Sermons
As to serving the Lord with cold hearts and drowsy souls, there has been too much of it; and it causes religion to wither. Men ride stags when they hunt for gain, and snails when they are on the road to heaven. Preachers go on seesawing, droning, and prosing, and the people fall to yawning and folding their arms, and then say that God is withholding His blessing. Every sluggard, when he finds himself enlisted in the ragged regiment, blames his luck, and some churches have learned the same wicked trick. I believe that when Paul plants and Apollos waters, God gives the increase; and I have no patience with those who throw the blame on God, when it belongs to themselves. — C. H. Spurgeon.
OUR book would be incomplete without a selection from the sermons of Mr. Spurgeon. But here we confess to a difficulty; our heart would prompt their publication wholesale, but our limited pages can carry only little of this precious freight. The literary merit which Mr. Spurgeon’s sermons possess is a minor consideration. Their strong and pure doctrine, scriptural teaching, earnest, loving persuasion, exaltation of Jesus as Lord, and clear gospel exposition render them priceless to the appreciative hearer and reader.
But though we cannot here reproduce their golden sound, we are consoled with the reflection that nearly two thousand published discourses, lectures, and addresses of this indefatigable preacher may be had through the publishing and importing houses of the country.
And here we would remark, that it augurs well for our faith that an enterprising house is now publishing, with Pastor Spurgeon’s approval, his grand commentary on the Psalms, ‘’The Treasury of David,” the greatest literary effort of his life. In justice to this splendid and much-needed work, of several volumes, we would not mar its value by extracts, which would necessarily be brief and unsatisfactory.
The two following sermons were preached by Mr. Spurgeon in his twenty-»first year to immense congregations in Exeter Hall. Since that date many have departed “from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils;” philosophizing teachers have arisen who in the name of charity cry smooth 1 Funk & Wagnalls, New York. $2.00 per volume.
things, and very ^///charitably give away what is not their own, namely, the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures and the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ. But our sturdy preacher has not drifted with the age. To-day he preaches the Living Oracles with added strength and ripened experience. Style and language may have undergone modifications, but his charming voice still rings with no uncertain sound, and his sermons are ever saturated with Bible teaching. His testimony is a constant protest against the insipid rationalizing of apostate preachers. Thank God, many are with him who reverence the Bible and hold to “the faith once delivered to the saints.” Such will win in the end; for when the flattery of fools shall melt away, and compromising ministers who bend to the times like a nose of wax shall receive the due rewards of their deeds, these true witnesses for God shall abide in the favor of their Lord. And who can number the many timid disciples whose hearts have been stirred and whose faith has been emboldened by the precious example of England’s faithful preacher? To the matchless grace of God let it be ascribed that many arise and call him blessed.
THE BIBLE.
A SERMON, DELIVERED ON MARCH 1 8, 1 855, BY PASTOR C. H. SPURGEON.
“I have written to him the great things of IMy law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” — Rosea viii. 12.
This is God’s complaint against Ephraim. It is no mean proof of His goodness that He stoops to rebuke His erring creatures; it is a great argument of His gracious disposition that He bows His head to notice terrestrial affairs. He might, if He pleased, wrap Himself with night as with a garment; He might put the stars around His wrist for bracelets, and bind the suns around His brow for a coronet; He might dwell alone, far, far above this world, up in the seventh heaven, and look down with calm and silent indifference upon all the doings of His creatures; He might do as the heathens supposed their Jove did, sit in perpetual silence, sometimes nodding his awful head to make the Fates move as he pleased, but never taking thought of the little things of earth, disposing of them as beneath his notice, engrossed within his own being, swallowed up within himself, living alone and retired; and I, as one of his creatures, might stand by night upon a mountain top, and look upon the silent stars, and say, “Ye are the eyes of God, but ye look not down on me; your light is the gift of His omnipotence, but yOur rays are not smiles of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has forgotten me; I am a despicable drop in the ocean of creation, a sere leaf in the forest of beings, an atom in the mountain of existence. He knows me not; I am alone, alone, alone.” But it is not so, beloved. Our God is of another order. He notices every one of us. There is not a sparrow or a worm but is found in His decrees. There is not a person upon whom His eye is not fixed. Our most secret acts are known to Him, Whatsoever we do or bear or suffer, the eye of God still rests upon us, and we are beneath His smile — for we are His people; or beneath His frown — for we have erred from Him.
Oh, how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the race of man, He does not smite it out of existence. We see from our text that God looks upon man, for He says of Ephraim, “I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” But see how when He observes the sin of man, He does not dash him away and spurn him with His foot; He does not shake him by the neck over the gulf of hell, until his brain doth reel, and then drop him for ever, but rather He comes down from heaven to plead with His creatures; He argues with them; He puts Himself, as it were, upon a level with the sinner, states His grievances, and pleads His claimi. O Ephraim, I have written unto thee the great things of My law, but they have been unto thee as a strange thing! I come here to-night in God’s stead, my friends, to plead with you as God’s ambassador, to charge many of you with a sin; to lay it to your hearts by the power of the Spirit, so that you may be convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come. The crime I charge you with is the sin of the text. God has written to you the great things of His law, but they have been unto you as a strange thing. It is concerning this blessed book, the Bible, that I mean to speak to-night. Here lies my text, — this Word of God. Here is the theme of my discourse, — a theme which demands more eloquence than I possess; a subject upon which a thousand orators might speak at once; a mighty, vast, incomprehensive theme, which might engross all eloquence throughout eternity, and still it would remain unexhausted.
Concerning the Bible I have three things to say to-night, and they are all in my text: first, its author, “/ have wTitten;” secondly, its subjects, — the great things of God’s law; and thirdly, its common treatment, — it has been accounted by most men a strange thing.
I. First, then, concerning this book, who is the author? The text says that it is God. *’ / have written to him the great things of My law.” Here lies my Bible — who wrote it? I open it, and I find it consists of a series of tracts. The first five tracts were written by a man called Moses. I turn on and I find others. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at other times, Solomon. Here I read Micah, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Testament, I see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, James, and others; but when I shut up the book, I ask myself who is the author of it? Do these men jointly claim the authorship? Are they the compositors of this massive volume? Do they between themselves divide the honor? Our holy religion answers, “No!” This volume is the writing of the living God; each letter was penned with an Almighty finger; each word in it dropped from the Everlasting lips, each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit, that Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David touched his harp and let sweet psalms of melody drop from his fingers, but God moved his hands over the living strings of his golden harp. It may be that Solomon sang canticles of love, or gave forth words of consummate wisdom, but God directed his lips, and made the preacher eloquent. If I follow the thundering Nahum when his horses plough the waters, or Habbakuk when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction; if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven; if I turn to the smooth page of
John, who tells of Io>»e, or the rugged, fiery chapters of Peter, who speaks of the fire devouring God’s enemies; if I turn to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God, — everywhere I find God speaking: it is God’s voice, not man’s; the word’s are God’s words, the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah of this earth. This Bible is God’s Bible; and when I see it I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, “I am the book of God: man, read me. I am God’s writing: open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, for He is my author, and you will see Him visible and manifest everywhere.” “I have written to him the great things of My law.”
How do you know that God wrote the book? That is just what I shall not try to prove to you. I could, if I pleased, to a demonstration, for there are arguments enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to occupy your time to-night in bringing them before you; but I shall do no such thing. I might tell you, if I pleased, that the grandeur of the style is above that of any mortal writing, and that all the poets who have ever existed could not, with all their works united, give us such sublime poetry and such mighty language as is to be found in the Scriptures. I might insist upon it that the subjects of which it treats are beyond the human intellect; that man could never have invented the grand doctrines of a Trinity in the Godhead; man could not have told us anything of the creation of the universe; he could never have been the author of the majestic idea of Providence, that all things are ordered according to the will of one great Supreme Being, and work together for good. I might enlarge upon its honesty, since it tells the faults of its writers; its unity, since it never belies itself; its master simplicity, that he who runs may read it; and I might mention a hundred more things, which would all prove to a demonstration that the book is of God. But I come not here to prove it. I am a Christian minister, and you are Christians, or profess to be so; and there is never any necessity for Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forth infidel arguments in order to answer them. It is the greatest folly in the world. Infidels, poor creatures, do not know their own arguments till we tell them, and then they glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at the shield of truth again. It isjfffolly to bring forward these firebrands of hell, even if we are well prepared to quench them. Let men of the world learn error of themselves; do not let us be propagators of their falsehoods. True, there are some preachers who are short of stock, and want them to fill up! But God’s own chosen men need not do that; they are taught of God, and God supplies them with matter, with language, and with power. There may be some one here to-night who has come without faith, a man of reason, a free-thinker. With him I have no argument at all. I profess not to stand here as a controversialist, but as a preacher of things that I know and feel. But I too have been like him. There was an evil hour when once I slipped the anchor of my faith; I cut the cable of my belief; I no longer moored myself hard by the coasts of revelation; I allowed my vessel to drift before the wind; I said to Reason, “Be thou my captain; “I said to my own brain, “Be thou my rudder;” and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God it is all over now; but I will tell you its brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean of free-thought. I went on, and as I went the skies began to darken; but to make up for that deficiency, the waters were brilliant with coruscations of brilliancy. I saw sparks flying upwards that pleased me, and I thought, “If this be free-thought, it is a happy thing.” IIy thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered stars with both mv hands. But anon, instead of these coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed on they gnashed their teeth and grinned upon me; they seized the prow of my ship, and dragged me on, while I, in part, gloried at the rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I passed the old landmarks of my faith. As I hurried forward with an awful speed, I began to doubt my very existence; I doubted if there were a world, I doubted if there were such a thing as myself. I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of unbelief I went to the
very bottom of the sea of infidelity. I doubted everything. But here the Devil foiled himself; for the very extravagance of the doubt proved its absurdity. Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a voice which said, “And can this doubt be true?”
At this very thought I awoke. I started from that death-dream, which God knows might have damned my soul and ruined this my body, if I had not awoke. When I arose Faith took the helm; from that moment I doubted not. Faith steered me back; Faith cried, ‘’Away, away! “I cast my anchor on Calvary; I lifted my eye to God; and here I am, alive and out of hell. Therefore I speak what I do know. I have sailed that perilous voyage; I have come safe to land. Ask me again to be an infidel! No; I have tried it; it was sweet at first, but bitter afterwards. Now, lashed to God’s gospel more firmly than ever, standing as on a rock of adamant, I defy the arguments of Hell to move me, for ‘’ I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him.” But I shall neither plead nor argue this night. You profess to be Christian men, or else you would not be here. Your profession may be lies; what you say you arc, may be the very contrary to what you really are; but still I suppose you all admit that this is the Word of God. A thought or two then upon it. ‘’ I have written to him the great things of My law.”
First, my friends, stand over this volume and admire its aicthority. This is no common book. It is not the sayings of the sages of Greece; here are not the utterances of philosophers of past ages. If these words were written by man, we might reject them; but oh, let me think the solemn thought — that this book is God’s handwriting, that these words are God’s. Let me look at its date: it is dated from the hills of heaven. Let me look at its letters: they flash glory on my eye. Let me read the chapters: they are big with meaning and mysteries unknown. Let me turn over the prophecies: they are pregnant with unthought-of wonders. Oh, Book of books! And wast thou written by my God? Then will I bow before thee. Thou Book of vast authority, thou art a proclamation from the Emperor of Heaven: far be it from me to exercise my reason in contradicting thee. Reason! thy place is to stand and find out what this volume means, not to tell what this book ought to say. Come thou, my reason, my intellect, sit thou down and listen, for these words are the words of God. I do not know how to enlarge on this thought. Oh, if you could ever remember that this Bible was actually and really written by God! Oh, if ye had been let into the secret chambers of heaven, if ye had beheld God grasping His pen and writing down these letters, then surely ye would respect them. But they are just as much God’s handwriting as if you had seen God write them. This Bible is a book of authority; it is an authorized book, for God has written it. Oh, tremble, tremble, lest any of you despise it! Mark its authority, for it is the Word of God.
Then, since God wrote it, mark its triitJifiuness. If I had written it, there would be worms of critics who would at once swarm on it, and would cover it with their evil spawn; had I written it, there would be men who would pull it to pieces at once, and perhaps quite right too. But this is the Word of God. Come, search, ye critics, and find a flaw; examine it from its Genesis to its Revelation, and find an error. This is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by quartz or any earthy substance. This is a star without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light without darkness; a moon without its paleness; a glory without a dimness. O Bible! it cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and pure; but of thcc we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in thcc, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error, but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. Why? Because God wrote it. Ah! charge God with error if yc please; tell Ilim that His book is not what it ought to be. I have heard men, with prudisli and mock modesty, who would like to alter tlic Bible; and (I almost blush to say it) I have heard ministers alter God’s Bible, because they were afraid of it. Have you never heard a man say, “He that belicvcth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that belicvcth not,” — What does the Bible say? — “shall be damned,’’ But that does not happen to be polite enough, so they say, “shall be condemned Gentlemen, pull the velvet out of your mouths; speak God’s Word; we want none of your alterations. I have heard men in prayer, instead of saying,” Make your calling and election sure,” say, “Make your calling and salvation sure.” Pity they were not born when God lived, far, — far back, that they might have taught God how to write. Oh, impudence beyond all bounds! Oh, full-blown self-SERMONS. 6ll
conceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-wise, — to teach the Omniscient and instruct the Eternal! Strange that there should be men so vile as to use the penknife of Jehoiakim, to cut passages of the Word because they arc unpalatable. Oh, ye who dislike certain portions of the Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that God will not stay for your little opinion. Your dislike is the very reason why God wrote it, because you ought not to be suited; you have no right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like; He wrote the truth. Oh, let us bend in reverence before it, for God inspired it. It is pure truth. Here from this fountain gushes aqtia vitcu, — “the water of life,” without a single particle of earth; here from this sun there cometh forth rays of radiance, without the mixture of darkness. Blessed Bible, thou art all truth!
Yet once more, before we leave this point let us stop and consider the merciful nature of God in having written us a Bible at all. Ah, He might have left us without it, to grope our dark way, as blind men seek the wall; He might have suffered us to wander on with the star of reason as our only guide. I recollect a story of Mr. Hume, who so constantly affirmed that the light of reason is abundantly sufficient. Being at a good minister’s house one evening, he had been discussing the question, and declaring his firm belief in the sufficiency of the light of nature. On leaving, the minister offered to hold him a candle, to light him down the steps. He said, ‘* No, the light of nature would be enough; the moon would do.” It so happened that the moon was covered with a cloud, and he fell down the steps. “Ah,” said the minister, “you had better have had a little light from above, after all, Mr. Hume.” So, supposing the light of nature to be sufficient, we had better have a little light from above too, and then we shall be sure to be right. Better have two lights than only one. The light of creation is a bright light. God maybe seen in the stars; His name is written in gilt letters on the brow of night; you may discover His glory in the ocean waves, yea, in the trees of the field. But it is better to read it in two books than in one. You will find it here more clearly revealed, for He has written this book Himself, and He has given you the key to understand it, if you have the Holy
Spirit. Ah, beloved, let us thank God for this Bible; let us love it; let us count it more precious than much fine gold.
But let me say one thing before I pass on to the second point; If this be the Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for the last month? ‘’ Month, sir !• I have not read it for this year.” Ay, there are some of you who have not read it at all. Most people treat the Bible very politely. They have a small pocket volume, neatly bound; they put a white pockethandkerchief around it, and carry it to their places of worship; when they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning; then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat and goes to chapel; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing. That is your style of entertaining this heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers. There are some of you who have not turned over your Bibles for a long, long, long while, and what think you? I tell you blunt words, but true words. What will God say at last? When you shall come before Him, He shall say: “Did you read My Bible?” “No.” “I wrote you a letter of mercy; did you read it?” “No.” “Rebel! I have sent thee a letter inviting thee to Me; didst thou ever read it?” “Lord, I never broke the seal; I kept it shut up.” “Wretch!” says God, “then thou deservcst hell, if I sent thee a loving epistle and thou wouldst not even break the seal: what shall I do unto thee?” Oh, let it not be so with you! Be Bible readers; be Bible searchers.
II. Our second point is, the subjects on wJiicJi the Bible t7’eats. The words of the text are these: “I have written to him the great things of My law.” The Bible treats of great things, and of great things only. There is nothing in this Bible which is unimportant. Every verse in it has a solemn meaning, and if we have not found it out yet, we hope yet to do it. You have seen mummies wrapped round and round with folds of linen. Well, God’s Bible is like that; it is a vast roll of white linen, woven in the loom of truth. So you will have to continue unwinding it, roll after roll, before you get the real meaning of it from the very depth; and when you have found, as you think, a part of the meaning, you will still need to keep on unwinding, unwinding, and all eternity you will be unwinding the words of this wondrous volume. Yet there is nothing in the Bible but great things. Let me divide, so as to be more brief. First, all things in this Bible are great; but, secondly, some things are the greatest of all.
All things in the Bible are great. Some people think it does not matter what doctrines you belie’e; that it is immaterial what church you attend; that all denominations are alike. Well, I dislike Mrs. Bigotry above almost all people in the world, and I never give her any compliment or praise. But there is another woman I hate equally as much, and that is Mrs. Latitudinarianism., a well-known character, who has made the discovery that all of us are alike. Now, I believe that a man may be saved in any church. Some have been saved in the Church of Rome, — a few blessed men, whose names I could mention here. I know, blessed be God! that multitudes are saved in the Church of England: she has a host of pious, praying men in her midst. I think that all sections of Protestant Christians have a remnant according to the election of grace, and they had need to have, some of them, a little salt, for otherwise they would go to corruption. But when I say that, do you imagine that I think themi all on a level? Are the’ all alike truthful? One sect says infant baptism is right; another says it is wrong: yet you say they are both right. I cannot see that. One teaches we are saved by free grace; another says that we are not, but are saved by free will: and yet you believe they are both right. I do not understand that. One sayS that God loves His people, and never leaves off loving them; another says that He did not love His people before the’ loved Him; that He often loves them, and then ceases to love them, and turns them away. They may be both right in the main; but can they be both right when one says “Yes,” and the other says “No.” I must have a pair of spectacles to enable me to look backwards and forwards at the same time before I can see that. It cannot be, sirs, that they are both right. But some say they differ upon non-essentials. This text says: “I have written to him the great things of ^ly law.” There is nothing in God’s Bible which is not great. Did ever any of you sit down to see which was the purest religion? “Oh,” say you, “we never took the trouble. Ve went just where our father and mother went.” Ah, that is a profound reason indeed! You went where your father and mother did. I thought you were sensible people; I did n’t think you went where other people pulled you, but went of your own selves. I love my parents above all that breathe, and the very thought that they believed a thing to be true helps me to think it is correct; but I have not followed them. I belong to a different denomination, and I thank God I do. I can receive them as Christian brethren and sisters; but I never thought that because they happened to be one thing I was to be the same. No such thing. God gave me brains, and I will use them; and if you have any intellect, use it too. Never say it does n’t matter. It does matter. Whatever God has put here is of eminent importance: He would not have written a thing that was indifferent. Whatever is here is of some value; therefore, search all questions; try all by the Word of God. I am not afraid to have what I preach tried by this book. Only give me a fair field and no favor and this book; if I say anything contrary to it, I will withdraw it the next Sabbath-day. By this I stand, by this I fall. Search and see; but don’t say, “It does not matter.” If God says a thing, it must always be of importance.
But while all things in God’s Word are important, all arc not equally impoi’tant. There are certain fundamental and vital truths which must be believed, or otherwise no man would be saved. If you want to know what you must believe if ‘e would be saved, you will find the great things of God’s law between these two covers; they are all contained here. As a sort of digest or summary of the great things of the law, I remember an old friend of mine once saying: “Ah, you preach the three R’s, and God will always bless you!” I said: “What are the three R’s?” And he answered: “Ruin, redemption, and regeneration.” They contain the sum and substance of divinity-. R for ruin. We were all ruined in the fall; we were all lost when Adam sinned, and we are all ruined by our own transgressions; we are all ruined by our own evil hearts and our own wicked wills; and we all shall be ruined unless grace saves us. Then there is a second R for redemption. We are ransomed by the blood of Christ, — a Lamb without blemish and without spot; we are rescued by His power; we are ransomed by His merits; we are redeemed by His strength. Then there is R for regeneration. If we would be pardoned, we must also be regenerated; for no man can partake of redemption unless he is regenerate. Let him be as good as he pleases, let him serve God, as he imagines, as much as he likes; unless he is regenerate, and has a new heart, a new birth, he will still be in the first R, — that is, ruin. These things contain an epitome of the gospel. I believe there is a better epitome in the five points of Calvinism: Election according to the foreknowledge of God; the natural depravity and sinfulness of man; particular redemption by the blood of Christ; effectual calling by the power of the Spirit; and ultimate perseverance by the efforts of God’s might. I think all those need to be believed in order to salvation; but I should not like to write a creed like the Athanasian, beginning with “Whosoever shall be saved, before all things it is necessary that he should hold the Catholic faith, which faith is this,” — when I got so far I should stop, because I should not know what to write. I hold the Catholic faith of the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. It is not for me to draw up creeds; but I ask you to search the Scriptures, for this is the word of life.
God says: ‘’ I have written to him the great things of Liv law.” Do you doubt their greatness? Do ye think they are not worth your attention? Reflect a moment, man! Where art thou standing now?
“Lo, on a narrow neck of land,
‘Twixt two unbounded seas I stand;
An inch of time, a moment’s space,
May lodge me in yon heavenly place,
Or shut me up in hell.”
I recollect standing on a sea-shore once, upon a narrow neck of land, thoughtless that the tide might come up. The tide kept continually washing up on either side, and, rapt in thought, I still stood there, until at last there was the greatest difficulty in getting on shore; the waves had washed between me and the shore. You and I stand each day on a narrow neck, and there is one wave coming up there. See, how near it is to your foot! And lo! another follows at every tick of the clock. “Our hearts, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave.” We are always tending downwards to the grave each moment that we live. This book tells me that if I am converted, when I die there is a heaven of joy and love to receive me; it tells me that angels’ pinions shall be stretched, and I, borne by strong cherubic wings, shall out-soar the lightning, and mount beyond the stars, up to the throne of God, to dwell for ever
“Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in.”
Oh, it makes the hot tear start from my eye! It makes my heart too big for this my body, and my brain whirls at the thought of
“Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me.”
Oh, that sweet scene beyond the clouds, — sweet fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight! Are not these great things? But then, poor unregenerate soul, the Bible says, if thou art lost, thou art lost for ever; it tells thee, that if thou diest without Christ, without God, there is no hope for thee, that there is a place without a gleam of hope, where thou shalt read in burning letters, “Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not;” it tells you that ye shall be driven from His presence with a “Depart, yc cursed.” Are not these great things? Yes, sirs, as heaven is desirable, as hell is terrible, as time is short, as eternity is infinite, as the soul is precious, as pain is to be shunned, as heaven is to be sought, as God is eternal, and as His words arc sure, these are great things, things ye ought to listen to.
in. Our last point is flie treatment zvJiieJi the holy Bible receives in this world. It is accounted a strange thing. What does that mean, — the Bible accounted a strange thing? In the first place, it means that it is very strange to some people, because tJiey never read it. I remember reading on one occasion the sacred story of David and Goliath, and there was a person present, positively grown up to years of maturity, who said to me, “Dear me! what an interesting story; what book is that in?” And I recollect a person once coming to me in private. I spoke to her about her soul; she told me how deeply she felt, how she had a desire to serve God, but she found another law in her members. I turned to a passage in Romans, and read to her, “The good that I would, I do not; and the evil which I would not, that I do!” She said, “Is that in the Bible? I did not know it.” I did not blame her because she had no interest in the Bible till then; but I did wonder that there could be found persons who knew nothing about such a passage. Ah! you know more about your ledgers than your Bible; you know more about your day-books than what God has written. Many of you will read a novel from beginning to end, and what have you got? A mouthful of froth when you have done. But you cannot read the Bible: that solid, lasting, substantial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked up in the cupboard of neglect; while anything that man writes, a catch of the day, is greedily devoured. “I have written unto him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Ye have never read it. I bring the broad charge against you. Perhaps ye say I ought not to charge you with any such thing. I always think it better to have a worse opinion of you than too good an one. I charge you with this: you do not read your Bible. Some of you never have read it through. I know I speak what your heart must say is honest truth. You are not Bible-readers. You say you have the Bible in your houses: do I think you are such heathens as not to have a Bible? But when did you read it last? How do you know that your spectacles, which you have lost, have not been there for the last three years? Many people have not turned over its pages for a long time, and God might say unto them, ‘* I have written unto you the great things of My law, but they have been accounted unto you a strange thing.”
Others there be who read the Bible, but when they read it, they say it is so horribly dry. That young man over there says it is a “bore; “that is the word he uses. He says,” ]My mother said to me, ‘When you go up to town, read a chapter every day.’ Well, I thought I would please her, and I said I would. I am sure I wish I had not. I did not read a chapter yesterday or the day before. We were so busy. I could not help it.” You do not love the Bible, do you? ‘* No; there is nothing in it which is interesting.” Ah! I thought so. But a little while ago / could not see anything in it. Do you know why? Blind men cannot see, can they? But when the Spirit touches the scales of the eyes they fall off, and when He puts eye-salve on, then the Bible becomes precious. I remember a minister who went to see an old lady, and he thought he would give her some precious promises out of the Word of God. Turning to one, he saw written In the margin, “P,” and he asked, “What does this mean?” “That means precious, sir.” Further down he saw “T. and P.,” and he asked what the letters meant. “That,” she said, “means tried and proved, for I have tried and proved It.” If you have tried God’s Word and proved It; If it Is precious to your souls, then you are Christians; but those persons who despise the Bible have “neither part nor lot in the matter.” If It is dry to you, you will be dry at last In hell. If you do not esteem It as better than your necessary food, there is no hope for you, for you lack the greatest evidence of your Christianity.
Alas! alas! the worse case Is to come. TJicre are some people who hate the Bible, as well as despise it. Is there such an one stepped In here? Some of you said, “Let us go and hear what the young preacher has to say to us.” This is what he hath to say to you: “Behold, ye desplsers, and wonder and perish.” This is what he hath to say to you: “The wicked shall be turned Into hell, and all that forget God.” And this, again, he has to say to you: ‘* Behold there shall come in the last days mockers like yourselves, walking after your own lusts.” But more: he tells you to-night that if you arc saved, you must find salvation here. Therefore despise not the Bible, but search It, read It, and come unto it. Rest thee well assured, O scorncr, that thy laughs cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert thine inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou shouldst make a league with death, and sign a covenant with hell, yet swift justice shall o’ertake thee, and strong vengeance strike thee low. In vain dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are mightier than thy sophistries; nor can thy smart saying alter the divine truth of a single word of this volume of revelation. Oh! why dost thou quarrel with thy best friend and 111 treat thy only refuge? There yet remains hope even for the scorner, — hope in a Saviour’s veins; hope in the Father’s mercy; hope in the Holy Spirit’s omnipotent agency.
I have done when I have said one word. My friend the philosopher says it may be very well for me to urge people to read the Bible; but he thinks there are a great many sciences far more interesting and useful than theology. Extinnely obliged to you for your opiJiion, sir. hat science do you mean? The science of dissecting beetles and arranging butterflies? ‘’No,” you say, “certainly not.” The science, then, of arranging stones and telling us of the strata of the earth? “No, not exactly that.” Much science, then? “Oh, all sciences,” say you, “are better than the science of the Bible.” Ah, sir, that is your opinion; and it is because you are far from God that you say so. But the science of Jesus Christ is the most excellent of sciences. Let no one turn away from the Bible because it is not a book of learning and wisdom. It is. Would ye know astronomy? It is here: it tells you of the Sun of Righteousness and the Star of Bethlehem. Would ve know botany? It is here: it tells you of the plant of renown, — the Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon. Would ye know geology and mineralogy? You shall learn it here: for you may read of the Rock of Ages, and the White Stone with a name graven thereon, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Would ye study history? Here is the most ancient of all the records of the history of the human race. Whate’er your science is, come and bend o’er this book; your science is here. Come and drink out of this fair fount of knowledge and wisdom, and ye shall find yourselves made wise unto salvation. Wise and foolish, babes and men, gray-headed sires, youths and maidens, — I speak to you, I plead with you, I beg of you respect your Bibles and search them out, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they which testif” of Christ.
I have done. Let us go home and practise what we have heard. I have heard of a woman, who, when she was asked what she remembered of the minister’s sermon, said, “I don’t recollect anything of it. It was about short weights and bad measures, and I didn’t recollect anything but to go home and burn the bushel.” So if you will remember to go hom and burn the bushel, if you will recollect to go home and read your Bibles, I shall have said enough. And may God, in His infinite mercy, when you read your
Bibles, pour into your soul the illuminating rays of the Sun of Righteousness, by the agency of the ever-adorable Spirit; then you will read to your profit and to your soul’s salvation. We may say of the Bible: —
“God’s cabinet of revealed counsel ‘t is,
Where weal and woe are ordered so
That every man may know which shall be his,
Unless his own mistake false application make.
“It is the index to eternity.
He cannot miss of endless bliss.
That takes this chart to steer by;
Nor can he be mistook, that speaketh by this book.
“It is the book of God. What if I should
Say, God of books, let him that looks
Angry at that expression, as too bold.
His thoughts in silence smother till he find such another.”
THE ETERNAL NAME.
A SERMON, DELIVERED ON MAY 27, 1 855, BY PASTOR C. H. SPURGEON. “His name shall endure for ever.” — Ps. lxxii. 17.
No one here requires to be told that this is the name of Jesus Christ, which “shall endure for ever.” Men have said of many of their works, “they shall endure for ever;” but how much have they been disappointed! In the age succeeding the flood, they made the brick, they gathered the slime, and when they had piled old Babel’s tower, they said, “This shall last for ever.” But God confounded their language; they finished it not. By I lis lightnings He destroyed it, and left it a monument of their folly. Old Pharaoh and the Egyptian monarchs heaped up their pyramids, and they said, “They shall stand for ever,” and so indeed they do stand; but the time is approaching when age shall devour even these. So with all the proudest works of man, whether they have been his temples or his monarchies, he has written “everlasting”
on them; but God has ordained their end, and they have passed away. The most stable things have been evanescent as shadows and the bubbles of an hour, speedily destroyed at God’s bidding. Where is Nineveh, and where is Babylon? Where the cities of Persia? Where are the high places of Edom? Where are Moab, and the princes of Ammon? Where are the temples of the heroes of Greece? Where the millions that passed from the gates of Thebes? Where are the hosts of Xerxes, or where the vast armies of the Roman emperors? Have they not passed away? And though in their pride they said, “This monarchy is an everlasting one, this queen of the seven hills shall be called the eternal city,” its pride is dimmed; and she who sat alone, and said, “I shall be no widow, but a queen for ever,” she hath fallen, hath fallen, and in a little while she shall sink like a millstone in the flood, her name being a curse and a by-word, and her site the habitation of dragons and of owls. Man calls his works eternal; God calls them fleeting. ]Man conceives that they are built of rock; God says, “Nay, sand, or, worse than that, they are air.” Man says he erects them for eternity; God blows but for a moment, and where are they? Like baseless fabrics of a vision, they are past and gone for ever.
It is pleasant, then, to find that there is one thing which is to last for ever. Concerning that one thing we hope to speak to-night, if God will enable me to preach and you to hear. “His name shall endure for ever.” First, the relio;ion sanctified by His name shall endure for ever; secondly, the Jionoy oi His name shall endure for ever; and thirdly, the saving, comforting power of His name shall endure for ever.
I. First, the religion of the name of Jesus is to endure for ever. When impostors forged their delusions, they had hopes that peradventure they might in some distant age carry the world before them, and if they saw a few followers gather around their standard, who off’ered incense at their shrine, then they smiled, and said, “My religion shall outshine the stars and last through eternity.” But how mistaken have they been! How many false systems have started up and passed away! Why, some of us have seen, even in our short lifetime, sects that rose like Jonah’s gourd in a single night, and passed away as swiftly. We too have beheld prophets rise, who have had their hour; yea, they have had their day, as dogs all have, but like the dogs, their day has passed away, and the impostor, where is he? And the arch-deceiver, where is he? Gone and ceased. Specially might I say this of the various systems of infidelity. Within a hundred and fifty years how has the boasted power of reason changed! It has piled up one thing, and then another day it has laughed at Its own handiwork, demolished its own castle, and constructed another, and the next day a third. It hath a thousand dresses. Once it came forth like a fool with its bells, heralded by Voltaire; then it came out a braggart bully like Tom Paine; then it changed its course and assumed another shape, till forsooth we have it in the base, bestial secularism of the present day, which looks for nought but the earth, keeps its nose upon the ground, and, like the beast, thinks this world is enough, or looks for another through seeking this. Why, before one hair on this head shall be gray, the last secularist shall have passed away; before many of us are fifty years of age a new infidelity shall come, and to those who say, “Where will saints be?” we can turn round and say, “Where are you?” And they will answer, “We have altered our names.” They will have altered their names, assumed a fresh shape, put on a new form of evil; but still their nature will be the same, opposing Christ, and endeavoring to blaspheme His truths. On all their systems of religion, or non-religion, — for that is a system, too, — it may be written, “Evanescent: fading as the flower, fleeting as the meteor, frail and unreal as a vapor.” But of Christ’s religion it shall be said, “His name shall endure for ever.” Let me now say a few things, — not to prove it, for that I do not wish to do, — but to give you some hints whereby possibly I may one day prove it to other people, that Jesus Christ’s religion must inevitably endure for ever.
And first, we ask those who think it shall pass away, when was there a time when it did not exist? We ask them whether they can point their finger to a period when the religion of Jesus was an unheard-of thing. “Yes,” they will reply, “before the days of Christ and His apostles.” But we answer, “Nay, Bethlehem was not the birthplace of the gospel; though Jesus was born there, there was a gospel long before the birth of Jesus, and a preached one too, although not preached in all its simplicity and plainness, as we hear it now. There was a gospel in the wilderness of Sinai; although it might be confused with the smoke of the incense, and only to be seen through slaughtered victims, yet there was a gospel there.” Yea, more, we take them back to the fair trees of Eden, where the fruits perpetually ripened and summer always rested, and amid these groves we tell them there was a gospel, and we let them hear the voice of God as He spoke to recreant man, and said, ‘’ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” And having taken them thus far back, we ask, “Where were false religions born? Where was their cradle?” They point us to Mecca, or they turn their fingers to Rome, or they speak of Confucius, or the dogmas of Buddha. But we say, you only go back to a distant obscurity: we take you to the primeval age; we direct you to the days of purity; we take you back to the time when Adam first trod the earth; and then we ask you whether it is not likely that as the first-born, it will not also be the last to die; and as it was born so early, and still exists, whilst a thousand ephemera have become extinct, whether it does not look most probable that when all others shall have perished like the bubble upon the wave, this only shall swim, like a good ship upon the ocean, and still shall bear its myriad souls, not to the land of shades, but across the river of death to the plains of heaven.
We ask next, supposing Christ’s gospel to become extinct, what religion is to supplant it? We inquire of the wise man, who says Christianity is soon to die, “Pray, sir, what religion are we to have in its stead? Are we to have the delusions of the heathen, who bow before their gods and worship images of wood and stone? Win ye have the orgies of Bacchus or the obscenities of Venus? Would ye see your daughters once more bowing down before Thammuz, or performing obscene rites as of old?” Nay, ye would not endure such things; ye would say, “It must not be tolerated by civilized men.” “Then what would ye have? Would ye have Romanism and its superstition?” Ye will say, “No, God help us, never.” They may do what they please with Britain, but she is too wise to take old Popery back again while Smithfield lasts, and there is one of the signs of martyrs there; ay, while there breathes a man who marks himself a freeman, and swears by the Constitution of Old England, we cannot take Popery back again. She may be rampant with her superstitions and her priestcraft, but with one consent my hearers reply, ‘/ We will not have Popery.” Then what will ye choose? Shall it be Mohammedanism? Will ye choose that, with all its fables, its wickedness and libidinousness? I will not tell you of it. Nor will I mention the accursed imposture of the West that has lately arisen. We will not allow Polygamy while there are men to be found who love the social circle and cannot see it invaded. We would not wish, when God hath given to man one wife, that he should drag in twenty as the companions of that one. We cannot prefer Mormonism; we will not, and we shall not. Then what shall we have in the place of Christianity? “Infidelity!” you cry, do you, sirs? And would you have that? Then what would be the consequence? What do many of them promote? Communist views, and the real disruption of all society as at present established. Would you desire Reigns of Terror here as they had in France? Do you wish to see all society shattered, and men. wandering like monster icebergs on the sea, dashing against each other, and being at last utterh destroyed? God save us from Infidelity! What can you have, then? Nought. There is nothing to supplant Christianity. What religion shall overcome it? There is not one to be compared with it. If we tread the globe round, and search from Britain to Japan, there shall be no religion found so just to God, so safe to man.
We ask the enemy once more, suppose a religion were to be found which would be preferable to the one v.’e love, by what means would you crush ours? How would you get rid of the religion of Jesus? and how would you extinguish His name? Surely, sirs, ye would never think of the old practice of persecution, would you? Would ye once more try the efficacy of stakes and fires to burn out the name of Jesus? Would ye try racks and thumbscrews? Would ye give us the boots and instruments of torture? Try it, sirs, and ye shall not quench Christianity. Each martyr, dipping his finger in his blood, would write its honors on the heavens as he died; and the very flame that mounted up to heaven would emblazon the skies with the name of Jesus, Persecution has been tried. Turn to the Alps; let the valleys of Piedmont speak; let Switzerland testify; let France, with its St. Bartholomew; let England, with all its massacres, speak. And if ye have not crushed it yet, shall ye hope to do it? Shall ye? Nay, a thousand are to be found, and ten thousand if it were necessary, who are willing to march to the stake to-morrow; and when they are burned, if ye could take up their hearts, ye would see engraven upon each of them the name of Jesus. “His name shall endure for ever;” for how can ye destroy our love to it? “Ah, but,” ye say “we would try gentler means than that! “Well, what would ye attempt? Would ye invent a better religion? We bid you do it, and let us hear it; we have not yet so much as believed you capable of such a discovery. What then? Would ye wake up one that should deceive us and lead us astray? We bid you do it; for it is not possible to deceive the elect. You may deceive the multitude, but God’s elect shall not be led astray. They have tried us. Have they not given us Popery? Have they not assailed us wdth Puscyism? Are they not tempting us with Arminianism by the wholesale? And do we therefore renounce God’s truth? No; we have taken this for our motto, and by it we will stand. ‘* The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible,” is still the religion of Protestants; and the self-same truth which moved the lips of Chrysostom, the old doctrine that ravished the heart of Augustine, the old faith which Athanasius declared, the good old doctrine that Calvin preached, is our gospel now; and, God helping us, we will stand by it till we die. How will ye quench it? If ye wish to do it, where can ye find the means? It is not in your power. Aha! aha! aha! we laugh you to scorn.
But you will quench it, will you? You will try it, do you say? And you hope you will accomplish your purpose? Yes; I know you will, when you have annihilated the sun; when you have quenched the moon with drops of your tears; when you have dried up the sea with your drinking. Then shall ye do it. And yet ye say ye will!
And next, I ask you, suppose you did, what would become of the world then? Ah! were I eloquent to-night, I might perhaps tell you. If I could borrow the language of a Robert Hall I might hang the world in mourning; I might make the sea the great chief mourner, with its dirge of howling winds and its wild death-march of disordered waves; I might clothe all nature, not in robes of green, but in garments of sombre blackness; I would bid hurricanes howl the solemn wailing, — that death-shriek of a world. For what would become of us if we should lose the gospel? As for me, I tell you fairly, I would cry, ‘’Let me begone! “I would have no wish to be here without my Lord; and if the gospel be not true, I should bless God to annihilate me this instant, for I would not care to live if ye could destroy the name of Jesus Christ. But that would not be all, that one man should be miserable, for there are thousands and thousands who can speak as I do. Again, what would become of civilization if ye could take Christianity away? Where would be the hope of a perpetual peace? Where governments? Where your Sabbath-schools? Where all your societies? Where everything that ameliorates the condition of man, reforms his manners, and elevates his character? Where? Let Echo answer, ‘’Where?” They would be gone, and not a scrap of them would be left. And where, O men, would be your hope of heaven? And where the knowledge of eternity? Where a help across the river death? Where a heaven? And where bliss everlasting? All were gone if His name did not endure for ever. But we arc sure of it, we know it, we affirm it, we declare it; we believe, and ever will, that “His name shall endure for ever” — ay, for ever! let who will try to stop it.
This is my first point. I shall have to speak with rather bated breath upon the second, although I feel so warm within as well as without, that I would to God I could speak with all my strength as I micfht do.
n. But, secondly, as His religion, so the Jioiior of His name is to last for ever. Voltaire said he lived in the twilight of Christianity. He meant a lie; he spoke the truth. He did live in its twilight; but it was the twilight before the morning, — not the twilight of the evening, as he meant to say; for the morning comes, when the light of the sun shall break upon us in its truest glory. The scorners have said that we should soon forget to honor Christ, and that one day no man should acknowledge Him. Now, we assert again, in the words of my text, “His name shall endure for ever,” as to the honor of it. Yes, I will tell you how long it will endure. As long as on this earth there is a sinner who has been reclaimed by Omnipotent grace, Christ’s name shall endure; as long as there is a Mary ready to wash His feet with tears and wipe them with the hair of her head; as long as there breathes a chief of sinners who has washed himself in the Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness; as long as there exists a Christian who has put his faith in Jesus and found Him his delight, his refuge, his stay, his shield, his song, and his joy, there will be no fear that Jesus’ name will cease to be heard. We can never give up that name. We let the Unitarian take his gospel without a Godhead in it, we let him deny- Jesus Christ; but as long as Christians — true Christians — live, as long as we taste that the Lord is gracious, have manifestations of His love, sights of His face, whispers of His mercy, assurances of His affection, promises of His grace, hopes of His blessing, we cannot cease to honor His name. But if all these were gone, — if we were to cease to sing His praise, would Jesus Christ’s namiC be forgotten then? No; the stones would sing, the hills would be an orchestra, the mountains would skip like rams, and the little hills like lambs. For is He not their creator? And if these lips and the lips of all mortals were dumb at once, there are creatures enough in this wide world besides. Why, the sun would lead the chorus; the moon would play upon her silver harp, and sweetly sing to her music; stars would dance in their measured courses; the shoreless depths of ether would become the home of songs; and the void immensity would burst out into one great shout, ‘’Thou art the glorious Son of God; great is Thy majesty and infinite Thy power.” Can Christ’s name be forgotten? No; it is painted on the skies; it is written on the floods; the winds v»’hisper it; the tempests howl it; the seas chant it; the stars shine it; the beasts low it; the thunders proclaim it; earth shouts it; heaven echoes it. But if that were gone, — if this great universe should all subside in God, just as a moment’s foam subsides into the wave that bears it and is lost forever, — would His name be forgotten then? No. Turn your eyes up yonder; see heaven’s terra firma, “Who are these that are arrayed in white, and whence came they?” ‘’These are they that came out of great tribulation; they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore they are before the throne of God, and praise Him day and night in His temple.” And if these were gone; if the last harp of the glorified had been touched with the last fingers; if the last praise of the saints had ceased; if the last hallelujah had echoed through the then deserted vaults of heaven, for they would be gloomy then; if the last immortal had been buried in his grave, — if graves there might be for immortals, — would His praise cease then? No, by heaven, no; for yonder stand the angels; they too sing His glory; to Him the cherubim and seraphim do cry without ceasing, when they mention His name in that thrice holy chorus, “Holy, holy, holy. Lord God of armies.” But if these
were perished; if angels had been swept away; if the wing of seraph never flapped the ether; if the voice of the cherub never sang His flaming sonnet; if the living creatures ceased their everlasting chorus; if the measured symphonies of glory were extinct in silence, — would His name then be lost? Ah, no! for as God upon the throne He sits, the everlasting One, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And if the universe were all annihilated, still would His name be heard, for the Father would hear it, and the Spirit would hear it, and, deeply graven on immortal marble in the rocks of ages, it would stand, — Jesus the Son of God; co-equal with His Father. “His name shall endure for ever.”
. And so shall ihc pozvcr of His name. Do you inquire what this is? Let me tell you. Seest thou yonder thief hanging upon the cross? Behold the fiends at the foot thereof, with open mouths, charming themselves with the sweet thought that another soul shall give them meat in hell. Behold the death-bird, fluttering his wings o’er the poor wretch’s head; Vengeance passes by and stamps him for her own; deep on his breast is written “A condemned sinner;” on his brow is the clammy sweat expressed from him by agony and death. Look in his heart: it is filthy with the crust of years of sin; the smoke of lust is hanging within, in black festoons of darkness; his whole heart is hell condensed. Now look at him. He is dying. One foot seems to be in hell; the other hangs tottering in life, — only kept by a nail. There is a power in Jesus’ eye. That thief looks: he whispers, “Lord, remember me.” Turn vour eve asj-ain there. Do ‘ou see that thief? Where is the clammy sweat? It is there. Where is that horrid anguish? It is not there. Positively there is a smile upon his lips. The fiends of hell, where are they? There are none; but a bright seraph is present, with his wings outspread, and his hands ready to snatch that soul, now a precious jewel, and bear it aloft to the palace of the Great King. Look within his heart: it is white with purity. Look at his breast: it is not written “condemned,” but “justified.” Look in the book of life: his name is graven there. Look on Jesus’ heart: there on one of the precious stones He bears that poor thief’s name. Yea, once more, look! Seest thou that bright one amid the glorified, clearer than the sun and fair as the moon? That is the thief! That is the power of Jesus; and that power shall endure for ever. He who saved the thief can save the last man who shall ever live; for still
“There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
*’ The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
Oh, may I there, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
“Dear dying Lamb! that precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.”
His powerful name shall endure for ever.
Nor is that all the power of His name. Let me take you to another scene, and ye shall witness somewhat else. There on that death-bed lies a saint. No gloom is on his brow, no terror on his face; weakly but placidly he smiles; he groans, perhaps, but yet he sings. He sighs now and then, but oftener he shouts. Stand by him. “My brother, what makes thee look in Death’s face with such joy?” “Jesus,” he whispers. “What makes thee so placid and so calm?” “The name of Jesus.” See, he forgets everything! Ask him a question; he cannot answer it, — he does not understand you. Still he smiles. His wife comes, inquiring, “Do you know my name?” He answers, “No.” His dearest friend requests him to remember his intimacy. “I know you not,” he says. Whisper in his ear, “Do you know the name of Jesus?” and his eyes flash glory, and his face beams heaven, and his lips speak sonnets, and his heart bursts with eternity, for he hears the name of Jesus, and that name shall endure for ever. He who landed one in heaven will land me there. Come on, death! I will mention Christ’s name there. O grave! this shall be my glory, the name of Jesus! Hell dog! this shall be thy death, — for the sting of death is extracted, — Christ our Lord. “His name shall endure for ever.”
I had a hundred particulars to give you; but my voice fails, so I had better stop. You will not require more of me to-night; you perceive the difficulty I feel in speaking each word. May God send it home to your souls! I am not particularly anxious about my own name, whether that shall endure for ever or not, provided it is recorded in my Master’s book. George Whitfield, when asked whether he would found a denomination, said, “No; Brother John Wesley may do as he pleases, but let my name perish; let Christ’s name last for ever.” Amen to that! Let my name perish; but let Christ’s name last for ever. I shall be quite contented for you to go away and forget me. I shall not see the faces of half of you again, I dare say; you may never be persuaded to step within the walls of a conventicle; you will think it perhaps not respectable enough to come to a Baptist meeting. Well, T do not say we are a very respectable people; we don’t profess to be. But this one thing we do profess, we love our Bibles; and if that is not respectable to do so, we do not care to be had in esteem. But we do not know that we are so disreputable after all, for I believe, if I may state my own opinion, that if Protestant Christendom were counted out of that door, — not merely every real Christian, but every professor, — I believe the Paedobaptists would have no very great majority to boast of. We are not, after all, such a very small, disreputable sect. Regard us in England, we may be; but take America. Jamaica, and the West Indies, and include those who are Baptists in principle, though not openly so, and we surrender to none, not even to the Established Church of this country, in numbers. That, however, we care very little about; for I say of the Baptist name, let it perish, but let Christ’s name last for ever. I look forward with pleasure to the day when there will not be a Baptist living. I hope they will soon be gone. You will say, “Why?” Because when everybody else sees baptism by immersion, we shall be immersed into all sects, and our sect will be gone. Once give us the predominance, and we are not a sect any longer. A man may be a Churchman, a Wesleyan, or an Independent, and yet be a Baptist. So that I say I hope the Baptist name will soon perish; but let Christ’s name last for ever. Yea, and yet again, much as I love dear Old England, I do not believe she will ever perish. No, Britain, thou shalt never perish! for the flag of Old England is nailed to the mast by the prayers of Christians, by the efforts of Sunday-schools and her pious men. But I say, let even England’s name perish; let her be merged in one great brotherhood; let us have no England, and no France, and no Russia, and no Turkey; but let us have Christendom. And I say heartily, from my soul, let nations and national distinctions perish, but let Christ’s name last for ever! Perhaps there is only one thing on earth that I love better than the last I have mentioned, — and that is, the pure doctrine of unadulterated Calvinism. But if that be wrong, — if there be anything in that which is false, — I for one say let that perish too, and let Christ’s name last for ever. Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! “Crown Him Lord of all!” You will not hear me say anything else. These are my last words in Exeter Hall for this time. “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Crown Him Lord of all!”
GLIMPSES OF THE HEAVENLY LIFE.
A SERMON, SUGGESTED BY THE DECEASE OF THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, OCT. 4, 1885, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE.
“Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him.” — Luke xx. 37, 38.
During the past week the Church of God and the world at large have sustained a very serious loss. In the taking home to Himself by our gracious Lord of the Earl of Shaftesbury, we have in my judgment lost the best man of the age. I do not know whom I should place second; but I certainly should put him first — far beyond all other servants of God within my knowledge — for usefulness and influence. He was a man most true in his personal piety, as I know from having enjoyed his private friendship; a man most firm in his faith in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; a man intensely active in the cause of God and truth. Take him whichever way you please, he was admirable: he was faithful to God in all his house, fulfilling both the first and second commands of the law in fervent love to God and hearty love to man. He occupied his high position with singleness of purpose and immovable steadfastness. Where shall we find his equal? If it is not possible that he was absolutely perfect, it is equally impossible for me to mention a single fault, for I saw none. He exhibited Scriptural perfection, inasmuch as he was sincere, true, and consecrated. Those things which have been regarded as faults by the loose thinkers of this age are prime virtues in my esteem. They called him narrow; and in this they bear unconscious testimony to his loyalty to truth. I rejoiced greatly in his integrity, his fearlessness, his adherence to principle, in a day when revelation is questioned, the gospel explained away, and human thought set up as the idol of the hour. He felt that there was a vital and eternal difference between truth and error; consequently he did not act or talk as if there was much to be said on either side, and, therefore, no one could be quite sure. We shall not know for many a year how much we miss in missing him; how great an anchor he was to this drifting generation; and how great a stimulus he was to every movement for the benefit of the poor. Both man and beast may unite in mourning him: he was the friend of every living thing. He lived for the oppressed; he lived for London; he lived for the nation; he lived still more for God. He has finished his course; and though we do not lay him to sleep in the grave with the sorrow of those that have no hope, yet we cannot but mourn that a great man and a prince has fallen this day in Israel. Surely the righteous are taken away from the evil to come, and we are left to struggle on under increasing difficulties.
Heaven Unveiled. — My text not only declares glorious relationship and implies eternal life, but it also unveils, somewhat scantily but still sufficiently, what the glorious life must be. Look, then, and see the GLORIOUS LIFE UNVEILED.
It is clear that they live personally. It is not said, ‘’ I am the God of the whole body of the saints in one mass; “but, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.” God will make His people to live individually. Aly mother, my father, my child, each will personally exist. God is the God of saints as living distinct lives; Abraham is Abraham, Isaac is Isaac, Jacob is Jacob. The three patriarchs were not all melted into one common Abraham, nor Isaac into one imaginary Isaac; neither was any one so altered as to cease to be himself. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are all literally living as actual men, and the same men as they used to be. Jacob is Jacob, and not an echo of Abraham; Isaac is Isaac, and not a rehearsal of Jacob. All the saints are existent in their personality, identity, distinction, and idiosyncrasy.
What is more, the patriarchs are mentioned by tJieir names; and so it is clear they are known: they are not three anonymous bodies, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many inquire, “Shall we know our friends in heaven?” Why should we not? The saints in heaven are never spoken of in Scripture as moving about anonymously; but their names are spoken of as written in the
Book of Life. Why is this? The apostles knew Moses and Elias on the Mount, though they had never seen them before. I cannot forget old John Ryland’s answer to his wife. “John,” she said, ‘’will you know me in heaven?” ‘’Betty,” he replied, “I have known you well here, and I shall not be a bigger fool in heaven than I am now; therefore I shall certainly know you there.” That seems to be clear enough. We read in the New Testament, “They shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,” — not sit down with three unknown individuals in iron masks, or three impersonalities who make a part of the great Pan, nor three spirits who are as exactly alike as pins made in a factory; but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is clear enough in the text.
That glorious life, while it is a personal and a known life, is diXso fyee fro J n all sorrow and misery and earthly grossness. They are neither married nor given in marriage, neither shall they die any more; but they are as the angels of God. It is a life of perfect blessedness, a life of hallowed worship, a life of undivided glory. Oh that we were in it! Oh that we may soon reach it! Let us think of the many who are enjoying it now, and of those who have attained to it during the last few days. I am sure they are at home in every golden street, and fully engaged in the adoration and worship of their Lord. Those saints who have been in glory now these thousands of years cannot be more blessed than the latest arrivals. Within a very short space you and I shall be among the shining ones. Some of us may spend our next Sabbath with the angels. Let us rejoice and be glad at the bare thought of it. Some of us are not doomed to live here through another winter; we shall pass beyond these autumn fogs into the golden light of the eternal summer before another Christmas-day has come. Oh, the joy which ought to thrill through our souls at the thought of such amazing bliss!
Still Living. — And now, taking the whole subject together, I want to say a few familiar things about the influence which all this ought to have upon us.
Concerning those that have gone before us, we gather from this whole text that t/uy are not lost; we know where they are.
Neither have they lost anything; for they are what they were, and more. Abraham has about him still everything that is Abrahamic, he is Abraham still; and Isaac has everything about him that properly belongs to Isaac; and Jacob has all about him that makes him God’s Israel. These good men have lost nothing that really appertained to their individuality, nothing that made them precious in the sight of the Lord. They have gained infinitely, they have developed gloriously. They are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, now at their best; or, rather, they are waiting till the trumpet of the resurrection shall sound, when their bodies also shall be united to their spirits, and then Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will be completely Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, world without end. We are by no means deprived of our dear ones by their death: they are; they are themselves; and they are ours still. As Abraham is not lost to Isaac, nor to Jacob, nor to God, nor to himself, so are our beloved ones by no means lost to us. Do not let us think of them, then, as if they were lost. I know your sorrows make an excursion to the grave, to look there for the deceased ones. You want to lift that coffin-lid and to unwrap the shroud. Oh, do not so! do not so! He is not here; the real man has gone. He may be dead to you for a while, but he lives unto God. Yes, the dead one liveth, he liveth unto God! Do but anticipate the passage of that little time, which is almost gone while I am speaking of it, and then your Saviour’s angels shall sound their golden trumpets, and at the welcome noise the grave shall open its portals and resign its captives. “Thy brother shall rise acj-ain.” Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Shaftesbury is as much Shaftesbury as ever, and even more so. We have parted with the earl, but the saint liveth; he has gone past yonder veil into the next room, and there he is before the Lord of Hosts. He has gone out of this dim, dusky, cloudy chamber into the bright pearly light that streameth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. We have nothing to sorrow about in reference to what he is or where he is. So, too, your valued parents, and beloved children, and choice friends, they are yours still. Herein is great cause for thankfulness. Put aside your sackcloth, and wear the garments of hope; lay down the sackbut, and take up the trumpet. Draw not the beloved bodies to the cemetery with dreary pomp and with black horses, but cover the coffin with sweet flowers and drape the horses with emblems of hope. It is the better birthday of the saint, — yea, his truer wedding-day. Is it sad to have done with sadness? Is it sorrowful to part with sorrow? Nay rather, when joy beginneth to our friends where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land, we may in sympathy sing, as it were, a new song, and tune our harps to the melodies of the glorified.
One zvith its. — I want you also to recollect that tJie departed have not become’ members of another race; they have not been transferred into another family. They are still men, still women, still of our kindred dear; their names are in the same family register on earth and in heaven. Oh, no, no! Do not dream that they are separated and exiled; they have gone to the home country. We are the exiles; they it is who are at home. We are en route for the fatherland; they are not so far from us as we think. Sin worked to divide them from us, and us from them, while we were here together; but since sin is now taken away from them, one dividing element is gone. When it is also removed from us, we shall be nearer to each other than we could have been while we were both sinful. Do not let us think of them as sundered far, for we are one in Christ.
And they are not gone over to the other side in the battle. Oh, do not speak of them as dead, and lying on the battle-field! They live; they live in sympathy with our divine conflict! They have marched through the enemy’s country; they have fought their fight, and taken possession of their inheritance. They are still on our side, though we miss them from the daily service. When you number up the hosts of God, you must not forget the godlike bands that have fought the good fight, and kept the faith, and finished their course. They are in the armies of the Lord, though not at this moment resisting unto blood. The hundred and forty-four thousand scaled unto the Lord include in their ranks all who are with God, whether here or in heaven. Our sacramental host marches onward to the New Jerusalem. Certain of the legionaries have forded the dividing flood. I see them ascending the other side! The hither bank of the river is white with their rising companies. Lo, I hear the splash of the ranks before us as they steadily pass down into the chill stream! In deep silence we see them solemnly wading through the billows! The host is ever marching on, marching on. The much-dreaded stream lies a little before us; it is but a silver streak. We are to the margin come. We shudder not at the prospect. We follow the blessed footsteps of our Lord and His redeemed. We are all one army still; we are not losing our men; they are simply ascending from the long campaign to take their endless rewards at the Lord’s right hand.
JV/iat sJiaLl zve do? — What then? Why, then zue will take tip their work. If they have gone into the upper chamber to rest, we will make up their lack of service in this lower room. The work they did was so human that we will not allow a stitch to drop, but take it up where they left it, and persevere in earnest. They are in glory, but they were not glorified when they were here. The work they did was done by men of such infirmities as ours; so let us not fear to go on where they left off, and perpetuate the work which they rejoiced in. There lies the plough in the furrow, and the oxen are standing still; for Shamgar, the champion, is gone. Will no one lay hold of the plough-handles? Will nobody urge the oxen with the goad? Young men, are you idling? Here is work for you. Are you hiding )’ourselves? Come forward, I pray you, in the name of the Great Husbandman, and let the fields be tilled and sown with the good seed. Who will fill the gap made by death? Who will be baptized for the dead? Who will bear the banner, now that a standard-bearer has fallen? I hope some consecrated voice will answer, “Here am I; send me!”
For, last of all, brethren, we may expect the same succors as they received who have gone before. Jehovah saith that He is the God of xlbraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; but He also saith, ‘’ I am the God of your father.” The father of IMoses had the Lord to be his God. That God is the God of my father, blessed be His name! As I took the old man by his hand yesterday, at the age of seventy-six, I could not but rejoice in all the faithfulness of the Lord to him and to his house. He was the God of my father’s father also. I cannot forget how the venerable man laid his hand upon his grandchild and blessed him; and the blessing is with him still. Yes, and He is the God of my children, and He shall be the God of my children’s children; for He keepeth covenant to thousands of them that love Him. Wherefore take courage, men and brethren! This God is your God. He is a God to you, and you are a people to Him. Act as His true servants. Live as those that are elect. If you are His choice, be choice characters. The chosen should be the best, should they not? The elect should be especially distinguished above all others by their conversation and their fervent zeal for Him that chose them. As you shall rise from among the dead because the Lord Jesus hath redeemed you from among men, so stand up from among the dead and corrupt mass of this world and be alive unto God through Jesus Christ your Lord. What manner of people ought ye to be who serve the living God? Since the living God hath manifested Himself so wonderfully to you, ought you not to live unto Him to the utmost?