C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“Have ye not read?… Have ye not read?… If ye had known what this meaneth.”-Matthew 12:3-7.

The scribes and Pharisees were great readers of the law. They studied the sacred books continually, poring over each word and letter. They made notes of very little importance, but still very curious notes-as to which was the middle verse of the entire Old Testament, which verse was half-way to the middle, and how many times such a word occurred, and even how many times a letter occurred, and the size of the letter, and its peculiar position. They have left us a mass of wonderful notes upon the mere words of Holy Scripture. They might have done the same thing upon another book for that matter, and the information would have been about as important as the facts which they have so industriously collected concerning the letter of the Old Testament. They were, however, intense readers of the law. They picked a quarrel with the Saviour upon a matter touching this law, for they carried it at their fingers’ ends, and were ready to use it as a bird of prey does its talons to tear and rend. Our Lord’s disciples had plucked some ears of corn, and rubbed them between their hands. According to Pharisaic interpretation, to rub an ear of corn is a kind of threshing, and, as it is very wrong to thresh on the Sabbath day, therefore it must be very wrong to rub out an ear or two of wheat when you are hungry on the Sabbath morning. That was their argument, and they came to the Saviour with it, and with their version of the Sabbath law. The Saviour generally carried the war into the enemy’s camp, and he did so on this occasion. He met them on their own ground, and he said to them, “Have ye not read?”-a cutting question to the scribes and Pharisees, though there is nothing apparently sharp about it. It was a very fair and proper question to put to them; but only think of putting it to them. “Have ye not read?” “Read!” they could have said, “Why, we have read the book through very many times. We are always reading it. No passage escapes our critical eyes.” Yet our Lord proceeds to put the question a second time-“Have ye not read?” as if they had not read after all, though they were the greatest readers of the law then living. He insinuates that they have not read at all; and then he gives them incidentally the reason why he had asked them whether they had read. He says, “If ye had known what this meaneth,” as much as to say, “Ye have not read, because ye have not understood.” Your eyes have gone over the words, and you have counted the letters, and you have marked the position of each verse and word, and you have said learned things about all the books, and yet you are not even readers of the sacred volume, for you have not acquired the true art of reading; you do not understand, and therefore you do not truly read it. You are mere skimmers and glancers at the Word: you have not read it, for you do not understand it.

That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least, the first point of it, that in order to the true reading of the Scriptures, there must be an understanding of them.

I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age-a newspaper reading age-a periodical reading age, but not so much a Bible reading age as it ought to be. In the old Puritanic times men used to have a scant supply of other literature, but they found a library enough in the one book, the Bible. And how they did read the Bible! How little of Scripture there is in modern sermons compared with the sermons of those masters of theology, the Puritanic divines! Almost every sentence of theirs seems to cast side lights upon a text of Scripture; not only the one they are preaching about, but many others as well are set in a new light as the discourse proceeds. They introduce blended lights from other passages which are parallel or semi-parallel thereunto, and thus they educate their readers to compare spiritual things with spiritual. I would to God that we ministers kept more closely to the grand old book. We should be instructive preachers if we did so, even if we were ignorant of “modern thought,” and were not “abreast of the times.” I warrant you we should be leagues ahead of our times if we kept closely to the word of God. As for you, my brothers and sisters, who have not to preach, the best food for you is the word of God itself. Sermons and books are well enough, but streams that run for a long distance above ground gradually gather for themselves somewhat of the soil through which they flow, and they lose the cool freshness with which they started from the spring head. Truth is sweetest where it breaks from the smitten Rock, for at its first gush it has lost none of its heavenliness and vitality. It is always best to drink at the well and not from the tank. You shall find that reading the word of God for yourselves, reading it rather than notes upon it, is the surest way of growing in grace. Drink of the unadulterated milk of the word of God, and not of the skim milk, or the milk and water of man’s word.

But, now, beloved, our point is that much apparent Bible reading is not Bible reading at all. The verses pass under the eye, and the sentences glide over the mind, but there is no true reading. An old preacher used to say, the Word has mighty free course among many nowadays, for it goes in at one of their ears and out at the other; so it seems to be with some readers-they can read a very great deal, because they do not read anything. The eye glances but the mind never rests. The soul does not light upon the truth and stay there. It flits over the landscape as a bird might do, but it builds no nest therein, and finds no rest for the sole of its foot. Such reading is not reading. Understanding the meaning is the essence of true reading. Reading has a kernel to it, and the mere shell is little worth. In prayer there is such a thing as praying in prayer-a praying that is the bowels of the prayer. So in praise there is a praising in song, an inward fire of intense devotion which is the life of the hallelujah. It is so in fasting: there is a fasting which is not fasting, and there is an inward fasting, a fasting of the soul, which is the soul of fasting. It is even so with the reading of the Scriptures. There is an interior reading, a kernel reading-a true and living reading of the Word. This is the soul of reading; and, if it be not there, the reading is a mechanical exercise, and profits nothing. Now, beloved, unless we understand what we read we have not read it; the heart of the reading is absent. We commonly condemn the Romanists for keeping the daily service in the Latin tongue; yet it might as well be in the Latin language as in any other tongue if it be not understood by the people. Some comfort themselves with the idea that they have done a good action when they have read a chapter, into the meaning of which they have not entered at all; but does not nature herself reject this as a mere superstition. If you had turned the book upside down, and spent the same time in looking at the characters in that direction, you would have gained as much good from it as you will in reading it in the regular way without understanding it. If you had a New Testament in Greek it would be very Greek to some of you, but it would do you as much good to look at that as it does to look at the English New Testament unless you read with understanding heart. It is not the letter which saves the soul; the letter killeth in many senses, and never can it give life. If you harp on the letter alone you may be tempted to use it as a weapon against the truth, as the Pharisees did of old, and your knowledge of the letter may breed pride in you to your destruction. It is the spirit, the real inner meaning, that is sucked into the soul, by which we are blessed and sanctified. We become saturated with the word of God, like Gideon’s fleece, which was wet with the dew of heaven; and this can only come to pass by our receiving it into our minds and hearts, accepting it as God’s truth, and so far understanding it as to delight in it. We must understand it, then, or else we have not read it aright.

Certainly, the benefit of reading must come to the soul by the way of the understanding. When the high priest went into the holy place he always lit the golden candlestick before he kindled the incense upon the brazen altar, as if to show that the mind must have illumination before the affections can properly rise towards their divine object. There must be knowledge of God before there can be love to God: there must be a knowledge of divine things, as they are revealed, before there can be an enjoyment of them. We must try to make out, as far as our finite mind can grasp it, what God means by this and what he means by that; otherwise we may kiss the book and have no love to its contents, we may reverence the letter and yet really have no devotion towards the Lord who speaks to us in these words. Beloved, you will never get comfort to your soul out of what you do not understand, nor find guidance for your life out of what you do not comprehend; nor can any practical bearing upon your character come out of that which is not understood by you.

Now, if we are thus to understand what we read or otherwise we read in vain, this shows us that when we come to the study of Holy Scripture we should try to have our mind well awake to it. We are not always fit, it seems to me, to read the Bible. At times it were well for us to stop before we open the volume. “Put off thy shoe from thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” You have just come in from careful thought and anxiety about your worldly business, and you cannot immediately take that book and enter into its heavenly mysteries. As you ask a blessing over your meat before you fall to, so it would be a good rule for you to ask a blessing on the word before you partake of its heavenly food. Pray the Lord to strengthen your eyes before you dare to look into the eternal light of Scripture. As the priests washed their feet at the laver before they went to their holy work, so it were well to wash the soul’s eyes with which you look upon God’s word, to wash even the fingers, if I may so speak-the mental fingers with which you will turn from page to page,-that with a holy book you may deal after a holy fashion. Say to your soul-“Come, soul, wake up: thou art not now about to read the newspaper; thou art not now perusing the pages of a human poet to be dazzled by his flashing poetry; thou art coming very near to God, who sits in the Word like a crowned monarch in his halls. Wake up, my glory; wake up, all that is within me. Though just now I may not be praising and glorifying God, I am about to consider that which should lead me so to do, and therefore it is an act of devotion. So be on the stir, my soul: be on the stir, and bow not sleepily before the awful throne of the Eternal.” Scripture reading is our spiritual meal time. Sound the gong and call in every faculty to the Lord’s own table to feast upon the precious meat which is now to be partaken of; or, rather, ring the church-bell as for worship, for the studying of the Holy Scripture ought to be as solemn a deed as when we lift the psalm upon the Sabbath day in the courts of the Lord’s house.

If these things be so, you will see at once, dear friends, that, if you are to understand what you read, you will need to meditate upon it. Some passages of Scripture lie clear before us-blessed shallows in which the lambs may wade; but there are deeps in which our mind might rather drown herself than swim with pleasure, if she came there without caution. There are texts of Scripture which are made and constructed on purpose to make us think. By this means, among others, our heavenly Father would educate us for heaven-by making us think our way into divine mysteries. Hence he puts the word in a somewhat involved form to compel us to meditate upon it before we reach the sweetness of it. He might, you know, have explained it to us so that we might catch the thought in a minute, but he does not please to do so in every case. Many of the veils which are cast over Scripture are not meant to hide the meaning from the diligent, but to compel the mind to be active, for oftentimes the diligence of the heart in seeking to know the divine mind does the heart more good than the knowledge itself. Meditation and careful thought exercise us and strengthen the soul for the reception of the yet more lofty truths. I have heard that the mothers in the Balearic isles, in the old times, who wanted to bring their boys up to be good slingers, would put their dinners up above them where they could not get at them until they threw a stone and fetched them down: our Lord wishes us to be good slingers, and he puts up some precious truth in a lofty place where we cannot get it down except by slinging at it; and, at last, we hit the mark and find food for our souls. Then have we the double benefit of learning the art of meditation and partaking of the sweet truth which it has brought within our reach. We must meditate, brothers. These grapes will yield no wine till we tread upon them. These olives must be put under the wheel, and pressed again and again, that the oil may flow therefrom. In a dish of nuts, you may know which nut has been eaten, because there is a little hole which the insect has punctured through the shell-just a little hole, and then inside there is the living thing eating up the kernel. Well, it is a grand thing to bore through the shell of the letter, and then to live inside feeding upon the kernel. I would wish to be such a little worm as that, living within and upon the word of God, having bored my way through the shell, and having reached the innermost mystery of the blessed gospel. The word of God is always most precious to the man who most lives upon it. As I sat last year under a wide-spreading beech, I was pleased to mark with prying curiosity the singular habits of that most wonderful of trees, which seems to have an intelligence about it which other trees have not. I wondered and admired the beech, but I thought to myself, I do not think half as much of this beech tree as yonder squirrel does. I see him leap from bough to bough, and I feel sure that he dearly values the old beech tree, because he has his home somewhere inside it in a hollow place, these branches are his shelter, and those beech-nuts are his food. He lives upon the tree. It is his world, his playground, his granary, his home; indeed, it is everything to him, and it is not so to me, for I find my rest and food elsewhere. With God’s word it is well for us to be like squirrels, living in it and living on it. Let us exercise our minds by leaping from bough to bough of it, find our rest and food in it, and make it our all in all. We shall be the people that get the profit out of it if we make it to be our food, our medicine, our treasury, our armoury, our rest, our delight. May the Holy Ghost lead us to do this and make the Word thus precious to our souls.

Beloved, I would next remind you that for this end we shall be compelled to pray. It is a grand thing to be driven to think, it is a grander thing to be driven to pray through having been made to think. Am I not addressing some of you who do not read the word of God, and am I not speaking to many more who do read it, but do not read it with the strong resolve that they will understand it? I know it must be so. Do you wish to begin to be true readers? Will you henceforth labour to understand? Then you must get to your knees. You must cry to God for direction. Who understands a book best? The author of it. If I want to ascertain the real meaning of a rather twisted sentence, and the author lives near me, and I can call upon him, I shall ring at his door and say, “Would you kindly tell me what you mean by that sentence? I have no doubt whatever that it is very clear, but I am such a simpleton, that I cannot make it out. I have not the knowledge and grasp of the subject which you possess, and therefore your allusions and descriptions are beyond my range of knowledge. It is quite within your range, and commonplace to you, but it is very difficult to me. Would you kindly explain your meaning to me?” A good man would be glad to be thus treated, and would think it no trouble to unravel his meaning to a candid enquirer. Thus I should be sure to get the correct meaning, for I should be going to the fountain head when I consulted the author himself. So, beloved, the Holy Spirit is with us, and when we take his book and begin to read, and want to know what it means, we must ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning. He will not work a miracle, but he will elevate our minds, and he will suggest to us thoughts which will lead us on by their natural relation the one to the other, till at last we come to the pith and marrow of his divine instruction. Seek then very earnestly the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for if the very soul of reading be the understanding of what we read, then we must in prayer call upon the Holy Ghost to unlock the secret mysteries of the inspired word.

If we thus ask the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit, it will follow, dear friends, that we shall be ready to use all means and helps towards the understanding of the Scriptures. When Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch whether he understood the prophecy of Isaiah he replied, “How can I, unless some man should guide me?” Then Philip went up and opened to him the word of the Lord. Some, under the pretence of being taught of the Spirit of God refuse to be instructed by books or by living men. This is no honouring of the Spirit of God; it is a disrespect to him, for if he gives to some of his servants more light than to others-and it is clear he does-then they are bound to give that light to others, and to use it for the good of the church. But if the other part of the church refuse to receive that light, to what end did the Spirit of God give it? This would imply that there is a mistake somewhere in the economy of gifts and graces, which is managed by the Holy Spirit. It cannot be so. The Lord Jesus Christ pleases to give more knowledge of his word and more insight into it to some of his servants than to others, and it is ours joyfully to accept the knowledge which he gives in such ways as he chooses to give it. It would be most wicked of us to say, “We will not have the heavenly treasure which exists in earthen vessels. If God will give us the heavenly treasure out of his own hand, but not through the earthen vessel, we will have it; but we think we are too wise, too heavenly minded, too spiritual altogether to care for jewels when they are placed in earthen pots. We will not hear anybody, and we will not read anything except the book itself, neither will we accept any light, except that which comes in through a crack in our own roof. We will not see by another man’s candle, we would sooner remain in the dark.” Brethren, do not let us fall into such folly. Let the light come from God, and though a child shall bring it, we will joyfully accept it. If any one of his servants, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, shall have received light from him, behold, “all are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s,” and therefore accept of the light which God has kindled, and ask for grace that you may turn that light upon the word so that when you read it you may understand it.

I do not wish to say much more about this, but I should like to push it home upon some of you. You have Bibles at home, I know; you would not like to be without Bibles, you would think you were heathens if you had no Bibles. You have them very neatly bound, and they are very fine looking volumes: not much thumbed, not much worn, and not likely to be so, for they only come out on Sundays for an airing, and they lie in lavender with the clean pocket-handkerchiefs all the rest of the week. You do not read the word, you do not search it, and how can you expect to get the divine blessing? If the heavenly gold is not worth digging for you are not likely to discover it. Often and often have I told you that the searching of the Scriptures is not the way of salvation. The Lord hath said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” But, still, the reading of the word often leads, like the hearing of it, to faith, and faith bringeth salvation; for faith cometh by hearing, and reading is a sort of hearing. While you are seeking to know what the gospel is, it may please God to bless your souls. But what poor reading some of you give to your Bibles. I do not want to say anything which is too severe because it is not strictly true-let your own consciences speak, but still, I make bold to enquire,-Do not many of you read the Bible in a very hurried way-just a little bit, and off you go? Do you not soon forget what you have read, and lose what little effect it seemed to have? How few of you are resolved to get at its soul, its juice, its life, its essence, and to drink in its meaning. Well, if you do not do that, I tell you again your reading is miserable reading, dead reading, unprofitable reading; it is not reading at all, the name would be misapplied. May the blessed Spirit give you repentance touching this thing.

But now, secondly, and very briefly, let us notice that in reading we ought to seek out the spiritual teaching of the word. I think that is in my text, because our Lord says, “Have ye not read?” Then, again, “Have ye not read?” and then he says, “If ye had known what this meaneth”-and the meaning is something very spiritual. The text he quoted was, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice”-a text out of the prophet Hosea. Now, the scribes and Pharisees were all for the letter-the sacrifice, the killing of the bullock, and so on. They overlooked the spiritual meaning of the passage, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice”-namely, that God prefers that we should care for our fellow-creatures rather than that we should observe any ceremonial of his law, so as to cause hunger or thirst, and thereby death, to any of the creatures that his hands have made. They ought to have passed beyond the outward into the spiritual, and all our readings ought to do the same.

Notice, that this should be the case when we read the historical passages. “Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shew-bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?” This was a piece of history, and they ought so to have read it as to have found spiritual instruction in it. I have heard very stupid people say, “Well, I do not care to read the historical parts of Scripture.” Beloved friends, you do not know what you are talking about when you say so. I say to you now by experience that I have sometimes found even a greater depth of spirituality in the histories than I have in the Psalms. You will say, “How is that?” I assert that when you reach the inner and spiritual meaning of a history you are often surprised at the wondrous clearness-the realistic force-with which the teaching comes home to your soul. Some of the most marvellous mysteries of revelation are better understood by being set before our eyes in the histories than they are by the verbal declaration of them. When we have the statement to explain the illustration, the illustration expands and vivifies the statement. For instance, when our Lord himself would explain to us what faith was, he sent us to the history of the brazen serpent; and who that has ever read the story of the brazen serpent has not felt that he has had a better idea of faith through the picture of the dying snake-bitten persons looking to the serpent of brass and living, than from any description which even Paul has given us, wondrously as he defines and describes. Never, I pray you, depreciate the historical portions of God’s word, but when you cannot get good out of them, say, “That is my foolish head and my slow heart. O Lord, be pleased to clear my brain and cleanse my soul.” When he answers that prayer you will feel that every portion of God’s word is given by inspiration, and is and must be profitable to you. Cry, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

Just the same thing is true with regard to all the ceremonial precepts, because the Saviour goes on to say, “Have ye not read in the law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?” There is not a single precept in the old law but has an inner sense and meaning; therefore do not turn away from Leviticus, or say, “I cannot read these chapters in the Books of Exodus and Numbers. They are all about the tribes and their standards, the stations in the wilderness and the halts of the march, the tabernacle and furniture, or about golden knops and bowls, and boards, and sockets, and precious stones, and blue and scarlet and fine linen.” No, but look for the inner meaning. Make thorough search; for as in a king’s treasure that which is the most closely locked up and the hardest to come at is the choicest jewel of the treasure, so is it with the Holy Scriptures. Did you ever go to the British Museum library? There are many books of reference there which the reader is allowed to take down when he pleases. There are other books for which he must write a ticket, and he cannot get them without the ticket; but they have certain choice books which you will not see without a special order, and then there is an unlocking of doors, and an opening of cases, and there is a watcher with you while you make your inspection. You are scarcely allowed to put your eye on the manuscript, for fear you should blot a letter out by glancing at it; it is such a precious treasure; there is not another copy of it in all the world, and so you cannot get at it easily. Just so, there are choice and precious doctrines of God’s word which are locked up in such cases as Leviticus or Solomon’s Song, and you cannot get at them without a deal of unlocking of doors; and the Holy Spirit himself must be with you, or else you will never come at the priceless treasure. The higher truths are as choicely hidden away as the precious regalia of princes; therefore search as well as read. Do not be satisfied with a ceremonial precept till you reach its spiritual meaning, for that is true reading. You have not read till you understand the spirit of the matter.

It is just the same with the doctrinal statements of God’s word. I have sorrowfully observed some persons who are very orthodox, and who can repeat their creed very glibly, and yet the principal use that they make of their orthodoxy is to sit and watch the preacher with the view of framing a charge against him. He has uttered a single sentence which is judged to be half a hair’s breadth below the standard! “That man is not sound. He said some good things, but he is rotten at the core, I am certain. He used an expression which was not eighteen ounces to the pound.” Sixteen ounces to the pound are not enough for these dear brethren of whom I speak, they must have something more and over and above the shekel of the sanctuary. Their knowledge is used as a microscope to magnify trifling differences. I hesitate not to say that I have come across persons who

“Could a hair divide

Betwixt the west and north-west side,”

in matters of divinity, but who know nothing about the things of God in their real meaning. They have never drank them into their souls, but only sucked them up into their mouths to spit them out on others. The doctrine of election is one thing, but to know that God has predestinated you, and to have the fruit of it in the good works to which you are ordained, is quite another thing. To talk about the love of Christ, to talk about the heaven that is provided for his people, and such things-all this is very well; but this may be done without any personal acquaintance with them. Therefore, beloved, never be satisfied with a sound creed, but desire to have it graven on the tablets of your heart. The doctrines of grace are good, but the grace of the doctrines is better still. See that you have it, and be not content with the idea that you are instructed until you so understand the doctrine that you have felt its spiritual power.

This makes us feel that, in order to come to this, we shall need to feel Jesus present with us whenever we read the word. Mark that fifth verse, which I would now bring before you as part of my text which I have hitherto left out. “Have ye not read in the law, how on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.” Ay, they thought much about the letter of the word, but they did not know that he was there who is the Sabbath’s Master-man’s Lord and the Sabbath’s Lord, and Lord of everything. Oh, when you have got hold of a creed, or of an ordinance, or anything that is outward in the letter, pray the Lord to make you feel that there is something greater than the printed book, and something better than the mere shell of the creed. There is one person greater than they all, and to him we should cry that he may be ever with us. O living Christ, make this a living word to me. Thy word is life, but not without the Holy Spirit. I may know this book of thine from beginning to end, and repeat it all from Genesis to Revelation, and yet it may be a dead book, and I may be a dead soul. But, Lord, be present here; then will I look up from the book to the Lord; from the precept to him who fulfilled it; from the law to him who honoured it; from the threatening to him who has borne it for me, and from the promise to him in whom it is “Yea and amen.” Ah, then we shall read the book so differently. He is here with me in this chamber of mine: I must not trifle. He leans over me, he puts his finger along the lines, I can see his pierced hand: I will read it as in his presence. I will read it, knowing that he is the substance of it,-that he is the proof of this book as well as the writer of it; the sum of this Scripture as well as the author of it. That is the way for true students to become wise! You will get at the soul of Scripture when you can keep Jesus with you while you are reading. Did you never hear a sermon as to which you felt that if Jesus had come into that pulpit while the man was making his oration, he would have said, “Go down, go down; what business have you here? I sent you to preach about me, and you preach about a dozen other things. Go home and learn of me, and then come and talk.” That sermon which does not lead to Christ, or of which Jesus Christ is not the top and the bottom, is a sort of sermon that will make the devils in hell to laugh, but might make the angels of God to weep, if they were capable of such emotion. You remember the story I told you of the Welshman who heard a young man preach a very fine sermon-a grand sermon, a highfaluting, spread-eagle sermon; and when he had done, he asked the Welshman what he thought of it. The man replied that he did not think anything of it. “And why not?” “Because there was no Jesus Christ in it.” “Well,” said he, “but my text did not seem to run that way.” “Never mind,” said the Welshman, “your sermon ought to run that way.” “I do not see that, however,” said the young man. “No,” said the other, “you do not see how to preach yet. This is the way to preach. From every little village in England-it does not matter where it is-there is sure to be a road to London. Though there may not be a road to certain other places, there is certain to be a road to London. Now, from every text in the Bible there is a road to Jesus Christ, and the way to preach is just to say, ‘How can I get from this text to Jesus Christ?’ and then go preaching all the way along it.” “Well, but,” said the young man, “suppose I find a text that has not got a road to Jesus Christ.” “I have preached for forty years,” said the old man, “and I have never found such a Scripture, but if I ever do find one I will go over hedge and ditch but what I will get to him, for I will never finish without bringing in my Master.” Perhaps you will think that I have gone a little over hedge and ditch to-night, but I am persuaded that I have not, for the sixth verse comes in here, and brings our Lord in most sweetly, setting him in the very forefront of you Bible readers, so that you must not think of reading without feeling that he is there who is Lord and Master of everything that you are reading, and who shall make these things precious to you if you realize him in them. If you do not find Jesus in the Scriptures they will be of small service to you, for what did our Lord himself say? “Ye search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, but ye will not come unto me that ye might have life”; and therefore your searching comes to nothing; you find no life, and remain dead in your sins. May it not be so with us?

Lastly, such a reading of Scripture, as implies the understanding of and the entrance into its spiritual meaning, and the discovery of the divine Person who is the spiritual meaning, is profitable, for here our Lord says, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” It will save us from making a great many mistakes if we get to understand the word of God, and among other good things we shall not condemn the guiltless.

I have no time to enlarge upon these benefits, but I will just say, putting all together, that the diligent reading of the word of God with the strong resolve to get at its meaning often begets spiritual life. We are begotten by the word of God: it is the instrumental means of regeneration. Therefore love your Bibles. Keep close to your Bibles. You seeking sinners, you who are seeking the Lord, your first business is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; but while you are yet in darkness and in gloom, oh love your Bibles and search them! Take them to bed with you, and when you wake up in the morning, if it is too early to go downstairs and disturb the house, get half-an-hour of reading upstairs. Say, “Lord, guide me to that text which shall bless me. Help me to understand how I, a poor sinner, can be reconciled to thee.” I recollect how, when I was seeking the Lord, I went to my Bible and to Baxter’s “Call to the Unconverted,” and to Allen’s “Alarm,” and Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” for I said in myself, “I am afraid that I shall be lost, but I will know the reason why. I am afraid I never shall find Christ, but it shall not be for want of looking for him.” That fear used to haunt me, but I said, “I will find him if he is to be found. I will read. I will think.” There was never a soul that did sincerely seek for Jesus in the word but by-and-by he stumbled on the precious truth that Christ was near at hand and did not want any looking for; that he was really there, only they, poor blind creatures, were in such a maze that they could not just then see him. Oh, cling you to Scripture. Scripture is not Christ, but it is the silken clue which will lead you to him. Follow its leadings faithfully.

When you have received regeneration and a new life, keep on reading, because it will comfort you. You will see more of what the Lord has done for you. You will learn that you are redeemed, adopted, saved, sanctified. Half the errors in the world spring from people not reading their Bibles. Would anybody think that the Lord would leave any one of his dear children to perish, if he read such a text as this,-“I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand”? When I read that, I am sure of the final perseverance of the saints. Read, then, the word and it will be much for your comfort.

It will be for your nourishment, too. It is your food as well as your life. Search it, and you will grow strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

It will be for your guidance also. I am sure those go rightest who keep closest to the book. Oftentimes when you do not know what to do, you will see a text leaping up out of the book, and saying. “Follow me.” I have seen a promise sometimes blaze out before my eyes, just as when an illuminated device flames forth upon a public building. One touch of flame and a sentence or a design flashes out in gas. I have seen a text of Scripture flame forth in that way to my soul; I have known that it was God’s word to me, and I have gone on my way rejoicing.

And, oh, you will get a thousand helps out of that wondrous book if you do but read it; for, understanding the words more, you will prize it more, and, as you get older, the book will grow with your growth, and turn out to be a grey-beard’s manual of devotion just as it was aforetime a child’s sweet story book. Yes, it will always be a new book-just as new a Bible as if it was printed yesterday, and nobody had ever seen a word of it till now; and yet it will be a deal more precious for all the memories which cluster round it. As we turn over its pages how sweetly do we recollect passages in our history which will never be forgotten to all eternity, but will stand for ever intertwined with gracious promises. Beloved, the Lord teach us to read his book of life which he has opened before us here below, so that we may read our titles clear in that other book of love which we have not seen as yet, but which will be opened at the last great day. The Lord be with you, and bless you.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 119:97-112.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-445, 119 (Song I.), 478.

THE DROMEDARIES

A Sermon

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

We will read a few verses first, and at the close of them you will find the text.

“Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry. And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer, and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. And those officers provided victual for King Solomon, and for all that came unto King Solomon’s table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing. Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.”-1 Kings 4:20-28.

The last words are the text for this occasion.

From the whole passage you will see that the kingdom of Israel under the sway of Solomon was a fair type of the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps it most exactly describes his future dominion, in the long-expected glory of the latter days. The present state of the church may be compared to the reign of David, splendid with victories, but disturbed with battles; but there are better days to come, days in which the kingdom shall be extended and become more manifest; and then the Lord Jesus Christ shall be even more conspicuously seen as the Solomon of the kingdom, “who shall have dominion from sea to sea.” Yet even now, as “we that have believed do enter into rest,” so do we also enter into the richest provision which is made in the covenant of grace, even at this present; and I may say of all who have come under the sway of Christ, that we dwell in a region of peace, seated every man under his vine and figtree, and none making us afraid. “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,” and, “therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “The peace of God which passeth all understanding” doth keep our heart and mind by Jesus Christ. Israel under Solomon had abundance as well as peace. What says the historian? They were “as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry.” It is said that there was such plenty in the land in Solomon’s time that gold was of no more value than silver, and silver became of little more value than iron; and as for the other metals, they were little accounted of. So common had precious metals become that they were scarcely precious any longer, they were so plentiful. The whole land flowed with milk and honey, and the people rejoiced and were glad. Certainly the Lord Jesus Christ has brought his people into a state of the greatest plenty, for “all things are yours; whether things present, or things to come; or life, or death; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” What plenty must that man have to whom the Lord has said, “No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly”! “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” He has given us carte blanche in prayer. He has put into our hands the keys of his treasury, and has bidden us take what we will. He has said, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”; and he has added, “Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.” If we have not, it is “because we ask not, or because we ask amiss.”

So, too, we dwell in a kingdom which is ruled with wisdom. It is said of Solomon in this chapter that he had wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand on the sea shore; and Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Is not this also our honour and privilege? Behold, this day the Lord Jesus Christ is “made unto us wisdom.” “We have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things” while we dwell in him; for “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.” “If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine.” “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.” Hence we dwell under a rule of wisdom, which wisdom imparts itself to each one of us according to his capacity to receive it, yea, even to those whose experience is but shallow: “to teach the young men wisdom, and the babes knowledge and discretion.” “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and up-braideth not.”

Israel had a king who was full of power. Solomon had squadrons of horse and chariots of war, and he was so strong that the kings of the earth dared not come into conflict with him, but paid him tribute. As for our King, he has better forces than horses and chariots of war, for he has but to speak to his Father, and he will presently send him twenty legions of angels. All power is delivered unto him in heaven and in earth. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him for the defence and help of his people, and if you will but open your eyes you shall see horses of fire and chariots of fire round about your Lord. Hosts of angels are ascending and descending upon the Son of man, and all heaven is in motion for the purposes of God in Christ Jesus. Not an angel stands still beneath the sway of Christ, but each one either ascends or descends to do his Master’s bidding. Talk of mighty princes-he is the Prince of the kings of the earth, the “blessed and only Potentate,” to whom belongeth rule over all principalities and powers. I might go on with the parallel, but that is not the object of my discourse.

The great kingdom of Solomon was managed by a well-appointed body of officers, and certain persons were set over each province, who, amongst other duties, had to provide for king Solomon’s table and stable. The table was very sumptuously furnished, as you saw in the reading; and in the stable stood horses of war, and also swift dromedaries, which were used in the same manner as our modern post-horses, to carry messages rapidly from one station to another. These swift horses and dromedaries were made to run from town to town with the royal mandates, and thus the whole country was kept in speedy communication with the capital. Appointed officers were bound to provide for these horses and dromedaries, and all else that concerned the king’s business; and my subject at this time will illustrate the likeness between this arrangement and the methods of our Lord’s kingdom.

First we shall note that each of Solomon’s officers had a charge. The text says, “Every man according to his charge.” We have officers about modern courts who may be highly ornamental, but when you have said that, there is very little else to add. On high days and holidays they wear many decorations, and glitter in their stars and garters, and sumptuous garments, but what particular charge they fulfil it is beyond my power to say. In Solomon’s court all his officers had a service to carry out, “every man according to his charge.” It is exactly so in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we are truly his, he has called us to some work and office, and he wills us to discharge that office diligently. We are not to be gentlemen-at-ease, but men-at-arms; not loiterers, but labourers; not glittering spangles, but burning and shining lights.

It is an exceeding glory to be the lowest servant of King Jesus. It is more honour to be a scullion in Christ’s kitchen than to be a peer of the realm. The meanest position that can be occupied in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, if any can be mean in such a service, has a touch of divine glory about it; and if we rightfully discharge it, though it be only to wash the saints’ feet, we partake in the honour of our Master, who himself did not disdain to do the like. But no man is put in any office in the church that he may be merely ornamental. We are set in our places with an end and design, every man according to his charge-every woman according to her charge. My dear brother, you do not occupy the post of a minister or a pastor that you may be respected, but that you may “adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.” You are not, my dear brother, ordained to be an elder or a deacon in a church that our Lord may put honour upon you, though he does put honour upon you in it, but that you may bring glory to God-that the people may see the grace of God in you, and may magnify God in you. Churches were not made for ministers, but ministers for churches. We who are officers in the church are not ordained for our own sakes, but for the people’s sake, and we should always recollect that fact, and live with it in our eye. Dear friend, if you are called to teach in the school, if you are called to visit from house to house, or to act as a City Missionary, or a Bible woman, you have work to do, and you must do it well, or render a sorrowful account at the last. Office is not given to you that you may get credit by it, and have the honour of filling it, but that you may do real service to your Lord and Master Jesus Christ. No servant of Christ can be faithful if he regards that title as one of barren honour involving no responsibility. If we would be servants and officers under our great King we must bow our necks to the yoke, and not imagine that it will suffice to bind burdens upon other men’s shoulders, and act as lookers-on ourselves. It is said of Job’s cattle, that “the oxen were ploughing, and the asses were feeding beside them”; but in our Lord’s field we must all be oxen, and steadily keep to the furrow.

Those who served Solomon were officers under a strict king, for such was his wisdom that he would not tolerate unfaithfulness in any office. He chose the best men, and so long as he retained them he meant business and expected prompt attention. If they did not do their duty, he did his, and sent them packing. It is very much so in the church of Jesus Christ. I am not speaking as if the children of God could perish; but I do say this, that in the service of Christ if you are not a faithful servant you will soon have to make room for another. You may be laid aside by sickness, and then you will have suffering instead of serving, or you may be made to drop into the rear rank and go behind and weep in sorrow because you did not faithfully do your duty in the front. Recollect that text, “The Lord thy God is a jealous God,” and rest assured that our Lord Jesus Christ is like his Father, he will have the diligent obedience of his servants, and their faithful zeal, or else he will cashier them, and take away their commissions. “Be ye clean,” saith he, “that bear the vessels of the Lord,” for he will be had in reverence of them that are about him, and unholy servants and unfaithful servants shall soon find that their Master can do without them. Many a minister has had to come away from a place of vantage because he has not zealously used it to win souls and lead on the people to the holy war. I do not doubt that many rising officers have been sent back to the ranks because the Commander-in-Chief could not have patience with them any longer in their positions. They were removed because they discouraged their fellow-soldiers and checked the progress of the campaign. Do not suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ is any less strict in his discipline than Moses, for love is always severe towards those it highly favours. I greatly question the love of that man who can tolerate unchastity in his wife; certainly the husband of the church will not do so. The love of our Lord Jesus is of so fervent a character that he cannot bear a divided heart, or a negligent walk in any one of us. There is a text which some Christian people do not like, and so they cut the heart out of it: “Our God is a consuming fire.” They say, “God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire.” The text does not say so; it speaks of “Our God,” and that means our covenant God, our God in Christ, and it is God in Christ Jesus who is a consuming fire. Beware how you deal with him; for while his love is strong as death, his jealousy is cruel as the grave; and if our hearts and motives and aims in his service once become divided, it will be as great a crime as if one of Solomon’s servants should have been playing into the hands of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Solomon would have taken care that a man who had two lords should not have him for one of them. None of us can serve two masters: certainly, if Christ be one of them he will be the only one. A divided heart is an abhorrence to the loving Saviour, and we must not insult him with it.

The officers of Solomon were also obliged to recollect that the orderly working of the whole system depended upon each one of them. That is to say, Solomon had so arranged it that there was a certain troop of horses in a certain town, and the appointed officer must see to their fodder: barley and straw were to be on the spot in full quantity for the horses at that particular depot. It would not have done to send it anywhere else; and if an officer had failed to supply his department, the horses must have starved and the system been thrown out of gear. Now, in any well arranged Christian church a Christian who is not faithful to his charge little knows what mischief he does; but, as far as he can, he puts the whole machine out of gear, and, apart from the interposing mercy and supreme wisdom of Christ, he would throw the whole economy of the Lord’s house into disorder. Brethren and sisters, we think when we neglect a part of our service that it ends there, but it does not. A father neglects his duty to his children: there is mischief to the child, but it goes further; that child in after life spreads the evil by his example, and transmits it to his descendants; ay, to his children’s children after him. A Christian man in a church keeps in the background when he should be in the front, or he comes to the front when he should be in the rear, and this is just the upsetting of the whole business, so that affairs cannot move smoothly. The little church cannot prosper because an influential member is where he ought not to be. In a great house the servants must keep their places, and if the cook will persist in doing the chambermaid’s duties, and does not prepare the meals, everything is in a muddle; and if, on the other hand, the maid who has to clean the rooms neglects that duty, but must needs be in the kitchen, there will be no comfort either by day or by night. You can all see the bearing of this upon a Christian church.

To change the figure, a church is like a house, and if the windows are put where the doors should be; or if what should make the roof is laid on the floor, the house is out of order. To be “fitly framed together” is the true condition of the Lord’s house. The church is also compared to the body. If the eye should transfer itself to the foot, or if the ear should move to the hand, or if the hand should take the place of the foot, or the foot should attempt to do the work of the mouth, our comely frames would become monstrosities. So it must be in the system of the church of Jesus Christ if his arrangements are broken through. Under God everything depends upon each child of God having his “charge,” and looking well to it. If he does not look well to his own department the Christian man does damage to others as well as to himself.

In Solomon’s kingdom it came to pass that the spirit of the king infused itself into all his officers, and therefore the country was well governed. Beloved, I pray that it may be so with this church, and with all the churches of Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of our great King may infuse itself into us all. Nothing makes men fight like having a hero for a leader. When Cromwell came to the front nobody was afraid. Away went the cavaliers like chaff before the wind, when once he was present. And, surely, when our glorious Master, the Captain of our salvation, the standard bearer among ten thousand, is seen to be in the midst of a church, then everything goes well, and we all fight with confidence and daring. One man sometimes seems to have the power of pervading thousands of other men; his spirit appears to govern, to move, to stir the hearts of his fellow men till the man lives in them all; and so is it supremely with the Lord Christ. We live in him, and he lives in us. If we are all moved by the spirit which dwells in Jesus-the spirit of love, of self-denial, of consuming zeal, and of ardour, then all will be done gloriously. If we copy his consecration, his prayerfulness, his boldness and his gentleness, what a troop shall we make, and how well will our Solomon’s kingdom be administered!

Only one more thought here. When Solomon’s kingdom came to mischief it was through one of his officers. You recollect that, when Solomon died, Jeroboam split the kingdom in twain, and he was a runaway servant. Whenever a church comes to ruin, we grieve to confess that it is generally through its own officers. I fear it is oftener the ministers than any other persons. The great heresies which have infested the church have not sprung from the mass of the people, but from certain famous leaders; and at this day the heart of our churches, I believe, is infinitely more sound than the ministry. I wish it were not so, but I cannot conceal my fears. When our Lord was betrayed it was not by private followers, such as Mary Magdalene, Zaccheus, or Joseph of Arimathsæa, but by Judas, the treasurer of the College of Apostles. It was an apostle who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. Still the fault is equally grievous if it be committed by the lowest officer. As I have already said, we are all servants: we are all clothed with responsibilities, and we can, if the Holy Spirit shall leave us to it, do grievous damage-more damage than the outside world can ever accomplish. Let the raging crowd surround Zion’s wall, let them cast up their banks and seek to shoot their arrows there; but lo, the virgin daughter of Zion hath shaken her head at her foes and laughed them to scorn. But when the traitor comes within-when it is written that “Judas also which betrayed him knew the place”-then is the Master betrayed in the garden where he resorted for prayer. When from the bowels of the church there springs a serpent, even her head must be stung thereby. Let the question go round, “Lord, is it I?” and may God of his grace grant that none of us may ever betray our charge, and so bring damage to the glorious cause and kingdom of our blessed King.

Our second head is somewhat like the first. We now note that each man was bound to act according to his charge-“Every man according to his charge.” The officers were bound to obey their orders; first, as to matter. Certain of them had to provide fat oxen for Solomon’s table, and others had to see that the roebucks were hunted and that the fowls were fatted for the same purpose; while others were commissioned to provide the barley and the straw for the horses and the dromedaries. As I have already said, if they had gone out of place-if the man who had to provide the barley for the horses had fed the chickens with it, and if the officer who was bound to hunt the roebucks had occupied himself with carting the straw, there would have been great confusion. And so, dear brother, when you will not do what you were evidently meant to do, and are quite able to do, but must needs attempt something quite out of your range, all goes amiss. Observe your own body: if your ear were to have a feeling that it ought to eat instead of hearing, the mouth would be interfered with, and the feeding of the frame would be very badly done. The eye is a very serviceable member, but if it persisted in refusing to see, and must needs take to hearing, we should be run over in the streets. Each member has its own office in the body, and must attend to its own work, and not to the office of another. Dear friend, have you found out what you can do-what the Lord has fitted you to do, and what he has blessed you in doing? Then keep to it, and do it better and better, and by no means complain of your vocation. Do not find fault with others whose work differs from your own. The eye would be very foolish if it should say, “Do not tell me about that frivolous member the ear; it is of no use, for it only knows what it is told, and it is so blind that it could not see a house if it were within a yard of it, nor even a mountain a mile high.” Equally idle would it be if the ear should say, “Do not tell me about the mouth; it is a selfish organ, always wanting to be fed. It is good for nothing, for it cannot hear, and if a cannon were fired off close to it, it would not perceive it.” Neither may the mouth say, “That roving foot is always running about. Why does it not work like the hand?” Nor may the hand find fault with the tongue because it boasts great things, and does nothing. There would be sad confusion in the body if such a spirit prevailed: but the hand keeps to its work, and even there there is a subdivision of service. The little finger plays a part which the thumb cannot fulfil, and there is something for the thumb which the forefinger cannot do. So should it be in the church of God: you should each find out what you can do, and then seek, God the Holy Spirit helping you, to do that, to the very best of your ability, out of love to Jesus.

Observe that with Solomon it was “every man according to his charge” as to measure; for if a man had charge of a barrack where there were two thousand horses, he had to send in more barley and straw than the officer who superintended a smaller barrack of only five hundred horse. The purveyor who was ordered to supply Solomon’s table with fat bullocks had to send more than he who fed the tables of the inferior officers. Note this well, for certain of us are bound to do much more than others. Some of us bear heavy responsibilities, and if we were to say, “I shall do no more than anybody else, I need not overburden myself,” we should be unfit to occupy the position to which God has called us. Dear friends, I am not afraid that any of you will do too much for Jesus Christ, but I would like you to try. Just see now whether you can be too ardent, too self-sacrificing, too zealous, or too consecrated. It were a pity that such a thing should not be attempted. I have never known anybody who could accuse himself of so rare a crime. Oh, no; we all feel that all we can do, and more, is well deserved by our blessed Master who has given us our charge. Do not forget that you who are fathers ought to be better men than those single men who have no children to look up to them, and to copy their example. You who are large employers ought to be better men, because your workmen will watch how you live. You who have talents and abilities ought to be more active than those who have none, for five talents call for more interest than one. Do remember the rule of proportion. If you have five talents, and your brother has only one, you may do twice as much as he does and yet fall short. He is faithful with his small capital, but your proportion is five times as much, and therefore twice as much falls short of what is expected from you. Many a servant girl gives her fourpenny-piece to the offering, and if the same proportion were carried out among those who are wealthy, gold would not be so rare a metal in the Lord’s treasury. A tithe may be too much for some, but a half might not be enough for another. Let it be, “Every man according to his charge,” as to measure as well as to matter.

“Every man according to his charge,” applied to place; for if the servant who had to send in barley for the dromedaries to Jerusalem had sent it off to Joppa, or if the Joppa man had sent all his fodder to Jericho, there would have been considerable trouble and outcry in the stables, and if the fatted beef and the venison for Solomon’s table when he stopped in the house of the forest of Lebanon had been sent over to his other house on Mount Zion, the king would have had his table ill supplied. Some men are not satisfied to serve God in their proper place; they must run fifty miles off, or a hundred, before they can work. Is this right? I remember a little text in the Proverbs,-“As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.” There is a sphere for every star which decks the sky, and a blade of grass for every drop of dew which spangles the mead. Oh that every one would keep his place. Very much depends on position. Statues upon a building may look magnificent, and seem to be in fine proportion, but if those statues were one night to say, “We do not like standing up here in this exposed place; we will walk down and stand in the public square,” you would see at once that the artist never meant them to be there, for they would be out of proportion in their new position. So a man is a man when he keeps his niche, but he may be a nobody if he leaves it. Many a man have I known who has done nothing till he has found his place, and then he has astonished his friends. I find it so with young men entering the ministry: a brother has not succeeded, in fact, he has been an utter failure in his first position, and yet, when God has opened the proper door for him, he has done marvels. Why did he not succeed before? Because he was out of his place. The best thing applied to the purpose for which it is not suited is a mere waste, and the best man in an unsuitable position may unwittingly be a hindrance to the cause he loves. Solomon’s officer would have been very foolish if he had sent his barley down to Dan when it was his duty to supply Beersheba. Find your place, good brother, and do not be in a hurry to move. He who keeps a shop in a dozen towns in a dozen years will at the end look in vain for a shop which will keep him. The spirit of roving tends to poverty. Those who are eager to move because they imagine that they will leave their troubles behind them are much deceived, for these are found everywhere. You may soon get into some such predicament as Jonah, who thought that all would be well if he could avoid Nineveh trials, but he had forgotten the troubles of being aboard ship in a storm. I do not suppose he ever ran away to Tarshish again. That one experiment satisfied him and I hope you will profit by his experience. Do not try running away on your own account, for if you do endeavour to escape your Lord’s hard work, I would have you remember that the sea is quite as tempestuous now as ever, and whales are fewer now than in Jonah’s day, and not at all so likely to carry a live man to shore. Keep your place: “every man according to his charge.”

Once more, every man was to act according to his charge as to time, because the passage speaks of each one “in his month.” If the January man had taken care to provide for Solomon’s table in February, what would have happened? There was a man for February, and there would have been two supplies for one month, but none for the first weeks of the year. If the August officer had kept back till September the corn which was wanted by the horses and the dromedaries in August, what would the poor creatures have done during that month? While the barley was coming the steeds would have been starving. In serving Christ there is a great deal in being up to time, punctual in everything. Not to-morrow, brother: not to-morrow, that is somebody else’s day: to-day is the day for you. Up and do the day’s work. Some soul is to be won for Christ, some truth to be vindicated, some deed of kindly charity to be wrought, some holy prevalent prayer to be offered, and it is to be done at once. Or ever to-morrow’s sun has risen, see that thou hast carried out thy charge, for time in reference to these solemn matters is life. Promptness we always admire in responsible persons. If they have any public duty to do, we cannot endure to see men leaving matters in arrears, to be done by-and-by, or never done at all. If Jesus Christ “straightway” did this and that, as Mark always takes care to tell us he did, let us imitate his promptitude, and serve God without the sluggard’s delays.

I close with the third point, that each man would receive supplies “according to his charge.” I do not quite understand the precise and definite bearing of my text. Surely it means, not only that one set of officers was to send in the barley, but that another set of officers was to receive the barley and the straw in proportion to the number of horses and dromedaries. “Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, everyone according to his charge”; that is to say, according to the number of horses to be provided for, such was the amount of corn and of straw that was sent in for their food.

So I gather, first, that concerning the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ a great charge from him is a guarantee of great supplies. There is something very comfortable about this as to temporals. Some declare that God sends mouths and does not send bread; or at least they say he sends the mouths to one house and the bread to another. If it be so, those who get too much bread should send it round to their neighbours. Yet I note that somehow where there are mouths bread does come. It often amazes me, I must confess, and it brings tears to my eyes when I see it, and indeed it is perfectly wonderful, that poor widows with a swarm of little children do feed them in some fashion. The poor woman comes to the Orphanage about a little boy, and she does not like to part with him, but want compels; and when we have said, “My good woman, how many children had you when your husband died?” she has replied, “Seven, sir, and none of them able to earn a penny.” “You have been fighting your way alone these three or four years, how have you done it?” “Ah, sir,” she answers, “God only knows. I cannot tell you.” No, no; and there are many of God’s dear children who could not tell you how they lived, but they have lived, and their children too. The Lord leaves them a great charge, and in his own way he sends a supply. Most of us have found that if our King sends us the dromedaries he sends us the barley. It has been so in my case in the matter of our two hundred and fifty orphan children at Stockwell; our gracious God has always sent us enough, and the boys have known no lack; and when we receive another two hundred and fifty children, and have girls as well as boys, I feel sure our heavenly Father will provide for them all. I hope you will all recollect that the provision must come instrumentally through the Lord’s own people, and much of it through the readers and hearers of the sermons, but come it will. If my Lord puts more dromedaries into my stable I shall look for the corresponding increase in the barley and the straw, for I am quite sure he will send it. When I think of my dear friend, Mr. George Müller, with 2050 orphan children, and nothing to depend upon, as they say, but just prayer and faith, I rejoice greatly. He never has a fear or a want, and is as restful as if he were an incarnate Sabbath. If we had twenty thousand orphans to feed, our Master is quite able to supply them all. He feeds the universe, and we may well trust him. If we have a simple, childlike faith, we shall find that a great charge is a guarantee of a great supply: “Every man according to his charge.”

As it is in temporals, so is it in grace. When God gives a man a few people to look after, he gives him grace enough; and when he gives him ten times that number, he gives him more of his Holy Spirit; and when he gives him a hundred times that number, he increases the divine anointing. If the Lord sends you a little trial, dear brother, you shall have grace enough, and if he sends you a huge trial you shall still have grace enough. If he gives you some little work to do in the back settlements, your strength shall be as your day, and if he allots you a great charge in the front of the enemy’s fire you shall not come short. “Every man according to his charge.” You will not have a farthing’s worth of grace over. You shall never have so much that you can boast about it, and talk of having lived for months without sinning, and the like kind of nonsense. You shall be forced to feel that, when you have done all, you are an unprofitable servant. Never in my life have I had in the morning, left from yesterday’s manna, as much as would cover a threepenny-piece. I have always been so hungry that I have had to devour all I could get there and then. I have lived from hand to mouth; the hand has been that of my Lord, which is ever fall, and the mouth has been mine, and it has been always gaping for more. When in my ministry I have had a double quantity of food, I have had a double number to feed upon it. The Lord’s grace has been sufficient for my necessities, but it has never left me room for glorying in self. Still, take it as a sure fact that a great charge is a guarantee of a great supply.

Now we will turn the truth over, and say that a great supply indicates a great charge. O that some would think of this! A man has grown richer than he used to be. Brother, with more barley and more straw you ought to keep more dromedaries; I mean, that God did not send that corn for the mice to destroy, but he means it to be eaten. When God gives men money or means of any sort, they ought to feel that they are his stewards, and must use all they have for their Master. If you do not use it, but hoard it, it will happen to you as once befell a little brook. It had always been running, rippling along, rolling its gladsome stream down to the river, and thus ever emptying itself, but remaining ever full. This little brook became greedy, and said, “I have been too extravagant. I have made no provision for the hot summer weather. I always give all I get; it keeps running through me in one perpetual stream, and none of it stays. This must be altered. I will make a great store, and become full.” So there came a bank across it: it was dammed up, and the waters kept on swelling and rising. After a little time the water turned green and foul. It became encumbered with all sorts of weeds, was the haunt of all manner of creeping things, and gave forth an offensive smell. It became a very great nuisance to the villagers, and they called in the sanitary commissioners to get rid of it, for it was breeding fever. How now, thou once sparkling brook! What an end has come to thy bright and cheerful life. Do you see the drift of the parable? Recollect that in Palestine there is one sea which always receives and never gives out. What is its name? The Dead Sea. It must always be the Dead Sea while this is its character. If they were to cut a channel into the great ocean, to let its waters run away, it might grow sweet, but otherwise it never can do so. The man who much receives but nothing gives is dead while he lives. He who has great receipts should reckon that he has a great charge, and act accordingly. When a brother has great talents, great possessions, great influence-when he is great at anything-by God’s grace let him say, “God requireth great things of me; for to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” It is a law of the kingdom of Christ-a law which he will take care is always carried out.

So I finish up with this: somebody will say, “I could almost wish that I could escape from the responsibility of being a servant of Christ.” Dear brother, take note of these two or three facts.

You cannot better your circumstances as a servant of Christ by diminishing your charge. If you say, “I shall not attempt quite so much,” you will not improve your circumstances by that course; for if you diminish work, the Lord will diminish the strength. Our great Solomon will stop some of the supplies if you have fewer dromedaries to feed, and so you will be no better off. If you have to keep six he will give you provision for six; if you take to keeping three he will only give you supplies for three, and you will be poorer rather than richer.

Neither can you improve your circumstances by entirely and only increasing the supply; for, if you receive more straw and barley, certainly our Solomon will send you more dromedaries. When you have more strength you will have more trials. When God’s children do not discharge their service with the means which he entrusts to them, he frequently lets them take shares in a “limited liability company,” which is the same thing as throwing your money into the river; or he leaves them to become shareholders in a breaking bank, with unlimited catastrophe as its capital, and this is more terrible still. It often happens to a man who has scraped and saved, and stinted the cause of Christ, that in his later years he is in straits, and he cries to himself, “It is all gone, and I wish I had used it better before it went. It would have been far better to give it to the Lord than to see the lawyers devour it.” Ah, your sin has found you out. Your Master could not trust you, and so he has taken away his goods from you, and now you wish that you had behaved yourself. Let us take warning from such bad managers; and let us see that, as our charge is so we cry for supplies, and that as the supplies come we use them wisely.

Everything for Jesus, the glorious Solomon of our hearts, the Beloved of our souls! Life for Jesus! Death for Jesus! Time for Jesus! Eternity for Jesus! Hand and heart for Jesus! Brain and tongue for Jesus! Night and day for Jesus! Sickness or health for Jesus! Honour or dishonour for Jesus! Shame or glory for Jesus! Everything for Jesus, “every man according to his charge.” So may it be! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 62.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-686, 681, 745.