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PLANTATION SERMONS, 
 
 7 
 
 OR 
 
 PLAIN AND FAMILIAR DISCOURSES 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 INSTRUCTION OF THE UNLEARNED. 
 
 BY- lUE 
 
 Rev. A. F. DICKSON, 
 
 OP CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 
 
 JTKL. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 NO. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 £\%gi*> 
 
Q> 
 
 
 The Library 
 of Congress 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
 
 James Dunlap, Treas., 
 in the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern 
 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 S. Douglas Wyeth, Agt., Stereotypes. 
 
I 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 SERMON T. 
 
 Page 
 The Hard Way, . .13 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 None Righteous, 27 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 The Faithful Saying, 41 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 Who is Jesus ? 56 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 A Risen Saviour, 67 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 Believe and be Saved, 78 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Being Born Again, 89 
 
 (iii) 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 The New Creature, 101 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 Joining the Church, .114 
 
 S E R M O N X . 
 
 Gospel Conduct, 126 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 The Lord our Shepherd, 138 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 The Lord our Shepherd, (continued,) .... 149 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 The Gospel Feast, . . . , . . . .160 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY THE REV. J L. KIRKPATRICK, D.D 
 
 A very solemn responsibility rests upon Chris- 
 tians residing in the Southern and South-western 
 States of the Union, in relation to the large num- 
 ber of coloured persons, mostly slaves, who are 
 amongst us, as a portion of our population and yet 
 forming a distinct class of our society. Their con- 
 dition is such, that if they shall receive instruction 
 in the truths of the gospel, and have access to its 
 privileges, it must be through our agency. Failing 
 to carry the gospel to them is, in effect, to exclude 
 them from it. 
 
 It is a matter of thankfulness, and a ground of 
 encouragement, that Christians, in this extensive 
 region of country, are not unmindful of their pecu- 
 liar obligations. Efforts have been made, and, year 
 by year, they are prosecuted with increasing vigour, 
 to place the ordinances of religion within the reach 
 of the bond as well as the free ; and we have the 
 most gratifying testimony that such exertions enjoy 
 
 1* V 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the favour of Him who wills that all classes of men 
 should be brought to the knowledge of the truth. 
 Still, it is not to be denied, that too many Chris- 
 tians seem to suppose that they have fulfilled their 
 duties, with respect to the spiritual welfare of the 
 slave in their charge, when they impose upon him 
 no needless or improper restrictions in the enjoy- 
 ment of his religious privileges, and especially, if 
 they have afforded him reasonable opportunities for 
 attending the preaching of the word. Without any 
 wish to disparage the value to our servants of the 
 liberty accorded to them throughout our country, to 
 unite with the whites in the services of the sanc- 
 tuary, and without overlooking the trouble and ex- 
 pense to which many masters have subjected them- 
 selves, in making special provision for supplying 
 their servants with preaching and other means of 
 grace, we would still ask, Is there nothing more to be 
 done for them ? The parent is not regarded as dis- 
 charging his duty to his children, when he has 
 secured seats for them in the house of God, nor even 
 although he advise, urge, and command them to 
 embrace the privilege thus secured. The enlight- 
 ened consciences and the general practice of pious 
 parents concur with the Scriptures, in recognizing 
 the necessity of additional and more direct ap- 
 pliances, such as personal instruction, reading the 
 word, exhortation and prayer, considered as a part 
 of the domestic training. Attention to these duties 
 is felt to be indispensable, if our children are to 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 derive the full benefits of the public and more formal 
 privileges of the sanctuary. If indispensable to our 
 children, are they not so to our servants who, for 
 the most part, are but " children in understanding ? ,; 
 We should remember that the position which our 
 slaves occupy, debars them, in a great measure, 
 from the means and incentives to mental improve- 
 ment which are open to other classes of society. 
 As the natural consequence, their minds are slow in 
 comprehending the truth on all subjects requiring 
 investigation and thought. Frequent repetitions of 
 the lesson to be inculcated are necessary, in order 
 that any salutary and permanent impressions may 
 be made upon minds thus vacant and inert. Hence, 
 the importance of securing in the work of their reli- 
 gious tuition, the agency of those who have daily 
 access to them, that is, of the members of the fami- 
 lies with which they are connected. When once the 
 attention has been gained, and an interest awakened 
 in the soul respecting its condition and prospects, 
 we know that without a constant recourse to the 
 appliances which are within the reach of the family 
 alone, there is always great danger lest the seed 
 that has been sown be " caught away " before it 
 can take root in a soil at once so sterile and so 
 hard. Here, it seems to us, the inquiry and the 
 injunction of olden time apply in all their force: 
 " Whom shall he teach knowledge ? and whom shall 
 he make to understand doctrine? Them that are 
 weaned from the milk, an 1 drawn from the breast. 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon 
 precept ; line upon line, line upon line ; here a lit- 
 tle, and there a little." Isa. xxviii. 9,10. 
 
 Nor have we surmounted all the special obstacles 
 to the spiritual welfare of our servants, when we have 
 secured their attention and interest on behalf of 
 their souls. The ardour and impetuosity of their 
 emotions, and their great love of excitement, are 
 matters of common observation. These, united with 
 their scanty knowledge, and their slight powers 
 of self-control, expose them, in a peculiar degree, 
 to the excesses of superstition and fanaticism — 
 excesses, which are too often encouraged rather 
 than checked by the numbers in which they some- 
 times throng the places of public worship, by the 
 character and style of the preaching they there 
 listen to, and by the manner in which other exer- 
 cises are conducted, whether it be under the leader- 
 ship of one of their own class, or that of a white 
 man, as it often happens, scarcely better instructed 
 or less fanatically inclined than themselves. This 
 is an evil, a great and prevalent evil, to be cor- 
 rected ; and by what means shall it be done ? We 
 are persuaded there is no remedy so easy of appli- 
 cation, and so effective, as faithful, painstaking 
 instruction as a family duty, and that constant 
 watchfulness over the tendencies of awakened reli- 
 gious emotions among them, which the members of 
 the family alone, have no opportunity to exercise. 
 Let them be provided with the privileges of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 sanctuary, for which there is no substitute; let the 
 pastor or the missionary catechize them as fre- 
 quently as he may be able, in the church, on the 
 plantation, and in private; all this does not super- 
 sede the necessity of home instruction by pious mas- 
 ters, mistresses, and other members of the house- 
 hold. The co-operation of the latter is essential to 
 the full success of the labours performed by the 
 former. The position of the slave precludes the 
 pastor and the missionary from doing many things 
 for his spiritual guidance which his ignorance and 
 varied temptations render necessary: this "lack of 
 service " should be supplied at home. 
 
 In view of these facts, we hail with peculiar satis- 
 faction every judicious effort which is made to assist 
 Christians having servants under their control, in 
 carrying out a system of household instruction. 
 This little volume has been prepared, and it is now 
 published, for such purpose. The discourses con- 
 tained in it first appeared as a monthly series in 
 the Southern Presbyterian (Charleston, S. C.) and 
 having been strongly commended by ministers and 
 intelligent laymen of our communion, it has been 
 thought advisable to give them a wide circulation 
 in a form adapted to a more convenient and perma- 
 nent use. The author, at the time of writing them, 
 was the pastor of a church which embraced over 
 four hundred " coloured communicants." Mingling 
 much with them in the discharge of his pastoral 
 duties, he became acquainted in no ordinary degree, 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with the peculiarities of their mental structure and 
 habits — their modes of thinking, and their suscep- 
 tibility of impressions, both good and bad — and 
 with their wants in common with other sinners and 
 partially sanctified Christians. The knowledge thus 
 derived has suggested the propriety of those features 
 which will strike the reader as characteristic of the 
 discourses, such as, the simplicity and directness of 
 the language ; the free use of figures of speech and 
 varied illustrations ; the rapid transitions from one 
 course of thought to another, &c. If any apology 
 for the abbreviations of familiar words and other 
 colloquialisms be necessary, it is sufficient to say 
 that the author's theory as to the best mode of 
 addressing the blacks is, that the preacher must 
 put himself in sympathy with them, by using lan- 
 guage in some such form as they are accustomed to 
 hear it from day to day. Not that he must descend 
 to the use of coarse, offensive terms, or of forms of 
 expression that are grammatically inaccurate, for 
 nothing of this kind will be found in these "Plan- 
 tation Sermons;" but his style must be free, famil- 
 iar, animated, stirring, as opposed to the formal and 
 stately, the distant and the heavy. We have had 
 an opportunity of knowing that the features here 
 referred to, have been found upon actual trial, to 
 adapt the discourses most happily to the capacities 
 and tastes of the class for whom they are designed. 
 Of the importance of the subjects treated of in 
 the volume and the sound, Scriptural views of truth 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 presented, we need say nothing, as a glance over the 
 table of contents will satisfy the reader on the first 
 point, and the imprimatur of our Board is a suffi- 
 cient voucher for the second. 
 
 Private Christians, engaged in labours for the 
 religious improvement of the blacks, often feel the 
 need of something to read to them which, whilst it 
 imparts solid instruction in a style adapted to the 
 grade of their intellects, shall engage their atten- 
 tion by its vivacity, and quicken their emotions by 
 the warmth of its tone. To such we commend these 
 discourses. The very form in which they are pre- 
 sented — that of the sermon — will give them a dig- 
 nity and favour in the view of the blacks that belong 
 to no other address. They love the sermon ; they 
 love to recall and talk over the text of the sermon. 
 Those who are accustomed from week to week to 
 call together the servants of the field or of the 
 house, to read, converse, and pray with them, or to 
 instruct them from the catechism, will find a valua- 
 ble auxiliary in this volume. Some who are deter- 
 red from attempting to hold meetings of this cha- 
 racter, through a distrust of their own capacity to 
 render them profitable, with these discourses in their 
 hands need not fear to undertake the work. If the 
 master of the family should refuse to go forward in 
 a duty that obviously devolves primarily upon him, 
 let the mistress assume the responsibility, as she 
 has often to assume it in respect to the religious 
 instruction of the children ; and in default of the 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 proper services of the master and mistress, let the 
 pious son or daughter be their substitute. It is a 
 blessed work, — instructing the ignorant, teaching 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, guiding souls to the 
 knowledge of salvation — and, surely, none who 
 have learned the value of their own souls, or the 
 preciousness of the Saviour's love, will esteem it 
 otherwise than a delightful work. 
 
 Charleston, S. C, March, 1856 
 
PLANTATION SERMONS, 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE HARD WAY. 
 
 " Tlie way of transgressors is hard" — Prov. xiii. 15. 
 
 This world is a sorrowful place j not one of us 
 ever saw the man yet, that had no sorrow — that 
 had no sickness, no hard, painful work ; no dan 
 ger ; nobody to trouble him ; no conscience finding 
 fault with him, and making him feel ashamed and 
 afraid, because he had done wrong. Wherever we 
 go, we find sickness, and tears, and death. Every- 
 where people are tired of living, and afraid to die 
 — everywhere they are disappointed in their plans ; 
 they get weary when they expected to be merry ; 
 they change about from one thing to another, 
 but they find trouble everywhere. I know there's 
 a great deal of difference among people — some 
 are sick all their lives, and some are well and 
 strong. Some see their children and their friends 
 all die, one after another, and others, again, have 
 them all alive and well, — or if they die, they 
 hardly miss them. Some are always getting dis- 
 
 2 13 
 
14 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 appointed and put out, and some get along easily. 
 But in spite of that, everybody has his trouble: 
 if your children all live, maybe some of them 
 behave so badly that they have to be sent away, 
 or they keep you afraid something dreadful will 
 happen to them — or maybe they are so sickly, 
 and they suffer so much, that you'd almost rather 
 see them die. If you are strong and healthy, 
 something else goes wrong. You never can say, 
 "Now I'm happy," unless you're a Christian. 
 
 And what makes it worse is, that things do not 
 get better as life goes on. We don't begin with- 
 out trouble; and when we are little children we 
 don't keep on getting over it as we grow up, 
 and so get quite- happy when we are old. Oh, 
 no! The old man is the worst off of all, unles3 
 he is a Christian; his eyes, that used to be so 
 bright and keen, are almost blind — his old ears 
 can hardly hear the cock crow in the morn- 
 ing — his hand, that was so strong and steady a 
 little while ago, shakes now, like a leaf when 
 the wind blows. In the night he can't sleep 
 sound, and in the day he leans on his stick. 
 And so he pines away; he can't work, and he 
 can't rest — and oh, if he isn't ready to die, 
 all this trouble is only the beginning of sorrow 
 for him I Before long, he'll be weeping, and 
 wailing, and gnashing his teeth, because God 
 is angry with him for ever! 
 
 Now we know there's always sin where 
 
THE HARD WAY. 15 
 
 there s trouble. Just as certain as there is fire 
 where you see smoke, just so sure there is sin 
 where you see people suffer, and weep and die. 
 And what a terrible thing this sin must be, 
 if it brings all this sorrow — if it makes the 
 body sicken and die, and the mother's heart 
 almost break because her child's dead — if it 
 makes men hate one another, and rob and mur- 
 der — makes them groan and perish, and takes 
 them to that awful place when they die. Oh, 
 what a dreadful thing sin must be! — And this 
 is what I want to talk about to-day — the mis- 
 chief that sin does — "the way of transgressors 
 is hard. 
 
 I. It donH always begin hard. It feels quite 
 pleasant, for a minute or two, to have your own 
 way. 
 
 A man started, one pleasant afternoon, to take 
 a sail. All was still; the ebb tide floated him 
 down, and the soft breeze bore him along. He 
 went on and on, over the bar, out to sea ; the 
 blue water was smooth and still; he thought 
 he was quite safe, and he lay down and slept. 
 But presently a black cloud rose over the land; 
 the breeze fell away, and the little sail flapped 
 on the mast, as the boat rocked. Pretty soon 
 the thunder began to boom out ; then the light- 
 ning flashed brighter and brighter, as the black 
 cloud crept on nearer and faster, almost over 
 his head. Then came the roaring wind, to stir 
 
16 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 up the waves, and beat him down in the sea ; 
 the thunder cracked like a thousand rifles, and 
 woke the poor fellow from his dangerous sleep; 
 and as he pulled away at the oars, and tried to 
 work back under the lee once more, he saw how 
 foolish he had been. Higher and higher the 
 waves tossed up and dashed against his little 
 boat, and drove him out to sea. All he could 
 do would 'nt save him. — There he was in the 
 wide ocean ; night came on ; not a friend to 
 help him, and the raging wind roaring over his 
 head ! But God was in the storm, and just as 
 he was ready to give up and die, the wind fell, 
 and the waves grew still by degrees, and the 
 light-house shone out clear and bright to guide 
 him home. — So he toiled away at the oars, 
 and just at day-break he was safe again; but 
 he found, after all the smooth time he had at 
 first, that " the way of transgressors is hard." 
 And just so it is in sinning. 
 
 It begins so easily. Perhaps it is a cool, 
 pleasant Sunday morning; and as you look at 
 your corn, and see how much it needs work- 
 ing, and wonder if you ' 11 ever have such a 
 chance again, you think it will be very easy 
 and pleasant to get it all in order. You feel 
 strong and ready for it ; you count up how 
 much the corn will be worth when it's ripe, 
 and how much more you ; 11 have if you work 
 it now, than if you wait awhile; you are quite 
 
THE HARD WAY. 17 
 
 sure nobody will see you that's going to blame 
 you ; you don 7 t care much about going to church ; 
 the more you think about it, the more you feel 
 like it, and the more certain you are that it 
 can' t be such a bad thing, or such a danger- 
 ous thing, as people say. And so, maybe at last 
 you get your hoe and go to work ; the sun 
 don 't beat down on you ; the thunder don 7 t 
 roll over your head to frighten you; nobody 
 finds fault with you ; your conscience don 't trou- 
 ble you much. And so you begin to think it 
 was all very well done, and that it 's all over 
 now. Ah, that 's a dreadful mistake ! God says, 
 " the way of the transgressor is hard," what- 
 ever you think about it, and he's sure to make 
 you think so, too, before he 's done with you. 
 
 II. The sinner's way is a hard way, because 
 he has a hard master, or rather, because he 
 has a hard set of masters. A man's master is 
 the one he works for, and the one he minds 
 the most. Not God ; for he don 't mind God's 
 word at all. Not the Lord Jesus, for he does 'nt 
 do his work at all. Who are the sinner's masters? 
 
 One of them is Satan. They please him oftener, 
 and do more of his work than anybody's else! 
 As Paul says, ". they walk according to the prince 
 of the power of the air." You know what that 
 means? It means that you do exactly what he 
 wants done ! Isn 't that a strange and dreadful 
 thing? You have a cunning and a cruel ene- 
 
18 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 my; he hates you because God made you, and 
 because God loves you. 
 
 When Adam and Eve were pure and happy, 
 he never rested till he had ruined them, and 
 robbed God of them, as he thought. Then, when 
 they were grieving and leaving their Heavenly 
 Father; when the angry angels were driving 
 them away; when the beautiful home in Eden 
 was gone for ever; when their hearts were full 
 of bitterness, and sin, and woe ; then Satan was 
 pleased, and clapped his hands for joy. They 
 were walking according to the "prince of this 
 world." You see, then, how cunning, and cruel, 
 and wicked he is; how he tries to disappoint, 
 and rob, and vex the great God; how he loves 
 to ruin men, and take their souls to hell. — 
 Don 't you think he must be a hard master ? 
 and Paul says he is the sinner's master. But 
 maybe you'll say, "How can he be my master? 
 I don't like him, and I don't do anything 
 because I think he wants me to." I tell you, 
 that makes very little difference; he's so anx- 
 ious to have God displeased, and mischief done, 
 and souls lost and sent to hell, that he doesn't 
 care whether you wanted to do it or not. — 
 Besides, you let him tempt you whenever he 
 likes; he can put wicked thoughts in your 
 minds, and you won't drive them away; he can 
 rouse all your bad passions, and you won 't pray 
 to God to cure them ; he can make a wrong 
 
THE HARD WAT. 19 
 
 thing look pleasant and good to you, and you 
 won't shut your eyes and turn away, and say, 
 " How can I do this great wickedness, and sin 
 against God? 1 ' And so, if you try ever so hard 
 not to believe it, you see Satan is your master; 
 you do what he likes, and you let him persuade 
 you to sin. 
 
 Another of the sinner's masters is his own 
 wicked heart. Maybe you '11 wonder at that, and 
 say, " Why, my heart 's a part of me; how can 
 it be my master ? " Let me ask you a ques- 
 tion, now — How can the rudder turn the boat, 
 when it's a piece of the boat itself? I sup- 
 pose you'll tell me, which ever way the rudder 
 turns, the boat turns. Well, that's exactly the 
 way your heart is your master; whichever way 
 your heart turns, you turn. That's just what 
 Solomon said — "Out of the heart are the issues 
 of life." That means, your life will be what 
 your heart makes it. Now, if your heart can 
 make you live any way it pleases, then your 
 heart is your master. Let 7 s see if it doesn % 
 
 Suppose a man has a dishonest heart; he 
 wants to have what belongs to somebody else, 
 even if he has to steal it. Why, then, of course, 
 he does steal it when he gets a chance, unless 
 he's too much afraid of being found out. Or 
 suppose he has a cowardly heart; he isn't wil- 
 ling to run a little risk when he ought to. 
 Why, then, he runs away instead of standing up 
 
20 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 like a man. And so, if you have a wicked heart, 
 a heart that doesn't love God, or his ways, or 
 his dear Son, you 're certain to live as if you 
 didn't love him, and so your life will be wicked, 
 as well as your heart. Now, I say, a wicked 
 and selfish heart is a very bad master. It doesn't 
 give you time to find out whether you hadn't 
 better serve the Lord, and love your neighbour, 
 and be good. No ! it hurries you right off into 
 sin. No matter if the Bible warns you, and God 
 forbids and threatens you, and your own con- 
 science begs you to stop; the wicked heart will 
 have its own way, and it makes you God's 
 enemy. 
 
 III. The sinner's way is a hard way, because 
 he has hard wages and a dreadful end. 
 
 What are the wages? That is, what does he 
 get by sinning ? First : he gets bad habits. A 
 first sin of any sort is like the first drop of 
 water that leaks through a bank; the water 
 carries away a little grain of sand, and makes 
 the leak larger — then two drops can creep 
 through instead of one, and carry away three 
 times as much sand, and make room for four or 
 five drops, and so, before anybody expects it, 
 the whole bank falls in, and the whole flood is 
 let loose. Just so with sinning : the first wicked 
 thing of any kind that you do, swearing, or 
 Sabbath-breaking, or any other, may be a very 
 little one, but it carries away a little of your 
 
THE HARD WAY. 21 
 
 conscience and self-respect, and makes way for a 
 greater sin, and that for a worse one, and so 
 on, till they wear a regular channel in you, 
 where the sin pours steadily on you. You may 
 forget it, or be ashamed of it, or deny it, or 
 try to stop it; but there it is, and now it is so 
 much easier to do the wrong thing than to keep 
 from it, that you are sadly discouraged and ready 
 to leave it so. That 's a bad habit. Now a sin- 
 ner is a bundle of bad habits; he has habits of 
 not doing what he ought to do, and of doing 
 what he ought not to do. He has a habit of 
 not minding what he hears in Church — a habit 
 of not praying when he gets up in the morn- 
 ing, or when he goes to bed at night — a habit 
 of not regarding God or Christ, or heaven, 
 or hell, but forgetting them as if there were 
 no such things. He has a habit of pleasing him- 
 self and seeking his own interest — a habit of 
 thinking about his own little affairs in the world, 
 instead of the things that are to last for ever. 
 Then he may have other habits — a habit of 
 swearing, or Sabbath-breaking, or foolish talking; 
 he may be dishonest, or drunken, or passionate, 
 or cruel; but they all spring out of this one 
 thing — being a sinner; and if he gets right 
 there, he'll get right all the way through. 
 What a sad sight it is, to see a man who 
 might be so manly and so brave against sin 
 and Satan, tied down by bad habits — ashamed 
 
22 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 of the way he lives and the things he does, and 
 yet he can't spring up and break away from 
 them, though he knows they '11 ruin his soul. 
 Those bad habits are some of the wages of sin. 
 Another thing you get by sinning is a hard 
 heart. The most beautiful thing in a little child 
 is its tender heart, ready to love anybody that 
 will be a little kind; it will love its nurse, or 
 its mother, or its brothers and sisters, or almost 
 anybody that it sees often. You can make it smile 
 by looking bright at it ; often you can make it 
 cry by frowning, and if you train it right, that 
 little heart will keep tender a long while; 
 and, as I said, it's the most beautiful thing in 
 the little child. When you and I were children, 
 we had just such hearts ; our mother's arms were 
 a shelter and a joy to us — we loved everybody 
 that we knew, that loved us; when their faces 
 were dark, our hearts were heavy, and when 
 they were glad, we were happy. But now, how 
 different we are! We know God loves us, but 
 we don't love him; we know he frowns on our 
 sins, but we don't weep or tremble. That's one 
 of our excuses for not being Christians, that we 
 can't feel. And it's partly true, too; we can't 
 feel about God and the Lord Jesus, and sin, and 
 heaven as we ought. If an angel could take 
 your place and find himself a sinner, he would 
 die with shame and sorrow; but you don't die 
 of grief because you have grieved God; you are 
 
THE HARD WAY. 23 
 
 light-hearted, maybe, and cheerful, and wonder 
 at Christians because they sometimes weep and 
 mourn about their sins. The Bible tells us 
 how the saints in heaven shout for joy when 
 a sinner's saved ; how they cast their golden 
 crowns at the Saviour's feet, and sing and praise 
 him for ever — how they are as happy as the 
 angels because they have Jesus for their shep- 
 herd and their friend: but if you were there 
 with that same heart, you wouldn't feel like 
 them; such joy and love as they feel couldn't 
 get into your heart at all, because it's so hard. 
 How is it now? Do you weep for joy, and 
 sing and praise, when you hear that a sinner is 
 converted? Does it make you as happy as an 
 angel to love and serve the Lord ? Ah, no ! 
 that's not the way you enjoy yourself — your 
 heart's too hard ! 
 
 Now, I say, to get a hard heart by sinning 
 is very hard wages indeed. The heart's the 
 place for happiness, and peace, and love, not for 
 pride or hardness ; and just so sure as a land 
 where no rain falls will be a hot and thirsty 
 desert, with not a stream of cooling water, or a 
 flower, or a shady tree, just so sure a heart that 
 is hardened in sin will be bitter and uneasy 
 and heavy. What makes the difference between 
 an angel and a devil? The devil has a heart 
 as hard as rock, while the angel is always loving 
 and always rejoicing. 
 
24 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Another thing we get by sinning is a troubled 
 conscience. There 's a something in us that writes 
 down all we do, whether it's good or evil; and 
 that stings us with shame and pain when we 
 do wrong. Sometimes it stings us right off, 
 as soon as we sin; sometimes it lays it up 
 against us, to make us suffer hereafter; but if 
 it does lay it up for another time, it keeps us 
 uneasy and troubled now. When you took God's 
 holy day for working, or fishing, or pleasure, 
 conscience didn't strike so hard, or speak so 
 loud, as to make you give it up; but just hard 
 enough and loud enough to spoil it all. Yery 
 likely you wondered what the matter was, and 
 why you couldn't enjoy yourself; and many 
 times since then, you have thought, "what is 
 this that spoils my pleasure, and disappoints and 
 troubles me? What makes my heart so heavy 
 and sad ? " It 9 s that evil conscience laying up 
 your sins, and getting ready to sting you with 
 them. Every time you swear, or speak an 
 angry word, or break the Sabbath; every time 
 you are proud, or cruel, or passionate, or selfish; 
 every time you harden your heart against your 
 kind Saviour and the great God; every wrong 
 thing you do, and every right thing you won't 
 do, conscience writes it down, and gets her ter- 
 rible chains and troubles ready to frighten you 
 when you're sick, and to make you tremble and 
 mourn when you come to die. Such a con- 
 science is hard wages to get for sinning! 
 
THE HARD WAY. 25 
 
 Once more, the sinner comes to a dreadful end; 
 "the wages of sin is death;" not this first 
 death, when the sick and perishing body is laid 
 in the grave. Oh, no! it's the second death, the 
 woe and anguish that comes on the soul for 
 ever — that 's the fearful thing ! You know very 
 well that no man can describe it: it's so horri- 
 ble that no words can tell it all; we can only 
 put you in mind of it and of what the Bible 
 says. It tells you how you'll feel there; you'll 
 weep, and wail, and gnash your teeth. It tells 
 you who will be with you there, the devils 
 and lost sinners — all who have been too wicked 
 to go anywhere else, will be sent to hell, and 
 there you must dwell with them for ever. It's 
 a bottomless pit, and the smoke rises up from 
 it continually; it's a lake that burneth with 
 fire and brimstone, and the lost are there in 
 chains and darkness for ever. There they lift 
 up their eyes, being in torment, and see the 
 holy, happy saints in heaven, always safe and 
 always glorious; and they beg for one drop of 
 water to cool their tongues, but it never comes - 
 they are shut up there for ever ! Oh, how they 
 groan and perish there! They cry, "Oh, if I 
 could only get one Sunday again ! if the Lord 
 Jesus would only call me once more! if I only 
 had one chance to repent and be saved ! But 
 now it's too late, too late!" 
 
 Tell me, now, if the Bible wasn 't right, when 
 
26 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 it said, " the way of the transgressors is hard." 
 They are cheated into going on in sin, because 
 it begins easily ; and so they give themselves 
 up to those hard masters, Satan and their 
 wicked hearts; and they get those hard wages, 
 bad habits, hard hearts, and troubled consciences; 
 and they come to this awful end! Oh, why 
 should you go on in sin? Why should any 
 man, with a head and a heart, keep on griev- 
 ing God, and laying up trouble, and getting 
 ready for hell? The Lord doesn't shut you up 
 in sin and woe. The Bible hasn't given up 
 telling you of a Saviour, and a Holy Spirit, 
 and a way to heaven. The great Spirit of 
 God hasn't spread his wings, and left this 
 stubborn and wicked world. The judgment 
 day hasn't come yet, to burn up the Gospel, 
 and chain us down in the flames. The Judge 
 hasn't told us yet, to "depart, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting fire ! " Oh, why will we die ? Let 
 us remember the dear Lord Jesus now, and 
 believe on him. Let us pray to God to take 
 away our stony hearts, and forgive our sins. 
 Let us say, "Farewell, wicked and sorrowful 
 world! I'm tired of shame and sin; I take 
 the Lord for my portion; I look to Jesus 
 to save me. — Farewell, hard heart ! Farewell, 
 death ! My Redeemer is mine, and I am 
 his!" 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 27 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 NONE RIGHTEOUS. 
 
 "For there is not a just man on earth that doeth good and 
 sinneth not." — Eccl. vii. 20. 
 
 The Bible tells us a great many sad and ter- 
 rible things; and every day we see and feel 
 pain, and hear the groans of the sick and the 
 sorrowful ; but nothing is more dreadful than 
 what the text tells us. Nothing else is so shame- 
 ful and sad as this — all men are sinners. 
 
 Think of it ! Here is a world full of people : 
 travel as far as you can — go through the 
 woods and the deserts — sail away over the 
 sea to the farthest islands — go north, or south, 
 or east, or west, and you find men everywhere, 
 and every man of them is a sinner. — Some are 
 comfortable, and some miserable ; some are savage, 
 and some civilized; some live in fine houses, and 
 some burrow in the ground; some are wise, and 
 many are foolish — but every one is a sinner! 
 You will find a great many strange and curious 
 things among them ; a great many stronger, wiser, 
 more beautiful, more happy, than you ever dreamed 
 of; but the strangest thing of all, the thing the 
 whole wide world can 't show you, is " a just 
 
28 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 man that sinneth not." Not one that God can 
 smile on, and say, "This man is like the holy 
 angels; this woman is fit to dwell "with me in 
 heaven." Not one that can take any credit to 
 himself before God, for anything he has done; 
 not one whose conscience don't accuse him and 
 condemn him ! Not one living man that hasn 't 
 been converted, can close his eyes in peace, 
 when his time comes to die, and say, All is well! 
 The whole world lieth in wickedness; it is full 
 of shame and trouble; it is under God's curse. 
 It is so vile a world, that it will have to be burnt 
 up to get rid of it, like a small-pox hospital. As 
 soon as the sick man dies or gets well, you know, 
 we set fire to the house and destroy it ; it is too 
 vile for anybody to live in. Just so with this 
 world : it is a hospital for sinners. God will 
 cure some and take them to heaven ; others will 
 die in sin and be lost for ever; and then God 
 will send fire on this ruined world and burn it 
 up. Sin has poisoned it so that it will never 
 be fit to live in again. 
 
 I. Think what a world of misery it is. The 
 little child just born begins its life by crying, 
 and I suppose everybody feels that it is just 
 the way such a life as this ought to begin. 
 Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly up : 
 it is just as natural for him to suffer as for 
 the sparks to shoot up out of the fire. Not 
 one mother can save her child from pain, even 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 29 
 
 while it's a baby in her arms, much less after 
 it grows larger. Our teeth ache ; the wind chills 
 us; the sun makes us faint with weakness and 
 distress. Fever finds us out; parches us with 
 thirsty days and weary nights ; we toss on our beds 
 and pine away, in spite of all that our friends 
 can do for us. What thousands of accidents are 
 happening 1 A tree falls on one man and 
 crushes his limbs; another man is thrown from 
 his horse, or dragged under the wheel and 
 mangled horribly. Fire, wind, waves, lightning 
 — all things — hurt and slay us. Look at the 
 wars that rage all over the earth; men hating 
 and wounding and killing one another, till fields 
 are soaked with blood ! 
 
 How many passionate and cruel fathers there 
 are: yes, and mothers, too. How many children 
 are beaten terribly when they Ve only done a 
 little wrong; or perhaps they haven't done 
 wrong at all. How many drunken fathers and 
 mothers, that fight and abuse each other, and 
 their children besides! How many neglect their 
 children — leave them to suffer with cold and 
 hunger; nothing to eat, and no fire, while they 
 go away and amuse themselves. How many men 
 quarrel, and do each other all the harm they 
 can ; rob, steal, slander, murder, because their 
 hearts are full of malice and revenge. So suf- 
 fering grows and spreads over the whole world. 
 And we mustn 't forget what a world of toil it 
 
30 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 is. Every honest man lives by hard work; 
 and the thief really works the hardest of all. 
 If we don't work the fields, nothing grows 
 there but weeds and briars ; if we don 't take 
 care of the cattle, nothing will be left but wild 
 beasts; if we don't watch over our children, 
 and work for them, they will perish. We have 
 to get all our comforts by hard work; if we 
 are idle, we are sure to be miserable. And yet 
 what a sad sight it is — a whole world worn 
 out with work! When we want to sit down in 
 peace and enjoy ourselves, behold, there is some- 
 thing or other that must be done, and we must 
 deny ourselves, and go and do it. This is just 
 what the Bible says: "All things are full of 
 labour; man cannot utter it." 
 
 Now, how comes the world to be so full of 
 sorrow and toil? Who is it that sends pain 
 and trouble? Who is mighty enough to com- 
 mand the winds and waves, and to hold the 
 storms in his hand? Who can take away the 
 strength of the strong man ; lay him on a bed 
 of pain, and keep him there ? Who can let 
 loose consumption, and fever, and cholera on us, 
 and take away a whole family or a whole na- 
 tion? Only God. God is good ; he declares to 
 us that he " doth not willingly afflict the chil- 
 dren of men." He sends us more blessings than 
 we can count; and yet he racks our bodies 
 with pain, and tears our hearts with sorrow ! 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 31 
 
 He owns it ! He says : " I kill and make alive : 
 I wound and I heal." " For he maketh sore 
 and bindeth up ; he woundeth and his hand 
 maketh whole." " Before him went the pestilence, 
 and burning coals went forth at his feet." So it 
 must be because we deserve it all, that our 
 great Father in heaven afflicts us. As I said 
 just now, we are under God's curse for sin ; 
 that awful curse brought down sickness and 
 death, and slew us. That is what the Bible 
 says : " By one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death by sin ; and death passed on all men, 
 because all have sinned." And now the world 
 is just like a piece of woods : sometimes we 
 send and cut down a tree here and there, as 
 we want it; and sometimes we clear a whole 
 field — cut down and destroy the whole. Every 
 day men die ; one here and another somewhere 
 else ; sometimes death sweeps them away by 
 hundreds together. We are all condemned to 
 die, and sooner or later we know we must go ; 
 and the reason that all are condemned is, that 
 all are sinners. 
 
 But I can prove it in another way. I can show 
 you that all men in their hearts believe it. I know 
 they talk against it often, but their actions speak 
 louder than their words. Show me a man that 
 trusts everybody. The little child believes every 
 thing you tell it. for a while. It doesn't know the 
 wickedness of the world, and it thinks what any- 
 
32 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 body says must be true, But how soon all that is 
 gone ! It begins to watch and try everybody, to 
 see if they can be trusted : it comes to expect that 
 men will say what isn't true, and do what isn't 
 right, when it suits them. And before we are 
 grown up, we know that everybody does wrong 
 sometimes. Now we learn that by experience; 
 we begin with trusting, and we end with sus- 
 pecting, all over the world. Isn't it so? Don't 
 we put locks on our chests, and locks on our 
 doors, and bar our windows on the inside? 
 We all make it a rule to be cautious with 
 strangers, because it is far more likely that 
 they will do us harm than that they'll do us 
 good. And this you see, shows what the whole 
 world's experience is — that all men are sinners. 
 Presently I will show you that the Bible says 
 so too. 
 
 II. But how came it so? How did the world 
 come to be wicked? Surely God didn't make 
 sinners ! That 's one question nobody can an- 
 swer without going to the Bible. There it's 
 all made plain: it's a sad and terrible story. 
 
 God made this great world. Before that, 
 there was nothing here — neither trees, nor land, 
 nor sea — not so much as a cloud or a blue 
 sky! Nothing was here but God. He is every- 
 where. He called it out of nothing with one 
 word: there it stood at his command; "He 
 hath made the round world so sure that it 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 33 
 
 cannot be moved." Then he brought light to 
 shine on it — poured off the waters from the 
 land and gathered them into the sea. Soon 
 he commanded the sun to beam out bright and 
 warm, while he spread the grass and flowers 
 and fruit trees and woods all over the land, 
 and created the beasts and birds, and every 
 other living thing, from the wild beast to the 
 worm on the ground. All was busy and happy : 
 the rivers were running down to the sea — the 
 sun and moon walked in brightness along the 
 sky — the cattle lay down in peace in the shadow 
 of tall trees, and the birds were singing in the 
 branches. That was the time, in the pleasant 
 afternoon, while everything was fresh and still 
 and happy, that the Lord God formed man out 
 of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life, and man became a 
 living soul. Ah, if they only could have known 
 what man would do, what sorrow and terror 
 would have been there ! The birds would have 
 drooped and pined and flown away; the very 
 cattle would have sprung up and escaped for 
 their lives, far from such a dreadful enemy, 
 such a curse to the whole creation, as man is. 
 But there was no sign of all this misery then : 
 nothing was frightened or troubled when God 
 came down in the cool evening and put man 
 in his garden of Eden, and set his wife beside 
 him for a help and a joy for ever. 
 
34 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 What a beautiful home that was ! The breeze 
 blew soft and sweet over the flowers; all the 
 strange and wonderful creatures that God had 
 made, came near them and stood still — not one 
 was afraid of Adam then ! Eve was by his 
 side : the great God his Father was close by, 
 loving and blessing them. So the sun went 
 down, they slept in peace, and awoke; for God 
 was with them, and made them dwell in safety. 
 
 That was the first Sabbath day. How kind 
 God was to begin Adam's life with a Sabbath — 
 a day to worship and praise him!' No doubt 
 Adam's heart was in tune that once, and full 
 of joy and love to the great God who was so good 
 to him. No doubt he knelt down on the green 
 grass, and clasped his hands, and raised his eyes 
 to see his Father's face ; and he wondered, while 
 he thanked the Lord, that He should take such 
 care for him. No doubt he promised to love 
 and serve God for ever ; how could he help it ? 
 Yes, he gave himself away to the Lord God, 
 to be his obedient and happy son always. 
 
 So the Lord tried him. He showed him one 
 tree in all the garden that he called the Tree 
 of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and he com- 
 manded Adam not to touch it or to eat of the 
 fruit. He even warned him what would happen 
 if he should break his promise — "in the day 
 thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Yery 
 likely Adam was shocked to hear, that perhaps 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 35 
 
 lie would disobey the Lord God : he never 
 thought it could be so. Oh, if he only had taken 
 warning ! But he didn ; t ; he went on as if he 
 was safe, and that ruined him. 
 
 The devil — that cruel and terrible being that 
 goes about even now like a roaring lion, seek- 
 ing whom he may devour — the devil crept into 
 God's garden, looking like a serpent, and went 
 to this same tree, and waited there till he saw 
 Eve. And he said to Eve, " Hath God said, 
 Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" 
 She told him, " We may eat of the fruit of the 
 trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree 
 in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye 
 shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 
 lest ye die. 77 And the serpent said, "Ye shall 
 not surely die ! For God doth know that in the 
 d#y ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be 
 opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good 
 and evil. 77 And when Eve saw that the tree 
 was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, 
 and to be desired because it would make her 
 wise, she took of the fruit and ate, and gave 
 Adam, and he ate. Then Satan 7 s work was done! 
 It was God's own garden, and they were God 7 s 
 own children, and yet he robbed God of them 
 — filled their pure and holy minds with pride 
 and sin, and cast them down before God 7 s angry 
 eye, to wither and perish in shame and woe for 
 ever. They heard the voice of the Lord God 
 
36 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 as he walked in the garden in the evening — 
 just the same time when they were first made — 
 but oh, how changed everything was ! Then their 
 souls were full of praise, and wonder, and delight ; 
 they could listen to his voice then, and it was 
 the sweetest sound to them in the whole gar- 
 den. Why not? He was their Father then, 
 and they were his dear and blessed children. 
 But now ! They were afraid ! — hid themselves 
 among the trees! That tells you the whole 
 story : their conscience was loaded with sin ; 
 they had come to be disobedient, and selfish, and 
 miserable in that little while ! 
 
 That was the way sin came into the world ; 
 the very two people that God made, though he 
 made them so pure and good at first, those very 
 ones broke his holy law and disobeyed him in 
 his own garden, so that he had to drive theoa 
 away. And their children were just like them. 
 Cain was their first son, and he was a murderer. 
 That's just the way men have gone on ever 
 since ; every man is a sinner, and every man's 
 children are just like him. After a while the 
 world got so wicked, God could 'nt bear it any 
 longer. In his wrath he tore up the fountains 
 of the great deep, and broke open the windows 
 of heaven, and poured such a flood on the earth, 
 that everybody was drowned, except Noah in 
 the ark, and those that were put there with 
 him. But as soon as the flood was over, Noah 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 37 
 
 and his children began again ; wherever they 
 went, sin and sorrow went, and spread out like 
 the flood, and covered the whole world, just as it 
 is this day ; sin everywhere — swearing, lying, 
 Sabbath-breaking, wicked passions, rage, murder, 
 and sorrow everywhere — pain and fear, sickness 
 and wounds, shame and remorse — and death. Ah, 
 if that was all, we might try and bear it; but 
 the worst is to come — after death the judgment, 
 and after the judgment the lake of fire and 
 brimstone, and the worm that never dies ! 
 
 III. But people sometimes think there must be 
 a mistake about this ; they know a great many 
 are wicked, but they are sure that some are good. 
 Of course, everybody has faults, they don't deny 
 that : but they think some have only such little 
 faults, and are so good in other ways, that they 
 oughtn't to be counted among sinners. 
 
 Now the first thing I want to say about it is 
 this : when people talk so they contradict the Bible. 
 Look at that verse I began with — ''There is 
 not a just man on earth that doeth good and 
 sinneth not." That was what king Solomon said, 
 the wisest man that ever lived. And his father, 
 good king David said, " There is none that doeth 
 good — no, not one." And Paul says ," God hath 
 shut all up together under sin" — that is, God 
 calls us all sinners. And John the Apos,tle, 
 though he was such a kind-hearted man, says the 
 same thing: "If we say we have no sin, we 
 
 4 
 
38 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 deceive ourselves, and we make God a liar. 11 Who 
 will dare to deny his sins after that? 
 
 The next thing is, that the best people in the 
 world are the very ones that call themselves sin- 
 ners ! Isn't it so? Look round now among 
 all your friends, and pick out the most blameless 
 and holy one of all — the one you never saw 
 in a passion, or doing anything wrong — and 
 ask him if he is "a just man that sinneth 
 not." And just as surely as he's good, he'll 
 tell you he's a sinner. But surely you don't 
 expect to find anybody better than David, and 
 he cried in his prayer, " have mercy upon me, 
 O God, and pardon mine iniquity, for it is 
 great," Or can you find a better man than 
 Paul? And yet he called himself "the chief 
 of sinners." 
 
 No; the reason why people think they are 
 not sinners when they are, is this — they donH 
 know what sin is. They think it is doing wrong 
 to men or disgracing ourselves ; but in truth 
 it is disobeying and forgetting God. " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
 and soul and mind and strength, and thy neighbour 
 as thyself;" thaVs God's law, and every man that 
 ever lived has broken it, and every man alive 
 now is breaking it. That made David say, "If 
 thou, Lord, wert strict to mark iniquity, Lord, 
 who shall stand?" Now, when we think how 
 good God is, how holy and how gracious, always 
 
NONE RIGHTEOUS. 39 
 
 loving and blessing and pitying us, isn't it 
 terrible to remember that the whole world for- 
 gets him — everybody turns his back on him, 
 breaks his law, rejects his gospel, and grieves 
 his dear Son? That bad treatment of God is 
 sin; and unless he changes our hearts, we are 
 all ungrateful, and all unbelieving — and so we 
 all are sinners. 
 
 Three more things I must tell you, and then 
 I will be done. 
 
 1. If all men are guilty alike and condemned 
 alike, then no man can help you out of your 
 trouble. Which of the prisoners in a jail can 
 pardon the rest? No more can any man save 
 you from God's anger. You must go for mercy 
 to God himself. He can save you, and he alone. 
 
 2. You must begin by confessing your sin. 
 That was where the publican began that the 
 Lord Jesus told about; he stood low down in 
 the temple, and and didn't so much as lift up 
 his eyes from the ground, but struck his hand 
 on his heart and said, " God, be merciful to 
 me a sinner;" and the Lord says he went down 
 to his house justified — that is, he was pardoned, 
 and the proud Pharisee was condemned. That 
 was where Mary Magdalene began ; she came 
 and kneeled down behind him, and wept so 
 that the tears ran down upon his feet, and 
 then she wiped them away with her hair. At 
 
40 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 last he said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee;" go 
 in peace. 
 
 3. You must believe in the Saviour God has 
 sent. God is wise and we are foolish. He is 
 good, and we are wicked. He is the Lord our 
 Father, and we are poor lost sinners, kneeling 
 at his feet. Now, if he looks down on us and 
 says, " I have provided a Saviour for you, and 
 he will do the whole work and set you free," 
 surely we ought to say right off, " Who is he, 
 Lord, that I may believe on him?" And when 
 he points to the Lord Jesus, bleeding, dying 
 on the cross, and rising again out of the grave, 
 we ought to drive away our grief and shame, 
 and rejoice. We ought to run right to the 
 Saviour, and put ourselves in his hands; we 
 needn't be anxious or sorrowful any more, for 
 he is "the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
 sins of the world." 
 
 I wonder if there is anybody here to-day 
 with a troubled conscience and a heavy heart; 
 anybody tired of sin and afraid to die as he 
 is. Poor sinner, come to the Lord Jesus, and 
 beg him to save you. See how patiently he's 
 waiting for you, how kindly he smiles on you ! 
 If you will only come and try him, he will say, 
 "Thy faith hath saved thee — go in peace!" 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE FAITHEUL SAYING. 
 
 " This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, 
 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." — 
 1 Tim. i. 15. 
 
 Many years ago, three missionaries sailed away 
 over the ocean, far from their homes and from 
 every friend but God, to a little island they had 
 heard of, where no man had ever preached the 
 gospel. It was almost as beautiful to look at 
 as the garden of Eden ; it was covered with 
 green trees that bore delightful fruits — bright 
 little rivers ran down from the mountains a 
 few miles, and poured into the smooth clear 
 water of the sea. There was no winter there ; 
 hardly ever a storm of thunder and mighty 
 wind tore up the people's trees, or wrecked 
 their little boats. All looked safe and joyful, 
 and lovely: but the whole island was full of 
 sin, and wickedness, and death. They worship- 
 ped idols, and even killed one another to offer 
 up the dead bodies to stones and huge blocks 
 of wood! Often they murdered their children; 
 they fought with each other with the most hor 
 
42 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 rible clubs and spears you can think of. 
 There was nothing so cruel, or so shameless, or 
 so wicked, that these people wouldn't do it. 
 So these missionaries, when they heard about it, 
 took pity on them, and went to tell them what 
 a Saviour God has given us, and to persuade 
 them to flee from the wrath to come. 
 
 For a long while, nobody minded what they 
 said: if the people listened a few minutes, pre- 
 sently they began to mock the missionaries, or 
 oven to throw stones at them. At last one day, 
 they read this verse to them out of the Bible, 
 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
 might not perish, but have everlasting life." An 
 old man got up and said, "Stop! read that 
 again!" So they read it again, "God so loved 
 the world that he gave his only Son." " Are 
 you sure of that?" he said ; " God so loved the 
 world ! n And he wept out loud, and went away 
 to think about it, and to wonder over it, and 
 then came back again and again, to beg them 
 to read to him that " God loved the world." 
 Soon he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and all his life long he kept those words in 
 his heart. Now, he is gone to see that dear 
 Saviour that God gave, and to live for ever 
 with him. 
 
 And I wonder, every day, that when people 
 hear those words, or this verse that I read just 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 43 
 
 now, they don't stop me and ask me to read it 
 a^ain. "Did Jesus Christ come to save sinners? 
 Are you sure he did? Oh, what good news!" 
 I wonder they don 't listen, and weep, and rejoice 
 even while they are weeping, to hear of a Sa- 
 viour from heaven. But, alas! that isn't the way 
 men treat God's good news. They know it's 
 true — they can't deny it; but they care nothing 
 about it. They go on, after we have told them, 
 in the same old way, just as if it was an idle 
 dream ! Oh, that God would make us all hear 
 and remember, and believe it to-day ! 
 
 I. Let me put you in mind, now, that you are 
 a poor lost sinner, and this news is for you. 
 
 Perhaps you are a thoughtless sinner. A great 
 many people never think about God and reli- 
 gion, and a Saviour, at all. Their hearts are full 
 of this world; they have a thousand little plans 
 and pleasures of their own. They live for what 
 they can see and taste^ and their hands can 
 handle. To-day's work and to-day's dinner — the 
 people they meet and talk to — the little accidents 
 that happen, pleasant and unpleasant — the scraps 
 of news they hear and tell; such things as these 
 take up all their thoughts. Of course they hear 
 people talk about religion; they go to church 
 sometimes, or perhaps all the time, and listen a 
 little, here and there, to the sermon, but no- 
 thing sinks down into their hearts. They don 't 
 come away from the house of God looking grave 
 
44 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 and solemn, as if what they heard was of any 
 consequence. No ! You '11 see them talk, and 
 joke, and laugh, right there in the church door, 
 or on the steps, or under the trees, just as if 
 nothing was the matter ; just as if there was 
 no such thing as a wicked heart, or an angry 
 God, or a crucified Saviour, or a burning world 
 of woe! 
 
 Then they go home and sleep away the blessed 
 Sunday afternoon, or talk it away, or dance it 
 away, never remembering nor caring that it is 
 God's holy day. Monday morning finds them 
 just the same people, or rather worse. They are 
 older and more careless: they are more guilty, 
 and they are in greater danger than ever before. 
 But they never think of that: they are too busy 
 with this life to think of that which is to come. 
 And yet that other life will come, whether they 
 think about it or not. Silent and steady it 
 comes nearer and nearer. Death comes like an 
 eagle, that never flaps his wing or gives a scream, 
 but fixes his fierce eye on some poor little 
 thing, and sweeps out of the sky, and fastens 
 his cruel claws in it, and is gone out of sight! 
 
 How foolish it is, then, not to think about our 
 souls in time! What would you think, if you 
 saw an old wreck drifting about on the sea, 
 and the people on it singing, and dancing, and 
 drinking, while it was sinking? Suppose you 
 and I saw it going lower and lower every wave — 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 45 
 
 the water creeping up — up — up — the side, inch 
 by inch, covering one seam after another,. pouring 
 into every crack, and weighing it down; it 
 mounts up faster and faster still, but they keep 
 on shouting, and dancing, and reeling about the 
 deck ! What would you say ? Woulcln 't you cry 
 aloud — "Look out there! you are sinking! clear 
 your boat and launch away before it is too 
 late !" Just so does God look at us, living so 
 careless on the borders of eternal woe; and he 
 calls us loudly — again and again he calls — 
 " What meanest thou, sleeper? Arise, call 
 upon thy God !" But just as these poor drunk- 
 ards on the wreck might never heed us or 
 mind our warning, but keep right on with the 
 dance till, all at once, you hear them scream 
 out with a bubbling cry, as the wreck whirls 
 half round and sinks down under the waves— 
 so, often, all God's warnings are wasted on 
 thoughtless sinners; and they forget them in 
 loving this vile world, till the day of wrath 
 comes and they are swallowed up for ever. 
 Then, oh what wouldn't they give to get back 
 into this world where sinners can be saved! 
 But it's too late! 
 
 Now, if you are a thoughtless sinner, you 
 are just like one of those poor foolish, ruined 
 fellows on the wreck; and that makes me call 
 to you, to tell you what a danger you're in 
 
46 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 and to put you in mind that you are a poor 
 lost sinner. 
 
 Or you may be an anxious sinner: something 
 has set you to thinking about your soul. May 
 be you have been sick ; day after day has found 
 you full of pain and fever ; your strength wasted 
 away, and your hands grew thin and weak and 
 aching; you could hardly raise your head to 
 drink the cool water you wanted so much. The 
 doctor looked so gloomy, and your wife sat down 
 and wept with grief and weariness — everybody 
 seemed to pity you so, that you thought you 
 were going to die. Oh what a terrible thought 
 that was! Die! leave this world of mercy? Go 
 and stand before Almighty God with all your 
 sins on you ? You had had Sundays, but you 
 wasted them; you had heard the gospel, but 
 you didn't heed it; the Lord Jesus wanted to 
 save you, but you forgot him. Now, you won't 
 dare to look in his face ; you will feel so ashamed 
 and guilty, if you die as you are, you will be 
 struck dumb before God's bar. Oh if you only 
 had one Sunday back! You try to think about 
 religion — try to pray and repent; but you are 
 so weak, so full of pain, your head feels so 
 giddy and confused, that it's no use. Then you 
 begin to beg for mercy — beg God to spare 
 your life, and you promise him, if he will only 
 let you get well, that you will never rest till 
 you're a Christian. And God in his wonderful 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 47 
 
 mercy pitied you, brought back your health and 
 strength, and gave you a chance to keep your 
 promise. 
 
 Now that you are well again, it makes you 
 shudder to look back and think what a risk 
 you ran. You feel how much better God was 
 to you than you deserved ; and you have made 
 up your mind to seek religion busily till you 
 find it. You go to prayer-meetings; you come 
 to church and try to listen to what the minister 
 says; you kneel down and pray, night and 
 morning, and you try to keep thinking about 
 God, and the Bible, and the Saviour. All this 
 time your heart is heavy, and sad, and guilty; 
 you feel discouraged and helpless ; sometimes you 
 think it is all useless trying to be a Christian 
 for God will never hear you. Mind! you mustn't 
 believe that — God will hear you if you seek 
 him with all your heart. It is the devil and 
 your wicked heart trying to deceive you. God 
 says, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no 
 wise cast out." Keep on then — never give it 
 up ! What does the hymn say ? 
 
 " I can but perish, if I go : 
 I am resolved to try ; 
 For if I stay away, I know 
 I shall for ever die." 
 
 If you are an anxious sinner, still you are a 
 sinner, and if Christ doesn 't save you, you will 
 be a lost sinner. 
 
48 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Or perhaps it wasn 't sickness that set you 
 thinking; maybe it was the death of somebody 
 that you loved. Perhaps it was your child that 
 grew sick, or met with some accident, and was 
 brought home bleeding and dying. Oh, how 
 you watched over it — grieved about its suffer- 
 ing almost as much as about its dying — you 
 tried everything you could think of; you begged 
 for advice and for help. When you lay awake 
 at night, and heard the dear little child moan- 
 ing and crying — tossing on its bed and begging 
 for water — your heart broke with trouble. 
 You couldn't give up your child to God: you 
 could not say, Thy will be done! And at last, 
 when the poor little breast stopped heaving, 
 and the little eye that loved you could'nt shine, 
 or look again; when they took it, cold and 
 heavy — dead — from your arms, to lay it in the 
 grave, you wanted to die and follow it. You 
 could 'nt pray ; your heart was too stormy with 
 sorrow and anger to look up to God's throne. 
 How lonely you felt — and how guilty ! 
 
 When the first agony of it was over, so you 
 could think again, you thought what an awful, 
 what a terrible being, God must be. When he 
 saw it was right to take your child away, 
 nothing could turn him; all your crying and 
 grieving could not bring one more breath into 
 its body. His plan went on, and his will was 
 done, just as quick and certain as if you had 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 49 
 
 wanted it. And you remembered that it always 
 will be so; if all heaven and earth, and hell, 
 should join together against him, they could'nt 
 keep back his plan, or cross his will, one minute ! 
 Then you thought, "This God is angry with me 
 — I am a sinner ! if I die so, I shall be lost ! 
 What must I do to be saved?" And then you 
 tried to seek God, but you did'nt find him. 
 You have been trying ever since to be a Chris- 
 tian, but peace and pardon are hid out of your 
 sight. Now you wonder if you ever will be 
 saved; you can't give it up, but you are afraid 
 there is very little chance for such a poor sin- 
 ner as you. You are an anxious sinner; but 
 remember, Jesus Christ came to save sinners ; if 
 you get discouraged, and turn back to the world, 
 you will be a lost sinner. 
 
 Or it maybe that while everything was going 
 on smoothly — no sickness or sorrow to frighten 
 you, or call you away from this world, God's 
 Holy Spirit came down and woke up your con- 
 science, and made you feel ashamed and afraid 
 because of sin. How many sins you remember! 
 things that you had forgotten for years before 
 start up all at once, and condemn you; you try 
 to shake them off and forget them again, but 
 they stick fast, and come back in crowds, and 
 frighten you, looking so evil and terrible. Then 
 you try to think up the old excuses that used 
 to ease your mind, but they look poor and 
 
50 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 foolish enough now; they don't help you at all. 
 You go out among your friends, and talk and 
 laugh as hard as you can, hoping to forget these 
 thoughts ; but all the while conscience is knock- 
 ing at your heart, and saying, Guilty! guilty 1 
 guilty ! You turn away, feeling heavier than 
 ever ; you don 't want to repent and seek God, 
 and yet you can't forget him. What shall you 
 do? As you stand and think about it, maybe 
 in the dark night, you look up, and remember 
 that tremendous God! He made you — he com- 
 manded you to believe on his Son — he offered 
 you mercy — he waited on you a long time — 
 he is looking at you now, and you are sure he 
 is angry with you. You think it will be only 
 a little while longer, and then he will stoop 
 down with his sword in his hand, and cut you 
 off. No wonder you tremble and mourn. 
 
 But after you have resisted the Holy Spirit 
 as long as you can, you begin to think you never 
 shall have peace again, except in religion, and 
 you resolve to be a Christian. But now you 
 find it isn't so easy coming to God. You resolve 
 to pray, but your thoughts fly off; your heart 
 feels as hard as a rock. Just now, you thought 
 God was angry with you ; now, you think he 
 doesn 't hear you. You find you are a poor, 
 helpless creature, unworthy of God's pity, and 
 sure to be lost unless he pities you. So 
 you weep, and pray, and give it up, and try 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 51 
 
 again; and yet you are an anxious, unpardoned 
 sinner. 
 
 Once more. Perhaps, instead of being a thought- 
 less or an anxious sinner, you are a hardened 
 sinner. 
 
 " God's Spirit will not always strive 
 With hardened, self-destroying man." 
 
 Your anxious days are past and gone. Your 
 conscience warned you, but you made excuses, 
 and put off thinking about salvation for another 
 time. The Lord Jesus invited you, but you 
 loved sin too well to mind him. God called 
 you, but you turned away to spend a little 
 more time with this sinful world. The Holy 
 Spirit touched you, but you hardened your heart 
 and went on in sin. Now, all those solemn 
 feelings are gone; your heart isn't light and 
 careless as it once was, but it has no feeling. 
 You can hear the most solemn sermons, or 
 even verses out of the Bible, and mind it no 
 more than the idle wind. When you are sick, 
 you feel rather serious about it, but not fright- 
 ened, not prayerful, as you were before. Even 
 when friends come and talk to you plainly about 
 your soul, you can laugh it off, and live right 
 on with that same hard, unfeeling heart. You 
 are not happy, though ; oh no ! There is a dull 
 pain in your spirit that nothing will cure. If 
 you get money, it don't comfort you; if your 
 
52 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 home is ever so pleasant, you can't enjoy it; 
 your sleep isn 't sweet, and your days are weary. 
 What is the matter ? What spoils your peace ? 
 It is the voice of your conscience, that you 
 buried in folly and sin, crying out from the 
 ground, accusing you, and telling you, Prepare 
 to meet thy God ! 
 
 But you don't understand that; you haven't 
 found out what troubles you so. Nobody else 
 thinks you are in trouble; nobody sees into 
 your case but God : he knows that you are 
 hardening your heart, and preparing to be lost. 
 Soon, if you go on so — soon God will grow 
 weary of your hardness and impenitent heart, 
 and take you away in his wrath. But yet 
 there is time, if you would only hear his voice, 
 and not harden your heart. If you will not take 
 warning, you are a lost sinner. 
 
 Now, let all listen ! Let me tell you this 
 " faithful saying" once again — Jesus Christ came 
 into the world to save sinners. All kinds of 
 sinners — thoughtless, anxious, hardened — that 
 dear Saviour came to save all. Hear what he 
 says: " Whosoever will, let him come;" "and him 
 that cometh I will in no wise cast out." " In no 
 wise, 11 that is, not at all — for no reason, nor 
 for any sin, nor on any account whatever. Not 
 one poor sinner ever went to him and was driven 
 away ! 
 
 Have you been careless all your days, merry- 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 53 
 
 hearted, impenitent, in spite of all God's warn- 
 ings? Death has come, right by your side, 
 struck down your friends, and frightened you 
 for a day or so; but you have gone back to 
 the old heedless ways again. And you think, 
 may be, that you can't be such a great sinner, 
 for you never meant any harm. 
 
 I had a dear friend once, who was taken very 
 sick ; we watched him, and prayed for him, day 
 after day ; oh, how anxious and sorrowful we 
 were ! But the most pitiful thing of all was, 
 that he would never own he was sick. While 
 we pitied him, and tried to help him, he con- 
 tradicted us and tried to hinder us. Do you 
 think that cured him? Did it make him any 
 better to deny that he was sick ? Day after 
 day he sunk down until he died. Just so it 
 will be with careless sinners; their thinking 
 that they are in no danger won't help them. 
 God says, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die; 
 and the wicked shall be turned into hell, and 
 all the nations that forget God." That's just 
 what the careless sinners do— they forget God. 
 And oh, if they forget their Saviour, too, what 
 good will it do them, if he did come " to save 
 sinners ? " 
 
 But remember, you needn't wait to be an 
 anxious sinner, before you seek the Lord. It 
 isn 't being frightened that helps a man, it 's 
 5* 
 
54 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 being in earnest. What a shame and a folly it 
 is for men to waste all their care on such 
 a world as this, and plunge into the grave 
 with all their sins on them! Listen, poor sin- 
 ners ! Death and judgment are coming, as sure 
 as to-day's sun will set. Repent, and believe 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ; for he came to save 
 sinners. 
 
 But above all, the Lord Jesus pities them 
 that feel their sin ; he begs the weary and heavy 
 laden, the hungry and thirsty — all that are 
 heartsick and miserable, he begs them to come 
 to him. Many a sinner feels so lonely and 
 helpless with his sins, that religion would be like 
 cool water to a man dying with thirst; so the 
 Lord offers him "living water." What a pity 
 men should weep and mourn, grieve and tremble, 
 right at the Saviour's feet, just as if he wasn't 
 ready to help us! Suppose one of those blind 
 men that lived when Jesus Christ was here in 
 the world, instead of crying out, as they did, 
 "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me," 
 had thrown himself down in the road, weeping 
 and groaning, " Oh, I'm blind, I'm blind! I never 
 shall see !" till the Lord was gone ; how foolish 
 and wicked he would have been ! But that 's 
 just the way sinners do; instead of kneeling at 
 the Saviour's feet and praying, "Lord, thou didst 
 come to save sinners, oh save me !" they weep, 
 
THE FAITHFUL SAYING. 55 
 
 and suffer, and fear, without believing, and with- 
 out praying, till it's too late. Try him; lift up 
 your hands and cry aloud, " Lord, save, or I 
 perish!" and he will answer, " Why are ye fear- 
 ful, ye of little faith? Be of good cheer, thy 
 sins are forgiven thee." 
 
 " Mercy, thou son of David \" 
 
 Thus the blind Bartimeus prayed, 
 
 " Others by thy word are saved, 
 Now to me afford thine aid." 
 
 Many for his crying chid him, 
 But he called the louder still ; 
 
 Till the gracious Saviour bid him, 
 " Come, and ask me what you will." 
 
 Money was not what he wanted, 
 Tho' by begging used to live ; 
 
 But he asked, and Jesus granted 
 Alms which none but he could give. 
 
 " Lord, remove this grievous blindness, 
 Let my eyes behold the day \" 
 Straight he saw, and won by kindness, 
 Followed Jesus in the way. 
 
 Oh ! methinks, I hear him praising, 
 Publishing to all around : 
 "Friends, is not my case amazing? 
 What a Saviour I have found ! 
 
 "Oh ! that all the blind but knew him, 
 And would be advised by me ! 
 Surely they would hasten to him : 
 He would cause them all to see." 
 
56 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 WHO IS JESUS? 
 
 11 Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" — John ix. 36. 
 
 How I wish every poor sinner would ask 
 that question with all his heart, as that man 
 did ! He was a blind man, born blind. As the 
 Lord Jesus was passing by, he saw him and 
 cured him of his blindness. Such a thing never 
 was heard of before, that a man who was 
 born blind should be cured ; but nothing was 
 too hard for the Lord. Then, because this poor 
 fellow was so thankful for being cured, and 
 wouldn't call that great Saviour a sinner — 
 wouldn't despise and hate him as the cruel 
 Jews did — they hated him, too, and cast him 
 out of their company, and out of the church. 
 Lonely and troubled enough he was that day ! 
 
 But there was something he minded more 
 than all the neglect of the Jews, that was, his 
 sins. No doubt, God's goodness in curing his 
 blindness, brought him to feel ashamed and sorry 
 for his sins; and then he longed for a Saviour 
 more than for ear tidy friends -and comforts. 
 
 So, when the Lord Jesus came back and asked 
 
WHO IS JESUS? 57 
 
 him, "Dost tliou believe on the Son of God?" 
 that was the very word he wanted to hear? 
 and he cried out, "Who is he, Lord, that I might 
 believe on him ?" And as soon as the Lord an- 
 swered, " It is he who talketh with thee," he 
 said, " Lord, I believe," and worshipped him. 
 
 Now, I want to tell you who the Saviour is, 
 that you may believe on him, and be saved. I 
 want every poor sinner to listen with all his 
 heart, and see if Jesus Christ isn't the very 
 Friend he needs — just such a kind, and holy, 
 and mighty Saviour, as we want. 
 
 I. Who was Christ at the very first ? In the 
 beginning he was God. When this world was 
 made, he was there. He spake those wonderful 
 words, "Let there be light" — and there was 
 light. He was the Creator: "All things were 
 made by him." When you see the sun, or the 
 beautiful moon : when the gentle breezes blow, 
 or the solemn thunder rolls over your head : 
 when the flowers are springing up, or the leaves 
 falling off the trees, or the rivers are shining, 
 or the clouds flying in the blue sky: whatever 
 you see or hear, remember, " My Saviour made 
 them all!" 
 
 He watched over the Jews in ancient time, 
 and saved them from the cruel king that wanted 
 to kill them. He opened a path for them right 
 through the sea; piled up the water like stone 
 on the right hand and on the left, and brought 
 
58 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 them through in safety. Then, when their enemies 
 tried to follow them, he poured back the mighty 
 waters, and drowned them in the sea. Forty 
 years he went with them and took care of them 
 in the wilderness : wherever they went, and 
 however wicked they were, there was that pillar 
 of cloud every clay — tall, and dark, and still; 
 every night, there was the pillar of fire ! When 
 they were ready to die because they couldn 't 
 find water to drink, he made it spring out of the 
 rock like a river ; and because they had no- 
 thing to eat, he rained down bread from heaven 
 every morning, enough for everybody — not a little 
 child was left hungry ! 
 
 And yet the Jews were wicked and disobedient 
 continually. They found fault with him, and 
 wouldn't believe his word, or bear with his 
 will. They despised the bread that came down 
 from heaven ; they quarrelled with Moses ; they 
 broke the law. But the Lord never forsook 
 them for that. Sometimes he had to punish 
 them, they were so wicked ; but as soon as they 
 repented, he forgave them freely. So he showed 
 them, even then, that though he hated their sins, 
 he loved poor sinners. 
 
 And so things went on for hundreds of years. 
 He brought the Jews into their Own country, 
 and took care of them — punished them when 
 they sinned, but watched over them all the time, 
 and saved them wonderfully, as soon as they 
 
WHO IS JESUS? 59 
 
 repented. All this time, too, he was taking care 
 of the whole world. Every star in the sky, 
 every wind that blows, every drop of rain, every 
 soul of man, belongs to him; and he is so mighty, 
 and so wise, and so good, that he never forgets 
 one. He is never weary of saving, and blessing, 
 and loving. In the beginning, our Saviour was 
 God. 
 
 II. What was he next? A little child! In 
 the night when he was born, the angels broke 
 out of the darkness, singing songs of joy: "Glory 
 to God in the highest! on earth peace, good 
 will toward men ! ;; Now, he is called the Son 
 of God; he had no father but God. And yet 
 he didn't come into the world like a king, 
 though it is his own world, that he made. His 
 mother was poor, and he had no place to lay 
 his head, but in a manger. The shepherds that 
 heard the angels sing, and the wise men that 
 saw his star, followed it, and brought presents 
 for him, and found him there, close by the horses 
 and cattle. But when they brought him into 
 the temple, according to the law, behold, old 
 Simeon the prophet took him in his arms, and 
 rejoiced over him ; he was ready to die now, 
 for he had seen the Saviour, though as yet he 
 was but a little child. 
 
 Then the cruel king of the Jews got jealous 
 and afraid of the little child — afraid he would 
 come to be king some day, and drive him out, 
 
60 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 and he determined to kill him. He sent his 
 soldiers to murder every little baby in Bethle- 
 hem, that was under two years old. He did 'nt 
 spare one of them! — But G-od took care of his 
 Son. Long before the terrible soldiers got there, 
 the Lord Jesus and his mother were safe in 
 another country. 
 
 And I think this is a very wonderful and 
 beautiful thing about our Saviour, that though 
 he was the mighty God, yet he became a real 
 little child. So he knows by experience just 
 how little children feel. He knows just how a 
 boy feels when he minds his mother, or when 
 he is a good brother, or when he bears disap- 
 pointments or pain. As he grew up, he was 
 humble and poor, and worked hard, but he never 
 sinned. Though there were so many that hated 
 him afterwards, they never could find any wicked 
 thing to accuse him of, out of all those long 
 years. Spotless and pure, gentle and kind, and 
 obedient, he lived as quietly in Nazareth as if 
 he was only a man, until he was thirty years 
 old. 
 
 III. And what next? John the Baptist came 
 back from the desert where he was hid, and 
 began to preach to the Jews, " Repent." And 
 when they repented and confessed their sins, 
 he baptized them in the river. Great crowds 
 came there, and he warned and rebuked them 
 all. But behold, while he was busy with the 
 
WHO IS JESUS? 61 
 
 sinners, the Lord Jesus came to him, that never 
 sinned ! John felt ashamed to baptize the Sa- 
 viour, who was so much greater than he was; 
 but the Lord commanded him to do it, and he 
 obeyed. Then, as they came up from the water, 
 the Holy Spirit came down and rested on the 
 Lord's head, and God spake out of heaven, say- 
 ing, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
 well pleased." 
 
 And so the Saviour went on, living the life 
 of \ kind and holy man, and doing the wonders 
 of a mighty God. He was tempted by the devil, 
 but he never sinned. He was mocked and slan- 
 dered, and persecuted by the fierce and wicked 
 Jews, and he paid them back with wise teach- 
 ing, and blessings, and love. He healed them 
 when they were sick. Even the vile and horri- 
 ble lepers that were forbidden to come near 
 anybody, for fear of giving them the leprosy, 
 even they came and kneeled down and begged 
 him to cure them, and he did it. Worse than 
 that, the vilest sinners, that everybody despised, 
 and drove away, tasted his love ; if they only 
 came to him, he would talk so graciously, and 
 bless them so freely, that their hard hearts were 
 melted, and their sins were forgiven, and they 
 were saved. 
 
 All this while he was so brave and noble, 
 that no matter how strong and fierce the people 
 were that came to him, he would tell them all 
 
 6 
 
62 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 their wickedness, and command them to repent. 
 If they grew sorry and gave np their sins, then 
 he blessed them, and loved them like a good 
 shepherd taking care of his lambs. If they got 
 ever so foolish and unfaithful after that, he never 
 grew weary of them; he forgave them, and helped 
 them all his life. But if they refused and dis- 
 obeyed him, and tried to lead the poor people 
 into sin, then he exposed them, and taught the 
 people not to mind them, but to do right and 
 fear God, and he would save them. Oh, how he 
 encouraged them, and cheered them on to be 
 brave and good! He said: "Fear not them who 
 kill the body, and have no more that they can do: 
 fear Him, who can cast both soul and body into 
 hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him!" 
 
 And he did just as he said ; though they tried 
 to kill him, and took up stones to stone him, 
 he never took back a word, or feared the face 
 of man. And he never got bitter and passionate 
 like them; he could turn round, after facing all 
 their rage, and stretch out his hand to some 
 poor sinner, and forgive and heal him. 
 
 But the more glorious he was, the more the 
 rulers and great men hated him. If the poor 
 people hadn't loved and admired him so, they 
 would have torn him in pieces. But what could 
 they do? If they followed him by hundreds 
 and thousands into the desert, without bread to 
 eat he took some little loaves and fishes, and 
 
WHO IS JESUS? 63 
 
 fed them all. If they listened to him, he taught 
 them so wisely and beautifully that they couldn't 
 find fault, even though they didn't believe what 
 he said. He gave back eyes to the blind, and 
 made the lame walk, and raised the very dead 
 out of their graves ! Wicked as they were, they 
 had to wonder at him, and to confess that " He 
 did all things well.' 7 When he calmed the raging 
 sea, and stopped the mighty winds, and drove the 
 devils out of men, with a word, no wonder they 
 trembled and were afraid ! 
 
 But they grew more and more mad with rage 
 against him; they envied him, because, though he 
 was a poor man, he was so famous, and the poor 
 and troubled loved him so well. " Don't you see," 
 they said to one another, " don't you see the whole 
 world is gone after him? " They couldn't forgive 
 him for being so good, and they banded together 
 to take his life. 
 
 IV. And now his last days were coming very 
 near. He had preached all over the country, and 
 chosen his disciples, and given all the Jews a 
 chance to believe on him. Now it was all over, 
 and he was ready to lay down his life for his peo- 
 ple, and for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 He called the Apostles together and taught 
 them to eat the Lord's Supper in remembrance of 
 him, so that the broken bread, and the wine poured 
 out, would put them in mind how his body was 
 broken on the cross, and his blood shed, for us. 
 
64 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Then he took the three that he trusted the most — 
 Peter, James and John — and went into a garden 
 where he loved to pray. He left them in the outer 
 part of the garden, and went in among the trees, 
 to pray once more before he died ; and oh, what an 
 agony came on him ! Some terrible thing he was 
 afraid of, though he wasn 7 t afraid to die : and he 
 prayed, over and over again, that his Father would 
 take away that cup from him, if it was possible. 
 He plead so hard, that great drops of blood came 
 on his forehead and fell on the ground : and yet he 
 said, " Father, not my will, but thine be done." 
 At last, the angels of God came down and strength- 
 ened him. 
 
 Then came Judas, one of his twelve chosen 
 friends, with a crowd of Jews and soldiers, to 
 seize on him and carry him away. They dragged 
 him first to one judge and then to another and 
 another: and though the last judge tried a little 
 to save his life, it was all in vain. The people 
 were crazy with passion ; they shouted, " Crucify 
 him ! crucify him ! " until they got him condemned. 
 Then they bound our dear Saviour and beat him ; 
 they mocked him with a rich dress and a crown of 
 thorns; they spit on him, all bleeding and weary 
 as he was ; and when they were tired of their cruel 
 sport, they put the heavy beams of timber on his 
 shoulder that were to be his own cross, and they 
 made him carry them till he fell down fainting 
 under the load. 
 
WHO IS JESUS? 65 
 
 What a sight that was! Far off down the 
 street the Apostles were looking on, afraid to 
 stand by their Lord or help him. Close by were 
 the women that loved him so faithfully — Mary 
 his mother, Mary the mother of James and 
 Joses; Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Salome. 
 They were weeping and sobbing — their hearts 
 were breaking with sorrow to see him treated 
 so. Then the Lord Jesus, that bore all the 
 cruelty without one word, patient as a lamb, 
 spoke to them, and told them not to weep for 
 him. Even then he was thinking about their 
 troubles that were coming, and not about his 
 own. At last the soldiers found a man named 
 Simon, and they made him carry the cross to 
 Calvary. 
 
 There they nailed his hands and his feet to 
 the cross; they could wring his heart with 
 agony, but they couldn't stop his pity. He only 
 said — "Father, forgive them! They know not 
 they are doing." In the hot sun, dying with what 
 thirst, and fever, and pain, he said not one un- 
 kind word. He was dying for sinners ; that was 
 his comfort. He gave his mother to John the 
 Apostle to take care of. Then he said, " I thirst," 
 and they gave him vinegar to drink, While the 
 Jews mocked him again and again. 
 
 But oh, the worst was to come — he was to 
 die like a sinner, though he was so perfectly 
 holy ; and God, his Father, hid his face from 
 him. Then his strong heart broke at last, and 
 
66 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 he cried aloud, " My God! my God I why hast 
 thou forsaken me?" Three hours that awful 
 agony went on, and then he cried out again, " It 
 is finished," and he died. The sun was hid, and 
 the rocks burst open, and the dead came out of 
 their graves. 
 
 To make sure that he was dead, a soldier 
 took his spear and ran it into the Lord's side, 
 and the blood and water poured out. So his 
 body was broken and his blood shed, just as he 
 said. He who had loved us all his life, died 
 that cruel death for us. What a horrible thing 
 must sin be, when God's own Son had to die, 
 before he could save us ! But now he has died, 
 he can forgive sin: "his blood cleanseth from 
 all sin." Will you trust him? If he wants to 
 save you, will you let him do it? Say, poor 
 sinner, " dost thou believe on the Son of God ? " 
 
 Isn't he the very Saviour we need? Isn't 
 he mighty enough? He is God. And meek 
 enough? He was a little child. And his love 
 great enough? He refused not to die for us. 
 And his ransom rich enough ? The blood of the 
 Son of God ! Oh believe on him and be saved ! 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 67 
 
 SERMON V. 
 A RISEN SAVIOUR. 
 
 For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also re- 
 ceived, how that Christ died for our sins according to the 
 Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose the 
 third day, according to the Scriptures. — 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4. 
 
 $o then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received 
 up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God. — 
 Mark xvi. 19. 
 
 To-day I must tell you the story of the resur- 
 rection; that is, I must tell you how the Lord 
 Jesus rose from the dead. He always said he 
 would rise again after he was crucified ; the dis- 
 ciples used to wonder what that " rising from the 
 dead " could mean ; and they never understood it 
 till it was done. 
 
 Then they remembered the words he had spoken 
 about it, and believed on him, that he was the Son 
 of God, the Saviour of the world. Dying foi us 
 wasn't enough to save us ; he had to take away the 
 sting of death, and break through the grave, and 
 go up to heaven; and then his work of atonement 
 was finished. 
 
 But you must remember that he was really dead. 
 
68 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 He was worn out with pain and persecution before 
 the j nailed his hands and feet to the cross : and 
 then he was kept there in agony for six long hours, 
 till he died. And to make sure work with him, 
 they pierced his side with a spear, and those that 
 stood by saw the water and the blood pour out, 
 which showed that he was dead indeed. There 
 was no chance for any mistake, or for anybody to 
 deceive the rest. If anything is plain, and certain, 
 and true, it is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for 
 our sins, according to the Scriptures 
 
 Now the Lord Jesus had a rich friend named 
 Joseph; and Joseph had a garden close by Calvary, 
 where the cross was ; and in this garden he had 
 dug a large tomb out of the solid rock; large 
 enough for himself and all his family. Though 
 Joseph had never been very bold to follow the 
 Lord and confess him before men, while he was 
 alive, yet now he was gone, he went right to Pilate 
 the governor, and begged for the dead body of 
 Jesus. Pilate wondered to hear he was dead so 
 soon, for often people lived a day or two on the 
 cross : he didn't know yet about their piercing him 
 with the spear; but he sent and asked the captain 
 if he was already dead. And when he found it 
 was so, he gave Joseph the Saviour's body. 
 
 Then those faithful friends that had stayed by 
 him to the last when almost everybody was 
 frightened away, climbed up and loosened those 
 poor, torn hands and feet from the spikes, and 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 69 
 
 took down the "broken body" gently from the 
 cross. They wrapped a linen cloth round it, and 
 wound up spices with it, and put another cloth 
 round his head: that was the Jews' way of 
 burying; and then they laid it in the tomb that 
 Joseph had made for himself. Nobody had ever 
 been put there before; the Lord's grave received 
 him, and they rolled a great stone to the door, 
 so that it would be safe till after the Sabbath. 
 
 But though his friends didn't think about his 
 rising from the grave, his enemjes remembered 
 it. They put Pilate in mind, and warned him 
 that his disciples might come and steal the body, 
 and say he had risen : so he gave them a guard 
 of soldiers, and let them seal up the stone, so 
 that if it was moved at all, they would know 
 it. Then the foolish, wicked Jews thought they 
 were safe; they had tried him, and killed him, 
 and fastened up his tomb! But God says the 
 wrath of man shall praise him, and so it did 
 very soon. 
 
 All this I have been telling you happened 
 on Friday; then came Saturday, the Jews' Sab- 
 bath; all was quiet that day. Sunday morning, 
 as soon as the day began to break, those same 
 women who had been true to him when his 
 chosen followers forsook him and fled, Mary the 
 mother of Joses, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, 
 came out to the tomb to put stronger and 
 sweeter spices round the body, that it mightn 't 
 
70 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 decay; for they hadn't time to finish it on 
 Friday. As they were going along, all at once 
 they remembered that great stone at the door; 
 how could they get it rolled away ? They didn 't 
 like to turn back to call the disciples; I sup- 
 pose they were afraid the Jews would notice it, 
 and stop them; so they went on, hoping, per- 
 haps, that the soldiers would help them: for these 
 poor heathen soldiers didn't hate the Lord Jesus 
 as his own people did. 
 
 At any rate, .they went on; and behold, there 
 were no soldiers there, and no stone at the door! 
 As soon as Mary Magdalene saw that, she turned 
 and ran back to where John lived in his own house, 
 and Peter with him, saying, " They have taken 
 away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we 
 know not where they have laid him!" She never 
 thought of anything but that his enemies had 
 done some new wickedness and cruelty. They 
 ran out to the sepulchre — John ran first, then 
 Peter, then Mary. But before they got there, the 
 other women stooped and looked into the tomb, 
 but the body wasn't there. Suddenly they saw 
 the two angels that had been sitting there all 
 the time, one in the tomb, and one on the great 
 stone that was rolled away from the door. The 
 angels said: "Why seek ye the living among the 
 dead? he is not here; he is risen, as he told 
 you." 
 
 As they ran back to tell this wonderful news 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 71 
 
 to the disciples, in the room where they used 
 to meet, behold Jesus himself met them, and 
 said, "All hail!" If their hearts were full of 
 " fear and great joy" before, how they must have 
 rejoiced and trembled now! No wonder they 
 fell down at his feet and worshipped him! 
 Then he sent them with a message to his disci- 
 ples; and what do you think he called them, 
 those unworthy and fearful men, who forsook him 
 in trouble, and left him to his enemies? Breth- 
 ren! "Go, tell my brethren that they go into 
 Galilee, and there shall they see me." Some 
 were to see him before then; but all were to 
 meet him on a certain mountain there. 
 
 The women went and carried his message, 
 but nobody believed them yet. While they were 
 gone, John and Peter, and Mary, came to the 
 tomb. John got there first ; and when he saw 
 the door open, he stood still, amazed and won- 
 dering. So Peter ran by him and went in, and 
 John followed him. There were the clothes, not 
 torn off and thrown down, as if there was any 
 confusion or hurry, but carefully folded up — 
 the large ones by themselves, and the napkin, 
 which was round his head, by itself. Peter only 
 wondered at it all; but John began to guess 
 the truth, and to believe that Christ was risen 
 from the dead. So they went back home, full 
 of their own thoughts, and never remembering 
 poor Mary that was weeping by the grave. 
 
72 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 All, they might forget her, but the dear Lord 
 didn 't forget ! He let them go back in their 
 wonder and unbelief, and he came to comfort 
 Mary in her sorrow. Just like him ! To pity 
 the broken in heart, and bind up their wounds, 
 is his own work. First, the angels showed them- 
 selves to her, and asked, "Why weepest thou?" 
 She was too much grieved to be frightened; she 
 answered : " Because they have taken away my 
 Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." 
 Before she could speak again, she heard some 
 one walking behind her; she turned round and 
 looked, but she didn't see who it was. — Even 
 when he asked her, " Woman, why weepest thou? 
 whom seekest thou?" she didn't know him — she 
 thought it was the gardener ! "Sir," she said, "if 
 thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast 
 laid him, and I will take him away." — Once more 
 he spoke : — " Mary ! " Ah, she knows him now. 
 "My master!" And in her fear that he would 
 vanish again, and she should lose him, she ran 
 to fold his feet in her arms. But he told her 
 she need not be afraid: his time to go up into 
 heaven wasn't come. "Touch me not, for I am 
 not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my 
 brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my 
 Father, and your Father ; to my God, and your 
 God." — That was to encourage them; to let 
 them see that he didn ; t despise and disown 
 them, for all their unfaithfulness. 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 73 
 
 So Mary Magdalene went back, carrying the 
 same message with the other women ; and " they 
 told these things to the Apostles. But their words 
 seemed unto them as idle tales, and they believed 
 them not." 
 
 Two of the disciples went out that same day to 
 a place some seven or eight miles off, called Em- 
 maus. Pie joined them on the road, and they 
 didn 't know him at first ; but when they sat down 
 at supper, and he blessed it for them, just as he 
 always did before he died, they knew him; but 
 he vanished away out of their sight. They started 
 up and went back to Jerusalem on foot as they 
 came; but before they got there he showed himself 
 to Simon. While they were talking about it, he 
 stood there, right among them, and said : " Peace 
 be with you ! " And when they believed not yet 
 for joy, that it was really the Lord Jesus, he did 
 eat and drink, and let them take his hands in their 
 hands, and make sure that it was no spirit, but 
 their own dear Lord. 
 
 All the Apostles were there, this time, except 
 Thomas, and he would not believe on their word ; 
 he must see for himself. Pie said: " Except I put 
 my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
 hand into his side, I will not believe." But the 
 next Sunday night Christ appeared again, and said 
 to Thomas : " Beach hither thy finger, and behold 
 my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust 
 it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." 
 
 7 
 
74 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 When Thomas saw how the Lord knew every word 
 he said, he didn't wait to feel the print of the 
 nails; he cried out : " My Lord and my God ! " 
 
 Then the Apostles went away to Galilee, as he 
 told them ; and no doubt they carried his message 
 to all the believers in that country, to meet him at 
 a certain mountain such a day. One night, while 
 they were waiting for him, they went fishing in the 
 lake, just as they used to before they ever saw 
 him — just as they were doing when he first called 
 Peter and Andrew, James and John. All that 
 night they worked with their nets and caught no- 
 thing — just like the other time. In the morning 
 he was on the shore — but they didn't know who 
 he was — and told them again: " Cast on the right 
 side of the boat, and ye shall find." They did so, 
 and then they couldn 't draw up the net for the 
 multitude of the fishes ! That was enough for 
 John and Peter ; John cried out : " It is the Lord !' ; 
 and Peter plunged into the sea and swam to his 
 Master's feet. 
 
 Now the reason for the Lord's coming there that 
 morning, was to put Peter back among the Apos- 
 tles. You know that he was the man who denied 
 his Lord three times — cursed, and swore he didn't 
 know him ! Of course, if the thing had been left 
 so, whenever trouble rose among the Apostles, 
 they might have turned on poor, guilty Peter, and 
 said : " You have no business here; you denied the 
 Lord." So the Lord Jesus said to him : "Simon, 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 75 
 
 son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? " He answered : 
 " Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." 
 Jesus said: " Feed my lambs." This he did three 
 times, just as Peter denied him three times ; and 
 then he said : " Follow me." That was to be 
 Peter's business all his life. And he did follow 
 him, and died on a cross at last just as his Lord 
 and Master did. 
 
 Then they went to this mountain in Galilee, 
 where more than five hundred people were gathered 
 together, waiting to see him. Nearly all of them 
 believed on him, but some were too hard-hearted 
 and unbelieving; they wouldn't acknowledge him 
 even when they saw him ! And he gave the Apos- 
 tles their charge before all the people — told them 
 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to 
 every creature, and he would be with them to the 
 end. So then all the believers saw that these 
 eleven Apostles were to be their teachers and 
 rulers in the church, and that all were to honour 
 and help them. Then he told the Apostles to go 
 back to Jerusalem, and he rose up and vanished 
 out of their sight again. 
 
 Once more he met them in Jerusalem. He led 
 them out of the city, over the same ground where 
 they had gone together so often. There was the 
 garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed, and sweat 
 great drops of blood — where Judas kissed him and 
 betrayed him — where the soldiers seized him, and 
 bound him, and led him away to die. There was 
 
76 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 the Mount of Olives, where he wept over the lost 
 and wicked city, and where he told them the signs 
 of his coming, and of the end of the world. No 
 doubt they remembered it all ; now it was all over, 
 and they should never see him in this world again ! 
 He led them out as far as Bethany, where Mary 
 and Martha lived, and Lazarus, that he raised from 
 the dead. There he stretched out his hand and 
 blessed them ; and he rose up from among them, 
 and a bright cloud swept down from heaven and 
 received him out of their sight. And while their 
 dear Friend and Master was soaring away from 
 them, and they stood looking up after him, two 
 angels stood by them and said, " Ye men of 
 Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 
 This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have 
 seen him go into heaven.'' That was the end of 
 his strange and hard and painful life in this world. 
 He was born, was a child — a boy — a man; 
 preached the gospel, cast out devils, raised the 
 dead; was despised of men — was crucified, dead, 
 and buried. The third day he rose again, and 
 after forty days he ascended to his Father, and our 
 Father, to his God and our God. 
 
 Now I have three very short and simple things 
 to say about it, and then I will be done. 
 
 1. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is not dead 
 nov). "He was dead, and is alive again." No 
 coffin or grave holds him; "lie ever liveth." We 
 
A RISEN SAVIOUR. 77 
 
 can pray to him, and trust him, and go to him, as 
 a living friend. He sees and hears and loves ns, 
 just as he did before he died on the cross. 
 
 2. He hasn't left us and broken off with us, by 
 ascending into heaven. " He ever liveth to make 
 intercession for us ;" that means, to pray for us. 
 When we sin against God, and repent, and ask 
 him to forgive us, our Saviour takes it up ; shows 
 his wounded side and says, " Father, forgive 
 them ! " And the Bible tells us that the Father 
 heareth him always; when he prays for us, God 
 forgives us. 
 
 3. He is coming back to this world, but not to 
 be a Saviour again; that is all done and finished, 
 for ever. Not to be a Saviour again; to be our 
 judge. Every eye shall see him, even they that 
 pierced him ; and the people of this world shall 
 mourn because of him. All the dead shall be 
 raised, and the Lord will come in terrible glory 
 and might, and all the holy angels with him. The 
 evil world shall take fire and burn up ; the heavens 
 shall roll away with a great noise. The wicked 
 " shall go away into everlasting punishment, but 
 the righteous into life eternal." Oh dying sinners, 
 prepare — prepare to meet your God! 
 
78 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 
 
 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou skalt 
 be saved. — Acts xvi. 31. 
 
 You know, now, who the Lord Jesus Christ is, 
 and what he has done for us. He is the Mighty 
 God, living and reigning for ever ; he was a weak 
 and dying man, who went about doing good and 
 preaching the gospel, and at last laid down his life 
 for us ; now he is risen from the dead and gone to 
 heaven, to his Father's right hand; there he hears 
 poor sinners when they cry, and saves all who 
 come unto him. That was the Lord's work, and he 
 did it so well, and he was such a glorious Saviour 
 himself, that if you didn 't know anything about it, 
 only what he was and what he did, you would 
 surely say: " All the world must be saved. How 
 can anybody be lost, with such a kind and mighty 
 Redeemer ? " 
 
 But, alas, we know better; we know a great 
 many sinners harden their hearts against the great 
 God and his Son Jesus Christ; they live in sin, 
 and they die in despair. They know, and we 
 know, that they are gone to meet a just and angry 
 
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 79 
 
 judge ; that their wickedness has turned the very- 
 Lord that loved them into a terrible enemy, and 
 that he will drive them out into darkness, where 
 there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of 
 teeth ! Many sinners perish so, but not all. We 
 see some try to serve the Lord while they live, and 
 die in peace when they come to die. They are 
 glad to die ! They feel that heaven is their home, 
 and they long to be there. They can sing as 
 they die : 
 
 u I'm fettered and chained up in clay, 
 
 I struggle and pant to be free, 
 I long to be soaring away, 
 
 My God and my Saviour to see ! 
 " I want to put on my attire, 
 
 Washed white in the blood of the Lamb; 
 I want to be one of your choir, 
 
 And tune my sweet harp to his name. 
 
 " I want, oh, I want to be there, 
 
 Where sorrow and sin bid adieu ; 
 Your joy and your friendship to share ; 
 
 To wonder and worship with you! " 
 
 Now, what makes the difference between those 
 that are saved and those that are lost ? Why does 
 the Lord save some sinners, and leave some to 
 perish ? Just this : some believe on him, and some 
 wonH. He invites us all; the text says : "Believe 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved." 
 And he keeps his word ; all who trust him are safe, 
 and all who are too proud and too ungrateful to 
 trust him, are lost. 
 
 And to-day I want to talk to you about this 
 
80 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 faith ; this believing on a Saviour. I want to tell 
 you what it is, and persuade you all to take him 
 for your Saviour. 
 
 I. First of all, let us see what the Lord Jesus 
 has offered to do for you. 
 
 The text says: ''Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What does he 
 mean by being "saved?" Let me put you in 
 mind, now, that sinners are lost in two ways: 
 they are lost, because they are condemned and 
 punished; and they are lost, because they are 
 so wicked and miserable. — Every sinner, you 
 know, has broken God's holy law, and God says : 
 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." He has 
 prepared a world of everlasting fire, for those 
 who hate him ; and he will drive eYery wicked 
 man and woman into that awful place. He must 
 punish the wicked ; if he didn 't hate sin, who 
 could call him just and holy? Where would be 
 his glory ? Just as long as God is good and holy 
 himself, he must love his glorious law, and punish 
 all that break it. 
 
 Now, the Lord Jesus, being God as well as 
 man, came into the world to take our place : 
 he " bore our sins in his own body on the 
 tree;" i. e., the cross. So as he took our punish- 
 ment on himself, God could forgive us without 
 giving up his law, his glory, or his holiness. 
 When one of us who believes on Jesus dies and 
 goes to God's bar to be judged, and his sins 
 
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 81 
 
 are read out against him, his Saviour says: "I 
 took his place: I bore his punishment; he is 
 mine, and I forgive all his sins.' 7 Then the door 
 of hell is barred up again, and the gate of hea- 
 ven flies open to let him in, and he dwells with 
 his Lord for ever. That is one way he saves 
 us. 
 
 But that would do us very little good, if that 
 was all. The sinner's greatest misery is being a 
 sinner; having a hard, unthankful, evil heart; 
 being full of low and wicked passions; being 
 ready for any temptation, and having no care 
 about anything good. In the course of this life 
 he does so many wicked things, and has so 
 many bad feelings that his whole heart is filthy, 
 selfish, miserable. How would a poor, ragged 
 prisoner, just out of the jail, feel, if he was 
 brought into a room full of happy girls and 
 boys? And a thousand times worse would the 
 sinner feel, if he could go into heaven, among 
 the pure angels, with his vile and sinful heart. 
 Ah, there would be no heaven for him any 
 ■where! An evil conscience, and greedy passions, 
 wicked habits, and an angry God, would torment 
 him, if God never raised a hand against him, 
 or tried to punish him. Just leaving him in his 
 sins, would be leaving him in endless w r oe ! 
 
 And that 's the reason why our blessed Saviour 
 promised us the Holy Spirit ; so that vile hearts 
 might be changed, and love and goodness might 
 
82 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 be there instead of sins. He offers to make 
 us " new creatures," so that what the sinner 
 loves now and sins about, shall never be loved 
 again; and what he forgets now — his God and 
 Saviour — he shall love with his whole soul. 
 He offers to take away our pride, to cure us of 
 evil passions, to fill our hearts with every lovely 
 and happy feeling. He offers us pardon for our 
 sins, joy instead of shame and grief, goodness 
 instead of wickedness, endless life instead of 
 everlasting fire. 
 
 II. The only trouble about explaining faith to 
 you, is that men will think that it is some 
 strange, great, and impossible thing; as if believ- 
 ing on the Lord Jesus wasn't like believing in 
 your friends, or your father or mother. Now, 
 you must try to put that foolish notion out of 
 your minds, and learn how to believe on your 
 Saviour, by thinking how you trust everybody 
 that is kind, and wise, and holy. Remember, you 
 are a lost sinner, and Christ offers to save you 
 if you will just believe on him. What does he 
 mean by that ? 
 
 Suppose you were taken sick with one of 
 those terrible diseases that often carry people 
 to their graves in a few hours; you are very 
 much frightened ; the agony of your mind is 
 more dreadful than the pain of your body. You 
 wring your hands, and cry, " Mercy! mercy ! help! 
 help! Oh, I shall die! I know I'll die!" You 
 
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 83 
 
 won't listen to anybody, or follow anybody's 
 advice ; you are wearing yourself out with fright 
 and horror, as much as with sickness. Now sup- 
 pose a kind and skilful doctor conies to you; 
 he feels your pulse, and then he speaks to you. 
 If you trust him at all, you will stop those 
 cries and listen to every word he says, as if 
 your life depended on it. Presently he says, "1 
 can cure you : I am certain of it : but then you 
 must do just as I tell you. Will you promise 
 me that ?" Here again, if you believe in his 
 skill at all, you will promise him at once ; if 
 you don 't trust him, you will go back to your ter- 
 ror, crying, " Oh, it's too late ! I'll die, I'll die! " 
 But suppose you trust him, and promise to do as 
 he tells you. Then he says : " The first thing 
 for you to do, is to trust me with the whole 
 matter ; you must keep perfectly calm and quiet ; 
 don't get frightened; don't begin to cry out 
 again; just rely on me, and I will save you." 
 Now, if you do really trust him, you commit the 
 whole case to him; if your fears begin to rise 
 again, you look at him, and you say to yourself: 
 " He is able to save me, and he promises to 
 do it." That is faith. 
 
 Or suppose the ship in which you were sail- 
 ing was lost at sea, and you were left alone in 
 a little boat, far out of sight and hope of land. 
 The clouds gather in the sky, and the wind 
 blows in those short fierce gusts that come before 
 
84 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 a gale; the waves begin to toss all around you, 
 and your poor little boat takes in water. You 
 give yourself up for lost ; you only keep on toil- 
 ing in rowing, because you can't bear to sit still 
 and die ! But behold, here comes a swift and 
 mighty ship ; they see you, and bear down to 
 yoa; they throw you a rope, and tell you, "Never 
 mind your boat ! Come aboard, and we'll take 
 care of you." And suppose that when they saw 
 you couldn 't manage it yourself, the captain 
 should spring into your boat, risking his life to 
 save yours, wouldn' t you trust it all to him ; do 
 just as he told you, however dangerous it looked, 
 and feel sure that he would save you ? That, 
 again, would be faith. 
 
 And on the other hand, how foolish it would be 
 in you, to go on pulling desperately at your oars, 
 paying no attention at all to the ship, or to the 
 captain's call, or even the rope they threw over 
 your boat ; just working madly and blindly to save 
 yourself, you clidn 't know how ! That would be 
 unbelief ; it would be destroying yourself just 'be- 
 cause you wouldn't rely on those who ought to be 
 trusted. 
 
 Now, the sinner is just like the sick man, or the 
 man in the boat ; and the Saviour is like the good 
 doctor or the captain of the ship. The only differ- 
 ence is this : that he can 't possibly fail or be 
 mistaken. The doctor's medicine might disappoint 
 him; the captain's ship might be wrecked itself; 
 
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 85 
 
 bus the Lord Jesus always saves those that come to 
 him. He tells you plainly that he has power on 
 earth to forgive sins, and to send the Comforter, 
 who is the Holy Spirit, to give you a new heart; 
 that is, he is ready to undertake the whole case; to 
 save you from hell, and to cure you of wickedness, 
 if you will only leave it to him. Will you? Will 
 you trust the Lord who is mighty to save ? Just 
 follow his counsel, and trust in his promise, and 
 give yourself to him as you are ! If you do, that 
 will be faith. 
 
 A great many sinners, when they begin to think 
 about their sins and their danger, just get fright- 
 ened, and stay so. They say to themselves : " I'm 
 a lost sinner! I'm too wicked to be saved! I 
 must die in my sins ! " If you talk to them about 
 the Lord Jesus, they answer : " Oh yes, I know he's 
 a great Saviour; but I'm too wicked to be saved." 
 They are like the sick man, raving with fright 
 instead of listening to the doctor. That is un- 
 belief. 
 
 Other sinners go to work to get better; they are 
 too wicked to be saved now, but if they stop 
 swearing and drinking, and pray every day, and go 
 to church steadily, and have a great many religious 
 thoughts; then, maybe, the Lord can save them. 
 Just as if Christ wasn 't mighty enough to save 
 them, unless they helped him ! So, instead of 
 taking his advice, and " coming to him " right off, 
 they work away, trying to make themselves good 
 
86 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 first, that he may save them afterwards. They are 
 just like that poor fellow in the boat — rowing so 
 hard, when rowing can 't help him, instead of drop- 
 ping his oars and catching the rope. That is un- 
 belief, too. 
 
 The only wise way is this : listen to what the 
 Lord says. He understands the whole matter, and 
 what he says is true. If he says : "I am able to 
 save to the uttermost all who come to me," you 
 must answer: k( Yes, Lord! thou canst save even 
 me, and 1 come to thee according to thy word." 
 When he says: "It is I, be not afraid;" you must 
 cry, like Thomas: "My Lord and my God! I 
 commit my soul to thee ; wash me from my sins in 
 thy blood, and make me a new creature ! " And 
 you must take it for certain that he hears you and 
 helps you, just because he said he would. Like the 
 sick man, driving away his fears by looking at the 
 doctor, before he feels that he is cured; so you 
 must "look unto Jesus," and calm your mind with 
 his word of promise, " Him that cometh unto me I 
 will in no wise cast out." That is faith. You 
 don't hope and rejoice because you are so good, or 
 because you can do so much for yourself, or be- 
 cause you feel so badly about your sins, but just 
 because an almighty Saviour has promised to save 
 all those who put their trust in him. Isn't that 
 plain ? 
 
 Now, I know what you will answer to this : You 
 will say: " I can't drive away my fears whenever I 
 
BELIEVE AND BE SAVED. 87 
 
 please ; I can H believe on the Lord, and be calm 
 and happy." Oh what a wicked, suspicious, un- 
 grateful heart you must have ! a heart that can ? t 
 trust the son of God ! 
 
 But your Saviour has provided even for that; he 
 promises the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, on 
 purpose to give them faith; and the more helpless 
 and unbelieving and wicked you feel, so much the 
 louder and more earnestly you ought to cry to God 
 to send the Holy Spirit and take away the stony 
 heart out of you, and give you a tender, pure, 
 believing heart. 
 
 What excuse can you make now for not believing 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ ? If you say you are too 
 great a sinner to be saved, he tells you : " All 
 manner of sins shall be forgiven to men. 7 ' And 
 Paul declares that the Lord had mercy on him for 
 a " pattern of long suffering;" that is, to show how 
 much patience and love he has for us — enough to 
 save the chief of sinners. If you say you must be 
 better before you can dare to come, the Bible 
 answers: "Not by works of righteousness which 
 we have done, but according to his mercy hath he 
 saved us;" and "his mercy is everlasting." If you 
 say you can't believe on him, he puts you in mind: 
 " How much more will your Heavenly Father give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ! " 
 
 When you see yourself so miserable and guilty, 
 and helpless, and the Lord so patient, and gra- 
 cious, and mighty, how can you stay away ? How 
 
88 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 can you refuse him your heart — forget him, or 
 be suspicious of him? Look at him! His fore- 
 head is marked with the thorns ; his hands are 
 torn with the nails: his side is pierced with 
 the spear — he died for you! He sits on a 
 throne of glory, ready to plead for you ! Now 
 is the day of salvation : harden not your heart 1 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
 
 BE SAVED. 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 89 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 BEING BORN AGAIN 
 
 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto 
 thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God: 1 — John iii. 3. 
 
 God earnestly invites sinners to come and be 
 saved, in the Bible. He says, "I have no plea- 
 sure in the death of him that dieth, but rather 
 that he should turn and live. 77 "Come unto me 
 all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest. 77 "Him that cometh unto me 
 I will in no wise cast out." All through the 
 Bible he pleads with us not to die in our 
 sins and be lost for ever, but to let him save us 
 as he wants to. But then, he tells us plainly 
 that he knows we won't mind him; that if he only 
 asks us and commands us to be saved, we will 
 surely be lost. We will go on hardening our 
 hearts and forgetting our God, until he has to 
 cut us off and cast us down into the pit. " My 
 people will not consider, 11 he says. "There is 
 none that doeth good, no, not one : destruction 
 and misery are in their ways.' 7 "I go my way, 
 
 8* 
 
90 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 and ye shall seek me, and die in your sins." — 
 " There is none that seeketh after God." 
 
 The God who knows all things, and who sees 
 as plainly the thoughts of our heart, as he sees 
 the stars in the sky, knows that men never seek 
 him of their own accord. And so, when he in- 
 vites us to repent and believe, he puts us in mind 
 that there is something to be done that we can't do. 
 " No man can come unto me except ray Father 
 draw him." More than that ; he says it is some- 
 thing great that has to be done: something so 
 wonderful and mighty that nobody can do it but 
 God. Only he who gives us our lives, and raises 
 dead men out of their graves — only he can 
 change a sinner's heart. "Except a man be born 
 of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God." " Ye must be born again." 
 
 Now there is something very terrible about 
 this. God condemns us for our sins, and our 
 own hearts condemn us, too. God provides a 
 great salvation for us, and invites us to take it; 
 and yet poor, wicked man can 7 t take it ! He 
 can look at it, and wish he was safe, and trem- 
 ble and mourn because of his danger; but he 
 can 't stretch out his hand and be saved ! And 
 I think we had better try and understand the 
 case, and see if it is really so, and find out how 
 we can be saved. 
 
 I. What does the Bible mean by " being born 
 again ? " 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 91 
 
 It means, first, that sinners, with their natural 
 hearts, are just as unfit to serve God, as the child, 
 before it is born, is fit to toil and suffer among 
 men. I don ? t mean to say that sinners feel that, 
 or even believe it; but I say it is so, whether 
 they believe it or not. And if any man wants to 
 deny it, let him try to serve God as he ought to; 
 the harder he tries, the sooner he will find out that 
 without the Lord's help he can do nothing. 
 
 It means that these hearts of ours are not the 
 right kind of hearts for that kind of work. They 
 are very well suited to some things, such as hating, 
 envying, loving money, and pleasure, and our own 
 way; they are excellent places to store away bad 
 thoughts and wicked feelings ; ready enough to in- 
 dulge bad passions, or to learn bad habits, or to 
 love bad company. If anybody wants a proud heart 
 or a selfish heart ; an impure or a revengeful heart; 
 a sullen, a cunning, or an obstinate heart, here is 
 the world for him! Everything that is foolish, un- 
 grateful, disobedient, and unbelieving, grows up in 
 our hearts like weeds in rich ground. 
 
 But if he wants a heart that can love and trust 
 the Almighty Lord; a heart to praise him and 
 serve the Lord Jesus Christ ; a heart set free from 
 sin; a heart to believe the Bible, and repent, 
 and pray ; a heart to hope for heaven and be tired 
 of an evil world; he will have to pray for the Holy 
 Spirit. We never have those hearts till God gives 
 them to us. What a difference it makes in -a man 
 
92 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 when he gets such a heart as this ! What he used 
 to hate he loves now; what he cared about he gives 
 up now; what he was afraid of once, can't friglAen 
 him now Sin don't tempt him as it used to; the 
 name of the Lord Jesus is very sweet to him ; heaven 
 is his home; the grave has no more victory, and 
 death has lost his sting. He is so different from 
 what he was, that we call him a " new creature;" 
 something is altered in him, that changes his ivhole 
 life. This is the second great thing that the Bible 
 means, when it says that we must be born again. 
 The first, you know, is, that our natural hearts are 
 entirely unfit to serve God ; the second is, that God 
 can give us the right kind of hearts. 
 
 No doubt it means a great deal more besides 
 this. It means that Christians begin young ; even 
 though they grew old before they were converted, 
 they can't carry any wisdom into religion; they 
 have to learn it all after they begin. At first they 
 are weak and ignorant; they are easily tempted, 
 and they make a great many mistakes; but they 
 grow stronger and wiser as they go on. So, when 
 we are converted, we become as little children. 
 But the two things 1 mentioned just now are the 
 great things. They are what I want to talk about 
 at this time. 
 
 II. Can we see anything to prove this doctrine, 
 ourselves ? 
 
 I think we can. I think if the Bible didn't say 
 anything about it, we should have to believe that 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 93 
 
 sinners are not fit for religion, and that Christians 
 have had help from somewhere. Just look at the 
 difference between them. 
 
 Wouldn't it look very strange to you if impeni- 
 tent people generally should begin to hold prayer 
 meetings, to praise and worship God, and tell about 
 the Saviour? If they were to come together, and 
 form a church, and sit down at the Lord's table? 
 If they were to carry Bibles in their pockets, and 
 slip off from business and pleasure to read them ? 
 If they were to come and see you on purpose to 
 talk about your soul and pray with you ? 
 
 And wouldn't it be just as strange if Christians 
 were to give up these things, and look to dances, 
 and horse-races, and cock-fights instead ? Suppose 
 the church members, where you live, were to re- 
 solve, some Sunday morning, that it wasn 't worth 
 while to worship God any longer, or to respect 
 the Sabbath; and that they had better sell 
 their church for a store ; wouldn 't you be aston- 
 ished ? And yet no doubt you have heard some of 
 the wicked say these very things ! 
 
 Now look and see what the world of sinners is 
 doing, and what the church of Christ is doing, 
 and notice the difference again. - The world is 
 making war, drinking, persecuting, imposing on 
 the weak and the poor, cheating, frolicking, hating, 
 blaspheming, Sabbath-breaking. The church is 
 praising God, studying his word, praying for poor 
 sinners, preaching the gospel, teaching Sunday 
 
94 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 schools, holding meetings, sending missionaries to 
 the heathen, scattering Bibles and good books all 
 over the earth, baptizing the children, eating the 
 Lord's supper. 
 
 Mind, I don't say the world never does anything 
 Dleasant or good. God is so kind and so mighty 
 that he brings good out of evil, often. And I 
 don't say church members never do anything 
 wrong; there is some sin left in all of them. But 
 this is the thing : you and I know that the drunk- 
 ards and the blasphemers are men with natural 
 hearts, and those that praise God and teach men 
 religion are men with new hearts- And we see the 
 difference there is between the church and the 
 world. 
 
 Try it another way, now ; look at the difference 
 between a sinner and a Christian. The sinner has 
 to think about God sometimes; he can't help him- 
 self. If he could forget him, he would. When- 
 ever he can, he thinks about something else. And 
 what kind of thoughts are they ? Why, he hardly 
 remembers Him till he's frightened into it ; scared 
 into wishing God wasn't such a jealous and terrible 
 judge! If he's in danger of dying, then he thinks 
 — "Well, I'm going to lose this world, any way, 
 and if I die as I am, I shall be lost. If I could 
 only live for ever in this world, how glad I would 
 be ! But God is angry with me, and he can 
 destroy me ; how can I escape from him? " 
 
 And what are the Christian's thoughts of God? 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 95 
 
 Instead of trying to get away from thinking about 
 him, he prays to him ; calls him his Father ! He 
 looks out on the green fields, the great sea, the 
 blue sky with its canopy of stars, and rejoices 
 because God made them. When he is sick ; when 
 sorrow falls on him ; when friends forsake him, he 
 takes comfort in thinking of God, and hearing his 
 will. What does David say about God ? " 1 will 
 go unto God, my exceeding joy /" The believer 
 tells the Lord all that is in hi-s heart; what he 
 couldn 't tell to any man, he pours out before God. 
 You can see by that what he thinks of God. The 
 Lord as his Friend, his Father, and his Saviour. 
 
 Or if you notice how they feel about death, you 
 will see the difference between the new heart and 
 the old one. I know some sinners die stupidly; 
 they sleep through their last minutes, and die 
 asleep. Some are too proud to look frightened, or 
 to beg God for mercy then, after refusing him so 
 long. Even that isn't dying happily! But oh 
 what agonies men feel, that are dying in their sins ! 
 One cries : " Millions of money for an inch of 
 time!" Another says: "Now I know there is a 
 hell; for I feel it already." Others beg for mercy 
 — mercy — mercy, in their despair, till they die. 
 
 But the Christian — he may be ever so fearful 
 beforehand, but when his day comes to die, God 
 gives him strength enough to die in Christ. He 
 can leave wife, children and home with a smiling 
 face, because he is going to his Father's house. 
 
96 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 One lifts up his dying eyes and rejoices ; he says : 
 " God, I am saved !" Another answers : M Oh, no, 1 
 don't doubt; Pin not afraid to die while my Re- 
 deemer lives." Each one in his own way is ready, 
 and he goes in peace. 
 
 I will prove it another way. Some sinners grow 
 anxious about their souls, but God doesn 't change 
 their hearts. Now, if you notice how they treat 
 religion, you will see how unfit the old heart is to 
 repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some 
 just contrive one false excuse for themselves, and 
 that's enough to ease their consciences! They 
 haven't time now, or they don't feel guilty and 
 frightened enough to repent. Their excuses 
 look foolish and vain, you see, and yet they 
 are strong enough to cheat sinners into putting off 
 religion. 
 
 Some sinners try to make themselves good first, 
 though that ? s the very thing God offers to do • for 
 them — to make them good. But they forget him, 
 and try to cure themselves — and fail. 
 
 Some imitate religion; they notice how Chris- 
 tians talk, and look, ajid feel ; and they come as 
 near it as they can, and then persuade themselves 
 that they are Christians. How foolish it would 
 seem for a sick man to try and behave like a well 
 man, instead of taking medicine and getting well ! 
 So the men that only try to act like Christians, 
 grieve away the Holy Spirit, and are lost. 
 
 Some just harden their hearts, and drive God out 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 97 
 
 of their thoughts, and he goes away, grieved and 
 angry, and they are cut down in their sins. 
 
 But those that God saves, though they may be- 
 have in this same way at first, yet they get more 
 and more in earnest somehow. They see how vain 
 their excuses are ; they feel that their souls are 
 worth more than their business ; they find out that 
 all their " righteousness is filthy rags." Their hearts 
 grow tender, and God leads them on, and gives 
 them a new heart — and they are safe. 
 
 I hope you see, now, what a terrible difference 
 there is between the old heart and the new heart. 
 You see there isn't the slightest hope for a man, 
 while he tries to make his own heart new; and the 
 only way for anybody to get a new heart, is to go to 
 God for it. 
 
 III. Now let us hear what God says about it. 
 He "knows what is in man," and if he says we 
 can't be saved except by the Holy Spirit, that 
 settles it. 
 
 And first, he tells us that even his teaching won \t 
 make men wise. Is. xxviii. 12, God said : " This is 
 the rest, wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; 
 yet they would not hear." Though God himself 
 points out the way to heaven for sinners, they won't 
 mind Him, nor walk in His ways. And often, when 
 they ask the way, they won 't walk in it. When 
 the people came and asked the prophet what they 
 should do, and he told them, what did they do ? 
 Jer. xliv. 16, "As for the word thou hast spoken 
 
98 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto 
 thee." 
 
 Even afflictions and trials, He says, won 't bring 
 men unto Him. Jer. v. 3, "Thou hast stricken 
 them, but they have not grieved; thou hast con- 
 sumed them, but they have refused to receive cor- 
 rection ; they have made their faces harder than a 
 rock ; they have refused to return." What a true 
 picture of sinners ! How often we see all these 
 things tried on them ! Ministers preach to them; 
 they read the Bible ; they get sick, and they get 
 well; they lose friends and children in the grave; 
 but they don 't repent. They have made their faces 
 harder than a rock. 
 
 Then, again, he tells us plainly that sinners can H 
 please him. Rom. viii. 8, "They that are in the 
 flesh cannot please God." John vi. 44, "No man 
 can come unto me except the Father draw him." 
 John iii. 6, " That which is born of the flesh, is 
 flesh." He can't make any change in his own 
 heart without God's help ; and unless his heart is 
 changed, he can't please God. 
 
 And besides all this, to show us how helpless we 
 are, he calls our salvation by two different names; 
 being born again, and being raised from the dead. 
 The text says, "Except a man be born again, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God." And a little 
 farther on the Lord Jesus says again : "Except a 
 man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." So, in another 
 
BEING BORN AGAIN. 99 
 
 place, 1 John v. 1, " Whosoever believeth that Jesus 
 
 is the Christ, is born of God." How plain it is, 
 
 here, that man can't save himself! Now try the 
 
 other name God gives it — being raised from the 
 
 dead. Eph. ii. 1, " And you, who were dead in 
 
 trespasses and sins, hath God quickened," that is, 
 
 " raised from the dead," 2 Cor. v. 14, " If one died 
 
 for all, then were all dead." " Awake, thou that 
 
 sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall 
 
 give thee light." Being a sinner is like being dead ; 
 
 and being converted is like being raised from the 
 
 dead. 
 
 So it is ; whichever way you look at it, men 
 are both guilty and helpless. The sick man might 
 just as well try to cure himself without medicine, 
 or the starving man to feed himself without bread, 
 as the sinner hope to repent and believe without 
 grace. What, then, must we do to be saved ? 
 
 " Let him take hold of my strength and make 
 peace with me, and he shall make peace with me." 
 We are weak, but God is mighty. " If any man sin, 
 we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus 
 Christ the Righteous;" and " If ye, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts to your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the 
 Holy Spirit to them that ask him ! " You see, Gog 
 made it plain that we can' t be saved our own way; 
 and then he shows us just as plainly how we can be 
 saved. Seek him ! Go to him in earnest prayer ; 
 plead with him for his dear Son's sake; confess 
 
100 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 your sins ; put him in mind of his own promises and 
 calls ; ask him to create in you a clean heart and to 
 put a right spirit within you. Don't get discour- 
 aged ; be like that poor woman the Lord tried so 
 long, taking no notice of her, and then saying such 
 hard things to her. But she knew he was the Sa- 
 viour, and she kept on. Presently he said, " Oh 
 woman, great is thy faith ! Be it unto thee as thou 
 wilt !" 
 
 Think of that world of woe where sinners and 
 devils dwell ; think of the shamefulness of sin ; 
 remember how gracious God is — how ready to for- 
 give. The Holy Spirit is waiting to be gracious, 
 and the Lord Jesus is longing to save. That's 
 what he died for! Come, all ye weary, heavy- 
 laden, and he will give you rest. Or shall he say 
 to you at last, " Ye would not come unto me, that 
 you might have life ?" 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE NEW CREATURE 
 
 Therefore if any man he in Christ, he is a new creature ; old 
 things are passed away — behold, all things are become new. 
 —2 Cor. v. 17. 
 
 Were you ever very sick? Sick with a long 
 and dangerous fever, so that it took away your 
 senses, and kept you on the very edge of the 
 grave? You got weaker and weaker; medicine 
 didn 't seem to do you any good ; you lay very still ; 
 they could hardly find your pulse or feel your heart 
 beat or see you breathe ; but just as almost every- 
 body thought you were gone, you began to revive 
 a little. Your reason came back; your fever left; 
 the doctor said: "He will get well." The pains 
 of death had got hold upon you, but the Lord 
 brought you back from the borders of the pit. 
 
 Now, can you remember how you felt the first 
 day you could creep out into the fresh air, with a 
 stick to help you ? So weak, so tired if you only 
 raised your hand or spoke to anybody ; your knees 
 would tremble, and your voice was so thin and 
 faint, it sounded strange even to you. But oh how 
 sweet and bright everything looked! It didn't 
 9* 101 
 
102 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 seem like the same world you lived in before ; and 
 the fresh breeze was so cool and gentle ; everybody 
 looked so cheerful and kind ; the very trees and 
 the birds seemed to be so glad, that the pleasant 
 tears would come into your eyes, and your heart 
 swelled with happiness. And I hope you thanked 
 God, with all your soul, for sparing you when you 
 were about to die, and promised to serve him, as 
 the hymn says : 
 
 " My life, which thou hast made thy care, 
 Lord, I devote to thee." 
 
 That 's the way people often feel, when they 
 have just been converted. At first, when they 
 begin to think about religion, they are frightened 
 and distressed ; often they can hardly sleep or eat, 
 they are in such trouble ; that angry God looks so 
 terrible, and they find they can 7 t save themselves 
 or escape from him. And then, when they are in 
 despair about themselves, and feel that they are 
 lost, the Lord smiles on them, loves them, gives 
 them a new heart, and forgives all their sins. And 
 just as beautiful as the world looks to you when 
 you begin to get well of sickness, just so calm and 
 happy is everything to the man whose sins are all 
 washed away, and his wickedness and sorrow is 
 cured by the Holy Spirit. 
 
 But often God does his great work in sinners' 
 hearts so quietly and gently, that nobody can tell 
 just when it was done ; they often doubt about them- 
 selves ; they wonder whether there can be the new 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. J03 
 
 heart; they're afraid they have made some mis- 
 take. Especially when some young- Christians show 
 such a great sudden change it makes the others 
 say: "If that is the way we have to be converted, 
 I can 't be a Christian." Now, I want to clear up 
 that trouble for you ; I want to show you what a 
 young Christian really is ; how he feels and acts ; 
 so that you can find out about yourself whether you 
 are a sinner yet, or if God has saved you. 
 
 I. And I will tell you, first of all, something 
 about the young Christian's feelings. 
 
 Often the change in his feelings is just as quiet 
 as the sun's going over our head at 12 o'clock; it 
 makes no noise at all, but the shadows begin to 
 fall the other way ; where it was dark before it is 
 light now, and it grows brighter and brighter till 
 sundown. 
 
 See what a difference in his feelings about God. 
 Once, God was very terrible to him ; he couldn 't 
 stop thinking about him, but he only remembered 
 the Lord's most fearful names; the jealous God, 
 the dreadful God, the angry God. If he could only 
 forget him, how glad he would have been. But he 
 couldn't; day and night he said to himself: "Our 
 God is a consuming fire ;" " it is a fearful thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living God ! " Many a 
 man has got so frightened and angry, thinking 
 about his danger and God's wrath, that if he could 
 tear Jehovah from his throne, he would do it. 
 
 But now! "The Lord is my Shepherd — I shall 
 
104 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 not want: He leadeth me; yea, though I walk 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
 fear no evil, for thou art with me. I will dwell in 
 the house of the Lord for ever." Instead of being 
 afraid of God, as he used to be, it is thinking about 
 God that keeps him from being afraid. Just like 
 the little child that wakes up in the night and 
 throws out its hand to its mother, and feels safe 
 because she is there ; so God's child, that would be 
 frightened because of sin, and death, and hell, 
 rests in peace, because the Lord is near. Hear 
 what David said, when his cruel son Absalom and 
 a whole army were gathered round him to take his 
 life : " Thou, Lord, art a shield for me ! I lay me 
 down in peace, and sleep; I awake, for the Lord 
 sustains me. I cry unto the Lord with my voice, 
 and he hears me out of his holy hill.' 7 
 
 And one thing is very wonderful and very beauti- 
 ful; the young Christian loves to remember that 
 God is holy. That was the very thing that made 
 the sinner afraid. God being so pure and spot- 
 less; hating sin so deeply; being so "angry with 
 the sinner every day ; " that was the most awful 
 thought to him. But now, though he knows there 
 is sin in him still, he rejoices because God is holy. 
 He cries out, " Let me praise thy great and terrible 
 name, for it is holy." When he thinks about his 
 own transgressions, and gets sad and discouraged, 
 then he looks up and takes comfort, because God is 
 good and pure, and because God promises that at 
 last we shall be like him." 
 
A NEW CREATURE. 105 
 
 See, now, what lie thinks of Christ : 
 
 "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, 
 
 In a believer's ear ! 
 It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
 
 And drives away his fear." 
 
 At the very name of the dear saviour his voice 
 trembles, and his heart swells, and the tears fill his 
 eyes. Like Mary Magdalene, when she met him 
 just risen from the tomb, he can't say much, but he 
 can kneel and cry — " My Master!" Oh, if he can 
 only do something to please the Lord, and to make 
 men honour him, how glad he will be ! The Lord 
 don't need him — he knows that very well; but his 
 own heart and hands can't keep still. He under- 
 stands now what John says about the saints in 
 heaven — " they rest not, day nor night, praising 
 God and the Lamb." The Lord is his friend ; in 
 every trouble, in every joy, he goes to his Saviour's 
 feet, and pours out his heart there. He wants 
 everybody to come and trust in Jesus Christ; and 
 he can promise them, if they will only try him, 
 they will say: "Now we believe, not because of thy 
 saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know 
 that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." 
 
 But it is trembling joy that is in his heart. He 
 feels so unworthy ; so ashamed of that wickedness 
 he lived in ; so afraid that he won 't keep his own 
 promises, and that he will dishonour his Saviour in 
 some way, that he can hardly trust himself to 
 
106 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 rejoice. Then he wonders at the change in him- 
 self; he looks up to the Saviour, and wonders 
 that such a great and holy God should care for a 
 poor sinner like him; he can't understand it. But 
 he can praise him! Oh, yes; he can sing the song 
 of heaven already: "Salvation unto our God, that 
 sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for 
 ever ! " 
 
 As I told you just now, he remembers his sins ; 
 but he don't think about them as he used to. 
 Once, he was only sorry for his sins, because they 
 brought him into danger If he could only think 
 God would 'nt punish him for them, he would 
 never give them up ; and if he thought he could 
 go on safely in sin for ten years, or fifty, and then 
 be saved, he'd give every minute to sin and Satan. 
 But because he was afraid of dying and being lost, 
 he began to seek religion. 
 
 But now he feels very differently about sin — it 
 grieves his dear Father, and he hates it for that. 
 If there wasn't any hell, he would hate sin, just 
 because it offends Jesus Christ, who is our Master 
 and our chief delight. Our very hearts cry out as 
 David's did: — "Oh Lord, how I love thy law!" 
 We sec that the law is right, and we know that he 
 is good ; and we can 't bear to break it, or to dis- 
 please him. 
 
 The young Christian loves all Christians. He 
 looks up to God's old servants with love and hope. 
 He loves them for being the Lord's own children ; 
 
A NEW CREATURE. 107 
 
 for loving the same heavenly Father that he loves. 
 He thinks how many thousands of prayers they have 
 prayed ; how they used to feel just as he does now ; 
 how much wiser and better they have grown. And 
 he thinks : " By the Holy Spirit's help, I shall be 
 like them. I will serve my God all my days. I am 
 only the little blade of corn now, just come up out 
 of the ground, but the Lord will bless me, and I 
 will grow up to be the full corn in the ear. Then, 
 when the angels come to gather the grain into his 
 barn, they will take me to heaven too ! " 
 
 But oh, how tenderly he loves young Christians, 
 like himself! When he sees them weeping for joy 
 because their sins are forgiven ; when he hears them 
 pray for a blessing on their minister, their friends, 
 and poor sinners ; when they sing God's praise, his 
 whole heart answers to it. They are " one," as the 
 Saviour promised. He almost trembles, when he is 
 with them, for fear he may say or do something to 
 discourage or trouble them, or tempt them away 
 from their God. How earnestly he prays that God 
 will bless them, keep them from sin, make them use- 
 ful, happy, holy ! 
 
 Notice, now, how he loves the Bible. It is a 
 very puzzling book to sinners; it says a great 
 many things they don't understand; some few, I 
 know, that hardly anybody understands ; but a 
 great many of God's words are "hard sayings" to 
 sinners. Hating sin, loving God whom nobody 
 ever saw, rejoicing in affliction and sorrow, being 
 
108 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 strong in God when we are weak in ourselves — 
 these are things that we can 't understand till we 
 feel them. That makes the difference. Every 
 little while the young Christian finds a verse that 
 used to be dark to him, that is all plain and easy 
 now. He says: "That's the very way I feel; I 
 know that's true now, though I didn't use to think 
 so." Presently you hear him again; "How true 
 that is ! I never thought so before, but now 1 
 feel it." 
 
 Then, very often, he has a feeling of some kind 
 that he can 't express at all. He tries to find some 
 words for it, but they don 't come ; till at last he 
 reads or hears some sweet word out of the Bible 
 that suits him exactly. But the great thing is, 
 that now he believes God's word. 
 
 The promises belong to him ; whatever God says, 
 he believes; he takes it into his heart and "com- 
 forts himself with these words." Then it teaches 
 him so much that he wants to know; he gets ac- 
 quainted with his Saviour and his God there ; he 
 learns about heaven; he grows wise about what's 
 right and wrong. In fact, whenever he gets weak 
 and weary, the Scriptures make him strong; when 
 he gets downhearted, they cheer him ; when he gets 
 cold and careless, they stir him up ; when he feels 
 ignorant, they teach him; when he sins, they re- 
 buke him ; while he lives they guide him ; when he 
 dies they make him triumph in his God! No 
 wonder he loves them dearly ; they come from his 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 109 
 
 Father and his Redeemer, and they lead him up to 
 Him. He says : " Thy word have I hid in my 
 heart, that I might not sin against thee ; thy law is 
 my delight. How sweet are thy words unto my 
 taste ! It is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto 
 my path." 
 
 Once more. See what he thinks about the worlds 
 to come — the world of woe, and the world of joy. 
 He looks back on hell, as a man might look at a 
 burning house he had just been dragged out of, or 
 on a raging sea he has just escaped from — with 
 mingled horror and joy. " If I had been left to go 
 on in sin a little longer, that would have been my 
 portion! Perhaps, if I had grieved God's Holy 
 Spirit once more, he would have left me there ! 
 Now I 'm safe ; the Lord is my keeper ; the gates 
 of hell shall not prevail against me. Glory, glory, 
 to Jesus Christ my Redeemer 
 
 "He burst the iron gates of death 
 And tore the bars away ! " 
 
 Ah, how sweet are his thoughts of heaven ! If a 
 
 pleasant breeze blows; if the day is cool and 
 
 bright; if the clouds grow splendid at sunrise 
 
 or sun set, he thinks: " My home is better yet." 
 
 If the night grows dark and gloomy, he remembers, 
 
 " there is no night there." If he hears Christians 
 
 singing songs of praise, he joins them with all his 
 
 heart, for he knows he will yet sing the " song of 
 
 Moses and the Lamb." When sin shames him and 
 
 casts him down, and he weeps about it before the 
 
 10 
 
110 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Lord, his comfort is, that he will soon go where 
 they never sin; just as you sing it in your own 
 song : 
 
 " Free — oh free, my Lord ; 
 Free from every sin." 
 
 Sickness and death, war and shame and woe, 
 never come there. He feels it; and often he stands 
 and looks up to heaven, and his heart yearns to be 
 there. Heaven is his home. 
 
 II. But it isn't only new feelings the young 
 Christian has; he has new principles, too. 
 
 Mind, I don't say "new resolutions." Sinners 
 make all the resolutions, just like the Christian ; 
 but the trouble is, there is nothing in his heart to 
 make him keep them. Often the young Christian 
 is almost afraid to make any more good resolutions, 
 he feels so weak and wicked ; he isn 't near as bold 
 as he was; but something in his heart, that God 
 put there, keeps him from sinning, and makes him 
 do right. That something is what I call his prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 And the first one is, always to try and please 
 God. That was one of the Lord Jesus Christ's 
 principles — "I do always the things that please 
 my Father." Not as if God was hard to please, 
 and it took a great deal of trying to satisfy him — 
 oh, no. He leaves such foolish thoughts for the 
 unbelievers ; but he loves God so for his goodness, 
 his holiness, and his mercy, that he must do some- 
 thing to show his love. Like a little child, that 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. Ill 
 
 loves to run across the floor, and bring its mother's 
 spool or thimble, just to see her smile and look 
 bright ; so God's child is happy when he feels he is 
 doing his Father's will. 
 
 The next one is, to ta/ce his Saviour for his 
 King. He knows the Lord Jesus is his Saviour ; 
 but he isn't satisfied with just being delivered 
 from hell. He prays with his whole soul, " Thy 
 kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is 
 in heaven." So he tries to keep all the Lord's 
 laws himself; he wants everybody to own and obey 
 their Redeemer ; and he does all he can to build 
 up the church. It grieves him to see the Sabbath 
 day broken ; to hear the name of the Lord Jesus 
 taken in vain by the wicked ; to think how many 
 great nations there are that do not know him and 
 serve idols. 
 
 Another principle is, to be a good and true brother 
 to his brethren and sisters in the church. You can 
 always tell him by his keeping the peace. Old 
 Christians sometimes get cold hearted and quarrel- 
 some ; but if a man who thinks he has just been 
 converted is quarrelsome, hard to please, can't 
 forget a cross word or an injury, tell him he is mis- 
 taken; if he had just begun to love God, he couldn't 
 bear malice against God's children. He prays for 
 his minister constantly; begs God to remember him, 
 and give him grace and wisdom. He thinks about 
 the church, and tries to find out what he can do for 
 the Lord's people. He says, " Because of the house 
 of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good." 
 
112 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 The next one is, to do all the good he can. The 
 divine commandment, you know, is this: "Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And he be- 
 gins to keep that law, and every law of God, as 
 soon as he finds it. He pities poor sinners about 
 to die in their sins, and be lost for ever. He prays 
 for them ; he watches his chance to speak a good 
 word to them ; if they have any friend that can do 
 it better than he can, he asks him to be faithful too. 
 He is kind to the poor and sick, to the wicked and 
 miserable. Like his Saviour, who wept over Jeru- 
 salem when the Jews rejected him and were going 
 to kill him, he weeps for dying men, and longs to 
 save them. 
 
 I can only speak of one more principle now — to 
 make haste, and get rid of sin. He is tired of this 
 wicked world; he was "weary and heavy laden" 
 before he found peace in Christ, and now, when he 
 looks into his heart, and finds unruly passions and 
 selfish feelings there, it grieves and darkens his 
 mind. He repents of every sin as soon as he finds 
 it out; he pleads with the Lord every day, to keep 
 him from temptation, and deliver him from evil; 
 he is glad to deny himself, and give up even what 
 seems right, if it is likely to lead on to something 
 else that 's wrong. He abhors what is evil, and 
 tries to get rid of it; and he tries to live by the 
 Lord's command, "whether ye eat or drink, or 
 "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 
 
 But remember, though he isa" new creature," 
 
A NEW CREATURE. 113 
 
 he is young yet. As David says, his " soul is even 
 as a weaned child f weak, unable to take care of 
 itself, needing to be looked after all the time. So 
 the young Christian don't get discouraged when he 
 finds some evil in himself; he knows that he has a 
 great deal to learn, and that he will have to work 
 hard and get strong, and then he will be holy and 
 happy. " They that have clean hands* will grow 
 stronger and stronger. 7 
 
114 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 JOINING T-HE CHURCH. 
 
 u With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." — Rom. x. 10. 
 
 The Lord Jesus, our good Shepherd, has pro- 
 vided a fold for his flock — a place where he can 
 keep them together, and watch over them. It is 
 called his church ; the church of Christ ; the house 
 of the living God. All who belong to him, whom 
 he bought with his precious blood, have a right to 
 dwell there, and be numbered among his " sheep." 
 He promised that there should be " one fold and 
 one shepherd ;" that is, that all his people should 
 be one people, whatever place they lived in, and 
 whatever name they were called by; and that he 
 himself would be the Saviour of all ; not taking 
 care of some himself, and leaving the rest to some 
 body else, but counting all together, and caring for 
 all — being every Christian's own dear Redeemer. 
 
 Now that he has brought his people together and 
 made them into a church, he invites everybody 
 that believes in him and repents of sin, to join it. 
 It ? s the place, not for sinners that want to be saved 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 115 
 
 and wish they were Christians, but for those who 
 think that they are Christians already. Your house 
 is the place for your children, and not for other 
 children that wish they were yours ; and so the 
 church is for G-od's family, and nobody else. And 
 I want to tell you to-day what a sweet and happy 
 place it is, that the Lord has built for his dear 
 friends. I want to invite every one of you, that 
 repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, to 
 join the church. You see what that text says: 
 " With the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
 tion;" that is, the way to be saved is, to profess the 
 Lord before men. 
 
 Nobody must expect to be saved by hiding a 
 little religion in their hearts where it will never be 
 heard of. The only waj is, to believe with all your 
 heart and come out from the world, and confess the 
 Lord as your Saviour publicly. That's the way 
 to be saved, and the Bible don't tell us any other 
 way. 
 
 I. But, first of all, we must have something to 
 profess. 
 
 How foolish it would be to think that God was 
 pleased with a falsehood ! And yet, every year, a 
 great many people join the church, that know they 
 are not God's children ; they think if they can only 
 get in there, they are safe. It is very wicked, as 
 well as foolish and dangerous. 
 
 Joining the church is just saying to everybody 
 who sees you do it: "I was a sinner, lost and 
 
116 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 ruined, hardened and helpless, but now I take the 
 Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour; I believe that I 
 have repented of all my sins, and that he has par- 
 doned me, and that my name is now written in the 
 book of life. I give up the world; I'm tired of 
 sin; I'm going to serve God all my days." Now, 
 suppose I say all that when I don't feel it, just be- 
 cause I think getting into the church will save me, 
 haven 't I told a falsehood ? Isn 't it wicked to say 
 what isn't true to men? And how much more 
 dreadful is it to say it to God ! 
 
 But the sinner is the very man who don't care 
 about God in his heart ; he may be frightened 
 about his sins ; he may wish he was safe ; he may 
 take some comfort in going to church and prayer 
 meetings; because he thinks he can escape from 
 hell that way; but as soon as his fright is gone, 
 his religion is gone too. What pleasure can 
 God take in seeing such a man called his ser- 
 vant, and counted among his people ? How angry 
 the Lord Jesus must be, when he sees a sinner 
 and an unbeliever sit down at the communion 
 and make believe there! — pretend to honour the 
 Lord's broken body, when he don't trust him at 
 all! 
 
 The Lord Jesus said some terrible things about 
 false professors of religion. Let me tell you some 
 of his sayings: "Ye hypocrites! well did Isaiah 
 prophesy of you, saying, ' This people draweth 
 nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 117 
 
 with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 " 
 And again he says: "Woe unto you, scribes and 
 pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited 
 sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, 
 but within are full of dead men's bones and all 
 uncleanness." And if I was to tell you what God 
 says about those who worshipped him falsely in old 
 times, you would tremble, for fear you should fall 
 into the same condemnation. 
 
 In truth, the sinner's heart is vile in God's sight, 
 for God is holy ; and he cannot bear to count any- 
 body among his friends that isn't ashamed of sin, 
 and praying for the Holy Spirit to cure him of 
 wickedness. God is the God of truth, and he hates 
 every false way, and therefore, as the hymn says, 
 he 
 
 "Abhors the sacrifice 
 Where not the heart is found." 
 
 And this makes it plain that nobody ought to 
 profess religion, till he has some religion to pro- 
 fess. It is foolish and wicked to try it before 
 then ; it is cheating ourselves and mocking God. 
 
 II. But if a man is a Christian, then, as I told 
 you just now, the church is the very place for him ; 
 the safest and happiest place for every child of 
 God. God invites them to come in; promises them 
 blessings if they confess the Lord, and threatens 
 woe, if they are ashamed of him. " Whosoever 
 shall confess me before men, him will I also confess 
 before my Father who is in heaven. But whoso- 
 
118 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 ever shall deny me before men, him will I also 
 deny before my Father who is in heaven." And 
 again : " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the 
 Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that 
 God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
 saved. For with the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is 
 made unto salvation." Sometimes God gives us a 
 positive command about it : " Come out from among 
 them, (i. e. from among the sinners.) my people, 
 and be ye separate ; aud I will receive you, and 
 will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons 
 and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 
 
 That ought to be enough for anybody that loves 
 God, or believes on the Lord Jesus. To have the 
 Saviour own him before our Father in heaven, and 
 to have God call him his son — isn't that a pre- 
 cious promise? If it was something hard and 
 dangerous and fearful, every true Christian would 
 rejoice to own his God and Redeemer; but the 
 Lord has filled his church with blessings for his 
 people. 
 
 First of all, you know the world is full of tempt- 
 ations ; inside and outside, everything persuades 
 us to sin against God. And we are just so blind 
 and foolish, that anything can lead us into sin, and 
 so into trouble and darkness. Everything that helps 
 us to resist temptation is a blessing; it helps us 
 just where we need help the most. But what can 
 a man do that will help him so much as making a 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 119 
 
 public promise? You stand up before all the 
 Christians, and before ever so many sinners too — 
 old friends and strangers both — before the great 
 God and our Saviour, and you make a solemn 
 public promise to live a pure and pious life ; to 
 pray for the Holy Spirit's help, and to serve the 
 Lord with all your might ; to set a good example, 
 and to do good as you have opportunity. And 
 surely if anything a man can do will make him 
 firm and faithful, such' a solemn vow as that will 
 do it. 
 
 The next thing is this — joining the church puts 
 the Christian among Christians ; it makes him 
 u come out from among" the sinners, and be sepa- 
 rate, and it joins him to those who believe on the 
 same Lord Jesus Christ, and love the same God, 
 and make the same promise. 
 
 Now we know how feelings run from one heart 
 to another; if one member of a family is good- 
 tempered and pleasant and happy, the others' faces 
 begin to brighten too. And we know how easy it 
 is to do right, if all the company do the same thing. 
 How many people work hard, just because every- 
 body about is industrious! So, when the young 
 Christian leaves the company of sinners, and joins 
 himself to those who love heaven and their Father 
 there — those that are patiently trying to do right 
 and to please God and to get rid of sin — those 
 who love one another and are kind — it is a great 
 deal easier for him to do right ; it keeps his heart 
 
120 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 warmer and brighter to have so much love and 
 happiness all around. 
 
 Then, again, when the young Christian joins the 
 church, he feels that all those precious privileges 
 they have there, belong to him. It is the house of 
 his God where they worship ; it is his Saviour they 
 praise. His minister preaches, and he preaches to 
 him. When prayer is made for the church, he 
 knows that means him too. He is not a stranger 
 there : he 's at home. 
 
 But most of all, he feels that at the Lord's table, 
 any body can hear the preaching, and join in the 
 singing; but only those that come out from the 
 world can take the communion. When the minister 
 repeats the Lord's words, " This is my body, broken 
 for you," his heart answers: "Yes, my master, it 
 was broken for me ! That blood was shed for me ! 
 As often as I do this, I remember thee. I promise 
 to show forth thy death till thou come ! " 
 
 And then, he knows that every officer in the 
 church has promised to watch over him, and help 
 him. If they see him going astray, it is their place 
 to warn him kindly j to instruct him ; to encourage 
 him ; to strengthen him, whenever he tries to do 
 right. If his heart gets heavy and dark, he can go 
 to his pastor, the elders, or the leaders, and tell 
 them about it, and get their advice ; they will feel 
 for him, and pray for him, and study his case, to 
 see what the matter is. If he finds out that he has 
 been sinning, he can go and confess if, to them, and 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 121 
 
 have the help of their prayers, and their watching 
 over him, to hold him up when he tries to do better. 
 In truth, they are bound to help him every way 
 they can ; that 's exactly what the Lord put them 
 there for ; and no church member ought to feel 
 afraid to go to his minister and talk to him about 
 anything -that concerns his soul. The Bible says : 
 " They watch for our souls, as they that must give 
 account." 
 
 But the greatest of all is this — the Lord our God 
 has promised to bless his church ; and of course, 
 whoever really belongs to the church, will get his 
 share of God's blessing. " Yea, God loved the peo- 
 ple ; he will keep the feet of his saints. For the 
 Lord forsake th not his saints; he preserve th their 
 soul; he delivereth them out of the hand of the 
 wicked. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers 
 and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, 
 and of the household of God." 
 
 " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
 they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life ; 
 and they shall never perish." " God shall confirm 
 you to the end, that ye may be blameless in the day 
 of the Lord Jesus." " For the Lord will not for- 
 sake his people, because it hath pleased him to 
 make you his people." " Can a woman forget her 
 sucking child? Yea, they may forget; yet will I 
 not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the 
 palms of my hands, and thy walls are continually 
 
 before me." 
 
 11 
 
122 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 He promises to deliver us out of affliction. "In 
 a little wrath I hid my face from thee, but with 
 everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, 
 saith the Lord thy Redeemer." " Thus saith the 
 Lord that created thee, and he that formed thee, 
 Israel — Fear not! for I have redeemed thee; I 
 have called thee by thy name : thou art mine. 
 When thou passest through the waters, I will be 
 with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not 
 overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, 
 thou shalt not be burned. For I am the Lord thy 
 God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." 
 
 He promises to make the church holy : " He who 
 has begun a good work in you will perform it until 
 the day of Jesus Christ." The Lord Jesus " gave 
 himself for the church, that he might sanctify and 
 cleanse it ; that he might present it to himself a 
 glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or a*hy 
 such thing ; but that it should be holy." And he 
 shows us how he will bless the church in heaven at 
 last: "After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multi- 
 tude, which no man could number, of all nations, 
 and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood be- 
 fore the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with 
 white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried 
 with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God 
 who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb! 
 These are they which came out of great tribulation, 
 and have washed their robes and made them white 
 in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 123 
 
 before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
 night in his temple ; and he that sitteth on the 
 throne shall dwell among them. They shall hun- 
 ger no more, neither thirst any more; neither 
 shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For 
 the Lord, which is in the midst of the throne shall 
 feed them, and shall lead them unto living foun- 
 tains of waters : and God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes." 
 
 These are some of God's promises and kind 
 words to his church. I might show you a great 
 many more, for the Lord dearly loves his church, 
 but these are enough, surely. Every true-hearted 
 church -member has a share in them, and God will 
 bless him according to his promise. 
 
 III. But God hasn't only promised to bless and 
 reward the Christian himself. He doesn't mean 
 us to look just at the good we can get out of it and 
 nothing else. Joining the church is the way to do 
 good, as well as to get good. 
 
 First of all, it encourages the Christians, when 
 men leave the world and join them and confess the 
 Lord. They say : " Our God is saving sinners 
 again ! Here's another poor sinner repenting ! 
 One more of his enemies, that he has brought to 
 be his friend!" Then they thank God and take 
 courage; they can praise and pray; they can serve 
 God and do good, with new spirit, when they see 
 that he is calling men '• out of darkness into his 
 marvellous light.'' 
 
124 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 It warns sinners, too; it makes them feel how 
 great God's mercy is, and how others are entering 
 the kingdom of heaven while they stay out. They 
 remember that every one of these new Christians 
 will rise up against them in the judgment, because 
 they had the same blessings and didn 't repent. It 
 puts them in mind of that " great gulf" that lies 
 between heaven and hell, when they see how we 
 begin to part from one another here — the husband 
 belonging to the church, perhaps, and the wife 
 belonging to the world, the sister loving God, and 
 the brother loving sin ; the father praying, and the 
 son swearing. 
 
 In a great many other ways, joining the church 
 does good. It brings religion into a man's family ; 
 it makes him set a good example wherever he is — 
 in the field or in the house ; it sets him to praying 
 for people ; and more than all, it honours God. It 
 says : "0 God, thou art my God ! early will I seek 
 thee, for in thee the friendless and fatherless 
 findeth mercy. Thou forgivest all my sins; thou 
 renewest my heart ; thou leadest me in the way of 
 life. I will sing praise unto my God, while I have 
 my being ! Thou keepest my soul from death, mine 
 eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. The 
 Lord hath washed me from my sins in his own 
 blood: he is my Redeemer, and 1 am his servant. 
 I give up every other hope, and every idol, and 
 every sin ; the Lord is my portion and my joy. I 
 bear witness that Jesus Christ is a perfect Sa- 
 
JOINING THE CHURCH. 125 
 
 viour, and the Lord my God is an everlasting 
 Father." So we honour God and do good; and 
 God smiles on us and saves us. Isn 't it a good 
 thing to profess Christ? and oughtn't every be- 
 liever to speak out and own his Lord? " With the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with 
 the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 
 n* 
 
126 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 GOSPEL CONDUCT. 
 
 Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. 
 —Phil. i. 27. 
 
 I suppose you have all heard of Paul, the 
 great Apostle; the man who wrote the verse 
 that I'm taking for my text. His first name was 
 Saul. He was a Jew; fond of his religion and 
 his goodness; knowing nothing about his own 
 heart, or the real meaning of God's word. While 
 he thought he was so good, he was full of wicked 
 and bitter passions ; he was proud, self-righteous, 
 uncharitable. So, when the Lord Jesus came and 
 died for us, Paul was ready to hate him and all his 
 people ; and when the first Christians came out of 
 their hiding places, and began to tell the good 
 news of a Saviour, Paul — young man as he was — 
 was ready to persecute and kill them. When that 
 good man, Stephen, was beaten to death with 
 stones, Paul stood by and took care of their clothes 
 for those who were murdering him. And when the 
 Christians began to flee away and hide again, be- 
 cause of the persecution, he was the fiercest of all 
 in hunting for them, beating them, putting them in 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 127 
 
 jail, or anything else the cruel Jews wanted to do 
 with them. 
 
 He hated the Christians so bitterly, that when 
 he couldn't find any more to persecute in Jerusa- 
 lem, he begged the rulers and chief men to let him 
 go to Damascus and oppress them there : " both 
 men and women," the Bible says ! No pity in his 
 heart for any poor sinner that believed in Jesus 
 Christ! 
 
 But while he was hurrying on there, fierce and 
 cruel ; thirsting for their blood as any tiger, all at 
 once a bright and terrible light shone out of 
 heaven on him — brighter than the very sun itself 
 — so bright that he fell down, blind and sick, on 
 the ground ! It was the Lord Jesus Christ, in his 
 glorious body, looking down from heaven on this 
 wicked man, persecuting his people. The Lord 
 said : " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" He 
 answered: "Who art thou, Lord?" Christ said: 
 " I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." 
 In an instant Paul saw what he was doing ; he was 
 hating and grieving his own Saviour! the Lord 
 that died for him! Oh, how frightened and 
 ashamed he was! every proud and bitter thought 
 melted out of his mind, and he began to love the 
 very cause, and the very people that he had been 
 hating. And his first word then was: " Lord, what 
 wilt thou have me to do?" That was the uppermost 
 thing in his heart, all the rest of his life. "I must 
 
128 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 do something for my Lord. What wilt thou have 
 me to do?" 
 
 Christ didn't tell him, right off. what he was to 
 do ; he kept him three days blind and idle in Da- 
 mascus, to give him time to think, and to make up 
 his mind perfectly. Then he sent Ananias to him, 
 to open his eyes, and to tell him that his work was 
 this : " preach the gospel to the Gentiles." And 
 from that day to the day his head was cut off, he 
 never gave it up : wherever he was, he warned and 
 taught the people, and told them of the " Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world." 
 
 Now, every true Christian, in his first days, is 
 like Paul in this, that he wants to know how he 
 ought to live, and what the Lord would have him 
 to do. It would make him very unhappy if the 
 Lord should forbid him to work for him and 
 serve him; but often he feels puzzled — he don't 
 know just what the rule of his life ought to be. 
 And this is what Paul tells us in the text, " Only 
 let your conduct be as becomes the gospel of 
 Christ;" fit your life to that good news, and you 
 will be just right. You know what that good 
 news is : the gospel puts us in mind that we are 
 sinners, and then tells us how the Lord Jesus 
 Christ came into the world and died on the cross 
 to save us; that God will save his people, and give 
 the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ; that he takes 
 care of us here, and makes us dwell in heaven when 
 we die. 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 129 
 
 What kind of life, then, will match that glorious 
 gospel? What must the Christian's conduct be? 
 
 That's the question I want to answer for you 
 to-day, so that you can know what the Lord will 
 have you to do. 
 
 I. Our conduct must be humble. 
 
 If a man makes a great and strange mistake, we 
 always think that after he find it out, he ought to 
 have a poorer opinion of himself, and more respect 
 for other people's judgment. If he makes so many 
 mistakes as to show that he is ignorant and foolish, 
 we think he ought to be very cautious how he trusts 
 his own judgment again, and be very careful to fol- 
 low good advice always. But if he has been a 
 drunkard, or a liar, or a thief, all his life, we won- 
 der how he can ever hold up his head, and look 
 and talk proudly any more. 
 
 Now, we know what we used to be. If we wanted 
 to forget it, the Bible keeps putting us in mind. We 
 were "dead in trespasses and sins; by nature the 
 children of wrath ;" "wherefore remember" Paul 
 says, " remember that ye were without God, having 
 no hope." God was angry with us; we were full 
 of sin; ungrateful, selfish, disobedient; despising 
 his goodness, and rejecting Jesus Christ. We must 
 remember this; and remembering it ought to hum- 
 ble us. It will make us feel how wicked we are by 
 ourselves, and how certain we are to go back to 
 sin, if the same mighty God that turned us, doesn 't 
 keep us all the time. It will keep us from despis- 
 
130 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 ing sinners, and from forgetting that we were just 
 like them. It will make us afraid to run into 
 temptation ; make us know that we are never safe 
 except when we are near the Lord. 
 
 All that we say and do ; even the way we look, 
 ought to show that we never forget what poor sin- 
 ners we are : how guilty, and vile, and ready to 
 perish. Everything proud and haughty is foolish 
 in us, and hateful to God. 
 
 II. Our conduct must be holy. 
 
 Now that we see how guilty and vile sin makes 
 us; vexes the great God who wants to be our 
 friend; turns away his love; fills our hearts with 
 evil passions ; makes our consciences sore and sad ; 
 hardens us ; destroys our peace ; prepares us for 
 hell ; we must fear and hate sin with all our might. 
 We must search into our hearts to see what wick- 
 edness is left there ; to confess it, and repent of it, 
 and beg God to cure it for ns. We must pray Da- 
 vid's prayer: " Search me, God, and know my 
 heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if 
 there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the 
 way everlasting.'' 
 
 Then, you know, if we are Christians, we will 
 love the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will try to honour 
 him in the eyes of men. And we know that noth- 
 ing could dishonour him, or keep men from respect- 
 ing him, more than being selfish and passionate, 
 worldly and proud, and prayerless, when we are 
 called by his name. We know that if we love 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 131 
 
 his law, and keep ourselves spotless and unblam- 
 able; if everybody sees how tender-hearted and 
 loving and good we are, they will think better of 
 him. They will say : " It is worth something to be 
 saved by Jesus Christ ; see how pure, and brave, 
 and kind his people are ! " 
 
 But not only for that; not only to honour our 
 Lord, but because we love him so ourselves, we must 
 long to be like him : that must be our great ambi- 
 tion. Just as every good soldier loves to see his 
 general brave, and then tries to be just as brave 
 himself; just as every good child is ashamed and 
 disappointed when it does anything that its father 
 or mother wouldn 7 t do ; so the true believer is 
 never satisfied, when he isn 't like Christ. When 
 he is passionate, or proud, and finds it out, he says, 
 " Ah, my Lord never would do that. I 'm not like 
 my Saviour yet! Help me, my God, and cure 
 me of sin ! " 
 
 He longs to get away from this evil world, where 
 everything tempts him, and leads him away from 
 the Lord Jesus, and go where he shall ever " be with 
 the Lord." 
 
 " There we shall see his face, 
 And never, never sin." 
 
 That's what makes heaven so beautiful and so 
 happy; and those who want to dwell in heaven 
 must be holy. 
 
 III. We must be prayerful. 
 
132 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Anybody that wants to be good and holy, and 
 knows how weak, and sinful, and foolish we are, 
 will be sure to pray. Anybody that believes that 
 God is kind and mighty, will have something to 
 ask him. Anybody that knows G-od is our king, 
 and that loves to serve him, will want to confess 
 every sin to him, and be pardoned. And whoever 
 doesn't pray, we know he is proud, and wicked, 
 and unbelieving, and disobedient. 
 
 What does the Bible say? "Blessed are they 
 that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for 
 they shall be filled." But if we want to be right- 
 eous so much, we will feel how helpless we are, and 
 we will be pouring out our hearts before God every 
 day — telling him how ashamed and sorry we are, 
 to be so evil, and praying, " Create in me a clean 
 heart, God ; renew a right spirit within me ! " 
 
 Then all our sorrows and joys we will carry to 
 our dear Saviour. We will " trust in him at all 
 times :" 
 
 " To him in every trouble flee, 
 Our best, our only Friend I" 
 
 When pain and sickness come; when death 
 is near; when our dear ones are taken away, 
 we will tell him about it, submit to him, and 
 pray for strength to grow better, and bear it well. 
 W T e will ask him for everything we want ; we 
 will pray for a blessing on our families, our 
 church, our friends ; we will beseech him to save 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 133 
 
 poor sinners, and the whole wicked, miserable 
 world. 
 
 IV. We must he patient. 
 
 Vexation, disappointment, and sorrow come upon 
 everybody. Death and tears fill the world, because 
 of sin ; and if we are God's children, we won 't be 
 angry and discontented when we suffer; we won't 
 give up religion, and say, " What use is it to serve 
 God, if he doesn't save us from sorrow?" We 
 musn 't sit down in despair, as if there never was 
 any better time coming. We must believe that God 
 is good and faithful. We must know that he is try- 
 ing to cure us of sin and pride, and to take away 
 our idols, that keep us from loving him. 
 
 We must confess to him that we deserve all that 
 we suffer, and more; we deserve to die and be cut 
 off for ever; but we are not afraid of that now. 
 The gospel tells us that " Whosoever cometh unto 
 him, he will in no wise cast out; " so we trust him, 
 and "rejoice in tribulation." We leave all our 
 affairs in his hands, and we are sure that all he does 
 is kind, and right, and wise. " The Lord is right- 
 eous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.'' — 
 And whoever believes in the Lord will believe that, 
 and be patient. 
 
 V. The true believer must be busy. 
 
 Our days are few and evil; time is short, and 
 
 eternity is long; and yet whatever we do now, is 
 
 done for eternity. Soon we must go where there 
 
 are no tears to wipe away, no sorrows to relieve, no 
 
 12 
 
134 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 sinners to save. As the Lord Jesus said : " The 
 night cometh, when no man can work." Whatever 
 we are going to do, we must do it quickly. If we 
 are going to conquer sin, to help our friends, to 
 teach our children, to serve the Lord among men, 
 to spread the good news of the gospel, now is the 
 time ! A few days more, and we shall be in another 
 world. 
 
 And you know the Bible says, "There remaineth 
 a rest for the people of God." We are expected to 
 work hard and wear out here. God puts our rest on 
 the other side of the grave to show us that " this is 
 not our rest." And when he tells us about heaven, 
 in the gospel, the next thing he says is : " Where- 
 fore be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know 
 that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
 Whoever believes this will be busy, " Redeeming 
 the time, because the days are evil." 
 
 VI. Our conduct must be spiritual. 
 
 The gospel makes a great difference between 
 those who are worldly minded and those who are 
 spiritually minded; and people often wonder what 
 it means by those names. Let me tell you about 
 them. 
 
 The worldly minded man is the man whose 
 thoughts, and cares, and business, are all in this 
 world. His treasure is here, and his heart also. 
 He lives and feels just as if this world was going 
 to last for ever, and he was going to live here 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 135 
 
 always. Money is worth more to him than God's 
 grace and a new heart. He cares more about man's 
 respecting him, than about God's forgiving him. 
 He is more anxious to have his own way in this 
 life, than to make heaven his home. Instead of 
 loving God, his heart is full of idols. 
 
 But we must not be so — we that believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. That is the very sin we con- 
 fessed and gave up, when we first came to God. 
 "No man can serve two masters; ye cannot serve 
 God and mammon" — that is, God and this world. 
 So we took God for our portion, and gave up this 
 world. We professed that it was better to have 
 God forgive and love us, than to be rich or honour- 
 able ; than to have pleasure, and health, and ease in 
 this life. We took heaven for our home ; and we 
 owned that this world is so wicked, and miserable, 
 and lasts such a little while, that we were foolish 
 for loving and caring about it. And now, whatever 
 comes : sorrow, trouble, reproach, death, we have 
 promised "to take up the cross and follow Jesus." 
 
 Now, what I say is, we must live according to our 
 profession, and our promise. We mustn 't go back 
 now, and live as if we minded the opinions and 
 words of men, more than the will and the favour of 
 God. We mustn 't care more for money than we do 
 for holiness. We mustn 't try harder to have an 
 easy time and our own way, than we do to get to 
 heaven. We mustn't be discontented and rebellious 
 because of sorrow and toil in this life. No ; heaven 
 
136 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 is our home ! Christ is our all ! God is our exceed- 
 ing joy ! We live for them, and not for this vain 
 world So, when Paul is telling about his trials and 
 persecutions, he says : " But none of these things 
 move me, neither count I my life dear unto me, that I 
 might finish my course with joy." And in another 
 place he says, "These light afflictions, which are but 
 for a moment (though they lasted all his life) work 
 out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory : while we look not at the things which 
 are seen, but the things which are not seen ; for the 
 things which are seen are temporal ; but the things 
 which are not seen are eternal." Paul was 
 spiritually minded ; and if our conduct is such as be- 
 comes the gospel of Christ, we shall be spiritual, too. 
 
 VII. Last of all Ave must be joyful. " Rejoice 
 in the Lord," says the Bible, "and again I say 
 rejoice." We have no business to go mourning all 
 our days. We are the children of God ; we have 
 the spirit that cries to him, "Father." "And if 
 children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs 
 with Christ." You know what that means ? Every 
 thing that God has belongs to the Lord Jesus and 
 us. Our sins are pardoned already; nothing can 
 do us any real harm but sin, and if we resist tempt- 
 ation, God will help us and hold us up. All our 
 sorrows are coming to an end; we are going to 
 dwell in joy and peace for ever. We shall be holy 
 and like him whom we love best 
 
 No more lonely days ; no more shame for our 
 
GOSPEL CONDUCT. 137 
 
 wickedness; no more hard battles with our evil 
 hearts ; no more disappointment in our friends, in 
 our plans, in our love. Everybody in heaven will 
 love us ; and Christ and God will love us best of 
 all. 
 
 How can we mourn and be troubled, then, except 
 with unbelief? And unbelief is sin. When your 
 heart is heavy you must return to the Lord, pray 
 to him to comfort you, to take away your sin, and 
 to make you rejoice. For it dishonours him when 
 we are downcast and sad. We must do as becomes 
 the gospel, and "be joyful." 
 
 Now, when you think of all this I have been 
 
 telling you — being humble and holy, prayerful 
 
 aad busy, patient and spiritual and joyful — does it 
 
 seem too much for such poor, weak, sinful creatures 
 
 as we are ? It is too much, if we try by ourselves; 
 
 but God is our strength; and he says : " Fear not, 
 
 for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy 
 
 God ; I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee, 
 
 saith the Lord, even thy Redeemer, the Holy One 
 
 of Israel." Trust him, all ye his people, and toil 
 
 on ; for there is rest in heaven. 
 12* 
 
138 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 
 
 "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me 
 to lie down in green pastures. — Psa. xxiii. 1, 2. 
 
 David, though he was a king and a prophet in 
 in the last part of his life, was a shepherd at first, 
 and took care of his father's sheep. He used to 
 lead them about from one hill to another, and from 
 one pleasant little stream of water to another, just 
 as they needed to go — always looking for the best 
 pasture and the still clear water for his flock. 
 When the lion and the bear came down where he 
 was, to kill the sheep, David fought and killed 
 them, though he was hardly grown up ; and God 
 took care of him and saved him from all danger 
 and from all his enemies, and brought him to be 
 one of the greatest and wisest of men. 
 
 But David never forgot those early days; he 
 knew who it was that watched over him, just as he 
 watched over the sheep. For though his life was 
 full of dangers, and he had such fierce and terrible 
 enemies — though he himself was a man full of evil 
 passions, yet God was mightier than all, and so 
 kind to him as to bring him through all these 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 139 
 
 things, so that he lived to be an old and honoured 
 man, and died quietly in his palace, with his chil- 
 dren and friends all round him. 
 
 Now David knew, as I said, who took such gra- 
 cious care of him ; he loved to look back and see 
 how God had led him, and to praise that heavenly 
 Father for his great goodness. And he wrote this 
 beautiful Psalm not only to praise God, but to 
 show what perfect trust he had in the Lord's faith- 
 fulness and love. And when he was thinking how 
 he could tell of God's goodness, he remembered 
 how he spent his young days watching the lambs 
 and caring for them; and he said, "The Lord is 
 my shepherd." 
 
 That's just the feeling that the Christian has. 
 The poor sinner feels as if God was a stranger, 
 and thought nothing about him, unless it was to be 
 angry with him when he did wrong. It don 't seem 
 natural to him that men should go to the Almighty 
 Lord with all their little affairs, and tell him all 
 about them, just as if he was a near and faithful 
 friend. But the Christian knows better, he knows 
 God loves him. And while he remembers that God 
 cares for all, and is kind to all, he remembers that 
 though he is so mighty, he has a special care for 
 him. If we have faith, we will not only say, The 
 Lord is a Shepherd, we will say, The Lord is our 
 Shepherd. 
 
 I. The Lord is our faithful Shepherd. David 
 begins, you see, by looking at God; that's the way 
 
140 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 to be happy and to feel safe — to look away from our 
 poor selves, wicked and helpless, to the mighty 
 God. He is faithful. " I am the Lord," he says ; 
 "I change not." He has proved that well. Long, 
 long before the world was, he had it all planned ; 
 and in his good time he spoke the wonderful word, 
 and the world was made. Then as soon as Adam 
 and Eve sinned, he promised them a Saviour; and 
 though so many hundreds of years had to roll away 
 — though men were so wicked and rebellious — 
 though the Lord saw just how they would treat his 
 dear and holy Son, yet he kept his promise. He 
 sent that Son into the world, full of grace and 
 truth, and let him die for sinners. Then he pro- 
 mised the Holy Spirit, and kept that promise — 
 made men repent and believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, pardoned their sins, changed their hearts, 
 and fitted them for heaven. 
 
 And how many promises he made men ! yet not 
 not one of them ever failed. Who ever could rise 
 up before God, and say, " I did this and this, 
 according to thy word, and the promise wasn't 
 fulfilled?" Not one! He said that they who 
 sought him early should find him, if they searched 
 for him with all their hearts; and so it is until this 
 day. He said he would take care of his people 
 even down to old age ; and he does it. When flesh 
 and heart fail them, he is the strength of their 
 heart and their portion for ever. Who ever came 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 141 
 
 to him and was cast out? Who ever trusted in 
 him and wasn ? t delivered ? 
 
 Arid we know he will be the same true and 
 watchful Friend to us also. " He abideth faithful ; 
 he cannot deny himself." Sickness and sorrow 
 and storm will come, but our Deliverer will come 
 also. He will bring us blessings as we need them. 
 He will bring chastenings and afflictions, too, when 
 we need them. He will keep every promise, and 
 answer all our prayers, and love us, as he loved 
 his disciples, "unto the end." 
 
 The Lord is our mighty Shepherd. Our enemies 
 are strong, our sorrows are great, and our wicked- 
 ness is terrible; and we need a mighty helper. 
 That's just what the Lord is. " He stretched out 
 the heavens like a curtain ; he makes the clouds 
 his chariot; he walks on the wings of the wind; he 
 laid the foundations of the earth ; he brought the 
 waters of the flood higher than the mountains, and 
 drove them away again with a word ; he waters the 
 hills with rain, and makes the grass and corn and 
 trees to grow. He appoints the sun and moon 
 their times to shine ; he makes darkness, and it is 
 night. The earth is full of his riches, and so is 
 the great, wide sea which he has made. He looks 
 on the earth and it trembles ! He touches the hills 
 and they smoke ! His glory and his might shall 
 endure for ever. — (Ps. civ.) 
 
 " This awful God is ours" — our Father and our 
 Shepherd. We are the work of his hands, and our 
 
142 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 new hearts are his also. When Christ died for us 
 God raised him again from the dead. When the 
 disciples gathered together and prayed in fear and 
 sorrow, with the doors shut for fear of the Jews, 
 God sent the Holy Spirit, like a rushing mighty 
 wind, to fill their hearts with courage and their 
 mouths with wisdom. And though kings and na- 
 tions hated the gospel, and tried to destroy the 
 church, they never could do it; for God had pro- 
 mised that even the gates of hell should not prevail 
 against it. 
 
 So he brings us always just as much help as we 
 need. If daily blessings are enough, he sends 
 them; if our dangers and troubles grow great, then 
 he sends a great deliverance. Not one of his peo- 
 ple ever was lost. He will conquer death and hell 
 for us, and bring us safe into the promised land. 
 
 God is our gracious and tender Shepherd. What 
 miserable creatures we should be, if God didn't 
 pity and love us! We are so blind and foolish — 
 we make so many mistakes, and live so carelessly, 
 that we are always getting into trouble. We sin 
 so terribly, that earthly friends hardly ever have 
 patience with us. Only the Lord our Shepherd 
 bears with us ! He is never weary of helping us ! 
 He forgive th all our sins ; he healeth all our 
 infirmities; he saves our life from destruction. 
 Oh how many poor sinners have gone to him for 
 mercy, and every one was pardoned ! 
 
 He is " the God of all comfort." Very sorrowful 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 143 
 
 is this world ; full of wickedness, and full of tears. 
 Every heart aches, and fears, and mourns. Every- 
 body has sickness, and trouble, and death in the 
 house: trouble, too, that no man can comfort — 
 only God can pity and cure. So, if God wasn 't 
 " gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great 
 goodness/ 7 we should be friendless and helpless 
 just when we need help and comfort the most. 
 That's what the hymn says : 
 
 thou who driest the mourner's tear, 
 
 How dark this world would be, 
 If, when by sorrow wounded here, 
 
 We could not fly to thee ! 
 
 But we can fly to him. Oh how often, when our 
 hearts are ready to break with grief, we go to his 
 mercy-seat and tell him all our trials ; and while 
 we pray he sends comfort ! We feel stronger — we 
 grow calm — ready to suffer all his righteous will; 
 for our thoughts are on our heavenly home, and 
 rejoicing in God's glory. And though our sins are 
 so mixed up with our sorrows, that we almost feel 
 ashamed to carry them to anybody, yet we know 
 he is able to save u to the uttermost." " Oh that 
 great, sweet word uttermost ! " God can follow us 
 with his great love into all our wickedness, and 
 foolishness, and grief, and heal us there, just as he 
 stopped the mouths of the lions against Daniel, and 
 just as the Lord Jesus called dead Lazarus out of 
 the deep cave where he was buried. He heals the 
 
144 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 broken in heart, and binds up their wounds, and 
 he saves the chief of sinners. 
 
 II. "The Lord is my Shepherd — I shall not 
 want." Or, as David says in another place, "They 
 that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." 
 If we have foolish and wicked wants, God doesn -t 
 promise to satisfy them. But his sheep shall not 
 want anything that the Good Shepherd can give 
 them. And how foolish we should be, if we would 
 have what we like, whether our wise and gracious 
 God saw that it was good for us or not! 
 
 David knew very well that lie could 'nt have 
 everything he liked. There are some pleasant 
 things that can't go together, and if a man has 
 one of them, he must do without the other. No 
 man can work and rest at once ; he may want the 
 pleasure of both, but one must wait. So that wasn 7 t 
 what David meant; what did he mean? 
 
 Why, he knew what a thirsty, starving, miserable 
 world this is — full of war and violence, discontent 
 and envy, and wicked passions — men striving 
 against each other bitterly for things that can't 
 do them good, and wasting all their chance to get 
 real good. " There is no peace to the wicked, 
 saith my God :" and yet peace is the only thing 
 worth having. Strength, money, comforts, these 
 are all very well to fill out with, but they can't 
 make a man happy. Who ever sees a rich man that 
 is happy? And how many poor and lowly people 
 are happy ! You go to the bedside of some sick 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 145 
 
 old man, and pity him — and behold, he doesn't 
 want any pity ! He says, " I 'm leaving this sad 
 and wretched world — my Lord is here with me in 
 the dark valley — his word is sweet to me, and his 
 promises are all true ; pity poor careless sinners, 
 that are going down laughing and singing to hell 
 in the dark!" He don't want anything — his cup 
 is full. 
 
 Now you see what David meant — the Lord will 
 give me every thing I need ; "no good thing will 
 he keep back from them that walk uprightly." He 
 saw trouble and sorrow were coming — they always 
 come! but he wasn't afraid. They never hurt 
 God's people, they help them. He put himself in 
 the hands of his God. There he knew he was 
 safe. " The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not 
 want." 
 
 " He maketh me to lie down in green pastures." 
 It shows what care a good shepherd takes of his 
 sheep, if he finds green pastures of tender grass for 
 the in — so plenty, too, that when they have eaten 
 enough, they can still lie down in the midst of the 
 grass. It shows they have enough, and it shows 
 they feel safe. They can sleep, and he watches 
 over them. 
 
 What is the pasture of the Lord's flock ? Reli- 
 gious blessings. If he didn 't feed them with that 
 food, they would die ; if they have that, their souls 
 shall live for ever. See, now, how abundantly he 
 provides for them. 
 
 13 
 
146 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 First of all is the Sabbath-day. Ever since he 
 made the world, he has saved one day out of every 
 week for religion. He taught men to honour it 
 and keep it holy, and to come together in little 
 companies and worship him, and learn his will. 
 Worldly and wicked people have always grudged 
 the Lord that day, and tried to take it away from 
 him, to spend it for themselves. But God was too 
 good to let it be wasted so ; he hallowed it, and 
 made men respect it, and punished Sabbath-break- 
 ers so often, that all kinds of people are learning 
 at last to give God the day that belongs to him. 
 But it is the Christian's day after all. Then he 
 can leave this poor world out of sight, and spend 
 the time with the Lord Jesus. What a green and 
 precious pasture for God's flock Sunday is ! 
 
 Then, again, there is the Bible — God's book, 
 we call it, and so it is. He taught the old prophets 
 and apostles what to say and how to say it. He 
 made them tell the story of Jesus Christ, and all 
 his wonderful and dying love. He wrote down 
 these " exceeding great and precious promises," 
 that comfort us in all tribulation and give us 
 courage to wait on the Lord. He put all that wis- 
 dom there that his people have been studying, and 
 rejoicing about, all this long time. And what if 
 some of you can't read it? I wish you could, every 
 one of you, and I wish you had your own Bible, 
 too. But if you can't read it, that don't keep the 
 Bible from teaching you, and making many of you 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 147 
 
 wise unto salvation. All that you hear about your 
 Saviour — all God's precious words of comfort that 
 men repeat — all you know about religion — all that 
 your friends and your minister can teach you — 
 came right from the Bible. This is another part 
 of the Lord's " green pastures." 
 
 And there is the preaching, too. How many 
 thousands of good men our Father has taken away 
 from their worldly plans and hopes — from trying to 
 get pleasant homes aud live in comfort and wealth 
 — to make them preach the gospel. Made them 
 work hard, and weep and suffer, striving against 
 sin, and opposing those that tempt men — made 
 them deny themselves, and take up the cross, and 
 go about doing good, following Jesus, their great 
 Captain. And their reward is, to save poor sin- 
 ners : to know that those who were perishing in 
 sin have come to be the children of God. They 
 are happy — the Lord takes care of that. He 
 makes them a blessing to men, and that brings 
 them joy. They preach about the Lord Jesus, and 
 sinners' hearts melt, and repent, and trust him. 
 They tell of God's faithfulness, and the sorrowing 
 Christian is comforted. They warn men of sin, 
 and the backslider is ashamed and confesses and 
 repents. They are the under shepherds ; and they 
 lead the Lord's flock into " green pastures." 
 
 "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.'"' 
 How safe we are, when we stay in his pasture ! 
 Those that wander off, and try to take care of them- 
 
148 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 selves, they are in danger and trouble all the time. 
 But if we abide with him, we shall be satisfied 
 with food, and lie down contented, and our rest 
 shall be sweet. He invites us there — he opens his 
 arms to us, and carries the weary ones in his bosom. 
 Oh, who shall not love and trust this great Shep- 
 herd, and live near to him ! Keep us in thy fold, 
 dear Saviour, and let us go out no more for ever ! 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 149 
 
 SERMON XIX. 
 THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 
 
 "He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; 
 he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's 
 sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
 of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod 
 and thy staff, they comfort wie."—-PsA. xxiii. 2, 3, 4. 
 
 David told us ? in the first part of this Psalm, 
 who was his Shepherd, and how safe he felt in God's 
 hands, and how kindly he provides for his flock, 
 making them to -'lie down in green pastures." 
 Now he goes on, telling of other blessings the Lord 
 sends, and the care he takes of us all, even to the 
 end. 
 
 I. " He leadeth me beside the still waters." If 
 David had only said, " beside the waters," you 
 couldn't tell certainly what he meant. It might 
 be a dangerous and rapid river, or the wild and 
 bitter sea. But he says, " the still waters" — some 
 clear and pleasant stream where the sheep can drink 
 safely, and drink as often and as much as they need. 
 That 's the very image of peace with God. 
 
 Sinners are in a strife with God. He wants them 
 to live one way, and they will live any other way 
 
 13* 
 
150 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 but that. He threatens, but they won 't listen. He 
 "entreats," but they stop their ears. He is angry, 
 but they forget him. He is grieved, but they 
 harden their hearts. All they do, dishonours God; 
 every word and action, and even their thoughts, 
 break his law. If everybody was to follow their 
 example, God would 'nt have a friend, a servant, 
 or a son, in the whole wide world. His thoughts 
 and his ways are not like theirs ; and when God's 
 will crosses their will, then they rebel, and their 
 hearts blaspheme against him, even if their tongues 
 don 't dare to do it. God wants to make the world 
 good, and they want to keep their wicked pleasures; 
 so they are working right against GooVs plans all 
 the time. 
 
 That makes sinners afraid of God. In their 
 hearts they know they are resisting and grieving 
 him ; they know he is mighty, and they dare not 
 go to him as they are. They're afraid of God! 
 Afraid of our Shepherd and Friend — our dear Fa- 
 ther ! We know him ; we can trust all his promises. 
 We can go into our closets, and talk to him. We 
 don't have to wait till some trouble happens to 
 us, or till we are in terrible need of some blessing, 
 and then creep into his presence, trembling for fear 
 he will remember our sins, and slay us. Oh, no ! 
 we "enter into his courts with joy ; it is a good 
 and pleasant thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 
 and to call on the name of the Most High." We can 
 pour out our hearts before him ; we can " tell him 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 151 
 
 all our trials ;" and if we haven 7 t any trials, we can 
 kneel before him, and praise him, and call him our 
 Father. " We are his people, and the sheep of his 
 pasture. 
 
 And when the Christian is weary of this misera- 
 ble world — weary of seeing its sin and sorrow, 
 and striving against temptations, and keeping down 
 his passions, and doing his duties here, oh, how 
 much like pleasant waters to a thirsty man it is, to 
 be alone with God! The Sabbath morning comes, 
 that God "blessed and hallowed" — or we find 
 some quiet little time in the week — when we can 
 put away all worldly thoughts and cares, and medi- 
 tate on God's sweet word. We lift up our heavy 
 and tired hearts to him, and he lays a gentle hand 
 on them, and they rest. We can almost see him 
 look down on us, so gracious and loving, and whisper 
 the precious Bible promise that comforts us. He 
 leadeth us beside the still and holy waters, and 
 quenches all our thirst. 
 
 II. "He restoreth my soul." How strange alas, 
 it is, that though God is so good, and religion 
 makes men so happy, yet they will wander from 
 him; leave the green pastures and still waters that 
 our Shepherd provides, and stray in the wilderness 
 of the world ! But so it is : when God first takes 
 us to be his children, we promise that we will never 
 leave him, and we feel very sure that nothing will 
 ever tempt us away from our Saviour. We sing and 
 rejoice, and then grow careless and un watchful; 
 
152 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 and it don 't take long for these weak and foolish 
 hearts to get cold and hard, and to feel as if they 
 didn ; t need any help against sin and Satan. Then 
 down they come ! The same way we loved the 
 world before, money, or pleasure, or whatever it 
 was, we begin to love it again without noticing it. 
 Somehow, our prayers get shorter and less pleasant ; 
 we can't keep our thoughts from wandering. God 
 seems far off — not so awful or so beautiful as he did 
 once. At last, some sin that we fall into is so shock- 
 ing, that it makes us think — and behold, our pro- 
 mises are all broken, and our peace is gone ! 
 
 But now, instead of coming straight back to God 
 as poor sinners, begging to be pardoned again for 
 Christ's sake, as we did at first, we go stumbling on 
 in dark and wicked ways. Sometimes it 's because 
 we love our sins too well; sometimes, because we 
 are too proud to own our wickedness ; sometimes, 
 because we haven 7 t faith enough to believe God will 
 pardon us ; we go on sinning and mourning, and 
 grieving God ; and then at last he takes pity on us, 
 and leads us back. " He restoreth our soul." We 
 would never find our way into peace again, if he 
 didn 't bring us there. 
 
 Sometimes God restores us by taking away our 
 idol. How many Christians have had that expe- 
 rience ! They loved something too much, but they 
 didn't know it — they wouldn't believe it, even when 
 their friends saw it, and told them so. They didn 7 t 
 want to believe it, because if they did they would 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 153 
 
 have to repent of the sin, and give up the idol. So 
 they cover up their iniquity before the Lord, and 
 sin against their own souls. But when his time 
 comes, the money is lost, or the house burns "down, 
 or the child dies, and is buried out of sight. Then, 
 while we are mourning over our affliction, it flashes 
 on us that God has done it; this was our idol, 
 and he took it away. And now we repent and re- 
 turn unto the Lord, and he has mercy on us, and 
 pardons us abundantly. 
 
 Sometimes God restores us by waking our con- 
 sciences. For a long time, we cheat ourselves into 
 thinking that we are doing right, while in truth we 
 are living in sin. It is wonderful how we can de- 
 ceive ourselves, and hold up our heads, and look 
 honest, while we are breaking God's law, and our 
 own solemn promises ! But when the Holy Spirit 
 comes to us, we can H help seeing our sin, and being 
 ashamed of it, too. " Mine eye seeth thee," Job 
 says : " therefore I abhor myself, and repent in 
 dust and ashes." 
 
 Sometimes God restores us by making us long for 
 peace again with him. — We never have peace when 
 we wander from God — not true peace. We may 
 be careless and thoughtless, and call it peace, but 
 we're not happy. And though for a while we may 
 amuse ourselves and drive away our heaviness by 
 worldly pleasures ; yet just as soon as God touches 
 our hearts, we find out how poor and lonely we are. 
 Our heart and our flesh cry out for God — for the 
 
154 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 living God. Every thing in the world looks mean 
 and worthless without his blessing. Then we call 
 to him: " My Father! my Father!" we throw down 
 our vanities and sins, and run to his feet. And oh, 
 what joy and peace it is to see him smile again, and 
 call us his own dear children. 
 
 III. " He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness 
 for his name's sake." When we have been falling 
 into sin, wandering from God, and getting lost in 
 the crooked ways of the world, we begin to find 
 out at last how weak we are — certain to go wrong, 
 if God don 't keep us right. Then what a comfort 
 it is to remember God's promise to lead us, and to 
 have the Christian's experience that God does lead 
 him ! 
 
 That 's one special part of a shepherd's work, to 
 lead the sheep. He knows where the green mea- 
 dows are, and the streams that never dry, and he 
 calls them away from the barren land, to the place 
 he provides for them. For the Lord's flock, the 
 only safe and pleasant paths are "the paths of 
 righteousness ; " they always run through green pas- 
 tures and beside still waters. Those ways are ways 
 of pleasantness, and those paths are paths of peace, 
 
 But alas, we know very well we can 't trust our- 
 selves to find those paths, and walk in them. Our 
 hearts are too deceitful and wicked ; we are so igno- 
 rant and blind, that if we go alone, we will surely 
 get lost. Somebody must lead us, and keep us 
 there; and the Lord our Shepherd will do it. 
 11 The Lord knowcth the way of the righteous." 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 155 
 
 He leads us by making our conscience tender and 
 honest. Many consciences keep still when men are 
 going wrong, don't cry out and scare them from 
 wicked ways: so they go on easily in sin. But 
 when God blesses us, and undertakes to lead us, he 
 wakes up our consciences, so they have to tell the 
 truth. When we are going to break the Sabbath, 
 or give way to evil tempers, or do anything that 's 
 unrighteous, conscience says, No ! — and raises such 
 an alarm that we turn back into the " strait and nar- 
 row way " again. 
 
 He leads us by teaching us how the Lord Jesus 
 walked. He says, " My sheep hear my voice, and I 
 know them, and they follow me." Often, when we 
 can ? t study out our way for ourselves, and every 
 thing looks dark and doubtful to us, we remember 
 that the Lord was in just such a strait once, and 
 we know what he did and said. He had enemies ; 
 and he loved them, and gave himself for them. He 
 w r as reproached ; but he bore it meekly, and "re- 
 viled not again." He was tempted, and resisted the 
 devil. He was surrounded with sinners, but he 
 lived and died pure and spotless: he pitied them, 
 blessed them as long as he lived, and then laid down 
 his life for them. Thinking of these things, we see 
 what spirit we ought to have, and what we ought 
 to do. So the Lord " leadeth us in paths of right- 
 eousness." 
 
 But most of all he leads us by giving us the Holy 
 Spirit. We know not even ". what we should pray 
 
156 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 for as we ought," but " the Spirit helpeth our infirm- 
 ities, and maketh intercession for us." He makes 
 us grow in grace — causes us to understand our 
 hearts and lind out our sins — gives us repentance, 
 and faith, and love; so we grow strong, and we 
 walk straight and free in God's way. 
 
 But why should the Lord do all this for us? 
 Why should he care for poor sinners, and lead them 
 patiently and carefully in the paths of righteous- 
 ness? How do we know that he will go on with us 
 the same way, all our days? David tells us: "He 
 leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his 
 name's sake. 11 The glory God loves most, is the 
 glory of goodness. He loves to be praised for his 
 grace. When he came down and passed before 
 Moses, and showed him his glory, what did he call 
 himself? " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
 gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness 
 and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
 iniquity, and transgression, and sin." And the song 
 they sing to him in heaven is " Hallelujah ! Salva- 
 tion, and glory, and honour be unto our God!' 
 And many, many times he made the prophets call 
 him our Redeemer, our Shepherd, and our Father. 
 
 So we know he will take care of us : he loves us, 
 and he cares for his own glory. As long as the 
 world lasts, he will glorify his great name by watch- 
 ing over his flock, and leading them in the paths of 
 righteousness. 
 
 IV. " Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 157 
 
 the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou 
 art with me ; thy rod, and thy staff, they comfort 
 me." People often speak of this, as if David only 
 meant that he wouldn ? t be afraid when he came to 
 die — as if death was the most dreadful thing that 
 could happen to a Christian. It means, "in the 
 valley of the deadly shadow " — when any terrible 
 fear or sorrow comes on us. When a shepherd is 
 trying to drive his sheep, and they come to a dark 
 or dangerous place, or anything comes in the way 
 that frightens them, they crowd back, and refuse to 
 go on. Then, if they know their keeper well, and 
 he goes before them, they "hear his voice and fol- 
 low him! " they fear no evil, for he is with them. 
 And so, when the Christian is going on, doing 
 his work, and serving his Lord, he comes sometimes 
 to a dark and threatening place. Danger and 
 trouble are waiting for him — the path is rough and 
 lonely; he feels weak and helpless, and his heart 
 trembles. He looks this way and that way, to see 
 if he can 't get round it ; but no, his way is hedged 
 up; he must either go on and do his duty, and bear 
 the terrible evils that seem to be waiting for him, 
 or he must turn back and deny his Lord. Or may 
 be, the way looked pleasant and easy enough before, 
 but now storms and sorrows begin to come down, 
 and the sky grows dark. It was all light and hope- 
 ful before, but now there's a deep and deadly 
 shadow on it. Perhaps his good name is taken 
 away, or some of those he loves are fallen into 
 
 14 
 
158 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 sin, and about to perish ; or he is sick, and about 
 to die. 
 
 His heart faints in him — where shall he fly? 
 how can he escape? If he was an enemy of God, he 
 would fall into despair! But he isn't- an enemy — he 
 is one of the Lord's flock. As he thinks of that, his 
 terror all passes away. He fears no evil, because 
 his Shepherd is with him. The Lord Jesus has 
 been through all this trouble ; right there, under 
 the shadow, he is waiting for us ! And he will put 
 his arms of love around us, and bear us safely 
 through : 
 
 The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, 
 I will not, I will not desert to its foes : 
 
 That soul though all hell should endeavour to shake, 
 I'll never, no never, no never forsake. 
 
 Sinners may think this is all talk; but we know 
 it is truth. Men have suffered the loss of all things : 
 given their body to the flames ; been tortured, not 
 accepting deliverance; and in the deep dungeon, 
 like Paul and Silas, they have sung praises to God. 
 They have called their children and friends to their 
 death-bed to show them with what peace a Christian 
 can die. It is the sinner's unbelief that makes him 
 think so : that same unbelief that God is angry with. 
 "He that believeth not shall be damned" While 
 we that were perishing are trusting in our Saviour, 
 and being saved by his precious blood, those that 
 reject him shall be cut off, and that for ever. Turn 
 then, poor sinner, before it is too late ! Seek the 
 
THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD. 159 
 
 Lord while he may be found ! Call upon him while he 
 is near ! " For behold the day cometh that shall burn 
 as an oven; and all the proud — yea, and all that 
 do wickedly, shall be as stubble ; and the day that 
 cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts. 
 But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of 
 Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings." 
 
160 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 THE GOSPEL FEAST. 
 
 il Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine ene- 
 mies ; thou anointest my head with oil ; my cup runneth over. 
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my 
 life, and I will dwell in the house of the I/ord for ever" 
 — Psa. xxiii. 5, 6. 
 
 David has told us already how the Lord led him 
 into pleasant pastures, and took care of all his 
 sheep — feeding and resting them. But this isn't 
 enough for him; he wants to praise the Lord's 
 bounties more yet; so now he tells us that the Lord 
 makes a great feast for him. In David's country, 
 the kings and great men often made feasts for their 
 friends — gave them beautiful clothes to wear, and 
 put rich and sweet perfumes on their heads, and 
 their clothes : then the king made his soldiers guard 
 the place, and keep them safe. And often they 
 gathered so many friends to the feast, that they 
 couldn't spread the table in the house, but went 
 out in the open air, where every body could see 
 them. 
 
 I. That 's what David means here. God "loves 
 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 161 
 
 the saints ; he knows them well." He gathers them 
 into his house, and makes them happy there. Once 
 they were hungry and thirsty, wicked and miser- 
 able, full of evil passions and fears ; now he gives 
 them rest and peace, and feeds them with heavenly 
 food. As the Lord Jesus said, "Peace I leave with 
 you — my peace I give unto you." What peace our 
 pure and loving Saviour must have had, in spite of 
 all his sorrows and enemies! He knew he loved 
 God, and poor sinners, too; he knew he was opening 
 a way to save them, and glorify his Father. He 
 knew he came from God, and was going right back 
 to heaven again ; and he knew he was to carry a great 
 company after him, " redeemed out of every kindred, 
 and people, and tongue," into eternal glory. He 
 knew God loved him; for he says, "Therefore doth 
 my Father love me, because I lay down my life for 
 the sheep." So he knew that he had no enemies but 
 the wicked, and he was trying to bless them ; and 
 his heart was perfectly at rest — as the prophet 
 Isaiah says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
 whose mind is stayed on thee." 
 
 And now, when the Lord says, "My peace I give 
 unto you," you see what a feast he makes for his 
 people. The world never understands our joy. 
 Often the sinner tries to find out what makes 
 Christians happy. It isn 't riches, or honour, or 
 pleasure here ; it isn 't even comfort, or health, or 
 long life, or success in his plans and toils. God's 
 
 child can lose all these things, and be happy still. 
 
 u* 
 
162 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 His face may have a holy brightness, and his voice 
 may be sweet, and gentle, and calm, when all the 
 good things of this life are taken away, and he is 
 drawing near to the cold and awful grave. His eyes 
 are raised to heaven, and he is whispering praises 
 to his God — glory to his Saviour to the last. As 
 the hymn says : 
 
 "I'll praise my Maker with my breath, 
 And when my voice is lost in death, 
 
 Praise shall employ tny nobler powers." 
 
 " It shall come to pass that at the evening time it 
 shall be light." — While the world's darkness is 
 growing deep and dreadful round the Lord's flock, 
 light from heaven shines in their hearts; and sor- 
 row and mourning flee away. 
 
 " Thou preparest a table before me in the pre- 
 sence of mine enemies." You remember, I told you 
 just now that often kings and great men spread out 
 their feasts in the open air, and perhaps the king's 
 enemies might be hid among the rocks, and on the 
 hills, looking on, and watching to see if the guard 
 was strong and good, or whether they could attack 
 the people at the feast. And it shows how strong 
 the king is, and how w r ell his friends can trust him, 
 if they can sit down, and eat and drink, and be 
 merry, in the very presence of their enemies. 
 
 Now that's just the way with the Christian j he 
 can enjoy all God's blessings, and feast on God's 
 goodness, though he knows his enemies are all round 
 him. There is Satan, going about like a roaring 
 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 163 
 
 lion, seeking whom he may devour. There are 
 the devils lying in wait for him, ready to tempt him 
 and destroy him if they can. There are all the 
 wicked, God's enemies, and the enemies of religion, 
 watching God's people just as the old Pharisees 
 watched the Lord Jesus, " seeking how they might 
 accuse him." And never mind how pleasant the 
 world may look ; sinners may bow to us and flatter 
 us, and look ever so friendly — you and I know 
 how many would rub their hands, and laugh, and 
 rejoice, if we fell into sin. Our enemies are all 
 around us. 
 
 And it shows how good the Lord is, how strong 
 and faithful, what a sure defence on every side, that 
 we can enjoy religion in despite of our enemies. We 
 don't have to wait till we die before we can look 
 bright and praise God for saving us. Oh, no ! We 
 can sing out, loud and clear, as David sung, " The 
 Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I 
 fear ? The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom 
 shall I be afraid ? Why art thou cast down, O 
 my soul ; and why art thou disquieted within me ? 
 Hope thou in God 1" We sit down at the Lord's 
 table, or we commune with him in secret, and our 
 hearts are full of peace. We remember our ene- 
 mies, but we don 7 t fear them. Our trust is in the 
 Lord, who made heaven and earth. We may be 
 amazed and troubled when we first see them ; we 
 may cry out as David did once, " Lord, how they are 
 increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise 
 
184 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 up against me. • Many say of my soul — There is 
 no help for him in God ! " But our next word 
 will be, " But thou, Lord, art a shield for me " — my 
 heart shall not fear. 
 
 a Thou anointest my head with oil." In those old 
 days, when the people came to the king's feast, he 
 provided beautiful clothes for them all, fit to feast 
 in. They took off the dusty clothes they travelled 
 in, and put on these fine robes; then the servants 
 perfumed their heads with sweet and pleasant oil ; 
 that was the last part of their dressing ; when that 
 was done, they were all ready for the feast 
 
 And I suppose that's what David means in the 
 Psalm. The Lord first prepares the feast for his 
 people, and then he prepares his people for the feast. 
 He takes off our sin and shame, gives us new hearts, 
 and puts Christ's goodness on us. You remember 
 the parable Jesus told, about the king sending his 
 servants into the highways and hedges, and bring- 
 ing the poor, ragged, lame beggars to his splendid 
 supper. That's just what our God does: " our 
 righteousness is filthy rags ; " all we do is vile, and 
 our hearts are black with sin; but God doesn't 
 give us up for that. He sends his Holy Spirit to 
 bring us into his kingdom — to take away all our 
 wickedness — to touch our hearts with sweet and 
 holy feelings — to fit us to enjoy religion, and to 
 feast at our Lord's table. 
 
 " My cup runneth over." Oh, how generous our 
 King is ! Who doesn't have more blessings than he 
 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 165 
 
 knows how to use? Who saves all his Sunday time 
 for religion? Who feeds on God's holy word as 
 much as he can? Our cup runs over; God pours 
 out mercy on us " exceeding abundantly, above all 
 we can ask or think." Did you ever try to count 
 up God's gifts ? First of all, count all the minutes 
 in your life — then relations and friends — com- 
 forts, deliverances out of danger — kind things done 
 for you — good words out of the Bible, sermons, 
 solemn thoughts, dealings of the Holy Spirit; can 
 you count them all ? And if you could, what thou- 
 sands of blessings you have besides these ! So you 
 would have to say, "0 Lord my God, great are the 
 wondrous works which thou hast done. If I should 
 declare them, and speak of them, they are more 
 than I am able to express." 
 
 II. " Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
 all the days of my life." David comes back now to 
 the same thing he said at first. The first verse 
 says, "I shall not want;" and the last verse says, 
 " goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of 
 my' life." What a happy confidence in God ! Our 
 great Shepherd goes with his sheep, wherever they 
 have to go. If duty calls them into places of temp- 
 tation, he is there ; if their path lies through dark 
 and terrible sorrows, he is there. When everything 
 smiles and looks pleasant, the good Shepherd, that 
 gave his life for the sheep, is by our side; when " the 
 wolf cometh," and dangers are thick all round us, 
 the hired shepherd would hide himself; but our 
 
166 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 Lord shed his precious blood to save us. So 
 where our Shepherd goes, goodness and mercy 
 go too. 
 
 Now see what David says about God in another 
 place: "Thou compassest my path and my lying 
 down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou 
 hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine 
 hand upon me." He lays his hand upon us ! As 
 if he was so watchful of us — so busy keeping us 
 from danger and evil, that he keeps us within his 
 arm's length, so that he has only to reach out his 
 hand and cover us! "If I ascend up into heaven, 
 thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, 
 thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, 
 and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there 
 shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
 hold me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; 
 the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the 
 light are both alike to thee." Just as bright as the 
 sunny day is, when you can hardly bear the dazzling 
 light, just so bright is the deep midnight to God, 
 that he may take care of his people. " The night 
 shineth as the day." 
 
 What a pity Christians couldn't keep on owning 
 God's goodness and mercy all the days of their 
 lives ! They are ready enough to talk about it 
 beforehand; but when trouble comes, then they for- 
 get God. God looks angry to them, because their 
 faith is weak, not because he is changed any. He 
 is our faithful Friend; and when things look dark- 
 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 167 
 
 est and saddest to us — when our bodies are racked 
 with pain, or our hearts with grief: when darkness 
 falls on our spirits, and his peace is hid from us ; 
 his goodness and mercy are following us still. They 
 never fail. The sun will grow weary, at last, of 
 rising and setting ; winter and summer, and day and 
 night, will come to an end ; but God will be good 
 for ever. He will never be weary of blessing his 
 people, or saving them that put their trust in him. 
 
 That 's what David says next, " I will dwell in the 
 house of the Lord for ever.' 7 God's people dwell 
 in his house in this world, in a certain way; they 
 are always near their great Father, and under his 
 continual care. He feeds them, and clothes and 
 comforts them, and makes them happy. " Blessed 
 are they that dwell in thy house; they will be 
 still praising thee" And if religion didn't do any 
 thing else for us but that, wouldn 't it be well worth 
 having? If it made us hopeful when every body 
 else was discouraged; if it made us patient and 
 meek when all the world was rebellious and discon- 
 tented ; if it gives us an Almighty Friend in this 
 dark and lonely world — a Father's house to live in, 
 while sinners are orphans, and a pillow for our ach- 
 ing heads when they are left in the storm ; well 
 might we praise the Lord our Shepherd, and his 
 great mercy ! 
 
 But God has a better house than this, and when 
 this poor world is pulled down, and burnt up, he 
 will take us there. " I will dwell in the house of 
 
168 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 the Lord for ever." We couldn't do that here; 
 for these bodies must perish, and this world shall 
 be destroyed. But " we know that if our earthly 
 house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
 building of God, a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens." A building of God ! what 
 a fair house must that be which God builds ! We 
 see something of his workmanship here; we see the 
 green fields and flowers, the shining rivers, and the 
 glorious sea; we look up, and behold the sky with 
 all its wonders; the sun shining in his strength; 
 the moon and stars which he has ordained: the 
 clouds, the mountains, and the morning light. Then 
 look on these bodies where we dwell ; the strong 
 and skilful hands, the soft skin, the eyes so bright 
 and beautiful ; and yet these are not our homes ! 
 This world is only a kind of tavern where we spend 
 a few days ; these bodies God calls a tabernacle — 
 a tent that he has pitched for us to live in a little 
 while. But that heavenly world is a home — God's 
 home, and our home. What a noble palace it must 
 be ! John the Apostle tries to describe it for us, 
 but it is too glorious to be described ; he only gives 
 you a confused picture of splendid things ; clear as 
 glass, pure as gold, gleaming like fire. But it is 
 the house of the Lord, and it lasts for ever. We 
 know that, and that 's enough. 
 
 We know, too, that our dear friends will be 
 there. Jesus will be there. God will be there. 
 Sin and sorrow will never be remembered again. 
 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 169 
 
 All will be free, and pure, and happy, and there 
 shall be no more storms, nor night. We will dwell 
 in the house of the Lord for ever. 
 
 I. We see what a wretched state poor sinners are 
 in. The Lord is not their Shepherd, and so they 7 re 
 always in want. Religious blessings are not as 
 pleasant and dear to them as green pastures to the 
 sheep j they have no peace with God like still sweet 
 water in their hearts. Their souls wander in dark- 
 ness ; they won ; t let God restore them ; their feet 
 don 7 t love the paths of righteousness. And oh, 
 when they come to walk in death's dark shade, and 
 bitter sorrows compass them about, what fear and 
 wo fill their hearts ! God is not with them ; he 
 turns a deaf ear to their cries. 
 
 Their souls starve in sin and unbelief; God has 
 spread a great feast, and invited all men to it, but 
 they will not hearken or come to him. And when at 
 last they want to come, just as they are dying, per- 
 haps, their enemies are too mighty: death and hell 
 stare them in the face, and scare away every thought 
 of repenting and believing. Goodness and mercy 
 did follow them all the days of their lives, but they 
 are cast out of the house of the Lord for ever. 
 
 How blind and foolish all their pride looks now ! 
 What use are riches and honour to a man, when he 
 is drowning in the sea, or dying in his burning 
 house ? And what comfort can men take in hell, in 
 those things they toil and sin for here? "Thou 
 fool! - 9 says the Bible — "thou fool, this night shall 
 
 15 
 
170 PLANTATION SERMONS. 
 
 thy soul be required of thee \ then whose shall those 
 things be which thou hast provided ? " 
 
 2. But the Christian ought to rejoice and sing for 
 joy, at all times. He ought to treat the Lord as his 
 Shepherd ; that is, he ought to follow him, and trust 
 him, and obey his word. Then nothing can hurt 
 him, or pluck him out of his Father's hand. The 
 eternal arms of love are round him, and the King 
 of Kings is his Friend. 
 
 Let us be done, then, with bitterness, and discon- 
 tent, and fear. Brighten those mourning faces ! 
 Lift up that sad heart with faith! Though our 
 enemies — pain, disappointment sorrow, and death, 
 are all around us, goodness and mercy are nearer to 
 us, and change every trouble to a blessing. Only 
 be faithful, and follow hard after your Lord, and he 
 will light up your darkness with his smile, and still 
 your heart in danger, and you shall dwell in the 
 house of the Lord for ever. 
 
 THE END.