“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be?”-Luke 1:34.

Zacharias and the Virgin Mary were both very dear to God, and therefore highly honoured and greatly favoured. The points of likeness between them are many. They were both persons of eminent character, for Zacharias walked in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless, and Mary was equally gracious and devout. They were both visited by an angel, and were both favoured with the prediction of a marvellous birth. Their answers to the angel are our two texts, and at first sight they seem to be alike. One does not see much less of faith or of unbelief in the one than in the other at first reading them, and yet Zacharias was blamed and chastened by being made dumb for a season, while the Virgin was indulged with an explanation, and was afterwards praised by the Holy Spirit, who spake through her cousin Elizabeth, and said, “Blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” It appears very clear then that God can see differences where we see none; and though two persons may act very much alike, and from their lips may fall similar expressions, yet their temper and spirit may be widely different Where you and I would put them together and say, “They are alike,” God sees a difference; for while we judge sights and sounds the Lord weigheth the spirits. You must have noticed this in other parts of God’s word. I will give you two instances in the life of Abraham. Lot was commanded not to look towards Sodom, and his wife after looking to Sodom was turned into a pillar of salt; and yet that morning Abraham gat up early to the place where he was wont to meet with the Lord and it is specially recorded that he looked toward Sodom. The very thing which Lot must not do Abraham may do. It is the same action; but then, if you think a moment, you can clearly see that the looking back of Lot would mean a lingering desire to return, but the look of Abraham had nothing of that kind in it, and could have no evil significance. He was simply looking to the burning cities and admiring with solemn awe the justice of the Most High as he saw the heavens ruddy with flame and afterwards dark with dense clouds, while the smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace. The action was the same externally, but widely different in reality; and the Lord God does not so much regard our outward acts as the motives which direct them and the spirit in which they are performed.

Perhaps a more remarkable instance is that of Abraham and his wife Sarah. When they each received a distinct promise of the birth of Isaac it is said that Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and then we read a little farther on, “Sarah laughed within herself.” We never find that Abraham was censured for laughing. He laughed rightly. It was the natural expression of a wondering and amazed delight. It was holy laughter, and he was not censured nor called to account for it; but the Lord said unto him, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh?” Sarah was censured for doing the very thing which in Abraham was quite right, and did not need to be corrected. They both laughed: the one was right, but the other was wrong. Wherefore? Because there was a vital difference between them. Sarah’s was the laugh of unbelief: she thought it could not be that at her age she should bear a child, her lord being old also. She laughed at the very idea; it seemed altogether too absurd; the mere notion struck her as being perfectly ridiculous, and though a devout woman she somewhat forgot the reverence due to him who gave the promise, and she laughed, though in a subdued and quiet way, “within herself.” Abraham believed that the divine promise would be performed, and his was the laugh of joy to think that he should see a son born to his beloved Sarah, who should be his heir and the inheritor of the covenant. His soul danced within him with delight, because he believed what the Lord had spoken. Yet the two actions outwardly are so exactly similar that if you condemn one you think you must condemn the other, but God does not, since he sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

We may apply this great truth to ourselves. We all sang the same hymn just now to the same tune, and yet from one it may have been to God’s ear music and from another mockery. We closed our eyes just now and bowed our heads in prayer, and anyone looking upon us might have supposed us to be all equally accepted, but the Lord knows in whose case the heart was wandering upon the mountains of vanity and in whose case the soul with all its powers was crying out unto the living God. Judge yourselves, beloved, but never judge yourselves according to the sight of the eyes, and never be satisfied with yourselves because externally everything is correct-because you have passed through the routine of religion and attended to the machinery of the outward form. Do not be contented with postures, sounds, and looks-the soul is the soul of the matter. Look at the heart and cry to God also that he would search you, and make you clean in the secret parts, and in the hidden parts make you to know wisdom; else may you stand as God’s people do, and go in and out of the house of prayer even as the brightest of the saints do, and never be separated from them until the trumpet rings out the great tremendous day and you are sent to the left with the goats to be withered by a curse, while his people on his right hand shall receive the blessing for ever. Let us all remember that there may be an external similarity in apparent right or wrong, and yet there may be an inward and a real dissimilarity; for it is the inward that is the real, and not the outward, and the great Judge will search and try and separate between the precious and the vile, though the vile may seem to be more beautiful than the precious genuine diamond.

But now, leaving the general principle, I invite you, dear friends, to come back to my texts, and accompany me in looking at these two persons to see whether there is not a difference perceptible by ourselves; and I think we shall find a great deal more diversity than we had expected. I cannot work out the whole matter in one sermon, but some prominent points will I hope interest and profit you.

And notice, to begin with, that supposing the two expressions of Zacharias and Mary had been identical, and supposing that they had conveyed the same thoughts, yet if they had both been wrong, Zacharias would have been the more faulty of the two, for he was a priest-a man set apart by office to study the word of God and to draw peculiarly near to God on his own account and for the people; while Mary was simply a humble village maid. Mary, it is true, was of royal descent, but her family had fallen into obscurity. She was a person of superior mind, but she held no office that could distinguish her from others. Zacharias being a priest was bound to act with a higher degree of faith than Mary, the lowly maiden. The priest’s lips should keep knowledge and teach many. Were not the priests set apart to be instructors of the people, helpers of those that are weak, and guides of those who are ignorant and out of the way? They should therefore in all things set an example. If Mary had been unbelieving and Zacharias unbelieving, and both unbelieving to the same extent, yet in Zacharias it would have been much worse, because his very office called upon him to display greater grace than the humble maiden. Brethren and sisters, may I not apply this to myself and to you? Brother ministers, if we are unbelieving, we in our unbelief do not sin so cheaply as our people: we have more time to study the word, and therefore we have, or ought to have, more acquaintance with it. We are more familiar with divine things, and ought to be more richly filled with their faith-creating spirit. If the Lord has been pleased to make us under-shepherds over his people, we are bound to be ensamples to the flock. Our high position demands of us the exhibition of a greater degree of grace than we can expect from common believers, who are God’s dear people, but are not set apart to be leaders. The same line of argument will apply in due proportion to each servant of our Lord Jesus: according to their measure of grace more is expected of some than of others. You, dear sisters, who teach young people should remember that they watch you, and they expect to see in you a bright example; and, what is more, God, who has placed you in the position of teachers, or of mothers, intends that there should be in you, by his grace, something that others may look up to, that the young beginners may learn from you. Take heed that they never learn unbelief from your doubtings. Let them never see in you that worry, that anxiety, that fretfulness, which denotes the absence of a calm reliance upon God, but let them, whatever they gather from you, learn that which is worth knowing. And what can be a better lesson than that of faith in God? You who are in the church, dear friends, preachers, elders, deacons, and instructors of others, do see to it, that your lives and words do not breed unbelief. Especially do I speak to myself upon this point, for, being much exercised in spirit, I tremble lest I should suggest to any of you doubts and fears, or encourage you in them. Let those of us who are guides of others see to it that we do not dishonour God by mistrust and questioning, for unbelief in us is a glaring fault, and God will surely visit it upon us, even if he winks at it in the weak ones of the flock.

Again, in Zacharias’ case it was not merely his office that distinguished him, but he was a man of years. We read that both himself and his wife were “well stricken in years.” Now, a man who has had a long experience of the things of God-a man of prayer who has had many answers-a man of trouble who has had many deliverances-a man who has seen the hand of God with him in a long journey through the wilderness of life-is expected by God to exhibit a far stronger faith than the young people who have but lately learned his name. I speak to many here who are by far my seniors, of whom I may say that they were in Christ before me, and they must pardon my saying that they should have more faith than I by reason of their years of constant experience of the Lord’s faithfulness and truth; and I, too, who have known the Lord for now a considerable number of years, must never put myself down with those who were converted during the last few months and say that I am to have no more faith than they. Shame upon every one of us if every day does not bring us fresh motives for believing in our Lord. Every hour, indeed, should be fraught with arguments for a more complete childlike trust in him. What, dear sister, did the Lord help you in such and such a strait? And do you not remember that you said, “I shall never doubt him any more”? And yet you have done so. Ah, how grievous must those doubts be to your gracious Lord! I know you thought you would never be delivered at one time, but you were mercifully lifted up from the depths; out of six troubles you have been rescued, and in seven no evil has touched you; and now that a fresh trial is come will you not believe your God? Well, if you do not, you will certainly incur very grievous sin and vex the Holy Spirit of God much more than your poor little sister Mary would do if, having only lately known the Saviour, she should distrust him in her first conflicts. Babes in grace should not doubt, but if they do their unbelief is not so wilful as that of fathers in Israel. If standard-bearers faint it is a sad calamity, and the faintness of poor wounded common soldiers is far less to be deplored. When aged Zacharias errs in this matter he is more to be blamed than youthful Mary.

Those two points are pretty clear, are they not?

Furthermore, let us observe that Zacharias had made the birth of a child a subject of prayer, which, I suppose, had not so much as been thought of by Mary. Beyond the fact that it was the usual desire of all Hebrew women that they might be the mother of the Messias, the Virgin had probably never cast a single thought in the direction in which the angel’s salutation conducted her; assuredly she had never made it a subject of prayer, but Zacharias had rightly done so. Read the thirteenth verse, “The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son.” And yet, though the promise came as a distinct and manifest answer to his prayers, Zacharias asked, “Whereby shall I know this?” Now, this was wrong: it was very wrong. He had been praying for it, and when it came he did not believe in it. Ah, Zacharias, you are verily guilty here. If it had come as a surprise altogether, as it did to Mary, there would be some excuse for your doubt; but when it is a reply to your own entreaties, a gracious yielding to intense requests, your unbelieving question is a grievous fault. If, when taken by surprise, Mary had doubted, it would have appeared natural, but for you, Zacharias,-for you to whom the angel said, “Thy prayer is heard”-how dost thou doubt about it now? Astonishment at answered prayers is amazement at divine truthfulness, and what is that but a low idea of the Lord unintentionally discovering itself. Yet I have sometimes thought that, if the Lord wished to surprise his own servants, all he would have to do would be to answer their prayers. He does so answer them continually, and in consequence you hear one and another say, “Is it not surprising? You see, we met and had a prayer meeting for a certain blessing, and the Lord has answered our supplications. How marvellous!” And yet if you sit down in a friend’s house, do his children try to astonish you by mentioning cases in which their father kept his word? Do they dwell with amazement upon his having spoken the truth? Yet I could wish that the Lord’s children would even get as far as that. Alas, they even overlook the majority of the facts which prove his veracity, and treat his faithfulness slightly. When his people are in a better frame than usual they admit his faithfulness, and mention as a great wonder that he heard prayer and fulfilled his word. Should this be so? Has it come to pass that it is a wonder for God to hear prayer? Have we fallen into such a low state of heart that we think his truthfulness to be a surprising thing? It were far better if we were of the same mind as a good old lady who, when some one said, “Is it not wonderful?” replied, “Well, it is one way, but it is not another, for it is just like him-just like him.” We may well be surprised at the tenderness of his great mercy, but not as though it were a novelty for God to do good and to keep his promise by regarding his people’s cries. Dear brothers and sisters, we ought to be surprised if the Lord did not hear us, seeing that he is the true and faithful, prayer-hearing God. When you and I have had a matter heavily laid upon our hearts, and have been before God with it again and again, as doubtless Zacharias had, we should be looking out for our Lord’s gracious reply. Do we not expect answers to letters which we write to our friends? Why do we not in like fashion expect replies to prayer? If God answers us are we to be so doubtful in mind as even to question the truthfulness of the blessing? If so we shall be manifestly guilty. If the Lord sends us a mercy in reply to our requests, and we do not believe it, but say, “Whereby shall I know this?” then our unbelief has a peculiar degree of provocation in it, and we may expect to be chastened for it. This was the case with Zacharias.

The next point about Zacharias is that he doubted the fact which was announced by the angel in the name of the Lord. He said, “Whereby shall I know this?” Mary did not doubt the fact: she wished to know how it could be, but she believed it would be. She believed, for it was said of her, “Blessed is she that believed.” But this good man did not believe, for the angel said to him, “Thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.” Now beloved, when it comes to this, that we dare to doubt the promise of God, is it not a very grievous crime? If your child-your own child-whom you have loved so long and treated so tenderly should fall into a state of mind in which he did not believe you, his own father, would you not feel it to be peculiarly grievous? If you were conscious of nothing but love to him, if you were sure that throughout his life you had never broken a promise to him, but had always been as good as your word, if you had repeated your promise again and again, and he still said, “Father, I wish I could believe you,” would you not be cut to the heart by such a declaration? The more earnestly he expressed regret at his inability to believe you, the more intense would be your pain. What an awful speech for a son to address to a father-“I wish I could believe you”! You would grieve in spirit and say inwardly, “What does my boy think of me? What has come over my child that he cannot believe me? It was not an enemy, then I could have borne it; but it is my child whom I love who says, not only that he does not believe me, but that he would do so if he could, and finds himself unable to think me true. He speaks in deep earnest, and thus I see how thoroughly the cruel feeling possesses him, and how desperate is the evil which leads him to mistrust my love.” Ah, beloved, I leave your own thoughts, as I must just now leave mine, to peer into the depths of sin which must lie in what we sometimes talk of so flippantly, namely, doubts and fears. They are not the trifles which some men dream them to be: they are hideous profanities of sacred truth, revolting libels upon immaculate goodness, horrid blasphemies of infinite love! Shall the good God be thus assailed? Shall his own children thus ill-use him? Your child might doubt you, and it might be a trifle to him, but it would be death to you, his father or mother. You would feel it keenly; and so you may think that doubts and fears are trifles, but your heavenly Father does not think so; unbelief wounds him and grieves his Spirit. Hear what the Lord says: “How long will it be ere they believe me?” Forget not the apostle’s warning in the third chapter of the Hebrews. “With whom was he grieved forty years? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?” Zacharias did not believe, and he had to smart for it, as you and I shall if we, when we see a promise written clearly in God’s word, and evidently quite adapted to our case, nevertheless say, “Whereby shall I know this?”

Yet further. The good man Zacharias-for, remember, I am not doubting his grace, but on the contrary I began by saying that he was a very gracious and eminently godly man, probably much better than any of us, and possibly in some respects even more gracious than Mary herself, having a deeper experience, a fuller knowledge, greater courage, and many other superior gifts and graces, although in this point he failed: he doubted his Lord; and showed his unbelief by asking for a sign, “Whereby shall I know this?” He wanted a sign or a token that what the angel spake was true. This was not the case with Mary, who sought an explanation but not a token. Is it wrong, then, to ask for a token? Assuredly not in all cases, for it may even be sinful not to ask for one, as in the case of Ahaz, of whom we read, “Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?” In the case of Ahaz it was sinful to refuse, and in that of Zacharias sinful to request. Here again I must come back to the remark I started with, and remind you that the same thing may be right in one man and wrong in another, according to the motive. It is very curious that Abraham used almost identical words with Zacharias, when he said, “Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit this land?” He distinctly asked the Lord for a sign, nor was the request at all grievous to the Lord, for he knew that his servant Abraham asked that sign in all humility and childlike faith. Let me show you at once the difference between Abraham and Zacharias. Zacharias will not believe without a sign: Abraham has already believed, and waited long for the fulfilment of the promise, and feels that a sign would be comforting to him. It could in no sense have been said to the great father of the faithful, “Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe,” but some such rebuke might have been directed towards Zacharias. There was conspicuous faith in Abraham, and the desire for a token was natural rather than sinful. So was it with Gideon, who asked for many signs. You see at the very first that Gideon believes, and he acts upon his faith; but he trembles because his faith is weak, and he asks for signs to strengthen his confidence; indeed, he did not distrust the Lord at all, but only questioned whether it was the Lord who spoke. Gideon said, “If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.” The question, you see, was not the truthfulness of God, but whether indeed the Lord had spoken. Zacharias, however, asks an altogether unbelieving question, “Whereby shall I know this?” He wants a sign as the condition of his believing.

You may very rightly pray, “Lord, show me a token for good;” but you must believe before you get the token, and you must not let your believing depend upon that token. There is a difference, and a wide difference, between believing first and then asking for some cheering evidence, and that unbelieving obstinacy which demands signs and wonders, and declares, “I will not believe unless I see a token.” Thomas is an instance of this error when he says, “Except I see in his hand the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe.” His Master bent to his weakness, but he said, and very significant are the words, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” The chief blessing belongs to you who, whether you have evidences or not, are content to believe your God, taking this word of God as quite sufficient ground for your confidence without any delights of heart or ecstasies or spiritual visitations. Our God is true even if no wonder be wrought and no sign be given: let us settle this in our hearts, and never allow a doubt to intervene. O Holy Spirit, help us in this thing.

All this together shows that the error of Zacharias was unbelief, and his chastisement which he received for it is worthy of our earnest attention. He was chastened for his unbelief because the Lord loved him; his affliction was sent not so much in anger as in love.

He had asked for a sign, and by a sign was he chastened. God often makes us gather the twigs from which he makes the rod with which he scourges us. Our own sins are the thorns which cause us to smart. Zacharias asked for a sign, and he has this sign: “Thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.” For months he shall not be able to speak a single word; but while his mouth is closed to others it shall be open to himself: that dumb mouth of his shall be preaching to him and saying, “You did not believe what was spoken to you of the Lord, and now you are unable to repeat it to others, for the Lord will not employ an unbelieving messenger. If you will not believe when God’s angel speaks, you shall not speak yourself.” Many a dumb Christian, I am afraid, has had his mouth sealed through unbelief. The Lord saves him and gives him much enjoyment, but he denies him utterance because he has such slender faith. I have no doubt Zacharias was very happy in the prospect of the birth of his child, and looked earnestly onward to the day when John, the prophet of the highest, should be born, and he himself should recover speech; but still it must have been very painful to remain for so long a time in utter silence. How he must have longed to speak or sing. But I have no doubt that many a man is put aside from bearing his testimony through unbelief, which he calls diffidence and delicacy. The Lord says, “I shall never use you as a preacher. I shall not make use of you in addressing your fellow men. I shall not help you to bring men to Christ in private conversation, because you have so little faith. You have doubted me, and now you must be dumb for a season.” I hope that, if this be the case with any, your silence will soon end. Lord, open thou their lips, and their mouths shall show forth thy praise. Dear friend, I hope the Lord will unloose your tongue by-and-by, for if you are in a right state of heart it will be a very painful thing to you not to be able to declare what the Lord has done for your soul; but it is so with some, they are dumb because they believe not.

Moreover, Zacharias had the further affliction of being deaf at the same time. How do I know that he was deaf? That is pretty clear, because when his child was born it is recorded in the sixty-second verse that “they made signs to his father how he would have him called;” and, of course, if he had been able to hear there would have been no need to use signs: but he could not hear any more than he could speak, he suffered the double affliction of being deaf and dumb,-no small cross to one who had such gifts of utterance as he showed in his song of praise. It is remarkable that he could not hear anything, but it is also instructive; for I have known Christians who, when they would not believe the promise, have become very deaf spiritually. You say, “What do you mean? How are they deaf?” Listen, and you will hear them say, “I cannot hear Mr. So-and-So.” It is the same minister whom they used to hear with pleasure-the same man-and God blesses him to others as much as before. How is this? Others are drinking in the word, but these poor deaf people say, “We do not know how it is, but we cannot hear our pastor.” No, you did not believe, and therefore you cannot hear. You did not receive his message; you did not rejoice in it, and now you cannot hear it. That is a dreadful sort of deafness. If you suffer from a physical deafness you can buy a horn, or you can go to some skilful aurist who, perhaps, may help you. Moreover, you can read if you cannot hear; but if you get a spiritual deafness, I do not know a worse chastisement that can come upon you, nor one that will make you more mischievous to others. O Beloved, do believe the good word of the Lord. With meekness receive the engrafted word, and do not question it and provoke the Lord, lest, haply, because you did not accept the word as the word of God, the time shall come when you will not be able to hear it, and your profiting will utterly depart, and the very voice that once was music to you will have no charms at all, and the blessed truth which once made your heart leap for joy will cease to have the slightest influence upon you. Mary was not sentenced either to be silent or to be deaf, for she believed the word of the Lord which was spoken to her by the angel. O that we also by a full obedience of faith may escape the penalties which surely attach themselves to unbelief. We must needs sorrow, but there can be no reason for increasing it by our own fault; and we may readily do so, while on the other hand faith brings rest and peace. So much concerning Zacharias.

Now let us turn our eyes to Mary. Mary used much the same language, and yet she spake not after the same fashion. She asked of the angel, “How shall this be?”

In looking at her, first, it is to be noticed that she believed what the angel said. It was not “Whereby shall I know this?” but in effect her language was, “I believe it. How shall it be?” There is no unbelief in the question. Of that we are sure, because not long after she is praised by her intelligent cousin, Elizabeth, who declares that “blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.” She was notably a believer.

She asked no sign. She sought no token whatever. The angel’s voice sufficed her. The still small voice of divine love within her soul was enough. She believed, and only asked to be instructed in the matter, sign and seal she needed none.

She was willing also to accept all hazards. I would speak with great delicacy, but to the virgin, remember, it was a very serious thing to be the mother of our Lord. To this very day the base tongues of infidels have dared to insinuate gross criminality against her who was blessed among women; and she must have well known that it was not likely that all would believe what she should aver, and many a hard speech would be uttered concerning her. Indeed, she might have had fear concerning her espoused husband himself, who would have put her away had not the Lord shielded her. Joseph behaved nobly, like a believer of the first order, and he deserves to be ranked amongst the truest of the saints; as does the virgin herself, who well deserves to be exceedingly commended by all who can appreciate pure, delicate, and yet heroic faith. Whatever there might be of hazard, so great was the honour that was put upon the virgin that she does not appear to have felt the slightest hesitation, but said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word.”

I think her question may be attributed, in part, to surprise-to inevitable amazement; and what we say to the Lord when we are naturally surprised under the greatness of his mercy will not be weighed by him letter by letter, nor shall we be judged for it, though if very closely examined it might appear like unbelief. The Lord knows his children’s frame and remembers that we are dust. I hope that many a word which drops from the child of God when he is in pain, when he is distressed as Job was on the dunghill, is allowed to blow away with the breath which utters it. How very little did the Lord say to Job about the naughty words which in his petulance he had allowed to escape, for after all he was grandly patient; and so even if there had been something of unbelief in these words of Mary, which there was not, yet they would have been viewed by the Lord as the fruit of surprise at the marvellous and unexpected mercy for which she had not even prayed. There was no unbelief in her language, but there was great wonder, surprise, and admiration, at so great a boon. How should this come to her? How should she be so highly favoured? Her soul seemed to say, “Whence is this to me? that I, so humble and obscure, a maiden whose rank and race have been altogether forgotten, should be the mother of the Saviour after the flesh, the mother of his humanity by whom humanity is to be redeemed.”

She was full of wonder, and then she began to enquire. There is the point. She wanted to know how it would be; there was no wrong in that desire; there was no unbelief worthy of rebuke; she believed the surpassing promise, and only wished to know how it could be performed. There might readily enough be unbelief in such an enquiry, but not necessarily so. You and I may say, as the Israelites did in the wilderness when God had promised to give them flesh to eat, “Shall the flocks and herds be slain?” That was unbelievingly asking how it should be; but yet you may ask how a promise shall be fulfilled without any mistrust at all; nay, your very faith may raise the enquiry. I know my soul asks again and again many questions of my Lord which he answers to my soul. He would not have answered had they been sinful questions. We ought to enquire about a great many things: we should be sacredly inquisitive. We should say, How is it he has chosen us? For our Lord replies, “Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” But, still, why me? Why me? You may ask that question, for holy gratitude dictates it. And how is it that he could redeem us with the blood of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord? And how is it that he renews us? And how will it be that he will perfect us? And how can it be that we shall have a mansion in heaven, and shall become like our Lord? And how is it that we shall be raised up? With what body shall we come? Many a question we may ask, which if not asked in unbelief, will have an answer, or will serve to increase our reverent gratitude.

But now notice concerning Mary that, while Zacharias was the doubter and was treated as such, Mary was the enquirer, and was so dealt with of the Lord. See the difference of the treatment of the two.

For, first, Mary did not ask a sign, but she had one; and it was one of the most pleasant that could possibly come to her, for it was her cousin Elizabeth. She was to be her sign. Behold, she that had been barren shall come to meet her and comfort her. Brethren, the Lord knows how to give you signs if you do not wish for them; and I do believe that those have the most tokens for good who do not ask for them, but are content to take their Father’s word without any confirmatory sign.

And, then, there was another thing with regard to her. She was graciously instructed. Zacharias asked a sign, and he had it; she asked for instruction, and she had it. The angel paused awhile and said to her, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore, also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” If you will meekly, and believingly, ask of your Lord to be taught concerning divine things, he will give you of his Spirit, who shall lead you into all truth, and instruct you, and make you wise unto salvation.

Now, the conclusion is this: first of all, let us not do as Zacharias did. Dear friend, art thou at this moment questioning any promise? Art thou saying, “Whereby shall I know this?” Cease from doubting the infallible word and rest in the Lord, his Holy Spirit enabling thee to believe.

On the other hand, are you a seeking sinner, and does Christ declare that whosoever looks to him shall be saved, and that whosoever believeth in him is not condemned? Do not ask any token, but believe him. He himself is token enough. He is God, and yet man; the bleeding Lamb, the sacrifice for sin. Believe him; believe him; believe him; and you shall have the blessing.

And you, dear child of God, if you have a text of Scripture, a promise which evidently suits your case, which meets your trouble, do not say, “Whereby shall I know this?” When the Spirit says it, it is enough that it is in the word. Whatever the Scripture states, be sure of it; for if all the wise men in the world were to prove it, it would not be proven one bit more; and if they were all to disprove it, it would be none the less sure. If I were to see a thing to be true which God had declared in his word, I would not believe my eyes so well as I would believe his word: at least, I ought not to do so. This is where we ought to stand: all the world may deceive, but God cannot; let God be true, and every man a liar. If you will come and trust him in this way you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, your leaf shall not wither, and you shall not know when drought cometh. If your walk through life is the walk of faith, as Abraham’s and Enoch’s were, you shall have a grand life-grandly full, and eternal, and Christly; but if you doubt him you shall not be established. The unbeliever shall be as the rolling thing before the whirlwind, as the sear leaf that falleth from the tree, and as the heath of the desert that knoweth not when good cometh. May the Holy Ghost save us, brothers and sisters, from unbelief, and give us rest in the promise of God.

And now, secondly, let us with all our hearts imitate Mary in being enquirers-often asking, desiring to know, and looking deep and searching; for into the promise of God we cannot look too closely, since “these things the angels desire to look into.” You ought so to realize the promise as to be sure that it means what it says, and then you will naturally begin to ask how it will come to pass. Only strive to keep out all unbelief from your enquiry and say, “I know in my heart how it can be, for nothing is impossible with God.” There is our answer to all questionings-“With God all things are possible.” If I enquire, “How can he deliver me?” Nothing is impossible with God. “How can he keep me to the end?” Nothing is impossible with God. “How can he preserve me amid persecution? How can he keep me from temptation, and preserve me from the world, the flesh and the devil?” Nothing is impossible with God. Fling yourself upon omnipotence, and you shall be strong. May the Holy Spirit help you to do this for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Luke 1:5-38.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-711, 775, 567.

REMEMBER!

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, March 31st, 1878, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington

“Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”-Deuteronomy 15:15.

In an autobiography of William Jay we read that on one occasion he called to see the famous Mr. John Newton, at Olney, and he observed that over the desk at which he was accustomed to compose his sermons, he had written up in very large letters the following words: “Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” To my mind this story invests the text with considerable interest: it was most fitting that such a remarkable convert as he should dwell upon such a theme, and place such a text conspicuously before his own eyes. Might it not with great propriety be placed in a similar position by each one of us? Mr. Newton lived and acted under the influence of the memory which the text commands, as was seen that very morning in his conversation with Mr. Jay. “Sir,” said Mr. Newton, “I am glad to see you, for I have a letter just come from Bath, and you can perhaps assist me in the answer to it. Do you know anything of So-and-so (mentioning the name)?” Mr. Jay replied that the man was an awful character, had once been a hearer of the gospel, but had become a leader in every vice. “But, sir,” said Mr. Newton, “he writes very penitently; and who can tell? Perhaps a change may have come over him.” “Well,” said Mr. Jay, “I can only say that if ever he should be converted, I should despair of no one.” “And I,” said Mr. Newton, “never have despaired of anybody since I was converted myself.” So, you see, as he thought of this poor sinner at Bath he was remembering that he also was a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord his God had redeemed him; and why should not the same redemption reach even to this notorious transgressor and save him? The memory of his own gracious change of heart and life gave him tenderness in dealing with the erring and hopefulness with regard to their restoration. May some such good effect be produced in our minds: we are not all called to be preachers of the gospel, but in any capacity a holy, beneficial, sanctifying effect will be produced upon a right mind by remembering that we were bondmen, but the Lord our God redeemed us. May the Holy Spirit at this hour bring the amazing grace of God to our remembrance with melting power.

As to the particular fact of the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, great care was taken that it should be remembered. The month upon which they came out was made the commencement of the year. “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2). A special injunction was issued: “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the Lord thy God: for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.” An ordinance was established on purpose that the deliverance might be commemorated: and the eating of the passover lamb was made binding upon the whole of the people, so that they should not forget the sprinkling of the blood. The word of the Lord ordained, saying, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.” They were enjoined, also, to instruct their children concerning it, so that in addition to a ceremonial there was an oral tradition to be handed from father to son. “And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand” (Deuteronomy 6:20, 21). Their law of ten commands commenced with a reminder of that remarkable fact-“I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other gods before me.” All through the book of Deuteronomy you will observe that this is the one weighty and oft repeated argument for obedience and faithfulness: “Remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

Now, beloved, if the Jew was so carefully instructed to remember his deliverance out of Egypt, should not we also take heed to ourselves that we by no means forget, or cast into the background, our yet greater redemption through the precious blood of Christ, by which we were set free from the yoke and bondage of sin? See how Paul, in Ephesians 2:11, 12, 13, speaks to us who have been called by grace from the ends of the earth, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” He puts the same thought into other words in Romans 6:17, 18, when he says-“God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” Paul would have us remember our redemption; and God the Holy Ghost who spake by Paul would have us remember it. Will we not give earnest heed to such solemn counsels? The blessed effects that will flow from such a memory urge us to remember it, and because of this our discourse of this morning is intended to be a humble assistance towards such a memory. O my brother, forget all else just now, and give thy heart to the work before thee, and “remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

First, then, let us consider our bondage; secondly, our redemption; and thirdly, the influence of the memory of the two facts. I shall not try to say anything fresh or new: it would be out of place to attempt it, for my present duty is to awaken your memories as to former days. I have only to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. He who is only a remembrancer for the past must not look about for novelties. We speak what you do know, and ask you to testify to what you have felt.

First let us consider our bondage. It was exceedingly like the bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt. There are many points in which a parallel might be drawn. We will indicate them in a few words.

First, when we were unregenerate, and sold under sin, we were enslaved to a mighty power against which we could not contend. It would have been of no use for the Israelites to have commenced an insurrection against Pharaoh: he was too firmly established upon the throne, and his soldiery by far too strong for poor, feeble, shepherd tribes to be able to resist. They scarcely dared to think of such a thing: and, brethren, if fallen man single-handed had the heart to contend with sin and Satan, he would certainly be unable to achieve a victory. The fall has left us “without strength”; the law with all its force is “weak through the flesh.” Alas, man hath no heart for spiritual liberty, else would the Lord lend him power; but apart from power divine, what man is he that can break loose from his sin? Shall the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then shall he that is accustomed to do evil learn to do well, unassisted by divine strength. No, brethren, the fetters which enchain the mind of the carnal man are much too strong for him to snap them. He may resolve to do so, as in moments of reflection some men do; but, alas, he is soon weary of the struggle for liberty, and resigns himself to his prison. If man had been capable of his own redemption there would never have descended from heaven the divine Redeemer; but because the bondage was all too dire for man to set himself free, therefore the eternal Son of God came hither that he might save his people from their sins. Our natural bondage was caused and maintained by a power tremendous in energy and craft. The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, held us beneath his iron sway, and sin exercised a tyrannical dominion over us, from which we could not break.

Worse still, we were like the Israelites in another respect. Our slavery had so degraded us that we had no heart to desire an escape. One of the worst points of slavery is that it frequently degrades men into contentment with their condition. That would be thought by some to be a benefit, but it is a giant evil, for a man has no right to be satisfied in slavery. Such contentment is an ensign of debased manhood. Freedom is the right of every human being, and he is not truly a man if he can be happy in bondage. The Israelites were so trampled down that they crouched at their oppressors’ feet, and made themselves as content as they could in their enslaved condition. As they were turned into beasts of burden, so were their minds brutalized, until their chief joy lay in the onions and the cucumbers with which they refreshed themselves, and the fish of which they afterwards spake so longingly. They declined from a thoughtful family into a clan of grovelling labourers without heart or hope; so that when Moses went to them at the first he was not received, and when he was sent of God with his brother Aaron the people at the first hour of conflict shrank into their former cowardice, and would willingly have remained slaves sooner than excite Pharaoh’s wrath. They had been ground down so terribly with their hard labour in mortar and in brick that they scarcely dared to think of freedom: and that was just your case and mine, beloved friends, we too were willing slaves of death and sin. If we are free this morning it was not because when left to ourselves we fought for liberty and disdained to wear a fetter. No, our bonds were on our hearts, and we chose our own degradation. The slave from the south of old watched the northern star, and followed it through brake, and swamp, and forest to obtain his liberty, but our eyes refused to look to Jesus, who is the Star of Freedom. We boasted that we were born free, and were never in bondage to any man, and so we most effectually proved our bondage under our own pride. We, perhaps, called ourselves freethinkers, and at any rate we meant to be free actors, and yet all the while we were in bondage, and did not care to seek true liberty. Can you not recollect when you hugged your chains and kissed your bonds, and like a madman who crowns himself with a wisp of straw, and calls himself a king, embraced the foolish pleasures of this world, and thought yourselves supremely blessed in such base enjoyments?

Remember again, dear brethren, that you were in a bondage similar to that of Egypt, for while in that condition you toiled hard and found that all the service wherein Satan made you to serve was with rigour. The Israelites built treasure cities for Pharaoh, and they are supposed to have erected some of the pyramids; but their wage was very small, and their taskmasters were brutal. Labourers engaged upon royal works received no wages, but were simply served with sufficient bread to keep them alive. The Israelites were called upon to make an enormous quantity of bricks, and at last the chopped straw, which was necessary to make the clay bind together, which had been given out of the royal granaries, was refused them, and they were bidden to go over all the land to hunt up what they could of stubble instead of straw; thus their labour was increased beyond all bearing. Could not many a sinner tell of horrible nights and woeful mornings, when under the power of his passions? Who hath woe? who hath redness of the eyes? who is filled with dread of death? who flees when no man pursueth? Of all tyrants sin and Satan are the most cruel. How are men worn out in the devil’s destructive service! What an expense does sin entail! It is a costly thing to many to obey their own vices; they are impoverished by their passions. Those who complain if they are pressed for subscriptions to holy causes should consider how much more they would have spent in the pleasures of the world. Why, men squander fortunes upon their frivolities or upon their lusts; and encumber future generations to indulge a vice which ruins their health, destroys their reputation, and sends them to an early grave. If you will have your own way, that way will be the hardest you can choose. It does not matter in what position a man may be, whether rich or poor, illiterate and fond of the more vulgar pleasures, or tutored and educated and prone to more fashionable vices; everywhere sin leads on to hard service, and its exactions increase from day to day. If men were but in their senses, drunkenness, gambling, gluttony, wantonness, and many other vices would be rather punishments than pleasures, and yet they abide in them.

There was a time, dear brethren, when in addition to our hard toil our bondage brought us misery. Do you not remember when you dared not think a day’s conduct over for the life of you? When if you had been compelled to sit down and review your own character it would have been an intolerable task? I recollect also when a sense of sin came over me; and then indeed my life was made bitter with hard bondage. I laboured to set up a righteousness of my own, for I could not yield to the righteousness of Christ. That was labouring as in the very fire. I strove by my own good works to accomplish my own salvation, and tried by prayers and tears to pay the debt I owed to God, but all in vain. I was sinning all the while by refusing Christ, and endeavouring to rival my Saviour. So far I speak for myself, but I know that you have done the same. Do you recollect it, brethren, when your pleasures ceased to be pleasures, when all the amusements of the world lost their flavour, and became flat, stale, nauseous, and you turned away and asked in vain for something that would content you? Do you remember when at last you saw yourself in your true condition, and bewailed yourself before the living God as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn? Ah, then you felt like Israel in Egypt when they sighed and cried by reason of the bondage; and blessed be God the parallel runs further, for in your case also God heard the groaning and remembered his covenant (Exodus 2:24).

All this while our enemy was aiming at our destruction. This was what Pharaoh was driving at with Israel: he intended to cut off the nation by severe tasks, or at least to reduce its strength. As his first policy did not succeed, he set about to destroy the male children; and even so Satan when he has men under his power labours by all means utterly to destroy them; for nothing short of this will satisfy him. Every hopeful thought he would drown in the river of despair, lest by any means the man should shake off his yoke. The total overthrow of the soul of man is the aim of the great enemy. What a mercy to have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy!

And like Israel in Egypt we were in the hands of a power that would not let us go. There came a voice by Moses which said to Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go;” but Pharaoh’s answer was, “I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go”: and such was the language of our corruptions, such the language of the devil who had dominion over us. “I will not let you go,” said the fierce prince of darkness, and like a strong man armed he kept his goods in peace. You recollect that telling sermon which thrilled you and awoke in you desires for liberty: you recollect how there seemed to ring in the halls of your nature the resounding voice, “Let my people go”; but you did not go, for that slavish will of yours held you in bondage. Your sins captivated you. Then came the reading of the Scriptures, or a mother’s exhortation, or another earnest sermon, and again the voice was heard, “Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go.” You begin to feel uneasy in your condition, and to venture somewhat into the border country, but you could not escape, the iron had entered into your soul, your heart was captive. Blessed was the day when the strong man armed that kept you as a man keeps his house was overcome by a stronger than he and cast out for ever. Then Jesus took possession of your nature, never to leave it, but to hold his tenancy world without end. Glory be to God, we were bondmen in Egypt, but the Lord our God redeemed us, and let his name be praised.

I would assist you still further to remember that bondage. It cannot be hard for some of you to do so, for you are “from Egypt lately come.” Some of you have been set free now these twenty years, some perhaps these fifty years; but it cannot be difficult for you to recollect what must be so indelibly impressed upon you. I can imagine thirty years after coming out of Egypt, some of the grey fathers who had crossed the Red Sea telling to their sons the sad story of the bondage in Egypt. “I, your father,” one of them would say, “was beaten with rods by the taskmaster because when I had made up my full tale of bricks I was required to make twice as many. I toiled far into the night at brick-making, but I could not accomplish the task, and I remember how the blows descended upon my back like burning hail. Look here, my son,” he would say, as he stripped himself to show the scars, “these are the memorials of Egyptian bondage.” Ah, glory be to God, we are free; no more do we carry clanking chains upon our souls, but we bear the old scars about us still. Sometimes the old temper rises, or the old lusting flames up. When a man has had a bone broken, it may have been well set, and he has for the most part forgotten the accident, yet in bad weather, I have heard it said, “The old bone talks a bit”; and, alas, the bones we broke by our sins will talk a bit at times, and its talk is a sad reminder of our former state. Snatches of ill songs, recollections of old lusts, and I know not what besides, are scars which remind us that we were bondmen in Egpyt. Many a mother that came out of Egypt when she looked at her boy would say, “And I might have been the joyful mother of seven sons, but they were one after another snatched from my bosom by the remorseless servant of the Egyptian tyrant, and put to death.” With her joy for what was left her would be mingled sorrow for what she had lost. Yes, and in your families it may be your younger children have been brought under religious influences, but your older sons are as irreligious as you were when they were lads at home. Many are led to think of their own evil example in former years, as they see their wayward sons persevering in sin. As you think of them you may say, “I see my bondage in my son; I see my sin repeated in my child.” These also are mournful memorials of our carnal state. But, indeed, I need not thus remind you, for everything may refresh your memories as to your former bondage. Is it not so? The task set before you in the text is an easy one, and I charge you, therefore, remember that you were once bondmen in Egypt.

In the second place, we have to think of the blessed fact of our redemption: “the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Here again there is a parallel. He redeemed us first by price. Israel in Egypt was an unransomed nation. God claimed of that nation the firstborn to be his; as it is written, “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.” That portion had been his claim from the first, and the law was afterwards carried out by the setting apart of the Levitical tribe to take the place of the firstborn; but Israel in Egypt had never set apart its firstborn at all, and was therefore an unredeemed people. How was all that indebtedness to be made up? The nation must be redeemed by a price, and that price was set forth by the symbol of a lamb which was killed, and roasted, and eaten, while the blood was smeared upon the lintel and the two side posts. Beloved, you and I have been redeemed with blood. Blessed Lord Jesus, “thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood.” “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Ye cannot, ye must not, ye shall not forget this. Ye were bondmen, but Jesus your Lord redeemed you. He took your nature, and was thus next of kin to you; and it became his right to redeem you, which right he has exercised to his own cost but to your eternal gain. The price by which you were set free he counted down in a wondrous coinage, minted from his own heart. The ransom is paid, and the jubilee trumpet proclaims that you and your heavenly possessions are now delivered from all mortgage and encumbrance through the blood of Jesus Christ. Remember that with a great price you have obtained this freedom. The Lord saith, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.”

But there would not have been a coming out of Egypt unless there had been a display of power as well as a payment of price, for with a high hand and an outstretched arm the Lord brought forth his people. There are always two redemptions to every man who is saved-redemption by price and redemption by power. Ye know what power God put forth in the land of Egypt when he wrought all his plagues in the field of Zoan, but that was nothing compared with the power of Christ when he broke the head of the old dragon, when he utterly destroyed the kingdom of sin and led our captivity captive. Greater than Moses’ rod was Christ’s pierced hand. He hath done it; he hath done it. Our tyrant hath no more power to hold us in chains, for Christ hath vanquished him for ever.

Another form of redemption was also seen by Israel, namely, in the power exerted over themselves. I think sufficient stress has never been laid upon this. That they should have been willing to come out of Egypt was no small thing,-universally willing, so that not a single person remained behind; so unanimous and so eager were they to come out of Egypt, though almost rooted to the soil, that a number of Egyptians came up with them. According to the word of Moses, “Not a hoof shall be left behind,” they all left the land, and neither sheep, nor goat, nor ox; much less man, woman, or child remained. Israel was glad to come out, and even Egypt was glad when they departed. It is wonderful that they were all able to come out of Egypt. There was never an army yet but what had some sick in it: the ambulance and the hospital are always wanted: but of this grand army we are told, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” Marvellous display of power this: and so, beloved, we will tell it to the praise of God this day, that he made us willing to come out of the Egypt of our sin to which we were rooted; and making us willing he made us able too: the power of the Spirit came upon us and the might of his grace overshadowed us, and we did arise and came to our Father. Let grace have all the glory.

Shall I need to press upon you then to let your minds fly back to the time when you realised your redemption, and came up out of the land of Egypt? It was a divine interposition. “The Lord thy God redeemed thee.” And it was personally experienced, for “The Lord thy God redeemed thee.” It was a matter of clear consciousness to your own soul. Thou wast a bondman; thou didst know it and feel it: the Lord thy God redeemed thee, and thou didst know it and feel that also. Thou didst know it as much as a galley slave would know it if he no more tugged the oar, as much as the captive who has pined away in the dungeon through weary years would know it when once more he breathed the air, and felt that he was free. “Thou wast a bondman, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” There can be no doubt about it. Satan himself could not make some of us doubt it, the chains were so real, and the liberty so delightful. It was a mental phenomenon for which there can be no accounting except upon this belief, that the Lord our God himself came and set us free.

Thus, brethren, I have set before you the subject for your recollection. I shall now try to show you the influence which this double memory ought to have upon you.

We should naturally conclude, without any reference to Scripture, that if a Christian man kept always in mind his former and his present state it would render him humble. You have been preaching and God has blessed you to the conversion of many: do you feel elated? “Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” You are getting on in knowledge, and your character is evidently much improved; your inner life is full of peace and comfort. Do you feel as if you were some great one? Do not play the fool: you are less than nothing. Remember that thou wast a poor miserable slave, brown, sun-dried, smoke-tinged; and that not long ago. Thou wouldst have been in hell now if it had not been for sovereign grace; or if not there, perhaps thou wouldst have been among drunkards and swearers, and lewd men and women, or at least among the proud, self-righteous Pharisees. When thou art honoured of the Lord and happy in the full assurance of faith, still remember that thou wast a bondman, and walk humbly with thy God.

In the next place, be grateful. If you have not all the temporal mercies that you would desire, yet you have received the choicest of all mercies, liberty through Jesus Christ, therefore be cheerful, happy, and thankful. Remember that thou wast a bondman; and if thou hast but little of this world’s good, be thankful for the great spiritual blessing thou hast received in being set free from the galling yoke. Do not receive such a liberty as this without blessing that dear, pierced hand which was nailed to the tree that thou mightest be delivered. Let gratitude abound, as thou rememberest the wormwood and the gall.

Being grateful, be patient too. If you are suffering or ailing, or if sometimes your spirits are cast down, or if you are poor and despised, yet say to yourself, “Why should I complain? My lot may seem hard, yet it is nothing in comparison with what it would have been if I had been left a prisoner in the land of Egypt. Thank God, I am no longer in bondage to my sins.” The slave of the sad times in America would leap on the Canadian shore; and though he came there with all his earthly goods wrapped up in his handkerchief, and knew not where his next meal would come from, yet he would spring upon the shore and then dance for joy, and say, “Thank God, I am free; I am penniless but free.” How much more, then, may you, whatever your suffering or sorrow may be, exclaim, “Thank God, I was a bondman, but the Lord my God has redeemed me, and I will be patient, whatever I am called to bear.”

Next, be hopeful. What may you not yet become? “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” You were a bondman, but grace has set you free. Who knows what the Lord may yet make of you? Is there anything that he cannot, will not do for one whom he has already redeemed by his blood? He has set you free from sin; oh, then, he will keep you from falling, and preserve you to the end. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Are you thus hopeful? Then be zealous. Here earnestness should find both fire and fuel: we were bondmen, but the Lord has redeemed us. What, then, can be too hard for us to undertake for his sake? We must give all to him who has purchased us to himself, and we must continue to do so as long as we live. John Newton persisted in preaching even when he was really incapable of it, for he said “What, shall the old African blasphemer leave off preaching Jesus Christ while there is breath in his body? No, never.” He felt that he must continue to bear testimony, for our text was always before him, “Remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

But now kindly follow me while I, as briefly as I can, show you the Lord’s own use of this remembrance; and the first text I shall quote will be found in Deuteronomy 5:14. This is what he says-“The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out of thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.” You were a bondman. What would you have given for rest then? Now that the Lord has given you this hallowed day of rest guard it sacredly. When you were a bondman you knew the heart of a servant and you sighed because your toil was heavy; now that you are set free, if you have servants, think of them, and so order your household that they may as much as possible enjoy their Sabbath. Certain household duties must be performed, but plot and plan to make these as light as possible, “that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” If you meet with any that are in bondage of soul and cannot rest, obey the text in its spiritual teaching. Rest in the Lord Jesus yourself, but endeavour to bring all your family into the same peace, “that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” Surely if you have been set free from the iron bondage you ought not to want urging to keep with all sacredness this holy day, which the mercy of God has hedged about, nor should you need exhorting to rest in the Lord, and to endeavour to lead others into his rest.

In Deuteronomy 7 we have another use of this remembrance. Here the chosen people are commanded to keep separate from the nations. They were not to intermarry with the Canaanites nor make alliances with them. Israel was to be separated, even as Moses said, “thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God.” And the reason he gives in the eighth verse is this: “the Lord redeemed thee out of the house of bondmen.” Ah, brethren, if we are redeemed from among men, if there be a special and particular redemption, as we do believe, by which Christ loved his church and gave himself for it, then as the specially blood-bought ones we are under solemn obligations to come out from the world and to be separate from it. Did not Jesus say of his redeemed, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”? Therefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate.

In the eighth chapter redemption is used as an argument for obedience, and they are exhorted not to forget the laws and statutes of the Lord, and above all warned lest in the midst of prosperity their heart should be lifted up so as to forget the Lord their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. The same argument runs through the eleventh chapter, and it is a very clear one. We ought to render glad obedience to him who has wrought us so great a deliverance.

We find in the thirteenth chapter that the redemption from bondage is used as an argument for loyal attachment to the one and only God. The tendency of the nation was to idolatry, since all the countries round about had gods many and lords many; but the Lord commanded his people to put to death all prophets and dreamers of dreams who might seek to lead them away from the worship of Jehovah. “Thou shalt stone him with stones that he die,” says the tenth verse, “because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” You must not have another God, for no other God delivered you: worship him to whom you owe your all.

Our own text is set in the following connection. If a man entered into forced servitude, or came under any bonds to his fellow man among the Jews, he could only be so held for six years, and on the seventh he was to go free. “And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” The Lord’s people should be considerate of those who are in their employment. The recollection of their own bondage should make them tender and kind to those who are in subservience to themselves, and never should a Christian man be ungenerous, illiberal, severe, churlish with his servants, or with any who are dependent upon him. Be large-hearted. Do not be angry at every little fault, nor swift to observe every slight mistake; and be not for ever standing on your exact rights, litigious, sticking out for the last half-farthing, as some do. I am almost sorry if a mean, stingy man gets converted, for I am afraid he will be no credit to Christianity. There should be in a man redeemed with the blood of Christ something like nobility of soul and benevolence to his fellow men, and so even this stern book of the law teaches us.

I have no time except to remind you that they were bound to keep the passover because of their deliverance from Egypt as we find in the sixteenth chapter at the first verse. “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the Lord thy God: for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.” So let us also take heed unto ourselves that we keep all the statutes and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. Let us keep the ordinances as they were delivered unto us, and neither alter nor misplace them. Hold fast the truth and be not moved from it by the cunning craftiness of men. Walk according to the teaching of Scripture in all things, keeping the good old way, because the Lord our God redeemed us, and his truth is unchangeable.

Again, in the sixteenth chapter, verses 10 to 12, you have the great redemption used as an argument for liberality towards the cause of God: they were to give unto the Lord rejoicingly of that which the Lord had given to them. “Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee;” and that because of the twelfth verse, “Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.” In the twenty-sixth chapter the same teaching is reduced to a set form, for they were there commanded to bring each one a basket of first fruits and offer it unto the Lord, saying-“The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.” Need I even for a moment impress this duty upon you?

Last of all, in the twenty-fourth chapter there remains one more lesson. We are there exhorted to be careful concerning the fatherless and the widow (Deut. 24:17). A generous spirit was to be exhibited towards the poor. They were not to fetch in all their sheaves from the field if any were forgotten, nor to scrape up every single ear of corn from among the stubble, as some do in these days, nor to beat their olive tree twice, nor to gather the grapes of their vineyard a second time, but they were to leave something for the poor. This was the argument:-When you were in Egypt, when you had to make bricks without straw, how glad you were to turn your children in among the stubble to gather a few ears to make a loaf of bread; and now the Lord has given you a better land, therefore deal well with the poor. Brethren, let the needy never be forgotten by you; do not be miserly, do not imitate those farmers who would comb their fields with a small-toothed comb if they could, sooner than the poor should glean, raking it and raking it again and again. No, the ransomed Israelites were not even to pick all their fruit, for the argument was, “Would not you when in Egypt have given anything for a bunch of those grapes which grew in the gardens of the rich?” Think, therefore, of the poor and deal kindly with them, even as you would wish others to deal with you.

With this I close. Be ye thoughtful of all your fellow-men. You that have been redeemed with price, be ye tender-hearted, full of compassion, putting on bowels of mercy. In spiritual things take care that you never rake the corners of your fields. Do not rob the gospel of its sweetness. There is a class of preaching out of which the last ear of wheat has been taken. Their gospel is criticised into nothing. The sceptical commentators come in and pick nearly every bunch of grapes, and then the modern thought gentry devour the rest. The preaching of modern times is as an olive tree beaten till not a trace of fruit remains. Let it not be so with us, but let the preacher say, “I was a bondman, and therefore I will drop handfuls on purpose for poor souls in trouble.”

Brethren, be very considerate to seekers. Look them up. Talk to them after the sermon. Say a word to those sitting in your pew which may encourage their poor trembling hearts to lay hold on Jesus Christ. Remember that thou wast a bondman: the smell of the brickkiln is upon thee now, my brother, my sister: thou hast not yet cleansed all the clay from thy hands with which thou didst work in mortar and in brick. Then do not become selfish, unloving, unkind, but in all things love thy neighbour as thyself, and so prove that thou lovest the Lord thy God with all thy heart. God bless thee. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Deuteronomy 6:1-15; 24:17-22; 26:1-11.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-152, 660, 810.