We do not hold it right to admit all persons indiscriminately to the Lord’s supper; we believe the Lord’s table is the place of communion, and we would have none there with whom we cannot have true Christian fellowship. We can commune with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, however different may be their views upon some points of doctrine. So long as we find it possible to have fellowship with them, we believe it to be our duty to welcome them to the supper of our Lord. When, through unholiness of life, lack of piety, or unsoundness in the fundamental truths of the gospel on the part of those who apply to us to be received as communicants, we feel that we cannot commune with them, we hold it to be our bounden duty, as God hath given us authority in his Church, to prevent those from drawing nigh unto the table who would but commune unworthily, and so eat and drink unto themselves judgment, as the word in the 29th verse should be translated. Among our Baptist churches, fashioned, we trust, somewhat nearer to the Scriptural order than certain others we wot of, we do exercise at least some measure of discipline. We require from those who are members of the church, and who are, by reason of that membership, entitled to commune, that they should, at their reception, give us what we consider satisfactory proofs of their conversion; and we require of them, afterwards, that their conduct should be consistent with the law of Christ; otherwise, we should not in the first place receive them, or having received them, we should not be long before, by the Scriptural process of excommunication, we should remove from our midst those members whose lives and conversation were not in accordance with the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

But, my brethren, do what we may,-though we fence the table with the utmost diligence, and though we continually warn you not to deceive us, and not to deceive yourselves, seeing that you cannot deceive God,-yet are we perfectly aware that the greater part of the guarding of the table must rest with yourselves. We believe it to be our bounden duty, as God shall give us grace, to take care, so far as we can, that unworthy persons are not received at the Lord’s table. Yet man being mortal, is fallible and erring; so we cannot judge you, and we must leave the greater part of your examination, before you come to the sacred table of the Master, with yourselves. Remember, dear friends, that no recognition by the minister, no reception by the deacons or elders of a church, will excuse you for coming to the Lord’s table if, when you come, you are not a really converted person. It is true that you cannot come there unless the church itself consents to your coming; but the church takes upon itself none of the responsibility of your fitness; it says to you, “You may come to the table of communion; but if you have deceived us, on your own head be the sin; and if you are not what you profess to be,-true believers in Christ,-your unlawful observance of the ordinance must be accounted for, at the last great day, amongst the rest of your transgressions.” And I do now, most solemnly and earnestly, as the Pastor of this church, in the name and on behalf of this church, warn all men and women now about to draw nigh unto this table that, if they be not God’s children, and have no faith in Christ, they do stop before they, with sacrilegious hands, touch the elements of this sacred supper. We would have them know that it can be of no service to them, but will increase their sin, and add to their guilt, if they do, after such a warning as this, come to the Master’s table without having examined themselves, and without being thoroughly persuaded in their hearts that they have been born of God. Let that thought have due weight with all intending communicants, and if some of them even withdraw from the table as the result of this fencing of it, I shall rejoice that they have had the honesty to do what is right.

Now, beloved, turning from that point for a little while, I would remind you that there is a preparation necessary for receiving the Lord’s supper aright.

In certain churches, amongst persons who are only nominally religious, mere formalists and ceremonialists, it has been customary to set apart a whole week for preparation; and you may remember how Mr. Rowland Hill, in his Village Dialogues, tells of Mistress Toogood, who, after spending a whole week in preparation for the Lord’s supper, found that it was not to be administered till the next Sabbath day; whereupon she fell into a great passion, and cursed and swore, because she said that she had wasted a week. I doubt not that there have been some who have made a kind of hypocritical preparation which would have been better omitted. I do not exhort you to do any such thing; but if a right thing be abused, that is no reason why we should not use it properly. Every one of us, before we come to the supper of the Lord, ought to have prepared our hearts, under the help of the Holy Spirit, for a right participation therein. We are not to rush to our Master’s table, as a horse runs into the battle, not knowing whereunto it is going; we are not to come to this sacred feast as we go to a meal in our own houses; we are not to partake of the emblems of the body and blood of Christ, as we would sit down at our common tables to eat and drink.

We are to come here with devout solemnity and due preparation; nor may we expect to receive a blessing, in the reception of the supper, unless we have properly prepared ourselves for it before we come hither. Alas! this is too much forgotten; and men think they may draw nigh to God without making any preparation whatever. Not so was it with the ancient saints. When Jacob was going to build an altar, and to sacrifice to the Lord at Bethel, he felt it needful to bid his family to put away all their strange gods from among them. When God was about to appear on Sinai, he commanded the people to purify themselves, because he was coming near unto them; and not only was it so in olden times, but it should be so now. We should not draw nigh unto God with hasty and careless steps; but we must remember and obey Solomon’s injunction: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” As Moses put his shoes from off his feet, because the place whereon he stood was holy ground, so ought we, my brethren, to put away all carnal thoughts and all worldly things when we approach this most sacred circle,-a circle even more hallowed than that which surrounded the burning bush, for this surrounds the cross of Calvary, the death-place of our Lord and Master.

“Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,

Which before the cross I spend,

Life, and health, and peace possessing,

From the sinner’s dying Friend.

“Here I’ll sit for ever viewing

Mercy’s streams in streams of blood;

Precious drops! my soul bedewing,

Plead and claim my peace with God.

“Truly blessed is this station,

Low before his cross to lie;

While I see divine compassion

Floating in his languid eye.

“Here it is I find my heaven,

While upon the cross I gaze;

Love I much? I’ve more forgiven;

I’m a miracle of grace.

“May I still enjoy this feeling,

In all need to Jesus go;

Prove his wounds each day more healing,

And himself more fully know.”

Let me just press upon your consideration two or three thoughts with regard to what is necessary in a proper preparation for the Lord’s supper. First, I think, before coming to the Lord’s table, every professing Christian should occupy himself, in some measure, in contemplation and meditation. We ought not to come here without due consideration of what we are about to do; we ought to consider, in the first place, that we are coming into the more immediate presence of God. It is true that, during divine service in the house of God, we are specially in the presence of the Most High; but when, at eventide, we eat and drink the supper of the Master, we get nearer to him than we do in any of our other religious exercises, with the solitary exception of the ordinance of believers’ baptism. This communion service has about it something so pathetic, so tender, so full of fellowship, bringing us so near to Christ, while Christ is so near to us, that we ought not to come to it without feeling that we are entering into the immediate courts of the Most High; and, surely, if the contemplation of God makes the angels veil their faces with their wings, it should make us come to this table with great reverence and solemnity of spirit.

We ought, in the next place, before we come here, to contemplate the authority upon which we celebrate this ordinance. If any of you come to this table because I administer the ordinance, or because your parents partake of it, or because, according to the old orthodox doctrine of the Baptist churches, this is regarded as being a divine ordinance, you have made a mistake. It is your duty, in the reception of the Lord’s supper, or the observance of the ordinance of baptism, to consider the authority by which you do it, and to be certain that, in coming here, you are doing God’s will, and that you are performing that which God has commanded you. If you come not to the communion as to a divine ordinance, you come not to it aright; if you merely partake of it as a matter of form, instead of knowing that God has commanded the form, and that his Son Jesus Christ is embodied in it, you have not the preparation which you ought to have in coming hither.

Again, before coming to the communion, it behoves you to consider the great distance there is betwixt you and God. Even though you now have very blessed and hallowed fellowship with the Lord Jesus, remember that, in this supper, there is a memorial of your guilt. It is true that here you see how your sins were taken away by the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; but let the very bath in which you were cleansed remind you of your sinfulness. And, oh, my brethren, when we sit here, let us not eat and drink ostentatiously, as if we were doing some praiseworthy act; but let us do it as if we felt that we were not fit to sit on the lowest seat of the Church of Christ. God grant that this may be a time when we shall humble ourselves, and cast ourselves in the very dust before him! We might, instead of being at the table of the Lord, have been sitting on the ale-bench; we might have been drinking the cup of devils, and holding communion with Belial; but grace, free grace has brought us here. Let us abase ourselves in the presence of God; let us humble ourselves before him; and, whilst we feed, by faith, on our Master’s body, let us feel as if our own proud flesh were cut away and humbled by the very communion we hold with Christ our Redeemer.

Then, Christian, this should be a further subject of contemplation before thou comest hither, thou shouldst have a right idea of the Saviour, whose body and blood are here typified to thee. I think we should not come to this ordinance unless we have, for some time at least, devoutly considered the broken body, the shed blood, the sufferings, the agonies, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us all, before we sit at this table, remember whose death it is we commemorate here. We should view the Saviour as the Son of God, and then as the Son of man, born of the Virgin Mary; we should view him as he walks along his way of sorrow; we should seek, by earnest contemplation, to view him prostrate in the garden, to see him ploughed with bloody furrows at Gabbatha, and to behold him dying amid terrible tortures upon the hill of Calvary. Unless, my brethren, we have done this, or are enabled by God’s Spirit in a special manner to do this now, we must not expect to derive any benefit from the mere eating of the bread and drinking of the wine. You might eat your bread and drink your wine at home; you might be taking your ordinary suppers; you might break your crusts and drink from your cups in your own houses; but of what avail would all of them be? They would not be the Lord’s supper; neither shall this be the Lord’s supper to you, unless your hearts are occupied with a devout contemplation of the presence of God, of your own nothingness before him, and of the glorious sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ here evidently set forth before you.

In the next place, not only contemplation, but supplication should form a part of our preparation for this supper. If we acted aright, we should never come even to the hearing of a sermon without prayer; were our hearts in a proper spiritual condition, we should never leave our houses to go to the house of prayer, without first supplicating God to help the minister and to help us. We should never leave the tents of Jacob without asking that the pillar of cloud might be manifestly seen resting upon the tabernacle of Israel. We should, when we come up to God’s sanctuary, breathe a prayer the moment we enter it, crying out for the Holy Spirit to rest upon us during the day. And, certainly, if ever we neglect prayer before holy duties, it should never be omitted before this sacred, supper. O my brethren, I fear that many of us have lost the sweetness of this ordinance because we have forgotten to pray for a blessing upon it! It was but this very day that I found myself preparing to come to this place, without having first of all sought fellowship with Jesus; and I felt grieved and vexed within my spirit that I should have been so guilty as to have forgotten the solemnities to which I was about to attend; and I sought at once to spend some time in silent meditation and prayer to God. So should every church-member do. Oh, what blessed communion services should we then have! We should not go away from the table of the Lord barren and cold, as we often have done, blaming the minister because we think he has not spoken with sufficiently affecting words, and has not distributed the sacred elements in a profitable manner, whereas the fault has been in ourselves, and not in the minister; and we have been eating and drinking unworthily, and, as the judgment upon that wrong state of heart, have found the Lord’s table itself to be barren, instead of proving it to be the King’s banqueting-house and a feast of fat things to our souls.

Now, beloved, I ask you to notice that my text gives us the best part of preparation, which is self-examination: “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”

How many of us have thus examined ourselves? I fear we have, many of us, come here without any self-examination whatever. Well, then, let us begin at once to examine ourselves; and, during the little interval between this service and the time of the administration of the supper, perhaps it might not be amiss if you were to read over the hymn which we sometimes sing, from which you can see what are the questions which it is incumbent upon you to ask yourselves in self-examination, and what are the marks of those who have the right to sit down at the table of the Lord.

“The sacred Word declares them such,

Whose hearts are changed by sovereign grace,

Who place their confidence and hope

In Jesu’s blood and righteousness.

“Who know the truth, and in the ways

Of holiness direct their feet;

Who love communion with the saints,

And shun the place where scorners meet.

“With past attainments not content,

Increasing purity they seek;

By whom uprightness is maintained

In all they do, and all they speak.

“These are the men whom God invites,

For them the Church sets wide her door,

Whate’er their birth or rank may be,

The bond, the free, the rich, the poor.”

This hymn suggests some solemn questions, which none of us ought to have ventured here without having answered; and I think many of us can easily answer them. My brethren, have we not been changed by sovereign grace? Can we not, each one, say, “By the grace of God I am what I am; and I am not now what I was once”? Can we not, if we are not awfully deceived, say, with an unfaltering lip, “We know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that we have been born again”? If we cannot say so,-O my friends, if any one of you cannot say so, I charge you, before God, before Jesus Christ and the elect angels, if you cannot say that you believe and know that you have been born again, do not come and profane this table of the Master by daring to sit with the saints, whilst you yourselves are unrenewed, and not begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

How many of you are amongst those whom the hymn next describes?

“Who place their confidence and hope

In Jesu’s blood and righteousness.”

I know that, by God’s grace, it is so with many of us. No other hope have I; no rock, no refuge for my weary spirit, is there beside the atonement of Jesus. You can say so, too, I trust, my dear friends. But if you cannot, if you are resting anywhere else but in Jesus, if you have any dependence upon rites or ceremonies or good works, again I adjure you, by the Judge of the quick and the dead, venture not to this table to receive the Lord’s supper; for, in so doing, you would but eat and drink unworthily, not having faith in Jesus, and confidence in his precious blood.

Can you say, also, as the hymn does, that you know the truth, and that in the ways of holiness you direct your feet? I fear we must all confess that we cannot say this as much as we would desire. Let us, however, still make it a point of self-examination. Come, friend, it is now a month since the last time thou didst sit down at this table; what hast thou done during this time? How have thy steps been directed? How has thy speech been ordered? What about thine acts towards God, and towards man? Make this a time of turning over the pages of thy diary for the last month. Come, brethren and sisters, let us examine ourselves, and so let us eat of this bread, and drink of this cup. It cannot be an unprofitable exercise which is commanded in our text, so let us obey it. Let us now question ourselves. Are we truly the Lord’s? If he should say to us, as he said to his disciples, “One of you shall betray me,” what should we say? Let us each one ask the question now, “Lord, is it I?” Have we, like Judas, been plotting against the Master? Have we been robbing the Lord’s treasury, depriving him of what we promised in our vows, not giving him the time and service which we solemnly pledged to give him?

Let us look again at our hymn. Have we broken the communion of saints during the last month? Have we not, by anger and wrath and bitterness, injured our own spirituality when we have been talking against the children of God? Have we not felt that we have broken the sacred link which united us with them? Have we washed the saints’ feet this month? Have we not rather bemired and befouled them by going astray ourselves, and leading them astray, too? Have we humbled ourselves during the last month? Have we taken the towel, and girded ourselves, as Jesus did, to do menial work for the church? Has there not been too much pride creeping into all our services? Has it not marred all our deeds, and spoiled our best endeavours? And how about prayer? Have we not been sadly negligent in that holy exercise? And with regard to love to our Master, have not our hearts been too often cold towards him, who had his heart set abroach for us, that all the blood therein might be spilt in one great torrent for our sakes?

O friends, I cannot suggest all the questions that you have need to ask yourselves in such an examination as our text enjoins! Begin from the last communion evening, and go through the Sabbaths, and through the Mondays, and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and all through the weeks, and then surely both you and I will have work enough to do, during the next hour, to examine ourselves. Ah! we ought to have done it before, that now we might be able to apply ourselves more solemnly to communion, rather than to self-examination. But now I entreat you once again, as I am bound to do, to be faithful to my God; if ye be lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ, if ye be faithful to the truth, if ye have been really converted, if ye have partaken of the Holy Spirit, I invite you to the Master’s table, and may the Spirit of God rest on you! But, as an honest minister, I do warn you, who are not what you should be, from coming to this table. Oh, if any of you have been mere professors and hypocrites, I charge you not to come here! As in your dying day you shall remember your deeds of formality and hypocrisy, I beseech you, do not dare to touch that bread with unhallowed lip, nor sip that wine; take them not unless you feel that you have God’s Spirit within you, and are really united to the Lamb.

I fear there are some of you who have, for many a month, received these emblems, who would this night, for the first time, leave them untasted, if you were really to know yourselves. There are some, in this church, I grieve to say, with whom I can hold but very little fellowship, by reason of the hard speeches they sometimes utter against certain of us because of some little difference of opinion; and there are many others with whom we can have no communion at all, because their lives are so unholy, and their conduct is so un-Christian, that, though they be sound enough in the faith, we can but wonder that they know so much of the truth, and yet have so little of the spirit of Christ in them. Ah, dear friends! it is not all gold that glitters, and all professors are not possessors. There are some in Christ’s Church everywhere,-and God forbid that I should flatter this church,-and there are some even here, who are enough to rend the church in twain by their bitterness, and wrath, and evil speaking. There are others who are enough to bring down God’s rod upon us for their unholy living; yea, and the very best of us, the Johns and the Enochs, have they not cause to humble themselves on account of their manifold shortcomings and misdoings? Let all professors of religion examine themselves, lest it should be found that they have been deceiving themselves, and have deceived others,-have trusted in themselves that they were righteous, when they had not passed from death unto life.

Ah, friends! I cannot speak with the solemnity I would desire to command on such an occasion as this. I cannot bar this table,-God forbid that I should do so!-from any one of you; come and welcome all ye who love the Lord Jesus. But although I cannot force back any of you who are not converted, though I cannot thrust you away if you have the right to come, because you are members of this church or of some other, I do, as far as human power can have any influence with you, solemnly warn you not to come to the communion unless you are really regenerated by the Holy Spirit. I would rather have six members in my church, who are living souls in Zion, than six hundred mere professors. O Lord God, sift and fan this church yet again! If any are only chaff, drive them out of it, or do thou make them thy wheat, that they may be housed in thy barn, and not be burned up with unquenchable fire! O Lord, make us each sincere; impress upon our minds the solemnity of this act; and when we draw nigh unto this table, may it be specially under thy smile, and with thy benediction, through Jesus Christ our Lord! To God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 116

I knew a godly woman who, when she was very sick, would always say, “Read me the 116th Psalm.” It is deservedly a great favourite with many experienced Christians. May the Holy Spirit apply it to our hearts as we read it!

Verse 1. I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

It is a great condescension on God’s part to listen to us. You know what a comfort it is to find a sympathetic listener, who will let you tell out your griefs. It is not wise to tell them to everybody; but there are some who have an ear into which it is both pleasant and profitable to pour the story of our woe. Because God had listened to the voice of his servant’s supplications, therefore David said, “I love the Lord.” Nothing will make us love God better than the assurance that he hears our prayers. We could not love a deaf God; so, when Jehovah does attend to our voice and our supplications, we feel drawn more closely than ever to him.

2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

That same blessed experience which is a reason for love is also an argument for continued prayer. “As he has heard me, he shall still hear me; as he has listened to me, he shall listen to me again;-at least, it shall not be for want of my cries that he doth not listen.” That expression, “He hath inclined his ear unto me,” seems to me to mean, “He has stooped down to me to catch my faintest words; he has been favourable to me; he has smiled as he has heard my broken prayers and cries; he has inclined his ear unto me. It was not a mere hearing such as his omniscience might warrant me to expect; but it was such a favourable hearing as only infinite love would have given to me; and, oh! if he is so favourable as to hear, can I be so ungrateful as not to pray?”

Here was the case that David had laid before the Lord.

3. The sorrows of death composted me,-

Just as the dogs surround the poor stag, and shut him in the fatal circle.

3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:-

They set their teeth into him as the dogs do into the stag.

3. I found trouble and sorrow.

He was in a double grief; he had trouble without and sorrow within,-it was troubled sorrow and sorrowful trouble, wormwood mingled with gall.

4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord;-

That was the very best time to pray. Satan does his utmost to prevent our praying when we are in extremities; but, oh! dear friends, if Jonah prayed in the whale’s belly, where can you and I be where we may not and cannot pray? If we sat down upon the very door-step of Hades; yea, if the pit did open her mouth to swallow us up, we might still pray; and the mercy is, that while we are on praying ground we are also on the ground of grace where God can meet with us: “Then called I upon the name of the Lord;”-

4. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

It was a short prayer, an eager, earnest petition, full of passionate importunity. There was no dictating to God how the deliverance should be wrought: “ ‘I beseech thee, deliver my soul.’ Do it in thine own way, do it in the way that will bring most glory to thee. If thou dost not deliver my body, yet deliver my soul. If my goods must go; if all I have must melt away; yet, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” This is one of the best prayers in the whole Bible; it is very much like the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

5. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;-

That is a strange combination which the ungodly cannot understand. It is a riddle never to be read except at the cross: “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.” That is what every troubled conscience wants to know,-how God can be just and yet can pardon sin; but we who have believed in Jesus do know that, and it is our joy to say, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;”-

5. Yea, our God is merciful.

I always feel inclined to mispronounce that word, or to divide it into two, and read it, “Our God is mercy full;” for so he is, he is brimming over with mercy.

6. The Lord preserveth the simple:

The sincere,-sometimes, the ignorant, those who do not pretend to know; or, the simple, those from whose heart the Lord has driven out all guile, making them to be simple-minded. They are such fools (as the world calls them) as to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is to perform the highest act of wisdom on the part of man. They are such simpletons as to believe the old, old Bible, and to cling to the great atoning sacrifice, and to let the novelties of modern thought blow away like the down of the thistle in the summer breeze. “The Lord preserveth the simple.” How did David know that? Listen.

6. I was brought low, and he helped me.

There is no way of knowing a general doctrine so good as that of having a particular experience of it: “I was brought low, brought to be a simpleton, brought so very low that I was obliged to pray a simple prayer; brought so very, very low that I was obliged to have a simple faith in God, for I had nobody else to believe in, and nobody else to trust. ‘I was brought low, and he helped me.’ ” What a help that is, a help in which God virtually does it all; for our poor weakness, with its best attempts, would rather hinder than help.

7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Poor dove! thou art dropping into the water; thy wings can scarcely sustain thee; come back to Noah: “Return unto thy Noah, O my soul!” That is the Old Testament reading of it, and the New Testament rendering is, “Return unto thy Jesus, O my soul, for he is thy true rest! Get back to him, ‘for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.’ In past times, when thou wert dwelling with him in close communion, it was better with thee than it is now that thou hast wandered from him. Return, return, poor prodigal, for there is every inducement to bring thee back. In your Father’s house, there is bread enough and to spare; he never stinted thee. ‘The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee;’ and he is dealing bountifully with thee even now in giving thee the opportunity to come back, in giving thee the power to pray, and in permitting thee to go to the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat.”

8. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

Just now, he prayed, “Deliver my soul.” He has received the answer to his petition, for he says, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death.” He said nothing then about his eyes; but God gives exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. He did not say anything about his feet, but the Lord gave him a blessing for them also: “Thou hast delivered my feet from falling.” Oh, for an all-over blessing, a blessing from head to foot,-from the eyes that stream with tears to the feet that are slipping away from under us,-a blessing that begins within by delivering the soul, and then works its way into the very countenance, and makes it resplendent with joy and thankfulness, and gets into the daily life, helping us to march boldly along the slippery way! Glory be to God, he hath given this deliverance to many of us!

9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

“I will not care who sees me so long as he sees me; I will court no presence but his presence, ‘I will walk before Jehovah.’ ” It is grand walking, under a constant sense of the Lord’s inspection, and a delightful consciousness of the Lord’s smile. This is like Enoch’s walk, and you know how it ends, for Enoch could not die for the life of him; he walked so near to God that he did not pass into heaven by the ordinary road: he “was not, for God took him.” And we, too, though we may die as to these bodies, know that we shall never die as to our souls, for he hath given to us who have believed in Jesus eternal life, and we can never die, or be separated from him.

10. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

“I believed.” Come, friends; can you all say that? It is a blessed thing for you if you can say that when the sorrows of death compass you, and the pains of the grave lay hold upon you. That is glorious faith which says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

“I believed, therefore have I spoken.” Faith is not a dumb grace; it will make its voice heard.

11. I said in my haste, All men are liars.

You see, he had spoken once in the power of the flesh; it was well, therefore, that he should speak now in the power of faith. “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” But it was true for all that, for they will fail us if we trust to them instead of to the Lord; yet, in another sense, they are not all liars, so David retracts the hasty word which might have a double meaning, and might imply what he did not intend, or what he should not mean. See how quickly he turns away from this unpleasant subject; note what comes next.

12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

“There,” he seems to say, “put all men away, I have done with them. If they are all liars, let us say no more about them, but let us turn to God.” When you, dear friends, are disappointed with men, do not sit down and worry; you might have known what to expect before you began with them; and now you have found it to be so, turn it to good account. David feels that he has received everything from God, so he says, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” Well, what can he do? His own poverty comes rushing over his sight again, and the answer to his question is,-

13. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.

“I ask, ‘What shall I render?’ and I reply, ‘I will take.’ ” That is what you and I also must say.

“The best return for one like me,

So wretched and so poor,

Is from his gifts to draw a plea,

And ask him still for more.”

You have given God all you have when you have given him your weakness, your sin, your emptiness; that is all that is truly yours; and then it is that you render to him that which he asks for, that he may put away your sin, that he may fill your emptiness and glorify himself in your weakness.

14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

If you have made any vows, mind that you keep them. It is often better not to vow; but when the vow is made, let it be diligently paid.

15. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

It is very painful for us to witness, but it is precious to God. We think that they have ended their usefulness when they reach that point, but God estimates their very death to be precious. Tread very softly when you go to the bedside of a departing saint; you may brush against an angel’s wing, for the room is full of them, the place whereon thou standest is holy ground; troops of angelic messengers are there to do their Master’s bidding in the last hours of his child, which are about to become his first hours in glory. Besides, the Master himself is there; he is never absent when his children are dying: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

16. O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:-

“Born in thine own house, of one who belonged to thee,-a home-born slave, and glad to glory in that fact. Born in thy house, and bought with thy money, and yielding up myself joyfully to thee: ‘I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:-’ ”

16. Thou hast loosed my bonds.

Why, we thought he was going to say, “Thy grace hath, like a fetter, bound my wandering heart to thee.” Just so; that is the liberty which he enjoys: “Thou hast loosed my bonds.” We are never so free as when free-will has had its death-blow, and we have come under the power of sovereign grace; and now there is another free-will, born of grace, and with its full consent we give ourselves up to God, saying, with David, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds.”

17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

Now David has grown into a priest, offering sacrifices. He has also grown into a singer, praising the Lord with thanksgiving; and he has grown into a preacher: “And will call upon the name of the Lord.” The very man who found the pains of hell laying hold upon him, is now engaged in the holiest exercises.

18, 19. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

Or, “Hallelujah!” I cannot close this reading without remarking how often my ears are shocked with the blasphemous way in which this thrice-holy word is dragged into the mire,-“Hallelujah fiddles!” “Hallelujah lasses!” and I know not what. “Hallelujah”-praise unto Jehovah,-is one of those awful words which never ought to be pronounced except with the utmost solemnity, although there should be mixed with it the most rapturous joy. Let us take heed lest we be found guilty of taking the name of the Lord, Jehovah, our God, in vain, by using that word flippantly; but let us solemnly feel in our hearts, and say with our lips, “Hallelujah,-Praise ye the Lord!”

SACRED MEMORIES

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 12th, 1899,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, July 9th, 1882.

“Let Jerusalem come into your mind.”-Jeremiah 51:50.

This message from the Lord was written by the prophet Jeremiah to the Jews who were carried away to Babylon or even to more distant places. They were entreated not to forget the holy city where they had worshipped Jehovah in his temple. Among all their thoughts, they were bidden to take care that the thought of Jerusalem should often come into their minds. This would keep them from settling down in the places to which they had been carried as captives. They were always far too ready to mingle with other nations, and to forget that God had separated them to be a people unto himself for ever. So Jeremiah begged them to keep the holy city in their minds, that they might not judge themselves as having become Persians or Babylonians, but might still recollect that they were Israelites, and that Jerusalem was their mother city and home.

Besides, this kind of meditation would raise in their hearts ardent longings to get back again. “Let Jerusalem come into your mind;” that is, “Sigh for it; earnestly desire to come back to it; and as you cut the various ties which bind you to the distant land, let the links which unite you to Jerusalem become stronger every day.” We know, from the 137th Psalm, that this is just what the captives did: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” This was a proof that they regarded the country where they dwelt,-and where many of them prospered and became great,-as still a place of banishment. Their pathetic lament proved that they never could be truly happy till they were back again at the place of Israel’s solemn assemblies, the spot which was specially dedicated to the worship of the Most High.

This feeling that they were aliens in a strange land, and their longing desire to return to their native country, would make them quick to observe everything that might work for the good of Jerusalem. If any one of them came to be the king’s cupbearer, as Nehemiah was, or occupied any position at court, as Mordecai and Esther did, they would be on the look-out for opportunities of working for the good of their beloved city, and they would avail themselves of every occasion for protecting and benefiting the race to which they belonged. This was the prophet’s desire, and it was also the Lord’s purpose, that they might find no permanent satisfaction in Babylon, but ever sigh for the city of their solemnities, “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth;”-that they might never sing the praises of Shushan, but might reserve all their admiration for Zion, where God revealed himself to his people as he never did to the other nations of the earth.

It is somewhat in the same sense that I beg you, who are the Lord’s people, to remember the spiritual Jerusalem, and for similar reasons, that you may feel that this world is not your rest, that your citizenship is not upon earth, but is in heaven, that you may sing, from your very heart,-

“Jerusalem, my happy home!

My soul still pants for thee.”

I shall use the text in two ways, and show you, first, that there is a Jerusalem here below which should come into our mind; and, secondly, that there is a Jerusalem above which should come into our mind.

First, we will use the text with reference to the Jerusalem here below which should come into our mind, that is, the Church of God on earth. The Church is all one, whether in heaven or on earth. I may call the heavenly Jerusalem the upper city, whereon stand the tower of David, builded for an armoury, and the temple in all its glory; while here below is the lower city; but one wall runs around all. There is but one Church of the living God,-

“For all the servants of our King,

In earth and heaven are one.”

Still, at present, the division stands good, because it is so to our experience, and we have still to say, concerning the “one army of the living God,”-

“Part of his host have cross’d the flood,

And part are crossing now.”

So, taking our text as referring to the Church of God on earth, I say to you, first, that, if you are a true believer, let it come into your mind so that you may unite yourself with its citizens. Some of you, who love the Lord, have attended to almost everything except the one thing which you ought to have done as soon as you trusted in Christ, namely, cast in your lot with the people of God on earth. You have made your will, you have kept your business affairs straight and right, you have set your family matters in order, all that is as it should be; but, still, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” And there are some of you, who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who, if you did think of this matter, would have to say, “I am not an avowed member of Christ’s Church. I trust that I do belong to Jesus, but I have not said as much as that by my public profession. I hope that I do follow him, but I am afraid that it is only afar off, and that I wear a mask which hides my Christianity. I have not come out boldly, and said, ‘I am on the Lord’s side.’ There sits the man of whom Bunyan writes, ‘with a book and his inkhorn before him,’ but I have never said to him, ‘Set down my name, sir. I also belong to Jesus of Nazareth, and I will be numbered with his people.’ They may not be all I would like them to be, but I am afraid they are far better than I am; and if I might but have the meanest place among them, I should be glad. ‘I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.’ ”

I am not now talking about what is essential to salvation. I have no doubt that there are many true-hearted pilgrims to Zion, who steal away to heaven alone, and do not go on pilgrimage with their fellows; but they are not to be commended for this; for they miss many privileges in neglecting Christian fellowship, and, besides, they are not so serviceable to their Lord and Master. Let these lone saints seriously think over this question. If all the children of God were to go to heaven in that fashion, each one alone, where would there be any visible Church of God on earth at all? How would gospel ordinances be maintained? How would the war for King Jesus be carried on? But, if one may do it, all may do it; and it is always an evil thing for any child of God to be doing what he would not have the rest of his brethren doing. I remember that, one night, while preaching here, I told you that some Christians are like rats behind the wainscot; on the following Wednesday, when I sat to see enquirers, I had several who said that they would not be rats any longer. They could not bear to have such a title as that, so they resolved that they would come out, and confess Christ. I was very glad to have barked so loudly as to frighten them out of their holes, and I would like to do the same thing again. If you belong to Christ, say so in his own appointed way. In party politics, men are not generally ashamed to show on which side they are; and people of various nationalities, wherever they wander, are not ashamed to be called Britons, or Americans, or whatever they really are. Then, why should we, who are followers of the Saviour, be ashamed to own his blessed name? Let it not be so; but rather cry, “If there is a cross to be carried, here is a shoulder ready to bear it.” Say you not so, my dear friends? If there be any shame to be borne for Christ, will you stand back there, snug and comfortable, and let others bear it all alone? No; I think I hear you say, “If there is any mud to be thrown at Christ’s followers, let it be thrown at me. If there is any enmity to be shown to the chosen people of God, let me participate in it; for, as I hope to share their glory, so would I willingly bear a portion of their shame.” Come now, you who have forgotten all about this matter; I beg to repeat my text specially to you: “Let Jerusalem come into your mind;” let this message be to you like the still small voice of Jehovah was to Elijah, and go and put your name down among Christ’s disciples; and let it not be merely a nominal thing, but give your person and your purse, your time and your talents, to Christ and to his Church; and may the blessing of the Master rest upon you in doing it!

Taking it for granted that you have done this, I would next say to you, “Let Jerusalem come into your mind” by praying for its prosperity. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” I think that, in all our prayers, there should always be a petition for the one great Church of Jesus Christ. You know that, in David’s penitent cry, in the 51st Psalm, when he bemoaned his sin, and sought the pardoning mercy of God, he could not close his supplication without saying, “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.” So, when your sin, and your repentance for it, seem as if they must engross your prayer, and you must, with many sighs and tears, seek mercy for yourself, yet, even then, be not selfish, but pray for all who are in a like case with yourself, and for that happier band who have found mercy through the bleeding Lamb, and now are numbered with the people of God. There should be no private prayer,-there should be no family prayer,-there certainly should be no public prayer,-without petitions for the prosperity of the Church of God in every place. Take care that you do not forget that important matter; but, in this sense, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

And when this has been done, what are we to do next? Why, then, let us labour for the advancement of the good cause. If there be any object in the world worth living for, it is the glory of the Lord Jesus, and the salvation and the sanctification of those whom he has purchased with his precious blood. Now, to this end,-that the Church of Christ may be made perfect in him,-there is much to be done in the ingathering of sinners, and the helping and comforting and perfecting of saints; and you and I ought to take our fair share of this blessed work. There are some who have no time for any holy duties; from the moment they wake in the morning, till they go to bed at night, they voluntarily give up all their energies to making money. I would like just to whisper in their ear very softly, “Let Jerusalem come into your mind.” Does not God deserve at least some part of their time, and his Church some little effort for her extension? There are some people who are busy, here and there, and rightly so, in all sorts of philanthropic movements; but they seem to forget that the greatest philanthropic organization on the face of the earth is the Church of the living God; and that there is nothing which can so bless the world as Christ in the midst of his own people. I would like to step up to these friends, and say to them, “ ‘Let Jerusalem come into your mind.’ Give the Lord Jesus some of your help; consecrate to his cause some of your thought,-some of your tenderest affection.” It is a great pity when we cannot do anything for Christ; are there any Christians who are in that sad condition? Are they without hands,-without feet,-without eyes,-without tongues,-without hearts? Well, then, I do not think they can do much if that is the case; but until they can prove that they have lost all these parts of their body, I shall say that they can do something for Jerusalem, even if they only remember it. If you cannot preach, you can pray. If you cannot pray aloud, you can plead with God in secret. There are many who cannot preach, but who can give; and there are others, who cannot give, who, nevertheless, can speak a word here and there for the Lord Jesus Christ. There are plenty of weapons waiting for you if you have a mind to wield them. You know what the Israelites took with them when they went out to fight the Philistines; they had only axes, and coulters, and mattocks, and such like rough implements, but they seized everything that they were accustomed to use on the farm, and employed it as a weapon of warfare. It is well to know how to use all the implements of our service in the house, and shop, and trade, in fighting the Philistines, and winning victories for the Lord God of hosts and for his people. So, while you are diligent and energetic in your various philanthropic and other efforts, I would again whisper in your ear, “Let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

Jerusalem should also come into our mind so that we should prefer its privileges to earthly gain. Whenever we are about to make a settlement in any place, and have the choice of residence left to ourselves, the first matter we ought to consider is the religious advantages or disadvantages. I admire the action of that Jew who, when he was about to select a city in which he could pursue his business, asked his friend, the Rabbi, “Is there a synagogue in such-and-such a place?” The Rabbi replied, “No,” so the Jew said, “Then I will not go to live there, for I will not settle in any place where there is no synagogue, for I must gather with my brethren for the worship of God.” I wish Christian people always thought and acted in a similar way; yet, often, for the sake of a trifling gain, they fix their abode where they are altogether deprived of the means of grace. Now, if you should be obliged to go to live in such a spiritual desert, that is another matter; and you should feel that you are sent there on purpose to turn the wilderness into a fruitful garden, by setting up a synagogue, establishing a house of prayer, and so becoming a light in a dark place. But, wantonly, and without any object except that of financial gain, to select a residence where there will be no spiritual meat for you, looks as if you had but slight regard for Christ, or for his Church. At such a time, “let Jerusalem come into your mind;” and say to yourself, “I must go where my own soul will be fed, or where I can be the means of feeding the souls of others. This must be one of the chief considerations in my choice of an abode,-Can I be of service there to the Church of God? If not, it is better for me to be useful in poverty than to be useless in wealth,-better for me to win souls, and have a struggle for bread, than to rise into the highest position of opulence, and never to have an opportunity of bringing a sinner to Christ.” Will you kindly think carefully and prayerfully of that matter, and, in all your settlements in life, “let Jerusalem come into your mind”?

Once more upon this theme, if you are a member of a Christian church,-if you are working for the church,-if you are praying for the church, “let Jerusalem come into your mind” in this way,-always act consistently with your relationship to the church. I am glad that I was, while only a lad, baptized into the name of the Sacred Trinity. Well do I remember that May morning when I walked into the river as Isleham Ferry, and thus declared publicly that I belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. By that act of immersion, I felt that I had crossed the Rubicon, and there was no possibility of ever going back. I had burned the boats behind me, so that I could not retreat, nor have I ever wanted to do so. It did not matter to me how many spectators looked on me that day, nor whether they were angels, men, or devils. I wanted them all to witness that, henceforth, I was Christ’s servant,-that I bore in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus, the water-mark which could never be taken out,-that I was dead to the world, and risen with my Lord, to serve him for ever and ever; and I have often felt, when a temptation has assailed me, that it has been a very blessed check upon me to recollect that, perhaps, of all men in the world I am the most known as having declared myself on the Lord’s side. I do not want to be less known, in that respect; but I feel that I must be doubly careful, I must mind how I act, for I have declared, before heaven and earth and hell, that I am the Lord’s. When I hear a young person say, “I am afraid to be baptized, and to join the church, for I fear that it will be such a bond to me,” I ask, “Do you not want to have such a bond as that?” Who wants to be free to sin? I do not; I am sure. No, blessed Master; if thou hast another chain, fling it round thy servant, for there is no freedom like the liberty of serving God, and being bound to do so. You remember how sweetly David wrote upon this matter: “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds;”-as if he only felt sure of his freedom when the bonds of the Lord were round about him; and then, all other bonds were gone.

If you are apt to be very quick-tempered, the next time you are going to boil over, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” Be calm, and remember that you profess to be a Christian; that is, one who is like Christ. Then if, in trade, there seems at any time an opportunity of making a dishonest penny, stop, stop, stop! “Let Jerusalem come into your mind.” What will men say about the church to which you belong if they see that you can act as dishonestly as mere worldlings do? This thought ought to hold many a man back from doing what else he would have done,-The vows of God are upon me; I am a Red Cross knight; I have enlisted in the army of Christ, and it would be shameful for a man who is reckoned to be a Christian-called by that most wonderful of all names that comes from the divine anointing of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God,-it would be shameful for such a man to act as the ungodly would do in like circumstances. Nay, nay; wait a while; pull up till you have thoroughly considered the whole question, look at it from all points of view, and say, with Joseph, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Oh, that the text, and our meditation upon it, may be a protection to us whenever we are tempted to sin! “Let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

I have saved a good portion of our time for the second part of my discourse, which is to be concerning the Jerusalem above which should come into our mind.

First, let it come into the mind of the believer. We do not think one hundredth part as much about heaven as we ought to do. Most people seem to imagine we cannot know anything about it, and they quote half a text, which is almost as bad as telling a lie: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” There they stop; but that is not where the Scripture ends, for the apostle went on to say, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” They quote the first half of the passage to prove that we do not know anything about heaven, whereas the second part tells us that we do know a great deal about it; and if we would but turn our thoughts that way, we might become almost as familiar with the inside of the gates of pearl as we are with the streets of this clouded, foggy city. We may learn much about heaven, even while we are here, if we are but willing to be taught of God.

Why should the Christian let Jerusalem come into his mind? I think, first, because Jesus is there. A little child, who was dying, expressed his intense delight because he knew that he was going to heaven; and one who stood by said, “But, my dear, what makes you wish to be there?” His prompt answer was, with flashing eyes, “Because Jesus is there.” The friend then said to him, “But suppose that Jesus should go out of heaven?” “Then I will go with him,” replied the child, “for he has prayed that those whom his Father has given him may be with him where he is.” That is just what we feel. Jesus is the Husband of our hearts; should we not think much of the place where he dwells? If a wife were banished from her home for a while, I know that she would like to look at the portrait of her beloved, and at a view of the house where she hoped again to dwell with him; and in like manner should your thoughts go out to your Well-beloved while you are, for a time, debarred from enjoying his company; and you should think much of the place which he has gone to prepare for you, as he told his disciples, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Shall Jesus talk like that, and yet shall not Jerusalem come into your mind? Oh, surely, it shall, for his dear sake! Because he is there, our heart instinctively turns that way. We watch for his appearing, with our window open towards that Jerusalem, looking for and hasting unto the day when he shall come to us again; and meanwhile, the heavenly Jerusalem comes often into our mind because Christ is there.

Further, the child of God should have Jerusalem upon his mind in all his earthly enjoyments. Sometimes, God permits his own dear children to have many comforts on earth. They are not always in great tribulation; and the danger then is lest they should begin to love this world, and the things that are in it. Are any of you, dear friends, growing rich? Are you in good health and strength? Has God surrounded you with children? Are you blessed with every joy in this life? Then remember that these are the things that make it hard to die unless you have some counter-attraction to put side by side with them. “Let Jerusalem come into your mind;” for, when a man once thinks aright of heaven, the highest joys of earth become very secondary. I have heard of a nobleman, who lay at the gates of death, and his king sent him a new title, and fresh honours. He was to be a knight of some noble order. The nobleman looked at the insignia of knighthood, and said, “These are fine things for you who are here below, and therefore I heartily thank his majesty for sending them to me; but I am going to another country where distinctions like this have no value whatever.” So you may say, if you have the comforts of this life, “These are fine things here, and I heartily thank God who gave me all of them in his bounty; but I am going to a country where these things are just nothing at all, and therefore I will have little or no regard for them. My heart is in heaven; my heart is not here. My treasure is up yonder; and it has drawn my heart away up to itself, and there it abides.” Oh, yes! in the times of your greatest happiness, still cling to your Lord; in the days of joy as well as in the nights of sorrow, let him be your All-in-all. When God’s light fills your sky with sunshine, still love him as much as when you are in the darkness; and, according to the judgment of the flesh, everything is going ill with you.

But, brothers and sisters, let us equally allow the heavenly Jerusalem to come into our mind in poverty and persecution. Ah! then is the time, when it is bleak below, to think how blessed are they who are with Jesus above. Renwick, the great Scotch divine and martyr for the truth, when he was hunted over the mosses and the mountains of the land, said to certain faithful friends who gathered around him, “I have lain two nights on the bleak hillside, and they have been wild and stormy nights, and I have had nothing to cover me except the curtains of heaven; and I have experienced the most intense delight when, between the times of tempest, I have seen the stars shining in glory; and I have thought how every saint above shall shine yet more brightly for ever and ever; and when I have thought of the bliss of those who are before the throne of God, I have laughed to think how little men can do to hurt any child of God.” The good man was right, and you may say the same as he did if you are hunted by cruel persecutors. If you can but maintain fellowship with Jesus, you need not fear them. They can but kill the body, and afterwards there is nothing more that they can do; and, when the glorified spirit walks the streets of gold, and beholds the magnificence of his everlasting inheritance, he looks down on his persecutors, and says, “What can you do to me now? I am immortal, and you cannot harm me; my heritage is up here, and you cannot take it from me.” O ye who suffer poverty and persecution, “let Jerusalem come into your mind,” for this will help you to bear up under the greatest trials!

So, too, should Jerusalem come into our mind whenever we are heavy and downcast. Some of the best of God’s saints get into that condition. I know plenty of Christian people who are not good enough to be despondent; I mean, that they do not think enough; for, if they really did think and meditate, they would soon be partakers of that heaviness of which Peter speaks when he says, “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold trials.” I believe that most of God’s children do get down in the dumps sometimes. There is a coal cellar to God’s house as well as a banqueting hall; and, although I should like always to live in the banqueting hall, I have many a time been down in the coal cellar, and I have learnt more there than I have learnt upstairs. Well, dear friends, whenever you get down there in the very basement of God’s great house, begin to think of the upper stories,-of those windows of agate and gates of carbuncle that are up yonder. Think of how you will lean out of the windows of heaven to look down upon this poor dusky earth; think of how you will walk up there among cherubim and seraphim, familiar with their joyous sonnets; and, then, all the sorrows of your mortal life shall seem to have been but as a pin-prick, or “as a dream, when one awaketh.” Oh, the bliss of being able, even when you are despondent, to mount up to heaven by faith, and walk with God! Thus, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

Further, it is well to let Jerusalem come into our mind in the time of bereavement. Who has not lost a friend, a child, a wife, a husband, a beloved one of some sort? Well, when you take out your handkerchief because the tears flow fast, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” That eminent man, Mr. Halyburton, when he was dying so triumphantly,-and perhaps there was never a death more triumphant than was his,-said, “I have ten brothers and sisters, and a father and mother in heaven, and I shall make the eleventh of their children when I get there; and this is part of the joy that I have in departing, that I shall see my kindred before the throne of God.” Yes, your dear infant children,-you shall see them again. Refrain thine eyes from weeping, Rachel; thou art the mother of immortals. True, their little coffins are beneath the greensward, but their spirits are not there. They every day behold the face of our Father who is in heaven. And some of us have parents or grandparents, who have been called up above. Well, we are following them, and we shall be there, too, in God’s good time. I would that we might be unbroken families before the throne of God; our children, and our children’s children, all gathered there and not one left out. When you linger at the side of the silent grave, weep not too much, but “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” So do I think it a suitable time to remember this Jerusalem when you are growing very old,-when the threescore years and ten are over,-when you have taken out a fresh lease for another ten or a dozen years, and have almost run that out; and now you are living by the day, and are liable to have notice to quit at any moment. Well, certainly, now is the time to “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” There are no furrows on the brows of the glorified, no limping limbs, or failing eyes, or closing ears. The grey old man shall be as young as a child there. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” You may well say, “What joy is this to think of Jerusalem!” There was a nobleman, who invited good Mr. Foxe, the man who wrote The Book of Martyrs, to come and spend a merry Christmas with him, “for,” said he, “Mr. Foxe, next Christmas I hope to have such entertainment for my friends as you will approve.” Mr. Foxe said, “I do believe that it will be a high day for me next Christmas, for I shall be where they keep holiday for ever. What do you think of the state of immortals when they quit their bodies?” His lordship was all at sea when Mr. Foxe talked to him like that; but so it proved, for Foxe had, by that time, gone up to heaven to see the martyrs whose lives he had written, and I wot that he did spend his Christmas far more merrily than they did in the mansion below. What can happen better to you, dear old saints, than to get home to your Father’s house? Here you are, as it were, left out in the cold for a while; but the great door will open soon, and the angel will come to beckon you in. Some who have gone before have been watching for you at the gate, and you will have a joyous welcome. Therefore, when your aches and pains are upon you, and all the ensigns of old age are flying, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

Do the same in times of sickness; and if your sickness should be unto death, then all the more “let Jerusalem come into your mind.” I was thinking of the little son of a Duke of Hamilton, a long way back, when there was graciousness in that family. This lad would, in a short time, at his father’s decease, have become a duke. He was a very gracious child, and he was taken away very early. When he was near his end, he called to him his next brother, and he said to him, “Douglas, in a little while, you will be a duke, but I shall be a king.” Oh, that is blessed for you when you are sure of such glory as that! You might well give up a dukedom, and go to heaven in any boat that God might choose to send. I would not have any choice about that matter. Some people are always dreading sudden death; but, for a Christian, what can be better than to die on a sudden, and to go home, when all is right and ready? But, anyhow, whichever way we go, whether in the swift gondolas of sudden death, or in the slower barges of lingering sickness, we shall get to port all right; and that is the chief matter, to sail into the Fair Havens where we shall abide for ever. So, in times of sickness, “let Jerusalem come into your mind.”

Now I have to conclude with a word to those who have at present no part or lot in the New Jerusalem. I should like to be the medium through which the still small voice should reach some of you who do not yet know the Lord.

Listen. What if you should never enter the New Jerusalem? Then, say “Farewell” to all the saints, for you will be divided from them for ever. Say “Farewell” in your heart to all those blessed ones you loved on earth, and who in their death exhorted you to follow them. Take leave of them, for you shall never sit down with them, or see them again, unless it be from such a distance that there will be no communion between you and them, for between them and you there will be a great gulf fixed. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, must I never see thy pearly gates, and ruby walls, and never see the King except to hear him say, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire”? “Let Jerusalem come into your mind.” Do not be any longer halting between two opinions. If you do not enter the New Jerusalem, where else can you go? There is but one other place, though even some so-called Protestants, nowadays, seem to be seeking to revive a belief in purgatory; yet there is no such place.

I heard of one, the other day, who said to the preacher, after he had been preaching, according to Christ’s wont, the doctrine of everlasting punishment, “Sir, I believe that I shall go to hell for a season, and afterwards get round to heaven.” “Man,” said the preacher, “even if what you say be true, when there is a straightforward road to heaven, what a fool you must be to want to go round by way of hell! “Yet there are still some such foolish folk; they think that they must go round about when there is set before them an open door, on which is inscribed, “Believe and live.” There are some who will have no hell whatever; and, as I think of them, I am reminded of a story that I heard of a little boy, whose uncle had imbibed this false doctrine. The uncle had been telling the child the story about the babes in the wood. “Uncle,” said the boy, “where did the little babies go to after the robins had covered their bodies with leaves?” “They went to heaven, Johnny.” “And where did their wicked uncle go to?” “Oh, to heaven, Johnny!” Johnny’s face looked unutterable things. “Why, uncle!” said he, “then he will kill the babies again.” Just so; if their natures are not renewed, wicked men would do in heaven the same as they did here; and that cannot be. Do you see the folly of such teaching? Christ’s message is, “Ye must be born again.” You must be renewed in nature. You must come to Christ, and put your trust in him; or else, into the New Jerusalem it is not possible for you to enter.

Now, in closing, I want you each one to ask these two or three questions of yourself. “How is my life to-day in reference to heaven? Am I living so that it would be safe to let me into heaven? Am I so living that it would be possible for God to be righteous, and to let me be perfectly happy?” Listen to that question, and honestly answer it, for God will do no unrighteous thing, neither will he ever marry heaven and sin together. There is an eternal division between those two. Mark the next question: “What objection can I possibly have to being saved to-night? What reason can there be against my believing in Jesus Christ while he bids me do so? It will not make me miserable to have my soul saved; it cannot make me unhappy to be made holy. The right way must be the best way, and the best way must be the happiest way. Christ will not refuse me if I go to him to-night. I have no reason to think that he will, but I have every reason to know that he will not, for he has said, ‘Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.’ ” So may it be! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

REVELATION 21:9-27

Verses 9-22. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

The less there is of true religion, the more there usually is of outward ritualism. When true religion shall fill every heart, and God shall be the supreme joy of his people, they will need no temple.

23. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Outward means are abolished when their mission is accomplished.

24. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

The Church shall be the metropolis of the world; it shall be honoured and esteemed among the nations of mankind. When men are godly, then will they reverence the abode of God, namely, the living Church, built up of living stones, upon the one foundation, Jesus Christ.

25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

There will be no need to shut out enemies at night, for the day shall last right on. The Church’s most intimate intercourse with God, her constant commerce with the skies, will have begun then.

26, 27. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Into this holy city, the graceless, the Christless, the faithless shall never come. Here, we have a mixture of light and darkness; but, in those better days, it shall be all light, and the darkness shall have fled far away for ever.