BX 6333 .S6 T78 1875 
 Spurgeon, C. H. 1834-1892. 
 Trumpet calls to Christian 
 energy 
 
TRUMPET CALLS 
 
 CHRISTIAN ENERGY. 
 
TRUMPET CALLS 
 
 CHRISTIAN ENERGY 
 
 ^ (^Mniwn oi ^ttmoxx^ 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 ON SUNDAY AND THUESDAY EVENINGS 
 
 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, 
 
 C. H. SPURGEilK .. 
 
 / x; ■ ■ • -- '> X 
 
 PASSMORE AND ALABASTER 4, PATERNOSTER BITILDINGS. 
 
 187-5. 
 
LONDOX : 
 
 PASSMORE AND ALABASTER, STEAM PRINTERS, 
 
 LITTLE BRITAIN, E.C. 
 
ADVERTISEMEN 
 
 This volume is issued as a sequel to '* Types and 
 Emblems." It is the second of the series, and contains a 
 selection of Sermons all addressed with one particular aim, 
 to arouse the energy and direct the efforts of Christian 
 ivorJcers. The fact that months, and eyen years in some 
 cases, intervened between their delivery, may tend rather 
 to enhance than to detract from their present interest. By 
 such persistent endeavours to stimulate the cntei-prise and 
 develop the talents of Church members, the Pastor of the 
 Metropolitan Tabernacle has enlisted a noble army of 
 valiant labourers, and banded them together in various 
 societies ; training them to handle the Sword and to use 
 the Troivel for the defence of the Gospel, and the building up 
 of the Church. Our readers will find here a fair sample 
 of the appeals and persuasives by which a continuous succes- 
 sion of fi-esh volunteers has been recruited into the Home 
 Mission service. Although no special order has been 
 observed in the arrangement of these Sermons, the first and 
 the last each tells its own story. The one was a cnj for 
 Revival, before the manifold agencies now so vigorously 
 carried forward had been brought into operation ; the other 
 was a solemn reflection prompted by the closing Sabbath of 
 the past year, when the visit of the American Evangelists to 
 our Metropolis was in prospect. 
 
 That the blessing which attended the preaching may 
 continue to follow the circulation of these Sermons is the 
 earnest hope of- ^^^ PUBLISHERS. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Exciting Enquiry - - - - - - - -.1 
 
 Election no Discouragement -___-- 22 
 
 The Churcli the World's Hope -------42 
 
 Silken Cords --------- 64 C 
 
 The True Aim of Preaching -------80 
 
 A Vision of the Field -------- 97 
 
 The Joy of Harvest - - - - - - - -113 
 
 God's Glory in the Building up of Zion - - - - 128 
 
 Lukewannness --------- 146 
 
 Restraining Prayer -------- 165 
 
 Holiness Demanded »_------ 185 
 
 John Mark ; or, Haste in Religion ----- 205 
 
 To the Recreant of our Ranks ------- 225 
 
 Good Conversation -------- 240 
 
 Dumb Singers ___-_---- 256 
 
 The New Song and the Old Story ------ 279 
 
 Lame Sheep ---------- 300 
 
 Brief Life is here our Portion - - - . - - - 325 
 
?J 
 
 l^n %t(iim %i\ti\m^ 
 
 *'And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was iiiovod^ 
 saying, Who is this ?" — ]\Iatthew xxi. 10. 
 
 H, that something would move this great city 
 of ours ! I am afraid that at least one-third 
 of our popukition is setthng down in stolid 
 indifference to all religion. It is not that 
 there are thousands of professed infidels, 
 but without making the profession of being 
 so, infidels they really are. It is not that they 
 Late the gospel — they do not care to hear it, or to know 
 what it teaches. They have not enough interest in it 
 to enter the sanctuary even for once in their lives, 
 unless influenced by fashion or by fear they may attend 
 some ceremonial observance. I think we can hardly 
 form a conception of the fearful heathenism of this great 
 metropolis. You might go down street after street 
 and find that the larger proportion of the peo],)le, 
 so far from making any profession of religion, did not 
 even enter a place of worship, and knew nothing more 
 than what the city missionary or the Bible-woman may 
 have been helped to teach them! We are getting 
 into a very, very, very sad state of things ; we want 
 
Christian Energy. 
 
 sometliiiig or other that ^vill get at the masses, and con- 
 strain the city to be moved. The theatre services 
 which have been lately attempted have no doubt proved 
 a great blessing ; the opening of cathedrals was a step 
 in the right direction; but ever^^body can see that the 
 effect of such departure from the ordinary routine is 
 naturally transient. There w^ill be no greater attrac- 
 tion in a theatre than there will be in a chapel or 
 church, if the same gospel is preached, after the novelty 
 of its having been preached there shall have worn off. 
 We can no more expect to see cathedrals crowded long 
 together now than we might have expected it twenty 
 years ago. Tlie thing is good as an expedient, but it 
 must be temporary in its results. We shall want some- 
 thing greater than this before we shall get at the masses 
 of London. This is only, as it were, a little hammer; 
 we want a hammer more massive than that of Thor 
 to strike this island, to make it shake from end to 
 end. When you have three millions of people herded 
 together you are not to move them by simply opening 
 half-a-dozen theatres, or by crowding a cathedral, or by 
 filling some large place of worship. What a hopeful 
 sign it w^ould be, even if people were excited against 
 religion ! Really I would sooner that they intelligently 
 hated it than that they were stolidly indifferent to it. 
 A man who has got enough thought about him to 
 oppose the truth of God fs a more hopeful subject 
 for ministry than the man who does not think at all. 
 We cannot get on with logs ; we feel that we could 
 brace up our nerves to the charge amidst men possessed 
 with devils, while we have the gospel to cast the devils out. 
 It is when men have no spirit at all, but are simply dull, 
 
An Exciting Enquiry, 3 
 
 lumplsli, thoughtless logs, we cannot get on with them. 
 For my part, I do not regret the activity of Puseyism 
 and of Popery just now. Though I dread it as an 
 awful evil in itself, I am thankful for everything that 
 will relieve the awful stillness of religious stagnation. 
 If it will only stir us up to oppose it, if it will only 
 make the true Protestant spirit of England come out, I 
 shall be grateful for the sanitary results, however much 
 I deplore the devastating pestilence. We want some- 
 thing that shall again rouse this city, and move it from 
 end to end. The text seems to me to tell us what will 
 do it. Question ! — What is that which will stir the 
 whole of London, as it stirred Jerusalem f Answer! — 
 A reigning Saviour riding in triumph. Jesus Christ 
 never moved Jerusalem till he mounted on that ass, 
 till they cast their garments in the pathway, and strewed 
 the branches, and cried, *' Hosannah ! " Then it was, 
 as he rode in triumph King of the Jews, that the city 
 was stirred. O that we had a reigning Saviour more 
 distinctly recognised in all our churches ! There is no 
 use in mincing matters or hiding our shame. The 
 shout of a King is not in the midst of tl\Q church at 
 large. The ancient glory which rested upon the Lord's 
 chosen has in a great measui'e departed. " Write ye 
 Ichabod, for the glory is departed." We have not now 
 the lighting down of the mighty arm, nor the strength 
 of a present God, as once we had. The world knows 
 very little about the church, and cares very little about 
 her, so long as Christ does not reign in her palaces. 
 Unfurl the flag, proclaim his entry, make known his 
 residence, and forthwith "the kings of the earth set 
 themselves, and the rulers take counsel too;ether ao-ainst 
 
4 Christian Energy/, 
 
 the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break 
 their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.'' 
 What was that church which disturbed the dark ages ? 
 Why, a church made up of men who hazarded their Kves 
 unto the death — men who stood up and preached in the 
 dead of night to the few who w^ere bokl enough to 
 gather to hear them — men who at other times coukl 
 beard the tyrant, and stand face to face with cardinal 
 or pope, and speak the truth, come what would. These 
 were men who had a reigning Saviour in their midst ; 
 yet, few and feeble, that gallant host subdued the 
 world; the ^tican trembled; the words they spake, 
 sustained by tbe character they bore, fell like thunder- 
 bolts about it. Would you enquire, my brethren, for 
 the simple but saintly servants of God who brought a 
 Hef ormation into England^ They were men wdio recog- 
 nised a reigning Saviour. The church was represented 
 by those in whose hearts Jesus Christ really did dwell — 
 such men as Wycliffe and his successors. From 
 market-place to market-place they went, with but half 
 pages or whole pages of the Word of God, as fast as 
 they could be printed ; they read them at the market- 
 cross ; they went on from place to place, preaching the 
 pure, unadulterated gospel, in homely language, with 
 fiery tongues, and soon they set all England in a blaze. 
 And w^ho w^ere they in later days, in the last century, 
 who awoke the slumbering chui'ch ? They were men 
 who had Christ reigning in them ; such men as Whit- 
 field and the Wesleys — men who bowed before the 
 dignity of Jesus, and said — 
 
 *' Shall we, for fear of feeble men, 
 The Spirit's course in us restrain ? " 
 
An JEd'citing Enquiry, 5 
 
 Awed by no mortal's frown, would tliey smooth their 
 toncrues and fashion their words to win human esteem ? 
 On the hill-tops, in the churchyards, by the road-sides, 
 anywhere, everywhere, they unfurled the banner of a 
 reigning Saviour, and straightway the darkness of 
 England gave place to glorious light. And now, could 
 we only get the church of God to awake, we should 
 soon have the whole city moved. Let our ministers 
 preach the gospel, or let them preach it with something 
 like force ; instead of treating us to moral essa}- s and 
 elaborately-prepared discom'ses, let them speak their 
 hearts out in such words as God would give them on the 
 occasion : let the members of the churclf back them up 
 by vehement zeal, earnest prayer, and incessant labours ; 
 we should want nothing else to stir this city from end 
 to end. Oh ! to see the Saviour riding in the midst, 
 ;and to hear the acclamations, while joyous converts 
 shout, like the young children of old, " Hosannah. 
 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " 
 The old attractions of the cross have not departed. 
 You cannot preach Christ and not get a congregation. 
 Be it "the Christ" whom ye preach honestly and preach, 
 fully, the people must come to hear. Though they 
 hate it and loathe it, they will come again ; they will 
 turn on their heel, and say, *' We cannot bear it; " but 
 the next time the doors are opened they will be there. 
 The gospel gets them by the ear and holds them. It 
 has a secret mysterious influence even over the hearts 
 that do not receive it, to compel them at least to lend 
 their ear to the hearing of it. Let the church, then, 
 awake ; and that influence shall be had whereby the 
 city shall be moved. 
 
6 Christian Energy, 
 
 But when we speak of the church, I am afraid we- 
 often hide our own sins under a declaration against the 
 church. Why, we are the church. Christian men 
 and women, you are the church. You must not tie the 
 church up like a quivering victim, and lash her ; tie 
 yourself up, and let the lash fall on your own shoulders. 
 If you and I had a reigning Christ in our hearts, we 
 should help to move the city. Do you ask what I 
 mean by that ? I do not mean the way in which some 
 of you show the quality of your faith by the quantity 
 of its fruits. Your convictions and your conversion 
 assume a very mild form. You keep them well in 
 check ; you ha^e got a tight rein on the motions of the 
 heart ; your religion never runs wild — never ! you are 
 such a prudent brother ; you will never be guilty of 
 anything like enthusiasm : no one will ever chalk the 
 word " Fanatic " on your back. You will never move 
 the city, my friend — no fear of it. While appeals 
 which ought to make your heart burn freeze on your 
 ears, you will never move the city. While themes^ 
 which ought to bow you to the earth in humility of 
 spirit, and then lift you up as on eagles' wings in 
 rapture of delight, affect you not at all ; — unimpressible 
 as stone, you will never move the city. But if you and 
 I felt that the things, we believed were of the first and 
 last importance, that they were worth living for, and 
 worth dying for, that there was nothing else, in fact, 
 in all the world that was w^orth any care or thought 
 except these things, then, beloved, we should soon see 
 the city moved. One earnest Christian fully given up 
 to his Master, one soul perfectly devoted to Christ, is 
 of more worth in soul-winning and in world-conquering 
 
An E.vciting Enquiry. 7 
 
 than fifty thousand of the mere professors. You know 
 how it used to be in the olden wars. The rank and 
 file all did service in their way; but it was the one 
 man — the one man who made the corner of the triangle 
 to break the enemy's ranks, and gathered all the spears 
 into his own bosom — it was he that won the victory. 
 The man who dashed foremost with his battle-axe and 
 slew the foe, and gave courage to all the trembling ones 
 behind — the man who told them that victory was sure 
 to w^ait on coura ere, and who dashed on against fearful 
 odds — he was the man who made his country famous. 
 And such Christians we want now-a-days, who know 
 not fear, do not believe in defeat, and are animated with 
 the assurance that the Most High God is with us. Go 
 on, and on, and on, conquering and to conquer. 
 
 You see it is a reigning Christ that moves the city — 
 Christ riding in the heart in glorious possession of 
 gladsome acclamation — it is this that will be the great 
 thing to stir even London's stolid masses. 
 
 The great multitude, when stirred, will ask the ques- 
 tion, " Who is this ? " and it will be an unfortunate 
 thing if you that are with Christ should not be able to 
 give an answer. Some of you whose hearts are, I 
 hope, right, are scarcely attentive enough to that pre- 
 cept, '^Be ready always to give an answer to every 
 man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in 
 you with meekness and with fear." I do deprecate 
 above all thino-s your o-ettinfr your creed from me 
 — your building your creed upon the fact that the 
 preacher has said so and so. We want Bible stu- 
 dents as Christians — men who not only believe the 
 truth but have good reason for belie\ ing it, who can 
 
8 Christian Energy. ' 
 
 meet error with the argument of " It is written," and 
 can maintain the truth at all hazards, using weapons 
 taken from the araioury of God's inspired book. O 
 that we had among us more who were fit to be teachers ; 
 but, alas ! I am afraid we shall have to say of many 
 amongst you, as Paul said of the weak ones in his 
 day, that when they ought to be teachers they were 
 still only learners ; and when they should be breaking 
 the bread of life to others, they were still needing to be 
 fed upon milk. I hope that will not be the case with 
 us. May we grow in grace ; so that when the question 
 is asked, " Who is this ? " we may be able to answer it. 
 Beloved, is it your desire to do good to your fellow- 
 men? Have you a longing in your soul to be the 
 means of bringing others to Christ ? In order to ac- 
 complish this, it is imperatively necessary that you 
 should have a knowled^-e of Jesus. Let it be a heart 
 knowledge. You tell your children sometimes to learn 
 their lessons by heart. You cannot learn Christ in any 
 other way. Christ cannot be learned in the head. 
 Love only can learn love ; and Christ is love incarnate. 
 It is by loving him, and communing with him, that you 
 will get to understand him. You must learn him by 
 heart. Theti you must learn him experimentally. I would 
 not give ought for an answer to my anxious enquiries 
 from a mere theoretical person. Could I not read the 
 book and get at the theory myself? I want to be 
 taught by one who has tasted and handled of the things 
 of which he speaks. Dear brethren in Christ, seek to 
 know Jesus by living upon him. Drink ye of his blood ; 
 eat ye of his flesh ; be you in constant communion with 
 him, till your vital union w^ith his person shall transcend 
 
All Exciting Enquiry. 9 
 
 your faith by a constant joyful experience. Know 
 Christ experimentally. Endeavour also to know Christ, 
 beloved, by being taught of his Spirit. Tliat learning 
 of Christ that we get from human wit is of little worth ; 
 it is the revelation of Christ in us by the Holy Ghost 
 which alone is true knowledge. John Bunyan used to 
 say that he preached only such truths as the Lord had 
 burnt into him. Oh, may he burn these truths into 
 you ! ^lay he be pleased to write upon the tablets of 
 your heart the story of your Master, so that when any 
 shall say, " Who is this ? " you may not need to pause 
 for a single moment, or to ask any divine to assist you 
 in the answer, 
 
 " But gladly tell to sinners round 
 AVhat a dear Saviour you have found." 
 
 This enquiry about Christ should always be met with 
 a clear and distinct answer. If I had only one more 
 sermon to preach before I died, I know what it should 
 be about : it should be about my Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 iind Ithink that when we get to the end of our ministry, 
 one of our regi-ets will be, that we did not preach more 
 of him. I am sure no minister will ever repent of 
 having preached him too much. You that are with 
 Jesus, talk much about him, and let that talk be very 
 plain. Tell sinners that ^' God was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us, and his disciples beheld his glory, the 
 glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of 
 grace and truth." Tell them that he came on earth as 
 a substitute for his people ; that his holy life is their 
 rio-hteousness ; that his sufferino;s and death constitute 
 an atonement, and appease the wrath of God for all 
 their sins. Never let an opportunity be lost of telling 
 
10 Christian Energy. 
 
 out the doctrine of substitution. That is the core of 
 the gospel ; Christ for sinners — the sinner in Christ's 
 place, and Christ in the sinner's place ; debts paid by 
 proxy; the chastisement of our peace laid upon him, 
 that we may have the peace through liis chastisement. 
 I wish to put this matter very earnestly to my dear 
 brethren and sisters in Christ Jesus, and especially to 
 you who are in church-fellowship here. Do on every 
 occasion, and especially when you get but half an invi- 
 tation so to do — do speak out concerning the person of 
 Christ as God and man, concerning the work of Christ 
 as taking human guilt and suffering for it, concerning 
 the worth of that work as being able to take away all 
 manner of sin and blasphemy. Tell it to the very 
 chief of sinners, that the blood of Christ can make 
 them clean ; tell it to the drunkard, the harlot, the 
 thief, the murderer. Tell them all that whosoever 
 believeth in him is not condemned; and never, from 
 fear or through shame, refuse to give an answer to so 
 hopeful an enquiry as this — " Who is this ? " 
 
 And what shall I say to you who are moved by 
 curiosity to ask this question — " Who is this ? " I 
 dare say there were some in Jerusalem who were so busy 
 with their shops that they did not enquire, " Who is 
 this'?" " Oh!" they would say, *'I need not go across 
 the threshold to attend to what a mob may be doing in 
 the street — a lot of children calling out ^ Hosannah,' 
 and a number of idle gossips following a silly fellow as 
 he rides upon an ass through the street ; that is all it 
 is." Other people doubtless had a little of the bump 
 of curiosity; they could not help enquiring, so they 
 come into the street, they stand in the crowd, and they 
 
All Exciting Enqimy, 11 
 
 say to one, " AVho is tliis ? " "I don't know," says 
 one ; ^' I am come to see myself." *' But who is this? " 
 They repeat the question again and again ; and they 
 very likely get six wrong answers before they get the 
 right. They push on, and at last they get a good 
 standing-place — perhaps climb up into a tree, as Zac- 
 cheus did ; and there they are, all wide awake, trying 
 to get an answer to the question, '^ Who is this ? " 
 Well, I hope some such sort of curiosity as this may be 
 in your mind ; at any rate, I had it in my mind once, 
 and I believe there are many that have it. 1 will tell 
 you the occasions upon which this curiosity is often 
 excited. A labouring man has been in the habit of 
 working with another who was often intoxicated, an 
 habitual swearer, and perhaps even prone at times to 
 blaspheme. On a sudden he sees him a changed 
 character, steady in all his conduct, affectionate, and 
 thoughtful of his wife and children, industrious, and 
 withal he is religious. What an alteration ! Can it 
 fail to cause enquiry ? Or he calls in at the house of a 
 neighbour, and finds that neighbour very sick and ill ; 
 he is a working man witli a large family, and it would 
 be a very serious thing for him to die and leave those little 
 ones ; but he sits up in the bed, and he tells his friend 
 that he has not any care at all about these matters ; he 
 has left them all with God ; he says, " I used to fret 
 and worry myself, but now, whether I live or die, I 
 leave it with God ; I am perfectly resigned to his will ; 
 Christ is with me here ; I find it 
 
 " ' Sweet to lie passive in his hands, 
 And know no will but his.' " 
 
 " Oh," says the man, " who is this ?" What can be the 
 
12 Clinstian Energy, 
 
 cause ? What can be the reason of this ? He watches 
 another ; he persecutes him, laughs at him, jeers, casts 
 all manner of threats and insinuations at him. He sees 
 him bear it all very quietly ; he knows that he cannot 
 tempt him to do what is wrong, though he tries hard to 
 do it ; the path of integrity is trodden year after year, 
 and the worldly man looking on cannot make it out. 
 He says, "Who is this?" He sees another — a very 
 happy, lively, earnest, joyful Christian. " Well," 
 thinks this man, " I have to go to the theatre to get 
 any fun ; I must be in company, and I must drink a 
 certain quantity before I can get my spirits up ; but 
 here is a man cheerful and bright. He is poor, but he 
 is happy ; he has got a fustian jacket, but he has not 
 got a fustian heart ; he's ' as happy as a king ;' his 
 soul is merry within him ; I can't make it out — * Who 
 is this?'" These kind of things stir men's curiosity. 
 I hope, dear friends, you will try to make people more 
 and more curious by this plan. And how often a holy 
 dying bed stirs that curiosity ! As the ex^^iring believer 
 shouts victory, or sinks to his rest with perfect joy, the 
 worldling looks on and says, " Who is this ? I can't 
 comprehend it, I can't make it out." Now, it is little 
 wonder, my dear friends, that there should be some 
 curiosity to know about Christ. There ought to be a 
 great deal more. Consider that God himself speaks 
 to you by Christ. Shall God speak, and shall mortal 
 man not care to hear what God says ? Shall God speak 
 to me by his dear Son, and shall I have no ear to hear 
 the Divine Word ? I ought to be anxious to know it. 
 Christ was spoken of by prophets — Moses, David, 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah — all of them spoke of Christ. Were 
 
All Exciting Enquiry. 13 
 
 there all those testimonies about him, and shall not I 
 care to know of him ? When he came upon earth, it 
 was with song of ang-els, and a new star was launched 
 forth to welcome his birth — have I no curiosity to know 
 of him ? I understand that his person is complex, that 
 he is at once God and man — strange, strange person 
 this ! do I not wish to know more of him % I find that 
 he died, and that he rose again, and that there is a 
 connection between his dying and rising again, and the 
 forgiveness of our sins and the justification of our souls 
 — do I not want to know about that ? Christ has come 
 to solve the most tremendous problem, come to tell us 
 of love beyond the grave, of immortality when corrup- 
 tion shall have done its work — have I no curiosity about 
 this ? The bleedinc^ Saviour, hanmnir on the cross with 
 streaming wounds, says to every man here who has any 
 curiosity in his nature — '^ Is it nothing to you, all ye 
 that pass by ? behold, and see if there was ever sorrow 
 like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me." I 
 commend the curiosity that would make you know more 
 of Jesus. Study this book much. Here you shall see 
 the Saviour's face almost in every page. Frequent 
 those mysteries which speak much of him, and do, oh 
 do press forward till you have got an answer to that 
 question, '' Who is this ? " 
 
 There may be in this house of prayer some who 
 are in positive ignorance, asking the question, "Who 
 is this ?" I think we ouo-ht not to take it for m-anted 
 that all our congregation understand the gospel, for 
 they do not. The simple *^ Believe and live" which 
 God has written so plainly in the Bible, is not under- 
 stood by a great many. I sometimes get letters from 
 
14 Christian Energy. 
 
 those who have heard the gospel preached here which 
 astound me. The way in which my correspondents 
 look at things seems conclusive that they have never 
 read the Bible; they imagine that my preaching and 
 everybody else's should be altered, in order to suit some 
 whim and fancy of theirs. The ignorance pointed at 
 in the text was strange ; for Christ had lived in Jeru- 
 salem, and had been there working miracles, yet the 
 people said, *' Who is this?" And Jesus Christ is but 
 the next door to where you live — preached in the very 
 street ; you can hear him out of doors if you like, in 
 the ministry of some open-air preacher ; the city mis- 
 sionary will tell you about him ; there is a Testament 
 to be had for twopence; everybody may know about 
 Jesus Christ ; and yet there are a great many who do 
 not know about him. But say, is not ignorance of 
 Jesus Christ in this age wilful? Those who do not 
 know of Jesus Christ now have nobody but themselves 
 to blame. Let me remind you that this is very damag- 
 ing ; you lose by it much joy and comfort here below, 
 besides the risks of the hereafter. Ignorance of Jesus 
 Christ will be fatal to your soul's welfare. You may 
 not know how to read, but if you know Christ you shall 
 " read your title clear to mansions in the skies." It is 
 a bad thing for a man not to know a little of all 
 sciences, but a man may go to heaven well enough if he 
 knows only the science of Christ crucified. Not to 
 know Jesus will shut you out of heaA^en, though you 
 had all the degrees of all the universities in the world 
 appended to your name. Ignorance of him who is the 
 Saviour of sinners is ignorance of the remedy for your 
 soul's disease — ignorance of the key which unlocks 
 
An Exciting Enquiry. 15 
 
 lieavcn's gate — ignorance of him who can kindle the 
 lamp of life in the sepulchres of death. Oh, I pray 
 you, if you have been hitherto ignorant of the Saviour, 
 be not satisfied till you know him. And when I speak 
 of ignorance of Christ, I do not mean ignorance of his 
 name, and of the fact that there is such a person ; — I 
 refer more especially to that spiritual ignorance w^hich 
 is so common among the best informed. Nine persons 
 out of ten who go to a place of worship do not 
 know the meaning of the Saviour shedding his blood 
 for the remission of sin. If you press them to tell 
 you how it is that Christ saves, they will tell you 
 that he did something or other by which God is able 
 to forgive. Though the grand fact that Christ ac- 
 tually was punished in the room, place, and stead 
 of his chosen people, is a fact as clear in the 
 Scripture as noonday, they do not see it. The doc- 
 trine of general redemption — that Christ died for the 
 damned in hell, and suffered the torments of those 
 who afterwards are tormented for ever — seems to me 
 to be detestable, subversive of the whole gospel, and 
 destructive of the only pillar upon which our hopes can 
 be built. Christ stood in the stead of his elect ; for 
 them he made a full atonement ; for them he so suf- 
 fered that not a sin of theirs shall ever be laid at their 
 door. As the Father's love embraced them, so the 
 death of his Son reconciled them. And who are these 
 that are thus redeemed from among men ? They are 
 those who believe in Jesus Christ. This definition is 
 not more simple than conclusive to those to whom the 
 work of the Spirit of God is intelligible. If you do 
 put your trust in him, it is evident that Christ died for 
 
16 Christian Energy, 
 
 you in a way and manner that he never died for Judas; 
 he died for you so vicariously, that the offences you 
 have committed were imputed to him and not to you, 
 therefore your sins are forgiven you. If you trust him 
 you cannot be punished for yom' sins, for Christ was 
 punished for them. How can debts be demanded of 
 you that were paid originally by your Saviour ? You 
 are clear. The Master said, " If ye seek me, let these 
 go their way ;" and when they seized Jesus they let his 
 chosen people go. You are clear, before God's bar you 
 are clear. Nobody can lay anything to your charge 
 if you trust in Jesus Christ, for he suffered in your 
 stead. Ignorance of that great fundamental truth of the 
 whole gospel keeps thousands in darkness. It is the 
 great ball and chain upon the leg of many spiritual 
 prisoners ; and if they did but know that, and could 
 spell " substitution" without a mistake, they would very 
 soon come into perfect joy and liberty. 
 
 This once more.* It is thought that the expression, 
 " Who is this ?"' was a contemptuous one on the part of 
 many. They said, '' What next, eh ? We have heard 
 of all sorts of excitements and noises — what next f 
 Here is a man that has not where to lay his head ; he i& 
 ridins: like a kinaj. Here is a man who wears the 
 common smock-frock of a Galilean peasant, and there 
 are people spreading their garments in the way, and 
 strewing branches of trees before him! What next, 
 and what next ? " Peradventure with scornful tone 
 some said, " Well, what shall we live to see ? The 
 King of the Jews ! Ah ! King of the Jews ! Yes, very 
 likely ! His father and mother are with us ; is this the 
 poor carpenter's son? King of the Jews, forsooth I" 
 
All Exciting Enquiry. 17 
 
 And so tliey just sneered, and turned away. Yes ; but, 
 friends, stop a bit. Some persons that sneer deserve to 
 be sneered at ; but we will not treat you so. It cannot 
 be, after all, such a very fine and wise thing to sneer 
 at the Saviour, when you recollect that the angels do 
 not sneer, and never did sneer at him. They came 
 with him when first he descended into Bethlehem's 
 manger; they came with Christmas carols on that 
 memorable night when he was born of the Vir^jin. Did 
 they not sing " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
 earth peace, goodwill toward men" ? Do not sneer where 
 angels sing. When he afterwards retired in an hour 
 of sorrow to the garden of Gethsemane, where drops 
 of blood fell on the ground, the angels came and 
 strengthened him. Hound the bloody tree they watched, 
 and w^ondered how the Lord of Glory thus could die ; 
 and, when he went into the gi*ave, methinks they hung 
 their harps awhile in silence. This we know, that when, 
 on the third day, he burst the bands of death, one of 
 them came to roll away the stone, and two others sat — 
 the one at the foot, the other at the head — where Jesus 
 had lain; and when the forty days had been accomplished, 
 and he went up to his abode, 
 
 " They bring his chariot fi-om on high 
 
 To bear him to his throne, 
 Clap their triumphant wings, and cry. 
 
 The glorious work is done." 
 
 In heaven they cast their crowns before his throne. 
 *'All hail," they cry, ^'worthy is he that was slain." 
 The mightiest archangel in gloiy counts it his honour to 
 fly on Jesus Christ's errands. Oh ! sneer not, then. 
 What is there to sneer at? These spirits are, at least, 
 
 2 
 
18 Christian Energy, 
 
 as \A'ise as you. Pause awhile, and ** kiss the Son, lest 
 he be angry, and ye perish from the way." Do you not 
 care for angels ? Then listen % do not sneer, for there 
 are as wise men as you who have not sneered. You 
 mention some great man who was a scoffer. Ah, well, 
 so it may be, for great men are not always wise; but, on 
 the other hand, wdiat Newton believed in, what Locke 
 trusted in, what Milton sang of, what a Bunyan could 
 dream of in Bedford Gaol, cannot be quite such a con- 
 temptible thing after all. I might quote some names at 
 which you could not sneer, and would not. You w^ould 
 think yourself unknown and base indeed, if you called 
 them unknown and ignoble. The name which these 
 men, gi'eat even in your esteem, thought worthy of their 
 highest reverence, surely you need not be so fast to 
 reproach. Come, search thou also into this problem. 
 Give thy wit a little exercise upon this question : *'Who 
 is this ?" and seek to know what Christ is, and w^hether 
 he is not a suitable Saviour to thee. Do not affect to 
 be contemptuous, for, after all, if you look at it, there is 
 nothing to despise. What is the story? It is this, that 
 though you are the enemy of Christ, Christ is no enemy 
 of youi's. Here is the story, that, Avhile we were yet his 
 enemies, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. I 
 could never despise a man who loved his enemy, and if 
 I saw him come to die to save another, and that other his 
 foe, I could not despise him. I might think him unwise, 
 and think the price of his fair life too dear to buy the 
 wretch for whom he died, but I could not despise his 
 love. Oh, there is something so majestic in love, that 
 you cannot sneer at it. Uncurl that lip now. He dies 
 not for himself in any sense ; he bleeds for his friends 
 
An .Exciting Enquirij, 19 
 
 — more, for his foes. His dying prayer is, "Father 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do;" and 
 when his friends forsook him, yet his last thoughts were 
 all for them. " Though he was rich, yet for our sakes 
 he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be 
 made rich." There is nothing to sneer at here. He 
 casts aside his glory, hangs his azure mantle on the 
 sky, and takes the rings from off his fingers to hang them 
 up for stars, and down he comes. He comes, and is 
 made a feeble child. In his mother's lap he lies. He 
 lives so poverty-stricken, that he has not where to lay 
 his head; and when the fox went to its buiTow, and the 
 bird to its nest, he went to the lone mountain, and his 
 locks were wet with the dews of night. He had no 
 friend, no helper ; " Give me to drink," he ?=oys, as he 
 sits upon the well of Samaria. He is forsaken, despised, 
 and rejected of men; and, when he dies, even God 
 himself leaves him. Jesus cries, "Why hast thou 
 forsaken me?" And all this out of strong, all-conquer- 
 ing love for the sons of men. You cannot despise this. 
 I would love the Saviour, even if he did not die for me. 
 I could not help it. Such love as this must have my 
 heart ! such disinterested giving up of all for the sake of 
 those who hated him, must claim our heart's affections. 
 Do not despise him, let me say to you, for you do not 
 know but what one day you may be where he is. Oh, 
 if you knew that he would wash you in his precious 
 blood, and make you clean; if you knew that he would 
 cast his robe of righteousness about 3^ou ; if you knew 
 that he would take you up and put the palm-branch in 
 your hand, and make you sing for ever of victor}' through 
 his precious blood, you would not despise him. And 
 
20 Christian Energy. 
 
 yet that shall be the portion of all of }'0U if you believe- 
 on him, if you cast yourselves on his finished work. 
 Where he is, there you shall be, and you shall see his 
 face. Do not despise him, the sinner's friend. Can you 
 dislike him, the lover of your soul ? How can you but 
 be lover of him ? Shedding his tears over you, shedding 
 his blood for you, how can you but cast yourselves at 
 his feet ? 
 
 Despise him not, for he is coming again in pomp and 
 glory. Speak not lightly of him that is at the door. 
 He is coming, perhaps, while I talk of these great match- 
 less things. Soon may he come into our midst, but he 
 will come with rainbow wreath and clouds of storm.. 
 He will come sitting on the great white throne, and 
 every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him. 
 Don't despise him now, for you will not be able to 
 despise him then. Will ye do now what you can- 
 not do then ? Oh, what a different tale will some men 
 sing when Christ comes! How those who called him 
 foul names will hide their fouler faces. Come up now ; 
 do not play the coward; come up now, and spit in his face 
 again, ye villains, thkt once did it in his lifetime. Now, 
 come and nail him to the tree again ; Judas, come and 
 give him a kiss, as once thou didst ! Do you see them ? 
 Why, they fly. They, hide their heads. The tale is 
 not any longer that they despise and reject him, but it 
 is, *^Eocks, fall on and hide us." *^Ye mountains, 
 open your bowels, and give us a concealment." But 
 it must not be ; the Lamb's eyes of love have become 
 the lion's eyes of fiire, and he that was meek and gentle 
 has now become fiery and terrible. The voice that once 
 was sweet as music, is now loud and terrible as the 
 
An Exciting Enquiry. 21 
 
 crash of thunder, and he that dealt out mercy, now deals 
 out bolts of vengeance. Oh, despise not him who shall 
 so soon come. Bow ye now, and " kiss the Son, lest he 
 be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath 
 is kindled but a little." Ask who is he? and when ye 
 hear the question, answer it 3'ourself, '^This is my 
 Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jeru- 
 salem." Trust Jesus Christ, sinner, and you shall 
 know who he is, and he, knowing who you are, will save 
 you with a great salvation. Amen. 
 
^li^tim ^0 ^'mmtiii^m\ml 
 
 *' Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel 
 came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy 
 Ghost, and in much assurance. And ye became followers of us, and of 
 the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of th& 
 Holy Ghost."— 1 Thess. i. 4-6. 
 
 T the very announcement of the text some 
 will be ready to say, " Why preach upon so 
 profound a doctrine as election '^ " I answer^ 
 because it is in God's word, and whatever 
 is in the Word of God is to be preached.. 
 " But some truths ought to be kept back 
 from the people/' say some persons, ^'lest- 
 they should make an ill use thereof." Popish doctrine! 
 I reply, for it was upon this theory that the priests kept 
 back the Bible from the people, lest they should misuse 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. ^' But are not some doctrines 
 dangerous?" No, I answer, not if they be true. Truth is 
 never dangerous, it is error and reticence that are fraught 
 with peril. " But do not men misuse the doctrines of 
 grace? " I grant you they do; but if we should destroy 
 everything that men misuse, we should have nothing 
 left. Are there to be no ropes because some fools will 
 hang themselves ? and must cutlery be for ever driven 
 from the earth because there are some who will use 
 
Election no Discouragement. 23 
 
 dangerous weapons for the destruction of their adver- 
 saries ? Decidedly not. Besides, let me reply to you, 
 men do read the Scriptures and think about these 
 doctrines, and therefore often make mistakes about 
 them ; who then shall set them right if we, who preach 
 the Word hold our tongues about the matter ? I know 
 that some men have embraced the doctrine of elec- 
 tion and become Antinomians; such men would pro- 
 bably have found other excuses for their misdeeds if 
 they had not sheltered themselves under the shadow 
 of this doctrine. The sun, of course, will ripen weeds as 
 well as fruitful plants, but that is no fault of the sun, 
 but of the nature of the weed itself. We believe, 
 however, that more persons are made Antinomians 
 through those who deny the doctrine than through 
 those who preach it. We give for our evidence this — 
 that in Scotland you will scarcely find a congregation of 
 Hyper-Calvinists, for this simple reason, that the Church 
 of Scotland holds Entire the whole doctrine upon this 
 matter, and her ministers, as a rule, are not ashamed to 
 preach it fearlessly and boldly, and in connection with 
 the rest of the faith. Take this one doctrine, or any 
 other, and preach upon it exclusively, and you distort it. 
 The fairest face in the world, with the most comely 
 features, would soon become unseemly if one feature were 
 permitted to expand while the rest were kept in their 
 usual form. Proportion, I take it, is beauty, and to 
 preach every truth in its fair proportion, neither keeping 
 back any nor giving undue prominence to any, is to 
 preach the whole truth as Christ would have it preached; 
 and on a Gospel thus entire and harmonious we may 
 expect to have the blessing of the Most Pligh. So much 
 
24 Christian Energy. 
 
 by way of preface, not by way of apology. It is not my 
 wont to offer any apology for speaking the truth. 
 
 Now what is this doctrine of election as spoken of in 
 the text ? " Knowing, brethren beloved, your election 
 of God." There is such a thing as election. Man is a 
 free agent. Any man who should deny that, might 
 well be thought unreasonable. Free-will is another 
 thing from free-agency. Luther denounced free-will 
 when he said, " Liberum arbitrium nomen est sine re.'' 
 Free-will is the name for nothing; and President 
 Edwards demolished it in his masterly treatise. God is 
 a universal agent and doeth as he wills, but his will is 
 supremely good. He is the superlative agent, and man, 
 while acting according to the device of his own heart, is 
 overruled by that sovereign and wise legislation which 
 causeth the wrath of man (that agency in which the 
 creature cannot govern himself) to praise him ; and the 
 remainder thereof he restrains. How these two things 
 are true I cannot tell. It is not necessary for our good, 
 either in this life or the next, that we should have the skill 
 to solve such problems. I am not sure that in heaven we 
 shall be able to know where the free agency of man and 
 the sovereignty of God meet, but they are both great 
 truths. God has predestinated everything, yet man is 
 responsible, for he acts freely, and no constraint is put 
 upon him when he sinneth and disobeyeth wantonly and 
 wickedly the will of God. Now, so many as are saved, 
 are saved, you will say, because they believe. I grant 
 it you. This is most true — God forbid I should deny 
 it — but wherefore do they believe? They believe as 
 the result of the working of the grace of God in their 
 hearts, and since ever}^ man who is saved confesses this, 
 
Election no Discouragement. 25 
 
 since every true believer in the world acknowledges that 
 something special has been done for him more than for 
 the impenitent, the fact is established that God does 
 make a difference; and if no one ever heard it laid as an 
 impeachment against the Lord that he did make a dif- 
 ference, I cannot see why he should be impeached for 
 intending to make that difference, which is just the 
 doctrine of election. If I am saved, I know it will not 
 be because of any goodness in me. If you be saved to- 
 nio;ht you will freelv confess that it is the distinojuishinjr 
 love of God that has made you to differ. The doctrine of 
 election is simply God's intention to make that difference 
 — while he gives mercy to all, to give more mercy to 
 some — whereby the mercy received should be made 
 effectual to their eternal salvation. Now this election 
 of God is sovereign. He chooseth as he will. Who 
 shall call him to account ? " Can I not do as I will 
 with my own ?" is his answer to every caviller. " Nay, 
 but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ?" 
 is the solemn utterance that silences every one who 
 would impugn the justice of the Most High. He has 
 a right, seeing we are all criminals, to punish whom he 
 will. As king of the universe he doubtless, acts with 
 discretion, but still according to his sovereignty, wisely 
 and not wantonly, ever according to the counsel of his 
 own will. Election, then, is sovereign. Again, election 
 is free. Whatever may be God's reason for choosing a 
 man, certainly it is not because of any good thing in 
 that man. He is chosen because God will do so. We 
 can get no further. We get as far as those words of 
 Christ, *^ Even so. Father : for so it seemed good in thy 
 sight," and there we stop, for beyond that no philosophy 
 
26 Christian Eiiergy. 
 
 and no Scripture can take us. As election is sovereign 
 and free, so it is iiTeversible. Having chosen his people, 
 he doth not cast them away nor call back the word that 
 is gone out of his lips, for it is written, " He hateth 
 putting aw^ay." He is of one mind, and who can turn 
 him? Election is effectual. For "whom he did pre- 
 destinate, them he also called : and whom he called, 
 them he also justified : and whom he justified, them he 
 also glorified." And this election is personal, for he 
 calleth out his children one by one by their names. He 
 calleth them even as he leadeth out the stars, and so he 
 bringeth them every one to the Father's house above. 
 
 We have thus given a statement as to what this 
 doctrine is. There we wall leave it. Our present object 
 is not so much to expound the doctrine, as to strike 
 a blow or two at certain errors which are very common 
 and which spring out of it. I know, dear friends, there 
 are some who are so afraid of this doctrine that the 
 mention of it produces alarm. If they w^ere to meet a 
 lion in their way they would not be more terrified than 
 they are when they see this doctrine in Scripture or 
 hear it from the pulpit. Let us try, if we can, should 
 you be labouring under any distress of mind about it, to 
 remove your difficulties. Will you please remember 
 that this is not a point Avhich you can understand at the 
 commencement of spiritual and religious life? You 
 would not teach your children, I suppose, to say their 
 prayers backwards, and begin at "Amen;'* and you are 
 beginning at the wrong end when you w^ant first of all to 
 know your election instead of commencing with repent- 
 ance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Election is a lesson for the more advanced students. 
 
Election no Dlscourarjement. 27 
 
 Faith and hope must be learnt, first of all, in the 
 infant class, to which we all must go if we would be wise 
 unto salvation. Now, if a child should have a book of 
 algebra put into his hand, and should puzzle himself and 
 say, "I shall never get an education, for I cannot under- 
 stand this;" and then take down some ancient classic, and 
 say, *^I cannot comprehend this;" you would say, ^' Dear 
 child, you have nothing to do with this yet. Here is a 
 simpler book — a primer for you. Here you have A, B, 
 C ; get this first, and then, step by step, you shall attain 
 to the rest." Believe in Christ. Simple trust in him 
 is the first thing you have to do with, and after that you 
 shall know the high, the sublime, and the glorious doc- 
 trine of God's decree; but do not begin here. You will 
 mystify and ruin yourself ; you will lose your way in a 
 fog and get no good thereby. Again there is one thing 
 very certain, that whatever this doctrine may be — and 
 we will have no dispute about it just now — there are 
 certain plain promises in God's Word which must be 
 true, and this doctrine, if it be true, cannot possibly be 
 inconsistent with them. Such promises are these — " Come 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest.'* "Whosoever will, let him take 
 the water of life freely." "He is able to save them 
 to the uttermost that come unto God by him." Why, 
 I might quote by the hour together some of these 
 promises which are as wide as the poles ; invitations that 
 must not be narrowed — which we dare not narrow — it 
 were more than our lives were worth — invitations which 
 are addressed to every creature under hc-aven, in which 
 every creature is bidden to hear and live, '* Ho ! every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." You know 
 
28 Christian Energy. 
 
 the class of promises to which I allude. Now, I say 
 again, you have to deal with them — get hold of them, 
 come to Jesus Christ with them in your hand ; and rest 
 assured the doctrine of election, instead of pushing you 
 back, shall stand like the servants about your father's 
 table to make music, and that your whole soul shall 
 dance to the glorious tune ; or it shall be like a dish upon 
 the table at the feast of the returning prodigal, of which 
 you shall eat to the very full, for it shall by no means 
 repulse you or show anything to you which may keep 
 you from hoping in Christ. 
 
 Once more, this glorious doctrine of election, it is quite 
 certain, cannot, whatever it may be, deliver you from 
 your duty — and what is your duty ? ^' This is the com- 
 mandment, that ye believe in Jesus Christ whom God hath 
 sent." So much is this your absolute duty that, *' He 
 that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath 
 not believed." More on this account than for anything 
 else Scripture says this is the one great sin — ^' When he, 
 the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall convince the world 
 of sin — of sin because ye believe not on me." You see 
 this. Very well, then ; inasmuch as God has so put it, 
 that he commands vou this nio^ht to tinist Christ and to 
 believe on him, that is what you have to see to, and 
 you may rest perfectly sure that any quotation of the 
 doctrine of election by you to exonerate you from what 
 God commands you to perform is but a pitiful pretence. 
 You are commanded to believe, and what God com- 
 mands no doctrine can teach that it is unfit for you to 
 do. May God help you to believe, for here the doctrine 
 i comes not to excuse you. The gospel commands you. 
 Election through the Holy Ghost enables you. It is 
 
Election no Discouragement. 29 
 
 your duty to believe, but no man ever was saved as a 
 matter of duty, for that which saves is the gift of Grt)d, 
 and your business now is with Christ only, and not with 
 the decrees of the Father, which are all in the keeping 
 of Christ, and shall presently be revealed to you. You 
 have to go to Christ first, and to his Father afterwards, 
 for saith he, ''No man cometh unto the Father but by 
 me." You must go round the cross to get to the decree; 
 you must go round by redemption to get to election, for 
 there is no other way. 
 
 Our text says, very plainly too, that the apostle knew 
 the election of the Thessalonians. How did he know 
 it ? The way by which the apostle knew it must be the 
 method by which you and I are to know our election 
 of God too? We have known in our day of some 
 men who pretended to know their election by their 
 impudence. They had got into their head the pre- 
 simiption that they were elected, and though they lived 
 on in sin, and still did as they liked, they imagined they 
 were God's chosen. This is what I call presuming upon 
 election by sheer impudence. \Ye know others who 
 have imagined themselves to be elect, because of the 
 visions that they have seen when they have been asleep 
 or when they have been aw^ake — for men have waking- 
 dreams — and they have brought these as evidences of 
 their election. They are of as much value as cobwebs 
 would be for a garment, and they will be of as much 
 service to you at the day of judgment as a thief's con- 
 victions would be to him if he were in need of a 
 character to commend him to mercy. You may dream 
 long enough before you dream yourself into heaven, and 
 you may have as many stupid notions in your head as there 
 
30 Christian Energy, 
 
 are romances in your circulating libraries, but because 
 they are in your head they are not therefore in God's 
 book. We want a more sure word of testimony than 
 this, and if we have it not, God forbid that we should 
 indulge our vain conceits with the dainty thought that 
 we are chosen of God. I have heard of one who said 
 in an ale-house that he could say more than the rest, 
 namely, that he was one of God's children; meanwhile 
 he drank deeper into intoxication than the rest. Surely 
 he might have said he was one of the devil's children 
 with an emphasis, and he would have been correct. 
 When immoral men, and men who live constantly in sin, 
 prate about being God's children, we discern them at 
 once. Just as we know a crab-tree when we see the fruit 
 hanging upon it, so we understand what spirit they are 
 of when we see their walk and conversation. O ! it is 
 detestable, loathsome above all loathsomeness, to hear 
 men, whose characters in secret are infamous, and 
 Avhose lives are destitute of every Christian virtue, 
 boasting as though they had the keys of heaven, as 
 though they could set up who they would, and pull 
 down whomsoever they might please. Blessed b^ God, 
 we are not under their domination, for a more terrific 
 set of tyrants than they are the world has never known, 
 and a more frightful reign of vice than they would 
 inaugurate, if they had their way, I am sure villainy 
 itself cannot conceive. *' Be not deceived, God is not 
 mocked." '^Without holiness no man shall see the 
 Lord." And if grace does not make us holy, teaching 
 us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, it is not worth 
 the having. O brethren if we are God's elect we must 
 have some substantial evidence to attest it. 
 
Election no Discouragement. 31 
 
 Now to our text. What are these evidences ? They 
 seem to be four. The first evidence appears to be the 
 Word of God coming home with power. If you will turn 
 to the text you will soon see how the apostle says the 
 Gospel came — " Not to you in word only but also in 
 power and in the Holy Ghost." The Gospel is preached 
 in the ears of all; it only comes with power to some. 
 The power that is in the Gospel does not lie in the 
 eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the 
 converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher's 
 learning, otherwise it would consist in the wisdom of 
 man. The power which converts souls does not even lie 
 in the preacher's simplicity or adaptation to his work ; 
 that is a secondary agent, but not the cause. Again, 
 the power which converts souls does not even lie in the 
 pathos which the speaker may employ. Men may weep 
 to the tragic muse in a theatre as well as to prophetic 
 strains in a chapel. Their creature passions may be im- 
 pressed through the acting of the stage as well as by the 
 utterance of God's own servants. No; there is something 
 more than this wanted, and where that is absent all 
 preaching is a nullity. We might preach till our 
 tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, 
 but never a soul would be converted unless there were 
 mysterious power going with it — the Holy Ghost, 
 changing the will of man. O sirs ! we might as well 
 preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the 
 Holy Ghost be with the Word, to give it power to con- 
 vert the soul. We are reminded of Mr. Eowland Hill, 
 who once met a man in the street at night, not quite 
 drunk, but almost so, who said, '^ Well, Mr. Hill, I am 
 one of your converts." "Yes," said he, "I dare say you 
 
32 Christian Energy, 
 
 are one of mine; but if you were one of God's you would 
 not be in tlie state in which you are now." Our converts 
 are worth nothing. If they are converted by man they 
 can be unconverted by man. If some charm or power of 
 one preacher can bring them to Christ, some charm or 
 power of another preacher can take them from Christ. 
 True conversion is the work of the Holy Ghost, and of 
 the Holy Ghost alone. Well, then, my hearers, did 
 you ever — never mind where you were, whether in 
 Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, in this 
 Tabernacle, or at some special service at one of the 
 theatres ; it matters not the place — did you ever, when 
 listening to the Word, feel a divine power coming with itt 
 " Well," perhaps you will say, ^' I have felt some im- 
 pression." No, no ; that may be wiped away. Have you 
 felt a something coming with it which you could not un- 
 derstand ; which, while it wooed you and won your hearty 
 smote you as though a sword had gone through you, 
 and that not with a flesh wound, but with a wound that 
 divideth between soul and spirit, between joint and 
 marrow, and was a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart? Why, those who are really God's elect 
 can tell a tale something like this. They can sa}- 
 — " There was a time when the Word was to me like a 
 great ten thonged-whip ; my shoulders were stripped 
 bare, and every time the Word was preached it seemed 
 to make a gushing within my soul. I trembled ; I saw 
 God in arms against me ; I understood that I was in debt 
 to justice and could not pay ; that I was involved in a 
 controversy against my ^laker, and could not cany it 
 out. I saw myself stripped naked to my shame, leprous 
 from head to foot, a bankrupt and a felon ready to be 
 
Election no Discouragement, 33 
 
 given over to a traitor's doom." Tlien the Word came 
 with power to your soul. " And O," says such an one, 
 '' I remember too when it came home to my heart, and 
 made me leap for very joy, for that Word took all mv 
 load away; it showed me Christ's power to save. I had 
 known that before, but now I felt it. I had understood 
 that he could save, but now that fact came home to me. 
 I went to Jesus just as I was; I touched the hem 
 of his garment ; I was made whole. I found now thut 
 tlie Word was not a fiction— that there was a reality in 
 it. I had listened scores of times, and he that spake was 
 as one that played a tune upon an instrument; but now 
 he seemed to be dealing with me, putting his hand right 
 into my heart, and getting hold of me. He brought me 
 first to God's judgment-seat, and there I stood and Jieard 
 the thunders roll; and then he brought me to the 
 mercy-seat, and I saw the blood sprinlded on it, and 
 I went home triumphing because sin was washed away." 
 Did the Word ever come home with this power 
 to your souls ? And since that has the Word rebuked 
 you? Has it sometimes cut down your hopes? Do 
 you sometimes, after hearing a sermon, feel as if it had 
 been like a great hurricane tearing right through the 
 forest of your thoughts, and cutting its own course, and 
 leaving many a thing that you thought alive, dead, 
 swept down to the ground? Do you feel, too, when you 
 go home from God's house, as if God himself had been 
 there, as if you did not know what it was; it could not 
 liave been the speaker nor the words he uttered, but the 
 A cry God did come and look into your eyes, and see the 
 thoughts of your heart, and turn your heart upside 
 down, and then fill it full again with his love, and with 
 
 3 
 
34 Christian Energy, 
 
 his llglit, and witli his truth and with his joy, with his 
 peace, and with his desire after holiness ? Is it so with 
 you? for where the Word is not with power to your souls 
 you lack the proof of election. I do not say that it 
 will be so every time. You must not expect every time 
 that God will speak with you; in fact, the preacher 
 himself fails often, and is painfully conscious of it. 
 How shall one man always speak without sometimes 
 feeling that he himself is not in a fit frame to be God's 
 mouth-piece? But yet let it be a clown from the 
 country, if he preach God's Word ; it is not the clown, 
 nor yet the archbishop ; it is the Word that is quick and 
 powerful when the Spirit is with it ; and your evidence 
 of election is blotted, it is blurred, unless the Word has 
 come to you with demonstration of the Spirit and with 
 power. People come and hear sermons in this place, 
 and then they go out and say, "How did you like it?" — 
 as if that signified to anybody — " How did you like it?" 
 and one says, '^ O, very w^ell; " and another says, ^' O, not 
 at all." And do you think we live on the breath of 
 your nostrils ? Do you believe that God's servants, if 
 they be so, can care for what you think of them ? Nay, 
 verily I think they are inclined to say, if you should 
 reply, "I enjoyed the sermon," "Then w^e must have been 
 unfaithful or else you would have been angry. Then 
 we must have slurred over something, or else it would 
 have so cut your conscience as with the jagged edges of 
 a knife, that jovl would say, ' Well, I did not think how 
 I liked it ; I was thinking how I liked myself, and what 
 about my own state before God ; that was the matter 
 that exercised me. Not whether he preached well, but 
 w^hether I stood accepted in Christ, or whether I was a 
 
Election no Discouragement. 35 
 
 castaway.' " My dear hearers, do you learn to hear like 
 that ? If you do not ; if going to church and to chapel 
 be to you like going to an oratorio, or like listening to 
 some orator who speaks upon temporal matters, then 
 you lack the evidence of election ; the Word has not 
 come to your souls with power. 
 
 But there is yet a second evidence of election to which 
 we will refer briefly, " And in much assurance." It 
 seems, then, that those whom God has chosen do receive 
 the word with much assurance — not all of them with full 
 assurance; that is a grace they get afterwards — but 
 with much assurance. Sometimes, you know, there are 
 men who go upon very strange principles. It is some- 
 what difficult to know w^hat principles are enforced and 
 acknowledged in this age, for there are some persons whose 
 principles allow them to say black and white at the 
 same time, and there are certain persons whose religious 
 principles are not much unlike this. They put a hymn 
 book in their pockets when they are going to meeting ; 
 they put a comic song book in their pockets when they 
 are going somewhere else ; they can hold with the hare 
 and run with the hounds, and such people as these never 
 have any very great confidence in their religion ; and it 
 is very proper that they should not, for their religion is 
 not worth the time they spend in making a profession of 
 it. But the true Christian, when he gets holds of prin- 
 ciples, keeps them, and there is no mistake about the grip 
 with which he maintains his hold of them. "Ah!" 
 saith he, " that Word which I have heard in my ears is 
 the very truth of God, and it is true to me, and real 
 and substantial to me, and here I clasp it with both my 
 hands, with a clasp that neither time, nor tribulation, 
 
36 Christian Eitenjii, 
 
 nor death, shall ever cause me to let go." To a Chrlstiair 
 man his religion is a part of himself ; he believes 
 the truth, not because he has been told it or taught it 
 by his mother, or his f riend^ but because it is true to him, 
 like the servant girl who, when she could not answer 
 her infidel master, said, ^' Sir, I cannot answer you, but 
 I have a something in here that would if it could speak." 
 There is " much assurance." Sinners who have once 
 felt their need of a Saviour feel very much assurance 
 about his preciousness, and saints that have once found 
 him precious have very much assurance about his divi- 
 nity, about his atonement, about his everlasting love, 
 about his immortal dignity, as a prophet, a priest, and a 
 king. They are sure of it. I know some persons will 
 say if a man speaks positivel}' he is dogmatical. Glorious 
 old dogmatism, when wilt thou come back again to 
 earth? It is these ^' ifs," and "buts," and qualifica- 
 tions, these " perhapses " and " may be so's " that have 
 ruined our pulpits. Look at Luther, when he stood 
 up for the glory of his God, was there ever such a dog- 
 matist ? "I believe it," he said, '^ and therefore I 
 speak it." From that day when on Pilate's staircase he 
 was trpng to creep up and down the stairs to win 
 heaven, when the sentence out of the musty folio came 
 before him, "Justified by faith we have peace with 
 God," that man was as sure that works could not save 
 him as he w^as of his own existence. Now, if he had 
 come out and said, " Gentlemen, I have a theory to 
 propound that may be correct ; excuse my doing so, and 
 so on," the Papacy had been dominant to this day^ 
 The man knew God had said it, and he felt that that 
 was God's own way to his own soul, and he could not 
 
Election no Discouragement. 37 
 
 help dogmatising with that glorious force of secession 
 which soon laid his foes prostrate at his feet. Now 
 have you received the gospel " with much assurance 1" 
 If you have, and you can say, " Christ is mine ; I trust 
 in him, and though I have sometimes doubts about my 
 own interest in him, yet I do know by experience in 
 my own soul that he is a precious Christ — I know not 
 by ^' Paley's Evidences" nor by "Butler's Analogy," but 
 I know by my heart's inward evidence, I know by the 
 analogy of my own soul's experience, that the book 
 which I have received is no cunningly devised fable, but 
 something that came from God to di'aw my soul up to 
 God" — that is another evidence of election. If you 
 have that, never mind ; I hardly care whether you be- 
 lieve the doctrine of election or not ; you are elect. As 
 I have sometimes told a brother who has denied the 
 doctrine of final perseverance, when I have seen his 
 holy life, " Never mind, my brother, you ivill persevere 
 to the end, and 3^ou will prove the doctrine that you 
 don't believe. You may not be able to receive this, but 
 when you get to heaven, if such has been your expe- 
 rience, you will wake up and say, " Well, I am one of 
 the elect. I made a deal of fuss about it while on 
 earth, and I will make a deal of music about it now that 
 I have got to heaven, and I will sing more sweetly and 
 loudly than all the rest, ^Unto him that hath loved me 
 and washed me from my sins in his own blood, unto him 
 be glory for ever and ever.' " 
 
 But there is a third evidence, and about that we will 
 be even more brief, for time flies. " Ye became fol- 
 lowers of us and of the Lord." That is the third ; by 
 which the apostle does not mean that they said, " I am 
 
38 Christian Energy, 
 
 of Paul, I am of Silas, I am of Timothy." No, no, they 
 imitated Paul so fai- as he imitated Christ. Thomas 
 a'Kempis wrote a book about the imitation of Christy 
 and a blessed book in some respects it is ; but I would 
 like the Holy Sj^irit to write in your hearts the imitation 
 of Christ, and that shall be your sweet proof that you 
 are chosen of God. Are you Christ-like or do you 
 want to be? Can you forgive your enemy? ay! and 
 can you love him, and do him good ? Could you say 
 to-night, " I am no more any man's enemy than is the 
 babe that is new born ?" and do you desire not to live 
 unselfishly, to live for others, to live for God? Are you 
 prayerful? Do you come to God in prayer as Jesus 
 did ? Are you careful of your words and of your acts 
 as Christ was ? I do not ask you if you are perfect, 
 but I do ask whether you follow the Perfect One? 
 We are to be followers of Christ, and if not with 
 equal steps, still with steps that would be equal if 
 they could. If we follow Christ, that will be one 
 of the surest proofs of our election to others, though 
 perhaps to ourselves, if we be humble-minded, it will 
 be no proof, since we shall rather see our blemishes 
 than our virtues, and mourn over our sins rather than 
 rejoice in our gi'aces. If a man follow not Christ, those 
 w^ho look on may be safe enough in concluding that, 
 whatever he may say about election, and however much 
 he may speak, he is not the Lord's. On that point I 
 shall not stop, because I have already enlarged upon it 
 in a former part of the discourse ; but the last point, as 
 time fails us, is this. 
 
 It seems that those of whose election the apostle was 
 sure, received the Word of God (if you look further) 
 
Election no Discouragement. 39 
 
 *' in mucli affliction," but " with joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 Wliat say you to this, you whose rehgion consists of a 
 slavish attendance upon forms that you detest? See how 
 many there are who go to a place of worship just because 
 it is not respectable to stop away, but who often wish it 
 were. And when they get on the Continent, — what 
 about many of your Christians? Where is the Sabbath 
 with them then? Where is their care for Grod's house? 
 With what misery do some people go up to the house 
 of the Lord. Why ? Because they regard it as a place 
 where they ought to be very solemn. It is not a home 
 to them ; it is a prison. Your children, I suppose, are 
 just about coming home for their holidays. How do they 
 come into their father's house? Dull, demure, as if 
 they could not speak? No, bless their little hearts, 
 they come running up to their father's knees, so glad to 
 be there, and home from school. That is how a man 
 whose religion is his delight comes up to the house of 
 the Lord. He feels that it is his Father's house. He 
 would be reverent, for his Father is God, but he must 
 be happy, for God is his Father. See again the Chris- 
 tian when he goes to his closet. Ungodly persons will 
 not go there at all ; or, if they do, it is because they want 
 to win heaven by it ; so they go through their dreary 
 prayers ; and what a dreary thing it must be for a man 
 to pray when he never expects to be heard, and when 
 he has no spirit of prayer I It is like a horse going 
 round a mill grinding for somebody else, and never 
 getting any farther, the same to be done to-morrow, and 
 the same the day after, and so on. Sometimes as the 
 little church bells go of a morning in certain churches, 
 to fetch people out, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 
 
40 Christian Energy. 
 
 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, there are some persons 
 to be found there to early pra^^ers, and they go to even- 
 ing prayers too, and a very good thing this would be, if 
 those who attend went there with holy joy; but there is 
 the sexton, and he says it is a great trouble to be always 
 opening the doors like that when nobody comes except 
 three old women that have got alms-houses, and two that 
 expect them, and therefore are there, and they think that 
 an acceptable service to God. But they who go because 
 they would not stop away if they could, they who 
 worship God because it is a delight, and a pleasure, and 
 a holy thing, and honourable — these are men who 
 delight in God's Word, who give the best evidence of 
 being chosen of God. Woe unto you. Scribes and 
 Pharisees, who make your faces miserable that ye may 
 appear unto men to fast. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 he that reads the heart asketh not that your head may 
 hang down like a bulrush, but that ye may do deeds of 
 mercy, and walk humbly with your God, and ye who 
 can delight yourselves in your God, shall have the 
 desires of your heart. Ye that can rejoice in the Lord 
 always, and triumph in his name, shall go from strength 
 to strength, and going at last to glory, you shall find that 
 you came there as the result of his divine purpose and 
 decree, and you shall give him all the praise. 
 
 But now, lastly, I hear some say, "But I want to 
 know whether / am elect. I cannot say that the Word 
 ever came to me with power — ^I cannot say I received 
 it in much assurance — I cannot say I am a follower 
 of Christ — I cannot say I have received the Word 
 with joy." Well, dear brother, then leave that 
 question alone. Instead of that, let me propound this, 
 
Election no Ducourafjement. 41 
 
 ^'Dost tliou bL'licve in the Lord Jcsiis Christ? Will 
 you now trust Christ to save your soul?" He will doit, 
 if, just as thou art, whoever thou niayst be, thou wilt 
 come to Christ, and give thyself up to him to save thee, 
 to have thee, to hold thee for better for worse in life and 
 throuo-h death. The moment thou believest thou art 
 saved, that act of faith, through the precious blood of 
 Christ will put away your every sin. You will not begin 
 to be saved ; you are saved. You will not be put into a 
 salvable condition, but saved the moment you believe 
 — completely and perfectly saved. ^* O," saith one, *^ I 
 would I could trust Christ." Saycst thou so, man? 
 ^' Whosoever will, let him come ;" let him trust Christ. 
 God help thee now to do it. Trust Jesus, and you are 
 saved. And this is addressed to every one of you with- 
 out exception, "Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ hath everlasting life." The Lord help you to 
 trust Jesus, and then you may go on your way with joy, 
 *' knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God." 
 
%\\t tl^nv^tfi i^ "^iftW^ %fp, 
 
 Lo, God hath, given thee all them that sail with thee." 
 
 — Acts xxYii. 24. 
 
 UR Apostle Paul had given some very good 
 advice to the mariners of this ship. They 
 had thought fit to reject it. What then? 
 Now some of us are of such short temper 
 that if our good advice should be rejected 
 we should be in a huff, and never offer any 
 more, and we should feel some sort of plea- 
 sure in seeing those persons get into mischief, who were 
 so foolish as not to take our sage counsel. Not so the 
 Apostle Paul. After he had prudently abstained for 
 some time from saying anything — for there is a time to 
 be silent — he at length gave proof of his unabated 
 affection to them by the good advice which he offered. 
 Let us take a lesson from him, and let us forgive our 
 brethren even to seventy times seven; and if, after 
 having done our very best, we still find our advice 
 rejected, let us persevere in our work of love. One 
 other remark. Note the comfort that was given to 
 our apostle. He had been long out at sea, and with 
 the rest had suffered much. The comfort given him 
 was, *^Fear not, Paul, for thou must stand before 
 Csesar." No very great comfort, you will say. It 
 
The Cliiirch the WorlcVs Hope. 43 
 
 seems no more comfort than if tlie angel had said, 
 ** You can't be drowned, for you are to be devoured by 
 a lion." Some such comfort Bishop Ridley took to 
 himself when, being rowed up the river to the burning, 
 a little storm coming on, and the watermen being much 
 afraid, he said, " Fear not, boatmen, the bishop that is 
 doomed to be burned cannot be drowned." Yet there 
 is real comfort in the words of the angel, for it was the 
 apostle's intense desire to preach Christ before Nero. 
 He wished to proclaim the gospel at Rome; he had had 
 great trouble of heart for those that had not seen his 
 face in the flesh ; and therefore whether Nero be a lion or 
 not, he was but too glad to beard him for Christ's sake. 
 And when a man has no self remaining, but has given 
 himself up as a living sacrifice for Christ, that which 
 Avould be a terror to another man becomes a comfort to 
 him. '^I am now ready to be offered up," said the 
 apostle ; and it was given to him even as a comfort 
 that he must be offered up by some bloody death, and 
 not escape by the milder method of a passage to heaven 
 by sea. Now our apostle found a comfort in the fact 
 that those with him would be preserved. It had been 
 the subject of his prayer, so that he was cheered not 
 only with the prospect of himself prophesying at Rome, 
 but with the hope of seeing all his comrades safe on 
 shore. 
 
 Now I have two or three things to talk of to-night ; 
 so let me proceed with them at once. 
 
 I. The first practical observation founded upon my 
 text is this — a godly man may often be thrown into an 
 ill position for the good of others. Paul was put into a 
 ship — into a ship among thieves and criminals — into a 
 
44 Christian Energy, 
 
 ship among sailors and soldiers, who were none of the 
 best in those days, but he was put there for their good. 
 This, then, I would lay down as a general theory — 
 there are multitudes of Christians who are in places 
 very uncomfortable, and, perhaps, very unsuitable for 
 them, who are put there for the good of others. 
 
 If they were not so placed they would not be like 
 their Tjord. Why was Christ on eartli at all but for 
 the good of sinners ? Why does he sit there at a pub- 
 lican's table? Why eats he bread with a harlot? Why 
 does he permit an unclean woman to come and wash his 
 feet ? As for himself, 'tis pain to him, pain to his holy 
 nature, to come into contact with evil. But our Lord 
 was the Physician, and where should a physician be 
 but among the sick? Now as you and I are to be 
 made like our Lord, we must not marvel if sometimes 
 we are thrown, as he was, into company which we 
 would not choose for its own sake, but into which Pro- 
 vidence puts us that we may do good. 
 
 Moreover, is not this just the reason why the saints 
 of God are on earth at all ? Why does he not send an 
 express chariot to take them at once to heaven? There 
 is no necessity for saints being on earth that I know of, 
 except for the good of their fellow-men. Sanctification 
 might be completed in a moment : as for all the rest, it 
 is done. He hath made us " meet to be partakers of 
 the inheritance of the saints in light." Why stay we 
 here, then, at all, but that we may be salt in the midst 
 of putrefaction — light in the midst of darkness — life in 
 the midst of death ? The Church is the world's hope. 
 As Christ is the hope of the Church, so the Churcli is 
 the hope of the world. The saints become, under 
 
The Church the TlortJ'^' Hope. 45 
 
 Christ, the world's saviours. Then wc must not marvel, 
 beino- here for this very purpose, if Christ does throw us 
 like a handful of salt just where the putrefaction is the 
 worst; or if he should cast us, as he hath often done with 
 his saints aForetime, where our influence is most needed. 
 And will you please to recollect, dear friends, that 
 there have been special cases in Scripture where the 
 putting a person into an unpleasant condition has been 
 ii great boon to his fellow men? There is Joseph in the 
 dungeon. What is he there for? Why, with his hag- 
 gard look and shaggy beard, is he sitting down in the 
 round dun<2;eon tower of the chief of the slau£jhtermen? 
 He is put there that he may relieve the baker and the 
 butler of their distress, and yet more fully, that he may 
 provide food for his ungrateful brethren who had sold 
 him for a slave. The salvation of Israel's offspring 
 depends upon Joseph being put into prison. Look at a 
 more majestic case. There, upon the ruins of a once 
 glorious temple, sits a grand old man, weeping as though 
 he had been a masculine Niobe ; tears flow down both 
 his cheeks, and these are the words he cries : — ^' O that 
 my head were waters, and mine eyes were a fountain of 
 tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of 
 the daughter of my people !" It is old Jeremy. Why 
 is he there? why is he not in Babylon ? why is he not in 
 some place where he could be comfortably cared for? 
 Israel wants him. The women that flock around him 
 like stricken deer need his comfort, and the sinners in 
 Zion, that hide their faces from his weeping eyes, need 
 him to pour out those burning syllables which make 
 their consciences start, seared though they be. If you 
 should say that these are two instances which are above 
 
46 Christian Energy, 
 
 your level, let me ask you why was that little maid 
 taken prisoner by the Syi'ians and carried away from 
 her country ? Not a pleasant thing, for a child to be 
 torn away from her family and become a slave, even 
 though it be in the house of the good Naaman. Why 
 is she there? Naaman the leper must be healed ; the 
 Syrian king must know that the Lord of Israel can 
 work wonders; and therefore that little maid must 
 be carried away, and she must be where otherwise 
 she would not wish to be placed. 
 
 I need not give any more proofs that such has been 
 often the case. Instead of that, let me give instances. 
 There is a young man here — he is hardly a man yet — 
 whose father in binding him an apprentice made a 
 mistake. Parents should be very careful whom they 
 choose to be instructors of their sons. They should not 
 wantonly put a youth, who has been trained under pious 
 influences, under subjection to an ungodly man, how- 
 ever business-like he may be. Well, evidently your 
 parent made a mistake, and now you are in a family 
 where religion is lightly spoken of. You get out on the 
 Sabbath ; you don't get out at other times ; and if you 
 mention religion you are either met with a sneer or, 
 perhaps, with something worse. Well, young believer, 
 this is a hard trial for you. We do not generally send 
 our lads to battle, but our Master knows how sometimes 
 to do the greatest feats by the feeblest instrumentality. 
 What if God should intend to bless your master's 
 family through you ? Wliat if he has ordained to send 
 you to that house on purpose, that in the garb of an 
 apprentice you may be a missionary of the cross ? It 
 may be so. Opportunities will occur to you ; there will 
 
The Cliurcli the World's Hope. 47 
 
 be fitting occasions for the use of them; and you will see 
 God's wisdom even in your father's mistake. Another 
 of you happens to be one of a family, not by mistake, 
 but in the common course of providence. Electing love 
 has lit on you and left an ungodly parent behind, and 
 brothers and sisters run the downward road. Don't be 
 too sad over this. I don't know whether this may not 
 be a cause for joy to you. God has this day lighted a lamp 
 in your father's house. It may never go out. Inas- 
 much as you are converted, salvation has come to 
 your house. O ! watch for your brother's soul ; pray 
 for your sister's conversion ; take your parents in the 
 arms of faith before God ; and who can tell but that 
 it shall prove to be the best thing in your life that 
 you were thus placed in a family were Christ was not 
 feared? Or you are a w^orkman — I know a great many 
 instances — and perhaps you have come up from the 
 country for the sake of better w^ork. It may be that in 
 the country you w'orked in some little shop w^here there 
 was a godly man wdth you, and now you have come into 
 one of our large shops in London and got some work. 
 There is a deal of swearing on both sides of you, and if 
 you are known to go to a house of prayer, the other men 
 mark you out and call you some odd name or other. I 
 know you say, '' I wish I could get into another place ; 
 I w^ill throw up my work : I must — I will throw up my 
 work, and I wdll go somewhere else." Don't — don't do 
 so. It is very likely God has sent you there just as he 
 sent Paul into the ship. Instead of leaving, gird up 
 your loins like a man and cry to God that he would give 
 you all them that sail with you, that they may yet be 
 saved. Your advent into that workshop may be as if an 
 
48 Christian Energy, 
 
 angel had come straight from heaven and gone down tc 
 the vilest place to make it ring with the songs of joy. 
 Possibly, dear friends, to multiply instances — some of 
 you may happen to live in a very low locality. In such 
 a crowded place as London, and especially now that the 
 railways make the houses of artisans so scarce, you may 
 have to live where you do not like to live. On both, 
 sides of you, you know, the houses are not what you 
 would wish tliem to be; and down in the court on 
 ►Sunday what a scene there is ! You went home this 
 morning, and you saw people in their shirt-sleeves lolling 
 about, and waiting at the corner till the public-house 
 was opened that they might go in and drink. And you 
 will go home to-night and see what you do not like ta 
 see. Now, I do not know that you should be in a hurry 
 to get out of that place. It is Just possible that you are 
 put there for some end or design. Who can tell the 
 benefit your good example may be? And if you are 
 bold enough to speak a word for Christ, there may be a 
 neighbour in that court, or in that alley, who, though 
 he never did go up to the house of God before, will go 
 with you. It may have been written in the book of 
 God's predestination that you must needs pass through 
 that Samaria that you might find that fallen woman^ 
 and that she might be brought to Christ — who knows ? 
 And there are some of you going to emigrate. Some 
 dear friends who have been among us for years, find it 
 best to cross the seas. I would not weep, my brethren 
 — I would not sorrow at your departure, for who knows, 
 unpleasant though it be to rend oneself from one's con- 
 nections, and to leave one's native land, you may go 
 forth to carry seed that shall be wafted over a continent^ 
 
The Church the WorlcCs Hope. 49 
 
 and bring forth fruit in years to come? Put a 
 Christian where you may, however unpleasant to 
 himself, he cannot be out of place. If Providence 
 thrusts him there it is well. Ay, and if what some of 
 you dread so much should come to pass — if in 3^our old 
 age the workhouse should be the only place that is to 
 receive you — ah ! it is not pleasant to look forward to 
 it ; but I can conceive a Christian pauper doing more 
 good for God in the house of poverty than many a peer 
 has been able to do in Parliament. I can conceive you 
 shedding a light and lustre along those walls which shall 
 rebuke the harshness of those that are masters, and 
 kindle light, and love, and hope in some bosoms that 
 had grown strangers to all those heavenly things. 
 Good Master! if thou cast us into a ship we will ask 
 thee to give us all that sail with us, and if thou put us 
 anywhere we will look about us to see what we can do 
 that we may honour thee ! 
 
 I must not leave this point, even though time should 
 fly, until I have just made one or two remarks rapidly. 
 
 Do not get into these places of your own choice. 
 ^' Put your finger in the fire," said one to a martyr once, 
 *'and see whether you can burn." "No," said he, "I 
 don't see the use of that. If I put my own finger into 
 the fire I have no promise from God; but if he calls me 
 to burn for his sake I have no doubt he will give me 
 strength to do it." You have no business to pick bad 
 places to live in ; you have no right to expose yourself 
 to danger. That is a foolish thing ; but if God shall do 
 it — take this for my next remark — do not be in a hurry 
 to undo it. You may leap out of the frying-pan into the 
 fire. You may go from bad to worse. It is just possible 
 
50 Christian Energij. 
 
 that if the present place has one temptation, the next maj 
 have another set. For my part I do not like changing 
 temptations. I know my old temptations — not as well 
 as I would like to know them, but still if the Devil 
 could change the whole set of my temptations I do not 
 know what would become of me. Better keep the old 
 ones, I think. You have been tned in one point, you 
 have got used to it, and are gi'owing stronger in that 
 point. No need to run after a fresh ordeal, but if God 
 has placed you there, be like Paul — be very prudent. Do 
 not talk very much. There is wisdom in holding your 
 tongue. Paul gave his advice, but he abstained a long 
 time before he gave it again. He timed himself ; and 
 there is nothing like watching opportunities. You 
 young persons especially, if you live in families, and 
 w^ant to do them good, take care that you are willing to 
 do good in temporal things. Lend a hand when they 
 want your help. Paul and Luke helped to throw the 
 tackling into the sea, so the chapter tells us — ay, and 
 the sailors liked them all the better for it. They said, 
 '^ There is Luke, a passenger, and here is Paul a prisoner; 
 they are neither of them bound to work, but they have 
 buckled to and helped us : we will listen to them, for they 
 are very handy fellows." Young man, just try and make 
 the best use of yourself. If you are placed in a family 
 that is irreligious, make them value you ; just show 
 them that you will do anything you can to serve them. 
 They will not believe the reality of your spiritual affec- 
 tion unless you show a temporal affection too. And 
 when the time comes, do not hesitate to speak, but let 
 your speaking be mainly by youractions. The best sermon 
 Paul preached was when he took bread and gave thanks. 
 
The Church the World's Hope. 51 
 
 He did not do that for show. It was just in the daily 
 course of his habitual godliness that the man of God 
 came forth boldly before their eyes. Do not conceal 
 your godliness from those around you. Though at first 
 they may laugh at you and despise you, who can tell but 
 that like Paul you may gain influence till they will do 
 anything you tell them, and like Paul, by means of that 
 influence you may save all that are in the house, and so 
 the text may come true of you, " I have given thee all 
 them that sail with thee." 
 
 II. A second lesson suggested to us is this. Where- 
 ever we are cast we should anxiously ask of God all the 
 souls that sail with us. 
 
 God says he gave the souls to Paul ; therefore I 
 conclude Paul had asked him. How many were they ? 
 Some two hundred and seventy ; and yet he gave them 
 all. Father, some seven or eight make up your family; 
 or if it be of larger dimensions, at least you have not in 
 all your kinsfolk, I should think, so many as the two 
 hundred and seventy. Do not therefore in your prayers 
 leave out one child, nor one connection, nor one friend. 
 Pray to God for them all. Now, they w^U be of all 
 sorts. Let me describe those that sailed with Paul. 
 There was one good one : that was Luke. Well, Luke 
 was saved. You have got one pious son — you have one 
 converted daughter. Continue in your prayer till you 
 see that child safely landed with you in heaven. 
 Perhaps you have one courteous passenger Avith you in 
 the ship, like Julius the centurion, of whom we read in 
 the third verse of the chapter, that he entreated Paul 
 courteously. Ee very earnest in prayer, for those who 
 are willing to hear the AVord, O, how good it is if wq 
 
52 Christian Energy. 
 
 liave in our families brothers and sisters, or servants, or 
 masters, who treat the Word of God with deference and 
 respect. Let not these be omitted in our supplication 
 Anxiously pray for them. Perhaps you have among 
 your connections some knowing ones. Paul had. There 
 was the master of the ship ; he knew better than Paul, 
 or at least he preferred his own conceit to Paul's counsel. 
 Do not give up the self-conceited, the suspicious, the 
 cavilling, the sceptical, pray for them till you have all in 
 the ship. Possibly, nay certainly, you have some 
 worldly friends. You have a son, perhaps, that is 
 exceedingly careful about tliis world, but careless of the 
 next. Do not give him up. There was the owner of 
 the ship on board. All he cared about was getting his 
 corn to Pome in time to catch the next market. He 
 did not care what became of the sailors or what became 
 of Paul. So pray for Avorldly relatives ; do not be 
 satisfied to leave any of them out. And then it may be 
 you have on board, in connection with you, some that 
 are very careless, and some who add to this carelessness 
 even craelty and a want of gratitude ; such were the 
 soldiers. They counselled to kill Paul — Paul who had 
 preserv^ed them ; but nevertheless Paul prayed for the 
 soldiers. Do not, I pray you, leave out the most unkind, 
 the most flinty-hearted of your friends and neighbours. 
 Or it may be you have a cunning and selfish friend. 
 Do not forget him. Such were the sailors. Under 
 pretence of casting anchors out of the foreship, they 
 were attempting to get into a boat and escape, and so 
 leave the ship, and its hundreds of passengers, to perish 
 in the storm. He prayed for the sailors. Do you the 
 same. Now there were many of them that could not 
 
The Church the Worlds Hope. 53 
 
 swim, but he still prayed tliat those that could not swim 
 might be saved ; and there were some that could swim, 
 but he prayed for them quite as much as for those who 
 could not. So you have some that are converted and 
 some that are not ; you have some that are moral and 
 some that are not; but yet plead for all, and let not the 
 Lord curtail his word till he has given you all them 
 that sail with you. 
 
 Now I want you to notice — especially you that are 
 parents — something that the apostle did not pray for. 
 I do not read that he ever prayed "Lord save the ship." 
 No. Now, the ship is like your family name — like your 
 family dignity. Do not be praying about that. " Lord, 
 give me my children's souls, and let my name be blotted 
 out, if thou wilt, as long as their souls be saved." And 
 I do not find that the apostle ever prayed about the 
 cargo. He let them fling the wheat out, and never 
 cared for that. So you need not pray about your 
 wealth. Put that into God's hand, and say, "Lord, 
 do as thou wilt with my sons and daughters — save their 
 souls. I don't ask fortunes for them ; I ask grace. I 
 would, if it were thy will, that tliey might have food 
 convenient always, and never need bread; but still. Lord, 
 I would rather see their souls saved and see them in 
 poverty, than see them rich and be lost." Moreover, I 
 do not find that Paul made any condition about it. He 
 did not tell the Lord when he wanted these people saved; 
 so you are not to expect that God will save your children 
 just when you please. You may never live to see it ; it 
 may be when you are dead and gone ; but still, do be 
 earnest that God will give you all of them. And Paul 
 did not make a stipulation as to how it should be done. 
 
54 Christian Energy. 
 
 I recollect my mother saying, "I prayed that you might 
 be saved, but I never prayed that you might be a 
 Baptist ;" but, nevertheless, I became a Baptist, for, as 
 I reminded her, the Lord was able to do for her 
 "exceeding abundantly above what she could ask or 
 think," and he did it. She expected, of course, that 
 the child would be an Independent. Well, as long as 
 your children are saved, you need not put in any con- 
 ditions as to the mode. Sooner see your son and 
 daughter go to the Established Church saved, than see 
 them go to your own place of worship and be lost. We 
 like to see them go with us to our place of worship. I 
 think it is right they should; and it is a great joy to a 
 Christian's heart to see all his children walking with him 
 to the same sanctuary ; but O ! that is a mere trifle 
 compared with the solemn matter of seeing them saved. 
 And, once more, though Paul did get them all saved, 
 yet he did not ask God to save them without means ; 
 nor did it please God to do so either, for though the 
 means were contemptible, yet they were means — ' ' Some 
 on boards, and some on broken pieces ; and so it came to 
 pass that they escaped all safe to land." O, we must 
 try to put the " boards and broken pieces of the ship" 
 in the way of those we wish to be saved. We must try 
 to give them a plank to swim to shore on in our earnest 
 instructions, and our indefatigable exertions to bring 
 them to know the Lord. 
 
 Now, dear friends, having pointed the arrow, I 
 will try to shoot it. Surely you, who love the Lord 
 yourselves, will take up this matter from this time 
 forth, and ask the Lord to give you all them that sail 
 with you. 
 
The Cliurch the Woi-IiFs Hope, 55 
 
 III. As we shoakl ask for all, so we should labour for 
 the conversion of all that sail with us. 
 
 There were two Athenians who were to be employed 
 by the republic in some great work. The first one had 
 great gifts of speech ; he stood up before the Athenian 
 populace and addressed them, describing the style in 
 which the work should be done and depicting his own 
 qualifications and the congratulations with which they 
 would receive him when they saw how beautifully he 
 had finished all their designs. The next workman had 
 no powers of speech, so, standing up before the Athenian 
 assembly, he said, " I cannot speak, but all that So-and- 
 so has said, I will do." They chose him— wisely chose 
 liini — believing he would be a man of deeds, while the 
 other might probably be a man of words. Now if you 
 are men of deeds you will be the best men. He tliat 
 only prays for a thing, but does not work for it, is like 
 the"^ workman that could talk well. He that can work 
 as well as pray is the best workman to be employed in 
 the Master's service. 
 
 It may be you will say, "But what am I to do? 
 How can I be the means of saving all them that sail 
 with me f ' AVell, the first thing you can do is to begin 
 early with good advice. Paul gave his advice before 
 they set sail. As soon as ever your children can under- 
 stand anything, let them know about Christ. Begin 
 early. A certain minister called some time ago to see 
 a mother, having heard that a child about twelve years 
 old was dead. The mother was in very deep distress, 
 and the pastor was not at all surprised at that. He talked 
 to her about the Lord's giving and the Lord's taking 
 away, when she suddenly stopped him and said, '* Yes, 
 
56 Chmstian Energy, 
 
 sir, I know tlie consolations which may be offered to a 
 mother who has lost her child, and I appreciate them 
 all ! but I have a sting that you cannot remove. There 
 is a venom in my gi'ief that you cannot cure." He asked 
 her what thatw^as. Said she, "I have had it on my con- 
 science to speak to my boy solemnly and privately about 
 his soul for this last year past, but my deceitful heart 
 has always said, ' Do it to-morrow ;' and I thought" — 
 (here she burst into tears, — the pastor had to wait 
 awhile till she could resume her story) — "I thought 
 that, as his mind was opening, and he was twelve years 
 of age, I w^ould now do it. Yesterday morning I meant 
 to do it — the veiy morning he took ill I thought I 
 would do it, and w^hen I heard him say that he had a 
 headache I was glad of it, thinking that while I was 
 soothing him he would be more ready to hear a mother's 
 w^ords; but, oh, sir, before I had an opportunity of 
 speaking to him he was much worse, and I had to take 
 him to bed ; and w^hen he was in bed he fell asleep. I 
 sent for the physician, but my child had soon fallen into 
 unconsciousness, and he was shortly after removed from 
 me ; he has gone before God, and I never solemnly and 
 privately talked to him about his soul. That is a grief 
 you cannot remove." Oh, mothers and fathers, never 
 have that sting ! Your children may die : begin with 
 them now, that they may not die before you have had 
 an opportunity of telling them the way of salvation.. 
 But after having given this early advice you must not 
 think the work is done. Yom' boy may forget it. He 
 may turn out a wild youth, and run quite away from 
 you; but do continue in prayer. And let me say to 
 you, do continue in family prayer. I do think, if we 
 
The Churcli the WorltCs Hope. 57 
 
 should look into those cases -where the sous aud 
 daughters of Christian people turn out badly, it would 
 be found to be usually the parents' own fault. I think 
 you would find they neglect to pray with their children. 
 Oh, dear friends, there can be no ordinance more likely 
 to be blest than that heavenly institution of family 
 prayer, when you can gather together, and, in the 
 presence of the child, pray for his soul, and mother and 
 father can unite hearts together in the desire that their 
 offspring may live before God. Paul continued to pray. 
 Take you Paul's example, and you may hope to see 
 God give you all them that sail with you. 
 
 And then remember, dear friends, if you would have 
 your children saved, there is something you must not do. 
 If Paul had prayed for these people, and then had gone 
 down below into the hold with an auger, and had begun 
 boring holes in the ship, you would have said, "Oh, it is 
 no use that scoundrel praying, for see, he is scuttling 
 the ship ; he is praying to God to save them, and then 
 going straight and doing the mischief." You parents 
 that are inconsistent — you mothers that don't keep your 
 promises — you fathers that talk as you ought not to talk 
 — especially careless, prayerless parents, I do not ask 
 you to pray for your children. Pray for yourselves first. 
 It were an awful mockery to talk about seeini^ your 
 children go to heaven. You are dragging them to hell 
 — you are dragging them to hell now. You may think 
 that your son will not swear. Why not swear, if the 
 father does? Do you think the young cubs will not 
 roar if the old lion sets the example ? Of course they 
 will. You will see your children multiplied images of 
 your own iniquity. Let our conduct be consistent ; let. 
 
58 Christian Energy, 
 
 our every-day life be pure and holy: so sliall we hope to 
 see our children and our connections saved. And I do 
 think, dear friends, as the Apostle Paul was very- 
 anxious to point them the way in which they might be 
 sayed, telling them that the sailors must abide in the 
 ship, and they must do this and that, so we should be 
 very careful to explain to our children, neighbours, and 
 connections, the way of salvation ; and I think we 
 ought to do this, as much as possible, in private ways. 
 I will tell you an anecdote : — A good bishop of the 
 ^lethodist Church, Bishop Arsbury, in travelling on 
 horseback through South Carolina, about a hundred 
 years ago, saw a negro sitting quite close by the edge of 
 a forest, fishinoj with a line. This netjro was an old 
 man, called Punch, well known for his dissolute conduct 
 and his filthy speech. The bishop, as soon as he saw 
 him, proceeded deliberately to dismount, tied his horse 
 up to a tree, and went and sat down by the bank, letting 
 his feet hang over the edge, like Punch. Finding that 
 the negro was willing to talk, and pleased with his affa- 
 bility, he began to talk to him about his soul's concern. 
 He told him about the ruin of the fall, about the result 
 of sin, about the Redeemer, about faith, and about the 
 sweet invitations of Christ to the sinner to come to him 
 and live. Punch had never heard anything like it ; and 
 when the bishop had done, he said, '^ Now I will sing 
 you a song," for Punch was mightily fond of songs, and 
 he sang with him that hymn beginning : — 
 
 " Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 
 We helpless sinners lay, 
 Without one struggling beam of hope, 
 Or spark of gleaming daj. 
 
The Church the World's Hope. 59 
 
 AA^ith pitying eyes the Prince of Peace 
 
 Beheld our helpless grief", 
 He saw — and, oh, amazing love ! — 
 
 He ran to our relief. 
 
 Down from the shining seats above, 
 
 With joyful haste he fled, 
 Entered the grave in mortal flesh, 
 
 And dwelt among the dead." 
 
 When lie had sung through the hymn, he went on his 
 liorse and resumed his journey as a bishop shoukl do 
 liaving done his work. The negro went home and 
 masticated and digested this, and if you had been on 
 the plantation some months after, you woukl have seen 
 the poor old hut where the negro lived crowded full of 
 the poor neglected sons of Africa ; and who was preach- 
 ing? Why, the negro that was fishing by the river's 
 bank, had now become a fisher of souls. Months w^ent 
 on; the holy flame had begun to spread ; the overseer 
 was alarmed; and he went down to Punch's cabin to 
 put a stop to it. Punch was preaching. He stopped 
 outside to listen to what was said : conviction pierced his 
 heart. He w^ent in ; he fell on his knees, and joined in 
 prayer; and throughout that province the gospel 
 mightily spread and prevailed. O, what you might 
 do, dear friends, if you would talk like this ! You men 
 and women —you do not need to be preachers in order 
 to do good. I don't know — but I can think — why the 
 devil ever invented pulpit gowns and bibs, and all that 
 sort of distinction between clergymen and laymen. I 
 am no clergyman. I know of nothing of the kind. 
 There is no such distinction in the New Testament. 
 We are all Christians if we are converted, and there is 
 
60 Christian Energy. 
 
 no distinction in them. We are either brethren in 
 Christ, or else "aliens from the commonwealth of 
 Israel." It is sometimes asked, *' Ought laymen to 
 preach ?" Nonsense ! any man may preach if he has 
 the ability. There are no such things — I do believe 
 in my soul that there is no such thing intended as 
 saying, "There, these people are to preach — these 
 people are to talk of Christ ; and all the rest of you 
 are to hold your tongues and listen." No, no, no! 
 Let every man of you preach ; let every woman 
 among you in her own sphere, talk, and tell of what 
 the Lord has done for her soul ! I do believe it is the 
 invention of Satan — I repeat it — to lift up some few 
 above the rest, and say, "Only some of you are to fight 
 the Lord's battles." Up, guards, and at them! not your 
 colonels only, but every man in the ranks — not here 
 and there a lieutenant, but every man ! " England 
 expects every man " — not the captains merely, but 
 every man — ^' to do his duty ;" and Christ expects 
 every man — not here and there one that is paid for 
 doing it — the minister— but every man — to tell what 
 God has done for his soul. Do you this, and who can 
 tell what good may come of it ? 
 
 Still — and here I shall conclude — never be satisfied 
 without clinching the whole work with prayer. You 
 see, Paul did not get those that were in the ship by his 
 works. God gave them to him. Everything is of 
 grace. Paul may pray, and Paul may preach, but 
 Paul does not purchase. That is Christ's work. God 
 gives — gi^ es freely ; and if you see friends and connec- 
 tions saved it must be the gift of God's grace to you. 
 Just as much as your own salvation was God's gift to 
 
The CJiurcli the WoMs Hope. 61 
 
 3'ou, so the salvation of friends and dependents must be 
 a gift from God to you. What then? Be much in 
 prayer. I wisli some of you motliers Avould meet 
 together sometimes and pray for your chihlren. I 
 think it would be a noble thing for a dozen of you, 
 perhaps, to come together only for prayer, if any of you 
 have got unconverted children. And you fathers 
 sometimes, when you meet, if you have children who 
 have not yielded to divine grace, couldn't you say, 
 "Come, friend So-and-so, you and I have got the same 
 burden ; let us bear it together" ? Just at the back of 
 that hoarding there, while this place was in building, 
 there w^as a prayer breathed one night by two souls, 
 that God w^ould bless this place. There were only two, 
 and nobody knew that that supplication went up to 
 heaven ; and I, for one, have felt strengthened by their 
 prayer ever since. It w^as but a ^' chance" meetmg, as 
 we say. It was night, and they both looked in at the 
 same time, and met each other. "Ah, friend So-and- 
 so," said one, " let us go up yonder, in a quiet nook, 
 and pray, * God bless the Tabernacle.' '' And God has 
 blessed it, and w^ill bless it still. Now, you may all 
 of you do something like that. I was walking down 
 the Old Kent-road one day, and I w^as met by an 
 excellent clergyman not now in this neighbourhood. 
 He said to me, " Our places are close to one another, 
 but w^e don't often meet; come in and pray." We 
 entered his house, walked across the hall into the 
 library, and there down w^ent the two ministers. One 
 prayed, and then the other prayed. We then rose, 
 shook hands, and parted. It took us but ten minutes, 
 but it was worth I know not how much to us both. 
 
62 Christian Energy. 
 
 We went to our work refreshed, for we had been with 
 God. When we meet for this purpose God w^ill be 
 with us, and he will give us all that are in the ship if 
 we will but ask him ; for it is by prayer, prayer, prayer, 
 that we shall prevail. Let us wrestle and agonise until 
 he gives us our desire. 
 
 Ah ! there may be some of you that are praying for 
 yourselves, but have not got the answer yet. There 
 was a mother who went to hear George AVhitefield 
 preach — that mighty man of God. After the sermon 
 w^as over the mother was convinced of sin. In deep 
 anguish of spirit she went home. Her husband was 
 dead, and she had only a little girl, and having no one 
 else to talk to, she told the girl about her convictions. 
 The little girl — you will think it strange perhaps — under 
 the recital was made to feel the same. Mother and child 
 wept together under the same sense of sin. Upstairs 
 they went and prayed. They neither of them found 
 peace for some months ; but it pleased God at last to, 
 give mother and child, who had prayed together, peace 
 at the same time. While the mother was rejoicing, the 
 child, just like a babe in grace, said, "Mother, O what 
 a joyful thing it is to be pardoned ! What a blessed 
 thing it is to be saved ! I would like to run and tell 
 our neighbours." '^No," said the mother, "that would 
 not be wise, child : they don't care about these things ; 
 they would not understand ; they would laugh at you ; 
 and we must not cast pearls before swine. We will do 
 it by-and-by." '* But, mother," said the child, "I can't 
 leave it : I do feel so happy, mother, I must tell some- 
 body; so I will just run across the street to the 
 shoemaker, and tell him." The shoemaker was at 
 
Tlie Church the World's Hope* 63 
 
 work with Ills lapstone, and the Httlc one hegan with 
 saying, "Do you know you are a sinner? I am a 
 sinner, but I am a pardoned sinner. I liave been seek- 
 inor Christ and I have found him." She then set forth 
 the tale Avith tears in her eyes, till the shoemaker set 
 down his hammer to listen, and stopped his work awhile. 
 lie became converted, and the story was told abroad, 
 and through the conversion of that man the work 
 spread, a meeting was established, and the means of 
 gi'ace were soon set up, and there arose a flourishing 
 church in that town, where not a believer in Christ had 
 been known to live before. Ah ! you young converts, 
 you may tell the tale ; even you that are under convic- 
 tion of sin — you may tell it to your children. Do not 
 hesitate to let the light shine, I pray you — any of you ; 
 but I do conjure you by the blood and by the wounds 
 of him who was crucified for our sins — by him that 
 lived and died for us, never to cease praying till God 
 gives you all them that sail with you. O ! my dear 
 friends, pray for the congregations that come to the 
 Tabernacle. Make this to be the burden of your never- 
 ceasing cry — "Give us all them that sail with us!'' 
 The Lord hear our prayers, and add his blessing on 
 our labours, for Christ's sake I Amen. 
 
l\\tn ^mh, 
 
 ^ I drew them with cords of a man, -with bands of love." — 
 
 HosEA xi. 4. 
 
 O man ever does come to God unless he is 
 drawn. There is no better proof that man 
 is totally depraved, than that he needs to be 
 effectually called. Man is so utterly *^ dead 
 in trespasses and sins," that the same divine 
 power which provided a Saviour must make 
 him w^illing to accept a Saviour, or else 
 sared he never will be. You see a ship upon the stocks. 
 She is finished and complete. She cannot move herself, 
 however, into the water. You see a tree ; it is growing ; 
 it brings forth branch, leaf, and fruit, but it cannot 
 fashion itself into a ship. Now if the finished ship can 
 do nothing, much less the untouched log ; and if the 
 tree, w^hich hath life, can do nothing, much less that 
 piece of timber out of which the sap has long since gone. 
 " Without me ye can do nothing," is true of believers, 
 but it is just as true, and with a profounder emphasis, of 
 those who have not believed in Jesus. They must be 
 drawn, or else to God they never will come. But many 
 make a mistake about Divine drawings. They seem to 
 fancy that God takes men by the hair of their heads, 
 
Silken Cords, 65 
 
 and drags tliem to heaven, whether they will or not ; and 
 that when the time comes they will, by some irresistible 
 power, without any exercise of thought or reasoning, be 
 compelled to be saved. Such people understand neither 
 man nor God ; for man is not to be compelled in this 
 way. He is not a being so controlled. 
 
 " Convince a man against bis will, ^ 
 
 He's of the same opinion still." 
 
 As the old proverb says, one man may bring a horse 
 to the water, but twenty men cannot make him drink ; 
 so a man may be brought to know what repentance is, 
 and to understand what Christ is, but no man can make 
 another man lay hold upon Christ. Nay, God himself 
 doth not do it by compulsion^ He hath respect unto 
 niAi as a reasoning creature. God never acteth with 
 men as though they were blocks of wood, or senseless 
 stones. Having made them men, he doth not violate 
 their manhood. Having determined by man to glorify 
 himself, he uses means to show forth his glory — not 
 such as are fit for beasts, or for inanimate nature, but 
 such as are adapted to the constitution of man. My 
 text says as much as this — -'^I drew them with cords; " 
 not the cords that are fit for bullocks, but " with the 
 cords of a man." Not the cart-ropes with which men 
 would draw a cart, but the cords wdth which a man 
 would draw a man; and, as if to explain himself, he 
 puts it — '^I drew them with bands of love." Love 
 is that power which acts upon man. There must be 
 loving appeals to the different parts of his nature, and 
 so he shall be constrained by sovereign grace. Under- 
 stand, then, it is true that no man comes to God except 
 he is di'awn ; but it is equally true that God di-aweth no 
 
 5 
 
^Q Christian Energy, 
 
 man contrary to the constitution of man, but liis methods 
 of drawing are in strict accordance with mental opera- 
 tions. He finds the human mind what it is, and he acts 
 upon it, not as upon matter, but as upon mind. The 
 compulsions, the constraints, the cords that he uses, are 
 cords of a man. The bands he employs are bands of 
 love. 
 
 This is clear enough. Now I am about to try — and 
 may the Lord enable me — to show you some of these 
 cords, these bands, which the Lord fastens round the 
 sinners' hearts. I may be the means in his hands of 
 putting these cords round you, but I cannot pull them 
 after they are on. It is one thing to put the rope on, but 
 another thing to draw with all one's might at that rope. 
 So it may be we shall introduce the arguments, and^by 
 the prayers of the faithful now present, God will be 
 pleased, in his infinite mercy, to pull these cords, and 
 then your soul will be sweetly drawn, with full consent, 
 with the blessed yielding of your will, to come and lay 
 hold upon eternal Hfe. 
 
 Some are drawn to Christ by seeing the happiness of 
 true believers. 
 
 A believer is the happiest being out of heaven. In 
 some respects he is superior to an angel, for he hath a 
 brighter hope and a grander destiny than even cherubim 
 and seraphim can know. He is one with Christ, which 
 an angel never was. He is a son, and has the spirit of 
 adoption in him, which a cherub never had. There 
 are some Christians who show this happiness in their 
 lives. Watch them, and you will always find them 
 cheerful. If for a moment a cloud should pass over 
 their brow, it Is but for a moment, and soon they rejoice 
 
Silken Cords. 67 
 
 iigain. I know such people, and glad am I to think 
 that I ever came across their pathway. Wherever they 
 go they make sunshine. Into whatever company they 
 come, it is as if an angel shook his wings. Let them 
 talk when they may, it is always for the comfort of 
 others, with kindness upon their lips, and the law of 
 love upon their hearts. Some young persons, watching 
 such Christians as these, are led to say, " I wish I were 
 as happy, I wish I were as joyful, as they are ; they 
 .always have a smile upon their face." And I do not 
 doubt that many have been brought to lay hold on 
 Jesus, being drawn by that cord of love. And, oh ! let 
 me say to you, dear friend, it is a most fitting cord with 
 which to draw you ; for if you would know the sweets 
 of life, if you would have peace like a river, if you 
 would have a peace that shall be with you in the morn- 
 ing, and go with you into your business — that shall be 
 with you at night, and close your eyes in tranquil 
 slumber; a peace that shall enable you to live, and shall 
 strengthen you in the prospect of death — nay, that shall 
 make you sing in the midst of the black and chill stream 
 — be a Christian. My testimony is, that if I had to die 
 like a dog ; if this life were all, and there were no here- 
 after, I would prefer to be a Christian for the joy and 
 peace which, in this present life, godliness will afford. 
 Godliness with contentment is great gain. It hath the 
 promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which 
 is to come. Thou wouldst be happy, young man ; then 
 do not kill thy happiness. Thou wouldst have a bright 
 eye; then do not put it out. Thou wouldst rejoice 
 with joy unspeakable ; then do not go into those places 
 where sorrow is sure to follow thine every act. Wouldst 
 
68 Christian Energy. 
 
 tliou be happy, come to Jesus, Let this cord of love- 
 sweetly draw thee. 
 
 Another cord of love — it was the one which brought 
 me to the Saviour — is the sense of the security of God's 
 people, and a desire to be as secure as they. I do not 
 know w^hat may be the peculiarity of my constitution,, 
 but safe things always have I loved. I have not, that I 
 know of, one grain of speculation in my nature. Safe 
 things — things that I can see to be made of rock, and 
 that will bear the test of time, 1 lay hold on with 
 a\ddity. I was reasoning thus in my boyish spirit: 
 — Scripture tells me that he that believeth in Christ 
 shall never perish. Then, if I believe in Jesus, I shall 
 be safe for time and for eternity too. There will be no 
 fear of my ever being in hell ; I shall run no risk as to 
 my eternal state ; that will be secure for ever. I shall 
 have the certainty that when my eyes are closed in 
 death, I shall see the face of Christ, and behold him in 
 glory. Whenever I heard the doctrine of the final 
 preservation of the saints preached, my mouth used to 
 water to be a child of God. When I heard the old 
 saints sing that hymn — 
 
 " My name from the palms of his hands 
 
 Eternity cannot erase ; 
 Impressed on his heart it remains, 
 
 In marks of indelible grace. 
 Yes, I to the end shall endure, 
 
 As sure as the earnest is given ; 
 More happy, but not more secure, 
 
 Are the glorified spirits in heaven." — 
 
 my heart was as if it would leap out of this body, and I 
 would cry to God, ^' O that I had a part and lot in such 
 a salvation as that !" Now, young man, what do you 
 
Silken Cords, 69 
 
 ihink of this band of love ? Do you not think there is 
 something reasonable and something powerful in it — to 
 secure yourself against all risk of eternal ruin, and that, 
 by the grace of God, in a moment? '^He that 
 believeth on him is not condemned." " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "• He 
 that believeth and is baptised shall be saved." " I give 
 unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any pluck them out of my hands." What 
 say you to this ? doth not this attract you ? doth not 
 this band draw you? Lord, draw the sinner — draw the 
 sinner by the sweet allurement of security, and let him 
 say, '^ I wdll lay hold on Christ to-night." 
 
 Certain Christians will tell you that they were first 
 drawn to Christ by the holiness of godly relatives, not 
 so much by their happiness as by their holiness. There 
 is an Eastern fable, that a man, wishing to attract all 
 the doves from the neighbouring dove-cotes into his o^vn, 
 took a dove and smeared her wrings with sweet perfume. 
 Away she flew, and all her fellow^ doves observed her, 
 and, attracted by the sweet incense, they flew after her, 
 and the dove-cote was soon full. There are some 
 Christians of that sort. They have had their wings 
 smeared with the precious ointment of likeness to Jesus, 
 and wherever they go — such is their kindness and their 
 consistency; their gentleness and yet their honesty; 
 their lovely spirit and yet their boldness for Jesus, that 
 others take knowledge of them that they have been 
 with Jesus, and they say, '* Where does he dwell, for I 
 would fain see him and love him. too? " I am afraid I 
 cannot attract you, sinner, in such a charming way as 
 that, but I would have you read the lives of godly men. 
 
70 Christian Energy, 
 
 Study the actions, perhaps, of your own mother. Is she- 
 dead ? Then remember ^Yhat she used to be — what her 
 life of devotedness to God was ; and I charge you by 
 the love of God, by her many prayers and tears, by the 
 pity of her soul, and the yearning of her bowels towards 
 you, let your mother's example be one of the cords of a 
 man to draw you towards God. Lord, pull at that 
 cord ! Lord, pull at that cord ! If the cord be round 
 about you, and the Lord pull at it, I will have good 
 hope that you will close with Christ to-night. 
 
 You see, we only show the cord, and then we leave it, 
 hoping that perhaps one or another may be taken by its 
 power. But now for another. We believe that not a 
 few are brought to Christ by gratitude for mercies 
 received. The sailor has escaped from shipwreck, or, 
 perhaps even in the Eiver Thames he has had many a 
 narrow escape for his life. The sportsman has had his 
 gun burst in his hand, and yet he has been himself un- 
 harmed. The traveller has escaped from a terrific 
 railway accident, himself picked out of the debris of the 
 broken carriages unhurt. The parent has seen his 
 children, one after another, laid upon a bed of sickness 
 with fever, but yet they have all been spared; or he 
 himself has had loss upon loss in business, till at last it 
 seemed as if a crash must come ; but just then God 
 interposed in a gracious Providence, and forthwith a 
 strong tide of prosperity set in. Some have thought over 
 these things and said, ^'Is God so good to me, and shall 
 I not love him ? Shall I live every day despising him 
 who thus tenderly watches over me, and graciously 
 provides for my wants ? " O I sirs, methinks this cord 
 of love ought to fall about some of you. How good haS' 
 
Silken Cords. 71 
 
 God been to you, dear hearer. I will not tell your case 
 out in public ; but when you have sometimes talked with 
 a friend, you have said, '^ How graciously has Provi- 
 dence dealt wdth me !" Give the Lord thy heart, young 
 man. Thou canst do no less for such favour as he has 
 shown thee. Mother, give Jesus thy heart; he well 
 deserves it, for he has spared it from being broken. 
 Woman, consecrate — may the Lord help thee to do it ! — 
 consecrate thy heart's warmest affections to him who 
 hath thus generously dealt with thee in Providence. 
 He deserves it, doth he not ? Wilt thou be guilty of 
 ingratitude ? Is there not something in thee that says 
 — *^ Stay no longer an enemy to so kind a friend ; be 
 reconciled ; be reconciled to God by the death of his 
 Son " ? May that cord lay hold of some of you, and 
 may God draw it, and so attract you to himself. 
 
 Persons whose characteristic is thinking rather than 
 loving are often caught by another cord. I do not 
 know what may be your mode of thinking of things, 
 but it strikes me, if I had not laid hold of Christ now, 
 if anybody should meet me and say, — " The religion of 
 Christ is the most reasonable religion in the world," I 
 should lend him my ear for a little time, and ask him to 
 show^ it me. I have frequently caught the ears of 
 travellers, and held them fast bound, when I have tried 
 to show the entire reasonableness of the plan of salvation. 
 God is ju5t. That is granted. If God be just, sin must 
 be punished. That is clear. How can God be just, 
 and yet not punish the sinner ? There is the question. 
 The gospel answers that question. It declares that 
 Christ the Son of God became a man ; that he stood in 
 the room, place, and stead of such men as were chosen 
 
*^ Christian Energy. 
 
 of God to be saved. These men may be known by their 
 believing in Christ. Christ stood, then, in the place and 
 stead of those whom I will now call believers. He 
 suffered at God's hand everything that was due to God 
 from them. Nay, he did more. Inasmuch as they 
 were bound to keep God's law, but could not do it, 
 Christ kept it for them; and now, what Christ did 
 becomes theirs by an act of faith. They trust Christ 
 to save them. Christ's sufferings are put in the stead 
 of their being sent to hell, and they are justly delivered 
 from their sins. Christ's righteousness is put in the 
 stead of their keeping the law of God, and they are justly 
 rewarded with a place in Paradise, as if they had them- 
 selves been perfectly holy. Now, it strikes me that 
 that looks reasonable enough. In everyday life we see 
 the same thing done. A man is drawn for the mihtia; 
 he pays for a substitute, and he himself goes free. A 
 man owes a debt ; some friend comes in and discharo-es 
 the bill for him, and he himself is clear. The ends'^of 
 justice are answered through substitution. Now, there 
 seems to me to be something so unique about the 
 whole affair of God taking the place of man, and God's 
 suffering in man's form for man that justice may by no 
 means be marred, that my reason falls dovm at the feet 
 of this great mystery and cries, " I would have an 
 interest in it; Lord, let me be one of those for whom 
 Jesus died; let me have the peace which springs from a 
 complete atonement wrought out by Jesus Christ." My 
 brother, I wish I could draw thee with this ; but I can-, 
 not. I can only show thee this cord and tell thee how 
 well it would draw thee. If thou rejectest it, thy blood 
 shall be upon thine own head. I know too well thou 
 
silken Cords, 73 
 
 wilt reject it, unless the miglity hand of God shall begin 
 to tug at that band of love and draw thee to Jesus. 
 
 A far larger number, however, are doubtless attracted 
 to Jesus by a sense of his exceeding great love. It is 
 not so much the reasonableness of the atonement as the 
 love of God which shines in it which seems to attract 
 many souls. There once lived in the city of London, 
 in the days of Queen Mary, a rich merchant, a man 
 of generous spirit, a Lollard, one of those who were 
 subjected to fine, and imprisonment, and death for the 
 truth's sake. Near him there lived a miserable cobbler 
 — a poor, mean, despicable creature. The merchant, for 
 some reason unknown, had taken a very great liking to 
 the poor cobbler, and was in the habit of giving him all 
 his work to do, and recommending him to many friends. 
 And as this man would not always work as he should, 
 when the merchant saw his family in any need, he 
 would send them meat from his own table, and fre- 
 quently he clothed his children. Well, notwith- 
 standing that he had acted thus, had often advanced 
 him sums of money, and had acted with great kind- 
 ness, a reward was offered to any one who would 
 betray a Lollard, or would discover such person or 
 persons as read the Bible, to the magistrates. The 
 cobbler, to obtain this reward, went to the magis- 
 trates and betrayed the merchant. As God would have 
 it, how^ever, through some skilful advocate, the merchant 
 escaped. He forgave — freely forgave — the cobbler, and 
 never said a word to him about it; but in the streets the 
 cobbler would always turn his head the other way, and 
 try to get out of the way of the man whom he felt he 
 had so grievously ill-treated. Still the merchant never 
 
 i^ 
 
7'^ Clinstian Energy, 
 
 altered his treatment of him, but sent him meat as 
 usual, and attended to his wife and children if they 
 were sick, the same as before ; but he never could get 
 the cobbler to give him a good word. If he did speak, 
 It was to abuse him. One day, in a very, very narrow 
 lane in the city— for the streets were narrow, and 
 narrower still were the lanes— the merchant saw the 
 cobbler coming, and he thought, "Now is my time; he 
 cannot pass me now without facing me." Of course 
 the cobbler gi-ew very red in the face, and made up his 
 mind that if the merchant should begin to upbraid him 
 he would answer him in as saucy a manner as possible. 
 But when the merchant came close to him, he said, " I 
 am very sorry that you shun me ; I have no ill-will 
 towards you ; I would do anything for you or for your 
 family, and nothing would give me greater pleasure 
 than to be friends with you." The cobbler stopped, 
 and presently a moisture suffused his eyes ; and anon 
 a flood of tears poured down his cheeks, and he said,— 
 *a have been such a base wretch to you that I hated you, 
 for I thought that you never would forgive me ; I have 
 always shunned you, but when you talk to me like this, I 
 cannot be your enemy any longer. Pray, sir, assure 
 me of your forgiveness." Forthwith he began to fall 
 upon his knees. That was the way to draw him with the 
 cords of love, and w^ith the bands of a man. And in a 
 nobler sense, this is just what Jesus Christ has done for 
 sinners. He has offered you mercy; he has proclaimed 
 to you eternal life, and you reject it. Every day he 
 gives you of his bounties, makes you to feed at the table 
 of his Providence, and clothes you with the livery of his 
 generosity. And yet, after all this, some of you curse 
 
Silken Cords, 75 
 
 him ; you break lils Sabbaths ; you despise his name ; 
 you are his enemies. And yet, what does he say to 
 you ? He loves you still ; he follows you, not to 
 rebuke you, but to woo, and to entreat you to come 
 to him, and have him for a friend. Can you hold 
 out against my Master's wounds ? Can you stand out 
 against his bloody sweat ? Can you resist his passion ? 
 O ! can you ? By the name of him who bowed his head 
 upon the tree — who cried, " My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me ? " — can you hold out against 
 him ? If he had not died for me, I think I must love 
 him for dying for other people. But he has died for 
 you; you may know this if you trust him now with 
 your soul, just as you are. This is the evidence that he 
 died for you. Oh ! may God enable you to trust Jesus 
 now, di'awing you with this band of love, this cord of a 
 man. 
 
 There are many more cords, but my strength fails 
 me, and therefore I will mention but one more. 
 
 The privileges which a Christian enjoys ought to di'aw 
 some of you to Christ. Do you know what will take 
 place in these aisles to-night if the Holy Spirit should 
 lead a sinner to Christ ? I will tell you. I will tell 
 you. There he stands. He is as vile a sinner as walks 
 this earth. He knows it; he is wretched; he has a 
 burden on his back. If that man is led to look to 
 Christ to-night, his sins will roll off from him at once ; 
 they will roll into the sepulchre of Jesus, and be buried, 
 and never have a resurrection. In a moment he will 
 be clothed from head to foot with white raiment. The 
 kiss of a Father's love shall be upon his cheek, and the 
 seal of the Spirit's witness shall be fixed upon his brow. 
 
76 Christian Energy, 
 
 He shall be made, to-night, a child of God, a joint-heir 
 with Christ. He shall be shod with the preparation of 
 the gospel of peace. He shall be clothed with the 
 righteousness of Jesus. He shall go to his house, not 
 wretched, but as though he could dance for joy the 
 whole way home. And when he gets home, it may 
 be never so poor a cottage, but it will look brighter 
 than it ever did before. His children he will look 
 upon as jewels entrusted to his care, instead of being 
 burdens, as he once said they were. His very trials 
 he will come to thank God for ; while his ordinary 
 mercies will be sweetened and made very dear to him. 
 The man, instead of leading a life like a hell upon 
 earth, will live a life like heaven begun below; and 
 all this shall take place in an instant. Nay, that is 
 not all. The effect of this night's work shall tell 
 throughout his entire life. He shall be a new creature 
 in Christ Jesus ; so that when the time shall come that 
 his hair is grey, and he must lay stretched upon his 
 bed and breathe out his last, he shall in his last 
 moments look back upon a path that has been lit with 
 the grace of God, and look forward across the black 
 river to an eternity in which the glory of God shall 
 shine forth with as great a fulness as a creature can 
 endure. This is enough, surely, to tempt a sinner to 
 come to Jesus. This must be a strong cord to draw 
 him. O man ! Jesus will accept you ; he will accept 
 you now, just as you are. Thousands he has received 
 like you ; let heaven's music witness to the fact. Thou- 
 sands like you he receiveth still. Some of us can bear 
 our testimony to that. Come and welcome, then ; come 
 and welcome. Never mind thy rags, prodigal ; a Father^s 
 
Silken Cords, 77 
 
 hand will take them off ; never mind thy filth ; never 
 mind thy having fed the swine. Come as thou art; come 
 just now. 
 
 I hear somebody saying, '^Well! I am inclined to 
 come, but I do not know what it means.'' To come, 
 then, is to trust. You have been trying to save your- 
 self. Do not try any more. You have been going to 
 church, or going to chapel, and you have been trying to 
 keep the commandments ; but you cannot keep them. 
 No man ever did keep them, and no man ever will keep 
 them. You have been, in fact, like a prisoner who has 
 hard labour. You have been walking upon the tread- 
 mill in order to get to the stars, and you are not an 
 inch higher. After all you have done, you are just 
 where you were. Now, leave this off ; have done with 
 it. Christ did keep the law ; let his keeping it stand in 
 the stead of your keeping it. Christ did suffer the 
 anger of God; let his sufferings stand to you in the 
 stead of your sufferings. Take him now, just as you 
 are, and believe that he can save you — nay, that he will 
 save you — and trust him to do it. It is all the gospel I 
 have to preach. Very seldom do I finish a sermon 
 without going over this simple matter of trusting Christ. 
 There are some, perhaps, who inquire for something new. 
 I cannot give it to you ; I have not got anything new, 
 but only the same old tale over and over again. Trust 
 Christ and you are saved. We have heard in our church- 
 meetings, that, on several occasions, when at the close 
 of the sermon I have merely said as much as that, it has 
 been enough to lead sinners into life and peace ; and, 
 therefore, we will keep on at it. My heart yearns to 
 bring some of you to Christ to-night, but I know not 
 
78 Christian Energy, 
 
 what arguments to use with you. You surely do not 
 wish to be damned. Surely you cannot make the cal- 
 culation that the short pleasures of this world are worth 
 an eternity of torment. But damned you must be 
 except you lay hold on Christ. Doth not this cord 
 draw you? Surely you want to be in heaven. You 
 have some desire toward that better land in the realms 
 of the hereafter. But you cannot be there except you 
 lay hold on Christ. Will not this cord of love draw 
 you? Surely it would be a good thing to get rid of 
 fears, and suspense, and doubt, and anxiety. It would 
 be a good thing to be able to lay your head on your 
 pillow, and say, "I do not care whether I wake or 
 not ; " to go to sea, and reckon it a matter of perfect 
 indifference whether you reach land or no. Nay, 
 sometimes the wish with us to depart preponderates 
 over that of remaining here. Do you not wish for 
 that? But you can never have it except by laying 
 hold on Christ. Will not this draw you ? My dear 
 hearers, you whose faces I look upon every Sunday, 
 and into whose ears this poor, diy voice has spoken so 
 many hundreds of times, we do not wish to be parted. 
 I know that to some of you this is the very happiest, as 
 well as the holiest spot you ever occupied. You love to 
 be here. I am glad you do, and I am glad to see you. 
 I do not like to be separated from you. When any of 
 you remove to other towns, it gives me pain to lose your 
 faces. I hope we shall not be separated in the world to 
 come. My beloved friends around me, who have been 
 in Christ these many years — you also love them. We 
 do not wish to be divided. I would like that all this 
 ship's company should meet on the other side of the 
 
Silken Cords, 79 
 
 sea. I do not know one among you that I could spare. 
 I would not like to miss you who sit yonder, nor any of 
 you who sit near ; neither the youngest nor the oldest 
 of you. Well, but we cannot meet in heaven unless we 
 meet in Jesus Christ. We cannot meet father, and 
 mother, and pastor, and friends, unless we have a good 
 hope through Jesus Christ our Lord. Will not that 
 cord of love draw you ? Mother, from the battlements 
 of heaven a little angel is looking down to-night, beckon- 
 ing with his finger. He is looking out for you, and 
 he is saying, " Mother, follow your babe to heaven." 
 Father, your daughter charged you as she died, to give 
 your heart to Christ, and from her seat in heaven her 
 charge comes down to you with as great force as it 
 came from her sick bed, I trust, " Follow me, follow me 
 to heaven." Friends who have gone before — godly ones 
 who have fallen asleep in Jesus — in one chorus, say to 
 you, '' Come up hither ; come up hither, for we without 
 you cannot be made perfect." Will not this band of 
 love draw you ? O ! will not this cord of a man lay 
 hold upon you, and bring you to the Saviour's feet? 
 The Lord grant it may ; but as I have said, I can 
 only show the cords. It is his to pull them; and 
 they will be pulled if the saints will join in earnest 
 prayer, invoking a blessing upon sinners. The Lord 
 do it, for his love's sake. Amen. 
 
^Ip ^i|tt4 ^l«t tfl f «a#%. 
 
 " Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through 
 this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." — Acts xiii. 38. 
 
 K^^^^ AXIL'S mode of preaching, as illustrated by 
 this chapter, was first of all to appeal to the 
 understanding with a clear exposition of 
 doctrinal truth, and then to impress that 
 truth upon the emotions of his hearers with 
 earnest and forcible exhortations. This is an 
 excellent model for revivalists. They must 
 not give exhortation without doctrine, for if so, they 
 will be like men who are content with burning powder 
 in their guns, but have omitted the shot. It is the 
 doctrine we preach, the truth we deliver, which God 
 will make a power to bless men. However earnest and 
 zealous we may be in speaking, if we have not some- 
 thing weighty and solid to say, we shall appear to be 
 earnest about nothing, and shall not be at all likely to 
 create a lasting impression. Paul, if you notice, through 
 this chapter, first of all gives the history of redemption, 
 tells the story of the cross, insists upon the resun'ection 
 of the Saviour, and then he comes to close and personal 
 dealings with the souls of men, and warns them not to 
 neglect this great salvation. 
 
The True Aim of Preaching. 81 
 
 At the same time it was not all doctrine and no ex- 
 hortation, but or ever Paul wound up his discourse and 
 left the synagogue, he made a strenuous, pointed, per- 
 sonal appeal to those who had listened to him. Let 
 such of our brethren as are passionately fond of mere 
 doctrine, but having little of the marrow of divine 
 mercy or the milk of human kindness in their souls, do 
 not care to have the Word pressed upon the consciences 
 of men, stand rebuked by the example of the Apostle 
 Paul. He knew well that even truth itself must be 
 powerless unless applied. Like the wheat in the basket, 
 it can produce no harvest till it be sown broadcast in 
 the furrows. We cannot expect that men will come 
 and make an application of the truth to themselves. 
 Wq must, having our hearts glowing and our souls on 
 iire with love to them, seek to bring the truth to bear 
 upon them personally, to impress it upon their hearts 
 and consciences, as in the sight of God and in the 
 stead of Christ. 
 
 The subject to which Paul drew attention, the target 
 at which he was shooting all his arrows, was forgiveness 
 of sins through the man Christ Jesus. That is the subject 
 to which I now want to address your attention, and 
 when I have spoken upon it as my leading theme, I 
 shall have a few words to add about his audience, and 
 ichat became of them. 
 
 Paul's Subject was superlative — the subject of 
 subjects — the great master-doctrine of the Christian 
 ministry — " Be it known unto you, therefore, men and 
 brethren, that through this man is preached unto you 
 forgiveness of sins.'^ The "forgiveness of sins" is a 
 topic which will be more or less interesting to every 
 
 6 
 
S2 Christian Energy. 
 
 one of my liearers, in proportion as he feels that he has 
 committed sins, the guilt of which appals his 
 conscience. To those good people among you who 
 fold your arms and say, " I have done no ^vi*ong either 
 to God or man," I have nothing to say. You need no 
 physician, for you are not sick. You e\adently would 
 not be thankful for the heavenly eye-salve, for you are 
 not blind. The wealth that Christ can bring you will 
 not induce you to bow the knee to him, for already you 
 think yourselves to be rich and increased in goods. But 
 I shall be quite sure of the ear of the man whose sins 
 have been a burden to him. If there be one here who 
 wants to be reconciled to God, who says with the 
 prodigal, " I will arise and go unto my Father," I shall 
 not need to study how to fit my words ; let them come 
 out as they may, the theme itself will be sure to enlist 
 the attention of such an one, who says — 
 " How can I get my sins forgiven ? 
 How can I find my way to heaven ? " 
 
 While we attempt to tell him that, we shall ensure his 
 attention. 
 
 This is our aim ; and this will we do if God permit. 
 The Christian minister tells men the ground of pardon ; 
 the exclusive method (for there is a monopoly in this 
 matter), the exclusive method by which God will 
 pardon sin. " Through this marif* says the text ; that 
 is to say, God will pardon, but he wall only pardon in 
 one way — through his Son Jesus Christ. The Lord 
 Jesus has a monopoly of mercy. If you will depend 
 upon the uncovenanted mercy of God, the mercy of 
 God apart from Christ, you shall find that you have 
 depended upon a reed, and built youi' house upon the 
 
TJie True Aim of Preacliing. 83 
 
 «and. Into the one silver pipe of the atoning sacrifice 
 God has made to flow the full current of pardoning 
 grace. If you will not go to that, you may be tempted 
 by the mirage, you may think that you can drink to 
 the full, but you shall die disappointed. You must die, 
 unless you come for salvation to Christ. What does he 
 say himself ? "I am the door, by me if any man enter 
 in, he shall go in and out and find pasture." " He that 
 believeth on the Son of God is not condemned, but he 
 that believeth not " — may he go right too % No, he 
 *'is condemned already, because he believeth not." 
 *^ He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." 
 These are Christ's own words, not mine. He that 
 believeth shall be saved, " but he that believeth not shall 
 be " — what ? Pardoned for his unbelief ? No ; " shall 
 he damned ! " There is no alternative. The expression 
 might seem harsh if I were the inventor of it, but as 
 it came from the lips of the man Christ Jesus, who 
 was the gentlest, meekest, and most tender of men, God 
 forbid that I should affect a charity of which the Lord 
 himself made no profession. " He that believeth not 
 shall be damned." God presents mercy to the sons of 
 men, but he has chosen to present it in one channel — 
 through that man who died for sinners, the just for the 
 unjust, that he might bring them to God. 
 
 Wherefore is it that forgiveness comes to us alone 
 through Jesus Christ? The whole economy of re- 
 demption supplies us with an answer. The man 
 Christ Jesus is a divine person. He is the Son of God. 
 You will never doubt that reconciliation is an effect 
 of infinite wisdom, if you once clearly understand the 
 condition that made it requisite. Though his people 
 
84 Christian Energy* 
 
 were objects of God's everlasting love, their sins had 
 kindled his fierce anger, as it were an unquenchable 
 fire. Inasmuch as God is just, he must from the 
 necessity of his nature punish sin. Yet he willed to 
 have mercy upon the fallen sons of men. Therefore it 
 was that Christ came into this world. Being God, he 
 was made man for our sakes. He suffered from the- 
 wrath of God that which we, the offending sinners, 
 ought to have suffered. God exacted from the man 
 Christ Jesus that which he must otherwise have- 
 exacted from us. Upon his dear devoted head was 
 laid the curse ; upon his bare back fell the scourge 
 that must have tortured our souls throughout eternity^ 
 Those hands of his, when nailed to the tree, smarted 
 with our smart. That heart bled with our bleeding.. 
 "The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
 with his stripes we are healed ; surely he hath borne 
 our griefs and carried our sorrows." Substitution, 
 then, is the cause of it all. God will forgive sin,, 
 because the sin which he forgives has been already 
 atoned for by the sufferings of his dear Son. You 
 know, many of you, the story in old Roman history^ 
 of the young man who had violated discipline, and was 
 condemned to die. But his elder brother, a grand old 
 soldier, who had often been to the front in the battles 
 of the Republic, came and exposed his breast and 
 showed his many scars, and exhibited his body covered 
 with the orders and insignia and honours of his 
 countiT, and he said, " I cannot ask life for my brother 
 on account of anything that he has ever done for the 
 Republic; he deserves to die, I know, but I set my 
 scars and my wounds before you as the price of his 
 
21ie True Aim of PreacJdng. 85 
 
 life, and I ask you whether you will not spare him for 
 his brother's sake ; " and with acclamation it was 
 carried that for his brother's sake he should live. 
 Sinner, this is what Christ does for you. He points to 
 his scars, he pleads before the throne of God. " I 
 have suffered the vengeance due to sin; I have 
 honoured thy righteous law ; for my sake have mercy 
 upon that unworthy brother of mine ! " In this way, 
 in no other way, is forgiveness of sins preached to you 
 through this man Christ Jesus. 
 
 It is our business also to preach to you the instrument 
 through which you may obtain this pardon. We read the 
 question in your anxious eyes — ^' Now I can understand 
 that Christ, having stood a substitute, has received from 
 Ood power to pardon human souls, but how can I obtain 
 the benefit ; how can I draw near to him ? " Didst thou 
 never read how Moses described the righteousness of 
 faith ? and Paul has endorsed his description. " Say not 
 in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall 
 descend into the deep ? " Thou hast no call to climb so 
 high or dive so low. " The word is nigh thee, in thy 
 mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith 
 w^hich we preach." Thou hast no need to go home to 
 ^et at Christ. Thou hast no need even to come here 
 to find him. He is accessible at all hours, and in all 
 places — the ever-present Son of God. "But where- 
 withal shall I come to him?" says one. Oh! thou 
 needest not torture thy body ; thou needest not afilict 
 thy soul ; thou needest not bring thy gold and silver ; 
 thou needest not bring even thy tears. All that thou 
 hast to do is to come to him as thou art, and trust in 
 him where thou art. Oh! if thou wilt believe that he 
 
86 Christian Energy. 
 
 is the Son of God, and that he is able to save to the 
 uttermost, and if thou wilt cast thyself upon him with 
 thy whole weight — falling upon him, leaning upon him, 
 resting upon him with that simple recumbency which 
 needs and lacks no other support, thou shalt be saved. 
 Now cling to the cross, thou ship^\Tecked sinner, and 
 thou shalt never go down while clinging to that. Here 
 is the life-belt, and if thou art enabled by the Holy 
 Ghost to put thy sole and simple reliance upon Christy 
 earth's pillars may totter, and the lamps of heaven be 
 extinguished, but thou shalt never perish, neither shall 
 any pluck thee out of Christ's hand. Trust Jesus ; 
 that is the way of salvation. " What ! " says one, " if 
 I trust Christ at this moment, shall I have my sins for- 
 given % " Ay, forgiven now. " What ! if I just rest 
 in Christ, and look to him ? " Even so. " Thy faith 
 hath saved thee ; go in peace." 
 
 " There is life for a look at the crucified one. 
 There is life at this moment for thee ; 
 Then look, sinner, look unto him and be saved, 
 To him who was nailed to the tree ! " 
 
 You will be saved, not by repentings and tears ; not by 
 wailings or w^orkings ; not by doings or prayings ; 
 but coming, believing, simply depending upon what 
 Jesus Christ has done. When thy soul saith by faith 
 what Christ said in fact — " It is finished," thou art 
 saved, and thou may est go thy way rejoicing. 
 
 We have thus preached God's way of pardon, and 
 man's way of getting at God's pardon ; but we are also 
 enjoined to preach about the character of this forgiveness 
 of sin. Never had messengers such happy tidings to 
 deliver. When God pardons a man's sins, he pardons. 
 
The True Aim of Preacliing. 87 
 
 them all. He makes a clean sweep of the whole. God 
 never pardons half a man's sins, and leaves the rest in 
 his book. He has pardon for all sin at once. I believe 
 that virtually before God all the sins of the believer 
 were so laid to the account of Christ, that no sins ever 
 can be laid to the believer's door. The apostle does 
 not say ^' Who does lay anything to the charge of God's 
 elect?" but "Who shall?" as though nobody ever 
 could. I am inclined to think that John Kent's words 
 are literally true — 
 
 " Here's pardon for transgressions past ; 
 It matters not how black their caste ; 
 And, O my soul ! with wonder view, 
 For sins to come there's pardon too ! " 
 
 It is a full pardon. God takes his pen, and writes a 
 receipt. Though the debt may be a hundi'ed talents, 
 he can write it off; or be it ten thousand, the same 
 hand can receipt it. Luther tells us of the devil 
 appearing to him in a dream, and bringing before him 
 the long roll of his sins, and when he recited them, 
 Luther said — "NowwTite at the bottom, ^The blood of 
 Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin ' " — 
 Oh, that blessed word " all" ! — " from all sin " — ^great 
 sins and little sins ; sins of our youth, and sins of our 
 grey hairs ; sins by night and sins by day ; sins of 
 action and passion, sins of deed and thought — all gone I 
 Blessed Saviour ! Precious blood ! Omnipotent Re- 
 deemer I Mighty Eed Sea that thus drow^ns every- 
 Egyptian ! It is a full pardon and it is a free pardon 
 likewise. God never pardons any sinner from any 
 other motive than his own pure grace. It is all gratis. 
 It cost the Saviour much ; but it costs us nothing. It 
 
88 Christian Energy. 
 
 is a pardon freely given by a God of gi-ace, because he 
 delighteth in mercy. There is too this furtlier blessing 
 about it, that while it is full and free, it is also irre- 
 versible. Whom God pardons he never condemns. Let 
 him once say, ^^Ahsolvo te'' — "I absolve thee," — and 
 none can lay anything to our charge. We have heard 
 of men who, after having been pardoned for one 
 offence, have committed another, and therefore they 
 have had to die ; but when the Lord pardons us, he 
 prevents our going away to our old corruption. He 
 puts his Spirit in us, and makes new men of us, so that 
 we find we cannot do what we used to do. That mighty 
 grace of God is without repentance. God never 
 repents of having bestowed his grace. Do not believe 
 those who tell you that he loves you to-day and hates 
 you to-morrow. Oh, beloved! once in Christ, in 
 Christ for ever ; the devil cannot get you out of him. 
 Get into the sacred clefts, sinner, of that Eock of 
 Ages which was cleft for you, and out of it the 
 fiends of hell can never drag you. You are safe 
 when once you get into that harbour. Get Christ, 
 and you have got heaven. All things are yours 
 when Christ is yours. Full pardon, free pardon, 
 and everlasting pardon, and let me tell you present 
 pardon. It is a notion still current that you cannot 
 know you are forgiven till you come to die. When 
 people talk thus, it shows how little they know, or 
 rather, Iiow much they do not know about it. There 
 be some here who can bear witness; nay, there be 
 millions of God's people who, if they could speak 
 from heaven, would tell you that they knew their 
 pardon long years before they entered into rest. If 
 
Tlie True Aim of Preaching. 89 
 
 you had ever been shut up in prison, as some of us 
 were — five long years it was with me a bitter agony 
 of soul, when nothing but hell stared me in the face, 
 when neither night nor day had I peace — oh, what joy 
 when I heard that precious truth, " Look unto me and 
 be ye saved, all the ends of the earth I " I felt the 
 pardon really announced to me ! I was as conscious of 
 pardon as this hand is conscious of being clean after I 
 have washed it ; as conscious of being accepted in Christ 
 at that moment as I am now sure that I am able to 
 stand here and say as much with my mouth. A man 
 may have this infallible witness of the Holy Ghost. I 
 know that to some stolid minds it will always seem 
 fanaticism, but what do I care whether it seems 
 fanaticism to them or not, as long as it is real to my 
 heart. We count ourselves as honest as others, and 
 have as much right to be believed ; whether they 
 credit oui' sanity and our sincerity or not does not 
 affect us a straw, so long as we know that we 
 have received the grace. If you reckoned a clear 
 profit of ten thousand pounds upon some specula- 
 tion, and somebody said to you, "It's all foolery!" 
 the proof would be unanswerable if you had 
 received the amount and had the bank notes in your 
 house ; then you would say, " Ah ! you may think as 
 you like about it, but I have got the cash." So the 
 Christian can say. Being justified by faith we have 
 peace with God — " And not only so, but we also joy in 
 God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
 now received the atonement." A'^Tien some tell him 
 that he is not forgiven, he says, " Oh ! you may say 
 what you like about it ; but I have got the witness 
 
90 Christian Energy. 
 
 witliln that I am born of God. I am not what I used 
 to be ; if I were to meet myself in the street I should 
 hardly know myself; I mean my spiritual self — my 
 inner self, for I am so changed, so renewed, so turned 
 upside down, that I am not what I was ; I am a new 
 man in Christ Jesus." The man who can say this can 
 bear to be laughed at. He knows what he is about, 
 and at the coolest and most sober moment of his life, 
 even when lying on his sick bed and ready to die, he 
 can look into eternity, soberly judge of Christ, and find 
 him to be worthy of his confidence, and, thinking of the 
 blood-washing, find it to be a real fact. There are a 
 thousand things in this world that look well enough till 
 you come to look upon them in the prospect of the 
 grave ; but this is a thing that looks better the nearer 
 we get to eternity ; the more solemnly and deliberately 
 we take our account of it in the sight of God, the 
 more substantial it appears. Oh, yes ! there is a 
 present pardon; but what I want to say most em- 
 phatically is, that there is a present pardon for you. 
 " Who is that ? " say you. Oh ! I am not going to 
 pick and choose from the midst of you. Whosoever 
 among you will come to Christ, believe his word, and 
 put your trust in himself, there is instant pardon for 
 you. What ! that grey-headed man there, seventy 
 years old in sin ? Yes, blessed be the name of the 
 Lord! If he should now rest in Christ, there is in- 
 stantaneous pardon for him. And is there a harlot 
 here ? Is there a drunkard here ? Is there one here 
 who has cursed God ? Is there one hei*e who has been 
 dishonest ? Is there one here over whom all these sins 
 have rolled! Why, if thou believest, thy sins, which 
 
The True Aim of Preaching. 91 
 
 are many, are all forgiven thee. And tliougli there 
 should be brought before us one so guilty that we 
 might well start away from approaching him, yet if he 
 can but trust Christ, Christ will not start away from 
 him, but will receive him. Oh ! was not that a wonderful 
 moment when the Saviour wrote on the ground, while 
 the w^oman taken in adultery stood before him, as all 
 her accusers, being convicted by their own consciences, 
 went out, leaving the sinner and the Saviour alone 
 together, and when Jesus Christ, who hated all kinds 
 of sin, but who loved all kinds of sinners, lifted himself 
 up and said, " Neither do I condemn thee : go, and sin 
 no more"? Ah, poor sinner! Jesus Christ does not 
 condemn you. If you condemn yourselves, he never 
 w^ill condemn you. He will only condemn your sin, for 
 that is what he hates ; but he does not hate you. If 
 you and your sins part, Christ and you shall never part. 
 If you will but trust him now, you shall find him able 
 to save you even to the very uttermost from all these 
 sins of yours, which have become your plague and your 
 burden. God help you, then, at once to trust him, and 
 to find this present pardon — this pardon which will last 
 you for ever, and which you may have now. 
 
 Let me repeat it again, though I said it before, all 
 this will be good news only to those who want pardon, 
 and not for those who do not require it. I have 
 nothing to say to those who do not want it. Why 
 should I ? " The whole have no need of a physician, 
 but those that are sick." God will have somethinir to 
 say to you one of these days. I recollect, and I hope 
 you have not forgotten, the story of the rich man. It 
 is more than allegory, it is fact. You all Imow that 
 
^2 Christian Energy, 
 
 while he was in this world he had fared sumptuously 
 eveiy day. He was covered with purple and fine linen, 
 or at least he thought so. As for God's child, Lazarus, 
 he thought he was a poor miserable beggar, only fit to 
 be with the dogs, and he despised him. He looked at 
 him, and said, " Oh ! I am a gentleman ; I am dressed 
 in purple and fine linen ; I am none of your beggarly 
 saints lying on the dunghill, though they call themselves 
 saints, and much beside ; I am rich." Now, it so hap- 
 pened that he did not see himself ; he had got scales 
 over his eyes. But he found it out one day. You 
 remember Christ's words, "In hell he lifted up his 
 eyes." Ah! and he saw then what he had never 
 seen before. All that he had ever seen went for 
 naught, there had been a glamour over his eyes; he 
 had been dazed and benighted. He had been the 
 beggar all the while, if he had but known it, while 
 Lazarus, who had worn the beggar's garb, is waited 
 on like a prince, and carried by angels into Abraham's 
 bosom. So the poor beggar covered with wounds and 
 sores, who thinks he is only fit for the dunghill, he 
 is the man Christ will have ; he is the man Christ will 
 take up to heaven at last. As for your self-righteous 
 men, who think themselves so good and excellent, they 
 will be like the tinsel and the gilt, and will all be 
 burned up in the fire ; the varnish and paint will all 
 come off ; God wdll knock the masks off their faces, and 
 let the leprosy that was on their brow be seen by all 
 men. But, sinner, you who are such, and who know 
 it — unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins, 
 through the man Christ Jesus. 
 Let the coNaKEGATiON TO WHICH Paul addressed 
 
The True Aim of Preacliing. 93 
 
 HIMSELF, AND AVHAT BECAME OF THEM, nOW engage 
 
 our attention for a few minutes. 
 
 The text says, " Unto you is preached forgiveness of 
 sins." Never mind the Jews and Gentiles to whom 
 Paul preached. The verse is quite as applicable here as 
 it was there. " Unto you is preached the forgiveness 
 of sins." My dear friend, it is no small privilege to 
 be where the message of the forgiveness of sins can 
 yet be heard. Unto you is preached the forgiveness 
 of sins, but not to the tens of thousands who have 
 gone the way of all flesh, unpardoned and unsaved. 
 How is it that you are spared? Your brother is 
 dead; your children have, some of them, died; but 
 you are spared. You have been at sea. You have 
 been in peril. You have had the fever. You have 
 been near death ; and yet here you are kept alive. Is 
 not this a privilege, that unto you is preached the for- 
 giveness of sins? What would they give to hear it 
 once more? What would they give to have another- 
 opportunity ? But it has been said of them — 
 
 " Too late, too late ! ye cannot enter now." 
 
 *^ Unto you is preached the forgiveness of sins." I said 
 that this was a privilege ! but it is a privilege which 
 some of you have despised. Those who heard Paul 
 had never heard it before. Many of you have heard it 
 from your youth up. Alas ! I cannot help saying of 
 some of you — that I am almost ready to despair of your 
 conversion. You do not improve. All the exhortations 
 in the world are to you as if they were spoken to an 
 iron column or a brazen wall! Why will ye die? 
 W^hat shall be done unto you ? What shall be said 
 
^4 Chnstian Energy. 
 
 you? Unto you ispreaclied tlie forgiveness of sins. When 
 you die, careless, Christless, unsaved one— when we 
 throw that handf al of dirt upon your coffin-lid, we shall 
 have to think, "Ah! that man is lost, and yet unto 
 him was preached the forgiveness of sins ! " 
 
 Well, but it is still preached unto you. Notwith- 
 standing that you have neglected the privilege, it is 
 still preached unto you. Fain would I point with 
 my finger to some of you, and say, "Well, now, we 
 really do mean you personally. You people under the 
 gallery whom I cannot see, and you upstairs here— 
 every one of you— unto you is preached the forgiveness 
 of sins. God has not sent us to preach to your 
 neighbours, but to you— you, Mary, Thomas, George, 
 John, Sarah — you, you personally — unto you is 
 preached the forgiveness of sins, and it rests with you 
 now to consider what reception shall be given to 
 the message of mercy. Shall a hard heart be the only 
 answer ? Oh, may the Spirit of God come upon you, 
 and give instead thereof a quickened conscience and a 
 tender heart, that you may be led to say, " God be 
 merciful to me a sinner ! " 
 
 " And WHAT BECAME OF THEM," do you ask, " TO 
 
 WHOM THE WOED W^AS PREACHED WITH SUCH THRIL- 
 LING EARNESTNESS?" 
 
 Some of them raved at a very great rate. If you 
 read through the chapter you will find that they were 
 fdled with env;y^, and they spoke against those things 
 that were declared to them by Paul, contradicting and 
 blaspheming, and so on, until Paul shook off the dust of 
 his feet against them, and went his way. 
 
 But there was another class. The 48th verse says, 
 
The True Aim of Preacldng, 95 
 
 that " When the Gentiles heard, they were glad, and 
 they glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as 
 were ordained unto eternal life believed." Ah, that is 
 the comfort ; albeit there are some who, whenever the 
 gospel is preached, dislike and reject it. A person was 
 once very angry with me, because, in preaching on the 
 natural depravity of man, I had charged man with being 
 depraved; I had said that man was proud. This 
 man would not confess it. Thereby he was proving 
 the truth of the assertion as regarded himself all the 
 w^hile. So proud was he that he could not bear to hear 
 the truth told him about it. If he had said he was 
 proud, I should have thought I had made a mistake ; 
 but when he bridled up, and got into an angry temper, 
 I knew that God had sent me to tell him the truth. 
 Outspoken truth makes half the world angr)\ The 
 light distracts their eyes. When the Jews kicked 
 against Paul's preaching, did Paul feel disappointed? 
 Oh, no ! If he did feel depressed for a moment, there 
 was a strong cordial at hand — that very cordial by 
 reason of which Jesus rejoiced in spirit as he saw the 
 good-will of the Father, in revealing unto babes those 
 things that are hid from the wise and prudent. Here 
 was his comfort — there were some upon whom there had 
 been a blessed work; there were some whose names 
 were written in the book of God; some concerning 
 whom there had been covenant transactions; some 
 w^hom God had chosen from before the foundation of 
 the world ; some whom Christ had bought with blood, 
 and whom the Spirit, therefore, came to claim as God's 
 own property, because Christ had bought them upon 
 the bloody tree, and those " some " believed. Naturally 
 
96 Christian Energy. 
 
 they were like otliers, but grace made the distinction, and 
 their faith was the sign and evidence of that distinction. 
 Now, yon need not ask the question whether you are 
 God's elect. I ask another question — Do you believe in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ? If you do, you are his elect : if 
 you do not, the question is not to be decided yet by us. 
 If you are God's chosen ones, you will know it by your 
 trusting in Jesus. Simple as that trust is, it is the in- 
 fallible proof of election. God never sets the brand of 
 faith upon a soul whom Christ has not bought with his 
 blood, and if thou believest, all the treasure of eternity 
 is thine ; thy name is in God's book ; thou art a fa- 
 voured one of heaven ; the divine decrees all point to 
 thee ; go thy way and rejoice. 
 
 But if thou believest not, thou art in the gall of 
 bitterness and the bonds of iniquity. May eternal 
 mercy bring thee out of that state, yea, bring thee out 
 of it at once. Oh that I had time and power to plead 
 with some here who know that Christ died, who know 
 that he can save, who know the gospel, but who still da 
 not trust in that gospel for their salvation ! Oh, may 
 you be led to do it, and to do it now, before this day is 
 over ! We want to be made a blessing among you. 
 At the commencement of our prayers we besought the 
 Lord for the conversion of many more beside you. If 
 we had these souls given to us, what a token Avould it 
 be, and what a comfort ! May the Lord bring you in, 
 and bring you in without delay ! Oh, trust him, soul — 
 trust him ! May God help you to trust him, and his 
 shall be the praise, world without end I 
 
^ ''^hmi Hi t^ ^ii}Ii 
 
 " For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall 
 be tilled and sown." — Ezekiel xxxvi. 9. 
 
 HESE words were addressed to the mountains 
 of Palestine. Albeit that they are now 
 waste and barren, they are yet to be as 
 fruitful and luxuriant as in the days of 
 Israel's gi'andeur. God will turn to them, 
 and the vines shall then crown the summits, 
 and there shall be harvests again upon the 
 mountain tops. The mountains of Israel were a soil of 
 glass, in which you could see reflected at a single 
 glimpse, the condition and character of the people. 
 While the Israelites were obedient to God, the 
 mountains dropped with new wine, and the little 
 hills seemed to melt with fertility. Honey dropped 
 from the rock, and \^ane appeared to be distilled of 
 the very flint. As soon as ever the people sinned, 
 God gave them over to their enemies, and straightway, 
 irrigation being neglected, and the culture of the soil no 
 longer profitable, the mountains became as blank and 
 barren as though they were a howling w^ilderness. And 
 again, when the people repented and turned to God, 
 then the soil began to cover the mountains, carried uji 
 there by the industry of the people, the sides of the 
 
 7 
 
98 Christian Energjj, 
 
 hills were teri'aced, the waste places began to blossom, 
 and the vines were once more filled with clusters. You 
 could thus read the history of the people in the aspect 
 of their hills. 
 
 I intend to take the hills of Israel as a representa- 
 tion of our own state — the state of our own heart. As they 
 really did mirror forth the condition of the people 
 of old, the metaphor becomes peculiarly attractive. 
 Man's heart by nature is like a waste field ; there is no 
 hope for that field unless God turn to it in mercy ; and 
 when he doth tuni to it he will have to till it ; for 
 not until after tillage can it be sown with any hope of 
 success. 
 
 I. Mails heart hi nature is lihe a waste field. A- 
 waste field produces no harvest. Keaper, thou shalt 
 never fill thine arms with sheaves, the axle of the wain 
 shall never creak beneath the load of harvest, and the 
 swains shall never dance with the maidens at the har- 
 vest home. There let the field abide, and the fruit it 
 will yield in a whole century will not be sufficient to 
 feed a single individual. Such is man, we say, by 
 nature. He brings forth no fruit unto God. Leave 
 him alone and he will live unto himself. Perhaps he 
 will be a respectable sinner, and, if so, he will selfishly 
 spend all his life in trying to provide for himself alone, 
 or for his family, which is but a part of himself. He 
 will go through the world from his birth to his sepulchre 
 without a thought of God. He will never do anything 
 for God. His heart will never beat with love to him. 
 He may sometimes, out of sheer selfishness, go with 
 others to worship, but he will not worship God, what- 
 ever deference he may show to the outward form. His 
 
A Vistoji of the Field. 99 
 
 heart will be in perfect alienation from the God that 
 made him. lie will live and he will die a strange 
 monstrosity in the workl — a creature that has lived 
 without his Creator. Perhaps, however, he will be a 
 disreputable sinner. He will live in sin, find his 
 comfort in drunkenness, perhaps in lust, possibly in 
 dishonesty ; but anyhow, he will bring forth nothing 
 that God can accept. Methinks I see the great Go<l 
 coming to look at the man, even as a farmer might 
 come to look upon his fallow field. What can God 
 see ? Is there a prayer ? Yes, he says a few forms of 
 prayer, but they are dead, lifeless things, and God 
 cannot accept them. Does he see any praise ? Perhaps 
 a shrivelled hymn growing up in the corner of the field, 
 but since there is no heart in it, that rots and dies, and 
 God abhors it. He looks the whole field throucrh. 
 There is no thought for God, no consecration of time 
 to God, no desire to honour God, no longing to pro- 
 duce in the world fresh glory to God, no effort to raise 
 up to him fresh voices that shall praise his name. He 
 lives unto himself or to his fellow-men, and havincr so 
 lived, he so dies. Now you know that there are a great 
 many people who say to themselves, " Well, if I do good 
 to my neighbour, and if I am kind to others, that is 
 enough;" and they expect to have some reward. But 
 mark you, every servant expects his master to pay his 
 wages ; surely then, if you serve your fellow-men, they 
 ought to reward you. Let them give you a statue, or let 
 them emblazon your name on some one of the rolls of 
 fame. Let them sound down your exploits to future gene- 
 rations. Still let your debtor and creditor account be fair. 
 If you have not done anything distinctly and avowedly 
 
100 Chrutian Energy, 
 
 in the service of God, there is no remuneration that 
 you can reasonably expect God to give you. What have 
 you brought forth unto him ? Nothing whatever ; and 
 we say it sincerely, for we know how sadly true it is, 
 the natural heart of man never does and never can pro- 
 duce so much as one single grain that God can receive 
 as being honourable to him. As for the children of 
 men in all their generations, 
 
 "Like brutes they live, like brutes they die; 
 Like grass they flourish, till thy breath 
 Blasts them in everlasting death." 
 
 Alas for them ! Unto thee, great God, they render 
 no prayer nor praise, no heart-felt love nor reverent 
 adoration. They pass through this w^orld as though 
 there w^as no God. 
 
 Worse than this; the field that has never been 
 ploughed or sown does produce something. There is 
 an activity about human nature that will not let us live 
 without doing. Unless you should shut yourselves up 
 in a cell like a monk, or live on the top of a pillar, like 
 Simon Stylites, you cannot very well pass through life 
 utterly inert without any purpose of mind, without any 
 movement of the limbs, w^ithout any stir of the passions ; 
 and I suppose that even Simon Stylites did exert some 
 influence, for he led other people to be as great fools as 
 himself. And even monks do some mischief by losing 
 the interest on talents for which they ought to have ren- 
 dered a good account, and spending their time in laziness 
 which they ought to have employed in useful service. 
 "" No man liveth to himself." Is there no wheat growing 
 on that soil % no barley ? no rye ? Very well, then, there 
 will be darnel, and cockle, and twitch, and all sorts of weed. 
 
A Vision of the FielJ. 101 
 
 So it IS with the unrenewed heart. It produces hard 
 thoughts of God, enmity against the Most High. It 
 is proHfic of evil imaginations, wrong desires, and bitter 
 envyings. As these ripen they bring forth ill words — 
 idle, or, it may be, lascivious words, and perhaps atheistic, 
 blasphemous words ; and as . these ripen they come to 
 actions, and the man becomes an offender in his deeds, 
 perhaps against man, certainly against God. He lives 
 to produce sour grapes. The apples of Gomorrah hang 
 plentifully upon him. 
 
 I know I am describing some here present. There 
 are many such persons to be found in all our assemblies. 
 They have done no good in their lives. Measuring their 
 lives by the standard of God, they have done nothing]:. 
 On the other hand, they liave been guilty of much evil, 
 they have brought forth fruit unto sin. Nor is this the 
 worst of it. The bad farmer, who lets his field all run 
 to weeds, does mischief to the neighbouring farm. 
 Here comes the w^ind, willing to waft seed — good seed 
 if it can find it — into other soil. It will take the down 
 of the flower seed, and bear it into a garden where it 
 will be wanted ; or, if it must, it will carry the seeds 
 of the thistle ; and so, when it comes sweeping by the 
 farmer's neMected field it does damao;e to all the fields 
 in the neighbourhood. It is so with the sinner. " One 
 sinner destroyeth much good.'* Is he a father? His 
 children grow up to be as ungodly as himself. Is he a 
 master? Then his men, like him, break the Sabbath, 
 and neglect the ways of God. Is he a workman ? Then 
 his fellow workmen who are younger than himself take 
 umbrage at his example; they are led into sin while they 
 blindly follow in his wake. Whatever station of life 
 
102 Christian Energy, 
 
 you put him into, he does mischief ; the more eminent he 
 is, the more eminently mischievous. I do not allude 
 now to those who are grave offenders against the laws 
 of society. I mean those good decent people wdio have 
 no fear of God. I do think they do very much mis- 
 chief, for the devil's cause gets respectable through 
 having them on its side. Those who persistently live 
 in violation of divine law, and who do not bend their 
 necks to the yoke of Christ, may be very amiable, 
 very moral, and very excellent. If so, in a certain 
 sense, the more is the pity, because they get an increase 
 of power to do evil, for others say, " If such good men 
 as these can live without religion, and live despising it, 
 why should not we ? *' Thus a bad cause, which would 
 be hissed off the stage if there were none but rascals 
 to side with it, still walks respectably in the light of 
 day because of these persons who back it up. God 
 deliver you, my dear hearers, from being like a field 
 that does mischief unto others ! Beware, thou upas 
 tree, lest thy poison get the reward of hell fire! 
 Beware, thou cumberer of the ground, standing there, 
 and sucking nutriment out of the soil, and cursing the 
 other trees of the vineyard, lest the sharp axe should 
 soon feel thy core, and lay thee level with the gi'ound. 
 
 A barren field resembles the heart of man in that 
 all the good influences that fall upon it are wasted. 
 Comes there sunshine : it produces no harvest on the 
 fallow land. Here are the precious drops of dew glis- 
 tening in the morning; but they cannot produce an 
 ear of corn. And here fall the sweet smiling show^ers 
 of rain, that make the new-mown fields all fragrant, but 
 this field gets no good from it. It is even so w4th you 
 
A Visio7i of the Field, 103 
 
 by nature. You have the blessings of Providence, but 
 they do not make you grateful. You have even the 
 blessings of the outward means of grace, but they ex- 
 cite no longings in you towards God. Surely, my dear 
 friends, if this has been the case long with you, you 
 must be nigh unto cursing. And yet the waste field 
 does produce something pleasant to the eye — something 
 worth looking at ; for have you not seen the gorgeous 
 poppy, and the finest specimens of the ranunculus grow- 
 ing in the field that was never ploughed and sown? 
 And there is the dog-rose yonder, and the foxglove, and 
 the forget-me-not, all springing up, and flourishing where 
 there should have been furrows. And so a man may 
 have a comely appearance and make a fair show in the 
 flesh, although he does not live near to God. In his 
 character and reputation there may be many a gaudy 
 flower — ay, as red and as conspicuous as the poppy. 
 lie may shine among men, and men may talk much 
 about him. But, as the Lord liveth, if the Lord's 
 plough has never gone over him, the bright blushing 
 weed is but a weed still ; a bane and a pest, not a boon 
 or a balm, as the farmer knoweth right well. Let those 
 of you who are in such a state see an apt emblem of 
 themselves every time they pass a piece of waste ground. 
 Let them look, and say, " That is just what I am, and 
 what I shall be to the end of my life, except the grace 
 of God shall interfere to retrieve me from endless ruin." 
 11. There is 710 hope for this field, unless God turn to 
 it in mercy. Even so, unless the Lord turn to men, no 
 good will ever come of them. The text says, " I am 
 for you, and I will turn unto you." Man never does of 
 himself turn unto God, and that for obvious reasons. 
 
104 Christian Energy, 
 
 We are sure he never can, for he is dead in trespasses 
 and sins. We are certain he never will, for by nature 
 he hates anything like a new birth ; and if he could 
 make himself a new creature he would not, for Christ 
 has expressly said, " Ye will not come unto me that ye 
 might have life." Man is unwilling to give up sin, 
 he loves it too well ; unwilling to be made holy, for he 
 has no taste for spiritual things. God, then, must come 
 to man ; for how can man, being naturally dead, and 
 naturally unwilling, ever come to God ? Experience 
 tells us that he will not. When did you ever find a man 
 who had come to God who would say that he came 
 of his own natural inclination? All the saints on 
 earth will tell you that it was mighty grace that made 
 them willing in the day of God's power. If there be 
 any man that came to God of himself, I can only say 
 that I know I am not he. 
 
 " Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 AVandering from the fold of God." 
 
 If any unconverted person here will tell me that he can 
 turn to God when he likes, I ask him why he does not 
 turn now. What measure of damnation must be his due, 
 when, according to his own confession, he has a power 
 which he will not use ! Sinner, talk not vainly of what 
 thou canst do ! Man ! thou canst burn in hell, and thou 
 canst fit thyself for the flames, but this is about all thou 
 canst do for thyself. Thou hast destroyed thyself. For 
 that inglorious deed thy will was free and thine agency 
 free likewise. But only in God is thy help found. For 
 this, be sure, thou hast neither might nor skill. If ever 
 thou art saved it must be by another power than thine 
 own, and by another faculty than that which dwells 
 
A Vision of the Field, 105 
 
 in tliy puny, wicked heart. God must do it. If you 
 wait till your waste field ploughs itself, or brings forth 
 a harvest, you shall wait till doomsday. And if I wait 
 until my hearers save their own souls, and turn unto God 
 themselves, with full purpose of heart, I may wait till 
 these hairs are grey, or till their bones are carried to the 
 tomb. If you have turned, my dear hearers, you know 
 that the Lord has done it. Give unto him the glory. 
 If you have not been converted, God help you to cry 
 unto him instantly and earnestly, "Turn us, and we 
 shall be turned." Look unto him who is exalted on high 
 to " give repentance and remission of sins.'' Seek ye 
 unto him, and ye shall live. Oh, that ye could now see 
 your wretched plight, that ye could feel your imminent 
 peril, that ye could believe in the sovereign operations 
 of God's grace ! Then would I venture to prophesy 
 that salvation had this day come to your house — ay, to 
 your very heart. 
 
 III. When the field is to he put under cultivation it 
 must he tilled. So when God turns to any man in his 
 mercy there has to be an operation, a tillage, performed 
 upon his heart. The farmer, unless he is a fool, would 
 never think of sowing his corn upon a field that remains 
 just as it was when it lay fallow. He ploughs it first. 
 Although we are to scatter the seed everywhere, upon 
 the wayside as well as upon the good ground, God 
 never does. Common calling is addressed to every man, 
 but effectual calling comes only to prepared men, to 
 those whom God makes "willing in the day of his 
 power." 
 
 Now, what is the plough wanted for ? Why, it is 
 wanted, first of all, to break up the soil, and make it 
 
106 Christian Energy, 
 
 crumbb. It has got hard ; perhaps it is a heavy clay, 
 and then it is all stuck together by the wet, and all 
 baked and caked together by the sun that shines on it. 
 Or perhaps it is a light soil. Well, this may not need 
 much ploughing, but still it will cake over, as we all 
 see even in our little gardens. After the rain has 
 gone, the sun comes, the whole cakes over, and there 
 will be no place for the seeds to thrust in their tender 
 roots. The corn will not sink down into the soil unless 
 the soil is broken, and the more thoroughly pulverised 
 the soil becomes, the more like dust you get it, the 
 more hope there is that the seed will take good root. 
 
 In sucli like manner must human hearts be broken. 
 " A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise." The more thoroughly pulverised the heart 
 becomes, the better. Hence there needs to be the 
 sharp plough of the law driven right through the heart, 
 to break up its crust and split the clods ; and then 
 must come that blessed plough of the cross, which is 
 the best plough that ever w^ent across a field yet — that 
 blessed plough of the cross, which, as it goes over it, 
 turns up the soil, even the very heart of it, and makes 
 the sinner feel his sin, and hate it too, because of the 
 love of God which is shed abroad by Christ Jesus the 
 Lord. Thus you must be tilled then, that the heart 
 may be broken, for the seed will never get into an 
 unbroken heart. And the plough is also wanted to 
 destroy the weeds, for they must be killed. We cannot 
 have them growing. To spare the weeds would be to 
 kill the w^heat. The plough comes, and cuts some 
 weeds in two ; others it turns over, and throws the 
 heavy clods on, and leaves them to lie there and be 
 
A Vision of the FiekL 107 
 
 buried ; it turns the roots of otliers up to the sun, and 
 the sun by the brightness of its shining scorches them, 
 and thej die. Some soils need cross-ploughing; they 
 need to be plouglied this -way and the otlier way, and 
 then they need some one to go through the furrows 
 afterwards, and pull up the weeds, or else they will not 
 be all rooted out of the soil. And I am afraid that 
 many of us who have been ploughed have divers w^eeds 
 left in us yet. The field must not only be ploughed, 
 but the weeds must be killed ; and so it must be witli 
 you, my dear hearers. If the Lord save you, he must 
 kill your drunkenness, he must kill your swearing, he 
 must kill your whoredom, he must kill your lying, he 
 must kill your dishonesty. These must all go ; every 
 single weed must be torn up ; there is no hope for you 
 while there is a weed livincp. True, I mean not those 
 weeds which still exist even in the regenerate ; but 
 even they must be doomed now. John Wellman, a 
 member of " the Society of Friends," tells a strange 
 story of himself. One night, after he had been read- 
 ing the Scripture, as he lay awake, he heard a voice, 
 saying, "John Wellman is dead ;" and, being a Quaker, 
 he was greatly struck therewith, and wondered how it 
 was that he could be dead. He asked his wife what 
 liis name was, and she said, " John Wellman ; " where- 
 upon he perceived that he must be alive. At last, 
 he understood it to mean that he was dead to the world ; 
 that he was henceforth no longer what he w^as, but a 
 new creature in Christ Jesus. Oh ! it will be a blessed 
 thing for you, my dear hearers, when the like thing 
 may be said of you in the like sense — " He is dead." 
 Tiiere is a man I used to know — I wish I did not know 
 
108 Christian Energif, 
 
 him so well ; I used to meet him every day some years 
 ago. But we parted company. He would not go with 
 me to Christ, and so I went without him. I became 
 a new man, and he is dead. Oh, how often I wish 
 he were buried, for sometimes I have to drag his dead 
 body about with me, and, as it putrifies in my nostrils, 
 I have to cry, " O wretched man that I am, who shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death ? " That rascally 
 old man bears my own name ; and once he was iden- 
 tical with my own self. I could fain wish he were 
 buried. In like manner may it come to pass with you 
 that you may die to the flesh, that henceforth you may 
 live in the spirit unto God. And though the old man 
 be still prone to corruption, wdiat a blessed stroke is 
 that which takes the life out of him, so that he can no 
 longer reign over you, but the new man reigns supreme. 
 
 Ploughmen tell us that when they are ploughing, 
 if the plough jumps, the work is done badly. They 
 must plough it all alike, from end to end, from head- 
 land to headland. If the plough jumps, it has gone 
 over some weeds or knots, and not torn tliem up. Oh ! 
 I would like always so to preach that my plough may 
 never jump. I sometimes say a hard word because I 
 do not want my plough to jump. I want to tear up all 
 the knots, and not leave one in the ground. If one 
 sin be tolerated, or one malicious desire be spared, the 
 life of God can never be in us. The Lord make a clean 
 sweep of the weeds, and burn them all ! 
 
 Well, now, mark you, in this tilling there are diffe- 
 rent soils. There is the light soil and the heavy soil ; 
 and so there are different sorts of constitutions. There 
 are some men who are naturally tender and sensitive. 
 
A Vision of the Field. 109 
 
 Many, too, of our sisters are like Lydia ; tliey soon 
 receive the "Word. There are others that are like the 
 heavy clay soil ; and you know the farmer does not 
 plough both soils alike, or else he would make a sad 
 mess of it. And so God does not deal with all men 
 alike. Some have, as it were, first a little ploughing, 
 and then the seed is put in, and all is done ; bujt some 
 have to be ploughed and cross-ploughed ; and then 
 there is the scarifier and the clod-cruslier, and I know 
 not what, which have to be rolled over tliem before they 
 are good for anything ; and perhaps, after all, they pro- 
 duce very little fruit. Different constitutions need 
 different modes of action. Let this comfort some of 
 you who have not been so much alarmed as others have 
 been. Different soils must have different methods. 
 Christ does not deal with all men precisely in the 
 same way in his heavenly tillage. A farmer has a large 
 variety of implements. Go into the shed of a man 
 who is a high farmer, and what a number of imple- 
 ments you may see. I mentioned some of them just 
 now, but there are far more than I can talk about. So 
 it is with our heavenly Father ; he has all kinds of 
 implements. Sometimes it is a providential trial. One 
 man loses a child ; another has to bury his father ; and 
 yonder one has had to follow his wife to the grave. 
 Some have temporal losses ; business becomes bad ; 
 perhaps they are out of work and half starving ; others 
 are stretched upon a bed of sickness, and others are 
 brought near to the grave. These circumstances are 
 all so many different sorts of ploughs with which God 
 ploughs the soil of our hearts. The labourers whom 
 the Lord employs are dissimilar likewise by the diversity 
 
110 Christian Energif* 
 
 of their gifts. Ministers are some of one sort, and 
 some of another ; even the same minister is not always 
 engaged in the same sort of operation. There are some 
 Sundays when I know some of you find me a terrible 
 scarifier, for I have the terrors of the Lord in my con- 
 science, and there is very little comfort in the solemn 
 warnings I am constrained to utter. But if sometimes 
 I come down upon you like a clod-crusher, it is needful, 
 that, with true grace and good hope, I may at other times 
 drill in the seed, and nourish your hearts with the very 
 essence of the gospel. The faithful evangelist has to 
 become all things to all men to accomplish his Master's 
 work. But ye must be tilled, for there is no sowing 
 the ground until it has been first stirred about. 
 
 And, you know, the farmer has his time for plough- 
 ing. Some soils will do better at one season, and some 
 at another. There are some soils that break up best 
 after a shower of rain, and some do best when they 
 are dryest. So there are some hearts — ay, and I think 
 almost all hearts— that are best ploughed after a 
 shower of heavenly love has fallen upon them. They 
 are in a grateful frame of mind for mercies received, 
 and then the story of a dying Saviour comes to them 
 as just that which will touch the springs of their hearts. 
 Anyhow, dear friends, I would like to put the ques- 
 tion round. Have you been tilled ? has your heart 
 been tilled ? has your heart been turned up ? have the 
 secret things of your heart been discovered and brought 
 to light, just as the plough turns up the ant's nest ? 
 have you been brought to know your own corruptions ? 
 are there straight furrows right through you, so that 
 you can cry out, " God, thou hast broken me in 
 
A Vision of the Field. Ill 
 
 pfeccs, be pleased to come to my help " ? Then I am 
 glad of it. You are ready to despair of yourself, 
 but I am not ready to despair for you. You tremble, 
 but I am encouraged. I rejoice, not that ye are made 
 sorry, but that ye sorrow to repentance after a godly 
 manner. God has broken your heart, and I know 
 that he will bind it up. If he has plouglied you 
 he will sow. " I will turn to ycu, and ye shall be 
 tilled and sown." 
 
 IV. Unless God has tilled the heart, it cannot he sown 
 with any hope of success. After ploughing there comes 
 the sowing. When the heart is ready God sows it — 
 sows it with the best of wlieat. The wise farmer does 
 not sow tail corn, but, as Isaiah says, he casts in "the 
 principal wheat." The seed which God sows is living 
 seed. If a farmer were to sow boiled seed that has lost 
 its vitality, what would be the good of it ? But he sows 
 living seed ; and so the truth which Jesus Christ 
 preaches, and bids us to scatter, is living wheat — living 
 seed ; and when that drops into the soil God watches 
 ov^er it. The worm may come, and the crow may come, 
 but none of these shall get the seed ; 
 
 " For grace insures the crop," 
 
 and up it shall spring — ^^ first the blade, then the ear, 
 after that the full corn in the ear." It shall gfow, for 
 God has prepared the soil for it. 
 
 Now, I want to drop a seed or two. Let me scatter 
 a handful. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved." Trust Christ, and you are saved. 
 There — I saw a handful of that go on the way-side ; 
 and another handful went upon some of you that are 
 
112 Christian Energy, 
 
 choked with tlionis ; but if there be a broken heart 
 here, it has fallen upon good gi'ound, for that broken 
 heart says, " What ! if I trust Christ shall I be saved ? " 
 Yes, you will — saved in a moment — every sin forgiven 
 you in a moment, for Jesus Christ took your place and 
 stead, and suffered all the punishment of your sins; 
 and therefore God, having been just in punishing Christ 
 instead of you, can let you go free, and yet be as just 
 as though he had sent you to hell. If you trust Christ, 
 the merit of his suffering and the virtue of his right- 
 eousness shall be yours now. You shall go your way 
 rejoicing, because you have peace with God through 
 Jesus Christ. Wilt thou believe or not, sinner % God 
 give thee to trust Christ ! Trust him now. And if 
 thou dost, then I shall know that God hath ploughed 
 thee, that God hath prepared thee, ere he bade me 
 scatter in the seed. Let those of us who know the 
 power of prayer drag the harrow across the field, for 
 when the seed is once in, it wants harrowing. Thus 
 let us preach the Word, and thus let us pray that the 
 seed may take root, spring up, grow, and bring forth a 
 hundredfold. So we shall be saved, and so God shall 
 be glorified. 
 
^^ ^flg ifi "^mpl 
 
 "They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest." — Tsf 
 
 ARVEST crowns the year with God's good- 
 ness. When the harvest is abundant there 
 is universal joy. Everybody rejoices. The 
 owner of the land is glad, because he sees 
 the recompense of reward ; the labourers are 
 glad, for they see the fruit of their toil ; even 
 those to whom not a single ear may belong 
 nc\-ertheless sympathise in the common joy, because a 
 rich harvest is a boon to all the nation. It is a joyous 
 sight to see the last loaded wain come creaking doA\ n 
 the village road, to note the youngsters who shout so 
 loudly, yet kno^v so little wdiat they are shouting about, 
 to mark the peasant on the top of the wain as he weaves 
 Ills hat and gives vent to some gleeful exclamation, and 
 to see them taking it all into the stack or barn. There 
 is joy throughout the village, there is joy throughout 
 the land, when the harvest time is come. 
 
 A better joy than this, however, gi'eets the more 
 auspicious season when a sinner finds his Saviour, when 
 tlie prayers that he has sown like handfuls of seed 
 coiuc up, and the good yellow ears of confidence in his 
 
 8 
 
114 Christian Energy, 
 
 Saviour are brought to maturity. They that diride 
 the spoil shout loudly, their joyous clamour reaches the 
 heavens, but the joy of those who have found the 
 Saviour is greater than all this ; they can say, *' Thou 
 art more glorious than all the mountains of prey." 
 Burst, ye barns ! overflow, ye wine vats ! but ye cannot 
 give such joy to your possessors as Christ, really grasped 
 and laid hold upon, can give to a soul that feels its 
 need of him. The joy of harvest is far exceeded in the 
 joy of simple faith. 
 
 We, as a church, like Christian churches in all ages, 
 have had times of ingathering, when we have rejoiced 
 before God, as with the joy of harvest. And there 
 Cometh a brighter day than has ever da^^med upon this 
 poor misty earth, the day of the coming of the Son of 
 Man, when the Sun of Righteousness shall rise, when 
 he shall thrust in his golden sickle and shall reap the 
 harvest of this world, and then they shall rejoice before 
 him with a greater joy than ten thousand harvest years 
 have ever known. 
 
 Let us talk, then, of our own joy at the present time 
 as the joy of harvest. The joy of receiving as members 
 of the church these converts from the world is the joy 
 of realisation, and therefore is like the joy of harvest. 
 Faith realises what she sought and expected. It is an 
 act of faith, in some sort, when the husbandman 
 casts his good seed into the earth to die. He loses 
 sight of it for a long time : it must rot and decay under 
 the clods. It is not quickened except it die. But he 
 believes, he anticipates it will be ultimately to his gain 
 to sustain a loss of those golden handfuls. When he 
 sees the harvest, his faith is honoured and proved to be 
 
TJie Joy of Harvest, 115 
 
 f;ound sense. Thus, too, his cherished hopes are ful- 
 hlled. When he first saw the green blade appearing 
 above the soil, he had hope of golden ears ; when the 
 whole field grew green, and looked like his own pastures, 
 then he thought full sure that harvest time would 
 come ; and each day, as he has walked across his field, or 
 round about it, as he has seen first the blade and then 
 the ear, he has hoped to see the full corn in the ear ; and 
 now his hopes are all fulfilled in the harvest before 
 him ; his labour is all repaid. Many a time have his 
 workmen plodded to and fro over that ground ; it was 
 toilsome drudgery — to plough, to han'ow, to sow ; there 
 was much weeding, the hoe had to be in frequent use, 
 but now he grudges no labour that has been spent ; he 
 has a good return for all his outgoing in the incoming 
 of his harvests. Harvest is the realisation of faith, of 
 hope, and of labour. So with the conversion of souls : 
 ^'e sow the word in faith. How often have I preached 
 the gospel here, and I have felt there was no power 
 Tvdiatever in it, of itself, to convert souls, and no power 
 Tvhatever in souls to meet with that word and make it 
 converting to them ; but yet I felt and knew that God 
 would honour his good truth, and make it quickening 
 to those whom he had ordained unto eternal life. And 
 you, sitting in these pews and offering your silent 
 prayers, you have hoped it would be so, you have an- 
 ticipated it ; your faith has been exercised with my faith, 
 expecting that God's word would not return unto him 
 void. And I know many of you, anxious men and 
 women, have looked out for results ; you have had a 
 quick ear to catch a hopeful word from your own chil- 
 dren ; you ha^e had a quick eye to notice the eye filled 
 
116 Chnstian Energy, 
 
 with tears of any that sat in the same pew with yoiu 
 and 3^our hope sometimes rose very high and sometimes 
 sank very low ; but now that you have seen many of 
 them brought in and added to the Church, you seem 
 to cease to hope, and you bless God that his word han 
 been honoured, that souls have been saved and hope 
 has been fulfilled, for these are brought to Christ^ 
 I cannot tell how many of you have laboured for 
 those particular persons who are to be added to us. I 
 know some of you have, but I ventui'e to say this, that 
 you that have prayed most shall rejoice most ; you that 
 have spoken most to souls, who have laboured most to 
 bring them to Christ, you shall have the sweetest part 
 in the present joy of harvest. As for you loiterers, 
 that do nothing but look on — as for you who are ready 
 at meal-time to come in and dip your bread into our 
 vinegar, but have nothing to do in the matter, who 
 have not toiled with us side by side — you will have 
 little joy. You will perhaps stand by and be suspicious 
 at the results. Like the elder brother, you will be 
 angry and not come in while we ha^'e music and 
 dancing over the brother who was lost and is now 
 found, who was dead and is alive ; but you that have 
 believed most, you that have hoped most, you that have 
 worked most, you shall keep the feast and rejoice before 
 God with the joy of harvest. Glory be unto God ! he 
 has not failed us, his word has not returned unto him 
 void ; he has heard the cry of his children, he has given 
 to us to sow in tears and to reap in joy. It is the 
 joy of realisation. 
 
 Change the note a moment, and observe that it is 
 the joy of congratulatiou. I think I may congratulate 
 
The Joy of Harvest, 117 
 
 you, my brethren and sisters. There is a time for 
 rebuke, and there is a time for expressing our mutual 
 comfort in one another. Let us congratulate one 
 another that the Spirit of God is with us as a people, 
 and with us in no mean measure. Oh, what would 
 other churches give to have such an increase as we have 
 had year by year ! God has been pleased to add to us, 
 year by year, pretty nearly after the rate of four 
 hundred members in a year, till it has swollen our 
 numbers beyond our most sanguine hopes. Oh, liow 
 greatly has he multiplied the people and increased our 
 joy ! Surely the Spirit of God is with us ! Every 
 month we have testimony that the word has been made 
 useful. I do not think there has been a sermon 
 preached here which God has not blessed. Ought we 
 to restrain the expression of our gratitude through any 
 fear of trespassing on humility, when we can say from 
 positive facts that there have been those who have 
 come to us and professed, either that they have found 
 the Saviour, or were led to tremble under a sense 
 of sin through the word every time it has been 
 preached? Surely the Spirit of God is manifestly 
 with us; shall we not recognise his presence? Must 
 we not now adoringly bless him, that, though we are 
 not worthy that he should com^e under our roof, he 
 does deio-ii to abide with us and make the place of his 
 feet glorious. 
 
 Let us congratulate one another that, our prayers, 
 notwithstanding all the faults that mar them, and the 
 infirmities that cleave to them, are being heard. They 
 are penetrating heaven, they are entering the pearly 
 gate, they are going up before the throne of the Most 
 
118 Christian Energy. 
 
 High. Througli Jesus' blood, which they use as their 
 great prevaiHng weapon, they are moving the arm 
 which moves the world; blessings are coming down 
 upon our sons and daughters, and upon our kinsfolk 
 and acquaintance, in answer to our wrestling, believing 
 prayer. Let us congratulate one another. If we were 
 depressed, if we were like a wilderness, we would con- 
 dole with one another. Let us now felicitate one ano- 
 ther, interchange our cheerful smiles and our thankful 
 greetings ; let us take the right hand of fellowship 
 over again, and, looking back upon the past, vow 
 for the future, in God's name, that, if he will but 
 strengthen us, nothing shall daunt our courage, nothing 
 restrain our zeal. What he has done shall make us 
 aspire to more ; what has been accomplished by us as a 
 people shall be but a stepping-stone to more daring 
 attempts, to more zealous adventures, to more arduous 
 labours for the promotion of his kingdom and the ex- 
 tension of his sway. Let us, then, have the joy of 
 congratulation. As the farmer congratulates the men, 
 and as the men congratulate the master, as the one 
 says, " Blessed be ye in the name of the Lord," and 
 the others reply, " We wish you a blessing in God's 
 name," so now let us give mutual blessings, let us 
 congratulate each other for God's mercy. 
 
 And is it not particularly a joy of gratitude ? I envy 
 not the man who can see the church increased and yet 
 not feel a sacred home-felt joy. I know some little 
 narrow souls, so compressed within their own selfishness, 
 that to feed their souls and cherish their feelings seems 
 to them the sole aim and end of gospel ministry. 
 Whether souls are lost or saved other than their own,. 
 
Tlie Joy of Harvest. 119 
 
 they reck not. It has been the lot of some of us to 
 be cast among a narrow-minded class of people at 
 times, who say, with a supine satisfaction, " There 
 are very few that shall be saved;" and the fewer 
 the number in their fellowship, the more confident 
 they grow of their own election. The appearance of 
 a candidate for baptism or church-membership is the 
 signal for all of them to put on their spectacles, and 
 look him through and through to see if he be not a 
 hypocrite. I do not know that their churches are so 
 particularly pure, but I do know that it is particularly 
 difficult to get into them. I do not know that they 
 are worth getting into, but I do know that they ought 
 to be worth it, considering the time it takes before 
 one can possibly be received into their enclosure. You 
 must be summered and wintered, and tried this way 
 and that, before you can be received ; and when you 
 are received, the members are sure to rub their hands 
 together, and say, " Well, it's a serious thing to receive 
 members ; " and they are about as glad as I suppose 
 a poor man would be who had nineteen children, when 
 there is another coming to eat of the scanty loaf. They 
 seem to think that the addition of so many new mem- 
 bers would make the whole of the old members so much 
 the poorer. For my part — and I think I can speak for 
 all here — we feel greatly rejoiced, and the more there 
 are brought into the Christian family the more joyful 
 we shall be. We will bless our God — without ceasing 
 will Ave bless his name, that he does add to us, for this 
 is his work. Jesus sees of the fruit of his passion, the 
 Spirit sees the result of his operation, the Divine Father 
 sees his own children returning to his own board, and 
 
120 Ch ris t la n Energy . 
 
 herein we do rejoice — ^yea, and we will rejoice with the 
 joy of gratitude. 
 
 I have been trying to think over the various causes 
 for joy we may have concerning those who are just now 
 added to us, but I do not think I can sum them up. 
 The joy of sympathy, however, cannot be wanting. 
 In many cases you may not know the persons admitted, 
 and yet you may enter into the fellowship of their 
 circumstances. A parent's joy may kindle some fellow- 
 feeling. There are fathers here, and mothers, who feel 
 the tears rising in their eyes because a dear boy or a 
 dear girl has been before the church, and borne witness 
 of faith in Jesus, and is now to be publicly received with 
 the right hand of fellowship into communion with that 
 church of which his parents have long been members. 
 Estimate the prayers uttered or unexpressed, the sighs 
 that have gone up to heaven, the many fears, the 
 motherly pangs, the fatherly cares, and now share the 
 joy of the parents, while they say to you, " Magnify 
 the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name too-ether." 
 
 XT • ""^ 
 
 Here, too, are wives who see their husbands saved, and 
 there is much joy occasioned thereby. There will be 
 a happy household now. Here are sisters and brothers 
 that have watched over brothers and sisters with the 
 most sedulous attention and importunate prayer, and at 
 last they see them relent the obduracy they once in- 
 dulged, and confess the Saviour whom once they de- 
 spised. But, oh, pardon me when I do entreat you to 
 sympathise and to share my joy, for it is a joy that 
 overflows just now, and would fain call kinsfolk and 
 friends to rejoice with me. What a mercy to save a 
 soul from death, and to hide a multitude of sins I How 
 
The Joy of Harvest. 121 
 
 precious is that promise, tliat tliey that turn many to 
 righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever. 
 As I sight that constellation my heart beats with emo- 
 tion. Not indeed that I ask you to share my joy alone, 
 but to share now the joy of earnest teachers in this 
 •church. Need I mention names ? You know the persons 
 without my breathing their names. The men, the 
 women, that love the souls of sinners, and have been 
 blessed in our midst in bringing them to Jesus, are en- 
 titled to your greetings. Kejoice with them ; they have 
 found their Master's sheep, and they are rejoicing with 
 the joy of harvest ; I pray you aid their joy and share 
 their joy. Sunday-school teachers, God blesses you: 
 out of your school there come additions. You that 
 conduct our catechumen classes, God blesses you : we 
 have additions from your midst. Young men that 
 preach in the street, ye missionaries that toil in your 
 little rooms, and serve God by speaking a word of 
 exhortation, ye have all been honoured; this month 
 there has been some fruit from every department of 
 service; therefore let us join in sympathy with the 
 labourers whom God has honoured in thanking God for 
 their success in souls saved. 
 
 And may I not ask you to rejoice because there is 
 One who loves souls better than I do, better than you 
 do, who rejoices more than any of us ? It is the Man 
 that bought them with the wounds in his hands and 
 his feet. He looks down upon those who have come 
 up to him from the wilderness, and are looking to him 
 alone for salvation. Their eyes that were red with 
 weeping flash with hallowed joy. His eyes that were 
 full of pity beam with satisfaction, and unfeigned 
 
122 Christian Energy, 
 
 delight sits upon the Saviour's brow. I cannot see him 
 with these dim mortal eyes, but I know that he is here 
 by an inward consciousness. Each soul that has trusted 
 him has been another jewel to his crown, another flush 
 of pleasm'e in return for his pangs of grief. Come, 
 let us rejoice with him. Jesu, companion of our sorrow, 
 Captain of our Salvation, when thou art glad we are 
 exceedingly refreshed. Nor is this all, for in yonder 
 skies there are those that wait upon our Master, who 
 once waited on him on earth, and are now glad to hymn 
 his praise before his throne. Oh, could you hear their 
 songs, they are just now louder and sweeter than is 
 their wont. " Hallelujah ! hallelujah ! hallelujah ! " 
 ever rolleth up to the throne of God and the Lamb ; 
 but now it is deeper, and its volume is more mighty, 
 and its note more sweet, as they sing over the in- 
 gathering of souls into God's church. " I say unto 
 you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth." How much 
 more when by scores, and even by hundi'eds, repenting 
 sinners find the Saviour ! 
 
 Think what might have been the lot of those who 
 profess now to have been saved. Ye had need of a 
 prophet to tell you. Some of them might have been 
 — where they once were — upon the ale-house bench, 
 with the drunkard ; aye, and where some of them were 
 who have been washed and cleansed — with the harlot 
 in her midnight sin. There are young ones to be added 
 to this church, who have never gone into open sin, but 
 if they had not been called by grace, little do we know 
 what might have been the career of vice before them. 
 Temptation might have led to sin, sin might have 
 
The Joy of Harvest. 123 
 
 ripened into habit, habit might have gathered force, 
 until they became ringleaders in mischief ; but they are 
 washed, but they are cleansed. O Satan, what a har- 
 vest hast thou lost ! What soldiers have been taken 
 from thy ranks ! how much mischief might they have 
 done, which now they shall scrupulously avoid, for grace 
 has turned them in another road, and filled their mouths 
 with another song. 
 
 Think, too, of what they now shall be through divine 
 grace. I cannot depict to you each case. I know 
 there are some here whom we look upon with hope 
 that they shall be teachers of others. We have, espe- 
 cially, holy mothers bringing up their children in God's 
 fear, and holy fathers seeking the conversion of their 
 little ones. Their seed, as a generation which the Lord 
 hath blessed, shall become in after years, some of them, 
 pillars of the church, honoured and honourable ; they 
 shall serve their Master in this life, they shall bear 
 testimony to his faithfulness in death; they shall sino- 
 his praise for ever. 
 
 Still, with all this joy of harvest, there is one mor- 
 tifying reflection. I w^ould not say much of it to damp 
 your joy. It is this. Out of those added to the church 
 there are ahvays some who are not saved. Let us 
 judge carefully and watch earnestly. Some come like 
 Judas, with a lie in their right hand, and put on Christ 
 by profession, who are not followers of Christ in spirit 
 and in truth. Search yourselves, brethren and sisters, 
 and if ye be not Christ's, do not dishonour his name 
 by venturing to be called by it. 
 
 And there is another grievous thought. While so 
 many are ingathered, many there be who are left out. 
 
124 Christian Energij. 
 
 Oil, some of you have been with us in our best days, 
 and I am afraid I shall have to ring that text again 
 in your ears, as I have done aforetime : *' The harvest 
 is past, and the summer is ended, but ye are not saved, 
 ye are not saved." Your sister is saved, but you are not 
 saved ; your wife is saved, but you are not. Two of 
 you sleep in one bed, one has been taken and the other 
 left. Two of you grind at one mill in your daily work, 
 one has been taken and the other left. You are not 
 saved, you are not saved ! and when the time comes for 
 you to die, this will be a bitter w^ord to ring in your 
 ears w^ith more doleful sound than death-knell ever 
 knew — " Not saved ! not saved ! " Amidst the joy of 
 harvest, let us not forget to pray for those who are 
 still w^andering in the paths of sin, or pandering to the 
 vanities of the world. 
 
 Another harvest is coming, w^hen Christ shall gather 
 together his people. There will be first of all the in- 
 gathering of the righteous. Do not make a mistake 
 about the day of judgment, as though the righteous 
 and the wicked were to be judged together, for remem- 
 ber tliat fu'st of all there will come the day when the 
 righteous shall be gathered. If you read the Book of 
 Kevelation, you will find that the harvest precedes the 
 vintage. The righteous are gathered as the harvest of 
 the earth, and afterwards the vintage of the w-orld is 
 gathered — that is, the wicked. The harvest is gathered 
 into the garner, the vintage into the wine-press, and 
 then the grapes are trodden under foot till the blood 
 thereof floweth out, even up to the horses' bridles. 
 Well, there is to come a harvest of the righteous, and 
 what joy there will be when you witness the number. 
 
The Joy of Harvest. 12'> 
 
 the countless number that SAvells the ranks of the blessed. 
 O ye angels, ye had need to be twice ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, when, at the ingathering of sheaves 
 that no man can number, ye welcome the multitudes 
 of the redeemed! What shoutings when millions upon 
 millions mount to the upper skies ! It Avas great joy 
 when all Israel passed through the Red KSea, but 
 how much greater joy w hen ten thousand times ten 
 tliousand, even myriads upon myriads, shall enter into 
 their eternal rest ! There will be joy in the persons 
 saved ; each one Avill have a separate song, or make a 
 distinct note in the one song. What joy over Magda- 
 lene and the dying thief ! What joy over Manasseh 
 and Saul of Tarsus ! Each separate case shall stand 
 out clear and bright, as though it were better than 
 another, and yet each one shall claim that his is the 
 choicest exhibition of divine love and faithfulness. 
 What joy when altogether the jewels shall be put into 
 the casket ! Think of what they shall be gathered from I 
 From poverty, from sickness, from beds of dust and 
 silent clay they shall be gathered ; from slander and 
 rebuke, from persecution and from suffering, from the 
 lion's jaws, and from the flames they shall be gathered, 
 ten thousand times ten thousand of them, from sin and 
 suffering, to sin and to suffer no more. 
 
 Where will they be gathered to ? Gathered to their 
 Saviour, to the general assembly and church of the 
 first-born, whose names are wa'itten in heaven. Re- 
 member that they all will be gathered, not one wdll be 
 absent ; and every one will be gathered in a perfect 
 state, not one unripe for heaven, not one gi-een eai% 
 not one child unfit for his heritage, but all ready and 
 
126 Chnstian Energy, 
 
 prepared througli the sanctifying influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. Oh, that mine eyes could see the day ! The 
 pearly gates stand wide open, and first comes the 
 Saviour up the eternal hills, leading the van fresh from 
 the battle-fields of Armageddon, where, for the last time, 
 he has fought and triumphed over all his foes. And 
 here come the noble army of martyrs, waving the palm, 
 and then the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the 
 great assembly of the ministers and preachers of the 
 Word, and the multitude and hosts of those who through 
 great tribulation, have washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hark, how 
 hell gnashes her teeth! how the infernal lake is stirred 
 to envious burning, while they see these brands plucked 
 from the fire as they ascend to heaven ! Listen to the 
 symphonious harpings of the m}Tiads of spirits, as from, 
 the battlements of heaven they look on with wonder, 
 and gaze upon the new inhabitants of Jerusalem, who 
 are coming to people it and make it glorious, more glo- 
 rious than it w^as before ! Hark, how they begin the 
 song, '-'Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of 
 Hosts ; " and hark how the multitude outside the walls 
 echo the strain, " Unto him that hath loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in his blood, unto him shall 
 be glory for ever and ever ; " and yet again, " Halle- 
 lujah ! hallelujah ! hallelujah ! for the Lord God om- 
 nipotent reigneth." May you and I be partakers of the 
 joy of harvest, and not be yonder, with those among 
 whom there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing of 
 teeth, because they would not trust the Lamb ; because 
 they would not come to him that they might have life, 
 but chose their own delusion, and followed out their 
 
The Joy of Harvest. 
 
 127 
 
 own coiTuptions, till tliey met with tlie due desert of 
 their deeds. God bless you, dear friends, every one 
 of you, and make you partakers of the present joy and 
 the everlasting felicity of the saints, for Jesus Christ's 
 sake ! Amen. 
 
^ml'$ ^\m m i(i^ '^ttiWiitg wp ai '^m\. 
 
 *' When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." 
 -Psalm cii. 16. 
 
 ~^ ^^-^HE Lord himself must " build up Zion," or it 
 \<^ never will be built. He first planned it ; he- 
 is the architect of his o^\'n church ; he digged 
 the foundations; he has supplied the great 
 §|3^j corner-stone ; he himself, by his o^vn power, 
 ^^ii' creates each living stone, polishes it, and fits 
 it into its place. He cements the whole 
 structure, and as he first sketched the plan, so will he 
 complete it in every iota to the praise and the glory of 
 Ms wisdom, his grace, and his love. It shall be said to 
 Zion, when all her walls are builded, and all her palaces 
 completed, and when all her happy inhabitants have 
 their mouths filled with song as they walk in white — 
 " The Lord hath built it, from the foundation even to 
 the top-stone." I remember to have seen, close by the 
 side of the Alps, a house which had upon its front 
 words to this effect : " This house was built entirely by 
 the skill, wealth, and industry of its inhabitants." It 
 struck me as not being a very modest thing to put in 
 front of one's house, for after all the structure was not 
 Yery mai'vellous; but when we look at the glorious 
 
GocPs Glory in the Building up of Zion. 120 
 
 architecture of tlie church of God, it would be no mean 
 part of its lustre that it may fittingly bear such an 
 inscription as this — " This house was built entirely by 
 the wisdom, the munificence, and the power of the 
 infinite Jehovah." 
 
 But while the text reminds us of this truth, wdiich I 
 hope we never can forget, it also brings to our minds 
 three or four other truths ; and the first point of our 
 discourse shall be ZiON built up. 
 
 I. I suppose we shall all consider that one essential 
 to the building up of Zion Avould be pi'actical conversion. 
 It is of small avail for a man to say he is building up 
 a church where the power of the Holy Ghost is not 
 seen in calling sinners out of darkness into marvellous 
 light. There may be periods in which conversions 
 are few, but if, instead of their being exceptional, this 
 should come to be the rule w^ith one's ministry, there 
 would be grave cause to suspect that God was not 
 working with the minister, certainly not in the 
 sense of building up. We find not nnfrequently in 
 Holy Scripture, that the fathers of households are 
 called " builders," and that the term is used continually, 
 "the building a house," in respect to the birth and 
 training up of a family. Now, in the great Christian 
 family our converts are the new-born children, and a 
 family is not built up for God except with these sons 
 and daughters, who are like stones polished after 
 the similitude of a palace. AYe little know the bless- 
 ing which young converts bring to us. They quicken 
 the pulse of old Christians ; they strengthen and con- 
 firm the faith of those who have long been walking in 
 the truth, and they do, as it were, infuse new blood 
 
130 Christian Energy. 
 
 into the fellowship of the saints. They come to us as 
 God's message from on high. They are tokens for 
 good, and whereas we might have thought, perhaps, 
 that the triumphs of the cross were confined to the 
 heroic age, when the Spirit of God was poured out 
 in Pentecostal measure, yet as we see our sons con- 
 verted, and the great miracle of regeneration still being 
 performed, we take lieart and are of good courage to 
 go on in the work of the Lord. Conversions we must 
 liave, for there is no building up of Zion without them. 
 And then there must follow conversions, a puhlic 
 confession of faith. Though the invisible church of 
 God is built up by conversions, the outward church is 
 only built up as men and women associate together in 
 the holy society which we call " the church." It is the 
 duty of every Christian — nay, it is the instinct of his 
 spiritual life — to avow the faith which he has received, 
 and avowing it, he finds himself associated with others 
 who have made the same profession, and he assists them 
 in holy labour. When he is strong he ministers of his 
 strensth to the weak, and when he is himself weak, he 
 borrows strength from those who just then may happen 
 to be strong in the faith. AVhere were our institu- 
 tions if church fellowship were broken up ? Plainly, 
 if it be right for one Christian to remain out of church 
 fellowship, it is right for all ; and then if there were 
 no churches there would be no institutions, and where 
 would the gospel itself be ? I would not lay too much 
 stress on the church of God, but I venture to ask you, 
 is it not written that she is " the pillar and ground 
 of the truth"? If, then, I withhold my confession of 
 faith, and my personal communion with the visible 
 
Goc[s Glory in the Building up of Zlon. 131 
 
 church, I to that extent weaken the pillar and ground 
 of the faith. We need confessions of faith as well 
 as conversions. 
 
 By a church being thus formed In order to Its being 
 built up, something more is wanted. We cannot build 
 without union, A house is not a load of bricks, neither 
 is the church a mere conorlomeration of human beino-s. 
 A house must have its doors, and its windows, its foun- 
 dation, its mfters, and its ceiling. So, a church must 
 be organised; it must have its distinct offices and 
 officers; it must have its departments of labour, and 
 proper men must be found, according to Christ's own 
 appointment, to preside over those departments. 
 
 Our Saviour was raised up on high to receive gifts 
 for men, and to give gifts to men, and those gifts are, 
 first apostles, then pastors, and teachers, and evangelists, 
 and so on ; " for the building up of the saints, and for 
 edifying." So we read, but you all know that in plain 
 English it means, "-for the building up of the saints, 
 and the perfecting of the body of Christ." Some of 
 the okl Roman walls are compacted with such excellent 
 cement, that it would be almost impossible to separate 
 one stone from another; in fact, the whole mass has 
 become consohdated like a solid rock, so embedded in 
 cement that you cannot distinguish one stone from 
 another* Happy the church thus built up, where each 
 cares not only for his own prosperity, but for the pro- 
 sperity of all — where, if there be any joy in one mem- 
 ber, all the members rejoice, and if there be sorrow in 
 any one part of the body, all the rest of the body is in 
 sorrow too, " remembering those that are in bonds as 
 bound with them, and those that are in adversity as 
 
132 Chnstian Energy 
 
 being yourselves also in the body." And yet, what are 
 some churches but semi-religious clubs, mere conven- 
 tions of people gathered together ? They have not in 
 them that holy soul which is the essence of unity ; there 
 is no life to keep them in entirety. Why, the body 
 would soon become disjointed, and a mass of rottenness, 
 if the soul were not in it ; and if the Spirit of Christ 
 be absent, the whole fabric of the outward church 
 begins to fall to pieces ; for where there is no life there 
 can be no true union. 
 
 More than this, to build up a church there needs 
 to be edification and instruction in the faith. It is, I 
 think, a matter for deep regret that this is not an age 
 in wdiich Christian people desire to be edified. It is 
 an age in which they like to have their ears tickled, 
 and delight to have a multiplicity of anecdotes and of 
 exciting metaphors ; but they little care to be w^ell in- 
 structed in the sound and solid doctrines of the grace 
 of God. In the old Puritanic times sermons must have 
 been tiresome to the thoughtless, but now-a-days I 
 should think they are more tiresome to the thoughtful. 
 The Christian of those days w^anted to know a great deal 
 of the things of God ; and provided that the preacher 
 could open up some mystery to him, or explain 
 some point of Christian practice to make him holier 
 and wiser, he w^as well satisfied, though the man 
 might be no orator, and might lead him into no fields 
 of novel speculation. Christians then did not want 
 a new faith ; but, having received the old faith, they 
 wished to be well rooted and grounded 'in it, and 
 therefore th^y sought daily for illumination as well as 
 for quickening; they desired, not only to have the 
 
GocTs Glory in the Building iqj of Zion, 133 
 
 emotions excited, but also to have the intellect richly 
 stored with divine truth ; and there must be much of 
 this in every church, if it is to be built up. No neglect 
 of an appeal to the passions, certainly ; no forc^etfulness 
 as to what is popular and exciting ; but with this we 
 must have the solid bread-corn of the kingdom, without 
 which God's children will faint in the weary way of 
 this wilderness. 
 
 It does not strike me, however, that I have yet given 
 a full picture of the building up of a church, for a 
 church such as I have described would not yet answer 
 the end for which Christ ordained it. Christ ordained 
 his church to be his great aggressive agency in combat- 
 ing with sin, and with the world that lleth in the 
 wicked one. It is to be a light, not to itself, as a candle 
 in a dark lantern, but a light unto that which is with- 
 out. Albeit we are not saved by works, yet the ulti- 
 mate result of salvation must always be work. The 
 cause of salvation lies in grace, but the effect of salva- 
 tion appears in working. As sure as ever the grace of 
 God fills a soul, that soul desires to see others brought 
 in. That respectable church, that wealthy church, 
 which is quite satisfied to have no debt upon its own 
 building, content if its minister be as sparsely remu- 
 nerated as possible — without enthusiasm, without zeal, 
 always harping on the string of prudence, conservatism, 
 and orthodoxy, having no care whatever to be aggres- 
 sive — such a church needs to be built on other 
 foundations, to get rid of its wood, hay, and stubble, 
 and to be built on gold, and silver, and precious stones, 
 or otherwise it will not honour Christ. It strikes me 
 that it is necessary for the edification of every Chris- 
 
134 Christian Energy, 
 
 tian man that he should have something to do. We 
 learn to be soldiers by being drilled ; nay, the veteran 
 is taught to fight by fighting. I think most ministers 
 know that one of the best methods of learning to preach 
 is to preach, and the best way of learning Christianity 
 is to be a Christian practically. Said one, " If thou 
 wouldst do good, be good." And I have sometimes 
 thought, if we would be good, we must do good, not to 
 make us so, but as the best discipline to keep us in 
 good health and good training. Do not let us hope 
 that we ourselves can be devoted to God, except by 
 Christian service ; and let us not hope that the church 
 can ever be so devoted, except by casting about in the 
 world to do for Christ whatever cometh to its hands. 
 
 But I must go yet a step further. After a church 
 has become all that I have been describing, the next 
 thing it ought to do should be to think of the formation 
 of other churches. The building up of an empire must 
 often be by colonisation. Her Majesty's dominions, 
 upon which we proudly say, " the sun never sets," have 
 been greatly enlarged by the sons and daughters of 
 Britain who have gone to other lands. The true pro- 
 cess of increasing the church must be by her forming 
 colonies. Who dares to deny that in the building of 
 many of the places of worship in England and else- 
 where, the devil has not had as much to do as Christ 
 has had, I mean in our denomination, if not in any 
 other ? A great number of chapels have been the result 
 of schism, bad spirit, bickering, jealousy, and I know not 
 what — quarrelling and contending perhaps about some 
 points of truth which, if important, could not be so 
 important as the spirit of love and of unity. Many 
 
GoiTs Glory in tJie Building up of Zlon. 135 
 
 and many a time a house lias been dedicated to God, 
 when the first thought that led to it, and the last 
 act that finished it, were simply a thought and an act 
 of pride, or envy, or pure sectarian bigotry, and 
 nothing more. Now, I do not think, although he has 
 no doubt overruled it for good, that this is legiti- 
 mate ; but for a number of Christian people associated 
 together in a church, and finding that the church has 
 grown strong enough to be able to afford to lose them, 
 for these to swarm off and form another church, and 
 give of their substance to build another house, seems to 
 me to be a legitimate and proper method in which 
 Zion may be built up in these our realms. 
 II. The building up of Zion is, according to 
 
 THE TEXT, CONNECTED WITH JeHOVAH's BEING GLO- 
 RIFIED. 
 
 " When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear 
 in his glory." Ah ! brethren and sisters, it would need 
 a seraph to tell of all the glory which has come to God 
 through the building up of his church. Heaven rang 
 with acclamations when the angels first learned that 
 God designed to have a church. When they perceived, 
 by the glimmering light of the first promise, that there 
 was to be a seed of the woman as w^ell as a seed of the 
 serpent, they began to hymn Jehovah's praise, and, 
 when Christ was given, and so the foundation of the 
 church was actually laid, the glory of creation was 
 eclipsed, and even the splendour of Providence might 
 almost have been forgotten in the more transcendent 
 glory of grace. God had done marvellously before, 
 but never did he seem so divine as when he gave his 
 dear Son, and when, in the holy life and dying pangs 
 
136 Christian Energy. 
 
 of the Son of his love, the foundation of the church 
 \yas laid. So too God is glorified in every single part 
 of the building of his church. There is not a stone 
 quarried from the dark pit of nature, or polished by 
 the tools of grace, or put into its position, without fresh 
 honour to God and new glory to his name. He cannot 
 he more glorious, but he appears more richly glorious in 
 the building up of his church. And what will be the 
 glory when the top-stone is brought out — w^hen the last 
 elect one shall be cemented to the visible whole ! What 
 shall be the undying melody, the unceasing song of 
 ages, as to principalities and powers shall be made 
 known, by the church, the unspeakable riches of the 
 grace of God ! 
 
 Sometimes, however, a suspicion has arisen in the 
 minds of God's people that God was not glorified in his 
 church ; and the text almost seems to hint, not that 
 God is not glorified, but, at any rate, that he is not 
 so much glorified in the church at one time as another, 
 for it says, " When the Lord shall build up Zion," as 
 if he were not always building up Zion, at least not to 
 the same extent. We know from painful experience, 
 that there are lulls, seasons when a dead calm comes 
 over the church, and then, to the minds of many, God's 
 gloiy is not revealed. In consequence tliereof the 
 inhabitants of Zion hang their harps upon the willows 
 and go a-mourning ; and yet, had we more faith, and 
 put sense more in the background, we might sing to 
 our Well- Beloved a song touching his vineyard, even 
 when the wild boar out of the wood is wasting her, and 
 her hedcres are beinor broken down. The wave recedes, 
 but the tide advances ; the day may seem to be dark, but 
 
Gotfs Glory in the Building up of Zlon, 137 
 
 every hour is bringing on the noon. God advances 
 not by little steps, but in the work of his grace we may 
 say of him — 
 
 " On cherub and on cherubim 
 Full royally he rode ; 
 And on the win;;s of mighty wind 
 Came flying all abroad." 
 
 ^Ve must not judge him by inches wlio is not even to 
 be measured by leagues, nor by handful s when the 
 mountains are too small for his hands, and he taketh 
 up the isles as a very little thing. Our belief is that 
 the whole way through God is building vip his church, 
 and that he does appear in his glory. 
 
 Perhaps one or two thoughts may make this more 
 clear to us. God often appears in glory to me as one 
 of his builders, and I will tell you in what respect. 
 When I have been sitting to see inquirers, I have 
 sometimes found that God has blessed to the conver- 
 sion of souls some of my worst sermons — those which 
 I thought I could weep over, which seemed more than 
 ordinarily weak, and lacking in all the elements likely 
 to make them blessed, except that they were sincerely 
 spoken. When I have seen that the work was done, 
 though the workman, naturally weak, was on that occa- 
 sion more than usually depressed with infirmity, I have 
 only been able to lift up my hands and say, "Now, 
 Lord, thou appearest in thy glory, since thou dost build 
 up Zion and convert sinners by the most unlikely 
 means, and the truth, apparently when most feebly 
 spoken, works the mightiest results ; this is to make thy 
 name glorious indeed ! " 
 
 Another thin^r has sometimes made one see God in 
 
138 Christian Energy, 
 
 his glory. Persons have been brought up and educated 
 under sermons that are as hostile to spiritual life as 
 the plague is to natural life. They have from tiieir 
 youth up seen religion in all its gaudy show of symbol- 
 ism, and yet one hearing of the simple gospel has been 
 sufficient for their conversion. Perhaps the mere read- 
 ing of a single text has untwisted the knots of forty 
 years, and the despotism of the priesthood over the 
 mind has fallen at the touch of a single passage of 
 God's Word. The case of Luther is one instance of 
 this, and in all such cases God appears in his glory. 
 If you will look at each conversion, and especially at 
 the sudden conversion of those who for long years have 
 been inured to the very reverse of the gospel of Christ, 
 you will see God appearing in his glory. 
 
 Think, too, of the agencies which are abroad hostile 
 to the church of God. The Jews were glad to see the 
 walls of Jerusalem rise, because they remembered 
 Geshem, and Tobiah, and Sanballat, and all the rest 
 that laughed and jeered at them. Up went the walls 
 though these laughed, and the foxes did not break 
 down the wall, though Sanballat so ventured to pro- 
 phesy. In this age the church is not without her 
 adversaries too, and they are of a very dangerous sort. 
 They are not always outspoken adversaries. Some of 
 them teach us how to doubt — not because they doubt 
 themselves, they say, but because it is so healthy 
 a thing for our minds to be rid of the bondage of 
 old-fashioned dogmas. They are not themselves un- 
 sound, but still if a brother should happen to be so 
 they will defend him, thereby providing a defence 
 for themselves when they should more fully need it. 
 
GoiTs Glory in the Buildwg up of Zion. 139 
 
 If they would only state what they do believe, or 
 what they do not believe, it were easy to deal with 
 these foes; but inasmuch as the whole thing is too 
 shadowy, and too vague, we feel as if we were under 
 the plague of flies which were in Egypt when we have 
 to deal with these minute adversaries. But let us 
 reflect that with all this God is still building up his 
 church. Looking back at the last ten or twenty 
 years, am I too sanguine if I say that the age is, after 
 all, better than it was? I do not mean that the world 
 is better, but I do mean that, as a whole, there is 
 more evangelical preaching and more earnest pleading 
 with God now than there were ten years ago. I am not 
 given to complimenting, but I do feel that we have 
 made an advance, and that the Christian church is more 
 awake than it was. I grant you that the foes ai'e more 
 vociferous. So let them be. I suppose the nearer the 
 moon gets to its full the more the dogs bark, and the 
 nearer the harvest is to getting ripe, the more nume- 
 rous is the horde of birds who come to feed upon the 
 grain. It must be expected ; but God appears in his 
 glory the more that his enemies surround his church. 
 
 Putting all these things together — poor instruments, 
 poor materials, and numerous foes — let us say that 
 when God builds up Zion under such circumstances as 
 these, he does appear in his glory. 
 
 What a splendid thing was that — may we see it 
 repeated in our own day ! — when the twelve fishermen 
 first attacked Roman idolatry. The prestige of ages 
 made the idolatry of Rome venerable ; it had an im- 
 perial Caesar and all his legions at its back, and every 
 favourable auspice to defend it. Those twelve men, 
 
140 Christian Energy, 
 
 with no patronage but the patronaf^e of the King of 
 kings, with no learning except that which they had 
 learned at the feet of Jesus, with w^eapons as simple as 
 David's sling and stone, went forth to the fight ; and 
 you know how the grisly head of the monstrous 
 idolatry was by-and-by in the hands of the Christian 
 champion as he returned rejoicing from the fray. So 
 shall it be yet again, and then, amidst the acclamation 
 of myriad witnesses, shall God appear in his glory. 
 III. With great brevity let us now observe the 
 
 HOPE EXCITED. 
 
 If God be glorified by the building up of Zion, then 
 most certainly Zion will be built. If he is glorified by 
 the conversion, and by the banding together of con- 
 verted men and women, then it seems but natural to 
 hope, yea, w^ith certainty we may conclude that the 
 zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform it. 
 
 Let me suppose that you had been created as a soli- 
 tary creature, and that it had been made known to you, 
 by the mouth of God himself, that it would be to God's 
 glory, to create unnumbered worlds, would you be un- 
 reasonable in looking for the first day in which the 
 heavens and the earth should be created? You would 
 soon come to an absolute certainty, putting faith in the 
 prophecy, that since God would be glorified in creating, 
 he would create ; and supposing when you saw the world 
 created you knew, from God's own mouth, that it would 
 be to his glory for him to take the reins of human 
 affairs, and manage everything according to the counsel 
 of his own will, you would feel persuaded that he would 
 do it. Well, you are clearly informed here that it is 
 for God's glory to build up his church ; then draw the 
 
Goers Glory in the Building up of Zion, 141 
 
 inference, draw it boldly, nay, draw it confidently, and 
 say, " If it be for God's glory, then it must and shall be 
 done." 
 
 I like the spirit in which Luther used to say, that 
 when he could get God into his quarrels he felt safe. 
 When it was Luther alone, he did not know which way 
 it would go ; but when he felt that his God would be 
 compromised and dishonoured if such a thing were not 
 done, and would be glorified if it were done, then he 
 felt safe enough. So, dear friends, in the great crusade 
 of truth is not God with us beyond a doubt? The ship 
 of the church carries Christ and all his fortunes, and 
 how can she be wrecked ? The honour of the church 
 is intertwisted with the honour and glory of Christ ; 
 if she shall pass away, if she be deserted, then where is 
 her Captain, her Head, her Husband? But as his 
 honour must be safe, so should hers be. Zion shall be 
 lifted up, that God may appear in his glory. 
 
 IV. Our whole subject suggests an inquiry. 
 
 Have I any part or lot in this work which is to 
 bring glory to God ? I may have to do with it in two 
 ways, as a builded one, or as a builder. I can have 
 nothing to do with it in the latter capacity, unless I 
 have had to do with it in the former. God will be 
 glorified in the building up of Zion : shall I minister to 
 his glory by being part of the Zion that is to be built up ? 
 I remember to have heard one who half-solaced himself 
 in the prospect of his eternal ruin. He was a hardened 
 sinner, but he was trying to draw some sort of comfort 
 from the thought that if he were lost for ever he should 
 glorify Christ. I was startled, horror seized me when 
 he put it in that light. A truth in some sense, I could 
 
142 Christian Energy » 
 
 not bear to see it so handled by him as to clothe it in 
 the vestments of a lie. I was obliged to quote the 
 other text, " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
 pleasure in the death of him that dieth." You do not 
 find God ever speaking of deriving glory from the 
 death of him that dieth ; you do not find that it ad- 
 ministers anything of gratification to the Eternal Mind 
 that a soul should perish. There is a glory to his justice, 
 doubtless — an awful splendour wrapped about the exe- 
 cutioner's axe ; but it is a glory of which God says but 
 little, and of which my text says nothing at all. The 
 true glory of God is like the glory of the king who will 
 not glory in the numbers executed upon the hill of 
 death, but who glories in his subjects who are happy 
 and blessed. God glories, not in the soul whom there 
 is a dire necessity to cast away, but in the soul whom 
 almighty grace has chosen, redeemed, and saved. 
 
 I should think, friend, if thy reason be in a right 
 state, that thou wilt have some wish to glorify the God 
 that made thee. The ox knoweth his owner, and the 
 ass his master's crib. Dost thou not know ? Wilt not 
 thou consider? If thou baildest a house, thou ex- 
 pectest some comfort from it; if thou sowest a field, 
 thou expectest to gather some grain therefrom; and 
 shall God who has made thee, put breath into thy 
 nostrils, and who feeds thee every day — shall he then 
 have no honour out of thee, no glory at thy hands ? 
 Shalt thou be a waif and a stray drifting along on the 
 tides of time valueless, with none to care for thee 
 because thou hast lost thy compass and livest not 
 for the true object of human life ? ^lay I ask you to 
 put this question to yourselves. The inquiry whether 
 
GocCs Glory in the Building up of Zlon. 143 
 
 you have anything to do or not with glorifying God 
 in the building up of his church may be very serviceable 
 to you. If you find that you have no interest at all in 
 the matter, may not that thought be blessed of God 
 to make you start ? Oh, that men would start ! They 
 sleep when everlasting wrath impends ; oh, that they 
 would feel the shock and avert the stroke I 
 
 A startling preacher is wanted by a slumbering age. 
 lie startling preachers to yourselves just now. Oh, men 
 and women, there are some of you — it w^ere hopeless to 
 expect it were not so— in whom God will have no glory 
 from your being built into his church ; for you are like 
 the stones of the valley, which are not built up, but lie, 
 to be broken at last by the hammer, when the breaker 
 shall come forth to the work of destruction. Wouldst 
 thou glorify God, sinner? Hast thou never heard the 
 question asked by the Jews, " What shall we do that 
 we might work the works of God ? " And this was the 
 answer — " This is the work of God, the chief work of 
 all, that ye believe on Jesus Christ whom he hath 
 sent." If thou wouldst glorify God, humble thyself, 
 bow the knee, and kiss the Son, and receive salvation 
 from the Lord Jesus Christ ; and then, being built upon 
 this foundation, thou shalt glorify God. 
 
 The inquiry shapes itself afresh. Hast thou anything 
 to do with glorifying God in respect of being thyself a 
 builder up of Zion ? It is a shame that these lips should 
 have to say it, but we must speak out — that there are 
 some who profess to be built, but who are not building; 
 who say that they are servants, but are not serving; 
 who profess to be in the vineyard, but are not work- 
 ing ; who say they are soldiers, but are not fighting I 
 
144 ChrMan Energy. 
 
 My bretliren, I count it to be one of the most precious 
 parts of my spiritual heritage that I am permitted to 
 serve Christ ; and let me say that if my Lord Jesus 
 gave me nothing else on earth but the privilege of 
 serving him, I would bless him for it to all eternity. It 
 is no mean honour to be a servant of the King of kings ; 
 and there is such pleasure in honouring Christ, and in 
 winning souls, that I can scarcely believe that any of 
 you have ever tasted it, or else you would be hunger- 
 ing after more of it. Did you ever win a soul to 
 Christ ? Did you ever get a grip of the hand of 
 spiritual gratitude % Did you ever see the tear starting 
 from the eye when the convert said, " Bless you ! I 
 shall remember you in heaven, for you have brought me 
 to Christ"? Ah, my dear friend, you will not be satis- 
 fied merely with this. This is a kind of food that 
 makes men hungry. Oh that you had a rich banquet 
 of it, and yet wanted more still. The church shall 
 and must be built. If you and I sit still, it will be 
 built. This is a glorious truth, though it is often per- 
 verted to a mischievous end — the church will be built, 
 even without us. But oh, we shall miss the satisfaction 
 of helping in its building. Yes, it will grow ; every 
 stone will be put in its place, and the pinnacle will soar 
 to its predestinated elevation, but every stone from 
 foundation to pinnacle, will seem to say to you, " Thou 
 hadst nothing to do with this ! Thou hadst no hand 
 in this!" When Cyrus took one of his guests round 
 his garden, the guest admired it greatly, and said he 
 had much pleasure in it. " Ah," said Cyrus, " but you 
 have not so much pleasure in this garden as I have, for 
 I planted every tree in it myself." One reason why 
 
God^s Glory in the Building up of Zlon. 145 
 
 Christ has so much pleasure in his church is because 
 he did so much for it ; and one reason why some saints 
 will have a greater fulness of heaven than others to 
 rejoice in will be because they did more for heaven 
 than others. By God's grace they were enabled to 
 bring more souls there ; and as they look upon the 
 church they may, without self-reliance or self-conceit, 
 ascribing it all to grace, remember what they were 
 enabled to do, as instruments in the hands of the Lord, 
 towards its building up. When the Lord shall build 
 up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. 
 
 10 
 
^^W3ttnw$$* 
 
 "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would 
 thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and 
 neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." — Rev. iii. 
 15, 16. 
 
 ^ F this had been an utterance of mine, it would 
 have been accounted vulgar. As a sentence 
 of Scripture, I suppose it may be permitted 
 to escape the elegant censure of modem 
 critics. The vernacular tongue and the 
 homely figure may be decried as vulgarities ; 
 but it is by those whose tastes have been 
 ill-schooled. A vicious refinement has come into 
 vogue. If men call things by their names, and use 
 old Saxon words, they are perpetually brought under 
 the lash for havino; indulo^ed in vulcrarities. A return 
 to the vulgar tongue in the pulpit would be a return 
 to power. I would infinitely rather see back the 
 homely language of Hugh Latimer, with all its angu- 
 larity — and I must confess with some of its grossness — 
 than have the namby-pamby style of modern times, — 
 suggesting ideas as if they were only meant to be 
 whispered in drawing-rooms, instead of stating facts 
 which concern men in every-day life. The fact is, the 
 
Lukewarmness. 147 
 
 JBible is a book wliicli deals with things as they are — a 
 book which, just Hke all God's works, is grand and 
 glorious, because it is natural and simple. God has 
 not polished the rocks, he has not shaped the moun- 
 tains in uniform order, nor has he yet been pleased to 
 jnake all parts of the earth just as fair and lovely as 
 if they had been a landscape ; but he has roughly hewn 
 them, and left them rugged as they were, and there 
 they stand, nature's monuments in ridgy stone. And 
 so is it with this book of God. There are found sayings 
 in it at which the too polite shrug their shoulders — 
 not so many in the original, certainly, as in our 
 translation — but still enough to shock a prudish taste. 
 The Bible is none the less chaste because it scorns to 
 -call foul things by fair names. I love the Word of 
 God, because it is a manlike book Avhile it is a Godlike 
 book. In all the glory of his infinite wisdom he hath 
 written to us in the simplicity and the rugged grandeur 
 of language which follows no fashion, belongs to all 
 time, and appeals to common understanding. 
 
 The Lord here uses a plain, homely metaphor. As 
 tepid water makes a man's stomach heave, so lukewarm 
 profession is nauseous to the Almighty. The coldness 
 of apathy or the warmth of enthusiasm were either 
 one or the other to be borne with ; but the man wdio 
 is lukewarm in religion moves him to the deepest loath- 
 ing. He vomits him forth from his mouth. His name 
 shall be dismissed from the lips of the Lord with an 
 abhorrence the most sickening that fancy can paint. 
 It is an utterance so strong that no sentence of the most 
 impassioned and vehement orator would rival it. There 
 is such a depth of solemn disgust in this warning against 
 
148 Christian Energy, 
 
 lukewarmness that I know of no figure in the compass 
 of imagination, and of no language in the entire 
 vocabulaiy of words, which could have conveyed the 
 meaning of Jesus Christ, " the faithful and true wit- 
 ness," so fully, or with so much terrible force. 
 
 My business, however, with the text is, first, to 
 show some reasons why lukewarmness in religion is so 
 distasteful to Christ, and then to use some dissuasives 
 to urge you no more to be lukewarm, but to be fervent 
 in your Master's cause. 
 
 I. First, then, let us attempt an exposure of some of 
 the disgustful things which are found in lukewarm 
 religion. 
 
 A lukewarm religion is a direct insult to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. If I boldly say I do not believe what he 
 teaches, I have given him the lie. But if I say to him^ 
 " I believe what thou teachest, but I do not think it 
 of sufficient importance for me to disturb myself about 
 it," I do in fact more wilfully resist his word; I as 
 much as say to him, "If it be true, yet is it a thing 
 which I so despise and think so contemptible that I will 
 not give my heart to it." Did Jesus Christ think 
 salvation of such importance that he must needs come 
 from heaven to earth to work it out ? Did he think 
 the gospel which he preached so worthy to be known 
 that he must spend his life in scattering it ? Did he think 
 the redemption which he came to accomplish so invalu- 
 able that he must needs shed his own precious blood 
 for it % Then surely he was in earnest. Now, when I 
 profess to believe the things "v^'hich he teaches, and yet 
 am indifferent, do I not insult Christ by an insinuation 
 that there was no need for his being in earnest — that in 
 
Lukewarmness, 149 
 
 fact he laid these things too much to heart? His 
 intense zeal was not on his own account, but for 
 iinother, and certainly, by all reason, the interested 
 party, for whom his solemn engagements were under- 
 taken, should be far more earnest. And yet, instead 
 of that, here is Christ in earnest, and we — too many of 
 as — lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. I say it doth 
 not merely seem to give God the lie; it doth not 
 merely censure Christ: but it doth, as it were, tell him 
 that the things which he thoucrht were so valuable were 
 of no worth in our esteem, and so it doth insult him to 
 his face. 
 
 Oh ! my brethren and sisters, have you ever really 
 thought what an insult it is wdien we come before God 
 with lukewarm prayers % Here is a mercy-seat. The 
 road to it must be cleared with blood, and yet we come 
 to it with a heart that is cold, or leave our hearts behind. 
 We kneel in the attitude of prayer ; but we do not pray. 
 We prattle out words, we express things which are not 
 <lesires. We feign wants that we do not feel. Do we 
 not thus degrade the mercy-seat? We make it, as it 
 were, a common lounging-place, rather than an awful 
 wrestling-place, once besprinkled with blood, and often 
 to be besprinkled with the sweat of our own earnestness. 
 When we come to the house of God, to which Jesus 
 Christ hath invited us, as the banquet-house of rich 
 provisions, do we not come up here, too often, as we would 
 go to our shops — nay, not with so much earnestness 
 as we take with us to the Exchange or to the count- 
 ing-house ? And what do Ave seem to say but that God's 
 house is a common place, and that the food thereof is 
 but ordinary food, and the solemn engagements of God's 
 
150 Christian Energy. 
 
 sanctuary but everyday things, not worthy of the zeaT 
 and energy of a sensible man, but only fit to be passed 
 through with mere lukewarmness of spirit ? I think if 
 I were to pause longer here I should show you I went 
 not too far when I said lukewarmness is an insult to 
 God. It insults him in all that is dear to him by cast- 
 ing a disparagement upon everything which he would 
 have us believe to be precious. 
 
 Bethink you, again, does the Lord Jesus deserve such 
 treatment at our hands ? and may he not well say of 
 such hearts as ours, he would that we were " either 
 cold or hot " ? O Jesus ! thy heart was full of love to 
 those in whom there was nothing lovely, thou didst leave 
 the glories of thy Father's house, though there was no 
 necessity that thou shouldst do so, except the Divine 
 necessity, which was found in thine own heart ; thou 
 didst love thy Church so much that thou wouldst come 
 down, and be bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh ! 
 With her thou wouldst endure poverty — with her 
 contempt and shame and spitting. Thou didst fight 
 her enemies ; thou didst rescue her out of the hand 
 of him that was stronger than she ; thou didst count 
 down the cost in drops of thy blood to buy her, to pay 
 her debts, to redeem her from her thraldom. Thy 
 pangs were grievous, thy sufferings were bitter, thine 
 anguish was extreme. I look into thy dear face; I 
 look on thy thorn-crowned head, on those emaciated 
 cheeks, on those eyes red with weeping, and I say, O 
 Jesus, thou art worthy of the best place in the human 
 heart ! Thou oughtest to be loved as never one was 
 loved before. If there be flames, oh, let them be 
 fanned to a vehement heat, and let those flames bui-n 
 
Lukewarmness. 151 
 
 up like coals of juniper! Let the flame be love to 
 Christ. Oh, if it be possible for us to have a warm 
 emotion, we ought to feel it here ! 
 
 And is it not a sad thing that, after all his love to 
 us, our return should be but a lukewarm love ? Indeed, 
 wdiich would you rather have, a lukewarm love or 
 an acknowledged aversion? Perhaps you have but 
 little choice with regard to most men ; but were it one 
 dear to you — the partner of your life, for instance — 
 w^hy, methinks, lukewarm love would be no love at all. 
 What but misery could there be in a family where 
 there was a lukewarm affection ? Is a father contented 
 with half-hearted affection from his childi'en? In 
 those relationships w^e devote all the heart : but with 
 Christ, who has far more claim on us than husband, 
 or father, or mother, or brother, how is it that we dare 
 to offer him a distant bow, a cool recognition, a chill, 
 inconstant w^avering heart? Let it be so no more. 
 Oh, my brethren, I conjure you by his agony and bloody 
 sweat, by his cross and passion, by his precious death 
 and bm-ial, by his wounds, by every drop of his blood, 
 by his deep-fetched groans, by all the pangs that went 
 through every nerve of his body, and by the deeper 
 anguish of his inmost soul — I beseech you, either love 
 or hate him ; either drive him from the door, and let 
 him know that you are not his friend, or else give him 
 a whole heart that is full of affection, and bursting with 
 divine love to Jesus. 
 
 But, though these two things might be enough to 
 justify the strong expressions of the text — lukewarm- 
 ness being both an insult to God and ingratitude 
 to Christ — let me remind you, further, that the luke- 
 
152 Christian Energy o 
 
 warm Christian compromises God before the eyes of the 
 world in all he does and says. If a man be an infidel, 
 openly profane, known to have no connection with 
 Christ and his cause, let him do as he will, he brings no 
 scandal on the Saviour's name. He hath no God be- 
 fore his eyes, he is in open alienship and enmity : 
 therefore, his sins, though they be wicked and re- 
 bellious, full of sedition and defiance, yet do not 
 before men compromise the dignity of the Most High, 
 But when the lukewarm Christian goeth forth, men 
 say, " This man professes to be a child of God ; he 
 professes to have been washed in the blood of Christ ; 
 he stands before us and challeno-es observation as beincf 
 a new creature in Christ Jesus. He tells us that he is the 
 workmanship of the Holy Ghost, that he has been ^ be- 
 gotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ from the dead.' " Now, whatever that man 
 does, the world conceives his acts to be the acts of a new 
 creature in Christ Jesus — to be, in fact, acts caused by 
 God's Spirit in him. The world doth not make distinc- 
 tions, as we do, between the old Adam and the new. 
 Their reason does not endorse our theories, true though 
 they be, about the old and the new nature ; it looks at it 
 as a whole, and if it seeth anything ■v\T.'ong in our prin- 
 ciple and practice, it layeth it down at once, and puts 
 the inconsistency to the account of our religion. Now, 
 mark ye this, ye lukewarm ones, what does the world 
 see in you ? They see a man who professes to be going 
 to heaven, but he is travelling there at a snail's pace. 
 He professes to believe there is a hell, and yet he has 
 tearless eyes and never seeks to snatch souls from going 
 into the fire. It sees before it one who has to deal with 
 
Lukewmminess, 153 
 
 eternal realities, and yet he is but half awake ; one who 
 professes to have passed through a transformation so 
 mysterious and w^onderful, that there must be, if it 
 be true, a vast change in the outward life as the result 
 of it ; and yet they see him as much like themselves as 
 may be — he may be morally consistent in conduct, but 
 they see no energy in his religious character. Do they 
 hear a stirring sermon concerning the wrath of God, 
 *'0h," they say, "it is very well for the minister to 
 appeal to our passions, but it is no great matter ; the 
 people who hear him are not in earnest, the saints who 
 profess to believe this trifle with it, and no doubt are as 
 incredulous as ourselves." Let the minister be as earnest 
 as ever he will about the things of God, the lukewarm 
 Christian neutralises any effect the minister can pro- __ 
 duce, because the world will judge the church not by the 
 standard of the pulpit so much as by the level of the pew. f 
 And thus they say, " There is no need for us to make '' 
 so much stir about it ; these peculiar people, these saints, 
 take it remarkably easy ; they think it will all be well ; 
 no doubt we do as much as they do, for they do very- 
 little. They seem to think that after all it would be 
 fanaticism to look upon these things as facts ; they 
 don't act as if they w^ere realities ; and so," saith the 
 world, "doubtless they are not realities, and as one 
 religion is as good as the other, there is no great reason 
 for us to have any religion at all." The careless world- 
 ling is lulled to sleep by the lukewarm Christian, who 
 in this respect acts the siren to the sinner, plays music 
 in his ears, and even helps to entice him to the rocks 
 w^here he shall be destroyed. It is a solemn matter in 
 this respect. Here is damage done. Here God's name. 
 
154 Christian Energy. 
 
 God's promise, and God's honour are compromised. 
 Either lay down your profession or be honest to it. If 
 ye do profess to be God's people, serve him; if Baal 
 be your confidence, serve Baal. If the flesh be worth 
 pleasing, serve the flesh ; but if God be Lord para- 
 mount, cleave to him. Oh, I beseech you and entreat 
 you, as you love your own souls, don't play fast and 
 loose with godliness. Either let it alone, or else let it 
 saturate you through and through. Either possess it 
 or cease to profess it. The great curse of the church — 
 that which bringeth more dishonour on God than all the 
 ribald jests of scofling atheists — the great curse has been 
 the lukewarmness of its members, the being neither cold 
 nor hot. Well may the Lord speak as he doth in this 
 text, " I will spue thee out of my mouth." 
 
 But yet, again, please to notice that the Lord hateth 
 lukewarmness, because wherever it is found it is out of 
 place. There is no spot near to the throne of God 
 where lukewarmness could stand in a seemly position. 
 Take the pulpit. Ah, my brethren, of all spots in the 
 world, if lukewarmness cometh here, then is the man 
 undone indeed. He should be in earnest that undertakes 
 the charge of souls, with that solemn text ringing in 
 his ears, '* If the watchman warn them not, they shall 
 perish, but their blood will I require at the watchman's 
 hands." They who have to deal with hard-hearted 
 sinners — they who have to preach unpalatable truths — 
 surely they should not make men's hearts harder, and 
 the truth yet more unpalatable by uttering it in a 
 half-hearted manner. It shall go hard with the man 
 who has exercised the ministry with indifference. " If," 
 saith one of old, " there be a man who finds the ministry 
 
Liiheicarmncss, ' 155 
 
 an easy place, he shall find it a hard matter at last to 
 give in his account before God." If, my brethen, there 
 should be some professed ministers of Christ who never 
 know what it is to travail in birth for souls ; if there 
 be men who take it up as a mere profession and exer- 
 cise it as they would any other literary matter ; if they 
 merely preach just because they consider it to be an 
 excellent thing to do so, and pass through the duty as 
 a matter of routine, it were better for them that they 
 had never been born. It had been better for them to 
 have broken stones on the road-side all their lives than 
 to have been preaching the gospel, but leaving their 
 hearts out of their sermons ; yea, I know not but it 
 were better to have been a devil in hell than to have 
 been a minister in the pulpit who has not put his heart 
 into his work. One thing of which Satan cannot be 
 accused is, that he ever preached the gospel hypo- 
 critically ; he never stooped to speak of flaming things 
 with a cold tongue; he never addressed an audience 
 upon solemn subjects when his heart was not in the 
 matter. Baxter's " Reformed Pastor " often stirs my 
 soul as I read over the glowing periods there, those 
 fiery thunder-bolts w^hlch he dashes upon the heads of 
 idle shepherds and lazy pastors. I have read nearly the 
 wdiole book through to those who are studying for the 
 ministry in connection w^ith this church, and often have 
 I seen the tear start from their eye ; and every time I 
 have read a chapter, I have felt that the next Sabbath 
 I could preach — I must preach with greater earnest- 
 ness, when I read the solemn words of that mightiest 
 of ministers, Richard Baxter. Ah ! we need to have 
 more of that earnestness in the pulpit. What, my 
 
 / 
 
156 Christian Energy. 
 
 brethren, tliougli ye should stady less, only be more 
 earnest. Rather let them study as much as ever they 
 can ; but oh ! if they could but kindle fire upon the 
 dry fuel of their studies, how much more might be 
 accomplished for the kingdom of Christ than is done 
 now ! Here you see, then, lukewarmness is out of 
 place. So is it, my brethren, in the Sabbath-school, 
 with the tract-distributor, and even with the humble 
 attendant or private Christian. Everywhere lukewarm- 
 ness is to be scorned, for it is a gross and glaring incon- 
 sistency. I would not have you distribute a tract with 
 a lukewarm heart. I would not have you dare to visit 
 the sick unless your heart is filled with love to Christ. 
 Either do the thing well, or do not do it at all. Either put 
 heart into the work, or let some one else do it. We 
 have had too many men of straw to fill up our ranks ; 
 we have had automatons to go out to our battles, 
 and we have counted our hosts, and said, " A brave 
 host they will be " — because we have filled up our ranks 
 with men that could be gathered out of any hedge, and 
 then we have thought our regiments complete. If the 
 ranks were sifted — if the army were divided, with 
 fewer workers we should accomplish more. But, alas ! 
 those few workers are held back and impeded in their 
 onward march by the mixed multitude of those who pre- 
 tend to join with the army of the living God ! Perhaps 
 here in this church of all places you will find yourselves 
 out of place, for I do not think a lukewarm Christian 
 could be long happy amongst us. There are so many 
 brethren here with a red-hot spirit that they would 
 soon get burned ; they would say, " This is not my spot ; 
 I cannot get much here." You would be asked to do 
 
Lukeioarmness. 157 
 
 fifty things — you would be teased till you did them ; 
 for the good people here would not let you sit still 
 unless you did all that you could, and they would want 
 you to do more than you could by three or four times, 
 iior would they be satisfied with you unless you were 
 at least trying to do more than you were well able. I 
 am sure in all places I have ever known, where God has 
 sent warm-hearted men to preach in the church, you 
 will find yourself extremely uncomfortable, if you want 
 to be lukewarm. I certainly could tell you of a few 
 chapels where you could take a seat, and where you 
 would be greatly needed for the support of the minis- 
 try ; the minister would never wake you ; I dare say he 
 would let you sleep, and if you paid an extra half- 
 crown a quarter, he would never disturb you ; if you 
 did not join the church, nobody would ever think of 
 asking you whether you were a member or not. In 
 our fashionable chui'clies, of course, people don't 
 speak to one another — that would be quite beneath 
 their assumed dignity ; no man would dare to turn to 
 his neighbour in the pew, and say, "Are you a child of 
 God ? " Well, if you would like to be lukewarm, you can 
 go to those places; stay not here, for we \d\\ tease you out 
 of your life ; stay not, lest we should worry you with 
 importunities. I question whether any person would 
 come here for a few Sundays without some brother 
 walking up to him, and asking him whether he was a 
 follower of Christ or not. And it would be repeated 
 until he would think the impertinence wore him out, 
 and so it would, doubtless, unless he came to some 
 decision about his soul. 
 
 II. But now I shall turn to my second point, in which 
 
158 Christian Energy. 
 
 I am to attempt some dissuasives against lukewarmness. 
 Having exposed its evils, let me endeavour to dissuade 
 you from it. As Christians, you liave to do with 
 solemn realities; you have to do with eternity, with 
 death, with heaven, with hell, with Christ, with Satan, 
 with souls, and can you deal with these things with 
 a cold spirit ? Suppose you can, there certainly never 
 was a greater marvel in the world, if you should be able 
 to deal with them successfully. These things demand 
 the whole man. If but to praise God require that w^e 
 call up all our soul and bless him with all our powers, 
 how much more to serve God, and to serve him not in 
 hewing of wood or drawing of water, but in winning of 
 souls, in dealing with gospel truth, in propagating his 
 cause, and in spreading his kingdom. Here, my 
 brethren, there are stern and solemn things to deal 
 with, and they must not be touched by any but those 
 who come warm-heartedly to deal with them. Remem- 
 ber, too, that these were very solemn things with you 
 once. Perhaps you have been converted ten or twenty 
 years, and can it be that these things fall lightly now 
 upon your ear, and excite little emotion ? There was a 
 time when it needed little to make you earnest ; you 
 were then laden with guilt and full of fears; your 
 groans were deep ; you could not rest at nights ; you 
 were labouring under a burden so heavy that it seemed 
 to crush your soul all but into the lowest hell. Then 
 you prayed in earnest ; then you sought God in earnest. 
 Oh, how you used to long even to stand in the aisle ! it 
 did not matter though the distance were great, or the 
 pressure to enter into the house of God was incon- 
 venient; though you were ready to faint sometimes 
 
Lukewarmness, 159 
 
 iluring the sermon, you bore up through an unsatiable 
 desire to hear the Word which might be the means of 
 your salvation. Do you not remember that you thought 
 at that time every man a fool, and especially yourself 
 a fool, for having left so long these great realities un- 
 touched, unthought of, unrealised, while the trifles of 
 a day were engrossing all your thoughts ? Oh, then, 
 I conjure you by those days gone by, think as ear- 
 nestly of these things now as you did then ! Let the 
 past experience be the standard of your present zeal. 
 You ought to have advanced, but if you have not, 
 be content to go back again and begin where you 
 were at that time ; be humble enough to ask God to 
 revive the sincerity of your penitence, the reality of 
 your grace, the eagerness of your desires, the flaming 
 passion of your heart. And remember, again, there 
 have been times when these things did seem to be 
 worthy of a warm heart. You remember when your 
 Sunday-school child died, and then you thought, " Oh, 
 that I had taught that child more earnestly, and prayed 
 over it with all my heart ! " Do you remember when 
 you buried your own child, how you seemed to cry over 
 it, " O Absalom, my son, my son ! " and the thought 
 wounded you to the quick, that you had not taught that 
 child as you would — that you had not wrestled with 
 God in prayer for that child's soul as you could well 
 desire ? And have not I had to think of this when I 
 have buried some of your kinsfolk or acquaintance? 
 As I have looked down into the grave of some uncon- 
 verted hearer, the tears have fallen from my eye ; and 
 have I not awoke at night with some solemn and awful 
 dream, embodying that black thought before my eyes — 
 
160 Christian Energy. 
 
 "Have I been faithful to that soul? Have I dealt 
 -with that spirit as I ^Yould deal with it if I were called 
 once more to preach the gospel to it ?" Sometimes 
 we can say, "We hope we have not shunned to de- 
 clare the whole counsel of God, and if men perish 
 their blood lieth not at our door ;" but yet there are 
 seasons of awful questioning, lest one out of a nume- 
 rous flock should have been so neglected as that his 
 perdition should be charged to the shepherd's neglect. 
 Oh, do you not remember when the cholera was abroad 
 how solemn you thought the things of God to be? 
 And when the fever came into your house, and one 
 died after another, you thought there was nothing 
 worth living for but to be prepared to die, and that 
 your whole business should now be to seek to warn 
 others, lest they perish, and come into the place of 
 torment. And the day is coming when you will think 
 these things worthy of your whole heart. When you 
 and I shall lie stretched upon our dying beds, I think 
 we shall have to regret, above all other things, our 
 coldness of heart. Among the many sins which we 
 must then confess, and which I trust we shall then 
 know were pardoned, and laid upon the scapegoat's 
 head of old, perhaps that will lie the heaviest, like a 
 lump of ice upon our hearts — " I did not live as I 
 would ; I was not in earnest in my Lord's cause as I 
 should have been." Then shall our cold sermons march 
 like sheeted ghosts before our eyes in di-ead array. 
 Then shall our neglected days start up, and each day 
 shall seem to wave its hair as though it were a fury, 
 and look into our hearts, and make our blood curdle 
 in our veins. Then shall our Sunday-school come 
 
Lulcficarmness. 161 
 
 before us. Then shall those who taught us to teach 
 others come and reprove us for having despised their 
 trainings, for not having improved those holy teach- 
 ings which we had when we were set apart for God's cause, 
 or when we were first trained to serve in his army. 
 We may count these things of little importance now, 
 but when we lie on the borders of eternity we shall 
 think them worth living for, and account them worth 
 dying a thousand deaths for. I do think that some of 
 those truths we have kept back, some of those ordi- 
 nances we have despised, some of those precepts we 
 have neglected, shall then seem to grow as sometimes 
 in a drfam you have seen a mountain rise from a 
 grain, and swell, and swell, and swell, till its stupen- 
 dous weight appeared to crush your brain — an awful 
 mass, too heavy for your soul. And so it will be then 
 if you have lived lukewarmlv ; the things of God will 
 then, even though you be a child of God, darken your 
 dying hour, and crush down your spirit with a fearful 
 weight of sad reflection. 
 
 Ay, and there will be a time when the things of God 
 will seem yet more real even than on the dying bed. 
 I refer to the day when we shall stand at the bar of 
 God. Am I prepared to stand there with a ministry 
 half discharged? What shall I do if I have to give 
 account before God for sermons preached without my 
 heart? How shall I stand before my Maker, if I 
 have ever kept back anything which I thought might 
 be useful to you, if I have shunned to rebuke any of 
 you, if I have not w^arned you faithfully, and loved 
 you tenderly as my own soul, and sought to woo 
 vou to the Saviour? Where must I stand? Can 
 
 11 
 
162 Christian Energy, 
 
 I give in my account as a steward of the Lord, if I 
 have only served him half-heartedly ? O God ! grant, 
 I beseech thee, that, notwithstanding a thousand in- 
 firmities, thy servant may ever be free from that 
 grand sin, that great transgression, of being lukewarm 
 in thy cause ! And what think you, sirs, shall you do, 
 as professors of Christ, if you have? been lukew^arm pro- 
 fessors, if you have had a name to live and were dead, 
 or if you were but half alive with every energy para- 
 lysed ? Ah, sirs ! ah, sirs ! I would not stand in your 
 places who are living as some of you do; — -just observing 
 the decencies of godliness without the vital life thereof, 
 giving Christ a little of your substance for mere show, 
 giving Christ a little of your time to pacify your con- 
 science, taking his name upon you that you may hide 
 your defects; but still a real stranger to his work, 
 not giving yourself up to him — unconsecrated, unde- 
 voted — living to the flesh still, while pretending to be 
 quickened by the Spirit — with your heart in your busi- 
 ness, but no heart in your religion — pursuing the world 
 rapidly, but following afar off your Master — putting 
 both your hands to this world's plough, and only one 
 hand to Christ's plough, and looking back while you 
 do that. Oh, sirs, I tell you, when the earth begins 
 to reel, when the heavens begin to shake, when the 
 stars lose their places, and begin to dash abroad bewil- 
 dered — you will be bewildered too. Your heart too 
 shall shake, and your grand hopes totter to destruc- 
 tion, if you have only served Jesus with a lukew^arm 
 heart. God give us grace to make our religion allj 
 to give our wdiole heart to it, to live in it, to live it 
 out, and then to be prepared to die for it, if God so 
 
Liikewarmness. 163 
 
 please, that we may live to enjoy the results of it in 
 glory everlasting ! 
 
 I am fearful, full often, that in addressing you, the 
 same congregation, Sabbath after Sabbath, and week 
 after week, by the space of all these accumulating 
 years, my voice should grow old and stale to you. 
 This I can truly say, I had rather cease to preach 
 than preach to people to whom my voice has become 
 so familiar that it is but the ringing of an old bell 
 to which they give no heed. No, there must be feeling 
 in the congregation, with earnestness in the preacher ; 
 elsewise let me resign my commission. Oh, I pray 
 God, if I be spared to labour with you, year after year, 
 and you to sit in the pew to listen to the Word, that 
 it may be with earnestness in you, and earnestness in 
 me ; that we may never come down to the dead level 
 of some of the churches I alluded to just now — as you 
 may think, in a spirit of censure, but God knows in a 
 spirit of loving faithfulness ; old churches that have 
 come to be as pools without outlets, covered over with 
 the sickly duckweed of respectability. Stagnation in 
 a church is the devil's delight. I do not think he cares 
 how many Baptist chapels you build, or how many 
 churches you open, if you will but keep them stagnant ; 
 he cares not for your armies if the soldiers will but 
 sleep ; he cares not for your guns if they be none of 
 them loaded. " Oh, let them build, let them build," 
 says he, " for such buildings are not the batteries that 
 shake the gates of hell." New zeal, new fire, new 
 energy ! ^his is what we want. Our old Baptist 
 cause has ^ot very slack. We are, the great mass of 
 us Baptists, ignoring our convictions. We say so little 
 
164 Christian Energi/. 
 
 about them that people forget that there is an institu- 
 tion of Christ to defend which has been wilfully and 
 wofully perverted from its original intent as well as its 
 primitive form. If we have held our tongues about 
 baptism, we have sin lying at our door. We shall have 
 to give account to God, not only for our obedience but 
 also for our testimony ; and I would that in this matter 
 we began to wake up. As baptism is an ordinance of 
 Christ we ought to speak out about it. Do we know 
 our cause to be just ? then why should we fear to de- 
 fend it? Let truth prevail in every article of our 
 doctrine. Let wrong be assailed in every tittle of our 
 conduct. Suffer no spurious charity to betray you 
 into graceless laxness. To arms, to arms, if so it must 
 be. We would not shrink or skulk when the occasion 
 demands it. Controversy has its advantages ; for 
 thereby falsehood is unmasked, and therein truth is 
 made manifest. Amidst the tumult of those who cling 
 to traditions, we make our appeal to heaven. By 
 terrible things in righteousness, answer thou, O God ! 
 Bring on the battle once again, the clash of arms once 
 more ; and let thy church win the victory. Give the 
 victory to the right and to the true ; and let error be 
 trampled under foot ; and with those errors, the errors 
 ice hold, let them be first trampled on and slain. So 
 be it, O Lord, and unto thy name shall be the glory I 
 
ll^sti^ainiHg %m^* 
 
 "Thou restrainest prayer before God." — Job xv. 4. 
 
 CHAEGE brought by Ellphaz the Temanite 
 against Job, ^^ Yea, thou castest off fear, 
 and restrainest prayer before God!" I 
 shall not use this sentence as an accusation 
 against those who never pray, though there 
 may be some in this house of prayer whose 
 heads are unaccustomed to bow down, 
 whose knees are unaccustomed to kneel before the 
 Lord their Maker. You have been fed by God's 
 bounty, you owe all the breath in your nostrils to him, 
 and yet you have never done homage to his name. 
 The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master's 
 crib, but these know not, neither do they consider the 
 Most High. The cattle on a thousand hills low forth 
 their gratitude, and every sheep praiseth God in its 
 bleatings ; but these beings, worse than natural brute 
 beasts, still continue to receive from the lavish hand of 
 divine benevolence, but they return no thanks whatso- 
 ever to their Benefactor. Let such remember, that the 
 ground which has long been rained upon, and ploughed 
 and sown, which yet bringeth forth no fruit, is nigh 
 unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Prayerless 
 
166 Christian Energy. 
 
 souls are Christless souls, Christless souls are graceless 
 souls, and graceless souls shall soon be damned souls. 
 See your peril, ye that neglect altogether the blessed 
 privilege of prayer. You are in the bonds of iniquity, 
 you are in the gall of bitterness. God deliver you for 
 his name's sake. 
 
 Nor do I intend to use this text in an address 
 to those who are in the habit of formal prayer, 
 though there are many such. Taught from their 
 childhood to utter certain sacred words, they have 
 carried through youth, and even up to manhood, the 
 same practice. I will not discuss that question just 
 now, whether the practice of teaching children a form 
 of prayer is proper or not. I would not do it. Children 
 should be instructed in the meaning of prayer, and 
 their little minds should be taught to pray; but it 
 should be rather the matter of prayer than the words 
 of prayer that should be suggested ; and I think they 
 should be taught to use then' own words, and to speak 
 unto God in such phrases and terms as their own child- 
 like capacities, assisted by a mother's love, may be able 
 to suo-CTest. Full manv there are who from early 
 education grow^ up habituated to some form of words, 
 which either stands in lieu of the heart's devotion, or 
 cripples its free exercise. No doubt there may be true 
 prayer linked with a form, and the soul of many a 
 saint has gone up to heaven in some holy collect, or in 
 the words of some beautiful liturgy ; but for all that, 
 we are absolutely certain that tens of thousands use the 
 mere language without heart or soul, under the im- 
 pression that they are praying. I consider the form of 
 prayer to be no more prayer than a coach may be called 
 
Hestraining Prayer. 1G7 
 
 a horse; the horse will be better without the coach, 
 travel much more rapidly, and find himself much more 
 at ease ; he may drag the coach, it is true, and still 
 travel well. Without the heart of prayer, the form is 
 no prayer; it will not stir or move, it is simply a 
 vehicle that may have wheels that might move ; but it 
 has no inner force or power within itself to propel it. 
 Flatter not yourselves that your devotion has been 
 acceptable to God, you that have been merely saluting 
 the ears of the Most High with forms. They liave been 
 only mockeries, when your heart has been absent. What 
 though a parliament of bishops should have composed 
 the words you use ! what though they should be abso- 
 lutely faultless ! ay, what if they should even be in- 
 spired, or though you have used them a thousand times, 
 yet have you never prayed if you consider that the 
 repetition of the form be prayer. No ! there is more 
 than the chatter of the tongue in genuine supplication ; 
 more than the repetition of words in truly drawing 
 near to God. Take care lest with the form of godliness 
 you neglect the power, and go down to the pit, having 
 a lie in your right hand, but not the truth in your heart. 
 What I do intend, however, is to address this text to 
 the true people of God, who understand the sacred 
 art of prayer and are prevalent therein ; but who, to 
 their own sorrow and shame, must confess that they 
 have restrained prayer. If there be no other person 
 in this congregation to whom the preacher will speak 
 personally, he feels shamefully conscious that he will 
 have to speak very plainly to himself. We know that 
 our prayers are heard ; we are certain — it is not a 
 question with us — that there is an efficacy in the divine 
 
168 Christian Energy. 
 
 office of intercession; and yet (oh, how we should 
 blush when we make the confession !) we must ac- 
 knowledge that we do restrain prayer. Now, inasmuch 
 as we speak to those who grieve and repent that they 
 should so have done, we shall use but little sharpness ; 
 but we shall try to use much plainness of speech. Let 
 us see how and in what respect we have restrained 
 prayer. 
 
 Do you not think, dear friends, that we often restrain 
 prayer in the fewness of the occasions that we set apart 
 for supplication? From hoary tradition and modern 
 precedents we have come to believe that the morning 
 should be opened with the offering of prayer, and that 
 the day should be shut in with the nightly sacrifice. 
 We do ill if we neglect those two seasons of prayer. 
 Do you not think that often in the morning we rise so 
 near to the time of labour, when duty calls us to our 
 daily avocation, that we hurry through the wonted exer- 
 cises with unseemly haste, instead of diligently seeking 
 the Lord and earnestly calling upon his name ? And 
 even at night, when we are very weary and jaded, it 
 is just possible that our prayer is uttered somewhere 
 between sleeping and waking. Is not this restraining 
 prayer? And throughout the three hundred and sixty- 
 five days of the year, if we continue thus to pray, and 
 this be all, how small an amount of true supplication 
 will have gone up to heaven ! I trust there are none 
 here present who profess to be followers of Christ, who 
 do not also practise prayer in their families. We may 
 have no positive commandment for it, but we believe 
 that it is so much in accord with the genius and spirit 
 of the gospel, and that it is so commended by the 
 
Restraining Prayer. IGO 
 
 example of the saints, that the neglect thereof is a 
 strange inconsistency. Now, how often this family 
 worship is conducted in a slovenly manner ! An incon- 
 venient hour is fixed ; and a knock at the door, a ring 
 at the bell, the call of a customer, may hurry the 
 believer from his knees to go and attend to his worldly 
 concerns. Of course, many excuses might be offered, 
 but the fact would still remain, that in this way we 
 often restrain prayer. And then, when you come up 
 to the house of God — I hope you do not come up to 
 this Tabernacle without prayer — but yet I fear we do 
 not all pray as we should, even when in the place dedi- 
 cated to it. There should always be a devout prayer 
 lifted up to heaven, as soon as you enter the place where 
 you would meet with God. What a preparation is often 
 made to appear in the assembly ! some of you get here 
 half an hour before the service commences; if there 
 were no talking, if each one of you looked into the 
 Bible, or if the time was spent in silent ejaculation, what 
 a cloud of holy incense would go smoking up to heaven I 
 I think it would be comely for you and profitable 
 for us if, as soon as the minister enters the pulpit, 
 you engaged yourselves to plead with God for him. 
 For me I may especially say it is desirable. I claim 
 it at your hands above every other man. With this 
 overwhelming congregation, and with the terrible 
 responsibility of so numerous a church, and with 
 the word spoken here published within a few hours, 
 and disseminated over the country, scattered through- 
 out all Europe, nay, throughout the length and 
 breadth and to the ends of the earth, I may well 
 ask you to lift up your hearts in supplication that 
 
170 Christian Energy. 
 
 the words spoken may be those of truth and sober- 
 ness, directed of the Holy Spirit, and made mighty 
 through God, like arrows shot from his own bow, to 
 find a target in the hearts that he means to bless. 
 That shoukl be certainly a time of prayer. And on 
 going home, w^ith what earnestness should we ask the 
 Master to let what we have heard live in our hearts. 
 We lose very much of the effects of our Sabbaths 
 through not pleading with God on the Saturday night 
 for a blessing upon the day of rest, and through not also 
 pleading at the end of the Sunday, beseeching him to 
 make that which we have heard abide in our memories, 
 and appear in our actions. We have restrained prayer, 
 I fear, in the fewness of the occasions. Indeed, brethren, 
 every part of the day and every day of the week should 
 be an occasion for prayer. Ejaculations such as these, 
 *' Oh, would that ! " " Lord, save me ! " " Help me ! " 
 '^More liMit, Lord!" "Teach me!" "Guide me!" 
 and a thousand such, should be constantly going up 
 from our hearts to the throne of God. You may enjoy 
 a refreshing solitude, if you please, in the midst of 
 crowded Cheapside, or contrariwise you may have your 
 head in the whirl of a busy crowd when you have 
 retired to your closet. It is not so much where wx are 
 as in what state our heart is. Let the regular seasons 
 for devotion be constantly attended to. These things 
 ought ye to have done ; but let your heart be habitually 
 in a state of prayer; ye must not leave this undone. 
 Oh that we prayed more, that we set apart more time 
 for it ! Good Bishop Farrar had an idea in his head 
 which he carried out. Being a man of some substance, 
 and having some twenty-four persons in his household, 
 
Restraining Prayer, 171 
 
 he divided the day, and there was always some person 
 engaged either in holy song or else in devout supplica- 
 tion through the whole of the twenty-four hours ; never 
 Avas there a moment when the censer ceased to smoke 
 or the altar was without its sacrifice. Happy shall it 
 be for us when, day without night, we shall circle the 
 throne of God rejoicing ; but till then let us emulate 
 the ceaseless praise of seraphs before the throne, con- 
 tinually drawing near unto God, and making supplica- 
 tion and thanksgiving. 
 
 But to proceed to a second remark. Dear friends, I 
 think it will be very clear, upon a little reflection, that 
 we constantly restrain prayer by not having our hearts 
 in a proper state when we come to its exercise. We 
 rush into prayer too often; we would think it necessary 
 if we were to address the Queen that our petition should 
 be prepared ; but often we dash before the throne of 
 God as though it were but some common house of call, 
 without even having a thought in our minds of what we 
 are going for. Now just let me suggest some few things 
 which I think should always be subjects of meditation 
 before our season of prayer, and I think, if you confess 
 that you have not thought of this, you will also be 
 obliged to acknowledge that you have restrained 
 prayer. 
 
 We should, before prayer, meditate upon him to whom 
 it is to be addressed. Let our thoughts be directed to 
 the living and true God. Let me remember that he 
 is omnipotent, then I shall ask large things. Let me 
 remember that he is very tender, and full of com- 
 passion, then I shall ask little things and be minute in 
 my supplication. Let me remember the greatness of 
 
172 Christian Energy. 
 
 his covenant, then I shall come very boldly. Let me 
 remember, also, that his faithfulness is like the great 
 mountains, that his promises are sure to all the seed, 
 then I shall ask very confidently, for I shall be per- 
 suaded that he will do as he has said. Let me fill my 
 soul with the reflection of the greatness of his majesty, 
 then I shall be struck with awe ; with the equal great- 
 ness of his love, then I shall be filled with delight. 
 We could not but pray better than we do if we medi- 
 tated more before prayer upon the God whom we 
 address. 
 
 Then, let me meditate also upon the way through 
 which my prayer is offered ; let my soul behold the 
 blood sprinkled on the mercy-seat ; before I venture to 
 draw near to God, let me go to Gethsemane and see 
 the Saviour as he prays. Let me stand in holy vision 
 at the foot of Calvary and see his body rent, that the 
 veil which parted my soul from all access to God might 
 be rent too, that I might come close to my Father, 
 even to his feet. Oh, dear friends, I am sure if we 
 thought about the way of access in prayer, we should 
 be more mighty in it, and our neglect of so doing has 
 led us to restrain prayer. 
 
 And yet, again, ought I not before prayer to be duly 
 conscious of my many sins ? Oh ! when I hear men 
 pray cold, careless prayers, surely they forget that they 
 are sinners, or else, abjuring gaudy words and flowing 
 periods, they w^ould smite upon their breast with the cry, 
 " God be merciful to me a sinner ; " they would come 
 to the point at once, with force and fervency. ^' I, 
 black, unclean, defiled, condemned by the law, mako 
 my appeal unto thee, O God ! " What prostration of 
 
Restraining Prayer. 173 
 
 spirit, what zeal, what fervour, what earnestness, and 
 tlien, consequently, what prevalence would there be 
 if we were duly sensible of our sin ! 
 
 If we can add to this a little meditation upon what 
 our needs are, how much better we should pray ! We 
 often fail in prayer because we come without an 
 errand, not having thought of what our necessities are ; 
 but if w^e have reckoned up that w^e need pardon, justi- 
 fication, sanctification, preservation ; that besides the 
 blessings of this life we need that our decaying gi'aces 
 should be revived, that such and such a temptation should 
 be removed, and that through such and such a trial 
 we should be carried, and prove more than conquerors ; 
 then, coming with an errand, w^e should speed before 
 the Most High. But we bring bowls to the altar that 
 have no bottom, and if the treasure should be put in 
 them it would fall through. We do not know what we 
 want, and therefore we ask not for what we really need ; 
 we affect to lay our necessities before the Lord, without 
 having duly considered how great our necessities are. 
 See thyself as an abject bankrupt ; weak, sick, dying, 
 and this will make thee plead. See thy necessities 
 deep as the ocean, broad as the expanse of heav^en — this 
 will make thee cry. There will be no restraining of 
 prayer, beloved, when we have got a due sense of our 
 soul's poverty ; but because we think w^e are rich and 
 increased in goods, and we have need of nothing, there- 
 fore it is that we restrain prayer before God. 
 
 How well it would be for us if before prayer we 
 would meditate upon the past with regard to all the 
 mercies we have had during the day — what courage 
 that would give us to ask for more ! the deliverances we 
 
174 Christian Energy. 
 
 have experienced through our life — how boldly should 
 we plead to be delivered yet again ! He that hath been 
 with me in six troubles will not forsake me in the 
 seventh. Do but remember how thou didst pass 
 through the fires, and wast not burnt, and thou shouldst 
 be confident that the flame will not kindle upon thee 
 now. Christian, remember how when thou passedst 
 through the rivers aforetime he was with thee ; and 
 surely thou mayst plead with him to deliver thee from 
 the flood that now threatens to inundate thee. Think 
 of the past ages too, of what he did of old, when he 
 brought forth his people out of Egypt, and of all the 
 mighty deeds which he has done — are they not written 
 in the book of the wars of the Lord ? Plead all these, 
 and say unto him in thy supplications : — " Oh ! thou 
 that art a God that heareth prayer, hear me, and now 
 send me an answer of peace ! " I think, without need- 
 ing to point that arrow, you can see which way I would 
 shoot. Because we do not come to the throne of grace 
 in a proper state of supplication, therefore it is that too 
 often we restrain prayer before God. 
 
 Now, thirdly, it is not to be denied by a man who is 
 conscious of his own error, that in the duty of prayer 
 itself we are too often straitened in our own bowels and 
 do restrain prayer. Prayer has been differently divided 
 by different authors. We might roughly say of it, 
 prayer consists, first, of invocation, "Our Fathei', which 
 art in heaven." We begin by stating the title and our 
 own apprehension of the glory and majesty of the Per- 
 son whom we address. Do you not think, dear friends, 
 that we fail here, restrain prayer here ? Oh ! how we 
 ought to sound forth his praises ! I think on the 
 
Restraining Pt-aijer, 175 
 
 Sabbath it is always the minister's special duty to bring 
 out the titles of the Mighty One — '' King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords I " He is not to be addressed in 
 common terms. How should we endeavour, as we 
 search the Scripture through, to find those mighty 
 phrases which the ancient saints were wont to apply 
 to Jehovah ! And how should we make his temple 
 ring with his glory, and make our closet full of that 
 holy adoration with which prayer must always be linked. 
 *' Oh 1 good heaven," I think the rebuking angel might 
 say, " thou thinkest that he is even such a one as thy- 
 self, and thou talkest not to him as to the God of the 
 whole earth, but, as though he were a man, thou dost 
 address him in slighting and unseemly terms." Let 
 all our invocations come more deeply from our souls' 
 reverence to the Most High, and let us address him not 
 in high-sounding words of fleshly homage, but still in 
 words which set forth our awe and our reverence while 
 they express his majesty and the glory of his holiness. 
 
 From invocation we usually go to confession, and 
 how often do we fail here ! Li your closet, are you 
 in the habit of confessing your real sins to God ? Do 
 you not find, brethren, a t-endency to acknowledge that 
 sin which is common to all men, but not that which is 
 certainly peculiar to you ? We are all Sauls in our 
 way, we want to spare the best of the cattle and the 
 sheep ; those favourite sins, those Agag sins, it is not 
 so easy to hew them in pieces before the Lord. The 
 right eye sin ! happy is that Christian who has 
 learned to pluck it out by confession. The right hand 
 sin ! he is blessed and well taught who aims the axe 
 at that sin, and cuts it from him. But no, we say 
 
176 Christian Energy. 
 
 we have sinned — we are willing to use the terms of 
 any general confession that any church may publish ; 
 but to say, " Lord, thou knowest I love the world and 
 the things of the world; I am covetous;" or to say, 
 " Lord, thou knowest I was envious of So-and-so, be- 
 cause he shone brighter than 1 did at such-and-such a 
 public meeting ; Lord, I was jealous of such-and-such 
 a member of the church, because I evidently saw that 
 he was preferred before me ; " and for the husband also 
 to confess before God that he has been overbearing, 
 that he has spoken rashly to a child ; for a wife to 
 acknowledge that she has been wilful, that she has had 
 a fault — this would be letting out prayer ; but the 
 hiding of these things is restraining prayer, and w^e 
 shall surely come under that charge of having re- 
 strained prayer, unless we make our private confessions 
 of sin very explicit, coming to the point. I have 
 thought, in teaching children in the Sabbath-school, we 
 should not so much talk about sin as the sins in which 
 children most commonly indulge, such as little thefts, 
 naughty tempers, disobedience to parents ; these are 
 the things that children should confess. Men in the 
 dawn of their manhood should confess those ripening 
 evil imaginations, those lustful things that rise in the 
 heart ; while the man in business should ever make this 
 a point, to see most to the sins which attack business 
 men. I have no doubt that I might be very easily led 
 in my confession to look to all the offences I may have 
 committed against the laws of business, because I 
 should not need to deal very hardly with myself there, 
 for I do not have the temptations of these men ; and 
 I should not wonder if some of you merchants will 
 
Restraining Prayer. 177 
 
 find It very easy to examine yourselves according to a 
 code that is proper to me, but not to you. Let the 
 workman pray to God as a workman, and confess the 
 sins common to his craft. Let the trader examine him- 
 self according to his standing, and let each man make 
 his confession like the confessions of old, when every 
 one confessed apart — the mother apart and thu daughter 
 apart, the father apart and the son apart. Let each 
 one thus make a clean breast of the matter, and I am 
 sure there will not be so much need to say we have 
 restrained prayer before God. 
 
 As to the next part of prayer, which is petition, 
 lamentably indeed do we all fail. We have not, be- 
 cause we ask not, or because we ask amiss. We are 
 ready enough to ask for deliverance from trial, but how 
 often we forget to ask that it may be sanctified to us. 
 We are quite ready to say, " Give us this day our daily 
 bread;" how often, however, do we fail to ask that he 
 would give us the bread which cometh down from 
 heaven, and enable us to feed blessedly — to feed upon 
 his flesh and his blood ! Brethren, we come before God 
 with such little desires, and the desires we get have 
 such little fervency in them, and when we get the fer- 
 vency we so often fail to get the faith which grasps the 
 promise and believes that God will give, that in all 
 these points, when we come to the matter of spreading 
 our wants before God, we restrain prayer. 
 
 Oh, for the Luthers that can shake the gates of heaven 
 by supplication ! Oh, for men that can lay hold upon the 
 golden knocker of heaven's gate, and make it ring and 
 ring again as if they meant it to be heard ! Cold 
 prayers court a denial. God hears by fire, and the God 
 
178 Christian Energy. 
 
 that answers by fire let him be Gocl. But there must 
 be prayer in Elijah's heart first — fire in Elijah's heart 
 first — before the fire will come down in answer to the 
 prayer. Our fervency goeth up to heaven, and then 
 God's gi'ace, which gave us the fervency, cometh down 
 and giveth it the answer. 
 
 But you know, too, that prayer has in it — all true 
 prayer has in it — thanksgiving. " Thine is the kingdom 
 and the power and the glory, for ever and ever." What 
 prayer is complete without the doxology ? And here, 
 too, we restrain prayer. We don't praise, and bless, 
 and magnify the Lord as we should. If our hearts were 
 more full of gratitude, our expressions would be far 
 more noble and comprehensive when w^e speak forth his 
 praise. I wish I could put this so plainly that every 
 Christian might mourn on account of his sin, and mend 
 his ways. But, indeed, it is only mine to speak ; it is 
 my Master's to open your eyes, to let you see, and to 
 set you upon the solemnly important duty of self- 
 examination. In this respect I am sure even the 
 prayers that you and I have offered to-day may well cry 
 out against us and say, '' Thou hast restrained prayer." 
 
 Yet, again, I fear also we must all join in acknow- 
 ledging a serious fault with regard to the after-part of 
 our prayers. When prayer is done, do you not think 
 we very much restrain it ? For after prayer we often 
 go into the world immediatL4y — that may be absolutely 
 necessary — but we go there, and leave behind us what 
 we ought to carry with us. When we have got into a 
 good frame in prayer, we should consider that this is like 
 the meat which the angel gave to Elijah that he might 
 go on his journey — on the forty days' journey — in its 
 
Restraining Prayer, 179 
 
 strength. Have we felt heavenly minded? yet the 
 moment we cross the threshold and get into the family 
 or business, where is the heavenly mind ? Oh, to get 
 prayer, inwrought prayer — not the surface prayer, as 
 though it were a sort of sacred masquerading after all — 
 to have it inside, in the warp and woof of our being, till 
 prayer becomes a part of ourselves ; then, brethren, we 
 have not restrained it. We get hot in our closets — 
 when I say " we," oh, how few can say so much as that I 
 — but still we gQi hot in our closets, and go out into the 
 world, into the draughts of its temptations, without 
 wrapping ourselves about with promises, and we catch 
 well nigh our death of cold. Oh, to carry that heat and 
 fervour with us I You know as you carry a piece of hot 
 iron along, how it begins soon to return to its common 
 ordinary appearance and the heat is gone. How hot, 
 then, we ought to make ourselves in prayer, that we 
 may burn the longer ; and how all day long we ought 
 to keep thrusting the iron into the fire again, so that 
 when it ceases to glow, it may go into the hot embers 
 once more and the flame may glow upon it, and we may 
 once again be brought into a vehement heat. But we 
 are not careful enough to keep up the grace and seek to 
 nurture and to cherish the young child, which God 
 seems to give in the morning into our hands that we 
 may nurse it for him. 
 
 Old Master Dyer speaks of locking up his heart by 
 prayer in the morning and giving Christ the key. I 
 am afraid we do the opposite — we lock up our hearts 
 in the morning and give the devil the key, and think 
 that he will be honest enough not to rob us. Ah ! it 
 is in bad hands when it is trusted with him ; and he 
 
180 Christian Energy, 
 
 keeps filching all day long the precious things that were 
 in the casket, until at night it's all empty, and needs 
 to be filled over again. Would God we put the key in 
 Christ's hands, by looking up to him all the day ! 
 
 I think, too, that after prayer we often fail in un- 
 belief. We don't expect God to hear us. If God were 
 to hear some of you, you would be more surprised than 
 with the greatest novelty that could occur. We ask 
 blessings, but do not think of having them. When you 
 and I were children, and had a little piece of garden, 
 we sowed some seed one day, and the next morning, 
 before breakfast, we went to see if it was up ; and the 
 next day, seeing that no appearance of the green blade 
 could be discovered, we began to move the mould to 
 look after our seeds. Ah ! we were children then. I 
 wish we were children now, with regard to our prayers. 
 We should go out the next morning to look and see if 
 they had begun to sprout, and disturb the ground a bit 
 to look after our prayers, for fear they should have 
 miscarried. Do you believe God hears prayer? I saw 
 the other day in a newspaper, a little sketch concerning 
 myself, in which the author, who is evidently very 
 friendly, gives a much better description of me than I 
 deserve; but he offers me one rather pointed rebuke. 
 It would appear I was preaching at the time in a tent. 
 Only part of the people were covered. It began to rain 
 just before prayer, and one petition was, " O Lord, be 
 pleased to grant us favourable weather for this service, 
 and command the clouds that they rain not upon this 
 assembly." Now he thought this very preposterous. 
 To say the least, it was rash, if not blasphemous. He 
 admits it did not rain a drop after it. Still, of course, 
 
Reitraining Prayer. 181 
 
 lie did not infer that God heard and answered the 
 ]) raver. If I had asked for a rain of grace, it had been 
 ([uite credible that God would send that ; but when 
 you ask him not to send you a temporal rain, that is 
 fanaticism. To think that God meddles with the clouds 
 at the wish of a man, or that he may answer us in tem- 
 poral things, is pronounced absurd. I bless God, how- 
 ever, that I fully believe the absurdity, preposterous as 
 it may appear. I know that God hears prayer in tem- 
 poral things. I know it by as clear a demonstration 
 as ever proposition in Euclid was solved. I know it 
 l)y abundant facts and incidents which my own life has 
 revealed. God does hear prayer. The majority of 
 people do not think that he does. At least, if he does, 
 they suppose that it is in some high, clerical, mysterious, 
 unknown sense. As to ordinary things ever happening 
 as the result of prayer, they account it a delusion. 
 ^'The bank of faith!" How many have said it is a 
 bank of nonsense ; and yet there are many who have 
 been able to say, " We could write as good a book as 
 Huntington's ' Bank of Faith,' that would be no more 
 believed than Huntington's Bank was, though it might 
 be even more true." 
 
 We restrain prayer, I am sure, by not believing our 
 God. We ask a favour, wdiich, if gi'anted, we should 
 attribute to accident rather than ascribe it to grace, 
 and we do not receive it ; then the next time we come 
 of course we cannot pray, because unbelief has cut the 
 sinews of prayer, and left us powerless before the throne. 
 
 My dear friends, is it not very clear that in many 
 of our daily actions we do that which necessitates 
 restrained prayer ? 
 
182 Christian Energy, 
 
 You are a professor of religion. After you have 
 been to a party of ungodly people, can you pray^^ 
 You are a merchant, and profess to be a follower of 
 Christ; when you engage in a hazardous speculation, 
 and you know you ought not, can you pray ? Or when 
 you have had a heavy loss in business, and will repine 
 against God, and will not say, " The Lord gave and the 
 Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord" — can you pray? Pity the man that can sin 
 and pray too. In a certain sense, Brooks was right when 
 he said, " Praying will make you leave off sinning, or 
 else sin will make you leave off praying." Of course that 
 is not meant in the absolute sense of the term ; but as 
 to certain sins, especially gross sins — and some of the 
 sins to which God's people are liable are gross sins — I 
 am certain they cannot come before their Father's face 
 with the confidence they had before, after having been 
 rolling in the mire, or wandering in the By-path 
 Meadow. Look at your own child ; he meets you in 
 the morning with a smiling face, so pleased ; he asks 
 what he likes of you, and you give it him. He has 
 been doing wrong, he knows he has ; and you frowned 
 on him ; you have chastened him. How does he come ? 
 He may come because he is a child, and with tears in 
 his eyes because he is a penitent ; but he cannot ask 
 with the power he once had. Look at a king's favour- 
 ite ; as long as he feels he is in the king's favour, he 
 \fi\\ take up your suit and plead for you. Ask him to- 
 morrow wliether he will do you a good turn, he says, 
 " No, I am out of favour ; I don't feel as if I could 
 speak now." A Christian is not out of covenant favour, 
 but he may be experimentally under a cloud ; he loses 
 
Restraining Prayer, 183 
 
 the light of God's countenance ; and then he feels he 
 cannot plead, his prayers hecome weak and feeble. 
 Take heed unto yourselves, and consider your ways. 
 The path of declension is very abrupt in some parts. 
 We may go on gradually declining in prayer till faith 
 grows weak, and love cold, and patience is exhausted. 
 We may go on for years, and maintain a consistent 
 profession, but all of a sudden the road which had 
 long been descending at a gradual incline may come 
 to a precipice, and we may fall, and that when we 
 little think of it; we ma/ have ruined our reputa- 
 tion, blasted our comfort, destroyed our usefulness, 
 and we may have to go to our graves with a sword 
 in our bones because of sin. Stop while you may 
 —stop, believer. Now stop, and guard against the 
 temptation. I charge you by the trials you must 
 meet with, by the temptations that surround you, by 
 the corniptions that are within, by the assaults that 
 come from hell, and by the trials that come from 
 heaven, watch in this matter—" Watch and pray, lest 
 ye enter into temptation." To this church I speak 
 especially. What hath God wrought for us ! When 
 we were a few people, what intense agony of prayer 
 we had ! We have had prayer-meetings in Park Street 
 that have moved our souls. Every man seemed like a 
 crusader besieging Jerusalem, each man determined to 
 storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession ; 
 and the blessing came upon us, such that we had not 
 room to receive it. The hallowed cloud rests o'er us 
 still ; the holy drops still fall. Will ye now cease from 
 intercession ? At the borders of the promised land will 
 ye turn back to the wilderness, when God is with us, 
 
184 Cluistian Energy/. 
 
 and the standard of a King is in the midst of our 
 armies ? Will ye now fail in the day of trial ? Who 
 knoweth but ye have come to the kingdom for such a 
 time as this ? Who knoweth but that he will preserve 
 in the land a small company of poor people who fear 
 God intensely, hold the faith earnestly, and love God 
 vehemently ; that infidelity may be driven from the high 
 places of the earth ; that Naphtali again may be a 
 people made triumphant in the high places of the field? 
 God of heaven, grant this ! Oh, let us restrain prayer 
 no longer ! You that have never prayed, may you be 
 taught to pray. " God be merciful to me a sinner," 
 uttered from your heart, with, your eye upon the cross, 
 will bring you a gracious answer, and ye shall go on 
 your way rejoicing. 
 
'^ifliwm ^i^wmikl 
 
 " Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," — 
 
 Hebrews xii. 14. 
 
 NE feels most happy when blowing the trumpet 
 of jubilee, proclaiming peace to broken hearts, 
 freedom to the captives, and the opening of 
 the prisons to them that are bound. But 
 God's watchman has another trumpet, which 
 he must sometimes blow ; for thus saith the 
 Lord unto him : — " Sound an alarm in 
 Zion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain." Times 
 there are when we must ring the tocsin; men must be 
 startled from their sleep ; they must be roused up to 
 inquire : — " What are we ? Where are we ? Whither 
 are we going ? " Nor is it altogether amiss for the 
 wisest virgins to look to the oil in their vessels, and for 
 the soundest Christians to be sometimes constrained to 
 examine the foundations of their hope, to trace back 
 their evidences to the beginning, and make an impartial 
 sun-ey of their state before God. Partly for this 
 reason, but with a further view to the awakening and 
 stirring up of tliose who are destitute of all holiness, 
 1 have selected for our topic, " Holiness, without which 
 no man shall see the Lord." 
 
186 Christian Energy, 
 
 There lias been a desperate attempt made by certain 
 Antinomians to get rid of the injunction which the 
 Holy Spirit here means to enforce. They have said 
 this is the imputed holiness of Christ. Do they not 
 know, when they so speak, that, by an open perversion, 
 they utter that which is false ? I do not suppose that 
 any man in his senses can apply that interpretation to 
 the verse, " Follow peace with all men, and holiness." 
 Now, the holiness meant is evidently one that can be 
 followed like peace ; and it must be transparent to any 
 ingenuous man that it is something which is the act 
 and duty of the person who foUow^s it. We are to 
 follow peace ; this is practical peace, not the peace made 
 for us, but " the fruit of righteousness which is sown 
 in peace of them that make peace." We are to follow 
 holiness — this must be practical holiness too ; the oppo- 
 site of impurity, a^ it is written, " God hath not called 
 us to uncleanness, but to holiness." The holiness of 
 Christ is not a thing to follow ; I mean if we look at it 
 imputatively. That we have at once ; it is given to us 
 the moment we believe. The righteousness of Christ is 
 not to be followed ; it is bestowed upon the soul in the 
 instant when it lays hold of Christ Jesus. This is 
 another kind of holiness. It is, in fact, as every one 
 can see who chooses to read the connection, practical, 
 vital holiness which is the purport of this admonition. 
 It is conformity to the will of God, and obedience to 
 the Lord's command. It is, in fine, the Spirit's work in 
 the soul, by which a man is made like God, and be- 
 comes a partaker of the divine nature, being delivered 
 from the corruption which is in the world through lust. 
 No straining, no hacking at the text can alter it. 
 
Holiness Demanded, 187 
 
 There it stands, whether men like it or not. There are 
 some who, for especial reasons best known to themselves, 
 do not like it ; just as no thieves ever like policemen or 
 gaols — yet there it stands, and it means no other than 
 what it says : " Without holiness " — practical, personal, 
 active, vital holiness — *' no man shall see the Lord." 
 Dealing with this solemn assertion, fearfully exclusive 
 as it is, shutting out as it does so many professors from 
 all communion with God on earth and all enjoyment of 
 Christ in heaven, I shall endeavour, first, to give some 
 marks and signs whereby a man may know wdiether he 
 hath this holiness or not ; secondly, to give sundry 
 reasons by way of improvement of the solemn fact, 
 " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; " and 
 then, thirdly, to plead hard in Christ's stead with those 
 who are lovers of gain, that they may bethink them- 
 selves ere time be over and opportunity past. 
 
 I. First, then, brethren, ye are anxious to know 
 whether ye have holiness or not. Now, if our text said 
 that without perfection of holiness no man could have 
 any communion with Christ, it would shut every one of 
 us out, for no one, who knows his own heart, ever pre- 
 tends to be perfectly conformed to God's will. It does 
 not say, " Perfection of holiness," mark ; but " holiness." 
 This holiness is a thing of growth. It may be in the 
 soul as the grain of mustard-seed, and yet not developed ; 
 it may be in the heart as a wish and a desire, rather 
 than anything that has been fully realised — a groaning, 
 a panting, a longing, a striving. As the Spirit of God 
 waters it, it will grow till the mustard-seed shall become 
 a tree. Holiness, in a regenerate heart, is but an 
 infant ; it is not matured — perfect it is in all its parts, 
 
188 Christian Energy. 
 
 but not perfect in its development. Hence, when we 
 find many imperfections and many failings in ourseh'ts, 
 we are not to conclude that, therefore, we have no 
 interest in the grace of God. This would be altogether 
 apart from the meaning of the text. As it is not so 
 much my present purpose to show wdiat this holiness is 
 as what it is not, I think, while I am endeavouring to 
 undeceive those who have not this holiness, those who 
 are not condemned may reasonably draw some comfort- 
 able inferences as to their own pursuit of this inesti- 
 mable grace. 
 
 Well, now, let us note four sorts of people who try 
 to get on without holiness. First, there is the Pharisee, 
 The Pharisee goes to work with outward ceremonies. 
 He pays tithes of all that he possesses — his anise, his 
 mint, his cummin — everything, even to the tithe of his 
 parsley-bed, he gives. He gives alms to the poor, he 
 wears his phylacteries, and makes broad the borders of 
 his garment — in fact, anything and everything that is 
 commanded ceremonially he most pnnctiliously attends 
 to ; but all the while he is devouring widows' houses, he 
 is living in the practice of secret sin, and he thinks that 
 by ceremonies he shall be able to propitiate God and 
 be accepted. Sinner, pharisaic sinner, hear the death- 
 knell of thy hopes tolled out by this verse—" Without 
 holiness" — and that is a thing thou knowest nothing 
 of — "no man shall see the Lord." Thy ceremonies 
 are vain and frivolous; even if God ordained them, 
 seeing thou puttest thy trust in them, they shall utterly 
 deceive and fail thee, for they do not constitute even a 
 part of holiness. Thou canst not see God till thy heart 
 be changed, till thy nature be renewed, till thine 
 
Holiness Demanded, 189 
 
 actions, in the tenor of them, shall become such as 
 God would have them to be. Mere ceremonialists 
 think they can get on without holiness. Fell delusion ! 
 Do I speak to any Ritualist who finds himself awkwardly 
 situated here ? Do I speak to any Romanist who 
 has entered into a place where not the works of the 
 law, but the righteousness of Christ is preached '^ 
 Let me remind you again, very solemnly, my hearer, 
 that those fine hopes of yours, built upon the manoeuvres 
 of the priests, and upon your own performances, shall 
 utterly fail you in that day when most you shall need 
 them. Your soul shall then stand in shivering naked- 
 ness when most you need to be well equipped before 
 the eyes of God. These men know not true holiness. 
 
 Then there is the moralist. He has never done any- 
 thing wrong in his life. He is not very observant of 
 ceremonies, it is true ; perhaps he even despises them ; 
 but he treats his neighbour with integrity, he believes 
 that, so far as he knows, if his ledger be examined it 
 bears no evidence of a sino-le dishonest deed. As 
 touching the law he is blameless : no one ever doubted 
 the purity of his manner ; from his youth up his car- 
 riage has been amiable, his temperament what every 
 one could desire, and the whole tenor of his life is such 
 that we may hold him up as an example of moral pro- 
 priety. Ah, but this is not holiness before God. Holi- 
 ness excludes immorality, but morality does not amount 
 to holiness ; for morality may be but the cleaning of the 
 outside of the cup and the platter, while the heart may 
 be full of wickedness. Holiness deals with the thoughts 
 and intents, the purposes, the aims, the objects, the 
 motives of men. Morality doth but skim the surface, 
 
190 Christian Energy. 
 
 holiness goes into the veiy caverns of the great deep ; 
 hoUness requires that the heart be set on God, and that 
 it beat with love to him. The moral man may be complete 
 in his morality without that. Methinks I might di-aw 
 such a parallel as this. Morality is a sweet, fair corpse, 
 well washed and robed, and even embalmed with spices ; 
 but holiness is the living man, as fair and as lovely as the 
 other, but having life. Morality lies there, of the 
 earth, earthy, soon to be food for corruption and 
 worms ; holiness waits and pants with heavenly aspira- 
 tions, prepared to mount and dwell in immortality 
 beyond the stars. These twain are of opposite nature : 
 the one belongs to this world, the other belongs to that 
 world beyond the skies. It is not said in heaven, 
 " Moral, moral, moral ai't thou, O God ! " but " Holy, 
 holy, holy art thou, O Lord ! " You note the difference 
 between the two words at once. The one how icy 
 cold! the other, oh, how animated! Such is mere 
 morality, and such is holiness ! Moralist I — I know I 
 speak to many such — remember that your best morality 
 will not save you ; you must have more than this, for 
 without holiness — and that not of yourself, it must be 
 given you of the Spirit of God — without holiness no 
 man shall see the Lord. 
 
 Another individual who thinks to get on without 
 holiness, and who does win a fair reputation in certain 
 circles, is the experimentalist. You must be aware that 
 there are some professed followers of Christ whose 
 whole religious life is inward; to tell you the truth, 
 there is no life at all ; but their own profession is that 
 it is all inward. I have had the misery to be .-acquainted 
 with one or two such. They are voluble talkers, dis- 
 
Holiness Demanded, 101 
 
 coursing with much satisfaction of themselves, but 
 bitter critics of all who differ from them in the 
 slightest degree ; having an ordained standard as to 
 the proper length to which Christian experience shoukl 
 go ; cutting off everybody's head who was taller than 
 they were, and stretching every man out by the neck 
 who happened to be a little too short. I have known 
 some of these persons. If a minister should say " duty " 
 in the sermon, they would look as if they would never 
 hear him again. He must be a dead legalist — a " letter 
 man," I think they call him. Or, if they are exhorted 
 to holiness, why, they tell you they are perfect in Christ 
 Jesus, and therefore there is no reason why they should 
 liave any thought of perfection in the work of the 
 Spirit within. Groaning, grunting, quarrelling, de- 
 nouncing — not " following peace with all," but stirring 
 up strife against all — this is the practice of their 
 reh'gion. This is the summit to which they climb, and 
 from which they look down with undisguised contempt 
 upon all those worms beneath who are striving to serve 
 God and to do good in their day and generation. Now 
 I pray you to remember that against such men as these 
 there are many passages of Scripture most distinctly 
 levelled ; 1 think this is one among many others. Sirs, 
 you may say what you will about what you dream you 
 have felt, you may write what you please about what you 
 iancy you have experienced ; but if your own outward 
 life be unjust, unholy, ungenerous, and unloving, you 
 shall find no credit among us as to your being in Christ. 
 *' Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." The 
 moment you know a man that is drunk on a Saturday 
 night, and then enjoys So-and-so's preaching on a 
 
192 Christian Energy. 
 
 Sunday; the moment you know certain parties who 
 can tell you what a child of God should be, and then 
 appears himself exactly what he should not be, just 
 quit his company and let him go to his own place, and 
 where that is Judas can tell you. Oh, beware of such 
 high-fliers, with their waxen wings, mounting up to the 
 very sun — how great shall be their fall, when he that 
 searches all hearts shall open the book and say, " I was 
 an hungred, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me no drink. Inasmuch as ye did it not 
 unto one of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." 
 
 There is another class of persons, happily fewer than 
 they once were, but still there are some among us still — 
 opi7iionists, who think they can do without holiness. 
 These, too, it has sometimes been my misfortune to 
 know. They have learned a sound creed, or perhaps 
 an unsound one, for there are as many Arminians as 
 Calvinists in this line — they think they have got hold 
 of the truth, that they are the men, and that when they 
 die the faithful will fail from among men. They 
 understand theology very accurately. They are wiser 
 than their teachers. They can 
 
 " A hair divide 
 Betwixt the west and north-west side." 
 
 There is no question about their being masters in 
 divinity. If degrees went according to merit, they 
 would have been dubbed " D.D." years ago, for they 
 know everything, and are not a little proud that they 
 do. And yet these men live a life that is a stench even 
 in the nostrils of men who make no profession of 
 rehgion. We have some of this kind in all congi'ega- 
 tions. I wish you would not come here. If one could 
 
Holiness Demanded. 193 
 
 do you good we might be glad to see you, but then you 
 do so much hurt to the rest, and bring so much discredit 
 upon the cause at large that your room would be better 
 than your company. You listen to the sermon, and 
 sometimes perhaps have the condescension to speak well 
 of the preacher, who wishes you would not. Yet after 
 the sermon is done, on the road home, there may be a 
 public-house door just opened at one o'clock, and the 
 brother refreshes himself, and perhaps does so many 
 times. Even if it be the holy day it is all the same, and 
 yet he is a dear and precious child of God. No doubt 
 he is in his own estimation. And then during the 
 week he lives as others live, and acts as others act, and 
 yet congratulates himself that he knows the tmth, 
 and understands the doctrines of the gospel, and there- 
 fore he will surely be saved! Out with thee, man! 
 out with thee! Down with thy hopes! '^AVithout 
 holiness no man shall see the Lord." 
 
 " No big words of ready talkers, 
 
 No mere doctrines will suffice ; 
 
 Broken hearts, and humble walkers — 
 
 These are dear in Jesus' eyes.'' 
 
 Heart-work, carried out afterwards into life-work, this 
 is what the Lord wants. You may perish as well with 
 true doctrines as with false, if you pervert the true 
 doctrine into licentiousness. You may go to hell by the 
 cross as surely as you may by the theatre, or by the 
 vilest of sin. You may perish with the name of Jesus 
 on your lips, and with a sound creed sealed on your 
 very bosom, for, " except a man be born again he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God." " Be not deceived ; God is 
 not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
 
 13 
 
194 Christian Energy, 
 
 also reap." Now if any of you belong to eitlier of these 
 four classes, I think you cannot help knowmg it, and, 
 being destitute of gospel holiness, you have good cause 
 to bewail your character and tremble for your destiny. 
 But to help you still further, brethren, that man is 
 destitute of true holiness ivho can look hack upon his own 
 past sin ivithout sorrow. Oh, to think of our past lives ! 
 There were some of us who knew the Lord at fifteen 
 years of age, but those fifteen years of unregeneracy — 
 we can never forget them I Others may say, " \Ye did 
 not know him till we were fifty or sixty." Ah ! my 
 dear brethren, you have much to weep over, but so 
 have those of us who knew tlie Lord in early life. I 
 can look back upon God's mercy with delight, but I 
 hope I shall never be able to look back upon my sins 
 with complacency. Whenever a man looks to any of 
 his past faults and shortcomings, it ought to be through 
 his tears. Some men recall their past lives and talk of 
 their old sins, and seem to roll them under their tongues 
 as a sweet morsel. They live their sins over again. As 
 it was said of Alexander — 
 
 *' He fought his battles o'er again, 
 And twice he slew the slain." 
 
 There are those who revel in the memory of their 
 iniquities. They live their life in imagination over 
 again. They recollect some deed of lewdness or some 
 act of infamy, and as they think it over they dare 
 not repeat it, for their profession would be spoiled ; 
 but they love the thought and cultivate it ^vith a 
 vicious partiality. Thou art no friend to true holi- 
 ness, but an utter stranger to it unless the past causes 
 
Holiness DemandetL 195 
 
 tliee profound sorrow and sends thee to tliy knees to 
 weep and hope that God for Christ's sake has blotted 
 it out. 
 
 And I am quite sure that you know nothing of true 
 holiness if you can look forward to any future indulgence 
 of sensual appetites loith a certain degree of delightful 
 witicipafion. Have I a man here, a professed Christian, 
 who has formed some desimi in his mind to indulofe the 
 flesh and to enjoy forbidden dainties when an oppor- 
 tunity occurs ? Ah! sir, if thou canst think of those 
 things that may come in thy way without tremor, I 
 suspect thee: I would thou wouldst suspect thyself. 
 Since the day that some of us knew Christ w^e have 
 always woke up in the morning with a fear lest we 
 should that day disown our Master. And there is one 
 fear which sometimes haunts me, and I must confess it, 
 and were it not for faith in God it would be too much 
 for me. I cannot read the life of ]3avid without some 
 painful emotions. All the time he was a young man 
 his life was pure before God, and in the light of the 
 living it shone with a glorious lustre ; but when grey 
 hairs began to be scattered on his head, the man after 
 God's heart sinned. I have sometimes felt inclined to 
 pray that my life may come to a speedy end, lest haply 
 in some evil hour some temptation should come upon 
 me and I should fall. And do you not feel the same ? 
 Can you look forward to the future without any fear ? 
 Does not the thought ever cross your mind — " He that 
 thinketh he standeth may yet fall"? and the very 
 possibility of such a thing — does it not drive you to 
 God's mercy-seat, and do you not cry, " Hold thou 
 me up and I shall be safe"? There is no doxology 
 
196 Christian Energy, 
 
 in Scripture which I enjoy more than that — '* Now 
 unto him who is able to keep you from falhng, and 
 to present you faultless before his presence with ex- 
 ceeding joy, to him be glory." I say you are a stranger 
 to holiness of heart if you can look forward to a future 
 fall without great alarm. 
 
 Again, methinks you have gi-eat cause for question- 
 ing, unless your lioliness is imiform; I mean, if your 
 life is angelic abroad and devilish at home. You must 
 suspect that it is at home that you are what you are, 
 I question whether any man is much better than he is 
 thought to be by his wife and family, for they, after all, 
 see the most of us, and know the tnith about us ; and 
 if, sir, though you seem in the pulpit, or on the plat- 
 form, or in the shop, to be amiable. Christian, and God- 
 like to the passer-by, your children should have to 
 mark your unkindness, your want of fatherly affection 
 for their souls ; and your wife has to complain of your 
 domineering, of the absence of ever}^thing that is Christ- 
 like, you may shrewdly suspect that there is something 
 wrong in the state of your heart. O sirs, true holiness 
 is a thing that will keep by night and by day, at home 
 and abroad, on the land and on the sea. That man is 
 not right ^^^[th God who would not do the same in the 
 dark that he would do in the light ; who does not feel, 
 " If every eye should look upon me I would not be 
 different from what I am when no eye gazes upon me ; 
 that which keeps me right is not the judgment and 
 opinions of men, but the eye of the Omnipresent and 
 the heart of the Supreme that loves me." Is your 
 obedience uniform? Some farmers I know in the 
 country maintain a creditable profession in the village 
 
Holiness Demanded, 197 
 
 where they live ; they go to a place of worship, and 
 very good people they are : but there is a farmers' 
 dinner once a-year ; it is only once a-year — we will not 
 sav anything about how they get home — the less that 
 is said the better for their reputation. " It is only once 
 a-year," they tell us ; but holiness does not allow of 
 dissipation even "once a-year." And we know some 
 who, when they go on the Continent, for instance, say, 
 " Well, we need not be quite so exact there ; " and 
 therefore the Sabbath is utterly disregarded, and the 
 sanctities of daily life are neglected, so reckless are they 
 in their recreations. Well, sirs, if your religion is not 
 warranted to keep in any climate it is good for nothing. 
 I like the remark which I heard from one of the sailors 
 on board ship in crossing the Irish Channel. A pas- 
 senger said, to try him, *' Wouldn't you like to attend 
 a certain place of amusement ? " which he mentioned. 
 "Well, sir," said the sailor, "I go there as often as 
 ever I like ; I have a religion that lets me go as often 
 as I think proper." " Oh, how is that?" he inquired. 
 " Because I never like to go at all," was the reply ; " I 
 do not keep away because of any law, for it is no trial 
 to me ; but I should be unhappy to go there." Surely 
 the fish, were it asked if it did not wish to fly, would 
 reply, *' I am not unhappy because I am not allowed 
 to fly ; it is not my element." So the Christian can 
 say, " I am not unhappy because I do not spend my 
 nights in worldly society — because I do not mingle with 
 their revelry and wantonness ; it is not my element, and 
 I could not enjoy it. Should you drag me into it, it 
 would be a martyrdom which to my spirit would be alike 
 repulsive and painful." You are a stranger to holiness 
 
198 Christian Energy, 
 
 if your heart does not feel that it revolts at the thought 
 of sin. 
 
 Then, let me further remark, that those who can look 
 with delight or any degree of pleasure upon the sins of 
 others are not holy. We know of some who will not 
 lend themselves to perpetrate an unseemly jest, yet if 
 another does so, and there is a laugh excited upon 
 some not over-decent remark, tliey laugh, and thus give 
 sanction to the impropriety. If there is a low song 
 sung in their hearing, which others applaud, though 
 they cannot quite go the length of joining in the 
 plaudits, still they secretly enjoy it ; they betray a sort 
 of gratification that they cannot disguise ; they confess 
 to a gusto that admires the wit while it cannot endorse 
 the sentiment. They are glad the minister was not 
 there ; they are glad to think the deacon did not happen 
 to see them just at that moment; yet still, if there could 
 be a law established to make the thing pretty respect- 
 able, they would not mind. Some of you know people 
 who fall into this snare. There are professing Christians 
 who go where you at one time could not go, but seeing 
 that they do it, you go too, and there you see others 
 engaged in sin, and it becomes respectable because you 
 give it countenance. There are many things in this 
 world that would be execrated if it were not that 
 Christian men go to them, and the ungodly men say, 
 *' Well, if it is not righteous, there is not much harm 
 in it after all ; it is innocent enough if we keep within 
 bounds." Mind ! mind ! mind, professor, if your heart 
 begins to suck in the sweets of another man's sin it is 
 unsound in the sight of God : if thou canst even wink 
 at another man's lust, depend upon it thou wilt soon 
 
Holiness Demanded. 10^ 
 
 shut thine eye on thine own, for we are always more 
 severe with other men than we are with ourselves. 
 There must be an absence of the vital principle of £]^od- 
 liness when we can become partakers of other men's 
 sins by applauding or joining with them in the approval 
 of them. Let us examine ourselves scrupulously, then, 
 whether we be among those who have no evidences of 
 that holiness without which no man can see God. 
 
 But, beloved, w^e hope better things of you, and 
 things which accompany salvation. If you and I, as in 
 the sight of God, can feel to-night that we would be 
 holy if we could ; that there is not a sin we wish to 
 spare ; that we would be like Jesus — O that we could I 
 — that we would sooner suffer affliction than ever run 
 into sin and displease our God ; if our heart be really 
 right in God's statutes, then, despite all the imperfec- 
 tions we bemoan, we have holiness, wherein we may 
 rejoice, and we may see the Lord. 
 
 II. Now, then, for the second point ver}^ briefly in- 
 deed : " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" 
 that is to say, no man can have communion with God 
 in this life, and no man can have enjoyment with God 
 in the life to come without holiness. " Can two walk 
 together except they be agreed ? " If thou goest with 
 Belial dost thou think Christ will go with thee? \yill 
 Christ be a pot companion for thee ? Dost thou expect 
 to take the Lord of love and mercy with thee to the 
 liaunts of sin ? Professor, dost thou think the just and 
 holy One will stand at thy counter to be co-trader with 
 thee in thy tricks? What thinkest thou, O man! 
 wouldst thou make Christ a sharer of thy guilt ? and 
 yet he would be so if he had fellowsliip Avith thee in it. 
 
200 Christian Energy, 
 
 Kay, if tliou wilt go on in acts of unrigliteousness and 
 unholiness, Christ parts company with thee, or rather 
 thou never didst have any fellowship with him. Thou 
 hast gone out from us because thou wert not of us, 
 for if thou hadst been of us doubtless thou w^ouldst 
 have continued with us. And as to heaven, dost thou 
 think to go there with thine unholiness % God smote 
 an angel dow^n from heaven for sin, and will he let 
 man in with sin in his right hand ? God would sooner 
 extinguish heaven than see sin despoil it. It is enough 
 for him to bear with thine hypocrisies on earth ; 
 shall he have them flung in his own face in heaven % 
 What, shall an unholy life utter its licentiousness in the 
 golden streets ? Shall there be sin in that higher and 
 better paradise ? No, no, God has sworn by his holi- 
 ness — and he will not, he cannot lie — that those who 
 are not holy, whom his Spirit has not renewed, who 
 have not been by the regenerating power of the Holy 
 One of Israel made to love that which is good and 
 hate that which is evil, shall never stand in the congre- 
 gation of the righteous. Sinner, it is a settled matter 
 Avith God that no man shall see God without holiness. 
 
 III. I come to my last point, which is, pleading with 
 you. Doubtless there are some in this vast crowd who 
 have some sort of lonmncrs after salvation and after 
 heaven. ]My eye looks round; yes, sometimes it has 
 been my w^ont to gaze with sorrow upon some few here 
 whose case I know. Do I not remember one % he has 
 been very often impressed, and so impressed too that 
 he has not been able to sleep. Night after night he has 
 prayed, he has wrestled with God, and there is only 
 one thing in his way — and that is drink ! strong drink I 
 
Holiness Demanded. 201 
 
 Cy tlie time that AYedncsday or Thursday comes round 
 he begins to forget what he heard on Sunday. Some- 
 times lie has taken the pledge and stood to it three 
 montlis, but the passion has been too strong on him, and 
 then he has given all resolutions and vows up, and has 
 plunged into his besetting sin worse than before. 
 Others I know in whom it is another sin. You are 
 here now, are you ? You do not come of a morning, 
 and yet when you come at night you feel it very 
 severely; but why not come here in the morning? 
 Because your shop is open, and that shop seems to stand 
 between you and any hope of salvation. There are 
 others who say, "AYell, now, if I go to hear that man, 
 I must give up the vice that disquiets my conscience ; 
 but I cannot yet, I cannot yet." And you are willing 
 to be damned for the sake of some paltry joy? Well, 
 if you will be damned, it shall not be for want of 
 reasoning with you and weeping over you. Let me 
 ]Hit it to you — do you say you cannot give up the sin 
 because of the profit ? Profit ! Profit, forsooth ! 
 '' What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world and lose his ow^n soul ? " What profit have you 
 obtained hitherto? You have put it all into a bag full 
 of holes ; what you have earned one way you have spent 
 another, and you know that if this were all you surely 
 have not been any the better for it. Besides, what is 
 profit when compared w^ith your immortal soul ? Oh, 
 I adjure you, lose not gold for dross ; lose not sub- 
 stance for shadows! Lose not your immortal soul for 
 the sake of some temporary gain ! But it is not profit 
 with some of you, it is pleasure, it is a morbid passion. 
 You feel, perhaps, for some particular sin which happens 
 
202 Christian Energy. 
 
 to beset you, such an intense longing, and in looking 
 back upon it afterwards you think you could give up 
 everything but that. Young man, is it some secret sin 
 which we must not mention, or is it some private guilt 
 which is hidden from all hearts but thine own ? O soul, 
 what is this pleasure after all % Weigh it, weigh it ; 
 what does it come to ? Is it equal to the pain it costs 
 thee now, to the pangs of conscience, to the agonies of 
 remorse ? When an American doctor who had led a 
 loose life came to die he seemed to wake up from a sort 
 of stupor, and he said, " Find that word, find that word." 
 *' What w^ord?" they said. '' Why," he said, '' that awful 
 word — remorse ! " He said it again — *' Remorse I " and 
 then, gathering up his full strength he fairly seemed to 
 shriek it out — '^ Remorse ! " " Write it," said he, '^ write 
 it.*' It was written. *^ Write it with larger letters and 
 let me gaze at it; underline it. And now," said he, 
 *' none of you know the meaning of that word, and may 
 you never know it ; it has an awful meaning in it, and 
 I feel it now — Remorse! liemorse!! Bemorse! I !" 
 What, I say, is this pleasure contrasted with the results 
 it brings in this life ? and what, I ask, is this pleasure 
 compared with the joys of godliness? Little as you 
 may think I know of the joys of the world, yet so far 
 as I can form a judgment, I can say that I would not 
 take all the joys that earth can ever afford in a hun- 
 dred years for one half -hour of what m}' soul has 
 known in fellowship with Christ. We do have our 
 sorrows, but, blessed be God, we do have our joys, and 
 they are such joys — oh, such joys, such substance in 
 them, and such reality and certainty, that we could not 
 and would not exchange them for anything except 
 
Holiness Demanded, 203 
 
 licaven in its fruition. And then, bethink thee^ sinner, 
 what are all these pleasures when compared with the 
 loss of thy soul ! There is a gentleman, hi^h in posi- 
 tion in this world, with fair lands and a large estate, 
 who, when he took me by the button-hole after a sermon 
 — and he never hears me preach without tears — said to 
 me, '^ O, sir, it does seem such an awful thing that I 
 should be such a fool." ^'And what forT' said I. 
 ^'Why," he said, '-for the sake of that court and of 
 those gaieties of life, and of mere honour and dress and 
 fashion, I am squandering away my soul. I know," he 
 said, '' I know the truth, but I do not follow it. I have 
 been stirred in my heart to do it, but I shall go on 
 as I have done before ; I fear I shall sink back into 
 the same state as before. Oh, what a fool I am," said 
 he, "to choose pleasures that only last a little while, 
 and then to be lost for ever and for ever." I pleaded 
 hard with him, but I pleaded in vain ; there was such 
 intoxication in the gaiety of life that he could not 
 leave it. Alas ! alas ! if we had to deal with sane men 
 our preaching would be easy, but sin is a madness, such 
 a madness that when men are bitten with it they will 
 not be persuaded, though one should rise from the dead. 
 *' Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.*' But 
 I hear one say, " It is impossible ; I have tried it and I 
 have broken down : I did try to get better, but I did not 
 succeed ; it is of no use, it cannot be done." You are 
 right, my dear friend, and you are wrong. You are right, 
 it is of no use going about it as you did ; if you went in 
 your own strength, holiness is a thing you cannot get ; 
 it is beyond you. The depth says, " It is not in me ;" 
 and the height saith, " It is not in me." Tou can no 
 
204 Christian Energy. 
 
 more make yourself holy than you could create a 
 world. But you are wrong to despair, for Christ can 
 do it ; he can do it for you, and he can begin it now. 
 Believe on him and he will begin with you ; in fact, 
 that believino; will be the fruit of his havino; beo-un with 
 you. Trust him, and he that has overcome thy sins, 
 the Lion of the tribe of Judah, shall come in and put 
 to rout the Lion of the pit. He will bruise Satan 
 under thy feet shortly. There is no corruption too strong 
 for him to overcome, there is no habit too firm for him 
 to break it. He can turn a lion to a lamb, and a 
 raven to a dove. Trust him to save thee and he will 
 do it, whatsoever thou mayst be, whatever thy past life 
 may have been. " He that believeth and is baptised 
 shall be saved " — that is, he shall be saved from his sins 
 and delivered from his evil practices ; he shall be made 
 a new man in Christ Jesus by the power of the Spirit, 
 received tlirough the medium of his faith. Believe, 
 poor soul, that Christ is able to save thee and he will 
 do it. He will be as good as thy faith and as good as 
 his own word. May he now add his own blessing to 
 the word we have spoken, and to the people who have 
 heard it, for bis o^ti sake. Amen. 
 
}^^yLr^^ 
 
 wm 
 
 
 ©^^ 
 
 " And they all forsook him, and fled. And there followed him a 
 certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body , 
 and the young men laid hold on him : and he left the linen cloth, ami 
 fled from them naked." — Markxiv. 50 — 52. 
 
 HIS little episode in the narrative of the 
 evangelist is very singular. One wonders 
 why it is introduced ; but a moment's re- 
 flection will, I think, suggest a plausible 
 reason. It strikes me that this "certain 
 young man" was none other than Mark 
 himself. He was probably asleep ; and, 
 aroused by a great clamour, he asked what it was about. 
 The information was speedily given — " The guards have 
 come to arrest Jesus of Nazaretli." Moved by sudden 
 impulse, not thinking of what he was doing, he rises 
 from his bed, rushes down, pursues the troopers, dashes 
 into the midst of their rank, as though he alone would 
 attempt the rescue, when all the disciples had fled. 
 The moment they lay hold upon him his heroic spasm is 
 over; his enthusiasm evaporates; he runs away, leaves 
 the cloth that was loosely wrapped about his body 
 behind, and makes his escape. There have been many 
 who acted like Mark since then. It seems to me that 
 this digression from the main narrative is intended to 
 point a moral. First, however, you will say, " Why 
 
206 Christian Energy, 
 
 suppose It to be Mark?" I grant you it is merely a 
 supposition, but yet it is supported by the strongest 
 chain of probabilities, and will sufficiently account for 
 the manner in which he has inserted it. Calvin, follow- 
 ing Ambrose and Chrysostom, thinks it was John, albeit 
 few modern critics attach much weight to that conjec- 
 ture. I find that the more recondite critics of the 
 modern school ascribe this transaction to Mark for these 
 reasons ; — It was common among the evangelists to 
 relate transactions in which they themselves took part 
 without mentioning their own names. This commonly 
 occurs in the case of John, for instance. He bashfully 
 keeps back his name when there is anything to his 
 credit, and he does the same when it is to the reverse. I 
 could quote one or two instances in the Gospel of Luke, 
 and it is not at all remarkable that such a thing should 
 have occurred in the case of Mark, Whoever it was, 
 the only person likely to know it was the man himself. 
 I cannot think that any one else would have been likely 
 to tell it to Mark, and, therefore, I conceive it to have 
 been himself ; for he might scarcely have thought it 
 worthy of recording if it had been told him by some 
 one else ; and it is not likely that any one to whom it 
 had occurred would have felt it was much to his credit, 
 and been likely to relate it to Mark with a view to its 
 being recorded. Again, we know that such a transac- 
 tion as this was quite in keeping with Mark's common 
 character. We gather his character partly from the 
 book which he has written : the evangel of Mark is the 
 most impulsive of all the evangels. You are aware, 
 and I have frequently mentioned it to you, that the 
 word eutheosy translated " straightaway," " forthwith," 
 
John Mark ; or, Haste in Religion. 207 
 
 " Immediately," is used a very great numLer of times 
 by this evangelist in his book. He is a man who does 
 everything straightway; full of impulse, dash, fire, 
 flash; the thing must be done, and done forthwith. 
 His gospel is of that description. You do not find 
 many of Christ's sermons in Mark. He gives you a 
 sketch, an outline. He had not perseverance enough 
 to take the whole down ; and he scarcely finishes the 
 narration of the death of Christ. His book seems to 
 break off abruptly, yet he is the most picturesque of 
 all. There are pieces of imagination, and there are 
 Hogarthian touches, in the sacred biogi'aphy he writes, 
 that are not to be found In Matthew, or Luke, or John. 
 The man is a man of fire. He is all enthusiasm. 
 Poetry has filled his soul, and, therefore, he dashes at 
 the thing. Ble lacks in perseverance, and will hardly 
 finish what he takes in hand ; but yet there is a genius 
 about him not altogether uncommon to Christian men 
 in this age, and there are faults in him exceedingly 
 common. Once more : the known life of John Mark 
 tends to make it very probable that he w^ould do such a 
 thing as is referred to in the text. As soon as ever Paul 
 and Barnabas set out on their missionary enterprise they 
 w^ere attended by Mark. As long as they were sailing 
 across the blue waters, and as long as they were in the 
 island of Cyprus, Mark stuck to them. Nay, while 
 they travelled along the coast of Asia Minor, we find 
 they had John Mark to be their minister ; but the 
 moment they went up Into the inland countries, among 
 tlie robbers and the mountain streams — as soon as ever 
 the road began to be a little too rough, John [Mark left 
 them. His missionary zeal had oozed out. After a 
 
,203 Christian Energy. 
 
 short time tliere was a hot contention between Panl and 
 Barnabas. Paul would not have Mark with him any 
 longer. He could not trust him ; he did not believe in 
 these impulsive people, who could not hold on under 
 difficulties; but Barnabas knowing him better — for 
 Mark is sister's son to Barnabas — and feehng a kins- 
 man's lenity to his faults, insists upon it that they should 
 take John Mark ; and the altercation grew so violent 
 between Paul and Barnabas, that they separated on this 
 iaccount, and would not proceed together on their divine 
 mission. Yet Barnabas was right. Paul was not 
 wrong either. I think Barnabas w as right in his mild 
 judgment of Mark, for he w^as a sound behever at 
 bottom, and, notwithstanding this fault, he was a real, 
 true-hearted disciple. We find him afterwards recon- 
 ciled entirely to the Apostle Paul. Paul says, *^ Send 
 Mark, for he is profitable unto me for the ministiy ; " 
 and w^e find Paul mentioning, with affection and love, 
 ^'Mark as sister's son to Barnabas," wdiich shows on 
 the one hand the apostle's Christian candour and kind- 
 ness, and on the other hand that Mark had retrieved 
 his character by perseverance. Tradition says that 
 Mark became the Bishop of Alexandria. We do not 
 know whether it is correct or not, but it is likely 
 enough that he was. Certainly he w^as w^ith Paul at 
 Eome, and the latter part of his life w^as spent with 
 Peter at Babylon. See what a man he is. He goes to 
 Rome, but he cannot stop there long. He has done his 
 work in Rome. He is one of your fidgety people that' 
 do things all of a sudden ; and away he is to Alexandria. 
 But methinks he must have found a very congenial 
 friend in Peter. He would be a blessing to Peter, and 
 
John Mark; or, Haste in Belifjion. 209 
 
 Peter would be a blessing to liim ; for Peter's dispo- 
 sition was cast in sometliing of the same mould. You 
 will notice that Mark gives the most explicit account of 
 Peter's fall. He enters very fully into it. I believe 
 he received it from Peter viva voce, and Peter bade 
 him write it down ; and I think the modest spirit 
 of Mark seemed to say, "Friend Peter, while the 
 Holy Ghost moves me to tell thy fault and let it 
 stand on record, he also constrains me to write mine 
 as a sort of preface to it, for I, too, in my mad, 
 hair-brain folly, would have run, unclothed as I was, 
 upon the guard to rescue my Lord and Master, yet 
 at the first sight of the rough legionaries, at the 
 first gleam of their swords, away I fled, timid, faint- 
 hearted, and afraid that I should be too roughly 
 handled." 
 
 For these reasons, the supposition that it was John 
 Mark appears to me not to be utterly baseless. There 
 is no hypothesis in favour of any other supported by 
 equal probabilities. Very well, then. We will assume 
 that he was the man, and use the incident as the 
 irroundwork of our discourse. We have some counter- 
 parts of him here to-night, and we shall try to find 
 them out and make use of Mark's blunder for their 
 correction, in respect both to hasty following and hasty 
 rimning away. 
 
 Here is hasty following. John ^lark does not wait to 
 robe himself, but just as he is, he dashes out for the 
 defence of his Lord. Without a moment's thought, 
 taking no sort of consideration, down he goes into the 
 cold night air to try and deliver his Master. Feiwent 
 zeal waited not for charv prudence. There was some- 
 
 14 
 
210 Christian Energy, 
 
 tiling good and something bad in this, something to 
 admire as well as somethino; to censure. 
 
 Beloved, it is a p'ood and rio-ht thino; for us to follow 
 Christ, and to follow him at once ; and it is a brave 
 thing to follow him when his other disciples forsake him 
 and flee. It is a bold and worthy courage to take deadly 
 odds for Christ, and to rush, one against a thousand, 
 for the honour of his dear hallowed name. Would that 
 all professors of religion had the intrepidity of Mark ! 
 Would that all who have been careless about religion 
 might emulate his haste, and be as precipitate in flying 
 to Christ by faith as he was in running to the rescue in 
 that hour of assault ! The most of men are too slow ; 
 fast enough in the world, but, ah! how slow in the 
 things of God! I protest that, if corporations and 
 companies were half as dilatory about worldly things as 
 the Church of God is about spiritual things, instead of 
 a railway accident every three or four months, we should 
 have one every hour ; and instead of a revolution eveiy 
 one or two centuries, it would be well if we did not have 
 one every year, for of all indolent things the Church of 
 God is the most sluggish. Of all people that dilly-dally 
 in this world, I think professed servants of God are the 
 most drony and faddling. How slothful are the un- 
 godly, too, in divine things ; tell them they are sick, 
 they hasten to a surgeon ; tell them that their title- 
 deeds are about to be attacked, and they will defend 
 them with legal power ; but tell them, in God's name, 
 that their soul is in danger, and they think it matters 
 so little, and is of so small import, that they will wait 
 on, and wait on, and wait on, and doubtless continue to 
 wait on till they find themselves lost for ever. 
 
John Mark; or, Haste in Bellglon. 211 
 
 Let me stir up those who liave not believed on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ to look dihgently to their eternal 
 state. You have tarried long enough. The time that 
 you have been out of Christ is surely long enougli for 
 the lusts of the flesh. What fruit have you gathered 
 in your impenitence and sin ? How much have you 
 bettered by neglecting Christ and minding worldly 
 things? Has it not been all a dreary toil? It may 
 have been decked out with a few transient pleasures, 
 but, putting the ungodly life into the scale, what does 
 it come to ? " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Do 
 you not confess this? Why, then, tarry any longer? 
 Have you got any happiness in being an enemy to God? 
 Why not be reconciled ? Oh that the Spirit of God 
 w^ould make you see that the time past may suffice you 
 to have wrought the will of the flesh ! Besides, how 
 little time you have to spare, and, if you have much, 
 Jesus demands of you to repent now. " The Holy 
 Ghost saith. To-day, to-day, if ye will hear his voice, 
 harden not your heart." The gospel invitation is not 
 for to-morrow, but for to-day. The warnings of the 
 gospel all bid you shun procrastination. Is not this 
 Satan's great net in which men, like the silly fishes of 
 the deep, are taken to their eternal destruction ? O 
 thou dove pursued by the hawk, wait not, but Ry at 
 once to the dove-cot— to the wounds of Jesus, and be 
 sheltered ! Jesus calls thee. Come to him while he 
 calleth thee. Why wilt thou tarry ? His cause wants 
 you. Young men, there are some of you who will 
 spend the best of your days in Satan's cause, and when 
 we get you, as we hope we shall, we shall have to 
 baptise into Christ your shrivelled age, your palsied 
 
212 Christian Energy, 
 
 weakness. Let it not be so. In these days of error^ 
 Christ needs for his kingdom men strong and vigorous, 
 who are strong, as John saith, and have overcome the 
 wicked one. Fain I would enlist you, and would turn 
 recruiting-sergeant for my Master. Oh that you were 
 on his side now ! You cannot be too hasty here. If 
 now the weapons of your rebellion are thrown down^ 
 if now you " kiss the rod, ere he is angry," you will 
 have waited already too long; you will not, nor can 
 you, come too soon. Hark ! hark ! I hear the chariot 
 wheels of death. He comes ! he comes ! and the axles 
 of his chariot are hot with speed. He stands aloft 
 driving his white horse. The skeleton rider brandishes 
 his awful spear, and you are the victim. God has 
 spared you up till now, but he may not bid you spend 
 another Sabbath-day. I hear the mower's scythe 
 everywhere, as I pass along, making ready to cut do\Mi 
 the grass and the flower thereof. Ah ! death's scythe 
 is being sharpened now. He proceeds to reap his har- 
 vest every day, and, whether prepared or not, you must 
 be cut down when God's time shall come. Fly, then, 
 I pray you, and though you be, like John Mark, unfit 
 and unprepared, remember you may come naked to 
 Christ, for he can clothe you ; you may come filthy ta 
 Christ, for he can wash you ; you may come all unholy 
 and defiled to Jesus, for he can put away your sin. 
 Come! The Spirit of God seems to-night to say, 
 " Come." I pray that he may bid you come and lay 
 hold upon eternal life. I do not know how it is — I some- 
 times feel for many of my hearers, especially for those 
 of you whose faces I have seen for these years, an a^vf ul 
 earnestness when I am not in this pulpit, and I think 
 
John Mark; or, Haste in Belijion. 213 
 
 ilien if I could get your ear I would labour with you. 
 Bethink you how many have been buried. How often 
 do I stand at the grave's mouth, till sometimes, when, 
 week after wxek, and twice each week, I stand there, I 
 fancy myself but yet talking to dying men, and not to 
 living men at all, talking to a company of shadows that 
 come and go before me, and I stand still, myself a shadow, 
 soon to flit like the rest. Oh that I could talk to you 
 as I then feel, and pour out my soul to you ! We want 
 a Baxter to bring men to immediate decision — Baxter 
 with weeping eyes and burning heart — Baxter, who 
 says, ^' I will go down on my knees to entreat you to 
 think upon eternal things;" Baxter who cries and 
 groans for men till they cry and groan for themselves. 
 Why will ye die ? wliy will ye let procrastination kill 
 you ? Wherefore will ye put off till your day is over? 
 AYhy will ye still waste the candle which is so short ? 
 Why will ye let the day go when the sun dips already 
 beneath the horizon ? By the shortness of time, by the 
 sureness of death, by the certainty of eternal judgment, 
 I do beseech you fly to Jesus, and fly to Jesus now, 
 though even it should be in the hurry of John ]Mark. 
 
 I change my note. There is a haste that we must 
 reprove. The precipitate running of Mark suggests an 
 admonition that should put you on your guard. He 
 came on a sudden by his religion, and there are some 
 people who do this who might as well have no religion. 
 That, however, was not the case with Mark. He was a 
 genuine character, yet with nine out of ten of these 
 people I am afraid it is far otherwise. Let me address 
 some here who have all of a sudden come to Christ. 1 
 do not want to throw doubts in their way as to their 
 
214 Christian Energy. 
 
 sincerity, but I do want to incite them to examine 
 themselves. I am afraid some people make a hasty 
 profession through the persuasion of friends. You 
 walk with your friend, and he says, " I have joined the 
 church ? why don't you do so ? " He is not wise 
 enough to put to you pointed questions which would 
 let him see whether you are converted or not, but he 
 unwisely presses you to make a profession when there is 
 no grace in your heart. I pray you as soon as ever you 
 know Christ, speak out for him, and go out and show 
 your colours ; but I also beseech you never profess to- 
 follow Christ through the persuasion of friends. I 
 trust no pious mother would ever recommend you to da 
 so. I am sure no wise father would ever urge it upon 
 you. They would bid you fly to Christ at once, but as 
 to making the profession, they would have you see 
 whether, indeed, the root of the matter be in you, and 
 when they are persuaded, and you are persuaded of ity 
 they will throw no stumbling blocks in your way. 
 Young people, I pray you don't be deceived in this 
 matter. How many have we seen in the revival times 
 who have been induced to come forward to the '^ peni^ 
 tent stool," as it is called. That night, oh how much 
 they felt, because their natural sensibilities were wrought 
 upon ; but the next morning, oh how little have they 
 felt! When the agencies that stimulated them have 
 been withdrawn, and when the meetings that stirred 
 the embers, and the preacher that fanned the flame no- 
 longer exert any transient spell on them, their disen- 
 chanted souls sink down into a profound stupor. In 
 many churches there are so few making profession of 
 religion that there is not much clanger ; but here, where 
 
John Mark; or, Haste in Religion. 215 
 
 we receive so many every week, there is need for wise 
 discrimination. I do beseech you never to sit down 
 with a rehgion that comes to you merely through your 
 being talked to by yoiu' acquaintances. 
 
 "True religion's more than notion : 
 Something must be known and felt : " 
 
 Nor arc there a mere few who get their religion through 
 excitement. This furnishes another example of in- 
 judicious haste. They hear religion painted as being 
 very beautiful ; they see the beauty of it ; they admire 
 it ; they think what a lovely thing it must be to be a 
 Christian. Feeling this, and misled by a sort of ex- 
 citement in their minds, they conclude that this 
 is repentance. A false confidence they Avrite down as 
 faith ! They eagerly infer that they are the children 
 of God, whereas, alas 1 they are but the dupes of their 
 own emotion, and still " heirs of wrath, even as others." 
 Beware, I pray you, of a religion which lives upon 
 excitement. We ought to be filled with enthusiasm. 
 A fervent love should make our hearts always glow. 
 The zeal of God's house should be our master-passion. 
 Men never do much in politics till they grow warm upon 
 a question ; and in religion the very highest degree of 
 excitement is not only pardonable, but praiseworthy. 
 What, then, is it, which we deprecate? Not the 
 emotions of spiritual life, but an exclusive dependence 
 upon impulse. If you try to live upon the spell of a 
 man's words, upon the imposing grandeur of a multitude 
 assembled together, upon the fascination of congrega- 
 tional singing, or even upon the heart-thrilling fervour 
 of prayer-meetings, you will find the lack of substantial 
 food, and the danger of an intoxicated brain. As the 
 
216 Christian Energy. 
 
 quails whicli the children of Israel did eat in the wilder- 
 ness, God's bounties may be fed upon to your injury. 
 No, dear friends, there must be the real work of the 
 Holy Ghost in the soul, or else the repentance we get 
 will be a repentance which needs to be repented of. 
 I well know a town where there was a certain eminent 
 revivalist, whom I greatly respect. It was said that 
 half the population were converted under him ; but I do 
 not think that if the numbers were told at the present 
 moment there would be found a dozen of his converts. 
 This revival work, where it is real and good, is God's 
 best blessing, but where it is flimsy and unreal, it is 
 Satan's worst curse. Eevivalists are often like the 
 locusts. Before them it may not be quite an Eden, but 
 certainly behind them it is a desert when the excitement 
 is over. I like rather to see the Word so preached that 
 men are brought under its power by the force of the 
 truth itself, and not by excitement — by the truth of 
 God being laid down in so clear a manner as to en- 
 lighten the judgment, rather than by perpetual appeals 
 to the passions, which ultimately wear out the sinews of 
 mental vigour, and make men more dull in religion than 
 they were before. Beware, I pray you, of getting the 
 mere religion of poetry, enthusiasm, and rhapsody. Many 
 profess Christ and think to follow him without counting 
 the cost. They fancy it is all sweet, forgetting that 
 the way is rough, and that there are many foes. They 
 set out like Mr. Pliable, for the Celestial City ; but they 
 stumble into the first bog, and they say if they can but 
 get out on the side nearest to their own house. Christian 
 may have the brave country all to himself for them. 
 Oh ! the many we have seen at divers times that did 
 
John Mark; oi\ Haste in Religion. 217 
 
 seem to run well, but they ran in the strength of the 
 ilesh, and in the mists of ignorance. They had never 
 sought God's strength ; they had never been emptied of 
 their own works and their own conceits ; consequently, 
 in their best estate they were vanity ; they were like the 
 snail that melts as it crawls, and not like the snow-flake 
 upon the Alps, which gathers strength in its descent, 
 till it becomes a ponderous avalanche. God make you 
 not meteors or shooting stars, but stars fixed in their 
 places. I want you to resemble, not the ignis fatuus of 
 the morass, but the steady beacon of the rock. There 
 is a phosphorescence that creeps over the summer sea, 
 but who is ever lighted by it to the port of peace ? and 
 there is a phosphorescence which comes over some men's 
 minds. Very bright it seems, but it is of no value ; it 
 brings no man to heaven. Be as hasty as John Mark, 
 if it be a sound haste ; but take care that it be not a 
 spasm of excitement — a mere fit. Otherwise, when the 
 fit is over, you will go back to your old haunts and your 
 old habits with shame. You will be like Saul among 
 the prophets one day, and hating the prophet king the 
 next. So much, so earnestly would I warn you against 
 hasty followings of Christ. 
 
 It remains for me to notice the hasty running away. 
 I do not know that the persons who are readiest to run 
 away are always those who were the fastest to speed 
 their profession. I am inclined to think not. But some 
 who do run well at first have hardly breath enough to 
 keep the pace up, and so turn aside for a little com- 
 fortable ease, and do not get into the road again. 
 Such are not genuine Christians ; they are only 
 men-made, self-made Christians ; and these self-made 
 
218 Christiayi Energy. 
 
 Christians never hold on, and never can hold on, 
 because time wears them out, and they turn back to 
 their former state. 
 
 There are two kinds of desertion which we denounce 
 as hasty running away : the one temporary, the other 
 final. To the members of the church let me speak 
 upon the former. My dear brethren and sisters, espe- 
 cially you that are young in years and have lately been 
 added to our number, I pray you watch against tem- 
 porary runnings away from the truth of Christ. Think 
 w^hat a fool Mark made of himself. Here he comes ; 
 here is your hero. What wonders he is going to do ! 
 Here is a Samson for you. Perhaps he will slay his 
 thousand men. But, no ; he runs aw^ay before he 
 strikes a single blow. He has not even courage enough 
 to be taken prisoner, and to be di'agged away with 
 Christ to the judgment-seat, and bear a patient witness 
 there ; but he turns tail at once, and away he flies. 
 How simple he looked ! How everybody in the crowd 
 must have lauo;hed at the venturesome coward — at 
 the dastardly bravo ! And what a fool will you seem 
 if, after uniting yourself with the church, and seeming 
 to be a servant of God, you shall give way under 
 temptation. Some young man in the same shop 
 laughs at you — "Aha, aha, you are baptised, I hear"; 
 and you tremble, like Peter, under the questioning 
 of the little maid; or your master sees something 
 wrong, and he makes some rough remark to you, " Welt, 
 this is a fine thing for a Christian soldier ! " Cannot 
 you face the enemy for the first time ? '^If thou hast 
 run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then 
 how canst thou contend with horses 1 and if in the land 
 
John Mark; or, liable in Jiclifjion, 219 
 
 of peace, Avliereiii tlioutrustedst, tliey ^veilrie(.l thee, then 
 liow wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan '^ " A reli- 
 gion that cannot stand a little laughter must be a very 
 rotten one. We know some people whose religion is on 
 so unsound a basis, their profession so hollow, and their 
 position so shaky, that they make all sorts of noises 
 about our touching them. Their system is of human 
 construction, and rotten, and they know it, therefore are 
 they angry if we do but allude to it. Were it sound and 
 good, then whatever we could say would never frighten 
 them. But, sirs, how many who have made a fair show 
 in the flesh have been personally and individually tried 
 and found wanting ! "Mene, mene, tekel" has been 
 written on the wall concerning them. Their first 
 setting out was hasty, and they have been turned aside 
 through a little laughter. Do you not see, dear 
 friends, that this will always render you very untrust- 
 worthy ? If you shrink in this way, the church will 
 never trust you. I hope you will be a leader in 
 God's Israel one day, young man. We are looking to 
 you, if not to be a preacher, yet to be a church officer 
 one day; but who will ever ask you to do anything 
 wdien you cannot keep steadfast and hold your own 
 position ? He w^ho has not grace enough to prevent his 
 running away in the time of tribulation is not at all 
 likely to be made a leader of God's host. The church 
 will retain you as it retained Mark, but it will always 
 look upon you with a sort of suspicion. We shall 
 always say, ^' Where is So-and-so ? We know where he 
 was yesterday ; where is he to-day ? " Therefore abstain 
 from these inconsistencies for your own character's sake. 
 Besides, how much damage you do the church ! All 
 
220 Christian Energy, 
 
 the persecutors and infidels outside the church's walls 
 can never harm us so much as inconsistent people inside. 
 " Ah ! there is one of the people who go to the meeting," 
 they say, when they see a man in the pot-house who sits 
 at the communion table, '^Ah! there is one of your 
 religious people ! He can cheat as well as anybody 
 else. He knows how to thumb the yard measure. He 
 knows how to give short weight. He knows how to 
 promise on a certain day, and then run through the 
 Bankruptcy Court according to the law of England, 
 which is that nobody need pay his debts ; " and a glo- 
 rious honest law it is. ^' Ah ! " it is said, " the servants 
 ■of Christ are not a bit better than other people. They 
 make a great fuss about their purity, but see what they 
 will do." And then see what harm this will do to 
 Christ's church itself. How many who love God will 
 sit down and weep when they see such inconsistencies. 
 Good captains can stand a wound, they will even bear 
 defeat, but they cannot bear to see cowardice on the part 
 of their troops ; they cannot bear to see the men run- 
 ning away. If " the men of Ephraim, being anned, 
 and carrying bows, turn back in the day of battle," 
 then their leader weeps, for the glorious cross of Christ 
 is dishonoured, the escutcheon is sullied, and the banner 
 is trailed in the mud. The Lord so keep us that our 
 garments may be always white, that though before God 
 we may have many sins to confess, w^e may stand like 
 Job, and say, "Lord, thou knowest that I am not 
 wicked." May your testimony be so clear towards the 
 religion of Christ that those who watch you for your 
 halting, and hate you with a perfect hatred, may never- 
 theless find nothing against you, but may be constrained 
 
Joliii Mark; or, Ila^te in Religion. 221 
 
 to say, ^' These are servants of God, and serve him in 
 deed and of a truth." I would ui'ge you not to flee or 
 to flinch. Some of us have had enouoh of lying and 
 slander to bear in our time, and are we a whit the 
 worse? Nay, and if we had the choice to bear itagahi, 
 would we not do so ? We may have had to be laughed 
 at and caricatured, but it breaks no bone, and should 
 not make a brave man wince. AYho ought to be 
 alarmed when the war cry is " the Lord of Hosts," and 
 when the banner of God's own truth waves over his 
 head ? Courage, my brethren, and you shall have the 
 victory. " In the world ye shall have tribulation, but 
 in Christ ye shall have peace." Value above all things 
 the Holy Spirit. Kealise your entire dependence upon 
 him. Pray for fresh grace. Venture not into the 
 world without a fresh store of his hallowed influence. 
 Live in the Divine love. Seek to be filled with that 
 blessed Spirit; and then, my brethren, if the armed 
 man take hold of you, you will not flee away ; shame 
 shall not overtake you, dismay shall not affright your 
 souls, but ye shall stand in unblemished integrity to 
 the end as the true servants of Jesus Christ. 
 
 And now, in concluding, what am I to say of a final 
 apostasy? None of God's people ever pursue their 
 wanderings to this terrible issue. No vessel of mercy 
 was ever cast away. No elect souls can run this fatal 
 length of wickedness. But there are many in the 
 Church who draw back to perdition. Many who profess 
 Christ are branches bearing no fruit, and are cut off 
 and cast into the fire. Such may be the condition of 
 some here present. Such may be the lot of some of 
 you who '^ have a name to live, and are dead." Let me 
 
222 Christian Energy, 
 
 plead with you. Oil, what a dreadful thiug it will be 
 if you apostatise at all! Shall I live to see you go 
 back into the world ? I would sooner bury you. Shall 
 I live to see some of you who have professed to know 
 the Lord under our ministry at last sinning with a high 
 hand and an outstretched arm, worse than you were 
 before ? God spare us this evil thing ! Let him chas- 
 tise his servant in any way he thinks fit, but, O Lord, 
 let not this be the rod — to see professors become false. 
 Remember, if you do apostatise, you have accumulated 
 guilt by the profession you made, and impressed your 
 character with a more uneradicable defilement. When 
 the unclean spirit went out of the man, and afterwards 
 returned, he brought seven other spirits more wicked 
 than himself, and they entered in, and dwelt there, and 
 the last state of that man was worse than the first. 
 Better for you never to have known the way of 
 righteousness, than having known it, to turn aside to 
 those crooked paths. Think what must be the dying 
 bed of an apostate. Did you ever read of "The 
 Groans of Spira" ? That was a book circulated about 
 the time of the Reformation — a book so terrible that 
 even a man of iron could scarcely read it. Spira knew 
 the gospel, but yet went back to the Church of Rome. 
 His conscience woke on his dying bed, and his cries and 
 shrieks were too terrible to be endured by his nurses ; 
 and as to his language, it was despair written out at 
 full length in capital letters. My eminent predecessor, 
 Mr. Benjamin Keach, published a like narrative of 
 the death of John Child, who became a minister of the 
 gospel, but afterwards went back to the church from 
 which he had seceded, and died in the most frightful 
 
John Mark; or^ Haste in Religion. 223 
 
 despair. May God deliver you from the death-bed of 
 any man who has lived a professed Christian, and dies 
 an apostate from the faith ! But what must be the 
 apostate's doom when his naked soul goes before God ? 
 How must he hear that voice, '^ Depart, ye cursed ; 
 thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee ; thou hast 
 played the harlot, and departed from me ; I also have 
 divorced thee for ever, and will not have mercy upon 
 thee." What will be this wretch's shame at the last 
 great day, when before assembled multitudes the apos- 
 tate shall be unmasked? I think I see the profane 
 and sinners wdio never professed religion lifting them- 
 selves up from their beds of fire to point at him. 
 *^ There he is," says one ; " will he preach the gospel in 
 liell?" "There he is," says another; "he rebuked 
 me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself." " Aha !" 
 says another, " here comes a psalm-singing Methodist — 
 one that was always at his meeting ; he is the man who 
 boasted of his being sure of everlasting life ; and here 
 he is." No greater eagerness will ever be seen among 
 Satanic tormentors than in that day w^hen devils drag 
 the hypocrite's soul and the apostate's spirit down to 
 perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but 
 awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back 
 way to hell. The devils were binding a man with nine 
 cords, and were taking him from the road to heaven, in 
 which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through 
 the back door of hell. Mind that back way to hell, 
 professors ! You professors of religion who have been 
 in the church for years, " examine yourselves whether 
 ye be in the faith." Examine yourselves whether you 
 be deceived. liOok well to vour state, see whether you 
 
224 Christian Energy, 
 
 be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world 
 to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried ;. 
 but oh, be just and true here. Bo just to all, but be 
 rigorous to yourself. Kemember, if it be not a rock 
 on which you build, the house will fall, and great 
 will be the fall of it. Oh, may the Lord give you sin- 
 cerity, constancy, and firmness ; and in no day, how- 
 ever evil, may you be tempted to turn aside ; rather 
 may you hold fast by God and by his truth — by Christ 
 and by his word, come what may. 
 
 My soul longeth, however many years God may spare 
 me, to walk in and out among you, and find you as 
 earnest for God and as loving towards Christ as you 
 are this day. I glory in you among all the churches. 
 God has given you the spirit of faith and prayer, of 
 earnest zeal, and a sound mind. Unto him be the 
 glory. But, as a church, do not backslide. Let not 
 our fervour diminish, let not our zeal die out. Let us 
 love one another more tenderly than ever ; let us cling 
 fast to one another ; let us not be divided, '^ let no root 
 of bitterness springing up trouble ns"; firm and stead- 
 fast, shoulder to shoulder, like a phalanx of old, let us 
 stand and repel the foe, and win the kingdom for Christ 
 our Lord! "Kownnto him that is able to keep us 
 from falling, and to present ns faultless before his 
 presence with exceeding joy, be glory for ever and ever. 
 Amen," 
 
^(f tl(4 "Ifu^ruatit iff mt %^\%. 
 
 ** Shake thyself from the dust ; arise, and sit down, Jerusalem 
 loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, captive daughter of Zion.' 
 — Isaiah lii. 2. 
 
 SHALL not attempt now to decipher the 
 history of the prophecy with which these 
 words are associated. To the Hebrew nation 
 they were big with counsel, and bright with 
 hope. Apart, however, from the connection in 
 which it stands, this verse supplies a pointed 
 practical address of sterling value not to be 
 limited by any private interpretation. Such a charge 
 was well fitted for Israel of old ; such counsel would be 
 suitable to any church in a low condition ; such advice 
 is equally adapted to any Christian who has fallen into 
 a low state, who is grovelling in the dust, or among the 
 ashes of Sodom. He is bidden to rise from the ground, 
 and sit down upon a throne, for Christ hath made him 
 a king and a priest. He is admonished to unbind all 
 the cords that are upon him, that he may be free and 
 happy in the Lord. To those of you, then, who have 
 sunk into this distressing plight, my text contains a 
 vigorous appeal. Let me try to interpret it. 
 
 First of all, I notice the obvious fact. There are 
 
 15 
 
226 Chnstian Energy, 
 
 some of God's true people who are in a very sad 
 condition. 
 
 This is an important consideration to us just now. 
 If just on the eve of battle a commander should dis- 
 cover that an epidemic has broken out among his troops, 
 he will be extremely anxious that any available remedy 
 shall be tried ; for if the soldiers be sick, how can they 
 be expected to behave well on the morrow ? So it will 
 sometimes happen that when we mean to serve our 
 Master most, we are impeded in church action by the 
 prevalence of some spiritual disease among the mem- 
 bers of the church. Perhaps I may be the means of 
 finding out the sick ones, and indicating their symptoms, 
 and — who can tell? — perhaps this very night, ere you 
 come to the Table, the blessed remedy may be applied, 
 and at the Lord's Supper, while you are feasting with 
 Christ, your souls may become perfectly restored. 
 
 Sometimes the children of God fall into a grievous 
 state as to their faith, and then- assurance of their own 
 interest in Christ. They doubt whether they are 
 Christians at all ; whether their experience is genuine ; 
 wdiether they ever did really repent with a truly broken 
 heart ; whether they have received the precious faith, 
 the faith of God's elect. At such times they question 
 all their graces, and they are not able to get a satisfac- 
 tory answer from one. It is quite possible these people 
 of God may be so walking in outward consistency that 
 everybody else thinks well of them. No one has any 
 suspicion of them ; but they suspect themselves 
 grievously, and are tormented with the fear that they 
 have a name to live, and are dead. I have known at 
 such times that there will come at the back of all this 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks, 227 
 
 some terrible doubts about the substantial verities of 
 our faith. " What," say you, '* doubts about the God- 
 head, doubts about the Saviour, doubts about the world 
 to come % " Ah, yes ! the true people of God are as- 
 sailed with them. They will hate these doubts, and, 
 in their hearts, they will still believe all the great 
 fundamental and cardinal truths ; but yet will they be 
 sore put to it, and be frequently distressed. Thoughtful 
 minds, and men of reading, will have philosophical 
 doubts buzzing about them like mosquitoes on a sum- 
 mer's day. Others who are ignorant of philosophy, 
 and perhaps it is well that they are, will be troubled 
 with doubts of a rougher, coarser quality. Although 
 they will not permit them so to dwell in their hearts, 
 that they actually become unbelievers, yet they will be 
 sore distressed with questions which they cannot answer, 
 with enigmas which they know not how to solve, and 
 with strange intertwistings of difficulty which they 
 know not how to untie. Perhaps, too, at such a time 
 as this there will be over all, and worse than all, a 
 state of dreadful indifference creeping over them. 
 They want to feel, but cannot feel. They would fain 
 wring teare of blood out of their eyes, but not an ordi- 
 nary tear will drop. They want to be cut to pieces, 
 they would welcome the most poignant sorrow, but they 
 can only say — 
 
 " If ought is felt 'tis only pain 
 To feel I cannot feel." 
 
 In such cases true believers are sure to resort to the 
 extraordinary use of the means of grace. I mean they 
 will add to their ordinary use something more. Have 
 you never been in such a state that the Bible has 
 
2'2S Christian Energy, 
 
 become uninteresting, or the on\j passages of Scripture 
 that seemed to strike you were dreadful threatenings 
 concerning your own coming doom, as you thought ; 
 not a word of comfort, not a syllable that made glad 
 your spirit? You have resorted to prayer, and the 
 heavens have seemed to be brass, and, worse still, your 
 own heart seemed to be brass too, and you could not 
 stir it up to anything like an intensity of desire. You 
 did not wonder that you got no answer. You would 
 have wondered if such a prayer as yours could be heard 
 at all. Ah ! and then you have gone up to the assem- 
 bly of God's people, where, at other times, your heart 
 has danced within you with holy joy. The minister 
 was not changed ; perhaps at first you thought he was ; 
 but on more attentive hearing you noticed that there 
 was the same truth, and spoken in the same honest 
 fashion; but you could not hear it as you once did. 
 Clouds without rain, and wells without water, all the or- 
 dinances seemed to be to you, and all the while, though 
 you felt that you could not live like this, and said — 
 " Dear Lord, and shall I ever live 
 At this poor dying rate?" 
 
 Yet somehow or other you could not get out of it. You 
 felt like one manacled, as though a nightmare were 
 upon you. You were distressed. You could not stir 
 to break the spell. Your spirit cried out as best it 
 could, " O, wretched man that I am ! Who shall de- 
 liver me from the body of this death ? " But the worst 
 of it was that you did not feel that you were wretched 
 enough, and you did not seem to cry enough. You 
 w^ere afraid you would sink into a terrible lethargy, 
 which would forerun a spiritual death. 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks. 229 
 
 Well, my dear friends, I should not wonder but you 
 brought this very much upon yourselves. If you are in 
 this state, I would exhort you to question yourselves 
 whether this is not the result of what you have often been 
 warned of. Perhaps you restrained prayer ; perhaps in 
 your happier days you grieved the Holy Spirit just when 
 you were most joyful and happy in his love. It may 
 be that you grew worldly, or, perhaps, a long succession 
 of little things, none of which you noticed at the time, 
 have contributed to swell the stream of your present 
 distress. At any rate, whatever may be the cause of 
 this state, I grieve that you are in it — grieve for my 
 own sake, for your sake, for the sake of this church, 
 and for the sake of the world around you ; for, my 
 brethren, your testimony is, to a great extent, silenced, 
 and vour strength to bear it enervated. That face of 
 vours, once so happy, w^as a living advertisement of the 
 gospel. Your cheerful temperament under trial was an 
 invitation to sinners to come and find a like joy. But 
 now you are distressed, and you go mourning without 
 the light of the sun. What can you do while you abide 
 in such a state as that ? You are like the bruised reed, 
 out of which no music can come, or like the smoking 
 flax that yields no light, but only a dolorous and nauseous 
 smoke. I am grieved that it should be so, because 
 were you now to attempt a verbal testimony for Christ, 
 it would be feeble, and could not produce any great 
 result. I remember when I began to teach in the 
 Sunday-school, and I was very young in grace then, 
 having said to the class of boys whom I was teaching 
 that Jesus Christ saved all those who believed in him. 
 One of the boys asked me the question, *' Teacher, do 
 
230 Christian Energy, 
 
 you believe in him ? " I replied, "Yes, I hope I do." 
 And he enquired again, " But are you not sure ? " I 
 had to look to myself to know what answer I should give. 
 The lad was not content with my repeating, '^ I hope so." 
 He would have it, " If you have believed in Christ you 
 are saved." And I felt at that time that I could not 
 teach effectually until I could say positively, " I know 
 that it is so. I must be able to speak of what I had tasted 
 and handled of the good Word of Life." So, brethren, 
 you will find that you only perplex those whom you fain 
 would persuade if by your doubts you provoke them to 
 say, " How can you expect us to believe at your mouth 
 what you hesitate to seal with the witness of your own 
 heart ? " Unless the joy of the Lord is your strength, 
 your soul will breathe a heavy atmosphere, and your 
 utterance will be checked, if it is not choked by your 
 misgivings. It is your confidence in Christ, and the 
 peace it brings you, that helps you to speak to others as 
 a true witness, because you are an experimental witness 
 of the power of true religion. Your verbal testimony, 
 I say, is weakened — I fear to a very great extent — by 
 the fog and vapour of your scruples, the scruples of a 
 conscience that droops and flags. It is sad to think that 
 while you are looking to your own soul, in doubt whether 
 you are saved or not, you have but little energy to spare 
 in caring for the souls of others. Indeed, it is your first 
 concern to see that you yourselves be saved. Till that 
 all-important matter is resolved, your zeal for your 
 neighbour's welfare is ill-timed. Why busy yourselves to 
 keep other men's vineyards, while your own is left to be 
 overgrown with weeds ? And then, my dear friends, 
 another melancholy aspect of this disability is, that all 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks. 231 
 
 tins while you are a detriment to your fellow Christians. 
 It is hard enough to fight with Satan ; but it is all the 
 harder work for the army to have to carry so many sick 
 folk with it, for it involves much more toil. You, whose 
 faith is all but gone, are like the baggage of an army ; 
 you hinder the rapid march of the brave soldiers of the 
 Cross. How you depress others that are round about 
 vou ! Once your voice was that of a brave hero, and 
 you inspirited the troops ; but now you pine, and cry, 
 and make others hang their harps upon the wdlows, 
 and learn the same doleful tune as your own. It is a 
 sad thing. I do not condemn you, but I greatly pity 
 you, and I also greatly pity the Church of God, and 
 the cause of God that it loses so much by you who 
 ought in gratitude to Christ, to do so much for him. 
 Alas, that the people of God should be sunk into so 
 mournful a condition! ISIuch reason is there surely 
 wdiy the exhortation should be pressed in all earnest. 
 Hear it, oh, ailing Christian! ^' Shake thyself from 
 the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thy- 
 self from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of 
 
 Zion." ^^ ^, 
 
 I charge you, my brother, content not thyself any 
 longer with the state into which you have fallen. May 
 the'^Holy Spirit come to you, and prompt you to strike. 
 Do strive to get out of this condition into one of happi- 
 ness and strength. Let me try to encourage you a 
 little, and may God enable you to the utmost. 
 
 Kemember, my dear friend— suppose I am now talk- 
 incT to vou alone— I almost wish I could grip your hand 
 ami look vou close in the face— remember from whence 
 you have fallen. Think of the peaceful hours you once 
 
232 Christian Energy. 
 
 enjoyed. Oh ! thy stony heart was not always so cold ; 
 the Word of God was not always so dry ; the sanctuary 
 was not always so unprofitable. You have wrestled and 
 prevailed, you know you have. You have pleaded 
 with God, and you have had the desire of your heart. 
 You have communed with Christ, and your soul has 
 been like the chariots of Ammi-nadib. Can you bear to 
 think of this, and not cry — 
 
 ".Eeturn, O Holy Dove, return, 
 Sweet messenger of rest ! " ? 
 
 Can you who once have known these things, and had 
 the flavour of them in your mouth, refrain from hun- 
 gering and thirsting after them again ? Think of them, 
 and perhaps, while you are musing upon the past, you 
 may be helped by strong desires to return like Abra- 
 ham unto the place of the altar, unto that place hard 
 by Bethel, where at the first he had built an altar unto 
 the Lord. 
 
 Think of the danger you are in at present. Who are 
 they that are most likely to fall into open sin ? Are 
 they not those who walk at a distance from Christ? 
 If you live in close communion with Jesus, you shall 
 have such share of your Shepherd's company that, though 
 you may hear the wolf's howl, you shall not be likely 
 to feel his fang. I believe that when any professor 
 falls into a filthy sin it is not the inception, but the 
 culmination of a process and growth in iniquity. The 
 open sin comes at the heels of a long succession of 
 neglected prayers, of neglected worship of God in the 
 family, negligence of communion with Christ, and neg- 
 ligence of every good thing. It is the fruit, not the 
 seed of the evil which poisons the air and excites the 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks, 233 
 
 public odium. Beware, then, O professor ! — thou who 
 Iiast lost the light of God's countenance — beware, 
 beware ! I pray thee, of that ill condition of soul which 
 is the prolific parent of all distempers. 
 
 Remember, too, that there is real cause for apprehen- 
 sion, lest you never were safe. It is just possible that 
 those doubts you feel are no insinuations of Satan, but 
 the suggestions of an enlightened conscience, or even 
 the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Unless you are 
 indeed a Christian, unless you now prove yourself to 
 be such by your return to God, you w^ill, in all proba- 
 bility, become the willing servitor of the devil. Unless 
 you now, with full purpose of heart, seek to Christ, 
 perhaps the time has come wdien you wdll turn aside, 
 like Balaam, for reward, or perish in the gainsaying of 
 Korah. In some of those shapes in which wicked men 
 have perished, you may despondingly or presumptuously 
 rush on to destruction, and precipitate your final doom. 
 Beware again, I say, O cold professor ! — in God's name, 
 beware of trifling when you have so much reason to 
 tremble. 
 
 My dear friend, I would put another thought into 
 your mind which may help you. Perhaps you may 
 think it is rather hampering than helping you, and 
 tends more to depress than to deliver you. Remember 
 how justly you might now he left to your own devices. 
 You became carnally secure; you sinned against the 
 light of God's countenance ; you grieved his Spirit. 
 What if he were now to say, '^ He is given unto idols ; 
 let him alone ? " What if from this day the Spirit 
 should no more strive with you ? What if, after all, 
 though you have talked and preached to others, you 
 
234 Christian Energy, 
 
 yourself should be a castaway ? I do but mention this 
 to arouse you, my brother, if you are insensible. You 
 know how sometimes the siu'geon fears lest a man 
 should sleep himself to death ; and he wall even drive 
 pins into him, or make him w^alk, and drag him about 
 the chamber, so as to arouse him. I would say any- 
 thing, however sharp, if I might but wake you out of 
 your lethargy. I know you would welcome it, and in 
 due time thank me for the severity of the operation. 
 
 But I shall refrain, for methinks there is a better way 
 than this. I want you to arise and shake yourself from the 
 dust, my poor desponding friend ; because if the worst 
 be the case, and you be no Christian, no true believer, 
 yet, ^' Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord; 
 though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool ; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as 
 snow.'' What if it has been all a mistake, and you 
 never ought to have made a profession; yet Jesus 
 Christ receiveth sinners : come to him now. I always 
 find this the short way out of a long dreary road, a 
 quick relief for acute maladies, a ready antidote for 
 doubts and fears. The devil has been arguing with 
 Christians for so many years, that he understands the 
 case against them a great deal better than any of us 
 do ; and if we begin to controvert with him, we shall 
 soon find that that old hater of man will soon get the 
 mastery over us. But if we say, '^ I give it in, Satan, 
 I give it in ; I am a sinner, the chief of sinners ; hast 
 thou anything more to say ? I give it all in ; but I 
 answer thee with this — ' The blood of Jesus Christ, His 
 Son, cleanseth us from all sin ; I believe in him, and 
 my sins are therefore washed away,' " — this is the high 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranhs. 235 
 
 road to perfect comfort. I beg thee, my clear brotlier, 
 to take it at once. Hear the word of the Spirit, which 
 saith, " Repent, and do thy first works." The very first 
 works were repentance and faitli ; and so even begin 
 again. Away to the fountain filled with blood ! Away 
 to the cross, and give that life-look once more ! Away 
 to the finished substitutionary sacrifice, and beneath 
 the crimson canopy of the atonement hide thy guilty 
 head. Oh ! if thou doest this, thy light shall break 
 forth as the morning, and thy glory as the noonday. 
 The Lord help thee to do this now, and end the strife ! 
 Let me also remind any Christian here full of doubt, 
 and with the bands of his neck tight upon him, that the 
 atoning blood has not changed its poiver to cleanse. If it 
 cleansed you twenty years ago, it can cleanse you still. 
 Remember, Jesus has not lost his power to save, nor 
 has he changed his character for willingness to save to 
 the uttermost. 
 
 " Jesus sits on Zion's hill, 
 He receives poor sinners still." 
 
 Come, then, to the unchanging Saviour. Thou who 
 hast been treacherous — thou whose heart has played 
 the harlot to Christ — come back ; for his love to thee 
 has not waned. '^ Return unto me, O backsliding 
 daughter, saith the Lord ; for I am married unto thee.^* 
 The prodigal's heart may change towards his Father, 
 but his Father's heart never changes towards him. 
 Return, then, for mercy waits thee, and not judgment. 
 He is God, and not man, else thou hadst been con- 
 sumed long ago. Return now, for he wall put away thy 
 sin like a cloud, and thy transgressions like a thick 
 cloud. Duly acknowledge thy wandering, humble thy- 
 
236 Christian Energy, 
 
 self because of thy treachery, and say, " My Father, 
 thou shalt be the guide of my youth," so shalt thou 
 be restored perfectly, and thy former joy shall come 
 back to thee. 
 
 Do I hear thee say, " But I am not fit to come back 
 to Christ, and have joy in him at once." Oh, sir I 
 wert thou fit at first ? No ; and thou art not fit now, 
 but come and welcome. Christ wants nought from 
 thee. Come and trust him, and perfect salvation is 
 thine. ^* Oh ! but I cannot bear to look him in the 
 face, for I have lived so long without walking in his 
 counsel." So much the more reason that thou shouldest 
 not live another hour without him. I charge thee, my 
 poor distressed brother — I charge thee, my troubled 
 sister — by the love that Christ hath to thee, come to 
 him now. Behold he stands at the door and knocks ; if 
 thou wilt open to him, though the house be not fur- 
 nished, nor the table covered with a festival for him as 
 it should be, yet will he come in and sup with thee, even 
 with thee, and thou shalt sup with him to-night. I see 
 no reason why the most desponding Christian here 
 should not rejoice before he comes to the Table of the 
 Lord. I do not know why the most barren among us 
 should not be made fruitful. This I do know, that we 
 are not straitened in him ; we are not straitened in his 
 willingness to bless, nor in his ability to comfort. Oh ! 
 believe him, Christian ; believe him. If thou be not a 
 Christian, cast thyself at his feet. He will not let thee 
 perish. Lay hold, if it be but of the skirts of his garment, 
 and do not let him go. Do thou even now shake thy- 
 self from the dust, and put on thy beautiful garments. 
 
 A momentous obligation will henceforth rest upon 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks. 237 
 
 you. I must close with this remark. I know there are 
 many of God's people in the state I have been describing. 
 I have the pain sometimes of trying to clieer them. I 
 only hope that what I have said may be blessed of God 
 to them. I fully anticipate it. Here, then, is the 
 practical point. When thou art converted strengthen 
 thy brethren. 
 
 Look out for those who are in the same state as you 
 have been in, and be very tender over them. As you 
 know their case, and have traversed that howling desert, 
 you will be able to direct them. I have described your 
 case, because I fear that I have sometimes been on the 
 verge of it myself. I have found recovery by a fresh 
 resoi-tto the love of Christ, and a simple renewal of my 
 trust in him. I can, therefore,' enter into your feelings, 
 and ask you to try the same remedy. After you have 
 found the remedy to be a good one, it is but a small 
 return, and certainly it is due from you, to tell others 
 how you have been restored. 
 
 Some of you, beloved, have never been thus carried 
 into captivity. I pray God you never may be. There 
 is no necessity for it ; but let me entreat you to w^alk 
 very tenderly with your God. We serve a jealous God. 
 He will wink at many an act of insubordination done 
 by his enemies ; the one tithe of which, if done by his 
 favourite ones, his elect, his darlings, would cause him 
 to hide his face from them at once. " You only have 
 I known of all the people of the earth, therefore I will 
 punish you for your iniquities." Saith he not, "As 
 many as I love I rebuke and chasten" ? A sinner may 
 go on wantonly unrebuked ; he may add house to house, 
 and field to field, and he may think himself secure ; 
 
238 Christian Energy. 
 
 God will deal with him in the next w^orld. But the 
 heir of heaven is under a discipline of divine love, 
 and God will deal with him in this world ; and among 
 the chastisements of departure from Christ will be the 
 loss of comfort, the loss of power to do good, and I know 
 not wdiat other affliction added thereunto in his soul or 
 in his circumstances. Dear brother, walk carefully, 
 then ; while you have light, walk in the light. Oh ! 
 prize the sweet love of Christ ; never, never let it go. 
 Say unto your soul, when Christ is in your heart, " I 
 charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and 
 by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor wake 
 my love until he please. Introduce no rival's love, and 
 no worldliness ; fall into no inconsistencies, but pray 
 for grace that with holy jealousy you may still dwell 
 in the light and find favour in his eyes. 
 
 And being thus kept near to God, and being strong 
 in the power of his might, come and give hack the strength 
 to him from ivhom you derived it. Stand up for Christ. 
 I believe w^e are never happier than when we have plenty 
 to do. Idleness is the mother of vexation. A Christian 
 who does but little for Christ, unless he is prevented 
 from doing it by suffering, wdll, as a rule, be a miserable 
 man. You active Christians, active in body and nimble 
 in spirit, — you joyous Christians, who w^alk in the light 
 of God's countenance, — '^ work while it is day ; for the 
 night Cometh when no man can work." Let us pledge 
 each other that we will now seek the good of Zion. 
 Members of this church, let none of you be recreant to 
 the loyalty which you owe to Christ in this the hour 
 when we seek to press forward as one man in the battle 
 of our Great Captain and Lord. I would stand side« 
 
To the Recreant of our Ranks, 239 
 
 by-slde with you to take my sliare ; but what can one 
 do if he abide alone ? My brethren in office will not be 
 backward, I know; but what can we do? Keep stej) 
 with us, my brethren, in pleading for souls, in proclaim- 
 ing the gospel, in seeking to win the many to the know- 
 ledge of the Saviour ; and the Lord will bless us, even 
 our own God will bless us. Shaking ourselves from the 
 dust, and breaking off the bands of our own sloth, God 
 will come with his crown of benediction, and place it 
 on his church's head; and when we get that coveted 
 prize, let us hold it fast, that no man take it from us. 
 Let us go forward as a church in indissoluble union, 
 and in unwearied service, until he shall come whose 
 " Well done !" shall be our best reward. 
 
^(fd ^ifmtimikt{^ 
 
 "Talk ye of all his wondrous woiks." — 1 Chronicles xvi. 9. 
 
 HIS sentence stands in connection with ex- 
 hortations to offer thanksgiving unto the 
 Lord and to make known his deeds among 
 the people. Thus it runs, " Sing unto him; 
 sing psalms unto him; talk ye of all his 
 wondrous works." 
 
 The old typical religion of the Jews, and 
 the perverse superstition of the heathen, made some 
 places sacred and other places unclean ; some actions 
 holy, and other actions, performed however well they 
 might be, common, and not to be connected in any 
 degree with holiness. But the religion of Jesus Christ 
 has once for all swept away all distinction of holy 
 places. Every place is hallowed where man is holy. 
 Jesus Christ has consecrated the world by his presence. 
 Now wherever man chooses to worship there is a house 
 for God. The place must be right, if the purpose be good. 
 The religion of Jesus Christ has also swept away those 
 distinctions which men make as to actions being neces- 
 sarily religious or irreligious. Some will have it that to 
 sing a psalm is to worship God — a sacred thing, but to 
 
Good Conversation. 241 
 
 feed the sparrows is according to them a secular matter. 
 To come up to a place that shall be set apart for wor- 
 ship, and there to bow the knee in prayer, is adoration 
 of the Most High, but, according to them, to perform 
 acts of mercy and righteousness is not a tribute of 
 homao-e to God. Now, the very essence of the Christian 
 religion is just this-that it is not a thing confined to 
 hours and times, to places and edifices, but it is a thing 
 of spirit. It lieth not in outward garbs or in specious 
 words, but it pervades the whole spirit of man, and 
 makes him turn his entire life into worship ; then every 
 action that he performs in its spirit and under its m- 
 fluence, is holiness unto the Lord. God is worshipped 
 by servants who fulfil the duties of their station, by 
 judges who decree righteousness, by merchants who deal 
 justly, by children who obey their parents, and by 
 parents who train up their children in the fear of the 
 Lord, provided always that they do it in faith, without 
 which nothing is pleasing to God. There is not a 
 material line to be drawn anywhere, so that you can 
 say, '' Outside of that you go beyond the sanctuary of 
 religion, and get into the outer courts frequented by 
 the multitude." This has been the great mistake which 
 some Christians have made with regard to politics. 
 They have supposed that a Christian could not be a 
 Politician. Hence much injustice has been done to 
 leading minds and noble characters. The fact is when 
 a man feels that there is nothing belongs to man but 
 what may be consecrated to God, and when he says, 
 ^' I, being God's servant, may take all that belongs to 
 man, and devote it as holiness unto the Lord,'* he 
 reaches the highest order of manhood, and illustrates 
 
 lb 
 
212 Chisiian Energy, 
 
 the highest style of Christianity. We cannot fullj 
 exhibit the spirit of Jesus Christ till we have learned 
 that we must carry out in every place and in every 
 sphere the spirit of his religion. 
 
 I make these remarks because, while we are first 
 bidden to sing unto God's praise, we are next told to talk 
 about his wondrous works. There is a praising for the 
 assembly ; there is a talking for the fireside ; and both 
 are to be holy. The praise is to be hearty, sincere, 
 unanimous, full of animation ; the talk is to be equally 
 sincere, equally earnest, equally sacred. You are not 
 to say "I have done Avith praising God" when the 
 hymn is over, and you begin to open your mouths 
 upon ordinary topics; but throughout your ordinary 
 conversation, in the fields, by the wayside, in the streets, 
 and in your chambers, you are still to go on praising 
 God, and talking of all his wondrous works. 
 
 Shall there be a connection established then between 
 such a common word as '^ talk," and such grand swelling 
 words as " the wondrous Avorks of God" ? We wonder 
 to find the little monosyllable in such a place. " Preach 
 ve of all his wondrous works," would seem well enouo-h ; 
 " Show them," would seem sound theology ; but talk 
 ye, talk ye ; in your ordinary, common, every-day con- 
 versation, make the wondrous works of God to be your 
 trite converse, your familiar talk. We must talk ; we 
 we seem born to talk ; we were wretched indeed if we 
 were forbidden to speak to our fellow -creatures. Why, 
 the world seems to be enlivened by continuous, not to say 
 incessant talking, from the first blush of morning, on 
 still through all the bustling day, and far into the shades 
 of drowsy night. How our tongues are occupied ! They 
 
Good Conversation, 243 
 
 run more quickly than our feet, and carry less, though 
 much mischief sometimes comes from their babble. 
 They are sharper than razors some of them, and cut 
 deeper than swords, and kindle fire enough to set the 
 world in a blaze. Now, this talking to which women 
 are proverbially disposed, and in which men indulge as 
 freely as inclination prompts them ; such talking to be 
 heard in every street, in every house, and in every 
 workshop ; this it is which is to be consecrated unto God. 
 The streams of conversation are everywhere to be drawn 
 off from the gutters and channels in which they gather 
 defilement ; to be strained, cleansed, and purified, till 
 they become fresh, clear, and sparkling. Then the 
 speech of human intercourse, man with man, saint with 
 saint, being redeemed from the beggarly elements of 
 common slander and envy, foolishness and vanity, shall 
 be lifted up as on eagles' wings, till it is like the 
 fellowship of the angels ; realising the prediction of the 
 psalmist, in its tribute to the praise of the Lord, " They 
 shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy 
 power." 
 
 I. Now, first, THE SUBJECT HERE SUGGESTED FOR 
 OUR COMMON-PL A.CE TALK — HIS WONDROUS WORKS — 
 
 invites notice. 
 
 Brethren, we ouorht to talk more about God's won- 
 drous works as we find them in Holy Scripture. Do you 
 read them 1 Alas ! in how many a case the Bible is the 
 least-read book in the house ! I am incUned to think 
 that though there may be more Bibles in England than 
 any other book, there is less of Bible-reading than 
 anything else in literature. The sacred volume seems 
 to be scarcely known to many, except from chapters 
 
244 Christian Energy, 
 
 read in the public services, and the quotations of the 
 minister ; while alas, alas for us ! our conversation has 
 very httle in it of the records of the mighty acts of the 
 Lord. But the old saints were wont to speak to one 
 another about the historical parts of Scripture. They 
 dwelt full often, and never seemed happier than when 
 they were dwelling upon it, on that story of the Red 
 Sea, when the Lord smote Rahab, and brake the head 
 of the dragon. How they would stand together and 
 speak of the books of the wars of the Lord, of what he 
 did by the brook Arnon, and how he led his servants 
 through Jordan, and brought them into the promised 
 land, cast out the Canaanites, and slew their kings. 
 They talked of these things, not merely as historical 
 events, but as seeing the Lord in them all, and they so 
 spoke and so read of them as to see in them subjects 
 worthy of their study. I do not know how it is, but 
 we do not get at the history of our own country in any- 
 thing hke the way in which one might desire, for really 
 the w^ondrous works of God wdiich he has done here in 
 this land are such as we ought to speak of at our fire- 
 sides. We should look upon the events of history, and 
 the chronicles of each day in this light ; and if, as we 
 scanned the ample page of history, rich with the spoils 
 of time, we saw God's hand fashioning its contingen- 
 cies and moulding them into destiny, and the impress 
 of his footsteps upon all its stupendous revolutions, we 
 should not lack for topics of conversation, but our 
 memories would be stored, our interest excited, our minds 
 elevated with noble passions, and our social intercourse 
 ennobled by the inexhaustible resources of wisdom, as 
 we talked of all the wondrous works of the Lord. 
 
Good Conversation. 245 
 
 But, brethren, OUR OWN individual history will 
 enable us to relate such a multitude of tender mercies 
 as may well become incentives to gratitude and praise. 
 How much might we tell of what the Lord has done for 
 us personally! Here is a subject that shall n3ver be 
 exhausted. Talk to one another, especially to those who 
 can understand you because they have felt the same, 
 of the longsuffering of God when you were in your 
 ungodly state ; the wonders of that love which tracked 
 you with its many warnings while you were still 
 strangers to yourselves and to God. Talk of that 
 Almighty power which, when the predestinated hour 
 had come, laid hold upon you and made you yield. Speak 
 of what the Lord did for you when you were in the low 
 dungeon of your self -abhorrence ; how he met with you 
 when you were brought to death's door ; how Jesus ap- 
 peared for you, and clothed you with his righteousness, 
 and your spirit revived, and your heart was glad. Shall 
 the slave ever forget the music of his chains when they 
 dropped from his wrists, and will you ever cease to 
 tpeak of that happy day, the happiest of all days, when 
 all the chains of your transgression were for ever 
 broken off at the love-touch of your Redeemer ? Oh 
 no ! talk ye still of the wondrous works of God as con- 
 nected with your conversion. And, since that time, 
 however quiet your life may have been, I am sure there 
 has been much in it that has tenderly illustrated the 
 Lord's providence, the Lord's guidance, the Lord's de- 
 liverance, the Lord's upholding and sustaining you. 
 You have been, perhaps, in poverty, and just when the 
 barrel of meal was empty then were you supplied. 
 Talk ye of his wondrous works. You have been in 
 
246 Christian Energy. 
 
 great temptation, and when you were reeling under it, 
 or when you w^ere slandered, and no name was thought 
 bad enough for you, his sweet love hath appeared 
 to you, and helped you to rejoice in this also for 
 Christ's name sake. Talk ye of this. You have 
 gone, perhaps, Christian, through fire and through 
 water ; yours has been a very chequered life ; you have 
 fought with lions or have stood in the valley of the 
 shadow of death, but in it all God's aid has been very 
 wonderful. There have been miracles heaped upon 
 miracles along your pathway. Perhaps you are like the 
 Welsh woman, who said that the Ebenezers which she 
 had set up at the places where God had helped her 
 were so thick that they made a wall from the very spot 
 she began with Christ to that she had then reached. 
 Is it so with you? Then talk ye, talk ye of all his 
 wondrous works. I am sure you would find such talk 
 most interesting, most impressive, and most instructive, 
 for the things we have seen and experienced ourselves 
 generally wear a novelty, and abound in interest be- 
 yond any narrative we get from books, or any un- 
 authenticated story we pick up at second-hand. Tell, 
 then, how God has led you, fed you, and brought you 
 to this day, and would not let you go. 
 
 There is a topic for you, and you never shall know 
 how large it is. 
 
 II. The excellency of this subject is both 
 
 NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE. 
 
 Were we to talk more of God's wondrous works 
 there would be this negative good, that we should talk 
 less about our own works, A man never lowers himself 
 more than when he tries to lift himself up. There are 
 
Good Conversation. 247 
 
 some wliose propensity is to use vain swelling words 
 about their own doings, and they seem to be never 
 better pleased than when they are bragging and saying, 
 *'/ did this; /did that; /did the other." *' Talk ye 
 of all his wondrous works." As for your puny actions, 
 if you judge and estimate them properly, you will find 
 more to mourn over than to boast of. Give to the 
 Lord the glory that is due unto his name, and your 
 discretion shall not be perilled. 
 
 If we talked more of God's wondrous works we sJioidd 
 he free from talking of other peoples works. It is easy 
 to criticise those we could not rival, and carp at those 
 we could not emulate. He who could not carve a statue, 
 or make a single stroke of the chisel correctly, affects 
 to point out where the handicraft of the greatest 
 sculptor might have been improved. It is a poor pitiful 
 occupation, that of picking holes in other people's coats, 
 and yet some people seem so pleased when they can 
 perceive a fault, that they roll it under their tongue as 
 a sweet morsel. Why should this be? Why should 
 you find fault with God's servants in this way? They 
 are not your servants, but his servants ; he will call 
 them to account himself. He does not ask you to be 
 thus officious. Talk ye of his wondrous w^orks, and 
 you will not speak so unkindly of his servants. 
 
 Did we talk more of God's wondrous works it woidd 
 keep us from the ordinary frivolities of conversation. In 
 the olden times they that feared the Lord spake often 
 one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and 
 a book of remembrance was written before him for them 
 that feared tlie Lord and that thought upon his name. 
 Suppose for a moment that our ordinary conversation 
 
248 Christian Energy, 
 
 Avere taken down by an eaves-dropper, as in the case 
 mentioned by Malaclii. I do not know what your con- 
 versation was about at tea-time this evening, but 
 supposing that somebody had been liearkening and 
 hearing, and that you knew for certain that it was 
 going to be put into a book and printed, would you feel 
 quite easy ? Supposing we could have put down in a book 
 the talk of all our people during the day, and could 
 have it all read out, I am afraid we should find that 
 our talk is not always such as edifieth, and not always 
 seasoned with salt. In fact, some Christian people 
 never talk thoroughly good Gospel talk unless some- 
 body is present in whose esteem it is likely to raise 
 them, or until they get into such company as they sup- 
 pose will relish it, and then they feel compelled to 
 accommodate themselves to the occasion. The habit 
 of thoroughly good godly talk is not common among 
 professors. I wish it were. I wish that not only 
 sometimes our talk were what God would have it to 
 be, but that it were always so, that our common con- 
 versation were like salt ministering grace unto the 
 hearers. 
 
 As there is a negative excellence about this subject 
 of conversation, so there is also a positive excellence. 
 Supposing we were to talk more of God's wondrous 
 works ; when the habit was acquired, it would necessi- 
 tate stricter habits of observation, and of discrimination 
 in ivatching the providence of God. Memory, the 
 treasure house of the mind, must have its goods 
 assorted and its records indexed, so that the things of 
 which we hear and read might not only be well retained, 
 but easily referred to. As Cowper says — 
 
Good Conversation. 249 
 
 *♦ But conversation, choose what theme we may, 
 And chiefly when religion leads the way, 
 Should flow, like waters after summer showers, 
 Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers," 
 
 Alas ! the mercies of God flow by us like a river ; we 
 forget to count its multitudinous waves. We receive 
 the mercies fresh every day, and take but slight account 
 of them ; too often they are 
 
 *' Forgotten in unthankfulness, 
 And without praises die." 
 
 The spirit of observing God in all things was prevalent 
 amongst our Puritan ancestors. They saw God in 
 every single drop of rain, and in every ray of sunlight. 
 They were wont to talk about the commonest changes 
 of the atmosphere as coming from the hand of God, to 
 speak of incidents which we might account trivial, as 
 connected with the decrees of him who ordereth all 
 things after the counsel of his own will. Oh, that we 
 too amidst the various mazes of life could thus learn to 
 track the course ^' of boundless wisdom and of boundless 
 love!" Such conversation, brethren, would he very 
 ennobling. Why, it would liken us to the ancient saints 
 and the spirits before the throne. What is their con- 
 versation there? How they talk of God's wondrous 
 works, God's works in creation, God's works in provi- 
 dence, God's works in grace. They are too taken up 
 with the splendour of the Divine presence to suffer 
 their pure intercourse to degenerate into any meaner 
 theme. Yes, and living as we do in the presence of 
 God, professing to have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, 
 and to have been lifted up from the world into commu- 
 nion with Jesus Christ, it ought to be our holy ambition 
 
250 Christian Energy, 
 
 to let our conversation be of things that are like our 
 standing, things that are worthy of our high calling 
 and profession, things that have to do with our election, 
 and will help us onward to our eternal portion. We 
 should not be so grovelling as we are did we talk more 
 of the wondrous things of God. 
 
 And beloved, while holding this lofty fellowship of 
 heart and tongue, how would our gratitude glow, and 
 ivhat an impulse would be given to our entire life I I do 
 not know how you find it, but with me it is no easy 
 matter to maintain spiritual life in the fulness of its 
 vigour. To go week after week, month after month, 
 and year after year, plodding on in the pilgrimage, is 
 hard work; it needs no small degree of strength, resolve, 
 and skill. If it were one tremendous leap we could 
 soon perform it ; if it were but a spurt in the race we 
 might soon win the prize ; but to go on, on, on, and still 
 to keep up our zeal, still to be awake, still to be earnest, 
 here it is one feels the need of the mercies of God to be 
 a means of grace to us, to refresh our gratitude, and put 
 fresh fuel upon the altar. Oh ! brethren, we have not 
 lived yet. We do not seem to recognise what the 
 Christian life really means. When I instanced our 
 conversation just now as being poor and mean, and 
 barren, I did but cull one mildewed leaf out of the 
 whole field, for our whole life is much alike, I fear. 
 The Lord revive us. What means is he so likely to use, 
 except he employ the rod of chastisement, as the 
 renewal of our memory of his great loving-kindness, 
 that we may be constrained to dedicate ourselves more 
 fully unto him ? 
 
 III. But time flies ; let me proceed therefore to URGE 
 
Good Conversation, 251 
 
 THIS TALKING, ORDINAPvILY AND C0M:\I0NLT, A130UT 
 
 God's wondrous works. 
 
 I have already said that it would prevent mi-ich evil 
 jind do us much good; may I not safely add that it 
 would be the means of doing much good to others. If 
 we spake often of God's wondrous works we might im- 
 press the sinner, we might enlighten the ignorant, we 
 might comfort the desponding. You say, "But how 
 are we do it?" I reply, " How is it you have not done it 
 before ?" If we began early in our Christian course to 
 make Jesus Christ our companion in the family, and 
 everywhere wherever we went, and to take him always 
 with us, we should never leave off ; it would become 
 the business of our life. I have noticed that many 
 Christian people delay in this matter for years. They 
 cultivate habits of retirement and reticence more upon 
 this subject than upon any other. Perhaps it is a long 
 time after they have believed that they come forward 
 to obey the second great command of baptism, and the 
 same shyness happens with regard to their talking about 
 Christ in all companies. They do love him ; at least 
 we trust they do in the judgment of charity; we 
 acknowledge them, but having never began at the 
 first to acknowledge him openly they cannot break 
 the ice now. If they had then had the courage to 
 say — " I have given Christ my tongue, and mean to 
 use it for him ; I am his servant, and I mean to serve 
 him wherever I go," they would have continued 
 the profession and the practice still. Brethren, Is it 
 diffidence that restrains you? Take care it is diffi- 
 dence, and not cowardice ; say to yourselves, each one 
 of you — 
 
252 Christian Energy, 
 
 " Am I a soldier of the Cross, 
 A follower of the Lamb? 
 And shall I fear to own his cause, 
 Or blush to speak his name.'' 
 
 What, in the presence of the noble army of martyrs 
 who feared not to die, do you fear to speak? What, 
 if they stood on the burning faggots for Christ, cannot 
 you bear, if so it must be, a jeer or a sarcasm ? Must 
 you be wickedly dumb when you might do so much for 
 Christ in the circle where his providence has cast you ? 
 Oh I be ashamed of haying been ashamed. Do ask the 
 Master that, whatever fear you have, you may be 
 delivered from the fear of man, which bringeth a snare. 
 *' Talk ye of all his wondrous works." 
 
 But some will object, " I have not gifts or ability." 
 Kay, my brother; my sister; it does not want any 
 ability to talk, or else there would not be so much 
 loquacity in the world as there is. Talk in the ordinary 
 strain, the common-place prattle which breaks the silence 
 of the world ; — it is what everybody is at. There is no 
 gifted tongue requisite, there are no powers of eloquence 
 invoked ; neither laws of rhetoric or rules of grammar 
 are pronounced indispensable in the simple talk that 
 my text inculcates — " Talk ye of all liis wondrous 
 works." I beg your pardon when you say you cannot 
 do this. You cannot, because you will not. If you 
 would you could speak well of his name. Because 
 there is no want of ability in any one of us to say 
 something for Jesus after an ordinary sort, I press it 
 upon you. 
 
 Are you a nursemaid ? Talk of his name to the little 
 prattlers with whom you are intrusted. Or are you a 
 
Good Conversation, 253 
 
 crossinor-sweeper ? Friend, there are some you can get 
 at that I could not. I will be bound to say the crossing- 
 sweeper has a friend who would be frightened if I were 
 to speak to him. " But I am so poor," you reply ; ** I 
 work in the midst of such a ribald, blaspheming set." 
 Ah ! friend, but you can talk ; I know you can ; there 
 are times when you can talk even to these blasphemers. 
 It is little use talking to a drunken man ; it is like cast- 
 ing pearls before swine. But he is not always drunk ; 
 there is a time of sobriety, and then it is that you are 
 to ffo to work. You are not so to talk of Christ as to 
 stop the mill, or to interpose your religion in the way 
 of business. That were indiscreet ; but there are leisure 
 times, there are hours for dinner, there are times when 
 they talk to you, and then is your time to talk to them. 
 As the profane take the liberty to force their irreligiou 
 upon you, so may you take the liberty to force your 
 religion upon them. Use your wits, find out the proper 
 times, and then turn them to the best account. " In 
 the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold 
 not thy hand, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, 
 this or that." 
 
 I have only one aim ; if I can succeed in it I shall 
 be very thankful — that Christian people shall talk more 
 of the love of God at the table, at the breakfast table, 
 at the tea table, at the dinner table; that domestic 
 companionship and social hospitalities may be hallowed, 
 and this without depriving them of their genial con- 
 viviality; rather infusing into them a higher enter- 
 tainment ; that we who are masters shall talk of the 
 things of God, so that our servants shall hear of them, 
 and that servants shall so speak of Christ that their 
 
254 Christian Energy. 
 
 fellows shall hear about him. The great weapon of 
 the Christian religion has been the public preaching 
 of the Word, nor would I disparage it, but it will 
 never evan2:elise the nations unless there be attendant 
 with it a constant reiteration of the truth preached, till 
 it flows through innumerable little conduits into every 
 circle of society. Wycliffe was but one man, but he 
 taught others to read. One page of Matthew's Gospel 
 and the Epistle to the Komans was given to each. 
 They went out and read it in the streets. So w^as 
 the truth spread until it was said that you could not 
 meet two men on the roadside but one of them would 
 be a Lollard. In Luther's day it was not merely the 
 preaching of Luther, it was the singing of the hymns 
 and the psalms at the spinning-wheel ; it was the occu- 
 pation of the solitary colporteur; it w^as the general 
 chit-chatting with everybody, at the smithy fire, in the 
 farm-yard, on the Exchange ; curiosity was excited, 
 inquiry was prompted, the popular conversation was in- 
 oculated ; the fever of that healthful sickness, repent- 
 ance toward God, w^as spread abroad, and communicated 
 from one to another. " Have you heard the news ? 
 Have you heard that Luther has proclaimed that men 
 are justified by faith, and not by w^orks % " It w^as this 
 that shook Rome ; it is this which will shake her yet 
 again. The Avaking up of Christian life throughout 
 the entire body of the Church of God, and the enlisting 
 of the entire life of the Christian Church in the cause 
 of Christ, is an enterprise to be consummated by the 
 individual agency of each and the general action of all 
 who seek the glory of God and the welfare of man. 
 Talk ye, therefore, of all his wondrous works. 
 
Good Conversation. 255 
 
 Oh! that there slioulcl be any here who never 
 thought of God, much less talked of his wondrous 
 works. Wondrous indeed is God's patience that he 
 has kept you alive ! Marvellous his longsuffering that 
 after having neglected him all these years he has not 
 cut you down! The ox knoweth its owner, and the 
 ass its master's crib, but you have not known God. 
 You would not keep a dog that would not follow you. 
 You would soon dispose of an ox that was of no ser- 
 vice to you. Oh I why has God kept you? It is a 
 wonder. Here is another wonder, he bids us entreat 
 you, allure you, encoui-age you with a saving promise— 
 *' He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved." 
 Take heed to this gospel. May the Holy Ghost make 
 you yield to it. Trust Christ ; obey him by avowing 
 your faith in him, and you shall be saved. 
 
mmh $mtp* 
 
 **Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the 
 dumb sing : for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams 
 in the desert." — Isaiah xxxv. 6. 
 
 HAT a difference grace makes whenever 
 it enters the heart ! We find here the 
 blind, but they are not bhnd in one 
 sense ; grace has touched their eyes, and 
 the eyes of the blind are opened. Men 
 are said to be deaf; but they are not 
 deaf after grace has operated upon them : 
 the ears of the deaf are unstopped. They have been 
 lame before ; but when once the Omnipotent influence 
 has come upon them, they leap like a hart. And the 
 dumb, so far from being dumb, have a change that must 
 be radical, for its effects are surprising. The tongue 
 of the dumb not simply speaks, but it sings. Grace 
 makes a great difference in a man when it enters into 
 him. How vain, then, are the boasts and professions 
 of some persons who assert themselves to be the children 
 of God, and yet live in sin ! There is no perceivable 
 difference in their conduct ; they are just what they 
 used to be before their pretended conversion ; they are 
 not changed in their acts, even in the least degree, and 
 
Dumb Singers. 257 
 
 yet they do most positively affirm that they are the 
 called and living children of God. Let such know that 
 their professions are lies, that falsehood is the only 
 ground^York that they have for their hopes ; for, wher- 
 ever the grace of God is, it makes a difference. A 
 graceless man is not like a gracious man ; and a 
 gracious man is not like a graceless one ; we are " new 
 creatures in Christ Jesus." When God looks upon us 
 with the eye of love, in conversion and regeneration, he 
 makes us as opposite from what we were before as 
 light is from darkness— as heaven itself is from hell. God 
 works in man a change so great that no reformation can 
 even so much as thoroughly imitate it. It is an entire 
 cliange— a change of the will, of the being, of the 
 desires, of the hates, of the dislikings, and of the 
 likings. In every respect the man becomes new when 
 divine grace enters into his heart. And yet thou sayest 
 of thyself, ^' I am converted," and remainest what thou 
 wast ! I tell thee once again to thy face, thou sayest 
 an empty thing ; thou hast no ground for saying it. 
 If grace permits thee to sin as thou wast wont to do, 
 then that grace is no grace at all. That grace were 
 not worth the having which permits a man to be, after 
 he receives it, what he was before. No, we must ever 
 hold fast to the great doctrine of sanctification. Where 
 God really just^ifies he really sanctifies too ; and where 
 there is a remission of sin, there is also the forsaking of 
 it. Where God hath blotted out transgression, he also 
 removeth the love of it, and maketh us seek after holi- 
 ness, and walk in the ways of the Lord. We think we 
 might fairly infer this from the text as a prelude to the 
 observations we have to make concerning it. 
 
 17 
 
258 Christian Energy. 
 
 And now we shall want youj first of all, to notice the 
 sort of people God has chosen to sing his praises, and 
 to sing them eternally. Then, in the second place, I 
 shall enter into a more full description of the dumb 
 people here described. Then shall I try to notice cer- 
 tain special times and seasons when those dumb people 
 sing more sweetly than at others. 
 
 I. First, then, '^ The tongue of the dumb shall sing." 
 We make this the first point. 
 
 Note the persons whom God has chosen to sing his 
 songs for ever. There is no difference, by nature, 
 between the elect and others ; those who are now 
 glorified in heaven, and walk the golden streets clad 
 with robes of purity, were by nature as unholy and 
 defiled, 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 crimes. The only 
 reason why there is a difference between those who are 
 in heaven and those w^ho are in hell, rests with divine 
 grace. It is of 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. 
 They would as certainly have rejected Christ, and have 
 trodden under foot the blood of Jesus as did those that 
 were cast away, if grace, free grace, had 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 Christ made them so. He gave them 
 
Dumb Singers. 259 
 
 -the desire to be saved ; he put into them the will to 
 seek after God : he helped them in their seekings, and 
 afterwards brought them to feel the peace of God, which 
 is the fruit of justification. But, by nature, they were 
 just the same as others ; and if there is any difference, 
 we are obliged to say that the difference lies on the 
 wrong side of the question. In very many cases, we 
 who now " rejoice in the hope of the glory of God," 
 were the w^orst of men. 
 
 There are some here that now bless God for their 
 redemption, who once cursed him; who implored, as 
 frequently as they dared 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 sweepings of society ; 
 tlie refuse of the earth ; those whom no man cared for. 
 Thev were called outcasts, whom God hath now called 
 desired ones, seeing he hath loved them. I am led to 
 these thoughts from the fact that we are told here that 
 those who sing were dumb. Their singing does not 
 come naturally from themselves ; they were not born 
 sono-sters. No, thev were dumb ones, these whom God 
 would have to sing his praises. It does not say the 
 tongue of the stammerer, or the tongue of the blas- 
 phemer, or the tongue of the slanderer, but the tongue 
 of the dumb, of those who have gone farthest from 
 any thought of singing ; of those wdio have no power 
 or wdll to sino-: the toncrue of such as these shall 
 yet be made to sing God's praises. Strange choice 
 that God has made ; strange, for its graciousness ; 
 strangely manifesting the sovereignty of his will! God 
 would build for himself a palace in heaven of living 
 
260 Christian Energy, 
 
 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 ? 
 No, ye saints, look to " the hole of the pit whence ye 
 were digged," and to the quarry whence ye were hewn ! 
 Ye were full of sin ; so far from being stones that were 
 white with purity, ye were black with defilement, to all 
 appearance utterly unfit to be made stones in the spiritual 
 temple, 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 memorial for ever, ^' The 
 God that dwelt in the bush.'' Goldsmiths make ex- 
 quisite forms from precious material ; 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 im~ 
 mutable love, to make them gems to sparkle on his 
 finger for ever. He hath not selected the best, but, 
 apparently, the worst of men to be the monuments of 
 his grace ; and when he would have a choir in heaven 
 that should with tongues harmonious sing his praises — 
 when he would have a chorus that should for ever chant 
 the hallelujahs louder than the noise of many waters, 
 and like great thunders, he did not send mercy down to 
 seek earth's sono;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." 
 
Dumb Slnrjers. 2(U 
 
 The virgin tongues that never sang my praise before, 
 that have been silent erst 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 his praises hereafter in strains of 
 purity hitherto unknown. 
 
 Oh ! what a fountain of consolation this opens for 
 you and for me ! Ay, beloved, if God did not choose the 
 base things of this world, he would never have chosen 
 us ; if he had respect unto the countenance of men, if 
 God were a respecter of persons, where had you and I 
 been this day? AVe had never been instances of his 
 love and mercy. No, as we look upon ourselves now, 
 and remember what we once were, we are often obliged 
 
 io say : — 
 
 " Depths of mercy, can there be 
 Mercy still reserved for me ?" 
 
 How many times we have sung at the Lord's table — 
 the sacramental supper of our Master : — 
 
 " Why was I made to hear thy voice, 
 And ent€r while there's room, 
 While others make a wretched choice, 
 And rather starve than come ? " 
 
 And we have joined in singing : — 
 
 " 'Twas the same love that spread the feast, 
 That sweetly forced us in ; 
 Else we had still refused to taste, 
 And perished in our sin." 
 
 Grace is always grace, but it never seems so gracious 
 as when we see it brought to our unworthy selves. You 
 are obliged to confess that it is of grace then, and cast 
 
262 Chnstian Energy. 
 
 away the thoughts that it was of your foreseen faith, or 
 of your foreseen good works, that the Lord chose you. 
 We are oHio;ed to come to this. We feel and know that 
 it must have been of mercy, free mercy, sweet mercy 
 alone. We were not capable of doing good works 
 without his grace preventing us before good works, and 
 without his grace also in good works enabling us to do 
 them ; and therefore they never could have been the 
 motive to divine love, nor the reason why it flowed 
 towards us. O ye unworthy ones ! ye saints that feel 
 your deep natural depravity, and mourn over your ruin 
 by the fall of Adam, lift up your hearts to God ! He 
 hath delivered you from all impediments which Adam 
 cast upon you; your tongue is loosed, it is loose now;. 
 Adam made it dumb, but God hath loosed it; your 
 eyes that were blinded by Adam's fall are opened now ;; 
 he hath lifted you from the miry clay. What Adam 
 lost for us Christ hath regained for us ; he hath plucked 
 us out of the pit, and " set us upon a rock, and estab- 
 lished our goings, and hath put a new song in our 
 mouth, even praise for evermore." Yes, '* the tongue 
 of the dumb shall sing." 
 
 Just another liint here before I leave this point. 
 How this ought to give you encouragement in seeking 
 to do good to others ! Why, my brethren, I can never 
 think any naan too far gone for divine mercy since I know 
 that God saved me. Whenever I have felt despond- 
 ing about any of my hearers who have for a long time 
 persevered in guilt, I have only had to reach down my 
 ow^n biography from the shelves of my memory, and 
 just think what I too was till grace redeemed me, and 
 brouo:ht me to mv SaA'iour's feet; and then I have 
 
Diunh Singers. 2 Go 
 
 sau 
 
 It Avill be no wonder if that man is saved ; after 
 what he hath done for me I can believe anything of 
 my Master. If he hath blotted out my transgressions, 
 if 'he hath clean melted away my sin, then I can never 
 despair of any of my fellow creatures. I may despair 
 for myself, bat I cannot for them." Eemember, they 
 may be dumb now, but he can make them sing. Your 
 son John is a sad reprobate ; keep on praying for him, 
 mother; God can change his heart. Your daughter's 
 heart seems hard as adamant ; he who makes the dumb 
 siniT can make rocks melt. Believe in God for your 
 chitdren as well as for yourselves— trust him ; take their 
 cases before the throne ; rely upon him that he can do 
 it, and believe that in answer to earnest prayer he also 
 will do it. And if you have neighbours that are full of 
 the pestilence of sin, whose vices come up before you as 
 a stench in your nostrils, yet fear not to carry the gospel 
 to them ; though they be harlots, drunkai'ds, swearers, 
 be not afraid to tell them of the Saviour's dying love. 
 He makes the dumb sing; he does not ask even a voice 
 of them to begin with ; they are dumb, and he does not 
 ask of them even the power of speech, but he gives 
 them the power. Oh if you have neighbours who are pro- 
 faners of the Sabbath, haters of God, unwilling to come 
 to the house of God, despising Christ; if you find them 
 as far gone as you can find them, recollect he maketh 
 the dumb sing, and therefore he can make them live. 
 He wants no goodness in them to begin with ; all he 
 wants is just the rough, raw material— unhewn, uncut, 
 unpolished. And he does not want even good material ; 
 bad as the material may be, he can make it into some- 
 thing inestimably precious, something that is worthy of 
 
264 Christian Energy. 
 
 the Saviours blood. Go on — fear not; if the dumb 
 can sing, then surely you can never say that any man 
 need be a castaway. 
 
 II. Now I am to enter into some rather more lucid 
 description of these dumb people. Who are they ? 
 
 Well, sometimes I get a good thought out of Cruden's 
 Concordance. I believe that it is about the best com- 
 mentary on the Bible for ordinary uses, and I like to 
 study it. As I opened it at this passage, I found 
 Master Cruden describing different kinds of dumb 
 people. He says there are four or five different sorts, 
 but I shall name only four of them. The first sort of 
 dumb people he mentions are those that cannot speak ; 
 the second sort are those that will not speak ; the third 
 sort are those that dare not speak ; and the fourth sort 
 are those that have nothing to say, and therefore are 
 dumb. 
 
 The first sort of people who shall sing are those who 
 cannot speak — that is the usual acceptation of the word 
 dumb — the others are, of course, only figurative appli- 
 cations of the term. We call a man dumb when through 
 physical infirmity he cannot speak. Now, spiritually, 
 the man who is still in his trespasses and sins is dumb, 
 and I will prove that. He is dead, and tliere is none so 
 dumb as a dead man. " Shall the dead arise and praise 
 thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the 
 grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction? " The word 
 of God assures us that men are spiritually dead: it 
 follows then that they must be spiritually dumb. 
 They cannot sing God's praises ; they know him not, 
 and therefore they cannot exalt his glorious name. 
 They cannot confess their sins. Though they may utter 
 
Dumb Singers. 
 
 265 
 
 the mere words of confession, they cannot really con- 
 fess, for they do not know the evil of sin, nor have 
 they been taught to feol what a bitter thing it is, nor do 
 they know themselves as sinners. And as " no man can 
 call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Ghost," these 
 people cannot do so truly. Perhaps, it may be, they 
 can talk well of the doctrines, but they cannot converse 
 about them out of the fulness of their hearts, as livmg 
 and vital principles which they know by any kind ot 
 spiritual instinct or experience. They cannot jomiu 
 the songs, nor can they take part in the conversation 
 of a Christian. If they sit down with the saints per- 
 haps they have culled a few phrases from the garden ot 
 the Lord, which they use and apply to certain things 
 which they do not know anything about. They talk a 
 lan.niage the meaning of which they do not compre- 
 heml-like Milton's daughters reading a language to 
 their father which tliev did not understand. So far as 
 the essence of the matter is concerned, they are dumb. 
 But, all hail sovereign grace ! "The tongue of the dumb 
 shall sing." God will have his darlings made what 
 they should be. They are dumb by nature, but he wi.l 
 not leave thorn so ; they cannot now sing his praises, 
 but they shall do it; they will not now confess then- 
 sins, but he will bring them on their knees yet, and 
 make them pour out their hearts before him. They 
 cannot now talk the brogue of Canaan, or speak the 
 language of Zion, but they shall do it soon. Grace, 
 omnipotent grace, will have its way with them. They 
 shall be taught to pray; their eyes slia 1 be made to 
 flow with tears of penitence; and then, after that, their 
 lips shall be made to sing to the i)raise of sovereign grace. 
 
266 Christian Energy. 
 
 I need not dwell upon this point, because I address 
 many here that were dumb once, who can bless God 
 that they can now sing. And does it not sometimes 
 seem to you, beloved, a very strange thing that you are 
 what you are ? I should think it must be the strangest 
 thing in the world for a dumb man to speak, because he 
 has no idea how a man feels when he is speaking — he has 
 no notion of the thing at all. Like a man blind from 
 his birth, he has no idea what kind of a thing sight 
 can be. We have heard of a blind man who supposed 
 that the colour of scarlet must be very much like the 
 sound of a trumpet — he had no other w^ay of com- 
 paring it. So the dumb man has no notion of the 
 way to talk. Do you not think that it is a strange 
 thing that you are what you are ? You said once, *' I 
 will never be one of those canting Methodists. Do 
 you think I shall ever make a profession of religion ? 
 What! I attend a prayer-meeting? No." And ye 
 went along the streets in all your gaiety of mirth, and 
 said, '' What ! I become a little child, and give up my 
 mind to simple faith, and not reason at all ! What \ 
 am I to give up all argument about things that pertain 
 to the life to come, and simply take them for granted 
 because God has said them ? Nay, that never can be ! '' 
 I will be bound to say it will be a wonder to you as 
 long as you are here on earth that you are the children 
 of God ; and even in heaven itself the greatest wonder 
 to your mind will be, that you were brought to know 
 and taught to love the Saviour ere you saw the goodly 
 land or walked the golden streets. 
 
 But there is a sort of dumb people that will not speak. 
 They are mentioned by Isaiah. He said of preachers in 
 
Dumb Singers. 2Cu 
 
 his day, tliey were " dumb dogs that Avould not Lark." 
 Bless God, we arc not now quite so mucli inundated by 
 this kind of dumb folk as we used to be. We have 
 had to mourn, in years gone by, that we could look from 
 parish to parish and find nobody but a dumb dog in the 
 parish church, and in the pulpits of dissenters there was 
 full often a painful lack of positive gospel. Full many 
 who might have spoken with a little earnestness let the 
 people slumber under them, instead of preaching the 
 word with true fidelity, as those who would have to give 
 account to God. My grandfather used to tell a story 
 of a person who once resided near him, and called him- 
 self a preacher of the gospel. He was visited by a poor 
 woman, who asked him what was the meaning of the 
 *' new birth ? " To which he replied, " My good woman, 
 what do you come to me about that for ? Nicodemus, 
 a ruler of the Jews, did not know ; he was a wise man, 
 and hpw do you think I should ?" So she had to go 
 away with only that answer. Time was when such an 
 answer might have been given by a great many who were 
 reckoned to be the authorised teachers of religion, but 
 knew nothing at all about the matter. They under- 
 stood a great deal more about foxhunting than about 
 preaching, and more about farming their land than 
 about the spii'itual husbandry of God's church. Bless 
 God, there are not so many of that sort now ; God grant 
 the race may become thoroughly extinct. Oh that 
 every pulpit and every place of worship might be 
 filled with a man who has got a tongue of fire and a 
 heart of flame, and shuns not to declare the whole 
 council of God, neither seeking the smile of men, nor 
 dreadino; their frown. AVo have this promise that it 
 
2(jS Christian Energy. 
 
 sliall be so — ^' The tongue of the dumb shall sing." 
 And, ah ! they do sing well, too, when God makes them 
 sing. You remember Rowland Hill's story in ^'The 
 Village Dialoo-ues," about ]\Ir. Merriman. Mr. Merri- 
 man was a sad scapegrace of a preacher ; he was to be 
 always seen at fair and revel, but seldom to be found 
 in his pulpit when he should have been there, until he 
 was converted, and then he began to preach with tears 
 running down his face, and it was not long before the 
 church began to be crowded ! The squire would not go 
 and hear any of that stuff, and locked up his pew ; and 
 ]Mr. Merriman had a little ladder made outside the 
 door, as he did not wish to break the door open, and 
 the people used to sit on the steps, up one side and 
 down the other, so that it made twice as much room 
 as there was before. No preachers are more thoroughly 
 pronounced than those who were once dumb. If the 
 Lord opens their mouths they will think they cannot 
 preach often enough and earnestly enough to make up 
 for wasted time and the mischief they did before. 
 Chalmers himself might never have been so eloquent 
 a preacher had he not been for a long time a dumb dog. 
 He preached morality, he said, till he made all his parish 
 immoral ; he kept on urging the people to keep God's 
 law, till he made them break it ; but when he turned 
 round and began to preach God's gospel, then the dumb 
 began to sing. Oh, may God bring this about in every 
 one of us ! If we are dumb as professed ministers, may 
 he open our mouths, and force us to speak forth his 
 word, lest at the last day the blood of our hearers' souls 
 should be found upon our skirts, and we should be cast 
 away as unfaithful stewards of the gospel of Christ. 
 
Dumb Slnrjers. 269 
 
 I will now introduce you to a third sort of dumb 
 people. They arc dumb because they dare not speak; 
 and they are good people, blessed souls. Here is one 
 of them : '* I was dumb with silence ; I opened not my 
 mouth, because thou didst it." And it is so blessed to 
 be dumb in that fashion. The Lord's servant will often 
 have to be dumb under trials and troubles. When Satan 
 tempts him to repine, he will put his finger to his lip 
 and say, " Hush murmuring, be still ; shall a living man 
 complain of the punishment of his sins?" Even the 
 child of God will imitate or emulate Job when he sat 
 down for seven days and nights and said not a word, 
 for he felt that his trouble was heavy, and his w^ofds 
 were light, therefore he could say nothing. It had 
 been as well if Job had kept his mouth shut for the 
 next few days ; he w^ould not have said so much amiss 
 as he did in many things that he uttered. Oh ! there 
 are times when you and I, beloved, are obliged to keep 
 the bridle on our tongue, lest we should murmur 
 against God. We are in evil company, perhaps ; our 
 spirits are hot wdthin us, and we want to take vengeance 
 for the Lord ; we are like the friends of David, who 
 wanted to give Shimei a taste of summary justice. 
 '* Let us take off this dead dog's head," we say : and 
 then our Jesus tells us to put our sword into its scab- 
 bard, '' the servant of the Lord must not strive." How 
 often have we been dumb. And sometimes when there 
 have been slanders against our character, and men have 
 calumniated us, oh, how our fingers have itched to 
 retort upon them. We have wanted to see who was 
 the stronger of the two. But we have said, " No : our 
 Master did not answer, and he left us an example that 
 
270 CliHstian Energy. 
 
 we should follow his steps." The chief priests accused 
 him of many tliiiio-s, but he "answered them not a word." 
 "Well, we have found it hard sometimes to be dumb, 
 like the sheep when it is brought to the shearer, or the 
 lamb when it is in the slaughter-house. Upon our beds 
 in sickness we have tried to quench every murmuring 
 word ; we have not let a sentence of repining or an im- 
 patient expression escape our lips which we could possibly 
 avoid, but, notwithstanding all our resolution, we have 
 found it no easy matter to restrain ourselves, and to 
 keep silence. It is blessed work when we are enabled 
 to do it. Now, ye Avho have been dumb under great 
 weights of sorrow ; ye whose songs have been sus- 
 pended, because ye durst not open your lips lest sighs 
 should usurp the place of praise, — come, listen to this 
 promise : " the tongue of the dumb shall sing." You 
 are, it may be, in the deepest trouble now, and obliged 
 to be silent; well, you shall sing yet for all that. 
 Though like Jonah, you are in the whale's belly, carried 
 down, as he called it, to the lowest hell ; though the 
 weeds are wrapped about yoiu' head, and the earth with 
 her bars is about you for ever, yet you "shall look 
 again towards his holy temple." Though you have 
 hung your harp upon the willows — bless God you have 
 not broken it — ^you will have use for it by-and-by — you 
 shall take it from its resting-place, and 
 
 *' Loud to the praise of sovereign grace 
 Bid every string awake," 
 
 If you cannot cheer the darkness with " songs in the 
 night," yet he shall " compass you about with songs of 
 deliverance ;" if you cannot sing his praises now, yet ye 
 
Dumb Singers, 271 
 
 shall do so by-and-by, when ^-ace shall fill your hearts, 
 or when delivering mercy shall fire your tongues. Your 
 better days are yet to come. But, blessed be God, we 
 are not always to be silent with affliction. The saints 
 have known joy unspeakably great in the midst of trial 
 intolerably hot. Their murmuring has been silenced, 
 and their thanksgiving has become vocal. An old 
 Puritan said, "• God's people are like birds ; they sing 
 best in cages." Another observes that " God's people 
 sing sweetest when in the deepest trouble." Said old 
 Master Brooks, " The deeper the flood w^as on earth the 
 higher the ark went up towards heaven." So it is with 
 the child of God if he lives close to his Master. Trou- 
 bles are called w^eights. A weight, you know, generally 
 cloggeth and kcepeth down to the earth ; but there are 
 conditions according to the laws of mechanics, by w^hich 
 you can make a weight lift you ; and so it is possible to 
 make your troubles lift you above the wwld instead of 
 making them sink you beneath your level. Ah! we 
 thank our God, he has sometimes opened our mouth 
 when we were dumb through ingratitude, and did not 
 praise liim. He has opened our mouth by a trial ; for 
 a thousand mercies we did not bless him, till a sharp 
 affliction has quickened our memory. 
 
 We have one more kind of dumb people. There are 
 those who have nothing to say, therefore they are dumb. 
 I will give you an instance ; Solomon says in the Pro- 
 verbs—^' Open thy mouth for the dumb ;" and he 
 shows by the context that he means those who in the 
 court of judgment have nothing to plead for them- 
 selves, and have to stand dumb before the bar. Like 
 that man of old, who, when the king came in to see the 
 
272 Christian Energy, 
 
 guests, had not on a wedding garment ; and when the 
 king said, ^' Friend, how earnest thou in hither?" he 
 stood speechless ; speechless, not because he could not 
 speak, but because he had nothing to say. Have not 
 3'ou and I been dumb, and are we not now, when we 
 attempt to stand on law terms with God, when we 
 forget that Jesus Chiist and his blood and righteousness 
 are our full acquittal ? W hat answer can we give when 
 the commandments are laid bare before us, and the de- 
 mands of God's law are brouo-ht home to our conscience? 
 There was a time wdth each of us, it was not long ago 
 with some here present, when we stood before Moses' 
 seat and heard the commandments read, and we were 
 asked — "Sinner, canst thou claim to have kept those 
 commandments?" and we were dumb. Then w^e w^ere 
 asked — ** Sinner, canst thou give any atonement for the 
 breach of those commandments ? " and we were dumb. 
 We were asked — " Sinner, canst thou, by a future 
 obedience, wipe out thy past sin ? " We knew it was 
 impossible, and w^e were dumb. We were asked — 
 " Canst thou endure the penalty ? canst thou bear to 
 swelter for ever in the flames of hell ; canst thou suffer 
 everlastino; torments ; canst thou dwell with everlasting^ 
 burnings, and abide with eternal fires ? " and we were 
 dumb. We were asked the question — " Prisoner at the 
 bar, hast thou any reason to plead why thou shouldst 
 not be condemned ? " and we were dumb with convic- 
 tions of our deserts and terror at our doom. And we 
 were asked — " Prisoner, hast thou any helper ; hast thou 
 anyone that can deliver thee ? " and we were dumb, for 
 we had no wisdom or device, nor did an answer rise to 
 our lips. Ay, but blessed be God, *' the tongue of the 
 
Dumb SliKjers. 273 
 
 dumb shall sing." And shall I tell you what we can 
 smo-? Why, we can sing this anthem: ''Who shall 
 lay anything to the charge of God's electa' " not God, 
 for he'^hath Vstified." " Who is he that condemneth ? " 
 not Christ, " He hath died, yea rather, hath risen again, 
 who is even at the right hand of God, and maketh in- 
 tercession for us." We who had not a word to say for 
 ourselves, can now speak fluently, having received 
 knowledge of salvation through the remission of our 
 sins. 
 
 Has God made you dumb? has he taken away all 
 your self-righteousness ? Then, as truly as ever he has 
 shut your mouth, he will open it. If God has killed 
 vour self-righteousness, he will give you a better 
 righteousness. If he has knocked doAvn all your refuges 
 of lies, he will build you up a good refuge. He has not 
 come to destroy you ; he has shut your mouth for a 
 season to fill it with his praise hereafter. Be of good 
 cheer : look to Jesus ; cast thine eye to the cross ; put 
 thy confidence in him : and then thou who thinkest 
 thyself a castaway, even thou, poor weeping Mary, shall 
 yet sing of redeeming mercy and undying love. 
 
 IV. To conclude, let me just notice the occasions 
 \'hen the tongue of these dumb people sings the best. 
 When does the tongue of the dumb sing? Why, I 
 tlnnk it sings always, little or much. If it is once set 
 at liberty, it will never leave off singing. Some people 
 say this world is a howling wilderness; well, they make 
 it so. If you choose to distress yourselves and disturb 
 other people, I cannot help it. I shall prefer the 
 matter of my text— '' Then shall the tongue of the 
 dumb," not howl, but ''sing." Yes, they do sing 
 
 18 
 
274 Chistian Energy. 
 
 always, little or much ; sometimes it is in a low hush- 
 note ; sometimes they have to go rather deep in the 
 bass, but there are other times when they can mount 
 to the highest notes of all. They have special times of 
 singing. They first begin to sing, when they lose 
 their burden at the foot of the cross ; that is a time of 
 singing. You know how John Bunyan describes it. 
 He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the cross, 
 he gave three great leaps; and went on his way 
 singing. We have not forgotten those three great 
 leaps ; we have leaped many times since then 
 with joy and gratitude, but we think -sve never 
 leaped so high as we did at the time wdien we saw 
 our sins all gone, and our transgressions covered up in 
 the tomb of the Saviour. By the way, let me tell you 
 a little story about John Bunyan's allegory. I am a 
 great lover of John Bunyan, but I do not believe that 
 his teaching is always infallible ; for I met w4th a story 
 the other day which I think a very good one. There 
 was a young man in Edinburgh who wished to be a 
 missionary. He was a sensible young man ; he thought 
 — " Well, if I am to be a missionary, there is no need 
 for me to transport myself far away from home ; I 
 may as w^ell be a missionary in Edinburgh." There's 
 a hint to some of jom ladies who give away tracts 
 in your district, and never give your servant Mary 
 one. Well, this young man started, and determined 
 to speak to the first person he met. He met one of the 
 old fishwives : those of us wdio have seen them can 
 never forget them; they are extraordinary women 
 indeed. So, stepping up to her, he said, *' Here you 
 are, coming with your burden on your back ; let me ask 
 
Dumb Singers, 275 
 
 you if you have got another burden, a spiritual 
 burden ? " " What ! " she said ; " do you mean that 
 burden in John Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress ? ' Be- 
 cause if you do, young man, I have got rid of tliat 
 many years ago, before you were born. But I went a 
 better way to work than the pilgrim did. The evan- 
 trelist that John Bunyan talks about was one of your 
 parsons that do not preach the gospel ; for he said, 
 •^ keep that light in thine eye and run to the wicket- 
 o;ate.' Why man alive ! that was not the place for 
 him to run to. He should have said, ' Do you see that 
 cross ? Run there at once ! ' But instead of that, he 
 sent the poor pilgrim to the wicket-gate first ; and much 
 good he got by going there ! — he got tumbling into the 
 slough, and was like to have been killed by it." " But 
 did you," he asked, "go through any slough of 
 despond ? " " Yes, young man, I did ; but I found it 
 41 crreat deal easier going through with my burden off 
 than with it on my back." The old woman was quite 
 right. We must not say to the sinner, " Now, sinner, 
 if thou wilt be saved go to the baptismal pool — go to the 
 wicket-gate — go to the church — do this or that." No, 
 the cross should be right in front of the wicket-gate, 
 and we should say to the sinner, " Throw^ thyself 
 there, and thou art safe. But thou art not safe till 
 thou canst cast off thy burden, and lie at the foot of the 
 cross, and find peace in Jesus." Well, that is a singing 
 time with God's children ! 
 
 And after that, do God's people sing? Yes, they 
 have sweet singing times in their hours of commu- 
 nion. Oh! the music of that word "communion," 
 when it is heard in the soul, communion with Jesus, 
 
276 Christian Energy. 
 
 fellowship with Jesus, whether in his sufferings or in 
 his glories ! These are singing times, when the heart is- 
 lifted up to feel its oneness to Christ, and its vital 
 union with him, and is enabled to " rejoice in hope of 
 the glory of God." 
 
 Have you not had some precious singing times, too,, 
 at the Lord's table % Ah ! when the bread has been 
 broken, and the wine poured out, how often have I had 
 sweet refreshment when the people have all joined in 
 singing — 
 
 " Gethsemane, can I forget, 
 Or there the conflict see, 
 Thine agony and bloody sweat. 
 And not remember thee ? 
 
 " When to the cross I turn my eyes, 
 And rest on Calvary, 
 Oh ! Lamb of God, my sacrifice, 
 I must remember thee." 
 
 But lastly, my dear friends, the best singing time w^e 
 shall have wdll be when you and I come to die. Ah ! 
 there are some of you that shall prove this as it is- 
 fabled of the swan. The ancients said the swan never 
 sang in his life-time, but always sang just when he died. 
 Now, there are many of God's desponding children wdio 
 seem to go all their life under a cloud, but they get a 
 swan's song before they die. The river of your life 
 comes running down perhaps black and miry wath 
 troubles, and when it begins to touch the w'hite foam 
 of the sea, there comes a Kttle glistening in its w^aters. 
 So, beloved, though w^e may have been very much dis- 
 spirited by reason of the burden of the way, when we 
 get to the last, we shall find sweet songs. Are you 
 
Dumb S'uKjers. 277 
 
 afraid of dying ? Oli ! never be afraid of that ; be 
 afraid of living. Living is the only thing that can do 
 you 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 herself with 
 spices, that she 'might be fit for her lord. You are 
 afraid of dying, you say, because of the pains of death. 
 Nay, they are the pains of life— of life struggling to 
 continue. Death has no pain ; death itself is \mi one 
 o-entle sigh— the fetter is broken, and the spirit fled. 
 The best moment of a Christian's life is his last one, 
 because it is the one that is nearest heaven ; and then 
 it is that he begins to strike the key-note of the song 
 which he shall^sing to all eternity. Oh! what a song 
 will that be ! It is poor music we make now, when we 
 join the song— perhaps we are almost ashamed to sing ; 
 but up there our voices shall be clear and good ; and 
 
 there 
 
 " Loudest of the crowd we'll sing, 
 While heaven's resounding mansions ring 
 With shouts of sovereign grace." 
 
 The thought stmck me the other day, that the Lord 
 Avill have in heaven some of these very big sinners 
 ihat have gone further astray than anybody that ever 
 lived, the most extraordinary extravaganzas of vice, 
 just to make the melody complete by singing some of 
 those soprano notes which you and I, because we have 
 not o;one so far astray, will never be able to utter. I 
 -xvonder whether one has stepped in hither, whom God 
 has selected to take some of those alto notes in the 
 «cale of praise? Perhaps there is one such here. 
 Oh ! how will such a one sing, if grace— free grace— 
 
278 Cliristicm Energy. 
 
 shall rescue him, deliver him from o-oincr down into the 
 pit, and in redeeming mercy change his heart, renew a 
 right spirit within him, and so completely mould his 
 character anew that he shall become a proof, an 
 evidence, an illustration of the Father's personal love 
 to his soul, of the power of Christ's blood to cleanse, 
 of the sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost. Such- 
 an one will sing because he must. The spiritual in- 
 stinct wdthin him will be impatient of all restraints^ 
 For such fruits of ministry I labour and strive accord- 
 ing to his worldng which worketh in me mightily. For 
 what is our liope or joy or crown of rejoicing'^ Are not 
 even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his 
 coming'^ 
 
A , 
 
 tkt nm iifm a«^ ^M <*W Sim- 
 
 " O sing unto the Lord a new song : sing unto the Lord, all the 
 earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name ; shew forth his salvation 
 from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders 
 among all people." — Psalm xcvi. 1 — 3. 
 
 HERE are mighty passions of the human 
 soul which seek vent, and can get no relief 
 until they find it in expression. Grief, 
 acute, but silent, has often destroyed the 
 mind, because it has not been able to weep 
 itself away in tears. The glow of passion, 
 fond of enterprise and full of enthusiasm 
 has often seemed to rend the very fabric of manhood 
 when unable either to attain its end or to utter its 
 strong desires. So it is in true religion. It not only 
 lays hold upon our intellectual nature with appeals to 
 our judgment and our understanding, but at the same 
 time it engages our affections, brings our passions into 
 play, and fires them with a holy zeal, producing a 
 mighty furor ; so that when this spell is on a man, and 
 the Spirit of God thoroughly possesses him, he must 
 express his vehement emotions. Some yu'ofessors of 
 relioion are ino-enious enoucrh to conceal whatever crrace 
 
 DO ~ 
 
 they possess. Little enough they have, I warrant you, 
 or it would soon be discovered. Have you never seen 
 
280 Christian Energy. 
 
 the brooks that were wont to come down the hill sides 
 filled up with stones through greater part of the sum- 
 mer? You wonder whether there is any streamlet 
 there at all. You may go and search among the 
 rounded stones, and scarcely find a trace of water. 
 How different after the snows have been melted, or the 
 mists upon the mountain's brow have turned to showers. 
 Then the water comes rushing down like a mighty 
 torrent, nor is there any question about its being a 
 genuine stream. It shows itself as it rolls the great 
 stones along, peradventure breaking down the banks, 
 and overflowing the country. So there is a religion — 
 a poor, miserable, ordinary Christianity — which is not 
 worth the name it bears, that can hide itself ; but vital 
 godliness must assert itself, it must speak plainly, it 
 must act vigorously, it must appear conspicuously. The 
 cross reveals the hearts of men, it unveils their true 
 character. Till the cross was set up, Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea was scarcely known to be a disciple, and Xico- 
 demus continued to do habitually what he once did 
 literally — resort to Jesus by night. Openly he remained 
 in the sanhedrim, though secretly he was a profound 
 admirer of the great Redeemer. But when the cross 
 was lifted up, Joseph went boldly in with senatorial 
 authority and obtained the body of Jesus for burial, 
 and Nicodemus came out with well-timed liberality to 
 provide his hundredweight of spices, and his fair wliite 
 linen. Thus the cross reveals the thoughts of many 
 hearts. If you have real grace and true love to Jesus 
 in your soul, you will want some modes of expressing 
 yourselves. Our purpose therefore now is, to suggest 
 to you two modes of expressing your consecration to 
 
The new Song and the old Stori/, 281 
 
 Ood and your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 These two methods are to sing about and to talk about 
 the good things the Lord has done for you, and the 
 great things he has made known to you. Let song 
 take the lead — " O sing unto the Lord a new song : 
 sincj unto the Lord all the earth. Sinrr unto the Lord, 
 bless his name." Then let discourse engage you ; he it 
 in public sermons or in private conversations — ^' Shew 
 forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory 
 among the heathen, his wonders among all people." 
 
 We begin with the voice of melody. All yo. that love 
 the Lord, give vent to your heart's emotion by song, 
 and take care that it be sung to the Lord alone. The 
 human voice, what a noble instrument it is ! what a 
 compass it has ! its low soft whispers, how they can 
 hold us spell-bound ; its full volume as it peals forth 
 like thunder, how it can startle and produce dismay. 
 What profanity, then, to use such an instrument in the 
 service of sin ! Is not our tongue the glory of our 
 frame? Had I no conscientious objection to instru- 
 mental music in worship, I should still, I think, be com- 
 pelled to admit that all the instruments that were ever 
 devised by men, however sweetly attuned, are harsh 
 and grating compared with the unparalleled sweetness 
 of the human voice. When it is naturally melodious 
 and skilfully trained ("and every true worshipper should 
 be zealous to dedicate his richest talent and his highest 
 acquirement to this sacred service), there can be no 
 music under heaven that can equal the combination of 
 voices which belong to men, women, and children whose 
 liearts really love the Saviour. So sweet, so enchanting 
 the melody of song, surely its best efforts should not 
 
282 Christian Energy. 
 
 be put forth to celebrate martial vdctorles or national 
 celebrations, much less should it lend its potent charm 
 to aught that is trivial or lascivious. Bj sacred right 
 its highest beauties should be consecrated to Jehovah* 
 If thou canst sing, sing the songs of Zion. If God 
 has gifted thee with a sweet, liquid voice, be sure and 
 use it to render homage unto him who cried out for 
 thee upon the cross, " It is finished !" ^' Sing unto the 
 Lord." 
 
 How much public singing, even in the house of God, 
 is of no account ! How little of it is singing to the 
 Lord ! Does not the conscience of full many among 
 you bear witness that you sing a hymn because others 
 are singing it ? You go right straight through with it 
 by a kind of mechanical action. You cannot pretend 
 that you are singing to the Lord. He is not in all your 
 thoughts. Have you not been at places of worship 
 where there is a trained choir evidently singing to the 
 congregation ? Tunes and tones are alike arranged for 
 populai' effect. There is an artistic appeal to human 
 passions. Harmony is attended to ; homage is neglected. 
 That is not what God approves of. 1 recollect a criti- 
 cism upon a certain minister's prayers. It was reported 
 in the newspaper that he uttered the finest prayer that 
 had ever been offered to a Boston audience. I am 
 afraid there is a good deal of vocal and instrumental 
 music of the same species. It may be the finest j)raise 
 ever offered to a congregation. Surely that is not what 
 we come together for. If you want the sensual gratifi- 
 cation of music's melting, mystic lay, let me commend 
 you to the concert-room, there you will get the en- 
 chanting ravishment, but when ye come here let it be 
 
The new Song and the old Story. 283 
 
 to sing unto the Lord. As ye stand up to sing, there 
 shouhl be a fixed intent of the soul, a positive voUtion 
 of the mind, an absolute determination of the heart, 
 that all the flame which kindles in thy breast, and all the 
 melody that breaks from thy tongue, and all the sacred 
 swell of grateful song shall be unto the Lord, and unto 
 the Lord alone. 
 
 And if you would sing unto the Lord, let me re- 
 commend you to flavour your mouth with the gospel 
 doctrines which savour most of grace unmerited and 
 free. Any other form of theology would tempt us 
 more or less to chant the praise of men. Gratitude 
 has full play when we come to know that salvation is of 
 the Lord alone, and that mercy is divinely free. He 
 that hath once heard the echo of that awful thunder, 
 " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy ; I will 
 have compassion on whom I will have compassion," will 
 learn to rejoice with trembling, to sing with deep feel- 
 ing, and to adore with prostrate reverence the great 
 Supreme, to whom might and majesty belong, and from 
 whom f^race and goodness flow. Human counsels and 
 conceits' sink into insignificance, for thoughts of loving- 
 kindness and deeds of renown belong unto the Lord 
 
 alone. 
 
 Kindly glance your eye down the psalm, and note 
 how the exhortation to sing is repeated three times. 
 Though I lay a stress, I draw no absolute inference 
 from this pecuhar construction. To say the least, it is 
 remarkable that the number three is so continually em- 
 ployed. Farther down in the same psalm it is written, 
 '' Give unto the Lord," " Give unto the Lord," " Give 
 unto the Lord,"— three times. Is there not here some 
 
284 Christian Energy. 
 
 kind of allusion to the wondrous doctrine of the Trinity ? 
 At any rate I make bold to use the threefold cord to 
 express the homage with which it behoves us to adore 
 the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. As for Unit- 
 arianism, it is a religion of units, and I suppose it 
 always will be. There is no danger of its ever spread- 
 ing very widely. It is cold as a moonlight night, though 
 scarcely as clear. It has not enough of power in it to 
 fire men's hearts to laud and magnify the Lord. It 
 produces now and then a hymn, but it cannot kindle 
 the passions of men to sing it with fervour and devout 
 enthusiasm. Certainly it cannot gather a crowd of 
 joyous people who will make a joyful noise to the Lord, 
 and •v\dth all their heart and voice shout the chorus of 
 gratitude. Oh, beloved, I beseech you let your souls 
 have vent in praise. 
 
 " Bless'd be the Father and his love, 
 To whose celestial source we owe 
 Rivers of endless joy above, 
 And rills of comfort here below." 
 
 Praise the God of glory who loved you before the foun- 
 dation of the world. Praise the God of grace who 
 called you when you sought him not. Praise the God 
 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath be- 
 gotten us again unto a lively hope, our Heavenly Father 
 who provides for us, educates us, instructs us, leads and 
 guides us, and will bring us by-and-by to the many 
 mansions in his own house. 
 
 Sing ye also unto the Son. Never fail to adore the 
 Son of God, who left the royalties of heaven to bear 
 the indifmities of earth. Adore the Lamb slain. Kneel 
 
TJie new Song and tlie old Stonj. 285 
 
 at the cross foot, and praise eacli wound, and magnify 
 the immortal who became mortal for our sakes. 
 
 " Glory to thee, great Son of God ! 
 From whose dear wounded body rolls 
 A precious stream of vital blood, 
 Pardon and life for dying souls." 
 
 And, then, sing ye to the Holy Spirit. Let us never 
 fail in praising him. 1 am afraid we do. AVe forget 
 him too much in our sermons, our prayers, and our 
 hymns, or we mention him, perhaps, as a matter of 
 course, with formal expressions rather than with spon- 
 taneous feelings. Oh, how our hearts are bound reve- 
 rently to worship the divine indweller who, accordinir to 
 his abundant mercy, hath made our bodies to be his 
 temples wherein he deigns to dwell. 
 
 " We give thee, sacred Spirit, praise. 
 Who in our hearts of sin and woe, 
 Makes living springs of grace arise, 
 And into boundless glory flow.'' 
 
 Praise ye, with your songs, the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost — the triune God of Israel. Have you 
 understood this? To Jehovah let your song be ad- 
 dressed. Thrice be his holy name repeated. Now 
 then be careful of the instructions ; let the song that 
 you sing be a new song — O " sing unto the Lord a new 
 song ! " not the song of your old legal bondage which 
 you used to sing so tremblingly, with the dread of a 
 slave ; a new and nobler song becomes you who are his 
 childi'en, his sons and daughters. '^O sing unto the 
 Lord a new song ! " To some of you the song of 
 redemption is quite new. Once you sang the songs of 
 
286 Christian Energy, 
 
 Bacchus or of Venus, or else you hummed over some 
 light an-, without meaning or motive, unless to while 
 away youi' time and drive away all serious thoughts. 
 O you who used so readily to sing the songs of Babylon, 
 sing now the songs of Zion quite as freely and earnestly. 
 SiniT unto the Lord a new son or. 
 
 By a '^new " song is meant the best song. It is put 
 for that which is most elegant, most exquisite, and best 
 composed. Pindar says, '^ Give me old wdne, but give 
 me a new song." So may we say, " Give us the old 
 wines of the kingdom of God, but let us sing unto the 
 Lord a new song," — the best that we can find, no 
 borrowed air, no hackneyed lyric ; and let our spirits 
 sing unto the Lord that wdiich w^ells up afresh out of 
 the quickened heart. A new^ song — always new ! keep 
 up the freshness of your praise. Do not drivel down 
 into dull routine. The drowsy old clerks in the dreary 
 old churches used always to say, "Let us sing to the 
 praise and glory of God such and such a psalm," till I 
 should think the poor old Tate and Brady version was 
 pretty w^ell used up. We have new mercies to cele- 
 brate, therefore we must have new songs. 
 
 " Blest be his love who now hath set 
 New time upon the score." 
 
 With "new time upon the score," let there be new 
 notes for him who renews the face of nature. And 
 have not we, dear brethren and sisters, new graces? 
 Then let us sing with our new- faith, and our new 
 love, and our new hope. Some of you have very 
 lately been made new creatures ; sing ye unto the 
 Lord a new song, surely he hath done gi-eat things 
 whereof ye are glad. Others of you have been 
 
The neio Song and the old Stonj. 287 
 
 converted for years ; yet if your inward man be re- 
 newed day by day, your praises shall be always new. 
 Luther used to say that the wounds of Christ seemed 
 to him to bleed to-day as if they had never bled before, 
 for he found such freshness in his Master. You pluck 
 a flower, and it soon loses its scent and begins to 
 wither ; but our sweet Lord Jesus has a savour about 
 liis name that never departs. We take his name to 
 be like a bundle of camphire all night betwixt our 
 breasts, and in the morning it smells as sweet as when 
 ■we laid us down to sleep ; and when we come to die, 
 that lily of the valley will drop with the same pro- 
 fusion as it did w^hen with our youthful hand we first 
 plucked it and came to him and gave him all our trust. 
 ** Sing unto the Lord a new^ song." Let the freshness 
 of yom* joy and the fulness of your thanks be perennial 
 as the days of heaven. 
 
 This song, according to our text, is designed to be 
 universal. *^ Sing unto the Lord all the earth." Let 
 sires and sons mingle in its strains. Let not the aged 
 among you say. Our voices are cracked, but sing to the 
 Lord with all the voice you have, and all the compass 
 you can. And you young people, give the Lord the 
 highest notes you are able to reach. Still sing unto the 
 Lord ye that are rich, sing unto the Lord who has 
 saved you, for it is not many that he saves of your 
 sort. 
 
 " Gold and gospel seem to ill agree : 
 Religion always sides with poverty," 
 
 said John Bunyan, and he spoke the truth. Sing unto 
 the Lord ye poor ones whom the Lord has favoured, 
 for so does it happen still that "the poor have the 
 
288 Christian Energy, 
 
 gospel preached unto them." Sing unto him, ye that 
 are learned in many matters. Let your talents make 
 your song more full of understanding And you that 
 are unlearned, if ye cannot put so much of understand- 
 ing into the song, put more of the spirit, and sing 
 with all the more heartiness. All the earth should 
 sing. There is not one of us but lias cause for song, 
 and certainly not one saint but ought especially to 
 praise him. You remember that passage in the 
 hundred and seventh Psalm (it is worth noticing), 
 where the psalmist says, "Let the redeemed of the 
 Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed out of the hand 
 of their enemies," as if surely they, above all others, 
 ought to say, " O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is 
 good." 
 
 In addition to its being a new song and a universal 
 one, it is to be a very inspiration of gratitude. " Sing 
 unto the Lord : bless his name.^^ How apt you are in 
 speaking of any one who has been kind to you to say, 
 " God bless him!" The expression comes right up from 
 your heart. And although you cannot invoke any bless- 
 ing on God, you can desire for his name every blessing 
 and every tribute of homage. You can desire for his 
 cause that it maybe established, and may be triumphant^ 
 You may desire for his people that they may be helped^ 
 made holy, and guided to their eternal rest. You may 
 desire for mankind that they may hallow God's holy 
 name, and all because you feel you owe so much to the 
 Lord that you cannot help praising, and cannot help 
 wishing that your praise should be fruitful on earth 
 and acceptable in heaven. 
 
 Li three ways, methinks, it becomes us to sing God's 
 
The new Song and the old Story. 289 
 
 praises. We ouglit to sino; with the voice. I do not 
 consider we sing enough to God. Angel harp and 
 human voice ! If the angel harp be more skilful, surely 
 the human voice is more grateful. For my part, I like 
 to hear sacred songs in all sorts of places. The maid- 
 servant can sing at her work, and the carter as he 
 drives his team. The occupations are few which could 
 not be enlivened by repeating the words and running 
 over the tune of a hymn. If it were only in a faint 
 whisper, the habit might be cultivated. You might 
 expose yourselves, it is tnie, to a taunt, and be up- 
 braided as " a psalm-singing Methodist," but it would 
 not do you much hurt. Better that than make a ribald 
 jest or utter an impious blasphemy. Those who lend 
 their tongues to such vile uses have something to be 
 ashamed of. Lovers of pleasure sing their songs ; and 
 poor trash, for the most part, they are. If the snatches 
 we catch in the streets are the echoes of the saloon and 
 the music-hall, little credit is due to those who cater for 
 public amusement. Lacking alike in sense and senti- 
 ment, they betray the degeneracy of the times, and the 
 depravity of popular taste. There is a literature of 
 song in which peasants may rejoice, of which patriots 
 may be proud, and to which poets may turn with envi- 
 ous eyes. Why wed your pretty tunes to paltry 
 words ? The higher the art, the more the pity to 
 debase it. If you cull over oui' hymn-books for samples 
 of bad poetry, loose rhyme, and puerile thoughts, that 
 reviewers like to revile, and libertines like to laugh at, 
 we can only say, Well, we cannot always vindicate the 
 culture of those whose sincerity we hold in the highest 
 esteem; but we will dare to confront you on equal 
 
 ly 
 
290 Christian Energy. 
 
 terms — the sanctuary versus the saloon — our vocalists 
 against your vocalists from the sacred oratorios of Handel 
 to the choicest of your operas — from the cant of our 
 revival hymns to the catch of your last sensational 
 songs. Yes, indeed, the people of God should sing 
 more. Were we to try the exercise, we should find no 
 small degree of pleasure in the practice. It would do 
 us good to praise God more day by day. When w^e 
 get together, two or three of us, we are in the habit of 
 saying ^' Let us pray." Might not we sometimes say, 
 '' Let us sing." We have our regular prayer-meetings, 
 why do not we have praise meetings about as often I 
 
 " Prayer and praise for sins forgiven 
 Make up on earth the bliss of heaven." 
 
 We are like a bird that has only one wing. There is 
 much prayer, but there is little praise. " Sing unto the 
 Lord. Sing unto the Lord." 
 
 To sing with the heart is the very essence of song. 
 
 *'In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am, 
 And my heart it doth leap at the sound of his name." 
 
 Though the tongue may not be able to express the lan- 
 guage of the soul, the heart is glad. Some persons 
 seem never to sing with their heart. Their lips move, 
 but their heart does not beat. In their common daily 
 life they move about as if they had been born on a 
 dark winter's night, and carried the cold chill into all 
 their concerns. The lamentation they constantly utter 
 is this — " All these things are against me." Their ex- 
 perience is comprised in half a sentence — '^ In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation." They never get into 
 
The new Song and the old Stori/, 291 
 
 the harbour. " In me ye shall have peace " is a secret 
 they have never realised. They are fond of calling 
 this world a howling wilderness ; and they are utterly 
 oblivious of its orchards and vineyards. Were God to 
 put them in the garden of Eden they would not take 
 any notice of the fruit or the flowers. They would go 
 straight away to the serpent and begin saying, '^ Ah, 
 there's a snake here.'' Their hai*p is hung on the wil- 
 lows, they never can sing. Their heart is unstrung. 
 Sing they cannot. 
 
 Well, dear friends, a Christian man ought to be like 
 a horse that has bells on his head, so that he cannot go 
 an}^vhere without ringing them and making music. 
 His whole life should be a psalm ; every step should 
 be in harmony; eveiy thought should constitute a 
 note; every word he utters should be a component 
 part of the joyful strain. It is a blessed thing to see a 
 Christian going about his business like the high priest 
 of old who, wherever he went, made music with the 
 golden bells. Oh, to have a cheerful spirit — not the 
 levity of the thoughtless, nor the gaiety of the foolish, 
 nor even the mirth of the healthy — there is a cheerful 
 spirit which is the gift of grace, that can and does re- 
 joice evermore. Then when troubles come we bear 
 them cheerfully ; let fortune smile, we receive it with 
 equanimity ; or let losses befall us, we endure them with 
 resignation, being willing, so long as God is glorified, to 
 accept anything at his hands. These are the people to 
 recommend Christianity. Their cheerful conversation 
 attracts others to Christ. As for those people who are 
 morose or morbid, sullen or severe, harsh in their 
 judgment of their fellow men, or rebellious against tiie 
 
292 Christian Energy. 
 
 will of God — people of a covetous disposition, a peevish 
 temper, and a quarrelsome character — unto them it is 
 of no use to say, *' O sing unto the Lord," for they 
 will never do it. They have not any bells in the tower 
 of their heart; what chimes can they ring? Their 
 harps have lost their strings ; how can they magnify 
 the Most High ? But genuine piety finds expression 
 in jubilant song ; this is the initiative, though it is far 
 from exhausting its resources. 
 
 In the second place, then, let me stir you up, espe- 
 cially my dear friends those of you who are members of 
 this church, to such daily conversation and such habitual 
 discourse as shall be fitted to spread the gospel which 
 you love. Our text admonishes you to " show forth his 
 salvation." You believe in the salvation of God — 
 a salvation of gi'ace from first to last. You have seen 
 it ; you have received it ; you have experienced it. 
 Well, now, show it forth. Explain it to others, and 
 with the explanation let there be an illustration ; ex- 
 emplify it by your lives. God has shone upon you 
 with the light of his countenance, that you may reflect 
 his brightness and irradiate others. Every Christian 
 here is like the moon, which shines with borrowed light. 
 But the sun lends not his bright rays to be hoarded 
 up. It is that they may scatter beams of brightness 
 over this world of night. Take care, then, that 
 you are faithful to your trust. Show forth his salva- 
 tion. God knows, I try to do so from the pulpit. 
 Would God you could try and do so from the pews. 
 Are you lacking in opportunities ? I trow not. 
 Before and after service, especially to strangers and 
 such as may have been induced to come and hear 
 
The new Song and the old Story. 293 
 
 the gospel, speak a word in season ; thoughtfully, 
 prayerfully, softly, talk with them. Show forth this 
 salvation too in your own houses, or on your visits, or 
 wherever your lot may happen in God's providence to 
 he cast. It is wonderful how God blesses little efforts, 
 very little efforts. I have sometimes — I am sorry to say 
 not as often as I ought — scattered seed by the wayside. 
 Only a few nights ago I had been driven by a cab- 
 man, and after I had alighted and given him the fare, 
 he took a little Testament out of his pocket, and said, 
 *^ It is about fifteen years ago since you gave me that, 
 and said a word to me about my soul, and it has stuck 
 by me, and I have not let a day pass since without 
 reading it." I felt glad. I know that if Christian 
 people would try and show forth God's salvation they 
 would often be surprised to find how many hearts 
 would gladly receive it. Beloved, show forth this sal- 
 vation from day to day. Let it not be merely on a Sun- 
 day. While ye hold that day sacred, let no other day 
 he common or unclean. We are thankful for the 
 kindly efforts in the school and elsewhere on our Sab- 
 baths, but we want Christian activity to be put forth 
 from day to day. Let your zeal for the conversion of 
 your fellow creatures be continuous, '*In the morning 
 sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine 
 hand : for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either 
 this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." 
 The result of the Sabbath work may, perhaps, not be 
 seen by you, when the result of Monday's work may 
 very speedily appear. Show forth his salvation from 
 day to day. This admonition is enforced in three 
 clauses ; so let us notice the second. ^' Declare his 
 
294 Christian En 
 
 ergy. 
 
 glory among the heathen." It is the same thing in 
 another form. When you are telling out the gospel, 
 point especially to the glory of it. Show them the 
 justice of the gi-eat substitution, and the mercy of it. 
 Show them the wisdom which devised the plan whereby, 
 without a violation of the law, God could yet pardon 
 rebellious sinners. Impress upon those that you talk 
 with that the gospel you have to tell them of is na 
 common-place system of expediency, but really it is a 
 glorious revelation of divinity. You know men are very 
 much attracted by aught of glory and renown. They 
 will even rush to the cannon's mouth for glory. Now, 
 be sure, when you are talking to others about the sal- 
 vation you have received at the hands of your dear 
 Lord and Master, that you tell them about the glory 
 thereof, — what a glory it brings to Christ, and to what 
 a glory it will bring every sinner by-and-by. Tell them 
 of the glory of being pardoned, the glory of being ac- 
 cepted, the glory of being justified, the glory of being 
 sanctified. Is it not all " according to his riches in glory 
 by Christ Jesus ?" Methinks ye might relate some 
 scenes from the death-beds of the saints ye have known 
 on which rays of glory have fallen ; but I am sure ye 
 might anticipate a glory which words cannot picture or 
 imagination realize, in the second advent of the Lord 
 Jesus, the resurrection of the just and the establishment of 
 the everlasting kingdom. Dwell upon these things. De- 
 clare his glory. And do not be ashamed in the presence 
 of people of a disreputable character, though their igno- 
 rance and degradation be never so palpable. " Declare 
 his glory among the heathen.'" " I am going on a mis- 
 sion to the heathen," said a minister once to his people. 
 
The new Soikj and the old Story, 295 
 
 ^Mistaking his meaning they went home deploring the 
 loss of their pastor. On the following Sunday when 
 they found him in the pulpit they discovered that he 
 had not been out of the city all the week, and when 
 they wanted to know what parts he had visited and 
 what people he had seen, he reminded them that he had 
 heathens close at home, and they were to be found even 
 in his own congregation. Ah, and there may be some 
 heathens here. At any rate, there are plenty of heathens 
 in this great city of London. I have no doubt there 
 are parts of this metropolis in which hundreds, and 
 even thousands, of people reside who are as ignorant of 
 the plan of salvation as the inhabitants of Coomassie. 
 They know nothing of Jesus, even though the light is 
 so bright around them. *^ Declare his glory among the 
 heathen," ye lovers of Christ. Penetrate into these 
 dark places : break up fresh ground. Christian men and 
 women. I am persuaded, and this is a matter I have 
 often spoken of, that many of you who sit and hear 
 sermons on the Sunday ought rather to turn out and 
 preach the gospel. While we are glad to see you occu- 
 pying pews, it will be a greater joy to miss you from your 
 wonted seats, if we only know that you are declaring 
 God's glory among the heathen. I am not sure that 
 we are all of us right to be living cooped up in this 
 little island of ours. There are in England enough 
 disciples of Jesus to bear the gospel to the uttermost 
 ends of the earth ; but perhaps there is not one Chris- 
 tian in five or ten thousand who ever deliberately thinks 
 about going to the heathen to make known to them the 
 way of salvation, and to declare the glory of the Lord 
 among those who have never heard his name. Pray 
 
296 Christian Energy. 
 
 God there may yet come a wonderful wave of God's 
 Spirit over our churches which shall bear upon its crest 
 hundreds of ardent spirits resolved to caiTy the tidings 
 of redemption to the jungle and the fever swamp, to 
 the high latitudes and the southern islands. O that the 
 love of Christ may constrain them. Know ye not 
 that Christ has determined to save men by the preach- 
 ing of the gospel ? Has he not charged his disciples to 
 go into all the world? How poorly has the church 
 carried out the commission. If you do love Christ 
 here is room to show your love; go and declare his 
 gloiy among the heathen. 
 
 A third expression is used here. " Declare his won- 
 ders among all people." Our gospel is a gospel of 
 wonders. It deals with wonderful sin in a wonderful 
 way. It presents to us a wonderful Sa^dour, and tells 
 us of his wonderful complex person. It points us to 
 his wonderful atonement, and it takes the blackest 
 sinner and makes him wonderfully clean. It makes 
 him a new creature, and works a wonderful change in 
 him. It conducts him to wonders of happiness and 
 wonders of strength, and yet onward to greater won- 
 ders of light and life ; for it opens up to him the won- 
 ders of the covenant. It gives him wonderful provisions, 
 wonderful deliverances, and leads him right up by the 
 name of him that is called Wonderful, to the gates of 
 that wonder-land where we shall for ever 
 
 " Sing, with wonder and surprise, 
 His lovingkiudness in the skies." 
 
 Surely, dear Christian friends, we ought to talk about 
 the wonders of the Lord our God, and especially should 
 
The new Song and the old Story. 297 
 
 we dwell upon those wonders which we have seen our- 
 selves. Of every Christian man 'ft might be said that 
 he is a wonder. Will you think a minute, Christian, of 
 the wonder that God has made of you, and the wonders 
 that he has done for you. " That ever I should be" — 
 will you not say that ? — '' that ever I should be saved 
 is a wonder of wonders." That you should have been 
 kept till now, that you should not have been suffered to 
 go back, that you should have been preserved under so 
 many troubles, that your prayers should have been 
 heard so continuously, that, notwithstanding your ill 
 manners, the love of Christ should still have remained 
 the same. Oh, but I cannot recite the tale of marvels : 
 it is a loner series of wonders. The Christian man's 
 life, if the worldling could understand it, would seem 
 to him like a romance. The wonders of m-ace far 
 exceed the wonders of nature ; and of all the miracles 
 God himself has ever wrought there are no miracles so 
 matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the 
 heart of man. Beloved, declare these miracles, these 
 wonders. Tell them to others ; men like to hear a tale 
 of wonder. They will gather round the fire at even- 
 tide when the logs are burning, and delightedly listen 
 to the story of wonder. When you go home, young 
 man, for your next holiday, if God has converted you, 
 tell what great things the Lord has done for you. And 
 when you go home, Mary, and see your mother, if the 
 Lord has met with you, tell her what the Lord has 
 done. Declare his wonders among all people. Do not 
 be afraid of speaking about the gospel to anybody or 
 in any company. Whoever they may be, whether they 
 be rich or poor, high or low, if you get an opportunity 
 
298 Christian Energy. 
 
 of declaring the wonders of God's grace, do not let the 
 gospel be unknown for want of a tongue to tell it. 
 
 See you, then, I have put before you these two out- 
 lets for your love. There is song, and here is discourse. 
 Go and use them both, and if any bid you hold your 
 peace, shall I tell you the answer? Use the same 
 answer which your Master did to the Pharisees when 
 they complained of the shouts of the little children : 
 <^ If these should hold their peace the very stones would 
 cry out." Ordinary Christians may be quiet because 
 God has done nothing very wonderful for them. They 
 go through the world in a very ordinary kind of way. 
 Their religion is about skin deep, and no more. But 
 those that know they deserve the deepest hell, and have 
 been saved by a mighty effort of infinite mercy, must 
 tell what God has done for them. They must come 
 out from the world, and be separate. They must be 
 decided, zealous, and even enthusiastic. Necessity is 
 laid upon them to be earnest and intense in all they do 
 and in all they say. They cannot help it, for the love 
 of Jesus will fire their souls with a passion that cannot 
 be quenched. '' We thus judge, that if one died for 
 all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that 
 they which live should not live henceforth to them- 
 selves, but unto him which died for them, and rose 
 again." God help you, beloved, thus to live. 
 
 As for those of you who have never found the Saviour, 
 you cannot tell of his excellence or pubhsh his worth, 
 but I do trust that you will not forget that Jesus is to 
 be found by those who seek him, and whosoever be- 
 lieveth on him shall be saved. Take him at his word. 
 Rely on his promise. Trust him. Commit your soul 
 
The new Song and the old Story. 
 
 299 
 
 to him. Cast yourself unfelgnedly and unreservedly 
 on his mercy. He will not spurn you; but he will 
 receive you graciously and you shall yet praise him, 
 and he will be the health of your countenance and 
 your God. 
 
t^m ^\m^ 
 
 "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame he 
 turned out of the way ; but let it rather he healed."— Hebrews xii. 13. 
 
 HERE are some believers of strong and 
 vigorous faith. Soaring high, they mount 
 up with wings as eagles. Fleet of foot, 
 they can run and not be weary, or with 
 steady progress they can walk, and not 
 faint. But all are not so highly privileged. 
 I suppose there is seldom a family which 
 has no sickly member. However hale and hearty 
 most of the sons and daughters may be, there is 
 likely to be some weakly one amongst them. So it 
 certainly is in the spiritual household ; and it w^ill be, 
 therefore, my business just now to look after the weakly 
 ones. I do trust that the word which I shall be enabled 
 to speak may lead their companions to look after them, 
 and may God grant that by these means many troubled 
 ones may be conducted into peace and safety. 
 
 In God's flock there are always some lame 
 
 SHEEP. 
 
 There is a peril intimated here ; " lest that which is 
 lame be turned out of the way." This is only too 
 likely to happen. The caution is applicable to every 
 
Lame Sheep. 301 
 
 cliurcli, however small the community of Christians 
 may be. Lame sheep will commonly be found even in 
 the tiniest flock. It will be necessary, then, to be 
 tender of their infirmity. Some of these people of 
 God who are compared to lame sheep, seem to have 
 been so from their birth. It is in their constitution. 
 Do you not know some friends of yours who naturally 
 incline to despondency? They always take the dark 
 view of everything, and if there be no dark side at all, 
 they have a very fine imagination, and they very soon 
 conjure up some difficulty or trouble. They appear to 
 have been born with a propensity to read black-letter 
 literature and nothing else. Illuminated missals are 
 not for them. They cannot bear the fine colours, 
 which delight our eyes. They like the dark points. 
 If they turn to the Bible they seem naturally to fall 
 upon the thre^tenings, or if they read the promises, 
 they shake their heads, and say, " Ah, these are not 
 for us." They make heavy troubles out of the common 
 cares of life, and it is only carrying out the same 
 spirit which causes them to grieve and fret over the 
 whole course of their Christian pilgrimage. For them 
 the road is always rugged, the pastures unsavoury, and 
 the waters turbid. You will find such unhappy souls 
 in all our churches ; people who seem from their very 
 conformation to be lame as to the matters of faith, 
 timorous, trembling, and full of doubts and fears. 
 
 Besides, have you never noticed a constitutional 
 tendency in some professors to stumble, and get lame ? 
 If there is a slough, they will fall into it : if there is a 
 thicket, they will get entangled by it : if there is an 
 error, they will run foul of it. Good people we trust 
 
302 Christian Energy, 
 
 they are, and tliey do believe in Jesus, but somehow or 
 other they do not see things clearly. Men to them are 
 like walldng trees. Such persons go off at a tangent 
 if anybody makes noise enough to attract their ear. 
 " Lo here and lo there " are cries at the sound of which 
 they go off directly. Let a new divine discover a new 
 doctrine, and they are on the new track at once, never 
 mind where it leads to. Let a would-be philosopher 
 suggest some fresh theory about matter which clashes 
 with the word of God and the things of the Spirit, 
 their eager appetite is whetted, and they will leave the 
 old fields of truth to wander in the barren wastes of 
 science, so called. When you go to market, if you are 
 a sensible person, you do not turn aside from all the 
 wares and produce of fair merchandise to waste your 
 time and your money over the quack vendor of nostrums 
 that he advertises ^^-ith large pictures and loud talk. 
 Your common sense directs you to seek wholesome food 
 and useful articles. You would more than suspect the 
 threadbare doctor. But there are credulous people just 
 ready to be taken with any bait. So, too, there is no 
 lack of simpletons in all our congregations, good 
 thoughtless people, lame and limping in all their walk, 
 troubled with scepticism, and plagued with curiosity, 
 till they take best with that which is most pernicious. 
 Unstable as water, they shall not excel. 
 
 Can you not detect, too, some who are lame in 
 point of character ? They seem to have been so from 
 their very birth. There is a something about their 
 gait that is unsteady. As you look at them you are 
 ready to say, ^' Yes, good people they may be, but they 
 are of a queer sort." We hope they are sincere, but 
 
Lame Sheep, 303 
 
 they are like Mepliiboslietli, who was dropped by his 
 nurse, and was lame in both his feet. If they walk at 
 all it is a dreadful hobble. They do their best, and we 
 cannot condemn them, but there is an awkwardness 
 about their deportment. They are lame sheep at the 
 best. With some it is a cross temper ; with others it 
 is a general moroseness, which it does not seem as if the 
 grace of God itself would ever cure in them ; or it may 
 be a natural indolence oppresses them ; or it is quite 
 possible that habitual impatience harasses them. Now, 
 the grace of God should eradicate these vices ; it can 
 and will, if you yield to its influence ; for the grace of 
 God, which bringeth salvation, teacheth us to deny all 
 ungodliness and worldly lusts. With some of us the 
 conquest over such evil propensities has been already 
 gained. Still there are among us those sheep who are 
 lame in this particular respect : they are, if I may so say, 
 constitutionally unsound from their very first entrance 
 into the fold. Moreover, they betray their lameness 
 when there is anything you give them to do. If they 
 are Sunday-school teachers, they cannot w^alk regularly 
 or keep step with their fellows ; or they fail to help the 
 young scholar on. Ask them to visit in any district, 
 the steps they take are marked by indiscretion. Ap- 
 point them to preach at any of your stations, their 
 speech is not straightforward ; they go over the plainest 
 ground of gospel statement with a lack of consistency 
 like the walk of a man whose legs are not equal. 
 Whatever they attempt, they do it just as a lame man 
 would go on an errand. They are slow in their move- 
 ments and slovenly in their performances. Aptly are 
 they compared to lame sheep. Well, you know such. 
 
304 Christian Energy. 
 
 I wonder wlietlier you are one yourself ; at least there 
 are such about, lame from their birth. 
 
 Other sheep of Christ's flock are halt and lame be- 
 cause they have been ill-fed. Bad food is the cause of 
 a thousand disorders. Many a sickly man, instead of 
 being dosed with drugs needs to be nourished with 
 wholesome meat. Had he something better to feed 
 upon, he might conquer his diseases. Sheep cannot 
 thrive well on bad food. It is true many really good 
 Christians have been badly fed. The preaching they 
 have heard has, perhaps, been altogether false doctrine. 
 The poor souls have sat and listened to moral essays, 
 maudlin sentiments, or manifold subtleties that could 
 not nourish their faith or in\igorate their spiritual con- 
 stitution. If they sometimes suspected that it was not 
 all right, they did not like to desert the place they had 
 long been wont to attend, or to forsake the minister they 
 had long been wont to hear. They are afraid of being 
 thought too critical, so they have gone on with ill fare 
 to the prejudice of their health and strength, their 
 comfort, and usefulness. It is more than probable that 
 poisonous doctrine has got into their constitution, and 
 done them real mischief, hence they are lame. In 
 hundreds, not to say thousands, of cases that I know, 
 Christians are lame through a kind of hazy teaching, in 
 which, if there is not anything positively bad, there is 
 nothing positively good. I have read the remark that 
 if you were to hear thirteen lectui'es on geology from 
 any decent lecturer you would probably get a pretty 
 clear idea of his system, but that you might hear thirteen 
 hundred sermons from many a minister mthout know- 
 ing what he did believe. There is a systematic habit 
 
Lame Sheep, 305 
 
 now-a-davs of keeping back tlie positive doctrines and 
 the essential truths of the gospel; or of referring to 
 them so vaguely that the sound of words gives no 
 clue to the sense. The whole atmosphere is so full of 
 fog that people cannot see where they are. The 
 preacher would appear to be profoundly deep ; but he 
 is not clear. He stirs the mud, and makes himself and 
 his subject alike obscure. Or, perhaps, he is so super- 
 ficial that he does not touch upon those truths which 
 lie at the foundation of the blessed hope of eternal 
 life. Those that sit under such a ministry need not 
 wonder how it is that they do not grow in grace. Ay, 
 and how much ministry there is that has nothing but 
 chaff in it. What else can we say of those exquisite 
 preparations for the pulpit in which cuttings from the 
 reviewers, cullings from the poets, and choice scraps 
 from Scripture writers are woven together with a fine 
 overtiu'e to begin, and a flowing peroration to finish ? 
 What can we say of it but chaff, chaff, without a grain 
 of pure wheat from first to last! I should like to 
 chain eloquence down to a post ; there let it be bound 
 for ever in the land of for^jetf ulness ; never a™n let 
 it lift its brazen face in this world. Aiming at orator}^, 
 cultivating rhetoric, the gospel, which eschews the 
 words of man's wisdom and demands great plainness of 
 speech, has been disparaged and displaced. We shall 
 not c'et back a strono; race of Christians till we get 
 back such a sturdy band of outspoken men as dare 
 their reputation, if not their lives, upon the unvarnished 
 testimony they give to the truth they know, the truth 
 as it is in Jesus ; the truth as it burns in their own 
 hearts, and fires their tongues ; the tnith as it conunends 
 
 20 
 
306 Christian Energy. 
 
 itself to every man's conscience in tlie siglit of God ; 
 bearing thus Avitness to this book with the Holy- 
 Ghost sent down from heaven. But, undoubtedly, 
 there are thousands of Christians at this good hour 
 who are lamed for hfe through unqualified, unhallowed 
 teaching. God save us from its hateful witcheries and 
 its baneful influences. If we have got to preach, let 
 us preach ; but for heaven's sake let us know wdiat we 
 have got to say, and let us say it as though we meant 
 it, or for ever hold our tongues. There be some 
 who seem to speak as if they meant to say nothing, 
 and they succeed to their heart's content, if that 
 is their intention ; notliing comes of it. The children 
 of God trained under their auspices do not know 
 whether God has an elect people or not — whether 
 the saints will persevere or whether they will fall away 
 and perish — they do not know whether Christ redeemed 
 everybody, or somebody. They have no clear notion 
 whatsoever of the things which make for their peace. 
 ]May we be preserved from all wdlful ignorance and 
 Avoef ul infatuation. JNIay God supply us constantly with 
 strong meat and sound health to digest it. Full many 
 of the Lord's sheep are lame because they have been 
 w^orried. Sheep often get worried by a dog, and so 
 they get lamed. It may be I am addressing some poor 
 child of God who has been beset by Satan, the accuser 
 of the brethren, and frightfully tormented. Oh what 
 trouble and what terror he can inflict upon us ! He 
 can suo-o'est the most infernal insinuations. He can 
 inject into our minds such blasphemous thoughts as 
 make us sta2:2;er and reel : he can make us breathe as it 
 were the very atmosphere of the infernal lake. Those 
 
Lame Sheep. 307 
 
 that have passed through this bitter experience will 
 know how they carry the marks of a conflict with Satan 
 npon them, after they have once been assailed by him ; 
 wounds and scars that they will bear upon them to their 
 grave. He is such a cruel adversary that even when 
 we overcome him our strength is impaired by the battle. 
 The fatigues and perils of our pilgrimage are light in 
 comparison with our temptations. We had easier go a 
 thousand miles over hedge and ditch than have to stand 
 foot to foot with that dread adversary of souls for an 
 liour. Full many a child of God has been lamed in 
 that fray. Others, too, have been harassed by perse- 
 cutors. Many a poor woman has lost her cheerful 
 spirits through a harsh, ungodly husband, who has 
 excited her fears or vexed her with sneers ; and not a 
 few dear young children have been broken down for life 
 through the hard treatment they have had for conscience 
 sake to endure at home. True, there may be instances 
 in which sufferers of this sort out of weakness have 
 been made strong, but for the most part when from 
 day to day, from hour to hour, one is insulted and 
 assaulted the trial is heavier than any ordinary forti- 
 tude can bear, insomuch that those who have en- 
 countered it have gone halting like lame sheep all their 
 days. 
 
 Some precious saints I have kiiOA\^i have grown lame 
 through a rough and weary way, just as sheep can be 
 lamed if they are driven too fast, or too far, or over 
 too strong a ground. To what an excess of trouble 
 some children of God have been exposed ! The Lord 
 has graciously helped them through all their adversi- 
 ties. Still the trouble they have had to endure has 
 
308 Christian Energy. 
 
 told upon their liearts. They seem as if they never 
 could quite recover from the sudden shock, or the pro- 
 tracted anxiety that has once impaired their strength, 
 wrinkled their face, and dried up their moisture. If 
 they had more grace no doubt they would recover their 
 health and renew their youth, but there are some 
 gentle spirits which when once crushed are unable to- 
 rally, therefore they remain lame. 
 
 Perhaps more still are lamed through the rough road 
 of controversy. If you are a child of God, and you, 
 know your bearings, keep always as much as ever yort 
 can out of the jingle- jangle of controversy. Little 
 good ever comes of your subtle disputations, but they do- 
 gender much strife. Do you tell me that we are told 
 to " prove all things." Yes, so we are ; and it is well 
 to give heed to the admonition, but we are told also to- 
 " hold fast that which is good ; " and we must not forget 
 the latter half of the precept, while we give our whole 
 attention to the former half. Some people seem to- 
 think that, in order to prove all things, they have to 
 analyse and define every particular and every particle 
 with scrupulous nicety. To prove the quality of the 
 meat that is brought to your table there is no occasion 
 for you to eat the whole joint. A small sample will en- 
 able you to pronounce a sound opinion. Apply the same 
 rule to books, and it will save you a world of trouble. 
 They may dish up old dogmas, or they may throw off new 
 theories ; they may contain the reveries of the thought- 
 ful, or the ramblings of the idler ; they may be con- 
 ceived mtli a purpose, or composed for a price. In any 
 case you must have a voracious appetite if you would 
 read them all through. But it is quite unnecessary. 
 
Lame Sheep. 309 
 
 Take the paper knife and just cut open a page in the 
 centre. One tasting will generally suffice for a fair 
 iesting. You can see within a little what tack their 
 authors take. If they accord not with the Word of 
 God, away with them ! You have proved them quite 
 enough. You'll get small thanks for great pains if you 
 worry your poor mind to solve afresh the points which 
 are settled among us. We have believed and rejoiced 
 in the truth these many years. Yes, believed on con- 
 clusive evidence where we once stood in doubt; re- 
 joiced with joy unspeakable where we once looked with 
 dreary misgiving. What more can you require ? But 
 many have been lamed through choosing rough places, 
 and adventurino' amonii; thorns and briers, and leavincp 
 the beaten tracks, without experience enough to avoid 
 injury to themselves, or skill enough to clear a path in 
 which others may safely follow. 
 
 Full many of the Lord's sheep have become lame 
 through negligence, faintness, and the gradual declen- 
 sion of spiritual health. They have backslidden ; they 
 have been remiss in prayer, omitted reading the Word, 
 and forsaken communion with God, so it is no marvel 
 that their walk betrays their weakness. A bad cold 
 is the parent of many bad ailments. Beware of catch- 
 ing a chill in religion. Lameness is not unf requently 
 the result of a fall. A broken bone, or a compound 
 fracture, or a serious dislocation of the joints is not 
 easily healed. Those who have such injm'ies can tell 
 you how helpless it makes them ; how long it is before 
 they can walk without crutches ; and how often a 
 change of weather will remind them, by ache and 
 twinge, that cures leave scars belimd. Certainly it is 
 
310 Christian Energy, 
 
 so with any man who has fallen into gross sin after 
 making a profession of faith in Christ. However 
 heartily he may be restored by divine grace, he will 
 feel its effects as long as he lives. Like one who halts on 
 his thigh, he will be more or less lame ever afterwards. 
 That is a terrible text for backshders— will you please 
 all turn to it, open your Bibles, and make a mark 
 against it (Isaiah xxii. 14): ''It teas revealed in mine 
 ears by the Lord of Hosts, surely this iniquity shall 
 not he purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of 
 Hosts:' Saddest, most sorrowful, of all the causes of 
 lameness this which comes through a fall into any sin. 
 Heaven spare us from turning aside to folly ! 
 
 There are, and I suppose we may expect there 
 always will be, lame ones in God's flock ; so I proceed 
 to show that the rest of the floch should seek their 
 healing. "Make straight paths for your feet, lest that 
 which is lame be turned out of the v/ay ; but let it 
 rather be healed." 
 
 Some Christian people seem to be so inconsiderate 
 and unsjTupathising, that they treat all the lame of the 
 flock with harshness. You may be strong and vigorous 
 in your physical constitution, strangers to nervousness 
 and depression of spirits. Be thanldFul, then, but do 
 not be presumptuous. Despise not those who suffer 
 from infirmities that have never come upon you. Your 
 turn may come ere long. You are yet in the body, and 
 exempt from no ailment to which your fellow-crea- 
 tures are prone. I have known hectoring spirits whose 
 contumely it was hard to quiet, so did they jeer at the 
 weakhngs; and presently their own complaints have 
 been hard to pacify, so did they moan over their own 
 
Lame Sheep. 311 
 
 grievances. The more arrogant tliey have been, when 
 all was well with them, the more crestfallen and 
 desponding have tliey been in the gloom, when things 
 have gone ill vdXh them. Those fellows who crow most 
 croak worst. There is a passage in the thirty-fourth 
 chapter of Ezekiel which I should recommend every 
 strong, rough man to read and diligently consider: 
 *'Thus saith the Lord God unto them; Behold, I, 
 even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between 
 the lean cattle. Because ye have thrust with side and 
 with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your 
 horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; therefore 
 will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey ; 
 and I will judge between cattle and cattle." Jehovah 
 is our Shepherd, and he is very tender of his little 
 lambs and his weak sheep : and if we are not tender of 
 them too we shall soon be made to smart for our hard- 
 heartedness. It sometimes happens that those persons 
 who have seldom or never had an illness in their lives 
 feel little sympathy for those who have to bear much 
 pain and sickness. Others who have never suffered 
 from poverty themselves will sometimes shut up their 
 bowels of compassion against those who are in neces- 
 sitous circumstances. Or if they dole out a charity they 
 w411 too often spoil a good deed with a harsh word. 
 "Ye that are stroncr ouo;ht to bear the infirmities of 
 the weak ; " and if that is too much to expect of 
 you, the least that I can ask is that you Avill bear with 
 them. I do beseech you by the gentleness of Christ 
 that ye tread lightly the sick chamber, and speak softly 
 to such as are crushed by adversity. There are diseases 
 that provoke irritability. Peevishness, or despondency, 
 
312 Christian Energy. 
 
 may be symptoms of the particular ailment that 
 prostrates one's energies and enervates one's entire 
 being. Do not be censorious, that were cruel. Let 
 those of you who are blessed with health, and walk in 
 the sunshine, be considerate of their brethren and 
 sisters wdio are blighted with a malady they cannot 
 shake off or enveloped in a cloud that darkens all 
 their prospects. Do learn to make another's case thine 
 own. Be kind. Let every tone of your voice, every 
 gesture of your limbs, ever}" look of your face show the 
 kindness of your heart. God will surely requite it. 
 Are his children in the furnace, he watches them. If 
 you aggrieve them in their trouble, he will vex you in 
 his sore displeasure. And there are spiritual ailments 
 which, like bodily ones, require tender care and gentle 
 treatment. Do not a^orravate the sorrows of those who 
 are harassed with doubts, tempted with evils, and dis- 
 tracted with anxious cares. Their tale may appear 
 simple enough to you, but it is very serious to them. 
 What troubles them might not give you an instant's 
 concern. Pass it not over, therefore, as nonsense. 
 Your Lord and Master knew how to condescend to men 
 of low estate ; and his condescension was always pure, 
 never arrogant. He is far more gentle than the ten- 
 derest among us. Oh, how desirable to learn his way ! 
 
 Do YE ASK, THEX, AVHAT HE SAYS W^E AEE TO DO 
 FOR THESE LAME ONES? 
 
 Evidently, we ought to comfort them. Lift up the 
 hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. 
 Cheer the hearts wdien the limbs are weak. Tell the 
 doubtincr that God is faithful. Tell those that feel 
 
 o 
 
 the burden of sin that it was for sinners Christ died. 
 
Lame Sheep. 313 
 
 Tell the backsliders that God never does cast away his 
 people. Tell the desponding that the Lord delighteth 
 in mercy. Tell the distracted the Lord doth devise 
 means to brins; back his banished. Covet the character 
 of Barnabas. He was a son of consolation. Study the 
 sacred art of speaking a word in season. Apprentice 
 yourself to the Great ^Master. Learn the secrets of 
 the trade. Acquaint yourself with the mystery of 
 the guild. Let your own troubles and trials qualify 
 you to sympathise and succour. You will be of great 
 value in the church of God if you acquire the art of 
 compassion, and are able to help those that are bowed 
 down. 
 
 But will you please give heed to the special in- 
 struction. We are to make straight paths because of 
 lame people. You cannot heal the man's bad foot, but 
 you can pick all the stones out of the path that he has 
 to pass over. You cannot give him a new leg, but you 
 can make the road as smooth as possible. Let there 
 be no unnecessary stumbling-blocks to cause him pain. 
 Do you ask me how you can observe this precept ? If 
 you have to preach the gospel, preach it plainly. Poor 
 sinners are dull enough of understanding ; they can 
 puzzle themselves, without your puzzling them. Had 
 you to feed a child it would be folly to put a quartern 
 loaf down before it and account your duty done. Nor 
 will it profit the mass of the people to preach the gospel 
 to them in the abstract, giving them a great lump of 
 truth, to decipher and digest as best they can. No; 
 but you should divide a child's bread into small pieces 
 — crumble it up, and then pour the milk on it, that he 
 mav be able to feed on it. So must we cater for God's 
 
314 Christian Energy. 
 
 tried and troubled people. We must speak simply, use 
 homely illustrations, and quote precious promises. 
 What though somebody may be offended. Well, 
 let him take umbrage. We need not be particular to 
 pacify any of those critical people, and God forbid that 
 we should offend any of his little ones ; for he is jealous 
 of them. If one feeble soul gets a hold of the truth 
 through its being made plain to him, he will be grateful 
 to you ; nor is " God unrighteous to forget your work 
 and labour of love." 
 
 Would you make straight paths, then take care that 
 your teaching is always according to the Bible. Many 
 lame people have been injured by a mixture of heathenish 
 philosophy and Christian doctrine. What is it that 
 leads now-a-day to the spread of popery in this country? 
 Whence this dogma of baptismal regeneration ? Had 
 every minister preached that believers only ought to be 
 baptized, there would have been no pretext for infant 
 sprinkling, and certainly no baptismal regeneration. If 
 you go a little to the right, or a little to the left, and 
 so diverge from the high road, you do not know where 
 it will take you. Have you ever tried that in a Surrey 
 lane ? Perhaps you have been beguiled by some pleasant 
 looking path to leave the main road, fully expecting to 
 come back into it again a little further on, not for a 
 moment supposing that you had changed your course 
 altogether till you have found yom'self two or three 
 miles off the place that you wanted to get to. It is 
 better for you always to keep to the Scriptures, friends, 
 for if you go a little away from them you do not know 
 where you may wander; and in teaching others you 
 may lead them astray. Errors that seem slight and 
 
Lame Sheep. 315 
 
 frivolous at first become sad and serious in a little while. 
 A little deviation from the Word of God will presently 
 lead to a total dissent from its teaching. Heaven only 
 knows how far you may go astray when you once begin 
 to turn your feet aside. Make straight paths for your 
 feet then, because there are lame ones that otherwise 
 will be turned out of the way. 
 
 And, in all our walk and conversation let us make 
 straight paths to our feet as those who aim at holiness 
 of life. Unholy Christians are the plague of the 
 church. They are spots in your feasts of charity* 
 Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators* 
 It is hard to steer clear of them : and there is no telling 
 what wrecks they may cause. The inconsistencies of 
 professors spread dismay among weak, desponding be- 
 lievers. It is not merely the mischief you Avill do to 
 yourself, church-member, if you grow wanton and 
 worldly, or the grief you will bring to the stronger 
 brethren ; but it is the pain and peril to which you 
 will expose the young, the weak, the tender ones of the 
 flock. That poor little girl in yonder cottage will have 
 your character thrown in her teeth ; that poor struggling 
 woman, whose godless husband she has sought to 
 reclaim, will be sure to hear his cruel taunt, " Ah, there 
 is one of your crew : that is how they live." The un- 
 clean life of anyone that happens to stand in an eminent 
 place, does a damage which it is impossible for us to 
 estimate. The jeer does not alight only upon the 
 transgressor himself, but upon the whole company of 
 God's people with whom he was associated; they all 
 have to bear the taunt and feel the smart. Many a 
 lame one is staggered. Were he a strong Christian, of 
 
316 Christian Energy. 
 
 course he would say to himself, " Well, there was a 
 Saul among the prophets and a Judas among the 
 apostles, and there will be false professors among our- 
 selves ; so we must not pin our creed to any creature in 
 the world." The less confidence he could repose in the 
 disciples, the more closely he would cleave to the Lord. 
 But timid, trembling Christians are put out of counte- 
 nance and out of heart too by the delinquencies of those 
 they were wont to look up to. They say, " What, and 
 if a Christian man acts like this, can there be anything 
 in Christianity worth seeking for and living for after 
 all?" So the lame are put out of the way. Oh, do 
 walk carefully ! When you try to teach others, do 
 make your walk an example to those you wish to teach. 
 I would say this to myself especially. Let your life be 
 so pure that it excites no suspicion ; let your conduct 
 be so upright that it needs no explanation or apology ; 
 let your character speak for itself, a light that shines, 
 an example that you need not be ashamed of yourself, 
 and such as others may wish to emulate. And beware, 
 I pray you, of any secret sin ; of any evil habits such 
 as you would only tolerate when screened from observa- 
 tion ; for, as sure as you Hve, if you are a child of God, 
 it will come out one of these days, to your shame. The 
 openly profane may enjoy a measui-e of impunity, but 
 the professed follower of Christ never can play the h}^30- 
 crite Avithout provoking speedy retribution. Ah, David 
 thought he had smuggled up his sin with Bathsheba, 
 did he not ? When he had compassed Uriah's death, 
 he seems to have imagined that nobody would ever know 
 anything about it. But how soon it was discovered, and 
 that, too, without its being divulged by anyone who 
 
Lame Sheep. oil 
 
 connived at his guilt. The Lord saw it, and he would 
 not hide it. Never let a child of God think that his 
 Heavenly Father will overlook his wilful misdeeds. 
 There is no special providence to shield you from eating 
 the fruit of your o^^^l ways. Be sure your sin will find 
 you out. " Make straight paths for your feet, lest that 
 which is lame be turned out of the way." 
 
 Once more let me admonish you. Do not be negligent 
 when your Lord is so vigilant. Do not even be careless 
 when you see him so cautious. The Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the great shepherd of the sheep, evidently cares for the 
 lame ones. The charge he gives is a proof of the con- 
 cern he feels. He bids us to be considerate of them, 
 because he himself takes a warm interest in their 
 welfare. 
 
 What now shall I say to you who feel your 
 OW^ WEAKNESS AND INFIRMITY 1 You lame ones who 
 cannot walk without limping, I know how you complain. 
 "Ah," say you, ''I am no credit to Christianity. Though 
 in all sincerity I do beheve in Jesus, yet, alas, I can 
 scarcely think I am one of his true disciples, called and 
 chosen and faithful! I fear that after all he will 
 disown me." Ah, beloved, that he never will. If you 
 really are trusting to him, and hanging upon him, or even 
 touching the hem of his garment, he cannot and he 
 will not leave or forsake you. True, it would be likely 
 enough if his ways were like our w^ays, for it will 
 cause'him no little care to get you safe home. When 
 Mr. Greatheart went with Muchafraid and Feeblemind 
 on the road to the celestial city, he had his hands 
 full. He says of poor Mr. Feeblemind, that when he 
 came to the lions, he said, " Oh, the lions will have me." 
 
318 Christian Energy. 
 
 And lie was afraid of the giants, and afraid of every- 
 thing on the road. It caused Greatheart much trouble 
 to get him on the road. It is so with you. Well, you 
 must know that you are very troublesome and hard to 
 manage. But then our good Lord is very patient ; he 
 does not mind taking trouble. He has laid down his 
 life for you, and he is prepared to exercise all his divine 
 power and wisdom to bring you home to his Father's 
 house, If he were to desert you, there would be no eye 
 to pity, no hand to lead you ; but there is no fear of his 
 changing the purpose of his heart. Having loved his 
 own he loveth them to the end. Were the good 
 Shepherd ever to neglect one of the flock, it would not 
 be a lamb or a lame sheep. Were the dear Saviour to 
 leave any one of his disciples, it would not be one of the 
 little ones. I have heard say — I do not know how true 
 it is — that when one of her family is a little weak-headed, 
 the mother is sure to love that one best and show it the 
 most attention. Her tenderest thoughts will always 
 turn toward her helpless babe, and her keenest anxieties 
 will hover over the child who is ill. She may forget 
 awhile the strong and hale, but those who need her 
 succour most are quite certain to be never out of her 
 mind. Be of good cheer, then. As one whom his 
 mother comforteth, so will the Lord comfort you. 
 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
 them that fear him. 
 
 Thou may est say, " The Lord is my Shepherd, I 
 shall not want." Thou may est gratefully sing, " He 
 shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in 
 his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with 
 young." In the divine economy the more care you 
 
Lame Sheep. 319 
 
 require tlie more care you shall have. Besides, you 
 know somewhat of our blessed Kcdeemer's covenant 
 enffa^ements. Did our Lord Jesus Christ fail to brine; 
 his weak ones home it would be much to his dis- 
 honour. '* Those that thou gavest me I have kept," 
 he says, " and none of them is lost but the son of per- 
 dition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." So 
 Satan only had his own. How the wolf would howl 
 over one sheep branded with the Saviour's name were 
 he to fall a prey to his teeth ! What malignant hi- 
 larity and derision there would be among the infernal 
 spirits if the good Shepherd failed to bring home one 
 lost sheep whom he had rescued ! The joy among the 
 angels of God, they would say, was premature. The 
 Son of Man, they would say, had sought, found, but 
 failed to save the lost. Then the weaker the victim 
 the keener would the satire be. Eibald lips might 
 shout forth the taunt, " He saved the healthy, the halt 
 he could not save." It would thus be more discredit 
 to Christ to lose a weak one than a strong one, or 
 for one lame sheep to be lost than if some of the 
 healthier of them should perish; but there is no 
 danger of such a calamity. The oversight of the 
 Sliepherd secures the flock. They are all numbered, 
 and each one in particular is known to him. Our Lord 
 is a shepherd who loves his sheep so well, that were one 
 of them taken and held between the jaws of a lion he 
 would run to the rescue, and rend the lion as David 
 did of old. He would slay the Hon and the bear to get 
 his poor little one saved from the teeth of the devourer. 
 You shall not die, but live. " Oh," say you, " but I 
 can hardly think it. How can I preserve myself?" 
 
320 Christian Energy. 
 
 No, you cannot. In your weakness lies your great 
 strength. Jesus Christ will be sure to cover you with 
 his power, so than when you are utterly defenceless 
 you shall be most efficiently defended. "Ah," says 
 another, " I have had a weary life of it hitherto." 
 Yes, but you have brighter days to come. Some of 
 God's children after living in the joyous sunlight all 
 tlieir lives, as they draw near the closing scene, have 
 felt much darkness and depression of spirits. This in 
 no degree perils their security ; they will wake up all 
 right in the morning. But, then, others of God's 
 children have passed most of their days under a cloud, 
 till the gloom seemed to settle on their visage and ob- 
 scure even the radiance of their hope ; and yet when 
 the hour of their departure was at hand the mists and 
 fogs have all dispersed, light has streamed into their 
 souls, and their sweet peace and sacred joy have been 
 like an overflowing tide. The very ones that went 
 limping and mom'uing, while they were on their pil- 
 grimage, have played the man and displayed the faith 
 of Christians most wondrously when the trial that they 
 dreaded all their life long overtook them. Just as 
 Ready-to-Halt left his crutches behind, they have begun 
 to sing and rejoice when they were departing. Like 
 clear shining after rain ; like a brilliant sunset after a 
 stormy day, at eventide it was light with them ; and, 
 methinks, it will be so with many of you. And as for 
 thee, O child of sorrow, I am not unmindful of thy 
 sighs. Do you tell me that your days have been spent 
 in mourning, and full often you have wet your couch 
 with tears ? 'Tis true ; but know this, you are not the 
 only weeping one in the family — 
 
Lame Sheep. 321 
 
 *' Oil ! deem not they are bless'd alone 
 Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep; 
 The Power who pities man has shown 
 A blessing for the eyes that weep." 
 
 There are some flowers that must be grown in the 
 shade. I believe God made and adapted them to 
 flourish most in umbrageous spots. Some ferns never 
 thrive so well as in some little corner of the brook 
 where the damp continually washes them. Perhaps 
 you are like one of those flowers or ferns, planted in a 
 soil that suits your growth. Well, if it be so, mur- 
 mur not at your lot. The gloom that hovers over you 
 may help the peace of your heart. I have known 
 women pure and pious, for whom the sunny scenes of 
 life have had no charms ; but their bright faces, their 
 beaming eyes, and their benevolent hearts have shone 
 with a beautiful brilliance as they have flitted about 
 like angels in the chambers of the sick, the wards of 
 the hospital, or among the couches of the wounded 
 and the dying. Now, consider him who was the Man 
 of Sorrows ; but his spirit was not crushed. In the 
 midst of dire distress he said, " Let not your heart be 
 troubled neither let it be afraid." And, beloved, do not 
 be unmindful of the comfort you may derive under 
 any aflliction, when you trace it to the will of God. 
 If you suffer as an evil doer, if it is your OAvn fault, 
 the scourge that chastens you will invite no pity, and 
 the conscience that reproaches you will aggravate your 
 pain. If, on the other hand, you can trace the hand of 
 the Lord in a cross or a calamity, your course is clear 
 directly. It would be folly to repine; your wisdom 
 is to resign yourself entirely to his will. Bear it 
 
322 Christian Energy, 
 
 patiently, and God will reward thee plenteonsly. Thy 
 prayer shall come up before him acceptably, and the 
 answer shall come down speedily, when you would 
 rather glorify the Lord than gratify yourself. 
 
 It is not for me to say what particular purpose there 
 may be in the personal afflictions that any of the 
 sons and daughters of our heavenly Father are called 
 to bear ; but I cannot help observing that the peace- 
 able fruits of righteousness these tried ones put forth 
 are very sweet and luscious. Let me appeal to your 
 own selves. Have you not often proved the truth of 
 those words of the psalmist, '^Thou hast known my 
 soul in adversity " % And is it not so, that the notice 
 which the Lord has taken of you, and the care he has 
 exercised over you have made you love him more ten- 
 derly than you ever did before ? You could say with 
 David, '^ Thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy 
 gentleness hath made me great." Oh, what prayer 
 you have poured out wdien his chastening was upon 
 you! Such unwonted prayer, I say, for if you will 
 turn to the margin of your Bibles, in the twenty-sixth 
 chapter of Isaiah, at the seventeenth verse, you will 
 find this prayer of the chastened is called ^' sweet 
 speech." And truly it is sweet, and the love that 
 prompts it is passing sweet to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 I marvel not that he lets you suffer so much when 
 your suffering yields such rich perfume. Well, dear 
 friends, when we get so choice a compensation now, 
 what shall we receive hereafter % Surely in the ages 
 to come the lowliest of worshippers shall sing the 
 loudest, while heaven's resounding mansions ring with 
 shouts of sovereign grace. Their soprano notes shall 
 
Lame Sheep. 323 
 
 rise above the angels' liarps, and the full tide of human 
 voices with a distinctness like this — '' My soul doth 
 magnify the Lord, and m^/ spirit doth rejoice in God 
 my Saviour." The personal tribute of extraordinaiy 
 love and gratitude shall thrill out its solo, and then 
 blend with the general chorus. I have often wished 
 for myself, and I daresay you have wished the same, 
 that your voice might be loudest of the throng. 
 
 And now, to close, let us read our text again. 
 ^' Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and 
 the feeble knees. And make straight paths for your 
 J'eet, lest that ivhich is lame he turned out of the ivay ; hut 
 let it rather he healedJ^ Do see to it that ye are not 
 neghgent of this ministry of love. Remember how 
 high a reputation Job got in his day for the care he 
 bestowed on those who were frail and infirm. Eliphaz 
 the Temanite said of him, '^Behold, thou hast instructed 
 many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. 
 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and 
 thou hast strengthened the feeble hands." And do not 
 forget the reproof which the Lord gave to the shepherds 
 of Israel : " The diseased have ye not strengthened, 
 neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither 
 have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have 
 ye brought again that which was di'iven away, neither 
 have ye sought that which was lost." Above all, con- 
 sider the example of our Lord Jesus. His eye was 
 always quick to spy out the lame, the blind, the halt ; 
 and his hand was always stretched out immediately 
 for their relief. "He went about doing good, and 
 healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God 
 >vas with him." And if you and I, beloved, walk with 
 
324 Christian Energy. 
 
 God and God be with us, our godliness will sliow itself 
 in the pity we feel and the kindness we show to the 
 feeble and the faulty, the cranky and the crippled. 
 
 The Lord bless these counsels to the strong, and 
 these cordials to the weak : and may we all come to 
 that blessed land where " the inhabitant shall not say I 
 am sick : the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven, 
 their iniquity " Amen. 
 
^mf ^it> h k^'t m^ fmik^y 
 
 The time is short"— 1 Corinthians vii. 29. 
 
 ^ ^ IIE text does not say tliat time is short. That 
 were very true. Compared with eternity, 
 time at the very longest is but as a point. 
 But note what the text does say — " The 
 time is short." It is the time of our Ufe, 
 the space of our opportunity, the Httle 
 while we shall be upon the present stage of 
 action, that is short. It is narrow and contracted, as 
 the original implies : " Behold," saith the Psalmist, 
 " thou hast made my days as a hand-breath and mine 
 aiie is as nothino; before thee!" Brief is the season 
 we have allotted to us, brethren, in which w^e can serve 
 the Lord our God. 
 
 This is a truth which everybody believes, knows, and 
 confesses. It is trite as a proverb on every tongue ; 
 yet how few of us act as if we believed it. We are 
 conscious of the precariousness of other people's lives, 
 but somehow or other we persuade ourselves that our 
 fiwn time is not quite as limited. We think we have 
 ^' ample time and verge enough ;" but we wonder that 
 our neighbours can be so careless and prodigal of days and 
 
326 Christian Energy, 
 
 years, for we observe the ^Tinkles on tlieir face, and de- 
 tect the grey hairs on then' head, and perceive the augu- 
 ries of death in their mien, and we doubt not they will 
 soon have to render in their account. ^' All men think 
 all men mortal but themselves " is a night-thought that 
 may well startle us, as we rest from the business and the 
 bustle, or the waste and wantonness of each receding 
 day. Why hide ye from yourselves the waning of your 
 own life-work, the weakening of your own strength, the 
 weaving of vour own shrouds ? As a creature you are 
 frail ; as an inhabitant of the world you are exposed ta 
 casualties ; as a man there is an appointed time for you 
 on earth. You must pass off with the tide, you must be 
 swept away with the generation. " The time is short." 
 Ask the angel what he thinks of the life of a mortal, 
 and he will tell you that he remembers when the first 
 man was made, and since then the earth has been 
 changing, ever changing its tenants. Peradventure he 
 is baffled to recount the races that have come and 
 gone, the sires that have given place to sons in count- 
 less succession. For a little while they floated on the 
 current, then they sunk beneath the stream. At first 
 they struggled on through centuries, after that they 
 failed, any one of them, to attain a tenth of that pris- 
 tine age. " Short-lived ! " saith he, " they seem to me 
 as leaves upon a tree, as insects on the earth, as flies in 
 the air. Like the grass that flourisheth in the meadows, 
 scarcely have I gazed upon them ere they are cut down, 
 withered, and gone." Or if you never meet with an 
 angel to interrogate him, talk famiharly -s^ith one of 
 the trees of an ancient forest. Ask what it has seen, 
 and, though it cannot speak in tones articulate, you can 
 
Bvipf Life is here our Portion, 327 
 
 lend it a tongue, and it will tell you tliat hundreds of 
 years liave passed, and history has accumulated, from 
 the time when when it was an acorn, till the time when 
 now it covers half an acre with its far-spreading 
 foliacrc. Yes, the oak and elm can tell us that man is 
 but an infant of to-day. Or would you rather take 
 counsel of your fellow creatures, then ask the old man 
 *' whose wasting oil is spent, and whose hasty sand is 
 ebbing to the last,'* — ask him what he thinks of life. 
 He will tell you that when he was a boy he thought 
 he had a wealth of time before him. So heavily did 
 the days hang on his hands that he played the hours 
 away, and was glad when birthdays told of the year.'? 
 that were gone. His strong desire it was, and his 
 panting ambition, to get loose from the moorings of 
 childhood, and launch out into the great wide sea of 
 turmoil and enterprise : but now he looks back on these 
 seventy years, that have been gradually accumulating, 
 as a dream. Through all the fitful stages of life's 
 journey time present was always perplexing, it must be 
 past before it is understood. Seems it not to him as 
 yesterday when he left his father's roof to be an ap- 
 prentice ? He remembers it distinctly, and fondly tells 
 you of some quaint thing that happened in those olden 
 times. How short a while since the bells rang out 
 his marriage-peal, and now his children have passed 
 their childhood; and his children's children climb his 
 knee, and call him " grandfather." Yet he remembers 
 wdien, as it were but yesterday, he was himself a little 
 child, and his grandsire clasped him to his bosom. My 
 venerable friends, you will bear witness that I do not 
 exaggerate ; mine is not the language of hyperbole ; it 
 
^^^ Christian Energi/. 
 
 h only the feeble expression of a forcible experience. 
 You can realise more vividly tlian I can paint the 
 sensation of looking back over the entire span of three 
 score years and ten; which to the striplin.. appears a 
 very long life, while to you it merely seems\s a watch 
 m the night. And yet, perhaps, there are among you 
 some hoai-y veterans, some elderly matrons, who need to 
 be remmded that the time is short. Present health 
 and activity may tempt you to forget that nature in 
 you stands on the verge of her confine. What if 
 yom- frame be strong ; what if the bloom still lino-er on 
 jw cheeks; you have nearly reached the god, the 
 allotted term that mortals cannot pass! I have seen 
 fine days in autumn; the air as soft as balmy sprinc; 
 but they gave no promise of another summer. I knew 
 the season was too far advanced for winter to delay its 
 approach much longer. So, too, my aged friend, be 
 qT *h^'°"i" "^ y"'^!- departiu-e is drawing near, 
 bhoiild five, or even ten years more be gi'anted you, 
 how quickly they must pass when seventy years bv- 
 gone so rapidly have fled ! The remnant of your days 
 f surely cover little space when the whole compass 
 ot your life has stretched over so small an area. Be par- 
 simonious of minutes now, though you mav have been 
 once prodigal of years. From the fag end of life you 
 can have no spare time to parley and postpone; to 
 resolve and trifle with resolutions : to waste and squander 
 golden opportunities. "The time is short." But to 
 estimate this oracle truly we may well tui-n from the 
 cycles that angels have witnessed, the centuries that 
 trees have flourished, and the seasons that have come 
 and gone m the memory of our sires, to consider the 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion, 329 
 
 years of the riglit hand of the Most High. Inquire 
 at the mouth of the Lord. Take counsel of the 
 Eternal God. " A thousand years in his sight are hut 
 as yesterday ichen it is 2?ast, and as a watch in the nightJ" 
 *' One day is toith the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
 thousand years as one dayT " He sitteth upon the circle 
 of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass- 
 hoppers.^^ Oh sirs, what ephemera we are; what 
 insects of the hour! Like the grass we spring up, 
 like grass we are mowed down. Compared with 
 the lifetime of the Eternal what is our Hfe? Nay, 
 there is no comparison ; it is almost too insignifi- 
 cant for contrast. ''My days are like a shadow that 
 declineth; and. I am icithered like grass: hut thou, 
 Lord, slialt endure for ever, and thy remenihrance 
 to all generations^ I wish I had power to impress 
 this truth on every heart. As I have not I shall 
 try to point the moral it suggests, and pray that 
 the Spirit of God may seal the instruction in every 
 heart. 
 
 "The time is short." It u-ams ; it suggests; it 
 inspires; it alarms. 
 
 It warns. If ye knew the sterling worth of time 
 ye would shrink from the smallest waste of so precious 
 an article. Fools say that time is long, but only 
 fools. They say that time is made for slaves. He 
 alone is a free man who knows how properly to use his 
 time; and he is a slave indeed who finds it slavery 
 to pursue his calling with a good conscience, and serve 
 his God w^ith diligence, fidelity, and zeal. Knowing 
 that " The time is short " you and I have not au 
 hour to squander upon unprofitable amusements. All 
 
330 Christian Energy. 
 
 amusements are necessarily a dissipation of strength 
 and a misuse of time. 
 
 There are some diversions which afford a respite from 
 the incessant strain of labour and anxiety, and are pro- 
 fitable to strengthen the mind and brace up the nerves. 
 These are not only allowable, they are fit and proper. 
 But while recreation is both needful and expedient to 
 keep the mental and physical powers in working order, 
 we can give no countenance to such gambols and gam- 
 blings as rather tend to enervate than to invigorate the 
 constitution. Popular taste displays its own perverse- 
 ness in seeking to extract pleasure from folly and vice. 
 Fashion will lend its sanction to many a pastime that 
 ill becomes any wise, rational, intelligent persons : but 
 the Christian in his relaxations must be a Protestant, 
 seeking healthy impulse and avoiding baneful stimulant. 
 The time is short ; we cannot afford to lose it in sense- 
 less talk, idle gossip, or domestic scandals. Nor can we 
 afford to plan a round of empty frivolities to while away 
 an afternoon or an evening, as the manner of some is. 
 We shudder at your formal calls and punctilious visits. 
 Our time is too precious to be thus frittered away. 
 Well might Cotton Mather complain of the intrusion 
 after a person had called to see him, as people will call 
 on ministers, as though their time were of no import- 
 ance. *' I would sooner have given that man a handful 
 of money," said he, "than that he should have thus 
 wasted my time." You count it little to trespass on 
 our minutes, but in so doing you may spoil our hours. 
 Whether you think it or not, it is often distracting to 
 be molested mth trivial things in the midst of sacred 
 engagements. We may be called from an absorbing 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion. 331 
 
 study, wc may be rudely Interrupted wlien our knees 
 are i3ent and our heart is lifted up to God in niterces- 
 sion ; we may have our minds hurried off from the 
 weio'htiest matters to listen to the most frivolous obser- 
 vations. It is said of Henry Martin that he never 
 wasted an hour. I wish the same could be said of us, 
 that we wasted neither an hour of our own time, nor 
 an hour of other people's time. Brethren, the tune is 
 too short to make a desire for friendly intercourse an 
 excuse for frothy conversation. It requires no stretch 
 of imagination to picture to yoiu'selves two men who are 
 both believers in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, and 
 accounted faithful, meeting in a room, and gi'eeting 
 each other as friends. They will surely have some- 
 thincT choice to talk about. All heaven is full of God s 
 glory, and the earth is full of his riches. There is 
 rano-e enough for thought, for speech, for profitable 
 converse. Listen awhile. One observes that the 
 weather is very cold. ^^Yes," says the other, '^I 
 think the frost is still very sharp." There they stick. 
 They have nothing further to say, till presently one ot 
 them resumes, '^t will be rather slippery travelhng 
 to-nio-ht;" to which comes the reply, ^' I dare say 
 many horses will fall down." And are these the men 
 of whom Peter testifies that they are redeemed from a 
 vain conversation, received by tradition from their 
 fathers with the precious blood of Christ? Are these 
 men who have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit . 
 Is this the frivolity that becomes the heirs of heaven^ 
 So time is squandered, and the faculty of speech abused. 
 There is an ancient prophecy which I should lo^^e to see 
 fulfilled in modern history. In "David's Psalm ot 
 
332 Christian Energy, 
 
 Praise " (only one psalm is so entitled), lie says, ^' All thy 
 works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall 
 bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy king- 
 dom and talk of thy power ; to make known unto the 
 sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of 
 his kingdom." By such converse as that, beloved, ye 
 might redeem the time in thesa evil days. But you 
 are afraid of being charged with cant, or with pushing 
 religion a little too far. Brethren, it is high time we 
 had a little more cant, and did push religion a little 
 farther than has been our wont ; for golden opportuni- 
 ties are lost, profitable interchange of holy thought is 
 lamentably neglected. In days of yore, ^'they that 
 feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the 
 Lord hearkened and heard." Not much of this prevails 
 now among professing Christians. Little enough is 
 spoken worth men's hearing, much less worth God's 
 hearing. And if he did hear it, instead of putting it 
 down in '^ a book of remembrance " and saying, ^' They 
 shall be mine," surely in his infinite mercy he would 
 forbear to record and blot out of memory the vain 
 thoughts and vacant words which could only be a 
 stigma upon their characters. By the brevity of time, 
 then, and by the rapidity of its flight, I admonish you 
 to refrain from all abuses of the tongue. Do invest 
 each hour in some profitable manner, that when past it 
 may not be lost. Let your lips be a fountain from 
 which all streams that flow shall savour of iirace and 
 goodness. 
 
 The time, moreover, is much too short for indecision 
 and vacillation. Your resolving and retracting, your 
 planning and scheming, your sleeping and dreaming, 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion, 333 
 
 your starting up from slumber only to sink down into 
 a drowsier state than before, are a mockery of life, and 
 a wilful murder of time. Of how many of you is it 
 true that if ever you did entertain a noble purpose you 
 never found a convenient season to follow it out. On 
 the verge of conversion sometimes, you have halted till 
 your convictions have grown cool. Ten or twenty 
 years ago you listened to the appeal, " My son, give 
 me thy heart"; and you answered, "I will"; but to 
 this day you have never fulfilled your work. " Go 
 work in my vineyard," said the Master. "I go, sir,'* 
 was your prompt reply. Yet you have never been* 
 To-day, as aforetime, you stand idling. Some of you, 
 indeed were, thirty or forty years ago, in a more hopeful 
 condition than you are at present. What account can 
 you give of yourselves? What has become of those 
 intervening years ? The infinite mercy of God has kept 
 you out of hell, but there is no guarantee that his 
 longsuffering will shield you from destruction another 
 instant. Oh, sirs, the time is short, the business urgent, 
 the crisis imminent. 'Tis very madness to be hectoring, 
 hesitating, and halting between two opinions. Your 
 vote, sir, before the poll closes. If God be God, serve 
 him. Decide quick, speak sharp. If not, take the 
 alternative, — serve Baal. Let your mind be made up 
 without another moment's delay. How long, how long 
 halt ye — ah ! how long will ye have to halt between 
 two opinions % And you Christian people, with your 
 grand illusive projects, how they melt away ! Some of 
 you would have done a great deal that is useful by now 
 if you had not dreamed of doing so much that is im- 
 posing. Oh, what wonderful plans for evangelising 
 
334 Christian Energy, 
 
 London, for converting the whole continent of Europe 
 to Christ float in the brain, evaporate in a speech, and 
 nothing is done. We are like the King of Russia of 
 olden times, who always wanted to take a second step 
 before he took the first. We are always projecting 
 some wonderful scheme that proves too wonderful ever 
 to be carried out. So we dream of what ought to be 
 and should be, of what might be, and as we hope may 
 be. Such *' dreams are the children of an idle brain." 
 The dreamers grow listless, and nothing is done. In 
 the name of the eternal God, I beseech you, if you love 
 him, rise up and get to work. Better slay a single 
 enemy than dream of slaughtering an army. Better 
 that you sow a single grain of corn, or plant a single 
 blade of grass, than dream about fertilising the 
 Sahara, or reclaiming from the mighty sea untold 
 acres of fertile land. Do something, sirs, do some- 
 thing. It is high time to awake out of sleep, for the 
 time is short. 
 
 "The time is short." This may serve to warn us 
 against another folly; that of speculating upon nice 
 points of controversial theology. You know how the 
 school-men used to debate and ^ATangle, clash, and divide 
 in feuds and factions. Fain would they solve the query- 
 how many angels could stand on the point of a needle, 
 and with many a proposition no less sophistical or 
 absurd would they weary themselves. Strangely indeed 
 was the ingenuity of men taxed to find subjects for 
 discussion in the dark days of those dull doctors of 
 learning. There is a little of the spirit abroad now. 
 Ministers will devote whole sermons to the discussion 
 of some crotchet or quibble that does not signify the 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion, 335 
 
 turn of a hair practically to anybody in the universe. 
 I have generally noticed that the less important the 
 point is, the more savagely will some persons defend it, 
 as if the world might go to rack and ruin, and all the 
 sinners in it go blindfold to perdition, and the work of 
 salvation must stand still to have this point discussed. 
 One brother, who meets me occasionally, can never be 
 five minutes in my company, but what he attacks me 
 upon the question of free agency and predestination ; 
 and I told him the last time I saw him, that I would 
 have it out with him one of these days, but I must defer 
 it till after the day of judgment, for I was too busy to 
 talk to him about that just now. And I do feel so 
 about a great many questions. There are brethren 
 w^ho can fully explain the book of Revelation, though I 
 generally find that they exclaim one against the other, 
 till they declaim each other off the face of the earth. 
 But I would sooner be able to proclaim the cross of 
 Christ, and explain the gospel of Matthew, Mark, 
 Luke, and John, than decipher the imagery of Ezekiel, 
 or the symbols of the Apocalypse. Blessed is he who 
 can expound the mysteries. I have not any doubt 
 about his blessedness ; but I am perfectly satisfied with 
 another blessedness, namely, if I can bring sinners to 
 Jesus, and teach the saints some practical truths which 
 may guide them in daily life. It seems to me the time 
 is much too short to go up in a balloon with specula- 
 tions, or to go down into the mines of profound thought, 
 to bring up some odds and ends and scraps of singular 
 knowledge. We want to save souls, and conduct them 
 to that heaven where God unfolds his presence and 
 shines eternal day. This seems to me to be the pressing 
 
336 Christian Energy. 
 
 demand upon us now that the time is short, and the 
 night Cometh when '' no man can work." 
 
 The time is short ; let this admonish us, brethren, to 
 singleness of purpose. We must have only one aim. 
 Had we plenty of time, we might try two or three 
 schemes at once, though even then we should most 
 probably fail for want of concentrating our energies ; 
 but as we have very little time, we had better economise 
 it by attending to one thing. The man that devotes 
 all his thought and all his strength to the accomplish- 
 ment of one reasonable object is generally successful. 
 My soul, bend thyself down, and lay thyself out for the 
 glory of God. Be this the one aim of thy entire being. 
 Form yom- friendships and order your occupations so as 
 to fulfil this first highest duty of life. Be it your one 
 sole motive to live for his honour, and, if necessary, 
 even to die to promote his renown among the sons of 
 men. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice." Attune 
 your souls to the great Hallelujah — " While I live will 
 I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God 
 while I have my being; Let everything that hath 
 breath praise the Lord; Bless thou the Lord, O my 
 soul." Oh, my brethren ! this sublime enthusiasm will 
 work wonders. In vain you dissipate your strength and 
 fritter away your opportunities by dividing your atten- 
 tion. You want to be a Christian; meanwhile your 
 heart is set upon getting riches. You would store yom» 
 mind with the learning and wisdom of the world, you 
 wish to gain repute as a good talker in company and a 
 convivial guest at the social board. Ambition prompts 
 you to seek fame among your fellows. Veiy well, I 
 shall not denounce any one of these things, but I would 
 
Brief Life is here our Fortlon, 337 
 
 use every persuasive to induce you who are believers in 
 Christ to renounce the world. If Christ has bought 
 you with his blood, and redeemed you from this present 
 evil world, he has henceforth a claim on you as his 
 servant, and it is at your peril you take up with any 
 pursuits that are inconsistent with a full surrender of 
 yourself and your service to him. You belong to him ; 
 live wholly to him. The reason why the majority of 
 Christians never attain to any eminence in the divine 
 life is because they let the floods of their life run away 
 in a dozen little, trickling rivulets, wdiereas if they 
 cooped them up into one channel, and sent that one 
 stream rolling on to the glory of God, there w^ould be 
 such a force and power about their character, their 
 thoughts, their efforts, and their actions, that they 
 would "live wdiile they lived." 
 
 " The time is short." This suggests. Do you 
 know wdiat reflection this fact suggested to me? 
 Surely, then, thought I, I have some opportunity to 
 follow out the work of faith, the patience of hope and 
 the labour of love, though not the opportunity I once had. 
 Then picturing to myself an ideal of a short life all 
 used, nothing wasted, all consecrated, nothing profaned, 
 I seemed to see a little child, a little boy giving his 
 young heart to Christ. I saw the lad believing in Jesus 
 while yet beneath his father's roof and under his 
 mother's care. No sooner saved himself than he began 
 at once to serve God after a boy's way, and still in- 
 creasing in intelligence and energy as a stripling, and 
 afterwards as a }'Oung man, from the very first he 
 devoted himself wdth all the intensity of his being. So 
 diligent and persevering was he that he lost no time. 
 
 22 
 
338 Christian Energy. 
 
 So jealously did he watch his own heart, and so far was 
 he from falling into sin, that there were no dreary 
 intervals spent in -wandering and retracing his steps in 
 backsliding and repenting of the evil, in getting luke- 
 warm and rekindling former ardour. With my mind's 
 eye I followed that young man living a holy life through 
 a succession of years, getting up to the highest possible 
 platform of spirituality, and keeping there, and all the 
 while blessed w^itli such abundance of the graces and 
 gifts of the Spirit of God as should make him bring 
 forth much fruit to the glory of the Father, do much 
 for the honour of Jesus, prove a great blessing to the 
 church, bear a rich testimony to the world, and diffuse 
 saving benefits to the souls of men. This was my ideal 
 of a vessel fit for the blaster's use. I lino-ered lovin^lv 
 upon it. The child became a man. His life was brief. 
 It was soon over. Our days on earth are a shadow ; 
 but they may happily be radiant as they pass and leave 
 a trail of light behind. Might not, then, God himself 
 from his eternal dwelling-place look down on the tran- 
 sient career I have sketched with a measure of admi- 
 ration? Tlie slender threads of fleeting moments are 
 w^orked up into the goodly fabric of a complete bio- 
 graphy. Endowed with one talent — time — and that 
 endowment sparse I The gift so prized as to be econo- 
 mised ; so looked after that it is never squandered ; so 
 usefully employed that its judicious expenditure can 
 never be vainly regretted: so profitably invested that 
 the faithful stew^ard welcomes the advent of his Lord, 
 ready and anxious to give an account. This is as I 
 would wish to be. Some of you that are unconverted 
 can never hope to receive the greeting that awaits such 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion, 
 
 339 
 
 a faitliful servant. You have lost the golden oppor- 
 tunity. You have sunk your patrimony in riotous 
 living. But are there not children here to whom this 
 is possible^ and youths who might convert my day-dream 
 into a narrative ? Oh for men and women with one 
 ambition and one enterprise, to glorify the Lord. 
 Ardently do I desire that God shoukl be glorified in 
 me, and that not in a small measure. I have prayed 
 and I do pray him to make the most he can make of 
 me — to do it anyhow. What if to this end I must be 
 cast into the furnace of affliction and suffer for his 
 sake ! What if my honour should be trampled in the 
 dust and my name become a hissing and a by-word, and 
 a reproach among the sons of men, while the witness 
 of my integrity is on high? Here am I, O Lord, to 
 do aught, to bear aught that thou shalt bid. Only do 
 get as much glory to thine own name as can be out of 
 such a poor creature as I am. Who will join me in 
 this petition? Vows made in our own strength are 
 vain. But I solemnly charge each Christian young 
 man to foster this aspiration. In the name of him who 
 has redeemed you with his blood, gird up the loins of 
 vour mind. Survey the course you have to run. Pre- 
 pare for the good fight of faith, in which you are to 
 engage. Live to the utmost possible consecration of 
 your entire manhood in its triple nature — spirit, soul, 
 and body. Yield yourself up unreservedly to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. Do not stop to parley. The time is 
 short. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
 thy might, for there is no work nor device, nor know- 
 ledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." 
 <*The time is short." This inspires us. It 
 
840 Christian Energi/, 
 
 ought to fire us ^vitll zeal for immediate action. The 
 sun posts on, the sands run do^yn. Now is the accepted 
 time. Let those who love the Lord be prompt. The- 
 time to do the deeds that thou must do, or leave thenx 
 undone, flies swiftly past. Be quick. Say not I will 
 do this by-and-by. Dispatch it at once. Other duties- 
 await thee. Brief is the space allotted thee for all. 
 Are your children converted? Pray with them to- 
 night. Let not to-morrow go without putting your 
 arms about their necks, and kneeling down with them 
 devoutly, and praying fervently that God would save 
 their souls. It is the King's business ; it demands 
 haste. " The time is short" for others as well as your- 
 self. A dear brother told me a week or two ago that a 
 man who worked for him frequently brought in goods 
 when they were finished, and he thought that next 
 time the man came in he would speak to him abont his 
 soul. When he came, however, business absorbed the 
 employer's attention, and the man passed away. He 
 felt, he did not know exactly why, pricked in his con- 
 science, and resolved that, as he came twice-a-week, on 
 the next occasion he would inquire as to his eternal 
 interests ; but it was too late. Listead of coming 
 again a messenger brought tidings that he was dead.. 
 Startled by the news, he could find no comfort in 
 regrets, though he bewailed as one who could not for- 
 give himself a hundred wasted opportunities in the 
 presence of one keen self-reproach. Oh that an inspi- 
 ration would constrain you to serve the Lord now I 
 While you are meditating a fine chance some day you 
 are making a foul mess at this hour. Every time the 
 clock ticks it seems to say "now." The time is so 
 
Brief Life is here oar Portion, 341 
 
 ^liort that the matter is urgent. Do not wait, young 
 man, to preach Jesus till you have had more instruc- 
 tion. Begin at once. You that mean to do something 
 for the poor of London when you have hoarded up 
 some more money, spend your money now; do it at 
 once. You that mean to leave a large sum to chari- 
 ties when you die, defer it not. Be your own executors. 
 Lay out the capital at once : get some joy and comfort 
 in seeing how it is done. Now is the time to carry a 
 good purpose to good effect. Before you were saved 
 the message to you was, "To-day if ye will hear his 
 voice, harden not your heart." After you are saved the 
 message to you is, " To-day obey his voice, and serve 
 the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and 
 strength." *^ The time is short." !Make the most 
 of it.^ 
 
 *' The time is short." I want to rino- this sentence 
 
 o 
 
 louder and louder into your ears. Oh let it inspire 
 you to pray for immediate conversions. I rejoice to 
 know that our beloved friends, Messrs. Moody and 
 Sankey, are coming to London to work for Christ. God 
 grant success to all their labours. May they gather in 
 hundreds of thousands of souls. But I have beea 
 pained to meet with some who are expecting to get 
 converted when they come. Is not such procrastina- 
 tion perilous ? Dare any of you run the risk of living 
 till then? Will you wilfully abide in wicked unbelief 
 for a single hour ? Can you brook the thought of re- 
 maining month after month in jeopardy of your soul ] 
 Is it safe to tempt the Lord and provoke the anger 
 of the Most High ? Oh sirs, while you flatter your- 
 selves with pleasing prospects you are beguiling your 
 
342 Clu'istlan Energy. 
 
 hearts mth a reckless presumption ! We want you to 
 be converted, and no time can be more suitable than 
 this present time. Forsake your sin immediately. Do 
 not turn back to dally with it a little longer. Believe 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ, and lay hold on the promise 
 of eternal life without any more ado. You may never 
 see another morrow, or the desire that whets your appe- 
 tite now may fail you then. This is our prayer, that 
 jou may now be brought into the fold of Christ before 
 the year closes, before the sun sets, before the Sabbath 
 ends. 
 
 But there are other considerations. Seeincr the time 
 
 o 
 
 is short, let us bear with patience the ills that vex us. 
 Are we very poor ? The time is short. Does the bitter 
 cold pierce through our scanty garments ? The time 
 is short. Is consumption beginning to prey on our 
 trembling frame? The time is short. Are we un- 
 kindly treated by our kinsfolk? Do our comrades 
 revile, and our neighbours mock us? The time is 
 short. Have we to bear evil treatment from an un-^ 
 generous world ? The time is short. Come there cruel 
 taunts to try our tempers ? The time is short. The 
 train is in motion. We are travelling at express speed. 
 We shall soon be beyond the reach of all the inci- 
 dents and accidents that disturb and distract us. As 
 we travel home to our Father's house the distance 
 diminishes, and we begin to sight the city of the 
 blessed, till we think of ''the home over there.^^ **The 
 time is short." It is needless to murmur or repine, 
 Why trouble yourselves about what you will do a 
 month or two hence ? You will probably not be here ; 
 you will be in heaven. Your eyes will have '' beheld 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion. 343 
 
 the King in his beauty ; you ^vill have seen the land 
 that is very far off," for *' The time is short." 
 
 "The way may be rough, but it cannot be long; 
 So smooth it with hope and cheer it with song." 
 
 Worklly-mindedness ill becomes us -vvho have con- 
 fessed that \iQ are strangers and pilgrims on the eartli. 
 The time is short in which we can hold any possessions 
 in this terrestrial sphere. Then let us not love any- 
 thing here below too fondly. We brought nothing into 
 this world, and it is certain Ave can carry nothing out. 
 Survey your broad acres, but remember you will not 
 long be able to walk across them. Look on your 
 plenteous crops, but ere long another shall reap the 
 profit of those fields. Count your gold and silver, but 
 know that wealth, greedily as it is sought, wall not give 
 you present immunity from sickness and sorrow, 
 neither wdll it secui'e your welfare when called to quit 
 your frail tenement. Trust in the living God. Love 
 the Lord, and let eternal things absorb your thoughts 
 and engage your affections. " The time is short : it 
 remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though 
 they had none ; and they that weep, as though they 
 wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they re- 
 joiced not ; and they that use this world, as not abusing 
 it ; for the fashion of this world passeth away." 
 
 Are these gloomy reflections ? Nay, dear brethren, 
 the fact that the time is short should inspire us whu 
 are of the household of faith with the most joyous ex- 
 pectations. Do you really believe in the everlasting 
 kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'? 
 Do you really believe it — that your head is to wear a 
 
344 Chi-istlan Energy/. 
 
 cro"\^ai of life that fadetli not away? Do you really 
 believe it — that these feet of yours, all shod mth silver 
 sandals, will stand upon that street of pure trans- 
 parent gold ? Do you really believe it — that these 
 hands shall pluck celestial fruits from trees whose 
 leaves can ne\'er wither, and that you shall lie down in 
 the spice-beds in the gardens of the blessed ? Do you 
 believe it — that , these eyes shall see the King in that 
 day when he comes in his glory, and that these bones 
 shall rise again from the grave, and your bodies shall 
 be endowed with an incorruptible existence ? " Yes," 
 say you, " we do believe it, and believe it intensely too." 
 Well, then, I would that ye realised the reality as so 
 near, so very near, that you were waiting expectant of 
 its fulfilment. Who would cry and fret about the 
 passing troubles of a day when he saw the heavens 
 open, beheld the beckoning hand, and heard the voice 
 that called him hence. Oh that the glory might come 
 streaming into your soul till you forget the darkness 
 of the way ! Oh that the breeze from these goodly 
 mountains would fan yoii ! Oh that the spray from 
 that mighty ocean would refresh you ! Oh that the 
 music of those bells of heaven in yonder turrets would 
 enliven you ! Then would ye speed your way towards 
 the rest that remaineth for the people of God, inspired 
 with sacred ardour and dauntless courage. But the 
 nno;odlv are not so. It is to them I must address the 
 last word, *^ The time is short." This alarms us ; and 
 well indeed it may on their account. Let me toll a 
 knell. It is a dismal knell I have to toll for the un- 
 (•onverted man, to whom life has been a joy, for he has 
 prospered in the world. You have got it at last. You 
 
Brief Life is here our Portion. 345 
 
 have succeeded in the enterprise on wliich you set your 
 heart. You have bought the estate that you longed 
 to secure. It is a fine place certainly ; but you have 
 only got it for a short term, sir — two or three years ! 
 Would you have taken in on tliat temi ? " Oh, not 
 I," say you, " I would not have taken it at nine 
 hundred and ninety-nine years lease. Freeholds for me ! 
 Freeholds for me ! Nothing short of a freehold I" Did 
 I say three years ? Nay, there is not a man beneath 
 the sun that can guarantee that you will hold it three 
 •weeks. " The time is short." Drive down the broad 
 avenue ; walk round the park ; look into the old feudal 
 mansion ; but the time is short, very short, and your 
 tenure veiy limited. You have spread your canvas, you 
 have plied your sinews, you have exacted the utmost of 
 your brains, and you have gained your object. You 
 are possessed of real property. It is bond fide. What 
 next ? Why, make your will. The thing is urgent. 
 The time is short. But what have you not done ? You 
 have not believed in Christ. You have not embraced 
 the gospel. You have not found salvation. You have 
 not laid hold on eternal life. You have not a hope to 
 solace you when your strength fails and you pant for 
 breath. How few the opportunities that remain ! I 
 look back twenty years of my life and I see my 
 weekly sermons bound in twenty volumes. I can 
 hardly realise the fact that I have been preaching for 
 twenty years. Some of you have attended my ministry 
 all tlie while. Another year has almost ended ; another 
 volume has just accumulated. Well, not many of you 
 will hear another twenty years' sermons. This is not 
 a wild conjecture. The statistics of mortality reduce 
 
346 Christian Energy. 
 
 contingencies and result in certainty. Among tliis mass 
 of people we may positively predict the speedy exit of 
 a certain proportion, and the resistless force, like wave 
 o'er wave, will soon bear ns away — 
 
 " And am I born to die, 
 To lay this body down ? 
 And must my trembling spirit fly 
 Into a world unknown ? 
 
 " Soon as from earth I go, 
 What will become of me ? 
 Eternal happiness or woe 
 Must then my portion be." 
 
 Eun your chance, careless, callous, void of conscience. 
 It comes at length. You ail a little, your trifling in- 
 disposition does not yield to treatment. The symptoms 
 grow serious. The disease is dangerous. Your death 
 is imminent. Pain unnerves you. Terror distracts 
 you. Your family, your friends look at you with help- 
 less pity. The doctor has just left you in dismay. 
 Send for the priest or fetch the parson. But what can 
 they do for you unless you believe in Jesus? 'Tis 
 over, the last struggle ! Then picture yourself to 
 yourself — a lost spirit, asking for a drop of water to 
 cool its tongue ! That will be your portion, sinner, 
 *^ Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." Be- 
 think you, sirs ; what a short step there is between you 
 and death. What a short step between you and hell, 
 unless you are delivered by a great ransom. Do you 
 still imagine that there is time enough and to spare. I 
 beseech you, do not cherish so vain a thought. It may 
 be you suspect me of exaggerating. That I cannot do. 
 
Br'ii'f Life is here our Portion, 347 
 
 Time is still rushing on, swift but silent. While wc 
 speak th-e minutes pass, the hour is soon gone, the day 
 is almost spent^ I charge you, then, by the Ever 
 Blessed, now listen to the warning ; escape from sin ; 
 get out of that broad road which leads to destruction ; 
 believe in Jesus; la}- hold on eternal life. May the 
 Spirit of God arouse you. May these words be blessed 
 to you. They should be put more forcibly if I knew how. 
 With all the fervour of my soul I entreat you, for I 
 know your everlasting interests are in imminent 
 jeopardy. God grant you may not linger longer, lest 
 haply you linger too long, and perish in your lingering. 
 ^' The time is short." 
 
 In a little while there will be a concourse of persons 
 in the streets. Methinks I hear some one enquiring, 
 *' What are all these people w^aitlng for ? " " Do you 
 not know? He is to be buried to-day." "And who is 
 that?" "It is Spurgeon." "What! the man that 
 preached at the Tabernacle?" "Yes; he is to be 
 bui'ied to-day." That will happen very soon. And 
 when you see my coffin carried to the silent grave, I 
 should hke every one of you, wdiether converted or 
 not, to be constrained to say, " He did earnestly urge 
 us in plain and simple language not to put off the 
 consideration of eternal things. He did entreat us to 
 look to Christ. Now he is gone, our blood is not at his 
 door if we perish." God grant that you may not have 
 to bear the bitter reproach of your own conscience^ 
 But as I feel the time is short, I wdll stir you up so long 
 as I am in this Tabernacle ; and I do pray the Lord to 
 bless the word every time we preach it from this plat- 
 form. Oh, that some souls may be saved, that Jesus 
 
348 Christum Energy 
 
 Christ may be glorified, Satan defeated, and heaven 
 filled with saved ones. 
 
 " 'Tis not for man to trifle. Life is brief 
 And sin is here. 
 An age is but the falling of a leaf, 
 A dropping tear. 
 We have no time to sport away the hours ; 
 All must be earnest in a world like ours. 
 
 " Not many lives, but only one, have we — 
 Frail, fleeting man ; 
 How sacred should that one life ever be — 
 That narrow span ! 
 Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
 Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.'''i 
 
 F:i^?more and Alabaster, Steam Printers, 31, little Britain, E.C. 
 
WORKS BY C. H. SPURGEON, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY PASSMORE & ALABASTER, 
 
 4, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.G. 
 
 TREASURY OF DAVID: Containing an Original 
 
 Exposition of the Book of Psalms ; a Collection of Illustrative 
 Extracts from tbe whole range of Literature ; a series of 
 Homiletical Hints upon almost every verse ; and list of Writers 
 upon each Psalm. By C. H. Spukgeon. Yol, I., containing 
 Psalms I. to XXVI. Price 8s. Eighth Thousand. 
 
 In liis preface to Lange's New Commentary on the Psalms, Dr. Schaff, the 
 New York editor, thus refers to Mr. Spurgeon's recently published work: 
 ** The most important homiletical and practical Avork of the age on the Psalter 
 is the ' Treasury of David,' by Charles H. Spurgeon. Full of the force and 
 genius of this celebrated preacher, and rich iii selections from the entire range 
 of literature, especially from the Puritan divines." 
 
 " No man, whatever his theological predilections may be, who has a spark 
 of justice in him, will hesitate to pronounce the work of great ment, revealing 
 an intellect of remarkable vivacity and "sigour, and a soul aflame with religious 
 earnestness." — Horn Hist. 
 
 "The comments and expositions aboimd in rich, racy, and suggestive- 
 remarks, and they have a strong flavour of the homiletic and practical expo- 
 sition with which Mr. Spirrgeon is accustomed to accompany his public reading 
 of Holy Scripture. There is an intensity of belief, a fulness of assent to the 
 great points of Calvijiistic orthodoxy which our author would not be true to 
 himself if he attempted to conceal. The brief introductions are very well done, 
 and the abundant apparatus criticjis, the list of hundreds of writers on the 
 Psalms, whose meditations have been laid under contribution to enrich the 
 work, render this commentary on twenty-six of thom one of the most volu- 
 minous in existence. At all events, the volume will be an encyclopaedia ot 
 Tefcrcnce. "We trust that Mr. Spurgion may be encouraged to persevere in this 
 work, as he has been in almost every Christian enterprise with which his name 
 is associated."— ii/Z^Js/j Quarterly Jievietv. 
 
Vol. II., Psalms XXVII. to LII. Price 8s. 
 
 Sixth Thousand. 
 
 " We know of no work on the Psalms at all comparable to this. The 
 very marrow of most other expositions and commentaries extant is brought 
 together here, in addition to Mr. iSpurgeon's own characteristic cumments, and 
 all who are acquainted with his pulpit services will know how rich and forceful 
 these conunenis are. The extent of his researches maj" be estimated fi-om the 
 fact that between five and six hundred authors are quoted in this volume, and 
 that the list includes the names of the oldest English expositors, and of the 
 men who represent the learning and laborious investigation of our own times. 
 The work is indeed a ' Treasury.' .... We have no doubt that it will 
 .secure for itself ' immortaUtj',' and that ' Spurgeon on the Psalms,' will be a 
 standard work to be found in every Biblical library for generations hence." — 
 Literary World. 
 
 Vol. III., Psalms LIII. to LXXVIII. Price 8s. 
 
 Sixth Thousand. 
 
 " If the eloquent Baptist preacher of the Metropolitan Tabernacle had 
 produced nothing but these volumes he would certainly be entitled to the 
 
 Thanks of all Bible readers Mr. Spurgeon evidently considers 
 
 that there is something more important to be done in the pulpit than discussing 
 creeds, and as the expositions of the Psahus given by him to his congregation 
 on Sunday mornings fonn the basis of the present work, there is much more of 
 experimental than of doctrinal teaching, and where he does touch upon doc- 
 trinal points his remarks are, in the main, of a character that might be uttered 
 by any Evangelical clergj-man in the land."— TAe Hock. 
 
 Vol. IV, Psalms LXXIX to CIII. Price 8s. 
 
 Third Thousand. 
 
 " We are convinced that Mr. Spurgeon is doing an inestimable sei-vice to the 
 Church in compiHng this work. The years will come when as a preacher he will 
 be a tradition, and grandfathers will describe to their son's children the Aisits 
 they paid to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the style and character of the sermon, 
 the impression produced by the man, and the crowd of hearers, and the story will 
 lose none of its interest in the telLng; but such fame slowly, steadily dimiiushes, 
 and surely fades into the faintest possible outlines. It will be impossible for 
 futui-e generations to estimate the intiuence which Mr. Spurgeon, as a man of 
 speech and action, exerted in his own day; nor wiU the innumerable volumes of 
 sermons which have been issued, and still continue to appear, present any fair 
 means by which a critical judgment of his mental vigour can be obtained. Mr. 
 Spurgeon, like every great man, is so much more than his works ; but we believe 
 that this "Treasury of David" will do more to win the admiration of future 
 generations, and to sustain its author's reputation than anj- other of the multi- 
 plied works to Avhichhe has set his hand. It will Kve. There is nothing like it 
 in the English language, and it supplies a desideratum which most ministers 
 have felt. We tmst that Mr. Spurgeon will be spared in the fulness of strength 
 to complete what must be regarded by all thoughtful judges as his magnum 
 opus.'' — jf'Ae Enylish Independent. 
 
 " This fourth volume treats of Psalms seldom commented upon, and yet 
 among the richest in instniction and pathos. It is strange how many of the 
 Psalms have been overlooked or left without full exposition, and this fact 
 makes Mr. Spurgeon' s work the more valuable, as it makes it also the more 
 difB.cult to write. Mr. Spurgeon shows here the same wealth of illustrative 
 extracts, of racy English, and of Evangelical truth as in his previous volumes. 
 The homiletical hints are taken from almost every verse, and will be helpful, 
 not only to ' village ' preachers, but to preachers of town and city — to whom a 
 'hint' is often more precious than a sermon itself. We trust the author will 
 be favoured to finish his work very soon. When complete, it will be a magnum 
 opus, to wbich multitudes will resort for beauty and strength." — Freeman, 
 
3 
 
 THE INTERPRETER; or Scripture for Family Wor- 
 ship : beiiif,' bclcctcd passages of the word of God for every raoruiug and 
 evening- throughout the year, accompanied by a running coinment and 
 suitable Hymns. By C. H. Spvrgeon. Cloth 25s., Persian Morocco 32s., 
 Turkey Morocco 42s. Hymn Book, Is. 
 
 *• Calculated to be of great value to the many -who require guidance in 
 conducting family -worship. "—Z/ie Churchman's Monthly Fenny Jlayazine. 
 
 " The impress of Mr. Spurgeon's genius is observable in the very felicitous 
 arrangement of the passages of Scripture as well as in the characteristic running 
 comments, in -which latter, by the way, ^Ir. Spurgeon's theological views come 
 prominently to the front."— i'/ie Christian Family. 
 
 MORNING BY MORNING; or, Daily Readings for the 
 
 Family or the Closet. By C. H. Spukglon. Price 3s. 6d. 60th 
 
 Thousand. 
 "Those -who have learned the value of morning devotion, -will highly prize 
 these helps. All -who love a full-orbed gospel, vigorous, varied thought, and 
 a racy style, -will appreciate this \ol\xinc."—l{er.J. Ant/us, D.U., lieyeut's Park 
 College. 
 
 " The matter is -wide in its range, -with a dash of freshness, the -nork being 
 entirely original. There is nothnig crude or duubtfiil in the sentiment or 
 doctrine in either the readings or the 1 ynins. They are the honest, heartfelt, 
 outspoken heart-breathings of a devoted .servant of Uod, desiring to help others 
 on their journey heavenwards.'' — Wcaleyan Times. 
 
 EVENING BY EVENING ; or, Readings at Eventide fcr 
 
 the Family or the Closet. By C. H. Spurgeon. 3s; 6d. 40th Thousand. 
 "Ever since I became acquLiinted -with Mr. Spurgeon's 'Morning by 
 Morning,' I have reckoned it altogether priceless, not only myself using it 
 every day -with joy and profit, but sending it abroad to members of my family 
 in distant lands, giving it as a present to friend after friend, and in other -ways 
 endeavouring to extend the kuowkdge and use of it on every side. On learning 
 that ' Evening by Evening ' was published, hoAV gladly I bade it -wekoiue ! And 
 1 can humbly commend it in no higher terms than by simply saying that it -will 
 be foimil a tit companion, every way, for its forerunner of the morning." — 
 Charles J. Brown, JJ.D., Edinburgh. 
 
 THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT, 
 
 Containing the Sermons of C. II. Spikcko-n, preached dui-ing the past 
 twenty vears. Vols. I. and II., 6s. 6d. each. Vols. III. to VI., 7s. each. 
 Vol. VII., 8s. 6d.. Vols. VIII. to XX., 7s. each. The Sermons are 
 published every Thursday at Id. ; Monthly Parts at 6d. each. 
 *^* The Publishers call attention to the remarkable fact that they ha-y-e now- 
 issued Mr. Spurgeon's Sermons weekly for twenty years, and that all this time 
 the circulatiou has not only been very large, but has steadily increased. This 
 unparalleled fact, unprecedented in the pulpit of any age or church, speaks 
 lor itself, and is a higher eulogium than the most friendly reviewer could 
 pronounce. It is also noteworthy that an equally warm reception has been 
 given to the American Edition, and that the Dutch, German, Swedish, and 
 French translations have commanded an extentive sale ; and the Sermons have 
 been acceptably received in Welsh, Danish, and ItaUan. 
 
 FLASHES OF THOUGHT ; being one Thousand Choice 
 
 Extracts from the Works of C. II. SriiioKOX. Alphabetically arranged, 
 and with a copious Index. Price os. 
 None of the pas.sages given in this book have been published in any other 
 volume of extracts that has issued liom the press. They form an entirely 
 original and carefully-prepared selection. 
 
 " A thousand exUacts, bright with the light of heaven, sparkling with -wit, 
 rich in imagery, beautiful in their setting, lorcible in style, and devoutly 
 stimulating in tone, make up a voliune ot unique merit." — General BajptUt 
 Maga:;inQ. 
 
TYPES AND EMBLEMS; Being a Collection of Sermons 
 
 preached on Sunday and Thm-sday Evenings at the Meiropolitau 
 Tahernacle. By C. H. Spurgeon. Ss. 
 
 "This vohime is the first of the issue. It -will be sure to be a favourite. 
 * Types and Emblems ' are attractive themes, and in Mr. Spurgeon's hands they 
 neither lack sucgestiveness nor power. All his well-known quahties as a 
 preacher are in great force throughout this volume.''— Genera/ Baptist 
 Magazine. 
 
 TRUMPET CALLS TO CHEISTIAN ENERGY, being a 
 
 Second Series of Mr. Sitrgeo's Sunday and Thursday Evening 
 Sermons. Price 3s. 6d. 
 
 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS; A Selection from 
 
 Addresse- delivered to the Students of the Pastors' College, Meti'opolitan 
 Tabernacle. By C. H. Spurgeon, President. First Series — 15th Thousand. 
 Price -Is. 6d. 
 
 " "We have read this work with a feeling very nearly approaching to delight. 
 Nothing that Mr. Spurgeon has printed has so thoroughly pleased us, and few 
 of his works are calculated to be of greater practical service. It abounds in 
 words of wisdom ; it is i ich ia humour, but richer in human and spiritual 
 experience." — Noyiconforinist . 
 
 " Mr. Spurgeon has selected topics of practical importance, such as the call 
 to the ministry, the preacher's private prayer, sermon matter, the arrangement 
 of the voice, impromptu speech, the choice of a text, and the like ; and on each 
 and all of the themes thKs taken up he has much to say that is worth hearing, 
 and he says it in a way that at once enlists the readei-'s attention. Every pouit 
 is illustrated in a forcible, homely style, and pulpit anecdotes of the most 
 interesting character abound in these pages." — The Eock. 
 
 GLEANINGS AMONG THE SHEAVES. By C. H. 
 
 Spvegeon. Cloth Antique, Price Is. 6d. Eourth Edition. 
 
 " These extracts are quite Spurgeonic — racy, rich, and rare, both as to- 
 style and matter— full of exquisite consolation — faithful advice — clear analogies 
 — poetic touches — and glorious old go>pel. Wg do not wonder though eight 
 thousand copies were disposed of on the day of publication, and we trust eighty 
 times eighty thousand will find their way to the religious public.'' — Wetklij 
 Review. 
 
 OUR OWN HYMN BOOK. By C. H. SPURGEON. 
 
 Eoyal 32mo. Cloth, 2s. 6d. ; Ornamental Boards, gilt edges, 3s. ; Morocco, 
 gUt, 5s. Large type for the pulpit ; cloth, 6s. ; roan, 7s. ; morocco, 10s. Cd. 
 Double columns for the pew ; roan, 3s. 6d. ; morocco, 6s. Congregations- 
 can secure advantageous terms by application to the Publishers direct. 
 A cheap edition is published at Is. 4d. 
 It is believed to be, all things considered, the largest, cheapest, and most 
 accurate Hymn-book in the English language. The ministers who use it 
 uniformly speak of it in the warmest terms of approval. Specivien Pages of 
 the ra) ious editions can he had 07i application. 
 
 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK; or, Plain Advice for 
 
 Plain People. By C. H. Spurgeon. Price Is., cloth Is. 6d. 230tk 
 
 Thousand. 
 " Racy and pungent ; very plain, and to the purpose. No fear as to 
 whether it will be read or not by those into whose hands it may fall. If Mr. 
 Spurgeon goes on at this rate in his multiform publications, he will leave 
 nothing racy unsaid." — Watchinan. 
 
 " "We advise our readers to get ' John Ploughman's Talk,' by Spurgeon. It 
 discourses of twenty-four every-day topics in a simple, homely, semi-humorous 
 way ; and, if shrewd practical sense were something to be imparted, we should 
 say this book would nearly stock a needy reader with that article for a life- 
 time." — California7i Spare Hour. 
 
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