring them on their knees yet, and make them pour out their hearts before him. They can not now talk the brogue of Canaan, nor speak the language of Sion, but they shall do it soon. Grace, omnipotent grace, will have its way with them. They shall be taught to pray; their eyes shall be made to flow with tears of penitence; and then, after that, their lips shall sing to the pi’aise of sovereign grace.

1 need not dwell upon this point, because I have many here that were dumb once, who can bless God that they can now sing. And does it not sometimes seem to you, beloved, a very strange thing, that you are what you are? I should think it must be the strangest thing in the world for a dumb man to speak, because he has no idea how a man feels when he is speaking; he has no notion of the thing at ah. Like a man blind from his birth, he has no idea what kind of a thing sight can be. We have heard of a blind man, who supposed that the color scarlet must be very much like the sound of atruftipet: he had no other way of comparing it. So the dumb man has no notion of the way to talk. Do you not think it is- a strange thing that you are what you are? You said once, “I will never be one of the canting Methodists. Do you think I shall ever make a profession of religion? What! I attend a prayer meeting? No.” And you went along the streets in all you, gayecy of mij*^.h, and said, “What! I become a.’ittle oliild, and iive up m, ‘iiiiid to simple faith, and not reason at all? What! an) I i,o give up all ai’gunient about things, and simply take them f )r granted, because God has said them? Nay, that never jan be.” I will be bound to say, it will be a wonder to yon as long as you are here, that you are the children Df God; and even in heaven itself your greatest wonder will be that you were ever brought to know the Saviour.

2. But there is a sort of dunib people that will not speak. They are mentioned by Isaiah. He said of preachers in hia day they were dumb dogs that would not bark. I bless God we are not now quite so much inundated by this kind of dumb people as we used to be. God has raised up, especially in the Church of England, of late, a large number of evangelical men, who are not afraid to preach the whole counsel of God. There are many such faithful preachers of the gospel to be fou.id; and although we used to say we were the only evangehals that preached the gospel, the time has come when “see that was barren keeps house, and has become the joyful mother of children.” There is no reason why the Church nt England should not be thoroughly evangelical; if it keeps to its articles, it ought to be. It is the most inconsistent church in the world, if it is not a Calvinistic one. It must be inccyisistent, unless it keeps to those grand fundamental truths which are indeed a code of faith to be received by all believers — the truths which are written in its articles.

But, O! there are a great many among us Dissenters, and in the Church of England, too, that are dumb dogs. There are still plenty who do not know any thing about the gospel; who pieach a vast deal about a great many things, but nothing about Jesus Christ; who buy their sermons cheap, and preach them at their ease; who ask God to tell them what to say, and then pull their manusci’ipts out of their pockets. Wg have had to mourn, especially in years gone by, that we could look from parish to parish, and find nobody but a dumb dog in the church, and in the pulpits of Dissenters too. And some men who might have spoken with a little earnestness, if they liked, let the people slumber under them, instead of preaching Ihe word with tru-> lidelity, as if they would not have to give account to God at the last. My aged gi-andfiilher tells a Bto’’Y, that I believe lie himself could verify, of a person who once resided near him, and called himself a preacher of the gospel. He was visited by a poor woman, who asked him what was the meaning of the new biith? He replied, “My good woman, what do you come to me about that for? Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, did not know; he was a wise man, and did not know; and how do you think I should?” So she had to go away with only that answer. Time was when such an answer might have been given by a great many who wei’e reckoned to be the authorized teachers of religion, but knew nothing really about the matter. They undei’stood a great deal more about fox-hunting than about preaching, and more about farming their land than about the spiritual husbandry of God’s church. But we bless God that there are not so many of that sort now; and we pray that the race may be come thoroughly extinct; that every pulpit, and every place of worship may be filled with a man who has a tongue of fire and a heart of flame, and shuns not to declare the whole counsel of God, neither seeking the smile of men nor dreading their frown. We have a promise that it shall be so. “The tongue of the dumb shall sing.” And, ah! they do sing well too, when God makes them sing.

You remember Rowland Hill’s story in “The Village Dialogues,” about Mr. Merriman. Mr. Merriman was a sad scapegrace of a preacher; he was to be seen at every fair and revel, and used seldom to be found in his pulpit when he should have been; but when he was converted, he began to preach with tears running down his face — and how the church began to be crowded! The squire would not go and hear any of that stuff, and locked up his pew; and Mr. Merriman had a little ladder made outside the door, as he did not wish to break the door open; and the people used to sit on the steps, up one side and down the other, so that it made twice as much room as there was before.

No peo])le make such good preachers as those who were dumb once. If the Lord opens their mouths, they will think they can not preach often enough, and earnestly enough, to make up for the mischief they did before. Chalmers hiraseli

THE DUMB SINGING. U”)

might never have been so eloquent a preacher, hati he not been for a long time a dumb dog. He preached morality, he said, till he made all the people in his parish immoral; he kept on urging them to keep God’s law, till he made them break it; but when he turned roimd, and began to preach God’s gospel, then the dumb began to sing. O! may God bring this about in every one of us! If we are dumb as jDrofessed ministers, may he open our mouths, and force us to speak forth his word, lest at the last day the blood of our hearers’ souls should be found upon our skirts, and we should be cast away as unfaithful stewards of the gospel of Christ!

3. I now introduce you to a third sort of dumb people. They are dumb because they dare not speak; and they are good people, blessed souls. Here is one of them: “I -was dumb with silence; I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it!” Ah! it is blessed to be dumb in that fashion. The Lord’s servant will often have to be dumb under trials and troubles. When Satan tempts him to repine, he will put his fmger to his lip and say, “Hush, murmuring heart, be still!” “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?” Even the child of God will do like Job. M’ho sat down for seven days and nights, and said not a word, for he felt that his trouble was heavy, and he could say nothing. It would have been as well if Job had kept his mouth shut ali the next few days; he would not have said so much amiss aa he did in some things that he uttered. It would have been well if he could always have kept silence, O! there are times when you and I, beloved, are obliged to keep the bridle on our tongues, lest we should murmur against God. We are in evil company; perhaps our spii-its are hot within us, and we wane to take vengeance for the Lord; we are like the friends of David, who wanted to take away the head of Shimei. “Let lis take off this dead dog’s head,” Ave say: and then our Jesus tells us to hut our sword into its scabbard, for the “servant o the Lord must not strive.” How often have we thus been Ou:nb! And sometimes when there have been slanders against? “JT chai*acter, and men have calumniated us, O! how our finfjero have itched to be at them! We have wanted to be at tfaera at once, and let them see who was the strongest of the two. But we have said, “No; our Master did not answe? and he ’ left us an example that we should follow his steps.’ “The chief priests accused him of many things, but he” an swered them not a word.” But we have found rt hard sometimes to be dumb, like tin sheep when it is brought to the shearer, or the lamb when it is in the slaughter-house. “We could scarcely keep quiet. When Ave have been upon our beds in sickness, we have tried to quench every murmuring word; we have not let a sentence escape our lips, when we could jjossibly avoid it; but notwithstanding all that, we have found it hard work to keep dumb, though it is blessed work when we are enabled to do it. Now, ye who have been dumb under great weights of sorrow; ye whose songs have been suspended, because ye durst not open your lips, lest sighs should usurp the place of praise, come, listen to this promise, “The tongue of the dumb shall sing.” Yes, though you are in the deepest trouble now, and are obliged to be silent, you shall sing yet. Though, like Jonah, you are in the whale’s belly, carried down, as he called it, into the lowest hell; though the earth with her bars. is about you for ever, and the weeds are wrapped about your head, yet you “shall look again toward his holy temple.” Though you have hung your harp upon the willows, bless God you have not broken it; you will have use for it by-and-by; you shall take it down fr’^m its resting-y)jaco, and

“Loud to the praise of sovereign grace,
Bid every string awake.”

If you have no songs in the night, yet he shall compass you al’iout with songs of deliverance; if you can not sing his praises now, you shall do so by-and-by, when greater grace shall have come into your heart, or when delivering mercy shall be the subject of your song, in better days that are yet to come. But, blessed be God, we are not always to be silent in ailliciion: we are bound to sins:. And I think we ought to sing even when we ought to y)e dimib; though we are dumb as to murmuring, we ought to sing God’s praises. An old Puritan B?.id, “G’^d’s people are like birds; they sing best in cages.” He said, “God’s people often sing the best when they .are in fcht deepest trouble.” Said old Master Brooks, “The deeper the flood was, the higher the ark went up to heaven,” So it is with the child of God: the deeper his troubles, the nearer to heaven he goes, if he lives close to his Master. Troubles are called weights, and weights, you know, generally clog ug and keep us down to the earth; but there are ways, by tho use of the laws of mechanics, by which you can make a weight lift you; and so it is possible to make your troubles litl you nearer heaven, instead of making them sink you. Ah! we thank our God he has sometimes opened our mouth when Ave were dumb; when we were ungrateful and did not praise him, lie has opened our mouth by a trial, and though when we had a thousand mercies we did not praise him, when he sent 3 sharp affliction, then we began to do so. He has thus made the tongue of the dumb to sing.

4. We will mention one more kind of dumb peopie, and then we shall have done. There are those who have nothing io say, and, therefore, they are dumb. I will give you an instance: Solomon says in the Proverbs — “Open thy mouth for the dumb;” and he shows by the context that he means those who in the court of judgment have nothing to plead for themselves, and have to stand dumb before the bar. Like that man of old, who, when the king came in to see the guests, had not on a wedding garment, and when the king said, “Friend, how camest thou in hither?” stood speechless, not because he could not speak, but because he had nothing to say. Have not you and I been dumb, and are we not now, when wo stand on law terms with God, when Ave forget that Jcsusj Christ and his blood and righteousness were our full acquittal? Are Ave not obliged to be dumb when the commandments are laid bare before us, and when the law of God is brought homo to our conscience ‘i There was a time with each of us, and not long ago with some here present, when avo stood before Moses’s seat, and heard the commandments read; and when Ave were asked, “Sinner, canst thou claim to have kept these commandments?” Ave were dumb. Then Ave Avera asked, “Sinner, canst thou give any atonement for the breach of these commandments?” and Ave were dumb. We were asked,” Sinner, canst thou, by a future obedience, AA’ipe oul

Uiy past sin?” “We knew it vv.as impossible, and wo wers dumb. Then we were asked,” Canst thou endure the penalty; canst thou bear to welter for ever in the flames of hell? Canst thou suffer everlasting torments from the red right hand of an angry God? Canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings, and abide with eternal fires?” and we were dumb. And then we were asked the question, “Prisoner at the bar, hast thou any reason to plead why thou shouldst not be condemned?” and we were dumb. And we were asked, “Prisoner, hast thou any helper? hast thou any one that can deliver thee?” and we stood dumb, for we had nothing to say. Ay, but blessed be God, the tongue of the dumb can now sing. And shall I tell you what we can sing? Why, Ave can sing this: “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’a elect?” Not God, for he has justified, ““Who is he that. condemneth?” Not Christ, for “he hath died, yea, rather hath risen again, who is also at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us.” We who had not a word to say for ourselves, can now say every thing. Wc can say,

“Bold shall I stand at that great day,
For who aught to ray charge caa lay f
Fully absolved by Christ I a:3,
From sill’s tremendous curse and shame.”

Yes, the dumb ones can sing. So shall you, poor dumb one: if God has made you dumb by taking away all the name a of Baal out of your mouth — if he has taken away all your self-righteousness and all your trust in yourself,- as truly as ever he has shut your mouth he will open it. If God has killed your self-rigliteousness, he will give you a better; if he has knocked down all your refuges of lies, he will build you up a good refuge. He lias not come to destroy you; ho ha« shut your mouth to fill it with his praise. Be of good cheer; look to Jesus; cast thine eyes to the cross; put thy confidence in him; and even thou, who thinkest thyself a castaway, even thou, poor, weeping Mary, even thou shalt yet sing of redeeming love.

I’V^. And now I have to conclude by just noticing the oca* nons ichen the tongues of these dumh people sing the best

When does the tongue of the dumb sing? Why, I thmk tt sings ahvayS, little or much. It is always singing. If it ia once set at liberty, it will never leave off. There are some of you people who say this world is a howling wilderness; well, you are Iho howlers — you make all the howling. If yon choose to howl, I jan not help it: I prefer the promise of my text — “Then shall the tongue of the dumb,” not howl, but “sing.’* Ves, they do sing always, little or much; sometimes it is in a ow hush-note; sometimes they have to go rather deep in the bass; but there are other times, when they can mount to the highest notes of all. They have special times of singing. When they lose their burden at the foot of the cross, that is the time when they begin to sing. Never did a harj) of heaven sound so sweetly as when touched by the fmger of some returning prodigal, not even the songs of the angels seem to me to be so sweet as that first song of rapture which gushes forth from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says, when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the cross, lie gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing. We have not forgotten those three great leaps; they were great leaps — leaps of praise. We have leaped many times since then with joy and gratitude; but we think we never leaped so high as we did at the time when we saw our many sins all gone, and our transgressions 30’ered up in the tomb of the Saviour. By the way, let me lull yon a little story about that matter of John Bunyan. I am a great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe him infallible; for I met with a story the other day which I think a v(M-y good one. There was a young man in Edinburg who wished to be a missionary. He was a wise young man; ho thought — “AYell, if I am to be a missionary, there is no need for me to ti’ansport myself far away from home; I may as well be a missionary in Edinburg.” There’s a hint to some of you ladies, who give away tracts in your district, and novei give your servant Mary one. Well, this young man started. and determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of those old fishwives; those of us who have seen them can never forget them; they are extraordinary women indeed. So 8oepp!ng up to her ho said, “Here you are, coming with

134 THE DUMB SINGINa.

your burden on your back; let me ask you if you have got another burden, a spiritua,! burden!” “What!” she said; “do you mean that Ijurden in JohxU Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s lrogress? Because if you do, young man, I have got rid of that many years ago, before you were born. But 1 went a better way to work than the Pilgrim did. The evangelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach the gospel; for lie said, ‘Keep that light in thine eye and run to the wicket-gate,’ Vf y, man alive! that was not the place for him to run to. Ho should have said, ‘Do you see that cross? Run there at once! But instead of that, he sent the poor Pilgrim to the wicket-gate first; and much good he got by going there! He got tumbling into the slough, and was like to have been killed by it.” “But did not you,” he asked, “go through any Slough of Despond?” “Yes, young man, I did; but I found it a great deal easier going through with my burden off than with it on my back.” The old woman was quite right. John Bunyan put the getting rid of the burden too far off from the commencement of the Pilgrimage. If lie meant to show what usually happens, ho was right; but if he meant to show what ought to have happened, he is wrong. We must not say to the sinner, “Now, sinner, if thou wilt be saved go to the baptismal pool; go to the wicket-gate; go to the church; do this or that.” No, the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate; and we should say to the sinner,” Throw thyself there, and thou art safe; but thou art not safe till thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and lind peace in Jesus. Well, that is a time when we can sing.

And after that do God’s people sing? Yes, they have sweet singing times in their house of communion. Oh! the music of that word “communion,” when it is heard in the soul — communion with Jesus, fellowship with Jesus, Avhetlicr in his sufferings, or in his glories! Those are singing times v.’hen the heart is lifted up to feel its oneness with Christ, and its vital union AAdth him, and is enabled to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” through communion with the Saviour.

Have not y ini had some precious singing times at the Lord’s table? Ah! when the bread has been broken, and the wine

DOTired out, how often has it been to me a time of song, whon d:Q people have all joined in singinrr,

“Grethsemane, can I forget,
Or there thy conflict see,
Thine agony and Ijloody sweat,
And not remember thee?

“When to the cross I turn my eyes,
And rest on Calvary,
0 1 Lamb of God, my sacrifice,
I uiiist remember thoe.”

T am in the lioiise of God, I think, every day, I behevo that David could not have prayed for more than I have got, when he prayed that he might dwell in the house of the Lord for ever; for I sisend more of my time hi the house of God than I do anywhere else. But my best moments are at the Lord’s .table, I do rejoice then, when I have no thought of what I have to say. to otlicrs, but simply to sit down amongst the Lord’s family, and taste my morsel of bread, and have my sip of the wine, O! it is then the soid finds its Saviour precious, I look forward for every month to come, when I may once more sit at the table of my Mnstei’, and spiritually eat his llesh and drink his blood, and feel that I have indeed life in him, because I have got union with him. Ah! those are singing times to the fxmily of God, And so, Fomctimes are preaching times and sometimes hearing times, Prayer meetings are often special singing times; in fact, the means of grace will very frequently be blessed of God to be to us the occasion of song.

But lastly, my dear friends, for I can not stop to mention all these singing times, the best we shall have will be when yo-a nnd I come to die. Ah! there are some of you that are like u’liat is fabled of the swan. The ancients said the swan never gang in his life-time, but always sang just when he died. Now, th.ere are many of God’s desponding children who seem to go all their life under a cloud; but they get a swan’s song before they die. The river of their life conies running down, perhaps black and miry with troubles, and when it begins to tou?.h the white foam of the sea there comes a little glistening in its M^aters. So, beloved, thongli Ave may lia e been very ranch disiirited by reason of the burden of the way, when wo get to the end we shall have sweet songs. Are you afraid of dying? O! never be afraid of that; bo afraid of living. Living is the only thing which can do any mischief; dying never can hurt a Christian. Afraid of the grave? It is like he bath of Esther, in which she lay for a time, to purify herelt with spices, that she might be fit for her lord. The grave fits the body for heaven. There it lieth: and corruption, earth and worms, do but refine and purify our flesh. Be not afraid of dying; it does not take any time at all. All that death is, is emancipation, deliverance, heaven’s bliss to a child of God. Never fear it: it will be a singing time. You are afraid of dying, you say, because of the pains of death. Nay, they are the pains of life — of life struggling to continue. Death has no pain; death itself is but one gentle sigh — the fetter is broken, and the spirit fled. The best moment of a Christian’s life is his last one, because it is the one that is nearest heaven; and then it is that he begins to strike the key note of the song which he shall sing to all eternity. O! what a song will that be! It is a poor noise we make now; when Ave join the song 2)erhaps Ave are almost ashamed to fdng; but up there our voices shall be clear and good; and here

“Loudest of ttiG crowd we’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring
“With shouts of sovereign grace.”

The thought struck me the other day, that the Lord will have in heaven some of those very big sinners that have gone further astray than any body that ever lived — the most extrardinary extraA^aganzas of vice — just to make the melody complete by singing some of those alto. notes Ave sometimes hear, which you and I, because Ave have not gone so far astray, will never be able to utter. I wonder whether one has stepped into this chapel this morning, whom God has selected to tak(» some of those alto notes in the scale of praise. Perhaps there is one such here. O! how will such a one sing, if grace, free grace, shall have mercy upon him!

And now, faroAvell, with just this solitary word; My breth-TIIK DUMB SINGII^G. 137

ren, the momljers of this church, strive together in your prayp ers, that God may l)less you. Be not content with what you are, however prosperous you may be; but seek to uicrease more and more. Pray that you and your children may be added to the church of Christ here, and may live to see others added too. Keep prayer going; do not neglect your prayer meetings. Christmas Evans gives us a good idea about jjrayer. He says, “Prayer is the rope in the belfry; we pull it and it rings the bell up in heaven.” And so it is. Mind you keep that bell going. Pull it well. Come up to prayer meetings. Keep on pulling it; and though the bell is up so high that you can not hear it ring, depend upon it, it can be heard in the tower of heaven, and is ringing before the throne ol God, who will give you answers of peace according to youi faith. May your faith be large and plentiful, and so will fcut answers be I