This is a very short and simple text, and some would think it very easy to say all that can be said upon it, but indeed it is a very large text, and too full of meaning for me to attempt to expound it all. The words are few, but the thoughts suggested are very many; there are subtle meanings, too, in the original Greek well worth considering, and allusions which deserve to be followed out. I intend at this time to confine myself to one point, and to ask your consideration of one thought only. May the Spirit of God prepare our hearts for our meditation, and impress the truth upon them. My one point is this; our Lord asked Peter whether he had a love to his person. The inquiry is not concerning his love to the kingdom of God, or the people of God, but it begins and ends with his love to the Son of God. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” He does not say, “Dost thou now perceive the prudence of my warnings when I bade thee watch and pray? Simon, son of Jonas, wilt thou henceforth cease from thy self-confidence, and take heed to my admonitions?” It is not even, “Do you now believe my doctrines? Do you not trust in one whom the other day you denied?” Neither is it asked, “Are you pleased with my precepts? Are you a believer in my claims? Will you still confess me to be the Son of the Highest?” No, these matters are not brought under question, but the one inquiry is, “Lovest thou me? Hast thou a personal attachment for me, to my very self?” He calls him by his old, unconverted name, Simon, son of Jonas, to remind him of what grace had done for him, and then he asks only about his love. The question deals with personal attachment to a personal Christ, and that is my sole, subject.

Observe that our ever wise and tender Saviour questioned Peter about his love in plain set terms. There was no beating about the bush, he went at once to the point, for it is not a matter about which ambiguity and doubt can be endured. As the physician feels his patient’s pulse to judge his heart, so the Lord Jesus tested at once the pulse of Peter’s soul. He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, dost thou repent of thy folly?” Repentance is a very blessed grace, and very needful, but it was wiser to look at once to Peter’s love, because it is quite certain that if a disciple loves his master he will deeply grieve for ever having denied him. The Lord does not even ask his follower as to his faith, which might well have been put under question, for he had with oaths said, “I know not the man.” It would have been a highly important question, but it was answered when Peter avowed his love, for he who loves believes, and no man can love a Saviour in whom he does not believe. The Lord left every other point out of consideration, or perhaps I ought rather to say concentrated every other point into this one inquiry-“Lovest thou me?” Learn from this fact that one thing is needful; love to Jesus is the chief, the vital point to look to.

This question the Lord asked three times, as if to show that it is of the first, of the second, and of the third importance; as if it comprised all else, and therefore he would again, and again, and again insist upon it, as orators dwell with repetitions and emphatic sentences upon topics which they would urge home upon their auditors. This nail was meant to be well fastened, for it is smitten on the head with blow after blow. With unvarying tone and look the Lord enquired, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” It shows what weight our Saviour attached to the matter of his love, that he asked him about that, about that only, and about that three times over. When you are examining yourselves look mainly to your hearts, and make thorough inquisition into your love. Is Jesus really loved by you? Have you a deep attachment to his person? Whatever else you trifle with, be earnest here.

Remember that the Lord Jesus himself asked the question, and he asked it until he grieved Peter. So long as he was but recognised as a disciple Peter must have felt ready to receive the severest possible rebuke, and think himself gently done by; therefore it was not easy to grieve him. Our Lord also was slow at all times to cause pain to any true heart; yet on this occasion, for wise reasons, he reiterated his inquiry till he touched Peter’s unhealed wounds and made them smart. Had he not made his Master’s heart bleed, and was it not fit that he should feel heart-wounds himself? A threefold denial demanded a threefold confession, and the grief he had caused was fitly brought to his memory by the grief he felt. Now, this morning, if I press this question until I grieve some of you, till I grieve myself also, I shall not be censurable for having done so. To comfort you would be a good work, but sometimes it may be better to grieve you. Not always is sweet food the best thing we can bring you, bitter medicine is sometimes more requisite. I shall not have pushed the question beyond its legitimate sphere if I should so present it as to stir your hearts even to anguish. True love has more or less of pain about it; only the mere pretender passes through the world without anxious inquiry and heart-searching. Better far that you should be grieved to-day, and be found right at last, than that you should presumptuously feel yourselves secure, and be deceivers in the end.

We remarked that the question was put by our Lord himself. What if the Lord Jesus should meet you to-day, and should say to each one of you, “Lovest thou me?” If the question came at the end of one of our sermons, or just as we had done teaching, I should not wonder if it startled us. Found, as we are, in his house, having just sung sweet hymns in his honour, having united in prayer, and heartily joined in his worship, it would seem strange to be questioned as to our love to him, and yet it would not be unnecessary. Imagine, then, that your Lord has found you quite alone, and is standing before you; think of him touching you with his hand, and gently enquiring, “After all, lovest thou me?” How would you feel under such a question? Would you not be struck with it, and perhaps with shame begin to tremble and think over a dozen reasons why such a searching question was suggested to you just now. And if the Lord were to repeat it three times, and each time put it distinctly to you, and to you only, would you not feel great searchings of heart? Yet would I have you so receive the question. Let it come to you now as from Jesus. Forget that it is spoken by the minister, or written in the text. Hear it only as spoken by Jesus, by that same Jesus who has redeemed you from death and hell by his most precious blood. He addresses it to you rather than to others,-is there not a cause? Singling you out of the company, he gazes on you fixedly, and says, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”-you know why there is such cause to question you. Answer for yourself alone, for he puts the enquiry only to you. Never mind Nathanael now, nor Thomas, nor the two sons of Zebedee-“Lovest thou me? Really, truly does thy heart beat true towards Jesus of Nazareth? Come, Peter, yes or no? Thou sayest ‘Yes,’ but is it so? Is it so? Is it so?” I want the enquiry to come to my own soul and to yours this morning, as if Jesus really stood before each one of us, and again said, “Lovest thou me?” May the Lord grant us grace to make solemn enquiry as to this matter, to bear honest witness, and to give a true deliverance, which shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Our first observation shall be this-love to the person of Christ may be absent from our bosoms. Unhappy thought, and yet most certainly true! Even in our hearts there may be no love to Christ! I know of nothing which can screen any one of us from the necessity of the question. Our gifts and apparent graces may prevent our fellow creatures questioning us, but nothing should prevent our questioning ourselves, for certainly there is nothing which will prevent the Lord himself from putting the enquiry to us.

No outward religiousness renders this enquiry needless. Are we professors of religion, are we very constant in attending to outward forms of worship? Do we enter very heartily into all the public exercises of God’s house? Yes, but there are thousands who do that, hundreds of thousands who do that every Lord’s-day, and yet they do not love Christ! My brethren, are not multitudes wrapped up in forms and ceremonies? If the service pleases the eye and the ear are they not quite content? Love to the person of Christ has not occurred to the mass of avowed worshippers of Jesus. We know others to whom the end-all and be-all of religion is an orthodox statement of doctrine. So long as the preaching is according to the confession of faith, and every word and act is piously correct, they are well pleased; but no love to Jesus ever stirs their bosoms; religion to them is not an exercise of the heart at all-it is mere brain work, and hardly that. They know nothing of the living soul going out towards a living person, a bleeding heart knit to another bleeding heart, a life subsisting on another life and enamoured of it. We know brethren who carry this very far, and if the preacher differs from them in the merest shade, they are overwhelmed with pious horror at his unsoundness, and they cannot hear him again: even if he preach Christ most preciously in all the rest of his discourse, it is nothing, because he cannot sound their “Shibboleth.” What is orthodoxy without love, but a catacomb to bury dead religion in. It is a cage without a bird; the gaunt skeleton of a man out of which the life has fled. I am afraid that the general current of church life runs too much towards externals, and too little towards deep burning love to the person of Christ. If you preach much about emotional religion, and the heart-work of godliness, cold-blooded professors label you as rather mystical, and begin to talk of Madame Guyon and the danger of the Quietist school of religion. We would not mind having a little spice of that, even if we were blamed for it, for after all the realizing of Christ is the grand thing. The faith which is most blessed is faith which deals most fully with the person of Jesus Christ, the truest repentance is that which weeps at a sight of his wounds, and the love which is most sweet is love to the adorable person of the Well-beloved. I look upon the doctrines of grace as my Lord’s garments, and they smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. I look upon his precepts as his sceptre, and it is a rod tipped with silver; and I delight to touch it and find comfort in its power. I look upon the gospel ordinances as the throne upon which he sits, and I delight in that throne of ivory overlaid with pure gold; but oh, his person is sweeter than his garments, dearer than his sceptre, more glorious than his throne; he himself is altogether lovely, and to love Him is the very heart’s core of true religion. But perhaps you may not love Him after all. You may have all the externals of outward religiousness, and yet the secret of the Lord may not be with you. It will be vain to reverence the Sabbath if you forget the Lord of the Sabbath, vain to love the sanctuary but not the Great High Priest, vain to love the wedding-feast but not the Bridegroom. Do you love Him? that is the question. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Nor, brethren, would the highest office in the church render it unnecessary to ask the question. Peter was an apostle, and not a whit behind the very chief of them. In some respects he was a foundation stone of the church, and yet it was needful to say to him, “Lovest thou me?” For there was once an apostle who did not love the Lord; there was an apostle who coveted twenty pieces of silver,-a goodly price was that at which he sold his Master. The name of Judas should sound the death-knell of all presumptuous confidence in our official standing. We may stand very high in the church and yet fall to our destruction. Our names may be in the list of religious leaders and yet they may not be written in the Lamb’s book of life. So, my brother minister, deacon, or elder, it is needful to put to ourselves the question, “Lovest thou the Lord?”

The enjoyment of the greatest Christian privileges does not render this question unnecessary. Peter and James and John were the three most favoured of all the apostles: they witnessed certain of our Lord’s miracles which were done in secret, and beheld of no other human eyes. They beheld him on the mount of transfiguration in all his glory, and they saw him in the garden of Gethsemane in all his agony, and yet, though thus favoured, their Lord felt it needful to ask of their leader, “Lovest thou me?” O my brother, you have had high enjoyments, you have been on Tabor, illuminated with its transporting light, and you have also had fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, or at any rate you think you have. You are familiar alike with inward agonies and spiritual joys: you have been the familiar of the Lord and eaten bread with him, and yet remember there was one who did this and yet lifted up his heel against him, and therefore it is needful to say to you, my brother, “Lovest thou the Lord?” Dost thou really love him after all? for it is not certain that thou dost so because of what thou hast seen and enjoyed. It is easy to invent a remarkable experience, but the one thing needful is a loving heart. Take heed that ye have this.

Nor, my dear brethren, does the greatest warmth of zeal prevent the necessity of this question. Peter was a redhot disciple. How ready he was both to do and to dare for his Master. How impetuously he cried when he was on the lake of Galilee, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water.” What daring! What faith! What vehement zeal! And here, too, in the narrative before us, when the Lord was by that selfsame sea of Tiberias, Peter, in his headlong zeal, cannot wait until the boat touches the shore, but he girds on his fisher’s coat and plunges in to meet the Master whom he loves; and yet, with that headlong zeal before him, the Lord says, “Lovest thou me?” Yes, young man, you are earnest in the Sunday-school, you have sought the conversion of the little ones and succeeded above many; you encourage others and give impetus to every movement in which you engage: and yet you need to enquire whether you do in very deed love the Lord or no. Perhaps, my dear brother, you stand up in the corners of the streets, and face the ungodly throng and delight to talk of Jesus, whether men oppose or no; yet are you sure you love Jesus? My sister, you visit the poor and care for the needy, you lay yourself out to do good to young people, and are full of warmth in all things which concern the Redeemer’s cause. We admire you, and hope your zeal will never grow less; but for all that, even to you must the question be put, “Lovest thou the Lord Jesus?” For there is a zeal which is fed by regard to the opinions of others, and sustained by a wish to be thought earnest and useful; there is a zeal which is rather the warmth of nature than the holy fire of grace: this zeal has enabled many to do great things, and yet, when they have done all, they have been as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, because they did not love Jesus Christ. The most zealous actions, though they naturally lead us to hope that those who perform them are lovers of Jesus, are not conclusive evidence thereof, and therefore we must still enquire, “Lovest thou the Lord?”

Ay, dear friends, and I will go a little further; the greatest self-denial does not prove it. Peter could say, “Lord, we have left all and followed thee.” Though it was not very much, yet it was all Peter had, and he had left it all for the good cause, without having gained any earthly good in return. He had been frequently abused and reproached, for Jesus’ sake, and he expected to be reproached still more, yet was he loyal, and willing to suffer to the end: yet the Lord, knowing all that Peter had sacrificed for his sake, nevertheless said to him, “Lovest thou me?” For sadly, strangely true it is, that men have made considerable sacrifices to become professed Christians and yet have not had the root of the matter in them. Some have even been put into prison for the truth, and yet have not been sincere Christians, and it is not for us to say, but it is to be feared that in the martyr days some have given their bodies to be burned, yet because they had not love, it profited them nothing. Love is essential. Nothing can compensate for its absence. And yet this precious thing may not be in your hearts! O God, I tremble as I remember that perhaps it is not in mine. Let each one hear the question “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

I must press the point still a little further. It is often necessary for us to put this question, because there are other points of religion besides the emotional. Man is not all heart, he has a brain, and the brain is to be consecrated and sanctified. It is, therefore, right that we should study the Word of God and become well instructed scribes in the kingdom of heaven. Peter went to college three years, with Jesus Christ for a tutor, and he learned a great deal, as who would not from so great a teacher? But after he had been through his course, his Master, before he sent him to his life-work, felt it needful to inquire, “Lovest thou me?” Brother, you may turn over the pages of your book, you may digest doctrine after doctrine, you may take up theological propositions and problems, and you may labour to solve this difficulty and expound that text, and meet the other question, till, somehow or other, the heart grows as dry as the leaves of the volume, and the book-worm feeds on the soul as well as the paper, eating its way into the spirit. It is, therefore, a healthy thing for the Lord to come into the study and close the book, and say to the student, “Sit still a while, and let me ask thee, ‘Lovest thou me?’ I am better than all books and studies; hast thou a warm, human, living love to me?” I hope many of you are very diligent students-if you teach in the Sunday-school you ought to be, if you preach in the streets or in cottage meetings you ought to be. How shall you fill others if you are not full yourselves? But at the same time look most of all to the condition of your heart towards Christ. To know is good, but to love is better. If thou wilt study, thou canst solve all problems; yet, if thou lovest not, thou hast failed to comprehend the mystery of mysteries, and to know the most excellent of sciences. Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up. Look well, then, to the question, “Lovest thou me?” Much of Christian life also ought to be spent in active labour. We are to be up and doing. If there was anything to do, Peter was the man to do it. He had gone forth to preach the gospel, and even the devils had been subject to him; Peter had wrought marvels in Jesus’ name, and he was ordained to work yet greater wonders. Yet, despite all that Peter had done, his love needed to be examined. Even though those feet of Peter’s had walked the sea, which no man’s feet had done besides, yet Peter must be asked, “Lovest thou me?” He had just dragged that huge net to the shore with all that host of fishes, a hundred and fifty and three. With great skill and mighty effort he had drawn the whole shoal on shore, yet this did not prove his love. There are preachers of the gospel among us who have dragged a full net to shore, the great fishes have been many; they have been great and successful workers, but this does not prevent its being needful for the Lord to examine them as to their hearts. He bids them put by their nets for awhile and commune with him. Shut up the church book; fold up the roll of membership and have done counting your fishes. Come into your chamber apart. Jesus means to ask you something. “In my name you have cast out devils, but did you love me? You cast the net on the right side of the ship, as I told you, but did you love me? You drew to shore that shoal of fishes, but did you love me?” Brethren, this is the solemn fear, “Lest after having preached to others I myself should be a castaway.” Lest after bringing others to Jesus, and serving God well in the school, or in some other sphere, you should, nevertheless, make a dead failure of it, because you have not loved Jesus himself. I must press the question again and again, and I do pray the Holy Spirit to let its power be felt by every one of us.

Possibly we may have been called to contend earnestly for the faith, and we may have been battling with the King’s enemies on this side and on that, and standing up for the truth even as for dear life. It is well to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, for this age wants men who are not afraid to bear reproach for speaking out the truth, with strong, stern words; but to this spirit it is more than ever important that the question should come, “Lovest thou me?” A man may be a very firm Protestant, but may not love Christ; he may be a very earnest advocate of divine truth, but he may not love him who is the truth itself; he may maintain Scriptural views as to baptism, and yet he may never have been baptised into Christ. A man may be a staunch Nonconformist, and may see all the evils against which Nonconformity is a protest, but still he may be conformed to the world, and be lost notwithstanding all his dissent. It is a grand thing for every Christian warrior to look well to this breastplate, and to see that he can promptly reply to the question, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Putting all together, let me say to you,-Beloved, however eminent you may be in the church of God, and however distinguished for services or for suffering, yet do not evade this question. Bare your bosoms to the inspection of your Lord. Answer him with humble boldness while he says to you again and again, even till he grieves you, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

We will now turn to a second head. We must love the person of Christ, or all our past professions have been a lie. It is not possible for that man to be a Christian who does not love Christ. Take the heart away, and life is impossible. Your very first true hope of heaven came to you, if it ever did come at all, by Jesus Christ. Beloved, you heard the gospel, but the gospel apart from Christ was never good news to you; you read the Bible, but the Bible apart from a personal Christ was never anything more than a dead letter to you; you listened to many earnest entreaties, but they all fell on a deaf ear until Jesus came and compelled you to come in. The first gleam of comfort that ever entered my heart flashed from the wounds of the Redeemer; I never had a hope of being saved until I saw him hanging on the tree in agonies and blood. And because our earliest hope is bound up, not with any doctrine or preacher, but with Jesus, our all in all, therefore I am sure, even if we have only lately received our first hope, we must love Jesus, from whom it has come. Nor do we merely begin with him, for every covenant blessing we have received has been connected with his person, and could not be received apart from him. You have obtained pardon, but that pardon was through his blood. You have been clothed in righteousness, but he is the Lord your Righteousness, he is himself your glory and your beauty. You have been cleansed from many sins by conversion, but it was the water from his riven side which washed you. You have been made the child of God, but your adoption has only made you feel more akin to the Elder Brother, through whom you are made heirs of God. The blessings of the covenant are none of them separate from Christ, and cannot be enjoyed apart from him, any more than light and heat can be divided from the sun. All blessings come to us from his pierced hand, and hence if we have received them we must love him; it is not possible to have enjoyed the golden gifts of his unbounded love without being moved to love him in return. You cannot walk in the sun without being warmed, nor receive of Christ’s fulness without being filled with gratitude.

Every ordinance of the Christian church since we have been converted has either been a mockery, or else we have loved Christ in it. Baptism, for instance, what is it but the mere washing away of the filth of the flesh and nothing more, unless we were buried with Christ in baptism unto death; that like as he also rose from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also might rise to newness of life? The Lord’s Supper, what is it? What but a common meal for the eating of bread and the drinking of wine, unless Christ be there? But if we have come to the Lord’s Supper as true men, and not as false-hearted hypocrites, we have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood, and is it possible to have done that and not to love him? It cannot be. That communion with Christ which is absolutely essential to ordinances is also sure to produce in the heart love towards him with whom we commune. And so, beloved, it has been with every approach we have made towards God in all the long years of our Christian life. Did you pray, my brother? did you really speak with God in prayer? You could not have done it except through Jesus the Mediator, and if you have spoken to God through the Mediator, you cannot remain without love to one who has been your door of access to the Father. If you have made a profession of religion, how can it be a true and honest one unless your heart burns with attachment to the Great Author of salvation. You have great hopes, but what are you hoping for? Is not all your hope wrapped up in him? Do you not expect that when he shall appear you shall be like him? You are hoping to die triumphantly, but not apart from his making your dying bed soft as a pillow of down. You are hoping to rise again, but not apart from his resurrection, for he is the first fruits of the resurrection harvest. You expect to reign upon earth, but it is with him; you do not expect a millennium apart from the King. You expect a never-ending heaven, but that heaven is to be with Jesus where he is, and to behold his glory. Since, then, everything that you have obtained-if indeed you have received it of the Lord at all-has Christ’s name stamped on it, and comes to you direct from his pierced hand, it cannot be that you have received it unless you love him. Now, when I put the question, recollect that upon your answer to it hangs this alternative-a hypocrite or a true man, a false professor or a genuine convert, a child of God or an heir of wrath. Therefore answer the enquiry, but answer it with deliberation, answer it conscientiously, as though you stood before the bar of him who now so tenderly enquires of you, but who will then speak in other tones, and look with other glances, even with those eyes which are like a flame of fire. “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Our third consideration is this-we must have love to the person of Christ, or nothing is right for the future. We have not finished life yet-much of pilgrimage may possibly lie before us. Now, all will go right if we love Christ, but nothing can proceed as it should do if love to Jesus be absent. For instance: Peter is called to feed the lambs and feed the sheep; but for a true pastor the first qualifiction is love to Christ. I gather from this incident, and I am sure I do not press it unduly, that Jesus Christ, meaning to make Peter a feeder of his lambs and sheep, acts as a trier to see whether he has the proper qualifications, and he does not so much inquire about Peter’s knowledge or gifts of utterance, as about his love; for the first, second, and third qualification for a true pastor is a loving heart. Now, mark you, what is true of a pastor is true of every useful worker for Christ. Love is essential, my dear friend; you cannot work for Christ if you do not love him. “But I can teach in the school,” says one. “No, not as school should be taught, without love to Jesus.” “But I am connected with an interesting society, which is doing much good.” “But you are not glorifying God unless you are connected with that society because you love Jesus Christ.” Put down your tools, for you cannot work profitably in my Lord’s vineyard unless your heart loves him: his vines had better be untrimmed than be pruned by angry hands. Let the lambs alone, sir, you will never rear them if your heart is hard and ungentle. If you do not love the Master, you will not love his work, or his servants, or the rules of his house, and we can do better without you than with you. To have an unloving worker grumbling about the Lord’s house and vineyard would be distressing to the whole family. Love must be in the heart, or true service cannot come from the hands.

Then, again, perhaps suffering lies before you: and if your heart is not true to Christ, you will not be able patiently to endure for his name’s sake. Before long, the time came for Peter to glorify God by death. Peter has to be girded and to be taken whither he would not. Now Peter cannot be fit for martyrdom if he does not love Jesus. Tradition says that he was crucified with his head downwards, because he felt it too much honour to be put to death in the same position as his Lord. It may be so; no doubt he was put to death by crucifixion, and it was his strong deep love which made him more than a conqueror. Love makes the hero. When the Spirit of God inflames love he inspires courage. See then, O believers, how much you need love for the future. Young Christian, you will have to run the gauntlet before you enter heaven. I do not mind what sphere of life you occupy, you are very particularly favoured if somebody does not mock at you, and persecute, you. Between here and heaven you will be tried, and peradventure your foes will be the men of your own household. Many will watch for your halting, and even place stumbling-blocks in your way: to walk securely you will need to carry the fires of love in your heart. If you do not love Jesus intensely sin will get the mastery over you. Self-denials and humiliations which would be easy with love will be impossible without it. Rightly to work or to suffer, or to die, we must love Jesus with all our hearts.

Look you, my brethren, if we have no love for Jesus Christ’s person our piety lacks the adhesive element, it fails in that which will help us to stick to the good old way to the end, and hold out to the end. Men often leave what they like, but never what they love; men can deny what they merely believe as a matter of mental conviction, but they will never deny that which they feel to be true, and accept with heartfelt affection. If you are to persevere to the end, it must be in the power of love.

Love is the great inspiriting force. Many a deed in the Christian life is impossible to everything but love. In serving Christ you come across a difficulty far too great for judgment, far too hard for prudence, and unbelief sits down and weighs and calculates, but love, mighty love, laughs at the impossibility and accomplishes it for Jesus Christ. Love breaks through troops, love leaps over walls, and hand-in-hand with faith she is all but omnipotent; nay, through the power of God which is upon her, she can do all things for Jesus Christ her Lord. If you lack love your energy is gone; the force which nerves the man and subdues his foes is lacking.

Without love, too, you are without the transforming force. Love to Christ is that which makes us like him. The eyes of love, like windows, let in the Saviour’s image, and the heart of love receives it as upon a sensitive plate, until the whole nature bears its impress. You are like that which you love, or you are growing like it. If Christ be loved you are growingly becoming like him; but without love you will never bear the image of the heavenly. O Spirit of God, with wings of love brood over us, till Christ is formed in us.

My brethren, there is one other reflection-without love to Christ we lack the perfecting element. We are to be with him soon; in a few more weeks or months, none of us can tell how few, we shall be in the glory. Yes, you and I; many of us shall be wearing the white robes and bearing the palm branches. We shall only buy two or three more almanacs, at the outside, and then we shall keep no more reckoning of days, for we shall be where time, with its little eddies and currents, shall be forgotten in the eternal flow of the ages. But if we have not love to Jesus we shall not be where he is. There are none in heaven that have not first learned to love him here below. So we must have love to Jesus, the future imperiously demands it, and therefore I put the question with all the greater seriousness and vehemence, “Simon, Son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

But now I will suppose I have received an answer from you, and you are able to say you do love Jesus; then my fourth and closing head must be, if we do love him, what then? Why then, if we do love him, let us do something for him directly, for Jesus Christ replied to Peter the moment he said, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee,”-“Feed my sheep.” Very kind it was of the Saviour, because he knew from his own heart that wherever there is love there is a desire for activity. Because Jesus loved so much therefore it became his meat and his drink to do the will of his heavenly Father. So thinks Jesus-“Peter loves me, and his heart will ache if I do not give him something to do. Go and feed my lambs, go and feed my sheep.” Brother, sister, if you love Christ, do not idle away this Sunday afternoon. If you love Christ, get to work. What are you doing? Attending the means of grace and getting a good feed. Is that all? Well, that is doing something for yourself. Many people in the world are very busy at feeding, among the most active with knife and fork, but I do not know that eating a man’s bread is any proof of love to him. A great many professing Christians give no proof of love to Christ, except that they enjoy sermons. But now, if you love Jesus Christ as you say you do, prove it by doing good to others-“Feed my sheep.” I see a company of brethren met together to hold a conference and to grow in grace. Very excellent indeed: grow away brethren as fast as ever you can-I like to see you as a flower garden, all a-growing, all a-blowing. But when you have done all that, I pray you do not congratulate yourselves as though you had done a mighty fine thing, because there is nothing in it unless it leads you to work for others. To publish accounts of such happy gatherings is like telling the poor people of Whitechapel that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen had a fine banquet of turtle soup. Suppose I read that you have had a splendid series of meetings; well, I am glad you enjoyed yourselves; but the point is this-if there is anything in it, get to work. If you love Christ, feed his sheep and lambs. If it is not all talk, if it is not all much ado about nothing, if it is not all fuss, get to soul winning, get down among the poor and needy, get down among the lost and wandering, get down among the dark and ignorant, and hold forth Jesus Christ as the Balm of Gilead and the Saviour of sinners. After all, this is the test of how much you have grown in grace-this is the test of your higher life, this is the proof of how much you have become like Jesus. What will you do for him? for if you do not go now and feed his sheep, and feed his lambs, it does not matter what you say or what you think you enjoy, you do not give that proof of love which Jesus asks for.

I put it in this final word;-when next you teach your classes, or your own families, do it for love of Jesus. Say to your heart, “I do love Christ, and now I am going to teach for love of him.” Oh, there will be a grand class this afternoon, my sister, you will get on mightily if you teach for love of him, every word you say will be powerful since it is suggested by love of him. That girl who makes so much noise, and troubles you so much, you will bear with for love of him. That restless young urchin, you cannot get the truth into him,-you tell him many tales, and when you have done he wants another; you will patiently give him another, for the love of Christ. When you pray with the little ones, pray because you love them for Christ’s sake. You are going to preach, do the preaching for love of Christ. We sometimes do it because it is our turn to do it, but it should never be so. You know how delightfully servants will wait upon you if they do it for love. You have been out for a few weeks, and at last you come home. Look at the room! What a welcome is before you! They have half devastated the garden to bring in the flowers to make the table look nice for you. That supper-well, it is just the same supper that any Mary or Jane would have cooked, but see how it is put upon the table! Everything seems to say it is done for love of master and mistress, to show our affection and respect for them, and you enjoy it indescribably, because it tells of love. Now, to-morrow, and as long as ever you live, do everything out of love to Christ. It will spread flowers over your work, and make it look beautiful in his eyes. Put love’s fingers to work, love’s brains, love’s eyes, love’s hands; think with love, pray with love, speak with love, live with love, and in this way you will live with power, and God will bless you for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-John 21.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-786, 787, 640.

CONVERSIONS DESIRED

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, March 5th, 1876, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”-Acts 11:21.

The brethren who had dwelt together in church fellowship at Jerusalem were scattered abroad by persecution which arose about Stephen. Their Master had told them that when they were persecuted in one city they were to flee to another. They obeyed his command, and in the course of escape from persecution they took very long journeys-very long journeys indeed for that age of the world, when locomotion was exceedingly difficult: but wherever they found themselves they began at once to preach Jesus Christ, so that the scattering of the disciples was also a scattering of good seed in broader fields. The malice of Satan was made the instrument of the mercy of God. Learn from this, dear brethren, every one of you, that wherever you are called to go you should persevere in making known the name and gospel of Jesus. Look upon this as your calling and occupation. You will not be scattered now by persecution, but should the demands of business carry you into different climes, employ your distant travel for missionary purposes. Providence every now and then bids you remove your tent, take care that wherever it is pitched you carry with you a testimony for Jesus. At times the necessities of health require relaxation and change of air, and this may take you to different places of public resort: seize the opportunity to encourage the churches in such localities by your presence and countenance, and also endeavour to spread the knowledge of Jesus among those to whom you may be directed. The position which you occupy in society is not an accidental one; it has not been decreed to you by a blind, purposeless fate; there is predestination in it, but that predestination is wise, and looks towards a merciful end: you are placed where you are that you may be a preserving salt to those around, a sweet savour of Christ to all who know you. The methods of divine grace have ordained a happy connection between you and the people with whom you associate; you are a messenger of mercy to them, a herald of good tidings, an epistle of Christ. The surrounding darkness needs you, and therefore it is written, “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” You are intended to warn and rebuke some, to entreat and encourage others. To you the mourner looks for comfort and the ignorant for instruction; let them never look in vain. Be the true friend of men, observe their condition before God, and endeavour to reclaim them from their wanderings. If Joseph was sent to Egypt that he might save his father’s house alive, you also are sent where you are for the sake of some hidden ones of the Lord’s chosen family. If Esther was placed in the court of a heathen king for the deliverance of her nation, so are you, my sister, called to occupy your present position for the good of the church of Christ. Look ye to it, brethren, lest ye miss your life’s object, and live in vain. It would be a sad thing indeed if you who profess to belong to Christ should be “creation’s blot, creation’s blank,” by having failed to work while it is called to-day.

These good people of the early church, however, with all their zeal, were somewhat narrow-minded and hampered by their national prejudices, for they preached at first to the Jews only, and it was very hard to make them see that the gospel was meant for the whole race of man, Gentiles as well as Jews. Their Master had said “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” and yet they began with preaching to the Jews only. Words could not have been plainer, and yet they missed their meaning. It is not to be wondered at that some in our day are still unable to preach to men as men when we see how slow the early saints were to learn the lesson. Brethren, if there be any narrowness about our spirit, let us pray the Lord to take it away. We shall not, of course, be shackled as these Jews were by boasting our nationality, but perhaps there may be classes of society of whom we despair, and therefore for whom we make no effort. We say, “It would be useless to attempt the conversion of such characters. I feel myself quite able to talk to other persons; but although I am placed in the midst of, these people I cannot bring my mind to speak with them about spiritual things, for I feel hopeless of success.” Beloved, may you be delivered from this snare, and learn to sow beside all waters. The Gentiles, though they were for awhile passed over by the brethren, turned out to be the most hopeful of all classes; from the Gentile fields they reaped harvests such as were never gathered in Judea. Antioch with its Grecians became famous among Christian churches-there the church of Christ first took its name amid a revival of religion, when great multitudes believed and turned unto the Lord. God had from of old intended that the great majority of the election of grace should be gathered out of those very Gentiles whom even the apostles themselves scarcely ventured to address. Now then, my brother, in the light of this incident begin to work where as yet you have done nothing: begin to hope where hitherto you have despaired, throw out your best energies in that very direction in which you have felt most hampered, for there awaits you, to your own intense surprise, a success which will amply reward you. You need not restrict yourselves to lands familiar with the plough, invade the primeval forest, fell the ancient trees, and clear the broad acres: that virgin soil will yield you harvests a hundredfold such as you will never find in fields where others have laboured before you. If your spiritual mining is becoming a failure, open fresh lodes of the precious metal, for veins of treasure lie concealed in the unbroken ground. Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught, and multitudes of fish shall crowd the net. It seems to me to be the obvious teaching of the text that wherever we are cast we should try to do good, and that we may hope for the largest success among the most neglected portions of society.

Coming closely to the text, I desire to press upon you this morning, with great earnestness, the need of the conversion of men, and the desirableness that we should have many converted here, and I shall want to suggest what we can do to produce that result. In all these I beg to be assisted by the Holy Spirit, without whose aid I shall only exhibit my own weakness, and deaden those energies which I long to arouse. These will be our heads: first, the end we aim at, that many may believe and turn unto the Lord; secondly, the power by which this can be attained, “The hand of the Lord was with them”; thirdly, the desirableness of our object; and, fourthly, how we may promote its attainment.

Let us speak upon the end which we desire. It may seem very commonplace, but it is in fact one of the grandest designs under heaven: he who contemplates it has a higher aim than philosopher, reformer, or patriot. He aims at that for which the Son of God both lived and died. We desire that men may believe, that is to say, first, that they may believe the testimony of Jesus Christ to be true, for there are some who have not reached as far as that: they reject altogether the inspired Word, and to them the incarnation, the redemption, the resurrection, the glory, the second advent, are so many old wives’ fables. You to whom these truths are the light of your lives can scarcely realise the power of unbelief of this kind, and yet some men live and die in its gloom. We pray that they may be taught better, and that the evidence of these great facts may be forced home upon them. Alas, there are many who profess to believe these things, but their only reason for so doing is that they have been taught so from their childhood, and it is the current religion of the nation. They regard the inspiration of Scripture, and so on, as matters about which it is not expedient to trouble themselves,-they do not care one way or the other, but find it the easier and more respectable plan to admit the truth of the gospel, and think no more about it. Such a vain complimentary belief is rather an insult to our holy faith than a thing to be rejoiced in. But, dear friends, we want more than this faith of indifference, which is little more than dishonest unbelief; we want men to believe for themselves, because they are personally convinced and have felt in themselves the saving power of Christ Jesus. We pray that nominal believers may treat the doctrines of revelation, not as dogmas, but as facts; not as opinions, but as verities; as surely facts as the events of history, as much verities as the actual incidents of every day life; for, alas, the grand doctrines of eternal truth are frequently treated as venerable nonentities, and have no effect whatever upon the conduct of those who profess to receive them, because they do not realise them as matters of fact, or see their solemn bearings. It is shocking to reflect that a change in the weather has more effect on some men’s lives than the dread alternative of heaven or hell. A woman’s glance affects them more than the eye of God. We, therefore, desire to see men really and truly believing the facts of the gospel, in an honest, practical manner.

We cannot, however, be content with this; we labour that those around us may savingly believe by putting their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the grand saving act: the man brings his soul and commits it to Christ for safe keeping, and that entrusting of the soul to Jesus saves him. He makes the Saviour trustee of his spiritual estates, and leaves himself and all his eternal interests in those dear hands which once were nailed to the cross. Oh, how we long to see the Holy Spirit bringing men to this, that they may believe in Jesus Christ by resting in him and trusting upon him. For this we live, for this we would be content to die, that many might believe.

The end we aim at is that men may so believe in Jesus that they may be altogether changed in their relation towards God, for “many believed and turned unto the Lord.” What does that mean? It means that these heathen gave up their idols and began to worship the only living and true God. We desire, dear hearers, that faith in the Lord Jesus may lead you to give up the objects of your idolatrous love, yourselves, your money, your pleasures, the world, the flesh, the devil; for there be some whose God is their belly, and who glory in their shame. When a man believes in Jesus Christ he puts away his false gods, and worships the great Father of spirits; he makes no inferior object the aim of his being, but henceforth lives for the glory of God. This is a glorious turning, a complete conversion of the man’s heart and soul.

To turn to God means not merely to forsake the false god for the true, but to turn from the love of sin. Sin lies that way, but God’s glory lies in the opposite quarter. He who looks sinward has his back to God-he who looks Godward has his back to sin. It is blessed conversion when men turn from the folly of sin to the glory of God. With weeping and supplication do men so turn, confessing their wrongdoing, lamenting their transgressions, abhorring their evil lustings, desiring pardon, and hoping for renewal of their nature. Precious in the sight of the Lord are the tears of penitence and the sighs of contrite hearts. We can never be satisfied with the results of our ministry unless faith leads man to hearty repentance towards God, an intense loathing of their sins, and an actual forsaking of them.

To turn to God means that henceforth God shall be sought in prayer. “Behold he prayeth” is one of the indications of a true convert. The man who lives without prayer lives without God, but the man who has turned to God is familiar with the mercy-seat. What a turning it is when the eye is turned upward to seek the Lord with the solemn glancing of the eye, when none but God is near. To turn to God means to yield yourself obediently to his sway, to be willing to do what he bids, to think what he teaches, and to be what he commands. Faith is nothing unless it brings with it a willing and obedient mind. Wilful rebellion is the child of unbelief, sincere obedience is the offspring of humble believing. “They believed, and turned unto the Lord.” We want men, indeed, so to turn that their whole life shall be a going towards God, a growing more like him, a closer communing with him, leading on to the soul’s becoming perfectly like him, and dwelling for ever where he is.

Now, dear friends, when I speak thus of believing and turning unto God some will say, “Well, but that must be a very easy matter, only to believe and turn.” Yes, my brethren, it appears simple, but it is none the less vitally essential. “He that believeth on the Lord Jesus hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed.” You say, “Why make all this stir about it?” Just because upon this apparently little matter depends the present and eternal condition of the sinner. To believe and to turn to God is to be delivered from the present dominion of sin, and from the future punishment of it: to be without faith and without God is to be without joy here and without hope hereafter. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what you and I must aim at in all our attempts to influence our fellow men. It may be useful to reform them, but it is far better that grace should regenerate them. God speed every effort to promote sobriety, chastity, thrift, honesty, and morality; but you and I are sent for something more than this, our work goes deeper and is more difficult; it is not ours to wash the blackamoor, but to seek to change his skin; we do not so much pray that the lion may be tamed as that he may be turned into a lamb. It may be well to lop the branches of the tree of sin, but our business is to lay the axe at the root of the trees by leading men to turn to God. This is a change, not of the outward conduct merely, but of the heart; and if we do not see this result, if men do not believe and turn to God, we have laboured in vain, and spent our strength for naught and in vain. If there are no believings and turnings to the Lord, we may get us to our secret chambers and bewail ourselves before God because none have believed our report, and the arm of the Lord has not been revealed. There is the object-aim at it, saying, “This one thing I do.” Praying in the Holy Ghost, and depending upon his power, push on with this one sole object. Drive at it, you teachers in the Sabbath-school; do not be satisfied with instructing the children, labour to have them converted. Drive at it, you preachers; do not believe that you have done your work when you have taught the people, you must never rest till they believe in Jesus Christ. Pursue this end in every sermon or Sabbath-school address; throw your whole soul into this one object. Yours must not be a cold inculcation of an external morality, but a warm enthusiasm for an inward regeneration. You are not to bring men to believe in themselves and so become self-made men, but to lead them to believe in Jesus, and to become new creatures in him. There is our end and aim, are we all alive to it?

Secondly, let us consider The power by which this can be attained,-“The hand of the Lord was with them.” None ever believe in Jesus except those in whom God’s arm has been revealed, for Jesus says, “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” But, brethren, in answer to prayer that power has been revealed among his people, and is with them still. His arm is not shortened that he cannot save, neither has he withdrawn it from his church. Be encouraged while I suggest to you a few thoughts. The hand of God is upon many of our friends before we speak to them. It is most pleasant to me when I am seeing inquirers, to observe how God makes ready the hearts of my hearers. I am studying a certain subject, and praying to God for a blessing on it, and upstairs in a chamber, which I have never seen, one of my hearers is being made ready for my message; he is smitten with a sense of sin, or troubled with uneasy thoughts, or rendered hopeful of better things, and thus he is being made ready to accept the Christ whom I shall preach to him; yes, and ready to accept that particular form of the gospel message which the Spirit of God gave me when I preached. There on a sick bed will lie a woman painfully exercised with the sad memory of her sinful life, in order that when she comes up to the house of God every word may have power over her. Sickness and pain, shame and poverty, often produce a condition of mind most hopeful for the reception of the gospel. A man well to do in circumstances has been ruined in business, he despairs of happiness below, and therefore comes to hear the gospel, made willing to seek his happiness above. Another has lately felt failures of bodily strength, and so has been warned that life is frail, and thus he is prepared to listen to the admonitions which speak of eternity. Courage, minister of God: you are nothing, but the Almighty God is with you. When you lift your hand to build the house of the Lord, omnipotence works with you, and makes your labour a success. Every revolution of those awful wheels, so ponderous that even the prophet said, “O wheel!” is working to accomplish the object which is near your heart. The stars in their courses fight for you. The stones of the field are in league with you. Eternal wisdom plans for you, infinite power works with you, boundless patience perseveres with you, and almighty love will conquer by you. “The hand of the Lord was with them.” What more do we want? Sow, brother, for God has ploughed. Go up and build, for God has prepared the stones and made ready the foundation.

Moreover, the hand of the Lord is with his people in helping the teachers and preachers themselves. There are strange impulses which come over us at times, which make us think and say what otherwise had never crossed our minds, and these work with power upon men’s minds. If you will live to win souls it shall be given you in the selfsame hour what ye shall speak. You will often say to an inquirer what you would not have beforehand arranged to say, but God, who knows that inquirer’s heart better than you do, has prevented your saying what you would have liked to have said, and has led you to say what you afterwards judged to be a mistake. My experience teaches me that we are often wise in our ignorance, and as often foolish in our wisdom. We have frequently done best when we felt that we did but badly. If we will but trust God and be whole-hearted in the winning of souls we shall have a power assisting us in our speech of which the greatest orator in the world is not aware. Speak in the House of Commons for a party, and you will have to look within for aid, but speak in the house of the Lord and you may look upward for spiritual aid. The poet invokes the fabled muses, but for you, O servant of the Lord, there is real help from a higher source. Think of this, ye workers, and be encouraged.

Besides providence and the gracious help by which good men speak, there is a distinct work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of men where the gospel is preached. Not only is the Spirit in the Word, but over and above that, in his own elect God worketh most effectually, so the truth is rendered irresistible. Let us never forget where our great strength lieth, for in this matter we must rely alone upon the Spirit of God. How often has God wrought in the power of his grace by making men feel the majesty of the word. They come, perhaps, to hear the preacher out of the idlest curiosity, they look for something which shall amuse them; but the truth comes home to them and searches their heart. Simple as the language is, “as if an angel spake they hear the solemn sound”; it goes through them like a dart, and they cannot help feeling, “Surely God was there, and he spoke with me.”

The Spirit of God makes men recollect their sins: they try to forget them, but sometimes they cannot; sad memories steal over them, and wholesome regrets thrill their very souls. Men who have been giddy and careless, and forgetful, have on a sudden found themselves turning over the pages of their old diaries, and with thoughtfulness reviewing the past: all this leads to repentance and faith. That same Spirit makes men see the beauty of holiness; they cannot help admiring it, though they are far from it. They are charmed with the loveliness of the character of Jesus, and begin to feel that there is something about it which they would wish to imitate. When the preacher proclaims the way of salvation the same Spirit leads men to admire it, and to say within themselves, “There is something here which human wisdom could never have devised,” and they begin to long for a share in it. A wish takes possession of their heart, as though some strange bird from an unknown land had flown into their souls, and had amazed them with a new song. They do not know where the desire came from, but they feel strangely bound to entertain the stranger. Sometimes also the Spirit blows like a hurricane through men’s hearts, and they have been borne along by its power without the will to resist. As when a tempest rushes across the sea, and drives the frail bark before it helplessly, so have I known the divine Spirit sweep away the peace and quiet of the soul’s self-righteousness, stir up the deeps of inward trouble, make the soul reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and impel the heart forward to the iron-bound coast of self-despair, where every false hope and vain-glorious trust has been wrecked for ever. Glory be to God when this is the case, for then the soul is driven to cling to Jesus.

Yes, brethren, it is not the preacher, and it is not altogether what the preacher says, but there is a power abroad, as potent as that by which the worlds were made. Unbelievers sometimes ask, “Where is your God?” O sirs, if you once felt the power of the great Spirit you would never ask that question. “Since the fathers fell asleep,” say they, “all things continue as they were;” but this they willingly are ignorant of, that new creations are being wrought every day, that there are men and women alive in this world who are neither liars nor enthusiasts, who can declare that upon their spirit the eternal power and Godhead has operated and changed them, conquering them, and holding them henceforth as willing captives to its supreme majesty. Yes, brethren, there is a hand of the Lord, and that hand of the Lord is with his people still. If it be not, then we shall see no believing and no turning to God; but since it is still at work among us, let us work on, for as surely as we live we shall see great numbers converted to God, and God will be glorified.

Let us now dwell upon the desirableness of conversions. It is no new thing to you and to me to see many believing and turning to God. These two-and-twenty years God’s hand has been stretched out still: we have had no spasm of revival, we have not alternated between furious spurts and sudden lulls, but month by month, I think I might say Sabbath by Sabbath, souls have been saved, and the church has grown exceedingly, and God has been glorified. What we have enjoyed we desire to retain-yea, we would have more. The Lord says to us what he said to the church at Philadelphia, “Hold fast what thou hast, that no man take thy crown,” and our crown is the crown of soul winning, which we must hold fast, for we cannot endure to lose it. This must be our crown, that we have preached the gospel, both minister and church members, and have been all of us soul-winners. We desire this because, first of all, we desire to see truth, godliness, virtue, and holiness extended. Who among you does not? Does not every good man wish others to be good, every honest man wish others to be honest? Does not every man who loves his family desire that other families should be well-ordered? Oh, then, if there were no nobler reason, you may desire that men may be converted, since conversion is the root of everything that is pure, and lovely, and of good report.

You desire, too, that your fellow-creatures should be happy, but there is no such happiness as that which springs out of reconciliation to God. The peace which you yourselves enjoy through pardoned sin must surely make you desire that others may possess the same. If religion be indeed a source of perennial joy to yourself, you are inhuman if you do not wish others to drink of it. Brother, as you would make eyes sparkle, as you would make countenances radiant with delight, as I know you would spread gladness on all sides, desire above all things that your children, your relations, your neighbours, your friends, should be converted to God. Thus shall thorns and briars give place to myrtles and rose, and deserts shall be turned into gardens of the Lord.

You also desire conversion, I am sure, because you feel the dreadful hazard of unconverted men. You have not yet subscribed to the modern doctrine that these men and women around you are only two-legged cats and dogs and horses, and will ultimately die out and cease to be. You believe in the God-given immortality of human souls, a heritage from which no man can escape, the noblest of all man’s endowments; in itself the highest of all boons, though sin may pervert it into the direst of all necessities. You would have scant motives for desiring men’s conversion if you did not believe that there is another and everlasting state; but, believing that men live hereafter, and exist for ever, you must, I am sure, be eager that men may escape from the wrath to come. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, you would persuade men; judging that there is one of two things for them all, either “These shall go away into everlasting punishment”; or else, “The righteous into life eternal,” you can never rest until you feel convinced that those about you are partakers of life eternal. Look at any unconverted person, and your sympathies should be aroused. If I saw tokens of fever, or marks of consumption in the face of any one I loved, I should be struck with alarm; what, then, must I feel when I see damnation-as I do see it-in the face of every unbeliever? How is it that we are not more distressed than we are when men are perishing in their sins? Why, my brethren, are we not more intent upon the conversion of men? Let these questions humble us and cause great searchings of heart. It is a shame to us that we have so little of the mind of Christ, so little compassion for men’s souls.

Moreover, brethren, self-preservation is a law of nature, and the Church can never preserve herself except by increasing from the world by conversion. Where are the preachers for the next generation? To-day they are amongst the ungodly, and we must labour to bring them to God. Where are the stones that are to make the next course in the walls of our Zion? They are unquarried yet, and we must, by God’s grace, excavate them. We who now labour for the Lord will soon go our ways. Our thrones and crowns are waiting for us, and the angels are beckoning us away; who will fill our places? Who will bear the banner? Who will blow the trumpet? Who will wield the sword? We must find new champions in the ranks of the foe; they must be born unto God, and we must pray that this may be accomplished by our instrumentality.

Seek conversions for Christ’s sake. You know the agony and bloody sweat; shall these be spent in vain? You know the nailing to the cross and the shriek of “Why hast thou forsaken me?” shall these be unrewarded? You have thought over and trusted in the bitter pangs of your Redeemer’s death; shall he not see of the travail of his soul? Shall he not be satisfied? These lost sheep are his sheep, for whom he shed his precious blood; these lost pieces of money are his money, and they bear his image and superscription; shall they not be found? These lost sons, away there spending their living in riotousness, are his brothers, children of his Father; do you not desire for Jesus’ sake that they should be brought home?

Dear friends, what joy it will be to yourselves if men believe and turn to the Lord by your means. I put that motive last, and hope it will not be the strongest, but it may yet be one of the liveliest. What joy it will be to yourselves if you see many converted! Somebody has asked, “If the heathen are not evangelised, what will become of them?” I will put another question of a far more practical character. If you do not try to evangelise the heathen, what will become of you? Do not so much inquire about their destiny as your own, if you have no care for their salvation. He who never seeks the conversion of another is in imminent danger of being damned himself. I do not believe in any man’s salvation who is wrapped up in self, assuredly he is not saved from selfishness. I cannot believe in any man’s possessing the Spirit of God who is indifferent to the condition of others, for one of the first fruits of the Spirit is love. Even as flowers at their very first blooming shed their perfume, so do the saved ones in their earliest days of grace desire the good of their fellows. I know that one of my earliest impulses when I first looked to Christ and lost the burden of my sin was to tell everybody around me of the blessings I had received, for I longed to make others as happy as I was. I do fear me that you who never try to win souls lack an essential part of the Christian character. I leave the question with your own consciences.

Fourthly, let us enquire, what we can do to promote conversions. Conversion is God’s work: it cannot be wrought without his hand. Without him we can do nothing. Our hand is far too puny for such a work; the power of the first disciples and our own lies in the fact mentioned in the text,-“The hand of the Lord was with them.” Still, there are certain circumstances under which that hand will work, and there are hindrances which will restrain it. Let us think awhile. First, then, if sinners are to be converted we must distinctly aim at it. As a rule, a man does what he tries to do, and not that which is mere by-play. The conversion of sinners is not one of those things which a man is likely to accomplish without intending it. Sometimes in the sovereignty of God a preacher who does not aim at conversion may nevertheless be made useful, for God works as he wills; but largely, and as a rule men do not win souls if they do not eagerly desire to do so. Fishing for men cannot be carried out by throwing in the net anyhow, without caring whether fish be caught or no. Few traders become rich by accident, they generally have to plod and work hard for money: and to be rich in treasures of saved souls you must aim at it and labour for it. I am struck with astonishment as I think how many sermons are preached, how many Sunday-school addresses are given, how many religious books are written of which you are quite sure that the intention was not immediate conversion. It is thought that in some unknown way these good things may accidentally contribute to men’s salvation, but they are not aimed at as their present object. Ah, brother, if you want men to come to Christ you must preach Christ to them with all your heart, with this design, that immediately they may close in with Christ, and at once give their hearts to Jesus. Yes, and you are to pray that they may do so through the present effort which you are making for their good. There is the target, and if you continue to shoot into the air long enough an arrow may perhaps strike it; but, man alive, if you want to win the prize of archery you had better fix your eye upon the white and take your aim distinctly and with skill. If an individual would win souls he must bend his whole soul to it and make it the object of his whole energy.

Next to that we must take care if we would have souls won that we press upon them the truths which God usually blesses. Shall I read to you the verse before my text? Here it is: “They spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them.” Now, if we do not preach Jesus Christ we shall not see souls saved. There are certain forms of doctrines which condemn themselves by working out their own extinction. Did you ever hear of a minister whose preaching leaned towards Unitarianism but what the congregation sooner or later began to diminish? Though many such preachers have been men of great ability, they have not as a rule been able to keep the dead thing on its feet. You shall go into our small towns, and you may find an ancient chapel which was once an Independent, or a Presbyterian, or it may be a Baptist chapel; but if you see over the door “Unitarian,” you have, as a rule, seen all that there is. There is neither church nor congregation worthy of the name; frequently the place is never opened at all, and the grass grows knee deep on the path to the door. Even when these little places are used, you will generally find that they contain half a dozen nobodies who think themselves everybody as to intellect and culture. It is a religion of the utmost value to spiders, for those insects are able to spin their webs in the meeting-houses without fear. Who ever heard, who ever will hear of a Unitarian Whitfield, or a Socinian Moody gathering twenty thousand people to listen to a Christless gospel? It is a phenomenon which never has been seen and never will be. Men’s instincts lead them to turn away from a creed which contains so little which can solace the troubled soul.

If we want souls saved we must equally avoid the modern intellectual system in all its phases. “Oh,” cries somebody, “you should hear the great Mr. Bombast. It is-Oh, I cannot tell you what it is, but something very wonderful; it is an intellectual treat.” Just so; but how many conversions are wrought by this wonderful display of genius? How many hearts are broken by fine rhetoric? How many broken hearts are healed by philosophy? So far as I have observed, I find that God does not save souls by intellectual treats.

Certain views as to man’s future are equally to be kept clear of, if you would be the means of conversion. Diminish your ideas of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion you will diminish the results of your work. I could not conceive a Bunyan or a Baxter, or any other great soul-winner, falling into these new notions, or if he did there would be an end to his success. Other crotchets and novelties of doctrine are also to be let alone, for they are not likely to promote your object, but will most probably divert men’s attention from the vital point. Dear brothers and sisters, if you want a harvest, look well to your seed. Time was when gardeners threw all the little potatoes on one side for seed, and then they had bad crops; but now I have seen them pick out the very best and put them by. “We must have good seed,” say they. If I had to sow my fields with wheat I would not take the tail corn. I should grudge no expense about seed, for it would be false economy to buy any but the very best. Go preach, teach, and instruct with the best doctrine, even that of God’s word; for depend upon it though the result is not in your hands, yet it very much depends upon what you teach. O, eternal and ever blessed Spirit, guide thy servants into all truth!

Next to this, if you want to win souls for Christ, feel a solemn alarm about them. You cannot make them feel if you do not feel yourself. Believe their danger, believe their helplessness, believe that only Christ can save them, and talk to them as if you meant it. The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. If you can rest without their being saved they will rest too; but if you are filled with an agony for them, if you cannot bear that they should be lost, you will soon find that they are uneasy too. I hope you will get into such a state that you will dream about your child, or about your hearer perishing for lack of Christ, and start up at once and begin to cry, “O God, give me converts or I die.” Then you will have converts; there is no fear about that. God does not send travail pangs to his servants without causing them to abound in spiritual children. There will be new births to God when you are agonising for them.

But, let me add, there must be much prayer, delight to be at prayer-meetings where the brethren will not let the Lord go except he bless them, when a brother prays, choking as he speaks, tears rolling down his cheeks as he pleads with God to have mercy on the sons of men. I am always certain that sinners are ordained to be blessed when I see saints thus compelled to plead with God for them. In your closets alone, at your family altars, and in your gatherings for prayer be importunate, and the hand of the Lord must and will be with you. Cry aloud and spare not, plead as for your lives, and bring forth your strong arguments, for only by prevailing with God will you be enabled to prevail with men.

Then there must be added to prayer direct personal effort on the part of all of you. Great numbers may be saved by my preaching if the Holy Spirit blesses it, but I shall expect larger numbers if you all turn preachers, if every brother and sister here becomes a witness for Christ. Are you indolent? Are any of you beginning to sleep? I charge you, wake up. By the love you bear to Jesus, and by the love you bear to your fellow men, begin at once to seek the conversion of those who dwell around you. O my beloved, do not become lukewarm. My heart fails me at the very thought. If you are earnest, I live; if you grow slothful, my spirit dies within me.

Last of all, if you want to see many converts, expect them. “According to your faith so be it unto you.” Look out for them; believe that God will bless every sermon, and go a-hunting after the sermon to see where the converts are. As a company of sutlers and camp-followers generally follow every army, and after a battle go up to strip the slain, so if you cannot preach I would have you follow after the warriors to gather in the spoil. No one needed to urge the voracious spoilers to prowl over the field of Sedan or Gravelotte, but now it even seems needful to persuade you to collect a far nobler prey. Come ye up, come ye up, ye servants of the Lord, and divide the spoil with the strong. Christ has fought your battle, his arrows have been sharp in the hearts of the King’s enemies, the two-edged sword has smitten right and left; come ye up, ye sons of Jacob, to the prey, and gather in the converts as your spoil. Speak with the young converts, cheer the broken hearts, comfort the seekers, and bring into his palace trophies for your Lord. Verily, I say unto you, if ye look not for conversions neither shall ye obtain them, but then blame not the Lord; ye are not straitened in him, but in your own bowels. God bless you, beloved, and may we have a larger increase to this church during the next month than we have had for years past, that our God may have greater praise.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Acts 11.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-387, 450, 331.

CONVERSIONS ENCOURAGED

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, March 12th, 1876, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”-Deuteronomy 4:29-31.

Last Sabbath-day the title of my discourse was “Conversions desired,” and my earnest prayer to God has been that the effect of this morning’s sermon may be conversions accomplished. I cannot be happy unless I indulge the hope that some will this morning turn unto God with full purpose of heart, led to do so by the power of divine grace. For this I sought the Lord, and at this I resolved to aim. I asked myself, “What is the most likely subject in the hand of the Holy Spirit to lead men to the Lord? Shall I preach the terrors of the Lord, or shall I proclaim the sweetness of divine mercy? Each of these has its proper use, but which will be most likely to answer our design to-day?” I remembered the fable of the sun and the wind. These rival powers competed as to which could compel the traveller to cast away his cloak. The wind blew boisterously, and tugged at the garment as if it would tear it from the traveller’s shoulders, but he buttoned it the closer about him, and held it firmly with his hand. The battle was not to the strong and threatening. Then the sun burst forth from behind a cloud, when the wind had ceased its blustering, and smiled upon the traveller with warmth of kindness until he loosened his cloak, and by-and-by was glad to take it off altogether: the soft, sweet influence of the sun had vanquished where the storm had raged in vain. So I thought, perhaps if I preach the tender mercy of God, and his readiness to forgive, it may be to my hearers as the warm beams of the sun to the traveller, and they will cast away the garments of their sin and self-righteousness. I know that the arrows of love are keen, and wound many hearts which are invulnerable to the sword of wrath. O that these sacred darts may win the victory this day! When ships at sea apprehend a storm they will gladly make for an open harbour, but if it be doubtful whether they can enter the port they will rather weather the tempest than run the risk of being unable to enter the harbour’s mouth. Some havens can only be entered when the tide happens to be at the flood, and therefore the captain will not venture: but when the welcome signals are flying and it is clear that there is plenty of water, and that they may safely run behind the breakwater; they hesitate no longer, but make sail for the shelter. Let seeking souls know this day that the Lord’s harbour of refuge is open, the port of free grace can be reached, that there is sea room for the hugest transgressor, and love enough to float the greatest sinner into port. Ho, weather-beaten vessels, ye may come and welcome! There is no need that even for a solitary hour ye should run the risk of the tempest of almighty wrath; you are invited to find shelter and to enjoy it now.

It is rather singular that having these ideas floating in my mind, and desiring to preach free grace and abounding mercy, I should have found my text in Deuteronomy. Why, that is a book of the law, and is plentifully besprinkled with terrible threatenings, and yet I find a gospel theme in it: yea, and one of the very richest! As I read it I admired it for its connection as well as for its own fulness, it seems to me so pleasant to find this lily among thorns. As in the wintry months of the opening year one finds a crocus smiling up from the cold soil and in its golden cup offering a taste of the sunlight which summer will more fully bring, so amid the ungenial pages of the law I see this precious gospel declaration, which like the spring flower assures us that God’s love is yet alive, and will bring us happier times. My thoughts also likened this passage to the water which leaped from the smitten rock, for the law is like a rock, and the Pentateuch is hard and stern as granite; but here in its very bowels we find a crystal spring of which the thirsty may drink. I likened the text also to the manna lying on the desert sand, the bread of heaven glittering like a shining pearl upon the barren soil of the wilderness. Here amid the fiery statutes of the law, and the terrible judgments threatened by the God of Sinai you see this manna of mercy dropped about your tents this morning, as fresh, I hope, to you as if but newly fallen. May you eat of it and live for ever.

Let us come to our text at once. The Lord here encourages sinners to turn to himself, and find abundant grace. He encourages sinners who had violated his plainest commandments, who had made idols, and so had corrupted themselves, and had consequently been visited with captivity, and other chastisements-he invites them to turn from their evil ways, and seek his face. I feel moved to say at the commencement of this discourse that if the text has any limited aspect, if it is to be regarded as uttered to any special character among transgressors, it peculiarly belongs to backsliders; for the people to whom it was first addressed were the people of God, but they had set up idols, and so had wandered; and it is to them chiefly, though not to them exclusively, that these encouragements to repentance are presented. As probably there are some backsliders here who once stood in the church of God, but have been cut off therefrom, who once were very zealous and earnest in the cause of God, but have now become utterly indifferent to all religion, I charge such to take this text home to themselves. Take every syllable of it into your own heart, backslider. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the same, and may the text bring you to your knees and to your God. It gives you a pointed invitation to return from your wanderings and end your weary backslidings by coming once more to your Father’s house, for he will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of mercy which he has made on your behalf. Happy are you that you may return; happy shall I be if you do return. I thought I would lay special stress upon this, because the Lord himself, and his ministers with him, rejoice more over one lost sheep that returns to the Shepherd of souls than over ninety and nine that went not astray. There is rejoicing when a man finds a treasure which he never had before, but it is scarcely equal to the joy of the woman who found the piece of money which was hers already, but which she had lost. Glad is the house when the babe is born, but deeper is the joy when the lost son is found. My soul longs to see the Lord bring home his banished ones, and to be the means of gathering his scattered ones.

Still, the text is fully applicable to all sinners-to all who have corrupted themselves and done evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. The Ever-merciful encourages them to turn to him with full purpose of heart, by assuring them that he will not forsake them. There seems to me to be in the text three points which should induce an earnest seeking of his face at once, for here is, first, a time mentioned; secondly, a way appointed; and thirdly, encouragement given.

First, then, in the text there is a time mentioned. Look at it: “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord … When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days.”

The time in which the Lord bids you seek him, O you unforgiven ones, is first of all, “from thence,” that is, from the condition into which you have fallen, or the position which you now occupy. According to the connection of the text, the offending Israelites were supposed to be in captivity, scattered among various nations, dwelling where they were compelled to worship gods of wood and stone, which could not see, nor hear, nor feel, nor eat, nor smell; yet “from thence”-from the unhallowed heathen villages, from their lone sorrows by the waters of Babylon, from their captivity in far-off Chaldea, they were bidden to turn unto the Lord and obey his voice. Their surroundings were not to be allowed to hinder their prayers. Perhaps, dear friend, at this time you are dwelling amongst ungodly relations; if you begin to speak about religion you are put down at once, you hear nothing that can help you in the way to better things, but very much that would hinder you; nevertheless, do not delay, but “from thence,” even from thence seek you the Lord, for it is written: “If thou seek him he will be found of thee.” It may be you are living in a neighbourhood where everything is hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and injurious even to your morals. Time was, and you may remember it with regret, when you were a child upon the knee of a pious mother, when you spent your Sabbaths in the Sunday-school, when the Bible was read in your house every day: but now all these helps are taken from you, and everything around is dragging you down to greater and yet greater sin. Do not, however, make this a reason for delay; as well might a man refuse to go to a physician because he lives in an unhealthy locality, or a drowning man refuse the life-boat because a raging sea surrounds him. Hasten rather than slacken your speed. Do not tarry till your position improve; do not wait till you move into a godly family, or live nearer to the means of grace, for if thou seek him “from thence” he will be found of thee.

But you will tell me that it is not so much your regret that others are ungodly among whom you dwell, but that you yourself are in a wretched condition of heart, for you have followed after one sin and another until evil has become a habit with you, and you cannot shake it off. Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind you are driven on; an awful force impels you from bad to worse. Arouse yourself, O man, for immediate action, for if you wait till you have conquered this evil force by your own strength, if you delay to turn unto God until you are free from the dominion of sin, then assuredly you will wait for ever, and perish in your folly. If you could vanquish evil by your own power you would not need to seek the Lord, for you would have found salvation in yourself; but be not so infatuated as to dream of such a thing. To-day, “from thence,” from the place where, you now are, turn your face to your Father who is in heaven, and seek him through Jesus Christ. Recollect that hymn which ought to be sung every Sabbath-day in our assemblies-

“Just as I am-and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come.”

Every verse begins with “Just as I am,” and so must your prayer, your faith, your hope begin. The whole hymn commences “Just as I am,” and so must your Christian life be started.

The Lord invites you as you are and where you are. Are you one of a godless family, the only one in the house who has felt any serious thought at all? Come, then, and tarry not, for the Lord invites you. Are you the one man in a large workshop, where all the rest are irreligious? Admire his sovereign grace, accept the call, and henceforth be the Lord’s. The Lord invites those of you who have gone to the ends of the earth in sin, and brought yourselves into captivity by your rebellion. To-day, even today, he bids you seek him “with all your heart and with all your soul.”

With regard to the time of turning, it is well worthy of our notice that we are specially encouraged to turn unto the Lord if we are in a painful plight. Our text says, “When thou art in tribulation.” Are you sick? Have you felt ill for some time? Does your weakness increase upon you? Are you apprehensive that this sickness may even be unto death? When thou art in such tribulation then thou mayest return to him. A sick body should lead us the more earnestly to seek healing for our sick soul. Are you poor, have you come down from a comfortable position to one of hard labour and of scant provision? When thou art in this tribulation then turn to the Lord, for he has sent thee this need to make thee see thy yet greater necessity, even thy need of himself. The empty purse should make thee remember thy soul poverty, the bare cupboard should lead thee to see the emptiness of all thy carnal confidences, and accumulating debts should compel thee to calculate how much thou owest to thy Lord. It is possible that your trials are very bitter at this moment, because you are expecting to lose some whom you dearly love, and this is like rending half yourself away. One dear child is hardly cold in the tomb, and your heart is bleeding when you think of this loss-and now another is sickening and will follow the first. When thou art in this tribulation, then be sure to seek the Lord; for his pitying heart is open to thee, and he will sanctify this grief to noblest purposes. Is it possible that I speak to one whose, sins have become so open as to have been punished by the law of the land? Have you lost your character? Will none employ you any longer? When thou art in this tribulation then turn to thy Lord, for he will receive earth’s castaways, and make criminals his sons. Have you suffered from the just verdict of society because you are vicious, dishonest, and disreputable? Are you at this time despised and looked down upon? Yet even to you would I say, when thou art in tribulation, when every door is shut, when all hands are held up against you, even then seek the Lord, and he will be found of you. If your father scarcely dares to think upon your name, if you have been a grief to your sister’s heart, and have brought your mother’s grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, yet now, even in this shameful estate, when thou art in tribulation turn to the Lord thy God.

Doubtless there are some people who will never be saved except they come into tribulation. Their substance must all be spent, and a mighty famine must come upon them, the citizens of the far country must refuse them aid, and with hungry bellies they must stand at the trough and be willing to feed with the swine, or else it will never occur to them to say, “I will arise and go to my father.” No matter how deep your trouble, your safest and wisest course is to flee to God in Christ Jesus, and put your trust in him.

Notice further, when you feel that the judgments of God have begun to overtake you, then you may come to him: “When thou art in tribulation and all these things-these threatened things-are come upon thee.” There are many in this world who feel as if their sin had at last found them out, and had commenced to be a hell to them. The manslayer has overtaken them, and is striking at them with terrible blows. “Ah,” says one, “my great sins have provoked at last God, and all men may see what he has done unto me, for he has removed my choicest mercies from me. I despised a father’s instruction-that father is dead; I did not value my mother’s tears-my mother sleeps under the sod. The dear wife who used to beg me to walk to the house of God with her; I slighted and treated her with unkindness, and death has removed her from my bosom. The little child that used to climb my knee and sing its little hymns, and persuade me to pray, has gone too! God has found me out at last, and begun to strip me. These are only the first drops of an awful shower of wrath from which I cannot escape. Alas, while one mercy after another is removed, my former joys have been embittered, and are joys no more. I go to the theatre as I used to do, but I do not enjoy it. I see beneath the paint and the gilt, and it seems a mockery of my woe. My old companions come to see me, and they would sing me the old songs, but I cannot bear them; their mirth grates on my ear-at times it seems to be mere idiotic yelling. I used to get alone and philosophise and dote upon many things which afforded me comfort, but now I find no consolation in them-I have no joy of my thoughts now. The world is dreary, and my soul is weary. I am in the sere and yellow leaf, and all the world is fading with me. What little joy I had before has utterly departed, and no new joy comes. I am neither fit for God nor fit for the devil. I can find no peace in sin, and no rest in religion. Into the narrow way I fear I cannot enter, and in the broad way I am so jostled that I do not know how to pursue my course. Worst of all there is before me a dreadful outlook; I am filled with horrible apprehensions of the dread hereafter. I am afraid of the harvest which must follow the sad seed sowing of my misspent life. I have a dread of death upon me; I know not how near it may be, but it is too near, I know, and I am not prepared for it. I am overwhelmed with thoughts of the judgment to come. I hear the trump ringing in my ears when I am at my work. I hear the messengers of God’s justice summoning me and saying, ‘Come to judgment, come to judgment, come away.’ A fearful sound is in mine ears, and I, whither shall I go?” Hear, O man, and be comforted, for now is the appointed time for thee to seek the Lord, for our text says, “When all these things are come upon thee, if thou turn unto the Lord thy God, he will not forsake thee neither destroy thee.”

There is yet one more word which appears to me to contain great comfort in it, and it is this, “even in the latter days.” This expression may refer to the latter days of Jewish history, though I can scarcely think it does, because the Jews are not now guilty of idolatry. I rather think it must refer to the latter days of any one of their captivities and in our case to the latter days of life. Looking around me I see that many of you are advanced in years, and if you are unconverted I thank God I am as free to preach Christ to you as if you had been children or young men. If you have spent sixty or seventy years in rebellion against your God, you may return “even in the latter days.” If your day is almost over, and you have arrived at the eleventh hour, when the sun touches the horizon, and evening shadows thicken, still he may call you into his vineyard and at the close of the day give you your penny. He is longsuffering and full of mercy, not willing that any should perish, and therefore he sends me out as his messenger to assure you that if you seek him he will be found of you, “even in the latter days.” It is a beautiful sight, though it is mingled with much sadness, to see a very old man become a babe in Christ. It is sweet to see him, after he has been so many years the proud, wayward, self-confident master of himself, at last learning wisdom, and sitting at Jesus’ feet. They hang up in the cathedrals and public halls old banners which have long been carried by the enemy into the thick of the fight. If they have been torn by shot and shell, so much the more do the captors value them: the older the standard the more honour is it, it seems, to seize it as a trophy. Men boast when they have carried off-

“The flag that braved a thousand years

The battle and the breeze.”

Oh, how I wish that my Lord and Master would lay hold on some of you worn-out sinners, you who have been set up by the devil as standards of sin. O that the Prince of the kings of the earth would compel you to say, “Love conquers even me.”

I will not leave this head till I have said that it gives me great joy to be allowed to preach an immediate gospel to you-a gospel which bids you turn unto God and find present salvation. Suppose for a moment that the gospel ran thus,-“You, sinner, shall be saved in twelve months time if you turn to God.” Oh, sirs, I should count the days for you till the twelve months were gone. If it were written, “I will be found of you in March, 1877,” I should weary over you till the auspicious season arrived, and say, “Mayhap they will die before mercy’s hour has struck; spare them, good Lord.” Yes, and if it were true that God would not hear you until next Sabbath-day I should like to lock you up and keep you out of harm’s way, if I could, till that time arrived, lest you should die before the promised hour. If there were any way of insuring your lives, though you had to give all that you have for your soul, you might be glad to insure your life till next Lord’s-day. But, blessed be God, the promise does not tarry; it is now! “To-day if ye will hear his voice.” The gospel does not even bid you wait till you reach your home, or get to your bedside, but here and now, in that pew and at this moment, if you seek him with all your heart, and with all your soul, the Lord Jesus will be found of you, and present salvation shall be immediately enjoyed. Is it not encouraging to think that just now the Lord is waiting to be gracious.

But now, secondly, let us look at the way appointed. To find mercy, what are we bidden to do? “If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.” We have not, then, to bring anything to God, but to seek him. We have not to seek a righteousness to bring to him, nor seek a state of heart which will fit us for him, but to seek him at once. Sinner, you have offended God, none but God can forgive you, for the offences are against himself. Seek him, then, that he may forgive you. It is essential that you seek him as a real existence, and a true person, believing that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It is all in vain to seek sacraments, you must seek him: it is idle to go through forms of prayer, or to utter customary phrases of devotion, you must seek him. Your salvation lies in God, sinner, and your seeking must be after God. Do you understand this? It is not going to your priest or to your clergyman, or to your Bible or to your Prayer-book, or even to your knees in formal prayer; but you must draw near to God in Christ Jesus, and he must be found of you as a man finds a treasure and takes it to be his own. “But where shall I find him?” saith one. When they sought God of old they went to the mercy-seat, for there the Lord had promised to speak with them. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is that mercy-seat, sprinkled with precious blood, and if you want to find God, you must seek him in the person of Jesus Christ. Is it not written: “No man cometh unto the Father but by me!” Jesus is the one Mediator between God and man, and if you would find God, you must find him in the person of Jesus the Nazarene, who is also the Son of the Highest. You will find Jesus by believing him, trusting him, resting upon him. When you have trusted Jesus, you have found God in Jesus, for he hath said, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” Then have you come to God when you have believed in Jesus Christ. How simple this is! How unencumbered with subtleties and difficulties! When God gives grace, how easy and how plain is believing. Salvation is not by doing, nor by being, nor by feeling, but simply by believing. We are not to be content with self, but to seek the Lord. Being nothing in ourselves, we are to go out of ourselves to him. Being ourselves unworthy, we are to find worthiness in Jesus.

We are also to grasp the Lord as ours, for the text says, “Thou shalt seek the Lord thy God.” Sinners, that is a part of saving faith, to take God to be your God; if he is only another man’s God, he cannot save you; he must be yours, yours, assuredly yours, yours to trust and love and serve all your days, or you will be lost.

Now, mark God’s directions: “If thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” There must be no pretence about this seeking. If you desire to be saved, there must be no playing and toying, trifling and feigning. The search must be real, sincere, and earnest, fervent, intense, thorough-going, or it will be a failure. Is this too much to ask? Surely if anything in the world deserves earnestness it is this. If anything ought to arouse all a man’s powers to energy, it is the salvation of his soul. You cannot win gold and attain riches without being in earnest in the pursuit: but what earnestness does this deserve? This obtaining eternal life, deliverance from eternal death, acceptance in the beloved, endless bliss? Oh, men, if you sleep over anything, at any rate be awake here! If you trifle upon any matters of importance, yet here at any rate be serious, solemn, and earnest. Here there must be no idling and no delay. Note that there is a repetition in the text. “If thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul,” we must be doubly in earnest, heart and soul must be in the pursuit. Half-hearted seeking is no seeking at all. To ask for mercy from God and at the same time to be willing to be without it is a mere pretence of asking. If you are content to be put off with an inferior blessing, you are not seeking the Lord at all. I remember one who is now a member of this church who in a desperate fit of soul anxiety said solemnly to one of us, “I will never go to work again, I will neither eat nor drink till I have found the Saviour,” and with that solemn resolve it was not long before he had found him. Oh, sirs, suppose you should be lost. Suppose you should perish while I am speaking! I know of no reason why your pulse should continue to beat, or your breath should remain in your nostrils, and if at this moment you were to die, at that selfsame instant you would plunge amidst the flames of hell. Escape then at once. Even now make soul matters your sole concern. Whatever else you have to attend to, leave it alone, and attend first to this chief thing, the salvation of your soul. If a man were in a sinking vessel, he may have been a student of the classics, but he will not think of his stopping to translate an ode of Horace: he may have been a mathematician, but he will not sit down to work out an equation; he will leap at once from the sinking vessel into the boat, for his object will be to save his life. And should it not be so as to our eternal life? My soul, my soul, this must be saved, and with all my heart will I seek to God in Jesus Christ that I may find salvation.

The text further adds that we are to turn to him. Did you notice the thirtieth verse-“If thou turn to the Lord thy God.” It must be a thorough turn. You are looking now towards the world-you must turn in the opposite direction, and look Godward. It must not be an apparent turn, but a real change of the nature, a turning of the entire soul; a turning with repentance for the past, with confidence in Christ for the present, and with holy desires for the future. Heart, soul, life, speech, action, all must be changed. Except ye be converted ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. May God grant you such a turn as this, and to this end do you pray, “Turn me, and I shall be turned.”

Then it is added, “and be obedient to his voice,” for we cannot be saved in disobedience: Christ is not come to save his people in their sins, but from their sins. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.” Do you see, my dear unconverted hearers, what God’s advice is to you? It is that now you obey his gospel, and bow before the sceptre of his Son Jesus. He would have you own that you have erred, and entreat to be kept from erring again. Your proud self-will must yield, and your self-confidence must be renounced, and you must incline your ear and come unto him, “Hear and your soul shall live.” This his Holy Spirit will grant you grace to do. This is the least that could be asked of you; you could not expect the great King to pardon rebels and allow them to continue in rebellion: he could not allow you to continue in sin and yet partake of his grace. You know that such a course would not be worthy of a holy God.

Do you feel inclined at this moment to turn to the Lord? Does some gentle power, you have never felt before, draw you beyond yourself? Do you perceive that it would be well for you to be reconciled to your God and Father? Do you feel some kindlings of regret, some sparks of good desire? Then yield to the impulse: I trust it is the Holy Spirit within, working in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Yield at once: completely yield, and he will lead you by a way you know not, and bring you to Jesus, and in him shall find peace and rest, holiness, happiness, and heaven. Let this be the happy day. Bend before the Spirit’s breath as the reed bows in the wind. Quench not the Spirit, grieve him no more-

“Lest slighted once the season fair

Should ne’er return again.”

Beware lest bleeding love should never woo again, lest pitying grace should never more entreat, and tender mercy should never more cast its cords around you. The spouse said, “Draw me, we will run after thee,” do you say the same. Behold, before you there is an open door, and within that door a waiting Saviour, will you perish on the threshold?

Thirdly, the text contains very rich encouragements. How does it run? “For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee.” Catch at that sinner, “He will not forsake thee.” If he were to say, “Let him alone, Ephraim is given unto idols,” it would be all over with you; but if you seek him he will not say, “Let him alone,” nor take his Holy Spirit from you. You are not yet given up, I hope, or you would not have been here this morning to hear this sermon.

I thought when I woke this morning, and saw the snow and pitiless sleet driven by a vehement wind, that it was a pity I had studied such a subject, for I would like to have the house crowded with sinners, and they are not so likely to come out in bad weather. Just then I recollected that it was upon just such a morning as this that I found the Saviour myself, and that thought gave me much courage in coming here. I thought the congregation cannot be smaller than that of which I made one on that happy day when I looked to Christ. I believe that many will this morning be bought out and saved, for the Lord has not forsaken this congregation. I used to think he had given me up, and would not show me mercy after so long seeking in vain; but he had not forsaken me, nor has he cast you off, O sinner! If you seek him with all your heart, you may rest assured he will not forsake you.

And then it is added, “Neither destroy thee.” You have been afraid he would; you have often thought the earth would open and swallow you; you have been afraid to fall asleep lest you should never wake again; but the Lord will not destroy you; nay rather he will reveal his saving power in you.

There is a sweeter word still in the 29th verse: “Thou shalt find him if thou seek him.” I wish I could sing, and could extemporize a bit of music, for then I would stand here and sing those words: “Thou shalt find him if thou seek him.” At any rate, the words have sweet melody in them to my ear and heart-“Thou shalt find him if thou seek him.” I should like to whisper that sentence softly to the sick, and to shout it to the busy. It ought to linger long in your memories, and abide in your hearts-“Thou shalt find him if thou seek him.” What more, poor sinner, what more dost thou want?

Then there are two reasons given: “For the Lord thy God is a merciful God.” Oh, guilty soul, the Lord does not want to damn you, he does not desire to destroy you. Judgment is his strange work. Have you ever had to chasten your child? When you have felt bound to punish severely by reason of a great fault, has it not been very hard work? You have said to yourself a hundred times over, “What shall I do? What shall I do to escape from the misery of causing pain to my dear child?” You have been driven to chasten him or you would not have done it. God never sends a sinner to hell till justice demands it. He finds no joy in punishing. He swears, “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Look at the judge when he puts on the black cap, does he do so with pleasure? Nay, some of our judges speak with choked utterance and with many tears when they say to the prisoner, “You must be taken to the place from whence you came, there to be hanged by the neck till you are dead.” God never puts on the black cap without his heart yearning for men. His mercy endureth for ever, and he delighteth in it.

Notice how the Lord teacheth us his care even over the most guilty by the comparisons he makes. “What man of you,” says he, “having a sheep gone astray will not go after it until he find it? What man of you having a sheep that is fallen into a ditch will not pull it out?” Any animal which belongs to us causes us concern if we lose it, or it is in trouble. I noticed the other night how even the little kitten could not be missing without causing anxiety to the household. What calling and searching! Rougher natures might say, “if the kitten will keep out of doors all night, let it do so.” But the owner thought not so, for the night was cold and wet. I have seen great trouble when a bird has been lost through the opening of a cage door, and many a vain struggle to catch it again. What a stir there is in the house about a little shortlived animal. We do not like to lose a bird, or a kitten, and do you think the good God will willingly lose those whom he has made in his own image, and who are to exist for ever? I have used a very simple and homely illustration, but it commends itself to the heart. You know what you would do to regain a lost bird, and what will not God do to save a soul! An immortal spirit is better than ten thousand birds. Does God care for souls? Ay, that he does, and in proof thereof Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost. The Shepherd cannot rest while one of his flock is in danger. “It is only one sheep! You have ninety-nine more, good man, why do you fret and bother yourself about one?” He cannot be pacified. He is considering where that sheep may be. He imagines all sorts of perils and distresses. Perhaps it is lying on its back, and cannot turn over, or it has fallen into a pit, or is entangled among briars, or the wolf is ready to seize it. It is not merely its intrinsic value to him, but he is concerned for it because it is his sheep, and the object of his care. Oh, soul, God has such a care for man. He waits to be gracious, and his Spirit goes forth towards sinners; therefore return to him.

Now dwell upon that last argument-“He will not forget the covenant of thy fathers.” The covenant always keeps open the path between God and man. The Lord has made a covenant concerning poor sinners with his Son Jesus Christ. He has laid help upon one that is mighty, and given him for a covenant to the people. He evermore remembers Jesus, and how he kept that covenant; he calls to mind his sighs, and tears, and groans, and death-throes, and he fulfils his promise for the great Sufferer’s sake. God’s grace has kept his covenant on the behalf of men: God is even eager to forgive that he may reward Christ, and give him to see of the travail of his soul. Now, hearken unto me, ye who are still unconverted. What solid ground there is here for your hope. If the Lord were to deal with you according to the covenant of works, what could he do but destroy you? But there is a covenant of grace made in Jesus Christ on the behalf of sinners, and all that believe in Jesus are interested in that covenant and are made partakers of the countless blessings which that covenant secures. Believe thou in Jesus. Cast thyself upon him, and by the covenant mercies of God thou shalt assuredly be saved.

You have heard me preach like this before, have you not, a good many times? Yes, and I am sometimes fearful lest God’s people should grow tired of this kind of sermon: but then you need it over and over again. How many more times will some of you want to be told this? How many more times must the great mercy of God be set before you? Are we to keep on inviting you again and again and again and go back with no favourable answer from you? I have been questioning myself in the night watches about this, and I have said, “These people are unconverted, is it my fault? Do I fail in telling them my Lord’s message? Do I mar the gospel?” Well, I thought, “If it be so, yet I will charge them not to be partakers of my fault.” Brothers and sisters, God’s mercy is so rich that, even when the story of it is badly told, it ought to influence your hearts. It is so grand a thing that God should be in Christ reconciling the world to himself by a wondrous sacrifice, that if I stuttered and stammered you ought to be glad to hear it; or even if I told you in terms that were obscure you ought to be so eager to know it that you would search out my meaning. In secret correspondence a cipher is often used, but inquisitive people soon discover it, ought there not to be yet more interest taken in the gospel? But, my friends, I do not speak obscurely. I am as plain a speaker as one might meet in a day’s march, and with all my heart I set Christ before you, and bid you trust him; will you do so this morning, or will you not? See how dark it is outside, even at noon-day. God has hung the very heavens in mourning. Never fear, the sun will soon break forth and light up the day; and even so

“Our hearts, if God we seek to know

Shall know him, and rejoice;

His coming like the morn shall be,

As morning songs his voice.

So shall his presence bless our souls,

And shed a joyful light;

That hallow’d morn shall chase away

The sorrows of the night.”

Portion of Scripture Read before Sermon-Deuteronomy 4.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-199, 555, 40.