:<*:-;^^^ m»ii»M»»WW»w * ><*»n m n'i'i ■■ in im w wini iiiinrntw-^mmiirirrr- r iTrirmrnTt '.-^^KVPfPHWvr'wuTT)*^''-' n w C.H. SPURGE LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by TheWic^ow oT George. H la d^n, ^^ A^--^ name, ■with us it is Christ in the morning, when we are young and full of strength ; it is Christ at noon, when Ave are bearing the burden and heat of the day ; and it is Christ at eventide, Avhen we lean on the stafT for very age, and the shadows lengthen, and the light is dim. Yea, and it shall be Christ only when the night settles down and death-shade curtains our last bed. In all circumstances and conditions we look to Jesus only. Are we in wealth ? Christ crowns it. Are we in poverty ? Christ cheers it. Are we in honour? Christ calms us. Are we in shame? Christ consoles us. Are we in health? He sanctifies it. Are we in sickness? He relieves it. As he is at all times the same in himself so he is the same to us. To the same Christ we must come and ding under every new circumstance. Our heart must abide faithful to her one only Lord and lovingly sing,— "I'll turn to lliec iu days of liglit As well as nights of care. Thou brightest amid all that's bright, Thon fiiirest of the fair !" We have not to seek a iresh physician, to find a new friend, or to dis- cover a novel hope, but we are to look for everything to Jesus Christ, " the ^ same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." "Ye are complete in him." Stand to this, my brethren. Never think that you need aught beyond the provision which is stored up in him, for sanctification, for satisfac- tion, or for safety. Cast not your eyes around you to find a supplement to the Lord Jcsns, or you will deceive yourselves and dishonour him. It is not with our Lord as it was with Moses. , Moses led the people through the wilderness, but he could not bringHiem into the i^romised land : that ■was reserved for Joshua. Brother, the Lord Jesus has led you so far through the wilderness, and he wiS lead you over the Jordan, and secure your heritage to you, and see you safely landed in it : look not, therefore, for any other leader or lawgiver. It is not with Christ as it was with \y/ David : David collected the materials for the temple, but though he could gather together vast stores of great value, he could not build them up, for the Lord said that this honour should be reserved for his son that should be after him ; and therefore the construction of the temple was left for Solomon. But our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be his name, has not only gathered together his people and the precious treasures with which he is to build a living temple unto God ; but he will also build it stone upon stone, and bring foi-th the top stone with shouting. He shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory. Christ in the Christian's alphabet is A, B, C right down to Z, and all the words of the pure language of Canaan are only compounds of himself. Has he not said it, " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end"? Our text speaks about coming to him, and I shall endeavour to expound ^ it to you thus. This is a fall picture of Christian life. I consider it to be a complete picture of a saint drawn with one stroke. It is not easy to make a portrait with one line, yet I remember seeing a somewhat famous portrait of our Lord in which the artist never lifted his pencil from the paper from beginning to end, but drew the whole of it Avith one continuous series of circles. So here I may say the Avhole Christian life UOMUTGI — ALWAYS COMING. 39 is clra^vIl in one line — coming unto Christ. " To wliom coming." When we have spoken upon that, J. shall answer two questions ; the one — lohal is the best ivay of coming to him at first? the other — ivhat is the best way of coming to him afterwards ? ]\Iay the Holy Spirit bless the whole discourse to our souls. I. First, then, here is a complete description of the Chris- tian LIFE. It is a continuous " coming" to~Jesus. If you have your Bibles open at the text I want you to notice that the expression occurs in connection with two iigures. There is one which precedes it in the second verse, namely, the figure of a little child fed upon milk. " As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby : if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming." Children come to their parents, and they frequently come rather longer than their parents like ; it is the general habit of children to come to their parents for what they need. They begin with coming to the mothers when they are new-bom babes. Look at the httle child ; it cannot provide for itself. If it were left to shift for itself it must die ; but having tasted the unadulterated milk, it tliksts for more of it. AVhen the time comes round for it to be fed, and it comes very often, it gives unmistakeable signs even before it can speak that it wants its ibod ; it knows where to come, and it will not rest till it reaches its place and nestles do^vn. As the child grows up it knows the breakfast? hour, and the dinner hour, and knows where to come for the grateful meal and the hearty welcome. You do not want in most of your houses, I suspect, to ring a bell to call your children together to the family table : they all carry little interior bells which let them know pretty accu- rately when meal-times will be, and they come freely, without per- suading or forcing. Some of them are now getting to be fifteen) or sixteen years of age, and they keep on coming still. They coa«( to your table just as they used to come. When first you hajJ'^'io lift them into their little chairs then they were coming ; and/now they take their big chairs as if they quite belonged to theift'; but they still keep on coming. Yes, and they come to you not only for bread and for meat, but they come for a gi-eat many thiiige, besides. In fact, the older they grow, the more they come for. TJiey used to come for little shoes and little garments, and now they feed them cut of a larger size, and of more expensive material, and they come accordingly. Though they cost you more they come with greater freedom, for habit has made them very bold in their comina.; They do not require any entreaty or encouragement i% come for jivnat they want : they look for many things as a matter of ^urss, andK^br the rest they come with all the readiness imaginable. iPeriiaps j6fiey let you know their desires a little sooner than you Avantij>h0nr-fo do, and when you think that they might manage a little longcj^^ith what they have, they press their claims with earnestness, and vote them urgent. They very soon find out their requirements, you never have to call them together and say, " Now girls, I want you earnestly to consider whether you do not want more dresses. Now boys, I want you to lay it to heart whether you do not require new clothes." Oh, nothing of the sort. Your children do not need to be called in such a way ; they come without calling. They are always coming for something, as you very well know. Sometimes they 4:0 METROPOLITAIJ TABERNACLE rULl'IT. constrain you to put your hands into your pockets so frequently and for such a variety of expenses that you wonder how long the purse will hold out, and when your resources will be exhausted. Of one thing you feel quite sure that it will be easier to drain your purse than to' stop your children from coming for one thing or another. They come to you now for a great many things they did not come lor at first. It seems that there is no end to the things they come for, and I believe there is no end at all. Some of them, I 'know, continue to come after they have got beyond their boyish years. Though you have a notion, I suppose, that they might sliift for themselves, they are still coming for sovereigns where shillings used to suffice. When you could put them to bed at night with the reflection that you had foimd them in food and raiment, and house and home, you knew your expenses ; but now the big fellows come to you with such heavy demands that you can hardly see the end of it. So it is ; they are always coming. Now, in all this long talk I have been showing you how°to imderstand the figm-e of coming to Christ. Just what your chilcben began to do from the first moment you fixed your eyes on them, and what they have continued to do ever since, that is just what you are to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to be always coming to him — coming to him for spiritual food, coming to him for spiritual garments, coming to him for washing, guiding, help, and health : coming in fact for everything. You will be wise if, the older you gi-ow, the more you come, and he will be all the better pleased with you. If you find out other wants and make clearer discoveries of your needs, come for more than you used to come for, and prove thereby that you bettor understand and appreciate what manner of love it is— that ye should be called the sons ^ of God. " He th.at spared not his own Son, buc delivered him up for ^ us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?" Has ^ he not said to you, " Open your mouth wide and I will fill it " ? It is rather strange that you never have to tell your chikben to do that. They do it without any telhng ; but you have been told to do it, and yet you do y not do it._ He complains, " thou hast not called upon me, Jacob." The infinite hberality of your heavenly Father has m-ged you to make great requests of him, and yet you have stuttered and stammered and ^ been afraid to ask, until he now tells you that " you have not because you ask not." Beloved, let us learn from our chikfren, and let it be the habit of our lives to be incessantly coming to the heavenly Father — coming oftener, coming for moi'e reasons, coming for larger blessings, coming with greater expectations, coming in one life-long perpetual cjming, and all because he bids us come. ^ If you will look again at your Bibles, you will get a second illustration from the fourth verse, " To whom coming as iinto a living stono, dis- allowed indeed of men, but chosen of Cod, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to oiler up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Here we have the figure of a building. A building comprises first a foundation, and then the stones which are brought to the foundation and arc built upon it. This fiurnishcs a very beautiful picture of Christian life. 1 have read that there has been discovered beneath Jerusalem an immense cavern or quarry near the Damascus gate. TraA'cllers who have been into this COMING — ALWAYS COMlNa. 41 quaiTy say that there are niches in the live rock out of which the magni- ficent stones were cut with which Solomon's temple was built. The tem- ple is up there on the top of the rock, and then far do^vn in the quaiTy you can distinctly discover where the huge stones used to be. Now there was a process of coming by which each stone came to the foun- dation. Some stones that were expected to form part of the building never reached it : there is one huge stone of that sort in the Bezetha cavern now. It is still there, for this reason — that, though it is squared ^ and chiselled on the ft-ont and two sides, and also on the top and the bottom, yet it has never been cut away at the back, and so it cleaves to the rock of which it is naturally a part, and remains in its original darkness. Now, the passage that I would like you to think of is that in the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah — " Look unto the rock whence ye are i/ hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." There are many here present who have been cut off from the rock, and lifted up out of the horrible pit ; since which early operation of divine grace they have been coming and coming till they have reached the foundation, and are built up as lively stones in the temple which is estabhshed upon Christ. But there are others of you who need further excavating. God has begun his work upon you, he has used sharp tools, and begun to separate you from the world : it has taken a long time to get you cut away from the rock, even in part. You used to be altogether sinful and earth-bound, and you lived in worldliness, just as the stone formed a part of the rock ; God has been using his great chisel upon you, and cut you away, and separated you to a great extent from yom* fellow men ; but still at the back, in secret, your heart cleaves to sin. You have not given up the darling lust of your heart and therefore you are not quanied yet, and you cannot come to Christ, for that is impossible till you are separated from the rock of which you naturally form a part. Oh, how I wish that almighty grace would take the saw of the word to-night, and make clear cuts right across your stony heart until you are sawn right adrift from the hard rock of sin, that you may afterwards be made to come to Christ to be built upon him as your foundation. That is how the work of grace begins, — by cutting loose the soul from the evil world of which it has been a component part. This is part of the process by wliich the hving stones are brought to rest on the foundation, for it is clear that they cannot come to the foundation till first they are removed from their native bed in the pit of sin. Oh, may God's gi'ace continue to take out many of this congregation like stones divided from the quarry, that so by grace they may come to Jesus. AVell, after they had cut out those stones in the quarry, which, with a little imagination, you can see lying there, detached and distinct, the next operation was to pull them up to the top of Mount Zion. It was a long drag up to the summit of the hill. How ^;lomQn managed to remove such enormous masses we do not know. If~Eehad no machinery or motive force that could supersede manual labour, and the force on which he rehed was in the sinews of men, the matter is all the more wonderful. They must have pulled away perhaps many thousands of them at one single stone, hauhng it out of the pit, dragging it up the zigzag roads till at last the gigantic mass reached its place. Now, there IS » lifting, a drawing of the soiil to Christ ^fter this fashipn, and I se^ ii METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. among you some who have recently been drawn. You have not been dragged by men. All the men in the world could not draw a sinner to Christ. No machinery is known or will ever be invented that can ever draw a proud, stubborn will to Christ. We may tug and pull till wo break the ropes, but we shall never make a soul stir one inch Christ- ward. But there is another poAver which can accomplish the work impos- / sible to us. " I, if I be lifted up," says Christ, " will draw all men unto '' ine." He has such attractive power that he draws the stones out of the quarry of nature, right up to the foundation Avhich his fi'ee grace has laid in Zion, and they are built upon him. This is the second part of the work of grace in the soul ; first it separates us from the rock, and then it draws us up to the foundation, and in both it is working out our coming to Christ. Well, we have watched the stone as it has been carried up. What is the next process ? Why, the next work is to let it down, so that it lies in due order upon the foundation. The foundation of the temple very likely was far below the adjacent soil ; and so this mass of stone had to be let down to the foundation steadily and wisely that it might rest in its proper bed. What a task it is sometimes — to let a huge stone down upon the foundation, and to get it to lie square and true, so that every bit of it is in proper position with the rest of the structure. Picture the process to your mind's eye. We have got the stone upon the base, but half of it projects beyond the foundation, and so far it has nothing to lean upon. That will never do. It must be moved till it lies plumb with the foundation, exactly square with the other stones, and till every portion of it rests firmly on its proper bed. Oh, dear hearts, this is one work which the grace of God has to do with you — to bring you to lie upon Christ, to recline upon Christ, and that wholly, rightly, and squarely. It takes a long time to bring some sinners to this ; they want to 1)0 propped up with a little bit of self-righteousness, they cannot be induced to lie right square upon Christ ; they want to tilt a little, have a little shoring up with their own doings, and a little dependence on themselves : but this will never do. "To whom coming," says the text, " coming as to a living stone." Oh, that almighty grace would constrain you all to be coming till you lie flat and square on Christ, till you have Christ at one corner, and Christ at the other corner, and Christ at all the four corners whereon your soul lies ; till you are resting on the Lord Jesus Christ at all times, in all respects, under all / circumstances, for everything. Other foundation can no man lay ; be / ye sure that ye rest wholly upon it. " Bless the Lord," says one, " I know I have come as far as that. Can I get any farther ?" AVell, look brother, as long as ever that huge stone lies on the Ibundation it is always coming to tiie foundation. Its own weight is always pressing it down upon the foundation, and the heavier it is the more closely and compactly it lies. I do feel myself, now, to be more close to Christ than ever I was. My weight of sin helps to press me down on him. Mj weight of trouble, my weight of care, my weight of anxiety about the souls of my hearers, and even my weight of ioy, all help me to i)ress more on my Lord. The way to be coming to Christ, l)rethren, as long as ever you live, is to lean more on Christ, press more heavily on Christ, and depend more upon Chi'ist than ever COMING — ALWAYS COMING. 43 yon did. In this way, you know, some stones seem, by long abiding and pressing, to cleave to one another, and unite together till they appear to be no longer distinct, but one mass. Have you not often noticed in an old Roman wall that you cannot distinguish the mortar from the stone? You cannot tell where the stones were joined; they have grown to be one piece. And blessed is that Christian who, like a living stone, has continued so to come to the foundation till Christ and he have become one, as it were : yea, one in conscious fact, so that nothing can divide them. Thus we continue stiU to come to Jesus, and draw nearer to him ; nearer and yet nearer still, built up into him, per- fectly joined in one spirit. Then, only then, shall Christian hfe be perfected. These two figures of the babe and the stone have shoxs-n you, I trust, what the text means. I have not gone far afield to find them— they lie, as you have seen, in the immediate context. " To whom coming" is an apt description of the whole of Christian life : mind that you make it the rule of yours. II. But noAv, secondly, I have to answer the question, ivhat is the lest way of coming to Christ at first '? "TTiefe are some poor hearts among you longing to be saved. " Ah,"| you say, "I hear that if I come to Christ I shall be saved; but howl can I come to him ? What do you mean by coming to Jesus?" Well, J our reply is plain and clear, — it is to trust Christ, to depend upon him,' to beheve him, to rely upon him. Then they enquire, " But how can I come to Christ ? In what way would you recommend me to come ? " The answer is, the very best way to come to Christ is to come ivith all your needs about you. If you could get rid of half your needs apart from Christ, you would not come to Jesus half so well as you can with the whole of them pressing upon you, for your need furnishes you with motives for coming, and gives you pleas to urge. Suppose a physicicin should come into a to^sn with motives of pure benevolence to exercise the healing art. What he wants is not to make money, but to bless the townsmen : he does not intend to make any charge or take any fees, but he lets it be knoAvn that he has come into the to^vn to display his skill. He has a love to his fellow men, and he wants to cure them, and therefore he gives notice that as he only wishes for opportunities of dis- playing his kindness and skill, the poorest will be welcome, and the most diseased will be best received. Now, then, who is the man that can come to the doctor's door with confidence, and give a good rat-tat-tat, and feel that he will be welcome ? Well, there is a person who has cut his finger : will the doctor rush into the surgery to attend to him ? No doubt he wiU look at the cut, but he wiU not grow very enthusiastic over it, for doctors do not get much credit out of curing cut fingers. Here is another gratis patient who has a wart on his hand. Well,_ there is nothing vciy famous about cm'ing Avarts, and the physician is by no means excited over his work. But here is a poor forlorn body who has been given up by aU the other doctors, a patient who is so bad that he lies at death's door : he has such a comphcation of diseases, that he could hardly tell what diseases he has not suffered from, but certainly his condition is terrible enough to make it appear hopeless. He seems to be a living wonder of disease. That is the man who mqj 44 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. come boldly to the physician, and expect his immediate attention, and his best consideration. Now, doctor, if you can cure this man he will be a credit to you. This man exactly answers to your advertisement. You say that you only wish for patients who will give you an opportunity of displaying your skill. Here is a fine object for your pity, he is bad at the lungs, bad at the heart, bad in the feet, bad in the eyes, bad in the ears, bad in the head, l^ad all over. If you want an opportunity of showing y' your skill, here is the man. Jesus, my Lord and ]\Iaster, is the Great Physician of souls, and he heals them on just such terms as I have men- tioned. Is there a fargone sinner here to-night ? Is there a deeply sin- sick soul anywhere within the range of my voice ? Is there man or woman who is bad altogf^ther? Come along, my friend, you are just in a right condition to come to Jesus Christ. Come just as yo2i are, that is the best style of "coming." Another illustration may be furnished by the common scriptural y figure of a feast A king determines to act with generosity ; and, to show how liberal his disposition is, he desires to make a banquet for those who need it most. He says, " If I make a great feast to my lords and dukes, they will think little of my hospitality, for they fare sumptuously every day; therefore I will seek out guests who will be more likely to be grateful. Where shall I find guests who will most enjoy my dainties, men who will eat with the greatest gusto, and drink with the greatest delight?" Having considered the matter, he cries to his heralds, " Go ye into the highAvays and hedges and compel them to come in." From among the tramps by the roadside the heralds soon gather starving wretches who exactly meet the king's wishes. Here is a poor man who has had nothing to eat for the last forty-eight hours. Look at his eager delight at the sight of the food ! If you want some- body to eat largely and joyfully, is not he the man ? See how he takes it in I It is wonderful how the provisions disappear before him ! Here again is a poor woman who has been picked up by the wayside, foint for want of bread. She has scarcely any life in her, but see how she begins to open her eyes at the first morsel that is placed before her, and what delight there is in her every expression as she finds herself placed at a table so richly loaded. Yes, the poorer, the more hungry, the more destitute the guests, the more honour is accorded to the king who feeds such mendicants, and receives such vagrants to his table. Hear how they shout the king's praises when they are filled with his meat ! They will never have done thanking him. Now, if I address a soul to-night that is very needy, very faint, very desponding, you are a fit guest for my Master, because you have such a fine appetite for his generous repast of love. The greatness of your need is your fitness for coming to Christ, and if you want to know how to come, come just as you are. Tarry not to improve yourself one single atom ; come as you are, with all your sin and filthiness and need about you, for that is the best way to come. If you want to know how to come aright the first time, I should answer, come to find ever;/ 1 king you want in Christ. Do not come with a load of your own wealth. Remember wduit Pharaoh said to Joseph ; " Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours." Do not bring your old rubbish Avith you. "I thought I was to l)ring repentance." Do not attempt to do so, but look to Jc^us fov it. Jesua / COMING — ALWAYS COMING. 45 Cbrisfc is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins. Come and receive a heart of flesh, for you cannot make one for yourself. " Oh, but I thought I was to bring faith." Faith also is the gift of Christ. It cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ; draw near then to that word to find ftiith. Come for everything. " Oh, but I want to feel." And then, I suppose, after you have found a nice lot of feehngs you will come to Christ, and say, " Lord, thou art now able to save me, for my feehngs are right." What self-conceit! Come to Christ for feelings ; come to Christ for everything. " What," saith one, " can you mean it, that I, an unfeeling, im- penitent wretch, am bidden to come at once and believe in Jesus Christ for everlasting life ?" I mean just that. I do not mean to send you round to that shop for repentance, and to the other shop for feeling, and to a third store for a tender heart, and then direct you to call on Christ at last for a few odds and ends. No, no, but come to Christ for everything. " Come, ye need}', come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify ; True belief and ti'ue repentance, Every grace that brings you nigh, Without money Come to Jesus Christ and buy." —) I beard of a shop some time ago in a country town where they sold everything, and the man said that he did not believe that there was any- thing a human being wanted but what he could rig him out from top to toe. Well, I do not know whether that promise would have been carried u out to the letter if it had been tried, but I know it is so with Jesus Christ ; he can supply you with all you need, for " Christ is all." There is not a need your soul can possibly have but the Lord Jesus Christ can supply it, and the very best way to come is to come to him for everything. The best way to come to Christ is to come meaning to get evergthing, and to obtain all the plenitude of grace, which he has laid up in store, and promised freely to give. Some poor souls who come to Jesus Christ seem as if they wanted a little rehef from fear, a hope that they may just get saved, and a fair chance of going to heaven when they die. Pray do not come in that way, my dear friend. Come intending to obtain the fulness of love, the uttermost of grace. Some time ago, when there was a dinner given to poor people, they were told to come and they should have all they could eat. Do you know what they did, some ofl them ? There was not to be any dinner till six o'clock. Well, that they might have a noble appetite, they did not eat any breakfast- — not they. They meant to get all they could now they had an opportunity, ■ and so they came as hungry as possible. Many years ago, I am told, it used to be the custom of the lord of the manor, in certain villages, on Christmas-day to give the poor people a basin of food, and the rule was that whatever basin was brought his lordship always filled it. It was perfectly marvellous how the basins grew, till at last, when some of the women came with their basins the lord of the manor looked at the huge bowls and wondered how they could dare to bring such capacious vessels. But if he was a man of a generous heart, all he would say to his steward would be, " These people beheve in my generosity. Go and fill their j 46 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. bowls. Fill, and fill on till you have filled them all. As long as t]ic> bring their bowls none shall say that I denied them," And now, when you go to Christ, take a capacious vessel of large prayer and great er- pectation. Enlarge your desire, and make up your mind to this — " * am not going in to be a miserable Christian, with barely enough grace to keep me from open profanity, to whitewash me Avith a respectable profession, and ensure me against the peril of everlasting perdition : I mean to take a higher aim, and to seek a better portion. Fain would I vie with saints and angels and be the most happy, the most useful, the most joyous, the most holy believer that ever lived, if God will help me so to be." I wish we had some of the old ]\Iethodist fire back amongst us again. Some of those dear old people, if they did not know much, used to enjoy much, and when they went to hear a sermon they listened with a zest, for they received the word of God as a fresh inspiration ; it was a lively oracle to them. The gospel as it was preached to them awoke an echo in their hearts, they were all alive to its good cheer, and they shouted, " Amen, hallelujah, bless the Lord," as they heard it, for it Avent home to their souls. Now a days we are very proper and decorous in our behaviom* all of us, and we are not a little critical in our taste. As we pick up a crumb of the gospel we like to know whether it is the real aerated bread baked in a tin, or whether it is the common household bread of the shops. The preacher is a " little odd," and he does not cut the bread exactly into dice pieces, and so we do not like the manner of service, for we are rather fastidious, and Ave air our own conceits by fault-finding. Because the Lord's servant does not very daintily bring us our portion on a silver sah-er, and hold it out to us, Ave curl our hp and say, " No, thank you." Oh, may God dcliAcr us from the fiishionable stifihess and artificial nonsense. May he revive in us the reality both of nature and grace, so that Ave may come to his table of love Avith a good appetite. Modern Christians remind me of our Ijoyish days, Avhen aa'c Avent to bathe in the sea, and used to dip our toes in the waves, instead of taking a plunge head first. I am sure that to plunge right in is the best way Avith religion. ThroAV your whole soul into it, and alloAv the glorious waves of CA'crlasting love to go right over your head, and then dive and SAvim in that sea which is bottomless, and rejoice in the Lord with all your heart. But this mere dabbfing about Avith goody-goody goodliness, instead of the grand old godliness, makes professors all of a shiver, and they stand in doubt, as though they hardly liked it, and Avould rather get back to the Avorld and put on their old clothes again, only they are half afraid to do so. Oh, may the Lord giAe us to come Avith all our needs to him — to come to him ibr everything, and to come determined to have everything that is to be had, and to go in for it thoroughly by God's grace. That is the way to come to Christ. IIL There remains one other question — avhat is the best way TO COME AFTERAVARDS ? The auswcr is, — Come just as you used to come. Brethren and sisters, the text does not say that you /lave come to Christ, though thai is true, but that you ai-e coming ; and you arc to be always coming. The Avay to continue coming Ib to come just in the same way as you came at first. I have many things to say about this, but my time has gone, and therefore I will not enlarge, but I will only put them thus in lirief I am persuaded that the only happy, the only safe Avay for COMING — ALWAYS COMlNQ. 47 a Christian to live is to live in daily dependence upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, just as he did Avhen he was a babe in grace and a stone newly drawn from the quarry of nature. I know what it is to build up a nice structure of my own experience on the foundation of Christ, and to climb upon it, instead of standing on the foundation. If you were ever on the top of Snowdon, or some other high mountain, you will have noticed that to make the standing a little higher they put up some wooden scaffold or other, some ten or twelve feet of platform, to increase the elevation, and then everybody wants to get up on that plat- y form. "Well, now, I have built my little platform on Christ. My own experience has made a very handsome erection, I can tell you. I have felt, " Well, I know this and that and the other by experience," and I have been quite exalted. Sometimes, too, I have built a platform of good works — " I have done something for Christ after all." Ths proud flesh says, " Oh yes, you really have performed something you might talk about if you liked." Self-confidence has piled my platform up and it has been a very respectable looking concern, and I have asked a few friends up. But, do you know what has occun'ed ? Why, I have felt my platform shake. It began to tremble. Stress of weather had rotted the beams, and the supports have begun to give way, and I have seen all my building tumble down, and I have gone down with it ; and as I have gone down with it I have thought, " It is all over with me now. I am going crash down, I do not know how far, but perhaps I shaU fiill to the bottom of the mountain" Instead of that I alighted on the top of the mountain. I did not fall very far, but came right down where it had been most sensible of me if I had always kept, namely, on terra firma, down on the solid earth. I have noticed that a great many of my brethren have been lately building some very pretty little wooden structures on the top of Jesus Christ. I think they call them " the higher life," if I rightly recollect the name. I do not know of any life that is higher than that of simple faith in Jesus Christ. As far as I am concerned, the highest life for me out of heaven is the life of a poor publican saying, " God be merciful to me a sinner." ]\Iy very good friends are not content with this position, though he who keeps it goes to his house justified more than boasters. Some friends built very high a little while ago, I thought they would soon reach the moon, but certain of them went down in a very ugly way, I have heard, and I am afraid some more will go down if they do not mind what they are at. Give up building these artificial elevations : give up resting on them ; and just stand on the level of Christ's finished work, the blood of Christ for sinners shed ; the righteousness of Christ to sinners imputed. Be yours the humble plea — ,,-r .-, t r- r • ^ "1 the chiei oi sinners am, But Jesus died for me." He that is down there will never fall, and he who keeps there is really as high up as the man who thinks he is all aloft ; for all above living by faith in Christ is mere dream and moonshine. There is nothing higher, after all, than just being nobody, and Christ being everybody, and singing with poor Jack, the huckster, " I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesua Christ is my all in all." 48 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. If yon grow till you are less than nothing:, you are full grown, but few have reached that stage ; and if you grow'till Christ is everything to you, you are in yoiu- prime ; but, alas, how far short of this do most men fall ! The Lord bring you to that highest of all growths— to be daily coming to Christ ; always empty in yourself, but full in him ; always weak in yourself, but strong in him ; always nothing in self, but Christ your per- petual all in all ! The Lord keep you there, brothers and sisters, and he will have praise and glory of you, both now and for ever. Amen. Portion of Scripture read before Sermon — I Peter ii. 1 — 16. Hymns from " Our Own Hymn Book "—795, 606 ; and " Cbrifit what burdens bowed thy head " — 44 Sankey. p;^ft[0plte Sakmatk ftilpit, YOUR PERSONAL SALTATION. Deliverei/ on Lord's-Day Morning, February 22nd, 1880, ey C. H. SPURGEON. AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "Receiving the end of your faith, oven the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, -who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gespel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look into." — 1 Peter i. 9 — 12. " Let thy mercies come also unto me, Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy ■word." — Psalm cxix, il. There two texts will be to me as a bow and a sword : the first for shooting the arrows of truth, and the second for close quarters in dealing with individual consciences. You will see the reason for the pair of texts as we proceed. May the Holy Spirit make use of both according to his own mind . Last Sabbath-day I discoursed upon the God of salvation : this morn- ing our principal object is to speak of that salvation itself. I then tried to show that God is always the same, and that the God of the Old Testa- ment, unto whom belongeth the issues from death, is the God of our salvation still. My first text runs upon the same line, for it teaches us that the prophets of old, who spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit, testified concerning the same salvation which has been reported to us by the apostles as actually accomplished. There has been no new salvation,- there has been a change in the messengers, but they have all spoken ol one thing ; and, though their tidings have been more clearly understood in these latter days, the substance of the good news is still the same. The Old Testament and the New are one, inspired by the same Spirit, and filled with the same subject, namely, the one promised JMessiah. The prophets foretold what the apostles reported. The seers looked forward, and the evangelists look backward : their eyes meet at one place ; they Bee eye to eye, and both behold the cross. I shall aim this morning at commending the salvation of God to *.hose of you who possess it, that you may be the more grateful for your ^0. 1,52 i. 122 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. choice inheritance ; and still more shall I labour to commend it to those who possess it not, that having some idea of the greatness of its value they may be stirred up to seek it for themselves. Ah, my unsaved hearers, how great is your loss in missing the salvation of God ! " How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation ? " that you might be rescued from such fully ! Perhaps God the Holy Spirit will show you the preciousness of this salvation, and then you will no longer neglect, despise, or refuse it, but will offer the prayer which I have selected as a sort of second text, and entreat the Lord to let his mercies come to you, even his salvation. The prayer may be helpful in enabling you to take with you words and turn unto the Lord. God grant it may be so ! First, I shall in much simplicity, with a vehement desire for the immediate conviction and salvation of my hearers, try to commend the SALVATION OF GoD by Opening up what Peter has said in the verses before us. Let me urge you to give earnest heed to the salvation of God, because it is a salvation of grace. The tenth verse says, " Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you" Salvation is altogether of grace, grace which comes from God in his mercy to man in his helplessness. The gospel does not come to you asking something of you, but its hands are laden with gifts more precious than gold, which it freely bestows upon guilty men. It comes to us, not as a reward for the obedient and deserving, but as a merciful boon for the disobedient and undeserving. It treats with us, not upon the ground of justice, but upon terms of pure mercy. It asks no price and exacts no purchase ; it comes as a benefactor, not as a judge. In the gospel God giveth liberally and upbraideth not. We are accustomed not only to say " grace," but " free grace." It has been remarked that this is a tautology. So it is, but it is a blessed one, for it makes the meaning doubly clear and leaves no room for mistake. Since it is evidently objectionable to those who dislike the doctrine intended, it is manifestly forcible, and therefore w^e will keep to it. We feel no compunction in ringing such a silver bell twice over — grace, free grace. Lest any should inuigiue that grace can be otherwise than free, we shall continue to say, not only grace, but free grace, so long as Ave preach. You are lust, my dear hearer, and God proposes your salvation, but not on any ground of your deserving to be saved, else would the proposal most assuredly fall to the ground in the case of many of you : I might have said in the cases of us all, though some of you think not so. The Lord proposes to save you because you are miserable and he is merciful; because you are necessitous and he is bountiful. AVhy, methinks every man who hears this good news should open both his ears, and lean furward, that he may not lose a word. Yes, and he should open his heart, too ; for salvation by grace is most suitable to all men, and they need it greatly. Only give intima- tion that goods are to be had gratis, and your shop will be besieged with customers. Those who want us to notice their wares are often crafty enough to put at the head of their advertisement what is nut true, ''To be given away " : but salvation's grand advertisement is true ; salvation is everything for nothing : pardon free, Cluist free, lieaven free. " Come. buy ^ine and milk without money and without price." Our good YOUR TEESONAL SALVATION. 123 Physician has none bnfc gratis patients. Since the boons which the God of all grace grants to sinful men are beyond all price, he does not barter and chaffer with them, but makes his blessings free as air. I am sure that if you feel yourselves to be guilty, the very idea of being saved by grace will have a charm for you. To a thirsty man the sound of a rippling stream is music, and to a convinced conscience free pardon is as rivers of water in the wilderness. Oh, that all the world would listen when we have such a message to tell. Again, your closest attention may well be asked to the salvation of God when you are told in the text that it is hy faith. " Eeceiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." Salvation is not obtained by penances, painful and humiliating: nor by despondency and despair ; nor by any effort, mental or spiritual, involving a purchase by labour and pain ; but entirely and alone by faith, or trust, in the Lord Jesus. Do you ask — is it so, that salvation is by believing, simply believing ? Such is the statement of the word of God. We proclaim it upon the warrant of infallible Scripture. " All that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." " He that believeth in him is not condemned." " He that believeth on him hath everlasting life." These are a mere handful of proof texts gleaned from wide fields of the like kind. " Eepent ye and believe the gospel," is our one plain and simple message. We cry again and again, " Believe in the Lord J esus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." *' Believe only," and "Jesus only," are our two watchwords. Now, it is singularly foolish that men should cavil at this which ought to please them. The very simplicity of faith they cavil at. What, shall it be so, that the gospel shall be regarded as too easy a thing ? Will men quarrel with mercy for being too generous' to them ? If there be a condition, is it wisdom on our part to contend with God because that condition seems to be too slight ? What would you have for a condition ? Would you have it proclaimed that men must be saved by works ? Which among you would then be saved ? Your works are imperfect and full of evil. The law cannot justify you, it condemns you. As long as you are under the law hath not the Holy Spirit declared that you are under the curse ? Ought ye not, ye sons ot men, to bless God that salvation is of faith that it might be by grace, and that it might be possible to you, and sure to all the seed ? The sinner cannot keep the law of God ; he has already broken it most terribly, and he is himself enfeebled and depraved by the fall. Adam did not stand when he was in his perfection ; what shall we do who are ruined by his fall, and full of evil ? By the grace of God the sinner can believe in Jesus : this is ceasing from his own power and merit, and leaving himself in his Saviour's hands. Salvation by faith thus sets an open door before those whom the law shuts out ; it ie in every way adapted to the case of the guilty and fallen, and such characters should hasten to accept salvation thus presented to them. my God, how is it that this message does not at once arouse all who hear it to an eager acceptance of thy salvation? that the Spirit of God would make these appeals powerful with you ! The gospel of salvation ought to be regarded by you, for it has mgrosHcd the thoughts of prophets. The text says, " Of which salvation 124 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PDL?rr. the prophets have enquired and searched dih'gently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." Those gi-eat men, the choice spirits of the ages which they adorned, were dehghted to preach of this salvation as a blessing to be hereafter revealed. They did not them- selves altogether understand what they were called to reveal, for the Holy Spirit often carried them beyond themselves and made them utter more than they understood. The inspiration of the Bible is verbal inspira- tion. In some cases it must have been only verbal ; in every case it must have been mainly so. The human mind is not able to under- stand and to express all the thoughts of God, they are too sublime ; and therefore God dictated to the prophets the very language which they should deliver, — language of which they themselves could not see the far- reaching meaning. They rejoiced in the testimony of the Spirit within them, but they were not free from the necessity to search, and to search diligently if they would for themselves derive benefit from the divine revelation. I know not how this is, but the fact is clearly stated in the text, and must be true. Oh, my hearers, how diligently you ought to search the Scriptures and listen to the saving word ! If men that had the Holy Ghost, and were called " seers," nevertheless searched into the meaning of the word which they themselves spoke, what ought such poor things as we are to do in order to understand the gospel ? It should be our delight to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the doctrines of grace. Surely it must be a crime of crimes to be living in utter neglect of a salvation which gained the attentive mind of Daniel, and Isaiah, and Ezekiel. that the long list of great and holy men would have some weight with thoughtless ones. I would cause a noble line of prophets to pass before you this morning that you may see how many of them spake of Christ and his salvation. From Abel, whose blood cried from the ground, down to him who spake of the Sun of righteousness as near his rising, they all spoke in Jehovah's name for your sakes. From Moses down to Malachi, all of these lived, and many of them died, that they might bear witness to "the grace which is come unto you." They them- selves were, no doubt saved ; but, still, the full understanding and enjoy- ment of the truth was reserved for us. Unto them it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things of God. They lighted lamps which shine for future ages ; they told of a Christ who v/as actually to come in the latter days, to work out his redemption after they had all died in faith without a sight of his actual coming. You and I live in the light of a finished salvation. God has appeared in human flesh ; Christ has borne the guilt of man ; his atonement is completed. Jesus has risen from the dead and gone into the glory, pleading for believers. Surely that which prophets thought it worth their while to study by night and by day, though they knew that they should never sec it, ought to be thought worthy of the devout attention of those immediately concerned in it. If Daniel set his face by prayer and study, in festing and in loneliness, to search out the salvation of the future, we ought at once to seek for the salvation Avhich is now present among us. If Isaiah spake with golden tongue, as the very Chrysostom of the old dispensation ; if Jeremiah wept, like a Niobc, rivers of tears; if Ezekiel, despite the splendour of his princely intellect, was almost blinded by the splendour of his visions — if the whole goodly fellowship of the prophets lived TOUR PERGONAL SALVATION. 125 and died to study and to foretell the great salvation, vre ought to give most earnest heed to it. If they pointed us to the Lamb of God, and according to the best of their light foretold the coming of the Redeemer, then woe unto us if we trifle with heaven's message, and cast its blessings behind our backs. By all the prophets whom the Lord has sent, I beseech you, give his salvation a hearty welcome, and rejoice that you have lived to see it. Furthermore, when prophecy had ceased, the Holy Spirit came upon another set of men of whom our text speaks. Peter says of these things, that they " are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." The apostles foUmued the prophets in testi/i/ing to this salvation, and with the apostles there was an honourable fellowship of earnest evangelists and preachers. I will not stay to point out to you the admirable charac- ter of these men, but I would beg you to observe that, having seen Christ Jesus for themselves personally, they were not deceived. Many of them had eaten and drank with him : all the apostles had done so : they had been with him in familiar intercourse, and they were resolute in bearing witness that they had seen him after he had risen from the dead. These men spake with the accent of conviction. If they were duped, there certainly never was another instance of such persons, and so many of them, being so utterly deluded. They continued throughout all their lives to bear hardships and to endure reproaches for the sake of bearing witness to what they had seen and heard, and all the apostles but one died a martyr's death rather than allow the slightest suspicion to be cast upon the truth of their report. The text says that they reported these things when they preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, I see them going everywhere preaching the word, dressed in no robes but those of poverty, having no distinctions but those of shame and suffering, no power but that of the Holy Spirit. I hear them fearlessly lifting up their voices among a warrior population, or gently testifying in peaceful homes: they evangelize the open country, they instruct the capital itself, Caesar's household hears of them. I see them far away among the Parthians and Scythians, telling the barbarians that there is salvation, and that Jesus has accomplished it. With equal joy I see them telling cultured Greeks that God was in Christ, a man among men, and that the incarnate God died in man's stead that believing men might be delivered from the wrath of God, and from the plague of sin. These noble bearers of glad tidings continued to report this salvation till they had finished their missions and theii' lives, and therefore I feel that for us in these times to trifle with God's word, and give a deaf ear to the invitations of the gospel, is an insult to their honoured memories. You martyr them a second time by contemptuously neglecting what they died to hand to you. From the dead they bear witness against you, and when they rise again they will sit with their Lord to judge you. Nor have we merely prophets and apostles looking on with wonder, but our text says, " Which things the angels desire to look into." We know very little of these heavenly beings : we know, however, that they are pure spirits, and that the elect angels have not fallen into sin. These beings are not concerned in the atonement of Christ so far as it is a ransom for sin, seeing they have never transgressed : they may, 126 METROPOLITAN! TABEUNACLE PULPIT. however, derire some advantage from his death, bat of that we cannot now speak particularly. They take such an interest in us, their fellow creatures, that they have an intense wish to know all the mysteries of our salvation. They were pictured, you know, upon the ark of the covenant, as standing upon the mercy-seat, and looking down upon it with steady gaze. Perhaps Peter was thinking of this holy imagery. They stand intently gazing into the marvel of Propitiation by blood. Can you quite see the beauty of this spectacle ? If we knew that a door was opened in heaven, would not men be anxious to look in and see heaven's wonders ; but the case is here reversed, for we see a window opened towards this fallen world, and heavenly beings looking down upon the earth, as if heaven, it.self had no such object of attraction as Christ and his salvation. Watts sang not amiss when he gave us the verse — " Archangels leave their high abode To learn new mysteries here, and tell The love of our descending God, The glories of Iminanuel." Paul tells us that to principalities and powers in the heavenly places shall be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. For men to be lessons to angels, books for seraphs to read, is a strange fact. Perhaps the angelic enquirers ask such questions as this : How is God just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly ? At first it must have been, I think, a wonder that he who said, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," could have permitted man to live on and to have a hope of eternal life. How could he who saith that he will by no means clear the guilty yet bestow his favours upon guilty men? Angels wonder as they see how, through the substitution of Jesus Christ, God can be sternly just and yet abundantly gracious ; but while they learn this they long to discover more of the truth wrapped up in tlie one great sacrifice : they peer and pry, and search and consider, and hence the doctrines of the gospel are spoken of as " things which the angels desire to look into." Now, think you if these glorious spirits who needed not to be redeemed, yet intently gaze upon the Redeemer, should not we also desire to look into the mysteries of his death ? men and women, is it nothing to you that the Son of God should give his life a ransom for many? If these spotless ones marvel at that sacred bath of blood by which sin is washed away, will not you, who are covered with defilement, stop a while to see the Lord whose flowing veins afford such purging? Methinks, if I saw an angel intently gazing upon any object, if I were a passer by, I should stop and look too. Have you never noticed in the streets that if one person stands still and looks up, or is occupied with gazing into a shop window, others become curious and look also? I would enlist that fiiculty of curiosity which is within every man, and prompt you to search with the angels as they pry into the underlying meaning of the fact and doctrine of atonement? They stand at the cross-foot ravished, astounded : yea, all heaven to this day has never ceased its amazement at the dying Son of God, made sin for men, and will none of you spare an hour to look this way and Bee your best Friend? Shall it be that time out of mind we must come into our pulpits and talk of Christ to deaf ears, and speak to TOUR PERSONAL SALVATION. 127 onr fellow men about the grace which is brought unto them, to find that they treat it as an old wives' fable, or a story with which they have nothing to do? Ah, my careless hearer, I wish you were in the same plight as I was in once, when I was burdened with a sense ol my transgressions. If you felt as I did, you would catch at that word "grace" right eagerly, and be delighted with the promise made to "faith." You would make up your mind that if prophets searched out salvation, if apostles reported it, if angels longed to know it, you yourself would find it, or perish in searching after it. Do you forget that you must have eternal life, or you are undone for ever ? Do not trifle with your eternal interests ! Do not be careless where earth and heaven are in earnest ! Prophets, apostles, angels, all beckon you to seek the Lord. Awake, thou that sleepest. Arise, sluggish soul ! A thousand voices call thee to bestir thyself, and receive the grace which has come unto thee. We have already gone a long way with this text, rising step by step. We have stood where angels gaze ; now behold another wonder : we rise beyond them to the angels' Master. Christ is the substance of this sal- vation. For what saith the text ? The prophets spake " beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." Ah, there is the point. To save men Jesus suffered. The manhood and the Godhead of Christ endured anguish inconceivable. All through his life our Lord was " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." His was the bravest heart that ever lived, and the gentlest spirit that ever breathed, but the most crushed and down-trodden. He went from one end of our heavens to the other like a cloud of sympathy, dropping showers of blessing. All the trials of his people he carried in his heart, and all their sins pressed heavily upon his soul : his daily burden of care for all his people was such as none can sympathize with to the full, even though like him they have kept the flock of God. I have sometimes had intense sympathy with Moses, — I hope I am not egotistical in comparing small things with great, — when he cried, " Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant ? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me ? Have I conceived all this people ? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me. Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers ? I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." But what was the care of the tribes in the wilderness on Moses' heart compared with the myriads upon myriads that lay upon the heart of Christ, a perpetual burden to his spirit ? The sufferings of his life must never be forgotten, but they were con- summated by the agonies of his death. There was never such a death. Physically, it was equal in pain to the sufferings of any of the martyrs ; but its peculiarity of excessive gi'ief did not lie in his bodily sufferings : his soul-sufferings were the soul of his sufferings. Martyrs are sustained by the presence of their God, but Jesus cried, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That cry never came up from the stakes of Sraithfield, or from the agonies of the Spanish auto-da-fe, for God was with his witnesses : but he was not with Christ. Here was the depth of his woe. Now, I pray you, if you will manifest some sign 128 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. of thou gilt and softness, remember that if the Son of God became a man that he might suffer to the death for men, it is hard that men should turn (leaf ears to the salvation which he accomplished. I hear from his cross his sad complaint, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? Behold, and see if there was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me." Oh, if you are born of woman, and have a heart that has any flesh about it, think well of the salvation, " the grace, which is brought unto you," by the sufferings of the Son of God. One other step remains. It cannot be higher ; it is on the same level, and I beseech you to stand upou it and think a while, you that have thought so little of yourselves and of your God. It is this. The Hohj Ghost is the ivitness to all this. It was the Holy Ghost that spake in the prophets ; it was the Holy Ghost who was with those who reported the gospel at the first ; it is the same Holy Spirit who every day bears witness to Christ. Do you not know that we have miracles in the Christian church still ? Scoffers come to us and say, " Woi-k a miracle, and we will believe you." We do work these miracles every day. Had you been present at a meeting held here last month you would have heard some- thing not far short of one hundred persons one after another assert that by the preaching of the gospel in this place lately their lives have been completely changed. In the case of some of these the change is very obvious to all persons acquainted with them. How was this great change achieved ? By the Holy Spirit through the gospel of your salvation. But I need not quote those special cases ; there are many here who would tell you, if this were the time to speak, where they used to spend their Sabbaths, and what was their delight. All things have become new with them. They now seek after holiness as earnestly as they once pursued evil : though they are not what they want to be, they are not what they used to be. They never thought of purity or goodness, or anything of the kind, but they loved the wages of unrighteousness, and now they loathe the things they once loved. I have seen moral miracles quite as marvellous in their line as the healing of a leper or the raising of the dead. This is the witness of the Holy Ghost which he continues to bear in the church, and by that witness I entreat you to stop and think of the blessed salvation ••vhicli can work the same miracle in you. From the first day in which man fell, when the Holy Ghost at the gates of Eden presented the gospel in the first promise, all down t'ae prophetic ages, and then by Christ, and by his apostles, and onward by all the men whom God has sent since then to speak with power, the Holy Ghost entreats you to consider Christ and his salvation. To this end he convinces the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment to come, that men may turn unto the salvation of God and live for ever. By the Spirit of the living God 1 entreat you, dear hearers, no longer to neglect the great salvation which has won the admiration of all holy beings, and has the seal of the triune God upon its forefront. II. So far have I commended my Lord's salvation, and now I would desire you, with all this in your own minds, to turn to the prayer in the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm : " Let thy mercies come also unto me, Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word." Use the prayer with this intent: — Lord, I have been hearing what prophets and apostles and angels think of thy salvation, what thy Son and what thy Spirit YOUa P££SONAL SALVATIOK. 12 9 think of it ; now let me humbly say what I think of it : Oh that it were mine ! Oh that it would come to me ! This, then, is my second head. I would RECOMMEND THE PRAYER OP THE PSALMIST. I will say about it, first, that it is in itself a very gracious prayer, for it is offered on right grounds. " Let thy mercies come also unto me." There is no mention of merit or desert. His entreaty is for mercy only. He pleads guilty, and throws himself upon the prerogative of the King, who can pardon offenders. Are you wilUng, my dear hearer, you who have never sought the Saviour, are you willing at this moment to stand on that ground, and to ask for salvation as the result of mercy ? You shall have it on such terms, but you can never be saved until you will own that you are guilty and submit to justice. Observe the plural, " Let thy mercies come to me," as if David felt that he needed a double share of it, ay, a sevenfold measure of it. Elsewhere he cried, " According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." Our sense of sin leads us to use similar language. Lord, I need much mercy, manifold mercy, multiplied mercy, I want mercy upon mercy ; I want forgiving mercy, I want regenerating mercy, I want mercy for the present as well as for the past, and I shall want mercy to keep me in the future if I am to be saved at all. Friend, set your plea on that ground. Multiplied sins crave multiplied mercies. " Let thy mercies come also unto me, Lord." It is a gracious prayer, because it asks for the right thing : " even ihy salvation," not a salvation of my own invention, but " thy salvation." God's salvation is one in which his divine sovereignty is revealed, and that sovereignty must be accepted and adored. Do not dispute against God's salvation, but accept it in its entirety, just as it is revealed. Receive the salvation which the Lord planned in eternity, which he wrought out on Calvary, and which he applies to the heart by the Holy Spirit. You need salvation from sinning as well as salvation from hell, and that the Lord will give you. You want salvation from self to God, and that, too, he will bestow. Ask for all that the Lord intends by his salvation and includes in it. " Let thy mercies come also unto me, even thy salvation." You see, dear brethren, that the prayer is put in the right form, for it is added, " Even thy salvation accordiny to thy tvord." He wishes to be saved in the manner which the Lord has appointed. Dear hearer, where are you ? Are you hidden away in the foggy corners ? I wish I could get a hold of your hand, and speak as a brother to you. You do not want God to go out of the way of his word to save you : do you ? You are willing to be saved in the Scriptural way, the Bible way. People nowadays will do anything but keep to the word of God, they will follow any book but the Bible. Now, do pray the Lord to give you the salvation of the Bible in the Bible's own way. Lord, if thy word says I must repent, give me thy salvation, and cause me to repent ; if thy word says that I must confess my sin, give me thy salvation in the con- fession of sin ; if thou sayest I must trust to Christ, Lord, help me now to trust him ; only grant me thy salvation according to thy word. Observe that the whole prayer is conceived and uttered in a humble spirit. It is " Let thy salvation come also unto me." He owns his help- lessness. He cannot get at the mercy, he wants it to come to him. He 130 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. is SO wounded and so sick that he cannot put on the plaister nor reach the medicine, and therefore he seeks the Lord to bring it to him. He is like the man half dead on the road to Jericho and needs that one should pour in the oil and wine, for he cannot help himself by reason of his spiritual lethargy and death, " Let thy mercies come to me, Lord." This implies that there is a ban-ier between him and the mercy ; the road appears to be blocked up ; the devil intervenes, and his fears hedge up the way, and he cries to God to clear the road. " Lord, let thy mercies come. Didst thou not say, Let there be light, and there was light ? So let thy mercy come to me, a poor dying sinner, and I shall have it, Lord ; but it must come to mc by thy power. Lo, here I he at hell's dark door, and feel within my spirit as if the sentence of condemnation were registered in heaven against me ; but let thy mercies come also unto me, God, even thy salvation according to thy word." That is a very gracious prayer. In the second place this prayer ?««// he supported by gracious arguments. May the Spirit of God help you to plead them. I will suppose some poor heart painfully longing to use this prayer. Here are arguments for you. Pray like this. Say, *' Lord, let thy mercy come to me, for I need mercy." Do not go on the tack of trying to show that you are good, because mercy will then pass you by. To argue merit is to plead against yourself. Whenever you say, " Lord, I am as good as other people ; I try to do my best," and so on, you act as foolislily as if a beggar at your door should plead that he was not very badly off, not half so needy as others, and neither scantily fed nor badly clothed. This would be a new method of begging, and a very bad one. No, no ; tell out your case in all its terrible truthfulness. Say, " Lord, I feel that nobody in all this world needs thy mercy more than I do : let my need plead with thee ; give me thy salvation. I am no impostor, I am a sinner : let thy mercy and thy truth visit me in very deed," Your soul's wounds are not such as sham beggars make with chemicals : they are real sores ; plead them with the God of all grace. Your poverty is not that which wears rags abroad and fine linen at home ; you are utterly bankrupt, and this you may urge before the Lord as a reason for his mercy. Next plead this : " Lord, thou knowest, and thou hast made me to know somewhat of what will become of me if thy mercy does not come to mc: I must perish, I must perish miserably. I have heard the gospel, and have neglected it ; 1 have been a Sabbath breaker, even when I thonght I was a Sabbath keeper; I have been a despiser of Christ, even when I stood up and sang his praises, for I sang them with a hypocrite's lips. The hottest place in hell will surely be mine unless thy mercy come to me. Oh, send that mercy, now." This is good and prevalent pleading : hold on to it. Then plead, " If thy mercy shall come to me it will be a great wonder, Lord. 1 have not the confidence to do more than faintly hope it may come ; but, oh, if thou dost ever blot out my sin I will tell the world ol it ; I will tell the angels of it : through eternity I will sing thy praises, and claim to be of all the saved ones the most remarkable instance ol what thy sovereign grace can do. Do you feel like that, dear hearer ? I used to think if the Lord saved me ho would have begun on a new YOUR PEBSONAL SALVATION. IBl line altogether, that his mercy would have sent up her song an octave higher than before. In every man's case there will be a conviction that there is a something so special about his guilt that there will be something very special about the mercy which can put that guilt away. Plead then the peril of your soul, and the glory which grace will gain by your rescue. Plead the greatness of the grace needed, for Christ delights to do great marvels, and his name is Wonderful. " Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Lord, save me, for I am a nobody, and it will be a wonder indeed if thy grace shall visit me." Then you can put this to the good Saviour. Tell him if he will give you his salvation, he will not be impoverished by the gift. " Lord, I am a thirsty soul ; but thou art such a river that if I drink from thee there will be no fear of my exhausting thy boundless supply." They put up over certain little nasty, dirty ponds by the roadside, " No dogs may be washed here." Pity the dogs if they were ! But no one puts up such a notice on the banks of great, glorious Old Father Thames. You may wash your dogs if you like, and his flood will flow on ; there is too much of it to be so readily polluted. So is it with the boundless mercy of God. God permits many a poor dog of a sinner to be washed in it, and yet it is just as full and efficacious as ever. You need not be afraid of enjoying too much sunlight, for the sun loses nothing by your basking in his beams. So is it with divine mercy, it can visit you, and bless you, and remain as great and glorious as ever. Out of the fulness of Christ millions may still receive salvation, and he will remain the same over- flowing fountain of grace. Plead then, " Lord, if such a poor soul as I shall be saved, I shall be made supremely happy, but none of thine attributes or glories shall be one jot the less illustrious ; thou wilt be as great and blessed a God as ever." You may even say, "Lord, now that thy Son Jesus has died, it will not dishonour thee to save me. Before the atoning sacrifice it might have stained thy justice to pass by sin ; but now the sacrifice is ofiered thou canst be just and yet the justifier. Lord, none shall say thou art unjust if thou savest even me, now that Jesus Christ has bled. Since thou thyself hast made my salvation possible without infringement of thy law, I beseech thee fulfil the design of the great sacrifice, and save even me." There is another plea implied in the prayer, and a very sweet argu« ment it is — "Let thy mercies come also unto me, Lord." It means.' " It has come to so many before, therefore let it come also unto ma Lord, if I were the only one, and thou hadst never saved a sinner before, yet v\^ou!d I venture upon thy word and promise. Especially I would come and trust the blood of Jesus : but, Lord, I am not the first by many millions. I beseech thee, then, of thy great love, let thy salva- tion come unto me." You notice in the parable of the prodigal that the forlorn feeder of swine was the only son that had gone astray, and con- sequently the first that ever tried whether his father would receive him. The elder brother had not gone astray, and was there at home, to grum- ble at his younger brother ; but the poor prodigal son, though he had no instance before him of his father's willingness to forgive, was bold to try by faith his father's heart. None had trodden that way before, yet he made bold to explore it. He felt that he should not be cast out. But when we hear any of you say, " I will arise, and go to my Father," scores of ufi 182 METECrOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. are ready to leap out of our seats and cry, " Come along, brotlier, for we have come, and the gracious Father has received us." I do not know whether the elder brother is here to murmur at a penitent sinner ; I am happy to say I have none of his spirit. It will make my heart happy ; the bells of my whole nature will ring for joy if I may only bring one of my poor, prodigal brothers back to my great Father's house. Oh, como along with you, and let this be the plea : " Thou hast received so many, receive me." Cry, " Bless me, even me also, my Father." The Lord has not come to the end of his mercy yet. Jesus has not come to the end of his saving work yet. There is room for you, and there will be room for thousands upon thousands yet, until the Master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door. He has not risen up, nor closed the door as yet, and still his mercy cries, " Come to me, come to me, come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." I will close by assuring you that this blessedly gracious prayer, which I have helped to back up with arguments, tvill be ansivered by our gracious God. Oh, be sure of this, he never sent his prophets to preach to us a Balvation which cannot be ours ; he never sent his apostles to repc^-t to us concerning a mere dream ; he never set the angels wondering at an empty speculation ; he never gave his Son to be a ransom which will not redeem ; and he never committed his Spirit to witness to that which after all will mock the sinner's need. No, he is able to save : there is salvation, there is salvation to be had, to be had now, even now. AVe are sitting in the light in this house while a dense fog causes darkness all around, even darkness which may be felt ; this is an emblem of the Btate of those who are in Christ : they have light in their hearts, light in their habitations, light in Jesus Christ. come to him and find salvation now. j\Iay God bring any that have been in darkness into his marvellous light, and bring them now, and unto his name shall be praise fur ever and ever. Amen and amen. Portion of Scriptttpe read before Sermox — 1 Peter i. Uymns from " Ouif Own Hymx Book "— 4So, 100, bOJ, IHctin^uolitint ©akruHck ful^it. ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME. Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, May 13th, 1877, by C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. " Come, for all things are now ready." — Luke xiv. 17. This inYitation was first of all made to the Jews, but it seems to me to have a peculiar appropriateness to ourselves. It is later in the day than when first the Lord was here, and therefore the supper time is evidently closer at hand. The shadows lengthen, the sun of the present dispen- sation is nearing its setting ; by nearly nineteen hundred years has its day been shortened since first the Lord sent forth his servants at supper time. The fulness of time for the marriage supper of the Lamb must speedily arrive, and therefore it behoves us to be more than ever earnest in delivering the message to the invited guests. And if all things could be said to be ready even in our Saviour's day, we may say it with still greater emphasis now ; for when he delivered this parable the Holy Spirit was not yet given, but Pentecost has now passed, and the Spirit of God abideth with us to accompany the word, to fill it with power and to bless our souls as we feed upon the truth. Very emphatically then at this time all things are now ready, and the supper awaits the guests. I pray you do not begin to make excuses, but be prepared to follow us when we bid you come, to go with us when we seek to bring you in, or at least to yield to our entreaties when with all the sacred violence of love we would compel you to come in. We will not grudge the use of all the three increasing modes of persuasion so long as you are but led to ** Come, for all things are now ready." There are two things clearly in the text, and these have a close re- lation to one another. A plain invitation — " Come," and then a forcible argument — " for all things are ready." The argument is fetched from the divine preparations, gathered from among the dainty viands of the royal feast. " My oxen and my fatlings are killed, come to the supper." The readiness of everything on God's part is the argument why men should come and partake of his grace : and that is the point upon which No. 1,354. 278 METROPOLITAN TABRUNACLE PULPIT. we Avill dwell at this time — the readiness of the feast of mercy is t'le reason why men should come to it at once. I. We will begin our meditation by laying down the first statement which shall make our first division of discourse, namely, that it la God's habi t to have all things ready, whether for his guests or his creatures. You never discover him to be behindhand in anything. '^Vhen the guests come there is not a scramble to get the table arranged and the food prepared, but the Lord has great forethought, and every little point of detail is well arranged. " All things are ready." It was so in creation. He did not create a single blade of grass upon the face of the earth until the soil and the atmosphere had been pre- pared for it, and until the kindly sun had learned to look down upon the earth. Imagine vegetation without a sun, or without the alterna- tion of day and night. But the air was full of light, the firmament upheld the clouds, and the dry land had appeared from out of the sea, and then all things were ready for herb, and plant, and tree. Nor did God prepare one single creature that hath life, nor fowl that fly in the midst of heaven, nor fish that swim the seas, nor beast that moveth on the dry land, until he had prepared its habitat, and made ready its ap- pointed food. There were no cattle before there were meadows for their grazing ; no birds till there were trees for their nests, no, nor even a creeping insect till its portion of meat had been provided. No creature had to wait in hungry mood while its food was growing ; all things were ready : ready first for vegetation, and then afterwards for animal life. As for Adam, when God came to make him as his la,>«L and noblest work of creation, all things were ready. The garden was laid out upon the banks of flowing streams, and planted with all kinds of trees, the fruits were ripe for his diet, and the flowers in bloom for his delight. He did not come to an unfurnished house, but he entered upon a home which his Father had made pleasant and agreeable for his dwelling. The world was first fitted up, and then the man who was to govern that world was placed in it. " All things are ready," the Lord seems to say, " Spring up, herb yielding seed"; and then "All things are ready, come forth ye roes and hinds of the field ! " and then " All things are ready, stand forth, man, made in mine own image ! " In after times we may gather illustrations of the same truth from the ways of God with men. The ark was first of all builded, and the various creatures were gathered into it, with all their necessary provender, for that strange voyage which they were about to take : and then the Lord said to Noah, " Come thou and all thy house into the ark," " All things are ready, come," Avas his voice to the chosen eight as they entered into the ark. There was no need to tany any longer, every preparation was made, and therefore God shut them in. Everything is done with punctuality and exactness by the only wise God. The selfsame day that B thing is needed it is prepared. Take another event in providence, such as the going down of Israel into Egypt. God had determined that Jacob and his seed should sojourn awhile in the land of Ham, but how wisely he prepared the whole matter. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, and Joseph was there upon the throne clothed with power to nourish them through the famine. He had been there yearp before, all in good time to store the wheat ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME. 279 while the seven years of plenty lasted, that they might be well fed during the seven years of famine. Goshen also was at the disposal of Joseph, so that the flocks and herds of Israel might dwell in that fat land. Not into Egypt shall God's Israel go till all things are ready ; and when all things are ready they will come out again with a high band and an outstretched arm. So was it when the tribes migrated into Canaan itself. God took them not to the promised land until all things were ready. They were made to wait for the fitting time, for the Lord said ** The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Not till the inhabitants of the land had passed the bounds of mercy, and were condemned to die, were the Israehtes brought upon the scene to be at once their executioners and successors ; and when the tribes came to the river Jordan, God had prepared everything for them, for he had sent the hornet before them to drive out the people, and a pestilence also, for the spies said, " It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof." The Lord God had gone before them to fight their battles before they came, and to prepare a place for them, so that when they entered they dwelt in houses which they had not built, and they gathered the fruit of olives which they had not planted. They came to a land that flowed with milk and honey, a land in a fine cultivated condition, and not a wilderness which Avith hard labour must be reclaimed. Israel came to a country which was as the garden of the Lord, whose fruit might at once be enjoyed, for they ate of the old corn of the land almost as soon as they passed the Jordan. So you see " All things are ready " is a proclamation which the Lord has often in spirit made to those whom he chooses to bless. Now the fact that in the great gospel supper all things are ready teaches us first, that OoiVs thoughts go before men's comings. " Come, for all things are ready." Not " If you come, all things will be ready," but " they are ready, and therefore come." Grace is first, and man at his best follows its footsteps. Long before we ever thought of God he thought of us ; yea, before we had a being and ere time itself began, in the bosom of the Eternal there were thoughts of love towards those for whom the table of his mercy is now spread. He had planned and arranged everything in his august mind from of old, he had indeed foreknown and predestinated all the provisions and all the guests of his supper ; all things were settled in his eternal covenant and purpose or ever the earth was. Never think, oh sinner, that thou canst out- strip the love of God, it is at the end of the race before thou art at the beginning. God hath completed before thou hast begun. His thoughts are before ours, and so are his acts, for he doth not say, " All things are planned and arranged," but "AU things are ready." Jesus, the great sacrifice, is slain, the fountain for our cleansing is filled with blood : the Holy Spirit has been given, the word by which we are to be instructed is in our hands, and the light which will illuminate that sacred page is promised us through the Holy Ghost. Things promised ought to encourage us to come to Christ, but things already given ought to be irresistible attractions. All things are already completed by the sacred Trinity before we come to cry for mercy ; this should make ub vcj-y hopeful and eager in our approaches to the Lord. Come, sinner t ^80 METROrOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. come at once : this ought to encourage thee, since all that God has to do in thy salvation is done before thou hast a thought of him or turncst one foot towards his abode. All tilings are ready. Come ! This also jfroves how welcome those are who come. If you arc in- vited to sec a friend, and when you reach the place you find the door fast, and after knocking many times no one answers, for there is no one at home, you reckon that tliere is some mistake, or that the invitation was not a sincere one. Even if your host should come to the door and admit you, but should evidently be embarrassed, for there is no meal pro- rided, and he has made no arrangements for your reseat night, you soon detect it, and like a wise man you quickly move off somewhere else, for if you had been welcome, things would have been prepared for you. But oh, poor soul, if thou comest to God all things are ready for thine entertainment. " Spread for thee the festal board, With his richest dainties stored." The couch of rest and quietness is prepared for thee. All things are ready. How freely doth Jehovah welcome thee, how genuine is the invitation, how sincere the desire that thou shouldst come to feast with him. So much upon our first remark, it is the habit of the Lord to have all things ready for his guests. II. Our second statement is that this readiness should bk AN ARGUMENT THAT HIS SAINTS SHOULD COME Continually to him and find grace to help in every time of need. children of God, I will lift the parable away from the immediate use which the Saviour made of it to employ it for your good. You know, beloved, that whenever the Lord Jesus Christ invites his people to come to him, and to taste of his bounty, all things are ready. It was a beautiful scene by tlie sea of Tiberias when the Lord spake to those who had been toihng on the lake at fishing, and said to them, ** Come and dine." They were willing enough to dine, but they were busy dragging to the shore those great fishes. Remember, when they did land, they found the invitation to be no vain one, for it is AVTitten, " They saw a fire of coals there and fish laid thereon, and bread." How the coals came there, and the fish, and the bread, the evangelist does not tell us, but our Lord would not have asked them to dinner if he had not been able to give them a warm reception ; there was the fire of coals, and the fish laid thereon and bread. Whenever therefore your Lord and IMaster, by his blessed Spirit, calls you to come near to him, you may be quite sure that all things are ready for your immediate enjoyment : you need never pause or hesitate, but approacli him without delay. I want to caution you against replying, *' But, Lord, I do not feel ready." That is most true, but that is not an argument which thou shouldst use to excuse thyself in holding back. It is his readiness that is the main thing, not thine, and as all things are ready, do thou come whether thou fcelest ready or not. I have heard of some Christians who have said, '• I do not feel in a proper frame of mind to pray." My brother, pray till you do. Some have said, " I do not think I shall go up to the house of God to-day, I feel so unhappy, so cast down." When shouldst ALL THIA'GS AHE KEADY. COME. 28.1 tilou go SO much as then, in order that thou mayest find comfort ? " Still," saith one, " you would not have me sing a hymn wlien of heavy heart?" Ay, would I not, I would indeed, I would have thee sing thy- self up from the depths of the sea where all God"s billows have gone over thee. David full often did so, when he began a psalm, in the deeps, and then gradually rose, and rose, and rose, till he was in a perfect rapture of delight before the psalm was over. AH things are ready with your Lord, therefore do you come whether you happen to be ready or not. Note the times when this truth ought to have power with you. All things are ready, therefore come to tlie storehouse of divine promise. Are you in spiritual poverty ? Come and take what God has provided for yon, for all things are yours, and all the blessings of the everlasting hills belong to all the people of God. Are you needing strength ? There is a promise, " As thy days so shall thy strength be." It is ready, come and take it. Art thou wanting consolation ? Dost thou not know that all things are ready for thy comfort, that two immutable things, wherein it is impossible for God to he, are already set before thee ? Come thou, and take thy solace. Ay, remember that all that God has promised be- longs to all those who believe the promise, and that you may therefore come at all times, however deep your need, and if you have but faith you shall find the special supply for the special want. All things are ready, tlierefore come with holy confidence, and take what is ripe enough to gather, ripe for you. Come next to the nwcy seat in prayer, all things are ready there. The mercy seat is sprinkled with the precious blood of Christ. The veil also is rent in twain, and fi-om between the cherubim Jehovah's glory now shines forth with mildest radiance. Let us therefore come with bold- ness unto the throne of the heavenly grace, because everything there is ready for the pleading suppliant. Thou hast no need to bring anything with thee there. Thou hast no need of making preparations other than the Holy Spirit waits to give thee in the form of groanings which cannot be uttered. Come, child of God, notwithstanding thy carelessness and indifference, or whatever it may be thou hast to complain of, for though thou be unready, the throne of grace is ready, and therefore do thou draw near to it and find the grace thou needest. If at this time we feel strong promptings towards communion with Christ what a blessing it is that Christ is always ready to commune with his people. " Behold," saith he, " I stand at the door and knock." We think that we stand at the door and knock, but it ia scarcely so, the greater truth with regard to his people is that Jesus asks for fellowship with us, and tells us that if we open the door, and that is all he bids his people do, he will enter in and sup with them, and they with him. Suppose there is no supper, he will provide it- he hath all things ready. The Master saith, " Where is the guest- chamber?" He doth not say "Where is the feast ? " If thy hearl will be the guest-chamber, he will provide the supper, and thou shalt sujf with him and he with thee. At whose door did Christ knock according to the Scriptures ? It was at the door of the Laodicean church, at the door of the very church concerning which he had said, " Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Therefore t.hou poor Laodicean believer that art here this morning, if thou hast 282 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. any promptings towards Christ, arise, for all thinj^s are ready, and or ever thou art aware thy soul shall be as the chariots of Amminadii). lie is ready to receive us to his heart of hearts. How sweetly this ought to constrain us to fly into the arms of Jesus. I think the same thought ought to cross our minds with regard to every daily duty. We wake up in the morning, but we do not know exactly what lies before us, for God's providence has constantly now revelations : but I like to think in the morning that all things arc ready for my pathway through the day, that if I will go out to serve God in my ministry he has prepared some ear into which I am to drop a gracious word, and some heart in the furrows of which I shall sow some blessed seed eifectually. Behold all providence with its mighty wheels is co-working with the servant of the living God ; only go for- ward in zeal and confidence, my brother, and thou shalt find that every step of thy way is ready for thee. Thy Master has trodden the road and marked out for thee the houses of refreshment where thou art to tarry till thou shalt come to the celestial city itself, and the hallowed spots where thou shalt bring glory to his blessed name. For a useful hfe all things are ready for us. Yes, and if beyond the daily service of life we should feel a prompting to aspire to a higher degree of holiness, if we want to grow in grace and reach the fulness of the stature of a man in Christ Jesus, all things are ready for us. No Christian can have a sacred ambition after holiness which the liord is not prepared to fulfil. Thou that ^villest to be like thy faster, thou that desirest to make a self-sacrifice that will show the power of his grace in thee, the Holy Spirit waits to help thee, all things shall work for thee, for all things are ready. Come therefore without fear. One of these days it may be that you and I shall ei ther be grown very old, or else disease will lay hold upon us, and we shall lie upon the sick bed watching and waiting for our Master's coming. Then there shall suddenly appear a messenger from him, who will bring us this word, "All things are ready, come unto the supper," and closing our eyes on earth we shall open them in heaven and see what he has done who so sweetly said, " I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Oh, it will be a joyous moment when we shall hear the summons, "All things are ready, quit thy house of clay, thy farm, thy merchandise, and even her who lies in thy bosom, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and thou must be there ; therefore, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. The winter is over and past, the time of the singing of birds is come for thee, all things are ready, come !" I feel tempted to linger here, but I must tear myself away from that point to pass on to the next. III. The perfect readiness of the feast of divine mercy IS evidently intended to be a strong argument with sinners WHY THEY SHOULD COME AT ONCE. To the siuucr, then, do I address myself. Soul, dost thou desire eternal life? Is there within thy spirit a bungering and a thirsting after such things as may satisfy thy spirit and tpake thee live for ever? Then hearken while the Master's servant gives ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME. 283 tliee the invitation. " Come, for all things are ready," — all, not some, but all. There is nothino; that thou canst need between here and heaven but what is provided in Jesus Christ, in his person and in his work. All things are ready, life for thy death, forgiveness for thy sin, cleansing for thy filth, clothing for thy nakedness, joy for thy sorrow, strength for thy weakness, yea, more than all that ever thou canst want is stored up in the boundless nature and work of Christ. Thou must not say, " I cannot come because I have not this, or have not that." Art thou to prepare the feast ? Art thou to provide anything ? Art thou the pur- veyor of even so much as the salt or the water ? Thou knowest not thy true condition, or thou wouldst not dream of such a thing. The great Householder himself has provided the whole of the feast, thou hast nothing to do with the provision but to partake of it. If thou lackest come and take what thou lackest ; the greater thy need the greater reason why thou shouldst come where all things that thy need can possibly want will be at once supplied. If thou be so needy that thou hast nothing good at all about thee, all things are ready. What wouldst thou provide more when God has provided all things ? Super- fluity of naughtiness would it be if thou wert to think of adding to his "all things "; it would be but a presumptuous competing with the pro- visions of the great King, and this he will not endure. All that thou wantest — I can but repeat the words — between the gates of hell, where thou now liest, and the gates of heaven, to which grace will bring thee if thou believest, — all is provided and prepared in Jesus Christ the Saviour. And all things are ready, dwell on that word. The oxen and the fat- lings were killed ; what is more, they were prepared to be eaten, they were ready to be feasted on, they smoked on the board. It is something when the king gives orders for the slaughter of so many bullocks for the feast, but the feast is not ready then ; and when beneath the poleaxe the victims fall, and they are stripped and hung up ready for the fire, there is something done, but they are not ready. It is when the joints are served hot and steaming upon the table, and all that is wanted is brought forth and laid in proper order for the banquet, it is then that all things are ready, and this is the case now ; at this very moment thou wilt find the feast to be in the best possible condition ; it was never better and never can be better than it is now. All things are ready, just in the exact condition that thou needest them to be, just in such condition as shall be best for thy soul's comfort and enjoyment. All things are ready ; nothing needs to be further mellowed or sweetened, everything is at the best that eternal love can make it. But notice the word, " now," " All things are noiv ready " — just now, at this moment. At feasts, you know, the good housewife is often troubled if the guests come late. She would be sorry if they came half- an-hour too soon, but half-an-hour too late spoils everything, and in what a state of fret and worry she is if when all things are now ready, her friends still delay. Leave food at the fire awhile, and it does not seem to be *' now ready," but something more than ready, and even spoiled. So doth the great householder lay stress upon this, all things are noiv ready, therefore come at once. He saith not that if thou wilt tarry for another seven years all things will then be ready; God grant that long before 234 METROPOLITAN TABEIINACI.R TULPIT. that space of time thou mayest have got beyond the need.s of persuasion by having become a taster of tlie feast, but he doth say that they are all ready now, just now. Just now that your heart is so heavy and your mind is so careless, that your spirit is so wandering — all things are ready now. Just now, though you have never thought of these things before, but dropped in this morning to see this large assembly with no motive whatever as to your own salvation, yet all things are ready noiv. Though your sins are as the stars of heaven, and your soul trembles under an awful foreboding of coming judgment, yet "all things are now ready." After all your rejections of Christ, after the many invitations that have been thrown away upon you, come ye to the supper. And if they are ready twtv, the argument is come now, while still all things are ready. While the Spirit lingers and still doth strive with men, while mercy's gates still stand wide open, that " whosoever will may come," while life and health and reason still are spared to you and the ministering voice that bids thee come can still be heard, come now, come at once — all things are ready — come ! Delay is as unreasonable as it is wicked now that all things are ready. Notice that all things were ready for those who were bidden. They did not come, but they were not mocked when they were bidden to come. The fact of all things being ready proved that the invitation was a sincere one, although it was a rejected one. There are some who will not have us give an invitation to any but to those whom we believe are sure to come, nay, in a measure have come ; that is to say, they make a minister to be a mere superfluity. Why need he come and invite those who have already begun to come ? But we believe it to be our duty and our privilege to invite the whole mass of mankind ; and even those who will not come : if we knew they would not come we should not therefore exempt them from the bidding, for the servant was sent to bid them to the wedding who nevertheless all with one consent began to make excuse. They were invited, and earnestly invited, aud all things were ready, though they came not. my dear hearers, if you do not come to Christ you will perish, but you will never be able to say you were not bidden, and that there was nothing ready ibr you. No, there stands the feast all spread, and you arc sincerely and honestly bidden to come. God grant that you may come, and come at once. IV. Now I am going to pass on to my fourth and last point, which may God bless to the comfort of some seeking soul. Tuis text dis- poses OF A GREAT DEAL OF TALK ABOUT TUE SINNEIl's READINESS Oil UNREADINESS: bccausB, if the reason why a sinner is to come is be- cause all things are ready, then it is idle for him to say " But I am not /eady." It is clear that all the readiness required on man's part is a willingness to come and receive the blessing which God had pro- vided. There is nothing else necessary ; if men are willing to come, they may come, they will come. Where the Lord has been pleased to touch the will so that man has a desire towards Christ, where the heart really hungers and thirsts after righteousness, that is all the readiness which is wanted. All the fitness he requireth is that first you feel your need of him (and that he gives you), and that secondly in feeling ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME. 285 your need of him you are willing to come to him. Willingness to como is everything. A readiness to believe in Jesus, a willingness to cast the soul on him, a preparedness to accept him just as he is, because you feel that he is just the Saviour that you need — that is all : there was no other readiness, there could have been none, in the case of those who were poor and blind, and halt, and maimed, yet came to the feast. The text does not say, " You are ready, therefore come," that is a legal way of putting the gospel; but it says, "All things are ready, the gospel is ready, therefore you are to come." As for your readiness, all the readiness that is possibly wanted is a readiness which the Spirit gives us, namely, wilhngness to come to Jesus. Now notice that the unreadiness of those who were bidden arose out of their possessions and out of their abilities. One would not come be- cause he had bought a piece of land. What a great heap Satan casts up between the soul and the Saviour ! What with worldly possessions and good deeds he builds an earthwork of huge dimensions between the sinner and his Lord. Some gentlemen have too many acres ever to come to Christ : they think too much of the world to think much of him. Many have too many fields of good works in which there are growing crops in which they pride themselves, and these cause them to feel that they are persons of great importance. Many a mau cannot come to Christ for all things because he has so much already. Others of them could not come because they had so much to do, and could do it well — one had bought five yoke of oxen, he was going to prove them ; a strong man quite able for ploughing ; the reason why he did not come was because he had so much ability. Thousands are kept aAvay from grace by what they have and by what they can do. Empti- ness is more preparatory to a feast than fulness. How often does it happen that poverty and inabihty even help to lead the soul to Christ. When a man thinketh himself to be rich he will not come to the Saviour. When a man dreameth that he is able at any time to repent and believe, and to do everything for himself that is wanted, he is not likely to come and by a simple faith repose in Christ. It is not what jou have not but what you have that keeps many of you from Christ. Sinful self is a devil, but righteous self is seven devils. The man who feels himself guilty may for awhile be kept away by his guilt, but the man who is self-righteous will never come : until the Lord has taken his pride away from him he will still refuse the feast of free grace. The possession of abilities and honours and riches keep men from coming to the Redeemer. But on the other hand personal condition does not constitute an un- fitness for coming to Christ, for the sad condition of those who became guests did not debar them from the supper. Some were poor, and doubtless wretched and ragged; they had not a penny to bless them- selves with, as we say ; their garments were tattered, perhaps worse, they were filthy, they were not fit to be near respectable people, they Mould certainly be no credit to my lord's table ; but those who went to bring them in did not search their pockets, nor look at their coats, but they fetched them in. They were poor, but the messengers were told to bring in the poor, and therefore brought them. Their poverty did not prevent their being ready ; and oh, poor soul, if thou be poor Utcrally. ^-v 2S6 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. poor spiritually, neither sort of poverty can constitute an unfitness foJ- divine mercy. " The pooTcr the wretch the welcomer here." If thou art brougl.i t--) thy last penny, yea, if that is spent, and if thou hast pawned all, and thou art left in debt over head and ears, and tliinkcst that there is nothing for thee but to be laid by the heels in prison for ever, nevertheless thou mayest come, poverty and all. Another class of them were inaimed, and so were not very comely in appearance : an arm had been lopped off, or an eye had been gouged out. One had lost a nose, and another a leg. They were in all stages and shapes of dismemberment. Sometimes we turn our heads away, and feel that we would rather give anything than look upon beggars who show their wounds, and describe how they were maimed. But it did not matter how badly they were disfigured ; they were brought in, and not one of them was repulsed because of the ugly cuts he had re- ceived. So, poor soul, however Satan may have torn and lopped thee, and into whatsoever condition he may have brought thee, so that thou feelest ashamed to live, nevertheless this is no unfitness for coming ; just as thou art thou mayest come to his table of grace. Moral dis- figurements are soon rectified when Jesus takes the character in hand. Come thou to him, however sadly thou art injured by sin. There were others Avho were halt, that is to say, they had lost a leg, or it was of no use to them, and they could not come except they had a crutch and crawled or hopped upon it ; but nevertheless that was no reason why they were not welcome. Ah, if you find it difficult to be- lieve, it is no reason why you should not come and receive the grand absolution which Jesus Christ is ready to bestow upon you. Lame with doubting and distrusting, nevertheless come to the supper and say, •* Lord, I beheve ; help thou mine unbelief." Others were blind people, and when they were told to come they could not see the way, but in that case the messenger was not told to tell them to come, he was commanded to bring them, and a blind man can come if he is brought. All that was wanted was willingness to be led by the hand in the right direction. Now you that cannot fully understand the gospel as you desire to do, that arc puzzled and muddled, give your hand into the hand of Jesus, and be willing to be led, be willing to believe what you cannot comprehend, and to grasp in confidence that which you are not able yet to measure with your understanding. The blind, however ignorant or uninstructed they are, shall not be kept away because of that. Then there were the men in the hightvays, I suppose they were beggars ; and the men in the hedges, I suppose they were hiding, and were pro- bably thieves ; but nevertheless they were told to come, and thougli ALL THINGS ARE READY. COME. 287 they were higlnvaymen and hedge-birds even that did not prevent Iheir coming and finding welcome. Though outcasts, offcasts, spiritual gipsies, people that nobody cared for, yet, whatever they might be, that was not the question, they were to come because all things were ready : come in rags, come in filth, come maimed, come covered with sores, come in all sorts of filthiness and abomination, yet because all thinga are ready they were to be brought or to be compelled to come in. Now, lastly, I think it was the very thing, which in any one of these people looked like unfitness, which was a help to them. It is a great truth that what we regard as unfitness is often our truest fitness. I want you to notice these poor, blind, and halt people. Some of those who were invited would not come because they had bought some land or five yoke of oxen, but when the messenger went up to the poor man in rags and said, " Come to the supper," it is quite clear he would not say he had bought a field, or oxen, for he could not do it, he had not a penny to do the thing with, so that he was clean delivered from that temptation. And when a man is invited to come to Christ and he says, "I do not want him, I have a righteousness of my own," he will stay away ; but when the Lord Jesus came along to me I never was tempted in that way, because I had no righteousness of my own, and could not have made one if I had tried. I know some here who could not patch up a garment of righteousness if they were to put all their rags together, and this is a great help to their receiving the Lord Jesus. What a blessedness it is to have such a sense of soul poverty that you will never stay away from Christ because of what you possess. Then, next, some could not come because they had married a wife. Now, I think it is very likely that these people who were maimed and cut about were so injured that they had no wife, and perhaps could not get anybody to have them. Well then, they had not that temptation, to stay away. They were too maimed to attract the eye of anybody who was looking for beauty, and therefore they were not tempted that way. But they found at the ever-blessed supper of the Lamb an everlasting wedlock, which was infinitely better. Thus do souls lose earthly joys and comforts, and by the loss they gain supremely : they are thus made willing to close in with Christ and find a higher comfort and a higher joy. That maiming which looked like unfitness turned out to be fitness. One excuse made was, " I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them." The halt could not do that. When the messenger touched the lame man on the shoulder and said " Come," he could not Bay, " I am going out to-night to plough with my new tear $." He had never been over the clods ever since he had lost his leg,, poor soul, sa that he could not make such an excuse. The blind man could not say, •* I have bought a piece of land and I must go to see it ;" he was free 288 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. from all the lusts of the eye, and so far was all the more ready to be led to the supper. When a soul feels its own sinfulness, and wretched- ness, and lost estate, it thinks itself unfit to come to Christ, but this is an assistance to it, since it prevents its looking to anything else but Phrist, kills its excuses, and makes it free to accept salvation by grace. But how about the men that were in the highway ? Well, it seems to me that they were already on the road, and at least out of their houses, if they had any. If they were out there begging, they were the more ready to accept an invitation to a meal of Tictuals, for it was that they were singing for. A man who is out of the house of his own self- righteousness, though he be a great sinner, is in a more favourable position and more likely to come to Christ than he who prides himself in his supposed self-righteousness. As for those who were under the hedges, well, they had no house of their own, and so they were all the more likely to come and fill God's house. Men do not take to hedges to sleep under them as long as thej have even a hovel where they may rest their head, but oh, poor soul, when thou art driven to such distress that thou wouldst fain hide under any hedge, when thou hast nothing left thee but a fearful looking for of judgment, when thou thinkest thyself to be an outlaw and an outcast before God, left to wander like Cain, a wail and stray, lost to all good, thou art the very man to come to Christ. Come out of your hedges, then. I am looking for you. Though you hide yourselves away yet God's own Spirit will discover you, and bring you, I trust this very morning, to feed on love divine. Trust Jesus Christ, that is all, just as you are, with all your unfitness and unreadiness. Take what God has made ready for you, the precious blood to cleanse you, a robe of righteousness to cover you, eternal joy to be your portion. JEleceiA^e the grace of God in Christ Jesus, oh receive it now. God grant you may, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Portion of Scripture Read before Sermon — Luke xiv. 12 — 36, Hyiiks raoM " Our Own Hymn Book "—909, 504, 488 (r. 3— «). lH^tropIitnu Sakmadii fulpt. JESUS ONLY. ^ ^frmon C7 Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, April 3rd, 1870, uf C. II. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. ' And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only."— JMatthew xvii. 8. The last words will suffice us for a text, " Jesus only." When Peter saw our Lord with Moses and Elias, he exclaimed, " Master, it is good to be here," as if he implied that it was better to be with Jesus, and Moses, and Elias, than to be with Jesus only. Now it was certainly good that for once in his life he should see Christ transfigured with the representatives of the law and the prophets; it might be for that particular occasion the best sight that he could see, but as an ordinary thing an ecstacy so sublime would not have been good for the disciples; and Peter himself very soon found this out, for when the luminous cloud overshadowed him, and the voice was heard out of heaven, we find that he with the rest became sore afraid. The best thing after all for Peter was not the excessive strain of the transfiguration, nor the delectable company of the two great spirits who appeared with Jesus, but the equally glorious, but less exciting, society of " Jesus only." Depend on it, brethren, that ravishing and exciting experiences and transporting enjoyments, though they may be useful as occasional re- freshments, would not be so good for every day as that quiet but delightful ordinary fellowship with "Jesus only," which ought to be the distinguishing mark of all Christian life. As the disciples ascended the mountain side with Jesus only, and as they went back agam to the multitude with Jesus only, they were in as good company as when they were on the mountain summit, Moses and Elias being there also ; and although Jesus Christ in his common habiliments and in his ordinary attire might not so dazzle their eyes as when they saw his raiment bright as the light, and his face shining as the sun, yet he really was quite as glorious, and his company quite as beneficial. When they saw him in his everyday attire, his presence was quite as useful to them as when he robed himself in splendour. " Jesus only," is after all upon the whole a better thing than Jesus, Moses, and Elias. " Jesus only," fts the common Jesus, the Christ of every day, the man walking among men, communing in secret with his disciples, is a better thing for a continuance while we are in this body than the sight even of Jesua himself in the excellence of his majesty. No. 924. 19 i mktuopolitajj tabeunacle puLPrr. This morning, in trying to dwell upon the simple sight of " Jesns only," we shall hold it up as beyond measure important and delightful, and shall bear our witness that as it was said of Goliath's sword, " there is none like it," so may it be said of fellowship with "Jesus only." ■r-We shall first notice what might have happened to the disciples after the transJiguratio)i ; we shall then dwell on tvhat did ha^jpen ; and then, thirdly, we shall speak on what ive anxiously desire may happen to those who hear us this day. I. .First, then, what might have happened to the three disciples after they had seen the transfiguration. There were four things either of which might have occurred. As a first snpposition, they might Imve seen nobody with them on the boly mount ; they might have found all gone but themselves. When the cloud had overshadowed them, and "they were sore afraid, they might have lifted up their eyes and found the entire vision melted into thin air; no Moses, no Eli as, and no Jesus. In such a case they would have been in a sorry plight, like those who having begun to taste of a banquet, suddenly find all the viands swept away ; like thirsty men who have tasted the cooling crystal drops, and then seen the fountain dried up before their eyes. They would not have gone down the moun- tain side that day asking questions and receiving instruction, for they would have had no teacher left them. They would have descended to face a multitude and to contend with a demon ; not to conquer Satan, but to stand defeated by him before the crowd; for they would have had no champion to espouse their cause and drive out the evil spirit. They would have gone down among Scribes and Pharisees to be baffled with their knotty questions, and to be defeated by their sophistries, for they would have had no wise man, who spake as never man spake, to untie the knots and disentangle the snarls of controversy. They would have been like sheep without a shepherd, like orphan children left alone in the world. They would henceforth have reckoned it an unhappy day on which they saw the transfiguration ; because having seen it, having been led to high thoughts by it, and excited to great expecta- tions, all had disappeared like the foam upon the waters, and left no solid residuum behind. Alas 1 for those who have seen the image of the spirits of just men made perfect, and beheld the great Lord of all such spirits, and then have found themselves alone and all the high companionship for ever gone. My dear brethren and sisters, there are some in this world, and we ourselves liave been among them, to whom something like this has actually occurred. You have been under a sermon, or at a gospel ordinance, or in reading the word of God for awhile delighted, exhilarated, lifted up to the sublimer regions, and then afterwards when it has all been over, there has been nothing left of joy or benefit, nothing left of all that was preached and for the moment enjoyed, nothing, at any rate, tliat you could take with you into the conflicts of every-day life. The whole has been a splendid vision and nothing more. There has been neither Moses, nor Elias, nor Jesus left. You did remember what you saw, but only with regret, because nothing re- mained with you. And, indeed, this which happens sometimes to us, is a general habit of that portion of this ungodly world which hears the gospeJ JESUS ONLY. 196 and perceives not its reality ; it listens with respect to {gospel histories as to lejrends of ancient times ; it hears with reverence the stories of the days of miracles; it venerates the far-off" ages and their heroic deeds, but it. does not believe that anything is left of all the vision, anything for to-day, for common life, and for common men. Moses it knows, and Elias it knows, and Christ it knows, as shadows that have passed across the scene and have disappeared, but it knows nothing of any one of these as abiding in permanent influence over the mind and spirit of the present. All come and all gone, all to be reverenced, all to be respected, but nothing more ; there is nothing left so far as they are concerned to influence or bless the present hour. Jesus and his gospel have come and gone, and we may very properly recollect the fact, but according to certain sages there is nothing in the New Testament to affect this advanced age, this enlightened nineteenth century ; we have got beyond all that. Ah! brethren, let those who can be content to do so, put up with this worship of moral relics and spiritual phantoms; to us it would be wretchedness itself. We, on the other hand say, blessing the name of the Lord that we can say it, that tlicre abides with us our Lord Jesus. At this day he is with us, and will be with us even to the end of the world. Christ's existence is not a fact confined to antiquity or to remote distance. By his Spirit he is actually in his church ; we have seen him, though not with eyes ; we have heard him, though not with ears ; we have grasped him, though not with hands; and we feed upon hisflesh, which is meat indeed, and his blood, wiiich is drink indeed. We have with us at this very day Jesus our friend, to whom we make known our secrets, and who beareth all our sorrows. We have Jesus our interpreting instructor, who still reveals his secrets to us, and leads us into the mind and name of God. We have Jesus still with us to supply us with strength, and in his power we still are mighty. We confess his reigning sovereignty in the church, and we receive his all-sufficient succours. The church is not decapitated, her Head abides in vital uniou with her; Jesus is no myth to us, whatever he may be to others; he is no departed shade, he is no heroic personification: in very deed there is a Christ, and though others see him not, and even we with these eyes see him not, yet in him believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, I trust it will never be so with us, that as we go about our life work our religion shall melt into fiction and become nothing but mere sentiment, nothing but thought, and dream, and vision ; but may our religion be a matter of fact, a walking with the living and abiding Saviour. Though Moses may be gone, and Elias may be gone, yet Jesus Christ abideth with us and in us, and we in him, and so shall it be evermore. Now, there was a second thing that might have happened to the disciples. When they lifted up their eyes they might have seen Moses only. It would certainly have been a very sad exchange for what they did see, to have seen Moses only. The face of Moses would have shone, his person would have awed them, and it would have been no mean thing for men of humble origin like themselves to walk down the mountain with that mighty king in Jeshurun, who had spoken with God face to face, and rested with him in solemn conclave by the space of forty days at a time. But yet who would exchange the sun for the 196 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PUI.PIT. moon? Who would exchange the cold moonbeams of Moses and the 'aw for the sunny rays of the Saviour's divine affection ? It would have been an unhappy exchange for them to have lost their Master whose name is love, and to have found a leader in the man whose name is synonymous with law. Moses, the man of God cannot be compared with Jesus, the Son of God. Yet, dear brethren, there are ; some who see Moses only. After all the gospel preaching that there has been in the world, and the declaration of the precious doctrines of grace every Sabbath day, after the clear revelations of Scripture, and the work of the Holy Spirit in men's hearts, yet we have among ns some wlio persist in seeing nothing but Moses only. I mean this, there are some who will see nothing but shadows still, mere shadows f:till. As I read my Bible I see there that the age of the symbolical, the typical, the pictorial, has passed away. I am glad of the symbols, and types, and pictures, for they remain instructive to me ; but the age in which they were in the foreground has given way to a clearer light, and they are gone for ever. There are, however, certain persons who profess to read the Bible and to see very differently, and they set up a new system of types and shadows — a system, let me say, ridiculous to men of sense, and obnoxious to men of spiritual taste. There are some who delight in outward ordi- nances; they must have rubric and ritual, vestments and ceremonial, and this superabundantly, morning, noon and night. They regard days, and seasons, and forms of words and postures. They consider one place holy above another. They regard a certain caste of men as being priestly above other believers, and their love of symbols is seen in season and out of season. One would think, from their teachings, that the one thing needful was not " Jesus only," but custom, antiquity, outward per- formance, and correct observance ! Alas! for those who talk of Jesus, but virtually see Moses, and Moses only. Ah ! unhappy change for the heart if it could exchange spiritual fellowship with Jesus for outward acts and symbolical representations. It would be an unhappy thing for the Christian church if she could ever be duped out of the priceless boons which faith wins from her living Lord in his fulness of grace and truth, to return to the beggarly elements of carnal ordinances. Unhappy day, indeed, if Popish counterfeits of legal shadows should supplant gospel fact and substance. Blessed be God, we have not so learned Christ. We see something better than Moses only. There are too many who see Moses only, inasmuch as they see nothing but law, nothing but duty and precept in the Bible. I know that some here, though we have tried to preach Christ crucified as their only hope, yet whenever they read the Bible, or hear the gospel, feel nothing except a sense of their own sinfulness, and arising out of that sense of sinfulness, a desire to work out a righteousness of their own. They arc continually measuring them- Belves by the law of God, they feel their shortcomings, they mourn over their transgressions, but they go no further. I am glad *.t\s\t they see Moses, may the stern voice of the lawgiver drive them l>:> the law- fulfiller ; but I grieve that they tarry so long in legal servitude, which can only bring them sorrow and dismay. The sight of Sinai, what is it but despair ? God revealed inflaming fire, and in-oclaiming with JESUS ONLY. 197 thunder his fiery law, what is there here to save the soul ? To see tl)e Lord who will by no means spare the j?uilty, but will surely visit transfrression with eternal vengeance, is a sight which never should eclipse Calvary, where love makes recompense to justice. that you may get beyond the mount that might be touched, and come to Calvary where God in vengeance is clearly seen, but where God in mercy fills the throne. Oh, how blessed is it to escape from the voice of command and threatening and come to the blood of sprinkling, where " Jesua only " speaketh better things ! Moses only, however, has become a sight very common with some of you who write bitter things against yourselves. You never read the Scriptures or hear the gospel without feeling condemned. You know your duty, and confess how short you have fallen of it, and therefore you abide under conscious condemnation, and will not come to him who is the propitiation for your sins. Alas, that there should be so many who with strange perversity of unbelief twist every promise into a threatening, and out of every gracious word that drips with honey manage to extract gall and wormwood. They see the dark shadow of Moses only; the broken tablets of the law, the smoking mount, and the terrible trumpet are ever with them, and over all an angry God. They had a better vision once, they have it sometimes now; for now and then under the preaching of the gospel they have glimpses of hope and mercy, but they relapse into darkness, they fall again into despair, because they have chosen to see Moses only. I pray that a change may come over the spirit of their dream, and that yet like the apostles they may see "Jesus only." But, my brethren, there was a third alternative that might have happened to the disciples, they might have seen Elijah only. Instead of the gentle Saviour, they might have been standing at the side of the rougli-clad and the stern-spirited Elias. Instead of the Lamb of God, there might have remained to them only the lion who roared like the voice of God's own majesty in the midst of sinful Israel. In such a case, with such a leader, they would have gone down from the mount, and I wot that if John had said, " Command fire from heaven," Elias would have consumed his foes, the Pharisees like the priests of Baal would have found a speedy end, Herod's blood, like Ahab's, would have been licked up by dogs, and Herodias, like another Jezebel, would have been devoured of the same. But all this power for vengeance would have been a poor exchange for the gracious omnipotence of the Friend of sinners. Who would prefer the slayer of the priests to the Saviour of men ? The top of Carmel was glorious when its intercession brought the rain for Israel, but how poor it is compared with Gethsemane, whose pleadings bring eternal life to millions 1 In company with Jesus we are at Elim beneath the palm tree, but with Elias we are in the wilderness beneath the stunted juniper. Who would exchange tha excellency of Olivet for the terrors of Horeb ? Yet I fear there are many who see Elias only. Prophecies of future woe fascinate them rather than thoughts of present salvation. Eiias may be taken repre- sentatively as tiie preparer of Christ, fur our Lord interpreted the prophecy of the coming of Elias as relerring to John the Baptist. There are not ^ few wh.Q 9,bi4e iu thQ S^ekin^^ i,-cyenting, and pi:epj,ia,'iftg state, 198 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. Bnd come not to " Jesus only." I am not myself fond of even using tha term " preparing for Christ," for it seems to me that those are best pre- pared for Christ who most feel themselves unprepared ; but there is no doubt a state of heart which prepares for faith — a sense of need, a con- sciousness of sin, a hatred of sin, all these are preparations for actual peace and comfort in Christ Jesus, and oh ! how many there are who continue year after year merely in that preliminary condition, choosing the candle and refusing the sun. They do not become believers, but are always complaining that they do not feel as yet fit to come to Christ. They want Christ, they desire Christ, they would fain have Christ, but they stay in desire and longings, and go no further. They never get so far as to behold " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." The voice from heaven to them they always interpret as crying, " The axe is laid unto the root of the trees; bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance," Their conscience is thrilled, and thrilled again, by the voice that cricth in the wilderness, *' Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Their souls are rent and torn by Elijah's challenge, " If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him;" but they remain still halting between two opinions, trembling before Elias and not rejoicing before the Saviour. Unhappy men and women, so near the kingdom, and yet out of it ; so near the feast, and yet perishing for want of the living bread. The word is near you (ah, how near !), and yet you receive it not. Remember, I pray you, that merely to prepare for a Saviour is not to be saved ; that to have a sense of sin is not the same thing as being pardoned. Your repentance, unless you also believe in Jesus, is a repentance that needs to be repented of. At the girdle of John the Baptist the keys of heaven did never hang ; Elias is not the door of salvation ; preparation for Christ is not Christ, despair is not regeneration, doubt is not repentance. Only by faith in Jesus can you be saved, but complaining of yourselves is not faith. " Jesus only " is the way, the truth, and the life. " Jesus only " is the sinner's Saviour. that your eyes may be opened, not to see Elias, not to see Moses, but to see " Jesus only." You see, then, these three alternatives, but there was also another : a fourth thing might have happened when the disciples opened their eyes — they might Iiave seen Moses and Elias ivith Jesus, even as in the transfiguration. At first sight it seems as if this would have been superior to that which they did enjoy. To walk down the mountain with that blessed trio, how great a privilege ! How strong might they have been for the accomplishment of the divine purposes ! Moses could preach the law and make men tremble, and then Jesus could follow with his gospel of grace and truth. Elias could flash the thunderbolt in their faces, and then Christ could have uplifted the humbled spirits. Would not the contrast have been delightful, and the connection inspiriting ? Would not the assemblage of such divers kinds of forces have contributed to the greatest success ? I think not. It is a vastly better thing to see " Jesus only," as a matter of perpetuity, than to see Moses and Elias with Jesus. It is night, I know it, for 1 see the moon and stars. The morning cometh, I know it cometh, for I sec no longer many stars, only one remains, and that the morning star. But the full day has arrived, I know it has, for I cannot even sec the morning star; all those guardians JESUS ONLY. 199 and comforters of the night have disappeared ; I see the sun only. Now, inasmuch as every man prefers the noon to midnight and to the twilight of dawn, the disappearance of Moses and Elias, indicating the full noontide of light, was the best thing that could happen. Why should we wish to see Moses? The ceremonials are all fulfilled in Jesus; the law is honoured and fulfilled in him. Let Moses go, his light is already in "Jesus only." And why should I wish to retain Elias? The prophecies are all fulfilled in Jesus, and the preparation of which Elias preached Jesus brings with himself. Let, then, Elias go, his light also is in " Jesus only." It is better to see Moses and Elias in Christ, than to see Moses and Elias ivith Christ. The absence of some things betokens a higher state of things than their presence. In all my library I do not know that I have a Lennie's English Grammar, or a Mavor's Spelling Book, or a Henry's First Latin Exercises, nor do I regret the absence of those vaUable works, because I have got beyond the need of them. So the Christian wants not the symbols of Moses, or the preparations of Elias, for Christ is all, and we are complete in him. He who is conversant with the higher walks of sacred literature and reads in the golden book of Christ's heart, may safely lay the legal school-book by ; this was good enough for the church's infancy, but we have now put away childish things. "We, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world : but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." My brethren, the principle may be carried still further, for even the most precious things we treasure here below will dis- appear when fully realised in heaven. Beautiful for situation was the tem- ple on Mount Zion, and though we believe not in the sanctity of buildings under the gospel, we love the place of solemn meeting where we are accustomed to offer prayer and praise ; but when we enter into perfec- tion we shall find no temple in heaven. We delight in our Sabbaths, and we would not give them up. may England never lose her Sabbaths ! but when we reach the Jerusalem above, we shall not observe the first day of the week above the rest, for we shall enjoy one ever- lasting Sabbath. No temple, because all temple ; and no Sabbath-day, because all Sabbath in heaven. Thus you see the losing of some things is gain : it proves that we have got beyond their help. Just as we get beyond the nursery and all its appurtenances, and never regret it, because we have become men, so do Moses and Elias pass away, but we do not miss them, for " Jesus only " indicates our manhood. It is a sign of a higher growth when we can see Jesus only. My brethren, much of this sort of thing takes place with all Christians in their spiritual life. Do you remember when you were first of all convinced and awakened, what a great deal you thought of the preacher, and how much of the very style in which he spoke the gospel ! But now, though you delight to listen to his voice, and find that God blesses you through him, yet you have sunk the thought of the preacher iu the glory of thg Master, you see no man save " Jesue 200 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. only." And as you grow in grace you will find that many doctrines and points of church government which once appeared to you to be all important, though you will still value them, will seem but of small consequence compared with Christ himself. Like the traveller ascend- ing the Alps to reach the summit of Mont Blanc ; at first he observes tiiat lord of the hills as one horn among many, and often in the twist- ings of his upward path he sees other peaks which appear more elevated than that monarch of mountains ; but when at last he is near the summit, he sees all the rest of the hills beneath his feet, and like a mighty wedge of alabaster Mont Blanc pierces the very clouds. So, as we grow in grace, other things sink and Jesus rises. They must decrease, but Christ must increase ; until he alone fills the full horizon of your soul, and rises clear and bright and glorious up into the very heaven of God. that we may thus see " Jesus only ! " II. Time hastens so rapidly, this morning, that I know not how I shall be able to compress the rest of my discourse into the allotted space. We must in the most rapid manner speak upon WHAT really HAPPENED. " They saw no man, save Jesus only." This was all they wanted to see for their comfort. They were sore afraid : Moses was gone, and he could give them no comfort ; Elias was gone, he could speak no con- solatory word; yet when Jesus said, "Be not afraid," their fears vanished. All the comfort, then, that any troubled heart wants, it can find in Christ. Go not to Moses, nor Elias, neither to the old covenant, nor to prophecy : go straight away to Jesus only. He was all the Saviour they wanted. Those three men all needed washing from sin ; all needed to be kept and held on their way, but neither Moses nor Elias could have washed them from sin, nor have kept them from returning to it. But Jesus only could cleanse them, and did ; Christ could lead them on, and did. Ah ! brethren, all the Saviour we want, we find in Jesus only. The priests of Rome and their Anglican mimics officiously offer us their services. How glad they would be if we would bend our necks once again to their yoke I But we thank God we have seen " Jesus only," and if Moses has gone, and if Elias has gone, we are not likely to let the shavelings of Rome come in and fill up the vacancy. ** Jesus only," is enough for our comfort, without either Anglican, Mosaic, or Roman priestcraft. He, again, was to them, as they went afterwards into the world enough for a Master. " No man can serve two masters," and albeit, Moses and Elias might sink into the second rank, yet might there have been some difficulty in the follower's mind if the leadership were divided. But when they had no leader but Jesus, his guidance, his direction and command were auite sufficient. lie, in the day of battle, was enough for their captain ; in the day of difficulty, enough for theic JESUS ONLt 201 direction. They wanted none but Jesus. At this day, my brethren, we have no Master but Christ ; we submit ourselves to no vicar of God-, we bow down ourselves before no great leader of a sect, neither U Calvin, nor to Arminius, to Wesley, or Whitfield. " One is our Master,'' and that one is enough, for we have learned to see the wisdom of God and the power of God in Jesus only. He was enough as their potver for future life, as well as their Master. They needed not ask Moses to lend them official dignity, nor to ask Elias to bring them fire from heaven, Jesus would give them of his Holy Spirit, and they should be strong enough for every enterprise. And, brethren, all the power you and I want to preach the gospel, and to conquer souls to the truth, we can find in Jesus only. You want no sacred state-prestige, no pretended apostolical succession, no prelatical unction; Jesus will anoint you with his Holy Spirit, and you shall be plenteously endowed with power from on high, so that you shall do great things and prevail. "Jesus only." Why, they wanted no other motive to constrain them to use their power aright. It is enough in- centive to a man to be allowed to live for such a one as Christ. Only let the thought of Christ fill the enlightened intellect, and it must conquer the sanctified affections. Let but Jesus be well understood as the everlasting God who bowed the heavens, and came down and suflFered shame, and ignominy, that he might redeem us from the wrath to come; let us get but a sight of the thorn-crowned head, and those dear eyes all red with weeping, and those sweet cheeks bruised and battered by the scofifers' fists ; let us but look into the tender heart that was broken with griefs unutterable for our sakes, and the love of Christ must constrain us, and we shall thus " judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." In the point of motive believers do not need the aid of Moses. That you ought to do such a thing because otherwise you will be punished will but little strengthen you, nor will you be much aided by the spirit of prophecy which leads you to hope that in the millennial period you will be made a ruler over many cities. It will be enough to you that you serve the Lord Christ ; it suffices you if you may be enabled to honour him, to deck his crown, to magnify his name. Here is stimulus sufficient for martyrs and confessors, *' Jesus only." Brethren, it is all the gospel we have to preach, it is all the gospel we want to preach — it is the only ground of confidence which we have for ourselves ; it is all the hope we have to set before others. I know that in this age there is an overweening desire for that which has the aspect of being intellectual, deep, and novel ; and we are often informed that there are to be developments MS METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. in religion even as in science ; and we are despised as being hardly men, certainly nob thinking men, if ^ve preach to-day what was preached two hundred years ago. Brethren, we preach to-day what was preached eighteen hundred years ago, and wherein others make alterations they create deformities, and not improvements. We are not ashamed to avow that the old truth of Christ alone is everlasting; all else has gone or shall go, but the gospel towers above the wrecks of time : to us " Jesus only " remains as the sole topic of our ministry, and we want nothing else. For " Jesus only " shall be our reward, to be with him where he is, to behold his glory, to be like him when we shall see him as he is, we ask no other heaven. No other bliss can our soul conceive of. The Lord grant we may have a fulness of this, and " Jesus only" shall be throughout eternity our delight. There was here space to have dilated at great length, but we have rather given you the heads of thought than the thoughts themselves. Though the apostles saw ** Jesus only," they saw quite sufficient, for Jesus is enough for time and eternity, enough to live by and enough to die by. III. I must close, though I would fain linger. Brethren, let us think of WHAT we desire may happen to all now present. I do desire for my fellow Christians and for myself, that more and more the great object of our thoughts, motives, and acts may be "Jesus only." I believe that whenever our religion is most vital it is most full of Christ. Moreover, when it is most practical, downright, and common sense, it always gets nearest to Jesus. I can bear witness that when- ever I am in deeps of sorrow, nothing will do for me but "Jesus only." I can rest in some degree in the externals of religion, its outward escarpments and bulwarks, when I am in health ; but I retreat to the innermost citadel of our holy faith, namely, to the very heart of Christ, when my spirit is assailed by temptation, or besieged with sorrow and anguish. What is more, my witness is that whenever I have high spiritual enjoyments, enjoyments rich, rare, celestial, they are always connected with Jesus only, other religious things may give some kind of joy, and joy that is healthy too, but the sublimest, the most inebriat- ing, the most divine of all joys, must be found in Jesus only. In fine, I find if I want to labour much, I must live on Jesus only ; if I desire to suffer patiently, I must feed on Jesus only ; if I wish to wrestle with God successfully, I must plead Jesus only ; if I aspire to conquer sin, I must use the blood of Jesus only ; if I pant to learn the mysteries of heaven, I must seek the teachings of Jesus only. I believe that any- thing which we add to Christ lowers our position, and that the more elevated our soul becomes, the more nearly like what it is to be when it shall enter into the region of the perfect, the more completely JESUS ONLY. 20S everything else will sink, die oat, and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus only, will be first and last, and midst and without end, the Alpha and Omega of every thought of head and pulse of heart. May it be so with every Christian ! There are others here who are not yet believers in Jesus, and our desire is that this may happen to them, that they may see " Jesus only." ** Oh," saith one, " Sir, I want to see my sins. My heart is very hard, and very proud ; I want to see my sins." Friend, I also desire that you should, but I desire that you may see them not on yourself, but on Jesus only. No sight of sin ever brings such true "^ humiliation of spirit as when the soul sees its sins laid on the Saviour. Sinner, I know you have thought of sins as lying on yourself, and you have been trying to feel their weight, but there is a happier and better view still. Sin was laid on Jesus, and it made him to be covered with a bloody sweat; it nailed him to the cross; it made him cry,, " Lama Sabach- thani ;" it bowed him into the dust of death. Why, friend, if you see sin- on Jesus you will hate it, you will bemoan it, you will abhor it. You need not look evermore to sin as burdening yourself, see Jesus only, and the best "t" kind of repentance will follow. " Ah, but," saith another, " I want to feel my need of Christ more." You will see your need all the better if you look at Jesus only. Many a time an appetite for a thing is created by the sight of it. Why, there are some of us who can hardly be trusted in a bookseller's shop, because though we might have done very well at home without a certain volume, we no sooner sec it than we are in urgent need of it. So often is it with some of you about other matters, so that it becomes most dangerous to let you see, because you want as soon as you see. A sight of Jesus, of what he is to sinners, of what ho makes sinners, of what he is in himself, will more tend to make you feel your need of him than all your poring over your poor miserable self. You will get no further there, look to " Jesus only." " Ay," saith another, ** but I want to read my title clear, I want to know that I have an interest in Jesus." You will best read your interest in Christ, by looking at him. If I want to know whether a certain estate is mine, do I look into my own heart to see if I have a right to it ? but I look into the archives of the estate, I search testaments and covenants. Now, Christ Jesus is God's covenant with the people, a leader and commander to the people. To-day, I personally can read my title clear to heaven, and shall I tell you how I read it ? Not because I feel all I wish to feel, nor because I am what I hope I yet shall be, but I read in the word that " Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," I am a sinner, even the devil cannot tell me I am not. precious Saviour, then thou hast come to save such as I am. Then I see it written again, "He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved." I have believed, and have been baptised; I know I trust alone in Jesus, and that is believing. 204 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, As surely then as there is a God in heaven I shall be in heaven one day. It must be so, because unless God be a liar, he that believeth must be saved. You see it is not by looking within, it is by looking to Jesus only that you perceive at last your name graven on his hands. I wish to have Christ's name written on my heart, but if I want assurance, I have to look at his heart till I see my name written there. turn your eye away from your sin and your emptiness to his right- eousness and his fulness. See the sweat drops bloody as they fall in Gethsemane, see his heart pierced and pouring out blood and water foi the sins of men upon Calvary I There is life in a look at him ! look to him, and though it be Jesus only, though Moses should condemn ^ you, and Elias should alarm you, yet " Jesus only" shall be enough to comfort and enough to save you. May God grant us grace every one of us to take for our motto in life, for our hope in death, and for our •y joy in eternity, " Jesus only." May God bless you for the sake of ''I "Jesus only." Amen. Portion op Scripture read before Sermon— Matthevt tvA, gH^trxruolitrnt SHh)[uarIe fttluit. FAITH: WHAT IS IT? HOW CAN IT BE OBTAINED? Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, July ITtii, 1881, Bf C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. •'By grace are ye saved through faith." — Ephesians ii. 8. I MEAN to dwell mainly upon that expression, " Through faith." I call attention, however, first of all, to the fountain head of our salvation, which is the grace of God. " By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are Baved ; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then, at the well-head. Behold the pure river of water of life as it proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. What an abyss is the grace of God ! Who can fathom it ? Like all the rest of the divine attributes, it is infinite. God is full of love, for " God is love"; God is full of goodness, and the very name " God " is but short for " good." Unbounded goodness and love enter into the very essence of the Godhead. It is because ** his mercy endureth for ever " that men are not destroyed ; because " his compassions fail not" that sinners are brought to himself and forgiven. Eight well remember this, for else you may fall into error by fixing your minds BO much upon the faith which is the channel of salvation as to forget the grace which is the fountain and source even of faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. *• No man cometh unto me," saith Christ, " except the Father which hath sent me draw him." So that faith, which is coming to Christ, is the result of divine drawing. Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation, and faith, important as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved " through faith," but it is " by grace." Sound forth those words as with the archangel's trumpet : " By grace are ye saved." Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit-pipe. Grace ia the fountain and the stream: faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men. It is a great pity when the aqueduct is broken. It is a sad sight to see around No. 1,009. 402 METltOPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. Rome the many noble aqueducts which no longer convey water into the city, because the arches are broken and the marvellous structures are in ruins. The aqueduct must be kept entire to convey the current; and, even so, faith must be true and sound, leading right up to God and coming right down to ourselves, that it may become a serviceable channel of mercy to our souls. Still, I again remind you that faith is the channel or aqueduct, and not the fountain head, and we must not look so much to it as to exalt it above the divine source of all blessing which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ ont of your faith, nor think of it as if it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in "looking unto Jesus," not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us ; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies. Grace is the locomotive, and faith is the chain by which the carriage of the soul is attached to the great motive power. The righteousness of faith is not the moral excellence of faith, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ which faith grasps and appropriates. The peace within the soul is not derived frcnn the contemplation of our own faith, but it comes to us from him <\ho is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith touches, and virtue comes out of him into the soul. However, it is a very important thing that we look well to the channel, and therefore at this time we will consider it, as God, the Holy Ghost, shall enable us. Faith, tohat is it? Faith, ivhy is it selected as the channel of blessing? Faith, hoiu can it he obtained and increased? I. Faith, what is it ? AVhat is this faith concerning which it is said, " By grace are ye saved through faith "? There are many de- scriptious of faith, but almost all the definitions I have met with have made me understand it less than I did before I saw them. The negro said when he read the chapter that he would confound it, and it is very likely that he did so, though he meant to expound it. So, brethren, we may explain faith till nobody understands it. I hope I shall not be guilty of that fault. Faith is the simplest of all things, and perhaps because of its simplicity it is the more difficult to explain. Wiiat is faith? // is made up of three things — Jcnoiv ledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge comes first. Komanist divines hold that a man can believe Avhat he does not know. Perhaps a Eomanist can ; but I cannot. " How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" I want to be informed of a fact before I can possibly believe it. I believe this, I believe that; but I cannot say that I believe a great many things of which I have never heard. " Faith Cometh by hearing": we must first hear, in order that we may know what is to be believed. "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." A measure of knowledge is essential to faith : hence the im- portance of getting knowledge. " Incline your ear, and come unto mc ; hear, and your soul shall live," — such was the word of the ancient prophet, and it is the word of the gospel still. Search the Scriptures and learn what the Holy Spirit teacheth concerning Christ and his salvation. Seek to know God, — "that God is, aud is the rcwarder of them that diligently seek him." May he give you " the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord," Know the gospel : know what the good newa is, how it talks of free forgiveness, and of change of heart, of adoption FAITH: WHAT IS IT? HOW CAN IT BE OBTAINED? 403 Into the family of God, and of countless other blessings. Know God, know his gospel, and know especially Christ Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of men, united to us by his human nature, and united to God, seeing he is divine, and thus able to act as mediator between God and man, able to lay his hand upon both, and to be the connecting link between the sinner and the Judge of all the earth. Endeavour to know more and more of Christ. After Paul had been converted more than twenty years, he tells the Philippians that he desired to know Christ; and depend upon it, the more we know of Jesus, the more we shall wish to know of him, that so our faith in him may increase. Endeavour especially to know the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ, for that is the centre of the target at which faith aims ; that is the point upon which saving faith mainly fixes itself, that " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Know that he was made a curse for us, as it is written, " Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Drink deep into the doctrine of the substi- tutionary work of Christ, for therein lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord " made him to be sm for. us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Faith, then, begins with knowledge ; hence the value of being taught in divine truth; for to know Christ is life eternal. Then the mind goes on to helievB that these things are true. The soul believes that God is, and that he hears the cries of sincere hearts ; that the gospel is from God ; that justification by faith is the grand truth that God hath revealed in these last days by his Spirit more clearly than before. Then the heart believes that Jesus is verily and in truth our God and Saviour, the Eedeemer of men, the prophet, priest, and king unto his people. Dear hearers, I pray that you may at once come to this. Get firmly to believe that " the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin"; that his sacrifice is complete and fully accepted of God on man's behalf, so that he that belie veth on Jesus is not condemned. So far you have made an advance towards faith, and one more ingredient is needed to complete it, which is trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God ; rest your hope on the gracious gospel ; trust your soul on the dying and living Saviour ; wash away your sins in the atoning blood ; accept his perfect righteousness, and all is well. Trust is the life-blood of faith : there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word " recumbency." You know what it means. You see me leaning upon this rail, leaning with all my weight upon it ; even thus lean upon Christ. It would be a better illustration still if I were to stretch myself at full length and rest my whole person upon a rock, lying flat upon it. Fall flat upon Christ. Cast yourself upon him, rest in him, commit yourself to him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. Faith is not a bhnd thing ; fur faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing ; for Jaith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing ; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revela- tion. Faith ventures its all upon the truth of God ; it is not a pleasant word to use, but the poet employed it, and it suggests my meaning : " Venture on him, venture wholly ; Let uo other trust hitrude." 404 JlETROrOIilTAN TABERNACLK PULPIT. That is one way of describing what faith is : I wonder whether I have ♦' confounded " it aheady. Jjet me try again. Faith is helieving that Christ is what he is said to be, that he will do luliai he has pro77iised to do, and expecting/ this of him. The Scripture.-; speak of Jesus Christ as being God, God in human flesh : as being pei'fect in his character ; as being made a sin-offering on our behalf; as bearing sin in his own body on the tree, Tlie Scripture ppeaks of him as having finished transgression, made an end of sin. and brought in everlasting righteousness. The Scriptures further tell us that he " rose again," that he " ever liveth to make intercession for us," that he has gone up into the glory, and has taken possession of heaven on the behalf of his people, and that he will shortly come again " to judge the world in righteousness and his people with equity." We are most firmly to believe that it is even so ; for this is the testimony of God the Father when he said, " This is my beloved Son ; hear ye him." Tin's also is testified by God the Holy Spirit ; for the Spirit has borne witness to Christ, both by the Word and by divers miracles, and by his working in the hearts of men. We are to believe this testimony to be true. Faith also believes that Christ will do what he has promised ; that if he has promised to cast out none that come to him, it is certain that he Avill not cast us out if we come to him. Faith believes that if Jesus said, " The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring- ing up into everlasting life," it must be true ; and if we get this living water from Christ it will abide in us, and will well up within us in streams of holy life. Whatever Christ has promised to do he will do, and we must believe this so as to look for pardon, justification, preserva- tion, and eternal glory from his hands, according as he has promised. Then comes the next necessary step. Jesus is what he is said to be, Jesus will do what he says he will do ; therefore we must each one trust him, saying, " He will be to me what he says he is, and he will do to me what he has promised to do ; I leave myself in the hands of him who is appointed to save, that he may save me. I rest upon his promise that he will do even as he has said." This is a saving faith, and he that hath it hath everlasting life. Whatever his dangers and difficulties, what- ever his darkness and depression, whatever his infirmities and sins, he that believeth thus on Christ Jesus is not condemned, and shall never come into condemnation. May that explanation be of some service. I trust it may be used by the Spirit of God. But now I thought, as it was a very hot and heavy morning, that I had better give yon a number of illustrations, lest anybody should be inclined to go to sleep. If anybody should be drowsy, will his next neighbour just nudge him a little by accident; for it may be as well while we arc here to be awake, especially with such a subject on hand as this. The illustrations will be such as have been commonly used, and perhaps I may be able to give one or two of my own. Faith exists in various degrees, according to the amount of knowledge, or other cause. Some- times faith is little more than a simple clinging to Christ : a sense of dependence, and a willingness so to depend. When you are down at the seaside, as we might all of us wish to be, you will see the limpet sticking to the rock ; you walk with a "^ft tread up to the rock with FAITH: WHAT IS IT? HOW CAN IT BE OBTAINED? 4U5 your walking stick and strike the limpet with a rapid blow, and off he comes. Try the next limpet in that way. You have given him warning ; he heard the blow with which you struck his neighbour, and he clinga with all his might. You will never get him off ; not you ! Strike, and strike again, but you may as soon break the rock. Our little friend, the limpet, does not know much, but he clings. He cannot tell ua much about what he is clinging to, he is not acquainted with the geo- logical formation of the rock, but he clings. He has found something to cHng to, that is his little bit of knowledge, and he uses it by clinging to the rock of his salvation ; it is the limpet's life to cling. Thousands of God's people have no more faith than this ; they know enough to cling to Jesus with all their heart and soul, and this suffices. Jesus Christ is to them a Saviour strong and mighty, and like a rock immov- able and immutable ; they cleave to him for dear life, and this clinging saves them. God gives to his people the propensity to cling. Look at the sweet pea which grows in your garden. Perhaps it has fallen down upon the gravel walk. Lift it up against the laurel or the treliis, or put a stick near it, and it catches hold directly, because there are little hooks ready prepared with which it grasps anything which comes in its way : it was meant to grow upwards, and so it is provided with tendrils. Every child of God has his tendrils about him — thoughts, and desires, and hopes with which he hooks on to Christ and the promise. Though this is a very simple sort of faith, it is a very complete and effectual form of it, and, in fact, it is the heart of all faith, and that to which we are often driven when we are in deep trouble, or when our mind is somewhat bemuddled by our being sickly or depressed in spirit. We can cling when we can do nothing else, and that is the very soul of faith. poor heart, if thou dost not yet know as much about the gospel as we could wish thee to know, cling to what thou dost know. If as yet thou art only like a lamb that wades a little into the river of life, and not like leviathan who stirs the mighty deep to the bottom, yet drink ; for it is drinking, and not diving, that will save thee. Cling, then ! Cling to Jesus ; for that is faith. Another form of faith is this, in which a man depends upon another from a knowledge of the superiority of that other, and follows him. I do not think the limpet knows much about the rock, but in this next phase of faith there is more knowledge. A blind man trusts himself with his guide because he knows that his friend can see, and trusting, he walks where his guide conducts him. If the poor man is born blind he does not know what sight is ; but he knows that there is such a thing aa sight, and that it is possessed by his friend, and therefore he freely puts his hand into the hand of the seeing one, and follows his leadership. This is as good an image of faith as well can be ; we know that Jesaa has about him merit, and power, and blessing which we do not possess, and therefore we gladly trust ourselves to him, and he never betrays our confidence. Every boy that goes to school has to exert faith while learning. His schoolmaster teaches him geography, and instructs him as to the form of the earth, and the existence of certain great cities and empires. The boy iloQs act hioiself kuow th^^t thQse things a,re true, except that he believqa 406 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. his teacher, and the books put into liis hands. That is what you will have to do with Christ if you are to be saved — you must just know because he tells you, and believe because he assures you it is even so, and (rust yourself with him because he promises you that salvation will be the result. Almost all that you and I know has come to us by faith. A scientific discovery has been made, and we are sure of it. On what ground do we believe it? On the authority of certain well-known men of learning, whose repute is established. We have never made or seen their experiments, but we believe their witness. Just so you are to do with regard to Christ : because he teaches you certain truths you are to be his disciple, and believe his words, and trust yourself with hira. He is infinitely superior to you, and presents himself to your confidence 03 your ]\Iaster and Lord. If you will receive him ana his words you Bhall be saved. Another and a higher form of faith is that faith which c/rows out of love. Why does a boy trust his father ? You and I know a little more about his lather than he does, and we do not rely upon him quite so implicitly; but the reason why the child trusts his father is because he loves him. Blessed and happy are they who have a sweet faith in Jesus, intertwined with deep affection for hira. They are charmed with his character and delighted with his mission, they are carried away by the lovingkindness that he has manifested, and now they cannot help trusting him because they so much admire, revere, and love him. It is hard to make you doubt a person whom you love. If you are at last driven to it, then comes the awful passion of jealousy, which is strong as death and cruel as the grave : but till such a crushing of the heart shall come, love is all trustfulness and confidence. The way of loving fci'ust in the Saviour may thus be illustrated. A lady is the wife of the most eminent physician of the day. She is seized with a dangerous illness, and is smitten down by its power ; yet she is wonderfully calm and quiet, for her husband has made this disease his special study, and has healed thousands similarly atflicted. She is not in the least troubled, for she feels perfectly safe in the hands of one so dear to her, in whom skill and love are blended in their highest forms. Her faith is reasonable and natural, her husband from every point of view deserves it of her. This is the kind of faith which the happiest of believers exercise towards Christ. There is no physician like him, none can save as he can ; we love him, and he loves us, and therefore we put ourselves into his hands, accept whatever he prescribes, and do whatever he bids. We feel that nothing can be wrongly ordered while he is the director of our affairs, for he loves us too well to let us perish, or suffer a single needless pang. Faith also realizes the presence of the living God and Saviour, and thus it breeds in the soul a beautiful calm and quiet like that which was seen in a little child in the time of tempest. Her mother was alarmed, but the sweet girl was pleased ; she clapped her hands with delight. Standing at the window Avhen the flashes came most vividly, she cried in childish accents, " Look, mamma ! How beautiful ! How beautiful ! " Her mother said, " My dear, come away, the lightning is terrible;" but she begged to be allowed to look out and see the lovely light wbicli Go4 w^8 inaking all over the aky, for sh^ W£^3 ^uie God would FAITH: WHAT IS IT f HOW CAN IT BE OBTAINED? 407 not do his little child any harm. " But hearken to the terrible thunder," said her mother. '•' Did you not say, mamma, that God was speaking in the thunder?" "Yes," said her trembling parent. "0," said the darling, *' how nice it is to hear him. He talks very loud, but I think it is because he wants the deaf people to hear him. Is it not so, mamma ?" Thus she went talking on ; as merry as a bird was she, for God was real to her, and she trusted him. To her the lightning was God's beautiful light, and the thunder was God's wonderful voice, and she was happy. I dare say her mother knew a good deal about the laws of nature and the energy of electricity ; and little was the comfort which her knowledge brought her. The child's knowledge was less showy, but it was far more certain and precious. We are so conceited nowadays that we are too proud to be comforted by self-evident truth, and prefer to make ourselves wretched with questionable theories. Hood sang a deep spiritual truth when he merrily said, " I remember, I remember, The fir trees dark and higb ; I used to tbink their slender tops Were close against the sky ; It was a childish ignorance, Iiut now 'tis little joy To know I'm farther off from heav'n Than when I was a boy.'' For my own part I would rather be a child again than grow perversely wise. Faith, is to be a child towards Christ, believing in him as a real and present person, at this very moment near us, and ready to bless us. This may seem to be a childish fancy ; but it is such childishness are wg must all coiae to if we would be happy in the Lord *' Except ye be con* verted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the king- dom of heaven." Faith takes Christ at his word, as a child believes his father, and trusts him in all simplicity with past, present, and future. God give us such faith ! ^.^.-"■^ A firm form of failh arises out of assured knowledge ; this comes of growth in grace, and is the faith which believes Christ because it knows him, trusts him because it has proved him to be infallibly faithful. This faith asks not for signs and tokens, but bravely believes. Look at the faith of the master mariner — I have often wondered at it. He looses his cable, he steams away from the shore. For days, weeks, or even months he never sees sail or shore, yet on he goes day and night without fear, till one morning he finds himself just opposite to the desired haven towards which he has been steering. How has he found his way over the trackless deep ? He has trusted in his compass, his nautical almanack, his glass, and the heavenly bodies, and obeying tlieir guidance, without sighting shore, he has steered so accurately that he has not to change a point to get into port. It is a wonderful thing that sailing without sight. Spiritually it is a blessed thing to leave the shores of Bight, and say, " Good-bye to inward feelings, cheering providences, signs, tokens, and so forth : I believe in God, and I steer for heaven straight away." " Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed : " to them shall be administered an abundant entrance at the last, and a safe voyage on the way. tOfi METilOPOI.ITAN TADERXACLE PULriT. This is the faith which makes it easy to commit our soul and all its darnal interests into the Savioia-'s heeping. One man goes to the bank and puts liis money into it with a measure of confidence ; but another has looked into the bank's accounts, and has been behind the scenes and made sure of its having a large reserve of well invested capital ; he puts in his money with the utmost assurance. He knows and is established in his faith, and so he cheerfully commits his all to the bank. Even so, we who know Christ are glad to place our whole being in his hands, knowing that he is able to keep us even unto the end. God give us more and more of an assured confidence in Jesus until it comes to be an unwavering faith, so that we never doubt, but un- questioningly believe. Look at the ploughman; he labours with his plough in the wintry months, when there is not a bough on the tree nor a bird that sings to cheer him, and after he ha.s ploughed he takes the precious corn from the granary, of which perhaps he hath little enough, and he buries it in the furrows, assured that it will come up again. Because he has seen a harvest fifty times already he looks for another, and in faith he scatters the precious grain. To all appearance, the most absurd thing that ever was done by mortal man is to throw away good corn, burying it in the ground. If you had never seen or heard of its results, it would seem the way of waste and not the work of husbandry ; yet the farmer has no doubt, he longs to be allowed to cast away his seed, in faith he even covets fair weather that he may bury his corn ; and if you tell him that he is doing an absurd thing, he smiles at your ignorance, and tells you that thus harvests come. This is a fair picture of the faith which grov,'s of experience : it helps us to act in a manner contrary to appearances, it leads us to commit our all to the keeping of Christ, burying our hopes and our very lives with him in joyful confidence that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him. Jesus Christ who rose from the dead will raise us up through his death unto newness of life, and give ua a harvest of joy and peace. Give up everything into the hand of Christ, and you shall have it back with an abundant increase. May we get strong faith, so that as we have no doubt of the rising and setting of the sun, so we may never doubt the Saviour's working for us in every hour of need. AVe have already trusted in our Lord, and have never been confounded, therefore let us go on to rely upon him more and more implicitly ; for never shall our faith in him surpass the bounds of his deservings. Have faith in God, and then hear Jesus say, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." IL Thus far have I done my best to answer what faith is ; we shall now enquire, why faith is selected as the channel of salva- tion ? " By grace are ye saved through faith.'' It becomes us to be modest in answering such a question, for God's ways are not always to be understood ; but, as tar as we can tell, faith has been selected as the channel of grace because there is a natural adaptation in faith to be used as the receiver. Suppose that I am about to give a poor man an alms : I put it into his hand— why ? Well, it would hardly be fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it upon his foot; the hand seems made on Durpose to receive. So faith in the mental body is created on purpose to be a receiver: it is the hand of the man, and there is a fitness in bestowing grace by its means. Do let me put this very plainly, i'uitb FAITH: WHAT IS IT? ilOW CAX IT BE OBTAINED? 403 which receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from yon, because you hold it out and promise to give it the apple if it comes for it. The belief and the receivinir relate only to an apple, but they make up precisely the same act as the ftiith which deals with eternal salvation, and what the child's hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ. The child's hand does noc make the apple, nor alter the apple, it only takes it ; and faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to make salvation, nor to help in it, but it receives it. Faith, again, is doubtless selected because it gives all the glory to God. It is of faith that it might be by grace, and it is of grace that there may DC no boasting ; for God cannot endure pride. Paul saith, " Not of works, lest any man should boast." The hand which receives charity does not say, "I am to be thanked for accepting the gift "; that would be absurd. When the hand conveys bread to the mouth it does not say to the body, "Thank me, for I feed you." It is a very simple thing that the hand does, though a very necessary thing ; but it never arro- gates glory to itself for what it does. So God has selected faith to receive the unspeakable gift of his grace because it cannot take to itself any credit, but must adore the gracious God who is the giver of all good. Next, God selects faith as the channel of salvation because it is a sure method, linking man with God. When man confides in God there is a point of union between them, and that union guarantees blessing. Faith saves us because it makes us cling to God, and so brings us into con- nection with him. I have used the following illustration before, but I must repeat it, because I cannot think of a better. I am told that years ago above the Falls of Niagara a boat was upset, and two men were being carried down the current, when persons on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which rope was seized by them both. One of them held fast to it and was safely drawn to the bank ; but the other, seeing a great log come floating by, unwisely let go the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger thing of the two, and apparently better to cling to. Alas, the log with the man on it, went right over the vast abyss, because there was no union between the log and the shore. The size of the log was no benefit to him who grasped it; it needed a con- nection with the shore to produce safety. So when a man trusts to his works, or to sacraments, or to anything of that sort, he will not be saved, because there is no junction between him and Christ ; but faith, though it may seem to be like a slender cord, is in the hand of the great God on the shore side ; infinite power pulls in the connecting line, and thus draws the man from destruction. Oh, the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God ! Faith is chosen, again, because it touches the springs of action. I wonder whether I shall be wrong if I say that we never do anything except through faith of some sort. If I walk across this platform it is because I believe my legs will carry me. A man eats because he believes in the necessity of food. Columbus discovered America because he believed that there was another continent beyond the ocean : many another grand deed has also been born of faith, for ftiith works wonders. Com- moner things are done on the same principle ; faith in its natural form is an all-prevailing force. God gives salvation to our faith, because he 410 METROPOLrrAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. has thus touched the secret spring of all our emotions aud actions. Ho has, so to speak, taken possession of the battery, aud now he can send the sacred current to every part of our nature. When we believe in Christ, and the heart has come into the possession of God, then are we saved from sin, and are moved towards repentance, holiness, zeal, prayer, con- secration, and every other gracious thing. Faith, again, has the poiver ofivorking by love; it touches the secret spring of the affections, and draws the heart towards God. Faith is an act of the understanding ; but it also proceeds from the heart. " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;" and hence God gives salvation to faith because it resides next door to the affections, and is near akin to love, and love, you know, is that -which purifies the soul. Love to God is obedience, love is holiness ; to love God and to love man is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and this is salvation. Moreover, /a///i creates peace and Joy; he that hath it rests, and is tranquil, is glad, and joyous ; and this is a preparation for heaven. God gives all the heavenly gifts to faith, because faith worketh in us the very life and spirit which are to be eternally manifested in the upper and better world. I have hastened over these points that I might not weary you on a day when, however willing the spirit may be, the flesh is weak. III. We close with the third point : How can we obtain and in- crease OUR FAITH ? A very earnest question this to many. They say they want to believe but cannot. A great deal of nonsense is talked upon this subject. Let us be practical in our dealing with it. " What am I to do in order to believe ?" The shortest way is to believe, and if the Holy Spirit has made you honest and candid, you will believe as soon as the truth is set before you. Anyhow, the gospel command is clear : "Believe in the Lord .Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." But still, if you have a difficulty, take it before God in prayer. Tell the great Father exactly what it is that puzzles you, and beg him by his Holy Spirit to solve the question. H' I cannot believe a statement in a book I am glad to enquire of the author what he meant, and if he is a true man his explanation will satisfy me : much more will the divine explanation satisfy the heart of the true seeker. The Lord is willing to m;ike himself known ; go to him, and see if it be not so. Furthermore, if faith seem dilHcult, it is possible that God the Holy Spirit will enable you to believe if you hear very frequently and earnestly that which you are commanded to believe. We believe many things be- cause we have heard them so often. Do you not find it so in common life, that if you hear a thing fifty times a day, at last you come to be- lieve it? Some men have come to believe that which is false by this process : I should not wonder but what God often blesses this method in working faith concerning that which is true, for it is written, " Faith coraeth by hearing." H" I earnestly and attentively hear the gospel, it may be that one of these days I shall find myself believing that which I hear, through the blessed operation of the Spirit upon my mind. K that, however, should seem poor advice, I would add next, consider the testimony of ot/iers. The Samaritans believed because of what tha woman told them concerning Jesus. Many of our beliefs arise out of the testimony of others. I believe that there is such a country as Jap.in : I never saw it, and yet I believe that there is such a place because others FAITH: WHAT IS tT ? HoW CAN IT BE OUTAINED? 411 have been there. I belicTe I shall die : I have never died, but a s^rvat many have done so whom I once knew, and I have a conviction that 1 shall die also ; the testimony of many convinces me of this fact. Listen, then, to those who tell you how they were saved, how they were pardoned, how they have been changed in character : if you will but listen you will find that somebody just like yourself has been saved. If you hava been a thief, you will find that a thief rejoiced to wash away his sin in the fountain of Christ's blood. You that have been unchaste in life, you will find that men who have fallen that way have been cleansed and changed. If you are in despair, you have only to get among God's people, and enquire a little, and some who have been equally in despair with yourself will tell you how he saved them. As you listen to one after another of those who have tried the word of God, and proved it, the divine Spirit will lead you to believe. Have you not heard of the African who was told by the missionary that water sometimes became so hard that a man could walk on it ? He declared that he believed a great many things the missionary had told him ; but he never would believe that. When he came to England it came to pass that one frosty day he saw the river frozen, but he would not venture on it. He knew that it was a river, and he was certain that he would be drowned if he ventured upon it. He could not be induced to walk the ice till his friend went upon it ; then he was persuaded, and trusted himself where others had ventured. So, mayhap, while you see others believe, and notice their joy and peace, you will yourself be gently led to believe. It is one of God's ways of helping us to faith. A better plan still is this, — 7iofe the aufhority upon which you are commanded to believe, and this will greatly help you. The authority is not mine, or you might well reject it. It is not even the pope's, or you might even reject that. But you are commanded to believe upon the authority of God himself. He bids you believe in Jesus Christ, and you must not refuse to obey your Maker. The foreman of a certain works i^ the north had often heard the gospel, but he was troubled with the fear that he might not come to Christ. His good master one day sent a card round to the works — " Come to my house immediately after work." The foreman appeared at his master's door, and the master came out, and said somewhat roughly, " What do you want, John, troubling me at this time ? AVork is done, what right have you here ? " " Sir," said he, *' I. had a card from you saying that I was to come after work." " Do you mean to say that merely because you had a card from me you are to come up to my house and call me out after business hours ? " " Well, sir," replied the foeeman, " I do not understand you, but it seems to me that, as you sent for me, I had a right to come." "Come in, John," said his master, " I have another message that I want to read to you," and he Bat down and read these words — " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " Do you think after such a message from Christ that you can be wrong in going to him ? " The poor man saw it all at once, and believed, because he saw that he had good warrant and authority for believing. So have you, poor soul ; you have good authority for coming to Christ, for the Lord himself bida you trust him. ^-^„_ If that does not settle you, thinlc over what it is tJiat you have to ^12 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. believe, — that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the room and place and stead of men, and is able to save all who trust him. Why, this is the most blessed fact that ever men were told to believe : the most suitable, the most comforting, the most divine truth that ever was set before men. I advise you to think much upon it, and search out the grace and love which it contains. Study the four Evangelists, study Paul's epistles, and then see if the message is not such a credible one that you are forced to believe it. If that does not do, then fhinlc upon the person of Jesus Christ — think of who he is and what he did, and where he is now, and what he is now ; Ihink often and deeply. When he, even such an one as he, bids you trust him, surely then your heart will be persuaded. For how can you doubt hm ? If none of these things avail, then there is something wrong about you altogether, and my last word is, submit yourself to God! May the Spirit of God take away your enmity and make you yield. You are a rebel, a proud rebel, and that is why you do not believe your God. Give up your rebellion ; throw down your weapons ; yield at discretion ; surrender to your King. I believe that never did a soul throw up its hands in self- despair, and cry, "Lord, I yield," but what faith became easy to it before long. It is because you still have a quarrel with God, and intend to have your own will and your own way, that therefore you cannot believe. " How can ye believe," said Christ, " that have honour one of another ?" Proud self creates unbelief. Submit, man. Yield to your God, and then shall you sweetly believe in your Saviour. God bless you, for Ciu'ist's sake, and bring you at this very moment to believe in the Lord Jesus. Amen. Portion op Scripture read before Sermon — Ephcsians ii. Hymns from "Our Own Hymn Book" — 911, 554. Note. — While revising this sermon I felt moved to ask my readers to dr- rulato it. I tried to be very simple, and I think I succeeded. If you, dear reader, think the sermon likely to show the way of salvation to those around you, will you not get extra copies and give them away? The preacher of the Bcrraon and the giver of it will rejoice together if, by their united cObrt, men aro led to laith iu Jcsna. pleti[opHtmt ©itenatk |ttlDit ^' THE LITTLE DOGS. Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 6th, 1876, by C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. "But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." — Matthew xv. 26, 27. " But Jesus said unto her. Let the children first be filled : for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord : yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." — Mark vii. 27, 28. I TAKE the two records of Matthew and lilark that wc may hare the whole matter before us. ]\Liy the Holy Spirit bless om- meditations thereon. The brightest jewels are often fonnd in the darkest places. Christ had not fonnd such faith, no, not in Israel, as he discovered in this poor Canaanitish woman. The borders and fringes of the land were more fruitful than the centre, where the Ifusbandry had been more abundant. In the headlands of the field, where the farmer does not expect to grow much beyond weeds, the Lord Jesus found the richest ear of corn that as yet had filled his sheaf. Let those of us who reap after him be encouraged to expect the same experience. Never let us speak of any district as too depraved to yield us converts, nor of any class of persons as too fallen to become believers. Let us go even to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, though the land be under a curse, for even there we shall discover some elect one, ordained to be a jewel for the Redeemer's crown. Our heavenly Father has children everywhere. In spiritual things it is found that the best plants often grow in the most barren soil. Solomon spake of trees, and discoursed con- cerning the hyssop on the wall and the cedar in Lebanon. So is it in the natural world, the great trees are found on great mountains and the minor plants in places adapted for their tiny roots ; but it is not so among the plants of the Lord's right hand jDlanting, for there Ave have seen the cedar grow upon the wall — great sainbs in places Avhere it was apparently impossible for them to exist ; and we have seen hyssops No3. 1,3U9-1U. 458 METROrOT.ITAM TABERNACLE PULPIT. E^rowing upon Lebanon — a questionable, insignificant piety, where there have been innumerable advantages. The Lord is able to make strong faith exist with little knowledge, little present enjoyment and little en- couragement ; and strong foith in such conditions triumphs and con- quers, and doubly glorifies the grace of God. Such was this Canaanitish woman, a cedar growing where soil was scant enough. She was a woman of amazing faith, though she could hare heard but little of him in whom she believed, and perhaps had never seen his person at all until the day when she fell at his feet and said, " Lord, help me ! " Our Lord had a very quick eye for spying faith. If the jewel was lying in the mire his eye caught its glitter, if there was a choice ear of wheat among the thorns he failed not to perceive it. Faith has a strong attraction for the Lord Jesus ; at the sight of it " the king is held in the galleries" and cries "thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." The Lord Jesus was charmed with the fair jewel of this woman's faith, and watching it and delighting in it he resolved to turn it round and set it in other lights, that the various facets of this priceless diamond might each one flash its brilliance and delight his soul. Therefore he tried her faith by his silence, and by his discouraging replies, that he might see its strength ; but he was all the while delighting in it, and secretly sustaining it, and Avhen he had sufficiently tried it, he brought it forth as gold, and set his own royal mark upon it in these memorable words, " woman, great is thy fiiith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." I am hopeful this morning that perhaps some poor soul in this place ttudcr very discouraging circumstances may nevertheless be led to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with a strong and persevering faith, and though as yet it enjoys no peace, and has seen no gracious answer to prayer, I trust that its struggling faith may be strengthened this morning by the example of the Canaanitish woman. I gather from the story of her appeal to the Lord Jesus and her success therein, four facts. The first is, fai/Its mouth cannot be closed ; the second is, faith never disputes tvith God; thirdly, I perceive that faith argues miijhlUij ; and fourthly, thai faith ivins her suit. I. The moutji of faith can never be closed ; for if ever the faith of a woman was ti'ied so as to make her cease from prayer, it was that of this daughter of Tyre. She had difiiculty after difiiculty to encounter, and yet she could not be put oif from pleading for her littlo daughter, because she "hclieved in Jesus as the great Messiah, able to hcai all manner of diseases, and she meant to pray to him until he yielded to her importunity, for she was confident that he could chase the tlemon from her child. Observe that the mouth of faith cannot he closed even on account of the closed ear and the dosed mouth of Christ, lie answered her never a Avord. She spoke very piteously, she came and threw herself at his feet, her child's case was very urgent, her motherly heart was very tender, and her cries were very i)iercing, and yet he answered her never a word : as if he were deaf and dumb, he passed her by ; yet was she not staggered ; she beheved in him, and even he himself could not make her doubt hire, let him try silence even if he would. It is hard to believe when prayer Bccins to be a failure. I would to God that some poor seeker here might THE LITTLE DOGS. 459 believe that Jesus Clirist is able and willing to save, and so fully believe it that his unanswered prayers shall not be able to make him doubt. Even if you should pray in vain by the month together, do not allow a doubt about the Lord Jesus and his power to save to cross your mind. What if you cannot yet grasp the peace Avhich faith must ultimately bring you, what if you have no certainty of forgiveness of your sin, what if no gleams of joy should visit your spirit, yet believe you him, who cannot lie. " Though he slay me," said Job, " yet will I trust in him." That was splendid faith. It Avould be a great deal for some if they could say, " Though he smite me, yet will I trust him," but Job said, " Though he slay me." If he put on the garb of an executioner, and come out against me as though he would destroy me, yet will I beheve him to be full of love : he is good and gracious still, I cannot doubt it, and there- fore at his feet I will lie down and look up, expecting grace at his hands. Oh for such faith as this ! soul, if you have it, you are a saved man, as sure as you are alive. If even the Lord's apparent refusal to bless you cannot close your mouth, your faith is of a noble sort, and salvation is yours. In the next place, her faith could not he silenced by the conduct of the disciples. They did not treat her well, but yet perhaps not altogether ill. They were not like their Master, but fi'equently repulsed those who would come to him. Her noise annoyed them, she kept to them with boundless perseverance, and therefore they said, " Send her away, for she crieth after us." Poor soul, she never cried after Ihem, it was after their Master. Sometimes disciples become very important in their own eyes, and think that the pushing and crowding to hear the gospel is caused by the people's eagerness to hear them, whereas nobody would care for their poor talk if it were not for the gospel message which they are charged to deliver. Give us any other theme, and the multitude Avould soon melt away. Though weary of the woman's importunate cries, they acted somewhat kindly towards her, for they were evidently desirous that she should obtain the boon she sought, or else our Lord's reply Avould not have been appropriate, " I am not sent, save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." It Avas not her daughter's healing that they cared for, but they consulted their own comfort, for they were anxious to be rid of her. " Send her away," said they, " for she crieth after us." Still, though they did not treat her as men should treat a woman, as disciples should treat a seeker, as Christians should treat everybody, yet for all that, her mouth was not stopped. Peter, I have no doubt, looked in a very scowling manner, and perhaps even John became a little impatient, for he had a Ijuick temper by nature ; Andrew and Philip and the rest of them considered her very impertinent and presumptuous ; but she thought of her Httle daughter at home, and of the horrible miseries to which the demon subjected her, and so she pressed up to the Saviour's feet and said, " Lord, help me." Cold, hard words and unkind, un- sympathetic behaviour could not prevent her pleading with him in whom she believed. Ah, poor sinner, perhaps you are saying, " I am longing to be saved, but such and such a good Christian man has dealt very bitterly with me, he has doubted my sincerity and questioned the reality of my repentance, and caused me the deepest sorrow ; it seoma ais il" he did not wish me to be saved." Ah, dear friend, this is very 4 CO MKTROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. trying:, but if you have true faith in the IMaster you will not mind us disciples, neither the gentlest of us, nor the most crooked of us, but just urge on your suit with your Lord till he deigns to give you an answer of peace. Her movth, again, was not closed hy exclusive doctrine, which appeared to confine the blessing to a favoured few : the Lord Jesus Christ said, "• I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and 'Aough properly understood there is nothing very severe in it, yet the S'^ntence must have fallen on the woman's heart like a talent of lead. "Alas," she might have thought, " then he is not sent to me ; vainly do I seek for that which he rcscr\cs for the Jews." Now, the doctrine of election, Avhich is assuredly taught in Scripture, ought not to hinder any soul from coming to Christ, for, if properly understood, it Avould rather encourage than discourage ; and yet often to the uninstrncted ear the doctrine of the divine choice of a people from before the foundation of world acts with very depressing efi'ect. AVe have known poor seekers mouiTifully say, " Perhaps there is no mercy for me ; I may be among those for whom no purpose of mercy has been formed." They have been tempted to cease from prayer for fear they should not have been predestinated unto eternal life. Ah, dear soul, if you have the faith of God's elect in you, you will not be kept back by any self-condemning inferences drawn from the secret things of God, but you will believe in that which has been clearly revealed, and you will be assured that this cannot contradict the secret decrees of heaven. "What though our Lord was only sent to the house of Israel, yet there is a house of Israel not after the flesii but after the spirit, and therefore the Syi'ophoenecian woman was included even Avhere she thought she was shut out, and you may also be comprehended within those lines of gracious destiny which now distress you. At any rate, say to your,self, " In the election of grace others are included who were as sinful as I have been, why should not I ? Others have been included who were as full of distress as I have been on account of sin, and why should not I be also ?" Reasoning thus you will press forward ; in hope belie^i-ing against hope, suffering no plausible deduction from the doctrine of Scripture to prevent your believing in the appointed Redeemer. The mouth of faith in this case was not even closed Ig a sense of ad- mitted umvorthiness. Christ spoke of dogs : he meant that the Gentiles were to Israel as the dogs : she did not at all dispute it, but yielded the point by saying, " Truth, Lord." She felt she was only Avorthy to be compared to a dog. I have no doubt her sense of unworthiness was very deep. She did not expect to win the boon she sought for on ac- count of any merit of her own ; she de]iended upon the goodness of Christ's heart, not on the goodness of her cause, and upon the excel- lence of his power rather than ui)on the prevalence of her plea ; yet conscious as she was that she was only a ]ioot Gentile dog, her prayers were not hindered ; she cried, notwithstanding all, " Lord, help me." sinner, if thou foelest thyself to be the worst sinner out of hell, still pray, believingly pray for merely. If thy sense of unworthiness be enough to drive thee to self-destruction, yet I beseech thee, out of the depths, oul of the dungeon of self-loathing, still cry unto God; for thy salvation rests in no measure or degree upon thyself, or upon anything that thou THE LITTLE DOu,'?. 4(51 Ri't or liasfc been or canst be. Thou needest to be saved from thyself, not hj thyself. It is thine to be empty that Jesus may fill thee ; thine to confess thy filthincss that he may wash thee ; thine to be less than nothing that Jesus may be everything to thee. Suffer not the number, blackness, frequency, or heinousness of thy transgressions to silence thy prayers, but though thou be a dog, yea not worthy to be set with the dogs of the Lord's flock, yet open thy mouth in believing j^rayer. There was beside this a general tone and sj^irit in what the Lord Jesus said which tended to depress the Avoman's hope and restrain her prayer, yet ^lia luas not kept bacJc by the darkest and most depressing influences. '' It is not meet," said the Lord Jesus, " it is not becoming, it is not proper, it is hardly lawful, to take children's bread and throw it to dogs." Perhaps she did not quite see all that he might have meant, but what she did sec was enough to pour cold water upon the flame of her hope, yet her faith was not quenched. It was a faith of that immortal kind which nothing can kill ; for her mind was made up that whatever Jesus meant, or did not mean, she would not cease to trust him, and urge her suit with him. There are a great many things lU and around the gospel which men see as in a haze, and being misunderstood they rather repel than attract seeking souls ; but be they what they may we must resolve to come to Jesus at all risks. " If I perish, I perish." Beside the great stumbling-stone of election there are truths and fleets which seekers magnify and misconstrue till they see a thousand difficulties. They are troubled about Christian experience, about being born again, aljout inbred sin, and all sorts of things ; in fact, a thousand lions are in the way when the soul attempts to come to Jesus, but he who gives Christ the faith which he deserves says, " I fear none of these things. Lord, help me, and I will still con- fide in thee. I will approach thee, I will press through obstacles to thee, and throw myself at thy dear feet, knowing that him that cometh to thee thou wilt in no wise cast out." II. Faith never disputes with the Lord. Faith worships. You notice how ]\ratthew says, " Then came she and worshipped him.*' Faith also begs and prays. You observe how Mark says, " She besought him." She cried, " Lord, help me," after having said, " Have mercy on me, Lord, thou Son of David." Faith pleads, but never disputes, not even against the hardest thing that Jesus says. If faith disputed — I am uttering a solecism — she would not be faith, for that which disputes is unbelief. Faith in God implies agreement with what God says, and consequently it excludes the idea of doubt. Genuine faith believes any- thing and everything the Lord says whether discouraging or encourag- ing. She never has a " but " or an " if," or even a " yet " to put in, but she stands to it, " Thou hast said it. Lord, and therefore it is true : thou hast ordained it Lord, and therefore it is right." She never goes beyond that. Observe in our text that/rt/Z/i assents to all the Lord says. She said, "Truth, Lord." AVhat had he said? "You are comparable to a dog ! " *' Truth, Lord ; truth. Lord ; so I am." " It would not be meet that the children should be robbed of bread in order to feed dogs." " Truth Lord, it would not be fitting, and I would not have oiie of thy childi-en deprived of grace for me." " It is not your tinae «62 METROPOLITAN TABEIJNACLE rULPIT. yet," said Jesus ; " the children must first be fed ; children at the meal times and dogs after dinner ; this is Israel's time, and the Gentiles may follow after. But not yet." She virtually replies, " I know it. Lord, and agree thereto." She does not raise a question or dispute the justice of the Lord's dispensing his own grace according to his sovereign good pleasure. She i'ails not, as some do who cavil at divine sovereignty. It would have proved that she had little or no faith if she had done that. She dis- putes not as to the Lord's set time and order. Jesus said, " Let the children first be filled," and she does not dispute the time, as many do. who will not have it that now is the accepted time, but are as much for postponing as this woman was for antedating the day of grace. She entered into no argument against its being improper to take the cove- nant bread from the children and give it to the uncircumcised heathen : she never wished Israel to be robbed for her. Dog as she was she would not have any purpose of God nor any propriety of the divine household shifted and changed for her. She assented to all the Lord's appointments. That is the faith w^hich saves the soul, which agrees with the mind of God, even if it seem adverse to herself, which believes the revealed declarations of God whether they appear to be pleasant or terrible, and assents to God's word whether it be like a balm to its wound or like a sword to cut and slay. If the word of God be true, man, do not fight against it, but bow before it. It is not the way to a living faith in Jesus Christ, nor to obtain peace with God, to take up arms against anything which God declares. In yielding lies safety. Say " Truth, Lord," and you shall find salvation. Note, that she not only assented to all that the Lord said, but she worshipped him in it. " Truth," she said, " but yet thou art my Lord." " Thou callest me * dog,' but thou art my Lord for all that : thou ac- countest me unworthy to receive thy bounties, but thou art my Lord, and I still own thee as such." She is of the mind of Job : '* Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil ?" She is willing to take the evil and say, " Whether the Lord gives, or whether he refuses, blessed be his name ; he is my Lord still." Oh, this is grand faith, which has thrown aside the disputatious spirit, and not only assents to the Lord's will, but worships him in it. Let it be what it may, Lord, even if the truth condemns me, yet still thou art Lord, and I confess thy deity, confess thine excellence, own thy crown rights, and submit myself to thee : do with me what thou wilt." And, you observe, when she said " Truth, Lord," she did not go on to suggest that ang alteration should be made for her. " Lord," she said, " thou hast classed me among the dogs :" she does not say, " Put me among the children," but she only asks to be treated as a dog is. " The dogs eat the crumbs," says she. She docs not want a purpose altered nor an ordinance changed, nor a decree removed : " Let it be as it is : if it be thy will. Lord, it is my will "; only she spies a gleam of hope, where, if she had not possessed faith, she would have seen only the blackness of despair. May we have such a faith as hers, and never enter into controversy with God. III. Now I come to an interesting part of our subject, namely, that PAITii ahques, though it docs not dispute. "Truth, Lord," said she, TIIK LITTLE DOfiR. 403 " yet the dogs eat the crumbs." This woman's argument was correct, and strictly logical throughout. It was an argument based upon tho Lord's own premises, and you know if you are reasoning with a man you cannot do better than take his own statements and argue upon them. She does not proceed to lay down new premises, or dispute the old ones by saying " I am no dog ;" but she says, " Yes, t am a dog." She accepts that statement of the Lord, and uses it as a blessed argimwitum ad hominem, such as was never excelled in this world. She took the words out of his own mouth, and vanquished him with them, even as Jacob overcame the angel. There is so much force in the woman's argument, that I quite despair this morning of being able to set it all forth to you. I would, however, remark that the translators have greatly injured the text by putting in the word " yet," for there is no " yet " in the Greek : it is quite another word. Jesus said, " It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. "No," said she, *' it would not be meet to do this, because the dogs are pro- vided for, for the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. It would be very improper to give them the children's bread, because they have bread of their own. Truth, Lord, I admit it would be improper to give the dogs the children's bread, because they have already their share when they eat the crumbs which fall from the children's table. That is all they want, and all I desire. I do not ask thee to give me the children's bread, I only ask for the dog's crumbs." Let us see the force of her reasoning, which will appear in many ways. The first is this. She argued ivith Christ from her hopeful position. "I am a dog," said she, " but, Lord, thou hast come all the way to Sidon ; here thou art close on the borders of my country, and therefore I am not like a dog out in the street ; I am a dog under the table." Mark tells us that she said, " The dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs." She as good as says, " Lord, thou seest my position : I was a dog in the street, afar off from thee, but now thou hast come and preached in our borders, and I have been privileged to listen to thee. Others have been healed, and thou art in this very house doing deeds of grace while I look on, and therefore, though I am a dog, I am a dog under the table ; therefore. Lord, let me have the crumbs." Do you see, dear hearer ? You admit that you are a sinner, and a great sinner, but you say, " Lord, I am a sinner that is permitted to hear the gospel, therefore bless it to me. I am a dog, but I am under the table, deal with me as such. When there is a sermon preached for the com- fort of thy people, I am there to hear it : whenever the saints gather together, and the precious promises are discussed, and they rejoice therein, I am there, looking up, and wishing that I were among them, but still Lord, since thou hast had the grace to let me be a hearer of the gospel, wilt thou reject me now that I desire to be a receiver of it ? To what end and purpose hast thou brought me so near, or rather come so near to me, if after all thou wilt reject me ? Dog I am, but still I am a dog under the table. It is a favour to be privileged to be among the children, even if I may only lie at their feet. I pray thee, good Lord, then, since now I am permitted to look up to thee and ask this blessing, do not reject me." To me it seems that this was a strong point with the woman, and that she used it well. 4Gt MKTROPOT.ITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT. ller next pica was her mcourajinfj relationship. "Triitli, Lord," slie says, " I am a do