The part of the text to which I shall call your attention lies in these words, “By faith Abraham obeyed.” Obedience-what a blessing it would be if we were all trained to it by the Holy Spirit! How fully should we be restored if we were perfect in it! If all the world would obey the Lord, what a heaven on earth there would be! Perfect obedience to God would mean love among men, justice to all classes, and peace in every land. Our will brings envy, malice, war; but the Lord’s will would bring us love, joy, rest, bliss. Obedience-let us pray for it for ourselves and others!

“Is there a heart that will not bend

To thy divine control?

Descend, O sovereign love, descend,

And melt that stubborn soul!”

Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord’s will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There is no truth in the supposition. We preach the obedience of faith. Faith is the fountain, the foundation, and the fosterer of obedience. Men obey not God till they believe him. We preach faith in order that men may be brought to obedience. To disbelieve is to disobey. One of the first signs of practical obedience is found in the obedience of the mind, the understanding, and the heart; and this is expressed in believing the teaching of Christ, trusting to his work, and resting in his salvation. Faith is the morning star of obedience. If we would work the work of God, we must believe on Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Brethren, we do not give a secondary place to obedience, as some suppose. We look upon the obedience of the heart to the will of God as salvation. The attainment of perfect obedience would mean perfect salvation. We regard sanctification, or obedience, as the great design for which the Saviour died. He shed his blood that he might cleanse us from dead works, and purify unto himself a people zealous for good works. It is for this that we were chosen: we are “elect unto holiness.” We know nothing of election to continue in sin. It is for this that we have been called: we are “called to be saints.” Obedience is the grand object of the work of grace in the hearts of those who are chosen and called: they are to become obedient children, conformed to the image of the Elder Brother, with whom the Father is well pleased.

The obedience that comes of faith is of a noble sort. The obedience of a slave ranks very little higher than the obedience of a well-trained horse or dog, for it is tuned to the crack of the whip. Obedience which is not cheerfully rendered is not the obedience of the heart, and consequently is of little worth before God. If the man obeys because he has no opportunity of doing otherwise, and if, were he free, he would at once become a rebel-there is nothing in his obedience. The obedience of faith springs from a principle within, and not from compulsion without. It is sustained by the mind’s soberest reasoning, and the heart’s warmest passion. The man reasons with himself that he ought to obey his Redeemer, his Father, his God; and, at the same time, the love of Christ constrains him so to do, and thus what argument suggests affection performs. A sense of great obligation, an apprehension of the fitness of obedience, and spiritual renewal of heart, work an obedience which becomes essential to the sanctified soul. Hence, it is not relaxed in the time of temptation, nor destroyed in the hour of losses and sufferings. Life has no trial which can turn the gracious soul from its passion for obedience; and death itself doth but enable it to render an obedience which shall be as blissful as it will be complete. Yes, this is a chief ingredient of heaven-that we shall see the face of our Lord, and serve him day and night in his temple. Meanwhile, the more fully we obey at this present, the nearer we shall be to his temple-gate. May the Holy Spirit work in us, so that, by faith-like Abraham-we may obey!

I preach to you, at this time, obedience-absolute obedience to the Lord God; but I preach the obedience of a child, not the obedience of a slave; the obedience of love, not of terror; the obedience of faith, not of dread. I shall urge you, as God shall help me, in order that you may come at this obedience, that you should seek after stronger faith-“For by faith Abraham obeyed.” In every case where the father of the faithful obeyed, it was the result of his faith; and in every case in which you and I shall render true obedience, it will be the product of our faith. Obedience, such as God can accept, never cometh out of a heart which thinks God a liar; but is wrought in us by the Spirit of the Lord, through our believing in the truth, and love, and grace of our God in Christ Jesus. If any of you are now disobedient, or have been so, the road to a better state of things is trust in God. You cannot hope to render obedience by the mere forcing of conduct into a certain groove, or by a personal, unaided effort of the resolution. There is a free-grace road to obedience, and that is receiving, by faith, the Lord Jesus, who is the gift of God, and is made of God unto us sanctification. We accept the Lord Jesus by faith, and he teaches us obedience, and creates it in us. The more of faith in him you have, the more of obedience to him will you manifest. I was about to say that that obedience naturally flows out of faith, and I should not have spoken amiss, for as a man believeth so is he, and in proportion to the strength and purity of his faith in God, as he is revealed in Christ Jesus, will be the holy obedience of his life.

That our meditation may be profitable, we will first think a little of the kind of faith which produces obedience; and then, secondly, we will treat of the kind of obedience which faith produces; and then we will advance another step, and consider the kind of life which comes out of this faith and obedience.

I will be as brief as I can upon each point. Let us look up to the Holy Ghost for his gracious illumination.

First, consider the kind of faith which produces obedience.

It is, manifestly, faith in God as having the right to command our obedience. Beloved in the Lord, you know that he is Sovereign, and that his will is law. You feel that God, your Maker, your Preserver, your Redeemer, and your Father, should have your unswerving service. We unite, also, in confessing that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. The Lord our God has a right to us which we would not wish to question. He has a greater claim upon our ardent service than he has upon the services of angels; for, while they were created as we have been, yet they have never been redeemed by precious blood. Our glorious Incarnate God has an unquestioned right to every breath we breathe, to every thought we think, to every moment of our lives, and to every capacity of our being. We believe in Jehovah as rightful Lawgiver, and as most fitly our Ruler. This loyalty of our mind is based on faith, and is a chief prompter to obedience. Cultivate always this feeling. The Lord is our Father, but he is, “our Father which art in heaven.” He draws near to us in condescension; but it is condescension, and we must not presume to think of him as though he were such a one as ourselves. There is a holy familiarity with God which cannot be too much enjoyed; but there is a flippant familiarity with God which cannot be too much abhorred. The Lord is King; his will is not to be questioned; his every word is law. Let us never question his sovereign right to decree what he pleases, and to fulfil the decree; to command what he pleases, and to punish every shortcoming. Because we have faith in God as Lord of all, we gladly pay him our homage, and desire in all things to say: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is done in heaven.”

Next, we must have faith in the rightness of all that God says or does. I hope, beloved, you do not think of God’s sovereignty as tyranny, or imagine that he ever could or would will anything but that which is right. Neither will we admit into our minds a suspicion of the incorrectness of the Word of God in any matter whatever, as though the Lord himself could err. We will not have it that God, in his Holy Book, makes mistakes about matters of history, or of science, any more than he does upon the great truths of salvation. If the Lord be God, he must be infallible; and if he can be described as in error in the little respects of human history and science, he cannot be trusted in the greater matters. My brethren, Jehovah never errs in deed, or in word; and when you find his law written either in the ten commandments, or anywhere else, you believe that there is not a precept too many, or too few. Whatever may be the precepts of the law, or of the gospel, they are pure and holy altogether. The words of the Lord are like fine gold, pure, precious, and weighty-not one of them may be neglected. We hear people talk about “minor points,” and so on; but we must not consider any word of our God as a minor thing, if by that expression is implied that it is of small importance. We must accept every single word of precept, or prohibition, or instruction, as being what it ought to be, and neither to be diminished nor increased. We should not reason about the command of God as though it might be set aside or amended. He bids: we obey. May we enter into that true spirit of obedience which is the unshaken belief that the Lord is right! Nothing short of this is the obedience of the inner man-the obedience which the Lord desires.

Furthermore, we must have faith in the Lord’s call upon us to obey. Abraham went out from his father’s house because he felt that, whatever God said to others, he had spoken to him, and said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house.” Whatever the Lord may have said to the Chaldæans, or to other families in Ur, Abraham was not so much concerned with that as with the special word of command which the Lord had sent to his own soul. Oh, that we were most of all earnest to render personal obedience! It is very easy to offer unto God a sort of “other people’s obedience”-to fancy that we are serving God, when we are finding fault with our neighbours, and lamenting that they are not so godly as they ought to be. Truly, we cannot help seeing their shortcomings; but we should do well to be less observant of them than we are. Let us turn our magnifying glasses upon ourselves. It is not so much our business to be weeding other people’s gardens as to keep our own vineyard. To the Lord each one should cry, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” We, who are his chosen, redeemed from among men, called out from the rest of mankind, ought to feel that if no other ears hear the divine call, our ears must hear it; and if no other heart obeys, our soul rejoices to do so. We are bound with cords to the horns of the altar. The strongest ties of gratitude hold us to the service of Jesus: we must be obedient in life to him who, for our sakes, was obedient unto death. Our service to our Lord is freedom: we will to yield to his will. To delight him is our delight. It is a blessed thing when the inmost nature yearns to obey God, when obedience grows into a habit, and becomes the very element in which the spirit breathes. Surely it should be so with every one of the blood-washed children of the Most High, and their lives will prove that it is so. Others are bound to obey, but we should attend most to our own personal obligation, and set our own houses in order. Our obedience should begin at home, and it will find its hands full enough there.

Obedience arises out of a faith which is to us the paramount principle of action. The kind of faith which produces obedience is lord of the understanding, a royal faith. The true believer believes in God beyond all his belief in anything else, and everything else. He can say, “Let God be true, but every man a liar.” His faith in God has become to him the crown of all his believings; the most assured of all his confidences. As gold is to the inferior metals, such is our trust in God to all our other trusts. To the genuine believer the eternal is as much above the temporal as the heavens are above the earth. The infinite rolls, like Noah’s flood, over the tops of the hills of the present and the finite. To the believer, let a truth be tinctured with the glory of God, and he values it; but if God and eternity be not there, he will leave these trifles to those who choose them. You must have a paramount faith in God, or else the will of God will not be a paramount rule to you. Only a reigning faith will make us subject to its power, so as to be in all things obedient to the Lord. The chief thought in life with the true believer is, “How can I obey God?” His great anxiety is to do the will of God, or acceptably to suffer that will; and if he can obey, he will make no terms with God, and stand upon no reservations. He will pray, “Refine me from the dross of rebellion, and let the furnace be as fierce as thou wilt.” His choice is neither wealth, nor ease, nor honour; but that he may glorify God in his body, and his spirit, which are the Lord’s. Obedience has become as much his rule as self-will is the rule of others. His cry unto the Lord is, “By thy command I stay or go. Thy will is my will; thy pleasure is my pleasure; thy law is my love.”

God grant us a supreme, over-mastering faith, for this is the kind of faith which we must have if we are to lead obedient lives! We must have faith in God’s right to rule, faith in the rightness of his commands, faith in our personal obligation to obey, and faith that the command must be the paramount authority of our being. With this faith of God’s elect, we shall realize the object of our election-namely, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love.

Dear friend, have you this kind of faith? I will withdraw the question as directed to you, and I will ask it of myself: Have I that faith which leads me to obey my God?-for obedience, if it be of the kind we are speaking of, is faith in action-faith walking with God, or, shall I say, walking before the Lord in the land of the living? If we have a faith which is greedy in hearing, severe in judging, and rapid in self-congratulation, but not inclined to obedience, we have the faith of hypocrites. If our faith enables us to set up as patterns of sound doctrine, and qualifies us to crack the heads of all who differ from us, and yet lacks the fruit of obedience, it will leave us among the “dogs” who are “without.” The faith that makes us obey is alone the faith which marks the children of God. It is better to have the faith that obeys than the faith which moves mountains. I would sooner have the faith which obeys than the faith which heaps the altar of God with sacrifices, and perfumes his courts with incense. I would rather obey God than rule an empire; for, after all, the loftiest sovereignty a soul can inherit is to have dominion over self by rendering believing obedience to the Most High.

Thus much, upon faith. “By faith Abraham obeyed;” and by faith only can you and I obey.

Let us consider, secondly, the kind of obedience which faith produces. This I shall illustrate from the whole of the verse.

Genuine faith in God creates a prompt obedience. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed.” There was an immediate response to the command. Delayed obedience is disobedience. I wish some Christians, who put off duty, would remember this. Continued delay of duty is a continuous sin. If I do not obey the divine command, I sin; and every moment that I continue in that condition, I repeat the sin. This is a serious matter. If a certain act is my duty at this hour, and I leave it undone, I have sinned; but it will be equally incumbent upon me during the next hour; and if I still refuse, I disobey again, and so on till I do obey. Neglect of a standing command must grow very grievous if it be persisted in for years. In proportion as the conscience becomes callous upon the subject, the guilt becomes the more provoking to the Lord. To refuse to do right is a great evil; but to continue in that refusal till conscience grows numb upon the matter is far worse. I remember a person coming to be baptized, who said that he had been a believer in the Lord Jesus for forty years; and that he had always seen the ordinance to be Scriptural. I felt grieved that he had so long been disobedient to a known duty, and I proposed to him that he should be baptized at once. It was in a village, and he said that there were no conveniences. I offered to go with him to the brook, and baptize him, but he said, “No; he that believeth shall not make haste.” Here was one who had wilfully disobeyed his Lord, for as many years as the Israelites in the wilderness, upon a matter so easy of performance; and yet, after confessing his fault, he was not willing to amend it, but perverted a passage of Scripture to excuse him in further delay. David says, “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” I give this case as a typical illustration; there are a hundred spiritual, moral, domestic, business, and religious duties, which men put off in the same manner, as if they thought that any time would do for God, and he must take his turn with the rest. What would you say to your boy, if you bade him go upon an errand, and he answered you, “I will go to-morrow.” Surely you would “morrow” him in a style which would abide upon his memory. Your tone would be sharp, and you would bid him go at once. If he, then, promised to run in an hour’s time, would you call that obedience? It would be impudence. Obedience is for the present tense: it must be prompt, or it is nothing. Obedience respects the time of the command as much as any other part of it. To hesitate is to be disloyal. To halt and consider whether you will obey or not, is rebellion in the germ. If thou believest in the living God unto eternal life, thou wilt be quick to do thy Lord’s bidding, even as a maid hearkens to her mistress. Thou wilt not be as the horse, which needs whip and spur; thy love will do more for thee than compulsion could do for slaves. Thou wilt have wings to thy heels to hasten thee along the way of obedience. “To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Next, obedience should be exact. Even Abraham’s obedience failed somewhat in this at first; for he started at once from Ur of the Chaldees, but he only went as far as Haran, and there he stayed till his father died; and then the precept came to him again, and he set off for the land which the Lord had promised to show him. If any of you have only half obeyed, I pray that you may take heed of this, and do all that the Lord commands, carefully endeavouring to keep back no part of the revenue of obedience.

Yet the error of the great patriarch was soon corrected, for we read that “Abraham, when he was called to go out … went out.” I have only omitted intermediate words, which do not alter the sense: and that is exactly how we should obey. That which the Lord commands we should do-just that, and not another thing of our own devising. How very curiously people try to give God something else instead of what he asks for! The Lord says, “My son, give me thine heart,” and they give him ceremonies. He asks of them obedience, and they give him will-worship. He asks faith, and love, and justice; and they offer ten thousand rivers of oil, and the fat of fed beasts. They will give all except the one thing which he will be pleased with: yet “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” If the Lord has given you true faith in himself, you will be anxious not so much to do a notable thing as to do exactly what God would have you to do. Mind your jots and tittles with the Lord’s precepts. Attention to little things is a fine feature in obedience: it lies much more as to its essence in the little things than in the great ones. Few dare rush into great crimes, and yet they will indulge in secret rebellion, for their heart is not right with God. Hence so many mar what they call obedience by forgetting that they serve a heart-searching, rein-trying God, who observes thoughts and motives. He would have us obey him with the heart, and that will lead us, not merely to regard a few pleasing commands, but to have respect unto all his will. Oh, for a tender conscience, which will not wilfully neglect, nor presumptuously transgress!

And next, mark well that Abraham rendered practical obedience. When the Lord commanded Abraham to quit his father’s house, he did not say that he would think it over; he did not discuss it pro and con, in an essay; he did not ask his father, Terah, and his neighbours to consider it; but, as he was called to go out, he went out. Alas! dear friends, we have so much talk, and so little obedience! The religion of mere brain and jaw does not amount to much. We want the religion of hands and feet. I remember a place in Yorkshire, years ago, where a good man said to me, “We have a real good minister.” I said, “I am glad to hear it.” “Yes,” he said; “he is a fellow that preaches with his feet.” Well, now, that is a capital thing if a preacher preaches with his feet by walking with God, and with his hands by working for God. He does well who glorifies God by where he goes, and by what he does; he will excel fifty others who only preach religion with their tongues. You, dear hearers, are not good hearers so long as you are only hearers; but when the heart is affected by the ear, and the hand follows the heart, then your faith is proved. That kind of obedience which comes of faith in God is real obedience, since it shows itself by its works.

Next, faith produces a far-seeing obedience. Note this. “Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance.” How great a company would obey God if they were paid for it on the spot! They have “respect unto the recompense of the reward;” but they must have it in the palm of their hand. With them-“A bird in hand is better far, than two which in the bushes are.” They are told that there is heaven to be had, and they answer that, if heaven were to be had here, as an immediate freehold, they might look after it, but they cannot afford to wait. To inherit a country after this life is over is too like a fairy tale for their practical minds. Many there are who enquire, “Will religion pay? Is there anything to be made out of it? Shall I have to shut up my shop on Sundays? Must I alter my mode of dealing, and curtail my profits?” When they have totalled up the cost, and have taken all things into consideration, they come to the conclusion that obedience to God is a luxury which they can dispense with, at least until near the end of life. Those who practise the obedience of faith look for the reward hereafter, and set the greatest store by it. To their faith alone the profit is exceeding great. To take up the cross will be to carry a burden, but it will also be to find rest. They know the words, “No cross, no crown;” and they recognize the truth that, if there is no obedience here, there will be no reward hereafter. This needs a faith that has eyes which can see afar off, across the black torrent of death, and within the veil which parts us from the unseen. A man will not obey God unless he has learned to endure “as seeing him who is invisible.”

Yet, remember that the obedience which comes of true faith is often bound to be altogether unreckoning and implicit; for it is written, “He went out, not knowing whither he went.” God bade Abraham journey, and he moved his camp at once. Into the unknown land he made his way; through fertile regions, or across a wilderness; among friends, or through the midst of foes, he pursued his journey. He did not know where his way would take him, but he knew that the Lord had bidden him go. Even bad men will obey God when they think fit; but good men will obey when they know not what to think of it. It is not ours to judge the Lord’s command, but to follow it. I am weary with hearing men saying, “Yes, we know that such a course would be right; but then the consequences might be painful: good men would be grieved, the cause would be weakened, and we ourselves should get into a world of trouble, and put our hands into a hornet’s nest.” There is not much need to preach caution nowadays: those who would run any risk for the truth’s sake are few enough. Consciences, tender about the Lord’s honour, have not been produced for the last few years in any great number. Prudent consideration of consequences is superabundant; but the spirit which obeys, and dares all things for Christ’s sake-where is it? The Abrahams of to-day will not go out from their kindred; they will put up with anything sooner than risk their livelihoods. If they do go out, they must know where they are going, and how much is to be picked up in the new country. I am not pronouncing any judgment upon their conduct, I am merely pointing out the fact. Our Puritan forefathers recked little of property or liberty when these stood in the way of conscience: they defied exile and danger sooner than give up a grain of truth; but their descendants prefer peace and worldly amusements, and pride themselves on “culture” rather than on heroic faith. The modern believer must have no mysteries, but must have everything planed down to a scientific standard. Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he went,” but the moderns must have every information with regard to the way, and then they will not go. If they obey at all, it is because their own superior judgments incline that way; but to go forth, not knowing whither they go, and to go at all hazards, is not to their minds at all. They are so highly “cultured” that they prefer to be original, and map out their own way.

Brethren, having once discerned the voice of God, obey without question. If you have to stand alone and nobody will befriend you, stand alone and God will befriend you. If you should get the ill word of those you value most, bear it. What, after all, are ill words, or good words, as compared with the keeping of a clear conscience by walking in the way of the Lord? The line of truth is narrow as a razor’s edge; and he needs to wear the golden sandals of the peace of God who shall keep to such a line. Through divine grace may we, like Abraham, walk with our hand in the hand of the Lord, even where we cannot see our way!

The obedience which faith produces must be continuous. Having commenced the separated life, Abraham continued to dwell in tents, and sojourn in the land which was far from the place of his birth. His whole life may be thus summed up: “By faith Abraham obeyed.” He believed, and, therefore, walked before the Lord in a perfect way. He even offered up his son Isaac. “Abraham’s mistake,” was it? Alas for those who dare to talk in that fashion! “By faith he obeyed,” and to the end of his life he was never an original speculator, or inventor of ways for self-will; but a submissive servant of that great Lord, who deigned to call him “friend.” May it be said of everyone here that by faith he obeyed! Do not cultivate doubt, or you will soon cultivate disobedience. Set this up as your standard, and henceforth be this the epitome of your life-“By faith he obeyed.”

Just a moment or two upon the third point. Let us consider the sort of life which will come of this faith and obedience.

It will be, in the first place, life without that great risk which else holds us in peril. A man runs a great risk when he steers himself. Rocks or no rocks, the peril lies in the helmsman. The believer is no longer the helmsman of his own vessel; he has taken a pilot on board. To believe in God, and to do his bidding, is a great escape from the hazards of personal weakness and folly. If we do as God commands, and do not seem to succeed, it is no fault of ours. Failure itself would be success so long as we did not fail to obey. If we passed through life unrecognized, or were only acknowledged by a sneer from the worldly-wise, and if this were regarded as a failure, it could be borne with equanimity so long as we knew that we had kept our faith towards God, and our obedience to him. Providence is God’s business, obedience is ours. What comes out of our life’s course must remain with the Lord: to obey is our sole concern. What harvest will come of our sowing we must leave with the Lord of the harvest; but we ourselves must look to the basket and the seed, and scatter our handfuls in the furrows without fail. We can win “Well done, good and faithful servant”: to be a successful servant is not in our power, and we shall not be held responsible for it. Our greatest risk is over when we obey. God makes faith and obedience the way of safety.

In the next place, we shall enjoy a life free from its heaviest cares. If we were in the midst of the wood, with Stanley, in the centre of Africa, our pressing care would be to find our way out; but when we have nothing to do but to obey, our road is mapped out for us. Jesus says, “Follow me;” and this makes our way plain, and lifts from our shoulders a load of cares. To choose our course by policy is a way of thorns, to obey is as the king’s highway. Policy has to tack about, to return upon its own courses, and often to miss the port after all; but faith, like a steam-vessel, steers straight for the harbour’s mouth, and leaves a bright track of obedience behind her as she forges ahead. When our only care is to obey, a thousand other cares take their flight. If we sin in order to succeed, we have sown the seeds of care and sorrow, and the reaping will be a grievous one. If we will forsake the path, and try short cuts, we shall have to do a deal of wading through mire and slough, we shall bespatter ourselves from head to foot, we shall be wearied to find our way, and all because we could not trust God, and obey his bidding. Obedience may appear difficult, and it may bring with it sacrifice; but, after all, it is the nearest and the best road. Her ways are, in the long run, ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. He who, through the Holy Spirit, is always believingly obedient, has chosen the good part. He it is who can sing-

“I have no cares, O blessèd Lord,

For all my cares are thine;

I live in triumph, too, for thou

Hast made thy triumphs mine.”

Or, to change the verse, he is like Bunyan’s shepherd-boy in the Valley of Humiliation, for that lowland is part of the great Plain of Obedience, and he also can sing-

“He that is down need fear no fall,

He that is low no pride;

He that is humble ever shall

Have God to be his Guide.”

Although he may not reach the heights of ambition, nor stand upon the giddy crags of presumption, yet he shall know superior joys. He has hit upon the happiest mode of living under heaven-a mode of life akin to the perfect life above. He shall dwell in God’s house, and be still praising him.

The way of obedience is a life of the highest honour. Obedience is the glory of a human life-the glory which our Lord has given to his chosen, even his own glory. “He learned obedience.” He never struck out an original course, but he did always the things which pleased the Father. Be this our glory. By faith we yield our intelligence to the highest intelligence: we are led, guided, directed; and we follow where our Lord has gone. To us who believe, he is honour. To a soldier it is the greatest honour to have accomplished his sovereign’s command. He does not debase his manhood who subjects it to honourable command; nay, he is even exalted by obeying in the day of danger. It is no dishonour to have it said:

“Theirs not to reason why;

Theirs but to dare and die.”

The bravest and the most honoured of men are those who implicitly obey the command of the King of kings. Among his children, they are best who best know their Father’s mind, and yield to it the gladdest obedience. Should we have any other ambition, within the walls of our Father’s house, than to be perfectly obedient children before him, and implicitly trustful towards him?

But, brethren, this is a kind of life which will bring communion with God. God often hides his face behind the clouds of dust which his children make by their self-will. If we transgress against him, we shall soon be in trouble; but a holy walk-the walk described by my text as faith working obedience-is heaven beneath the stars. God comes down to walk with men who obey. If they walk with him, he walks with them. The Lord can only have fellowship with his servants as they obey. Obedience is heaven in us, and it is the preface of our being in heaven. Obedient faith is the way to eternal life-nay, it is eternal life revealing itself.

The obedience of faith creates a form of life which may be safely copied. As parents, we wish so to live that our children may copy us to their lasting profit. Teachers should aspire to be what they would have their classes to be. If you go to school to the obedience of faith, you will be good teachers. Children usually exaggerate their models; but there will be no fear of their going too far in faith, or in obedience to the Lord. I like to hear a man say, when his father has gone, “My dear father was a man that feared God, and I would fain follow him. When I was a boy, I thought him rather stiff and Puritanical; but now I see he had a good reason for it all. I feel much the same myself, and would do nothing of which God would not approve.” The bringing up of families is a very great matter. This is too much neglected nowadays; and yet it is the most profitable of all holy service, and the hope of the future. Great men, in the best sense, are bred in holy households. God-fearing example at home is the most fruitful of religious agencies. I knew a little humble Dissenting chapel, of the straitest sect of our religion. Culture there was none in the ministry; but the people were stanch believers. Five or six families, attending that despised ministry, learned to believe what they did believe, and to live upon it. It was by no means a liberal creed which they received, but what they held operated on their lives. Five or six families came out of that place, and became substantial in wealth, and generous in liberality. These all sprang from plain, humble men, who knew their Bibles, and believed the doctrines of grace. They learned to fear God, and to trust in him, and to rest in the old faith, and even in worldly things they prospered Their descendants, of the third generation, are not all of them of their way of thinking; but they have risen through God’s blessing on their grandfathers. These men were fed on substantial meat, and they became sturdy old fellows, able to cope with the world, and fight their way. I would to God that we had more men to-day who would maintain truth at all hazards. Alas! the gutta-percha backbone is common among Dissenters, and they take to politics, and the new philosophy, and therefore we are losing the force of our testimony, and are, I fear, decreasing in numbers too. The Lord give us back those whose examples can be safely copied in all things, even though they be decried as being “rigid” or “too precise”! We serve a jealous God, and a holy Saviour; wherefore let us mind that we do not grieve his Spirit, and cause him to withdraw from us.

Lastly, faith working obedience is a kind of life which needs great grace. Every careless professor will not live in this fashion. It will need watchfulness and prayer, and nearness to God, to maintain the faith which obeys in everything. Beloved, “he giveth more grace.” The Lord will enable us to add to our faith all the virtues. Whenever you fail in any respect in your lives, do not sit down, and question the goodness of God, and the power of the Holy Ghost; that is not the way to increase the stream of obedience, but to diminish the source of it. Believe more, instead of less. Try, by God’s grace, to believe more in the pardon of sin, more in the renovation by the Holy Spirit, more in the everlasting covenant, more in the love that had no beginning, and will never, never cease. Your hope does not lie in rushing into the darkness of doubt; but in returning repentantly into the still clearer light of a steadier faith. May you be helped to do so, and may we, all of us, and the whole multitude of the Lord’s redeemed, by faith go on to obey our Lord in all things!

I leave this word with you. Remember, “By faith Abraham obeyed.” Have faith in God, and then obey, obey, obey, and keep on obeying, until the Lord shall call you home. Obey on earth, and then you will have learned to obey in heaven. Obedience is the rehearsal of eternal bliss. Practice by obedience now the song which you will sing for ever in glory. God grant his grace to us! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-Psalm 119:33-40.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-649, 653, 650.

HOSANNA!

A Sermon

Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, March 22nd, 1891, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”-Matthew 21:9.

After the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, a great fame went abroad concerning our Lord. He rested still at Bethany, and the people who came up to the feast in great number went out-an easy walk from Jerusalem to Bethany-to see Jesus, and to see Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead. These people, on a certain day, formed a company, and marched with Jesus towards Jerusalem. On the way our Lord sent two of his disciples to fetch an ass and its colt; and upon this last he rode into the city. Another crowd, coming out of Jerusalem, met the company attending upon Jesus, and, forming one great procession, the whole multitude marched into the city escorting the Lord Jesus in humble state, and paying him honour as King in Zion. Upon no stately war-horse, but riding upon a colt the foal of an ass, the meek and lowly King entered the city of David attended by vast and enthusiastic crowds, who strewed the fronds of palms, and the branches of trees, and their own garments in the way along which he rode. Our Lord thus received a right royal and popular reception to the metropolis of his nation. This was a strange event, so very different from anything else that happened to our Saviour, that one wonders at it with great wonderment. That it is to be viewed as an important event is clear, since every one of the four Evangelists takes pains to record it (see Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12). Even of certain of the greater events of our Lord’s life the Holy Spirit has not preserved us four accounts; but since he has done so in this case, he thereby calls us to give the more earnest heed to it. Herein is a mine of teaching; let us dig into it.

Assuredly, this honour paid to our Lord was passing strange; a gleam of sunlight in a day of clouds, a glimpse of summer-tide in a long and dreary winter. He that was, as a rule, “despised and rejected of men”, was for the moment surrounded with the acclaim of the crowd. All men saluted him that day with their Hosannas, and the whole city was moved. It was a gala day for the disciples, and a sort of coronation day for their Lord.

Why was the scene permitted? What was its meaning? The marvel is, that the like had not occurred before; for our Lord had healed many sick folk, and these and their friends must have felt favourably towards him. He had fed thousands at a time with the bread of this life, and hosts had been cheered and comforted by his teaching. The common people heard him gladly, and were ready to gather around him. Among an excitable people it was a wonder that they had not long ago taken him by force, and made him a king. No one had yet appeared so like the Messiah of their prophets; no one had so well deserved the people’s gratitude. If they had from the first accepted him as their monarch, and if they had watched every opportunity of doing him homage, nobody could have been surprised. The marvel is, that the popular enthusiasm had been repressed so long.

It was the Lord himself who had suppressed the popular enthusiasm. With great skill he had succeeded in bridling a dangerous fanaticism. He “did not strive nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets”; and with such a cry, and such a voice as he had, the marvel was that he preserved quiet, and kept the nation from revolt. Had he withdrawn his hand, the people would have been eager to assail their foreign rulers. Had this been the errand on which he came, he might at any moment have been saluted as “the King of the Jews.” He, with a masterly art, repressed everything that would have made him a popular hero. He uttered unpalatable truth, or he stole away from the scene of his miracles, or he kept himself in obscure villages, and thus he eluded their honours. When he had fed the multitudes, he took ship, and went to the other side of the lake that they might not follow him. Many men live for ambitious ends, but our Lord lived to escape the honours of men. The proud hunt after praise; but our Lord fled from preferment, hid himself from fame, and shunned the throne which by descent belonged to him. He often bade those whom he healed go home and tell no man what he had done; for the dense throngs that gathered about him rendered it difficult for him to move on his mission of mercy. “He went about doing good”, and did not wait in any place to reap the laurels which his miracles had earned him. No wonder that at last the people felt forced to surround him with their praises. The pent-up fires of gratitude at last had vent. The covered flames of admiration leaped up at last, and cast a brilliant light over the old city. Men’s hearts had been somewhat worse than diabolical if they had not felt a grateful enthusiasm for so grand a benefactor. No one before had ever so greatly blessed Judæa; ten thousand voices felt it joy to cry “Hosanna” before such a one.

It came at last, you see: I have read you the story in John and in Matthew. They saluted him with their shouts of loyal welcome. But there was little in the acclamation when it did come. There was great shouting for the while, and abundant strewing of branches, and lining of the road with garments; but there was little else. Remember what happened less than a week afterwards! If not the same individuals, yet people of the same city cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.” The Hosannas may be very loud, but they will not be long. “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” sounds very sweetly; but how much more vehement will be the cry, “Let him be crucified”! Everything which comes to Jesus and his cause by popular acclamation, requires to be duly weighed; and when weighed it will be found wanting. “Vox populi vox Dei” they used to say; but the saying is false: the voice of the people may seem to be the voice of God when they shout “Hosanna in the highest”; but whose voice is it when they yell out, “Crucify him, crucify him”? “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie.” So little value did our Lord place on popular applause that he repressed it; and when it did burst forth, so little did it elevate his spirit that we find him in the midst of it, gazing upon the city with tears in his eyes. While others were glad, he was weeping for the woes which his prophetic eye foresaw. The throng was carried away by the present moment and the enthusiasm of the hour; but his heart was anticipating that dreadful day when they would find his blood upon them and upon their children, and the Romans would utterly destroy their city, and quench the light of Zion in rivers of blood. It may be well that an enthusiastic admiration of religion should be professed by the multitude; but it is not more stable than smoke. It may seem good that the Christian minister should be popular, but popularity is lighter than vanity. Once the Saviour rides in state as a King, but soon he walks down those very streets bearing his cross like a criminal. How soon is the public voice purchased for evil! What dependence can be placed on the clamour of the streets?

We, however, have the story placed before us four times by the Evangelists, and therefore let us now give it our attentive consideration. May the good Spirit impart instruction to us by this strange stir and singular scene! May some divine impulse come to us out of this riding of our lowly King into Jerusalem!

First, I shall ask you to think of Christ triumphant in Jerusalem. Secondly, I shall bid you see herein Christ glorified in his church; and then, thirdly, we will think of Christ entering into the heart. Under these three divisions we may arrange our thoughts, and, God helping us, we may meditate to profit.

First, I ask you to view Christ triumphant in Jerusalem. Why this procession? Why these shouts of homage? Our Lord always had a reason, and an excellent one, for all that he arranged or permitted. What meant he by this? How shall we interpret the scene?

I think it was, first, that he might most openly declare himself. He had frequently avowed his mission in plain speech; he had told them who he was, and why he came; but they would not hear; so that they dared to say to him, “If thou be the Christ tell us plainly.” He had plainly told them times without number. Now he will assure them still more positively of his kingdom by openly riding into the city of Jerusalem in state. Now shall they see that he claims to be the Messiah, sent of God, of whom the prophet said, “Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh.” Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings shall his fame be proclaimed; multitudes of people shall acknowledge with loud voices that “he cometh in the name of the Lord”; until the envious Pharisees shall be driven to ask, “Hearest thou what these say?” You will remember that our Lord rode into Jerusalem as a King, but he was also brought there as the Lamb of God’s passover, whose blood must save the people. It was not meet that the Lamb of God should go to the altar without observation; it was not fit that he who taketh away the sin of the world should be led to the temple unobserved. The day was near when he was to be offered up, and all eyes were called to look on him and know who and what he was. Therefore he permitted this great gathering and this honourable attention to himself, that he might say to Israel, by deeds as well as by words, “I am he that should come. I am he who of old had said, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” Thus he beyond all question manifested himself to the people. When they crucified him the rulers knew what he professed to be. Albeit many of them were in ignorance as to the truthfulness of his claims, yet they knew right well that they were crucifying one who professed to be the Lord of glory, one who was acknowledged to be the Son of David, one who had in public avowed himself to be King in Zion. I think this was one reason for the joyous entry into the city of God.

Next, it was our Lord’s public claiming of authority over Israel. He was the son of David, and therefore he was by natural right the King of the Jews. If he had taken possession of his own he would have been sitting on the throne of the chosen dynasty of David by right of birth. He was, moreover, as the Messiah, and Christ, the King of his people Israel. Concerning him it had been said by the prophet, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Our Lord Jesus literally came to Zion in this manner. As King he rode to his capital, and entered his palace. In his priestly royalty the Son of God went to his Father’s house, to the temple of sacrifice and sovereignty. Among the tribes of Israel is he seen to be “one chosen out of the people,” whom the Lord had given to be a leader and commander for the people. Although they might afterwards choose Barabbas, and cry that they had no king but Cæsar, yet Jesus was their King, as Pilate reminded them, when he said, “Shall I crucify your king?” and as his cross declared when it bore the legal inscription, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” Before his trial and his condemnation he had put in a public claim to the rights and prerogatives of Zion’s king, whom God has set upon his holy hill. Would to God all my hearers fully recognized our Lord’s kingdom, and yielded to his sway! Oh, that you would bow before him, and put your trust in him! Part of his intent in riding through Jerusalem was that we also who dwell in the isles of the sea might know him and reverence him as King of kings and Lord of lords. Let each one cry in his inmost soul-

“Great King of Grace, my heart subdue,

I would be led in triumph too,

A willing captive to my Lord,

To sing the victories of his word.”

Possibly our Saviour intended, also, by this singular procession, to let his enemies know his real strength among the people. If he could gather so great a crowd of adherents without any summons or prearrangement, surely the whole population must have been, to a large degree, in his favour. If such an enthusiastic reception was spontaneously given him, how many would have gathered if a plan had been arranged? Had he agreed to lead them against the Romans, thousands of fanatics would have followed his banner. If he had designed to make himself a king, and had permitted his servants to fight, the old fierce courage of the Jewish race would have burned up like a flame of fire, and his enemies would have fled before him. He came not with war in his heart, but he would let the foeman see the hilt of the sword which he might have drawn from its sheath: he would let scribe and Pharisee bite their lips, while they said, “Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.” If the Saviour had willed to use the baser methods that men nowadays would freely employ, by asking the world’s alliance, he might have made himself a King at once. Had he blended politics with religion, and yielded something to general prejudice, he might at once have set up a worldly kingdom. But no, he knew no selfish ambition, his kingdom was not of this world; he came not that he might be honoured here, but that he might be put to shame for our redemption. The diadem to which he aspired was a crown of thorns; yet he lets his adversaries see that he was not lowly because he was weak, nor gentle because he was feeble. They might, if they would, have seen by that day in Jerusalem the greatness of the self-denial which abstained from earthly honours.

Nor have I exhausted the Saviour’s reasons. We are told by the Evangelist that he did this that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. I have just now quoted the text from Zechariah 9:9. Our Lord was ever careful and earnest to fulfil each prophecy of Holy Scripture. He held the inspired Word in high esteem, and was careful of each letter of it. You never hear a word from him derogatory of the inspiration, authority, accuracy, or infallibility of the law and the prophets. He fulfils the Word of the Lord even to its jots and tittles. He directed his life by that old chart, in which the way of the Messiah was laid down long before he came to earth. Oh, for the same reverence of Scripture among preachers nowadays! God forbid that we should be lowering men’s ideas of inspiration, as some are fond of doing. May we value every word which came from the Lord in old time! May we willingly change the course of our thought and teaching rather than neglect a single word of inspiration! When we see what the will of the Lord is, let us follow it implicitly. Obedience to the rule of Scripture was the way of the Head; it should also be the way of the members. If the King himself is careful in his walk towards the Word, surely we ought to be.

I think also that as our Lord thus looked back and fulfilled Scripture, he was looking forward to give us a prophetic type of the future. Beloved, our Lord will not always be rejected. There are days of triumph for him. “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” This is the age of iron, but there comes a golden age of love and light. We look for his appearing and his reign; his reign of peace and joy. There will come a day when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. He shall sit upon the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah! Hath not Jehovah said to him, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”? Yes, there will come a day when he that was the reproach of men shall be the glory of his people. Kings shall bow down before him. All generations shall call him blessed. When I see that joyful procession going up the hill to Zion; and mark how they that went before joined with those who followed after, while the King himself rode in the centre, I seem to see a rehearsal of the long succession of the faithful in all ages. The prophets have gone before him: hark to their loud Hosannas! We come behind him, even we upon whom the ends of the earth have come, and we have our glad Hosannas, too! Here patriarchs join with apostles, prophets are one with martyrs, and priests keep rank with pastors and deacons, all with one voice lifting up the self-same note, “Hosanna! blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” We see, then, in the simple state of our Lord in the streets of Jerusalem, a vision of the long glories which await him in the New Jerusalem, where he shall sit upon his throne, and his enemies shall be made his footstool.

One thing more I cannot help mentioning: surely, our Lord allowed the populace a vent for their enthusiasm with the desire to delight his friends. Do you not think that the sympathetic Jesus thought it worth while to give his little band of followers what our forefathers would have called “a gaudy day”-a high day, a holiday? These had been with him in his humiliation, and he would give them a taste of his glory. They had seen him despised and rejected of men; and he relieved the monotony of his humiliation with a glimpse of his glory. For once they should be allowed to cast their garments under his feet and strew fragrant branches on his path. For once their zeal should have license to climb the trees and break down the boughs to strew his pathway. Nothing on that day filled their ears but the praises of their loved Lord and honoured Master. They would soon have enough sorrow when they would see him seized in the garden and taken away bound to Caiaphas and Pilate to be condemned to die. He would give them a breathing space, an interval of pleasure, wherein their spirits should no longer drag on earth, but rise on wings, into a lofty joy. Our Lord loves his people to be glad. His tears he kept to himself, as he wept over Jerusalem; but the gladness he scattered all around, so that even the boys and girls in the streets of Jerusalem made the temple courts to ring with their merry feet and gladsome songs. Hear how they clap their hands with delight! “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!” You hear it everywhere, and the Lord smiles as he sees the joy which pours in floods around him. The Lord loves to cast into our cup some drops of heaven’s own honey, until the bitterness of grief is sweetened, and his followers are made happy by their joy in himself. “Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” I wish I could express myself in tones more clear and musical; but though bodily weakness compels me to be measured in my utterance, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour. May the Lord himself cast into your hearts the burning coals of joyful love to him, and so may your souls take fire, and blaze aloft with vehement flames of delight! May this day be to your spirits a day of palms and psalms, of prayers and praises, of Hallelujahs and Hosannas. Let us sing all day, as we sung in our opening hymn-

“Hosannah to th’ anointed King,

To David’s holy Son!

Help us, O Lord! descend and bring

Salvation from thy throne.

“Blest be the Lord, who comes to men

With messages of grace;

Who comes in God his Father’s name,

To save our sinful race.

“Hosannah in the highest strains

The church on earth can raise;

The highest heavens, in which he reigns,

Shall give him nobler praise.”

Secondly, my text is to my mind a parable of Christ glorified in his church. There are choice days when the shout of a King is heard in our assemblies. We have not yet fallen to a dull monotony of barrenness; we have hills like those of Carmel. The low-water mark of lukewarmness is covered deep beneath flood-tides of holy exultation. I am going to speak about these hallowed seasons.

I think that such days come to the church of God after special miracles of grace have been wrought. Lazarus is raised from the dead, and when the people thus see the greatness of the Prophet of Nazareth, they begin to commend and extol him, and this leads on to holy excitement. If the Lord will be pleased to work remarkable conversions among us, we shall have grand times. If special instances of his gracious power are seen by us, we will bear our palms of victory before him, and many hearts shall enquire, “Who is this?” Our hearts shall rejoice as with the joy of harvest when we see the Lord saving great sinners; yea, we will shout as victors who divide the spoil. Do you not think that when Saul of Tarsus was converted, and the churches had rest, that they had also great exultation in their King? Everywhere it must have been talked of that the fierce Pharisee had become a bold preacher of the faith which once he sought to destroy. What joy there is in saintly hearts when ring-leaders in sin become champions for truth! Oh that our God would work such transformations in this city! Pray, my brothers and sisters, that the Lord would do the like for us, and for all his churches just now. Oh, for displays of his power to quicken the dead! Oh, for Lazarus to be raised, and to live among us as a wonder of grace whom neighbours would come to see! O Lord, give us this signal of delight! Let us see thine arm made bare in the eyes of all the people.

Next, it was a time of testimony; for those who had been present, and had seen Lazarus raised from the dead, bore witness. One stepped forward and said, “With these eyes I saw Lazarus come forth from the tomb of rock.” “As for me”, said another, “I saw him buried, I helped to carry him to the grave; but I saw him come back to the house alive.” “Yes”, said a third, “I rolled away the stone, and as I stood watching for the result, I saw the dead man come forth alive, and I helped to loose his grave-clothes.” All these bore witness to what they had seen. You cannot tell what a joyful effect it produces, and what enthusiasm is stirred, when one after another bears personal witness. Lord, open men’s mouths! Lord, make the quiet ones to tell forth thy praise! Your silent tongues deprive us of our joy. Your cowardly reticence robs Christ of his glory and the church of its increase. If God has done anything for you, or you have seen him do anything for others, bear testimony to it. It is the Lord’s due, and your duty, that you should speak to the glory of Christ Jesus. When great wonders have been done, and those who saw them are willing to bear their testimony thereunto, then we may look for red-letter days, wherein gladness and praise shall be in the ascendant.

It was a good sign, too, of joy to come, that the enemies were now raging worse than ever. They sought to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. If the devil never roars the church will never sing. God is not doing much if the devil is not awake and busy. Depend upon it, that a working Christ makes a raging devil. When you hear ill reports, cruel speeches, threats, taunts, and the like, believe that the Lord is among his people, and is working gloriously. We look upon the “many adversaries” as one of the tokens that a great door and effectual is set before us. When we hear thunder we look for rain. Wrath in the lowest hell is a prognostic of Hosanna in the highest heaven.

It is also a cheering sign when there is a general eagerness among the people concerning our Lord. When the disciples gather around their Master, and are prompt to do his bidding, then good times are come. When all agree, it is also well. When they that go before, and they that follow after, are all of the same mind, then is it a day of joy. When grey heads grow young, and young heads grow wise, it is a token for good. When the aged lift up their eyes to heaven, and say, “God, even our own God, shall bless us”, things look well. When our matrons and our sires grow hopefully confident, and say, “The Lord has blessed us in days gone by, and he is going to bless us yet again”, then the weather-glass points to “Set fair.” When the younger sort, that follow after, who have been converted but lately, burn with a holy zeal, and cry, “We will give the Lord no rest until he bless us”, then the sun of the church is shining high up in the sky. When we are all ready, each man, each woman ready, to take our share in the harvesting, then will the sheaves be garnered. It is cheering when the congregation shares the excitement with the church and its ministers, and the prospect of a divine blessing is before the mind of all who seek better things. Surely, the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time has come, when her King is longed for, and every heart beats high with love of him.

The case is clear when all this is attended with an abounding generosity. It is well when disciples are not only willing to fetch another man’s colt, but are willing to lay their own garments thereon; when they will not only gather palm fronds to strew the path, but will take off their own coats to carpet the way of the King. When everybody does something, or gives something, or at any rate joins in the hearty Hosannas, then is the King come into our midst. Our King is not where hearts are miserly and souls are selfish; but one token of his presence is that his people offer willingly unto the Lord. At such times believers feel that they are not their own, but are bought with a price; and things which once looked like sacrifices too great to be expected of them, are cheerfully presented as sacrifices of joy.

Beloved, we must not forget that it is a token of God’s having come to his church and of his having given her a joyful day, when the children share in it. Luther was greatly encouraged when he found that the children met together for prayer. He said, “God will hear them. The devil himself cannot defeat us now the children begin to pray.” It is very beautiful to read Mr. Whitefield’s remarks about his sermons at Moorfields and elsewhere in London, when mud and stones were cast upon him, and yet a group of children always surrounded his pulpit; and though some of them were hurt, yet he noticed how bravely they stood by him through the service. He thought it a token for good that children drank in his words. When God moves the children to earnestness, he will soon move their fathers and mothers. When boys and girls meet to praise God, do not despise their little meetings, nor say, “It is only a parcel of children.” The children are in God’s esteem the most precious portion of the race. He sets high store by his little ones, and he has set a special curse upon those who offend one of the little ones that believe in him. Jesus, Master, come, we pray thee! Come in thy lowly pomp, in all thy gentleness, and grace, and then will the children of these modern days sing loud Hosannas to thy name, like those in thy temple of old.

I want you to notice in our text, that our Saviour was received with the shout of Hosanna! The best interpretation I can give is-“Save, oh, save! Save, oh, save!” Different nations have different ways of expressing their good will to their monarchs. A Roman would have shouted, “Io triumphe!” We sing, “God save our gracious Queen.” The Persians said, “O King, live for ever.” The Jews cried, “Hosanna!” “Save,” or, “God save the King!” The French have their “Vivas,” by which they mean, “Long live the man.” Hosanna is tantamount to all these. It is a shout of homage, welcome, and loyalty. It wishes wealth, health, and honour to the king. In the Saxon we say, “Hurrah”; in Hebrew, “Hosanna.” That mighty shout startled all the streets of the old city: “Hosanna, Hosanna, the King is come. Save him, O Lord! Save us through him! Long live the King!” While it was a shout of homage, it was also a prayer to the King. “Save, Lord; save us, O King! O King, born to conquer and to save, deliver us!” It was, moreover, a prayer for him-“God save the King, God bless and prosper his majesty.” “Prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.” We never cease to pray, “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Let us then cry, Hosanna, making it at once a loyal shout; a prayer to our King, and a prayer for him. All these things appear in the benediction which follows: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”

Would it be amiss if we were to indulge in a hearty shout for our King? May we never grow enthusiastic? May we never overleap the bounds of prim propriety? Shall we never cry Hallelujah! Shall no Hosannas burst from our lips? Surely, if our King will come into the midst of his church again, and end these black days of doubt, we must and will shout, or else the very stones will cry out, Yes, O Lord Jesus, thou shalt have our Vivas: we will shout, “Long live the King!”

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

Let angels prostrate fall.”

Nor will we cease to pray to thee! Some of you that have not yet been saved by him will, I trust, say, “Save me, Lord! O Jesus, save me!” You will not disturb but delight the present meeting if you will in your hearts cry, “Lord, save me!” Remember the cry of two blind beggars on this very journey of our Lord, and how he opened their eyes when they cried, “Thou son of David, have mercy on us.”

Will we not also put up prayer for our Lord this morning? Will not each one in his pew now breathe a petition to God, saying, “Father, glorify thy Son”? Thou hast said that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand: make it so. O Jehovah, thou art well pleased with Jesus; show thy good pleasure towards him by giving him to conquer ten thousand times ten thousand hearts. Let a nation be born in a day. May he reign for ever and ever! Hosanna! Hosanna!

I have only a little time for my third point, and yet it is of great importance: Christ received in the heart. His triumphant ride into Jerusalem was a type of his entering the renewed heart. I pray that you who have never received him may listen, and may, by the listening, be led to pray for his coming into your heart.

On that day, when Christ came up from Bethany, the city gates were wide open. We read nothing about them, because they were not in the way; they were no shut gates to him. He rode into Jerusalem without let or hindrance. Are your gates wide open this morning? If not, I would say, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory shall come in.” He is willing to abide in your hearts, and go no more out for ever; be sure that your gates are set wide before him. May the Holy Ghost open your hearts! Do not tolerate the thought of shutting out your Lord. Never! Throw wide the portals of your soul. Yea, go forth by willing obedience and say, Come in, my Lord! Come in! He was cheerfully received as King. Our Lord did not come to subdue the citizens at the point of the sword. He did not come with force of arms to coerce the city. You must receive Jesus willingly, or not at all. He comes to reign; but he comes in the gentleness of love. He rides on no high-mettled charger, he lays his hand on no sharp sword which clatters at his side, about him are no men-at-arms, behind him come no heavy guns, dragged along the trembling streets. Jesus was willingly received: everyone exultingly welcomed him. Will you so receive Jesus? Has he made you willing in the day of his power? You may well salute him, and welcome him to your heart and your home; for you have never before received so blessed a guest. Set open wide the gates, and entreat him to come in; for he will bring heaven with him. He never uses force; he conquers only by love. The Holy Spirit works upon the will of man; but he leaves it still a will, so that we freely choose our Lord, and delight in him as our King.

Remember, beloved, the coming of Christ is with gentleness and love. Riding on a colt, the foal of an ass, is a very different thing from riding the fiery war-horse. I like not men who seem as if they were converted to hate everybody else. It is not Christ who has come unto you if you have grown prouder, harder, more passionate than ever. No, the Christ who enters to save, is himself so meek and lowly of heart that those who take his yoke upon them learn of him, and they become meek and lowly too. Admit the lowly Christ, and be of one mind with him. He will kill your bad temper, conquer your malice, and cast out your pride. Come and be the willing subject of a King who rideth forth in lowliest guise.

His entrance caused great joy. No man’s heart was made heavy that day. The face of the King frowned on none. Other kings have found it needful to force their way through crowds of rebels to their capital, and wade through slaughter to a throne; but none was found to hurt or devour in all the holy mountain when Jesus came to Zion. Women have been ravished, men have been murdered, even babes have been massacred when monarchs have entered cities; but when our King cometh, boughs and palm fronds, shouts and songs, are the setting of a very different scene. Instead of shrieks and groans, we hear the ringing music of children, with their glad Hosannas. Oh, will you not admit the Lord Jesus? Who will refuse an entrance to One who brings with him joy and peace?

“He shall come down like showers

Upon the fruitful earth;

Love, joy, and hope, like flowers,

Spring in his path to birth.”

When he comes, men feel a burning enthusiasm for him. It should not be needful that I should plead for his admission. Surely you should run down the hill to meet him, and then come back, following after him with glad Hosannas. Lord Jesus, we cannot be cold in thy presence. Our souls burn as with coals of juniper when we remember thee.

But I must tell you one thing which I am sure will not damp your ardour, if you are in a right state. If Jesus comes into your souls he will come as a Reformer. He will make your heart a temple, and out of it he will drive the buyers and the sellers, and all else that would pollute the soul. With his scourge of small cords he will whip out many a naughty thing from the heart which he makes his temple. Ay, let the thieves go! If your heart has been made a den of thieves by evil desires, should not these be chased out without mercy? So let it be. Welcome, thou great Refiner! Fain would we lose our dross.

I feel so glad to have to add that when he comes into your heart he will hold a levée. Did I not note it to you when we were reading the fourteenth verse?-“The blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.” Dear heart, if Jesus comes to you, all that is blind and lame about you shall be healed. That was a singular levée, was it not? Many of that select company came on crutches, and some with legs doubled up, or malformed. Blind men were there, with useless eyeballs or empty sockets where eyes should have been. Into this limping, groping circle came the King of glory; and he did not repel them, but he healed them. Admit the Lord into your heart, and the limpings of your unbelief will be exchanged for the leapings of faith. Then shall you see those things to which your heart has long been blind. Let him in! Let him in! Believe on him, and trust him, and so let him into your heart, and you shall find him the physician of your soul.

Last of all, you that have not yet received him, we want you to join with the rest of us in honouring him and glorifying him as he comes into your heart. “Oh!” saith one, “if he will only come into my heart I will indeed praise him.” Have your Vivas ready! Receive the Lord Jesus Christ with all honours. Mention his name with rejoicing. Have your Hurrah ready to welcome the King, the Conqueror, as he enters your soul. Be jubilant! Be enthusiastic! Rejoice that such a one as he should come to dwell with such a one as you, and bring such blessing with him. Praise him! Praise him! Extol him in the highest heavens! Then pray to him. “Save, Lord! Save, oh, save!” Then pray for others to him in the same words, “Hosanna; save, Lord, save!”

And when you have done with Hosannas and prayers, conclude as the Psalmist did in that famous hundred-and-eighth psalm, wherein he cried, “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” Ask God of his love to-day to bind you to Christ, the altar, with one of those wreaths of love and ribands of triumphant grace which you now throw at his feet. Oh, for a twisted garland of mercies, the roses of gladness, and the lilies of delight, to bind our heart to Christ for ever! These cords of love may seem weak, but in very deed they hold us faster than chains of steel. Nothing holds a man like the silken cord of gratitude. When you know how Jesus loves you, when you see how he died for you, then you are drawn to love him in return, and are held to serve him in life, in death, and to eternity. Thus do we celebrate our Lord’s triumphant entrance into the City of Mansoul, and we feel that we could prolong the celebration throughout the whole of our lives.

“Yes, we will praise thee, dearest Lord,

Our souls are all on flame,

Hosanna round the spacious earth

To thine adorèd name.”