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PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BX 6333^.S6^Sy8 1858 ^' "" " 
 Spurgeon, C. H. 1834-1892. 
 Spurgeon's gems 
 
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SPURGEON'S GEMS 
 
SPURGEON'S GEMS, 
 
 BEING 
 
 BRILLIANT PASSAGES 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE DISCOUKSES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 KEY. C. h/sPUKGEO]^ 
 
 KEW YOEK: 
 
 SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & COMPANY. 
 
 BOSTON: GOULD & LINCOLN. 
 
 RICHMOND: T. J. STARKE. 
 
 1858. 
 
Ehtkeed according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 
 
 SHELDON. ELAKEMAN & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Sonthern District of New York, 
 
 W. H. TiNsoN, Stereotyper. Puosky & Russell, Prinieis. 
 
\ 
 
 PUBLISHEKS' PEEFACE. 
 
 The popularity of Mr. Spurgeon^s sermons in this coun- 
 try has been equalled only by the j^opularity of the preacher 
 himself in his own land. More than a hundred thousand 
 volumes of his writings have been already circulated here, 
 and the demand for them is constant, showing that they 
 have taken a strong and abiding hold upon the public mind. 
 Their usefulness, we have reason to believe, has been, in a 
 great measure, commensurate with their popularity. 
 
 The call has been repeatedly made for a volume giving 
 the characteristics of Mr. Spurgeon's style, revealing the 
 secret of his mighty power as a preacher of truth, with the 
 peculiarities of manner which arrest the attention, rouse the 
 sympathies, excite the admiration, and impress the feelings 
 of his vast audiences. This cannot be done by giving 
 simply detached sentences from his sermons. Mr. Spurgeon 
 is not remarkable for terseness, nor does he deal in laconic 
 phrases. He is rhetorical, descriptive, flowing and glowing. 
 He blazes and burns along the pathway of his subject, rising 
 
Vi PTJBLISHEKS' PEEFACE. 
 
 in flights of imagination and carrying his hearers along with 
 him in earnest, overwhelming appeals. He is pungent in his 
 applications, strong in his doctrinal opinions, and powerful 
 in his exhibition of the divine Word. Such a preacher's 
 forte is not to be presented in single sentences. We have 
 therefore gathered from scores of his sermons many of the 
 most striking passages, and set them in these pages, without 
 regard to the order of subject, or 'their relations to each 
 other : a series of earnest thoughts and graphic pictures, 
 all of them revealing the true greatness of the preacher's 
 conceptions, his individuality and strength. No one can 
 read the first page of this volume without feeling that the 
 speaker is no common man. 
 
 The publishers present this selection from the pages of 
 Mr. Spurgeon, as a specimen of his happiest thoughts, gems 
 from his discourses, w^hich will glow in the mind of the 
 reader, and quicken in him a desire to read and hear more 
 of this remarkable youthful preacher of the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ. 
 
SPURGEON'S GEMS. 
 
 -*►• 
 
 ALL my springs are in thee, said David. If thou 
 hast air thy springs in God, thy heart will be 
 full enough. K thou dost go to the foot of Calvary, 
 there will thy heart be bathed in love and gratitude. 
 If thou dost frequent the vale of retirement, and 
 there talk with thy God, it is there that thy heart 
 shall be full of calm resolve. If thou goest out with 
 thy master to tlie hill of Olivet, and dost with him 
 look down upon a wicked Jerusalem, and weep over 
 it with him, then will thy heart be full of love for 
 never-dying souls. If thou dost continually draw 
 thine impulse, thy life, the whole of thy being from 
 the Holy Spirit, without whom thou canst do nothing, 
 and if thou dost live in close communion with Christy 
 there will be no fear of thy having a dry heart. He 
 who lives without prayer — ^lie who lives with little 
 prayer — ^he who seldom reads the Word — he who sel- 
 
8 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 dom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on 
 hio:h — ^he will be the man whose heart will become 
 dry and barren ; but he who calls in secret on his 
 God — who spends much time in holy retirement — 
 who delights to meditate on the words of the Most 
 High — whose soul is given up to Christ — who de- 
 lights in his fullness, rejoices in his all-sufficiency, 
 prays for his second coming, and delights in the 
 thought of his glorious advent — such a man, I say, 
 must have an overflowing heart ; and as his heart is, 
 such will his life be. It will be a full life ; it will be 
 a life that will speak from the sepulchre, and wake 
 the echoes of the future. " Keep thine heart with all 
 diligence," and entreat the Holy Spirit to keep it full ; 
 for, otherwise, the issues of thy life will be feeble, 
 shallow, and suj)erficial ; and thou mayest as well not 
 have lived at all. 
 
 I AM certain thou needest no exhortation to love 
 thyself, thine own case will be seen to, thine own 
 comfort will be a very primary theme of thine anx- 
 iety. Thou wilt line thine own nest well with downy 
 feathers, if thou canst. There is no need to exhort 
 thee to love thyself. Thou wilt do that well enough. 
 Well, then, as much as thou lovest thyself, love thy 
 neighbor. 
 
SPUEGEOn's GEM8. 9 
 
 A MAIL'S force in tlie woncl, other things being 
 equal, is just in the ratio of the force and strength 
 of his heart. A full-hearted man is always a power- 
 ful man : if he be erroneous, then he is powerful for 
 error ; if the thing is in his heart, he is sure to make 
 it notorious, even though it may be a downright false- 
 hood. Let a man be never so ignorant, still if his 
 heart be full of love to a cause, he becomes a power- 
 ful man for that object, because he has heart- 
 power, heart force. A man may be deficient in many 
 of the advantages of education, in many of those 
 niceties which are so much looked upon in society ; 
 but once give him a good strong heart, that beats 
 hard, and there is no mistake about his power. Let 
 him have a heart that is right full up to the brim 
 with an object, and that man will do the thing, or 
 else he will die gloriously defeated, and will glory in 
 his defeat. Heakt is power. 
 
 WHEIN" the sunlight of God's mercy rises upon our 
 necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far 
 down upon the plain ; or, to use another illustration, 
 when God piles up a hill of mercies, he himself shines 
 behind them, and he casts on our spirits the shadow 
 of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are in 
 prayer, our prayers are the shadows of mercy. 
 
 1^ 
 
10 spfkgeon's gems. 
 
 OMOTPOTEKCE may build a tliousand worlds, 
 and fill them with bounties ; Omnij)otence may 
 powder mountains into dust, and burn the sea, and 
 consume the sky, but Omnipotence cannot do an un- 
 loving thing toward a believer. Oh ! rest quite sure. 
 Christian, a hard thing, an unloving thing from God 
 toward one of his own people is quite impossible. He 
 is kind to you when he casts you into prison as when 
 he takes you into a palace ; He is as good when he 
 sends famine into your house as when he fills your 
 barns with plenty. The only question is, Ai-t thou 
 his child ? K so, he hath rebuked thee in afi'ection, 
 and there is love in his chastisement. 
 
 PRAYEK is the rustling of the wings of the angels 
 that are on their way bringing us the boons of 
 heaven. Have you heard prayer in your heart ? You 
 shall see the angel in your house. When the cha- 
 riots that bring us blessings do rumble, their wheels 
 do sound with prayer. We hear the prayer in our 
 own spirits, and that prayer becomes the token of the 
 coming blessings. Even as the cloud foreshadoweth 
 rain, so prayer foreshadoweth the blessing ; even as 
 the green blade is the beginning of the harvest, so is 
 prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to 
 come. 
 
spubgeon's gems. 11 
 
 You have seen the great reservoirs provided by 
 our water companies, in which, the water which 
 is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of 
 houses is kept. IN^ow, the heart is just the reservoir 
 of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its proper 
 season. That life may flow through different pipes — 
 the mouth, the hand, the eye ; but still all the issues 
 of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the 
 great fountain and central reservoir, the heart ; and 
 hence there is no difficulty in showing the great 
 necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the 
 heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise 
 that which flows through the pipes must be tainted 
 and corrupt. 
 
 « 9-9 
 
 THERE is not a spider hanging on the king's wall 
 but hath its errand ; there is not a nettle that 
 groweth in the corner of the churchyard but hath its 
 purpose ; there is not a single insect fluttering in the 
 breeze but accomj)lisheth some divine decree ; and I 
 will never have it that God created any man, espe- 
 cially any Christian man, to be a blank, and to be a 
 nothing. He made you for an end. Find out what 
 that end is ; find out your niche, and fill it. If it 
 be ever so little, if it is only to be a hewer of wood 
 and drawer of water, do something in this great 
 battle for God and truth. 
 
12 sptirgeon's gems. 
 
 SUPPOSE you see a lake, and there are tTventy or 
 thirty streamlets running from it : why, there 
 will not be one strong river in the whole country ; 
 there will be a number of little brooks which will 
 be dried up in the summer, and will be temporary 
 torrents in the winter. They will every one of them 
 be useless for any great purpose, because there is 
 not water enough in the lake to feed more than one 
 great stream. ISTow, a man's heart has only enough 
 life in it to pursue one object fully. Ye must not 
 give half your love to Christ, and the other half to 
 the world. 'No man can serve God and mammon, 
 because there is not enough life in the heart to serve 
 
 the two. 
 
 — #-©-# — 
 
 HOW easy it is for you and I to fly up ! How 
 hard to keep down ! That demon of pride was 
 born with us, and it will not die one hour before us. 
 It is so woven into the very warp and woof of our 
 nature, that till we are wrapped in our winding-sheets 
 we shall never hear the last of it. 
 
 AISTY man who trusts so much as a single hair's 
 breadth to his works, is a lost soul. He who 
 trusts to the least atom of works, though it be so small 
 that he himself cannot discern it, will be lost. 
 
sptjkgeon's gems. 13 
 
 KEEP not back part of the price. Make a full 
 surrender of every mption of thy heart; labor 
 to have but one object, and one^aim. And for this 
 purpose give God the kee^^ing of thine heart. Cry out 
 for more of the divine influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 that so when thy sonl is preserved and protected by 
 him, it may be directed into one channel, and one 
 only, that thy life may run deep and pm-e, and clear 
 and peaceful ; its only banks being God's will, its 
 only channel the love of Christ and a desire to please 
 
 him. 
 
 •-♦-« — 
 
 THEEE never was a saint yet, that grew proud of 
 his fine feathers, but what the Lord plucked 
 them out by and by. There never yet was an angel 
 that had pride in his heart, but he lost his wings, and 
 fell into Gehenna, as Satan and those fallen angels 
 did ; and there shall never be a saint who indulges 
 self-conceit, and pride, and self-confidence, but the 
 Lord will spoil his glories, and trample his honors in 
 the mire, and make him cry out yet again, " Lord 
 have mercy upon me," less than the least of all saints, 
 and the " very chief of sinners." 
 
 MElSr who have no brains are always great men ; 
 but those who think, must think their pride 
 down, if God is with them in their thinking. 
 
14 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 'VTEYER, never neglect the word of God ; that will 
 -~\ make thy heart rich with precept, rich with 
 understanding; and then thy conversation, when it 
 flows from thy mouth, will be like thine heart, rich, 
 unctions, and savoury. Make thy heart full of rich, 
 generous love, and then the stream that flows from 
 thy hand will be just as rich and generous as thine 
 heart. Above all, get Jesus to live in thine heart, 
 and then out of thy belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water, more rich, more satisfying than the water of 
 the well of Sychar of which Jacob drank. Oh ! go, 
 Christian, to the great mine of riches, and cry unto 
 the Holy Spirit to make thy heart rich unto salvation. 
 So shall thy life and conversation be a boon to thy 
 fellows ; and when they see thee, thy face shall be as 
 the angel of God. Thou shalt wash thy feet in but- 
 ter and thy steps in oil : they that sit in the gate shall 
 rise up when they see thee, and men shall do thee 
 reverence. 
 
 GOD hath said it ; men must serve him — they 
 must serve him in his own way, and. they 
 must serve him in his own strength too, or he 
 will never accept their service. That which man 
 doth, unaided by divine strength, God never can 
 accept. There must be a consciousness of weakness 
 before there can be any victory. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 15 
 
 LIFE' is but death's vestibnle ; and our pilgrimage 
 on earth is but a journey to the grave. The 
 pulse that preserves our being beats our death 
 march, and the blood which circulates our life is 
 floating it onward to the deeps of death. To-day we 
 see our friends in health, to-morrow we hear of their 
 decease. We clasped the hand of the strong man 
 but yesterday, and to-day we close his eyes. We 
 rode in the chariot of comfort but an hour ago, and 
 in a few more hours the last black chariot must 
 convey us to the home of all living. Oh, how 
 closely allied is death to life ! The lamb that sporteth 
 in the field must soon feel the knife. The ox that 
 loweth in the pasture is fattening for the slaughter. 
 Trees do but grow that they may be felled. Yea, 
 and greater things than these feel death. Empires 
 rise and flourish ; they flourish but to decay, they 
 rise to fall. How often do we take up the volume 
 of history, and read of the rise and fall of empires. 
 We hear of the coronation and the death of kings. 
 Death is the black servant who rides behind the 
 chariot of life. See life ! and death is close behind 
 it. Death reacheth far throughout this world, and 
 hath stamped all terrestrial things with the broad 
 arrow of the grave. Stars die mayhap ; it is said 
 that conflagrations have been seen far ofl" in the 
 distant ether, and astronomers have marked tlie 
 
16 spfegeon's GEMS- 
 
 funerals ol worlds — the decay of tliose miglity orbs 
 tliat we had imagined set for ever in sockets of 
 silver, to glisten as the lamps of eternity. But, 
 blessed be God, there is one place where death is 
 not life's brother — where life reigns alone ; " to live" 
 is not the first syllable which is to be followed by the 
 next, " to die." There is a land where death-knells 
 are never tolled, where winding-sheets are never 
 woven, where graves are never dug. Blest land 
 beyond the skies ! To reach it, we must die. 
 
 M 
 
 Y God ! when I survey the boundless fields of 
 ether, and see those pondrous orbs rolling 
 therein — when I consider how vast are thy dominions 
 — so wide that an angel's wing might flap to all 
 eternity and never reach a boundary — I marvel that 
 thou shouldst look on insects so obscure as man. I 
 have taken to myself the microscope and seen the 
 ephemera upon the -leaf, and I have called him 
 small. I will not call him so again : compared with 
 me, he is great, if I put myself in comparison with 
 God. I am so little that I shrink into nothingness 
 when I behold the almightiness of Jehovah — so little 
 that the difference between the animalcules and man 
 dwindles into nothing, when compared with the infi- 
 nite chasm between God and man. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 17 
 
 ALAS, alas, that the good should die ! alas, that 
 the righteous should fall ! Death, why dost thou 
 not hew the deadly upas ? Why dost thou not mow 
 the hemlock ? Why dost thou touch the tree beneath 
 whose spreading branches weariness hath rest ? Why 
 dost thou touch the flower whose perfume hath made 
 glad the earth ? Death, why dost thou snatch away 
 the excellent of the earth, in whom is all our delight ? 
 K thou wouldest use thine axe, use it upon the cum- 
 ber-grounds, the trees that draw nourishment, but 
 afford no fruit ; thou mightest be thanked then. But 
 why wilt thou cut down the cedars, why wilt thou fell 
 the goodly trees of Lebanon ? O Death, why dost 
 thou not spare the church ? Why must the pulpit be 
 hung in black ; why must the missionary station be 
 filled with weeping ? Why must the pious family lose 
 its priest, and the house its head ? O Death, what 
 art thou at ? touch not earth's holy things ; thy hands 
 are not fit to pollute the Israel of God. Why dost 
 thou put thy hand upon the hearts of the elect ? Oh, 
 stay thou, stay thou ; spare the righteous. Death, and 
 take the bad ! But no, it must not be ; death comes 
 and smiles the goodliest of us all ; the most generous, 
 the most prayerful, the most holy, the most devoted 
 must die. Weep, weep, weep, O church, for thou 
 hast lost thy martyrs ; weep, O church, for thou hast 
 lost thy confessors, thy holy men are fallen. Howl, 
 
18 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 fir tree, for the cedar hatli fallen, the godly fail, and 
 the righteous are cnt off. But stay awhile ; I hear 
 another voice. Say ye thus unto the daughter of 
 Judah, spare thy weeping. Say ye thus unto the 
 Lord's flock. Cease, cease thy sorrow ; thy martyrs 
 are dead, but they are glorified ; thy ministers are 
 gone, but they have ascended up to thy Father and 
 to their Father ; thy brethren are buried in the grave, 
 but the archangel's trumpet shall awake them, and 
 their spirits are ever now with God. 
 
 DEATH was the devil's chief intrenchment ; Christ 
 bearded the lion in his den, and fought him in 
 his own territory ; and when he took death from 
 him, and dismantled that once impregnable fortress, 
 he took away from him, not only that, but every 
 other advantage that he had over the saint. And 
 now Satan is a conquered foe, not only in the hour 
 of death, but in every other hour and in every other 
 place. He is an enemy, both cruel and mighty ; but 
 he is a foe who quakes and quails when a Christian 
 gets into the lists with him ; for he knows that 
 though the fight may waver for a little while in the 
 scale, the balance of victory must fall on the side of 
 the saint, because Christ by his death destroyed the 
 devil's power. 
 
SPURGEON S GEMS. 19 
 
 SEE that man drowning, there — there is another in 
 the water too, I see. He in the distance thinks 
 he can swim : a plank is thrown to him ; he believes 
 himself to be in no danger of sinking. Well, he 
 clutches the plank very leisurely, and does not seem 
 to grasp it firmly. But this j)Oor creature here, he 
 knows he cannot swim, he feels that he must soon 
 sink, ^ow put the means of escape near him, how 
 desperately he clutches it ; how he seems as if he 
 would di'ive his fingers through the plank ! He 
 clutches it for life or death ; that is his all, for he 
 must perish if he is not saved by that. ITow, in this 
 case, he that fears the most believes the most ; and I do 
 think it is so sometimes with poor desponding spirits. 
 
 HEUE we see through a glass darkly, but there 
 face to face. Tliere, what " eye hath not seen 
 nor ear heard " shall be fully manifest to us. There, 
 riddles shall be unravelled, mysteries made plain, 
 dark texts enlightened, hard providences made to 
 appear wise. The meanest soul in heaven knows 
 more of God than the greatest saint on earth. The 
 greatest saint on earth may have it said of him, 
 " Nevertheless he that is least in the kin^rdom of 
 heaven is greater than he." J^ot our mightiest 
 divines understand so much of theology as the 
 
20 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 lambs of the flock of glorj. "Not the greatest 
 master-minds of earth understand the millionth part 
 of the mightj meanings which have been discovered 
 by sonls emancipated from clay. Yes. " To die is 
 gain." Take away, take away that hearse, remove 
 that shroud; come, put white plumes upon the 
 horses' heads, and let gilded trappings hang around 
 them. There, take away that fife, that shrill sound- 
 ing music of the death march. Lend me the 
 trumpet and the drum. O hallelujah, hallelujah, 
 hallelujah ; why weep we the saints to heaven ; why 
 need we lament ? They are not dead, they are gone 
 before. Stop, stop that mourning, refrain thy tears, 
 clap your hands, clap your hands. 
 
 " They are supremely blest, 
 
 Have done with care and sin and woe, 
 And with their Saviour rest." 
 
 What ! weep ! weep ! for heads that are crowned 
 with coronals of heaven ? Weep, weep for hands 
 that grasp the harps of gold ? What, weep for eyes 
 that see the Redeemer ? What, weep for hearts that 
 are washed from sin, and are throbbing with eternal 
 bliss ? What, weep for men that are in the Saviour's 
 bosom ? No ; weep for yourselves, that you are 
 here. Weep that the mandate has not come which 
 bids you to die. Weep that you must tarry. But 
 
spurgeon's gems. 21 
 
 not for them. I see them turning back on you 
 with loving wonder, and thej exclaim, "Why 
 weepest thou?" What, weep for poverty that it 
 is clothed in riches ? What, weep for sickness, that 
 it hath inherited eternal health? What, weep for 
 shame, that it is glorified ; and weep for sinful mor- 
 tality, that it hath become immaculate ? Oh, weep 
 not, but rejoice. " K ye knew what it was that I 
 have said unto you, and whither I have gone, ye 
 would rejoice with a joy that no man should take 
 
 from you." 
 
 • • • 
 
 WHEIS" the Lord Jesus came down to earth, Satan 
 knew his errand. He knew that the Lord 
 Jesus was the Son of God, and when he saw him an 
 infant in the manger, he thought if he could kill 
 him and get him in the bonds of death, what a fine 
 thing it would be ! So he stirred up the spirit of 
 Herod to slay him ; but Herod missed his mark. 
 And many gf time did Satan strive to put the per- 
 sonal existence of Christ in danger, so that he might 
 get Christ to die. Poor fool as he was, he did. not 
 know that when Christ died he would bruise the 
 devil's head. Once, you remember, when Christ 
 was in the synagogue, the devil stirred up the 
 people, and made them angry ; and he thought, 
 " Oh ! what a glorious thing it would be if I could 
 
22 SPURaEON's GEMS. 
 
 kill tMs man ; tlien there would be an end of him, 
 and I should reign supreme forever." So he got the 
 people to take him to the brow of a hill, and he 
 gloated over the thought that now surely he would 
 be cast down headlong. But Christ escaped. He 
 tried to starve him, he tried to drown him ; he was 
 in the desert without food, and he was on the sea in 
 a storm ; but there was no starving or drowning 
 him, and Satan no doubt panted for his blood, and 
 longed that he should die. At last the day arrived ; 
 it was telegraphed to the court of hell that at last 
 Christ would die. They rung their bells with hellish 
 mirth and joy. "He will die now," said he; 
 " Judas has taken the thirty pieces of silver. Let 
 those Scribes and Pharisees get him, they will no 
 more let him go than the spider will a poor unfortu- 
 nate fly. He is safe enough now." And the devil 
 laughed for very glee, when he saw the Saviour 
 stand before Pilate's bar. And when it was said, 
 " Let him be crucified," then his joy Scarce knew 
 bounds, except that bound which his own misery 
 must ever set to it. As far as he could, he revelled 
 in what was to him a delightful thought, that the 
 Lord of glory was about to die. In death, as Christ 
 was seen of angels, he was seen of devils too ; and 
 that dreary march from Pilate's palace to the cross, 
 was one which devils saw with extraordinory inte- 
 
SPURGEON 8 GEMS. 23 
 
 rest. And when they saw him on the cross, there 
 stood the exulting fiend, smiling to himself. " Ah ! I 
 have the King of Glory now in my dominions ; I 
 have the power of death, and I have the power over 
 the Lord Jesus." He exerted that power, till the 
 Lord Jesus had to cry out in bitter anguish, " My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" But 
 ah ! how short-lived was hellish victory ! How brief 
 was the Satanic triumph ! He died ; and " It is 
 finished !" shook the gates of hell. Down from the 
 cross the conqueror leaped, pursued the fiend with 
 thunder-bolts of wrath ; swift to the shades of hell 
 the fiend did fly, and swift descending went the con- 
 queror after him ; and we may conceive him 
 exclaiming — 
 
 " Traitor ! this bolt shall find and pierce thee through, 
 Though under hell's profoundest wave thou div'st, 
 To find a sheltering grave." 
 
 And seize him he did — chained him to his chariot- 
 wheel ; dragged him up the steeps of glory ; angels 
 shouting all the while, " He hath led captivity cap- 
 tive, and received gifts for men." Now, devil, thou 
 saidst thou wouldst overcome me, when I came to 
 die. Satan, I defy thee, and laugh thee to scorn ! 
 My master overcame thee, and I shall overcome thee 
 yet. You say you will overcome the saint, do you ? 
 
24 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 You could not overcome the saint's Master, and you 
 will not overcome liim. You once tliought you had 
 conquered Jesus : you were bitterly deceived. Ah ! 
 Satan, thou mayest think thou shalt overcome the 
 little faith and the faint heart; but thou art won- 
 drously mistaken-— for we shall assuredly tread Satan 
 under our feet shortly ; and even in our last extre- 
 mity, with fearful odds against us, we shall be 
 " more than conquerors through him that loved us." 
 
 THE river of God is full of water ; but there is not 
 one drop of it that takes its rise in earthly 
 springs. God will have no strength used in his own 
 battles but the strength which he himself imparts ; 
 and I would not have you that are now distressed in 
 the least discouraged by it. Your emptiness is but 
 the preparation for your being filled ; and your 
 casting down is but the making ready for your 
 lifting up. 
 
 DEAL gently, deal kindly, deal lovingly, and there 
 is not a wolf in human shape but will be melted 
 by kindness; and there is not a tiger in woman's 
 form but will break down and sue for pardon, if God 
 should bless the love that is brought to bear upon her 
 by her friend. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 25 
 
 IF the devil comes to mj door with his horns visi- 
 ble, I will never let him in ; but if he comes with 
 his hat on as a respectable gentleman, he is at once 
 admitted. The metaphor may be very quaint, but it 
 is quite true. Many a man has taken in an evil 
 thing, because it has been varnished and glossed 
 over, and not a]3parently an evil ; and he has thought 
 in his heart, there is not much harm in it ; so he has 
 let in the little thing, and it has been like the break- 
 ing forth of water — the first drop has brought after it 
 a torrent. The beginning has been but the beginning 
 
 of a fearful end. 
 
 — *-•-• — 
 
 IF we could see things as they are — if we were not 
 deceived by the masquerade of this poor life — if 
 we were not so easily taken in by the masks and 
 dresses of those who act in this great drama, be it 
 comedy or tragedy — if we could but see what the 
 men are behind the scenes, penetrate their hearts, 
 watch the inner motions, and discern their secret feel- 
 ings, we should find but few who could bear the name 
 
 of " blessed." 
 
 * • • — 
 
 TOUCH not the persons of men ; but smite their 
 sin with a stout heart and with strong arm. Slay 
 both the little ones and the great; let nothing be 
 spared that is against God and his truth ; but we have 
 no war with the persons of poor mistaken men. 
 
 2 
 
26 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 IF we had the blessings without asking fof them, 
 we should think them common things ; but prayer 
 makes the common pebbles of God's temporal boun- 
 ties more precious than diamonds ; and in spiritual 
 prayer, cuts the diamond, and makes it glisten more. 
 After a long chase, the hunter prizes the animal, be- 
 cause he has set his heart upon it, and is determined 
 to have it ; and yet more truly, after a long hunger, 
 he that eateth findeth more relish in his food. So 
 prayer doth sweeten the mercy. Prayer teaches us 
 its preciousness. It is the reading over of the bill, 
 the schedule, the account, before the estate and the 
 properties are themselves transferred. We know the 
 value of the purchase by reading over the will of it 
 in prayer, and when we have groaned out our own 
 expression of its peerless price, then it is that God 
 bestows the benediction ujDon us. Prayer goes before 
 the blessing, because it shows us the value of it. 
 
 ¥E hear, sometimes, a great deal said about pos- 
 sessing a full assurance of being a. child of 
 God ; and then, every now and then, we hear of a 
 doubt, a hope. As good Joseph Irons used to say, 
 " They keep hope, hope, hoping — ^hop, hop, hopping 
 — all their lives, because they can't walk." Little 
 faith is always lame. 
 
spitrgeon's gems. 27 
 
 IF there were sucli a thing as national salvation ; if 
 it could be possible that we could be saved in 
 the gross and in the bulk, that so, like the sheaves of 
 corn, the few weeds that may grow with the stubble, 
 would be gathered in for the sake of the wdieat, then, 
 indeed, it might not be so foolish for us to neglect 
 our own personal interests; but if the sheep must, 
 every one of them, pass under the hand of him that 
 telleth them, if every man must stand in his own per- 
 son before God, to be tried for his own acts — ^by 
 everything that is rational, by everything that con- 
 science would dictate, and self-interest would com- 
 mand, let us each of us look to our own selves, that 
 we be not deceived, and that we find not ourselves, 
 at last, miserably cast away. 
 
 THE great King, immortal, invisible, the Divine 
 person, called the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit : 
 it is he that quickens the soul, or else it would lie 
 dead for ever ; it is he that makes it tender, or else it 
 would never feel ; it is he that imparts efficacy to the 
 "Word preached, or else it could never reach further 
 than the ear ; it is he who breaks the heart, it is he 
 who makes it whole ; he, from first to last, is the 
 great worker of Salvation in us, just as Jesus Christ 
 was the author of Salvation for us. 
 
28 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 AS sure as God is God, if you this day are seeking 
 liim ariglit, through Christ, the day shall come 
 when the kiss of full assurance shall be on your lip, 
 when the arms of sovereign love shall embrace you, 
 and you shall know it to be so. Thou mayest have 
 despised him, but thou shalt know him yet to be thy 
 Father and thy friend. Thou mayest have scoffed his 
 name ; thou shalt one day come to rejoice in it as 
 better than pure gold. Thou mayest have broken his 
 Sabbaths and despised his Word ; the day is coming 
 when the Sabbath shall be thy delight, and his Word 
 thy treasure. Yes, marvel not ; thou mayest have 
 plunged into the kennel of sin and made thy clothes 
 black with iniquity ; but thou shalt one day stand 
 before his throne white as the angels be ; and that 
 tongue that once cursed him shall yet sing his praise. 
 K thou be a real seeker, the hands that have been 
 stained with lust shall one day grasp the harp of gold, 
 and the head that has plotted against the Most High 
 shall yet be girt with gold. Seemeth it not a strange 
 thing that God should do so much for sinners ? But 
 strange though it seem, it shall be strangely true. 
 
 ¥E do not care about 50,000 aphorisms, or syllo- 
 gisms, or anything else. God's word against 
 man's any day. 
 
SPT7EGE0N S GEMS. 29 
 
 OUR God is no god who sits in one perpetual dream ; 
 nor dotli lie clothe Himself in such thick dark- 
 ness that he cannot see ; he is not like Baal who 
 heareth not. True, he may not regard battles ; he 
 cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings ; he 
 listens not to the swell of martial music ; he regards 
 not the triumph and the pride of man ; but whenever 
 there is a heart big with sorrow, wherever there is 
 an eye suffused wdth tears, wherever there is a lij) 
 quivering with agony, wherever there is a deep groan, 
 or a penitential sigh, the ear of Jehovah is wide 
 open ; he marks it down in the registry of his me- 
 mory ; he puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between 
 the pages of his book of remembrance, and when the 
 volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious 
 fragrance springing up therefrom. 
 
 • • • 
 
 GOD'S good pleasure is, that this world shall one 
 day be totally redeemed from sin ; God's good 
 pleasure is, that this poor planet, so long swathed in 
 darkness, shall soon shine out in brightness, like a 
 new-born sun. Christ's death hath done it. The 
 stream that flowed from his side on Calvary shall 
 cleanse the world from all its blackness. That hour 
 of mid-day darkness was the rising of a new sun of 
 righteousness, which shall never cease to shine upon 
 
30 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 the earth. Yes, the hour is coming when swords and 
 spears shall be forgotten things, when the harness of 
 war and the pageantry of pomp shall all be laid aside 
 for the food of the worm or the contemplation of 
 the curions. The hour approacheth when old Kome 
 shall shake npon her seven hills, when Mohammed's 
 crescent shall wane to wax no more, when all the 
 gods of the heathens shall lose their thrones and be 
 cast out to the moles and to the bats; and then, 
 when from the equator to the poles Christ shall be 
 honored, the Lord paramount on earth, when from 
 land to land, from the river even to the ends of the 
 earth, one King shall reign, one shout shall be raised, 
 " Hallelujah, hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent 
 reigneth." 
 
 »-0-« 
 
 WITHOUT bread, I become attenuated to a skele- 
 ton ; and, at last, I die. Without thought, my 
 mind becomes dwarfed, aye, and dwindles itself 
 until I become the idiot, with a soul that hath just 
 life, but little more. And without Christ, my new- 
 born spirit must become a vague, shadowy empti- 
 ness. It cannot live unless it feeds on that heavenly 
 manna which came down from heaven. JSTow the 
 Christian can say, " The life that I live is Christ ;" 
 because Christ is the food on which he feeds, and the 
 sustenance of his new-born spirit. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 31 
 
 SIN'lJ^EE, let tliis be thy comfort, tliat God sees 
 tliee wlieii tliou beginnest to repent. He does 
 not see tbee with his usual gaze, with which he looks 
 on all men, but he sees thee with an eye of intense 
 interest. He has been looking on thee in all thy sin, 
 and in all thy sorrow, hoping that thou wouldst re- 
 pent ; and now he sees the first gleam of grace, and 
 he beholds it with joy. Never warder on the lonely 
 castle top saw the first grey light of morning with 
 more joy than that with which God beholds the first 
 desire in thy heart. JSi^ever physician rejoiced more 
 when he saw the first heaving of the lungs in one 
 that was supposed to be dead, than God doth rejoice 
 over thee, now that he sees the first token for good. 
 
 I HA YE seen the Christian man in the depths of 
 poverty, when he lived from hand to mouth, and 
 scarcely knew where he should find the next meal, 
 still with his mind unruffled, calm, and quiet. K he 
 had been as rich as an Indian prince, yet could he 
 not have had less care ; if he had been told that his 
 bread should always come to his door, and the stream 
 which ran hard by should never dry — if he had been 
 quite sure that ravens would bring him bread and 
 meat in the morning, and again in the evening, he 
 would not have been one whit more calm. 
 
32 spijrgeon's gems. 
 
 OH, I reckon on the day of de«itli if it were for the 
 mere hope of seeing the bright spirits that are 
 now before the throne ; to clasp the hand of Abra- 
 ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, to look into the face of 
 Paul the apostle, and grasp the hand of Peter ; to sit 
 in flowery fields with Moses and David, to bask in the 
 sunlight of bliss with John and Magdalene. Oh, how 
 blest! The company of poor imperfect saints on 
 earth is good ; but how much better the society of the 
 redeemed. Death is no loss to us by way of friends. 
 Wq leave a few, a little band below, and say to them, 
 " Fear not, little flock," and we ascend and meet the 
 armies of the living God — ^the hosts of his redeemed. 
 
 " To die is gain." 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 IF any one should ask me for an epitome of the 
 Christian religion, I should say, it is in that one 
 word — " prayer." If I should be asked, " What will 
 take in the whole of Christian experience ?" I should 
 answer, " prayer." A man must have been convinced 
 of sin before he could pray ; he must have had some 
 hope that there was mercy for him before he could 
 pray. In fact, all the Christian virtues are locked 
 up in that word, prayer. Do but tell me, you are a 
 man of prayer, and I will reply at once, " Sir, I have 
 no doubt of the reality, as well as the sincerity, of 
 your religion." 
 
spijegeon's gems. 33 
 
 Fthe very beginning, when this great imi^'erse 
 lay in the mind of God, like unborn forests in the 
 acorn-cnp ; long ere the echoes walked the solitudes ; 
 before the mountains were brought forth ; and long 
 ere the light flashed through the sky, God loved his 
 chosen creatures. Before there was creatureship — 
 when the sether was not fanned by the angel's wing ; 
 when space itself had not an existence ; when there was 
 nothing save God alone ; even then, in that loneli- 
 ness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and profundity, 
 his bowels moved for his chosen. Their names were 
 written on his heart, and then were they dear to his 
 
 soul. 
 
 — •-•-• 
 
 THERE is an elect out of the elect, I will acknow- 
 ledge, as to gifts and standing, and as to the 
 labor they may accomplish in this world ; but there 
 is no election out of the elect as to a deeper extent of 
 love. They are all loved alike ; they are all written 
 in the same book of eternal love and life. 
 
 ¥HEK I hear of a church where they are all gen- 
 tlemen, I always say farewell to that, for where 
 there are no j)oor, the ship will soon sink. If there 
 are no poor, then, Christ will soon give them some, 
 if they are a real Gospel church. 
 
 3* 
 
34: spukgeon's gems. 
 
 OH ! it is a glorious fact, that prayers are noticed in 
 heaven. The poor broken-hearted sinner, climb- 
 ing up to his chamber, bends his knee, but can only 
 utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears. 
 Lo ! that groan has made all the harps of heaven 
 thrill with music ; that tear has been caught by God, 
 and put into the lachrymatory of heaven, to be per- 
 petually preserved. The suppliant, whose fears pre- 
 vent his words, will be well understood by the Most 
 High. 
 
 YE lame ! fear not ; you will not be cast out. Two 
 snails entered the ark ; how they got there, I 
 cannot tell. It must have taken them a long time. 
 They must have set off rather early, unless is be that 
 Noah took them part of the way. So, some of you 
 are snails ; you are on the right road, but it will take 
 a long while, unless some blessed IsToah helps you 
 into the ark. 
 
 JESUS recognizes his family when they are black 
 as the tents of Kedar, and he knows they shall be 
 fair as the curtains of Solomon. He knows his child- 
 ren when they do not know themselves ; when they 
 fancy they are lost beyond rescue, or when they fool- 
 ishly conceive that they can save themselves. 
 
SPURGEON's GEIMS. 36 
 
 GIYE me the comforts of God, and I can well bear 
 the taunts of men. Let me lay my head on the 
 bosom of Jesus, and I fear not the distraction of care 
 and trouble. If my God will give me ever the light 
 of his smile, and glance his benediction — ^it is enough. 
 Come on foes, persecutors, fiends, ay, ApoUyon him- 
 self, for " the Lord God is my sun and shield." Ga- 
 ther, ye clouds, and environ me, I carry a sun within ; 
 blow, wind of the frozen north, 1 have a fire of living 
 coal within y yea, death, slay me, but I have another 
 life — a life in the light of God's countenance. 
 
 BACKSLIDEKS! fallen ones! God will have mercy 
 if you are penitent. Glorious fact ! the sorrow- 
 ing backslider shall not be left behind. Backsliders 
 shall sing above, as God's restored children, he ever 
 has loved. Blind and lame ones ! believe in the 
 Lord, and you shall be found amongst the children 
 of the Lamb at last. 
 
 YE may erect little thrones for those whom ye 
 rightly love ; but God's throne must be a glori- 
 ous high throne ; you may set them upon the steps, 
 but God must sit on the very seat itself. He is to be 
 enthroned, the royal One within your heart, the king 
 of your affectione. 
 
36 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 DESPISE the world, rate its jewels at a low 
 price, estimate its gems as paste, and its 
 solidities as dreams. Think not that thou shalt 
 thus lose pleasure, but rather remember the saying 
 of Chrysostom, " Contemn riches, and thou shalt be 
 rich ; contemn glory, and thou shalt be glorious ; con- 
 temn injuries, and thou shalt be a conqueror ; con- 
 temn rest, and thou shalt gain rest ; contemn earth, 
 and thou shalt gain heaven ! " 
 
 I GAZE on beauty, and may be myself deformed. 
 I admire the light, and may yet dwell in dark- 
 ness ; but if the light of the countenance of God rests 
 upon me, I shall become like unto Him : the linea- 
 ments of His visage will be on me, and the great out- 
 lines of His attributes will be mine. Oh, wondrous 
 glass, which thus renders the beholder lovely ! Oh, 
 admirable mirror, which reflects not self with its im- 
 perfections, but gives a perfect image to those that 
 
 are uncomely. 
 
 — #_»_# — 
 
 YOIJ cannot get to heaven by your works. You 
 might as well seek to mount the stars on a tread- 
 wheel, as to go to heaven by works ; for as you get 
 up a step, you will always come down as low as 
 before. If you cannot be perfect, God wiU not save 
 you by works. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 37 
 
 TIIE worm is not to murmur, because God did not 
 make it an angel, and the fish that swims the 
 sea must not complain because it hath not wings to 
 flj into the highest heavens. God had a right to 
 make his creatures just what he pleased, and though 
 men may dis23ute his right, he will hold and keep it 
 inviolate against all comers. That he may hedge his 
 right about and make vain man acknowledge it, in 
 all his gifts he continually reminds us of his sove- 
 reignity. 
 
 DO you not know that God is an eternal self-exis- 
 tent Being ; that to say he loves now^ is, in fact, 
 to say he always did love, since with God there is no 
 past, and can be no future. What we call past, pre- 
 sent, and future, he wraps in one eternal xow. And 
 if you say he loves you now, you say he loved yes- 
 terday ; he loved in the past eternity ; and he will 
 love forever ; for now with God is past, present, and 
 future. 
 
 • • • 
 
 THEY that go forth to fight, boasting that they 
 can do it, shall retmii with their banners trailed 
 in the dust, and with their armor stained Avith 
 defeat ; for God will not go forth with the man who 
 goeth forth in his own strength. 
 
38 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 LET your mind rove upon tlie great doctrines of 
 the Godhead : consider the existence of God 
 from before the foundations of the world ; behold 
 Him who is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty ; 
 let your soul comprehend as much as it can of the 
 Infinite, and grasp as much as possible of the Eter- 
 nal, and I am sure, if you have minds at all, they 
 will shrink with awe. The tall archangel bows him- 
 self before his Master's throne ; and we shall cast 
 ourselves into the lowest dust when we feel what 
 base nothings, what insignificant specks we are when 
 compared with our all-adorable Creator. 
 
 • •• 
 
 FAITH is the gift of God. Does my natural father 
 love me because he fed me, and because he 
 clothed me ? Nay, he clothed and fed me because 
 he loved me, but his love was prior to his gift. His 
 gifts did not draw his love to me, because he loved 
 me before he gave them. And if any man says, 
 "God loves me because I can do this or that for 
 him," he talks nonsense. 
 
 • ••■ 
 
 PEACE is the flowing of the brook, but joy is the 
 dashing of the cataract when the brook is filled, 
 bursts its banks, and rushes down the rocks. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 39 
 
 MEN" have said of many of their works, "they 
 shall endure forever ;" bnt how much have they 
 been disappointed ! In the age succeeding the flood, 
 they made the brick, they gathered the slime, and 
 when they had piled old Babel's tower, they said, 
 " This shall last forever." But God confounded their 
 language ; they finished it not. By his lightnings 
 he destroyed it, and left it a monument of their folly. 
 Old Pharaoh and the Egyptian monarchs heaped up 
 their pyramids, and they said, " They shall stand for- 
 ever," and so indeed they do stand ; but the time is 
 approaching when age shall devour even these. So 
 with all the proudest works of man, whether they 
 have been his temples or his monarchies, he has writ- 
 ten " everlasting" on them ; but God has ordained 
 their end, and they have passed away. The most 
 stable things have been evanescent as shadows and 
 the bubbles of an hour, speedily destroyed at God's 
 bidding. Where is ^tTineveh, and where is Babylon ? 
 Where the cities of Persia? Where are the high 
 places of Edom ? Where are Moab, and the princes 
 of Ammon ? Where are the temples of the heroes 
 of Greece ? Where the millions that passed from the 
 gates of Thebes ? Where are the hosts of Xerxes, 
 or where the vast armies of the Poman Emperors ? 
 Have they not passed away ? And though in their 
 pride they said, " This monarchy is an everlasting 
 
4:0 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 one ; tliis queen of the seven hills shall be called the 
 eternal city," its pride is dimmed ; and she who sat 
 alone, and said, " I shall be no widow, but a queen 
 forever," she hath fallen, hath fallen, and in a little 
 while she shall sink like a "millstone in the flood, her 
 name being a curse and a byword, and her site the 
 habitation of dragons and of owls. Man calls his 
 works eternal — God calls them fleeting ; man con- 
 ceives that they are built of rock — God says, " ]S^ay, 
 sand, or worse than that — they are air." Man says 
 he erects them for eternity — God blows bnt for a 
 moment, and where are they ? Like baseless fabrics 
 of a vision, they are passed and gone forever. 
 
 GOD'S Holy Spirit and man's sin cannot live to- 
 gether peaceably; they may both be in the 
 same heart, but they cannot both reign there, nor can 
 they both be qniet there; for "the Spirit lusteth 
 against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the 
 Spirit ;" they cannot rest, bnt there will be a perpe- 
 tual warring in the sonl, so that the Christian will 
 have to cry, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ?" But in 
 due time : the Spirit will drive out all sin, and will 
 present us blameless before the throne of his Majesty 
 with exceeding great joy. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 41 
 
 WITHLN" a liundred and fifty years how lias the 
 boasted power of reason changed ! It has piled 
 ii]) one thing, and then another day it has laughed at 
 its own handiwork, demolished its own castle, and 
 constructed another, and the next day a third. It 
 has a thousand dresses. Once it came forth like a 
 fool with its bells, heralded by Yoltaire ; then it came 
 out a braggard bully,' like Tom Paine; then it 
 changed its course, and assumed another shape, till, 
 forsooth, we have it in the base, bestial secularism of 
 the present day, which looks for naught but the 
 earth, keeps its nose upon the ground, and like the 
 beast, thinks this world is enough ; or looks for ano- 
 ther through seeking this. Why, before one hair on 
 his head shall be grey, the last secularist shall have 
 passed away ; before many of us are fifty years of 
 age, a new infidelity shall come, and to those who say 
 " Where will saints be ?" we can turn round and say, 
 " Where are you ?" And they will answer, " We 
 have altered our names." They will have altered 
 their name, assumed a fresh shape, put on a new form 
 of evil, but still their nature will be the same ; op- 
 posing Christ, and endeavoring to blaspheme his 
 truths. On all their systems of religion, or non-reli- 
 gion — ^for that is a system too — it may be written 
 "Evanescent; fading as the flower, fleeting as the 
 meteor, frail and unreal as a vapor." But of Christ's 
 
42 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 religion, it shall be said, " His name shall endure for- 
 ever." Let me now say a few things — not to prove 
 it, for that I do not wish to do — but to give you some 
 hints whereby, possibly, I may one day prove it to 
 other people, that Jesns Christ's religion must inevi- 
 tably endure forever. 
 
 YOU know, when we have been taking some kind 
 of medicine, and our mouth has been impreg- 
 nated with a strong flavor, whatever we eat acquires 
 that taste. You have got your mouth out of taste 
 with some of the world's poor dainties ; you have 
 some of the powder of the apples of Sodom hanging 
 on your lips, that spoils the glorious flavor of your 
 meditation on Jesus. In fact, it prevents your medi- 
 tating on Christ at all. It is only a hearing of the 
 meditation with your ears, not a receiving it with 
 your hearts. 
 
 • • •■ 
 
 ¥AIl]!^ the boatman before he enters the current, 
 and then, if he is swept down the rapids, he 
 destroys himself. Warn the man before he drinks 
 the cup of poison, tell him it is deadly : and then, if 
 he drinks it, his death lies at his own door. And so*, 
 let us warn you before you depart this life ; let us 
 preach to you while as yet your bones are full of mar- 
 row, and the sinews of your joints are not loosed. 
 
sphrgeon's gems. 43 
 
 FKIEISTD, tlion liast not tlie Spirit. Then thou art 
 nothing better — be thou what thou art, or what- 
 soever thou may est be— than the fall of Adam left 
 thee. That is to say, thou art a fallen creature, having 
 only ca]3acities to live here in sin, and to live forever 
 in torment ; but thou hast not the capacity to live in 
 heaven at all, for thou hast no Spirit ; and therefore 
 thou art unable to know or enjoy spiritual things. 
 And mark you, a man may be in this state, and be a 
 sensual man, and yet he may have all the virtues 
 that could grace a Christian ; but w^th all these, if 
 he has not the Spirit, he has got not an inch further 
 than where Adam's fall left him — that is,, condemned 
 and under the curse. Aye, and he may attend to re- 
 ligion with all his might — ^he may take the sacrament, 
 and be baptized, and may be the most devout profes- 
 sor ; but if he hath not the Spirit he hath not started 
 a solitary inch from where he was, for he is still in 
 " the bonds of iniquity," a lost soul. Nay, further, 
 he may pick up religious phrases till he may talk 
 very fast about religion ; he may read biographies till 
 he seems to be a deep-taught child of God ; he may 
 be able to write an article upon the deep experience 
 of a believer : but if this experience be not his own, 
 if he hath not received it by the Spirit of the living 
 God, he is still nothing more than a carnal man, and 
 heaven is to him a place to which there is no en- 
 
44 SPUEGEOn's GEM8. 
 
 trance. Nay, further, lie might go so far as to be- 
 come a minister of the gospel, and a successful minis- 
 ter too, and God may bless the word tliat he preaches 
 to the salvation of sinners, but unless he has received 
 the Spirit, be he as eloquent as Apollos, and as ear- 
 nest as Paul, he is nothing more than a mere soulish 
 man, without capacity for spiritual things. 
 
 l!^ay, to crown all, he might even have the power 
 of working miracles, as Judas had — ^he might even 
 be received into the Church as a believer, as was 
 Simon Magus, and after all that, though he had cast 
 out devils, though he had healed the sick, though 
 he had worked miracles, he might have the gates of 
 heaven shut in his teeth, if he had not received the 
 Spirit. For this is the essential thing, without which 
 all others are in vain — ^the reception of the Spirit of 
 the living God. 
 
 ,CJ OME persons say they cannot bear to be an hour 
 KJ in solitude ; they have got nothing to do, 
 nothing to think about. 'No Christian will ever talk 
 so, surely ; for if I can but give him one word to 
 think of — Christ — ^let him spell that over forever ; 
 let me give him the word Jesus, and only let him 
 try to think it over, and he shall find that an hour 
 is naught, and that eternity is not half enough to 
 utter our glorious Saviour's praise. 
 
spurgeon's gs:ms. 45 
 
 WHEN God sends rain upon the clinrcli, he 
 " sends showers of blessings." Tliere are some 
 ministers who think, that if there is a shower on 
 their church, God will send a shower of work. Yes, 
 but if he does, he wdll send a shower of comfort. 
 Others think that God will send a shower of gospel 
 truth. Yes, but if he sends that, he will send a 
 shower of gospel holiness. For all God's blessings 
 go together. They are like the sweet sister graces 
 that danced hand in hand. God sends showers of 
 blessings. K he gives comforting grace, he will also 
 give converting grace ; if he makes the trumpet 
 blow for the bankrupt sinner, he will also make it 
 sound a shout of joy for the sinner that is pardoned 
 and forgiven. He will send " showers of blessings." 
 
 THE hour is coming, and it may be even now 
 is, when the Holy Ghost shall be poured out 
 again in such a wonderful manner, that many shall 
 run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased — 
 the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as 
 the waters cover the surface of the great deep; 
 when his kingdom shall come, and his will shall be 
 done on earth even as it is in heaven. We are not 
 going to be dragging on forever like Pharoah, with 
 the wheels off his chariot. My heart exults, and my 
 
46 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 eyes flasli witli the tlioiiglit tliat very likely I sliall 
 live to see tlie out-pouring of the Spirit ; when " the 
 sons and the daughters of God again shall prophesy, 
 and the young men shall see visions, and the old 
 men shall dream dreams." Perhaps there shall be 
 no miraculous gifts — ^for they will not be required ; 
 but yet there shall be such a miraculous amount of 
 holiness, such an extraordinary fervor of prayer, 
 such a real communion with God, and so much vital 
 religion, and such a spread of the doctrines of the 
 cross, that every one will see that verily the Spirit is 
 poured out like water, and the rains are descending 
 from above. For that let us pray ; let us con- 
 tinually labor for it, and seek it of God. 
 
 THE imagination will sometimes fly up to God 
 with such a power that eagles' wings cannot 
 match it. It sometimes has such might that it can 
 almost see the King in his beauty, and the land 
 which is very far off. With regard to myself, my 
 imagination will sometimes take me over the gates 
 of iron, across that infinite unknown, to the very 
 gates of pearl, and discovers the blessed glorified. 
 But, if it is potent one way, it is another : for my 
 imagination has taken me down to the vilest kennels 
 and sewers of earth. It has given me thoughts so 
 
bpurgeon's gems. 4:7 
 
 dreadful, that, wliile 1 could not avoid tliem, yet I 
 was thoroughly horrified at them. These thouglits 
 will come ; and when I feel in the holiest frame, the 
 most devoted to God, and the most earnest in prayer, 
 it often happens that that is the very time when the 
 plague breaks out the worst. But I rejoice and 
 think of one thing, that I can cry out when this ima- 
 gination comes upon me. I know it is said in the 
 Book of Leviticus, when an act of evil was commit- 
 ted, if the maiden cried out against it, then her life 
 was to be spared. So it is with the Christian. If he 
 cries out, there is hope. Can you chain your ima- 
 gination ? 1^0 ; but the power of the Holy Ghost 
 can. Ah, it shall do it ! and it does do it at last, it 
 does it even on earth. 
 
 O'NCE I, like Mazeppa, bound on the wild horse 
 of my lust, bound hand and foot, incapable of 
 resistance, was galloping on with hell's wolves be- 
 hind me, howling for my body and my soul, as their 
 just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand 
 which stopped that wild horse, cut my bands, set me 
 down, and brought me into liberty. Is there power? 
 Aye, there is power ; and he who has felt it, must 
 acknowledge it. There was a time when I lived in 
 the strong old castle of my sins, and rested on my 
 works. There came a trumpeter to the door, and 
 
48 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 bade me open it. I with anger chid him from the 
 porch, and said he ne'er should enter. There came 
 a goodly personage, with loving countenance ; his 
 hands were marked with scars, where nails were 
 driven, and his feet had nail-prints too ; he lifted up 
 his cross, using it as a hammer ; at the first blow the 
 gate of mj prejudice shook ; at the second it trem- 
 bled more, at the third down it fell, and in he came ; 
 and he said, " Arise, and stand upon thj feet, for I 
 have loved thee with an everlasting love." 
 
 JUST before I die sanctification will be finished ; 
 but not till that moment shall I ever claim perfec- 
 tion in myself. But at that moment when I depart, my 
 spirit shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit's 
 fire. It shall be put in the crucible for its last trying 
 in the furnace ; and then, free from all dross, and 
 fine, like a wedge of pure gold, it shall be presented 
 at the feet of God without the least degree of dross 
 or mixture. O glorious hour ! O blessed moment ! 
 Methinks I long to die if there were no heaven, if I 
 might but have that last purification, and come up 
 from Jordan's stream most white from the washing. 
 Oh, to be washed white, clean, pure, perfect ! 'Not 
 an angel more pure than I shall be — yea, not God 
 himself more holy ! And I shall be able to say, in 
 
SPimGEON's OEMS. 49*' 
 
 a double sense, " Great God, I am clean — through 
 
 Jesus' blood I am clean, through the Spirit's work I 
 
 am clean too !" 
 
 » » » 
 
 IF this earth could but have its mantle torn away 
 for a little while, if the green sod could be cut 
 from it, and we could look about six feet deep into 
 its bowels, what a world it would seem ! What 
 should we see ? Bones, carcasses, rottenness, worms, 
 corruption. And you would say. Can these dry 
 bones live ? Can they start up ? Yes ! "in a 
 moment ! in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
 trump, the dead shall be raised." He speaks ; they 
 are alive ! See them scattered ! bone comes to his 
 bone ! See them naked ; flesh comes upon them ! 
 See them still lifeless ; " Come from the four winds, 
 O breath, and breathe upon these slain!" "When 
 the wind of the Holy Spirit comes, they live ; and 
 they stand upon their feet an exceeding great army. • 
 
 THEOLOGY hath nothing new in it except that 
 which is false. The preaching of Paul must 
 be the preaching of the minister to-day. There is no 
 advancement here. We may advance in our know- 
 ledge of it; but it stands the same, for this good 
 reason, that it is perfect, and perfection cannot be 
 any better. 
 
 8 
 
50 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 THE resurrection of Christ was effected by the 
 agency of the Spirit ! and here we have a no- 
 ble illustration of his omnipotence. Could you have 
 stepped, as angels did, into the grave of Jesus, and 
 seen his sleeping body, you would have found it cold 
 as any other corpse. Lift up the hand ; it falls by 
 the side. Look at the eye ; it is glazed. And there 
 is a death-thrust which must have annihilated life. 
 See his hands : the blood distills not from them. 
 They are cold and motionless. Can that body live ? Can 
 it start up ? Yes ; and be an illustration of the might of 
 the Spirit. For when the power of the Spirit came on 
 him, as it was when it fell upon the dry bones of the 
 valley, " he arose in the majesty of his divinity, and, 
 bright and shining, astonished the watchmen so that 
 they fled away ; yea, he arose no more to die, but to 
 live forever. King of kings and Prince of the kings 
 of the earth." 
 
 G 
 
 OD is love in its highest degree. He is love ren- 
 dered more than love. Love is not God, but 
 God is love ; he is full of grace, he is the plenitude 
 of mercy — he delighteth in mercy. As high as the 
 heavens are above the earth, so high are his thoughts 
 of love above our thoughts of desjDair ; and his ways 
 of grace above our ways of fear. This God, in whom 
 these three great attributes harmonize — illimitable 
 
spurgeon's gems. 51 
 
 sovereignty, inflexible justice, and unfatliomablo 
 grace — these three make up the main attributes of 
 the one God of heaven and earth whom the Christians 
 worship. 
 
 IBID you take the meditation upon Christ, as a 
 piece of scented stuff that was perfumed in hea- 
 ven. It matters not what thou hast in thy house ; 
 this shall make it redolent of Paradise — shall make it 
 smell like those breezes that once blew through 
 Eden's garden, wafting the odor of flowers. Ah ! 
 there is nothing that can so console your spirits, and 
 relieve all your distresses and troubles, as the feeling 
 that now you can meditate on the person of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 METHIXKS, if you had a free pass to heaven's 
 palace, you w^ould use it very often ; if you 
 might go there and hold communion with some per- 
 son whom you dearly loved, you would often be 
 found there. But here is your Jesus, the king of 
 heaven, and he gives you that which can open the 
 gates of heaven and let you in to hold company 
 with him, and yet you live without meditating upon 
 his work, meditating upon his person, meditating 
 upon his ofiices, and meditating upon his glory. 
 
62 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 JUST as the tiny shells make up the chalk hills^ 
 and the chalk hills together make up the range, 
 so the trifling actions make up the whole account, 
 and each of these must be pulled asunder separately. 
 You had an hour to spare the other day — what 
 did you do ? You had a voice — how did you use it ? 
 You had a pen — you could use that — ^liow did you 
 employ it ? Each particular shall be brought out, 
 and there shall be demanded an account for each 
 
 one. 
 
 • •• 
 
 IT is well to be the sheep of God's pasture, even if 
 we have been wandering sheep. The straying 
 sheep has an owner, and however far it may stray 
 from the fold, it ceases not to belong to that owner. 
 I believe that God will yet bring back into the fold 
 every one of his own sheep, and they shall all be 
 saved. It is something to feel our wanderings, for if 
 we feel ourselves to be lost, we shall certainly be 
 saved ; if we feel ourselves to have wandered, we 
 shall certainly be brought back. 
 
 ylRTUES in unregenerate men are nothing but 
 wliitewashed sins. The best performance of an 
 unchanged character is worthless in God's sight. It 
 wants the stamp of grace on it ; and that which has 
 not the stamp of grace is false coin. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 53 
 
 GOOD old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of 
 Israel ; and so lie was. Before his actual ap- 
 pearance, his name was the day-star ; cheeriug the 
 darkness, and prophetic of the rising sun. To him 
 they looked with the same hope which cheers the 
 nightly watcher, when from the lonely castle-top he 
 sees the fairest of the stars, and hails her as the usher 
 of the morn. When he was on earth, he must have 
 been the consolation of all those who were privileged 
 to be his companions. We can imagine how readily 
 the disciples would run to Christ to tell him of their 
 griefs, and how sweetly, with that matchless intona- 
 tion of his voice, he would speak to them, and bid 
 their fears be gone. Like children, they would 
 consider him as their Father; and to him every 
 want, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would 
 at once be carried ; and he, like a wise physician, 
 had a balm for every wound ; he had mingled a cor- 
 dial for their every care ; and readily did he dispense 
 some mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their 
 troubles. Oh! it must have been sweet to have 
 lived with Christ. Surely, sorrows were then but 
 joys in masks, because they gave an opportunity to 
 go to Jesus to have them removed. Oh ! would to 
 God, some of us may say, that we tiould have lain 
 our weary heads upon the bosom of Jesus, and that 
 our birth had been in that happy era, when we 
 
64 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 might have heard his kind voice, and seen his kind 
 look, when he said, " Let the wearj ones come unto 
 me." 
 
 It behooved him to slmnber in the dust awhile, 
 that he might perfume the chamber of the grave to 
 make it — 
 
 " No more a charnel house to fence 
 The rehcs of lost innocence." 
 
 It behooved him to have a resurrection, that we, who 
 shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, 
 and in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And it 
 behooved him that he should ascend up on high, that 
 he might lead captivity captive ; that he might chain 
 the fiends of hell ; that he might lash them to his 
 chariot-wheels, and drag them up high heaven's hill, 
 to make them feel a second overthrow from his right 
 arm, w^hen he should dash them from the pinnacles 
 of heaven down to the deeper depths beneath. " It 
 is right I should go away from you," said Jesus, " for 
 if I go not away, the Comforter will not come." 
 Jesus must go. Weep, ye disciples : Jesus must be 
 gone. Mourn, ye poor ones, who are to be left with- 
 out a Comforter. But hear how kindly Jesus 
 speaks : " I will not leave you comfortless, I will pray 
 the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter, 
 who shall be with you, and shall dwell in you for- 
 ever." He would not leave those few poor sheep 
 
spurgeon's gems. 55 
 
 alone in tlie wilderness ; lie would not desert his 
 children, and leave them fatherless. Albeit that he 
 had a mighty mission which did fill his heart and 
 hand ; albeit he had so much to perform, that we 
 might have thought that even his gigantic intellect 
 would be overburdened ; albeit he had so much to 
 suffer, that we might suppose his whole soul to be 
 concentrated upon the thought of the sufferings to be 
 endured. Yet it was not so ; before he left, he gave 
 soothing words of comfort ; like the good Samaritan, 
 he poured in oil and wine, and we see what he prom- 
 ised : " I will send you another Comforter — one who 
 shall be just what I have been, yea, even more ; who 
 shall console you in your sorrows, remove your 
 doubts, comfort you in your afflictions, and stand as 
 my vicar on earth, to do that which I would have 
 done had I tarried with you. 
 
 LET thy face ever wear a smile ; let thine eyes 
 sparkle with gladness ; live near thy Master ; 
 live in the suburbs of the celestial city, as by 
 and by when thy time shall come thou shalt borrow 
 better wings than angels ever wore, and out-soar the 
 cherubim, and rise up where thy Jesus sits — sit at 
 his right hand, even as he has overcome and has 
 sat down upon his Father's right hand. 
 
56 .^^^.^...^ 
 
 SPUKGEON 8 GEMS. 
 
 MAKY a good old Jerusalem blade has been blunt- 
 ed against the hard heart. Many a piece of the 
 true steel that God has put into the hands of his ser- 
 vants has had the edge turned by being set up 
 against the sinner's heart. We cannot reach the 
 soul, but the Holy Spirit can. " My beloved can 
 put in his hand by the 'hole in the door, and my 
 bowels will move for sin." He can give a sense 
 of blood-bought pardon that shall dissolve a heart of 
 stone. 
 
 THE very fact that you have troubles is a proof of 
 his faithfulness; for you have got one half of 
 his legacy, and you will have the other half. You 
 know that Christ's last will and testament has two 
 portions in it. " In the world ye shall have tribula- 
 tion :" you have got that. The next clause is — " In 
 me ye shall have peace." You have that too. " Be 
 of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." That is 
 
 yours also. 
 
 • • • 
 
 THEEE will be little else we shall want of heaven 
 besides Jesus Christ. He will be our bread, our 
 food, our beauty, and our glorious dress. The atmos- 
 phere of heaven will be Christ ; everything in heaven 
 wiU be Christ-like : yea, Christ is the heaven of his 
 people. 
 
8PUEGE0N 8 GEMS. 67 
 
 REST tliee well assured, O scorner, that tlij laughs 
 cannot alter truth, thy jests cannot avert thine 
 inevitable doom. Though in thy hardihood thou 
 shouldst make a league witli death, and sign a cov- 
 enant with hell — ^yet swift justice shall overtake 
 thee, and strong vengeance strike thee low. In vain 
 dost thou jeer and mock, for eternal verities are 
 mightier than thy sophistries, nor can thy smart say- 
 ings alter the divine truth of a single word of this 
 volume of Revelation. Oh ! why dost thou quarrel 
 with thy best friend, and ill-treat thy only refuge ? 
 There yet remains hope, even for the scorner. Hope 
 in a Saviour's veins. Hope in the Father's mercy. 
 Hope in the Holy Spirit's omnipotent agency. 
 
 IT is true that you have no fiery chariot ; but then 
 the angels carry you to Jesus' bosom, and that 
 is as well. It is true, no ravens bring you food ; it is 
 quite as true you get your food somehow or other. It 
 is quite certain that no rock gushes out with water ; 
 but still your water has been sure. It is true your 
 child has not been raised from the dead ; but you 
 remember that David had a child that was not raised 
 any more than yours. You have the same consola- 
 tion as he had : " I shall go to him ; he shall not 
 return to me." 
 
 3* 
 
58 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 MEN in the days of Toplady looked back to the 
 days of Whitfield ; men in the days of Whit- 
 field looked back to the days of Bunyan ; men in the 
 days of Bunyan Avept, because of the days of Wy- 
 cliffe, and Calvin, and Luther ; and men then wept 
 for the days of Augustine and Chrysostom. Men in 
 those days wept for the days of the Apostles ; and 
 doubtless men in the days of the Apostles wept for 
 the days of Jesus Christ ; and no doubt some in the 
 days of Jesus Christ were so blind as to wish to return 
 to the days of prophesy, and thought more of the 
 days of Elijah than they did of the most glorious day 
 of Christ. Some men look more to the past than the 
 present. Rest assured, that Jesus Christ is the same 
 to-day as he was yesterday, and he will be the same 
 forever. 
 
 TTTE old truth that Calvin preached, that Chry- 
 sostom preached, that Paul preached, is the 
 truth that I must preach to-day, or else be a liar to 
 my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the 
 trutlj. I know of no such thing as paring off the 
 rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is 
 my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland 
 must thunder through England again. The great 
 mass of our ministers are sound enough in the faith, 
 but not sound enough in the way they preach it. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 59 
 
 THE Holy Ghost advocates our cause with Jesus 
 Christ, with groanings that cannot be uttered. 
 O my soul ! thou art ready to burst within me. O 
 my heart ! thou art swelled with grief. The hot tide 
 of thy emotion would well-nigh overflow the chan- 
 nels of my veins. I long to speak, but the very 
 desire chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the 
 fervency of my feeling curbs my language. There is 
 a groaning within that cannot be uttered. Do you 
 know who can ntter that groaning ? who can under- 
 stand it, and who can put it into heavenly language, 
 and utter it in a celestial tongue, so that Christ can 
 hear it? O yes; it is God the Holy Spirit; he 
 advocates our cause with Christ, and then Christ 
 advocates it with his Father. He is the advocate 
 who maketh intercession for us, with groanings that 
 cannot be uttered. 
 
 YE may take a corj)se, ye may dress it in all the 
 garments of external decency ; ye may wash it 
 with the water of morality ; aye, ye may bedeck it 
 with the crown of profession, ye may put on its brow 
 a tiara of beauty, ye may paint its cheeks, until ye 
 make it well-nigh like life itself. But remember, 
 unless the Spirit be there, the worm shall feed on the 
 painted cheek, and corruption will ere long seize on 
 the body. It is the Spirit that is the quickener. 
 
60 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 OH ! there is a voice in love ; it speaks a language 
 which is its own ; it has an idiom and a brogue 
 which none can mimic ; wisdom cannot imitate it ; 
 oratory cannot attain unto it ; it is love alone wliich 
 can reach the mourning heart ; love is the only liand- 
 kerchief which can wipe the mourner's tears away. 
 And is not the Holy Ghost a loving comforter ? Dost 
 thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves 
 thee ? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit ? 
 Dost thou know how great is the affection of his 
 soul towards thee ? Go measure heaven with thy 
 span ; go weigh the mountains in the scales ; go take 
 the ocean's water, and tell each drop ; go count the 
 sand upon the sea's wide shore ; and when thou hast 
 accomplished this, thou canst tell how much he loveth 
 tliee. He has loved thee long, he has loved thee 
 well, he loved thee ever, and he still shall love thee ; 
 surely he is the person to comfort thee, because he 
 loves. 
 
 SPIKITUAL ploughman ! sharpen thy ploughshare 
 with the Spirit. Spiritual sower ! dip thy seed 
 in the Spirit, so shall it germinate ; and ask the 
 Spirit to give thee grace to scatter it, that it may fall 
 into the right furrows. Spiritual warrior ! whet thy 
 sword with the Spirit, and ask the Sj)irit, whose word 
 is a sword indeed, to strengthen thine arm to wield it. 
 
spukgeon's gems. CX 
 
 THE young may die ; tlie old must / To sleej) in 
 youth is to sleep in a siege ; to sleep in old age 
 is to slumber during the attack. What! man, wilt 
 thou that art so near thy Maker's bar still put him 
 off with a " Go thy way ?" "What ! procrastinate 
 now, when the knife is at thy throat — when the 
 worm is at the heart of the tree, and the branches 
 have begun to wither — when the grinders fail even 
 now, because they are few, and they that look out 
 of the windows are darkened ? Tlie sere and yellow 
 leaf has come ujpon thee, and thou art still unready 
 
 for thy doom ! 
 
 •-•-« — 
 
 THE canon of revelation is closed ; there is no 
 more to be added; God does not give a fresh 
 revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has 
 been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our 
 memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but 
 does not paint a new one. There are no new doc- 
 trines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I 
 say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. 
 He does so by telling us old things over again ; he 
 brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden 
 in Scripture ; lie unlocks the strong chests in which 
 the truth has long lain, and he points to secret cham- 
 bers filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, 
 for enough is done. Believer! there is enough in 
 
62 spurgeok's gems. 
 
 the Bible for tliee to live upon forever. If thou 
 shouldst outnumber the years of Methuselah, there 
 would be no need for a fresh revelation; if thou 
 shouldst live till Christ should come upon the earth, 
 there would be no necessity for the addition of'a sin- 
 gle word ; if thou shouldst go down as deep as Jonah, 
 or even descend as David said he did, into the belly 
 of hell, still there would be enough in the Bible to 
 comfort thee without a supplementary sentence. 
 
 VISDOM had had its time, and time enough ; it 
 had done its all, and that was little enough ; it 
 had made the world worse than it was before it stepped 
 upon it, and "now," says God, "foolishness shall 
 overcome wisdom ; now ignorance, as ye caU it, shall 
 sweep away science ; now (saith God), humble, child- 
 like faith shall crumble to the dust all the colossal 
 systems your hands have piled." He calls his war- 
 riors. Christ puts his trumpet to his mouth, and up 
 come the warriors, clad in fishermen's garb, with the 
 brogue of the lake of Galilee — ^poor humble mariners. 
 Here are the warriors, O wisdom, that are to confound 
 thee ; these are the heroes who shall overcome thy 
 proud philosophers ; these men are to plant their 
 standard upon thy ruined walls, and bid them fall 
 forever ; these men and their successors are to exalt 
 
SPUEGEON S GEMS. 63 
 
 a gospel in the world which ye may laugh at as ab- 
 surd, which ye may sneer at as folly, but which shall 
 be exalted above the hills, and shall be glorious even 
 to the highest heavens. 
 
 THERE are moments when the eyes glisten with 
 joy: and we can say, "we are persuaded, 
 confident, certain." I do not wish to distress any 
 one who is under doubt. Often gloomy doubts will 
 prevail ; there are seasons when you fear you have 
 not been called, when you doubt your interest in 
 Christ. Ah ! what a mercy it is that it is not your 
 hold of Christ that saves you, but his hold of you ! 
 "What a sweet fact that it is not how you grasp his 
 hand, but his grasp of yours, that saves you. 
 
 THE book of nature is an expression of the 
 thoughts of God. We have God's terrible 
 thoughts in the thunder and lightning ; God's loving 
 thoughts in the sunshine and the balmy breeze ; 
 God's bounteous, prudent, careful thoughts in the 
 waving harvest and in the ripening meadow. "We 
 have God's brilliant thoughts in the wondrous scenes 
 which are beheld from mountain-top and valley ; and 
 we have God's most sweet and pleasant thoughts of 
 beauty in the Httle flowers that blossom at our feet. 
 
64 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 IKECOLLECT standing on a seashore once, upon 
 a narrow neck of land, thoughtless that the tide 
 might come up. The tide kept continually washing 
 up on either side, and, wrapped in thoughts, I still 
 stood there, until at last there was the greatest diffi- 
 culty in getting on shore. You and I stand each day 
 on a narrow neck, and there is one wave coming up 
 there ; see, how near it is to your foot ; and lo ! 
 another follows at every tick of the clock ; " our 
 hearts, like muffled drums, are beating funeral 
 marches to the tomb." 
 
 • • • 
 
 A 
 
 MAETYE is going to the stake ; the halbert 
 men are around him ; the crowds are mocking, 
 but he is marching steadily on. See, they bind him, 
 with a chain around his middle, to the stake ; they heap 
 fagots all about him ; the flame is lighted up ; listen 
 to his words : " Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that 
 is within me, bless his holy name." The flames are 
 kindling round his legs ; the fire is burning him even 
 to the bone ; see him lift up his hands and say, " I know 
 that my Eedeemer liveth, and though the fire devour 
 this body, yet in my flesh shall I see the Lord." Behold 
 him clutch the stake and kiss it, as if he loved it, and 
 hear him say, " For every chain of iron that man 
 girdeth me with, God shall give to me a chain of 
 
spurgeon's gems. 66 
 
 gold ; for all these fagots, and this ignominy and 
 shame, he shall increase the weight of my eternal 
 glory." See all the under parts of his body are con- 
 sumed ; still he lives in the torture ; at last he bows 
 himself, and the upper part of his body falls over ; 
 and as he falls you hear him say, " Into thy hands I 
 commend my spirit." "What wondrous magic was 
 on him, sirs ? What made that man strong ? What 
 helped him to bear that cruelty ? What made him 
 stand unmoved in the flames ? It was the thing of 
 power; it was the cross of Jesus crucified. For 
 " unto us who are saved it is the power of God." 
 
 THERE have been many, like infants, destroyed by 
 elixirs, given to lull them to sleep; many have 
 been ruined by the cry of "peace, peace," when 
 there is no peace ; hearing gentle things, when they 
 ought to be stirred to the quick. Cleopatra's asp was 
 brought in a basket of flow^ers ; and men's ruin often 
 lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy 
 Ghost's comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let 
 him speak the word, and there is a reality about it ; 
 let him give the cup of consolation, and you may 
 drink it to the bottom ; for in its depths there are 
 no dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin; it is aU 
 safe. 
 
66 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 THE gospel is tlie sum of wisdom ; an epitome of 
 knowledge ; a treasure-house of truth ; and a 
 revelation of mysterious secrets. In it we see how 
 justice and mercy may be mamed ; here w^e behold 
 inexorable law entirely satisfied, and sovereign love 
 bearing aw^ay the sinner in triumph. Our medita- 
 tion upon it enlarges the mind ; and as it opens to 
 our soul in successive flashes of glory, we stand as- 
 tonished at the profound wisdom manifest in it. Ah, 
 dear friends ! if ye seek wisdom, ye shall see it dis- 
 played in all its greatness ; not in the balancing of 
 the clouds, nor the firmness of earth's foundations ; 
 not in the measured march of the armies of the sky, 
 nor in the perpetual motions of the waves of the sea ; 
 not in vegetation with all its fairy forms of beauty, 
 nor in the animal with its marvellous tissue of 
 nerve, and vein, and sinew ; nor even in man, that 
 last and loftiest work of the Creator. But turn aside 
 and see this great sight ! — an incarnate God upon the 
 cross ; a substitute atoning for mortal guilt ; a sacrifice 
 satisfying the vengeance of Heaven, and delivering 
 the rebellious sinner. Here is essential wisdom ; en- 
 throned, crowned, glorified. Admire, ye men of 
 earth, if ye be not blind; and ye who glory in your 
 learning bend your heads in reverence, and own that 
 all your skill could not have devised a gospel at once 
 BO just to God, so safe to man. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 67 
 
 WHAT is it that makes tlie young man devote 
 himself, as a missionary, to the cause of God, to 
 leave father and mother, and go into distant lands ? 
 It is a thing of j)ower that does it ; it is the gospel. 
 What is it that constrains yonder minister, in the 
 midst of cholera, to climb up that creaking staircase, 
 and stand by the bed of some dying creature who has 
 that dire disease ? It must be a thing of power which 
 leads him to venture his life ; it is love of the cross 
 of Christ which bids him do it. What is that which 
 enables one man to stand up before a multitude of 
 his fellows, all unprepared it may be, but determined 
 that he will speak nothing but Christ, and him cruci- 
 fied ? What is it that enables him to cry, like the 
 war horse of Job, in battle. Aha ! and move glorious 
 in might ? It is a thing of power that do es it : it is 
 Christ crucified. And what emboldens that timid 
 female to walk down that dark lane some wet even- 
 ing, that she may go and sit beside the victim of a 
 contagious fever? What strengthens her to go 
 through that den of thieves, and pass by the profli- 
 gate and profane ? What influences her to enter 
 into that charnel house of death, and there sit down 
 and wliisper words of comfort? Does gold make her 
 do it ? They are too poor to give her gold. .Does 
 fame make her do it ? She shall never be known nor 
 written among the mighty women of this earth. 
 
6-8 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 What makes her do it? Is it love of merit? 'No ; 
 she knows she lias no desert before high heaven. 
 What impels her to it ? It is the power, the thing of 
 power ; it is the cross of Christ : she loves it, and she 
 therefore says, 
 
 " Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
 That were a present far too small ; 
 Love so amazing, so divine, 
 Demands my soul, my life, my all." 
 
 OYOUKG man, build thy studio on Calvary ! 
 there raise thine observatory, and scan by faith 
 the lofty things of nature. Take thee a hermit's cell 
 in the garden of Gethsemane, and lave thy brow with 
 the waters of Siloa. Let the Bible be thy standard 
 classic — thy last appeal in matters of contention. Let 
 its light be thine illumination, and thou shalt become 
 more wise than Plato, more truly learned than the 
 seven sages of antiquity. 
 
 OMAIST ! of all fools, a fool with a grey head is the 
 worst fool anywhere. With one foot in the 
 grave, and another foot on a sandy foundation, how 
 shall I depict you, but by saying to you as God 
 said . to the rich man, " Thou fool ! a few more 
 nights and thy soul shall be required of thee ;" and 
 then where art thou ? 
 
spukgeon's gems. ^9* 
 
 WHEN" the Gospel was first preached, instead of 
 ing accepted and admired, one universal 
 hiss went up to heaven ; men could not bear it ; its 
 first preacher they dragged to the brow of the hill, and 
 would have sent him down headlong ; yea, they did 
 more — they nailed him to the cross, and there they 
 let him languish out his dying life in agony such as 
 no man hath borne since. All his chosen ministers 
 have been hated and abhorred by worldlings ; instead 
 of being listened to, they have been scoffed at; 
 treated as if they were the offscouring of all things, 
 and the very scum of mankind. Look at the holy 
 men in the old times, how they were driven from 
 city to city, persecuted, afflicted, tormented, stoned 
 to deatli, wherever the enemy had power to do so. 
 Tliose friends of men, those real philanthropists, who 
 came witli hearts big with love, and hands full of 
 mercy, and lips pregnant with celestial fire, and souls 
 tliat burned with holy influence ; those men were 
 treated as if they were spies in the camp, as if they 
 were deserters from the common cause of mankind ; 
 as if they were enemies, and not, as they truly were, 
 the best of friends. Do not suj)pose that men like 
 the gospel any better now than they did then. There 
 is an idea that you are growing better. I Ho not be- 
 lieve it. You are growing worse. In many respects 
 men may be better — outwardly better; but the heart 
 
70 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 witliin is still the same. The human heart of to-day 
 dissected, would be just like the human heart a thou- 
 sand years ago ; the gall of bitterness within that 
 breast of yours, is just as bitter as the gall of bitter- 
 ness in that of Simon of old. We have in our hearts 
 the same latent opposition to the truth of God; and 
 hence we find men, even as of old, who scorn the 
 
 gospel. 
 
 •-•-• — 
 
 IF you feel at any time " death working in you," 
 as doubtless you will, withering the bloom of 
 your piety, chilling the fervor of your devotions, and 
 quenching the ardor of your faith, remember, he 
 who first quickened you must keep you alive. The 
 Spirit of God is like the sap that flowed into your 
 poor dry branch, because you were grafted into 
 Christ, and as by that sap you were first made 
 green with life, so it is by that sap alone you can 
 ever bring forth fruit to God. 
 
 WHEN thou art wrestling, like Jacob with the 
 angel, and art nearly thrown down, ask the 
 Holy Spirit to nerve thine arm. Consider how the 
 Holy Spirit is the chariot-wheel of prayer. Prayer 
 may be the chariot, the desire may draw it forth, 
 but the Spirit is the very wheel whereby it moveth. 
 
SPUEGEON S GEMS. 71 
 
 A GOSPEL without a Trinity ! it is a pyramid built 
 upon its apex, A gospel without the Trinity ! 
 it is a rope of sand that cannot hold together. A 
 gosjDel without the Trinity ! then, indeed, Satan can 
 overturn it. But, give me a gospel with the Trinity, 
 and the might of hell cannot prevail against it ; no 
 man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could 
 split a rock, or a feather break in halves a mountain. 
 Get the thought of the three persons, and you have 
 the marrow of all divinity. * Only know the Father, 
 and know the Son, and know the Holy Ghost to be 
 one, and all things will appear clear. This is the 
 golden key to the secrets of nature ; this is the silken 
 clue of the labyrinths of mystery, and he who under- 
 stands this, will soon understand as much as mortals 
 e'er can know. 
 
 YOIJ know more about your ledgers than your 
 Bible ; you know more about your day-books 
 than what God has written ; many of you will read a 
 novel from beginning to end, and what have you 
 got ? A mouthful of froth when you have done. 
 But you cannot read the Bible ; that solid, lasting, 
 substantial, and satisfying food goes uneaten, locked 
 up in the cupboard of neglect ; while anything that 
 man writes, a catch of the day, is greedily devoured. 
 
72 8purgeon's gems. 
 
 TEDE science of Jesus Clirist is tlie most excellent 
 of sciences. Let no one turn away from tlie 
 Bible because it is not a book of learning and wis- 
 dom. It is. Would ye know astronomy ? It is 
 here : it. tells you of the Sun of Righteousness and 
 the Star of Bethlehem. Would you know botany ? 
 It is here : it tells you of the j)lant of renown — the 
 Lily of the Yalley, and the Rose of Sharon. Would 
 you know geology and mineralogy ? You shall learn 
 it here : for you may read of the Rock of Ages, and 
 the White Stone with the name engraven thereon, 
 which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 
 Would ye study history ? Here is the most ancient 
 of all the records of the history of the human race. 
 WTiate'er your science is, come and bend o'er this 
 book ; your science is here. Come and drink out of 
 this fair fount of knowledge and wisdom, and ye 
 shall find yourselves made wise unto salvation. 
 
 HAST thou now a sweet temper, whereas thou once 
 wast passionate ? Boast not of it; thou wilt be 
 angry yet again if he leaves thee. Art thou now 
 pure, whereas thou wast once unclean ? Boast not of 
 thy purity ; it is a plant, the seed of which was 
 brought from heaven ; it never was within thy heart 
 by nature ; it is of God's gift, and God's alone. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 73 
 
 OUE world has two forces ; it has one tendency to 
 run off at a tangent from its orbit ; but the sun 
 draws it by a centrij)etal power, and attracts it to 
 itself, and so between the two forces it is kept in a 
 perj^etual circle. Oh ! Christian, thou wilt never 
 walk aright, and keep in the orbit of truth, if it be 
 not for the influence of Christ perpetually attracting 
 thee to the centre. Thou feelest, and if thou dost 
 not feel always, it is still there — thou feelest an 
 attraction between thine heart and Christ, -and Christ 
 is perpetually drawing thee to himself, to his likeness, 
 to his character, to his love, to his bosom, and in 
 that way thou art kept from thy natural tendency to 
 fly off and to be lost in the wide fields of sin. Bless 
 God, that Christ lifted up draws all his people unto 
 him in that fashion. 
 
 DO you see the cat ? She sits there, and will lick 
 her paws and wash herself clean. I see that, 
 said the other. Well, said the first speaker, did you 
 ever hear of one of the hogs taken out of the sty that 
 did so ? No, said he. But he could if he liked, said 
 the other. Ah ! verily he could if he liked ; but it 
 is not according to his nature, and you never saw 
 such a thing done, and until you have changed the 
 swine's nature, he cannot perform such a good action, 
 and God's word says the same of man. 
 
 4 
 
74 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 CAST your troubles wliere you have cast your sins ; 
 you have cast your sins into the depth of the sea, 
 there cast your troubles also. ]^ever keep a trouble 
 half an hour on your own mind before you tell it to 
 God. As soon as the trouble comes, quick, the first 
 thing, tell it to your father. Remember, that the 
 longer you take telling your trouble to God, the more 
 your peace will be impaired. The longer the frost 
 lasts, the more likely the ponds will be frozen. 
 
 HOW wise the Holy Spirit is ! he takes the soul, 
 lays it on the table, and dissects it in a moment ; 
 he finds out the root of the matter, he sees where the 
 complaint is, and then he applies the knife where 
 something is required to be taken away, or puts a 
 plaster where the sore is ; and he never mistakes. O, 
 how wise is the blessed Holy Ghost; from every 
 comforter I turn and leave them all, for thou art he 
 who alone givest the wisest consolation. 
 
 CULTIVATE a cheerful disposition ; endeavor, as 
 much as lieth in you, always to bear a smile 
 about with you ; recollect that this is as much a com- 
 mand of God as that one which says, " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord with all thy heart." 
 
spukgeon's gems.' 75 
 
 CHUIST JESUS was an attractive preaclier ; lie 
 .soiiglit above all means to set the pearl in a 
 frame of gold, that it might attract the attention of 
 the people. He was not willing to place himself in 
 a parish chnrch, and preach to a large congregation 
 of thirteen and a-half, like our good brethren in the 
 city, bnt would preach in snch a style that people 
 felt they must go to hear him. Some of them 
 gnashed their teeth in rage and left his presence in 
 wrath, but the multitudes still thronged to him to 
 hear and to be healed. It was no dull work to hear 
 this King of preachers, he was too much in earnest 
 to be dull, and too humane to be incomprehensible. 
 
 • • • 
 
 rwas once said by Solon, " ISTo man ought to be 
 called a happy man till he dies," because he 
 does not know what his life is to be ; but Christ- 
 ians may always call themselves haj)py men here, 
 because wherever their tent is carried, they can- 
 not pitch it where the cloud does not move, and 
 where they are not surrounded by a circle of fire. 
 " I will be a wall of fire round about them, and 
 their glory in the midst." They cannot dwell where 
 God is not householder, warder, and bulwark of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 " All my ways shall ever be 
 Order'd by His wise decree." 
 
76 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 OH ! je tliat are not Christians, it were worth 
 while to be Christians, if it were only for the 
 peace and happiness that religion gives. If we had 
 to die like dogs, yet this religion were worth having 
 to make ns live here like angels. Oh, if the grave 
 were what it seems to be, the goal of all existence, 
 if the black nails of the coffin were not bright -with 
 stars, if death were the end and our lamps were 
 quenched in darkness, when it was said, " Dust to 
 dust and earth to earth ;" yet 'twere worth while to 
 be a child of God, only to live here. 
 
 -•-♦- 
 
 ¥E dream of everything in the world, and a few 
 things more ! If we were asked to tell our 
 dreams, it would be impossible. You dream that 
 you are at a feast ; lo ! the viands change into a 
 Pegasus, and you are riding through the air; or, 
 again, suddenly transformed into a morsel for a 
 monster's meal. Such is life. The changes occur 
 as suddenly as they happen in a dream. Men have 
 been rich one day, they have been beggars the next. 
 We have witnessed the exile of monarchs, and the 
 flight of a potentate : or, in another direction, we 
 have seen a man, neither reputable nor honorable 
 in station, at a single stride exalted to a throne ; 
 and you who would have shunned him in the streets 
 
spuegeon's gems. 77 
 
 before, were foolish enongli to tlirong yonr thoroiigli- 
 fares to stare at hini. Ah ! siicli is life. Leaves 
 of the Sibyl were not more easily moved by the 
 winds, nor are dreams more variable : " Boast not 
 thyself of to-morrow, for thon knowest not what a 
 day may bring forth." 
 
 — »»> 
 
 BETTEE have two lights than only one. The light 
 of creation is a bright light. God may be seen 
 in the stars ; his name is written in gilt letters on the 
 brow of night ; yon may discover his glory in the 
 ocean waves, yea, in the trees of the field ; but it is 
 better to read it in two books than in one. You will 
 find it here more clearly revealed ; for he has written 
 this book himself, and he has given you the key to 
 understand it, if you have the Holy Spirit. Ah, be- 
 loved, let us thank God for this Bible ; let us love it ; 
 let us count it more precious than much fine gold. 
 
 HOW foolish are those men who wish to pry 
 into futurity ; the telescope is ready, and they 
 are looking through ; but they are so anxious to see, 
 that they breathe on the glass with their hot breath, 
 and they dim it, so that they can discern nothing but 
 clouds and darkness. 
 
78 ' spukgeon's gems. 
 
 EYEEY now and then we turn up a fair stone wMcli 
 lies upon tlie greeensward of the professing 
 cliui'cli, surrounded with the verdure of apparent 
 goodness, and to our astonishment we find beneath 
 all kinds of filthy insects and loathsome reptiles, and 
 in our disgust at such hypocrisy, we are driven to 
 exclaim, " All men are liars ; there are none in whom 
 we can put any trust at all." It is not fair to say so 
 of all ; but really, the discoveries which are made of 
 the insincerity of our fellow creatures are enough to 
 make us despise our kind, because they can go so far 
 in appearances, and yet have so little soundness of 
 heart. 
 
 • •• 
 
 OUR Bible is a blood-stained book. The blood of 
 martyrs is on the Bible, the blood of trans- 
 lators and confessors. The pool of holy baptism in 
 which ye have been baptized is a blood-stained pool : 
 full many have had to die for the vindication of that 
 baptism which is the answer of a good conscience 
 towards God. The doctrines which we preach to 
 you are doctrines that have been baptized in blood — 
 swords have been drawn to slay the confessors of 
 them ; and there is not a truth which has not been 
 sealed by them at the stake, or the block, or far 
 away on the lofty mountains, where they have been 
 slain by hundreds. 
 
SPUIiGEON's GEMS. 79 
 
 GOD miglitj if lie jDleasecI, wrap liimself with night 
 as with a garment ; he might put the stars 
 around his wrist for bracelets, and bind the suns 
 around his brow for a coronet ; he might dwell 
 alone, far, far above this world, up in the seventh 
 heaven, and look down with calm and silent indiffe- 
 rence upon all the doings of his creatures ; he might 
 do as the heathens supposed their Jove did, sit in 
 perpetual silence, sometimes nodding his awful head 
 to make the fates move as he pleased, but never 
 taking thought of the little things of earth, disposing 
 of them as beneath his notice, engrossed within his 
 own being, swallowed up within himself, living 
 alone and retired; and I, as one of his creatures, 
 might stand by night upon a mountain-toj), and look 
 upon the silent stars and say, " Ye are the eyes of 
 God, but ye look not down on me ; your light is the 
 gift of his omnipotence, but your rays are not smiles 
 of love to me. God, the mighty Creator, has for- 
 gotten me ; I am a despicable drop in the ocean of 
 creation, a sear-leaf in the forest of beings, an atom 
 in the mountain of existence. He knows me not ; I 
 am alone, alone, alone." But it is not so, beloved. 
 Our God is of another order. He notices every one 
 of us ; there is not a sparrow or a worm but is found 
 in his decrees. There is not a person upon whom 
 his eye is not fixed. Our most secret acts are 
 
80 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 known to liim. "Whatsoever we do, or bear, or 
 suffer, tlie eye of God still rests upon iis, and we are 
 beneath his smile — ^for we are his people ; or 
 beneath his frown — ^for we have erred from him. 
 
 k 
 
 NY husbandman can get a good crop out of 
 good soil ; but God is the husbandman who can 
 grow cedars on rocks, who can not only put the 
 hyssop upon the wall, but put the oak there too, 
 and make the greatest faith spring up in the most 
 unlikely position. All glory to his grace ! the great 
 sinner may become great in faith. Be of good 
 cheer, then, sinner ! If Christ should make thee 
 repent, thou hast no need to think that thou shalt be 
 the least in the family. Oh ! no ; thy name may yet 
 be written among the mightiest of the mighty, and 
 thou mayest stand as a memorable and triumphant 
 instance of the power of faith. 
 
 I 
 
 F we look on a thing in the dark, we cannot see 
 it ; but we have done what we were told. So, if 
 a sinner only looks to Jesus, he will save him ; for 
 Jesus in the dark is as good as Jesus in the light ; 
 and Jesus, when you cannot see him, in as good as 
 Jesus when you can. 
 
SPIJEGEON S GEMS. 81 
 
 THERE was an evil hour when once I shipped the 
 anchor of mj faith ; I cut the cable of my be- 
 lief ; I no longer moored myself hard by the coasts 
 of Revelation ; I allowed my vessel to drift before 
 the wind ; I said to reason, " Be thon my captain ;" 
 I said to my own brain, " Be thou my rudder ;" and 
 I started on my mad voyage. Thank God, it is all 
 over now ; but I will tell you its brief history. It 
 was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean 
 of free thought. I went on, and as I went, the skies 
 began to darken ; but to make up for that deficiency, 
 the waters were brilliant with coruscations of bril- 
 liancy. I saw sparks flying upward that pleased me, 
 and I thought, " If this be free thought, it is a happy 
 thing." My thoughts seemed gems, and I scattered 
 stars with both my hands ; but anon, instead of these 
 coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and 
 horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed 
 on, they gnashed their teeth, and grinned upon me ; 
 they seized the prow of my ship and dragged me on, 
 while I, in part, glorified at the rapidity of my m'o- 
 tion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with 
 which I passed the old land-marks of my faith. As I 
 hurried forward with an awful speed, I began to 
 doubt my very existence ; I doubted if there were a 
 world, I doubted if there were such a thing as my- 
 self. I went to the very verge of the dreamy realms of 
 
 4* 
 
82 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 unbelief. I went to the ver j bottom of the sea of Infi- 
 delity. I doubted everything. But here the devil 
 foiled himself: for the very extravagance of the 
 doubt, proved its absurdity. Just when I saw the 
 bottom of that sea, there came a voice which said, 
 "And can this doubt be trne?" At this very 
 thought I awoke. I started from that death-dream, 
 which, God knows, might have damned my soul, and 
 ruined this, my body, if I had not awoke. When I 
 arose, faith took the helm ; from that moment I 
 doubted not. Faith steered me back ; faith cried, 
 " Away, away !" I cast my anchor on Calvary ; I 
 lifted my eye to God ; and here I am, " alive, and 
 out of hell." 
 
 THIS world is turning round on its axis once in 
 four-and-twenty hours; and besides that, it is 
 moving round the sun in the 365 days of the year. 
 So that we are all moving ; we are all flitting along 
 through space. And as we are travelling through 
 space, so we are moving through time at an incalcu- 
 lable rate. Oh ! what an idea it is could we grasp 
 it ! We are all being carried along as if by a giant 
 angel, with broad outstretched wings, which he flaps 
 to the blast, and flying before the lightning, makes 
 us ride on the winds. The whole multitude of us are 
 hurrying along — ^whither, remains to be decided by 
 
SPTIEGEON'S GEMS. 83 
 
 the test of our faitli and tlie grace of God ; but cer- 
 tain it is, we are all travelling. Do not think that 
 you are stable things ; fancy not that you are stand- 
 ing still; you are not. Your pulses each moment 
 beat the funeral marches to the tomb. You are 
 chained to the chariot of rolling time ; there is no 
 bridling the steeds, or leaping from the chariot ; you 
 must be constantly in motion. 
 
 C HEIST is the chariot in which souls are drawn to 
 heaven. The people of the Lord are on their 
 way to heaven, they are carried in everlasting arms ; 
 and those arms are the arms of Christ. Christ is car- 
 rying them up to his own house, to his own throne ; 
 by and by his prayer — "Father, I will that they, 
 whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am," 
 shall be wholly fulfilled. And it is fulfilling now, 
 for he is like a strong courser drawing his children in 
 the chariot of the covenant of grace unto himself. 
 Oh ! blessed be God, the cross is the plank on which 
 we swim to heaven ; the cross is the great covenant 
 transport which will weather out the storms, and 
 reach its desired heaven. This is the chariot, the pil- 
 lars wherewith are of gold, and the bottom thereof 
 silver, it is lined with the purple of the atonement 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
84: » spijkgeon's gems. 
 
 THE Bible is the writing of the living God : each 
 letter was penned with an Almighty finger ; 
 each word in it dropped from the everlasting lips ; 
 each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. 
 Albeit, that Moses was employed to wi-ite his his- 
 tories with his fiery pen, God gnided that pen. It 
 may be that David touched his harp, and let sweet 
 Psalms of melody drop from his fingers ; but God 
 moved his hands over the living strings of his golden 
 harp. It may be that Solomon sang canticles of 
 love, or gave forth words of consummate wisdom, 
 but God directed his lips, and made the preacher 
 eloquent. If I follow the thundering ISTahum, when 
 his horses plough the waters, or Habakkuk, when he 
 sees the tents of Cushan in affliction ; if I read 
 Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven ; if 
 I turn to the smooth page of John, who tells of love, 
 or the rugged, fiery chapters of Peter, who speaks 
 of fire devouring God's enemies ; If I turn to Jude, 
 who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of God, 
 everywhere I find God speaking ; it is God's voice, 
 not man's ; the words are God's words, the ■ words 
 of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the 
 Jehovah of this earth. This Bible is God's Bible, 
 and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing 
 up from it, saying, " I am the book of God ; man, 
 read me. I am God's writing ; open my leaf, for I 
 
spurgeon's gems. 85 
 
 was penned by God ; read it, for lie is my author, 
 and you will see liim visible and manifest every- 
 where." ''I have written to him the great things of 
 my law." 
 
 APILGEIM sets out in the morning, and he 
 has to journey many a day before he gets to 
 the shrine which he seeks. What varied scenes 
 the traveller will behold on his way! Sometimes 
 he will be on the mountains, anon he will descend 
 into the valleys ; here he will be where the brooks 
 shine like silver, where the bird's warble, where the 
 air is balmy, and the trees are green, and luscious 
 fruits hang down to gratify his taste ; anon he will 
 find himself in the arid desert, where no life is 
 found, and no sound is heard, except the screech of 
 the wild eagle in the air, where he finds no rest for 
 the sole of his foot — the burning sky above him, and 
 the hot sand beneath him — ^no roof-tree, and no 
 house to rest himself ; at another time he finds him- 
 self in a sweet oasis, resting himself by the wells of 
 water, and plucking fruit from palm trees. One 
 moment he walks between the rocks in some narrow 
 gorge, where all is darkness ; at another time he 
 ascends the hill, Mizar ; now he descends into the 
 valley of Baca ; anon he climbs the hill of Bashan, 
 " a high hill is the hill Bashan ;" and yet again 
 
86 SPUEGEON 8 GEMS. 
 
 going into a den of leopards, he suffers trial and 
 affliction. Sucli is life — ever changing. Who can 
 tell what may come next? To-day it is fair, the 
 next day there may be the thundering storm ; to-day 
 I may want for nothing, to-morrow I may be like 
 Jacob, with nothing but a stone for my pillow, and the 
 heavens for my curtains. But what a happy thought 
 it is, though we know not where the road winds, we 
 know where it ends. It is the straightest way to 
 heaven to go round about. Israel's forty years' wan- 
 derings were, after all, the nearest path to Canaan. 
 "We may have to go through trial and affliction ; the 
 pilgrimage may be a tiresome one, but it is safe ; we 
 cannot trace the river upon which we are sailing, 
 but we know it ends in floods of bliss at last. We can- 
 not track the roads, but we know that they all meet 
 in the great metropolis of heaven, in the centre of 
 God's universe. God help us to pursue the true pil- 
 grimage of a pious life ! 
 
 TIIEEE is no loss in being a Christian, and mak- 
 ing God the first object; but make anything 
 else your goal, and with all your running, should you 
 run ever so well, you shall fall short of the mark ; 
 or if you gain it, you shall fall uncrowned, unhonored 
 to the earth. " My soul, wait thou only upon God." 
 
spurgeon's gems. 87 
 
 IF it would take me seven years to describe the 
 way of salvation, I am sure you would all long to 
 hear it. K only one learned doctor could tell the 
 way to heaven, how would he be run after ! And if 
 it were in hard words, with a few scraps of Latin 
 and Greek, it would be all the better. But it is a 
 simple gospel that we have to preach. It is only 
 " Look !" " Ah !" you say, " is that the gospel ? I 
 shall not pay any attention to that." But wdiy has 
 God ordered you to do such a simple thing ? Just 
 to take down your pride, and to show you that he is 
 God, and that beside him there is none else. Oh, 
 mark how simple the way of salvation is. It is, 
 " Look ! look ! look !" Four letters, and two of them 
 alike ! " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the 
 ends of the earth." 
 
 ■•• • 
 
 FATTH is to say, that " mountains, when in dark- 
 ness hidden, are as real as in day." Faith is to 
 look through that cloud, not with the eye of sight, 
 which seeth naught, but with the eye of faith, which 
 seeth everything, and to say, " I trust him when 1 
 cannot trace him ; I tread the sea as firmly as I 
 would the rock ; I walk as securely in the tempest 
 as in the sunshine, and lay myself to rest upon the 
 surging billows of the ocean as contentedly as upon 
 my bed." 
 
88 SPUEGEON S GEMS. 
 
 AS a man does not make himself spiritually alive, 
 so neither can he keep himself so. He can 
 feed on spiritual food, and so preserve his spiritual 
 strength ; he can walk in the commandments of the 
 Lord, and so enjoy rest and peace, but still the inner 
 life is dependent upon the Spirit as much for its after 
 existence as for its first begetting. I do verily believe 
 that if it should ever be my lot to put my foot upon 
 the golden threshold of Paradise, and put this thumb 
 upon the pearly latch, I should never cross the thres- 
 hold unless I had grace given me to take that last 
 step whereby I might enter heaven. "No man him- 
 self, even when converted, hath any power, except as 
 that power is daily, constantly, and perpetually in- 
 fused into him by the spirit. 
 
 OH ! it is a happy way of smoothing sorrow, when 
 we can say, " We will wait only upon God." 
 Oh, ye agitated Christians, do not dishonor your re- 
 ligion by always wearing a brow of care ; come, cast 
 your burden upon the Lord. I see ye staggering be- 
 neath a weight which He would not feel. What 
 seems to you a crushing burden, would be to him but 
 as the small dust of the balance. See ! the Almighty 
 bends his shoulders, and he says, " Here, put thy 
 troubles here." 
 
1 
 
 spurgeon's gems. 89 
 
 OST of the grand truths of God have to be 
 learned by trouble ; they mnst be burned into 
 lis with the hot iron of affliction, otherwise we shall 
 not truly receive them. 'No man is competent to 
 judge in matters of the kingdom, until first he has 
 been tried ; since there are many things to be learned 
 in the depths which we can never know in the 
 heights. "VYe discover many secrets in the caverns 
 of the ocean, which, though we had soared to hea- 
 ven, we never could have known. He shall best 
 meet the wants of God's people as a preacher who 
 has had those wants himself ; he shall best comfort 
 God's Israel who has needed comfort ; and he shall 
 best preach salvation who has felt his own need of it. 
 
 IF I desired to put myself into the most likely place 
 for the Lord to meet with me, I should prefer the 
 house of prayer, for it is in preaching, that the "Word 
 is most blessed ; but still I think I should equally 
 desire the reading of the Scriptures ; for I might 
 pause over every verse, and say, " Such a verse was 
 blessed to so many souls ; then, why not to me ? I 
 am at least in the pool of Bethesda ; I am walking 
 amongst its porches, and who can tell but that the 
 angel will stir the pool of the "Word, whilst I lie help- 
 lessly by the side of it, waiting for the blessing ?" 
 
90 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 OH! it is not some hectic flush upon the cheek 
 of consumptive irresolution that God counts to 
 be the health of obedience. It is not some slight 
 obedience for an hour that God will accept at the 
 day of judgment. He saith " continueth ;" and 
 unless from my early childhood to the day when 
 my grey hairs descend into the tomb, I shall have 
 continued to be obedient to God, I must be con- 
 demned. Unless I have from the first dawn of 
 reason, when I first began to be resj)onsible, obedi- 
 ently served God, until, like a shock of corn, I am 
 gathered into my Master's garner, salvation by 
 works must be impossible to me, and I must (stand- 
 ing on my own footing), be condemned. It is not, 
 I say, some slight obedience that will save the soul. 
 Thou hast not continued "in all things which are 
 written in the book of the law," and therefore, thou 
 art condemned. 
 
 • • 
 
 REMEMBER to put thine eyes heavenward, and 
 thine heart heavenward, too. Kemember that 
 thou bind round thyself a golden chain, and put one 
 link of it in the staple in heaven. Look unto Christ ; 
 fear not. There is no stumbling when a man walks 
 with his eyes up to Jesus. He that looked at the 
 stars fell into the ditch ; but he that looks at Christ 
 walks safely. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 91 
 
 BEHOLD tlie unpillared arch of heaven ; see how 
 it stretches its gigantic span ; and yet it falleth 
 not, though it is unpropped and unbuttressed, " He 
 hangeth the world upon nothing." What chain is it 
 that bindeth up the stars, and keepeth them from fall- 
 ing ? Lo, they float in ether, upheld by his omnipo- 
 tent arm, who hath laid the foundations of the uni- 
 verse. A Christian should be a second exhibition of 
 God's universe; his faith should be an unpillared 
 confidence, resting on the past, and on the eternity to 
 come, as the sure groundwork of its arch. His faith 
 should be like the world ; it should hang on nothing 
 but the promise of God, and have no other support 
 but that ; and he himself, like the stars, should float 
 in the ether of confidence, needing nothing to uphold 
 him but the right hand of the Majesty on high. 
 
 • •♦ 
 
 CHHiDRElSr sometimes blow bubbles, and amuse 
 themselves thereby. Life is even as that bubble. 
 You see it rising into the air ; the child delights 
 itself by seeing it fly about, but it is all gone in 
 one moment. " It is even a vapor, that appeareth 
 for a little time, and then vanisheth away." But if 
 you ask the poet to explain this, he would tell you 
 that in the morning, sometimes at early dawn, the 
 rivers send up a steamy offering to the sun. There 
 
92 SPURGEON 8 GEMS. 
 
 is a vapor, a mist, an exhalation rising from tlie 
 rivers and brooks, but in a very little while after the 
 sun has risen, all that mist has gone. Hence we read 
 of tlie morning cloud and the early dew that passeth 
 away. A more common observer, speaking of a 
 vapor, would think of those thin clouds you some- 
 times see floating in the air, which are so light that 
 they are soon carried away. Indeed, a poet uses 
 them as the picture of feebleness : 
 
 " Their hosts are scatter' d, like thin clouds 
 Before a Biscay gale." 
 
 The wind moves them, and they are gone. " What 
 is your life ?" 
 
 SO mighty is the ever-rushing torrent of sin, that 
 no arm but that which is as strong as Deity can 
 ever stop the sinner from being hm-ried down to the 
 gulf of black despair, and, when nearing that gulf, 
 so impetuous is the torrent of divine wrath, that 
 nothing can snatch the soul from perdition but an 
 atonement which is as divine as God himself. Yet 
 faith is the instrument of accomplishing the whole 
 work. It delivers the sinner from the stream of sin, 
 and so, layings hold upon the omnipotence of the 
 Spirit, it rescues him from that great whirlpool of 
 destruction into which his soul was being hurried. 
 
MAN is HI 
 iR r.ontii 
 
 spuegeon's gems. 93 
 
 like a great icicle, which the sim of time 
 is continually thawing, and which is soon to be 
 water spilt npon the ground that cannot be gathered 
 up. Who can recall the departed spirit, or inflate the 
 lungs with a new breath of life ? Who can put vital- 
 ity into the heart, and restore the soul from Hades ? 
 None. It cannot be gathered up. The place shall 
 know it no more forever. 
 
 But here a sweet thought charms us. This water 
 cannot be lost, but it shall descend into the soil to 
 filter through the Rock of Ages, at last to spring up 
 a pure fountain in heaven, cleansed, purified, and 
 made clear as crystal. How terrible if, on the other 
 hand, it should percolate the black earth of sin, and 
 hang in horrid drops in the dark caverns of destruc- 
 tion ! 
 
 A ND all these — all this vast gathering of human 
 -l1- souls, are joining in one cry — all moving in one 
 direction. Oh, thought, at which the faithful well 
 may weep ; their cry is self, their course is sin. 
 Here and there are the chosen few struggling against 
 the mighty tide ; but the masses, the multitude, still, 
 as in the days of David, are hurrying their mad 
 career in search of a fancied good, and reaping the 
 fruit of the futile search in disappointment, death and 
 hell. 
 
94 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 PEKIIAPS tlie most miserable people in the 
 world are tlie very careful ones. Yon tliat are 
 BO anxious about what sliall happen on the morrow 
 that you cannot enjoy the pleasures of to-day, you 
 who have such a peculiar cast of mind that you sus- 
 pect every star to be a comet, and imagine that there 
 must be a volcano in every grassy mead, you that 
 are more attracted by the spots in the sun than by 
 the sun himself, and more amazed by one sear leaf 
 upon the tree than by all the verdm^e of the woods — 
 you that make more of your troubles than you could 
 do of your joys — I say, I think you belong to the 
 most miserable of men. 
 
 FROM the cross oi Calvary, where the bleeding 
 hands of Jesus di'op mercy ; from the garden of 
 Gethsemane, where the bleeding pores of the Saviour 
 sweat pardons, the cry comes, " Look unto me, and 
 be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." From Cal- 
 vary's summit, where Jesus cries, "It is finished," I 
 hear a shout, " Look, and be saved." But there 
 comes a vile cry from our soul, " ]^ay, look to your- 
 self! look to yourself!" Ah, look to yourself, and 
 you will be damned. That certainly will come of it. 
 As long as you look to yourself there is no hope for 
 you. It is not a consideration of what you are, but a 
 
spijegeon's gems. 95 
 
 consideration o± what God is, and what Christ is, that 
 can save you. It is looking from yourself to Jesus. 
 Oh! there be men that quite misunderstand the gos- 
 pel ; they think that righteousness qualifies them to 
 come to Christ ; whereas sin is the only qualification 
 for a man to come to Jesus. Good old Crisp says, 
 " Righteousness keeps me from Christ : the whole 
 have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. 
 Sin makes me come to Jesus, when sin is felt ; and 
 in coming to Christ, the more sin I have the more 
 cause I have to hope for mercy." 
 
 ■•• > 
 
 YOU cannot, though you may think you can, 
 preserve a moderation in sin. If you commit 
 one sin, it is like the melting of the lower glacier 
 upon the Alps ; the others must follow in time. As 
 certainly as you heap one stone upon the cairn to-day, 
 the next day you will cast another, until the heap, 
 reared stone by stone, shall become a very pyramid. 
 Set the coral insect at work, you cannot decree where 
 it shall stay its work. It will not build its rock just 
 as high as you please, it will not stay until it shall be 
 covered with weeds, until the weeds shall decay, 
 and there shall be soil upon it, and an island shall 
 be created by tiny creatures. Sin cannot be held in 
 with bit and bridle. 
 
96 SPUKaEON's GEMS. 
 
 SOO!N', soon, the saints of the earth shall be saints 
 in light; their hairs of snowy age shall be 
 crowned with perpetual joy and everlasting youth; 
 their eyes suffused with tears shall be made bright 
 as stars, never to be clouded again by sorrow ; their 
 hearts that tremble now are to be made joyous and 
 fast, and set forever like pillars in the temple of God. 
 Their follies, their burdens, their griefs, their woes, 
 are soon to be over ; sin is to be slain, corruption is 
 to be removed, and a heaven of spotless purity and 
 of unmingled peace is to be theirs forever. But it 
 must still be by grace. As was the foundation such 
 must the top-stone be ; that which laid on earth the 
 first beginning must lay in heaven the topmost 
 stone. 
 
 TO know one's-self to be foolish is to stand upon the 
 door-step of the temple of wisdom ; to under- 
 stand the wrongness of any position is half way to- 
 wards amending it ; to be quite sure that our self- 
 confidence is a heinous sin and folly, and an offence 
 towards God, and to have that thought burned into 
 us by God's Holy Spirit, is going a great length to- 
 wards the absolute casting our self-confidence away, 
 and the bringing of our souls in practice, as well as in 
 theory, to rely wholly upon the power of God's Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
sptjkgeon's gems. • 97 
 
 OH ! how solemn will be that hour when we must 
 struggle with that enemy, Death ! The death- 
 rattle is in our throat — we can scarce articulate — 
 we try to speak ; the death-glaze is on the eye : 
 Death hath put his fingers on those windows of the 
 body, and shut out the light forever ; the hands 
 well-nigh refuse to lift themselves, and there we are, 
 close on the borders of the grave ! Ah ! that mo- 
 ment, when the spirit sees its destiny ; that moment 
 of all moments the most solemn, when the soul looks 
 through the bars of its cage, upon the world to come ! 
 No, I cannot tell you how the spirit feels, if it be an 
 ungodly spirit, when it sees a fiery throne of judg- 
 ment, and hears the thunders of Almighty wrath, 
 while there is but a moment between it and hell. I 
 cannot picture to you what must be the fright which 
 men will feel, when they realize what they often 
 heard of ! 
 
 TRUE friendship can only be made between true 
 men. Hearts are the soul of honor. There can 
 be no lasting friendship between bad men. Bad 
 men may pretend to love each other, but theii' 
 friendship is a rope of sand, which shall be broken 
 at any convenient season ; but if a man have a 
 sincere heart within him, and be true and noble, 
 then we may confide in him. 
 
 5 
 
98 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 WHO can find a stain in tlie character of Jesus, 
 or who can tarnish his honor ? Has there ever 
 been a spot on his escutcheon? Has his flag ever 
 been trampled in the dnst ? Does he not stand the 
 true witness in heaven, the faithful and just ? Is it 
 not declared of him that he is God who cannot lie ? 
 Have we not found him so up to this moment ; and 
 may we not, knowing that he is " Holy, holy, holy 
 Lord," confide in him, that he will stick closer to us 
 than a brother ? His goodness is the guaranty of his 
 fidelity ; he cannot fail us. 
 
 THIS Bible is the stone that shall break in powder 
 philosophy ; this is the mighty battering-ram 
 that shall dash all systems of jDhilosophy in pieces ; 
 this is the stone that a woman may yet hurl upon 
 the head of every Abimelech, and he shall utterly 
 be destroyed. O Church of God! fear not; thou 
 shalt do wonders ; wise men shall be confounded, 
 and thou shalt know, and they too, that he is God, 
 and that beside him there is none else. 
 
 HE who would be happy here must have friends ; 
 and he who would be happy hereafter, must, 
 above all things, find a friend in the world to come, 
 in the person of God, the Father of his people. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 99 
 
 AMEEE profession, is but painted pageantrj 
 to go to lieii in: it is like tlie plumes upon the 
 liearse and tlie traj^pings upon the black horses 
 which drag men to their graves, the funeral array 
 of dead souls. Take heed above everything of a 
 waxen profession that will not stand the sun ; take 
 care of a life that needs to have two faces to carry 
 it out ; be one thing, or else the other. If you 
 make up your mind to serve Satan, do not pretend 
 to serve God ; and if you serve God, serve him with 
 
 all your heart. 
 
 — • • • , 
 
 YOU may think of a doctrine forever, and get no 
 good from it, if you are not already saved ; but 
 think of the person of Christ, and that will give you 
 faith. Take him everywhere, wherever you go, and 
 try to meditate on him in your leisure moments, and 
 then he will reveal himself to you, and give you 
 
 peace. 
 
 — •-•-• 
 
 VHAT ! is Christ thy Brother, and does he live 
 in thine house, and yet thou hast not spoken 
 to him for a month ? I fear there is little love be- 
 tween thee and thy Brother, for thou hast had no con- 
 versation with him for so long. What ! is Christ the 
 Husband of his church, and has she had no fellowship 
 with him for all this time ? 
 
100 SPURGEON S GEMS. 
 
 YOU have seen mummies, wrapped round and 
 round with folds of linen. AYell, God's Bible 
 is like that ; it is a vast roll of white linen, woven in 
 the loom of truth ; so you will have to continue un- 
 winding it, roll after roll, before you get the real 
 meaning of it from the very depth ; and when you 
 have found, as you think, a part of the meaning, you 
 will still need to keep on unwinding, unwinding, and 
 all eternity you will be unwinding the words of this 
 wondrous volume. 
 
 r' is easy to find by hundreds those that have de- 
 parted, but you must count those by ones who 
 know how to groan over their departure. The true 
 believer, however, when he discovers that he needs 
 revival, will not be happy ; he will begin at once 
 that incessant and continuous strain of cries and 
 groans which will at last prevail with God, and 
 bring the blessing of revival down. 
 
 WHEN a man has fifty difierent desires, his heart 
 resembles a pool of water, which is spread over 
 a marsh, breeding miasma and pestilence ; but when 
 all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart 
 becomes like a river of pure water, running along 
 and fertilizing the fields. 
 
SPURGEON S GtEMS. 101 
 
 SUPPOSE^G tlie innumerable company of the re- 
 deemed could perish, and their immortality were 
 swallowed up in death, yet even then, daily Clirist 
 would be praised ! If all of us had departed from 
 the boundless sphere of being — ^look up yonder ! See 
 yon starry host ; see the mighty cohorts of cherubs 
 and seraphs ? Let men begone and they shall praise 
 him ; let the troops of the glorified cease their notes, 
 and let no sweet melodies ever come from the lips of 
 sainted men and women ; yet the chariots of God are 
 twenty thousand, even many thousands of angels, who 
 always in their motions chant his praise. There is an 
 orchestra on high, the music of which shall never 
 cease, even were mortals extinct and all the human 
 race swept from existence. Again, if angels were 
 departed, still daily would he be praised ; for, are 
 there not worlds on worlds, and suns on suns, and 
 systems on systems, that could forever sing his praise? 
 Yes ! The ocean — that house of storms — would howl 
 out his glories ; the winds would swell the notes of 
 his praise with their ceaseless gales; the thunders 
 would roll like drums in the march of the God of 
 armies ; the illimitable void of ether would become 
 vocal with song ; and space itself would burst forth 
 into one universal chorus — Hallelujah ! Ilalleliijah! 
 Halleluj ah ! still the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! 
 And if these were gone ; if creatures ceased to exist, 
 
102 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 he who ever livetii and reigiieiii, in whom all the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead bodily dwells, would still he 
 praised ; praised in himself, and glorious in himself; 
 for the Father would praise the Son, and the Spirit 
 would praise him, and mutually blessing one another 
 and rendering each other beatified, still " daily would 
 lie be praised,," 
 
 THIS city of refuge had round it suburbs of a very 
 great extent. Two thousand cubits were allowed 
 for grazing land for the cattle of the priests, and a 
 thousand cubits within these for fields and vineyards. 
 ISTow, no sooner did the man reach the outside of the 
 city, the suburbs, than he was safe ; it was not neces- 
 sary for him to get within the walls, but the suburbs 
 themselves were sufficient protection. Learn, hence, 
 that if ye do but touch the hem of Christ's garment, 
 ye shall be made whole ; if ye do but lay hold of 
 him with " faith as a grain of mustard seed," with 
 faith which is scarcely a believing, but is truly a 
 believing, you are safe. 
 
 " A little genuine grace ensures 
 The death of all our sins." 
 
 Get within the borders ; lay hold of the hem of 
 Christ's garment, and thou art secure. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 103 
 
 ALAS ! for thee, that thy pulse should beat a 
 march to hell. Alas! that yonder clock, like 
 the muffled drum, should be the music of the funeral 
 march of thy soul. Alas ! alas ! that thou shouldst 
 fold thine arms in pleasure, when the knife is at thy 
 heart. Alas ! alas ! for thee, that thou shouldst sing, 
 and make merriment, when the rope is about thy 
 neck, and the drop is tottering under thee ! Alas ! 
 for thee, that thou shouldst go thy way, and live 
 merrily and happily and yet be lost ! Thou 
 remindest me of the silly moth that dances round 
 about the flame, singeing itself for a while, and then 
 at last plunging to its death. Such art thou ! 
 Young woman, with thy butterfly clothing, thou art 
 leaping round the flame that shall destroy thee ! 
 Young man, light and frothy in thy conversation, 
 gay in thy life, thou art dancing to hell ; thou art 
 singing thy way to damnation, and promenading the 
 road to destruction. Alas ! alas ! that ye should be 
 spinning your own winding-sheets; that ye should 
 every day by your sins be building your own gal- 
 lows ; that by your transgressions ye should be 
 digging your own graves, and working hard to pile 
 the fagots for your own eternal burning. Oh ! that 
 ye were wise, that ye understood this, that ye would 
 consider your latter end. Oh ! that ye would flee 
 from the wrath to come 1 
 
104: spukgeon's gems. 
 
 THE saints in Jesus, when their badies sleep in 
 peace, have perpetual fellowship with him — aye, 
 better fellowship than we can enjoy. We have but 
 the transitory glimpse of his face ; they gaze upon it 
 every moment. "We see him " in a glass, darkly ;" 
 they behold him "face to face." We sip of the 
 brook by the way ; they plunge into the very ocean 
 of unbounded love. We look up sometimes, and see 
 our Father smile ; look whenever they may, his face 
 is always full of smiles for them. We get some 
 drops of comfort ; but tliey get the honeycomb itself. 
 They have their cup filled with new wine, running 
 over with perennial, unalloyed delights. They are 
 full of peace, full of joy forever. They " sleep in 
 Jesus." Such a description of death makes us wish 
 to sleep too. O Lord, let us go to sleep with the 
 departed ! O happy hour ! when a clod of the 
 valley shall be our pillow ! Though it be hard, we 
 shall not be affected by it. Happy hour, when 
 earth shall be our bed ! Cold shall be the clay, but 
 we shall not know it ; we shall slumber and we shall 
 rest. The worm shall hold carnival within our bones, 
 and corruption shall riot o'er our frame ; but we shall 
 not feel it. Corruption can but feed on the corrup- 
 tible ; mortality can but prey upon the mortal. 
 " We know 'tis common : all that live must die, 
 passing through nature to eternity." 
 
spurgeon's gems. 105 
 
 SALTATION is God's highest glory. He is glori- 
 fied in every dewdrop that twinkles to the morn- 
 ing siin, He is magnified in every wood flower that 
 blossoms in the copse, although it live to blush un- 
 seen, and waste its sweetness in the forest air. God 
 is glorified in every bird that warbles on the spray ; 
 in every lamb that skips the mead. Do not the fishes 
 in the sea praise him. From the tiny minnow to the 
 huge Leviathan, do not all creatures that swim the 
 water bless and praise his name ? Do not all created 
 things extol him ? Is there aught beneath the sky, 
 save man, that does not glorify God ? Do not the 
 stars exalt him, when they write his name uj)on the 
 azure of heaven in their golden letters ? Do not the 
 lightnings adore him when they flash his brightness 
 in arrows of light, piercing the midnight darkness ? 
 Do not thunders extol him when they roll like drums 
 in the march of the God of armies ? Do not all 
 things exalt him, from the least even to the greatest? 
 But sing, sing, O Universe, till thou hast exhausted 
 thyself, thou canst not afi'ord a song so sweet as the 
 song of Incarnation. Though creation may be a ma- 
 jestic organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of 
 the golden canticle — Incarnation ! There is more in 
 that than in creation, more melody in Jesus in the 
 manger, than there is in worlds on worlds rolling 
 their grandeur round the throne of the Most High. 
 
 5* 
 
106 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 GOD would build for himself a palace in heaven 
 of living stones : Where did he get them ? 
 Did he go to the quarries of Paros ? Hath he 
 brought forth the richest and the purest marble 
 from the quarries of perfection ? Ko, je saints, look 
 to " the hole of the pit whence je were digged, and 
 to the rock whence ye were hewn !" Ye were full 
 of sin; so far from being stones that were white 
 with puritj, je were black with defilement, seem- 
 ingly utterly unfit to be stones in the spiritual tem- 
 ple, which should be the dwelling-place of the Most 
 High. And yet he chose you to be .trophies of his 
 grace, and of his power to save. When Solomon 
 built for himself a palace, he built it of cedar ; but 
 when God would build for himself a dwelling for- 
 ever, he cut not down the goodly cedars, but he 
 dwelt in a bush, and hath preserved it as his memo- 
 rial forever, "The God that dwelt in the bush." 
 Goldsmiths make exquisite forms from precious ma- 
 terial ; they fashion the bracelet and the ring from 
 gold : — God maketh his precious things out of base 
 material ; and from the black pebbles of the defiling 
 brooks he hath taken up stones, which he hath set 
 in the golden ring of his immutable love, to make 
 them gems to sparkle on his finger forever. He 
 hath not selected the best, but apparently the worst 
 of men, to be the monuments of his grace; and 
 
spurgeon's gems. 107 
 
 when he would have a choir in heaven that should 
 with tongues harmonious sing his praises — a chorus 
 that should forever chant hallelujahs louder than 
 the noise of many waters, and like great thunders, 
 he did not send Mercy down to seek earth's song- 
 sters, and cull from us those who have the sweetest 
 voices ; He said, " Go, Mercy, and find out the 
 dumb, and touch their lips, and make them sing. 
 The virgin tongues that never sang my praise before_, 
 that have been silent till now, shall break forth in 
 rhapsodies sublime, and they shall lead the song ; 
 even angels shall but attend behind, and catch the 
 notes from the lips of those who once were dumb." 
 " The tongue of the dumb shall sing " God's praises 
 hereafter in heaven. 
 
 THE MAITY: what a thousand thoughts rise 
 around these two words ! The million-peopled 
 city, the populous town, the wide-spread country, this 
 isle, kingdoms, empires, continents, the world, all 
 seem to issue forth like armies from the hundred- 
 gated Thebes, at the mention of that word, " The 
 many." Here we see the toiling peasant and his 
 lordly squire, the artisan and the princely merchant, 
 the courtier and the king, the young, the old, the 
 learned and the unlearned^ all gathered within the 
 compass of a word. 
 
108 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 OHYPOCEITE, thou thinkest that thou shalt ex- 
 cel, because the minister has been duped, and 
 gives thee credit for a deep experience ; because the 
 deacons have been entrapped and think thee to be emi- 
 nently godly ; because the church members receive 
 thee to their houses, and think thee a dear child of 
 God too ! Poor soul ! mayhap thou mayest go to thy 
 grave with the delusion in thy brain that all is right 
 with thee ; but remember, though like a sheep thou 
 art laid in thy grave, Death will find thee out. He 
 will say to thee, off with thy mask, man ! away with 
 all thy robes ! Up with that whitewashed sepulchre ! 
 Take off that green turf; let the worms be seen. Out 
 with the body; let us see the reeking corruption ! and- 
 what wilt thou say when thine abominably corrupt 
 and filthy heart shall be opened before the sun, and 
 men and angels hear thy lies and hypocrisies laid bare 
 before them? Wilt thou play the hypocrite then? 
 Soul, come and sing God's praises in the day of judg- 
 ment with false lip ! Tell him now, while a widow's 
 house is in your throat, tell him that you love him ! 
 Come, now, thou that devourest the fatherless, thou 
 that robbest, thou that dost uncleanness ! tell him now 
 that thou didst make thy boast in the Lord ! tell him 
 that thou didst preach his word ; tell him that thou 
 didst walk in his streets ; tell him thou didst make it 
 known that thou wert one of the excellent of the 
 
spukgeon's gems. 109 
 
 earth ! Wliat ! man, is tliy babbling tongue silent for 
 once ? What is the matter with thee ? Thou wast 
 never slow to talk of thy godliness. Speak out, and 
 say " I took the sacramental cup ; I was a professor." 
 Oh huw changed ! The whitewashed sepulchre has 
 become white in another sense ; he is white with hor- 
 ror. See now ; the talkative has become dumb ; the 
 boaster is silent ; the formalist's garb is rent to rags, 
 the moth has devoured their beauty ; their gold has 
 become tarnished, and their silver cankered. Ah ! it 
 must be so with every man who has thus belied God 
 and his own conscience. 
 
 THERE never shall come a clay when the church 
 shall be bereft of mighty champions for the truth, 
 who shun not to declare the whole counsel of God ; 
 but continually, to the latest period of time, men shall 
 be raised up to preach free grace in all its sover- 
 eignty, in all its omnipotence, in all its perseverance, 
 in- all its immutability. Until the sun grows dim with 
 age, and the comets cease their mighty revolutions — 
 till all nature doth quake and totter with old age, and, 
 palsied with disease, doth die away — the voice of the 
 ministry must and shall be heard, " and daily shall 
 he be praised." Men cannot put out the light of 
 Christianity ; the pulpit is still the Thermopylae of 
 
110 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 Cliristendom, and if there were but two godly minis- 
 ters they would stand in the pass and repnlse a thou- 
 sand — ^yea, ten thousand. All the hosts of mankind 
 shall never vanquish the feeble band of Christ's fol- 
 lowers, while he sends forth his ministers. On this 
 we rely as a *sure word of prophecy : " Thy teachers 
 shall no more be removed into a corner ;" and we 
 believe that by this ministry daily shall Christ be 
 
 praised. 
 
 •-#-• — 
 
 HEAYElSr is ajplace of complete victory and glori- 
 ous triumph. This is the battle-field ; there is 
 the triumphal procession. This is the land of the 
 sword and the spear ; that is the land of the wreath 
 and the crown. This is the land of the garment 
 rolled in blood and of the dust of the fight ; that is 
 the land of the trumpet's joyful sound — that is the 
 place of the white robe and of the shout of conquest. 
 Oh, what a thrill of joy shall shoot through the 
 hearts of all the blessed when their conquests shall 
 be complete in heaven, when death itself, the last of 
 foes, shall be slain — when Satan shall be dragged 
 captive at the chariot wheels of Christ — when he 
 shall have overthrown sin and trampled corruption 
 as the mire of the streets — when the great shout of 
 universal victory shall rise from the hearts of all the 
 redeemed ! 
 
spurgeon's gems. Ill 
 
 rjIHE eagle is a bird noted for its swiftness. I re- 
 J- member reading an acconnt of an eagle attack- 
 ing a fisb-hawk, wbich bad obtained some booty from 
 tbe deep, and was bearing it aloft. Tbe hawk 
 dropped tbe fisb, wbicb fell towards tbe water ; but 
 before tbe fisb bad readied tbe ocean, tbe eagle bad 
 flown more swiftly tban tbe fisb could fall, and catcb- 
 ing it in its beak, it flew away witb it. Tbe swift- 
 ness of tbe eagle is almost incalculable ; you see it, 
 and it is gone ; you see a dark speck in tbe sky yon- 
 der ; it is an eagle soaring ; let tbe fowler imagine 
 tbat by and by be sball overtake it on some moun- 
 tain's craggy peak, it sball be gone long before be 
 reacbes it. Sucli is our life. It is like an eagle bast- 
 ing to its prey ; not merely an eagle flying in its 
 ordinary course, but an eagle basting to its prey. 
 Life appears to be basting to its prey — tbe prey is 
 tbe body ; life is ever fleeing from insatiate deatb ; 
 but deatb is too swift to be outrun, and as an eagle 
 overtakes bis prey, so sball deatb. 
 
 THERE is not a place beneatb wbicb a believer 
 walks tbat is free from snares. Bebind every 
 tree tbere is tbe Indian witb bis barbed arrow ; be- 
 bind every busb tbere is tbe lion seeking to devour ; 
 under every piece of grass tbere lietb tbe adder. 
 Everywhere tbey are. 
 
112 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 You saw but yesterday a strong man in your 
 neighborhood brought to the grave by sudden 
 death ; it is but a month ago that you heard the bell 
 toll for one whom once you knew and loved, who 
 procrastinated and procrastinated until he perished 
 in procrastination. You have had strange things 
 happen in your very street, and the voice of God has 
 been spoken loudly through the lip of Death to you. 
 Aye, and you have had warnings too in your own 
 body, you have been sick with fever, you have been 
 brought to the jaws of the grave, and you liave 
 looked down into the bottomless vault of destruction. 
 It is not long ago since you were given up : all said 
 they might prepare a coffin for you, for your breath 
 could not long be in your body. Tlien you turned 
 your face to the wall and prayed ; you vowed that if 
 God would spare you, you would live a goodly life, 
 that you would repent of your sins ; but to your own 
 confusion you are now just what you were. Ah ! 
 let me tell you, your guilt is more grievous than that 
 of any other man, for you have sinned presumptu- 
 ously, in the very highest sense in which you could 
 have done so. You have sinned against reproofs, but 
 what is worse still, you have sinned against your 
 own solemn oaths and covenants, and against the 
 promises that you made to God. He who plays with 
 fire must be condemned as careless ; but he who has 
 
spukgeon's gems. 113 
 
 been burned out once, and afterwards plays with the 
 destroying element, is worse than careless ; and he 
 who has himself been scorched in the flame, and has 
 had his lochs all hot and crisp with the burning, if he 
 again should rush headlong into fire, I say he is worse 
 than careless, he is worse than presumptuous, he is 
 mad. But I have some such here. Tliey have had 
 warnings so terrible that they might have know^n 
 better ; tliey have gone into lusts which have brought 
 their bodies into sickness, and perhaps this day they 
 have crept up to this house, and they dare not tell to 
 their neighbor who stands by their side what is the 
 loathsomeness that even now doth breed upon their 
 frame. And yet they will go back to the same lusts ; 
 the fool will go again to the stocks, the sheep will 
 lick the knife that is to slay him. You will go on in 
 your lust and in your sins, despite warnings, despite 
 advice, until you perish in your guilt. How worse 
 than children are grown-up men ! Tlie child who 
 goes for a merry slide upon a pond, if he be told that 
 the ice will not bear him, starteth back afi'righted, 
 or if he daringly creepeth upon it, how soon he leaves 
 it, it* he hears but a crack upon the slender covering 
 of the water ! But you men have conscience, which 
 tells you that your sins are vile, and that they will 
 be your ruin ; you hear the crack of sin, as its thin 
 sheet of pleasure gives way beneath your feet ; aye, 
 
114 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 and some of you have seen jonr comrades sink in tlie 
 flood, and lost ; and yet ye go sliding on, worse than 
 childish, worse than mad are you, thus presumptu- 
 ously to play with your own everlasting state. O my 
 God, how terrible is the presumption of some ! How 
 fearful is presumption in any ! Oh ! that we might 
 be enabled to cry, " Keep back thv servant also from 
 presumptuous sins." 
 
 OH ! ye kind and affectionate hearts, who are not 
 rich in wealth, but who are rich in love — and 
 that is the world's best wealth — put this golden coin 
 among your silver ones, and it will sanctify them. Get 
 Christ's love shed abroad in your hearts, and your 
 mother's love, your daughter's love, your husband's 
 love, your wife's love, will become more sweet than 
 ever. The love of Christ casts not out the love of re- 
 latives, but it sanctifies our loves, and makes them 
 sweeter far. Remember the love of men and women 
 is very sweet ; but all must pass away ; and what 
 will you do, if you have no wealth but the wealth 
 that fadeth, and no love but the love which dies, when 
 death shall come ? Oh ! to have the love of Christ ! 
 You can take that across the river of death with you ; 
 you can wear it as your bracelet in heaven, and set it 
 up as a seal upon your hand ; for his love is " strong as 
 death and mightier than the grave." 
 
8PURGE0N S GEMS. 115 
 
 BEHOLD, him wliom tliou canst not behold ! Lift 
 np thine ejes to the seventh heaven ; see where, 
 in dreadful majesty, the brightness of his skirts makes 
 the angels veil their faces, lest the light, too strong 
 for even them, should smite them with eternal blind- 
 ness. See ye him, who stretched the heavens like a 
 tent to dwell in, and then did weave into their tapes- 
 try, with golden needle, stars that glitter in the dark- 
 ness. Mark ye him who spread the earth, and 
 created man upon it. And hear ye what he is. He 
 is all-sufficient, eternal, self-existent, unchangeable, 
 omnipotent, omniscient ! Wilt thou not reverence 
 him? He is good, he is loving, he is kind, he is 
 gracious ! See the bounties of his providence ; be- 
 hold the plenitude of his grace ! Wilt thou not love 
 Jehovah, because he is Jehovah ? 
 
 r' seems too costly for him who is the Prince of 
 Life and Glory to let his fair limbs be tortured in 
 agony ; that the hands which carried mercies should 
 be pierced with accursed nails; that the temples 
 that were always clothed with love should have, cruel 
 thorns driven through them. It apjDcars too much. 
 Oh ! weep. Christian, and let our sorrow rise. Is not 
 the price all but too great, that your beloved should 
 for you resign himself? 
 
116 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 IT is marvellous that the men who most of all rail 
 at faith are remarkable for credulity. One of the 
 greatest unbelievers in the world, who has called 
 himself a free-thinker from his birth, is to be found 
 now tottering into his tomb, believing the veriest ab- 
 surdity that a child might confute, l^ot caring to 
 have God in their hearts, forsaking the living foun- 
 tain, they have hewn out to themselves cisterns which 
 are broken, and hold no water. Oh ! that we may 
 each of us be more wise, that we may not forsake the 
 good old path, nor leave the way that God hath pre- 
 pared for us. What wonder we should travel 
 amongst thorns and briars, and rend our own fleshy 
 or worse than that, fall among dark mountains, and 
 be lost amongst the chasms thereof, if we despise 
 the guidance of an unerring Father. 
 
 ACUE'OT^N'G enemy we have to deal with ; he 
 knows our weak points ; he has been dealing 
 with men for these last six thousand years ; he knows 
 all about them. He is possessed of a gigantic intellect ; 
 though he be a fallen spirit ; and he is easily able to 
 discover where our sore places are, and there it is he 
 immediately attacks us. If we be like Achilles, and 
 cannot be wounded anywhere but in our heel, then 
 at the heel he will send his dart, and nowhere else. 
 
SPURGEON S GEMS. 117 
 
 THERE are some that are like what is fabled of the 
 swan. The ancients said the swan never sang in 
 his life-time, but always sang just when he die^. 
 ]^ow, there are many of God's desponding children, 
 who seem to go all their life under a cloud ; but they 
 get a swan's song before they die. The river of their 
 life comes running down, perhaps black and miry 
 with troubles, and when it begins to touch the white 
 foam of the sea there comes a little glistening in its 
 waters. So, beloved, though we may have been very 
 much dispirited by reason of the burden of the way, 
 when we get to the end we shall have sweet songs. 
 Are you afraid of dying ? Oh ! never be afraid of 
 that ; be afraid of living. Living is the only thing 
 which can do any mischief; dying never can hurt a 
 Christian. Afraid of the grave ? It is like the bath 
 of Esther, in which she lay for a time, to purify her- 
 self with spices, that she might be fit for her lord. 
 Tlie grave fits the body for heaven. There it lieth : 
 and corruption, earth, and worms, do but refine and 
 purify our flesh. Be not afraid of dying ; it does not 
 take any time at all. All that death is, is emancipa- 
 tion, deliverance, heaven's bliss to a child of God. 
 ISTever fear it ; it will be a singing time. You are 
 afraid of dying, you say, because of the pains of 
 death. Nay, they are the pains of life — of life strug- 
 gling to continue. Death has no pain ; death itself 
 
118 SPURGEON S GEMS. 
 
 is but one gentle sigh — the fetter is broken, and the 
 spirit fled. The best moment of a Christian's life is 
 hffe last one, because it is the one that is nearest hea- 
 ven ; and then it is that he begins to strike the key- 
 note of the song which he shall sing to all eternity. 
 
 IT may be, that during a sermon two men are listen- 
 ing to the same truth ; one of them hears as atten- 
 tively as the other and remembers as much of it ; the 
 other is melted to tears or moved with solemn 
 thoughts ; but the one though equally attentive, sees 
 nothing in the sermon, except, may be, certain impor- 
 tant truths well set forth ; as for the other, his heart is 
 broken within him and his soul is melted. Ask me 
 how it is that the same truth has an effect upon the 
 one, and not upon his fellow : I reply, because the 
 mysterious Spirit of the living God goes with the 
 truth to one heart and not to the other. The one only 
 feels the force of truth, and that may be strong 
 enough to make him tremble, like Felix; but the 
 other feels the Spirit going with the truth, and that 
 renews the man, regenerates him, and causes him to 
 pass into that gracious condition which is called the 
 state of salvation. This change takes place instanta- 
 neously. It is as miraculous a change as any miracle 
 of which we read in Scripture. It is supremely 
 
spttrgeon's gemb. 119 
 
 supernatural. It may be mimicked, but no imita- 
 tion of it can be true and real. Men may pretend 
 to be regenerated without the Spirit, but regene- 
 rated they cannot be. It is a change so marvellous 
 that the highest attempts of man can never reach it. 
 We may reason as long as we please, but we cannot 
 reason ourselves into regeneration ; w^e may meditate 
 till our hairs are grey with study ; but we cannot me- 
 ditate ourselves into the new birth. That is worked 
 in us by the sovereign will of God alone. 
 
 MAEK ANTONY yoked two lions to his chariot ; 
 but there are two lions no man ever yoked to- 
 gether yet — the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the 
 lion of tlie pit. These can never go together. Two 
 opinions you may hold in politics, perhaps, but then 
 you will be despised by everybody, unless you are of 
 one opinion or the other, and act as an independent 
 man. But two opinions in the matter of soul-religion 
 you cannot hold. K God be God, serve him, and do 
 it thoroughly ; but if this world be God, serve it, and 
 make no profession of religion. If you are a world- 
 ling, and think the things of the world the best, serve 
 them ; devote yourself to them, do not be kept back 
 by conscience ; spite your conscience, and run into 
 sin. But remember, if the Lord be your God, you 
 
120 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 cannot have Baal too ; jon must have one thing or 
 else the other. " 'No man can serve two masters^ If 
 God be served, he will be a master ; and if the devil 
 be served, he will not be long before he will be a 
 master ; and " ye cannot serve two mastersP Oh ! 
 be wise, and think not that the two can be mingled 
 together. 
 
 IF God be really worthy of worship, and yon really 
 think so, I demand that yon either follow him, or 
 else deny that he is God at all. [N'ow, professor, if 
 thou sayest that Christ's gospel is the gospel, if thou 
 believest in the divinity of the gospel, and puttest 
 thy trust in Christ, I demand of thee to follow out 
 the gospel, not merely because it will be to thy 
 advantage, but because the gospel is divine. If thou 
 makest a profession of being a child of God, if thou 
 art a believer, and thinkest and believest religion is 
 the best, the service of God the most desirable, I do 
 not come to plead with thee because of any advan- 
 tage thou wouldst get by being holy ; it is en this 
 ground that I put it, that the Lord is God ; and if he 
 be God, it is thy business to serve him. If his gospel 
 be true, and thou believest it to be true, it is thy 
 duty to carry it out. If thou sayest, Christ is not 
 the Son of God, carry out thy Jewish or thy infidel 
 convictions, and see whether it will end well. K 
 
spukgeon's gems. 121 
 
 thou dost not believe Christ to be tlie Son of God, 
 if tlion art a Mahometan, be consistent, carry out thy 
 Mahometan convictions, and see whether it will end 
 well. But, take heed, take heed ! K however, thou 
 sayest God is God, and Christ the Saviour, and the 
 gospel true ; I demand of thee, only on this account, 
 that thou carry it out. 
 
 
 
 CIIILDEE:N' of God ! death hath lost its sting, 
 because the devil's power over it is destroyed. 
 Then cease to fear dying. Thou knowest what 
 death is : look him in the face, and tell him thou 
 art not afraid of him. Ask grace from God, that 
 by an intimate knowledge and a firm belief of thy 
 master's death, thou mayest be strengthened for 
 that dread hour. And mark me, if thou so livest, 
 thou mayest be able to think of death with pleasure, 
 and to welcome it when it comes with intense de- 
 light. It is sweet to die : to lie upon the breast of 
 Christ, and have one's soul kissed out of one's body 
 by the lips of divine afFectioii. And you that have 
 lost friends, or that may be bereaved, sorrow not as 
 those that are without hope ; for remember the 
 power of the devil is taken away. What a sweet 
 thought the death of Christ brings us concerning 
 those who are departed ! They are gone, my 
 
 6 
 
122 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 brethren ; but do you know how far they have 
 gone ? The distance between the glorified spirits 
 in heaven and the militant saints on earth seems 
 great ; but it is not so. We are not far from home. 
 
 " One gentle sigh the spirit breaks, 
 
 We scarce can say 'tis gone, 
 
 Before the ransomed spirit takes 
 
 Its station near the throne." 
 
 We measure distance by time. We are apt to say 
 that a certain place is so many hours from us. K it 
 is a hundred miles off and there is no railroad we 
 think it a long way ; if there is a railway, we think 
 w^e can be tliere in no time. But how near must we 
 say heaven is ? For it is j ust one sigh and we get 
 there. Why, my brethren, our departed friends are 
 only in the upper room, as it were, of the same house ; 
 they have not gone far off ; they are up stairs, and 
 we are down below. 
 
 IT is said that where the most beautiful cacti grow, 
 there the venomous serpents are to be foimd at 
 the root of every plant. And it is so with sin. Your 
 fairest pleasures will harbor your grossest sins. Take 
 care ; take care of your pleasures. Cleopatra's asp 
 was introduced in a basket of flowers ; so are our sins 
 often brought to us in the flowers of our pleasures . 
 
SPrRGEON S GEMS. 123 
 
 GOD, the Aliniglity, though he might use intru- 
 ments, was nevertheless the sole creator of man. 
 Though he is pleased to bring us into the world by 
 the agency of our progenitors, yet is he as much our 
 Creator as he was the Creator of Adam, when he 
 formed him of clay and made him man. Look at 
 this marvellous body of thine : see how God hath put 
 the bones together, so as to be of the greatest service 
 and use to thee. See how he hath arranged thy nerves 
 and blood-vessels; mark the marvellous machinery 
 which he has employed to keep thee in life ! O thing 
 of an hour ! wilt thou not love him that made thee ? 
 Is it possible that thou canst think of him who formed 
 thee in his hand, and molded thee by his will, and 
 yet wilt thou not love him who hath fashioned thee ? 
 
 YOU may think to live very well without Christ, 
 but you cannot afford to die without him. You 
 can stand very securely at present, but death will 
 shake your confidence. Your tree may be fair now, 
 but when the wind comes, if it has not its roots in the 
 Kock of Ages, down it must come. You may think 
 your worldly pleasures good, but they will then turn 
 bitter as wormwood in your taste ; worse than gall 
 shall be the daintiest of your drinks, when you shall 
 come to the bottom of your poisoned bowl. 
 
124: spuegeon's gems. 
 
 IVrO inferior hand liath sketched even so mnch as 
 -1-1 the most minute parts of providence. It was 
 all, from its Alpha to its Omega, from its divine pre- 
 face to its solemn finis, marked out, designed, sketched 
 and planned by the mind of the all-wise, all-knowing 
 God. Hence, not even Christ's death was exempt 
 from it. He that wings an angel and guides a spar- 
 row, he that protects the hairs of our head from fall- 
 ing prematurely to the ground, was not likely, when 
 he took notice of such little things, to omit in his 
 solemn decrees the greatest wonder of earth's mira- 
 cles, the death of Christ. JSTo ; the blood-stained page 
 of that book, the page which makes both past and 
 future glorious with golden words — that blood-stained 
 page, I say, was as much written of Jehovah as any 
 
 other. 
 
 •-♦-• — " 
 
 YOU may well conceive how swiftly the mariner 
 flies from a threatening storm, or seeks the port 
 where he will find his home. You have sometimes 
 seen how the ship cuts through the billows, leaving 
 a white furrow behind her, and causing the sea to 
 boil around her. Such is life, says Job, " like the 
 swift ships," when the sails are filled by the wind, and 
 the vessel dashes on, dividing a passage through the 
 crowded water. Swift are the ships, but swifter far 
 is life. The wind of time bears me along. I cannot 
 
8PUEGE0N S GEMS. 125 
 
 stop its motion ; I may direct it with the rudder of 
 God's Holy Spirit; I may, it is true, take in some 
 small sails of sin, which might hnrry my days on 
 faster than otherwise they would go ; but neverthe- 
 less, like a swift ship, my life must speed on its way 
 until it reaches its haven. Where is that haven to 
 be ? Shall it be found in the land of bitterness and 
 barrenness, that dreary region of the lost? Or shall 
 it be that sweet haven of eternal peace, where not a 
 troubling wave can ruffle the quiescent glory of my 
 spirit ? Wherever the haven is to be, that truth is 
 the same, we are " like the swift ships." 
 
 TIIEEE is one great event, which every day at- 
 tracts more admiration than do the sun, and 
 moon, and stars, when they march in their courses. 
 That event is, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. To 
 it the eyes of all the saints who lived before the 
 Christian era were always directed ; and backwards, 
 through the thousand years of history, the eyes of all 
 modern saints are looking. Upon Christ, the angels 
 in heaven perpetually gaze. "Which things the 
 angels desire to look into," said the apostle. Upon 
 Christ, the myriad eyes of the redeemed are perpetu- 
 ally fixed ; and thousands of pilgrims, through this 
 world of tears, have no higher object for their faith, 
 
126 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 and no better desire for their vision, than to see Christ 
 as he is in heaven, and in communion to behold his 
 person. Beloved, we shall have many with ns, whi]st 
 we turn our face to the Mount of Calvary. We shall 
 not be solitary spectators of the fearful tragedy of our 
 Saviour's death : we shall but dart our eyes to that 
 place which is the focus of heaven's joy and delight, 
 the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 HAPPY is the nation which is blessed with the 
 means of grace. 'No man was ever saved by 
 the means of grace apart from the Holy Spirit. You 
 may hear the sermons of the man whom God delight- 
 eth to honor ; ye may select from all your divines the 
 writings of the man whom God did bless with a double 
 portion of his Holy Spirit ; ye may attend every meet- 
 ing for prayer ; ye may turn over the leaves of this 
 blessed book ; but in all this, there is no life for the 
 soul apart from the bi'eath of the Divine Spirit. Use 
 these means, we exhort you to use them, and use 
 them diligently ; but recollect that in none of these 
 means is there anything that can benefit you unless 
 God the Holy Spirit shall own and crown them. 
 These are like tlie conduit pipes of the market place ; 
 when the fountain-head floweth with water then they 
 are full, and we do derive a blessing from them ; but 
 
spuegeon's gems. 127 
 
 if ihe stream be stayed, if the fountain head doth 
 cease to give forth its current, then these are wells 
 without water, clouds without rain ; and ye may go 
 to ordinances as an Arab turns to his skin bottle 
 when it is dry, and with your parched lips ye may 
 Buck the wind and drink the whirlwind, but receive 
 neither comfort, nor blessing, nor instruction, from 
 the means of grace. 
 
 IF little things have done great things, let us try to 
 do great things also. You know not, ye atoms, 
 but that your destiny is sublime. Try and make it 
 so by faith ; and the least of you may be mighty 
 through the strength of God. Oh for grace to trust 
 God, and there is no telling what ye can do. 
 "Worms, ye are nothing, but ye have eaten princes ; 
 worms, ye are nothing, but ye have devoured the 
 roots of cedars, and laid them level with the earth ; 
 worms, ye are nothing, but ye have piled rocks in 
 the deep, deep sea, and wrecked mighty navies ; 
 worms, ye have eaten through the keel of the 
 proudest ship that ever sailed the ocean. K ye have 
 done this yourselves, what cannot we do? your 
 strength lies in your mouths ; our strength lies in ours 
 too. We will use our mouths in prayer, and in con- 
 stant adoration, and we shall conquer yet, for God is 
 with us, and victory is sure. 
 
128 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 IT would be presumption for any man to climb to 
 tlie top of the spire of a cliurcli, and stand npon 
 his head. " Well, but he might come down safe if 
 he were skilled in it." Yes, but it is presumptuous. 
 I would no more think of subscribing a farthing to a 
 man's ascent in a balloon, than I would to a poor 
 wretch cutting his own throat. I would no more 
 think of standing and gazing at any man who puts 
 his life in a position of peril, than I would of paying 
 a man to blow his brains out. I think such things, 
 if not murders, are murderous. There is suicide in 
 men's risking themselves in that way ; and if there 
 be suicide in the risk of the body, how much more 
 in the case of a man who puts his own soul in 
 jeopardy just because he thinks he has strength of 
 mind enough to prevent its being ruined and 
 destroyed. Sir, your sin is a sin of presumption ; it 
 is a great and grievous one ; it is one of the master- 
 pieces of iniquity. 
 
 WHILST thou hast a rag of thine own thou shalt 
 never have Christ ; whilst thou hast a farthing 
 of thine own righteousness, thou shalt never have him ; 
 but when thou art nothing, Christ is thine ; when 
 thou hast nothing of thyself to trust to, Jesus Christ 
 in the gospel is thy complete Saviour ; he bids me 
 tell thee he came to seek and to save such as thou art. 
 
SPUEGEON 8 GEMS. 129 
 
 THEEE is no difference, by nature, between the 
 elect and others : those who are now glorified in 
 heaven, and who walk the golden streets, clad in 
 robes of purity, were by nature as unholy and de- 
 filed, and as far from original righteousness, as those 
 who, by their own rejection of Christ, and by their 
 love of sin, have brought themselves into the pit of 
 eternal torment, as a punishment for their iniquities. 
 The only reason why there is a difference between 
 those who are in heaven and those who are in hell, 
 rests with divine grace, and with divine grace alone. 
 Those in heaven must inevitably have been cast 
 away, had not everlasting mercy stretched out its 
 hand and redeemed them. They were by nature 
 not one whit superior to others. Tliey would as 
 certainly have rejected Christ, and have trodden 
 under foot the blood of Jesus, as did those who were 
 cast away, if grace — free grace — ^liad not prevented 
 them from committing this sin. The reason why 
 they are Christians is not because they did naturally 
 will to be so, nor because they did by nature desire 
 to know Christ, or to be found of him ; but they are 
 now saints simply because God made them so. He 
 gave them the desire to be saved ; he put into them 
 the will to seek after him ; he helped them in their 
 seekings, and afterward brought them to feel that 
 peace which is the fruit of justification. But by 
 
 6* 
 
130 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 nature they were just the same as others ; and if 
 there is any difference, we are obliged to say that 
 the difference does not lie in their favor. In very 
 many cases, we who now "rejoice in hope of the 
 glory of God" were the very worst of men. There 
 are multitudes that now bless God for their redemp- 
 tion who once cursed him; who implored, as fre- 
 quently as they dare to do, with oaths and swearing, 
 that the curse of God might rest upon their fellows 
 and upon themselves. Many of the Lord's anointed 
 were once the very castaways of Satan, the sweep- 
 ings of society, the refuse of the earth, those whom 
 no man cares for — who were called outcasts, but 
 whom God hath now called desired ones, seeing he 
 hath loved them. 
 
 DOUBT the Eternal, distrust the Omnipotent? 
 O traitorous fear ! thinkest thou that the arm 
 wdiich piled the heavens, and sustains the pillars of 
 the earth, shall ever be palsied? Shall the brow 
 which eternal ages have rolled over without scathing 
 it, at last be furrowed by old age ? What ! shall the 
 Eternal fail thee ? God is too wise to err, too good 
 to be unkind ; leave off doubting him, and begin to 
 trust him, for in so doing, thou wilt put a crown 
 on his head, but in doubting him thou dost trample 
 his crown beneath thy feet. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 131 
 
 KEEP prayer going ; do not neglect your prayer 
 meetings. Christmas Evans gives us a good 
 idea about prayer. He says, " Prayer is the rope 
 in the belfry ; we pull it, and it rings the bell up in, 
 heaven." And so it is. Mind you keep that bell 
 going. Pull it well. Come up to prayer meetings. 
 Keep on pulling it ; and though the bell is up so 
 high that you cannot hear it ring, depend upon it it 
 can be heard in the tower of heaven, and is ringing 
 before the throne of God, who will give you answers 
 of peace according to your faith. May your faith 
 be large and plentiful, and so will your answers be ! 
 
 THEPE is enough tinder in the heart of the best 
 men in the world to light a fire that shall burn 
 to the lowest hell, unless God should quench the 
 sparks as they fall. There is enough corruption, 
 depravity, and wickedness in the heart of the most 
 holy man that is now alive to damn his soul to all 
 eternity, if free and sovereign grace does not pre- 
 vent. O Christian ! thou hast need to pray this 
 prayer. But I think I hear you saying, "Is thy 
 servant a dog that I should do this thing ?" So 
 said Hazael, when the prophet told him that he 
 would slay his master ; but he went home, and took 
 a wet cloth and spread it over his master's face and 
 choked him, and did the next da}^ the sin which he 
 
132 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 abliorred before. Think it not enough to abhor sin ; 
 you may yet fall into it. Say not "I never can be 
 drunken, for I have such an abhorrence of drunken- 
 ness ;" thoLi may est fall where thou art most secure. 
 Say not " I can never blaspheme God, for I have 
 never done so in my life ;" take care, you may yet 
 swear most profanely. Job might have said, '' I will 
 never curse the day of my birth ;" but he lived to do 
 it. He was a patient man ; he might have said, " I 
 will never murmur ; though he slay me yet will I 
 trust in him ;" and yet he lived to wish that the day 
 were darkness wherein he was brought forth. Boast 
 not then, O Christian !_ by faith thou standest. '' Let 
 him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
 fall." 
 
 ¥E never read that Joshua's hand was weary 
 with wielding the sword, but Moses' hand was 
 weary with holding the rod. The more spiritual the 
 duty, the more apt we are to tire of it. We could 
 stand and preach all day ; but we could not pray all 
 day. We could go forth to see the sick all day, but 
 we could not be in our closets all day one half so 
 easily. To spend a night with God in prayer would 
 be far more difficult than to sj)end a night with man 
 in preaching. Oh ! take care, take care. Church of 
 Christ, that thou dost not cease thy prayei's J 
 
spurgeon's gems. 133 
 
 Al^GELS had been present on many angust occa- 
 sions, and they had joined in many a solemn 
 chorus to the praise of their Ahniglity Creator. They 
 were present at the creation : " The morning stars 
 sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
 joy." They had seen many a planet fashioned be- 
 tween the palms of Jeliovah, and wheeled by his 
 eternal hands through the infinitude of space. They 
 had sung solemn songs over many a world wliich the 
 Great One had created. We doubt not, thev had 
 often chanted " Blessing and honor, and glory, and 
 majesty, and power, and dominion, and might, be 
 unto him that sitteth on the throne," manifesting 
 himself in the work of creation. I doubt not, too, 
 tliat their songs had gathered force through ages. 
 As when first created, their first breath was song, so 
 when they.saw God create new worlds else their song 
 received another note ; they rose a little higher in 
 the gamut of adoration. But this time, when they 
 saw God stoop from his throne, and become a babe, 
 hanging upon a woman's breast, they lifted their 
 notes higher still ; and reaching to the uttermost 
 stretch of angelic music, they gained the highest 
 notes of the divine scale of praise, and they sung, 
 " Glory to God in the highest^'' for higher in good- 
 ness they felt God could not go. Thus their highest 
 praise they gave to him in the highest act of his god- 
 
134 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 head. K it be true that there is a hierarchy of 
 angels rising tier upon tier in magnificence and dig- 
 nity — if the apostle teaches ns that there be " angels, 
 and princij^alities, and powers, and thrones, and do- 
 minions," amongst these blest inhabitants of the 
 upper world — ^I can suppose that when the intelli- 
 gence was first communicated to those angels that 
 are to be found upon the outskirts of the heavenly 
 world, when they looked down from heaven and saw 
 the new-bom babe, they sent the news backward to 
 the place whence the miracle first proceeded, singing 
 
 " Angels from the realms of glory, 
 
 Wing your downward flight to earth, 
 
 Ye who sing creation's story, 
 Now proclaim Messiah's birth ; / 
 
 Come and worship, 
 
 Worship Christ, the new-born King." 
 
 A.nd as the message ran from rank to rank, at last the 
 presence angels, those four cherubim that perpetually 
 watch around the throne of God — those wheels with 
 eyes — took up the strain, and gathering up the song 
 of all the inferior grades of angels, surmounted the 
 divine pinnacle of harmony with their own solemn 
 chant of adoration, upon which the entire host shouted, 
 " The highest angels praise thee." — " Glory to God in 
 the higliest." Aye, there is no mortal that can ever 
 dream how magnificent was that song. Tlien, note, 
 
spukgeon's gems. 135 
 
 if angels shouted before and wlien the world was 
 made, their hallelujahs were more full, more strong, 
 more magnificent, if not more hearty, when they saw 
 Jesus Christ born of the Yirgin Mary to be man's 
 redeemer — " Glory to God in the highest." 
 
 THE Bible is a vein of pure gold, unalloyed by 
 quartz, or any earthly substance. This is a star 
 without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light with 
 out darkness ; a moon without its paleness ; a glory 
 without a dimness. Bible ! it cannot be said of 
 any other book, that it is perfect and pure ; but of 
 thee we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in 
 thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge 
 tliat ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This 
 is the book untainted by any error ; but is pure, un- 
 alloyed, perfect truth. 
 
 ¥E too often flog the church when the whip 
 should be laid on our own shoulders. We 
 drag the church, like a colossal culprit, to the altar ; 
 we bind her, and try to execute her at once ; we 
 bind her hands fast, and tear off thongful after 
 thongful of her quivering flesh — finding fault with 
 her where there is none, and magnifying her little 
 errors ; while we too often forget ourselves. 
 
136 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 LOOK on the sleeper. Hq has been weary ; he 
 hath toiled all day long ; but there is no weari- 
 ness now. He breathes softly, sometimes a dream 
 may disturb him, but he is not weary ; he is resting 
 in the unconsciousness of slumber. It is often pleas- 
 ing to look upon the face of a weary sleeper. Have 
 ye never passed along a country lane, and there, by 
 the road-side, seen the harvest-man, as he is resting 
 awhile from his toils, laid down upon the bank ? 
 "What a heavy sleep he has, and what a blessed 
 smile there is on his countenance while he is enjoy- 
 ing that rest ! Such is the natural sleep of the 
 body ; and is not this sleep of death a resting after 
 toil ? The poor limbs are weary ; they are now 
 stretched in the grave, and covered over with the 
 green sod, that they may not hear the noise above 
 their heads, nor be disturbed by the busy din. 
 They are put in their quiet abodes, down deep there 
 in the earth, that none may alarm them ; and now 
 let the cannon roar o'er their tomb, let the thunder 
 shake the sky, let the liglitning flash, no sight nor 
 sound can startle them, or cause them dreams. In 
 such still chambers of retirement, their troubles now 
 are o'er: "There the wicked cease from troubling, 
 and there the weary be at rest." Tlie body has 
 gone through its battle ; the warrior sleeps, the con- 
 queror rests; his brow shall soon be decked with 
 
spttegeon's gems. 137 
 
 laurels ; the very b]'ow which now slumbers in the 
 tomb awhile shall yet rise again to wear the crown 
 of everlasting life ; but now it rests awhile till the 
 preparations are complete for the triumphant entry 
 into the kingdom of God, when Christ shall come to 
 receive body and soul into their everlasting resting- 
 place. 
 
 •-♦-• — 
 
 I DO think that one of the worst sins a man can be 
 guilty of in this world is to be idle. I can almost 
 forgive a drunkard, but a lazy man I do think there 
 is very little pardon for. I think a man who is idle 
 has as good a reason to be a penitent before God as 
 David had when he was an adulterer, for the most 
 abominable thing in the world is for a man to let the 
 grass grow up to his ankles and do nothing. God 
 never sent a man into the world to be idle. And 
 there are some who make a tolerably fair profession, 
 but who do nothing from one year's end to the other. 
 
 S ATA IN" is a fowler ; he has been so and is so still ; 
 and if he does not now attack us as the roaring 
 lion, roaring against us in persecution, he attacks us 
 as the adder, creeping silently along the path, en- 
 deavoring to bite our heel with his poisoned fangs, 
 and weaken the power of grace and ruin the life of 
 godliness within us. 
 
138 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 DEATH is a part of Satan's dominion ; lie brought 
 sin into the world when he tempted our mother 
 Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, and with sin he 
 brought also death into the world, with all its train 
 of woes. There had been likely no death, if there 
 had been no devil. If Satan had not tempted, may- 
 hap man had not revolted, and if he had not re- 
 volted, he would have lived forever, without having 
 to undergo the painful change which is caused by 
 death. I think death is the devil's masterpiece. 
 "With the solitary exception of hell, death is cer- 
 tainly the most Satanic mischief that sin hath ac- 
 complished. IS^othing ever delighted the heart of 
 the devil so much as when he found that the threat- 
 ening would be fulfilled, " In the day that thou 
 eatest thereof thou shalt surely die ;" and never was 
 his malicious heart so full of hellish joy as when he 
 saw Abel stretched upon the earth, slain by the club 
 of his brother. " Aha !" said Satan, " this is the first 
 of all intelligent creatures that has died. Oh, how I 
 rejoice ! This is the crowning hour of my dominion. 
 It is true that I have marred the glory of this 
 earth by my guileful temptation ; it is true the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth in pain by reason 
 of the evil that I have brought into it; but this, 
 this is my masterpiece ; I have killed man ; I have 
 brought death into him, and here lieth the first — the 
 
spuegeon's gems. '" 139 
 
 first dead man." Since that time Satan hatii ever 
 gloated over the death of the human race, and he 
 hath had some canse of glory, for that death has 
 been universal. All have died. Tliongh they had 
 been wise as Solomon, their wisdom could not spare 
 their head ; though they had been virtuous as Moses, 
 yet their virtue could not avert the axe. All have 
 died: and therefore the devil hath boasted in his 
 triumph. But twice hath he been defeated ; but two 
 have entered heaven without dying ; but the mass 
 of mankind have had to feel the scythe of death ; 
 and he has rejoiced because this, his mightiest work, 
 has had foundations broad as earth, and a summit 
 that reached as high as the virtues of mankind could 
 climb. 
 
 i^ r\H !" cries one, " I wish I could escape the wrath 
 \j of the law ! Oh that I knew that Christ did 
 keep the law for me !" Stop, then, and I will tell 
 you. Do you feel to-day that you are guilty, lost, and 
 ruined ? Do you, with tears in your eyes, confess that 
 none but Jesus can do you good ? Are you willing 
 to give up all trusts, and cast yourself alone on him 
 who died upon the cross ? Can you look to Calvary, 
 and see the bleeding sufferer, all crimson with streams 
 of gore ? Then he kept the law for you, and the law 
 cannot condemn whom Christ has absolved. 
 
140 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 'VTC)NE of you can be tlie people of God without 
 --^ provoking envy ; and tlie better you are, tlie 
 more you will be bated. The ripest fruit is most 
 pecked by the birds, and the blossoms that have 
 been longest on the tree, are the most easily blown 
 down by the wind. But fear not ; you have naught 
 to do with what man shall say of you. If God loves 
 you, man will hate you ; if God honors you, man 
 wdll dishonor you. But recollect, could ye w^ear 
 chains of iron for Christ's sake, ye should wear 
 chains of gold in heaven ; could ye have rings of 
 burning iron round your waists, ye should have 
 your brow rimmed with gold in glory ; for blessed 
 are ye when men shall say all manner of evil against 
 you falsely, for Christ's name's sake ; for so per- 
 secuted they the prophets that were before you. 
 
 DOTH the moon stay herself to lecture every dog 
 that bayeth at her ? Doth the lion turn aside 
 to rend each cur that barketh at him ? Do the stars 
 cease to shine because the nightingales reprove 
 them for their dimness ? Doth the sun stop in its 
 course because of the officious cloud which veils it ? 
 Or doth the river stay because the willow dipeth its 
 leaves into its waters ? Ah ! no ; God's universe 
 moves on, and if men will oppose it, it heeds them 
 
spurgeon's gems. 141 
 
 not. It is as God liatli made it ; it is working toge- 
 ther for good, and it shall not be stayed hy the 
 censure nor moved on by the praise of man. Let 
 your bows, my brethren, abide. Do not be in a 
 hurry to set yourselves right. God will take care of 
 you. Leave yourselves alone ; only be very valiant 
 for the Lord God of Israel ; be steadfast in the truth 
 of Jesus and your bow shall abide. 
 
 CHRIST made the covenant to pay a price, and 
 God made the covenant that he should have the 
 people. Christ has paid the price and ratified the 
 covenant ; and I am quite sure that God will fulfill 
 his part of it, by giving every elect vessel of mercy 
 into the hands of Jesus. But all the power, all the 
 grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the com- 
 forts, all the things we have, we have through the 
 covenant. If there were no covenant ; if we could 
 rend the everlasting charter up ; if the king of hell 
 could cut it with his knife, as the king of Israel did 
 the roll of Baruck, then we should fail indeed : for 
 we have no strength, except that which is promised 
 in the covenant. Covenant mercies, covenant grace, 
 covenant promises, covenant blessings, covenant help, 
 covenant everything — the Christian must receive, if 
 he would enter into heaven. 
 
142 spijegeon's gems. 
 
 YE have lost your friends some of you, ye liave 
 planted flowers upon their tombs, ye go and sit 
 at eventide upon the greensward, bedewing the 
 grass with your tears, for there your mother lies, and 
 there your father or your wife. Oh ! in pensive sor- 
 row come with me to this dark garden of our 
 Saviour's burial ; come to the grave of your best 
 friend — ^your brother, yea, one who " sticketh closer 
 than a brother." Come thou to the grave of thy 
 dearest relative, O Christian, for Jesus is thy hus- 
 band, " Thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of Hosts 
 is his name." Doth not affection draw you? Do 
 not the sweet lips of love woo you ? Is not the place 
 sanctified where one so well-beloved slept, although 
 but for a moment ? Surely ye need no eloquence ; 
 if it were needed I have none. I have but the power, 
 in simple, but earnest accents, to repeat the words, 
 " Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
 
 ii /^0!ME, see the place where the Lord lay." 
 V^ Surely ye need no argument to move your feet 
 in the direction of the holy sepulchre ; but still we 
 will use the utmost power to draw your spirit thither. 
 Come, then, for His the shrine of greatness^ 'tis the 
 resting-place of the man^ the Restorer of our race, the 
 Conqueror of death and hell. Men will travel hun- 
 
SPTJEGEON S GEMS. 143 
 
 dreds of miles to behold tlie place where a poet first 
 breathed the air of earth ; they will journey to the an- 
 cient tombs of mighty heroes, or the graves of men 
 renowned by fame ; but whither shall the Christian go 
 to find the grave of one so famous as was Jesus ? Ask 
 me the greatest man who ever lived — I tell you the 
 man Christ Jesus was " anointed with the oil of glad- 
 ness above his fellows." If ye seek a chamber hon- 
 ored as the resting-place of Jesus, turn in hither ; if ye 
 would worship at the grave of holiness, come ye 
 here ; if ye would see the hallowed spot where the 
 choicest bones that e'er were fashioned lay for 
 awhile, come with me. Christian, to that quiet gar- 
 den, hard by the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 WHEI^r no eye seeth you except the eye of God, 
 when darkness covers you, when you are shut 
 up from the observation of mortals, even then be ye 
 like Jesus Christ. Kemember his ardent piety, his 
 secret devotion — ^hoAV, after laboriously preaching 
 the whole day, he stole away in the midnight shades 
 to cry for help from his God. Recollect how his en- 
 tire life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations 
 of the Holy Spirit, derived by prayer. Take care of 
 your secret life : let it be such that you will not be 
 ashamed to read at the last great day. 
 
144 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 VOLTAIKE said he lived in the twilight of Christ- 
 ianity. He meant a lie ; he spoke the truth. 
 He did live in its twilight ; but it was the twilight 
 before the morning — not the twilight of the evening, 
 as he meant to say; for the morning comes, when 
 the light of the sun shall break njDon us in its truest 
 glory. The scorners have said that we should soon 
 forget to honor Christ, and that one day no man 
 should acknowledge him. " His name shall endure 
 forever," as to the honor of it. Yes, I will tell you 
 how long it will endure. As long as on this earth 
 there is a sinner who has been reclaimed by omnipo- 
 tent grace, Christ's name shall endure ; as long as 
 there is a Mary ready to wash his feet with tears and 
 wipe them with the hair of her head ; as long as 
 there breathes a chief of sinners who has washed 
 himself in the fountain opened for sin and for un- 
 cleanness ; as long as there exists a Christian who 
 has put his faith in Jesus, and found him his delight, 
 his refuge, his stay, his shield, his song, and his joy, 
 there will be no fear that Jesus' name will cease to 
 be heard. "We can never give up that name. We 
 let the Unitarian take the gospel without a godhead 
 in it ; we let him deny Jesus Christ ; but as long as 
 Christians, true Christians, live, as long as we taste 
 that the Lord is gracious, have manifestations of his 
 love, sights of his face, whispers of his mercy, assur- 
 
spurgeon's gems. 145 
 
 ances of his affection, promises of Lis grace, hopes of 
 his blessing, we cannot cease to honor his name. But 
 if all these were gone — if we were to cease to sing 
 his praise, would Jesus Christ's name be forgotten 
 -then ? 'Eo ; the stones would sing, the hills would 
 be an orchestra, the mountains would skip like rams, 
 and the little hills like lambs ; for is he not their 
 creator ? And if these lips, and the lips of all mor- 
 tals were dumb at once, there are creatures enough 
 in this wide world besides. Whj, the sun would 
 lead the chorus; the moon would play upon her 
 silver harp, and sweetly sing to her music ; stars 
 would dance in their measured courses ; the shoreless 
 depths of ether would become the home of songs ; 
 and the void immensity would burst out into one 
 great shout, " Thou art the glorious Son of God ; 
 great is thy majesty, and infinite thy power." Can 
 Christ's name be forgotten? ^No ; it is painted on 
 the skies ; it is written on the floods ; the winds 
 whisper it ; the tempests howl it ; the seas chant it ; 
 the stars shine it ; tlie beasts low it ; the thunders 
 proclaim it ; earth shouts it ; heaven echoes it. Eut 
 if that were gone — if this great universe should all 
 subside in God, just as a moment's foam subsides 
 into the wave that bears it and is lost forever — would 
 his name be forgotten then ? I^o. Turn your eyes 
 up yonder ; see heaven's tet^ra firma. '• "Who are 
 
 7 
 
146 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 these that are arrayed in wliite, and whence came 
 they?" "These are they that came out of great tri- 
 bulation ; they have washed their robes, and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb ; therefore 
 they are before the throne of God, and praise him 
 day and night in his temple." And if these were 
 gone ; if the last harp of the glorified had been 
 touched with the last fingers : if the last praise of the 
 saints had ceased ; if the last hallelujah had echoed 
 through the then deserted vaults of heaTen, for they 
 would be gloomy then ; if the last immortal had been 
 buried in his grave, if graves there might be for im- 
 mortals — would his praise cease then ? l^o, by hea- 
 ven ! no ; for yonder stand the angels ; they too sing 
 his glory ; to him the cherubim and seraphim do cry 
 without ceasing, when they mention his name, in 
 that thrice holy chorus, " Holy, holy, holy. Lord God 
 of armies." But if these were perished — if angels 
 had been swept away, if the wing of seraph never 
 flapped the ether, if the voice of the cherub never 
 sung his flaming sonnet, if the living creatures ceased 
 their everlasting chorus, if the measured symphonies 
 of glory were extinct in silence, would his name then 
 be lost? Ah! no; for as God upon the throne he 
 sits, the everlasting One, the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost. And if the universe were all annihilated, 
 Btill would his name be heard, for the Father would 
 
8PURGE0N S GEMS. 147 
 
 hear it, and the Spirit would hear it, and, deeply 
 graven on immortal marble in tbe rocks of ages, it 
 would stand — Jesus the Son of God, co-equal with 
 his Father. " His name shall endure forever." 
 
 JESUS rose, and as the Lord our Saviour rose, so all 
 his followers must rise. Die I must — this body 
 must be a carnival for worms ; it must be eaten by 
 those tiny cannibals ; perad venture it shall be scat- 
 tered from one portion of the earth to another ; the 
 constituent particles of this my frame will enter into 
 plants, from plants pass into animals, and thus be car- 
 ried into far distant realms ; but, at the blast of the 
 archangel's trumpet, every separate atom of my body 
 shall find its fellow ; like the bones lying in the val- 
 ley of vision, though separated from one another, the 
 moment God shall speak, the bone will creep to its 
 bone ; then the flesh shall come upon it ; the four 
 winds of heaven shall blow, and the breath shall re- 
 turn. So let me die, let beasts devour me, let fire 
 turn this body into gas and vapor, all its particles 
 shall yet again be restored ; this very selfsame actual 
 body shall start up from its grave, glorified and made 
 like Christ's body, yet still the same body, for God 
 hath said it. Christ's same body rose ; so shall mine. 
 O my soul, dost thou now dread to die ? Tliou wilt 
 
14:8 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 lose tliy partner bodj a little while, but tliou wilt be 
 married again in lieaven ; soul and body sball again 
 be united before tlie tbrone of God. Tlie grave — 
 wliat is it ? It is the bath in which the Christian 
 puts the clothes of his body to have them washed and 
 cleansed. Death — what is it ? It is the waiting-room 
 where we robe ourselves for immortality ; it is the 
 place w^here the body, like Esther, bathes itself in 
 spices that it may be fit for the embrace of its 
 Lord. 
 
 • •♦ 
 
 REGEN^ERATIO]^ and resurrection are sometimes 
 used as it were in common, in the l^ew Testa- 
 ment, although the distinction we usually make is, 
 that regeneration applies to the soul, and resurrection 
 to the body. JSTow when a man is born of the Spirit, 
 it is not by a gradual refining of his corrupt inclina- 
 tions, but by a powerful quickening of the Holy 
 Ghost. Just so when the dead are raised : it shall 
 not be by a j)rocess of nature, but by an instanta- 
 neous putting forth of the mighty power of God. 
 Still, I tell you that there shall be a similarity in the 
 result. The body that lies shrouded in its narrow 
 bed shall awake at the call of Jesus unspeakably re- 
 freshed. It was exhausted ; and as nature could no 
 longer sustain the vital functions, it fell an easy prey 
 to corruption ; yet it shall arise without weariness, or 
 
spukgeon's gems. 149 
 
 pain, or sickness, or deformity. Tlie former things 
 that occasioned death shall have j^assed away. In- 
 stead of the pale corpse shall be the raised body, with 
 the bloom of immortality on the cheek, and the 
 divine glow of deathless vigor in the heart, fitted to 
 greet the Sun of Righteousness as he ushers in a 
 cloudless, bright, eternal day. 
 
 SEEST thou yonder thief hanging upon the cross ? 
 Behold the fiends at the foot thereof, with open 
 mouths ; charming themselves with the sweet 
 thought, that another soul shall give them meat 
 in hell. Behold the death-bird fluttering his wings 
 o'er the poor wretch's head ; vengeance passes by 
 and stamps him for her own ; deep on his breast is 
 written "a condemned sinner;" on his brow is the 
 clammy sweat, expressed from him by agony and 
 death. Look in his heart ; it is filthy with the crust 
 of years of sin ; the smoke of lust is hanging within 
 in black festoons of darkness ; his whole heart is hell 
 condensed. ]^ow, look at him. He is dying. One 
 foot seems to be in hell ; the other hangs tottering in 
 life — only kept by a nail. Tliere is a power in 
 Jesus' eye. That thief looks : he whispers, " Lord, 
 remember me." Turn your eye again there. Do 
 you see that thief ? Where is the clammy sweat ? 
 
160 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 It is there. "Where is that horrid anguish ? It is 
 not there. Positively there is a smile upon his lips. 
 The fiends of hell, where are they ? There are none ; 
 but a bright seraph is present, with his wings out- 
 spread, and his hands ready to snatch that soul, now 
 a precious jewel, and bear it aloft to the palace of 
 the great King. Look within his heart ; it is white 
 with purity. Look at his breast ; it is not written 
 "condemned," but "justified." Look in the book 
 of life : his name is graven there. Look on Jesus' 
 heart : there on one of the precious stones he bears 
 that poor thief's name. Yea, once more, look ! seest 
 thou that bright one among the glorified, clearer 
 than the sun, and fair as the moon ? That is the 
 thief! That is the power of Jesus ; and that power 
 shall endure forever. 
 
 • ••■ 
 
 THERE on that deathbed lies a saint ; no gloom 
 is on his brow, no terror on his face ; weakly 
 but placidly he smiles ; he groans, perhaps, but yet 
 he sings. He sighs now and then, but oftener he 
 shouts. Stand b}^ him. " My brother, what makes 
 thee look in death's face with such joy?" "Jesus," 
 he whispers. What makes thee so placid and calm ? 
 " The name of Jesus." See, he forgets everything ! 
 Ask him a question ; he cannot answer it — ^he does 
 
spuegeon's gems. 151 
 
 not understand yon. Still lie smiles. His wife 
 comes, inquiring, " Do jou know my name ?" He 
 answers, "]^o." His dearest friend requests liim 
 to remember his intimacy. " I know you not," lie 
 says. Whisper in his ear, " Do you know the name 
 of Jesus?" and his eyes flash glory, and his face 
 beams heaven, and his lips speak sonnets, and his 
 heart bursts with eternity ; for he hears the name of 
 Jesus, and that name shall endure forever. He who 
 landed one in heaven will land me there. Come on, 
 death. I will mention Christ's name there. O 
 grave ! this shall be my glory, the name of Jesus ! 
 Hell-dog ! this shall be thy death — ^for the sting of 
 death is extracted — Christ our Lord. "His name 
 shall endure forever." 
 
 OH ! there is nothing that can so advantage 
 you, nothing can so prosper you, so assist you, 
 so make you walk towards heaven rapidly, so 
 keep your head upwards towards the sky, and your 
 eyes radiant with glory, like the imitation of Jesus 
 Christ. It is when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
 you are enabled to walk with Jesus in his very foot- 
 steps, and tread in his ways, you are most happy and 
 you are most known to be the sons of God. For 
 your sake, my brethren, I say, be like Christ. 
 
152 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 THE death of the saints is precious in the sight of 
 the Lord. On their account we have cause 
 rather to rejoice than to weep. And why? Because 
 we have a hope — we hope that they are safely housed 
 in heaven. Yes, we have the fond and firm persua- 
 sion that already their redeemed spirits have flown 
 up to the eternal throne. We do believe that they 
 are at this moment joining in the hallelujahs of para- 
 dise, feasting on the fruits of the tree of life, and 
 walking by the side of the " river, the streams whereof 
 make glad the heavenly city of our God." We know 
 they are supremely blest ; we think of them as glori- 
 fied spirits above, who are present with the Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
 OCIIEISTIA:^^ ! because Christ sticks close, the 
 devil will stick close too ; he will be at you and 
 with you ; the dog of hell will never cease his bowl- 
 ings, till you reach the other side of Jordan ; no 
 place in this world is out of bowshot of that great 
 enemy ; till you have crossed the stream, his arrows 
 can reach you, and they will. If Christ gave himself 
 for you, the devil will do all he can to destroy you ; 
 if Christ has been long-suffering to you, Satan will 
 be persevering, in hopes that Christ may forget you ; 
 he will strive after you, and strive until he shall see 
 you safely landed in heaven. 
 
bpuegeon's gems. 153 
 
 POOR sinner, do take heart. Tlie slieplierds have 
 Leen after thee many a day, but they could not 
 find thee ; remember God knows, as we know not, 
 where thou art. If thou art in the deepest pit in the 
 forest, his almighty eye can see to the bottom. Aye, 
 and in one of the favored moments of the day of sal- 
 vation — that time accepted — ^he will send home a 
 promise so sweetly that all thy fetters shall break off 
 in an instant — thy night shall be scattered — thy dawn 
 begin ; and he will give thee the oil of joy for mourn- 
 ing and the garment of praise for the spirit of heavi- 
 ness. Believe now, and thou shalt be comforted now ; 
 for the time of faith is the time of comfort. 
 
 THOUGH all weapons are alike approved by the 
 warrior in his thirst for blood, there seems some- 
 thing more cowardly in the attack of the archer than 
 in that of the swordsman. The swordsman plants 
 himself near you, foot to foot, and lets you defend 
 yourself, and deal your blows against him ; but the 
 archer stands at a distance, hides himself in ambus- 
 cade, and, without your knowing it, the arrow comes 
 whizzing through the air, and perhaps penetrates 
 your heart. Just so are the enemies of God's 
 people. Tliey very seldom come foot to foot with 
 us ; they will not show their faces before us ; they 
 
154 spijrgeon's gems. 
 
 hate the light, they love darkness ; they dare not 
 come and openly accuse us to our face, for then we 
 could reply ; but they shoot the bow from a dis- 
 tance, so that we cannot answer them ; cowardly 
 and dastardly as they are, they forge their arrow- 
 heads, and aim them, winged with hell-birds' 
 feathers, at the hearts of God's people. 
 
 THIS is no common grave ; it is not an excavation 
 dug out by the spade for a pauper, in which to 
 hide the last remains of his miserable and over- 
 wearied bones. It is a princely tomb ; it was made 
 of marble, cut in the side of a hill. Stand here, be- 
 liever, and ask why Jesus had such a costly sepul- 
 chre. He had no elegant garments ; he wore a coat 
 without seam, woven from the top throughout, with- 
 out an atom of embroidery. He owned no sump- 
 tuous palace, for he had not where to lay his head. 
 His sandals were not rich with gold, or studded with 
 brilliants. He was poor. Why, then, does he lie in 
 a noble grave ? "We answer, for this reason : Christ 
 was unhonored till he had finished his sufferings ; 
 Christ's body suffered contumely, shame, S23itting, 
 buffeting, and reproach, until he had completed his 
 great work ; he was trampled under foot, he was 
 "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows^ 
 
SPUEGEOX'S GEMS. 155 
 
 and acquainted with grief;" but tlie moment lie liad 
 finished his undertaking, God said, " I^o more shall 
 that body be disgraced ; if it is to sleep, let it slum- 
 ber in an honorable grave ; if it is rest, let nobles 
 bury it ; let Joseph, the councillor, and Mcodemus, 
 the man of Sanhedrim, be present at the funeral ; let 
 the body be embalmed with precious spices, let it 
 have honor; it has had enough of contumely, and 
 shame, and reproach, and buffeting ; let it now be 
 treated with respect." Christian, dost thou discern 
 the meaning ? Jesus, after he had finished his work, 
 slept in a costly grave ; for now his Father loved and 
 honored him, since his w^ork was done. 
 
 IF you want truth to go round the world you must 
 hire an express train to pull it ; but if you want 
 a lie to go round the world, it will fly : it is as light 
 as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well 
 said in the old Proverb, " A lie will go round the 
 world while truth is pulling its boots on." 'Never- 
 theless, it does not injure us ; for if light as a feather, 
 it travels as fast, its effect is just about as tremen- 
 dous as the effect of down, when it is blown against 
 the walls of a castle ; it produces no damage what- 
 ever, on account of its lightness and littleness. Fear 
 not, Christian. Let slander fly, let envy send forth 
 
156 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 its forked tongue, let it liiss at you, your bow shall 
 abide in strengtli. Oli ! sliielded warrior, remain 
 quiet, fear no ill ; bnt, like the eagle in its lofty 
 eyrie, look tlion down npon the fowlers in the plain, 
 turn thy bold eye upon them and say, " Shoot ye 
 may, but your shots will not reach half way to the 
 pinnacle where I stand. Waste your powder npon 
 me if ye will ; I am beyond your reach." Then clap 
 your wings, mount to heaven, and there laugh them 
 to scorn, for ye have made your refuge God, and 
 shall find a most secure abode. 
 
 IF any of you desire to be saved by works, remem- 
 ber one sin will spoil your righteousness; one 
 dust of this earth's dross will spoil the beauty of that 
 perfect righteousness which God requires at your 
 hands. If ye would be saved by works, ye must be 
 as holy as the angels, ye must be as pure and as im- 
 maculate as Jesus ; for the law requires perfection, 
 and nothing short of it ; and God, with unflinching 
 vengeance, will smite every man low who cannot 
 bring him a perfect obedience. If I cannot, when I 
 come before his throne, plead a perfect righteousness 
 as being mine, God will say, " you have not fulfilled 
 the demands of my law ; depart, accursed one ! You 
 have sinned, and you must die." 
 
sptjegeon's gems. 157 
 
 HERE are the Roman Catholics. They are the 
 successors of the apostles ! But, I think, if 
 Peter and Paul were to come and see their suc- 
 cessors, they would think there was a mighty differ- 
 ence between themselves and them. By way of 
 parable, suppose the Yirgin Mary, Peter, and Paul, 
 should come one Sunday, and go to a cathedral. 
 Well, when they entered, the Yirgin heard them 
 singing something to her honoi', and praise, and 
 glory ; she jogged Peter, and said — " What are these 
 people after ? They are worshipping me. My son 
 said to me, ' Woman, what have I to do with thee V 
 He never worshipped me," she said ; " let us turn 
 out of this." They stopped a little longer, and they 
 heard one of them say that the Apostle Peter was 
 the head of the church ; and his successor, the Pope, 
 was therefore the head. Peter jogged the Yirgin 
 Mary, and said — " What a lie that is ; I was never 
 head of the church at all. Did I not fall into sin ? 
 I the head of the church ! A pretty head I was." 
 Soon afterwards, Paul heard them preaching justifi- 
 cation by works. " Come out," said he ; " there is 
 no gospel here. I preached justification by faith 
 without works, and they are preaching justification 
 by works." And so, upon that, all three of them 
 went out. By and by, they came to a place where 
 they heard them singing — " Glory, honor, praise and 
 
158 sphrgeon's gems. 
 
 power, be unto the Lamb that sittetb on the throne ;" 
 and then they heard them speak of those who were 
 "kept by the power of God through faith nnto 
 salvation." " Ah," said Peter, " this is the place ; 
 and here I will stay." Those are the successors of 
 the apostles who are like the apostles. 
 
 C HEIST had no transgressions of his own ; he took 
 ours upon his head ; he never committed a wrong, 
 but he took all my sin, and all yours, if ye are be- 
 lievers ; concerning all his people, it is true, he bore 
 their griefs and carried their sorrows in his own 
 body on the tree ; therefore, as they were others' 
 Bins, so he rested in another's grave ; as they were 
 sins imputed, so that grave was only imputedly his. 
 It was not his sepulchre ; it was the tomb of Joseph. 
 
 IT is childish to doubt; it is manhood's glory to 
 trust. Plant your foot upon the immovable 
 Eock of Ages; lift your eye to heaven; scorn the 
 world ; never play craven ; bend your fist in the 
 world's face, and bid defiance to it and hell, and you 
 are a man, and noble. But crouch, and cringe, and 
 dread, and doubt, and you have lost your Christian 
 dignity, and are no longer what you should be. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 159 
 
 LET me imagine a man entering lieaven without a 
 change of heart. He comes within the gates. 
 He hears a sonnet. He starts ! It is to the praise 
 of his enemy. He sees a throne, and on it sits one 
 who is glorious ; but it is his enemy. He walks 
 streets of gold, but those streets belong to his enemy. 
 He sees hosts of angels, but those hosts are the 
 servants of his enemy. He is in an enemy'' s house ; 
 for he is at enmity with God. He could not join 
 the song, for he would not know the tune. There 
 he would stand, silent, motionless, till Christ would 
 say, with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, 
 " What dost thou here ? Enemies at a marriage ban- 
 quet? Enemies in the children's house.? Enemies 
 in heaven? Get thee gone? 'Depart, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire in hell !' " 
 
 THERE have been some who have been noble 
 men, but have carried their courage to excess ; 
 they have thus been caricatures of Christ, and not 
 portraits of him. "We must amalgamate with our 
 boldness the loveliness of Jesus' disposition. Let 
 courage be the brass, let love be the gold. Let us 
 mix the two together, so shall we produce a rich 
 Corinthian metal, fit to be manufactured into the 
 beautiful gate of the temple. 
 
160 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 OUE, lost friends are lost forever; we recollect 
 that there is no shadow of a hope for them ; 
 when the iron gate of hell is once closed upon them, 
 it shall never be unbarred again, to give them free 
 exit ; As^hen once shut up within those walls of swel- 
 tering flame which girdle the fierj gulf, there is no 
 possibility of flight ; we recollect that they have " for- 
 ever " stamped upon their chains, " forever " carved 
 in deep lines of despair upon their hearts. It is the 
 hell of hell, that everything there lasts forever. 
 Here, time wears away our griefs, and blunts the 
 keen edge of our sorrow ; but there time never miti- 
 gates the woe ; hell grows more hellish, as eternity 
 marches on with its mighty paces. The abyss be- 
 comes more dense and fiery — the sufl"erers grow 
 more ghastly and wretched, as years, if there be 
 such sad variety in that fixed state, roll their ever- 
 lasting rounds. Here the sympathy of loving 
 kindred, in the midst of sickness or suffering, can 
 alleviate our pain ; but there, the tortured ghosts are 
 sport for fiends, and the mutual upbraidings and 
 reproaches of fellow-sinners give fresh stings to tor- 
 ment too dread to be endured. Here, too, when 
 nature's last palliative shall fail, to die may be a 
 happy release ; a man can count the weary hours 
 till death shall give him rest : but, oh ! remember, 
 there is no death in hell ; death, which is a monster 
 
spuegeon's gems. 161 
 
 on earth, would be an angel in hell. If death could 
 go there, all the damned would fall down and wor- 
 ship him ; every tongue would sing, and every heart 
 would praise ; each cavern then would echo with a 
 shout of triumph till all was still, and silence brood 
 where terrors reigned. But no, the terrible reality 
 is this — •' Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
 quenched." 
 
 THE artist, when he paints, knows right well that 
 he shall not be able to excel Apelles ; but that 
 does not discourage him ; he uses his brush with all 
 the greater pains, that he may at least in some 
 humble measure resemble the great master. So 
 the sculptor, though persuaded that he will not rival 
 Praxiteles, will hew out the marble still, and seek to 
 be as near the model as possible. Thus so the Christ- 
 ian man; though he feels he never can mount to 
 the heights of complete excellence and perceives 
 that he never can on earth become the exact 
 image of Christ, still holds it up before him, and 
 measures his own deficiencies by the distance be- 
 tween himself and Jesus. This will he do ; forgetting 
 all he has attained, he will press forward, crying, 
 JExcelsior ! going upwards still, desiring to be con- 
 formed more and more to the image of Christ Jesus. 
 
162 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 MAN cannot please God without bringing to him- 
 self a great amount of happiness ; for, if any 
 man pleases God, it is because God accepts him as his 
 son, gives him the blessings of adoption, pours upon 
 him the bounties of his grace, makes him a blessed 
 man in this life, and insures him a crown of everlast- 
 ing life, which he shall wear, and which shall shine 
 with unfading lustre, when the wreaths of earth's 
 glory have all been melted away ; while, on the 
 other hands, if a man does not please God, he inevita- 
 bly brings upon himself sorrow and suffering in this 
 life ; he puts a worm and a rottenness in the core of 
 all his joys ; he fills his death-pillow with thorns, and 
 he sujDplies the eternal fire with fagots of fiame which 
 shall forever consume him. 
 
 ♦ • • 
 
 THE holiest men, the most free from irajpy/rity^ 
 have always felt it • most. He whose garments 
 are the whitest, will best perceive the sj^ots upon 
 them. He whose crown shineth the brightest, will 
 know when he hath lost a jewel. He who giveth the 
 most light to the world, will always be able to dis- 
 cover his own darkness. Tlie angels of heaven veil 
 their faces ; and the angels of God on earth, his cho- 
 sen people, must always veil their faces with humi- 
 lity, when they think of what they were. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 163 
 
 TAKE the cold iron, and attemjDt to weld it if jou 
 can into a certain sliape. How fruitless tlie 
 effort ! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmith's 
 hammer with all your might, let blow after blow fall 
 upon it, and jou shall have done nothing. Twist it, 
 turn it, use all your implements, but you shall not be 
 able to fashion it as you would. But put it in the 
 fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay 
 it on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty 
 effect, so that you may fashion it into any form you 
 may desire. So take your heart, not cold as it is, not 
 Btony as it is by nature, but put it into the furnace ; 
 there let it be molten, and after that it can be turned 
 like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the image of 
 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 — > » • 
 
 MIGHTIER than giants are men of the race of 
 heaven ; should they once arouse themselves to 
 battle they could laugh at the spear and the haber- 
 geon. But they are a patient generation, enduring 
 ills without resenting them, suffering scorn without 
 reviling the scoffer. Their triumph is to come when 
 their enemies shall receive the vengeance due ; then 
 shall it be seen by an assembled world that the 
 " little flock " were men of high estate, and the 
 " offscouring of all things " were verily men of real 
 strength and dignity. 
 
164: spurgeon's gems. 
 
 THE Word is able to convert just as extensively as 
 God tlie Spirit pleases to apply it ; and I can see 
 no reason why, if converts come in by ones and twos 
 now, there should not be a time when hundreds and 
 thousands shall come to God. The same sermon 
 which God blesses to ten, if he pleased, he could 
 bless to an hundred. I know not but that in the 
 latter days, when Christ shall come, and shall begin 
 to take the kingdom to himself, every minister of 
 God shall be as successful as Peter on the day of 
 Pentecost. I am sure the Holy Spirit is able to 
 make the "Word successful ; and the reason why we 
 do not prosper, is, that we have not the Holy Spirit 
 attending us with might and energy, as they had 
 
 then. 
 
 • • • 
 
 IF by the power of the Spirit ye become followers 
 of Jesus, ye shall enter glory. For at heaven's 
 gate there sits an angel, who admits no one who has 
 not the same features as our adorable Lord. Tliere 
 comes a man with a crown upon his head. " Yes," 
 he says, " thou hast a crown, it is true, but crowns 
 are not the medium of access here." Another ap- 
 proaches, dressed in robes of state and the gown 
 of learning. " Yes," says the angel, " it may be 
 good, but gowns and learning are not the marks 
 that shall admit you here." Another advances, fair, 
 
spuegeon's gems. 165 
 
 beautiful, and comely. "Yes," saith the angel, 
 " that might please on earth, but beauty is not 
 wanted here." There cometh another, who is 
 heralded by fame, and prefaced by the blast of the 
 clamor of mankind ; but the angel saith, " It is well 
 with man, but thou hast no right to enter here." 
 Then there appears another; poor he may have 
 been ; illiterate he may have been ; but the angel, 
 as he looks at him, smiles and says, "It is Christ 
 again; a second edition of Jesus Christ is there. 
 Come in, come in. Eternal glory thou shalt win. 
 Thou art like Christ ; in heaven thou shalt sit, be- 
 cause thou art like him." Oh, to be like Christ is to 
 enter heaven ; but to be unlike Christ is to descend 
 
 to hell. 
 
 — •-•-« — 
 
 IF there is one virtue which most commends Christ- 
 ians, it is that of kindness : it is to love the people 
 of God, to love the Church, to love the world, to love 
 all. But how many have we in our churches of 
 crab-tree Christians, who have mixed such a vast 
 amount of vinegar and such a tremendous quantity 
 of gall in their constitutions, that they can scarcely 
 speak one good word to you. They imagine it im- 
 possible to defend religion except by passionate 
 ebuUitions ; they cannot speak for their dishonored 
 Master without being angry with their opponent; 
 
166 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 and if anything is awiy, whether it be in the house, 
 the chnrch, or anywhere else, they conceive it to be 
 their duty to set their faces like flint, and to defy 
 everybody. They are like isolated icebergs, no one 
 cares to go near them. They float about on the sea 
 of forgetfulness, until at last they are melted and 
 gone; and though, good souls, we shall be happy 
 enough to meet them in heaven, we are precious 
 glad to get rid of them from the earth. Tliey were 
 always so unamiable in disposition, that we would 
 rather live an eternity with them in heaven than &yg 
 minutes on earth. Be ye not thus. Imitate Christ 
 in your loving spirits ; speak kindly, act kindly, and 
 do kindly, that men may say of you, " He has been 
 with Jesus." 
 
 THOSE who have not to work hard, think they 
 will love heaven as a place of service. That is 
 very true. But to the working man, to the man who 
 toils with his brain or with his hands, it must ever 
 be a sweet thought that there is a land where we 
 shall rest. Soon, this voice will never be strained 
 again ; soon, these lungs will never have to exert 
 themselves beyond their power ; soon, this brain shall 
 not be racked for thought ; but I shall sit at the 
 banquet-table of God ; yea, I shall recline on the 
 bosom of Abraham, and be at ease forever. Oh ! 
 
spuegeon's gems. 167 
 
 Tveaiy sons and daughters of Adam, you will not 
 have to drive the ploughshare into the unthankful 
 soil in heaven, you will not need to rise to daily toils 
 before the sun hath risen, and labor still when the 
 sun hath long ago gone to his rest ; but ye shall be 
 still, ye shall be quiet, ye shall rest yourselves, for all 
 are rich in heaven, all are happy there, all are peace- 
 ful. Toil, trouble, travail, and labor, are words that 
 cannot be spelled in heaven; they have no such 
 things there, for they always rest. 
 
 OH ! if you could have seen Paul preach, you 
 would not have gone away as you do from some 
 of us, with half a conviction that we do not mean 
 what w^e say. His eyes preached a sermon without 
 his lips, and his lips preached it, not in a cold and 
 frigid manner, but every word fell with an over- 
 whelming power upon the hearts of his hearers. He 
 preached with power, because h e was in downright 
 earnest. You had a conviction, when you saw him, 
 that he was a man who felt he liad a work to do, and 
 must do^i t, and cou ld not contain hi mself u nless he 
 f ljrl r1r> it. Hft was the kind of preacher whom you 
 would expect to see w^alk down the pulpit-stairs 
 straight into his coffin, and then stand before his 
 God, ready for his last account. 
 
168 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 C HEIST'S sepulchre was cut in a rock. It was 
 not cut in mold that might be worn away by the 
 water, or might crumble and fall into decay. The se- 
 pulchre stands, I believe, entire to this day ; if it does 
 not naturally, it does spiritually. The same sepul- 
 chre which took the sins of Paul shall take my 
 iniquities into his bosom ; for if I ever lose my guilt, 
 it must roll off my shoulders into the sepulchre. It 
 was cut in a rock, so that if a sinner were saved a 
 thousand years ago, I too can be delivered, for it is a 
 rocky sepulchre where sin was buried — it was a 
 rocky sepulchre of marble where my crimes were 
 laid forever — ^buried never to have a resurrection. 
 
 IT will not save me to know that Christ is a 
 Saviour ; but it will save me to trust him to be 
 my Saviour. I shall not be delivered from the 
 wrath to come, by believing that his atonement is 
 sufficient ; but I shall be saved, by making that atone- 
 ment my trust, my refuge, and my all. The pith, the 
 essence, of faith lies in this — a casting oneself on the 
 promise. It is not the life-buoy on board the ship 
 that saves the man when he is drowning, nor is it his 
 belief that it is an excellent and successful invention. 
 ISTo ! he must have it around his loins, or his hand 
 upon it, or else he will sink. 
 
spijegeon's gems. 169 
 
 A MAN who has not faith proves that he cannot 
 stoop ; for he has not faith, for this reason, be- 
 cause he is too proud to believe. He declares, he 
 will not yet yield his intellect, he will not become a 
 child, and believe meekly what God tells him to be- 
 lieve. He is too proud, and he cannot enter heaven, 
 because the door of heaven is so low that no one can 
 enter in by it unless they will bow their heads. 
 There never was a man who could walk into salva- 
 tion erect. We must go to Christ on our bended 
 knees ; for, though he is a door big enough for the 
 greatest sinner to come in, he is a door so low that 
 men must stoop if they would be saved. Therefore 
 it is, that faith is necessary, because a want of faith 
 is certain evidence of absence of humility. 
 
 THEEE be some men that are born into this world 
 master-spirits, who walk about it as giants, wrap- 
 ped in mantles of light and glory. I refer to the 
 poets, men who stand aloft like Colossi, mightier than 
 we, seeming to be descended from celestial spheres. 
 There be others of acute intellect, who, searching into 
 mysteries of science, discover things that have been 
 hidden from the creation of the world ; men of keen 
 research, and mighty erudition ; and yet, of each of 
 these — poet, philosopher, metaphysician, and great 
 
 8 
 
170 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 discoverer — ^it shall be said, "The carnal mind is 
 enmity against God !" Te may train liim up, ye 
 may make his intellect almost angelic, ye may 
 strengthen his sonl until he shall take what are rid- 
 dles to ns, and unravel them with his fingers in a mo- 
 ment ; ye may make him so mighty, that he can 
 grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind 
 them to atoms in his fist ; ye may give him an eye so 
 keen, that he can penetrate the arcana of rocks and 
 mountains; ye may add a soul so potent, that he 
 may slay the giant Sphinx, that had for ages troubled 
 the mightiest men of learning ; yet, when ye have 
 done all, his mind shall be a depraved one, and his 
 carnal heart shall still be in opposition to God. 
 
 ♦ »• 
 
 IEEAD in God's word that the angel shall plant 
 one foot upon the earth, and the other upon the 
 sea, and shall swear by him that liveth and was dead, 
 that time shall be no longer. But if a soul could die 
 in a thousand years, it would die in time / if a mil- 
 lion of years could elapse, and then the soul could be 
 extinguished, there would be such a thing as time ; 
 for, talk to me of years, and there is time. But, sirs, 
 when that angel has spoken the word, " Time shall 
 be no longer," things will then be eternal ; the spirit 
 shall proceed in its ceaseless revolution of weal or 
 
SPURGEON'S GEMS. iYl 
 
 woe, never to be stayed, for there is no time to stop 
 it ; the fact of its stopping would imply time ; but 
 everything shall be eternal, for time shall cease to 
 be. It well becomes you, then, to consider where ye 
 are and what ye are. Oh! stand and tremble on 
 the narrow neck of land 'twixt the two unbounded 
 seas, for God in heaven alone can tell how soon thou 
 mayest be launched ujDon the eternal future. May 
 God grant that, when that last hour may come, we 
 may be prepared for it ! Like the thief, unheard, 
 unseen, it steals through night's dark shade. Per- 
 haps, as here I stand, and rudely speak of these dark, 
 hidden things, soon may the hand be stretched, and 
 dumb the mouth that lisps the faltering strain. Oh, 
 thou that dwellest in heaven, thou power supreme, 
 thou everlasting King, let not that hour intrude upon 
 me in an ill-spent season ; but may it find me rapt 
 in meditation high, hymning my great Creator. 
 
 OCHUKH of God ! believe thyself invincible, and 
 thou art invincible ; but stay to tremble and 
 fear, and thou art undone. Lift up thy head and 
 say, " I am God's daughter ; I am Christ's bride." 
 Do not stop to prove it, but affirm it ; march through 
 the land, and kings and princes shall bow down be- 
 fore thee, because thou hast taken thine ancieci 
 prowess and assumed thine ancient glory. 
 
172 sptjegeon's gems. 
 
 OH! hast tliou ever thoiiglit liow many souls sink 
 to liell every hour ? Did the dreary thought 
 that the death-knell of a soul is tolled by every 
 tick of yonder clock, ever strike thee ? Hast thou 
 never thought that myriads of thy fellow creatures 
 are in hell now, and that myriads more are hasten- 
 ing thither ? and yet dost thou sleep ? "What ! 
 physician, wilt thou sleep when men are dying? 
 Sailor, wilt thou sleep when the wreck is out at sea, 
 and the life-boat is waiting for hands to man it ? 
 Christian, wilt thou tarry while souls are being lost ? 
 I do not say that thou canst save them — God alone 
 can do that — ^but thou mayest be the instrument; 
 and wouldst thou lose the opportunity of winning 
 another jewel for thy crown in heaven? wouldst 
 thou sleep while work is being done ? 
 
 MENTAL power may fill a chapel ; but sj)iritual 
 power fills the church. Mental power may 
 gather a congregation ; spiritual power will save 
 souls. We want spiritual power. Oh ! we know 
 some before whom we shrink into nothing as to 
 talent, but who have no spiritual power, and when 
 they speak they have not the Holy Spirit with 
 them ; but we know others, simple-hearted, worthy 
 men, who speak their country dialect, and who 
 stand up to preach in their country place, and the 
 
spurgeon's gems. 173 
 
 Spirit of God clothes every word with power ; hearts 
 are broken, souls are saved, and sinners are Lorn 
 again. Spirit of the living God! we want thee. 
 Thou art the life, the soul ; thou art the source of 
 thy people's success; without thee they can do 
 nothing, with thee they can do everything. 
 
 SOME say that children learn sin by imitation. But 
 no : take a child away, place it under the most 
 pious influences, let the very air it breathes be puri- 
 fied by piety ; let it constantly drink in draughts of 
 holiness ; let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer 
 and praise ; let its ear be always kept in tune by 
 notes of sacred song ; and that child, notwithstanding, 
 may still become one of the grossest of transgressors ; 
 and though j)laced apparently on the very road to 
 heaven, it shall, if not directed by divine grace, 
 march downwards to the pit. The young crocodile, I 
 have heard, when broken from the shell, will in a 
 moment begin to put itself in a posture of attack, 
 opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. 
 TVe know that young lions, when tamed and domes- 
 ticated, still will have the wild nature of their fellows 
 of the forest, and were liberty given them, would 
 prey as fiercely as others. So with the child ; you 
 may bind him with the green withes of education, 
 
174 sptirgeon's gems. 
 
 you may do what you will witli Mm, since you can- 
 not clianire liis heart, that carnal mind shall still be 
 at enmity against God ; and notwithstanding intellect, 
 talent, and all you may give to boot, it shall be of the 
 same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as 
 apparently evil ; for " the carnal mind is enmity 
 against God." 
 
 IK hell, there is no hope. Tliey have not even the 
 hope of dying — ^the hope of being annihilated. 
 They are forever — ^forever — forever — lost ! On every 
 chain in hell, there is written "forever." In the 
 fires, there blazes out the words "forever." Up 
 above their heads, they read " forever." Their eyes 
 are galled, and their hearts are pained with the 
 thought that it is " forever." Oh ! if I could tell 
 you to-night that hell would one day be burned out, 
 and that those who were lost might be saved, there 
 would be a jubilee in hell at the very thought of it. 
 But it cannot be — it is ''forever^^ they are " cast into 
 utter darkness." 
 
 ID you ever think of the value of a soul ? Ah ! 
 ye have not heard the howls and yells of hell ; 
 ye have not heard the mighty songs and hosannas of 
 the glorified; ye have no notion of what eternity 
 is, or else ye would know the value of a soul. 
 
spurgeon's gems. • 175 
 
 SLEEPY Christian, let me shout in thine ears: 
 thou art sleeping while souls are being lost, 
 sleeping while men are being damned, sleeping 
 while hell is being peopled, sleeping while Christ is 
 being dishonored, sleeping while the devil is grin- 
 ning at thy sleepy face, sleeping while demons are 
 dancing round thy slumbering carcass, and telling it 
 in hell that a Christian is asleep. You will never 
 catch the devil asleep ; let not the devil catch you 
 asleep. Watch, and be sober, that ye may be 
 always up to do your duty. 
 
 ¥E who constitute a part of the Israel of God, were 
 once the slaves of sin and Satan ; we served 
 with hard bondage and rigor whilst in our natural 
 state ; no bondage was ever more terrible than ours ; 
 we indeed made bricks without straw, and labored 
 in the very fire ; but by the strong hand of God we 
 have been delivered. We have come forth from the 
 prison-house ; with joy we behold ourselves emanci- 
 pated — ^the Lord's free men. The iron yoke is taken 
 from our necks ; we no longer serve our lusts, and 
 pay obedience to the tyrant's sin. With a high hand 
 and an outstretched arm, our God has led us forth 
 from the place of our captivity, and joyfully we pur- 
 sue our way through the wilderness. 
 
176 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 WHAT with the wild beasts of Home, what with 
 the antichrist of Mahomet, what with the thou- 
 sands of idolatries and false gods, what with infidelity 
 in all its myriad shapes, many are the enemies of 
 God, and mighty are the hosts of hell. Lo, you see 
 them gathered together this day ; horseman upon 
 horseman, chariot upon chariot, gathered together 
 against the Most High. I see the trembling church, 
 fearing to be overthrown ; I mark her leaders bend- 
 ing their knees in solemn prayer, and crying, " Lord, 
 save thy people, and bless thy heritage." But mine 
 eye looks through the future with telescopic glance, 
 and I see the happy period of the latter days, when 
 
 Ml, 
 
 Christ shall reign triumphant. I shall ask them 
 where is Babel ? where is Rome ? where is Mahomet ? 
 and the answer shall come — where? Why they 
 have sunk into the depths ; they have sunk to the 
 bottom as a stone. Down there the horrid fire de- 
 vours them, for the sea of glass is mingled with the 
 fire of judgment. To-day I see a battle-field : the 
 whole earth is torn by the hoofs of horses ; there is 
 the rumble of cannon and the roll of drum. " To 
 arms ! to arms !" both hosts are shouting. But yon 
 wait awhile, and you shall walk across this plain of 
 battle, and say, " Seest thou that colossal system of 
 error dead ? There lies another, all frozen, in ghastly 
 death, in motionless stupor. There lieth infidelity ; 
 
spukgeon's gems. 177 
 
 there sleepeth secularism and tlie secularist ; there 
 lie those who defied God. I see all this vast host of 
 rebels lying scattered upon the earth. " Sing unto 
 the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; Jehovah 
 has gotten unto himself the victory, and the last of 
 his enemies are destroyed." Then shall be the time 
 when shall be sung " the song of Moses and of the 
 Lamb." 
 
 CHRIST in a man, the gospel in the soul, is the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God. We 
 will picture the Christian from his beginning to his end. 
 We will give a short map of his history. He begins 
 there, in that prison house, with huge iron bars, which 
 he cannot file ; in that dark damp cell, where pestilence 
 and death are bred. There, in poverty and naked- 
 ness, without a pitcher to put to his thii-sty lips, 
 without a mouthful even of dry crust to satisfy his hun- 
 ger, that is where he begins — ^in the prison chamber of 
 conviction, powerless, lost and ruined. Between the 
 bars I thrust my hand to him, and gave to him in 
 God's name the name of Christ to plead. Look at 
 him ; he has been filing away at these bars many 
 and many a day, without their yielding an inch ; 
 but now lie has got the name of Christ upon his 
 lips ; he puts his hand upon the bars, and one of 
 
 them is gone, and another, and another ; and he 
 
 ft* 
 
178 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 makes a liappy escape, crying, " I am free, I am 
 free, I am free ! Christ has been the power of God 
 to me, in bringing me out of my trouble." J^o 
 sooner is he free, however, than a thousand doubts 
 meet him. He comes soon into the furnace of 
 trouble ; he is thrust into the innermost prison, 
 and his feet are made fast in the stocks. God has 
 put his hand upon him. He is in deep trouble ; 
 at midnight he begins to sing of Christ ; and lo ! 
 the walls begin to totter, and the foundation of the 
 prison to shake ; and the man's chains are taken off, 
 and he comes out free ; for Christ hath delivered 
 him from trouble. Here is a hill to climb on the 
 road to heaven. Wearily he pants up the side of 
 that hill, and thinks he must die, ere he can reach 
 the summit. The name of Jesus is whispered in his 
 ear ; he leaps to his feet and pursues his way, with 
 fresh courage, until the summit is gained, when he 
 cries, " Jesus Christ is the strength of my song : he 
 also hath become my salvation." See him again. 
 He is on a sudden beset by many enemies ; how shall 
 he resist them? With this true sword, this true 
 Jerusalem blade, Christ and him crucified. With 
 this he keeps the devil at arm's length ; with this he 
 fights against temptation, against lust, against spirit- 
 ual wickedness in high places, and with this he 
 resists, JSTow, he has come to his last struggle ; the 
 
spuegeon's gems. 179 
 
 river Death rolls black and sullen before him ; dark 
 shapes rise upward from the flood, and howl and 
 fright him. How shall he cross the stream ? How 
 shall he find a landing-place on the other side ? 
 Dread thoughts perplex him for a moment ; he is 
 alarmed ; but he remember Jesus died ; and catch- 
 ing up that watchword he ventures to the flood. 
 Before his feet the Jordan flies apace ; like Israel of 
 old, he walks through, dry shod, singing as he goes 
 to heaven, " Christ is with me, Christ is with me, 
 passing through the stream ! Victory, victory, vic- 
 tory, to him that loveth me !" 
 
 • • • 
 
 REMEMBER, thy sins are like sowing for a har- 
 vest. What a harvest is that which thou hast 
 sown for thy poor soul ! Thou hast sown the wind, 
 thou shalt reap the whirlwind ; thou hast sown ini- 
 quity, thou shalt reap damnation. But what hast 
 thou done against the gospel? Remember, how 
 many times this year thou hast heard it preached. 
 Why, since thy birth, there have been wagon loads 
 of sermons wasted on thee. Thy parents prayed for 
 thee in thy youth ; thy friends instructed thee till 
 thou didst come to manhood. Since then how many 
 a tear has been wept by the minister for thee ! How 
 many an earnest appeal has been shot into thine 
 
180 spttrgeon's gems. 
 
 heart! But thou hast rent out the arrow. Minis- 
 ters have been concerned to save thee, and thou 
 hast never been concerned about thyself. What 
 hast thou done against Christ? Remember, Christ 
 has been a good Christ to sinners here ; but as there 
 is nothing that burns so well as that soft substance 
 oil, so there is nothing that will be so furious as that 
 gentle-hearted Saviour, when he comes to be your 
 judge. Fiercer than a lion on his prey is rejected 
 love. Despise Christ on the cross, and it will be a 
 terrible thing to be judged by Christ on his throne. 
 
 BELOYED, can you conceive how much Christ 
 will love you when you are in heaven? Have 
 you ever tried to fathom that bottomless sea of affec- 
 tion in which you shall swim, when you shall bathe 
 yourself in seas of heavenly rest ? Did you ever 
 think of the love which Christ will manifest to you, 
 when he shall present you without spot, or blemish, 
 or any such thing, before his Father's throne ? Well, 
 pause and remember, that he loves you at this hour 
 as much as he will love you then ; for he will be the 
 same forever as he is to-day, and he is the same to- 
 day as he will be forever. This one thing I know : if 
 Jesus' heart is set on me he will not love me one atom 
 better when this head wears a crown, and when this 
 
spuegeon's gems. 181 
 
 hand shall with joyous fingers touch the strings of 
 
 golden harps, than he does now, amidst all my sin, 
 
 and care and woe. I believe that saying which is 
 
 written — "As the Father hath loved me, even so 
 
 have I loved you ;" and a higher degree of love we 
 
 cannot imagine. The Father loves his Son infinitely, 
 
 and even so to-day, believer, doth the Son of God 
 
 love thee. Every bowel yearns over thee ; all his 
 
 heart flows out to thee. All his life is thine ; all his 
 
 person is thine. He cannot love thee more ; he will 
 
 not love thee less. " The same yesterday, to-day, and 
 
 for ever." 
 
 »-♦-• — 
 
 AFTER passing the Red Sea, the song of Moses 
 was sung by the side of a sea, which was glassy, 
 and still ; for a little season the floods had been dis- 
 turbed, divided, separated, congealed, but afterwards 
 when Israel had passed the flood, they became as 
 ever, for the enemy had sunken to the bottom like a 
 stone, and the sea returned to its strength when the 
 morning appeared. Is there ever a time, then, when 
 this great sea of Providence, which now stands part- 
 ed to give a passage to God's saints, shall become a 
 level surface ? Is there a day when the now divided 
 dispensations of God, which are kept from following 
 out their legitimate tendency to. do justice upon sin 
 — when the two seas of justice shall commingle, and 
 
182 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 the one sea of God's providence shall be " a sea of 
 glass mingled with fire ?" Yes, the day is drawing 
 nigh when God's enemies shall no longer make it 
 necessary for God's providence to be apparently dis- 
 turbed to save his people^ when the great designs of 
 God shall be accomplished, and therefore when the 
 walls of water shall roll together, whilst in their in- 
 most depths the evei;lasting burning fire shall consume 
 the wicked. Oh ! the sea shall be calm u]Don the 
 surface : the sea upon which God's people shall 
 walk shall seem to be a sea that is clear, without a 
 weed, without an impurity ; whilst down in its hol- 
 low bosom, far beyond all mortal ken, shall be the 
 horrid depths where the wicked must forever dwell 
 in the fire which is mingled with the glass. 
 
 • » • 
 
 riEOM the fiery days of the stakes of Smithfield 
 X even until now, the world's black heart has 
 hated the church, and the world's cruel hand and 
 laughing lip have been forever against us. The 
 host of the mighty are pursuing us, and are thirsty 
 for our blood, and anxious to cut us off from the 
 earth. Such is our position unto this hour, and such 
 must it be until we are landed on the other side of 
 Jordan, and until our Maker comes to reign on the 
 earth. 
 
sptjegeon's gems. 183 
 
 CHRIST is the same ; upon Ms brow there is ne'er 
 a furrow ; liis locks are grej with reverence, but 
 not with age; his feet stand as firm as when 
 they trod the everlasting mountains in the years 
 before the world was made — his eyes as pierc- 
 ing as when, for the first time, he looked upon a new- 
 born world. Christ's person never changes. Should 
 he come on earth to visit us again, as sure he will, 
 we should find him the same Jesus ; as loving, as ap- 
 proachable, as generous, as kind, and though arrayed 
 in nobler garments than he wore when first he visited 
 earth, though no more the Man of Sorrows and griefs 
 acquaintance, yet he would be the same person, un- 
 changed by all his glories, his triumphs, and his joys. 
 We bless Christ that amid his heavenly splendors his 
 person is just the same, and his nature unafiected. 
 " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and 
 for ever." 
 
 GOD'S first and greatest object is his own glory. 
 There was a time, before all time, when there 
 was no day but the Ancient of days, when God 
 dwelt alone in the magnificence of his sublime soli- 
 tude. Whether he should create, or not create, was 
 a question depending upon the answer to another 
 question — ^Would it be to his honor or not? He 
 determined that he would gloiify himself by creat- 
 
184 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 ing ; but, in creating, beyond all doubt, bis motive 
 was his glory. And since that time, be bath ever 
 ruled the earth, and even blessed it with the same 
 object in his infinite mind — his own glory and 
 honor. Lesser motive for God to have, were less 
 than divine ; it is the highest position to which you 
 or I could attain, to live for God ; and the very 
 highest virtue of God is for him to magnify himself 
 in all his greatness as the Infinite and the Eternal. 
 "Whatever, then, God permits or does, he doth with 
 this one motive, his own glory. And even salvation, 
 costly though it was, and infinitely a benefaction to 
 us, had for its first object, and for its grand result, 
 the exaltation of the Being and of the attributes of 
 the Supreme Ruler. 
 
 WHEISTEYEE God has blessed the Church, he 
 has secured himself the glory of the blessing, 
 though they have had the profit of it. Sometimes 
 he has been pleased to redeem his people by might ; 
 but then he has so used the might and power that all 
 the glory hath come to him, and his head alone hath 
 worn the crown. Did he smite Egypt, and lead 
 forth his people, with a strong hand and an out- 
 stretched arm ; the glory was not to the rod of 
 Moses, but to the Almighty power which made the 
 
spurgeon's gems. 185 
 
 rod so potent. Did he lead liis people through the 
 wilderness, and defend them from their enemies? 
 Still, did he, by teaching the peojDle their depen- 
 dence, -npon him preserve to himself all the glory ? 
 So that not Moses or Aaron amongst the priests or 
 prophets conld share the honor with him. And tell 
 me, if ye will, of slaughtered Anak, and the destruc- 
 tion of the tribes of Canaan; tell me of Israel's 
 possessing the promised land ; tell me of Philistines 
 routed, and laid heaps on heaps ; of Midianites made 
 to fall on each other ; tell me of kings and princes 
 who fled apace and fell, until the ground was white, 
 like the snow in Salmon. I will say of every one of 
 these triumphs, " sing ye to the Lord^ for he hath 
 triumphed gloriously ;" and 1 will say at the end of 
 every victory, " Crown him^ crown him^ for he hath 
 done it ; and let his name be exalted and extolled, 
 world without end." 
 
 DID you ever hear of a nation under British rule 
 being converted to God ? Mr. Moffat and our 
 great friend Dr. Livingston have been laboring in 
 Africa with great success, and many have been con- 
 verted. Did you ever hear of Caffir tribes protected 
 by England, ever being converted ? It is only a 
 people that have been left to themselves, and 
 preached to by men as men, that have been brought 
 
186 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 to God. For my part, I conceive, that when an 
 enterprise begins in martyrdom, it is none the less 
 likely to succeed ; but when conquerors begin to 
 preach the gospel to those they have conquered, it 
 will not succeed ; God will teach us that it is not by 
 might. All swords that have ever flashed from 
 scabbards have not aided Christ a single grain. 
 Mohammedans' religion might be sustained by cimi- 
 tars, but Christians' religion must be sustained by 
 love. The great crime of war can never promote 
 the religion of peace. The battle, and the garment 
 rolled in blood, are not a fitting prelude to " peace 
 on earth ; goodwill to men." And I do firmly hold, 
 that the slaughter of men, that bayonets, and swords, 
 and guns, have never yet been, and never can be, 
 promoters of the gospel. The gospel will proceed 
 without them, but never through them. " 'Not by 
 might." ISTow don't be befooled again, if you hear 
 of the English conquering in China, don't go down 
 on your knees and thank God for it, and say, it's such 
 a heavenly thing for the spread of the gospel— it just 
 is not. Experience teaches you that; and if you 
 look upon the map you will find I have stated the 
 truth, that where our arms have been victorious, the 
 gospel has been hindered rather than not ; so that 
 where South Sea Islanders have bowed their knees 
 and cast their idols to the bats, British Hindoos have 
 
SPrEGEON's GEMS. 187 
 
 kept their idols ; and where Bechnanas and Bushmen 
 have turned unto the Lord, British Caffirs have not 
 been converted ; not perhaps because they were 
 British, but because the very fact of the missionary 
 being a Briton, put him above them, and weakened 
 their influence. Hush thy trump, O war ; put away 
 thy gaudy traj)pings and thy bloodstained drapery ; 
 if thou thinkest that the cannon with the cross upon 
 it is really sanctified, and if thou imaginest that thy 
 banner hath become holy, tliou dreamest of a lie. 
 God wanteth not thee to help his cause. " It is not 
 by armies, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the 
 Lord." 
 
 • ♦• 
 
 ¥E have delighted in our happier moments, in 
 days that have rolled away, to think of him that 
 loved us when we had no being ; we have often sung 
 with rapture of him that loved us when we loved not 
 him. 
 
 " Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 "Wandering from the fold of God ; 
 He to save my soul from danger 
 Interposed his precious blood," 
 
 "We have looked back, too, upon the years of our 
 troubles and our trials ; and we can bear our solemn 
 though humble witness, that he has been true to us 
 in all our exigencies, and has never failed us once. 
 
188 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 Come, then, let lis comfort ourselves with this thought 
 — ^that though to-day he may distress its with a sense 
 of sin, yet his heart is just the same to us as ever. 
 Christ may wear masks that look black to his people, 
 but his face is always the same ; Christ may some- 
 times take a rod in his hand instead of a golden scep- 
 tre ; but the name of his saints is as much engraved 
 upon the hand that grasps the rod as upon the palm 
 that clasps the sceptre. 
 
 -• •• 
 
 GOD will not acquit the wicked, because he is good. 
 The Judge must condemn the murderer, because 
 he loves his nation. The kindness of a king demands 
 the punishment of those who are guilty. It is not 
 wrathful in the legislature to make severe laws 
 against great sinners ; it is but love towards the rest 
 that sin should be restrained. Yon great flood-gates, 
 which keep back the torrent of sin, are painted black, 
 and look right horrible ; like horrid dungeon gates, 
 they afright my spirit ; but are they proofs that God 
 is not good ? !N"o ; if ye could open wide those gates, 
 and let the deluge of sin flow on us, then would you 
 cry, " O God, O God ! shut-to the gates of punish- 
 ment again, let law again be established, set up the 
 pillars, and swing the gates upon their hinges ^ shut 
 again the gates of punishment, that this world may 
 
SPUKGEON S GEMS. 189 
 
 not again be utterly destroyed by men who have be- 
 come worse than brutes." It needs for very good- 
 ness sake that sin should be punished. Mercy, with 
 her weeping eyes (for she hath wept for sinners), 
 when she finds they will not repent, looks more ter- 
 ribly stern in her loveliness than Justice in all his 
 majesty ; she drops the white flag from her hand, 
 and saith — " J^o ; I called, and they refused ; I 
 stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; let 
 them die, let them die ;" and that terrible word from 
 the lip of Mercy's self is harsher thunder than the 
 very damnation of Justice. Oh, yes, the goodness 
 of God demands that men should perish, if they will 
 sin. 
 
 OMY heart, I bid thee now put thy treasure where 
 thou canst never lose it. Put it in Christ ; put 
 all thine affections in his person, all thy hope in his 
 glory, all thy trust in his efficacious blood, all thy joy 
 in his presence, and then thou wilt have put thyself 
 and put thine all where thou canst never lose any- 
 thing, because it is secure. Kemember, O my heart, 
 that the time is coming when all things must fade, 
 and when thou must part with all. Death's gloomy 
 night must soon put out thy sunshine ; the dark flood 
 must soon roll between thee and all thou hast. Then 
 put thine heart with him who will nevei* leave thee ; 
 
190 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 trust thyself with him who will go with thee through 
 the black and surging current of death's stream, and 
 who will walk with thee up the steep hills of heaven 
 and make thee sit together with him in heavenly 
 places forever. Go, tell thy secrets to that friend 
 that sticketh closer than a brother. M.j heart, I 
 charge thee, trust all thy concerns with him who 
 never can be taken from thee, who will never leave 
 thee, and who will never let thee leave him, even 
 " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and 
 forever." 
 
 C HEIST JESUS, whom we adore, thou art as 
 young as ever ! We came into this world with 
 the ignorance of infancy ; we grow up searching, 
 studying, and learning with the diligence of youth ; 
 we attain to some little knowledge in our riper years ; 
 and then in our old age we totter back to the imbeci- 
 lity of our childhood. But oh, our Master ! thou didst 
 perfectly foreknow all mortal or eternal things from 
 before the foundations of the world, and thou knowest 
 all things now, and forever thou shalt be the sam^ 
 in thine omniscience. We are one day strong, and 
 the next day weak — one day resolved, and the next 
 day wavering — one hour constant, and the next hour 
 as unstable as water. We are one moment holy, 
 kept by the power of God ; we are the next moment 
 
sptjegeon's gems. 191 
 
 sinning, led astray by our own Insts ; but our Master 
 is forever the same ; pure, and never spotted ; firm, 
 and never changing — everlastingly Omnipotent, un- 
 cliangeably Omniscient. From bim no attribute 
 dotb pass away ; to bim no parallax, no tropic, ever 
 comes ; witbout variableness or sbadow of a turning, 
 be abidetb fast and firm. 
 
 • •♦■ 
 
 SOMETIMES tears are base tbings ; tbe ofispring 
 of a cowardly spirit. Some men weep wben tbey 
 sbould knit tbeir brows, and many a woman weepetb 
 wben sbe sbould resign berself to tbe will of God. 
 Many of tbose briny drops are but an expression of 
 cbild-like weakness. It were well if we could wipe 
 sucb tears away, and face a frowning world witb a 
 constant countenance. But ofttimes tears are tbe 
 index of strengtb. Tbere are periods wben tbey are 
 tbe noblest tbing in tbe world. Tbe tears of peni- 
 tents are precious; a cup of tbem were wortb a 
 king's ransom. It is no sign of weakness wben a 
 -man weeps for sin ; it sbows tbat be batb strengtb of 
 mind ; nay, more, tbat be batb strengtb imparted by 
 God, wbicb enables bim to forswear bis lusts and 
 overcome bis passions, and to turn unto God witb full 
 purpose of beart. And tbere are otber tears, too, 
 wbicb are tbe evidences not of weakness, but of 
 
192 sphrgeon's gems. 
 
 might — the tears of tender sympathy are the children 
 of strong affection, and thej are strong like their pa- 
 rents. He that loveth much must weep much; 
 much love and much sorrow must go together in this 
 vale of tears. The unfeeling heart, the unloving 
 spirit may pass from earth's portal to its utmost 
 bound almost without a sigh except for itself; but he 
 that loveth hath digged as many wells of tears as he 
 has chosen objects of affection; for by as many as 
 our friends are multiplied, by so many must our 
 griefs be multiplied too, if we have love enough to 
 share in their griefs and to bear their burden for 
 them. The largest hearted man will miss many 
 sorrows that a smaller one will feel, but he will have 
 to endure many sorrows the poor narrow-minded 
 spirit nevei knoweth. 
 
 UlSTDEESTAl^DING can never get to that peace 
 which the Christian hath attained. The philo- 
 sopher may teach us much ; he can never give us 
 rules whereby to reach the peace that Christians 
 have in their conscience. Diogenes may tell us to 
 do without everything, and may live in his tub, and 
 then think himself happier than Alexander, and that 
 he enjoys peace; but we look upon the poor crea- 
 ture after all, and though we may be astonished at 
 
sphrgeon's gems. 193 
 
 his courage, yet we are obliged to despise his folly. 
 We do not believe that even when he had dispensed 
 with everything, he possessed a quiet of mind, a 
 total and entire peace, such as the true believer can 
 enjoy. We find the greatest philosophers of old 
 laying down maxims for life, which they thought 
 would certainly pi:omote happiness. We find that 
 they were not always able to practise them them- 
 selves, and many of their disciples, when they labored 
 hard to put them in execution, found themselves 
 encumbered with impossible rules to accomplish 
 impossible objects. But the Christian man does 
 with faith what a man can never do himself. 
 
 THEKE is one expression in the song of Moses 
 which ought to be, and I believe is, when set to 
 music, very frequently repeated. It is that part of 
 the song, as recorded in the Psalms, where it is de- 
 clared that the whole host of Pharoah were utterly 
 destroyed, and there was not one of them left. When 
 that great song was sung by the side of the Ped Sea, 
 there was, no doubt, a special emphasis laid upon 
 that expression, " not one." I think I hear the hosts 
 of Israel. When the words were known by them, 
 they began and they proceeded thus — " There is not 
 one of them left;" and then in various parts the 
 
 9 
 
194 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 words were repeated, " I^ot one, not one." And then 
 the women with their sweet voices sang, " ITot one, 
 not one." I believe that at the last, a part of our 
 triumph will be the fact, that there is not one left. 
 We shall look abroad throughout the earth, and see 
 it all a level sea ; and not'one foeman pursuing us — 
 " not one, not one !" Raise thyself never so high, O 
 thou deceiver, thou canst not live ; for not one shall 
 escape. Lift thy head never so proudly, O despot, 
 thou canst not live ; for not one shall escape. O heir 
 of heaven, not one sin shall cross the Jordan after 
 thee ; not one shall pass the Red Sea to overtake 
 thee ; but this shall be the summit of thy triumph — 
 " Not one, not one ! not one of them is left." 
 
 ALL things have changed. We believe that not 
 only in appearance but in reality, the world is 
 growing old. The sun itself must soon grow dim with 
 age ; the folding lip of the worn-out vesture has com- 
 menced ; the changing of the heavens and the earth 
 has certainly begun. They shall perish ; they all shall 
 wax old as doth a garment : but forever blessed be 
 him who is the same, and of whose years there is no 
 end. Tlie satisfaction that the mariner feels, when 
 after having been tossed about for many a day, he puts 
 his foot upon the solid shore, is just the satisfaction 
 
spukgeon's gems. 195 
 
 of a Christian wlien, amidst all tlie changes of this 
 troublous life, he plants the foot of liis faith upon 
 such a text as this — " The same yesterday, and to-day, 
 and forever." The same stability that the anchor 
 gives the ship, when it hath at last got the grip of 
 some immovable rock, that same stability doth our 
 hope give to our spirits, when, like an anchor, it fixes 
 itself in a truth so glorious as this — " Jesus Christ the 
 same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." 
 
 r' would seem as if some men had been sent into 
 this world for the very purpose of being the 
 world's weepers. God's great house is thoroughly fur- 
 nished with everything ; everything that can express 
 the thoughts and the emotions of the inhabitants God 
 hath made. I find in nature plants to be everlasting 
 weepers. Tliere by the lonely brook, where the 
 maiden cast away her life, the willow weeps forever ; 
 and there in the grave-yard, where men lie slumber- 
 ing till the trumpet of the archangel shall awaken 
 them, stands the dull cypress, mourning in its sombre 
 garments. ITow, as it is with nature, so it is with 
 the race of man. Mankind have bravery and bold- 
 ness ; they must have their heroes to express their 
 courage. Mankind have some love to their fellow- 
 creatures ; they must have their fine philanthropists 
 
196 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 to live out mankind's philanthropy. Men have 
 their sorrows ; thej must have their weejDers ; thej 
 must have men of sorrows, who have it for their avo- 
 cation and their business, to weep, from the cradle to 
 the grave ; to be ever weeping, not so much for 
 themselves as for the woes of others. 
 
 DEAR friends, the last song in this world, the song 
 of triumph, shall be full of God, and of -no one 
 else. Here you praise the instrument ; to-day you 
 look on this man and on that, and you say, " Thank 
 God for this minister, and for this man !" To-day 
 you say, " Blessed be God for Luther, who shook the 
 Vatican, and thank God for "Whitfield, who stirred 
 up a slumbering church ;" but in that day you shall 
 not sing of Luther, nor of Whitfield, nor of any of the 
 mighty ones of God's hosts ; forgotten shall their 
 names be for a season, even as the stars refuse to 
 shine when the Sun himself appeareth. The song 
 shall be unto Jehovah, and Jehovah only ; we shall 
 not have a word to say for preachers nor bishops, not 
 a syllable to say for good men and true ; but the 
 whole song from first to last shall be, " Unto him 
 that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in 
 his own blood, unto him be glory forever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
SPURGEON 8 GEMS. 197 
 
 YOU know, beloved, that after all, tlie greatest 
 works that have been done have been done by 
 the ones. The hundreds do not often do much ; the 
 comi^anies never do ; it is the nnits, jnst the single 
 individuals, that after all are the power and the 
 might. Take any parish in England where there is 
 a well-regulated society for doing good — it is some 
 young woman or some young man who is the very 
 life of it. Take any Church, there are multitudes in 
 it, but it is some two or three that do the work. 
 Look on the Keformation ; there might be many 
 reformers, but there was but one Luther ; there 
 might be many teachers, but there was but one 
 Calvin. Look ye upon the preachers of the last 
 age, the mighty preachers who stirred up tlie 
 churches ; there were many coadjutors with them ; 
 but after all, it was not Whitfield's friends, nor 
 "Wesley's friends, but the men themselves that did it. 
 Lidividual eifort is, after all, the grand thing. A 
 man alone can do more than a man with fifty men at 
 his heels to fetter him. Committees are very seldom 
 of much use ; and bodies and societies sometimes are 
 loss of strength instead of gain. It is said, that if 
 IToah's Ark had had to be built by a company, they 
 would not have laid the keel yet ; and it is perhaps 
 true. There is scarcely anything done by a body ; 
 it almost always fails ; because what is many men's 
 
198 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 business is just nobody's business at all. Just the 
 same witli religion, the grand things must be done 
 bj the ones, the great works of God must be accom- 
 plished by single men. Look back through old 
 history. Who delivered Israel from the Philistines ? 
 It was a solitary Samson. Who was it gathered 
 the peoj)le together to rout the Midianites ? It 
 was one Gideon, who cried, " Tlie sword of the 
 Lord and of Gideon." Who was he that smote the 
 enemy ? It was one Shamgar, with his ox goad, or 
 it was an Egon, who with his dagger, put an end to 
 his country's tyrant. Separate men — Davids with 
 their slings and stones, have done more than armies 
 will accomplish. 
 
 OH ! ye that lean wearily on your staff, the support 
 of your old age, have ye not sins still clinging to 
 your garments? Are your lives as white as the 
 snowy hair that crowns your head ? Do you not still 
 feel that transgression besmears the skirts of your 
 robe, and mars its spotlessness ? How often are 
 you now plunged into the ditch till your own 
 clothes do abhor you. Cast your eyes over the 
 sixty, the seventy, the eighty years, during which 
 God hath spared your lives ; and can ye for a mo- 
 ment think it possible, that ye can number up your 
 innumerable transgressions, or compute the weight 
 
spurgeon's gems. 199 
 
 of the crimes which you have committed? O ye 
 stars of heaven ! the astronomer may measure yonr 
 distance and tell yonr height, bnt O ye sins of man- 
 kind ! ye surpass all thought. O ye lofty mountains ! 
 the home of the tem]3est, the birth-place of the 
 storm ! man may climb your summits and stand won- 
 deringly upon your snows ; but ye hills of sin ! ye 
 tower higher than our thoughts ; ye chasms of trans- 
 gressions ! ye are deeper than our imagination dares 
 to dive. Do you accuse me of slandering human na- 
 ture ? It is because you know it not. K God had once 
 manifested your heart to yourself, you would bear me 
 witness, that so far from exaggerating, my poor words 
 fail to describe the desperateness of our evil. Oh ! if 
 we could each of us look into our hearts to-day — if 
 our eyes could be turned within, so as to see the ini- 
 quity that is graven as with the point of the diamond 
 upon our stony hearts, we should then say to the 
 minister, that however he may depict the desperate- 
 ness of guilt, yet can he not by any means sur- 
 pass it. How great then, beloved, must be the 
 ransom of Christ, when he saved us from all these 
 sins ! The men for whom Jesus died, however great 
 their sin, when they believe, are justified from all 
 their transgressions. Though they may have in- 
 dulged in every vice and every lust which Satan 
 could suggest, and which human nature could per- 
 
200 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 form, yet once believing, all tlieir guilt is washed 
 away. Year after year may have coated them with 
 blackness, till their sin hath become of double dye ; 
 but in one moment of faith, one triumphant moment 
 of confidence in Christ, the great redemption takes 
 away the guilt of numerous years. ISTay, more, if it 
 were possible for all the sins that men have done, in 
 thought, or word, or deed, since worlds were made, 
 or time began, to meet on one poor head — the great 
 redemption is all-sufficient to take all these sins away, 
 and wash the sinner whiter than the driven snow. 
 
 YOU see yonder ship. After a long voyage, it 
 has neared the haven, but is much injured ; the 
 sails are rent to ribbons, and it is in such a forlorn con- 
 dition that it cannot come up to the harbor : a steam- 
 tug is pulling it in with the greatest possible difficulty. 
 That is like the righteous being "scarcely saved." 
 But do you see that otlier ship ? It has made a pros- 
 perous voyage ; and now, laden to the water's edge, 
 with the sails all up and with the white canvas filled 
 with the wind, it rides into the harbor joyously and 
 nobly. That is an " abundant entrance ;" and if you 
 and I are helped by God's Spirit to add to our faith, vir- 
 tue, and so on, we shall have at the last an " abundant 
 entrance into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' 
 
M 
 
 spttrgeon's gems. 201 
 
 OSES not only rejoiced for what had..been done, 
 bnt for the future consequences of it. He 
 gays — " The people of Canaan, whom we are about 
 to attack, will now be seized with sudden fear ; by 
 the greatness ot* thy arm they shall be as still as a 
 stone." Oh ! I think I hear them singing that too, 
 sweetly and softly — " as still as a stone." How 
 would the words come full, like gentle thunder 
 heard in the distance — " as still as a stone !" And 
 when we shall get on the other side the flood, see the 
 triumph over our enemies, and behold our Master 
 reigning, this will form a part of our song — that they 
 must henceforth be " as still as a stone." There will 
 be a hell, but it will not be a hell of roaring devils, 
 as it now is. They shall be " as still as a stone.^ 
 There will be legions of fallen angels, but they shall 
 no longer have courage to attack us or to defy God : 
 they shall be " as still as a stone." Oh ! how grand 
 will that soimd, when the hosts of God's redeemed, 
 . looking down on the demons chained, bound, 
 silenced, struck dumb with terror, shall sing exulting- 
 ly over them ! They must be as still as a stone ; 
 and there they must lie, and bite their iron bands. 
 The fierce despiser of Christ can no more spit in his 
 face ; the proud tyrant can no more lift his hands to 
 oppress the saints ; even Satan can no more attempt 
 to destroy. They shall be " as still as a stone." 
 
 9* 
 
202 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 OH ! who shall measure the heights of the Saviour's 
 all-sufficiency ? First, tell how high is sin, and, 
 then, remember that as I^oah's flood prevailed over 
 the tops of earth's mountains, so the flood of Christ's 
 redemption prevails over the tops of the mountains of 
 our sins. In heaven's courts there are to-day men 
 that once were murderers, and thieves, and drunk- 
 ards, and whoremongers, and blasphemers, and perse- 
 cutors ; but they have been washed — they have been 
 sanctified. Ask them whence the brightness of their 
 robes hath come, and where their purity hath been 
 achieved, and they, with united breath, tell you that 
 they have washed their robes, and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 OH ! how did heaven wonder ! how did the stars 
 stand still with astonishment ! and how did the 
 angels stay their songs a moment, when for the first 
 time, God showed how he might be just, and yet be 
 gracious ! Oh ! I think I see heaven astonished, and 
 silence in the courts of God for the space of an hour, 
 when the Almighty said, " Sinner, I must and will 
 punish thee on account of sin ! But I love thee ; the 
 bowels of my love yearn over thee. How can I 
 make thee as Admah ? How shall I set thee as Ze- 
 boim ? My justice says ' smite,' but my love stays 
 
SPUKGEON 8 GEMS. 203 
 
 my hand, and says, ' spare, spare the sinner !' Oh ! 
 sinner, my heart hath devised it ; my Son, the pure 
 and perfect, shall stand in thy stead, and be account- 
 ed guilty, and thou, the guilty, shall stand in my 
 Son's stead and be accounted righteous!" It would 
 make us leap upon our feet in astonishment if we did 
 but understand this thoroughly — the wonderful mys- 
 tery of the transposition of Christ and the sinner. 
 
 ■•»•■ 
 
 CHRIST longed for the cross, because he looked 
 for it as the goal of all his exertions. He could 
 never say "It is finished" on his throne: but on his 
 cross he did cry it. He preferred the sufferings of Cal- 
 vary to the honors of the multitude who crowded round 
 about him ; for, preach as he might, and bless them 
 as he might, and heal them as he might, still was his 
 work undone. He was straitened; he had a bap- 
 tism to be baptized with, and how was he strait- 
 ened till it was accomj)lished. " But," he said, " now 
 I pant for my cross, for it is the topstone of my labor. 
 I long for my sufferings, because they shall be the 
 completion of my great work of grace." It is the 
 end that bringeth the honor ; it is the victory that 
 crowneth the warrior rather than the battle. And 
 so Christ longed for this, his death, that he might see 
 the completion of his labor. 
 
204 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 SOMETIMES, right solemnlj, the sacred mysteries 
 of eternal wrath must be preached, but far oftener 
 let us preach the wondrous love of God. There are 
 more souls won by wooing than by threatening. It 
 is not hell, but Christ, we desire to preach, O sin- 
 ners, we are not afraid to tell you of your doom, but 
 we do not choose to be forever dwelling on that dole- 
 ful theme. We rather love to tell you of Christ, and 
 him crucified. We want to have our preaching rather 
 full of the frankincense of the merits of Christ than 
 of the smoke, and fire,. and terrors of Mount Sinai, we 
 are not come unto Mount Sinai, but unto Mount Zion 
 — ^where milder words declare the will of God, and 
 rivers of salvation are abundantly flowing. 
 
 COME, my soul, art thou at peace with God? 
 Hast thou seen thy pardon signed and sealed 
 with the Redeemer's blood ? Come, answer this, my 
 heart ; hast thou cast thy sins upon the head of 
 Christ, and hast thou seen them all washed away in 
 the crimson streams of blood ? Canst thou feel that 
 now there is a lasting peace between thyself and 
 God, so that come what may, God shall not be 
 angry with thee — shall not condemn thee — shall not 
 consume thee in his wrath, nor crush thee in his hot 
 displeasure ? If it be so, then, my heart, thou canst 
 
spukgeon's gems. 205 
 
 scarcely need to stop and ask the second question — 
 Is my conscience at peace ? For, if my heart con- 
 demn me not, God is greater than my heart, and 
 doth know all things ; if my conscience bears 
 witness with me, that I am a partaker of the 
 precions grace of salvation, then happy am I ! I am 
 one of those to whom God hath given the peace 
 w^hich passeth all understanding. Now, why is this 
 called " the peace of God ?" We suppose it is be- 
 cause it comes from God — because it was planned by 
 God — because God gave his Son to make the peace — 
 because God gives his Spirit to give the peace in the 
 conscience — because, indeed, it is God himself in the 
 soul, reconciled to man, w^hose is the peace. And 
 while it is true that this man shall have the peace — 
 even the Man-Christ, yet we know it is because he 
 was the God-Christ that he was our peace. And 
 hence we may clearly perceive how Godhead is 
 mixed up with the ]3eace which we enjoy with our 
 Maker, and with our conscience. 
 
 FULL many a time has a preacher rendered Scrip- 
 ture dark by his explanations, instead of making 
 it brighter. Many a preacher has been like a painted 
 window, shutting out the light, instead of admit- 
 
 ting it. 
 
206 bpttegeon's gems, 
 
 HAST thou never fled to Christ for refuge ? Dost 
 thou not believe in the Redeemer ? Hast thou 
 never confided thy soul to his hands? Then hear 
 me ; in God's name, hear me just a moment. My 
 friend, I would not stand in thy position for an hour, 
 for all the stars twice spelt in gold ! For what is thy 
 position ? Thou hast sinned, and God will not acquit 
 thee ; he will punish thee. He is letting thee live ; 
 thou art reprieved. Poor is the life of one that is 
 reprieved without a pardon ! Thy reprieve will soon 
 run out ; thine hour-glass is emptying every day. I 
 see on some of you death has put his cold hand, and 
 frozen your hair to whiteness. Ye need your staff, 
 it is the only barrier between you and the grave 
 now ; and you are, all of you, old and young, stand- 
 ing on a narrow neck of land, between two bound- 
 less seas — that neck of land, that isthmus of life, 
 narrowing every moment, and you are yet unpar- 
 doned. There is a city to be sacked, and you are in 
 it — soldiers are at the gates ; the command is given 
 that every man in the city is to be slaughtered save 
 he who can give the password. ." Sleep on, sleep on ; 
 the attack is not to-day; sleep on, sleep on." " But 
 
 it is to-morrow, sir." " Aye, sleep on, sleep on ; it is 
 
 • 
 
 not till to-morrow ; sleep on, procrastinate, procrasti- 
 nate." " Hark ! I hear a rumbling at the gates ; the 
 battering ram is at them ; the gates are tottering." 
 
spurgeon's gems. 207 
 
 " Sleep on, sleep on ; the soldiers are not yet at your 
 doors ; sleep on, sleep on ; ask for no mercy yet ; 
 sleep on, sleep on !" "Aye, but I liear the shrill cla- 
 rion sound ; they are in the streets. Hark, to the 
 shrieks of men and ^""omen ! Tliey are slaughtering 
 them ; they fall, they fall, they fall !" " Sleep on ; 
 they are not yet at your door." " But hark ! they are 
 at the gate ; with heavy tramp I hear the soldiers 
 marching up the stairs !" " ^ay, sleep on, sleep on ; 
 they are not yet in your room." " Why, they are 
 there ; they have burst open the door that parted you 
 from them, and there they stand !" " Ko, sleep on, 
 sleep on ; the sword is not yet at your throat ; sleep 
 on, sleep on !" It is at your throat ; you start with 
 horror. Sleep on, sleep on ! But you are gone ! 
 "Demon, why didst thou tell me to slumber! It 
 would have been wise in me to have escaped the city 
 when first the gates were shaken. "Why did I not 
 ask for the password before the troops came ? Why, 
 by all that is wise, why did I not rush into the 
 streets, and cry the password when the soldiers were 
 there ? Why stood I till the knife was at my throat ? 
 Aye, demon that thou art, be cursed ; but I am cursed 
 with thee forever !" You know the application ; it 
 is a parable you can all expound ; ye need not that I 
 should tell you that death is after you, that justice 
 must devour you, that Christ crucified is the only 
 
208 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 password that can save jou ; and yet jou have not 
 learnt it — that with some of you death is neariDg, 
 nearing, nearing, and that with all of yon he is close 
 at hand ! I need not expound how Satan is the de- 
 mon, how in hell you shall curse him and curse your- 
 selves because you procrastinated — ^how that seeing 
 God was slow to anger you were slow to repent- 
 ance — ^how, because he was great in power, and 
 kept back his anger, therefore you kept back your 
 steps from seeking him ; and here you are what you 
 are! 
 
 VORKS of art require some education in the 
 beholder, before they can be thoroughly ap- 
 preciated. We do not expect that the uninstructed 
 should at once perceive the varied excellences of a 
 painting from some master hand ; we do not imagine 
 that the superlative glories of the harmonies of the 
 Princes of Song will enrapture the ears of clownish 
 listeners. There must be something in the man him- 
 self, before he can understand the wonders either of 
 nature or of art. Certainly this is true of character. 
 By reason of failures in our character and faults in 
 our life, we are not capable of understanding all 
 the separate beauties, and the united perfection of 
 the character of Christ, or of God, his Father. Were 
 we ourselves as pure as the angels in heaven, were 
 
spurgeon's gems. 209 
 
 we what our race once was in the garden of Eden 
 immaculate and perfect, it is qnite certain that we 
 should have a far better and nobler idea of the char- 
 acter of God than we can by possibility attain unto 
 in our fallen state. But you cannot fail to notice, 
 that men, through the alienation of their natures, are 
 continually misrepresenting God, because they can- 
 not appreciate his perfection. Does God at one time 
 withhold his hand from wrath ? "Lo, they say that 
 God hath ceased to judg^ the world, and looks upon 
 it with listless, phlegmatic indifference. Does he at 
 another time punish the world for sin ? Tliey say he 
 is severe and cruel. Men will misunderstand him, 
 because they are imperfect themselves, and are not 
 capable of admiring the character of God. 
 
 • • • 
 
 nnilE cross of Christ is Christ's glory. Man seeks 
 J- to win his glory by the slaughter of others- 
 Christ by the slaughter of himself: men seek to get 
 crowns of gold— he sought a crown of thorns : men 
 think that glory lieth in being exalted over others — 
 Christ thought that his glory did lie in becoming " a 
 worm and no man," a scoff and reproach amongst all 
 that beheld him. He stooped when he conquered; 
 and he counted that the glory lay as much in the 
 stooping as in the conquest. 
 
210 SPURGEON^ GEMS. 
 
 IF kingdoms should go to rack the Christian 
 need not tremble. Just for a minute imagine a 
 scene like this. Suppose for the next three days the 
 sun should not rise ; suppose the moon should be 
 turned into a clot of blood, and shine no more upon 
 the world ; imagine that a darkness that might be felt, 
 brooded over all men ; imagine next that all the world 
 did tremble in an earthquake till every tower and 
 house and hut fell down : imagine next that the sea 
 forgot its place and leaped upon the earth, and that 
 the mountains ceased to stand, and, began to trem- 
 ble from their pedestals ; conceive after that a blaz ■ 
 ing comet streamed across the sky — that the thun- 
 der bellowed incessantly — that the lightnings without 
 a moment's pause followed one the other ; conceive 
 then that thou didst behold divers terrible sights, 
 fiendish ghosts and grim spirits ; imagine next, that a 
 trumpet, waxing exceeding loud, did blow ; that there 
 were heard the shrieks of men dying and perishing ; 
 imagine, that in the midst of all this confusion there 
 was to be found a saint. My friend, " Jesus Christ 
 the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," would keep 
 him as secure amidst all these horrors as we are to- 
 day. Oh ! rejoice ! I have pictured the worst that 
 can come. Then you would be secure. Come what 
 may then, you are safe, while Jesus Christ is the 
 Bame. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 211 
 
 COMLN'G to Christ is just the one essential thing 
 for a sinner's salvation. He that cometh not to 
 Christ, do what he may, or think what he may, is 
 yet in " the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of 
 iniquity." Coming to Christ is the very first effect 
 of regeneration. "No sooner is the soul quickened 
 than it at once discovers its lost estate, is horrified 
 thereat, looks out for a refuge, and believing Christ 
 to be a suitable one, files to him and reposes in him. 
 Where there is not this coming to Christ, it is certain 
 that there is as yet no quickening ; where there is no 
 quickening, the soul is dead in trespasses and sins, 
 and being dead it cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 SINKER, unconverted sinner, thou hast often tried 
 to save thyself; but thou hast often failed. 
 Thou hast, by thine own power and might, sought to 
 curb thy evil passions and licentious desires ; with 
 thee, I lament that all thine efforts have been unsuc- 
 cessful. And I warn thee, it will be unsuccessful, 
 for thou never canst by thine own might save thy- 
 self ; with all the strength thou hast, thou never 
 canst regenerate thine own soul; thou canst never 
 cause thyself to be born again. And though the 
 new birth is absolutely necessary, it is absolutely 
 impossible to thee, unless God the Spiri shall do it. 
 
212 spurgeon's gems. • 
 
 WHEN man fell in the garden, manhood fell en- 
 tirely ; there was not one single pillar in the 
 temple of manhood that stood erect. It is true, 
 conscience was not destroyed. Tlie pillar was not 
 shattered ; it fell, and it fell in one piece, and there 
 it lies along, the mightiest remnant of God's once 
 perfect work in man. But that conscience is fallen, 
 I am sure. Look at men. Who among them is the 
 possessor of a " good conscience toward God," but 
 the regenerated man? Do you imagine that if 
 men's consciences always spoke loudly and clearly 
 to them, they would live in the daily commission of 
 acts, which are as opposed to the right as darkness 
 to light ? 'No, beloved ; conscience can tell me that I 
 am a sinner, but conscience cannot make me feel that 
 I am one. Conscience may tell me that such and 
 such a thing is wrong, but how wrong it is con- 
 science itself does not know. Did any man's con- 
 science, unenlightened by the Spirit, ever tell him 
 that his sins deserved damnation ? Or if conscience 
 did do that, did it ever lead any man to feel an abhor- 
 rence of sin as sin ? In fact, did conscience ever 
 bring a man to such a self-renunciation, that he did 
 totally ablior himself and all his works and come to 
 Christ ? 1^0, conscience, although it is not dead, is 
 ruined, its power is impaired, it hath not that clear- 
 ness of eye and that strength of hand, and that tliun- 
 
spukgeon's gems. 213 
 
 der of voice, which it had before the fall ; but hath 
 ceased to a great degree, to exert its supremacy in 
 the town of Mansoul. Then, beloved, it becomes 
 necessary for this very reason, because conscience is 
 depraved, that the Holy Spirit should step in, to 
 show us our need of a Saviour, and draw us to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ! 
 
 • »• 
 
 PRAYEE is the certain forerunner of salvation. 
 Sinner, thou canst not pray and perish ; prayer 
 and perishing are two things that never go together. 
 I ask you not what your prayer is ; it may be a groan, 
 it may be a tear, a worldless prayer, or a prayer in 
 broken English, ungrammatical and harsh to the ear : 
 but if it be a prayer from the inmost heart, thou shalt 
 be saved ; or else this promise is a lie. As surely as 
 thou prayest, whoever thou mayest be, whatever thy 
 past life, whatever the transgressions in which thou 
 hast indulged, though they be the foulest which pol- 
 lute mankind, yet if from thine heart thou has learned 
 to pray — 
 
 " Prayer is the breath of God in man, 
 Keturning whence it came" — 
 
 And thou canst not perish with God's breath in thee. 
 " Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
 shall be saved !" 
 
214 BPURGEONS GEMS. 
 
 i^ TTlEAR not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of 
 
 JL Israel ; I will lielp thee." Come, bring your 
 
 fears out to-night, and serve them in the worst way 
 
 you can. Hang them here upon the scaffold. Come 
 
 now, and blow them away at the great guns of the 
 
 promises, let them be destroyed forever. They are 
 
 renegade mutineers ; let them be cut off, let them be 
 
 utterly destroyed, and let us go and sing, " Therefore 
 
 will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and 
 
 though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
 
 the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be 
 
 troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
 
 swelling thereof." "I will help thee,^^ saith the 
 
 Redeemer. 
 
 — > » • 
 
 • 
 
 LEAEE" to look upon God as being as severe in his 
 justice as if he were not loving, and yet as loving 
 as if he were not severe. His love does not diminish 
 his justice, nor does his justice, in the least degree, 
 make warfare upon his love. ' The two things are 
 sweetly linked together in the atonement of Christ. 
 But, mark, we can never understand the fullness of 
 the atonement till we have first grasped the Scriptural 
 truth of God's immense justice. There was never an 
 ill word spoken, nor an ill thought conceived, nor an 
 evil deed done, for which God will not have punish- 
 ment from some one or another. He will either have 
 
spurgeon's gems. 215 
 
 satisfaction from jou, or else from Christ. If you 
 
 have no atonement to bring through Christ, you 
 
 must forever lie paying the debt which you never 
 
 can pay, in eternal misery ; for as surely as God is 
 
 God, he will sooner lose his Godhead than suffer one 
 
 sin to go unpunished, or one particle of rebellion 
 
 unrevenged. 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 WHAT would her Majesty think of her soldiers, if 
 they should swear they were loyal and true, and 
 were to say — " Your Majesty, we prefer not to wear 
 these regimentals ; let us wear the dress of civilians ! 
 We are right honest men and upright ; but do not 
 care to stand in your ranks, acknowledged as your 
 soldiers ; we had rather slink into the enemy's camp, 
 and into your camps too, and not wear anything that 
 would mark us as being your soldiers !" Ah ! some 
 of you do the same with Christ. You are going to 
 be secret Christians, are you, and slink into the devil's 
 camp, and into Christ's camp, but acknowledged by 
 none ? Well, ye must take the chance of it, if ye 
 will be so ; but I should not like to risk it. It is a 
 solemn threatening, " of him will I be ashamed when 
 I come in the glory of my Father, and all his holy 
 angels with me !" It is a solemn thing, I say, when 
 Christ says, " Except a man take up his cross and fol- 
 low me, he cannot be my disciple." 
 
216 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 THE common habit witli tlie harlot or the profli- 
 gate, is to drive them out of society as a curse. 
 It is not right, it is not Christian-like. We are bound 
 to love even sinners, and not to drive them from tlie 
 land of hope, but seek to reclaim even these. Is a 
 man a rogue, a thief, or a liar? I cannot love his 
 roguery, or I should be a rogue myself. I cannot 
 love his lying, or I should be untrue; but I am 
 bound to love Mm still, and even though I am 
 wronged by him, yet I must not harbor one vindict- 
 ive feeling, but as I would desire God to forgive me, 
 so I must forgive him. And if he so sins against the 
 law of the land, that he is to be punished (and rightly 
 so), I am to love him in the punishment ; for I am 
 not to condemn him to imprisonment vindictively, 
 but I am to do it for his good, that he may be led to 
 repent through the punishment ; I am to give him 
 such a measure of punishment as shall be adequate, 
 not as an atonement for his crime, but to teach him 
 the evil of it, and induce him to forsake it. But let 
 me condemn him with a tear in my eye, because I 
 love him still. And let me, when he is thrust into 
 prison, take care that all his keepers attend to him 
 with kindness, and although there be a necessity for 
 sternness and severity in prison discipline, let it not 
 go too far, lest it merge into cruelty, and become 
 wanton, instead of useful. I am bound to love him, 
 
sphrgeon's gems. 217 
 
 though he be sunken in vice and degraded. The law 
 knows of no exception. It claims mj love for him. 
 I must love him. I am not bound to take him to mj 
 house ; I am not bound to treat him as one of mj 
 family. There may be some acts of kindness which 
 would be imprudent, seeing that by doing them I 
 might ruin others and reward vice, I am bound to 
 set mj/ace against him, as I am just, but I feel I 
 ought not to set my heart against him, for he is my 
 brother-man, and though the devil has besmeared his 
 face, and spits his venom in his mouth, so that when 
 lie speaks he speaks in oaths, and when he walks, his 
 feet are swift to shed blood, yet he is a man, and as 
 a man he is my brother, and as a brother I am bound 
 to love him, and if by stooj)ing I can lift him up to 
 something like moral dignity, I am wrong if I do not 
 do it, for I am bound to love him as I love myself. 
 
 • • 
 
 THEKE are a class of men who are a great deal 
 nobler than the herd of simpletons who allow the 
 sublimities of the Godhead to be concealed by their 
 carking care for mere sensual good. There are some 
 who do not forget that there is a God ; no, they are 
 astronomers, and they turn their eyes to heaven, and 
 they view the stars, and they marvel at the majesty 
 of the Creator. Or tliey dig into the bowels of the 
 
 10 
 
218 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 earth, and tliej are astonished at tlie magnificence of 
 God's works of yore. Or they examine the animal, 
 and marvel at the wisdom of God in the construction 
 of its anatomy. They, whenever they think of God, 
 think of him with the deepest awe, with the pro- 
 fonndest reverence. You never hear them curse or 
 swear: you will find that their souls are possessed of 
 a deep awe of the great Creator. But ah ! my 
 friends, this is not enough : this is not obedience to 
 the command. God does not say thou shalt wonder 
 at him, thou shalt have awe of him. He asks more 
 than that : he says, " Tliou shalt love me !" 
 
 SUPPOSE a liar says that it is not in his power 
 to speak the truth, that he has been a liar so 
 long, that he cannot leave it off; is that an excuse 
 for him ? Suppose a man who has long indulged 
 in lust should tell you that he finds his lusts have so 
 girt about him like a great iron net that he cannot 
 get rid of them, would you take that as an excuse ? 
 Truly it is none at all. K a drunkard has become 
 so foully a drunkard, that he finds it impossible to 
 pass a public-house without stepping in, do you 
 therefore excuse him ? 'No, because his inabilty to 
 reform lies in his nature, which he has no desire to 
 restrain or conquer. The thing that is done, and 
 
spubgeon's gems. 219 
 
 the tiling that causes the thing that is done, being 
 both from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot 
 excuse each other. What though the Ethiojjian 
 cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots ? 
 It is because you have learned to do evil that you 
 cannot now learn to do well ; and instead, therefore, 
 of letting you sit down to excuse yourselves, let me 
 put a thunderbolt beneath the seat of your sloth, 
 that you may be startled by it and aroused. Re- 
 member that to sit still is to be damned to all 
 
 eternity ! 
 
 — •-»-• — 
 
 ]ET not your exertions end in tears , mere weep- 
 -^ ing will do nothing without action. Get on 
 your feet ; ye that have voices and might, go forth 
 and preach the gospel, preach it in every street and 
 lane of this huge city ; ye that have wealth, go forth 
 and spend it for the poor, and sick, and needy, and 
 dying, the uneducated, the unenlightened ; ye that 
 have time, go forth and spend it in deeds of good- 
 ness ; ye that have power in prayer go forth and 
 pray ; ye that can handle the pen, go forth and 
 write down iniquity — every one to his post, every 
 one of you to your gun in this day of battle ; now 
 for God and for his truth ; for God and for tlie 
 right ; let every one of us who knows the Lord seek 
 to fight under his banner ! 
 
220 sphrgeon's gems. 
 
 DEEAMS, tlie disordered fabrics of a wild imagina- 
 tion ; tlie totterings often of the fair pillars of a 
 grand conception ; how can they be the means of sal- 
 vation ? Yon know Rowland Hill's good answer ; I 
 must quote it in default of a better. "When a woman 
 pleaded that she was saved because she dreamed, he 
 said, " Well, my good woman, it is very nice to have 
 good dreams when you are asleej? ; but I want to see 
 how you act when you are awake ; for if your con- 
 duct is not consistent in religion when you are awake, 
 I will not give a snap of the finger for your dreams." 
 Ah, I do marvel that ever any person should go to 
 such a depth of ignorance as to tell me the stories 
 that I have heard myself about dreams. Poor dear 
 creatures, when they were sound asleep they saw the 
 gates of heaven opened, and a white angel came and 
 washed their sins away, and then they saw that they 
 were pardoned ; and since then they have never had 
 a doubt or a fear. It is time that you should begin 
 to doubt, then ; very good time that you should ; for 
 if that is all the hope you have, it is a poor one. Re- 
 member it is, ""Whosoever calls upon the name of 
 God," not whosoever dreams about him. Dreams 
 may do good. Sometimes people have been fright- 
 ened out of their senses in them ; and they were bet- 
 ter out of their senses than they were in, for they did 
 more mischief when they were in their senses than 
 
SPUEGEONS GEMS. 221 
 
 they did when thej were out ; and the dreams did 
 good in that sense. Some people, too, have been 
 alarmed by dreams ; but to trust to them is to trust 
 to a shadow, to build your hopes on bubbles, scarcely 
 needing a puff of wind to bxirst them into nothing- 
 ness. Oh ! remember, you want no vision, no mar- 
 vellous apj)earance. If you have had a vision or a 
 dream, you need not despise it ; it may have bene- 
 fited you ; but do not trust to it. But if you have 
 had none, remember it is not the mere calling upon 
 God's name to which the promise is appended. 
 
 • • > 
 
 THROUGH the fall, and through our own sin, 
 the nature of man has become so debased, and 
 depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible for him 
 to come to Christ without the assistance of God the 
 Holy Spirit. ISTow, in trying to exhibit how the 
 nature of man thus renders him unable to come to 
 Christ, you must allow me just to take this figure. 
 You see a sheep; how willingly it feeds upon the 
 herbage! You never knew a sheep sigh after car- 
 rion ; It could not live on lion's food. ISTow bring 
 me a wolf; and you ask me whether a wolf cannot 
 eat grass, whether it cannot be just as docile and 
 just as domesticated as the sheep. I answer ^N"© ; 
 because its nature is contrary thereunto. You say, 
 
222 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 " "Well, it lias ears and legs ; can it not hear the 
 shepherd's voice, and follow him wheresoever he 
 leadeth it ?" I answer, certainly, there is no phy- 
 sical cause why it cannot do so, but its nature 
 forbids, and therefore I say it cannot do so. Can it 
 not be tamed? cannot its ferocity be removed? 
 Probably it may so far be subdued that it may 
 become apparently tame, but there will always be a 
 marked distinction between it and the sheep, be- 
 cause there is a distinction in nature. !N^ow, the 
 reason why man cannot come to Christ, is not 
 because he cannot come, so far as his body or his 
 mere power of mind is concerned, but because his 
 nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor 
 the power to come to Christ, unless drawn by the 
 Spirit. But let me give you a better illustration. 
 You see a mother with a babe in her arms. You 
 put a knife into her hand and tell her to stab that 
 babe to the heart. She replies, and very truthfully, 
 " I cannot." ISTow, so far as her bodily power is 
 concerned, she can, if she pleases ; there is the knife, 
 and there is the child. The child cannot resist, and 
 she has quite sufficient strength in her hand imme- 
 diately to stab it to its heart. But she is quite cor- 
 rect when she says she cannot do it. As a mere act 
 of the mind, it is quite possible she might think of 
 such a thing as killing the child, and yet she says 
 
spitrgeon's gems. 223 
 
 she cannot tliink of such a thing ; and she does not 
 say falsely, for her nature as a mother forbids her 
 doing a thing from which her soul revolts. Simply 
 because she is that child's parent she feels she cannot 
 kill it. It is even so with a sinner. Coming to 
 Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, 
 although, so far as physical and mental forces are 
 concerned (and these have but a very narrow sphere 
 in salvation) men could come if they would; it is 
 strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not 
 unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw 
 them. 
 
 YOU who have never meditated on Jesus Christ — 
 what do you think shall become of you when 
 your bitterness shall be in your mouth ? When you 
 taste death, how do you hope to destroy its ill flavor ? 
 Yet " that last, that bitter cup which mortal man can 
 taste," is but a dire presentiment. When you have 
 to drink that gall in hell forever — when the cup of 
 torments which Jesus did not drain for you will have 
 to be drained by yourself — what will you do then ? 
 Tlie Christian can go to heaven, because Christ has 
 drunk destruction dry for him ; but the ungodly and 
 unconverted man will have to drink the dregs of the 
 wine of Gomorrah. What will you do then ? The 
 first drops are bad enough, when you sip here the 
 
224 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 drops of remorse on account of sin ; but that future 
 cup in hell — that terrific mixture which God deals 
 out to the lost in the pit — what will jou do when 
 you have to drink that ? when your meditation will 
 be, that you rejected Jesus, that you despised his 
 Gospel, that you scoffed at his word? What will you 
 do in that dread extremity ? 
 
 • •• 
 
 IF this night, ere you rest, you could say that with 
 God, as well as all the world, you are at peace, 
 you may go out to-morrow, and whatever your busi- 
 ness, I am not afraid for you. You are more than a 
 match for all the temptations to false doctrine, to 
 false living, or to false speech that may meet you. 
 For he that has peace with God is armed cap-d-^ie / 
 he is covered from head to foot in a panoply. The 
 arrow may fly against it, but it cannot pierce it, for 
 peace with God is a mail so strong that the broad 
 sword of Satan itself may be broken in twain ere 
 it can pierce the flesh. Oh! take care that you 
 are at peace with God ; for, if you are not, you 
 ride forth to to-morrow's fight unarmed, naked ; and 
 God help the man that is unarmed when he has to 
 fight with hell and earth. Oh, be not foolish, but 
 " put on the whole armor of God," and then be con- 
 fident, for you need not fear. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 225 
 
 THE whole world was drowned except those happy 
 ones who were found in the ark. Tlie miglitlest 
 beast and the tiniest insect, the stately elephant and 
 the loathsome reptile, the fleet horse and the creep- 
 ing snail, the graceful antelope and the ugly toad — 
 every living substance that was upon the face of the 
 ground was involved in one common doom, save 
 those only who were preserved alive in the ark. The 
 noblest animals, endowed with the finest instincts, 
 were all drowned, despite their powers of swimming 
 (if they were not fish), save those only who were 
 sheltered in the ark. The strongest winged fowls 
 that ever cut the air were all wearied in their flio^ht 
 and fell into the water, save those only who were 
 housed in the ark. The proudest tenants of the for- 
 est, those who ranged fearlessly in the broad light 
 of day, or those who prowled stealthily under the 
 cover of night, the strongest, the mightiest, all were 
 swallowed up in the vast abyss, save those only who 
 were commanded by God to hide themselves within 
 the shelter of the ark. Even so, there is only one 
 way of salvation for all men living under heaven. 
 There is only one name whereby they can be saved. 
 "Wouldst thou be saved, rich man ? There is no way 
 but that whereby the poverty-stricken pauper is also 
 to be saved. "Wouldst thou be delivered, thou man 
 of intelligence ? Thou shalt be saved in the same 
 
 10* 
 
226 spijrgeon's gems. 
 
 way as the most ignorant. There is none other name 
 under heaven given among men whereby we must 
 be saved, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. There 
 were not two arks, but one ark : so there are not two 
 Saviours, but one Saviour. There was no other 
 means of salvation except the ark: so there is no 
 plan of deliverance except by Jesus Christ, the Sa- 
 viour of sinners. In vain you climb the lofty top of 
 Sinai: fifteen cubits upwards shall the waters pre- 
 vail. In vain you climb to the highest pinnacles of 
 your self-conceit and your worldly merit : ye shall be 
 drowned — drowned beyond the hope of salvation; 
 for " other foundations can no man lay than that 
 which is laid — Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
 
 THE first thing the Holy Spirit does when he 
 comes into a man's heart is this : he finds him 
 with a very good opinion of himself: and there is 
 nothing which prevents a man coming to Christ like 
 a good opinion of himself. Why, says man, "I 
 don't want to come to Christ. I have as good a 
 righteousness as anybody can desire. I feel I can 
 walk into heaven on my own rights." Tlie Holy 
 Spirit lays bare his heart, lets him see the loathsome 
 cancer that is there eating away his life, uncovers to 
 Jiim all the blackness and defilement of that sink of 
 
spurgeon's gems. 227 
 
 hell, tlie human heart, and then the man stands 
 aghast. "I never thought I was like this. Oh! 
 those sins I thought were little, have swelled out to 
 an immense stature. "What I thought was a mole- 
 hill, has grown into a mountain ; it was but the 
 hyssop on the wall before, but now it has become a 
 cedar of Lebanon. Oh," saith the man within him- 
 self, " I will try and reform ; I will do good deeds 
 enough to wash these black deeds out." Then comes 
 the Holy Spirit and shows him that he cannot do 
 this, takes away all his fancied power and strength, 
 so that the man falls down on his knees in agony 
 and cries, " Oh ! once I thought I could save myself 
 by my good works, but now I find that 
 
 ' Could my tears forever flow, 
 Could my zeal no respite know, 
 All for sin could not atone. 
 Thou must save and thou alone.' " 
 
 Then the heart sinks, and the man is ready to de- 
 spair. And saith he, " I never can be saved. 
 I^othing can save me." Tlien comes the Holy 
 Spirit, and shows the sinner the cross of Christ, 
 gives him eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve, 
 and says, " Look to yonder cross, that man died to 
 save sinners ; you feel that you are a sinner ; he died 
 to save you." And he enables the heart to believe, 
 
228 SPTJEGEON S GEMS. 
 
 and to come to Christ. And wlien it comes to 
 Christ, by this sweet drawing of the Spirit, it finds 
 " a peace with God which passeth all understanding, 
 which keeps his heart and mind through Jesns 
 Christ our Lord." iJ^ow, you will plainly perceive 
 tliat all this may be done without any compulsion. 
 Man is as much drawn willingly, as if he were not 
 drawn at all ; and he comes to Christ with full con- 
 sent, with as full a consent as if no secret influence 
 had ever been exercised in his heart. But that in- 
 fluence must be exercised, or else there never has 
 been and there never will be, any man who either 
 can or will come to the Lord Jesus Chiist. 
 
 ♦ ♦ > 
 
 AYAUl^T, Satan ! While I am at peace with God, 
 I am a match for all thy temptations. Thou 
 ofl'erest me silver; I have gold. Thou bringest 
 before me the riches of the earth ; I have something 
 more substantial than these. Avaunt, tempter of 
 human kind ! Avaunt, thou fiend ! Your tempta- 
 tions and blandishments are lost on one who has 
 peace with God. This peace, too, will keep the 
 heart undivided. He who has peace with God will 
 set his whole heart on God. " Oh!" says he, "why 
 should I go to seek anything else on earth, now that 
 I have found my rest in God ? As the bird by wan- 
 
spuegeon's gems. 229 
 
 dering, so should I be if I went elsewhere. I have 
 found a fountain ; why should I go and drink at the 
 broken cistern that will hold no water ? I lean on 
 the arm of my beloved; why should I rest on the 
 arm of another? I know that religion is a thing 
 worth my following ; why should I leave the pure 
 snows of Lebanon to follow something else ? I know 
 and feel that religion is rich when it brings forth 
 to me a hundred-fold the fruits of peace; why 
 should I go and sow elsewhere ? I will be like the 
 maiden Kuth, I will stop in the fields of Boaz. Here 
 I will ever stay and never wander." 
 
 THE wrath of man shall praise God. I believe the 
 last song of the redeemed, when they shall ulti- 
 mately triumph, will celebrate in heavenly stanzas 
 the wrath of man overcome by God. Sometimes 
 after great battles, monuments are raised to the 
 memory of the fight ; and of what are they composed ? 
 They are composed of weapons of death and of instru- 
 ments of war which have been taken from the enemy. 
 IsTow, to use that illustration as I think it may be 
 properly used, the day is coming when fury, and 
 wrath, and hatred, and strife, shall all be woven into 
 a song ; and the weapons of our enemies, when taken 
 from them, shall serve to make monuments to the 
 
230 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 praise of God. Rail on, rail on, blaspliemer ! Smite 
 on, smite on, tyrant ! Lift thy heavy hand, O despot ; 
 crush the truth, which thou canst not crush ; knock 
 from his head the crown — ^the crown that is far above 
 thy reach — ^poor puny impotent mortal as thou art! 
 Go on, go on ! But all thou doest shall but increase 
 his glories. For aught we care, we bid you still pro- 
 ceed with all your wrath and malice. Though it 
 shall be worse for you, it shall be more glorious for 
 our Master ; the greater your preparations for war, 
 the more splendid shall be his triumphal chariot, 
 when he shall ride through the streets of heaven in 
 pompous array. The more mighty your preparations 
 for battle, the more rich the spoil which he shall 
 divide with the strong. O Christian, fear not the 
 foe ! Remember the harder his blows, the sweeter 
 thy song ; the greater his wrath, the more splendid 
 thy triumph ; the more he rages, the more shall 
 Christ be honored in the day of his appearing. 
 
 IT is better to be cheated sometimes ourselves than 
 that we should cheat others ; and it is cheating 
 others to suspect those on whose characters there 
 resteth no suspicion. We acknowledge such morality 
 among men, but we act not so towards God; we 
 believe any liar sooner than we believe him. 
 
sptjrgeon's gems. 231 
 
 I WILL tiel'p thee. Tliat is very little for me to 
 do, to help tliee. Consider what I have done 
 already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought 
 thee with my blood. What ! not help thee ? I have 
 died for thee ; and if I hava done the greater, will I 
 not do the less ? Help thee, my beloved ! It is the 
 least thing I will ever do for thee. I have done 
 more, and I will do more. Before the day-star first 
 began to shine I chose thee. " I will help thee." I 
 made the covenant for thee, and exercised all the 
 wisdom of my eternal mind in the scheming of the 
 plan of salvation. " I will help thee." I became a 
 man for thee ; I doffed my diadem, and laid aside 
 my robe ; I laid the purple of the universe aside to 
 become a man for thee. If I did this, I will help 
 thee. I gave my life, my soul, for thee ; I slumbered 
 in the grave,- 1 descended into Hades, all for thee ; I 
 will help thee. It will cost me nothing. Redeem- 
 ing thee cost me much, but I have all and abound. 
 In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have 
 bought for thee already. It is no new thing. I can 
 do it easily. " Help thee ?" Thou needst never fear 
 that. If thou needest a thousand times as much help 
 as thou dost need, I would give it thee ; but it is 
 little that thou dost require compared with what I 
 have to give. 'Tis great for thee to need, but it is 
 nothing for me to bestow. " Help thee ?" Fear not. 
 
232 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 If tliere were an ant at the door of thy granary ask- 
 ing for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a 
 handful of thy wheat ; and thou art nothing but a 
 tiny insect at the door of my all-suificiency. All 
 that thou couldst ever eat, all that thou couldst ever 
 take, if thou wert to take on to all eternity, would 
 no more diminish my all-sufficiency, than the drink- 
 ing of the fish would diminish the sea. 'No ; " I will 
 help thee." If I have died for thee, I will not leave 
 
 thee. 
 
 > • • 
 
 THE Samaritan, when he saw the wounded man 
 on the road to Jericho, felt that he was in his 
 neighborhood, and that therefore he was his neighbor, 
 and he was bound to love him. " Love thy neighbor." 
 Perhaps he is in riches, and thou art poor, and thou 
 livest in thy little cot side-by-side with his lordly 
 mansion. Thou seest his estates, thou markest his 
 fine linen, and his sumptuous raiment. God has 
 given him these gifts, and if he has not given them 
 to thee, covet not his wealth, and think no hard 
 thoughts concerning him. There will ever be differ- 
 ences in the circumstances of man, so let it be. Be 
 content with thy own lot, if thou canst not better it, 
 but do not look upon thy neighbor, and wish that he 
 were poor as thyself, and do not aid or abet any who 
 would rid him of his wealth, to make thee hastily 
 
spuegeon's gems. 233 
 
 ricli. Love him, and tlien tlioii canst not envy him. 
 Mayhap, on the other hand, thou art rich, and near 
 thee reside the poor. Do not scorn to call them 
 neighbors. Do not scorn to own that thou art bound 
 to love even them. The world calls them thy in- 
 feriors. In what are they inferior ? They are thine 
 equals really, though not so in station. " God hath 
 made of one blood all peo^^le that dwell on the face 
 of the earth." Thou art by no means better than 
 they. They are men, and what art thou more than 
 that? They may be men in rags, but men in rags are 
 men ; and if thou be a man arrayed in scarlet, thou 
 art no more than a man. Take heed that thou love 
 thy neighbor, even though he be in rags, and scorn 
 him not, though sunken in the depths of poverty. 
 
 • ♦ > 
 
 IVTEITHER Paul, nor an angel from heaven, nor 
 -L 1 Apollos, nor Cephas can help you in salvation. 
 It is not of man, neither by men, and neither pope, 
 nor archbishop, nor bishop, nor priest, nor minister, 
 nor any one hath any grace to give to others. "We 
 must each of us go ourselves to the fountain-head, 
 pleading this promise — " Whosoever calleth in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, shall be saved." If I were 
 shut up in the mines of Siberia, where I could never 
 hear the gospel, if I did call upon the name of Christ, 
 
234: spurgeon's gems. 
 
 the road is just as straight without the minister as 
 with him, and the path to heaven is just as clear from 
 the wilds of Africa, and from the dens of the prison- 
 house and the dungeon, as it is from the sanctuary of 
 God. l^evertheless, for edification, all Christians love 
 the ministry, though not of salvation ; though neither 
 in priest nor preacher do they trust, yet the word of 
 God is sweet to them, and " beautiful on the moun- 
 tains are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of 
 
 peace." 
 
 — *-#-# — 
 
 CAN ye think what must have been the greatness 
 of the atonement which was the substitution for 
 all this agony which God would have cast upon us, if 
 he had not poured it upon Christ ? Look ! look ! look 
 with solemn eye through the shades that part us 
 from the world of spirits, and see that house of misery 
 which men call hell ! Ye cannot endure the specta- 
 cle. Remember that in that place there are spirits 
 forever paying their debt to divine justice ; but 
 thousrh some of them have been for these four thou- 
 sand years sweltering in the flame, they are no nearer 
 a discharge than when they began ; and when ten 
 thousand times ten thousand years shall have rolled 
 away, they will no more have made satisfaction to 
 God for their guilt than they have done up till now. 
 And now can you grasp the thought of the greatness 
 
spurgeon's gems. 235 
 
 of your Saviour's mediation wlien lie paid your 
 debt, and paid it all at once ; so tliat there now re- 
 maineth not one farthing of debt owing from Christ's 
 people to their God, except a debt of love. To justice 
 the believer oweth nothing ; though he owed origin- 
 ally so much that eternity would not have been long 
 enough to suffice for the paying of it, yet, in one mo- 
 ment Christ did pay it all, so that the man who be- 
 lie veth is entirely justified from all guilt, and set free 
 from all punishment, through what Jesus hath done. 
 Think ye, then, how great his atonement if he hath 
 done all this. 
 
 "TTTE never read that IS^oah called up Shem, Ham, 
 * T and Japheth to work at the pumps, nor yet that 
 they had any, for there was not a bit of leakage 
 about the ark. No doubt there were storms that 
 year ; but we do not hear that the ship was ever in 
 danger of being wrecked. The rocks, it is true, were 
 too low down to touch her bottom ; for fifteen cubits 
 upwards did the waters prevail, and the mountains 
 were covered. Eising twenty-seven feet above tlie 
 loftiest mountains, she had no quicksands to fear; 
 they were too deep below her keel. But of course 
 she was exposed to the winds ; sometimes the hurri- 
 cane might have rattled against her, and driven her 
 along. Doubtless, at another time, the hail beat on 
 
236 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 her top, and the lightnings scarred the brow of 
 night ; but the ark sailed on, not one was cast ont 
 from her, nor were her sailors wearied with constant 
 pumj)ing to keep out the water, or frequent repairs 
 to keep her secure. Though the world was inundated 
 and ruined, that one ark sailed triumphantly above 
 the waters. The ark was safe, and all who were in 
 her were safe too. 
 
 • •• 
 
 THOUGH there were many rooms in the ark, 
 THERE WAS ONLY ONE DOOK. It is Said, " And the 
 door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof." 
 And so, there is only one door into the ark of our 
 salvation, and that is Christ. There are not two 
 Christs preached, one in one chapel, and another in 
 another. " K any man preach any other doctrine 
 than that ye have received, let him be accursed." 
 There is but one Gospel. We take in the righteous 
 out of all sections, but we do not take in all sections. 
 We pick out the godly from amongst them all, for 
 we believe there is a remnant according to the 
 election of grace in the vilest of them. But, still, 
 there is only one door, and " he that cometh not in 
 by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the 
 same is a thief and a robber." There was only one 
 door to the ark. 
 
spttkgeon's gems. 237 
 
 nilSTE'EE, thy deepest woes have been felt by 
 9^ some one, even more keenly than thou feelest 
 them now. Thou say est, "I sink in deep mire 
 where there is no standing." There have been some 
 that have sunk far deeper than thou hast sunk. 
 Thou art up to thy ankles ; I have known some to 
 have been up to the loins, and there have been some 
 that have been covered over their very heads, so 
 that they could say, " All thy waves and thy billows 
 have gone over me." Your distresses are very pain- 
 ful, but they are not singular; others have had to 
 endure the same. Be comforted, it is not a desert 
 island; others have been there too; and if they 
 have passed through this, and won the crown, thou 
 Shalt pass through it, and inherit yet the glory of the 
 believer on the breast of Christ. 
 
 jl/FY God, I could not drink from thy well, if thou 
 i-^1 hadst not put there the earthen pitcher of 
 my Saviour ; but with him living waters from thy 
 sacred well I draw. Heaven ! thou art too bright; I 
 could not bear thy insufferable light, if I had not this 
 shade with which I cover thee ; but through it, as 
 through a mist, I do behold the halo of thy glory, un- 
 diminished in its effulgence, but somewhat diminished 
 in their potency which would be my destruction. 
 
238 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 BEGrN" with science of Christ crucified, and you 
 will begin with the sun, you will see every other 
 science moving around it in complete harmony. Tlie 
 greatest mind in the world will be evolved by begin- 
 ning at the right end. The old saying is, " Go from 
 nature up to nature's God ;" but it is hard working 
 up hill. Tlie best thing is to go from nature's God 
 down to nature ; and if you once get to nature's God, 
 and believe Him, and love Him, it is surprising how 
 easy it is to hear music in the waves, and songs in 
 the wild whisperings of the winds ; to see God every 
 where, in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling 
 brooks, and hear him everywhere in the lowing of 
 cattle, in the rolling of thunders, and in the fury of 
 tempests. Get Christ first, put him in the right 
 place, and you will find him to be the wisdom of 
 God in your own experience. 
 
 TBCE devil, who has been a liar from the beginning, 
 we will credit; but if our God promises any- 
 thing, we say, " Surely this is too good to be true," 
 and we doubt the fulfillment, because it is not brought 
 to pass exactly at the time and in the way we antici- 
 pate. Let us never harbor such suspicions of our 
 God. If we say in our haste, " All men are liars,'^ 
 let us preserve this one truth, " God cannot lie." 
 
spurgeon's gems. 239 
 
 I'N nature, after evening time there cometli niglit. 
 The sun hath had its hours of journeying; the 
 fiery steeds are weary ; they must rest. Lo, they 
 descend the azure steeps and plunge their burning 
 fetlocks in the western sea, while night in her ebon 
 chariot follows at their heels. God, however, over- 
 steps the rule of nature. He is pleased to send to 
 his people times when the eye of reason expects to 
 see no more day, but fears that the glorious landscape 
 of God's mercies will be shrouded in the darkness of 
 his forgetfulness. But instead thereof, God over- 
 leapeth nature, and declares that at evening time, 
 instead of darkness there shall be light. 
 
 GOD is "slow to anger." "When mercy cometh 
 into the world, she driveth winged steeds ; the 
 axles of her chariot-wheels are glowing, hot with 
 speed; but when wrath cometh, it walketh with 
 tardy footstej)s ; it is not in haste to slay, it is not 
 swift to condemn. God's rod of mercy is ever in his 
 hands outstretched ; God's sword of justice is in its 
 scabbard: not rusted in it — it can be easily with- 
 drawn — ^but held there by the hand that presses it 
 back into its sheath, crying, " Sleep, O sword, sleep ; 
 for I will have mercy upon sinners, and will forgive 
 their transgressions." God hath many orators in 
 
24:0 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 heaven ; some of tliem speak with swift words. 
 Gabriel, when he cometh down to tell glad tidings, 
 speaketh swiftlj : angelic hosts, when they descend 
 from glory, fly with wings of lightning, when they 
 proclaim, " Peace on earth, good will towards men ;" 
 but the dark angel of wrath is a slow orator ; with 
 many a pause between, where melting pity joins her 
 languid notes, he speaks ; and when but half his 
 oration is completed he often stays, and withdraws 
 himself from his rostrum, giving way to pardon and 
 to mercy ; he having but addressed the people that 
 they might be driven to repentance, and so might 
 receive peace from the sceptre of God's love. 
 
 THEKE is another man. He does not lack any- 
 thing, but still he feels that some great loss 
 may injure him considerably. Go and write this 
 down in thy cash-book. If thou hast made out thy 
 cash-account truly, put this down : " The Lord is my 
 shepherd, I shall not want ;" put that down for some- 
 thing better than pounds, shillings and pence, some- 
 thing better than gold and silver. " The Lord is my 
 shepherd, I shall not want." " Ah !" says the cold, 
 calculating man, " your promise is not worth having, 
 sir." 'No ; it would not, if it were my promise. 
 But fortunately it is not. It is God's promise. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 241 
 
 THE Lord is Ms slieplierd, lie shall not want. 
 What a glorious inheritance! Walk up and 
 down it, Christians ; lie down upon it, it will do for 
 thy pillow ; it will be soft as down for thee to lie 
 upon. " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not 
 want." Climb uj) that creaking staircase to the top 
 of thy house, lie down on thy hard mattress, wrap 
 'thyself round with a blanket, look out for the win- 
 ter when hard times are coming, and say, "What 
 shall I do ?" But, then, just hum over to thyself 
 these words, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall 
 not want." That will be like the hush of a lul- 
 laby to your poor soul, and you will soon sink to 
 slumber. 
 
 • ♦• 
 
 THE ARK HAD SUNDRY STORIES IN IT. They wcrc uot 
 all of one height. Tliere were lower, second, 
 and third stories. ]^ow, this is a figure of the diffe- 
 rent kinds of Christians who are carried to heaven. 
 Tliere is my poor mourning brother, who lives in the 
 bottom story ; he is always singing, " Lord what a 
 wretched land is this !" He lives just near the keel, 
 on the bare ribs of the ark. He is never very 
 happy. A little light reaches him from the window 
 at times ; but generally he is so far from the light 
 that he walks in darkness, and sees very little 
 
 11 
 
242 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 indeed. His state is tliat of constant groaning ; he 
 likes to hear it said, " Through much tribulation you 
 will enter the kingdom of heaven ;" if jou paint th6 
 Christian life as a very gloomy one, he will like your 
 picture, for his is gloomy indeed ; he is always poring 
 over texts such as these, " Oh, wretched man that I 
 am," or that other, '' They that pass through the 
 valley of Beca make it a well ; the rain also filleth 
 the pools." He is down in the lower story of the 
 ark. But never mind ; he is in the ark, though he 
 has little faith, and very much doubt. " With lower, 
 second, and third stories shalt thou make it." There 
 is one of our brethren up a little higher, and he is 
 saying, " I cannot exactly say I am safe ; 3^et I have 
 a hope that my head will be kept above the billows, 
 though it goes hard with me at times, l^ow and 
 then, too, the Lord bestows ' some drops of heaven ' 
 upon me. Sometimes I am like the mountains of 
 Hermon, where ' the Lord commanded the blessing, 
 even life forevermore.' He is in the second story. 
 "Well, but he is no safer than the other one. He 
 that is in the second story is no safer, though he is 
 happier than the man on tlie ground floor. All are 
 safe, so long as they are in the ark. For my part, 
 I like the uppermost story best. I had rather live 
 up there, where I can sing, " God, my heart is 
 fixed, I will sing and give praise, even with my 
 
spurgeon's gems. 243 
 
 glory." I love tlie place wliere the saints are 
 always admonisliing and encouraging one another 
 with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. I con- 
 fess that I am obliged to go down to the lower story 
 sometimes ; but I like running up the ladder to the 
 third deck, w^henever I can. But I am no more safe 
 when I am in the top story than I am when I am in 
 the bottom. The same wave that would split the 
 ship and drown me, were I in the lowest story, 
 would drown me if I were in the highest. However 
 high some of us, and however low others of us may 
 be, the same vessel bears us all, for we are one crew 
 in one boat, and there is no dividing us. Come, 
 then, my poor desponding hearer, is that your place, 
 somewhere down at the bottom of the hold, along 
 with the ballast? Are you always in trials and 
 troubles ? Ah ! well, fear not, so long as you are in 
 the ark. Do not be afraid, Christ is your strength 
 and righteousness. A wave comes against the side 
 of the ship, but it does not hurt the ship, it only 
 drives the wedges in tighter. The master is at the 
 helm — will not that assure your heart? It has 
 floated over so many billows — will not that increase 
 your confidence ? It must, indeed, be a strong 
 billow that will sink it now ; there never shall be 
 such an one. And where, think you, is the power 
 that could destroy the souls who are sheltered in the 
 
24A sruRGEON's gems. 
 
 ark of our salvation ? "Who can lay anything to the 
 charge of God's elect, since Christ hath died, and 
 God the Father hath justified ns ? Happy assurance ! 
 We are all safe, so sure as we are in the covenant. 
 Tlie ark floated triumphantly on amidst all the 
 dangers without, and when it finally rested on 
 Mount Ararat, and God spake to 'Noah again, 
 saying, " Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, 
 and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring 
 forth with thee every living thing ;" then the inven- 
 tory was complete, all were safely landed. So, too, 
 will Christ present the perfect number of all his 
 people to the Father in the last day ; not one shall 
 perish. The ark of our salvation shall bring alHts 
 living freight into the haven of everlasting rest. 
 
 THERE are some persons whose eyes are so weak 
 that the light seems to be injurious to them, espe- 
 cially the red rays of the sun, and a glass has been 
 invented, which rejects the rays that are injurious, and 
 allows only those to pass which are softened and mo- 
 dified to the weakness of the eye. It seems as if the 
 Lord Jesus were some such a glass as this. The grace 
 of God the Trinity, shining through the man Christ 
 Jesus, becomes a mellow, soft light, so that mortal 
 eye can bear it. 
 
sptjrgeon's gems. 245 
 
 ¥HEEEYEPv the cliurcli is, there is God. God 
 is pleased, in his mercy and condescension, to 
 stoop from the highest heavens to dwell in this lower 
 heaven — the heaven of his church. It is here, 
 among the household of faith, he deigns — let nie 
 say it with sacred reverence — ^to unbend himself, 
 and hold familiar intercourse with those round about 
 him whom he hath adopted into his family. lie 
 may be a consuming fire abroad, but when he comes 
 into his own house he is all mercy, mildness, and 
 love. Abroad he does great works of power ; but 
 at home in his own house he does great works of 
 grace. 
 
 T^OU are not dying now; but you will be dying 
 J- soon, l^one of you have taken a lease of 
 your lives ; it is impossible for you to guarantee 
 to yourselves existence for another hour. And if 
 you are Godless and Christless, ye have all in your 
 veins the venom of that death unutterable which 
 will make your departure doleful beyond expression ! 
 Men are dying every day around us ; at this very 
 hour there are thousands departing into the world of 
 spirits. In upper chambers, where mourning re- 
 latives are pouring floods of tears upon their burning 
 brows ; far away on the wild sea, where the sea-gull 
 litters the only scream over the ship-wrecked mari- 
 
246 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 ner ; down, deep, deep, deep, in the lowest valley, 
 and high npon the loftiest hills, men are dying now, 
 and dying in agonies. Ah, and ye must die also! 
 and will ye march on heedlessly ; will ye go on step 
 after step, singing merrily all the way, and dreaming 
 not of that which is to come ! Oh, will ye be like 
 the silly bullock that goeth easily to the slaughter, 
 or will ye be like the lamb that licks the butcher's 
 knife ! Mad, mad O man, that thou shouldst go to 
 eternal wrath and to the chambers of fell destruc- 
 tion, and yet no sigh comes from thy heart; no 
 groan is uttered by thy lips ! Thou diest every day, 
 but groanest never, till the last day of thy death, 
 which is the beginning of thy misery. Yes, the con- 
 dition of the mass of men is just like the condition 
 of the children of Israel when they were bitten by 
 the serpents. 
 
 THE Saviour seems to calm his glory, to tone it 
 down to our poor feeble frame. His name put 
 into this wine of heaven, does not diminsh in the least 
 degree its sparkling and its exhilarating power ; but 
 it takes out of it that deep strength which might up- 
 set an angel's brain, if he could drink to his full. It 
 takes away the profundity of mystery, which would 
 make the deep old wine of the kingdom intoxicating 
 rather than cheering. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 247 
 
 IT is singular that other men think they shall live 
 forever, but men convinced of sin, who seek a 
 Saviour, are afraid they shall not live another 
 moment. You have known the time when you 
 dared not shut your eyes for fear you should not open 
 them again on earth ; when you dreaded the shadows 
 of the night lest they should darken forever the light 
 of the sun, and you should dwell in outer darkness 
 throughout eternity. You have mourned as each 
 day has entered, and you have wept as it has depart- 
 ed, because you fancied that your next step might 
 precipitate you into your eternal doom. I have known 
 what it is to tread the earth and fear lest every tuft 
 of grass should but cover a door to hell ; trembling, 
 lest every particle, and every atom, and every stone, 
 should be so at league with God against me as to de- 
 stroy me. 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 ¥JIEN God's power doth restrain himself, then it 
 is power indeed, the power to curb power, 
 the power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence 
 surpassed. God is great in power, and therefore 
 doth he keep in his anger. A man who has a strong 
 mind can bear to be insulted, can bear offences, 
 because he is strong. The weak mind snaps and 
 snarls at the little ; the strong mind bears it like a 
 rock; it moveth not though a thousand breakers 
 
248 
 
 SPUKGEON S GEMS. 
 
 dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in the 
 spray upon its summit. God marketh his enemies, 
 and yet he moveth not ; he standeth still, and letteth 
 them cm'se him, yet he is not wrathful ? If he were 
 less of a God than he is, if he were less mighty than 
 we know him to be, he would long ere this have sent 
 forth the whole of his thunders, and emptied the 
 magazines of heaven ; he would long ere this have 
 blasted the earth with the wondrous mines he hath 
 prepared in its lower surface ; the flame that burnetii 
 there would have consumed us, and we should have 
 been utterly destroyed. We bless God that the 
 greatness of his power is just our protection ; he is 
 slow to anger because he is great in power. 
 
 THERE was never a soul yet, that sincerely sought 
 the Saviour, who perished before he found him. 
 ISTo ; the gates of death shall never shut on thee till 
 the gates of grace have opened for thee ; till Christ 
 has washed thy sins away thou shalt never be bap- 
 tized in Jordan's flood. Thy life is secure, for this is 
 God's constant plan — ^he keeps his own elect alive till 
 the day of his grace, and then he takes them to him- 
 self. And inasmuch as thou knowest thy need of a 
 Saviour, thou art one of his, and thou shalt never die 
 i:]itil thou hast found him. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 249 
 
 rpHE pillars of the eartli were placed in their ever- 
 -L lasting sockets by the omnipotent right hand of 
 Christ ; the curtains of the heavens were drawn upon 
 their rings of starry light by him who was from ever- 
 lasting the all-glorious Son of God. Tlie orbs that 
 float aloft in ether, those ponderous planets, and those 
 mighty stars, were placed in their positions, or sent 
 roUing through space by the eternal strength of him 
 who is " the first and the last." " the Prince of the 
 kings of the earth." Christ is the power of God, for 
 he is the Creator of all things, and by him all things 
 exist. 
 
 • »•■ 
 
 11 l"A]SrY men beKeve in the existence of a God, but 
 M they do not love that belief. They know there 
 is a God, but they greatly wish there were none. 
 Some would be very pleased, ye would set the bells 
 a-ringing if you believed there were no God. Why, 
 if there were no God, then you might live just as 
 you liked ; if there were no God, then you might run 
 riot and have no fear of future consequences. It 
 would be to you the greatest joy that could be, if 
 you heard that the eternal God had ceased to be. 
 But the Christian never wishes any such a thing as 
 tliat. The thought that there is a God is the sun- 
 shine of his existence. His intellect bows before the 
 Most High ; not like a slave who bends his body 
 
 11* 
 
250 spurgeon's gems 
 
 because he must, but like tlie angel who prostrates 
 himself because he loves to adore his Maker. His 
 intellect is as fond of God as his imagination. " Oh!" 
 he saith, " mj God, I bless thee that thou art ; for 
 thou art mj highest treasure, my richest and my 
 rarest delight. I love thee with all my intellect ; I 
 have neither thought, nor judgment, nor conviction, 
 nor reason, which I do not lay at thy feet, and conse- 
 crate to thine honor. 
 
 METIirN"KS, when God launched the sun from his 
 hand and sent him on his course, he said, 
 "Prove me now;" see, O sun, if I do not uphold 
 thee till thou hast done thy work and finished thy 
 career; rejoice thou may est, "as a strong man to 
 run a race," but while thou fulfiUest thy circuits, 
 and nothing is hid from thy heat, thou shalt prove 
 my glory and shed light upon my handiwork. When 
 the Almighty whirled the earth in space, methinks 
 he said, " Prove me now," O earth, see if I do not 
 perpetuate thy seasons, and give thee " seed-time and 
 harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and 
 night," refreshing thee with incessant providence. 
 And to each creature he made, I can almost think 
 the Almighty said, "Prove me now." Tiny gnat, 
 thou art about to dance in the sunshine ; thou shalt 
 
spukgeon's gems. 251 
 
 prove my goodness. Huge leviatlian, thou shalt stir 
 up the deep and make it frothy ; go forth, and prove 
 my power. Ye creatures, whom I have endowed 
 with various instincts, wait on me ; I will give you 
 your meat in due season. And you, ye mighty 
 thunders and ye swift lightnings, go, teach the world 
 reverence and show forth my omnipotence. 
 
 • • • 
 
 I HA YE often remarked that when men have 
 been adopting a patent process of building up 
 a church, by the revivalist sermons of some thunder- 
 ing, crazy-brained preachers, after the first excite- 
 ment has subsided that church has become sickly 
 and fallen into a very sad and grievous state. Those 
 revivalists have often been like locusts in our 
 churches, devouring every green thing ; and the 
 revivals they have stimulated have well-nigh 
 brought us to destruction. God will not have men 
 usm-p his prerogative in the building ; and though 
 they may with their own hand speedily pile up a 
 mighty structure, yet, like the baseless fabric of a 
 vision, it soon disappears and is it gone. In his 
 building he suffers no man to use trowels or ham- 
 mer : he will use men for trowels and hammers, 
 but he will not allow them to make use of them- 
 selves or of others. His own hands shall perform it. 
 
252 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 WB.'EN the light of God's grace comes into your 
 heart, it is something like the opening of the 
 windows of an old cellar that has been shut up for 
 many days. Down in that cellar, which has not been 
 opened for many months, are all kinds of loathsome 
 creatures, and a few sickly plants blanched by the 
 darkness. The walls are dark and damp by the trail 
 of reptiles ; it is a horrid filthy place in which no one 
 would willingly enter. You may walk there in the 
 dark very securely, and except now and then for the 
 touch of some slimy creature, you would not believe 
 the place was so bad and filthy. Open those, shutters, 
 clean a pane of glass, let a little light in, and now see 
 how a thousand noxious things have made this place 
 their habitation. Sure, 'twas not the light that made 
 this place so horrible, but it was the light that showed 
 how horrible it was before. So let God's grace just 
 open a window and let the light into a man's soul, 
 and he will stand astonished to see at what a distance 
 he is from God. 
 
 C HEIST JESUS cast into the river of God, makes 
 all the streams more sweet ; and when the be- 
 liever sees God in the person of the Saviour, he then 
 sees the God whom he can love, and to whom with 
 boldness he can approach. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 253 
 
 SHOULD ever so great a misfortune come upon ns, 
 if we can trace it to tlie providence of God, we 
 bear it clieerfully ; but if we have inflicted it upon 
 ourselves, then how fearful is it ! And let every man 
 remember that if he perish after having heard the 
 gospel, he will be his own murderer. Sinner thou 
 wilt drive the dagger into thine heart thyself. K 
 thou despisest the gospel, thou art preparing fuel 
 for thine own bed of flames, thou art hammering out 
 the chain for thine own everlasting binding; and 
 when damned, thy mournful reflection will be this — 
 I have damned myself, I cast myself into this pit ; for 
 I rejected the gospel ; I despised the message ; I trod 
 under foot the Son of Man ; I w^ould have none of his 
 rebukes ; I despised his sabbatlis ; I would not 
 hearken to his exhortations, and now I perish by mine 
 own hand, the miserable suicide of my own soul." 
 
 REMEMBEK, all you want to know to get to hea- 
 ven is, the two things that begin with S. — Sin 
 and Saviour. Do you feel your sin ? Christ is your 
 Saviour ; trust to him, pray to him ; and as you are 
 here now, and I am talking to you, you will one day 
 be in lieaven. I will tell you two prayers to ju-ay. 
 First, pray this prayer — " Lord show me myself." 
 That is an easy one for you. Lord, show me myself? 
 
254 SPUEGEON-'S GEM8. 
 
 show me my heart ; show me my guilt ; show me my 
 danger ; Lord, show me myself? And when you have 
 prayed that prayer, and God has answered it (and 
 remember, he hears prayer), when he has answered it, 
 and shown yon yourself, here is another prayer for 
 you — " Lord, show me thyself. Show me thy work, 
 thy love, thy mercy, thy cross, thy grace." Pray 
 that ; and those are about the only prayers you want 
 to pray, to get to heaven with — " Lord, show me my- 
 self ;" " Lord, show me thyself." You do not want 
 to know much, then. You need not si3ell, to get to 
 heaven ; you need not be able to speak English, to 
 get to heaven ; the ignorant and rude are welcome 
 to the cross of Christ and salvation. 
 
 GOD " will not acquit the wicked ;" how prove I 
 this ? I prove it thus. JSTever once has he par- 
 doned an unpunished sin ; not in all the years of the 
 Most High, not in all the days of his right hand, has 
 he once blotted out sin without punishment. What ! 
 say you, were not those in heaven pardoned ? Are 
 there not many transgressors pardoned, and do they 
 not escape without punishment? Has he not said, 
 " I have blotted out thy transgressions like a cloud, 
 and like a thick cloud thine iniquities ?" Yes, true, 
 most true, and yet my assertion is true also — not one 
 
spuegeon's gems. 255 
 
 of all those sins that have been pardoned were par- 
 doned without punishment. Do you ask nie why 
 and how such a thing as that can be the truth ? I 
 point you to yon dreadful sight on Calvary ; tlie 
 punishment which fell not on the forgiven sinner fell 
 there. The cloud of justice was charged with fiery 
 hail ; the sinner deserved it ; it fell on him ; but, for 
 all that, it fell and spent its fury ; it fell there, in that 
 great reservoir of misery ; it fell into the Saviour's 
 heart. The plagues, which need should light on our 
 ingratitude, did not fall on us, but they fell some- 
 where ; and who was it that was plagued ? Tell me, 
 Gethsemane ; tell me, O Calvary's summit, who was 
 plagued ? The doleful answer comes, " Eli^ Eli, lama 
 sdbachthani .^" " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 forsaken me ?" It is Jesus suffering all the plagues 
 of sin. Sin is still punished, though the sinner is 
 delivered. 
 
 SEE what vitality the gospel has. Plunge her un- 
 der the wave, and she rises, the purer from her 
 washing ; thrust her in the fire and she comes out the 
 more bright for her burning ; cut her in sunder, and 
 each piece shall make another church ; behead her, 
 and like the hydra of old, she shall have a hundred 
 heads for every one you cut away. She cannot die, 
 she must live ; for she has the power of God within her. 
 
256 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 I 
 
 E" the ark, rooms were made. Those who lived in 
 one room did not stand or sit with those who lived 
 in another ; but they were all in the same ark. So I 
 have sometimes thought, there are our Wesleyan 
 friends, some of them love the Lord ; 1 have no doubt 
 thej are in the ark, though they do not occupy the 
 same apartment as we do. There are our Baptist 
 friends, who love the Lord ; we welcome them in our 
 room. Then there are our Lidependent friends, those 
 also love the Lord ; they are in another room. And 
 our Presbyterian and Episcopalian brethren — ^in all 
 these various sections are some who are called of 
 Grod and brought into the ark, though they are in 
 different rooms. But, beloved, they are all in one 
 ark. There are not two Gospels. As long as T can 
 find a man that holds the same Gospel, it does not 
 matter what order of church government he adopts 
 if he be in Christ Jesus — it is of little consequence 
 what room he is in so long as he is in the ark. If he 
 belongs to those of whom it is written, " By grace 
 are ye saved, through faith, and that not of your- 
 selves, it is the gift of God," I will call him brother. 
 "We cannot all expect to be in one room. The ele- 
 phants did not live with the tigers, and the lions did 
 not lie down with the sheep. There were different 
 rooms for different classes of creatures ; and it is a 
 good thing there are different denominations, for I 
 
spurgeon's gems. 257 
 
 am sure some of us would not get on very comfort- 
 ably witli certain denominations. We should want 
 m.ore liberty than we could get in the Church of 
 England; we should want more freedom than we 
 could get with the Presbyterians ; we should want 
 more soundness of doctrine than we could get with 
 the Wesleyans ; and we should want a little more 
 brotherly love, perhaps, than we could get with some 
 of the strict Baptists. We should not entirely agree 
 with them all ; and hapj^y is he who can sometimes 
 put his head into one room and sometimes into 
 another, and can say to all that love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, " Grace be with you all so long as you are in 
 the ark." 
 
 r' is a singular thing that there was only one 
 WINDOW IN THE ARK. That oiiQ wiudow may fitly 
 represent the ministry of the Holy Ghost. There is 
 only one light which lighteneth every man who com- 
 eth into the world, if he be lightened at all. Christ 
 is the light, and it is the Holy Spirit of truth by 
 whom Christ is revealed. Thus we discern sin, right- 
 eousness, and judgment. ISTo other conviction is of 
 any real value. As we are brought under the teach- 
 ings of the Spirit, we do perceive our guilt and 
 misery, and our redemption and refuge in Christ. 
 !No other means exist. There is only one window to 
 
258 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 tlie ark. ""Why," says one, "there are some of us 
 who see light through one minister and some throngh 
 another." True, my friend ; but still there is only 
 one window. Ministers are only like panes of glass, 
 and you can obtain no light through them but by the 
 operations of the same Spirit that worketh in them. 
 And even then the different panes of glass give dif- 
 ferent shades of light. There you have your fine 
 polished preacher; he is a bit of stained glass, not 
 very transparent, made to keep the light out rather 
 than to let it in. There is another pane ; he is a 
 square cut diamond; he seems an old-fashioned 
 preacher, but still he is a bit of good glass, and lets 
 the light through. Another one is cut after a more 
 refined style ; but still he is plain and simple, and 
 the light shines through him. But there is only one 
 light, and only one window. He who revealeth to 
 us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 the face of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. 
 
 IF we listen to the rippling of the freshet at the 
 mountain side, to the tumbling of the avalanche, 
 to the lowing of the cattle, to the singing of the birds, 
 to every voice and sound of nature, we shall hear this 
 answer to the question, " God is our maker ; he hath 
 made us, and not we ourselves." 
 
spuegeon's gems. 259 
 
 0]^ the morning, wlien the ark door was opened, 
 you might have seen in the sky a pair of eagles, 
 a pair of sparrows, a pair of vultures, a pair of 
 ravens, a pair of humming-birds, a pair of all kinds 
 of birds that ever cut the azure, that ever floated on 
 wing, or whispered their song to the evening gales. 
 In they came. But if you had watched down on the 
 earth, you would have seen come creeping along a 
 pair of snails, a pair of snakes, and a pair of worms. 
 There ran along a pair of mice ; there came a pair 
 of lizards, and in there flew a pair of locusts. There 
 were pairs of creeping creatures, as well as paii's of 
 flying creatures. Do you see what I mean by that ? 
 There are some of you that can fly so high in know- 
 ledge, that I should never be able to scan your great 
 and extensive wisdom ; and others of you so ignorant, 
 that you can hardly read your Bibles. Never mind ; 
 the eagle must come down to the door, and you must 
 go up to it. There is only one entrance for you all ; 
 and as God saved the birds that flew, so he saved 
 the reptiles that crawled. Are you a poor, ignorant, 
 crawling creature, that never was noticed — without 
 intellect, without repute, without fame, without 
 honor ? Come along, crawling one ! God will not 
 exclude you. I have often wondered how the poor 
 snail crawled in ; but I dare say he started many a 
 year before. And some of you have started for 
 
260 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 years, and still you keep crawling on. All ! then, 
 come along with thee, poor snail ! If I could jnst 
 pick thee up, and help thee on a yard or two, I 
 would be glad to do it. It is strange how long you 
 have been nigh to the ark, but not yet entered in ; 
 how long you have been near the portals of the 
 church, but never joined it. 
 
 I DO not think any one of the children of God 
 proves all of God, but that they are all proving 
 different parts of his one grand character, so that 
 when the whole history of Providence shall be writ- 
 ten, and the lives of all the saints shall be recorded, 
 the title of the book will be, " Proofs of God." There 
 will be one compendious proof, that he is God and 
 change th not ; that with him there "is no variable- 
 ness, neither shadow of turning." 
 
 1VT0 easy path has the gospel had. The good bark 
 i- 1 of the Church has had to plough her way through 
 seas of blood, and those who have manned her have 
 been bespattered with the bloody spray ; yea, they 
 have had to man her and keep her in motion, by lay- 
 ing down their lives unto the death. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 261 
 
 BUT do ye want further proof that God will not 
 acquit the wicked ? Need I lead you through a 
 long list of terrible wonders that God has wrought — 
 the wonders of his vengeance? Shall I show you 
 blighted Eden? Shall I let you see a world all 
 drowned — sea monsters whelping and stabling in the 
 palaces of kings? Shall I let you hear the last shriek 
 of the last drowning man as he falls into the flood 
 and dies, washed by that huge wave from the hill 
 top? Shall I let you see death riding upon the sum- 
 mit of a crested billow, upon a sea that knows no 
 shore, and triumphing because his work is done ; his 
 quiver empty, for all men are slain, save where life 
 floats in the midst of death in yonder ark ? Need I 
 let you see Sodom, with its terrified inhabitants, 
 when the volcano of almighty wrath spouted fiery 
 hail upon it ? Shall I show you the earth opening its 
 mouth to swallow up Korah, Dathan and Abiram ? 
 Need I take you to the plagues of Egypt ? Shall I 
 again repeat the death shriek of Pharaoh, and the 
 drowning of his host? Surely, ye need not to be 
 told of cities that are in ruins, or of nations that have 
 been cut off in a day ; ye need not to be told how 
 God has smitten the earth from one side to the other, 
 when he has been wroth, and how he has melted 
 mountains in his hot displeasure. Nay, we have 
 proofs enough in history, proofs enough in Scripture, 
 
262 spuegeon's ■ gems. 
 
 that " lie will not at all acquit the wicked." If ye 
 wanted the best proof, however, ye should borrow 
 the black wings of a miserable imagination, and fly 
 beyond the world, through the dark realm of chaos, 
 on, far on, where those battlements of fire are gleam- 
 ing with a horrid light — if through them, with a 
 spirit's safety, ye would fly, and would behold the 
 worm that never dies, the pit that knows no bottom, 
 and could you there see the fire unquenchable, and 
 listen to the shrieks and wails of men that are ban- 
 ished forever from God — ^if, sirs, it were possible for 
 you to hear the sullen groans, and hollow moans, and 
 shrieks of tortured ghosts, then would you come back 
 to this world, amazed and petrified with horror, and 
 you would say, "Indeed, he will not acquit the 
 wicked." 
 
 VE endure ten times as much anxiety in this 
 w^orld as we need, because we confide not in 
 divine promise half as much as we might. If we 
 were to live more on God's promise, and less on 
 creature feelings, we should be happier men and wo- 
 men, all of us. If we w^ere to get hold of a promise, 
 and say, " There, let me abide by this ; though the 
 world says it is not true, I will believe it." Could 
 we live alway in faith on the promises, the shafts of 
 the enemy could never reach us. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 263 
 
 FEAR liatli kept many a child of God from doing 
 liis duty, from making a bold profession ; hath 
 brought bondage into his spirit. Fear misused, thou art 
 the Christian's greatest curse, and thou art the sinner's 
 ruin. Thou art a sly serpent, creeping amongst the 
 thorns of sin, and when thou art allowed to twist 
 thyself around manhood, thou dost crush it in thy 
 folds, and poison it with thy venom. ^Nothing can be 
 worse than this sinful fear ; it hath slaughtered its my- 
 riads and sent thousands to hell. But it yet may seem 
 a paradox ; fear, when rightly employed, is the very 
 brightest state of Christianity, and is used to express 
 all piety, comprehended in one emotion. " The fear 
 of God " is the constant description which the Scrip- 
 ture gives of true religion. 
 
 REMEMBEE that the time you have for self-ex- 
 amination is, after all, very short. Soon thou 
 wilt know the great secret. I j)erhaps may not 
 say words rough enough to rend off the mask 
 which thou hast now upon thee, but there is one 
 called Death who will stand no complement. You 
 may masquerade it out to-day in the dress of 
 the saint, but death will soon strip you, and you 
 must stand before the judgment-seat after death 
 has discovered you in all your nakedness, be that na- 
 ked innocence or naked guilt. Remember, too, 
 
264 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 though jou may deceive yourself, you will not de- 
 ceive your God. You may have light weights, and 
 the beam of the scale in which you weigh yourself 
 may not be honest, and may not therefore tell the 
 truth ; but when God shall try you he will make no 
 allowances ; when the everlasting Jehovah grasps the 
 balances of justice and puts his law into one scale, ah, 
 sinner, how wilt thou tremble when he shall put thee 
 into the other ; for unless Christ be thy Christ thou 
 wilt be found light weight — ^thou wilt be weighed in 
 the balances and found wanting, and be cast away 
 forever. 
 
 M'EN who are passionate and swift in anger give a 
 word and a blow ; sometimes the blow first and 
 the word afterwards. Oftentimes kings, when subj ects 
 have rebelled against them, have crushed them first, 
 and then reasoned with them afterwards ; they have 
 given no time of threatening, no period of repent- 
 ance ; they have allowed no space for turning to their 
 allegiance ; they have at once crushed them in their 
 hot displeasure, making a full end of them. 'Not so 
 God: he will not cut down the tree that doth 
 much cumber the ground, until he hath digged about 
 it, and dunged it ; he will not at once slay the man 
 whose character is the most vile ; until he has first 
 hewn him by the prophets he will not hew him by 
 judgments ; he will warn the sinner ere he condemn 
 
spuegeon's gems. 265 
 
 Mm ; lie will send his prophets, "rising np early and 
 late," giving him " line upon line, and precept upon 
 precept, here a little and there a little." He will 
 not smite the city without warning ; Sodom shall not 
 perish, until Lot hath been within her. The world 
 shall not be drowned, until eight prophets hath been 
 preaching in it, and ISToah, the eighth, cometh to 
 prophesy of the coming of the Lord. He will not 
 smite Nineveh till he hath sent a Jonah. He will 
 not crush Babylon till his prophets have cried 
 through its streets. He will not slay a man until he 
 hath given many warnings, by sicknesses, by the 
 pulpit, by providence, and by conse<][uences. 
 
 LOOK back on the paths of your j^ilgrimage. Some 
 of you can count as many Ebenezers as there are 
 milestones from here to York ; Ebenezers piled up, 
 with oil poured on the top of them ; places where you 
 have said, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped me." 
 Look through the pages of your diary, and you will 
 see time after time, when your jDcrils and exigencies 
 were such as no earthly skill could relieve, and you 
 felt constrained to witness what others among you 
 have never felt — you felt that there is a God, that 
 there is a Providence — " a God who compasseth your 
 path," and " is acquainted with all your ways." 
 
 12 
 
266 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 EACH of God's saints is sent into tlie world to 
 prove some part of tlie divine character. Per- 
 haps I may be one of tliose who shall live in the 
 valley of ease, having much rest, and hearing sweet 
 birds of promise singing in my ears. The air is calm 
 and balmy, the sheep are feeding ronnd about me, 
 and all is still and quiet. Well, then. I shall prove 
 the love of God in sweet communings. Or, perhaps, 
 I may be called to stand where the thunder clouds 
 brew, where the lightnings play, and tempestuous 
 winds are howling on the mountain top. Well, 
 then, I am born to prove the power and majesty of 
 our God ; amid dangers he will inspire me with 
 courage ; amid toils he will make me strong. Perhaps 
 it shall be mine to preserve an unblemished charac- 
 ter, and so prove the power of sanctifying grace in 
 not being allowed to backslide from my professed 
 dedication to God. I shall then be a proof of the 
 omnipotent power of grace, which alone can save 
 from the power as well as the guilt of sin. The 
 divers cases of all the Lord's family are intended to 
 illustrate different parts of his ways ; and in heaven 
 I do think one part of our blest employ will be to 
 read the great book of the experience of all the 
 saints, and gather from that book the whole of the 
 divine character as having been proved and illus- 
 trated. Each Christian man is a manifestation and 
 
spurgeon's gems. 267 
 
 display of some position or other of God ; a different 
 
 part may belong to each of us, but when the whole 
 
 shall be combined, when all the rays of evidence 
 
 shall be brought, as it were, into one great sun, and 
 
 shine forth with meridian sj^lendor, we shall see in 
 
 Christian experience a beautiful revelation of our 
 
 God. 
 
 • •• 
 
 IF I once wandered on yon mountain top, and Jesus 
 climbed up and caught me, and put me on his 
 shoulders, and carried me home, I cannot and dare 
 not doubt that he is my shepherd. If I had belonged 
 to some other sheep-owner he would not have sought 
 me. And from the fact that he did seek, I learn that 
 he must be my shepherd. Did I think any man con- 
 vinced me of sin, or that any human power had con- 
 verted me, I should fear I was that man's sheep 
 and that he was my shepherd. Could I trace my de- 
 liverance to the hand of a creature, I should think 
 that some creature might be my shepherd ; but since 
 he who has been reclaimed of God must and will 
 confess that God alone has done it, and will ascribe 
 to his free grace, and to that alone, his deliverance 
 from sin, such a one will feel persuaded that the Lord 
 must be his shepherd, because he brought him, he 
 delivered him, he snatched him out of the jaw of the 
 lion and out of the paw of the bear. 
 
268 6PUKGE0N S GEMS. 
 
 GIVE me ten thousand pounds, and one reverse 
 of fortune may scatter it all away ; but let 
 me have a spiritual hold of this divine assurance — 
 "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" — 
 then I am all right — ^I am set up for life. I cannot 
 break with such stock as this in hand. I never can 
 be a bankrupt, for I hold this security — " The Lord 
 is my shepherd, I shall not want." Do not give me 
 ready money now ; give a check-book, and let me 
 draw what I like. This is what God does with the 
 believer. He does not immediately transfer his in- 
 heritance to him, but lets him draw what he needs 
 out of the riches of his fullness in Christ Jesus. 
 
 • • • 
 
 OBELOYED ! surely it wants but little teaching 
 in the school of grace to make out that we our- 
 selves are fools. True wisdom is sure to set folly in 
 a strong light. I have heard of a young man who 
 went to college ; and when he had been therfe one 
 year, his parent said to him, " What do you know ? 
 Do you know more than when you went ?" " Oh ! 
 yes," said he, " I do." Then he went the second year, 
 and was asked the same question — "Do you know 
 more than when you went ?" " Oh ! no," said he, " I 
 know a great deal less." " "Well," said the father, 
 " you are getting on." Then he went the third year, 
 
spuegeon's gems. 269 
 
 and was asked the same question — " "What do you 
 know now ?" " Oh !" said he, " I don't think I know 
 anything." " That is right," said the father, " you 
 have now learnt to profit, since you say you know 
 nothing." He who is convinced that he knows nothing 
 of himself as he ought to know, gives up steering his 
 ship, and lets God put his hand on the rudder. He 
 lays aside his own wisdom, and cries, " Oh God ! my 
 little wisdom is cast at thy feet ; my little judgment 
 is given to thee." 
 
 • ♦ • 
 
 DO not get despising the little ones because they 
 have not had so many trials as you have. You 
 great standard men, do not get cutting the children 
 of God in pieces because they have not been in such 
 fights as you have. The master leads the sheep where 
 he pleases, and be sm-e he will lead them rightly, and 
 as long as they can say the word " my," do not trouble 
 yourselves where they learned it — ^if they can say 
 from their hearts, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall 
 not want." 
 
 ♦ • • 
 
 SPIEITUAL mercies are good things, and not 
 only good things, but the best things, so that 
 you may well ask for them ; for if no good things 
 will be withholden, much more will none of the 
 best things. 
 
270 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 ¥AES, confusions, and tumults, are but the 
 rough physic wherewith God will purge the 
 diseased body of this earth from its innumerable ills. 
 They are but a terrible tornado with which God 
 shall sweep away the pestilence and fever that lurk 
 in the moral atmosphere; they are but the great 
 hammers with which he breaks in pieces the gates 
 of brass, to make a way for his people ; they are but 
 the threshing wains, with which he doth thresh the 
 mountains and beat them small, and make the hills 
 as chaff, that Israel may rejoice in the Lord, and that 
 the sons of Jacob may triumph in their God. As it 
 hath been in the beginning, so it shall be even unto 
 the end. The noise and the tumult of war in In- 
 dia shall produce good; the blood of our sisters 
 shall be avenged, not by the sword, but by the gos- 
 pel. On India's blood-red gods, the arm of the 
 Lord shall yet be felt; the might of him that sits 
 upon the throne shall be acknowledged by the very 
 men, who, first in the fray, have blasphemed the God 
 of Israel. Let ns not fear, let us not tremble ; the 
 end of all things cometh at last, and that end shall 
 certainly be the desired one, and all the wrath of 
 man shall not frustrate the designs of God. Tlie 
 past troubles assure us for the present, and console us 
 for the future. " Come behold the works of the 
 Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth." 
 
spuegeon's gems. 271 
 
 OH, when you get to heaven, ye children of God, 
 will ye praise any but your Master ? Calvinists, 
 to-day you love John Calvin ; will you praise him 
 there ? Lutheran, to-day thou dost love the memory 
 of that stern reformer; wilt thou sing the song of 
 Luther in heaven ? Follower of Wesley, thou hast a 
 reverence for that evangelist ; wilt thou in heaven 
 have a note for John Wesley ? JSTone, none, none ! 
 Giving up all names and all honors of men, the strain 
 shall rise in undivided and unjarring unison " unto 
 him that loved us, that washed us from our sins in 
 his blood, unto him be glory forever and ever." 
 
 r' seems that everything Christ-like must have a 
 history like that of Christ. His beginnings were 
 small — the manger and the stable. So with the be- 
 ginnings of that society which we love, and which 
 we believe to be the very incarnation of the Spirit 
 of Christ. Its beginnings also were small ; but its 
 latter end shall doubtless greatly increase — ^for, hath 
 not the end of Christ become exceedingly glorious? 
 He hath ascended up on high ; he sitteth at the 
 right hand of God, our Father, and doubtless this 
 agency which God now emjjloyeth for the conver- 
 sion of the world, shall have its ascension, and God 
 shall greatly magnify it. But as Christ was called 
 
272 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 to suffer, so must everything Clirist-like suffer with 
 him. The Christian who is the most like his Mas- 
 ter will understand the most of the meaning of that 
 term, " fellowship with him in his sufferings ;" and 
 inasmuch as the Missionary Society is like Christ, 
 and hath Christ's heart and Christ's aim, it also must 
 suffer like Jesus. This year we have been made to 
 sip of that cup. The blood of our martyrs has 
 been shed ; our confessors have witnessed to the faith 
 of the Lord Jesus ; at the hands of bloodthirsty and 
 cruel men they have met their fate, and again the 
 seed of the church has been sown in the blood of the 
 martyred saint. 
 
 I BEG you read the page of history, and mark 
 the various catastroj)hes which have happened to 
 this world; and I appeal to you, as persons who 
 have understanding, and who can trace the Lord's 
 hand in these matters — ^have not all these things 
 worked together for good? and hitherto, have not 
 the revolutions, the destruction of em23ires,.and the 
 fall of dynasties, been eminent helps to the progress 
 of the gospel ? Far be it from us to lay the blood of 
 men at God's door. Let us not for one moment be 
 guilty of any thought that the sin and the iniquity 
 which have brought war into the world is of God ; 
 but, at the same time, as firm believers in the doc- 
 
SPURGEON'S GEMS. 273 
 
 trine of predestination, and as firmly holding the 
 great truth of a Divine providence, we must hold 
 that God is the anthor of the darkness as well as of 
 the light — that he creates the providential evil as 
 well as the good — that while he sendeth the shower 
 from on high, he also is the father of the devastating 
 storm. Oh ! I say, then, come and see the Lord's 
 hand in "Aceldama, the field of blood." Come ye, 
 and behold the Lord's hand in every shake of the 
 pillars of the constitutions of the monarchies of earth. 
 See the Lord's hand in the rumbling of every tower 
 and the tumbling down of every pinnacle which 
 had aspired to heaven. For he hath done it — ^he 
 hath done it ! God is present everywhere. 
 
 I HA YE a fond belief that the day is coming, 
 when Nelson, on the top of his monument, shall 
 be upset, and Mr. Whitfield set there, or the apostle 
 Paul. I believe that ISTapier, who stands in the 
 square there, will lose his station. We shall say 
 about these men, " They were very respectable men 
 in the days of our forefathers, who did not know 
 better than to kill one another, but we do not care 
 for them now !" Up goes John Wesley, where stood 
 Kapier ! Away goes some one else, who was an 
 earnest preacher of the gospel, to occuj^y the place 
 high over the gate where another warrior rides upon 
 
 12* 
 
274 sptjegeon's gems. 
 
 his horse. All these things, the trickeiy of an igno- 
 rant age, the gewgaws of a people who loved blood- 
 shed despite their profession of religion, must yet be 
 broken up for old iron and old brass ; every statne 
 that stands in London shall yet be sold, and the price 
 thereof cast at the apostles' feet, that they may make 
 distribution as every man hath need. "Wars must 
 cease, and every place where war reigneth and hath 
 now its glory, must yet pass away, and fade and 
 wither. We give all honor to these men now, for 
 these are the days of our ignorance, and God in some 
 degree winketh at us ; but when the gospel spreads 
 we shall then find, that when every heart is full of it, 
 it will be impossible for us to tolerate the very 
 name of war ; for when God has broken the bow, 
 and burned the chariot, we shall break the image 
 and dash the sculpture into a thousand atoms. We 
 shall think, when the trade is done, the men that did 
 it may well be forgotten. 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 THAT maniac nonsense about God doing his own 
 work and our sitting still and doing nothing, 
 ought to have been buried long ago. I know not 
 how to characterize it: it has done us immense 
 damage. We know that God has accomj)lished his 
 own work; but he always has worked and always 
 will work with means. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 275 
 
 YOU know that in Solomon's temple there was no 
 sound of hammer heard ; for the stones were 
 made ready in the quarries, and brought all shaped 
 and marked so that the masons might know the ex- 
 act spot in which they were to be placed ; so that no 
 sound of iron was needed. All the planks and tim- 
 bers were carried to their right places, and all the 
 catches with which they were to be linked together 
 were prepared, so that there might not be even the 
 driving of a nail — everything was ready beforehand. 
 It is the same with us. When we get to heaven, 
 there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us 
 with affliction, no hammering us with the rod, no 
 making us meet there. We must be made meet 
 here ; and blessed be his name, all that Christ will 
 do beforehand. When we get there, we shall not 
 need angels to put this member of the Church in one 
 place, and that member in another ; Christ who 
 brought the stones from the quarry and made them 
 ready, shall himself place the people in their inheri- 
 tance in paradise. For he has himself said, " I go to 
 prepare a place for you, and if I go away, I will come 
 again and 1 will receive you unto myself." Christ 
 shall be his own usher ; he shall receive his people 
 himself ; he shall stand at the gates of heaven him- 
 self to take his own people, and to put them in their 
 alloted heritage in the land of the blessed. 
 
276 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 IEEMEMBEE Edward L-ving once preached a 
 sermon to a vast congregation, upon missions ; I 
 tliink lie preaclied for four liours ; and the object of 
 the sermon was to prove that we were all wrong — 
 that we ought to send out our missionaries without 
 purse or scrip, giving them nothing ! Edward never 
 volunteered to go himself ! If he had done so at the 
 end of the sermon, we might have indorsed his phi- 
 losophy. But he stayed at home, and did not go. 
 /GSTow, we are no believers in that. "We think that if 
 / a man cannot have helj), it is his business to go 
 I without it. If a man loves the ministry, if he can 
 only preach Christ's gospel in poverty, God bless 
 him in his poverty ; if he has to be a tent-maker, 
 like Paul, and to work for his own living, and to go 
 forth without purse or scrip ! But as a church we 
 cannot have that. " 'No, no," we say, " brother, if 
 you are going to a foreign land, and you give your 
 life and health, and if you renounce the comforts of 
 your family, we cannot let you go without anything. 
 The least we Can do is to ]3rovide for your needs." 
 And one says, "There! though you go without 
 purse or scrip, you cannot get across the sea except 
 you have a ship j I will pay your passage-money." 
 Another says, " You cannot preach to these j^eople 
 without learning the language ; and while you are 
 learning the language you must eat and di-ink. It is 
 
spukgeon's gems. 277 
 
 quite impossible that you can live by faith, unless 
 you have something that you can nourish your 
 body with : there is the fund to suj^port you, that 
 you may give all your time to the preaching of the 
 Word." Ah ! if we did but love Christ better, my 
 brothers and sisters, if we lived nearer to the cross, 
 if we knew more of the value of his blood, if we 
 wept like him over Jerusalem, if we felt more what 
 it was for souls to perish, and what it was for men to 
 be saved — if we did but rejoice with Christ in the 
 prospect of his seeing the travail of his soul, and 
 being abundantly satisfied — if we did but delight 
 more in the divine decree, that the kingdoms of this 
 world BJiall be given to Christ, I am sui-e we should 
 all of us find more ways and more means for the 
 sending forth of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 IF you would find God, he dwelleth on every hill- 
 top, and in every valley ; God is everywhere in 
 creation ; but if you want a special display of him, 
 if you would know what is the secret place of the 
 tabernacle of the Most High, the inner chamber of 
 divinity, you must go where you find the church of 
 true believers, for it is here he makes his con- 
 tinual residence known— in the hearts of the humble 
 and contrite, who tremble at his word. 
 
278 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 C HEIST lias made the plan of Ms Church. You 
 and I have made a great mauy plans for the 
 building up of that Church. The Presbyterian 
 makes his plans extremely precise. He will put an 
 elder in every corner, and the Presbytery is the 
 great ground-work — ^the pillar and the ground of the 
 truth ; and right is he in so doing to an extent. The 
 Episcopalian builds his temple too. He will have a 
 bishop at the door-post, and he will have a priest to 
 shut the gate. He will have everything built 
 according to the model that was seen by Cranmer in 
 the mount, if he ever was there at all. And those 
 of us who are of a severer discipline, and have a 
 simpler style, must have Christ's Chm-ch always 
 built in the congregational order : every congi'ega- 
 tion distinct and separate, and governed by its own 
 bishop, and deacons, and elders. But mark, Christ 
 does not attend to our points of church-government, 
 for there is one part of Christ's Church that is Epis- 
 copalian, and looks as if a bishop of the Church of 
 England had ordered it ; another part is Presby- 
 terian ; another Baptist ; another Congregational ; 
 and yet all these styles of architecture somehow, fused 
 into one by the Great Ai'chitect, make that goodly 
 structure which is called "the temple of Christ, the 
 Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of 
 truth." 
 
sphrgeon's gems. 279 
 
 HAPPY the day when every war-horse shall be 
 houghed, when every spear shall become a 
 pruning-hook, and every sword shall be made to till 
 the soil which once it stained with blood. It is of 
 that my text prophesies, and my text naturally 
 brings me to that, as the great climax of the gospel 
 disjDensation. This will be the last triumph of 
 Christ ; before death itself shall be dead ; death's 
 great jackal, war, must die also, and then shall 
 there be peace on earth, and the angel shall say, " I 
 have gone up and down through the earth, and the 
 earth sitteth still and is at rest ; I heard no tumult 
 of war nor noise of battle." This is what we hope 
 for. Let us fight on with diligence and earnestness. 
 
 HE A YEN singe th evermore. Before the throne 
 of God, angels and redemeed saints extol his 
 name. And this world is singing too ; sometimes 
 with the loud noise of the rolling thunder, of the 
 boiling sea, of the dashing cataract, and of the low- 
 ing cattle ; and often with that still, solemn har- 
 mony, which floweth from the vast creation, when in 
 its silence it praiseth God. Such is the song which 
 gushes in silence from the mountain lifting its head 
 to the sky, covering its face sometimes witli the 
 wings of mist, and at other times unveiling its snow- 
 
280 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 white brow before its Maker, and reflecting back his 
 sunshine, gratefully thanking him for the light with 
 which it has been made to glisten, and for the glad- 
 ness of which it is the solitary spectator, as in its 
 grandeur it looks down upon the laughing valleys. 
 The tune to which heaven and earth are set, is the 
 same. In heaven they sing, " The Lord be exalted ; 
 let his name be magnified forever." And the earth 
 singeth the same : " Great art thou in thy works, 
 O Lord ! and unto thee be glory." 
 
 JESUS CHEIST excels Solomon, for he provides all 
 the mterials. He hews them himself ; he rough- 
 casts them first, and then afterwards, during life, 
 polishes them till he makes them ready to transport 
 them to the hill of God, whereon his temple is to be 
 built. I was thinking what a pretty figure was that 
 floating of the trees of Lebanon after being sawn into 
 planks and made ready to be fixed as pillars of the 
 temple — what a fine emblem of death ! Is it not just 
 so with us ? Here we grow, and are at length cut 
 down, and made ready to become pillars of the tem- 
 ple. Across the stream of death, we are ferried by a 
 loving hand, and brought to the port of Jerusalem, 
 where we are safely landed, to go no more out for- 
 ever, but to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of 
 
bptjugeon's gems. 281 
 
 our Lord. !N'ow, jou know, the Tji'ians floated these 
 rafts ; but no stranger, no foreigner shall float tis 
 across the stream of death. It is remarkable that 
 Jesus Christ always uses expressions with regard to 
 his people, which impute their death to him alone. 
 You will recollect the expression in the Revelation — 
 " Thrust in thy sickle, and reap : for the time is come 
 for thee to reap ; for the harvest of the earth is ripe." 
 But when he begins to reap, not the vintage, which 
 represents the wicked that were to be crushed, but 
 the harvest which represents the godlj ; then it is 
 said, " He that sat upon the throne thrust in the 
 sickle." He did not leave it to his angels, he did it 
 himself. It is so with the bringing of those planks, 
 and the moving of those stones. I say no king of 
 Tyre and Sidon shall do it ; Jesus Christ, who on the 
 death of death and hell's destruction, himself shall 
 pilot us across the stream, and land us safe on 
 Canaan's side. "He shall build the temple of the 
 Lord." 
 
 • • • 
 
 AFFLICTIONS cannot sanctify us, except as they 
 are used by Christ, as his mallet and his chisel. 
 Our joys and our eff'orts cannot make us ready for 
 heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus who fashioneth 
 our hearts aright, and prepareth us to be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints in Light. 
 
282 sptiegeon's gems. 
 
 THE man who comes between two belligerents, 
 and bears tlie stroke himself — the man who will 
 lie down on the earth, and plead with others that 
 they wonld cease from warfare — these are the blessed. 
 How rarely are they set on high. They are generally 
 set aside, as people who cannot be blessed, even 
 thongh it seem that they try to make others so. Here 
 is the world tnrned npside down. The warrior with 
 his garment stained in blood, is put into the ignoble 
 earth, to die and rot ; but the peace-maker is lifted 
 up, and God's crown of blessing is put round about 
 his head, and men one day shall see it, and struck 
 with admiration they shall lament their own folly, 
 that they exalted the blood-red sword of the warrior, 
 but that they did rend the modest mantle of the man 
 who did make peace among mankind. 
 
 BRroG me here a Hottentot, or a man from Kam- 
 schatka, a wild savage who has never listened to 
 the Word. That man may have every sin in the cata- 
 logue of guilt except one ; but that one I am sure he 
 has not. He has not the sin of rejecting the gospel 
 when it is preached to him. But you, when you hear 
 the gospel, have an opportunity of committing a fresh 
 sin ; and if you have rejected it, you have added a 
 fresh iniquity to all those others that hang about your 
 neck. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 283 
 
 I SUPPOSE there is scarce a kingdom of the 
 world where jou do not see God's handiwork in 
 crushing his enemies. It is to the shame of the 
 idolater that he worships a God that his fathers knew 
 not. Although there be some hoary systems of 
 iniquity ; in most cases the system is still new — new 
 compared with the giant mountains, the first-born of 
 nature — new compared with those old idolatries that 
 have long since died away in the clouds of forgetful- 
 ness. It seems to me to be a very pleasing theme 
 for us to speak of these desolations that God has 
 made. For mark this — again we say it — as it was in 
 the beginning, it is now, and forever shall be. The 
 false gods shall yet yield their sway; the temples 
 shall yet be unroofed ; their houses shall be burned 
 with fire, and their names shall be left for a re- 
 proach ; their dignity shall not be honored, neither 
 shall homage be given nnto their name. 
 
 AH ! what a host of thoughts cluster around the 
 dying-bed of a child whom we have taught. 
 ISText to the father and the mother, I should think the 
 Sabbath-school teacher will take the most interest in 
 the dying one. You will recollect, " There lies with- 
 ering the flower which my hand hath watered ; there 
 is an immortal soul about to pass the portals of 
 eternity, whom I have taught." 
 
284: spurgeon's gems. 
 
 WHAT a dreadful thing it must be to be an un- 
 faithful preacher on a dying-bed. (Oh that I 
 may be saved from that !) To be upon one's bed 
 when life is over ; to have had great opportunities, 
 mighty congregations, and to have been so diligent 
 about something else as to have neglected to preach 
 the full and free gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 
 methinks as I laid in my bed a-dying, I should see 
 spectres and grim things in the room. One would 
 come and stare upon me and say, " Ah ! you are 
 dying. Hemember how many times I sat in the front 
 of the gallery, and listened to you, but you never 
 once told me to escape from the wrath to come ; you 
 were talking to me about something I did not under- 
 stand ; but the simple matter of the gospel you never 
 preached to me, and I died in doubt and trembling. 
 And now you are coming to me to the hell which I 
 have inherited because you were unfaithful." And 
 when in your grey and dying age we see the genera- 
 tions which have grown up around our pulpits, we 
 shall think of them all. We shall think of the time 
 when as striplings we first began to preach ; we shall 
 recollect the youths that then crowded, then the men, 
 and then the grey heads that passed away. And 
 methinks as they come on in grim procession, they 
 will everyone leave a fresh curse upon our conscience 
 because we were unfaithful. The death-bed of a man 
 
spubgeon's gems. 285 
 
 who lias murdered his fellows, of some grim tyrant 
 who has let the bloodhounds of war loose upon man- 
 kind, must be an awful thing. When the soldier, 
 and the soldier's widow, and the murdered man of 
 peace rise up before him ; when the smoke of devas- 
 tated countries seems to blow into his eyes and make 
 them sore and red ; when the blood of men hangs on 
 his conscience like a great red pall ; when bloody 
 murder, the grim chamberlain, draws red curtains 
 round his bed, and when he begins to approach the 
 last end where the murderer must inherit his dreary 
 doom, it must be a fearful time indeed. But, me- 
 thinks to have mui'dered souls must be more awful 
 still — to have distributed poison to children instead of 
 bread, to have given them stones when they asked 
 us for right food, to have taught them error when we 
 ouo^ht to have tauo^ht them the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 or to have spoken to them with cold listlessness 
 when earnestness was needed. 
 
 • •» 
 
 AS long as there is a particle of selfishness remain- 
 ing in us, it will mar our sweet enjoyment of 
 Christ ; and until we get a complete riddance of it, 
 our joy will never be unmixed with grief. We must 
 diof at the roots of our selfishness to find the worm 
 which eats om* happiness. 
 
286 bpukgeon's gems. 
 
 TWO men go up to tlie temple to praj, tlie one a 
 believer, tlie other an unbeliever. He that is 
 an unbeliever may have the gifts of oratory, the 
 mightiest fluency of speech, but his prayer is an 
 abomination unto God, whilst the feeblest utterance 
 of the true believer is received with smiles by him 
 that sits uj)on the throne. Two persons go to the 
 Master's table — ^the one loveth the ordinance in its 
 outward sign, and reverenceth it with superstition, 
 but he knows not Christ ; the other believes in 
 Jesus, and knows how to eat his flesh and drink his 
 blood as a worthy partaker in that divine ordinance ; 
 God is honored in the one, the ordinance is dis- 
 honored in the other. 
 
 • t > 
 
 IT seems to me, that every Sunday-school teacher 
 has a right to put " Reverend " before his name 
 as much as I have, or if not, if he discharges his trust 
 he certainly is a " Kight Honorable." He teaches 
 his congregation and preaches to his class.. I may 
 preach to more, and he to less, but still he is doing 
 the same work, though in a smaller sphere. I am 
 sure I can sympathize with Mr. Carey, when he said 
 of his son Felix, who left the missionary work to be- 
 come an ambassador, "Felix has drivelled into an 
 ambassador;" meaning to say, that he was once a 
 
spuegeon's gems. 287 
 
 great person as a missionary, but that lie had after- 
 wards accepted a comparatively insignificant office. 
 So I think we may say of the Sabbath-school teacher, 
 if he gives up his work because he cannot attend to 
 it, on account of his enlarged business, he drivels into 
 a rich merchant. K he forsakes his teaching because 
 he finds there is so much else to do, he drivels into 
 something less than he was before ; with one excep- 
 tion, if he is obliged to give up to attend to his own 
 family, and makes that family his Sabbath-school 
 class, there is no drivelling there ; he stands in the 
 same position as he did before. 
 
 • •• 
 
 HAYE you not noticed how magnificently peace 
 winneth its reprisals at the hands of war? 
 Look through this country. Methinks if the angel 
 of peace should go with us, as we journey through 
 it, and stop at the various ancient towns, where 
 there are dismantled castles, and high mounds from 
 which every vestige of a building has long been 
 swept, the angel would look us in the face, and say, 
 " I have done all this : war scattered my peaceful 
 subjects, burned down my cottages, ravaged my 
 temples, and laid my mansions with the dust. But 
 I have attacked war in his own strongholds and I 
 have routed him. "Walk through his halls. Can 
 
288 SPUEGEON 8 GEMS. 
 
 jou hear now tlie tramp of the warrior? Where 
 now the sound of the clarion and the drum ?" The 
 sheep is feeding from the cannon's mouth, and the 
 bird builds his nest where once the warrior did hang 
 his helmet. As rare curiosities we dig up the 
 swords and spears of our forefathers, and little do we 
 reck that in this we are doing tribute to peace. 
 For peace is the conqueror. It hath been a long 
 duel, and much blood hath been shed ; but peace 
 hath been the victor. "War, after all, has but spas- 
 modic triumphs ; and again it sinks — it dies ; but 
 peace ever reigneth. If she be driven from one 
 part of the earth, jet she dwelleth in another ; and 
 while war, with busy hand, is piling up here a wall, 
 and there a rampart, and there a tower, peace — with 
 her gentle finger, is covering o'er the castle with the 
 moss and the ivj, and casting the stone from the top, 
 and letting it lie level with the earth. 
 
 A HEEDLESS spirit is a curse to the soul ; a rash, 
 presumptuous conversation will eat as doth a 
 canker. "Too-bold" was never Too-wise nor Too- 
 loving. Careful walking is one of the best securities 
 of safe and happy standing. It is solemn cause for 
 doubting when we are indifferent in our behavior to 
 our best Friend. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 289 
 
 OH! thou that fearest for the ark of the Lord; 
 thou that tremblest at the firmness with which 
 falsehood keeps its throne : look thou on these 
 desolations and be of good cheer ; God hath done 
 mighty things, and njd will do them yet again. 
 On-e can never pass, even in our own country, 
 a ruined abbey, or a destroyed priory, or an old 
 broken down cathedral, without a sweet satis- 
 faction. They are fair ruins, all the fairer because 
 they are ruined, because their inhabitants are forgot- 
 ten, because the monk no longer prowls our streets, 
 because the nun, though she is here and there to 
 be found, yet is no more honored, because the apos- 
 tate church to which they belong has ceased to have 
 power among us, as once it had. 
 
 • •• 
 
 EYERY stone that is in the temple, Jesus Christ 
 ordained should be put where it is ; even those 
 stones that are most contemptible and unseen, were 
 put in their places by him. There is not one board 
 of cedar, one piece of burnished pinnacle, that was 
 not foreseen and pre-arranged in that eternal cove- 
 nant of grace which was the great plan that Christ, 
 the Almighty Architect, did draw for the building 
 of the temple to his praise. 
 
 13 
 
290 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 nUPPOSE some one entering heaven were to say 
 ^ to the redeemed, " Suspend jonr songs for a mo- 
 ment ! Ye have been praising Christ, lo, these six 
 thousand years ; many of you have without cessation 
 praised him now these many centuries ! Stop your 
 song a moment ; pause and give your songs to some 
 one else for an instant." Oh, can you conceive the 
 scorn with which the myriad eyes of the redeemed 
 would smite the tempter? " Stop from praising him ! 
 No, never. Time may stop, for it shall be no more ; 
 the world may stop, for its revolutions must cease ; 
 the universe may stop its cycles and the movings of 
 its world, but for us to stop oiir songs — never, 
 never!" — and it shall be said, "Hallelujah, halle- 
 jah, hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth !" 
 
 LAUGH at religion now ! scoff at Christ now ! now 
 that the angels are gathering for the judgment ; 
 now that the trumpet sounds exceedingly loud and 
 long ; now that the heavens are red with fire, that 
 the great furnace of hell o'erleaps its boundary, and 
 is about to encircle thee in its flame ; now despise 
 religion ! Ah ! no. I see thee. iNow thy stiff 
 knees are bending, now thy bold forehead for the 
 first time is covered with hot sweat of trembling, now 
 thine eyes that once were full of scorn are full of 
 
SPUHaEON's GEMS. 291 
 
 tears ; thou dost look on him whom thou didst de- 
 spise, and thou art weeping for thy sin. O sinner, it 
 will be too late then ; there is no cutting of the stone 
 after it gets to Jerusalem. Where thou fallest there 
 thou liest. Where judgment finds thee, there eter- 
 nity shall leave thee. Time shall be no more when 
 judgment comes, and when time is no more, change 
 is impossible ! In eternity there can be no change, 
 no deliverance, no signing of acquittal. Once lost, 
 lost forever ; once damned, damned to all eternity. 
 
 CHRIST must be his own architect. He will bring 
 out different points of truth in different ways. 
 Why, I believe that different denominations are sent 
 on purpose to set out different truths. There are 
 some of our brethren a little too high, they bring 
 out better than any other people the grand old 
 truths of sovereign grace. Tliere are some, on the 
 other hand, a little too low ; they bring out with 
 great clearness the great and truthful doctrines of 
 man's responsibility. So that two truths that might 
 have been neglected, either the one or the other, if 
 only one form of Christianity existed, are both 
 brought out, both made resplendent, by the different 
 denominations of God's people, who are alike chosen 
 of God, and precious to him. 
 
292 SFUEGEON S GEMS. 
 
 THE man whose soul is saturated with grate- 
 ful affection to his crucified Lord will weep 
 when the enemy seems to get an advantage ; he 
 will water his couch with tears when he sees a 
 declining church ; he will lift up his voice like 
 a trumpet to arouse the slumbering, and with 
 his own hand will labor day and night to build 
 up the breaches of Zion ; raid should his efforts 
 be successful, with what joyous gratitude will he 
 lift up his heart unto the Eang of Israel, extol- 
 ling him as much — ^yea, more — ^for mercies given 
 to the Church than for bounties conferred upon 
 himself. 
 
 LOYE to Christ smooths the path of duty, 
 and wings the feet to travel it : it is the 
 bow which impels the arrow of obedience ; it is 
 the mainspring moving the wheels of duty ; it is 
 the strong arm tugging the oar of diligence. 
 Love is the marrow of the bones of fidelity, the 
 blood in the veins of piety, the sinew of spirit- 
 ual strength — yea, the life of sincere devotion. 
 He that hath love can no more be motionless 
 than the aspen in the gale, the sere leaf in the 
 hurricane, or the spray in the tempest. As well 
 may hearts cease to beat, as love to labor. Love 
 is instinct with activity, it cannot be idle ; it is 
 
spttrgeon's gems. 293 
 
 full of energy, it camiot content itself with littles ; 
 it is the well-spring of heroism, and great deeds 
 are the gnshings of its fountain ; it is a giant — 
 it heapeth mountains upon mountains, and thinks 
 the pile but little ; it is a mighty mystery, for it 
 changes bitter into sweet ; it calls death life, and 
 life death, and it makes pain less painful than en- 
 joyment. Love has a clear eye, but it can see only 
 one thing — it is blind to every interest but that of its 
 Lord ; it seeth things in the light of his glory, and 
 weigheth actions in the scales of his honor ; it counts 
 royalty but dru^dgery if it cannot reign for Christ, 
 but it delights in servitude as much as in honor, if it 
 can thereby advance the Master's kingdom ; its end 
 sweetens all its means; its object lightens its toil, 
 and removes its weariness. Love, with refreshing 
 influence, girds up the loins of the pilgrim, so that 
 he forgets fatigue ; it casts a shadow for the way- 
 faring man, so that he feels not the burning heat ; 
 and it puts the bottle to the lip of thirst. 
 
 • • • 
 
 ¥E are willing to serve God when we love his 
 Son : there may be obstacles, but no unwilling- 
 ness. We would be holy even as God is holy, and 
 perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is per- 
 fect. 
 
294 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 MAT God make iis ever careful that, by his Holy 
 Spiiit's aid, we may be able to live unto him as 
 those that are alive from the dead; and since in 
 many things we fall short of his perfect will, let us 
 humble ourselves, and devoutly seek the moulding 
 of his hand to renew us day by day. We ought ever 
 to desire a perfect life as the result of full consecra- 
 tion, even though we shall often groan that " it is not 
 yet attained." Our prayer should be — 
 
 " Take my soul and body's powers ; 
 Take my memory, mind, and will ; 
 All my goods, and all my hours ; 
 
 All I know, and all I feel ; 
 All I think, or speak, or do ; 
 Take my heart — ^but make it new." 
 
 ¥E love Jesus when we are advanced in the 
 divine life, from a participation with him in 
 the great work of his incarnation. AYe long to see 
 our fellow-men turned from darkness to light, and 
 we love him as the sun of righteousness, who can 
 alone illuminate them. We hate sin, and therefore 
 we rejoice in him as manifested to take away sin. 
 We pant for holier and happier times, and therefore 
 we adore him as the coming Ruler of all lands, who 
 will bring a millennium with him in the day of his 
 appearing. 
 
SPURGEON S GEMS. 295 
 
 ¥1IEN Jesus Christ came to bnilcl his temple, he 
 found no mountain on which to build it ; he 
 had no mountain in our nature, he had to find a 
 mountain in his own, and the mountain upon which 
 he has built his Church is the mountain of his own 
 unchangeable affection, his own strong love, his own 
 omnipotent grace and infallible truthfulness. It is 
 this that constitutes the mountain upon which the 
 Church is built, and on this the foundation hath 
 been digged, and the great stones laid in the 
 trenches with oaths and promises and blood to make 
 them stand secure, even though earth should rock 
 and all creation suffer decay. 
 
 AS the affectionate wife obeys because she loves 
 her husband, so does the redeemed soul delight 
 in keeping the commands of Jesus, although com- 
 pelled by no force but that of love. This divine 
 principle will render every duty pleasant ; yea, 
 when the labor is in itself irksome, this heavenly 
 grace will quicken us in its performance by remind- 
 ing us that it is honorable to suffer for our Lord. 
 
 HEAYEK is a state of entire acquiescence in the 
 will of God, and perfect sympathy with his pur- 
 poses. 
 
296 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 IEEMEMBER a story of one, who remarked to a 
 minister, what a wonderful thing it was to see so 
 many people weeping. " ^ay," said he, " I will tell 
 you something more wonderful still, that so many will 
 forget all they wept about when they get outside the 
 door." And you will do this. Still, when you have 
 done it, you will recollect that you have not been 
 without the strivings of God's Spirit. You will re- 
 member that God has, this morning, as it were, put 
 a hurdle across your road, digged a ditch in your 
 way, and put up a hand-post, and said, " take warn- 
 ing ! beware, beware, beware ! you are rushing madly 
 into the ways of iniquity !" And I have come before 
 you this morning, and in God's name I have said, 
 " Stop, stoj), stop, thus saith the Lord ' consider your 
 ways, why will ye die ? Turn ye, turn ye, why will 
 ye die, O house of Israel ?" And now, if ye will put 
 this from you, it must be even so ; if you will put out 
 these sparks, if you will quench this first burning 
 torch, it must be so ! On your own head be your 
 blood ; at your own door lay your iniquities. 
 
 GOOD men are more tender over the reputation 
 of Christ than over their own good name ; for 
 they are willing to lose the world's favorable opinion 
 rather than that Christ should be dishonored. 
 
sptjkgeon's gems. 297 
 
 ii "nELIEYE and live," is preached every daj in 
 -L' jour hearing. Many of you this ten, twenty, 
 thirty, forty, or fifty years have been hearing the 
 gospel, and you dare not say, "I did not know what 
 the gospel was." From your earliest childhood many 
 of you have listened to it. The name of Jesus was 
 mingled with the hush of luUaby. You drank in a 
 holy gospel with your mother's milk, and yet despite 
 all that, you have never sought Christ. " Knowledge 
 is power," men say. Alas ! Knowlege, when not used, 
 is wrath, wkath, WEATH to the uttermost, against 
 the man who knows, and yet doth not that which he 
 knoweth to be right. 
 
 rVK ! how has our blood boiled when the name of 
 Vy Jesus has been the theme of scornful jest ! how 
 have we been ready to invoke the fire of Elias upon 
 the guilty blasphemers! or when our more carnal 
 heat has subsided, how have we wept, even to the 
 sobbing of a child, at the reproach cast upon his most 
 hallowed name ! Many a time we have been ready 
 to burst with anguish when we have been speechless 
 before the scofi*er, because the Lord had shut us up, 
 that we could not come forth ; but at other seasons, 
 with courage more than we had considered to be 
 within the range of our capability, we have boldly 
 reproved the wicked, and sent them back abashed. 
 
 13* 
 
298 sptjegeon's gems. 
 
 ¥E, who are saved hj grace, have room enough 
 in our Redeemer's character for eternal love 
 and wonder. His characters are so varied, and all 
 of them so precious, that we may still gaze and 
 adore. The Shepherd folding the lambs in his 
 bosom, the Breaker dashing into pieces the opposing 
 gates of brass, the Captain routing all his foes, the 
 Brother born for adversity, and a thousand other 
 delightful pictures of Jesus, are all calculated to stir 
 the affections of the thoughtful Christian. 
 
 ♦ • •- 
 
 X 
 
 IF a sense of unity in aim be capable of binding 
 hosts of men into one compact body, beating with 
 one heart, and moving with the same step — ^then it is 
 easy to believe that the heavenly object in which 
 the saints and their Saviour are both united, is 
 strong enough to form a lasting bond of love be- 
 tween them. 
 
 HE that is not afraid of sinning has good need to 
 be afraid of damning. Truth hates error, holi- 
 ness abhorreth guilt, and grace cannot but detest sin. 
 If we do not desire to be cautious to avoid offending 
 our Lord, we may rest confident that we have no part 
 in him, for true love to Christ will rather die than 
 wound him. 
 
sptjegeon's gems. 299 
 
 ¥E remember to have heard a preacher at a 
 funeral most beautifully setting forth this 
 parable : "A certain nobleman had a spacious gar- 
 den, which he left to the care of a faithful servant, 
 whose delight it was to train the creepers along the 
 trellis, to water the seeds in the time of drought, to 
 support the stalks of the tender plants, and to do 
 every work which could render the garden a Para- 
 dise of flowers. One morning he rose with joy, ex- 
 pecting to tend his beloved flowers, and hoping to 
 find his favorites increased in beauty. To his sur- 
 prise, he found one of his choicest beauties rent from 
 its stem, and, looking around him, he missed from 
 every bed the pride of his garden, the most precious 
 of his blooming flowers. Full of grief and anger, 
 he hurried to his fellow-servants, and demanded who 
 had thus robbed him of his treasures. They had not 
 done it, and he did not charge them with it ; but he 
 found no solace for his grief till one of them re- 
 marked : ' My lord was walking in the garden this 
 morning, and I saw him pluck the flowers and carry 
 them away.' Then truly he found he had no cause 
 for his trouble. He felt it was well that his master 
 had been pleased to take his own, and he went 
 away, smiling at his loss, because his lord had taken 
 them. So," said the preacher, turning to the mour- 
 ners, " you have lost one whom you regarded with 
 
300 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 mucli tender affection. The bonds of endearment 
 haYe not availed for her retention upon earth. I 
 know your wounded feelings when, instead of the 
 lovely form which was the embodiment of all that 
 is excellent and amiable, you behold nothing but 
 ashes and corruption. But remember, my beloved, 
 THE LoKD hath done it. He hath removed the ten- 
 der mother, the affectionate wife, the inestimable 
 friend. I say again, remember your own Lord has 
 done it ; therefore do not murmur, or yield your- 
 selves to an excess of grief." There was much force 
 as well as beauty in the simple allegory : it were 
 well if all the Lord's family had grace to practise its 
 heavenly lesson, in all times of bereavement and 
 affliction. 
 
 OH new-born soul, trembling with anxiety, if thou 
 hast not yet beheld the fair face of thy beloved, 
 if thou canst not as yet delight in the majesty of his 
 offices, and the wonders of his person, let thy soul be 
 fully alive to the richness of his grace, and the pre- 
 ciousness of his blood. These thou hast in thy pos- 
 session — the pledges of thine interest in him ; love 
 him then for these, and in due time he will discover 
 unto thee fresh wonders and glories, so that thou 
 shalt be able to exclaim, " The half has not been told 
 
sphrgeon's gems. 301 
 
 me." Let Calvary and Getlisemane endear thy Sa- 
 viour to tliee, thongli as yet tliou hast not seen the 
 brightness of Tabor, or heard the eloquence of Olivet. 
 Take the lower room if thou canst not reach another, 
 for the lowest room is m the house^ and its tables shall 
 not be naked. But study to look into thy Redeemer's 
 heart, that thou mayst become more closely knit unto 
 him. Remember there is a singular love in the 
 bowels of our Lord Jesus to his people, so super- 
 latively excellent, that nothing can compare with it. 
 JSTo husband, no wife, nor tender-hearted mother 
 can compete with him in affection, for his love pass- 
 eth the love of women. ]N^othing will contribute 
 more to make thee see Jesus Christ as admirable and 
 lovely than a right apprehension of his love to thee ; 
 this is the constraining, ravishing, engaging, and 
 overwhelming consideration which will infallibly 
 steep thee in a sea of love to him. 
 
 THIS feeling of fear lest we should " slip with our 
 feet," is a precious feature of true spiritual life. 
 It is much to be regretted that it is so lightly prized by 
 many, in comparison with the more martial virtues ; 
 for, despite its apparent insignificance, it is one of tlie 
 choicest fruits of the Spirit, and its absence is one of 
 the most deplorable evidences of spiritual decay. 
 
302 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 ^ i \\T^ love liim because he first loved us." Here 
 * * is the starting point of love's race. This is 
 the rippling rill which afterwards swells into a river, 
 the torch with which the pile of piety is kindled. 
 The emancipated spirit loves the Saviour for the free- 
 dom which he has conferred upon it ; it beholds the 
 agony with which the priceless gift was purchased, 
 and it adores the bleeding sufferer for the pains 
 which he so generously endured. 
 
 IT is worth while to be a man, despite all the sor- 
 rows of mortality, if we may have grace to talk 
 in the fashion of a full-assured believer when he 
 rejoices in the plenitude of his possessions and grate- 
 fully retm-ns his love as his only possible acknow- 
 ledgment. Listen to him while he talks in the 
 following strain : "J/y Beloved is mine, and I am 
 his. The grant is clear and my claim is firm. Who 
 shall despoil me of it when God hath put me in pos- 
 session, and doth own me as the lawful heritor? 
 My Lord hath himself assured me that he is mine, 
 and hath bid me call his father, my father. I know 
 of a surety that the whole Trinity are mine. ' I will 
 be thy God' is my sweet assurance. O my soul, 
 arise and take possession ; inherit thy blessedness, 
 and cast up thy richess ; enter into thy rest, and tell 
 
spuegeon's gems. 303 
 
 how tlie Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. I 
 will praise thee, O my God ; my king, I subject mj 
 Boul unto thee. O, my Griory, in thee will I boast all 
 the day ; O my Rock, on thee will I build all my 
 confidence. O staff of my life and strength of my 
 heart, the life of my joy and joy of my life, I will sit 
 and sing under thy shadow, yea, I will sing a song of 
 loves touching my Well-beloyed." This is a precious 
 experience, happy is the man who enjoys it. 
 
 1]^ some circles it is believed that in the event of 
 another reign of persecution, there are very few 
 in our churches who would endure the fiery trial : 
 nothing, we think, is more unfounded. It is our firm 
 opinion that the feeblest saint in our midst would re- 
 ceive grace for the struggle, and come off more than 
 a conqueror. God's children are the same now as 
 ever. Real piety will as well endure the fire in one 
 century as another. There is the same love to impel 
 the martyrdom, the same grace to sustain the suffer- 
 er, the same promises to cheer his heart, and the 
 same crown to adorn his head. "We believe that 
 those followers of Jesus who may perhaps one day 
 be called to the stake, will die as readily as any who 
 have gone before. Love is still as strong as death, 
 and grace is still made perfect in weakness. We may 
 be weak in grace, but grace is not weak. 
 
304 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 
 
 UR favorite master of quaint conceits* has 
 singularly said in Ms poem entitled " Unkind- 
 
 ness "- 
 
 " My friend may spit upon my curious floor." 
 
 True, most true, our Beloved may do as lie pleases 
 in om* house, even should he break its ornaments 
 and stain its glories. Come in, thou heavenly guest, 
 even though each footstep on our floor should crush 
 a thousand of our earthly joys. Thou art thyself 
 more than sufficient recompence for all that thou 
 canst take away. Come in, thou brother of our 
 souls, even though thy rod come with thee. "We 
 would rather have thee, and trials with thee, than 
 lament thine absence even though surrounded with 
 all the wealth the universe can bestow. 
 
 OH! how jealous we once were lest one divine or- 
 dinance should be neglected, or one rule violat- 
 ed, l^othing pained us more than our own too fre- 
 quent wanderings, and nothing gratified us more 
 than to be allowed to hew wood or draw water at his 
 bidding. Why is it not so now with us all ? Why 
 are those wings, once outstretched for speedy flight, 
 now folded in sloth ? Is our Eedeemer less deserv- 
 ing ? or is it not that we are less loving ? 
 
 * Herbert, 
 
spukgeon's gems. S05 
 
 TEIED saints are constrained to love their Re- 
 deemer; not only on account of deliverance 
 out of trouble, but also because of that sweet com- 
 fort wbicb he affords them whilst they are enduring 
 the cross. They have found adversity to be a wine- 
 press, in which the juice of the grapes of Eschol 
 could be trodden out ; an olive-press, to extract the 
 precious oil from the gracious promises. Christ is 
 the honeycomb, but experience must suck forth the 
 luscious drops ; he is frankincense, but fiery trials 
 must burn out the perfume ; he is a box of spike- 
 nard, but the hard hand of trouble must break the 
 box and pour forth the ointment. 
 
 THEEE are degrees of punishment ; but the high- 
 est degree is given to the man who rejects Christ. 
 You have noticed that passage, I dare say, that the 
 liar and the whoremonger, and drunkards shall have 
 their portion — who do you suppose with ? — with uribe- 
 lievers y as if hell was made first of all for unbelievers 
 — as if the pit was digged not for whoremongers, and 
 swearers, and drunkards, but for men who despise 
 Christ, because that is the A 1 sin, the cardinal vice, 
 and men are condemned for that. Other iniquities 
 come following after them, but this one goes before 
 them to judgment. Imagine for a moment that time 
 
306 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 has passed, and that the day of judgment is come. 
 We are all gathered together, both quick and dead. 
 The trumpet-blast waxes exceeding loud and long. 
 We are all attentive, expecting something marvellous. 
 The exchange stands still in its business ; the shop is 
 deserted by the tradesman ; the crowded streets are 
 filled. All men stand still ; they feel that the last 
 great business-day is come, and that now they must 
 settle their accounts forever. A solemn stillness fills 
 the air ; no sound is heard. All, all is noiseless. Pre- 
 sently a great white cloud with solemn state sails 
 through the sky, and then — ^hark ! the twofold clamor 
 of the startled earth. On that cloud there sits one 
 like unto the Son of Man. Every eye looks, and at 
 last there is heard a unanimous shout — " It is he ! It 
 is he !" and after that you hear on the one hand, shouts 
 of "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Welcome, 
 Welcome, Welcome Son of God." But mixed with that 
 there is a deep bass, composed of the weeping and the 
 wailing of the men who have persecuted him, and who 
 have rejected him. Listen ; I think I can dissect the 
 sonnet ; I think I can hear the words as they come 
 separately, each one of them tolling like a death knell. 
 What say they ? They say, " Eocks, hide us, moun- 
 tains, fall upon us, hide us from the face of him that 
 sits upon the throne." And shall you be among the 
 number of those who say to the rocks " Hide us ?" 
 
8PURGE0N 8 GEMS. 307 
 
 My impenitent hearer, I suppose for a moment that 
 you have gone out of this world, and that you have 
 died impenitent, and that you are among those who 
 are weeping, and wailing, and gnashing their teeth. 
 Oh ! what will then be your terror ! Blanched cheeks, 
 and knocking knees are nothing, compared to thy 
 horror of heart, when thou shalt be drunken, but not 
 with wine, and when thou shalt reel to and fro, with 
 the intoxication of amazement, and shall fall down, 
 and roll in the dust for horror and dismay. For there 
 he comes, and there he is, with fierce, fire-darting 
 eye ; and now the time is come for the great division. 
 The voice is heard, " Gather my people from the four 
 winds of heaven, mine elect, in whom my soul de- 
 lighteth." They are gathered at the right hand, and 
 there they are. And now saith he, " Gather up the 
 tares, and bind them in bundles to burn." And you 
 are gathered, and on the left hand there you are, 
 gatliered into the bundle. All that is wanted is the 
 lighting of the pile. Where shall be the torch that 
 shall kindle them? The tares are to be burned: 
 where is the flame ? Tlie flame comes out of his 
 mouth, and it is composed of words like these — " De- 
 part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, in hell, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels." Do you linger? ^'De- 
 part .''" Do you seek a blessing ? " Ye are mirsedP 
 I curse you with a curse. Do ye seek to escape ? It 
 
308 spurgeon's gems 
 
 is everlasting fire. Do ye stop and plead ? ITo. "7 
 called^ and ye refused / I stretched out my hands^ and 
 y& regarded me not / therefore I will mock at your 
 calamity^ I will laugh when your fear comethy 
 " Depart^ again, I say ; depart forever !" And jou 
 are gone. And what is yonr reflection ? Why, it is 
 this : " Oh ! would to God that I never had been 
 born ! Oh ! that I had never heard the gospel 
 preached, that I might never have had the sin of re- 
 jecting it." This will be the gnawing of the worm 
 in your conscience — '' I knew better, but I did not 
 do better." — As I sowed the wind, it is right I should 
 reap the whirlwind ; I was checked, but I would not 
 be stopped ; I was wooed, but I would not be invited. 
 Now I see that I have murdered myself. Oh ! thought 
 above all thoughts most deadly. I am lost, lost, lost ! 
 And this is the horror of horrors : I have caused my- 
 self to be lost ; I have put from me the gospel of 
 Christ ; I have destroyed myself. 
 
 ¥E think every Christian will be corrected in due 
 measure ; we should be the last to deny that 
 God's people are a tried people. They must all pass 
 through the furnace of affliction, and he has chosen 
 them there ; but still we believe that religion is a 
 blessed and happy thing." 
 
SPUKGEON 8 GEMS. 309 
 
 AGED and mellow saints have so sweet a savor of 
 Christ in them that their conversation is like 
 streams from Lebanon, sweetly refreshing to him 
 who delights to hear of the glories of redeeming love. 
 They have tried the anchor in the hour of storm, 
 they have tested the armor in the day of battle, they 
 have proved the shadow of the great rock in the 
 burning noontide in the weary land ; therefore do 
 they talk of those things, and of Him who is all 
 these nnto them, with an unction and a relish which 
 we, who have but just put on our harness, can enjoy, 
 although we cannot attain unto it at present. We 
 must dive into the same waters if we would bring 
 up the same pearls. 
 
 THE Lord's prisoner in the dungeon of Aber- 
 deen thus penned his belief in the love of his 
 " sweet Lord Jesus," and his acquiescence in his 
 Master's will : " Oh, what owe I to the file, to 
 the hammer, to the furnace, of my Lord Jesus ! who 
 hath now let me see how good the wheat of Christ 
 is, which goeth through his mill, to be made bread 
 for his own table. Grace tried is better than grace, 
 and more than grace — it is glory in its infancy. 
 "When Christ blesses his own crosses with a tongue, 
 they breathe out Christ's love, wisdom, kindness, 
 and care of us. Why should I start at the plough of 
 
310 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 my Lord, that maketh. deep furrows upon my soul ? 
 I know that he is no idle husbandman ; he pur- 
 poseth a crop. Oh, that this white, withered lea- 
 ground were made fertile to bear a crop for him, by 
 whom it is so painfully dressed, and that this fallow- 
 ground were broken up ! Why was I (a fool !) 
 grieved that he put his garland and his rose upon 
 my head — the glory and honor of his faithful wit- 
 nesses ? I desire now to make no more pleas with 
 Christ. Yerily, he hath not put me to a loss by 
 what I suffered ; he oweth me nothing ; for in my 
 bonds how sweet and comfortable have the thoughts 
 of him been to me, wherein I find a sufficient re- 
 compense of reward!" 
 
 • • • 
 
 AS fire grows by the addition of fuel, so does our 
 love to Christ increase by renewed and en- 
 larged discoveries of his love to us. Love is love's 
 food. If, as parents, we make known our love to 
 our children, and deal wisely with them, it is but 
 natural that their affections should become more and 
 more knit to us ; so it seems but as in the common 
 course of things that where much of divine love is 
 perceived by the soul, there will be a return of affec- 
 tion in some degree proportionate to the measure of 
 the manifestation. 
 
I 
 
 spukgeon's gems. 311 
 
 T is a lovely spectacle to behold the timid and fee- 
 ble defending the citadel of truth : not with hard 
 blows of logic, or sonnding cannonade of rhetoric— 
 but with that tearful earnestness, and implicit conii 
 deuce, against which the attacks of revilers are 
 utterly powerless. Overthrown in argument, they 
 overcome by faith ; covered with contempt, they 
 think it all joy if they may but avert a solitary stain 
 from the escutcheon of their Lord. " Call me what 
 thou wilt," says the believer, " but speak not ill of 
 my Beloved. Here, plough these shoulders with 
 your lashes, but spare yourselves the sin of cursing 
 him ! Aye, let me die : I am all too happy to be slain, 
 if my Lord's most glorious cause shall live !" 
 
 NEAENESS of life towards the Lamb will neces- 
 sarily involve greatness of love to him. As 
 nearness to the sun increases the temperature of the 
 various planets, so close communion with Jesus 
 raises the heat of the affections towards him. 
 
 A BABE'S fondness of its mother is as pleasing to 
 her as the strong devotion of her full-grown son. 
 The graces of faith, hope, and love are to be esti- 
 mated more by their honesty than by their degree, 
 and less by their intellectual than by their emotional 
 characteristics. 
 
312 sptjrgeon's gems. 
 
 AN honored saint was once so ravished with a re- 
 velation of his Lord's love, that feeling his mortal 
 frame to be nnable to sustain more of such bliss, he 
 cried, " Hold, Lord, it is enough, it is enough !" Li 
 heaven we shall be able to set the bottomless well 
 of love to our lips, and drink on forever, and yet feel 
 no weakness. Ah, that will be love indeed which 
 shall overflow our souls forever in our Father's house 
 above ! Who can tell the transports, the raptures, 
 the amazements of delight which that love shall be- 
 get in us ? and who can guess the sweetness of the 
 song, or the swiftness of the obedience which will be 
 the heavenly expressions of love made perfect ? 
 
 — ••• — 
 
 IT has become fashionable to allow the title of " in 
 tellectual preachers " to a class of men, whose 
 passionless essays are combinations of metaphysical 
 quibbles and heretical doctrines ; who are shocked at 
 the man who excites his hearers beyond the. freezing- 
 point of insensibility, and are quite elated if they hear 
 that their homily could only be understood by a few. 
 It is, however, no question whether these men de- 
 serve their distinctive title ; it may be settled as an 
 axiom that falsehood is no intellectual feat, and that 
 unintelligible jargon is no evidence of a cultured 
 
sptjrgeon's gems. 313 
 
 mind. There must be in our religion a fair propor- 
 tion of believing, thinking, understanding, and dis- 
 cerning, but there must be also the preponderating 
 influences of feeling, loving, delighting, and desiring. 
 That religion is worth nothing v^hich has no dwelling 
 in man but his brain. To love much is to be wise ; to 
 grow in affection is to grow in knowledge, and to in- 
 (jrease in tender attachment is to be making high pro- 
 ficiency in divine things. 
 
 THERE are many fair and enchanting spots in the 
 highway of salvation — spots which angels have 
 visited, and which the saints have sighed to behold 
 again and again. But some other parts of the way 
 are not so inviting ; we love not to enter the Yalley 
 of the Shadow of Death, nor to approach the moun- 
 tains of the leopards, nor the lions' dens, yet must all 
 of them be passed. 
 
 • • • 
 
 OH, mourner, say not that thou art a target for all 
 the arrows of the Almighty ; take not to thyself 
 the preeminence of woe ; for thy fellows have trod- 
 den the valley too, and upon them are the scars of 
 the thorns and briers of the di'eary pathway. 
 
 14 
 
314 SPUEGEON'S GEMS. 
 
 SON]^ETS will never cease for want of themes, un- 
 less it be that the penury of language slionld 
 compel onr wonder to abide at home, since it cannot 
 find garments in which to clothe its thonghts. When 
 the sonl is led by the Holy Spirit to take a clear view 
 of Jesns in his various offices, how speedily the heart 
 is on fire with love ! To see him stooping from his 
 throne to become man, next yielding to suffering to 
 become man's sympathizing friend, and then bowing 
 to death itself to become his ransom, is enough to 
 stir every passion of the soul. To discern him by 
 faith as the propitiation for sin, sprinkling his own 
 blood within the veil, and nailing our sins to his 
 cross, is a sight which never fails to excite the rever- 
 ent, yet rapturous admiration of the beholder. Who 
 can behold the triumphs of the Prince of Peace and 
 not applaud him ! Who can know his illustrious 
 merits, and not extol him ? 
 
 ALL men have their times of sadness, but some 
 seem to be always in the deep waters — their 
 lives, like Ezekiel's roll, seem written within and 
 without with lamentations. They can j;ist dimly re- 
 collect happier days, but those are past long ago. 
 They have for some time been the children of grief. 
 They seldom eat a crust unmoistened by a tear. Sor- 
 row's wormwood is their daily salad. 
 
SPURGEON S GEMS. 315 
 
 OTTTE savour of the name of Jesus, when heard 
 by the ear which has been opened by the Spirit ! 
 O the beauty of the person of Jesus, when seen with 
 the eye of faith by the illumination of the Holy One 
 of Israel ! As the light of the morning, when the 
 sun ariseth, as " a morning without clouds," is our 
 "Vy ell-Beloved unto us. The si^ht of the burning 
 bush made Moses put off his shoes, but the transport- 
 ing vision of Jesus makes us put off all the world. 
 "When once he is seen we can discern no beauties in 
 all the creatures in the universe. He, like the sun, 
 hath absorbed all other glories into his own excessive 
 brightness. This is the pomegranate which love 
 feeds upon, the flagon wherewith it is comforted. 
 
 HEAYEX itself, although it be a fertile land, 
 flowing with milk and honey, can j)i'oduce no 
 fairer flower than the Rose of Sharon ; its highest 
 joys mount no higher than the head of Jesus ; its 
 sweetest bliss is found in his name alone. If we 
 would know heaven, let us know Jesus ; if we would 
 be heavenly, let us love Jesus. 
 
 THAT sweet name "brother" is like perfume to 
 the believer, and when he lays hold upon it, it 
 imparts its fragrance to him. 
 
316 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 THE best enjoyments of Christ on earth are but as 
 the dipping of our finger in water for the cooling 
 of our thirst ; but heaven is bathing in seas of bliss : 
 even so our love here is but one drop of the same 
 substance as the waters of the ocean, but not com- 
 parable for magnitude or depth. Oh, how sweet it 
 will be to be married to the Lord Jesus, and to enjoy 
 forever, and without any interruption, the heavenly 
 delights of his society ! Surely, if a glimpse of him 
 melteth our soul, the full fruition of liim will be 
 enough to burn up with affection. It is well that we 
 shall have more noble frames in heaven than we 
 have here, otherwise we should die of love in the 
 
 very land of life. 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 IT is the ambition of most men to absorb others into 
 their own life, that they may shine the more 
 brightly by the stolen rays of other lights ; but it is 
 the Christian's highest aspiration to be absorbed into 
 another, and lose himself in the glories of his sover- 
 eign and Saviour. 
 
 LOOK to thy love, O Christian ! and let the carnal 
 revile thee never so much, do thou persevere in 
 seeking to walk with Christ, to feel his love, and 
 triumph in his grace. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 317 
 
 IT is the highest stage of manhood to have no 
 wish, no thought, no desire, but Christ — to feel 
 that to die were bliss, if it were for Christ — that 
 to live in penurj, and w^oe, and scorn, and con- 
 tempt, and misery, were sweet for Christ — to feel 
 that it matters nothing what becomes of one's self, 
 so that our Master is but exalted — to feel that 
 though, like a sere leaf, we are blown in the blast, 
 we are quite careless whither we are going, so 
 long as we feel that the Master's hand is guid- 
 ing us according to his will; or, rather, to feel 
 that though like the diamond, we must be ex- 
 ercised with sharp tools, yet we care not how 
 Bharj)ly we may be cut, so that we may be made 
 fit brilliants to adorn his crown. 
 
 EARTHLY joys are continually failing us ; and 
 created cisterns, one after another, are dried up. 
 A hot, dry wind steals away every drop of comfort, 
 and, hungry and thirsty, our soul fainteth in us. 
 No fruit of sweetness grows here. It well answers 
 the description of Watts : 
 
 " It yields us no supply, 
 No cheering fruits, no wholesome trees, 
 Nor streams of living joy." 
 
318 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 THE vale of tears is very low, and descends far be- 
 neath the ordinary level ; some parts of it, in- 
 deed, are tunnelled through rocks of anguish. A fre- 
 quent cause of its darkness is that on either side of 
 the valley there are high mountains, called the moun- 
 tains of sin. These rise so high that they obscure the 
 light of the sun. Behind these Andes of guilt, God 
 hides his face, and we are troubled. Then how 
 densely dark the pathway becomes ! Indeed, this is 
 the very worst thing that can be mentioned of this 
 valley : for, if it were not so dark, pilgrims would 
 not so much dread passing through it. 
 
 IF there be an inner chamber in which the king 
 doth store his choicest fruits, let us enter, for he 
 bids us make free with all in his house ; and if there 
 be a secret place where he doth show his loves, let 
 us hasten thither and embrace him whom our soul 
 loveth, and there let us abide until we see him face 
 to face in the upper skies. 
 
 TEUE grace may be in the soul without being 
 apparent; for, as Baxter truly observes, "grace 
 is never apparent and sensible to the soul but while 
 it is in action." Fire may be in the flint, and yet be 
 unseen except when occasion shall bring it out. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 319 
 
 THE air from the sea of affliction is extremely be- 
 neficial to invalid Christians. Continued pros- 
 perity, like a warm atmosphere, has a tendency to 
 nnbind the sinews and soften the bones ; but the cold 
 winds of trouble make us sturdy, hardy, and well 
 braced in every part. Unbroken success often 
 leads to an undervaluing of mercies and forgetfulness 
 of the giver ; but the withdrawal of the sunshine 
 leads us to look for the sun. 
 
 SAY, poor soul, what get you in Christ whenever 
 you go to him ? Can you not say. Oh ! I get 
 more love to him than I had before ; I never ap- 
 proached near to him but I gained a large draught 
 and ample fill of love of God. Out of his fullness we 
 receive grace for grace, and love for love. In a 
 word, by faith we behold the glory of the Lord as in 
 a glass, and are changed into the same image — and 
 the image of God is love. 
 
 BETTER walk on rugged rocks than on slippery 
 ice. If we lose our roll it is in the harbor of 
 ease, not in the valley of Baca. Few Christians back- 
 slide while under the rod ; it is usually when on the 
 lap of plenty that believers sin. 
 
320 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 S^TAES may be seen from the bottom of a deep well 
 wben they cannot be discerned from the top of a 
 mountain : so are many things learned in adversity 
 which the prosperous man dreams not of. We need 
 affliction as the trees need winter, that we may col- 
 lect sap and nourishment for future blossoms and 
 fruit. Sorrow is as necessary for the soul as medicine 
 is to the body : 
 
 " The path of sorrow, and that path alone, 
 Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." 
 
 TTTHEX eastern shepherds travel, if they find no 
 V? water, they dig a well, and thus obtain a plen- 
 tiful supply of water for themselves and for their cat- 
 tle. So did Isaac, and so also did the rulers for the 
 people in the wilderness. When we are thirsty and 
 there is no water to be found in the pools, we must 
 dig deep for it. Calvin translates it — "They, tra- 
 velling through the valley of weeping, will dig a 
 well," etc. 
 
 • ♦ • 
 
 A S we pour water into a dry pump when we desire 
 IX. to obtain more — so must we have the love of 
 Christ imparted to the heart before we shall feel any 
 uprisings of delight in him. 
 
spitrgeon's gems. 321 
 
 ¥E are bound to use every Scriptural "means to 
 obtain the good we need. The sanctuary, the 
 meeting for prayer, the Bible, the company of the 
 saints, private prayer and meditation — these revive 
 the soul. "We must dig the wells. K there be 
 rocky granite we must bore it; we must not be 
 disturbed from perseverance by the labor of our 
 duties, but continue to dig still ; and what a mercy ! 
 if the well has ever so small a bore the water will 
 flow. 
 
 • •• — 
 
 OH, child of grief, remember the vale of tears is 
 much frequented ; thou art not alone in thy dis- 
 tress. Sorrow has a numerous family. Say not, I 
 am the man that has seen affliction, for there be 
 others in the furnace with thee. Remember, more- 
 over, the King of kings once went through this val- 
 ley, and here he obtained his name, " the Man of 
 sorrows," for it was while passing through it he be- 
 came " acquainted with grief." 
 
 SO long as mere reason is the only listener, the 
 melody of the cross will be unheard. Charm we 
 never so wisely, men cannot hear the music until the 
 ears of the heart are opened, 
 
 14* 
 
322 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 IT certainly is not possible for us to be in a position 
 wliere Omnipotence cannot assist us. God liatli 
 servants everywliere, and wliere we think be bas 
 none bis word can create a multitude. There are 
 " treasures bid in the sand," and the Lord's chosen 
 shall eat thereof. When the clouds bide the moun- 
 tains they are as real as in the sunshine ; so the pro- 
 mise and the Providence of God are unchanged bj 
 the obscurity of our faith, or the difficulties of our 
 position. There is hope, and hope at hand, therefore, 
 let us be of good cheer. 
 
 ¥J1EN heaven smiles and pours down its showers 
 of grace, then they are precious things; but 
 without the celestial rain we might as much expect 
 water from the arid waste, as a real blessing in the 
 use of them. " All my springs are in Thee," is the 
 believer's daily confession to his Lord — a confession 
 which until death must ever be upon his lips. 
 
 TKAYELLEES have been delighted to see the 
 footprints of man on a barren shore, and we 
 love to see the way-marks of the pilgrimage while 
 passing through the vale of tears. Yea, the refuse 
 and debris of the receding camp often furnish food for 
 the stragglers behind. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 323 
 
 AS Isaac met his bride in the fields at eventide, so 
 do true sonls frequently find their joj and conso- 
 lation in the loneliness of solitude, and at the sunset 
 of their earthly pleasures. He who would see the 
 stars sparkling with tenfold lustre must dwell in the 
 cold regions of snow ; and he who would know the 
 full beauties of Jesus, the bright and morning star, 
 must see him amid the frosts of trouble and ad- 
 versity. 
 
 • • • 
 
 AFFLICTION" is often the hand of God, which he 
 places before our face to enable us, like Moses, 
 to see the train of his glory as he passes by. The 
 saint has had many a pleasant view of God's loving 
 kindness from the top of the hills of mercy ; but tri- 
 bulation is very frequently the Lord's Pisgah, from 
 which he gives them a view of the land in aU its 
 length and breadth. 
 
 • • • 
 
 PIOUS Brooks writes, " Oh, the love-tokens, the 
 love-letters, the bracelets, the jewels that the 
 saints are able to produce since they have been in the 
 furnace of afiliction !" Of these they had but one 
 in a season before, but now that their troubles have 
 driven them nearer to their Saviour, they have 
 enough to store their cabinet. 
 
324 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 IT is often remarked that after soul-sorrow our pas- 
 tors are more gifted witli words in season, and 
 their speech is more full of savor : this is to be ac- 
 counted for hj the sweet influence of grief when 
 sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Blessed Redeemer, 
 we delight in thy love, and thy presence is the light 
 of our joys ; but if thy brief withdrawals qualify us 
 for glorfying thee in cheering thy saints, we thank 
 thee for standing behind the wall ; and as we seek 
 thee by night, it shall somewhat cheer us that thou 
 art blessing us when thou takest away thy richest 
 blessing. 
 
 OUR faith is the centre of the target at which God 
 doth shoot when he tries us, and if any other 
 grace shall escape untried, certainly faith shall not. 
 There is no way of piercing faith to its very marrow 
 like the sticking of the arrow of desertion in it ; this 
 finds it out whether it be of the immortals or no. 
 Strip it of its armor of conscious enjoyment, and 
 suffer the terrors of the Lord to set themselves in 
 array against it, and that is faith indeed which can 
 escape unhurt from the midst of the attack. Faith 
 must be tried, and desertion is the furnace, heated 
 seven times, into which it might be thrust. Blest is 
 the man who can endure the ordeal. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 325 
 
 CHOICE discoveries of the wondrous love and 
 grace of Jesus are most tenderly vouchsafed unto 
 believers in the times of grief. Then it is that he lifts 
 them up from his feet, where, like Marj, it is their 
 delight to sit, and exalts them to the position of the 
 favored John, pressing them to his breast and bid- 
 ding them lean on his bosom. Tlien it is that he 
 doth fill the cup of salvation with the old wine of the 
 kingdom, and puts it to the mouth of the Christian, 
 that he may in some measure forget the flavor of 
 wormwood and grating of gravel- stones which the 
 draught of bitterness has placed upon his palate and 
 between his teeth. 
 
 LET us, in all time of our tribulation and affliction, 
 content ourselves with one Comforter, if all 
 others fail us. Job had three miserable comforters ; 
 better far to have one who is full of pity and able to 
 console. And who can do this so truly as our own 
 most loving Lord Jesus ? 
 
 AS in time of war the city doubles its guards, so 
 does Jesus multiply the displays of his affection 
 when his chosen are besieged by trials. 
 
S2Q spuegeon's gems. 
 
 THE intense desire after Jesus, the struggling of 
 the soul with doubts and fears, and the inward 
 panting of the whole being after the living God, 
 prove beyond a doubt that Jesus is at work in the 
 soul, though he may be concealed from the eye of 
 faith. How should it, therefore, be a matter of won- 
 der that secretly he should be able to afford support 
 to the sinking saint, even at seasons when his absence 
 is bemoaned with lamentations and tears ? 
 
 VE learn more true divinity by our trials than by 
 our books. The great Reformer said, " Prayer 
 is the best book in my library." He might have 
 added affliction as the next. Sickness is the best 
 Doctor of Divinity in all the world ; and trial is the 
 finest exposition of Scripture. This is so inestimable 
 a mark of the love of our blessed Lord that we might 
 almost desii'e trouble for the sake of it. 
 
 • •♦ 
 
 ABLroD man is really nourished by the food he 
 eats, even though he cannot see it ; so, when by 
 the blindness of our spiritual wisdom, we are unable 
 to discern the Saviour, yet his grace sustains our 
 strength and keeps us alive in famine. 
 
SPUEGEON S GEMS. 327 
 
 LTJTBffiE said Temptation was one of Ms masters 
 in divinity. We will readily trust ourselves in 
 tlie hands of a physician who has been himself sick 
 of our disease, and has tried the remedies which he 
 prescribes for us ; so we confide in the advice of the 
 Christian who knows our trials by having felt them. 
 "What sweet words in season do tried saints address 
 to mourners ! they are the real sons of consolation, 
 the truly good Samaritans. 
 
 ■♦••- 
 
 GOD'S own glory is sometimes his only motive for 
 action, and truly it is a reason so great and good 
 that he who mocks at it must be a stranger to God, 
 and cannot be truly humbled before him. It may 
 be that the sole cause of our sad condition lies in the 
 absolute will of God ; if so, let us bend oui* heads in 
 silence, and let him do what seemeth him good. 
 
 • •• 
 
 THE Lord Jesus is no fair-weather friend^ hut one 
 who loveth at all times — a brother horn for adver- 
 sity. This he proves to his beloved, not by mere 
 words of promise, but by actual deeds of affection. 
 As our sufferings abound, so he makes our consola- 
 tions to abound. 
 
328 bpttrgeon's gems. 
 
 IF Christ is more excellent at one time ttan 
 another it certainly is in " the cloudy and dark 
 day." We can never so well see the true color of 
 Christ's love as in the night of weeping. Christ in 
 the dungeon, Christ on the bed of sickness, Christ in 
 poverty, is Christ indeed to a sanctified man. j^o 
 vision of Christ Jesus is so truly a revelation as that 
 which is seen in the Patmos of suffering. 
 
 • • • 
 
 SUN'LIGHT is never more grateful than after a 
 long watch in the midnight blackness ; Christ's 
 presence is never more acceptable than after a time 
 of weeping, on account of his departure. It is a sad 
 thing that we should need to lose our mercies to 
 teach us to be grateful for them ; let us mourn over 
 this crookedness of our nature ; and let us strive to 
 express our thankfulness for mercies, so that we may 
 not have to lament their removal. 
 
 ¥E often miss our Lord's company, because our 
 conversation does not please him. When our 
 Beloved goes down into his garden, it is to feed 
 there and gather lilies ; but if thorns and nettles 
 are the only products of the soil, he will soon be 
 away to the true beds of spices. 
 
SPUKQEON S GEMS. 329 
 
 EIYALS Jesus will not endure ; and unless we 
 give him the highest throne he will leave ns 
 to mourn his absence. Love not thj wealth, thy 
 name, thy friends, thy life, thy comfort, thy hus- 
 band, thy wife, or thy children, more than thou 
 lovest him, or even so much ; for he will either 
 take tliem from thee, or else his own delightful 
 presence, and the loss of either would be an evil 
 not worthy the idolatry which will surely engen- 
 der it. 
 
 • »• 
 
 IF we travel slowly, and loiter on the road, Jesus 
 will go on before us, and sin will overtake us. 
 If we are dilatory and lazy in the vineyard, 
 the Master will not smile on us when he walks 
 through his garden. Be active, and exj)ect Christ 
 to be with thee ; be idle, and the thorns and briers 
 will grow so thickly, that he will be shut out of 
 thy door. 
 
 WEAISTESTG is sorrowful work, but it must be 
 done : we must be made to groan in this body 
 that we may be made ready for the unclothing, and 
 the " clothing upon," by which mortality shall be 
 swallowed up of life. 
 
330 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 EYIDEl^CES are like conduit-pipes — they are 
 sometimes the channels of living water, but if 
 the supply from the fountain-head be cut off from 
 them, their waters utterly fail. That man will die 
 of thirst who has no better spring to look to than an 
 em]3ty pitcher of evidences. Ishmael would have 
 perished in the wilderness if his only hope had been 
 in the bottle which his mother brought out with her 
 from the tent of Abraham; and assuredly without 
 direct supplies from the gracious hands of the Lord 
 Jesus, the saints would soon be in an ill plight. 
 
 ♦ •♦ 
 
 I]Sr proportion as the Master's presence is delightful, 
 his absence is mournful. Dark is the night which 
 is caused by the setting of such a sun. No blow of 
 Providence can ever wound so sorely as this. A 
 blasted crop is as nothing compared with an absent 
 Redeemer ; yea, sickness and the approach of death 
 are preferable to the departure of Emanuel. 
 
 C HEIST is a flower, but he fadeth not ; he 
 is a river, but he is never dry ; he is a sun, 
 but he knoweth no eclipse ; he is all in all, but he 
 is something more than all. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 331 
 
 CHRIST never lingers long witli dumb sonls ; if 
 there be no crying out to liim, he loves not 
 silence, and he departs and betakes himself to those 
 hearts which are full of the music of -prajer. What 
 a marvellous influence prayer has upon our fellow- 
 ship with Jesus ! We may always measure one by 
 the other. Those pray most fervently and frequently 
 who have been constant attendants on the kind 
 Intercessor ; while, on the other hand, those who 
 wrestle the hardest in supj)lication will hold the 
 angel the longest. Joshua's voice stayed the sun in 
 the heavens for a few hours ; but the voice of prayer 
 can detain the Sun of righteousness for months and 
 even years. 
 
 • •• 
 
 I]N"ASMUCII as the heart is the most important 
 part of man — for out of it are the issues of life — it 
 would be natural to expect that Satan, when he in- 
 tended to do mischief to manhood, would be sure to 
 make his strongest and most perpetual attacks upon 
 the heart. What we might have guessed in wisdom 
 is certainly true in experience ; for although Satan 
 will tempt and try us in every way, though every 
 gate of the town of Mansoul may be battered, though 
 against every part of the walls thereof he will be sure 
 to bring out his great guns, yet the place against 
 
332 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 wliicli lie levels his deadliest malice and his most 
 furious strength, is the heart. Into the heart, already 
 of itself evil enough, he thrusts the seeds of every 
 evil thing, and doth his utmost to make it a den of 
 unclean birds, a garden of poisonous trees, a river 
 flowing with destructive water. Hence, again, arises 
 the second necessity that we should be doubly cau- 
 tious in keeping the heart with all diligence ; for if, 
 on the one hand, it be the most important, and, on 
 the other hand, Satan, knowing this, makes his most 
 furious and determined attacks against it, then, with 
 double force the exhortation comes, " Keep thy heart 
 with all diligence." And the promise also becomes 
 doubly sweet from the very fact of the double danger 
 — the promise which says, " The peace of God shall 
 keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our 
 
 Lord." 
 
 — •-•-• — 
 
 HAPPY is the man whose faith can see in the 
 thick darkness, and whose soul can live in the 
 year of drought ; but that man is not far from a curse 
 who slights the fellowship of the Lord, and esteems 
 his smile to be a vain thing. It is an ill sign if any 
 of us are in a contented state when we are forsaken 
 of the Lord ; it is not faith but wicked indifference, 
 which makes us careless concerning communion with 
 him. 
 
spuegeon's gems. 333 
 
 IS my conscience at peace ? For, if my heart con- 
 demn me not, God is greater than my heart, and 
 doth know all things ; if my conscience bear witness 
 with me, that I am a partaker of the precious grace of 
 salvation, then happy am I ! I am one of those to 
 whom God hath given the peace which passeth all 
 imderstanding. JSTow, why is this called "the peace 
 of God ?" We siip230se it is because it comes from 
 God — ^because it was planned by God — because God 
 gave his Son to make the peace — ^because God gives 
 his Spirit to give the peace in the conscience — be- 
 cause, indeed, it is God himself in the soul, recon- 
 ciled to man, whose is the peace. And while it is 
 true that this man shall have the peace — even the 
 Man-Christ, yet we know it is because he was the 
 God-Christ that he was our peace. And hence we 
 may clearly perceive how Godhead is mixed up with 
 the peace which we enjoy with our Maker and 
 with our conscience. 
 
 THE boldness of lion-like courage, the firmness of 
 rooted decision, the confidence of unflinchinoj 
 faith, the zeal of quenchless love, the vigor of un- 
 dying devotion, the sweetness of sanctified fellowship 
 — all hang for support upon the one pillar of the 
 Saviour's presence, and this removed they fail. 
 
334 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 DIOGEISrES may tell us to do without everjtliing, 
 and live in his tub, and then think himself 
 happier than Alexander, and that he enjoys peace ; 
 but we may look upon the poor creature after all, and 
 though we may be astonished at his courage, yet we 
 are obliged to despise his folly. We do not believe 
 that even when he had dispensed with everything, 
 he possessed a quiet mind, a total and entire peace, 
 such as the true believer can enjoy. TVe find the 
 greatest philosophers of old laying down maxims for 
 life which they thought would certainly promote 
 happiness. We find that they were not always able 
 to practise them themselves ; and many of their dis- 
 ciples, when they labored hard to put them in execu- 
 tion, found themselves encumbered with impossible 
 rules to accomplish impossible objects. But a Christ- 
 ian man does with faith what man can never do 
 himself. While the poor understanding is climbing 
 up the crags, faith stands on the summit; while the 
 poor understanding is getting into a calm atmos- 
 phere, faith flies aloft and mounts higher than the 
 Btorm, and then looks down on the valley and smiles 
 while the tempest blows beneath its feet. Faith goes 
 further than understanding, and the peace which the 
 Christian enjoys is one which the worldling cannot 
 comprehend and cannot himself attain. " The peace 
 of God which passeth all understanding." 
 
SPUEGEON S GEMS. o35 
 
 YOU cannot have peace unless you turn yonr 
 troubles up. You have no place in which to 
 pour your troubles except the ear of God. If you 
 tell them to your friends, you but put your troubles 
 out a moment, and they will return again. If you 
 tell them to God, you put your troubles into the 
 grave ; they will never rise again when you have 
 committed them to him. If you roll your burden 
 anywhere else it will roll back again, just like the 
 stone of Sisyphus ; but just roll your burden unto 
 God, and you have rolled it into a great deej), out 
 of which it will never by any possibility rise. Cast 
 your troubles where you cast your sins ; you have 
 cast your sins into the depths of the sea, there cast 
 your troubles also. E'ever keep a trouble half an 
 hour on your own mind before you tell it to God. 
 As soon as the trouble comes, quick, the first thing, 
 tell it to your Father. 
 
 M 
 
 OST of us have a lover and idol besides our hus- 
 band, Christ ; but it is our folly to divide our 
 narrow and little love ; it will not serve for two. It is 
 best then, to hold it whole and together, and to give 
 it to Christ ; for then we get double interest for oui 
 love, when we lend it to, and lay it out upon, Christ ; 
 and we are sure, besides, that the stock cannot perish. 
 
336 spurgeon's gems. 
 
 I HA YE seen the Christian man in the depths of 
 poverty, when he lived from hand to mouth, and 
 scarcely knew where he should find the next meal, 
 still with his mind unruffled, calm, and quiet. If he 
 had been as rich as an Indian prince, yet could he 
 not have had less care ; if he had been told that his 
 bread should always come to his door, and the stream 
 which ran hard by should never dry — if he had been 
 quite sure that ravens would bring him bread and 
 meat in the morning, and again in the evening, he 
 would not have been one whit more calm. There is 
 his neighbor on the other side of the street not half 
 so poor, but wearied from morning to night, working 
 his fingers to the bone, bringing himself to the grave 
 with anxiety ; but this poor good man, after having 
 industriously labored, though he found he had gained 
 little with all his toil, yet hath sanctified his little by 
 prayer, and hath thanked his Father for what he had ; 
 and though he doth not know whether he will have 
 more, still he trusteth in God, and declareth that his 
 faith should not fail him, though providence should 
 run to a lower ebb than he had ever seen. There is 
 " the peace of God which passeth all understanding." 
 I have seen that peace, too, in the case of those who 
 have lost their friends. There is a widow — ^her much 
 loved husband lies in the coffin ; she is soon to part 
 with him. Parted with him she has before ; but 
 
SPUBGEON S GEMS. 337 
 
 now, of liis poor clay-cold corpse — even of that slie 
 has to be bereaved. She looks upon it for the last 
 time, and her heart is heavy. For herself and her 
 children, she thinks how they shall be provided for. 
 That broad tree that once sheltered them from the 
 sunbeam has been cut down. ITow, she thinks there 
 is a broad heaven above her head, and her Maker is 
 her husband ; the fatherless children are left with 
 God for their father, and the widow is trusting in 
 him. With tears in her eyes she still looks up, and 
 she says, " Lord, thou hast given and thou hast taken 
 away, blessed be thy name." Her husband is car- 
 ried to the tomb ; she doth not smile, but though she 
 weeps, there is a calm composure on her brow, and 
 she tells you she would not have it otherwise, even 
 if she could, for Jehovah's will is right. 
 
 IF we are ever privileged to receive Jesus under 
 our roof, let us make haste to secure the door 
 that he may not soon be gone. If he sees us care- 
 less concerning him, and cold towards him, he will 
 soon arise and go hence. He will not intrude him- 
 self where he is not wanted ; he needs no lodging, 
 for the heaven of heavens is his perpetual palace, 
 and there b6 many hearts of the contrite where he 
 will find a hearty welcome. 
 
 15 
 
838 SPUKGEON S GEMS. 
 
 IOISTCE remember to have heard a woman saj 
 wlien I was passing down a lane — a child stood 
 crying at the door, and I heard her calling out — 
 " Ah, yon are crying for nothing ; I will give you 
 something to cry for." Brethren, it is often so with 
 God's children. Tliey get crying for nothing. They 
 have a miserable disposition, or a turn of mind 
 always making miseries for themselves, and thus 
 they have something to cry for. Their peace is dis- 
 turbed, some sad trouble comes, God hides his face, 
 and then they lose their peace. But keep on sing- 
 ing, even when the sun does not keep on shining ; 
 keep a song for all weathers ; get a joy that will 
 stand clouds and storms ; and then, when you know 
 how always to rejoice, you shall have this peace. 
 
 AGAINST the child of God conscience brings no 
 accusation, or if it brings the accusation, it is but 
 a gentle one — a gentle chiding of a loving friend 
 who hints that we have done amiss, and that we had 
 better change, but doth not afterwards thunder in 
 our ears the threat of a penaltj^ Conscience knows 
 full well that peace is made betwixt the soul and 
 God, and, therefore, it does not hint that there is any 
 thing else but joy and peace to be looked forward to 
 by the believer. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 339 
 
 THEEE is Martin Luther standing up in the midst 
 of the Diet of Worms ; there are the kings and the 
 princes, and there are the bloodhounds of Eome with 
 their tongues thirsting for his blood — there is Martin 
 rising in the morning as comfortable as possible, and 
 he goes to the Diet, and delivers himself of the truth, 
 solemnly declares that the things which he has 
 spoken are the things which he believes, and God 
 helping him, he will stand by them till the last. There 
 is his life in his hands ; they have him entirely in their 
 power. The smell of John Huss's corpse has not yet 
 passed away, and he recollects that princes, before 
 this, have violated their words ; but there he stands, 
 calm and quiet ; he fears no man, for he has naught 
 to fear ; " the peace of God which passeth all under- 
 standing keeps his heart and mind through Jesus 
 Christ." There is another scene : there is John 
 Bradford in E'ewgate. He is to be burned the next 
 morning in Smithfield, and he swings himself on the 
 bedpost in very glee, and delights, for to-morrow is 
 his wedding day ; and he says to another, " Fine 
 shining we shall make to-morrow, when the flame is 
 kindled." And he smiles and laughs, and enjoys the 
 very thought that he is about to wear the blood-red 
 crown of martyrdom. Is Bradford mad ? Ah, no ; 
 but he has got the peace of God that i)asseth all 
 understanding. But perhaps the most beautiful, as 
 
SiO 8PUKGE0N S GEMS. 
 
 well as tlie most common illustration of this sweet 
 peace, is the dying bed of tlie believer. Oli, brethren, 
 jou have seen this sometimes — that calm, quiet ser- 
 enity ; you have said, Lord, let us die with him. It 
 has been so good to be in that solitary chamber 
 where all was quiet, and so still, all the world shut 
 out, and heaven shut in, and the poor heart neaiing 
 its God, and far away from all its past bm-dens and 
 griefs — now nearing the portals of eternal bliss 
 And ye have said, " How is this ? Is not death a 
 black and o^i-im thino; ? Ai'e not the terrors of the 
 grave things which make the strong man tremble ? 
 Oh yes, they are ; but, then, this one has the " peace 
 of God which passeth all understanding." 
 
 > > > 
 
 "TT7"E never live so well as when we live on the 
 ' ' Lord Jesus simply as he is, and not upon our 
 enjoyments and raptm-es. Faith is never more likely 
 to increase in strength than in times which seem ad- 
 verse to her. TThen she is lightened of trust in joys, 
 experiences, frames, feelings, and the like, she rises 
 the nearer heaven, like the balloon when the bags of 
 sand are emptied. Trust in thy Eedeemer's strength, 
 thou benighted soul ; exercise what faith thou hast, 
 and by and by he shall rise upon thee with healing 
 beneath his wings. 
 
spurgeon's gems. 34:1 
 
 OH! true believer, is there no strange god with, 
 thee ? Make a thorough search. Bid even thy 
 beloved Rachel rise, for the teraph is often concealed 
 beneath the place where she sitteth. Say not in 
 haste, I am no idolater. The approaches of this sin 
 are insidious in the extreme, and ere thou knowest 
 it thou art entangled in its iron net. The love of the 
 creature has a bewitching power over men, and they 
 seldom know the treachery of the Delilah until their 
 locks are shorn. Oh, daughters of Zion, let King 
 Solomon alone have your love ; rehearse his name in 
 your songs, and write his achievements on your 
 memories ; so will he dwell in the city of David and 
 ride through your midst in his chariot paved with 
 love for you / but if ye pay homage to any save 
 himself, he will return unto his place and make your 
 beauteous city a by-word with the enemy. 
 
 EEJMEMBEE, that in proportion to the fullness 
 of thine heart will be the fullness of thy life. 
 Be empty-hearted and thy life will be a meagre, 
 skeleton existence. Be full-hearted and thy life will 
 be full, fleshy, gigantic, strong, a thing that will tell 
 upon the world. Keep, then, thy peace with God 
 firm witliin thee. Keep thou close to this, that 
 Jesus Christ hath made peace between thee and 
 
34:2 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 God. And keep thy conscience still ; then shall thy 
 heart be full and thy soul strong to do thy Master's 
 work. Keep thy peace with God. This will keep 
 thy heart pure. Thou wilt say if temptation comes, 
 " What dost thou offer me ? Thou offerest me plea- 
 sure ; lo ! I have got it. Thou offerest me gold ; lo ! 
 I have got it ; all things are mine, the gift of God ; 
 I have a city that hands have not made, ' a house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' I 
 will not barter this for your poor gold." "I will 
 give you honor," saith Satan. " I have honor 
 enough," says the peaceful heart ; " God will honor 
 me in the last great day of his account." " I will 
 give thee everything that thou canst desire," saith 
 Satan. " I have everything that I can desu'e," says 
 the Chi-istian. 
 
 ■»♦♦■ 
 
 ~E will never lack appetite for spiritual things 
 who lives much on them. The poor profes- 
 sor may be content with a few of Christ's pence 
 now and then, but he who is rich in grace thinks 
 BO small an income beneath his station, and cannot 
 live unless he has golden gifts from the hand of his 
 Lord; he will covet earnestly this best of gifts, and 
 be a very miser after the precious things of the 
 cross. 
 
SPUBaEON's GEMS. 343 
 
 WKEN our wondering eyes have admired the 
 beauties of our Saviour for millions of years 
 we shall be quite as willing to continue the medi- 
 tation, supremely blest with that heaven which 
 our eyes shall drink in from his wounded hands 
 and side. The marrow of heaven is Jesus; and 
 as we shall never be surfeited with bliss, so we 
 shall never have too much of Jesus. Fresh glories 
 are discovered in him every hour ; his person, work, 
 offices, character, affection, and relationships, are 
 each of them clusters of stars which the eye of 
 contemplation will view with unutterable astonish- 
 ment as they are in their order revealed to the 
 
 mind. 
 
 — »» » 
 
 ANGELS' visits are few and far between : when 
 we have the happiness of meeting there- 
 with, let us, like Jacob, manfully grasp the angel, 
 and detain him, at least until he leaves a blessing. 
 Up, Christian, with a holy bravery, and lay hold on 
 the mercy while it is within reach ! The Son of 
 Man loves those who hold him tightly. He will not 
 resent the familiarity, but will approve of thine ear- 
 nestness. Let the loving bride of the Canticles 
 teach thee by her example, for she glories in her 
 deed when she sings, " I found him whom my soul 
 loveth, I held him, and I would not let him go." 
 
344 sptirgeon's gems. 
 
 HAPPY are the spirits who have ended their fight 
 of faith, and now live in the raptures of a sight 
 
 of Him ; yea, thrice happy are the lowest of 
 those seraphs who fly at his bidding, and do forever 
 
 behold the face of our Father which is in heaven. The 
 
 drought of these dry plains stirreth us to desire the 
 
 river of the water of life ; the barren -Rg trees of this 
 
 weary land urge us to pursue a speedy path to the 
 
 immortal trees upon the banks of the river of God ; 
 
 our clouds exhort us to fly above this lower sky up 
 
 where unclouded ages roll ; the very thorns and 
 
 briers, the dust and heat of this world's pilgrimage 
 
 and strife, are powerful orators to excite our highest 
 
 thoughts to the things which are unseen and eternal. 
 
 LOOK! look! look with solemn eye through the 
 shades that part us from the world of sj)irits, 
 and see that house of misery which men call hell ! 
 Ye cannot endure the spectacle. Pemember that in 
 that place there are spirits forever paying their debt 
 to divine justice ; but though some of them have been 
 for these four thousand years sweltering in the flame 
 they are no nearer a discharge than when they began ; 
 and when ten thousand times ten thousand years shall 
 have rolled away, they will no more have made satis- 
 faction to God for their guilt than they have done 
 
spuegeon's gems. 345 
 
 up till now. And now can you grasp the thought of 
 the greatness of jour Saviour's meditation when he 
 paid your debt, and paid it all at once ; so that there 
 now remaineth not one farthing of debt owing from 
 Christ's people to their God, except a debt of love. 
 To justice the believer oweth nothing ; though he 
 owed originally so much that eternity would not have 
 been long enough to suffice for the paying of it, yet 
 in one moment Christ did pay it all, so that the man 
 who believeth is entirely justified from all guilt, and 
 set free from all punishment, through what Jesus 
 hath done. Think ye, then, how great his atone- 
 ment if he hath done all this. 
 
 BLESSED be God, the green pastures and the still 
 waters, the shepherd's crook and pleasant com- 
 pany, are objects which are quite as familiar to the 
 believer's mind as the howling wilderness and the 
 
 brandished rod. 
 
 — •-%-• — 
 
 THE meanest lamb of the blood-bought flock shall 
 be preserved securely by the "strength of Israel" 
 unto the day of his appearing, and shall, through 
 every season of tribulation and distress, continue to 
 be beloved of the Lord. 
 
 15* 
 
34:6 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 \ in IRE will not tarry in a single coal, but if many 
 ^^-L be laid together it will be long before it is clean 
 gone. A single tree may not afford mnch shelter for 
 a traveller, but lie will rest beneath the thick bonghs 
 of the grove : so will Jesus often sit longer where 
 many of " the trees of the Lord " are planted. Go to 
 the assemblies of the saints, if you would keep the 
 arm of the King of saints. Those who dwell most 
 with the daughters of Jerusalem are most likely to 
 have a goodly share of Emanuel's company. 
 
 • •• 
 
 A LITTLE filth acquired every day, if it be left 
 unwashed, will make us as black as if we had 
 been plunged in the mire ; and as sin upon the con- 
 science turns Christ's joy out of the heart, it will be 
 impossible for us to feel the delights of communion 
 until all our everyday sins have been washed from 
 the conscience by a fresh application of the atoning 
 blood. 
 
 AS plants thrive not when the light is kept from 
 them, but become blanched and unhealthy, so 
 souls deprived of the light of God's countenance are 
 unable to maintain the verdure of their piety or the 
 strength of their graces. "What a loss is a lost Christ ! 
 
spurgeon's gems. 347 
 
 WHEN the Lord Jesus is present in the soul, and 
 is beheld by it, ambition, covetousness, and 
 worldliness flee apace ; for such is his apparent glory 
 that earthly objects fade away like the stars in noon- 
 day ; but when he is gone they will show their false 
 glitter, as the stars, however small, will shine at 
 midnight. 
 
 TRUST the Lord much while he is with you. 
 Keep no secrets from him. His secrets are with 
 you ; let your secrets be with him. Jesus admires 
 confidence, and if it be not afforded him, he will say, 
 " Farewell," until we can trust him better. 
 
 • •• 
 
 IF thou desirest Christ for a perpetual guest, give 
 him all the keys of thine heart ; let not one cabi- 
 net be locked up from him ; give him the range of 
 every room, and the key of every chamber ; thus you 
 will constrain him to remain. 
 
 ■•♦• 
 
 I HAD rather put my foot upon a bridge as narrow 
 as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than 
 on a bridge that was as wide as the world, if it did 
 not go all the way across the stream. 
 
348 spuegeon's gems. 
 
 PUnSTCES have melted pearls into the wine where- 
 with they entertained monarchs ; let ns do the 
 same. Let ns make rich offerings to Jesus ; let our 
 duties be more faithfully discharged, our labors 
 more willingly performed, and let our zeal be more 
 eminently fervent. 
 
 • •• 
 
 ¥HATEYEIl our frame or feeling, the heart of 
 Jesus is full of love — ^love which was not caused 
 by our good behavior, and is not diminished by our 
 follies — ^love which is as sure in the night of dark- 
 ness, as in the brightness of the day of joy. 
 
 * »•■ 
 
 ¥BLE]Sr Christ is with the Christian, the means of 
 grace are like flowers in the sunshine, smelling 
 fragrantly and smiling beauteously; but without 
 Christ they are like flowers by night, their fountains 
 of fragrance are sealed by the darkness. 
 
 JESUS will never tarry in a divided heart. He 
 must be all or nothing. Search thy heart ; de- 
 throne its idols; eject all interlopers; chastise all 
 trespassers; yea, slay the Diabolians who lurk in 
 thy soul. 
 
spukgeon's gems. 349 
 
 THERE is a story told, that in tlie olden times, 
 Artaxerxes and another great king were engaged 
 in a furious fight. In the middle of the battle a sud- 
 den eclipse happened, and such was the horror of 
 all the warriors, that they made peace there and 
 then. Oh, if an eclipse of trouble should induce you 
 to ground arms and seek to be reconciled unto God ! 
 Sinner, you are fighting against God, lifting the arm 
 of your rebellion against him. Happy shall you be 
 if that trouble which is now fallen uj)on you should 
 lead you to throw down the weapons of your rebel- 
 lion, and fly to the arms of God and say, " Lord have 
 mercy upon me a sinner." It will be the best thing 
 that thou hast ever had. Thy trouble will be far 
 better to thee than joys could have been, if thy sor- 
 rows shall induce thee to fly to Jesus who can make 
 peace through the blood of his cross. 
 
 • ♦ • 
 
 A PORTION of the Lord's family live usually in 
 the shade : they are like those sweet flowers 
 which bloom nowhere so well as in the darkest and 
 thickest glades of the forest. 
 
 THE sun will shine on the dunghill, but Christ 
 will not shine on the back-slider while he is in- 
 dulging in his lusts. 
 
350 spukgeon's gems. 
 
 IF there be a place under high heaven more holy 
 than another, it is the pulpit whence the gospel is 
 preached. This is the Thermopylae of Christendom ; 
 here must the great battle be fought between Christ's 
 church and the invading hosts of a wicked world. 
 This is the last vestige of anything sacred that is left 
 to us. We have no altars now ; Christ is our altar : 
 but we have a pulpit still left, a place which, when a 
 man entereth, he might well put ojff his shoes from 
 his feet, for the place whereon he standeth is holy. 
 Consecrated by a Saviour's presence, established by 
 the clearness and the force of an apostle's eloquence, 
 maintained and upheld by the faithfulness and fer- 
 vor of a succession of evangelists who, like stars, 
 have marked the era in which they lived, and 
 stamped it with their names, the pulpit is handed 
 down to those of us who occupy it now with a prestige 
 of everything that is great and holy. Yet I have seen 
 the wicked come and go from it. Alas ! if there be 
 a sinner that is hardened, it is the man that sins and 
 occupies his pulpit. "We have heard of such a man 
 living in the commission of the foulest sins, and at 
 length has been discovered ; and yet such is the filthi- 
 ness of mankind, that when he began to preach to the 
 people again, they clustered round the beast for the 
 mere sake of hearing what he would say to them. 
 We have known cases, too, where men, when con- 
 
sptjegeon's gems. 351 
 
 victed to their own forehead, have nnblushingly per- 
 severed in proclaiming a gospel which their lives 
 denied. And perhaps these are the hardest of all 
 sinners to deal with. But if the garment be once 
 defiled, away with all thoughts of the pnlpit then ! 
 He must be clean who ministers at the altar. Every 
 saint must be holy, but he, holiest of all, who seeks 
 to serve his God. Yet, we must mourn to say it, the 
 church of God every now and then has had a sun 
 that was black instead of white, and a moon that was 
 as a clot of blood, instead of being full of fairness and 
 beauty. Happy the church when God gives her holy 
 ministers ; but unhappy the church where wicked men 
 preside. I know ministers to this day, however, who 
 know more about fishing rods than they do about chap- 
 ters in the Bible ; more about fox-hounds than about 
 hunting after men's souls ; who understand a great deal 
 more of the spring and the net than they do of the net 
 for catching souls, or earnest exhortations for men to flee 
 from the wrath to come. We know such even now : still 
 uproarious at a farmer's dinner, still the very loudest 
 to give the toast and clash the glass, still mightiest 
 among the mighty, fond of the gay, the wild, and the 
 dissolute. Pity on the church that still allows it ! Hap- 
 py the day when all such persons shall be purged from 
 the pulpit ; then shall it stand forth '' clear as the sun, 
 fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." 
 
352 sphrgeon's gems. 
 
 YOU need not dispute divine decrees, bnt sit do^n 
 and draw honey out of this rock, and wine out of 
 this flinty rock. Oh, it is a hard, hard doctrine to a 
 man who has no interest in it, but when a man has 
 once a title to it, then it is like the rock in the wil- 
 derness ; it streams with refreshing water whereat 
 myriads may drink and never thirst again. "Well does 
 the Church of England say of that doctrine, it " is full 
 of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly 
 persons." And though it be like the Tarpeian rock, 
 whence many a malefactor has been dashed to pieces 
 in presumption, yet it is like Pisgah, from whose 
 lofty summit the spires of heaven may be seen in the 
 
 distance. 
 
 > • > — 
 
 O'N'E reformation will never serve the church ; she 
 needs continually to be wound up, and set a- 
 going afresh ; for her works run down, and she does 
 not act as she used to do. The bold, bald doctrines 
 that Luther brought out, began to be a little modi- 
 fied, until layer after layer was deposited upon them, 
 and at last the old rocky truth was covered up, and 
 there grew upon the superficial subsoil an abundance 
 of green and flowery errors, that looked fair and 
 beautiful, but were in no way whatever related to 
 the truth^ except as they were the products of its 
 decay. Tlien there came bold men who brought the 
 
sptjrgeon's gems. 353 
 
 trutli out again, and said, " Clear away this rubbish ; 
 let tlie blast light upon these deceitful beauties ; we 
 want them not ; bring out the old truth once more !" 
 And it came out. But the tendency of the church 
 perpetually is, to be coyering up its own naked sim- 
 plicity, forgetting that the truth is never so beautiful 
 as when it stands in its own unadorned, God-given 
 glory. And now, at this time, we want to have the 
 old truths restored to their places. The subtleties and 
 the refinements of the preacher must be laid aside. 
 We must give up the grand distinctions of the 
 school-men, and all the lettered technicalities of men 
 who have studied theology as a system, but have not 
 felt the power of it in their hearts ; and when the 
 good old truth is once more preached by men whose 
 lips are touched as with a live coal from ofi" the altar, 
 this shall be the instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, 
 for bringing about a great and thorough revival of 
 religion in the land. 
 
 • •• 
 
 LITTLE do we know when we look here from this 
 pulpit — it looks like one great field of flowers, 
 fair to look upon — ^liow many a root of deadly hen- 
 bane and noxious nightshade groweth here ; and 
 though you all look fair and goodly, yet " I have seen 
 the wicked come and go from the place of the holy." 
 
354: bpuegeon's gems. 
 
 SOLDIEK of tlie cross ! the lioiir is coming when 
 the note of victory shall be proclaimed through- 
 out the world. The battlements of the enemy must 
 soon succumb ; the swords of the mighty must 
 soon be given up to the Lord of lords. "What ! 
 soldier of the cross ! in the day of victory wouldst 
 thou have it said that thou didst turn thy back in tlie 
 day of battle ? Dost thou not wish to have a share 
 in the conflict, that thou mayest have a share in the 
 victory? K thou hast even the hottest part of 
 the battle, wilt thou flinch and fly? Thou shalt 
 have the brightest part of the victory, if thou art in 
 the fiercest of the conflict. Wilt thou turn and lose 
 thy laurels? "Wilt thou throw down thy sword? 
 Shall it be with thee as when a standard-bearer faint- 
 eth ? JSTay, man, up to arms again ! for the victory 
 is certain. Though the conflict be severe, I beseech 
 you, on to it again ! On, on, ye lion-hearted men of 
 God, to the battle once more ! for ye shall yet be 
 crowned with immortal glory. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absence of Christ, 330. 
 
 Absolved in Christ, 316. 
 
 Abundant entrance, 200. 
 
 Acceptable worship, 286. 
 
 Action everything, 219. 
 
 Admission to heaven, 164. 
 
 Afraid to die, 247. 
 
 Afflicted always, 314. 
 
 Afflictions of others, 313; — ^health- 
 ful, 319, 320, 323. 
 
 All-sufficiency of Christ, 202. 
 
 Angels' mission, 133. 
 
 Amalgamate with Christ, 159. 
 
 Ark, the danger of the, 235 ; — win- 
 dows of, 257; — its animals, 259 ; 
 — rooms of, 256 ; — stories, 
 241. 
 
 Artist's aim, 161. 
 
 Assemblies of the saints, 346. 
 
 Assurance, 26. 
 
 Atonement, the, 234. 
 
 Backsliders, 35. 
 Beauty in God, 36. 
 Begin" with Christ, 238 
 Believe and do, 120. 
 Be like Christ, 143. 
 Bended heads. 169. 
 Best bridge, 347. 
 Bible and ledger, 71 ; — all gold, 
 135 ;— finished, 61. 
 
 Blessings, 345 ; — to be sought, 
 
 26. 
 Blood-stained truth, 78. 
 Boasting, 37. 
 Borrowed grace, 158. 
 British rule, 185. 
 
 Cash book, 240. 
 
 Care is security, 288, 301. 
 
 Careful sinners, 94. 
 
 Champions of truth, 108. 
 
 Change, 194. 
 
 Cheerfulness, 74. 
 
 Cheating and cheated, 230. 
 
 Children learning to sin, 173. 
 
 Child's death-bed, 283. 
 
 Christ in God, 252 ; — the purifier, 
 252 ; — church of, 278 ; — in 
 death, 280 ;— in affliction, 281 ; 
 — name dear 297 ; — character 
 varied, 298 ;— love, 300 ;— is 
 mine, 302; — is all, 304; — re- 
 jected, 305 ; — our brother, 315 ; 
 — the pillar, 333 ; — alone, 335 ; 
 — our all, 56 ; — our bread, 30 ; 
 always yours, 190 ; — in us, 177 ; 
 — longing for the cross, 203 ; 
 — the foundation, 295 ; — alone, 
 348 ;— the creator, 249 ;— a 
 chariot, 83 ; — the architect, 
 289 ; glory infinite, 343 ;— the 
 
 855 
 
356 
 
 rCTOEX. 
 
 same 183 ; — the comforter, 
 325 ; — alone, 329 ; — more than 
 all, 330 ;— the shepherd, 267 ; 
 Christ-like, 271 ; — sepulchre, 
 168 ;— love of, 302 ;— name 
 dear, 296 ;— power, 67.' 
 
 Christians safe, 210 ; — active, 
 329 ;— hatred, 140. 
 
 Church the bride, 171 ; — reforma- 
 tion of the, 352. 
 
 City of refuge, 102. 
 
 Come to Christ's grave, 142. 
 
 Comfort for mourners, 57. 
 
 Comforter, the, 74. 
 
 Coming to Christ, 211. 
 
 Consecration of God, 294. 
 
 Conscience, 212. 
 
 Corpse dressed up, 59. 
 
 Covenant, the 141. 
 
 Credulity, 116. 
 
 Cross of Christ, 209. 
 
 Crying for nothing, 338. 
 
 Daily communion, 346. 
 
 Dead men's bones, 49. 
 
 Deal gently, 24. 
 
 Death's ravages, 17, 18. 
 
 Death, certain, 61 ; — struggles, 
 
 97; — of Christ, 125 ; of saints, 
 
 152. 
 Debt of love, 344. 
 Delight of heaven, 316 ; — of the 
 
 saints, 312. 
 Deliverance, 92. 
 Demon coming, 206. 
 Denominational truth, 291. 
 Desire, much, 342. 
 Despise, the world, 36. 
 Devil, a liar, 2, 38 ; — sticks close, 
 
 152; — with horns, 25. 
 Divine dresses, 352, 
 Doctrines, 38. 
 Doubt reproved, 130. 
 Doubts, subdued, 63. 
 Dreams, nothing, 220. 
 Dreams of the future, 76. 
 Drowning, man, 19. 
 Dregs of the cup, 223. 
 Driven to Christ, 849. 
 
 Dying soon, 245 ; —without Christ, 
 123. 
 
 Each act, 52. 
 Eagle, the. 111. 
 Earthly joys, 317. 
 Ease dangerous, 319. 
 Ebenezers, 265. 
 Elect out of elect, 33. 
 Enchanting spots, 313. 
 Enemies of God, 176. 
 Enemy, our, 116. 
 Epitome of religion, 32. 
 Evidences, 330. 
 Eyes, weak, 244. 
 Excelsior, 161. 
 
 Faith, 87 ; — in promises, 262 ; — 
 in Christ, 340 ;— tried, 324;— 
 self-denying, 276 ;— a gift, 38. 
 
 Fall, universal, 212. 
 
 Fear of sin, 298, 304 ; — danger 
 and advantage of, 263 ; — not 
 for God, 289. 
 
 Fearful providences, 270, 272. 
 
 Fellowship with Jesus, 104. 
 
 Few really happy, 25. 
 
 Fine feathers, 13. 
 
 Flogging others, 135. 
 
 Flowers in the shade, 349 ; — by 
 night, 348. 
 
 Forces of world, 73. 
 
 Four Letters, 87. 
 
 Free Pass, 51. 
 
 Friend in God, 98. 
 
 Friendship, true, 97. 
 
 Fullness of heart, 341. 
 
 Future revelations, 119. 
 
 Gentlemen in Church, 33. 
 
 Give up all, 13. 
 
 Glory of God, 183, 184;— to be 
 revealed, 19 ; — to God alone, 
 271. 
 
 God, a husbandman, 80 ; — afflicts, 
 299 ;— and not Baal, 29 ; — 
 everywhere, 277 ; — forbearing, 
 264 ; — is eternal, 37 ; — is love, 
 50 ; — in the church 245 ; — ^in 
 
INDEX. 
 
 357 
 
 Christ, 237 ; — ^lored us always, 
 33 ; — must help, 14 ; — revealed, 
 79. 
 
 God's word enough, 28 ; — good- 
 ness, 188. 
 
 God slow to anger, 239. 
 
 God's enemies crushed, 283. 
 
 God the creator, 123 ; — works by 
 means, 274 ; — will provide, 268 ; 
 watches for repentance, 31. 
 
 Good are truly great, 273. 
 
 Goodness of God, 10. 
 
 Gospel hated, 69 ; — its path, 260 ; 
 — rejected, 282 ; — sum of wis- 
 dom, 66. 
 
 Grace is strength, 303 ; latent, 
 318; — makes us differ, 129; — 
 only, 88 ; — tried, 309. 
 
 Gratitude, 292. 
 
 Grave of Christ, 154. 
 
 Great guns, 214. 
 
 Great men, 169. 
 
 Great ransom, 198. 
 
 Groans and cries, 100. 
 
 Hanging on nothing, 91. 
 
 Happy spirits, 344. 
 
 Hard hearts, 56. 
 
 Harmony, universal, 279. 
 
 Hating to believe, 249. 
 
 Heart, a dry, 7 ; — a pool, 100 ; — 
 
 strength, 9. 
 Heaven, 295, 110 ; — astonished, 
 
 202. 
 Help thee, 231. 
 Human nature, 73. 
 Human reason, 41. 
 Hypocrite, the, 108. 
 
 Icicle, 93. 
 
 Idleness, sin of, 137. 
 Imagination, 46. 
 Imitate Christ, 151. 
 Impurity, 162. 
 Indian snares, 111. 
 Inditference, 332. 
 Individual salvation, 27. 
 Infinity of God, 16. 
 Inner chamber, 318. 
 
 Intellectual preachers, 312. 
 Iron, cold, 163. 
 
 Jehovah seen, 115. 
 
 Jests will not change the truth, 
 
 57. 
 Jesus, knoweth his, 34 ; — rose, 
 
 147 ;— the light, 80. 
 
 Keep Christ, 343. 
 Keeping the heart, 331. 
 Kindness, 165. 
 Knowledge is wrath, 297. 
 
 Last song, 196. 
 
 Law, matter of, 139. 
 
 Learning by trouble, 89. 
 
 Liar, the, 218. 
 
 Life and death, 15 ; — how swift, 
 124;— in God, 35. 
 
 Light in darkness, 252, 328 ; — 
 necessary, 346. 
 
 Little and great things, 127; — 
 ones of God, 269 ; thrones, 35. 
 
 Look and be saved, 94. 
 
 Loss of friends, 142. 
 
 Lost friends, 160. 
 
 Love begets love, 310; — for love, 
 319, 320 ;— frmjjthe fir^t, 187 ; 
 —in afiflictioTi, 323, 324, 325, 
 326, 327, 328 ;— is will, 293 ;— 
 of Christ, 114, 348 ;— of Christ 
 in heaven, 180; — to Christ, 
 292, 294, 295, 316 ;— to God 
 
 ■ alone, 341. 
 
 Loving sinners, 216 ; — yet se- 
 vere, 214. 
 
 Mansions prepared, 275. 
 Man's insignificance, 96. 
 Many, the, 107. 
 Martyr, 64. 
 Means of grace, 126". 
 Meeting saints in glory, 32. 
 Melody of the cross, 321. 
 Men of heaven, 163. 
 Men's works, 39. 
 Mental power, 172. 
 Moderation in sin, 95. 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Moses' prospect, 201. 
 Mummies, 100. 
 Murmurs forbidden, 3Y. 
 
 Nature's voice, 63, 258. 
 
 Nearness to Christ, 311. 
 
 Never doubt, 158. 
 
 Night after day, 239. 
 
 No help but Christ, 233 ; — hope 
 in hell, 1*74; — light for back- 
 sliders, 349 ; — loss, 86 ; — seeker 
 lost, 248. 
 
 Nothing but Christ, 317. 
 
 Old sinner, 68, 198 ; — ^times, 68 ; 
 
 truth, 58. 
 Omnipotence, 322. 
 Our advocate, 69. 
 One door only, 236. 
 Ones do the work, 197. 
 Opening old window, 252. 
 Outside appearances, 78. 
 
 Painted window, 205. 
 
 Paul's preaching, 167. 
 
 Palace of heaven, 106. 
 
 Peace and joy, 38 ; — after the 
 
 battle, 279 ;— pf God, 333, 334, 
 
 335, 336, 338, "3?9 ;— in religion, 
 
 76; — with God, 224; — reign- 
 
 eth, 287. 
 Peace-makers blessed, 282. 
 Perfect obedience, 90. 
 Person of Jesus, 315. 
 Peter and Mary, 157. 
 Philosophers, 192. 
 Pilgrim's progress, 85. 
 Place of Prayer, 89. 
 Please God, 328. 
 Pleasing God, 162. 
 Poor Christian, 31 ;— comfort, 
 
 65. 
 Power of Bible, 98 ; — of love, 
 
 47 ; — of the weak, 311 ; 
 
 strained, 247. 
 Praise eternal, 314, 290. 
 Praises of Christ, 101. 
 Prayer and salvation, 213 ; 
 
 -re- 
 
 ef- 
 
 fect of, 10, 9 ; — noted in 
 heaven, 34 ; keep giving, 131. 
 
 Preacher, Christ a, 75. 
 
 Presumption, 128. 
 
 Pride, 12, 13. 
 
 Profession, 99. 
 
 Promises, great, 214. 
 
 Proofs of God, 260. 
 
 Prophets speaking, 84. 
 
 Prove me now, 250. 
 
 Providence, 124. 
 
 Pulpit, the, 350; — looking from 
 the, 353. 
 
 Pulse beating a march, 103. 
 
 Quench not the Spirit, 296. 
 
 Regeneration, 148. 
 Reservoir, the great, 11. 
 Rest, coming, 166. 
 Resurrection, 50. 
 Revivals, got up, 257. 
 Rich offerings, 348. 
 River of God, 24. 
 Rod and Sword, 132. 
 Roman Catholics, 157. 
 Rose of Sharon, 315. 
 
 Saint at sea, 81 ; — dying, 150. 
 
 Saints in light, 95 ; — proofs of 
 God, 266. 
 
 Salvation, 105 ; — one for all, 225. 
 
 Samaritan, the, 232. 
 
 Sanctification, 48. 
 
 Safe in heaven, 70. 
 
 Satan against Jesus, 21 ; — a fow- 
 ler, 137 ; — a vaunt, 228. 
 
 Satan's dominion, 138. 
 
 Saviour's glory softened, 246. 
 
 Science of Christ, 72. 
 
 Seaside thought, 64. 
 
 Seeking shall find, 28. 
 
 Self and Sin, 93. 
 
 Self-condemned, 253. 
 
 Self-examination, short, 263. 
 
 Selfishness, 285. 
 
 Self-knowledge, 96. 
 
 Self-love, 8. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 359 
 
 Self-righteougness, 128. 
 
 Sermons, hearing, 118. 
 
 Serpents, where, 122. 
 
 Severe yet loving, 214. 
 
 Shadows of mercies, 9. 
 
 Sheep, 52; — the nature of, 221. 
 
 Shepherd, the, 241. 
 
 Ship at sea, 200. 
 
 Showers of grace, 322; — of mer- 
 cy, 45. 
 
 Simeon's joy, 53 
 
 Sin and the Spirit, 40 ; — and Sa- 
 viour, 253. 
 
 Sincerity in love, 311. 
 
 Sinner addressed, 206; — condemn- 
 ed, 290; — in heaven, 159; — 
 take heart 153; — without the 
 Spirit, 43 ; — inability of, 211. 
 
 Sins, not persons, 25. 
 
 Slaves of sin, 175. 
 
 Sleep on, 206. 
 
 Sleeper, the, 136. 
 
 Sleepy Christian, 175. 
 
 Smile always, 55. 
 
 Snails in the ark, 34. 
 
 Soldiers, true, 215. 
 
 Solitude, 44. 
 
 Solon's saying, 75. 
 
 Song of Moses, 181, 193. 
 
 Souls going to hell, 172. 
 
 Soul at peace, 204. 
 
 Source of strength, 7. 
 
 Sowing and reaping, 179. 
 
 Speaking to Christ, 99. 
 
 Spider on the wall, 11. 
 
 Spirit humbles, 226 ; — quickens, 
 27. 
 
 Spiritual mercies, 269. 
 
 Spiritual workman, 60. 
 
 Stain none on Christ, 98. 
 
 Stars a treadvvheel, 36 ; — at night, 
 847 ;— in winter, 323. 
 
 Still as a stone, 201. 
 
 Sting drawn, 121. 
 
 Streams and lake, 12. 
 
 Strength of the weak, 345. 
 
 Sufferings of Christ, 115. 
 
 Swordsman, 153. 
 
 Swan, the fable, 117. 
 
 Taste of medicine, 42. 
 
 Tears, 191. 
 
 Telescope, obscured, 77. 
 
 Temper, your, 72. 
 
 Tender in the heart, 131. 
 
 Theology, perfect, 49. 
 
 Thief on the cross, 149. 
 
 Thinking of Christ, 99. 
 
 Think on Christ, 51. 
 
 Time no longer, 170. 
 
 Titles for Sabbath-school teachers, 
 
 286. 
 Treasure, safe, 189. 
 Tried saints, 305, 308, 309, 327. 
 Trinity, the, 71. 
 Trust God, and go on, 140. 
 Trusting in Christ, 168. 
 Trust much, 347. 
 Truth and a lie, 155. 
 Troubles, a good sign, 56 ; — to be 
 
 cast away, 74. 
 Two opinions, 119. 
 Two lights, 77. 
 
 Unfaithful preacher, 284. 
 
 Unity of Christ and the saints, 298. 
 
 Yale of tears, 318, 321, 322. 
 Value of soul, 174. 
 Victory, certain, 354. 
 Virtues in man, 52. 
 Vitality of gospel, 255. 
 Voice in love, 60. 
 Voice of prayer, 331. 
 Voltaire's twilight, 144. 
 
 Wait on God, 88. 
 Warning in time, 42. 
 Warnings, 112. 
 Water from wells, 320, 321. 
 Weaning, 329. 
 Weeping, nothing, 219. 
 Weepers, 195. 
 Welcome Christ, 337. 
 Wicked condemned, 254, 261. 
 Will of God, 327. 
 
360 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Wisdom, 62. 
 
 Wisdom teaches folly, 268. 
 
 Wondering, 217. 
 
 Word of God, 14 ;— its home, 164. 
 
 Works of art, 2()8 ; — no help, 12 ; 
 
 no salvation, 156. 
 World hates the Church, 182; — 
 
 revolution, 82 ; — to be cleansed, 
 
 29. 
 Wrath, praising, 229 ; — preached, 
 
 204. 
 Wrestling, TO. 
 
 Young man, 68. 
 
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 An Element of Success in Preaching and Teaching. 
 
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 18 mo. 30 cents. 
 
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BOOKS PUBLISHED BY SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO. 
 
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 THE DEALINGS OF GOD, MAN, AND THE DEVIL; as ExempUfied 
 
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 THE ALMOST CHRISTLAN. 
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 ROLLINGS ANCIENT HISTORY 
 
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 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND TRAVELS IN 
 
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 EGYPT, ARABIA PETRjEA, AND THE 
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 ANECDOTES: RELIGIOUS, MORAL, 
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BOOKS PUBLISHED BY SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO. 
 
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 THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION: 
 
 Its Origin, Rise, and Identity with the Primitive Church ; its Doctrines and 
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 its Missionary Institutions ; Schools of Learning ; Periodicals and Clmrches ; 
 the obligation of the World to Baptists, and the duty of Baptists to the 
 World ; designed to exhibit its Condition in all Ages of Christianity. 
 By Rev. D. C. Haynes, of Philadelphia. 
 With an Introduction by Rev. John Dowllnq, D. H. 
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 GRACE TRUMAN; 
 
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BOOKS PUBLISHED BT SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO. 
 
 HOME LIFE, 
 
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 THE LIFE OF THOMAS COLE, N.A. 
 
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 MEMOIR OF THE REV. THOMAS SPENCER. 
 
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 and his memory, from that day to this, has been hallowed in the atfections of mankind." 
 — Iludiion Democrat. 
 
 THE MEMOIR OF MRS. HELEN M. MASON, 
 
 Seventeen Years a Missionary in Burmah. 
 
 By her Hu.'^baud, Rev. Francis Mason. 
 
 16mo. With a Portrait and several beautiful Engravings. Price 60 cents. 
 
 MEMOIR OF SARAH B. JUDSON 
 
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 THE JUDSON OFFERING. 
 
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 By Rev. John Dowlino, D. D., Author of " History of Romanism," etc. 
 
 Twentieth edition. 18mo. 60 cents. 
 
 LIFE OF SPENCER H CONE, D.D, 
 
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 1 vol., 12 mo. Price Si 25. 
 " Ameiica has produced but few so popular preachers; his personal interest was un- 
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 icle FhUadelphia. 
 
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