Dumb Singers

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” — Isaiah xxxv. 6.

HAT a difference grace makes whenever it enters the heart! We find here the blind, but they are not blind in one sense; grace has touched their eyes, and the eyes of the blind are opened. Men are said to be deaf; but they are not deaf after grace has operated upon them: the ears of the deaf are unstopped. They have been lame before; but when once the Omnipotent influence has come upon them, they leap like a hart. And the dumb, so far from being dumb, have a change that must be radical, for its effects are surprising. The tongue of the dumb not simply speaks, but it sings. Grace makes a great difference in a man when it enters into him. How vain, then, are the boasts and professions of some persons who assert themselves to be the children of God, and yet live in sin! There is no perceivable difference in their conduct; they are just what they used to be before their pretended conversion; they are not changed in their acts, even in the least degree, and yet they do most positively affirm that they are the called and living children of God. Let such know that their professions are lies, that falsehood is the only that they have for their hopes; for, wherever the grace of God is, it makes a difference. A graceless man is not like a gracious man; and a gracious man is not like a graceless one; we are “new creatures in Christ Jesus.” When God looks upon us with the eye of love, in conversion and regeneration, he makes us as opposite from what we were before as light is from darkness — as heaven itself is from hell. God works in man a change so great that no reformation can even so much as thoroughly imitate it. It is an entire change — a change of the will, of the being, of the desires, of the hates, of the dislikings, and of the likings. In every respect the man becomes new when divine grace enters into his heart. And yet thou sayest of thyself, I am converted,” and remainest what thou wast! I tell thee once again to thy face, thou sayest an empty thing; thou hast no ground for saying it. If grace permits thee to sin as thou wast wont to do, then that grace is no grace at all. That grace were not worth the having which permits a man to be, after he receives it, what he was before. No, we must ever hold fast to the great doctrine of sanctification. Where God really justifies he really sanctifies too; and where there is a remission of sin, there is also the forsaking of it. Where God hath blotted out transgression, he also removeth the love of it, and maketh us seek after holiness, and walk in the ways of the Lord. We think we might fairly infer this from the text as a prelude to the observations we have to make concerning it.

And now we shall want youj first of all, to notice the sort of people God has chosen to sing his praises, and to sing them eternally. Then, in the second place, I shall enter into a more full description of the dumb people here described. Then shall I try to notice certain special times and seasons when those dumb people sing more sweetly than at others.

I. First, then, ‘^ The tongue of the dumb shall sing.” We make this the first point.

Note the persons whom God has chosen to sing his songs for ever. There is no difference, by nature, between the elect and others; those who are now glorified in heaven, and walk the golden streets clad with robes of purity, were by nature as unholy and defiled, and as far from original righteousness, as those who, by their own rejection of Christ, and by their love of sin, have brought themselves into the pit of eternal torment, as a punishment for their crimes. The only reason why there is a difference between those who are in heaven and those who are in hell, rests with divine grace. It is of divine grace alone. Those in heaven must inevitably have been cast away had not everlasting mercy stretched out its hand and redeemed them. They were by nature not one whit superior to others. They would as certainly have rejected Christ, and have trodden under foot the blood of Jesus as did those that were cast away, if grace, free grace, had not prevented them from committing this sin. The reason why they are Christians is not because they did naturally will to be so, nor because they did by nature desire to know Christ, or to be found of him: but they are now saints simply because Christ made them so. He gave them

-the desire to be saved; he put into them the will to seek after God: he helped them in their seekings, and afterwards brought them to feel the peace of God, which is the fruit of justification. But, by nature, they were just the same as others; and if there is any difference, we are obliged to say that the difference lies on the wrong side of the question. In very many cases, we who now “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,” were the worst of men.

There are some here that now bless God for their redemption, who once cursed him; who implored, as frequently as they dared to do, with oaths and swearing, that the curse of God might rest upon their fellows and upon themselves. Many of the Lord’s anointed were once the very castaways of Satan; the sweepings of society; the refuse of the earth; those whom no man cared for. Thev were called outcasts, whom God hath now called desired ones, seeing he hath loved them. I am led to these thoughts from the fact that we are told here that those who sing were dumb. Their singing does not come naturally from themselves; they were not born sono-sters. No, they were dumb ones, these whom God would have to sing his praises. It does not say the tongue of the stammerer, or the tongue of the blasphemer, or the tongue of the slanderer, but the tongue of the dumb, of those who have gone farthest from any thought of singing; of those wdio have no power or wdll to sino-: the toncrue of such as these shall yet be made to sing God’s praises. Strange choice that God has made; strange, for its graciousness; strangely manifesting the sovereignty of his will! God would build for himself a palace in heaven of living stones. Where did he get them? Did he go to the quarries of Paros? Hath he brought forth the richest and the purest marble from the quarries of perfection? No, ye saints, look to “the hole of the pit whence ye were digged,” and to the quarry whence ye were hewn! Ye were full of sin; so far from being stones that were white with purity, ye were black with defilement, to all appearance utterly unfit to be made stones in the spiritual temple, which should be the dwelling-place of the Most High. And yet he chose you to be trophies of his grace and of his power to save. When Solomon built for himself a palace, he built it of cedar; but when God would build for himself a dwelling for ever, he cut not down the goodly cedars, but he dwelt in a bush,, and hath preserved it as his memorial for ever, ^’ The God that dwelt in the bush.’’ Goldsmiths make exquisite forms from precious material; they fashion the bracelet and the ring from gold; God maketh his precious things out of base material; and from the black pebbles of the defiling brooks he hath taken up stones, which he hath set in the golden ring of his im~ mutable love, to make them gems to sparkle on his finger for ever. He hath not selected the best, but, apparently, the worst of men to be the monuments of his grace; and when he would have a choir in heaven that should with tongues harmonious sing his praises — when he would have a chorus that should for ever chant the hallelujahs louder than the noise of many waters, and like great thunders, he did not send mercy down to seek earth’s sono;sters and cull from us those who have the sweetest voices; he said, “Go, Mercy, and find out the dumb, and touch their lips, and make them sing.”

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The virgin tongues that never sang my praise before, that have been silent erst till now, shall break forth in rhapsodies sublime, and they shall lead the song; even angels shall but attend behind, and catch the notes from the lips of those who once were dumb. The tongue of the dumb shall sing his praises hereafter in strains of purity hitherto unknown.

Oh! what a fountain of consolation this opens for you and for me! Ay, beloved, if God did not choose the base things of this world, he would never have chosen us; if he had respect unto the countenance of men, if God were a respecter of persons, where had you and I been this day? AVe had never been instances of his love and mercy. No, as we look upon ourselves now, and remember what we once were, we are often obliged

io say: —

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

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

“Why was I made to hear thy voice,
And ent€r while there’s room,
While others make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

And we have joined in singing: —

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

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

Just another hint here before I leave this point. How this ought to give you encouragement in seeking to do good to others! Why, my brethren, I can never think any naan too far gone for divine mercy since I know that God saved me. Whenever I have felt desponding about any of my hearers who have for a long time persevered in guilt, I have only had to reach down my own biography from the shelves of my memory, and just think what I too was till grace redeemed me, and brouo:ht me to mv SaA’iour’s feet; and then I have

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sau

It will be no wonder if that man is saved; after what he hath done for me I can believe anything of my Master. If he hath blotted out my transgressions, if ‘he hath clean melted away my sin, then I can never despair of any of my fellow creatures. I may despair for myself, bat I cannot for them.” Remember, they may be dumb now, but he can make them sing. Your son John is a sad reprobate; keep on praying for him, mother; God can change his heart. Your daughter’s heart seems hard as adamant; he who makes the dumb siniT can make rocks melt. Believe in God for your chitdren as well as for yourselves — trust him; take their cases before the throne; rely upon him that he can do it, and believe that in answer to earnest prayer he also will do it. And if you have neighbours that are full of the pestilence of sin, whose vices come up before you as a stench in your nostrils, yet fear not to carry the gospel to them; though they be harlots, drunkai’ds, swearers, be not afraid to tell them of the Saviour’s dying love. He makes the dumb sing; he does not ask even a voice of them to begin with; they are dumb, and he does not ask of them even the power of speech, but he gives them the power. Oh if you have neighbours who are profaners of the Sabbath, haters of God, unwilling to come to the house of God, despising Christ; if you find them as far gone as you can find them, recollect he maketh the dumb sing, and therefore he can make them live. He wants no goodness in them to begin with; all he wants is just the rough, raw material — unhewn, uncut, unpolished. And he does not want even good material; bad as the material may be, he can make it into something inestimably precious, something that is worthy of the Saviours blood. Go on — fear not; if the dumb can sing, then surely you can never say that any man need be a castaway.

II. Now I am to enter into some rather more lucid description of these dumb people. Who are they?

Well, sometimes I get a good thought out of Cruden’s Concordance. I believe that it is about the best commentary on the Bible for ordinary uses, and I like to study it. As I opened it at this passage, I found Master Cruden describing different kinds of dumb people. He says there are four or five different sorts, but I shall name only four of them. The first sort of dumb people he mentions are those that cannot speak; the second sort are those that will not speak; the third sort are those that dare not speak; and the fourth sort are those that have nothing to say, and therefore are dumb.

The first sort of people who shall sing are those who cannot speak — that is the usual acceptation of the word dumb — the others are, of course, only figurative applications of the term. We call a man dumb when through physical infirmity he cannot speak. Now, spiritually, the man who is still in his trespasses and sins is dumb, and I will prove that. He is dead, and there is none so dumb as a dead man. “Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction?” The word of God assures us that men are spiritually dead: it follows then that they must be spiritually dumb. They cannot sing God’s praises; they know him not, and therefore they cannot exalt his glorious name. They cannot confess their sins. Though they may utter the mere words of confession, they cannot really confess, for they do not know the evil of sin, nor have they been taught to feol what a bitter thing it is, nor do they know themselves as sinners. And as “no man can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Ghost,” these people cannot do so truly. Perhaps, it may be, they can talk well of the doctrines, but they cannot converse about them out of the fulness of their hearts, as livmg and vital principles which they know by any kind ot spiritual instinct or experience. They cannot jomiu the songs, nor can they take part in the conversation of a Christian. If they sit down with the saints perhaps they have culled a few phrases from the garden ot the Lord, which they use and apply to certain things which they do not know anything about. They talk a lan.niage the meaning of which they do not compreheml-like Milton’s daughters reading a language to their father which tliev did not understand. So far as the essence of the matter is concerned, they are dumb. But, all hail sovereign grace! “The tongue of the dumb shall sing.” God will have his darlings made what they should be. They are dumb by nature, but he wi.l not leave thorn so; they cannot now sing his praises, but they shall do it; they will not now confess thensins, but he will bring them on their knees yet, and make them pour out their hearts before him. They cannot now talk the brogue of Canaan, or speak the language of Zion, but they shall do it soon. Grace, omnipotent grace, will have its way with them. They shall be taught to pray; their eyes slia 1 be made to flow with tears of penitence; and then, after that, their lips shall be made to sing to the i)raise of sovereign grace.

I need not dwell upon this point, because I address many here that were dumb once, who can bless God that they can now sing. And does it not sometimes seem to you, beloved, a very strange thing that you are what you are? I should think it must be the strangest thing in the world for a dumb man to speak, because he has no idea how a man feels when he is speaking — he has no notion of the thing at all. Like a man blind from his birth, he has no idea what kind of a thing sight can be. We have heard of a blind man who supposed that the colour of scarlet must be very much like the sound of a trumpet — he had no other way of comparing it. So the dumb man has no notion of the way to talk. Do you not think that it is a strange thing that you are what you are? You said once, “I will never be one of those canting Methodists. Do you think I shall ever make a profession of religion? What! I attend a prayer-meeting? No.” And ye went along the streets in all your gaiety of mirth, and said, ‘’ What! I become a little child, and give up my mind to simple faith, and not reason at all! What am I to give up all argument about things that pertain to the life to come, and simply take them for granted because God has said them? Nay, that never can be! ‘’ I will be bound to say it will be a wonder to you as long as you are here on earth that you are the children of God; and even in heaven itself the greatest wonder to your mind will be, that you were brought to know and taught to love the Saviour ere you saw the goodly land or walked the golden streets.

But there is a sort of dumb people that will not speak. They are mentioned by Isaiah. He said of preachers in

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his day, they were “dumb dogs that would not Lark.” Bless God, we arc not now quite so much inundated by this kind of dumb folk as we used to be. We have had to mourn, in years gone by, that we could look from parish to parish and find nobody but a dumb dog in the parish church, and in the pulpits of dissenters there was full often a painful lack of positive gospel. Full many who might have spoken with a little earnestness let the people slumber under them, instead of preaching the word with true fidelity, as those who would have to give account to God. My grandfather used to tell a story of a person who once resided near him, and called himself a preacher of the gospel. He was visited by a poor woman, who asked him what was the meaning of the *’ new birth? “To which he replied, “My good woman, what do you come to me about that for? Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, did not know; he was a wise man, and hpw do you think I should?” So she had to go away with only that answer. Time was when such an answer might have been given by a great many who were reckoned to be the authorised teachers of religion, but knew nothing at all about the matter. They understood a great deal more about foxhunting than about preaching, and more about farming their land than about the spii’itual husbandry of God’s church. Bless God, there are not so many of that sort now; God grant the race may become thoroughly extinct. Oh that every pulpit and every place of worship might be filled with a man who has got a tongue of fire and a heart of flame, and shuns not to declare the whole council of God, neither seeking the smile of men, nor dreadino; their frown. AVo have this promise that it

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shall be so — ^’ The tongue of the dumb shall sing.” And, ah! they do sing well, too, when God makes them sing. You remember Rowland Hill’s story in ^’The Village Dialoo-ues,” about ]Ir. Merriman. Mr. Merriman was a sad scapegrace of a preacher; he was to be always seen at fair and revel, but seldom to be found in his pulpit when he should have been there, until he was converted, and then he began to preach with tears running down his face, and it was not long before the church began to be crowded! The squire would not go and hear any of that stuff, and locked up his pew; and ]Mr. Merriman had a little ladder made outside the door, as he did not wish to break the door open, and the people used to sit on the steps, up one side and down the other, so that it made twice as much room as there was before. No preachers are more thoroughly pronounced than those who were once dumb. If the Lord opens their mouths they will think they cannot preach often enough and earnestly enough to make up for wasted time and the mischief they did before. Chalmers himself might never have been so eloquent a preacher had he not been for a long time a dumb dog. He preached morality, he said, till he made all his parish immoral; he kept on urging the people to keep God’s law, till he made them break it; but when he turned round and began to preach God’s gospel, then the dumb began to sing. Oh, may God bring this about in every one of us! If we are dumb as professed ministers, may he open our mouths, and force us to speak forth his word, lest at the last day the blood of our hearers’ souls should be found upon our skirts, and we should be cast away as unfaithful stewards of the gospel of Christ.

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I will now introduce you to a third sort of dumb people. They arc dumb because they dare not speak; and they are good people, blessed souls. Here is one of them: ‘* I was dumb with silence; I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.” And it is so blessed to be dumb in that fashion. The Lord’s servant will often have to be dumb under trials and troubles. When Satan tempts him to repine, he will put his finger to his lip and say, “Hush murmuring, be still; shall a living man complain of the punishment of his sins?” Even the child of God will imitate or emulate Job when he sat down for seven days and nights and said not a word, for he felt that his trouble was heavy, and his wofds were light, therefore he could say nothing. It had been as well if Job had kept his mouth shut for the next few days; he would not have said so much amiss as he did in many things that he uttered. Oh! there are times when you and I, beloved, are obliged to keep the bridle on our tongue, lest we should murmur against God. We are in evil company, perhaps; our spirits are hot wdthin us, and we want to take vengeance for the Lord; we are like the friends of David, who wanted to give Shimei a taste of summary justice. ‘* Let us take off this dead dog’s head,” we say: and then our Jesus tells us to put our sword into its scabbard, ‘’ the servant of the Lord must not strive.” How often have we been dumb. And sometimes when there have been slanders against our character, and men have calumniated us, oh, how our fingers have itched to retort upon them. We have wanted to see who was the stronger of the two. But we have said,” No: our Master did not answer, and he left us an example that

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we should follow his steps.” The chief priests accused him of many tliiiio-s, but he “answered them not a word.” “Well, we have found it hard sometimes to be dumb, like the sheep when it is brought to the shearer, or the lamb when it is in the slaughter-house. Upon our beds in sickness we have tried to quench every murmuring word; we have not let a sentence of repining or an impatient expression escape our lips which we could possibly avoid, but, notwithstanding all our resolution, we have found it no easy matter to restrain ourselves, and to keep silence. It is blessed work when we are enabled to do it. Now, ye who have been dumb under great weights of sorrow; ye whose songs have been suspended, because ye durst not open your lips lest sighs should usurp the place of praise, — come, listen to this promise: “the tongue of the dumb shall sing.” You are, it may be, in the deepest trouble now, and obliged to be silent; well, you shall sing yet for all that. Though like Jonah, you are in the whale’s belly, carried down, as he called it, to the lowest hell; though the weeds are wrapped about yoiu’ head, and the earth with her bars is about you for ever, yet you “shall look again towards his holy temple.” Though you have hung your harp upon the willows — bless God you have not broken it — you will have use for it by-and-by — you shall take it from its resting-place, and

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

If you cannot cheer the darkness with “songs in the night,” yet he shall “compass you about with songs of deliverance;” if you cannot sing his praises now, yet ye shall do so by-and-by, when ^-ace shall fill your hearts, or when delivering mercy shall fire your tongues. Your better days are yet to come. But, blessed be God, we are not always to be silent with affliction. The saints have known joy unspeakably great in the midst of trial intolerably hot. Their murmuring has been silenced, and their thanksgiving has become vocal. An old Puritan said, “• God’s people are like birds; they sing best in cages.” Another observes that “God’s people sing sweetest when in the deepest trouble.” Said old Master Brooks, “The deeper the flood was on earth the higher the ark went up towards heaven.” So it is with the child of God if he lives close to his Master. Troubles are called weights. A weight, you know, generally cloggeth and kcepeth down to the earth; but there are conditions according to the laws of mechanics, by which you can make a weight lift you; and so it is possible to make your troubles lift you above the wwld instead of making them sink you beneath your level. Ah! we thank our God, he has sometimes opened our mouth when we were dumb through ingratitude, and did not praise him. He has opened our mouth by a trial; for a thousand mercies we did not bless him, till a sharp affliction has quickened our memory.

We have one more kind of dumb people. There are those who have nothing to say, therefore they are dumb. I will give you an instance; Solomon says in the Proverbs — ^’ Open thy mouth for the dumb;” and he shows by the context that he means those who in the court of judgment have nothing to plead for themselves, and have to stand dumb before the bar. Like that man of old, who, when the king came in to see the guests, had not on a wedding garment; and when the king said, ^’ Friend, how earnest thou in hither?” he stood speechless; speechless, not because he could not speak, but because he had nothing to say. Have not 3’ou and I been dumb, and are we not now, when we attempt to stand on law terms with God, when we forget that Jesus Chiist and his blood and righteousness are our full acquittal? W hat answer can we give when the commandments are laid bare before us, and the demands of God’s law are brouo-ht home to our conscience? There was a time wdth each of us, it was not long ago with some here present, when we stood before Moses’ seat and heard the commandments read, and we were asked — “Sinner, canst thou claim to have kept those commandments?” and we were dumb. Then we were asked — Sinner, canst thou give any atonement for the breach of those commandments? “and we were dumb. We were asked — “Sinner, canst thou, by a future obedience, wipe out thy past sin?” We knew it was impossible, and we were dumb. We were asked — “Canst thou endure the penalty? canst thou bear to swelter for ever in the flames of hell; canst thou suffer everlastino; torments; canst thou dwell with everlasting burnings, and abide with eternal fires?” and we were dumb. We were asked the question — “Prisoner at the bar, hast thou any reason to plead why thou shouldst not be condemned?” and we were dumb with convictions of our deserts and terror at our doom. And we were asked — “Prisoner, hast thou any helper; hast thou anyone that can deliver thee?” and we were dumb, for we had no wisdom or device, nor did an answer rise to our lips. Ay, but blessed be God, *’ the tongue of the

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dumb shall sing.” And shall I tell you what we can smo-? Why, we can sing this anthem: ‘’Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s electa’ “not God, for he’^hath Vstified.” “Who is he that condemneth?” not Christ, “He hath died, yea rather, hath risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us.” We who had not a word to say for ourselves, can now speak fluently, having received knowledge of salvation through the remission of our sins.

Has God made you dumb? has he taken away all your self-righteousness? Then, as truly as ever he has shut your mouth, he will open it. If God has killed vour self-righteousness, he will give you a better righteousness. If he has knocked down all your refuges of lies, he will build you up a good refuge. He has not come to destroy you; he has shut your mouth for a season to fill it with his praise hereafter. Be of good cheer: look to Jesus; cast thine eye to the cross; put thy confidence in him: and then thou who thinkest thyself a castaway, even thou, poor weeping Mary, shall yet sing of redeeming mercy and undying love.

IV. To conclude, let me just notice the occasions ‘hen the tongue of these dumb people sings the best. When does the tongue of the dumb sing? Why, I tlnnk it sings always, little or much. If it is once set at liberty, it will never leave off singing. Some people say this world is a howling wilderness; well, they make it so. If you choose to distress yourselves and disturb other people, I cannot help it. I shall prefer the matter of my text — ‘’ Then shall the tongue of the dumb,” not howl, but ‘’sing.” Yes, they do sing

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always, little or much; sometimes it is in a low hushnote; sometimes they have to go rather deep in the bass, but there are other times when they can mount to the highest notes of all. They have special times of singing. They first begin to sing, when they lose their burden at the foot of the cross; that is a time of singing. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the cross, he gave three great leaps; and went on his way singing. We have not forgotten those three great leaps; we have leaped many times since then with joy and gratitude, but we think -sve never leaped so high as we did at the time wdien we saw our sins all gone, and our transgressions covered up in the tomb of the Saviour. By the way, let me tell you a little story about John Bunyan’s allegory. I am a great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe that his teaching is always infallible; for I met with a story the other day which I think a very good one. There was a young man in Edinburgh who wished to be a missionary. He was a sensible young man; he thought — “Well, if I am to be a missionary, there is no need for me to transport myself far away from home; I may as well be a missionary in Edinburgh.” There’s a hint to some of jom ladies who give away tracts in your district, and never give your servant Mary one. Well, this young man started, and determined to speak to the first person he met. He met one of the old fishwives: those of us wdio have seen them can never forget them; they are extraordinary women indeed. So, stepping up to her, he said, *’ Here you are, coming with your burden on your back; let me ask you if you have got another burden, a spiritual burden? ““What!” she said; “do you mean that burden in John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress? ‘Because if you do, young man, I have got rid of that many years ago, before you were born. But I went a better way to work than the pilgrim did. The evantrelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your parsons that do not preach the gospel; for he said, keep that light in thine eye and run to the wicketo;ate.’ Why man alive! that was not the place for him to run to. He should have said, ‘Do you see that cross? Run there at once! ‘But instead of that, he sent the poor pilgrim to the wicket-gate first; and much good he got by going there! — he got tumbling into the slough, and was like to have been killed by it.” “But did you,” he asked, “go through any slough of despond?” “Yes, young man, I did; but I found it 41 crreat deal easier going through with my burden off than with it on my back.” The old woman was quite right. We must not say to the sinner, “Now, sinner, if thou wilt be saved go to the baptismal pool — go to the wicket-gate — go to the church — do this or that.” No, the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate, and we should say to the sinner, “Throw thyself there, and thou art safe. But thou art not safe till thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the cross, and find peace in Jesus.” Well, that is a singing time with God’s children!

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

Have you not had some precious singing times, too,, at the Lord’s table? Ah! when the bread has been broken, and the wine poured out, how often have I had sweet refreshment when the people have all joined in singing —

“Gethsemane, can I forget,
Or there the conflict see,
Thine agony and bloody sweat.
And not remember thee?

“When to the cross I turn my eyes,
And rest on Calvary,
Oh! Lamb of God, my sacrifice,
I must remember thee.”

But lastly, my dear friends, the best singing time we shall have wdll be when you and I come to die. Ah! there are some of you that shall prove this as it isfabled of the swan. The ancients said the swan never sang in his life-time, but always sang just when he died. Now, there are many of God’s desponding children wdio seem to go all their life under a cloud, but they get a swan’s song before they die. The river of your life comes running down perhaps black and miry wath troubles, and when it begins to touch the w’hite foam of the sea, there comes a Kttle glistening in its waters. So, beloved, though we may have been very much disspirited by reason of the burden of the way, when we get to the last, we shall find sweet songs. Are you

Dumb S’uKjers. 277

afraid of dying? Oli! never be afraid of that; be afraid of living. Living is the only thing that can do you any mischief; dying never can hurt a Christian. Afraid “of the grave? It is like the bath of Esther, in which she lay for a time, to purify herself with spices, that she ‘might be fit for her lord. You are afraid of dying, you say, because of the pains of death. Nay, they are the pains of life — of life struggling to continue. Death has no pain; death itself is lmi one o-entle sigh — the fetter is broken, and the spirit fled. The best moment of a Christian’s life is his last one, because it is the one that is nearest heaven; and then it is that he begins to strike the key-note of the song which he shallsing to all eternity. Oh! what a song will that be! It is poor music we make now, when we join the song — perhaps we are almost ashamed to sing; but up there our voices shall be clear and good; and

there

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

The thought stmck me the other day, that the Lord will have in heaven some of these very big sinners ihat have gone further astray than anybody that ever lived, the most extraordinary extravaganzas of vice, just to make the melody complete by singing some of those soprano notes which you and I, because we have not o;one so far astray, will never be able to utter. I -xvonder whether one has stepped in hither, whom God has selected to take some of those alto notes in the «cale of praise? Perhaps there is one such here. Oh! how will such a one sing, if grace — free grace —

278 Cliristicm Energy.

shall rescue him, deliver him from o-oincr down into the pit, and in redeeming mercy change his heart, renew a right spirit within him, and so completely mould his character anew that he shall become a proof, an evidence, an illustration of the Father’s personal love to his soul, of the power of Christ’s blood to cleanse, of the sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost. Such an one will sing because he must. The spiritual instinct wdthin him will be impatient of all restraints For such fruits of ministry I labour and strive according to his worldng which worketh in me mightily. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing’^ Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming’^ tkt nm iifm a«^ ^M <*W Sim-

“O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.” — Psalm xcvi. 1 — 3.

HERE are mighty passions of the human soul which seek vent, and can get no relief until they find it in expression. Grief, acute, but silent, has often destroyed the mind, because it has not been able to weep itself away in tears. The glow of passion, fond of enterprise and full of enthusiasm has often seemed to rend the very fabric of manhood when unable either to attain its end or to utter its strong desires. So it is in true religion. It not only lays hold upon our intellectual nature with appeals to our judgment and our understanding, but at the same time it engages our affections, brings our passions into play, and fires them with a holy zeal, producing a mighty furor; so that when this spell is on a man, and the Spirit of God thoroughly possesses him, he must express his vehement emotions. Some yu’ofessors of relioion are ino-enious enoucrh to conceal whatever crrace

DO

they possess. Little enough they have, I warrant you, or it would soon be discovered. Have you never seen the brooks that were wont to come down the hill sides filled up with stones through greater part of the summer? You wonder whether there is any streamlet there at all. You may go and search among the rounded stones, and scarcely find a trace of water. How different after the snows have been melted, or the mists upon the mountain’s brow have turned to showers. Then the water comes rushing down like a mighty torrent, nor is there any question about its being a genuine stream. It shows itself as it rolls the great stones along, peradventure breaking down the banks, and overflowing the country. So there is a religion — a poor, miserable, ordinary Christianity — which is not worth the name it bears, that can hide itself; but vital godliness must assert itself, it must speak plainly, it must act vigorously, it must appear conspicuously. The cross reveals the hearts of men, it unveils their true character. Till the cross was set up, Joseph of Arimathea was scarcely known to be a disciple, and Nicodemus continued to do habitually what he once did literally — resort to Jesus by night. Openly he remained in the sanhedrim, though secretly he was a profound admirer of the great Redeemer. But when the cross was lifted up, Joseph went boldly in with senatorial authority and obtained the body of Jesus for burial, and Nicodemus came out with well-timed liberality to provide his hundredweight of spices, and his fair white linen. Thus the cross reveals the thoughts of many hearts. If you have real grace and true love to Jesus in your soul, you will want some modes of expressing yourselves. Our purpose therefore now is, to suggest to you two modes of expressing your consecration to Ood and your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. These two methods are to sing about and to talk about the good things the Lord has done for you, and the great things he has made known to you. Let song take the lead — “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sincj unto the Lord all the earth. Sinrr unto the Lord, bless his name.” Then let discourse engage you; he it in public sermons or in private conversations — ^’ Shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.”

We begin with the voice of melody. All yo. that love the Lord, give vent to your heart’s emotion by song, and take care that it be sung to the Lord alone. The human voice, what a noble instrument it is! what a compass it has! its low soft whispers, how they can hold us spell-bound; its full volume as it peals forth like thunder, how it can startle and produce dismay. What profanity, then, to use such an instrument in the service of sin! Is not our tongue the glory of our frame? Had I no conscientious objection to instrumental music in worship, I should still, I think, be compelled to admit that all the instruments that were ever devised by men, however sweetly attuned, are harsh and grating compared with the unparalleled sweetness of the human voice. When it is naturally melodious and skilfully trained (“and every true worshipper should be zealous to dedicate his richest talent and his highest acquirement to this sacred service), there can be no music under heaven that can equal the combination of voices which belong to men, women, and children whose hearts really love the Saviour. So sweet, so enchanting the melody of song, surely its best efforts should not be put forth to celebrate martial vdctorles or national celebrations, much less should it lend its potent charm to aught that is trivial or lascivious. Bj sacred right its highest beauties should be consecrated to Jehovah* If thou canst sing, sing the songs of Zion. If God has gifted thee with a sweet, liquid voice, be sure and use it to render homage unto him who cried out for thee upon the cross,” It is finished!” ^’ Sing unto the Lord.”

How much public singing, even in the house of God, is of no account! How little of it is singing to the Lord! Does not the conscience of full many among you bear witness that you sing a hymn because others are singing it? You go right straight through with it by a kind of mechanical action. You cannot pretend that you are singing to the Lord. He is not in all your thoughts. Have you not been at places of worship where there is a trained choir evidently singing to the congregation? Tunes and tones are alike arranged for populai’ effect. There is an artistic appeal to human passions. Harmony is attended to; homage is neglected. That is not what God approves of. 1 recollect a criticism upon a certain minister’s prayers. It was reported in the newspaper that he uttered the finest prayer that had ever been offered to a Boston audience. I am afraid there is a good deal of vocal and instrumental music of the same species. It may be the finest j)raise ever offered to a congregation. Surely that is not what we come together for. If you want the sensual gratification of music’s melting, mystic lay, let me commend you to the concert-room, there you will get the enchanting ravishment, but when ye come here let it be to sing unto the Lord. As ye stand up to sing, there shouhl be a fixed intent of the soul, a positive voUtion of the mind, an absolute determination of the heart, that all the flame which kindles in thy breast, and all the melody that breaks from thy tongue, and all the sacred swell of grateful song shall be unto the Lord, and unto the Lord alone.

And if you would sing unto the Lord, let me recommend you to flavour your mouth with the gospel doctrines which savour most of grace unmerited and free. Any other form of theology would tempt us more or less to chant the praise of men. Gratitude has full play when we come to know that salvation is of the Lord alone, and that mercy is divinely free. He that hath once heard the echo of that awful thunder, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” will learn to rejoice with trembling, to sing with deep feeling, and to adore with prostrate reverence the great Supreme, to whom might and majesty belong, and from whom frace and goodness flow. Human counsels and conceits’ sink into insignificance, for thoughts of lovingkindness and deeds of renown belong unto the Lord

alone.

Kindly glance your eye down the psalm, and note how the exhortation to sing is repeated three times. Though I lay a stress, I draw no absolute inference from this peculiar construction. To say the least, it is remarkable that the number three is so continually employed. Farther down in the same psalm it is written, ‘’ Give unto the Lord,” “Give unto the Lord,” “Give unto the Lord,” — three times. Is there not here some kind of allusion to the wondrous doctrine of the Trinity? At any rate I make bold to use the threefold cord to express the homage with which it behoves us to adore the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. As for Unitarianism, it is a religion of units, and I suppose it always will be. There is no danger of its ever spreading very widely. It is cold as a moonlight night, though scarcely as clear. It has not enough of power in it to fire men’s hearts to laud and magnify the Lord. It produces now and then a hymn, but it cannot kindle the passions of men to sing it with fervour and devout enthusiasm. Certainly it cannot gather a crowd of joyous people who will make a joyful noise to the Lord, and •vldth all their heart and voice shout the chorus of gratitude. Oh, beloved, I beseech you let your souls have vent in praise.

“Bless’d be the Father and his love,
To whose celestial source we owe
Rivers of endless joy above,
And rills of comfort here below.”

Praise the God of glory who loved you before the foundation of the world. Praise the God of grace who called you when you sought him not. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, our Heavenly Father who provides for us, educates us, instructs us, leads and guides us, and will bring us by-and-by to the many mansions in his own house.

Sing ye also unto the Son. Never fail to adore the Son of God, who left the royalties of heaven to bear the indifmities of earth. Adore the Lamb slain. Kneel

TJie new Song and the old Stonj. 285

at the cross foot, and praise each wound, and magnify the immortal who became mortal for our sakes.

“Glory to thee, great Son of God!
From whose dear wounded body rolls
A precious stream of vital blood,
Pardon and life for dying souls.”

And, then, sing ye to the Holy Spirit. Let us never fail in praising him. 1 am afraid we do. AVe forget him too much in our sermons, our prayers, and our hymns, or we mention him, perhaps, as a matter of course, with formal expressions rather than with spontaneous feelings. Oh, how our hearts are bound reverently to worship the divine indweller who, accordinir to his abundant mercy, hath made our bodies to be his temples wherein he deigns to dwell.

“We give thee, sacred Spirit, praise.
Who in our hearts of sin and woe,
Makes living springs of grace arise,
And into boundless glory flow.’’

Praise ye, with your songs, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — the triune God of Israel. Have you understood this? To Jehovah let your song be addressed. Thrice be his holy name repeated. Now then be careful of the instructions; let the song that you sing be a new song — O “sing unto the Lord a new song! “not the song of your old legal bondage which you used to sing so tremblingly, with the dread of a slave; a new and nobler song becomes you who are his childi’en, his sons and daughters. ‘^O sing unto the Lord a new song!” To some of you the song of redemption is quite new. Once you sang the songs of

Bacchus or of Venus, or else you hummed over some light an-, without meaning or motive, unless to while away youi’ time and drive away all serious thoughts. O you who used so readily to sing the songs of Babylon, sing now the songs of Zion quite as freely and earnestly. SiniT unto the Lord a new son or.

By a ‘new “song is meant the best song. It is put for that which is most elegant, most exquisite, and best composed. Pindar says, ‘^ Give me old wdne, but give me a new song.” So may we say, “Give us the old wines of the kingdom of God, but let us sing unto the Lord a new song,” — the best that we can find, no borrowed air, no hackneyed lyric; and let our spirits sing unto the Lord that wdiich wells up afresh out of the quickened heart. A new song — always new! keep up the freshness of your praise. Do not drivel down into dull routine. The drowsy old clerks in the dreary old churches used always to say, “Let us sing to the praise and glory of God such and such a psalm,” till I should think the poor old Tate and Brady version was pretty well used up. We have new mercies to celebrate, therefore we must have new songs.

“Blest be his love who now hath set
New time upon the score.”

With “new time upon the score,” let there be new notes for him who renews the face of nature. And have not we, dear brethren and sisters, new graces? Then let us sing with our new- faith, and our new love, and our new hope. Some of you have very lately been made new creatures; sing ye unto the Lord a new song, surely he hath done gi-eat things whereof ye are glad. Others of you have been

The neio Song and the old Stonj. 287

converted for years; yet if your inward man be renewed day by day, your praises shall be always new. Luther used to say that the wounds of Christ seemed to him to bleed to-day as if they had never bled before, for he found such freshness in his Master. You pluck a flower, and it soon loses its scent and begins to wither; but our sweet Lord Jesus has a savour about his name that never departs. We take his name to be like a bundle of camphire all night betwixt our breasts, and in the morning it smells as sweet as when we laid us down to sleep; and when we come to die, that lily of the valley will drop with the same profusion as it did when with our youthful hand we first plucked it and came to him and gave him all our trust. “Sing unto the Lord a new song.” Let the freshness of yom* joy and the fulness of your thanks be perennial as the days of heaven.

This song, according to our text, is designed to be universal. “Sing unto the Lord all the earth.” Let sires and sons mingle in its strains. Let not the aged among you say. Our voices are cracked, but sing to the Lord with all the voice you have, and all the compass you can. And you young people, give the Lord the highest notes you are able to reach. Still sing unto the Lord ye that are rich, sing unto the Lord who has saved you, for it is not many that he saves of your sort.

“Gold and gospel seem to ill agree:
Religion always sides with poverty,”

said John Bunyan, and he spoke the truth. Sing unto the Lord ye poor ones whom the Lord has favoured, for so does it happen still that “the poor have the gospel preached unto them.” Sing unto him, ye that are learned in many matters. Let your talents make your song more full of understanding And you that are unlearned, if ye cannot put so much of understanding into the song, put more of the spirit, and sing with all the more heartiness. All the earth should sing. There is not one of us but lias cause for song, and certainly not one saint but ought especially to praise him. You remember that passage in the hundred and seventh Psalm (it is worth noticing), where the psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed out of the hand of their enemies,” as if surely they, above all others, ought to say, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.”

In addition to its being a new song and a universal one, it is to be a very inspiration of gratitude. “Sing unto the Lord: bless his name.^^ How apt you are in speaking of any one who has been kind to you to say, “God bless him!” The expression comes right up from your heart. And although you cannot invoke any blessing on God, you can desire for his name every blessing and every tribute of homage. You can desire for his cause that it maybe established, and may be triumphant You may desire for his people that they may be helped made holy, and guided to their eternal rest. You may desire for mankind that they may hallow God’s holy name, and all because you feel you owe so much to the Lord that you cannot help praising, and cannot help wishing that your praise should be fruitful on earth and acceptable in heaven.

Li three ways, methinks, it becomes us to sing God’s praises. We ought to sino; with the voice. I do not consider we sing enough to God. Angel harp and human voice! If the angel harp be more skilful, surely the human voice is more grateful. For my part, I like to hear sacred songs in all sorts of places. The maidservant can sing at her work, and the carter as he drives his team. The occupations are few which could not be enlivened by repeating the words and running over the tune of a hymn. If it were only in a faint whisper, the habit might be cultivated. You might expose yourselves, it is tnie, to a taunt, and be upbraided as “a psalm-singing Methodist,” but it would not do you much hurt. Better that than make a ribald jest or utter an impious blasphemy. Those who lend their tongues to such vile uses have something to be ashamed of. Lovers of pleasure sing their songs; and poor trash, for the most part, they are. If the snatches we catch in the streets are the echoes of the saloon and the music-hall, little credit is due to those who cater for public amusement. Lacking alike in sense and sentiment, they betray the degeneracy of the times, and the depravity of popular taste. There is a literature of song in which peasants may rejoice, of which patriots may be proud, and to which poets may turn with envious eyes. Why wed your pretty tunes to paltry words? The higher the art, the more the pity to debase it. If you cull over oui’ hymn-books for samples of bad poetry, loose rhyme, and puerile thoughts, that reviewers like to revile, and libertines like to laugh at, we can only say, Well, we cannot always vindicate the culture of those whose sincerity we hold in the highest esteem; but we will dare to confront you on equally terms — the sanctuary versus the saloon — our vocalists against your vocalists from the sacred oratorios of Handel to the choicest of your operas — from the cant of our revival hymns to the catch of your last sensational songs. Yes, indeed, the people of God should sing more. Were we to try the exercise, we should find no small degree of pleasure in the practice. It would do us good to praise God more day by day. When we get together, two or three of us, we are in the habit of saying ^’ Let us pray.” Might not we sometimes say, ‘’ Let us sing.” We have our regular prayer-meetings, why do not we have praise meetings about as often I

“Prayer and praise for sins forgiven
Make up on earth the bliss of heaven.”

We are like a bird that has only one wing. There is much prayer, but there is little praise. “Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord.”

To sing with the heart is the very essence of song.

“In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am, And my heart it doth leap at the sound of his name.”

Though the tongue may not be able to express the language of the soul, the heart is glad. Some persons seem never to sing with their heart. Their lips move, but their heart does not beat. In their common daily life they move about as if they had been born on a dark winter’s night, and carried the cold chill into all their concerns. The lamentation they constantly utter is this — “All these things are against me.” Their experience is comprised in half a sentence — ‘^ In the world ye shall have tribulation.” They never get into the harbour. “In me ye shall have peace” is a secret they have never realised. They are fond of calling this world a howling wilderness; and they are utterly oblivious of its orchards and vineyards. Were God to put them in the garden of Eden they would not take any notice of the fruit or the flowers. They would go straight away to the serpent and begin saying, ‘^ Ah, there’s a snake here.’’ Their hai*p is hung on the willows, they never can sing. Their heart is unstrung. Sing they cannot.

Well, dear friends, a Christian man ought to be like a horse that has bells on his head, so that he cannot go anyvhere without ringing them and making music. His whole life should be a psalm; every step should be in harmony; eveiy thought should constitute a note; every word he utters should be a component part of the joyful strain. It is a blessed thing to see a Christian going about his business like the high priest of old who, wherever he went, made music with the golden bells. Oh, to have a cheerful spirit — not the levity of the thoughtless, nor the gaiety of the foolish, nor even the mirth of the healthy — there is a cheerful spirit which is the gift of grace, that can and does rejoice evermore. Then when troubles come we bear them cheerfully; let fortune smile, we receive it with equanimity; or let losses befall us, we endure them with resignation, being willing, so long as God is glorified, to accept anything at his hands. These are the people to recommend Christianity. Their cheerful conversation attracts others to Christ. As for those people who are morose or morbid, sullen or severe, harsh in their judgment of their fellow men, or rebellious against the will of God — people of a covetous disposition, a peevish temper, and a quarrelsome character — unto them it is of no use to say, “O sing unto the Lord,” for they will never do it. They have not any bells in the tower of their heart; what chimes can they ring? Their harps have lost their strings; how can they magnify the Most High? But genuine piety finds expression in jubilant song; this is the initiative, though it is far from exhausting its resources.

In the second place, then, let me stir you up, especially my dear friends those of you who are members of this church, to such daily conversation and such habitual discourse as shall be fitted to spread the gospel which you love. Our text admonishes you to “show forth his salvation.” You believe in the salvation of God — a salvation of gi’ace from first to last. You have seen it; you have received it; you have experienced it. Well, now, show it forth. Explain it to others, and with the explanation let there be an illustration; exemplify it by your lives. God has shone upon you with the light of his countenance, that you may reflect his brightness and irradiate others. Every Christian here is like the moon, which shines with borrowed light. But the sun lends not his bright rays to be hoarded up. It is that they may scatter beams of brightness over this world of night. Take care, then, that you are faithful to your trust. Show forth his salvation. God knows, I try to do so from the pulpit. Would God you could try and do so from the pews. Are you lacking in opportunities? I trow not. Before and after service, especially to strangers and such as may have been induced to come and hear the gospel, speak a word in season; thoughtfully, prayerfully, softly, talk with them. Show forth this salvation too in your own houses, or on your visits, or wherever your lot may happen in God’s providence to he cast. It is wonderful how God blesses little efforts, very little efforts. I have sometimes — I am sorry to say not as often as I ought — scattered seed by the wayside. Only a few nights ago I had been driven by a cabman, and after I had alighted and given him the fare, he took a little Testament out of his pocket, and said, “It is about fifteen years ago since you gave me that, and said a word to me about my soul, and it has stuck by me, and I have not let a day pass since without reading it.” I felt glad. I know that if Christian people would try and show forth God’s salvation they would often be surprised to find how many hearts would gladly receive it. Beloved, show forth this salvation from day to day. Let it not be merely on a Sunday. While ye hold that day sacred, let no other day he common or unclean. We are thankful for the kindly efforts in the school and elsewhere on our Sabbaths, but we want Christian activity to be put forth from day to day. Let your zeal for the conversion of your fellow creatures be continuous, ‘*In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” The result of the Sabbath work may, perhaps, not be seen by you, when the result of Monday’s work may very speedily appear. Show forth his salvation from day to day. This admonition is enforced in three clauses; so let us notice the second. ^’ Declare his ergy.

glory among the heathen.” It is the same thing in another form. When you are telling out the gospel, point especially to the glory of it. Show them the justice of the gi-eat substitution, and the mercy of it. Show them the wisdom which devised the plan whereby, without a violation of the law, God could yet pardon rebellious sinners. Impress upon those that you talk with that the gospel you have to tell them of is na common-place system of expediency, but really it is a glorious revelation of divinity. You know men are very much attracted by aught of glory and renown. They will even rush to the cannon’s mouth for glory. Now, be sure, when you are talking to others about the salvation you have received at the hands of your dear Lord and Master, that you tell them about the glory thereof, — what a glory it brings to Christ, and to what a glory it will bring every sinner by-and-by. Tell them of the glory of being pardoned, the glory of being accepted, the glory of being justified, the glory of being sanctified. Is it not all “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus?” Methinks ye might relate some scenes from the death-beds of the saints ye have known on which rays of glory have fallen; but I am sure ye might anticipate a glory which words cannot picture or imagination realize, in the second advent of the Lord Jesus, the resurrection of the just and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom. Dwell upon these things. Declare his glory. And do not be ashamed in the presence of people of a disreputable character, though their ignorance and degradation be never so palpable. “Declare his glory among the heathen.’” “I am going on a mission to the heathen,” said a minister once to his people.

The new Soikj and the old Story, 295

Mistaking his meaning they went home deploring the loss of their pastor. On the following Sunday when they found him in the pulpit they discovered that he had not been out of the city all the week, and when they wanted to know what parts he had visited and what people he had seen, he reminded them that he had heathens close at home, and they were to be found even in his own congregation. Ah, and there may be some heathens here. At any rate, there are plenty of heathens in this great city of London. I have no doubt there are parts of this metropolis in which hundreds, and even thousands, of people reside who are as ignorant of the plan of salvation as the inhabitants of Coomassie. They know nothing of Jesus, even though the light is so bright around them. “Declare his glory among the heathen,” ye lovers of Christ. Penetrate into these dark places: break up fresh ground. Christian men and women. I am persuaded, and this is a matter I have often spoken of, that many of you who sit and hear sermons on the Sunday ought rather to turn out and preach the gospel. While we are glad to see you occupying pews, it will be a greater joy to miss you from your wonted seats, if we only know that you are declaring God’s glory among the heathen. I am not sure that we are all of us right to be living cooped up in this little island of ours. There are in England enough disciples of Jesus to bear the gospel to the uttermost ends of the earth; but perhaps there is not one Christian in five or ten thousand who ever deliberately thinks about going to the heathen to make known to them the way of salvation, and to declare the glory of the Lord among those who have never heard his name. Pray

God there may yet come a wonderful wave of God’s Spirit over our churches which shall bear upon its crest hundreds of ardent spirits resolved to caiTy the tidings of redemption to the jungle and the fever swamp, to the high latitudes and the southern islands. O that the love of Christ may constrain them. Know ye not that Christ has determined to save men by the preaching of the gospel? Has he not charged his disciples to go into all the world? How poorly has the church carried out the commission. If you do love Christ here is room to show your love; go and declare his gloiy among the heathen.

A third expression is used here. “Declare his wonders among all people.” Our gospel is a gospel of wonders. It deals with wonderful sin in a wonderful way. It presents to us a wonderful Sadour, and tells us of his wonderful complex person. It points us to his wonderful atonement, and it takes the blackest sinner and makes him wonderfully clean. It makes him a new creature, and works a wonderful change in him. It conducts him to wonders of happiness and wonders of strength, and yet onward to greater wonders of light and life; for it opens up to him the wonders of the covenant. It gives him wonderful provisions, wonderful deliverances, and leads him right up by the name of him that is called Wonderful, to the gates of that wonder-land where we shall for ever

“Sing, with wonder and surprise,
His lovingkiudness in the skies.”

Surely, dear Christian friends, we ought to talk about the wonders of the Lord our God, and especially should we dwell upon those wonders which we have seen ourselves. Of every Christian man ‘ft might be said that he is a wonder. Will you think a minute, Christian, of the wonder that God has made of you, and the wonders that he has done for you. “That ever I should be” — will you not say that? — ‘’ that ever I should be saved is a wonder of wonders.” That you should have been kept till now, that you should not have been suffered to go back, that you should have been preserved under so many troubles, that your prayers should have been heard so continuously, that, notwithstanding your ill manners, the love of Christ should still have remained the same. Oh, but I cannot recite the tale of marvels: it is a loner series of wonders. The Christian man’s life, if the worldling could understand it, would seem to him like a romance. The wonders of m-ace far exceed the wonders of nature; and of all the miracles God himself has ever wrought there are no miracles so matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the heart of man. Beloved, declare these miracles, these wonders. Tell them to others; men like to hear a tale of wonder. They will gather round the fire at eventide when the logs are burning, and delightedly listen to the story of wonder. When you go home, young man, for your next holiday, if God has converted you, tell what great things the Lord has done for you. And when you go home, Mary, and see your mother, if the Lord has met with you, tell her what the Lord has done. Declare his wonders among all people. Do not be afraid of speaking about the gospel to anybody or in any company. Whoever they may be, whether they be rich or poor, high or low, if you get an opportunity of declaring the wonders of God’s grace, do not let the gospel be unknown for want of a tongue to tell it.

See you, then, I have put before you these two outlets for your love. There is song, and here is discourse. Go and use them both, and if any bid you hold your peace, shall I tell you the answer? Use the same answer which your Master did to the Pharisees when they complained of the shouts of the little children: If these should hold their peace the very stones would cry out.” Ordinary Christians may be quiet because God has done nothing very wonderful for them. They go through the world in a very ordinary kind of way. Their religion is about skin deep, and no more. But those that know they deserve the deepest hell, and have been saved by a mighty effort of infinite mercy, must tell what God has done for them. They must come out from the world, and be separate. They must be decided, zealous, and even enthusiastic. Necessity is laid upon them to be earnest and intense in all they do and in all they say. They cannot help it, for the love of Jesus will fire their souls with a passion that cannot be quenched. ‘’ We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not live henceforth to themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” God help you, beloved, thus to live.

As for those of you who have never found the Saviour, you cannot tell of his excellence or pubhsh his worth, but I do trust that you will not forget that Jesus is to be found by those who seek him, and whosoever believeth on him shall be saved. Take him at his word. Rely on his promise. Trust him. Commit your soul to him. Cast yourself unfelgnedly and unreservedly on his mercy. He will not spurn you; but he will receive you graciously and you shall yet praise him, and he will be the health of your countenance and your God.