The great folly of awakened sinners lies in looking to themselves. When they are convinced that they are lost, when the law condemns them, when they have the sentence of death ringing with its dolorous knell through their consciences, they nevertheless turn to themselves for help. As well might they search for life within the ribs of death, or dig for light in the drear vaults of outer darkness. First, they try what outward reformation can do, and they are amazed when they discover their own impotence; then they turn their eyes towards their feelings, and either they labour after tears and mental tortures till they grow conceitedly miserable, or else they yield to hopelessness, because they find their heart to be as an adamant stone. They frequently fly to ceremonials, and go far in formalism, but find no peace; and as often they turn to the belief of orthodox doctrines, and seek salvation in mere head knowledge of the word, forgetting that Jesus once said, “Ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; but ye will not come unto me that ye might have eternal life.” In some shape or other, all natural men seek refuge in self, and fly thither again and again and again, though often driven from it. Their so doing is useless and foolish, dishonouring to God and defiling to themselves. If men would but believe the truth, they would know that they can no more save themselves than they can turn evil into good, or hell into heaven! It would be a grand thing done if they could be made to understand that they have abundant power to destroy themselves, but that all their help for salvation lies wholly in Jesus Christ; when they are convinced of this, they will cast themselves upon the Redeemer, and peace and joy would fill their spirits. This is the stern labour which utterly baffles the preacher, it is a work which only the Holy Spirit can accomplish. To wean the sinner from the breasts of self, to rescue him from his proud delusions, to make him see that salvation must come from above, as the pure gift of grace-this, though it appears simple enough, requires a miracle of grace.

God the Holy Spirit generally uses as a cure for this foolish looking to self the exhibition of Christ Jesus. Christ supplants self. Looking unto Jesus puts an end to looking to frames and feelings and workings; and I shall now endeavour to preach Jesus Christ, in the fulness of his perfection as a Saviour, that poor sinners may not look for perfection in themselves, nor search for any fitness or strength in themselves, but may flee away to Jesus, in whom everything requisite for their salvation is so richly provided.

Five thoughts grow out of the text, and the first is this: beloved seeker after peace, believe in the undoubted willingness of Jesus Christ to save. Where do I find this in the text? I find it just below its surface, and here it is. As God, the Lord Jesus is and always was perfect in the most emphatic sense; as man, Christ’s character is also perfect from the first, having in it neither deficiency nor excess; but as Mediator, High Priest, and Saviour, he had to undergo a process to make him perfectly qualified; for the text says, “Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation.” Now, if we find that he was willing to undergo the process which made him completely fit for the office of a Saviour, we may certainly conclude that he is willing enough to exercise the qualifications which he has obtained. Suppose that we have before us a person who is anxious to wait upon the sick. She is a woman of the most excellent character, in all respects faultless, but not yet fitted for a nurse till she shall have walked the hospitals; and to do this she must give up the comforts of home, undertake a world of drudgery, and see much that will cause her pain, for she must herself see and understand what sickness means, or she will be of no use. Now, if this person be willing, for the sake of becoming a nurse, to undergo personal discomfort and physical weariness, to put herself to much self-denial, and to exercise much anxious thought, and if, indeed, all the preparatory process has been already undergone, who doubts her willingness afterwards to exercise the office of a nurse, for which she has taken so much pains to fit herself? Does not the case speak for itself? Then transfer it to the Lord Jesus. He has undergone all that was necessary to make him a complete Saviour, in all points qualified for his work; and none may dare insult him by saying that he is unwilling to exercise his office and save the sons of men.

Remember that what the Son of God underwent to fit him for a Saviour was extremely humiliating and painful. He left the throne for the cross, the adoration of angels for the mockery of menials. He came from yonder bright world, where they need not the light of the sun, to visit those who sit in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. He was so poor that he had not where to lay his head, so despised that even his own received him not, but hid, as it were, their faces from him. He endured death itself in the most cruel circumstances of ignominy and pain. All this was needful ere he could be made perfect as a Priest and a Saviour; but all this he has undergone, and has cried concerning it all, “It is finished.” What are those scars in his hands? What but the tokens of his fitness for his office? What is that gash in his side? What but the warrant that the work is complete, which renders him a perfect Saviour? And will you tell me after this that he declines to save? that he turns a deaf ear to a sinner’s cry? that you have pleaded with him by the month together, and yet have not been answered? that you are willing to come and fling yourself at his feet, but he is unwilling to receive you? Oh, utter not a falsehood at once so groundless, so dishonouring to him, and so defiling to yourself. Jesus must be willing to save, or else he never could have submitted to so painful a preparation in order that he might be installed in his office as Mediator; he would not have toiled so sternly to reach that high position in which he is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him if he had not a hearty goodwill towards sinners, and a readiness to receive them. Trembling sinner, if you conclude that Jesus Christ is not willing to save, you must suppose that he prepared himself deliberately, and with painful cost, to do nothing; for if he do not save men, then he came without an errand, and died without a purpose; for he certainly did not come to condemn them. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” If, then, he do not save that which is lost, he has prepared himself for nothing, has lived in vain, and shed his blood without purpose. If you can thus think of him and of his work, I marvel at your unbelief, and tremble to think how fatally sin has blinded your eyes. Moreover, if you think Jesus unwilling to save, you will have to suppose that, having spent a life in obedience, and endured a death of agony, he has, after all, changed his mind, and renounced the object once so dear to him. You will have to believe that the heart which bled, and even after death poured out both blood and water, has suddenly become petrified; that the eyes which wept over Jerusalem retain no longer any pity for the sons of men, and that he who prayed for his murderers, “Father, forgive them,” has now become stern in spirit, and will have nothing to do with sinners when they seek his mercy. Oh, do not my Lord so great a dishonour as to think thus of him! Lo, he is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever”! Interrogate those scars and see if there be a change in him; look into his face and see if love has departed thence! He is in heaven at this day, ever living to make intercession for sinners; and I ask you would he continue to intercede if he had ceased to love? Would he not throw up the office in disgust if his nature were so transformed that he no longer cared to save the lost? Away with your dishonouring fears. Do you dream that Jesus has saved all he designed to bless, and that the full tale of his redeemed is made up? Do you imagine that the merit of his blood has come to an end, that his power and willingness to forgive have gone clean from him? It cannot be so, for is it not written, “Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”? and that has not been fulfilled yet. It is written “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many,” but as yet the many have not been justified, for the number of the saved is small compared with the multitude that descend to hell. Will not Jesus have the pre-eminence? Will he not redeem unto himself a number that no man can number? When the whole poem of human history has been written, will it not be found to be in honour of grace abounding over sin, Christ victor over Satan, mercy triumphant over wrath? Will not Jesus and his seed outnumber the seed of the serpent? How else would it be true that his bruised heel shall break the serpent’s head? Instead of believing that Jesus has ceased to save, I look for a fuller display of his power, in glad days when nations shall be born at once. The fountain flows on with undiminished stream: O sinner, drink and live. You must not imagine, poor, trembling sinner, that the dear Redeemer has undergone all his agonies to prepare him to save men, and yet is unwilling to perform his sacred office; such a wicked fancy will be ruinous to your soul, and grievous to his Spirit. Oh, that you would go and try him, and you would find him ready to save you.

The second thought will bring us nearer to the text. Consider, I pray you, in the second place, the perfect fitness of the Saviour for his work. We will view the fitness both Godward and manward.

View it Godward. Sinner, if any one is to deal with God for you so as to avail on your behalf, he must be one of God’s choosing, for “no man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that was called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.” Christ was ordained of God from all eternity to stand as the representative of his people before the throne. “It pleased the Father to bruise him.” “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He from old eternity was set apart to be the High Priest and the Redeemer of his people. Can you not in this see grounds for resting upon him? What God appoints it must be safe for us to accept.

In order that Jesus Christ, being appointed, should be fit for his office, it was necessary that he should become man. Man had sinned, and man must make reparation to the broken law. God would not accept an angel as a substitute, for the law had to do with man, and as the race had revolted, it must be through one of the race that God’s justice should be vindicated. But Jesus was God: how then could he become our Saviour? Behold the mystery! God was manifest in the flesh. He descended to the manger of Bethlehem, he nestled in a woman’s bosom; for as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he himself also took part in the same. Sinner, behold your incarnate God, the Eternal one, dwells among dying men, veiled in their mortal flesh, that he may save men. This is the greatest fact ever related in human ears. We hear it as a common thing, but the angels have never ceased to wonder since first they sang of it and charmed the listening shepherds. God has come down to man to lift man up to God. Surely it is the sin of sins if we reject a Saviour who has made such a stoop in order to be perfectly qualified to save.

“Being found in fashion as a man,” it was necessary towards God that Jesus should fulfil the law, and work out a perfect obedience. The obedience of an angel would not have met the case: it was from man that obedience was required, and a man must render it. Behold, then, this second Adam, this new head of our race, rendering to God the complete obedience which the law demanded, loving God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself. From the time when he said to his mother, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” till the time when he exultingly cried “It is finished,” he was in all things the obedient servant of the great Father, and now his righteousness stands for us, and we are “accepted in the Beloved.” The High Priest who is to intercede for us must wear upon his forehead “Holiness unto the Lord”; and truly such a High Priest we have, for Jesus is “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”

Nor was this all towards God. The High Priest who should save us must be able to offer a sufficient sacrifice, efficacious to make atonement, so as to vindicate eternal justice and make an end of sin. Oh, hear ye this, ye sinners, and let it ring like music in your ears: Jesus Christ has not offered the blood of bullocks nor of goats, but he has presented his own blood upon the altar. “He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” “This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” The blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin, but the blood of the Son of God has infinite efficacy, and for every one for whom the great surety died, all sin was put away, since he bore its penalty; the law could ask no more. Pitiful, indeed, is the man’s case who has no interest in the atoning sacrifice; his sin lies heavy upon him and wrath hangs over him. Wretched is the sinner who, being conscious of his guilt, and being bidden to believe in Jesus, yet continues to look to himself, and so does dishonour to this sacrifice, so precious in the sight of the Lord. The blood of Jesus speaks better things than that of Abel, and woe to the man who despises its gracious cry.

“How they deserve the deepest hell,

That slight the joys above!

What chains of vengeance must they feel,

Who break such cords of love.”

Godward, then, Christ became perfect as our Saviour, and when he had finished his work, the Lord certified the completion and acceptance of it, by raising him from the dead, and giving him a place at his own right hand. He who, as judge, was offended by our sin, is now well pleased in his Son, and has established a covenant of peace with us for his sake. Is God satisfied with Jesus, and are you dissatisfied? Is infinite justice content, and do your doubts and fears prevent your being reconciled? Do you stand by and say that Jesus cannot save you, when God’s word declares that he is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him? Do you set up your prejudices and unbeliefs, under the pretence of humility, in opposition to the declaration of God, who cannot lie? The Lord declares his approbation of his dear Son; why, then, do you cavil? God forbid that you should indulge in such a sin any longer. Rather end your opposition, and where God finds rest, there find rest yourself; if the Lord be content to save those who obey Jesus, be you obedient by the help of God’s blessed Spirit.

But, beloved, I have said that Christ Jesus, as our High Priest, needed to be perfected manward. O sinner, consider his perfections as they concern yourself. That he might save us he must have power to pardon, and to renew our hearts; these he has to the full, for all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth; he both gives repentance and remission. But, alas, we are afraid of him; we shrink from approaching him, and therefore to make him a perfect Saviour he must be tender of heart, willing to come to us when we cannot come to him, compassionate to our ignorance, and ready to help our infirmities. It needs one who can stoop to bind up gaping wounds which cannot heal themselves, one who does not mind touching the leper, or bending over the fever-stricken, or going to the grave where corruption pollutes the air; one who does not ask the leper to make himself clean first, but comes into contact with him in all his foulness and abomination, and saves him. Now, brethren, Jesus bids us come to him because he is meek and lowly in heart; it is said of him, “This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.” He was called “A friend of publicans and sinners.” His name is love, and his heart is pity.

To make tenderness practical a man must not only have a gentle nature, but he must have undergone the sufferings which he pities, so as to sympathise with them. We may try, dear friends, to sympathise with persons in certain afflictions, but the attempt does not succeed unless we have trodden in the same paths. Now, sinner, have you a broken heart? So had Christ, for he said, “Reproach hath broken mine heart.” Are you trembling under divine anger? He also cried, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” What burden do you bear? His load was far heavier than yours. Are you wounded? He was nailed to the tree! Do you feel exceeding sorrowful, even unto death? So did he, until the bloody sweat stood on his brow. He is a brotherly Saviour, well trained in sorrow’s school, deeply versed in the science of consolation. Jesus knows the ins and outs of our nature, he knows what is in man. Now, this is a grand qualification. If you go to a physician, and yours is a very peculiar case, you are doubtful as to his skill; but when he shows that he knows all about you by describing the symptoms exactly as they occur, and adds, “I was once afflicted with this same sickness myself,” you say to yourself, “This man will suit me.” Just so is it with Jesus:-

“He knows what fierce temptations mean,

For he has felt the same.”

So far as it is possible for a sinless one to do so, he sympathises with the whole of your condition; he knows the struggles within, the fears, the bitter tears, the groanings which cannot be uttered; he knows every jot and tittle of your experience, and is, therefore, eminently qualified to cope with your case. If you were on board a vessel, and had lost your bearings, you would be glad enough to see a pilot in the offing. Here he is on board, and you say, “Pilot, do you know where we are?” “Yes,” says he, “of course I do. I can tell you within a yard.” “It is well, Mr. Pilot, but can you bring us to the port we want to make?” “Certainly,” says he. “Do you know the coast?” “Coast, sir! I know every bit of headland, and rock, and quicksand, as well as I know the cut of my face in a looking-glass. I have passed over every inch of it in all tides and all weathers. I am a child at home here.” “But, pilot, do you know that treacherous shoal?” “Yes, and I remember almost running aground upon it once, but we escaped just in time. I know all those sands as well as if they were my own children.” You feel perfectly safe in such hands. Such is the qualification of Christ to pilot sinners to heaven. There is not a bay, or a creek, or a rock, or a sand between the Maelstrom of hell and the Fair Havens of heaven but what Christ has sounded all the deeps and the shallows, measured the force of the current, and seen the set of the stream; he knows how to steer so as to bring the ship right away by the best course into the heavenly harbour.

There is one delightful thing in Christ’s perfect qualification to save, namely, that he “ever liveth to make intercession for us.” If Jesus Christ were dead and had left us the boon of salvation that we might freely help ourselves to it, we should have much to praise him for; but he is not dead, he is alive. He left us a legacy, but many a legacy is left which never gets to the legatee: lo, the great maker of the will is alive to carry out his own intentions. He died, and so made the legacy good; he rose again and lives to see that none shall rob any one of his beloved of the portion he has left. What think you of Christ pleading in heaven? Have you ever estimated the power of that plea? He is day and night pleading for all them that obey him, pleading for sinners, pleading with God that pardon may be given to the greatest of offenders. And does he plead in vain? Is he unacceptable with the Father? It cannot be imagined. Wherefore, then, O sinner, do you continue to look to yourself? How much wiser would it be for you to turn your eyes to your Lord. You say, “I am not perfect.” Why do you want to be? The perfection is in him. “But, alas, I am not this and I am not that.” What has that to do with it? Jesus is all that is wanted. If you were to be your own saviour you would be in a bad case indeed, for you are all faults and failings; but if he is the Saviour why do you talk about what you are? He is fully equipped for the work; he never asked your help, it is an insult to suppose that he wants it. What if you be dead in sin, ay, and rotten in vice and corruption? he is able to raise you from the dead, and to make you sit at his own right hand in the heavenly places, for he is perfect as a Saviour, and is able to save to the uttermost.

The third point is this, I want you to notice the high position which our lord jesus takes in reference to salvation. According to the text, “he became the author of eternal salvation.” He is the designer, creator, worker, and cause of salvation. By him salvation has been accomplished: “His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory;” “He hath trodden the wine press alone, and of the people there was none with him.” He is the author of salvation in this sense, that every blessing comes through him. All the various departments of salvation, whether they be election, calling, justification, or sanctification, all bless us through him, according as the Father hath chosen us in him from before the foundation of the world. In him we are called, in him preserved, in him accepted; all grace flows from him. Christ is all, and in all. Salvation within us is all his work. He sought us as well as bought us. His Spirit gives us the first sense of sin, and leads us to faith; he himself draws us to himself. His name is Jesus, for he saves his people from their sins.

Let me compare salvation to a book, of which Jesus is the sole author. No one has contributed a line or a thought thereto. He has never asked any human mind to write a preface to his work, the first word is from his pen. Some of you are trying to preface Christ’s work, but your toil is fruitless, he will never bind up your wretched introduction with his golden lines of love. Come to him without a preface, just as you are, steeped up to the throat in the foulness of sin, begrimed with the slime of Sodom. Come to him without previous preparation, and lay your heart’s tablets before him that he may write thereon. He is an author so skilful that none have ever discovered the smallest errata in his work, for there are no mistakes, and no amendments are ever needed. When he saves he saves completely. He does not ask us to revise and perfect his writing, it is perfected by his own hand. He is an author to whose writing there are no addenda, it is finished, and he is accursed who shall add a line. We have to take the finished salvation and rejoice in it, but add to it we never may. Christ is an author who wants no man’s imprimatur, he himself has dignity and authority enough to make his work illustrious without the patronage of man. Christ is the author of salvation. What you have to do, sinner, is to take it; not preface it, improve it, or add to it, but to take it just as it is. There it is for you, it is to be had for the taking; hold out your trembling hand and receive it: bring your empty cup and hold it under the divine fountain, and let it be filled. Faith to accept it is all that is required. Why is it that you delay? You want to make yourself better before you believe in Jesus; that is to say, you want to be the author of salvation, and so to elbow Christ out of his place. “Oh,” but you will say, “I cannot pray as I want.” If you could pray as you ought would Christ then be able to save you? He wants your prayers to help him, does he? “Oh, but I do not feel as I ought.” Your feelings are to help Christ, are they? “Oh, but I want to be different.” And if you were different then Christ would be able to save, but as you now are he cannot save you? Do you mean that? Do you dare to say that he cannot forgive you this very moment, while the word is coming out of my mouth? Do you mean that this very instant, just as you are, a sinful, and all but damned sinner, that he cannot forgive you now, if you trust him? If you do so mean, you are deceived, for he is able now to save you. Having been made perfect, he is the author of eternal salvation to every one that obeys him, and he is able at this moment to speak peace to the conscience of any one and every one who now obeys him. God grant you grace to catch the thought which I try to make plain, but which only the Spirit of God can lead you to understand.

My next thought is this. Dwell for a few minutes in devout meditation upon the remarkable character of the salvation which Christ has wrought out. He is the author of eternal salvation. Oh, how I love that word “eternal!” “Eternal salvation!” When the Jewish high priest had offered a sacrifice, the worshipper went home satisfied, for the blood was sprinkled and the offering accepted: but in a short time he sinned again, and he had to bring another sacrifice. Once a year, when the high priest entered within the veil and came out and pronounced a blessing on the people, all Israel went home glad; but next year there must be the same remembrance of sin, and the same sprinkling with blood, for the blood of bulls and of goats could not really put away sin, it was only a type. How blessed is the truth that our Lord Jesus will not need to bring another sacrifice at any time, for he has obtained eternal salvation through his one offering.

It is an eternal salvation as opposed to every other kind of deliverance. There are salvations spoken of in the Bible, which are transient, for they only deal with temporal trouble and passing distress, but he who is once taken out of the horrible pit of unforgiven sin by the hand of Christ will never lie in that horrible place again. Being raised from the dead, we die no more. We are effectually delivered from the dominion of sin when Jesus Christ comes forth to save us.

It is eternal salvation in this sense, that it rescues us from eternal condemnation and everlasting punishment. Glory be to God, everlasting punishment shall never fall on the believer, for everlasting salvation puts it far away.

It is eternal salvation as opposed to the risk of falling away and perishing. Some of our brethren seem very pleased with a salvation of a temporary character, whose continuance depends upon their own behaviour. I do not envy them, and shall not try to rob them of their treasure, for I would not have their salvation if they were to press me ever so much. I am a great deal more satisfied to have eternal salvation, a salvation based upon a finished work, carried on by divine power, and undertaken by an unchangeable Saviour. Oh, but I hear some say, you may have eternal life to-day, and lose it to-morrow. What do words mean? How can that life be eternal which you can lose? Why, then the life could not have been eternal. Your doctrine is a solecism in language, a contradiction in terms. “He that believeth in him hath everlasting life.” “I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” “Because I live ye shall live also.” Sinner, if you believe in Jesus, he will not save you to-day and let you perish to-morrow, he will give you eternal salvation, which neither death nor hell, nor time, nor eternity shall ever destroy, for “who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” The man who believes in Jesus is not as happy, but he is as safe from final condemnation as if he were in heaven.

“His honour is engaged to save

The meanest of his sheep;

All that his heavenly Father gave

His hands securely keep.

“Nor death nor hell shall ere remove

His favourites from his breast;

In the dear bosom of his love

They must for ever rest.”

If this doctrine be not taught in Scripture nothing is taught there at all, and words have no meaning. On the very forefront of Scripture is written, “He that believeth shall be saved.” God grant us grace to realise that promise.

When the text says “eternal salvation” it means that it will ripen into eternal bliss. You are saved from eternal misery, you are preserved by eternal life from falling back upon your old life, and you shall be brought to eternal bliss. Whosoever Christ saves shall see the face of God with joy for ever, as surely as he is born. Christ was made perfect on purpose that he might be the author of eternal salvation.

The last thought is the persons concerned in this salvation. “To all them that obey him.” The word “obey” here, according to Dr. Owen’s admirable translation, signifies obedience upon hearing,” and he very rightly says that this indicates faith. To obey Christ is in its very essence to trust him, or believe in him; and we might read our text as if it said, “The author of eternal salvation to all them that believe in him.” If you would be saved your first act of obedience must be to trust Jesus wholly, simply, heartily, and alone. Recline your soul wholly on Jesus and you are saved now. Is that all? Certainly, that is all! But it says “obey”? Precisely so; and do you not know that every man who trusts Christ obeys him. I gave just now the illustration of a pilot. The pilot comes on board and says, “If I am to steer you into harbour you must trust me with the command of the vessel.” That is done and he gives orders, “Reef that sail!” Suppose the captain says to the sailor, “Leave that sail alone, I tell you!” is it not clear that he does not trust the pilot? If he trusted him he would have his orders carried out. Suppose the pilot cries out to the engineer, “Ease her!” and the captain countermands the order, the pilot is evidently not trusted, and if the vessel runs ashore it will be no fault of his. So is it with regard to our Lord. The moment you put yourself into his hands you must obey him, or you have not trusted him. To change the figure; the doctor feels your pulse. “I will send you some medicine,” says he, “that will be very useful, and besides that, you must take a warm bath.” He comes the next day; you say to him, “Doctor, I thought you were going to heal me, I am not a bit better.” “Why,” said he, “you do not trust me.” “I do, sir; I am sure I have every faith in you.” “No,” says he, “you do not believe in me, for there is that bottle of medicine untouched, you have not taken a drop of it. Have you had the bath?” “No, sir.” “Well, you are making a fool of me; the fact is I shall not come again. You do not believe in me. I am no physician to you.” Every man who believes Christ obeys him; believing and obeying always run side by side. Do you not know that Christ does not come merely to blot out the past, he comes to save us from being what we are, to save us from a bad temper, from a proud eye, from a wanton look, from a corrupt heart, from covetous desires, from a rebellious will, and an indolent spirit. Now this cannot be done unless we obey, for if we are to continue to live in sin, salvation is a mere word, and to boast of it would be ridiculous. How can we be saved from sin if we are living in sin? A man says, “Christ saves me, and yet I get drunk.” Sir, you lie. How can you be saved from drunkenness when you are living in drunkenness? “But Christ saves me,” says another, “although I am worldly and gay and frivolous.” How saves you? Man alive! Do you tell me the doctor has healed you of the leprosy while yet it is white on your brow? How can you say he has healed you of ague while you are even now shivering with it. Surely you do not know what you are talking about. Christ comes to save us from living as we once did; he comes to make new men of us; to give us new hearts and right spirits; and when he does this he will not let us go back to our old sins again, but leads us onward in the path of holiness.

Mark well that every man who obeys Christ shall be saved, whatever his past life may have been. Every one of you, whatever your present condition may be, shall be saved if you obey the Redeemer, for “he is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.” But mark, not to one more; no soul that refuses to obey Christ shall have any part or lot in this matter. Men may make what professions they please, but they shall never gain eternal salvation unless they obey Jesus. Those gates which open to let in the obedient close fast to shut out the unbelieving and disobedient. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life.” The extent of God’s love to the world is this-that he loves it so as to save all who believe in Jesus; but he will never save a soul which dies unbelieving and disobedient. If you reject Christ, you shut in your own face the only door of hope, “for he that believeth not is condemned already.”

I am sometimes confronted with this statement-that faith is the gift of God, and is wrought in man by the power of the Spirit of God, and therefore I have no business to command and entreat men to believe. I am not slow to answer my opposers; for in my inward soul I know that saving faith always is the gift of God, and is in every case the work of the Holy Spirit; but I am not yet an idiot, and therefore I also know that faith is the act of man. The Holy Ghost does not believe for us. What has he to believe? The Holy Ghost does not repent for us. What has he to repent of? You must yourself believe, and it must be your own personal act, or you will never be saved! I charge you before God, do not let the grand truth that faith is the gift of God ever lead you to forget that you never will be saved except you personally believe in Jesus. If thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ thou shalt be saved, for here is the gospel, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved”; and here is the solemn penalty appended to it, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”

Sinner, there was never such a Saviour as Christ is. He is the very Saviour for you; he is both willing and able to save, and knows how to do it. He has promised to save all that trust him. Go and try him, and if this morning you shall trust him and he repels you, come and tell me, and I will leave off preaching. When I find my Master casts out those that come to him, I will put my shutters up, and have done with the business of the gospel. I can only speak as I find. I went to him trembling and dismayed, and I thought he would never receive me; but I received as my welcome “Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without?” He washed me from my sins in the selfsame hour, and sent me on my way rejoicing; and here I have been these three-and-twenty years preaching free grace and dying love, and never have I yet lighted upon a sinner whom Jesus has cast out; and when I do meet with such a case, I must have done preaching for very shame. I am not afraid, however; for such a case shall never be heard of in this world. No, nor in the infernal deep does there lie a single soul condemned for sin who would dare to say, “I sought the Lord and he would not hear me, I trusted in Christ and he would not save me, I pleaded the promise but it was not fulfilled.” No, it shall never be; while God is true no believer shall perish. Here is the promise, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” Happy is the preacher who has such a gospel to preach as I have preached to you, but I cannot make you receive it. I can bring the horse to the water, but I cannot make him drink. God must do this. Oh, that he may lead you to receive eternal salvation by Jesus Christ, to the glory of his name. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Hebrews 5, 7.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-327, 468, 395.

“I THOUGHT”

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, May 17th, 1874, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“I thought.”-2 Kings 5:11.

“Our great object in preaching to-day will be the conversion of sinners. There is a great deal else to be done, saints want building up, comforting, and quickening; but while myriads of men remain careless until they are swept away into perdition, it becomes us to bend our main strength to the most needful work of winning souls for Jesus. Therefore, again this morning I shall leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which has gone astray, pleading earnestly with God that he will bless my pleading with men, so that while I discourse with them concerning their folly in rejecting the Saviour, his Spirit may discourse with them also, and lead them to flee to Jesus for eternal life.”

At the outset, however, we will have a few words for believers. Preconceptions of what ought to be the Lord’s mode of action are very injurious, even to those who have true faith in God, and yet they are very frequently indulged. We map out beforehand the path of providence and the method of mercy, forgetting that the Lord’s way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known. When the Lord does not choose to act according to our notions we start back and cry half indignantly, “I thought he would surely act otherwise.”

This folly is seen in believers sometimes in reference to their way to heaven. They are like the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. There is a straight road to Canaan, why are they not allowed to take it? Instead of a direct march onward they are led round about with ever varying experience. Their course is by turns progressive, retrograde, and standing still; to the right and to the left, forward and retreat. Does not providence often perplex you, and run counter not only to your wishes, but to your deliberate judgment? That which for many reasons seems to be the best does not happen to you, while that which appears to be distressingly injurious overtakes you. Your forecastings do not come true, your day-dreams are not realised, your schemes for life are not carried out. You cannot understand why you are thus baffled. Why is it that you are kept in poverty when you could have made such good use of riches? How is it you are laid aside just when you could have been most useful? Why have talents been denied to you when you feel you would have used them with such diligence and fidelity? How is it that others who trifle away life are endowed with ten talents while you who are industrious and zealous have scarcely one? You have ventured to propose such inquiries, but you have not been able to answer them; it is as well that you should not, for our business is not the solution of problems, but the performance of precepts. Let us cease from our own wisdom, and leave all arrangements in the hand of our heavenly Father: our thoughts are vanity, his thoughts are precious.

The like fault will arise in connection with our prayers. We pray believingly, and an answer comes, for believing prayer never fails, but the answer comes in an unexpected fashion and not at all as we thought. We prayed God to bless our family, and, lo, our wife is taken away, or our child sickens. We besought the Lord to make us more spiritual, and he has sent a severe affliction to grieve us.

“I asked the Lord that I might grow

In faith, and love, and ev’ry grace;

Might more of his salvation know,

And seek more earnestly his face.

“I hoped that in some favour’d hour

At once he’d answer my request,

And by his love’s constraining power

Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

“Instead of this, he made me feel

The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry powers of hell

Assault my soul in ev’ry part.

“Yea, more, with his own hand he seemed

Intent to aggravate my woe;

Cross’d all the fair designs I schemed,

Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

“ ‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried;

‘Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?’

‘’Tis in this way,’ the Lord replied,

‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.’ ”

“I thought,” say you, “but oh, how different from my thoughts!” Yes, but how much better than your thoughts! You shall find that the Lord is doing for you exceeding abundantly above all that you asked or even thought. God is enriching you by your poverty, he is healing you by your sickness, and drawing you nearer to himself by driving you further away from creature confidence. Often and often we fail to see God’s gracious answers to prayer because we make up our minds as to the way in which they will come. We refuse letters from heaven because they are sent in black-bordered envelopes. We thought the Lord would send us bread and meat by angels, and instead thereof he sends it by ravens. When we see the Lord’s hand in unexpected ways, we are apt to say, half in disappointment, “I thought it would have been otherwise.”

Perhaps we have carried these preconceptions of ours still further; for we have actually thought beforehand that God would not bless us at all. He has been graciously designing our good by affliction, and we have written bitter things both against him and against ourselves, for we have thought that he had utterly forsaken us, and given our lives for a prey. We have cried with Jacob, “Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.” When the good old patriarch stood up in the chariot and felt Joseph’s warm kiss upon his cheek, he might have said, “I thought that all things were against me, but now I see that I misjudged my God. He sent my Joseph here to provide for me and for my household in the days of famine; and he fetched my Simeon and my Benjamin away, that it might be all the more easy for me to come down to the place where my sons had been before me. The Lord has dealt well with his servant, but I thought not so.” Dear brethren, leave off these forecastings, for blind unbelief is sure to err: the trade of a prophet does not suit many of God’s servants. We reach down the telescope, for we are curious to peer into the future, and having breathed upon the glass with anxious breath, we cry out in dismay, “I see nothing but clouds and darkness before me.” Yet our pictures of the dreadful future dissolve into the realities of boundless goodness: as we see goodness and mercy following us all the days of our lives, we blush for our unbelief, for we had said in our heart, “I shall one day perish by the enemy’s hand.” May God save us from that cruel “I thought,” which torments us and belies our God.

On the other hand, we sometimes make flattering forecasts of the future which are equally untrue. “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.” That was David’s thought. Everybody else might be tossed to and fro, but he would be calm and confident. No doubt others might be in trouble and in doubt, but his faith was so firm and his position so well established that he feared no change or commotion. He was too strong to tremble at the assaults from which others fled away discomfited. Now listen to the sequel: “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” Like any other man, he feared, and his firm mountain turned out to be only a rolling cloud which fled before the blast. The man who was so brave asked for the wings of a dove wherewith to take his flight. Beloved, we must give up this prophesying of our own greatness, for it is a mere bag of wind. It is the very worst form of judging what is to be and what ought to be. Things are in better hands than ours; we have enough to do to obey the Lord’s commands without setting up to be managers of providence. Let him plan and let us trust. Walk as in his sight, resigned to his will, and you shall rejoice all your days; but if you begin to map out a course for yourselves, to be your own guides and providers, your way will be both rough and dangerous, and your heart will be wounded with many sorrows. So far, then, I have read a lesson to believers. I must now turn to the unconverted, and in so doing I ask every Christian man’s prayer that a blessing may attend my words.

Preconceived notions of the way of salvation are great hindrances to the very existence of faith in the minds of the unconverted. It is our business from Sabbath to Sabbath, yea, every day, to tell the sinner that “he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” As clearly as words can put it, we repeat it ten thousand times-that to trust in Jesus is the only way of salvation, for Jesus has offered a great and acceptable atonement before God for the sins of men, and whoever will come to him and rest upon his atonement hath eternal life. We are met at once with opposition, and men turn upon their heel and reject our message, because it is not what they thought it would be. To wash in Jordan and be clean is not according to their notion, for they expected some more difficult, mysterious, and showy way of salvation. “Behold, I thought,” say they, and they go their way, either in a rage, or else in utter carelessness. Come, friend, let me get you by the button-hole and talk with you upon this matter, and may the Lord make both of us wise.

First, how could you expect to find out the, way of salvation by your own thoughts? There are a great many things which men can discover, and the inventiveness of the human mind about earthly things appears to have scarcely any limit; but, with regard to heavenly things, the natural man has not the faculty of discerning, and never did make a discovery yet, and never will. Whatever is known of God is made known by God. Upon the face of nature the existence of God is written, but we look in vain for any indication of a plan of salvation. Jesus alone is the Saviour: how can you imagine that his way of saving can be known to men except as he has revealed it? I will ask you a question. Suppose you were sick of a mysterious and fatal disorder, and a skilful physician was recommended to you, would you expect to foresee that physician’s mode of action? Would you go to him and then hesitate to accept his advice because it was contrary to what you had supposed it would be? If so, I can only say that you must be very foolish to go to a physician at all. Why not heal yourself? Your case is complicated, and here is a surgeon who, by long experience and wonderful skill, has acquired power to deal with your disorder. Do you insist upon it that he shall only operate as you approve? Is he to use knife and lancet, and band and splint, at your dictation? If so, you had better dispense with him, and call in a nurse who has never studied the art, but is quite able to do your bidding, for you are surgeon to yourself. Unconverted friend, your case is one in which you cannot help yourself, and none but Jesus can save you. How can you expect to invent for yourself a plan of salvation? You are bidden to become Christ’s disciple-do you expect to know more than your Master? Are you to teach him, or is he to teach you?

If you could discover the way to heaven for yourself, why has the Lord given you the Bible? That inspired volume is a superfluity if your thoughts are to appoint the way of salvation. And what need is there of the Holy Ghost to reveal truth and lead us into it, if, after all, our thoughts are to be the rule? Oh, sirs, your arrogance-for I dare not call it less-makes you claim to be equal to the Physician of souls, to be beyond the need of revelation, and superior to the assistance of the Holy Ghost. Retract, I pray you, and leave a position which involves such blasphemies.

I will ask every awakened sinner here who has been settling in his thoughts what the plan of salvation ought to be, what peace his thoughts have brought to him? How far have your inventions brought you? They have led you to physicians of no value; they have caused you to spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not. You have leaned upon reeds, and trusted in shadows. Kindling a fire with your own fuel, you have for a moment rejoiced in the sparks thereof, but ere long you have had to lie down in sorrow. I have passed through your state of mind. I tried full many an invention, but upon them all was written, “Vanity of vanities.” Self was at the bottom of all; in some form or other I looked to self, and I looked in vain. I was like a man in a bog, who the more he struggles the more he sinks; or like a prisoner upon the treadmill, who rises no higher, but only wearies himself by his climbing. No good can result from efforts made apart from faith in Jesus. However earnest and sincere we may be, we must fail in our search if we do not seek in God’s way. Would it not be wise after so many bitter disappointments to leave your own inventions? If they have done you no good, depend upon it they never will. You had better humble yourself as a little child, and learn from God what the plan of salvation is, and then obediently accept it. Come, poor soul, in humble obedience, read the sacred roll of inspiration, and say, “O Lord, show me what thou wouldst have me to do;” then will light break in upon you, and peace shall follow. Faith in Jesus is God’s way; it will be the height of folly to set up a method of your own in competition therewith.

Let me now ask you a second question, or series of questions. Should the plan of salvation be arranged according to your will and Judgment? You are a sinner and want pardon, your nature is depraved, and needs renewing: should the plan of forgiving and regenerating you be shaped to please your tastes and whims? Should the great Lord of mercy wait upon you, and consult you as to how he shall work out your salvation? As a reasonable man I beg you to tell me, has not the Lord an absolute right to dispense his favours as he pleases? Shall he not do as he wills with his own? You yourself perhaps are a man of generous spirit, and you relieve the poor; but suppose a poor man should dictate to you how he should be helped, and in what shape you should bestow your charity, would you listen to him for a moment? “No,” you would say, “I am not bound to give you anything. If I give, I give freely, but I am not going to be bound by rules which you may choose to make.” Beggars must not be choosers. Now, you, O unsaved one, are a beggar needing alms of God. Do you intend to dictate to the Most High how and in what manner he shall give his salvation to you? Act not so foolishly; as a reasonable man renounce such an idea.

But I claim for God not only that he has a sovereign right to make his own plan of salvation, but that, he is infinitely wiser than you are Had he left it to you to devise a scheme of mercy, it would have been most unfortunate for you. God knows more about man than man knows about himself; and the great designs of God are much more far-reaching than the expectations or desires of man, even when he is most desirous to be blessed. I do not hesitate to say that the most intelligent Christian would have been content with far less than God is accustomed to give, and that if the arrangements of divine grace had been left to us, they would have borne but very stunted proportions compared with the present dimensions of the plan of divine grace. Surely it is best to leave it with God, who will surpass all that we could desire or devise. Why should you be thinking out a way to be saved when the mind of God, which is infinite as well in love as in wisdom, has already arranged a scheme so much superior?

Furthermore, do you not think that, if the plan of mercy were left to your choosing, you would become very self-conceited? If you had the sketching or the system of salvation, and it were well done and fully accomplished, you would say, “My methods were admirable! Am I not wise? Did I not arrange it well?” You would be proud as Lucifer, and when you got to heaven, saved on your own system, you would have ground for glorying, and many a note upon those golden harps would be dedicated to the glory of your own skill, and few enough would be consecrated to your Redeemer. Now, an arrangement which would increase our self-conceit would be fatal to salvation, for self-conceit is a part of the sin from which we need to be saved. Salvation is the destruction of sin, but a system which would foster self-conceit and self-confidence is evidently unadapted to the end in view. Therefore, since your own plan could not save you, bow your hearts to the method of divine grace, and live.

Moreover, consider, O man, you who desire to sketch for yourself the road to heaven; do you not see how you derogate from the glory of God? Did the Lord ask your judgment when he made the heavens? when he digged the channels of the deep? when he poured out the water-floods? when he balanced the clouds? when he set the stars in their places? With whom took he counsel? who instructed him? Who was with him to stretch the line or hold the plummet? He himself, in the old creation, made all things by his infinite wisdom; think you that he needs your aid in the new? In the work of redemption, did he ask your help or take your counsel when he made the covenant of grace and fixed it by firm decree? Did you stand in the wine-press, side by side with the Redeemer, in the day when his garments were red with blood? Have you contributed to the ransom price wherewith he redeemed his people from going down into the pit? Creation and redemption have been hitherto works of God alone, and has the Lord now a need of you? Has he called you into his counsels, that you may guide him as to the application of redemption? Dare you pluck Jehovah by the sleeve and tell him what he ought to do in order to save a guilty worm like you? Must he needs ask you how he shall deal with you? O man, it will not do, the supposition cannot be endured. You must leave the Lord to save you as he wills, and as his plan is that of simple faith, it is wickedness to set up another. Renounce your proud conceit; as you would be saved, renounce it, and humbly come and say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” Here is his message of life to your souls: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

Now, if you have determined what the plan of salvation ought to be, I ask you, next, by what rule are you able to preconceive that plan? You refuse to be told what that plan really is, because you think you know beforehand. Now by what rule have you judged? I will tell you in one word. The most of sinners conceive the plan of salvation to be what they wish it to be. They thought; but their wish is father to their thought. Naaman with his chariots and his horses wanted the obsequious homage of the prophet, and therefore he thought, “Surely he will come out to me.” Men love to be flattered, they want a plan of salvation which will gratify their self-esteem, and enable them to show what dignity there is in human nature. They think that man should be treated like an emperor in disguise, and mercy should be bestowed on him as if it were a reward for merit. As they wish it to be, so they believe it is. Gentlemen of the modern thought school think out what God ought to be, like the German who evolved a camel out of his own consciousness, and was very disgusted when he found that it had a hump. They make a god as they imagine he ought to be, and deify the creature of their addled brains, and then turn to the Bible for passages which may be twisted to support their ideas: instead of coming to the Book to learn what is in it, and accepting its every teaching as truth, they bring their notions to the Bible and try to mould it to their views. In this spirit men believe the road to heaven to be what they wish it to be, but it is not so.

But you assure me that you have conceived the way of salvation according to your understanding. Well, then, you have conceived it wrongly to a certainty, for what is your understanding compared with the understanding of God? A little child has asked favour of his father, his father knows it to be difficult to grant it, but he has, at great expense and skill, arranged it; and, now, is the way in which it is to be accomplished to be according to the child’s understanding? No, I say, it must be according to the father’s understanding, for that is more able to lead the way; and beside, the father is the benefactor. In your case, is your understanding to be the guide, or God’s? I will suppose you to be a person of considerable education, far above the common level, but yet I would have you remember that “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are God’s thoughts above your thoughts, and his ways above your ways.” Wherefore, then, should you wish to measure the dealings of the Most High by so short a line as your own? Have done with this folly!

“Well,” say you, “but I have received my ideas from my parents.” Well, then, who were your parents? for that is a very great point in such a case. Who were they, and were they saved? Suppose your parents were lost, is that a reason why you should be? Nobody here who has a blind father would consider it his duty to put his eyes out by way of honouring his parents. If a man were born of a crippled parent, and God blessed him with all his limbs and faculties, he would not consider himself obliged to limp, or use a crutch, or twist his foot. We have an old proverb that if a man were born in a stable he need not be a horse; nor should a man be of a false religion because of his family connections. If our parents were mistaken, that is no reason why we should be. We regret it for their sakes; but with the word of God in our hands we do not intend to follow them any further than they were led by God. A certain heathen warrior was about to profess to be a Christian. Standing with one leg in the waters of baptism, he turned to the missionary and inquired, “Where are my sires? Where are the chiefs of my line who worshipped Woden and Thor? Where have they gone? Are they in heaven?” “No,” said the missionary, “we fear not.” “Ah, then,” said he, “I will not leave the house of my fathers,” and so he drew back his foot from the font. Many are of his mind, if I may call it mind at all; it is a certain animal instinct of the same nature as that which makes sheep follow each other when they go astray. God save us from this evil fashion. A man cannot inherit religion. It is not a thing to be bequeathed like old clothes or family plate. Search the Scriptures for yourselves, go to God the Holy Ghost for enlightenment, and follow where that enlightenment leads, even to Jesus the Saviour. Never dream of keeping to a false religion because it is that of your family or your nation; for by that rule we ought at this moment to be worshipping with the Druids in the oak groves. If we are bound to follow the religion of our forefathers, missionaries are great criminals, and there must be dozens of true religions instead of only one. On this principle Naaman ought never to have gone to wash in Jordan, he ought to have stuck to Abana and to Pharpar, as his fathers had done before him, and have remained a leper all his days.

“Well,” say you, “my idea of how I ought to be saved is gathered from what I have read and observed. I cannot submit to be saved by simple trust in Jesus, for I have been reading the biography of a good man, and I want to feel just as he felt: moreover, I noticed how my cousin was troubled in mind, and I observed that she had a very remarkable dream; and, beside, she obtained very extraordinary joys, and unless I have some of these I shall never believe.” But, my dear friend, do you think that God is tied down to give to each penitent the same line of experience? Is a master artist bound to paint always the same picture? May there be no variations in form and tint? In man’s work there is always a degree of monotony, even the most versatile genius has its own peculiar line of things, but God is never monotonous; there is a wonderful variety in all that he does, and this is very conspicuous in conversions, for these are masterpieces of his Spirit. Do not, therefore, settle how you ought to be brought to Christ, as if that were a stereotyped affair, for the Lord does as he wills.

“Yes,” says one, “but I judge by the general current of society, and the opinions that I meet in everyday life. I am a man of the world, and I form my opinion from men of the world.” Then, for certain, you form a wrong opinion, for the mind of the world never was the mind of God, and never will be. “Ye are of God, little children,” saith John, “and the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” To form your opinion of what light is by sojourning in darkness is ridiculous. To fashion a notion of liberty from the prison-house, or to describe life by observations made in a charnel-house, would be absurd.

Your every method of preconceived thought upon salvation is wrong, therefore cease from such thoughts, I pray you.

I have another question. How would it be, supposing your thoughts were the fact? Let us examine the matter.

You have thought, perhaps, that you ought to be saved by undergoing a ceremony. You have believed that the sprinkling of water on your face, or the eating of a wafer and the drinking of a little wine, would procure the forgiveness of your sins. Suppose it were so; it would be a calamity. For it would give pardon without penitence, forgiveness without a change of heart. Can any moral result be produced by an ecclesiastical performance? Has the world ever seen persons rendered more honest or more spiritually minded by the contact of priestly hands? External operations do not affect the moral nature. That is a fact which we can prove by innumerable instances, and there is not one instance of an opposite character. If they will bring a man who is really improved by priestly operations, whether aqueous, alimentary, unctuous, or saline, we will listen to them, but no such fact is forthcoming. It would be a very unfortunate thing for you, my dear friends, if by external operation guilt could be removed, because it is clear that your evil heart would remain, and, therefore, you would still have no communion with God, and no fitness for heaven. You must be born again, you must believe in Jesus; these are the necessities of your nature if you are to be happy. Heaven would not be heaven to you if you were baptised, confirmed, and took all the sacraments which Rome could give you, for they would not change your nature, and that change is a prime necessity which cannot be dispensed with. True faith in Jesus works by love and purifies the soul: that is the Lord’s way, accept it, and forsake your own thoughts.

You wish, perhaps, to be saved by good works; self-righteousness is your thought. Alas, if this were the way it would be an impossible way for you, for you cannot perform good works. If you can, why have you sinned at all? What would be your motive if you did attempt good works? Why, to save yourself, would it not? With selfishness as their motive, your works would be defiled at the fountain-head. Besides, all that you can do is already due to God, and, therefore, it cannot make up for the past. You must be saved by the grace of God first, and then good works will come from you, but never will you have any to spare; when you have done all, you will still be an unprofitable servant and a debtor to sovereign grace.

Perhaps you think that God might as well pardon you at once and have done with it; that is your plan. Suppose he did so. Suppose that he at once blotted your sin from his book, and there was an end of it; what peace would that give you? What security for the future? A God who could pardon without justice might one of these days condemn without reason. He who could set aside his law so as not to execute his threatening, might one day set aside his gospel so as not to fulfil his promise. It is a grand ground of peace for us that God is never unjust in order to be gracious: he saves sinners, but not till he has laid their sin upon Christ, and is both just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth. Your plan of pardon without an expiation would not work; it would not give confidence to you, and it would certainly dishonour the character of the Most High.

But you have thought that if you are to be saved, you must of necessity experience great horrors, as many have done. You have read of John Bunyan and others passing through the Slough of Despond, and you have set it down as a fact that you ought to wallow there also. But wherefore and why, beloved? How does this tend to salvation? Is doubting the mercy of God a good and useful thing? Truly, some who are brought to Jesus are long in coming, but if he pleases to lead you by a further way, why complain? Is not the gospel way the best way? Believe and live-is not that enough? Why, if the terrors did come upon you, they could not help you; or if they did, you would trust in your despairs, and this would be a false way.

“Then,” say You, “I stipulate for raptures and excitements: if I have these, I will believe.” Joy will come after believing, it is a gift of God with which he rewards faith. If the Lord required joy and rapture of you, you could no more render them than if the way of works were still in vogue. “Jesus only” is your hope, why demand more?

Now I come to the point. I have looked at what you would like salvation to be, and I have told you what it is. I will ask you this question-To what do you object in it? Do you object to being saved simply by faith, because it appears to you to be too mysterious? Mysterious! It is the essence of simplicity. You make it mysterious by refusing to understand it, and not believing it to be so plain. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” To believe is to trust, and whosoever trusts in the atoning blood is saved. Where is the mystery?

Then men turn round and say, “Then it seems like nothing at all.” But Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” It is the work which God works, the grandest of all works, to believe in Jesus Christ. Count you it nothing, when God has elected it to be the grand means of renewing the heart by the Holy Ghost? Faith is the spring which moves all our nature; he who believes learns to love, and learning to love, he is changed from sin to holiness.

“Yes, but this believing makes a man into a mere child.” Is that an objection? Then I give you no reply but the words of the Lord himself:-“Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

“Oh,” says another, “it throws the whole thing so open, if whosoever believes in Jesus is saved.” And do you want it closed? Do you crave a monopoly for yourself and your little coterie? Oh, sir, God thinks not as you do; and when your heart is enlarged you will yourself be ashamed of having made such a remark.

“Well, but I do not like salvation by grace alone, for it implies so much against me. I feel as Naaman did when the prophet said, ‘Wash and be clean.’ What do I want washing for? Am I dirty? Do you insinuate that this leprosy of mine comes because I have not bathed often enough? I am insulted by you.” Men regard the gospel as insulting their dignity, and therefore they turn away from it. They talk in this fashion: “What, believe and live! is that all? That way of salvation would suit a harlot or a drunkard, and I am just, upright, honourable. Simply look to Christ as the dying thief did on the tree? Such a religion suits a thief, but it does not suit me.” So you would like to have one way to heaven for yourself and people of quality, and a back gate to let in the guilty. There is no such arrangement, sir, and I trust you will not be so foolish as to be lost because your pride cannot be gratified.

“Ah,” says another, “it does not give a man anything that he can be proud of; it does not make him do anything, or be anything, that he can talk about to his neighbours. ‘Only believe, and you shall be saved.’ Why, the commonest boy in the street might understand that, and practise it too. I have graduated at a university, and am a man of natural endowments and great attainments: am I to be put on the same level as a shoe-black?” Well, if that be your line of argument, my answer is, that “not many great men, not many mighty are chosen,” and when you reject the gospel, you neither disappoint Christ nor his people: we knew you would do so. I sometimes feel inclined to answer people in the manner in which I replied to a caviller not long ago. He did not understand this, nor understand that, nor understand the other, and at last I said to him, “No, I do not suppose you ever will understand it.” “Why not?” said he. “Because,” I said, “God reveals these things to his own elect, and not to the wise and prudent.” This view of the case he did not like, but I believe it would do him more good than entering into further controversy with him. Men profess to be puzzled with this and that, when the truth is that their hearts are alienated from God; when the heart is set right, and they are sincere inquirers, they will feel that the plan of salvation by grace is most suitable, most wise, and most acceptable. When God the Holy Spirit once makes a man to feel himself to be a lost, undone, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinner, he seizes upon the gospel of free grace as a hungry man grasps a loaf. May God bring men to feel themselves sinners, and they will cavil at the gospel no more.

In conclusion. You thought that the gospel ought to be so-and-so, and now you are annoyed because you are told that the whole plan lies in believing: let me ask you, then, Do you mean to be damned for the sake of a whim? Come, I will not mince the matter. Do you mean to lose heaven and be cast into hell for ever for the sake of your proud fancies? For, oh, sir, I assure you in God’s name his plan will not alter for you. If the Lord should alter his gospel for you, then he must alter it for another, and another, and it would be as shifting as a quicksand. There it is; take it or leave it, but alter it you cannot. “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved” is always true, and the other side of the question is true too,-“He that believeth not shall be damned.”

Remember, also, that however much you may dislike it to-day, it will be quite as unpleasant to-morrow, If there is at present some sharp, stripping, and humbling work about it, it always will strip and always will humble you if ever you receive it. To be saved by grace alone will be as hard to your pride in ten years’ time as it is now-perhaps harder, because your heart will have grown harder, and your stomach even more haughty against the Lord God of Hosts. Surely, sir, if you are lost because you will not have salvation in God’s way, you will get small comfort from your meditations when you lie in hell. When you are shut in the eternal prison-house, you will reflect that you are there because you thought God ought to save you in another way. Then you will say to yourself, “I would not take his mercy freely. I would not fall down at Jesus’ feet and simply trust him. I wanted to feel, or do, or be something. I would not give up self and its foolish confidences, and here I am.” Surely you will gnaw your tongue in anguish that you have been cast away for such an unreasonable reason. If others ask you how you came there, it will be a strange answer that you will have to give them. “I,” says one, “I am here because I loved drink;” another says, “I am here, for I was lustful and debauched.” “Ah,” say you, “I was neither the one nor the other, I was kept from such sins, but I am lost, simply because when I heard the plan of salvation, I had made up my mind what it ought to be, and I stuck to my prejudices. I would not go to the Bible to search; I thought I knew as well as the Book, and as well as the Holy Spirit, and I am lost.” My dear hearers. I do not ask you to believe anything I say, because I say it; fling it to the winds if it has no better authority than mine; but if it be God’s word, I charge you, on your soul’s peril, do not reject it. We shall face each other at the last tremendous day, and if I have told you honestly the plan of salvation, I am clear of your blood; but if, having heard it, you reject it because it does not suit your preconceived ideas, then, sirs, your doom will lie at your own door. Provoke it not; yield to the Master’s bidding! May his Holy Spirit sweetly incline you, and he shall have praise. There it is; Jesus died instead of sinners, he suffered God’s wrath in the stead of the guilty, and “Whosoever believeth in him hath everlasting life.” Other foundation can no man lay; other name there is not under heaven among men whereby ye can be saved.

The worst of all is, you will say, “We do not reject it, but we mean to think of it to-morrow.” That has been the cry of some of you for fifty years! The bell will toll for your funerals before your tomorrow comes! Do not run this frightful risk. If to believe and to be saved would incapacitate you from your daily calling, or rob you of a single honourable joy, I might see sense in your procrastination; but since to be saved will make you fit for this life, and fill your cup to the brim with joy, in addition to preparing you for the life to come, I charge you, by the living God, “kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, while his wrath is kindled but a little.” The Lord bless you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-2 Kings 5.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-34 (Vers. I.), 560, 533.