Trumpet Calls to Christian Energy

This volume is issued as a sequel to ‘* Types and Emblems.” It is the second of the series, and contains a selection of Sermons all addressed with one particular aim, to arouse the energy and direct the efforts of Christian ivorJcers. The fact that months, and even years in some cases, intervened between their delivery, may tend rather to enhance than to detract from their present interest. By such persistent endeavours to stimulate the cntei-prise and develop the talents of Church members, the Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle has enlisted a noble army of valiant labourers, and banded them together in various societies; training them to handle the Sword and to use the Troivel for the defence of the Gospel, and the building up of the Church. Our readers will find here a fair sample of the appeals and persuasives by which a continuous succession of fi-esh volunteers has been recruited into the Home Mission service. Although no special order has been observed in the arrangement of these Sermons, the first and the last each tells its own story. The one was a cnj for Revival, before the manifold agencies now so vigorously carried forward had been brought into operation; the other was a solemn reflection prompted by the closing Sabbath of the past year, when the visit of the American Evangelists to our Metropolis was in prospect.

That the blessing which attended the preaching may continue to follow the circulation of these Sermons is the earnest hope of- PUBLISHERS.

CONTENTS,

PAGE

The Church the World’s Hope — 42

Silken Cords — 64 C God’s Glory in the Building up of Zion - - - - 128

Lukewannness — 146

Restraining Prayer — 165
John Mark; or, Haste in Religion — 205
The New Song and the Old Story — 279
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“And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was iiiovod saying, Who is this?” — ]Iatthew xxi. 10.

H, that something would move this great city of ours! I am afraid that at least one-third of our popukition is setthng down in stolid indifference to all religion. It is not that there are thousands of professed infidels, but without making the profession of being so, infidels they really are. It is not that they Late the gospel — they do not care to hear it, or to know what it teaches. They have not enough interest in it to enter the sanctuary even for once in their lives, unless influenced by fashion or by fear they may attend some ceremonial observance. I think we can hardly form a conception of the fearful heathenism of this great metropolis. You might go down street after street and find that the larger proportion of the peo],)le, so far from making any profession of religion, did not even enter a place of worship, and knew nothing more than what the city missionary or the Bible-woman may have been helped to teach them! We are getting into a very, very, very sad state of things; we want sometliiiig or other that will get at the masses, and constrain the city to be moved. The theatre services which have been lately attempted have no doubt proved a great blessing; the opening of cathedrals was a step in the right direction; but ever^body can see that the effect of such departure from the ordinary routine is naturally transient. There will be no greater attraction in a theatre than there will be in a chapel or church, if the same gospel is preached, after the novelty of its having been preached there shall have worn off. We can no more expect to see cathedrals crowded long together now than we might have expected it twenty years ago. The thing is good as an expedient, but it must be temporary in its results. We shall want something greater than this before we shall get at the masses of London. This is only, as it were, a little hammer; we want a hammer more massive than that of Thor to strike this island, to make it shake from end to end. When you have three millions of people herded together you are not to move them by simply opening half-a-dozen theatres, or by crowding a cathedral, or by filling some large place of worship. What a hopeful sign it would be, even if people were excited against religion! Really I would sooner that they intelligently hated it than that they were stolidly indifferent to it. A man who has got enough thought about him to oppose the truth of God fs a more hopeful subject for ministry than the man who does not think at all. We cannot get on with logs; we feel that we could brace up our nerves to the charge amidst men possessed with devils, while we have the gospel to cast the devils out. It is when men have no spirit at all, but are simply dull, lumplsli, thoughtless logs, we cannot get on with them. For my part, I do not regret the activity of Puseyism and of Popery just now. Though I dread it as an awful evil in itself, I am thankful for everything that will relieve the awful stillness of religious stagnation. If it will only stir us up to oppose it, if it will only make the true Protestant spirit of England come out, I shall be grateful for the sanitary results, however much I deplore the devastating pestilence. We want something that shall again rouse this city, and move it from end to end. The text seems to me to tell us what will do it. Question! — What is that which will stir the whole of London, as it stirred Jerusalem f Answer! — A reigning Saviour riding in triumph. Jesus Christ never moved Jerusalem till he mounted on that ass, till they cast their garments in the pathway, and strewed the branches, and cried, “Hosannah!” Then it was, as he rode in triumph King of the Jews, that the city was stirred. O that we had a reigning Saviour more distinctly recognised in all our

churches! There is no use in mincing matters or hiding our shame. The shout of a King is not in the midst of tlQ church at large. The ancient glory which rested upon the Lord’s chosen has in a great measui’e departed. “Write ye Ichabod, for the glory is departed.” We have not now the lighting down of the mighty arm, nor the strength of a present God, as once we had. The world knows very little about the church, and cares very little about her, so long as Christ does not reign in her palaces. Unfurl the flag, proclaim his entry, make known his residence, and forthwith “the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel too;ether ao-ainst the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.’’ What was that church which disturbed the dark ages? Why, a church made up of men who hazarded their Kves unto the death — men who stood up and preached in the dead of night to the few who were bokl enough to gather to hear them — men who at other times coukl beard the tyrant, and stand face to face with cardinal or pope, and speak the truth, come what would. These were men who had a reigning Saviour in their midst; yet, few and feeble, that gallant host subdued the world; the ^tican trembled; the words they spake, sustained by the character they bore, fell like thunderbolts about it. Would you enquire, my brethren, for the simple but saintly servants of God who brought a Hef ormation into England They were men wdio recognised a reigning Saviour. The church was represented by those in whose hearts Jesus Christ really did dwell — such men as Wycliffe and his successors. From market-place to market-place they went, with but half pages or whole pages of the Word of God, as fast as they could be printed; they read them at the market-cross; they went on from place to place, preaching the pure, unadulterated gospel, in homely language, with fiery tongues, and soon they set all England in a blaze. And who were they in later days, in the last century, who awoke the slumbering chui’ch? They were men who had Christ reigning in them; such men as Whitfield and the Wesleys — men who bowed before the dignity of Jesus, and said —

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