When I look upon this great assembly of people, I think to myself,-there will be many here to whom these chapters that we have read out of Solomon’s Song will seem very strange. Of course they will; for they are meant for the inner circle of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This sacred Canticle is almost the central Book of the Bible; it seems to stand like the tree of life in the midst of the garden of Eden, in the very centre of the Paradise of God. You must know Christ, and love Christ, or else many of the expressions in this Book will seem to you but as an idle tale.

The subject on which I am about to speak will be very much of the same character. Outsiders will not be able to follow me; but then we are coming to the communion table, so I must for a while forget the unsaved among my hearers, and think only of those who do know the secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him. To my mind, it is a very melancholy thought that there should be any who do not know the sweetest thing in all the world, the best and happiest thing beneath the stars, the joy of having Christ in their heart as the hope of glory. While I may seem to forget you, dear friends, for a while, I cannot really help remembering you all the time; and it is the earnest desire of my heart that while I am speaking of some of those delights which are enjoyed only by the people of God, you may begin to long for them; and I remind you that, when you truly long for them, you may rest assured that you may have them. Around the garden of the Lord there is no wall so high as to keep out one real seeking and trusting soul; and in the wall itself there is a gate that ever stands ajar, nay, that is ever wide open to the earnest seeker.

I am not going to try so much to preach a sermon as to talk out freely from my heart some of those delightful experiences which belong to the children of God. I want this service to be a time, not of carving meat, but of eating it; not of spreading tables, but of sitting at them, and feasting to the full on the bounteous provisions that our Lord has prepared for us.

First, before we actually come to our text, we may notice three preliminary steps in the spouse’s progress.

The first one is implied in the words, “I love him.” She refers to her Beloved under the title of “Him whom my soul loveth.” Can you, dear friend, give the Lord Jesus that title? If he were to come here just now as he came to the Lake of Galilee, and pass along these crowded ranks, and say to each one of us, “Lovest thou me? “what would be your answer? I am glad that I speak to many whose answer would be, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” I can at this moment think of many reasons why I should love the Christ of Calvary, but I cannot think of one reason why I should not love him. If I turn to what I read about him in this blessed Book, it all makes me love him. If I recall what I have experienced of his grace in my heart, it all makes me love him. When I think of what he is, and what he did, and what he is doing, and what he will yet do, it all makes me love him. I am inclined to say to my heart, “Never beat again if thou dost not beat true to him.” It were better for me that I had never been born, than that I should not love one who is in himself so inconceivably lovely, who is, indeed, perfection’s self.

Yet there is one reason that rises above all others why you and I should love the Lord Jesus Christ; it is this, “He loved me, and gave himself for me.” It used to be said by the old metaphysicians that it was impossible for love not to be returned, in some measure or other. I do not think that statement is universally true; but I hope it is true concerning our Lord’s love to us and our heart’s love to him. If he has loved us with an everlasting love, if he loved us even when we were his enemies, and loved us so as to take upon himself our nature,-if this dear Son of God loved us so that he became man for our sakes, and, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,-oh! then, we must love him in return. We should be worse than the beasts that perish if, conscious of such love as this, we did not feel that it melted us, and that, being melted, our soul did not flow out in love to him alone! Can you stand at the cross-foot, and not kiss the feet of him who was wounded for your transgressions? Can you see him dead, and taken down from the cross, and not wish to wrap him in your fine linen, and bring your sweet spices to embalm his precious body? Can you see him risen from the grave, and not call him “Rabboni,” and long, as Mary did, to hold him by the feet? Can you, by faith, see him in our assemblies, saying, “Peace be unto you,” and not feel that you delight in him in your inmost soul? It cannot be; surely, it cannot be. We must and will say, and we feel that we may appeal to the Searcher of all hearts while we say it, “I love him, I do love him because he first loved me.”

Then, in the spouse’s progress, there came another step, “I sought him.” Notice how the chapter begins: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth,” for love cannot bear to be at a distance from the loved one, love longs for communion, love will do anything to get at the object of its affection. Where there is true love to Jesus Christ, we cannot bear to be away from him; and since we must be so in personal presence for a while, till the day break, and the shadows flee away, we long to be with him in heart, and to feel that he also is with us in spirit according to his promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

“I sought him.” Can you put your finger on that sentence, and say, “That is true, too”? Have you been seeking him this Sabbath day? Are you coming to his table to-night seeking him? Were you at the Saturday night prayer-meeting, or at this morning’s early gathering, seeking him with his people? Or, in your private devotions, did you make a point of crying, “Lord, let me meet with thee, let me find thee”? If not, begin now; seek him with your whole heart, let your soul breathe out its burning desires after him.

“I sought him.” He is not far from any one of us. You sought him once, when you were burdened with your sin, and then you found him. He cast that sin of yours into the depths of the sea; come and seek him again, and your fears, your doubts, your distresses of mind, shall be buried in the same deep grave.

So the spouse sings of her Beloved, “I sought him.”

Then comes in a little minor or mournful music, for the next clause is, “I sought him, but I found him not.” The spouse is so sad about it that she tells out her woe twice, “I sought him, but I found him not.” Do you know that experience? I hope you are not realizing it at this time; but many of us have known what it is. If we have been indulging in any sin, of course we could not find him then. If we have been cold-hearted, like the spouse who sought him on her bed, like her we have not found him. We have had to rise, we have had to stir up ourselves to lay hold of him, or else we have not found him. You have known what it is to go to the public service of the sanctuary, where others have been fed, yet you have had to come away, and say, “There has not been a morsel for me.” Have you not even turned to the Bible, and to private prayer, and still you have had to say, “I sought him, but I found him not”? This is a very sad experience; but if it makes you sad, it will be good for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ would not have us think little of his company; and, sometimes, it is only as we miss it that we begin to appreciate the sweetness of it. If we always had high days and holidays, we might not be so thankful when our gala days come round.

I have even known some of Christ’s people get so pleased with the joy of his company that they have almost forgotten himself in the joy. If a husband gave his wife gold rings and ornaments, and she was so gratified with the presents that she took but little note of him, but only prized the jewels that he gave her, I can well understand what would be the jealousy of his heart. It may be that this is why your Lord hides his face, for you never know his value so much as when the darkness deepens, and the Star of Bethlehem shines not. When real soul-hunger comes on, and the Bread of heaven is not there, when you feel the pangs of the thirst of the spirit, and you are like Hagar in the wilderness, and cannot find the well of water, then will your Lord teach you his true value; and when you really know him, and know him better than you formerly knew him, then you shall no longer have to sigh, “I sought him, but I found him not,” but you shall change your dolorous ditty for the cheerful language of the text, “It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth.”

So I have brought you back to the text; these are the three steps by which we have ascended to the holy gate,-first, “I love him;” next, “I sought him;” and then, “I found him not.”

Secondly, inside the text, there are three further steps: “I found him,” “I held him,” “I brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.”

This is the first of the second series of steps, “I found him.” I do not wish to stand here, and speak for myself alone; but I want, beloved, that you should each one of you also say, “I love him,” “I sought him,” and now, “I have found him.” Notice what the spouse said, “I found him.” She was not satisfied with finding anything else: “I found him.” If she had found her nearest and dearest friend, if the mother of whom she speaks had met her, it would not have sufficed. She had said, “I love him, I sought him,” and she must be able to add, “I found him.” Nothing but Christ consciously enjoyed can satisfy the craving of a loving heart which once sets out to seek the King in his beauty.

The city watchmen found the spouse, and she spoke to them; she enquired of them, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” She did not sit down, and say to any one of them, “O watchman of the night, thy company cheers me! The streets are lonely and dangerous; but if thou art near, I feel perfectly safe, and I will be content to stay awhile with thee.” Nay, but she leaves the watchmen, and still goes along the streets until she finds him whom her soul loveth. I have known some, who love the Lord, to be very happy while the preacher is proclaiming the truth to them; but they have stopped with the preacher, and have gone no further. This will never do, dear friends; do not be content to abide with us, who are only watchmen, but go beyond us, and seek till you find our Master. I should groan in heart, indeed, if any of you believed simply because of my word, as if it were my word alone that led you to believe, or if you should look merely to me for anything you need for your soul. In myself, I am nothing, and I have nothing; I only watch that, if I can, I may lead you to my Lord, whose shoe-latchets I am not worthy to unloose. O you who love Christ, go beyond the means of grace! Go beyond ordinances, go beyond preachers, go beyond even the Bible itself, into an actual possession of the living Christ; labour after a conscious enjoyment of Jesus himself, till you can say with the spouse, “I found him whom my soul loveth.” It is good to find sound doctrine, for it is very scarce nowadays. It is good to learn the practical precepts of the gospel, it is good to be in the society of the saints; but if you put any of these in the place of communion with your Lord himself, you do ill. Never be content till you can say, “I found him.” Dear souls, did you ever find him? Have you yet found him? If you have not, keep on seeking, keep on praying, till at last you can say, “Eureka! I have found him whom my soul loveth. Jesus is indeed mine.”

What is meant by the words, “I found him”? Well, I think a soul may say, “I found him,” in the sense employed in the text, when first of all it has a clear view of his person. My Beloved is divine and human, the Son of God and yet the Son of man. My Beloved died, yet he is alive again. My Beloved was on earth, but he is now in heaven, and he will shortly come again. I want thus to find him myself, and I want each one of you to do the same. Picture him on Calvary, see him risen from the dead. Try, if you can, not so much by imagination as by faith, to behold him as he now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, where harps unnumbered tune his praise. Yet even there he bears the wounds he received for us here below. How resplendent shine the nail-prints! The marks of his death on earth are the glory of his person above.

“This is the Man, th’ exalted Man,

Whom we unseen adore;

But when our eyes behold his face,

Our hearts shall love him more.”

Let your soul picture him so plainly that you can seem to see him, for this will be a part of your finding him.

But that will not be enough; you must then get to know that he is present with you. We cannot see him, but yet he that walketh amidst the golden candlesticks is, in spirit, in this house of prayer at this moment. My Master, thou art here. There is no empty seat at the table left to be filled by thee, nor do we expect to see thee walking among us, in thy calm majesty, clothed with thy seamless garment down to thy feet; and we do not want to see thee. Our faith realizes thee quite as well as sight could do, and we bless thee that thou hearest us as we speak to thee. Thou art invisible, yet assuredly present; thou art looking into our faces, thou art delighting in us as objects of thy redeeming love. Thou dost especially remember that thou didst die for us; and, as a mother gazes upon the babe for whom she has endured so much, or as a shepherd looks upon the sheep that he has brought back from its long wanderings, so art thou now looking upon each one of thy loved ones. If, dear friends, you can get that thought fully into your minds, that Christ is really here in our midst, you can then each one begin to say, “I have found him.”

But you want more than that, namely, to feel that he loves you, loves you as if there were nobody else for him to love, loves you even as the Father loves him. That is a daring thing to say, and I should never have said it if he had not first uttered it; but he says, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.” Can you comprehend how each one of the blessed Trinity loves each of the others, and especially how the Father loves the Son? Even so does Jesus Christ love you, my believing brother, my believing sister. Note that he loves you; it is not only that he did love you, and died for you, but he still loves you. He says to you, individually, “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” Look at the nail-print, that is his memorial, his forget-me-not, and by it he says to thee,-

“Forget thee I will not, I cannot, thy name

Engraved on my heart doth for ever remain:

The palms of my hands whilst I look on I see

The wounds I received when suffering for thee.”

Now have you not found him? If you have pictured him to your mind’s eye, if you are certain of his presence with you, and then, above all, if you are fully assured of his love, you can say, “I have found him.”

If you can in truth say that, I hope there will come with it this one other thing, namely, an exceeding great joy. I cannot speak to you as I would wish; my words cannot express the joy of heart which I feel in knowing that I have found him, that he is with me, and that he has loved me with an everlasting love. I shall never understand, even in heaven, why the Lord Jesus should ever have loved me. I can say to Jesus what David said in his lamentation over Jonathan, “Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” There is no love like it, and why was it fixed upon me? Have you never felt that you could go in, like David, and sit before the Lord, and say, “Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” Yet wonderful as it is, it is true; Jesus loves you, loves you now at this very moment. Do you not rejoice in it? I assure you that, in the least drop of the love of Christ when it is consciously realized, there is more sweetness than there would be in all heaven without it. Talk of bursting barns, overflowing wine-vats, and riches treasured up; these give but a poor solace to the heart. But the love of Jesus, this is another word for heaven; and it is a marvel that even while we are here below we should be permitted to enjoy a bliss beyond what the angels know, for-

“Never did angels taste above

Redeeming grace and dying love,”

but that joy is ours if we can truly say, “I have found him.”

If you have come as far as that,-and if you have not, may God help you to this point right speedily,-come to the table of your Lord. You are indeed his children, so you have a right to come. Hear the King’s invitation, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” These joys are not merely for some of the Lord’s people, but for all his saints; then, stand not back, but come and feast on the rich provision of love divine.

Now we come to the second step. The spouse says, “I held him.” This is a deeper experience than the former one; “I held him,” means more than “I found him.” Sometimes, Jesus comes to his children, and manifests himself very sweetly to them; but they behave to him in an unseemly manner, and soon he is gone. I have known him reveal himself to his people most delightfully, but they have grown cold, and wayward, and foolish, and he has been obliged to go away from them. When you get to the top of the mountain, it needs great grace to keep there. I do not find it difficult to get into communion with Christ, but I confess that I do not find it so easy to maintain that communion. So that, if you have found him, do as the spouse says that she did, “I held him.”

How are we to hold Christ? Well, first, let us hold him by our heart’s resolve. If now we have him near us, let us lovingly look him in the face, and say, “My Lord, my sweet, blessed Lord, how can I let thee go? My all in all, my heart’s Lord and King, how can I let thee go? Abide with me, go not from me.” Hold him by your love’s resolve, and it shall be as chains of gold to fasten him to you. Say to him, “My Lord, wilt thou go away from me? See how happy thou hast made me; a glimpse of thy love has made me so blest that I do not envy the angels before thy throne; wilt thou take that joy away from me by taking thyself away? Why didst thou give me a taste of thy love if thou dost not mean to give me more? This little has but made me out of liking for all things else; thou hast spoilt me now for all my former joy. O tarry with me, my Master, else am I unhappy indeed!” Further say to him, “Lord, if thou go, thy chosen one will be unsafe. There is a wolf prowling about; what will thy poor lamb do without thee, O mighty Shepherd? There are cruel adversaries all around seeking my hurt; how can I live without thee? Wilt thou deliver thy turtle-dove over to the cruel fowler who seeks to slay her? Be that far from thee, O Lord! Therefore, abide with me.” Tell him how you will sorrow if he goes away.

“ ’Tis paradise if thou art here,

If thou depart,’tis hell.”

“Nothing can revive my spirit if thou be gone from me. Oh, stay with me, stay with me, I beseech thee, most blessed Lord!” As long as you can find arguments for his staying, Christ does not want to go from you. His delights are with the sons of men, and he is happy in the society of those whom he has purchased with his precious blood. Keep on giving your reasons why he should remain with you, and so hold him; be bold enough even to say to him, “I will not let thee go.” Get you to Jacob’s boldness when he said to the Angel of the covenant, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me;” but go even beyond that, do not put in any “except” at all, but say, “I will not let thee go, for I cannot be blest if thou art gone from me.”

Further, brethren, hold him by making him your all in all. He will never go away if you treat him as he should be treated. Yield up everything to him, be obedient to him, be willing to suffer for him, grieve not His Holy Spirit, crown him, extol him, magnify him, keep on singing his praises, for so will you hold him. Renounce all else for him; for he sees that you truly love him when you count all things but dross for his dear sake. He says, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.” Those were the days when some of you could brook a father’s frown for the sake of Christ’s love, when you could have given up your situation and all your prospects in life to follow Jesus, it was then that he delighted in you; and in proportion as you break your idols, put away your sins, and keep your heart chaste and pure for him alone, you shall abide in his love. Yea, and you shall get deeper and deeper into it till what was a stream up to your ankles shall soon be breast-deep, and, by-and-by, shall be waters to swim in. Christ and you cannot fully agree unless you walk as he would have you walk, in careful holiness and earnest service for him. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” And is there anything in this vile world that is fit to stand in rivalry with him? Is there any gain, is there any joy, is there any beauty, that can be compared with his gain, his joy, his beauty? Let each of us cry, “Christ for me. Go, harlot-world; come not near even the outside of my door. Go thou, for my heart is with my Lord, and he is my soul’s chief treasure.” If you will talk like that, you will hold him fast till you have your heart’s desire, and bring him to your mother’s house.

Hold him, too, by a simple faith. That is a wonderful hold-fast. Say to him, “My Lord, I have found thee now, and I rejoice in thee; but still, if thou hidest thy face from me, I will still believe in thee. If I never see a smile from thee again till I see thee on thy throne, yet will I not doubt thee, for my heart is fixed, not so much upon the realization of thy presence, as upon thyself, and thy finished work. Though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee.” Ah! then he will not go away from you; you can hold him in that way; but if you begin to put your trust in enjoyments of his presence instead of in himself alone, it may be that he will take himself away from you in order to bring you back to your old moorings, so that, as a sinner, you may trust the sinner’s Saviour, and trust in him alone.

One word more before we leave this point. The only way to hold Christ is to hold him by his own power. I smiled to myself as I read my text, and tried to make it all my own: “I held him, and would not let him go.” I thought to myself, the spouse said of her Bridegroom that she would not let him go; and shall I ever say to my Lord that I will not let him go? He is the King of kings, the omnipotent Jehovah; can I hold him? He is the mighty God, and yet a poor puny worm like myself says, “I would not let him go.” Can it be really so? Well, the Holy Ghost says that it is, for he guided the pen of the writer of this Song when he wrote, “I held him, and would not let him go.” Think of poor Jacob, who, when the angel did but touch him, felt his sinews shrink directly, yet he said, “I will not let thee go.” And I, a poor trembling creature, may hold the Omnipotent himself, and say to him, “I will not let thee go.” How is that wonder to be accomplished? I will tell you. If Omnipotence helps you to hold Omnipotence, why, then, the deed is done! If Christ, and not you alone, holds Christ, then Christ is held indeed, for shall he vanquish his own self? No, Master, thou couldst slay death, and break the old serpent’s head, but thou canst not conquer thine own self; and if thou art in me, I can hold thee, for it is not I, but Christ in me, that holdeth Christ, and will not let him go. This is the power which enables us, with the apostle, to say, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The next step is described in the words “I brought him.” With this we finish: “I brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.” And where, I pray you, beloved, is our mother’s house? I do not believe in any reverence for mere material buildings; but I have great reverence for the true Church of the Living God. The Church is the house of God, and the mother of our souls. It was under the ministry of the Word that most of us were born to God, it was in the assembly of the saints that we heard the message which first of all quickened us into newness of life, and we may well be content to call the Church of Christ our mother, since our elder Brother-you know his name,-when one said to him, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee,” pointing to his disciples answered, “Behold, my mother, and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Surely, where Jesus chooses to call the assembly of the faithful by the sacred name of mother, we may rightly do the same.

And we love the Church, which is our mother. I do hope that all the members of this church love the whole Church of God, and also have a special affection for that particular part of it in which they were born for God. It would be unnatural-and grace is never unnatural, though it is supernatural,-it would be unnatural not to love the place where we were born into the heavenly family. I do not know, and never shall know on earth the man who was the means of my conversion, I may know him when I get to heaven; but if he is still living anywhere in this world, God bless him! And I know that many of you would say the same of the outward instrumentality which was used as the means of blessing to you; and you will say the same, will you not, of all the brotherhood of which some of us are but the spokesmen and representatives? We love the Church of God. Well, then, whenever we find our Beloved, we have to hold him, and not let him go, and then to bring him down to the house of our mother, and to the chamber of her that conceived us.

How can you bring Christ to his Church? Partly, you can bring him by your spirit. There is a wonderful power about a man’s spirit, even though he does not speak a word. Silent worshippers can contribute very greatly to the communion of saints. I know some brethren,-I will not say that any of them are here now,-but I have known some brethren whose very faces dispirit and discourage one, whose every movement seems to make one feel anything but spiritual. But I know others of whom I can truly say that it is always pleasant to me to get a shake of their hands, and to have a look from their eyes. I know that they have been with Jesus, for there is the very air of saintliness about them; I do not mean sanctimoniousness, that is a very different thing. In the old pictures, the painters used to put a halo round the head of a saint,-a most absurd idea; but I do believe that there is a real spiritual halo continually surrounding the man who walks with God.

If you, dear friend, have really found Christ, and bring him with you into the assembly, you will not be the man who will criticize, and find fault, and quarrel with your neighbour because he does not give you enough room in the pew. You will not be the person to pick holes in other people’s coats; but you will be very considerate of others. As for yourself, anything will do for you, and anywhere will do for you, for you have seen the Beloved. You want other people to get as much good as they can; you are no longer selfish; how can you be, when you have found him whom your soul loveth? And now your poor brother need not be very choice in the selection of his words; if he will only talk about Jesus, you will be quite satisfied; if his accents should be a little broken, you will not mind that. So long as you feel that he wishes to extol your Lord, that will be enough for you.

So, in this manner, you will in spirit bring the Beloved to your mother’s house, to the chamber of her that conceived you.

But, dear friend, it will also be a happy thing if you are able to talk about your Lord, for then you can bring him to the Church with your words. Those of us who are called to preach the Word have often to cry unto the Lord to help us to bring Christ into the assembly by our words,-though, indeed, the words of any human language are but a poor conveyance for the Christ of God. Oh, let the King, my blessed Master, ride in the chariot of angelic song, and not in the lumbering waggon of my poor sermons! I long to see him flying on the wings of the wind, and not in the car of my feeble language; yet has he come to you many a time that way, and you have been glad. Let him come as he will, if he will but come, it is our delight to bring him into our mother’s house, into the chamber of her that conceived us. Therefore, dear friends, each one of you in turn, as you are able, talk to your brother and to your sister, and say, “I have found him whom my soul loveth.” You know that, when Samson killed the lion, he said nothing about it; it would have been a great feat for anyone else to boast of, but Samson could kill a lion any day, so he did not think much of doing that; but when he afterwards found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion, he took some of it and began to eat, and carried a portion of it to his father and mother. So, if ever you find sweetness and preciousness in Christ, the true strong One, be sure that you carry a handful of the honey to your friends, and give portions to those for whom otherwise nothing might be prepared.

Thus hold Christ fast, and bring him to your mother’s house by your spirit and by your words.

But if, alas! you feel that you cannot speak for Christ, then, beloved, bring him by your prayers. Do pray, especially at these communion seasons, that the King himself will come near, and feast his saints to-day. Ask him not only to bless you, but to bless all his saints, for you are persuaded that they all love him better than you do, and that they all want him as much as you do, and that they will all praise him even more than you do if he will but come and manifest himself to them. In this way, each one of you, as you come to the house of prayer, and to the place of fellowship, will be a real accession to our spiritual force, and we shall seem to get nearer and nearer to our Master as the house fills with loving worshippers who have found him, and held him, and brought him here.

Now may we find all this to be especially true as we gather around the table! The Lord be with you all, for his dear name’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

SOLOMON’S SONG 2, and 3:1-5

Here we have a dialogue of love between the Lord Jesus and his people. Chapter 2. Verse 1. I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Amongst all flowers, there is none that can be compared with him.

“White is his soul, from blemish free,

Red with the blood he shed for me.”

2. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

The child of God cannot long be mistaken for a worldling. The lily rises up above its thorny companions, but everybody knows that it is not a thorn; and chiefly do the quick eyes of the Lord Jesus discern his people wherever they may be found. You, dear friend, may perhaps come of a graceless family, or you may live in a house where God is all but unknown; yet Christ always knows his pure lilies, even if they grow among the cruel piercing thorns.

3. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

You who love the Lord Jesus know what this verse means. He is a great variety of delights to you;-food for your soul, a shadow for your head in the day of the sun’s burning heat. When you are near to him, the sun does not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. There is no shadow like Christ’s shadow, and no fruit like his fruit.

4. He brought me to the banqueting house,

That, I trust, he will again do, as he has often done before, both while we are hearing his Word and when we approach his table: “He brought me to the banqueting house,”-

4. And his banner over me was love.

Not the fiery ensign of war, but the peaceful banner of love. You have had enough of the world, beloved, during the past six days; you will again have enough of it in the six days yet to come; but just now, let love’s royal banner wave over you, and give up your thoughts entirely to him who has loved you with an everlasting love, and sealed his love to you by the blood that streamed from his pierced heart.

5. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

The love of Christ shed abroad in our heart sometimes quite overpowers us. It is very possible to be so delighted, so full of joy with a sense of the love of Jesus, that one feels unable to bear any more of it. Oh, for more of this blessed sickness! “It is a strange thing,” says one, “this love of Christ,”-

“For, oh! when whole, it makes me sick,

When sick, it makes me whole.”

6, 7. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field,

Those lovely, but timid creatures that are so easily scared away,-

7. That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

O ye carking cares, keep away from us! Ye distractions that are so apt to arise in our crowded assembly, ye aches and pains that come in and make the body drag down the spirit, keep away from us for a while.

8. The voice of my beloved!

The spouse knows it at once, her ear is so trained that she recognizes it as soon as she hears it. Jesus said that his sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and he added, “A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”

8. Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

“I thought my sins would keep him back, for they seemed like great mountains; how could he come to me? But, ‘behold,’ he makes nothing of those barriers: ‘he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.’ ”

9. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewving himself through the lattice.

When we observe the ordinances aright, they are like latticed windows; we cannot see our Lord through them as clearly as we would, but still, we do see him, and we are thankful for these windows until we get up yonder, where we shall see him face to face.

10-13. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

No matter what weather it is outside, it may be spring-time within. If your hearts have been frost-bound and barren, may they now begin to thaw at the approach of Jesus! Many of us have asked for his company, and believe that he will be here; and when he comes, he will make our souls rejoice. They shall be as watered gardens when the spring returns again.

14. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

Christ calls you out, you hidden ones; you who are half ashamed to be seen, he bids you come to him. Come away from your doubting and your fearing, your halting and your hesitating; it is Jesus who calls you, therefore come to him at once.

15. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

Drive away every sin that would keep Christ away. Ask for his grace to subdue every wandering thought, that he may be with you in undisturbed communion.

16, 17. My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Chapter 3. Verses 1-5. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broadways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-941, 282.

OVERCOMING CHRIST

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 11th, 1896,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, October 8th, 1876.

“Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.”-Song of Solomon 6:5.

This is the language of the Heavenly Bridegroom to his spouse. In great condescension, he speaks to her, and bids her take note that her eyes have overcome him. This morning, our subject was, overcoming evil with good. We have a very different subject this evening; for we are to talk about overcoming him who is goodness itself, the perfection of everything that is excellent. Saints first learn the art of overcoming evil, and then they learn the way to overcome goodness, too. But how different, dear friends, are the weapons employed in these two warfares; for while, this morning, as we spoke of overcoming evil, we saw that there was much for us to do, and I think that we all felt it was more than we could do apart from divine grace, yet here there is nothing to be done but just to give a look. The Heavenly Bridegroom confesses himself to be overcome by the very look of the eyes of his spouse; she has but to gaze steadfastly upon him, and his heart is vanquished by the glances of her eyes.

Now, it must not be supposed, because of the language of the text, that there is any opposition between Christ and his people which has to be overcome. He loves his bride far too well to allow any division of feeling to separate them in heart from one another. Nor is it to be imagined that the spouse had to gain some blessing from an unwilling hand, and therefore pleaded with her eyes as well as with her lips. Oh, no! There is a holy discipline in Christ’s house that sometimes withholds the coveted blessing till we have learned to pray in downright earnest; but the power that wins the victory in prayer has its real basis in the love of Christ himself. It is because he loves us so much, that he permits our prayers to conquer him; it is not so much because we love him as because he loves us, that he permits the look of our eyes to overcome his heart.

This, then, is the subject for our meditation now,-the way in which God’s people overcome the heart of Jesus Christ, and make him say, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.”

First, dear friends, let us notice that looking on his church has already overcome the heart of our Heavenly Bridegroom.

It was so in the far-distant past, not when she looked at him, but when he looked at her, that she overcame him. Ages upon ages ago, or ever the earth was, Christ had conceived in his heart the purpose to redeem from among men a people that should be precious in his sight for ever and ever. Through the glass of divine foreknowledge, he looked at his people, he recognized the person of every one of them, he saw them all ruined in the Fall, all stained with sin, all contaminated in nature by our first parents’ disobedience and rebellion. As he looked at them, with a steady resolve that he would rescue them, and perfect them, and lift them up to a level with himself, and make them into a race that should praise God for ever in heaven with hallelujahs and hosannas beyond all the harmonies of angels, his heart so moved towards them that he longed for the time when he should enter upon the great work of their redemption. Long ago, he said, “My delights were with the sons of men.” His heart was always projecting itself forward in anticipation of that happy yet dreadful day when he should be called upon to redeem his people. Every time he thought of them, he was overcome with the very recollection of his great love towards them; and when the long-expected day did at last come,-

“Down from the shining seats above

With joyful haste he fled,”

and was found as a babe in Bethlehem’s manger, lying among the hornèd oxen feeding in the stable of the village inn. Oh, marvellous mystery! that he, whom the heaven of heavens could not contain, was not satisfied to be God over all, blessed for ever, but for our sakes he must also become man. He was so overcome by the love he had for his chosen, that he left his Father’s throne of light to become one flesh with his people, and to be made a man like ourselves that so he might be next of kin unto us. Ah, gracious Saviour, thy Church’s eyes did indeed overcome thee when they brought thee from amidst the royalties of heaven down to the sins and sorrows of earth!

You know, too, when he lived down here among men, how often his inmost heart was stirred as he looked upon the people whom he loved. And specially do you recollect the scene on that last night when their redemption-price was about to be paid. He took the cup that he was to drink, and sipped at it; but his holy soul revolted from it, and with the bloody sweat upon his face he cried, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Then he went back, and looked upon his people. Truly, there was not much to see in them; he had taken three specially-privileged apostles to be the representatives of all his chosen, and those three were asleep when he was in his terrible agony; yet, somehow, the sight of them seemed to strengthen him for the awful ordeal that he was enduring. Backward and forward thrice he ran to gaze upon them, and they so overcame him that he turned back, and said to his Father, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt;” and he went through with that tremendous work of laying down his life for his people, and drinking the cup of wrath that was their due. They had overcome him as he had looked at them.

And, beloved, now that our Lord is risen from the dead, he still feels the power of the sight of his redeemed. The great joy of Christ at this moment is found in gazing at his redeemed ones. Look at him as man, if you will; and what a wondrous Man he is! But remember also that God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; and what does the glorified and exalted Christ think as he looks on the myriads in heaven, all of whom would have been in hell but for him? Then he looks down to the saints on earth, and sees the myriads who are all trusting in him, all conquering sin by his might, and all spared from going down to the pit by the merit of his precious blood; and he seems again to say, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me;” as if Christ felt that a glance at his people brought almost too much joy for him. What a day will that be when he shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; when all his people, raised from the dead, or changed in the twinkling of an eye, shall admire him, and he shall be admired in them! And what will be the joy of his heart when the “great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” all redeemed by blood, shall be gathered unto Christ, to be the delight of his heart for ever and ever! That will be a joy sufficient even for the immensity of his infinite heart as he sees in them the reward of his awful agonies, the rich return for the shedding of his precious blood. His benevolence-that great mainspring of all that he has done,-will be gratified and satisfied as he looks on each one of his redeemed, and sees the fruit of his travail in every individual child of his grace, in each sinner reclaimed, in each saint preserved and perfected. I can well conceive of him saying in that day, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” The joy that Christ will feel in his own sight of his people, and in the glances of the multitudes that he has saved, must be a delight beyond anything we can even imagine.

Now I must pass to a second point, which is this, that the eyes of Christ’s chosen ones still overcome him. This is a practical point upon which we may profitably spend some little time: the eyes of Christ’s chosen ones still overcome him.

And, first, the eyes of his chosen overcome him, when they look up in deep repentance, glancing at him hopefully through their tears. Let me try to give you a picture of such a case. Here is a poor soul, conscious of having sinned, and sinned deeply. Once, sin was thought to be only a trifle; now, it is seen to be a horrible evil, to be trembled at and hated. Once, God was judged to be too severe in sending men to hell; but now, the convinced one has nothing to say against God’s justice, for he is all taken up with speaking against himself and his sin. There stands this poor soul, with red and weeping eyes, saying, “O God, I have sinned, and I am still sinning; and if thou dost cast me into the abyss, I dare not challenge thy justice; yet have pity upon me, O Lord! God, be merciful to me a sinner!” When those tear-filled eyes are turned to the Lord Jesus, and sin is confessed again and again with deep contrition and childlike repentance, it is not possible that he should long refuse to grant the pardon which we seek. He seems to say to the poor penitent, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. I cannot bear to see thee weeping and sorrowing so. Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee, for I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Go, and sin no more.” There is a wondrous power in the penitent eye, in the full confession that makes a clean breast of every sin before the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember, brethren, that when we have once repented, we do not leave off repenting, for penitence is a grace that is as long-lived as faith; and as long as we are capable of believing, we shall also necessarily need to repent, for we shall be always sinning. So, whenever the child of God feels that he has gone astray in any way, that, though he did live near to God, he has gone back, and grown cold in heart, he has only to come to Christ again, and cry after him, and confess his folly in having left him, and his ingratitude in having been so indifferent to him, and Christ will receive him back again. You cannot long mourn his absence, and seek to return to him, and feel that you will die if you do not get back the realization of his sweet love again,-you cannot be long in that state before he will be vanquished by your weeping eyes, and he will say to you, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” And if a child of God, who has not lost fellowship with his Lord, is, nevertheless, jealous lest he should do so,-if his morning prayer is, “O my Lord, keep me from everything that would take me off from thy love;” and if at night he looks back over his conduct during the day, and says, “Cleanse thou me from every secret fault, for-

“ ‘I am jealous of my heart,

Lest it should once from thee depart,”

if there be kept up this delightful tenderness of conscience towards Christ, so that our eyes, with weeping for very fear of sin, still look after him, then shall we hold him spellbound, and the deep sorrow of our loving hearts shall vanquish him, and he will bestow the blessing which our soul is seeking.

Another kind of glance that has great power with the Lord Jesus is when the soul looks to Christ for salvation. Then it is that the eyes vanquish the Saviour. It is hard at first to look to Christ, and believe that he can save you. I suppose some of you, dear friends, have a distinct recollection of the first faith-glance you ever took at Christ. I well remember mine; it seemed so strangely simple, and yet so sublime and wonderful, that I could scarcely think it true that there was life in a look at him. I did but glance half furtively at first, as if I thought it could not mean that such a sinner as I was could receive mercy from Christ simply by looking at him. Did he really mean me when he said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth”? I had long sought him, and I had prayed to him; but I could not conquer him, nor win mercy from him by my seeking and my praying; but oh! when my eyes, already red with weeping, looked at him with a steady glance which seemed to say,-

“I do believe, I will believe,

That thou didst die for me,”

then did he cry, “ ‘Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.’ ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.’ ”

Many times since then, you and I have looked to Jesus Christ when a sense of sin has been very heavy upon us. I suppose all of you who are really children of God sometimes get into that state in which you begin to ask, “Was I ever truly converted? Did my sin ever roll from my shoulders, and disappear in the tomb of Christ?” When these questions arise within your heart, go and stand once more at the foot of the cross, and look at your suffering Lord. I have looked, and looked, and looked again, until I have seemed to look him all over, and at last I have begun to sing,-

“Oh, ’tis sweet to view the flowing

Of my Saviour’s precious blood,

With divine assurance knowing,

He has made my peace with God.”

While the eyes of faith are thus resting upon Jesus, he is overcome by them, and he darts inexpressible joy into our hearts as he says to us, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” His heart is carried by storm by the faith-looks of his children.

We also give another overcoming glance when we look to the Lord Jesus Christ for all things. Worldlings do not understand the terms on which we are linked with Christ. To them, Christ is a somebody who lived eighteen hundred years ago, and then died; but to us, he is alive, he is our familiar Friend, we are intimately acquainted with him, we are in the habit of taking all our troubles to him, and asking him for all that we need; and he removes our sorrows, and grants us the desires of our hearts. There are times with all of us when we get into trouble of one sort or another; and, blessed be his name, he has taught us, when we are in trouble, to lift up our eyes to the hills whence cometh our help. Now, perhaps, dear brother, you have for a while been looking to Christ, and saying, “Lord, I believe thou wilt help me; didst thou die to save me from hell, and wilt thou not supply me with bread and water while I am in the wilderness? Hast thou covered me with the robe of thy perfect righteousness, and wilt thou not find me clothes to cover my nakedness, and shield me from the weather? Hast thou done the greater, and wilt thou not do the less?”

When another trouble comes, you keep on looking to him still. You will not believe that he can be unkind; you give him credit for loving you, and caring for you, so you look to him, and as you look you submit to his will, and say, “I will never distrust thee, my Lord.” If he sends yet another rough providence, you continue looking to him, and only say, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. Though thou slay me, yet will I trust in thee. I have known thee too long to doubt thee now, my blessed Lord. Thou hast done too much for me in the past for me to turn away, and say, ‘I will not trust thee.’ My Lord and Master, thou canst not make me believe that thou dost not love me, for I know thee better. My inmost soul is assured that thou dost love me, so I look to thee still, and watch the movement of thy countenance; and as I look, my heart says, ‘My Lord, I cannot tell why thou dost smite thy servant again and again; yet, if it be thy love that makes thee smite, smite on. Whatever is most for thy glory, do with me as thou wilt.” When thine eyes are like that, full of submission, full of hope, full of trust, it cannot be long before the Lord will, somehow or other, deliver thee, for he will say, “I cannot hold out against thee any longer. ‘Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.’ ‘I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.’ I will bring thee out of the furnace, for I only sit there as Refiner till I see my own image in thee; and when I see my eyes in thy eyes, and my heart in thy heart, and my character in thy character, then will I bring thee out of the furnace as gold seven times purified.” Blessed Spirit, give us such eyes as these, which shall overcome even the heart of Christ!

Again, there are the eyes of prayer which often overcome the Lord Jesus Christ, and this victory comes, sometimes, when we are praying for ourselves. You know what it is in prayer to come to him, and say, “Lord, I am in great straits, and thou hast thyself brought me there. It has not been through my folly, but it is by thine own act and deed that I am where I am. Now, Lord, thou hast promised that in six troubles thou wilt deliver us, and in seven there shall no evil touch us. Thou hast said, ‘Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be;’ now, Lord, thou art God, and thou canst not lie, therefore wilt thou not keep thy promise? Here, Lord, thou seest my difficulty and my trial, and thine inspired apostle has said that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose;’ thy servant David declared that ‘many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all;’ now, Lord, I look to thee to do this for me.”

It is one of the grandest things in all the world when a godly man, with the simplicity of a child, just believes God, and fully trusts him for everything. It has come to be a matter of marvel, in this evil age, that a man can say that God grants him many mercies in answer to prayer. People hold up their hands and say, “Dear, dear, what a wonder!” A wonder that God hears prayer? It would be a greater wonder if he did not hear it. Beloved, to me, prayer is a matter of fact; for me to go and take a promise to God, and ask him to fulfil it, and to get it fulfilled, is as common and as usual and as much a matter of fact as it is for you who are in business to take cheques, and pass them across the counter at the bank, and receive the cash for them. Do you think that God is a fiction? If he is, then all our religion is a farce; but if God is real, then prayer is real, too. Many of us know that it is real, for we have tried it, and still try it every day we live. In every time of trouble, we bring the trouble to God’s feet, and say, “Dear Lord, as thou art true and faithful, thou wilt help us through it;” and we find that he does help us through it. We speak what we do know, and testify what we have seen many a time. When a child of God, in deep distress, believes in his Father, and steadily looks to him for deliverance, those eyes of his have mighty power, and God seems to say to him, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” You cannot look steadily to God and say, “Lord, I am sure about thy faithfulness, I am sure about thy promise, and I cannot and will not doubt it,” but before long you shall see the hand of the Lord made bare for your deliverance, and you also shall be among the happy number who have to bear witness that, verily, there is a God in Israel. Thus does prayer prevail with God when we present it for ourselves.

So does it also overcome him when we pray on behalf of others. Moses, you know, prayed for others and prevailed; do you, dear children of God, know what it is to wrestle with the Lord for the souls of others? I am sure that many of you do; there are your dear children, kinsfolk, friends, and neighbours, whom you bring before the Lord. I will tell you when you will win the day, mother, when with tears you say, “O God, thou hast given me these children; now give them to me according to the spirit as well as according to the flesh.” You will overcome the Lord, dear father, when you spread your suit before him and say, “Deny my children what thou wilt, but do save them; let them all be thine in the day when thou makest up thy jewels.” You will succeed when, rising from your knees, you set those children a Christian example; and, having pleaded with God for them, you go and plead with them for God, and feel as if your heart would break if you did not see your boys and girls converted. When, like Hannah, you even come to be a woman of a sorrowful spirit because you feel that you must have your children brought to God, then the Lord Jesus will look at you till he will say to himself, “I cannot let that poor soul cry and sigh in vain; it is not in my heart-the heart of one who was born of a woman,-to let that pleading woman’s prayer go without an answer,” and to you he will say, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me, Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” And you, dear child of God, who are teaching in the Sunday-school class, or you who are preaching in some small village station, when you get to feel inward grief of heart over those with whom you have to deal, when that grief increases till it comes to be a perfect agony, and you cannot help crying out for anguish of soul, when you feel as if you must have them saved, as if you would give everything you had if they might but be brought to Christ, when you even wake at night to pray for them, and in the midst of your business cares you get distracted with the thought that some whom you love are perishing, at such times as that your powerful eyes in prayer shall move the heart of Christ, and overcome him, and he shall give you these souls for your hire.

Brethren, if we do not pray for sinners, for whom shall we pray? Sisters, if we do not plead for the abandoned, if we do not offer supplication for those who are perverse in heart, we have omitted to pray for the very persons who most need our intercession. Let us bring these hard hearts beneath the almighty hammer. Let us by prayer bring these lepers beneath the healing touch of him who, despite their loathsomeness, can say to them, “Be ye clean.” Let no degree of natural or inherited depravity, or of depravity that has come from long continuance in sin, hinder us from praying for all the unsaved whom we know, “O God, have mercy upon these guilty ones!”

I will not further enlarge upon this point, for it is settled beyond all question that those who love the souls of men will not be hindered from prayer for them on any account whatever. I conjure you, who have prayed for husband, or children, or friends, do not leave off pleading for them. If you have prayed for twenty years, and they are not converted, pray twenty years more; and if they have grown more wicked while you have pleaded, still pray on; and if heaven and earth and hell seem to combine together to bid you cease your supplications, still pray on. As long as you live, make intercession for transgressors; and as long as they live, let your cries go up to God on their behalf. So shall you “overcome heaven by prayer” as you plead for the ungodly.

Once again, there is another time when the eyes of the believer seem to overcome the heart of Christ, and that is, when we have turned right away from the world, and looked to him alone. I have known it so again and again; have not you, beloved? In this world, at present, our Lord is somewhat concealed; he does not fully reveal himself to his people. Here he says to us as he said to Mary, “Touch me not.” He lets us wait till the veil shall be drawn up, and then we shall see him face to face, and shall be like him. Here we have to live by faith rather than by sight, and it is expectation rather than enjoyment that makes up much of our present bliss; yet, at times, I have known my Lord come wonderfully near to his servants, and lay bare his inmost heart to them. It seemed as if he could not help it; it has been at some such gathering as this, when we have gone right away from the world, and have forgotten its cares and pleasures for a while, and we have sat down to think only of him. Our soul has surveyed him in his Godhead and his manhood, as our Prophet, Priest, King, and near Kinsman, living, dying, risen, ascended, soon to come; we have looked him over, and there has not been any part of his character which we have not admired, nor one office in which we have not trusted him, nor one deed for which we have not blessed him. We have come to think, “He is altogether lovely,” and while we have been admiring him in a perfect rapture, there has been added to it this sweet thought, He is all goodness, and he is all mine, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” We have not said much, and we could not have said much just then; we have been quite quiet, and alone with our Lord, and we have felt that silence was the only eloquence we could use as we looked at him again, and again, and again. At such seasons, my soul has felt ready to swoon away in his presence. You remember how John in Patmos, when Jesus appeared to him, said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead;” and well he might, for he had a brighter vision of his Lord than you and I can have at present. But even faith’s view of him is enough to transport us straight away into heaven itself. Well, brethren, whenever we are thus happily engaged in contemplation of our Lord, not only is he very near to us, but he is greatly moved by our love, and he says to us, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.” And, meanwhile, to prove how overcome he is, he begins to reveal himself more fully to us.

You may perhaps have read, in the life of holy Mr. Flavell, the extraordinary instance he records of the love of Christ being poured into his soul. He says that he was riding on a horse, going to some engagement, and he had such a sense of the love of Christ that he completely lost himself for several hours; and when he came to himself again, he found his horse standing quite still, and discovered that he had been sitting on horseback all those hours, utterly lost to everything but a special revelation of the wonderful love of Jesus. You may also have heard of Mr. Tennant, the mighty American preacher, and friend of George Whitefield, who was found, lost and absorbed, in a wood, to which he had retired, and his friends had to call him back, as it were, from the sweet fellowship he had been enjoying with Christ. You may remember, too, John Welsh, the famous Scotch preacher, who had to cry out, “Hold, Lord, hold! I am but an earthen vessel, and if I feel more of thy glorious love, I must e’en die; so stay thy hand a while.” There are such experiences as these, I will not enquire whether you have ever known them; but if you have, I will tell you one thing. All the infidels in the world, and all the devils in hell, will never make you doubt the truth of the Scriptures if you have once been face to face with Christ, and have spoken with your Master as a man speaketh with his friend. Such things have happened unto those whose cloud-piercing eyes have been so fixed upon Christ that he at last has felt the mighty fascination of their loving and believing glances, and has revealed himself in still greater measure unto them, and made them even more blest than they were before.

Last of all, sometimes the eyes of Christians have great power in overcoming Christ when they long for his appearing. Have you never seen the saints lie dying with such language as this on their lips, “Why are his chariots so long in coming? Why tarrieth he?

“ ‘Haste, my Beloved, fetch my soul

Up to thy bless’d abode:

Fly, for my spirit longs to see

My Saviour and my God.’ ”

I have heard them say, with evident regret, “I thought to have been in heaven long ere now.” I have seen them almost grieve when the doctor has said that they were better, and that there was hope that they might last another month or two. They seemed to say, “Why should my banishment continue? Why should my release be postponed? These chains of clay which seem so hard to shake off, these fetters of brass, will they never drop from me? Must I still linger in this world of pain, and sorrow, and sin, and suffering? Why not let me go?” And they have been like a poor thrush which I have sometimes seen a boy try to keep upon a little bit of turf; it longed for the broad fields, and beat itself against the wires of its cage. So is it with our dear suffering friends, at times; yet they have learned patiently to wait till their change came; but often, their eyes have been so fixed upon their Lord that they have said to him, “Wilt thou never come?” And, at last, Christ has looked out of heaven so sweetly on those sick ones, and he has said, “Your eyes have overcome me, come up higher;” and they have leaped out of their body into his bosom, and the pierced hands have received their blood-washed spirits, and they have been “for ever with the Lord.” I am looking forward, and I trust we who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are all looking forward, to that day when God will let us languish into life, when we shall see the bars of the prison opened once for all, and we shall pass through them, and leave this dying world behind to go to the land of the living, the land of the hereafter, where we, too, shall be “for ever with the Lord.” Keep your hearts always longing for that blest hour. Keep you eyes ever looking upward, beloved. Set small store by anything here, and be ever ready to depart; and so, full often, shall Jesus say to you, as though he could no longer bear that you should gaze upon him, though indeed he loves it all the while, “Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me.”

God bless you all, beloved, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

GENESIS 32:22-30; EXODUS 32:7-14; and MARK 7:24-30

We shall read three short portions of Scripture, all illustrative of the great truth that God has sometimes given grace to his people to overcome himself, the Almighty has condescended to be vanquished by man.

First, let us read the story of Jacob in the Book of Genesis, the thirty-second chapter, at the twenty-second verse:-

Genesis 32. Verses 22-24. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. And Jacob was left alone;

He had made a quiet oratory for himself by sending everyone else of the company over to the other side of the brook; his own resolve being-

“With thee all night I mean to stay,

And wrestle till the break of day.”

24, 25. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw-

When the wrestling Man, the Angel of the covenant, saw-

25, 26. That he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

When we come nearest to God, we must have a deep sense of our own personal weakness; it must never be supposed, if our suit prevails with heaven, that there is anything in us, or anything in our prayers, to account for our prevalence. Whatever power we have, must come from God’s grace alone; and hence, usually, when we pray so as to prevail with the Lord, there is at the same time a shrinking of the sinew, a consciousness of weakness, a sense of pain; yet it is just then that we are prevailing, and therefore we may rest assured that our prayer will be answered. The Angel said, “Let me go,” at the very time when Jacob felt the shrinking of the sinew: “He said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he (Jacob) said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”

27-29. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?

Holy desires will be realized, and believing prayers will be answered, but mere curiosity will not be gratified. Those who read the Scriptures with a view simply to find out novelties that may tickle their fancy, read in vain. The covenant Angel will give thee what thou wilt if it be needful for thee; but he will not answer thine idle questions. He said to Jacob, “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?”

29, 30. And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Thus did Jacob the wrestler overcome his God.

Now turn to the thirty-second chapter of the Book of Exodus, where we find a description of the sin of idolatry into which the Israelites fell while Moses was absent in communion with God upon the mountain. The people brought their golden ear-rings to Aaron, and he made a calf, and they bowed before it, saying, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” While this wickedness was going on, Moses was on the mountain-top with God.

Exodus 32. Verse 7. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

See how Jehovah will not own these idolaters as his people. He says to Moses, “Thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”

8-10. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

What a great future was thus opened up before Moses! He might become another Abraham, and in him should all the nations of the earth be blessed. But Moses loves the people, even the people who have vexed and provoked him so many years. He still loves them so much that, even before he begins to pray for them, God says, “Let me alone,” as if he felt the force of Moses’ coming prayer, and would not have him offer it. O wondrous power of intercession, that by it even God’s right hand is held back when it is lifted up to smite!

11. And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Moses will not have it that they are his people, nor that he brought them out of the land of Egypt; but he declares that they are God’s people, and that He brought them forth “with great power, and with a mighty hand.”

12-14. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

So a second time the mighty power of prayer was proven, and the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man.

In the seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, beginning at the twenty-fourth verse, is another story which you know well, which tells how the Lord Jesus was overcome by a woman’s mighty faith.

Mark 7. Verses 24-29. And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: the woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

Christ capitulated at once, yielded to the strong arms of conquering prayer and faith, and so the pleading woman had her will.

30. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-784, 846; and from “Sacred Songs and Solos”-38.

In the press; to be published shortly. Price 7s.

“THE MOST HOLY PLACE.”

Sermons on the Song of Solomon.

(Uniform with “Sermons on Our Lord’s Parables” and “Sermons on Our Lord’s Miracles.”)

By C. H. Spurgeon.

London: Passmore and Alabaster, Paternoster Buildings; and all Booksellers.

ORDERED STEPS

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 18th, 1896,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, August 29th, 1886.

“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”-Psalm 119:133.

Notice, in the previous verse, how the psalmist expresses his longing desire to be treated as one of the Lord’s family: “Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.” We also, dear friends, wish to be treated as God treats all the rest of his children; I am sure that every humble believer will be quite content with that arrangement. There was a time when you would have been willing that he should make you one of his hired servants; but you have seen the mistake of such a desire as that, and now your prayer is, “Deal with me, O Lord, as one of thy children; treat me according to thy use and wont with thy redeemed! I do not ask anything different from the lot of the rest of the heirs of heaven. If they are poor, I would be poor with them; if they suffer reproach, I would be reproached with them; if they carry the cross, I would carry the cross, too. Whatever is the appointed portion of the Lord’s children, I am prepared to share and share alike with them. If thou dost chasten them, I hope to have thy chastening; if thou dost smile upon them, I shall delight to be smiled upon as thou art wont to smile on them.” Brothers and sisters, we feel a sweet kind of communism in the Church of God; we none of us desire to have anything more than the common lot of the redeemed family.

At the same time, each believer must have and will have his own apprehension of his personal needs, and he will therefore present to the Lord his own special prayer. I hoped, just now, when we were praying, that my words might suit the cases of many of you; but I felt more concerned that each one should be offering petitions and thanksgivings for himself. Oh, what power there often is in those personal prayers where there is no audible voice, but only the lips move, as did Hannah’s! At such times, the woman of a sorrowful spirit goes her way comforted because of her secret fellowship with God. Do not imagine that any form of prayer-liturgical or extempore,-can meet the needs of your case at all times. No; you must present your own personal supplication; and the Lord seems to say to you, as Ahasuerus said to Esther, “What is thy petition, and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy request, … it shall be performed.”

It seems to me that my text may suit all of us who are in this assembly. I am sure that it suits me. I have prayed it before I have preached from it, and I desire to be praying it while I am preaching concerning it. I commend it to those who are just beginning the divine life, and I suggest it as equally appropriate to those who may have wandered somewhat out of the way of holiness. Ay, and I suggest it to those who are venerable and full of wisdom; I suggest it even to my elders, to the beloved fathers in our Israel, that this is a prayer which may last all of us right up to the gates of heaven, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” You, too, who are just beginning to seek the Saviour, should be told that this is the kind of spirit to which you will have to come; and if the Lord brings you to be his own, this is the kind of prayer that you will pray; and if you cannot pray it, and will not pray it, you will bear witness against yourselves that you are not the children of God. I am sure that I am not too severe when I speak thus.

As the Holy Spirit shall enable me, I want to bring out four things in this text which are well worthy of your earnest consideration. The first is, the complete subservience to the will of God of the man who thus prayed: “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

You see, he begins his prayer with the word “order.” He is a man who wishes to be under orders, he is willing to obey the Lord’s commands, and he is anxious to receive them, and to be made to carry them out. Now this is not the way of the world; worldlings say, “Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice? We are our own masters; who is Lord over us?” Free thinking and free living,-these are the desires of ungodly men; but when the grace of God has renewed the heart, the soul finds its true freedom in obedience to Christ’s commands, and its best thinking while sitting at the feet of Jesus to observe his gracious words.

“Order my steps in thy word.” Beloved, once we lived without any order, or plan, or method; but the grace of God makes us method-ists in the highest possible sense. It makes us live according to God’s method; and our prayer is, that we may never be disorderly, but that in all things, just as the universe is arranged by God, and all the stars keep their appointed courses, so we may be made to take our proper places, and may be kept in them, joyfully obedient to the will of the Most High. It is one of the marks of the grace of God when we ask God to order us, and willingly put ourselves under his command.

Moreover, the psalmist prayed, “Order my steps in thy word.” He was perfectly satisfied with God’s revelation; he had not so much of it as we have, but there was room enough in it for all his steps: “Order my steps in thy word.” He wanted no greater liberty than the Bible gave him, no wider range than he found in the commands of the Most High. His prayer was like that verse we sang just now,-

“Make me to walk in thy commands,

’Tis a delightful road;

Nor let my head, or heart, or hands,

Offend against my God.”

Are you satisfied, dear hearer, to keep within the compass of the divine command? If so, take it as an evidence that God has changed your heart. But oh, my dear hearer, if you live outside of that Book, if you never get inside it at all, if you never care what it says, what it promises, what it commands, then take it as certain that you do not know the Lord! Let us, each one, at this moment breathe this prayer to God, “Order my steps in thy word. Make me to live as a man who is under authority, who finds directions for his living in the law of his God, and who makes it his desire and his delight to be conformed thereto.”

So, you see the complete subservience of the man of God, his earnest desire that he might be cleared from every kind of iniquity. I may mention that, in the Hebrew, the prayer, “Order my steps in thy word,” may mean, “Make my steps firm in thy word.” The psalmist would be kept from all vacillation, hesitation, or wandering; but he wants, when he is right, to be firmly right, to be distinctly, decidedly right, so he pleads, “Make my steps firm.” Oh, how we often stagger along! We do what is right, but we quiver and shake while we are doing it. Have you not known, dear friends, what it was to seem to be wavering? Your feet had almost gone, your steps had well-nigh slipped; but the psalmist’s prayer is, that his obedience may be firm, decided, steady obedience. You young beginners will do well to pray that this experience may be yours. It is often given to God’s saints, when they have been long in his ways, to get confirmed in habits of righteousness, so that they are not carried about by every wind of temptation, and it should be the prayer of all God’s servants that they may be so established in righteousness that they can say with the apostle Paul, “From henceforth let no man trouble me.” It is no use for them to try to do it, for they cannot entice me away from my dear Master’s service. “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” I bared my back to be branded as Christ’s slave, so that the mark shall never be removed as long as I live. I have given my arm to be tattooed with the cross, so that never, while I have an arm to move, should it belong to anybody but to Christ himself. It is a blessed thing when you reach this point, and say, “I cannot and I will not listen to thy temptations, O sinful world! Thou mayest call, but I will not answer. Thou mayest invite, but I will not listen. The time of parleying is past, the hour for making my choice is over. I belong to God, and my prayer is, that my footsteps may always be confirmed in obedience to his mind and will.”

I leave this prayer with you as to its complete subservience. Do you kick against it? Do you want to be something other than God would have you to be? My dear hearer, I am sorry for you; but if, on the contrary, you yield to him, and desire to be like wax under the seal, that God may stamp upon you his own impress, and no other, then the Lord is dealing with you in a way of grace, and you may confidently hope that you belong to him.

Now, secondly, I call your attention to the careful watchfulness of this prayer, the detailed watchfulness of it: “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

You see that the psalmist enters into detail when he presents this petition; he does not say merely, “Order my life,” but, “Order my steps.” Godly men desire to be kept right by God even in the little things of life. It is often in little things, such as steps, rather than in long periods of running, that the good or the evil may be most plainly seen. Blessed is that man to whom there exists no such thing as a trifle, who desires to serve God even in the jots and tittles, for he shall not fall by little and little, as so many have done. He shall not have grey hairs upon him here and there, and yet not know it, for his careful watchfulness shall enable him to detect the slightest deflection from the right way, and so shall he be able to hold to the straight path of integrity. Brethren, the old proverb is, “Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves,” which I will translate into the language of our text, “Take care of the steps, and the day’s walking, as a whole, will take care of itself.” True Christians want the Lord to bless them in everything, ay, even in those plain and simple words which drop from their lips almost without a thought. We do more wrong, perhaps, by want of thought than by any will to do evil; and hence the necessity of crying to God, “Order my steps; take care of the little things in my life, that I sin not against thee.”

“Order my steps.” That prayer means, “Order my ordinary daily life.” Do not many think that religion is only something for Sundays? They put it on with their best hat, and put it away when they put that hat into the box. Believe me, that the religion which is taken up only once a week, and dropped during the rest of the week, is neither fit to live with nor to die with. It is like a bad bank-note; if you find such a counterfeit, you had better lay it down, and run away from it, and not let anyone suspect that it ever belonged to you.

True godliness concerns the ordinary actions of daily life. Do not tell me what you can say at a prayer-meeting. What do you do in the parlour? What do you do in the kitchen? How do you behave yourself to your wife? How do you act towards your children? “He is a very good man,” said one to me, “he is a very good man indeed, but his children are all afraid of him.” “Then,” I thought, “he is not a good man, but a very bad man indeed.” I could not conceive him to be good, I would rather believe Rowland Hill’s saying that a man was not truly converted if his cat and his dog were not the better off for it. It ought to be a blessing, and it must be a blessing to everybody round about him, if the grace of God enters into his soul. “Order my steps in thy word,” means, “Help me to turn the common actions of my ordinary life into a hallowed service.” When I put on my weekday clothes, may I be even as when a priest in the olden time put on his holy vestments, and ministered before the Lord, and may everything that I do be the exercise of a sacred priesthood unto the living God! The apostle Peter’s exhortation is still in force, “As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” So are Paul’s injunctions, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;” “and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

Thus, the watchfulness included in the text concerns the little things and the ordinary things of our lives; and following the psalmist’s example, we shall especially pray about all our advances. It is by steps that we go forward. This is the age of progress; everybody is crying out, “Forward!” Well, then, here is a prayer for those who wish to progress wisely: “O Lord, order my steps in thy word! So shall my progress be a progress toward thyself, a progress within the compass of thy sacred truth.” He who outruns Scripture will have to come back again; he who goes beyond the boundaries of the right road will lose his way, and the more progress he makes the greater will be the distance that he will have to return if he is to reach his journey’s end in peace. Pray this prayer, young man, if you want to be safe, “O Lord, order my steps in thy word!” There is great temptation, nowadays, to take up with anything that is new. A man buttonholes you, and tells you of a new discovery that he has made; well, hear what he has to say if you think well. “Prove all things,” but, “hold fast that which is good;” and be this your continual prayer, that your steps, when you take any steps, may always be ordered according to the Word of God. “Well,” says one, “you tie us up pretty tightly.” No, my friend, I do not want to tie you up at all, you can roam where you like; but I know that the tighter I am tied, the better it is for me, and the happier I am. There is a prayer in the 118th Psalm which I like always to pray, “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” Lord, hold me fast from morning till night, and through the night as well; I long that thou shouldst fill my very dreams with thoughts of thee! Lord, bind me fast both winter and summer, and every day in the year; I would not have a single hour in which thou didst not order me and command me! Lord, bind me as to every step I take, and every advance I make, for where may I not go if I ever advance beyond thy Word, and what can be good for me if thou dost not count it good, and what wilt thou withhold from me if it be really good for me?

So I commend this prayer to you, dwelling much on these two points,-first, complete subservience to the divine will, and then, careful watchfulness about all the details of your life. Only turn them both into prayers; do not say, “I am going to order my steps.” Are you? Do not say, “I am going to obey God in everything.” Are you? This holy road is not fit for such feet as yours while you talk like that; until you are shod with a simple dependence upon God, you will never take to this narrow way; and unless the Lord holds you up in it, you will soon either fall in it or fall from it. So make no resolutions in your own strength, but offer the praver of our text in the name of Jesus, and the Lord will hear you.

In the third place, I call your attention to the comprehensive obedience which is desired in this text.

It has two clauses, the positive and the negative. “Order my steps in thy word;” that is, “Lord, make me positively to do the right thing!” Then, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me;” that is, “Lord, preserve me from any thought or word or deed which would be contrary to thy mind and will!” He is the right sort of believer who is an all-round Christian, one who is positive for doing the right, but who is equally determined not to do the wrong. We have some very active professors who are not, at the same time, watchful on the negative side, and we have a great many negative professors who might offer the Pharisee’s prayer, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” They look to some extent to the negative side, but then there is nothing positive for the right, there is nothing that they are really doing to please the Lord. We want to have a divine amalgam of the two parts of our text, “Order my steps in thy word,” and “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

With regard to this comprehensive obedience, notice that the psalmist desires that no sin of any kind should be tolerated within his heart: “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Some men have their pet sins, and some women have their darling sins. They cry to the evil things within, “Out with you, out with you all, except this one.” There is a winking of the eye, or a lifting of the finger, which means to some iniquity, “You may stop behind.” “But, my dear sir,” says one, “have we not all some besetting sin?” Possibly it is so, but what is a besetting sin? If I were to go across a common at dead of night, and half-a-dozen men met me, and gathered round me, crying, “Your money or your life,” I should be beset by them. Suppose that I had to cross Clapham Common to-night, and that I was thus surrounded and robbed, I should be beset by the thieves; but suppose I went that way again to-morrow night, and on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday night, and Thursday night, and Friday night, and Saturday night, do you think that I should be able to say that I was “beset” by the robbers? People would naturally ask, “Why did you go that way? If you are attacked and robbed once, we can understand that; but what do you mean by going that way again?” Here is a man who says that drinking is his besetting sin. Well, my brother, I can understand, that you were led on by degrees from glass to glass till you lost your balance, and were overcome. You call that your besetting sin, and yet you still go to the public-house. Well, that is what I call going across a common on purpose to be robbed, and I cannot believe in your excuse about besetting sins.

I think that I have heard many things of that character, whereby people try to excuse themselves on the ground that some sin besets them. The negro said that drunkenness was an “upsetting” sin much more than a “besetting” sin; I think he was quite right in saying so, and there are many other upsetting sins of that kind. Men open the door, and say to some iniquity or other, “Come in, you are my besetting sin.” They put themselves in the way of it, they indulge themselves in it, and then they talk as if they really could not help it. Down on your knees, and cry, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Lord, save me from it, for my desire is to obey thee completely in everything without leaving anything out from under the dominion and sway of the laws of Christ!”

Now, lastly, this prayer commends itself very much to me, not only for its comprehensiveness, but because of a certain cautious apprehensiveness which seems to lie in it.

I like the holy fear which glows within the psalmist’s prayer like the fire within an opal. He says, “Order my steps in thy word.” He means, “Lord, I am afraid to take a single step without thine orders, I am afraid to put one foot before another for fear I should go wrong!” “Happy is the man that feareth alway.” He that was too bold was never too wise. He that leaped before he looked, looked very sadly after he had leaped. He shall go right who knows where he is going, is careful about the road, and afraid lest he should go astray. He is the man who prays, “Order my steps in thy word.”

Then notice, especially in the latter sentence, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me,” how the psalmist seems to say, “Lord, I feel that I am liable to the very greatest iniquity; let not any iniquity have dominion over me!” Is this David praying? I think it was the man after God’s own heart who wrote this Psalm; and he proved in his life that the very worst iniquities might assail him, and that he might become their prey for a time. O child of God, you must pray against the blackest sin! You do not know what you may yet become if the grace of God does not preserve you. I am always afraid of people who, are so very good, in their own esteem; superfine, hot-pressed perfectionism is generally very poor stuff. I had an old friend who was very cautious upon this point. He was met, one day, by a man who had been many years the deacon of a church, and who said to him, “Friend So-and-so, I want you to lend me fifty pounds.” He knew him right well, and he was quite prepared to go and write a cheque for the amount at once; but the venerable deacon said, “You know you can trust me; I am not a man of yesterday, I am not like young people who are easily led astray to do foolish and wicked things. I am perfectly safe.” My wise old friend then said, “I cannot lend you any money.” The other man asked, “Why not?” “I never lend money to people who are so good as you are, for I should never see it again if I did.” That man was over head and ears in debt, and failed soon after for an enormous amount; yet there he stood, as bold as brass, pleading what a good man he was! So, the man who says that he cannot sin, and that he is beyond the power of temptation,-well, the Lord have mercy upon him! He is already in the snare of the devil, and it may not be long before he will have sorrowfully to find it out. No, sir, pray, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me,” for, unless you are kept by God’s grace, there is no form of iniquity which may not prevail against you. The psalmist feels himself liable to fall into the greatest transgression, so he prays, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

But the prayer seems to me also to intimate that he felt fearful of the least evil. There is here, to my mind, a very sweet apprehensiveness concerning little sins, if there be such things. “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Perhaps, Lord, I shall never be a drunkard; for thou hast given me reason, and thought, and the love of sobriety, but then, Lord, what avails it if I should be guilty of covetousness, which is idolatry? Let not that iniquity have dominion over me. And if I should escape from covetousness, perhaps I may fall a prey to some secret lust. Lord, if there be a leak in the ship, the ship will go down; even if there is not a leak in the stern of the vessel, yet if there is a leak in the prow, or anywhere in her hull, that will suffice to sink her. Lord, let not any iniquity have dominion over me!”

Suppose that I do not fall by any of these known sins, yet if I do not walk with God, if I neglect secret prayer, if I have not yielded myself fully up to the working of the Holy Spirit upon me, the result will be just the same. This prayer is needful for every one of us: “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Brothers, I do not feel afraid for the most of you that you will become the prey of any overt scandalous sins; but I am afraid that some of you may be eaten up with dry rot, that the white ants may secretly eat through you, and yet leave all the skin and outside of everything just as it used to be. We have heard travellers tell that, when they have gone into their rooms which they had left for some time, there stood their boxes, their sets of drawers, and their tables, just as when they left; but as soon as they have touched them, they have dropped into so much dust, for the insects had eaten all the heart of the wood away. Is it not possible for us to get into that state,-to seem everything that is good, and yet the very heart of us may be eaten out? Pray, then, this prayer, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” O children of God, you who really do know and love him, be concerned about yourselves that you be not mistaken, and that you do not fall under the supremacy of any evil and false thing! Cry mightily to God about this matter; search and try yourselves, and make sure work for eternity. I say this especially to myself and to all ministers, for there are so many ways in which ministers may deceive themselves; we may preach to others, and yet be ourselves castaways. I say this also to you, church-officers, and to you, revered members of the church who have grown grey in your profession. Take heed to yourselves, and every one of you breathe this prayer, “Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

Then what shall I say to you who have never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where will you be found? “Oh!” says one, “I never made a profession of religion.” You are proud of that, are you? Suppose you were brought before a magistrate, and charged with being a thief, and you said to him, “I never made a profession of being an honest man.” “Oh!” he would say, “take that fellow to prison, he is convicted out of his own mouth.” You never made a profession of fearing God, you never made a profession of believing in Christ; is that so, sir? Then the day of judgment is almost a superfluity to you, for you have judged yourself, and condemned yourself; and before long my Lord’s sheriff’s officer will lay his skeleton hand upon you, and arrest you in the name of that divine justice which you have despised. There will be no resisting him, and you will have to go with him to prison and to death. Ere that dread event happens, I entreat you, by the very reasonableness of the thing, do consider, and repent, and turn unto the Lord. Look to Jesus Christ upon the cross, for he is the only way of salvation. Find in him the power to hate sin, and the power to conquer it, for there is no power anywhere but that which comes from his dear streaming wounds and from his ever-living Spirit. Look to him; and when you have so done, and have trusted him, then pray this prayer to the Lord, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.”

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 119:129-144; and MATTHEW 15:1-13

Psalm 119. Verse 129. Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore doth my soul keep them.

It is very wonderful that God should speak to us at all, and still more marvellous that he should write to us such a book as this Bible is. The Book itself is full of wonders, and one of those wonders is that it reveals him whose name is “Wonderful.” Observe that the psalmist, having said to the Lord, “Thy testimonies are wonderful,” does not add, “Therefore do I sit down and wonder at them.” No; his appreciation was practical, let ours be the same: “Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.”

130. The entrance of thy words giveth light;

Those who are most ignorant, and have least confidence in their own abilities, will nevertheless become very wise if they study God’s Word.

130, 131. It giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.

What a wonderful verse that is! The psalmist cannot describe his longing for God’s commandments except by going to the brute creation for a suitable metaphor. He had probably seen the hunted stag stand still, and pant to get its breath, all the while longing for the waterbrooks. So he says, “I opened my mouth, and panted.” “I could not put my prayer into words, so I panted. My heart, my breath, my lungs, my very soul panted, for I longed for thy commandments.”

132. Look thou upon me,-

That is all the psalmist wants, and all that we want, too. If a look from us to God will save us, what must a look from God to us do for us? “Look thou upon me,”-

132-134. And be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

Some of you, perhaps, may hardly be able to do as you would if you were perfectly free to act, for you are to a certain extent under the government and power of ungodly persons. Well, here is a prayer for you to present to the Lord: “Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.”

135. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant;

That is the best sunshine for us; let us but have the light of God’s countenance, and nothing can put us out of countenance. If the Lord will smile, men may frown as much as they please. So we pray with the psalmist, “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.”

135, 136. And teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.

The psalmist felt for others as well as for himself. It was not enough for him to be holy; he would have others to be the same. Sin in other men brought sorrow to his heart: “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.”

137. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.

After having wept over the sin of men, the psalmist turns with sweet calmness of spirit to the goodness of God.

138. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.

“Very faithful.” You who have tried and proved God’s promises must have found them so; not only faithful, but very faithful, faithful to the letter, faithful to the moment. God seems rather to exceed his promise than ever to fall short of it.

139, 140. My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Thy word is very pure:-

Just now the psalmist said, “Thy testimonies are very faithful.” Now he says, “Thy word is very pure.” There is no adulteration in this blessed Book; it is pure truth. You cannot add to it or take from it without making it imperfect: “Thy word is very pure:”-

140. Therefore thy servant loveth it.

It is only a pure heart that loves the pure Word of the Lord; so, if you love the Word of God because of its purity, it is an argument that your heart has been renewed by grace.

141. I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.

In verse 139, the psalmist complained that his enemies had forgotten God’s words, and he does not complain of the fault in others, and then fall into it himself; but he says, “Yet do not I forget thy precepts.” There are some people who seem to think that it does not much matter what they do. If they were persons of influence, they think that they would be very careful of their example. “But,” says one, “I am only a feeble woman,-a poor mother with a few children.” “Oh!” exclaims another, “I am only a child as yet, I cannot influence others.” “Oh!” cries a third, “I am simply an ordinary working-man, nobody notices me.” Listen to what the psalmist says, “I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.” “I do not make an excuse out of my littleness, that I may be careless in my living.” Take that message home, dear friends, and learn its lesson, for it applies to many of you.

142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,-

What a wonderful sentence! Just now, the psalmist said, “Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteousness.” (See the marginal reading of verse 138.) Now he advances another step, and says, “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.”

142. And thy law is the truth.

That is what I believe this Book of God is,-“the truth.” I know of nothing infallible but the Bible. Every man must have a fixed point somewhere; some believe in an infallible pope, and some in an infallible church, but I believe in an infallible Book, expounded by the infallible Spirit who is ready to guide us into all truth: “Thy law is the truth.”

143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.

What a curious mixture this verse describes! Here is a man full of trouble and anguish, and yet full of delight at the same time. Little do they understand human nature, and especially gracious human nature, who cannot comprehend this paradox. There are many seeming contradictions in the Christian life, and this is one of them: “Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me:”-as dogs lay hold of their prey,-“yet thy commandments are my delights.” The apostle Paul pictured another such a case as this when he wrote, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;” and he also described the Christian paradox, “As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” May we all understand these paradoxes in our own experiences!

144. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

Now let us read what the Lord Jesus said to those who professed to reverence the Scripture, but who really made it void by their traditions.

Matthew 15. Verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,-

They had taken a journey to come and attack him; perhaps they had been sent as a deputation to try to thwart the Saviour. What a vexation of spirit it must have been to his pure and holy mind to come into conflict with these trifiers, these self-righteous, self-confident men! Why did they come to Christ? To plead with him for the poor people who were perishing for lack of knowledge, or to ask him how souls could be saved, and how God could be glorified? Oh, no! They came to ask the Saviour about a very different subject,-

2. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

Would you have thought that full-grown men could have made it a matter of business to come from Jerusalem down into the country to talk to Christ about the fact that his disciples did not always wash their hands before they ate their breakfasts? Yet we have men, nowadays, who make a great point of what is to be done with any of the so-called “consecrated” bread that is left, and who are much concerned about what kind of a dress a “priest” ought to wear when he is engaged in the performance of certain duties. How sad is it that such trifles as these should occupy the minds of immortal beings while men are dying, and God is dishonoured!

3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

He answered their question by asking another, in which he drew the contrast between transgressing the tradition of the elders and transgressing the commandment of God.

4-6. For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Whatever might be said about regarding the tradition of men, God’s commandment must be regarded. That stands first, and therefore our Lord demanded of these scribes and Pharisees an answer to his charge that they had overridden and overlaid a commandment of God by a tradition of their own. If a father and mother, in great need, said to their son, “Help us, for we are wanting bread,” and he answered, “I cannot give you anything, for all I have is dedicated to God,” the Rabbis taught that he might be exempted from relieving his parents, although they also said that, the next day, he might, undo the dedication of his property, and employ it exactly as he pleased. He might use the fact that he had said, “That shekel is for God,” as a reason for not giving it to his father who was in need; and then, the very next day, he might take that shekel, and spend it exactly as he chose. So God’s commandment to honour, and love, and aid our parents, was set aside by their tradition.

7-9. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Our Lord never flattered anybody; see how honestly, and in what plain terms, he addressed these scribes and Pharisees! Yet these were the great teachers of his day, and thought themselves the bright lights of the age, the very leaders of the people in all that was good. But Christ addressed them as, “Ye hypocrites,” and gave them a text of Scripture which clearly applied to them. They had all manner of outward forms of worship, they talked very much about the Bible, they studied every word of it, and even counted the letters in every chapter; but they had no regard to the real meaning of God’s Word, and their heart was not right with the Lord. The Saviour patiently talked with them, but he also sternly rebuked them, and denounced them as hypocrites.

10. And he called the multitude,

As much as if he had said to the scribes and Pharisees, “I cannot waste my time arguing with you; I am going to talk to these poor people who are perishing, and I shall have more hope of doing good among the multitude than among you, though you do consider yourselves the aristocracy of the church.”

10, 11. And said unto them, Hear, and understand: not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

This was not very dear at first; it needed to be thought over and well considered. The Saviour dropped it into the popular mind, like a seed, and left it to grow, and develop in due season.

12. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

The wonder was that they were not offended before. It certainly was not a matter of concern to Christ whether they were offended or not; he would not tone down the truth in order to please them.

13. But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

Every teacher whom God has not sent will find his teaching contradicted by Christ. The truth is like a spade; it turns up the soil for that life to grow in it which should grow, and it is also the means of killing the weeds: “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” May we all be plants of his right-hand planting! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-103 (Version III.), 119 (Song II.), 575.