Paul was very anxious about Timothy, his own son in the faith. He loved him greatly, and he had much confidence in him; but still he felt that the work of preaching the gospel was such a responsible undertaking, that he could not be too prayerful for him, nor too earnest in exhorting him to continued steadfastness in those things which he had received. So “the old man eloquent”, whose very pen seems to have borrowed some of the burning fervour of his heart, pours out his very soul to young Timothy in the earnest desire that he may find in him a true successor; one who, when he is compelled to lay down his trusteeship, will take it up, and be faithful to his Lord and to the gospel, when his father in Christ is taken away from him. We cannot be too anxious about our young brethren who are to preach the gospel of the grace of God. Pray for students always. Let them continually be mentioned in your private prayers, that, when those who have borne the burden and heat of the day shall rest with their fathers, God may raise up better men than they, who shall yet more faithfully proclaim his Word.

This passage of Scripture, “Lay hold on eternal life,” is suggestive from its connection. In the same verse Timothy is told to “Fight the good fight of faith.” From this it is evident that if he lays hold on eternal life, he will have to fight for it; and that if he has to fight, he can only fight by laying hold upon eternal life with tenacious grip. Every Christian man is a soldier, and no man will war a good warfare unless he lays hold upon eternal life with all his heart and soul. A man may fight the battles of earth with the life of earth, but our warfare is of a different kind; “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” With such foes we can only contend successfully when we are made invulnerable by the reception of the life of God within our souls. In classic story we read of one who was dipped in the river Styx ere he went forth to the battle, so that the arrows of the foe might fall harmless upon him. That fable becomes a fact for us when we “lay hold on eternal life.” The fiery darts of the wicked are quenched by our shield of faith.

The whole chapter forms a sort of preface to the text. Three classes of people seem to have existed in the community where Timothy was called to labour, each with different views of the best method of teaching those around them. First of all, there were some who intermeddled with social politics. They told the slaves that they might conspire against their masters, and try to rectify the unquestionable wrongs which existed in that day. Paul desires, as much as anybody could do, that injustice should come to an end, and that slavery especially should be swept off the face of the earth, as it has largely been by the influence of the gospel. But, taught of God, and seeing that it was by the proclamation of the gospel that these evils would be most surely overcome, rather than by any hasty social change; he says to Timothy, “Leave that matter alone. Lay hold on eternal life. You are not sent to cleanse the Augean stable of politics, and to set things right socially; let it be sufficient for you to lay hold on eternal life, and to call upon the people to do the same. Every man to his own calling, and that is yours. Lay hold on eternal life.” Many a young preacher to-day, and perhaps some of the older ones, would do well to take heed to this advice of Paul given by the Spirit; for while every real social improvement, based on the principles of right and justice, must have the sympathy of all Christian men, depend upon it that, in the long run, the surest way to raise men is to preach the gospel to them. This will change their character, and regenerated lives will soon result in altered social conditions.

Round about Timothy, too, there buzzed a set of men full of questions and difficulties, and discoveries of a false science, which Paul calls “profane and vain babblings”; these were in a most unhealthy state, “sick about questionings and disputes of words”, as the apostle’s language in verse four may be literally rendered. Concerning such he says to Timothy, “Do not answer such wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth. Do not worry yourself about them. Let the bees or the wasps buzz as much as they like; as for you, lay hold on eternal life. Stick to your business. Go in for the one thing for which God has called you, the glorious work of saving souls. Let those who like such questions fight them out to the bitter end; but, as for you, lay hold on eternal life.”

Then Paul had noticed that, at Ephesus, there were certain men who were striving to be rich, certain even of the members of the church who seemed to be sacrificing everything else to gain, counting that gain was godliness, and that if they could get rich they really were the better men for it. But Paul says to Timothy, “Leave money alone. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. Your hand is not big enough to lay hold of two things. Therefore, since you can only have one, see that it is the vital thing. Lay hold on eternal life.” To use the rough old proverb, “Let the cobbler stick to his last.” “Timothy, stick to your business; lay hold on eternal life; that is your main concern: ‘Whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.’ ”

I like this plain dealing of the apostle. He seems to say, “Come to the all-important point, Timothy; and keep to it. Let others go in for this, and that, and the other; as for you, set before yourself the highest aim. Say to them, as I wrote to the Philippians last year from Rome, ‘This one thing I do’: ‘Lay hold on eternal life.’ ”

The great complaint which we have to make against many is, that they seem to be looking after the odds and ends, the paraphernalia, the minor affairs of life; but they do not seem to aim at this point-eternal life. Is it not so in praying? Is there not much that passes by the name which is not real prayer? We might often say, “Come to the point, man, and ask of God what you want. Come to real prayer, and downright grips with the angel; wrestle with him, and prevail.” Paul seems also to hint that there was in the preaching, even in his day, a great deal that was extraneous, ornamental, superfluous; and so he says to young Timothy, “Aim at the centre of the target. Go in for this, the main business, first of all. Lay hold on eternal life.”

How much there is of our prayer which is only language; how much of our praise which is only music! How much there is in our churches which is something that may have to do with the betterment of the people, but is not salvation, not winning souls for Christ! How much there is of teaching which may be Christian teaching, but is not the teaching of Christ! But we clearly see here that the apostle focused everything to this one point, and brought Timothy to this one thing-that he should “lay hold on eternal life”; and having laid hold on it himself, should then set it forth before others with such vehemence and strong emphasis, that they also might be persuaded to lay hold on it, and be saved.

Oh, my dear hearers! what does it matter what I have preached to you unless you get eternal life? What does it matter how I have said this or that to you, unless you have received, at the hand of my Master, that life-giving stream, which shall be in you “a well of water springing up into everlasting life”? With all your getting, I beseech you, get the understanding of the great mystery of godliness, and become wise as to the life which is life indeed.

I am going now to take this exhortation, and press it upon each one here present, asking God to bless it. “Lay hold on eternal life.”

In attempting to answer this question, I remark what should be perfectly obvious: it is a gift of God, the fruit of a divine operation upon the heart. One of the first works of the grace of God is to put within us eternal life. No man can create it, either in himself, or in his fellow-men. Just as our physical life was bestowed upon us apart from any effort of our own, the divine life cannot be evolved by any device of man: it must be imparted by the Spirit of God. At first, God created man, “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;” and when, in Christ, man becomes a new creation, the work is as wholly and as really God’s. Eternal life is what no man has by nature; for he is dead in sin. No man can earn it; for carnal works cannot purchase a spiritual gift; and if a man toiled for a whole eternity, he would be no nearer the possession of eternal life than when he began. That it does not come by effort is clear; for how shall the dead, by any kind of effort, if effort they could make, attain to life thereby? It does not come by outward ceremonies; these could never purchase that which God bestows freely. Yet how natural it is to the proud heart of man to seek to make payment for that which is to be obtained without money and without price! It is strange that men should expect God to take their gift, when they refuse to accept his. If they would but remember that all their giving cannot enrich God; that they cannot give him anything that he does not already possess; it would be quite evident to them that eternal life can come in no other way than by the gift of God. It is foolish to try to fill an already full vessel; it is profane as well as foolish to seek to be saved by giving to God instead of receiving from him, or by anything we can bring to attempt to buy this life eternal. This is to imitate Simon Magus, to whom Peter said, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” Neither with money nor with ceremonies can it be purchased. It is purely and solely the gift of God by Jesus Christ. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift”-the free gift-“of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Life is found alone in Jesus,

Only there ’tis offered thee,-

Offered without price or money,

’Tis the gift of God sent free;

Take salvation,

Take it now, and happy be.”

This eternal life, given thus freely, is a present possession. “Eternal life” may sometimes be employed to set out the glories of heaven, but not often; it is a thing possessed here. In the day in which we are regenerated we receive the first germs of this life everlasting. When we are born again, it is “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” It is a gift of God, a gift not reserved for the future, but given now, the moment a sinner believes in Christ. One of the first tokens of eternal life being given is the cry of prayer, and then come repentance of sin, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is eternal life-the gift of God, and a present possession. Have you received it? I do not ask you whether you know exactly the day or the hour when you received it, but are you alive unto God with a life you had not by nature, but which has been planted in you by God the Holy Spirit?

This life is, in fact, the life of God in the soul. The Holy Spirit comes and breathes God’s life into dead men. There is nothing everlasting in itself but God, and there is no life that is everlasting except that which comes from the everlasting One. The gift of God is not only the gift God gives, but God is the gift that is given. He it is who breathes into us this eternal life, which is really Christ living in us. He himself is “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” The Holy Ghost comes and dwells in the man. “We will come to him,” says Christ, “and take up our abode with him.” The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, each, in a certain way, come and dwell within the man; he becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost, and so he is alive unto God.

Again, eternal life is a life which never dies. We speak very positively here. Eternal life cannot have an end. If it can come to an end by any process whatever, then it is not eternal. This is as clear as words can make it. The life, then, which God gives to every soul in its regeneration, can never die out. Hear these words of Christ: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” We do not teach that if the life of God in a believer were to die out, he could nevertheless be saved. No Scripture teaches that. But we teach that if there be the life of God in a man, it is eternal; not only that it is going to be eternal, but that now in its nature and essence it is eternal, and can be nothing but eternal life, and therefore can never come to an end. It may be lessened; it may be sick; it may be obscure; but if it is there, since it is eternal life, it cannot come to an end. If it did, it could by no possibility be correctly said to be eternal life at all. See you, then, what a blessing is yours if you have received the gift of God? If by grace you have received life through Jesus Christ, you have a life which will never die, a life which will outlast the sun and moon. You will see this world turned to a black coal; you will see all things else expire; but your life and the life of God shall run on for ever and ever. Well might Paul urge Timothy, and well may we urge you, to lay hold on such a life as this. So-

“Take, with rejoicing, from Jesus at once

The life everlasting he gives:

And know, with assurance, thou never canst die,

Since Jesus, thy righteousness, lives.”

Once more, this eternal life is the life that is perfected in glory. It goes on developing, and matures, even in this world, to a very high degree. There is a very great difference between the new-born babe and the full-grown man, and there is a great difference between the believer who has just received eternal life and that riper saint who has come to the fulness of the stature of a man in Christ Jesus; but it is the same life. It is the same life that says, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” which afterwards says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” It is the same life, but a fuller measure thereof. One is life, the other is life more abundant. As certainly as the life eternal begins, even in the tiniest bud, so will it blossom and become fruitful, until it comes to its full perfection in glory. The life of believers in heaven, the life that never sins, the life that is absolute obedience, the life that is undiluted bliss, is exactly the same life that is in the believer now. The same life that God gave him when he first believed is that wherewith he beholds the face of God, without a veil between, as he treads the golden streets of the New Jerusalem.

This, then, is eternal life-a new principle, a divine principle, an inexhaustible, unquenchable, immortal principle. He that hath it, is blessed indeed among the sons of men. He that hath it not, is dead while he liveth.

Having thus considered the nature of this possession, we come back to the question we have asked already: Have we this eternal life? Have we received it as God’s gift? Is it within our hearts, a lamp burning there, never to be put out? Do we know its present power and reality, and have we joy therein? Yea, do we delight ourselves in God, who has brought us out of death into life; out of the region of the valley of the shadow of death into that great light which is the beginning of heaven, the dawn of the day that shall never end? If we do, let us unitedly lift up our hearts in praise, and say, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!” Can we ever cease to adore his name, since he has bestowed such a treasure upon us? But if you have not yet become a possessor of it, I beseech you at this moment to hold out your empty hand, and take the boon so freely offered. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

In the second place, the apostle tells us to “lay hold on” eternal life. That is the main point of my present discourse. How do we lay hold on eternal life? There are degrees in the reception of this life, but happy is the man who fully apprehends that for which also he is “apprehended of Christ Jesus.” The Spirit of God lays hold of us, in order that we may lay hold on eternal life: how we are enabled to do this, is our present subject for consideration.

First, if you would grasp this gift, believe in it as true. The very beginning of our hope is when the Lord leads us to believe that there is such a thing as eternal life; and that it is a tangible thing, not a dream or a vision; but a reality to be laid hold of. I certainly believe in the existence of a thing that I can lay hold upon. If “seeing is believing”, laying-hold is even a more thorough mode of believing. Believe, then, that there is a higher life than nature ever can create. If unconverted, you do not know anything about this in your own experience; but there is such a thing. There is life in Christ, which he can give you. There is life by the Holy Ghost, which he can work in you. He can strip you of those grave-clothes of sin, and raise you from your tomb. The words which Christ once addressed to Martha sound still in our ears: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Answer this question of my Master, “Believest thou this?” If thou dost, there is hope that thou shalt yet be a partaker of his grace. Nothing can hinder when he begins to work. Though you feel as if you did not feel at all; though you seem paralyzed, and unable to repent or to believe; this life shall be given unto you, and it shall be given unto you now, if you look unto him who was lifted up upon the cross, that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Believe, my brethren, you that have this eternal life, in the power and reality of it; and whenever Satan tempts you to think that it is a fiction, a dream, a piece of enthusiasm, an idea born of fanaticism, resist him by the plain testimony of the Word of God, and the abundant witness of those who have gone before you, rejoicing in the power of it. Every child of God has times when he questions himself; but still he can truly say, “I am not what I used to be. I have feelings both of pain and joy that come not of the old life, but of the new, which has come to me by God’s gracious gift.”

“Lord, I was dead: I could not stir

My lifeless soul to come to thee;

But now, since thou hast quickened me,

I rise from sin’s dark sepulchre.”

If any of you have not yet experienced such a change, begin as I have told you, by believing that there is such a thing as eternal life. I wish that you who have not yet obtained this blessing would make a point of regularly attending some place where the gospel is preached, saying, “It is to be had, and I will have it. It is to be had by faith. ‘Faith cometh by hearing.’ I will be an earnest hearer. ‘Hearing comes by the Word of God.’ I will take care to read and hear only the Word of God, that, so, faith may come to me, and life may come by faith; for there is such a thing as receiving a new and spiritual life that shall make me far other than by nature I am. I believe it is true.” That is the first way of laying hold.

But you do not lay hold of a thing by simply believing that there is such a thing. You must go farther. Appropriate it. There is a book, and I believe that it is there; but if anybody told me that it was a present for me, and said, “All that you have to do in order to have it is to lay hold upon it,” I should understand that he meant, not only that I was to believe in its existence, but that I was to take it up, and carry it home with me. That is how you are to “lay hold on eternal life.” Strange as it is, this is a thing which, though it is so simple, we cannot make awakened sinners understand. That eternal life is God’s free gift put within their reach, and that they are to take hold of it for their own salvation, seems harder for some to grasp, than if it was the most intricate puzzle. Yet this is, perhaps, the clearest aspect of the great matter of salvation. It was Dr. Chalmers, I think, who used to say, that he had no such comfort in the gospel as when he viewed it as a simple offer on the one side, and a simple acceptance on the other. God gives, and we take. The Lord who has been chastening you, and making you feel your sinnership, and showing you that you are condemned, and only fit to die, says now, “Lay hold on eternal life. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take him to be yours. Accept him as your Substitute, bearing the death justly your due; and having given his life for you, now giving it to you. Make the exchange. Christ took your death: take his life. He bore your ill: take his good. Appropriate it. Lay hold on eternal life.” When people are sinking in the water, and there is a life-buoy or a rope near, they do not need much exhorting to lay hold upon it, nor any elaborate explanation of the way. They simply grip anything that gives them half a hope of being saved from the devouring deep. Now, soul, thou art not to bring anything with thee. That would be to fill thy hand, and then thou couldst not lay hold of anything else. Thou art to come empty-handed, just as thou art, to Christ, who is set before thee. Be bold enough to take him, and let him be thine. Thou needest no worthiness. How couldst thou be worthy of him? He gives himself freely to thine unworthiness and sinnership. Confess these, and lay hold on eternal life; appropriate it to thyself.

The exhortation means more than that, however. Having appropriated it, keep it. Hold to it, and never let it go. Hide it in your heart as a choice treasure; and, if any would rob you of it, or frown you out of it, or laugh at you because you prize so highly what they so lightly esteem, lay hold on it still more. This is the work of the grace of God, which enables you, first to take, and then to keep it. Oh, what efforts will be made, from within and from without, to get you to give up eternal life! But here comes in the exhortation, “Cling to it. Hold fast by it constantly. As with a death-grip, grasp it with new energy. If you have held it with one hand, hold it with both hands. Yet more and more lay hold on eternal life.”

And then, furthermore, stay yourself upon it. According to the text, you have to “Fight the good fight of faith.” Every now and then you will get an ugly knock, a bruise, a bleeding wound from your enemy. What are you to do? Always lay hold on eternal life again, and it will strengthen you, stanch your wounds, and make you once more strong in the day of battle. I would have you think much of this. If you believe in Christ, there is a life within you, like the life of God, which will never die; a life within you which will bring you to stand before the glorious throne of Christ, “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Do not, therefore, ever give up hope. Do not be staggered by what you may have to suffer here. In the midst of all the agony of the way, stay your heart upon God, and upon the gift he hath given you. “Lay hold on eternal life.” If between here and heaven you could be burned as a martyr every day, it would be worth your while to bear it, laying hold on eternal life.

“The King above in beauty,

Without a veil is seen;

It were a well-spent journey,

Though ten deaths lay between!”

If between here and heaven you had nothing to bear but the cruelty of men, and the unkindness of the enemies of Christ, you should bear it right manfully, and even joyfully, because you can say, “I know in myself that I have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Even here I have a life which the world did not give me, and cannot take from me; therefore I hold to it still, and I comfort myself with this sweet thought, that it is mine, the gift of God to me. It bears me up amid seas of grief. ‘My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.’ ”

Further, I think that the apostle, by the exhortation, “Lay hold on eternal life,” meant, let other things go. Here is a brother, lately converted, who has been accustomed to keep his shop open on Sundays. He lives in a street where the best business is to be done on that day, and if he shuts up his shop, he will very likely be a great loser. What should he do? I thank God that the man has not asked anybody what he should do; he has done the right thing, and trusted in his God. The apostle seems to say, “Let anything else go, let everything else go; but lay hold on eternal life. Hold you to that.” “Oh, but I should lose a living!” Yes, but if you lost a living and saved your life, what would you lose? Have you never heard of one who had a bag of gold on board a ship coming home from Australia; the ship was sinking, and he went down to his cabin, put as much gold as he could into a belt, and then fastened the belt around his waist? When he leaped for the boat, and missed it, it was not possible to pick him up, for he sank with the weight of his own gold round his loins. There was no hope for him; his treasure was his ruin. And many a man, in like manner, is by all his toil but preparing sure destruction for himself; toiling and working hard only that he may effectually ruin his own soul. Let these things go. “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Even for the fleeting life of the body, a man will sacrifice all, thankful if he can get out of the burning house alive, though all his worldly goods be destroyed; glad to escape from the hands of the brigands, though they strip him of every possession: “All that a man hath will he give for his life.” If this be wise for a transient life, how much more for the life which is eternal! We shall be gainers by losing everything, if by the loss we gain everlasting bliss. Let all that opposes go-friends, kindred, comfort, this present life; let them all go, if by the sacrifice we may more firmly lay hold on eternal life. To keep that, and hold fast to it amidst the stress of temptation, is the main business of the Christian man. “Lay hold on eternal life.”

And it means, in my text, more than that. Fight, and as you fight lay hold upon the victory. While you are running for heaven, often anticipate the joys of heaven. I think you and I do not go to heaven often enough. “Well,” says one, “I thought we should go there when we died.” Yes, if you are a believer in Christ, that is secure; but why not go there now? The Christian’s position is unique: he is in two worlds at once. Our Lord hath quickened us, “and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ.” Do you not know that the lower ends of all the streets of heaven are near here? Victory-that is heaven; well, we even now overcome through the blood of the Lamb. Peace with God-that is heaven; and at this moment, “Being justified by faith we have peace with God.” Holiness-that is heaven; yes, but we are made holy now by the work of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Communion with God-that is heaven; but even to-day, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Is it not good sometimes to sit down, and anticipate the day when you will come into your inheritance? You have heard of the young prince, who, when his father wakened one morning, was found putting on the king’s crown. It was awkward in his case; but your Father will not object to your often putting on your crown. Try it, and see how it fits you. You will have a new song to sing; begin to sing it here. You will have holy work to do; “They serve God day and night in his temple;” serve him here. Christ is to dwell among us in heaven; let us know that he dwells among us here. I like that verse of our hymn-

“I would begin the music here,

And so my soul should rise:

Oh, for some heavenly notes to bear

My passions to the skies!”

It was said of an old Puritan, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven; that is necessary for all of us; we must have heaven in us before we get into heaven. If we do not get to heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterwards. An old Scotchman was asked whether he ever expected to get to heaven? “Why, man, I live there,” was his quaint reply. Let us all live in those spiritual things which are the essential features of heaven. Often go there before you go to stay there. If you come down to-morrow morning, knowing and realizing that heaven is yours, and that you will soon be there, those children will not worry you half so much. When you go out to your business or to your work, you will not be half so discontented when you know that this is not your rest, but that you have a rest on the hills eternal, whither your heart has already gone, and that there your portion is in the everlasting dwellings. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Get a hold of it now. It is a thing of the future, and it is a thing of the present; and even your part of it that is future can be, by faith, so realized and grasped, as to be actually enjoyed while you are yet here. “Lay hold on eternal life.”

I have not explained my text so fully or so clearly as I could wish. The life of which it speaks is beyond all language; but if you will obey the exhortation of the text, that will be the best exposition of it. Let him that hath not this eternal life, believe that it is to be had. Let the man whose heart aches for it, grasp it and appropriate it now; he need not be afraid that he will be repelled. Let him that hath it, hold it fast as a jewel, for which, sooner than part with it, he would sell house and home. Let him that hath it, enjoy it even now. God help you in this manner to “lay hold on eternal life”!

Now I have to finish with just a special word. Who are the people that ought chiefly to lay hold on eternal life?

First, those who are called. This is the reason the apostle gives to Timothy: “whereunto thou art also called.” Beloved, there are some of you that have been called. A boy, who had come upon an errand, stood at my window this afternoon. Suddenly he ran away, and I thought, “What made him go?” I found out that, though I had not heard the voice, some one had called him; and therefore he was gone. Imitate that boy. Go about this world as men who have been called by a voice that nobody has heard but you. Has God called you to himself? He means you to come away from your old self, and cease to live the old life: he would have you lay hold on life eternal. God never singles us out in this way unless he means to bless us. He never says, “Seek ye my face,” in vain. Has God called you out from among men? Do you feel what your parents and friends at home do not feel? Is there a call to you like that call, “Samuel, Samuel,” and have you responded, “Here am I; for thou didst call me. Speak; for thy servant heareth”? Oh, if God has favoured you with a special and effectual call, then lay hold on eternal life with your whole heart and soul, and never let it go! Come what may, resolve that you will hold to this gift of God in life, in death, and throughout eternity.

Next, those who have confessed Christ ought specially to lay hold on eternal life: “whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” Timothy had been baptized, and probably there had been a great number of persons to encourage or watch him as he came forward to confess Christ. This, then, was a double reason why he should hold fast that on which he had laid hold. O you that have named the name of Christ, and have put him on by that wonderful symbol of death and burial and resurrection, “Lay hold on eternal life.” Do not play at baptism and the Lord’s supper. Let these be stern, nay, sweet realities to you. Lay hold, not on the symbol alone, but on what the symbol means. Have you been “Buried with him by baptism into death”? Then, grasp the soul of the symbol. It is not a mere empty form, or only the badge of a sect, but a picture of the end of the old life of the flesh, dying to the world and sin, that we may rise in “newness of life” to walk before God in the land of the living. Of all men, he who has been baptized should “lay hold on eternal life”; for, in proportion as his baptism is true, he has no other life to lay hold of, having died and been buried with Christ. Then, also, we come to his table, and there we eat his flesh and drink his blood after a spiritual sort, receiving not merely bread and wine as memorials, but himself, by faith, into our hearts. “Lay hold on eternal life;” for profession without eternal life is a fearful mockery. Without eternal life, to come to the Lord’s supper will be to eat and drink condemnation to yourself, not discerning the Lord’s body. You that have professed him before many witnesses, “Lay hold on eternal life.”

And, especially do I say this to those who have been consecrated, like Timothy, to the service of the Christian ministry. You that have been permitted in any way, even in the Sunday-school, to speak of Christ to children; you to whom the Lord has committed his gospel, that you may impart it to others, “Lay hold on eternal life.” You will never do much in this work unless you have eternal life within your own soul. See to that first. A dead preacher-what is he but a mocker of dead souls? A dead teacher-what can she teach? A dead instructor of a Bible-class-how shall the word of life have free course and be glorified? A blind man discoursing of colours, or a dumb man teaching music, is not more out of place than a man without eternal life trying to tell out the gospel. What can he do? “Lay hold on eternal life,” or else quit this false position; lest when the Lord comes he should say to you, “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?” Ah! I am speaking to myself now, and I will take it home. Will you also open your heart to whatever in the sermon belongs to you? And when it is done, and my voice is silent to your ear, I pray that you may hear, for many a day, a gentle whisper saying to you, “Lay hold on eternal life.”

You, poor sinner, as you go after your follies and amusements, may the call, “Lay hold on eternal life,” come to you until you shall obey it, and quit such trifles! And you, Christian man, when you get into the world, and are tempted to make gain by sin, while you will suffer loss by righteousness, may you hear a voice say, “Lay hold on eternal life”! And any of you who get the “cold shoulder”, and the rough side of men’s tongues, when you begin to think that you cannot bear it, hear the voice saying again, “Lay hold on eternal life.” Cling to that, for God, for Christ, for eternity, for heaven. The eternal life is the only life worth living for. God help you to live for it always; and, if you do, it will be of his own grace, and to him shall be all the glory, for ever and ever! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon-1 Timothy 6.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-567, 435, 538.

WANTED!-VOLUNTEERS

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 25th, 1891, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, March 22nd, 1891.

“And next him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord; and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valour.”-2 Chronicles 17:16.

It was a great thing for king Jehoshaphat to have such a pious lord-lieutenant, one who could command an army, and at the same time obey the commands of God. Christian men ought greatly to value Christian servants, especially if such persons are employed in positions of trust. If we can have godly men to occupy our offices, and transact our business, we should be very grateful, and do our best to encourage and cheer them. It is true that sometimes those who make the loudest profession of religion are the least trustworthy; but that very fact shows that there is something in the religion they falsely profess, which, if really laid hold of, makes a man more upright and reliable. Else why should it be counterfeited? The larger the responsibility, the more necessary it is to have men who can be depended upon to manage the business. It was for the great benefit of Jehoshaphat, as king, that he should have a godly captain over so large a part of his army as two hundred thousand mighty men of valour.

It was also a great thing for the country of Judah to have a godly man in such a position. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” I hope that in England there will be an increasing desire that those persons who represent us in Parliament, or who legislate in any way, should be men of good character. The day will yet come when it will be judged that those who are immoral are not the men to make our laws, or to see that those laws are carried out. It is, however, a great blessing to a country to have godly men in high places who will see to it that right is done, that justice is maintained, and that the ends of true religion are promoted. Happy is the nation that has godly officers to discharge its business, men who fear God, and fear none beside!

I wonder how this man, Amasiah the son of Zichri, came to be a servant of God. We have no history of his experience. We could almost wish that we had; but since it is not recorded, it makes us feel that although men and women cannot tell us the way in which they were led to yield to Christ, yet if their lives show that they are serving God we must be well content. If you are saved, even though you cannot tell us when or how the great change was wrought, we will rejoice in the fact of your salvation. Amasiah is a man of whom we do not know anything beyond this-he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” There must have been a turning-point in his career, a time when first he knew the grace of God, which wrought such a change in him. There must have been a waking up to the feeling that God deserved his love and his life. There must have been a time of quickening into spiritual consecration. We are told nothing about that, therefore we must leave it under the veil which Scripture draws over his history. But if I say little about his exercises of soul, and press onward to a very practical point, I earnestly desire that the inward enlightenment that he enjoyed maybe known by many of you; and that God the Holy Ghost may work upon your hearts, and bring you out of the bondage and servitude of sin into the glorious liberty of the gospel, which will make you capable of willingly offering yourselves unto the Lord.

I am here as a recruiting-sergeant. I have no ribbons with me, nor shillings; but I cast a longing eye on many here present who as yet do not belong to my Master, and fervently do I hope that they may be enlisted in his service. Often have I seen the recruiting-sergeant lingering about certain streets, and looking at every young man passing by. I have known him address some young gentleman who wondered that he should ever have been spoken to about such a thing; and who in his offended dignity felt a deal more inclined to kick the sergeant than to give him a civil answer. But the officer has said to him, “I beg your pardon, sir; but I thought such a smart-looking fellow as you would be just the kind of man to take the Queen’s shilling;” and, soothed by the compliment, the gentleman has gone on his way laughing. He wanted no Queen’s shilling, and was not at all inclined for army service. I would desire to be as bold in addressing you as the sergeant is in his calling, and if I should intrude upon some young gentleman who should feel angry because of my importunity, I shall not at all object. I shall say, “Very well; but you must excuse my feeling that the more ability and influence you have, the greater is the reason why you should be converted to Christ, that you might serve my Master.” God knows how I rejoice over the poorest, the most ignorant, the most depraved of men or women, when they are brought to Christ; but I do like sometimes to see those come to him who have some life in them, and some talent about them, and who can, by consecrating themselves to the Lord, do for his cause and kingdom, by his grace, a real service in days to come. There is hard fighting to be done, and my Lord calls for men who will not be afraid to do it. Let all the heroism of your manhood impel you to this blessed service. You are not asked to serve the Lord because he promises you ease and pleasure; you are rather called to “endure hardness” as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. As we sang just now:

“Ye that are men, now serve him

Against unnumbered foes;

Your courage rise with danger,

And strength to strength oppose.”

I am going to use the account of this Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord, as an illustration of what, I trust, will be true about many of my hearers. Oh, that the Holy Spirit may draw out somebody who shall become a very apostle in those times, a standard-bearer for the Lord Jesus, who shall-

“Lift high his royal banner”

among the sons of men!

First, let me say that Amasiah is distinguished from the other mighty men of King Jehoshaphat by the fact that he made it his life-work to serve the Lord. He “willingly offered himself unto the Lord,” and he was accepted, and became a life-long servant of Jehovah, the God of Israel.

It should not need much talk to make men feel that this is reasonable service. To serve your Maker, who created you that you should glorify him, is surely a natural thing to do; and it becomes a thing to be more expected when you are asked to serve your Redeemer, who shed his blood that you might be set free from sin, and “yield your members servants unto holiness.” Would it not be a right thing for you to offer yourself to him who yielded himself to the death for us?

“Offered was he, for greatest and the least;

Himself the Victim, and himself the Priest.”

This is an argument Amasiah had not, yet did he find reason enough to serve the Lord. How much stronger is the claim upon you! And if this plea needs to be strengthened still further, think that you are called to serve him with whom you hope to dwell for ever in heaven. It ought to be an instinct of every reasonable soul to set about such service instantly. Ordinary gratitude should cause every Christian man to say to his Lord, “Whom else should I serve? I owe to thee my very being, my new life, and all I possess. In thee I live; by thee I am daily fed. Why should I not serve thee?”

“Thine am I by all ties;

But chiefly thine,

That through thy sacrifice

Thou, Lord, art mine;

By thine own cords of love, so sweetly wound

Around me, I to thee am closely bound.”

Moreover, this is honourable service. Men like a service that seems to reflect some kind of glory upon them. To serve a great man, makes even the footman feel as if he was himself a great man, too; at least, I have seen some of these gentlemen give themselves mighty airs, under the notion that they were as grand as their master. But to serve God really gives honour and glory. O sirs, if this be not done in mere pretence, but in reality, what a grand life a man must lead who is the servant of God! To serve him whom angels serve, whom archangels serve, whose service is perfect freedom, is the most honourable service to which a man can attain. There is nothing humiliating or debasing about it, but everything that tends to lift us upward, and to make us grow in spiritual force. To serve God is to reign. Every man becomes a king in proportion as he really serves the Lord.

Further, this is remunerative service, the most remunerative in all the world. The devil spoke a truth that he did not mean to speak when he said, “Doth Job serve God for nought?” God never lets his servants serve him for nothing. He may not always give them gold or worldly prosperity; but he will give them a reward more satisfying to them than these things, more grateful to their hearts than all the treasures of the Indies. I never met with a man that served God who complained of his wages. Nay, it is so much a work of grace that the work itself is a gift to us. The privilege of serving God-ay, call it the high honour, the delight, the great gain of being a servant of God-if there were no other reward, this would suffice us. I can sympathize with him who said-

“Dismiss me not thy service, Lord,

But train me for thy will,

For even I, in fields so broad,

Some duties may fulfil;

And I will ask for no reward

Except to serve thee still.”

But the fact is that, in serving the Lord, we have, through grace, “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We realize that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. “We know that all things work together for good” to us while we are here, and that the best part of our religion is yet to come, for

“After death its joys shall be

Lasting as eternity.”

He whose life is devoted to the service of God must have a blessed life. It is not always a happy life in the judgment of men, yet is it still happy in the judgment of God, and in the estimation of the believer himself. The servants of God have a happy service.

I may also say that this is safe service. God will not put you into a position of danger when you enter his service. If you serve men, they may tempt you to do wrong. Many a young man, who has entered an office or a shop, has found himself commanded to do what no honest man ought to expect another to do. Many a young woman has taken her position in a family where temptation has been like Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace to her. But if you serve God, he may try you, but he will never tempt you to sin. In following hard after him you will be in safe places, and the more you are obedient to the will of God the more secure will you be from temptations within and without. Obedience will keep you from peril. The grace of God will preserve you from all evil.

After all, I am not like that recruiting-sergeant, who, if he tries to get a man to serve under the colours, has to put it very prettily. He tells about the merry times that soldiers have, but he does not say much about wounds and wooden legs. He does not talk much about bleeding to death on the battle-field, nor about being discharged at last with, nothing a week to live upon after your best days have been given in your country’s service. No; he always picks out the bright colours, and praises “Her Majesty’s Service” as if it were all pipe-clay and red coats and fine feathers and glory, and I know not what besides. Now, I have not to do that. There is no fault in my Master’s service that I need to conceal from you. All round it is the best, the happiest, the most glorious position that a man can occupy; and though I would bid you count the cost before you enrol yourself under his leadership, you may rest assured that you can never calculate the value of the reward that Christ hath in store for all his faithful followers. Therefore, without any reserve, I may fairly come to each man here and say, “Like Amasiah, the son of Zichri, offer yourself willingly unto the Lord.”

Now, to go a step further, notice, in the second place, concerning this man Amasiah, he was a ready volunteer, “who willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” There is much truth in the old proverb, that “one volunteer is worth twenty pressed men.” Service willingly rendered has a fragrance and a bloom about it that make it most delightful and acceptable.

He needed no pressing. Some of you want so very much persuading, that you are hardly worth having when at last we get you. There is such a thing as pressing a man so long that all the juice is gone out of him, and you have only the husk of the man when you do manage to get him. Amasiah wanted no pressing at all, for in his soul there was an ardent desire to serve the living God; he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.”

He needed no hunting out. How many even of church-members seem to be like Saul when he was elected king, and they could not find him! “Where is that tall fellow, head and shoulders above the rest of the people?” At last somebody said that he had hidden himself among the stuff. Many of our young men to-day are among the stuff; and there are numbers both of men and women who ought to be coming forward for the Lord’s service instead of hiding among the rubbish. My dear friend Mr. Pearce, the superintendent of our Sunday-school, says that he wants more teachers. There are plenty who might engage in the work, but they are among the stuff. Let them imitate Amasiah, “who willingly offered himself unto the Lord.”

Amasiah was a self-contained man. He needed no looking after, when he had once come out. We have some Christians who will keep right as long as somebody else looks after them. How many such there are in all churches! You must always be watching them, or else they will be up to mischief, or growing cold, ceasing to attend the means of grace, getting into evil company, and going back to the world. Amasiah was not of that kind. He “offered himself willingly unto the Lord;” and having done so, he stood to his consecration vow.

He needed no leader. On the contrary, he took the lead himself over two hundred thousand men. We have many that will follow pretty well. We want some that will not need leading except by our great Leader, the Lord Jesus; men who know what they know, believe what they believe, know how they ought to act, and are resolved so to act, and will do it even to the end. It was a fine motto which a distinguished worker once adopted: “Resolved, that I will act as if there were none else to act, not waiting for others.” This is the spirit which we long to see amongst the Lord’s people: not a spirit of lawlessness and disorder, but of loyalty and independence; a spirit which will not timidly wait until everybody is ready, but, knowing the will of God, will at all hazards go forward to do it. Amasiah, the leader of this host of “mighty men of valour”, would be certain to be a man of valour himself. Like leader, like followers: he that would lead brave men must himself be brave. We need in this generation more men, who, in Christ’s service, shall perform deeds of daring, as British soldiers do to win the Victoria Cross, which has inscribed upon it the words, “For valour.” Christ has right royal rewards for those who faithfully serve him. I should like to meet with a band of brave young men ready to render valiant service to my Lord, young men with backbones; there have not been many of that kind made lately; they are to-day generally soft down the back. Most men I meet are very squeezable, men of india-rubber that yield every way. But we want for Christ and for his cause some who cannot be turned aside, to offer themselves willingly unto the Lord, doing it decidedly, at once, and from the bottom of their hearts. God grant by his Spirit that some such may by this sermon be led to the knowledge and service of the Lord!

The third point about Amasiah is that, while he was a volunteer, he offered himself to the Lord. “Himself”-it was the best thing he had. Some of you, perhaps, have not anything else to offer. Then, do as he did-willingly offer yourself. I have heard of a little boy at a public meeting where there was a missionary collection, when the collector came to him, he asked him to hold the plate a little lower. Thinking he wanted to see his money drop on to the plate, and, being a kindly man, he held the plate down low. “Please, sir, it is not low enough; would you mind putting it on the floor?” The collector good-humouredly put it down, and then the boy said, “I have not even a penny to give to the collection, so I want to get into the plate, and give myself to God.” It was a simple thing to do; but that is exactly what we desire that many may do at this good hour. Willingly offer yourselves, like Amasiah, unto the Lord.

He made no reserve as to what he had. He gave himself, his money, his ability, his position, his influence. All was yielded up to the Lord. “Well,” says one, “I give so much to the weekly offering.” Do you? I am glad to hear it; but have you given yourself? “I sometimes go out and sing a sacred song at a meeting,” you say. That is quite right; you give your voice; but have you given yourself? “I have joined the church,” another says. That, too, is a very proper thing to do if you are really a believer; but it is not all, nor is it the first thing; you have given us the distinguished privilege of having your name written on our church-roll; but have you given yourself to the Lord? It is said of Amasiah, that he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” You have often found, I doubt not, a chrysalis. You have perhaps said, as you stooped to pick it up, “I will take that home, and see what kind of butterfly comes out of it.” You have kept it and kept it, and nothing has ever come out of it, because the butterfly had already flown. Many people about us are like that. We hope that they are going to do something, but nothing ever comes out of our chrysalis. There is nothing living inside, and hence there is never any flutter of life, nor flight of wings. But when a man gives himself to the Lord willingly, making no reserve as to what he has, then we have something worth the having. I like to sing-

“Yet if I might make some reserve,

And duty did not call,

I love my Lord with zeal so great

That I should give him all.”

Notice yet another thing about Amasiah, which, I think, must have been true: he made no reserve as to what he did. He gave himself to the Lord, as much as to say, “Lord, put me here, and I will keep here. Put me there, and I will keep there. Make me a great man, and I will serve thee. Make me a little man, and I will serve thee. Give me health and strength, and I will serve thee. But if thou dost choose rather to send me sickness, and lay me on a bed of languishing, still I will serve thee.” In some such way I can fancy that Amasiah gave himself up to the service of the King of kings. This is how we should come to Christ; willing when he says “Go,” to go; when he says “Come,” to come; when he says “Do this,” to do it; willing to do his will, as the little girl said the angels do it, “without asking any questions”; and thus numbering ourselves among the company who stand ready to obey their Master’s least word-

“Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs but to do or die.”

Christ must be the absolute Master of the saved soul; and the soul that is truly saved is willing either to go or stay, as may seem best to his Lord; for it is to the Lord that he has given himself; to one who henceforth is to rule and reign over his whole life. I trust that some to whom these words come will thus offer themselves, making no reserve as to what they shall do, and-

“Where duty calls or danger,

Be never wanting there.”

When Amasiah willingly offered himself for the Lord’s service, he made no reserve as to when it should be. He probably gave himself to the Lord while he was a young man. He began with all his heart to serve God in his youth; and when he was in middle life, and his children were round about him, he was still unfalteringly the servant of God. When he grew grey, and others ventured to think that he had better retire from active service, he might think it wise to give up some of his work, but never would he retire from the service of his God; for he had willingly offered himself unto the Lord. He made no reserve about serving up to a certain time, and then leaving off; but he would serve his God while he had breath in his body.

And he made no reserve as to how that service should be rendered. As I have already said, he would serve God in health, but he would serve him in sickness too. Ay, and he would serve God by doing nothing at all, if such was his will. One of the hardest works for saints to do is to do nothing. When they get so infirm, that they cannot leave their room, or even their bed; perhaps their very voice fails them, so that they cannot speak; then what difficult work it is to say with the heart, “Lord, I served thee when I laboured for thee, and I will serve thee when I cannot labour for thee. I trusted thee when I could speak about thee, and I will trust thee now that I cannot speak about thee. I am thy servant. If my Lord bids me do anything, I will do it; if he gives me no command, yet will I be his servant still. In life and in death my ear shall be bored to my master’s door-post”! In this fashion, I suppose, Amasiah willingly offered himself unto the Lord. Have you not sometimes seen the telegraph boys, standing or sitting still at the post-office when there is no message to be delivered? They are as much doing their work by waiting as when they carry to its destination the despatch which has been flashed along the wires. In waiting they serve, and in like manner they most truly serve the Lord who give up all idea of self-pleasing, and go or stay, as best pleases him, to whom they willingly offer themselves to be his servants.

I have been explaining what kind of volunteers I want to enlist for my Lord. I wonder whether the Holy Spirit is saying to some young man, “You are the man. You should willingly offer yourself to the Lord,” or whether he is gently suggesting to some dear sister, “You are beloved of the Lord, and may serve him like Deborah or Dorcas if you will but give yourself now.” You remember how Zinzendorf was converted to Christ by seeing, at Düsseldorf, Stenburg’s picture of Christ on the cross, and at the bottom these words-

“All this I did for thee;

What hast thou done for me?”

I pass on the question to you, though I cannot paint the picture, or make you see the vision. If Christ has redeemed you, why, it follows, as a matter of course, that you will reckon that you are not your own, for you are bought with a price, and, like Amasiah, you will willingly offer yourself unto God. As you survey the wondrous cross on which he died, you will surely be constrained to say with Dr. Watts:-

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Now, I have a fourth observation to make, which is important, though it may not seem so. When Amasiah willingly offered himself unto the Lord, he did this in a secular calling.

He did not stipulate to be a prophet. I do not know how it is, but when a certain type of young man gets it into his head that he will serve God, the next thing is that he wants to see me about how he can get into the ministry. Perhaps I look at him, and I see that his mouth was never made for preaching. You can see by the appearance of his eyes that they were never made to look a congregation in the face. When he begins to talk, you can tell that he might possibly make a good learner for the next twenty years, and then, perhaps, he would be able to teach a class of boys; but the boys would soon be tired of him, for they would probably find out even then that they knew as much as he did. Some have no gift for instructing others, but that need not hinder them from serving Christ as they can. Remember, Amasiah did not say, “Lord, I will give myself to thee, if thou wilt let me be a prophet.” No! He willingly offered himself to the Lord, to be what the Lord would have him to be; and so he remained a soldier. He was in the army, and never went to any college, and never preached a sermon in his life; but he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” You may willingly offer yourself to the Lord, and go and keep a shop, selling articles unadulterated, sixteen ounces to the pound, and twelve to the dozen, unless you make it thirteen. You may willingly offer yourself to the Lord, and be a shoemaker: there have been consecrated cobblers before now, as both Sunday-schools and foreign missions can testify. You may willingly offer yourself to the Lord, even though your daily calling is that of a chimney-sweep; that is a very necessary business, and though your face may become blackened at it, your heart may be clean all the time. You may willingly offer yourself to the Lord, and be on the roads breaking stones, praying your Master the while to break stony hearts. There is no lawful occupation in which a man cannot thoroughly serve the Lord. It is a great privilege and blessing to be set apart to the work of winning souls; but we must never separate that work from all the rest of the callings of life, as though it alone were sacred, and all the rest were secular and almost sinful. Serve God where you are. Good woman, go on looking after those dear children now that your husband has been called home; you will be serving God by bringing up those boys and girls in the knowledge of Christ: God help you to do it! Go on, dear daughter, helping mother; you need not aspire to be shaking a kingdom; shake the bed well to-morrow morning. There are many persons who have some very exalted ideas in their heads, who will serve God best by just doing common-place work in a commonplace way, and will probably never be permitted to do anything else; at least, that will be the case until they step down from their stilts, and get rid of their lofty notions.

Yet it cannot have been very easy to Amasiah to live wholly to God as a soldier. His was a difficult calling; though, I suppose, in his days, it was not so difficult as it is now. But he did it, whether his occupation was difficult or not. Wherever your lot is cast, abide in your calling, and glorify God in it, as this man did. “For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.” Even if your lot is cast in a barrack-room, be bold to confess your Master: many a man has become a soldier of Christ by seeing his comrade in the regiment kneel down and pray. With the memory of many a hero, both in the army and out of it, we may be certain that, however difficult the place, the grace of God is sufficient for us as it was for Amasiah.

Not only did he serve the Lord in this hard place, but he rose to eminence in it. I do not know how he began. When I saw him last-that is, when I last looked at my text-he was the commander of two hundred thousand mighty men of valour. A fine position that! He had become one of the five great generals of Jehoshaphat’s army. Where he began I cannot tell; but it is quite certain that, in fearing God, he was not hindered in his promotion. The man who fears God need not be hindered one whit in rising in the world; that is to say, if it is worth while rising in the world; for there are some kinds of elevation so disgraceful, that they are better shunned than sought. It is, in many cases, a great thing for a man to be kept down. A good doctor of divinity, whom I well knew, met a Christian man in the street, shook hands with him, and congratulated him. The man said, “I do not know, Dr. Jeter, why you congratulate me, for I have had a world of trouble; in fact, I have failed in my business.” To which the good doctor replied, “I congratulate you, because you failed honestly; you are the only man that I have seen for years who has done that.” Then he shook hands with him again, and said, “My dear fellow, I do thank God that you failed honestly.” But no man need fail because he serves God. No man need stick in the mud for ever because he becomes a Christian; for “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

Yet another thing we may venture to say of Amasiah. He left an honourable record. Here is a man in Jehoshaphat’s army who willingly offers himself to the Lord, and rises to be commander of two hundred thousand mighty men of valour. It reminds me of Havelock and his saints in the Indian Mutiny. There was a stern fight to be fought, and the general said, “Send for Havelock and his saints,” and they soon accomplished the task. When you get men who thoroughly serve God in whatever position of life they are, they are terrible fellows. They will do the thing where others only talk about it; for God does help, even in the ordinary concerns of daily life, those that put their trust in him. They shall never be confounded. “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” They can say, “By thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.” Moreover, “The memory of the just is” blessed; “the footprints they leave behind them help others on in the blessed way; and when they fall asleep, they are among the blessed dead who “rest from their labours;”-they could not do that if here they had been idle-“and their works do follow them.”

I am still working away, you see, at my main point. I am wanting to get that fine young fellow into my Lord’s army. I am praying God the Holy Ghost to influence men and women to say, “We will willingly offer ourselves unto the Lord. We will serve him with our whole heart and soul.” God grant that it may be so!

I have done when I add these words-Amasiah not only served the Lord himself, but he is an example to others. Let us make the best application of the sermon by working it out in our own lives.

First of all, he is an example to the young. He was probably a young man when he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” Why wait to grow older in sin, before entering the glorious service of Christ? The world has nothing that can satisfy your heart: turn from its folly, and choose the nobler path. If you are only a child, still I appeal to you; the earlier you offer yourself to the Lord, the better will it be for all the future of your life.

Amasiah is an example, also, to men of position. He held a high office, but he “willingly offered himself unto the Lord.” Young man of fortune and rank, I have a message from the Lord for thee! Offer thyself willingly unto the Lord. As thou wouldest be saved by the precious blood of Christ and the free grace of God, come thou and lay thyself down at those dear feet that bled for thy salvation; thou knowest not what work the Lord has yet for thee to do.

He is also an example to men who are rising in the world; for he was such. I speak to some of you who have not risen yet, but you are rising. You are doing well, as the world has it. God is prospering you. I would lay my hand upon your shoulder, young man, and say, “Since God is blessing you so, willingly offer yourself for his service. You know that you are not saved by the offering of yourself to Christ: you are saved by Christ offering himself for you, a sacrifice for sin. But if he has saved you, then come and offer yourself to the Lord. The children do not now cry for bread to you, as they used to do. No, thank God, those sad days are over with you! The wife has not to wear rags, as once she did God has been gracious to you, and helped you on in the world and now, by the gratitude that you have for him, ask yourself whether you cannot serve him, and may he of his sweet love bring you so to do!” My Lord ought to have you. Shall he not have you? I recollect how Mr. Rowland Hill once held an auction over Lady Anne Erskine, who drove up in her carriage to the edge of the crowd, while Mr. Hill was preaching. He said “Ah! I see Lady Anne Erskine.” A careless, thoughtless woman she was then, and he said, “There is a great contention about who shall have her. The world wants to have her. What wilt thou give for her, O world? ‘I will give her fame and name and pleasure.’ And sin wants to have her. What wilt though give for her, O sin? ‘A few paltry transient joys. And Satan wants to have her What wilt thou give for her, Satan? And the price was very low At last Christ came along, and he said, ‘I give myself for her. I give my life for her, my blood for her.’ ” And turning to her ladyship, Mr. Hill said, “You shall have her, my Lord Christ, if she does not object.” “My lady, which shall it be?” he said; and she bowed her head, and said that she accepted Christ’s offer, and would be sold to him, and be his for ever.

I do not know how to pick anybody out here for auction, but I would sell some of you to my Master if I could, without money and without price, save that which he paid for you when he poured out his life on the accursed tree. Where are the volunteers? Perhaps it is some bright boy that I have to get for Christ; or some dear girl whom the Lord means to have now; or some of these young men. Never did any one truly offer himself unto the Lord without being accepted; nay, your offer of yourself to the Lord proves that you are already his in the covenant of his grace. Oh, how happy are they who, in their youth, willingly offer themselves unto God! But, indeed, my Lord will take into his service people of all ages, both sexes, all ranks, and all conditions. He cares not what your possessions may be; but whatever they are, offer yourself and them to him, to whom they rightfully belong. He will take the poorest and weakest; but still I should like to win for my Master some man in the very strength of his days, with ability to think and power to speak, who will now say, “I have found my vocation. God calls me to Christ to find salvation in his wounds; and to be his servant. It shall be all my business here below to magnify his blessed name.” God grant it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Portions of Scripture read before Sermon-2 Chronicles 17; Romans 12.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-119 (Song II.), 674, 606.