Hope in Hopeless Cases

“Bring him hither to me.’* — Matthew xvii, 17.

Our real text will be the entire narrative, but as it seems necessary to select some one sentence, vre have chosen that before ns as the true hino’e of the story.

The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, was so extensive as to touch the confines both of heaven and hell. We see him at one moment discoursing with Moses and Elias in his glory, as though at heaven’s gates, and lo, in a few hours, we see him confronting a foul spirit, as though defying the infernal pit. There is a long journey from patriarchs to demons, from prophets to dumb devils; yet mercy prompts him and power supports him, so that he is equally glorious in either place. What a glorious Lord he was even while in his humiliation! flow glorious is he now! How far his goodness reaches! Truly he hath dominion from sea to sea; to the extremes of human condition his empire reaches. Our Lord and Master hears with joy the shout of a believer, who has vanquished his foe, and, at the same hour, he bows his ear to the despairing wail of a sinner, who has given up all confidence in self, and is desirous to be saved by him. At one moment he is accepting the crown which the warrior brings him from the well-fought fight, at another moment he is healing the broken in heart, and binding up their wounds. There is a notable difference between the dying scene of the triumphant believer as he enters into rest, and the first weeping repentance of a Saul of Tarsus as he seeks mercy of the Saviour whom he has persecuted; and yet the Lord’s heart and eye are with both. Our Lord’s transfiguration did not disqualify him for casting out the devils, nor did it make him feel too sublime and spiritual to grapple with human ills, and so at this hour the glories of heaven do not take him off from the miseries of earth, nor do they make him forget the cries and tears of the feeble ones who are seeking him in this valley of tears.

The case of the deaf and dumb demoniac, which we read in your hearing, and to which I call your particular attention this morning, is a very remarkable one. All sin is the evidence that the soul is under the dominion of Satan. All unconverted persons are I’eally possessed of the devil in a certain sense: he has established his throne within their

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hearts, and there he reigns, and rules from thence the members of their body. “The spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience”, is the name which Paul gives to the prince of darkness. But these possessions are not alike in every case, and the casting out of Satan, though always effected by the same Lord, is not always wrought after the same fashion. We bless God, many of us, that when we lived in sin, yet we were not given over to a furious delirium of it — there was method in our madness. We claim no credit for this, but we do thank God for it, that we were not whirled along like rolling things before the tempest, l)ut were restrained and kept within the bounds of outward propriety. We are also grateful that when, being aroused and alarmed, we fell under the iron rod of Satan, we were not all brought into that utter despair, that horror of great darkness, that inward torment and agony, which some are made to endure; and when Jesus came to save us, although we were much hindered by Satan, yet there was none of the foaming of pride, and wallowing of obstinate lust, and tearing of raging desperation, of which we have read in memorable instances, but the Lord opened our hearts gently with his golden key, entered into the chamber of our spirits, and took possession. For the most part, the conquests which Jesus achieves in the souls of his people, though wrought by the same power, are more quietly accomplished than in the case before us. For this let thanks be rendered to the God of grace. Yet every now and then there are these strange, out-of-the-way cases, persons in whom Satan seems to run riot and to exert the utmost force of his malice, and in whom the Lord Jesus displays the exceeding greatness of his power, when in almighty love he dethrones the tyrant and casts him out never to return again. If there should be only one such person here this morning, I shall be justified in looking after him, for what man is there among you, who, having a hundred sheep, if one of them should go astray, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is gone astray? I ask the prayers of such as have, in years gone by, been brought to Jesus and are now rejoicing in him, that we may this morning find out the far-off wanderers, and may, by the Holy Ghost’s anointing, liberate those that are bound with fetters of iron, that they may become to-day the Lord’s freed ones, for if the Son shall make them free, they shall be free indeed.

I shall, by my Lord’s help, first enlarge upon the deploralJe case; then we shall meditate upon the one resource; and conclude by admiring the sure result.

I. First, let us look, so far as time permits, into the details of the DEPLORABLE CASE before us.

We understand the physical miracles of Christ to be types of his spiritual works. The wonders which he wrought in the natural world have their analogies in the spiritual world; the outward and natural is the symbol of the inward and spiritual. Now the demoniac who was brought by his father for healing is not so distinctly representative of a case of gross sin, though the spirit is called a foul one, and Satan is everywhere defiling, but it is an instance of the great horror, disturbance of mind, and raving despair, caused by the evil one in some minds to their torment and jeopardy. You will observe concerning it, that the disease appeared every now and then in overwhelming attacks of mania in which the man was utterly leijond his own control. The epileptic fit threw the noor yictim in all directions. So have we seen melancholy persons in whom despondency, mistrust, unbelief, despair, have raged at times with unconquerable fury; they have not so much entertained these evil guests as been victims to them. As Mark puts it, The spirit taketh him,” so have such forlorn ones been captured and carried off by Giant Despair. The fairies have scourged them onward over dry places, seeking rest and finding none; they refused to be comforted, and like sick men their souls abhorred all manner of meat; they evinced no power to struggle with their melancholy — resistance did not suggest itself to them; they were taken off their feet and carried clean out of themselves in a rapture of woe. Such cases are not at all uncommon. Satan knowing that his time is short, perceiving that Jesus is hastening to the rescue, lashes his poor slave with excess of malice, if by any means he may utterly destroy his yictim before the deliverer arrives.

The poor patient before us was filled at such times with a terrible anguish, an anguish which he expressed by foaming at the mouth, by wallowing upon the ground, and by crying out. At such times in his dreadful falls he bruised himself, and his delirium led him to dash himself against anything which stood before him, so causing to himself new injuries. None can tell but those who have felt the same, what are the pains of conviction of sin when aggravated by the suggestions of the enemy. Some of us have passed through this in our measure, and can declare that it is hell upon earth. We have felt the weight of the hand of an angry God. We know what it is to read the Bible, and not find a single promise in it that would suit our case; but rather to see every page of it glowing with threatenings, as though curses like lightning blazed from it. Even the choicest passages have appeared to rise up against us as though they said, Intrude not here. These comforts are not for you; you have nothing to do with such things as these.” We have bruised ourselves against doctrines, and precepts, and promises, and even the cross itself. We have prayed, and our very prayer has increased our misery, even against the mercy-seat we have fallen, judging our prayers to be but babbling sounds obnoxious to the Lord. We have gone up with the assembly of God’s people, and the preacher seemed to frown upon us, and to rub salt into our wounds, and aggravate our case; even the chapter, and the hymns, and the prayers, appeared to be in league against us, and we went home to our retirement more desponding than before. I hope none of you are passing through such a state of mind as this, for it is of all things, next to hell itself, one of the most dreadful, and in such a plight men have cried out with Job, Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? When I say. My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.” Thanks be unto God, the issues out of this slavery are often such as make angels sing for joy, but while the black night endures it is a horror of

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darkness indeed. Put a martyr upon the rack, or even fasten him with an iron chain to the stake, and let the flames kindle about him, and if his Lord shall smile upon him, his anguish will be just nothing compared with the torture of a spirit scorched and burned with an inward sense of the wrath of God. Such a man can join in the lament of Jeremiah, and cry, He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my

prayer He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the

arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my

reins He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me

drunken with wormwood.” The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? To groan over unforgiven sin, to dread its wxll-deserved punishment, to fear the everlasting burnings, these are things which make men suffer with an emphasis, and make them think life to be a burden.

We learn from the narrative that the evil spirit at the times when it took full possession of the man, sought his destruction by hurling him in different directions. Sometimes it casteth him into the fire, and sometimes into the water.” So is it with deeply distressed souls. One day they seem to be all on fire with earnestness and zeal, with impatience and anxiety, but the next day they sink into a horrible coldness and apathy of soul, from which it appears to be utterly impossible to arouse them. All sensitive yesterday, all insensible to-day. They are uncertain; you know not where to find them. If you deal with them as for a spirit that is in danger from the fire of petulance, you have lost your pains, for in the next few minutes they will be in danger from the water of indifference. They fly to extremes. They are like the souls fabled to be in purgatory, of whom legends say that they suffer by turns in an oven and in cells of ice. You would suppose from the way in which they speak to-day that they felt themselves to be the blackest of sinners, but in a short time they deny that they feel any sort of repentance for sin. You would imagine, to hear them talk at one time, that they would never cease to pray till they found the Saviour, but by-and-by they tell you that they cannot pray at all, and that it is but a mockery for them to bend the knee. They ring all the changes; they are more fickle than the weather; their colour comes and goes like that of the chameleon; they are all fits and starts, convulsions and contortions. He were more than human who could reckon upon them for a month, for they vary oftener than the moon. Their malady laughs us to scorn, their trouble baffles all our consoling efforts; only Jesus Christ himself can deal with them. It is well that we can add that he has a peculiar art in dealing with desperate diseases, and finds his delight in healing those whom all others have left for lost.

HOPE m HOPELESS CASES.

To add to the difficulties of this deplorable case, this child was deaf, BO our Lord tells us in Mark, Come out of him, thou deaf and dumb spirit.” There was therefore no way of reasoning with him at all; not a sound could pass through that sealed ear. With other men you might speak, and a soft word might calm the perturbations of their mind, but no word, however gentle, could reach this poor tormented spirit, to sound and sense alike impervious. And are there not such still, to whom words are wasted breath? You may quote promises, you may supply encouragements, you may explain doctrines, but it is all nothing; they end where they began: like squirrels in revolving cages, they are never the forwarder. Oh, the twistings and turnings, the convolutions and the windings, of poor tormented minds! It is easy enough certainly to tell them to believe in Jesus, but if they understand you, it is in such a dark manner that you had need to explain again, and that explanation you will have to explain still farther. To cast themselves simply upon the blood of sprinkling, and to rest upon the finished work of Jesus, is of all things most plain, the very child’s A B C cannot be plainer, and yet for all that it is not plain to them; they will appear to comprehend you, and then start aside at a tangent; they will appear to be convinced, and for a time to give up their doubts and fears, but meet them half-an-hour afterwards, and you will find you have been speaking to a wall, addressing yourself to the deaf. Oh, lamentable case! The Lord of mercy look on such, for hopeless is man’s help. Glory be to God, he hath laid help upon one that is mighty, who can make the deaf to hear, causing his voice to ring with sweet encouragements in the deathlike stillness of the dungeons of despair.

Next to this it appears that the afflicted one was duml), that is to say, incapable of articulate speech by reason of the demoniacal possession; since he cried out when the devil left him, it would seem to have been a case in which all the instruments of speech were present, but articulation had not been learned. There was utterance of an incoherent sort; the noise-making apparatus was there, but nothing intelligible came forth except the most heartrending cries of pain. Such dumb ones abound; they cannot explain their own condition, if they talk to you it is incoherent talk; they contradict themselves every five sentences — you know that they are speaking what they believe to be true, but if you did not know that, you might think that they were telling you falsehoods which confound each other. Their experience is a string of contradictions, and their utterance is even more complicated than their experience. It is very hard and difficult long to talk with them, it wears out one’s patience; and if it wear out the patience of the hearer, how burdensome must it be to the unhappy speaker! They pray, but they dare not call it prayer, it is rather the chattering of a crane or a swallow. They talk with God what is in their poor silly hearts; but ah! it is such a confusion METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.

and mixture, that when it is done they wonder whether they have prayed or no. It is the cry, the bitter anguishing cry of pain, but it is untranslatable into words; it is an awful groan, an unutterable yearniug and longing of the Spirit, but they scarce know themselves what it means.

You are weary with the details of this dolorous case, but I have not yet concluded the tale of woe. If any of you have never experienced the like, thank God for it, but at the same time pity and pray for those who are passing through this state of mind, and invoke now silently the hope of the great Healer, that he would come and deal with them, for their plight is past the art of man.

The father told Jesus that his son was pining away. How could it be otherwise, with one borne down by such a mass of disorders, so perpetually tormented that the natural rest of sleep was constantly broken? It was not likely that the strength would long be maintained in a system so racked and torn; and, mark you, despair of mind is an exceedingly weakening thing to the soul. I have known it even weaken the body, till the worn out sufferer has said with David, “My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” To feel the guilt of sin, to fear the coming punishment, to have a dreadful cry in one’s ears of the

wrath to come,” to fear death and to expect it every moment, above all to disbelieve God, and write bitter things against him, this is a thing to make the bones to rot, and the heart to wither. Read John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding,*’ and behold a picture there, drawn to the live, of a soul that was left as a heath in the desert, so that it could not see when good came to it; you see a mind tossed up and down on ten thousand waves of unbelief, never resting at any time, but perpetually disturbed and distracted with surmises, suspicions, and forebodings. If these attacks continued always, and were net sometimes iiitermittedp if there were not little pauses, as it were, between the fits of unbelief, surely man would utterly fail and go to his long home, a prey to his own cruel unbelief.

The worst point in the case was, all this had continued for years, Jesus asked how long he had been in this case, and his parent replied, “From a child.” Sometimes God permits, for purposes which we do not understand, the deep distress of a tempted soul to last for years; I cannot tell for how many years, but certainly some have had to battle with unbelief on the very confines of the grave, and only at eventide has it been light to them. When they thought they must die in the dark, the Holy Spirit has appeared to them, and they have been cheered and comforted. The Puritans were wont to quote the I’emarkable experience of Mrs. Honeywood as an instance of the singular way in which the Lord delivers his chosen. She, for year after year was in bondage to melancholy and despair, but she was set at liberty by the gracious providence of God in an almost miraculous way. She took up a slender Venice glass, and saying, I am as surely damned as that glass is dashed to pieces,” she hurled it down upon the floor, when, to her surprise, and the surprise of all, I know not by what means, the glass was not so much as chipped or cracked. That circumstance first gave her a ray of light, and she afterwards cast herself upon the Lord Jesus. Sometimes extraordinary light has been given to extraordinary darkness, God has brought up the prisoner out of the innermost ward where his feet had been fast in the stocks, and after years of bondage, he has at last given perfect and delightful liberty.

One thing more about this case. The disciples had failed to cast the devil out. On other occasions they had been successful — they said to their Master, “Even the devils are subject unto us.” But this time they were utterly foiled. They did their best; they appear to have had some faith, or they would not have attempted the task, but their faith was not at all equal to the emergency. Scribes and Pharisees gathered around them, and began to mock them, and if there had been power in all the company of the apostles to have wrought the deed, they would gladly have done it; but there they stood, defeated and dismayed — the poor patient before them racked and tormented, and they unable to give him the slightest ease. Ah! it becomes a painful case when an anxious soul has gone to the house of God for years, and yet has found no consolation; when the troubled spirit has sought help from ministers, from Christian men and women; when prayers have been offered and not answered, tears have been shed and have been unavailing; when books which have been consolatory to others have been studied without result; when teachings which have converted thousands fail to create a good impression; and yet there are such instances, in which all human agency is put to the rout, and when it seems as impossible to comfort the poor troubled one as to calm the waves of the sea, or hush the voice of the thunder cloud. Hearts are to be met with still in which the evil spirit and the Holy Spirit are brought into distinct conflict, in which the evil spirit displays all his malignity, and brings the soul to the uttermost pitch of distress, in which I trust yet the Holy Spirit will display his saving power, and lead the soul out of its prison to praise the name of the Lord.

I thought I heard from some ungodly person a kind of whisper to himself, “I thank God I know nothing about these things.” Pause before thou thankest God for this, for evil as this is and to be deplored, it were better that thou hadst all this than remain altogether without spiritual sensibility. It were better to go to heaven burnt and branded, scourged and scarred every step of the road, than to slide gently down to hell as many of 7^1 are doing — sleeping sweetly while devils carry you along the road to perdition. It is little after all to be for a season tormented and troubled by disturbance within if it shall ultimately, by

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God’s interposition, end in joy and peace in believing, but it is beyond measure a dreadful thing to have “Peace, peace,” sung in one’s ears where there is no peace, and then for ever to discover one’s self a castaway in the pit from which there shall be no escape. Instead of being thankful, I would rather ask you to tremble. Yours is that terribly prophetic calm which the traveller frequently perceives upon the Alpine summit. Everything is still. The birds suspend their notes, fly low, and cower down with fear. The hum of bees among the flowers is hushed. A horrible stillness rules the hour, as if death had silenced all things by stretching over them his awful sceptre. Perceive ye not what is surely at hand? The thunder is preparing; the lightning will soon cast abroad its mighty fires. Earth will rock; granite peaks will be dissolved; all nature will shake beneath the fnry of the storm. Yours is that solemn calm to-day, 0 sinner. Rejoice not in it, for the tempest is coming, the whirlwind and the tribulation which shall sweep you away and utterly destroy you. Better to be molested of the devil now than be tormented by him for ever.

II. I have thus brought before you a very dolorous subject, but now, secondly, and may the Holy Spirit help us while I remind you of the ONE resource.

The disciples were baffled. The Master, however, remained undefeated, and cried, “Bring him unto me.” We ought to use the m(^ans so far as the means will go. We are bound, further, to make the means more effectual than they ordinarily are. Prayer and fasting are prescribed by our Lord as the means of stringing up ourselves to greater power than we should otherwise possess. There are conversions which will never be wrought by the agency of ordinary Christians. We have need to pray more, and by self-denial to keep our bodies more completely under, and so to enjoy closer communion with God before we shall be able to handle the more distressing cases. The church of God would be far stronger to wrestle with this ungodly age if she were more given to prayer and fasting. There is a mighty efficacy in these two gospel ordinances. The first links us to heaven, the second separates us from earth. Prayer takes us into the banqueting-house of God; fasting overturns the surfeiting tables of earth. Prayer gives us to feed on the bread of heaven, and fasting delivers the soul from being encumbered with the fulness of bread which perish eth. When Christians shall bring themselves up to the uttermost possibilities of spiritual vigour, then they will be able, by God’s Spirit working in them, io cast out devils which to day, without the prayer and fasting, laugh ihem to scorn. But for all that, to the most advanced Christian, there ill still remain those mountainous difficulties which must be directly Drought to the Master’s personal agency for help. Still he tenderly commands us, “Bring them unto me.”

To make the text appear practical, let me beg you to remember that Jesus Christ is still alive. Simple as that truth is, you need to be reminded of it. We very often estimate the power of the church by looking to her ministers, her ordinances and her members; but the power of the church does not lie here, it lies in the Holy Ghost, and in an ever living Saviour. Jesus Christ died, it is true, but he lives, and we may as truly come to him to-day as did that anxious father in the days of our Lord’s earthly sojourn. Miracles have ceased it is said: so natural miracles have, but spiritual miracles have not. We have not the power to work either the one or the other. Christ hath the power to work any kind of wonder, and he is still willing and able at this present hour to work spiritual miracles in the midst of his church. I do delight to think of my Lord as a living Christ, to whom I can speak and tell him of every case that occurs in my ministry; a living Helper to whom I may bring every diflBculty that occurs in my own soul, and in the souls of others. 0 think not that he is dead and buried! Seek him not among the dead! J esus lives, and, living, is as able to meet with these cases of distress and sorrow as when he was here below.

Remember, too, that Jesus lives in the ‘place of authority. When he was here he had power over devils, but yonder he hath greater power still; for here on earth he veiled the splendour of his Godhead, but yonder his glory beams resplendent, and all hell confesses the majesty of his power. There is no demon, however forceful, who will not tremble if Jesus doth but speak, or even so much as look at him. To-day Jesus is the Master of hearts and consciences; he by his secret power, can work upon every one of our minds; he can depress us or he can exalt; he can cast down or he can lift up. There cannot be a case which shall be hard to him. We have but to bring it to him. He lives — and he lives in the place of power, and he can achieve the desire of our hearts. Moreover, Jesus lives in the place of observation and he graciously interposes still. I know we are tempted to think of him as of one far away, who does not behold the sorrows of his church, but I tell you, brethren, Christ’s honour is as much concerned at this moment in the defeat or victory of his servants as it was when he came down from the mountain top. From the battlements of heaven Jesus looks to-day upon the work of his ministers; and if he sees them foiled he is jealous for the honour of his gospel, and is as ready to interpose and win the victory now as he was then. We have but to look up to our Lord. He sleeps not as Baal did of old. He is not callous to our woes, nor indifferent to our griefs. Blessed Master, thou art able to succour, and strong to deliver! We have but to bring the matter which distresses us before thee, and thou wilt deal with it now according to thy compassion.

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We should also recollect, for our warning, Jesus Christ expeds us to treat him as a living jpoiverful interposing one and to confide in him as such. We do nofc know what we miss through want of faith; we con* ceive that certain persons are in a hopeless condition, and thus we dishonour Christ and injure them. We leave some cases, and give them up instead of presenting them constantly to him; we limit the holy One of Israel; we grieve his spirit and vex his holy mind; but if, as children trust their father, we would trust in Jesus unstaggeringly with an Abrahamic faith, believing that what he hath promised he is able also to perform, then should we see even such cases as that before us soon brought into the light of day: the oil of joy given instead of mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

Now, I earnestly urge parents and relatives, and any who have children or friends in distress of mind, to make a point of taking their dear ones to Jesus. Do not doubt him — you vex him if you do; do not hesitate to come and tell him this morning the position of your beloved one. Hasten to him, lay the sick one before him, and even if while in prayer the case should become worse instead of better, still hesitate not, you are dealing with the infinite Son of God, and you need not fear, you must not doubt. God grant us grace in all things in our daily troubles, and especially in soul affairs, to bring all matters to the Lord Jesus.

III. Lastly, and with brevity, the sure result.

When the child, or the man, or whichever he may have been, was brought before our Lord, the case looked thoroughly hopeless. He was deaf and dumb: how could the Master deal with him? Beside that, he was foaming and wallowing: what opening did there seem for the divine power? I cannot wonder that his father said, ‘’If thou canst do anything, have compassion upon us.” In most other instances the voice of Jesus calmed the spirit; but that voice could not reach the mind, for the ear was sealed. Never was there before the Saviour a more thoroughly far-gone case, to all appearance hopeless; and yet the cure was divinely certain, for Jesus, without hesitating for a moment said to the unclean Spirit, “Thou foul spirit, thou deaf and dumb spirit, I charge thee come out of him.” Christ has power to charge devils with authority They dare not disobey. ‘* And return no more unto him,” said the Saviour. Where Jesus heals he heals for ever. OncQ bring the soul out of prison, it shall not go back again. If he saith, “I forgive,” the sin is forgiven; if he speaks peace, the peace shall be like a river that never ceases, running until it melts away into the ocean of eternal love. The cure was hopeless in itself, yet absolutely certain when Jesus put forth his healing hand. 0 ye who are broken down and desponding this morning, there is nothing that you can do or that / can do; but there is nothing which he cannot do. Only go yourself this morning to him, and with a word he will give you peace, a peace that shall never be broken again, but shnll last till you enter into eternal rest.

Nevertheless the word of Christ, though sure to win its way, was stoutly opposed. The devil had great wrath, for he knew that his time was short. He began to rend and tear, and put out all his devilish force upon the poor child, and the poor creature, foaming and wallowing, fell down as if he were dead, under a terrible excitement. So often will it happen that at first the voice of Christ will make the Spirit more troubled than before, not because Jesus troubles us, but because Satan revolts against him. A poor tempted creature may even lie down in despair as dead, and those around may cry, He is dead,” but even then shall come the healing hand of tenderness and love, at whose touch the Spirit shall survive. Ah, soul! if thou shouldst judge thyself to be as one dead, if thy last hope should expire, if there should seem now to be nothing before thee but a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation, it is then that Jesus will interpose, licarn the lesson that you cannot have gone too far from Christ. Believe that your extremities are only extremities to you and not to him. The highest sin and the deepest despair together cannot baflBe the power of Jesus. If you were between the very jaws of hell, Christ could snatch you forth. If your sins had brought you even to the gates of hell, so that the flames flashed into your face, if then you looked to Jesus he could save you. If you are brought to him when you are at death’s door, yet still eternal mercy will receive you. How is it that Satan has the impudence to make men despair? Surely it is a piece of his infernal impertinence that he dares to do it. Despair! when you have an omnipotent God to deal with you? Despair! when the precious blood of the Son of God is given for sinners? Despair! when God delights in mercy? Despair! when the silver bell rings, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”? Despair! while life lasts, while mercy’s gate stands wide open; while the heralds of mercy beckon you to come, even though your sins be as scarlet, for they shall be as wool; though they be like crimson they shall be white as snow? I say again, it is infernal impertinence that has dared to suggest the idea of despair to a sinner. Christ unable to save? Never can it be. Christ outdone by Satan and by sin? Impossible. A sinner with diseases too many for the great Physician to heal? I tell you that if all the diseases of men were met in you, and all the sins of men were heaped on you, and blasphemy and murder, and fornication and adultery, and every sin that is possible or imaginable had all been committed by you, yet the precious blood of Tesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If thou wilt but trust my Master, and he is worthy to be trusted and

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deserves thj confidence — if thou wilt but trust him, he will save thee even now. Ah! why delay, why raise questions, why debate, why deliberate, mistrust and suspect? Fall into his arms — he cannot reject thee, for he hath himself said, ^’ Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Yet, poor wretch, I do despair of converting thee unless the Master do it. It is mine to tell thee this, but I know thou wilt not hear it, or, hearing it, thou wilt reject it unless Christ shall come with power by his Spirit. 0 may he come to-day, and say to the evil spirit within thee, Come out of him, thou foul spirit, and go no more into him. Let such a one be free, for I have redeemed him with my most precious blood.” 0 pray, dear friends, that weak as my words have been this morning, disconnected as my thoughts have been, yet, nevertheless, God the blessed Spirit may bless them to the unfastening of bars of iron, that gates of brass may be opened, and captive onea brought forth to libertv. The Lord bless such for his name’s sake. Amen,

Portion of Scripture Read before Sermon. — Mark ix. 1 — 29.

SERMONS IN CANDLES.

By C. H. SPURGEON.

Illustrations which may be found in Common Candles. Paper, is.

Cloth, Gilt Edges, 2S.

“For originality and quaintness, for some smartly written views on religious truth, this little work stands unsurpassed. The Lectures are unique.” — Freeman,

By C, H. SPURGEON.

A Commentary on the Book

of Psalms.

The Treasury of David.

Containing an Original Exposition of the Book of Psalms; a Collection of Illustrative Extracts from the whole range of Literature; a Series of Homiletical Hints upon almost every verse; and a list of Writers upon each Psalm. Complete in 7 Volumes, price 8s. per volume* May also be had in calf and half-calf bindings. “No man, whatever his theological predilections may be, who has a spark of justice in him, will hesitate to pronounce the work of grt merit, revealing an intellect oi remarkable vivacity and vigour, and a soul aflame with religious earnestness.” — Homilist,

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Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, Sepiember 6th, 1868, by
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” — Romans v. 5.

The apostle sets before us a ladder like to that which Jacob saw, the foot whereof resteth upon the earth, but the top ascendeth to heaven. Tribulation is the foot, but we mount as we see that it worketh patience; and we climb again, for patience worketh experience; and we ascend yet once again, for experience sustaineth hope; and hope that maketh not ashamed climbs up to the very heart of God, and the love of God h shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. I might compare these verses to those songs of degrees which were sung by the people as they went up to the temple: as they halted at each fitage of the pilgrimage they sang a fresh Psalm, and so David said, “They go from strength to strength; every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” The pilgrim sefcteth out from the dull and desolate vale of tribulation, he journeys on to patience, and lifts up his Psalm under the shadow of the rock; he removes his tent and journeys on to experience — beneath its wells and palm trees he refreshes himself; soon he marches on again from experience to hope, and never stayeth till the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, and he has reached the New Jerusalem, where he worships the ever blessed God and drinks full draughts of his eternal love.

In this text it seems to me as though our great Melchisedek, the Lord Jesus, came forth to refresh his warfaring and wayfaring people with bread and wine. You read of tribulations: these are the battles of the faithful, and in them they overcome even as Abraham overthrew the kings, and made them as driven stubble before his bow. The Lord’s warriors are often faint and weaiy in them, but the love of God is graciously shed abroad in their hearts; and this is that sacred bread and wine that stayeth the Lord’s people in their time of hunger, and becomes a sweet morsel to refresh them by the way, and keep them in good case till they eat the heavenly bread and drhik the new wine all fresh and sparkling at the table of the marriage banquet, where they shall sit for ever and ever with the glorious Bridegroom.

This morning, if we may be so helped of the Holy Ghost, we shall, first of all say a little upon the love of God; then upon the love of God shed air Odd in the heart by the Holy Ghost; and then upon the confirmation

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tuliich Ihis gives to our Jiope since the apostle tells us that our hop is. not ashamed, for this reason, that the love of God cheers and sustain*, us, being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

I. First, then, some little upon the loV of God; a theme for breadth and depth like unto the vast Atlantic, whereon my little skiff loses itself, as a mere speck on the infinite expanse. How shall I profess fully to express truths so vast that the greatest divines miirht lose themselves, and the most eloquent of speakers might fail? The love of God — how shall I attempt to speak of it? T nmst but skim the surface; to dive into its depths were impossible to me.

Think for a minute, first of all, of what it is — the Jove of God, 5^ow the pity of God towards the suffering I can understand, because of the goodness of his nature. The kindness of God towards the needy I can comprehend, because of the liberality of his character. That he should have compassion upon such as are ignorant and out of the way; that he should look constantly with tenderness upon those that are sore broken and ready to perish is easy enough for me to believe; but this is not what is spoken of in the text. It is not compassion, nor tenderness, nor pity, but it is love, which is something more than all these. You pity the beggar whom you could not love; you have compassion upon the villain in whom you could have no complacency; you look with tenderness upon sufferers who have nothing in their character or in their persons to attract your affection. Men usually think that they have gone far enough when they have rendered kindness, even if the heart glow with no affection, and they, as a rule, take this to be the rendering of love towards their neighbour; when they have permitted their compassion and tenderness to exhibit themselves, they feel that all is done that is demanded of them. But the text speaketh not of this, but of love, direct attachment and affection, and of the love of God. I beseech you, my brethren, as you sit here, lift up your souls,” bid your understandings stand on tiptoe, and endeavour fully to grasp the idea of divine love. If ye be in Christ [Jesns, this day God loves you, but whereunto shall I liken love as it streams from the heart of Jehovah? We try to guess at what God’s love to one of his people may be by our love to our own children, to our spouse, to our friend. Now in a far higher degree and sublimer sense, and after a loftier sort, even so God loves the people of his choice. Consider this believer and be astonished, that love should come from God to such a one as yourself. The Lord loves you. He has a complacency and a delight in you. You give him pleasure; he watches for your good; you are one of his household; your name is written on his heart. He loves you; can you catch the thought? If so there is no praise that can express your gratitude. Solemn silence will perhaps be the only vehicle that shall seem fitting for your soul’s adoration. Revolve the personal thought again and again in your soul! He that made the heavens and the earth loves me! He whose angels fly as lightning to obey his behests, the tramp of whose marching shakes both heaven and earth, whose smile is heaven, and whose frown is hell, loves me! Infinite, almighty, omniscient, eternal, a mind inconceivable, a spirit that is not to be comprehended; but he, even he has set his love upon the sons of meU; and upon me. Let each believer say in his

TK^ c:Rr uMING OF THE HEART, heart, Upon me among the rest.” Oh, but this is astoiindino:, this is marvellous! He hath said to us what he never said to angels, for unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son”? to which of all the glorified spirits hath he said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee “? Where read you that he shed his blood for angels, or poured out his heart for seraphim and cherabim?

“Never did angels taste above
Kedeeming grace and dying love.”

God’s dearest love has been hoarded up for worms, saved for tha creatures of a day, reserved for us poor ephemera who are and are not that we should be favoured above all that live. It is not for tongues t(* tell out this wonder, but spiritual minds helped from on high may feel in solemn stillness what a mystery is here.

If you would have, this morning, this love shed abroad in your hearts, I must ask you to consider carefully tvho it is that loYes you, namely, the Most High God. To be loved I have already said is a sublime thought, but to be loved of Mm is a right royal thing, su:rpassing thought as far as the heaven is above the earth. A courtier will often think it quite enough for him if he hath the favour of his prince. What means that favour? It means riches, it means pleasure, it means honour. All that the courtier wants is wrapped up in the royal smile. And, believer, what means the love of the King of kings to you? If you estimate it rightly, not only all that you now want, but all that you ever can need, all that the flights of fancy or the conceptions of understanding can bring before you are contained in that one fact, that the Lord loves you. For when Jehovah loves he brings his power to help his love, his infinite wisdom to contrive ways for delighting the objects of his choice, and every other attribute of his transcendent nature works and co-operates with love for the good of the chosen ones. Thou hast all things if thou hast thy Father’s love, 0 child of God. Thou hast no ambition surely. Here all thine aspirations may sit down content — to be loved of God is enough and more than enough for the largest wish. Csesar’s imperial couch is hard compared with the bosom of God. Cagsar’s sceptre is a cumbrous thing compared with the ring of love which surrounds our finger. Give us but the Father’s love, and who will may have the Indies. Ay, let the worlds be given to whom God may please, as men give husks to swine, if we have his love it is enough, our soul is filled to the brim, and floweth over with satisfaction. Consider, I say, who it is that loves you, and surely your heart will leap at the very sound of his name, and feel it to be a matchless thing to be loved of Jehovah, the only living God.

Think yet again of tahat he is tvho so loves you. Very much of the value of affection depends upon the object from whom it comes. It would be a very small thing, certainly, to have the complacency of some of our fellow creatures, whose judgment is so perverted that their praise might almost be considered censure. To have the love of the good, the holy, and the excellent, this is truest wealth; and so to enjoy the love of God is an utterly priceless thing! No mention can be made of coral, and as for rubies they shall not be mentioned in comparison therewith. God, the thrice holy One, who cannot love that which is unholy

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and defiled, cannot take complacency in that which is contrary to himself — yet looks on us through his Son, and, viewing us in Christ Jesus, seeth no sin in Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel, and, therefore, can love us with complacency and delight. Oh, how this exalts us! We are nothing in ourselves; but how this makes us feel the gentleness of the Lord in making such base things to be so great by merely loving them. See ye nofc how graciously the Lord can fit a man to be loved, and then can shed abroad within his heart an abundance of love, which must have been an unknown thing there unless grace had changed and renewed it. To be loved of God! 0 sirs, some think it a great thing to be applauded of the 3iowd; but watch the breath of the multitude — how soon it is blown aside! from men upon whom it was most lavished, from them it is soon taken. What think ye of the approval of the wisest and best of men? What is their wisdom but folly in the sight of God? and what is their approbation often but a mistake? But to be approved of him before whom the heavens are not pure, and who charged his angels with folly! Beloved, this is such a thing as might make you sit down and lose yourselves in blissful meditation, even until ye found yourselves in heaven.

Still farther to lead your minds into this love of God, let me remind you of the remarkable characteristics of that love. The love of God towards his people is a heaven-born aff’ection; it sprang from no source but itself. God loves his people because he will love them, and for no other reason known to us. Divine love is not caused by any excellence in the creature, either created or foreseen; its springs are within itself. We do not believe in the eternity and self-existence of matter, but we do believe in the eternity and self-existence of divine love. The Godhead seeks no reason for love to fallen men beyond its own determination and purpose. The Lord chose his people at the first in the exercise of his sovereign will. He loved them then because he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion.” He then united them to Christ, and viewing them as Christ’s bride, beholding them as members of Jesus’ body, he loved them with divine complacency: ,the love not springing from anything in them, but altogether from that which is within himself and in his own dear Son; a causeless love, so far as outward causes are concerned, caused only by the fact that God in his nature and essence is love.

As this love was uncreated, so it is self -sustaining. It is like the Deity itself. It borrows nothing from without, it bears its life and strength within its own bowels. The Lord loves you not to-day. Christian, because of anything you are doing, or being, or saying, or thinking, but he loves you still, because his great heart is full of love, and it runneth over to you. I do rejoice to think that this love sits on no precarious throne, nor borrows leave to be. It lives, and shall live as long as God lives. None shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and so long as God exists, this fire of love, fed upon its own fuel, unsupplied by any human hand, shall continue still to flame forth towards the chosen seed.

This love too, it is sweet to remember, is utterly unlounded and altogether ‘unequalled. You cannot say of God’s love it has gone thereto, but it shall go no further. It is impossible to conceive a point beyond its glorious tide; but if there were such a point, it would yet reach it, for the love of God glories to be without limit of any kind towards his people. He loves us much better than we love our children, for we often love them so badly that we bring them up to evil, and we tolerate them in sin. He loves us better tfian we love ourselves, for self-love it is that ruins us; but God’s love it is that saves us, and lifts us up to heaven and to perfection. There is no love that can any more be compared with God’s, than the faint gleam of a candle can be likened to the blaze of the sun at noonday. He loves his people so much that he gives them all that he hath. “Earth, with all its providential arrangements, he consecrateth to them, that all things may work together for their good. Heaven itself he gives them, and since he wills it so, they shall even sit upon the throne of Christ, to reign with him. xis for his own Son, his choicest and greatest treasure, a treasure the like of which heaven and earth could not match, God spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” The divine love has no shore. Enterprising mariner, thy thought may spread its sail and catch the favouring wind of the eternal Spirit, but if thou shalt fly on, and on, for ever and for ever, over ceaseless waves of new discovery, yet shalt thou never find a limit either to the infinite God, or to his infinite love, for the two are as one. As the Father hath loved Christ, even so hath he loved his people, and herein let them rejoice, for they rest. A love without a parallel! Blessed be God for it.

So, beloved, let us reflect too, that this love is imvarying and unsleep ing. He never loves them less, he cannot love them more. Grod loveth each one of his people as much as if there were only that one created being in all heaven or earth, and as if there were no other object for him to set his love upon. For the multiplicity of the saints doth not diminish the infinite love which each one enjoys. The Lord would not love better the one only redeemed one, if but one had been bought with blood, than he loveth each one ransomed from the fall. A greater excess of love there cannot be; God loveth his people with all his heart: diminution of love there shall not be, for he hath said that there is neither variableness nor- shadow of a turning with the Father of lights. He changeth not, therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed. Brethren, how sweet it is to think that though a mother’s love towards a child cannot, when her weariness has worn her out, keep her awake every night when the child is sick — and perhaps the little one may be in want while the mother necessarily is asleep — yet this can never happen to our God. No fatigue, no exhaustion, no faintness, can ever make a pause in the Lord’s loving oversight of the saints. Never for a single moment does he forget his church. His heart always beats high towards his chosen, and at every moment he showeth himself strong lov the defence of those that trust him. If there were a minute in which God left you, child of God, you might indeed be wretched; but since there is no such period, rejoice exceedingly in the daily presence of your heavenly Father, and endeavour to walk worthy of it. Let every day be a holy day bright with the light of this constant love. Put on your garments as though they were priestly vestments; go forth to your daily labour as to sacerdotal service; go to your house as to a temple; come

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hither to the assembly of God’s saints like a great conoTe;];ation of priests, who come together on the feasts of the Most High to offer sacrifices to their ever present God. Well may you into “whose eyes this love has gleamed, and upon whose hearts the divine warmth of this love is perpetually streaming, live after a nobler fashion than the common herd of men.

Lastly upon this matter of the love of God, we triumphantly believe that it is undying and im failing, God will never cease to love the objects of his choice. They shall grow grey with age, but not his love. They shall live on when this poor earth has melted, and the elements have dissolved, but his love shall remain with them; it shall not perish in the conflagration, nor shall the covenant of his grace be consumed. They shall live on when the universe has gone back to its original nothingness, if so the Lord ordaineth it, but in the eternities to come still shall that love of God be ever fresh and ever new. To my mind, it always seems to be the very sweetest part of the gospel, that when the love of God has once been shed abroad in a man’s soul, and he has I’eally enjoyed it, and known by the witness of the Holy Ghost that he is the object of the divine affection, there is no fear that he shall ever be driven from the divine presence, or become an outcast and an apostate; for whom Jesus loves he loveth even to the end. He keepeth the feet of his saints; none of those that trust in him shall be desolate. He gives unto his sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. Because I live ye shall live also,” saith he. Oh, precious truth, the very marrow and fatness of the word of God! May you have the grace to feel it, as well as believe it, to rejoice in it as well as understand it, and so may the love of God be shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost which he hath given unto you.

II. The love of God is shed abroad.

Shall we try to illustrate these words by common things? Here is an alabaster box of very precious ointment, it holds within the costly frankincense of the love of God: but we know nothing of it, it is closed up, a mystery, a secret. The Holy Spirit opens the box, and now the fragrance fills the chamber wherein the ten thousand times ten thousand of the elect are sitting, for now the love is shed abroad; every spiritual taste perceives it, heaven and earth are perfumed with it. Frequently at the great Roman games the emperors, in order to gratify the citizens of Rome, would cause sweet perfumes to be rained down upon them through the awning which covered the amphitheatre. Behold the vases, the huge vessels of perfume! yes, but there is nought here to delight you so long as the jars are sealed; but let the vases be opened, and the vessels be poured out, and let the drops of perfumed rain begin to descend, and every one is refreshed and gratified thereby. Such is the love of God. There is a richness and a fulness in it, but it is not perceived till the Spirit of God pours it out like a rain of fragrance over the heads and hearts of all the living children of God. See, then, the need of having the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost!

Observe that no one can shed abroad the love of God in the heart but the Holy Ghost. It is he that first puts it there. Men live in neglect of this love till he first impresses them with a sense of the value of it; and they continue to seek after it in vain till he opens the door and introduces them into the secret chamber of its mystery. It is the Holy Ghost who educates us in the art of divine love. Not a letter can we read in God’s love-book till we are taught of the Holy Ghost. He is the great Master of the house, the great Steward bringing forth the precious things of God to our souls. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost, much less can a man be assured that he is the object of eternal love but by a revelation made to him by the Holy Spirit who makes this delightful truth clear to his mind.

Do you enquire in what way is the love of God shed abroad? I reply, that to the best of my knowledge and experience, the gracious operation is somewhat upon this wise. The Holy Spirit enables the man to be assured that he is an object of the divine love in the first place. The man comes to the cross as a guilty sinner, looks up to the five wounds, those dear founts of pardoning grace, trusts himself in the living Saviour’s hands, and then he cries, ‘’I am saved, for I have God’s promise to that effect. Now, since I am saved, I must have been the object of the Lord’s love; there must have been a marvellous love which gave that blessed Son of God to bleed for me.” The man does not doubt it, he is assured of it in his own spirit, and then the Spirit of God, whose operations are far beyond all our knowledge, confirms the testimony of his conscience. We need not attempt to comprehend the working of the Holy Spirit, for as we know not even how the wind bloweth, much less shall we know how the Comforter works; but this we know, that he adds a confirmatory testimony to the witness of our own hearts, he be^eth witness with our spirits that we are born of God, and so we become infallibly and beyond all possibility of mistake assured that the love of God is ours, and that we have a part and an interest in it.

Then, the next thing the Spirt of God doth, is to make the man clearly understand what kind of love this is which God giveth to him. He leads him not all at once, perhaps, but by degrees, into all truth. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to the believer’s heart, till the believer understands that this love of God to him is such a love as I have been describing just now. He clearly perceives Jehovah’s love in its length, and breadth, and height, and wonders at it for all the marvels which it has wrought. This admirable enlightenment is no small part of the shedding abroad of the love of God. A man must know before he can enjoy, and in proportion as the eyes f his understanding are opened will he be able to enter into the delightful experience of the secret love of Jesus.

But then comes the point — the essence of the matter — the Holy ipirit enables the soul to meditate upon this love, casts out the cares of the world, lifts it up above doubts and fears, and temptations, makes a blessed quiet, a divine Sabbath within the heart, and then the man, while he meditates, finds a fire begins to burn within his gcul. Meditating yet more, he is as it were carried off his feet, lifted up from the things of earth. Meditating still, and considering, and weighing, he comes to be in an amazement, he marvels, he is astonished, and then he is filled with strong emotion. He is devoutly grateful.

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Blessed be the Lord,” saith he, ‘’who hath remembered my low estate, and hath loved one so unworthy.” He breaks out into a soiiolike that of the Virgin, ‘’ My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” Then while gratitude is still within his soul, a divine resignation to all the Master’s will keeps rule within him. Jehovah loves me, then what matters though every bone should ache, and the heart should throb, and the head be heavy? What matters though the cottage wall be bare, and the table be but scantily furnished? my Father, do thou as thou wilt. Then follows a rapturous leaping over this devout calm, a joy unutterable, next akin to heaven fills the heart; and this joy sometimes takes the character of ecstasy, until whether the man is in the body or out of the body, he cannot tell, God knoweth. Then if he be alone perhaps time flies*^ and he seems to anticipate eternity, forgetting the lapse of hours; and if he be in company with others, his lips teach many, his words are better than pearls, and his sentences than strings of coral. The Master’s love makes him to wear a brightness about his countenance and a transfiguration glory about his character which others who have tasted of the like understand, but which to the worldling seemeth to be the effect of madness or of drunkenness with new wine, like that of the famous Pentecostal morning. Yes, brethren and sisters, if you know what it is to have the love of God shed abroad in your “hearts by the Holy Ghost, you will perhaps wonder that I cannot paint it better, but I would like any of you to try. You shall find it far easier to enjoy it than to depict it, for this seemeth to me to be one of those things in its heights and depths which it were almost unlawful for a man to utter. This master-thought of Jehovah’s4ove to us, beareth us as on eagles’ wings, takes us up beyond the smoke and din and dust of this poor world, sets us in the heavenly places at the right hand of Christ, enthrones us, puts a crown upon our head, ennobles us, wraps us about with the white linen that we are to wear for ever; makes us, while yet we are poor, to be as angels in the midst of the sons of men. The Lord give us this soul-elevating influence more and, more. May this transcendent experience be our constant and daily enjoyment, so shall we be ripening for heaven, and it will not be long before the gates of pearl shall open to admit us into the presence of God, for which this experience is a most fitting preparation.

III. Lastly, this inexpressible sweetness of which we have spoken becomes the confirmation of our hope.

Hope rests itself mainly upon that which is not seen; it builds itself upon the promise of God, whom eye hath not beheld. Still it is exceedingly sweet to us while we are in this body, if we receive some evidence and token of divine love which we can positively enjoy even now. You recollect Master Bunyan in the Pilgrim, how he writes the dialogue which took place when the Pilgrim was met by Atheist. Atheist snaps his fingers, and he cries, with jeer and laugh, Ye fools, ye are seeking for a New J erusalem; there is no such place. I have been seeking this city these twenty years, but find no more of it than I did the day I first set out. I tell you there is no such thing as a world beyond the stream, there are no harps of gold, no brightness — you are deceived men.” /’But,” said Hopeful, how say you so, did we not see the gate of the city from the Delectable Mountains V* He might have added, “I do remember when I stood with the shepherds on the top of Mount Clear that I saw the city, I looked through the telescope, and I saw it, and therefore I am not deceived, but I follow after that which mine eyes have gazed upon.” See you then how the present enjoyments of divine love in the soul become to us arguments for the reality of the things which we are hoping for, and our hope is not ashamed, because God gives to us, even here, such emotions of spiritual delight, that we anticipate the raptures of the hereafter, and - confidently press forward to reach the promised rest. Why, blessed be God, there are some of us who do not want Butler’s Analogy, or Pale/s evidences, to back our faith; we have our own analogy and our ovm evidences within our own souls, vsritten by the Holy Spirit on the day when we tasted that the Lord is gracious. No Jesus Ohrist! with whom then have we spoken all these years, and upon whose bosom have we leaned? No Holy Spirit! what mysterious agency then is that which strings the chords of our soul, and fetches superhuman music from them, causing us to delight in sublime and celestial themes to which once we were strangers? What is that power which casts us down to the earth in solemn awe ot the Great Invisible, and then again bears us out of ourselves up to the seventh heaven? No Father God! Tell not his children so barefaced a lie! It was not long ago, I am informed, that a certain infidel lecturer gave an opportunity to persons to reply to him after the lecture, and he was of course expecting that some young men would rise to bring the general arguments for Christianity which he was quite prepared to overturn and laugh at. But an old lady, carrying a basket, and wearing an ancient bonnet, and altogether dressed in the antique fashion, which marked both her age and her poverty, came on the platform. Putting down her basket and umbrella, she began, and said, “I paid threepence to hear of something better than Jesus Christ, and I have not heard it. Now let me tell you what religion has done for me, and then tell me something better, or else you you’ve cheated me out of the threepence which I paid to come in. Now,” she said,” I’ve been a widow forty years, and I had ten children, and I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ in the depth of poverty, and he appeared for me and comforted me, and helped me to bring up my children so that they have grown up and turned out respectable. I was often very sore pressed, but my prayers were heard by my Father in heaven, and I was always delivered. Now you are going to tell me something better than that; better for a poor woman like me! I have been to the Lord sometimes when I’ve been very low indeed, and there’s been scarcely anything for us to eat, and I’ve always found his providence has been good and kind to me. And when I lay very sick, I thought I was dying, and my

heart was ready to break at leaving my poor fatherless little ones, and there was nothing kept me up but the thought of Jesus and his faithful love to my poor soul, and you tell me it was all a mistake. Now, tell me something better, or else why do you cheat us of these threepences? Tell us something better.” Well, poor soul, the lecturer was a good hand at an argument, Imt such a mode of controversy was novel, and not readily met, and therefore he gave up the contest, and merely said, really the dear old

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woman was so happy in her deception, he should not like to undeceive her. ^’ No,” she said, that won’t do. Facts are facts. Jesus Christ has been all this to me, and I could not sit down in the hall and hear you talk against him without coming and saying this, and asking you whether you could tell me something better than what he has done for me. I’ve tried and proved him, and that’s more than you have.” Ah! it is that; it is the testing and proving of God; it is the getting the love really shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost which affords us an argument which cannot be answered. Experience is the iron file against which the viper breaks his teeth, but cannot prevail. God gives us even here a foretaste of heaven’s supernatural enjoyment, in the forms of peace, calm, bliss, exultation, delight. This may seem fanatical talk to some, and a mere dream to others; but, sirs, we are as honest men as you are, and we as much claim to be believed when we assert that we enjoy these things as you claim our credence when you make an assertion. And if this convince you not, and you still doubt us, rest assured that it convinces us, and that shall suffice. The love of God shed abroad in the heart makes our hope, so that it is not ashamed.

See, brethren, the love of God is often shed abroad in the heart when we are very sick. When pain is most severe, joy has often been at its fullest. This love has come to paupers in the union house, and turned the workhouse into a palace. It has come to the dying in the hospitals, and made the wards to ring with heavenly music. It has come to some of us in nights of the deepest depression through which the human mind could pass, and it has lifted us right up out of the mist and the cloud, and set us in the sunlight of God. Now, these things coming at such times tend greatly to make the child of God feel that his hope is as sure in the dark as it is in the light, and that he can trust his God though all things should seem to belie the promise. These things are of such an elevated nature that they help to maintain an elevated hope. If our comforts were gross and carnal, to be received by the mouth or by the ear, of what service would they be to that high and holy hope which comes from God himself? But the enjoyments of which I have been speaking in the reception of the divine love in the heart, are so elevating that they precisely suit the character of our hope, and outhope is confirmed thereby. For, beloved, a sense of the love of God confirms everything that we hope for. For, if God loves me, then I am forgiven; if God loves me, then I am secure; if God loves me, then my circumstances are well ordered; if God loves me, then he will bear me through my trials; if God loves me, then he will keep me from the touch of sin; if God loves me, he will not suffer temptation to overcome me, but he will keep me pure and holy, and receive me to himself at the last; if God loves me, then the heaven which he has prepared for his people must be mine, and with those that have gone before, I shall see his face, I shall drink draughts of his love, and be with him for ever and ever. Like a master-key that locks up every lock in the house, so does the sense of the love of God lock up every treasure in the covenant of grace; and if we have it within us it affords us admission to every blessed thing, so that we may take at our will, and rejoice in God on account of it.

Now I have no more to say upon this point, upon which I have spoken so exceedingly feebly to my own consciousness, but I would to God that you all knew even the little that I can tell you spiritually. To hear of divine love with the ear is nothing, it is like the rattle of the dishes in the ear of a hungry man when there is nought given to him to feed on. To understand this theoretically is nothing, it is like being able to cast up thousands of pounds upon the slate, but having not a farthing in the purse. My dear hearer, what is your hope? What are you resting upon? Has your hope anything to do with the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost? Depend upon it, if your hope is founded on anything that you have done for yourself, or that any man may do for you, it will not excite in your soul a sense of the love of God. The thought of it, if it be a mere ceremonial hope, will excite no such emotions as those I have described. But if your hope be true and genuine, fixed on the Rock of Ages, built on the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, then the thought of that hope will make you love God, and a sense of God’s love to you will sway you to obedient service. Such a hope will endure the trial hour, but no other hope will.

And what will you do if your hope shall fail you? if at last you are made ashamed of your hope? 0 see then, sirs, see then the overwhelming downf^P which awaits you! The house was hastily built, it was fair and lofty, with many -coloured windows, and fine gables and rare ornaments. But the floods are out, the rain descends, the wind blows, and where is the palace now? Its foundation was on the sand, and it is gone like a dream. See the fragments of it floating down the torrent, while the owners are washed away and lost. And so shall it be with your fine hopes, 0 self-righteous or careless. 0 build on the rock, on the rock of what Christ has done: build with a humble faith, build with an earnest love: build not with wood, hay, and stubble, but build with gold, and silver, and precious stones of love, and trust, and holy fear. And when the deluge comes, you shall laugh at it and sing in the midst of storm, for God is your preserver, and under his wings shall you trust.

Ah, I would that everyone now listening to this voice could enter into so bright a hope, and enjoy such a love. And if they long to do so, behold the open door! The entrance into a good hope is by the door of divine love; and would you see divine love, there it shines in its

METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PUTjPIT.

resplendence on yonder cross where the Son of God, made flesh, gave his hands to the nails, and his feet to be fastened to the wood. There where every nerve is a road for the hot feet of pain to travel on, where his whole body is tortured with pangs unutterable, and the soul pressed as beneath the feet of Deity, in the winepress of eternal wrath, there, sinner, there is your hope. Not your tears, but Ms blood; not your sufferings, but his woes; not your penance, but his agonies; not your life nor your death, but his life and death. 0 look to him! “There’s life in a look at the crucified One.” Guilty one, depraved one, thou all but damned one, look through the mists of Satan’s temptations, and the dews of your tears, look to Jesus dying on Calvary, and thou shalt live this day. God help thee of his blessed Spirit so to look — thine shall be the salvation, and his the honour of it. Amen and Amen.

POBTION OF SCRIPTURB ReAD BEFORE SeRMON. — EomauS *.

By C. H. SRURGEON.

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