This is a very terrible Psalm. It contains some prayers against the enemies of God and of his people that crash with the thunder of indignation. You know that we are bidden to love our enemies, but we are never commanded to love God’s enemies. We may not hate any men as men; but as they are opposed to God, to truth, to righteousness, to purity, we may, and we must, if we are ourselves right-minded, feel a burning indignation against them. Did you ever read the story of “the middle passage” in the days of the African slave trade, when the negroes died by hundreds, or were flung into the sea to lighten the ship? Did you ever read of those horrors without praying, “O God, let the thunderbolts of thy wrath fall on the men who can perpetrate such enormities”? When you heard the story of the Bulgarian atrocities, did you not feel that you must, as it were, pluck God’s sleeve, and say to him, “Why does thy justice linger? Let the monsters of iniquity be dealt with by thee, O Lord, as they deserve to be”?

Such is the spirit of this Psalm. But I like best this particular verse in it because, while it breathes righteous indignation against the wicked, it has mixed with it the tender spirit of love. “Fill their faces with shame;” prays the psalmist, “but overrule thy severity for their everlasting good, ‘that they may seek thy name, O Lord.’ ” The worst fate that I wish to any hearer of mine who is without God, and without hope in the world, is that this prayer may be prayed by honest and loving hearts for him and for others like him, “Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Lord.”

To begin with, let me remind you that ungodly men have good cause to be ashamed.

Let us talk a little, first, of their wrong to their Maker. It I might take each one of you by the hand, I should say to you, “Friend, you believe in the existence of God, your Maker, do you not? Well, then, have you treated him rightly? If you have lived in the world twenty years, or perhaps even forty or fifty years, and yet you have never served him, do you think that is quite just to him? If he made you, and has fed you, and kept you in being all these years, has he not a right to expect some service from you? I might go further, and say, has he not a right to expect your love? Does he ask more than he should ask when he says, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might’? Yet you have lived these many years, and scarcely thought of him; certainly, you have not spoken to him, you have never confessed your faults to him, or sought his forgiveness. To all intents and purposes, you have lived as if there were no God at all. Yet, in your earthly affairs, you are a very honest man, and you pay everybody else his due; why do you, then, rob your God of what is justly his? There is not a man in the world who could say truly of you that you had dealt dishonourably with him. You pride yourself upon your uprightness and integrity; but must God alone, then, be made to suffer through your injustice? Out of all beings, must he alone who made all other beings be the only one to be neglected? He is first of all; do you put him last? He is best of all; do you treat him worst? If so, I think that such conduct as this is a thing to be ashamed of, and I pray that you may be heartily ashamed of it.”

Let me quit that line of thought, and remind you, next, that there are many ungodly men, and I suppose some here present, who ought to be ashamed because they are acting in opposition to light and knowledge, contrary to their conscience, and against their better judgments. There are many unconverted men who can never look back upon any day of their lives without having to accuse themselves of wrong; and although they are not Christians, they would scarcely attempt to justify their position; when they act wrongly, there is a voice within them which tells them that they are doing wrong. They are not blind; they could see if they chose to see. They are not deaf, except that there are none so deaf as those who will not hear. It is a horrible thing for a man to be always holding down his conscience, like a policeman holding down a mad dog. It is a terrible thing for a man to have to be at war with himself in order to destroy himself; his better self resisting, and struggling, as it were, after salvation, but his worse self thrusting back the higher part of his being, stifling his conscience, and drowning the cries of any approach to betterness that may be within him. God forbid that men should act thus, and sin against light and knowledge! I venture very quietly, but very solemnly, to tell any who are doing so that they ought to be ashamed of such conduct, they ought to blush at the very thought of acting thus against such light as they have, and against the convictions of their own conscience.

There are some also of my hearers-I speak very positively upon this point,-who ought to be ashamed because of their postponements of what they know to be right. They have again and again put off the observance of duties which they know and admit to be incumbent upon them. “I ought to repent of sin,” says one; and then he adds, “and I will one of these days.” “I ought to be a believer in Christ,”-he admits that,-“and I shall be, I hope, before I die.” Oh, how fairly you talk, Mr. Procrastinator! You know what ought to be done at once, but you leave it all for the future. Do you not know that, every time a man neglects a duty, he commits a sin? That which you admit is your duty, causes you, every moment it is delayed, to commit sin by the delay; and by delay obedience becomes more difficult, and you yourself become continually more likely to commit yet greater sin. I do think that a man who says, “I ought to believe in Christ, I ought to repent of sin, I ought to love God,” and yet says, “Well, I will do so at a more convenient season,” ought to be ashamed of himself for talking and acting in such a wicked fashion; I pray God that he may be.

I shall come more pointedly home to some when I say that they ought to be ashamed because of their violation of vows which they have made. You were very ill, a little while ago, and you said, “O God, if thou wilt but spare my life, and restore me to health and strength, I will rise from this bed to be a better man!” God did raise you up, but you are not a better man. You were seriously injured in an accident, and likely to die, and in your distress you prayed, “O God, if thou wilt prolong my unworthy life, I will turn over a new leaf; I will be a very different man in future!” Well, you are a different man, for you are worse than you used to be before the accident; that is all the change that has been wrought in you. God keeps a register of the vows that are so lightly broken here below, but so well remembered up in heaven, and the day will come when they shall be brought out to the condemnation of those who made them, and then failed to keep them. If thou art determined to be a liar, lie not unto God. If thou art resolved to make promises, only to break them, at least trifle not with him in whose hand thy life is, and whose are all thy ways. He who must play the fool, had better do it with some fellow-fool, and not parade his folly before “him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH.” Think then, dear friends, of vows violated, and blush because of them.

Moreover, it seems to me-and I shall leave it to your judgment to consider and approve what I say,-that every man ought to be ashamed of not loving the Lord Jesus Christ, and not trusting such a Saviour as the Lord Jesus Christ is. God in human flesh, bleeding, dying, bearing the penalty of human sin, and then presenting himself freely as our Sacrifice, and saying that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life; do you push him away from you? Will you trample on his blood, and count it an unholy thing? Will you despise his cross? It sometimes seems to me that blasphemy and adultery and murder-tremendous evils though these be,-scarcely reach the height of guilt that comes through refusing the great love of Christ, thrusting him aside whom God took from his bosom, and gave up to die that men might live through him. If you must spite anybody, spite anybody but the Christ of God. If you mean to refuse a friend, refuse any friend but the bleeding Saviour, who spared not his very life, but poured out the floods from his heart that he might save the guilty.

So, you see, dear friends, that he who loves not Christ, and trusts not Christ, has good cause to be ashamed.

I will not say any more upon this first point, except just one thing; that is, a man ought to be ashamed who will not even think of these things. There are great numbers of our fellow-citizens in London, and our fellow-creatures all the world over, who have resolved not to think about religion at all. There stands the house of God, but in that same street there is hardly one person who ever enters it. There is a Bible in almost every house, but many, nowadays, will not read it, or try to understand it. I should have thought that common and idle curiosity alone might have made men anxious to understand the Christian religion, the way of salvation by a crucified Saviour. I should have fancied that they would have strayed in to see what our worship was like; if it had been the worship of Mumbo Jumbo, they would have wanted to see that, but when it is the worship of the Lord God Almighty, and of his Son Jesus Christ, the multitudes seem to be utterly indifferent to it. From the cross I hear my dying Master cry, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” Even the voice of his gaping wounds, and the voice of his bloody sweat, and the voice of his broken heart seem to fall upon hearts that will not listen, and upon ears that are as deaf as stones. Many who come to hear the gospel go their way to their farms and to their merchandise, but they care nothing for him who is worth more than all beside. O sirs, in that day when this solid earth shall rock and reel, when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, when the stars shall fall like the leaves of autumn, and when there shall sail into the sky, conspicuous to the gaze of all, the great white throne, and on it shall sit the despised Redeemer, you will repent then, and regret when it is too late that you gave him none of your thoughts, but put the affairs of religion wholly on one side! Investigate this matter, I charge you. By what your immortal souls are worth, by an eternal heaven and an endless hell,-and there are both of these, despite what some say,-I charge you, as I shall meet you at the judgment seat, and would be clear of your blood, do give earnest attention to the things that make for your peace, and consider the claims of God and of his Christ, and seek to find the way of salvation by faith in Jesus.

Thus, surely, I have said enough upon this first point; ungodly men have good cause to be ashamed.

Now, secondly, concerning these ungodly people, let me show you that shame is a very desirable thing if it drives them to God. Hence the prayer, “Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek thy name, O Lord.”

I have known shame to drive men to God in various ways. Sometimes, shame attends the breaking up of self-righteousness. I knew a young fellow, who had been a very upright moral man all his days. He seemed to think that he should go to heaven by his own good works; but he had no notion of a Saviour, and no regard for the things of Christ. One day, being in the workshop, he upset an oil can; and as the master was rather a bad-tempered man, he enquired sharply who had wasted the oil; and this man, who had always till then been truthful, on this occasion told a lie, and said that he did not upset the can. Nobody found him out, mark you; he was so highly respected that his employer fully believed that he had not done it; but he went down greatly in his own esteem. He said to me, “Sir, my righteousness went all to pieces in a moment. I knew that I had told a lie; I felt disgusted with myself, and when I got out of the shop, for the first time in my life I cried to God for mercy, for I saw myself to be a sinner.” Now I do not wish any of you to commit further sin, in order that you may realize your true condition in God’s sight. You have done enough evil already, without doing any more; but I should like some one of these sins to come so sharply home to you, that it would make you feel ashamed, and give up all pretence of self-righteousness, and just come by faith to Christ, and take his righteousness to be your perfect covering before God.

I have known this shame to operate in some, when they have done wrong, and have lost the repute they enjoyed among their fellow-creatures. They have been found out in doing wrong, and, sad as it was to them, yet when they felt that they could no longer come to the front, and lead as they used to do, when they knew that they must get somewhere in the rear rank, and that, if their true character became known, people would shun them, then it was that, like the prodigal son, they said, “I will arise, and go to my Father.” There is many a man who stands high in popular esteem, but who is never likely to be saved, for he is too proud and self-conceited ever to seek the Saviour. But there have been some others who, for a grave fault, have had all their glory trailed in the mire, and then they have sought the face of Christ. I scarcely care how or why they do seek that blessed face, so long as they find it, and are saved.

There are two instances, then, in which shame drives men to God: first, when a man has lost his own good opinion of himself, and next, when he has lost the good opinion of others. Filled with shame, he has often fled to Christ.

So have I seen it in the ease of failure driving a man to the Strong for strength. There is a young man who has come lately from the country; he knew the temptations of London, but he said to his father and mother, “You will never hear of your son John doing such things.” Ah, John! they have not heard of it yet, but you have done a great many evil things by now, and you ought to be ashamed. If your father finds it out, as likely enough he will, you will be ashamed; but, seeing that you have found yourself out, I wish that you would be ashamed before the Lord now. O that virtuous John, that excellent youth, that dear young man! You were just going to join the church, were you not? Where were you last night? Ah, not drinking of the communion cup, I will warrant you! Where are you now? O John, if you could have seen yourself, six months ago, to be what you now are, you would not have held your head so high when you came away from your native town! But your failure, that wretched broken back of yours, with which you meant to stand so bolt upright, should all help to drive you to God, your father’s God and your mother’s God. My dear friend, I pray you seek the face of the Most High, and begin again; for, John, though you cannot stand by yourself, God can make you to stand. With a new heart and a right spirit, you can do a deal better than you have done in the past in your own strength, which is utter weakness. I have known a teetotaller, who has felt himself quite safe because he wore a blue ribbon, to become a drunkard, notwithstanding that very desirable badge. If that is your case, my brother, when you are ashamed of yourself on that account, as well you may be, go to the Lord for a new heart and a right spirit, and then begin again, that you may truly be what you aspire to be, an example to others. So, you see, that shame in such a case of failure as I have described, may bring a man to Christ.

I have also known men brought to Christ with shame of another sort, shame of mental error leading to a humble faith. A young gentleman felt that he had heard the old-fashioned gospel long enough, and he should like to go and hear the new gospel. More light is said to have broken out of late; I can only tell you that it comes from some very dark places, and I do not think there is much light in it. But this gentleman thought that he must know about this new light, and he has kept going further and further, and the new light has led him, like the will-o’-the-wisp does, into all sorts of boggy places; and now he begins to feel that he can do a great many things which once he dared not do, until suddenly the thought occurs to him, “Where have I got to now?” He has become an unbeliever altogether; he who was once almost persuaded to be a Christian has run into very wild ways, and nothing is sure with him; it is all rocking to and fro before him, like the waves of the sea, and there is nothing solid left. Ah! now you begin to be ashamed, do you? you are not, after all, so full of wisdom as you thought you were. Come back, then; come back, and believe the old Book, and trust the Saviour who has brought so many to the eternal kingdom. Believe his words, follow in his track, and this very shame on account of your fancied intellectual prowess, which has turned out to be sheer folly, will bind you in future to the simple cross of Christ, and you will never go away from it again.

I want to suggest one thing more before I leave this part of my subject. In this congregation there must be a good many men and women who might do well to look back upon the utter uselessness of their past lives. As I looked along these galleries, at the immense preponderance of men in the congregation, which is so usual with us, I thought, “What a number there must be here who, if they threw the weight of their influence in with us, and sought to do good to others, would be immensely valuable to the Church of God!” But are there not many, perhaps even professing Christianity, who, in looking back upon their past lives, will be obliged to say that they have done nothing? What did you ever accomplish, dear friends? There was a lady, who had a large sum of money in her possession, much more than sufficient for her needs; she was a Christian woman, living a quiet, comfortable life by the seaside. One night, as she walked up and down the beach, she said to herself, “What have I ever done for him who died for me? If I were to die now, would anybody miss me? When my life is finished, shall I have accomplished anything?” She felt that she had done nothing; so she went home, and ruminated upon what she could do. She began to live very hard that she might save all she could, and she accumulated quite a large amount, for she had an object to live for. The Orphanage at Stockwell is the outcome of that good woman’s thought at the seaside; she consecrated her substance to the starting of a home where boys and girls, whose fathers were dead, might be housed. I cannot but think of her, and then say to myself, “Are there not many ladies, many gentlemen, many men, many women, who might walk up and down, and say, ‘Well, now, when I die, who will miss me?’ ” I believe that there are numbers of people who call themselves Christians, who might be tied hand and foot, and flung into the Atlantic, and nobody would miss them beyond the two or three members of their own families. They do nothing; they are living for nothing. “Oh, but!” they say, “we are accumulating money.” Yes, yes; that is like a jackdaw hiding rubbish behind the door, putting away everything he can get. Poor jackdaw! That is what you are doing, nothing more. To get money is well enough, if you get it that you may use it well; and to learn is right enough, if you learn with the view of teaching others. If our life is not to be wasted, there must be a living unto God with a noble purpose; and they who have lived in vain with multitudes of opportunities of doing good, ought to be ashamed; and such shame should bring them to the Saviour’s feet in humble penitence. God give such shame as that to any here who ought to have it, that they may at once seek the name of the Lord!

I must close by speaking only briefly upon the last head of my discourse, which is, the Lord is willing now to receive those who are ashamed of themselves. Let me say that again. The Lord is waiting and willing now to receive to the love of his heart those who are thus ashamed of themselves.

I do not think that I need say much to enforce this great truth. Is there one person here who is ashamed of himself because of his past sin? Then, you are the man I invite to come to that Saviour who bore your shame in his own body on the tree. You are the sort of man for whom he died. Remember how he himself said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost;” and one mark of the lost is their deep sense of shame, when they get to be so ashamed of themselves that they try to hide away from the gaze of their fellow-creatures. If you are ashamed of yourself, Christ is willing to receive you; behold, he stands before you with open arms, and bids you come and trust him, that he may give you rest.

You are the sort of man to come to Christ, because, first, you have the greatest need of him. In the time of famine, we give the meal away first to the most hungry family. He who has alms to distribute to the poor, if he be wise, will give the most speedy relief to those who are the most destitute; and you, my dear hearer, are like that; if you are ashamed of yourself, you are the bankrupt, you are the beggar, you are the sort of sinner whom Jesus came to save. God’s elect are known by this mark,-in their own natural estate they are as poor as poverty itself. If thou art empty, there is a full Christ for thee. If thy last mite is gone, heaven’s treasures are all open for thee. Come and take them, take them freely, as freely as thou dost breathe the air, as freely as thou wouldst drink of the flowing river. Come and take Christ without question and without delay, take him now and happy be; and the way to take him is to trust him, to trust thyself with him absolutely. He is a Saviour; let him save thee. Have no finger in the work thyself, but leave it all to him. Commit thou thyself entirely and absolutely to that mighty hand that moulded the heavens and the earth, to that dear hand that was nailed to the tree. Jesus can save you, he will save you, he must save you, he is pledged to save you; if you have believed in him, he has saved you, and you may go your way, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Next, if you are ashamed of yourself, you are the man to come to Christ, because you will make no bargains with him. You will say, “Save me, Lord, at any price, and in any way!” And you are the man who will give him all the glory if you are saved. That is the kind of sinner Jesus loves to save; not one who will run away with the credit of his salvation, and say, “I was always good, and I had many traces of an excellent character about me before Christ saved me.” Such a man might try to divide with the Lord the glory of his salvation, so he is not likely to be saved; but God delights to save those in whom there is no trace of goodness, no hope of goodness, no shadow of goodness, the men who not only feel that God may well be ashamed of them, but who are absolutely ashamed of themselves.

In preaching on this important theme, I have not used any grace of diction, nor have I made any display of oratory; but I have plainly told you the gospel message, and I have expostulated with those of you who have not considered it. I wish that, by the grace of God, even ere this night passes away, you would come and rest yourselves on Christ. The Holy Spirit is here, blessedly working upon some hearts. If he is not yet working upon others of you, I pray that he may now begin to do so. Remember, my dear hearers, that you are all mortal, and some of you may soon be gone from earth. During the past week, I personally have lost some very choice friends who died quite suddenly. There was a young friend, who was here a Sabbath or so ago; he was taken ill last Sunday afternoon, and he was gone in a few hours. His sorrowing friends are absent to-day, for he was laid in Norwood Cemetery yesterday afternoon, almost to the breaking of the hearts of his parents and other relatives. I had a dear old friend with whom I have often stayed at Mentone. On Monday last she seemed as well as ever, and on Wednesday she too was dead. Last Friday week, I had a letter from a friend at Plymouth, saying that he was coming up to see me, and asking at what hour I could meet him? I said, “Five in the afternoon.” It was our honoured friend, Mr. Serpell. He did not come, but I received a note to say that he was not quite well. On Monday he addressed the Chamber of commence, and while he was speaking he fell back, apparently in a fainting fit, and so died. I have, therefore, lost some who have always been good helpers and kind friends to me, and I seem to feel more than ever I did that I am living in a dying world. It might have been any one of you, it might have been myself. Come, then, and let us all seek the Lord at once; let us each one seek him now. “If thou seek him, he will be found of thee.” God grant it, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 12; and JEREMIAH 8, and 9:1

Psalm 12. Verse 1. Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

The Psalm speaks of a very discouraging time, and records a very dreary fact; but the psalmist is wise, and turns to God with that short, sententious prayer, “Help, Lord.”

2, 3. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things:

They will not be able to continue speaking falsely and proudly for ever; a shovelful of earth from the grave-digger’s spade will silence them, and a terrible display of God’s justice will make them speechless for ever.

4, 5. Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

That is all it is, only a puff;-the biggest brag of the wicked, the most tremendous threat against the Lord’s people, is but a puff after all; and God will set his people high above all those who puff at them.

6-8. The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.

Now let us read in Jeremiah’s prophecy, chapter 8.

Remember, dear brethren, that Jeremiah had the very sorrowful task of warning a people who would not give heed to his warnings. He prophesied evil,-evil which began to come upon the people even while he prophesied, yet they would not turn to God. I sometimes think Jeremiah was the greatest of all the prophets, because, in the teeth of perpetual opposition, with no measure of success whatever, he continued to be faithful to God, and to deliver the message with which he was sent, weeping all the while over a people who would not weep for themselves.

Jeremiah 8. Verses 1, 2. At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

This is an awful picture. Here is a nation that would worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars, instead of worshipping God. Here they are, dead, and their bones lie exposed to the sun and moon and stars which they had worshipped,-dead people before lifeless gods. This is all that idolatry produces for the ruined people who have turned away from their true Friend and Helper; their bones lie exposed in the presence of the things that they made to be their gods. How dreadful is the result of sin! No matter what modern preachers say, a sinful course must be a disastrous one. It is in the very nature of things that we cannot go the wrong road, and yet be happy. Wrong must end in wrong, it cannot be otherwise; the universal conviction in the conscience of man teaches us this fact.

3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts.

These people would not have God, they cast him off; and now he so far casts them off that they feel that it would have been better for them if they had never been born, and they would rather die than live: “Death shall be chosen rather than life.”

4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

The old proverb says, “It is a long lane that has no turning.” So the Lord seems to ask, “Will these men always go on in sin? Will they always turn away from me? They change from bad to worse; will they never change from worse to better?”

5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual back-sliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Perseverance in evil is the very venom of evil. When men not only backslide, but continue perpetually to backslide, they are doubly dyeing their garments in the scarlet of iniquity. When men “refuse to return” to the Lord, and continue to refuse to return, surely they are digging their own graves exceeding deep.

6. I hearkened and heard,-

It is God who is speaking: “I hearkened and heard,”-

6. But they spake not aright:

“I tried to discover whether there was any good in them. I listened to hear them offer a prayer, I watched to mark anything like repentance in them.”

6. No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

See how God described these people. When he might have expected that some of them would relent, and in their thoughtful moments turn to a better mind, they did not do so; but, as the horse, when he hears the war-trumpet, rushes into the midst of the fray, so did these people go headlong into sin with desperate resolve. Careless of wounds and death, they rushed to their destruction. I hope that this is not the case with any of my hearers at this time; I pray God that it may not be so.

7. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.

The birds take wing across the sea when the damps of autumn come; and, by-and-by, when spring returns, they twitter about our roofs again, punctual to the appointed time. But men come not to God in their season; they fly not from their sins, they return not to the Lord. The crane and the swallow rebuke the foolishness of men who know not the time to return to God, and know not their way back to him.

8, 9. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?

This text may serve as a motto for some, in these days, who believe themselves to be wiser than Scripture, and who fancy that, in their great wisdom, they are able to correct this inspired Book! Many set up in the trade of “Bible-makers” nowadays; they profess to be the revealers of revelation, the improvers of this blessed Book of God. Ah! but this passage still standeth true, “They have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?”

10, 11. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

This is a very mischievous thing. For the preacher of Christ to be honest and fearless, and to speak unpalatable truth, is right in God’s sight; but to gloss over the great facts about sin and judgment, and to say to the ungodly, “Oh, do not trouble yourselves! ‘Peace, peace; when there is no peace;’ ” this is to murder the souls of men; and I doubt not that the blood of multitudes will be upon the skirts of those teachers who have tried to make everything pleasant to the wicked, and to suit the age in which they lived. The Lord himself says of the prophet and priest who have dealt falsely, “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:

What a striking expression is this! To what a condition of shameless obstinacy have men’s minds been brought when it can be said of them, “They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.” The very power to be ashamed was taken from them. Surely, almost the last ray of any hope of salvation must be gone from the man who cannot blush at the thought of his own iniquity.

12-18. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

Because the people refused this testimony, because they seemed set on mischief, and resolved to die, therefore the prophet’s heart was faint within him.

19, 20. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

I will read that twentieth verse, again: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” This may be the lament of some of my present hearers; and if it be, may they bow now before the Lord in true penitence of heart, and may he in pity save them this very hour! The harvest is past, the summer is ended; but, oh! may they soon be saved!

21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

That is the man to be God’s prophet, the man who makes the sorrows of his people to be his own sorrows, who does not perform the duties of his office as a mere matter of profession, but enters into his service with a weeping heart, longing to be made a blessing to men.

22. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?

No; there is none. There is balm in Christ, there is a Physician who once hung on Calvary’s cross; but there is no balm and no physician in Gilead. If there were,-

22. Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Chapter 9. Verse 1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

This is how God’s servants feel about the dying and perishing souls all around them. They cannot bear the thought of the sinner’s awful doom; it brings continuous heartbreak and heaviness of spirit upon them. That men should eternally perish, that they should bring on their own heads the doom of their own sin, is no small thing, and therefore the Lord’s servant mourns over those who mourn not for themselves. God save every one of us, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-552, 544, 521, 522.

Just published. Price One Penny.

Spurgeon’s Illustrated Almanack for 1897.

We trust that the many thousands of lovers of the Book Almanack will find that it is fully up to the mark of previous years. The articles bearing the familiar and ever-prized, initials, C. H. S., are as numerous as in any former issue; and there is one page, entitled, “The Heart of the Gospel,” which should be a special favourite. It would make a most effective magic-lantern slide, and we hope it will be very widely used in that way for the furtherance of the gospel. Mrs. Spurgeon has again selected the texts for daily meditation by the members of the Text Union, and other readers who have not formally adopted the Text Bond; and besides the usual introductory letter, there is another communication from her busy pen. The garden at “Westwood” has furnished the material for two of the pictures and three of the articles in the little book, and this fact should help to commend it to all who still love the dear Pastor whose name it bears.-Review in “The Sword and the Trowel.”

Now ready. Price One Penny.

John Ploughman’s Sheet Almanack for 1897.

The proverbs and mottoes for every day in the year are still mainly gathered from those composed or collected by Mr. Spurgeon, and therefore the broadsheet should prove as acceptable as its many predecessors. The central picture is a representation of a hundred thousand of Mrs. Spurgeon’s Sermons as prepared for distribution as loan tracts by the “Spurgeon Memorial” Sermon Society at Brighton. In the middle of the pyramid is the best portrait of the beloved preacher who, “being dead, yet speaketh.”

Special “Note” in the November Sword and Trowel:-

Before our friends purchase all their Christmas presents, we recommend them to ask their booksellers to order for them Mr. Spurgeon’s new little volume, entitled, A Carillon of Bells, to Ring Out the Old Truths of “Free Grace and Dying Love” It is to be published as soon as possible by Messrs. Passmore & Alabaster, price Is. 6d., and will make one of the choicest gift-books of the season. It will contain the whole of Mrs Spurgeon’s “Personal Notes on a Text?” which have appeared in the Sword and Trowel during the past two years.

PAUL’S PERSUASION

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 22nd, 1896,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, November 7th, 1886.

“For 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.”-Romans 8:38, 39.

A Christian brother was asked, one day, “To what persuasion do you belong?” He parried the question at first, for he did not think that it was very important for him to answer it. So the enquirer asked him again, “But what is your persuasion?” “Well,” said he, “if you must know my persuasion, this is it, ‘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.’ ” I also am of that persuasion. Somebody says, “That is Calvinistic doctrine. ” If you like to call it so, you may; but I would rather that you made the mistake of the good old Christian woman who did not know much about these things, and who said that she herself was “a high Calvarist.” She liked “high Calvary” preaching, and so do I; and it is “high Calvary” doctrine that I find in this passage. He who hung on high Calvary was such a lover of the souls of men that from that glorious fact I am brought to this blessed persuasion, “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.”

Paul was fully persuaded of this great truth. Did he not learn it by revelation? I doubt not that God at first supernaturally revealed it to him; but yet, in order that he might be still more sure of it, God was pleased to reveal it to him again and again, till his trembling heart was more and more completely persuaded of it. It may have seemed to him, as it does to some of us, to be almost too good to be true, and therefore the Holy Spirit so shed abroad this truth in the apostle’s mind that he yielded to it, and said, “I am persuaded.” He may have thought, with a great many in the present day, that it was necessary to caution believers against falling from grace, and to be a little dubious about their final perseverance in the ways of God; but, if he ever had such fears, he gave them up, and said, “I am,-yes, I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Beside that, I suppose that the apostle was persuaded through reasoning with himself from other grand truths. He said to himself, “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” He argued that, if the death of Christ reconciled God’s enemies to himself, the life of Christ will certainly preserve safely those who are the friends of God; that was good argument, was it not?

I have no doubt that Paul also argued with himself from the nature of the work of grace, which is the implantation of a living and incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever. Christ spoke of it as the putting of a well into us, and he said, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” And as Paul thought of the nature of this new life, he felt persuaded that it would not die; he was convinced that he would never be separated from the love of God.

Moreover, I doubt not that Paul remembered the doctrine of the union of believers with Christ, and he said to himself, “Shall Christ lose the members of his body? Shall a foot or an arm be lopped off from him? Shall an eye of Christ be put out in darkness?” And he could not think that it could be so; as he turned the matter over mentally, he said, “If they be indeed one with Christ, I am persuaded that nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, dear brethren, if I could extend the time for this service to four-and-twenty hours, I might give you all the arguments, or the most of the arguments, which support the blessed truth of the non-separation of believers from the love of Christ. As for my own convictions, I never can doubt it, I am fully persuaded concerning it. This truth seems to me to have struck its roots into all the other truths of Scripture, and to have twisted itself among the granite rocks which are the very foundation of our hope. I, too, am persuaded by a thousand arguments, and persuaded beyond all question, that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yet more, I fancy that Paul had been persuaded of this truth by his own experience. He had endured persecution, imprisonment, famine, shipwreck; he had suffered from scorn and scandal, pain of body, and depression of spirit. “A night and a day,” said he, “I have been in the deep,” and I will warrant you that many a night and many a day he had been in spiritual deeps; yet he had survived them all, and he could testify to the faithfulness of his God, and say at the end, as the issue of his sufferings, “I am persuaded that nothing in creation is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Thus he was persuaded of this truth by revelation, by argument, and by experience; and I should like you to notice that he was not only persuaded that none of the powers he mentions will separate us from the love of Christ, but that they cannot do it. He puts it thus, they are not able to separate us. Yet these are the strongest forces imaginable-death, life, angels, principalities, powers, the dreary present and the darker future. Paul summons all our foes, and sets them in battle array against us, and when he has added up the total of all their legions, he says that he is persuaded that they shall not be able-shall not be able, mark you,-to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In this discourse I am only going to handle the topic of Paul’s persuasion. Paul says, “I am persuaded,” and it is implied that, first, he is persuaded of the love of God. He could not be persuaded that nothing could separate us from a thing which did not exist, so he is persuaded, first of all, of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Come, my brothers and sisters, are you persuaded of the love of God? Are you intelligently persuaded not only that God is love, but that God loves you? Are you fully persuaded of the love of God,-the love of the Father who chose us, because he would choose us, for nothing but his love; the love of Jesus, the Son of God, who bowed himself from his glory that he might redeem us from our shame; the love of the Holy Ghost who has quickened us, and who comes to dwell in us that we may by-and-by dwell with him? Are you persuaded of this love of God to you? Happy man, happy woman, who can truly say, “I am persuaded that God loves me. I have thought it over, I have fully considered it, I have thoroughly weighed it, and I have come to this persuasion, that the love of God is shed abroad in my heart.”

Then, next, it is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is, his great love in giving his dear Son to die for us. I am not going to expatiate upon this wondrous theme. The thoughts are too great to need to be spun out, or you can do that in your private meditations. Is it not a wonderful thing that God loved me, and loved you, (let us individualize it,) that God so loved us that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life? He gave his Son for you; and for me. It is as though one bartered a diamond to buy a common pebble from the brook, or gave away an empire to purchase some foul thing not worthy of being picked off a dunghill. Yet we are persuaded that he did it, and that the love of God is most clearly to be seen in the fact that he gave his Son Jesus Christ to die instead of us.

And, once more, we are persuaded of the love of God to all who are in Christ. We believe in Christ, and so we come to be in Christ by our believing; and now we are persuaded that, to as many as receive Christ, to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, and therefore all who believe in Jesus are beloved of the Lord, not because of anything good in them, but for Jesus Christ’s sake. He loves Christ so much that he loves us notwithstanding our unloveliness, because Jesus Christ has covered us with his robe of righteousness, and he has said, “My Father, consider them as lost in me, hidden in me, made one with me.” And the Father says, “Yes, my beloved Son, I will love them; Jesus, I will love them for thy sake.”

So we are persuaded of these three things: first, that God loves us; next, that God has shown his love to us by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ; and then, that his divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ, and are loved for his sake. I want you, dear friends, to get this persuasion into you. If you are not so persuaded, here is honey, but you do not taste it; here is light, but you do not see it; here is heaven, but you do not enter the pearly gate. Beloved, if you would be saved, you must be persuaded of this truth; and when you are persuaded of it, you will know the joy of it.

That leads me to pass on to the second thing of which Paul was persuaded. It does not appear on the surface of the text; but if you look a minute, you will see that Paul was persuaded that he and all the saints are joined to God by love. Otherwise, he could not have said, “I am persuaded that things present and things to come shall not be able to separate us.” We must be joined together, or else the apostle would not talk of separation. There is a picture for you to contemplate,-God and ourselves joined together by the bonds of love in Christ Jesus. God loves Christ, and we love Christ, so we have a meeting-place; we love the same blessed Person, and that brings us to love one another.

There are two things that join God and a believer together; the first is, God’s love to the believer, and the second is, the believer’s love to God. It is as when two dear friends lovingly embrace with their arms around each other’s neck, there is a double link binding them together. Or, to come nearer the truth, it is as when a mother puts her arms around the neck of her little child, and her child puts its tiny arms about the mother’s neck; that is how we and God are joined together.

Are you persuaded that it is so with you, dear friends? Can you each one say, as you sit in your pew to-night, “God loves me, and that love joins him to me;” and “I love God, and that love joins me to him”? I believe that the apostle was persuaded that these two blessed links existed between him and the great God, and he was persuaded that neither of those two links would ever be broken. God could not withdraw from Paul his embrace of love, and Paul felt that, by divine grace, he could not withdraw his embrace of love from his God; but he must have been first of all persuaded that both those embraces were there. Are you, my dear hearer, persuaded that it is so with you? Are your arms about the neck of the great Father? Are the great Father’s loving arms about your neck? Be persuaded of that truth, and you are indeed happy men and happy women; what more could you wish to say than to be able truthfully to say that?

Now, to come to what is evidently in the text, and to dwell upon it for a little while, Paul being thus persuaded that there was a love of God, and that there was a union through love between the soul and its God, now says that he is persuaded that nothing can ever break those bonds.

He begins by mentioning some of the things that are supposed to separate, and the first is, death. It sends a shiver through some when we begin to speak of death, and the bravest man who ever lived may well tremble at the thought that he must soon meet the king of terrors; but, brothers and sisters, if Christ loves us, and we love Christ, we may well be persuaded that death will not break the union which exists between us. I have lately seen one or two of our friends almost in the very article of death; I think that they cannot long survive, but I have come out from their bed-chamber greatly cheered by their holy peacefulness and joy. I can see that death does not break the believer’s peace; it seems rather to strengthen it. I can see that there is no better place than the brink of Jordan, after all. I have seen the brethren, and the sisters, too, sit with their feet in the narrow stream, and they have been singing all the while. Death has not abated a single note of their song; nay, more, I have known some of them who are like the fabled swan which is said never to sing till it dies. Some of them who were rather heavy and sad of spirit in their days of health have grown joyous and glad as they have neared the eternal kingdom. There is nothing about death that the believer should construe it into a fear that it will separate him from the love of Christ. Christ loved you when he died; he will love you when you die. It was after death-remember that,-it was after death that his heart poured out the tribute of blood and water by which we have the double cure; see, then, how he loves us in death and after, death. There is nothing about death that should make Christ cease to love us; our bodies will be under his protection and guardian care, and our souls shall be with Christ, which is “far better” than being anywhere else. Do not, therefore, fear death. In the days when this Epistle was written, the saints had to die very cruel deaths by fire, by the cross, by wild beasts in the amphitheatre; they were sawn asunder, they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; yet they never feared death. It is very wonderful how the Church of Christ seems always to brighten up at the idea of death by martyrdom. The grandest, most heroic, days in Christendom were the days of the Pagan persecutions, when, to be a Christian, meant to be doomed to die. In English history, the days of Mary, when the saints at Smithfield bore witness for Christ at the stake, were grand days; and in Madagascar,-did you ever read a more thrilling story than the record of the bravery of those Christian men and women who suffered the tyrant’s cruelty? And at the present moment, in Central Africa, where Bishop Hannington has been put to death, we hear that there is an edict for the killing of Christians, yet hundreds of black men come forward to confess that they are followers of Christ. It is a wonderful thing. We do not ask for these persecutions, but they might do us great good if they came. Certainly, this wondrous ship of Christ’s Church, when she ploughs her way through waves of blood, makes swifter headway to the heavenly haven than she does in times of calm. So, beloved friends, there is nothing in death to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The apostle says next, “nor life.” I must confess that I am more afraid of life than of death. “Oh!” says one, “but dying is such hard work.” Do you think so? Why, dying is the end of work; it is living that is hard work. I am not so much afraid of dying as I am of sinning; that is ten times worse than death. And what if some of us should live very many years? “There’s the respect that makes calamity of so long life,” that there is so much longer time for temptation and trial. If one might have his choice, one might be content to have a short warfare, and to enter upon the crown at once. But we may be permitted to live on to extreme old age; do you dread it? There is nothing about old age to separate you from the love of Christ; he hath made, and he will bear; even to hoar hairs will he carry you; therefore, be not afraid. The ills of life are many, the trials of life are many, the temptations of life are more; O life, life, life here below, thou art, after all, little better than a lingering death! The true life is hereafter. “Yet,” says Paul, “I am persuaded that life cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” He means that, if we were tempted by the love of life to deny Christ, we should be strengthened so that we should not deny him even to save our lives, for his people have been brave enough in this respect in all times. Paul himself counted not his life dear unto him that he might win Christ, and be found in him; wherefore he says that he is persuaded that neither death, nor life, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then he mentions angels, principalities, and powers. Well, the good angels cannot separate us from the love of God; we are sure that they would not wish to do so, and whatever spiritual creatures may frequent this earth, they cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Does the apostle mean devils,-fallen angels, that would overthrow us, some of them as “principalities” by their dignity, others of them as “powers” by their subtle, crafty force,-does he refer to devils? I think he does, and this, then, is our comfort, that, if we have to meet the arch-fiend himself foot to foot in terrible duel,-and we may, for men of God have had so to meet him, and he that does battle with this adversary will gain nothing by it but sweat of blood and aching heart, even if he shall win the victory, so that we may well pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,”-still we have this comfort, that even though he may rejoice over us for a moment, and may cast us down, he cannot separate us from the love of Christ; he may open many of our veins, and make us bleed even to utter weakness, but the life-vein he can never touch. There is a secret something about the Christian of which Satan wishes to spoil him, but which is entirely out of his reach, so the saint sings, “I am persuaded that neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers can separate me from the love of Christ. You may come on, battalions of the adversary, with all your terrible might sweeping hypocrites and deceivers before you, like chaff before the wind, but as many as are linked to Christ by his eternal love shall stand firm against you, like the solid rocks against the billows of the sea.” Wherefore, be confident, dear brethren, that these spiritual beings, these unseen forces, these strange and mysterious powers which you cannot fully understand, can none of them separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord.

Having summarily disposed of all of them, Paul adds, “nor things present.” I like this thought. He is persuaded that things present cannot separate us from Christ. I wonder what the things present are with you, my dear hearers. One of you says, “Well, it is an empty pocket with me.” Others will say, “It is a family of children who have no bread.” Some may say, “It is the prospect of bankruptcy.” Another will say, “Ah, it is an insidious disease that will soon carry me to my grave!” A mother will say, “It is rebellious children who are breaking my heart.” “Well, whatever it may be,-and the woes of the present are very many,-there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ.

I was feeling very heavy, I scarcely knew why, when I caught at this text; and it seemed to come in so pleasantly for me when my spirits were down. “Things present.” Even a depressed and desponding state of mind, whatever the cause of it is, whether weariness of brain or heaviness of heart, cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Then, what can it do? Why, sometimes, it can drive us to Christ; let us pray that it may. But anyhow, things present cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Then the apostle says, “nor things to come.” Well, I wonder what is “to come.” O friends, I sometimes feel a strange trembling when I stand upon this platform to speak to you, because the words that I utter are often so remarkably fulfilled of God as really to amaze me. Two Sunday nights ago, when I stood here to preach about the long-suffering of God being salvation, I spoke, in the middle of the sermon, as if personally addressing someone who was present, who had lately been ill with fever, and who had come to the Tabernacle, still weakly, and scarcely recovered. There was a young man here, who exactly answered to the description I gave, and who wrote home to his mother something like this (I have the letter):-“I went to Spurgeon’s Tabernacle on Sunday night, and I heard such a sermon. I never felt anything like it before. He looked at me, and picked me out as if I was the only man there, and described me exactly.” Then he gave the words I used, and continued, “It was a true description of myself. If the sermon is printed, pray get me a copy that I may read it when I come home, for I felt the power of it, and I prayed there and then that God would bring me to my mother’s God, and save me.” That was on the Sunday, mark you; on the Wednesday, he was at Gravesend, there was a collision, and he and five others were drowned. The mother received that letter about an hour before she heard the news that her son was dead, and the parents write to tell me what a balm it was to their spirits that God’s providence should bring their boy in here just before he was to meet his God.

So, you see, I cannot help wondering what the “things to come” will be for you who are here. With some,-who can tell?-as the Lord liveth, there may be but a step between you and death; and if you have no Christ, and have never tasted of his love, you are running awful risks even in going one step further. You have walked on, and on, and on, and there has hitherto always been something beneath your footfall; but the next step may precipitate you into the abyss. Wherefore, seek the Lord now ere it be too late. As for the child of God, he knows no more about his immediate future than you do; but he knows this, that there is nothing in the future that can separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, let the future bring with it what it may, all will be well with him.

Now the apostle adds two more expressions, “nor height, nor depth.” There are some brethren who dwell in the heights; I am rather pleased to meet with dear friends who never have any doubts or fears, but are always full of joy and ecstasy, and who go on to tell us that they have left all these things behind, and have risen to the heights of bliss. But what I do not like is when they look down from those awful heights upon us poor Christians, and say that they cannot believe in us because we are anxious, because we practise self-examination, because we have to struggle against sin. They do not struggle; they have risen beyond all struggling, they rub their hands, and sing of everlasting victory. Well, my dear brother,-you up there on the topmost bough,-you will not frighten me with all your heights, though I cannot get up there, and I could not stay there if I could get up so high. This one thing I know, I am sure that there is nothing in those heights that can separate me from the love of Christ; I will stick to that, whatever revelations there may be to the enthusiastic, whatever raptures and ecstasies and extreme delights any may have, they cannot separate me from Christ. I am glad that you have them, brother, may you always keep them; and if I cannot have them, I shall sit down in my struggles and temptations, and still say that there is nothing in the heights,-in high doctrine or in high living,-that can separate me from the love of Christ.

I am a little more acquainted with the depths, and I meet with many Christian people who are very familiar with those depths. I could indicate some dear friends here who I hope are not in the depths now, but I have seen them there. You were very low down, brother; we had to stoop to call to you; the waters of God’s waves and billows seemed to have gone over you; you have been down to the depths, and I have been there with you. But there is nothing in the depths that can separate us from the love of Christ. Jonah went down to the depths of the sea, but he came up with this testimony, that there was nothing there to separate us from the love of God. No; though you should be weary of your life, though you should never have a ray of light by the month together, there is nothing there to separate you from the love of Christ. You may go down, down, down, till you seem to have got beyond the reach of help from mortal man; but there are cords and bands which bind you to Christ that even these depths can never break, come what may.

The apostle ends the list by saying, “nor any other creature.” It may be read, “Nor anything in creation, nor anything that ever is to be created,” nothing shall ever separate us from the love of Christ. Oh, what a sweet persuasion is this! Let us go forward into the future, however dark it is, with this confidence, that, one thing at least we know,-the love of Christ will hold us fast, and by his grace we will hold fast to him. We are married to him, and we shall never be divorced. We are joined to him by a living, loving, lasting union that never shall be broken.

I have done when I have called your attention to one more thing. Did you notice how the text begins? It begins with the word “for.” “For I am persuaded.” What does that mean? That shows that this is used as an argument drawn from something mentioned before. What is that? “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,” and so on. It seems, then, dear friends, that Paul’s persuasion helped to bring him to victory.

He was persuaded that Christ would not leave him, and that he would not be allowed to leave Christ, and this stirred him up to deeds of daring. Oh, where there is real cause for fighting, there cannot be victory without striving! Paul was so persuaded that Christ would never leave him that he became a fighter, and he went in with all his might against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Some say that this doctrine would send us to sleep; it never does, it wakes us up. The doctrine that I am quite sure to gain the victory, makes me fight. If I did not know that I should win it, I might think that I would let discretion be the better part of my valour; but, being assured that Christ will be with me all through, I feel incited to war against all that is evil that I may overcome it in his strength.

Yes, and the apostle seems to hint that this persuasion that Christ would not leave him made him aspire to a very great victory. Men do not reach what they do not aspire to, and Paul says, “We are more than conquerors.” Therefore, he aspired to be a complete and perfect conqueror. And this persuasion helped him to gain his aspiration. By God’s grace, the man who trusts in Christ’s eternal love, and believes in the immutability of the divine purpose, and therefore is persuaded that he can never be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, he is the man to win a glorious victory by his faith in his great God. Wherefore, let us be encouraged to go on, and fight against everything that is evil, especially in ourselves, and tread down all the powers of darkness, since nothing can stand against us while Christ is for us; and for us he must be for ever and ever.

I wish that all here present had a share in my blessed text. It is an intense regret to me that I cannot present it to some of you. You do not know the love of Christ. Oh, that you would come and learn it! May the sweet Spirit lead you to Jesus, cause you to look to him upon the cross, and trust in him; then you will have something worth having, for you will have a love that changeth never, a love that shall never be separated from you nor you from it. God bless you, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

HEBREWS 6

In the previous chapter, Paul was writing to some who ought to have been teachers, but who needed still to be taught the first principles of the gospel; they were such babes in grace that they needed the milk of the Word,-the very simplest elements of gospel truth,-and not the strong meat of solid doctrine. The apostle, however, desires that the Hebrew believers should understand the sublimer doctrines of the gospel, and so be like men of full age who can eat strong meat. In this chapter he exhorts them to seek to attain to this standard.

Verse 1. Therefore leaving the principles-

The rudiments, the elementary truths,-

1. Of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;-

Let us go from the school to the university, let us have done with our first spelling-books, and advance into the higher classics of the kingdom.

1. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Let us make sure that the foundation is laid, but let us not have continually to lay it again. Let us go on believing and repenting, as we have done; but let us not have to begin believing and begin repenting, let us go on to something beyond that stage of experience.

2. Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Let us take these things for granted, and never dispute about them any more, but go on to still higher matters.

3. And this will we do, if God permit.

We must keep on going forward; there is no such thing in the Christian life as standing still, and we dare not turn back.

4-6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away,-

Note that Paul does not say, “If they shall fall;” but, “If they shall fall away,”-if the religion which they have professed shall cease to have any power over them,-then, it shall be impossible-

6. To renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

If all the processes of grace fail in the case of any professors, what is to be done with them? If the grace of God does not enable them to overcome the world,-if the blood of Christ does not purge them from sin, what more can be done? Upon this supposition, God’s utmost has been tried, and has failed. Mark that Paul does not say that all this could ever happen; but that, if it could, the person concerned would be like a piece of ground which brought forth nothing but thorns and briers.

7, 8. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

If, after having ploughed this ground, and sown it, and after it has been watered by the dew and rain of heaven, no good harvest ever comes of it, every wise man would leave off tilling it. He would say, “My labour is all thrown away on such a plot of ground as this; nothing more can be done with it, for after having done my utmost nothing but weeds is produced, so now it must be left to itself.” You see, my dear hearers, if it were possible for the work of grace in your souls to be of no avail, nothing more could be done for you. You have had God’s utmost effort expended upon your behalf, and there remains no other method of salvation for you.

I believe that there have been some professors, such as Judas and Simon Magus, who have come very near to this condition, and others who are said, after a certain sort, to have believed, to have received the Holy Spirit in miraculous gifts, and to have been specially enlightened so as to have been able to teach others; but the work of grace did not affect their hearts, it did not renew their natures, it did not transform their spirits, and so it was impossible to renew them to repentance.

Now notice what Paul says:-

9. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.

Harsh as the apostle’s words may seem, they are not meant for you who are really believers in Christ, and in whom the Holy Spirit has wrought a complete change of heart and life; Paul is not speaking of such as you.

10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

If you have proved by your works that the grace of God is within you, God will not forget you; he will not leave you, he will not cast you away. You know the contrast in the speech between different persons concerning this doctrine. One will wickedly say, “If I am a child of God, I may live as I like.” That is damnable doctrine. Another will say, “If I am a child of God, I shall not want to live as I like, but as God likes, and I shall be led by the grace of God into the path of holiness, and through divine grace I shall persevere in that way of holiness right to the end.” That is quite another doctrine, and it is the true teaching of the Word of God.

11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

Keep it up; be as earnest to-day as you were twenty years ago, when you were baptized and joined the church: “Show the same diligence unto the end.” Still, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

12-15. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Wherefore, brethren, you and I also are patiently to endure, to hold on even to the end, and God’s sure promise will never fail us.

16-18. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

It seems a great change in this chapter from the sad tone at the beginning to the joyous note at the end; but, indeed, there is no contradiction between the two. Paul is but giving us two sides of the truth,-both equally true,-the one needful for our warning, the other admirable for our consolation. God will not leave you, my brethren; he has pledged himself by covenant to you, and he has given an oath that his covenant shall stand. Wherefore, be of good courage, and press forward in the divine life, for your work of faith and labour of love are not in vain in the Lord; so let us “lay hold upon the hope set before us:”-

19. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Sailors throw their anchors downwards; we throw ours upwards. Their anchor goes within the veil of the waters into the deeps of the sea; ours goes within the veil of glory, into the heights of heaven, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God: “within the veil;”-

20. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-735, 738.

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