C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.”-Zephaniah 3:16-18.

Holy Scripture is wonderfully full and abiding in its inner sense. It is a springing well, whereat you may draw, and draw again; for as you draw, it springs up for ever new and fresh. It is a well of water springing up everlastingly. The fulfilment of a divine promise is not the exhaustion of it. When a man gives you a promise, and he keeps it, there is an end of the promise; but it is not so with God. When he keeps his word to the full, he has but begun: he is prepared to keep it, and keep it, and keep it for ever and ever. What would you say of a man who had wheat upon his barn floor, and threshed it until he had beaten out the last golden grain; but the next day he went and threshed again, and brought back as much as the day before; and on the day after, again taking his flail, he went to the same threshing, and again brought back his measure as full as at the first, and so on for all the days of the year? Would it not seem to you as a fairy tale? It would certainly be a surprising miracle. But what should we say if, throughout a long life, this miracle could be prolonged? Yet we have continued to thresh the promises ever since faith was given us, and we have carried away our full portion every day. What shall we say of the glorious fact that the saints in all generations, from the first day until now, have done the same; and of that equal truth, that as long as there is a needy soul upon earth, there will be upon the threshing floor of the promises the same abundance of the finest of the wheat as when the first man filled his measure and returned rejoicing? I will not dwell upon the specific application of the text before us: I do not doubt that it was specially fulfilled as it was intended; and if there still remains some special piece of history to which this passage alludes, it will again be fulfilled in due time; but this I know, that those who have lived between whiles have found this promise true to them. Children of God have used these promises under all sorts of circumstances, and have derived the utmost comfort from them; and this morning I feel as if the text had been newly written for the present occasion, for it is in every syllable most suitable to the immediate crisis. If the Lord had fixed his eye upon the condition of his church just now, and had written this passage only for this year of grace 1887, it could scarcely have been more adapted to the occasion. Our business shall be to show this; but I would aim at much more. Let our prayer be that we may enjoy this marvellous portion of the sacred word, and take intense delight in it. As God rests in his love, so may we rest in it this morning; and as he joys over us with singing, so may we break forth into joyous psalms to the God of our salvation.

I am going to begin with the last verse of the text, and work my way upwards. The first head is, a trying day for God’s people. They are sorrowful because a cloud is upon their solemn assembly, and the reproach thereof is a burden. Secondly, we will note a glorious ground of consolation. We read in the seventeenth verse, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” And, thirdly, here is a brave conduct suggested thereby: “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.”

Beginning at the eighteenth verse, we notice a trying day for God’s people. The solemn assembly had fallen under reproach. The solemn assemblies of Israel were her glory: her great days of festival and sacrifice were the gladness of the land. To the faithful their holy days were their holidays. But a reproach had fallen upon the solemn assembly, and I believe it is so now at this present moment. It is a sad affliction when in our solemn assemblies the brilliance of the gospel light is dimmed by error. The clearness of the testimony is spoiled when doubtful voices are scattered among the people, and those who ought to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are telling out for doctrines the imaginations of men, and the inventions of the age. Instead of revelation, we have philosophy, falsely so-called; instead of divine infallibility, we have surmises and larger hopes. The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is taught as the production of progress, a growth, a thing to be amended and corrected year by year. It is an ill day, both for the church and the world, when the trumpet does not give a certain sound; for who shall prepare himself for the battle?

If added to this we should see creeping over the solemn assembly of the church a lifelessness, an indifference, and a lack of spiritual power, it is painful to a high degree. When the vitality of religion is despised, and gatherings for prayer are neglected, what are we coming to? The present period of church history is well portrayed by the church of Laodicea, which was neither cold nor hot, and therefore to be spewed out of Christ’s mouth. That church gloried that she was rich and increased in goods, and had need of nothing, while all the while her Lord was outside, knocking at the door, a door closed against him. That passage is constantly applied to the unconverted, with whom it has nothing to do: it has to do with a lukewarm church, with a church that thought itself to be in an eminently prosperous condition, while her living Lord, in the doctrine of his atoning sacrifice, was denied an entrance. Oh, if he had found admission-and he was eager to find it-she would soon have flung away her imaginary wealth, and he would have given her gold tried in the furnace, and white raiment with which she might be clothed. Alas! she is content without her Lord, for she has education, oratory, science, and a thousand other baubles. Zion’s solemn assembly is under a cloud indeed, when the teaching of Jesus and his apostles is of small account with her.

If in addition to this, worldly conformity spreads in the church, so that the vain amusements of the world are shared in by the saints, then is there reason enough for lamentation, even as Jeremiah cried: “How is the gold become dim!” Her Nazarites, who were purer than snow and whiter than milk, have become blacker than a coal. “All our enemies have opened their months against us.” If no longer there is a clear distinction between the church and the world, but professed followers of Jesus have joined hands with unbelievers, then may we mourn indeed! Woe worth the day! An ill time has happened to the church and to the world also. We may expect great judgments, for the Lord will surely be avenged on such a people as this. Know ye not of old that when the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they were joined unto them, then the flood came and swept them all away? I need not pursue this subject further, lest our burdens take from us the time which is demanded for consolation.

It appears from the text that there were some to whom the reproach was a burden. They could not make sport of sin. True, there were many who said that the evil did not exist at all, and others who declared that it was not present in any great degree. Yes, and more hardened spirits declared that what was considered to be a reproach was really a thing to be boasted of, the very glory of the century. Thus they huffed the matter, and made the mourning of the conscientious to be a theme for jest. But there was a remnant to whom the reproach of it was a burden; these could not bear to see such a calamity. To these the Lord God will have respect, as he said by the prophet:-“Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” The many drank wine in bowls and anointed themselves with their chief ointments, but they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph (Amos 6:6); but these were pressed in spirit and bore the cross, counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. God’s people cannot bear that Christ’s atoning sacrifice should be dishonoured; they cannot endure that his truth should be trodden as mire in the streets. To true believers prosperity means the Holy Ghost blessing the word to the conversion of sinners and the building up of saints; and if they do not see this, they hang their harps upon the willows. True lovers of Jesus fast when the Bridegroom is not with his church: their glory is in his glory, and in nothing else. The wife of Phinehas, the son of Eli, cried oat in her dying agony, “The glory has departed,” and the reason that she gave was once because of the death of her husband and his father, but twice because “the ark of God is taken.” For this she named her new-born child Ichabod-“The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.” The bitterest pain of this godly woman was for the church, and for the honour of our God. So it is with God’s true people: they lay it much to heart that the truth is rejected.

This burdened spirit is a token of true love to God: those who love the Lord Jesus are wounded in his woundings, and vexed with the vexings of his Spirit. When Christ is dishonoured his disciples are dishonoured. Those who have a tender heart towards the church can say with Paul, “Who is offended, and I burn not?” The sins of the church of God are the sorrows of all living members of it. This also marks a healthy sensibility, a vital spirituality. Those who are unspiritual care nothing for truth or grace: they look to finances, and numbers, and respectability. Utterly carnal men care for none of these things; and so long as the political aims of Dissenters are progressing, and there is an advance in social position, it is enough for them. But men whose spirits are of God would sooner see the faithful persecuted than see them desert the truth, sooner see churches in the depths of poverty full of holy zeal than rich churches dead in worldliness. Spiritual men care for the church even when she is in an evil case, and cast down by her adversaries: “thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.” The house of the Lord is to many of us our own house, his family is our family. Unless the Lord Jesus be extolled, and his gospel conquer, we feel that our own personal interests are blighted, and we ourselves are in disgrace. It is no small thing to us: it is our life.

Thus have I dwelt upon the fact that it is an ill day for God’s people when the solemn assembly is defiled: the reproach thereof is a burden to those who are truly citizens of the New Jerusalem, and because of this they are seen to be sorrowful. The Lord here says, “I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly.” They may well be sorrowful when such a burden is laid on their hearts. Moreover, they see in a hundred ways the ill effect of the evil which they deplore. Many are lame and halting; this is hinted at in the promise of the nineteenth verse: “I will save her that halteth.” Pilgrims on the road to Zion were made to limp on the road because the prophets were “light and treacherous persons.” When the pure gospel is not preached, God’s people are robbed of the strength which they need in their life-journey. If you take away the bread, the children hunger. If you give the flock poisonous pastures, or fields which are barren as the desert, they pine and they become lame in their daily following of the shepherd. The doctrinal soon affects the practical. I know many of the people of God living in different parts of this country to whom the Sabbath is very little of a day of rest, for they hear no truth in which rest is to be found, but they are worried and wearied with novelties which neither glorify God nor benefit the souls of men. In many a place the sheep look up and are not fed. This causes much disquietude and breeds doubts and questionings, and thus strength is turned to weakness, and the work of faith, the labour of love, and the patience of hope are all kept in a halting state. This is a grievous evil, and it is all around us. Then, alas! many are “driven out,” of whom the nineteenth verse says, “I will gather her that was driven out.” By false doctrine many are made to wander from the fold. Hopeful ones are made to stray from the path of life, and sinners are left in their natural distance from God. The truth which would convince men of sin is not preached, while other truths which would lead seekers into peace are beclouded, and souls are left in needless sorrow. When the doctrines of grace and the glorious atoning sacrifice are not set clearly before men’s minds, so that they may feel their power, all sorts of evils follow. It is terrible to me that this dreadful blight should come upon our churches; for the hesitating are driven to destruction, the weak are staggered, and even the strong are perplexed. The false teachers of these days would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect. This makes our hearts very sorrowful. How can we help it?

Yet, beloved, all the time that the people of God are in this evil case, they are not without hope; for close upon all this comes the promise of the Lord to restore his wandering ones. We have the sense twice over: “I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.” “I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.” The adversaries cannot silence the eternal testimony. They hanged our Lord himself upon a tree; they took down his body and buried it in a tomb in the rock; and they set their seal upon the stone which they rolled at the mouth of the sepulchre. Surely now there was an end of the Christ and his cause. Boast not, ye priests and Pharisees! Vain the watch, the stone, the seal! When the appointed time had come, the living Christ came forth. He could not be holden by the cords of death. How idle their dreams! “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord doth have them in derision.” Beloved, the reproach will yet be rolled away from the solemn assembly: the truth of God will yet again be proclaimed as with trumpet tongue, the Spirit of God will revive his church, and converts as many as the sheaves of the harvest shall yet be gathered in. How will the faithful rejoice! Those who were burdened and sorrowful shall then put on their garments of joy and beauty. Then shall the ransomed of the Lord return with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. The conflict is not doubtful. The end of the battle is sure and certain. Methinks I even now hear the shout, “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

Secondly, let us think of something which shines like a star amid the darkness. The second verse of the text presents a glorious ground of consolation. Here is a rich text indeed. This passage is like a great sea, while I am as a little child making pools in the sand which skirts its boundless flood. A series of discourses might well be founded on this one verse: I mean the seventeenth.

Our great consolation in the worst times lies in our God. The very name of our covenant God-“the Lord thy God”-is full of good cheer. That word, “the Lord,” is really Jehovah, the self-existent One, the unchangeable One, the ever-living God, who cannot change or be moved from his everlasting purpose. Children of God, whatever you have not got, you have a God in whom you may greatly glory. Having God you have more than all things, for all things come of him; and if all things were blotted out, he could restore all things simply by his will. He speaketh, and it is done; he commandeth, and it stands fast. Blessed is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his trust, and whose hope Jehovah is. In the Lord Jehovah we have righteousness and strength; let us trust in him for ever. Let the times roll on, they cannot affect our God. Let troubles rush upon us like a tempest, but they shall not come nigh unto us now that he is our defence. Jehovah, the God of his church, is also the God of each individual member of it, and each one may therefore rejoice in him. Jehovah is as much your God, my brother, as if no other person in the universe could use that covenant expression. O believer, the Lord God is altogether and wholly your God! All his wisdom, all his foresight, all his power, all his immutability-all himself is yours. As for the church of God, when she is in her lowest estate she is still established and endowed in the best possible sense-established by the divine decree, and endowed by the possession of God all-sufficient. The gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Let us exult in our possession. Poor as we are, we are infinitely rich in having God; weak as we are, there is no limit to our strength, since the Almighty Jehovah is ours. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” If God be ours, what more can we need? Lift up thy heart, thou sorrowful one, and be of good cheer. If God be thy God, thou hast all thou canst desire: wrapped up within his glorious name we find all things for time and eternity, for earth and heaven. Therefore in the name of Jehovah we will set up our banners, and march onward to the battle. He is our God by his own purpose, covenant, and oath; and this day he is our God by our own choice of him, by our union with Christ Jesus, by our experience of his goodness, and by that spirit of adoption whereby we cry “Abba, Father.”

To strengthen this consolation, we notice next, that this God is in the midst of us. He is not a long way off, to be sought with difficulty, if haply we may find him. The Lord is a God nigh at hand, and ready to deliver his people. Is it not delightful to think that we cry not to God across the ocean, for he is here? We look not up to him from afar, as though he dwelt beyond the stars, neither do we think of him as hidden in the fathomless abyss; but the Lord is very near. Our God is “Jehovah in the midst of thee.” Since that bright night in which a babe was born at Bethlehem, and unto us a Son was given, we know God as “Emmanuel, God with us.” God is in our nature, and therefore very near unto us. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Though his bodily presence is gone, yet we have his spiritual presence with us evermore; for he saith, “Lo, I am with you alway.” He walketh among the golden candlesticks. We have also the immediate presence of God the Holy Spirit. He is in the midst of the church to enlighten, convince, quicken, endow, comfort, and clothe with spiritual power. The Lord still works in the minds of men for the accomplishment of his purposes of grace. Let us think of this when we are going forth to Christian service: “The Lord of hosts is with us.” When you call your class together in the Sabbath school, say to your Lord, “If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence.” Ah, friends! if we have God with us, we can bear to be deserted by men. What a word that is, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them!” Shall not the army shout when the King himself is in their ranks! Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered! When he is with us they that hate him must flee before him. Be it our concern so to live that we may never grieve away the Spirit of God. Beloved, there is such abundant consolation in the fact of the presence of God with us, that if we could only feel the power of it at this moment, we should enter into rest, and our heaven would begin below.

Let us go a step further, and note that our consolation is largely to be found in the fact that this God in the midst of us is full of power to save. “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save.” That is to say, “Jehovah, thy God, is mighty to save.” His arm is not shortened, he is still “a just God and a Saviour.” Nor is he merely able to save, but he will display that ability; “he will save.” Come, my brother, we see around us this and that to discourage us; let us, like David, encourage ourselves in the Lord our God. We may very well forget all difficulties, since the God who is in the midst of us is mighty to save. Let us pray, then, that he will save; that he will save his own church from lukewarmness and from deady error; that he will save her from her worldliness and formalism; save her from unconverted ministers and ungodly members. Let us lift up our eyes and behold the power which is ready to save; and let us go on to pray that the Lord may save the unconverted by thousands and millions. Oh, that we might see a great revival of religion! This is what we want before all things. This would smite the enemy upon the cheek-bone, and break the teeth of the adversary. If tens of thousands of souls were immediately saved by the sovereign grace of God, what a rebuke it would be to those who deny the faith! Oh, for times such as our fathers saw when first Whitefield and his helpers began to preach the life-giving word! When one sweet voice was heard clear and loud, all the birds of paradise began to sing in concert with him, and the morning of a glorious day was heralded. Oh, if that were to happen again, I should feel like Simeon when he embraced the heavenly babe! Then would the virgin daughter of Zion shake her head at the foe, and laugh him to scorn. It may happen; yea, if we are importunate in prayer it must happen: “God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.” Let us not seek power of rhetoric, much less of wealth; but let us look for the power which saves. This is the one thing I crave. Oh, that God would save souls! I say to myself, after being badgered and worried through the week by the men of modern thought: “I will go my way and preach Christ’s gospel, and win souls.” One lifting up of Jesus Christ crucified is more to me than all the cavillings of the men who are wise above what is written. Converts are our unanswerable arguments. “Happy is the man,” saith the Psalm, “that hath his quiver full of them: they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” Blessed is the man who has many spiritual children born to God under his ministry; for his converts are his defence. Beholding the man who was healed standing with Peter and John, they could say nothing against them. If souls are saved by the gospel, the gospel is proved in the surest manner. Let us care more about conversions than about organizations. If souls are brought into union with Christ, we may let other unions go.

We go yet further, and we come to great deeps: behold God’s joy in his people. “He will rejoice over thee with joy.” Think of this! Jehovah, the living God, is described as brooding over his church with pleasure. He looks upon souls redeemed by the blood of his dear Son, quickened by his Holy Spirit, and his heart is glad. Even the infinite heart of God is filled with an extraordinary joy at the sight of his chosen. His delight is in his church, his Hephzibah. I can under stand a minister rejoicing over a soul that he has brought to Christ; I can also understand believers rejoicing to see others saved from sin and hell; but what shall I say of the infinitely-happy and eternally-blessed God finding, as it were, a new joy in souls redeemed? This is another of those great wonders which cluster around the work of divine grace! “He will rejoice over thee with joy.” Oh, you are trembling for the ark of the Lord; the Lord is not trembling, but rejoicing. Faulty as the church is, the Lord rejoices in her. While we mourn, as well we may, yet we do not sorrow as those that are without hope; for God does not sorrow, his heart is glad, and he is said to rejoice with joy-a highly emphatic expression. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, imperfect though they be. He sees them as they are to be, and so he rejoices over them, even when they cannot rejoice in themselves. When your face is blurred with tears, your eyes red with weeping, and your heart heavy with sorrow for sin, the great Father is rejoicing over you. The prodigal son wept in his Father’s bosom, but the Father rejoiced over his son. We are questioning, doubting, sorrowing, trembling; and all the while he who sees the end from the beginning knows what will come out of the present disquietude, and therefore rejoices. Let us rise in faith to share the joy of God. Let no man’s heart fail him because of the taunts of the enemy. Rather let the chosen of God rouse themselves to courage, and participate in that joy of God which never ceaseth, even though the solemn assembly has become a reproach. Shall we not rejoice in him when he, in his boundless condescension, deigns to rejoice in us? Whoever despairs for the cause, he does not; wherefore let us be of good courage.

It is added, “He will rest in his love.” I do not know any Scripture which is more full of wonderful meaning than this. “He shall rest in his love,” as if our God had in his people found satisfaction. He comes to an anchorage: he has reached his desire. As when a Jacob, full of love to Rachel, has at length ended the years of his service, and is married to his well-beloved, and his heart is at rest; so is it spoken in parable of the Lord our God. Jesus sees of the travail of his soul when his people are won to him; he has been baptized with his baptism for his church, and he is no longer straitened, for his desire is fulfilled. The Lord is content with his eternal choice, content with his loving purposes, satisfied with the love which went forth from everlasting. He is well pleased in Jesus-well pleased with all the glorious purposes which are connected with his dear Son, and with those who are in him. He has a calm content in the people of his choice, as he sees them in Christ. This is a good ground for our having a deep satisfaction of heart also. We are not what we would be; but then we are not what we shall be. We advance slowly; but then we advance surely. The end is secured by omnipotent grace. It is right that we should be discontented with ourselves, yet this holy restlessness should not rob us of our perfect peace in Christ Jesus. If the Lord hath rest in us, shall we not have rest in him? If he rests in his love, cannot we rest in it?

My heart is comforted as I plainly see in these words love unchanging, love abiding, love eternal: “he will rest in his love.” Jehovah changes not. Being married to his people, “he hateth putting away.” Immutability is written on his heart. The turtle-dove, when he has once chosen his mate, remains faithful throughout life, and if the beloved dies, he will, in many cases, pine away with grief for her, for his life is wrapped up in hers. Even so our Lord hath made his choice of his beloved, and he will never change it: he died for his church, and so long as he lives he will remember his own love, and what it cost him: “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” “He will rest in his love.”

The love of God to us is undisturbed: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” dwells with his love: he is not disquieted about it, but peacefully loves, and is never moved. The calm of God is wonderful to contemplate: his infallible knowledge and infinite power put him beyond fear or question. He sees no cause of alarm as to his redeemed, nor as to the cause of truth and the reign of righteousness. As to his true church, he knows that she is right, or that he will make her right. She is being transformed into the image of Jesus, and he rests in the full assurance that the image will ere long be complete. He can carry out his own purposes in his own way and time. He can see the harvest as well as the sowing; therefore he doth “rest in his love.” You have seen a mother wash her child, and as she washes its face the child perhaps is crying, for it does not for the present enjoy the cleansing operation. Does the mother share the child’s grief? Does she also cry? Oh, no! she rejoices over her babe, and rests in her love, knowing that the light affliction of the little one will work its real good. Often our griefs are no deeper than the cry of a child because of the soap in its eyes. While the church is being washed with tribulations and persecutions, God is resting in his love. You and I are wearying, but God is resting.

“He shall rest in his love.” The Hebrew of this line is, “He shall be silent in his love.” His happiness in his love is so great, that he does not express it, but keeps a happy silence. His is a joy too deep for words. No language can express the joy of God in his love; and therefore he uses no words. Silence in this case is infinitely expressive. One of the old commentators says, “He is deaf and dumb in his love,” as if he heard no voice of accusation against his chosen, and would not speak a word of upbraiding to her. Remember the silence of Jesus, and expound this text thereby.

Sometimes also the Lord does not speak to his people: we cannot get a cheering word from him; and then we sigh for a promise, and long for a visit of his love; but if he be thus silent, let us know that he is only silent in his love. It is not the silence of wrath, but of love. His love is not changed, even though he does not comfort us.

“His thoughts are high, his love is wise,

His wounds a cure intend;

And though he does not always smile,

He loves unto the end.”

When he does not answer our prayers with his hand, he yet hears them with his heart. Denials are only another form of the same love which grants our petitions. He loves us, and sometimes shows that love better by not giving us what we ask than he could do if he spoke the sweetest promise which the ear has ever heard. I prize this sentence: “He shall rest in his love.” My God, thou art perfectly content with thy church after all, because thou knowest what she is to be. Thou seest how fair she will be when she comes forth from the washing, having put on her beautiful garments. Lo, the sun goes down, and we mortals dread the endless darkness; but thou, great God, seest the morning, and thou knowest that in the hours of darkness dews will fall which shall refresh thy garden. Ours is the measure of an hour, and thine the judgment of eternity, therefore we will correct our short-sighted judgment by thine infallible knowledge, and rest with thee.

The last word is, however, the most wonderful of all: “He will joy over thee with singing.” Think of the great Jehovah singing! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into a song: Father, Son and Holy Ghost together singing over the redeemed? God is so happy in the love which he bears to his people that he breaks the eternal silence, and sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy. Among Orientals a certain song is sung by the bridegroom when he receives his bride: it is intended to declare his joy in her, and in the fact that his marriage has come. Here, by the pen of inspiration, the God of love is pictured as married to his church, and so rejoicing in her that he rejoices over her with singing. If God sings, shall not we sing? He did not sing when he made the world. No; he looked upon it, and simply said that it was good. The angels sang, the sons of God shouted for joy: creation was very wonderful to them, but it was not much to God, who could have made thousands of worlds by his mere will. Creation could not make him sing; and I do not even know that Providence ever brought a note of joy from him, for he could arrange a thousand kingdoms of providence with ease. But when it came to redemption, that cost him dear. Here he spent eternal thought, and drew up a covenant with infinite wisdom. Here he gave his Only-begotten Son, and put him to grief to ransom his beloved ones. When all was done, and the Lord saw what became of it in the salvation of his redeemed, then he rejoiced after a divine manner. What must the joy be which recompenses Gethsemane and Calvary! Here we are among the Atlantic waves. The Lord God receives an accession to the infinity of his joy in the thought of his redeemed people. “He shall rejoice over thee with singing.” I tremble while I speak of such themes, lest I should say a word that should dishonour the matchless mystery; but still we are glad to note what is written, and we are bound to take comfort from it. Let us have sympathy with the joy of the Lord, for this will be our strength.

I close with a brief word upon the brave conduct suggested thereby. Let us not sorrow under the burdens which we bear, but rejoice in God, the great Burden-bearer, upon whom this day we roll our load. Here it is-“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not; and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.”

There are three things for God’s people to do. The first is, to be happy. Read verse fourteen-“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.” Any man can sing when his cup is full of delights; the believer alone has songs when waters of a bitter cup are wrung out to him. Any sparrow can chirp in the daylight; it is only the nightingale that can sing in the dark. Children of God, whenever the enemies seem to prevail over you, whenever the serried ranks of the foe appear sure of victory, then begin to sing. Your victory will come with your song. It is a very puzzling thing to the devil to hear saints sing when he sets his foot on them. He cannot make it out: the more he oppresses them, the more they rejoice. Let us resolve to be all the merrier when the enemy dreams that we are utterly routed. The more opposition, the more we will rejoice in the Lord: the more discouragement, the more confidence. Splendid was the courage of Alexander when they told him that there were hundreds of thousands of Persians. “Yet,” he said, “one butcher fears not myriads of sheep.” “Ah!” said another, “when the Persians draw their bows, their arrows are so numerous that they darken the sun.” “It will be fine to fight in the shade,” cried the hero. O friends, we know whom we have believed, and we are sure of triumph! Let us not think for a single second, if the odds against us are ten thousand to one, that this is a hardship; rather let us wish that they were a million to one, that the glory of the Lord might be all the greater in the conquest which is sure. When Athanasius was told that everybody was denying the Deity of Christ, then he said, “I, Athanasius, against the world”: Athanasius contra mundum became a proverbial expression. Brethren, it is a splendid thing to be quite alone in the warfare of the Lord. Suppose we had half-a-dozen with us. Six men are not much increase to strength, and possibly they may be a cause of weakness, by needing to be looked after. If you are quite alone, so much the better: there is the more room for God. When desertions have cleaned the place out, and left you no friend, now every corner can be filled with Deity. As long as there is so much that is visible to rely upon, and so much to hope in, there is so much the less room for simple trust in God: but now our song is of the Lord alone; “for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”

The next duty is fearlessness: “Fear thou not.” What! not a little? No, “Fear thou not.” But surely I may show some measure of trembling? No, “Fear thou not.” Tie that knot tight about the throat of unbelief. “Fear thou not”: neither this day, nor any day of thy life. When fear comes in, drive it away; give it no space. If God rests in his love, and if God sings, what canst thou have to do with fear? Have you never known passengers on board ship, when the weather was rough, comforted by the calm behaviour of the captain? One simple-minded soul said to his friend, “I am sure there is no cause for fear, for I heard the captain whistling.” Surely, if the captain is at ease, and with him is all the responsibility, the passenger may be still more at peace. If the Lord Jesus at the helm is singing, let us not be fearing. Let us have done with every timorous accent. O rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. “Your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.”

Lastly, let us be zealous: “Let not thine hands be slack.” Now is the time when every Christian should do more for God than ever. Let us plan great things for God, and let us expect great things from God. “Let not thine hands be slack.” Now is the hour for redoubled prayers and labours. Since the adversaries are busy, let us be busy also. If they think they shall make a full end of us, let us resolve to make a full end of their falsehoods and delusions. I think every Christian man should answer the challenge of the adversaries of Christ by working double tides, by giving more of his substance to the cause of God, by living more for the glory of God, by being more exact in his obedience, more earnest in his efforts, and more importunate in his prayers. “Let not thine hands be slack” in any one part of holy service. Fear is a dreadful breeder of idleness; but courage teaches us indomitable perseverance. Let us go on in God’s name. I would stir up the members of this church, and all my brethren, to intense zeal for God and the souls of men. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Would God that all were on Christ’s side out of this great assembly! Oh, that you would come to Jesus, and trust him, and then live for him in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation! The Lord be with us. Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Zephaniah 3.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-46, 731, 18.

“Sitting By”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 13th, 1887, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, May 29th, 1887.

“And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by.”-Luke 5:17.

A congregation is a strange aggregate: it is like the gatherings of a net, or the collections of a dredge. If it is a very large one, it is specially remarkable. What strange varieties of creatures meet in the Noah’s ark of a crowded house of prayer! If anybody could write the histories of all gathered here, the result would be a library of singular stories.

You, my dear friends, who usually worship here, have probably no idea of the strange medley of nations, ranks, professions, conditions, and religions which are represented in one of the great congregations of this Tabernacle. I am often myself greatly startled when I come across the tracks of people quite unknown to me, except by the newspapers, who have mingled in these vast assemblies. I could not have imagined that they would ever have entered a place where the gospel is preached. It is noteworthy that God always selects our congregations for us, and his arrangements are always wise. I have frequently said to myself, “I shall have a picked congregation to-night”; and in some instances this has been very singularly the case. Persons have come hither who had themselves no thought of coming, till some special matter drew them; and then the word spoken has been so manifestly suited to their case, that it made them marvel. If they had sent notice of their coming, and the preacher had known all about them, he might not have ventured to be quite so personal; for he has unwittingly entered into minute details and secret items, which knowingly he would never have revealed. The Lord who knows what is done in the closet, knows how to direct his ministering servant so that he shall speak to the point, and speak to the heart.

In the present congregation we have a large company of people who have long known the Lord, and have for years rejoiced in his name. We have another company of persons who do not know the Lord savingly, but yet are well acquainted with the gospel, and are not far from the kingdom of God. They are almost persuaded; they tarry in the border-land. Oh, that they would cross the frontier, and become dwellers in Immanuel’s land! We have also among us some who are far removed from divine life; a people about whom we have little or no hope. Yet it is from among these that we reap the richest spoils for Christ; for he has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way. I am fond of that word “out-of-the-way.” The Lord save all of you who are out-of-the-way ones!

In every congregation we have a fourth class, who would decline to be classed at all: they may be said to be here and not here. They are spectators rather than hearers. Like the gentlemen mentioned in our text, they are “sitting by.” They are too respectable to be numbered with the vulgar crowd. No, no; they are only callers, sitting by. They would not like to have it supposed that they are regular hearers, much less converts: they are “sitting by.” They are not repenting; they are not believing; they are not entering into the truth at all; but they are “sitting by.” They have come to look on, take notes, and make remarks. They are on the outskirts of the battle, but they are not combatants at all; they are “sitting by,” where they hope they are out of gunshot.

It is about these who are “sitting by” that I shall now speak; for I am afraid they are becoming by far too easy in the seats which they have chosen. They are sitting as God’s people sit, and yet they are not truly among them, but only “sitting by.” They are a very irritating and disappointing part of our assemblies; but, at the same time, there they are, and we would not turn them out if we could. We are glad to have these persons to quarry from; for who knows but that out of them God, in infinite mercy, may select individuals who will never again sit by, but who will be heart and soul with Christ and his people, and even become leaders of the host of God?

Let me freely speak to you concerning certain of those who sat by. They were by no means to be despised, for some of them were eminent persons. They were Pharisees, members of the separate sect, who kept themselves to themselves, and were punctilious about the externals of religion. Very superior indeed were these Pharisees; and you could see by their faces that they felt themselves to be persons of importance. With these were doctors of the law, the learned men who had studied the Scriptures very carefully, counted the words of each holy book, and found out the middle letter of it. These doctors of the law had come to hear the unlettered peasant from Nazareth, concerning whom they had a very strong, but by no means favourable opinion. They had heard about him, and they condescended to give him a hearing, half blushing at their own modesty in doing so. Not, of course, that he could teach them anything; they were merely “sitting by,” and nothing more. We do not see many of these great folk among our crowds, and perhaps there are none such here on this occasion, but we cannot be sure. I do not much care to know whether the learned and profound are here; but they do come among us at times, though it is only to sit by. I will say no more about these remarkable people just now, for many others come into congregations merely to sit by. They have not come with any wish to learn, or understand, or feel, or be saved: they are only “sitting by.”

Let our first head answer the enquiry-what were these people doing? They were “sitting by.” There is a good deal in this. First, they were indulging their curiosity. They had come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem to know what this stir was all about. They had heard the great fame of Christ for working miracles, and this drew them into the throng which continually surrounded him. Besides, the crowd itself drew them. Why was there such a large company? What could it be all about? They would like to know for the sake of curiosity. They would for once hear the man, that they might be able to say that they had heard him; but they were not going to be influenced by what they heard; they would hear him as outsiders, “sitting by.” They were curious, but not anxious. As a rule, very little comes of this kind of attendance at places of worship; and yet I had sooner people come from this motive than not at all. Curiosity may be the stepping-stone to something better; yet, in itself, what good is there in it? Persons on the Sunday go to St. Paul’s, to Westminster Abbey, to the Tabernacle, to this place and to that, and they suppose that they are worshipping God, whereas they might just as well have gone to see a show; in fact, it is going to a show and nothing more as far as their motive is concerned. Do not flatter yourselves: if you go to places of worship merely to look about you or to hear music, you are not worshipping God. If you come to this great house to gratify your own fancy, you are no more worshipping God than you would be if you walked in the fields. You are only, in a very poor and grovelling sense, “sitting by.”

Many come into our assemblies and sit by in this respect-that they are altogether indifferent. I do not suppose that these scribes and Pharisees were quite good enough to be altogether indifferent: they leaned the wrong way, and were bitterly opposed. Too many act as if they said, “I come to hear a noted preacher; but what his doctrine may be I neither know nor care.” They do not enquire, What is this doctrine of the Fall? What is this depravity of heart? What is this work of the Spirit? What is this vicarious sacrifice? They do not care to know whether they are concerned in anything that is spoken of; nor do they ask, What is this new birth, this translation from darkness to light, this sanctification of nature? They hear a theological term and dismiss it as no concern of theirs. They do not want to know too much. This atoning sacrifice-they hear so much about it; this shedding of the precious blood of Jesus, this putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Jesus-they will not lend an ear to this saving mystery, but treat it as a matter of little or no consequence. It is nothing to them that Jesus should die. O dear sirs, it ought to be something to you! If there is anything worth enquiring into, it is your own state before God, your position as to eternal things, your condition at this moment in reference to sin-whether it stains you scarlet, or whether you have been washed from it in the fountain which Christ has opened. If there is anything worthy of a man’s enquiry, it is the matter which concerns his own soul for eternity. Would God you would no longer be found “sitting by,” but would in earnest feel, “There is something here for me. Perhaps for me there is a peace which I have never known, a joy which I have never imagined. I will see for myself. Perhaps for me there is a heaven of which I have hitherto despaired; I will make a searching enquiry, and see whether it is so or not.” May that be your resolve, and may you no longer be among those who sit by in stolid indifference!

The scribes and Pharisees were sitting by in another, and a worse, sense; for they were there to criticize in an unfriendly spirit, and either find faults, or invent them. I see them take out their note-books to jot down a word the Saviour said which they thought could be twisted. How they nudged one another, as he said something which sounded unusual and bold! Oh, could they but catch him! When, at last, he said to the sick man, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” I think I see their eyes flash with malignant fire. “Now we have got him! Now we have got him! This man blasphemeth.” They hoped he had now said more than he could stand to; and they asked in triumph, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” They were “sitting by,” watching the Saviour as a cat watches a mouse. How eagerly they spring upon him!

My hearers, this was a wretched business, was it not? It is a very poor business to go to the house of God to criticize a fellow-mortal who is sincerely trying to do us good. It will not, in the present case, affect the preacher much; for his skin is hardened, and he feels not the tiny strokes of ordinary censure. In no case can ungenerous criticisms do any good; but the pity of it is, that when we earnestly desire to show to you the way of salvation, some of you should hinder us by petty observations upon a faulty mannerism, a slight blunder, a mispronunciation of a word, or an inaccurate accent. Alas, what small things put eternal truth on one side! I do not know, and I should not like to say if I did know, what petty trifles people will carry away, and talk of, after we have been solemnly pleading with them about heaven, and hell, and the judgment-day, and the wrath to come, and the way to escape from it. Was it Carlyle who spoke of the cricket as chirping amid the crack of doom? I am apt to think that many people are like that cricket; they go on with their idle chit-chat when Christ himself is set before them on the cross. Assuredly this is poor work. I am hungry; I come to a banquet; but instead of feasting upon the viands, I begin to criticize the dress of the waiters, abuse the arrangements of the banqueting-hall, and vilify the provisions. I shall go home as hungry as I came; and who will be blamed for it? The best criticism that you can possibly give of your friend’s entertainment is to be hearty in partaking of it. The greatest honour that we can do to Christ Jesus is to feed upon him, to receive him, to trust him, to live upon him. Merely to carp and to question will bring no good to the most clever of you. How can it? It is a pitiful waste of time for yourself, and a trial of temper to others. Yet there are many who, like the scribes and Pharisees, are in this manner “sitting by.”

Now, I do not care to go farther into these different forms of “sitting by”; but no doubt some kindly admire, but do not profit. Hundreds of people are “sitting by” who are attentive hearers and warm friends, and yet have no part nor lot in the matter. They have been more or less regular attendants at this house of prayer for, say twelve, fourteen, fifteen, twenty years, and yet they are not one whit the better. Some go from public worship to the public-house, and yet they would not neglect church or chapel on any account. Many are no better at home for all they have heard: their wives are sorrowful witnesses to that fact. Why, some of you have been prayed for time out of mind, and you have been preached at as well, and still you are “sitting by.” I cannot make out why you come so constantly, and yet profit so little. It would seem to all who knew you a very odd thing if you were seen loafing about a certain shop for an hour and a half one day in the week for twenty years, and yet you never bought a pennyworth of goods. Why do you hang about the gospel shop and yet purchase nothing? On your own showing you are a fool. I do not like using a hard word, still it is used in Scripture for such as you are. He who believes a thing to be so important that he spends one day in the week in hearing about it, and yet does not think it important enough to accept it as a gift, stultifies himself by his own actions. How will you answer for it at the last great day when the Judge shall say, “You believed enough to go and hear about salvation; why did you not believe enough to accept it? You believed enough to quarrel for it; you would stand up for the doctrine of the gospel; and yet you yourself perished in your sin.” What answer will you give, you that are “sitting by”? You will have to give some answer, What will it be? Oh, that you would use a little common-sense about your souls, and would quit the seat of the foolish for the stool of the penitent, and no more be of those who are “sitting by.”

Secondly, let us enquire what was happening while these persons were “sitting by”? They had entered the room where Jesus was preaching, where crowds were listening, where miracles of mercy were being wrought. They were criticizing, carping and cavilling; but what was happening to them all the while?

Well, first, they were incurring responsibility. Sirs, you cannot hear the gospel and refuse it, and yet remain as you were. You are either better or worse after hearing the gospel. It is made to you either a savour of life unto life, or else of death unto death. Remember, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for Bethsaida and Chorazin, who had heard the gospel. The refusal of the gospel is a crowning crime: there is no sin like it. Does not the Word of God say so? This is no gloomy talk of mine. The Lord Jesus taught that the men of Nineveh would condemn the men of Jerusalem because they took warning, and Jerusalem did not. Oh, you that have heard the gospel so long, and have been “sitting by” all the while, what a mountain of guilt rests upon you! How shall you escape? What must become of you after such base ingratitude?

Besides that, they were gathering hardness of heart. Every hour that you listen to the gospel, and bar your heart against it, you are less and less likely to admit it. The bolt that is rusted is hard to move back from its place. The path that has long been trodden by daily traffic has become hard, as though it were paved with stone: hearts that have often been traversed by the gospel become like iron beneath its tread. I fear your consciences have grown hardened by the traffic of the gospel. I know that it is so with many. The Lord forgive them. If I could have a congregation that never heard the gospel before, I should feel more hopeful than I do when I speak to you who have heard it for years. What is now likely to affect you? What fresh arguments can I bring? I can tell you some new story, perhaps, but what of that? You have had too many stories already. It is not so easy a matter to retain your attention now as it once was: the voice has grown familiar, and the manner is stale to you. Can I hope that I shall now reach the hearts at which I have shot so many arrows which have all missed the mark? O God, have mercy upon those who have been “sitting by” so long!

Once again, let me remind you that those who were “sitting by” were obstructing Christ all that they could. There is a something-every preacher has felt it-there is a something in a congregation itself which affects the preacher, even as he affects the congregation. I soon feel when godly men are praying for me, and crying, “O Lord, help him to preach!” I cannot tell you how it is, but so it is, that some congregations freeze me, and others set me on fire. When the doctors of the law and the Pharisees are “sitting by,” they drag us down, and we cannot do many mighty works. If my eye catches the glance of one of these ice-men; if I perceive his wretched indifference, and detect his half-concealed sneer, I am weakened by it. I fancy I hear such folks saying, “We care nothing for what you say. We do not belong to those whom you can influence. We are clad in mail against your weapons.” This chills one to the marrow. Now, this is the tendency of your conduct if you are “sitting by”-you chill the preacher, and in chilling the preacher you do boundless mischief to the congregation. Don’t you know that it was said even of Jesus, “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief”? Even he, as man, was in a measure dependent upon those who surrounded him: when he saw their faith he healed the sick of the palsy; and at another time, when he saw their unbelief, he looked round with indignation. It is a terrible fact, that certain of you may be so acting as to hinder the salvation of others by your indifference to the sacred message. I believe that this is eminently the case with you that are very good people in all but the one thing needful. You do not fear God, and your very goodness works for evil. The example of a rank and rotten profligate will not influence certain minds; for they are disgusted by its grossness, and driven to seek something better. But when young men see an excellent person like you, so moral and amiable, without religion, they gather from your example that godliness is not absolutely needful, and take license to do without it. Thus, you who are “sitting by” may be a curse where you little suspect it: you may be encouraging others in the attempt to live without the Saviour.

Yet let me not finish this head without repeating the remark that we are glad to have these people “sitting by” rather than not coming at all. Being in the way, the Lord may meet with them. If you go where shots are flying you may be wounded one of these days. Better to come and hear the gospel from a low motive than not to come at all. Remember Hugh Latimer’s quaint story when he urged all his hearers to go and hear the gospel. He even praised that sleepless woman who had been taking sleeping medicine, but found that there was no drug strong enough to make her sleep, till at last she said, “If you would take me to the parish church I know that I could go to sleep; for I have slept there every Sunday for many years.” She was taken to that place of rest, and was soon at peace. “Well, well,” said Latimer, “she had better come for sleep than not come at all.” And so I say: even if you come here to sleep, the Lord may arouse you to seek and find the Saviour. Still it is a wretched business-this “sitting by.”

Next, let us enquire what was the cause why these people were “sitting by”? Why did they come to hear Jesus, and yet did not become a part of the really attentive congregation, but were hovering round the skirts of it, and “sitting by”? I would not needlessly offend any of those who have come hither at this time, but let me quietly say a few things which may be applicable to them.

In the first place, in the case of the scribes it was self-conceit which made them sit by. They were divided from the common throng by a sense of superiority. They said, “What have we to do with hearing Jesus of Nazareth, and his message concerning the pardon of sin?” “Why,” they said, “we are highly educated people, and do not need to listen to so plain a preacher. His salvation we do not want, for we are not lost.” Jesus himself said, “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick”: thus indicating that it was their good idea of themselves which kept them back from him. That is the reason why so many sit by: in their own opinion they are quite as good as the best, and are not in need of any great change. They are most respectable people, and they believe that they are also upright and generous. There went a man out of this place one evening who was spoken to by one of our friends, who happened to know him in trade, and had him in good repute. “What! have you been to hear our minister to-night?” The good man answered, “Yes, I am sorry to say I have.” “But,” said our friend, “why are you sorry?” “Why,” he said, “he has turned me inside out, and spoiled my idea of myself. When I went into the Tabernacle I thought I was the best man in Newington, but now I feel that my righteousness is worthless.” “Oh,” said the friend, “that is all right; you will come again, I am sure. The word has come home to you, and shown you the truth: you will get comfort soon.” That friend did come again, and he is here to-night: he takes pleasure in that very truth which turned him inside out; and he comes on purpose that the word of the Lord may search him, and try him, and be to him as a refiner’s fire. He that is most afraid to be turned inside out is the man who most needs to undergo that process. Alas! many will not let the word search them. They say within themselves, “That is good, very good; but it is not for me.” Such are those that sit by; they sit in a corner, out of the wind of the winnowing fan. Do you not see them draw themselves up, and look very solemnly at other people, as if they would say to their neighbour, “There, you take that home! That doctrine is good for you sinners; but the preacher has no reference to me.”

These people were “sitting by” because there was in them no sense of personal need, no perception of their own nakedness which only Christ can cover, no sense of inward hunger which only Jesus can remove. They did not want a Saviour for themselves, though quite willing to hear him preached to others; they did not require mercy for themselves, though pleased that sinners should hear of it. They could see, and therefore needed not that their eyes should be opened. They had all things, and had no poverty to plead. So it always will be in the preaching of the word; those will hear it with gladness who perceive that they want what it presents to them, but others will take no interest in it. Conscious need inclines the ear to hear; and until the Spirit of God works this in us, we shall be deaf as posts to the voice of love, and continue “sitting by.”

There was also about these people a mass of prejudice. Their conservative tendency kept them aloof. Carried a certain distance, this tendency is good, but it may turn a man into a pillar of salt, and prevent his fleeing for his life. Having drunk the old wine, these immovable people do not desire new, because they feel sure that the old is better. Yet if the old wine is sour or musty, and the new wine is sweet and good, it is a pity to prefer the bad to the good. The old intoxicating wine of salvation by human merit, or by ceremonies, is by many preferred to our Lord’s own new wine of the kingdom, namely, justification by his righteousness through faith. “Believe and live” is set aside for “the man that doeth these things shall live by them.” They prefer Sinai to Calvary, their own filthy rags to the Lord’s perfect robe of righteousness. They stick to the old covenant, which is taken away, and cannot endure the everlasting covenant of grace. The prejudice of proud human nature is hard to overcome; men are not willing to search the Scriptures, and see whether they are right or not; but they stick to their inherited falsehoods.

Many are “sitting by” because of resolute unbelief and determined self-confidence. O friends, it is born in us by nature to believe in ourselves. What is that but clear idolatry? It is not till we are born again that we come to believe in Jesus Christ, and so to trust in the living God, and receive a living hope. May the Lord deliver us from that old, good-for-nothing confidence in self, confidence in works, confidence in outward ceremonies, confidence in the flesh! Oh, that we might pour the old and musty wine on the ground, and taste of the new wine, crushed from the cluster by the dying Son of God; the new wine of salvation by grace, through faith, unto the glory of God! Would God that those who are “sitting by” on account of their vainglorious prejudices, may be brought into the marriage feast of grace, and made willing to wear the wedding garment, and honour him who has prepared it! Prejudice is the ruin of thousands. They might be made to see, if they did not think that they saw already; they might be happy in the Lord, if their groundless conceit did not make them to be “sitting by.”

What shall we say of these sitters-by? Just a word by way of forming an estimate of them, and then I will have done with them. Oh, that the Lord himself might deal with them by his Holy Spirit! These sitters-by, these people who do not go in for the truth and faith of the gospel, but hear it, and play with it, and talk about it, and then have done with it, what shall I say of them?

Why, first they seem to me to be wonderfully out of place when you think of the Lord who was preaching. How could they be indifferent in his presence? He was at a white heat, and they were blocks of ice. He was all energy, and they were “sitting by.” He spending and being spent, and they “sitting by.” He engaged all night in prayer with his divine Father, and now coming forth clothed with divine power to heal; and they “sitting by.” Pretending to be doctors and teachers of the people, and therefore under great responsibility, they were yet content to be “sitting by” when Jesus was pouring out his soul. O sirs, none of us ought to be indifferent in the presence of the Christ of God. He is clad with zeal as with a cloak; how can we be lukewarm? He laid down his life for the sheep; how can we live for self! He still lives for his people, and holds not his peace, but by his incessant pleadings he proves his everlasting interest in our cause, and for us to be “sitting by” will be horrible ingratitude! Men who have received great salvation “sitting by” while the Saviour dies; or even men who are in danger of sinking at once to hell carelessly “sitting by” when the gate of mercy is set open before them by the pierced hand of Jesus! Oh, it is sadly strange! Lord, teach this foolish generation wisdom! Let them not still be “sitting by”!

It was equally incongruous also with the condition of the rest of the congregation. See, there is such a crowd around the Lord Jesus that they are wanting to bring in a man who is sick of the palsy, and they cannot get him near. Nobody will make way, they are all so eager to hear and to get a blessing. At last they take the palsied man to the top of the roof; they actually break up the tiling; they let the man down with ropes over the heads of the people; yes, right in amongst the learned lawyers and the proud Pharisees. The pieces of the tiles are falling everywhere, the dust is on the doctors and divines. See how eager, how earnest, how impetuous the people are! and yet these gentlemen are “sitting by” with cold indifference! See them taking out their pocket-books to jot down an expression with which they may find fault! See how they coolly observe little points in what is done! They are not moved, not they! A man is about to be healed who has long been paralyzed, and they treat it as if it were an interesting case in the hospital, around which a company of medical students gather, as to a show. How can they act in this way? Are they made of stone or iron? Common humanity might affect them, one would think; but no, they will not enter into anything that Jesus says or does; they are merely “sitting by.”

It will be an awful thing for some of you to be cast away for ever, and then to remember that you sat next to people that were saved; sat next them at the very time when they heard unto eternal life. How will you bear to know that these people were saved by that powerful sermon which drove even you to your knees, but you shook off the impression, grew careless, and again continued in your sin? This reflection will sting you as doth a serpent when you are past hope, and are driven for ever from the presence of God. This will be as the worm that never dies, when you say to yourself, “I was present when Jesus by his grace renewed men’s hearts. I was present when my companion heard, believed, and was saved; but I wilfully refused to hear, and turned away from the only Saviour.” What shall I say to yonder husband, who will have to remember that she who in this world lay in his bosom, wept for him, told him that she had found a Saviour, and besought him to think of his immortal soul, and turn unto the Lord? You will remember how you steeled your heart against the blessed influence, and refused the holy tears of one you loved so well. Or is it so, that your darling child came home from the Sunday-school weeping on account of sin, and you, the mother who ought to have thanked God for blessing your offspring, ridiculed your child’s repentance? This is “sitting by” in a most horrible way-“sitting by” to scoff and oppose. While others are saved, you are “sitting by.” Why, if I were sick of the palsy to-night, if I were lying here, and I saw the Master healing you who were sick, I think I should at least cry out as best I could, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on me.” I do exhort any of you that are unconverted to take these words out of my mouth, and with your whole heart use them in prayer. Cry, “Lord have mercy upon me. Christ have mercy upon me!”

I had much more to add upon this point, but time admonishes me. Let me in a few sentences speak to some who should not be among those who are “sitting by.” You that feel your soul-sickness will not be of that number. You feel your guilt: you feel your need of Christ: you are broken down to-night: then do not for a moment sit by. Rise, he calleth thee! Press through the crowd to Jesus. Believe in him and live. May his Spirit lead you to do so at once! Before I found the Saviour, I visited nearly every place of worship in the town where I lived; but I did not find full salvation at any one of them. I believe that it was through my own ignorance. In the little Primitive Methodist chapel, when I heard Christ preached, and was bidden to look alone to him, I found rest unto my soul; but the reason why I found him was because his grace had made me know that I wanted him. I do not suppose that the sermon which was made useful to me had anything in it more remarkable than other gospel sermons. The special point was that the Lord had prepared me to receive the gospel message. They say that the water of the Nile is very sweet. We have heard some of our fellow-countrymen assert that a very little of it was too much for them, and that they never wished to drink of it again. There is no use in disputing about tastes, but surely people might agree upon the quality of water. Yet some praise this Nile water to the skies, and others call it muddy stuff. The reason why the water of the Nile is so sweet to Egyptians is that their climate is dry, and the people are thirsty, and other water is scarce. Under a burning sun a drink of water is very refreshing. To the soul that is thirsty after mercy and reconciliation and eternal life, every promise of the Lord is delightful. Nothing puts such a savour and flavour into the gospel as that work of the Holy Spirit, by which we are made to feel our great need of it.

Oh, if you have not found Christ-you that are seeking him-go to every place where Christ is preached till you do find him. If you do not get the heavenly blessing in one place, go to another; do not stop where there is no blessing merely because it is your regular place of assembly. You want bread, and if one baker has not got it, go to another. Seek after the Saviour as men dig for gold or search for diamonds. I have heard of a man who had long attended one of the kirks in Scotland, and as he did not get any good, he went off to listen to certain irregular preaching, and there he found peace with God. The old minister warned him of his wickedness in being away from the kirk, and said, in Scotch, what I must put into English, “Donald, you should not have gone to hear that man; he is not of the old kirk.” “Well,” said Donald, “but I wanted a blessing, and I felt I must go anywhere to get it.” “Well,” said the minister, “Donald, you should have waited at the pool, like the man in the gospels, till the water was stirred.” “Well, sir,” said the man, “but you see that man saw that the water was sometimes stirred, and though he did not get in himself, yet he knew that others stepped in and were healed, and that encouraged him to wait a little longer, in the hope that his turn might yet come. But I have lain at your pool these forty years, and I never saw the water stirred, neither did anybody get healed in it; and so I thought it was time for me to look somewhere else.” Indeed it was. We cannot afford to be lost for the sake of kirks or chapels. O my hearer, do seek the Lord with all your heart; and seek him on and on, till you find him. Do not be a mere sitter-by any longer; but obey the call which bids you draw nigh. Be not content to sit in any pretended house of prayer where prayer is not heard and souls are never saved. Do not let down your bucket into any more dry wells. Go where Jesus is. Traverse all the denominations, and stay not till you can say, “I have found Jesus.” If he is not preached in one place, hasten to another. Keep your ears and your hearts open. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near.” Do not fall into the habit of going to a place because you always did go there, and always mean to go there. Why, some of you have almost grown to your seats, and are as wooden as that which bears you up. O mere sitter-by, I implore you do not remain in this wretched case. May your cry to the Lord be at this moment,

“Give me Christ, or else I die!”

May God help you to make your hearing a reality, your sitting under the gospel a true reception of it!

You that are in great sorrow I do not think it possible that you can be altogether sitters-by! You have been disappointed in love; you have met with a world of trouble, or else you have been the round of amusements, and have seen no end of gaiety, but you are sick of it, and weary of the world and of yourself. You feel that you might as well try to fill your belly with wind as fill your soul with the world’s amusements, and you have come here jaded and nauseated. Your heart is labouring and heavy laden, and you pine for rest. Come and try my Master. He invites you; he entreats you to come. He cries to you “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He means what he says. You have laboured enough for the world, and its wages are not worth the having. Come now to him whose gift is eternal life. May his Holy Spirit lead you to come at once and delay no longer! You are one of those that cannot afford to be “sitting by,” for sin curses you, death threatens you, and eternal wrath pursues you. I know how it will be with you unless grace prevents: you will go home, and the sermon will be over, and the many of you will still be sitters-by, for you will shake off conviction and be careless still. Remember, I have warned you. Will you despise the warning?

A poor fallen woman is here at this time, worn out with her crimes. Does she desire to know the Saviour? Let her confess her sin and forsake it, then she will not be “sitting by.” “There is a broken-hearted youth here who begins to reap the wild oats he has sown. Will he sit by? Does he wish to know how his heart can be changed, his sin forgiven, his soul comforted? Let him arise and go to his father, and no longer be ‘sitting by.’ ”

And so I close with a full and free gospel call. Come and welcome, you that fain would come to Jesus. Come just now, with all your sins about you, and behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. If you want to know what it is to come to him, know that it is to trust him. Go to your chamber, and look up and say, “Jesus, I cannot see thee; but thou art wherever there is a broken heart. Behold, I seek thee; reveal thyself to me. I trust thee to forgive me, and to renew me.” Jesus will not refuse you, for he casts out none that come to him. I said “Go home,” but I will alter that word. Keep your seats, and seek him where you are, and as you are. Before you leave this place, commit yourselves into that dear hand which was pierced for the guilty, and is always ready to grasp a sinner. As the pearlfisher is happy when he finds a handful of pearls, so is Jesus happy when he lays hold on poor sinners, and takes them to be his own. Commit your souls to his keeping. Trust him wholly! Trust him only! Trust him now. To-night escape for your lives, and find refuge in the Rock of Ages. Jesus cries, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” O Lord, lead all these sinners to look to Jesus by thy Holy Spirit for thy mercy sake! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Luke 5:12-26.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-430, 606, 992.