This was said by David after a great battle in which many had been slain, and the hosts led by Absalom had fallen to the number of twenty thousand; perishing not only by the sword, but among the thick oaks and tangled briers of the wood, which concealed fearful precipices and great caverns, into which the rebels plunged in their wild fright when the rout set in. His father’s anxious question concerned his wicked but still well-beloved son, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” He does not appear to have asked, “How have we won the victory?” but “Is the young man Absalom safe?” Not “Is Joab, the captain of my host, alive, for upon him so much depends?” but “Is the young man Absalom safe?” Not “How many of our noble troops have fallen in the battle?” but “Is the young man Absalom safe?” It has been said that he showed here more of the father than of the king-more of affection than of wisdom; and that is, doubtless, a correct criticism upon the old man’s absorbing fondness. David was no doubt, in this case, weak in his excessive tenderness. But, brethren, it is much more easy for us to blame a father under such circumstances than for us quite to understand his feelings; I may add, it would be wiser to sympathize, as far as we can, than to sit in judgment upon a case which has never been our own. Perhaps if we were placed in the same position we should find it impossible to feel otherwise than he did. How many there are at this present moment who have, no doubt, other very weighty businesses, but whose one only thought just now is, “Is the young man safe? Is my son safe? Is my father safe? Is my wife safe?” A vessel has gone down in the river with hundreds on board, and weeping friends are going hither and thither from place to place, hoping and yet fearing to identify the corpse of some beloved one; longing to find one who has not been heard of since the fatal hour, and trembling all the while lest they should find him or her among the bodies which have been drawn from the cold stream. The one thought uppermost with scores to-night is this one-“Is my beloved one safe?” Do you blame them? They are neglecting business, and forsaking their daily toil, but do you blame them? A hundred weighty things are forgotten in the one eager enquiry: do you, can you, blame them? Assuredly not. It is natural, and it is therefore, I think, but right. Though, no doubt, David did afterwards show a measure of petulance and of rebellion against God, and is not altogether to be commended, yet who that has a father’s heart within him would not rather undertake to justify than to censure the aged parent? When the old man asks concerning his son, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” and, finding that he is not, cries, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” we would not, like Joab, go in to him and coarsely upbraid him, however much he might deserve it, but we would rather sit down and weep in sympathy with those that feel a kindred anxiety, and see if we may not learn something from their sorrow. If our own anxieties are free in that direction, let us turn them in some other direction which may be really useful, and tend to the glory of God.

Let us first, to-night, consider for a little this question of anxiety, then think of occasions for its use, and then, thirdly, suggest answers which may be given to it.

And the first remark is, it is a question asked by a father concerning his son. “Is he safe?” The anxieties of parents are very great, and some young people do not sufficiently reflect upon them, or they would be more grateful, and would not so often increase them by their thoughtless conduct. I am persuaded that there are many sons and daughters who would not willingly cost their parents sorrow, who, nevertheless, do flood their lives with great grief. It cannot always be innocently that they do this: there must be a measure of wanton wrong about it in many cases where young people clearly foresee the result of their conduct upon their friends. There are some young men, especially, who in the indulgence of what they call their freedom trample on the tender feelings of her that bare them, and frequently cause sleepless nights and crushing troubles to both their parents. This is a crime to be answered for before the bar of God, who has given a special promise to dutiful children, and reserves a special curse for rebellious ones. All parents must have anxieties. There is never a babe dropped into a mother’s bosom but it brings care, labour, grief, and anxiety with it. There is a joy in the parental relationship, but there must necessarily be a vast amount of anxious care with it throughout those tender years of infancy in which the frail cockle-shell boat of life seems likely to be swamped by a thousand waves which sweep harmlessly over stronger barques. The newly-lit candle is so readily blown out that mothers nurse and watch with a care which frequently saps the parental life. But our children, perhaps, do not give us most anxiety when they are infants, nor when we have them at school, when we can put them to bed and give them a good-night’s kiss and feel that all is safe; the heavy care comes afterwards-afterwards when they have broken through our control, when they are running alone, and on their own account, when they are away from our home, when they are out of the reach of our rebuke, and do not now feel as once they did the power of our authority, and hardly of our love. It is then to many parents that the time of severe trial begins, and, doubtless, many a grey head has been brought with sorrow to the grave by having to cry, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.” Many a father and many a mother die, murdered, not with knife or poison, but by unkind words and cruel deeds of their own children. Many and many a grave may well be watered by the tears of sons and daughters, because they prematurely filled those graves by their ungrateful conduct. Let us all think, who still have parents spared to us, how much we owe to them, and let it be our joy, if we cannot recompense them, at any rate to give them so much of comfort by our conduct as shall show our gratitude. Let them have such joy in us that they may never regret the anxieties of past years, but may have their hearts made to rejoice that they brought into the world such sons and daughters. If we have had parents who did care for us, and anxiously said, “Are they safe?” let us be grateful to God, and let us never show that we undervalue his mercy by treating the boon with contempt.

Secondly, this was a question asked about a son who had left his father’s house. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” As I have already said, we have not so much anxiety about our children when they are at home and when the nursery holds them as we have afterwards when they are beyond our reach. They have formed their own attachments, and have commenced life entirely on their own account. Even if they are in the same town, we are concerned for their welfare; but if they are in another land, we have still more anxious thoughts. Possibly some of you have your sons and daughters far removed from you, and I do not doubt that, if it be so, you often start at night with the question, “How fares it with my boy? How is it with my son?” He is far away there, an emigrant, or a sailor at sea, or in some distant country town engaged in earning his livelihood, and you wonder whether he is alive and well. If you know him to be on shore, you would fain know whether he goes regularly to the house of God on the Sabbath-day. You wonder where he spends his evenings. You wonder into what sort of company he may have fallen, what sort of master or shopmates he lives with, and what are the influences of his home. I am quite sure that such anxious questions frequently plough deep furrows across your minds. There are some young men here to-night, in London, come to live in our great city, and I want kindly to remind them of the tender thoughts about them at home-how mother and father, perhaps at this very hour, are thinking of them and praying for them. They would be glad, probably, to know that their son is where he is, but they might have sorrow if they knew where sometimes he wastes his evenings, and where he has begun to spend a part of his Sabbath-day. They would be grieved to know that he is beginning to forget the habits formed at home-that now in the room where there are others sleeping he is afraid to bow his knee in prayer-that the Bible in which his mother wrote his name, and concerning which the promise was given that there should be a portion read every day has not been read, but some book of very doubtful character has taken its place. Young friend, some of us who are a little older know your experience of leaving home, and we trust you will know our experience of having been followed by the prayers and tears of parents who have lived to rejoice that their prayers for us were abundantly answered. May it be so in your case, for, if not, you will go from bad to worse and perish in your sin. Yet it is very hard for a young man to go down to hell, riding steeple-chase over a mother’s prayers. It takes a great deal of energy to damn yourself when a father and a mother are pleading for your salvation, and yet there are some who accomplish it; and, when they come into the place of ruin and destruction, surely there shall be a heavier measure meted out to them than to those who were trained in the gutter and tutored in the street, and never knew what it was to be the subjects of parental prayer. O Lord Jesus, thou who didst raise the widow’s dead son, save those sons who are dead in trespasses and in sins, who are even now being carried out to be buried in the tomb of vice and corruption.

“Is the young man Absalom safe?” may very readily remind us of the anxieties of Christian parents about their sons and daughters when they are away from home.

But there is a touching point about this. It is the question of a father about his rebellious son. Absalom-the young man Absalom-why should David be concerned about him? Was he not up in arms against him? Did he not thirst for his father’s blood? Was he not at the head of a vast host, seeking anxiously to slay his father, that he might wear his crown, which he had already usurped. Why, methinks, he might have said, “Is the young man Absalom dead? for if he is out of the way there will be peace to my realm, and rest to my troubled life.” But no, he is a father, and he must love his own offspring. It is a father that speaks, and a father’s love can survive the enmity of a son. He can live on and love on even when his son seeks his heart’s blood. What a noble passion is a mother’s love or a father’s love! It is an image in miniature of the love of God. How reverently ought we to treat it! How marvellously has God been pleased to endow, especially godly people, with the sacred instinct of affection towards their children, an instinct which God sanctifies to noblest ends. Our children may plunge into the worst of sins, but they are our children still. They may scoff at our God; they may tear our heart to pieces with their wickedness; we cannot take complacency in them, but at the same time we cannot unchild them, nor erase their image from our hearts. We do earnestly remember them still, and shall do so as long as these hearts of ours shall beat within our bosoms. I have now and then met with professing Christians who have said, “That girl shall never darken my door again.” I do not believe in their Christianity. Whenever I have met with fathers who are irreconcilable to their children, I am convinced that they are unreconciled to God. It cannot be possible that there should exist in us a feeling of enmity to our own offspring after our hearts have been renewed; for if the Lord has forgiven us, and received us into his family, surely we can forgive the chief of those who have offended us; and when they are our own flesh and blood we are doubly bound to do so. To cast off our own children is unnatural, and that which is unnatural cannot be gracious. If even publicans and sinners forgive their children, much more must we. Let them go even to extremities of unheard-of sin, yet as the mercy of God endureth for ever, so must the love of a Christian parent still endure. If David says, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” we have none of us had a son that has acted one half so badly as Absalom; and we must, therefore, still forgive and feel a loving interest in those who grieve us.

At this time I would address any young person who has been a great grief to those at home? Do you treat this matter lightly? Do your parents’ anxieties seem to you to be foolishness? Ah, let me remind you that though your course of life may be sport to you, it is death to those at home. You may dry up your heart towards your mother, but your mother’s heart still overflows with love to you. You may even count it a joke that you have caused her tears; but those tears are sincere, and reveal her inward agony of soul. Can you ridicule such tender affection? I have known some young people who have fallen so low as to have made mockery of their parents’ piety. It is a horrible thing to do, and woe unto those who have been guilty of it. Yet many Christian parents only return prayers and greater affection for such unkindness as this, and still go on to lay their children’s case before God, and beseech him for his mercy’s sake to have mercy upon them. Now, erring young man, since there is something human remaining in you, I appeal to your tenderer nature that you will not continue to offend against such marvellous love, and will not wantonly go on to trample on such patient forgiveness. Absalom, if he could have heard his father ask the question, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” was, I doubt not, bad enough still to have rebelled against him; but I hope it is not so with anyone here; nay, I trust that when the most wilful shall see the deep and true love of their parents’ hearts they will hasten to be reconciled to them, and spend the rest of their lives in undoing the ill which they have done.

The question of my text is the question of a parent concerning a son who, if he were not safe, but dead, was certainly in a very dreadful plight. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” said David, with all the deeper earnestness because he felt that if he was not alive he was in an evil case. He has died red-handed in rebellion against his father-into what shades must his guilty soul have descended? O beloved, that is a very serious question to ask about any departed person. Where is he? Is his soul safe? I could almost pray that, when any die by sudden death, they might be God’s people, and that the sinners might escape till they have found Christ. We admire that Christian man who, finding himself with another at the bottom of a coal pit, was about to ascend in the cage. There was only a chance for one, for the basket would hold no more. He had taken his place, but he left it, and said to the other miner, “My soul is saved; I am a believer in Christ. You are not. If you die you are a lost man. Jump into the cage.” Thus he allowed his unconverted companion to escape, and ventured his own life in his stead. If we are ourselves in Christ, it would be Christlike to be ready to die instead of the unsaved; then should we carry out David’s wish-“Would God I had died for thee.” To die-the bitterness of death is passed where there is a good hope through grace; but for those to die who have no hope, no Christ, no heaven-this is death indeed. I can very well imagine any of you asking very seriously about your sons and daughters, “Are they safe?” when you know that if they have been suddenly taken away they were altogether unprepared. If men and women are unconverted when they die they will die twice, and the second death is the most to be feared. Are not some of you, my hearers, in such danger? Dear friends, where would you be suppose at this moment the blast of death were to pass through this house and chill your very marrow? If, now, the secret arrow must find a target in some one bosom, where would you be if it should be ordained for you? Do ask yourself the question, and, if you have no hope in Christ, God help you to seek and find forgiveness by the precious blood of Jesus.

Yet, once more, this was a question, alas! which was asked by a father about a son who was really dead at the time when the question was asked. It was late in the day to enquire for Absalom’s safety; for it was all over with that rebellious son. The three darts of Joab had gone through the very heart of Absalom, and there, hanging by its hair in the oak, his body dangled between earth and heaven. He had already been justly executed for his crimes, and yet his father asked, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” It is too late to ask questions about our children when they are dead. I should think that David’s heart must have been pierced with many sorrows at the thought of his own negligence of his children, for there are hints in his life which lead us to fear that, if not altogether an Eli, he was far too negligent in the matter of household management. We read of one son of his that his father had never denied him anything, and I can hardly imagine a man to be a good father of whom that could be said concerning any one of his sons. The practice of polygamy is altogether destructive of proper family discipline, and David had erred greatly in that respect; besides which he was so occupied with public affairs, that his sons were allowed too great a liberty. And now he is vainly asking “Is the young man Absalom safe?” The question is too late. It is of no use to wring your hands if your boy has grown up to be a debauchee and a drunkard: train him while he is yet young, and bring him with your prayers and tears to Christ while yet a child. Mother, it will little avail you to tear your hair because of a daughter’s dishonour if you have permitted her to go into society where temptations abound. Let us do for our children what we can do for them while they are little ones. While the warm metal flows, as it were, soft and plastic, let us try to turn it into the right mould: for if it once grows cold, we may beat it in vain, it will not take the desired image and superscription. Oh that those of us who have little children about us may have grace to train them up in the way they should go, for when they are old they will not depart from it. You cannot bend the tree, but you can twist the sapling: look ye well to it. Snatch the opportunity while yet it is before you, lest, when your children have plunged into sin, or may even have plunged into the pit, you vex your souls in vain and cry, “Woe is me.” I shall never forget the anguish of a poor illiterate woman whom I had been the means of leading to Christ. She was rejoicing in Christ when I had seen her before, but when I saw her next she was in great sorrow and bondage of spirit, and I said to her, “What aileth thee?” She replied, “My children! my children! They are all grown up, and they are all ungodly. My husband died and left me a widow with five or six of them. I worked hard morning and night, as you know I must have done, to find them clothes and food; and I brought them up as well as I could; but, woe’s me, I never thought about their souls. How could I?” said she, “for I never thought about my own; and now I am saved, but they are all worldly and careless, and I cannot undo the mischief.” She told me that, touched with a feeling of love to her children, she had resolved to go and speak to each of them about their eternal state; and she made her first visit to her eldest son, who had a family of children around him, and when she began to tell him about her conversion and her salvation and joy in the Lord, he so cruelly laughed her to scorn that it broke her heart. I did all I could to cheer and comfort her; but I can only say to younger persons, who are converted whilst still they have their little ones about them, never let the occasion go, lest you have to cry out at last, “O Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son! for thou hast fallen in thy iniquity, and it may be thy blood will be required at thy parent’s hands.” God grant that this question of anxiety may be asked in time by wise parents, and not left till its answer shall smite as doth a dagger.

Secondly. You have had the question; we are now to speak upon some occasions when that question would very naturally be used. “Is the young man Absalom safe?”

The question would be used, of course, in times, like the present, in reference to this mortal life. When a fearful calamity has swept away hundreds at a stroke such an enquiry is on every lip. On Wednesday morning how many families must have looked down those fearful lists, having been up all night watching and waiting for some one who did not come home. What a dreadful night to spend in watching for son or father, or daughter or mother; and how awful the tidings of the morning! In the case of a family near my own house, the servant was left at home with one little babe, and all the rest of the family went out for a day’s pleasure and health-seeking. Nobody has ever come home! Nobody has come to relieve the servant and embrace the child! You may imagine the anxiety of that servant with her little charge, to find master and mistress and the rest never coming home. There is also a case of a mother upstairs with a new-born little one at her side, and her husband and her other children, who had gone out, never returned. May we never know such sorrow! Then is the question asked in accents of terror, “Is the young man Absalom safe?”

Times of disease, also, raise such enquiries. Well do I recollect some four-and-twenty years ago, when first I came to London, it was my painful duty to go, not only by day, but by night, from house to house where the cholera was raging; and almost every time I met the beloved friends at Park Street it was my sorrow to hear it said, “Mr. So-and-so is dead. Mistress A. or B. is gone,” till I sickened myself from very grief. It was then most natural that each one should say concerning his relative at a little distance, “Is he still alive? Is he still safe?”

Now, if in any future day the shadow of a disaster should cross your path, and you should be in fear that your beloved ones are lost, I pray you, if you are Christian people, exercise faith at such a time, and stay yourselves upon God. Recollect, if you become so anxious as to lose your clearness of mind, you will not be fit for the emergency. It may be that by retaining calmness of soul you will be of service; but by giving up the very helm of your mind, and allowing yourself to drift before the torrent of anxiety, you will become useless and helpless. In patience possess your souls. The world is in God’s hand after all. The young man Absalom will not die without the appointment of heaven. Your children are not out of the keeping of the Most High. However dear they are to you, and however great their peril, there is One that ruleth and overruleth; and quiet prayer has more power with him than impatient fretfulness. If your dear ones are dead you cannot restore them to life by your unbelief; and if they still survive, it will be a pity to be downcast and unbelieving when there is no occasion for it. “Your strength is to sit still.” Remember that you are a Christian, and a Christian is expected to be more self-possessed than those who have no God to fly to. The holy self-composedness of faith is one of the things which recommend it to the outside world, and men who see Christian men and women calm, when others are beside themselves, are led to ask, “What is this?” and unconsciously to own, “This is the finger of God.” So when you ask the painful question before us, ask it still with faith in God.

But, dear friends, sometimes we have to ask this question about friends and children, with regard to their eternal life. They are dead, and we are fearful that they did not die in Christ, and therefore we enquire, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” It is very painful to the Christian minister when that question is put to him, and it is not for him to answer it in most cases. As a rule he knows too little of the person to form a judgment. He may, perhaps, have paid a visit or two, and he may have been encouraged by a few hopeful words: but what can we judge from a dying-bed? It is very easy for a dying person to be deceived and to deceive others, and we had better leave judgments and decisions in the hand of God. Those who know all about the person’s life, and have been in the chamber all the time of his sickness, and know more, how should they judge? I answer, where there has been no previous godly life, where the conversion must have been a very late one, and the signs and marks of it are feeble-judge hopefully, but judge honestly. You are allowed to hope, but still be honest, and avoid, above all things, the unwisdom I have seen in some people of holding up a son or a daughter or a friend for an example, when the individual has lived an ungodly life, and never showed the slightest sign of grace while in active life, but merely used a pious expression or two at the last. Hope if you dare, but be very careful of what you say. To parade the few last words as if they had more weight in them than a long life cast into the other scale is very unwise. It is most injurious to the rest of the family, and is apt to make them feel that they may live as they like, and yet be considered saints when they die. I rather admire, though I might not imitate, a father who, on the contrary, when his ungodly son died, said to his sons and daughters, “My dear children, much as I wish I could have any hope about your brother, his whole life was so inconsistent with anything like that of a Christian, that I fear he is lost for ever. I must warn you earnestly not to live as he lived, lest you should die as he died.” There was honesty in such dealing, honesty to be admired. If you must judge and answer the question, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” be not so hopeful as to deceive yourselves and others, and be not so severe as to constitute yourselves judges upon a matter in which you can know, after all, but little, unless the whole life has been before you. In that case you may judge with some degree of certainty, for it is written, “By their fruits shall ye know them.”

“Is the young man Absalom safe?” is a more practical question when we put it about young people and old people, when they are still alive, and we are anxious about their spiritual condition. “Is the young man Absalom safe?” That is to say, is he really safe for the future?-for this world and for the world to come. We saw him in the enquiry-room, we heard him speak out his anxiety, and we marked his tears; but is he safe? Not if he stops there. We have seen him since then at the house of God amongst the most earnest hearers. He leans forward to catch every syllable: he is evidently in earnest; but is he safe? Not if he stops there. He is a seeker: there can be no doubt about it. He has now begun to read his Bible, and he endeavours to draw near to God in prayer. Is he safe? Not if he stops even there. He must come to faith in Jesus Christ and really cast himself upon the great atonement made by the redeeming blood, or else he is not safe. The question for you Sunday-school teachers to ask about your children is, Are they safe? Have they reached the point in which they turn from darkness to light-from the power of Satan to the power of Christ? “Is the young man Absalom safe?” Is he saved? That is the point.

I believe there is a denomination of Christians who receive into membership those who desire to be saved. I will not judge such a plan, but I dare not follow it. To desire to be saved is a very simple matter, and means little. The point is to be saved. That is the question, and over it all our anxiety should be expended. “Is the young man Absalom”-not hopeful, not aroused or convicted, but is he “safe”? Is he saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation? Hear it all of you, and answer for yourselves.

The third point is to be the answers which we have to give to this question-“Is the young man Absalom safe?”

This question has often been sent up by friends from the country about their lads who have come to London-“Is my boy Harry safe! Is my son John safe?” Answer, sometimes: “No, no. He is not safe. We are sorry to say that he is in great danger.” I will tell you when we know he is not safe.

He is not safe if, like Absalom, he is at enmity with his father. Oh, no. He may attend a place of worship, and he may profess to pray, and he may even take upon himself the name of a Christian; but he is not sate if he is at enmity with his parents. That will not do at all. Scripture saith, “If a man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” The words are quite as forcible if we read father instead of brother. If a man love not his own parents on earth, how can he love his Father who is in heaven? No, no; he is not safe.

“Is the young man safe?” Well, no. We have seen him lately in bad company. He has associated with other young men who are of loose morals. He prefers to spend his evenings where there may be bare decency in the songs and the conversation, but scarcely more. No, the young man Absalom is not safe there. He may be very moral himself, but he will not long remain pure if he goes into such society. If you sit among coals, if you do not burn yourself, you will blacken yourself. If you choose bad company, if you are not absolutely made to transgress as they do, yet you will damage your reputation. No, the young man Absalom is not safe.

And he is not safe, because he has taken to indulge in expensive habits. “Absalom prepared him,” it is said, “chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him.” This extravagance was a sign of evil. A youth who lavishes money upon needless luxuries is not safe. Certain young men of London, with small salaries, manage to cut a superb figure, and we fear that something wrong lies behind it. Their plain but honest and respected fathers certainly would not know them if they were to see them in full array. It is a bad sign when young men go in for dash and show beyond their position and means. Of course, every man’s expenditure must be regarded with reference to his income and station in life. I am not touching upon the style of men of rank and fortune, though even there a vain-glorious appearance is the index of evil; but there are some young fellows scarcely out of their teens, or who have scarcely ended their apprenticeships, whose pocket-money must be easy to count, who nevertheless indulge themselves in all sorts of extravagances, and when I see them doing so I feel sure that the “young man Absalom” is not safe.

Another thing. The young man Absalom is not safe, as you may see, if you look at his personal appearance. We read, “But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.” When young people are taken up with their own persons, and are vain of their hair, their looks, and their dress, we are sure that they are not safe, for pride is always in danger. Let young men and women dress according to their stations; we are not condemning them for that. I recollect Mr. Jay saying, “If you ladies will tell me your income to a penny, I will tell you how many ribbons you may wear to a yard”; and I think that I might venture to say the same. But I do notice that when young people begin to be vain of their beauty and fond of dress they are in great peril from various kinds of temptations. There is a canker-worm somewhere in their brain or their heart that will eat up their good resolutions and fair characters. No, the young man with his boasted beauty is not safe.

And we are sure the young man Absalom is not safe, when he has begun to be vicious. You recollect what Absalom did: I need not go into particulars. Now, many a young man, albeit he is not reckoned a bad fellow, has still gone astray in private life, and if all secrets were laid bare, he would be almost ashamed to sit among respectable people who now receive him into their society. No, he is not safe.

“Is the young man Absalom safe?” No, David, he is not, for the last time we saw him he was in a battle, and the people were dying all around him, and therefore he is not safe. How can he be safe where others fall? Yes, and I saw the young man come out of a low place of amusement late one night, and I thought, “No, the young man Absalom is not safe,” for many perish there. I heard of his betting at the races, and I thought, “The young man Absalom is not safe, for multitudes are ruined there.” I saw him in loose company one evening, and I said, “No, the young man Absalom is not safe: he is surrounded by those who hunt for the precious life.” It is never safe for us to be where other people fall; because if they perish, why should not we? The youth did not see this, but answered me fiercely when I pointed out his danger. He said that he knew how to keep himself: it was not to be taken for granted, because he was going in for amusements, that he would become vicious. “Of course,” said he, “there are young fellows who cannot take care of themselves, but I am quite able to look after myself. I can put on the drag whenever I please; I am gay, but I am not bad; I am free, but not vicious.” Yes, but I wrote down, “The young man Absalom is not safe”-not half so safe as he thinks he is-and all the less safe, because he thinks so much of himself, and is so particularly sure that he can conquer where other people perish. No, the young man Absalom is not safe.

Now, the young man is here to-night who will answer to the next description. He is a very nice young fellow. All of us who know him love him and are right glad to see him among us. He is a great hearer and lover of the gospel word, but he is not decided. He has never taken his stand with God’s people, confessing Christ as his Lord. “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,” he has often said; but he is not quite persuaded yet. Is the young man safe? Oh, no. He is very hopeful, God bless him! We will pray him into safety if we can; but he is not safe yet. Those people who were almost saved from the wreck of the Princess Alice were drowned; and those persons who are almost saved from sin are still lost. If you are almost alive you are dead; if you are almost forgiven you are under condemnation; if you are almost regenerated you are unregenerate; if you are almost a Christian you are without God and without hope, and if you die almost saved you will be altogether lost.

O my dear young brother, I wish that I could answer and say, “Yes, the young man Absalom is safe: he has taken the decisive step, he has resigned himself into the hands of Jesus, and Jesus will keep him to the end.” May the Holy Ghost lead you to this.

A pleasant task remains, I will now answer that question with a happy “Yes.” Yes, the young man Absalom is safe.

Why? Well, first, because he is a believer in Christ. He has cast himself upon Jesus. He knew that he could not save himself, and so he came to Christ that Christ might save him, and he has left himself entirely in the hands of Jesus to be his for ever and ever.

The young man is saved, for he loves the gospel. He will not go to hear anything but the gospel. He sticks to the truth, he knows the unadulterated milk of the Word, and he cannot be deceived and led astray with false doctrine, for that he hates. He does not gad about to go and hear this and that, but he knows what has saved his soul, and he holds fast the form of sound words. The young man is safe.

I know he is safe, for he is very humble. He is not perfect yet: he does not say that he is, nor boast of his attainments. He does not want to be the forehorse of the team, he is willing to be placed anywhere so that he can be useful. He often wonders that he is a Christian at all, and ascribes it all to divine grace. He is a lowly young man, and therefore he is safe enough, for such the Lord preserveth.

Moreover, he is very diffident of himself. He is afraid sometimes to put one foot before another for fear he should take a wrong step. He is always going on his knees to ask for direction; he waits upon God for guidance, and does not dare to do anything without the direction of the word and the Spirit. He is a prayerful man, and therefore he is safe; for who can hurt the man who dwells at the mercy-seat? He is also a very careful man in his daily walk. He labours to be obedient to the will of God, he aims at being holy, and to be holy is to be safe.

Worldlings say that he is a cant and a hypocrite, and thus they have set their stamp on him, and marked him as a follower of the despised Redeemer. He is a genuine character, or else they would not persecute him. The people of God love him, and he loves them, and he dwells among them, and says of the house of God,

“Here my best friends, my kindred dwell,

Here God my Saviour reigns.”

Write home to his father and all his friends, and say, “The young man is safe.” He is in Christ, and he is in Christ’s church, and he is seeking to serve God. He is beginning to work for the Master, he is trying to bring souls to Jesus; the Holy Spirit is working in him and by him to the glory of God. Yes, he is safe enough, for he is “Safe in the arms of Jesus.”

Portion of Scripture Read before Sermon-Psalm 90.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-90, 566, and “Safe in the arms of Jesus” (25 “Flowers and Fruits.”)

JESUS

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, September 15th, 1878, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”-Matthew 1:21.

Bernard has delightfully said that the name of Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, and joy in the heart.* I rejoice in that expression on my own account, for it gives me my share of the delight, and leads me to hope that, while I am speaking, the sweetness of the precious name of Jesus may fill my own mouth. Here also is a portion for you who are listening: it is melody in the ear. If my voice should be harsh, and my words discordant, you will yet have music of the choicest order, for the name itself is essential melody, and my whole sermon will ring with its silver note. May both speaker and hearer join in the third word of Bernard’s sentence, and may we all find it to be joy in our hearts, a jubilee within our souls. Jesus is the way to God, therefore will we preach him; he is the truth, therefore will we hear of him; he is the life, therefore shall our hearts rejoice in him.

So inexpressibly fragrant is the name of Jesus that it imparts a delicious perfume to everything which comes in connection with it. Our thoughts will turn this morning to the first use of the name in connection with our Lord, when the child who was yet to be born was named Jesus. Here we find everything suggestive of comfort. The person to whom that name was first revealed was Joseph, a carpenter, a humble man, a working man, unknown and undistinguished save by the justice of his character. To the artizan of Nazareth was this name first imparted. It is not, therefore, a title to be monopolised by the ears of princes, sages, priests, warriors, or men of wealth: it is a name to be made a household word among common people. He is the people’s Christ; for of old it was said of him, “I have exalted one chosen out of the people.” Let every carpenter, and every worker of every sort, rejoice with all other sorts of men in the name of Jesus. There is consolation in the messenger who made known that name to Joseph; for it was the angel of the Lord who, in the visions of the night, whispered that charming name into his ear; and henceforth angels are in league with men, and gather to one standard, moved by the same watchword as ourselves-the name of Jesus. Did God send the name by an angel, and did the angel delight to come with it? Then is there a bond of sympathy between us and angelic spirits, and we are come this day not only “to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,” but “to an innumerable company of angels,” by whom that name is regarded with reverent love.

Nor is the condition of Joseph when he heard this name altogether without instruction. The angel spake to him in a dream: that name is so soft and sweet that it breaks no man’s rest, but rather yields a peace unrivalled, the peace of God. With such a dream Joseph’s sleep was more blessed than his waking. The name has evermore this power, for, to those who know it, it unveils a glory brighter than dreams have ever imaged. Under its power young men see visions, and old men dream dreams, and these do not mock them, but are prophecies faithful and true. The name of Jesus brings before our minds a vision of glory in the latter days when Jesus shall reign from pole to pole, and yet another vision of glory unutterable when his people shall be with him where he is. The name of Jesus was sweet at the first, because of the words with which it was accompanied; for they were meant to remove perplexity from Joseph’s mind, and some of them ran thus-“Fear not.” Truly, no name can banish fear like the name of Jesus: it is the beginning of hope and the end of despair. Let but the sinner hear of “the Saviour,” and he forgets to die, he hopes to live; he rises out of the deadly lethargy of his hopelessness, and, looking upward, he sees a reconciled God, and fears no longer. Especially, brethren, this name is full of rare delights when we meditate upon the infinite preciousness of the person to whom it was assigned. Ah, here is a Jonathan’s wood dripping with honey from every bough, and he that tasteth it shall have his eyes enlightened. We have no common Saviour, for neither earth nor heaven could produce his equal. At the time when the name was given his full person had not been seen by mortal eyes, for he lay as yet concealed; but soon he came forth, having been born of Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost, a matchless man. He bears our nature, but not our corruption; he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but yet in his flesh there is no sin. This Holy One is the Son of God, and yet he is the Son of man: this surpassing excellence of nature makes his name most precious.

I shall ask the exercise of your patience while I consider seven things in reference to this transporting name. It is as ointment poured forth, and its scent is varied so as to contain the essence of all fragrances. These seven things will be seen very plainly by you if you continue to look at the text and its connection.

First, we shall remark that the name of Jesus is a name divinely ordered and expounded. According to the text, the angel brought a message from the Lord, and said, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus.” It is a name which, like him who bears it, has come down from heaven. Our Lord has other names of office and relationship, but this is specially and peculiarly his own personal name, and it is the Father who hath thus named him. Rest assured, therefore, that it is the best name that he could bear. God would not have given him a name of secondary value, or about which there would be a trace of dishonour. The name is the highest, brightest, and noblest of names; it is the glory of our Lord to be a Saviour. To the best that was ever born of woman God has given the best name that any son of man could bear. Jesus is the most appropriate name that our Lord could receive. Of this we are quite certain, for the Father knew all about him, and could name him well. He knows much more about the Lord Christ than all saints and angels put together, for “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” To perfection the Father knew him, and he names him Jesus. We may be sure, then, that our Lord is most of all a Saviour, and is best described by that term; God, the Father, who knows him best, sees this to be his grand characteristic, that he is a Saviour, and is best represented by the name “Jesus.” Since infinite wisdom has selected it, we may be sure that it is a name which must be true, and must be verified by facts of no mean order. God, who cannot be under a mistake, calls him Jesus, a Saviour, and therefore Jesus, a Saviour, he must be upon a grand scale, continually, abundantly, and in a most apparent manner. Neither will God refuse to accept the work which he has done, since by the gift of that name he has commissioned him to save sinners. When we plead the name of Jesus before God, we bring him back his own word, and appeal to him by his own act and deed. Is not the name of Jesus to be viewed with reverential delight by each one of us, when we recollect whence it came? He is not a Saviour of our own setting up, but God the everlasting Father hath set him forth for our deliverer and Saviour, saying, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus.”

It is a name which the Holy Ghost explains, for he tells us the reason for the name of Jesus-“For he shall save his people from their sins.” “Saviour” is the meaning of the name, but it has a fuller sense hidden within, for in its Hebrew form it means “the salvation of the Lord,” or “the Lord of salvation,” or “the Saviour.” The angel interprets it, “he shall save,” and the word for “he” is very emphatic. According to many scholars, the divine name, the incommunicable title of the Most High is contained in “Joshua,” the Hebrew form of Jesus, so that in full the word means “Jehovah Saviour,” and in brief it signifies “Saviour.” It is given to our Lord because “he saves”-not according to any temporary and common salvation, from enemies and troubles, but he saves from spiritual enemies, and specially from sins. Joshua of old was a saviour, Gideon was a saviour, David was a saviour; but the title is given to our Lord above all others because he is a Saviour in a sense in which no one else is or can be,-he saves his people from their sins. The Jews were looking for a Saviour; they expected one who would break the Roman yoke, and save them from being under bondage to a foreign power, but our divine Lord came not for such a purpose, he came to be a Saviour of a more spiritual sort, and to break quite another yoke, by saving his people from their sins. The word “save” is very rich in meaning, its full and exact force can hardly be given in English words. Jesus is salvation in the sense of deliverance and also in that of preservation. He gives health, he is all that is salutary to his people: in the fullest and broadest sense he saves his people. The original word means to preserve, to keep, to protect from danger, and to secure. The grandest meanings generally dwell in the shortest words, and in this case the word “save” is a well where the plummet is long in finding a bottom. Jesus brings a great salvation, or as Paul saith “so great salvation,” as if he felt that he could never estimate its greatness (Heb. 2:3): he also speaks of it as “eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:9), even as Isaiah said, “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” Glorious beyond measure is the name “Jesus” as it is divinely expounded to us, for by that very exposition the eternal God guarantees the success of the Saviour: he declares that he shall save his people, and save his people he must. God himself sets him forth to us as-

“Jesus, Saviour, Son of God,

Bearer of the sinner’s load.”

Thus we have a name, dear friends, which we have not even to explain for ourselves. As we did not choose it, so we are not left to expound it: God who gave the text has preached us the sermon. He who appointed the name has given us the reason for it, so that we are not left in ignorance or uncertainty. We might have said, “Yes, his name is Jesus, but it refers to a salvation which was wrought in the olden ages;” but no, the word of the Lord tells us “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins;” and this is for all time, since he always has a people, and these people evermore need to be saved from their sins. Let us be glad that we have such a Saviour, and that the name of Jesus retains all the sweetness and power it ever had, and shall retain it till all the chosen people are saved, and then for ever and ever.

Moreover, in addition to expounding this name, the Holy Spirit, by the evangelist Matthew, has been pleased to refer us to the synonym of it, and so to give us its meaning by comparison. Let me read you the next verses. “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” If when our Lord was born and named “Jesus” the old prophecy which said that he should be called Emmanuel was fulfilled, it follows that the name “Jesus” bears a signification tantamount to that of “Emmanuel,” and that its virtual meaning is “God with us.” Indeed, brethren, he is Jesus, the Saviour, because he is Emmanuel, God with us; and as soon as he was born, and so became Emmanuel, the incarnate God, he became by that very fact Jesus, the Saviour. By coming down from heaven into this earth, and taking upon himself our nature, he bridged the otherwise bridgeless gulf between God and man: by suffering in that human nature and imparting through his divine nature an infinite efficacy to those sufferings he removed that which would have destroyed us, and brought us everlasting life and salvation. O Jesus, dearest of all names in earth or in heaven, I love thy music all the better because it is in such sweet harmony with another which rings melodiously in my ears, the name Emmanuel, God with us. Our Saviour is God, and therefore able; he is God with us, and therefore pitiful; he is divine, and therefore infinitely wise; but he is human, and therefore full of compassion.

This, then, is our first head: this charming name of Jesus is a jewel from the casket of heaven. It comes to us as an apple of gold, and it is attended by an exposition which places it in a basket of silver. The name is precious as the golden mercy-seat, and over it burns the light of the divine glory, so that we may not stumble at it, but may rejoice in the great light. It lets us know the very heart of God in reference to his Son: why he sent him, what he meant him to be and to do, and in what manner he would glorify him. Salvation is the joyful sound which rings from the bells of our High Priest’s garment as he comes forth to bless us. God, who spake to our fathers by his prophets, now speaks to us by his Son, whose name is Salvation. Is there not a mint of joy in this?

Secondly, although this name was thus chosen by God, our Lord was actually called by the name of Jesus by man. To this I call your special notice. “She (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call his name Jesus.” The God of heaven by his angel appoints the child’s name, but his reputed father must announce it. Both Joseph and Mary, according to the divine command, united in calling the child by the appointed name. See, then, that the name which is chosen of God is fully accepted by instructed men. Those who are taught of God joyfully recognise that Christ is salvation, and without a question give him the well-beloved name of Jesus, the Saviour.

Here note that the name Jesus, Saviour, was given to our Lord by two simple hearts as soon as ever he was revealed to them. They only needed to be told who he was, and what he was come for, how he was born, and what was the object of his incarnation, and they at once accepted the divine message, and named the babe by the name of Jesus. And, brethren, all of us to whom Christ is revealed at all, call him Jesus the Saviour. Many there be who think they know our Lord, but since they only speak of him as a prophet, a teacher, or a leader, and care not for him as a Saviour, we are clear that they are in ignorance as to his chief character. His first name, his personal name, they know not. The Holy Spirit cannot have revealed Christ to any man if that man remains ignorant of his saving power. He who does not know him as Jesus, the Saviour, does not know him at all. Certain anti-Christian Christians are craftily extolling Christ that they may smite Jesus: I mean that they cry up Jesus as Messiah, sent of God, to exhibit a grand example and supply a pure code of morals, but they cannot endure Jesus as a Saviour, redeeming us by his blood, and by his death delivering us from sin. I am not sure that they follow his example of holy living, but they are very loud in extolling it, and all with the purpose of drawing off men’s thoughts from the chief character and main object of our Lord’s sojourn among us, namely, the deliverance of his people from sin. If men knew our Lord they would call him Jesus the Saviour, and regard him not merely as a good man, a great teacher, a noble exemplar, but as the Saviour of sinners.

Now, Joseph and Mary not only believed, so as to give the young child the name in their own minds, but in due time they took him up to the temple and presented him according to the law, and there publicly his name was called Jesus. All hearts to whom God commits his Christ should publicly own him in the most solemn manner according to his ordinance, and should desire in all proper places to confess him as the Saviour. The infant Christ was committed to the care of Joseph and Mary, to nurse and protect. Wonder of wonders, that He should need a guardian who is the Preserver of men and the Shepherd of his saints! In his feebleness as a babe he needed parental care; and in caring for him Joseph and Mary did not hesitate to avow their faith by giving him a name which indicated his destiny, nor did they refuse to publish his name in the temple before the priests and the congregation. Now in a certain sense Christ is committed to the keeping of all his people. This day a charge to keep we have; we are to preserve his gospel in the world, to maintain his truth, and to publish his salvation, and therefore we are bound to bear this testimony, that he is Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. This we must make very prominent. Others shall say what they please about him, and if they speak well of his character in any respect we will be glad that they shall do it, however little they may know: but this is our peculiar testimony, that our Lord saves from sin. Nothing is more prominent about a man than his name; we can hardly mention him without pronouncing his name, and so we feel that we cannot mention our Lord without speaking of salvation. If he be anything he is Jesus, the Saviour; we know him best by that name. We preach unto men Jesus; we insist upon it first and foremost that he is the sinner’s Saviour. He is righteous and loveth righteousness, but he is first known to men as the friend of sinners. He is the faithful and true witness, the prince of the kings of the earth, but his first work is to save; after that he teaches and rules his saved ones. Sunken in sin, men need to be redeemed from that tremendous evil and the wrath consequent thereon, and this awful need is met by Jesus, the Saviour.

So, beloved, you see that the name chosen of God is given to him by all those who know him, and to whom his gospel is entrusted, and given heartily, zealously, boldly. Yes, all of us call him Jesus if we know him, and we are resolved to publish his name abroad as long as we live. If he was Jesus in the cradle, what is he now that he is exalted in the heavens? As Emmanuel, God with us, his very incarnation made him Jesus, the Saviour of men: but what shall I say of him now that beyond his incarnation we have his atonement, and above his atonement his resurrection, and beyond that his ascension, and, to crown all, his perpetual intercession? How grandly does the title befit him now that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them! If in the arms of the Virgin he is the Saviour, what is he on the throne of God? If wrapped in swaddling bands he is Jesus, what is he now that the heavens have received him? If in the workshop of Nazareth, and sitting in the temple among the doctors, he was the child Jesus, the Saviour, what is he now that his infancy and childhood are over, and he is exalted far above all principalities and powers? If he was Jesus when on the cross, presenting himself as an offering for his people, what is he now that he hath by one sacrifice perfected for ever them that are set apart? What is he now that he sits at the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies are made his footstool? Let us all unite in calling our Lord by this tender human name of Jesus. Are we not his mother and sister and brother? Did he not call all believers by these endearing titles? Then we, too, will call him Jesus-

“Jesus, name all names above; Jesus best and nearest,

Jesus, fount of perfect love, holiest, tenderest, dearest:

Jesus, source of grace completed; Jesus holiest, sweetest,

Jesus, Saviour all divine, thine’s the name, and only thine.”

The name had been typically worn by another, but is now reserved for him alone. There had been a Jesus before our Jesus. I allude to Joshua, and you know that in our version the name Jesus is twice used where Joshua is really meant. The first is Acts 7:4, 5, where we read of the fathers who entered in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, evidently meaning Joshua; and the second in Hebrews 4:8, “If Jesus had given them rest.” Joshua is the Hebrew form and Jesus the Greek form, but Jesus and Joshua are the same word. There was one, then, of old, who bore this famous name of Jesus, or Joshua, and was a type of our Jesus. What did Joshua do? When Moses could not lead the people into Canaan, Joshua did it; and so our Jesus accomplishes what the law never could have done. Joshua overcame the enemies of God’s people: though they were very many and very strong, and had cities walled to heaven and chariots of iron, yet in the name of Jehovah, as captain of the Lord’s host, Joshua smote them. Even so doth our glorious Joshua smite our sins and all the powers of darkness, and utterly destroy our spiritual enemies. Before him Amalek is smitten, Jericho falls, and Canaanites are put to rout, while he giveth us to triumph in every place. Moreover Joshua conquered an inheritance for Israel, took them across the Jordan, settled them in a land that flowed with milk and honey, and gave to each tribe and to each man to stand in his lot which God had ordained for him. Precisely this is what our Jesus does, only our inheritance is more divine, and on each one of us it is more surely entailed. Though Joshua could not give to the people the heavenly Sabbatismos, or rest of the highest kind, yet he gave them rest most pleasant to them, so that every man sat under his own vine and fig tree, none making him afraid; but our glorious Joshua has given us infinite, eternal rest, for he is our peace, and they that know him have entered into rest. Joshua, the son of Nun, caused the people to serve the Lord all his days, but he could not save the nation from their sins, for after his death they grievously went astray: our Joshua preserves to himself a people zealous for good works, for he ever liveth and is able to keep them from falling. No more doth Joshua lift sword or spear on behalf of Israel, but Jesus still rideth forth, conquering and to conquer, and all his people have victory through his blood. Well is his name called Jesus.

We read of another Jesus in the books of Ezra and Zechariah. The form which the word there takes is Jeshua or Joshua. He was the high priest who came at the head of the people on their return from Babylon. He is spoken of by the prophet Zechariah in terms which make him a fit representative of each of us. But, behold, Jesus of Nazareth is now the only high priest; and having presented his one sacrifice for ever, he remains a priest according to the power of an endless life. He heads the march from Babylon, and he leads his people back to Jerusalem.

The name of Jesus was not at all uncommon among the Jews. Josephus mentions no less than twelve persons of the name of Jesus. Salvation of a certain kind was so longed for by the Jews that their eagerness was seen in their children’s names. Their little ones were by their hopes named as saviours, but saviours they were not. How common are nominal saviours! “Lo here,” they say, “here is a saviour”: “Lo, there,” they cry, “another saviour.” These have the name but not the power, and now, according to the text, Jesus Christ has engrossed the title for himself. His name shall be called Jesus, for he alone is a Prince and a Saviour, and truly saves his people from their sins. Other saviours do but mock the hopes of mankind: they promise fairly, but they utterly deceive: this holy child, this blessed, glorious God with us, has truly brought us salvation, and he saith, “Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me there is none else.” This Jesus of Nazareth, the King of kings, is the one and only Saviour. He, and none but he, shall save his people. He shall save by his own act and deed, he and not another. Singly and alone he shall save his people. Personally, and not by another, in his name and on his behalf, he shall, by himself, purge away sin. He shall do all the work, and leave none undone: he shall begin it, carry it on, and complete it, and therefore is his name called Jesus, because he shall completely and perfectly save his people from their sins. The name has been, in a minor sense, applied to others aforetime, but now none else may wear it, since there is no other Saviour, and none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.

The fourth point grows out of the wording of the text. This name Jesus identifies our Lord with his people. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus,” for that name declares his relation to his people. It is to them that he is a Saviour. He would not be Jesus if he had not a people: he could not be, for there could be no Saviour if there were none to be saved, and there could be no Saviour from sin if there were no sinners. Notice, dear friends, the all-important connection here revealed between our Lord and his people, since his very name hangs on it: his proper, personal name has no meaning apart from his people.

“He shall save his people.” It does not say God’s people, for then it would have been understood as meaning only the Jews: or it would have been supposed to refer to some good and holy persons who belonged to God, apart from the Mediator; but “he shall save his people”-those who are his own, and personally belong to him. These are evidently a very peculiar people, a people set apart as Christ’s own treasure; they are a people that belong to God incarnate-Emmanuel’s people. These he saves. Who are they but his elect, whom his Father gave him or ever the earth was? Who are they but those whose names are graven on the palms of his hands and written on his heart? Who are they but those for whom he counted down the price of redemption? Who are they but those for whom he became a surety, whose smart he has borne? Who are they but the numbered sheep that will be required at his hands by the great Father, that he should render them back by tale and number, saying, “I have kept those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine.” Yes, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and he preserves them unto his eternal kingdom and glory. “He shall save his people.” Do you not see that this name of Jesus is an election name after all? It is a wide, far-reaching name, to sinners dear, to sinners given; but still in the depths of its meaning it has a special bearing upon a chosen people; it has a ring of sovereignty about it, and is all the sweeter because of this to those who see in their own salvation an exhibition of distinguishing grace.

Now the question arises, who are his people? We are eager to know who they are; and we are glad to find that his people, be they who they may, need to be saved, and shall be saved, for it is written, “He shall save his people.” It is not said, “he shall reward his people for their righteousness,” nor is it promised that he shall “save them from becoming sinners,” but “he shall save his people from their sins.” Do you want saving, brethren? Has the Holy Ghost taught you that you need salvation? Let your hearts be encouraged. This is the character of all his people; he never had a chosen one who could do without washing in the Saviour’s blood. If you are righteous in yourself you are not one of his people. If you were never sick in soul you are none of the folk that the Great Physician has come to heal: if you were never guilty of sin you are none of those whom he has come to deliver from sin. Jesus comes on no needless errand, and undertakes no unnecessary work: if you feel yourselves to need saving then cast yourselves upon him, for such as you are he came to save.

Notice, yet again, the very gracious but startling fact that our Lord’s connection with his people lies in the direction of their sins. This is amazing condescension. He is called Saviour in connection with his people, but it is in reference to their sins, because it is from their sins that they need to be saved. If they had never sinned they would never have required a Saviour, and there would have been no name of Jesus known on earth. That is a wonderful text-did you ever meditate upon it?-“Who gave himself for our sins according to the Scriptures.” As Martin Luther says, he never gave himself for our righteousness, but he did give himself for our sins. Sin is a horrible evil, a deadly poison, yet it is this which gives Jesus his title when he overcomes it. What a wonder to think upon! The first link between my soul and Christ is, not my goodness, but my badness; not my merit, but my misery; not my standing, but my falling; not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit his people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities; not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins. O ye sinners, I mean real sinners, not you that call yourselves so because you are told you are such, but you who feel yourselves to be guilty before God, here is good news for you. O you self-condemned sinners, who feel that if you ever get salvation Jesus must bring it to you and be the beginning and the end of it, I pray you rejoice in this dear, this precious, this blessed name, for Jesus has come to save you, even you. Go to him as sinners, call him “Jesus,” and cry, “O Lord Jesus, be Jesus to me, for I need thy salvation.” Doubt not that he will fulfil his own name and exhibit his power in you. Only confess to him your sin, and he will save you from it. Only believe in him, and he will be your salvation.

The fifth point is very clear, and well worthy of note. The name of “Jesus” is one which indicates his main work. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save.” He shall save from sin. Why do men write lives of Christ who know nothing about his main business and object? Why do some preach about Christ who do not know the very essence and heart of him? Think of knowing Milton, but not as a poet, and Bacon, but not as a philosopher! There is no knowing our Lord, if he be not known as a Saviour; for he is that or nothing. Those who fall short of his salvation do not even know his name; how, then, should they know his person? His name is not called Jesus because he is our exemplar, though indeed he is perfection itself, and we long to tread in his footsteps; but his name is called Jesus because he has come to save that which is lost. He is Christ, too, or the anointed, but then he is Christ Jesus; that is to say, it is as a Saviour that he is anointed. He is nothing if he be not a Saviour. He is anointed to this very end. His very name is a sham if he do not save his people from their sins.

Now, Jesus doth save his people from sin; for, first, he doth it by taking all the sins of his people upon himself. Do you think that a strong expression? It is warranted by the Scriptures. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Christ’s shoulders bore the the guilt of his people, and because he took their load his people are free, and have henceforth no burden of sin to weigh them down. He saves his people through his personal substitution, by standing in their stead and suffering in their place. There is none other way of salvation but by his vicarious sufferings and death.

Then he saves them by bearing the penalty due to their sin. Where the sin lies the penalty falls. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.” “He was made a curse for us.” “Christ also hath suffered for us.” He died, “the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” He bore the wrath of God which was due to us. He has taken the sin and paid the penalty, and now cavillers come in and falsely say that we teach that a man is to believe the dogma of atonement and then he is saved, and may live as he likes. They know better; they know that they misrepresent us, for we always teach that this great work of substitution and penalty-bearing by Christ works in the person who partakes in its benefits, love to God, gratitude to Christ, and consequent hatred of all sin; and this change of heart is the very core and essence of salvation. This is how Christ saves his people from their sin-by rescuing them, by the force of his love, out of the power, tyranny, and dominion of sins, which hitherto had the mastery over them. I knew what it was to strive against sin as a moral person, seeking to overcome it, but I found myself mastered by sin, like Samson when his hair was lost, and the Philistines bound him; but since I have believed in Jesus I find motives for being holy which are more influential with me than any I knew before; I find weapons with which to fight my sin that I never knew how to handle before, and a new strength has been given me of the Holy Spirit. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”; this is the power which drives out the vipers of sin from the soul,-the precious blood of Jesus. He that hath believed in Jesus as his expiation and atonement becomes thereby, through the power of the Holy Ghost, renewed in heart; he has fresh objects set him, fresh motives sway him, and thus Jesus saves his people from their sins.

Beloved, if we had space at this time I should like to speak about how completely Christ saves his people from their sins, how when he comes in he turns out the strong man armed with mighty force, how that strong man armed seeks to come back again, and does, as far as he can, gain a partial entrance, but Jesus drives him out again; how all the damage and foulness that were left within the house by the old tenant are gradually cleared away by Jesus, till at last his people are fully sanctified as temples of the living God. His saints shall be without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, and no sign that ever the devil dwelt within them shall remain upon them. Viewing each one of their risen bodies as a temple of God, you shall search those bodies through and not find a trace of the dominion of sin; you shall look into the heart, into the mind, into the understanding, but when Jesus has done his purging work there shall be no scar or speck to show that ever sin was there. So completely shall he save his people from their sins that they shall be fit to dwell with angels; better,-they shall be fit to dwell with God: better than that, they shall be one with Jesus, one with him throughout eternity, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. How glorious, how transcendent is the salvation which Jehovah Jesus has brought to us!

This name of Jesus is one which is completely justified by facts. It was given him before he had done anything: while yet he was a babe, or ever his trembling feet had learned to tread the cottage floor at Nazareth, he was Jesus the Saviour. But is the name well deserved? Many a child has had a grand name, and his life has contradicted it. I recollect a grave on which there is the name of a child, “Sacred to the memory of Methusaleh Coney, who died aged six months.” His parents were mightily mistaken when they called him Methusaleh. Many other names are equally inappropriate, and are proved to be so in the course of years. But this Jesus is a Saviour, a true Jesus. He bears a name which he well deserves. Come to the Christ and see there the many that once rioted in sin, and rolled in the mire, but they are washed, but they are sanctified, and now they rejoice in holiness. Who purified them? Who but Jesus? He that saves his people from their sins has saved them. Go ye to dying-beds, and hear saints telling of his love, and speaking of the heaven which is already dawning in their souls. Some of these once could sit on the ale-bench, and use the swearer’s oath, but Jesus has cleansed them. Climb ye up to heaven, and behold the snow-white host, glittering like the sun in spotless purity. I ask them whence came they? The reply is that they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is most true that Jesus saves his people from their sins-earth knows it, hell howls at it, and heaven chants it; time has seen it, and eternity shall reveal it. There is none like to Jesus in saving power. All glory be to him! When he shall come from heaven with a shout, and all his hosts shall be with him, when the day of the supper of the Lamb shall come, and the bride hath made herself ready, and she that is the queen all glorious within, wearing her raiment of wrought gold, shall sit down at the table of God with her glorious husband-then shall it be seen that he has saved his church, his people, from their sins.

Last of all, this name is Christ’s personal name for ever. It is a home name. It is the name his father gave him, it is the name his mother gave him-Jesus, the child Jesus. We also belong to his family; for he that believeth in him is his father, and mother, and sister, and brother, and that most dear and familiar name by which he was known at home is ever in our mouths. He is the Lord, and we worship him; but he is Jesus, and we love him. Jesus is also the heart name, and is full of the music of love. They who loved him best gave him the name, especially his mother, who pondered everything about him in her heart. It is the name which moves our affections, and fires our souls.

“Jesus, the very thought of thee

With sweetness fills my breast.”

Let your hearts go out towards him in tender union. Jesus is his death name;-Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, was written on his cross. That is his resurrection name. That is his gospel name, which we preach. It is the name which Peter preached to the Gentiles when he said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth by whom is preached to you the remission of sins.” And this, beloved, is his heaven name. They sing to him there as Jesus. See how it concludes the Bible. Read the Revelation, and read its songs, and see how they worship Jesus the Lamb of God. Let us go and tell of this name; let us continually meditate upon it; let us love it henceforth and for ever. Amen.

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

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-872, 331, 786.