Last Lord’s-day we had for our texts two promises. I trust they were full of comfort to the tried people of God, and to souls in the anguish of conviction. To-day we will consider two precepts, that we may not seem to neglect any part of the Word of God; for the precept is as divine as the promise. Here we have a command given of the Holy Spirit through the wisest of men; and therefore both on the divine and on the human side it is most weighty. I said that Solomon was the wisest of men, and yet he became, in practice, the most foolish. By his folly, he gained a fresh store of experience of the saddest sort, and we trust that he turned to God with a penitent heart, and so became wiser than ever-wiser with a second wisdom which the grace of God had given him, to consecrate his earthly wisdom. He who had been a voluptuous prince became the wise preacher in Israel: let us give our hearts to know the wisdom which he taught.

The words of Solomon to his own son are not only wise, but full of tender anxiety; worthy, therefore, to be set in the highest degree as to value, and to be received with heartiness as the language of fatherly affection.

These verses are found in the Book of Proverbs: let them pass current as proverbs in the church of God, as they did in Israel of old. Let them be “familiar in our mouths as household words.” Let them be often quoted, frequently weighed, and then carried into daily practice. God grant that this particular text may become proverbial in this church from this day forward. May the Holy Ghost impress it on every memory and heart! May it be embodied in all our lives!

If you will look steadily at the text you will see, first, the prescribed course of the godly man: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Secondly, you will note the probable interruption of that course. It occurred in those past ages, and it occurs still: “Let not thine heart envy sinners.” We are often tempted to repine because the wicked prosper: the fear of the Lord within us is disturbed and injured by envious thoughts, which will lead on to murmuring and to distrust of our heavenly Father, unless they be speedily checked. So foolish and ignorant are we, that we lose our walk with God by fretting because of evil-doers. Thirdly, we shall notice, before we close, the helpful consideration, which may enable us to hold on our way, and to cease from fretting about the proud prosperity of the ungodly: “For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”

Oh, for grace to practise what the Spirit of God says with regard to our first point, the prescribed course of the believer-“Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long!” The fear of the Lord is a brief description for true religion. It is an inward condition, betokening hearty submission to our heavenly Father. It consists very much in a holy reverence of God, and a sacred awe of him. This is accompanied by a child-like trust in him, which leads to loving obedience, tender submission, and lowly adoration. It is a filial fear. Not the fear which hath torment; but that which goes with joy, when we “rejoice with trembling.”

We must, first of all, be in the fear of God, before we can remain in it “all the day long.” This can never be our condition, except as the fruit of the new birth. To be in the fear of the Lord, “ye must be born again.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we are taught therein by the Holy Spirit, who is the sole author of all our grace. Where this fear exists, it is the token of eternal life, and it proves the abiding indwelling of the Holy Ghost. “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him.” This holy fear of the living God is the life of God showing itself in the quickened ones.

This fear, according to the text, is for all the day, and for every day: the longest day is not to be too long for our reverence, nor for our obedience. If our days are lengthened until the day of life declines into the evening of old age, still are we to be in the fear of God; yea, as the day grows longer, our holy fear must be deeper.

This is contrary to the habit of those persons who have a religion of show; they are very fine, very holy, very devout, when anybody looks at them; this is rather the love of human approbation than the fear of the Lord. The Pharisee, with a halfpenny in one hand and a trumpet in the other, is a picture of the man who gives an alms only that his praises may be sounded forth. The Pharisee, standing at the corner of the street, saying his prayers, is a picture of the man who never prays in secret, but is very glib in pious assemblies. “Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward.” Show religion is a vain show. Do nothing to be seen of men, or you will ripen into a mere hypocrite.

Neither may we regard godliness as something off the common-an extraordinary thing. Have not a religion of spasms. We have heard of men and women who have been singularly excellent on one occasion, but never again: they blazed out like comets, the wonders of a season, and they disappeared like comets, never to be seen again. Religion produced at high pressure for a supreme occasion is not a healthy growth. We need an ordinary, common-place, every-day godliness, which may be compared to the light of the fixed stars which shineth evermore. Religion must not be thought of as something apart from daily life; it should be the most vital part of our existence. Our praying should be like our breathing, natural and constant; our communion with God should be like our taking of food, a happy and natural privilege. Brethren, it is a great pity when people draw a hard and fast line across their life, dividing it into the sacred and the secular. Say not, “This is religion, and the other is business,” but sanctify all things. Our commonest acts should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, and thus made into sacred deeds. The best of men have the least of jar or change of tone in their lives. When the great Elijah knew that he was to be taken up, what did he do? If you knew that to-night you would be carried away to heaven, you would think of something special with which to quit this earthly scene; and yet the most fitting thing to do would be to continue in your duty, as you would have done if nothing had been revealed to you. It was Elijah’s business to go to the schools of the prophets and instruct the young students; and he went about that business until he took his seat in the chariot of fire. He said to Elisha, “The Lord hath sent me to Bethel.” When he had exhorted the Bethel students he thought of the other college, and said to his attendant, “The Lord hath sent me to Jericho.” He took his journey with as much composure as if he had a lifetime before him, and thus fulfilled his tutorship till the Lord sent him to Jordan, whence he went up by a whirlwind into heaven. What is there better for a man of God than to abide in his calling wherein he glorifies God? That which God has given you to do you should do. That, and nothing else, come what may. If any of you should to-morrow have a revelation that you must die, it would not be wise to go upstairs and sit down, and read, or pray, until the usual day’s work was finished. Go on, good woman, and send the children to school, and cook the dinner, and go about the proper business of the day, and then if you are to die you will have left no ends of life’s web to ravel out. So live that your death shall not be a piece of strange metal soldered on to your life, but part and parcel of all that has gone before. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Living or dying we are the Lord’s, and let us live as such.

Ours must never be a religion that is periodic in its flow, like certain intermittent springs, which flow and ebb, and flow only to ebb again. Beware of the spirit which is in a rapture one hour, and in a rage the next. Beware of serving Christ on Sunday, and Mammon on Monday. Beware of the godliness which varies with the calendar. Every Sunday morning some folks take out their godliness and touch it up, while they are turning the brush round their best hat. Many women, after a fashion, put on the fear of God with their new bonnet. When the Sunday is over, and their best things are put away, they have also put away their best thoughts and their best behaviour. We must have a seven-days’ religion, or else we have none at all. Periodical godliness is perpetual hypocrisy. He that towards Jesus can be enemy and friend by turns is in truth always an enemy. We need a religion which, like the poor, we have always with us; which, like our heart, is always throbbing, and, like our breath, is always moving. Some people have strange notions on this point: they are holy only on holy days, and in holy places. There was a man who was always pious on Good Friday. He showed no token of religion on any other Friday, or indeed on any other day; but on Good Friday nothing would stop him from going to church in the morning, after he had eaten a hot cross bun for breakfast. That day he took the Sacrament, and felt much better: surely he might well enough do so, since on his theory he had taken in grace enough to last him for another year. You and I believe such ideas to be ignorant and superstitious; but we must take heed that we do not err after a similar manner. Every Friday must be a Good Friday to us. May we become so truly gracious that to us every day becomes a holy day; our garments, vestments; our meals, sacraments; our houses, temples; our families, churches; our lives, sacrifices; ourselves kings and priests unto God! May the bells upon our horses be “holiness unto the Lord”! God send us religion of this kind, for this will involve our being “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

Let us practically note the details which are comprised in the exhortation, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” The sun is up, and we awake. May we each one feel, “When I awake I am still with thee.” It is wise to rise in proper time; for drowsiness may waste an hour, and cause us to be behindhand all the day, so that we cannot get into order, and act as those who quietly walk with God. If I am bound to be in the fear of God all the day long, I am bound to begin well, with earnest prayer, and sweet communion with God. On rising, it is as essential to prepare the heart as to wash the face; as necessary to put on Christ as to put on one’s garments. Our first word should be with our heavenly Father. It is good for the soul’s health to begin the day by taking a satisfying draught from the river of the water of life. Very much more depends upon beginnings than some men think. How you go to bed to-night may be determined by your getting up this morning. If you get out of bed on the wrong side, you may keep on the wrong side all the day. If your heart be right in the waking, it will be a help towards its being right till sleeping. Go not forth into a dry world till the morning dew lies on thy branch. Baptize thy heart in devotion ere thou wade into the stream of daily care. See not the face of man until thou hast first seen the face of God. Let thy first thoughts fly heavenward, and let thy first breathings be prayer.

And now we are downstairs, and are off to business, or to labour. As you hurry along the street, think of these words, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Leave not thy God at home: thou needest him most abroad. In mingling with thy fellow-men, be with them, but be not of them, if that would involve thy forgetting thy Lord. That early interview which thou hast had with thy Beloved should perfume thy conversation all the day. A smile from Jesus in the morning will be sunshine all the day. Endeavour, when thou art plying the trowel, or driving the plane, or guiding the plough, or using the needle or the pen, to keep up constant communication with thy Father and thy Lord. Let the telephone between thee and the Eternal never cease from its use: do thou put thine ear to it, and hear what the Lord shall speak to thee; and do thou put thy mouth to it, and ask counsel from the oracle above. Whether you work long hours or short hours, “Be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

But it is time for meals. Be thou in the fear of the Lord at thy table. The soul may be poisoned while the body is being nourished, if we turn the hour of refreshment into an hour of indulgence. Some have been gluttonous, more have been drunken. Do not think of thy table as though it were a hog’s trough, where the animal might gorge to the full; but watch thine appetite, and by holy thanksgiving make thy table to be the Lord’s table. So eat the bread of earth as to eat bread at last in the kingdom of God. So drink that thy head and heart may be in the best condition to serve God. When God feeds thee do not profane the occasion by excess, or defile it by loose conversation.

During the day our business calls us into company. Our associations in labour may not be so choice as we could wish; but he that earns his bread is often thrown where his own will would not lead him. If we were never to deal with ungodly men, it would be necessary for us to go out of the world. He that is in the fear of God all the day long, will watch his own spirit, and language, and actions, that these may be such as becometh the gospel of Christ in whatever society his lot may be cast. Seek not to be a hermit or a monk; but be a man of God among men. When making a bargain, or selling thy goods to customers, be thou in the fear of God. It may be needful to go into the market, or on the exchange; but be in the fear of the Lord amid the throng. It may be, thou wilt seldom be able to speak of that which is most dear to thee, lest thou cast pearls before swine; but thou must abide always under holy and heavenly influence, so as to be always ready to give a reason for the hope which is in thee with meekness and fear. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” though thine ears may be vexed and thy heart grieved with the evil around thee. He that cannot be in the fear of God in London cannot in the country.

The company have now gone, and you are alone; maintain the fear of the Lord in thy solitude. Beware of falling into solitary sin. Certain young men and women, when alone, pull out a wicked novel which they would not like to be seen reading; and others will have their sly nips though they would be reputed very temperate. If a man be right with God he is in his best company when alone; and he seeks therein to honour his God, and not to grieve him. Surely, when I am alone with God, I am bound to use my best manners. Do nothing which you would be afraid to have known. Be in the fear of the Lord when you are so much alone that you have no fear of men.

The evening draws in, the shop is closed, and you have a little time to yourself. Our young people in shops need a rest and a walk. Is this your case? “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” In the evening, as well as in the morning, be true to your Lord. Beware of ill company in the evening! Take care that you never say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me.” “Be thou in the fear of the Lord” when sinners entice thee, and at once refuse any offer which is not pleasing to God.

“Recreation,” says one. Yes, recreation. There are many helpful and healthy recreations which can in moderation be used to advantage; but engage in no pastime which would hinder your continuing in the fear of the Lord. In your recreation forget not your higher recreation wherein you were created anew in Christ Jesus. Our chief rest lies in a change of service for our Lord; our fullest pleasure in fellowship with Jesus.

Night has fallen around us, and we are home with our families: let us not forget to close the day with family prayer and private prayer, as we opened it. Our chamber must see nothing which angels might blush to look upon. Those holy beings come and go where holy ones repose. Angels have a special liking for sleeping saints. Did they not put a ladder from heaven down to the place where Jacob lay? Though he had only a stone for his pillow, the earth for his bed, the hedges for his curtains, and the skies for his canopy, yet God was there, and angels flocked about him. Between God’s throne and the beds of holy men there has long been a much frequented road. Sleep in Jesus every night, so that you may sleep in Jesus at the last. From dawn to midnight “be thou in the fear of the Lord.”

Let us now remember special occasions. All days are not quite the same. Exceptional events will happen, and these are all included in the day. You sustain, perhaps, one day, a great loss, and unexpectedly find yourself far poorer than when you left your bed. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord” when under losses and adversities. When the great waterfloods prevail, and storms of trials sweep over thee, remain in the ark of the fear of the Lord, and thou shalt be as safe as Noah was.

Possibly you may have a wonderful day of success; but be not always gaping for it. Yet your ship may come home; your windfall may drop at your feet. Beyond anything you have expected, a surprising gain may fall into your lap: be not unduly excited, but remain in the fear of the Lord. Take heed that thou be not lifted up with pride, so as to dote upon thy wealth; for then thy God may find it needful to afflict thee out of love to thy soul.

It may happen, during the day, that you are assailed by an unusual temptation. Christian men are well armed against common temptations, but sudden assaults may injure them; therefore, “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long,” and then surprises will not overthrow you. You shall not be afraid of evil tidings, neither shall you be betrayed by evil suggestions, if you are rooted and grounded in the constant fear of the Lord.

During the day, perhaps, you are maliciously provoked. An evil person assails you with envenomed speech; and if you a little lose your temper your adversary takes advantage of your weakness, and becomes more bitter and slanderous. He hurls at you things which ought not to be thought of, much less to be said. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”; “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath”; “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” The adversary knows your tender place, and therefore he says the most atrocious things against God and holy things. Heed him not; but in patience possess your soul, and in the fear of the Lord you will find an armour which his poisoned arrows cannot pierce. “May the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

It may be, that during the day you will have to act in a very difficult business. Common transactions between man and man are easy enough to honest minds; but every now and then a nice point is raised, a point of conscience, a matter not to be decided off-hand: “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Spread the hard case before the Lord. Judge a matter as it will be judged before his bar; and if this be too much for thy judgment, then wait upon God for further light. No man goes astray even in a difficult case, if he is accustomed to cry, like David, “Bring hither the ephod.” This holy Book and the divine Spirit will guide us aright when our best judgment wavers. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

But, alas! you are feeling very unwell; this day will differ from those of activity. You cannot go to business; you have to keep to your bed. Fret not, but “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” If the day has to last through the night because sleep forsakes you, be still with your thoughts soaring toward heaven, your desires quiet in your Father’s bosom, and your mind happy in the sympathy of Christ. To have our whole being bathed and baptized in the Holy Ghost is to find health in sickness, and joy in pain.

It may be, also, that you suffer from a mental sickness in the form of depression of spirit. Things look very dark, and your heart is very heavy. Mourner, “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” When life is like a foggy day-when providence is cloudy and stormy, and you are caught in a hurricane-still “be in the fear of the Lord.” When your soul is exceeding sorrowful, and you are bruised as a cluster trodden in the wine-press, yet cling close to God, and never let go your reverent fear of him. However exceptional and unusual may be your trial, yet vow within your soul, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

I have sketched the matter roughly. Let me now suggest to you excellent reasons for being always in the fear of the Lord. Ought we not to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, since he sees us all the day long? Does the Lord ever take his eye from off us? Doth the keeper of Israel ever slumber? If God were not our God, but only our lawful master, I should say, “Let us not be eye-servants”; but since we cannot escape his all-seeing eye, let us be the more careful how we behave ourselves. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”; for Jehovah, whom thou fearest, sees thee without ceasing.

Remember, also, that sin is equally evil all the day long. Is there an hour when it would be right to disobey God? Is there some interval in which the law of holiness has no force? I trow not. Therefore, never consent to sin. To fear God is always right: to put away the fear of God from before our eyes would be always criminal; therefore, be ever in the fear of God. Remember the strictness of Nehemiah’s integrity, and how he said, “So did not I because of the fear of the Lord.”

Walk in the fear of the Lord at all times, because you always belong to Christ. The blood-mark is always upon you; will you ever belie it? You have been chosen, and you are always chosen; you have been bought with a price, and you are always your Lord’s; you have been called out from the world by the Holy Spirit, and he is always calling you; you have been preserved by sovereign grace, and you are always so preserved: therefore, by the privileges you enjoy, you are bound to abide in the fear of the Lord. How could you lay down your God-given and heaven-honoured character of a child of God? Nay, rather cling for ever to your adoption, and the heritage it secures you.

You can never tell when Satan will attack you, therefore be always in the fear of the Lord. You are in an enemy’s country. Soldiers, be always on the watch! Soldiers, keep in order of fight! You might straggle from the ranks, and begin to lie about in the hedges, and sleep without sentries if you were in your own country; but you are marching through the foeman’s land, where an enemy lurks behind every bush. The fear of the Lord is your sword and shield; never lay it down.

Furthermore, remember that your Lord may come at any hour. Before the word can travel from my lip to your ear Jesus may be here. While you are in business, or on your bed, or in the field, the flaming heavens may proclaim his advent. Stand, therefore, with your loins girt and your lamps trimmed, ready to go in to the supper whenever the Bridegroom comes. Or you may die. As a church we have had a double warning, during the last few days, in the departure of our two beloved elders, Messrs. Hellier and Croker. They have been carried home like shocks of corn, fully ripe. They have departed in peace, and have joyfully entered into rest. We also are on the margin of the dividing stream: our feet are dipped in the waters which wash the river’s brim. We, too, shall soon ford the black torrent. In a moment, suddenly, we may be called away: let every action be such that we would not object to have it quoted as our last action. Let every day be so spent that it might fitly be the close of life on earth. Let our near and approaching end help to keep us “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

If we keep in that state, observe the admirable results! To abide in the fear of the Lord is to dwell safely. To forsake the Lord would be to court danger. In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, but apart from it there is no security. How honourable is such a state! Men ridicule the religion which is not uniform. I heard of a brother who claimed to have long been a teetotaler; but some doubted. When he was asked how long he had been an abstainer, he replied, “Off and on, for twenty years.” You should have seen the significant smile upon all faces. An abstainer off and on! His example did not stand for much. Certain professors are Christians “off and on”; and nobody respects them. Such seed as this will not grow: there is no vitality in it. Constancy is the proof of sincerity. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”: this is to be happy. God has spoiled the believer for being easy in sin. If you are a Christian you will never find happiness in departing from God. I say again, God has spoiled you for such pleasure. Your joy lies in a closer walk with God: your heaven on earth is in communion with the Lord.

If you abide in the fear of the Lord, how useful you will be! Your “off and on” people are worth nothing: nobody is influenced by them. What little good they do, they undo. The abiding man is also the growing man. He that is “in the fear of the Lord all the day long” gets to have more of that fear; and it has more practical power over his life and heart. What a poor life they lead who are alternately zealous and lukewarm! Like Penelope, they weave by day, but unravel by night. They blow hot and cold, and so melt and freeze by turns. They build and then break down, and so are never at rest. Children of God, let your conduct be consistent. Let not your lives be like a draught-board, with as many blacks as whites. Do not be speckled birds; like magpies, more famed for chatter than anything else. Oh, that God would make us white doves! I pray you be not bold one day and cowardly another; be not one day sound in the faith, and the next day on the down-grade. Be not under excitement generous, and in cool blood mean as a miser. Oh, that we might become like our Father in heaven in holiness, and then become like him in immutability, so as to be for ever holy!

From all this let us infer our great need. I think I hear somebody say, “You are cutting out a nice bit of work for us.” Am I? Believe me, I am looking to a stronger hand than yours. To be in the fear of the Lord for a single day is not to be accomplished by unrenewed nature; it is a work of grace. See, then, what great grace you will need for all the days of your life. Go for it, and get it. See how little you can do without the Spirit of God: without his indwelling you will soon cast off all fear of the Lord. Plead the covenant promise, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Depend upon God for everything; and as you know that salvation is of faith that it might be by grace, exercise much faith towards God. Believe that he can make you to be in his fear all the day long. “According to your faith, be it unto you.” Believe holiness to be possible; seek after it, and possess it. Faith, as it is the channel of grace, must always be associated with truth. True faith lives on truth. If you give up the doctrines of the gospel, you will not be in the fear of God at all; and if you begin to doubt them, you will not be “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” Get solid truth for the foundation of your faith, and let your firm faith bring you daily grace, that you may manifestly be always in the fear of the Lord.

Now I have rightly taken up the most of my time with the principal topic, and we will only have a word or two upon the next theme. Let us consider the probable interruption. It has happened to godly men in all ages to see the wicked prosper; and they have been staggered by the sight. You see a man who has no conscience, making money in your trade, while you make none. Sometimes you think that your conscientiousness hinders you; and I hope it is nothing else. You see another person scheming and cheating: to him honesty is mere policy, and Sabbath-labour is no difficulty; for the Word of God is nothing to him. You cannot do as he does, and therefore you do not seem to get on as he does. Be it so: but let not his prosperity grieve you. There is something better to live for than mere money-making. If your life pleases God, let it please you. Never envy the ungodly. Suppose God allows them to succeed-what then? You should no more envy them than you envy fat bullocks the ribbons which adorn them at the show. They are ready for the slaughter. Do you wish yourself in their place? The fate of the prosperous sinner is one to be dreaded: he is set on high to be cast down.

Do not even in your wish deprive the ungodly of their transient happiness. Their present prosperity is the only heaven they will ever know. Let them have as much of it as they can. I have heard of a wife who treated her unkind and ungodly husband with great gentleness for this very reason. She said, “I have prayed for him, and entreated him to think about his soul; but at last I have come to fear that he will die in his sins, and therefore I have made up my mind that I will make him as happy as I can in this life. I tremble to think of what his misery must be in the world to come, and therefore I will make him happy now.” O men in your senses, surely you will not grudge poor swine their husks and swill! Nay, fill the trough, and let the creature feed; for it has neither part nor lot in a higher life. Believer, take thou thy bitter cup and drink it without complaining; for an hour with thy God will be a hundredfold recompense for a life of trial.

One is the more tried because these men are very apt to boast. They crow over the suffering believer, saying, “What comes of your religion? You are worse off than I am. See how splendidly I get on without God!” Care nothing for their boasting; it will end so soon. Their tongue walketh through the earth, but it only utters vanity.

It is galling to see the enemies of God triumphant. Their policy for a time beats the plain protest of the lover of truth. Their deceit baffles the plain man. The lovers of error outnumber the men of God. Such men tread on creeds and trust-deeds and every other legal protection of honest people. What care they? They despise the old-fashioned folk whom they oppress. Remember Haman, in the Book of Esther, and note how glorious he was till he was hung up on the gallows.

There is no real cause for envying the wicked; for their present is danger, their future is doom. I see them now on yonder island, sporting, dancing, feasting merrily. I am standing as on a bare rock, and I might well envy them their island of roses and lilies; but as I watch I see that their fairy island is gradually sinking to destruction. The ocean is rising all around; the waves are carrying away the shores: even while they dance the floods advance. Lo, yonder is one infatuated wretch sinking amidst the devouring flood. The rest continue at their play; but it cannot last much longer. They will soon be gone. Let me stand on my lone rock, rather than sink amid their fleeting luxury. Let me abide in safety rather than dance where danger is all around.

Ay, dear friends, if you envy the wicked it will do you serious harm. Envy helps in no way, but it hinders in many ways. If you envy the wicked you may soon wish to be like them. If you do so wish, you are like them now! He that would be willing to be wicked in order to prosper, is wicked already. He who says, “I should like to do as they do, that I might grow rich as they do”; why, he is a man that has his price, and would sell his soul if he could meet a purchaser. No, not for all the world would we share the lot of unbelievers. We would sit in the gate with Mordecai sooner than feast with the king with Haman. God help us, dear friends, that we may not be disturbed by seeing the prosperity of the wicked.

We close with the helpful consideration. The text says, “For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.”

First, then, there is an end of this life. These things are not for ever: on the contrary, all that we see is a dissolving view. Surely, every man walketh in a vain show: even as a show it is vain. You talk of spiritual things as though they were shadows; but in very truth these are the only substance. Temporal things are as the mirage of the desert. The things about us are such stuff as dreams are made of; and when we truly awake we shall despise their image. In all wealth and honour there are a worm and a moth. Think of the sinner’s end, and you will no longer be troubled when he spreads himself like a green bay tree.

Next, there is an end of the worldling’s prosperity. He makes his money. What then? He makes more. What then? He makes more. What then? He dies; and there is a little notice in the newspaper which says that he died worth so much; which, being interpreted, means that he was taken away from so much which he never possessed, but guarded for his heir. There is an end in death, and after death the judgment; “for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” What an end will that be! The sinner may live as carelessly as he pleases, but he must answer for it at the judgment-seat of Christ. Loud may be his laughter, sarcastic and bitter may be his criticisms upon religion; but there is an end; and when the death-sweat beads his brow, he will lower his key, and need help from that very gospel which he criticized. “There is an end.” Let us not spend our lives for that which hath an end: an immortal soul should seek immortal joys.

Dear friends, to you there is an end in quite another sense, God has an end in your present trouble and exercise. Your difficulties and trials are sent as messengers from God with gracious design. “Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long”; for every part of the day hath its tendency to work out your spiritual education, your preparation for the heaven to come. In everything that happens to you your heavenly Father has an end. The arrows of calamity are aimed at your sins. Your bitter cups are meant to purify the inward parts of the soul. Fret not, but trust. There is an old proverb, that you should never let children and fools see half-finished works: even so, the work of God in providence cannot be judged of by such poor children as we are; for we cannot see to the end of the Lord’s design. My brethren, when we see the end from the beginning, and behold God’s work complete, we shall have a very different view of things from what we have now, while the work is still proceeding.

Lastly, whilst there is an end to the wicked, there will be no failure to your expectation. What are you expecting? That God will keep his promise? And so he will. That God will give you peace in the end? And so he will. That he will raise you from the dead, and set you in heavenly places with Christ? And so he will. And that you shall be for ever with the Lord, and he will grant you glory and bliss? And so he will. “Your expectation shall not be cut off.” Every Christian is a man of great expectations, and none of them will fail. Let him cultivate his hope, and enlarge its scope; for the hopes which are built on Jesus and his grace will never disappoint us. In our case the birds in the bush are better birds than those in the hand; and they are quite as sure. The promise of God is in itself a possession, and our expectation of it is in itself an enjoyment.

I have done, dear friends. May the Holy Spirit speak these things home to your hearts! Christian people ought to be exceedingly glad; for if they have but a small estate, they have it on an endless tenure. The worldling may have a large house, but he has it only upon a short lease: he will have nothing soon. Just now there is a great noise made about leaseholds falling in. Every ungodly man may have his life-lease run out to-morrow! But the believer has a freehold. What he has is his without reserve. “Their inheritance shall be for ever.” By faith grasp the eternal. Treasure the spiritual. Rejoice in God, and “be in the fear of the Lord all the day long.” God grant you this in his great grace, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 37.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-917, 37, 703.

HOLY LONGINGS

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, June 29th, 1890, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”-Psalm 119:131, 132, 133.

Last Lord’s-day we spoke about being in the fear of God all the day long, and I am afraid some thought, “The pastor has set a very high standard before us; not too high, but still far above what we have been able to reach.” I know that many desires after holiness were excited, and many longings of heart went up to heaven. It ought to be so as soon as the truth is received into the mind. Note the context: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple”; and then the next step is intensity of desire: “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.” When we have light enough to see what holiness is, and how desirable it is, then we should hunger and thirst after it. To be holy is to go to the University; to have a desire for it is to go to a preparatory school for children, and to labour and agonize for it is to go to the grammar school. I want to teach the young children, and get them ready for that grammar school, that their course may be clear for the university of actual holiness of life. I shall not take you to the grammar school of strong desire with the view of your stopping there, but that I may coach you up, by God’s good Spirit, for the university of attainment, where you will be “in the fear of the Lord all the day long.”

Here we have David desiring, praying, pleading, and setting forth very clearly what he pants after. May you and I have the same burning desires: may we pant; may we thirst; and at the same time may we clearly know what we are panting for, so that we may the more intelligently pursue it, and thus go the nearer way to obtain it! May the Holy Spirit, the author of holiness, help us in our meditations upon these three verses!

In the first verse you have the Psalmist longing intently after holiness: “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.” In the next verse you have David pleading fervently for the thing that he desired, praying in this fashion, “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” In the third verse you have the same man of God enlarging intelligently upon what it was that he pleaded for, giving both the positive and the negative side of it: “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

First, then, we will think of longing ardently after holiness: “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.”

Observe carefully that the man of God longed for the Lord’s commandments. This cannot mean anything else than that he longed to know them, longed to keep them, longed to teach them, longed to bring all around him into obedience to them. Many religious people long after the promises, and they do well; but they must not forget to have an equal longing for the commandments. It is a sad sign when a man cannot bear to hear of the precepts, but must always have the preacher touching the string of privileges. To the renewed man it is a privilege to receive a command from the Lord whom he serves, and a great grace to have the will and the power to obey it. To us grace means a power which sways us, as well as a favour which distinguishes us. To me the greatest privilege in all the world would be perfect holiness. If I had my choice of all the blessings I can conceive of, I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or, in one word, holiness. I do not think I should have made Solomon’s choice of “wisdom,” unless it included wisdom of moral and spiritual character, and that is holiness. I said to a young girl the other day, “Are you perfect?” She answered that it was her greatest desire to be so, though she had not yet attained it. Just so; and that hallowed desire shows which way the heart is going. No unrenewed heart ever sighed and cried after holiness. A mere passing wish is of but little worth: I am speaking of the intense and continual desire of the heart. We must strive after holiness with an agony of desire. Oh, to be rid of every sin! What is that but heaven? Oh, to clean escape from every tendency to it, and from every trace of it! This would be bliss. What more of happiness could we desire than to fulfil that word of our Lord-“Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”? Are you conscious of great longings to escape from sin? Do you feel far less dread of hell than of sin? Is sin the worst of hells to you? Is it horrible, terrible, killing? Would it be the heaviest punishment that could be laid upon you if the Great Judge should say, “You are filthy; be filthy still. You are unholy; be unholy still”? It would certainly be the worst of deaths to some of us. The deepest prayer of our hearts is to be delivered from that inbred sin which is the tinder in which the sparks of temptation find fuel. We long to be delivered from that law in our members which brings us into captivity to sin. Oh, that we could be like him who said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me”! How wonderful! “Nothing in me”! Alas! the evil prince finds very much of his own in most of us. One of the best men I ever knew said, at eighty years of age, “I find the old man is not dead yet.” Our old man is crucified, but he is long a-dying. He is not dead when we think he is. You may live to be very old; but you will have need still to watch against the carnal nature, which remains even in the regenerate. I heard one speak about feeling angry when provoked, and he said “he felt a bone of the old man moving.” Alas! there is more than a bone of it in us, there is the whole body of this death still left; and very palpable, very substantial it does seem to be at times, so that we are forced to cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” We need deliverance, not from the bones of it, but from the very body of it which still plagues us. In those longings you see which way the stream of your heart is flowing. These longings of your spirit that you may fully observe the divine commandments-these desires, I say, show that you have a clean heart and a right spirit, a heart which would do good, though evil is present with you. The tide is running in the right way, though the wind may be blowing against it. Being born of God, you do not commit sin as the tenor of your life; but you strive after that which is pure and good.

Now, observe that the Psalmist, having told us what he longed for, shows the strength of those desires; for he had been so eager in his pursuit of holiness that he had lost his breath. He could not find among men a good figure to describe himself, and so he looked among animals, and he selected the panting stag as his crest. The hart has been hunted over hill and dale; the dogs have long been close behind it; it has fled, as with the wings of a swift eagle, from their murderous teeth. For a moment it has eluded them. It pauses; it longs to bathe itself in the water-brook. It is hot, and weary, and thirsty, and therefore opens wide its mouth. See how it pants! Mark how its breast heaves and its whole body palpitates while it tries to regain its breath! The poor hunted thing is exhausted with its desperate efforts. Have not we also at times felt spent in the struggle against sin? We have not yet resisted unto blood; but we have said to ourselves, “What more can we do? This fierce temptation returns: we may yet be overthrown by it. Oh, that we could take to ourselves wings and fly away! Woe is unto us, for we have no strength.” You were like a man who is out of breath: you were striving beyond yourself after “life more abundantly.” Accursed is that man who has exhausted body and mind in the race of sin: from that curse he can only escape by looking to Jesus, who was made a curse for us. But blessed is that man who has spent all the energy of his being in following after righteousness; for out of weakness he shall be made strong. When he cries, “My foot slippeth,” the mercy of the Lord shall hold him up. When, like David in the battle with the giant, he waxes faint, the Lord shall cover his head. Meanwhile he opens his mouth, and pants out his weariness; but the Lord is with him, and he will preserve him alive. Are you ready to faint this morning? Underneath are the everlasting arms. He that faints in such a pursuit as this, shall swoon away upon the bosom of his Lord. Be of good comfort.

See, next, how resolved he was. He says, “I opened my mouth, and panted.” He is eager to go onward. Worn out by previous effort, he does not lie down to die, but is determined to be still on the move. Give up the struggle? Never! My brethren, we have drawn the sword against the Canaanites of sin, and we will never sheathe it until the last of them is slain. It may be a life-long battle, but we will never make truce or treaty with sin. Woe unto him who says of holiness, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” We must never degrade ourselves by saying, “This form of sin cannot be conquered, for it is constitutional: as it was bred in my bone it must be allowed to come out in my flesh.” Brethren, we allow no excuse for ourselves. We will not plead for the life of a single sin.

“Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die;

My heart has so decreed:

Nor will I spare the guilty things

That made my Saviour bleed.”

Oh, for the holy fury of a sanctified iconoclast, who will spare nothing which is opposed to God! We are called to break in pieces every idol, to cast down every grove, and to overthrow every altar; that Jehovah may be God alone in the land. I charge you, never temporize with sin: abhor the idea of compromise with error and with evil. If you say, “I will only sin so far,” you might as well say, “I will only take so much poison, or stab myself a few inches deep.” Alas! you have given up the fight when you have come to terms with the foe. A hot temper may be natural, but it must be conquered. A niggardly spirit may be inborn, but it must be cast out. A proud mind may be a family heritage, but it must be laid low. Certain weeds may be indigenous to the soil of your nature, and therefore it may be doubly difficult to extirpate them; but the work must be done. Keep the hoe going; never cease from the determination to uproot the last of them. Even though you open your mouth and pant with weariness, yet keep your face set like a flint towards holiness, and let your case be that of one who is “faint, yet pursuing.”

Note that the follower after holiness seeks renewed strength. Why does he open his mouth and pant? Is it not to get more air, to fill his lungs again, to cool his blood, and to be ready to renew his running? When you have an hour’s retirement from the battle against sin, spend it in furbishing your shield, and sharpening your sword; for another assault will soon be upon you. We can become strong again. “He giveth more grace.” We are never, for a moment, to suppose that we have exhausted the strength of God when we have exhausted our own. We ought to be all the more earnest to draw upon divine all-sufficiency. We are to be like that fabled giant, whom Hercules could not overcome for a long while, because he was a child of the earth, and every time he was thrown down he touched his mother earth, and rose with fresh strength. Hercules had to hold him aloft in his arms, and there strangle him. Now, whenever you are thrown down and touch your God in your faintness and weakness, you will find that he restoreth your soul: “To them that have no might he increaseth strength.” When cast down we cry, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise.” “When I am weak, then am I strong.” May we realize the truth of that Christian paradox! Brethren, we can overcome sin in the power of the Lord. The Canaanites have chariots of iron, but Christ has a rod of iron, with which he can break them in pieces. Sin is strong, but grace is stronger. Satan is wise, but God is all-wise. The Lord is on our side, therefore let us open our mouth wide and take in another draught of heaven’s reviving air; let us bathe in the water of life; let us drink from the smitten rock, and in thus waiting upon the Lord we shall renew our strength. Hath he not said, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”? When our desires are after the best things, we may expect the Lord to meet with us, and grant us times of refreshing from his presence. In remembrance of these visitations, and the time of intense desire which preceded them, we can say, “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.”

The Psalmist was dissatisfied with his attainments. Brethren, may we never be content with ourselves. We are satisfied with the Word of God; we are satisfied with the gospel of God; we are satisfied with the favour of God; we are satisfied with the Christ of God; but we shall never be satisfied with our own personal condition till we wake up in the likeness of the First-born Son. Satisfaction with self is the death of progress. He that is not content with his place in the race will push forward; but he that is proud of his position in the running will soon flag and fall behind. Like the man on the bicycle, we must keep going; to stop is to drop. On! On! On! You are only safe as the wheel spins round, and you throw the miles behind you. My text is not the utterance of one who is sitting in his arm-chair, with the motto on the wall behind him, “Rest and be thankful.” As for the man who feels as the Psalmist did, his mind is far away, in the land beyond him. His opened mouth and panting heart betoken desires which are not as yet fulfilled.

Yet, let no tinge of discouragement mingle with your dissatisfaction: this man is hopeful of better things. He opens his mouth because he looks for something to fill it; he pants because he believes in water-brooks which will relieve his thirst. Wise men will only pant for that which it is possible to attain. We are not Quixotical; we have set out on no romantic expedition. We do not shoot at the moon, nor aim at an absurd ideal. We are not even rash, like those who seek the North Pole, and risk their lives for a dream. Brethren, God can make us holy. Few of us have any adequate idea of what we may become even here by divine grace. The possibilities of sanctification are seldom explored; but the mass of professors are content with small things in this direction. When a man asks me, “Can I be perfect?” and looks as if he would lead me into a debate upon the subject, I try to find out what manner of man he is before I answer him. If he is worldly, given to appetite, an angry man, a hard man, a proud man, or a lover of his own supremacy, I smile at the question as coming from him. I picture to myself a man who slept under a hedge last night, whose pockets are full of emptiness, whose clothes would disgrace a rag-bag, out at elbows, and beggarly; and this gentleman wishes to discuss with me the question-Is great wealth attainable by an ordinary working man? I cannot see what the question has to do with him. He of the rag-bag says, “You know, sir, we cannot all acquire ten thousand a year.” “No, my dear fellow, it would seem that we cannot all save ten pence, much less ten thousand a year. Had you not better get a pair of shoes for your feet before you talk about thousands? These are great words from a very little man.” When you are not doing what you might do, why speculate about what is possible or impossible? When a man has not enough grace to make change for a sixpence, he may waive all question about the millions of spiritual perfection. Do you cry, “Can I be perfect”? I answer, leave that question until you are much further on the way to it than you are now. Do not be distressed by the fear that you may by accident become better than you should be. I will insure against that calamity at a very low rate. Have faith in God, and say, in his name, “If perfect holiness be possible, I will have it: if it can be reached on earth, I will reach it.” All that the Spirit of God can make out of such a poor sinner as I am it is my desire that he should make. I gladly submit myself, and all that I have, to his gracious operation. Brethren, do you not say the same? I would like to have a very dissatisfied congregation at this time: I wish that everybody here would go out of this Tabernacle grumbling at himself. I would like to hear each one say, “It will not do: I must get out of this; I must rise to a higher condition: I must be more Christ-like. I must have less and less of self.” Brethren, may we be burning with an insatiable desire to be holy; and may we say with the inspired penman, “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.”

Desire, where it is real, will soon embody itself in prayer. Hence we find the Psalmist pleading fervently for the holiness he desired. Here are his breathings: “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.”

You see, dear friends, he believes in God’s power to bless him, and hence he turns to him, and cries, “Look thou upon me.” Is that all? Is a look sufficient? Hearken to me, and I will show you that there is much in a look. Is it not written, “Look unto me, and be ye saved”?-that is our look to God. If our looking to God saves us, what will not God’s looking at us do? If there is so much power received by the eye of faith, how much will be given by the glance of love from God? Think not little of a look from God. A look-only a look! Ay, but it is from him. Remember what a look from Christ did for Peter. He did but look on him, and swearing Peter turned to weeping Peter in a moment. Great sinners may be grateful for a look, for it is more than they deserve. Great saints may rejoice in a look; for it means much when the eye which looks is the eye of Omnipotent Love. “Look thou upon me.” The favour of God is a choice means of sanctification. While affliction is greatly used of God to cleanse the heart, yet a very noble, soul-filling sense of the love of God is the truest sanctifier in the hand of the Holy Spirit. If you know that God loves you with an everlasting love, you will love the Lord, and hate every false way. If you walk in the light of his countenance, you will walk in the way of his commandments. If God’s love is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, like sweet perfume, your life will be fragrant with it. It will become natural for you to please him who loves you infinitely and immutably. Blessed is that man upon whom God looks; I mean, looks with an eye of favourable regard. Lord, look on me, and say, by that look, “I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine”; and this will cause me to keep in thy way! That is what the Psalmist is here praying for. The Lord can sanctify us with a look of love. His choice makes us choice: his love fills us with love.

Observe that the pleader appeals to mercy. Let me draw your attention to the text, “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me.” To be delivered from the power of sin is the greatest of mercies. Sin is a misery from which we can only be saved by mercy. “Be merciful unto me.” We have no claim upon the Lord by way of merit; our appeal is to his sovereign grace. We have no rights-these we forfeited by our treason against our King. We plead, as the courts say, “in formâ pauperis,” or as the poor man seeks help from pity. Our appeal is ad misericordiam-to mercy and compassion. When you come before God in prayer, seeking sanctification, base your request upon his mercy-“Lord, thou hast done much for me; do still more, and make me holy. I have not profited by thy discipline as I ought to have done; but deal with me in patience. I am poor material for the potter’s skill; but exercise thy long-suffering, and bear with me, and go on with thy work of grace until thou hast made me a vessel fit for thy use.” It is truest, wisest, safest, for us to appeal to mercy. The best of saints are sinners still, and sinners always need mercy.

Then he pleads as one who loves God. He asks God to deal with him, saying, “As thou usest to do unto those that love thy name”-implying that he is one of them. Come, dear friends, are you of the number of the lovers of the Lord? Do you love God’s name?-that is to say, his character and his revealed will? “Ay, that I do,” cries one, “God is my exceeding joy, and I delight in his law after the inward man. His holiness was once terrible to me, but now I admire it, and delight in it. Oh, that I were a partaker of it to the full!” You see the man’s character by the way in which his heart takes its pleasure. If any man truly loves God he will grow like God. The revealed character of God is to some of us a joy for ever; and this is a sure mark of grace. We are not what we ought to be; we are not what we want to be; we are not what we hope to be; we are not what we shall be; but we do love the name of the Lord, and this is the root of the matter. We shall be like him, for we love him. Thus the very fact that the Lord has filled us with love to himself, is a plea for further grace to keep his commandments.

The Psalmist employs the grand plea of use and wont; for, says he, “As thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” Use and wont generally have great weight in a court of law. A friend said to me, “How will such a suit go? The case has never been before a court until now?” I answered, “Are you sure that what was done is according to universal and long-continued custom? for, if so, though there be no law, the custom of the trade will stand.” Custom among men reaching far back holds good in court; how much shall the custom of the eternally unchanging God decide his future acts! The Psalmist pleads the Lord’s own custom; and this is a grand plea with him, because he is unchanging. Whatever he has done he will do; and his having done it is a pledge that he will do it again, unless there is any declaration to the contrary. The Psalmist seems to say, “Thou art in the habit of helping those that love thy name; Lord, help me. It is the way of thee to sanctify thy people; Lord, sanctify me. When saints desire to be holy, thou art accustomed to grant their desires; Lord, grant mine, for I have the same desires.” Is not this a good plea-“Be merciful to me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name”? If you think it a good plea, urge it at the throne.

This involves another fact: he joyfully accepts God’s method. When you cry to God to help you in your overcoming of sin, you must consent that he shall do it in his own way. Now, if it be his will that sanctification should involve chastisement, are you willing to take it? “Oh, yes!” say you, “Lord, do unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name; and if it be written, ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,’ Lord, rebuke and chasten me, so long as thou dost but love me.” We kiss the rod, because the Father who uses it deigns to kiss us. We assent to the processes of grace that we may enjoy the results of grace. It may so happen that if God sanctifies you, he may have to grind you very small: cheerfully yield yourself to the mill. If this is the way in which he deals with those that love his name, do not desire any different treatment. As the result, you may become a butt for the ridicule of ungodly men; but of this do not complain; for this has frequently happened unto those that love his name. God sanctifies his people, but not without their own effort in that direction: be you willing to make the effort too. Say, “Lord, I will breakfast with thy children, I will dine with thy children, I will sup with thy children, and I will go to bed with thy children, hoping to rise with thy children. Lord, take me into thy house, and treat me, not as a stranger or a guest, but as a child. I do not ask for the best bedroom, nor to have a special feast made for me; but I would share the daily bread of thy little ones. If thou treatest thy children so-and-so, treat me the same, and I will be grateful. I do not ask to go to heaven without enduring tribulation on the road. I would not pray to be exempted from the general description-‘These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ” We would not have less than the family of love, and we cannot desire more. It is enough for a sheep to be fed with the flock, for a child to fare like the rest of the family. Do you see where we have come to? Our prayer is that God would make us holy-holy through his favour, holy through his own gracious working; but we leave methods in God’s hands: let him take his own way, his tried way, his ordinary way, his fixed way; only let him deal mercifully with us as he uses to do unto those that love his name. Let no one of us demand exemption from the customary tests and trials.

“Must I be carried to the skies

On flowery beds of ease;

While others fought to win the prize,

And sail’d through bloody seas?”

Do you expect to be crowned without warfare? to be rewarded without labour? You expect what you will never have. Give up such idle dreams, and plead the prayer of my text: “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.”

I thank you for your deep attention: it is greatly helpful to me in my feeble state. Will you bear with me while I conduct you to the third head, which is this: we see the Psalmist enlarging intelligently upon the favour he seeks. It is a good thing to come before the Lord with a prepared prayer. “A prepared prayer!” cries one. “Would you have us write out our prayers and learn them?” I did not say, or even think of such a thing; but for a man to drop on his knees and to imagine that he can at once pray acceptably without a preparatory thought, is for him to deceive himself. The best prayer is when a man waits a little and considers, “What do I want?” If I had an invitation to visit the Queen, and was told that I might ask whatever I pleased of her Majesty, I should prepare my request. If I wished to make the most of the interview, I should reflect, and set my petition in order. I might ask amiss; I might ask for something inconsistent, or something unfit for royalty to bestow; I should therefore turn my prayer over. When you go before God, it is well to know what you are in need of. Our older brethren used to say in prayer, “We would not rush into thy presence as the unthinking horse rushes into the battle.” I suppose they would not; for, as a rule, they did not make much of a rush at anything. I do not wish to quote the old-fashioned remark so as to revive it, for I have often wished that the old horse had been put into an omnibus, and worked to death. Horses are not expected to think, and therefore the term, an unthinking horse, was needless. Still, there is something in what the expression meant: we must not go before God without thought and reverent preparedness of heart and mind.

Now, let us see how the Psalmist puts it. His cry is for holiness, and he describes it as being ruled by the word of God. “Order my steps in thy word.” The different sects have differing ideas of holiness, but the reality of holiness is only one. It is this-“Order my steps in thy word.” If we believe God’s Word we are orthodox; if we practise it we are holy. This Book is the great umpire as to conduct, and not the changing moral sentiment of passing generations. Pray God to order your life according to his Word. To this Word we must be conformed. This is our copy to write by: this is the image to which we must be modelled.

He would have holiness in every step of his life-“Order my steps in thy word.” It is not, “Lord, order my journey as a whole,” but, “Order my steps.” We lose a great deal by lumping things: in the matter of holiness detail is all-important. Brethren, I would not only preach a holy sermon, but I desire that every word may be a holy word, every sentence a right sentence. As you believe in verbal inspiration for the Bible, so pray for verbal guidance in your speech, and minute direction in your actions. The whole book of life will be excellent when every line and every letter is ordered according to the Word of the Lord. When we are careless as to the parts we spoil the whole.

Notice that he would have every step ordered. “Order my steps.” We wish to put the right foot foremost; but the right foot to move may not always be that which is called the right. The left foot may sometimes be the right, and we must not take things for granted. We wish to put down our right foot in the right place, at the right time, with the right degree of force, and turned in the right direction. A great deal of holiness depends upon order, punctuality, and proportion. If order is not heaven’s first law, it is certainly one of its laws; and proportion is another. Some men’s lives are out of perspective. Do you remember Hogarth’s caricature of a picture without perspective, wherein a man appears to be fishing in a river, but is really standing far away from it; a sparrow in a tree looks like a huge eagle, and a man on the top of a hill is borrowing a light from a candle held out of the window of a house down below on the other side of the river. Without perspective, good drawing is impossible; and without proportion a complete life is impossible. A man may be, in many points, a good man; you may say of him, bit by bit, “Yes, that is good, and that is good”; and yet he may have so much of one virtue, that it may become a vice, and he may have so little of another virtue that it may be a grave defect. We can never attain to the right proportion of the virtues unless the Lord himself arranges them in order for us. Do not tell me it is easy to be holy: you want not only the different graces, but all these in order due and measure fit. O Lord, help us! Order our steps.

We remark that he would have every step full of God: he would have each one ordered of the Lord. He would receive his strength, his motives, his guiding influences direct from the Lord: “Order my steps in thy word.” Lord, when I put my foot down there, may it be at thine order; and when I move it to another place, may it still be at thy command. Whether here or there, may I only step where thou dost appoint. Let me go nowhere apart from thy divine guidance and command. “Well,” cries one, “this is difficult.” But, my brother, although obedience may not be easy it is free from the far greater difficulties which accompany self-will. A child who will do nothing but what his father commands does not find his course difficult; the difficulty comes in when he wants to follow his own will, and to have his own way. You cannot serve God and self: if you try it, the mixture is nauseous and injurious. Say, “Lord, I would consult thee about everything I think, or say, or do; for then that which I do will not have to be undone, that which I say will not be wished unsaid, and that which I think will not have to be wept over. ‘Order my steps in thy word.’ Put me under orders, keep me under orders, and never let me escape thine orders.”

Observe that the last part of the verses is the negative way of describing holiness: “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” He would be wholly delivered from the tyranny of sin. Many men are violent against one sin; but the true saint abhors all sin. You are a teetotaler; I am very glad to hear it: you will not allow the sin of drunkenness to have dominion over you. But are you selfish and ungenerous? Have you learned habits of strict economy in regard to religious donations, so that you always give a penny where you ought to give a pound? What have you done? You have only changed your idols. You have dethroned one usurper to set up another. If you were once profane, and are now hypocritical, you have only changed iniquities. It is a very curious thing how one sin feeds on another: the death of profligacy may be the resurrection of greed; the flight of pride may be the advent of shameless folly. The man who was lewd, riotous, brawling, and irreligious has killed those sins, and on their graves he has sown a handful of a poisonous weed called pride, and it flourishes amazingly. It may be London pride, country pride, or English pride, or American pride; but it is rare stuff to grow, and to grow over the rotting carcases of other sins. Unbelief may dethrone superstition, but its own reign may be no real improvement upon that of credulity. If you only throw down Baal to set up Ashtaroth, what progress have you made towards God? Little does it signify which of the false gods is set up in the temple of Jehovah, for he hates them all. The right prayer is, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Some sins are of respectable repute, and other sins are disreputable among men; but to a child of God every sin is loathsome. Sins are all what Bunyan calls Diabolonians, and not one of them must be suffered to live in the town of Mansoul. “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” I can see the throne set up within the heart of man. Who shall sit on it? It cannot be empty; who shall fill it? This sin, that sin, or the other? Nay, Lord, help me to keep every intruder out of it. Whether he come as an angel of light, or in his true character as the devil, help me to treat everyone as an enemy that would seek to supplant thee in thy dominion over me. Oh, that God may reign over us from morn to eve, through every day of every week of every year!

“Let not any iniquity have dominion over me,” is a prayer against the reign of sin. Sin will attack us, but sin shall not subdue us; for it is written, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” You may put up “Trespassers, beware!” But the trespassers will come, do what you may; still, they shall not be allowed to acquire a right of way through our nature. If a bird flies over our head, we cannot help it; but we will not let it make its nest in our hair. So a temptation may pass by us, an evil imagination may flit over the mind; but we will not invite evil, nor patiently endure it, nor allow it to lodge in our souls. Our bosom’s throne is for the King of kings, Jesus, the Bridegroom of our hearts.

This is our prayer: “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” I fear that many professors have never understood this prayer. One man is a splendid man for a prayer-meeting, a fine man for a Bible-class; but at home he is a tyrant to his wife and children. Is not this a great evil under the sun? Another man is stern and honest, and he inveighs with all his might against every form of evil, but he is hard even to cruelty with all who are in his power. One is generous and fervent, but he likes a sly drop; another is good-natured and pleasant, but he puts it on in his bills at times, and his customers do not find the goods quite of the quality they pay for. I have known a man who would not work on the Sabbath, but then he never worked on the other six days; and another who never broke the Sabbath, but he broke many hearts by his unkindness. Beware of pet sins. If you let a golden god rule you, you will perish as well as if you let a mud god rule you. Be this your constant cry-“Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

I have done when I say just this. I have been describing these longings, but thus I have only been taking you to that preparatory school, of which I spoke at the commencement. Already some of you are saying, “I do not think I shall make a rapid scholar even at this preparatory school.” The first thing you have to do is to see that you have these longings strong within you. If you have them, thank God for them. To pant and pine after holiness is infinitely better than to be self-righteous. Cultivate these desires and cravings.

But, in the next place, never rest content with mere longings. He that really longs is not content to long: he desires to have his desire fulfilled. The only way to be holy-you that have not begun-is to go to a holy God through the holy Mediator. Trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and so be reconciled to God by him who alone can put away sin. Then go again to Jesus, and ask him to renew you in the spirit of your mind, and wash you with water from the power of sin, as he has washed you with blood from the guilt of it. When you are washed, take care that you keep your garments unspotted from the world. When you have once known the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, do not return again to folly. Follow on watchfully and resolutely. Seek the daily renewing of the Holy Spirit, and so shall you go from strength to strength till you shall be like your Lord, and shall see him as he is.

May God bless my feeble words, and put power into them for your eternal good, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 119:119-136.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-42, 119 (Song II.), 119 (Song III.)