Library of the Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON « NEW JERSEY 
 
 From the Library of 
 Professor William Henry Green 
 1903 
 BR85 .S68 
 
 Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 
 _1834-1892. 
 
 "Types and emblems : being a collection of 
 sermons preached on Sunday and Tliursda 
 wvcnings at the Metropolitan Tabernacle / 
 
TYPES KM EMBLEMS 
 
 BEING 
 
 A COLLECTION OF SERMONS 
 
 PBEACHBD 
 
 ON SUNDAY AND THUESDAY EVENINGS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, 
 
 BY 
 
 C. H. SPURGEON. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 Sheldon & Company, 
 
 677 BROADWAY. 
 
Works of the Rev. C, H. Spurgeon. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon undoubtedly occupies the position of greatest 
 celebrity at the present moment among living preachers. 
 
 Sermons of the Jtev. C. S. Spurgeon, In uniform styles of binding. 
 Nine vols. $1.50 each. 
 
 Spurgeon'8 Gems. Being brilliant passages from his sermons. One vol. 
 12mo. Price, $1.50. 
 
 Morning by Morning ; or, Daily Bible Readings. Price, $1.75. 
 
 Evening by Evening ; or. Readings at Eventide. Price, $1.75. 
 
 The Saint and his Saviour, Price, $1.50. 
 
 Gleanings among the Sheaves. One vol. 16mo. Price, $1.25. 
 
 John PlotigJiman^s Talk; or, Plain Advice to Plain People. One 
 
 vol. 16mo. Price, 90 cts. 
 
 Types and Etnblem^s. Price, $1.25. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 This book is called for. Not a few of Mr. Spurgeon's 
 friends think that " none of his words should fall to 
 the ground." They are hardly content with the issue 
 of his Sunday Morning Sermons, but they want the 
 Evening Sermons also. To meet this demand we 
 propose to publish a series, of which " Types and 
 Emblems " is the first volume. The sermons it con- 
 tains have been selected from a large number preached 
 by him on Sunday and Thursday evenings. It is 
 hoped that the size and type will be acceptable to his 
 admirers. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Star of Jacob 7 
 
 The Broad Wall 22 
 
 The Only Door 41 
 
 Royal Emblems for Loyal Subjects . . . .61 
 
 A Frail Leaf 78 
 
 The Helmet 93 
 
 One Trophy for Two Exploits 112 
 
 Christ the Tree of Life 134 
 
 A Silly Dove 148 
 
 Our Banner 164 
 
 Our Champion 179 
 
 The Fainting Hero 194 
 
 Women's Rights.— A Parable 209 
 
 Black Clouds and Bright Blessings .... 225 
 
 David's First Victory 247 
 
 David and his Voluntbebs . . . . . . 270 
 
^\t Bin of latok 
 
 " There shall come a Star out of Jacob." — Numbers xxiv. 17. 
 
 HIS prophecy may have some reference to 
 David ; but we feel persuaded that the true 
 design of the Holy Spirit is to set forth an 
 emblem of our Lord Jesus Christ. All 
 nature, above as well as around us, is laid 
 under contribution to set forth our Lord. All the 
 flowers of the field and many of the beasts of the 
 plain, and now the very orbs of heaven, are turned 
 into metaphors and symbols by which the glory of 
 Jesus may be manifested to us. Where God takes 
 such pains to teach, we ought to be at pains to learn. 
 Where he makes heaven and earth to be the pages of 
 the book, we ought to be most ardent in our study. 
 Oh, you who have neglected to learn of Christ, may 
 that neglect come to an end, and may some word be 
 spoken which shall be as the beaming of a star unto 
 the darkness of your soul, that henceforth you may be 
 led to know Christ, and to be found in him. 
 
 Our Lord, then, is compared to a star, and we shall 
 have seven reasons to assign for this. 
 
 I. He is called a star ?s the Symbol of Government. 
 You will observe how evidently it is connected with a 
 
8 Types and Emblems. 
 
 sceptre and with a conqueror. Jacob was to be blessed 
 with a valiant leader who should become a triumphant 
 sovereign. Very frequently in oriental literature their 
 great men, and especially their great deliverers, are 
 called stars. The star has been constantly associated 
 with monarchy, and even in our own country we still 
 look upon the star as one of the emblems of lofty rank. 
 Behold, then, our Lord Jesus Christ as the Star of 
 Jacob. He is the Captain of his people, the Leader 
 of the Lord's hosts, the King in Jeshurun, God over 
 all, glorious and blessed for ever! 
 
 We may say of Jesus in this respect that he has an 
 authority which he has inherited hy right. He made 
 all things, and by him all things consist. It is but 
 just tha't he should rule over all things. As there is 
 not a tongue that can move in heaven or earth except 
 by his permission, it is meet that every tongue should 
 confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the 
 Father. Oh, that men were just towards the Son of 
 God ! Would that their rebellious souls would give 
 way to the force of rectitude— that they would no 
 longer say, "Let us break his bonds asunder, and cast 
 his'cords from us ! " Unconverted men, I would that 
 you would yield to Jesus. He has a right to you. It 
 is through his intercession that your forfeited life is 
 still spared. It is by his divine goodness that you are 
 where you are to-night. Through his mediatorial 
 sovereignty it is that you are suffered to be on praying 
 ground and pleading terms with God. Give him his 
 due then. Eob him not of the allegiance which he so 
 justly claims. Give not your spirit over to that 
 exacting tyrant who seeks to compass your dettruc- 
 
The Star of Jacob. 9 
 
 tion. Bow the knee and kiss the Son, even now, lest 
 he be angry, and ye perfeh from the way. Acknowl- 
 edge Him to be your Lord. 
 
 Our Lord as a star has an a^dhority which he has 
 valiantly won. "Wlierever Christ is king he has had 
 a great and a stern fight for it. Kemember the dread 
 conflict in Gethsemane in which he says, " I have 
 trodden the wine press alone." When he came red with 
 his own gore from Calvary, he had in fact there and 
 then put to flight the liosts of Bozrah aud of Edom, and 
 stained his garments with the victors crimson. He who, 
 then, travelled in the greatness of his strength is mighty 
 still to save. In every human heart where Jesus reigns 
 he reigns through having dislodged, by the force of grace, 
 the old tyrant who had fixed his sovereignty there. The 
 maintenance of that sovereignty within the heart is the 
 result of the same powerful sceptre of his love and grace. 
 Oh, that King Jesus would put forth his power and get 
 a throne in more hearts ! Believers, do you not long to 
 see him glorious? I know you do if you love him. 
 You would live for this, you would die for this ; — that 
 Christ might have his own, and drive the milk-white 
 steeds of triumph through the streets of Jerusalem, all 
 his people bowing before him and strewing his pathway 
 with their honors. O sinners ! would to God that 
 you would yield to him. I pray that now^ he may gird 
 his sword upon his thigh, and by the power of grace 
 constrain you to bow your Avilling necks to his silver 
 sceptre. Brethren and sisters, it is a mournful fact 
 that Christ has so small a part of the world as yet in his 
 royal power. See, the gods of the heathen stand fast 
 upon their pedestals. The old harlot of Rome still 
 
10 Types and Eniblems. 
 
 flaunts in her scarlet. The crescent of Mahomed wanes, 
 but still its baleful light is. cast athwart the nations. 
 Why tarries he ? Perhaps his finger is on the latch ; it 
 may be that he will come ere long. — Come quickly 
 Lord ! our yearning hearts beseech thee to come ! 
 Meanwhile, it is for you and for me to be fighting, each 
 soldier in his rank, each man standing in his place, as 
 his master has bidden him, contendins: with heart 
 and soul and strength for the right and for the true, 
 for faith, for holiness, for the cross, and all that 
 that cross indicates among the sons of men. Blessed 
 Star of Jacob ! Thou shinest with no borrowed rays ; 
 thou shinest with a mysterious power which none gave 
 to thee, for it is inherently thine own. 
 
 Before we leave this point, I will only say this king- 
 dom of Christ, wherever it is, is most henejicent. Wher- 
 ever this star of government shines, its rays scatter 
 blessing. Jesus is no tyrant. He rules not by oppres- 
 sion. The force he uses is the force of love. There 
 was never a subject of Christ's kingdom that com- 
 plained of him. Those who have served him most 
 have longed to serve him more. Why, even his poor 
 martyrs in the catacombs of Eome, dying of starvation, 
 or dragged up to the Colosseum to be devoured by 
 wild beasts, never said an ill word of him. Certainly 
 if it was hard to any it seemed to be hard to them ; but 
 the more they were troubled the more' they rejoiced, 
 and there never were sweeter songs than those which 
 came from dying lips when men were crackling on the 
 faggot, or being dragged limb from limb at the heels of 
 wild horses, or being sawn asunder. Just in propor- 
 tion as the bodily pains became acute, the spiritual joy 
 
The Star of Jacob, 11 
 
 became intense ; and while the outward man decayed, 
 the inner man leaped up into newness of life, antici- 
 pating the joys of the first-born before the throne. He 
 is a good master. Young people, I would that you 
 would serve him ! Oh ! that you were enlisted in his 
 service. It is now a good many years since I gave my 
 heart to him, it is fast getting on for twenty years, but 
 I cannot say a word against him. Nay, but I wish I 
 had always served him ; I wish I had served him 
 before, and I do pray that he may use me to the full- 
 est extent. If he will make but a door-mat for his 
 temple of me I shall be but too glad. If he will let 
 my name be cast out as evil and give my body to the 
 dogs, I do not care as long as his truth does but prosper, 
 and his name becomes great. But alas ! there is so much 
 self in us, pride and I know not what besides, that we 
 who really know the master have reason to ask him to 
 bring in his great artillery and blow down the castles 
 of our natural corruption, conquer us yet again, and 
 rule in us by main force of grace, till in every part and 
 corner of our spirits there shall be nothing but the love 
 of Christ and the indwelling of his gracious Spirit. 
 By the star we understand the symbol of government. 
 
 II. In the second place, the star is the Image of 
 Brightness. 
 
 When men wish to speak of brightness they talk of 
 the stars. They who are righteous are as the stars, and 
 they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the 
 stars for ever and ever. Our Lord Jesus Christ is 
 brightness itself. The star is but a poor setting forth 
 of his ineffable splendor. Oh ! let the thought come 
 home to you. He is the brightness of his Father's 
 
12 Types and Emhlems, 
 
 glory — unutterably bright as the Deity. He is bright- 
 ness himself in his human nature, for in him there was 
 neither spot nor wrinkle. As Mediator, exalted on 
 high, enjoying the reward of his pains, he is bright 
 indeed. Observe, that our Lord as a star is a bright 
 particular star in the matter of holiness. In him was 
 no sin. Look, and look, and look again into his star- 
 like character. Even the lynx-eyes of infidels have 
 not been able to discover a mistake in him ; and as for 
 the attentive eyes of critics who have been believers, 
 they have been made to water again and again, and 
 then to glisten and sparkle with delight as they have 
 seen the mingling of all the perfections in his adorable 
 character to make up one perfection. 
 
 As a star, he shines also with the light of knowledge. 
 Moses was, as it were, but a mist, but Christ is the pro- 
 phet of light. " The law w^as given by Moses " — a 
 thing of types and shadows — " but grace and truth 
 come by Jesus Christ." If any man be taught in the 
 things of God, he must derive his light from the Star 
 of Bethlehem. You may go as you will to the uni- 
 versities, to the tomes of the learned, to the schools of 
 the philosophers, but in spiritual things you receive 
 no light till you look up to Jesus, and then in his light 
 you see light, for there is transcendent brightness in 
 him. He is the wisdom of God as well as the pov^-er 
 of God ; he is the w^ay, the truth, and the life. Divine 
 light has found its centre in him ! 
 
 His light too is that of comfort. Oh ! how many 
 have emerged from the darkness of their souls and 
 found peace by looking up to this Star of Jacob, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ! Well did our hymn put it — 
 
The Star of Jacob. 13 
 
 " He is my soul's bright Morning Star, 
 And he my Rising iSun." 
 
 One glimpse of Christ and the midnight of your 
 unbelief is over. But a sight of the five wounds and 
 your sins are covered and your iniquities put away. 
 Happy day, happy day, when first the soul beholds a 
 crucified Redeemer, and gives herself up to him, rely- 
 ing upon him for eternal salvation. Shine, sweet Star 
 — shine into some benighted heart to-night 1 Give 
 thou holiness, give light, give the knowledge of God, 
 give thou joy and peace in believing, in believing in 
 the precious blood ! 
 
 When speaking upon Christ as a star, '* the Sym- 
 bol of Government,'- I said, submit to him. Now, 
 speaking of him as a star, the Image of Brightness, I 
 say look to him — look to him. It is the Gospel's 
 precept. "Look unto me, and be ye saved all ye 
 ends of the earth," and well do we sing — 
 
 " There is life for a look at the Crucified One." 
 
 Poor sinner, delay no longer. You are not asked 
 to do anything, nor to be anything, nor to feel any- 
 thing; but you are simply bidden to look away from 
 
 self to what Christ has done, and you shall live. 
 
 • 
 
 " View him prostrate in the garden, 
 On the ground your Maker lies ; 
 On the bloody tree behold him, 
 Hear him cry before he dies — 
 
 ' It is finished/ 
 Sinner, will not this suflSce?" 
 
 Look to him then and live. 
 
 III. Thirdly, our Lord is compared to a star to bring 
 out the fact, that he is the Pattern of Constancy. 
 Ten thousand chanires have been wrouj^rht since 
 
14: Types and Emblems, 
 
 the world began, but the stars have not changed. 
 There they remain. We dreamed at one time that 
 they moved. Untaught imagination said that all 
 those stars revolved around this little globe of ours. 
 But we know better now. There they are both day 
 and night — always the same, and we may say they 
 have not changed since the world began, nor probably 
 will they till like a vesture God shall roll creation up 
 because it is worn out. It is very delightful to recol- 
 lect that the same star which I looked at last night 
 was viewed by Abraham, perhaps with some of the 
 self-same thoughts. And when we have gone, and 
 other generations shall have followed us, those that 
 come after will look up to the self-same star. So 
 with our Lord Jesus. He is the same yesterday, 
 to-da}^ and for ever. What the prophets and apostles 
 saw in him, we can see in him, and what he was to 
 them, that he is to us, and shall be to generations yet 
 unborn. Hundreds of us may be looking at the 
 same star at the same time without knowing it. 
 There is a meeting-place for many eyes. We may 
 be drifted, some of us, to Australia, or to Canada, or 
 to the United States, or we may be sailing across the 
 great deep, but we shall see the stars there. It is 
 true that on the other side of the world we shall see 
 another set of stars, but the stars themselves are 
 always still the same. As far as we in this atmo- 
 sphere are concerned, we shall look upon some star. 
 So, wherever we may be, we look to the same Christ. 
 One brother here has learning, but as he looks to 
 Christ, he sees the same Christ as the poor unlettered 
 woman in the aisles. And you, poor man, who have 
 
The Star of Jacob. 15 
 
 not, perhaps, a sixpence in the world, you have got 
 the same Christ to trust in as the richest man in all 
 the world. And you who think yourself so obscure 
 that no one knows you but your God, you look to 
 this same star, and it shines with the same beams for 
 you, as for the Christian who leads the van in the 
 Lord's hosts. Jesus Christ is still the same, the same 
 to all his people, the same in all places, the same for 
 ever and ever. Well therefore may he be compared 
 to those bright stars that shine now as they did of 
 old and change not. 
 
 ly. In the fourth place, we may trace this comparison 
 of our Lord to a star as the Fountain of Influence. ^'&i\{ 
 
 The old astrologers used to believe very strongly 
 in the influence of the stars upon men's minds. With- 
 out indorsing their exploded fallacies, we meet in 
 Scripture with expressions like this: — "Canst thou 
 bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loose the 
 bands of Orion ? " — alluding, no doubt, to the fact 
 that the Pleiades are in the ascendant in the sweet 
 months of spring, when the warm breath and gentle 
 showers are bringing forth the green sprout and 
 tender blade, the foliage and the flowers of May, 
 with all the loveliness of the season, while Orion is in 
 the ascendant as a wintry sign, when the bands of frost 
 are binding up the outburst of nature. But, whether 
 there be an influence in the stars or not, as touching 
 this world, I know there is great influence in Christ 
 Jesus. He is the fountain of all holy influences 
 among the sons of men. Where this star shines upon 
 the graves of men vAio are dead in sin they begin to 
 live. Where the beam of this star shines upon poor 
 
16 Types and EtnbUms. 
 
 imprisoned spirits, their chains drop off, the captive 
 leaps to lose his chains. When this star gleams upon 
 a burdened Christian with its light, he begins to bnd 
 and blossom, and precious fruits are brought forth. 
 When this star shines upon the backslider, he begins 
 to mend his ways, and to follow, like the eastern 
 sages, its light till he finds his Saviour once more. 
 This star has an influence upon our nativity. It is 
 through its benign rays that we are born again, and 
 in our horoscope it has an influence upon our death, 
 for it is in its light that we fall asleep, believing that 
 we shall wake up in the image of the Lord Jesus. 
 Oh ! sweet star, shine on me always ! Kever let me 
 miss thy rays ; but may I always walk in the light 
 thereof, till I be found sitting in the full noontide 
 heat of the Sun of Righteousness for ever and ever. 
 
 Y. In the fifth place, the Lord Jesus Christ may 
 be compared to a star as a Source of Guidance. 
 
 There are some of the stars that are extremely 
 useful to sailors. I scarcely know how else the great 
 wide sea would be navigated, especially if it were not 
 for the Polar Star. Jesus is the Polar Star to us. 
 How the poor negro in the olden times, when the 
 curse of slavery had not been taken away, must have 
 blessed God for that pole star — so easy to find out. 
 Any child with but a moment's teaching will soon 
 know how to discover it in the midst of its fellows at 
 night, and when the negro had once learned to dis- 
 tinguish the star that shone over the land of freedom, 
 how he followed it through the ^reat dismal swamps, 
 or along the plains which were more dreadful still ; 
 how he could ford the streams, and climb the moun- 
 
The Star of Jacob. 17 
 
 tains, alwaj^s cheered by the sight of that pole star. 
 Such is Jesus Christ to the seeker. He leads to 
 liberty ; he conducts to peace. Oh ! I wish you would 
 follow him, some of you who are going about a thou- 
 sand ways to find peace where you will never find it. 
 There is never a Sunday but 1 try to speak, sometimes 
 in gentler tones, and at other seasons with thunder- 
 ing notes, the simple truth that Jesus Christ came 
 into the world to save sinners. I do try to make it 
 plain to you that it is not your prayers and tears, 
 your doings, your willings, your anything, that can 
 save you, but that all your help is laid upon one that 
 is mighty, and that you must look alone to him. Yet, 
 sinners, you are still looking to yourselves. You 
 rake the dung hills of your human nature to find the 
 pearl of great price which is not there. You will look 
 beneath the ice of your natural depravity to find the 
 flame of comfort which is not there. You might as 
 well seek in hell itself to find heaven as look to your 
 own works and merits to find some ground of trust. 
 Down with them ! Down with them, every one of 
 them ! Away with all those confidences of yours, for 
 
 " None but Jesus, none but Jesus, 
 Can do helpless sinners good." 
 
 Just reverse that helm ; and shift that sail, and tack 
 about ! Follow not the wrecker's beacon on yonder 
 shore luring you to the rocks of self-delusion, but where 
 that pole star guides, thither let your vessel drift, and 
 pray for the favoring gales of the blessed Spirit to 
 guide you rightly to the port of peace. 
 
 YI. Our Lord is compared to a star, surely, as the 
 Object of Wonder. 
 
18 Types and Emblems. 
 
 One of the first lines whicli f lill many of you ever 
 learned to recite was — 
 
 " Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 
 How I wonder what you are ;" 
 
 But that is precisely what Galileo might have said, and 
 exactly what the greatest astronomer that ever lived 
 might say. You have sometimes looked through a 
 telescope and have seen the planets, but after you have 
 looked at them you do not know particularly about 
 them ; and those who are busy all day and all night long 
 taking constant observations, I think will tell you that 
 the result is rather that of astonishment than of intelli- 
 gence. Still it is 
 
 "How I wonder what you are." 
 
 So to those of us who are in Christ Jesus, he is a peer- 
 less star; but oh, brethren ! we may well wonder what 
 he is. We used to think when we were little ones that 
 the stars were holes pricked in the skies, through which 
 the light of heaven shone, or that they were little 
 pieces of gold-dust that God had strewn about. We 
 do not think so now ; we understand that they ar^ 
 much greater than they look to be. So, when we were 
 carnal, and did not know King Jesus, we esteemed 
 him to be very much like anybody else, but now we 
 begin to know him, we find out that he is much great- 
 er, infinitely greater than we thought he was. And 
 as we grow in grace, we find him to be more glorious 
 still. A little star to our view at first, he has grown 
 in our estimation into a sun now, a blazing sun, by 
 whose beams our soul is refreshed. Ah ! but when 
 we get near to him, what will he be? Imagine your- 
 
The Star of Jacob, 19 
 
 self borne up on an angel's wing to take a journey to a 
 star. Travelling at an inconceivable rate you open 
 your eyes on a sudden and say — " How wonderful ! 
 Why, that which was a star just now has become as 
 large to my vision, as the sun at noon-day." " Stop," 
 says the angel ; " you shall see greater things thai^ 
 these," and, as you speed on, the disc of that orb ini 
 creases, till it is equal to a hundred suns; and now you 
 say, "But what? Am I not near it now?" " JSToj'l 
 says the angel, " that enormous globe is still far, fad 
 away," and when you come to it, you would find it toj 
 be such a wondrous world, that arithmetic could not 
 compute its size; scarcely could imagination belt it 
 with the zone of fancy. Now, such is Jesus Christ. 
 I said he grows upon his people here, but what must 
 it be to see him there, where the veil is lifted, and we 
 behold him face to face ? Sometimes we long to find 
 out what that star is, to know him, to comprehend 
 with all saints what are the heights and depths, and to 
 know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge; but, 
 meanwhile, we are compelled to sit down and sing — 
 
 " God only knows the love of God : 
 Oh that it now were shed abroad 
 In this poor stony heart." 
 
 We have to confess that 
 
 " The first-bom sons of light 
 Desire in vain its depth to see ; 
 They cannot reach the mystery, 
 The length, the breadth, the height." 
 
 VII. But, to conclude, the metaphor used in the text 
 may well bear this seventh signification. Our Lord 
 is compared to a star, as He is the Herald of Glory. 
 
 The bright and morning star foretells that the sun is 
 
20 Types and Emblems. 
 
 on its waj to gladden the earth with its light. Wherever 
 Jesus comes he is a great prophet of good. Let him 
 come into a heart, and, as soon as he appears, you may 
 rest assured that there is a life of eternity and joy to 
 come. Let Jesus Christ come into a family, and what 
 changes he makes there. Let him be preached with 
 power in any town or city, and what a herald of good 
 thino^s he is there. To the whole world Christ has 
 proclaimed glad tidings. His coming has been fraught 
 with benedictions to the sons of men. Yea, the coming 
 of Christ in the flesh is the great prophecy of the glory 
 to be revealed in the latter daj- s, when all nations shall 
 bow before him, and the age of peace, the golden age 
 shall come, not because civilization has advanced, not 
 because education has increased, or the world grown 
 better, but because Christ has come. This is the first, 
 the fiiirest of the stars, the prognostic of the dawn. 
 
 Ay, and because Christ has come, there will be a 
 heaven for the sons of men who believe in him. Sons 
 of toil, because Christ has come, there shall be rest 
 for the weary. Daughters of sorrow, because Christ 
 has come, there shall be healing for the weak. O you 
 whom chill penury is bowing down ! there shall be 
 lifting up and sacred wealth for you, because the star 
 has shone. Hope on ! hope ever ! Now that Jesus has 
 come^, there is no room for despair. 
 
 I commend these thoughts to you, and earnestly ask 
 you once again, if you have never looked to Christ, to 
 trust in him now ; if you have never submitted to Jesus, 
 to submit to him now; if you have never confided in 
 him, to confide in him now. It is a very simple matter. 
 May God the Holy Spirit teach and guide you to disown 
 
The Star of Jacob, 21 
 
 yourselves, and to acknowledge him ; cease from your 
 own thoughts, and trust his word. This done by 
 3^ou all, there is proof positive that all is done for you 
 by Christ. You are his, and he is yours ; where lie 
 is shall your portion be; and you shall belike him, 
 for you shall see him as he is. It will be a day to be 
 had in remembrance if you are led now to give 
 yourselves to him. I well recollect when my heart 
 yielded to his Divine grace ; when I could no longer 
 look anywhere else, and was compelled to look to him. 
 Oh, come ye to him ! I know not what words to use, 
 or what persuasions to employ. For your own sake, 
 that you may be happy now ; for eternity's sake, that 
 you may be happy hereafter ; for terror's sake, that you 
 may escape from hell ; for mercy's sake, that you may 
 enter into heaven, look to Jesus. You may never be 
 bidden to do so again. This bidding may be the last, 
 the concluding measure which shall fill up the heap 
 of your guilt, because you reject it. Oh ! do not de- 
 spise the exhortation. Let the prayer go up quietly 
 now from your spirit, " God be merciful to me a sin- 
 ner." Let your soul wrestle vehemently. Let your 
 tongue utter its mighty resolve — 
 
 " I'll to tlie gracious King approach, 
 Whose sceptre pardon gives ; 
 Perhaps he may command my touch. 
 And then the suppliant lives. 
 
 I can but perish if I go, 
 
 I am resolved to try ; 
 For, if I stay away, I know 
 
 I must for ever die. 
 
 But, if I die w^ith mercy sought. 
 
 When I the King have tried, 
 That were to die, delightful thought, 
 
 As sinner never died." 
 
"The broad wall." — Nehemiah iii. 8. 
 
 T seems that around Jerusalem of old, in the 
 time of her splendor, there was a broad wall, 
 which was her defence and her glorj. Jerusa- 
 lem is a type of the Church of God. It is 
 always well when we can see clearly, distinctly, 
 and plainly, that around the Church to which we be- 
 long there runs a broad wall. 
 
 This idea of a broad wall around the Church suofo^ests 
 
 Bo 
 
 three things: separation, security, 2Ludi enjoyment Let 
 us examine each of these in its turn. 
 
 I. First, the separation of the people of God from 
 the world is like that broad wall surrounding the holy 
 city of Jerusalem. 
 
 When a man becomes a Christian he is still in the 
 world, but he is no longer to be of it. He was an heir 
 of wrath, but he has now become a child of grace. 
 Being of a distinct nature, he is required to separate 
 himself from the rest of mankind, as the Lord Jesus 
 Christ did, who was '' holy, harmless, undefiled, and 
 separate from sinners." The Lord's Church was sep- 
 arated in his eternal purpose. It was separated in his 
 
The Broad Wall, 23 
 
 covenant and decree. It was separated in the atone- 
 ment, for even there we find that our Lord is called 
 " the Saviour of all men, especiallj^ of them that be- 
 lieve." An actual separation is made by grace, is car- 
 ried on in the work of sanctification, and will be com- 
 pleted in that day when the heavens shall be on fire, 
 and the saints shall be caught up together with the 
 Lord in the air ; and in that last tremendous day, he 
 shall divide the nations as a shepherd divides the sheep 
 from the goats, and then there shall be a great gulf 
 fixed, across which the ungodly cannot go to the right- 
 eous, neither shall the righteous approach the wicked. 
 
 Practically, my business is to say to those of you who 
 profess to be the Lord's people, take care that you 
 maintain a hroad wall of separation hetvjcen yourselves 
 and the world. I do not say that you are to adopt 
 any peculiarity of dress, or to take up some singular 
 style of speech. Such aifectation gendereth, sooner or 
 later, hypocrisy. A man be as thoroughly worldly in 
 one coat as in another, he may be quite as vain and 
 conceited with one style of speech as with another ; 
 nay, he may be even more of the world when he pre- 
 tends to be separate, than if he had left the pretence 
 of separation alone. The separation which we plead 
 for is moral and spiritual. Its foundation is laid deep 
 in the heart, and its substantial reality is very palpable 
 in the life. 
 
 Every Christian, it seems to me, should be more 
 scrupulous than other men in his dealings. He must 
 never swerve from the path of integrity. He should 
 never say, " It is the custom : it is perfectly understood 
 in the trade." Let the Christian remember that custom 
 
24 Tijjpes and Emhlems. 
 
 cannot sanction wrong, and that its being " under- 
 stood " is no apology for misrepresentation. A lie 
 " understood " is not therefore true. While the golden 
 rale is more admired than practised by ordinary men, 
 the Christian should always do unto others as he would 
 that they should do unto him. He should be one whose 
 word is his bond, and who, having once pledged his 
 word, sweareth to his own hurt, but changeth not. 
 There ought to be an essential difference between the 
 Christian and the best moralist, by reason of the higher 
 standard which the gospel inculcates, and the Saviour 
 has exemplified. Certainly, the highest point to which 
 the best unconverted man can go might well be looked 
 upon as a level below which the converted man will 
 never venture to descend. 
 
 Moreover, the Christian should especially be dis- 
 tinguished hy his pleasures, for it is here, usually, that 
 the man comes out in his true colors. We are not 
 quite ourselves, perhaps, in our daily toil, where our 
 pursuits are rather dictated by necessity than by choice. 
 We are not alone ; the society we are thrown into 
 imposes restraints upon us ; we have to put the bit and 
 the bridle upon ourselves. The true man does not then 
 show himself; but when the day's work is done, then 
 the " birds of a feather flock together." It is with the 
 multitude of traders and commercial men as it was with 
 those saints of old, of whom, when they were liberated 
 from yjrison, it was said, " Being let go, they went unto 
 their own company." So will your pleasures and 
 pastimes give evidence of what your heart is, and where 
 it is. If 3^ou can find pleasure in sin, then in sin you 
 choose to live, and unless grace prevent, in sin you will 
 
The Broad Wall. 25 
 
 not fail to perish. Bat if your pleasures are of a nobler 
 kind, and your companions of a devouter character ; if 
 you seek spiritual enjoyments, if you lind your happiest 
 moments in worship, in communion, in silent prayer, or 
 in the public assembling of yourselves with the people 
 of God, then your higher instincts become proof of your 
 purer character, and you will be distinguished in your 
 pleasures by a broad wall which effectually separates 
 you from the world. 
 
 Such separation should be carried, I think, into every- 
 thing which affects the Christian. " What have they seen 
 in thy house 1 " was the question asked of Hezekiah. 
 When a stranger comes into our house it should be so 
 ordered that he can clearly perceive that the Lord is 
 there. A man ought scarcely to tarry a night beneath 
 our roof, without gathering that we have a respect unto 
 him that is invisible, and that we desire to live and 
 move in the light of God's countenance. I have already 
 said that I would not have you cultivate singularities for 
 singularity's sake ; yet, as the most of men are satisfied 
 if they do as other people do, you must never be satis- 
 fied until you do more and better than other people, 
 having found out a mode and course of life as far 
 transcending the ordinary worldling's life, as the path 
 of the eade in the air is above that of the mole which 
 burrows under the soil. 
 
 This broad wall between the godly and the ungodly 
 should he most conspicuous in the spirit of our mind. 
 The ungodly man has only this w^orld to live for ; do 
 not wonder if he lives very earnestly for it. He has 
 no other treasure ; why should he not get as much as he 
 can of this ? But you, Christian, profess to have immor- 
 2 
 
26 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 tal life, therefore, your treasure is not to be amassed 
 in this brief span of existence. Your treasure is laid 
 up in heaven and available for eternity. Your best 
 hopes overleap the narrow bounds of time, and fly 
 beyond the grave ; your spirit must not, therefore, be 
 earth-bound and grovelling, but soaring and heavenly. 
 There should be about you always the air of one who 
 has his shoes on his feet, his loins girded, and his staff 
 in his hand — away, away, away to a better land. You 
 are not to live here as if this were your home. You 
 are not to talk of this world as though it were to last 
 for ever. You are not to hoard it and treasure it up, 
 as though you had set your heart upon it, but 3^ou are 
 to be on the wing as though you had not a nest here, 
 and never could have, but expected to And your rest- 
 ing-place among the cedars of God, in the hill-tops 
 of glory. 
 
 Depend upon it, the more unworldly a Christian is 
 the better it is for him. Methinks I could mention 
 several reasons why this wall should be very broad. 
 Jf you are sincere in your profession y there is a very 
 hroad distinction between you and unconverted people. 
 J^obody can tell how far life is removed from death. 
 Can you measure the difference ? They are as opposite 
 as the poles. Now, according to your profession, you 
 are a living child of God, you have received a new life, 
 whereas the children of this world are dead intres- 
 passes and sins. How palpable the difference between 
 light and darkness ? Yet, you profess to have been 
 " sometimes darkness," but now you are made " light in 
 the Lord." There is, therefore, a great distinction 
 between you and the world if you are what you profess 
 
The Broad Wall. 27 
 
 to oe. You say, when you put on the name of Christ, 
 that you are going to the Celestial City, to the New 
 Jerusalem; but the world turns its back upon the 
 heavenly country, and goes downward to that other city 
 of which you know that destruction is its doom ; your 
 path is different from theirs. If you be what you say 
 you are, the road you take must be diametrically oppo- 
 site to that of the ungodly man. You know the differ- 
 ence between their ends. The end of the righteous 
 shall be glory everlasting, but the end of the wicked 
 is destruction. Unless then you are a hypocrite, there 
 is such a distinction between you and others as only God 
 himself could make — a distinction which originates 
 here, to be perpetuated throughout eternity. When the 
 social diversities occasioned by rank and dependency, 
 riches and poverty, ignorance and learning, shall all 
 have passed away ; the distinctions between the chil- 
 dren of God and the children of men, between saints 
 and scoffers, between the chosen and the castaway, 
 will still exist. I pray you, then, maintain a broad 
 wall in your conduct, as God has made a broad wall 
 in your state and in your destiny. 
 
 Ke member again, that our Lord Jesus Christ had a 
 hroad wall letioeen him and the ungodly. Look at him 
 and see how different he is from the men of his time. 
 All his life long you observe him to be a stranger and 
 a foreigner in the land. Truly, he drew near to sinners, 
 as near as he could draw, and he received them when 
 they were willing to draw near to him ; but he did not 
 draw near to their sins. He was " holy, harmless, un- 
 defiled, and separate from sinners." When he went 
 to his own city of Nazareth, 'le only preached a single 
 
28 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 sermon, and they would have cast him headlong down 
 the hill if they could. "When h^e passed through the 
 street, he became the song of the drunkard, the butt 
 of the foolish, the mark at which the proud shot out 
 the arrows of tlieir scorn. At last, having come to his 
 own, and his own having received him not, they deter- 
 mined to thrust him altogether out of the camp, so 
 they took him to Golgotha, and nailed him to the tree 
 as a malefactor, a promoter of sedition. He was the 
 great Dissenter, the great l^onconformist of his age. 
 The National Church first excommunicated, and then 
 executed him. He did not seek difference in things 
 trivial ; but the purity of his life and the truthfulness 
 of his testimony, roused the spleen of the rulers and 
 the chief men of their synagogues. He was ready in 
 all things to serve them and to bless them, but he never 
 would blend with them. They would have made him 
 a king. Ah ! if he would but have joined the world, 
 the world would have given him the chief place, as the 
 w^orld's Prince said on the mountain : " All these things 
 will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship ' 
 me." But he drives away the fiend, and stands immacu 
 late and separate even to the close of his life. If you 
 are a Christian, be a Christian. If you follow Christ, 
 go without the camp. But if there be no difference 
 between you and your fellow-man, what will 3'ou say 
 unto the King in the day when he cometh and findeth 
 that you have on no wedding garment by which you 
 can be distinguished from the rest of mankind ? Be- 
 cause Christ made a broad wall around himself, there 
 must be such an one around his people. 
 
 Moreover, dear friends, you will find that a hroad 
 
Th£- Broad Wall. 29 
 
 wall of separation is abundantly good for yourselves. 
 I do not think any Christian in the world will tell you 
 that when he has given way to the world's customs, 
 he has ever been profited thereby. If you can go and 
 find an evening's amusement in a suspicious place, and 
 feel profited by it, I am sure you are not a Christian ; 
 for, if you were a Christian indeed, it would pain your 
 conscience, and unfit you for devouter exercises of the 
 heart. Ask a fish to spend an hour on dry land, and, 
 I think, did it comply, the fish would find that it was 
 not much to its benefit, for it would be out of its ele- 
 ment. And it will be so with you in communion with 
 sinners. When you are compelled to associate w4th 
 worldly people in the ordinary course of business, you 
 find much that grates upon the ear, that troubles the 
 heart, and annoys the soul. You will be often like 
 righteous Lot, vexed with the conversation of the 
 wicked, and you will say with David : 
 
 " Ah ! woe is me that I 
 
 In Meshech dwell so long : 
 That I in tabernacles stay. 
 To Kedar that belong 1 " 
 
 Your soul would pine and sigh to come forth and wash 
 your hands of everything that is impure and unclean. 
 As you find no comfort there, you will long to get away 
 to the chaste, the holy, the devout, the edifying fellow- 
 ship of the saints. Make a broad wall, dear friends, 
 in your daily life. If you begin to give way a little to 
 the world, you will soon give way a great deal. Give 
 sin an inch, and it will take an ell. " Take care of the 
 pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," 
 is an apt motto of economy. So, too, guard against lit- 
 tle sins, if you would be clear of the great transgression. 
 
30 TyjpeB and Emhlems, 
 
 Look after the little approaches to worldliness, the lit- 
 tle giviiigs-up towards the things of ungodliness, and 
 then you will not make provision for the flesh to ful- 
 fil the lusts thereof. 
 
 Another good reason for keeping up the broad wall of 
 separation is, that you will do most good to the world 
 thereby. I know Satan will tell you that if you bend a 
 little, and come near to the ungodly, then they also will 
 come a little way to meet you. Ay, but it is not so. 
 You lose your strength, Christian, the moment you 
 depart from 3'our integrity. What do you think un- 
 godly people say behind your back, if the}^ see you 
 inconsistent to please them ? " Oh ! " say they, " there 
 is nothing in his religion, but vain pretence ; the man 
 is not sincere." Although the world may openly 
 denounce the rigid Puritan, it secretly admires him. 
 When the big heart of the world speaks out, it has 
 respect to the man that is sternly honest, and will not 
 yield his principles — no, not a hair's breadth. In such 
 an age as this, when there is so little sound convic- 
 tion, when principle is cast to the winds, and when 
 a general latitudinarianism, both of thought and of 
 practice, seems to rule the day, it is still the fact, that a 
 man who is decided in his belief, speaks his mind boldly, 
 and acts according to his profession — such a man is 
 Bure to command the reverence of mankind. Depend 
 upon it, woman, your husband and your children will 
 respect you none the more because you say, " I will give 
 up some of my Christian privileges," or " I will go 
 sometimes with you into that which is sinful." You 
 cannot help them out of the mire if you go and plunge 
 into the mud yourself. You cannot help to make them 
 
The Broad WaU, 31 
 
 cleau if you go and blacken yonr own hands. How can 
 you wash their faces then ? You young man in the shop 
 — you young woman in the work-room — if you keep 
 yourselves to yourselves in Christ's name, chaste and 
 pure for Jesus, not laughing at jests which should make 
 you blush : not mixing up with pastimes that are sus- 
 picious ; but, on the other hand, tenderly jealous of 
 your conscience as one who shrinks from a doubtful 
 thing as a sinful thing, holding sound faith and being 
 scrupulous of the truth — if you will keep yourselves, 
 your company in the midst of others shall be as though 
 an angel shook his wings, and they will say to one 
 another, " Refrain from this or that just now, for so- 
 and-so is there." They will fear you, in a certain 
 sense ; they will admire you, in secret ; and who can 
 tell but they, at last, may come to imitate you. 
 
 Would ye tempt God ? Would ye challenge the deso- 
 lating flood ? Whenever the church comes down to 
 mingle with the world, it behooves the faithful few to 
 fly to the ark and seek shelter from the avenging storm. 
 When the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that 
 they were fair to look upon, then it was that God said 
 it repented him that he had made men upon the face of 
 the earth, and he sent the deluge to sweep them away. 
 A separate people God's people must be, and they shall 
 be. It is his own declaration, •' The people shall dwell 
 alone ; they shall not be numbered among the people." 
 The Christian is, in some respects, like the Jew. The 
 Jew is the type of the Christian. You may give the 
 Jew political privileges, as he ought to have ; he may- 
 be adopted into the State, as he ought to be ; but a 
 Jew he is, and a Jew he must be still. He is not a 
 
32 Types and Emblems. 
 
 Gentile, even though he calls himself English, or Por- 
 tuguese, or Spanisli, or Polish. He remains one of the 
 people of Israel, a child of Abraham, a Jew still ; and 
 you can mark him as such — his speech bewrajeth him 
 in every land. So should it be with the Christian ; mix- 
 ing lip with other men, as he must in his daily calling ; 
 going in and out among them, like a man among men ; 
 trading in the market; dealing in the shop; mingling 
 in the joys of the social circle; taking his part in 
 politics, like a citizen, as he is ; but, at the same time 
 even, having a higher and a nobler life, a secret into 
 which the world cannot enter, and showing the world 
 by his superior holiness, his zeal for God, his sterling 
 integrity, and his unselfish truthfulness, that he is not 
 of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. 
 You cannot tell how concerned I am for some of you, 
 that this broad wall should be kept up ; for I detect 
 in some of you at times a desire to make it very narrow, 
 and, perhaps, to pull it down altogether. Brethren, 
 beloved in the Lord, you may depend upon it that 
 nothing worse can happen to a church than to be 
 conformed unto this world. Write "Ichabod" upon 
 her walls then ; for the sentence of destruction has 
 gone out against her. But, if you can keep yourselves as 
 
 " A garden walled around, 
 Chosen and made peculiar ground." 
 
 you shall have your Master's company ; your graces 
 shall grow; you shall be happy in your own souls; 
 and Christ shall be honored in your lives. 
 
 II. Secondly ; the broad wall round about Jerusalem 
 
 INDICATED SAFETY. 
 
 In the same way, a broad wall round Christ's church 
 
The Broad Wall. S3 
 
 indicates her safety too. Consider who they are that 
 belong to the church of God. A man does not become 
 a member of Christ's church by baptism, nor by birth, 
 right, nor by profession, nor by moralit3\ Christ is the 
 door into the sheepfold; q\qy^ one who believes in 
 Jesus Christ is a member of the true church. Being a 
 member of Christ, he is a member, consequently, of the 
 body of Christ, which is the church. Kow, around 
 the church of God — the election of grace, the redeemed 
 by blood, the peculiar people, the adopted, the justified, 
 the sanctified — around the church there are bulwarks 
 of stupendous strength, munitions which guard them 
 safely. When the foe came to attack Jerusalem, he 
 counted the towers and bulwarks, and marked them 
 well ; but after he had seen the strength of the Holy 
 City, he fled away. How could he hope ever to scale 
 such ramparts as those? Brethren, Satan often counts 
 the towers and bulwarks of the IN'ew Jerusalem. Anx- 
 iously does he desire the destruction of the saints, but 
 it shall never be. He that rests in Christ is saved. He 
 who hath passed through the gate of faith to rest in 
 Jesus Christ may sing, with joyful confidence — 
 
 " The soul that on Jesus hath lean'd for repose, 
 I will not, I will not desert to his foes ; 
 That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, 
 I'll never, no never, no never forsake." 
 
 •*I will be," saith Jehovah, "awallof fire round about 
 thee." Salvation will God appoint for walls and bul- 
 warks. 
 
 The Christian is surrounded by the hroad wall of 
 
 God^spower. \i God be omnipotent, Satan cannot defeat 
 
 him. If God's power be on my side, who, then, shall 
 
 hurt me ? " If God be for us, who can be against us ? " 
 
 2* 
 
34 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 The Christian is surrounded by the broad wall of 
 GocTs love. "Who shall prevail against those whom God 
 loves ? I know that it is vain to curse those whom God 
 hath not cursed, or to defy those whom the Lord hath 
 not defied ; for whomsoever he blesseth is blessed in- 
 deed. Balak, the son of Zippor, sought to curse the 
 beloved people, and he went lirst to one hill-top and 
 then to another, and looked down upon the chosen 
 camp. But, aha ! Balaam, thou couldst not curse them, 
 though Balak sought it ! Thou couldst only say, " They 
 are blessed, yea, and they shall be blessed ! " 
 
 God's law is a broad wall around us, and so is his 
 Justice too. These once threatened our destruction, but 
 now the justice of God demands the salvation of every 
 believer. If Christ has died instead of me, it would not 
 be justice if I had to die also for my sin. If God has 
 received the full payment of the debt from the hand of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, then how can he demand the 
 debt again ? He is satisfied, and we are secure. 
 
 The iiniriutdbility of God, also, surrounds his people 
 like a broad wall. " I am God, I change not ; there- 
 fore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." As long as 
 God is the same, the rock of our salvation will be our 
 secure hiding-place. 
 
 Upon this delightful truth, we might linger long, 
 for there is much to cheer us in the strong security 
 w^hich God has given in covenant to his people. They 
 are surrounded by the broad wall of electing love. Doth 
 God choose them, and will he lose them? Did he 
 ordain them to eternal life, and shall they perish ? Did 
 he engrave their names upon his heart, and shall those 
 names be blotted out ? Did he give them to his Son to 
 
The Broad Wall. 35 
 
 be his heritage, and shall his Son lose his portion ? Did 
 he say, " Thej shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day 
 when I make up my jewels," and shall he part with 
 them ? Has he who maketh all things obey him no 
 power to keep the people whom he has formed for him- 
 self to be his ow^n peculiar heritage? God forbid that 
 we should doubt it. Electing love, like a broad wall, 
 surrounds every heir of grace. 
 
 And oh, how broad is the wall of redeeming love. 
 Will Jesus fail to claim the people he bought with so 
 great a price ? Did he shed his blood in vain ? How can 
 he revive enmity against those w^hom he hath once rec- 
 onciled unto God, not imputing their trangressions unto 
 them ? Having obtained eternal redemption for them, 
 will he adjudge them to everlasting perdition ? Has he 
 purged their sins by sacrifice, and will he then leave 
 them to be the victims of satanic craft ? By the blood of 
 the everlasting covenant, every Christian.may be assured 
 that he cannot perish, neither can any pluck him out 
 of Christ's hand. Unless the cross were all a perad- 
 venture, unless the atonement were a mere speculation, 
 those for whom Jesus died are saved through his death. 
 Therefore he shall see of the travail of his soul and be 
 satisfied. 
 
 As a broad wall which surrounds the saints of God is 
 the work of the Holy Spirit. Does the spirit begin an d 
 not finish the operations of his grace ? Ah no ? Does he 
 give life which afterwards dies out ? Impossible ! Hath 
 he not told us that the Word of God is the incorruptible 
 seed, which liveth and abideth for ever? And shall 
 the powers of hell or the evil of our own flesh destroy 
 what God has pronounced immortal, or cause dissolu- 
 
36 Types and Emblems, 
 
 tion to tliat whicli God says is incorruptible ? Is not the 
 Spirit of God given us to abide with us for ever, and 
 shall he be expelled from that heart in which he has 
 taken up his everlasting dwelling place-? Brethren, we 
 are not of their mind, who are led by fear or fallacy to 
 hazard such conjectures. We rejoice to say with Paul, 
 *' I am persuaded that he who hath begun a good work 
 in you will carry it on." We like to sing — 
 
 " Grace will complete what grace begins, 
 To save from sorrows or from sins ; 
 The work that wisdom undertakes 
 Eternal mercy ne'er forsakes." 
 
 Almost every doctrine of grace affords us a broad wall, 
 a strong bastion, a mighty bulwark, a grand munition of 
 defence. Take, for instance, Christ's suretyship en- 
 gagements. He is surety to his Father for his people. 
 When he brings home the flock, think you he will have 
 to report that some of them are lost ? At his hands 
 will they be required. Not so ! 
 
 " I know that safe with him remains. 
 Protected by his power, 
 What I've committed to his hands, 
 Till the decisive hour." 
 
 " Here am I," will he say, ^'and the children whom 
 thou hast given me, of all whom thou hast given 
 me I have lost none." He will keep all the saints 
 even to the end. The honor of Christ is involved. 
 If Christ loses one soul that leans upon him, the 
 integrity of his crown is gone; for if there should 
 be one believing soul in hell, the prince of darkness 
 would hold up that soul and say — " Aha ! Thou couldst 
 not save them all I Aha ! Thou Captain of Salvation, 
 thou wast defeated here ! Here is one poor little 
 
The Broad Wall. 37 
 
 Benjamin, one Eeady-to-IIalt, that tliou couldst not 
 bring to glory, and I have him to be my prey for ever ! " 
 Euttt shall not be. Every gem shall be in Jesn's crown. 
 Every sheep shall be in Jesii's flock. He shall not be 
 defeated in any way, or in any measure ; but he shall 
 divide the spoil with the strong, he shall establish the 
 cause he undertakes, he shall eternally conquer ; glory 
 be unto his great and good name ! 
 
 Thus I have tried to show you the broad walls which 
 are round about believers. They are saved, and they 
 may say to their enemies, " the virgin daughter of 
 Zion hath shaken her head at them, and laughed them 
 to scorn ! Who shall lay anything to the charge of 
 God's elect? It is God that justiiieth ; who is he that 
 conderaneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that 
 liath risen again from the dead; who sitteth at the 
 rio-ht hand of God, who also maketh intercession for 
 us^! For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, 
 nor angels, nor principahties, nor powers, nor things 
 present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
 nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
 the love of God which is inChrist Jesus our Lord." 
 III. The idea of a broad wall, and with this I close, 
 
 SUGGESTS ENJOYMENT. 
 
 The walls of Nineveh and Babylon were broad ; so 
 broad that there was found room for several chariots 
 to pass each other. Here men walked at sunset, and 
 talked and promoted good fellowship. If you have ever 
 been in the city of York you will know how interest- 
 ing it is" to walk around the broad walls there. But 
 our figure is drawn from the Orientals. They were 
 accustomed to come out of their houses and walk on 
 
38 Types and Emhlems, 
 
 the broad walls. They used them for rest from toil, 
 and for the manifold pleasures of recreation. It was 
 very delightful when the sun was going down, and 
 all was cool, to walk on those broad walls. And so, 
 when a believer comes to know the deep things of 
 God, and to see the defences of God's people, he 
 walks along them and he rests. " Now," saith he, " I 
 am at rest and peace ; the destroyer cannot molest me ; 
 I am delivered from the noise of archers in the place 
 of the drawing of water, and here I can exercise my- 
 self in prayer and meditation ! Now that salvation is 
 appointed for walls and bulwarks, I will sing a song 
 unto him who hath done these great things for me ; I 
 will take my rest and be quiet for he that believeth hath 
 entered into rest ; there is, therefore, now no condemna- 
 tion to them which are in Christ Jesus." Broad walls, 
 then, are for rest, and so are our broad walls of salvation. 
 Those broad walls were also for cominunion. Men 
 came there and talked with one another. They leaned 
 over the wall and whispered their loving words, con- 
 versed of their business, comforted one another, related 
 their troubles and their joys. So, when believers come 
 unto Christ Jesus they commune with one another, 
 with the angels, with the spirits of just men made 
 perfect, and with Jesus Christ their Lord, who is best 
 of all. Oh ! on those broad walls, when the banner 
 of love waves over them, they sometimes rejoice with, 
 a joy unspeakable, in fellowship with him who loved 
 them and gave himself for them. It is a blessed thing 
 in the Church when you get such a knowlege of the 
 doctrines of the gospel that you can have the sweetest 
 communion with all the Church of the living God. 
 
The Broad Wall, 39 
 
 And then the broad walls were also intended for 
 prospects and outlooks. The citizen came up on the 
 broad wall, and looked away from the smoke and dirt 
 of the city within, right across to the green fields, and 
 the gleaming river, and the far oil' mountains, delighted 
 to watch the mowing of hay, or the reaping of corn, or 
 the setting sun beyond the distant hills. It was one of 
 the common enjoyments of the citizen of any walled 
 city, to come to the top of the wall in order to take 
 views afar. So, when a man once gets into the altitudes 
 of gospel doctrines, and has learned to understand the 
 love of God in Christ Jesus, w^hat views he can take ! 
 How he looks down upon the sorrows of life ! How he 
 looks beyond that narrow little stream of death ! How, 
 sometimes, when the weather is bright and his eye is 
 clear enough to let him use the telescope, he can see 
 within the gates of pearl, and behold the joys w^hich no 
 mortal eye hath seen, and hear the songs which no 
 mortal ear hath heard, for these are things, not for eyes 
 and ears, but for hearts and spirits! Blessed is the 
 man who dwelleth in the Church of God, for he can 
 find on her broad walls places from which he can see 
 the king in his beauty, and the land which is very 
 farofi*! 
 
 Ah ! dear friends, I wish that these things had to do 
 with you all, but I am afraid they have not ; for many of 
 you are outside the wall, and when the destroyer comes 
 none will be safe but those who are inside the wall of 
 Christ's love and mercy. I would go to God that you 
 w^ould escape to the gate at once, for it is open. It 
 will be shut — it will be shut one day, but it is open 
 now. When night comes, the night of death, the gate 
 
40 Types and Eniblems. 
 
 will be slmt, and you will come then and say, " Lord, 
 Lord, open to us ! " But, the answer will be — 
 
 " Too late, too late ! 
 Ye cannot enter now." 
 
 But it is not too late yet. Still Christ saith, " Behold, 
 I set before thee an open door, and no man can shut 
 it." Oh ! that thou hadst the will to come and put thy 
 trust in Jesus ; for if thou dost so, thou shalt be saved. 
 I cannot speak to some of you about security, for there 
 are no broad walls to defend you. You have run away 
 from the security. Perhaps you have been patching 
 up with some untempered mortar a righteousness of 
 your own, which will all be thrown down as a bowing 
 wall and as a tottering fence. Oh ! that you would 
 trust in Jesus! Then would you have a broad wall 
 which all the battering-rams of hell shall never be able 
 to shake. When the storms of eternity shall beat 
 against that wall, it shall stand fast for aye. 
 
 I cannot speak to some of you about rest, and en- 
 joyment, and communion, for you have sought rest 
 where there is none ; you have got a peace which is 
 no peace, you have found a comfort which will be 
 your destruction. God make you to be distressed, and 
 constrain you by sore stress to flee to the Lord Jesus 
 and get true peace, the only peace, for " he is our 
 peace." 
 
 Oh ! that you would close in with Christ and trust 
 him, then you would rejoice in the present happiness 
 which faith would give you ; but, the sweetest thing 
 of all would be the prospect which should then unfold 
 to you of the eternal happiness which Christ has pre- 
 pared for all those who put their trust in him. 
 
%\t #nI|T goflr. 
 
 ' I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, 
 and shall go in and out, and find pasture." — John x. 9. 
 
 HE Word of God tells iis that in the midst of 
 the great mass of men there are to be found a 
 special people — a people who were chosen of 
 ■{^ God out of the common race before the stars 
 began to shine ; a people who were dear to 
 God's heart before the foundation of the world ; a peo- 
 ple who were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus 
 beyond and above the rest of mankind ; a people who 
 are the especial property of Christ, the flock of his 
 pasture, the sheep of his hand ; a people over whom 
 Providence watches, shaping their course amid the tan- 
 gled maze of life ; a people who are to be produced at 
 the last, every one of them faultless before the eternal 
 throne, and fitted for the exalted destiny which, in the 
 ages to come, he shall reveal. All through Scripture 
 3^ou read about this particular and special people. 
 Sometimes they are called a "seed," at other times "a 
 garden," at other times " a treasure," and sometimes, as 
 in the chapter we- have read, "a flock." The common 
 name in the Kew Testament for them is " the church," 
 
42 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 "the church of God which he hath purchased with his 
 own blood." " Christ loved the church, and gave him- 
 self for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with 
 the washing of water b}^ the word." 
 
 Xow, the grand question is, how to obtain admis- 
 sion into this church % Where is this communit}^ to 
 be found % Who are the members of it ? What is the 
 way to become a partaker of the privileges which belong 
 to it ? Jesus Christ here tells us two things : First, 
 How to enter the cliurcli. The way is through himself, 
 as the door. Secondly, What are the henefits we shall 
 receive through heing members of Chrisfs church — we 
 shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. 
 
 I. How A MAN CAN BECOME A MEMBER OF THAT 
 CHURCH WHICH IS ELECTED, REDEEMED, AND WILL BE 
 SAVED IS SIMPLY, BRIEFLY SOLVED BY OUR LORD's FIRST 
 ASSERTION. 
 
 Christ tells us that the only icay to enter the Church is 
 through himself. He is the door, the only door. There 
 is no other mode of admission into his church but 
 through himself. Let it be understood, then, once for 
 all, that we cannot get into the church of Christ through 
 hajytisin. There are tens of thousands ; ay, there have 
 been millions, who have been baptized after a fashion ; 
 that is to say, they have been sprinkled, and thousands 
 have been immersed, who never were admitted into the 
 church of Christ. In consideration of the ordinance 
 as it was administered to them, with or more commonly 
 without their consent, they wxre recognized by some 
 persons as being Christians ; but let me tell you that 
 unless they came to Christ by true faith, they are 
 nothing better than baptized Pagans ; they are sprin- 
 
The Only Door. 43 
 
 kled heathens still. Why, you might hold a man in an 
 everlasting shower, but you could not make him " a 
 member of Christ" theseby ; or you might drag him 
 through the Atlantic Ocean, and if he survived the 
 immersion, yet still he would not be one jot the better. 
 The door is not baptism but Christ. If thou believest 
 in Christ thou art a member of his church. If thy 
 trust is stayed upon Christ, who is God's great way of 
 salvation, thou hast evidence that thou wast chosen of 
 him from before the foundation of the world ; and that 
 faith of thine entitles thee to all the privileges which 
 Christ has promised in his Word to believers. 
 
 If Christ be the door, then it follows that men do 
 not get into the church by hirthright. The Society of 
 Friends has been one of the most useful communities 
 in the world, and it has maintained a good testimony 
 upon most important points for many years; but it 
 seems to me that the great evil in it, that which has 
 done them the most mischief, is the admission of birth- 
 right membership. Do they not receive into their 
 fellowship the children of their members as though 
 they were necessarily proper persons to be received 
 into the visible church? My brethren, it is a great 
 privilege to have Christian parents ; it may prove a 
 very great advantage, if you use it rightly ; but it 
 involves a great responsibilit}^, and if you use it wrongly, 
 instead of being a blessing to you, it may be a fearful 
 curse. Though 3^ou may be one of a long line of saints, 
 *' Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God." The most pious example, the most 
 godly training, cannot ensure conversion, and without 
 conversion, depend upon it, you cannot be Christ's. 
 
44 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 " Except 3'e be converted and become as little children, 
 ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." 
 Through our not practising infant baptism, we do not 
 so readily fall into this error as some denominations ; 
 still it is necessary to say even here that yon have no 
 right to gospel privileges because of your mothers and 
 fathers. You must be born again yourselves. You 
 have no right to the covenant of grace, nor to the bless- 
 ings and promises thereof, except as by your own per- 
 sonal and individual faith you come to Oiirist. It is 
 not your father nor your mother that can be the door 
 into Christ's church for you, but Christ himself. " I," 
 saith he, " I am the door." If you get Christ, you are 
 in his church. If you have laid hold on him, 3'ou are 
 a member of that secret and invisible community of 
 his elect and his redeemed ; but it is not by baptism, 
 nor yet by birthright, that you can ever be so. 
 
 Moreover, as Christ is the door, it is evident that a 
 moM does not come to he a meinber of the eh urch of Christ 
 hy rnaling a j^^'ofession of being so. He may prove 
 liimself to be a detestable hypocrite, but he cannot 
 prove himself to be a genuine Christian, b}" mere pro- 
 fession. Men do not get rich in this world by a lavish 
 expenditure, or by a profession of being wealthy. They 
 must hold the title-deeds of their estate, and have the 
 cash in the strong box, or else they are poor, in spite of 
 all their pretensions. And you cannot become a Chris- 
 tian, by coming forward and asking to be admitted into 
 the church, declaring that you believe, and avowing 
 that 3'ou repent. No, verily, but you must repent truly, 
 or 3^ou shall perish ; you must believe truly, or you 
 shall have no part nor lot in this matter. The mere 
 
The Only Door. 45 
 
 saying " Yes, yes, I am willing to profess this, I am 
 willing to sa}' that " no more makes a'ou a Christian 
 than it would make cotton to be silk to call it so, or 
 make mud to be gold by labelling it with that title. 
 Beware of a false profession, for it is doubly hazardous. 
 The man who has no grace is in danger, but the man, 
 who makes a profession of having it when he has not, 
 is in double danger, for he is the least likely to be 
 awakened, and he is certain, unless sovereign grace pre- 
 vent, to make his profession a pillow for his wicked and 
 his slumbering head, till he sleeps liimself into hell. • 
 
 Further, and this may touch the point, perhaps, 
 more closely still, a man does not get to be one of the 
 Lord's people, or to be one of Christ's sheep, by being 
 admitted into any visible church. He ought not to try 
 to get into any visible church until he is in the true 
 church. He has no right to join the external organiza- 
 tion, until he has first got into the secret conclave b^'a 
 living faith in Christ. If he leaves the door alone and 
 gets over the wall, and comes into the outward church 
 without being a believer in Christ, so far from being 
 saved, Christ will say to him, " Thou art a thief and a 
 robber, for thou has climbed up some other way, and 
 thou camest not in by the door." I believe we do rightly 
 to subject the admission of members to the voice of all 
 the church ; I believe we do rightly to examine candi- 
 dates to see whether they make a creditable profession, 
 and whether they know what they are at. But our 
 examination — oh, 'tis nothing better than skin deep. 
 We cannot search the heart, and the best judgment 
 of never so many Christian men, though honest, and 
 deserving to be treated with a great respect, would be a 
 
46 Types and Emblems. 
 
 very poor thing to rest upon. If you have not Christ, 
 your church certificates are waste paper, and your 
 membership with any people, however pure and apos- 
 tolic they may be, is but a name to live while you are 
 dead, for the only way, the sole way, of getting into the 
 real, vital, living church of Christ, is by coming to 
 Christ, who is himself the door. 
 
 The plain English of this metaphor, then, is just this 
 — To he one of God'S people^ the essential thing is a 
 simple dependence upon Jesus Christ. Jf you have not 
 this — no matter who baptizes you, or who gives yon 
 the consecrated bread and wine, or w4io maudles to 
 you about a hope of salvation for which there is no 
 warrant — you will die in your sins, notwithstanding 
 all your sacraments, except you come to Christ. No 
 other admittance to heaven can there be, but by a 
 simple dependence upon him who has bled and died 
 on Calvary's cross ; the preaching of any other system 
 is a mere delusion, aorainst which the warnino^ voice 
 went forth or ever the snare was laid to trap the unwary. 
 
 Mark you, simple faith, where it is genuine, makes 
 it plain that you do enter by Christ the door, because 
 Qwch. faith leads to obedience. How canst thou suppose 
 that thou art a member of his church if thou art not 
 obedient to Christ ? It is necessary that the man who 
 trusts Christ should become the servant of Christ. 
 Real faith never kicks at this, but rather delights in 
 it. " If ye love me," saith Christ, " keep my command- 
 ments." Except we do keep Christ's commandments 
 out of a principle of love to him, our religion is vain. 
 " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." We 
 may talk as we will about inward experiences and 
 
The Only Door. 47 
 
 believings, but " by their fruits ye shall know them." 
 The Spirit of God is the spirit of holiness. When 
 Christ comes into the soul, all iniquity must be purged 
 out of the soul. You know how Malaclii describes 
 his advent. He proclaims to us the promise that the 
 Lord whom we seek shall suddenly come to his temple : 
 that is, seekers shall be finders ; do you know what he 
 adds ? '' But who may abide the day of his coming? 
 for he shall be like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' 
 soap." Now, the refiner's fire burns up the dross, and 
 fullers' soap takes out the stains ; and so, if Christ be 
 in you, you will pass through a refining that will burn 
 up your outward sin, and you will be subjected to a 
 w^ashing like that of the fullers' soap, which will cleanse 
 you from all your iniquities. " Be not deceived, God 
 is not mocked, whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
 also reap." If ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but 
 if, through the grace of Christ ye are living in him, 
 trusting in him, and serving him — service being the 
 evidence of trust, and trust being the evidence of your 
 election — ye have then come into the church through 
 the door, and it is well with you. 
 
 Now, if it be so, that Christ is the door into the 
 church, and if we have entered the church through 
 that door, it does not signify much to us what the old 
 gentleman at Rome thinks of us. He may excom- 
 municate us. This he is very fond of doing. He is 
 a rare hand at cursing. What does it matter? It 
 signifies not one jot, if I be in Christ Jesus a new 
 creature, how much the Pope may rail at me. Be- 
 sides, there are plenty of revilers now-a-days who are 
 saying, " You Nonconformists are only a pack of here- 
 
48 Types and Emblems, 
 
 tics ; we have the apostolical succession ; we have the sa- 
 craments and the priests." Ah ! thej vaunt themselves 
 as being " Catholic," though their claim is disallowed 
 alike by the Babylon which is here below, and by the 
 Jerusalem which is above. Let them vaunt it' they 
 will. As long a^ we have Christ, they may keep their 
 apostolical succession, and all their other rubbish ; he 
 is the door, and if we have come through him it is well 
 enough. I like that story of the Sandwich Islanders 
 who had been converted through some of our mission- 
 aries, and the Gospel had been preached to them for 
 years. At last, two or three gentlemen in long black 
 gowms landed there, and the people asked them what 
 they had come for. They said they were come to in- 
 struct them in the true faith, and to teach them. Well, 
 they said, they should be glad to hear it. If their 
 teaching was true, and like the Scriptures, they would 
 listen to them. By and by, a little diagram was exhib- 
 ited to the natives after the similitude of a tree. This 
 tree had many branches. The twigs w^hich were far- 
 thest off were the different saints, the believers, those 
 who do good works; then the limbs, which were a 
 little larger, were the priests ; the bigger boughs were 
 bishops; the biggest boughs were the cardinals; and, 
 at last, these all joined on to the trunk, which was the 
 Pope, and that went all the way down to the bottom, 
 till it came to Peter, who was the root, deriving his 
 authority immediately from Christ. So the natives 
 asked about all these twigs, and branches, and specially 
 about certain rotten branches that were tumbling off 
 into a fire. What were they ? They were Luther, 
 and Calvin, and other heretics who had been cut off 
 
The Only Door. 49 
 
 from the tnie tree of the church. "Well," said one 
 of the islanders, '' and pray what is the root of the 
 tree ? " Of course, that was allowed to be Jesus Christ. 
 So they clapped their hands at once for joy, and said, 
 " Never mind about the branches, and stems, and twigs ; 
 we have never heard of them, but we have got the root, 
 and that will do to grow on." In like manner, brethren, 
 we can say to-night, if we have got Christ, we have 
 got " the root out of the dry ground." We have got the 
 root of the matter, the basis, the sum, the substance of it. 
 
 "Let others trust what forms they please. 
 Their hopes we'll not contest." 
 
 Let them go about their business, and rejoice in their 
 fancies ; but Christ is the door. We have Christ, we 
 have entered by the door, we have believed in him, we 
 have entered through him into faith, and into joy, and 
 into peace. We will be content with this ; let others 
 clamber up some other way if they please. 
 
 Before I leave this point, a question suggests itself, 
 ^Have we all entered hij the door ? We are agreed 
 that Christ is the door. Have we entered by the 
 door % You who are growing old— I always feel much 
 pleasure in seeing grey heads, the type of mellowed 
 years, in the concourse of W'Orshippers ; — but have 
 you all believed in Jesus % You know the truth, you 
 would not like to hear anything but the simple Gos- 
 pel preached ; but, have you laid hold on the Gospel ? 
 A man may starve with bread upon the table if he 
 does not oat, and he may perish with thirst, though he 
 be up to his neck in water, if he does not drink. Have 
 you trusted Christ ? If not, how can you remain in a 
 state of unbelief, for '' he that believeth not is condemned 
 3 
 
50 Types and Einhlevns, 
 
 already, because he believeth not on the Son of God." 
 Men and women in middle life, struggling with the 
 cares of business, have you entered into Christ ? I know 
 3'our thoughts are much taken up, and necessarily so, 
 with the world ; but, have you not time to think upon 
 this question, or dare you neglect it ; " Dost thou 
 believe on the Son of God ? " If not, O man, thy life 
 hangs on a thread, and that snapped, thy ruin is cer- 
 tain. And, oh, you young people, what a mercy it is 
 to see you willing to come and hear the "Word ! But, 
 have you all heard it with your inward ears ? Have you 
 looked to my Master ? Oh, it is sweet to come to 
 Christ in the early morning of life, to have a long day 
 of happiness before you ! May it be the blessedness 
 of each one of us ! It is vain to look at the door unless 
 you enter. God give you grace to come in, if you 
 never have entered before. 
 
 II. Our Lord and Master tells us tv^hat are the 
 
 PRIVILEGES OF ENTERING THROUGH HIM, THE DOOR. 
 
 The man who enters by Christ shall he saved, he shall 
 go in and out and he shall find pasture. 
 
 lie shall he saved. The man who believes in Jesus 
 Christ shall be saved ; he is saved, and he shall be 
 saved. A man has by accident killed his fellow-man. 
 The next of kin to the murdered man will be sure to 
 kill the man-slayer out of revenge, if he can get at 
 him. Therefore the poor homicide takes flight as 
 quickly as he can towards the city of refuge. How 
 his heart beats, how his footsteps bound, how he flies 
 with all his might. There is a handpost with the word 
 " Refuge " upon it, and on he continues his way. But, 
 presently, while he is running, he turns his head, and 
 
The Only Door, 51 
 
 finds that the avenger of blood is after him. He sees 
 that he is gaining upon him, he feels that he will pro- 
 bably overtake him. Oh ! how he picks his steps lest ho 
 should trip against a stone, how he skims the ground, 
 swift as a doe. He runs until he can see the city gates. 
 " That is the fair city of refuge," saith he. But, he does 
 not rest then, for a sight of the city wnll not secure him, 
 80 he quickens his speed, as if he would outstrip the 
 wind, till he shoots through the archway, and he is in the 
 broad street of the city. Now he stops. Now he 
 breathes. Now^ he wipes the hot sweat from his brow. 
 " Now I am safe,'' saith he, " for no avenger of blood 
 dares cross that threshold ; he that once escapes here is 
 delivered." So with the sinner w^hen sin pursues him, 
 when he discovers that he has oifended God. He hears 
 the furious coursers of divine vengeance coming on 
 swiftly behind him, and his conscience flies, and his soul 
 speeds towards the cross. He gets a little hope. He 
 hears of a Saviour ; but that is not enough. He will 
 never rest, he w411 never say he is at peace, until he 
 has passed the gate of faith, and can say, " Now I do 
 believe that Jesus died for me." 
 
 He that enters in by the door shall be saved. 
 Noah's ark was built in the olden times to preserve 
 Noah and his family from the great flood. It could 
 not be said that Noah would be saved till he had passed 
 through the door ; but w^hen he had done that, a 
 divine hand, quite unseen, put the door to, and as 
 Noah heard it fastened, and understood that the Lord 
 had shut him in, he felt quite safe. If God shuts us in, 
 the floods from beneath cannot drown us, and the rains 
 from above cannot penetrate to injure us. He must 
 
62 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 be safe whom God sliuts in. The moment that a poor 
 sinner trusts in Christ. God sliiits the door. Tliere he 
 is, and there he sliall be, till time shall be no more. 
 He is secure. The infernal powers shall not destroy 
 him, and the vengeance of God cannot touch him. 
 lie has passed the door, and he shall be saved. 
 
 I read a story the other day of some Russians crossing 
 wide plains studded over here and there with forests. 
 The villages were ten or a dozen miles from each other, 
 the wolves were out, the horses were rushing forward 
 madly, the travellers could hear the baying of the wolves 
 behind them ; and, though the horses tore along with 
 all speed, yet the wolves were fast behind, and they 
 only escaped, as we say, *' by the skin of their teeth," 
 managing just to get inside some hut that stood in the 
 road, and to shut-to the door. Then they could hear 
 the wolves leap on the roof; they could hear them 
 dash against the sides of the hut ; they could hear them 
 gnawing at the door, and howling, and making all sorts 
 of dismal noises ; but the travellers were safe, because 
 they had entered in by the door, and the door was shut. 
 Now, when a man is in Christ, he can hear, as it 
 were, the devils howling like wolves, all fierce and 
 hungry for him; and his own sins, like wolves, are 
 seeking to drag him down to destruction. But he has 
 got in to Christ, and that is such a shelter that all the 
 devils in the world, if they were to come at once, could 
 not start a single beam of that eternal refuge : it must 
 stand fast, though the earth and heaven should pass 
 away. Xow, to every man and woman Christ says that 
 if they have entered in by the door, they shall be saved. 
 Do not have any doubt about it. Do not let anybody 
 
The Only Door. 53 
 
 raise the question Avhetlier you may be, or yon may 
 not be ; yon shall be. Oh, clutch at that blessed 
 " shall/' Sir, if yon have been a drunkard, yet, if 
 yon trust in Christ, you shall be saved. Yon shall 
 not go back to your old drunkenness, but yon shall 
 be saved from it, if you believe in him. O woman, 
 if tlion hast stained thy character to the worst, yet, if 
 thon believest in Christ, none of thy old sins shall 
 ruin thee, but thon shalt be saved. Ah! though 
 yon be tempted every day of your lives, tempted 
 as none ever were before, yet God is true, and cannot 
 lie— if yon come through Christ the door you shall be 
 saved. Do you understand what it is to come through 
 the door ? it is to depend upon Jesns, to give ourselves 
 to him, to rest on him. AVhen yon hang up your jugs 
 and mugs on the nail in the cupboard, what keeps them 
 from falling ? Nothing but the nail, and if that holds 
 well, nothing can fall that Jiangs on it. Now, yon 
 must trust in Christ as the vessel hangs on the nail, 
 and if you do so, he is fastened as a nail in a sure 
 place, and yon cannot and shall not perish. That is 
 the first privilege— he shall be saved. 
 
 He that entereth in by the door shall go in. The 
 man who believes in Christ shall go into rest and 
 peace, for there is no condemnation to them that 
 are in Christ Jesus. He shall go in to secret know- 
 ledge. He shall become a scholar, and shall be 
 taught by Christ as his rabbi. He shall go in nnto 
 God with holy boldness in prayer. He shall go in unto 
 that which is within the veil, and speak to God from 
 before the mercy-seat. He shall go in nnto the child's 
 place, and shall stand as an adopted heir of heaven, 
 
64 Types and Emblems, 
 
 He shall go in nnto close communion with God. He 
 shall speak with his Maker. The Lord shall lift np 
 the light of his countenance upon him. He shall go in 
 unto the highest attainment in spiritual things. He 
 shall go in to the treasure-house of the covenant, and 
 ^ay — " All this is mine." He shall go in to the store- 
 house of the promises, and take whatsoever his soul 
 needeth. He shall go in, passing from circle to circle, 
 till he comes in to the innermost place where the love 
 of God is most graciously spread abroad. 
 
 He that enters in by the door shall be saved, and 
 he shall go in. If you know what this means — go in ; 
 goin farther; go in more constantly. Do not stop 
 where you are, but go in till you have got a little 
 more. If you love Christ, come nearer to him, and 
 nearer, and nearer still. Let your prayer be — 
 
 " Nearer, my God, to tliee, 
 
 Nearer to tliee ; 
 E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me. 
 
 Still this my cry shall be, 
 Nearer to thee ; nearer to thee." 
 
 But if you want to get into anything that is divine, you 
 must get in through Christ. O you who open yonr 
 bibles, and want to understand a text, the way to get 
 into the meaning of a text is through the door, Christ. 
 O you who want to get more holiness, come through 
 the door ; the way to holiness is not through Moses, 
 but through Christ. O you who would have closer 
 communion with your heavenly Father, the way to come 
 |in is not through your own efforts, but through Christ. 
 You came to Christ at first to get salvation ; you must 
 fcome to Christ still to get sanctification. Never look 
 for another door, for there is but one, and that one door 
 
The Only Door. 65 
 
 will let you into life, love, peace, knowledge, and sanc- 
 tification. It will let you into heaven. Christ is the 
 master-key of all the rooms in the palace of mercy, and 
 if you get Christ you shall go in. Nothing shall keep 
 you out of any of the secret chambers. You shall go 
 in, in God's name, through Christ, the door. 
 
 The next privilege is that he shall go out. Putting 
 the two together — he shall go in and out — they sig- 
 nify liberty. The Christian does not come into the 
 Church, as into a prison, but he comes in as a free man, 
 walking in and out of his own house. But, what does 
 it mean to go out ? I think it means this, brethren. 
 The men that trust in Christ go out to their daily busi- 
 ness through Christ, the door. I wonder how many of 
 you ever thought of this ? You know sometimes you 
 get up, put on your things, and go blundering out to 
 work, and then you find yourselves very weak all day. 
 Well, I do not wonder at it, for you do not go out 
 through Christ, the door. Oh, suppose you had given 
 yourselves to Christ for the day, and though you had 
 time but for a few minutes' praj^er, yet you had put it 
 thus — '* Lord, I am thine ; take care of me to-day ; I 
 am going out where there will be many to tempt me and 
 tr}^ me. I do not know what may happen, but. Lord, I 
 am going out in thy name, and resting in thy strength ; 
 if there is anything that I can do for thee, I desire to 
 doit. If there is anything to suffer, I wish to suffer it 
 for thy sake, but take care of me, Lord. I will not go 
 out and face my fellow-men until I have seen thy face, 
 and I do not want to speak to them until I have spoken 
 to thee, nor to hear what they have to say till I have 
 heard what God the Lord will speak.'' Depend upon 
 
66 Types and Eviblems. 
 
 it, it is blessed going out, when you go through the 
 door. You will be sure to come home happy, when 
 you go out after this sort. 
 
 May not this going out also mean to go out to suffer- 
 ing? You and I are called sometimes to bear great 
 bodily pain, or losses, or bereavements. Well, now, 
 what a sweet thing it is to go out to sutler these things 
 through the door, and to be able to say, "Now, my 
 Master, this is a cross, but I will carry it, not in my 
 own strength, but in thine. Do what thou wilt with 
 me; I shall drink the cup because thou appointest it. 
 Whenever you can see Christ's hand in it, it makes 
 the bitter sweet, and heavy things soon grow light. 
 Go to your sick-bed as you hope to go to your dying 
 bed, through the door, that is, through Christ. 
 
 And when, as sometimes happens, we have to go out, 
 as it were, away from fellowship with Christ, to light 
 with our inward sins, the right way is to go out to 
 resist them through the door. If \ow ever try to fight 
 with sin in your own strength, or on a legal footing, 
 or because you feel that you will be condemned if 
 you do not overcome those sins, you will be as weak 
 as water. The manner of victory is through the blood 
 of the Lamb. There is no killing sin, except by 
 throwing the blood of Christ upon it. When once 
 the blood of Christ comes into contact with the beset- 
 ting sin, that sin withers straight away. Go to your 
 spiritual conflicts througli the door. 
 
 And so, beloved, we ought in all that we do for the 
 Lord, to go out through the door. It is always sweet 
 preaching for me when I feel that I come forth in the 
 name of my Master, when I do not come to tell you 
 
The Only Door. 57 
 
 what ideas I have woven out of idj own brains, nor to 
 put attractive figures before you, as I would like to do 
 sometimes; but, rather, when I come Jo tell you just 
 what my Lord would have you know, telling it as a 
 message to you from your God, and cherishing in my 
 own heart his great love towards perishing sinners. > 
 Then, indeed, to minister is joy. You Sunday school' 
 teachers will always teach well, when you go down to 
 the school-room through the door — that is, having 
 been with Christ, having sought and enjoyed his 
 company. I knovr, my dear brethren and sisters, you 
 who are teaching larger classes, you who are engaged 
 in instructing or exhorting, you who go about any 
 holy work, you always do it well, when you have 
 God's smile upon you in the doing of it ; and you shall 
 have great success in the doing of it, if you always go 
 to it through Christ, the door; if you serve Christ 
 through Christ, and do it, not only for him, but through 
 him and by him. Our own strength is perfect weak- 
 ness, but the strength which comes through simple 
 dependence upon the ever living Christ, who has said. 
 " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto tlie end of the 
 world," — this is the strength which wins the conquest. 
 God give you grace not only to go in, but also to go 
 out through the door. 
 
 Well, now, the last privilege named in the text is, 
 '' And shall find pasture.'''^ I, suppose this is what you 
 come here for, you who love the Lord, you come here 
 for pasture. It is a great blessing if when we come to 
 hear the gospel, it becomes real pasture to us. "We 
 do know some who say that the troubles of the week 
 become unbearable, because they have such barren 
 
68 Types and Emhlems, 
 
 sabbaths. Ah, if jou are members of a church that is 
 rent with discord, where the ministry abounds in any- 
 thing but Christ, you will soon begin to cry out, and 
 you will value the privilege of hearing Jesus Chri&t 
 lifted up among you. Bat who are the people who 
 get the pasture where Jesus Christ is preached ? 
 Not all who hear him, nor yet all believers ; there 
 are times when you may hear a sermon that is of 
 no use to you, and yet your brother or sister by your 
 side may be greatly instructed and comforted there 
 by. In such a case, I should not wonder if it was 
 because your friend came in to the service through the 
 door, and you did not. 
 
 Do you remember the story of Mr. Erskine and the 
 good lady who went to hear him preach at the com- 
 munion? It was such sweet preaching, she thought 
 she had never heard the like. So, after service, she 
 asked, Who the gentleman was that preached to-day ; 
 and, on being told that it was Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, 
 she said, "• I will come and hear him again next Sunday 
 morning." She went, she listened, and she thought to 
 herself, — " Well, this is very drj^, very heavy preach- 
 ing." She was not at all comforted by it; then, like 
 a foolish woman, as I should think she must have been, 
 she went into the vestry, and said, "Oh, l^fr. Erskine, 
 I heard you last Sabbath with much pleasure, sir; I 
 never was so edified ; and, I came again this morning, 
 but I have been dreadfully disappointed." So the 
 good man said, very calmly, " Pray madam, when 3^ou 
 came to the kirk last Sunday, what did you come for ? " 
 She said, " I came to communion, sir." " To have 
 fellowship with Christ, I suppose ?" he asked. "Yes, 
 
The Only Door. 59 
 
 sir." "Well, you came for it, and you had it. And 
 pray, what did you come here this morning for?'' 
 Said she, " I came to hear you, sir." "And, you had 
 it, woman," said he, " you had it, and you had not any- 
 thing else, because you did not come for anything more 
 than that." "Well, now, when people come merely to 
 hear a minister, or for custom's sake, or for form's sake, 
 do they not always get what they come for ? If peo- 
 ple come to find fault, we always give them plenty of 
 our imperfections to be entertained with, so they need 
 not be disappointed. If others come merely out of 
 custom, they say, " Well this is my work, I have per- 
 formed my duty." Of course it is, but if you had come 
 in through the door — that is, looking to Christ, looking 
 for Christ, desiring not to see the preacher but the Lord, 
 not to get the word of man but the Word of God, to 
 your soul — I believe you would have found pasture. 
 Brethren, the sheep want pasture. No other food will 
 suit them. So your soul wants heavenly truth, and if 
 you come to the house of God through Christ, you will 
 get it. If you turn to the Bible through Christ, you 
 will find it a rich storehouse. If you come to prayer 
 through the door of Christ, you will find it comforting, 
 and so you shall find pasture. 
 
 I think the text may mean, that he who rests in 
 Christ shall have all his wants supplied. If this text 
 does not mean so, another does : — " The Lord is my 
 shepherd, I shall not want; he maketh me to lie down 
 in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." 
 Some of you are very poor, but if you have trusted in 
 Christ, you may plead this promise — " Thou hast said 
 I shall find pasture." Come to Christ, and tell him 
 
60 
 
 Types and Emblems. 
 
 that he himself has said it — "No good thing will he 
 withhold from them that walk uprightly." 
 
 I would to God that some who have never 3'et entered 
 into the fold might now be drawn to Jesus. Oh, that 
 3'e would come thi-ough the door into these four choice 
 privileges. You may never have such another oppor- 
 tunity. You may never feel any of the motions of the 
 Spirit of God again. Oh ! that without delay, ye would 
 just cast your helpless souls upon the Saviour's gracious 
 arms, who is able and willing to save, that ye might be 
 saved now. 
 

 '^ 
 
 |iopI ^mlikms for f opl ^ubjuts. 
 
 "^And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ris- 
 eth, even a morning without clouds ; as the tender grass springing 
 out of the earth by clear shining after rain." — 2 Samuel xxiii. 4. 
 
 ASTEEIST despots fleece their subjects to an 
 enormous extent. Even at the present day 
 one would hardly wish to be subjected to the 
 ^7 demands of an Oriental government ; but in 
 David's time a bad king was a continual pes- 
 tilence, plague, and famine — a bane to the lives of his 
 subjects, who were under his caprice ; and spoliation 
 to their fields, which he perpetually swept clean to 
 enrich himself Avith the produce thereof. Hence, a 
 good king was a vara avis in those days, and could 
 never be too highly prized. So soon as he ipounted 
 the throne, his subjects began to feel the beneficent in- 
 fluence of his sway. He was to them " as when the 
 sun riseth." The confusion which had existed under 
 weak governors gave place to settled order, while the 
 rapacity which had continually emptied the coffers of 
 the rich, and filched the earnings of the poor, gave 
 place to a regular system of assessment, and men knew 
 how to go about their business with some degree of 
 certainty. It was to them " a morning without clouds." 
 
62 Types and Emblems. 
 
 Forthwith, trade began to flourish ; persons who had 
 emigrated to avoid the exactions of the tyrant came 
 back again ; fields which had fallen out of tillage, be- 
 cause they would not pay the farmer to cultivate them, 
 began to be sown ; and the new ruler was to the land 
 as " clear shining after rain, which makes the tender 
 grass spring up." 
 
 I fear we do not value, as we should, the constitu- 
 tional government which it is our privilege as Britons 
 to enjoy. Let us look where we may — we need not 
 say to the east only but to the west also — we would 
 not wish to change the government under which we 
 live so happily. Let us gratefully acknowledge to 
 God his tender mercy, and his goodness, in sparing us 
 alike from the refractory elements of a republic, and the 
 prodigious exactions of a despotism, and for giving us 
 to dwell in a quiet and peaceable kingdom, wherein 
 we can sit "every man under his own vine and under 
 his own fig-tree, none making him afraid." "VVe may 
 say, I am sure, of Her Majesty who is set over us in 
 the order of Providence, that she has been " as the sun 
 when he riseth, as a morning without clouds." Under 
 her generous sway our country has been verdant. As 
 " the earth by clear shining after rain " bringeth forth 
 the green herb, so have our institutions fostered our 
 trade and commerce by the good-will and gracious 
 providence of God. 
 
 But, it is not my object at present to enlarge upon 
 the secular benefits that have fallen to our lot ; though 
 I should not think it unworthy of the Christian minister 
 to pursue a theme which calls for so much gratitude to 
 God, and might foster so much good feeling among our- 
 
Boyal Ernhlems for Loyal Subjects. 63 
 
 selves. We might make one another feel that there are 
 vast mercies we enjoy which would be more esteemed 
 if better known. Just as the Bible speaks of Christ's 
 unknown sufferings, so many of the bounties that we 
 daily enjoy have become so common that we are oblivi- 
 ous of them ; and, therefore, I might call them our un- 
 known mercies. It well becomes us to lift up our voices 
 and hearts to heaven, and thank God for the happy land, 
 and for the happy age in which the lines have fallen to 
 us. Still, I take it that David was not so much speaking 
 of mere political rulers as of Christ Jesus, King of kings 
 and Lord of lords, whose sway is always gracious and 
 full of good- will. May his kingdom come ! " Behold, I 
 come quickly," he crieth from heaven ; " Even so, come 
 quickly. Lord Jesus," respond those whose love inspires 
 their worship. His kingdom is " as the sun when it 
 riseth, as a morning without clouds ; " and, when it shall 
 have been perfectly established upon the earth, all men 
 shall know that the Son of David, whom once they re- 
 jected, is he by whom God would make all generations 
 to be blessed for ever and ever. May we who have 
 waited and watched for his glorious advent live when 
 he standeth in the latter day upon the earth, and may 
 we constitute a part of that glorious harvest, the fruit 
 whereof shall shake like the cedars of Lebanon. Thus 
 we look for the day wherein the Lord shall come in 
 the clouds of heaven. 
 
 David says of Christ, "He shall be as the light of 
 the morning when the sun riseth." This he is as king, 
 already, in his church, and as the rightful monarch in 
 the individual heart of the believer. Wherever Christ 
 comes into a soul, it is as the light of the morning when 
 
64 Types and Eniblems, 
 
 the snn risetli. The light of the morning is joyous, 
 then all the birds begin to sing, and the earth which 
 is silent at night, save when its stillness is disturbed by 
 stormy winds, or b^' wild beasts, or by riotous drunken 
 people, beconieth vocal with songs from many mouths ; 
 80 when Christ cometli into the heart, the tuneful notes 
 of the singing birds are heard ; and the voice of the 
 turtle welcomes the gladsome season. Where darkness 
 had brooded before, the sunlight of Christ bringeth 
 mirth and blessed rejoicing. Oh, wha t s treamers, are 
 there in the town of Mansoul when Prince Emmanuel 
 ncTetli through ! Happy day, happy day, when Jesus 
 comes into the heart ! Save the da}'' when we shall be 
 with him where he is, I suppose there is no day that is 
 comparable to the first one, when we behold Christ, and 
 see him, as our Saviour and our King. The rising of 
 the sun is joyous, and, besides that, it is comforting and 
 consoling "to those who have been suffering from ills 
 which night might aggravate. " Would God 'twere 
 morning ! " has been the cry of many a languishing one 
 tossing upon his couch : " Would God 'twere morn- 
 ino^ ! " mav be the cry of manv a heart that is troubled 
 exceedino^lv with the o^uilt of sin. Ah, let the mornino: 
 come. Let the watchman say, " The morning cometh ; " 
 let the day dawn, and the day-star appear in our 
 hearts, and " there is the oil of joy for mourning, the 
 garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Joy to 
 'heer and comfort the disconsolate Christ bringeth, for 
 ne is as the rising of the sun. 
 
 And, how glorious is the sun when from his pavilion 
 he looks forth at morn ! Job describes the sunrise as 
 being the stamping of the earth with a seal ; as if, when 
 
Eoyal Emblems for Loyal Subjects. 65 
 
 in darkness, the earth were like a lump of clay that is 
 pervious ; then, as it is turned to the light, it beginneth 
 to receive the impress of Divine wisdom ; mountain 
 and vale all stream with it, till impressed on its surface 
 we begin to perceive the glorious works of God. So 
 when Christ riseth upon the heart, what a glorious trans- 
 formation is wrought ! Where there has been no love, 
 no faith, no peace, no joy, none of the blessed fruits of the 
 Spirit, no sooner does Christ come than we perceive all 
 the graces in blossom ; yea, they soon become fragrant 
 and blooming, for we are made complete in him. The 
 advent of Christ bringeth to the heart celestial beauty ; 
 laith in himdecketh us with ornaments and clothes us 
 as with royal apparel. Better garments than Dives had, 
 though he wore scarlet and fine linen, doth Christ give 
 to hi's people when he cometh to them ; and better fare 
 than Dives had, though he fared sumptuously every day, 
 does Jesus bestow upon his saints when he shineth into 
 their hearts. Oh, the glory of the sun-rise of the Saviour 
 on the darkness of the human soul ! If a man might 
 rise every morning of the year to look at the rising sun, 
 and yet never be tired of it, because of the sublimity of 
 the spectacle ; methinks a man might consider his own 
 conversion every hour in the day, and every day of his 
 life, and yet never be wearied with the thrice heavenly 
 spectacle of Christ arising over the mountains of his 
 guilt, to banish the dense darkness of his despair. As 
 the sun-rising is thus joyous, and comforting, and 
 glorious, let us remember how unparalleled it is— unpa- 
 ralleled because divine. By no method of illumination 
 can we manufacture such a light as the sun exhibits by 
 his simple rising. O ye priests, ye come, with your in- 
 
66 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 cantations and m^'steries, to make light in men's hearts, 
 and sometimes ye strike a spark that doth but show the 
 darkness; it dieth too soon to be called "the light-" 
 And je pile your deeds to heaven — your faggots of good 
 works — ye put your van-load of superstitious observ- 
 ances, and vainly tvj to make an illumination ; but ere 
 it begiimeth to blaze it dieth out, and a handful of ashes 
 alone remains to disappoint the expectant ones. But, 
 Christ ariseth, and with what boundless majesty he 
 looks abroad. The joy, the peace, the comfort, the 
 confidence, the full assurance, the blissful hope, which 
 one ray of Christ's light gives to the heart of man is not 
 to be equalled — nay, scarcely to be compared with any-- 
 thing else. It is a joy that God only giveth us, and, 
 thank God, a joy which none can take away. And, 
 as this sun-rise of Christ in our heart is Divine, so 
 likewise it is irresistible. No curtains can conceal the 
 6un from the world when he willeth to rise. Ko tyrant, 
 by any law, can prevent the sun's beams from gilding 
 the cottage of the poor. Shine he must, and will. 
 Like a giant he cometh out of his chamber, and where 
 is he that shall wrestle with him ? Where art thou, 
 O man, who can take the bridle of the sun, and bid 
 his courses staj^ theii* race ? Until they have climbed to 
 heaven, and then gone down again to bathe their burn- 
 ing fetlocks in the Western Sea, they must, they will 
 pursue their onward course, for none can stay them, or 
 say to their mighty driver, " What doest thou ? " So, 
 when Jesus comes into the heart — avaunt, thou fiend ! 
 Thy time of flight is come ! Away despair and doubt, 
 and aught that can prevent the soul from having joy and 
 peace ! Thus the eternal mandate runs : " Let that man 
 
Royal Emhlems for Loyal SuhjecU, 67 
 
 go free ? " Thus saitli Jehovah to Pharaoh : " Let my 
 people go ; " and go they must and shall, for the time 
 of their light and liberty is come. Like the rising of 
 the sun when he springs forth '* as a giant strong, and 
 as a bridegroom gay," even so is Christ Jesus when he 
 riseth in the human heart. 
 
 The sun-rise, moreover, is very much like the coming 
 of Christ, because of that which it involveth. Those 
 raj^s of light which first forced the darkness from the 
 sky with golden prophecy of da}^ tell of flowers that 
 shall open their cups to drink in the sun-light ; they 
 tell of streams that shall sparkle as they flow ; they 
 tell of the virgins that shall make merry, and the 
 young men that shall rejoice, because the sun shineth 
 on them, and the darkness of night is fled. And so 
 the coming of Christ into the heart is a prophecy of 
 years of sweet enjoyment — a prophecy of God's good- 
 ness and long-suffering, let night reign, elsewhere, as 
 it may — yea, and it is a prophecy of the fulness of the 
 river of God, for ever and ever, before the throne of 
 God in heaven. Hast thou Christ, poor soul ? Christ 
 is to thee the prophet of eternal happiness. Thou 
 canst not be dark again if Christ hath once shone on 
 thee. No night shall follow this blessed day ; it is a 
 day that lasts for ever. 
 
 " Doth Jesus once upon thee shine, 
 Then Jesus is for ever thine." 
 
 Hath Christ appeared to thee ? Dost thou trust him 
 now ? Art thou reposing only upon his finished work ? 
 Then the sun hath risen upon thee, and it shall go 
 down no more for ever. The everlasting Joshua bid- 
 deth the sun stand still, and to-day and to morrow, 
 
68 Ty])es and EmUems. 
 
 though the whole world revolve, that Snn of Eight- 
 eoiisness abideth still to shine on thee vrith healing in 
 his wings. 
 
 We must proceed to notice that the psalmist uses 
 anotlier figure : "Even as a morning without clouds." 
 Brethren, there are no clouds in Christ when he ariseth 
 in a sinner's heart. The clouds that mostly cover our 
 sky come from Sinai, from the law, and from our own 
 legal propensities, for we are always wishing to do 
 something by which we may inherit eternal life ; but 
 there are none of these clouds in Christ. There is no 
 cloud in Christ of angry rebuk<3 for the past. When 
 Jesus receiveth the sinner, he chideth not. " Neither 
 do I condemn thee" is all that he hath to say. I 
 thought when I came tremblingly to him, that at least 
 he would bring all my sins befoi-e me, and chide me 
 before he sealed my pardon with the kiss of mercy ; 
 but it was not so. The Father received the prodigal 
 without a single word of rebuke. He did but say, 
 " Take off his rags ; " he did but command them to kill 
 the fatted calf that they might make merry ; not a word 
 doth he speak of his hungry looks, nor his filth, nor of 
 the far country, nor even of the harlots with whom he 
 had spent his substance. Christ receiveth the soul 
 without rebuke, for he is " as a morning without clouds." 
 
 And, as there is no cloud of anger, so there is no 
 cloud of exacting demand. He doth not ask the sinner 
 to be anything, or to do anything. That were a cloud, 
 indeed, if he did. A sinner by nature can do nothing, 
 and can be nothing, except as gi'ace shall make him be 
 and do. If Christ did ask anything of you or me, if 
 he did but ask repentance of us, unless he gave us 
 
Royal Emblems for Loyal Subjects, 69 
 
 that repentance, liis salvation would be of no avail to 
 ns. But he askcth nothing; all he bids ns to do is to 
 take him as everything-, and be nothing ourselves. So, 
 to the empty-handed sinner, he is such a full Christ, 
 that we may well say, " He is a morning without clouds." 
 And, .as he is without cloud of demand, so he is with- 
 out cloud of falsehood. I know that some say Christ 
 may reject those who have put their trust in him — that 
 after they are saved, they may yet fall from grace and 
 perish. Surely, that were not a morning without 
 clouds? I should see in the distance the tempest 
 gathering that might ultimately destroy my spirit ; but 
 no, if thou trustest Christ, he will surely save thee, even 
 to the end. If thou puttest thy soul into his hand, 
 there is- no fear that he shall be false to the sacred 
 charge ; he will undertake to be surety for thy soul ; 
 he will bring thee to his Fathers face without hin- 
 drance, when the fulness of time is come. Trouble not 
 yourselves, O ye anxious ones, concerning the future. 
 Does faith reach only to the present? Do ye trust 
 Christ only to save you to-day ? I pray you take a 
 larger sweep of confidence, and trust him to save you 
 to the end. If you do so, he will be better to you 
 than your fears would suggest, or than your faith can 
 conceive ; to the end he will love you, and in the end 
 he will bring you to be like him, and to be with him 
 where he is. Happy is that man who seeth Christ 
 " as a morning without clouds."- They who see an}" 
 clouds in him make the clouds. The clouds are only 
 in their vision ; they are not in his person. The spots 
 and defects are in themselves ; they are not in his 
 person nor in his work. If thou wilt only trust-him 
 
70 Types and EmUems, 
 
 fully, simply, without any admixture of tliiue own merit 
 or confidence, thou shalt find him to be equal to the 
 brightest description — a morning without a single cloud. 
 
 But, now, to the last figure. Upon this we intend to 
 dwell at somewhat greater length. David says of 
 Christ, the king, that his sway is like " clear shining 
 after rain, whereby the tender grass is made to spring 
 out of the earth." We all understand the metaphor. 
 "We have often seen how, after a very heavy shower 
 of rain, and sometimes after a continued rainy season, 
 when the sun shines, there is a delightful clearness 
 and freshness in the air that we seldom perceive at 
 other times. Perhaps, the brightest weather is just 
 when the wind has drifted away the clouds, and the 
 rain has ceased, and the sun peers forth from his 
 chambers to look down upon the glad earth. Well, 
 now, Christ is to his people just like that — exceedingly 
 clear-shining when the rain is over. 
 
 Sorrow and sadness do not last forever. After the 
 rain there is to come the clear shining. Tried believer, 
 after all thy afilictions there remains a rest for the 
 people of God ; and if, just now, thou art tried and 
 vexed b}^ some extraordinary trial, there is a clear 
 shining coming to thy soul when all this rain is over. 
 Look to Christ, and thou shalt find where that clear 
 shining is. The quiet contemplation thou shalt have 
 of him, when this time of rebuke is over, shall then be 
 to thee as the earth when the tempest has sobbed itself 
 to sleep, when the clouds have rent themselves to rags, 
 and the sun peers out, shooting forth virtue with its lus- 
 trous rays. And while sorrows, like the floating clouds, 
 last not for ever, they do work together with the bliss. 
 
Royal Eiablems for Loyal Subjects. 71 
 
 that as the clear sunshine followeth afterwards, to pro- 
 duce good. It is not in the sorrow, perhaps, to bring 
 forth good alone, any more than the rain might alto- 
 gether bring forth the spring blade ; but when the sorrow 
 and the joy, when the affliction and the consolation, come 
 together, then the joy of the heart is indeed benign. 
 None bring forth much fruit for God but those who 
 have been deeply ploughed with affliction and deluged 
 with grief, but even they do not bring forth much fruit 
 till they have had the joy of Christ's presence after the 
 affliction is over. Clear shining after rain produces an 
 atmosphere exceedingly good for the herbs, and the 
 joy of the soul in the presence of the Lord, after a 
 time of sorrow, makes it able to grow in grace and in 
 the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Thus, after time of great trouble, Christ becometh 
 to his people more specially and delightfully sweet than 
 he has ever been before. I notice this in many instances. 
 It is manifest in conversion. What happy, happy days 
 were our first young days in the faith. I cannot for- 
 get mine — I never shall. When talking with those who 
 come to tell me what God has done for their souls, I 
 notice the freshness upon their memory of every sepa- 
 rate event on the day of their new birth ; they can tell 
 how Christ appeared unto them, and how they looked 
 unto him and were lightened. " I can never forget 
 that, sir, till I die," says one ; " I have a very bad 
 memory, and I forget almost everything that is good, 
 but that I shall never forget, for it was such a joyous 
 season." I know that many of you have had good 
 days, but they have been like pieces of money that 
 you received when children, very bright once ; but 
 
72 Tyjpes and Euiblems. 
 
 they have passed about and worn in circulation, until 
 they have lost the image and superscription which was 
 once so bright to your eyes. IS^ot so the day of your 
 nev\^ birth, it has been like a coin, as fresh as \vhen 
 you laid it aside, and when you take it out again, it is 
 as fresh as the mint delivered it, and you can read it 
 still, and read the image of Christ which it bears. I 
 think there is scarce such a day on earth to be had in 
 Christian experience, as that first day when we came 
 to Christ and knew him. 
 
 The like is true also, in its measure, after great and 
 heavy affliction. You have been bereaved. A wife, 
 a husband, a child, has been removed from you ; or, 
 you had a great loss in business, you were crossed in 
 some expectation, and you were cast into the lowest 
 depth of trouble. Friends failed you, consolation fled 
 fi'om you ; but, after a time, you had a sweet resigna- 
 tion; you could say, "My soul is even as a weaned 
 child ; " your troubles somehow or other grew sweet 
 as honey, though before they had been bitter as gall. 
 You saw the finger of a loving Lord in all those grav- 
 ing lines of affliction, which the chisel had made upon 
 your brow ; you saw the great Refiner sitting at the 
 mouth of the furnace, watching your gold that it might 
 not be destroyed, and rejoicing over your dross, because 
 it melted away in the flame. Do you remember it ? 
 Why, I can look back to some of the happiest seasons 
 of my life, and see them stand in juxtaposition with 
 the blackest times of trial. Oh, it has been, sometimes, 
 a glorious thing to be cast down. by rebuke and slander, 
 and then go into one's chamber and lay Rabshakeh's 
 letter before the Lord, and to go down and feel more 
 
Royal Eiriblems for Loyal Subjects. 73 
 
 glad than a king of a hundred kingdoms, because wa 
 have been counted worthy to suffer reproach for Christ ; 
 and there is a cahii within us more deep and profound 
 than before. And, mark j^ou, if it has been so with 
 us individually, it has been no less so with the church. 
 Remember the clear shining after rain in the apostles' 
 times. " Then had the churches rest, and walking in 
 the fear of God, were multiplied." Those little seasons 
 of hush and calm, between the great persecutions, have 
 always been prolific of converts. I hope in the midst 
 of successive controversies which darken the sky over- 
 head, that when the rain is over, and the noise and 
 trouble it costs some tender spirits has ceased, and the 
 powers of darkness have been hushed to sleep once 
 more, we may have some clear shining after rain, and 
 brotherl}^ fellowship once again to be renewed. The 
 day Cometh when the great battle of Armageddon shall 
 be fought; when the powers of darkness shall be 
 roused to frenzy's highest pitch ; when hell shall be 
 loosed, and the great dragon shall be periiutted to come 
 upon the earth, trailing its chain along in the suprem- 
 acy of its hour — then, when dreadful war shall come 
 upon the earth, when nations shall reel and stagger to 
 and fro, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
 with a shout, with the trump of the archangel and the 
 voice of God, and there shall be clear shining after the 
 rain. And then, when the flames shall have consumed 
 this orb, when judgment shall have been passed, when 
 death and hell shall have been cast into the lake of fire, 
 when all the powers of evil shall have been utterly 
 destroyed before the majesty ot his coming who shall 
 overturn them, that his kingdom maybe established in 
 4 
 
74 Types and Linhlems. 
 
 heaven ; everlasting hallelujahs, " For the Lord God 
 omnipotent reignetb/' shall bear witness that there is 
 clear shining after the rain: for so it must be in the 
 little as the great, in the experience of the individual 
 as in that of the multitude ; there must be a rain, and 
 there must be the clear shining after it, and the two 
 toijether shall brins: forth a matchless harvest to the 
 praise and glory of his grace, who worketh all things 
 according to the counsel of his own will. 
 
 Ask ye, now, why is it that God giveth to his peo- 
 ple sweet seasons just after the bitter ? 
 
 One reason is to take the taste of the bitter out of their 
 mouth. Even as to our little children, when they take 
 their nauseous medicine, we give some sweatmeat ; so 
 doth the Lord often, when he cometh to his little ones, 
 give them such sweet honey of his grace that they forget 
 their sufferings in the sweet nectar which he vouchsaf- 
 eth them. Another reason, no doubt, is lest they should 
 be utterly destroyed by the terror of his judgment. " He 
 tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb ; " but, better 
 than that, he taketh it to his bosom, and when it lieth 
 there little doth it know that but for the rain and the 
 tempest it had not laid in his bosom, and been fondled 
 there so tenderly. He put it there lest it should perish. 
 
 Then, again, he doth it as a sweet reward of faith. 
 He seeth thee in trouble bravely struggling with the tem- 
 pest, and saith : " I will reward that man." He seeth 
 thee following him in the garden, still clinging to him 
 amidst all the darkness and temptation ; and, therefore, 
 he saith : " I will give to that soul such joy, by-and-by, 
 that it shall be well rewarded for its faithfulness to me 
 in the past." 
 
Royal Emblems for Loyal Subjects. 75 
 
 Is it not to prepare you for the future, that, in looking 
 back, you may say, " The last time I had trouble 
 there was clear shining after the rain, and so I feel it 
 will be next time ? " Ah, thou timid one, there is a trial 
 coming ; it looms over thy head. What ! and didst 
 thou behave valiantly for thy master in former times, 
 and wilt thou be a coward now ? Ah, my brother, 
 thinkest thou there is a time of ruin threatening thee, 
 and thou sayest : " His mercy is clean gone for ever ; 
 he will be faithful to me no more." O, wherefore dost 
 thou say that ? Doth my Lord deserve it ? Hath he 
 been with thee in six troubles ? — why should he forsake 
 thee in the seventh ? He that hath helped thee hith- 
 erto will surely help thee to the end. Wherefore hath 
 he delivered thee in the tempest, if he means to let thee 
 sink at last ? No ; by the kindness of the past, the 
 love experienced in former days, let thy faith put out 
 its great sheet anchor and outride the storm, for there 
 shall again be " Clear shining after the rain." 
 
 And, surely, these changeful seasons of ours, and that 
 constant ordinance of his, ought to make us sick of 
 self and fond of him. He putteth gall on the world, 
 and he putteth honey on his own lips ; so that we may 
 eschew the one and love the other. We are so fond of 
 this world that we must be drawn away from it : and 
 when we are drawn away from it, and enticed to him, 
 our foolish hearts come to know his value, and we yield 
 ourselves up to him. 
 
 I cannot tell to whom this sermon is addressed. I am 
 sure it has a mission to fulfil. O brothers and sisters, 
 it may be that these words may be worth a mine of gold 
 to some of you, as a clear shining after rain. If they 
 
76 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 reach thy case, do thank my Master for it. He may 
 have a harvest from thy soul yet. Be sure that ye give 
 him the first-fruits of the harvest. When there is clear 
 shining after the rain, honor him more, serve him 
 hetter, give more to his cause, pray more for his people, 
 live more in his fear, commune more with him, and 
 walk more closely to him. Let it be true that in thy 
 case, as in that of this round world, the rain and the 
 clear shining after it have brought forth their abundant 
 fruit. When you and I shall get to heaven, we will 
 talk on its green and flowery mounts of all the showers 
 through which we passed, and of the clear shining: 
 and, in the sacred high eternal noon, which shall be our 
 portion ever, we shall, with transporting joys, recount 
 the labors of the past, and sing of the clear shining 
 after the rain. 
 
 How sad the thought that there is no " Clear shining 
 after rain " for some of you. There is a rain of trouble 
 in reserve for you — that you know ; there will be 
 more troubles yet in this life ; there is a heavy shower 
 coming yet in death, and then it shall rain for ever, and 
 there shall be a horrible tempest — that is your portion. 
 If ye believe not tliat Jesus is Christ, and trust not your 
 Bouls to him, all the woe you have ever known is as 
 nothing; it is but the first spattering of the drops on 
 the pavement; it is nothing compared with the storm 
 which shall beat upon your head — 3'our unsheltered 
 head, for ever and ever. But refuge is before thee, 
 man ! The sky is dark, the tempest lowers ; but the 
 refuge is before thee. Run ! in God's name, run ! 
 The storm comes hastening on, as if God were gather- 
 ing up all his black artillery that he might discharge 
 
Royal Emhlems for Loyal Subjects, 77 
 
 his dreadful thunders upon thee. Eun ! " But can I 
 enter?" Yes, the door is open ; run! "But may I 
 enter?" Yes, he invites thee: "Come unto me, 3^ea, 
 come unto me — come this night — trust me," he says, 
 " and I will save thy soul." " But I am unworthy." 
 Well, see the tempest ! Kun ! Let thine unworthi- 
 ness put feathers to thy feet, and not stop thee in 
 thy haste. Jesus calls thee from his throne in heaven ; 
 he invites thee : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " The 
 Spirit and the bride say, Come ; and let him that 
 heareth say, Come." Heaven and earth say. Come. 
 Sinner, wilt thou avoid the tempest? Wilt thou flee 
 and find shelter in Christ ? God help thee to trust 
 Christ now^ and unto him shall be the glory, for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
% Irail ftaf. 
 
 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro ? " — Job xiii. 25. 
 
 OOR Job ! who could have been brought lower? 
 He had lost his possessions, his children, his 
 health ; he was covered with sore boils, and 
 he was aggravated by the unkind speeches of 
 his friends. In his cLeep distress he turns to 
 God, and finding no other plea so near at hand he 
 makes a plea of his own distress. He compares him- 
 self to the weakest thing he could think of, and then 
 he says to God, the great and the merciful, " Wilt t/iou, 
 so glorious in power and so matchless in goodness — 
 wilt thou break 77ie, who am like a poor leaf fallen from 
 the tree, sere and dry, and driven to and fro in the 
 wind ? " Thus he draws an argument out of his weak- 
 ness. Because he is so low and insignificant and 
 powerless he lays hold upon the divine strength and 
 pleads for pity. 
 
 It is a common figure he uses, that of a leaf driven to 
 and fro. Strong gusts of wind, it may be in the autumn 
 when the leaves hang but lightly upon the trees, send 
 them falling in showers around us ; quite helpless to 
 stay their own course, fluttering in the air to and fro, 
 
A Frail Leaf. Y9 
 
 like winged birds that could not steer themselves, but 
 are guided by every fitful blast that blew upon them, at 
 last they sunk into the mire, to be trodden down and 
 forgotten. To these Job likens himself — a helpless, 
 hopeless, worthless, weak, despised, perishing thing ; 
 and he appeals to the awful Majest}^ on high, and he 
 says to the God of thunder and of lightning, '^ Wilt 
 thou put out thy power to destroy me ? Wilt thou 
 bring forth thy dread artillery to crush such an insig- 
 nificant creature as I am ? With all the goodness of 
 thy great heart — for thy name is God, that is goo'd — 
 wilt thou turn thy Almighty power against me ? Oh, 
 that be far from thee ! Out of pity upon my utter 
 weakness and nothingness, turn away thy hand, and 
 break not a leaf that is driven to and fro ! " 
 
 The apprehension is so startling, the appeal so forci- 
 ble, that the argument may be employed in a great many 
 ways. JIow often have the sick usedit^ when they have 
 been brought to so low an ebb with physical pain that 
 life itself seemed worthless ! Stricken with disease, 
 stung with smart, and fretted with acute pangs, they felt 
 that if the affliction continued much longer, it were bet- 
 ter for them to die than live. They longed for the 
 shades of death, that they might find shelter there. 
 Turning their face to the wall, they have said, " O God, 
 60 weak as I am, wilt thou again smite me ? Shall thy 
 hand again fall upon me ? Thou hast laid me very low. 
 Wherefore again dost thou lift up thy rod '( Break not, 
 I beseech thee, a leaf that is driven to and fro ! " 
 
 Not less applicable the plea to those who are plunged 
 into the depths of poverty ! A man is in trouble aris- 
 ing from destitution; perhaps he has been long out of 
 
80 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 work ; bread is not to be found ; the children are crj^ing, 
 hungering, starving; the habitation has been stripped 
 of everj'thing which miglit procure a little nourishment. 
 The poor wretch, after passing through seas of trouble, 
 finds himself no nearer a landing-place than before, but 
 
 "Sees each day new straits attend, 
 And wonders where the scene will end." 
 
 Passing through the streets he is hardly able to keep 
 his feet from the pavement or his skin from the cold, 
 by reason of his tattered garments. Homeless and 
 friendless, life a leaf that is driven to and fro, he 
 says, " O God ! wilt thou continue this much longer? 
 Wilt thou not be pleased to stay thy rough wind, 
 mitigate the sharpness of the winter, ease my adversity, 
 and give me peace ? " 
 
 So, too, with those who are in tro^ible through bereave- 
 ment. One child has been taken away, and then 
 another. The shafts of death flew twice. Then came 
 sickness with threatening omen upon one that was 
 nearer and dearer still. Still did not the desolation 
 stay its gloomy portents. It seemed at length as 
 though the widow would be bereft of her last and only 
 child, and then she cried, " O God ! I am already 
 broken; my heart is like a ploughed field, cross- 
 ploughed, till my soul is ready to despair ! Wilt thou 
 utterly break mo ? Wilt thou spare me no consolations, 
 no props for my old age ? Must I be altogether driven 
 away before the whirlwind, and find no rest?" 
 
 Perhaps it is even more harassing in cases of mental 
 distress, for, after all, the sharpest pangs we feel are 
 not those of the body, nor those of the estate, but 
 those of the mind. When the iron enters into the 
 
A Frail Leaf, 81 
 
 goul, the rust thereof is poison. " The spirit of a man 
 will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who 
 can bear ? You may be surrounded with all the com- 
 forts of life, and yet be in wretchedness more gloomy 
 than death if the spirits be depressed. You may have 
 no outward cause whatever for sorrow, and yet if the* 
 mind be dejected, the brightest sunshine will not relieve 
 your gloom. At such a time, you may be vexed with 
 cares, haunted with dreams, and scared with thoughts 
 which distract you. You fear that your sins are not 
 pardoned, that your past transgressions are brought to 
 remembrance, and that punishment is being meted out 
 to you in full measure. The threatenings rise up out 
 of God's book, and seem to lift sharp swords in their 
 hands with which to smite you. Time is dreadful to 
 you, because you know^ it is hurrying you to eternity ; 
 and the thought of eternity stings as doth an adder, 
 because you measure the future reckoning by the pres- 
 ent distress. At such a time, when you are faint with 
 longing, ready to despair, driven to the yQrg<^ of mad- 
 ness, I can imagine your crying out, " O Lord God of 
 mercy, I am as a leaf that is driven to and fro ; wilt thou 
 quite break me, and utterly destroy me? Have compas- 
 sion, and show thy favor to thy poor broken creature ! " 
 Many a child of God may have used this, and if he 
 has not used it yet, still he may use it. There are 
 times when all our evidences get clouded, and all our 
 joys are red. Though we may still cling to the cross, 
 yet it is with a desperate grasp. God brings our sins 
 to remembrance, till our bones, as David puts it, " are 
 sore broken by reason of our iniquity." Then it is 
 that, all-broken, we can turn to the Strong for strength, 
 
82 Types and Emblems. 
 
 and use the plea of the text, " AYilt thou break a leaf 
 driven to and fro ? " and we shall get for our answer 
 these comforting words, " A bruised reed he will not 
 break, and smoking flax he will not quench." 
 
 I. The plea is such as arises from inward con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 What plea is more powerful to ourselves than that 
 which we draw from ourselves ? A man may not be 
 sure of aught that is without him, for eyes and ears may 
 deceive ; but he is always pretty well assured of any- 
 thing within him, for that which he perceives in his own 
 consciousness he is very tenacious about. ]^ow, in this 
 case, Job was quite certain about his own weakness. 
 How could he doubt that ? He looked upon his poor 
 body covered with sores, he looked upon his friends who 
 had perplexed and vexed him so much, and he felt that 
 he was, indeed, just like a sere leaf I do trust that 
 many of us have been brought by God the Holy Spirit 
 into such an humble frame of mind as to feel that, in a 
 certain sense, this is true of us : *' O God, if we know 
 ourselves aright, we are all like withered leaves ; we once 
 thought ourselves fresh and green ; we reckoned that 
 we were as good as others, so we made a tine and verdant 
 profession ; but lo ! thou liast been pleased to deal with 
 us, and all the fresh verdure of what we thought to be 
 our piety — the natural piety which we thought we pos- 
 sessed — has faded and withered, and now we are con- 
 vinced that we are altogether as an unclean thing, and 
 that all our righteousnesses are as filth}- rags. Nay, 
 the hope that we clung to as the leaf clings to the tree, 
 we have had to give up. AVe are blown away from that. 
 We were once upon the tree of good works ; we seemed 
 
A Frail Leaf. 83 
 
 as if we had life, and should always be happy there, but 
 the winds have taken us away, and we cannot hold on 
 to our hope. We once thought that we could do every- 
 thing ; we now perceive that without Christ we can do 
 nothing. We are cast forth as a branch separated from 
 the vine ; we are withered. What can a leaf do ? What 
 power has it to resist the wind ? Just so we feel now ; 
 we can do nothing ; even the sin that dwelleth in us, 
 like the wind, carrieth us away ; and we are like the 
 leaf in the wind, subject to its power. 
 
 O, my brethren, what a great blessing it is to be 
 made to know our weakness. To empty the sinner of 
 his folly, his vanity and conceit, is no easy matter. 
 Christ can easily fill him with wisdom and prudence, 
 but to get him empty — this is the work ; this is the 
 difficulty. To make a man know that he is in himself 
 utterty lost, ruined, and undone ; this is the Spirit of 
 God's own work. We ministers cannot make a man 
 see that, however diligently we may point it out ; only 
 the Spirit of God can enlighten the heart to discern it ; 
 and yet, until a man does see it, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven, for there are none within the pearly 
 gates w^ho were not once broken-hearted sinners. Who 
 could come there and sing, " Unto Him who loved us, 
 and washed us from our sins in his blood," but those 
 who once said, " Pardon mine iniquit}^, for it is great '{ " 
 While it is a confession of weakness, it is also an 
 acknowledgment of GocPs power to push that weakness 
 to a direful conclusion. " Wilt thou break me ? " says 
 the text — " Lord, thou canst do it. In one minute thou 
 couldst take away hope from every one of us now in 
 this house of prayer." Some there be who are in the 
 
8-i Ty])€s and Enihlems. 
 
 house of doom, where prayer can never be answered, 
 and where mercy's prochimation can never be heard. 
 God conk] break us. It is an easy thing for him to 
 destroy ; and more, he is not only able, but he has the 
 right to do it if lie wills, for we are such worthless 
 creatures through our disobedience, that we may say, 
 in the words of the hymn — 
 
 " If my soul were sent to hell, 
 Thy righteous law approves it well." 
 
 When we feel this, then let us make a proper use of 
 our own consciousness, not to despond and faint, but to 
 arise and go to our Father, so we shall come to God and 
 say, " Thou canst destroy me ; Thou mayest destroy 
 me justly, and I cannot resist thee. I cannot save my- 
 self from thy vengeance, nor can I merit anything at 
 thy hand ; I am as weak as water, and altogether as 
 perishing a thing as a poor withered leaf ; but wilt thou 
 destroy me? 1 plead for pity. Oh I have pity upon 
 me ! O God, let thy bowels yearn towards me, and 
 show me thy great compassion ! I have heard tliat 
 thou delightest in mercy ; and as Ben-hadad of old, 
 with the rope about his neck, sent in unto the king, and 
 confessed that he deserved to die, so do I confess ; and 
 as the king forgave him, even so do thou with me — a 
 guilty culprit trembling in thy presence ! 
 
 " Show pity, Lord ; O Lord, forgive ; 
 Let a repenting rebel live." 
 
 II. This is also a very pitiful plea. 
 
 Though there is weakness, yet there is also power, for 
 weakness is, for the most part, a prevalent plea with 
 those who are strong and good. You could not see on 
 your road home to-night a poor fainting woman, and 
 
A Frail Leaf. 85 
 
 pass her by, I trust. You could not have brought in 
 before your presence a half-starved child, that could not 
 drag its weary limbs along, without feeling that you 
 must give relief. The mere sight of weakness draws 
 pity. As a certain town was being sacked, one of the 
 rough soldiery is said to have spared a little child, be- 
 cause it said, " Please, sir, don't kill me, I am so little." 
 The rough warrior felt the cogency of the plea. You 
 may yourselves just plead thus with God. '' O God, do 
 not destroy me ! I deserve it, but oh, T am so little ! 
 Turn thy power upon some great thing, and let thy 
 bowels move with compassion towards me !" 
 
 The plea gathers force when the weakness is confessed. 
 If a man shall have done you some wrong, and shall 
 come and acknowledge it, and bow down before you and 
 confess it, why, then you feel that you cannot take him 
 by the throat, but you say, " Rise, I have forgiven 
 thee ! " When weakness appeals to strength for protec- 
 tion, and confession of guilt is relied on as an argu- 
 ment for mercy, those who are good and strong are 
 pretty sure to be moved with compassion. 
 
 But, best of all, going from the positive to the com- 
 parative, and from the comparative to the superlative, 
 ho7v a profession of loeakness touches your heart when it 
 comes from your child. If your child has been chastised, 
 and has confessed his wrong, and pleads with you, how 
 you stay your hand ! Or, if the child be sick, and some- 
 thing be done to it which pains it, if while the operation 
 is being performed he should look you in the face, and 
 say, " Father, spare thy child ; I can bear no more ! " 
 you have already felt more than you can make him 
 feel ; forthwith your own tears blind you, and you stay 
 
86 Types and Emblems. 
 
 your hand. " Like as a father pitieth his children, even 
 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." If you have 
 faith to bring your weakness before God with the sense 
 of a child towards him, you surely must prevail. Come, 
 then, you timid trembling children of your Father who 
 is in heaven, use this plea — " Wilt thou break a leaf 
 that is driven to and fro ?" 
 
 III. This PLEA IS RIGHTLY ADDRESSED. 
 
 It is addressed to God. As I thought it over, it 
 seemed to me as if I could use it to each Person of the 
 Blessed Trinity in Unity. Looking up to the great 
 Father of our spirits^ from whom every good and per- 
 fect gift Cometh down, it seemed to me that out of 
 weakness I could say to Him, ' Wilt thoic^ whose name 
 is Father, wilt thou break a leaf that is driven to and 
 fro ? Thou art the God that made us ; wilt thou utterly 
 destroy the earthen vessel which thou hast fashioned 
 on the wheel ? Thy name is ' Preserver of men ; ' wilt 
 Moi^ annihilate us, and break us into shivers? Hast 
 thou not revealed thyself as delighting in mercy ? Art 
 thou not the ' Lord God, merciful and gracious, pass- 
 ing by iniquity, transgression, and sin'? Hast thou 
 not said, ' Come, now, and let us reason together ; 
 though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as wool ; 
 though they be red as crimson they shall be whiter 
 than snow ? ' O God the Father of heaven, wilt thou 
 break a leaf that is driven to and fro ? " 
 
 And then, I thought I could address myself to the 
 hlessed Son of God, who is also our brother in human 
 flesh, and say to him. Wilt thou break — O thou "faith- 
 ful High Priest, touched with a feeling of our infirm- 
 ities" — '-' bone of our bone, and ilcsh of our flesh" — 
 
A Frail Leaf. 87 
 
 Brother of our soul, by whose stripes we are healed — 
 wilt thou break a leaf that is driven to and fro ? Nay» 
 by thy thorn-crowned head and thy bloody sweat, by 
 thy cross and passion, by thy wounds and thy death- 
 cry, thou canst not, wilt not be unmerciful and unkind. 
 Surely, they who in confidence turn to thee, and lay 
 hold upon thee, shall find that thy strength shall be 
 ready to help ; for though thine arm be strong to smite, 
 it is no less strong to save. 
 
 Again, it comes across me sweetly, " O blessed 
 Spirit ! couldst thoxh break a leaf that is driven to and 
 fro ? Thou art no eagle ; thou didst descend on Christ 
 in Jordan as a dove ; thine influences are soft and 
 soothing. Thy name is ' The Comforter ' : thou takest 
 of the things of Christ, not to blast us, but to bless us 
 therewith ; thou art not a destroying Spirit, but a 
 quickening Spirit, not a terrifying but an enlivening 
 Spirit ; wilt thou break a leaf that is driven to and fro V 
 
 Yea, I address thee, thou Triune God, thou who 
 art so full of mercy, and love, and grace, and truth, 
 that those who have known thee- best have been com- 
 pelled to say, " Oh, how great is thy goodness which 
 thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ! Oh, the 
 depths of thy lovingkindness ! " is it possible that 
 thou canst cast away a poor, broken-hearted trembler, 
 a poor, fearing, doubting one, who would fain be saved, 
 but who trembles lest he should be cast away ? 
 
 lY. This plea is backed up by many cases of 
 
 SUCCESS. 
 
 We will not give many, for we have not time ; but 
 there is one case which we may mention : There was a 
 woman whose life was exceedingly sorrowful. She was 
 
8S Types and Emblems. 
 
 an Eastern wife, and her husband had been foolish 
 enough to have a second mistress in the house. The 
 woman of whom we speak, a holy woman, a woman 
 of refined and delicate mind, a poetess, indeed, of no 
 mean order — this poor woman, having no children, 
 was the constant butt of her rival, whose sneering 
 spiteful remarks chafi'ed and chafed her. Her adver- 
 sary, it is said, " vexed her sore to make her afraid." 
 Though her husband was exceedingly kind to her, yet 
 as with a sword that cut her bones did she go continu- 
 ally. She was a woman of a sorrowful spirit, her spirit 
 beins: broken. Still, " she feared the Lord exceed- 
 ingly," and she went up to God's house, and it was in 
 God's house that she received, what was to her, per- 
 haps, the greatest blow of her life. If from her rival 
 that she received the harshest word, it was from the 
 High Priest of God that she received this hardest blow. 
 As she stood there praying, using no vocal sound, but 
 her lips moving, the High Priest — an easy soul, who 
 had brought his own family to ruin by his easiness — 
 little knowing her grief, told her that she was drunken. 
 A woman to whom the thought of such a sin would 
 have been bitter as gall, it must have smitten her as 
 with the chill blast of death, that God's priest had 
 said she was drunken. But, as you will all remember, 
 the Lord did not break the leaf that was driven to and 
 fro. To her there came a comfortable proinise. Ere 
 long that woman stood there to sing. The mercy of 
 God had made the barren woman to rejoice, and to 
 be the joyful mother of children. The song of the 
 Virgin Mary was modelled after the song of Hannah — 
 that memorable poem in which she sang of the Lord 
 
The Frail Leaf. 89 
 
 who had iilled the hungry with good things, while the 
 rich lie had sent empty away. In that case the Lord 
 did not break the leaf that was driven to and fro. 
 
 In after years — to take an example of another kind — 
 there was a king who had sinned desperately, slaying 
 God's servants with both hands. But he was taken 
 captive by a powerful monarch, and was thrown into 
 prison, such a noisome prison that he was among thorns, 
 in mental as well as in material darkness. Then, 
 troubled in spirit, tossed to and fro, and without power 
 to help himself, Manasseh sought unto the Lord, and 
 he found the Lord ; he prayed unto the Lord, and the 
 Lord heard him. Out of the low dungeo.n, he did not 
 break the leaf that was driven to and fro. 
 
 Take a later case, in our Saviours time. The picture 
 of those proud Pharisees hurrying into our Saviour's 
 presence a poor fallen woman is even now in your mind's 
 eye. Yes, sirs, she was taken in adultery. There was 
 no doubt of it ; she was " taken in the very act," and 
 there she stands — nay, she kneels, all covered with 
 blushes — before the man who is asked to judge her. 
 And 3^ou remember his words. He never said a word 
 to excuse her guilt : the Saviour could not and would 
 not condone her shame ; nor would he, on the other 
 hand, lend himself to crush the woman who had sinned ; 
 but he said — '-Where are those thine accusers? Go 
 and sin no more ! " Let his words come unto thee, poor 
 leaf, driven to and fro ! Oh, if there should be such a 
 leaf as that driven here to-night, driven in, perhaps, 
 by stress of weather ! Men despise you ; from your 
 own sex you get faint pity ; but, Jesus, when thou 
 
90 Types and Eiiiblems. 
 
 art appealed to, thou wilt not break such a leaf that is 
 driven to and fro ! 
 
 Shall I tell another story of the woman who came 
 behind the Master in the press, and stole a cure by 
 touching his garment ? She thought she would receive 
 a curse, but he said — "Be thou of good cheer; thy 
 faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace." It was 
 poor faith: it is very like unbelief; but yet it was re- 
 warded with a rich acceptance, for he will not bi-eak a 
 leaf that is driven to and fro. 
 
 Y. Once more, my text is a faint plea which 
 
 INVITES FULL SUCCOR. 
 
 " Wilt thou break a leaf that is driven to and fro ? " 
 O Job ! there is much wrapped up in what thou hast 
 said. 
 
 He meant this — " Instead of breaking it, thou wilt 
 spare it ; thou wilt gather it up ; thou wilt give it life 
 again." It is like that text, " A bruised reed he will 
 not break." Oh, it means more than that ; it means 
 that he will heal its bruises. " A smoking flax he will 
 not quench." That is good, but it means more. It 
 means that he will stoop down to him, and that with his 
 soft breath he will blow that smoking flax into a flame ; 
 he will not let it go out ; he will preserve its heat, and 
 make something more of it. O you, who are brought 
 to the very lowest of weakness ! use that weakness in 
 pleading with God, and he will retnrn unto you with 
 such a fulness of blessing that you shall receive the par- 
 don of sin ; you shall be accepted through the right- 
 eousness of Christ ; you shall be dear to the heart of 
 God : you shall be filled with his Spirit ; you shall be 
 blessed with all the fulness of God. 
 
The Frail Leaf. 91 
 
 My Lord is such a One that if a beggar asks a 
 penny of him he gives him gold, and if you a^k only 
 for the pardon of sins, he will give you all the covenant 
 blessing which he has been pleased so bounteously 
 to provide for the necessities of his people. Come, 
 poor guilty one, needy, helpless, broken, and bruised. 
 Come thou by faith, and let thy weakness plead with 
 God through Jesus Christ. 
 
 YI. We may use this plea — Many of us who 
 
 HAVE LONG KNOWN THE SaVIOUR. 
 
 Perhaps our faith has got to be very low. O Lord, 
 wilt thou destroy my little faith ? I know there is sin 
 in it. To be so unbelieving as I am is no little crime ; 
 but, Lord, I thank thee that I have any faith. It is 
 weak and trembling, but it is faith of thine own giving. 
 Oh, break not the poor leaf that is driven to and fro ! 
 
 It may be your hope is not very bright. You can- 
 not see the golden gates, though they are very near. 
 "Well, but your hope shall not be destroyed because it 
 is clouded. You can say, "Lord, wilt thou destroy 
 my hope because it is dim ? " No, that he will not ! 
 
 Perhaps you are conscious that you have not been 
 BO useful lately as you once were, but you may say, 
 "Lord, wilt thou destroy my usefulness because I 
 have been laid aside, or have not done what I ought 
 to have done in thy service ? " Bring your little graces 
 to Christ as the mothers brought their little children, 
 and ask him to put his hands upon them and to bless 
 them. Bring your mustard-seed to Christ, and ask 
 him to make it grow into a tree, and he will do it ; 
 but never think that he will destroy you, or that he 
 will destroy the w^orks of his own hand in you. 
 
92 Types and Emblems. 
 
 Oh ! that I could so preach as to give the comfort to 
 you which I felt in my own soul while musing over 
 these words ! I wish that some who feel how lost, 
 how empty, and how rained they are, could now believe 
 in the great and the good heart of my Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Little do they know how glad lie will be to save them. 
 You will be glad to be saved ; but he will be more glad 
 to save you. You will be thankful to sit at the feast; 
 but, of all that come to the banquet, there is no heart so 
 glad as the heart of the king. When the king came in 
 to see the guests, I know there were gleams of joy in 
 his face which were not to be found in the faces of any 
 of the guests. He has the joy of benevolence. Per- 
 haps you have sometimes felt a thrill of pleasure when 
 you have done some good to your poor fellow-creatures. 
 IN'ow, bethink ye what must be the joy of Christ, the joy 
 of the Father, and the joy of the Holy Spirit — the joy 
 of doing good to those who do not deserve it, the joy 
 of bestowing favors upon the wicked and the unthank- 
 ful, the joy of showing that he doeth good because he 
 is good — not because you are good, but because he is 
 good ; thus the Lord God will overleap the mountains 
 of your sins and your prejudices, and the rivers of your 
 iniquities, that he may come unto you and display the 
 full tide of his lovingkindness and his tender mercy. 
 
 Oh ! that some might be now for the first time 
 drawn to Jesus, put their trust in him, and find par- 
 don and peace. 
 
Clje Jdmtt. 
 
 " And for a helmet, the hope of salvation." — 1 Thess. v. 8. 
 
 HE very mention of a helmet may well serve to 
 
 REMIND EVERY CHRISTIAN THAT HE IS A 
 SOLDIER. 
 
 I. If you were not soldiers, you would not 
 need armor ; but, being soldiers, you need to be 
 clad from head to foot in armor of proof. I suppose 
 every Christian knows, as a matter of theory, that he is 
 a Christian soldier, and that he has been enlisted under 
 the banner of the cross, to fight against the powers of 
 darkness until he wins the victory. But, we all need 
 to have' our memories refreshed upon this matter, for 
 soldiering in time of war, at any rate, is not a very 
 pleasant occupation, and the flesli constantly attempts 
 to give it over. That " we have no abiding city here " 
 is a truth we all admit, and yet the most of us try to 
 make the earth as comfortable to ourselves as if it 
 were to be our abiding residence. We are all soldiers, 
 we know that ; but, still, too many Christians act as if 
 they could be the friends of the world and the friends 
 of God at the same time. ]N"ow, Christian, recollect 
 once for all that you are a soldier. Did you dream, 
 
94 Types and EmUems. 
 
 joiing man, that as soon as you were baptized, and 
 added to the church, the conflict was all over ? Ah, it 
 was then just beginning. Like Caesar, you then 
 crossed the Rubicon, and declared war against your 
 deadly enemy. You drew your sword then ; you did 
 not sheathe it. Your proper note on joining the church 
 is not one of congratulation, as though the victory were 
 won, but one of preparation ; for now the trumpet sounds, 
 and the fight begins. You are a soldier at all times, 
 Christian. You ought to sit even at your table as a 
 soldier sits, and you should go out, especially into the 
 world, as a soldier goes out. !N'ever take off your armor, 
 for if you do, in some unguarded moment you may 
 meet with serious wounds. But, keep your armor ever 
 about you, and be watchful, for you are always in the 
 midst of enemies wherever you may be. Even when the 
 persons who surround you are your friends, there are 
 still evil spirits unseen of men who watch for your halt- 
 ing. You must not put up your sword, for you are to 
 wrestle against principalities, and powers, and spiritual 
 wickedness in high places ; against these 3'ou must ever 
 be on the watch. You are a soldier, man ; remember that. 
 Nor are you a soldier in barrracks, or at home, but 
 you are a soldier in an enemy^s country. Your place 
 is either in the trenches or else in the thick of the bat- 
 tle. You who are sick are like soldiers in the trenches. 
 You are patiently hoping and quietly waiting, as it 
 were, upon the ramparts, looking for the time to come. 
 But, others of you, out in business and engaged in the 
 concerns of life, are like soldiers marching in long file 
 to the conflict, like the horsemen dashing on to the 
 front of the battle. More or less, according to your 
 
The Helmet, 95 
 
 circumstances, you are all exposed to the foe, and that 
 at every period of life. 
 
 Where are you, let me ask, but in the country of an 
 enemy who never gives any quarter ? If you fall, it is 
 death. The world never forgives the Christian ; it 
 hates him with a perfect hatred, and it longs to do him 
 ill. Only let the world see you commit half a trip, and 
 they will soon report and magnify it. What might be 
 done by other men without observation, if it were done 
 by a Christian, would be noticed, reported, and mis- 
 represented. The world understands that you are its 
 natural antagonist. Satan perceives in you a represent- 
 ative of his old enemy the Lord Jesus, and you may rest 
 assured that he will never give you quarter if once he 
 gets an opportunity of destroying you. Mind the ene- 
 my, mind the enemy, for he is one of a malicious spirit. 
 
 You have to fight with one too v:)ho never yet made 
 a truce. Yoxh may come to terms and parley, but the 
 powers of evil never do. You may hang out the white 
 flag if you like. The foe may seem for a time as 
 though he gave you credit, but do you never give your 
 foe any credit. He hates you when he seems to love 
 you best. '' Dread the Greeks, even when they bring 
 you gifts," said the tradition of old ; and let the Chris- 
 tian dread the world most when it puts on its softest 
 speeches. Stand, then, upon your guard, ye warriors 
 of the cross ; when least you fear, the cringing foe will 
 come behind you, and stab you, under the pretence of 
 friendship. Your Master was betrayed with a kiss, 
 and so will you be, unless you watch unto prayer. 
 
 You have to do with an enemy loho never can make 
 any peace with you^ nor can you ever make any peace 
 
96 Ty^pes and Emblems. 
 
 with Mm. If YOU become at peace with sin, sin has 
 conquered you ; and it is impossible, unless you give 
 up the fight, and yield your neck to everlasting thral- 
 dom, that there should ever be peace for so much as a 
 moment. O Christian, see how guarded you ought to 
 be. How needful to be clothed with your armor! 
 How needful to have it of the right kind, to keep it 
 bright, and to wear it constantly ! You are a soldier, 
 a soldier in battle, a soldier in the foeman's country, a 
 soldier with a cruel and malicious enemy, who knows 
 neither truce nor parley, and who gives no quarter, 
 but will fight with you till you die. Heaven is the 
 land where your sword should be sheathed ; there 
 shall you hang the banner high, but here we wrestle 
 with the foe, and must do so till we cross the torrent 
 of death. Eight up to the river's edge must the con- 
 flict be waged. Foot by foot, and inch by inch, must 
 all the land to Canaan's happy shore be won. Xot a 
 step can be taken without conflict and strife ; but, once 
 there, you may lay aside your helmet, and put on your 
 crown; put away your sword, and take your palm- 
 branch ; your fingers shall no longer need to learn 
 to war, but your hearts shall learn the music of the 
 happy songsters in the skies. This then is the first 
 thought — you are a soldier. 
 
 II. The second thought is this — bein'g a soldiee 
 
 LOOK to TOUK head. 
 
 Soldiers, look to your heads. A wound in the head 
 is a serious matter. The head being a vital part, we 
 need to be well protected there. The heart needs to 
 be guarded with the breastplate, but the head needs to 
 be protected quite as much ; for even if a man should 
 
The Helmet. 97 
 
 be true-hearted, jet, if a shot should go through his 
 brain, he would not be worth much as a soldier ; his 
 body would strew the plain. The head must be taken 
 care of. A great many Christian people never trouble 
 themselves about defending their heads at all. If they 
 get their hearts warmed by their religion they think 
 that quite enough. Well ; give me above everything 
 else a good warm heart; but, oh, do have that warm 
 heart coupled with a head that is well taken care of. 
 Do you know that with a hot head and a hot heart 
 together you may do a deal of mischief, but with a hot 
 heart and a cool brain you may do a world of service 
 to the Master. Have right doctrine in the head, and 
 then set the soul on fire, and you will soon win the 
 world. There is no standing in that man's way whose 
 head and heart are both right, but to neglect the head 
 has been a serious mischief with many Christians. They 
 have been almost powerless for usefulness because they 
 "have not taken care of their brains. Though they have 
 got to heaven, they have not gained many victories on 
 the road, because their brains have been out of order. 
 They have never been able clearly to understand the 
 doctrines ; they have riot been able to give a reason for 
 the hope that is in them ; they have not, in fact, looked 
 well to the helmet which was to cover their heads. 
 
 The text refers us to our head because it speaks of a 
 helmet, and a helmet is of no use to any part except, 
 the head. Among other reasons why we should pre- 
 serve the head in the day of battle, let us give these. 
 The head is peculiarly liable to the temptations of 
 Satan, of self, and of tame. It is not easy, you know, 
 to stand on a high pinnacle without the brain beginning 
 
98 Types and Emblems. 
 
 to reel ; and if God takes a man, and puts him on a 
 high pinnacle of usefulness, he had need to have his 
 head taken care of. If a brother is possessed of a con- 
 siderable amount of wealth, there is great danger to 
 his soul by reason of his possessions, unless he have a 
 wealth of grace as well as a wealth of gold. If a man is 
 well reported of, though his sphere may not be very 
 large, yet, if everybody praised him, he also will need to 
 have his head well protected, for a little praise would 
 soon make him giddy. The clapping of hands of fools 
 would be enough for a fool to pique himself on. The 
 fining-pot for silver, and praise for the man. If a man 
 can stand commendation, he can stand anything. The 
 severest trial which a zealous Christian has to bear is, 
 probably, the trial wliich comes from his kind but in- 
 considerate friends, who would puff him up if they could 
 by telling him what a fine fellow he is. If your friends 
 without will not cheer you, you will probably find a 
 friend within who will flatter you to your heart's con- 
 tent ; and, if you should forget to ask for your meed, the 
 devil will remind 3^ou that it is your due. "What a 
 capital sermon you gave us this morning, Mr. Bunyan," 
 said a friend, where John had been preaching. "You 
 are too late," said Bunyan, " tlie devil told me that before 
 I came out of the pulpit." Yes, and he will be sure to 
 do so ; and hence the need of having a helmet to put on 
 the head, that when you are successful, and getting on 
 in life, and friends are speaking well of you, you may 
 not get intoxicated with it. Oh, to have a good, cool 
 helmet to put on your brain when it begins to get a 
 little hot with praise, so that you may still stand fast, 
 and not be borne down by vanity. O Vanity, Vanity, 
 
The Helmet. 99 
 
 Yanit}', how many hast thou slain ! How many who 
 seemed upon the very brink of greatness have stumbled 
 upon this stumbling stone ! Men who seemed as though 
 they would enter heaven, but a little bit of honor, some 
 glittering bribe, a golden boon, has turned them aside, 
 and they fell. Take care of you heads, brethren. 
 
 And is not the head liaUe to attacks from scepticism ? 
 People who have no brains are not often troubled with 
 doubts, but people who have brains have probably felt 
 that, whether they resolved to use them or not, their 
 brains would use themselves. It was very good of our 
 good fathers to tell us not to read dangerous books, 
 very good of them indeed ; but, we do read them, for 
 all that ; and, though we tell the young folks sometimes 
 not to read this and that heretical treatise, and we wish 
 they would take our advice, yet, somehow or other, 
 they do get hold of such things, and will ponder them. 
 Brethren, I do believe that, in such times as these, 
 when everything is so free, and when discussion is so 
 common, we must expect that our young fellows will 
 look at a great many things which they had better 
 leave alone, and their heads will be endangered thereby, 
 for the ballets of scepticism threaten to go right through 
 their brains. Well, what then ? As we cannot take 
 Christians out of the wa}^ of the bullets, we should give 
 them a helmet to preserve them therefrom. He who 
 has a hope of salvation — a good hope that he is himself 
 saved, a hope that he shall see the face of Christ with 
 joy at last — is not afraid of any of the paltry quibbles 
 of scepticism. He may hear them all, and for a moment 
 be staggered by them, as a soldier might be who had a 
 sudden shock or even a wound, but after a little while 
 
JQO Types and Ernblems, 
 
 he recovers himself, and feels sound enough to enter 
 into the conflict as^ain. Thus the Christian in armor 
 proof can say — 
 
 " Should all the forms that men devise 
 Assault my faith with treacherous art ; 
 I'd call them vanities and lies. 
 And bind the gospel to my heart." 
 
 It has been very well observed that a man is not often 
 a very thorough democrat after he gets a little money in 
 the savings bank. Well, I think it is very likely, so 
 soon as a man gets a little stake in his country's welfare, 
 he begins to be just to the merest extent conservative. 
 And, no sooner does a man get a stake in Christianity, 
 and feel, that he has got salvation in Jesus Christ, than 
 he gets to be verj^ very conservative of the old-fash- 
 ioned truth. He cannot give up the Bible then, because 
 it is a broad land of wealth to him. He cannot give 
 up Christ, for he is his Saviour, his salvation. He 
 cannot give up a single promise, because that promise 
 is so dear to his own soul. The helmet of salvation, 
 then, will preserve the head in times of scepticism. 
 
 The head, again, is very greatly in dangery>6>m the 
 attacks of personal unhelief. Who among us has not 
 doubted his own interest in Christ ? Happy for you who 
 are free from such distractions. But, there are seasons 
 with some of us when we turn our title-deeds over, and 
 we are sometimes afraid lest they should not be gen- 
 uine. There are times when, if we could, we would give 
 a world to know that we are Christ's, for we cannot 
 
 " Read our title clear 
 To mansions in the skies." 
 
 Well, beloved, this is very dangerous to our heads; 
 
The EelmeL 101 
 
 but the mail who has got the helmet of a right, sound, 
 God-given hope of salvation, who has received from 
 God the Holy Spirit such a helmet as I am going to 
 describe by-and-by, may be of good cheer. These 
 doubts and fears may distress him for a little while, 
 but he knows the precautions advised for his safeguard, 
 as he is neither timid nor rash. In the midst of 
 Satan's accusations, the uprising of his old corruptions, 
 the infirmities of the flesh, and the allurements of the 
 world, he stands calm and unmoved, because he wears 
 as a helmet the hope of salvation. 
 
 JSTor are these all the dangers to which the head is 
 exposed. Some persons ai^e attaclied hy threatenings 
 from the world. The world brings down its double- 
 handled sword with a tremendous blow upon the heads 
 of many Christians. " You will suifer the loss of all 
 things for Christ if you are such a fanatic as to believe 
 the Bible and consort with the saints. You will be 
 poor yourself, your children will want bread, your wife 
 will be worse than a widow, if you are such a fool." 
 " Ah," says the Christian, " but I have a hope of salva- 
 tion." So the blow, when it comes, does not go through 
 his head, but just falls on the helmet^ and the world's 
 sword gets blunted. " I can afford to be poor," said 
 Dr. Gill, when one of his subscribers threatened to 
 give up his seat, and would not attend, if the doctor 
 preached such-and-such a doctrine. So says the Chris- 
 tian, " I can afford to be poor; I can afford to be de- 
 spised ; I have in heaven a better and more enduring 
 substance." So, by the use of this blessed helmet, he 
 is protected from the threatenings of the world. 
 
 We want our young people to wear this helmet, too, 
 
102 Types and Emblems. 
 
 hecanse of the error's of the times.'''' The errors of tlie 
 times are many. What with scepticism, and with super- 
 stition, they are tempted on the one side and on the 
 other. This and that new book or old fable is cried np. 
 *' Lo here," and " Lo there.'' By unscrupulous authors 
 and by designing priests there will be many misled 
 who are not the people of God. " If it were possible, 
 they would deceive the very elect." But the elect are 
 not to be deceived. Their heads are not vulnerable to 
 these errors, for they wear the hope of salvation, and 
 they are not afraid of all the "isms" or schisms that 
 aggrieve the professor and aggravate the profane. 
 The man knows he is saved. Once get to know Christ 
 personally for yourselves, to believe that he loved you 
 and gave himself for you, and to rejoice that you are 
 forgiven and justified through him, then, though the 
 world will count you stupid and obstinate, you will 
 stand firm, and be able to resist all its sarcasm and its 
 ridicule. He who has made a refuge of Jesus Christ 
 will stand safe whatever errors may invade the land. 
 
 They tell us that the Church of God is in great dan- 
 ger, because Popery will overspread the country. 
 Peradventure it should ; that it will overspread the 
 Church of God — no; I know far better than that. 
 The Church of God can never be in danger. Every 
 man in whom is the life of God would be as ready to 
 • die to-morrow for the truth as our forefathers w^ere in 
 the Marian days. Rest assured there would be found 
 men to stand at the burning faggot still if the times 
 required tliem, and our prisons would not long be 
 without heavenly-minded tenants of the truth needed 
 to be defended by suffering, even unto death. There 
 
The Helmet. 103 
 
 is danger, great danger ; there neA^er was such danger 
 in modern times of Popery overspreading the land as 
 now. But there is no danger to the man who has his 
 helmet on. Let the arrows fly thick as hail, and let 
 the foes have all the political power that they can, 
 and all \\iq jprestige of antiquity that they may ; a little 
 phalanx of true-hearted Christians will still stand their 
 ground in the very centre of the onslaught, and cut 
 their way to glory and to victory through whole hosts, 
 because their heads are guarded with the heavenly 
 helmet of the hope of salvation. Soldiers of Christ, 
 take care of your heads. 
 
 III. God has provided a covering for your heads, 
 let us therefore now consider the helmet with which 
 He would have youk heads protected. 
 
 *' The hope of salvation ! " This is not the hope we 
 sometimes speak about, the hope that salvation is 
 possible which may encourage every sinner to knock, 
 to seek, to ask — yea, to pray importunately for mercy. 
 This helmet is made up of an actual hope that, being 
 already saved in Christ Jesus, you should abide unto 
 eternal life. It is a personal hope, founded upon per- 
 sonal conviction, and is wrought in us by the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 To begin, then, describing this helmet. Who is its 
 giver ? You ask our friend the soldier where he gets 
 his regimentals from, and he answers that he gets 
 them from the government stores. He gets his regi- 
 mentals from Her Majesty, and from the monarch 
 himself we must get our helmets. If any of you con- 
 struct helmets of hope for yourselves, they will be of 
 no use to you in the day of battle. The true helmet 
 
KM Types and Emhlems, 
 
 of hope must come from the heavenly arsenal. You 
 must go to the Divine store-house, for unto God be- 
 longeth salvation, and the hope of salvation must be 
 given to you by his free grace. A hope of salvation 
 is not purchasable. Our great King does not sell his 
 armor, but gives it freely to all who enlist. They 
 take the bounty and accept the faith. They trust 
 Christ, and they are enlisted, then the armor is given 
 them gratis. From head to foot they are arrayed 
 by grace. , 
 
 Do you ask, who is maker of this helmet ? Weap- 
 ons are valued often according to the maker. A known 
 maker gets his own price for his articles. Armorers 
 of old took much trouble with the ancient helmets, 
 because a man's life might depend upon that valuable 
 means of defence. So we have here the name of God 
 the Holy Ghost upon this helmet. A hope of salvation 
 is the work of God the Holy Spirit in our soul. It is 
 the Spirit who brings us to Jesus, shows us our need of 
 him, and gives us faith in him ; and it is that same 
 Spirit who enables us to hope that we shall endure to 
 the end, and enter into eternal life. Be not satisfied 
 with a hope that is natural, but have a hope that is 
 supernatural. Rest not satisfied with that which is 
 made in the workshop of nature ; go not to those who 
 buy and sell for themselves, but go to the blessed 
 Spii'it, who giveth freely, and upbraideth not. 
 
 Would you inquire further, of lohat metal this helmet 
 is made ? It is made of hope, we are told ; but it is 
 of the utmost consequence that it be a good hope. Be- 
 ware of getting a base hope, a helmet made of paltry 
 metal. There were some helmets they used to wear in 
 
The Helm-eL 105 
 
 the olden times which looked very well, but they were 
 of no more use than brown paper hats ; and when a sol- 
 dier got into a light with one of these on, the sword 
 went through his skull. Get a good helmet, one made 
 of the right metal. This is what a Christian's hope 
 is made of — he believes that Christ came into the world, 
 to save sinners; he trusts Christ to save him ; and he 
 hopes that when Christ comes he shall reign with him ; 
 that when the trumpet sounds he shall rise with Christ, 
 and that in heaven he shall have a secure dwelling- 
 place at the right hand of the Father. This hope is 
 made up of proper and fitting deductions from certain 
 truthful statements. That Christ died for sinners is 
 true ; that he died to save all who trust in him is true ; 
 that I trust in him is true ; therefore, that I am saved 
 is true ; and, being saved, that I shall inherit all his 
 promises is a matter of course. Some people have a 
 hope, but they do not know where they get it from, nor 
 do they know a reason for it. "When people die, you 
 hear it said of one and another, " I hope he is gone to 
 heaven." "Well, I wish he may have gone ; but I dare 
 not say of some that I hope so, because hope must have 
 a reason. An anchor is of no use without its fluke. It 
 must be able to hold fast. It must have— at any rate, 
 the modern anchor must have — some weight about it 
 with which it can hold to the bottom. Hope must have 
 its fluke, too ; it must have its reason ; it must have its 
 weight. "When I say I hope so-and-so, I am foolish for 
 hoping it, if I have not a reason for hoping. If you 
 were to say you hoped the person sitting next you would 
 give you a thousand pounds, it would be a most absurd 
 hope. You may wish it if you like, but what ground 
 6* 
 
106 Types and Emhleras, 
 
 have you for the hope ? But if somebody owes you a 
 thousand pounds, and you have his acknowledgment 
 of the debt, you may then very well say that you hope it 
 will be paid, for you have a legitimate right to expect 
 it. Such is the Christian's hope. God has promised to 
 save those who believe. Lord, I believe it ; thou hast 
 promised to save me, and I hope thou wilt, I know 
 thou wilt. The Christian's hope hope is not a fancy, 
 not a silly desire. It did not spring up in the night 
 like Jonah's gourd, nor will it wither in a night. The 
 Christian's hope is something that will bear a hard blow 
 from a heavy club, or a smart cut from a sharp sword. 
 It is made of good metal. John Bun^-an said of a cer- 
 tain sword that it was ** a true Jerusalem blade," and 
 I ma}^ call this a true Jerusalem helmet, for he that 
 wears is need not fear. 
 
 Having shown the metal of which the nelmet is made, 
 let me now describe the strength of the helmet. It 
 is so strong, that under all sorts of assaults, he who 
 wears it is invulnerable. Recollect David, when pressed 
 with the troubles of the world on every side. His 
 enemies thought they had certainly ruined him. He 
 himself half thought he should die, and he tells us tliat 
 he should have fainted. And likely enough he would, 
 only he had a bottle of cordial with him of which faith 
 w^as the main ingredient. He says,"/ had fainted 
 unless I had helieved^ But, just at the time when he 
 thought he would faint and die, he revived. Suddenly 
 the old hero that slew Goliath, made all his enemies 
 fly before him as he cried, "Why art thou cast down, 
 O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me ? 
 Hope thou in God." And he laid about him right and 
 
The Helmet. 107 
 
 left, as he should. " I shall yet praise him who is tlie 
 health of my countenance and my God." " Hope thou 
 in God," Christian. Oh, that blessed word Hope! 
 You know what the New Zealanders call hope ; they 
 call it in their language " the swimming thought," 
 because it always floats and never sinks. You cannot 
 drown it; it always keeps its head above the wave. 
 When you think you have drowned the Christian's 
 hope, up it comes all dripping from the brine, and cries 
 again, '' Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him ! " 
 Hope is the nightingale that sings in the night ; faith 
 is the lark that mounts up towards heaven ; but hope 
 is the nightingale that cheers the valley in the dark- 
 ness. O Christian, be thankful that you have so strong 
 a helmet as this, which can bear all assaults, and can 
 keep you unscathed in the midst of the fray ! 
 
 This hope of salvation is a helmet which will not 
 come off. It is of main importance, you know, to have 
 a helmet that cannot be knocked off in the first scrim- 
 mage. That is why our policemen are dressed differ- 
 ently from what they used to be, because their hats 
 used to get knocked off. So it is with a commonplace 
 hope, it fails him in an extremity ; but the Christian 
 wears a helmet that he cannot get off anyhow\ There 
 was once a good soldier of Jesus Christ — a woman — 
 some women are among the best soldiers of Christ ; 
 his true Amazons. This good woman had been much 
 harassed by a sceptical person; and when very nmcli 
 confused with some of his knotty questions, she turned 
 round and said, '* I cannot answer you, sir, but neither 
 can you answer me, for I have a something within me 
 that you cannot understand, which makes me feel that 
 
lOS Types and Emblems. 
 
 I could not give up what I know of Christ for all the 
 world." The world can neither give nor take awaj 
 the hope of a Christian. It comes from God, and he 
 will never withdraw it, for his gifts and calling are 
 without repentance. Once let this helmet be put on, 
 and he will never remove it, but we shall hope on and 
 hope ever, until we shall end these struggles, see his 
 face, and reap his promises. 
 
 I should like to go round amongst this regiment, as 
 the commanding officers sometimes do, to have a look 
 at you. The helmet is an old-fashioned kind of armor. 
 In old days, the lieutenants and other officers, when 
 they went round the regiment, used to look, not only 
 to see that the men had their helmets, but to see that 
 they had oiled them ; for in those times they used to 
 oil their helmets to make them shine, and to keep the 
 various joints and buckles in good order. Xo rust 
 was ever allowed on the helmets, and it is said that 
 when the soldiers marched out, with their brazen 
 helmets and their white plumes, they shone most bril- 
 liantly in the sun. David speaks, you know, of " anoint- 
 ing the shield." lie vvas speaking of a brazen shield 
 which had to be anointed with oil. Kow, when God 
 anoints his people's hope, w^hen he gives them the oil 
 of joy, their hope begins to shine bright in the light 
 of the Saviours countenance, and what a fine array of 
 soldiers they are then ! Satan trembles at the gleam- 
 ing of their swords ; he cannot endure to look upon 
 their helmets. But some of you do not keep your 
 hope clear ; you do not keep it bright ; it gets rusty and 
 unfit for use, and then, ere long, it gets to sit uncom- 
 fortably upon you, and you get weary with the fight. 
 
The Helmet. 109 
 
 Holy Spirit, anoint our heads with fresh oil, and let 
 thy saints go forth terrible as an army with banners. 
 
 Do not let it be overlooked that the helmet was gen- 
 erally considered to he a place of honor. The man 
 put his plume in his helmet, he wore his crest fre- 
 quently there, and in the thick of the fight the captain's 
 plume was seen in the midst of the smoke and dust of 
 battle, and the men pressed to the place where they saw 
 it. IN'ow, the Christian's hope is his honor and his glory. 
 
 1 must not be ashamed of my hope ; I must wear it for 
 beauty and for dignity, and he who has a right good 
 hope will be a leader to others. Others will see it, and 
 will light with renewed courage ; and w^here he hew^s a 
 lane of foes, they will follow him, even as he follows 
 his Lord and Master, who has overcome, and sits down 
 upon his Father's throne. I hope there are many 
 Christians here w^ho keep their helmets bright, and 
 that there are many more who desire to have such 
 helmets to protect themselves and to grace their pro- 
 fession. 
 
 lY. Alas ! there are some who have no helmets. 
 The reason is obvious. Thej^ are not Christ's soldiers. 
 
 Of course the Lord Jesus does not provide anybody 
 with armor but those in his own service. But Satan 
 knows how to give you a helmet too. His helmets are 
 very potent ones. Though the sword of the Spirit can 
 go right through them, nothing else can. He can give, 
 and he has given some of you, a head-piece that covers 
 your entire skull — a thick head-piece of indifference ; so 
 that no matter what is preached, you heed it not. 
 " What do I care? " say you, and that is your helmet. 
 
 Then he puts a piece in the front of the helmet called 
 
110 Types and EmUems. 
 
 a brazen, forehead and a hrow of brass. " What do I 
 care ? '* was your cry. He takes care to fit the hehnet 
 right over your eyes, so that you cannot see; yea, 
 though hell itself be before you, you do not see it. 
 " What do I care ? " Then, he also knows how so to fit 
 the helmet that it acts as a gag to your mouth, so that 
 you never pray. Though you can swear through it, 
 you cannot pray through it. Still you keep to your 
 old cr}^, " What do I care ? " 
 
 Ah, it is not very likely that any sword which I 
 wield will get at your head! Arguments will not 
 move you, for that is a question that cannot very well 
 be argued — " What do I care ? " I pray God the Holy 
 Spirit to get at your head, notwithstanding that hor- 
 rible helmet ; for, if not, God has a way of dealing 
 with such as you are. When you come to die, you 
 will sing another song ! When you come to lie upon 
 a bed of sickness, and the grim day of eternity is in 
 view, you will not be able to say quite so gayly as you 
 do now, " What do I care ? " And, when the trumpet 
 rings through earth and heaven, and your body starts 
 up from your grave, and you see tlie great Judge upon 
 his throne, you will not be able to say then, " What 
 do I care ? " Your head will then he bare to the piti- 
 less tempest of divine wrath. Bare-headed, you must 
 be exposed to the everlasting storm that shall descend 
 upon you. And, when the great angel binds you up 
 with your fellows in bundles to burn, you will feel that 
 you are not able to say, " What do I care 1 " for cares 
 will come upon you like a wild deluge, when you are 
 banished from his presence, and all hope is gone ! 
 
 Oh, I would you would take off that helmet ! May 
 
The Helmet, 111 
 
 God grant yon grace to unbuckle it now, never to put 
 it on again ! Do care. You are not a fool, my friend, 
 are you? It is only a fool who says, "What do I 
 care?" Surely you care about your soul ; surely hell 
 is worth escaping from ; surely heaven is worth win- 
 ning ; surely that cross on which our Saviour died is 
 worth thinking of; surely that poor soul of yours is 
 worth caring about ! Do, I pray you, think, and not 
 go hastily on. Oh, may Jesus Christ, who died for 
 such as you are, bring you to trust him ; and then, 
 unbuckling all that evil armor of " What do I care ? " 
 you will bow before his cross, and kiss his hands, and 
 he will put upon you the golden helmet of a hope of 
 salvation, and you will rise, one of the King's own sol- 
 diers, to fight his battles, and win an immortal wreath of 
 everlasting victory. May it be so with every one of us. 
 
#nt Cropljg for Cluo ^fploits. 
 
 ' For by thee I have run through a troop ; and by my God have 
 I leaped over a wall." — Psalm xviii. 29. 
 
 T sometimes puzzles the unenlightened believer 
 a)il to find that the Psalms often relate both to 
 &f^ David and to David's Lord. Many a young 
 believer has found himself quite bewildered 
 when Teading a psalm ; and he has scarcely 
 been able to make out how a passage should be true 
 both of David and of the Lord Jesus Christ, " our 
 Superior King." This he cannot understand. But he 
 who is grown in grace, and has got far enough to 
 understand the meaning of conformity to Christ, sees 
 that it is not without a high and heavenly design that 
 the Holy Ghost has presented to us the experience of 
 Jesus in that model of experience through which 
 David passed. My dear brethren, we all know as a 
 matter of doctrine, but we have not all proved as a 
 matter of sweet experience, that we are to be like our 
 Head. AVe must be like him upon earth ; like him 
 despised and rejected by men in our generation : like 
 him bearers of the cross. Yea, we must not shrink in 
 any way from what is meant by being crucified with 
 him, and buried with him, in order that we may know 
 
One Trophy for Tioo Exploits. 113 
 
 in after days how to rise with him, how to ascend with 
 him, and how to sit with him upon his throne. Nay, 
 I will go further; even in this life the believer is to 
 have a conformity to Christ in his present glories, for 
 we are even now raised up together in heavenly places 
 in Christ Jesus; in him also we have obtained the 
 inheritance, for we are complete in him who is the 
 head of all principality and power. There is such a 
 conformity between Christ and his people that every- 
 thing that is said of Christ may, in some measure, be 
 said of his people. Whatever Christ hath been, they 
 should be or have been. Whatever he hath done, he 
 hath done for them, and they shall do the like, after 
 some fashion or another. Whatever he hath attained 
 unto, they shall also enjoy. If he reigneth, they shall 
 reign ; and if he be heir of a universal monarchy, they 
 shall also be kings and priests unto God, and shall 
 reign for ever and ever. Thus the riddle becomes 
 solved; the parable is expounded; the dark saying 
 that was opened on David's harp shines clearly in gos- 
 pel light. You can see not only how it is possible 
 that the same psalm can relate to David and David's 
 Lord ; but you can see that there is a divine mystery, 
 and a most rich and precious lesson, couching beneath 
 the fact that the Holy Ghost hath chosen to set forth 
 the doings, the sufi'erings, and the triumphs of Christ, 
 under the figure or model of the doings, sufferings, 
 and victories of the son of Jesse. You will not, there- 
 fore, be surprised to hear me remark that this text hath 
 relation to Christ and the believer too. The doings 
 and triumphs of Jesus must, accordingly, first engage 
 our attention ; and, in the second place, observe that 
 
114r Types and Emhhms. 
 
 we have here a picture of the wondrous doings of faith, 
 when the believer is enabled to triumph over every 
 earthly ill, and over every human opposition. *' By 
 thee I have run through a troop ; and by my God 
 have I leaped over a wall." 
 
 I. Let us take the first sentence with regard to Christ. 
 " By thee have 1 run through a troop'." How accu- 
 rately Christ's enemies are here described, described by 
 their number, they were a troop. The Captain of our 
 salvation, although single-handed in the combat, had to 
 fight with a legion of foes. It was not a mere duel. It 
 is true there was but one on the victor's side, but 
 there was an innumerable host in antagonism to him. 
 Not only the Prince of Darkness, but all the powers 
 and the principalities thereof, came against him. Not 
 sin in the mass, but sin in daily temptations of every 
 kind, and sin of every shade and form. Not only from 
 earth a host of human despisers and human oppo- 
 nents, but a yet greater host from the lowest depths of 
 hell. These, from their number, are well compared 
 to a troop. 
 
 Nor does this expression describe their number 
 merely, but also their discipline. They were a troop. 
 A crowd of men is a great number, but it is not a troop. 
 A crowd may be far sooner put to rout than a troop. 
 A troop is a trained company that knows how to march 
 and marshal itself, and to stand firm under the attack. 
 It was even so with Christ's enemies. They were a 
 crowd and a mob ; but they were a troop also, marshal- 
 led by that skilful and crafty leader, the Prince of Dark- 
 ness. They stood firm, and were well disciplined, and in 
 a close phalanx ; they were not broken. As though they 
 
One Trophy for Two Exploits. 115 
 
 were but one man they sustained the shock of Christ's 
 attack, and marched against him, hoping for victory. In 
 such character do his opponents appear. However well 
 you might discipline a crowd of men, yet they would 
 not become a troop unless also they have been trained 
 in warfare. A troop means a body of well-disciplined 
 men, all of them prepared to fight, and understanding 
 how to make war. Thus, all Christ's enemies were well 
 trained. There was the Archfiend of Hell, who in hun- 
 dreds of battles against the Lord's elect in the olden 
 time had gotten a thorough knowledge of all the weak 
 points of manhood, and understood how to temper his 
 attack, and wherein lay the greatest chances of victory. 
 After him were all the fiends of the pit, and these were 
 all well exercised, each of them mighty, of giant stature 
 like Goliath — all of them mighty to do great exploits 
 with any man less than God, however mighty that man 
 might be. And as for sin, was it not a mighty thing ? 
 Were not our sins all of them mighty to destroy ? The 
 least one amons^ the sins that attacked Christ would 
 have been sufficient to destroy the human race ! and yet 
 there were tens of thousands of these, well disciplined, 
 ranged in order, and all thoroughly prepared for battle. 
 All these came on in dread array against our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. It was a troop. I have not 
 overdrawn this, for Calvin translates this term "a 
 wedge," for in his day it was customary in battle for the 
 soldiers to form themselves into a wedge-shape, so that 
 when they attacked the enemy the first man made an 
 opening, though befell; the next two advanced, and 
 then after them the three, and as the wedge widened it 
 broke the ranks of the enemy. So it seemeth as though 
 
116 Types and Emblems. 
 
 the Hoi}' Spirit would here describe the regular tiii'd 
 well-directed attack which the enemy of man's soul 
 made upon Christ. He came against him in settled 
 order. It was no rush of some wild Tartar host against 
 the Saviour, it was a well-arranged and well-regulated 
 attack ; and yet, glory be to his name, he broke through 
 the troop, and ran through them more than a conqueror. 
 Another old and eminent commentator translates the 
 term troop by the old Greek term a phalanx, to show 
 again how strong, how mighty, how great and powerful 
 were the enemies of Christ. It will often be of excellent 
 use to us for the stimulation of our faith, and for the 
 excitement of our gratitude, if we recollect the might 
 of the enemies of Christ. When we undervalue the 
 strength of his enemies, we are apt to under-estimate 
 his omnipotence. We must go through the ranks of 
 his foes, and look the ghastly opponents in the face ; we 
 must march through the long lines of our sins, and look 
 at the hideous nionsters, and see how mighty they are, 
 and how powerless all human strength would have been 
 to resist them ; and then shall we learn in an ample 
 measure to estimate the might and the majesty of the 
 glorious Son of God, when, all unarmed and unassisted, 
 he ran through the troop and put them all to the rout. 
 Several different eminent expositors of God's Word 
 give divers interpretations of this sentence, each sug- 
 gesting afresh meaning, and helping to bring out that 
 which is certainly true, if not the precise meaning of the 
 passage. One good translator says this verse might be 
 rendered, " By thee have I ran to a troop ; '• and takes 
 this to be the sense. Our Saviour is represented to us 
 as not waiting till his enemies came to him, but running 
 
One Trophy for Two Exploits. 117 
 
 to them, willingly and voluntarily resigning himself to 
 their attack. He did not wait till Judas should come to 
 the upper room and salute him in the chamber as he sat 
 at supper ; neither did he tarry on his knees in that ter- 
 rible agony of his in the olive grove ; but he went forth 
 to meet Judas. Judas had come forth with swords and 
 with staves to take him as a thief; but he sought not 
 to make an escape. " He went forth unto them, and 
 said unto them, whom seek ye ? " Thus did he manifest 
 both his willingness to undertake our redemption, and 
 also his courage in facing the foe. There was at one 
 time a human fear which seemed as if it would hold him 
 back from the battle, when he said, " Oh, my Father, if 
 it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; " but this once 
 expressed, the Holy One of Israel anointed him with 
 fresh courage, and to the battle he walked with slow, 
 majestic steps. He would not wait till they rushed on 
 him ; but he would take the initiative, and begin the 
 fight. He had come upon them in the garden ; and now 
 already with his own blood see the conquering hero 
 rushes to the fight, and dashes through the troop. But 
 look what divine mercy, what holy courage is here 
 found in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he ran to our 
 enemies. 
 
 " Down from the shining courts above 
 With joyful haste he fled ; 
 Entered the grave in mortal flesh, 
 And dwelt amohg the dead." 
 
 He ran to a troop. But our version hath it, " He ran 
 through a troop ; " and this is also exceedingly accurate, 
 if you couple with it the idea which you will find in the 
 marginal readings of your Bibles. " By thee have I 
 hroTcen through a troop." Christ made a dash at his 
 
118 Types and Emblems. 
 
 foes. They stood firm, as if tliey would not flinch before 
 him, but his terrible right hand soon found for him a 
 way. They imagined when his hands were nailed to the 
 cross that now he was powerless ; but that nail was the 
 very symbol of his omnipotence, for in weakness was he 
 strong. The bowing of Uis head, which they perhaps 
 thought to be the symbol of his defeat, was but the 
 symbol of his victory ; and in dying he conquered, in 
 suffering he overcame. Every wound that he received 
 was a death-blow to his enemies, and every pang that 
 rent his heart was as when a lion rendeth the prey, 
 and Christ himself was rending them when they 
 thought that they were rending him. He ran through 
 a troop. 
 
 It will do your souls good if you have imagination 
 enough to picture Christ running through this troop. 
 How short were his sufferings comparatively ! Com- 
 pare them with the eternal weight of punishment and 
 misery which we ought to have endured. What a 
 stride was that which Jesus took when he marched 
 right through his enemies, and laid them right and left, 
 and gained himself a glorious victory. Samson, when 
 he grasped the jaw-bone of an ass, slew his thousand 
 men, and said, *' Heaps upon heaps with the jaw-bone 
 of an" ass have I slain a thousand men," did it all in 
 haste, and then threw awa}^ the jaw-bone, as if it were 
 but little he had done. And even so our mightier 
 Samson, meeting with the hosts of sin, and death, and 
 hell, laid them all in heaps ; and then crying out " It 
 is finished," he seemed as strong and mighty as if he 
 had not endured the fatigues of the fight, or suffered 
 the horrors of death, and was ready, if they required 
 
Oiie Trophy for Two Exploits. 119 
 
 it, to meet them all again, and give them another 
 defeat. " By thee have I run through a troop." 
 
 There is yet another version. " By thee have I run 
 after a troop." After our Saviour had met and fought 
 with his antagonists, and conquered them, they fled. 
 But he pursued them. He must not simply defeat, but 
 take them prisoners. There was Old Captivity. You 
 know his name. He had been the oppressor of the 
 human race for many and many a day, and when Christ 
 routed him he fled. But Jesus pursued, and binding 
 him in adamantine chains, "' He led captivity captive, 
 and gave gifts to man." He pursued the troop, and 
 brought back old Satan in chains, bound him in fetters, 
 slew grim death, and ground his iron limbs to powder, 
 and left his enemies no more at large to wander where 
 they will, but subject to his divine power and to his 
 omnipotent sway. He ran after a troop, and took 
 them prisoners. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the most striking thing in our 
 text is the combination of those two little words, " by 
 thee." What, did not Christ fight and obtain victory 
 by his own innate strength ? Did not the Son of God, 
 the Redeemer, find strength enough within himself to 
 do all that was necessary for us? It would not be 
 heterodox if I were to assert that it was even so. And 
 yet in Scripture you will constantly find that the con- 
 descension of Christ is eminently pointed out to us in 
 the fact that, as the servant of God, and as our Re- 
 deemer, he is continually spoken of as being strength- 
 ened, assisted, and animated by his Father and the Holy 
 Spirit. Especially will you notice this in the Book of 
 Mark. The Evangelist Mark speaks of Christ through 
 
120 Types and Emblems. 
 
 the whole of his book as a servant. Each of the Evange^ 
 lists has a distinct view of Christ. Matthew speaks of 
 him as a king, Mark as a servant, Luke as a man, and 
 John as God. Now, in reading through Mark, you 
 will observe, if jou take the trouble to read it carefully, 
 the recurrence of such phrases as this — " And imme- 
 diately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.'' 
 This follows close on his baptism, when the Holy Ghost 
 descended on him as a dove. And then, when he 
 came up to Nazareth, we read that, as a servant, Christ 
 needed anointing as well as any other ; and, when he 
 begins to preach, his text is, " The Spirit of the Lord 
 is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the 
 gospel to the poor, and hath sent me to heal the broken- 
 hearted." Now, I take it this is a very eminent in- 
 stance of the condescension of our Divine Master, that 
 he in all things was made like unto his brethren ; and, 
 as they are utterly powerless without the Holy Spirit, 
 and without the Father's drawing can do nothing, so 
 Jesus Christ did, as it were, divest himself of his own 
 Divine power, and, as our brother, he fraternized even 
 with our infirmities. Thus he was strengthened, 
 helped, and assisted by his Father and by the Holy 
 Spirit. Hence, it is strictly accurate to remark that 
 even Christ himself could subscribe to this sentence 
 — " By thee have I run through a troop." 
 
 Does it seem to you, beloved, to lower your hope in 
 the person of Christ ? At first sight it may seem so. 
 But, think again ; there is much rich consolation here. 
 O, my soul, learn that thou hast not only God the 
 Son to be thy helper, but that thou hast God the 
 Father and God the Spirit also ! Oh, 'tis sweet to see 
 
One Troj}hy for Two Exploits. 121 
 
 that in redemption itself, where we are too apt with 
 our poor blind ejes to see but one person of the Trin- 
 ity — in redemption itself the triune Jehovah was 
 engaged. If this is not the view of the work of 
 redemption which is commonly taken, I am sure it is 
 Scriptural. It is true that the Son paid the penalty, 
 and endured the agony ; but still it was his Father 
 who, while smiting him with one hand, sustained him 
 with the other ; and it was the Spirit who, wrapping 
 him about with zeal as with a cloak, and inflaming his 
 soul with divine ardor, enabled him to dash through 
 his enemies, and become more than a conqueror. This 
 sweetens redemption to me. The Father and the Holy 
 Ghost also are engaged and interested on my behalf. 
 Our Kedeemer is the Holy One of Israel — the Lord 
 of Hosts is his name. "We may say of the three per- 
 sons of the Divine Trinity that each of these is our 
 Kedeemer, because they have all brought to its full 
 completion the grand work of our redemption from 
 the power of sin, and death, and hell. " By thee 
 have I run through a troop." My soul, lift up thine 
 eyes ere thou turnest from this passage, and see all 
 thy sins forgiven in the person of Christ. Look there, 
 and behold the old dragon's head broken ; see death 
 pierced through with one of his own shafts. See how 
 the old serpent drags along his mangled length, writh- 
 ing in his agony, for " The Lord Jehovah is our 
 strength and our song ; he also has become our salva- 
 tion ; " and, in him, and through him, and by him, 
 we have broken through a troop, and are more than 
 conquerors. 
 
 Let us now take the second sentence, " By my God 
 6 
 
122 Types and Emblems. 
 
 have I leaped over a wall." How is this to be under- 
 stood ? I think that David, if we take this as allud- 
 ing to David, is here described as having stormed and 
 taken some strongly-munitioned and well-walled city. 
 He had by the power of God taken the strength from 
 the inhabitants of Jebus, and so he had leaped over a 
 wall. But we are not now speaking of David but of 
 Christ. In what sense can we say that Jesus Christ 
 has stormed a wall ? " By my God have I leaped 
 over a wall." I must be allowed to be figurative for 
 a few minutes. The people of the Lord had become 
 the slaves of Satan, and that they might never more 
 escape from his power, he had put them into his strong- 
 hold, and had walled them round about, that they 
 might be his perpetual captives. There was, first of 
 all, the tremendous bulwark of sin, gathering strength 
 from the law, with its ten massive towers mounted 
 with ten hundred pieces of ordnance, in the shape of 
 threatenings of destruction. This wall was so high 
 that no human being has ever been able to scale it ; 
 80 terrible, that even the omnipotence of God had to 
 be exercised before it could be removed. Next to this 
 there was a second rampart ; it was the rampart of 
 diabolical insinuation and satanic suggestion. Satan 
 had not only allowed the law to stand so as to keep 
 the soul in despair, but had added to this his own 
 determination that he would not leave a stone unturned, 
 might he but keep the human race in his own power. 
 Thus hell made the second rampart, while it seemed 
 as if heaven had built the first. Outside thereof was 
 a deep ditch, and then another mound, called Human 
 Depravity. This, as we must observe, was as difiicult 
 
One Trophy for Tivo Exploits. 123 
 
 to be stormed as either of the others. Man was des- 
 perately set on mischief. He would be a sinner, let 
 what might be said to him or done for him. He would 
 seek greedily with both hands to work out his own 
 destruction ; and that love of destruction which was 
 in his heart constituted one of the great barriers to his 
 salvation. Now, Christ Jesus came, and he leaped 
 over all these walls. He came, and in your redemp- 
 tion he broke through the law. Nay, he did not break 
 through it, he mounted it, he scaled it. The law of 
 God stands to this day as fast and firm as ever ; not a 
 stone has been taken down ; not one of its castles has 
 been dismantled ; there it stands in all its awful maj- 
 esty, but Christ leaped over this. He paid the penalty, 
 endured the wrath, and so he took his people out of 
 the first ward of the law. Whereas, after this came a 
 second, the wall of Satan's fell determination to keep 
 them prisoners. Christ our Lord and Master dashed 
 this into a thousand pieces, springing the tremendous 
 mine of his covenant purposes, and throwing the whole 
 mass into the air, and there it was destroyed once and 
 for ever ; no more to hold the people of God in cap- 
 tivity and bondage. The last wall which he had to 
 overleap, in order to get his people thoroughly free, 
 and bring them out of the stronghold of sin and Satan, 
 was the wall of their own depravity. This, indeed, it 
 were hard work to storm. Many of his ministers first 
 of all went into the stronghold and tried to storm it; 
 but they came away defeated. They found that this 
 was too strong for all human battering rams. They 
 hammered at it with all their might, but there it stood, 
 resisting the shock, and seeming to gather strength 
 
124: Types and Emhlems. 
 
 from every blow that was ineant to shake it. But, at 
 last, Jesus came, and using nothing but his cross, as 
 the most powerful battering ram, he shook the wall 
 of our depravity and made a breach and entered in, 
 and let his people out into that liberty wherewith he 
 had made them free. Oh, how sweet it is to think of 
 Christ thus leaping over the walls. He would have 
 his people. He came down to earth and was with 
 them in all their misery, and took upon him all their sin. 
 He determined to enter in. and save them from the 
 dungeon. He made his own escape and brought them 
 with him. He not only came himself through sin, 
 and death, and hell triumphant, but brought all his chil- 
 dren on his shoulders, as JEneas did his old father An- 
 chises. The whole generation of the elect was redeemed 
 in that hour when Christ leaped over every wall. 
 
 Thus, have I tried to expound to you the text as 
 relating to the person of our blessed Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. I would only repeat the remark once 
 more, that in this verse it is said, " By my God have I 
 done it." As mediator, in his official capacity, and in 
 his service for our redemption, he received the strength- 
 ening assistance and aid of his Divine Father, and he 
 could truly say, " By my God have I leaped over a 
 wall." It will do thee good, O believer, if thou wilt 
 often stay and look at thy Saviour accomplishing all his 
 triumphs. O my soul, what wouldst thou have done if 
 he had not broken through a troop, if he had not routed 
 them ? Where wouldst thou have been ? Thou wouldst 
 at this hour have been the captive of sin, and death, 
 and hell. All thy sins would now be besetting thee, 
 howling in thine ear for vengeance. Satan, with all the 
 
One Tro^phy for Two Exploits, 125 
 
 hosts of hell, would be now guarding thee, determining 
 thou shouldst never escape. Oh, how joyous is this fact, 
 that he had once for all routed them, and now we are 
 secure. Then, my soul, bethink thee, what wouldst 
 thou have done if he had not leaped over a wall ? Thou 
 wouldst have been dead this day, shut within the ram- 
 part of thine own hard heart, or within the stronghold of 
 Satan, and with the mighty fiends of hell thou wouldst 
 have been trebly guarded and trebly enslaved. Now 
 thy fetters are all broken, as " a monument of grace, a 
 sinner saved by blood." Lift up thy heart, and thy 
 hands, and thy voice, and shout for joy and for gladness, 
 *' He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars 
 of iron in sunder." He hath leaped over a wall, and 
 brought thee out of thy prison-house. 
 
 This brings me now to the second part of my dis- 
 course, and I must ask your patience, and pray again 
 for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, that in this espe- 
 cially Christ's people may find a word of edification. 
 We are now to regard our text as being the language of 
 the believer. He can say, " By thee have I run through 
 a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall." I 
 shall divide my text after another fashion on this second 
 point. I shall note, first, with regard to the believer, 
 his trials— how varied ! Sometimes it is a troop of 
 enemies ; at another time a wall of difiiculties. When 
 a man has one labor to accomplish, he soon begins to 
 be skilful in it. If he is to be a soldier, and fight a 
 troop, at length he learns how to get the victory. But, 
 suppose that his labors are varied ; after fighting a troop 
 he has to go clambering over a wall, then you will see 
 the critical situations by which he is embarrassed. Now, 
 
126 Tyjpes and Emblems, 
 
 this aptly pictures the position of God's people ; the 
 Spirit is continually varying our trials. There is no 
 one day's trials that are exactly like the trials of another 
 day. TVe are not called to one undeviating temptation, 
 or else it would cease to have its force ; but the tempta- 
 tions are erratic — the darts are shot from different direc- 
 tions, and thestones come from quite opposite quarters. 
 This is well set out in one of the Lord's parables. He 
 speaks of the trials of the righteous thus : — There was a 
 certain wise man who built his house upon a rock, and 
 the rains descended — trials from above ; and the floods 
 came — trials from beneath ; the winds blew — mysterious 
 trials from every quarter ; and they all beat upon that 
 house, and it fell not. Trials of every shape attend the 
 followers of the Lamb. " A Christian man is seldom long 
 at ease ; when one trial's gone another doth him seize." 
 The archers come against us, and we receive their fiery 
 darts ; anon the company of swordsmen come, and we 
 rebuke them ; and then the slingers sling their stones 
 against us, and then the company of spearsmen ; so that 
 we must be armed at all points, and ready for every 
 kind of attack. Our Saviour in this was like to us. He 
 says to us in one place, " Dogs have compassed me — that 
 was bad enough — but the bulls of Bashan have beset 
 me round ; that was not all, they gaped upon me with 
 their mouths, as a raving and a roaring lion." Only 
 fancy that ! A man has to fight with dogs, and then to 
 fight with bulls, and then with lions. And yet, this is 
 just the Christian's state. We cannot guess from the 
 trials of the past what will be the trials of the future ; 
 we think it is to be all fighting, but we are mistaken ; 
 some part of it is to be climbing over this or that wall, 
 
One Trophy for Two Exploits. 127 
 
 and anon make way throngh obstructions tliat will not 
 yield. Now, I have known God's people sometimes try 
 to break throngh a wall, and sometimes try to climb over 
 a troop. This is very absurd. If they have had a 
 troop of spiritual enemies, they have tried to climb over 
 them, and endeavor to escape them. At another time 
 they have had a difficult trial like a w^all, and they have 
 been so headstrong they must try to go through it. Ah ! 
 w^e have much to learn. Some things we must light 
 through, others we must climb over. It is not always 
 right for the child of God to let his courage get the bet- 
 ter of his discretion. Let him have courage for the 
 troop to run through them, and discretion for the wall, 
 and not try to run throngh that, or he will break 
 himself in pieces. There are exercises and trials in 
 various ways. The believer's trials — how varied ! And, 
 next to this, notice his faith — how unflinching ! 
 
 There is the troop, he runs through them ; there is 
 the wall, he is ready for that — he leaps over it. He 
 finds that his faith is sufficient for every emergency. 
 When his God is with him there is difficulty too great 
 for him ; he does not stop to deliberate — as for the troop, 
 he runs through that ; and then there is a wall at the 
 other end — he takes a leap and is over that. So when 
 God enables our faith, when the Holy One of Israel is 
 -with us, and the strength of Omnipotence girds our 
 loins, difficulties are only the- healthy exercise of our 
 faith. God will exercise faith. There is not a single 
 grain of faith in the breast of any living believer that is 
 not exercised. God will not allow it to sleep — a sleep- 
 ing faith, a dormant faith, I believe such a thing don't 
 exist. If thou hast faith, my brother, expect labor ; for, 
 i6* 
 
128 Types and Emblems. 
 
 as sure as God gives faith, he will put it into the gym- 
 nasium and make it exercise itself; sometimes dashing 
 at a troop, and then trying its limbs another way, no 
 more to exercise its arm in fighting, but its knees in 
 prayer ; to climb over a hill ; all sorts of exercises to 
 keep our faith in order that we may be ready for any 
 exercise, whatever it may be. Some men seem as if 
 they only had to meet one form of trial. They remind 
 me of the Indian Fakir ; he holds his arm straight up ; 
 that is the triumph of his strength. Now, God does 
 not exercise a believer's limbs till they grow stiff; but 
 he exercises them in every way, that they may become 
 supple, so that, come what may, he is ready to achieve 
 any exploit. 
 
 With faith, how easy all exploits become ! When 
 we have no faith, then to fight with enemies and over- 
 come difficulties is hard work indeed ; but, when we 
 have faith, oh, how easy our victories ! What does 
 the believer do? There is a troop — well, he runs 
 through it. 'Tis but a matter of morning exercise. 
 There is a wall. What about that ? Does he climb 
 over with hands and knees, as a long, hard task, put- 
 ting up a ladder on one side, and pulling it over on the 
 other? It is amazing how easy life becomes when a 
 man has faith. Does faith diminish difficulties ? Oh, 
 no ! it increaseth them ; but it increaseth his strength 
 to overcome them. If thou hast faith, thou shalt have 
 trials ; but thou shalt do great exploits, endure great 
 privations, and get triumphant victories. Have you 
 ever seen a man made mighty through God ? But 
 have you ever seen him in an hour of desertion ? He 
 goes out like Samson to meet the Philistines. " Oh ! '* 
 
One Trophy for Two Exploits. 129 
 
 sajs he, " I will shake myself as at other times." But 
 his locks have been shorn, and when the cry is raised, 
 "The Philistines are upon thee, Samson," he shakes 
 his limbs with vast surprise, makes feeble light, and 
 loses his eyes. They are put out, and he returns in 
 blindness. 
 
 But, when God is with him, see what the believer can 
 do. They have weaved the seven locks of his head 
 with a web, and he takes and carries the loom away. 
 Anon they bind him with seven green withs that have 
 never been tried. All things are possible to him that 
 believeth ; nay, not only possible, but easy, when God 
 is with him. He laughs at impossibilities, and says it 
 shall be done, for faith can do all things. *' By my God 
 have I run through a troop ; by ray God have I leaped 
 over a wall." And yet, though the victories of faith are 
 thus easy, we must call to mind that these victories 
 always are to be traced to a divine source. That man 
 who takes the credit of his victories to himself hath no 
 faith, for faith is one of the self-denying graces. Faith 
 called a parliament of all the graces, and passed a 
 self-denying ordinance. It decreed that whatever 
 any of the graces did it should give all the glory of it 
 to God. Christ once upon a time took the crown off 
 his own head, and put it on the head of faith. " When 
 was that?" say you. Why, Christ healed the poor 
 woman, and therefore it was HE who deserved the 
 crown ; but, saith he, '' Thy faith hath saved thee ; go 
 and sin no more." He thus put the crown upon faith. 
 What was the reason ? Why, because faith always puts 
 its crown on the head of Christ. True faith never 
 wears its own crown. It says, " Kot unto me, but 
 6* 
 
130 Types and EnibUms. 
 
 unto thj name, Lord, be all the glory." This is the 
 reason why God has selected faith to achieve such 
 mighty victories ; because faith will not allow the 
 glory or honor to cleave to its own wings, but shakes 
 off all self-praise, just as Paul did the viper into the 
 fire. Faith says, " IRo, no. Give me not thanks, or 
 praise, or honor. I have done nothing." Faith will 
 have it not only that it does nothing, but that Christ, 
 which dwelleth in it, has done it all ; and faith has 
 been known to say, " I want none of your palms, ye 
 belong to Christ, not to me." It will have nothing to 
 do with honor, Christ must have every atom of it. 
 
 And now, my dear friends, there is one consolation 
 with which I will close this sermon. The psalmist 
 says, " By thee have I run through a troop ; and by 
 my God have I leaped over a wall." I think if he were 
 here at this time he would permit me to add, " And by 
 my God shall I leap over a wall, and by thee shall I 
 break through many a troop." What faith has done 
 once by its God, it can do again. We have met Satan 
 once in the battle-field, and when he chooses to attack 
 us once more that old Jerusalem blade that gave him 
 a bitter blow once is ready to give him another. That 
 shield which once caught his fiery darts is still unbroken, 
 and still prepared to receive another portion of them 
 when he chooses to hurl them. Martin Luther, you 
 know, often used to defy Satan to battle. I care not 
 to do that ; but he used to say, in his queer, quaint way, 
 *' I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing makes 
 him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell 
 him that through God I am more than a match for 
 him ; tell him to do his worst, and yet I will beat him ; 
 
Orte Trophy for Two Exploits, 131 
 
 and tell liim to put forth his fury, and yet I will over- 
 come him." This would be presumption if in our own 
 strength. It is only faith in the providence of God 
 that can enable us to say so. He that has made God 
 his refuge need fear no storm ; but just as sometimes 
 in Christmas weather the wind and snow and storm 
 outside make the family fire seem warmer, and the 
 family circle seem happier, so the trials and temptations 
 of Satan do sometimes seem to add to the very peace 
 and happiness of the true believer while he sits wrap- 
 ped up in the mantle of godly confidence. 
 
 " Let cares like a wild deluge come, 
 And storms of sorrow fall ; 
 May I but safely reach my home. 
 My God, my heaven, my all." 
 
 And when we know that we shall reach our home, 
 even the storms or the tempests matter but little. 
 Come, poor believer, pluck up thy courage. I have 
 tried to give thee some strong meat. Feed upon it. 
 As the Lord Jesus Christ had a troop to face, and 
 broke through them, so shalt thou. Even as he over- 
 came, so shalt thou overcome. Did he enter heaven, 
 and is there a long cloud of witnesses streaming in 
 behind him, every one a warrior ? So if thou art 
 his warrior thou shalt be one of that long stream ; 
 thou shalt also wear a crown, and wave the palm, and 
 sing a song of victory, and talk of triumph purchased 
 through the blood of, and achieved through faith in, 
 the Lamb. 
 
 I must pause one moment while I address myself to 
 those who know nothing of God, and nothing of Christ. 
 Well, my hearers, you have a troop too, and you have 
 
132 Types and Emhlems, 
 
 your walls of difficulty ; but you have no God to help 
 you ! Whatever trials the believer has, he has a God 
 to fly to. " Look," said a poor woman to a lady who 
 called to see her, '' Look, ma'am, I'll show you all I'm 
 worth. Do you see that cupboard, ma'am ? Look in." 
 The lady looked in, and saw nothing. " Do you see 
 this cupboard?" said the woman. "Yes," said the 
 lady, " but there is nothing in it but a dr}^ crust." 
 " Well," continued the woman, " do you see this chest ?" 
 "Yes, I see it; but it is empty," was the reply. 
 " Well," said she, " that is all I am worth, ma'am ; 
 but I have not a doubt or fear with regard to my tem- 
 poral affairs. My God is so good that I can still live 
 without doubts and fears." She knew what it was to 
 break through a troop and leap over a wall. Kow, 
 perhaps, there are some of you with cupboards just as 
 empty as that poor woman's ; but, you cannot add, " I 
 have a God to go to." O miserable creature — miser- 
 able if you are rich, thrice miserable if you are poor — 
 to be like a packhorse in this life, carrying a heavy 
 burden, and then not to be unloaded at the grave, but 
 to have a double burden laid upon you. O poor men 
 and women without Christ — with the few comforts 
 which you have in this life, with its many privations, 
 with its hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, oh, that 
 you should not have a better world to go to ! Above 
 all, it seems a miserable thing that you should go 
 through poverty here to a place where a drop of water 
 shall be denied you to cool your burning tongue ! If 
 Christ is precious to the rich on earth, you must think 
 that there is a peculiar sort of relish with which the 
 poor man feeds on the bread of heaven. But, you say, 
 
One Trophy for Two Exploits. 133 
 
 " May I not have a hope of heaven ? " Assuredly, 
 my friend. Dost thou long for Christ this moment ? 
 Then, he longs for thee. Dost thou desire to have 
 him? Then he gives thee that desire. Come thou 
 to him, for the word of the gospel is, " Whosoever 
 will, let him come and take of the water of life 
 freely." None are excluded ; none but those who do 
 themselves exclude. The invitation is free. May the 
 application be effectual ! Oh, that some of you may 
 be led to go to your houses now, and on your knees 
 ask for forgiveness of sin, and seek that you may 
 become the children of God, through faith in the pre- 
 cious blood once shed for many for the remission of sins. 
 
€\xhi tlje %xu of lift 
 
 '* In tlie midst of tlie street of it, and on either side of the 
 river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of 
 fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the 
 tree were for the healing of the nations." — Revelation xxii. 2. 
 
 OU will remember that in the first Paradise 
 there was a tree of life in the midst of the 
 garden. When Adam had offended, and was 
 driven out, it was said, " Lest he put forth his 
 hand, and take of the tree, and eat, and live 
 for ever, therefore God drove out the man." It has 
 been supposed by some, that this tree of life in the 
 garden of Eden was intended to be the means of con- 
 tinuing man in immortality, that his feeding upon it 
 would have supported him in the vigor of unfailing 
 youth, preserved him from exposure to decay, and 
 imparted by a spiritual regeneration, the seal of per- 
 petuity to his constitution. I do not know about that. 
 If it were so, I can understand the reason why God 
 would not have the first man, Adam, become immortal 
 in the lapsed state he then was, but ordained that the 
 old nature should die, and that the immortality should 
 be given to a new nature, which should be formed 
 
Christ the Tree of Life, 135 
 
 under another leadership, and quickened by another 
 spirit. 
 
 The text tells us that in the centre of the new Para- 
 dise, the perfect Paradise of God, from which the saints 
 shall never be driven, seeing it is to be our perpetual 
 heritas^e, there is also a tree of life. But here we trans- 
 late the metaphor. We do not understand anything 
 literal at all. We believe our Lord Jesus Christ to be 
 none other than that tree of life, whose leaves are for 
 the healing of the nations. We can scarcely conceive 
 of any other interpretation, as this seems to us to be so 
 full of meaning, and to afford us such unspeakable 
 satisfaction. 
 
 At any rate, beloved, if this be not the absolute pur- 
 pose of the sublime vision that John saw, it is most 
 certainly true that our Lord Jesus Christ is life from 
 the dead, and life to his own living people. He is all in 
 all to them, and by him, and by him alone must their 
 spiritual life be maintained. We are .right enough, 
 then, in saying that Jesus Christ is a tree of life, and 
 we shall so speak of him, in the hope that some may 
 come and pluck of the fruit, and eat, and live for ever. 
 Our desire shall be so to use the sacred allegory that 
 some poor dying soul may be encouraged to lay hold 
 on eternal life, by laying hold on Jesus Christ. 
 
 First, we shall take the tree of life in the winter with 
 no fruit on it ; secondly, we shall try to show you the 
 tree of life hudding and hlossoming ; and, thirdly, ive 
 shall endeavor to show you the way to partake of it^ 
 fruits. 
 
 I. And first, my brethren, I have to speak to yon 
 of Jesus Christ, the tree of life in the winter. 
 
136 Types and Erablems. 
 
 You will at once anticipate that I mean by this figure 
 to describe Jesus in his sufferings^ in his dark wintry 
 days, when he did hang upon the cross, and bleed, and 
 die ; when he had no honor from men, and no respect 
 from any; when even God the Father hid his face 
 from him for a season, and he was made a curse for us, 
 that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 him. My dear friends, you will never see the tree of 
 life aright, unless you first look at the cross. It was 
 there that this tree gathered strength to bring forth its 
 after-fruit. It was there, we say, that Jesus Christ, by 
 his glorious merits and his wondrous work achieved 
 upon the cross, obtained power to become the Redeemer 
 of our souls, and the Captain of our salvation. 
 
 Come with me, then, by your faith, to the foot of the 
 little mound of Calvary, and let us look up and see this 
 thing that came to pass. Let us turn aside as Moses did 
 when the bush burned, and see this great sight. It is 
 the greatest marvel that ever earth, or hell, or heaven 
 beheld, and we may well spend a few minutes in be- 
 holding it. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus, the ever-living, the immortal, the 
 eternal, became man, and, being found in fashion as a 
 man, he humbled himself, and died the death of the 
 cross. That death was not on his own account. His 
 humanity had no need to die. He might have lived 
 on, and have seen no death if so he willed. He had 
 committed no offence, no sin, and therefore no punish- 
 ment could fall upon him. 
 
 " For sins not his own 
 He died to atone." 
 
 Every pang upon the cross was substitutionary ; and 
 
Christ the Tree of Life, 137 
 
 for you, ye sons of men, the Prince of Glory bled, the 
 just for the unjust, that he might bring you to God. 
 There was no smart for himself, for his Father loved 
 him with a love inefiable ; and he deserved no blows 
 from his Father's hand, but his smarts were for the sins 
 of his enemies, for your sins and mine, that by his 
 stripes we might be healed, and that through his 
 wounds, reconciliation might be made with God. 
 
 Think, then, of the Saviour's death upon the cross. 
 Mark ye well that it was an accursed death. There 
 were many ways by which men might die, but there 
 was only one death which God pronounced to be ac- 
 cursed. He did not say — Cursed is he that dies by 
 stoning, or by the sword, or by a millstone being fast- 
 ened about his neck, or by being eaten of worms, but 
 it was written — " Cursed is every one that hangeth on 
 a tree." By no other death than that one, which God 
 did single out as the death of the accursed, could Jesus 
 Christ die. Admire it, believer, that Jesus Christ 
 should be made a curse for us. Admire, and love ; let 
 your faith and your gratitude blend together. 
 
 It was a death of the most ignominious kind. The 
 Koman law subjected only felons to it, and I believe not 
 even felons, unless they were slaves. A freed Koman 
 must not so die, nor a subject of any of the kingdoms 
 that Rome had conquered, but only the slave who 
 was bought and sold in the market could be put to 
 this death. They counted him worthy to be sold as a 
 slave, and then they put him to a slave's death for you. 
 Besides, they added to the natural scorn of the death 
 their own ridicule. Some passed by and wagged their 
 heads. Some stood still and thrust out their tongues. 
 
lo8 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 Others sat down and watched him there, and satisfied 
 their malice and their scorn. He was made the centre 
 of all sorts of ridicule and shame. He was the drunk- 
 ard's song, and even they that were crucified with him 
 reviled him. And all this he sufiered for us. Our sin 
 was shameful, and he w^as made to be a shame. We 
 had disgraced ourselves and dishonored God, and there- 
 fore Jesus was joined with the wicked in his death, 
 and made as vile as they. 
 
 Besides, the death was exceedingly jpainful. We 
 must not forget the pangs of the Saviour's body, for I 
 believe when we begin to depreciate the corporeal suff'er- 
 ings, we very soon begin to drag down the spiritual suf- 
 ferings too. It must be a fearful death by which to 
 die, when the tender hands and feet are pierced, and 
 when the bones are dislocated by the jar of erecting 
 the cross, and when the fever sets in, and the mouth 
 becomes as hot as an oven, and the tongue is swollen in 
 the mouth, and the only moisture given is vinegar min- 
 gled with gall. Ah ! beloved, the pangs that Jesus 
 knew, none of us can guess. We believe that Hart has 
 well described it when he says that he bore — 
 
 "AH that incarnate God could bear, 
 With strength enough and none to spare." 
 
 You cannot tell the price of griefs, and groans, and 
 sighs, and heart-breakings, and soul-tearings, and rend- 
 ings of the spirit, which Jesus had to pay that he might 
 redeem us from our iniquities. 
 
 It ivas a lingering death. However painful a death 
 may be, it is always satisfactory to think that it is soon 
 over. When a man is hanged, after our English custom, 
 or the head is taken from the body, the pain may be 
 
Christ the Tree of Life. 139 
 
 great for the instant, but it is soon over and gone. But 
 in crucifixion a man hangs so long, that when Pilate 
 found the Saviour dead, he marvelled that he was dead 
 already. I remember to have heard a missionary say, 
 that he saw a man in Burmah crucified, and that he was 
 alive two days after having been nailed to the cross 'i 
 and I believe there are authenticated stories of persons 
 who have been taken down from the cross after having 
 hung for forty-eight hours, and after all have had their 
 wounds healed, and have lived for years. It was a 
 lingering death that the Saviour had to die. 
 
 Oh ! my brethren, if you put these items together, 
 they make up a ghastly total, which ought to press upon 
 our hearts — if we be believers, in the form of grateful 
 affection, or if we be unbelievers, provoking us to shame 
 that we do not love him who loved the sons of men 
 so much. 
 
 And the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, we 
 must also add, was penal. He died the death of the 
 condemned. Perhaps most men would feel this to be 
 the worst feature, for if a man shall die by never so 
 painful a death, if it be accidental it misses the sting 
 which must come into it, if it be caused by law, and if 
 especially it be brought by sin, and after sentence has 
 been passed in due form. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ 
 was condemned by the civil and ecclesiastical tribunals 
 of the country to die. And what was more — " It 
 pleased the Father to bruise him ; he hath put him to 
 grief." Jesus Christ died without sin of his own, but 
 he died a penal death, because our sins were counted 
 to him. He took upon him our iniquities as though 
 they were his own, and then, being found in the sin- 
 
1-iO Types and Emblems. 
 
 iier's place, he suffered, as if he had been a sinner, the 
 wrath that was due for sin. 
 
 Beloved, I wish it were in my power to set forth 
 Christ crucified — Christ visibly crucified amongst you ! 
 Oh ! that I could so paint him that the eyes of your 
 heart could see him ! I wish that I could make you 
 feel the dolor of his griefs, and sip that bitter cup 
 which he had to drain to the dregs. But, if I cannot 
 do this, it shall suffice me to say that that death is the 
 only hope of sinners. Those wounds of his are the gates 
 to heaven. The smarts and sufferings of Immanuel are 
 the only expiatory sacrifice for human guilt. Oh, ye 
 who would be saved, turn your eyes hither. Look unto 
 him and be saved, all ye ends of the earth. There is 
 life in a look at him ; but there is life nowhere else. 
 Despise him, and you perish. Accept him, and you 
 shall never perish, neither shall all the powers of hell 
 devour you. Come, guilty souls ! Jesus wants not your 
 tears or your blood ; his tears can cleanse you ; his 
 blood can purify you. If your heart be not as broken 
 as you would have it, it is his broken heart, not yours, 
 that shall merit heaven for you. If you cannot be what 
 you would, he was for you what God would have him. 
 God is contented with him. Be you contented. Come 
 and trust him ! Oh, now may delays be over and 
 difficulties all be solved, and just as you are, without 
 one plea, but that the Saviour bled, come to your 
 heavenly father, and you shall be accepted in the 
 beloved. 
 
 Thus, then — Jesus Christ hanging on the cross — is 
 the Tree of Life in its winter. 
 
 II. And now, let me show you, as I may be enabled, 
 
Chriat the Tree of Life. 141 
 
 THAT SELFSAME TREE OF LIFE WHEN IT HAD BLOSSOMED 
 AND BROUGHT FORTH FRUIT. 
 
 There he stands — Jesus — still Jesus — the same, and 
 yet how changed ! The same Jesus, but clothed with 
 honor instead of shame, able now to save them to the 
 uttermost that come unto him. My text says of this 
 tree that it bears twelve manner of fruits. I suppose 
 that is intended to signify that a perfect and complete 
 assortment of all supplies for human necessities are to 
 be found in Christ — all sorts of mercies for all sorts of 
 sinners ; all kinds of blessings to suit all kinds of neces- 
 sities. We read of the palm-tree, that every bit of it is 
 useful, from its root to its fruit. So it is with the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. There is nothing in him that we could 
 afford to do without. There is nothing about Jesus 
 that is extraneous or superfluous. You can put him to 
 use in every part, in every office, in every relationship. 
 
 A tree of life is for food. Some trees yield rich fruit. 
 Adam in the garden lived only on the fruit of the field. 
 Jesus Christ is the food of his people, and what dainties 
 they have ! What satisfying food, what plenteous food, 
 what sweet food, what food precisely suitable to all 
 the wants of their souls Jesus is ! As for manna, it 
 was angels' food ; but what shall I say of Christ ? He 
 is more than that ! 
 
 " Never did angels taste above, 
 Redeeming grace and dying love." 
 
 Oh ! how you are fed ! The flesh of God's own Son 
 is the spiritual meat of every heir of heaven. Hungry 
 souls, come to Jesus if you would be fed. 
 
 Jesus gives his people drink also. There are some 
 tropical trees which, as soon as they are tapped, yield 
 
142 Types and Einblems. 
 
 liquids as sweet and rich as milk, and many drink and 
 are refreshed by them. Jesus Christ's heart-blood is the 
 wine of his people. The atonement which he has per- 
 fected by his sutferings is the golden cup out of which 
 they drink, and drink again, till their mourning souls 
 are made glad, and their fainting souls are strengthened 
 and refreshed. Jesus gives us the water of life — the 
 wines on the lees well reiined, the wine and nailk, with- 
 out money and without price. AVhat a tree of life to 
 yield us both meat and drink ! 
 
 Jesus is a tree of life yielding clothing too. Adam 
 went to the fig-tree for his garments, and the fig-leaves 
 yielded him such covering as they could. But we come 
 to Christ and we find, not fig-leaves, but a robe of 
 righteousness that is matchless for its beauty, comely in 
 its proportions ; one which will never wear out, which 
 exactly suits to cover our nakedness from head to foot, 
 and when we put it on makes us fair to look upon, even 
 as Christ himself. Oh, ye who would be rearrayed till 
 ye shall be fit to stand among the courtiers of the 
 skies, come ye to Jesus, and find garments from the 
 Tree of Life ! 
 
 This tree also yields medicine. " The leaves thereof 
 were for the healing of the nations." Lay a plaster 
 upon my wound, and if it be but the plaster of King 
 Jesus, it will heal it. But one promise from his lips ; 
 but one leaf from the tree ; but one word from his 
 Spirit ; but one drop of his blood, and this is heaven's 
 court-plaster indeed. It is true, there is no balm in 
 Gilead ; there is no physician there ; and, therefore, the 
 hurt of the daughter of Israel's people was not healed. 
 But there is balm in Jesus ; there /<? a physician at Calva- 
 
Christ the Tree of Life. 143 
 
 rj, and the hurt of the daughter of God's people shall be 
 healed if she do but fly to Jesus Christ for her healing. 
 
 And, what shall I more saj ? Is there anything else 
 your spirits can want ? Oh, children of God, Christ is 
 all ? Oh, ye ungodly ones, who have been roaming the 
 wood, there to find the tree that should supply your 
 wants — stop here. This " apple-tree among the trees of 
 the wood " is the tree which your souls require. Stay 
 here, and you shall have all you need. For, listen— this 
 tree yields a shelter from the storm. Other trees are 
 dangerous when the tempest howls ; but he that shelters 
 beneath the tree of the Lord Jesus shall find that all the 
 thunder-bolts of God shall fly by him, and do him no 
 injury. He cannot be hurt that clings to Jesus. ' Hea- 
 ven and earth should sooner pass away than a soul be 
 lost that hides beneath the boughs of this tree. And 
 oh, you who have hidden thereto shelter from the wrath 
 of God, let me remind you that in every kind of danger 
 it will also yield you shelter ; and if you are not in 
 danger, yet still in the hot days of care you shall find 
 the shade of it to be cool and genial. 
 
 " I sat down under the shadow with great delight, and 
 his fruit was sweet unto my taste.'' Get Christ, and 
 you have got comfort, joy, peace, and liberty ; and,when 
 the trouble comes, you shall find shelter and deliverance 
 by coming near to him. He is the tree of life, then, 
 yielding twelve manner of fruits, those fruits being al- 
 ways ripe and always ready, for they ripen every month, 
 all being free to all who desire them, for the leaves are 
 not for the healing of some, but " for the healing of the 
 nations." What a large word ! Then there are enoudi of 
 these leaves for the healino^ of all the nations that shall 
 
144 Types and Emblems. 
 
 ever come. Oh ! may God grant that none of you mav 
 die from spiritual sickness when these leaves can heal 
 you, and may none of you be filling yourselves with the 
 sour grapes of this world, the poisonous grapes of sin, 
 while the sweet fruits of Christ's love are waiting, 
 which would refresh you and satisfy you. 
 
 III. And now, I have to show how to get at the 
 
 FKUIT OF THIS TREE OF LIFE. 
 
 That is the main matter. Little does it boot to tell 
 that there is fruit, unless we can tell how it can be got 
 at. Oh ! I wish that some here really wanted to know 
 the way, but I am afraid many care very little about it. 
 Dr. Payson had once been out to tea with one of his 
 people, who had been particularly hospitable to him, 
 and when he was going, the doctor said : — " Well, now, 
 Madam, you have treated me exceedingly well, but how 
 do you treat my Master ? " That is a question I should 
 like to put to some of you. How do you treat my 
 Master? Why, you treat him as if he were not 
 Christ, as if you did not want him. But, you do need 
 him. May you find him soon, for when you come to 
 die, you will want him then, and perhaps then you may 
 not find him. 
 
 Well, the way to get the fruit froin this tree is by 
 faith. That is the hand that plucks the golden apple. 
 Canst thou believe ? That is the thing. Canst thou 
 believe that Jesus is the Son of God ; that he died upon 
 the cross ? '' Yes," sayest thou, *' I believe that." Canst 
 thou believe that in consequence of his sufferings he is 
 able to save ? " Ay," sayest thou. Canst thou believe 
 that he will save thee ? Wilt thou trust him to save 
 thee? If so, thou art saved. If thy soul comes to 
 
Christ the Tree of Life, 145 
 
 Jesus, and says— " Mj Lord, I believe in thee, that 
 thou art able to save to the uttermost, and now I throw 
 myself upon thee "—that is faith. When Mr. Andrew 
 Fuller was going to preach before an association, he rode 
 to the meeting on his horse. There had been a good 
 deal of rain, and the rivers were very much swollen. 
 He got to one river which he had to cross. He looked 
 at it, and he was half afraid of the strong current, as' 
 he did not know the depth. A farmer, who hap- 
 pened to be standing by, said —'' It is all right, Mr.. 
 Fuller ; you will get through it all right, sir ; the horse 
 will keep its feet." Mr. Fuller went in, and the water 
 got up to the girth, and then up to the saddle, and he 
 began to get uncomfortably wet. Mr. Fuller thought 
 he had better turn round, and he was going to do so, 
 when the same farmer shouted—" Go on, Mr. Fuller; 
 go on ; I know it is all right ; " and Mr. Fuller said, 
 " Then I will go on ; I will go by faith." Now, sinner, 
 it is very like that with you. You think that your sins 
 are too deep, that Christ will never be able to carry you 
 over them ; but, I say to you — It is all right, sinner ; 
 trust Jesus, and he will carry you through hell itself, if 
 it were needful and possible. If you had all the sins of 
 all the men that have ever lived, and they were all yours, 
 if you could trust him, Jesus Christ would carry you 
 through the current of all that sin. It is all right, man ! 
 Only trust Christ. The river may be deep, but Christ's 
 love.ia-de^er still. It is all right, man ! Do not let 
 the devil make you doubt my Lord and Master. He is 
 a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies, but my 
 Master is faithful and true. Rest on him and it is all 
 right. The waves may roll, the river may seem to 
 7 
 
146 Tyjpes and Eiiiblems. 
 
 be deeper tlian you thought it to be, and rest assured it 
 is much deeper than you know it to be. But the 
 mighty arm of Jesus — that strong arm that can shake 
 the heavens and the earth, and move the pillars thereof 
 as Samson moved the pillars of Gaza's gates — that 
 strong arm can hold you up, and bear you safely 
 through, if you do but cling to it, and rest in it. Oh 
 soul, rest in Jesus, and you are saved ! 
 
 Once again. If at the first you do not seem to get this 
 fruit from the tree, shake it by prayer. " Oh ! " say 
 you, " T have been praying.'' Yes, but a tree does not 
 always drop its fruit at the first shake you give it. 
 Shake it again, man ; give it another shake ! And 
 sometimes when the tree is loaded, and is pretty firm 
 in the earth, you have to shake it to and fro, and at last 
 you plant your feet, and get a hold of it, and shake it 
 with might and main, till you strain every muscle and 
 sinew to get the fruit down. And that is the way to 
 pray. Shake the tree of life until the mercy drops into 
 your lap. Christ loves for men to beg hard. You can- 
 not be too importunate. That which might be disa- 
 greeable to your fellow-creatures when you beg of them, 
 will be agreeable to Christ. Oh ! get ye to your cham- 
 bers ; get ye to your chambers, ye that have not found 
 Christ ! To your bed-sides, to your little closets, and 
 "seek the Lord while he may be found ; call ye upon 
 him while he is near ! " May the Spirit of God con- 
 strain you to pray. May he constrain you to continue 
 in prayer. Jesus must hear you. The gate of heaven is 
 open to the sturdy knocker that will not take a denial. 
 The Lord enable you so to plead, that at last you will 
 
Chr'ist the Tree of Life. 
 
 147 
 
 say — " Thou hast heard m}^ voice and my supplication ; 
 Thou hast inclined thine ear unto me ; therefore will 
 I pray unto thee as long as I live." 
 
 May God add his blessing to these rambling 
 thoughts, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 
 
% Sillg iolie. 
 
 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart." — HosEA rii. 11 
 
 HE race of Ephraim is not extinct. Men are to 
 this day very much like what they were in 
 the days of the prophets. The same rebukes 
 are still suitable, as well as the same comforts. 
 As man has altered very little, if at all, in his 
 outward bodily conformation, so has he not varied in 
 the inner constitution ; he is much the same to-day as 
 he was in the time of Hosea. In this congregation, 
 in the midst of this City of London, we have too large 
 a company of those who are " like the silly dove with- 
 out heart." 
 
 To proceed at once with the text, I want you to 
 notice four things ; first, a saintly similitude ; secondly, 
 a secret distinction ; thirdly, a severe description / and 
 lastly, a serious consideration. 
 
 I. Here we have a saintly similitude. " Ephraim 
 is like a dove." The people are not compared here to 
 the eagle that soareth aloft and scenteth its prey from 
 afar, nor to the vulture which delights to gorge itself 
 with carrion ; they are not likened to any foul and 
 unclean bird which was put aside under the law ; but 
 
A Silly Dove. 149 
 
 the very figure which is constantl}^ chosen to set forth 
 the beauty of holiness, to describe the believer, and to 
 picture the whole church — nay, that very emblem by 
 which we set forth him who is holiness itself, God 
 the Holy Spirit — that same comparison to a dove is 
 here used to describe those who were without heart. 
 "Ephraim is like a dove" — it is a saintly similitude. 
 Let me remind you that in all congregations there are 
 those who are like doves, but not Christ's doves, who 
 never build their nests in the clefts of the rock, in the 
 bosom of the Saviour. They are like doves ; you can 
 never tell them from genuine believers, and like doves 
 they are perfectly harmless; they do no mischief to 
 others in their lives. Track them, if you will, you 
 will never find them in the ale-house ; they sing not 
 the song of the drunkard ; no man ever loses anything 
 in business by them. Men may have their pockets 
 picked in the streets, but never by them. Persons 
 may go staggering home under a wound, but that 
 wound never comes from their hand ; there is no 
 uncleanness in their heart, and no slander on their 
 tongue ; they are amiable, admirable ; we might almost 
 hold them up for examples of propriety. Alas ! alas ! 
 that we have only to look within to find that they are 
 not what they seem. 
 
 Moreover, being like doves for harmlessness, they 
 are also like them for loving good company. We find 
 not the dove flying with a host of eagles, but it con- 
 sorts with its own kind. And oh, how some of you 
 are never happier than when you are either in the 
 Tabernacle or else in some of the classes formed by 
 various members of the congregation ! You also find 
 
150 Types and Emblems. 
 
 such a pleasant excitement in the prajer-meeting that 
 3^011 are not absent from it except when you are pre- 
 vented by business. You love being where God's 
 people go ; their hymns are sweet to your ears, in 
 their prayers you find some sort of comfort, and in 
 the ministry of the word you take delight. You fly 
 like a cloud and like doves to their windows, and it is 
 a joy to us to see you do it, and yet it may be that, 
 although you know how to congregate like doves, you 
 are " like a silly dove without heart." 
 
 Moreover, these persons are still more like the dove, 
 in that they have the same meekness, apparently, as 
 distinguishes the dove. " They hear as my people 
 hear, and sit as my people sit." They are not sceptics ; 
 they never object to the exposition of the doctrines to 
 which they listen ; they pick no holes in the preacher's 
 coat — they have no particular fault to tind either with 
 the style or the matter of his discourse ; they decor- 
 ously frequent the house of God, and behave themselves 
 in a seemly manner when there ; nay, more than that, 
 they do seem with meekness to receive the word, 
 though they do not receive it as engrafted into their 
 own hearts ; they even receive it with joy when the 
 seed is scattered on them, but having no root in them- 
 selves, the good seed comes to nothing. Oh, my dear 
 hearers, it is a great subject for thanksgiving that so 
 many of you are ready and willing to listen to the 
 word with deep and profound respect ; but I do beseech 
 you to remember that you may in this be like unto the 
 dove, and yet, after all that, you may be taken in the 
 same net and destroyed with the same destruction as 
 
A Silly Dove. 161 
 
 that which fell upon the Ephraimites, who were " like 
 a silly dove without heart." 
 
 The dove, you know, is a cleanly feeder, and so we 
 have many who get as far as that. They know the 
 distinction between the precious and the vile ; they 
 will not feed on law, they can only live on grace ; they 
 have come to know the doctrines of the gospel, and 
 they feed on them — upon pure corn well winnowed. 
 You have only to bring in a little free-will, and straight- 
 Avay they know the chaff from the wheat, and refuse 
 to receive it ; they cast it away as refuse metal, which 
 is of no value to them. But, while they have an or- 
 thodox head, they have a heterodox heart ; while they 
 know the truth and feel it, yet still it is not the right 
 kind of feeling; they have never so received it as to 
 incorporate it into their very being ; they have accepted 
 it with the same sort of belief, and in somewhat the 
 same manner, as Simon did in Samaria ; but, after 
 awhile, when trouble and persecution shall come, and 
 w^ax too hot, they will turn aside. 
 
 But, I have to add yet further here, that there are 
 some of these persons w4io are like doves in another 
 respect still more singular. As a dove is molested by 
 all sorts of birds of prey, so these persons do for a time 
 share the lot which befalls the people of God. Why, 
 there are some who for the mere coming to the house 
 of God get nicknamed. They are not saints, but they 
 have to bear the rebuke of saints; and I know some, 
 who have turned out great sinners, that have for a 
 time put up with much scoffing and rebuke for the 
 sake of Christ. When pointed at in the street, it has 
 been part of the manliness of their character to acknowl- 
 
152 Types and Emblems. 
 
 edge that tliey did frequent such a place of worship. 
 Though their soul has never been stricken by the divine 
 word, yet it has become so sweet in their ear, that they 
 are willing to bear some degree of reproach and scoff- 
 ing for the sake of it. I should not like to be com- 
 pelled to say precisely wherein the saint is to be dis- 
 tinguished by outward signs, for really the counterfeits 
 now-a-days are so much like the genuine, that it shall 
 need the wisdom of the infallible God himself to dis- 
 cern between the one and the other. We can have 
 false faith, false repentance, false hope, and false good 
 works. We have all sorts of shammings — paint, var- 
 nish, tinsel — and we may so grain that a skilful eye 
 shall scarcely know whether it is the genuine wood or 
 the artists' skill. There are ways of preparing metals, 
 and sometimes the alloy shall seem to have in it for 
 some purposes qualities which the unalloyed metal 
 might lack. O Lord, searcher of hearts, do thou search 
 us, lest we should have applied to us saintly names, 
 and possess a saintly reputation and character, and hold 
 saintly offices, and after all be cast away with the rub- 
 bish over the wall, and left to be consumed for ever and 
 ever ! But, enough on that point. 
 
 II. We have now to call your attention to a secret 
 DISTINCTION. '' Ephraim is like a dove without JieartP 
 
 This implies a lack of understanding. The dove 
 knows but little, and experience scarcely teaches it 
 anything. We may almost spread the snare in the 
 sight of that bird, and yet it will fly to it ; it is so silly. 
 It does not seem to possess, at least to the outward 
 eye, the wits and senses of some others of the feathered 
 tribe. It has little or no understanding. And oh, 
 
A iSilly Dove. 153 
 
 how many there are who are like the dove externally, 
 and have no real knowledge of the truth ! They rest 
 in the letter, and think that is enough. I solemnly 
 believe that there are thousands that have not the 
 shadow of an idea of the meaning of the words which 
 they hear every Sabbath-day in a form of prayer. 
 They go through those prayers ; that they would do 
 if the words were put in any other way. Doubtless 
 they would get as much good out of them, if they were 
 thrown together in wild disorder, as they do out of 
 the beautiful and magnificent array in which they are 
 marshalled. Many who come and hear the most sim- 
 ple prayers go away and say, " It is a riddle to me ; I 
 cannot understand how people will sit and listen to 
 that." Either they condemn them as trite or else as 
 fanatical. They cannot understand them. You may 
 fetch a clodhopper, and set before him the masterpiece 
 of an eminent old painter, and tell him, '• That picture 
 is worth sixty thousand pounds." He looks, opens his 
 mouth, stares again, and says he can't make anything 
 of it; he can't see where the money could go. He'd 
 sooner have carts, and horses, and pigs, and cows, and 
 sheep. He sees nothing in that. Well, now, to some 
 extent, we might almost sympathize with him ; but 
 the high art critics despise the man at once for having 
 no soul above his clod. And, it is just the same in 
 spiritual things. Exhibit the glories of the person of 
 Christ, and the matchless wisdom of the plan of salva- 
 tion ; that man can see nothing in it ; " It is, no doubt, 
 a very good and very proper thing," he will attend to 
 it, and so on ; and then he goes to church, and thinks 
 he is pious, sits in his seat, and goes through the rou- 
 7* 
 
154 Types and Eiiiblems. 
 
 tine, and then supposes he is reconciled to God. Oh ! 
 how many such silly doves we have fluttering in and 
 out of our places of worship. As a quaint old preacher 
 said, there were scarce seats for the saints on account 
 of the number of simpletons that came to listen. 
 
 But, again, they were silly doves without heart, 
 because, lacking an understanding heart, they also 
 lacked a decided heart. Sometimes, however, the dove 
 would be slandered if we should use her as a metaphor 
 in this respect. Have you not seen the dove, when, 
 from afar, with her quick eye, she has seen her cot, 
 fly straight away, over miles of sea and land, straight 
 to her beloved home ? There she could not be used 
 as a metaphor of the ungodly, but of a child of Jesus, 
 who thus flies to him over the wild waves of sin. But, 
 perhaps, you have seen the dove as first she rises in the 
 air, and then flies round and round. She deliberates 
 in order to find out which is the right direction, and, 
 when she has made up her mind, away she flies straight 
 as an arrow to the goal. But, while she is fluttering 
 about, she is an apt emblem of some men. They are 
 undecided whether for God or Baal. They halt, to 
 use Elijah's figure, between two opinions. "How 
 long halt ye between two opinions ? If God be God 
 serve him, but if Baal, then follow him." On Sun- 
 days they go to church, but on Mondays they put it 
 off"; the weather is too rough, or something else pre- 
 vents them going to the prayer-meeting. On Sunday 
 they say — 
 
 " My willing- soul would stay 
 In such a frame as this, 
 And sit and sing herself away, 
 To everlasting bliss." 
 
A SUly Dove. 155 
 
 But, on Monday or Tuesday the sound of the wheels 
 in the street, and the noise of them that buy and sell, 
 put the music of Jerusalem out of their ears, and they 
 would fain go back to the world again. Ah, they are 
 silly doves, without understanding and without decision. 
 Nay, there are some who may be said to have a sort of 
 decision for a time ; but they are like the dove, in that 
 they are without resolution. The dove seeks to fly in one 
 direction ; somebody claps his hands and she changes 
 in a moment ; or else he sprinkles a handful of barley 
 on the ground, and, though she was flying yonder, she 
 is over here again. How many persons there are of 
 that kind, setting their faces to Zion, intending to join 
 the church ; perhaps they have seen the elders and the 
 pastor, and been accepted ; but, after a little time, they 
 say, " Well, they did not know all about it ; there are 
 more frightful things than they dreamt of in it ! '* 
 Like Pliable, they would go to heaven, but they get 
 into the Slough of Despond, and there is queer stuff 
 there that gets into the ears and mouth, and so they 
 get out on the side nearest home, and tell Christian he 
 may have the brave country all to himself, for they 
 don't like the miry places on the way. Or, it may be, 
 that some old companion comes up from the country, 
 and he will treat them to some place of amusement ; 
 or, perhaps, it may be stronger than that. Or there 
 is the gain to be got in some branch of business that is 
 not quite so honest as it might be; but does not the 
 money count as well ? Isn't it as good to spend ? Will 
 not other men think it worth twenty shillings to the 
 pound, however it may have been gained ? These 
 people, who seemed so true and warm-hearted, are like 
 
156 Types and Emblems. 
 
 the silly dove without resolution, and fly away again to 
 their old haunts and become just what they used to be. 
 
 So likewise there are nian}-, like a dove, without 
 bold hearts. They never turn upon a persecutor. 
 They never stood in the gap with Mr. Yaliant-for- 
 Truth, holding the sword in their hand. The^^ can- 
 not open their mouth to speak for Jesus, but they run 
 away when they ought to stand out like a lion against 
 their foes ; they never give a reason for the hope that 
 is in them. We have plenty of Baptist churches edu- 
 cating cowards by the score. They never come out 
 before the whole church — that would be too trying 
 for their nerves. They are never expected to come out 
 boldly on the Lord's side. Too often baptism is admin- 
 istered somewhere in a corner, when as few as possible 
 are present ; and, in that way, where we ought to have 
 lion-like men, we breed those who hide their principles, 
 and are ready to amalgamate with any sect of people 
 so long as they can but bear the name of Christians. 
 I would to God, dear friends, we had bolder men for 
 our Lord and Master. Be as full of love as you can, 
 but take care that you mix iron with your constitution. 
 Silly are the doves that have no bold heart for God. 
 The day will come when only the bold heart shall win, 
 and the faint heart shall be shut out as the fearful and 
 imbelieving, who are to have their portion in the lake 
 that burnetii with fire and brimstone. 
 
 Too many, also, there are like a silly dove, in that 
 they have a powerless heart. If you visit a great 
 manufactory where there is a large engine, you will 
 notice that the amount of power used in the factory is 
 proportionate to the capacity of the steam engine. If 
 
A Silly Dave. 157 
 
 that should work but feebly, then the wheels cannot 
 revolve beyond a proportionate rate, and every part 
 soon discovers that there is some lack of motive force. 
 Now, man's heart is the great steam-engine of his whole 
 being ; and if he has a heart that palpitates with swiit 
 strokes it will set his whole nature in motion, and that 
 man will be mighty for his Lord and Master; but if 
 he has a little, insignilicant heart that never did glow, 
 and never did burn, and never did know anything 
 about the warmth, and life, and heat, and power, and 
 benediction of God^s love, then he will fritter away his 
 time, knowing the right and doing the wrong, loving 
 in some sort the thing that is beautiful, but still fol- 
 lowing that which is deformed ; giving his name to 
 God, and giving what little strength he has to the 
 other side. Brethren, I would to God there were not 
 so many in all our communities that have but a pig- 
 eon's heart, or a dove's heart, or no heart at all. The 
 root of the matter lies here : these Ephraimites have 
 not renewed hearts, and so they fail. Yerily, verily, 
 it is true to this hour as in Jesu's day, " Except a man 
 be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 Men do strive to see it in their own way. But, until 
 the effectual grace of God comes down to turn their 
 hearts from the great and extraordinary confidence 
 which their proud flesh has in their own works, they 
 never will see, they never can see, the kingdom of 
 God. How many like Ephraim, then, have the heart 
 altogether wrong because it is not renewed ; therefore 
 it has none of those qualifications which tend to make 
 the man what he should be. 
 
 III. With great brevity, we notice, in the third place, 
 
158 . Types and Emblems. 
 
 A SEVERE DESCRIPTION. " Ephraiiii is like a silly dove." 
 It is a fine word, that word *' silly." Hardly do I 
 know another that is so eminently descriptive. There 
 may be some sort of dignity in being a fool, but to be 
 silly — to attract no attention except ridicule — is so 
 utterly bad, that I do not know how^ a more sarcastic 
 epithet could be applied. " Ephraim is like a silly 
 dove without heart." And why silly ? Why, it is 
 silly, of course, to profess to be a dove at all, unless a 
 dove at heart ; silly of you to enslave yourselves with 
 the customs of a country of which you are not a citi- 
 zen — to bind yourselves with the rules of a family of 
 which you are not a member. We find men, when 
 they go to another country, if there is a conscription 
 there, only too willing to plead their own nationality, 
 in order to escape it ; and yet we have persons who 
 will serve in the Christian conscription, who give as 
 God's people give, and outwardly do what God's peo- 
 ple do, and yet they are not of the nation, but are 
 aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Is not this 
 silly — to take the irksome toil, and not to get the joy 
 and the benefit of it ? You are silly to go and work 
 in the vineyard, though you have never eaten of the 
 clusters, and never can unless your heart be set right 
 in the sight of God. Isn't it silly, then, to profess to 
 be a dove at all, and 3'et not to be a dove ? Isn't it 
 silly, again, to think you can pass muster when your 
 heart is wrong — to fancy that if you fly with the crowd 
 you. shall enter heaven without being seen ? Dost 
 thou think to deceive Omniscience ? Dost thou think 
 Infallible wisdom will not discern thee ? Dost thou 
 think to enter heaven while thy soul is estranged from 
 
A Silly Dove. 159 
 
 God? Then, indeed, thou art worse than a fool ; thou 
 art '* silly " to think such a thing. How canst thou 
 thus hope to deceive thy God ? What more silly than 
 to play fast and loose in this way ? Silly to sing the 
 song of Zion ; and then the song of lasciviousness. 
 There is something dignified even in the devil himself; 
 there is something awful about the grandeur of his 
 wickedness, because he is consistent in it ; but, there 
 is nothing of that in you, because you are here and 
 there, everywhere and nowhere. You are this and 
 that— everything by turns and nothing long. And 
 don't you see what you do ? Some of you are so silly 
 as to hasten your own condemnation. You know that 
 to be without God and without Christ will ruin you, 
 and yet you do that which keeps you from going to 
 Christ; you hug the sins that prevent your laying 
 hold on him, and still dandle upon your knee the lusts 
 which you know will shut the gates of heaven against 
 you. Like Ephraim you are silly enough to trust in 
 that which will be your ruin. Some of you rest upon 
 good works, or hope to be saved by good feelings. 
 You go to Egypt and to Assyria. The two powers 
 which had oppressed Ephraim were still the powers in 
 which he trusted. You are silly again, because when 
 there is so much danger you do not fly to the place of 
 shelter. O silly dove, when the hawk is abroad not to 
 seek the clefts of the rock to hide itself in its dove-cot 1 
 And how silly are some of you 'i Day after day, year 
 after year, Satan is hawking after you ; the great fowler 
 is seeking your destruction ; but the wounds of Christ 
 are open to you, and the invitation of the gospel is 
 freely given to you, and yet, so silly are you, that 
 
160 Tyjpes and Enibleins. 
 
 though you know better, you prefer the pleasures of 
 the day to the joys of eternity. Yet I know not that 
 you do prefer them, only somehow or other you are 
 too silly to take the preference, and you go on like a 
 child that is playing on the hole of the cockatrice, 
 making mirth over your damnation, too artless, too 
 silly to make up your minds either for heaven or hell. 
 I know there are some such in this house. Would 
 God that the arrow would find out the right persons ; 
 but too often these doves are so silly in another respect 
 that they will not let the appeals come home to them. 
 They say, '* It can't be for me, for I go to Mr. A's or 
 Mrs. B's class ; it can't be for me, for I go to the 
 prayer-meeting ; I contribute to the College, and every 
 good work ; " yet all the while it means just you w^ho 
 act upon your own whims, but not for God, who give 
 God anything but your heart, who are ready to make 
 a sacrifice of all, except that you refuse that which he 
 asks of you — "My son, give me thine heart." It was 
 considered to be a sign of great calamity when the 
 Roman augur slew a bullock and found no heart, and 
 it is the worst of all calamities when a man has no 
 heart to give to God. " This people draweth nigh to 
 me with their lips, but their heart is far from me," is 
 one of the complaints against Israel of old, and one of 
 the sins which n:iade the prophets weep, and Jerusalem 
 to be ploughed like a field. 
 
 lY. I close with just a word upon the fourth point, 
 and that is, a sekious considera.tion. There are one or 
 two things I would say solemnly, softly, and hope- 
 fully. O that they may stick upon the memory and 
 the conscience of many. 
 
A Silly Dove. 161 
 
 Those of you, my hearers, who have been long sitting 
 in this tabernacle, some of you ever since it was built, 
 and before then in other places under our ministry for 
 many years past, and yet are just the same as you used 
 to be, ought to recollect how sadly we look on those 
 who are°not saved. It is no rare thing to find tlie 
 attendant of the sanctuary an unbeliever. It is a com- 
 mon thing to find the child of converted parents, the 
 lad educated at the Sabbath-school, the man who has 
 always had a seat in God's house, still having no hope 
 and without God in the world. Think of that ! Be 
 not deceived; the gospel will harden such people as 
 you are. Speaking after the manner of men (for with 
 God all things are possible, and a sovereign God doeth 
 as he wills), it does seem less and less probable that you 
 ever should be called by grace after you have sat and 
 listened •:o the Word so long. The voice that did startle 
 now soothes you ; the manner that once attracted the 
 eye, and sometimes seemed to touch the heart, fails to 
 do either ; and the very truth that once went over your 
 heads like a crash of thunder has so little force in it 
 now, that you sleep under the sound thereof. Think 
 of that, you that are like a silly dove without heart. 
 Kemember, too, that some of the vilest sinners that have 
 ever lived have been manufactured out of this raw 
 material. Some of the grossest men were once credu- 
 lous and apparently meek-hearted hearers of the Word, 
 but they sat under the preaching of the gospel till they 
 grew ripe enough to deny God and curse him. The 
 unsanctified hearing of the gospel has sometimes pro- 
 duced more gigantic specimens of sin than the deaf ear 
 of the adder. Beware, my hearer ! I know you will say 
 
162 Types and ErnUems. 
 
 with Hazael, " Am I a dog that I should do this thing ? " 
 Yes, there is dog and devil enough in you, unless 
 you have been changed by grace, to do that thing and 
 twenty other things that you have never dreamt of 
 yet. Think what a multitude of souls in hell there are 
 like you — silly doves without heart. Many of the pop- 
 ulation of that place of wailing once heard the gospel, 
 heard it with gladness, and received it for a time. But 
 they had no root, and so the impression withered away. 
 They never had been called eifectually by grace, and 
 never had been renewed, although they had all the out- 
 ward semblances of holiness. They have gone ! You 
 might hear their howls if ye had ears. Hark ! Even 
 now, your soul may listen to their groans and moans, 
 the lesson of all which would be, " Make your calling 
 and election sure, and be not satisfied with the name 
 to live while you are dead." May the Spirit of the 
 living God stir you up to this ; for, if not, I have one 
 more consideration — Bemeinber hoio soon you may 
 he in hell yourself. And they who go there, if they 
 have been such as you are, go there with a vengeance. 
 To go from under the shadow of the pulpit is terrible. 
 To go from the sacramental cup in the church to drink 
 the cup of devils ; from the song of saints to the weep- 
 ing, and waihng, and gnashing of teeth of lost souls ; 
 from all the hallowed joys of God's Sabbath, of God's 
 house, and of his Word, down to the unutterably infamy 
 of spirits that have no love to God, but curse him day 
 and night — my hearers, that may be your lot within an 
 hour, a week, a year. It matters not what the period 
 may be, for, if it ever be your lot, the time past shall 
 seem to have been but the twinkling of an eye for its 
 
A Silly Dove, 
 
 163 
 
 joy, though it may appear to you to have been ages 
 for the awful responsibility which the day of mercy 
 will have entailed upon you. " Repent and be baptized 
 every one of you." As Peter said so say I. If we have 
 not as yet received Christ, lay hold on eternal life, and 
 oh that the Spirit of the living God, while I generally 
 preach the Word, may particularly apply it, finding 
 out his own chosen and gathering them out of the ruins 
 of the Fall, that they may be jewels in the crown of 
 the Redeemer. The Lord make us doves, but God 
 forbid that we should be " silly doves without heart." 
 
§nx 
 
 aniur. 
 
 " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may 
 be displayed because of the truth," — Psalm Ix. 4. 
 
 OST writers upon this Psalm, after having 
 referred the banner to the kingdom of David, 
 . ^ say that there is here a reference to the 
 
 ^"^ ^ Messiah. We beh'eve there is. Xor is that 
 reference an obscure alhision. In the Lord 
 Jesus we find the clue to the history and the solution 
 to the prophecy. He is the banner — he is the ensign 
 that is lifted up before the people. He is the Jehovah 
 Nissi, " the Lord my banner," whom it is our joy to 
 follow, and around whom it is our delight to rally. 
 We shall not stay to prove this, though we might 
 readily do so. The banner here intended is no other 
 than the Lord Jesus Christ in the majesty of his per- 
 son — in the efficacy of his merit — in the completeness 
 of his righteousness — in the sureness of his triumph — 
 in the glory of his advent. If you read it, with an eye 
 to him, you have the meaning at once : " Thou hast 
 given Christ as a banner to them that fear thee, to be 
 displayed because of the truth." Now let us consider 
 our Lord Jesus Christ — first, as he is compared to a 
 
Out Banner, 165 
 
 banner; secondly, by whom he is given ; thirdly, to 
 whom he is given; and iowrWvlj , for what purpose. 
 
 I. The banner was far more useful, I suppose, in 
 ancient than it is in modern warfare. Times have 
 changed, and we are changed by them. Yet we speak 
 with reverence still of the old flag. There is still some 
 meaning when we say—" The flag that's braved a thou- 
 sand years the battle and the breeze." The soldier still 
 loves the flag of his country, and the sailor still looks 
 with patriotic pride to the flag that so long floated at 
 England's mast head. Our metaphor, however, rather 
 points to ancient than present usage. 
 
 We should notice, first of all, that the banner was 
 lifted up and displayed as the point of union. When 
 a leader was about to gather troops for a war he hoisted 
 his banner, and then every man rallied to the standard. 
 The coming to the standard, the rallying round the 
 banner, was the joining with tlie Prince, the espousing 
 his cause. In the day of battle, when there was ever a 
 difficulty and a likelihood that the host would be put to 
 flight, the valiant men all fought around the banner. 
 Its defence was of the first and chief consequence. 
 They might leave the baggage for awhile, they might 
 forsake the smaller flags of the divisions, but the great 
 banner, the blood-red banner that with prayer had been 
 consecrated — they must all gather round it and there 
 shed their best blood. Christ, my brethren, is the 
 point of union for all the soldiers of the cross. I know 
 of no other place where all Christians can meet. We 
 cannot all meet — I am sorry that we cannot — at the 
 baptismal stream. There are some who will not be 
 baptized. The^r persist still in the sin of putting drops 
 
166 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 of water for the ordained flood, and bringing infants 
 where faith is required. We cannot all meet even around 
 the table of the Eucharist ; there are some who put 
 aside their brethren, because thej do not see eye to eye 
 with them ; and even the table of the Lord's Supper 
 has become sometimes a field of battle. But, we can 
 meet in the person of Christ ; all true hearts can meet 
 in the work of Christ. This is a gospel that we all love, 
 if we be Christians, and far hence be those who are not. 
 Hither to thy cross, O Jesus, do we come. The church- 
 man, laden with his many forms and vestments ; the 
 Presbyterian, with his stern covenant and his love of 
 those who stained the heather with their blood ; the 
 Independent, with the passion for free liberty and the 
 separateness of the churches; the Methodist, with his 
 various intricate forms of church Government, some- 
 times forms of bondage, but still forms of power ; the 
 Baptist, remembering the ancient pedigree and the days 
 in which his fathers were hounded even by Christians 
 themselves, and counted not worthy of that name — they 
 come, they come ! Multitudes of opinion divide them ; 
 they see not eye to eye ; here and there they will have 
 a skirmish for the old landmarks ; and rightly so, for 
 we ought to be jealous, as Josiah was, to do that which 
 is right in the sight of the Lord, and neither decline 
 to the right hand nor to the left. But, to the cross ! 
 To the cross ! To the cross ! and then, all weapons 
 of internecine war being cast aside, we are brethren, 
 fellow-comrades in blessed evangelical alliance ; we are 
 prepared to suffer and to do for his dear sake. For- 
 ward then. Christians, to the point of union ! Much 
 as I value thorough reformation in times of peace, little 
 
Our Banner. 167 
 
 care for I angbt beside the cross in the day we defend 
 our coasts, or when the hosts go forth to battle. Is our 
 crusade against the powers of darkness % With the sal- 
 vation of sinners for mj one undivided aim, little care I 
 for anything but the lifting up of my Master's Gospel, 
 and the proclamation of the Word of mercy through 
 his flowing blood. 
 
 Again, the banner in time of war, was the great 
 guide-star ; it was the direction to the soldier. You 
 will remember what special care they took in the day 
 of battle that in case the standard-bearer should fall there 
 might still be some means of guiding the warriors. 
 
 "And if mj standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may, 
 For never saw I promise yet of such a deadly fray. 
 Press where ye see my snow-white plume amid the ranks of war. 
 And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre." 
 
 So to this day the cross is the great guide of the 
 Christian in the day of battle. There is no fear that 
 it shall ever fall; we need not be alarmed tbat Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, shall 
 ever fail. Fix your eye upon him. Christian — " look- 
 ing unto Jesus" — and if you would know which 
 way to fight, fight in his footsteps, imitate his every 
 action, be your life his life, be your death his death. 
 Let it be life by virtue of the death ; never need 
 you stop to ask directions ; the life of Christ is the 
 Christian's charge. You need not turn to your fellow- 
 believer, and say, " Comrade, what are we to do just 
 now? The smoke of battle gathers and the cries 
 are various ; which way shall I go ? " Looking unto 
 Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith, who, for 
 the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, 
 
1C8 Types and Emhlcms. 
 
 despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand 
 of the throne of God, press forward, saying, " God 
 hath given to me a banner because of the truth." In 
 these two respects, as the central point for rallying, 
 and as the direction to the warrior, Christ is our banner. 
 And the banner, let it be remembered, is always the 
 object of chief attach. The moment the adversary sees 
 it, his object is to strike there. If it be not the most 
 vulnerable point, it shall be at least the point where 
 the adversary's power is most felt. Did they not of 
 old aim their shots at the flagstaff to cut dowm the 
 banner ? Whenever the old Knights of the Eed Cross 
 fought the Saracens they always endeavored to make 
 their steel ring upon the helmet of men whose hand 
 held the crescent, the standard of Mohammed ; ever 
 the fight was bloodiest around the standard. Some- 
 times, when the battle was over, if you walked the field 
 you would see it strewn with legs and arms and man- 
 gled bodies everywhere. In one place there would be 
 a heap w'here they were piled one upon another, a 
 great mountain of flesh and armor, broken bones and 
 smashed skulls, and you would ask, " What is this ? 
 How came they here ? How trampled they so one upon 
 another, and fought in pools of human blood ? " The 
 answer would be, ^' 'Twas there the standard-bearer 
 stood, and first the adversary made a dash and stole 
 the banner, and then fift}^ knights vowed to redeem it, 
 and they dashed against their foes and took it by storui, 
 and then again hand to hand they fought with the ban- 
 ner between them, first in one hand and then in another, 
 changing ownership each hour. AVell, dear friendvS, 
 Christ Jesus has always been the object of attack. You 
 
Our Banner. 169 
 
 will remember when justice came forth against the 
 elect it made five rents in the great banner, and those 
 five rents all glorious are in that banner still. Since 
 that day many a shot has sought to riddle, but not one 
 has been able to touch it. Borne aloft first by one 
 hand and then by another, the mighty God of Jacob 
 being the strength of the standard bearers, that flag 
 has bidden defiance to the leaguered hosts of the flesh 
 and the devil ; but never has it been trailed in the mire, 
 and never once carried in jeering triumph by the adver- 
 sary. Blessed are the rents in the banner ! for they 
 are the symbol of our victory. Those five wounds in 
 the person of the Saviour are the gates of heaven to us. 
 But, thank God, there are no more wounds to be 
 endured. The person of our Lord is safe. His gospel, 
 too, is an unwounded gospel, and his mystical body is 
 uninjured. " JSTot a bone of him shall be broken." 
 Yes ; the gospel is unharmed after all the strife of 
 ages. The infidel threatens to rend the gospel to 
 pieces, but it is as glorious as ever ; modern scepticism 
 sought to pull it thread from thread, but has not been 
 able so much as to rend a fragment of it. Every now 
 and then fresh adversaries have found out some new 
 methods of induction or declamation, essaying to prove 
 the gospel to be a lie, and Christ an impostor. Have 
 they succeeded ? Nay, verily, they all have to fiy the 
 field. The good old banner of the Lord Omnipotent, 
 even Christ Jesus, still stands erect above them all. 
 We have had, therefore, three things — the rallying 
 point, the guide-star, the object of attack. 
 
 And why should the banner be the object of attack 
 but for this very reason, that it is the symhol of defiance. 
 8 
 
170 Types and Emblems. 
 
 As soon as ever the banner is lifted up, it is, as it were, 
 flapped in the face of the foe. It seems to say to him, 
 ** Do your worst — come on ! We are not afraid of you 
 — we defy you ? " So, when Christ is preached, there 
 is a defiance given to the enemies of the Lord. Every 
 time a sermon is preached in the power of the Spirit, 
 it is as though the shrill clarion woke up the fiends of 
 hell, for every sermon seems to say to them, " Christ is 
 come forth again to deliver his lawful captives out of 
 your power; the King of kings has come to take away 
 your dominions, to wrest from you your stolen treasures, 
 and to proclaim himself your Master." Oh, there is a 
 stern joy that the minister sometimes feels when he 
 thinks of himself as the antagonist of the powers of 
 hell. Martin Luther seems always to have felt it when 
 he said, *•' Come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm, and 
 let the devil do his worst ? " Why, that was lifting up 
 his standard — the standard of the cross. If you want 
 to defy the devil, don't go about preaching philosophy ; 
 don't sit down and write out fine sermons, with long 
 sentences, three-quarters of a mile in extent; don't try 
 and cull fine, smooth phrases that will sound sweetly in 
 people's ears. The devil doesn't care a bit for this ; 
 but talk about Christ, preach about the sufferings of a 
 Saviour, tell sinners that there is life in a look at him, 
 and straightway the devil taketh great umbrage. Why, 
 look at many of the ministers in London I They preach 
 in their pulpits from the first of January to the last of 
 December, and nobody finds fault with them, because 
 they will prophesy such smooth things. But let a man 
 preach Christ, let him declaim about the power of Jesus 
 to save, and press home gospel truth with simplicity 
 
Our Banner. 171 
 
 and boldness, straightway the fiends of darkness will be 
 against you ; and, if they cannot bite, they will show that 
 they can howl and bark. There is a defiance, I say, it 
 is God's defiance ; his gauntlet thrown down to the con- 
 federated powers of darkness, a gauntlet which they 
 dare not take up, for they know what tremendous power 
 for good there is in the uplifting of the cross of Christ. 
 Wave, then, your banner, O ye soldiers of the cross ; 
 each in your place and rank keep watch and ward, but 
 wave your banner still ; for though the adversary shall 
 be wroth, it is because he knoweth that his time is short 
 when once the cross of Christ is lifted up. 
 
 We have not quite exhausted the metaphor yet. The 
 banner was ever a source of consolation to the wounded. 
 There he lies, the good knight ; right well has he fought 
 without fear and without reproach ; but a chance arrow 
 pierced the joints of his harness, and his life is oozing 
 out from the ghastly wound. There is no one there to 
 unbuckle his helmet or give him a draught of cooling 
 water ; his frame is locked up in that hard case of steel, 
 and though he feels the smart he cannot gain the remedy, 
 He hears the cries, the mingled cries, the hoarse shouts 
 of men that rush in fury against their fellows : and he 
 opens his eyes — as yet he has not fainted with his bleed- 
 ing. Where, think you, does he look ? He turns him- 
 self round. What is he looking for ? For friend? For 
 comrade ? No. Should they come to him he would 
 say, " Just lift me up, and let me sit against that tree 
 awhile, and bleed here ; but go you to the fight." 
 Where, where is that restless eye searching, and what 
 is the object for which it is looking ? Yes, he has it ; 
 and the face of the dying man is brightened. He sees 
 
172 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 the banner still waving, and with his last breath he cries, 
 " On ! on ! on ! " and falls asleep content, because the 
 banner is safe. It has not been cast down. Though 
 he has fallen, yet the banner is secure. Even so every 
 true soldier of the cross rejoices in its triumph. "We 
 fall, but Christ does not. We die, but the cause 
 prospers. As I have told you before, when my heart 
 was most sad — sad as it never was before nor since — 
 that sweet text, " Him hath God the Father exalted, 
 and given him a name that is above every name," quite 
 cheered my soul, and set me again in peace and com- 
 fort. Is Jesus safe ? Then it never matters what 
 becomes of me. Is the banner right? Doth it wave 
 on high ? Then the fight is ours still ; the adversary 
 hath not won the day. He hath felled one and another, 
 but he himself shall be broken in pieces, for the banner 
 still glares in the sun. 
 
 And, lastly, the banner is the ertihlein of victoyy. 
 When the fight is done, and the soldier cometh home, 
 what bringeth he ? His blood-stained flag. And what 
 is borne highest in the procession as it winds through 
 the streets ? It is the flag. They hang it in the min- 
 ster ; high up there in the roof, and where the incense 
 smoketh, and where the song of praise ascendeth, there 
 hangs the banner, honored and esteemed, borne in 
 conflict and in danger. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ 
 shall be our banner in the last day, when all our foes 
 shall be under our feet. A little while, and he that 
 will come shall come, and will not tarr3^ A little 
 while and we shall see Jehovah's banner furled. 
 
 " Sheathed his sword ; he speaks ! 'tis done, 
 And the kingdoms of this world are the kingdoms of his Son." 
 
Out Banner. 173 
 
 And then Jesus, high above us all, shall be exalted, and 
 through the streets of the holy city the acclamations 
 shall ring, " Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he that 
 Cometh in the name of the Lord." 
 
 II. Let us turn to our second point for a moment. 
 It is this : Who gave us the banner ? By whom given ? 
 Soldiers often esteem the colors for the sake of the 
 person who first bestowed them. You and I ought to 
 esteem the gospel of our precious Christ for the sake of 
 God who gave him to us. " Thou hast given a banner." 
 God gave us the banner in old eternity. Christ was 
 given by the eternal Father, from everlasting, or ever 
 the earth was, to his elect people, to be the Messiah of 
 God, the Saviour of the world. He was given in the 
 manger, when the word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us. He was given upon the cross, when the 
 Father bestowed every drop of the Son's blood, and 
 every nerve of his body, and every power of his soul, 
 to bleed and die, the just for the unjust, to bring us to 
 God. '-'Thou hast given us a banner." That banner 
 was given to each one of us in the day of our conver- 
 sion. Christ became from that time forth, our glory 
 and our boast. And he is given to some of us, espe- 
 cially, when we are called to the ministry, or when 
 the Holy Spirit's guidance puts us upon an extraordi- 
 nary work for Christ. Then is the banner in a direct 
 and especial manner committed to our care. I know 
 there are some here who have had this banner given 
 them to carry it in the midst of the Sunday-school. Some 
 of you have it. A dear sister here has it. A beloved 
 brother has to bear it in the midst of many of this 
 congregation. The young men of our College, of our 
 
174 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 evening classes, and manj^ others of you have that ban- 
 ner, that you may bear it in the streets, that you may 
 lift up the name of Jesus in the causeways, and in the 
 places of assembly. And, in a certain measure, shall 
 all of you have that banner given to you, that in your 
 sphere of duty you may talk of Jesus, and lift up his 
 dear name. 
 
 !Now, inasmuch as God himself gives the banner, 
 with what reverence should we look upon it, with what 
 ardor should we cluster round it, with what zeal should 
 we defend it, with what enthusiasm should we follow 
 it, with what faith and confidence should we rush even 
 into death itself for its defence ! 
 
 III. Ask again, to whom is this banner given ? The 
 text says " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear 
 theeP Not to all men. God has a chosen people. 
 These chosen people are known in due time by their 
 outward character. That outward grace-wrought cha- 
 racter is this, they fear God. Now, they that fear God 
 are the only persons that ought to carry the banner. 
 Shall the banner be put in the drunkard's hands ? Shall 
 the great truth of Christ be left to those who live in 
 sin ? Oh, it is a wretched thing when men come into 
 the pulpit to preach w^ho have never known and felt the 
 power of the Gospel themselves. Time was, but times 
 are changed somewhat, when in multitudes of our parish 
 pulpits men whose characters were unhallowed preached 
 to others what they never practised themselves. To 
 Buch the banner ought not to be given. Men must fear 
 God, or else they are not worthy to bear it. Moreover, 
 none but these can bear it. What they bear is not the 
 banner ; it is but an imitation of it. It is not Christ 
 
Our Banner. 175 
 
 thej preach ; it is a diluted thing that is not the gospel 
 of Jesus. They cannot proclaim it to others till they 
 know it themselves. It is given to them that fear God, 
 because they will have courage to bear it. Fear is often 
 the mother of courage. To fear God makes a man brave. 
 To fear man is cowardly, I grant ; but to fear God with 
 humble awe and holy reverence is such a noble passion 
 that I would we were more and more full thereof, blend- 
 ing, as it were, the fear of Isaac with the faith of 
 Abraham. To fear God will make the weakest of us 
 play the man, and the most craven of us become heroes 
 for the Lord our God. Now, inasmuch as this banner 
 is given to those that fear God, if you fear God it is 
 given to you. I do not know in what capacity you are 
 to bear it, but I do know there is somewhere or other 
 where you have to carry it. Mother, let the banner 
 wave in your household. Merchant, let your banner 
 be fixed upon your house of business. Let it be unfurled 
 and fly at your masthead, O sailor. Bear your banner, 
 O soldier, in your regiment. Yours is a stern duty, for 
 alas, the Christian soldier hath a path of trial that few 
 men have trodden. God make you faithful, and may you 
 be honored as the good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Some 
 of you are poor, and work hard in the midst of many 
 artisans who fear not God. Take your banner with you. 
 Never be ashamed of your colors. You cannot be long 
 in a workshop before your companions will pull their 
 colors out. They will soon begin talking to you about 
 their sinful pleasures, their amusements, perhaps their 
 infidel principles. Take your banner out likewise. 
 Tell them that it is a game two can play at; never 
 allow a man to show his banner without you showing 
 
176 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 yours. Don't do it ostentatiously ; do it humbly, but 
 do it earnestly and sincerely. Remember your banner 
 is one that you never need be ashamed of; the best of 
 men have fought under it ; nay, he who was God as well 
 as man hath his own name written on the escutcheon. 
 Surely, then, you need not be ashamed to wave it any- 
 where and everywhere. You can think bravely ; now 
 be great in act as you have been in thought ! 
 
 " Presence of mind and courage in distress 
 Are more than armies to procure success." 
 
 ly. And, indeed, this was our last question — what 
 
 WAS THIS BANNER GIVEN TO US FOR ? Our text is 
 
 very explicit. It was given to us to be " displayed 
 hecause of the truths It w^as to be displayed. In 
 order to display a banner, you must take it out of its 
 case. Members of this congregation, brethren in the 
 church, I pray jou study the Scriptures much. I 
 would not have men attempt to preach unless they 
 have some power. To go forth without some study 
 would be like a man attempting to do execution with 
 a gun that had much powder in it and no shot. Do 
 unfurl the banner ; to this end husband well your 
 time. Young men, save your spare hours to study the 
 Bible. Steal them from your sleep if you cannot get 
 them anyhow else. Sunday-school teachers ; be dili- 
 gent in your preparations for your classes. Get your 
 banner out of the case. It is of little service lifting 
 it up in the midst of the ranks without its being un- 
 furled. See that ye know the holy art of unfurling it. 
 Practise it ; study it ; be well acquainted with him who 
 is the wisdom of God and the power of God. And 
 after the flag is unfurled, it needs to be lifted up. So, 
 
Our Baniior. 177 
 
 in order to display Christ, yon must lift him up. Lift 
 him lip with a clear voice as one that has something to 
 say that he would have men hear. Speak of him 
 boldly as one who is not ashamed of his message. 
 Speak affectionately, speak passionately, speak with 
 your whole soul, let your whole heart be in every word 
 you say, for this it is to lift up the banner. But besides 
 lifting up the banner you must carry it, for it is the 
 business of the standard-bearer not merely to hold it in 
 one place, but to bear it here and there if the plan of 
 battle shall change. So bear Christ to the poor lodg- 
 ing-houses, to the work-houses, to the prisons, if you 
 can get admittance, to the back streets, to the dark 
 slums, to the cellars, to the solitary attic, to the crowded 
 rooms, to the highways and the by-ways; and you 
 especially who are private Christians, and not preachers, 
 bear it from house to house. "We had a complaint the 
 other day that some of you had been geing from house 
 to house to try and talk to others about their souls; 
 you had entrenched upon the parochial bounds of the 
 authorized gamekeeper. I pray you entrench again. 
 What is my parish ? The whole world is my parish ; 
 let the whole world be your parish likewise. What 
 does it matter to us if the world be parcelled out among 
 men who probably do little or nothing. Let us do all 
 we can. Ko man hath any right to say to me, " Yisit 
 in such and such a district, not here — this is my ground." 
 Who gave it to you ? Who gave him lordship of the 
 world or any portion of it ? " The earth is the Lord's, 
 and the fulness thereof." The earth is your field, and 
 no matter upon whose district, territory, or parish. 
 Let me encourage you that love the Saviour. You 
 have the pure gospel ; go and spread it. Let nothing 
 
178 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 confine you, or limit your labors, except your strength 
 and your time. Still, after all, if we carry the gospel, 
 and lift up the banner, it will never be displayed even 
 then, unless there is wind to blow it. A banner would 
 only hang like a dead flag upon the staff if there were 
 no wind. Now, we cannot produce the wind to expand 
 the banner, but we can invoke heavenly aid. Prayer 
 becomes a prophecy when ye say, "Awake, O heavenly 
 wind, and blow, and let this banner be displayed." 
 The Holy Spirit is that gracious wind who shall make 
 the truth apparent in the hearts of those who hear it. 
 Display the banner, talk of Christ, live Christ, proclaim 
 Christ everywhere. He is given to you for this very 
 purpose. Therefore, let not your light be hid or put 
 under a bushel. " Ye are the light of the world. Let 
 your light shine before men." Let the old flag bo 
 held up by fresh hands. Go ye forth in new times, 
 with new resolves, and may ye have constant renew- 
 ings as new opportunities open before you. 
 
 Oh, but are there not some of you who could not 
 bear this banner ? Let me invite such to come and 
 take shelter under it. My Master's banner, wherever 
 it goes, gives liberty. Under the banner of Old Eng- 
 land there never breathes a slave. They tread our 
 country, they breathe our air, and their shackles fall. 
 Beneath the banner of Christ no slave can live. Do 
 but look up to Jesus, relying upon his suffering in your 
 stead, and bearing your sins in your place and room, 
 and forthwith you shall have acceptance in the Beloved, 
 and the peace of God which passeth all understanding 
 shall keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. 
 So may God enlist you beneath his banner to his glory. 
 Amen. 
 
ur C|ampiffn. 
 
 " And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took 
 the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away 
 with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried 
 them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron." — Judges xvi. 3. 
 
 OOR Samson ! We cannot say much about him 
 by way of an example to believers. We must 
 hold him up in two lights — as a beacon and as 
 a prodigy. He is a beacon to us all, for he 
 shows us that no strength of body can suffice 
 to deliver from weakness of mind. Here was a man 
 whom no fellow-man could overcome, but he lost his 
 eyes through a woman — a man mighty enough to rend 
 a lion like a kid, yet, in due time, though himself 
 stronger than a lion, he is bound with chains. When 
 I think of the infatuation of which Samson was the 
 subject, and remember how we are men of like passions 
 with him, I can only, for myself and for you, put up 
 the prayer, " Lord, hold thou me up, and I shall be 
 safe." And Samson is also a prodigy. He is more a 
 wonder as a believer than he is even as a man. It is 
 marvellous that a man could smite thousands of Phil- 
 istines with no better weapon than the jaw-bone of a 
 newly killed ass, but it is more marvellous still that 
 
ISO Types and EmUerns. 
 
 Samson should be a saint, ranked aniono' those illns- 
 trious ones saved by faith, though such a sinner. St. 
 Paul has put him among the worthies in the eleventh 
 chapter of the Hebrews. Paul wrote by inspiration. 
 Therefore, there can be no mistake about it — Samson 
 was saved. Indeed, when I see his child-like faith, 
 the way in which he dashed against the Philistines, 
 hip and thigh, and smote them with a great slaughter — 
 the way in which he cast aside all reckonings and 
 probabilities, and in simple confidence in his God cast 
 himself about to do the most tremendous feats of valor 
 — when I see this, I cannot but w^onder and admire. 
 The Old Testament biographies were never written 
 for our imitation, but they were written for our instruc- 
 tion. Upon this one matter, what a volume of force there 
 is in such lessons ! " See," says God, " what faith can 
 do. Here is a man, full of infirmities, a sorry fool ; 
 yet, through his child-like faith he lives. The just 
 shall live by faith. He has many sad flaws and spots, 
 but his heart is right towards God ; he does trust in 
 his Lord, and he does give himself up as a consecrated 
 man to his Lord's service, and, therefore, he shall be 
 saved." I look upon Samson's case as a great wonder, 
 put in Scripture for the encouragement of great sin- 
 ners. If such a man as Samson, nevertheless, prevails 
 by faith to enter the kingdom of heaven, so shall you 
 and I. Though our characters may have been dis- 
 figured by many vices, and hitherto we may have 
 committed a multitude of sins, if we can trust Christ 
 to save us he will purge us with hyssop, and we shall 
 be clean ; he will wash us, and we shall be whiter than 
 snow; and in our death we shall fall asleep in the 
 
Our Chamjpion. IS I 
 
 arms of sovereign mercy to wake up in the likeness of 
 Christ. 
 
 But, I am going to leave Samson alone, except as he 
 may furnish us with a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Samson, like many other Old Testament heroes, was a 
 type of our Lord. He is specially so in this case. I 
 shall invite you to look at Christ rather than Samson. 
 First, come andhehold our champion at his worh; then, 
 let us go and survey the worh when he has acconqMshed 
 it ; and, thirdly, let us inquire what use we can make 
 of the icorh which he has performed, 
 
 I. Came with me, then, brethren, and look at our 
 MIGHTY cHAMrioN AT HIS woKK. You remember when 
 our Samson, our Lord Jesus, came down to the Gaza 
 of this world, 'tw as love that brought him ; love to a 
 most unworthy object, for he loved the sinful church 
 which had gone astray from him many and many times ; 
 yet came he from heaven, and left the ease and delights 
 of his Father's palace to put himself among the Philis- 
 tines, the sons of sin and Satan here below. It was 
 rumored among men that the Lord of glory was in the 
 world, and straightway they took counsel together how 
 they would slay him. Herod makes a clean sweep of 
 all the children of two years old and under, that he may 
 be sure to slay the new-born Prince. Afterward scribes 
 and priests and lawyers hunt and hound him. Satan 
 tempts him in the wilderness, and provokes him when 
 in public. Death also pursues him, for he has marked 
 him as his prey. At last the time comes when the 
 triple host of the Saviour's foes has fairly environed 
 ^him and shut him in. They have dragged him before 
 Pilate ; they have scourged him on the pavement ; they 
 
182 Tyjpes and EmUems. 
 
 drag him while his back drips on the stones of Jerusa- 
 lem's streets ; they pierce his hands and his feet ; they lift 
 him up, a spectacle of scorn and suffering ; and now, 
 while dying in pangs extreme, and especially when he 
 closes his eyes, and cries out, " It is finished," sin, Satan, 
 and death all feel that they have the Champion safe. 
 There he lies silently in the tomb. He who is to bruise 
 the serpent's head is himself bruised. O thou who art 
 the world's great Deliverer, there thou liest, as dead as 
 any stone ! Surely thy foes have led thee captive, O 
 thou mighty Samson ! He sleeps ; but think not that he 
 is unconscious of what is going on. He knows every- 
 thing. He sleeps till the proper moment comes, and 
 then our Samson awakes ; and what now ? He is in 
 the tomb, and his foes have set a guard and a seal that 
 they make keep him there. Will any help him now to 
 escape out of their charge ? Is there any man that will 
 give his aid now ? ]SI"o, there is none ! If the Champion 
 escapes it must be by his own single-handed valor. 
 Will he make a clear way for himself, and come up from 
 the midst of his foes ? You know he will, my brethren, 
 for the moment the third day is come he touches the 
 stone, and it is rolled away. He has defeated death ; 
 he has pulled up his posts and bar, and taken away 
 his gates. As for sin he treads that beneath his 
 feet : he has utterly overthrown it, and Satan lies bro- 
 ken beneath the heel that once was bruised. He has 
 broken the dragon's head, and cut his power in pieces. 
 Solitary and alone, his own arm brings salvation, and 
 his righteousness sustains him. Methinks I see him 
 now as he goes up that hill which is before Hebron — the 
 hill of God. He bears upon his shoulders the o'erthrown 
 
Our Champion. 183 
 
 gates, the tokens of his victory over death and hell. 
 Posts and gates and bar and all, he bears them up to 
 heaven. In sacred triumph he drags our enemies be- 
 hind him. Sing to him ! Angels, praise him in your 
 hymns ! Exalt him, cherubim and seraphim ! Our 
 mightier Samson hath gotten to himself the victory, and 
 cleared the road to heaven and eternal life for all his 
 people ! Ye knovi^ the story. T have told it ill, but it is 
 the most magnificent of all stories that e'er were told. 
 " Arms, and the man, I sing," said one of old ; but 
 the cross and of him I sing. 'Tis mine to tell of him 
 who espoused the cause of his people, and, though for 
 awhile captive and bound, broke the green withs, and 
 having gained the victory for himself, liberated others 
 also, then goes at the head of his people along the way 
 which he has opened — a way which leadeth to the 
 right hand of God. 
 
 II. Let us go now, dear brethren, and calmly con- 
 sider the work itself. 
 
 We will stand at the gates of this Gaza, and see what 
 the Champion has done. Those are ponderous hinges, 
 and they must have held up huge doors. We will look 
 at these doors, and posts, and this bar. Why, it is a 
 mass of iron that scarce ten men could lift, and it might 
 take fifty more to carry those huge doors. They scarce 
 were moved even on their hinges without the efiforts 
 of some dozen men ; and yet this one man carried them 
 all, and I read not that his shoulders were bent or that 
 he grew weary. Seven miles at least Samson carried 
 that tremendous load, up hill all the way, too ! Still 
 he bore it all without staggering, nor do I find that he 
 was faint as he was aforetime at Ramath-lehi. 
 
184 Types and Eiitbleins. 
 
 I will not linger upon Samson's exploits. Kather 
 would I draw your thoughts to the Captain of our sal- 
 vation. See what Christ has carried away. I said 
 that he had three enemies. These three beset him, 
 and he has achieved a threefold victory. 
 
 There was death. My dear friends, Christ, in being 
 first overcome by death, made himself a conqueror 
 over death, and hath given us also the victory ; for 
 concerning death we may truly say, Christ has not only 
 opened the gates, but he has taken them away; and 
 not the gates only, but the very posts, and the bar, 
 and all. Christ hath abolished death, and brought life 
 and immortality to light. He hath abolished it in this 
 sense — that, in the first place, the cause of death is 
 gone. Believers die, but they do not die for their 
 sins. " Christ died for our sins according to the 
 Scriptures." We die, but it is not any longer as a 
 punishment to us. It is the fruit of sin, but it is not 
 the curse of sin that makes the believer die. To other 
 men death is a curse ; to the believer I may almost put 
 it among his covenant blessings, for to sleep in Jesus 
 Christ is one of the greatest mercies that the Lord can 
 give to his believing people. The curse of death, then, 
 being taken away, we may say that the posts are pulled 
 up. Christ has taken away the after results of death, 
 the soul's exposure to the second death. Unless Christ 
 had redeemed us, death, indeed, would have been ter- 
 rible ; for it would have been the shore of the great 
 lake of fire. When the wicked die they are judged to 
 punishment. If they rise, it is but to receive in their 
 bodies and in their souls the due rew^ard of their sins. 
 The sting of death is the second death— the afterwards. 
 
Out Champion. ' 185 
 
 To die — to sleep — ay, that were nothing ; but to dream 
 in that sleep ! " Ay, there's the rub ! " said the 
 world's poet ; and there men will Und the rub is ; " for 
 in that sleep of death what dreams shall come! " — nay, 
 not what " dreams," but what substantial pains, what 
 everlasting sorrows, what dread miseries ! These are 
 not for Christians. There is no hell for you, believer. 
 Christ has taken awaj^ posts, and bar, and all. Death 
 is not to you any longer the gate of torment, but the 
 gate of paradise. Moreover, Christ has not only taken 
 away the curse, and the after results of death, but from 
 many of us he has taken away the fear of death. He 
 came on purpose to deliver " those, who through fear 
 of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage." 
 There are not a few here^^who could conscientiously 
 say that they do not dread death; nay, but rather look 
 forward to it with joyful expectation. AVe have become 
 so accustomed to think of our last hours that we die 
 daily, and when the last hour shall arrive, we can only 
 say, " Our marriage day has come." 
 
 " Welcome sweet hour of full discharge 
 That sets my willing soul at large," 
 
 We shall hail the summons to mount beyond this land 
 of woes, and sighs, and tears to be present with our 
 God. The fear of death having been taken away, we 
 may truly say that Christ has taken away posts, and 
 bar, and all. Besides, beloved, there is a sense in 
 which it may be said that Christians never die at all. 
 " He that liveth and believeth in me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live." " He that liveth and believeth 
 in me shall never die." They do not die ; they do but 
 " sleep in Jesus, and are blessed." But the main sense 
 
186 Types and Eiriblema. 
 
 in which Christ has pulled up the posts of the gates of 
 death is that he has brought in a glorious resurrection. 
 Grave, thou canst not hold thy prisoners ; they must 
 rise! O death, thy troops of worms may seem to 
 devastate that fair land of human flesh and blood; but 
 that body shall rise again with more blooming beauty 
 than that with which it fell asleep. It shall upstart from 
 its bed of dust, and silent clay, to dwell in realms of 
 everlasting day. Conceive the picture if you can ! If 
 you have imagination, let the scene now present itself 
 before your eyes. Christ the Samson sleeping in the 
 dominions of death ; death boasting and glorifying 
 itself that now it has conquered the Prince of Life ; 
 Christ waking, striding to that gate, dashing it aside, 
 taking it upon his shoulders, carrying it away, and say 
 ing as he mounts to heaven, " O death, where is thy 
 sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?" 
 
 Another host which Christ had to defeat was the 
 army of sin. Christ had come among sinners, and sins 
 beset him round. Your sins and my sins beleaguered 
 the Saviour till he became their captive. In him was no 
 sin, and yet sins compassed him about like bees. Sin 
 was imputed to him ; the sins of all his people stood in 
 his way to keep him out of heaven as well as them. 
 When Christ was on the cross, my brethren, he was 
 looked upon by God as a sinner, though he never had 
 been a sinner ; and when in the grave, he could not rise 
 until he was justified. Christ must be justified as well as 
 his people. He was justified not as we are, but by his 
 own act. AVe are not justified by acts of our own as he 
 was. All the sin of the elect was laid upon Christ ; he 
 Buffered its full penalty, and so was justified. The token 
 
Our Champion, 187 
 
 of his justification lay in his resurrection. Christ was 
 justified by rising from the dead, and in him all his peo- 
 ple were justified too. I may saj^, therefore, that all our 
 sins stood in the way of Christ's resurrection ; they weie 
 the great iron gate, and they were the bar of brass, that 
 shut him out from heaven. Doubtless, we might have 
 thought that Christ would be a prisoner for ever under 
 the troops of sin, but, oh, see him, my brethren. See 
 how the mighty Conqueror, as he bears our sins *' in 
 his own body on the tree," stands with unbroken bones 
 beneath the enormous load, bearing 
 
 " All that incarnate God could bear, 
 With strength enough but none to spare." 
 
 See how he takes those sins upon his shoulders, and 
 carries them right up from his tomb, and hurls them 
 away into the deep abyss of forgetf ulness, where, if they 
 be sought for, they shall not be found any more forever. 
 As for the sins of God's people, they are not partly 
 taken away, but they are as clean removed as ever the 
 gates of Gaza were — posts, gates, bars, and all ; that is 
 to say, every sin of God's people is forgiven. 
 
 " There's pardon for transgressions past, 
 It matters not how black their cast ; 
 And, oh, my soul, with wonder view, 
 For sins to come there's pardon too ' 
 
 Ever}^ sin that all the elect did commit, are commit- 
 ting, or shall commit, was taken away by Christ, taken 
 upon the shoulders of the atonement and carried away. 
 There is no sin in God's book against his people ; he 
 seeth no sin in Jacob, neither iniquity in Israel ; they 
 are justified in Christ for ever. Moreover, as the 
 guilt of sin was taken away, the punishment of sin 
 
188 Types and EinUenu. 
 
 was consequently taken away too. For the Christian 
 there is no stroke from God's angry hand ; nay, not so 
 much as a single frown of punitive justice. The be- 
 liever may be chastised by a Father's hand ; but God, 
 the Judge of all, has nothing to say to the Christian, 
 except, " I have absolved thee : thou art acquitted." 
 For the Christian there is no hell, no penal death, 
 much less any second death. He is completely freed 
 from all the punishment as well as the guilt of sin, and 
 the power of sin is removed too. It may stand in our 
 way to keep us in perpetual warfare ; but, oh, my breth- 
 ren, sin is a conquered foe to us. There is no sin which a 
 Christian cannot overcome if he will only rely upon his 
 God to do it. They overcame through the blood of the 
 Lamb, who wear the white robe of heaven, and you 
 and I may do the same. There is no lust too mighty, 
 no besettino; sin too strons^lv entrenched. We can drive 
 these Canaanites out. Though they have cities walled 
 to heaven, we can pull their cities down, and overcome 
 them through the power of Christ. Do believe it, 
 Christian, that thy sin is virtually a dead thing. It 
 may kick and struggle. There is force in it for that, 
 but it is a dead thing. God has written condemnation 
 across its brow. Christ has crucified it, '• nailing it to 
 his cross." Do you go now and bury it for ever, and 
 the Lord help you to live to his praise. Oh, blessed be 
 his name ! Sin, with the guilt, the power, the shame, 
 the fear, the terror of it, all is gone. Christ has taken 
 posts, and bar, and all up to the top of the hill. 
 
 Then there was a third enemy, and he also has been 
 destroyed — that was Satan. Our Saviour's sufferings 
 w^ere not only an atonement for sin, but they were a con- 
 
Our Champion. 189 
 
 flict with Satan, and a conquest over him, and Satan is a 
 defeated foe. The gates of hell cannot prevail against 
 the church ; but, what is more, Christ has prevailed 
 against the gates of hell. As for Satan the posts, and 
 bar, and all have been plucked up from his citadel in 
 this sense — that Satan has now no reigning power over 
 believers. He may bark at us like a dog, and he may 
 go about like a roaring lion, but to rend and to devour 
 are not in his power. There is a chain about the devil's 
 neck, and God lets him go as far as he likes, but no 
 further. He could not tempt Job without first asking 
 leave, and he cannot tempt you without first getting 
 permission. There is a permit needed before the devil 
 dares so much as look on a believer, and God gives 
 him permission ; and so, being under divine authority 
 and permission, he will not be allowed to tempt us 
 above what we are able to bear. Moreover, the exceed- 
 ing terror of Satan is also taken away. A man has 
 met Apollyon foot to foot, and overcome him. That 
 man in death triumphed over Satan. So may you and 
 I. The^^rcstige of the old enemy is gone. The drag- 
 on's head has been broken, and you and I need not 
 fear to fight with a broken-headed adversary. When 
 I read John Bunyan's description of Christian's fight 
 with Apollyon, I am struck with the beauty and truth 
 of the description, but I cannot help thinking — " Oh ! if 
 Christian had known how thoroughly Apollyon had 
 been thrashed in days gone by, by his Master, he would 
 have thrown that in his face, and made short work of 
 him." Never encounter Satan without recollecting 
 that great victory that Christ achieved on the tree. 
 Do not be afraid. Christian, of Satan's devices or threat- 
 
190 Types and Emblems, 
 
 enings. Be on your watch-tower against him. Strive 
 against him, but fear him not. Resist him, being bold 
 in the faith, for it is not in his power to keep the fee- 
 blest saint out of heaven, for all the gates which he has 
 put up to impede our march have been taken away, 
 posts, and bar, and all, and our God the Lord has gotten 
 to himself the victory over the hosts of hell. 
 
 III. "We will now see now we can use this victory. 
 Surely there is some comfort here — comfort for you, 
 dear friend, over yonder. You have a desire to be 
 saved ; God has impressed you with a deep sense of sin ; 
 the very strongest wish of your soul is that you might 
 have peace with God. But you think there are so many 
 difficulties in the way — Satan, your sins, and 1 know 
 not what. Beloved, let me tell thee, in God's name, 
 there is no difficulty whatever in the way except in 
 thine own heart, for Christ has taken away the gates of 
 Gaza — gates, posts, bar, and all. Mary Magdalene said 
 to the other Mary, when they went to the sepulchre, 
 *' Who shall roll us away the stone ? " That is what 
 you are saying ; and when they came to the place the 
 stone was rolled away. That is your case, poor troub- 
 led conscience ; the stone is rolled away. What ? 3^ou 
 cannot believe it ? There is God's testimony for it — 
 " Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white 
 as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
 be as wool." You want an atonement for your sins, 
 do you ? " It is finished." You want some one to 
 speak for you. " lie is able to save unto the utter- 
 most, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us." 
 Canst thou believe in the mercy of God in Christ, and 
 rest thy poor guilty soul upon the merit of his doing 
 
Our Champion. 191 
 
 and the virtue of his dying ? If thou canst, God is recon- 
 ciled to thee. There may have been great mountains 
 between thee and God. They are all gone. There may 
 have been the Red Sea of thy sins rolling between thee 
 and thy Father. That Red Sea is dried up. I tell thee, 
 soul, if thou believestin Christ Jesus, not only is there 
 way of access between thy soul and God, but there is a 
 a clear way. You remember, when Christ died, the 
 veil of the temple was rent in twain. There was not 
 a little slit for sinners to creep through, but it was rent 
 in twain from the top to the bottom, so that big sinners 
 might come, just in the same way as when Samson 
 pulled up gates, posts, bar, and all, there was a clear 
 way out into the country for all who were locked up 
 in the town. Prisoner, the prison doors are open. 
 Captive, loose the bonds on thy neck ; be free ! I sound 
 the trump of jubilee. Bond-slaves, Christ hath re- 
 deemed you. Ye who have sold — 
 
 " Your heritage for naught, 
 Shall have it back unbought, 
 The gift of Jesus' love." 
 
 The Lord hath anointed his Son Jesus " to preach 
 liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison 
 doors to them that are bound." Trust thou him. Oh, 
 may his mercy lead thee now^ to trust him, for there is 
 really nothing to prevent thy salvation if thou restest 
 in him. Between thy soul and God, I tell thee, there 
 is no dividing wall. '^ He is our peace." "• He hath 
 made us both one, and reconciled us to God by his 
 blood." May those few words be kept and treasured 
 up by such as need them. Some of you want them. 
 May the Spirit of God put them into your hearts^ 
 
192 Tyjpes and Eiriblems. 
 
 and lay them up there, that you may find comfort 
 in Christ ! 
 
 But is there not something more here ? Is there not 
 here some ground of exhortation to Christians ? Breth- 
 ren, have not some of you been tolerating some sin — 
 some besetting sin, which you think you cannot over- 
 come % You would be more holy, but this thought 
 makes your arm nerveless against your own sin — you 
 are not able to overcome it. So you think that Christ 
 has left the posts, do 3^ou ? I tell you, no ; " he that is 
 born of God sinneth not," Pie that is born of God 
 is perfect, and he sinneth not with allowance ; he sin- 
 neth not with constancy ; and it is his power, with the 
 Holy Spirit's aid, to overcome his sin ; and it is his 
 duty as well as his privilege to go to war against the 
 stoutest of his corruptions till he shall tread them 
 under foot. 
 
 Now, will you believe it, brethren, that in the blood 
 of Christ, and in the water that flowed with it from 
 his side, there is a sovereign virtue to kill your sins ? 
 There is nothing standing between you and the pardon 
 of your sins but your unbelief, and if you will shake 
 that off, you shall march through the gate triumphant. 
 
 Once more, and I have done. Is not this an incentive 
 for us who profess to be servants of Christ to go out 
 and fight with the world, and overcome it for Christ ? 
 Brethren, where Jesus leads us it needs not much 
 courage to follow. " The earth is the Lord's, and the 
 fulness thereof." Let us go and take it for him ! Na- 
 tions that " sit in darkness shall see a great light." Satan 
 may have locked up the world with bigotry, with idola- 
 try, and with superstition, as with posts and bars, but 
 
Our Champion. 193 
 
 the kingdom is the Lord's ; and if we will but rouse our- 
 selves to preach the Word we shall find that the Breaker 
 has gone up before us, and broken and torn away the 
 gates, and we have nothing to do but to enter with an 
 easy victory. God help us to do so ! 
 
 And now, as we come to the Lord's table, let us have 
 this vision before us of our glorious Samson achieving 
 his mighty victory ; and, while we weep for sin, let us 
 praise his superlative power and love that has done such 
 marvels for us. The Lord give us to enjoy his presence 
 at this table, and he shall have the praise I Amen. 
 9 
 
.^(^ 
 
 CJt Jfaintiirg Jero. 
 
 " He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said. Thou hast 
 given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant : and now 
 shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircum- 
 cised? — Judges xv. 18. 
 
 OU will remember the occasion on which these 
 words were spoken. Samson had been brought 
 down from the top of the rock, bound with 
 cords by his own brethren, and given up as a 
 captive into the hands of the Philistines. But, 
 no sooner did he reach the Philistines than the super- 
 natural force of God's Spirit came upon him, and he 
 snapped the cords as though they had been but tow ; 
 and seeing the jaw-bone of a newly slaughtered ass 
 lying near to hand, he grasped that strange weapon, 
 and fell with all his might upon the hosts of the Phil- 
 istines ; and though, no doubt, they took to speedy 
 flight, yet the one man, smiting them hip and thigh, 
 left no less than a thousand persons dead upon the 
 ground ; and as he piled up the heaps of the slain, he 
 looked with grim satisfaction upon the slaughter which 
 he had wrought, crying — " Heaps upon heaps ; heaps 
 upon heaps ; with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain 
 a thousand men ! " There was, perhaps, a little of 
 
The Fainting Hero. 195 
 
 vaunting and vain-glorjing in his conduct ; but, in a 
 moment, a sudden faintness gathered over him. He 
 had been exerting himself most marvellously, straining 
 every nerve and muscle, and now, being sore athirst, 
 he looked round him for a stream of water, but there 
 was none ; and he felt as if for lack of water he must 
 die, and then the Philistines would rejoice over him. 
 With that simple-minded faith which was so charac- 
 teristic of Samson, who was nothing but a big child, 
 he turned his eye to his heavenly Father, and cried — • 
 " O Jehovah, thou hast given me this great deliverance, 
 and now shall I die for thirst ? After all that thou 
 hast done forme, shall the uncircumcised rejoice over me 
 because I die for want of a drink of water ? " Such con- 
 fidence had he that God would interpose on his behalf. 
 l^ow, my drift is the comforting of God's saints, 
 especially in coming to the table of their Lord. I have 
 thought there may be many of you who are feeling in 
 an unhappy and a distressed frame of mind, and that 
 by referring you to what God has already done for 
 you I might lead you to set a lighter estimate upon 
 your present trouble, and enable you to argue that he 
 who has wrought great deliverances for you in the 
 past will not suffer you to lack in the future. 
 
 I. Yor HAVE ALREADY, MY BKOTHERS AND SISTERS, 
 EXPERIENCED GREAT DELIVERANCES. 
 
 Happy is it for you that you have not had the slay- 
 ing of a thousand men, but there are "heaps upon 
 heaps" of another sort upon which you may look with 
 quite as much satisfaction as Samson, and perhaps with 
 less mingled emotions than his, when he gazed on the 
 slaughtered Philistines. See there, beloved, the great 
 
196 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 heaps of your sins, all of them giants, and any one of 
 them sufficient to drag you down to the lowest hell. 
 But, they are all slain ; there is not a single sin that 
 speaks a word against you. " Who shall lay anything 
 to the charge of God's elect ? " Another arm than 
 yours has done it, but the victory is quite as complete. 
 Christ returns wnth dyed garments from Bozrah ; he 
 has trodden the wine-press of God's w^rath, and I may 
 almost say that the blood which stains his apparel is 
 the blood of your sins, which he has utterly destroyed 
 for ever. Look at their number. Take so many years, 
 and make each year a heap. Divide them, if you will, 
 into groups and classes ; put them under the heads of 
 the ten commands, and there they lie, in ten great 
 heaps, but every one of them destroyed. 
 
 Think, too, of the heaps of your doiibts and fears. 
 Do you not remember when you thought God would 
 never have mercy upon you ? Let me remind you of 
 the low dungeon where there was no water, w^hen the 
 iron entered into your soul. Some of us can never for- 
 get the time when we were under conviction. Moses 
 tied us up to the halberts, and took the ten-thonged 
 whip of the law, and laid it upon our backs most ter- 
 ribly, and then seemed to wash us with brine as con- 
 science reminded us of all the aggravations which had 
 attended our sins. But, though we feared we should 
 have been in hell, though we thought that surely the 
 pit would shut its mouth upon us ; yet, here we are 
 living to praise God, as we do this day, and all our 
 fears are gone. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. God 
 "hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor 
 rewarded us after our iniquities." " Heaps upon heaps" 
 
The Fainting Hero. 197 
 
 of fears have we had; bigger heaps than our sins, but 
 there they lie — troops of doubters. There are their 
 bones and their skulls, as Bunyan pictured them out- 
 side the town of Man soul ; but they are all dead, God 
 having wrought for us a deliverance from them. 
 
 Another set of foes that God has slain includes our 
 temptations. Some of us have been tempted from every 
 quarter of the world, from every corner of the compass. 
 Sometimes it has been pride ; at another time despair. 
 Sometimes it has been too much of the world, and at 
 others it has been too little. Sometimes we have been 
 too strong and puffed up ; at other times we have 
 been too weak and cast down. There has sometimes 
 been a lack of faith, and at others our fervency may 
 have been inflamed by the flesh. The best of men are 
 shot at with the devil's worst darts. You have been 
 tempted by Satan; you have been tempted by the 
 world ; your nearest and dearest friends have, perhaps, 
 been your worst tempters, for, " a man's foes shall be 
 they of his own household." There has not been a 
 bush behind which an enemy has not lurked, no inch 
 of the road to Canaan which has not been overgrown 
 with thorns. 
 
 " Trials of every shape and name 
 Await the followers of the Lamb, 
 Who leave the world's deceitful shore. 
 And leave it to return no more." 
 
 But, look back upon them. Your temptations, where 
 are they ? Your soul has escaped like a bird out of 
 the snare of the fowler, and this night you can say, 
 "They compassed me about like bees; yea, like bees 
 they compassed me about ; but in the name of God 
 have I destroyed them ; I have passed safely where 
 
198 Types and Emblems, 
 
 others have been ruiued ; I have walked along the 
 walls of salvation when others have been lying at the 
 foot thereof, dashed- in pieces by their presumption 
 and their self-confidence ; ' heaps upon heaps ' of my 
 temptations have been slain, and thou, O God, hast 
 wrought for me a great deliverance ! " 
 
 So, let me say, in the next place, has it heen with 
 inost of your sorrows. You, sons and daughters of 
 tribulation, have sometimes sat down and said, " All 
 these things are against me ! " You have lost children, 
 friends have died, business has departed, wealth has 
 melted, almost every comfort has had a blight upon 
 it. Likei Job's messengers, evil tidings have followed 
 one another, and yo}i have been brought very low. 
 But, beloved in Christ Jesus, you have been delivered. 
 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the 
 Lord delivereth him out of them all." It has been so 
 in your case. Whatever form the affliction has taken, 
 mercy has taken a form to meet it. When the arrow 
 flew, God was your shield ; when the darkness gathered, 
 he was your sun ; when you had to fight, he was your 
 sword ; when you needed to be supported, he was 
 your rod and 3^our staff. 
 
 " Thus far we've proved that promise good 
 Which Jesus ratified with blood ; 
 Still is he gracious, wise, and just, 
 And still in him let Israel trust." 
 
 I will let no man in this congregation take a place be- 
 fore me in obligation to the Most High. Brethren, 
 we are all debtors, and I count myself most of all a 
 debtor. I boast that I have nothing to boast of. I 
 would desire to lie the lowest, and to take the meanest 
 
The Fainting Hero, 199 
 
 place, for I owe most of all to the grace of God. When 
 I look back to my parentage, when I see whence the 
 Lord has brought me, and what he has done for me 
 and by me, I can only say, *' Thou hast given to thy 
 servant this great deliverance ! " And, I suppose, if 
 all tlie people of God could meet here one by one, they 
 would each claim that there is something peculiar in 
 their every case ; each one would say, " There is some- 
 thing in the deliverance God has wrought for me that 
 demands of me a special song ; " therefore, let the 
 whole of us together, who have " known and tasted 
 that the Lord is gracious," look back upon the past 
 with thankfulness and praise to the Lord. 
 
 11. Yet fkesh troubles will assail yoij, and excite 
 YOUR ALARM. Thus Samsou was thirsty. This was a 
 new kind of want to him. He was so thirsty that he was 
 near to die. The difficulty was totally different from 
 any that Samson had met before. Shake those Sam- 
 sonian locks in which thy strength lieth, but they can- 
 not distil a single drop of dew^ to moisten thy mouth ! 
 The strong man is as much amenable to thirst as the 
 weak, and that arm which could slay a thousand Philis- 
 tines, cannot open a fountain in the earth, draw down a 
 shower from the skies, or yield to thirst a single draught 
 of water. He is in a new plight. Of course it seems 
 to you to be a far simpler matter than he had known 
 before, and so it was. Merely to get thirst assuaged is 
 not anything like so great a thing as to be delivered from 
 a thousand Philistines. But I dare say w4ien the thirst 
 was upon him, and oppressed him, Samson felt that 
 little present difficulty more weighty and severe than the 
 gi'eat past difficulty out of which he had so specially 
 
200 Type8 and EinUems. 
 
 been delivered. Now I think, beloved, there may be 
 some of you who have been forgiven, saved, delivered, 
 and yet you do not feel happy to-night. " God has done 
 great things for you, whereof you are glad," yet you 
 cannot rejoice ; the song of your thanksgiving is hushed. 
 A little inconvenience in getting into your pews ; a hasty 
 word spoken by somebody outside the gate ; the thought 
 of a child at home, something which is very little and 
 insignificant compared with all that God has wrought 
 for you, will sometimes take away the present joy and 
 comfort of the great, the unspeakably great boons which 
 you have received. You may know your standing in 
 Christ, and yet some little trouble keeps buzzing about 
 your ears, and may be distracting you even now. Let 
 me say two or three words to you. It is very usual for 
 God's people, when they have had some great deliver- 
 ance, to have some little trouble that is too much for 
 them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines, and piles 
 them up in heaps, and then he must needs die for want 
 of a little water ! Look at Jacob ; he wrestles with God 
 at Peniel, and overcomes omnipotence itself, and yet he 
 goes " halting on his thigh ! " Strange, is it not, that 
 there must be a touching of the sinew whenever you and 
 I win the day ? It seems as if God must teach us our 
 littleness, or nothingness, in order to keep us within 
 bounds. Samson seems to have crowed right loudly 
 when he said, " Have I slain a thousand men ?" Ah ! 
 Samson, it is time thy throat became hoarse when 
 thou canst boast so loudly. The mighty man has to go 
 down on his knees and cry, " O God, this thirst will over- 
 come thy hero ; send me, I pray thee, a draught of 
 water." God has ways of touching his people, so that 
 
The Fainting Hero. 201 
 
 their energy soon vanishes. "I said my mountain 
 Btandeth firm, I shall not be moved ; thou didst hide thy 
 fiice, and I was troubled." Now, dear child of God, if 
 this is your case, I say it is not an unusual one. There 
 is a reaction which generally follows any strong excite- 
 ment. No doubt the excitement of having slain the 
 Philistines would naturally be followed by depression 
 of spirits in Samson. When David had mounted the 
 throne of Israel there came the reaction, and he said, 
 " I am this day weak, though anointed king." You 
 must expect to feel weakest just when you are enjoying 
 your greatest triumph. 
 
 I have already said that the use of all this is to make 
 a man feel his weakness. I hope it makes you feel 
 yours. What fools we are, brethren, and yet if some 
 one else were to call us fools we should not like it, 
 though I do not doubt but that we are very well named, 
 whoever, may give us the title, for the whole of heaven 
 cannot make us rejoice if we have one pain in our head ; 
 and all the harps of angels, and our knowledge of our 
 interest in " the glory that is to be revealed," cannot 
 make us happy if some little thing happens to go con- 
 trary to our minds. Somebody trod on the corns of 
 your pride as you were coming in here, and if an angel 
 had preached to you you would not have enjoyed it, 
 because of your mind being discomposed. Oh ! simple- 
 tons that we are ! The table is daintily spread ; the 
 manna of heaven lies close to our hand, but, because 
 there is a little rent in the garment, or a small thorn 
 in the finger, we sit down and cry as though the worst 
 of ills had happened to us ! Heaven is thine own, and 
 yet thou criest because thy little room is scantily 
 9* 
 
202 Tyjpes mid Emhlems. 
 
 furnished ! God is thy Father, and Clirist thy brother, 
 and yet thou weepest because a babe has been taken from 
 thee to the skies ! Thy sins are all forgiven, and yet 
 thou mournest because thy clothes are mean. Thou 
 art a child of God, an heir of heaven, and yet thou 
 sorrowest as though thou wouldst break thy heart be- 
 cause a fool hath called thee ill names ! Strange is it ! 
 foolish ; but such is man — strangely foolish, and only 
 wise as God shall make him so. 
 
 III. If, my brethren, you are now feeling any 
 present trouble pressing so sorely that it takes away 
 from you all power to rejoice in your deliverance, I 
 want you to remember that Yor are still secuke. 
 God will as certainly bring you out of this present lit- 
 tle trouble as he has brought you out of all the great 
 troubles in the past. 
 
 He will do this for two reasons, both of which are 
 found in the text. The first is, because if he does not do 
 it your enemy will rejoice over you. " What," saith 
 Samson, ^' shall I fall by the hand of the uncircum- 
 cised ? Faint, weary, thirsty, shall I become their 
 victim — I who was once their terror, and made the dam- 
 sels of Gath and of Askelon to weep instead of to dance? 
 Shall / be slain ? " And what say you ? But hush 
 your gloomy forebodings. If you perish, the honor of 
 Christ will be tarnished, and the laughter of hell will 
 be excited. Bought with Jesu's blood, and yet in hell 
 — what merriment there would be in the pit ? Justi- 
 fied by the righteousness of Christ, and yet lost — what 
 a theme of scorn for fiends ! Sanctified by the Spirit of 
 God, and yet damned — oh ! what yells of triumph would 
 go up from the abode of Apollyon and his angels ! 
 
The Fainting Hero. 203 
 
 "What ! a child of God forsaken of his Father ! A jewel 
 plucked from Jesu's crown ! A member rent from Jesil's 
 body ! Never, never, never ! God will never permit 
 the power of darkness to triumph over the power of 
 light. His great name he ever hath in respect, and the 
 ruin of the meanest believer would be the cause of 
 dishonor and disrespect to God, therefore you are 
 safe ! Oh ! it is such a blessed thing when you can run 
 behind your God for shelter. Some youngster out in 
 the street has been offending his fellow, and is likely to 
 receive a blow ; but here comes his father, and he runs 
 behind his father's skirt and feels that there is no fear 
 for him now. So let us shelter ourselves behind our 
 God. Better than brazen wall, or castle, or high tower, 
 shall Jehovah be to us, and we may then look at all our 
 enemies, and say, as Isaiah did to Sennacherib, " The 
 virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and shaken 
 her head at thee ! " The uncircumcised shall not re- 
 joice ; the daughters of Philistia shall not triumph. 
 We are our God's, and he w^ill keep his own until the 
 day when he shall display them as his jewels. 
 
 That is one reason for confidence, but another reason 
 is to be found in the fact that God has already delivered 
 you. I asked you just now to walk over the battle- 
 field of your life, and observe the heaps upon heaps of 
 slaughtered sins, and fears, and cares, and troubles. Do 
 you think he would have done all that he has done for 
 youif he had intended to leave you ? The God who has 
 so graciously delivered you hitherto has not changed ; he 
 is still the same that he ever was. I have no doubt about 
 the sun rising to-morrow morning ; he always has done 
 BO since I have been able to see him. Why should I 
 
204 Types and Emblems. 
 
 doubt my God, for he is more certain than the sun ? 
 The I^ile ceases not to make Egypt laugh with plenty ; 
 men trust it, and why should not I trust my God, who 
 is a river full of water, overflowing with lovingkindness. 
 If we never doubt God till we have cause to do so, dis- 
 trust will be banished from our hearts for ever. Of 
 men we speak as we find ; let us do the same with 
 God. Was he ever a wilderness to you ? When did 
 he forsake you ? When did your cries return without 
 an answer ? What, has he ever said, " I have blotted 
 you out of my book, and I will remember you no 
 more ! " You have doubted him, wickedly and wan- 
 tonly, but never have you had any cause for suspicion 
 or mistrust. Now, since he is " the same yesterday, 
 and to-day, and for ever," the God who delivered you 
 out of the jaw of the lion and out of the paw of the 
 bear, w411 yet deliver you out of your present difficulty. 
 Bethink you, dear friend, if he does not do so he 
 will lose all that he has done. When I see a potter 
 making a vessel, if he is using some delicate clay upon 
 which he has spent much preliminary labor to bring it 
 to its proper fineness ; and if I see him again, and again, 
 and again moulding the vessel — if I see, moreover, that 
 the pattern is coming out — if I know that he has put 
 it in the oven, and that the colors are beginning to 
 display themselves — I bethink me were it common 
 delf ware I could understand his breaking up what he 
 had done, because it would be but worth little ; but 
 since it is a piece of rich and rare porcelain upon which 
 months of labor had been spared, I could not under- 
 stand his saying, " I will not go on with it ; " because 
 he would lose so much that he has already spent. Look 
 
The Fainting Hero. 205 
 
 at some of those rich vessels by Bernard de Palissy, 
 which are worth their weight in gold, and you can 
 hardly imagine Bernard stopping when he had almost 
 finished, and saying, " I have been six months over 
 this, but I shall never take the pains to complete it." 
 Now, God has spent the blood of his own dear Son 
 to save you ; he has spent the power of the Holy Spirit 
 to make you what he would have you be, and he will 
 never stay his mighty hand till his work is done. 
 *' Hath he said, and shall he not do it ? Hath he begun, 
 and shall he not complete ? " God will have no unfin- 
 ished works. When Jehovah's banner is furled, and 
 his sword is sheathed, then shall he cry — 
 
 " 'Tis done, 
 For the kingdoms of this world 
 Are the kingdoms of my Son." 
 
 In that day every vessel that he prepared for glory shall 
 stand in that glory, having been made perfectly meet 
 for it. Do not, then, despair, because of your present 
 trouble. 
 
 Doubtless some of you- are saying that I am speaking 
 as one who does not know the occasion or the bitterness 
 of your peculiar distress. My dear friends, I do not 
 care to know it. Enough for me to know that if God 
 has wrought for his servants so great a deliverance as 
 he has done, the present difficulty is only like Samson's 
 thirst, and I am sure he will not let you die of faint- 
 ness, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to 
 triumph over you. ^' Ah ! " says one, " it is all very 
 well talking, but mine is a very, very, very peculiar 
 case." Well, then, dear brother, there is a special 
 reason why God should deliver you, because, if Satan 
 
20G Types and Emhlems. 
 
 could overcome in that peculiar case, he would then 
 say that he could have overcome all the saints if he 
 could have got them into the same corner, and he would 
 loudly boast, just as though the whole had perished. 
 But I do not think that your case is so very peculiar ; 
 it is only the way in which you look at it. The road 
 of sorrow has been well trodden; it is the regular 
 sheep-track to heaven, and all the flock of God have had 
 to pass along it. So, I pray you, cheer up your heart 
 with Samson's words, and rest assured that God will 
 deliver you soon. 
 
 And now, while I have been talking thus, the 
 thought has sprung up in my breast that many people 
 listen to me who are not Christians. My friends, my 
 great wonder is, what some of you do without God. 
 I can hardly understand how the rich man can 
 have any comfort without God, for he must suffer 
 from bereavement and bodily pain as well as the poor. 
 Those silly butterflies of fashion, who spend all their 
 time in flitting about from flower to flower, are so 
 heartless and thoughtless that I cannot comprehend 
 how they can do without God. With empty heads and 
 silly hearts men and women can make gods of anything ; 
 their own pretty persons can be quite sufficient object 
 for their idiotic worship. But a man that stands right 
 straight up, a sensible thinking man — a working man if 
 you will — I do not mind whether he works with the dry 
 heat of his brain or with the damp sweat of his face — I 
 cannot understand how a man like this, with organs of 
 thought and a reasoning soul, can go on without God. 
 There must be pinches with some of you when you want 
 a God. I had been in a madhouse a dozen times if it had 
 
The Fainting Hero. 207 
 
 not been for my God. My feet had altogether gone 
 into the chambers of despair, and I had ended this life, 
 if it had not been for the faithful promises of the God 
 that keeps and preserves his people. My life has not 
 been a miserable, but a happy one ; and yet I tell you 
 that there have been times in it when I could not have 
 done without my God. I do not understand what some 
 of you, who are always at the pinch, do without God. 
 There are many such here. You are poor ; you are not 
 often without sickness ; you were born inheritors of 
 maladies that make your life wretched ; your children 
 are sickly about you ; it is as much as you can do by 
 Saturday night to make ends meet ; you are frequently 
 in debt ; you are constantly in trouble. Oh ! I cannot 
 tell what you do without God. Why, you have nothing 
 here, and no hope of anything hereafter ! Poor souls, 
 I could weep for you to think that you are without God ! 
 I went some time ago into the house of our brother 
 Stephenson ; a good soldier of the cross was he : he 
 fell asleep in Jesus ; and when I saw his weeping sons 
 and daughters, I felt, " I have easy work here." I said 
 to them, " Why, what a mercy it is that your father is 
 gone, for he has lingered long in pain, and you know 
 how ready he was to enter into rest." That was very 
 different from what sometimes happens. Only a little 
 while ago a sister came to me weeping as if she would 
 break her heart. " Ah, sir," said she, " my brother is 
 dead, and he died without hope." It was a sad case, 
 but then she had a God to repair to even under that 
 sharp trial. But, when death comes into your house, 
 you have no God ! I knelt down and prayed with 
 those poor weeping girls this morning, and, though 
 
208 Types and Emblems. 
 
 their father was but just dead, I marked that the voice 
 of prayer had evidently a soothing charm about it, and 
 though they wept, yet it seemed to soothe and pacify 
 them. But some of you do not pray, and, therefore, 
 this comfort cannot be yours. 
 
 And you will come to die soon. When the death- 
 thirst is in your throat, what do you think you will do 
 without God ? To die in God's presence, is simply to 
 let life blossom into something better than life ; but to 
 die without God must be horrible ! You will not want 
 your boon companions then. Strong drink will not 
 pacify you then. Music will have no charms for you 
 then. The love of a tender and gentle wife can yield 
 you but sorry comfort then. You may lay your money 
 bags at your side, but they will not calm your palpita- 
 ting heart then. You will hear the boomings of the 
 waves of the great sea of eternity ; you will feel your 
 feet slipping into the dreadful quicksand ; you will 
 clutch about you for help, but there will be none ! 
 Instead thereof, invisible hands shall begin to pull you 
 down. And down through the dark sea you must 
 descend to those darker depths where dread despair 
 will be your everlasting heritage ! 
 
 But there is hope yet. Whosoever believeth in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Turn thine eye to 
 Christ, poor sinner, as he hangs there suffering in 
 man's stead, taking human guilt on himself, and being 
 punished for it as though it were his own. Trust him, 
 sinner, and resting in Jesus, thou shalt be saved I 
 
onun's lligfets.— |, f waHe. 
 
 " And Moses brought their cause before the Lord. " — Num. xxvii. 5. 
 
 & 
 
 lY the help of God the Holy Spirit, I want to 
 use this incident, which forms a kind of episode 
 in the rehearsal of the history of Israel's forty 
 years' wanderings in the wilderness, for a 
 twofold purpose. First, let me indicate its 
 general teaching, and, secondly, let me take it as a 
 ground of appeal to certain special classes. 
 In respect to its general teaching. 
 I would ask your attention, and exhibit for your 
 imitation, the faith which these five young women, 
 the daughters of Tj<dio'^\\^2i^, jposseased with regard to 
 the protnised inheritance. You must remember that 
 the children of Israel were still in the wilderness. 
 They had not seen the promised land, but God had 
 made a covenant with them that they should possess it. 
 He had declared that he would bring them into a land 
 which flowed with milk and honey, and there plant 
 them ; and that that land should belong to them and 
 to their descendants by a covenant of salt for ever. 
 Now, these women believed in this heritage. They 
 were not like Esau, who thought so little of the inheri- 
 
210 Types and Eiriblems. 
 
 tance that he sold it to his brother Jacob for a mess of 
 pottage ; but they believed it to be really worth having ; 
 they regarded it, though they had never beheld it, as 
 being sonaething exceedingly substantial, and, so look- 
 ing upon it, they were afraid lest they should be left 
 out when the land was divided ; and, though they had 
 never seen it, yet, being persuaded that it was some- 
 where, and that the children of Israel would have it in 
 due time, their anxiety was lest they, having no broth- 
 ers, should be forgotten in the distribution, and so 
 should lose their rights. They were anxious about an 
 inheritance which they had never seen with their eyes. 
 IN'ow, herein I hold them up to the imitation of this 
 present assembly. There is an inheritance far better 
 than the land of Canaan. Oh, that we all believed in 
 it, and longed for it ! It is an inheritance, however, 
 which eye hath not seen, and the sound whereof ear 
 hath not heard. It is a city whose streets are gold, 
 but none of us have ever trodden them. Kever hath 
 traveller to that country come back to tell us of its 
 glories. There the music never ceases; no discord 
 ever mingles in it : it is sublime ; but no member of 
 the heavenly choir has ever come to write out for us 
 the celestial score, or to 
 
 " Teach us some melodious sonnet 
 Sung by flaming tongues above." 
 
 It is not a matter of sight ; it must be to each one of 
 lis a matter of faith. By faith we know that there is 
 another and a letter land. By faith we understand 
 that our disembodied souls shall mount to be with 
 Christ, and that, after awhile, our bodies also shall 
 rise to join our spirits, that body and soul may together 
 
Women^s Rights. — A Parable. 211 
 
 be glorified for ever in the presence of our gracious 
 Redeemer. We have never seen this land however ; bu t 
 there be some of us who as firmly believe in it as if we had 
 seen it, and are as certain of it and as persuaded, as though 
 these ears of ours had listened to its songs of joy, and 
 these feet of ours had trodden its streets of gold. 
 
 There was this feature, too, about the faith of these 
 five women — they knew that the inheritance was only to 
 he won hy encountering great difficulties. The spies who 
 came back from the land had said that the men who 
 dwelt in it were giants. They said, " We were in their 
 sight at grasshoppers ; yea, we were in our own sight as 
 grasshoppers when we looked upon them.'* There were 
 many in the camp of Israel, I have no doubt, who 
 said, " Well, I would sell my share cheaply enough ; 
 for though the land be there, we never can win it ; 
 they have cities walled up to heaven, and they have 
 chariots of iron ; we can never win the place." But 
 these women believed that though they could not fight, 
 God could ; and though they had never put their 
 fingers to a more terrible instrument than a needle, 
 yet did they believe that the same right arm which 
 got to itself the victory when they went with Miriam, 
 dancing to the timbrel's jubilant sound, would get the 
 victory again, and bring his people in, and drive out 
 the Canaanites, even though they had walled cities 
 and chariots of iron. So these women had strons: 
 faith. I would to God that you had the same, all of you, 
 dear friends ; but I know that some of you who do be- 
 lieve ^that there is a land which floweth with milk and 
 honey are half afraid that you shall never reach it. They 
 are vexed with many doubts because of their own weak- 
 
212 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 ness, which, indeed, should not make them doubt, but 
 should make them despair utterly if the getting of the 
 goodly land depended upon their own fighting for it and 
 winning it. But, inasmuch as " the gift of God is eter- 
 nal life," and God himself will give it to us, and inas- 
 much as Jesus has gone up on high to prepare a place 
 for us, and has promised that he will come again and 
 receive us unto himself, that where he is there we may 
 be also, I would to God that our doubts and fears were 
 banished, and that we said within ourselves, "We are 
 able to go up and attack the land, for the Lord, even the 
 Lord of hosts, is with us ; Jehovah-nissi is our banner ; 
 the Lord our righteousness is our helper, and we shall 
 surely enter into the place of the beloved, and shall join 
 the general assembly and church of the first-born whose 
 names are written in heaven." 
 
 I commend the faith of those women to you because, 
 believing in the land, and believing that it would be 
 won, they loere not to he put about hy the ill report of 
 some ivho said that it tvas not a good land. There were 
 ten out of the twelve who spied out the land, who said, 
 *' It is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof." 
 They brought back an evil report. But, whoever may 
 have been perverted by these falsehoods, these five 
 women were not. Others said, " Wlw, the land is full of 
 pestilence and full of hornets, and those who live in it 
 now are dying," forgetting that God was making them 
 to die in order to bring in the children of Israel in their 
 stead ; and so they said, " who cares to have a portion 
 there ? Give us the leeks and the garlic, and the onions 
 of Egypt, and let us sit again by the flesh-pots that we 
 had at Kameses ; but as for going on to this Canaan, we 
 
Wo7ne7i's Bights. — A Parable. 213 
 
 will never do it." But these five women, who knew that 
 if there were troubles in the household they would be 
 sure to have their share of them, that if the bread ran 
 short they would be the most likely to feel the strait- 
 ness of it, and that if it were a land of sickness they 
 would have to be the nurses, yet coveted to have their 
 share in it, for they did not believe the ill report. They 
 said : '' No ; God hath said it is a good land ; a land of 
 hills and valleys, a land of brooks and rivers, a land of 
 oil-olives, a land out of whose bowels they might dig 
 iron, and brass, and gold, and silver ; and we will not 
 believe what these spies say ; it is a good land, and we 
 will go in and ask for our share in it." So I commend 
 their faith in this respect. I know some of you are 
 occasionally met by sneering sceptics, and they say, 
 " There is no such land ; we have never seen it ; are you 
 such fools as to believe it ; are you going on a pilgrimage 
 over hedge and ditch, helter-skelter, after a country that 
 you know nothing of ? Are you going to be led by the 
 nose ? Trust that old-fashioned book ; and take his 
 w^ord, and nothing but his word, and believe it ?" Oh, 
 I hope there are many of us — would that all of us were 
 in that vein of thought — who can say, '^ It is even so." 
 Stand back Mr. Atheist, and stop us not, for we are well 
 persuaded that ours is no wild-goose chase. Stand back 
 Sir Ironical Sceptic; laugh if thou wilt. Thou wilt 
 laugh on the other side of thy face one of these days, 
 and we shall have the laugh of thee in those times. At 
 any rate, if there be no heaven we shall be as well off 
 as thou wilt be ; but, if there be a hell, where, O where, 
 wilt thou be, and what will thy portion be ? So we 
 even go on our own way confident and sure, nothing 
 
214: Types and Emhlems. 
 
 doubting ; believing, as surely as we believe our own 
 existence, that 
 
 "Jesus, the Judge, will come 
 To take his people up 
 To their eternal home ; " 
 
 and believing that one hour with him will be worth all 
 the trials of the road : worth enduring ten thousand 
 deaths, if we could endure them, in order to win it ; 
 and that, moreover, by God's grace we shall win it, 
 
 " We shall behold his face, 
 We shall his name adore, 
 And sing the wonders of his grace 
 Henceforth for evermore.'' 
 
 These daughtei-s of Zelophehad, then, I hold up to 
 TOur commendation and imitation on account of their 
 faith. 
 
 But there was another point. Being thus sure of 
 the land, and feeling certain about that, we must next 
 commend them for their afixiety to possess a portion in 
 it. Why did they think so much about it ? I heard 
 some one say the other day, speaking of certain young 
 people, *• I do not like to see young women religious ; 
 they ought to be full of fun and mirth, and not have 
 their minds filled with such profound thoughts.*' 
 Xow, I will be bound to say that this kind of philos- 
 ophy was accredited in the camp of Israel, and that 
 there were a great many young women there who said, 
 '* Oh, there is time enough to think about the good 
 land when we get there ; let us be polishing up the 
 mirrors ; let us be seeing to our dresses ; let us under- 
 stand how to put our fingers upon the timbrel when 
 the time comes for it ; but as for prosing about a por- 
 tion among those Hivites and Hittites, what is the 
 
Womefi's Rights.— A Paralle. 215 
 
 good of it ? We will not bother ourselves about it."" 
 But such was the strength of the iaith of these five 
 women that it led them to feel a deep anxiety for a 
 share in the inheritance. They were not such simple- 
 tons as to live only for the present. They had out- 
 grown their babyhood ; they were not satisfied to live 
 merely for the day. They knew that they would soon 
 cross the Jordan, and that the tribes would be in the 
 land, and so they began, as it were, like good house- 
 wives, to think about their portion where it would be, 
 and to reflect that were they left out when the muster- 
 roll was read, and should no portion be appointed for 
 Tirzah, and no portion for Milcah, and no place for 
 any of the five sisters, they would be like beggars and 
 outcasts in the midst of the land. The thought of all 
 others having their plot of ground, and their family 
 having none, made them anxious about it. Oh, dear 
 friends, how anxious you and I ought to be to make 
 - our calling and election sure, and how solemnly should 
 that verse of Wesley come home to our hearts, 
 
 " But can I bear the piercing thought. 
 What if my name should be left out 
 When thou for them shalt ca,ll ! " 
 
 Suppose I should have no portion in the skies ! O ye 
 foundations of jasper, ye gates of pearl, ye walls of 
 chrysolite and all manner of precious stones, must I 
 never own you ? O troops of angels, and armies of the 
 blood-bought, must / never wave the palm or wear 
 the crown in your midst ? Must the word that salutes 
 me be that awful sentence, " Depart, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire ?" Is there no place for me, no room 
 for me, in the inheritance of the saints ? I do beseech 
 
216 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 you, never be satisfied till you can answer this question 
 in the affirmative, and say, " Yes, I have a place in 
 Jesu's heart ; I have been washed in Jesu's blood ; and 
 therefore I shall be with Jesus where he is in his glory 
 when the fitting time cometh." Oh, I would have you 
 who are not sure about this, be as anxious as these 
 women were. Let it press upon your hearts ; let it even 
 take the color from your cheek, sooner than that you 
 should have a gayety and a mirth empty and frivolous, 
 which will entice you down to the pit. Oh, do make 
 sure work for eternity ! Whatever else you trifle with, 
 do seek to have an anchor that will hold you fast in 
 the last great storm. Do seek to be affianced unto 
 Clirist, and grounded and bottomed upon his founda- 
 tion — the Rock of Ages, where we must build for 
 eternity. These women were taken up with prudent 
 anxious thoughts about their own part in the land. 
 
 And let me say that they were right in desiring to 
 have a portion there, when they recollect that the land 
 had been covenanted to their fathers. They might 
 well wish to have a part in a thing good enough to be 
 a covenant-blessing. The land had been promised over 
 and over again by divine authority ; they might well 
 wish to have a share in that which God's own lips had 
 promised. It was a land to bring them into which 
 God had smitten the first-born of Egypt, and saved his 
 people by the sprinkling of blood ; they might well 
 desire a land which cost so great a price to bring them 
 to it. Besides, it was a goodly land ; it was the most 
 princely of all lands ; peerless among all the territories 
 of earth. Its products were most rich. The grapes of 
 Eshcol — what could equal them? Its pomegranates, 
 
Women^s Bights. — A Parable. 217 
 
 its oil-olives, its rivers that flowed with milk and honey 
 — there was nothing like it in all the world besides ! 
 They might well say, " Let us have a portion there ! " 
 And, my dear hearers, the heaven of which we have to 
 tell you is a land so good that it was spoken of in the 
 covenant before the world was. It has been promised 
 to the people of God ten thousand times. Jesus Christ 
 has shed his precious blood that he might open the 
 gates of it, and bring us in. And it is a land — such a 
 land — that, if you had but seen it, if you could but 
 know what it is, you w^ould pine away in stopping 
 here ; for its very dust is gold, its meanest joys are 
 richer than the transports of earth, and the poorest in 
 the kingdom of heaven is greater than he who is the 
 mightiest prince in the kingdom of this world. O that 
 your mouths were set a-longing after the feasts of par- 
 adise. O that ye pined to be where Jesus is ; and 
 then, surely, you would be anxious to know whether 
 you had a portion there. 
 
 I hold these women up as an example, because they 
 believed in the unseen inheritance, and they were 
 anxious to get a portion in it : — 
 
 But I must commend them yet again for the way in 
 which they set about the business. I do not find that 
 they went complaining from tent to tent that they 
 were afraid that they had no portion. Many doubters 
 do that; they tell their doubts and fears to others, and 
 they get no further. But these five women went 
 straight away to Moses. He was at their head ; he was 
 their mediator ; and then it is said that '^ Moses brought 
 their cause before the Lord." You see, these women 
 did not try to get what they wanted by force. They 
 10 
 
218 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 did not saj, '' Oh, we will take care and get our share 
 when we get there." They did not suppose that they 
 had any merit which they might plead, and so get it ; 
 but they went straight away to Moses, and Moses took 
 their cause, and laid it before the Lord. Dost thou 
 want a portion in heaven, sinner ? Go straight away to 
 Jesus, and Jesus will take thy cause, and lay it before 
 the Lord. It is a very sorry one as it stands by itself, 
 but he has such a sweet way of so mixing himself up with 
 thee and thyself with him, that his cause and thy cause 
 will be one cause, and the Father will give him good 
 success, and thee good success too. O that some one 
 here could breathe the prayer, if he has never prayed 
 before, " Saviour, see that I have a portion in the skies. 
 Precious Saviour, take my poor heart, and wash it in 
 thy precious blood, and change it by thy Holy Spirit, 
 and make me ready to dwell where perfect saints are. 
 O do thou undertake my cause for me, thou blessed 
 Advocate, and plead it before thy Father's face." That 
 is the way to have the business done. Put it out of 
 your own hands into the hands of the prophet like 
 unto Moses, and you will surely speed. 
 
 IS'ow, observe these women's success. The Lord ac- 
 cepted their plea, for he said unto Moses, " The daugh- 
 ters of Zelophehad speak right." Yes, and when thou 
 criest to him, and when his dear Son takes thy prayer 
 to him, God will say, "That sinner speaks right." 
 Beat on thy breast, and say, " God be merciful to me 
 a sinner ; " and he will say, " That soul speaks right." 
 Young women, imitate these five sisters now. May 
 God the Holy Spirit bring you to imitate them b}^ 
 humbly offering your plea through the Meditator, 
 
Women^s Bights. — A Parable, 219 
 
 Jesus Christ, and God will say, " Ah ! she speaks right ; 
 I have heard her ; I have accepted her." And then 
 God said that these sisters should have their portion 
 just the same as the men had ; that they should have 
 their share of land just as if they had inherited it as sons. 
 And so will God say to every seeking sinner. What- 
 ever may be the disability under which you labor, 
 whatever bar there may have seemed to be to your 
 claim, you shall inherit it among the children, you shall 
 take your part and your lot among the chosen of God. 
 Christ has set your cause before his Father, and it shall 
 be unto you, poor sinner, according to your desire, 
 and you shall have a part among the Lord's people. 
 
 I wish I had power to press this matter more imme- 
 diately home upon you ! Many of us who are now 
 present are saved. It is a great satisfaction to remem- 
 ber how large a proportion of my congregation have 
 come to Christ ; but, oh ! there are many, many here 
 who are — well, where are they ? They do not know 
 that they have any inheritance. They cannot read 
 their title clear to mansions in the skies, and, what is 
 worse, they are unconcerned about it. If they were 
 troubled about it, we would have hope ; but no, they 
 go their way, and, like Pliable, having got out of the 
 Slough of Despond, they turn round and say to Chris- 
 tians, " You may have the brave country all to your- 
 selves for me." They are so fond of present pleasures, 
 so easily enticed by the wily whispers of the arch- 
 enemy, so soon overcome by their own passions, that 
 they find it too hard to be a Christian ; to love Christ 
 is a thing too difficult for them. 'Ah ! may God meet 
 with you, and make you wiser ! Poor souls, you will 
 
220 Types and Emblems. 
 
 perish, some of you will perish while you are looking 
 on at this world's bubbles and baubles ! You will per- 
 ish ; you will go down to hell with this earth's joys in 
 your mouths, and they will not sweeten those mouths 
 when the pangs of hell get hold upon you ? Your life is 
 short ; your candle flickers in its socket. You must 
 soon go the way of all flesh. We never meet one week 
 after another without some death occurring between. 
 Out of this vast number surely it is all but impossible 
 that we could all ever meet again. Perhaps before this 
 day week some of us will have passed the curtain, have 
 learned the great secret, and have looked into the invis- 
 ible world. Whose portion will it be ? If it be thine, 
 dear hearer, wilt thou mount to worlds of joy, or shall — 
 
 " Devils plunge thee down to liell 
 In infinite despair ? " 
 
 God make that a matter of concern with us first, and 
 then may we come to Jesus, and receive the sprinkling 
 of his precious blood ; and thus may he make it a mat- 
 ter of confidence with us that we are saved through 
 him, and shall be partakers with them that are sanctified! 
 
 II. With a view of giving the whole incident a par- 
 ticular DIRECTION 
 
 Does it not strike you that there is \iqyq 2^ special lesson 
 for our unconverted sisters f Here are five daughters, 
 I suppose young women, certainly unmarried women, 
 and these five were unanimous in seeking to have a 
 portion where God had promised it to his people. 
 Have I any young women here who would dissent 
 from that ? I am afraid I have ! Blessed be God, for 
 the many who come in among us — become solemnly 
 impressed, and give their young days to Jesus; but 
 
Women^s Bights. — A Parable. 221 
 
 there are some —there may be some here of another 
 mind. The temptations of this wicked Metropolis, 
 the pleasures of this perilous city, lead them away 
 from their profession, and prevent their giving a fair 
 hearing to Qod's "Word. Well, but you are here, and 
 may 1, as a brother, put this question to you ? Do you 
 r»ot desire a portion in the skies ? Have you no wish for 
 glory ? Have you no longing for the everlasting crown ? 
 Can you sell Christ for a few hours of mirth ? Will 
 you give him up for a giddy song or an idle companion ? 
 Those are not your friends who would lead you from 
 the paths of righteousness. Count them not dear, but 
 loathe them, if they would entice you from Christ ! 
 But, as you will certainly die, and will as certainly live 
 for ever in endless woe or in boundless bliss, do see to 
 your souls. " Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness, and all other things shall be added to 
 you." You have come fresh from the country, young 
 woman, and, leaving your mother's care, it is very 
 likely that you have begun to absent yourself from the 
 means of grace, but I charge you not to do so. On the 
 contrary, let this bind you to your mother's God, and 
 may you feel that, whereas you might have neglected 
 God's house hitherto and profaned God's day, yet 
 henceforth, like the daughters of Zelophehad, you seek 
 to have a portion in the promised land. 
 
 The subject bears another way. Has it not a voice, 
 and a loud voice toOy to the children of godly jparents ? 
 I like these young women saying that their father did 
 not die with Korah, but that he only died the ordinary 
 death which fell upon others because of the sin of the 
 wilderness ; and also, their saying, " Why should the 
 
222 Types and E/iiblems. 
 
 name of our father be done away from among his family 
 because he had no son ? " It is a good thing to see this 
 respect to parents, this desire to keep up the honor of 
 the family. I was thinking whether there may not be 
 some here, some children of godly parents, who would 
 feel it a sad thing if they should bring a disgrace upon 
 the family name. Is it so, that though your father has 
 been for many years a Christian, he has not one to 
 succeed him 'i O young man, have you no ambition 
 to stand in his place, no wish to let his name be per- 
 petuated in the Church of God ? Well, if the sons have 
 no such ambition, or if there be none, let the daughters 
 say to one another, " Our father never disgraced his 
 profession, he did not die in the company of them that 
 gathered themselves together against the Lord, but 
 he served the Lord faithfully, and we will not let his 
 name be blotted out from Israel ; we will join ourselves 
 to the people of God, and the family shall be represented 
 still." But, oh ! how I desire that the brothers and 
 sisters would come together, and what a delightful thing 
 it would be to see the whole family ! In that house- 
 hold there were only five girls, but they all had their 
 heritage. O father, would jo\x not be happy if it 
 should be so with your children ? Mother, would not 
 you be ready to say, " Lord, now lettest thou thy 
 servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for 
 mine eyes have seen thy salvation," if you could see all 
 your children brought in ? And why not, my brethren, 
 why not ? We will give God no rest until it is so ; 
 we will plead with him until they are all saved. And, 
 young people, why not ? The Lord's mercy is not 
 straitened. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, 
 
Wmnen^s liights. — A Parahle, 223 
 
 and your father's God, we trust, will be your God. O 
 that you would follow in the footsteps of your parents 
 60 far as they followed Christ ! These daughters of 
 Zelophehad seem to me to turn preachers, and I stand 
 here to speak for them, and all five of them say to you, 
 *' We gained our inheritance by seeking for it through 
 a Mediator." Young women, brothers and sisters, you 
 shall gain it, too, by seeking it through a Saviour. 
 
 And does not this text also speak to another class, 
 to orphans ? These good girls had lost their parents, 
 or otherwise the question would not have arisen. 
 Father and mother had gone, had passed away, and 
 therefore they had to go to Moses for themselves. 
 When the parents could not come to Moses for them, 
 they came for themselves. Think of the skies a mo- 
 ment, some of you. Perhaps you were this morning 
 in a very different place, but think of the skies a 
 minute. No, I do not mean the meteoric stones; I 
 do not mean the stars, nor yon bright moon ; but I 
 want you to think of your mother, who is yonder. Do 
 you remember when she gave you the last kiss, and bade 
 you farewell, and said, '' Follow me, my children, follow 
 me to the skies ? " Think of a father who is there, his 
 voice, doubtless, helping to swell the everlasting halle- 
 lujah. Does he not beckon you from the battlements 
 of heaven, and cry, " Children of my loins, follow me as 
 I followed Christ ? " Some of us have an honored grand- 
 sire there, an honored grandmother there. Many of 
 you have got infants there, young angels whom God 
 lent you for a little time, and then took them to 
 heaven to show ^qvl the way, to lure you to go upwards 
 too. You have all some dear friends there with whom 
 
224 Types and Emblems, 
 
 3^ou walked to God's house in company. Thej have 
 gone, but I charge you, by the living God, to follow 
 them. Break not your households in twain. Let no 
 solemn rifts and rents come into the family, but, as they 
 have gone to their rest, God grant unto you by the same 
 road to come and rest eternally too. Jesus Christ is 
 ready to receive sinners ; he is ready to receive you, 
 and if you trust him, the joy and bliss which now your 
 friends partake of shall be yours also. Daughters of 
 godly parents, children of those who have gone before 
 to eternal glory, I entreat you to look to Jesus; go and 
 present your suit to him now. It shall surely prosper. 
 If the question was once doubtful, it has now become 
 " a statute of judgment." The Lord has commanded it. 
 May God bless these counsels and exhortations to yon 
 for Christ's sake. Amen. 
 
^kd Ckbs m)i fright gbsings. 
 
 " If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the 
 earth."— EccLES. xi. 3. 
 
 T was raining very heavily when I was thinking 
 over this text. The sharp crack of the thun- 
 der, and the quick flash of the lightning, 
 seemed to be constant just where I sat. When 
 I came here I found that you had not had a 
 drop of rain, and the weather still continues hot and 
 feverish. This seemed to me like an example and an 
 illustration of the sovereignty of God's dispensations. 
 True is it in the spiritual as well as in the natural 
 economy, that one place is rained upon, and another 
 is not rained upon. In one part of the church God's 
 grace descends in a flood, while another part remains 
 as dry and arid as the wilderness itself. Even under the 
 same ministrations one Christian's soul may be refreshed 
 till it becomes like a watered garden, while another 
 may remain parched as the desert. He hath the key 
 of the rain, and it is for us to ask him to give us of the 
 dew and the rain of his Holy Spirit. Let us walk 
 humbly with him, lest he should say of us, as he did to 
 10* 
 
226 Types and Emblems, 
 
 his Jewish vineyard of old, "Also I will command tho 
 clouds that they rain no rain upon it." We may stand 
 up and look to the Most High, and learn our depend- 
 ence upon him for spiritual blessings, just as the farmer, 
 knowing his dependence for his harvest upon God, 
 watches the sky and the clouds, for without the rain 
 what can he do ? 
 
 But, now, to come to the text itself: I purpose a 
 meditation upon three of its practical uses. First, as 
 suggesting a coinfortfoi' the timid j secondly, as giving 
 an argument to the douhting; and thirdly, as furnish- 
 ing a lesson for the Christian. 
 
 I. First, I think we may fairly use the text as a com- 
 fort FOR THE TIMm. 
 
 The clouds are black, they lower ; they shut out the 
 sun-light ; they obscure the landscape. The timid one 
 looks up and says, " Alas ! how black they are, and how 
 they gather fold on fold ! What a dark, gloomy day !" 
 What makes them black ? It is because they are full, 
 and hence light cannot pierce them. And if they be 
 full, what then ? Why, then it will rain, and then the 
 hot earth will be refreshed, and every little plant, and 
 every tiny leaf and rootlet of that plant will suck up 
 moisture, and begin to laugh for joy. Out of the 
 black sky comes the bright daisy, and the garden is 
 painted with many colors, and the only palette that is 
 used, is, after all, that black one, for the sky doth it 
 by its rain. 
 
 Now, Christian, you too, are of a timid disposition, 
 and every now and then your circumstances are not 
 as you would like to arrange them. Losses come very 
 closely upon one another. Friend after friend forsakes 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 227 
 
 yoii. Sickness treads upon the heel of sickness. All 
 things are against you, as against Jacob of old. The 
 clouds are very black, but may they not be black for 
 the very same reason as the clouds above you — because 
 they are full ? And is it not very possible that it will 
 be with you as it has been often with God's saints, ac- 
 cording to the hymn we sang just now — 
 
 " Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take : 
 The clouds ye so much dread 
 Are big [aye, black] with mercy, and shall break 
 In blessings on your head." 
 
 If the clouds were not black, you might not expect 
 rain. If your afflictions were not grievous, they would 
 not be profitable. If your adversities did not pain and 
 trouble you, they would not be blessed to you. We 
 have heard some people say— "If this trouble had 
 come in such and such a shape, I would not have 
 minded it." But God meant you to mind it, for it wiis 
 in your minding it that it was blessed to you. -^ By 
 the blueness of the wound," saith Solomon, " the hurt 
 is made better." When the stroke causes black and 
 blue, when really the spirit is thoroughly wounded, 
 then the blessing comes. It is not merely said in the 
 Scriptures that there is a needs-be for affliction. That 
 is a great truth, but it is added then that there is a 
 needs-be that the affliction should lower our spirit. 
 Listen to the words — "Kow for a season, if needs-be 
 ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." 
 The needs-be is not for the temptation merely, but that 
 ye be in heaviness feeling the temptation — not for the 
 iron only, but for the iron entering into your soul. If 
 the child liked the rod, it would be no chastisement; and 
 
228 Types and Einblems. 
 
 if the Christian loved his affliction while he was in it, 
 and it seemed joyous to him, then it were no affliction ; 
 but it is the very sharpness of it, the vinegar and the 
 gall, that is the medicine that produces the good effect. 
 The blackness of the cloud proves its fulness, and its 
 fulness brings the shower. I suppose we know this 
 experimentally. As a church, we can look back upon 
 mercies which God lias given us in a very extraordinary 
 manner. God intended that this house should be full 
 of hearers every Sabbath-day for years. It is a very 
 remarkable circumstance, and one that alwa^^s aston- 
 ishes me more, perhaps, than it does any of you, when 
 I see the aisles and every place crowded Sabbath after 
 Sabbath. But, how much of the success with which 
 God has crowned our ministry, has been due to the 
 most afflicting providence that ever befell a Christian 
 minister or a Christian church ? Was it not, dear 
 friends — to allude to that sad event which is still upon 
 the minds of some of us, and will be till we die, when 
 the cry was raised, and death came into the midst of 
 our solemn assembly — was it not due to that, to a very 
 great extent, that the preacher became known, and that 
 60 he has had an opportunity of speaking to many 
 more souls than otherwise would have listened to him, 
 concerning the unsearchable riches of Christ 1 You 
 will have found it so, I think, in your own private 
 estate. A big wave has washed you on to a safe rock. 
 A black life-boat has taken you out of a gay and bright, 
 but leaky vessel, and brought you to your desired 
 haven. You have been unburdened. If you have lost 
 your riches, you have been better without them than 
 with them. Your losses have, in the end, come to be 
 
t/ 
 
 Black Clouds cmd Bright Blessings, 229 
 
 practical gains. The good ship has gone across the 
 waters more swiftly, when some of that which was but 
 needless ballast, has been heaved overboard. Can you 
 not affirm of your spiritual experience — certainly I can 
 of my own — that the pelting showers and fiercer 
 storms have been most soul-enriching? It is when 
 one labors under a deep sense of sin ; when perhaps 
 one's hope is jostled to and fro like a reed shaken by 
 the wind ; when the spirit sinks and the soul is brought 
 very low ; that we learn to study the promises, find out 
 their value, prove their faithfulness, and come to un- 
 derstand more than ever of the grace and goodness of 
 a covenant-keeping God. '' Before I was afflicted I 
 went astray, but now have I kept thy word ; " this is 
 only another way of putting the same truth. The 
 clouds were full of rain, but they emptied themselves 
 upon the man who needed grace from on high. 
 
 Now, brethren and sisters, what has been true in the 
 past, depend upon it, is true in the present. I do not 
 know — how can I tell — what is your particular trouble ; 
 but you may well believe that he who appointed it, he 
 who measured it, he who has set its bounds, will bring 
 you to the end of it, and prove his gracious design in it 
 all. Do not think that God deals roughly with his chil- 
 dren, and gives them needless pain. It grieves him to 
 grieve you. " He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve ^ 
 the children of men." It is easy to have a faith that acts 
 backwards, but faith that will act forwards from the 
 point of your present emergency, is the true faith that 
 you want now. Ilath God helped you out of one trouble 
 after another, and is it to be supposed that he will leave 
 you in this ? In six troubles he will be with you ; yea, 
 
230 Types and EmUems. 
 
 in seven there shall be no evil touch you. The particu- 
 lar water in which you now are struggling is intended 
 and included in the promise, " When thou goest through 
 the rivers I will be with thee, and through the floods, 
 they shall not overflow thee." It is, I must confess, 
 difticult sometimes to bring the promise down to the 
 particular case, for unbelief fights hard against it ; but 
 remember, unless the promise be applied to the par- 
 ticular case, it is like the liniment which is not applied 
 to the wound, or like the medicine that is not received 
 by the patient. The medicine not received may be very 
 potent, but the man cannot know its value; and the 
 promise may be very sweet and precious, but it cannot 
 comfort you unless it be applied. Do ask, then, for 
 grace that you may believe while you are still under 
 the cloud, black as it looks, that it will empty itself in 
 blessed rain upon you. 
 
 So will it he on the largest possible scale in the whole 
 Church of Christ. There are many clouds surrounding 
 the church of God just now, and I must confess, that 
 with all the religious activity there is abroad, there is 
 very much to cause us great sorrow. The friends of 
 evangelical opinions are few compared with the advocates 
 of Broad Churchism and Romanism. The strength 
 seems to be meanwhile on the wrong side, and the devil 
 hath stirred up a fierce tempest, by reason of which 
 some are alarmed. But we must not yield to fear. The 
 Master knows. He understands that it is right for his 
 soldiers to be sometimes rebuffed at Ai, though they 
 have won Jericho, that afterwards they may search and 
 find out the accursed thing, and stone the Achan that 
 has brought upon them defeat. He will be with us 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 231 
 
 yet, and the time shall come when we shall see that 
 every cloud that was full of rain has emptied itself 
 upon the earth. 
 
 II. Our second point is an argument with the 
 
 DOUBTING AND THE DESPONDING. 
 
 It is a law of nature that a full thing begins to empty 
 itself. When the cloud gets full, it no longer has the 
 power of retaining its fluid contents, but it pours them 
 down upon the earth. When the river gets swollen, 
 does it not rush with greater impetuosity towards the 
 deep ? And the ocean itself is continually emptying 
 itself into the ocean that is above the firmament, that 
 same ocean above the firmament emptying itself again, 
 according to the text, upon the earth. As there is a 
 circulation in the body, and every pumping of blood 
 into the heart is accompanied by another pumping of 
 it out again, so there is a circulation in this great 
 world ; everything revolving, and the whole machine 
 kept in order, not by hoarding, but by spending ; not 
 by retaining, but by consecutively getting and giving. 
 
 Well now, dear friends, you may gather that when 
 the cloud is full it is going to rain. I want you to draw 
 an argument from this. Our gracious God never mahes 
 a store of any good thing ^ hut he intends to give it to us. 
 Just think for a moment of God, our gracious Father. 
 He is love. His name is love. His nature is love. 
 Love is God. " God is love." He is all goodness. He 
 is a bottomless, shoreless sea, brimful of goodness. He 
 is full of pardoning goodness to forgive sin. He is 
 full of accepting favor to receive poor prodigals to 
 his bosom. He is full of faithful goodness to watch 
 over his dear children ; full of bounteous goodness to 
 
 1/ 
 
232 Types and Eniblems. 
 
 bestow upon them all that they want. Kow, if there 
 be such a plenitude of goodness in the Father, it must 
 be for some object — not for himself. Why should it be 
 given to himself ? It must be there for his creatures. 
 Is it not written that he delighteth in mercy ? We 
 know that he maketh the sun to shine upon the evil as 
 well as upon the just. Then I, even though I be evil, 
 will hope that this store of goodness in the heart of the 
 everlasting Father is intended, some of it, at any rate, 
 to be poured out upon me, poor unworthy me. " If 
 the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon 
 the earth," and if God be full of goodness, it is that he 
 may spend that goodness upon the sons of men. But 
 whither come those bright and sparkling drops, flashing 
 like diamonds in the sunlight, turning to manj^ colors, 
 and forming the wondrous iris? Whither come ye, 
 whither come ye, O ye bright and heaven-born drops 
 of matchless rain, all pure and free from every stain ; 
 whither come ye ? " We are come down to the black, 
 hard, dusty earth ; we are going to fall upon the desert 
 or upon the sea ; we descend on fields that ask not for 
 us ; we descend upon the soil that is chapped and needs 
 us, but has not a tongue to speak for us, nor a heart to 
 feel its need. We come down from our element in 
 heaven to tabernacle among men, and to do them good." 
 And so it is with the goodness of our blessed Father. 
 If it be in him, it is there for the earth, for those who 
 need it ; for those who do not even feel their need, and 
 whose need is, therefore, all the deeper ; who cannot 
 feel their need, and, therefore, have a need that is deep- 
 est of all needs. Oh ! blessed goodness, that delights 
 to spend itself upon the unworthiest of men ! 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings, 233 
 
 Ah, troubled, doubting soul ! think again ; let me 
 ask yon this time to muse a little upon Jesus Christ the 
 Son of the Father. Beloved, it is a part of onr belief 
 that " it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness J 
 dwell." We believe that in the atoning sacrifice there 
 is a fulness of satisfaction made to divine justice ; that 
 there is a fulness of cleansing power in the precious 
 blood ; that there is a fulness of righteousness in Christ's 
 holy life ; afulness of vivifying power in his resurrec- 
 tion ; a fulness of prevalence in his plea ; and a fulness 
 of representation in his standing before the eternal 
 throne to take possession of heaven for us. ISTo one 
 here, I think, looks upon Christ as a well without 
 water, or as a cloud without rain. Now, dear heart, 
 if thou believest Christ to be a cloud that is full of 
 rain, for what reason is he full % Why, that he may 
 empty himself upon the earth. There was no need 
 that he should be a man full of sympathy except to 
 sympathize with mourning men and women. There 
 was no need that he should bleed except that he might 
 bleed for you. There was no necessity that he should 
 die except that the power of his death might deliver 
 you from death. There was no need whatever that he 
 should be a servant unless that his obedience might 
 justify many. The fulness of his essential Godhead 
 may be supposed to be there for himself, but the ful- 
 ness of his mediatorial character is a mere waste, unless 
 it is there for you. A man looking at the coal-mines 
 of England, naturally considers that God made that 
 coal with the intention of supplying the world's inhabi- 
 tants with fuel, and that he stored it, as it were, away 
 in those dark cellars underground for this favored 
 
234 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 nation, that the wheels of its commerce might be set 
 in motion. AVell, now, if I go to those everlasting 
 mines of divine faithfulness and of atoning efficacy, 
 which are laid up in the veins of Jesus Christ, I must 
 conceive that there is a supply laid up for those who 
 will require it ; and so there is. Doubt it not ; there 
 is cleansing for the guilty, there is life for the dead, 
 there is healing for the sick. If Jesus be full of power 
 to save, he will save you. If you cry unto him, he 
 will empty himself upon you. 
 
 To proceed yet further, I would ask the doubter to 
 look at the infinite fulness of power which is treasured 
 up in the Holy Spirit. It is a part of our conviction 
 that there is no heart so hard that the Holy Spirit can- 
 not soften it ; no soul so dead that he cannot quicken 
 it ; and no man so desperately set on mischief that his 
 will cannot be subdued by the effectual power of the 
 Holy Ghost working in him. We believe the Holy 
 Ghost to be no mere influence, no inferior or secondary 
 power of moral suasion, but to be absolutely divine — 
 a divine Being exerting irresistible force upon the 
 mental powers of man. Well, now, if there be this 
 might, surely when he appears in the character of a 
 comforter and a quickener, his might is there to be 
 exerted. Is thy lieart hard ? He will empty his soft- 
 ening influence upon it. Is it dead ? His quickening 
 power shall there find a congenial sphere. Art thou 
 dark ? Then there is room for his light. Art thou 
 sick ? Then is there a province for his healing energy. 
 " If the clouds be full of rain, they empt}^ themselves 
 upon the earth ;" and, if the Spirit of the living God 
 be full of might and energy, it is that he may mani- 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 235 
 
 fest it all in these poor, needy souls who desire to feel 
 its power. 
 
 What a wondrous hooh this Bible of ours is. "When 
 you have read this Bible through a score of times, you 
 may have only strolled over the surface, looked at the 
 land, or ploughed at most the upper soil. If you take 
 one passage, and dig deep for the treasure that coucheth 
 beneath, you will find it inexhaustible. The Book has 
 in it a matchless fulness. It were as possible to meas- 
 ure space, or to grasp the infinite in the hollow of your 
 hands, as to investigate the entire compass of Holy 
 Scripture. It is high ; I cannot attain unto it. It is 
 broad ; I cannot reach its boundary. But oh, what an 
 abundance of provisions, and what a fulness of comfort 
 there are stored up in the promises of God's Word. 
 
 " What more can he say than to you he hath said ; 
 You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled." 
 
 Now, what is this fulness in the Bible for ? " If the 
 clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the 
 earth." If the Scriptures be full of comfort, they are 
 intended to be enjoyed, to be believed, to be fed upon 
 by you. There is nothing to spare in this book. There 
 is not too little, but rest assured, there is nothing too 
 much. He that goeth out in the morning after this 
 manna, though he gathereth his omer full, he shall 
 have nothing over, and if he gathereth little, yet still 
 he shall have no lack. There is enough for all, and 
 all its fulness is meant to be used. I cannot amplify 
 on this thought. I have not time to beat it out more, 
 but I hope and pray it may be useful to some of you. 
 You do not trust God, many of you, as you ought to 
 do. You measure his corn with your own bushel. 
 
230 Types and Emblems. 
 
 You know that you would foil your fellow-men and 
 you think that he will fail you. You know your own 
 weakness and infirmity, and you imagine that he will 
 be faint or weary. You know that you could not act 
 very generously towards some who have been ungrate- 
 ful and unkind to you, and you think he cannot. Re- 
 member the passage — "My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the 
 Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
 so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts 
 than your thoughts." You think about saving ; he 
 only thinks about giving. You take a delight in get- 
 ting ; he takes his delight in bestowing. Go to him ! 
 go to him ! You would not need anybody to be long 
 praying you to accept. Do not think that God needs 
 much beseeching in order to give, for it is as easy for 
 him to give as it is for you to accept ; and, as accepting 
 seems congenial to our nature, so does bestowing seem 
 congenial to his. Go to him, and he will empty out 
 his grace upon you ! 
 
 III. The text furnishes a lesson to Christians. 
 
 " If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves 
 upon the earth." The drift of the passage is, of course, 
 to be gathered from the connection, and it was intended 
 by Solomon to teach us liberality. He says — " Give a 
 portion to seven, and also to eight ; for thou knowest 
 not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds 
 be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth." 
 By which he means to say — " If your pocket is full, 
 empty it out upon the poor and needy ; and if God has 
 endowed you with much of this world's substance, look 
 out for cases of necessity, and consider it as much the 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 237 
 
 object of your existence to bestow help upon the needy, 
 as it is the design in the creation ^of a cloud that it 
 should empty itself upon the earth." 
 
 Do the clouds ever lose by emptying themselves? 
 No doubt when the cloud has emptied itself out it is 
 renewed, and still goeth on its course. At any rate, 
 however it may be with the cloud, if it be dissipated 
 when the rain descends, it is not so with the Christian ■ 
 man. God hath a way of giving by cart-loads to those 
 who give away by shovel-fulls. If we give at the back- 
 door—and I do not think we ought to give at any other 
 door— he will be pretty sure to give in greater abun- 
 dance at the window, and at the front door likewise. 
 Says Bunyan :— 
 
 " There was a man, and some did count him mad, 
 The more he gave away the more he had." 
 
 Thank God for men of that sort. " There is that with- y 
 holdeth more than is meet, but ittendeth to poverty ;" 
 and, on the other hand, that sentence which hath in it 
 the nature of a proverb and a prophecy is often verified ; 
 " the liberal soon shall be made fat." I need not say , 
 much upon this to the members of my own congregation, 
 with whom I am acquainted. Most of you, I believe, 
 do empty yourselves upon the earth in proportion as 
 God assists you, and enables you to give ; but there are 
 many persons in this land— I hope their number is on 
 the decrease— worth thousands upon thousands a year, 
 whose contributions to the cause of God are so utterly 
 insignificant, that it is difficult to suppose that the love 
 of Christ has ever gone far enough into them to thaw 
 their hearts, for it has not even penetrated their pockets, 
 making the gold to melt, and their riches to flow in 
 
238 Types and Emblems. 
 
 liberality. I was spoken to by a brother minister not 
 long ago, when I was preaching for him, and he said — 
 " Do not spare them, sir ; do not spare them ; there is 
 one pew there in front of the pulpit, where three men 
 sit who are worth a million of money between them ; 
 our chapel is a thousand pounds in debt, and yet three 
 of our members have a million between them." I 
 said to him, " I think you ought not to ' spare them ' 
 yourself; I do not know why I should say it, only 
 coming here to preach occasionally." " Well," said 
 he, " but you can say, perhaps, what nobody else may." 
 Really, it is a most horrible thing that there should be 
 such positive cov^etousness allied with a profession of 
 Christianity. Christian men — shall I call them so ? — 
 who, after all the plain precepts of Scripture, practise 
 idolatry. They talk of being " stewards," but they 
 act practically as if they were the owners. When a 
 man once gets into the habit of giving to the cause of 
 God, it becomes as much a delight to contribute of 
 his substance as to pray for God's bounty, or to drink 
 in the promise. How could I dare to exist if I did 
 not do something for Christ ? Not do something for 
 Jesus ? Were it not to rob me of the highest privilege 
 which can be accorded to a man this side the grave? 
 When I pray, I ask for something for myself ; when I 
 praise, it is but little I can render ; but oh, to think that 
 I, a poor creature of God's own making, should be able 
 to give to him ! It puts the creature in the highest 
 conceivable light. It lifts him even above angels. There 
 are works the laborious, disinterested, self-sacrificing 
 Christian can do for Christ — 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings, 239 
 
 " Which perfect saints above 
 And holy angels cannot do." 
 
 Let the wealthy empty themselves upon the earth, and 
 this shall be the way to fill themselves. 
 
 But, dear friends, though not many of ns are intrusted 
 with much wealth, we have other aptitudes to be useful. 
 Some Christians have a considerable antount of ability 
 to serve the Loi'd. They are, perhaps, able to speak 
 for the Master. Xow, I think that wherever there is 
 some knowledge of God's Word, a personal acquaintance 
 with its power, and a facility to s'peak, we should exer- 
 cise our talent, if it be but one ; and if we have ten, we 
 should not keep one of the ten to ourselves. *' If the T 
 clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the 
 earth ; " and if a man be full of ability, he is the more 
 bound to empty himself. If there is any minister who 
 ought to work hard, it is the man who is successful. 
 If there is a person living who ought to be always suc- 
 cessful, it is the man whom God helps to preach with 
 power. I say, if God makes me a full cloud, I must go on 
 emptying. If he gives me a good store, I must take care 
 that I scatter it. We must do, each man according to 
 his ability, for God requireth not what a man hath not, 
 but what he hath. Now, dear Christian friends, are 
 you all, out of love for Jesus, doing what you can for 
 him ? Are you, whether you be big clouds or little 
 clouds, trying to empty yourselves upon the earth \ 
 The nearest people of your acquaintance — your children, 
 your kinsfolk, your neighbors — are you trying to show 
 these the way of life — 
 
 " Do you gladly tell to sinners round, 
 What a dear Saviour you have found." 
 
240 Types and Emblems. 
 
 Though comparatively few of us have great genius, 
 we all have some little capacity. Some Christians have 
 a large amount of experimental 'knowledge. They are 
 not eloquent, they are not educated, but they are wise. 
 It has been our privilege to have met with those in the 
 very humblest walks of life, whose experimental knowl- 
 edge of divine things was very much more profound 
 than would usually be found in a doctor of divinity ; 
 men and women who have learned their theology not 
 in halls and colleges, but in courts and cellars ; learned 
 how to pray on bare knees ; learned how to cry to the 
 God of providence when the cupboard was empty ; 
 have tried the reality of religion in the hospital, and 
 perhaps in the workhouse ; some who have done busi- 
 ness in the great waters, and have seen the works of 
 the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. 
 
 It is a great treat to talk to some of those old saints. 
 Their lips are like the lips of the girl in tlie fable, which 
 dropped jewels. There is a savor, an unction, about 
 what they say. It is not theory, but experience with 
 them ; not the letter, but the very soul, and marrow, 
 and fatness of the truth. You do not find them looking 
 to an arm of flesh, or talking about the dignity of man- 
 hood, or vaunting the excellence of mental power. They 
 know of nothing except human weakness and nothing- 
 ness ; they trust in nothing but the divine arm, and the 
 invincible strength of the Holy Ghost. Are there not 
 some such in our midst ? If you have any experience, 
 let me say to you — do, as you have opportunity, tell it 
 out; empty it upon the earth. If you have gained 
 some knowledge of God, communicate it. If 3^ou 
 have proved him, confess to a generation about you 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 241 
 
 that he is a faithful God. I recollect in a time of great 
 despondency deriving wonderful comfort from the testi- 
 mony of an aged minister who was blind, and had 
 been so for twenty years. When he addressed us, he 
 spoke of the faithfulness of God, with the weak voice of 
 a tremulous old man, but with the firmness of one who 
 knew what he said, because he had tasted and handled 
 it. I thanked God for what he had said. It was not 
 much in itself. If I had read it in a book, it would not 
 have struck me ; but as it came from liim, from the very 
 man who knew it and understood it, it came with force 
 and with unction. So you experienced Christians, if 
 any others are silent, you must not be. You must tell 
 the young ones of what the Lord has done for you. 
 Why, some of you good old Christian people are apt to 
 get talking about the difficulties, troubles, and afflic- 
 tions you have met with more than about the succors, 
 the deliverances, and the joys you have proved ; not 
 unlike those persons in " Pilgrim's Progress," who told 
 poor Pilgrim about the lions, and giants, and dragons, 
 and the sloughs, and hills, and all that could terrify and 
 dishearten him. They might have mentioned all this, 
 but they should also have told of Mr. Greatheart, and 
 they should not have forgotten to speak of the eternal 
 arm that sustains Christian in his pilgrimage. Tell 
 the troubles, that were wise ; but tell the strength of 
 God that makes you sufficient, that is wiser still. 
 Empty yourselves. If you have got experience, empty 
 yourselves upon the earth. 
 
 I cannot particularize here what manner of endow- 
 ment God has committed to any or all of you ; but I 
 think there is not one saint out of heaven but has his 
 11 
 
2-i2 Types and Emblems. 
 
 niche to fill, his particular work to do, and therefore 
 some special talent intrusted to hira. Do not hide it 
 in the earth. Dig up that talent, and that napkin too, 
 and go and put it out to heavenly interest for the ben- 
 efit of others, and for the glory of your God. Herein 
 is the folly of so man}^ Christians, that, being wrapped 
 up in the interest of their own salvation, and taken 
 up with their own doubts and fears, there is little care 
 they feel and little trouble they take for others. They 
 never seem to empty themselves out into the world 
 that is around them, and go forth into the world big- 
 ger than the homestead in which they live. But when 
 a man begins to think about others, to care for others, 
 to value the souls of others, then his thoughts of God 
 get larger, then his consolations grow greater, and his 
 spirit becomes more Godlike. A selfish Christianity ! 
 What shall I call it but an unchristian Christianity, a 
 solecism in terms, a contradiction in its very essence. 
 You do not find the men who are anxious after others 
 so often troubled in mind as those who give no thought 
 except to themselves. Mr. Whitefield, in his diary, 
 has his times of depression, but they are comparatively 
 few ; and when he is going from one " pulpit-throne," 
 as he calls it, to another and is preaching all day long, 
 and is hearing the sobs and cries of sinners, and per- 
 haps bearing the hootings and peltings of a mob ; sit- 
 ting down as soon as he has done in public to finish up 
 his letters, or to devote an hour to prayer — why, he has 
 not time enough to get desponding ; he cannot aftbrd 
 space enough to be doubting his own interest in Christ. 
 He is engaged in his Master's service, and has so much 
 of the blessing of God upon it, that he goes right on 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings. 243 
 
 without needing to stop. Christians! may you get 
 into the same delightful state — warm with love to 
 Christ, fervent with zeal for the spread of his kingdom. 
 Tou shall not need then to ask any longer — 
 
 '* 'Tis a point I long toknow, 
 Oft it causes anxious thought — 
 Do I love the Lord or no, 
 Am I his, or am I not ? " 
 
 but you may give a practical answer to such scruples by 
 
 saying — 
 
 " There's not a lamb in all thy flock, 
 I would disdain to feed ; 
 There's not a foe before whose face 
 I'd fear thy cause to plead." 
 
 *' If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves 
 upon the earth." 
 
 Observe, lastly, when it is that the clouds do empty 
 themselves. The text says, when they are full. This 
 is a broad hint, I think, to the Christian ; it tells him 
 when to worh, David was to attack the Philistines at 
 a certain signal. "When thou hearest the sound of a 
 going in the tops of the mulberry-trees, then thou shalt 
 bestir thyself." Take this as. a divine signal; when 
 you are full, it is time for you to set about doing good, 
 emptying yourselves upon the earth. Mr. Jay tells 
 young students — and there are some here — that they 
 cannot always sermonize, but that there will come times 
 when they can. " iN'ow," says he, " when I find that 
 the wind blows I put up the sails ; I make hay while 
 the sun shines, and get the outlines of my sermons 
 when God assists me to do so, that I may have them in 
 readiness, when, perhaps, the breeze may not seem to be 
 so favorable, and my mind not so much upon the wing." 
 
 Do good to yourselves by storing up when you have 
 
24:4: Types and Emblems, 
 
 opportunity. But yet Christians have particular times 
 when they feel fuller than at others. A sermon has 
 warmed your heart ; or you feel grateful, joyous, and 
 zealous, on some other account. Well, perhaps, you 
 will feel sick to-morrow ; so you had better go and do 
 some good to-day. "Nothing like the time present," 
 is the world-old motto. " A bird in the hand is worth 
 two in the bush," saith the proverb. Rest assured that 
 a duty to-day done will be worth two duties saved for 
 to-morrow. A word spoken for Christ to somebody 
 before you go out of the Tabernacle may be timely, 
 opportune, profitable ; but, if you wait for season or 
 circumstance to be more convenient, you may wait and 
 wait till you are weary of waiting, but you might as 
 well expect a lost hour to return as a lost opportunity. 
 A Primitive Methodist brother said at one of the meet- 
 ings lately, that the reason why the Primitive Method- 
 ists got on so was, that while other Christians were 
 waiting for something to turn up, the Primitive Method- 
 ists turned it up themselves. It was a quaint thing 
 to say certainly, but there is a great truth in it. Some 
 Christian people are always biding their time and reserv- 
 ing themselves for a happy juncture. They want a fit 
 occasion for doing good, and they mean to do something 
 worthy of themselves when they get the opportunit3\ 
 My brethren, you have always an opportunity if you will. 
 How does Solomon put it ? " AVhatsoever thy hand tind- 
 eth to do " — the first thing which comes — " do it with 
 all thy might." I am ashamed to have to say as much as 
 this in this vast City of London. Want work ? Non- 
 sense ! Laziness ! Want work in a city like London ! 
 A Christian woman want work for God in a city of 
 
Black Clouds and Bright Blessings, 245 
 
 three million inhabitants, with all its sickness and sor- 
 row, its destitution and squalor ! A Christian man not 
 know what to do to serve his Master with all these 
 courts, and alleys, and crowded houses ; with all their 
 filth and moral pollution, with all the thousands of gin- 
 palaces that glare in the streets, and the crimes of drunk- 
 enness that darken the homes of the people ! Noth- 
 ing for a Christian to do ! You are lazj, sirs ; lazy, 
 listless, sluggish, or else you would never raise such a 
 question. It is not, "What should I do?" but 
 "Where shall I begin doing it— which is the first 
 point ? " And I would say, begin at the point that is 
 nearest to you. So they did when they built the walls 
 of Jerusalem. Every man built opposite to his own 
 house. There, you see, the advantage was he had not 
 to walk two miles to his work at morn and then come 
 back at night. He built opposite to his own house, so 
 he was spared all that trouble. And when he had a 
 little leisure time, when he went to his dinner, he 
 could sit and look at his work, and think how to do it 
 better next time. There was a further advantage in 
 that. Much economy and great benefit would come 
 of it were Christians to work near where they live, and 
 take up that part of Christian service most congenial 
 to their circumstances and to their tastes. " Whatso- 
 ever thy hand findeth to do " — next to thine own door 
 — " do it with all thy might." Begin to do it ; con- 
 tinue to do it, being always steadfast and immovable in 
 the work of the Lord. But if there be a time when 
 you shall specially and particularly labor for Christ, do 
 it when you are full of his love. You have had a 
 mercy lately — a great mercy ; now is the time for lib- 
 
246 Types and Emblems. 
 
 eralitj. You were spared from bankruptcy during 
 the great crisis : consecrate to God what might have 
 been lost. You feel full of love to Jesus ; go, talk 
 about Jesus to those who do not know him. You are 
 full of zeal ; let it manifest itself. You are full of 
 faith ; exercise it. You are full of hope ; now go and 
 lead others into the same hopeful state. Pray for a bless- 
 ing upon others when you have had the best season of 
 prayer, the sweetest period of communion at the Lord's 
 Table, or when you have been well fed on the Word. 
 " If the clouds be full, they empty themselves upon 
 the earth." 
 
 God grant to those of you who have no rest, who are 
 without God, and without Christ, that ye may know 
 your emptiness ; and then the Lord fill you with his 
 own rich grace, as he is wont to do to all those that 
 put their trust in him. 
 
^abib's Jfirst fitforij. 
 
 " So David prevailed over the Philistine witli a sling and with a 
 Btone, and^mote the Philistine, and slew him ; but there was no 
 sword in the hand of David. " — 1 Samuel xvii. 50. 
 
 CAREFUL perusal of the whole chapter will 
 well repay j^our pains. I have selected a 
 verse for convenience, but I want the entire 
 narrative for a text. If you are well versed 
 in the history, we shall have no need of any 
 preface or exordium. So we shall proceed at once to 
 regard David, in his conflict with Goliath, aud his vic- 
 tory over him, first, as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and, secondlj^, as an example for ourselves. As that 
 which is a type of the head always bears a relation- 
 ship to the members, and as the members of Christ's 
 msytical body now are, and shall yet more fully be, 
 like unto himself, it is but one thought, after all, that 
 we shall be following out in the meditation that lies 
 before us. 
 
 I. Let us begin by calling your attention to the fact 
 that David in this matter was a type of ouk Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The early fatlicrs of the church were very great in 
 
248 Types and Eniblems. 
 
 opening np typical analogies. So full, indeed, were they 
 in their expositions, and so minute in their details, that 
 at length they went too far, and degenerated into trifling. 
 Origen, for example, very notably exceeded what can be 
 regarded as wise interpretation in giving spiritual mean- 
 ings to literal records. And others, who essayed to go 
 yet farther than that great master of mysticism, very 
 soon did much damage to the church of God, bringing 
 precious truths into serious discredit. The study of the 
 types of the Old Testament has scarcely regained its 
 proper place in the Christian cliurch since the days in 
 which those gi'acious men, by their imprudent zeal, per- 
 verted it. We cannot, however, bring ourselves to think 
 that a good thing ceases to be good because it has at 
 some time been turned to an ill account. We think it 
 can still be used properly and profitably. Within cer- 
 tain limits, then — limits, we suppose, which there is lit- 
 tle danger of transgressing in these mechanical, unpoetic 
 times — the types and the allegories of Holy Scripture 
 may be used as a hand-book of instruction — a 'vade 
 mecum of sound doctrine. Now, by common consent of 
 all Evangelical Christians, David is accepted to be an 
 eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard 
 to this particular transaction let us note, at the outset, 
 that before he fought with Goliath, David was anointed 
 of God. Samuel had gone down to Bethlehem and 
 poured a horn of oil upon his head. The parallel will 
 readily occur to you. Thus hath the Lord found out for 
 himself one whom he has chosen out of the people. 
 With his holy oil hath he anointed him. Upon Saul's 
 head a phial of oil was poured — upon David's head a 
 full horn of oil. This may perhaps be designed to con- 
 
David's First Victm^y, 249 
 
 trast the brevity and scant renown of Saul's reign, with 
 the length, and power, and excellence of the reign of 
 David. Or, being interpreted spiritually, it may denote 
 that the law, the old Judaism of which Saul is the type, 
 had but a limited measure of blessing, while that of the 
 gospel, which David represents, is characterized by its 
 abounding fulness. Jesus, the antitype of David, is 
 anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. 
 Grace and truth came b}^ Jesus Christ. The Spirit was 
 not given by measure unto him. David was anointed 
 several times — he was anointed, as you read in the chap- 
 ter preceding our text, " in the midst of his brethren " — 
 anointed, as you find in 2 Samuel ii.4, by his brethren, 
 the men of Judah — and anointed again, as you will 
 observe in 2 Samuel v. 3, by all the elders of Israel. 
 "We will not go into that now, but it will suffice us to 
 note that so was our Lord anointed of God, is anointed 
 of his saints, and shall be anointed of the whole church. 
 The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and it was in the 
 power of that Spirit with which he was anointed of the 
 Father, that he went forth to fight the great battles of 
 his church. At his baptism, coming up out of the Jor- 
 dan, he was anointed by the Spirit as it rested upon 
 him, descending out of heaven like a dove ; and straight- 
 way he went, as he was driven, into the wilderness, and 
 held that notable forty days' conflict with the arch-fiend, 
 the dire adversary of souls. His battles were in the 
 spirit and power of the Highest, for the might and 
 majesty of the Eternal Spirit rested upon him. 
 
 See how the correspondence goes on. Our Lord was 
 sent by his Father to his brethren. As David was sent 
 by Jesse to his brethren with suitable presents and 
 11* 
 
250 Types and EmhUms. 
 
 comfortable words, in order to commune with them, 
 even so in the fulness of time was our Lord commis- 
 sioned to visit his brethren. He remained concealed 
 for awhile in the house of his reputed father, but al'ter- 
 wards he came forth, and was distinctly recognized as 
 the sent One of God, bearing countless gifts in his 
 hands, coming on an embassage of mercy and of love 
 from God to those whom he was not ashamed to call 
 his brethren. We have read how David was treated. 
 His brethren did not receive him lovingly. They 
 answered his unaffected kindness with unprovoked 
 rudeness: bitter things did they lay to his charge. 
 How truly does this answer to the manner in which 
 our Lord, the Son of David, was abused. He came 
 unto his own, and his own received him not. Though 
 he came to them with words of tenderness, they replied 
 to him with words of scorn. For his blessings they 
 gave him curses ; for the bread of heaven they gave 
 him stones ; and for the benedictions of heaven they 
 gave him the spite of earth, the maledictions of hell ! 
 Never was a brother, '* the first-born among many 
 brethren," so ill-used by the rest of the household. 
 Surely that parable of the wicked husbandman was 
 fullilled toward him. We know it is written that the 
 vine-dresser said, " This is my son, they will reverence 
 him ; " but contrariwise they said, " This is the heir : 
 let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." 
 Jesus was roughly handled by his brethren, whom he 
 came to bless. David, you will remember, answered 
 his brethren with great gentleness. He did not return 
 railing for railing, but with much gentleness he endured 
 their churlishness. In this he supplied us with but a 
 
David^s First Victory. 251 
 
 faint picture of our beloved Master, who, when he was 
 reviled, reviled not again. *• Consider him that endured 
 such contradiction of sinners against himself." His 
 only reply, even to the strokes which were to effect his 
 death, was, "Father, forgive them, for they know not 
 what they do." " We hid as it were our faces from 
 him ; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." 
 Yet for all that, no word of anger dropped from his 
 lips. He might have said, " Is there not a cause ? " 
 Little spake he, however, in his own defence ; he rather 
 went about his life-work as zealously as if all who saw 
 him had approved him. So David, being thus rejected 
 of his brethren, became a type of Christ. 
 
 We pass on to observe that David was moved by an 
 intense love of his people. He saw them defied by the 
 Philistine. As he marked how they were crushed in 
 spirit before their formidable enemies, a fervent indio-- 
 nation stirred his soul ; but when he heard the terms 
 of defiance, he felt that the God of Israel himself was 
 compromised in this quarrel. The name of Jehovah 
 was dishonored! That braggart giant who stalked 
 before the hosts defied the armies of the living God I 
 No wonder that the warm and devout heart of the 
 brave young shepherd was moved with a mighty heav- 
 ing. The passion of a warrior kindled in his breast 
 at the sound of that profane voice of the uncircumcised 
 Philistine, who could trifle with the honor of Jehovah, 
 the God of heaven and of earth ! A further motive 
 was present to stimulate his patriotic ambition. How 
 could David's bosom fail to glow with strong emotion 
 when he was told that the man who should vanquish 
 and slay that Philistine should be married to the king's 
 
252 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 daughter ? Such a prize might well quicken his ardor. 
 But with all these motives acting upon him, his deter- 
 mination to go forth and do battle with the champion 
 of Philistia was prompt and resolute. Kow in all this 
 he plainly foreshadowed our Lord Jesus Christ. He 
 loved his own : he was always ready to lay down his 
 life for the sheep. But he loved his Father : " Wist 
 ye not," he had said of old, " that I must be about my 
 Father's business?" "The zeal of thine house hath 
 eaten me up." And then there was the joy that was 
 set before him that he should have the church for his 
 spouse ; that at the peril, not to say the price of his 
 life, he should obtain her ; that he should see of the 
 travail of his soul in her, and should be satisfied. She 
 was to be lifted up to his royalties, and to share his 
 crown and throne. The new Jerusalem, the mother 
 of us all, was to be unto Jesus the gift of God as his 
 reward ; and this inspired him, so he went forth and 
 entered upon the battle for our sakes. Let us pause 
 and bless his name that ever he should have loved the 
 people, and that the saints should have been in his 
 hands. Let us bless him that the zeal of God's house 
 did eat him up, — that he consecrated himself so fully 
 to the great enterprise. Above all, let us humbly and 
 gratefully bless him that he loved us and gave himself 
 for us. As a part of his church whom he had betrothed 
 unto himself for ever, we are partakers in all that he 
 did. It was for us that he fought the fight, for us he 
 won the victory, for us he has gone into glory. And 
 he will come by and by to take us up to behold that 
 glory, and be with him where he is. While we see 
 the type in David, let us take care not to forget to adore 
 
David^s First Victory. 253 
 
 Jesus himself, who is here mirrored forth to our minds 
 in the achievement of our salvation. 
 
 I might, indeed, instance many further details in 
 which David yet further became a type of our Lord. 
 The whole narrative being full of minute particulars, 
 supplies us copiously with points of analogy. But there 
 is one thing I would have you specially observe. 
 
 Goliath is called in the Hebrew, not " champion," as 
 we read it in the English, but the middle-man^ the me- 
 diator. If you put the whole case fairly before your own 
 minds, you will readily see the fitness of the word that 
 is used. There is the host of the Philistines on the one 
 side, and there is the host of Israel on the other side. 
 A valley lies between them. Goliath says, '' I will rep- 
 resent Philistia. I stand as the middle-man. Instead 
 of all the rank and file coming forth personally to the 
 fight, I appear as the representative of my nation — the 
 mediator. Choose you a mediator who will come and 
 contend with me. Instead of the battle being between 
 the individuals of which the respective armies are 
 composed, let two representative men decide in dread 
 duel the question in debate.'' Now, it is exactly upon 
 that ground that the Lord Jesus Christ fought the bat- 
 tles of his people. We fell representatively in the first 
 Adam, and our salvation now is by another representa- 
 tive — the second Adam. He is the Middleman, the " one 
 Mediator between God and man.'- In his love to us, 
 and his zeal for the glory of God, we may view him as 
 stepping forward into the midst of the arena which di- 
 vides the camps of good and of evil, of God and of the 
 devil, and there facing the defiant adversary, he stands 
 to contend in our name and on our behalf, if we be in- 
 
254 Types and EmUems. 
 
 deed his people, tliat he may decide for us the quarrel 
 which never could have been decided by us. Personally, 
 we should, beyond a doubt, have been put to the rout. 
 But his one single arm is enough to win the victory 
 for us, and for ever to end the conflicts between heaven 
 and hell. 
 
 Mark well our warrior chief as he goes forth to the 
 fight. The son of Jesse rejected all carnal weapons. 
 He might have had them — they put the helmet on his 
 head, and the mail about his body, and they were about 
 to gird the sword upon his loins — but he said, " I can- 
 not go with these, for I have not proved them." In 
 like manner the Son of David renounced all earthly 
 armor. They would have taken our Lord by force, and 
 made him a King, but he said, '- My kingdom is not of 
 this world." Swords enough wou;ld have leaped from 
 their scabbards at his bidding. It was not alone Peter, 
 whose too-hasty sword smote the ear of Malchus, but 
 there were many zealots who would have been all too 
 glad to have followed the star of Jesus of Nazareth as 
 in former days ; and yet more frequently in later days, 
 the Jews followed impostors who declared themselves 
 to be commissioned by the Most High for their deliv- 
 erance. But Jesus said, " Put up thy sword into the 
 sheath. They that take the sword shall perish by the 
 sword." No doubt one of the temptations of the desert 
 was not only that he should have the kingdoms of the 
 world, but that he should have them by the use of such 
 means as Satan would suggest. He must fall down 
 and worship Satan : he must use the carnal weapon, 
 which would be tantamount to worshipping him. 
 Jesus would not have it. To this day the great fight of 
 
David"* s First Victory. 255 
 
 Jesiis Christ with the powers of darkness is not Avith 
 sword and hehnet, but with the smooth stones of the 
 brook. The simple preaching of the gospel with the 
 shepherd's crook of the great Head of the church held 
 in our midst — this it is that lays low Goliath, and shall 
 lay him low to the last day. Yain is it for the church 
 even to think that she shall win the victory by wealth, 
 or by rank, or by civil authority. No government will 
 assist her. To the power of God alone she must look, 
 " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
 the Lord of hosts." Happy will it be for the church 
 when she learns that lesson. The preaching of the 
 cross, which is " to them that perish foolishness," is, 
 nevertheless, to us who believe Christ, *' the power of 
 God, and the wisdom of God." 
 
 See, then, our glorious Champion going forward to 
 the fray with weapons of his own choosing, and those 
 such as human w^isdom despises, because they do not 
 appear to be adapted to the work. With great strength 
 and power, nevertheless, did he go forth, for he went 
 in the name of God. " Thou comest to me," said 
 David, " with a sword, and with a spear, and with a 
 shield : but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of 
 hosts." Such, too, is the predominating influence 
 which renders the gospel omnipotent. Christ is God's 
 propitiation. God hath " set him forth to be a propi- 
 tiation for sin." Christ is appointed of God, anointed 
 of God, sent of God. And the gospel is God's mes- 
 sage, attended with God's Spirit. If it be not, then is 
 it weak as water — it must fail. But since the Lord has 
 sent it, and he has promised to bless it, we may rest 
 assured it will accomplish the ends for which it was 
 
25 G Types and Emhlems. 
 
 ordained. " I come to thee in the name of the Lord 
 of hosts ! " These words might serve as a motto for 
 all those who are sent of Christ, and represent him in 
 the dread battle for precious souls. This was Christ's 
 watchword, when for our sakes, and on our behalf, he 
 came to wrestle with sin, to bear the wrath of God, 
 and to vanquish death and hell ! He came in the 
 name of God. 
 
 Mark you well that David did smite Goliath, and 
 he smote him effectually — not in the loins, or on the 
 band, or on the foot — but in a vital point he delivered 
 the stroke that laid him low. He smote him on the 
 brow of his presumption, on the forehead of his pride. 
 I suppose he had lifted up his vizor to take a look at 
 his contemptible adversary, when the stone sunk in 
 which let out for ever that boastful soul. So when 
 our Lord stood forth to contend with sin, he projected 
 his atoning sacrifice as a stone that has smitten sin and 
 all its powers upon the forehead. Thus, glory be to 
 God, sin is slain. It is not wounded merely, but it is 
 slain by the power of Jesus Christ. 
 
 And remember that David cut off Goliath's head 
 with his own sword. Augustine, in his comment on 
 this passage, very well brings out the thought that 
 the triumph of our Saviour Jesus Christ is here set 
 forth in the history of David. He, " through death, 
 destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the 
 devil." " He death by dying slew " — cut off the giant's 
 head with his own sword. The cross that was meant 
 to be the death of the Saviour was the death of sin. 
 The crucifixion of Jesus, which was supposed to be the 
 victory of Satan, was the consummation of his victory 
 
David'^s First Victory. 257 
 
 over Satan. Lo, this day I see in our Conquering 
 Hero's hand the grizzly head of the monster sin, all 
 dripping with gouts of gore. Look at it, ye that once 
 were under its tyranny. Look at the terrible linea- 
 ments of that hideous and gigantic tyrant. Your 
 Lord has slain your foe. Your sins are dead ; he has 
 destroyed them. His own arm, single-handed and 
 alone, has destroyed your gigantic enemy.. " The 
 sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; 
 but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." Blessed and magni- 
 fied be his holy name. And when David had thus 
 achieved the death of Goliath, he was met by the maid- 
 ens of Israel, who came forth and sang in responsive 
 verse, accompanied with the music of their timbrels 
 and joyous dancings, " Saul hath slain his thousands, and 
 David his ten thousands." So he had his triumph. 
 Meanwhile, the hosts of Israel, seeing that the Philis- 
 tine Giant was dead, took heart and dashed upon the 
 adversary'. The Philistines were affrighted and they 
 fled, and every Israelite that day became a victor 
 through the victory of David. They were more than 
 conquerors, through him that had loved them and won 
 the victory for them. So let us now bethink ourselves 
 to be victors. Our Lord has won the victory. He is 
 to his glory gone. The angels have met him on the 
 way. They have said, "Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates ; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; and 
 the King of glory shall come in." And they that 
 have been with him have answered to the question, 
 "Who is this King of glory?" They have said, 
 " The Lord mighty in battle : He is the King of glory. 
 
258 Ty-pes and Enihlems. 
 
 Tlie Lord of hosts: He is the King of glory." And 
 this day the feeblest believer triumphs in Christ. 
 Though we should have been beaten, nor could we 
 have hoped for victory — yet, now, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, we chase our enemies ; we trample sin under 
 our feet ; and we go from strength to strength through 
 his completed victory. There is much room for you 
 to think here. Will you think this over for j^our- 
 selves? It is better I should not do all the thinking 
 for you. You will find the analogy capable of much 
 amplification. I have given you only just as it were 
 a sort of charcoal outline — a rough draft. Make a 
 picture of it at your leisure, and it may prove a bene- 
 ficial study and a profitable meditation. 
 
 II. With much brevity let us now revert to David 
 
 as AN EXAMPLE FOR EVERY BELIEVER IN ChRIST. 
 
 Above all thino^s, it behooves us, dear brethren and 
 sisters, to consider that if we are ever to do anything 
 for God and for his church, we must be anointed with 
 holy oil. O, how vain it would be for us to grow zeal- 
 ous with a sort of creature carnal fanaticism, and to 
 attempt great things, in sheer presumption, which can 
 only issue in utter failure. Unless the Spirit of God 
 be upon us we have no might from within and no 
 means from without to rely upon. Wait upon the 
 Lord, beloved, and seek strength in his succor. There 
 cannot come out of you what has not been put into 
 you. You must receive and then give out. Remem- 
 ber how the Lord Jesus describes it : — " The water that 
 I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
 ing up into everlasting life." And again, in another 
 place, "he that believeth on me as the Scripture 
 
DaviiVs First Victory. 259 
 
 hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water." 
 
 You cannot do David's work if you have not David's 
 anointing. When you remember that your divine 
 Master tarried for the heavenly anointing, you can 
 hardly expect to do without it. Be not so foolish. Christ 
 went not to his public ministrations till the Spirit of God 
 rested upon him. The apostles tarried at Jerusalem, 
 and went not forth to preach till power was given to 
 them from on high. The point, the prerequisite, the sine 
 qua no7i with us, is to have that power. O, to preach 
 in that power — to pray in that power — to look after 
 wandering souls in that power ! Your Sunday-school 
 w^ork, your home missionary work, your every form of 
 ministry for Christ, must be done in that power. Get ye 
 to your knees. Get ye to the cross. Get ye to your 
 Master's feet. Sit ye still in faith and hope, until he 
 shall have given you the strength that shall qualify 
 you to do the Master's work, in the Master's way, to 
 Master's praise. 
 
 David, too, stands before us as an example of the 
 fact that our opportunity will come, if our efficiency 
 has been bestowed, without our being very particular 
 to seek it. David fell into position. The place he was 
 fitted to occupy, he was providentially called to fill as 
 a great man in Israel. Little did he guess, when he 
 went with the load of cheeses upon his shoulders, that 
 he was ere long to be distinguished beyond all other 
 men in Palestine. Yet it was so. Beloved, do not be 
 in a huriy to look out for you-r sphere. Be ready for 
 your sphere ; your sphere will come to you. I speak 
 to many dear young brethren who are studying for the 
 
260 Types and Emhlems. 
 
 ministry. Be prepared for any work rather than be 
 looking out for some particular work. God has his 
 niche for you. You will drop on your feet : depend 
 upon that. Be ready. Your business is to be ready. 
 Have your tools well sharpened, and know how to 
 handle them. The place will come to you, the best 
 place for you, if you are not so much looking after 
 that which meets your taste, as after that which 
 proves you to be a vessel fit for the Master's use. 
 David finds his occasion. He has received the 
 Spirit first, which is the main thing, and then he has 
 found the occasion which calls out his credentials. 
 These things being clear, I gather from David's example 
 that when we feel a call from God to do something for 
 him, and for his church, we need not wait until those 
 whom we hold in respect coincide with us as to the 
 propriety of entering upon the service. Had David 
 said, " Well, I shall wait tillEhab, and Abinadab, and 
 Shammah, my elder brothers, are all perfectly agreed 
 that I am the man to fight Goliath," I suspect he would 
 never hav^e fought with Goliath at all. Great defer- 
 ence is due to the judgment of our seniors, but greater 
 respect is due to the motions of the Spirit of God within 
 our heart. I would to God there were more regard 
 shown for those inward monitions among Christians 
 than there is wont to be in these times. If thou hast 
 a thought put into thy heart, or a charge sounded in 
 thy conscience, obey it, man ; act up to it, though no 
 one else perceives it or encourages thee. If God has 
 shown thee his counsel, at your peril hide the presage 
 or shrink from the performance. "What ! With the 
 fear of God in our hearts, and a commission from God 
 
David's First Victory. 261 
 
 in our hands, shall we halt and hesitate and become 
 the servants of men ? I would rather die than have to 
 come into this pulpit to ask your leave, or to get any 
 man's consent, as to what I shall preach. God wots 
 he will speak — what he hath to say to me, and by the 
 help of his good Spirit I will deliver it to you as I hear 
 it from himself. May this tongue be silent or ever it 
 becomes the servant of man. David was of that mind. 
 He felt he had something to do, and though he could 
 listen to what other people had to say, yet they were 
 no masters of his. He served the living God, and he 
 went about the business intrusted to him undaunted 
 by any judgment they might form of him. He that 
 speaketh for God should speak honestly. Let others 
 criticise and sift the chaff from the wheat. He must 
 expect that. But as for himself, let him give out the 
 pure wheat as he believeth it to be, and fear no man, 
 lest he come under the condemnation of the God of 
 heaven. Go, my brother, about thy business, if God 
 give it thee to do. If I upbraid thee, what of that ? 
 I am but a man. Or if all those in whose good esteem 
 you would gladly stand turn upon you with hard sus- 
 picions and cutting censures — they are but men, and 
 to God alone is your allegiance due. Go thou about 
 thy Master's work, as David did, with dauntless nerve 
 but modest mien. He were an ill servant who, after 
 once getting his Master's orders, should leave them 
 unperformed, and excuse himself by saying, "I met 
 one of my fellow-servants, and he said he thought I 
 might be too bold in my adventure, and therefore I 
 had better not attempt it." To your own Master you will 
 stand or fall. Take care that you stand well with him. 
 
262 Tyjpes and Emhlems, 
 
 Learn from David, too, to return quiet answers to 
 tliose wiio would roughly put you aside from your work. 
 Generally it is better to return no answer at all. I 
 think David spake not so well by word as by deed. 
 His conduct was more eloquent than his language. As 
 he came back from the light, holding up the giant's 
 head, I could hope that Eliab saw him ; and that 
 Abinadab and Shammah came out to meet him. If 
 they did, he might simply have held up the trophy, 
 and allowed its ghastly visage to reply for him. It is 
 not, they would think, after all, because of his pride or 
 the naughtiness of his heart, or from an idle curiosity 
 to see the battle, that he has come. They would per- 
 ceive that he had come to do God's work in his own 
 way : that God had helped him to gain the victory, 
 rout the foe, and relieve the fears of Israel ; and that 
 through the man whom they despised the Lord had 
 made his own name glorious. 
 
 Learn, again, from David's example, the prudence of 
 keeping to tried weapons. I have often heard it spoken 
 of as an unlikely thing that David should kill the giant 
 with a stone. I think those who talk so miss the point. 
 What missile could be handier or better suited for the 
 occasion \ If the fellow was tall, a sling would carry a 
 stone high enough to reach him ; and if he was strong, 
 very strong, the sling would give such impetus to the 
 stone that David could assail his adversary without 
 getting within his reach. It was the best weapon he 
 could have used. Oriental shepherds, if those of olden 
 time were like those of modern days, had practice 
 enough to make them proficient in slinging stones. 
 They spend many hours both alone and with their fel- 
 
David's First Victory. 263 
 
 lows over feats of the sling. It is generally their best 
 weapon for the protection of their sheep in the vast 
 solitudes. I do not doubt that David had learnt to sling 
 a stone to a hair's breadth, and not miss. As for the 
 sword, he had never had one in his life ; for there was 
 neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the 
 people that were with Saul and Jonathan, save that 
 Avhich was found with Saul and Jonathan his son. We 
 are told as much as that in the thirteenth chapter. The 
 Philistines had so completely disarmed the whole popu- 
 lace that they had not got any such weapons. With 
 the use of them, therefore, David could not have been 
 familiar. And as the coat of mail — a cumbersome, 
 uneasy, comfortless equipment — the wonder to me is 
 how the knights of old did anything at all in such 
 accoutrements. No marvel that David put the thing 
 off. He felt most at ease in his own shepherd's garb. 
 Of course we are not going to infer that unsuitable 
 instruments are desirable. We teach nothing so ro- 
 mantic or absurd. It well becomes us to use the most 
 suitable tools we can find. As for those stones out of 
 the brook, David did not pick them up at hazard ; he 
 carefully chose them, selecting smooth stones that would 
 fit exactly in his sling — the kind of stone he thought 
 best fitted for his purpose. Nor did he trust in his 
 sling. He tells us he trusted in God, but he went to 
 work with his sling as if he felt the responsibility to be 
 his own. To miss the mark would prove his own clum- 
 siness : to compass his aim would be of God's enabling. 
 Such, my briithren, is the true philosophy of a Chris- 
 tian's life. You are to do good works as zealously as if 
 you were to be saved by your good works, and you are 
 
2(j4: Types and Ernhlems. - 
 
 to trust in the merits of Christ as though you had done 
 nothing at all. So, too, in the service of God, though 
 you are to work for God as if the fulfilment of your 
 mission rested with yourselves, you must clearly under- 
 stand, and steadfastly believe, that after all, the whole 
 matter from first to last rests with God. Without him 
 all you have ever planned or performed is unavailing. 
 That was sound philosophy of Mahomet's when the 
 man said, " I have turned my camel loose, and trusted 
 in providence." " No," answered he, " tie your camel 
 up and then trust in providence." Do the best you 
 can and trust in God. God never meant that faith in 
 him should be synonymous with sloth. Why, for the 
 matter of that, if it is all God's w^ork, and that is to be 
 the only consideration, there is no need for David to 
 have a sling. Nay, there is not any need for David at 
 all. He may go back, lie on his back in the middle of 
 the field, and say, " God will do his work : he does not 
 want me." That is how fatalists would talk, but not 
 how believers in God would act. They say, " God wills 
 it, therefore I am going to do it " — not " God does it, 
 and therefore there is nothing for me to do." Nay, 
 " Because God works by me, therefore I will work by 
 his good hand upon me. lie is putting strength into 
 his feeble servant, and making use of me as his instru- 
 ment, good for nothing though I am apart from him. 
 Now will I run to the battle w^ith alacritj^ and I will use 
 my sling with the best skill I have, taking quiet, calm, 
 deliberate aim at that monster's brow, since I believe that 
 God will guide the stone and accomplish his own end." 
 When you are bent on serving God give him your best ; 
 keep not back aught of nerve or muscle, aught of skill 
 
David^'s First Victory. 265 
 
 or sagacity yon can dedicate to the enterprise. Say not, 
 " Anything will do : God can bless my lack as well as 
 my competency." Doubtless he can, but undoubtedly ho 
 will not. Be careful to do your best. David in his old 
 age and his riper experience would not affer to God that 
 which cost him nothing. Do not attempt to render unto 
 God slovenly service, and flatter yourselves that he will 
 bless it. He can bless it ; but that is not the way in 
 which he usually deigns to work. Though he often takes 
 rough tools, he fashions them and polishes them for his 
 use. He can convert rude men into able ministers of the 
 New Testament. Think not, however, that his grace 
 will excuse your presumption. But go with the instru- 
 ments you have proved. When any of you working 
 men attempt to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, do 
 not try the fine arguments that are often used to com- 
 bat infidels. You will never manage them. They will 
 be sure to embarrass you. Tell to your neighbors and 
 comrades what you have felt and handled of the "Word 
 of Life. Declare to them those things that are written 
 in the Scriptures. These texts are the smooth stones 
 that will suit your sling. Keep to these things. Why, 
 they tell us, now-a-day, that we ought to take up those 
 arguments which are invented by modern philosophers, 
 examine them, study them, and come forward on the 
 Sabbath day and at other times to answer them ; that 
 we should use historical research and logical acumen to 
 rebut infidel calumnies. Ah ! Saul's armor does not fit 
 us. They that like it may wear it ; but, after all, to 
 preach Christ and him crucified — to tell out the old, old 
 story of eternal love and of the blood which sealed it, 
 the manner of redemption, the truth of God's unchange- 
 12 
 
266 Types and Emblems. 
 
 able grace — tins is to use those stones and that sling 
 which will surely find oat the forehead of the foe. 
 
 Next, observe that from the work which David be- 
 gun he ceased not till he had linished it. He had laid 
 the giant prone upon the soil, but he was not satisfied 
 till he had cut off his head. I wish that some who work 
 for Christ would be as thorough as this young volunteer 
 was. Have you taught a child the way of salvation? 
 Do not leave off till that child is enrolled in the fellow- 
 ship of believers. Have you faithfully preached the gos- 
 pel to any congregation of people ? Continue to instruct, 
 counsel, and encourage them, until you see them estab- 
 lished in the foith. Or if you have refuted a heresy, or 
 denounced a vice, follow up the assault until the evil is 
 exterminated. Not only kill the giant, but have his head 
 off ! Kever do the work of the Lord deceitfully. Never 
 spare a device of the devil pitifully. Bad habits and be- 
 setting sins should be levelled with a decisive blow. 
 But let not that be enous^h. Give them no chance of re- 
 covering their strength. With humble penitence and 
 earnest resolution, in reliance on God and detestation 
 of the foe, see to it that the head shall be taken from the 
 sin as well as the stone sunk in its forehead. In so doing 
 you may look for help you had not reckoned on. You 
 have no sword with you : you have not wanted to cum- 
 ber yourself with one, even as David had no need to carry 
 a sword in his hand, for Goliath was carrying a sword 
 with him, which might well serve for his own execution. 
 AYhenever you serve God you strive against error ; re- 
 member that every error carries the sword with which it 
 will be slain. In maintaining the cause of truth, we need 
 not be surprised if the fight be long ; but we may always 
 
DaviiVs First Victory. 267 
 
 count on the pride of the adversary turning to his 
 own hurt. The conflict will be shortened by himself. 
 When the invaders, most of all, relied on the alliances 
 they had formed, it often happened that Israel won the 
 day through theMoabites and the Assyrians falling out 
 among themselves. Yery frequently it has been God's 
 plan to let his adversaries turn upon each other and end 
 the fight to his servants' comfort. Behold the giant's 
 head taken off with his own sword. Let it be before 
 your eyes for a sign. It matters not, brethren, though 
 we should be in the minority on certain eminent matters, 
 as we undoubtedly are. The question for you is, are 
 you right ? Are you right ? The right is sure to win ! 
 Have you truth on your side ? Have you the Bible on 
 your side ? Have you Christ on your side ? A¥ell, you 
 may belong to a despised community; you may be 
 associated with a very few and a very poor people. 
 Flinch not — let not your heart quail. Had you no 
 strength with which to overcome the adversary, except- 
 ing that w^iich is promised by God, you have quite 
 enough. But there lies in ambush, in the camp of your 
 adversary, an assistance and an aid to truth that you have 
 not perhaps thought of. The old dragons stings himself 
 to death. x\s vice consumes the vitals of the man who 
 indulges in it, so does error, in the long run, become its 
 own destroyer. Full often truth shines out the more 
 brightly from the very fact that an error has beclouded 
 the world with its dense shadows. Go on, then ! Strive 
 with coolness and courage ! Be not daunted by the 
 comely face, the princely figure, or the battle array of 
 your antagonist ! Let not his vaunting words deter you. 
 Call on the name of Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, and use, 
 
268 Types and Einblems, 
 
 even in God's battles, those weapons which yon have 
 tested and proved. But take care to go through with 
 God's work ; do it thoroughly, looking unto Jesus, the 
 author and finisher of your faith ; so beloved, you may 
 expect to go from strength to strength and bring glory 
 to God. 
 
 I would we were all on the Lord's side, that we were 
 all the soldiers of Christ. Do any here confess that they 
 are not? Are there any of you that feel sin lying 
 heavily upon you, and yet you fain would be at peace 
 with God in fellowship with Jesus \ Beloved, Jesus has 
 never yet rejected one that came to him. It has never 
 yet been said that his blood was not able to cleanse the 
 vilest soul ! Go to him. You cannot give him greater 
 joy than by going to him and confessing your sin and 
 seeking his mercy. He waits to be gracious. He slays 
 sin, but he takes pity on sinners. He is ready to pardon 
 them. He is the enemy of Goliath, but he sits on 
 Zion's hill, glad to welcome the very poorest of the poor 
 that come to him. If you are the worst sinner that ever 
 lived, he is still able to save to the uttermost. If you 
 have no hope and no confidence — if you feel as though 
 sentence had gone forth that you should die for ever, 
 your fears are no clue to God's counsels. He has not 
 spoken the bitter things you have imagined against your- 
 self. Give ear to what he has said — "Let the wicked 
 forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; 
 and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
 upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly par- 
 don." Oh ! to be on Christ's side, maintains the heart 
 in calm and inflames the soul with joy, notwithstanding 
 the pain that now tortures your nerves, or the shame 
 
Bavid^s First Victory. 269 
 
 that mantles your cheeks ! But ah ! to be on the other 
 side— to be an enemj^ of Jesus— is a woe that blights 
 all present joy, and a portent that augurs all future 
 bane. The future, the future, the future ! This is the 
 worst of all to be dreaded. " Kiss the Son, lest he be 
 angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is 
 kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their 
 trust in him." The Lord give you, every one of you, 
 to be thus timely wise, for his name's sake. Amen. 
 
§alriir an!i> Jis §oIuiitfM's. 
 
 " And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David 
 into the hold to the wilderness, men of might, and men of war fit 
 for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces 
 were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon 
 the mountains ; Ezer the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, 
 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, Attai the sixth, Eliel 
 the seventh, Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, Jeremiah the 
 tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. These were the sons of Gad, 
 captains of the host : one of the least was over an hundred, and the 
 greatest over a thousand. These are they that went over Jordan 
 in the first month, when it had overflown all his banks ; and they 
 put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east and 
 toward the west." — 1 Chronicles xii. 8-15. 
 
 AYID, compelled to flee from his own country, 
 and to hide himself from the malice of Saul, 
 was eminently a type of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, wlio, in the days when he dwelt here 
 among men, was despised and rejected of men. 
 And at this moment it is well known to the true church 
 of God, and it becomes palpably evident to every ear- 
 nest believer in the gospel, that Jesus, the son of David, 
 is not received, acknowledged, or tolerated in this 
 present evil world. He has gone forth without the 
 camp. All who would repair to him must go forth 
 likewise, bearing his reproach. These eleven Gadites 
 — all of them remarkable men — espoused the cause of 
 
David and his Volunteers. 271 
 
 David when lie was in his very worst condition ; they 
 left the ease and comfort, the honors and emohiinents, 
 of their own home to associate themselves with him 
 when he was regarded as an outlaw under tlie ban of 
 society. And to this day every Christian who is faith- 
 ful to his profession must separate himself from his 
 fellow men to be a follower of the despised Jesus. In 
 that way, and with that faith which men still count 
 heresy, must he join himself with that sect which is 
 everywhere spoken against, running the gauntlet of 
 the age, if he would espouse the cause of the Lord's 
 anointed. 
 
 In tracing out the parallel, let me now draw your 
 attention, first to the leader who commanded the vol- 
 untary homage of good and valiant men, and then to 
 the recruits who joined themselves to liim, of whom 
 we find a graphic description in our text. 
 
 I. The leader, whom we regard as a type of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ', was David, the son of Jesse; and in tra- 
 cing out some points of analogy, we begin by noticing 
 that, like David, our Lord was anointed of God to be 
 the leader of his people. Hence the words of prophecy 
 concerning him, " I will make an everlasting covenant 
 with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I 
 have given him for a witness to the people, a leader 
 and commander to the people." The Spirit of God is 
 upon Jesus of Kazareth, for him hath God the Father 
 anointed. " Unto him shall the gathering of the peo- 
 ple be." We may well be ready to follow a leader 
 whom God hath appointed and commended to us with 
 such high praise. " I have laid help upon one that is 
 mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 
 
272 Tyjpes and Emhlems. 
 
 I have found David my servant ; with mv holy oil have 
 I anointed him : with whom my hand shall be estab- 
 lished : mine arm also shall strengthen him." The 
 Lord in his own sovereignty, wdth wisdom and pru- 
 dence, has been pleased to fix his choice upon the man 
 Christ Jesus to be our Federal Head, our King, and 
 our Commander. What other justification do we need 
 for following Christ than that God himself thus sets 
 him forth? To this choice of God our soul agrees. 
 Never be afraid, young man, of acknowledging Christ. 
 isTever let any of us blush to own the blessed impeach- 
 ment that we are followers of the Lamb. It is an 
 honor to follow one who has the highest sanction of 
 heaven in taking the command and exercising the 
 authority that pertains to him. 
 
 Jesus was like David, too, in that he was personally 
 fit to be a leader. David, alike by his character and 
 his deeds of prowess, had become the foremost man of 
 his times. So our blessed Lord, as to his person, is 
 just such a King as one might desire to obey ; and, as 
 for his achievements, O tell what his arm hath done — 
 what spoils from death his right hand won ! Let his 
 fame be spread over all the earth ! He stood in the 
 gap when there was none to help. He vanquished 
 the foe who threatened our destruction. He set his 
 people free. He led their captivity captive. In point 
 of courage and in feats of war he so outstripped David 
 that I may safely say David has slain his thousands, 
 but Jesus his tens of thousands. He is a man of war. 
 The Lord is his name. He hath defeated all the prin- 
 cipalities and powers, and put to rout all the hosts of 
 hell that came against his people. Therefore let him 
 
David and his Volunteers. 273 
 
 be acknowledged as King. Who else should be exalted 
 among the people but he who hath done wonderful 
 things for the people ? No marvel that the men of 
 Israel gathered around David with a glowing enthu- 
 siasm, and proved their patriotism by their allegiance 
 to his sovereignty. Nor need we wonder that the 
 children of God should shout — 
 
 " All liail the power of Jesu's name ! 
 Crown liim Lord of all." 
 
 Right well does he deserve all the homage we can ever 
 ascribe to him. 
 
 But our Lord, though anointed of God and meriting 
 the distinction which he gained, was, nevertheless, like 
 David, rejected of men. Poor David ! Saul thirsted 
 for his blood, put him upon dangerous enterprises, in 
 the hope that he might die ; and when he saw that God 
 was with him, he hated him yet the more, till he hunted 
 him like a partridge upon the mountains. He could 
 find shelter nowhere. If he went to the priests of 
 Nob, the king came and slew all the inhabitants of 
 the city ; or if he went to Keilah, and fought w^ith the 
 Philistines and saved the inhabitants of Keilah, yet 
 by and by they * were willing to give him up to his 
 enemies. He was safe nowhere. Now, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ here upon earth was in like manner despised 
 and rejected of men ; nor has the ofience of his cross 
 ceased to this day. You may be a nominal Christian, 
 and have the good esteem of all men ; but if you are 
 a true disciple of Jesus, obeying him from the heart, 
 openly avowing his cause, and diligently testifying his 
 name, you will meet with bitter hostility in all sorts 
 of places and among all sorts of people. Best assured 
 
274 Types and Emhhms. 
 
 that until Christ comes it will be true that if je were 
 of the world, the world would love its own, but because 
 ye are not of the world, but Christ hath chosen you out 
 of the world, therefore the world hateth you. There 
 may be Christians placed in such sheltered nooks, and 
 living among such godly families, that they do not 
 come into collision with the outside world; but if you 
 do come into connection with the world in any way, 
 you will be sure to prove its enmity. As it is in rebel- 
 lion against God, and hostile to Christ, it will be intol- 
 erant of you. So Ishmael persecuted Isaac even in 
 Abraham's own household. So the seed of the serpent 
 hates the seed of the woman. So, too, those that are 
 under the law own no kindred with those that are the 
 children of the promise. Marvel not then ; it scarcely 
 becomes you to murmur, though it sometimes appears 
 to you a hard lot. Jesus Christ is still as a root out 
 of a dry ground, without form or comeliness to the mass 
 of mankind. True religion is not still to be found in 
 fashionable circles ; it finds little favor among the great 
 and mighty, though to-day it does not hide its head in 
 the clefts and caves of the rocks. While the violence 
 of persecution is abated in its outward manifestations 
 of terror, the malice out of which it grew still survives, 
 and the people of God are harassed by it in a thousand 
 wayc. The iron is made to enter into their soul. Thus 
 the cruel jealousy and the galling animosity with which 
 David was driven forth, and hunted from place to 
 place, find a counterpart in the treatment that Christ 
 himself received, and that all hisfliithful followers have 
 in their measure to endure. But notwithstanding the 
 pains and penalties they incurred in those dark days, 
 
David and his Volunteers. 275 
 
 tlie really good and pions people in Israel rallied to the 
 stand rd of David. I know it is said that those who 
 were in deht and discontented came to David. That 
 is qnite true ; and well it typifies the ahject condition 
 of those poor sinners who come to Christ for refuge ; 
 but many of those Israelites were reduced in circum- 
 stances and brought into debt through the bad govern- 
 ment of Saul. Probably the very best people in the 
 country were to be found among those who gathered 
 around David ; and certainly there was with David, 
 Abiathar the high priest. He came to David as the 
 representative of the godly, the puritanic party. With 
 David likewise there was Gad the prophet. . And you 
 know how in the early days of David's persecution he 
 resided with Samuel the prophet of the Lord : so that 
 the gracious party was always on David's side. Does 
 not the like thing happen among those who ally 
 themselves with the Son of David at this day ? Although 
 he whom we worship is despised and rejected of men, 
 yet unto you who believe he is precious. They that 
 fear the Lord love Christ and embrace his gospel. 
 Those that have a new heart and a right spirit are not 
 at all dubious which side to take. They have lifted 
 up their hands to the crucified One, and they are sworn 
 to do battle for his cause as long as they live. We 
 need not be ashamed to side with Jesus, for we shall 
 be in good company — not in the company of the nobles 
 of the earth, those who bear its titles, own its wealth, 
 or enjo}^ its empty fame, but in the company of the 
 pure in heart, of the heirs of the promises, of those to 
 whom God has been pleased to reveal himself, yea, 
 of the babes out of whose mouths he has perfected 
 
276 Types and ErabUnu. 
 
 praise. O we may be well content to cast in our lot 
 with God's elect, be they who they may in the world's 
 esteem, or be their lot what it may in their pilgrimage 
 to the better country. With them would we be 
 numbered ; with them would we be associated ; with 
 them would we go. Let Christ's people be our people. 
 Where they toil would we toil; with them would we 
 live ; with them would we die ; with them would we 
 be buried, in the glad hope that with them we shall 
 rise again, to live for ever in the fellowship of the saints. 
 Mark one thing more. Despised as David was 
 among men, yet, being anointed of God, his cause in 
 the end was successful. He did come to the throne : 
 and so it is with our Lord Jesus Christ. Notwith- 
 standing all the opposition that still rages against his 
 cause, it must prosper and prevail. He shall see his 
 seed ; he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the 
 Lord shall prosper in his hands. Well may the enmity 
 of the wicked provoke the irony of heaven. " Why do 
 the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ? " 
 "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord 
 shall have tliem in derision." It is Jehovah himself who 
 says it : "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of 
 Zion." God's decree has placed him there. Shall the 
 conspiracy, think ye, of kings and rulers unseat him ? 
 Nay, there must he sit, till all his enemies are beneath 
 his feet. O it is good to be with Christ to-day, for then 
 we shall be with him to-morrow. It is good to be with 
 him in the pillory, for if we can bear the reproach we 
 shall one day be with him on his throne to share the 
 glory. If you will walk with Christ through the mire, 
 when he goes barefoot, you shall be with him in the 
 
David and his Yolunteers, 277 
 
 golden streets wlien lie puts on the golden sandals, and 
 the angels fall down and worship him. O, if you can 
 foot it with him in his deeds of service, when he grows 
 weary and footsore, you shall ride with him on his white 
 horse of victory, when all the armies of heaven shall 
 follow him in his great achievements. If you are with 
 him in his humiliation, you shall be with him in his 
 triumph. I think I have told you before, a little parable, 
 w-hich I will venture to repeat in this place. There was 
 a certain king whose son was sent upon an errand to a 
 far country, and when he came into that country, al- 
 though he was the lawful prince of it, he found that the 
 citizens would not acknowledge him. They mocked at 
 him, jested at him, and took him and set him in the 
 pillory, and there they scoffed at him and pelted him 
 with tilth. ]S"ow, there was one in that country who 
 knew the prince, and he alone stood up for him w'hen 
 all the mob was in tumult raging against him. And 
 when they set him on high as an object of scorn, this 
 man stood side by side with him to wipe the filth from 
 that dear royal face ; and when from cruel hands mis- 
 siles in scorn were thrown, this man took his full share ; 
 and whenever he could he thrust himself before the 
 prince to ward off the blows from him if possible, and to 
 bear the scorn instead of him. Now it came to pass 
 that after awhile the prince went on his way, and in due 
 season the man w^ho had been the prince's friend was 
 called to the king's palace. And on a day when all the 
 princes of the court were round about, and the peers 
 and nobles of the land were sitting in their places, the 
 king came to his throne and he called for that man, and 
 he said, " Make w^ay, princes and nobles ! Make way ! 
 
278 Types and Emblems. 
 
 Here is a man more noble tlian you all, for he stood 
 boldly forth with my son when he was scorned and 
 scoffed at I Make way, I say, each one of you, for he 
 shall sit at my right hand with my own son. As he 
 took a share of his scorn, he shall now take a share of 
 his honor." And there sat princes and nobles who 
 wished that they had been there, ay ! envied the man 
 who had been privileged to endure scorn and scoffing 
 for the prince's sake ! You need not that I interpret 
 the parable. May you make angels envious of you, if 
 envy can ever pierce their holy minds. You can sub- 
 mit for Christ's sake to sufferings which it is not pos- 
 sible for seraphim or cherubim to endure. 
 
 II. Having thus drawn your attention to the Leader 
 whom David the Son of Jesse prefigured, let me turn 
 now to speak a little of those who gathered round him 
 and enlisted in his service. The recruits who came to 
 David wore eleven in number. The first characteristic 
 we read about them is that they were separated. " Of 
 the Gadites, there separated themselves unto David," 
 eleven persons. They were separated. Observe that. 
 They separated themselves. They seem to have been 
 captains of the militia of their tribe. The very least 
 among them was over a hundred, and the greatest over 
 a thousand. But they separated themselves from their 
 commands over their tribes — separated themselves from 
 their brethren and their kinsfolk. I dare say many of 
 their friends said to them, " Why, what fools you are ! 
 You must be mad to espouse the cause of a fellow like 
 David ! " and then they would call David all manner 
 of foul, opprobrious names. " Are you going to be 
 amongthose who associate with him, — a troop of banditti, 
 
David and his Volunteers. 279 
 
 — that ragged regiment ? " I'll be bound to say tliey 
 had terms for David and his men which, in ears polite, 
 it would not be meet to quote. It is a mercy that the 
 language of those men of Belial has not been recorded. 
 But these men all said, "Yes, we will separate our- 
 selves." And, for the matter of that, they did not 
 merely tear themselves away from their friends, but 
 from their kinsfolk too. David wanted their right 
 arms and he should have them. He wanted valiant 
 men, and they would go and fight for David, whatever 
 fond connection should be sundered thereby. 
 
 Dear friends, in these times it is most important 
 that everyone who is a Christian should under- 
 stand that he must separate himself from the 
 w^orld. Ye cannot serve Christ and the world too. 
 You cannot be of the w^orld and of Christ's church. 
 You may be nominally of the church and really 
 of the world, but really of the world and really of 
 the church you cannot possibly be. The Christian 
 must differ fi'om the world in many things. Jlis lan- 
 guage must not be the speech of Babylon, but the 
 chaste, pure language which Christians use. His 
 actions, his customs, his manners, his habits, must not 
 be like those of other men. He is not to be full of 
 affectation and eccentricity. He need not adopt a 
 peculiar garb, or discourse in quaint phrases, or speak 
 with an unnatural twang. All that may be mere for- 
 malism. Still there is ample room for separateness in 
 that which meets the eye and addresses the ear of the 
 observer. We need not display vanity in our attire. 
 In dress Christians will be simple and chaste, not ornate 
 and gaudy. In their speech, too, the children of God 
 
280 Types aixd Emblems. 
 
 will certainly never use an oath or lend their tongue to 
 the semblance of a lie ; from foolish talking and jesting, 
 which are not convenient, they will rigidly abstain. 
 But the tongue of a believer, my brethren, ought to be 
 as a fountain which sendeth forth sweet water; in his 
 conversation there should- be the meekness of wisdom: 
 and when he cannot speak to profit, his silence may bear 
 witness to his sincerity. But it is in his intercourse with 
 the world that the Christian shows the moral force of 
 his character. There it comes out because it cannot be 
 hid. If his trade has become used to tricks and strata- 
 gems which will not bear the light, he cannot conform 
 to them ; he will shrink from them with abhorrence : he 
 must keep a clean conscience. Other men may do the 
 thing without compunction. It may have become " the 
 custom." But no antiquity or universality of custom 
 will authorize that which is obviously wrong : so he can- 
 not do it and will not do it, for he is a Christian. He 
 counts that a higher morality is required of him than 
 of an ordinary man, and after this higher morality he 
 seeks. From the world's religion the man of God will 
 likewise stand aloof. He never asks himself what kind 
 of religion does the present age consider most expedient. 
 I^or does he wish to find out the fashionable taste in 
 doctrine, or the order of devotion which is most agreeable 
 totheundevout ; but he seeks after God, he diligently in- 
 quires for God's truth, he joins himself to God's church 
 and earnestly promotes its welfare. Moreover, he loves 
 God's ways and desireth to be under the power of God's 
 Spirit. After this manner he separates himself. Does 
 not the church in these days need to hear sounded every 
 day, as a thunder clap, that divine commandment — 
 
David and hu Volunteers. 281 
 
 " Come out from among tliem, and be ye separate, saith 
 the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will re- 
 ceive joii, and will be a Father unto jou, and ye shall be 
 my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty " ? O, 
 the shameful conformity of some professors with the 
 world. It degrades the church and debases themselves. 
 God grant that w^e may be stanch in our nonconformity 
 to the world I To whatever cliurch we may belong, may 
 w^e be '' holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin- 
 ners." Eut, observe, that these people separated them- 
 selves unto David. You may separate yourself and not 
 separate yourself unto Christ ; and, if not, you only change 
 from one form of worldly-mindcdness to another. We 
 are not to separate ourselves unto self righteousness, or 
 unto affectation, or unto a sect, but unto Christ. These 
 people got away from their friends that they might get to 
 David. We are to get away from the world that we 
 may get closer to Christ. We often sing, "Oh, for a 
 closer walk wath God ! " But if our w^alk is to be close 
 with God, it must be a long way from the w^orld. We 
 must separate ourselves, by divine grace, unto Christ. 
 And then, as you read that they separated themselves 
 unto David in the wilderness, let me entreat you to ask 
 yourselves if you are ready to take part with a rejected, 
 crucified Christ. Tens of thousands would separate 
 themselves to David if he were in Hebron on the throne 
 of Israel. They would go there to crown David in the 
 day of his prosperity ; but the thing was to separate them- 
 selves unto David in the wilderness. That is the work of 
 real grace in the heart which leads us to take sides witli 
 a despised Christ. O, it is a blessed thing when Gocl 
 teaches you to say, " I will follow the truth wherever it 
 
2S2 Types and Emblems. 
 
 leads me. I will follow it, though some shall say to me, 
 ' Yon are inconsistent.' I do not care about that. Though 
 they shall say, * Why, you are landed now in fanaticism.' 
 1 do not care Tibout that. I will be a fanatic. If the 
 truth leads me there, I will separate myself in the 
 wilderness." Though they should tauntingly say, " You 
 only go to some ' Little Bethel,' which is frequented 
 by a few ignorant and vulgar people." Be it so. If 
 Christ goes there, what matters that to us ? If the 
 truth should lead us down into the hovel, where we could 
 only associate with the yqyj lowest of the low, if they 
 were the Lord's people, they should be our delight. I 
 wish this spirit were in all Christians, that they would 
 be loyal to truth and not pander to the world. Do not 
 be everlastingly asking yourselves " What will so-and-so 
 say ? and what will so-and-so say ? " Do the right, and 
 fear not. Believe the truth : let what will come of it. 
 Follow the straight line and do not trim your way. Go 
 not round about for the sake of policy, but take sides 
 with Jesus Christ in the day of scoffing, on the ground 
 of principle. Do I speak to some men here who work 
 in factories ? O, own Christ when other men laugh at 
 him. Stand up for Jesus when the whole shop is full 
 of jesting and jeering against religion. If your religion 
 is worth having, it is worth enduring a little banter for. 
 He that is a friend must be a friend in need. If you 
 would be a friend of Jesus you will defend his name 
 when it wants a defender and everybody is raging at him. 
 To come to the Tabernacle and join your fellow Chris- 
 tians in praising Jesus is very easy and involves no self- 
 denial ; but the thing is, you merchants, to praise Jesus 
 among your fellow merchants who are ungodly, — to bear 
 
David and his Volunteers, 283 
 
 witness, you working men, among others who fear not 
 the Lord, — to separate yourselves unto David in the 
 wilderness, — to cleave to Christ where he is scoffed at 
 and despised. That is a true Christian. I beseech you, 
 test yourselves by this ; for if you are ashamed of him 
 in this evil generation, he will be ashamed of you when 
 he cometh in his glory. But if you, out of a pure heart, 
 can confess him before a godless world, he will ac- 
 knowledge you in the day when he cometh in the glory 
 of his Father, and all his holy angels with him. O, 
 for grace to be separate in this way ! 
 
 Note, next, about these men that they were men of 
 might. It is said of them tliat they were men of 
 might whose faces were like faces of lions, and they were 
 as swift as the roes upon the mountains. All that came 
 to David were not like that. David had some women 
 and children to protect, but he was glad to receive 
 others that were men of might. Now there came to 
 Jesus, the greater David, in his day, the weak ones of 
 the flock, and he never rejected them. He was glad to 
 receive even the feeblest ; but there did come to our 
 Lord and Master eleven men who, by his grace, were 
 like these Gadites. Truly, I may say of his apostles, 
 after our Divine Lord had filled them with his Spirit, 
 that they had faces like lions and feet like hinds' feet, 
 so swift were they for service and so strong for combat. 
 How wondrously they ran to and fro to the very ends 
 of the earth, like the roes of the mountains ; and how 
 bravely they faced persecution and opposition, like lions 
 that could not flinch from their prey ; and what grand 
 works they did for David ! Would to God we were 
 like them, beloved ! The grace of God can make U3 
 
284 Types and EmUems. 
 
 like them. The grace of God can make us brave as 
 lions, so that wherever we are we can hold our own, or 
 rather can hold our Lord's truth, and never blush nor 
 be ashamed to speak a good word for him at all times. 
 He can make us quick and active too, so that we shall 
 be Hke the roes upon the mountains. I am afraid that 
 often we are like the ass that coucheth down. We 
 need the whip and tlie spur to make us move. We 
 are like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke of service. 
 Yet it ouglit not to be so. Loved as w^e have been 
 with such great love-, and having tasted, as some ofus 
 can testify, of such dear favors from our Lord, being 
 indulged with such intimate fellowship with himself, 
 and sustained as we are now w'ith such joy and peace 
 in him, we ought to serve him with celerity and activity, 
 with courage and confidence. We really should outvie 
 the lion for his bravery, and the hinds and the wild 
 goats of the rock for their swiftness. I pray it may 
 be so. May God send to this church men — and women 
 too — of this order, strong in the Lord and in the power 
 of his might, to whom the joy of the Lord shall be their 
 strength, who shall go about their Father's business 
 with all their mio:ht — that mis^ht which is sriven them 
 
 O O o 
 
 of God — and do great exploits for David while he is 
 in the wilderness and needs their aid. 
 
 But it is w^orth noticing that they were men of war, 
 inured to discipline — men tit for the battle, that could 
 handle shield and buckler. Now there are some men 
 of might who do not seem to be good men of war, 
 because they cannot keep rank. What exploits they 
 may do they needs must do alone, for they cannot march 
 with the armv. There are some brethren I know who 
 
David and his Volunteers. 285 
 
 are most excellent people as individuals, but they seem 
 never to be meant to march in the ranks ; they must 
 everyone of them lead — they feel they must, they can- 
 not be second to anybody ; neither can they be under 
 any discipline or rule. Instead of taking their place 
 in Christ's church, they seem to consider themselves 
 independent of the church and its organization. How- 
 beit, the men Christ wants in the church — and I pray 
 him to multiply their number in our midst, and enlist 
 all of us among them — are such as can keep step, observe 
 the rule, and preserve order in the march, or in the 
 fight for the service of the Lord. Men who can smite 
 the foe, who can handle the sword and buckler, and 
 ward ofi" the arrows of the enemy, who can use the 
 shield of faith and withstand the assaults of the adver- 
 sary : we want these. May God teach us how to keep 
 our places and to do our work. Some men have swords, 
 but their swords seem to be more dangerous to their 
 friends than to their foes. That is a kind of people 
 one wishes to keep clear of. They are, no doubt, very 
 zealous, but if they had a little more love as well as a 
 lot of zeal, and were endowed with a capacity for fel- 
 lowship, it would greatly improve their character. 
 This, however, seems to be their defect. They have 
 such an excess of individuality, and they are withal so 
 exclusive, that we can hardly imagine how they could 
 pray — " Our Father which art in heaven," or recognize 
 anybody else as belonging to the family of the Most 
 High. God make us men of might, but may he also 
 make us men of discipline. While we keep our place, and 
 do our own work, may we delight to see others do their 
 share of the work too. When we smite the foe may 
 
286 '-Typ^s and Emhlems. 
 
 we delight to see others use the weapons of Christian 
 warfare with skill and success. Do not shrink from 
 the drill or revolt against discipline, for it is a great 
 trait of a good soldier that he should know how to keep 
 rank. These Gadites likewise furnish us with a noble 
 example of strong resolution. When the eleven men 
 determined to join David they were living the other 
 side of a deep river, which at that season of the year 
 had overflowed its banks, so that it was extremely deep 
 and broad. But they were not to be kept from joining 
 David, when he wanted them, by the river. They 
 swam through the river that they might come to David. 
 O, I would like to hold up my Master's banner, and be 
 his recruitins: sero^eant to-nio^ht, if I could entertain the 
 hope that out of this company there would come men 
 of such mettle whose hearts the Lord has touched to 
 join themselves to the Lord, and tight for his cross, 
 whatever might impede and stop their way. Do you 
 stand back and shrink from avowing your attachment 
 to the standard of God's anointed because it would in- 
 volve a loss of reputation, displeasure of friends, the 
 frowns of your associates in the world, or the heart- 
 breaks of anguish of those you tenderly love ? Know, 
 then, that our Lord is worthy of all the troubles you incur 
 and all the risks you run ; and be assured that the peace 
 which a soul enjoys that once joins Christ in the hold, 
 and abides with him in the wilderness, well repays a man 
 for all that he has to part with in getting to his Lord 
 and Master. We have known some of the rich that have 
 joined Christ's church that have had to swim through 
 overflowing rivers of contumely ; the unkindness they 
 have braved has indeed been cold and chilling. A7e 
 
David and his Volunteers, 287 
 
 have known many a poor woman who has had to suffer 
 from her husband's brutalitj^ and many a poor man who 
 has had to run the gauntlet of a thousand cruel tongues. 
 But who is afraid ? Once see the King in his beuty,- 
 and your fears will vanish like smoke. Did you ever 
 see his face bestained with spittle, and black and blue 
 with the blows of mailed hands ? Did you ever see that 
 head surrounded with the thorn crown, and mark the 
 painful agony that was upon his visage, more marred 
 than any man's ? And have not you said, " Saviour, 
 since thou didst endure all this for me, there is nothing 
 that I will count hard to endure for thee. I will count 
 shame for tliee to be my glory, and thy reproach shall 
 be greater riches to me than all the treasurers of Egypt '■ \ 
 Have not you said that ? If you have said so from 
 your very soul, God the Holy Ghost writing it upon 
 your heart, I know you have resolved to endure any pain 
 or shame if you could but get to your Lord and stand 
 side by side with him. They swam the riv^er to get 
 to David. O, believer, swim the river to be with Christ ! 
 IS'ow, it would appear that after they had got across 
 the river they were attacked, but we are told that they 
 put to flight all them of the valleys both toward the east 
 and toward the west. They were men of such resolu- 
 tion that if they had'to fight to be on David's side they 
 could light ; and, notwithstanding the opposition of 
 those on the right hand and the opposition of those on 
 the left, still push their way, lion-like men as they were, 
 through all the forces that would impede them. O ye 
 that love the Lord and Master, I beseech you in this 
 evil day, this day of blasphemy and rebuke, stand not 
 back : be not craven. Cast in your lot with him and 
 
288 Types and Emhlems. . 
 
 with his people. Come to the front, hide not away like 
 cowards ; for this is the day when he shall be accursed 
 that comes not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the 
 Lord against the mighty ! See you not everywhere 
 how truth is fallen in the street — how the old idols of 
 Rome are once more set up in the high places of this 
 land ? The whole nation seems to have gone after the 
 idols which our fathers removed. O ye that love Christ, 
 come out and separate yourselves from all acquaintance, 
 all association with this evil thing. Come and join your- 
 selves unto the Son of God by a holy covenant. If he 
 be your beloved, and if his grace be in your heart, fear 
 not. What have you to fear ? Greater is he that is 
 with you than all they that are against you. Fear not. 
 The battle is not yours, it is the mighty God's. If 
 truth be with you, you must conquer. If Christ the 
 incarnate truth be with you, you are already more than 
 a conqueror through him that has loved you. Kever 
 be ashamed, never turn aside from him who gave 
 himself for you. Be steadfast, immovable. For this 
 steadfastness you need to pray much and often to God, 
 for many are the seductions of the world. 
 
 Can ye cleave to vour Lord, can ye cleave to your Lord, 
 
 When the many turn aside '? 
 Can ye witness that he hath the living word, 
 
 And none upon earth beside ? 
 
 Do ye answer we can, do ye answer we can, 
 Through his love's constraining power? 
 
 But do ye remember the flesh is weak, 
 And will shrink in the trial hour ? 
 
 Yet yield to his love, who around you now 
 
 The bands of a man would cast ; 
 The cords of his love, who was given for you. 
 
 To his altar binding you fast. 
 
David and his Volunteers. 289 
 
 Do examine yourselves. Prove your own hearts. 
 Consider vvliat manner of men ye ought to be. Let 
 the precepts admonish you. Let the esprit de corps 
 stimuhate you. Never let the disciples of Christ fall be- 
 hind followers of David in warmth of attachment, or in 
 order of service. The nearer you get to the person of 
 your Lord, the more you will catch of his spirit. Me- 
 thinks, beloved, you need direction more than exhorta- 
 tion. The more you live under his eye, and the of tener 
 you listen to his voice, the better, truer, nobler men 
 you will prove now, and the happier recognition you 
 will find in the day of his appearing. 
 
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