C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On November 25th, 1883.

I shall have five texts-one of them a good one, the other four bad. The first text is good. It is God’s text. Exodus 10:26:-“There shall not an hoof be left behind.” That is God’s text, and the whole sermon will illustrate it by exposing the compromises with which it was met.

The other four are Pharaoh’s texts, or, if you like, the devil’s, for that is exactly what the devil says to men. Exodus 8:25:-“Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” That is his first proposal. Then we find him saying at the twenty-eighth verse, “I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away.” That is the second of his compromises. In the tenth chapter, at the eighth verse, you have the third. He said to them, “Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?” Adding, “Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord.” And Pharaoh’s fourth and last proposal is in the twenty-fourth verse of that same tenth chapter:-“Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Only let your flocks and your herds be stayed.”

Satan is very loth to give up his hold on men. He is quite as loth as Pharaoh, and he must be driven to it by force of arms; I mean by force of divine grace, before he will let God’s people go. Having once got them under his power through the fall, through their sin, and through their obduracy of heart, he will not lose his subjects if he can help it; but he will put forth all his craft, and all his strength, if possible to hold them in his accursed sway. Many of Satan‘s slaves altogether disregard the voice of God. For them there are no Sabbaths, no Bibles, no religion. Practically they say, “Who is Jehovah that we should obey his voice? “Now, when God means to save men-when the eternal purpose so runs, and the divine determination is to be accomplished, he soon puts an end to this. For some reason quite unknown to the man-it may be quite unguessed by him-he feels uneasy: he is disturbed. He thinks one morning that he will go up to a place of worship; not that he cares much about it, but he thinks that he shall perhaps be a little easier there. He takes his Bible: he begins to read a chapter. A very striking passage comes before his eye. He is not more easy, for the text has fixed upon him. Like a barbed shaft it has stuck into his soul, and he cannot possibly draw it out again. He is more troubled than ever. He begins to enquire a little about the things of God; there is some respect now outwardly to religion; the man is considerably changed.

But do not imagine that the work is accomplished. Our blessed Master has to fight for every inch of ground which he wins in human hearts. With the matchless artillery of his love he drives the enemy back farther and farther, till at last he conquers; but it is often a long and slow process, and were he not possessed of infinite patience he would give it up. But where it is his resolve that a man shall come out of the world and shall be saved, that resolve must and will be carried into effect; and the man, though he is only brought so far that he begins to think a little about divine truth and about eternal matters, will have to go a great deal farther than that.

You see him sitting under the word of God, and perhaps Satan says now, “Well, you are a fine fellow. You are beginning to occupy a seat Sunday after Sunday in the house of prayer. You have given up your evil habits to a large extent. You are quite a different man. Now you have done something very pleasing to God. You may rest content with this.” And it is a very sad thing when men do rest content with such a paltry hope as can have come out of poor performances like these. But still they will stop just there if they can, for Satan does not mind where he makes men halt so long as they will stay under the dominion of sin, and refuse to come to Christ.

Now the Lord begins to deal with the man perhaps in a way of affliction and trouble. His wife sickens: a child dies: he is himself unhealthy: he fears he is about to die, and his fancied righteousness evaporates before his eyes; and he thinks that now surely he must seek after something better. Then will Satan come in and say, “There is time enough yet. Do not be in too much of a hurry.”

If the Lord drives a man from that by the solemn movements of the Spirit upon his soul, then the devil will say to him, “How do you know that this is all true?” and he has not to go far before he finds infidels to help his unbelief. I am sorry to say that he can find them in the pulpit pretty plentifully, preaching their infidelities as “advanced thought”; and so poor souls get bewildered, and scarcely know their right hand from their left, and they begin again to relapse into a condition of indifference, and remain where they were.

Blessed be God, if he means to save such, he will, by push of pike, and point of bayonet, carry the day. They shall not rest where they are. The right hand of the Lord is stretched out still, and he will make the Pharaoh of evil yet know that Jehovah is stronger than he. Grace is mightier than nature, and the eternal purpose more sure of fulfilment than all the resolves of case-hardened consciences; so at last it comes to this-that the man is driven to yield to God, and when he is driven to that point Satan comes in again with his compromises.

We are going to speak about these four compromises to-night. The first compromise is found in the eighth chapter at the twenty-fifth verse.

“Sacrifice to your God in the land.”

“Yes,” says the devil, “you must be a Christian, that is evident. You cannot hold out any longer, for you are too uneasy in your sins. You will have to be a Christian.” “But,” says he, “stop in the world, and be a Christian. Remain where you are. ‘Sacrifice to your God in the land’ ”; by which he sometimes means this: live in sin, and be a believer. Trust yourself with Christ, and then indulge yourself in whatsoever your heart desires. Do you not know that he is a Saviour of sinners? Therefore stop in your sin, and yet trust in him. Oh, I charge you, by the living God, never be duped by such a treacherous lie as this, for it is not possible that you can find any rest or salvation while you live in sin. My dear hearers, Christ came to save us from our sins, but not in our sins. He has built a hospital of mercy into which he receives the worst possible cases. All are welcome, but he does not receive them that they may continue sick, but that he may heal them, and make sound men of them. When the Lord Jesus Christ takes hold upon a thief, the man is a thief no longer; his inmost heart becomes honest. When the Lord meets with the harlot, he blots out her iniquity, and she is affected with deep repentance for her crimes, and turns unto her Saviour, desiring henceforth to walk in purity all her days. It is impossible that you should serve God and yet continue to indulge in known sin. What a fool that man is who thinks that he may drink and be a Christian, that he may cheat in his business and be a Christian, that he may act like the ungodly world in all respects, and yet be a Christian! It cannot be. Mark Antony yoked two lions together, and drove them through the streets of Rome; but he could never have yoked together the lion of the pit and the lion of the tribe of Judah. There is a deadly hate between these two. The principle of good, if it be yielded to, will destroy the mastery of evil. There cannot be a compromise between them. No man can serve two masters. He may serve two, but not two when each determines to be master. Satan will be master if he can, and Christ will be master, and therefore you cannot serve the two. It must be one or the other. If thou art to have thy sin forgiven thee, thou must leave thy sin. Remember that voice which came to Master John Bunyan when he was playing tipcat on Elstow Green on Sunday morning. He thought that he heard a voice say, “Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or wilt thou have thy sins and go to hell?” That problem is proposed to you if you are unconverted and undecided. But as to the idea of keeping your sins and going to heaven, shut that out of the question, for it must not, cannot, shall not be: it is a compromise proposed by Satan, but the Lord will not have it.

Yes, but then Satan, retreating a little, says, “Well, now, of course I did not mean that you were not to give up your grosser sins; but I mean to tell you of something better. Love the world, and live with worldlings, and find your company and your joy among them, and yet be a Christian. Surely you are not going to throw up everybody, are you? You know you must not be singular. You must not make yourself an oddity altogether. You have many merry companions of yours, keep to them. They do not, perhaps, do you much good. Well, you must not be too particular, and precise.” So he says, “Continue in the world, and be a Christian.” Shall I tell you God’s word about that? “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” That is short, though not sweet. A man says, “Well, I shall be a Christian; but I shall find my chief pleasure and my amusement where the world finds it.” Will you? “I shall be a Christian; but I shall hold with the hare and run with the hounds. I shall be with the church on Sunday; but nobody shall know that I am not the veriest worldling on the week-day. Can I not put my hymn-book in one pocket and a pack of cards in the other, and so go to heaven and keep friends with the world?” No, it is not possible. “Let my people go, that they may serve me,” is God’s word. Not, “Let them stop in the land, and still serve you and serve me too.” It cannot be. “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” That text is another sharp, drawn sword cutting to the quick; and there are professors who ought to feel it go to their very hearts, for they are trying all that they possibly can to go as near as ever they can to the borderline, and yet to keep up a hope. What would you think of a man who went as near as he could to burning his house down, just to try how much fire it would stand? Or of one who cut himself with a knife, to see how deep he could go without mortally wounding himself? Or of another, who experimented as to how large a quantity of poison he could take? Why, these are extreme follies; but not so great as that of a man who tries how much sin he may indulge in, and yet be saved. I pray you, do not attempt such perilous experiments. “Come ye out from among them; be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.” Shun with horror Satan’s old compromise: dream not that you can love the world, and yet have the love of the Father in you.

When the enemy cannot get on with that, he harks back a little, and cries, “That is very proper; you are hearing very faithful teaching this time, but listen to me! You can live for yourself, and be a Christian. Do not go out into worldly company, but enjoy yourself at home. You see you want to have your own soul saved. Well, live for that.” This is only a subtler and uglier form of selfishness. It is nothing better. “Look,” says Satan, “I do not ask you to be profligate with your money, be penurious with it: be very thrifty. Everybody will pat you on the back, and say, ‘He is taking care of number one, and he is doing the right thing.’ Come, now, and make a good thing of religion. Believe in Jesus Christ, of course, in order that you yourself may be saved, and then live all the rest of your life trying to hear sermons that, will feed you, and read books that will comfort you, and become a great man among religious folks.” Hateful advice! Do you not know, dear friends, that the very essence of Christianity is for a man to deny himself? Self can never properly be the end-all and be-all of a man’s existence. Self is to religion, in fact, nothing but the flesh in a pretendedly spiritual form. If a man lives to himself, he is under the dominion of an evil spirit just as much as if he went out into open sin. So you must come out of that. Selfishness will not do. You must love the Lord with all your heart, and you must love your fellow-men. There must be an obedience to that command that thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself,” or else there is no coming out into safety. Thus the first compromise will not hold at all.

Pushed back from the first compromise, Pharaoh proposes a second, and this is found in the twenty-eighth verse of the eighth chapter:-

“Only ye shall not go very far away.”

Satan says, “Yes, I see your conscience tells you that you must come out from the world, and come out from sin, but do not go very far away, for you may want to come back again. In the first place, do not make it public. Do not join a church. Be like a rat behind the wainscot; never come out except it be at night to get a mouthful of food. Do not commit yourself by being baptized, and joining the church; do not go so very far as that. Just try, if you can, and save yourself from the wrath to come by secret religion, but do not let any one know it. There really cannot be any need of actually saying,’ I am a Christian.’ ” My friend, this is the very depth of Satan. When a soldier goes to the barrack-room, if he is a child of God he may say, “I shall not kneel down to pray because they might throw a boot at me, as they generally do in the barrack-room. I can keep my religion to myself.” That man will go wrong. But if he boldly says, “I will fly my flag. I am a Christian, and I will never yield that point, come what may”; he will stand. The beginning of yielding is like the letting out of water; no man knows to what a flood it will come. This is what Satan would have with some of you, that you may fall by little and little. Therefore defeat him: come out boldly. Take up your cross, and follow Jesus. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

The tempter also says, “Do not be so very precise and exact. The Puritanic saints-well, people point the finger at them. You need not be quite so particular.” By which he means this-that you may sin as much as you like so long as you do not violate propriety; and that, after all, you are not to obey God thoroughly, but only to obey him when it pleases you. This is flat rebellion against God. This will never do.

“Well,” he says, “if you are to be so precise, yet do not be so desperately earnest. There are some of those friends down there at the Tabernacle who are always looking after the souls of others, and trying to proclaim Christ to everybody. You know they are a very dogmatic lot, and they are a great deal too pushing and fanatical. Do not go with them.” Just so. He means, stand and serve the Lord, because you dare not do any other, but never give him your heart; never throw your soul into his cause. That is what Satan says; and do you think that such traitorous service will save you? If Moses had thought that going a little way into the wilderness would have saved Israel, he would have let them go a little way into the wilderness, and there would have been an end of it. But Moses knew that nothing would do for God’s Israel but to go clean away as far as ever they could, and put a deep Red Sea between them and Egypt. He knew that they were never to turn back again, come what might, and so Moses pushed for a going forth to a distance; as I would in God’s name push for full committal to Christ with everybody who is tempted to a compromise.

“Oh, but,” Satan will say, “be earnest too. Yes, be earnest. Of course that is right enough; and be precise in all your actions; but do not be one of those people who are always praying in secret. You can keep an open religious profession going without much private praying, without heart-searching, without communion with God. These are tough things,” says he, “to keep up. You will find it difficult to maintain the inward life, and preserve a clean heart and a right spirit. Let these go by default, and attend to externals, and be busy and active; and that will do.” But it will not do, for unless the heart and soul be renewed by the Spirit of God, it little matters what your externals may be. You have failed before God unless your very soul is joined unto him by a perpetual covenant that shall never be forgotten. What a blessing it is when a man can say,-I have done with these compromises; I do not want to serve God and win favour with the world. I do not want to go just a little way from the world. I pray God to divide me from the world by an everlasting divorce, just as it was with Paul when he said, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Happy man who has come right out under divine guidance to seek the eternal Canaan! His is the path of safety and acceptance; but they that temporize and parley with sin and Satan will find mischief come out of it.

Pushed back from that, the enemy suggests another compromise in the tenth chapter, at the eighth and eleventh verses:-

“Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go? Go now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord.”

Yes, that is his next point. “Yes,” he says, “we see what it has come to. You are driven at last to this-that you must be an out-and-out Christian; but, now,” he says, “do not worry your wife with it; do not take it home.” Or he says to the woman, “You are to follow Christ. I see you must. You seem driven to that; but never say anything to your husband about it.” Was not that a pretty idea of Pharaoh’s-that all the men were to go, and were to leave the women and children to be his slaves? And that is just the idea of Satan. “You have plenty to do to look after yourself; but your wife-well, leave her to her own ways. Your husband-leave him to his irreligion.” Let us answer him thus,-“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So said Joshua of old; and so let every man here say. Remember Paul’s words to the Philippian gaoler, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Let us pray that we may have the whole house for Christ. Up to your measure of influence over your family, say within yourself, “My Lord, I will never rest until I see all my family brought to thy dear feet. Lord, save my wife: save my husband: save my father: save my brothers and sisters! Bring these out of bondage!” You cannot be a Christian unless that is your heartfelt desire. He that careth not for his own house is worse than a heathen man and a publican.

And then the children. “Oh,” Pharaoh says, “leave the children!” Do you not see he knew very well that, if they did that, they would themselves come back again? What man among us would go away into the wilderness, and leave his wife and children in slavery? Should we not want to come back to them? Should we not think that we heard their cries? Should we not want to look into their dear faces again? Leave them in slavery? Oh, that cannot be! And yet let me sorrowfully say that there are many professing Christians who seem as though they were themselves determined to be the Lord’s, but their children should belong to Pharaoh and to the devil. For instance, the boy is getting of a certain age. Let him be sent to a foreign school, and, preferably, a Roman Catholic school. Will that be useful to his religion? Yet if he should turn out a Papist, his foolish father will almost break his heart. It was all his own doing, was it not? Well, the girls, of course, they must go into society: of course, they must “go into society.” And so everything is done to put them into places of danger, where they will not be likely to be converted, and where, in all probability, they will become gay, and vain, and light. Then a situation is looked out for the boy. How often there is no question about the master being a Christian! Is it a business that the lad can follow without injury to his morals? “Nay, it is a fine roaring trade, and it is a cutting house, where he will pick it up in a smart way. Let him go there.” Ay; and if he goes to perdition? Alas, there are Christian men who do not think of that! The children of some professors are offered up to the Moloch of this world. We think it a horrible thing that the heathens should offer their children in sacrifice to idols, and yet many professors put their children where, according to all likelihood, they will be ruined. Do not let it be so. Do not let the devil entangle one of you in that compromise, but say, “No, no, no; my house, God helping me, shall be so conducted that I will not put temptation in my children’s way. I will not lead them into the paths of sin. If they will go wrong, despite their father’s exhortations and their mother’s tears, why, they must; but, at any rate, I will be clear of their blood, for I will not put them into places where they would be led astray.” I am sure there is a great deal of importance in this remark, and if it cuts anybody very closely, and he says, “I think you are very personal,” that is exactly what I mean to be-the precise thing I am aiming at. I desire to put this thing before every individual Christian, that all may see the right and the wrong of it, and may resolve, “Our women and our children shall go with us to worship God. They as well as ourselves shall leave this Egypt, as far as God’s grace can help us to accomplish it.”

Now the devil is getting pushed into a corner. Here is the man’s whole house to go right for God, and the man gives himself up to be a Christian out and out. What now? “Well,” says the enemy in the twenty-fourth verse of that tenth chapter,

“Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed.”

Just so. What does Moses say to that? “Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice unto Jehovah our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.” This was the divine policy of “No surrender,” and I plead for it with you. Satan says, “Do not use your property for God. Do not use your talents and your abilities; especially, do not use your money for the Lord Jesus. Keep that for yourself. You will want it one of these days, perhaps. Keep it for your own enjoyment. Live to God in other things, but, as to that, live to yourself.” Now, a genuine Christian says, “When I gave myself to the Lord I gave him everything I had. From the crown of my head to the sole of my foot I am the Lord’s. He bids me provide things honest in the sight of all men, and care for my household; and so I shall; but yet I am not my own, for I am bought with a price; and therefore it becomes me to feel that everything I have, or ever shall have, is a dedicated thing, and belongs unto the Lord, that I may use it as his steward, not as if it were mine, but at his discretion, and at his bidding. I cannot leave my substance to be the devil’s. That must come with me, and must be all my Lord’s; for his it is even as I am.” The Christian takes the line which Moses indicated: “I do not know what I may be required to give. I know that I am to sacrifice unto the Lord my God, and I do not know how much. I cannot tell what may be the needs of the poor, the needs of the church, the needs of Christ’s church all over the land. I do not know, but this I know, that all that I have stands at the surrender point. If my Redeemer wants it he shall have it. If Satan wants it he shall not have a penny of it. If there be anything that is asked of me that will not conduce to good morals-that will not conduce to the promotion of that which is right in the sight of God-I withhold it. But if there be anything that is for Christ’s glory and for the good of men, then, as the Lord shall help me, it shall be given freely, and not be begrudged as if it were a tax. It shall be my joy and my delight to devote all that I am, and all that I have, to him who bought me with his precious blood.”

Now, brothers and sisters, you that profess to be Christians, come you, stand right square out, and own yourselves wholly and altogether the Lord’s.

“’Tis done! the great transaction’s done;

I am my Lord’s, and be is mine.”

“My house is his, and my all is his. Whether I live or die-whether I work or suffer, all that I am, and all that I have, shall be for ever my Lord’s.” This is to enter into peace: this indeed is to be clean delivered from the power of Satan; this is to be the Lord’s free man; and what remains but with joyful footsteps to go onward toward Canaan, shod with shoes of iron and brass, fed with heavenly bread, guarded by the Lord himself, guided by his fiery-cloudy pillar, enjoying all things in him, and finding him in all things? This is to be a Christian of the true order. The Lord make you so by faith in his dear Son! Amen and Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon-Selections from the eighth and tenth chapters of Exodus.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-645, 656, 658.

SMOKING FLAX

A Sermon

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

On June 1st, 1884.

“The smoking flax shall he not quench.”-Isaiah 42:3.

I believe that the first sense of these words is not the one usually given to them, nor yet the one upon which I intend to preach to-night. We read in the 12th of Matthew that our divine Lord was assailed by the scribes and Pharisees, but he did not enter at that time into controversy with them, neither did he make them the perpetual target of his observations. Considering what hypocrites they were, and what boundless mischief they were doing, he treated them very gently indeed. They were, compared to him, but as bruised reeds, and as the smoking flax, and he could, if he had pleased, have broken them up altogether, or have altogether quenched them; but he did not come to be a mere controversialist. He was, in truth, the greatest of all reformers, but he was not so much a breaker-down as he was a builder-up. He came not so much to drive out error by reason, as to expel it by the natural and efficient process of putting truth into its place. So, to a large extent, he left these scribes and Pharisees, and other opponents, alone, and he went quietly on with his own work of healing the sick, and saving the sinful-a very good lesson to us. We get a little pugnacious sometimes, and seek religious controversy; but our Saviour did not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets; a bruised reed he did not break, and a smoking flax he did not quench. The best way to put out the twinkling light of a smoking flax was to let the sun shine. Nobody could see it then. Instead of talking down these bruised reeds, he set up the higher claim of sure and certain truth; for men would not care to trust in bruised reeds when they had once seen something more stable and worthy to be relied upon. You and I will best put down error by preaching truth. If we preach up Christ, the devil goes down. If a crooked stick is before you, you need not explain how crooked it is: lay a straight one down by the side of it, and the work is well done. Preach the truth, and error will stand abashed in its presence.

That is, no doubt, the first meaning of this passage, as you will see by the connection in Matthew. It is said, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.” When the Lord sends forth judgment unto victory, then it will be all over with the bruised reed and the smoking flax of the hypocrite, the Pharisee, the formalist, the legalist, and every other opponent.

Usually these words are understood to mean that Jesus Christ will deal very gently with timid believers, and this meaning is not to be rejected; for in the first place, it is true; and, in the second place, it is true out of this text also, for if our Lord Jesus in his lifetime was gentle even to hypocrites, how much more will he be gentle to sincere but timorous spirits; if it be true that he will not quench the smoking flax even of a Pharisee, how much more true must it be that the smoking flax of a penitent shall not be quenched! So that, if the text does not say what is generally understood by it, it implies it, and the words so clearly run into the meaning that is commonly given to them.

I take it that there is a kind of instinct in the church, so that even when judged according to criticism she may seem to misapply a passage of Scripture, she generally does not misapply it, but only brings out a second light which was always behind the first, and which shines none the less brightly, but all the more so, because the first was there. I shall therefore take the text to mean something other than I have stated. “The smoking flax shall he not quench,” is a text for you timorous, desponding, feeble-minded, and yet true-hearted believers, and you may appropriate it to yourselves. May the Holy Spirit help you so to do!

In talking of it, at this time, I shall first enquire, What state this metaphor represents.

A smoking flax represents a state in which there is a little good. The margin is “dimly burning flax.” It is burning; but it is burning very dimly. There is a spark of good within the heart. You, my dear friend, have a little faith; it is not much bigger than a grain of mustard-seed, but faith of that size has great power in it. I wish that your faith would grow to a tree, but I am very glad that you have any, even though it be minute as the mustard-seed. You have a desire, too, after better things: you are always wanting to be more holy. You love to be among God’s people, and though sometimes you are afraid that you are not one of them, you would give all that you have to be sure that you were, for you love their conversation. Having those desires, you do pray. “O sir,” say you, “it is not worth calling prayer!” Well, we will not call it prayer, then, but it is prayer; for sometimes, when not even a word is spoken, the desire of the heart is a most acceptable pleading with God. “O sir,” you say, “but I do not always desire alike!” I am very sorry that it is so. I wish you always had a strong desire after Christ. Still, you do desire. There is a longing, a desiring, a panting, a hungering, a thirsting; therefore there is some little good in you. “Do not praise me,” you say. Oh, no, dear friend, I will not praise you! I know that you would not like it; for you have a modest estimate of yourself, and like the publican you cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” That tune suits you, does it not? I can see somewhat of good in you since you do not think well of yourself. If you did, we might think ill of you; but inasmuch as you even repent over your repentance, and feel as if your tears want weeping over, I am glad of it. Lowliness of heart is a grace very much despised in these days, but very much valued by the King of heaven. “To this man,” says he, “will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” There is some little good in you put there by the Spirit of God. “Ah,” say you, “I like that word, sir; I am sure there was no good in me by nature.” Friend, I am sure of it too, if you are at all like me. The grace of God has put in us our first desire, our first loathing of sin, our first wish to be forgiven, our first desire to return to our Father from whom we have wandered. The Spirit put it there, and you are like the smoking flax, because there is a little living fire in you.

You are like smoking flax, again, because your good is too little to be of much use to anybody. What could we do with a smoking flax if we had it here to-night, and the gas was all out? You would, perhaps, see a glimmer, but you would say, “It is not light, but darkness visible.” I like a soul in darkness to find that darkness visible. There is a good point about that. Alas, you are such a poor timid creature, you could not comfort a child of God; you cannot even comfort yourself! You could not strengthen the weak, for you want all the strengthening for your own self. You are not much of a soldier; you could not march in rank: we have to carry you about in the ambulance. Well, we are not tired of carrying you, nor is God either. You are still a soldier, for you would fight if you could. Though you are invalided, yet whenever the trumpet sounds you wish to be in the thick of the fight. Poor thing that you are, you would soon be trampled down; but you have spirit enough for it, for which I thank God. Though your courage is of no great use to anybody, yet it is of use to you, for it proves you to be a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb. I would to God that you had more light, that you might light your brother on his dreary way. I wish you had more faith, more joy, more hope, more rest, for you might then be of service to the Lord’s household, and the King might find in you a willing helper. But as you cannot do that, you are like the smoking flax: there is a little good, but that good is not great enough to make you very useful. Yet I will tell you one thing you can do. When you meet with another poor soul that is like you, you can sympathize, can you not? You see, when bright and shining lights come near those who are dim, they are apt rather to shame them than to comfort them; but you will not do that. So far you may even help the despondent; at least, you will do so one of these days.

Smoking flax, then, has a little fire, but it is so little that it is of small service, and, what is worse, it is so little that it is rather unpleasant. No one delights in the smell of a candle that is dying out. Smoking flax does not yield a sweet savour; neither does a Christian when he is in a mournful condition. There is a little good in him, but there is a great deal of wrong about him, and that wrong has an ill savour. Sometimes these smoking-flax people believe a great many errors. They do not hold the true and solid doctrine of God’s everlasting love: they favour notions that are not scriptural; and error is never sweet to Christ, nor to any of his own people. Besides, they have a great smoke of doubts. They doubt this, and they question that, and they suspect the other thing. There is nothing more obnoxious to our divine Lord than distrust of him. It is a gracious act on his part that he puts up with it. One said to Christ, “If thou canst”; and that was a shocking thing to say to an almighty Lord: another said to him, “If thou wilt”; and that was a shameful thing to say to one so kind; and yet he bore with them both. Doubting hearts will cry, “If thou wilt, and if thou canst,” and do anything sooner than believe. This is to make an ill savour in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ; for, though we may reckon our doubts to be trifling, they are no trifle to him, but exceedingly grievous and provoking to his heart. A dear sister came in after service this morning, and told me that she was fifty years old on the same day as myself, so she came to shake hands with me; and she added, “I am like you in that; but I am the very reverse of you in other things.” I replied, “Then you must be a good woman.” “No,” she said, “that is not what I mean.” “But are you not a believer?” “Well,” she said, “I-I will try to be.” I got hold of her hand, and I said, “You are not going to tell me that you will try and believe my Lord Jesus Christ, for that means unbelief of him who must be true;” and I held her fast while I added, “When your mother was about, did you say to her, ‘Mother, I will try and believe you’? No, you would believe her because she was true; and I must have you believe Jesus Christ.” She said, “Sir, do pray for me.” “No,” I said, “I am not inclined to do that. What should I pray for you about? If you will not believe my Lord, what blessing can he give you? What has he ever done that you should say, ‘I cannot believe him’?” She again answered, “I will try.” I was not content till I had reminded her of the word, “He that believeth in him hath everlasting life,” and I pressed her to a full faith in the risen Lord. The Holy Spirit enabled her to trust, and then she cried, “I have been looking to my feelings, sir, and this has been my mistake.” I have no doubt that she had done so; and a great many others are doing the same; and their doubts are just that horrible smoke which comes from smoking flax. O, ye poor doubters, believe the Lord Jesus Christ! To say,” I cannot believe him,” is to say in other words that he is a liar, and we cannot allow you to say that.

Dear friend, if you are like the smoking flax, there is something good in you; but that is so sadly little that there is a great deal that is trying about you; yet the Lord will not quench you. You are full of all sorts of fears; you are afraid of a shadow; you are trembling at nothing at all. Why is this? You are troubled when you ought to be glad, and you make your whole family sad when there is no earthly reason for it. May the Lord deliver you! Those that are highest in faith have tried to comfort you, and you have pulled them down, instead of their being able to draw you up. Come, friend, I would be as gentle as ever I can: my text bids me be so. I have no extinguisher for your smoking flax, for my Lord has said, “The smoking flax shall he not quench.”

I must add one more thing about this state, and it is this, though the good of it is so little that it is of very little use to other people, and sometimes is very obnoxious, yet there is enough good in you to be dangerous in Satan’s esteem. He does not like to observe that there is yet a little fire in you, for he fears that it may become a flame. If any of you were to see a man standing at the back of one of our public buildings lighting his pipe, I will be bound to say that you would be half afraid of an explosion, for he might be applying dynamite. There are times when the smallest smoke would fill the bravest men with fear. Even so

“Satan trembles when he sees

The weakest saint upon his knees.”

If he hears you groaning about your sin, he is frightened at it. “Oh,” says he, “they have begun to feel: they have begun to mourn: they have begun to desire: they have begun to pray: and soon they will leave me.” Let a farmer perceive a little smoke coming out of one of his ricks, and I am sure that he will not say that there is nothing at all in a smoking flax, but he will hasten to prevent a conflagration. So the little grace that is in you, dear friend, Christ sees, and he approves of it, for he knows the possibilities of it-how little faith can grow into strong faith-how the grain of mustard-seed can become a tree, and the birds of the air may yet lodge in the branches thereof; and Satan, also, knows what may come of it, and he is moved to quench it if he can. We, therefore, would encourage you, and fan your spark to a flame.

There is the first question answered. What state does this represent?

Some are in that state when they are newly saved-when the flax has just been lighted. Those that are to be received into the church to-night I welcome very heartily, but they are very newly lit, and some perhaps would have said, “Let them wait a bit.” Ay, but then our Lord does not quench the smoking flax because it is newly lighted, nor will I. No place in the world is so good for the lambs as the fold. No place is so good for babes as their own home. No place is so good for young Christians as the church of God. So let them come.

Being newly converted, they are strange to many things. You have made a host of discoveries. You find more depravity in your heart than you thought was there; you find enemies where you expected to meet with friends. All this is apt to damp your courage; but do not be cast down; for though it be but a little that you are lighted, yet the loving Jesus will not quench the smoking flax.

Sometimes a candle smokes, not because it is newly lit, but because it is almost extinguished. I know that I speak to some Christians who have been alight with the fire of grace for many years, and yet they feel as if they were near the dark hour of extinction. But you shall not go out The Lord will not quench you himself, nor will he permit the devil to quench you. He will keep you alight with grace. “Oh,” but you say, “I am so depressed in spirit!” Yes, some of God’s best servants have been of a sorrowful spirit. Remember Hannah, whom Eli cruelly rebuked, but who, nevertheless, got a blessing. David had to say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? “and yet he was a man after God’s own heart. Perhaps you are not well, or you have had an illness that has told much upon your nervous system, and you are depressed; and therefore it is that you think that grace is leaving you, but it will not. Your spiritual life does not depend upon nature, else it might expire: it depends upon grace, and grace will never cease to shine till it lights you into glory. Therefore be not cast down. You may think that your light will go out in eternal darkness, but it never shall, for the Lord Jesus Christ will preserve the flame.

Sometimes the wick smokes when worldliness has damped it. If some of you never have any holy joy, I am not surprised, for you are so taken up with the world, and so fond of it. The life of God is in you, but it is smothered. You are like an autumn fire out in the garden when they are burning the weeds: there is a fire, but all you can see is smoke. Yes, you smother up your piety with the things of this world, and no wonder that it smokes; but what a mercy it is that the Lord does not allow even you to perish! He keeps the dying flame alive though hidden away.

At times a wick burns low because a very strong wind has blown upon it. Many men and women are the subjects of very fierce temptations. The place in which they live is a trial to them, and their natural constitution furnishes them with a host of temptations; and so the flax scarcely burns, but smokes and smoulders. We do not wonder that it should be so.

There are many other reasons why we grow dim at times-reasons, but none of them sufficient to be an excuse. If we were what we ought to be, we should be burning and shining lights always, and there would be no times in which we should be like the smoking flax; but then we are not what we ought to be, we fall short of the true standard, and we become feeble believers.

I desire to finish with a word of promise. “What does Jesus do with those who are in this state? He says that he will not quench the smoking flax. What a world of mercy lies in that word! Everybody else would quench us but Christ. I am sure that some Christians get into such a state that the most loving Christian friends find it hard to bear with them; and fear that such a state of mind cannot be consistent with grace at all. Thus your friend would give you over as lost. But Jesus Christ says that he will not do so.

He will not quench you, first, by pronouncing legal judgment upon you. He will not say, “You have broken my laws, and I have done with you.” If he did, our only answer could be,” Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” If the Lord were once to come to that, he would quench us all. Not only some few of the tremblers, but the strongest among us must go to the wall. The Lord Jesus Christ has not come to condemn, but to save.

He will not quench you, dear friend, by setting up a high experimental standard. Certain deep divines will say”, “You must have felt so much of this, and so much of the other, or else you cannot be a child of God.” Who told the good man so? Who made him to be a judge? The Lord Jesus Christ does not quench even the feeble, faint desire, or the trembling faith of his servants, though they do fall far short of that experience which ought to belong to a child of God.

He will not judge you, dear friend, by a lofty standard of knowledge. I have known persons who have thought, “If that convert is not better instructed in the doctrines, he is no child of God.” The Lord has some of his children whose heads are in a very queer state; and if he first puts puts their hearts right he afterwards puts their heads right. But for you and for me to say that a man is not a child of God, because he does not know all that the advanced saints know, is a very wicked thing. I am sure that your little child, who cannot read or write, is pressed to your bosom, dear mother, with just as much affection as that brave son of yours who has just been winning the first prize at school. You do not say, “I will not love the little one because he is not a man;” or, “I will not love my little daughter because she is not grown up to womanhood.” Oh, no! The Lord loves the little ones. If you can say, “One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see,” you are taught of God. If you know these two things-yourself a sinner, and Christ a Saviour-you are scholar enough to go to heaven.

And the Lord Jesus Christ will not quench you by setting up a standard by which to measure your graces. It is not, “So much faith, and you are saved. So little faith, and you are lost.” Oh, no; if thou hast faith as a grain of mustard-seed it will save thee. If thou dost believe in Christ, thou art saved. That woman who touched the hem of Christ’s garment with her finger, and then tremblingly slunk back, was truly healed, slight as her touch was. Even Simeon, who took the Saviour up into his arms, and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,” cannot more surely be said to have had a saving faith than that poor woman who came behind, and touched the hem of the Master’s garment.

Come along, you little ones,-you trembling ones! Be not afraid! Jesus will not quench you by any of these means. I will tell you what he will do with you; and that is, instead of quenching you, he will protect you. He will blow upon you with the soft breath of his love till the little spark will rise into a flame, You young folks do not know what trouble some of us used to have, forty-five years ago, when we got up of a morning and had to strike a light in the old-fashioned way. There we were with a flint and a steel, striking away in a tiresome manner till we spied a little spark down in the tinder-oh, such a little one, and then we gently tried to blow it into a flame! How we used to prize a spark on a cold, frosty morning, when our fingers were pretty well frozen! We never put out the sparks by shutting the lid on the top of the tinder, but we tried if we could to light our match.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ will blow softly upon you with his gentle Spirit. He will bring to your mind exceeding great and precious promises. He will bring to you kind friends, who shall tell you their experience, and try to comfort you. I should not wonder, my dear brother, that one of these days I shall hear you pray a strong, brave prayer; I should not wonder if you before long come forward, and made an open profession; and if you have done so already, I feel pretty sure that you will honour it, and grow stronger, till one day we shall say, “Who is that bold witness for Christ? Who is that burning and shining light? “He is the man who was once likened to the smoking flax. I have had the portraits of my two boys taken on their birthdays, from the first birthday till they were twenty-one. The first year the little fellows are sitting, two of them in one perambulator. At twenty-one they are doing nothing of the sort: they are men full-grown. Yet I can trace them all along, from the time when they were babes, till they became little boys, and then youths, and then young men. I should not have been pleased to have seen them wheeled about in the perambulator for twenty-one years. In that case, I should have thought myself a most unfortunate father. And so I do not want to have any of you remaining in spiritual infancy: we long to see you come to the fulness of the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus. Life is precious, but we look for growth: a spark is fire, but we expect flame: grace is priceless, but we long to see it daily increased by going on unto perfection. Despise not the day of small things, but yet advance to greater things than these. Be comforted, but not self-satisfied; rest, but do not loiter.

The table of the Lord is spread, and it is a feast not for men alone, but for babes in grace. Come hither you that love the Lord, and you that trust him, however feeble your trust. However faint your courage, come and welcome! My Lord’s table is not for giants only, but for infants also. The viands are not strong meat, but bread and wine, fit food for the faint and feeble. Examine yourselves, ye sincere tremblers; but do not let the examination end in your staying away; but rather mark how the text says, “let a man examine himself, and so let him eat”: not so let him refrain from eating. Ho, you that hope in his mercy, your Lord invites you to his own feast of love! You may come and welcome. If you have come to Christ himself by faith, come to his table, and remember him to-night.

The Lord bless you, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon.-Isaiah 51.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn-Book”-734, 682.

ELIJAH’S PLEA

A Sermon

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On November 9th, 1884.

“Let it be known that I have done all these things at thy word.”-1 Kings 18:36.

The acts of Elijah were very singular. It had not been known from the foundations of the earth that a man should shut up the doors of the rain for the space of three years. Yet Elijah suddenly leaped upon the scene, announced the judgment of the Lord, and then disappeared for a time. When he reappears, at the bidding of God, he orders Ahab to gather the priests of Baal; and to put to the test the question as to whether Baal or Jehovah was indeed God. Bullocks shall be slain and laid upon the wood without fire; and the God who shall answer by fire shall be determined to be the one living and true God, the God of Israel. We might question within ourselves what right the prophet had to restrain the clouds, or to put God’s honour under test. Suppose the Lord had not willed to answer him by fire; had he any right to make the glory of God hang upon such terms as he proposed? The answer is that he had done all these things according to God’s word. It was no whim of his to chastise the nation with a drought. It was no scheme of his, concocted in his own brain, that he should put the Godhead of Jehovah or of Baal to the test by a sacrifice to be consumed by miraculous fire. Oh, no! If you read the life of Elijah through, you will see that whenever he takes a step it is preceded by, “the word of the Lord came unto Elijah the Tishbite.” He never acts of himself; God is at his back. He moves according to the divine will, and he speaks according to the divine teaching; and he pleads this with the Most High,-“I have done all these things at thy word; now let it be known that it is so.” It makes the character of Elijah stand out, not as an example of reckless daring, but as the example of a man of sound mind. Faith in God is true wisdom: childlike confidence in the word of God is the highest form of common-sense. To believe him that cannot lie, and trust in him that cannot fail, is a kind of wisdom that none but fools will laugh at. The wisest of men must concur in the opinion that it is always best to place your reliance where it will certainly be justified, and always best to believe that which cannot possibly be false. Elijah had so believed, and acted on his belief, and now he naturally expects to be justified in what he has done. An ambassador never dreams that his authorized acts will be repudiated by his king. If a man acts as your agent and does your bidding, the responsibility of his acts lies with you, and you must back him up. It were, indeed, an atrocious thing to send a servant on an errand, and, when he faithfully performed it to the letter, to repudiate your sending him. It is not so with God. If we will only so trust him as to do as he bids us, he will never fail us; but he will see us through, though earth and hell should stand in the way. It may not be to-day, nor to-morrow, but as surely as the Lord liveth, the time shall come when he that trusted him shall have joy of his confidence.

It seems to me that Elijah’s plea is to obedient saints a firm ground for prayer, and to those who cannot say that they have acted according to God’s word, it is a solemn matter for question.

To begin with, this is a firm ground for prayer. You are a minister of God, or a worker in the cause of Christ, and you go forth and preach the gospel with many tears and prayers, and you continue to use all means, such as Christ has ordained: do you say to yourself, “May I expect to have fruit of all this?” Of course you may. You are not sent on a frivolous errand: you are not bidden to sow dead seed that will never spring up. But when that anxiety weighs heavily upon your heart, go you to the mercy-seat with this as one of your arguments, “Lord, I have done according to thy word. Now let it be seen that it is even so. I have preached thy word, and thou hast said, ‘It shall not return unto me void.’ I have prayed for these people, and thou hast said, ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’; let it be seen that this is according to thy word.” Or, if you are a teacher, you can say, “I brought my children in supplication before thee, and I have gone forth, after studying thy Word, to teach them, to the best of my ability, the way of salvation. Now, Lord, I claim it of thy truth that thou shouldest justify my teaching, and my expectation, by giving me to see the souls of my children saved by thee, through Jesus Christ, thy Son.” Do you not see that you have a good argument, if the Lord has set you to do this work? He has, as it were, bound himself by that very fact to support you in the doing of it; and if you, with holy diligence and carefulness, do all these things according to his word, then you may come with certainty to the throne of grace, and say unto him, “Do as thou hast said. Hast thou not said,’ He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him’? Lord I have done that. Give me my sheaves. Thou has said, ‘Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.’ Lord, I have done that; and therefore I entreat thee fulfil thy promise to me.” You may plead in this fashion with the same boldness which made Elias say in the presence of all the people, “Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I have done all these things at thy word.”

Next, I would apply this teaching to a whole church. I am afraid many churches of Christ are not prospering. The congregations are thin, the church is diminishing, the prayer-meeting scantily attended, spiritual life low. If I can conceive of a church in such a condition which, nevertheless, can say to God, “We have done all these things at thy word,” I should expect to see that church soon revived in answer to prayer. The reason why some churches do not prosper is, because they have not done according to God’s word. They have not even cared to know what God’s Word says. Another book is their standard. A man is their leader and legislator, instead of the inspired Word of God. Some churches are doing little or nothing for the conversion of sinners. But any man, in any church, who can go before God, and say, “Lord, we have had among us the preaching of the gospel; and we have earnestly prayed for the blessing; we have gathered about thy minister, and we have held him up in the arms of prayer and faith; we have, as individual Christians, sought out each one his particular service, we have gone forth each one to bring in souls to thee, and we have lived in godliness of life by the help of thy grace, now, therefore prosper thy cause,” shall find it a good plea. Real prosperity must come to any church that walks according to Christ’s rules, obeys Christ’s teaching, and is filled with Christ’s Spirit. I would exhort all members of churches that are in a poor way just now, to see to it that all things are done at God’s word, and then hopefully wait in holy confidence. The fire from heaven must come: the blessing cannot be withheld.

The same principle may be applied also to any individual believers who are in trouble through having done right. It happens often that a man feels, “I could make money, but I must not; for the course proposed would be wrong. Such a situation is open, but it involves what my conscience does not approve. I will rather suffer than I will make gain by doing anything that is questionable.” It may be that you are in great trouble distinctly through obedience to God. Then, you are the man above all others who may lay this case before the Most High: “Lord, I have done all these things at thy word, and thou hast said,’ I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ I beseech thee interpose for me.” Somehow or other God will provide for you. If he means you to be further tried, he will give you strength to bear it; but the probabilities are that now he has tested you, he will bring you forth from the fire as gold.

“Do good and know no fear,

For so thou in the land shalt dwell,

And God thy food prepare.”

Once again. I would like to apply this principle to the seeking sinner. You are anxious to be saved. You are attentive to the word, and your heart says, “Let me know what this salvation is, and how to come at it, for I will have it whatever stands in the way.” You have heard Jesus say, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” You have heard his bidding, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to life eternal.” You long to enter the strait gate, and eat of the meat which endureth; you would give worlds for such a boon. Thou hast well spoken, my friend. Now, listen:-thou canst not have heaven through thy doings, as a matter of merit. There is no merit possible to thee, for thou hast sinned, and art already condemned. But God has laid down certain lines upon which he has promised to meet thee, and to bless thee. Hast thou followed those lines? For if thou hast, he will not be false to thee. It is written,-“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”-can you come before God, and say, “I have believed and have been baptized”? then you are on firm pleading ground. It is written again,-“Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.” When you have confessed them, and forsaken them, you have a just claim upon the promise of God, and you can say to him, “Lord, fulfil this word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. There is no merit in my faith, or my baptism, or my repentance, or my forsaking of sin; yet as thou hast put thy promise side by side with these things, and I have been obedient to thee therein, I now come to thee, and say,’ Prove thine own truth, for I have done all these things at thy word.’ ” No sinner will come before God at last, and say, “I trusted as thou didst bid me trust; and yet I am lost.” It is impossible. Thy blood, if thou art lost, will be on thine own head; but thou shalt never be able to lay thy soul’s damnation at the door of God. He is not false: it is thou that art false.

You see, then, how the principle can be applied in prayer: “I have done these things at thy word; therefore, O Lord, do as thou hast said.”

We shall go a little over the same ground while I ask you to put yourselves through your paces by way of self-examination as to whether or not you have done all these things at God’s word.

First, let every worker here who has not been successful answer this question-Have you done all these things at God’s word? Come. Have you preached the gospel? Was it the gospel? Was it Christ you preached, or merely something about Christ? Come. Did you give the people bread, or did you give them plates to put the bread on, and knives to cut the bread with? Did you give them drink, or did you give them the cup that had been near the water? Some preaching is not gospel; it is a knife that smells of the cheese, but it is not cheese. See to that matter.

If you preached the gospel, did you preach it rightly? That is to say, did you state it affectionately, earnestly, clearly, plainly? If you preach the gospel in Latinized language, the common people will not know what it means; and if you use great big academy words and dictionary words, the market people will be lost while they are trying to find out what you are at. You cannot expect God to bless you unless the gospel is preached in a very simple way. Have you preached the truth lovingly, with all your heart, throwing your very self into it, as if beyond everything you desired the conversion of those you taught? Has prayer been mixed with it? Have you gone into the pulpit without prayer? Have you come out of it without prayer? Have you been to the Sabbath-school without prayer? Have you come away from it without prayer? If so, since you failed to ask for the blessing, you must not wonder if you do not get it.

And another question-Has there been an example to back your teaching? Brethren, have we lived as we have preached? Sisters, have you lived as you have taught in your classes? These are questions we ought to answer, because perhaps God can reply to us, “No, you have not done according to my word. It was not my gospel you preached: you were a thinker, and you thought out your own thoughts, and I never promised to bless your thoughts, but only my revealed truth. You spoke without affection; you tried to glorify yourself by your oratory; you did not care whether souls were saved or not.” Or suppose that God can point to you, and say, “Your example was contrary to your teaching. You looked one way, but you pulled another way.” Then there is no plea in prayer: is there? Come, let us alter. Let us try to rise to the highest pitch of obedience by the help of God’s Spirit: not that we can merit success, but that we can command it if we do but act according to God’s bidding. Paul planteth, and Apollos watereth, and God giveth the increase.

And now let me turn to a church, and put questions to that church. A certain church does not prosper. I wish that every church would let this question go through all its membership: do we as a church acknowledge the headship of Christ? Do we acknowledge the Statute-Book of Christ-the one Book which alone and by itself is the religion of a Christian man? Do we as a church seek the glory of God? Is that our main and only object? Are we travailing in birth for the souls of the people that live near us? Are we using every scriptural means to enlighten them with the gospel? Are we a holy people? Is our example such as our neighbours may follow? Do we endeavour, even in meat and drink, to do all to the glory of God? Are we prayerful? Oh, the many churches that give up their prayer-meetings, because prayer is not in them! How can they expect a blessing? Are we united? Oh, brothers, it is a horrible thing when church members talk against one another, and even slander one another, as though they were enemies rather than friends. Can God bless such a church as that? Let us search through and through the camp, lest there be an Achan, whose stolen wedge and Babylonian garment, hidden in his tent, shall bind the hands of the Almighty so that he cannot fight for his people. Let every church see to itself in this.

Next I speak to Christian people who have fallen into trouble through serving God. I put it to them, but I want to ask them a few questions. Are you quite sure that you did serve God in it? You know there are men who indulge crotchets, and whims, and fancies. God has not promised to support you in your whims. Certain people are obstinate, and will not submit to what everybody must bear who has to earn his bread in a world like this. If you are a mere mule, and get the stick, I must leave you to your reward; but I speak to men of understanding. Be as stern as a Puritan against everything that is wrong, but be supple and yieldable to everything that involves self-denial on your part. God will bear us through if the quarrel be his quarrel; but if it is our own quarrel, why then we may help ourselves. There is a deal of difference between being pig-headed and being steadfast. To be steadfast, as a matter of principle in truth which is taught by God’s Word, is one thing; but to get a queer idea into your heads is quite another.

Besides, some men are conscientious about certain things, but they have not an all-round conscience. Some are conscientious about not taking less, but they are not conscientious about giving less. Certain folks are conscientious about resting on the Sabbath; but the other half of the command is, “Six days shalt thou labour,” and they do not remember that portion of the law. I like a conscience which works fairly and impartially: but if your conscience gives way for the sake of your own gain or pleasure, the world will think that it is a sham, and they will not be far from the mark. But if, through conscientiousness, you should be a sufferer, God will bear you through. Only examine and see that your conscience is enlightened by the Spirit of God.

And now to conclude. I want to address the seeking sinner. Some are longing to find peace, but they cannot reach it; and I want them to see whether they have not been negligent in some points so that they would not be able to say with Elijah, “I have done all these things at thy word.”

Do I need to say that you cannot be saved by your works? Do I need to repeat it over and over again that nothing you do can deserve mercy? Salvation must be the free gift of God. But this is the point. God will give pardon to a sinner, and peace to a troubled heart, on certain lines. Are you on those lines wholly? If so, you will have peace; and if you have not that peace, something or other has been omitted. To begin with, the first thing is faith. Dost thou believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Dost thou believe that he has risen from the dead? Dost thou trust thyself wholly, simply, heartily, once for all, with him? Then it is written,-“He that believeth in him hath everlasting life.” Go and plead that. “I have no peace,” says one. Hast thou unfeignedly repented of sin? Is thy mind totally changed about sin, so that what thou didst once love thou dost now hate, and that which thou didst once hate thou dost now love? Is there a hearty loathing, and giving up, and forsaking of sin? Do not deceive yourself. You cannot be saved in your sins; you are to be saved from your sins. You and your sins must part, or else Christ and you will never be joined. See to this. Labour to give up every sin, and turn from every false way, else your faith is but a dead faith, and will never save you. It may be that you have wronged a person, and have never made restitution. Mr. Moody did great good when he preached restitution. If we have wronged another we ought to make it up to him. We ought to return what we have stolen, if that be our sin. A man cannot expect peace of conscience till, as far as in him lies, he has made amends for any wrong he has done to his fellow-men. See to that, or else perhaps this stone may lie at your door, and because it is not rolled away you may never enter into peace.

It may be, my friend, that you have neglected prayer. Now, prayer is one of those things without which no man can find the Lord. This is how we seek him, and if we do not seek him how shall we find him? If you have been neglectful in this matter of prayer, you cannot say, “I have done all these things at thy word.” May the Lord stir you up to pray mightily, and not to let him go except he bless you! In waiting upon the Lord he will cause you to find rest to your soul.

Possibly, however, you may be a believer in Christ, and you may have no peace because you are associated with ungodly people, and go with them to their follies, and mix with them in their amusements. You see you cannot serve God and Mammon. Thus saith the Lord, “Come out from among them: be ye separate: touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” I know a man who sits in this place: he is probably here to-night: and concerning him I am persuaded that the only thing that keeps him from Christ is the company with which he mingles. I will not say that his company is bad in itself, but it is bad to him; and if there be anything that is right in itself, yet if to me it becomes ruinous, I must give it up. We are not commanded to cut off warts and excrescences, but Jesus bids us cut off right arms, and pluck out right eyes-good things in themselves,-if they are stumbling-blocks in our way so that we cannot get at Christ. What is there in the world that is worth the keeping if it involves me in the loss of my soul? Away with it. Hence many things which are lawful to another man, perhaps, to you may not be expedient because they are injurious. Many things cause no harm to the bulk of men, and yet to some one man they would be the most perilous things, and therefore he should avoid them. Be a law to yourselves, and keep clear of everything that keeps you away from the Saviour.

Perhaps, however, you say, “Well, as far as I know, I do keep out of all ill associations, and I am trying to follow the Lord.” Let me press you with a home-question,-will you be obedient to Jesus in everything?

“For know-nor of the terms complain-

Where Jesus comes he comes to reign.”

If you would have Christ for a Saviour, you must also take him for a King. Therefore it is that he puts it to you “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Will the baptism save me? Assuredly not, for you have no right to be baptized until you are saved by faith in Jesus Christ; but remember, if Christ gives you the command-if you accept him as a King-you are bound to obey him. If instead of saying “Be baptized” he had simply said, “Put a feather in your cap,” you might have asked, “Will putting a feather in my cap save me? No, but you are bound to do it because he bids you. If he had said, “Put a stone in your pocket, and carry it with you”; if that were Christ’s command, it would be needful that you take the stone, and carry it with you. The less there seems to be of importance about a command, often the more hinges upon it. I have seen a rebellious boy, to whom his father has said, “Sir, pick up that stick. Pick up that stick.” There is no very great importance about the command, and so the youth sullenly refuses to obey. “Do you hear, sir? Pick up that stick.” No: he will not. Now, if it had been a great thing that he had been bidden to do, which was somewhat beyond his power, it would not have been so clear an evidence of his rebellion when he refused to do it, as it is when it is but a little and trifling thing, and yet he refuses to obey. Therefore, I lay great stress upon this-that you who do believe in Jesus Christ should do according to his word. Say, “Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do? Be it what it may, I will do it, for I am thy servant.” I want you, if you would be Christ’s, to be just like the brave men that rode at Balaclava.

“Yours not to reason why;

Yours but to do and die”-

if it need be, if Jesus calls you thereto. Be this your song-

“Through floods and flames if Jesus lead,

I’ll follow where he goes.”

That kind of faith which at the very outset cries, “I shall not do that, it is not essential”; and then goes on to say, “I do not agree with that, and I do not agree with the other”; is no faith at all. In that case it is you that is master, and not Christ. In his own house you are beginning to alter his commands. “Oh,” says one, “but as to baptism: I was baptized, you know, a great many years ago, when I was an infant.” Say you so? You have heard of Mary when her mistress said, “Mary, go into the drawing-room, and sweep it and dust it.” Her mistress went into the drawing-room, and found it dusty. She said, “Mary, did you not sweep the room, and dust it?” “Well, ma’am, yes I did: only I dusted it first, and then I swept it.” That was the wrong order, and spoiled the whole; and it will never do to put Christ’s commands the other way upwards, because then they mean just nothing. We ought to do what he bids us, as he bids us, when he bids us, in the order in which he bids us. It is ours simply to be obedient, and when we are so, we may remember that to believe Christ and to obey Christ is the same thing, and often in Scripture the same word that might be read “believe,” might be read “obey.” He is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him, and that is to all them that believe on him. Trust him then right heartily, and obey him right gladly. You can then go to him in the dying hour, and say, “Lord, I have done all these things at thy word. I claim no merit, but I do claim that thou keep thy gracious promise to me, for thou canst not run back from one word which thou hast spoken.”

God bless you, beloved, for Christ’s sake.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-1 Kings 18:17-40.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-417, 515, 514.