C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and he guilty; or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”-Leviticus 4:27-31.

Very much of interesting truth clusters around the sin-offering. The type is well worthy of the most careful consideration, and I regret that we shall not have time this morning to enter into all its details. The reader of the chapter will perceive that it gives us four forms of the same sacrifice. These may be regarded as four views of the same thing, probably views taken by four classes of believers, according to their standing in the divine life; for, although all men who are saved have the same Saviour, they have not the same apprehensions of him. We are all cleansed, if cleansed at all, by the same blood, but we have not all the same knowledge of the manner in which it is effectual for cleansing. The devout Hebrew had but one sin-offering, but that was set forth to him under varying symbols.

The following remarks may aid you in understanding the type before us. The chapter begins with the sin-offering for the anointed priest, and describes it with the fullest detail. It then proceeds, in the thirteenth verse and onwards, to give the sin-offering for the whole congregation, and it is most notable that the sin-offering for the anointed priest is almost in every circumstance identical with the sin-offering for the whole congregation. Is not this designed to show to us that when Christ, our anointed priest, took upon him the sin of all the congregation of God’s chosen as his own, there was demanded of him the same expiation and atonement as would have been demanded of his people had they been reckoned with in their own persons? His atonement for sins which were not his own, but which were laid upon him by the Lord on our behalf, is equivalent to the penalty which would have been required of all the congregation of believers for whom his blood was especially shed. This is a memorable lesson, which ought not to be forgotten. We ought to see herein the inestimable value of the sacrifice of Christ, by which the many offences of a number that no man can number are for ever put away. There was given, in the death of our Lord, as full a recompense to justice as if all the redeemed had been sent into hell; nay, the truth goes far further than that, they could not have made a complete expiation, for even had they suffered for sin for thousands of years, the debt would “still be paying, never paid.” Glory be to the name of our great Substitute, he by his sin offering hath perfected for ever them that are set apart.

In the case of the sin-offering for the priest we have a fuller picture of the atonement than is offered by the two latter instances, and you will please to note that the sin-offering was a victim without blemish. In the first two cases a bullock was to be slain. Thus the most precious animal the Hebrew owned, the noblest, the strongest, the image of docility and labour, was to be presented to make atonement. Our Lord Jesus Christ is like the firstling of the bullock, the most precious thing in heaven, strong for service, docile in obedience, one who was willing and able to labour for our sakes; and he was brought as a perfect victim, without spot or blemish, to suffer in our stead. The priest slew the bullock, and its blood was poured forth; for without shedding of blood there is no remission. The vital point of the atonement of Christ lies in his death. However much his life may have contributed to it, and we are not among those who, in the matter of salvation, separate his life from his death by a hard and fast line, yet the great point of the putting away of human guilt was the Lord’s obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. The victim was slain, and so the atonement was made. Returning to the passage before us, we find that the blood of this victim was taken into the holy place, which was immediately outside the sacred vail of the sanctuary; and there the priest dipped his finger in the blood, and sprinkled of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the vail of the sanctuary. So in making atonement for sin there is a perfect exhibition of the blood of Jesus before the Lord. That life has been given for life is openly proved where alone the proof is available. Before the offended Lord the vicarious death is thoroughly exhibited; for was it not written of old in the book of Exodus, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” our sight of the blood Christ gives us peace, but it does not make the satisfaction; it is God’s sight of the blood which makes the atonement; and, therefore, seven times before the vail was this blood exhibited before the Lord, that a perfect atonement might be made.

The next thing the priest did was to go up to the golden altar of incense, which stood hard by the vail, and to put some of the blood upon each one of the horns, indicating that it is the blood of the atonement which gives power (for that is the meaning of the horns) to intercession. The sweet perfume of the altar of incense stands for the prayers and praises of the saints, and especially for the intercession of Christ Jesus; and, because the blood is there, therefore, Christ’s intercession is heard; and, therefore, our prayers and praises come up with acceptance before the Lord.

Then the priest removed to the brazen altar of burnt sacrifice, and all the blood which remained he poured out at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering which stood at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Full bowls of blood encrimsoned the base of the altar. Blood was seen on every side, on the vail, on the golden altar, and now upon the altar of brass. Within and without the holy place but one voice was heard, the voice of the blood of atonement crying to God for peace. The whole tabernacle must have been almost at all times so smeared with blood as to have been far from pleasant to the eye, and this was intended to teach to Israel, that God’s anger against sin is terrible, and that the dishonoured law will be satisfied with nothing less than the giving of life for life, if sinners are to be saved. The altar of burnt offerings was the altar of acceptance, it was the place where those sacrifices were presented in which there was no mention of sin, but which were brought as thanksgivings to God. Therefore, as much as to teach us that the very ground and foundation of the acceptance of the Christian, and his offering, lies in the precious blood of Jesus; full bowls of blood were poured upon the base of the altar. See what wonders the precious blood of Jesus Christ can do, it is the strength of intercession and the foundation of acceptance.

From the bullock which had been slain certain choice pieces were taken, and especially the inward fat, and these were laid upon the altar and consumed, to show us that even while the Lord Jesus was a sin-offering he was still accepted of God, and though his Father forsook him so that he cried out, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” he was still a sweet savour unto the Lord in the obedience which he rendered.

But, the most significant part of the whole sacrifice remains to be described, and you will notice that it is only described in the first two forms of the sin-offering. The priest was not allowed to burn the bullock itself upon the altar, but he was commanded to take up the whole carcase, its skin, flesh, head, and everything, and carry the whole forth without the camp. It was a sin-offering, and therefore it was loathsome in God’s sight, and the priest went right away from the door of the tabernacle, past all the tents of the children of Israel, bearing this ghastly burden upon him; went, I say, right away, till he came to the place where the ashes of the camp were poured out, and there, not upon an altar, but on wood which had been prepared, upon the bare ground; every single particle of the bullock was burned with fire. The distance the bullock was carried from camp is said to have been four miles. The teaching of which is just this, that when the Lord Jesus Christ took the sin of his people upon himself, he could not, as a substitute, dwell any longer in the place of the divine favour, but had to be put into the place of separation, and made to cry, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews puts the matter clearly, “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Outside Jerusalem our Lord was led to the common place of doom for malefactors, for it is written (and oh, the power of those words, I dare not have uttered them if they had not been inspired), “He was made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” The blessed Son of God was made a curse for us and put to an accursed death, by being gibbeted upon the cross, and all because sin anywhere is hateful to God, and he must treat it with indignation. The fire of divine justice fell upon our blessed sin offering until he was utterly consumed with anguish, and he said, “It is finished,” and gave up the ghost. Now, this is the only way of the putting away of sin: it is laid upon another, that other is made to suffer as if the sin belonged to him, and then, since sin cannot be in two places at once, and cannot be laid upon another and rest upon the offerer too, the offerer becomes clear from all sin, he is pardoned and he is accepted because his substitute has been slain without the camp instead of him. I have thus introduced to you the first two forms of the sin-offering. It seemed necessary to begin there.

The third form of the sin-offering was for a ruler, a person of considerable standing in the camp. There is nothing very remarkable about that third form which need now detain us; we, therefore, come to the subject in hand. The sin offering for a common person.

And, here, we will begin our discourse upon the text itself by speaking of the person, a common person. It gives me unspeakable joy to read these words, “If any one of the common people sin,” for which one of the common people does not sin? The text reminds me that if a common person sin his sins will ruin him; he may not be able to do so much mischief by his sin as the ruler or a public officer, but his sin has all the essence of evil in it, and God will reckon with him for it. No matter how obscurely you may live, however poor and unlettered you may be, your sin will ruin you, if not pardoned and put away. If one of the common people sin through ignorance, his sin is a damning sin, he must have it put away, or it will put him away for ever from the face of God. A common person’s sin can only be removed by an atonement of blood. In this case you see the victim was not a bullock, it was a female of the goats or of the sheep, but still it had to be an offering of blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission. However common-place your offences may have been, however insignificant you may be yourself, nothing will cleanse you but the blood of Jesus Christ. That verse is quite correct-

“Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears for ever flow,

All for sin could not atone:

Christ must save, and Christ alone.”

It is true the sins of great men cover a larger space, but yet there must be a bloody sacrifice for the smallest offences. For the sins of a housewife or of a servant, of a peasant, or of a crossing-sweeper, there must be the same sacrifice as for the sins of the greatest and most influential. No other atonement will suffice, the sins of the common people will destroy them unless the blood of Jesus Christ shall cleanse them. But here is the point of joy, that for the common people there was an atonement ordained of God. Glory be to God I may be unknown to men, but I am not unthought of by him. I may be merely one of the many, but still he has thought of me. As each blade of grass has its own drop of dew, so each guilty soul coming to Christ shall find an atonement for itself in Christ. Blessed be the name of the Lord, it is not written that there is a sacrifice for the great ones of the earth alone, but for the common people there is a sin-offering, so that each man coming to the Saviour finds cleansing through his precious blood.

Observe with thankfulness that the sacrifice appointed for the common people was as much accepted as that appointed for the ruler. Of the ruler, it is said, “the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.” The same thing is said of the common person. Christ is as much accepted for the poorest of his people as for the richest of them. He as much saves the unknown as be does the apostolic names of high renown. They need the sacrifice of blood, but they need nothing more, and the blood which pleads before the throne of God speaks as well for the least as it does for the chief of the flock.

Come hither, then, ye who belong to the common people, if any of you have sinned, come at once to Jesus the great sin-offering. Though ye are common in rank, know ye not that the common people heard him gladly. Publicans and sinners pressed around him to hear him. Though ye are but commoners in your wealth, possessing little of this world’s goods, yet, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Common in your talents and in your gifts, yet he bids you come, for these things are hid from the wise and prudent. It is not for those who think themselves distinguished that he has especially laid down his life, but “the poor have the gospel preached to them,” and in their salvation he will be glorified.

Mark, it says, “If any one of the common people sin through ignorance, or if his sin which he hath sinned come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering.” Has it suddenly come to the knowledge of any person here that he has sinned as he thought he had not sinned? Has some fresh light broken in upon you and revealed to you your darkness? Did you come to this house depressed in spirit because you have discovered that you are guilty and must perish, unless the mercy of God prevent you? Then, come ye common people who have discovered your sin, and bring your sacrifice. Nay, it is here already for you. Come and accept the sacrifice which God provides, and let your sin be for ever put away.

I wish the words of the text could provoke the same feelings in every heart that they do in mine, for I could fain stand here and weep my soul away in joy that for the common people’s sin there should be a sacrifice, for I can put my name down amongst them. I have sinned, I have come to the knowledge of my sin, and I thank God I need not ask myself any other question, be I who I may or what I am, though but one of the common people, there is a sin-offering for me.

Now, pass on from the person to the sacrifice. “He shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.”

Observe first, my brethren, that there is a discrepancy between the type and the reality, for first the sin-offering under the law was only for sins of ignorance. But, we have a far better sacrifice for sin than that, for have we not read in your hearing this morning those precious words, “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” not from sins of ignorance only, but from all sin. Oh, that blessed word “all.” It includes sins of knowledge, sins against the light and love of God, sins wantonly perpetrated, sins against man and against God, sins of body and of soul, sins of thought and word and deed sins of every rank and character, “sins immense as is the sea”-all, all are removed; no matter what they be, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Yet do I bless God that the type deals with sins of ignorance, because we may get a gospel out of it. We have committed many sins which we know not of. They have never burdened our conscience because we have not yet discovered them; and, besides, we do not know them to be sins; but Christ takes those sins too, and prays, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” “Cleanse thou me,” said David, “from secret faults,” and that is just what Jesus does. It used to be a doctrine of the church of Rome that no man could have a sin forgiven which he did not confess. Truly, if it were so, there would be no salvation for any of us, since it is not possible for the memory to charge itself with the recollection of every sin, nor for the conscience to become so perfect as to take cognizance of every form of transgression. But, while we ought to confess to God all sins which we know; and, while we should confess them as much as can be in detail, yet, if through ignorance they remain unacknowledged, except in the gross and the bulk, Jesus Christ, the sin-offering, bears our sins of ignorance, sins which we knew not to be sins when we committed them, or which we still know not to be sins. He takes them away; it must be so, for he “cleanseth us from all sin”-sins of ignorance, as well as sins against light and knowledge. Now, what comfort there is here for all you of the common people; be your sins what they may, there is a sin-offering which takes away all sin from you. However ye may have defiled yourselves, though ye be black as night and hideous as hell, yet is there power in the atoning blood of the incarnate God to make you white as newly-fallen snow. Washed once in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, there shall remain upon you no trace of guilt.

Note another discrepancy, that the sinner of the common people in this ease had to bring his sacrifice-“he shall bring his offering.” But our sin-offering has been provided for us. You remember the question of Isaac to his father Abraham, as they went up Moriah; he said to him, “My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?” and Abraham said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.” Isaac’s enquiry might have been the eternal question of every troubled heart. “O God, where is the lamb for the burnt-offering?” Who will bear human sin? But Jehovah Jireh. God hath provided himself a lamb for a burnt-offering and a sin-offering too, and now we have not to bring a sacrifice for sin, but have simply to take what God provided from before the foundations of the world.

Now, let us notice that in the type the victim chosen for a sin-offering was unblemished: whether it was a goat or a sheep, it must be unblemished. How could Christ make an atonement for sins if he had had sins of his own. Had he been guilty, it would have required that he should suffer for his own guilt. But, being under no obligation whatever to the law of God, except such as he voluntarily undertook, when he had rendered obedience he had an obedience to give away, and he has graciously bestowed it upon us. When he suffered, his suffering not being due to God on account of anything that he had personally done, he had so much of suffering to spare, and he has transferred it to us. The immaculate Christ has died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. This is full of comfort, for if you will study, O seeking soul, the perfect character of your blessed Lord as God and as man, and see how fairer than the lilies is he in matchless purity, you will feel that if he suffered, there must be in such suffering a merit unspeakable, which being transferred to you, can save you from the wrath to come. In the dear Redeemer we have an unblemished sacrifice.

But, I do not understand, and, therefore, cannot explain why the victim was a female in this case, for most of the sacrifices were males of the first year, but this is peculiar in being a female. Is it because there is neither male nor female, bond nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus? Or, am I wrong if I conjecture that this was intended to typify a view of Christ taken by one of the common people, and therefore it is purposely made incomplete? It is an incomplete view of Christ to have before you the female as the type, and the type is purposely made incomplete in order that this truth may be before us,-that while a complete view of Christ is very comforting, instructive, and strengthening, yet even an imperfect view of him will save us if accompanied by real faith. If we should make a mistake upon some point, yet, if we are clear upon the main truth of his substitution, it is well with us. On purpose, then, it seems to me, that a victim was introduced which did not with exactness set forth Christ, that the Lord might say to his people and to us, “You have not reached the perfect conception of my dear Son, but even an imperfect apprehension of him will save you, if you believe in him.” Who among us knows much of Christ? Oh, brethren, we know enough to make our hearts love him; we know enough of him to make us feel that we owe all to him, and we desire to live for his glory; but, he is far greater than our greatest thoughts. We have only skirted the shores and navigated the little bays and creeks of Christ; we have not sailed out into the main ocean, nor fathomed the great deeps as yet. Yet what little we know of him has saved us, and for his dear sake we are forgiven and accepted in the Beloved. Does not the Lord seem to say to us, “Poor souls, you have misconceived my Son, and made many mistakes about him, but you do trust him, and I save you.” A certain woman thought that there was power in the hem of Jesus’ garment to make her whole. She was mistaken in imagining that there was a healing efficacy in his dress, but since it was a mistake of faith, and reflected honour upon Christ, the Lord made it true to her; he made virtue go out of himself even into the skirts of his garments for her sake. And so, though we may err here and err there in reference to our Lord, yet, if our soul does but cling to him like a child to its mother, knowing little of its mother except that its mother loves it, and that it is dependent upon her, that clinging will be saving.

But, the main point about the sacrifice was, it was slain as a substitute. There is nothing said about its being taken outside the camp-I do not think it was in this case: all that the offerer knew was, it was slain as a substitute. And, dear hearers, all and everything that is essential to know in order to be saved is to know that you are a sinner and that Christ is your substitute. I beseech the Lord to teach every one of us this, for though we should go to the University and learn all knowledge, though we should ransack all the stores of learning, unless we know this,-“He loved me and gave himself for me,” we have not learned the very first principles of a true education for eternity. God gives us to know this this very day.

But, now thirdly, we pass on from the sacrifice to the after ceremonies; upon which only a word. In the case of one of the common people after the victim was slain, the blood was taken to the brazen altar, and the four horns of it were smeared, to show that the power of fellowship with God lies in the blood of substitution. There is no fellowship with God except through the blood, there is no acceptance with God for anyone of us except through him who suffered in our stead.

But, then secondly, the blood was thrown at the feet of this same brazen altar, as if to show that the atonement is the foundation as well as the power of fellowship. We get nearest to God when we feel most the power of the blood, ay, and we could not come to God at all except it were through that encrimsoned way.

After this, a part of the offering was put upon the altar, and it is said concerning it, what is not said in any other of the cases, “the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour to the Lord.” This common person had, in most respects, a dim view of Christ, compared with the others, but yet there were some points in which he had more light than others, for it does not say of the priest that what he offered was a sweet savour; but, for the comfort of this common person, that he might go his way having sweet consolation in his soul, he is told that the sin-offering he has brought is a sweet savour unto God. And oh, what a joy it is to think not only has Christ put away my sin if I believe in him; but now for me he is a sweet savour to God, and I am for his sake accepted, for his sake beloved, for his sake delighted in, for his sake precious unto God. When God had destroyed the earth by a flood, and Noah came out of the ark, you will remember that he offered a sacrifice unto God, and it is said, “The Lord smelled a sweet savour,” or a savour of rest, and then he said I will no more destroy the earth with a flood, and he entered into a covenant with Noah.” Oh, happy is that soul that can see Christ his sin-offering, as being a savour of rest unto the Lord Most High, so that a covenant of grace is made with him, a covenant of sure mercies that shall never be removed.

But, I must pass on again.

The fourth point is one to which I ask all your heart’s attention. I have purposely omitted an essential act in the sacrifice, in order to enlarge upon it now.

Please observe, that in all four cases there was one thing which was never left out, “He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin-offering.” It was no use killing the bullock, it was no use slaying the heifer, no use pouring out the blood, no use smearing the horns of the altar unless this was done. The guilty person must come, and must himself lay his hands upon the victim. Oh, that while I speak of this, some of you may lay your hands upon Christ Jesus, according to the verse of the poet-

“My faith doth lay her hand

On that dear head of thine,

While like a penitent I stand,

And there confess my sin.”

Now that act of laying on the hand signified confession. It meant just this: “Here I stand as a sinner, and confess that I deserve to die. This goat which is now to be slain represents in its sufferings what I deserve of God.” O sinner, confess your sin now unto your great God, acknowledge that he would be just if he condemned you. Confession of sin is a part of the meaning of laying on of the hand.

The next thing that was meant by it was acceptance. The person laying his hand said, “I accept this goat as standing for me. I agree that this victim shall stand instead of me.” That is what faith does with Christ, it puts its hand upon the ever blessed Son of God, and says, “He stands for me, I take him as my substitute.”

The next meaning of it was transference. The sinner standing there confessing, putting his hand on the victim and accepting it, did by that act, say, “I transfer, according to God’s ordinance, all my sin which I here confess, from myself to this victim.” By that act the transference was made. You know there is a blessed passage, which says, that “the Lord hath laid on Christ the iniquity of us all,” from this expression an objection has been raised to that blessed hymn.

“I lay my sins on Jesus.”

Yet, I think, the expression is quite correct. Cannot both utterances be true? God did lay sin in bulk upon Christ when he laid upon him the iniquity of us all, but by an act of faith every individual in another sense lays his sins on Jesus, and it is absolutely needful that each man should so do, if he would participate in the substitution.

Now, do observe, I pray you, that this was a personal act. Nobody could lay his hand upon the bullock, or upon the goat, for another; each one had to put his own hand there. A godly mother could not say, “My graceless boy will not lay his hand upon the victim, but I will put my hand there for him.” It could not be. He who laid his hand there had the blessing, but no one else, and had the godliest saint with holy but mistaken zeal said, “Rebellious man, wilt thou not put thy hand there, I will act as sponsor for thee,” it had been of no avail; the offender must personally come. And so, dear hearer, must you have a personal faith in Christ for yourself. The word is sometimes interpreted to lean, and some give it the meaning of leaning hard. What a blessed view of faith that gives us. Sometimes, according to the Rabbis, those who brought the victim leaned with all their might, and pressed upon it as if they seemed to say by the act, “I put the whole burden, weight, and force of my sin upon this unblemished victim.” O my soul, lean hard on Christ, throw all the weight of thy sin upon him, for he is able to bear it, and came on purpose to bear it, and he will be honoured if thou wilt lean heavily on him.

And, beloved, what a simple act it was. The man who would not be absolved from sin in this way deserved to perish-there was nothing but to lay his hand, nothing but to lean, how could he refuse. Faith in Christ is no mystery, no problem needing to be explained in long treatises,-it is simply, trust him, trust him, trust him, and you are saved. “There is life in a look at the crucified One.” “Look unto him, and be ye save all the ends of the earth.” Nothing can be plainer,-nothing can be simpler-why is it that so many puzzle themselves where God has given us simplicities. It must be that God made man upright, but he hath found out many inventions with which to bewilder himself.

The laying on of the hand was the act of a sinner. He came there because he had sinned, and because his sin had come to his knowledge. Had he been sinless there would have been no meaning in his bringing a sin-offering. Innocence needs not a substitute or sacrifice for sin. The sin-offering is evidently for the man who has sin, and what if I say there is no soul here to whom Christ is so suitable as the soul that is most full of sin. Thou that art a great, big, black sinner, a thoroughpaced sinner, a damnable sinner, thou art the very sinner to come to Christ and glorify his grace. He is a physician who did not come into this world to cure finger-aches, and pin-pricks, but to heal great diseases, loathsome leprosies, and burning fevers. Come, thou sinner of the common people, come thou and rest alone on Jesus! I wish I knew how to speak of this theme so as to move your souls. Within a few months or years at the longest, we shall all be before the bar of God; and what if some of us should be there with our sins upon us? I am afraid some of you will be there unforgiven. O you to whom I have so often spoken, will you be there unpardoned! I shall not be able to make excuse for you there, and say you did not know the way of salvation, for I have preached it with great plainness of speech. I have often cast aside language which commended itself to my taste, to use instead thereof more homely words, lest one of you should miss my meaning. God knoweth I have often forsaken tracks of thought which opened before me, and which might have interested many of my hearers, because I have felt while so many of you are unsaved, I must keep on ploughing with simplicities, and sowing elementary truths, I am evermore telling over and over again the story of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. What, do ye hate your souls so much that you will damn them to spite Christ? Is there such a hatred between you and yourself that you will reject God’s own sacrifice for sin? You cannot say it is difficult for you to avail yourself of the death of Jesus. It is but to lay your hand of faith on that dear head. What enmity must there be in your hearts that you will not be reconciled to God even when he makes the reconciliation by the death of his own dear Son. To what a pitch hath man’s rebellion against his Maker gone, when, sooner than be at peace with him, he will reject eternal love, and will for ever ruin his own soul. Oh, may God grant that some this morning may say, “I will stretch out my hand, I will trust in Jesus.” You see that the hand to be stretched out is an empty one, and the heart which leans may be a fainting one. Weakness and sinfulness find strength and pardon by taking Jesus to be their All-in-all.

The last word I have to speak to you makes the fifth head, namely, the assured blessing. Turn to your Bibles, at the 31st verse; let every soul here that is conscious of sin read those last lines: “and it shall be forgiven him.” There is the sacrifice. The man must put his hand upon it. The sacrifice is slain, and “his sin shall be forgiven him.” Was not that plain speaking? There were no ifs, no buts, no peradventures; but “it shall be forgiven him.” Now, in those days it was only one sin, the sin confessed, that was forgiven, but now “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” In those days the forgiveness did not give the conscience abiding peace, for the offerer had to come with another sacrifice by-and-by; but now the blood of Christ blots out all the sins of believers at once and for ever, so that there is no need to bring a new sacrifice, or to come a second time with the blood of atonement in our hands. The sacrifice of the Jew had no intrinsic value. How could the blood of bulls and goats take away sin? It could only be useful as a type of the true sacrifice, the sin-offering of Christ. But in our Lord Jesus there is real efficacy, there is true atonement, there is real cleansing, and whosoever believeth in him shall find actual pardon and complete forgiveness at this very moment. What a joy it is to know that-

“The moment a sinner believes,

And trusts in his crucified God,

His pardon at once he receives,

Salvation in full through his blood.”

I delight to believe that of Christ Jesus Kent’s verse is true-

“Here’s pardon for transgressions past,

It matters not how black their cast,

And oh, my soul, with wonder view,

For sins to come here’s pardon too.”

Our sins were all laid on Christ in one bulk, and were all put away at one time. Woe unto any man who should have to take his sins upon himself as they come, the blessing is that as our sins are committed they are still laid on Jesus, according to the words of the psalmist, “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whom there is no guile.” The believer sins, but the Lord imputes not his sin to him, he lays it still upon the scapegoat’s head who bore our sins of old, even Christ Jesus our Saviour.

The pith of all my discourse is this, if there be a child of God here who is in the dark and burdened with sin, dear brother, dear sister, do not stand controverting with the devil as to whether you are a child of God or not. Do not be going over your experience and saying, “I am afraid I am a hyprocrite and I have been deceived.” But, for the moment, suppose the worst. Let the devil take for granted all his accusations, and then reply to him in words like those of Martin Luther, “Thou sayest I am a great sinner and a law-breaker, and all this; to which I reply I will cut thy head off with thine own sword, for what if I be a sinner? it is written Jesus Christ came to save sinners, and I rest my soul as a sinner simply upon him.” I like beginning again. The best way to get back lost evidences is to leave the evidences alone, and go again to Jesus. Evidences are very like a sun-dial,-you can tell what o’clock it is if the sun is shining, but not without; and truly a man of experience can tell the time of day without the sun-dial if he can but see the sun itself. Evidences are clearest when Jesus is near, and that is just the time when we do not need them. Here is God’s direction for acting when under a cloud. “If any walk in darkness and see no light, let him”-what? Fret about his evidences? No, “let him trust,” there is the end of it; “let him trust in the Lord and obey the voice of his servant,” and the light will soon come to him. Come away, O burdened believer, to the sin-offering. “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father.” The fountain that was opened for sin and for uncleanness was not opened for the unregenerate only, but for the people of God, for it was opened “in the house of David,” for the “inhabitants of Jerusalem,” that is, for those who are God’s people.

If there be a poor soul here who has never believed in Jesus, but is burdened with sin, I invite him, and I pray God the Holy Spirit to make the invitation effectual, to come now to Jesus Christ. I seem to think that when I was seeking the Saviour if I had been in this congregation, and had heard Christ set forth as bearing sin as a substitute, and heard the plain talk you have listened to this morning, I should have found peace directly; instead of which I was months and months hunting after peace, because I did not know this, that I had nothing to do, for Christ had done it all; and all I had to do was to take what Christ had done, and simply trust in him. Now, you know it, oh, may God add something to your knowledge! May he give you power to lay your hand on Jesus! Lean on him, soul; lean on him. If you cannot lean, fall back into his arms. Faint away upon the bosom of the Saviour. Trust him, rest in him, it is all he asks you, and then faith shall justify you and cleanse you, and shall give you sanctification, and by-and-by perfection, and shall bring you into his eternal kingdom and glory. The Lord bless you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon.-1 John 1 and 2.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, May 5th, 1872, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.”-Psalm 141:5.

This is a very difficult passage in the original, and it is hard to fix its meaning with absolute certainty. However, it is no business of mine, at this present, to go into the various interpretations which have been given, for I am aiming at something else; I am, for my immediate purpose, quite content with the authorised version. The meaning given to the passage by our translators is this, David says, although the righteous man should rebuke him most sternly so as to smite his conscience, and bring before him his wrong-doing, and even though he should do this with considerable severity, yet he would not be displeased with him, but would love him all the better, and be thankful to him for having acted so faithfully, and he would prove his love by continuing to pray for his reprover, should the good man at any time be overtaken by calamity. David would always give his honest censor a warm place in his prayers.

Now, if this be the meaning, and I think it is, it shows us that David was in the habit of praying for the saints; for if he had not been, he would not have said that even in their calamities his prayers should go up for them. He had made it his daily custom to bring before his God in his private prayers the names of God’s righteous ones, or else, I say, he would not have made the remark that even if some of them should rebuke him and reprove him sternly, he still would continue to pray for them.

Our subject this morning shall be the high duty of intercession, a duty all too little regarded in these days. We shall speak upon it, first, as the text would lead us to do, in reference to saints, and, secondly, we shall urge it upon you on behalf of sinners.

First, then, we have to speak upon the duty of intercession for the people of God.

To arrange our thoughts in some order we will take for our first keynote the word obligation. It is incumbent upon every child of God to pray for the rest of the sacred family. Doth not nature itself teach us this? I mean not the old nature, but the new nature created within us by the Holy Spirit. Did you not find, my brethren, as soon as you were yourselves possessors of divine life, that you began without any exhortation to pray for others? Your very first believing cries began with “Our father which art in heaven,” and so included others besides yourself. Among the earliest prayers which a renewed heart offers will be one for the man through whose agency it was brought to Jesus. No new convert forgets to pray for the minister who was the instrument of his conversion. The newly-delivered soul also pleads for others who are still in the deplorable condition from which grace has enabled it to escape. “Thou hast brought my soul out of prison, Lord, set my fellow-captives free. In thy lovingkindness enable others to taste the sweetness of thy salvation.” Then the Christian people who have at any time conversed with the convert, who have ministered to his comfort or instruction, will be sure to obtain a share in his prayers, for a renewed heart is a tenderly grateful heart, and a man is not born again from above who feels no thankfulness to earnest friends below. Set a bird free from a cage, and it will sing you its thanks as it speeds forth into the air, even thus, if you are enabled to open the prison doors of bondaged spirits, they will repay your loving efforts with prayer.

I say it is a natural instinct of the new-born believer to begin to intercede for others, and this instinct continues with him throughout life. It is one of the things that he must do, it is a pleasure to him to do it, it would be impossible for him utterly to cease from it, for the indwelling Spirit in his bosom maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

And, brethren, as it is an instinct of the heaven born nature, so it is a law of the elect household. The saints in their due order may be described as “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Every believer has a watchman’s place appointed him in the matter of prayer, and he is bound not to be silent, but to give the Lord no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. We are all equally bound to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and our prosperity is made to hinge upon it. The new commandment which the Lord has given us, in which he bids us “love one another,” necessitates our praying for each other. How shall a man claim that he loves his brother if he never intercedes with God for him? Can I live continually with my fellow-believers and see their sorrows, and never cry to God on their behalf? Can I observe their poverty, their tribulation, their temptation, their heaviness of heart, and yet forget them in my supplications? Can I see their work of faith and labour of love, and never implore a blessing upon them? Can I wrap up myself within myself, and be indifferent to the case of those who are my brethren in Christ Jesus? Impossible. I must belong to some other family than that of God, for in the family of love, common sympathy leads to constant intercession. God forbid that we should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for our brethren. Every bee in the hive of the church should bring in its own share of this honey to the common store. As all the rootlets of a tree traverse the earth in search of nutriment, and all suck in provision for the benefit of all, so should each believer with open mouth of prayer search out and drink in spiritual blessings for the benefit of the whole church. Forget not then, my brethren, the sweet obligation under which you are laid by your relationship to the saints, and their ever blessed Lord.

Moreover, beloved, we recognise a vital union among believers, a oneness of a very intimate kind. We are not barely brethren, but we are “members of the same body.” Christ is the head of his mystical body the church, and we are all members of his body. Now, as in the human frame each separate limb, member, organ, vein, nerve, is needful to the whole, so in the church each believer is necessary to the rest, and the rest are needful to him. We may not be able to show what particular mischief would be done to the arm by an injury to the knee, yet, rest assured there would be a sympathetic suffering. No single cell or sac within the whole system can be out of order without in some degree affecting all the rest of the frame. Even so, God has made us dependent upon one another, far more than we imagine. In the church-unity every man contributes to the health or to the disease of the whole corporation, nor can he avoid so doing. No man liveth to himself in the church of God, and no man dieth to himself. When a believer grows in grace, he is enriched not for himself alone, the Christian community has increased its spiritual wealth by his gains. When, on the other hand, a man declines in divine things, and so becomes poor and feeble, it is not to himself alone that the injury occurreth, but in a measure the church is impoverished, weakened, and injured. O brethren, since this is the case, let us discharge abundantly the duties which we owe to the body of which we form a part; and in the delightful exercise of supplication let us abound more and more. Intercession should throb like a pulse through the whole body, causing every living member to feel the sacred impulse. Intercession is one of the least things which we can do, and yet it is one of the greatest: let us not be slack in it. A prayerless church member is a hinderance, he is in the body like a rotting bone, or a decayed tooth, and, ere long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them. Brethren, let it not be so with any one of you.

Besides, brethren, if an argument were needed to touch our hearts, it is not far to find. We ourselves owe much to the prayers of others. Many Christians can trace their conversion to their mother’s prayers which went up to heaven for them, when as yet their infant tongues could not pronounce the Saviour’s name. A mother brought them to Jesus and besought him to lay his hands on them and bless them. Many of you owe your conversion to the pleadings of Sabbath-school teachers, or to the supplications of ministers, or to earnest individual Christians who were led to intercede for you. Now, if by the way of prayer you have received a blessing, show your gratitude by praying for others. Endeavour to confer the blessing in the same way as you have received it. For my own self personally, I say this morning that no man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me. I reckon, brethren, that the more of prayers I have the wealthier I am in real riches, in that form of personal estate which is better that gold and silver. An old Puritan remarks that when a man thrives in business, he sets many hands to work for him, and, saith he, when a man grows in usefulness he brings many souls to pray for him, and so his business is carried on. The greater the expenditure of grace in the case of the Lord’s servant, the more he needs intercessory help from all his brethren and sisters that he may be able to carry on his work under the divine blessing. I am under bonds, my brethren, to pray for you, since I know that many of you continually besiege the throne of grace on my behalf. I put the argument, therefore, to you, if you have received blessings through the intercession of saints, would you not be ungrateful indeed if you did not intercede for others in return? Did a mother’s prayers bring you to Christ? Then, dear young mother, send up your entreaties to the Lord for your dear little one. Did a father’s supplications lead to your salvation? Then, young man, uphold thy father with thy constant prayers, and so enrich his latter days. Freely ye have received, freely give. The soil fertilised by the dew gives back its harvest, do thou also make a fair return to the church which has been the channel of blessing to thee. It is not, therefore, a matter of choice with us, to-day, whether we shall pray for our brethren in Christ or not. Beloved brethren, you are not alive unto God, you have not the instincts of the new life if you do not intercede for the household of faith. You have not the love which is of God, which is the sure sign of regeneration, if you forget intercession: you are unmindful of the debt you owe, and you are acting unworthily of your professed union with the church of Christ, if intercession be neglected by you. As with a trumpet call, I would arouse you, my brethren and sisters, to effectual earnest prayer for the family of the living God.

Let us change our watch-word now from obligation to honour. What an honour it is to be permitted to pray for the saints! For, observe, this brings us into the closest conceivable fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We cannot assist in providing an atonement for human sin: “It is finished” said the Saviour, and finished it is. In that work we can have no fellowship except as we receive of its results, for “He hath trodden the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with him.” In preaching the gospel to-day, we are exercising an office in which our Lord Jesus has now no share: the Holy Spirit helpeth us, but the man Christ Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, and his voice is not heard proclaiming the glad tidings. Therefore, in some respects, we have diverse occupations and exercise different offices, but, in the business of intercession we are one: at this very moment, our Lord is pleading before the throne, and when we intercede for his people we are doing precisely the same. We, in praying for the saints, have actual present fellowship with our great High Priest who intercedes within the veil. I say again, if I preach to-day, Christ is not preaching, but if I pray, my voice harmonises with his. If I pray for the brethren, I remember that he stands before the throne of glory with the breastplate on, having the names of all his chosen glittering there upon its precious stones. Is it not then a delightful thing to be partakers with the Son of God in the ministry of intercession? In this service he hath made us priests unto our God. He is the great Angel, with the golden censer, and the smoke of the incense which he offers ascends with the prayers of the saints before the Lord. Beloved, if you would be conformed in service to the Lord Jesus, the opportunity is ready to your hand; be much in intercession for the saints.

And, what an honour it is that we, who so lately were beggars for ourselves at mercy’s door, are now received so much into royal favour that we may venture to speak a word in the king’s ear for others. It was sovereign mercy which allowed us to say, “Have mercy upon me!” but what condescension is this which has taken us into such nearness with itself that now we can come to the Lord, and say, “I would fain speak a word with thee for a brother of mine: I would venture to ask bounties at thy hands, my Father, for a sister who needs compassion.” See, my brethren, how eminently you are promoted, you are ordained to the high office of “the king’s remembrancers,” to enquire of him concerning the good things of his covenant. You are constituted royal almoners for the King of kings, he sets before you his open exchequer and bids you ask what you will. O priceless grace; if thou, O believer, knowest how to ask by faith, thou mayst hand out to thy brethren wealth more precious than the gold of Ophir; for intercession is the key of the ivory palaces wherein are contained the boundless treasures of God. Saints in intercession reach a place where angels cannot stand. Those holy beings rejoice over penitent sinners, but we do not read of their being admitted as suppliants for the saints. Yet we, imperfect as we are, have this favour, we are permitted to open our mouth before the Lord for the sick and for the tried, for the troubled and for the downcast, with the assurance that whatsoever we shall ask in prayer believing we shall receive. In this thing great honour is put upon you.

Brethren, avail yourselves of his honor. I know very well if Her Majesty should give a permission to any one of you to call at the palace, and to ask what you would for your friends, you would not neglect the opportunity. Why, in these days, if a man thinks he has the ear of a member of Parliament, or somebody in power, it is not often that he neglects the opportunity of speaking for his cousin or his son who desires an office, where there is little to do and much to receive. All over the world place-hunters are in abundance, men of influence, having the ear of the authorities, are always pressed to make all possible use thereof. And yet, I have to stand here this morning and urge you, dear brethren, who have the ear of God, to exercise your choice prerogative. You have promises from God of the granting of your request, and many are saying, “I would be spoken for unto the king,” pray be not slow to help. Use the liberty which your Prince has given you and plead for your brethren. If there be no other who needs your prayers, I eagerly ask for a place in them. “Brethren, pray for us,” said an apostle, how much more may I say it. Having to minister daily in holy things, our responsibilities and needs are very great, do not, therefore, forget us when it is well with you. Say a kind thing unto the Prince for his servants and ask him to grant us more of his grace.

We will change the word now from honour to excellence. Intercessory prayer is a most excellent thing; for first, it benefits those who use it. I know you desire, beloved, to be of real service in the church of God. I trust we have no members of this church who are satisfied to have their names in the book, and to attend services, and to feel that all is done when this is done. No, you wish to be really helpful and to bring glory to God. Well, then, I urge upon you for this end the excellence of intercessory prayer.

First, brethren, it will suggest to you to know your brethren. You cannot pray well for those you know nothing about. You will not, therefore, go in and out of the assembly not knowing the person who sits next to you in the pew, but you will enquire how the brethren fare, and, when you hear of any one being in distress of mind, or body, or estate, you will be ready to take notice of that, in order that you may offer prayer on his account, and then there will be in you a sympathetic knowledge of your brethren. Paul tells us to know them that labour among us and are over us in the Lord! and I wish all church members did know more of their pastor’s struggles, and sorrows, and joys, that they might have more sympathy with him, and the same is true of the rest of the brethren; the more you know and sympathise the better will your prayer be, and because you will need to know, in order to intercede; therefore, I call intercession an excellent exercise.

Earnest intercession will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually pray. If you dislike any brother Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but for your own, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from all unkind feeling. Remember the old story of the man who waited on his pastor to tell him that he could not enjoy his preaching. The minister wisely said, “My dear brother, before we talk that matter over, let us pray together,” and, after they had both prayed, the complainant found he had nothing to say except to confess that he himself had been very negligent in prayer for his pastor, and he laid his not profiting to that account. I ascribe want of brotherly love to the decline of intercessory prayer. Pray for one another earnestly, habitually, fervently, and you will knit your hearts together in love as the heart of one man. This is the cement of fair colours in which the stones of the church should be laid if they are to be compact together.

Dear brethren, when you pray for one another, not only will your sympathy and love grow, but you will have kinder judgments concerning one another. We always judge leniently those for whom we intercede. If a talebearer represents my brother in a very black light, my love makes me feel sure that he is mistaken. Did I not pray for him this morning, and how can I hear him condemned? If I am compelled to believe that he is guilty I am very sorry, but I will not be angry with him, but will pray the Lord to forgive and restore him, remembering myself also lest I be tempted. We think our children beautiful because they are our own, and have a place in our heart, and in the same way we are quick to perceive any admirable traits of character which may exist in those for whom we intercede; and we are willing to suggest extenuations for the failings of their dispositions. Prayer is a wondrous blender of hearts and a mighty creator of love.

Intercessory prayer is of much efficacy in fostering watchfulness. Suppose that you, as a member of this church, are brought into contact with backsliders and are led to seek their restoration, your prayers for their recovery will naturally lead you also to pray, “Lord, preserve me from this evil, keep me from backsliding, preserve me from becoming cold and indifferent as these brethren have done.” If we meet with professed Christians who have fallen into drunkenness, and are earnest in pleading with the Lord to rescue them from that horrible ditch, our own souls are made to loathe the sin and to stand upon its watch tower against it. If we perceive that two brethren have disagreed and cannot be brought into a state of peace, if we pray to God that unity may be restored between them, we are led also to ask that we may be of a gentle and quiet spirit, that we may not cause strife, and that if we have caused it at any time we may be prepared to confess the wrong and amend it. Thus the objects of our prayerful solicitude become beacons to us. If you observe others with captious eye, censure them eagerly, and go from house to house to spread the ill-savour industriously, your unhallowed course of action will breed self-righteouness in yourself; but, if you go to the Lord with sorrow about all misdeeds of brethren, and importunately seek the restoration of the erring, you will foster in your own heart tenderness of feeling and watchfulness against sin. Those who supplicate much for others will frequently find on their own lips the prayer, “Search me, O God, and try me, and know my ways, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

I cannot stay to tell you what other excellent things there are wrapped up in this exercise of intercession, but I am persuaded it is both one of the holiest, healthiest, and most heavenly exercises in which a devout man can possibly be occupied.

Do you not think, dear brethren, that if we were each one required upon the spot to give an account of his attention to this excellent duty, we should most of us need to be ashamed? May I venture to put the question to every Christian here, have you rendered to God and his church your fair proportion of intercessory prayer? We have not interceded too much, I am certain, for of this salt it may be said, “salt without prescribing how much.” No man prays too much for his fellowman. Have we prayed enough? I give you space, and make a pause, in which you may put the question. I will give you my own answer. I am clear as to my duty to this church in the matter of preaching, for I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. If I could learn to preach better I would gladly do so. I am conscious of my failures, but I have served you heartily and faithfully before God in this pulpit. But I cannot say so of my intercessions. I have many confessions to make to God of shortcomings in that department, and I am afraid that a great number of my fellow-workers here must plead guilty to the same indictment. You have never missed your class on Sunday afternoon yet, you are always at your work in time, with the Scripture-lesson well studied; that is right, but, dear brother, do you always pray the lesson into your soul? Dear sister, have you made a habit of praying for the girls under your care, one by one, with intense fervour? I do not accuse, but I ask you to look into your own soul, for the fault is not a trivial one, but causes ourselves and the church no little damage. Elders and deacons of this church, are you clear in the matter of intercession? Some men among us may be without blame in this business, but I am afraid that the most of us have attended to other duties far beyond the proportion in which we have attended to this. We have prayed in public at the prayer-meetings, and we have not forgotten supplication for the saints at the family altar, neither, I trust, is it unknown in our private devotions; but, still, if we had prayed for our brethren ten times as much, or even a hundred times as much, we should not have gone too far. We stand up sometimes on the public platform, and we charge the church of God with growing cold; let us ask ourselves the question, have we by our prayers added to her heat? Have we pleaded for her revival? We find fault with the Missionary Societies because such slender results are apparent. Do we pray for missions as we should? I hear a mournful complaint about the present and rising race of preachers: have we interceded for students, and for pastors, as we should? I hear people speak of Christians as either worldly, superficial or proud. Have you prayed them out of their worldliness and pride? May it not be that you would have done far better if you had prayed for them than found fault with them? Ay, and may not the errors you see in them be, in a considerable measure, traceable to the neglect of the office of intercession by yourself?

Oh, let us have done with murmurings and complainings, criticisms and finding fault, and take the whole of it up to the mercy-seat, for if half the breath that is vainly spent in censorious complaints were turned into intercession, there would be much more holiness in the church.

Now, I must come to the text again while I give you another word, that is extent. David says in the text, “Yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities;” and his meaning is this, if any of the saints of God should by their fidelity to his soul displease him, he would nevertheless pray for them. Brethren, we are not to confine our prayers to those who please us in their mode of addressing us, but we are to pray lovingly for those who are too sharp, too harsh, too cutting in their remarks. Suppose they should be so severe as to grieve our spirits, suppose their rebukes appear to be uncalled for, injurious and unjust, we are still bound to pray for them. David, in the text, seems to say that, let the righteous do what they might with him, he would still pray for them in their calamities; and I urge you, my brethren, if there be any member of this church who has treated you unkindly, revenge yourself upon him by loving him ten times more than ever you did, and praying for him more constantly and more earnestly. If some brother has crushed your spirit and wounded you, so that to think of him causes you pain, never mind, the best cure for the wound is to go to God in prayer and pour out your soul for him; ask the Lord to give him a great blessing and to make him a better Christian, to fill him full of divine love; and, then, when you see him improved, you will either come to think that you made a mistake in judging what he said, and took wrongly what he meant to do you good, or else you will find that he will come to you and will say, “I was in the wrong, my brother,” or, if he does not confess that in words, he will by extra kindness to you acknowledge it in his deeds.

And, brethren, if ever we find a fellow-Christian in a calamity, then we are to pray for him doubly. Men of the world leave their companions when they get into trouble, as the herd leave the wounded deer. We have many friends when all goes well, we have very few when the evil days are lowering. But, with Christians it should not be so, we should be faithful friends; we ought to be more kind to those who become poor than we are to others; and, if we meet with a fellow-Christian who has lost his comfort, and is desponding, though his society may not be very pleasant, but may even have a depressing influence upon ourselves, we should pray for him more, and try to lift him out of the Slough of Despond. Especially if a brother in Christ should be slandered we are bound to stand by him. Too many follow the bad habit of getting right out of the way of a man who is traduced. Somebody has thrown a handful of mud at a professed Christian: let us clear the coast, for the mud may light upon us too. So say cowards, but so say not we. No, brother, if you belong to the army of Immanuel, and our persecuted brother has done no wrong, let us stand or fall by him. Let us never desert a comrade. If the world says, “Down with him! down with him! down with him!” we will rush like the old Greek hero to the rescue, and hold our shield over the fallen one, fighting for him till he can get up again; for one of these days we may be down too, and we may want a brother soldier to cover us from the enemy. Let us pray our brethren out of their troubles and not desert them, and if that prayer should be long before it gets an answer, let us persevere in importunity, saying with David, “Yet my prayer shall be in their calamities.”

I shall say no more upon this matter of intercession for the saints, but shall leave it before the eternal throne, and with your own consciences. I beseech you, unless ye be traitors to Christ, if ye be members of the true unity, if your souls are knit together by the Holy Ghost, wrestle much for one another, and do not let the covenant-angel go till a blessing shall come to the whole house of God, and thence flow into the world at large.

Now, secondly, the high office of intercession for sinners. Upon this I shall speak briefly, but, I trust, earnestly. As a church we have a crown, and for many years we have held it; but, I would use the language of Christ, in the Book of the Revelation, when speaking to one of the churches, he says, “Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Now, what has been our crown as a church? It has not been our wealth, for in that we do not excel. It has not been our learning, we do not make any show of it. It has not been our tasteful services, the beauty of our music, and the sweetness of our chanting. No, we do not care about such things, but cultivate simplicity. Our crown has been this one thing, that if there has been a church in Christendom which has given itself to winning souls, this church has done so. Our ministry has aimed always at this, the plucking of the brands from burning, the bringing of sinners out of darkness into marvellous light; and, I do you nothing but simple justice, my brethren, when I say, that by far the larger part of this church is really alive for soul-winning. It does my heart good to meet with divers knots of brethren among you who everywhere about this city are working away unostentatiously but successfully in bringing souls to Christ. I hope it always will be so. Hold fast, O church, what thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Let it always be our joy and glory that God gives us spiritual children, and souls are born to him. Now, if we desire to do this, and I am sure we do, we must look more to intercession for the souls of the unconverted.

Pray first, for this is the most essential thing to do. What can you and I alone do in the conversion of a man? We cannot change his heart: we cannot put life into him-we might as well think to create a soul within the ribs of death. It is God’s work to regenerate souls; What then? if I am to be his instrument in doing it, my very first action must be to fall on my knees and pray, “O God, work with me.” You are going to your Sunday school this afternoon, or you are off to your street preaching; now, if you could do the work, I would not urge you to waste time in asking God to do what you could do alone, but, as you are utterly powerless to win a single soul to Jesus without the Spirit of God, let your first action be to pray, “O power divine, come and clothe me! O tongue of fire, be given to me; and sacred, rushing, mighty wind, come thou forth to breathe life upon dead souls!” Prayer is the most essential thing in turning sinners from the error of their ways.

Then, intercessory prayer will fit you for becoming God’s instrument. If I pray for a person’s conversion, especially if. I single out some individual, then my heart gets warmed into love to that individual; as I think over his position and condition in prayer. Very well, that instructs me, and helps me to deal out the proper word to him when I come near to him. I am like a surgeon, who, coming to a case where he has to use the lancet, knows exactly where every bone is, and also what part has been injured. My prayer has given me a diagnosis of the man’s state. I have looked it through and considered it in my petitions, and when I come practically to work upon him, I shall be wise by the Spirit of God to do the right thing, and in the right way. If we wished to send a man to college to make him a good helper to troubled hearts, we should send him to the college of all-prayer, for intercession is the mode to become wise in winning souls.

And, brethren, prayer will have this effect upon you, that you will go to work hopefully. It is a very horrible thing to think of persons being buried alive, put underground by their friends in their coffins while yet there was breath in their bodies. Let us mind that we never bury a soul alive;-I am afraid we are in the habit of doing it. We judge of such an one that he will never be converted, it is a case where all effort would be useless. We think of another person that he is so abandoned, we may very well give him up and attend to more hopeful cases. In all this we are wrong, since we have no right to sign a soul’s death-warrant, or to say to the grace of God “hitherto canst thou come but no further.” Believe that as long as a man lives in this world there are possibilities of grace for him. Take him in your arms before God in prayer, and when you begin to pray for him you will feel that there is hope, and you will afterwards converse with him in a hopeful and perhaps believing manner. I do not believe a man was ever saved by another one talking to him in a tone of despair, but the cheerful utterance of hopeful love wins its way. Believe that the hard heart may be broken, the blasphemer’s tongue cleansed, the persecutor’s mind changed, and that the rebel may yet obey Christ crucified, and become a bright star in the heaven of God. Dear brethren, I pray you then since the power is of God, and since intercession will make you fit to be used by God, and since also it will give you great hopefulness with regard to those you deal with, exercise yourselves much more than ever in intercessory prayer.

This is a work in which all of you can aid. If I came to you this morning and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s cause requires money,” I know, from long experience, that you would do your best; but there are some who would be compelled to reply, “The necessities of my family do not permit my doing anything in that direction.” But, when we ask for intercession, no Christian can say, “I cannot plead with God.” If I were to press upon you at this moment the want of more public preaching, many of my congregation would be justly excused, for they are slow of speech and without gifts of utterance. But, O brethren and sisters, when it comes to interceding you can all fulfil the office, and by so doing you can have a share in all the great works of the church. I have heard of a holy woman who used to say, “I cannot preach but I can help my minister to do it by my prayers; therefore, whenever I see him come into the pulpit, I will pray that God will bless his word, and so I shall have a share in what he does.” When you hear of a missionary working anywhere abroad pray for him, and then you will become his co-worker. Beloved, some of you are often sickly in body, and during the weary night you get but little sleep,-do you know why the Lord keeps you awake? It is that while others of us are sleeping you may be praying for us. God must have some to keep the night watches; he determines that a guard of prayer shall be set around his church all day and all night long,-you are the sentries of the night-watches. You cannot do anything else, but you can pray, and by praying you can obtain a share in the noblest works of the church.

Now mark, David by implication tells us that some of those we pray for may perhaps not care for our prayers, and they may come into great calamities through their sins; then is our time when we should be yet more earnest in intercession for them. If I have spoken to an ungodly man for many years, and he has ridiculed all I have said, then I will resolve within myself, “I will never leave off praying for him. Perhaps, one of these days I shall find him sick, and then he will ask for the prayers he now rejects. Perhaps, I shall find him with a broken heart, and then the words he now jests at will be very sweet to his taste.” You who seek after souls must know how to keep up the chase: those who are short of breath in soul-winning will never be successful. Follow them up! follow them up! follow them to the gates of the grave. If they are not saved after twenty years of prayer, follow them up to the gates of hell! If they once pass those gates your prayers are unallowable and unavailing, but to the very verge of the infernal pit follow them, follow them with your prayers. If they will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers, for they do not know when you offer them. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them; you can still bless them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear-speak you to him, and he will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good, follow them, follow them, follow them with your prayers; never let them perish for want of your supplications.

The time may come when those who have been longest in yielding their hearts to Christ will repay us a thousand-fold for all the efforts and supplications we may put forth. I have sometimes seen a great sinner, when he is saved, become of as much use as twenty ordinary converts, for in proportion as he was hard to win, he has become useful when won. We do not expect that we shall get Sauls every day made into Pauls, but when it is so, then the church is rich indeed, for one Paul is worth a thousand ordinary believers. These deep sea pearls are precious. These difficult cases may turn out to be Pauls; therefore, be instant in season and out of season, praying for them till they be brought to Christ.

The one thing I want this morning is that my dear brothers and sisters in Christ should pledge themselves to be more importunate in prayer for sinners all around us. Like Abraham, a great city is before us, let us plead for it; like Moses, we dwell among a sinful people, let us stand in the gap for them. I charge every member of this church, by his fealty to God, if indeed he be not a liar in the profession that he has made, to pray importunately for the ungodly, that they may be brought to Jesus. Plead with Jehovah, plead; he loves your prayers; your intercessions are like the sweet incense upon the golden altar. Plead with him, and you shall live to see a reward for your pleadings in the conversion of the sons of men. Go home and make your children the special objects of this afternoon’s cries; implore the Lord to save your husbands or your wives, your kinsfolk, and your nearest neighbours. Implore a blessing upon the seat-holders and hearers of this congregation who remain unregenerate; then take your streets, take the district in which you live, and entreat a gracious visitation-you shall never lack for persons to pray for, therefore, continue in supplication. It was but a few days ago I saw four husbands who were converted to God, but their wives were left outside the church, and those four brethren, probably all here this morning, met together in prayer for their wives’ conversion, and on the first communion Sabbath of last month the four wives were brought in in answer to the prayers of the four husbands. Anything is possible, everything is possible to him that believeth. God help us to believe and to intercede, and then may he send his benediction, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon.-Psalm 141 and 142.