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 THINGS WHICH GOD HATH JOINED 
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 THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH : 
 
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 HEAVENLY PLACES: 
 
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FORGIVENESS, 
 
 LIFE, AND 
 
 GLORY 
 
 BY 
 
 STEVENSON A. BLACKWOOD, Esq., C.B., 
 
 Author of The Shadow and the Substance f Heavenly Places, 
 “ The Triumph of Faith'* 
 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 x^i 
 
 B '^6 + 
 
 ) 77 -. 
 
 FORGIVENESS. 
 
 The Sin-Offering 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 Living Waters Offered . • . « • 
 
 Living Waters Received . i t c 
 
 Living Waters Flowing . . . • 
 
 GLORY. 
 
 The Heavenly Citizenship .... 
 The Expectation of the Heavenly Citizenship 
 The Glorious Transformation 
 The Subduing Power of Christ . , . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • 7 
 
 • 31 
 
 . 48 
 
 • 63 
 
 . 86 
 . Ill 
 . 129 
 
 • 154 
 
 1023545 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 Leviticus iv. 27-35. 
 
 If any oneofthe common people sin through ignorance; ” ver. 27. 
 ** Then he shall bring his offering ; ” ver. 28. 
 
 “ And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin-offering, 
 and slay the sin-offering ; ” ver. 29. 
 
 ‘ ‘ And the priest shall take of the blood ; ’’ ver. 30. 
 
 “ And the priest shall 7nake an atonement for hhn^ and it 
 shall be forgiven him : ” ver. 3 1 . 
 
 There is nothing concerning which God has spoken 
 so unmistakably in His Word as the method by which 
 a sinner may get forgiveness of his sins. Type 
 upon type, incident upon incident, statement upon 
 statement, have been multiplied again and again, so 
 as, on the one hand, to leave no soul that is inquiring, 
 What must / do to be saved ?” without a simple 
 answer to that question ; and on the other hand, to 
 leave without excuse any one, who either through love 
 of sin, or through preferring his own way to God^s way, 
 ultimately finds himself standing in the light of God's 
 judgment-seat, with all his sins upon his own head. I 
 say the way of peace is made so clear in that blessed 
 book, that every one who reads it, every one who 
 hears the simple gospel of the grace of God, must be 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 without excuse in the day of judgment. Every 
 
 mouth must be stopped then. 
 
 But if God has made it quite plain, Satan's object 
 is, by means of his servants, to obscure this way, to 
 make this message a dark one. And he does it in 
 two ways ; either by flatly contradicting the word of 
 God, or by so far adulterating it with man's statements 
 and lies, as to render it without effect in bringing the 
 sinner to God, or giving peace to a guiity conscience. 
 If God is in earnest on the one side, so is Satan on 
 the other, and this may serve to teach us of what 
 unspeakable importance it is to understand this great 
 question of the forgiveness of sins. 
 
 Now the wonderful thing is, that the very ^?;^^whom 
 this truth most concerns should really be the most 
 unconcerned about it, and that one is the guilty sin- 
 ner. God is in earnest, and Satan is in earnest, and 
 the very angels of God are deeply interested in these 
 things; and yet if the Spirit of God does not awaken us 
 to see what our real state is, we are as unconcerned as 
 the flower in the garden. We care no more by nature 
 for knowing God’s way of forgiveness than if we were 
 stocks or stones. 
 
 It is then upon this great point I want to speak; 
 the question which stands at the very root and 
 foundation of all religion, all godliness, all Christi- 
 anity — the forgiveness of sins. That is the founda- 
 tion, that is the beginning. If you do not begin there 
 you do not begin at all. There are but two classes — 
 those who have by the grace of God found this way of 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 9 
 
 peace, and whose hopes of glory to come rest upon 
 what God has said concerning this method of for- 
 giveness, and those who having been awakened, are 
 asking with more or less earnestness, What must I 
 do to be saved ? ” Wherewith shall I come and 
 appear before God ? It is to this latter class that I 
 would address myself ; and I hope, by God's grace, to 
 show you from His blessed Word, what a simple and 
 glorious answer there is to such a question. There 
 may be yet others amongst us, who are not asking 
 that question, who are just content to go on as they 
 are, not understanding that which Jesus spake when 
 He said, “ What shall it profit a man if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul ? If there be 
 such here (and God only knows the hearts), let us 
 pray that He would speak to them, and arouse them 
 to cry out, What must I do to be saved ? 
 
 Now there is no place in God's Word where the way 
 of forgiveness is more clearly stated than in the verses 
 I have just read ; and I would ask the reader carefully 
 to refer to the words as we go on. 
 
 The law was a shadow of good things to come ; 
 but it was only a shadow, the substance is Christ. 
 ‘^To Him gave all the prophets witness." ‘^The law, 
 the psalms, the prophets," spake of Him. We there- 
 fore have two things to look at. We have to look at 
 what I have read in Leviticus, as the shadow of the 
 good things that were to come ; and then we have to 
 look at the substance, the reality, the fulfilment of it 
 all in the Lord Jesus. 
 
10 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 Let us look first at the shadow. There are severax 
 points to be taken up in that. There is first of all the 
 sin-offering * secondly, there is the way in which the 
 sinner was connected with that offering ; and lastly, 
 the results tliat came to him through that connection. 
 
 First of all ^ the offering. It is said “ that if any man 
 sin, he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a 
 lamb without blemish.^’ Now, in the previous part of 
 this chapter, and in the beginning of the next, you 
 will find that there were several offerings he might 
 bring, a bullock, a kid, or a pair of turtle-doves or 
 young pigeons ; from which we learn that the main 
 characteristic of the offering consisted in its having 
 llfe,^ and it was so ordained as to suit the capability 
 of every person ; the rich man could bring his offering, 
 the/<?^?r man his offering. No one need be without 
 an offering, for God had ordered it so as to suit both 
 the richest and the poorest. 
 
 Another great characteristic was, that it was to be 
 without biemish,” If there was a spot, a single 
 fault or flaiv in the animal, it was of no use at all. It 
 must be perfectly without blemish. The next thing 
 was, that it was to be slain. He shall lay his hand 
 upon the head of the sin-offering, and slay the sin- 
 offering in the place of the burnt-offering.^’ It was 
 not merely brought to the tabernacle and then left 
 
 * There was one exception to this in Lev. v, ii, where it was 
 ordained that in the case of one who was too poor to provide 
 even a pair of pigeons, “an ephah of fine flour” might be pre- 
 sented. 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 II 
 
 there, its life was to he given its blood was to he 
 shed; and it was to be offered in a particular place. 
 You remark, he was to slay the sin-offering in the 
 place of the burnt-offering.’^ Now, where was that? 
 If you look at Leviticus i. 3, where the law is laid 
 down concerning the burnt-offering, you will read, “ If 
 his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him 
 offer a male without blemish ; he shall offer it of his 
 own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the 
 congregation before the Lord.” It was to be offered 
 nowhere else. God had made such a strict regulation 
 about this, that if a man brought an offering and did 
 not offer it there, he was cut off from among the 
 people of God. 
 
 Now, it seems to me that there might be great reason 
 why this place was particularly chosen by God. First, 
 the door of the tabernacle of the congregation was an 
 open public place. Every one might see it. It stood 
 in the midst of the camp, and at the door of it these 
 animals had to be slain. The thing was not to be done 
 in a corner ; there was to be an open, public acknow- 
 ledgment of sin. 
 
 Then again, this offering at the door of the taber- 
 nacle showed, I think, that there was no entrance 
 into God’s presence without blood. The fact of its 
 being at the door, and the sinner being commanded 
 to bring his offering there, was as much as to say, you 
 cannot go into the presence of God through the door 
 without that life hemg taken.^ and that blood being 
 poured put. 
 
12 
 
 THE SIHOFFERING, 
 
 And then I think, thirdly, we have another reason 
 given for it in Leviticus xvii., where you find the first 
 nine verses of the chapter taken up with the very 
 regulation which I have described about offering at 
 the door of the tabernacle. In the third verse it is 
 said, “This is the thing which the Lord hath com- 
 manded.’’ There could be no doubt about it. God 
 had commanded, “ What man soever there be of the 
 house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, 
 in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and 
 bringeth it unto the door of the tabernacle of the 
 congregation, to offer an offering unfo the Lord; blood 
 shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; 
 and that man shall be cut off from among his people : 
 to the end that the children of Israel may bring their 
 sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that 
 they may bring them wito the Lord^ unto the door of 
 the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, 
 and offer them for peace-offerings unto the Lord'^ 
 And again, in the ninth verse, “ And bringeth it not 
 unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to 
 offer it unto the Lord ; even that man shall be cut off 
 from among his people.” 
 
 The great fact recognised was, that there was to be 
 an offering to God, Whatever men may say in these 
 days about sacrifice, God distinctly says that this 
 life, this innocent life, was to be offered to Hiniy 
 and to Him alone; and the people were kept so 
 completely from offering it unto others, or making any 
 religion of their own outside th camp, that in order 
 
THE Sm-OFFERIHG. 
 
 13 
 
 to insure this principle being distinctly recognised, 
 it was always to be brought to the place where God 
 as good as said, I will meet with you — this is the 
 place where the blood is to be shed/’ 
 
 Then the blood, having been shed, was to be 
 sprinkled upon the altar of the burnt- offering (ver. 
 30). You see the blood formed a prominent part in 
 this ceremonial. It was not merely that the life was 
 taken^ and the animal carried away. No ; God had 
 laid the whole thing down minutely, the blood must 
 be taken in and laid by the priest upon the altar. 
 The blood was to he brought to God, and to no one 
 else. And if you look at the eighth chapter, you 
 will see what the object of the blood was. It was 
 not always mentioned, but it was mentioned suffi- 
 ciently all through the Bible to show us that its 
 meaning and object was, to make reconciliation 
 for, as was afterwards said, “ Without shedding of 
 blood there is no remission of sins, '' If there was 
 to be an atonement made, a reconciliation, it could 
 only be by the blood of an innocent victim, by the 
 life being offered up. You will see (chap. viii. ver. 
 15), ‘‘He poured the blood at the bottom of the 
 altar, and sanctified it to make reconciliation for it.” 
 So that, if the sinner was to be reconciled to God, 
 — if the claims of God’s law upon that sinner were 
 to be satisfied, so that God and the sinner could 
 meet together without there being anything be- 
 tween them to hinder fellowship and communion, 
 there must be shedding of blood. Now this is not 
 
14 THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 an unimportant point. It is the prominent fact and 
 truth in the Bible, that without shedding of blood 
 there is no remission of sin. 
 
 But then, there was another point in this offering 
 which we must look at, and it was this, that part of 
 the animal was to be burnt. That too was important. 
 
 He shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is 
 taken away from off the sacrifice of peace-offering, 
 and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet 
 savour unto the Lord.’^ Part of the animal w^as to be 
 burnt, just in the way in which they burnt part of the 
 peace-offering. This fact indicated, I believe, that 
 the offering was a sweet savour unto God, for almost 
 as often as you have the words sweet savour 
 mentioned in this chapter, and other books of the Old 
 Testament, you will find it was connected with the 
 burning upon the altar. For instance, in Exodus xxix. 
 1 8 , we read : And thou shalt burn the whole ram 
 
 upon the altar ; it is a burnt-offering unto the Lord ; 
 it is a sweet savour ; an offering made by fire unto the 
 Lord ; thus showing that the burning by fire proved 
 that the offering was acceptable to God — a sweet 
 savour; as the flame went up, so the sweet savour 
 went up before God, and the offering was ac- 
 cepted. 
 
 These were the principal points about the offering ; 
 and I beseech you not to think of them as merely 
 interesting points to look at for the moment. There 
 is a depth of mea7iing in them. God has written them 
 for our instruction. Tf not merely that we may say 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 15 
 
 we have heard these things explained, or read about 
 them in books. If they have a meaning, and God 
 has shown it, I ask you to lay hold of this meaning 
 with your heart. 
 
 Then secondly, there comes the question, How 
 was the sinner connected with this offering ? You find 
 that the sinner, having brought the offering, was to 
 do something with it. Ver. 29, ‘‘He shall lay his 
 hand upon the head of the sin-offering.^’ What did 
 that mean ? Why, it meant this, that he should lay, 
 as it were, his sin upon it ; as we learn from Lev. 
 xvi. 21, where the high priest, in laying his hands 
 upon the head of the goat, was said to put the sins 
 of the children of Israel upon it, and the goat con- 
 sequently “ bore upon him all their iniquities.” The 
 offerer as good as said, / am guilty. The law of 
 God demands my life because He has said, “ 27 /^ 
 soul that sinneth it shall die,"''* My life, therefore, is 
 forfeited for ever. I have broken God’s law. It is 
 not a question of what I may do afterwards or feel, 
 Here is my position. I am under the broken law of 
 God, and my life is forfeited. Then he was to bring 
 the innocent life for his own, and he was thus, in 
 figure, to transfer his guilt and his sins to the head of 
 this animal, and the animal was treated by God as 
 if it had the sin, and killed. 
 
 Now, if you look at Leviticus i. 4, you will see it 
 plainly stated that the animal was accepted for^' the 
 
 man. Remember, all this was in shadow and picture. 
 Of course, “the blood of bulls and of goats could 
 
i6 
 
 THE SIHOFFERING, 
 
 never take away sin.” God could never, in reality, 
 accept the life of an animal for a man. It needed, as 
 we are taught in Rom. hi. 25, the blood-shedding of 
 the Lord Jesus to enable God righteously to pass 
 over sins, and it was only that which could give effi- 
 cacy to the shadows of the law. But this was to show 
 us good things to come;” and so it is said, ‘^He 
 shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, 
 and it shall be accepted for hhjiy Mark how clear 
 and simple these words are. It shall be accepted 
 for him to make atonement^ Oh, is it not gloriously 
 simple ? One would think that a child even could 
 see it. The one was a Substitute for the other. 
 
 What then, lastly, was the result? Why, this was 
 the result — God's claim upon the sinner was satisfied. 
 His claim was the sinner's life. His law demanded 
 it; God's holy, just law, which cannot be broken in 
 vain, demanded the sinner's life. Life was giuen. 
 God says, It shall be accepted for him.” The im- 
 mediate result for the sinner was forgiveness. Why ? 
 Because the law of God had no further claim upon 
 him. He had settled it, settled it after God's fashion, 
 so that there could be no mistake and no doubt 
 whatever. If you refer to chap. iv. 31, it says, ‘‘The 
 priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be 
 forgiven^ 
 
 Now do remember this, that this was God^s Word, 
 that God would have been unjust (so to speak), unfaith- 
 ful, if He had not forgiven him, because He had laid 
 down the whole way. He had made it so clear, that no 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 17 
 
 one could make a mistake, and therefore, when the 
 sinner had complied with God’s command, and brought 
 the innocent victim in his place, and confessed his sin 
 and acknowledged his guilty ruined state, and offered 
 up his guilty life, it was all according to what God 
 had said, and it would have been unfaithful, and con- 
 trary to His own blessed word and promise, if He 
 had refused then and there forgiveness to the sinner. 
 And therefore He did not refuse it ; and the word 
 was, It shall he forglve7i himy 
 
 But there was more than mere forgiveness here, and 
 I want you to pay special attention to that. There 
 was the knowledge of forgiveness. The man need 
 not, and did not remain in doubt as to %vhether he 
 was forgiven, because God’s Holy Word, which he 
 heard read every Sabbath-day, left him no shadow 
 of an excuse for doubting that he was a pardoned 
 sinner. God had assured him of it in the most 
 solemn terms that He could possibly use. He had 
 told him that when His law was complied with, and 
 His demands satisfied, the sinner should be forgiven, 
 and therefore the man was perfectly warranted in 
 going away contented with God's assurance of the 
 fact This is particularly important, and especially 
 so now, because men are denying this truth. They 
 are denying that a sinner can know that he is for- 
 given, and they regard it as preposterous and pre- 
 sumptuous to say, “I know / am forgiven.” 
 
 Now just suppose this man had come up and 
 offered his offering according to God’s word. Sup- 
 
 B 
 
i8 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 pose the priest had sprinkled the blood upon the 
 altar, and that these words had been pronounced, or 
 at all events remembered, ^^It shall be forgiven him.’’ 
 Suppose he went away and met his neighbour, while 
 feeling in his heart, and manifesting on his face, the 
 joy of knowing \ki2X his sins were pardoned; and sup- 
 pose his neighbour said to him, You have no right 
 to say that, how do you know it is true ? What a 
 presumptuous man you are to say you are forgiven ! 
 What right have you to say that you are forgiven ? 
 What answer do you think the man would make? 
 AVhy, he would say, God has said so ; don’t call 
 me in question. If is His woj^d^ not mine. I do not 
 say it of myself ; if I did, it would be presumption ; 
 but the AVord of God says so.” And thus he would 
 triumphantly answer the objection of any man. 
 
 Supposing a man said, ^‘You have been such 
 an awful sinner.” He would reply, True, but 
 mij sin has been laid on the head of another, and 
 God has accepted his death instead of mine. ” And 
 so the man would go home happy. This, dear friends, 
 is just the shadow ; it is not the substance, because it 
 is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats 
 should take away sin ; but so far, no doubt, as an 
 Israelite in those days saw by faith the one offering 
 of which all this is the type^ and recognised his state 
 as a guilty sinner, so far we may be sure God did 
 pardon him, not for the sake of the blood of the 
 lamb or goat, but for the sake of Him who died 
 for you and me. 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 19 
 
 And now let us look at the substance, and see how 
 far this applies to the sinner noWj because that is the 
 point. 
 
 Fh'st the sin-offering. It must be without blemish. 
 Is there a sin-offering without blemish ? Yes, thank 
 God, the Word of God tells us there is a sin-offering 
 without blemish. God has Himself provided a Lamb 
 for an offering. You and I cannot do this. No man 
 can give to God a ransom for his soul, much less for 
 his brother’s; but God has provided one which is a 
 sufficient, full, and perfect satisfaction for sin; and 
 that is the Lamb of God without blemish and with- 
 out spot.” Is there any doubt t One hardly need 
 touch upon the question, except to show how the 
 shadow is thoroughly brought out in the substance. 
 There are abundant witnesses to the fact, that Jesus 
 Christ is the Lamb of God without blemish or 
 spot. He could say Himself to those around Him, 
 Which of you convinceth Me of sin ? ” He is 
 the only man that ever could. And not only did He 
 ask the question, but none could answer Him. His 
 enemies could not. His very judge said, I find no 
 
 fault with this manl^ The very captain of the soldiers 
 that led Him to the execution said, ‘‘ Truly this was 
 a righteous man,^^ There was the Lamb of God, then, 
 proved by His own mouth, by His life, by the witness- 
 ing of judge and jury, so to speak, an innocent man, 
 yet pouring out His soul unto death because He was 
 the Lamb of God ; because it pleased the Lord 
 to bruise Him” and to ^‘put Him to grief.” ‘‘The 
 
20 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all ; and 
 by His stripes we are healed,” Christ, then, is 
 He of whom the Scriptures speak — the Lamb of God 
 without blemish and spot. 
 
 But He must be slain. His life, blameless and 
 spotless, was of no use without His death, because it 
 was the bloody God said, that makes atonement for 
 the soul. Observe, God's claim upon the sinner is 
 not a holy life (till after he is born again), but his 
 death. That is what God's law asks from you and me; 
 for we are by nature condemned, having broken His 
 law. Jesus comes, living a holy, blameless life, that 
 He may offer Himself, as we read, “ without spot to 
 God ; " and then that life is offered up to make 
 atonement and reconciliation for the sins of the 
 people. 
 
 We see further how important these great truths 
 are, by referring to the place where this offering was 
 to be offered — at the door of the tabernacle. These 
 things, as Paul said to Festus, ‘Svere not done in a 
 corner." In one of the greatest cities of the world, 
 surrounded by all the nations of the world, the Lamb 
 of God was publicly, openly offered up on the cross, 
 outside Jerusalem. 
 
 Then, again, it was at the door of the tabernacle of 
 the congregation, to show that there was no access to 
 God but by His blood. The door of God's tabernacle 
 now — where is it ? It is on earth. Do not think it 
 is anywhere else. The gate of heaven is down here. 
 The door of the tabernacle is here, and if a man does 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 21 
 
 not enter here, he never enters hereafter, for there is 
 no door there. The door is shut there for ever. Only 
 by the blood-shedding of Jesus do we have access. 
 He is the new and living way. If you want to get to 
 God — if you want to know your sin is pardoned — if 
 you want to feel the love of God shed abroad in your 
 heart — come to Jesus Christ, for no man cometh 
 unto the Father but by Him. Men think otherwise, 
 and they may say as they do now, that every man’s 
 way is good ; and that we shall all meet at the end. 
 God’s Word tells a very different tale, and by that we 
 shall be judged. There is nojte other ?tame given under 
 heaven among men whereby we must be saved, but the 
 name of Jesus. 
 
 And, again, it was the door of the tabernacle of the 
 congregation because it was an offering unto God. 
 
 He offered Himself without spot to God ” (Heb. ix. 
 14). Whatever men may write, and think, and speak, 
 in these days, about the law of God not being pro- 
 pitiated by blood — the Word of God is explicit? ‘‘He 
 offered Himself to God He was a propitiation 
 for sins. ” God provided and gave that propitiation. 
 It was not that He must be appeased as if He were a 
 God whose nature needed appeasing, and that He 
 could not love us till he was propitiated, but His law 
 must be satisfied. God Himself, in His love, has pro- 
 vided a Lamb, and He has done so because He “ so 
 loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
 Son” to make reconciliation — “propitiation,” as we 
 read in Rom. hi. 25, “ through faith in His blood.” 
 
22 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 The blood must be shed. The life must be offered 
 up. 
 
 But there was another point, in both the substance 
 and the shadow, which I think is deeply important. 
 There must be part burnt It was not enough that 
 the blood should be shed ; we must know that the 
 sacrifice has been accepted. It was to be offered 
 unto God. Now, so to speak, Jesus Christ not only 
 had His blood shed at the hands of man, but the fire 
 of God consumed Him as a sin-offering. We very 
 much underrate the meaning of the sufferings of the 
 Lord Jesus upon the cross, if we only think of Him 
 as dying at the hands of wicked men. He did not 
 only give Himself into their hands to have His hands 
 and His feet nailed to the cross, and His head 
 crowned with thorns. There was the suffering at the 
 hands of God. “ It pleased the Lord to bruise Him ; 
 He hath put Him to grief.’’ It is written, ‘^Our God 
 is a consuming fire ; ” and when the claim of God’s 
 holiness^ and justice.^ and truths met here upon the 
 cross of Jesus, with One who was bearing in His 
 own body the sin of the world, and who was thus 
 ^‘made sin for usf* then and there that fire licked 
 up the sacrifice ; and you see the acceptance of it 
 just as the sinner of old saw the acceptance of his 
 offering in the ascending flame. You see it in the 
 resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We see that God has accepted the sacrifice, and that 
 the whole thing is done. 
 
 We never could have known that if Jesus had 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 23 
 
 not been raised. If He had not ascended to heaven, 
 there would have been no proof that God was satis- 
 fied with the price paid. If Christ had only gone 
 into the prison-house — if He had only lain low in the 
 grave and never risen — how should you and I know 
 that the debt was paid and God was satisfied? 
 But the prison doors were opened, and having paid 
 the utmost farthing,’^ the Surety comes out, living, 
 to die no more. The Spirit shall convince the world 
 of righteousness, because I go to the Father T There 
 was the Righteous One, having satisfied every claim, 
 going up to His Father, and sitting down for ever at 
 the right hand of God. 
 
 Oh ! lay hold upon this, because on your appre- 
 hension of the acceptance of the sacrifice that He 
 has provided, depends your peace. I do not deny 
 that a sinner may be resting on Jesus as His sub- 
 stitute, and yet not know how perfectly his sacri- 
 fice is accepted ; but I say, that for present peace, 
 holmess, and power of usefulness, he must see this 
 clearly, that God has accepted the offering which 
 He Himself has provided, and that because He has 
 respect unto the offering, He has respect to the offerer ; 
 just as He had to Abel and his offering. Cain brought 
 his own offering, which was not God's ; Abel brought 
 the offering which God approved of; therefore, 
 it is written, ‘‘ God had respect unto Abel and his 
 offering." The difference between the two was in the 
 character of their offerings. In Eph. v. 2, we read, 
 “ Christ hath loved us, and hath give?i Himself for 
 
24 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet- 
 smellifig savourT God’s testimony to the sufficiency 
 and acceptability of the sacrifice of Jesus was His 
 raising Him up from the dead, and setting Him at 
 “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the 
 heavens,” and thus the sinner sees that God is 
 satisfied. 
 
 Now, how is the sinner connected with the sin-offering ? 
 Of old it was thus : he laid his hand upon the shi- 
 offermg. You and I cannot do that with the hands 
 of our body, for Jesus the Son of God, in His body, 
 is at the right hand of God. But the word of God 
 has explained what this means. The Old Testament 
 says. He that lays his hand upon the sin-offering shall 
 be forgiven. The New Testament says, He that 
 helieveth in Jesus shall forgiven ; so that it is not, 
 as I have often said, laying the hands of the body but 
 the hands of the soul upon Him who is the sinner’s 
 sin-offering. 
 
 “ My faith doth hay her hand 
 On that dear head of Thine, 
 
 While like a penitent I stand, 
 
 And there confess my sin.” 
 
 It is just, dear friends, taking the place of the 
 poor, guilty, condemned, ruined sinner, — saying as 
 the man of old did — / deserve death, but here is an 
 offering which God has provided : — 
 
 “ I lay my sins on Jesus, 
 
 The spotless Lamb of God.” 
 
 / cannot make atonement if I live to all eternity, 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 25 
 
 but Jesus can. He has made reconciliation, and on 
 that atonement, that reconciliation, I rest my soul ! 
 Believing in Jesus is resting on Him, trusting atone 
 and simply to the sacrifice which He has offered, 
 being persuaded that His finished work has satisfied 
 God. 
 
 This— nothing more and nothing less, — is be- 
 lieving in Jesus, and to such faith God annexes 
 the forgiveness of sins; not that the faith saves 
 any more than the laying the hand on the sacrifice 
 saved, but it appropriates the pardon that is given 
 freely because of the accepted substitute. 
 
 Upon this the word of God is explicit. 
 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 
 saved. ” Acts xvi. 31. 
 
 To Him gave all the prophets witness, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him shall receive the remission of sins. ” 
 
 Acts X. 43. 
 
 Through this man is preached unto yotc the forgive^ 
 ness of sins, and by Him all that believe, are justified 
 from all things. ” Acts xui. 38-39. 
 
 The sinner is thus identified with the sacrifice, and 
 the word is the same nou) as it was through those 
 hundreds of years when these things were foretold in 
 type and figure — “ it shall be forgiven hi?nl^ 
 
 This is the glorious result; the sinner gets his 
 pardon at the hands of a satisfied God ; he receives 
 the forgiveness of sins. Do you see it ? Do you lay 
 hold of this trutli ? Oh, may God give you to see it 
 in its fulness : to take your place as guilty sinners, 
 
26 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 and to trust in the crucified and risen Lord, whom 
 God has accepted in the place of the sinner. 
 
 Have you got this forgiveness from God? 
 
 If not, why not ? You say, I do not feet these 
 things as I ought. God said nothing about feeling. 
 It is you who say that, or the devil who prompts you 
 to say, I do not feel as I ought, — I have not got this 
 happy feeling, or the earnestness which I see others 
 have — that intense pleasure in the things of God. 
 But God has told you what He demands, and that is 
 not a certain amount of feelings but a sacrifice, and 
 as you cannot provide it, God has provided it in the 
 person of His own Son; and lest you should be in 
 any doubt as to whether your sacrifice is the right one, 
 God has laid it all so minutely down, that you need 
 not have a doubt. ‘‘For He hath showed thee, O 
 man, what is good.’^ He hath written it down. 
 
 You need not have a shadow of a doubt. When 
 you come before God, presenting to Him by faith 
 the sacrifice of Jesus, saying, “ Look not, O God, 
 on me a guilty sinner, but on my Saviour, on my 
 sacrifice,’’ there is no shadow of a doubt that He does 
 forgive you. God would be unfaithful if He did not. 
 “ God is not a man that He should lie.” “ He is faith- 
 ful and just to forgive us our sins.”ii When you come 
 pleading that blood, God cannot send you away. 
 He cannot deny Himself. If you thus come to Him 
 now as you are, with any mass of worldliness and 
 sin upon you that you like to bring, God receives 
 you, and you are pardoned. It is not my word, it 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 27 
 
 is God^S, To Him gave all the prophets witness, 
 that WHOSOEVER helieveth on Him shall receive the 
 remission of sins.’’ You have not got to provide 
 anything. You have not got to ask questions about 
 this, that, or the other, if you are asking that one 
 question, “What must I do to be saved?” ^^Come,” 
 He says, “for all things are now ready. You may 
 know that you are forgiven, because God has said so. 
 
 Bear with me for a moment, while I repeat that 
 you may know that you are forgiven — not by any of 
 your feelmgs, not by any pleasant sensations or emo- 
 tions in your heart — pleasant enough if God grant 
 them, and much to be desired — but by the word of 
 God; — the only witness, — the only warrant that a 
 sinner has in this world for knowing he is pardoned 
 the moment that he trusts in Jesus is this — God has 
 said so, Rest your soul on the Word of God, and 
 He will not disown you. God will not dishonour His 
 word, any more than a man of name or position 
 would break his word, or dishonour his name written 
 at the bottom of a document. God has spoken 
 and He cannot lie. Rest your soul upon that. 
 There is a day coming — it may be in your time, when 
 the foundations of the world will be upset, — when the 
 faith of the very elect will be tried, and if your faith 
 rests upon what you feel., or hope, or anything else but 
 the written word of God, your faith will go down. If 
 you rest your poor guilty soul upon what He has said 
 concerning the forgiveness of sin. He has pledged His 
 word,— you ''shall never perish ” — you “shall have 
 everlasting life.” 
 
28 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 I know that many will tell you that it is presump- 
 tuous to say you know that you are forgiven ; but 
 they know 7 iot of what they speak; presumption lies, 
 not in belieuing, but in doubting what God has 
 said ; and as He has said distinctly over and over 
 again that the sinner that believes in Jesus has the 
 forgiveness of his sins, it is not presumption, but faith^ 
 to take Him at His word. When He has said, as in 
 I John V. 13, ‘‘These things have I written unto you 
 that believe on the name of the Son of God, that 
 YE MAY KNOW that ye haoe eternal life,’' it becomes 
 flagrant presumption, and is only making God a liar 
 (as in ver. 10), to say either that the believer has not 
 eternal life, or that he ca 7 uiot knoiu it. He may know 
 it, he ought to know it ; and if he does not know 
 it, he is dishonouring God and defrauding himself ot 
 that joy and peace which is his birthright through 
 faith in Jesus. 
 
 Are gou neglecting this way of salvation ? 
 
 The devil will suggest thousands of excuses, such as, 
 “ I caiinot come of my self f — “ I can 7 iot helieve of myselff 
 etc. God knows it all. He knows your inability, 
 and therefore He has left you nothing to do. 
 There is no excuse. You may make thousands of 
 excuses, but you cannot make one that will avail. 
 When the king came into the marriage feast, and 
 found there the man who had no right to be there, 
 and asked the question, “ How earnest thou hither 
 not having on a wedding garment? ” there was not an 
 excuse then ; he was speechless. And so, men whose 
 
THE SIN-OFFERING, 
 
 29 
 
 mouths are full of excuses now why they should not 
 be saved and turned from their sins, will have nothing 
 to say in arrest of judgment, when God asks that 
 question, ‘‘ How earnest thou in hither without a 
 wedding garment ? Are you trusting, as many are, 
 in what they call the love of God, or in a vague hope 
 of mercy ? The love of God is indeed infinite, or 
 you and I would not be here. It '‘fasseth knowledge f 
 for He gave His only-begotten Son ; and His com- 
 passion is so great that you and I can have no idea 
 of it, — no, not the millionth part of it. But I tell you 
 this, — God loves His Son more ; and He will never 
 see the soul that tramples under foot the blood of 
 the Son of God, and counts that a trifling thing, — He 
 will never see that soul in heaven. See John xvii. 26. 
 He that rejecteth Christ, the only way of salvation, 
 will never see the face of God, except to, be cast 
 out for ever. And therefore, I beseech you, as you 
 value your own soul and your eternal welfare, “ see 
 that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.'’^ It is not I 
 who speak, it is this book, — God’s written Word ; 
 and there we find chapter after chapter, and page 
 after page of this one glorious truth, that there is 
 forgiveness for the very worst of sinners, NOW, 
 by trusting in the blood of Christ; but that way 
 rejected, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” 
 What is your state now ? This world, — at any rate 
 all that portion of it who hear the gospel of Christ, is 
 just divided into two classes, those who have accepted 
 Christ, and those who, from thousands of reasons, 
 
30 
 
 THE SIN-OFFERING. 
 
 have rejected or are rejecting Him. In one of these 
 classes ijou are found. It is not a question of the 
 amoimt of your sins ; it is not a question of the state 
 of your feelings ; it is not any other question than 
 this, — haue you received Christ? Is your soul 
 resting on Him ? 
 
 May God give you grace to see where you stand 
 now before Him ; and if conscious that you are not 
 really resting, wholly and entirely, on the blood of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not too late now. Come 
 and believe in Him now, for the word of God by 
 the mouth of Jesus says, Him that cometh unto Me 
 I will in no wise cast ouV^ 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 John vii. 37-39* 
 
 * In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
 cried, saying. If any ‘man thirst, let him come unto Me, and 
 drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath 
 said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But 
 this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him 
 should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; be- 
 cause that Jesus was not yet glorified.) ” 
 
 There was a peculiar fitness in the day and the say- 
 ing here recorded. It was a remarkable day. It 
 was “ the last day, that great day of the feast.’' It 
 was the feast of tabernacles, w^hich lasted seven or 
 eight days ; and by a reference to the 23rd of Levi- 
 ticus, you will see what its object and meaning was. 
 In the 34th verse it is written, ‘‘ Speak unto the 
 children of Israel, saying. The fifteenth day of this 
 seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for 
 seven days unto the Lord.” Verse 39, When ye 
 have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep 
 a feast unto the Lord seven days : on the first day 
 shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a 
 Sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the 
 boughs of goodly trees ; and ye shall rejoice before 
 
33 LIVING WATERS OFFERED, 
 
 the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall keep it 
 a feast unto the I^ord seven days in the year. It shall 
 be a statute for ever in your generations : ye shall 
 celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in 
 booths seven days ; all that are Israelites born shall 
 dwell in booths : that your generations may know 
 that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, 
 when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.’^ 
 
 The 29th of Numbers is taken up with a descrip- 
 tion of what was to be done in those seven days. 
 And in the i6th of Dent. 13-15, the great feature of 
 the feast that was brought out, was that it was to be 
 a time of great rejoicing. 
 
 It seems, then, that the feast of tabernacles was 
 specially instituted as an acknowledgment of God’s 
 great mercy. Every one that took to them boughs 
 and made themselves a booth in the field, leaving 
 their homes in the city, did it in remembrance that 
 God made them to dwell in booths when they were 
 redeemed out of the land of Egypt. It was a renmn- 
 brance of rede 7 nption. It was like the passover, in 
 that it went back to redemption, because it com- 
 memorated the coming out of Egypt. It was the end 
 of the religious year, and considered to be the happiest 
 time of all. 
 
 Now it was on the last day of this feast, the close 
 of the whole religious year of the Jews, that Jesus 
 stood and cried these words. 
 
 About the midst of the feast (ver. 14) Jesus went 
 into the temple and taught, and there was great 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 33 
 
 musing in men’s hearts about it. Some said, He 
 is a good man.” Nay,” but said others, “ He de- 
 ceiveth the people.” Some said, Is not this the 
 prophet that should come into the world ? Is not 
 this the Christ ? ” All men mused in their hearts 
 about Him as they had about John. 
 
 And now all the religious services had come to an 
 end. The religious year was finished. The water 
 had been poured out with joy and rejoicing seven 
 days. All the sacrifices were offered. The people 
 were beginning to go home. But He who was 
 standing in the midst of them doubtless could see 
 in all this outward show 7?iany an aching hearty 
 many a disappointed spirit He could see that 
 many were not at peace. And so He forestalls, 
 as it were, that great day when these words should 
 be properly fulfilled after He was risen and, ascended, 
 and on the last day, that great day of the feast, 
 Jesus stood and cried, If ariy man thirsty let him come 
 unto Me and drink! 
 
 They had not got satisfaction or joy. They had 
 not got abiding peace ; but there stood One who 
 could give it. 
 
 It is remarkable to see that Jesus was speaking to 
 religious people. The city was full, we may say, 
 of nothing else but religious people who came up 
 from all the cities of Judaea, as His brethren had, and 
 as He had, to keep the feast of the tabernacles. He 
 was not speaking to the decidedly tmgodly, the openly 
 worldly, or profane, but He offers to these religious 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 people the very same thing to satisfy them that He 
 did to persons without any religion at all. You re- 
 member the story in the 4th chapter of John, where 
 He meets the woman of Samaria, a person living in 
 open sin, and without any profession of religion He 
 announces to her the gift of God, the living water. 
 He gives her to drink, and she goes away satisfied. 
 But now He stands with quite a different congre- 
 gation around Him. It is not the worldly, so to 
 speak : at any rate, not the pleasure-seeking ; but 
 religious people — people who had gone through a 
 round of divine services,’’ but who yet had not got 
 ‘‘ the peace of God.” 
 
 And so He stands there and announces to them 
 the very same blessed truths that a short time before 
 He had announced to the careless and ungodly 
 woman of Samaria. 
 
 Now, Jesus is ever the same. There are multi- 
 tudes of people in this world who are like the Jews. 
 Perhaps you have gone through, it may be, a round 
 of religious seruices, but you have not got peace. 
 You have had a desire awakened after the knowledge 
 of God, and have been going on and on and on, and, 
 as it were, your year of religious services has come to 
 an end. I mean in this way : you cannot get further. 
 You have done what you could. There is nothing 
 more to be done. You have gone through the 
 round of religious duties, but you have not drunk 
 of the living waters. To such Jesus says, ‘Hf any 
 man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” He 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 25 
 
 shows you where your mistake lies. You may have 
 been working and striving, but it has all been the 
 ‘Svorks of the law,” and not the ‘‘hearing of faith.” 
 It has been the “ doing the best you could^'^ but it has 
 not been the coming to Jesus and trustmg in Him. 
 To such He says, “ If any man thirst, let Him come 
 to Me and drink.” 
 
 But there is a deeper truth than that here. It 
 seems as if He recognised that there was in every 07ie 
 a deep-seated emptiness of heart — a dissatisfaction 
 with earthly things. And is not that the truth ? Do 
 not you and I know it ? Don’t we know that there is 
 in our hearts, till the grace of God satisfies them, 
 an emptiness, a weariness ; that though there may be 
 excitement and pleasure, yet when those solemn, 
 fulent, death-like moments come ; when some sud- 
 den blow tears away the veil, as it were, that hides 
 the unseen things from the things that we see, that 
 then there is felt to be a wa7it, aii emptiness. You 
 then feel, “What I have got does not satisfy my 
 soul. / want something more. ” All of us who have 
 come to Christ know what that is ; and I should think 
 that there is not one who has lived a few years — even 
 the children among us — who has not found that the 
 pleasures of this world never satisfy the heart. There 
 are such moments in every one’s life, thank God, a 
 kind of solemn warning, when men hold their breath 
 for a little time ; when they stop, and in their search 
 after something, stretch out their hands ; and it may 
 be, they hear then that still, small voice — the still, 
 
36 LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 small voice of One who says, If any man thirst, let 
 him come unto Me and drink/' “ Come unto Me all 
 ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I ivill give 
 you resti^ I will refresh you." But that is often 
 disregarded, and something else is snatched up ; the 
 nearest book, the nearest pleasure, the most conve- 
 nient thing to engage the mind. And so that voice 
 dies away, and perhaps the last solemn warning has 
 ceased. Oh, may He give us an ear to hear, and a 
 heart to receive these blessed words — to receive this 
 living water, of which, if a man drink, he shall thirst 
 
 no more for ever^ 
 
 There are two or three special points that we may 
 notice here. There is, first of all^ what Jesus offers ; 
 
 If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. 
 This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe 
 on Him should receive ; because the Holy Ghost w^as 
 not yet given, for Jesus was not yet glorified." God 
 has left us in no doubt of what the living water which 
 Christ speaks of represents. This spake He of the 
 Sfiriti^ 
 
 Now the Sfmt is fife, — that life which God is 
 offering to all through Jesus — life which God pours 
 into that man’s heart who belieues on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. But we are told here, that He spake it of 
 the Spirit, which they who believe on Him should 
 receive, because the Holy Ghost was not yet given " 
 (not in His fulness, as the Comforter, as the One who 
 dwells in the hearts and in the bodies of His pepple). 
 And the last words of the text show us what a won- 
 
LIVING WATERS DEFER ED. 
 
 37 
 
 derful blessing, what an unspeakably precious gift of 
 God, the Holy Spirit is ; because you see what His 
 disposal must depend upon — the glorification of Jesus 
 Christ. It involves the completion of the work oi 
 the Lord Jesus, for without that no sinner could 
 receive the Holy Ghost. The Father gave Him, it is 
 true, ‘‘power over all flesh, that He might eternal 
 Ufe to as many as the Father had given Him."^ But 
 there was a great obstacle in the way of their receiving 
 eternal life, and it was this : that men are sinners, 
 and that God’s holy law had first of all a claim on 
 them. Gracious as the purposes of God were. His 
 justice was inflexible, and men must be set free 
 from the condemnation of the law before they could 
 receive the Holy Ghost. And thus we find in the 3rd 
 of Galatians (ver. 13), that after it is said that every 
 one that continueth not in all things written in the 
 book of the law to do them, is accursed of God, it is 
 added, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
 the law, being made a curse for US. ” Why was He 
 made a curse, then ? “ that the blessing of Abraham 
 {i.e., the blessing promised to Abraham) might come 
 on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ” (ver. 14). 
 AVhat was the blessing of Abraham ? The same 
 verse explains “ that we might receive the pi'omise of 
 the Spirit through faith.” Thus we see the reason of 
 the evangelist’s expression, “ The Holy Ghost was not 
 yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The 
 law was in the way. Jesus Christ comes, made 
 under the law, is hung upon the tree, makes His soul 
 
38 
 
 LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 an offering for sin under the great sentence of that 
 law, and then, as we read in the 4th of Ephesians, 
 He ascended up on high ; He led captivity captive, 
 and received gifts for men/^ 
 
 And you will find, if you look in the 2nd of Acts, 
 that the hestozval of that gift was the first result of the 
 glorification of Jesus. Ver. 33, “ Therefore, being by 
 the right hand of God exalted, and having received of 
 the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath 
 shed forth this, which ye now both see and hear.’^ 
 This was the gift of the Holy Ghost. So that when 
 Jesus says here, “If any man thirst, let him come 
 unto Me and drink the living water,’’ He speaks it of 
 the Spirit, the life of God, which can only come forth 
 from Him, and flow into and dwell in our hearts. 
 when the whole work is finished which Jesus came to 
 do. He says, “ I have glorified Thee on the earth ; 
 / have finished the work.” Then the Father raises 
 Him up from the dead, sets Him at His own right 
 hand ; and then is poured out the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost. You may then see what a blessing this is, 
 what a glorious gift, if it needed all this, the suffering, 
 the humiliation, the agony, the curse, the death, the 
 burial, the resurrection, the ascension, of Jesus to the 
 right hand of God. Do not let us ever undervalue 
 this. It is life eternal. “ If any man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, he is none of His, ” for he has got 
 no life. Those who receive the gift and indwelling 
 of the Holy Ghost have eternal life, life to which 
 death is no obstacle or hindrance, because Ave read in 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 39 
 
 the 8th of Romans, If the Spirit of Him that raised 
 up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised 
 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal 
 bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’' So that 
 the death of this mortal body is no obstacle to resur- 
 rection life. Thus Jesus offers eternal life, and with 
 it wondrous joy, for there is “joy in the Holy 
 Ghost.” 
 
 Then let us lay hold of that one great truth, that 
 Christ here offers life, — His own life, the Spirit, to 
 give which He must die, for before the waters could 
 flow out the rock must be smitten. And He has not 
 changed, “If any man thirst,” He still says, “let 
 him come unto Me and drink.” He offers, in few 
 words, that which the whole Bible, from Genesis to 
 Revelation, testifies of, tlte tcnsearchable riches of 
 Christ ; and He still says to you, as He ,said to that 
 poor woman at Jacob's well, “If thou knewest the 
 gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee. Give me 
 to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He 
 would have given thee living water. This spake He 
 of the Spirit.” 
 
 Now, it is infinitely important for us to know, not 
 only what He offers, but to whom He offers it. “ IF 
 ANY MAN.” That is the word, thank God. He 
 does not limit the offer, and do not you limit it for a 
 second. If it is not for any man, it is not for you 
 and me. 
 
 Some men would limit it. They would say, You 
 must not preach so full a gospel ; Christ only died 
 
40 
 
 LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 for the elect ; you must not go and tell men that any 
 man can have it. 
 
 Now, friend, you and I have no right to limit 
 the gospel of the grace of God, unless we have gone 
 up to heaven, and turned over the very last page of 
 God’s book of life. If there was any one who could 
 have limited it, it was the Preacher here ; He who 
 stood and said, If any man thirst.” If you look at 
 the 6th chapter, you will see there (ver. 64) that Jesus 
 knew what you and I never can know; for Jesus 
 knew from the beginning who they were that believed 
 not, and who should betray Him.” And yet He says. 
 If any man thirst, let him C07iie unto Me and drhikF 
 He does not limit the offer any more than Isaiah, 
 when he says, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
 ye to the waters, buy wine and milk without money, 
 and without price ; ” any more than He limits it when 
 He says, ‘‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, ail ye 
 ends of the earthd^ And we might go on multi- 
 plying passage after passage, such as, “ Whosoever 
 will, let him take the water of life freely. ” I am 
 the door, by Me if any man enter in he shall be 
 saved.” 
 
 No, friend, do let us take care of this. One knows 
 how subtle the devil is, and how he seeks to make us 
 hold one error if not another. Therefore we have to 
 sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. Though 
 the doctrine of the election of God is a glorious truth, 
 and one that I do not suppose any one here would 
 hold more firmly than myself, yet I see on the other 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 41 
 
 hand, that Christ, who knew all things, did not limit 
 His offers of eternal life and glory. It is much better 
 to have the theology of the Bible than all our own 
 schemes of docU'ine. The knowledge that God has 
 distinct purposes of grace to some^ does not limit 
 a Christian’s prayers for all, any more than the know 
 ledge that Christ had a people given to Him by the 
 Father from the foundation of the world, hindered 
 Him from saying, “ If any man thirst.” And so let 
 as glory in this, that we too can say to ail around us, 
 as our Master said, If any man thirst ; ” and point 
 them to Jesus Christ. It is, any inanT It is, 
 “ whosoever believeth.” 
 
 Ah, but you may say, there is Imiit here, for souls 
 are very subtle sometimes in trying to find some flaw 
 in the proclamation which shall exclude them. And 
 so they say, ‘‘ If any man thirstf you see, he must be 
 a thirsty soul. There is no doubt of that. Christ 
 came not to call the righteous but sinners to re- 
 pentance.” But are we the judges of another’s 
 thirst ? Can you look into my heart, or I into yours, 
 and say, You do not thirst after the grace of God? 
 I cannot, and I do not know who can. So we must 
 deliuer the message that He gives us. Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every creatureT 
 Who knows where the thirst begins, and how small 
 a degree of thirst warrants a sinner in taking at 
 the hand of Christ the gift of the Holy Ghost? 
 You and I cannot, and perhaps the one whom we 
 should think the least thirsty, is the one who thirsts 
 
42 
 
 LIVING WATERS OFFERED, 
 
 the most : and the one that makes the largest pro- 
 fessions of desire after God is the one perhaps who 
 has no real thirst. You can imagine that there 
 are some so thirsty, so parched, so aching, that 
 they can make no show of it. They cannot ex- 
 press it to their fellow-creatures, and when they try 
 to pray their lips are joined together. Think of a 
 man lying down by the roadside on a hot day. He 
 has walked a long way, and his lips are parched. 
 He has fainted for want of water. He is half dead. 
 He cannot speak. Is he not thirsty ? And should 
 you be warranted in saying, I must not give water to 
 that man ; he does not thirst enough ? The greater 
 the spiritual death the more need of Christ, and of 
 the Holy Ghost to quicken you. If any one thirst, 
 if you, reader, are in want of a Saviour, thank God 
 these words are for you ; If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto Me and drink.” Do not exclude yourself. 
 The Word of God does not exclude you. Do not 
 listen to what men say who would persuade you that 
 you have not gone through the necessary experience 
 to fit you for believing on Jesus, 
 
 All the fitness He requiretli, 
 
 Is to feel your need of Him. 
 
 Can you say, I do ? He does not say, you must 
 feel it so and so much. He does not say, you must 
 have a heart broken with a sense of sin, till you weep 
 upon your knees ; till you are ready to go through 
 anything. He does not say that that would exclude 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 43 
 
 a great many. No, dear friends, do not go beyond 
 Scripture ; do not come short of it. If any man,” 
 that means, you — here — now. Is there a want in 
 
 your heart, the very least feeble sensation after the 
 living God, — after eternal life, — after the forgiveness 
 of sins, — after something that shall satisfy, when all 
 the things you see and feel have passed away ? then 
 you are a thirsty soul, and you are warranted, on this 
 blessed invitation of the Lord Jesus, to come unto Him 
 and take the water of life. 
 
 But lastly, it is important to know what the terms 
 are on which He offers this. Men make many terms. 
 They will prescribe such a wonderful list of things, 
 sacraments, church-going, chapel and school attending, 
 confirmation, Bible-reading, prayers ; a long, long list, 
 and a very weary list. One never knows when one 
 has got to the end of it. What are the terms on 
 which Jesus Christ offers the gift of the Holy Ghost 
 to your heart? If there is anything important in 
 the world, it is to know that. Do you know it ? 
 Do you know the terms of the gospel ? What are 
 the conditions of Christ’s gospel ? Many, you know, 
 make it quite as hard a thing as the law of old. You 
 must just do as many things in one way now, as they 
 had to do in another way then. Your faith is your 
 work. You must believe with a certain strong faith. 
 Your repentance become a work. You must do this, 
 and that, and the other. If the gospel of the grace 
 of God is announced to us in such terms as that, 
 then I say we are of all men the most miserable. 
 
u LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 
 
 We have no chance of ever fulfilling these conditions, 
 or ever doing this work, because by nature we are 
 dead. The law comes to men on the supposition 
 that they can do something. The gospel comes to 
 them on the ground that they can do nothing. This 
 verse tells us the terms, the condition on which the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost is offered to you, if you have 
 not received Him. What are those terms, then? 
 Coming and taking. Nothing eise. Coming and 
 receiving, not doing anything. Very often this very 
 coming is made out to be a work. Many often think, 
 Oh, I have not come as I ought. I have not come 
 in the right spirit. I feel I do not come as others do. 
 They, in fact, make their coming to be a very great 
 thing. Now, suppose for an instant that I were a 
 very rich man, and were to say to all the people in 
 the village, “ Here is a five-pound note for every one 
 that comes to me, and takes it out of my hand.’^ We 
 will suppose that a man came and took it, and that 
 he went home and showed it to his friends, and they 
 said, “ Well, how did you get it ? — did you have to do 
 anything for it?” He would say, ‘‘No, I had to do 
 nothing.” He would not call his coming to me doing 
 anything. He would not call the stretching out of 
 his hand to take the five-pound note doing anything. 
 He would not be such afoot. Ah, the devil makes 
 men fools, though. He “ blinds the minds of them 
 that believe not,” and he tries to make us suppose 
 that this coming and receiving is something so hard, 
 that we must be worked up to a particular state of 
 mind to do it. 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED. 4^ 
 
 The terms, dear friends, are receiving what God 
 offers through Jesus Christ. The word coming’^ is 
 explained in the 38th verse. The word “drink’’ is 
 explained in the 39th verse, if we want an explanation 
 of it. “If any man thirst, let him co?ne unto Me,” 
 and in the next verse we are told, “ He that helievcth 
 in Me so that “coming ” and “ believing ” are the 
 same. If we are asking that most blessed of all in- 
 quiries, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus says, 
 “ Come,” and the Scripture explains that to mean 
 ‘‘believe, “trust in Him.” If you are saying, “How 
 shall I drmk ” “ This spake He of the Spirit, which 
 
 they that believe in Him should recetveJ^ So, then, 
 “ receiving ” is “ drinking.” Oh, may God open some 
 eyes to see this glorious truth, and satisfy your hearts. 
 
 Jesus Christ sees doubtless some weary, aching- 
 heart; and it may be some worldly, thoroughly 
 worldly people. Well, it is for you. You thirst; you 
 want to get your soul satisfied. Come to Jesus. Some 
 who are religious have come here. You have gone 
 the whole round, and your religious year, as it were, 
 is finished, and you have not got peace. On the 
 “last day,” when all your efforts have failed, when 
 everything you have done has come to an end, and 
 proved fruitless, Jesus says, “If any man thirst, let 
 him come to Me and drink the living waters.” What 
 an awful thing it is to refuse this gift! It would be 
 a foolish thing for a thirsty man to pass by the fountain 
 in the village and not drink, if a draught from that 
 fountain would revive him. 
 
46 
 
 LIVING WATERS OFFERED, 
 
 O friends, the time is passing away, the day of 
 grace, in which we can hear the acceptable ^vords of 
 Christ’s gospel. Opportunity after opportunity passes 
 away, and some of you are still without the living 
 waters. How shall we escape if we neglect so great 
 salvatio7i ? ” It is not, How shall we escape if we dorit 
 drink as we ought ; but, if we turn aside ^ if we push 
 away the outstretched hand of Jesus, if we disregard 
 the fountain of living waters which flows forth from 
 Him, how shall we escape ? There is no escape — 
 none. 
 
 Let me ask you to look unto Him, to trust in Him, 
 to take Him at His word, and He will give you the 
 living waters ; His blood shall wash away all your 
 sins, so that they shall be remembered no more for 
 ever, and you shall receive the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Just one word to those who believe in Jesus. You 
 have tasted that the Lord is gracious ; you have drunk 
 the living water, you have received the Holy Ghost. 
 But are you to be content with one draught ? What 
 does He say ? Be ye filed with the Spirit.” Are 
 we filled ? Do you think we are ? If we were, would 
 not our lives he different ? Does Christ wish us to be 
 stinted in this supply ? What does He say ? am 
 come that ye might have life, and that they might 
 have it mo7‘e ahu7idantlyi'‘ We are not straitened in 
 Him, we are straitened in ourselves. Why is there 
 among those who believe in Jesus so much thirsting 
 after the things of this world ? It is because we are 7iot 
 Affiled with the Spirit, Mark that expression in 
 
LIVING WATERS OFFERED, 47 
 
 Ephesians v. 18, not drunk with wine wherein is 
 excess, but be filled with the Spirit.’^ If you want 
 satisfaction, it is not to be got by the drinking at an 
 earthly cup, which is soon emptied, but by receiving 
 the Spirit, by drinking the living water, day by day, 
 hour by hour, moment by moment. 
 
 Yes, if there is one thing we want, when we sum 
 it all up, it is this, to be ‘^filled with the Spirit.” Then 
 should we be mighty men and women in Christ. We 
 should be above the world. Being satisfied with 
 the river of God^s pieasures,” we should care no 
 longer for the pleasures of sin,” which are but ‘‘ for 
 a season.” Therefore to beiieuers, as weii as to the 
 unsaved, Jesus still says, If any man thirst, let him 
 come tinto Me and drink! 
 
 Oh, may God help us all to answer that invitation, 
 and say, Lord, I come. I have not used the precious 
 gift Thou hast given me, up to this time, as I might 
 have used it ; but Thou art gracious, willing to pass it 
 by, and to fill me with that Spirit whom I have so 
 often grieved.” 
 
 “Just as I aro Thou wilt receive, 
 
 Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, 
 
 Because Thy promise I believe — 
 
 O Lamb of God, I come L' 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 
 
 John vii. 37-39* 
 
 “ In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and 
 drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath 
 said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But 
 this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him 
 should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; 
 because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) ’’ 
 
 I WOULD ask you, my friend, what effect has this 
 invitation had upon you? It is God^s truth, and 
 its truth does not depend upon the excellency of the 
 manner in which it is held by men. I do not, there- 
 fore, mean to ask you what effect has the invitation 
 of Jesus Christ — what effect have the words of the 
 living God had upon you ? Can you say — 
 
 “ I heard the voice of Jesus say, — 
 
 Behold, I freely give 
 The living water ; thirsty one. 
 
 Stoop down, and drink, and live ” ? 
 
 And then can you say — 
 
 “I came to Jesus, and I drank 
 Of that life-giving stream ; 
 
 My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 
 
 And now I live in Him ” ? 
 
 48 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 49 
 
 What is the result of the invitation which is declared 
 in your ears ? What have you done with it ? Have 
 you accepted it? Have you come to Jesus? What 
 have you been doing with that offer all this time? 
 One minute, one second, would have sufficed for you 
 to accept it ; have you accepted it ? Or has another 
 hour passed over any of your heads with such glorious 
 words as those sounding in your ears, and not 
 accepted ? 
 
 I think it very possible that there are some who 
 have heard those words, and said, “ Ah, it is all very 
 nice and true ; ” and yet you have never drunk of the 
 living waters, and you have got no life before God yet. 
 
 Now, there may be some who are hindered by 
 some of the following reasons : — Some persons do 
 not like the terms. They are too simple. Well 
 that is very natural. In the pride of man's: heart he 
 will not take this gift for nothing. He is like 
 Naaman, who said, ^‘Are not Abana and Pharpar, 
 rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of 
 Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean?" It 
 was too little a thing for him to do. The way was 
 too simple ; that great man to go like a little child at 
 the word of the prophet, and bathe in the river of 
 Israel, which, compared with the rivers of his native 
 land, was a little brook. He thought that the 
 prophet should come and strike his hand over the 
 place and do something wonderful. That is often 
 a hindrance to souls. What," they say, can I 
 receive the Holy Ghost by believing in Jesus ? No; 
 
 D 
 
50 LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 
 
 impossible ! Surely I must do something.’’ The 
 terms are too simple, you think ; but, dear friends, I 
 want to remind you that God knows, much better than 
 you or I do, what are the best terms on which to give 
 life to dead souls : and He has written them down 
 and prescribed them with infinite wisdom ; He has 
 prescribed the only way in which you can get life, 
 whatever you and I may think of it. You may think 
 you could have devised some better way ; at any 
 rate, you think you ought to come with something 
 — bringing prayers or repentance, or something 
 in your hands as a price. But you must take 
 salvation on God^s terms, not your own. Your 
 thoughts are not His thoughts ; your ways are not His 
 ways ; and His ways are the best. He has made 
 this glorious offer of the inestimable blessing of His 
 Spirit /or nothing^ — ^‘without money and without 
 price.” Only thoroughly believe in Jesus, trust 
 in the Saviour. He has made us that offer, and it 
 is not for you or ai:y man to say, Oh, that is 
 too cheap for me. That may be very well for 
 publicans and harlots; it may do for dying thieves, 
 who have no time to make themselves better ; but 
 not for me, for I am a moral person, — a respectable 
 person, — and I expect that all this is to weigh some- 
 thing. Surely, that is not to be cast wholly away. 
 Surely I am not to receive this as a poor beggar, as 
 the publican in the temple, as an outcast.” 
 
 Yes, we must all come in the same way, tor God 
 says, There is no difference^ for all have sinned We 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 51 
 
 all stand upon the same platform, and the moment 
 you see what your position is, you will acknowledge 
 that there is no other way that will do for you ; it 
 must be freely, for nothing, or you can never get 
 it. People do not like God’s terms, and so they are 
 waiting and waiting. Ah ! how long^ friend, are you 
 going to wait ? Have you ever thought that this day 
 might have been your first day in hell, where the cry 
 s, I am tormented in the flame ” ? — where there is 
 an endless thirst, — where there is no such glorious 
 word as this sounded forth : — If any man thirst, let 
 him come unto Me and drink.” Where words like those 
 are passed away for ever. Where hope never comes. 
 What a solemn thought this is ! I want you to realize 
 it. Just think, — if it had not been for the long- 
 suffering and mercy of God, you might have spent 
 your first day in the company of the devils in hell ; 
 you might have passed away and never have heard 
 these words again ! 
 
 What then, has, kept you from taking this offered 
 blessing — the free mercy of God — the gift of God, 
 which is eternal life? If you only knew your con- 
 dition as a ruined sinner, you would not be quibbling 
 about terms ; you would not be cavilling about what 
 God has offered. If your eyes were opened to see 
 your fearful danger, you would have grasped at 
 God’s offer, as a drowning man grasps at a rope. 
 You would have cast yourselves already into that 
 fountain of blood that ‘Gs shed for many for the 
 remission of sins,” and you would have taken that 
 
52 
 
 LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 
 
 first draught of the river of the water of life, of which 
 if a man drink, he shall not thirst but live for ever. 
 You do not know the danger that there is in delay, Oh^ 
 do you remember how solemnly Jesus spoke, when 
 He said, ‘‘ Now are these things hid from your eyes.'’ 
 He did speak of a time when it would be too late. 
 He said, “ Many shall strive to enter in and shall not 
 be able.” I think David might well say in that 
 psalm, Horror hath taken hold upon me because of 
 the ungodly who forsake Thy law.” 
 
 Ay, it is a horrible thing. Men do not think about 
 it. It is an awful thing to think of a soul awakened 
 to see that long-despised mercy is offered no longer 
 — that Jesus does not stand and wait — that the time 
 is past, and that there is an unending eternity before 
 him. It will be an awful thing to awake then, and 
 the wonder is, that when you think of it, horror does 
 not seize hold upon you. 
 
 Oh, to think that there are souls in this land who 
 are not awakened — who are sitting listening to invi- 
 tations like this, and have open Bibles in their hands, 
 and closed Bibles too in their houses, and do not 
 know Jesus Christ, whom to know is life eternal. Oh, 
 in the sight of that coming day, I would beseech you, 
 if you value your souls, if you have learned to value 
 them, to come to Jesus. “IF ANY MAN THIRST, 
 LET HIM COME.” Can you have anythmg more 
 glorious than eternal life, the gift of God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord; not through anything that you 
 can do, but freely offered to every one that believeth — 
 that trusted! in Tesus ? 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 
 
 53 
 
 I beseech you even now, while you read, and these 
 words are before you, look to Jesus. It is the lookings 
 the believing^ the triistmg. He wants nothing else. 
 He wants you to rest your soul upon His blessed 
 name. And, fellow sinner, I would afresh tell you 
 that there is a free pardon for you — an eternal life 
 for you whoever you are ; and that it is at your own 
 peril that you wait any longer. 
 
 I would ask you now, beseeching you for Christ’s 
 sake, be ye reconciled to God.” Why ? ‘‘For He 
 hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin ” — 
 His own Son ; He hath made Him to be sin for us. 
 He put away the sin. He bore the sin that we might 
 be made the righteousness of God in Him. “ The 
 gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.” Take it. Take it now. God help you — 
 every one that is conscious that up to this moment he 
 has not accepted what Jesus has been offering — to 
 come now. 
 
 Let me repeat once more that verse. “ If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that 
 believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of living water.” 
 
 Let us take up this truth first of all — that they who 
 believe in Jesus — simply trust in Jesus, — do receive the 
 Holy Ghost. That is a literal fact, that every one that 
 trusts in Jesus does receive the Holy Spirit of God, to 
 be in him an indwelling Spirit — ^I'eally to abide in his 
 heart. Now here this gift was spoken of as something 
 to come after. They had not received the Holy Ghost 
 
54 
 
 LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 yet Why? ‘^The Holy Ghost was not yet given, 
 because that Jesus was not yet glorified/^ To them, 
 therefore, it was something to come after. But when 
 Jesus was glorified, when He could say, / hauQ finished 
 the work that Thou gavest me to do : ’’ — when, as the 
 great High Priest, He had taken the blood and gone 
 into the holy place not made with hands — into the 
 presence of God, thereby making the atonement for 
 sin once and for ever; then, and then only, could 
 the blessing come forth from God’s presence. Jesus 
 must be glorified first. If you look at the i6th of St. 
 John and the 7th verse, you will see that He said, ‘Ht 
 is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not 
 away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I 
 depart, I will send Him unto you.” 
 
 Now we find that that was actually fulfilled, when 
 our Lord Jesus had risen, had ascended to His Father’s 
 right hand, and all the disciples waited till they should 
 receive the promise of the Father, which was the Holy 
 Spirit. And therefore, when Peter stood up on the 
 day of Pentecost, seven weeks after the ascension of 
 Jesus, he proclaimed that then the Holy Ghost was to 
 he given to every one that believed in Hhn. (Acts ii. 38.) 
 ‘‘Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every 
 one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- 
 sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
 GhostT It was not a mere contingency, a possible 
 thing ; it was a certainty, “ Then they that gladly 
 received his word were baptized,” and the fruits of the 
 Spirit were at once evident in their lives. It is not 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 55 
 
 distinctly stated there that they received the Holy 
 Ghost, but it was seen in their lives. They imme- 
 diately began to live as those only could who had 
 received the Holy Spirit of God. Peter again says, 
 
 Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a 
 Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, 
 and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of 
 these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom 
 God hath given,’’ — mark this : whom God hath given 
 to them that obey Him'' (Acts v. 31, 32). Therefore, 
 emrij one that obeyed Jesus — that came to Him — 
 that believed on Him — received the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Paul, in speaking to those who trusted in Christ, 
 says, — In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard 
 the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in 
 whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with 
 that Holy Spirit of promise^^ (Eph. i. 13). ’ There is 
 a little alteration that ought to be made here. The 
 word ‘ after” is not in the original. There is only 
 one word — “In whom also believing [or, having 
 believed] ye were sealed.” * The two things take 
 place together. It was not a thing that took place 
 some time after, but when they believed in Jesus 
 they did receive the Holy Ghost. All the apostles 
 just tell us this great truth, that the Church collec- 
 tively, and believers individually, are the receivers of 
 the Holy Spirit ; that He comes and dwells in them 
 — as it is said, “ Ye are the temple of God : and the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” 
 
 * Dean Alford renders it “ at your helievingT 
 
56 
 
 IJVING WATERS RECEIVElj. 
 
 There are two mistakes which people often make. 
 They say, ‘ I believe in Jesus, and have not received 
 the Spirit.’^ Now that is not true, it is a mistake, 
 and you know any mistake will hinder our peace, — 
 any mistake about God’s truth, be it ever so small. 
 But this is a great mistake. If a sinner believes in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, if he has committed himself 
 to Him as one that cannot save himself, then he 
 has receiued the Holy Ghost. He has not any right 
 to say, — I believe, and yet have not received the Holy 
 Ghost. He is doubting God’s word. “ Well,” but a 
 person says, if I had received the Holy Ghost, I 
 should be conscious of somethmg m me, I should 
 expect some evidence.” That is true, but what kind 
 of results do you expect to be produced by the Holy 
 Ghost, as a proof that He dwells in you? I know 
 that some say, I should like to feel much happier ; 
 I see others who receive the Holy Spirit, and they are 
 happy ; and I do not think I have received the Holy 
 Ghost, because I do not feel this, and that, or the 
 other ; ” and they expect to receive somethings they do 
 not know how to describe, which they suppose to be 
 the witness . of the Spirit, when they think it will be 
 an undoubted fact that they have received the Holy 
 Ghost. Now if you are measuring God^s truth by 
 your feeling Sf do not wonder that you are making 
 a mistake. Your feelings have nothing to do with 
 what God has said. He has stated that every one 
 who believes in Jesus shall and does receive the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED. 
 
 57 
 
 Then there is another mistake. “ I cannot believe 
 in Jesus till I receive the Holy Ghost.'* Some persons 
 think they must first receive the Holy Ghost, and 
 then believe. Mind, I am not speaking about the work 
 of the Spirit in awakening a soul, in convincing a 
 sinner of his need of a Saviour, in showing him what 
 he is ; that is all the work of the Spirit. No man was 
 ever convinced of his need of Christ without the work 
 of God the Holy Ghost. But I say, that is not 
 receiving the Spirit That is not receiving and 
 drinking the living water. The Lord said, ‘‘When 
 He is come He will reprove the world of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of judgment" (Johnxvi. 8). The 
 work of the Spirit ttpon man's heart, convincing him 
 of sin, and showing him his need of a Saviour, and of 
 the righteousness of God that is provided for them that 
 believe, is a perfectly distinct thing from the reception 
 of that Spirit into his heart. It is therefore incorrect 
 to say, I must receive the Holy Ghost before I believe^ 
 because the words we have been reading show us that 
 it is the opposite way. “ You must co 7 iie to Me and 
 drinkl'' The Holy Ghost is given to them that obey, 
 not to them that disobey. It is they who believed^' 
 who were “ sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise " 
 (Eph. i. 13). And so, when persons say, I cannot 
 believe, I am waiting and praying for the Holy Spirit, 
 I hope that soon I shall receive it, and then I shall be 
 able to believe ; they are not taking God's word, they 
 are not obeying Him by immediately coming to Christ,, 
 as those whom God has invited, commanded, and 
 
58 
 
 LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 urged to come and receive of Him that which He 
 offers. Let us beware of these two mistakes. It is 
 true of every believing soul, be he the youngest or the 
 eldest, that he or she is a receiver of God’s Spirit. 
 
 Two thoughts more. The Spirit of God dwells in 
 you as the author of your life. He is called here 
 ‘^living water, Having the Spirit of Christ, you 
 have life because you have Christ; and “HE THAT 
 HATH THE SON OF GOD HATH LIFE and 
 “ if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none 
 of His,” because Christ only has living souls. He is 
 the author of life, and that, eternal life. Oh, lay 
 hold of this. I was thinking to-day what a wonderful 
 thing it is, how the devil has brought up the doctrine 
 in these days, that men are not to be sure that they 
 have eternal life when they believe in Jesus. Why, 
 It seems on reading the Bible to be a plain truth, that 
 stares us in the face in every page of God’s Scriptures, 
 that it is an utter impossibility for a man to believe 
 in Jesus and not to have eternal life. It must be 
 eternal for a thousand reasons. But people make 
 mistakes about it. They do not see whereon the 
 great fact rests, that they have eternal life. And this 
 is one among others, that God’s eternal Spirit dwells 
 in them. The Spirit of Christ is their life, and that is 
 therefore an eternal life, because He has said, “The 
 Spirit of truth shall abide with you for everl^ Oh, 
 what a glorious thing to have, and to know that we 
 have, as believers, eternal life in Jesus ! We do not 
 sufficiently think what it is. We do not realize it. 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 59 
 
 We do not lay hold of it as a real actual fact. We 
 are measuring it by our feelings^ instead of taking up 
 God's Word which cannot lie. We know what it 
 is to enjoy temporal life. In a little while spring will 
 be coming, and then those of us who are blessed with 
 health, youth, strength, freedom from care, will know 
 what it is to enjoy the glorious spring morning, and 
 to feel our life exulting, and the blood running faster 
 in our veins. Life is a pleasure. The very fact of 
 having life on such a morning makes one glad, and 
 one feels that it is a real thing. It is, as far as it 
 goes, a pleasant thing to feel the warm air, and to 
 hear the birds singing, and to see the buds bursting 
 forth into life, but it is passing away; but you, if 
 you believe, have ETERNAL LIFE, and that can 
 NEVER pass away. The ‘‘fashion of this world is 
 passing away,” and all these things in a few days will 
 have passed away, and illness, weakness, old age, and 
 death may come, but eternal life will not pass away. 
 The Christian is the possessor of eternal life, and of 
 him the Saviour says, “ He that liveth and believeth 
 in Me shall never die,” for after you believe in Jesus 
 the death of this life is a mere nothing ; for He has 
 taken away the sting of death, which is sin. Oh that 
 we could take this truth and walk in it ; that through 
 the gift of God, a never-ending, glorious, blessed, 
 happy life is mine, because Christ is mine, and 
 / am His. 
 
 But not only is the Spirit the author and giver of 
 eternal life, for “ it is the Spirit that quicheneih ; ” but 
 
6o LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 He is called by another name here, not only “ living 
 water, but that name by which He is the most fre- 
 quently mentioned, the Holy Spirit — the Holy Ghost. 
 Ah, that means something ! That name is not re- 
 peated again and again for nothing. It might have 
 been enough to call Him the Spirit, but He is the 
 Holy Spirit. Now, mark this. First there is life^ and 
 then there is holiness. First the Spirit of God comes 
 and dwells in you as your life, for He is the Spirit of 
 Christ ; and then as the author of your holiness, the 
 author of every good thought, word, and work. He 
 who is the author of the one is the author of the 
 other. But we must take them in God^s way. We 
 cannot be holy without the Holy Ghost, for our 
 spirits are evil. But we must first be quickened by 
 the Spirit ; and that is only by the Holy Spirit coming 
 into our hearts, and when He is once there, He is 
 there as the power by which we are to be holy in our 
 lives. The sinner, it is true, is made fit for heaven 
 the moment he believes in Jesus (Col. i. 12). In Christ 
 he is at once fit to enter into the city of angels and 
 redeemed souls, because his fitness is in Christ, his 
 meetness is in Jesus and not in himself. He is a 
 “new creature’^ /n Christ Jesus, and with the new 
 creature God finds no fault. But then the Spirit 
 dwells in you to make you holy, to make you walk in 
 holiness. Oh, if we could lay hold upon this ! Why 
 does St. Paul press home upon believers again and 
 again this truth, “Your bodies are the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost ? What is it for, but that they may 
 
LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 6i 
 
 know whom they have dwelling in them, and use that 
 mighty power that they may serve God ; use the Holy 
 Ghost that dwells in them as their Friend, as the one 
 who is always with them, and who strengthens them 
 to do all things for God ? Do you want to overcome 
 a sinful lust, a sinful temptation, a sinful thought ? 
 it must be through the Spirit — “ If ye, through the 
 Spirit^ do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
 live — and in no other way. And the reason why 
 you and I so little succeed in overcoming the evil 
 habits and powers of our old nature is, that we do 
 not depend upon the Holy Ghost to do it for us. If 
 you want to do any work for God, it must be by the 
 power of Him “who worketh in you to will and to 
 do,” that you must succeed. Oh, then, remember 
 this, if you are a believer^ God’s Spirit dwells in you, 
 and you are no longer your own. Your body is the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye 
 have of God, and ye are not your oivn. For ye are 
 bought with a price” (i Cor. vi. 19, 20). Why has 
 the Holy Ghost come down from God to dwell in the 
 believer’s heart ? I'o take possession of him for God ? 
 It is to assert His dominion over the man, and a 
 blessed dominion it is when you know how to submit 
 to it. 
 
 Oh that we could go forth with a deeper realization 
 of this truth; — I have believed in Jesus; the Spirit 
 led me, and now the Spirit dwells in me never to 
 leave me ; to be my help, my strength, my teacher, 
 my guide into all truth; the one who is to open to 
 
62 
 
 LIVING WATERS RECEIVED, 
 
 me the Scriptures, to show to me the things about 
 Jesus, the things to come, to reprove me. Oh, dear 
 friend, remember that word, ‘‘ Grieve not the Holy 
 Spirit of God.” 
 
 Have we, then, all received the Spirit of God ? 
 How is it with all of you ? Have you accepted the 
 invitation ? Are you still unsaved ? Let me read it 
 again in your ears — IF ANY MAN THIRST, 
 LET HIM COME UNTO ME AND DRINK.” 
 It is free, it is for nothing, it is now, it is for ever, 
 to every soul that comes to Jesus. Do not then go 
 on without accepting what God offers. Oh, what a 
 sad thing it is to look and to feel there must be some 
 who have not yet received the Holy Ghost ! I am 
 not speaking of any individual, because I am not a 
 judge of your heart, but it is a truth which some of 
 you know of yourselves this very day. You must say 
 of yourselves, I have not received the Spirit of God. 
 Well then, the only thing the Word says of you is, 
 <‘that ye are none of Christ's/* He cannot own 
 you. If He comes to-night to take up His people, 
 He cannot take up you; but still the Word stands 
 written, “Come unto Me and drink.” Do not turn 
 away. Do not despise that offered mercy. The 
 blood of Jesus Christ has been shed, and now God 
 in tiis grace offers to you the gift, the living water, 
 of which if a man drink, he shall not thirst for ever. 
 Amen. 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 Tohn vii. 37-39* 
 
 “ In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
 cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and 
 drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath 
 said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But 
 this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him 
 should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given ; 
 because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)” 
 
 We have considered this subject in the two previous 
 chapters. First we looked at the glorious proclama- 
 tion that Jesus made of the river of the water of life. 
 And then we considered the truth that those who do 
 believe on Jesus do actually, really, truly receive the 
 Holy Ghost to dwell in them for ever. I wish you 
 now to see, from the 38th verse, what the consequences 
 are to others of a sinner’s believing in Jesus. We are 
 told, in unmistakable language, that he becomes then 
 a channel of blessings to others : — He that believeth 
 on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water.” 
 
 But before going into that, there are two points 1 
 should like to touch upon, which will help us a little 
 to understand the verse, before we look at the prac- 
 tical truths and doctrines that are stated in it. First, 
 
64 
 
 LI VI NG WA TERS FL 0 WING. 
 
 the quotation of Scripture which our Lord makes ; 
 and secondly, the expression which He uses, Out of 
 his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’^ First, the 
 quotation which He makes — As the Scripture hath 
 said.’^ Now, the remarkable thing is, that when you 
 refer to the Scripture you do not find any verse like 
 this. But it seems that our Lord joined several 
 Scriptures together, and gave the general sense of 
 them all; just as you find in 2 Corinthians vi. 16, 18 ; 
 where a number of passages from different parts of the 
 Old Testament are all brought together in one to 
 prove a certain doctrine. Our Lord refers here to 
 certain passages in the word of God ; and amongst 
 them I think the following : — First of all, Prov. x. 1 1, 
 21, ‘-The mouth of a righteous man is a well of llfeF 
 The lips of the righteous feed many.’’ Then in 
 Proverbs xiii. 14 there is another word which seems 
 especially to be referred to. The law of the wise is 
 a fountain of life'‘' — rivers of living water — to depart 
 from the snares of death” (chap. xv. 7). ‘‘The lips 
 of the wise disperse knowledge ” — spread it abroad — 
 (chap. xvi. 22). “Understanding is a well-spring of 
 life to him that hath it ” (chap, xviii. 4). “ The 
 
 words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters^ and the 
 well-spring of wisdom as a floiomg hrookF 
 
 Now, we see here some of the passages which I 
 think our Lord had in mind ; for there is no particular 
 text that answers word for word with what He said. 
 And we learn this important truth from this, that he 
 who is called a righteous or a wise man in the Old 
 
LIVING WA TERS FL 0 WING. 65 
 
 Testament, is explained by the New to be he that 
 helieveth in Jesus. We are told in Proverbs that these 
 things are true of the righteous man, and we are told 
 by Christ that they are true of the man who be- 
 lieves hi Him. So the righteous man, and the man 
 who believes in Jesus, are the same. If you want to 
 be righteous you must believe in Jesus. There is 
 no other way of becoming the “ righteous,^* or the 
 “just’’ man, but by believing in Him who is “the 
 Lord our righteousness.^^ 
 
 Then the next point is the expression, “ Out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of living water,” and we learn 
 something from that by reference to the Old Testa- 
 ment. I think I said on a previous occasion, that we 
 might render the word here “ heart ; ” and if you refer 
 with me to the 13th of Proverbs, you will see the 
 different ways in which the same word is translated in 
 the Old Testament. Chap. xiii. 25, “ The righteous 
 eateth to the satisfying of his soul ; but the belly of 
 the wicked shall want.” So, the belly of the wicked 
 is opposed to the soul of the righteous. They mean, 
 therefore, the same. Chap. xx. 27, “The spirit of 
 man is the candle to the Lord, searching all the 
 inward parts of ,the belly.” That is, the conscience 
 that God uses to make bare a man’s heart, to show 
 himself to himself. Then in chap. xxii. 17, 18, you 
 will see a passage that I shall ask you to refer to 
 again afterwards. “ Bow down thine ear, and hear 
 the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my 
 knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep 
 
66 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING, 
 
 them within theei^^ (Margin, in the belly.’’) There- 
 fore, the phrase means what David expresses in the 
 51st Psalm as ‘‘the inward parts.” “ Thou desirest 
 truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou 
 shalt make me to know wisdom.” Then in Job xxxii. 
 18, Elihu says : “For I am full of matter; the spirit 
 within me [or in the margin “ belly ”] constraineth 
 me.” And in Job xv. 35, speaking of the wicked, it 
 says : “ They conceive mischief, and bring forth 
 vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.” 
 
 I have only referred to these in order to explain 
 the otherwise rather curious expression that we find 
 in John ; “ He that believeth on Me, out of his belly 
 shall flow rivers of living water.” And we may learn 
 this truth by the explanation that we get out of the 
 Old Testament, that it is the heart of men that is 
 meant — the inward part. It is not the head ; it is 
 “ the within,” “ the soul,” “ the heart,” “ the spirit,” 
 from which are to flow these rivers of living waters, 
 of which, if a man drink, “ he shall never thirst.” 
 
 Now let us to-night, having cleared the ground in 
 this way, consider what the Lord Jesus says, taking 
 first the statement that a believer is a channel of 
 blessing to others, and noticing its illustration in the 
 New Testament; and then, secondly, the glorious 
 promise. 
 
 First of all, dear friends, the Lord makes a state- 
 ment, “ He that believeth on Me, out of his belly 
 shall flow rivers of living water.” When Christ was 
 here. He was the life of the world. He was living 
 
LIVING WA TERS FL 0 WING. 
 
 67 
 
 in a dead world, a charnel-house of dead souls, as it 
 were : and He communicated this life to all who came 
 to Him. But when He ascended, He left His people 
 here to fill His place in some measure, and to some 
 extent. And therefore, just before He left them, He 
 said to them, As My Father hath sent Me into the 
 world, so have I sent you into the world ” ; and again, 
 “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’^ 
 Twice over He says that, showing that there is a very 
 important sense in which believers are to fill the place 
 as the members, that Jesus Christ the Saviour had 
 filled as the head when He was down here. He was 
 the fountain of life and the only source of blessing, 
 and that He, and He alone, is to all eternity ; but 
 they are to be the channels through which that 
 blessing is to flow forth to others ; they are not to give, 
 but to convey^ life. And this is what you find proved 
 by facts. Take the 4th chapter of John, a passage 
 with which we are all familiar, and which shows forth 
 clearly this glorious truth, that believers in Jesus 
 become a channel of blessing to dead souls around 
 them. There is the story of the woman of Samaria — 
 ignorant, sinful, dead. The Lord Jesus meets with 
 her. He tells her of the river of the water of life. 
 He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, thou 
 wouldest have asked, and He would have given thee 
 living waterl^ He reveals to her the living water. 
 He reveals to her Himself He ' says, “ I am the 
 Christ.” What does she do immediately? She 
 becomes a channel of blessing to others. She imme- 
 
68 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 diately ‘‘ left her waterpot, and went her way into the 
 city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man which 
 told me all things that ever I did : is not this the 
 Christ ? And what was the result ? Why, in the 
 39th verse we read that many of the Samaritans 
 believed on Him for the saying of the woman.’’ She 
 became such an effectual channel of blessing, that 
 other sinners believed in the Saviour ; and in the 41st 
 verse we read that many more believed because of 
 His own wordf and they said, We know that this 
 is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” 
 
 Now look at John i. 40 : “ One of the two which 
 heard John speak, and followed Him (Jesus), was 
 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” And what did he 
 do immediately ? He first findeth his own brother 
 Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the 
 Messias.” Out of him was flowing at once the living 
 water. He could not keep it within himself He must 
 go and tell his nearest and dearest friend — his own 
 brother — that he had found Jesus ; and immediately 
 after that (ver. 45) Philip is found of Christ, Philip 
 goeth forth and finding Nathanael, and says, “ We 
 have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the 
 prophets, did write, of Nazar ethP 
 
 There are other instances in the gospel ; but now 
 turn to the 2nd of Acts, and see what happens there. 
 The promise was now truly fulfilled. The Holy 
 Ghost was sent down from heaven in His fulness. 
 Whatever measure of blessing people had received of 
 Jesus before, it was scanty compared with what was 
 
LIVING WATERS EL OWING. 69 
 
 given on the day of Pentecost We find Peter using 
 almost the same words which Christ used about the 
 living water. Ver. 33, Therefore being by the 
 right hand of God exalted, and having received of the 
 Father the promise of the Hofy Ghost, He hath shed 
 forth [poured forth] this which ye now see and hear.’' 
 
 And then he makes the proclamation to all that 
 heard him, Repent, and be baptized in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins, and ye 
 shall receive the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
 unto you and to your children, and to alt that are 
 afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall 
 call.” What is the result ? Why, that in that dead 
 and barren city, the rivers of living water so flowed 
 forth that three thousand men came to Jesus at once, 
 and in the next chapter we read that the niimber was 
 increased to five thousand. 
 
 But were Peter and the apostles to be the 07 ily 
 channels of blessing? Some people say that they 
 were; but the word of God tells a very different 
 story. If you look at the 8th of Acts, you will find 
 that others besides the apostles were used to spread 
 abroad the knowledge of this risen Saviour. For 
 after it is said (ver. i) that because of persecution 
 they were all scattered abroad, the word says dis- 
 tinctly, Except the apostles.” The apostles, there, 
 fore, remained at Jerusalem. Yet in ver. 4 we read 
 that those who were scattered abroad went every- 
 vrhere preaching the word.” And what was the 
 Jesuit? Samaria received the word of God; and 
 
70 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 when they that were scattered abroad upon the per- 
 secution that arose about Stephen travelled abroad 
 preaching the word, the hand of the Lord was with 
 them, and a great number believed^ and turned unto 
 the Lord’^ (chap. xi. 19-21). 
 
 Now mark that. The believer becomes a channel. 
 It is not merely the apostle, the clergyman, the 
 bishop, the minister, the teacher authorized by man ; 
 He, who alone can give the real authority, says, ‘‘ If 
 any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He 
 that believeth on Me^ out of his belly shall flow rivers 
 of living water. 
 
 And it 'Was living water — like the waters we read of 
 in Ezekiel, of which it is said, “ everything shall live 
 whither the river cometh (chap, xlvii. 9). Read 
 the history of the Acts. We have not time to go into 
 it now, but chapter after chapter tells us of places — 
 Lydda, Derbe, Joppa, Syria, Thessalonica, Berea, 
 Athens, Corinth, desert places — -where there was not 
 one atom of knowledge of God’s dear Son — perfect 
 charnel-houses of dead souls, where the apostles 
 and early preachers went forth spreading this river. 
 They gave the same message wherever they went, 
 that Jesus was exalted to give the Holy Ghost to 
 every one that believed, and thus the words that 
 we find in Isaiah were to a great measure fulfilled: 
 ‘Hn the wilderness, waters brake out; the parched 
 ground became a pool ; and the desert land, springs 
 of water.” And so it is to this day. The believer 
 becomes a channel of blessing. Not that he gives 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 71 
 
 the Holy Ghost, for God gives the Spirit through 
 Christ : but he is fhe tneans of pointing the soul to a 
 living Christ. 
 
 But secondly, it is a glorious promise. “ He that 
 believeth in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
 living waters.” I think we get into wrong ground 
 whenever we lose sight of this — that it is not a com- 
 mand, but a promise. It is not so much a duty as 
 a privilege. We often take up work for God (I am 
 speaking to believers) as a mere duty ; but God has 
 raised us far above that. I do not mean to say that 
 it is not a duty^ but we can look at it in a higher light, 
 as a glorious privilege. And therefore it is said, 
 not that rivers must or ought to flow, but shall flow.’» 
 There is no bondage in this service, but, on the 
 contrary, “ perfect freedom.” 
 
 In a service which Thy will appoints, 
 
 There are no bonds for me, 
 
 For my inmost heart is taught the truth 
 That makes Thy children free; 
 
 And a life of self-renouncing love 
 Is a life of liberty 
 
 It is a privilege to every believer to spread abroad 
 the living water, as far as God gives him opportunity. 
 Do not let us lose sight of this. You know we do 
 not teach our children that they are to be kind, 
 unselfish, and do good in the world, merely as a duty, 
 but as a privilege. If you teach them rightly you 
 say, “You may — not you must — give this to so and 
 
72 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 SO f and that is the way in which God always 
 teaches us. It may be that we need the co??wiand, 
 because we often get into the place of disobedient 
 children; but when we are working in the sunlight 
 of God’s countenance, all duties become privileges. 
 Now do, dear friends, think of what it is to be 
 a channel of blessing to others. If you had been 
 cured of some dangerous illness, and knew that the 
 remedy that cured you was infallible, would not yoit 
 gladly spread it abroad ? Why, as long as you lived 
 in this world, so full of disease and of sickness, your 
 tongue could never be silent. If we know what it is 
 to drink of the living water, are our tongues to be 
 silent ? Are we not to praise the mighty Physician’s 
 care and power, that have done so much for us ? 
 Yes, we may and ought to spread this knowledge 
 abroad ; and it is a glorious privilege to live here, in 
 a dying world, where there is such darkness and 
 death, and to be the channels of mercy to others ; to 
 be signposts to point to glory. 
 
 Now there are some thoughts that must occur to 
 you, if you meditate on these words, as well as to me, 
 in reference to the position and responsibilities of the 
 believer in this world. And this is one, that he is to 
 consider that God deems it needful for him to abide 
 here to bless others. He would often say, I should 
 like to depart and to be with Christ ! ” The mad- 
 man who was healed prayed the Lord that he might 
 be with Him, but Jesus suffered him not,” but left 
 him in the land of Gadara, to bear witness to Him 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 73 
 
 who had done so great things for him. Paul says in 
 the Philippians, ‘^To depart, and to be with Christ, is 
 far better; nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more 
 needful for you One great reason, I believe, why 
 God leaves His people here, is that they may be, as 
 this verse tells us they are to be, channels of blessing 
 to others. People are often so occupied with them- 
 selves, that they think that they are not taken to be 
 with Christ, because they are not ripe for glory, not 
 ready for heaven. Well, that is perhaps true in one 
 sense, because I believe that God has various ranks 
 in heaven, and that some persons will have a greater 
 fulness of blessing, or rather a greater capacity for 
 enjoying blessings, than others. And God may be 
 keeping the believer here to fit him to fill a special 
 place which He has prepared for him. But I believe 
 this, and I think the word teaches us, that the sinner 
 that believes in Jesus is fit for heaven the moment 
 he believes. “ He hath made us meet to be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. i. 12). 
 One moment, he is an unpardoned, hell-deserving 
 sinner ; the next he is an heir of glory. Because, do 
 you not see, dear friends, that it is not the old man,” 
 the old nature, that is ever made fit for heaven. We 
 often suppose that people go on improving till they 
 are ready to die. The old nature does not improve, 
 and cannot improve, for it is corrupt ” (Eph. iv.), 
 and a corrupt thing is incapable of improuement. 
 The “ new man is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness,” and, though that new creation may grow, 
 
74 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 and be more fully developed, it is yet like the first 
 creation before sin came in, “very good.” It is 
 therefore perfect and complete, and the moment 
 the new creation takes place in the sinner’s heart, 
 he has in him the germ of glory. He may be only 
 the little babe, but his limbs are as complete as 
 the old man’s. He is ready to enter into “the 
 inheritance of the saints in light.” And therefore I 
 say, it is not to make people Jit for glory though it may 
 be to make them fit for a certain measure of glory, 
 that the Lord keeps His people here. No, dear 
 friends, the Lord says, it is “ needful to abide in the 
 flesh” for the benefit of others. And this is one of 
 the great truths that this verse tells us. You are left 
 here as a believing sinner, not merely that you may 
 grow up into the likeness of Christ, but that you may 
 lead others to Him. And thus : 
 
 ** Wherever in the world I am, 
 
 In whatsoe’er estate, 
 
 I have a fellowship with hearts 
 To keep and cultivate ; 
 
 And a work of lowly love to do 
 For the Lord on whom I wait.” 
 
 V/herever I am, — whether in the house or garden, the 
 kitcfhen or stable, the office in London or the church, 
 in the railway or in the cab, — there is no place 
 where there is not some work to do for Jesus. Let 
 us, dear fellow-believers in Jesus, lay hold on this 
 more and more. You are not to be occupied with 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 75 
 
 se//, but to be a well-spring of life to others. Out 
 of your lips “wisdom’^ is to proceed; first to those 
 nearest and dearest to you. Let us remember that. 
 Mothers to their children, wives and husbands to 
 one another, brothers to sisters, masters to servants, 
 servants to fellow-servants. If you are a believer, you 
 are to be a channel of blessing to those who live in 
 the house where you reside. We often lose sight 
 of this. We so often think, Ah ! if I were in some 
 other place, I could do some great thing. No, 
 w/iere God puts you, there it is that the living water 
 Is to flow forth. 
 
 Another thought is this. The w^ords we have read 
 in the Proverbs lay great stress on a man’s word — on 
 a man’s lips. The lips of the righteous feed many,” 
 and so on; but what is meant by the lips or the mouth 
 of the righteous ? The mouth is one of the channels 
 through which the water is to flow forth. Let your 
 speech be always with grace.” Life and death are in 
 the power of the tongue^ What can the tongue do ? 
 Why, it can tell of Jesus Christ, — of the crucified, 
 risen Saviour, — of the gift of the Holy Ghost. But 
 we also read, Out of the abundance of the heaid the 
 mouth speaketh.” It is not merely out of the head, it 
 is out of the heart ; and if the river of living water 
 is to flow forth from you and me, it must be from 
 a full heart ; and the reason why we are so often slow 
 to testify for our blessed Saviour in this dying world, 
 is because our hearts are not full. 
 
 Now just refer with me to Prov. xxii. 17, t 8, because 
 
76 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 there is there a very interesting passage which bears 
 strongly upon this subject: Bow down thine ear, 
 
 and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart 
 unto my knowledge [or, unto the knowledge of me]. 
 For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within 
 thee.’’ If you drink of the river of the water of life, 
 oh, how pleasant it is ! but what does he go on to say ? 
 ‘^They shall withal be fitted in thy lipsP Now in 
 Colossians it is first said, ‘‘Let the word ofi Christ 
 dwell in yoV richly ; ” and then follows, “ Let your 
 speech be always of grace ; ” because, if the word does 
 dwell in you, your speech will always be full of grace 
 seasoned with salt. That is how it gets there. “They 
 shall withal be fitted in thy lips.” And what is the 
 purpose with which God has made known to His 
 people the certainty of their salvation, resting on 
 His word ? “ Have not I,” He continues (ver. 20), 
 
 “written to thee excellent things in counsel and 
 knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty 
 of the words of truth?” for to establish the hearts of 
 His children in the knowledge of His grace and truth 
 is the first blessed object of the Lord, — to make us 
 certain. Why, then, should any of us be satisfied with 
 uncertainty 2 why should we say, I don’t know, I am 
 not sure, I cannot be sure? God has said, “That I 
 might make thee know the certainty “ Have not I 
 written to thee excellent things in counsel and know- 
 ledge, that I might make thee to know the certainty 
 of the words of truth ?” If you are not certain, you 
 do not believe the whole truth. If there is a doubt 
 
LIVING WATERS EL OWING. 
 
 77 
 
 in the heart of a single believing sinner, as to his 
 salvation, what does it prove ? — unbelief. You believe 
 in Jesus, but you do not believe what God has said 
 about Him. You believe part of the gospel, but you 
 do not believe the whole truth, or you would have 
 perfect peace. 
 
 Then it goes on, ^‘That thou mightest answer the 
 words of truth to them that send unto thee.^^ You are 
 not only to be certain yourself, but you are to be 
 able to give forth the certain sound — the words of truth. 
 Therefore, you must get certainty yourself if you are 
 to give forth a certain sound to others. This passage 
 says, It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within 
 thee ; ” and so I say, dear friends — or rather, it is not 
 I, but God who says — Keep your heart with all 
 diligence^ for out of it are the issues of life.” If you 
 want to be a channel of blessing, a communicator in 
 your measure of the river of the water of life to others 
 around you, see to it that your heart is filled with 
 Christ. Out of an empty heart, or out of a half-filled 
 heart, there may come a little, but there will be very 
 great labour about it. If the well is only half full, 
 you will have to wait a long time at the wheel before 
 you get the water up ; but if it is full, it flows over. 
 And so with us. If we are working for Jesus, we 
 know that the effectual way to spread the blessing 
 is to have our hearts full of the Lord Jesus Christ — 
 full of the Holy Ghost. ‘‘Be ye filled with the 
 Spirit.” “He that believeth on Me, out of his belly 
 shall flow rivers of living water.” 
 
7 8 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 Another thought is this : that it is not only through 
 the lips that this blessing is to flow; and we lose 
 sight of a great deal of truth if we forget that. It is 
 comparatively an easy thing to talk about Christ, but 
 how do we /ive ? Mark the wonderful directions that 
 God has given for our learning, in i Peter iii. ; where 
 he contemplates the most touching case that can 
 possibly be conceived — the case of a wife having an 
 unconverted husband, one whom she lives with, and 
 loves, and perhaps has long prayed for, and yet does 
 not see his conversion ; and the two, though one flesh, 
 have not got yet one heart. The most heart-rending 
 case of all is this case. What does he say, then? 
 “ Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own hus- 
 bands ; that, if any obey not the word, they also may 
 without the word be won by the conversation of the 
 wife.’^ And the word ^^conversation” means there the 
 life ; it does not mean what we speak. ‘‘ Won by the 
 life ! ” And what is true of the wife with the hus- 
 band, is equally true of the husband with the wife, and 
 of other relationships of life. It is what our life is that 
 tells. O dear friends, let us ask ourselves not only 
 what we speak of at meetings, or what we preach, or 
 the number of tracts we give, or visits we make to the 
 bedsides of the sick and dying, or the instructions we 
 give to our children, our servants, or our neighbours ; 
 but what is the testimony of our life ? Is there 
 flowing up from our life and mind such a sweet savour 
 of Jesus, that others, who perhaps do not hear the 
 gospel, are nevertheless won by Christ ? It is a very 
 
LIFIIVG WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 79 
 
 solemn question, and one that ought to make us think 
 deeply of what our inconsistencies are, and how many 
 may be stumbling who hear and see the profession 
 we make, but who do not see a corresponding effect 
 in our lives. 
 
 Again, remember to whom we bear witness. It is 
 to Jesus. The gift of the Holy Spirit is through Him 
 — not through ourselves. The very fact of testifying 
 
 to Jesus ought to induce a never-ceasing, holy watch 
 fulness. If we take His name on our lips — if we say 
 we have drunk of the living stream — if we bear 
 witness — that should produce a holy watchfulness in 
 us that others may see that we walk in Him. “ He 
 that saith, he abideth in Him, ought himself also so 
 to walk, even as He walked’^ (i John ii. 6). There is 
 a great deal of talking, as we know, about self, and 
 a great deal of liuing so that others may take know- 
 ledge of tis : but what does Christ say ? That they 
 may see your good works ? ” Yes, but not to glorify 
 you. To glorify your Father that is in heaven.’' Oh, 
 may God give us grace, so in our words and lives to 
 testify to Jesus, that from us may go forth rivers of 
 living water ; and that in the homes where we live, and 
 the places where we work, instead of a barren, dreary 
 desert, there may spring up many trees of the Lord’s 
 planting ! 
 
 Then just one other thing, and that is this : remem- 
 ber, dear friends, that the believer is not the giuer 
 but only the channel — not the reservoir, but only 
 the pipe— wof/7/A7sr more, nothing less. We are not 
 
8o 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING, 
 
 to attribute any power to ourselves, but to remember 
 that “ it is not by might, nor by the power, but by My 
 Spirit, saith the Lord/^ It does not matter what 
 kind of a channel you may be in one respect. It 
 does not matter through what kind of pipes the 
 water or the gas may come into our houses ; the only 
 thing is that they should convey it. Some pipes may 
 be made of lead, others of gold, but if they convey 
 to others the blessing of the living water, they 
 do equally well. It is not you who do the work. 
 God is the giuer of eternal life — the giver of His 
 Son — the giver of His Spirit. do not give the 
 
 living water, but the living water in a sense flows 
 through you; and it is a solemn question for each 
 of us, not — what is my position in the world, not — 
 what I am made of, but, is the living water flowing 
 forth from me to others ? Oh, what a little thing 
 will prevent the gas from coming through the pipe ! 
 What a little thing will prevent the water flowing 
 freely ! What a little thing will prevent in our lives 
 the grace of Christ, and the life of Christ, from flow- 
 ing forth freely ! Let us see to this. A very little 
 thing will hinder it ; but remember this, dear friends, 
 the reservoir is always full. The channel may be 
 dry, but the fountain never is, for it is up in heaven. 
 If anything happens to the supply of water in your 
 house, what is the thought that occurs to you ! So7?ie- 
 thing is the matter with the pipe. You do not think 
 the reservoir is dry ; but you send to the people whose 
 business it is to attend to the pipe, and you have it set 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. Si 
 
 right. Now, it is just so with the human channels of 
 God’s blessing. Where you see imperfection and 
 failure, do not attribute it to the fountain, but to the 
 worthless pipe. Let us remember that. The fountain 
 is always the founiain of life ” May God help us to 
 realize in greater measure the truth of this wondrous 
 verse, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture 
 hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water.” 
 
 I feel, and so must many of you feel, that we must 
 confess to ourselves that we are very poor channels. 
 We do not spread abroad the living water. There 
 is death all around us, men dying, perishing for lack 
 of knowledge, and our tongues are tied. Why ? 
 muse our hearts are not full. I do not think people 
 need so much stirring to work for God, as exhorting 
 to walk close to Christ ; for I believe that, if we walk 
 close to Christ, we shall witness to others. We shall 
 then have that beautiful passage fulfilled in us (Isa. 
 Iviii.), “ The Lord shall guide thee continually, and 
 satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones : 
 and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a 
 spring of water, 7uhose 7uaters fail notl'* “With joy 
 shalt thou draw water out of the wells of salvation,” 
 — not for yourself only, but for others. 
 
 Now, dear friends, are there any of you who have 
 not taken this living water for yourselves? What 
 is your heart and mouth ? “ The mouth of fools 
 
 breatheth out foolishness.” “ Life and death are in 
 the power of the tongue ; ” and if your life and your 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 lips are- not telling of blessing, telling of life, you are 
 speaking of death. You know that in the parable 
 we have the husbandman speaking about the barren 
 tree. He says, ‘^Cut it down, why cumbereth it the 
 ground ? The word really is, why does it /lur^ the 
 ground ? — why does it do injury ? — why does it de- 
 prive the ground of blessing ? That is what a barren 
 tree is doing. If there is any soul without Christ, 
 not having the Spirit of Christ, you are not blessing 
 but injuring others. It is either one or the other. 
 It is either life or death that is in the power of the 
 tongue. You are either helping to bring souls to 
 Christ, or by your words and life you are helping 
 people to hell as fast as you can. And if you get to hell 
 yourself, you will have the misery, the eternal agony, 
 of seeing others whom you might through Jesus have 
 led to glory, but whom your life and words have led 
 down that steep road to the bottomless pit. 
 
 What shall I tell you, then ? Why, that the foun* 
 tain is open now., and that you may drink of that 
 fountain opened by the death of Jesus ; it was Jesus 
 bearing your sins, dying in your place, that opened 
 that fountain ; it was the Just One taking the sinner's 
 place, and bearing the curse of God due to you, that 
 enables now the living God to be Just, and the 
 giuer of His own Holy Spirit to every sinner that 
 believes on His Son, Why should you be barren 
 when Christ has died ? Oh, I have seen two such 
 glorious instances of the power of truth! One was 
 the case of an elderly man, who is said to be in his 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. b3 
 
 last illness, and I believe he is. He began to say 
 what a wretched sinner he was. He knew he was 
 dying, and he could see no hope. He said, I have 
 been such a wretched sinner, I never could hope 
 to be saved.’’ One tried to put before him the truth 
 about the blood of Jesus being perfectly sufficient 
 to cleanse him, that God had accepted the sacrifice, 
 and would accept every one that would trust in 
 Him. No, he would not see it, would not believe it. 
 I went to him the next day, and found him more dis- 
 tressed than before. I felt there was no hope. I do 
 feel there is hope when a man begins to say, I am a 
 wretched sinner, I am too great a sinner to be saved. 
 Christ saves the great sinners, those who seem 
 great sinners to themselves. Well, two days after- 
 wards, I went again. The old man jumped up from 
 his sofa, and came to me with joy in his face. 
 
 Are you better ? ” Oh yes, much better.” “Better 
 in your soul ? ” “ Oh yes, the burden is gone, I see 
 
 it all now, it is all clear.” I do not know that I use 
 his exact words, but he was resting on this fact, that 
 the blood of Jesus Christ did cleanse from all sin; 
 and his testimony was, “ He will never lei 7ne goT 
 We have to praise God that this poor dying man was 
 resting on Jesus. Now, dear friends, can you say 
 that? Is the burden gone? have you drunk the living 
 waters? Have you got satisfaction where God gets 
 it, in the death, the righteousness, the work of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ? Depend upon it, if you are satis- 
 fied with what satisfies God, you need not fear. 
 
84 
 
 LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 
 
 The other instance occurred quite recently. A 
 man who had himself drunk of the living water, and 
 who for years had been occupied as a city missionary, 
 in a dark part of London, sent to me one afternoon 
 to say that he was dying. A few weeks before he was 
 well and strong. An abscess had formed, and they 
 did not know how long he would live. I went there. 
 Oh, what a glorious testimony he bore to the power 
 and grace of Christ ! He had only one thing to 
 say, Jesus is mine.” ‘‘Jesus will never leave me. 
 He has enabled me to go through all the suffering, 
 and He has enabled me to leave all, wife and 
 children, in His hands.’’ Such was his testimony. 
 He had himself proved what it was to drink of the 
 living water. He had come to Christ, and his life 
 had been spent in spreading abroad the gospel, in 
 being a channel of blessing to others. And does 
 Christ forsake him ? No, He never wiil, and He is 
 the same Jesus we have preached to you, waiting to 
 biess you now, filled with compassion, mercy, and 
 forgiveness for you. Will you trust Him ? Oh, do 
 not let the time pass, do not let an hour pass, so far 
 as you are responsible (and a fearful responsibility 
 it is, to hear of Christ and to turn away), do not let 
 this day pass as many others have passed, without 
 coming to Jesus as a lost sinner, and resting you^ 
 soul on Him. “ Ask, and you s/ia/l receive ; ” you 
 shall receive this living water, you shall receive the 
 Holy Ghost the Comforter ; not to be a parting guest, 
 but to “ abide with you for everf and to change your 
 
LIVING WATERS FLOWING. 85 
 
 wretched, hell-deserving soul into one made white in 
 the blood of the Lamb, and made meet for heaven, 
 and to be an heir of glory through faith in Jesus. 
 May God bless His word I 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 Philippians iii. 20. 
 
 For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven.” 
 
 TELL you weeping’’ (ver. i8). What made Paul 
 weep ? He was not a man to weep for trifles. He 
 could say of ‘‘bonds and afflictions,” “None of these 
 things move me.” “ I endure all things.” But there 
 was one thing he could not endure^ one afflic- 
 tion that could move him, and that was the sight 
 of men, who, while they professed to be disciples of 
 the Saviour, “ served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but 
 their own belly,” and who, whilst bearing the, to 
 him, unspeakably precious name of Christ, hesitated 
 not to lead a life which brought on that name 
 nothing but contempt 
 
 Over such men Paul could and did weep. The 
 .thoughtless world could laugh (for “fools make a 
 mock at sin ”) at the wretched inconsistency of those 
 who pretend to have their treasure in heaven, and yet 
 grasped eagerly at the things of the earth, and would 
 doubtless despise them too : but Paul did neither ; /le 
 wept for the dishonour done to that cross of Christ, 
 
 of which they were the worst “ enemies.” He wept 
 
 £6 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 87 
 
 for the injury inflicted on those who were just begin- 
 ning to tread the narrow way, and who would be 
 so grievously stumbled by the conduct of these false 
 brethren. And with something of that divine com- 
 passion which moved the heart of his Lord and Master, 
 when He too w^ept over the self-righteous yet godless 
 city, as He summed up its iniquities and foretold its 
 approaching end, Paul wept for the wretched men them- 
 selves, for he knew that their ^‘end was destruction.” 
 And well might he weep, as he wrote that awful 
 word. Well might David say, “ Horror hath taken 
 hold upon me, because of the wicked that forsake Thy 
 law.’’ For as assuredly as Jesus told them of Caper- 
 naum and Bethsaida, that it would be more tolerable 
 for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than 
 for them; so certainly will the destruction that 
 awaits those who appropriate to themselves the name of 
 Christ, either for the sake of gain or respectability, 
 and have “a form of godliness,” whilst they deny its 
 power,” be an unspeakably terrible one. 
 
 But Paul did not mean them to dwell on the char- 
 acter or end of the wretched men, who brought such 
 tenfold destruction on their souls by a false profession 
 of Christianity. He was writing to real believers, and 
 his object was both to caution them against the ‘Talse 
 brethren ” that were in their midst, and to show them 
 by contrast what their life ought to be, who were in 
 deed and in truth ‘‘partakers of Christ.” 
 
 So after giving as the distinctive and final charac- 
 teristic of the ungodly professors of religion, that they 
 
88 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 mmd earthly things,^' he introduces the description 
 of the position and hope of the true follower of Jesus 
 by the words, ‘^For our conversation [literally ‘citizen- 
 ship'] is in heaven; ''the “for" implying that this 
 was the ground on which he had based the exhortation 
 of ver. 17, that they should “walk so as they had him 
 for an ensample," i,e., of course so far as he followed 
 Christ. 
 
 With these words let us occupy ourselves, and 
 consider with God's help, and expecting His blessing, 
 the qualification, privileges, and responsibilities of the 
 heavenly citizen. 
 
 First, /its qualification^ that is, how he becomes a 
 citizen of heaven. 
 
 A man is not bo 7 ii stick, no earthly birth qualifies 
 him for glory. Paul said of himself in ver. 5, that he 
 was “ of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 an Hebrew of the Hebrews," and as such he had 
 “much profit every way." But he was not thereby 
 qualified for the heavenly inheritance. He was also a 
 free-born Roman citizen (Acts xxii. 28), and thereby he 
 possessed peculiar rights, but no right of entrance 
 into “the new Jerusalem." 
 
 On the contrary, he said of himself and his brethren, 
 “ We were by nature children of wrath, even as 
 others " (Eph. ii. 3). For the natural heart being at 
 enmity with God, inherits only condemnation and 
 death, the just doom of all his enemies, and therefore 
 earthly birth qualifies a man not for heaven, but for 
 hell, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 89 . 
 
 the carnal ” (or fleshly) mind being enmity against 
 God, who is the ruler of that heavenly city, can never 
 hope to enter its glorious gates as a citizen. 
 
 Nor indeed does it hope ; an unrenewed man ma^ 
 hope to be saved, because he has a natural dread of 
 that which the Word of God assures us awaits the un- 
 saved ; but he does not ever really hope to enter heave?i, 
 lus earthly mind would be wretched in heaven ; for 
 his nature is unchanged, his tastes are all opposed 
 to heavenly enjoyments, and those ‘^pleasures which 
 are at God’s right hand ” have no attraction for him 
 to whom the presence of a holy God would be a hate- 
 ful, an intolerable thing. 
 
 No ! it is not by birth ; child of helV’ ‘‘ye are of 
 your father the devil,” were the terms used by Incar- 
 nate Truth to describe those who though “Abraham’s* 
 seed ” were nevertheless not “ Abraham’s children 
 (John viii. 37, 39), and who were the representatives 
 of the natural and unconverted man in every age, not- 
 withstanding the outward cloak of decent religion^ 
 which they possessed, and which Christ-rejecting 
 hearts like to wear still, for appeara 7 ice sake. 
 
 A man does not become a citizen of heaven by 
 residence. Foreigners, after residing a certain time in^ 
 another country, can be naturalized, and thus become 
 citizens, but it is only after residence ; and who has. 
 complied with this condition, or who can comply with 
 it ? One, and only One ever did. He who, while 
 He asserted His own heavenly origin, and His con- 
 sequent knowledge of “ heavenly things,” yet at the- 
 
■90 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 same time declared that He was the sole possessor 
 • of this qualification, for, He said, “ No man hath 
 .ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from 
 heaven, the Son of man, which is in heaven.” 
 
 He was therefore the only One who had right to 
 the heavenly city by residence there. 
 
 Paul, it is true, was ^‘caught up into the third 
 •heaven”; but that gave him no right to dwell there; 
 whatever right he had, had been acquired long 
 before. 
 
 So we can ground no claim on that score. ‘^Aliens 
 and strangers” by nature, we had never resided there: 
 whatever claims our forefather Adam had (and I 
 doubt very much whether anything beyond earthly 
 ' dominion was ever Adam’s birthright), everything was 
 forfeited when he fell, and we in him ; for in him we 
 died, and since heaven contains no dead citizens, 
 our title, if ever we had any, became at once void. 
 
 Again, a man does not become a citizen of heaven 
 . hy merit Here on earth men who are distinguished 
 by noble birth, or have ennobled themselves by deeds 
 of worth or valour, are presented with the freedom of 
 this or that city, and their names are enrolled among 
 its inhabitants. The heavenly citizenship is not thus 
 ■obtained, for nothing short of absolute perfection is 
 recognised as entitling any man to its privileges. The 
 fair and specious claims that men in their blind self- 
 righteousness present, such as a good character,” 
 ''a blameless life,” ‘'an amiable disposition,” 
 a benevolent heart,” ^^an upright Avalk,” ‘‘a con- 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 91 
 
 science that has nothing to accuse itself of/^ and 
 ‘^a strict attention to the ordinances of religion,” 
 when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, are 
 all ‘‘found wanting for all are marred by sin, 
 and however well they may have succeeded in secur- 
 ing the respect and love of their fellow-creatures, they 
 have yet failed in reaching that standard which 
 can alone warrant any claim to the heavenly in- 
 heritance; for it is written, ‘^ALL HAVE SINNED 
 AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF 
 GOD.” After all, come short I Like the tower 
 of Babel, its top yet fails to ‘‘reach unto heaven,” 
 grand and imposing as it may appear on earth. In 
 such terms as these, has the Spirit of God written 
 “ luorthless ” upon all the excellences of the natural 
 man, and declared that “ all our righteousnesses are 
 as filthy rags.” 
 
 t No, dear friends, it is not by having complied 
 with any of these conditions that a sinner becomes a 
 citizen of heaven. And yet the child of God has a 
 claim, in which the light of God's judgment-seat will 
 detect no flaw, and which is founded on each of 
 them. 
 
 It is by birth ^ but not the natural one. To be a 
 citizen of earth, you must have an earthly nature ; to 
 be a citizen of heaven, you must have the heaimly, 
 “Ye must be born again” (or “from above”). 
 “ The Holy Ghost ‘ must ' come upon thee, and the 
 power of the Highest ‘must' overshadow thee.” 
 There must be “ a new creature ” formed in you, even 
 
92 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 Christ, the Son of God. And how is this effected, do 
 you ask? The third of John answers, through look- 
 ing at, trusting on, believing in a crucified Saviour; 
 as the dying Israelite was, so to speak, born again 
 as to his natural life through looking at the brazen 
 serpent, so is the sinner, who looks believingly to 
 Jesus, the recipient then and there of a new, an 
 everlasting life. ‘‘ For as many as received Him^ to 
 them gave He power to become the sons of God, 
 even to them that believe on His naiiie^ which were 
 born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
 of the will of man, but of God (John i. 12, 13). 
 
 And this is by the gospel ; for, saith St. Peter, ye 
 were born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
 incorruptible, by the word of God, and this is the 
 word which by the gospel is preached unto you.’* 
 
 Oh, how gloriously simple, how gloriously free I 
 Faith in Jesus, trust in Jesus, the means whereby a 
 dead sinner becomes partaker of the Divine nature,** 
 and thus a ‘‘ partaker of the heavenly calling,** and a 
 free-born citizen of heaven. 
 
 It is by residence j for believing in Jesus, you are 
 made one with Him, married to Him that is raised 
 from the dead’* (Rom. vii. 4), and therefore, as the 
 bride becomes solely by virtue of union with her 
 husband a joint-possessor of all his rights, so does the 
 sinner, once and for ever united to Christ, become a 
 ‘•joint-heir*’ with Him (Rom, viii. 17), whose home 
 and property is all in glory. 
 
 It is by merits and by merit which God Himself , 
 
7 'HE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 93 
 
 the searcher of hearts, recognises as perfect, by a 
 righteousness which the light of glory will only serve 
 more fully to display in all its beauty. 
 
 That merit, that righteousness is CHRIST. Christ 
 Himself, Christ, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF 
 GOD, given so freely, so entirely to every one that 
 believeth, that the sinner who thus trusts in Jesus 
 can say, In the Lord I have righteousness (Isa. 
 xlv. 24). He is ^‘the Lord our righteousness ” (Jer. 
 xxiii. 6). He is made of God unto us righteous- 
 ness’^ (i Cor. i. 30). He was made sin for us who 
 knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in Him (2 Cor. v. 21). ‘‘And this righteous- 
 ness is upon all them that believe” (Rom. hi. 22). 
 For they “ are justified fro 7 U all things ” ( ActS; xiii. 39). 
 Such are the blessed statements of the Scriptures of 
 God. And you will thus see how in Christ the 
 believing sinner acquires both by birth, by residence, 
 and by merit, a perfect title and claim to be 
 recognised as a citizen of heaven. 
 
 Is there, then, any wonder, when we consider how 
 utterly short all man’s claims fall, and how sufficient 
 a claim he can acquire by accepting Jesus, that Paul, 
 after enumerating his privileges and claims as a Jew, 
 his merits as a so-called “ religious character f should 
 say of them all, in the previous part of this chapter, 
 
 I count all things but loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I 
 have suffered the loss of all things, and do count 
 them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found 
 
94 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 in Him, not having mine ow?t righteousness^ which is 
 of the law, but that which is through the faith of 
 Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith ? 
 
 Hereon, and on nothing else, was Paul s assurance 
 of his citizenship grounded. Hereon must your 
 assurance rest, if you wish to take up these words, 
 and say, ‘‘ Our citizenship is in heaven.” A new birth 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in 
 Jesus, and the possession of Christ as your alone 
 righteousness, are the only grounds on which the 
 Word of God warrants us to build our hopes of this 
 glorious inheritance. 
 
 Having these, our assurance may be, and ought to 
 be complete, since the life thus begun is, we are again 
 and again told by our God, an everlasting one, and 
 since that union with Christ, which makes you pos- 
 sessor of Him, and all that is His, is one which 
 through all eternity can never be broken asunder. 
 
 We are therefore warranted in saying our citizen- 
 ship is in heaven, — not only shall be, but is ; we are 
 not yet inhabitants of heaven, in its fullest sense, but 
 we are its citizens, and we look for, as our home, that 
 “ city whose builder and maker is God.” 
 
 Now, what are the privileges of the heavenly citizen t 
 First, property, and that unlimited! The citizen 
 of heaven is, we have seen, a joint-heir with Christ, 
 and Christ is “heir of all things” (Heb. i. 2), 
 Wonderful it may be, and undoubtedly is, surpassing 
 our highest imaginations, that by the grace of God a 
 child of wrath should be constituted joint-possessor 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 95 . 
 
 with Jesus, of ‘‘ all ihingsl^ Mark, not merely saved,. 
 unspeakably great as the gift of salvation is, but made 
 a joint-heir with Christ ; yet such is the grace of God. 
 ‘‘ He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth’ 
 up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among 
 princes, and to make them inherit the throne of 
 glory (i Sam. ii. 8). Truly does He say, ‘‘My 
 thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
 my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the 
 earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my 
 thoughts than your thoughts^’ (Isa. Iv. 8, 9). Christ 
 is “ heir of all things ” ; and the people of God, the 
 citizens of heaven, though not yet entered upom 
 possession as the married wife, may yet, as the 
 espoused bride of Christ (2 Cor. xi. 2), survey with 
 delight the property of their glorious Lord. 
 
 They shall share His kingdom. Washed in the 
 blood of Him that loved them, they are already 
 “ kings unto God ’’ (Rev. i. 6). And Daniel (chapter 
 vii.) tells us that the kingdom shall be theirs. In vers. 
 13, 14, he beholds the everlasting dominion of the 
 kingdom given unto one “like the Son of Man”; and 
 in ver. 27 he is told that “ the kingdom and dominion 
 shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most 
 High”; so that His kingdom is their kingdom. 
 “To him that overcometh” (comp, i John v. 4, 5, 
 and Rev. xii. ii) “will I grant to sit with Me in My 
 throne” (Rev. iii. 21). “This honour have all His 
 saints” (Ps. cxlix. 9). 
 
 They shall sha?'e His glory. Three passages may 
 
96 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 suffice to prove this. Not only does Jesus say, 
 ^‘Father, I will that they whom Thou hast given Me 
 be with Me where I am, that they may behold My 
 glory (John xvii. 24). But in ver. 22 He says, 
 ‘‘ The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given 
 them.’^ His glory is their glory. 
 
 In Col. iii. 4 the promise is explicit — ^^When 
 Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also 
 appear with Him in glory I 
 
 And accordingly, in St. John’s vision, as described 
 in Rev. xxi. 10, ii, the expected hour is come, and 
 he beholds “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
 scending out of heaven from God, having the glory 0^ 
 Godr^ 
 
 These two things, the kingdom and the glory, 
 comprise “ all things.” Mind, they arc not the king, 
 but the kingdom ; not the husband, but the property. 
 He the Lord and Saviour is the one great object of 
 His people’s hopes and desires, they “ look for Him ” 
 (Heb. ix. 28), but He shows us the “all things ” that 
 God gives His people “with Him” (Rom. viii. 32); 
 and then exhorts and charges every one of us that 
 we should “walk worthy of God, who hath called us 
 unto His kingdom and glory” (i Thess. ii. ii, 12). 
 
 And does not, should not this follow, dear friend ? 
 Can the heirs of such a kingdom be like those who 
 “ mind earthly things ” ? Ah ! we know too well the 
 exhortation in Col. iii. i, to set our “affection on 
 things above, not on things on the earth,” is con- 
 tinually necessary. But why? Because we believe 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP^ 
 
 97 
 
 not the promises of God concerning this wondrous 
 destiny. Content often with bCLYQ salvation, satisfied 
 with forgiveness of sins, we care not to examine the 
 deed of gift by which these glories are assured to the 
 believer. 
 
 We are not like those of old who embraced the 
 promises,^^ and looked eagerly for that better country, 
 and that heavenly city ; and is there, then, any won- 
 der that our lives confess not, as theirs did, that we 
 are strangers and pilgrims on the earth ? (Heb. xi. 
 
 3, i6). 
 
 Unlike saints of later date even, many are ignorant 
 of the riches of that ‘‘better and more enduring 
 substance that they have “ in heaven,’^ and it is 
 therefore little wonder that their “goods’’ here are 
 tlie chief objects of interest (Heb. x. 34). 
 
 Again and again does the command to a pilgrim 
 life come, as of old, saying, “ Arise ye, and depart, 
 for this is not your rest, for it is polluted ” (Micah 
 ii. 10). But the eye of faith has ceased to contem- 
 plate the “rest that remaineth for the people of God,” 
 or does it but seldom, and the carnal mind, the old 
 nature, gladly seeks its pleasures and comforts in its 
 old home, down here. 
 
 There is nothing to astonish us in seeing a man 
 grasping after earthly riches, honours, pleasures, who 
 has never had a glimpse of the wondrous and endur- 
 ing glories of the world to come. It is only natural 
 that he should seek them, and endeavour to compen- 
 sate himself against any probable evil in the future, 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 by as much gratification as he can procure now, and 
 thereby hide from his thoughts the solemn truths of 
 an approaching judgment ; but it is a marvellous 
 thing, and must make angels wonder, to see the heirs 
 apparent to a throne of glory, the possessors of the 
 title-deeds of the incorruptible and unfading inherit- 
 ance, lowering themselves to the position of a world- 
 ling, and making it their chief object to get as muck 
 as they can here, forgetful of the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love Him,'^ and that 
 glory that is about to be revealed/^ 
 
 May it, by God’s grace, not be so with us. 
 
 But, secondly, the heavenly citizen gets pi'otection ; 
 property hereafter, protection now; and that is no 
 mean thing for weak and helpless pilgrims, surrounded 
 by enemies, by those men who love not God, and 
 therefore love not His people, and by the wicked 
 spirits in heavenly places,” of Eph. vi. 12 (margin), 
 who are continually assaulting them in their heaven- 
 ward journey. 
 
 As earthly citizenship confers a right to the pro- 
 tection of an earthly state, so does heavenly citizen- 
 ship bring with it a right to the protection of Heaven. 
 
 Roman citizenship was no trifling benefit to Paul 
 when in trouble (Acts xxii. 26). An Englishman 
 may claim the protection of England's fleets and 
 England’s soldiers wherever he may be. 
 
 The child of God has a nobler citizenship, and a 
 mightier protection. \Nho are your protectors ? — 
 the angels of God ‘That excel in strength,’' they are 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 99 
 
 sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of 
 salvation” (Heb. i. 14). He shall give His angels 
 charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways’^ 
 (Ps. xci. ii). Like Elisha in Dothan, though there 
 be a great host ” compassing yon, yet there are also 
 horses and chariots of fire round about ” you toa 
 (2 Kings vi. 14, 17). 
 
 But you have more than the angels of God. LH 
 Himself is your strong habitation whereunto ” you 
 may ‘‘ continually resort ” (Ps. Ixxi. 3). The heart of 
 love that gave Jesus to die for your sins, still beats 
 tenderly. He says, I will be with him in trouble.” 
 The eye of the Bridegroom watches carefully over 
 the meanest one that forms part of the bride which 
 He purchased from death, sin, and destruction, by 
 His own blood. 
 
 The everlasting arms ” are underneath you. He 
 says, He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of 
 Mine eye.” And he who said All power is given 
 unto Me in heaven and in earth,” adds, I will never 
 leave you, nor forsake you.” Oh, what security is^ 
 yours! ^M<^ept by the power of God through faith 
 unto salvation (i Pet. i. 5), whom need you fear? 
 You are invulnerable, and may say with David, I 
 will not fear what man shall do unto me,” for the- 
 angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
 fear Him, and delivereth them” (Ps. xxxiv. 7), and 
 God Himself is ‘‘your help and your shield.” 
 
 Earthly protection may be unable to reach you 
 everywhere, but prison doors (Acts xii.) are not too* 
 
dOO 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 mighty for God’s messengers, and the ends of the 
 •earth ” are not too far for His arm (Ps. cxxxix. 9, 10). 
 
 The whale’s belly, the lion’s den, the fiery furnace, 
 the throng and business of Babylon, or the presence- 
 ehamber of Csesar, are all alike to Him who has said, 
 I am with you always.” 
 
 Therefore be strong and very courageous ; wherever 
 •duty calls you, boldly go. You need fear no evil ] 
 the persecution of the openly ungodly, or the ridicule 
 of decent and silver-slippered religionists, need not 
 terrify you. Confess His name boldly, lead the forlorn- 
 hopes of His battles, stand out as a witness for /esns 
 in the midst of an ungodly world, seek out the perish- 
 ing, brave the dangers. No evil can or shall befall 
 you, for God is on your side. Clad in His armour 
 you are secure ; fighting under His banner, the 
 victory is yours, for Christ is the Captain ” of your 
 salvation.” 
 
 There maybe one who says, ‘‘Ah, I am not one of 
 •those soldiers. I fought once, I held the sword and 
 shield, and walked in the way of conflict and victory, 
 but / grew cold and careless, I ceased to fight, I 
 wandered far away ; I cannot get back, all is dark, 
 the light has faded away. I shall one day perish by 
 the hand of the enemy.” 
 
 Cheer up, poor backslider ; yoit have grown cold, 
 but Jesics has not. You are weak, but He is mighty. 
 You have wandered, but He has followed you. Just 
 as when Christian and his companion, like you, had 
 turned away through Bypath Meadow, and wandered 
 
IHE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 lor 
 
 carelessly on, till they found themselves in the dun- 
 geons of Doubting Castle, and in the grasp of Giant 
 Despair, and yet found there a key that unlocked 
 every gate and set them free again, even the key of 
 promise ; so are there for you some precious promises 
 of protection that shall strengthen your fainting hearty 
 and raise your waning faith. Has Jesus changed?' 
 
 I am the Lord, / change not ” (Mai. iii. 6). 
 
 Has He broken His promise? “ I will never leave 
 you, nor forsake you ! ” 
 
 You have changed, you have wandered, and He 
 has permitted you, in your experience, to suffer the 
 consequences of your carelessness and folly, and now 
 you are in trouble. 
 
 But look at Him, He is still as nigh, still as loving,, 
 still as mighty ; trust in Him. Though yoti may 
 remember your wretched backsliding. He will not, 
 and His strong hand will guide your feet once more* 
 into the way of peace. The protection of Heaven 
 is still yours, and the throne of grace is still nigh, that 
 you may come and get strength to help in time of 
 need.” 
 
 Lastly, let us consider what are the resp07isibilities 
 of the heavenly citizen ! For we must never forget that 
 just as earthly citizenship brings responsibilities with 
 it as well as privileges, so does the heavenly, and those 
 responsibilities no slight ones. What are they ? First, 
 obedience to the Kmg^ subjectmi to His laws. Remem- 
 ber, that if you own Christ as your Saviour, you must 
 also own Him as your Lord, He has delivered you 
 
f02 
 
 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 by His death from the slavery of sin, and the 
 service of the god of this world; but what fort — 
 to ''serue the living God.” ‘‘Ytwere the servants 
 of sin,^^ but being made free from sin, ye became 
 the servants of righteousness^’ (Rom. vi. 17, 18). 
 
 This is no hard bondage, dear friend. Christ is not 
 an austere man,” as enemies and false servants would 
 make Him out to be. His service is perfect freedom. 
 The believer can say — 
 
 ‘‘ In a service which Thy will appoints 
 There are no bonds for me, 
 
 For my inmost heart is taught the truth 
 That makes Thy children free ; 
 
 And a life of self-renouncing love 
 Is a life of liberty I ’’ 
 
 Yes, the Christian can say with David (Ps. cxix. 32), 
 will run the way of Thy commandments, when 
 Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” 
 
 Jesus has given the heavenly citizens laws for their 
 guidance — His blessed word. ‘‘Laws from heaven 
 for life on earth,” as one has called them, a collection 
 of such statutes as no earthly state ever possessed, 
 — nothing vague about them, though unintelligible 
 for those who know not Him who wrote the book. 
 To those who in sincerity say, “Show me Thy way, 
 O Lord, teach me Thy truth,” and have learnt to 
 come to the “ Counsellor ” for teaching and guidance, 
 all is clear and plain. For every difficulty there is 
 direction, for every trials, promise. “The law of 
 the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the testi- 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 101 
 
 mony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple 
 (Ps. xix. 7). 
 
 To this law let us be obedient, who believe that 
 our names ar£ enrolled amongst those that are writ- 
 ten in heaven.’^ 
 
 Oh, what blessings are there not promised to simple, 
 unhesitating obedience to His laws, — not part of 
 them, but all ; not only to what we like naturally, 
 but to all that He commands, for every wo 7 ‘d of God 
 is pure ! And let us remember, that amongst the 
 parting words of Jesus to His disciples were these, 
 which ought ever to ring in our ears, If a man love 
 Me^ he will keep My words (John xiv. 23). 
 
 Yes, obedience Ys, the citizen’s first duty, and with- 
 out that it is vain to talk of love and faith.’^ The 
 path of obedience may be, will be often hard to flesh 
 and blood, but the way of the Lord is strength to 
 the upright and He never requires obedience where 
 He does not promise strength to obey. It is the path of 
 peace, of joy, of blessing, for that word stands true 
 for ever, “ Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, 
 that delighteth greatly in His commandments ” 
 (Ps. cxii. i). ‘‘In the keeping of them there is great 
 reward’^ (Ps. xix. ii). 
 
 Again, a citizen is responsible for the welfare and 
 peace of his fellow-citizens. And so are we. Who are 
 our fellow-citizens ? All believers in Jesus, Every 
 child of God throughout the world, whatever his 
 colour, name, age, rank, or sect. If they have been 
 washed in the blood of the Lamb, if the Spirit of God 
 
IC4 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 has renewed them unto eternal life, they are our 
 brethren, and heirs with us of the glory of God. 
 
 O dear friends, hou) narrow our minds are apt to 
 get ! If people don’t see exactly as we do, or walk 
 according to our rules, if their views on some points 
 are a little different (I mean lesser points), if their 
 church system differs a little from ours, how ready we 
 are to turn them the cold shoulder and shun them ! 
 But are they not our brethren ? Has not one Father 
 received them and us? Is not the same precious 
 blood sprinkled on us both ? Is not our property 
 in glory one and the same ? Then we are to love 
 as brethren” here. We are to be ‘^pitiful” and 
 “courteous.” We are to “seek every man another’s 
 wealth.” We are “ every one of us to please his 
 neighbour for his good to edification ” (Rom. xv. 2), 
 and to “receive one another, as Christ also received 
 us, to the glory of God.” 
 
 We are “ fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the 
 household of God and if my fellow-citizen happens 
 to live in Church of England Street, or Wesleyan 
 Street, or Independent Street, or Baptist Square, or 
 Brethren’s Row, I am still to love him, and seek his 
 welfare, and to have communion with him, on the one 
 glorious and common ground that “ the blood of the 
 Lamb is the union of the saints.” And we cannot 
 shirk this great duty of seeking the welfare, spiritual 
 and temporal, of our fellow-citizens without injury to 
 our own souls, and damage to the cause of Christ. 
 
 God has given to each of us power for some little 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 105 
 
 brotherly service, and some sphere to exercise it in, 
 however small. We all have need one of another, the 
 hand of the foot, and the foot of the hand ; and if one 
 refuses to do his share, the whole body suffers loss, 
 and that individual member, for want of proper exer- 
 cise, grows weak and stunted. 
 
 The Master, in His various members, has need of 
 each one of us. May He give us grace to see our 
 responsibility in this matter more and more, and to 
 remember that in serving one another we serve the 
 Lord Christ ! 
 
 Lastly (though these are hut a few of the responsi- 
 bilities), the citizen is hoimd to uphold U7id increase^ 
 where he can, the honour and glory of his King. 
 
 This can be done in two ways. First, by a bold 
 and uncompromising confession of our citizenship, 
 and of Him whose name you bear. 
 
 Wherever an Englishman goes he is not ashamed 
 to confess his country. And should a sinner saved 
 by grace be ashamed to own the country which God 
 has made him a citizen of? 
 
 Whenever Christian and Hopeful were asked by 
 any one whither they were going, they were able to 
 answer without hesitation, ‘‘To the Celestial City.’^ 
 And should we be different ? Remember, there is no 
 presumption or pride in boldly confessing that you 
 are a Christian. You did not make yourself one, 
 there is nothing to boast of ; God made you a citizen 
 of glory, and wrote your name in the Lamb’s Book of 
 Life, not you. 
 
io6 THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 When Jesus, in Mark v., told the madman, whom 
 He had just healed, to confess Him as the One who 
 had made such a change in him. He said, ^‘Tell 
 them ’’ (not what great things thou hast done for Me, 
 but) ‘Svhat great things the Lord hath done for thee, 
 and hath had compassion on thee.” 
 
 Confession of Christ as your Lord honours Him, 
 and this is done as much by your life as by your 
 hp, if not more. O dear friends, be not ashamed of 
 Jesus ! He was not ashamed of you : He endured 
 
 the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at 
 the right hand of the throne of God.” Your shame 
 •cannot ever equal His. A little laughter, or mockery, 
 is probably the most you will be called upon to bear. 
 Bear it for Him. You owe Him everything. He 
 only asks in return, that you should bear witness for 
 Him, by word and deed, in a world, the citizens 
 of which still say, We will not have this man 
 to reign over us”; ‘‘We have no king but Caesar.” 
 Bear your testimony to Jesus as the rightful Lord 
 of all, though you be the only one in the room, or 
 the only one in the world. And when He comes 
 again. He will confess you before His Father which 
 is in heaven. 
 
 Remember whose you are, and disgrace not Him 
 whose name you bear, and the country to which you 
 belong, by a worldly, inconsistent walk. “ Mind not 
 earthly things,” but “walk worthy of Him who has 
 called you to His kingdom and glory.” 
 
 Secondly, you can increase His glory by adding to 
 
THE HEAVENLY CiriZENSHIP, 107 
 
 the number of His subjects ; for in the multitude of 
 the people is the king’s honour’’ (Prov. xiv. 28). 
 
 As Moses said to Hobab (Num. x. 29), so say you 
 to those whose feet are yet in the broad road, We 
 are journeying to the place of which the Lord has 
 said, I will give it you : come thou with us, and we 
 will do thee good : for the Lord hath spoken good 
 concerning Israel.” 
 
 DonH be cofitent with travelling alo 7 ie, “ He that 
 winneth souls is wise.” How few are your Master’s 
 subjects ! Can you not add to their number? Don’t 
 you know of one^ whom by loving entreaty, by con- 
 sistent example, and by persevering prayer to God, 
 you can lead to Jesus? Oh, are there not mafiy 
 within reach of that influence which God has given 
 you, who are, as yet, only citizens of the world, and 
 who have heard even but little of the glories of that 
 kingdom towards which you are hastening? Can you 
 not tell them of the grace, the love, the power, of Jesus? 
 Can you not tell them how He sought, and found 
 you, when nothing but a child of wrath, even as 
 others,” and how He brought you to Himself, and 
 saved you with an everlasting salvation ? 
 
 Thus might the number of His people be increased, 
 thus would that day be hastened on, when the last 
 one being added to that multitude which no man can 
 number, “ He shall see of the travail of His soul, and 
 shall he satisfied^ 
 
 Oh, what unspeakable joy will it be then to see 
 amid that happy, glorious throng around the Saviour’s 
 
loS THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 throne, one, even only one soul, radiant with all the 
 bliss and glory of His presence, which but for the 
 message of love and pardon, conveyed to it by 
 your lips, would, humanly speaking, have been 
 banished to the woes and darkness of an everlasting 
 hell ! Who can tell the joy of that moment, of that 
 eternity ! Let us then seek, beloved brethren and 
 sisters in Jesus, thus to increase the glory and honour 
 of our Lord and Saviour. Time is short 1 Souls are 
 precious! Jesus is mighty to save, and able to keep 
 those whom He saves I 
 
 May He help us during this “ little while ’’ so to 
 bear witness, by our words and works, to the reality 
 of our heavenly citizenship, and of His grace who 
 made us heirs of such a kingdom, that many may be 
 led to Him who invites all and who casts out none 
 that come. 
 
 And now, are we all citizens of heaven? Are we 
 all in that narrow way, at the end of which the glories 
 of that celestial city shine so brightly ? 
 
 Friends, whither are you bound? An eternal 
 habitation is before you. Which is yours to be ? 
 Shall you be “for ever with the Lord,’' or for ever 
 with the devil and his angels? You say, hope to 
 he savedl'^ Are you yet in the narrow way ? If not, 
 your hope of being saved is about as good a one as 
 the devil’s. There is no hope out of Clu'ist, and He 
 says, “/am the way.” Are you in CJudst 2 I don’t 
 ask what you hopeio be, but what you are now, to-day. 
 Whom do you serve ? God, or the god of this world ? 
 Jesus Christ, or self? 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 109 
 
 Let me speak to those who know that, as far as 
 regards themselves, they are not yet in the way to 
 glory, not yet citizens of heaven : because not yet 
 born again of the Spirit. 
 
 It is my privilege and duty to tell you the good 
 news ; lay hold of it as good news {or yourself , You 
 may be saved now. You may enter in at the gate at 
 the head of the way now. You may be born again 
 now ! 
 
 Salvation is accomplished, Jesus has died for your 
 .sins. And God offers to you a free salvation the 
 moment you trust in that finished sacrifice, which He 
 has accepted for you. You haue nothing to do, 
 Jesus has done all that had to be done, and said. 
 It ^ finishedr Be satisfied with that, and God is 
 then satisfied with you. Trust in Jesus as your 
 Substitute and Saviour, and God accepts you, and 
 pardons you for His sake. 
 
 The door is open, and we are to compel you to 
 come in. The message is, Yet there is room! You 
 may come as you are^ for all things are ready. 
 Oh, come ! Come as that valiant man who, bursting 
 through the throng of enemies, went boldly up to the 
 •door, and said, Set my name down ; or come as 
 poor Mercy came, falteringly and tremblingly, almost 
 afraid to knock, but come as you are, 
 
 “If you tarry till you’re better, 
 
 You will never come at all ; 
 
 Not the righteous, 
 
 Jesus came to call.” 
 
no THE HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP, 
 
 And He calls you now. Will you refuse ? Will 
 you push back that pierced hand, which, bearing the 
 mark of sin's punishment, borne once and for ever, 
 is still stretched out towards you ? Will you refuse 
 that pleading look, those beseeching words of the 
 loving Jesus ? 
 
 It is true of Him still, This man receiveth 
 smnersl^ Come to Him as a sinner ; He cannot, will 
 not cast you out. He will wash your guilty soul 
 from all your sins in His own blood. He will write 
 your name down amongst the number of His happy 
 people. He will give you the earnest of your heavenly 
 inheritance, the Holy Ghost. And thus you will be 
 ^ble to say with us, 
 
 ••OUR CITIZENSHIP IS IN HEAVEN.' 
 
THE EXPECTATION OF THE HEAVENLY 
 CITIZEN. 
 
 Philippians iii. 20. 
 
 * For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 Let us first think of the expectation of the heavenly 
 citizen — whence it is. 
 
 The sinner that has believed in Jesus is journeying 
 to glory ; his position is like that of the Israelites 
 when they came out of Egypt; they were not as 
 yet come to the good land, but they were jourjieymg 
 to it: and, therefore, you find that the Israelites 
 pitched their tents here and there, that they were 
 always moving. There is a whole chapter filled with 
 just the names of places where they pitched their 
 tents, and from which they went on again. Such is 
 the Christian’s position. He is always Journeying ; 
 he is like Abraham, who did not build a house in the 
 land of promise, but dwelt in tents, and thus con- 
 fessed” that he was a ‘‘ pilgrim^and a stranger.” And 
 since the believing sinner, the child of God, is a 
 pilgrim, he has to look for something still; he has 
 not got home yet ; he is looking homeward^ and 
 all his expectation is from heaven. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 
 
 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 And herein the child of God, iJie believer^ stands 
 in marked contrast with the child of the world, ike 
 unbeliever. It is very interesting to see the different 
 lines of conduct and the different language of the tw^o. 
 In Ps. iv. 6 it is written, There be many that say, 
 Who will show us any good ? ” But David, the man 
 of God, says, “ Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy 
 countenance upon us.’^ His expectation was from 
 heaven ; whilst the children of the world, who w^ere 
 saying, Who will show us any good ? were, in his 
 day, exactly like w^hat Paul found the Athenians to 
 be (Acts xvii.), who spent their time in nothing else 
 but in telling or hearing ‘'some neiv thingX They 
 were always seeking something. Why? Because 
 they had not got satisfaction in God. The expectation 
 of the child of the world is from the world, and there 
 is no wonder ; he does not know any better. 
 
 How remarkably you find the conduct and character 
 of the children of the world brought out in Gen. iv. ! 
 There you find that after Abel was slain, Cain w^as 
 sent out from the presence of the Lord, and all that 
 he does is to try and make himself as happy and 
 comfortable as he can in the world. He builds a city 
 (ver. 17), and calls it after the name of his son. (If 
 you remember, that is one of the marks of the chil- 
 dren of the world which is given in Ps. xlix. : They 
 
 call their lands after their own name ; as much as to 
 say, I shall live here for ever ; I will make myself 
 happy and comfortable ; I will build a city, and call 
 it after my name or my son’s name.”) That is what 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN, 
 
 113 
 
 Cain did. He built a city, and called it after the 
 name of his son Enoch/' And then there comes 
 a numerous race from Cain, and they make them- 
 selves happy here; and you find, in ver. 21, that 
 they “ handled the harp and the organ " ; and, in the 
 next verse, that they were artificers in brass and 
 iron," and in everything that makes the world what 
 it is, and they seemed content with it ; but they were 
 
 without God in the world." 
 
 There is an extremely interesting verse in Job, 
 which shows how this is applied as setting forth 
 the character of the ungodly^ because the ungodly 
 are those that are witJioict God — those who are 
 content to be without God. In Job xxi. n, we 
 read, “ They send forth their little ones like a flock, 
 and their children dance. They take the timbrel and 
 harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ" (exactly 
 what Cain and his descendants did), ‘Hhey spent 
 their days in wealth" (or ‘‘mirth," marg.), “and in a 
 moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say 
 unto God^ Depart from us^ for we desire not the knozv- 
 ledge of Thy waysh^ And if you look at the next 
 chapter, you find that this language is especially said 
 by God to have been the language of those who 
 perished in the flood. In ver. 15 He says, “Hast 
 thou marked the old way which wicked men have 
 trodden ? which were cut down out of time, whose 
 foundation was overflown with a flood; which said 
 unto God, Depart from us ? " 
 
 These were the people whose expectations were from 
 
 H 
 
THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 ii4 
 
 the world, and they are for ever a standing warning 
 to the people of the world in all generations. For 
 you find that Jude, speaking of the men of the world, 
 says that the ungodly men of the last days go in 
 the way of Cain'^ So that there is nothing new under 
 the sun. The way of the world now is the same 
 as then. 
 
 You find in the parable of Luke xii. 2, the descrip- 
 tion of a man whose expectation is not from heaven, 
 but from the earth. He is a rich man who builds 
 his houses and barns, and says (ver. 19), I will say 
 to my soul. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
 many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
 merry.^’ Such is the character of the people of the 
 world. All of us who are children of the world 
 ‘‘mind earthly things.’’ It is in vain, we do not get 
 satisfaction; v/e go on and on; no sooner is one 
 vessel broken, and we find it empty, than we take up 
 another ; if one treasure is not enough to satisfy, we 
 think, in our folly, that something else is. It is in 
 vain that the preacher in Ecclesiastes says, “There 
 is nothing new under the sun.” We think there is. 
 We think that this will please or that will satisfy us ; 
 or that this will give us the amusement, or that the 
 happiness we want. All of us who have been con- 
 verted by the grace of God remember what we sought 
 after. We were seeking something we did not get; 
 and that something apart from God, 
 
 But the child of God is not so. Hence he says, 
 “ We look for the Saviour^ the Lord Jesus ChrisL*' 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN 115 
 
 He is a citizen of heaven. ^ Our citizenship is in 
 heaven/ from whence, ^ Lord, lift Thou up the light of 
 Thy countenance upon us.^’’ There is the difference. 
 The child of God has been taught by the Holy Ghost 
 that the things of this world will never satisfy his soul ; 
 that the fashion of this world passetti away. We 
 have learned by the grace of God to look at things in 
 the light of God, to see what they really are ; what all 
 the gains and amusements and comforts of this world 
 are. We have learned to see the world, as God sees 
 it, as ^ 4 ying in wickedness.” There is a great black 
 pall lying over the world that has crucified Christ ; 
 the blood of the Son of God calls for vengeance, and 
 the man of God sees that the world is under the curse, 
 and that judgment is coming upon it ; and so he says, 
 I must look elsewhere, and he looks tip, — ‘’‘from 
 whetice also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
 Christi^ 
 
 Now is this our standing? Is this our character? 
 Can we say we no longer expect blessing, of comfort, 
 or happiness in any great measure from the things of 
 earth? Mind, I do not say we are not to use the 
 things of earth, because the AVord of God says 
 distinctly that we are. In i Tim. iv. 3 we read that 
 God hath created the things of earth to be received 
 with thanksgiving of them which believe and know 
 the truth.” I am not to shut myself up in a monastery 
 or convent because the world is bad. No, the Lord 
 says we are to use those things, as not abusing them. 
 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to 
 
:i5 'FHE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving^ The 
 characteristic of the world is, that they da not receive 
 the things of God with thanksgiving; but the child 
 of God is to receive them in that way, for they are 
 sanctified and made fit for his use, set apart by God 
 for him, by the Word of God and prayer. 
 
 Now I say, is this standing ours? Is our walk 
 that of those whose expectation is from heaven^ who 
 have learned that this world can never satisfy, and 
 who cease to look for satisfaction from it ; who say, 
 ‘‘ So long as God keeps me here, I will use it for 
 Him ; I will take the things He gives me and bless 
 Him for them, but I am not to look for abiding peace, 
 or solid comfort, or satisfaction, or joy, from the 
 things that I get here. I must have something from 
 above ? 
 
 Is that what we are saying? Is our walk— I put 
 it to you and to myself — is our walk like that of 
 Abraham, who dwelt in the tent, who did not go down 
 into the plains of Sodom, and mingle there with the 
 men of the world, who were living in sin, and partake 
 of their dainties. 
 
 You remember how, in Genesis xiv., we read that 
 when his nephew Lot got into trouble, lie armed his 
 servants and domestics, and went down and delivered 
 his poor, foolish, worldly nephew out of the hands of 
 his enemies, and then the world came to Abraham 
 in the shape of the king of Sodom, and offered him 
 its treasures. ' Abraham would not touch them. “ I 
 have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN 117 
 
 God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will 
 not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, lest thou 
 shouldst say, I have made Abram rich/’ He would 
 not have anything to do with Sodom, — why? He 
 had been living up in heaven. He had got a sight of 
 glory. He had embraced the promise of God, and 
 he did not want these things, either from a thread to 
 a shoe-latchet. They could not do him any good. 
 Here, then, was a man whose expectation was from 
 heaven. 
 
 On the other hand, there was Lot. He tried to 
 make his nest on earth a comfortable one. Notwith- 
 standing the condition of the men of Sodom, of whom 
 we read they were wicked and sinners exceedingly 
 before the Lord,” Lot has no objection — or, if he had, 
 he overlooked it — to live with them. He i?iay have 
 had qualms of conscience about it, and have said, 
 ‘‘No, I will not go down to this city,” But the place 
 was too well watered and attractive; so Lot, if he 
 has scruples, drowns them ; if he has convictions, 
 he crushes them ; if he has qualms of conscience, he 
 stifles them. Have we ever done that ? 
 
 He goes down to Sodom hecattse he wishes to be 
 happy and comfortable; but the Lord in mercy to His 
 child, — for he was His child, — sends the angel to 
 save him from destruction. Oh what a pain it was to 
 Lot to go out of Sodom ! How he lingers, how he 
 prays for a little mercy to linger there ! Here was a 
 man, — a Christian, 011^ may say, — one who was called 
 by the apostle, speaking by the Holy Ghost, a 
 
ii8 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 righteous man, and yet his expectation was not from 
 heaven, but from Sodom. What an awful picture ! 
 How nearly he was destroyed in the fire of Sodom ! 
 
 Do not let us think that these are merely interesting 
 pictures ! Which are you ? which am I ? Are we, 
 like Abraham, getting our satisfaction, comfort, and 
 joy from God; or are we saying, “No, this is my 
 resting-place ; I am happy, I am going to glory, but I 
 do not want it yet ; I had rather have all these things, 
 and though the world is a sinful world, I am so fond 
 of it that I cannot leave this or that thing, / am too 
 fond of it ” 't 
 
 Oh, may God just teach us where we stand ! What 
 an unhappy life is the one, and what a happy life is 
 the other, because the separation must come, and it is 
 often a bitter one. Oh, dear friend, if you want to 
 enjoy the presence of God, walk closely with Him. 
 Do not be like Lot, but pray that you may have the 
 faith of Abraham, who lived to the God of glory, and 
 judged all other things as dross, for the “excellency 
 of the knowledge of Him.” 
 
 But now, what is the expectation of the heavenly 
 citizen ? What does he look for ? 
 
 There are many blessed things, but what is 
 the main thing that the child of God looks for? 
 Is it the heavenly inheritance that is “ incorruptible, 
 and undefiled, and thatfadeth not away ?” Yes. Is it 
 the “ crown of glory ? ” Yes, it is. Is it “ the rest ” 
 of God’s people? Yes, thanlc*'God, we look for that. 
 Is it the home, is it the golden streets? Yes, all 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN 
 
 119 
 
 that ; ay, and ten thousand times ten thousand more 
 for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man the things that God 
 hath prepared for them that love Him ’’ (or, “ that 
 wait for Him ” Isa. Ixiv. 4). But that alone is not 
 what we look for in heaven. If the bride comes^ 
 home, she does not care for the house, or land, or 
 plate, or jewels, if the bridegroom is not there. And 
 so here; it is not ‘‘from whence also we look for 
 glory but “ whence also we look for THE SAVIOUR, 
 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.’’ As the hymn 
 says — 
 
 ‘ ‘ The bride eyes not her garments, but her dear bridegroom’s^ 
 face ; 
 
 I will not gaze on glory, but on my King of grace. 
 
 Not on the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hand ; 
 
 The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuers land.” 
 
 That is what the Christian waits for. Oh, dear 
 Christian friends, how little do we have our: hearts and 
 thoughts centred in Him ! It seems as if this verse 
 described somebody else than ourselves. Yet it h 
 the characteristic of the child of God, that he looks* 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 Now it seems here as if the apostle were like a 
 herald. You know when great men are buried, the 
 herald stands at the tomb and calls out all the names, 
 the rank, and the titles of the mighty dead. And 
 when some great king or conqueror comes into a 
 place, the herald goes before with a trumpet, and calls- 
 out all his names. 
 
120 
 
 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 So St. Paul here is like a herald. He is heralding 
 the coming King. He gives him all His titles, the 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; and he says we look 
 for Him, the Anointed of God; the Messiah; Jesus, 
 for He shall save His people from their sins; Jesus, 
 the King of kings, and Lord of lords ; Jesus, the 
 Saviour of the world. 
 
 We look for Him as a Saviour. The end of the 
 chapter will show us how we look for Him as a 
 Saviour, but there is the fact specified. It was thus, 
 if you look to i Thess. i. lo, that the early Thessa- 
 Ionian Christians looked for Jesus. We are told 
 there of their conversion and of their service of God, 
 and not only that they had turned from idols to 
 serve the living and the true God, but also that they 
 were waiting ‘Tor His Son from heaven, whom He 
 raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us 
 from the wrath to come.” 
 
 That is the great name. Is not that, dear friend, 
 the name that touches, or ought to touch, our hearts ? 
 If there is no other name that comes home to our 
 hearts, that one ought , — the Saviour, for it reminds us 
 we are lost by nature. It reminds us of the depth 
 and ruin in which you and I lay ; that we needed 
 such a Saviour as the Lord Jesus Christ; that it 
 needed such a sacrifice as His precious blood to save 
 us. 
 
 It tells us of all He has done. It tells us of the 
 love of God, For God so loved the world, that He 
 gave His only-begotten Son.” It tells us of all this. 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN, 
 
 I2I 
 
 Jesus is the Saviour, for He shall save His people 
 from their sins.” It tells us of what He has saved 
 us from ; by bearing the penalty Himself, “ in 
 His own body on the tree.” 
 
 It tells us of what He is saving us from, — our daily 
 sins, our daily faults, our daily shortcomings, our 
 daily burdens, and griefs, and cares. It tells us of 
 what He zvill save us from, — this body of sin and 
 death. It is for this Saviour that the Christian looks. 
 It is not, you see, for the blessed rew’ard, so much as 
 for Him that we look. From whence also we look 
 for the Saviour.” 
 
 Now, the remarkable thing about this is, that we 
 have never seen the Saviour with the outward eye, 
 and yet we love Him. That is the characteristic of 
 Christians, they love Christ. When we look at our 
 own love, it is very worthless and feeble; and 
 yet it is scripturally true, that ‘‘we love Him, 
 because He first loved us, ” We love Hitn, whom 
 we have never seen with the outward eyes. St. Peter 
 says, “ Whom, having not seen, we love.” 
 
 But yet we know Him. We know Jesus. We 
 have seen a picture of Jesus ; here it is, in the Word 
 of God. We, who by grace are citizens of heaven, 
 have gazed upon Jesus Christ; and if we had not 
 we should not have had life, for it is only by 
 looking unto Him that we live. Yes, we have 
 looked at Him as He walked this earth, bearing our 
 infirmities and taking our sicknesses, “ the Man of 
 sorrows and acquainted with griefs.” We have read 
 
122 
 
 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 page after page, and verse after verse, and watched 
 the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He went 
 along through the wilderness of this world, despised, 
 rejected, cast out ; yet always doing good, always 
 blessing, always full of love and power to save — 
 the lovely, the perfect, the spotless One. We have 
 looked on that picture, and therefore we know Him. 
 His features are impressed upon our hearts, ' 
 
 We have seen Jesus in that way, and we have 
 looked at Jesus as He has borne our sins. We have 
 seen Him going up the hill of Calvary, bearing the 
 cross, lifted up on the cross, made a curse for us, 
 put between heaven and earth, accursed of God, for- 
 saken of man. We have seen Jesus living; we have 
 seen Jesus dying, giving Himself for our sin. We 
 know it. We have seen that blessed picture, and 
 it remains upo?i our hearts. We know Jesus Christ 
 as the Saviour. Oh, what a glorious thing to know 
 Christ! Why? It is life eternal. If the Christian 
 does not know any one else, he knows Christ. 
 
 You remember what was said of Bishop Beveridge, 
 when he was dying. His senses were almost gone, 
 but his friends came to him, and they mentioned his 
 children’s names. They said, ‘^Do you know your 
 children’s names?” No, he did not know them. 
 They mentioned his wife’s name. No, he did not 
 know it. They then said, Do you know Jesus 
 Christ?” ^^Ohyesf he said, I have knoivn Him 
 for forty years There was a man who had seen the 
 picture, who had gazed upon Christ ; and though his 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN, 
 
 123 
 
 senses were fading, though the outward man was 
 perishing, the inward man was renewed. He was 
 soon going to open his eyes, and to see Him whom 
 his soul loved. 
 
 Dear friend, are you Christ’s? If you are, you 
 know Christ. If you do not know Christy you are not 
 His, Is your eye resting upon Him as the well- 
 beloved Son of God 1 Oh then, thank God ! That 
 is a sight worth everything else. ‘‘ Look unto Me,” 
 He says, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.” 
 From whence also we look for the Saviour, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ.” That is the expectation, that is 
 the hope. It runs all through the New Testament, 
 but we cannot go into that now. You know the 
 passages. Epistle after epistle is full of them — how 
 the Christians were all waiting for Jesus, because 
 their hearts were fixed on Him. Not that it was with 
 them a matter of dates, and times, and seasons ; but 
 they looked /or Him. They did not know 'when He 
 would come, but they knew He had said, I will 
 come again, and receive you unto Myself.” They 
 knew that the angels had said, ^‘This same Jesus, 
 which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as ye have seen Him go ”; and 
 they believed the Word of God, and they looked for 
 Him. Their expectation was from Him ; because 
 this world was crucified to them, and their only 
 blessing could come from His Presence. 
 
 And now just a word or two about the attitude of 
 the Christian in looking for Jesus ^ and that takes us 
 
124 
 
 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 back a little to the first point, where it says, we look 
 for Jesus to come from heaven. As I said, the citizen 
 of heaven, is not heaven ; he journeys towards 
 heaven, but he has One in heaven who is his re- 
 presentative. As countries have an ambassador to 
 represent them, so Jesus has gone as the represen- 
 tative of His people into the heavenly courts. We are 
 told in the sixth chapter of Hebrews, that He has 
 gone there as their forerunner P I think I explained 
 that to many who were here the other day. It may 
 be understood in several senses, but one which, to my 
 mind, is very beautiful, is this : — The forerunner of a 
 caravan in Eastern lands is the one that runs out 
 before, and comes to the large inn where the company 
 is to stop for the night, and writes up the name of 
 each person over the door, and so when they come, 
 their place is ready, Jesus is the forerunner. He 
 has gone into heaven as our forerunner. He says, 
 ‘‘I go to prepare a place for you.'^ What a blessed 
 thought ! When I get there I shall find a place 
 among the many mansions ; Jesus has gone to pre- 
 pare it ; it will be my home ; it will be happy, for 
 Jesus will be there. 
 
 Again, Jesus is in heaven as our High Priest and 
 Saviour; He is there notv. We are told in Heb. 
 ix. 24, that He has ‘‘ not entered into the holy place, 
 made with hands, which is the figure of the true : but 
 into heaven itself, noiv to appear in the presence of God 
 for usl^ We are not there, but He is. You and I, 
 if believers, are members of His body, but the Head, 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN 
 
 125 
 
 the Life is there, and He is doing what tue ca?mot do — 
 helping us from daily sin, bearing us now upon His 
 heart before God the Father. He is offering sweet 
 incense continually. That is a beautiful passage in 
 Exodus XXX., where we are told that Aaron the high 
 priest was to go before the mercy-seat where God said 
 He would meet with him ; and was to “ burn thereon” 
 (that is, upon the altar) “ sweet incense every morn- 
 ing; when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn 
 incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps 
 at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual 
 incensed^ You can never see any cessation of this 
 sweet incense before God upon the altar. That was 
 Aaron’s business. He was the high priest. No 7 o 
 that is 7 idiat Jesus is doing, ‘‘He hath given Him- 
 self,” we read in the fifth of Ephesians, “ an offering 
 to God, for a sweet smelling savour and God — who, 
 
 we read in the eighth chapter of Genesis, “ smelled 
 the sweet savour, and said, I will no more Qurse the 
 earth again for man’s sake ” — looks on it again, and 
 says, “ I will no more curse.” That sweet incense 
 always before God the Father is His own well-beloved 
 Son ; and whoever stands in Him, in that sweet cloud 
 of incense, will never be judged at the last day. 
 
 But Jesus will not always be in that place. He is 
 coming out to bless the people. If you look at the 
 first chapter of Luke, you will find an illustration of 
 what the priest did, and what the people did. Speak- 
 ing of the priest Zacharias, Luke says (chap. i. ver 9), 
 that “according to the custom of the priest’s office, 
 
126 
 
 THE EXPECTATION OF 
 
 his lot was to bum incense when he went into the 
 temple of the Lord.’^ That is what the priest did j 
 but what did the people do? ‘‘And the whole 
 multitude of the people were praying without/’ You 
 see they were not in the holy place. The citizens are 
 not in heaven. They were praying without at the 
 time of incense. In the twenty-first verse you find 
 that the people waited for Zacharias. Why ? He was 
 to come out and bless them. “ Whence also we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus ChristS He is the 
 Priest. He is offering incense morning and evening 
 perpetually. But He is coming out “ I will come 
 again and receive you unto Myself.” He is coming 
 out of the temple to bless the people. 
 
 He is coming as Isaac did, as we read in Gen. xxiv. 
 When Rebecca the bride was being brought home, 
 Isaac was walking in the fields to meet her and 
 take her home. That is what Jesus is coming for. 
 
 The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with 
 a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the 
 trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 
 Then we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up 
 together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
 in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 
 “ Whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ.” 
 
 Dear friend, let us pray that our attitude may be 
 that of the people who waited for the priest to come 
 out and bless them, and let us remember that this 
 is not merely having our eyes looking up to the 
 
THE HEAVENLY CITIZEN. 
 
 127 
 
 clouds. This is the very thing the angels rebuked the 
 disciples for. Why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? 
 This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 
 Him go into heaven/’ But we are not to have our 
 eyes just fixed upon heaven, dreaming, star-gazing; 
 our business is on earth, but our hearts are to be 
 waiting for Him. Ob, let us pray for that — to have 
 our hearts resting in such peace, so aloof from the 
 world, so fixed upon Jesus, that our attitude of soul 
 may be such, that w^e may be able to say, morning, 
 noon, and night, ‘^From whence we look for the 
 Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 Now, dear friends, is this our hope ? Can we all 
 say we are looking ? Oh, if you cannot — if you do 
 not know what it is to be waiting for Jesus, because 
 Stitt conscious of sin^ still having guilt on your heart 
 — thanks be to God these very words may comfort you, 
 may lead you on to peace. For what do they tell of, 
 but of a Saviour, the very one you want, a Saviour 
 who can save His people from their sins, one who has 
 died that He might save, one who lives that He 
 might save, and who is able to save you. 
 
 Oh, wilt you look to Him? You will have to look 
 to Him, for behold. He cometh with clouds, and 
 every eye shatt see Himt^ Dear friend, already the 
 midnight cry may be sounding, ^‘Behold, the bride- 
 groom cometh ; go ye out to meet Him.” Are you 
 going out 2 Are you going to meet Jesus? How? 
 As towards a friend ? As towards the one you tznoiv^ 
 
128 
 
 THE EXPECTATION, ETC. 
 
 have seen, and trusted in ? As towards the one whose 
 blood is more precious to you than ten thousands of 
 gold and silver ? Oh, I beseech you now, even this 
 night, before that cry is heard in the distinctness with 
 which it will be heard when, as it seems from that 
 passage, there will be no more buying, when those 
 that are awakened, and have to go to buy, are shut 
 out, now, before the door is shut, look to the Saviour. 
 He died that you might live — that there might be 
 pardon from a just God for unjust sinners like you and 
 me. He says, ‘‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the 
 ends of the earth.’^ For He is a Saviour, a precious 
 Saviour, a mighty Saviour. He has saved us who 
 know Him. He can save you. He will save you, 
 if you will only trust Him to do it. 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 Philippi ANS iii. 18-21. 
 
 “ For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell 
 you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of 
 Christ : whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, 
 and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. 
 For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we 
 look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall 
 change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto 
 His glorious body, according to the working whereby Pie is 
 able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” 
 
 We have seen that the apostle has here been con- 
 trasting Hvo different classes a7td chai'acters — those who 
 mind earthly things, and those who mind heavenly 
 things. Those who mind earthly things are not those 
 who look for the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 The coming of Jesus (or, if Jesus come not before 
 he die, death) would be the annihilation, the end of 
 all the hopes and expectations of the man whose 
 heart, and whose interests, and whose affections, are 
 fixed upon the things of earth and time. He is not 
 looking for Christ. 
 
 The most awful thing that can happen to any one 
 of us, who is not looking for Jesus, will be His 
 
130 
 
 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 appearing; for it is “sudden destruction/* sudden and 
 everlasting destruction. But the apostle says, “We 
 are not minding these earthly things, we are minding 
 heavenly things, for our citizenship is in heaven ; we 
 are looking for the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ*'; 
 as much as«to say, earthly things have lost their charm 
 for us who believe in Jesus. We have seen the world 
 in the light of God as it really is declared to be — a 
 “ present evil world.*’ We did not think so once ; 
 but the light of God has shone upon us, our hearts 
 have been enlightened by the Holy Ghost and His 
 teaching, and we see the world m quite a different 
 aspect from that in which we once saw it. The cross 
 of Christ has shown us what the world really is. Its 
 worst deed has revealed its true character, and we 
 have seen the world casting out the Son of God, 
 saying, “We will have nothing more to do with Him"; 
 like Joseph’s brethren, who, when they had cast him 
 into the pit, sat eating and drinking, and making 
 themselves happy and comfortable, after they had, 
 as they thought, got rid of the troublesome one, and 
 put him out of the way. That is what the world 
 has done. It is what you and I did as long as w(i. 
 belonged to this world. We all had our share in it, 
 for by saying in our hearts, “ We will not have this 
 man to reign over us," we set our hand and seal to 
 the deed of Romans and Jews in that day, and chose 
 Barabbas the murderer, rather than Christ the Saviour. 
 
 But now, thanks be unto God, who has had mercy 
 upon us, we can say we no longer mind earthly things. 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 
 Our citizenship is in heaven, whence als^ we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.’^ That is the 
 main characteristic of a Christian. He is waiting for 
 Jesus. The word which is here translated ‘^look,’^ is 
 only used in five or six other places in the New 
 Testament, and only in one other place is it called 
 it is always “wait,^’ earnestly waiting. You 
 liave in Rom. viii. The earnest expectation of the 
 creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of 
 God.’* It is not a mere momentary glance upward, but 
 it is the attitude of a soul waiting for Christ ; and that 
 is, I trust, the attitude of every real believer in Jesus; 
 he is “ waiting for the Son of God from heaven.” 
 Our eyes are straining, and our ears are hearkening, 
 and our hearts are longing to catch the first sight and 
 sound of that appearing of Jesus Christ, and our 
 hearts often beat, don’t they? when we think that the 
 signs of the times are showing that our redemption 
 draweth nigh.” Thus the believer is waiting for Jesus, 
 
 We have looked at the place where Jesus is ; He is 
 to come out of the holy place within the veil, where 
 He is now appearing in the presence of God for us 
 who are on earth. We are waiting as the people waited 
 outside the temple, to see the priest come out ; we 
 wait to see our High Priest come out in His ‘^garments 
 of glory and beauty,” to fulfil His word, I will come 
 again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, 
 there ye may be also.” 
 
 But this passage speaks of two classes ; and it is 
 very interesting, I think, to see the contrast drawn 
 
132 
 
 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMA 77 ON. 
 
 between rthe two so distinctl}^ Each mark of the 
 character of the ungodly seems to have its counter- 
 part, its opposite mark in the character of the believer. 
 In the 1 8th verse they are said to be ^‘the enemies 
 of the cross of Christ.’^ In the 20th verse we are 
 told our citizenship is in heaven therefore we are 
 not “ enemies, but friends. Of them it is said, 
 ‘‘ Whose end is destruction, ” but the other verses 
 show us that the end of the believer is salvation, for 
 he is waiting for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We are told that they make a god of their belly, or 
 their body. The hope of the believer is to be de- 
 livered from his body as it now is ; he is not making 
 a god of it, at least, he ought not to be doing so. 
 We are told that their glory is in their shame. Our 
 glory is in being made like unto Christ in His glory. 
 We are told that they mind earthly things while 
 believers mind heave7ily things^ Thus you see there 
 are the two opposite sides very clearly marked out 
 by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Now which do you belong to ? You see it does 
 not speak of a middle class, but onlij two. Oh, 
 before I go on to speak of what Jesus will do when 
 He comes again, do let me ask you earnestly to settle 
 that question, which class are you of ? Are you 
 minding “ earthly thmgs and therefore is your end 
 destruction ? Or are you minding heavenly things, 
 and therefore is your end to be conformed to the image 
 of Jesus ? If Christ were to come now, that question 
 would be settled for you. But you may settle it. 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 133 
 
 You may learn your true position ; you need have no 
 uncertainty about it at all. Men may persuade you 
 that it is wrong to be sure, and wrong to be certain, 
 but the Word of God never says so; it speaks 
 distinctly. Each one of us is either bound for glory, 
 having entered in at the strait gate, into the narrow 
 way which leadeth unto eternal life ; or we are in the 
 broad road that leadeth to destruction. 
 
 Be not deceived. Get certainty about the matter 
 whatever you may not get; for the time is coming 
 when you would give anything in the world to have 
 made certain of life, or death, while you had the 
 opportunity. Do not be content with just listening to 
 what you think to be the truth ; but remember this, 
 God^s truth is meant to have an effect upon your 
 souls, and if you remain unconverted, unsaved, you 
 have defeated so far the object for which God’s 
 truth is proclaimed to your soul. Ypu have 
 distinctly and deliberately said ''No”; though 
 you may not in words, yet in deeds you have said, 
 “ This truth shall not have an effect upon my soul.” 
 We shall look at some wonderful things in this 
 verse ; things which some may think not very practi- 
 cal. But all God’s trutli is practical. It is our fault 
 if it is not. Not a word, not the smallest word is 
 written by God in this Bible, which is not meant to 
 have a practical effect upon us. Oh, may God 
 bless His word ! Lift up your hearts. God answers 
 prayer ; He has answered prayer. Do beseech Him 
 to bless it to your soul with the dew of heaven, that 
 
134 the glorious TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 believers may be comforted and strengthened, and 
 that some souls may be added to that number, who 
 are able to say, Our citizenship is in heaven,” — who 
 can take up this 21st verse as that which belongs to 
 them (for this 21st verse is the property of the 
 believing soul, the soul which is in Jesus), — “who 
 shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
 like unto His glorious body, according to the working 
 whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto 
 Himself.” 
 
 Now we can look first at what our p 7 'ese?it coiiditmi 
 is, and then at what our future condition will be. 
 
 “ Who shall change our vile bodyi' That is what 
 the Lord God says. But our body is not a “ vile 
 body ” in one sense. When God made man. He 
 made him in His own image; that was not a “vile” 
 image, it was a very glorious image, and God looked 
 upon it, and saw that it was “ very good.” 
 
 It may be, that at the time the translation of the 
 Bible was made, the word “ vile ” had not exactly the 
 same sense that we get from it now. At the present 
 day the word “vile ” means something utterly despic- 
 able. Well, the body is not “vile” in that sense. 
 If you look at the 139th Psalm, you will find David 
 saying in the 14th verse “I will praise Thee, for I 
 am fearfully and wonderfully made ; marvellous are 
 Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” 
 “ My substance was not hid from Thee, when 1 was 
 made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest 
 parts of the earth.” “Fearfully and wonderfully 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 135 
 
 made ” is our body. But this verse does not really 
 say that it is a “ vile body/^ As many of us must be 
 aware, the real translation of the words is the body 
 of our humiliation f the body of our humbling,” in 
 which we are humbled. 
 
 Now how is this body, in which you and I are, 
 “ a body of humiliation ? I wiH not dwell long 
 upon that, but only give just two or three thoughts 
 about it. 
 
 First, in its physical aspect it is so. It was made in 
 the image of God. It was not made to die. But “ sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin, and so 
 death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned. 
 And then it became a body of humiliation ” in its 
 physical aspect, a weak, an unprofitable thing ; the 
 flesh profiteth nothing.” First of all it lived nine 
 hundred years ; and now it hardly ever reaches 
 ninety. It has got lower and lower in strength and 
 power, and that just shows that it is a ^‘body of 
 humiliation.” It is weak in that respect. If you 
 look round in the world, what disease you find, 
 what cripples, what pain, what aches in the body 
 because of its weakness ! Physically, then, it is a 
 body of humiliation. It is a body which we may 
 look upon and say, “ Ah, this is not as it once was ; 
 this is the fruit of sin . '' 
 
 Perhaps there are not many of us here who have 
 seen a battle-field, but I have. I remember what it 
 was to look upon heaps of corpses piled one upon the 
 other in every ghastly shape and form. I saw there 
 
136 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 “ tlie body of humiliation.” We do not often see 
 death in its worst forms. Those we love are soon 
 taken from our sight, and we do not see the body as 
 it really is after death. So then it is “ the body of 
 humiliation ” in its physical aspect. 
 
 Eut it is also far more ‘‘ a body of humiliation ” in 
 its moral aspect. And here it applies specially to the 
 believer. His body seems to be described in Scrip- 
 ture as the seat of sin. We are told that it is sinful 
 flesh.” If you look at the 6th and 7th of Romans, 
 you will see the apostle there specially treats the 
 bodies of believers as that whereby they serve sin ” 
 (not excluding the mind, or the moral part of our 
 nature ; that is equally depraved, but the body is the 
 instrument by which sin is served). 
 
 He is speaking of what believers were, when they 
 were, as he says, ‘ 4 n the flesh,” that is, in their 
 former tatrenewed state^ not “ in the spirit.” In the 
 5th verse of the seventh chapter he says, For when 
 we were in the flesh, the motions [or passions] of sins, 
 which were by the law, did work i?i our members 
 (that is where they work, in our hands and feet, our 
 eyes, our ears, and every part of us), to bring forth 
 fruit unto death.” Therefore it is a body of humilia- 
 tion. And if you look in the 6th chapter at the 
 19th verse, he says, ^We have yielded your mem- 
 bers servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto 
 iniquity.” Again in the 12th verse he says, ‘‘Let 
 not sin therefore reign in your mortal body ” (it did 
 reign there, but now he says, “ Let it reign there no 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 137 
 
 more “ that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 
 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of 
 unrighteousness unto sin.” 
 
 Now the believer is delivered from the dominion 
 of sin^ but each one of us who has been a believer 
 but for one day, knows that there is sin in the flesh 
 stilly and that sin still has great power over its old 
 servant the flesh, and that it continually strives to 
 get again under its power the members wherewith it 
 was once served, and therefore the believer is con- 
 stantly crying out with the apostle, “ Oh, wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death ?” He feels it is a burden. It is a body of 
 humbling ; and we know how we get humbled day by 
 day, because we carry about with us this body of sin. 
 If you look at the 8th of the Romans and the 23rd 
 verse, the condition of those who have believed in 
 Jesus is described in these words: — ^^And not only 
 they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of 
 the Spirit ” (we in whom the Spirit of God dwells), 
 ‘‘even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting 
 for the adoption, to wit, the rede 7 nption of our bodyP 
 Our souls are saved, but we wait for the complete 
 salvation, the redemption of the body. 
 
 And similarly in 2 Cor. v. 4, where we read, “ For 
 we that are in this tabernacle ” (that means the flesh, 
 the body), “do groan, being burdened.” It is a 
 heavy weight. Not one of us who knows anything 
 of the life of God but must be conscious of this. 
 
 Perhaps, in first starting, the joy of the newly-born 
 
138 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 soul is SO great that it does not see this. I remember 
 once, about seven years and a half ago, when I was 
 first brought to a knowledge of the truth in Christ, I 
 used to be so disheartened, because I did not see my 
 own sinfulness as I wanted to see it, and I used to 
 ask older Christians to pray that I might see it more, 
 and they would say, Oh, you will see it ; God will 
 show you in His time, just as mudi of it as you can 
 bear.’’ For seven years and a half I have been learn- 
 ing, and some of us have been learning for a much 
 longer time, what it is to have sin still in the flesh, 
 and to be humbled. 
 
 You know when the Israelites first came out of 
 Egypt they were full of joy, and they sang unto God 
 and praised Him, but they did not then know the 
 evil of their hearts, and they were led for forty years 
 through the wilderness, that they might know what 
 was m their hearts. God might, if He had chosen, 
 have taken us up to heaven at the moment of our 
 conversion, but He has left us in the flesh, not only, 
 I suppose, that we may have the glorious privilege of 
 doing His work here, but that we may learn our own 
 hearts. 
 
 Oh, how often do we find this body a body of 
 humiliation I When we want to pray, when we want 
 to praise, when we want to serve God, we find it to 
 be a body of humliliation. See a marvellous instance 
 of it. When the Lord Jesus Christ has only a few 
 hours to live. He has j’j.st told His disciples in some 
 measure what He is going through ; and whilst He 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 139 
 
 goes to pray, and in His agony to sweat drops of 
 blood, He only says one word to them, and that is, 
 “ Watch, ” and those three men, though they loved 
 Him, slept. There was the body ; they could not 
 watch with Him one hour. He tells them why, ^^The 
 spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.'^ It was 
 a body of humiliation. Oh, if they could have watched 
 with Him then ! How they must have thought of that 
 afterwards ! The last hour almost that they could 
 have been of any comfort to their loving and suffering 
 Saviour, and then they slept I Such was the body 
 of humiliation. And so it is with us now, who have 
 but a little while to deny ourselves, that we may watch 
 with Jesus — it may be an hour of sleep, an hour of 
 comfort, an hour of worldly prosperity and ease, and 
 we sleep over it. I do not mean to say that it 
 excuses the soul, but I do mean to say that we may 
 fairly attribute much of it to this “ body of our humili- 
 ation.’’ 
 
 Well, dear friends, those of us who have faith, long 
 for the time when this body will no longer be a clog> 
 a hindrance, and a dead weight, but when it will 
 be that in which we shall serve God joyfully, freely, 
 and for ever. And for this we pray, “ Thy kingdom 
 come.” It is coming. That is what the verse says. 
 ‘^We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who shall change the body of our humiliation.” That 
 is what He is going to do. Jesus,” we can say, “is 
 my Saviour.” All of us who have believed in Jesus 
 are able by God’s grace to put that word ^‘my ” in. 
 
140 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 The world talks of our Saviour.’’ You very seldom 
 hear, I do not know that I ever heard, a man who 
 does not love Christ say, “ my Saviour.” They will 
 talk of our Saviour, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 the Almighty, and the Providence of God ; but 
 my ” Saviour, the One who loved me^ and gave 
 Himself for that is another thing. 
 
 Now, Jesus is a complete Saviour, He does not 
 save His people in a half and half way, but altogether^ 
 body, soul, and spirit. Satan, death, and the grave 
 get no victory over the children of God. O death, 
 Avhere is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? 
 Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 The verse which we are considering in the Philip- 
 pians refers specially to those who are alive and 
 remain ; but it includes, I have no doubt, those who 
 have fallen asleep in Christ, and even in their case 
 the grave shall get no victory. Their bodies shall 
 rise again. Look at i Cor. xv. 42, and there you 
 have the description of it, — So also is the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead ; it is sown in corruption, it is raised 
 in incorruption : it is sown in dishonour, it is raised 
 in glory : it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power : 
 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
 body.” And in the 51st verse — ‘^Behold I show you 
 a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all 
 be changed.” ^We wait for the Saviour, who shall 
 change our vile bodies,” ‘‘ in a moment, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the trumpet 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 14 1 
 
 shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
 and ive shall he chafiged. For this corruptible must 
 put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on 
 immortality.’^ Such is the hope set before the child- 
 ren of God; and in i Pet. i. 13, we are told to ‘‘hope 
 to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto 
 you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” We wait for 
 the redemption of the body. We haue saluation now, 
 but Jesus is coming to perfect and complete the 
 whole thing, and set the bodies of His people free 
 from that which they now feel to be so continually 
 dragging them down to the earth. That is what we 
 look for. We rest upon His word. We have not 
 seen Him yet, but we know as surely as we are alive 
 here, that He is coming to do it, because He has 
 said so. 
 
 Semidly, let us consider what our future con- 
 dition will be, “ He shall change the body of our 
 humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto 
 the body of His glory/* for that is the real trans- 
 lation of the words. Now, to make believers like 
 Christ is God’s great purpose. He makes them 
 spiritually like Christ, as we learn from 2 Cor. hi. 18, 
 “ But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass 
 the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image,, 
 from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord.” There is a spiritual transformation, which St. 
 Paul calls in Rom. xii. the being “transformed by 
 the renewing of the mind.” But there is so?nething 
 more than the renewal of the mind. In Rom. viii. 29,, 
 
142 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 it is said of God's people that they are predestinated 
 
 to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He 
 might be the first-born among many brethren that 
 they might all have a family likeness, not only in 
 spirit, but also in body ; and we learn from i John 
 iii. 2, that this transformation will be only completed 
 when the Lord comes, and we see Him as He is. 
 
 Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; and it doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be, but when He shall 
 appear we shall he like Him, for we shall see Him as 
 He is.” 
 
 Then if we want to know what we are to be like 
 — / am speaking specially of the believer, and of 
 none other — we must look to what Christ is ; but I 
 want you, dear friends, who are not believers, just to 
 look at the Bible picture of what the believer's body 
 is to be, that you by God's grace may be attracted 
 and won to that Saviour who will do this for all who 
 know and put their trust in Him. 
 
 Now, what was the body of Jesus Christ like after 
 this resurrection ? It was to all intents and purposes 
 the same body. They knew Him again. Mary, 
 though at first she did not quite perceive Him, yet 
 when the Master said Mary,” she knew His voice. 
 It was the same voice. The disciples knew Him 
 when they saw Him ; He was the same. So will our 
 bodies be. We shall know each other. I think that 
 is clear from Scripture. We see in Luke xvi. that 
 Abraham knew Lazarus, and the rich man in torment 
 knew Abraham and Lazarus too. Whatever they 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 143 
 
 were like, they were like enough to be known, to be 
 recognised. This is a very blessed hope. We have 
 lost friends, but we shall know them again. When 
 the disciples were standing with Jesus on the holy 
 mount, they saw Moses and Elias, and they knew 
 them. They had never seen them on earth, but yet 
 they knew them. So shall we know many whom we 
 have never seen. We shall know the whole family 
 of God. We shall know each other in glory. It was 
 the same Jesus” that they saw go into heaven 
 who shall come again, and He will bring His saints 
 with Him. 
 
 Now, another point is that it was a real body. It 
 was not a sham body ; it was not the mere shadow of 
 a body, as it were — a ghost ; it was not a thin vapour. 
 The body of the Lord was a substantial body. If 
 you look at Matt, xxviii. 9, you will see that the dis- 
 ciples met Jesus, and what did they do? They held 
 Him by the feet. There was clearly a body that the 
 disciples could hold by the feet. Then again, in 
 John XX. you find that He appears to the disciples, 
 and that He shows them the holes in His hands and 
 His feet; and in the 27th verse He tells the dis- 
 believing Thomas to draw near and to thrust his hand 
 into His side. There was a substantial body which 
 Thomas could touch, and into the side of which he 
 could have put his hand. Again, in Luke xxiv. you 
 will find that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ was 
 one with which he could eat and drink. In the 41st 
 verse you read, ‘‘While they yet believed not for joy 
 
144 the glorious TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 and wondered, He said unto them, have ye here any 
 meat ? It may be said, what could a glorified body 
 want with meat? Nevertheless, they gave Him a 
 piece of broiled fish, and He took it and did eat 
 before them. You find Him doing the very things 
 He did when He was in the natural body upon earth. 
 He goes into their houses ; He sits down ; He breaks 
 bread ; He meets them again on the sea-shore. To 
 all intents and purposes His body is still a body, 
 though it is the spiritual body. There is the differ- 
 ence — the one is called a “natural’^ body, the other 
 is called a “ spiritual body. There is nothing un- 
 heavenly in having a body. It is what the Lord 
 has. And we too are not to become ghosts, mere 
 shadowy phantoms. We are to have a body “ like 
 unto the body of His glory.” He is in His body 
 glorified to-day at the right hand of God, and His 
 people will be there in their bodies. 
 
 But then, though it was the same in these respects, 
 in another respect it was not the same. He could 
 pass through walls with it. In John xx. you read 
 that the disciples were assembled together in a room, 
 having the doors shut, and suddenly Jesus appeared 
 in their midst. Though it was an actual body, yet it 
 could do this. And our bodies will be the same. 
 Where we shall be I know not; but I know from 
 Rev. V. lo, that w^e shall reign on the earth, or 
 “over” the earth, as it may be rendered. You find 
 Him living at that time for forty days in the most 
 mysterious manner. Sometimes He is in one place, 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 145 
 
 sometimes in another; now He appears to them, 
 and then He vanishes out of their sight. But it is 
 the same body, and He can do wonderful things 
 with it ; and at last this body of the Lord J esus 
 mounts up to glory, He is received into a cloud 
 out of their sight, and they see Him no more 
 till He comes again. 
 
 So I believe our 'bodies will be just like Christ’s. 
 We may be able to understand very little about it, 
 but that does not prove that it is not true. If He 
 has said it, then we may rest on it. 
 
 Well, then, another point is, it is a body that 
 never dies. Jesus Christ, we read in Rom. v., “ being 
 raised from the dead, dieth no more ; ” and we shall 
 be like Him. ‘‘ We have been planted with Him in 
 the likeness of His death,” and we shall also be in 
 the likeness of His resurrection.” In Luke xx. you 
 find that, speaking to the Pharisees about the children 
 of the resurrection. He says, ‘‘Neither can they die 
 any more.” They are like unto Him, they can die 
 no more. And so again and again you find the 
 eternal life spoken of. The believer, changed into 
 the image of his Lord, has the life of Christ now, 
 and has the life of Christ for ever. He never can 
 die again. There is no end to His glory, and there 
 ? no end to him who is to enjoy the glory. 
 
 ‘‘ Endless life in endless day, 
 
 Sin and sorrow pass’d away.” 
 
 Then there is one more point It is a gloriom 
 
 K 
 
146 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION. 
 
 body. It is like ‘Uhe body of His glory.’' Ob, how 
 wonderful that must be ! When the apostles stood 
 upon the holy mount, and saw ‘Hhe power and 
 coming,” as St. Peter says, of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ,” they saw two with Him, Moses and Elias. 
 It is written of Jesus in Matt. xvii. 2, that His 
 face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white 
 as the light,” so glorious was it. You cannot look 
 upon the sun, it is so glorious. Such was Jesus, and 
 such evidently were these two men, for they appeared 
 also in glory R Now, these are the very words which 
 the Holy Ghost has written down for our comfort ; 
 for in Col. iii. 4, you read, When Christ, who is our 
 life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with 
 Him in glory R Just as Moses and Elias were there 
 encircled by the wondrous glory of their Lord and 
 Master, with Him in it, so when He appears again 
 and changes our vile body, this body of humiliation, 
 it will not be a body of humiliation, but it will be 
 fashioned like unto the body of His glory. It is 
 sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.” Oh, who 
 can conceive what that will be ? Do not let us think 
 lightly of all these wondrous privileges. God has 
 written down these things, and they are meant to 
 be practical, and I, for one, think that they are 
 deeply practical. I think, the more that you and I, as 
 believers, — and it is to those that I am now speak- 
 ing, — see what Jesus Christ has done, and will do 
 for us, the more shall we learn to walk worthily of 
 the kingdom and glory to which He has called us. 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATIOiV, 147 
 
 If Jesus Christ has redeemed my body, then it is 
 not my own. If He loves my body, if He still 
 keeps me in this body, it is that I may serve Him in 
 it. St. Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, by the 
 mercies of God, that ye present your bodies unto Plim, 
 a living sacrifice.” He said in the first chapter of 
 this epistle and the twentieth verse, that it was his 
 earnest expectation and his hope that Christ might 
 be magnified in his body, whether it be by life or by 
 death. And then in 2 Cor. iv. he describes the 
 believer as always bearing about in the body the 
 dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus 
 might be made manifest in our bodyU It is in the 
 body that one can glorify God ; and that religion is 
 the most spiritual which uses the body most to serve 
 God with, and that religion is not worth anything that 
 is only a religion in the spirit. There is no such thing 
 as a really religious man or woman who does not use 
 the body to glorify God. It is what we used to serve 
 the devil with, and it is what God gives us the great 
 privilege of serving Him with. ‘‘ As ye have yielded 
 your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, 
 so now yield your members servants to righteousness.” 
 Christ has not redeemed my spirit, that 1 7 uay live as 
 I like in the fleshy but I am to glorify Him in this body 
 of mine, which is shortly to be glorified with Him. 
 Ami glorifying Him in it now ? 
 
 I think if we were to understand this more, that 
 our bodies are Christ's, we should not spend so much 
 time about them ; if we were living in a cottage, 
 
148 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 which we were told was to be exchanged at a very 
 short notice for a palace, we should not spend much 
 money on adorning it. And I think that when we 
 look upon this body as that which is shortly to be 
 changed into the image of Christ, we shall see it is 
 not a thing to spend much money upon, or much time 
 in dressing it up. It is a body of humiliation. Let 
 those whose end is destruction, and whose glory is 
 in their shame, dress up their bodies, and spend the 
 substance which God has given them for His glory in 
 feeding and pampering them, but do not let us do so. 
 It is to be sustained, and God gives us good things 
 for it, not to be abused, but to be used for Him; and 
 if we spend the greater portion of our money in dress, 
 or in eating and drinking, and comforts which only 
 have the body for their object, we are dishonouring 
 God, and not glorifying Him in the body. The 
 ‘‘earthly house of this tabernacle*’ is to be “dis- 
 solved,** and we are to have “ a house not made with 
 hands, eternal in the heavens.** Then do not let 
 us live as if we were to live here always. God has 
 called us to something higher. Oh, that we knew what 
 that means, when the apostle says, “I keep under 
 my body, and bring it into subjection.** How often 
 do we find our body uppermost, and all its desires, 
 and lusts, and passions not denied and subdued ; and 
 is it any wonder, then, that the soul grows cold and 
 dead ? Not a bit. Let us see what God means to do 
 with this body hereafter^ and then we shall see what 
 we are to do with it he7-e ; that it is His, and is to be 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANS FOR MAT/OH. 149 
 
 used for Him and for His glory, for your body is the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, ye are not your own, ye 
 arer bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your 
 body and in your spirit, which are God's.’’ 
 
 This subject is a very blessed one as regards God's 
 people. It is a sweet and blessed and glorious hope. 
 God hath given unto us exceeding great and precious 
 promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the 
 Divine nature ” ; and the more we lay hold of the 
 promises, and feed upon them, digest them, and get 
 them right into our souls, the more shall we be made 
 partakers, through the Holy Ghost, of the Divine 
 nature. 
 
 But this is an awfully solemn subject for those 
 who are not Christ’s, for there is no such blessed 
 hope before them. I have no doubt I am speaking 
 to some who as yet are unable to say, “This is true 
 of meP Your sins, dear friends, are not yet washed 
 away in the blood of Christ, and this glorious prospect 
 is not glorious to you, because you do not know that 
 you have got a share in it. 
 
 The subject of the body of the lost soul is very 
 important. The body of the lost soul has somewhat 
 the nature of the body of the saved soul. At any 
 rate, it has two of the main features which I have 
 mentioned. It is the sa7ue body. To all intents and 
 purposes of recognition it is the same. Abraham knew 
 the rich man's voice. There was no mistake about 
 that man. Those who are lost will hioiv each other. 
 Friends, if you are going to the bottomless pit (as 
 
150 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 we all were by nature, although some of us are saved 
 by grace, and are going to the heavenly city), you 
 will meet there those whom you have known on earth, 
 those whom your influence has helped to bring there, 
 those whose influence has helped to bring you there. 
 They will know your faces, and you will know theirs. 
 Mothers, who are bringing up their children without 
 God, will know their children there. Brothers, who 
 have led their sisters into folly, will know those sisters 
 there. Husbands who have hindered their wives, 
 and wives who have hindered their husbands from 
 following Christ, these wives and these husbands will 
 know each other there. There will be no mistabe. 
 And what will be more awful than anything else will 
 be the marks of sin that those bodies will bear. If 
 ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die m your 
 sins^^ said the Lord Jesus; and the man that dies in 
 his sins remains in his sins, and rises in his sins, and 
 all the marks of sin will then come out in theii 
 horrible deformity. The great disease of sin shall 
 be firmly imprinted for ever on those countenances, 
 on those faces, on those members that have served 
 sin. Oh, what an awful recognition shall there be in 
 hell 1 It is the same body, and they shall be judged 
 in that same body. The graves that hide them all 
 shall give up their dead, and they shall be judged 
 ‘‘according to their works.’^ 
 
 And then, again, if is a body that cannot die. As 
 the believer’s body never dies, so this body, though 
 always dying, shall never die. The existence of this 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 15 1 
 
 body is never called life, so far as we can gather from 
 the Scriptures, but it is called the second death^^ 
 ‘‘where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not 
 quenched.’^ You will remember how the rich man 
 cried for a drop of water to cool his tongue, because 
 he was tormented in the flame. There the fire burns 
 that will never kill ; the worm feeds that will never 
 destroy. The body dies not 
 
 It is not the body of glory. You read in Daniel 
 xii., that some shall be raised to “everlasting life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’^ It 
 shall be “ abhorred,’' we read “ of all flesh ” (Isa. 
 Ixvi. 24). It shall be something so awful, the body 
 of this humiliation changed marvellously and horribly 
 into a body of shame and of everlasting contempt. 
 Hope shall never come there. There shall be 
 no end to it. Millions and millions and millions 
 of years shall pass away, and it shall still be the 
 same. There shall be no end. “These shall go 
 away into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENL^^ ‘ Oh, may 
 God awaken any who have hitherto gone on securely 
 in the broad way, whose end is destruction / I do 
 not care whether you call me uncharitable or not 
 for preaching about such things. Think about them. 
 It is not because it is pleasant to speak about them, 
 but because any one standing up to speak to his 
 fellow-sinners, if he does not warn them of the wrath 
 to come, will be guilty in God’s sight I do not want 
 to be more charitable than God is, or than Christ 
 was, and He told souls here about this “ wrath to 
 
152 THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION, 
 
 come/^ and about this eternal damnation which lies 
 beyond. 
 
 But now, dear friends, while I tell you this as a 
 friend, I can also tell you that there is a Saviour 
 who died on the cross /or sinners, and that His hand 
 is stretched out to save you from that place to which, 
 by nature and by practice, those who are unsaved 
 here are going as fast as time can carry them. 
 Jesus Christ has died, that you might live. He 
 left his throne in glory, and died that you might not 
 perish, but might have everlasting life. Oh, turn not 
 away from that outstretched hand ! Despise not 
 Him that speaketh ! Do not trample under foot the 
 blood of the covenant, in your haste to get to that 
 place, but turn and live! Now is the accepted 
 time; now,” thank God, ‘Gs the day of salvation.’^ 
 Now you can be warned, now you can be told of 
 a present salvation, of One who has died that you 
 might live; who in His love for souls poured out 
 His soul unto death. But if you despise Him, there 
 remains ‘‘no more sacrifice for sin.^^ It is only Christ 
 You must be in Christ, or you will be in hell. You 
 must have His arms around you, or you will have the 
 devil's. You must be joined to Him who is in glory, 
 and who is coming again to take His people there, or 
 you will be joined for ever to those who are consigned 
 to everlasting destruction. 
 
 I beseech you, therefore, who are uncertain, to get 
 certamty. Make up your mind about it. Do not halt 
 between two opinions. It is either one thing or the 
 
THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORM ATIOi\ . 153 
 
 Other, and the day is quickly coming when all will 
 be plain, and when you will either sit on the right 
 hand of the Saviour or on the left. Oh, look to that 
 Saviour now! He is ready to save.” Do you 
 know what that means ? He is ready to forgiue. 
 Who is ready to be forgiven ? He is ready tO‘ forgive 
 every one that believeth on Him. Will you put your 
 trust in Jesus? In Christ’s stead, I beseech you, be 
 ye reconciled to God. God would not have given 
 His Son to suffer such a death, if there were not an 
 aivful ruin aivaitmg sinners. And now unto you is 
 preached the gospel, “Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Who will take 
 salvation ? Who will accept it ? Does any one say, 
 “ God helping me, I will ” ? May God look into 
 your heart, may He read that word there, “ Lord, 1 
 believe^ help Thou mine unbelief.” Believe in Christ, 
 and then you too shall have this blessed hope, even 
 the glorious appearing of our great God and our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall change this body of 
 our humiliation, and fashion it like unto the body 
 OF His glory 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 Philippians iii. 20, 21 . 
 
 ** For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look 
 for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall change 
 our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His 
 glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able 
 even to subdue all things unto Himself.” 
 
 We have looked at the first part of this 21st verse, 
 and considered the wonderful change that will pass, 
 according to God’s Word, upon the bodies of Christ’s 
 people when He comes again — a blessed, glorious, 
 and sudden change. Our “ vile body,” or as I told 
 you then the word meant, this body of our humilia- 
 tion, will be fashioned like unto the body of His 
 glory.” It will be done ^Gn a moment, in the 
 twinkling of an eye,” when the Lord descends from 
 heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
 and with the trump of God.” Dear friends, just let us 
 think for a moment what a solemn time that will be. 
 Those will be changed in their bodies who have been 
 previously changed in their souls, and none else. 
 We are told in 2 Cor. iii. 18, that “we all . . . 
 
 beholding as in a glass the ^lory of the Lord, are 
 changed into the same image from glory to glory, even 
 
THE SUBDUING BOWED OF CHRIST, 155 
 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord.” There is the change 
 of s\)iiL Now when the Lord Jesus comes, we shall 
 be changed into His image as regards our bodies. 
 All will not be changed into His image, as I tried 
 to point out the last time ; and I want you to think, 
 what a moment it will be, when Christ descends from 
 heaven — when the trumpet sounds — when persons 
 who have been living together, eating and drinking 
 together, worshipping together, sitting in the same 
 pews or on the same benches, will be separated. 
 There will be a great division made then ; those 
 who are Christ’s will be changed into His image. 
 Then shall be brought to pass, I believe, that saying 
 of the Lord’s, in Matthew, ‘‘ Then shall two be in 
 the field ; the one shall be taken and the other left. 
 Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one 
 shall be taken and the other left. There shall be two 
 men in one bed ; the one shall be taken and the 
 other shall be left.” 
 
 And I would therefore remind you, before I go on 
 to dwell upon the latter part of this verse, what an 
 awful thing it will be for any soul that has heard the 
 gospel, that has heard the name of Jesus, that has 
 read the Bible, that knows about all this, and what 
 will happen, suddenly to see his neighbour, his wife, 
 his child, the person who is sitting next him perhaps 
 at the moment, suddenly chmiged into the glory of 
 Christy and to look down upon his own body and to 
 see no change. Oh, like a flash of lightning then 
 the conviction will come upon that person’s soul, 
 
156 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST, 
 
 Oh, I am unchanged, I am undone for ever ! No 
 change after that ; that is the final one. I want you 
 to think about that— to bring this to bear upon the 
 present moment — to think how it would be if the 
 Lord were to come now. Has your heart been 
 changed ? If not, the body will not be changed into 
 His likeness then. However far you may have got in 
 the knowledge of the Bible, if you do not know Christ 
 you will be unchanged, or there will pass a more 
 awful change upon you. But, thank God, He who 
 changes bodies ihen^ is the One who changes hearts 
 now, “Create in me a clean heart, O God/^ says 
 David. Let that be your prayer now. The day when 
 the change in the body will take place is not yet 
 come, but the day when Christ changes hearts has 
 come, and it is that that is set before us in the 
 preaching of the gospel. He is able to change you. 
 If there are any who are secretly conscious in their 
 own souls, though they will not allow it to any one 
 else perhaps — “ Ah, I know I am not yet among those 
 who shall be changed in this glorious way ; I say to 
 such, ask Him to change your heart. He can do it, 
 as I hope to show you from this passage — He is the 
 One who is able to subdue all things unto Himself — ► 
 He can change your heart — He is a living, loving, 
 present Saviour — He has changed numbers of hearts. 
 We all say, “ He has changed my heart,^' if we have 
 found peace with God through Jesus Christ. This is 
 not my testimony only, but that of every one who has 
 come to Jesus. He has done great things for us; 
 
THE SUBDUING TO J FEB OF CHRIST 157 
 
 He has given us new hearts, and He will give us the 
 new body. And so, dear friends, we ask, we beseech 
 you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God ” 7iow, 
 Do not wait till that moment when the trumpet shall 
 sound, and there is no more opportunity , no more 
 sacrifice for sin, no other means of getting changed 
 into the likeness of Christ. 
 
 The end of this verse tells us of the power whereby 
 Christ will be able to change the bodies of His people 
 into His own likeness. It assures the believer that 
 Christ is able to do this. He is able even to 
 subdue all things unto Himself,” — all things, of which 
 this is only a part. He has been speaking of the 
 changing of the body — the subduing of the body into 
 His image. Very well, that is only part of what He 
 is going to do. This One for whom we look, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour, He is the One to 
 whom all power is given, and who is able to subdue 
 all things. 
 
 Now let us look, for clearness’ sake, first of all at 
 this statement in a general way : the great truth laid 
 down here that Christ is the One who is able to, 
 and therefore will — for that is implied in it — subdue 
 all things unto Himself. And then let us look as it 
 applies to any unsaved soul, and as it applies to the 
 hearts of His own people. 
 
 He is able eve?i to subdue all things unto Himself, 
 Well, first of all that implies that all things have to be 
 subdued. All things are not subdued now. We need 
 not look far to see that ; but in order rapidly to trace 
 
158 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 the present state of things, and to see what it will be, 
 let us think of how God has really ordained things to 
 be, according to His will. We read that Go'd is not 
 the author of confusion but of peace ; and He has 
 accordingly ordained in all His works a marvellous 
 system of subjection one to the other. If you follow 
 me through two or three passages, you will see that 
 wherever God has made known His word, it has been 
 His object to have things arranged in a most beautiful 
 order. 
 
 It is even so in heaven. We read that among the 
 angels there are “ thrones, principalities, and powers.’^ 
 There are different ranks of angels, and among them 
 we read of an archangel — a chief angel. 
 
 It is so in God’s creation of ina^iimate things. If 
 you look at Gen. i., when God formed the world and 
 all the things that we see. He set some things to 
 rule over other things. In Gen. i. i6 we read, ^^God 
 made two great lights, the greater light to rule the 
 day, and the lesser light to rule the night.” I only 
 refer to this to show how the same principle runs 
 through the whole of God’s creation. 
 
 And thus you find that men in their various stations 
 upon earth are made subject to their fellow-men. It 
 begins even at the creation. In Gen. i. 28, we see 
 that God tells man that he is to subdue the earth. 
 He is to have dominion. God blessed them, and 
 God said. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth, and subdue it,” etc. And so in the relationship 
 of husband and wife (chap. iii. 16) Thy desire shah 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST 
 
 159 
 
 be to thy husband, and he shall ?'ule over theeP Go 
 on again to the subjection of the younger brother to 
 the elder brother (chap. iv. 7), Unto thee [Cain] shall 
 be his [Abehs] desire, and thou shall rule over hlmP 
 So that among the angels, among created things, men 
 over the lower order of earthly things, husband over 
 the wife, elder brother over the younger— all things in 
 a beautiful harmony are subject one to another. And 
 the same idea runs all through the Bible. Just refer 
 with me to the First Epistle of St. Peter, where it 
 is brought out in the most remarkable way. Take, 
 for instance, wives, in chap. iii. 1 ; Likewise, ye 
 wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.’^ Take 
 servants : Servants, be su^bject to your masters with 
 
 all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to 
 the froward (ii. 18). Turn to Col. iii. 20, there is 
 the same thing : Children obey to your parents in 
 
 all things.” And in chap. iv. i, masters are there 
 reminded that they have a Master ” too. Therefore 
 you see that wives to husbands, children to parents, 
 servants to masters, masters to their Master in heaven 
 — all things in perfect order. The same remark 
 applies to flocks or congregations under the charge of 
 God's pastors. Look at Heb. xiii. 17 : “ Obey them 
 that have the rtde over you,” or as it is in the margin, 
 that guide you and submit yourselves : for they 
 watch for your souls, as they that must give account.” 
 Then all men are told to be subject unto the powers, 
 the kings, the rulers, the magistrates that God has 
 ordained in this world ; both in the First Epistle of 
 
i6o THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST 
 
 Peter, chap, ii., and more especially in Rom. xiii., 
 where it is said, in the first verse, “ Let every soul be 
 subject to the higher powers, for there is no power 
 but of God; the powers that be are ordained of 
 God.’’ 
 
 Now the opposite of this is insubordination — sin. 
 It is denying God^s authority, and setting up man’s 
 authority. When sin came in, there was disobedience to 
 God’s authority. Therefore you find, in Rom. v., that 
 the first act of sin is called “ the disobedience of one.” 
 
 Now only trace that through the Bible. There 
 is the first act — disobedience. It goes on and on 
 
 and on. The flood — the tower of Babel — all bear 
 witness to the insubordination of man against God — 
 the setting up himself as his own master^ until you 
 find in Ps. xii. 4, that the language of the soul that 
 acknowledges not God as his Lord is just this, 
 ‘‘AVith our tongues will we prevail; our lips are our 
 own : ivho is Lord over us ? ” This is the expression 
 of the mind that only has self for its ruler, and 
 not God. 
 
 Well, you find at last that when St. Paul is describ 
 ing the awful condition of man in general, in Rom. i., 
 the great feature that runs through all is insubordi- 
 nation to God ; not only disobedience to parents, 
 but altogether a contempt for, and denial of God’s 
 authority, and a walking after his own lusts. But it 
 does not stop there. It does not only say there is 
 no fear of God before their eyes,” but we are told 
 both here and in other passages what a solemn ending 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST i6i 
 
 all these things would have. In 2 Tim. iii., speaking 
 of the evils of the last days,” we read — Men shall 
 be lovers of their own selves, boasters, proud, dis- 
 obedient to parents.” Now mark that. This is one 
 of the signs of the last days — insubordination — want 
 of reverence for God’s constituted authorities. And 
 St. Peter and St. Jude tell us in the most marked 
 and solemn terms, what those evils will end in. In 
 2 Pet. ii. 10 it is said, ‘‘But chiefly them that walk 
 after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness, and despise 
 government : presumptuous are they^ self willed^ they are 
 not afraid to speak evil of dignities P And lest we 
 should forget it, the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of 
 Jude, has written it again. In the 8th verse of his 
 epistle we are told, “Likewise also these filthy 
 dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion^ a 7 id speak 
 evil of dignitiesP And we are told in the nth verse, 
 that they perish in the gainsaying of Korah, who 
 despised — was insubordinate to — the constituted au- 
 thority of Moses and Aaron, and perished lament- 
 ably. 
 
 All this shows us how these things will end; and 
 that is what we see a great deal of in the present day 
 — such a want of reverence for God’s authority as set 
 up in the persons of men in their proper relations of 
 life. This comes to pass according to the Word of 
 God. it will bring judgment But, dear friends, 
 these things are not to continue. “ The foundations 
 of the world are out of course.” All is in confusion, 
 and the righteous saith, “Lord, how long?” How 
 
 L 
 
1 62 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 long is this to go on ? How long shall the ungodly 
 say, Where is now their God ? The believer 
 often feels as if God had withdrawn Himself from all 
 government of the world, when he sees the injustice 
 and the fearful course of sin all over the world. It 
 makes him say, ^‘Oh, how long is this to go on?” 
 The verse I am reading, tells us it is to come to an 
 end. 
 
 He is able even to subdue all things tmto Him- 
 self God is not the author of confusion, but of 
 order. 
 
 Now there was always ONE prophesied of, who 
 would set things to rights from the very beginning. 
 He is spoken of in i Sam. ii., in the inspired prayer 
 of Hannah. She says, ‘‘ The adversaries of the Lord 
 shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He 
 thunder against them ; the Lord shall judge the ends 
 of the earth ; and He shall give strength unto HIS 
 KING, and exalt the horn of HIS ANOINTED.” 
 And then just look with me at the 89th Psalm. All 
 through that Psalm you see One spoken of, who is 
 coming to ^^rule” or judge.” (The word judge is 
 often used in the Old Testament, not in the sense of 
 merely executing an act of justice, but of ruling as the 
 judges ruled or ‘^judged” Israel.) All through the 
 Psalms you have this One spoken of as the One who 
 
 cometh to judge the earth.” In the 80th Psalm, 
 ver. 17 , we are told that He is a man, ‘^Let Thy 
 hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, upon the 
 Son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.” 
 
THE SUBDUING BOWED OF CHRIST. 163 
 
 Why strong ? Because He had got a great work to 
 do. He had to subdue all things unto Himself. 
 
 Now, if you look at Matt, xxviii. 18 (and there are 
 a number of similar passages I have not time to refer 
 to), you find our Saviour saying, ‘‘AH power is given 
 unto Me in heaven and in earth.’* It appears from 
 Heb. ii. that He is the one of whom the 8th Psalm 
 speaks, who is to have dominion over all the works of 
 God’s hands — a dominion which Adam forfeited, but 
 which Christ, the second Adam,” comes to take 
 again (ver. 5) — ‘^For unto the angels hath He not put 
 in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
 But one in a certain place ” (in the 8th Psalm) 
 “testified, saying. What is man, that Thou art mindful 
 of him ? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him ? 
 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; Thou 
 crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set 
 him over the works of Thy hands : Thou hast put 
 all things in subjection tmder his feet. For in that He 
 put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that 
 is not put under him. But now we see not yet 
 all things put under him : but we see Jesus, who 
 was made a little lower than the angels” (so that 
 evidently this has its full application in Jesus) “for 
 the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
 honour.*’ 
 
 And the same language is used in i Cor. xv. 25 — 
 “ For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies 
 under His feet. The last enemy that shall be de- 
 stroyed is death ; for He hath put all thmgs under 
 
i 64 the subduing POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 His feetB This is the fulfilment of it. The Lord, 
 the Saviour, the Lord J esus Christ, is able to do it ; 
 and, dear friends, thank God we have the sure and 
 blessed hope that He will do it. We cannot tell the 
 moment when, but we have the promise of God, 
 There is His promise, and He will assuredly fulfil it. 
 He will come in poiver. He will descend from heaven 
 with a shout. The first act of Christas subduing all 
 things will be that of which we read, when He changes 
 the bodies of His dead or living saints, and makes 
 them like unto Himself. And what happens then ? 
 You read in Rev. xix. that ‘4he armies which were 
 in heaven followed Him, clothed in fine linen, white 
 and clean.^* The saints there are associated with 
 Jesus in His acts of ruling and judging. In Rev. xx, 
 we are told that thrones were set, ‘‘ and they sat upon 
 them, and judgment was given unto them which is 
 the fulfilment, I suppose, of the prophecy in Daniel viir, 
 showing that the saints have the very power that 
 Jesus has Himself because it is said they are with 
 Him on the throne. “ Dominion was given to the 
 saints of the Most High/^ And in this also, I 
 suppose, is fulfilled the statement of St. Paul, ip 
 I Cor. vi., where we are told that ‘‘the saints shall 
 judge the world.” All this shall take place when 
 Jesus comes. They will reign with Him. We are 
 told in two or three places in the Psalms, especially 
 in Psalm cxlix. 7-9, that His saints will have this 
 glorious power. “ This honour have all His saints ”, 
 and in Rev. ii. 26 it is written, “ He that overcomelh, 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST, 165 
 
 and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I 
 give power over the nations.” 
 
 And now, just retrace for a moment, before we go 
 on, the train of thought to which I have been trying 
 to guide your minds. God has instituted a beautiful 
 order in creation, in His Church, in the world. Sin, by 
 His permission, — why, we know not, — has broken that 
 order for a time. But God’s purposes are not changed. 
 The man whom He has made strong for Himself, 
 and to whom He has given all power, is coming 
 to put things to rights. We are told in the 3rd 
 of Acts, ‘‘The heavens shall receive Him until tlie 
 times of the restitutio 7 i of all things.” But when 
 that moment comes, of which no man knoweth, Jesus 
 will come with His power and begin to put all things 
 to rights, even as they ought to be. That will be the 
 time of “ the restitution of all things.” Then in His 
 glory He will reign with His saints on the earth ; and 
 then at “ the end,” the Son also — showing that there 
 is a beautiful subjection and subordination even in 
 the highest things — shall be subject to the Father 
 (i Cor. XV. 28). 
 
 Not for an instant do I believe that the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ever loses His eternal dominion, for we are 
 told that “ of the increase of His government there 
 shall be no end’’ But I think that the passage, (a 
 confessedly difficult one,) teaches us that whilst, 
 during the millennial period, it is the 7 ua 7 ihood by 
 whom the government is administered, yet that at 
 the end of that time, all enemies being subdued, 
 
i66 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CJIRIST. 
 
 and the kingdom being formally delivered to the 
 Father in its complete and perfect condition, it is 
 by the Godhead that the supreme authority will be 
 wielded, and thus God (viz., the Father) ‘‘ be all 
 in all.” 
 
 Well, then, this is the time that we look for the 
 
 restitution of all things.” Fie is able even to sul> 
 due all things unto Himself, and He will do it. Just 
 let us think of what it is to be associated with the 
 Lord Jesus in such a glory. And let us remember, 
 dear friends, that ‘‘before honour is humility.” Christ 
 stooped low enough from His throne before He took 
 His glory. Let us be willing to do the same. Let us 
 be willing to take the low places now, that we may be 
 made fit as He was ; made “ perfect through suffer- 
 ing,” to take a high and glorious place then. 
 
 Now,this is only giving a line of thought about this 
 word, “ Able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” 
 It might be followed out at much greater length, and 
 many here, who search the Scriptures, will be able 
 to do it. But now let us look at this in its applica- 
 tion to those who are unsaved, and to those who are 
 saved. 
 
 First of all, let us apply it to those here, or 
 anywhere, who are not yet under the power of the 
 grace of God. The condition of the unregenerate 
 heart is, that it is ^^not subject to the law of God.” 
 There is no subjection. They sing, “ Crown Him 
 Lord of all,” but they do not mean it. We are told in 
 Romans viii., “The carnal mind is enmity against 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST, 167 
 
 God ; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
 can he.^^ And in Romans x., when Paul says that 
 his heart’s desire for his brethren is, “ that they might 
 be saved,” he adds that the reason why they were not 
 saved was, that they did not submit themselves unto 
 the righteousness of God.” There was a want of 
 subjection. There was no owning of Christ as Lord, 
 no acknowledging Him, no acknowledging their own 
 lost, weak, guilty, helpless state, and confessing Jesus 
 as Saviour and Lord. Now perhaps there are some 
 here who have tried to make themselves subject to 
 Christ, and you found your wills going just the other 
 way. The more you have tried, perhaps, to bring 
 yourself under the dominion of the Saviour, the more 
 your own nature has rebelled against the command- 
 ments of God, and you have been unable to do it. 
 And you never will be able. But this verse contains 
 the gospel just as much as any verse of the Bible. 
 Good news ! It tells you of One that is able even 
 to subdue all things ” unto Himself, and is therefore 
 able to subdue He has subdued our hearts who 
 
 believe in Him, or we should not be believers now. 
 He is able to subdue every heart, for all power is 
 given” unto Him. There is no case too hard for Him, 
 Just take two instances out of the Scriptures of 
 this power of Jesus in subduing persons unto Him- 
 self. Take that case of physical and moral insubor- 
 dination — the maniac in 5 th of Mark. There is a 
 man whose mind and body are subject to no autho- 
 rity at all. His friends have tried to tame him ; but 
 
i68 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST, 
 
 no, he is a raging madman. They can do nothing 
 with him. They have bound him in fetters and 
 chains, and he has broken them in sunder. No man 
 ‘‘ can tame him.^’ He is just like what you and I 
 were before conversion ; just like any soul in this 
 room to-night, who finds his own lusts and devices 
 too strong for any resolution he can make. Well, this 
 man met with Jesus, and what do you find ? Why, a 
 a few verses after — giving perhaps a space of a few 
 minutes — you find him “sitting at the feet of Jesus, 
 clothed, and in his right mind.^’ Oh, that One is 
 able to subdue all things. He is the Mighty One. 
 It is the power of the Lord that has subdued that 
 man's mind — that furious mind — and has quieted 
 those frantic limbs, and taught him to sit down at His 
 feet like a little child. And Jesus can do that for 
 you. 
 
 Take another instance of a much worse madness 
 than that: a man diseased in his conscience — 
 a religious man, doing everything, as he thought, 
 for the glory of God, and yet doing everything 
 against the glory of God — Paul. Now there is a man, 
 entrenched in the stronghold of his own prejudices 
 and religious feelings — prejudices in which he had 
 been brought up from a child. Nothing can tame 
 him. He is haling men and women, and casting 
 them into prison. But one day, as you know, riding 
 to Damascus, there shines suddenly a light from 
 heaven, and that light strikes him down to the earth. 
 He is subdued. That proud, self-righteous man is 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST 169 
 
 subdued, and his first cry is, Lord, what wilt Thou 
 have me to do ? He was brought into subjection. 
 There was the power of Christ again. And so it 
 is with souls now. It is the light from Heaven that 
 streams in upon a soul and brings it into subjection — 
 ‘‘into captivity to the obedience of Christ.’’ 
 
 It was from Jesus, the crucified and risen Saviour, 
 that the light shone upon Paul ; from Him who says, 
 “ I am the light of the world.” Oh, are any of your 
 hearts not subject to Christ? Has He not subdued 
 you unto Himself? Well, now, just come for one 
 moment, and look at the wonderful sight — the 
 crucified Saviour, and may that subdue you. Look 
 at Jesus, Try and picture to yourselves the Lord of 
 life and glory coming to His own, cast out, nailed to 
 the cross, the holy and spotless One crucified as a 
 malefactor — and what for? JVbf for His own sins, 
 but for ours — dying the just for the unjust, the holy 
 for the ungodly, the righteous One in the place of 
 guilty sinners. And at whose hands ? His own 
 creatures. “He came unto His otmi, and His own 
 received Him not.” “ The world was made by Him, 
 and the world knew Him not,” but cast Him out. 
 You and I have all our share of that, morally, if we 
 had not physically. We cast out Jesus, and then in 
 His wondrous love for our souls Jesus laid down His 
 life and gave up the ghost, and “ poured out His soul 
 unto death,” and “ made intercession for the transgres- 
 sors ” like you and me. O dear friends, if you look 
 upon that cross of Jesus ^ you will see what your sins are 
 
170 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 like. Nothing but the blood of Jesus could cleanse 
 you. If you want to know what the love of God is 
 like, you see it in the cross of Jesus. If you want to 
 fathom that mystery, you can only do so there. Far 
 above any other love was the love of Christ to your 
 sinful, ruined, hell-deserving soul, when He laid down 
 His life an atonement for sin. And not only that. 
 That love of Jesus did not end in death. “ Many 
 waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods 
 drown it.’^ Love is strong as death,” and so when 
 He rose again, He came and said, “Preach the 
 gospel, beginning at Jerusaleml^ Go, and tell those 
 very sinners who have killed Me, that I have loved 
 them — that there is pardon for them through the very 
 blood that their hands have been the means of shed- 
 ding. Oh, is there any love like this ? Dear friends, 
 does not that touch your hearts ? Oh, may God help 
 you if you have as yet had, as we all of us have had, 
 a heart untouched by the love of God ; may He work 
 upon you now. May He show you what this cross 
 means, the wondrous love of God manifested in giving 
 Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins; and lead 
 you to think of that crucified, that risen Saviour, who 
 has come, as it were, with the very hand which bears 
 the mark of the nails through it, and has knocked at 
 the door of your heart again and again, saying, Let 
 Me in. There is the love of God. 
 
 Does not that subdue you ? or do you still feel you 
 have an unsubdued heart ? What are you to do with 
 it ? Well, the only thing to do with it is to go to the 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST: 171 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ with it, and get Him to change it 
 for you. Ask Him. Pray to Him — yes, pray to Him. 
 I am sorry to find in these days that there are many 
 who would counsel unconverted souls not to pray. I 
 speak about this because some friends or neighbours 
 very kindly sent me some tracts, which they often do, 
 with, I have no doubt, the kindest intention ; but in 
 one of these tracts is distinctly laid down the doctrine 
 that an unconverted soul is not to pray to God — that 
 he cannot pray acceptably, and that therefore he 
 ought never to be told to pray. Now, dear friends, I 
 mention this in order to guard you against it. It is 
 written, I have no doubt, with an excellent intention, 
 but I thoroughly believe it is not God’s truth. The 
 publican prayed, “ God be merciful to me a sinner,’^ 
 and got pardon. God’s command to the wicked 
 and the unrighteous ” is, ‘‘call ye upon Him while 
 He is near” (Isa. Iv. 6, 7). 
 
 And I say to you in all affection and sincerity, if 
 you feel you have a hard heart, go and pray to have 
 it changed. You can do nothing better ; and if you 
 say, as I know those would say who argue against 
 this doctrine, a man cannot pray without faith ; I tell 
 you, dear friends, in prayer there is faith. Prayer is 
 distinct an act of faith as anything a man can do, 
 for “ he that cometh to God must believe that He is, 
 and that He is a Re warder of them that diligently 
 seek Him.” And if you go into your room to-night, 
 and cast yourselves on your knees before God, and 
 say, O God, change my heart, “ create in me a clean 
 
172 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST 
 
 heart’'; I say there is faith in that prayer. Go to 
 God with your heart as it is. Say, ‘‘ Lord, I believe, 
 help Thou mine unbelief”; but do not keep yourself 
 from prayer. Do not let any one in these days, when 
 errors are rife on every hand, (I daresay we all hold 
 many), do not let us for a moment tell a poor dying 
 lost soul that he is not to ask for life. It is too 
 awful. You may come to God. You may plead the 
 name of Jesus. You are to come to Him. You are 
 to go and say, O God, save my poor lost soul, for 
 I cannot change my heart, I cannot subdue it, but 
 I read of O^ie who is able to subdue even all things 
 to Himself ; take my heart and do it, for I cannot. 
 I can give you no better counsel than that, and if 
 that is not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 acknowledging His name as a name by which prayer 
 can be heard, I do not know what is. And so, dear 
 friends, let me ask you to do it. If any of you are 
 conscious that this moment, this night, you have an 
 unsaved soul, go to God and ask Him to save it, 
 and He says, ‘‘Him that cometh unto Me I will 
 in no wise cast out.” 
 
 “ Thy Word has commanded my prayer, 
 
 Thy Spirit has taught me to pray ; 
 
 And all my unholy despair 
 Is ready to vanish away. 
 
 Thou wilt not be weary of me, 
 
 Thy promise my faith shall sustain ; 
 
 And soon, very soon, I shall see, 
 
 That I have not been asking in vain.” 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 173 
 
 Jesus can change the hardest heart that ever existed 
 in this world, and yours is not too hard to be changed 
 by Him. 
 
 Now, lastly, these words apply most blessedly to 
 the case of believers in Jesus. “ He is able even 
 to subdue all things unto Himself.^' Perhaps the 
 great plague of the believer’s soul is this hard heart, 
 this insubordination of his will to the will of Christ. 
 He says — 
 
 “ I would be treated as a child, 
 
 And guided where I go.” 
 
 And yet, when God tries to guide him, he will not go, 
 and he is constrained continually to say with Paul — 
 “ I find a law in my members warring against the law 
 of my mind ” ; and the law in my members is not 
 subject to the law of God. We want to say from our 
 hearts — Thy will be done, and yet each day shows 
 us more and more what an unhumbled heart we have, 
 how little our wills are in conformity with, and sub- 
 jection to, the will of our Father which is in heaven.’^ 
 
 Well, this verse tells us of a blessing. ‘‘He is able 
 even to subdue all things unto Himself.” O dear 
 friends, lay hold of a word like that, and do not let it 
 go. Have you got some strong passions, some strong 
 will, some strong desire that you have been trying to 
 overcome, which has humbled you and led you to 
 think at last — Oh, it is no good, I cannot go on. 
 Why, you have been trying in the strength of 
 your own resolutions; your fault and my fault has 
 
5 74 the subduing POWER OF CHRIST, 
 
 been, that we have not had to do with Jesus, 
 He is able. He does not say that you are able. 
 Paul truly says, in Phil, iv,, I can do all things,” — 
 but how ? Through Christ,” or in Christ ” as it 
 really is, ‘‘who strengtheneth me.” It is by laying 
 hold of Him in whom is strength for you and me who 
 are helpless. It was when the Israelites sought God’s 
 help, as you read again and again, that the Philistines 
 were subdued before them. Whenever they fought 
 in their own strength, they did not get the victory. 
 And here is the promise for you and forme — “He 
 will subdue our iniquities” (Mic. vii. 19). This is 
 <x glorious promise, Jesus is one who can subdue 
 the strongest passions and lusts — the most evil habits 
 of mind, heart, and flesh that remain in you. He may 
 impose a discipline that we do not like, but we must 
 remember that the Master Himself went through a 
 wonderful discipline. We read in Heb. v., “ He was 
 made perfect through suffering.” “ The disciple is 
 not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” 
 He was on His road to glory, and so are you and 
 I who have been washed in His blood. We must 
 be content to take the same path, to go through 
 suffering, remembering what it is for, that we may be 
 made “ partakers of His holiness.” If He answers 
 your prayer, to be made like unto Him, in a way that 
 you do not fancy, remember that though the affliction 
 “seemeth not to be joyous but grievous, it afterwards 
 yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” And 
 
THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 175 
 
 remember this too — I pray that we may remember it 
 — there is strength laid up for each time of need> 
 There is a wonderful expression in Col. i., where we 
 are told that we are ^^strengthened with all might 
 according to His glorious power unto all patience and 
 long-suffe7'ing'\‘ that there is the glorious power of 
 Jesus strengthening us to go through whatever 
 suffering may be before us with joyfulness, that we 
 may be made partakers of His holiness. And this will 
 soon end': the time of suffering will be past, and 
 the time of glory will begin. Soon we shall not 
 have to pray daily, Thy will be done on earth as it 
 is in heaven,^^ for His kingdom will have come and 
 His will will be done. ‘‘The prayers of David, the 
 son of Jesse,'’ will be “ ended” then, for “the whole 
 earth” will be' “filled with His glory.” “ A king shall 
 reign in righteousness,” Isaiah says, “and princes 
 shall rule in judgment,” and then shall be brought 
 to pass the sayings that are written. “ The times of 
 restitution” shall have come, and Jesus shall have 
 subdued '‘all things unto Himself d* 
 
 But now, as we have seen in this passage, that 
 time has not come. We are citizens of the heavenly 
 city, but we are not yet at home. We are on the 
 road thither, and we look for the time when we shall 
 cast our crowns before His feet, and praise “ Him 
 that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His 
 own blood.” All things will then be subdued. And 
 that is what we long for. That is the desire that is. 
 
176 THE SUBDUING POWER OF CHRIST. 
 
 at the bottom of every renewed heart. May God, 
 for His name sake, grant that some soul may be 
 brought into subjection to Jesus, and own Him as 
 Saviour and Lord of all ! Amen. 
 
 THE END, 
 


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