The Broad Wall
The six sermons numbered from V. to XI. are more brief than others, and were mainly delivered on week evening occasions. They were not published in our usual weekly series in England, aJid will therefore, we trust, be new to our American friends.
“the broad wall.” Nehemiah iii. 8.
It seems that round Jerusalem of old, in the time of her splendor, there was a broad wall, which was her defence and her glory. Jerusalem is a type of the Church of Crod. It is always well when we can see clearly, distinctly, and plainly, that around the Church to which we belong there runs a broad wall.
Without further preface, the idea of a broad wall around the Church suggests three things: separation, security, and enjoyment. Let us take each in its turn.
I. First, the separation of the people of God from the world is like that broad wall which surrounded the holy city of Jerusalem.
When a man becomes a Christian he is still in the world, but he is no longer to be of it. He was an heir of wrath, but he has now become a child of grace. Being of a distinct nature, he is required to separate himself from the rest of mankind, as the Lord Jesus Christ did, who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” The Lord’s Church was separated in his eternal purpose. It was stpa* rated in his covenant and decree. It was separated in the atonement, X on .^n there we Una that our Lord is called “(.he Savioui oi iili laen, e.-pecially of them that believe.” An actual separation is made by converting grace, is carried on in sanctification, aad will be completed in that day when the heavens shall be on fire, and the saints shall be caught vi togi ther with the Lord in the air — then shall he divide the nations as a sh’^pherd divideth the sheep from the goats, and theai a great gulf shall be fixed, across which the ungodly cannot go to the righteous, neither shall the righteous approach the wicked.
My business in this address is to say to those of you who profess to be the Lord’s people, take care that you maintain a broad wall of separation hetioeen you and the world. I do not say that you o,re to adopt peculiarities of dress, or practise singularities of speech. Such affectation gendereth, sooner or later, to hypocrisy. A man may be as thoroughly worldly in one coat as another, he may be quite as vain and conceited with one style of speech as another; nay, he may be even more of the world when he pretends to be separate, than if he had left the pretence of separation alone. The separation which we plead for is moral and spiritual. Its foundation is laid deep in the heart, and its substantial reality is very jialpable in the life.
Every Christian, it seems to me, should be more scrupulous than other men in his dealings. He must never swerve from the path of integrity. He should never say, “It is the custom: it is perfectly understood in the trade.” Let the Christian remember that custom cannot sanction wrong, and that its being “understood” is no apology for misrepresen- 1 ation. A lie “understood” is not therefore true. While the golden rule is more admired than practised by ordinary men, the Christian should always do unto others what he would that they should do unto him. He should be one whose word is his bond, and who, having once pledged him self, sweai’eth to his own hurt, but changeth not. The Chris* tian should be more precise even than the best moralists.
The highest point to which the best unconverttd man can go should be looked upon as a level below which the convex ted man will never venture to descend.
Moreover, the Christian should especially be distinguisy- ad by his pleasures, iov it is here, usually, that the true mai tomes out. We are not quite ourselves, perhans, in ouj daily toil, where our pursuits are rather dictated by necessity than by choice. We are not alone; the society we are thrown into imposes restraints upon us; we have to put the bit and bridle upon ourselves. The true man does not then show himself; but when the day’s work is done, then the “birds of a feather flock together.” It is with the multitude of traders and commercial men as it was with those saints of old: of whom, when they were liberated from prison, it was said, “Being let go, they went unto their own company.” So will your pleasures and pastimes give evidence of what your heart is, and where it is. If you can find pleasure in sin, then in sin you live, and, unless grace prevent, in sin you will perish. But if your pleasures are of a nobler kind, and your companions of a devoter character; if you seek spiritual enjoyments, if you get your happiest moments in worship, in communion, in silent prayer, or in the public assembling of yourselves with the people of God, then shall you be distinguished in your pleasure by a broad wall which eifectually separates you from the world.
And this should be carried, I think, into every thing ichich effects the Christian. “What have they seen in thy house?” was the question asked of Hezekiah. When a stranger comes into our house it should be so ordered that he can clearly perceive that the Lord is there. A man ought scarcely to tarry a night beneath our roof without gathering that we have a respect unto him that is invisible, and that we desire to live and move in the light of God’s countenance. 1 have already said that I would have you cultivate no singularities for singularity’s sake; but still, the most of men are satisfied if they do as other people do; and you must never be satisfied until you do more and do better than otlieT people, and have found out a mode and course of life aa much superior to the ordinary worlding’s life, as the p&th of the eagle in the air is above that of the mole which burrows under the soil.
This broad wall between the godly and the ungodly, should be most conspicuous i?i the sjnrit of our mind. The ungodly man has only this world to live for; do not wonder if he lives very earnestly for it. He has no other treasure; why should he not get as much as he can of this? But you, Christian, profess to have an immortal life, and therefore your treasure lies not in this brief span of existence. Your inheritance is in eternity. Your best hopes overleap the narrow bounds of time, and fly beyond the grave, and your spirit must not, therefore, be earth-bound and grovelling, but soaring and heavenly. There should be about you always the air of one who has his shoes on his feet, his loins girded, and his staff in his hand — ready to leave Egypt for Canaan. Heavenward! Ho! is our motto. Away, away, away to the better land. You are not to live here as if this were all to you. Y^’ou are not to talk of this world as though it were to last forever. You are not to hoard it up, as though you had set your heart upon it, but you are to be on the wing as though you had not a nest here, and never could have, but expected to find your resting-place amongst the cedars of God in the hill-tops of glory.
Depend upon it, the more a Christian is unlike an unconverted man, the better it is for him. I think I can show you several reasons why this wall should be very broad. If you are sincere in your irrofession there actually is a very broad distinctio7i betweeti you and tmconverted people. Can you measure the diflTerence between life and death? They ai’e as opposite as the poles. Now, according to your profession you have received a new life, whereas the children of thia world are dead in trespasses and sins. How palpable the difference between light and darkness! Y’^et, you profess to have been “sometimes darkness,” but now are made light in the Lord. There is, therefore, a great distinction between you and the world if you be what you profess to be. You say when you put on the name of Christ, that you are iourneying to the Celestial City, to the New Jerusalem; but the world turns its face upon God, and goes downward W destruction; your paths are different. If you be what you say you are, your way of life must be diametrically opposite to that of the ungodly man. You know the difference between their ends. The end of the righteous shall be glory everlasting, but the end of the wicked is eternal destruction. Now, unless you are a hypocrite, there is such a difference between you and others as only God himself could make — a distinction which will exist throughout eternity, and, when the distinction of riches and poverty, ignorance and learning, shall all have passed away, the distinction between the living and the dead, between the chosen and the castaway shall be as clear as ever. I pray you, then, make a broad wall in your conduct, as God has made a broad wall in your state and in your destiny.
Remember, again, that our Lord Jesus Christ had a broad wall behceen him and the ungodly. Look at him and see how different he is from the men of his time. All his life long you obsciwe him to be a stranger and a foreigner in the land. Truly, he drew near to sinners, as near as he could draw, and he received them when they were willing to draw near to him; but he did not draw near to their sins. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” When he went to his own city of Nazareth, he only preached a single sermon, and they would have cast him headlong down the hill if they could. When he passed through the street, he became the song of the drunkard, and the wicked spake against him. At last, having come to his own, and his own having thus received him not, they determined to thrust him altogether out of the camp, and they took him to Golgotha, and nailed him to the tree there.
Ho was the despised Dissenter, the great Nonconformisi of his age. The National Church first excommunicate him, and then crucified him. He did not seek difference ij things trivial; but the purity of his life and the truthfulness of his testimony, roused the spleen of the rulers and chiei non of their synagogues. He seemed in all things to wisK to serve them and to bless them, but he never would blend with them. They would have made him a king. Ah! if he would but have joined the world, the world would have given him the chief place, as the world’s master said on the mountain: “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” But he drove away the fiend, and stood immaculate and separate even to the close of his life. If you are a Christian, be a Christian. If you follow Christ, go without the camp. But if there be no difference between you and your fellow-men, what will you say unto the King in the day when he cometh and findeth that you have on no wedding garment by which you can be distinguished from the rest of mankind? Because Christ made a broad wall around himself, there must be such an one around his people.
Moreover, dear friends, you will find that such a broad iDcill of separation is abundantly good for yourselves. No Christian will tell you that when he has given way to the world’s customs, he has ever been profited thereby. If you are tempted to seek an evening’s amusement in a suspicious place, and if you are profited by it, I am as sure as you are a man that you are not a Christian, for if you were a Christian it would be no use to you. Ask a fish to spend an hour on dry land, and, assuredly it would not enjoy itself, for it would be out of its element. And it will be so with ycu in conversation with sinners; if you are compelled to it, you will feel much that grates upon the ear, that afflicts the heart, that annoys the soul. You will be like righteous Lot, wh) was vexed with the conversation of the wicked, and you will say with David, — “Woe’s me that I in Mesech am A sojourner so long; That I in tabernacles stay. To Kedar that belong 1”
Y“our soul will pine and sigh to come out of every tl.ing tliaj is impure and unclean, for you will find no comfort there, and you wnll long to get away to the holy and the devout. Make abroad w’all, dear friends, in your daily uie, for it” you begin to give way a little to the world you will soon give way a great deal. Give sin an inch, and it will take au elL Take care of the pence-sins, and the pound-sins will not trouble you. Look after the little approaches to worldliness, the little compromises with ungodliness, and then you will not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Another good reason for keeping up the broad wall of separation is, that you will do most good to the lcorld thereby, I know Satan will tell you that if you bend a little, and come near to the ungodly, then they also w ill come a little way to meet you. Ay, but it is not so. You lose your strength, Christian, the moment you depart from your integrity. What do you think ungodly people say behind your back if they see you inconsistent to please them? “Oh!” say they, “there is nothing in it; the man is not sincere.” Although the world may openly denounce the rigid Puritan, it secretly admires him. When the big heart of the world speaks out, it has respect to the man that is sternly honest and will not yield his principles, no, not a hair’s breadth. In such an age as this, when there is so little preciseness, when principle is cast to the winds, and a general latitudinarianism, both of thought and of practice, rules the day, ii is still the fact that a man who is decided and speaks his mind commands the reverence of mankind. Depend upon it, woman, your husband and your children will respect ycu none the more because you say, “I will give up some of ray Christian privileges,” or “I will go occasionally with you into that which is sinful.” You cannot lift them out of the mire if you plunge into the mud yourself. You caimot help to make them clean if you blacken your own hands. You, young men in the shop — you, young women in the work* room — if you keep yourselves to yourselves in Christ’s name, chaste and pui’e for Jesus, not laughing at that which so often wins a laugh, but which is doubtful; not mixing up tN’ith a pleasure that is suspicious; but feeling, on the other band, that to you a doubtful thing is a sinful thing, and only that which is of faith and of truth is tolerated by you — if you will so keep yourselves, your company in the midst of others shall be as though an angel shook his wings, and they will say to one another, “Mind what you are doing, for so-and-so is there.” They will fear you, in a certain sense; they will admire you, and, who can tell but they at last may come to imitate you.
Would ye tempt God? Would ye challenge the desolating flood? Whenever the church mingles with the world, it behoves the faithful few to fly to the ark and seek shelter ft’om the avenging storm. When the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair to look upon, then it was that God said it repented him that he had made men upon the face of the earth, and he sent the deluge to sweep them away. A separate people God’s people must be, and they shall be. It is his own declaration, “The people shall dwell alone; they shall not be numbered among the people.” The Jew is the type of the Christian, You may give the ew political privileges, as he ought to have; he may be adopted into the State, as he ought to be; but a Jew he is, and a Jew he must rpe null. TTc is not a Gentile, even though he calls himself English, or Portuguese, or Spanish, or Polish. He remains one of Israel’s seed, a child of Abraham, a Jew still; and you can mark him as such, his speech betrayeth him in every land. So should it be with the Christian; mixing up with other men, as he must in his daily calling; going in and out among them like a man among men; trading in the market; deaUng in the shop; mingling in the joys of tno social circle; taking his part in politics, like a citizen, as he is; but, at the same time, having a higher and a nobler life, a secret into which the world cannot enter, and showing the world by his superior holiness, zeal for God, integrity, and ti-uth, that he is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. You cannot tell how concerned I am for some of you, that this broad wall should be kept up, for I detect in you a desire to make it very thin, and perhaps to pull it down altogether. Bi-ethren, beloved in the Lord, you may depend upon it that nothing worse can happen to a church than to be conformed to this world. Write “Ichabod” upon her walls, for the sentence of destruction has gone out against her. But if by the Holy Spirit you are
“Kept as a garden walled around,
Chosen and made peculiar ground,”
you shall have your master’s company; your graces shall grow; you shall be happy, and Christ shall be honored,
n. Secondly; the broad wall round about Jerusalem indicated SAFETY.
In the same way, a broad wall round Christ’s church indicates her safety too. I have often tried to show you who they are that belong to the church of God, I have explained to you that a man does not become a member of Christ’s church by baptism, nor by birthright, nor by profession, nor by morality; but that Christ is the door into the sheepfold, and that every one who believes in Jesus Christ is a member of the true church, is a member of Christ, and a member consequently of the body of Christ, which is the church. Now, around the church of God, the election of grace, the redeemed by blood, the peculiar people, the adopted, the justified, the sanctified; around these there are bulwarks of stupendous strength, munitions which cannot be stormed. When the foe came to attack Jerusalem ho counted the towers and bulwarks, and marked them well; bul after lie had seen the strength of the Holy City he &e(t away. How could he hope ever to scale such ramparts as those? Brethren, Satan often counts the towers and bulwarks of the New Jerusalem. Anxiously does he desire the destruction of the saints, but it shall never be. He who rests in Christ is saved. He who hath passed through tho gate of faith into the stronghold of salvation may sing, as we did just now —
“I know that safe with him remains.
Protected by his power,
What I’ve committed to his hands
Till the decisive hour.”
“I will be,” saith Jehovah, “a wall of fire round about thee.” “Salvation will God appoint for Avails and bulwarks.”
The Christian is surrounded by the broad wall of Gods poicer. If God be omnipotent Satan cannot defeat him. If God’s power be on my side, who, then, shall hurt me? “If God be for us who can be against us?” The Christian is surrounded by the broad wall of GocPs love. Whom God loves who shall curse? I know that he blesseth, and that whom he blesseth is blessed indeed. Balak, the son of Zippor, sought lo curse the beloved people, and he went first to one hill-top and then to another, and looked down upon the chosen camp; but, aha! Balaam, thou couldst not curse them, though Balak sought it! Thou couldst only say, “They are blessed, yea, and they shall be blessed!”
God’s law is a broad wall around us, and so is his justice too. These once threatened our destruction, but now they demand our salvation. If Christ has died instead of me, it would not be justice if I had to die also for my sin. If God has received the full payment of the debt from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, then how can he demand the debt again? He is satisfied, and we are secure.
The immutability of God also, surrounds his people like a broad wall. “I am God, I change not; therefore ye sous of Jacob are not consumed.” As long as God is the same, the rock of our salvation will be our secure hiding-place.
Brethren and sisters, this is a very delightful truth, and one upon which we might linger long, for there is much to say. The people of God are safe for many reasons. They are surrounded by the broad wall of electing love. Doth God choose thera and will he lose them? Did he ordain them to eternal life, and shall they perish? Did he engrave their names upon his heart, and shall those names be blotted out? Did he give them to his Sou to be his heritage, and shall his Sou lose his portion? Did he say, “They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels,” and shall he lose thera? Has he who maketh all things obey him, no power to keep the people whom he has chosen to himself to be his own peculiar heritage? God forbid that we should doubt it. Electing love, like a broad wall, surrounds every heir of grace.
Then comes the broad wall of redeeming love. Did Jesus buy what he will not have? Did he shed his blood in vain? Did he stand as a substitute for those who will have to suffer themselves ‘? What substitution, then, is thi>:? Doth God take jjayraent at my surety’s hands, and then demand it a second time at mine? Where is tjie justice if such be the case? By the blood of the everlasting covenant every Christian may be sure that he cannot perish, neither can any pluck him out of Christ’s hand. Unless the cross was all a peradventure, unless the atonement was a mere sj)eculation, those whom Jesus died for are saved through his death, and he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.
Another broad wall which surrounds the saints of God will be found in the work of the Holy Spirit. Does the Spirit begin and not finish? Does he give life which afterwards dies out? Hath he not told us that the Word of God is the incorruptible seed which liveth and abidetb Torever? And shall the powers of hell or the. evil of our ^>wa flesh kill what God says is incorruptible? Is not the spiiit of God given ns to abide with us forever, and shall he be expelled from that heart in which he has taken up his everlasting dwelling-place? Brethren, we are not of the mind of those who think so, but we rejoice to say with Paul, “I am persuaded that he who hath begun a good work in you will carry it on.” As we sometimes sing —
“Grace icill complete what race begins,
To save from sorrow or from sins;
The worli which wisdom uudertakea
Eternal mercy ue’er forsalies,”
Besides this, almost even, doctrine of grace affords us a broad wall, a strong bastion and bulwark, a munition of defence. Take, for instance, Christ’s suretyship engagements. He is surety to his Father for his people. Will he bring home merely a remnant of the flock? Shall a portion of them be lost? At his hands will they be required, and he will say, “Here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me. Of all whom thou hast given me I have lost none.” He will keep all his saints even to the end. The honor of Christ, moreover, makes another broad Avail. K Christ toses one sOul that leans upon him, the integrity of his crown is gone, for if there should be one believing soul in hell the prince of darkness would hold up that soul and say — ‘-’Aha! Thou couldst not save them all! Aha! thou Captain of Salvation, thou wast defeated here! Here is one poor little Benjamin, one Ready-to-Halt, that thou couldst not bring to glory, and I have him to be my prey forever!” But it shall not be so. Every gem shall be in Jesu’s crown. Every sheep shall be in Jesu’s flock. He shall wV be defeated in any way, or in any measure, but He shall divide the spoil with the strong, and conquer even to the end. Glory be unto his name!
Thus I have tried to show you the broad walla which are round about believers. Thov arc saved, and they may say to their enemies, “The virgin daughter of Zion hath shaken her head at thee and laughed thee to scorn! Who eliall hxy any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God tl)at justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that hath risen again; who si*teth at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us I For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angela, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
III. Lastly: The idea of a broad wall suggests enjoyment.
Along the broad walls of Nineveh and Babylon there was found room for several chariots to pass each other, and here men walked at sunset, and talked in quiet. If yoi? have ever been in the city of Yoi’k you will know how interesting it is to walk around the broad walls of the city, But our figure is drawn from the Orientals. They were accustomed to come out of their houses and walk on the walls They used themyb?’ rest from ^o«7,and recreation. It was very delightful when the sun was going down, and all was cool, to walk on those broad walls; and so, when a believer comes to know the deep things of God, and to see the defences of God’s people, he walks along them and finds rest. “Now,” saith he, “I am at peace; he who destroyeth is put from me; I am delivered from the noise of archers in tho place of the drawing of water, and here will I praise the Lord I Now that salvation is appointed for walls and bulwarks, I will sing a song unto him who hath done great things for me; I will take my rest and be quiet, for he that believeth hath entered into rest; there is therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Broa’l walls, then, are for rest, and so are our broad walls of sal* vation.
Broad walls were also/or conitminion. Men came there and conversed with one another. They leaned over the wall and whispered their loving woi’ds, talked of their business, comforted one another, and related their troubles and their joys. So, when believers come unto Christ Jesus they commune with one another, with the angels, with the spirits of just men made perfect, and with Jesus Christ their Lord, whose fellowship is best of all. On those broad walls, hen the banner of love waves over them, they rejoice with a joy unspeakable, in fellowship with him who loved them and gave himself for them. It is a blessed thing in the Church when you possess such a knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel that you can have by their means the sweetest communion with all the Church of the living God.
Then the broad walls were also intended for prospects and outlooks. The citizen came up on the wall, and looked away from the smoke and dirt of the city within, right across to the green fields, and the gleaming river, and the far off mountains, delighted to watch the mowing of hay, or the reaping of corn, or the setting sun beyond the distant hills. It was one of the common enjoyments of the citizen of any walled city to come to the top of the wall in order to take views afar. And when a man once gets into the altitudes of gospel doctrines, and has learned to understand the love of God in Christ Jesus, what views he can take! How he looks down upon the sorrows of life! He looks beyond that narrow stream of death! When the weather is bright and his eye is clear enough to let him use the telescope, he can gee within the gates of pearl, and behold the joys which no mortal eye hath seen, and hear the songs which no mortal ear hath heard, for these are things, not for eyes and ears, but for hearts and spirits! Blessed is the man who dwelleth in the Church of God, for he can find on her broad walls places from which he can see the King in his beauty, and the laiKi which is very far oft’!
Ah! dear fi lends, I wish that these things had to do mtli you all, but I am afraid that for many my discourse is an idle tale, for many of you are outside the wall, and remember when the destroyer comes none will be safe but those who are inside the wall of Christ’s love and mercy. I would to God that you would hasten to the city gate to-night, for it is open. It will be shut — it must be shut one day, but it ia open now. When night comes, the night of death, the gate will be closed, and you will come then and say, “Lord, Lord, open to us I” But the answer will be —
“Too late, too late 1
Ye cannot enter now 1”
But it is not too late at this moment. Still Christ the Lord crieth, “Behold, I set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” Oh! that thou hadst the will to come and put thy trust in Jesus, for if thou dost so thou shalt be saved. I cannot speak to some of you about security, for there are no broad walls to defend you; you have run away from true security and are patching up with untempered mortar a righteousness of your own, which will all be thrown down, for at best it is only a bowing wall and as a tottering fence. Oh! that you would trust in Jesus! Then would you have a broad wall to shelter you which all the battering-rams of hell shall never be able to shake. When the storms of eternity shall beat against that wall it shall stand fast for aye.
I cannot speak to some of you about rest, and enjoyment, and communion, for you are looking for rest where there is none; you are slumbering in a jieace which is no peace; you have found a comfort which will be your destruction. God make you to be distressed, that you may flee to the Lord Jesus and get true peace, for “He is our peace.”
I would that some of you would close in with Christ and trust him, and then you would rejoice in the present happiness which faith would give you; and in the pros])ect of the eternal happiness which Christ has prepared for all those who put their trust in him.
May the Lord bless you for Jesu’s sake. Amen.