Faith

Fear Not Faith. — A soldier in the army of the Potomac, of whom I somewhere read, was taken to the rear to die. He was badly wounded; he was also suffering from fever. Some one had told him, just before the fever came on, of a soldier found asleep at his post who was condemned to die. The poor fellow in his delirium imagining that he was that soldier, cried out to the doctor who was attending him, “Sir, I am to be shot to-morrow morning; and as I wish to have all right, I want you to send for the chaplain at once. I want to see him.” The doctor, to calm his fears, said. “No, no, you are not to be shot to-morrow morning; it’s a mistake.” “Oh, but I am,” he said; “I know I shall.” “But I will be here,” said the doctor,” and if any one comes to touch you, I will have him arrested. I will take care you shall not no SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES

die.” “Is it so, doctor?” said he, in calmer accents, “then you need not send for the chaplain; I shall not want him just yet.” So the truth came out that fear, not faith, animated him, though it was but spoken in a feverish dream.

Faith and Joy. — “Is it not surprising,” said one, “that God should have heard my prayers, and have been so gracious to me in providence? “” No,” said an old saint, whose long experience had taught her more of the Lord, “it does not surprise me, it is just like him, it is his way with his people. Oh, to feel that great mercy is like him; that it is what we should expect of God, that he should give great deliverances, should walk the waters of our griefs, and bid them cease their raging! It is a blessed faith which enables us to recognize Jesus on the waters, and to say, “I know it is Jesus, nobody but Jesus could act so wondrously; I might not have known him if I had seen him working in an ordinary way, or travelling like a common wayfarer, but here amidst extraordinary seasons I expected his help; if I never had seen him before, I expected to see him now; and now I do see him I am not amazed, though I am delighted. I looked for him, and I knew that when the need of him was greatest, his coming would be sure.” When faith brightens the eye of hope with the flash of expectation, joy is not far away.

Faith and Healing. — If you believe his word you shall know the sweets of grace. To ask for more evidence first is as though a man should say, “Here is a medicine prepared by a physician of great repute, and it is said to be very powerful for driving out the disease from which I suffer: I will take it as soon as I see that I am improving by its means.” The man has lost his reason, has he not? He cannot expect even a partial cure till be has taken the medicine. He cannot expect the result

to come before the cause. You must take the good Physician’s medicine as a matter of faith, and afterwards your faith will be increased by the beneficial result. You must believe on the Lord Jesus, because of the witness of God concerning him, for that is all the witness you ought to wish for, and all that God will give you. After you have believed other witnesses will spring up in your soul, as the results of faith, and so your confidence will be strengthened; but just now, beloved, believe in Jesus Christ, and having believed in him you shall know that you are forgiven for his name’s sake.

Faith and Feeling. — A certain master had a servant whose mind was very much poisoned against him by slanderous tales. Everything the master did the servant misconstrued, because he considered him to be a tyrant and an oppressor. Now it came to pass that this servant one day learned more concerning his master, and found out that everything he had done was dictated by the most generous motives, and that his master indeed was one of the excellent of the earth. The moment that servant’s thoughts of his master changed and he had faith in his goodness, he acted very differently, as you may well conceive; none could be more faithful and diligent than he. Now, we prove that we believe, because we feel towards God so very differently; he is loved in our inmost souls, and we delight to serve him. This would have been utterly impossible if we had not been changed in our feelings toward him by being led to trust him.

Unknown Heroes of Faith. — Think not that Luther was the only man that wrought the Reformation. There were hundreds who sighed and cried in secret in the cottages of the Black Forest, in the homes of Germany, and on the hills of Switzerland. There were hearts breaking for the Lord’s appearing in strange places, they might have been found in the palaces of Spain, in the dungeons ii2 SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES

of the Inquisition, among the canals of Holland, and the green lanes of England. Women, as they hid their Bibles, lest their lives should be forfeited, cried out in spirit, “0 God, how long?”

The Riches of Christian Faith. — This week I had my faith much strengthened in visiting a sick woman. I would fain change places with her. Glad enough should I be to lie upon that sick bed and die in her room; for though she has been long on the borders of the grave, and knows it, — knows that each hour may probably be the last, her joy is so great, her bliss is so abundant, that you have only to speak with her and her joy overflows. She said to me, “I prayed that if God would spare me, he would give me one soul, and he has given me five con verts while I have been on this bed; “and I did not wonder at it, as I saw the five dear friends sitting in the room; I did not wonder at it — it was enough to make one a Christian to see her joy and her peace, and hear her talk so confidently about the time when she should see her Lord and be in his embrace forever.” Ah! “says the devil to the Christian,” I will give you so much if you sin.” Our reply is, “What could you give me compared with my inheritance1? 0 fiend, thou bringest me counterfeit riches, but J can count down ten thousand times as much in real solid gold! Thou profferest me thy paste gems, but here are diamonds and pearls of the first water and of the rarest value!

Superficial Unbelief. — Addison tells us of a man who, on board ship in a storm, knelt down to pray, and expressed his firm belief in a God. When he got ashore some one laughed at him for it, and he challenged the man to a duel. They fought together, and the atheist fell wounded. When the blood was flowing he believed there was a God, and he began to cry to God with all his might to save him. The physician bound up the wound. The man put the question to him, “Is it mortal?” “No,” he says: “it is only a flesh wound.” Then said the man, “There is no God; I am a thorough atheist.” He believed in God when he thought he was going to die; the moment he felt himself better, he returned to his unbelief.

Faith and Reason. — Once Reason came along, and heard a man cry, “I am guilty, guilty,” She stopped, and said, “The man is guilty; God condemns the guilty, therefore this man will be condemned.” She went away — left the man condemned and ruined, and quivering with fear. Faith came and heard the self -same cry, rendered more bitter by the cruel syllogism of Reason. Faith stopped: she said, “The man is guilty; Christ died for the guilty; the man will be saved;” and her logic was right; the man lifted up his head, and rejoiced. Reason came one day, and saw a man naked, and she said, “He hath not on a wedding garment; can naked souls appear before the bar of God? Should they have a place at the supper of the Lamb? The man is naked; he must be cast out, for naked ones cannot enter heaven!” Then Faith came by, and said, “The man is naked; Christ wrought a robe of righteousness; he must have made it for the naked; he would not have made it for those who have a robe of their own. The robe is for the naked man, and he shall stand in it before God.” And her logic was right and just. The other might seem strictly according to rule, but this was better still. Reason one day heard a man say that he was very good and righteous. She saw him go up to the temple, and heard him pray, “Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men.” Said Reason, “That man is better than others, and he will be accepted.” But she argued wrongly; for, lo! he went out, and a poor sinner by his side, who could only say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” went down to his house justified, while iii SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES

the proud Pharisee went on his way disregarded. The logic of faith is to argue white from black, whereas the logic of reason argues white from white. Luther says, “Once upon a time the devil came to me, and said, ‘Martin Luther, you are a great sinner, and you will be damned.” Stop, stop, said I, ’ one thing at a time; I ain a great sinner, it is true, though you have no right to tell me of it. I confess it; what next?” Therefore you will be damned, ‘That is not good reasoning. It is true I am a great sinner, but it is written” Jesus Christ came to save sinners; “therefore I shall be saved. Now go your way, So I cut the devil off with his own sword, and he went away mourning, because he could not cast me down by calling me a sinner.”

Danger of Unbelief. — When our sappers and miners went to work around Sebastopol, they could not work in front of the walls, if they had not something to keep off the shots; so they raised earth- works, behind which they could do what they pleased. So with the ungodly man. The devil gives him unbelief: he thus puts up an earth-work, and finds refuge behind it. Ah, sinners! when once the Holy Ghost knocks down your unbelief; when once he brings home the truth in demonstration and in power, how the law will work upon your soul. If man did but believe that the law is holy, that the commandments are holy, just, and good, how he would be shaken over hell’s mouth; there would be no sitting and sleeping in God’s house; no careless hearers; no going away and straight way forgetting what manner of men ye are. Oh! once get rid of unbelief, how would every ball from the batteries of the law fall upon the sinner; and the slain of the Lord would be many.

Faith Awakened Through God’s Kindness. — I remember an old experimental Christian speaking about the great pillars of our faith; he was a sailor; we were then on board ship, and there were sundry huge posts on the shore, to which the ships were usually fastened, by throwing a cable over them. After I had told him a great many promises, he said, “I know they are good strong promises, but I can not get near enough to shore to throw my cable around them; that is the difficulty.”

Now, it often happens that God’s past mercies and loving kindnesses would be good sure posts to hold on to, but we have not got faith enough to throw our cable round them, and so we go slipping down the stream of unbelief, because we can not stay ourselves by our former mercies. I will, however, give you something that I think you can throw your cable over. If God has never been kind to you, one thing you surely know, and that is, he has been kind to others.

“Little Faith.” — There are some Christians who never get out of little faith all the while they are here. You notice in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” how many Lit tle-faith’s he mentions. There is our old friend Ready-to-halt, who went all the way to the celestial city on crutches, but left them when he went into the river Jor dan. Then there is little Feeble-mind, who carried his feeble mind with him all the way to the banks of the river and then left it, and ordered it to be buried in a dunghill that none might inherit it. Then there is Mr. Fearing, too, who used to stumble over a straw, and was always frightened if he saw a drop of rain, because he thought the floods of heaven were let loose upon him. And you remember Mr. Despondency and Miss Much-afraid, who were so long locked up in the dungeon of Giant Despair that they were almost starved to death, and there was little left of them but skin and bone; and poor Mr. Feeble-mind, who had been taken into the cave of Giant Slay-good who was about to eat him, when Great-heart came to his deliverance. John Bunyan was u6 SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES

a very wise man. He has put a great many of those characters in his book, because there are a great many of them. He has not left us with one Mr. Ready-to-halt, but he has given us seven or eight graphic characters, because he himself in his own time had been one of them, and he had known many others who had walked in the same path.

A Sham Faith. — I know a man who walks seven miles every Sabbath to hear the gospel preached at a certain place — a place where they preach the gospel. You know that very particular, superfine sort — the gospel, a gospel, the spirit of which consists in bad temper, carnal security, arrogance, and a seared conscience. But this man was one day met by a friend, who said to him, “Where is your wife?” “Wife?” said he to him. “What! does she not come with you?” “0! no,” said the man; “she never goes anywhere.” “Well, but,” said he, “don’t you try to get her to go, and the children?” “No; the fact of it is, I think, if I look to myself, that is quite enough.” “Well,” said the other, “and you believe that you are God’s elect, do you!” “Yes.” “Well, then,” said the other, “I don’t think you are, because you are worse than a heathen man and a publican, for you don’t care for your own household; therefore I don’t think you give much evidence of being God’s elect, for they love their fellow-creatures.” So sure as our faith is real, it will want to bring others in.

The Rope of Faith. — The stupendous falls of Niagara have been spoken of in every part of the world; but while they are marvelous to hear of, and wonderful as a spectacle, they have been very destructive to human life, when by accident any have been carried down the cataract. Some years ago two men, a bargeman and a collier, were in a boat, and found themselves unable to manage it, it being carried so swiftly down the current that they must both inevitably be borne down and dashed to pieces. Persons on the shore saw them, but were unable to do much for their rescue. At last, however, one man was saved by floating a rope to him, which he grasped. The same instant that the rope came into his hand a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless and confused bargeman instead of seizing the rope laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake; they were both in imminent peril, but the one was drawn to shore because he had a connection with the people on the land, whilst the other, clinging to the log, was borne irresistibly along and never heard of afterward. Do you not see that here is a practical illustration? Faith is a connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope of faith, and if we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence he pulls us to shore; but our good works, having no connection with Christ, are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair. Grapple them as tightly as we may, even with hooks of steel, they can not with all our efforts avail us in the least degree.

Solid Footing for Faith. — Mr. Innis, a great Scotch minister, once visited an infidel who was dying. When he came to him the first tune, he said, “Mr. Innis, I am relying on the mercy of God; God is merciful, and he will never damn a man for ever.” When he got worse and was nearer death, Mr. Innis went to him again, and he said, “0! Mr. Innis, my hope is gone; for I have been thinking, if God be merciful, God is just too; and what if, instead of being merciful to me, he should be just to me? What would then become of me? I must give up my hope hi the mere mercy of God; tell me how to be saved! “Mr. Innis told him that Christ had died in the stead of all believers — that God could be just, and yet the justifier through the death of Christ. “Ah!” said he, “Mr. Innis, there is something solid in that; n8 SPURGEON’S ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES

I can rest on that; I can not rest on anything else j” and it is a remarkable fact that none of us ever met with a man who thought he had his sins forgiven unless it was through the blood of Christ.

The Leap of Faith. — A boy at sea, who was very fond of climbing to the mast-head, one day climbed to the main-truck, and could not get down again. The sea was very rough, and it was seen that in a little while the boy would fall on the deck, and be dashed to pieces. His father saw but one way of saving his life. Seizing a speaking-trumpet, he cried out, “Boy, the next time the ship lurches, you fall into the sea.” The next time the ship lurched the boy looked down, and, not much liking the idea of throwing himself into the sea, still held to the mast. The father, who saw that the boy’s strength would soon fail him, took a gun in his hand, and cried out, “Boy, if you do not drop into the sea the next time the ship lurches, I’ll shoot you!” The boy knew his father meant it, and the next time the ship lurched he leaped into the sea. It seemed like certain destruction, but out went a dozen brawny arms, and he was saved. The sinner, in the midst of the storm, thinks he must cling to the mast of his good works, and so be saved. Says the gospel, “Let go your good works, and drop into the ocean of God’s love.” “No,” says the sinner, “it is a long way between me and God’s love; I must perish if I trust to that; I must have some other reliance.” “If you have any other reliance than that, you are lost.” Then comes the thundering law, and declares to the sinner, that unless he gives up every dependence, he will be lost. And then comes the happy moment, when the sinner says, “Dear Lord, I give up all my dependence, and cast myself on thee; I take thee, Jesus, to be my one object in life, my only trust, the refuge, the only refuge I have, for my soul.”

Confidence and Heroism. — A holy confidence in the divine purpose instead of making men grow stolid and idle may prove to be one of the mightiest impulses to the heroic life. Cromwell’s Ironsides to a man believed in the ev erlasting purpose, therefore they were invincible, for no fear ever breathed upon them. Tho the hosts of the tyrant may be innumerable, yet with the war cry, “The Lord of hosts is with us,” we will ride forth conquering and to conquer. Settle it in your mind that the Lord has called you to the work, and then advance without question or fear.

Pioneers of Faith. — I greatly esteem in my own mind those first believers who were not borne in by the throng of others, but went forward alone. I compare them to the first navigators upon an untried sea; the men who first sailed out of sight of shore, greatly venturing. To be first in perceiving that Jesus of Nazareth was the Anointed of the Lord was no mean thing, for none of the princes of this world had any idea of that great fact. These were in truth the “men of light and leading,” the foremost minds of their age, peasants and fishermen tho they were. These were the first swallows heralding a glorious summer-tide. These were the first song-birds waking the morning to behold the newly risen sun. It is a patent of nobility to be numbered with these.

Faith Honored. — A slaveholding American, on one occasion, buying a slave, said to the person of whom he was purchasing him, “Tell me honestly what are his faults?” Said the seller: “He has no faults, that I am aware of, but one: that one fault is, he will pray.” — “Ah!” said the purchaser, “I don’t like that; but I know something that will cure him of it pretty soon.” So, the next night, Cuffey was surprised by his master in the plantation while in earnest prayer, praying for his new master, and his master’s wife and family. The man stood and listened, but said nothing at the time; but the next morning he called Cuffey, and said, “I do not want to quarrel with you, my man, but I’ll have no praying on my premises: so you just drop it.” — “Massa,” said he, “me canna leave off praying; me must pray.” — “I’ll teach you to pray, if you are going to keep on at it.” — “Massa, me must keep on.” — “Well, then, I’ll give you five-and-twenty lashes a day till you leave off.” — “Massa, if you give me fifty, I must pray.” — “If that’s the way you are saucy to your master, you shall have it directly.” So, tying him up, he gave him five-and-twenty lashes, and asked him if he would pray again. “Yes, massa, me must pray always; me canna leave off.” The master looked astonished; he could not understand how a poor saint could keep on praying, when it seemed to do no good, but only brought persecution upon him. He told his wife of it. His wife said: “Why can’t you let the poor man pray? He does his work very well; you and I do not care about praying, but there’s no harm in letting him pray, if he gets on with his work.” — “But I don’t like it,” said the master, “he almost frightened me to death. You should see how he looked at me.” — “Was he angry?” — “No, I should not have minded that; but after I had beaten him, he looked at me with tears in his eyes, as if he pitied me more than himself.” That night the master could not sleep; he tossed to and fro on his bed; his sins were brought to his remembrance; he remembered he had persecuted a saint of God. Rising in his bed, he said, “Wife, will you pray for me?” — “I never prayed in my life,” said she, “I cannot pray for you.” “I am lost,” he said, “if some body does not pray for me; I cannot pray for myself.” — “I don’t know any one on the estate that knows how to pray, except Cuffey,” said his wife. The bell was rung, and Cuffey was brought in. Taking hold of his black servant’s hand, the master said, “Cuffey, can you pray for your master?” — “Massa,” said he, “me been praying for you eber since you flogged me, and me mean to pray always for you.” Down went Cuffey on his knees, and poured out his soul in tears, and both husband and wife were converted. That negro could not have done this without faith. Without faith he would have gone away directly, and said, “Massa, me leave off praying; me no like de white man’s whip.” But because he persevered through his faith, the Lord honored him, and gave him his master’s soul for his hire.

Obedience of Faith. — The ship” is on fire; the bales of cotton are pouring forth a black, horrible smoke; passengers and crew are in extreme danger, but a capable captain is in command, and he says to those around him, “If you will behave yourselves, I think I shall be able to effect the escape of you all.” Now, if they trust in the captain they will do precisely as he orders. No sailor or engineer will refuse to work the pumps, or to prepare the boats, neither will any passenger disobey rule. In proportion to their confidence in their leader will be the alacrity with which they obey him at once. They be lieve his orders to be wise, and so they keep to them. Neither their fear, nor their rashness, will lead them to rush to and fro contrary to his bidding if they have a firm trust in him. When the boats are lowered, and are brought one by one to the ship’s side, those who are to fill them wait till their turns come, in firm reliance upon the captain’s impartiality and prudence. They will get into the boats or they will wait on board, for they consider that his orders are dictated by a better judgment than their own. So far as each man and each woman firmly believes in the superior officer, discipline will be maintained. Do you not see this?

Obedience is the necessary outcome of true and real faith, and there is no trust where there is no obedience. Some of you fancy that you are to trust Christ, and then d<f what you like. You believe a lie, for such is not the teaching of God’s word. The faith which saves is a faith which obeys.

Faith in Tribulation. — Oh! what a precious thing faith is, when we are enabled to believe our God, and how easy then it is to endure and to surmount all trouble. Hear the old man in the garret, with a crust of bread and a cup of cold water. Sickness has confined him these years within that narrow room. He is too poor to maintain an attendant. Some woman comes in to look to him in the morning and in the evening, and there he sits, in the depths of poverty. And you will suppose he sits and groans. No, brethren; he may sometimes groan when the body is weak, but usually he sits and sings; and when the visitor climbs the creaking staircase of that old house, where human beings scarcely ought to be allowed to live; and when he goes into that poor cramped up room that is more fit to accommodate swine than men, he sits down upon that bottomless chair, and when he has seated himself as well as he can upon the four cross pieces of it he begins to talk to him, and he finds him full of heaven. “Oh! sir,” he says, “my God is very kind to me.” Propped up he is with pillows, and full of pain in every member of his body, but he says, “Blessed be his name, he has not left me. Oh! sir, I have enjoyed more peace and happiness in this room, out of which I have not gone for years,” — (the case is real that I am now describing) “I have enjoyed more happiness here than I ever did in all my life. My pains are great, sir, but they will not be for long; I am going home soon.”