C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”-Acts 9:13-16.

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one of the most remarkable facts in Christian history. Perhaps there has never happened an event of equal importance since the days of Pentecost. It was important as a testimony to the power and truth of the gospel. When such a man, so violently opposed, so intelligent and well-instructed, could be converted to the faith of the Nazarene, by the appearance of the Lord from heaven, it was a testimony alike to the fact of our Lord’s resurrection, and to the power of his word. Paul also occupied a high place among the defenders of the faith when the gospel had to struggle for a footing against Judaism and philosophy. Being well versed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and in the traditions of the Jews, and possessing great argumentative powers, he became a leading apologist for the faith, and in the synagogues and the schools, overthrew those who opposed the doctrines of Jesus. In addition to this, the conversion of the apostle Paul gave a great impetus to the missionary spirit of the Christian church. Here he shone preeminently. Into what lands did he not carry the gospel? Ordained to be the apostle of the uncircumcision, he proclaimed in the utmost ends of the earth the name of Jesus Christ. The apostle, moreover, as a writer takes the highest place in the Christian canon. It pleased God to select this most remarkable man to be the medium of inspiration by whose writings we should receive the most thorough and complete exhibition of the gospel of the grace of God. Turn to the New Testament, and see with astonishment how large a space is occupied by the letters of one first called Saul of Tarsus, but afterwards Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ. It is a matter of fact that Paul not only directed the energy of the Christian church of his own day, but shaped its mode of action, and in addition so toned the thought of the Christian world, that to this moment I suppose he exercises, under God, a greater influence over the theology of Christendom than any other man. We claim him as the great apostle of the doctrines of grace; heading a line of teachers, among whom Augustine and Calvin stand conspicuous, he remains unrivalled as “a wise master-builder.” Even the things hard to be understood which he was not afraid to grapple with, have continued to have their effect upon Christian theology. The Pauline mark will never be erased from the page of church history. That, however, is not my business this morning. I would rather remind you that the conversion of the apostle Paul was in itself instructive. It was not only operative upon the church, but as a narrative it is instructive to us. We are not to look upon it as a strange phenomenon to be only gazed upon, and wondered at, it is a lesson-book for all time; it contains a world of teaching within it, and principally teaching upon this point-the fact of the divine interposition in the church of God. God has been pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe: this is the era of instrumentality; Christ bids his disciples go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; and it is by the communication of one earnest heart to another that men are usually converted. Such, however, was not the way by which Paul was converted. He was called into the church by an interposition of the living Christ out of heaven, speaking directly to his soul; and we doubt not that the same Jesus has still his own ways of reaching human hearts when human instrumentality is not available. Paul’s conversion is a type, or as our version reads it, a pattern, and it is natural to believe that the pattern has been copied. I shall look upon his conversion as being typical of some others that have occurred, and that will occur till the last hour of the Christian dispensation. Certain men will be brought to God not by manifest instrumentality, but more secret means. The church has reason to believe that while she industriously uses all the power committed to her, there will be interpositions of a power far higher than her own, which will work for her great successes and bring to her great additions of strength. While Barak fights below, the stars in heaven shall also fight against Sisera. That is the point I want to speak upon, this morning, for the glory of God, and the encouragement of any desponding spirits among us.

Our first thought shall be, this morning, there are other productive forces at work for the church besides her teaching. Her teaching is her main source of growth. She is to look to the instruction that she can give through her members, and her ministers, for the birth of most of her sons and daughters; but she is also to remember that there are other forces at work over and above these appointed agencies; the mountain is full of horses of fire and chariots of fire round about the gospel.

And, first, let me remind you of what may be expected from the work of the Holy Spirit in the church of Christ. All the success of the church comes through him. That blessed person of the Divine Trinity in Unity is pleased to give power to the truth, whereby it operates upon the hearts and consciences of men. It is not to that point, however, that I draw your attention, but I would ask you a question. Have we not reason to expect that the Holy Ghost will occasionally display his power, by working apart from the ordinary agencies of the church? It is certain that the Holy Spirit can act directly upon the minds of men apart from human agency, for he has often done so in past ages. He can if so it pleaseth him, melt the stubborn heart, subdue the obdurate will, and purify the depraved affections; and though I believe he never works apart from the truth and the things of Christ, yet he can do all this while acting altogether apart from any human teaching. There have been many cases of the kind. We have heard of persons at their labour, who have not been accustomed to attend the house of God, who have not been reading religious books, and yet in the middle of their work they have been filled with penitent and devout thoughts, and have suddenly commenced an altogether new life. We have known cases of persons not engaged in lawful pursuits, but intending to perpetrate vice, who have, nevertheless, found the power of God to be greater over them than the power of their corrupt affections; they have been struck with certain reflections which they had never recognised before, have paused, and have been led to turn altogether in another direction, have, in fact, become believers in Christ and men of holy and ardent lives. Why should not the Holy Spirit do so still? If he pleaseth to employ us, it is to his honour to work by such poor instruments, but if he shall please occasionally to do without us, it is also to his honour, and I may add it is equally to our satisfaction; for we delight that he should display his power. We have reason to expect that he will so work sometimes, and this is one of the forces which may work apart from instrumentality.

Bethink you again, my brethren, of the intercession of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Most potent in heaven is the plea of him who here on earth offered atonement for the sins of his people. For Zion’s sake he does not hold his peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake he doth not rest; nor will he till his glory shall fill all the earth, and his elect bride shall share therein. Now our Lord Jesus Christ not only prays for those whom we pray for, but he prays for those we never thought of praying for. There are some whom he mentions before the eternal throne whom we have never mentioned, who have never yet been observed by any interceding Christian, whose cases have never impressed a single godly heart, yet Jesus knows them: and does he cry to God for them, and shall there not come to them grace in due season? Ay, my brethren, I rejoice in this, that where through ignorance or through the narrowness of my charity my prayer has never stretched itself, the prayer of the great High Priest who wears the Urim and Thummim can yet reach, and the salvation of God shall come to such. I doubt not Jesus might well have said to Paul, “I have prayed for thee, and therefore thou shalt be mine,” and in many other cases the like is true. The intercession of our Lord is a mighty power, and as it wins gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, apostles, and preachers, and teachers, are called forth by divine grace. Not our colleges, our councils, our societies, or our conferences, but the intercession of Jesus is the mainstay of our strength, the secret cause of the calling of men into the mystery of the gospel.

Think, too, of another force, the result of which is not altogether expended in connection with manifest instrumentality; I mean the daily and incessant intercession of the faithful in all places. Of course, this intercession brings success to instrumentality, the work of the church would be nothing without it-true prayer is true power; but there are prayers, I doubt not, which go up to heaven, but are not offered in connection with any particular agency, and are not answered through any manifest instrumentality. There are groanings which cannot be uttered for the general cause, for the regeneration of the elect, for the glory of the Redeemer, in which we appeal directly to God, and look for him to rend the heavens and arise in his might: such prayers most probably have a reply after their own likeness. The prayers of the church come down in a great measure, as I have said, upon instrumentality, but they also drop, I doubt not, on solitary and uncultivated places. The prayers of God’s church are like the clouds which ascend from the sea, as the sun shines on the waves; they fall on the fields which have been sown by man, but they also drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. Who shall say that Saul’s conversion was not traceable to the prayer of Stephen, when, as he expired, he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”? Yet there was no distinct connection between the two such as could be defined and described. Who shall say that the gatherings in Jerusalem for earnest prayer, may not have had about them power with God for the conversion of the persecutors, the dread of whom may have made them more earnest in supplication? Yet we do not see the same connecting link as between the famous prayer-meeting in the house of John Mark’s mother, and the escape of Peter from prison. Pray on, beloved brethren, for though there should seem to be no connection between your prayers and the salvation of the sons of men, yet this shall be one of the forces in operation which shall not spend itself in vain; God will be pleased, in answer to humble and unknown pleaders, to bring out his own hidden ones.

Then remember there is another impalpable, but very potent force, the aroma of the truth in the world. The truth is mainly spread by plain earnest statements of it, but there is also a savour in truth, an inherent perfume, whereby even in our silence it spreads itself. Paul declared that where he had preached the gospel he was a sweet savour of God, both in them that were saved and in them that perished. The gospel is like myrrh, and cassia, and aloes; it will make itself felt even where it is not sought after. Place some Oriental perfume in a room, and all the air will be loaded with its sweetness. Where the gospel of Jesus Christ comes, it impregnates the social atmosphere, it permeates society, it has an effect far beyond its local habitation. I do not doubt that many men who have not yet bowed before the deity of Christ, have unconsciously learnt much from him, and what they perhaps think to be their own is but a blessed plagiarism from the Jesus of Nazareth. Even the philosophies of men have been all the soberer, and the laws of men all the gentler, because of the existence of the gospel. Men cannot live in the midst of Christians, and yet altogether shut out the influence of Christianity. There is a lavender field over yonder, and though a man may hate the smell of it, and block up his windows and keep his doors closed, somehow or other, he may depend upon it, when the wind blows in the right direction, the perfume will reach him. And so it is here; if a man will not listen to the preaching of the gospel, if he constantly neglects attendance upon the means of grace, yet for all that, the kingdom of heaven has come nigh to him, and in some form or other the angel of mercy will frequently cross his path. May we not hope for results from these influences? May not these things be the thin end of the wedge which shall be driven home by divine force, until the sinner is divided from his sins? I feel sure it is so in cases numberless; for we may say of the gospel as David did of the sun, “His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”

Further, remember there is at work in the world, wherever there are believers, the influence of Christian life and of Christian death. Christian life wields a mighty power. Wherever the Christian acts up to his profession, and the grace within him shines forth in holiness, those who observe him take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus; and as example speaks more loudly than precept, we may look for very marked results. The eloquence of Christian holiness is more potent for conversion than all the speaking of Christian orators-may we not therefore hope for converts by it? So, too, there are secret forces in every real Christian’s death. When the ungodly man stands at the bedside, and sees a Christian die singing in holy triumph, there may not be a word addressed to him-the dying Christian may be so absorbed in heaven that he may scarce have a thought of the sinner who is looking on-but that happy death will be a potent agency to arouse, to attract, to win the heart for Christ Jesus.

Besides that, my brethren, we ought never to forget that all the work of God in providence is on the side of those who fight for the gospel of Jesus. I might truly say of the church that the stones of the field are in league with her, and the beasts of the field are at peace with her, for all things work her good. Sickness, when it stalketh through the land, is a powerful preacher to the unthinking masses. We have seen men impressed, in years of cholera, who despised religion before; we have marked them listening to us with attention when disease has humbled them. When death has come into the house, and the dear babe has died, it has frequently happened that ears were opened which never heard the gospel before, and hearts were impressed that were hard as iron until the fire of affliction melted them. I believe death himself to be an able ally of a faithful minister. The funerals which break men’s hearts with natural sorrow are often overruled for the breaking their hearts in a spiritual sense also, so that oftentimes there are brought to Jesus, by the death of beloved ones, men who, to all human appearance, would otherwise have been lost. Have courage, ye that fight for Christ, disease and death itself shall be overruled to help you; physical calamities and catastrophes shall subdue the rebellious spirits of men, and ye then stepping in with consolation, shall find a welcome for the gospel. As God sent the hornet before his conquering Israel to overthrow the Canaanites, so doth he send providences to work together, for our help, that the truth may prevail. Providence, like the angel at the sepulchre, rolls away the stone for us. It makes straight in the desert a highway for God. It is the Elias which clears the way for the coming Saviour.

In addition to this, I must not fail to remind you that every man has a conscience, and though conscience is sadly impaired it still leans to the right side. Conscience is not perfect, though some assert it to be so; in common with all the faculties of man it was disarranged by the fall, and conscience is therefore no infallible judge of right and wrong; still, for all that, half blinded as it is it yet knows which is light and which is darkness, and though it puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, still in the violence which it puts upon itself, it reveals an inner sense as yet undestroyed. Still is it a fact that even those who have not the law, “are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.” The right awakens still an echo in man’s bosom, the pure, the good, the true, still may count on recognition from the glimmering moral sense within. To the preacher this is a fact full of hope, and he ought not to forget it.

See then, that over and above our work which ought to be constant, incessant, intense, we have the Holy Spirit at work, we have Christ pleading, we have the whole company of the faithful sending up their perpetual intercessions, we have the blessed savour of the truth spreading itself abroad, we have the evidence and power of holy living and triumphant dying, we have the wheels of providence revolving, and the consciences of men made to yield an acquiescence to the truth of God.

I have thus very hurriedly run over a very extensive range of consideration.

Secondly, reflect, my brethren, that from these sources we may expect remarkable conversions.

We expect to see the major part of conversion through the daily instruction given to the children of Christian people, through the constant preaching of the gospel, the distribution of religious literature, and the direct efforts of the followers of Christ; but over and above all this, we have a right to expect remarkable conversions from the less manifest sources of which I have spoken. As in the case of Saul these conversions will bring to us persons formerly violently opposed to the truth through prejudice. In Paul we see a man opposed to Christ not because he was opposed to truth, but because he thought that Jesus was not the Messiah. He worshipped God, the God of his fathers, with a fervent heart, and because he conceived that Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be what he was not, he hunted down his disciples to the death. Once convinced that he was wrong, he followed the right at once; and we may hope that interpositions will occur in which the Holy Spirit will enlighten the darkness of men who are honest in their darkness, and that they, seeing the light, will embrace the gospel and bow before our King. Be that a subject of your prayers. I doubt not there are to be found this day, devoted to an evil cause, men who nevertheless would not wilfully choose what they knew to be error. They are devoted to it because in their ignorance they sincerely believe it to be true. Many a heretic has died for his heresy, believing it to be the very truth of God. Our prayer should be that these men who would do right if they but knew it, may receive the blessed help of him who is the light of the world, and may be brought to see in his light the true light. In such cases I should hope for their enlightenment; they are seeking goodly pearls, and I trust they will find the pearl of great price; he who has made them honest and good ground will, we trust, sow them with good seed.

We may expect, too, from these sources the conversion of persons who have been doing much mischief to the good cause, and who are resolved to do still more. Does not Ananias put it so? “He hath done great evil to the church at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority to bind all who call on thy name.” Yes, but do not despair of a man because he is industriously opposed; do not despair of him even because he is furious. Anything is better than to slumber in indifference. Provoke a man by the gospel till he gnashes his teeth at you, and he is none the less likely to be converted; preach to him till he saith, “He playeth well upon a goodly instrument, he maketh sweet sounds to charm my ears,” you will probably lull him into everlasting destruction. I love to see men rather aroused to oppose, than made to acquiesce, because they care not whether the gospel is true or false. We may expect the Lord to arrest the chief ones among his enemies, for it will glorify him.

These sources will probably produce converts from among those who are beyond the reach of ordinary ministries. We sometimes regret that the voice of a thoroughly faithful ministry is seldom heard in the courts of kings, and that there is little hope of the gospel’s reaching the great ones of the earth. Nay, but for all that the Lord can reach those whom we cannot reach, he can in life or in the dying hour, come to the hearts of men whose ears were never reached by any testifier to the truth, and he can bring them yet to his feet. He is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Paul would not have heard a preacher of Christ; he would have hurried him to prison, but never have listened to him; there was no likelihood of Saul’s conversion by ordinary means; he would not stop to examine any documents had they been offered to him; apologists for Christ he would have rejected with scorn, but the Lord hath a way where we have none, and he calleth whom he will by his own sovereign power.

We may expect persons who shall be converted by these causes to become very earnest. A man who feels that God has had singular mercy upon him, feels that being much loved, and having had much forgiven, he must render much service. If I have been brought to Christ in the Sabbath-school, or after habitual listening to the truth, I am a great debtor to the mercy of God, but the probabilities are that I shall not be so much impressed with my indebtedness as I ought to be; but if I have been quite out of the way, as it were, in the wilderness of sin, and yet the voice of the Lord that breaketh the cedars of Lebanon, hath sounded in my ears, then I shall glorify that voice, and glorifying it consecrate myself to the God who uttered it.

Such men, too, become profoundly evangelical. I trace Paul’s exceeding evangelism to the fact that he was so remarkably converted. He could not be content with the surface of truth, he dived into the depths of grace and sovereignty. He saw in himself the boundless power, the infinite mercy, the absolute sovereignty of God; and therefore he bare witness more clearly than any other to these divine attributes. He spake of election, and predestination, and the deep things of God. Who but he could have written the ninth of Romans, or the Epistle to the Galatians. Courage, then, my brethren and my sisters, the noblest minds will yet be engaged in the service of our Master. They tell us that the power of Popery spreads in the land, that everywhere men are going back to the old falsehoods from which they once were delivered; we are told that we are to be ground down again beneath the iron wheels of superstition; and on the other hand, we hear that infidelity and scepticism spread themselves like a plague cloud over the land. Be not afraid. God will convert the priests and convince the infidel demagogue. Ye need not fear. The leaders on the enemy’s side shall yet be champions in our Master’s army. Reckon not your feeble bands, count not the timid soldiers already enlisted, say not, “How few we be and how weak!” Ye know not where the Lord’s hidden warriors are, nor what chief among the mighties he has concealed. They are not merely hidden among the stuff of worldliness, but they are there, in open hostility to his cross and crown: the mightiest warriors against Christ. Some of these shall through conquering grace become the servants of God. Can ye not believe it? Have ye no faith in Jesus Christ? Believing it, will ye not pray for it? Praying for it, will ye not expect it? All things are possible to him that believeth. Above all, everything is possible to the might of the eternal God and his ever-blessed Spirit.

We must say no more on that, but pass on to a third reflection.

This occasional sinking of instrumentality answers admirable ends.

It might be thought to be a dangerous thing that sometimes God should work in grace apart from man; I mean dangerous to the industry of the church, for some are always ready enough to clutch at excuses for leaving God’s work alone; and there are always certain indolent spirits who would fain say, “Let God do his own work, it can be accomplished without us, we therefore may be excused.” These men know better. They know the falsehood of their talk. It were not worth the Master’s while to confute them, their own hearts condemn them. There are admirable reasons for the Lord’s sole working; for, first, these interpositions disclose the presence of the living Christ. We too often forget the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet the power of the church lies in Christ. He is the wisdom of God, and the power of God. Some may remember Jesus, but not in his present personal character. In the Romish church its power over devout minds lies in no small degree in the fact that the person of Christ is much spoken of, loved, and reverenced; but mark well that you seldom see the Christ of the Romish church in any but two attitudes. As a rule, either he is a babe in his mother’s arms, or else he is dead; scarcely ever is he set forth by them as the living King, Head, and Lord. In both of those first aspects let him be reverenced, let the incarnate God and the dying Saviour have your hearts; but there is another fact to be borne in mind, and that is, that he ever liveth. That church which, not forgetting his birth, nor his sacrifice, yet most clearly recognises that he still liveth, is the church that shall win the day. We must have a living Head to the church, we cannot do without one. Men will assuredly invent a living head on their own account, if they overlook the living Christ. They will find some priest or other whom they would fain gird with the attributes of Deity, and set up as the Vicar of Christ. But we have a living Christ, and when he is pleased to appear to any man by his Spirit-I speak not of miraculous appearances, but of other direct operations of his Spirit upon the spirits of men-when he reveals himself apart from instrumentality to man, then the church discovers yet again that he is in her midst fulfilling his promise: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Still the Lord Jesus walketh among the golden candlesticks, and exerts a living force in the hearts and consciences of men, and he would have us remember this.

Further, dear friends, these interpositions tend to remind the church of the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit. The tendency nowadays is to expunge the supernatural, to bring everything down to the rule of reason, and the denial of faith; but for all that there is a Holy Spirit. Rest assured that that doctrine of the creed, “I believe in the Holy Ghost,” is a matter of reality. I am as certain that there is a Holy Ghost as that I live, for unto my spirit he has spoken, and I have come into contact with him. I know that there are men’s minds, for those minds have affected me; I know also that there is an Eternal Spirit, for he has affected my spirit, and I speak concerning him what I do know, and testify what I have seen. In proportion as that truth is made clear to the church by her personal experience, by the Spirit’s moving where he listeth, and working divine wonders, the church will be girt with power from on high.

This, too, tends to unveil many of the divine attributes. Men so remarkably converted are sure to display the sovereignity of God. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” is an utterance which rolls like thunder over the head of Paul when he sinks amidst the blaze of the light from heaven. God is saving whom he wills, for he stops the persecutor in the maddest fury of his rage. There, too, was seen God’s power. There might have been heard as a thunderclap from heaven, “Power belongeth unto God,” when down fell Saul, wounded beneath the arrows of the Prince of Peace. There, too, was seen divine grace. Paul looked upon himself as the fairest pattern of God’s longsuffering, obtaining mercy, though he had persecuted the church of God; the very chief of sinners, and yet made not a whit behind the chief of the apostles.

And so these remarkable conversions aid very much the faith of the church. When she is beginning to droop and to sink, when holy men fancy that at least for awhile the cause must wither, and even the bravest spirits wait rather than press forward, then it is that these remarkable conversions come in and inspirit the whole band, and they take courage and march to the victory with willing footsteps.

And this also startles and impresses the world. What knows the world of the conversion of those who have sat in these pews ever since they were children? What cares the world about the faith of those who, happily for themselves, were led to Jesus from their youth? But let some gross blasphemer weep the tear of penitence, let some bold persecutor preach the faith which once he sought to destroy, and the whole city hears of it, the land is astonished, and in proportion God is glorified, and the power of his grace is manifested.

Thus, you see, there are good reasons for the Lord thus working. He may do as he wills; he will have us see that he needs us not. He may if he pleases use us, it is his rule to do so, and we are to work knowing that to be the rule; but we must adore, and admire, and bless him, that sometimes putting us aside he puts his own bare arm to the work. Thus his glorious right arm is exalted, for the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

We shall now come to our fourth point, and draw towards a close. All this by no means lowers the value of instrumentality. It is not so intended, and only unwisdom would so interpret it.

For, first, such cases are rare, very much rarer than conversions by the agency of the church. One Saul is struck to the earth, only one; but Peter preaches at Pentecost, and three thousand are pricked in their hearts. See the difference in numbers! The preaching of the gospel is God’s way of converting, his usual and general way; since “all his paths drop fatness,” it is especially so with this path of the ministration of the truth by an earnest heart to other hearts. One Paul, I say, one Paul on the road to Damascus, but three thousand saved by the preaching of the word by Peter. I read of one Colonel Gardner who, on the very night he was about to commit a great sin saw, or fancied he saw, the appearance of our Lord, and heard the words, “I have done all this for thee, what hast thou done for me?” There is one such case-only one-I believe most certainly a true case; but there were fifty thousand perhaps in Scotland and in England at that time who were brought to a knowledge of the truth by the ordinary methods of mercy. So the exhibition of special interposing grace now and then doth not interfere with the regular work of the church, or lower our esteem of it. Riding along I see in the hedgerow a tree with rich fruit upon it, I am surprised, I do not know how it came there, it is a very unusual thing to see our garden fruit-trees in public hedgerows; but when I have seen it I do not think any the less of my neighbour who over yonder is planting fruit-trees in his orchard. That is the ordinary way to get fruit. If now and then a fruit-tree springs up upon the heath, if we are hungry we are glad to pluck the fruit-we do not know how it got there, and it is of no consequence that we should know, there is the fruit, and we are glad of it; but still we do not give up our orchard. Because sometimes a man finds a shilling, does he give up work? Extraordinary events in nature are always treated as such, and are not made the rule of every-day action; even thus wise men treat unusual displays of divine power. To forego regular agency that we may wait for wonders, were as idle as to leave the regular pursuits of commerce to live upon the waifs washed up by the sea.

Remember, next, that these very cases involve human agency somewhere. Saul is on his way to Damascus, and, lo, he is struck down by the light, and by a voice from heaven is converted, but after the three days of blindness and fasting, how does he get comfort? Does that come by another voice from heaven? It might have done; but the Lord takes care that the very instrumentality which is put aside in one place shall be honoured in another, and so Ananias must be sent forth to bless the penitent. Ananias was a plain disciple-we do not know that he was either a preacher or an evangelist, but a disciple of good repute, living at Damascus, and he must come and say, “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me.” So you shall always find in conversion that there is instrumentality somewhere or other. My dear brother, if God is pleased to convert a soul without using you, he may honour you by employing you to comfort him after conversion. Conviction may be wrought by the Holy Spirit without means, but in the full decision, in the laying hold on Christ, he may give you occupation; somewhere or other God will use you; only be you a vessel fit for the Master’s use, and you will not be long out of service.

Further, so far from dishonouring instrumentality, the conversion of Saul and others of the kind is a provision of a most remarkable instrumentality. “I have called him”-not to be a singular article for exhibition-but “to be a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name among the Gentiles.” Remarkable converts become themselves the most indefatigable servants of God. Paul put all the wheels of the church in more rapid motion than they ever knew before, and became himself one of the greatest wheels. Everywhere goeth he preaching the gospel, so that instrumentality is not silenced, but God helpeth it to a higher position than before. Was it not through Paul that many were called into the fellowship and afterwards into the work of Jesus Christ? Should we ever have heard of such as Timothy and Titus and others if Paul had not been their spiritual parent? So that here we have not only a master worker begotten by this non-instrumental work, but he also begetteth other workers, and so the work of God to distant generations receives an impetus from the conversion of one single man. No; God does not dishonour instrumentality. If he puts it by for awhile to glorify himself, he brings it forward again in due season and makes it brighter and more fit for his purpose.

Let us adore, dear friends, in conclusion, the power of the all-working God, let us reverence and worship him. In our gatherings as Christians, let us worship him with whom power still dwelleth. Let us not look to the earnestness of that man, or to the wealth of this, to the judgment of a third, to the eloquence of a fourth, but let us look to him who has all power in heaven and in earth, “whom having not seen we love,” “in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Let us believe that the Father worketh hitherto and Christ works; let us think of him who “worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will.” Let us never be dispirited, but believe that the everlasting purpose of God will be accomplished, that the success of his church will never be in jeopardy, that the onward march of the armies of God can be in no peril. All flesh shall see the salvation of God; all the earth shall worship him, and Christ shall be acknowledged to be God to the glory of God the Father; for the power to accomplish this is not contained in these poor vessels of clay, nor limited by the capacities of manhood, nor bounded by the perceptions of mortals. The arm which is on the side of the church is omnipotent, the mind that worketh over all for the glorious cause, is infinitely wise and prudent. “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your hearts, wait, I say, on the Lord.” Keep ye his way; delight also yourselves in him, and he shall bring it to pass, and you shall see that accomplished which you would not have believed though a man had spoken it unto you. Go on working, there is your sphere; pray much that God would work also, for prayer is another part of your sphere. Expect God to work, believe that he will surely conquer Satan; be confident, that evil will not win the day, that error cannot be permanent, that there will occur divine surprises which will make the church to wonder at what her Lord God can do. In one word, believe and you shall be established, wait upon God and you shall be strong. Never give way to unbelief. Believe in the unseen; rest in the invisible; have confidence in the infinite; and the Lord send to us and to all Christendom a band of men whom he hath chosen-whom he shall call out as he did his apostle-and who shall become the leaders of his church, and the conquerors of the world.

The Lord grant that some who are here this morning may be among that elect company. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Acts 9:1-31.

RIPE FRUIT

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, August 14th, 1870, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“My soul desired the first ripe fruit.”-Micah 7:1.

The nation of Israel had fallen into so sad and backsliding a condition, that it was not like a vine covered with fruit, but like a vineyard after the whole vintage has been gathered, so that there was not to be found a single cluster. Not one righteous man could be found, not one to be trusted or found faithful to God. The whole state had become like a field that has been closely reaped, in which nothing remains but the stubble; like a vineyard that has been completely stripped, in which there remains no vestige of fruit. The prophet, speaking in the name of Israel, desired the first ripe fruits, but there were none to be had. The lesson of the text, as it stands, would be that good men are the best fruit of a nation, they make it worth while that the nation should exist, they are the salt which preserves it, they are the fruit which adorns it and blesses it. Pray we then for our country, that God will continually raise up a righteous seed, a faithful band, who, for his name’s sake, shall be a sweet savour unto God, for whose sake he may bless the whole land.

But I mean to take our text out of its connection, and use it as the heading of a discourse upon ripeness in grace. I think we can all use the words of Micah in another sense, and say, “My soul desired the first ripe fruit.” We would not be merely the green blade, we desire to be the full corn in the ear; we would not merely show forth the blossoms of repentance and the young buds of struggling faith, but we would go on to maturity, and bring forth fruit unto perfection, to the honour and praise of Jesus Christ.

This morning, then, I speak about ripeness in grace, maturity in the divine life, fruit ready to be gathered: and our first point shall be the marks of this ripeness; the second, the causes that work together to create this ripeness; the third, the desirability of the ripeness; the fourth, the solemnity of the whole subject.

First, then, let us speak upon the marks of ripeness in grace.

Let us begin with the mark of beauty. There is a great beauty in a fruit tree when it is in bloom. Perhaps there is no more lovely object in all nature than the apple blossom; but this beauty soon fades-one shower of rain, one descent of hail, one puff of the north wind, and very soon the blossoms fall like snow; and if they remain their full time, speedily indeed in any case they must withdraw from view. Much loveliness adorns youthful piety. The love of his espousals, his first love, his first zeal, all make the newborn believer comely. Can anything be more delightful than our first graces? Even God himself delights in the beauty of the blossoming believer. “I remember thee,” saith he, “the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.” Autumn has a more sober aspect, but still it rivals the glory of spring. Ripe fruit has its own peculiar beauty. As the fruit ripens, the sun tints it with surpassing loveliness, and the colours deepen till the beauty of the fruit is equal to the beauty of the blossom, and in some respects is superior. What a delicacy of bloom there is upon the grape, the peach, the plum, when they have attained perfection! Nature far excels art, and all the attempts of the modeller in wax cannot reach the marvellous blendings of colour, the matchless tints of the ripe fruit, worthy of Eden before the fall. It is another sort of beauty altogether from that of the blossom, yielding to the eye of the husbandman, who has the care of the garden, a fairer sight by far. The perfumed bloom yields in value to the golden apple, even as promise is surpassed by fulfilment. The blossom is painted by the pencil of hope, but the fruit is dyed in the hue of enjoyment. There is in ripe Christians the beauty of realised sanctification, which the word of God knows by the name of “the beauty of holiness.” This consecration to God, this setting apart for his service, this watchful avoidance of evil, this careful walking in integrity, this dwelling near to God, this being made like unto Christ-in a word, this beauty of holiness is one of the surest emblems of maturity in grace. You have no ripe fruit if you are not holy, if still your passions are unsubdued, if still you are carried about by every wind of temptation. If still, “Lo here, and lo there,” will attract you to the right hand and to the left, you have not reached to anything like maturity; perhaps you are not even fruit unto God at all. But where holiness is perfected in the fear of God, and the Christian is at least striving after perfect holiness, and aiming to be conformed to the image of Christ, one of the marks of the ripe fruit is plainly present.

Another mark is never absent in a mature believer-namely, the weight which is evidenced in humility. Look at the corn in the field, it holds its head erect while it is green, but when the ear is filled and matured, it hangs its head in graceful humbleness. Look at your fruit trees, how their blossoming branches shoot up towards the sky, but when they begin to be loaded with fruit, since the riper the fruit the greater its weight, the branch begins to bow, until it needs oftentimes to be propped up and to be supported, lest it break away from the stem. Weight comes with maturity, lowliness of mind is the inevitable consequence. Growing Christians think themselves nothing, full-grown Christians know that they are less than nothing. The nearer we are to heaven in point of sanctification, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves. Lightly laden vessels float high in the water, heavy cargo sinks the barque to the water’s edge. The more grace, the more the need of grace is felt. He may boast of his grace who has none, he may talk much of his grace who has little, but he who is rich in grace cries out for more, and forgets that which is behind. When a man’s inward life flows like a river, he thinks only of the source, and cries before his God, “All my fresh springs are in thee.” He who abounds in holiness feels more than ever that in him, that is in his flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. Thou art not ripened, my brother, whilst thou hast a high esteem of thyself. He who glories in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all. When thou shalt see death written on the creature, and see all thy life in Christ; when thou shalt perceive even thy holy things to have iniquity in them, and see all thy perfectness in him who is altogether lovely; when thou shalt lie prostrate at the foot of the throne, and only rise to sit and reign in him who is thine all, then art thou ripening, but not till then.

Another mark of ripeness which every one perceives in fruit, and by which indeed the maturity of many fruits is tested, is tenderness. The young green fruit is hard and stone-like; but the ripe fruit is soft, yields to pressure, can almost be moulded, retains the mark of the finger. So is it with the mature Christian, he is noted for tenderness of spirit. Beloved, I think if I must miss any good thing, I would give up many of the graces if I might possess very much tenderness of spirit. I am persuaded that many Christians violate the delicacy of their consciences, and therein lose much of true excellence. Do you not remember, my brother, when you used to be afraid to put one foot before another for fear you should tread in the wrong place?-I wish we always felt in that same manner. You recollect when you were afraid to open your mouth lest perhaps you should say something that would grieve the Spirit!-I would we were always so self-diffident. “Open thou my lips”-I am afraid to open them myself-“Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.” An extreme delicacy concerning sin should be cultivated by us all. When the believer can listen to a song with a lascivious tone, and does not feel himself indignant, let him be indignant with himself. When he can come across sin and feel that it does not shock him as once it did, let him be shocked to think that his conscience is being so seared. I would give you for a prayer that verse from Wesley’s hymn-

“Quick as the apple of an eye,

O God, my conscience make,

Awake my heart, when sin is nigh

And keep it still awake.”

The sensitive plant as soon as it is touched begins to fold up its leaves; touch it again, and the little branchlets droop, until at last it stands like the bare poles of a vessel, all its sail of leaf is furled, and it seems as if it would, if it could, shrink into nothing to avoid your hand. So should you be, so should I be, tender to the touch of sin, so as to say with the psalmist, “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” Such tenderness is a prominent mark of ripeness, and it should be exhibited, not only in relation to sin, but in other ways. We should manifest tenderness towards the gospel-glad to hear it, thankful even for a little of it; glad to eat the crumbs from the Master’s table; tenderness towards Christ, so that the heart doth leap at the sound of his name, tenderness towards the motions of the Spirit, so as to be guided by his eye. The Spirit often, I doubt not, comes to us and we do not perceive him, because we are heavy of hearing, we are dull of understanding. The photographer may place his plate in the camera, and the object to be taken may be long before it, and well focussed, too, and yet no impression may be produced; but when the plate is made sensitive, thoroughly sensitive, then it receives the image at once. O that your heart and mine might be sensitive to receive the impression of the Holy Spirit, so that on us there shall be printed at once the mind and will of God. Dear friend, bear this in thy memory, and forget not that it shall be a token of thy ripeness when the hardness is departing, when the heart of stone is being supplanted by the heart of flesh, and when the soul yields promptly to the presence of Christ, and the touch of his Spirit.

Another mark of ripeness is sweetness, as well as tenderness. The unripe fruit is sour, and perhaps it ought to be, or else we should eat all the fruits while they were yet green. If pears and apples had the same flavour when they are but small, as afterwards, I am sure where there are children, very few of them would come to their full development. It may, therefore, be in the order of grace a fit thing that in the youthful Christian some sharpness should be found which will ultimately be removed. There are certain graces which are more martial and warlike than others, and have their necessary uses-these we may expect to see more in the young men than in the fathers; and they will be toned down by experience. As we grow in grace, we are sure to grow in charity, sympathy, and love; we shall have greater and more intense affection for the person of “Him whom having not seen we love;” we shall have greater delight in the precious things of his gospel; the doctrine which perhaps we did not understand at first, will become marrow and fatness to us as we advance in grace. We shall feel that there is honey dropping from the honey-comb in the deeper truths of our religion. We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness towards our fellow Christians. Bitter-spirited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature. Those who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet very immature in heart. He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more; he overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it. As he has sometimes to say of himself, “This is my infirmity,” so he often says of his brethren, “This is their infirmity; “and he does not judge them as he once did. I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves qualified to reform the whole Christian church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall not be more tolerant of evil, but we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms. Sweetness towards sinners is another sign of ripeness; when the Christian loves the souls of men; when he feels that there is nothing in the world which he cares for so much as endeavouring to bring others to a knowledge of the saving truth; when he can lay himself out for sinners, bear with their ill-manners, bear with anything, so that he might but lead them to the Saviour-then is the man mature in grace. God grant this sweetness to us all. A holy calm, cheerfulness, patience, a walk with God, fellowship with Jesus, an anointing from the Holy One-I put all these together, and I call them sweetness, heavenly lusciousness, full-flavouredness of Christ. May this be in you and abound.

I hope I shall not weary you with these marks and signs, I shall not if you can find them in yourselves. Fulness, again, is the mark of ripeness, seen when the fruit is plumped out and arrived at its fair and full proportions. The man in Christ Jesus has a fulness of grace. As he advances in the divine life, all the graces which were in him at his new birth are strengthened and revealed. I suppose that in the newly-formed ear of wheat all the kernels are present, but they are not yet manifested; as the ear advances to maturity these grains begin to solidify and become more full. So with the believer; there is repentance in him, but not such repentance as he will have as he sees more clearly the love of Christ in pardoning his sin. There is faith in him certainly, but not such faith as he shall have when afterwards he shall boldly declare, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him.” There is joy in him at the very first, but not the joy which he will possess when he will rejoice in the Lord always, and yet again rejoice. Experience deepens that which was there before. Young Christians have the first draughts, the outline of the image of Christ, but as they grow in grace there comes the filling up, the colouring, the laying on of the deeper tints, the bringing out of the whole picture. This it is to grow mature-when we know whom we have believed by acquaintance with him, when we know sin by having struggled with it, when we know the faithfulness of God by having proved it, when we know the preciousness of the promise by having received it, and having it fulfilled in our own souls-this it is to be a ripe Christian, to be full of grace and truth like our Master.

Only one other mark of ripeness, and a very sure one, is a loose hold of earth. Ripe fruit soon parts from the bough. You shake the tree and the ripest apples fall. If you wish to eat fresh fruit you put out your hand to pluck it, and if it comes off with great difficulty you feel you had better leave it alone a little longer; but when it drops into your hand, quite ready to be withdrawn from the branch, you know it to be in good condition. When like Paul we can say, “I am ready to depart,” when we set loose by all earthly things, oh, then it is that we are ripe for heaven. You should measure your state of heart by your adhesiveness or your resignation in reference to the things of this world. You have some comforts here, some of you have money, and you look upon them, and you feel “it were hard to part with these”-this is green fruit; when your grace is mature, you will feel that though God should give you even greater abundance of this world, you are still an exile longing for the better land. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” This is the mature believer’s question. His song often is-

“My heart is with him on his throne,

And ill can brook delay;

Each moment listening for the voice,

‘Rise up and come away.’ ”

It is a sure token of ripeness when you are standing on tiptoe, with your wings outspread, ready for flight; when no chain any longer binds you further to earth; when your love to things below is subordinate to your longing for the joys above. Oh! it is sweet to sing with Dr. Watts-

“Father, I long, I faint to see

The place of thine abode;

I’d leave thine earthly courts, and flee

Up to thy seat, my God.”

When we get to this in our very hearts, we are getting ripe, and we shall soon be gathered. The Master will not let his ripe fruit hang long on the tree. Thus I have given you the marks of ripeness.

Briefly, brethren, let us notice the causes of this ripeness. So gracious a result must have a gracious cause.

The first cause of ripeness in grace is the inward working of the sap. The fruit could never be ripe in its raw state were it taken away from the bough. Outward agencies alone may produce rottenness, but not ripeness; sun, shower, what not, all would fail-it is the vital sap within the tree that perfects the fruit. It is especially so in grace. Dear brother, are you one with Christ, are you sure you are? Are you sure your profession is connected with vital godliness? Is Jesus Christ formed within you? Do you abide in him? If not, you need not think about maturity in grace, you had need to do your first works and repent, and turn unto him. Everything between hell and heaven which denotes salvation, is the work of the Spirit of God, and the work of the grace of Jesus. You not only cannot begin to live the Christian life, but you cannot continue in it except as the Holy Ghost enables you. That blessed Spirit, flowing to us from Christ, as he is the former of the first blossom, so he is the producer of the fruit, and is the ripener of it until it is gathered into the heavenly garner. Vitally endowed within you must be. Your sacraments, your attendance at a place of worship, your outward bowings of the knee in prayer, these are all vanity and less than nothing, unless there be this vital sap of the inward, spiritual grace.

When truth is present in the hidden part, outer influences help. Fruit is ripened by the sun. His beams impart or produce in the fruit its perfectness of flavour. Sunless skies cause tasteless fruit. How sweetly Christians grow when they walk in the light of God’s countenance! What a ripening influence the love of Jesus Christ has on the soul! When the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, how rapidly the Christian advances! I believe we ripen in grace more in ten minutes when we live near to God than we might do in ten years of absence from his presence. Some fruit on a tree will not ripen fast, it is shielded from the sun. We have seen the cottagers pluck off the leaves from their vines in our chilly climate, in order to let the sun get at the vine, and bring out the colour and ripeness of the clusters; even thus the great Husbandman takes away many of the leaves of worldly comfort from us, that the comfort of his own dear presence may come at us, and ripen us for himself. We cannot have too much joy in the Lord, we cannot get too near to him. We may well sing-

“When wilt thou come unto me, Lord?

O come, my Lord, most dear!

Come near, come nearer, nearer still,

I’m blest when thou art near.”

The joy of the Lord is your strength, and the joy of the Lord is your perfectness.

Still, brethren, the fruit is no doubt equally ripened, though not as evidently so, by the shower and by the dew. All heat and no moisture, and there must be scarcely any fruit. So the dew of God’s Spirit falling upon us, the constant shower of grace visiting us, and what if I add, even the trials and troubles of life, which are like showers to us-all these teach us by experience, and by experience we ripen for the skies. Some fruit I have heard of, especially the sycamore fig, never will ripen except it be bruised. It was the trade of Amos to be a bruiser of sycamore figs; they were struck with a long staff, and then after being wounded, they sweetened. How like to many of us! How many, many of us seem as if we never would be sweet till first we have been dipped in bitterness; never would be perfected till we have been smitten! We may trace many of our sharp trials, our bereavements, and our bodily pains, to the fact that we are such sour fruit, nothing will ripen us but heavy blows. Blessed be the Lord that he does not spare us. We would be ripe even if we be struck again and again. We cannot be content to continue in our sourness and immaturity; therefore, we meekly bless him that he will strike us, and make us ripe.

One idea I would correct before I pass from this-it is the notion that ripeness in grace is the necessary result of age. It is not so at all. Little children have been ripe for glory; ay, there have been authentic cases of their ripeness for heaven even at three years of age-strange things dying babes have said of Christ, and deeply experimental things too. “Out of the months of babes and sucklings” the Lord not only brings childlike praise, but he has “perfected praise,” or, as David has it, “Thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies.” Many an aged Christian is not an experienced Christian, for his experience, though it may be the experience of a Christian, may not have been Christian experience of an advanced kind. An old sailor who has never left the river is not an experienced mariner. An old soldier who never saw a battle is no veteran. Remember it is in the kingdom of God very much as it is with God himself, one day may be as a thousand years. God can, as Solomon tells us, give subtlety to the simple, and teach the young man knowledge and discretion. Years with grace will produce greater maturity, but what I want to say is, that years without grace will produce no such maturity. The mere lapse of time will not advance us in the divine life. We do not ripen necessarily because our years fulfil their tale, grey hairs and great grace are not inseparable companions. Time may be wasted as well as improved, we may be petrified rather than perfected by the flow of years. Here it may be well to note that there is no reason why a young Christian should not make great advance towards this maturity, even while young. The Lord’s grace is independent of time and age; the Holy Spirit is not limited by youth, nor restrained by fewness of days. Young Samuel may excel aged Eli; a holy babe is riper than a backsliding man. Timothy was more mature than Diotrephes. Jesus can lead you, my youthful brother, to high degrees of fellowship with himself; he can make you to be a blessing even while yet you are young; I pray you aspire to the nearest place to Jesus, and like young John, lie in the Master’s bosom. Truly, the aged have the help of experience, and in any case they deserve our reverent esteam, but let neither old nor young imagine that the merely natural fact of age has any influence in the spiritual life. God’s work is the same in old and young, and owes nothing to the merely natural vigour of youth, or equally natural prudence of age.

Thus we have given you the causes of ripeness; briefly let us show you the desirability of ripeness in grace.

It is needful to dwell on this head, because many Christians appear to think that if they are just believers, it is enough. We do not in business think it enough if we barely escape bankruptcy. A man does not say, if his dear child has been ill in bed for years, that it is quite enough so long as the child is alive. We do not think that of our own bodies, that so long as we can breathe it is enough. If any one were dragged out of the Serpentine and life was just in him, we should not feel it sufficient to discover the vital spark and there leave it. No, we pursue the processes of resuscitation till the person is perfectly restored. To be just alive as a Christian is horrid work. It is a poor state to be in to be always trying to see whether we are alive, by putting the looking glass of evidences to the lips to see if there is just a trace of gracious vapour on the surface. It is a dolorous thing to be always groaning-

“’Tis a point I long to know,

Oft it causes anxious thought,

Do I love the Lord or no?

Am I his, or am I not?”

Yet too many are content to continue in this ignominious condition. Brethren, it is desirable that you should get out of it, and come to ripeness in grace by God’s Spirit, for, first, ultimate ripeness is an index of the health of your soul. The fruit which under proper circumstances does not ripen is not a good fruit, it must be an unwholesome production. Your soul can surely not be as it should be if it does not ripen under the influence of God’s love and the work of his grace. The gardener’s reward is the ripe fruit. You desire that Christ should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, think you will he find that satisfaction in sour grapes? Is he to find his recompense in griping apples? No, sir; the gardener wants the mature productions of the soil, and he does not count that he has a return for his labour till he gathers ripe fruit. Let the Redeemer find ripe fruit in you. Say you with the spouse, “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Endeavour to imitate her when she said, “At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O beloved.” Present yourself to him, and may he present you to the Father, made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light!

It is the ripe fruit which proves the excellence of the tree. The tree may bear a name in very good repute, but if the fruit never ripens, very soon the gardener will remove it from the orchard. The church’s repute among wise men, is gained not from her raw and green members, but from her ripe believers-these are they by whose steadfast holiness those whose verdict is worth the having will be ruled. I would have men compelled to own that the church is a goodly vine, and her fruit most pleasant to the taste.

To break the metaphor, the church wants mature Christians very greatly, and especially when there are many fresh converts added to it. New converts furnish impetus to the church, but her backbone and substance must, under God, lie with the mature members. We want mature Christians in the army of Christ, to play the part of veterans, to inspire the rest with coolness, courage, and steadfastness; for if the whole army is made up of raw recruits the tendency will be for them to waver when the onslaught is fiercer than usual. The old guard, the men who have breathed smoke and eaten fire before, do not waver when the battle rages like a tempest, they can die but they cannot surrender. When they hear the cry of “Forward,” they may not rush to the front so nimbly as the younger soldiers, but they drag up the heavy artillery, and their advance once made is secure. They do not reel when the shots fly thick, but still hold their own, for they remember former fights when Jehovah covered their heads. The church wants in these days of flimsiness and timeserving, more decided, thorough-going, well-instructed, and confirmed believers. We are assailed by all sorts of new doctrines. The old faith is attacked by so-called reformers, who would reform it all away. I expect to hear tidings of some new doctrine once a week. So often as the moon changes, some prophet or other is moved to propound a new theory, and believe me, he will contend more valiantly for his novelty than ever he did for the gospel. The discoverer thinks himself a modern Luther, and of his doctrine he thinks as much as David of Goliath’s sword, “There is none like it.” As Martin Luther said of certain in his day, these inventors of new doctrines stare at their discoveries like a cow at a new gate, as if there were nothing else in all the world but the one thing for them to stare at. We are all expected to go mad for their fashions, and march to their piping. To whom we give place; no, not for an hour. They may muster a troop of raw recruits, and lead them whither they would, but for confirmed believers they sound their bugles in vain. Children run after every new toy; any little performance in the street, and the boys are all agog, gaping at it; but their fathers have work to do abroad, and their mothers have other matters at home; your drum and whistle will not draw them out. For the solidity of the church, for her steadfastness in the faith, for her defence against the constantly recurring attacks of heretics and infidels, and for her permanent advance and the seizing of fresh provinces for Christ, we want not only your young, hot blood, which may God always send to us, for it is of immense service, and we cannot do without it, but we need also the cool, steady, well-disciplined, deeply-experienced hearts of men who know by experience the truth of God, and hold fast what they have learned in the school of Christ. May the Lord our God therefore send us many such; they are wanted.

And now I shall close by calling your attention to the great solemnity of the subject.

We have tried to treat it pleasantly, and to instruct after the Master’s example by parables, but there is much of weight here, much of deep and solemn weight. The first is to me, to you, professor of the faith of Christ, a solemn question, am I ripening? I recollect when a child seeing on the mantel-piece a stone apple, wonderfully like an apple, too, and very well coloured. I saw that apple years after, but it was no riper. It had been in unfavourable circumstances for softening and sweetening, if it ever would have become mellow; but I do not think if the sun of the Equator had shone on it, or if the dews of Hermon had fallen on it, it would ever have been fit to be brought to table. Its hard marble substance would have broken a giant’s teeth. It was a hypocritical professor, a hard-hearted mocker of little children, a mere mimic of God’s fruits. There are church members who used to be unkind, covetous, censorious, bad tempered, egotistical, everything that was hard and stony; are they so now? Have they not mellowed with the lapse of years? No, they are worse if anything; very dogs in the house for snapping and snarling, rending and devouring; great men at hewing down the carved work of the sanctuary with their axes, or at filling up wells and marring good pieces of land with stones. When the devil wants a stone to fling at a minister he is sure to use one of them. Well, now, are these people Christians at all? Are they? Let your senses exercise themselves. I leave you each one to judge. If these be extreme cases, let me ask, are there not many in whom ripeness is certainly not very apparent? No growing downwards in humility, no growing upwards in fellowship with God, no doing more, no giving more, no loving more, no praying more, no praising more, no sympathising more. Are you, then, a fruit unto God at all? Solemn question! I put it to myself as in the sight of God, and I ask you to do the same to yourselves.

Another question also rises up. There is constantly going on in every man, specially in every professed Christian, some process or other, and I believe that one of two processes will go on in us-the one is ripening, the other is rotting. Now rotting and ripening are exceedingly like each other in appearance up to a certain stage. You will sometimes find upon your tree a fruit which seems perfectly ripe, and has all the signs of ripeness a month before the proper time, outstripping thus all the other fruit. You must not think it is ripe. Cut it open, there is a worm inside. That noxious worm is to all appearance producing the same effect as the blessed sun and dew. So the worm of secret sin will eat out the heart of a professor, and yet it will outwardly produce in him the same savouriness of speech, the same apparent sanctity of life, which the Holy Spirit truly produces in a real Christian, but still the fair outside conceals a foul interior. The whitewashed sepulchre is full of decay. That fruit which mimics ripeness is rotten, leave it alone, and it will soon be a thing fit only for the dunghill. My dear friends, I have lived long enough, young as I am, to have seen some turn out to be very rotten hypocrites, though once they were in general esteem as more than ordinarily good men. I am sure we have all admired and loved persons who after awhile have turned out to be utterly unworthy. They looked the more ripe because they were rotten: they were obliged to try and look like holy men because they feared that their real unholiness would be found out; just as some failing merchants make all the greater show to conceal their insolvency. You will rot if you do not ripen, depend on it. He that in the church of God does not grow more heavenly will become more devilish. It is a hard thing to be in the hot house of an earnest church without growing more rank if you do not grow more fruitful. Mind this, and God give you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

One other reflection, and a very solemn one it is, while good fruits ripen, evil plants ripen too. While the wheat ripens for the harvest, the tares ripen also. They may grow together, and ripen together, but they will not be housed together. Dear hearers, some of you have been in this place now for years, and you are not converted. Well, you are ripening, you cannot help that; even weeds and tares come to maturity. “Let both grow together till the harvest.” Look at these galleries and this vast area. I see before me three great fields of corn and tares. You are mingled while you grow. “Let both grow together till the harvest,” that is the ripening and the dividing time. You are all growing, all ripening. Then, when all are ripe in the time of harvest, he will say to the reapers, “Gather together first the tares, bind them in bundles to burn them. Gather the wheat into my barn.” O sinner, thine unbelief is ripening, it will ripen into despair. Thine enmity to God is ripening, it will ripen into everlasting rebellion against him. Even now thy heart grows harder and more stubborn, and thy death in sin becomes more hopeless every hour thou livest. Remember there shall be no hope that thy character will undergo improvement in another world. Then shall be fulfilled the saying which is written, “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” For ever and for ever the processes which ripen sin will continue to operate on condemned spirits, “where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.” God grant you grace to believe in Jesus Christ now, that you may receive the new nature, and having received it may grow up into ripeness, that so God may be glorified. May we all be housed in the garner of ripe fruit in the King’s own palace above! Amen and Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 116 and Philippians 1