This morning,* I showed you, dear friends, how joyfully Jesus receives sinners,-how he welcomes them,-how glad he is to find those whom he came to seek and to save. From this text, it appears that, when sinners receive Jesus, they receive him joyfully, so that there is joy on both sides. It is a joyful business altogether; the Saviour is glad to save, and the sinner is glad to be saved. I know which of the two has the greater joy, for it is always more blessed to give than to receive; and the great heart of Jesus, in its infinite benevolence, is conscious of a rarer joy than even the saved sinner can experience. It is a delight to him to save; so great is his joy that he cannot contain it all within his own heart, and he represents himself as calling together his friends and neighbours, and saying to them, “Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” But when the two seas meet,-the sea of the saved one’s gladness and the sea of the Saviour’s joy,-what blessed floods they make! How the dancing waves clap their hands with delight! Surely, joy on earth becomes then more than on any other occasion parallel with the joy in heaven. Such joy before the Lord is “according to the joy in harvest;” and such days are “as the days of heaven upon the earth.” How earnestly, then, you and I ought to seek to bring men to Christ! This is the best method of making joy in this sin-cursed world. This is the surest way of plucking up the thorns and the thistles that sin has sown, and of making the myrtle and the rose to grow instead thereof, according to that ancient promise: “Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands;”-even before you who are the means of reconciling men to their Maker, and of bringing sinners to their Saviour.

This joyous time of receiving Christ is the turning-point in character, and it is also one of the tests of destiny. By this sign shall you discern between the men predestinated unto eternal life and those who have no share in the divine decree. He that receiveth Christ thereby proves that he is Christ’s; but he that receiveth him not shall surely perish as the result of his wilful rejection of the Saviour. The gospel is, after all, the great fan that winnows the chaff from the wheat; it separates the precious from the vile, even as Christ said to the Jews, “Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.” Whether or no you will receive Christ when he comes your way, is the all-important matter for each one of you to decide. If your door be shut when he is passing by, he may never come your way again. But if, when he bids you come to him, as he bade Zacchæus make haste, and come down, you receive him with alacrity, opening the door of your heart that he may enter in, then shall you prove that you are his, that you are among those who are the blessed of the Lord, and who shall be blessed world without end. So this matter of the reception of Christ is, as I called it just now, all-important; and I want to press it upon each unsaved person here with the urgent desire and the confident hope that some, like Zacchæus, will receive Christ joyfully.

This passage also teaches us that, often, the most unlikely persons are the first to receive the Saviour. I should have said, and you would all have agreed with me, that the least likely person in the city of Jericho to receive Christ into his house was this rich little tax-gatherer Zacchæus,-this man whom all the people disliked so much that, when Christ went to his house, “they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” Yet he was the one person in that place who did entertain the Lord Jesus Christ; and many a time since has Christ been shut out of good men’s doors, or the doors of those who have reckoned themselves as good men; but he has found shelter within the gates of sinners, and such sinners as have been reputed among men to be utterly given over and hopeless. I would not pick my congregation even if I might do so; I would much rather that they should come, as they do come, by God’s choice and constraint; for the man whom I might think most likely to be blessed would probably pass the blessing by; and he whom we, in our poor, feeble judgment, might expect to be the last to receive the Saviour, might turn out to be the first, the most willing, and the most joyful receiver of him. I cannot tell, therefore, who among you will take the Saviour in; I wish I could hope that all, who have not yet done so, would do it ere the sermon ends. He is such a wondrous Guest that you may all entertain him at the same moment; and he can come to each one’s heart, he may be the Guest of everyone who is a sinner, and yet each sinner who receives him shall find that a whole Christ has come into his heart.

Let me also add that, sometimes, very strange motives may bring people where they will be led to receive the Saviour. I need not allude to Zacchæus climbing the sycomore tree, or only just allude to it in passing; but many a person has come into the house of God, out of the idlest curiosity, or to oblige a friend, or to while away an hour. Rowland Hill used to say that there were some people who made a cloak of religion; and when they ran into Surrey Chapel, on a wet day, to shelter from the rain, he used to add, “and there are some who make an umbrella of it.” It is just so still; people are influenced by all sorts of motives; harmless motives, vain motives, foolish motives, even condemnable motives have brought persons where Jesus Christ has been passing by; and so have been the occasion of Christ’s entering into hearts which else had been closed to him. It may be so with some of you who are here; perhaps you hardly expected to be here, and you scarcely know why you came. Yet it was written in the book of destiny that, this night, you should either accept Christ as your Saviour, or you should be wilfully guilty of shutting the door of your heart in his face. God grant that it may not be that latter action; but may you say to him, “Come in, blessed Saviour. Let salvation come, in thy person, to my house and heart, this very hour; then will I rejoice whilst thou shalt rejoice also.”

Thus have I introduced to you the text: “He received him joyfully.” Now I want to say to you, with regard to the reception of the Saviour, that he is not here corporeally, physically, for he has gone back again into his glory, to sit at the right hand of the Father; but he is here spiritually according to his promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He enters freely into men’s hearts, but he cannot now be received corporeally into your houses, nor can he sit at your tables, and partake of your feasts; but he can, by his Spirit, enter into your hearts; and he can spiritually dwell there, and make a temple of your bodies, and reign there, finding a happy abode within your renewed nature.

Now, if you would receive him, I wish to call your attention, first, to the fact that, in order to salvation, there must be a personal reception of a personal Christ: “He received him joyfully.” There you have two persons both present. “He”-that is, Zacchæus-“received him”-that is, Christ-“joyfully.” That looks very simple, yet there is a great depth of truth in it, as I will try to show you.

For, first, there are some persons, who suppose that, in order to be saved, they are to receive a creed. That is quite true; you are to have a creed, and I urge you to take heed what you believe. Go to the law and to the testimony, and believe nothing but what is in the Word of God. But I pray you also to recollect that a man may receive the soundest creed in Christendom, and yet be damned. He may believe, as a matter of head-knowledge, all that should be believed; and yet, for all that, he may not believe anything with his heart, and so may perish. I believe that the devil is orthodox. In all that he says, he usually seems to propound either the truth or something which shows that he knows what the truth is; yet, though, in that sense, he believes, and even goes as far as trembling, the devil is not changed in heart, nor will he be saved by what he believes. It is not receiving a creed which saves you; it is receiving a Person into your heart’s love. It is not written in our text, “he received it;” but, “he received him.” Mark that: “he received him joyfully.”

Again, salvation comes not through receiving an ordinance, or ordinances, however correct or Scriptural they may be. It is not said, “Zacchæus received baptism;” or, “Zacchæus received the communion.” I do not doubt that Zacchæus did receive both ordinances; but it was not said to him, “This day is salvation come to thy house because thou hast received the sacraments.” No; salvation came to him when he received Christ, when that blessed and Divine Person crossed the threshold of his heart, and was welcomed as he installed himself in the affections of the rich taxgatherer. It was then that he was saved; and, beloved, if you are to be saved, Christ must come in a similar fashion into your understandings and your hearts. Salvation comes, not through ordinances, however Scripturally and correctly they may be observed; it is Christ, and Christ alone, who can save your soul. It must be with you as it was with Zacchæus when “he received him joyfully.”

Furthermore, it was not even the doctrine of Christ that Zacchæus on this occasion received, though he did receive the doctrine of Christ, and learnt of Christ, and became his disciple; but, first, he received Christ; and, then, he received Christianity. Beware, I pray you, of being like many nominal Christians who know not Christ. Beware of that Christianity from which Christ has been eliminated. You must first receive the Master, or else it is idle to be associated with his servants. You may say that you belong to his Church; but if you are not joined to the Head, what will it avail you to claim to be in the body? If you are not vitally united to the Lord so as to become one spirit with him, of what service will it be to you that you are reckoned among his followers, and that your names are written on an earthly church-roll? Zacchæus received Christ himself, and this is the all-important saving matter: “he received him.”

How did he receive him? He received Christ as his Guest, and entertained him. Will you so receive Christ,-giving him your heart, your love, yourself,-letting him come and find meat and drink for his love within your soul? I beg you to admit him thus. Behold, he stands at the door of your heart, and knocks; again, and again, and again, with gentle hand knocking at the door, does he seek an entrance. Oh, open your heart to him, and let him be your Guest this very hour!

But, further, Zacchœus received Christ as his Lord. Notice what he said: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” That is the way in which you also must receive Christ as your Master and Lord.

In so doing, Zacchœus also admitted Christ as his Saviour, for Jesus said, “This day is salvation come to this house.” You will think it strange, but I have known some who have called Jesus “Lord,” who have not owned him as their Saviour. Thank God, it is changed with them now; but I did know some, who came to this house, who honoured and worshipped Christ according to the light they had, yet they did not understand their need of him, nor did they accept him as their Saviour. As I said, just now, this has all been changed with them; and so must it be with any of you who would truly receive Christ. If you do not accept him in his character as Saviour, you virtually reject him altogether, since he can never be separated from the merit of his blood, and the love of his heart towards guilty sinners. What! Would you have an unwounded Christ,-an unbleeding Christ,-a Christ that never died for men? There is no such Christ as that except in fiction; the Christ of reality “is come to seek and to save that which was lost;” and in that character he must be received by us also if he is received at all.

Now I pass on to notice that the reception of Christ, to be real, must in every case be voluntary. Willingly, Zacchæus “made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.” That joyful reception of Christ shows the willingness of Zacchæus; it proves how cheerfully, how gladly, how willingly,-the words all carry the same sense,-how joyfully, with the full freedom of his will, he received the Saviour.

Observe that the call of grace does not hinder this willing reception. There was a previous call of grace: “Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house;” but, although that call was graciously powerful, and, in a gospel sense, irresistible, yet it did not interfere with the free agency of Zacchæus so as to make him unwillingly receive the Saviour. No; he cheerfully, joyfully, received Christ as the result of that call. Here is where many people make a great mistake. They fancy that we, who preach effectual calling, make out that men are like logs of wood or carved images,-dead things that are dragged or drawn about without any reference to their own will. We teach nothing of the kind. We preach that men are intelligent, responsible agents, and that the omnipotent grace of God in which we firmly believe, and our belief in which we are never ashamed to declare, nevertheless exerts itself in a way and manner suitable to the free agency of these human beings, so that grace gets the victory; but, at the same time, a man acts as a man. Zacchæus is not dragged down from the tree by an angel who lays hold of the nape of his neck, and throws him down against his will; and the door of his house does not open by magic; but the man comes down from the tree, in the ordinary way, by the exercise of his own will and power, and he opens the door of his home for Christ to enter; yet, secretly, in his heart there was a power other than his own which was moving him to act as he did. This may not be easy to understand, or to explain in words; but it is easy enough in actual life. It is plainly seen in the lives of those who are converted to Christ. Nobody will say that Zacchæus did not as freely let Christ into his house as ever he had performed any action in his life. In fact, he never had put so much heart into anything he had ever done as he did into that act of receiving Christ. “He made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.” He was glad to do it, he cheerfully yielded obedience to the divine command.

And, dear friends, you and I must receive Christ cheerfully, willingly, voluntarily, or else we have not really received him at all. Christ will not force himself into any man’s house, and sit there against the man’s will. That would not be the action of a guest, but of an unwelcome intruder. Christ will not come in, as it were, mailed and armed, forcibly to take possession of any man’s soul; but what he does is gently to change the bias of our will so that we willingly invite him to enter our heart. We constrain him to come in, and to dwell with us; we say to him, “Abide with us;” and not only are we willing to have Christ, but we are anxious and desirous to have him. To get him, we would, if necessary, sell all that we have. To keep him, we would lay down our very lives; for that which once seemed undesirable to us, is now the height of our ambition, the very core and centre of our highest desire. “He made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.” His whole heart went with his reception of Christ.

What say you, dear friend? Will you now receive Christ joyfully? Will you willingly receive him? I know you will if you truly feel your need of him, and if you realize how exactly he meets that need. I know you will gladly receive him if you understand what blessings come in his train,-what wealth of happiness and joy he gives to the heart in which he condescends to dwell. You will say to him, “My Lord, now do I repent most sorrowfully that ever I resisted thee; and, made willing in the day of thy power, I fling open the doors of my heart, and cry, ‘Come in; come in; come in; dwell with me henceforth, and go no more out for ever.’ ”

After Christ has been received into the heart, everything else will have to be done cheerfully and voluntarily. He did not command Zacchæus to give the half of his goods to the poor; but, spontaneously, as soon as Christ came in, Zacchæus said, of his own accord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.” No ordinance to this effect had proceeded from the Saviour’s lips: “Zacchæus, you must restore fourfold to all whom you have wronged.” No; but gladly, out of the fulness of his renewed heart, he freely said, “If I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” This is the very essence of true religion; it is cheerful voluntariness. When a man, who professes to be a Christian, begins to ask, “Must I do this?” or “Must I do that?” he makes us stand in doubt concerning him. Believers in Christ are not under the law, but under grace. The principle that rules us is not “Must I?” but “May I?” It becomes to the believer a joy and a delight to serve Christ; he is not flogged to his duty. The slave-driver’s whip and the stocks are not for the freeborn citizens of the New Jerusalem. These things are for men of the world, who will do nothing unless they are paid for it, one way or the other. The dread of hell, or the hope of heaven;-these are the only motives that they recognize; but those who receive Christ dread no hell, for they know that they can never go there. “He that believeth on him is not condemned.” Such a man works not to obtain heaven; why should he? Heaven is his already; in Christ Jesus, it is given to him by a covenant which cannot be broken. So now he sings,-

“Loved of my God, for him again

With love intense I burn:

Chosen of thee ere time began,

I choose thee in return.”

And this blessed voluntariness, this joyous freedom of the will, conferred by sovereign grace, becomes the very life and soul of vital godliness. Do you possess it, dear friend? If not, may God the Holy Spirit speedily give it to you! If you have it, may he nurture it, and make it to increase within you; and so, like Zacchæus, whatever you do, may you do it joyfully, cheerfully, as unto the Lord!

This brings me now to close with my third remark, which is, that the reception which we give to Christ may well be a joyful one.

To receive Christ into the heart, dear brethren and sisters, ought not that to be as glad a thing as for a man to welcome his long-desired bride, or his firstborn child, or to receive his estate when he comes to the ripeness of manhood? Ay, more than that, ought it not to be as much joy to receive Christ as to receive heaven itself, for would there be any heaven possible if we had not first received Christ? Ring the bells of heaven, and ring them yet again, for a soul has received Christ Jesus the Lord. It is the gladdest event on earth, and it gives new joy even in heaven. See how the angels fly upward from their various watching-places to tell their brethren on yonder battlements, that they may publish it in every golden street, “Another sinner has received Christ. Joy, joy for ever!” These are the things that make jubilees in heaven; when sinners receive their Saviour, they make glad rejoicing before the face of the Highest himself.

If I hear that a certain person’s reception of Christ had not much gladness in it, I am not necessarily led to suspect the reality of it, though I wish he had received Christ joyfully. When men receive the Word with gladness, if it is nothing but the bare Word, I can understand that they may be like the rocky ground which received the good seed; but, after a while, for lack of depth and moisture, the ground yielded not life enough or nourishment enough for the seed, so it withered away. But it is different when, instead of “it”, you read “him”: “he received him joyfully.” That is another matter altogether; for, if Christ be received into the soul, he will not die. If Jesus be taken into the heart, he will not disappear, and go his way; but where he once comes, he abides for ever. So, let us have as much joy as ever we can connected with our conversion; and let us not, because of that gladness, question its genuineness; but let us rather be all the more sure that it is a true work of Christ’s grace because, like Zacchæus we have received Christ joyfully.

Think what joy there ought to be in the heart that receives Christ into it. First of all, what an honour it is! O poor lowly woman. or humble man, will the Lord of glory really come and dwell in you? You are no queen, or prince, or philosopher; will the great Lord of all dwell in your frail body, which is undecorated by costly dress, perhaps unadorned by natural beauty? Has he indeed come down to dwell with you? Then, you are indeed honoured even above the angels, for we never read that Christ dwells in them. You ought to be indeed glad that the Lord has permitted you to receive such an honour as this.

Then, next, where Jesus comes into the heart, he comes to put away all sin. Wherever Jesus is received, all the guilt of the past is blotted out and gone, never to be remembered any more. When you receive Christ, you receive full remission of all your sin, every transgression goes into complete oblivion. Just think of that, and tell me if it is not a joyous thing to receive Christ. Will you not, then, like Zacchæus, receive Christ joyfully?

When you receive Christ, you also receive the fountain of inward purity, the well-spring of cleansing which shall overflow unto ultimate perfection. Receiving Christ, sin gets its death-warrant. Every buyer and seller in the temple of your nature will have to go. Everything received by false accusation will have to be given up. Where Jesus comes, the devil flies away, and angels come in with all their blessed train of beauty and holiness. To receive Christ, is to drive out hell, and to let in heaven; it is to end the darkness, and to begin the everlasting day. Then, shall we not receive him joyfully?

Let me come close to you, and whisper a little secret in your ear. Zacchæus did not know it, and the parallel does not hold good with his case, but it does with ours. There is great cause for joy in receiving Christ, because he will never go away again. When he once comes into our heart, he claims the freehold of it; and, by a divine entail, holds possession of it against all comers even to the end. I am not one of those who believe that a man can be a child of God to-day, and a child of the devil to-morrow. Ah, no! When Christ, the strong Man armed, does really take possession of the heart, a stronger than he must come if he is to be driven out; but there is no one stronger than he is. Hell itself can find no power to match the might of him who died to save his people from their sins; and you may depend upon it that he will fight for his own, and preserve his own, even until he comes to take them to be with him for ever. Therefore, be glad when Jesus comes into your heart, for it means salvation for you even unto the end.

And, further, it also means eternal glory; for he who thus comes into your heart is the same Saviour who prayed, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” Oh, yes! he will bring you safely home to glory. Admit him, and he will keep you here as his own until such a day as it shall please him, and then he will gently waft your soul away to the better land where, transformed, and rendered white as snow, he will still dwell in you, and walk in you, and you shall be his people, and he will be your God. Oh, the bliss of admitting Christ into the heart and life! There is nothing like it under heaven; and even heaven itself can show nothing better than the joy of receiving Christ into one’s in most heart, for that is indeed heaven begun below.

So I will finish my discourse by begging all of you who are gathered together here, if you have never yet received Christ, to receive him now. Perhaps someone enquires, “How can we receive him?” Well, first, open the door which has hitherto been closed. Be willing that he should come into your heart, to rule your whole life. Next, stand at the door, and invite him to come in. By earnest prayer, entreat him to enter. Then, believe in him; that is really to receive him, as John says, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” So that believing on him is receiving him. It is trusting him. You know what it is to trust yourself wholly to the care of another. Just as you might, on some dark night, when you had lost your way on the moor, trust yourself entirely with a guide who knew the way, even so trust yourself with Christ to lead you to his Father, and he will do it. You have received him when you have trusted him. O dear hearts, do receive my Master! Blessed Spirit, lead them to do so, and to do so at once!

I admire Zacchæus very much for one thing in which he differed from a good many of you. You ask such a lot of questions, and when you get them answered, or if they are not answered, you ask so many more. If Zacchæus had been like you, I can imagine how he would have sat up in that sycomore tree, and when Christ called out to him, “Make haste, and come down,” he would have said, “But, --;” and Jesus would have listened, and heard what he had to say, and answered him. Then he would have said again, “But, Lord, --;” and there he might have stuck up in that sycomore tree, but no blessing would have come to him. There are ever so many of you who have been, as it were, up a sycomore tree for years. You always want to know more than you ever will know. You seem to be very clever at picking holes in the gospel; you have wonderful skill in the art of trying how you can damn yourselves; and you will do it, one of these days, unless God should prevent you by his almighty grace. If you can, you even spoil the precious promises of Scripture; you lay hold of one of God’s golden coins, and try to deface it. I mean, that you take his promise, and then seek to get the very life and soul out of it;-not that you may claim it for yourself, but in order to show that it does not belong to you. I never yet heard of a man going to law to prove that a fortune was not his. Men are eager enough to get temporal things; but when you come to spiritual things, there are thousands of people who seem only anxious to prove that they can never be saved. If I were in your place, I would let the devil do that kind of work if he liked, it is very much to his taste; but, as for you, do not have even a little finger in it. Look at Zacchæus. I can see him. As soon as ever Christ says to him, “Come down,” why, dear me, the man is down before we can utter another word! And soon he is at the door of his house, and saying to the Master, “Come in, Lord, come in! Heartily do I welcome you!” Now, then, go and do likewise; ask no more questions, but make haste, and come down, and receive Christ joyfully. “But I want to know this.” You shall know it when you have received Christ. “But am I one of his elect?” I will answer your question as soon as you receive him. A good Wesleyan brother said to a Calvinistic friend down in Cornwall, “Now, Malachi, I owe you these two pounds; but, before I pass them over, you must tell me whether you are predestinated to have them.” Malachi said, “Just put the two pounds here, in the middle of my hand, and I will tell you directly.” That was very sensible on the part of Malachi; and I say to you,-Do not be asking about predestination or anything else, but just receive Christ; and when you have accepted him, you may rest assured that he has given you power to become a son of God. You have believed on his name, and therefore you are saved. That is the all-important point. So, like Zacchæus, make haste, and come down, and receive Christ joyfully. The Lord grant that you may do it; and unto his name shall be the praise for ever and ever! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

LUKE 19:1-27

Verses 1, 2. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

Many of those tax-gatherers were rich; they usually farmed the taxes, and took care to extort all that they possibly could out of the poverty of the people.

3. And he sought to see Jesus who he was;

He did not seek to hear him; his curiosity lay in another direction,-he desired to see him. Who could this man be who created such a stir? What kind of man was he?

3-5. And could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him,-

Zacchæus went up into the sycomore tree that he might see Jesus, but he was himself seen there by Jesus; and that, dear friends, is the first act in the process of salvation. Jesus looks at us, and then we look at him. So, here, the Lord spied out Zacchæus up among the branches of the tree; “he looked up, and saw him,”-

5. And said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

His surprise at receiving such a message must have been overwhelming, yet he did not suffer that surprise to delay his obedience to Christ’s command.

6, 7. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

“This professedly superior teacher, this purist, this teacher of the highest morality, has gone to be guest with this taxgatherer,-a man who is a sort of outlaw, a disreputable person altogether.” Ah! how does the legal spirit, in self-righteous men, cry out against the sweet benevolence of our blessed Master, who comes into the world for this very purpose,-to be the Guest of sinners, that he may be the Physician of sinners!

8. And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor;

There was not one among those self-righteous people who would have done a tenth as much as Zacchæus declared that he would do.

8. And if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

There was not one among the murmurers who would have dared to say as much as that. There are a great many people who are quick to condemn those who are a hundred times better than themselves. I wonder whether there are any people of that sort here; I should not wonder if there are.

9. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

When our Lord was here, his personal mission as a soul-winner was to the Jews, to those who were of the house of Abraham; so he shows that however much despised this man might be, he came within the compass of the Christ’s immediate mission: “forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.”

10, 11. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.

Some of them dreamt of a temporal sovereignty with Christ at its head, so he taught them that his kingdom was something very different from that.

12, 13. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

“Use these pounds on my account; be stewards of them for me until I return.”

14-16. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

He was a modest man; he did not say, “I have gained ten pounds;” but, “Thy pound hath gained ten pounds.” And if God has blessed anyone so as to enable him to bring in a large result from the talent entrusted to him, he must ascribe it all to God, and not to himself: “Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.”

17-19. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

Observe that, whatever the triumph of Christ is to be, his faithful servants are to share in it. He is to be the King of the many cities in the rich provinces of his Father’s domain; but he will give to one of his servants ten cities, and to another five cities. But what a vast dominion that must be out of which he can afford to give such rewards as this! Ten cities,-can any earthly king give in this fashion? There are royal rewards at the last for those who are faithful now. No pitiful pence shall fall to the lot of those who diligently serve the Lord Christ; they shall have a rich reward, not of debt, but of grace; and, therefore, all the larger.

20. And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

He had not lost it, he had not spent it, he had not even dug a hole in the earth and hidden it; but he had used a nice piece of linen to wrap it in, and had taken great care of it; and there it was just as when he received it. It had not diminished, neither had it grown at all.

21. For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

So there is a slavish kind of fear, a dread, a horror of God, which will even keep men out of his service. It ought not legitimately to do so; but, undoubtedly, there are some persons who, out of an evil timidity, are afraid to attempt anything for God or man, and hence their life is useless. Their talent cankers and rusts in the napkin in which they have wrapped it.

22. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man,-

“That was thine opinion; according to thine own confession, that was thine idea concerning me: ‘Thou knewest that I was an austere man,’ ”-

22, 23. Taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

“With proper interest.” God does not trouble about clearing his character with ungodly men. You and I are very particular and punctilious in defending ourselves against false accusations; but God’s character needs no clearing. It is so transparent that, if ungodly men choose to besmear it, he argues with them on their own ground, and does not stay to answer their slanders. When I have heard people say of God that he is unjust or too severe, all I have felt inclined to say in reply was just this, “Whatever he may be, he is the God who will judge you at the last; and if you think thus of him, so much the more ought you to yield yourself to him, and submit to his infinite majesty, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. It is an ill day when we attempt to be the judge of our Judge, and pretend to be the god of God. He is infinitely glorious, so let us bow before him.”

24-26. And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds). For I say unto you, that unto every me which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

They who have some already shall have more, especially in the matter of grace. If you serve God well, he will give you more to do. If you love him ardently, he will reward you by enabling you to have more love to him; and if you exercise great faith, he will give you yet more faith. The way to be truly enriched, spiritually, is to be faithful to God in what we have.

27. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

Whatever these words mean, it is certain that there is a terrible doom in store for all who are God’s enemies. May none of us be found among them!

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-408, 537.

“MARVELLOUS LOVINGKINDNESS.”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 25th, 1900, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, October 20th, 1881.

“Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness.”-Psalm 17:7.

The Lord’s people, in the time of their trouble, know where to go for comfort and relief. Being taught of God, they do not hew out to themselves broken cisterns, which can hold no water; but they turn to the ever-flowing fountain, they go to the well-head,-even to God himself; and there they cast themselves down, and drink to the full. David, when he wrote this Psalm, was evidently in very great distress; and, therefore, he says, “I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.” What he wanted was his God; as Dr. Watts expresses it,-

“In darkest shades if he appear,

My dawning is begun;

He is my soul’s sweet morning star,

And he my rising sun.”

Believers draw comfort both from God’s ordinary and extraordinary dealings with them, for they regard God’s lovingkindness as being both an ordinary and an extraordinary thing. I have heard of a good sister who, when a friend narrated to her some very gracious dealing of God, was asked the question, “Is it not very wonderful?” and she replied, “No; it is not wonderful, for it is just like him.” Begging her pardon, and admitting the great truth that she meant to convey, I think it is still more wonderful that it should be “just like him.” The wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an ordinary thing, that he should give to us “marvellous lovingkindness,” and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and yet remains marvellous still. The marvels of men, after you have seen them a few times, cease to excite any wonder. I suppose there is scarcely a building, however costly its materials, and however rare its architecture, as to which, sooner or later, you will not feel that you have seen enough of it. But God’s wonderful works never pall upon you. You could gaze upon Mont Blanc, or you could stand and watch Niagara, yet never feel that you had exhausted all its marvels. And everyone knows how the ocean is never twice alike. They who live close to it, and look upon it every hour of the day, still see God’s wonders in the deep.

That God should bless us every day, is a theme for our comfort. God’s ordinary ways charm us. The verse before our text says, “ ‘I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God.’ I know thou wilt, for the blessing that I am about to ask from thee is a thing that I have been accustomed to receive from thee. I know thou wilt hear me, for thou hast heard me in the past; it is a habit of thine to listen to my supplications, and to grant my requests.” I hope we can argue in a similar fashion; yet, at the same time, God’s people draw equal comfort from the extraordinary character of the mercies he bestows upon them. They appeal to him to show them his “marvellous lovingkindness,” to let them see the wonderful side of it as well as the common side of it, to let them behold his miracles of mercy, his extravagances of love, his superfluities of kindness;-I scarcely know what words to use when talking of what the apostle Paul calls “the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,” “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

I want, on this occasion, to dwell upon the extraordinary side of God’s lovingkindness; and, using our text as a prayer, to say to the Lord in the language of David, “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness.” Sometimes, a man is brought into such a condition that he feels that, if God does not do something quite out of the common order of things, he will assuredly perish. He has now come to such a pass that, if some extraordinary grace is not displayed towards him, all is over with him. Well, now, such a brother may think that God will not give this extraordinary grace to him; he may be troubled at the idea that some marvellous thing is needed. It is to meet that suggestion of unbelief that I am going to address you now.

And my first remark is, that all the lovingkindness of God is marvellous.

The least mercy from God is a miracle. That God does not crush our sinful race, is a surprising mercy. That you and I should have been spared to live,-even though it were only to exist in direst poverty, or in sorest sickness,-that we should have been spared at all, after what we have been, and after what we have done, is a very marvellous thing. The explanation of the marvel is given in the Book of Malachi: “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” If God had possessed such a short temper as men often have, he would have made short work with us all; but he is gracious and longsuffering, and therefore he is very patient with us. The very least mercy that we ever receive from God is a very wonderful thing; but when we think of all that is meant by this blessed word “lovingkindness”-, which is a compound of all sorts of sweetnesses, a mixture of fragrances to make up one absolutely perfect perfume,-when we take that word “lovingkindness”, and think over its meaning, we shall see that it is a marvellous thing indeed that it describes.

For, first, it is marvellous for its antiquity. To think that God should have had lovingkindness towards men or ever the earth was, that there should have been a covenant of election,-a plan of redemption,-a scheme of atonement,-that there should have been eternal thoughts of love in the mind of God towards such a strange being as man, is indeed marvellous. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Read these words now with the tears in your eyes: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee;” and when you know that this passage refers to you, tell me if it is not “marvellous lovingkindness.” God’s mind is occupied with thoughts concerning things that are infinitely greater than the destiny of any one of us, or of all of us put together; yet he was pleased to think of us in love from all eternity, and to write our names upon his hands and upon his heart, and to keep the remembrance of us perpetually before him, for his “delights were with the sons of men.” This antiquity makes it to be indeed “marvellous lovingkindness.”

Next, think of its discriminating character, that God’s lovingkindness should have come to the poorest, to the most illiterate, the most obscure, and often to the most guilty of our race. Remember what Paul wrote about this matter: “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.” Dr. Watts expresses the same thought in his verses,-

“When the Eternal bows the skies

To visit earthly things,

With scorn divine he turns his eyes

From towers of haughty kings.

“He bids his awful chariot roll

Far downward from the skies,

To visit every humble soul,

With pleasure in his eyes.”

God’s choice is marvellous. I know of no better word to apply to his lovingkindness to his chosen than that which is applied in the text: “thy marvellous lovingkindness.”

“What was there in you that could merit esteem,

Or give the Creator delight?

‘’Twas even so, Father,’ you ever must sing,

‘Because it seem’d good in thy sight.’ ”

There is no other explanation of this wondrous mercy, this “marvellous lovingkindness,” than the poet gives,-

“His love, from eternity fix’d upon you,

Broke forth, and discover’d its flame,

When each with the cords of his kindness he drew,

And brought you to love his great name.”

So, beloved, think over the antiquity of God’s lovingkindness, and then of the discriminating character of it, and surely you will be full of adoring wonder.

After that, think also of the self-sacrificing nature of his lovingkindness,-that, when God had set his heart on man, and had chosen his people before the foundation of the world, then he should give-what? Himself. Ay, nothing short of that;-that he should not only give us this world, and his providence, and all its blessings, and the world to come, and all its glories; but that, in order to our possession of these things, he should give his own Son to die for us. Well might the apostle John write, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” It was not that Christ died for us when we were righteous, “for scarcely for a righteous man will one die:” “but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Isaiah had long before explained the mystery: “It pleased the Lord to bruise him: he hath put him to grief.” You who love your children, to lose one of whom would be worse than to die, can realize a little of what must have been the Father’s love to you in giving up his only-begotten Son that you might live through him. Dwell on this great truth, dear friends, meditate on it, and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into its heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, for these lips cannot fully speak of its wonders. As you think over the Lord’s ancient lovingkindnesses which were ever of old, his distinguishing love towards his redeemed, and his self-sacrificing love in giving up his Onlybegotten, you will be obliged to say, “It is marvellous lovingkindness; it is marvellous lovingkindness indeed.”

Then go on to think of the marvellous constancy of it. That one should begin to love another, is not so very wonderful; but that love, after it has been despised and ill-requited, should still continue,-that the sweet love of Christ should not long ago have curdled into jealousy, and from jealousy have soured into indignation, is an extraordinary thing. He loved us, brothers and sisters, when we did not even know him, and yet hated the Unknown; when we did not even dimly understand his love to us, and peradventure even ridiculed it, or at least neglected it. Yet he kept on loving us until he loved us into loving him. But even since then, what has been our character? Are you satisfied with what you have been towards the Well-beloved? Are you content with your conduct towards the Bridegroom of your souls? I trow that you are not; and yet, notwithstanding your lukewarmness, your backsliding, your dishonouring of his name, your unbelief, your pride, your love of others, he still loves you; and even now, if you are not enjoying fellowship with him, he has not gone away from you, for his word still is, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” He loves, he loves on, and he loves still. Many waters cannot quench his love, neither can the floods drown it. It is indeed “marvellous lovingkindness.” Can you think of a better adjective than that? I cannot, yet I am conscious that even it does not fully express the miraculous character of this all-enduring love which will not take our “No” for an answer, but still says, “Yes,-‘yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.’ ” Oh, this wonderful, this matchless, this unparalleled, this inconceivable, this infinite love! No human language can adequately describe it, so let us sit still, and marvel at that which we cannot even understand.

There is much in God’s lovingkindness to be marvelled at in its strange ingenuity. I might keep on with this topic for ever, applying one word and another to it; yet I should never have shown you even the tithe of its wonders, for it is an altogether inexhaustible theme. But it is wonderful how God deals with us with such a sacred ingenuity of tenderness. He seems to be always thinking of something for our good; while we, on our part, appear to be always testing his love in one way or another. Some fresh want is discovered only to receive a new supply of grace. Some fresh sin breaks out only to be blotted out with the ever-pardoning blood of Jesus. We get into fresh difficulties only to receive fresh aid. The further I go on my way to heaven, the more I do admire the road as well as wonder at the goal to which that road shall bring me. “O world of wonders!” said John Bunyan; “I can say no less.” They tell us, nowadays, that the world is worn-out, and that there is no joy in life, and nothing fresh to afford delight. Ah, me! they talk of the attractions of fiction and of the playwright’s art, and I know not what besides. They must needs travel all round the world to get a new sensation; and many a man, to-day, is like the Emperor Tiberius, who offered large sums of money to anyone who could invent a new pleasure, meaning, alas! too often, a new vice, or a new way of practising it. But staying at home with Christ has more wonders in it than gadding abroad with all the wisest of the world. There is more to marvel at in half an inch of the way to heaven than there is in a thousand leagues of the ordinary pathway of unbelieving men. They call their joys by the name of “life”, and say that they must “see life”; but the apostle John tells us that “he that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life;” that is to say, he is dead. Death has its varieties of worms and rottenness; there are charnel-houses and charnel-houses, various processes and methods of corruption, and no doubt there is a science that men may learn in the cemetery, and call it life, if they like; but, oh! if they did but once see Christ upon the cross, they would learn that they had been blind till then. If they did but know his lovingkindness, they would rejoice in it in the sick-chamber, in the long weary night watches, when every bone prevented sleep; they would even recognize it in the arrows of death that smote wife, and child, and brother. They would see it, not only in the table loaded for the supply of hunger, and in the garments furnished against the cold, and in every common blessing of providence; but they would also see it in every despondency, in every deficiency, in every cross, and every loss; and, seeing it, they would keep on saying, “It is all for the best; it is all better than the best could have been if it had been left to me. It is marvellous; it is marvellous lovingkindness.” I do believe that, when we get to heaven, one of the wonders of the glory-land will be to look back upon the road over which we have travelled. It will be marvellous to note the way in which God has led us; and we shall, as our hymn puts it,-

“Sing with rapture and surprise,

His lovingkindness in the skies.”

I must now leave this part of my subject with you, only again urging you to think over the truth of which I have been speaking, that all God’s lovingkindness to his people is marvellous.

Now, secondly, this lovingkindness we should desire to see. The psalmist says, “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness;” and we ought to ask God to let us see it; and that, I think, in four ways.

First, let me see it with my intellect, that I may adore. Help me, O blessed Spirit, to see and understand what is the lovingkindness of God to my soul! I know that it is written of some that “they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” Let me be among the number of those truly wise ones. O Lord, make me wise to see the end and design of thy providence as well as the providence itself! Make me wise to perceive how thou hast prepared thy grace to meet my depravity, how thou dost adapt thine upholdings to the slipperiness of the way, and to the feebleness of my feet. Often shed a ray of light upon some passage in my life which, otherwise, I could not comprehend; and let the light stay there till I begin to see and to know why thou didst this and why thou didst that. “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness.” I am sure, dear friends, that the lessons of a man’s own life are too often neglected; but there is, in the life of any ordinary child of God,-let me pick you out wherever you may be, John, Mary, Thomas,-enough to fill you with wonder and admiration of the lovingkindness of the Lord if your mind be but sufficiently illuminated to perceive the hand of God in it, and to see what God purposed by it. He sometimes uses strange means for producing blessed results. With his sharp axe, he will cut down all our choice trees; as by a whirlwind or a tornado, he will devastate our gardens, and make our fields a desolation; and he will do it all in order that he may drive us away from the City of Destruction, and make us go on pilgrimage to the Celestial City, where the axe can never come, and the leaves will never fade. In his mysterious dealings with us, the Lord often seems to push us backward that we may go forward, and to deluge us with sorrow that he may immerse us into blessing. That is his way of working wondrously; and if we did but understand it, according to the prayer of the text, “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness,” we should be full of adoring wonder.

The next meaning I would give to this prayer would be, Lord, show thy lovingkindness to my heart, that I may give thee thanks. Lord, I know that thou hast been very good to me; but I pray thee to show my heart how good thou hast been, by letting me see how unworthy I have been of this thy kindness. It is very profitable, sometimes, to sit down, and rehearse the lovingkindness of God, mingling with it penitential reflections upon your own shortcoming. If you do this, you will at last break out with some such cry as this, “Why is all this mercy shown to me?” I know a dear brother in Christ, a clergyman, whose name is Curme; he divides it into two syllables, “Cur me,” so as to make it mean, “Why me? Why is all this goodness given to me, Lord?” And that is a question which I, too, would fain ask, “Why me, Lord?”

“Why was I made to hear thy voice,

And enter while there’s room;

When thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?”

Is this kindness, and this, and this, all meant for me? Can it really be intended for me? Such reflections as these will make me realize more than ever how “marvellous” is God’s “lovingkindness” to me, and will fill my soul with adoring gratitude and thanksgiving.

Then, next, we ought to pray the Lord to show his “marvellous lovingkindness” to our faith, that we may again confide in him. If he will cause the eye of our faith to see that he has this “marvellous lovingkindness” toward us, we shall be the more ready to rely upon him in all the straits into which we may yet be brought. Dost thou believe it, my dear friend? Brother in Christ, dost thou believe that God loves thee? Thou knowest how sweet it is to be sure that thy child loves thee. Though it may well do so, because of its many obligations to thee, yet is it sweet for its warm cheek to touch thine, and to hear it say, “Father, I love you.” But, oh! it is sweeter far for God to say, “I love you.” Read the Song of Solomon through, and be not afraid to appropriate the message of that sweet and matchless Canticle. Hear in it the voice of Jesus saying to thee, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.” Such words as those may be sensuous to those who are sensuous, but they are deeply spiritual to those who are spiritual; and, oh, the bliss of having such words as those to come from the Christ of God to us! Why, sometimes, when our Lord thus speaks to us, we hardly know how to bear our excess of joy. I would not ask for a better holiday than to have one hour alone with Jesus; to be undisturbed by any earthly care, and just to think of nothing else but the love of God,-the love of God to me. Oh, that it now were shed abroad, in all its fulness, in this poor heart of mine! O love divine, what is there that can ever match thine inexpressible sweetness? Truly it is “marvellous lovingkindness.” Again I ask you,-Do you believe this? Are you sure you do? Pray God to show it to your faith distinctly and clearly, so that you shall be absolutely sure of it, and practically depend upon it whenever you need it.

One other meaning of the text may be, show thy “marvellous lovingkindness” to me now in my experience, that I may rest in thee. Let me now, at this present moment, O my God, experience something of that lovingkindness in my soul, in whatever condition I may happen to be, that I may be so flooded with the consciousness of it that I may do nothing else but sit in solemn silence before thee, and adore thee, while beholding the blazing splendour of thy love! I cannot say any more about this part of my theme, but must leave you to fill up the gaps in the sermon. This is not a topic upon which one should venture to speak if he wants to say all that should or could be said upon it.

So, thirdly, dear friends, I remark that it should be our desire-and there are times when it should especially be our desire-to see this “marvellous lovingkindness” of God displayed to us in its marvellousness.

I will make plain to you what I mean directly; and, first, we would see it as pardoning great sin. I expect we have here, in this assembly, at least one whose sin lies very heavy on his conscience. We do not find many such people come out to week-evening services, but yet I thank God that they do come here. Your sin is very great, dear friend. I cannot exaggerate it, because your own sense of its greatness far surpasses any descriptions I could give. You feel that, if God were to pardon you, it would be a marvellous thing. If he were, in one moment, to take all your guilt away, and to send you home completely forgiven, it would be a marvellous thing. Yes, it would, it would; but I beg you to pray this prayer, “Lord, show forth thy marvellous lovingkindness in me.” God is constantly doing wonders; then, glorify his name by believing that he can work this miracle of mercy for you. Do not be afraid even to sing,-

“Great God of wonders! all thy wavs

Are matchless, God-like, and divine;

But the fair glories of thy grace

More God-like and unrivall’d shine:

Who is a pardoning God like thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?”

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and saved immediately. Trust him now; and marvellous though it will be to you, I have shown you that God’s lovingkindness is all marvellous, and that the extraordinary is ordinary with God, and that the marvellous is but an every-day thing with him. Pray for this “marvellous lovingkindness” to be manifested to you, and you shall have it. One said, “If God ever saves me, he shall never hear the last of it.” You may say the same, and resolve that, henceforth, having had much forgiven, you will love much; having been saved from great sin, you will tell it on earth, and tell it in heaven; and, if you could, you would even wish to make hell itself resound with the wondrous story,-

“ ‘Tell it unto sinners tell,

I am, I am out of hell;’-

“and what is more, I am on the road to heaven, for God’s ‘marvellous lovingkindness’ has been shown to me.”

So God’s lovingkindness may be seen as pardoning great sin; and, next, it may be seen as delivering from deep trouble. I may be addressing some poor child of God who is sorely perplexed. These are very trying times, and we constantly meet with godly people, who have a sincere desire to provide things honest in the sight of all men, but who do not find it easy to do so. Some very gracious people have got into a cleft stick; and however they will get out, they cannot imagine. If this is your case, dear friend, I expect you feel very much as John Fawcett’s hymn puts it,-

“My soul, with various tempests toss’d,

Her hopes o’erturn’d, her projects cross’d,

Sees every day new straits attend,

And wonders where the scene will end.”

Well, now, if you are ever brought through all your troubles, it will be “marvellous lovingkindness” to you, will it not? Then, go to God with the prayer, “Show me thy marvellous lovingkindness,” and he will do it. He will bring you up, and out, and through;-not, perhaps, in the way you would like to come, but he will bring you out in the best way. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” Always expect the unexpected when you are dealing with God. Look to see, in God, and from God, what you never saw before; for the very things, which will seem to unbelief to be utterly impossible, will be those which are most likely to happen when you are dealing with him whose arm is omnipotent, and whose heart is faithful and true. God grant you grace, dear friend, thus to use the prayer of our text as the means of delivering you from deep trouble!

Here is another way to use it. I think you may pray it thus,-at all events, I mean to do so, whether you will or not,-“Lord, reveal thy marvellous lovingkindness to me, so as to give me high joys and ecstasies of delight.” I sometimes envy those good people who never go up and never go down, always keeping at one level; theirs must be a very pleasant experience indeed. Still, if ever I do get on the high horse, then I go up far beyond anything I can describe. If ever I do ride upon the clouds, then I do not envy the people who keep along the smooth road. Oh, what deep depressions some of us have had! We have gone down to the very bottoms of the mountains, and the earth with her bars has seemed to be about us for ever; but, after just one glimpse of God’s everlasting love, we have been up there where the callow lightnings flash, resting and trusting among the tempests, near to God’s right hand. I think, nay, I am sure we may pray for this experience. Should not the preacher of the Word wish to know the fulness of love divine? Should not the teacher of the young long to learn all that he can concerning God’s infinite love? Though this is the love that passeth knowledge, should not every Christian wish to know all that is knowable of this great love of God? Then let us pray, “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness.” It was truly said, “Thou canst not see God’s face, and live;” but I have been inclined to say, “Then, let me see God’s face, and die.” John Welsh said, when God was flooding his soul with a sense of his wondrous love, “Hold, Lord, hold! I am but an earthen vessel, and thou wilt break me.” If I had been there, and I could have borne no more, I would have said, “Do not hold, Lord; break the poor earthen vessel, let it go all to pieces; but anyhow, let thy love be revealed in me!” Oh, that I might even die of this pleasurable pain of knowing too much of God, too much of the ineffable delight of fellowship with him! Let us be very venturesome, beloved, and pray, “Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness.”

And, when we have done that, I think we may put up this prayer for ourselves, as to our own usefulness. You want to do good, dear brother,-dear sister. Well, then, pray to God, “Show me thy marvellous lovingkindness, O Lord! Use even such a feeble creature as I am. Let heaven, and earth, and hell itself, see that thou canst save souls by poor ignorant men as well as by inspired apostles and learned doctors. Lord, in my chapel, show thy marvellous lovingkindness. Crowd it with people, and bring many of them to Christ. In my class, Lord, show thy marvellous lovingkindness. If there never was a Sunday-school class in which all were saved, Lord, let it be done in mine. Make it a marvellous thing.” A dear brother, who prayed at the prayer-meeting before this service, kept on pleading that God would bless me again as he had done before. I liked that prayer; it was as if the friend meant to say to the Lord, “Whatever thou didst in years gone by, do the like over again. If ever it was a marvellous thing to see how the people thronged to hear the Word, Lord, make it more marvellous still.” I recollect when some people called our early success “a nine days’ wonder.” Well, well, well, it has been a good long nine days, anyhow. But, oh, that we might have another nine days like it,-just such another nine days! May God be pleased to send us as many conversions as we had at the first,-ay, and I shall add, and ten times as many! And if ever there have been revivals in the Church of God that have been really marvellous, brothers and sisters, let us take up the cry, “Lord, show thy marvellous lovingkindness again. Send us another Whitefield, and another Wesley, if such will be the kind of men that will bless the world. Send us another Luther, another Calvin, another Zwingle, if such be the men that will bless the world. Lord, send us another Augustine, or another Jerome, if such be the men by whom thou wilt bless the world. But, in some way or other, Lord, show us thy marvellous lovingkindness.” “Oh, but!” some would say, “we do not want any excitement. That is an awful thing, you know,-anything like excitement.” And, then, perhaps, they add, “We have heard so much of what has been done in previous revivals. It has all ended in smoke, and therefore we really dread the repetition of such an experience.” Well, then, brother, you go home, and pray, “Lord, show me thy moderate lovingkindness.” When you are on your knees, to-night, pray, “Lord, save half-a-dozen souls here and there.

“ ‘We are a garden wall’d around,

Chosen and made peculiar ground;

A little spot inclosed by grace

Out of the world’s wide wilderness;’-

“Lord, make it yet smaller, screw us up tighter still, to the glory of thy blessed name!” I don’t think any of you can pray that prayer; you shall if you like; but, for my part, I mean to pray, and I hope many of you will join me in it, and may God hear us! “Show us thy marvellous lovingkindness.” Oh, for some new miracle of mercy to be wrought in the earth! Oh, for some great thing to be done, such as was done of old! Shall it be so, or not? On this promise it shall depend: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” But if our mouths be not open, we cannot expect to get the blessing: “According to your faith be it unto you.” The Lord grant that our faith may expect to see his “marvellous lovingkindness” displayed yet more and more! Amen and Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

PSALM 17

Verse 1. Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

Good men are often slandered and misunderstood; and, at such times, the first verse of this Psalm will well fit their lips: “Hear the right, O Lord.” And, at all times, it is a great blessing when a suppliant can say to God, “Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.” It must be a dreadful thing to pray with lips that do not speak the truth. When men’s thoughts are far away from their prayers, and they are muttering pious words but their heart is absent, what a mockery it must be in the sight of God! A dead prayer,-who will own it? It is like the child that was overlaid in the days of Solomon, which neither of the two mothers would own to be hers. Beware of dead prayers. You may dress them up as finely as you like; but, if there is no life in them, what good are they?

2. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

It is the appeal of a slandered man to the highest court; he takes his case into the Court of King’s Bench, and asks God himself to give the verdict concerning what he had done. It is a good case that will bear to be so investigated.

3. Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

Happy is the man who is not afraid for God to come to him suddenly in the night, or to pounce upon him, as it were, at any hour of the day, for, whenever he comes, he will find his servant so acting that he will not mind who examines his conduct. He is keeping his lip, purposing that it shall not transgress God’s law, and he is ruling his whole body in like manner. Only the grace of God can enable us to do this.

4. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

Notice that verse, young man! There is much-needed teaching there for you. There are many “paths of the destroyer” in this wicked city of London, and all over the world; and it is only by taking heed to our ways, according to God’s Word, that we can hope to escape from them. How pleasant those “paths of the destroyer” often appear to be! How smooth and how alluring they are! All sorts of supposed delicacies and beauties will tempt you to go that way, and the foolish heart readily inclines to these indulgences; but happy is the man whose judgment is enlightened by God’s Word so that he avoids it, and passes by “the paths of the destroyer.”

5. Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

“I know that I am in thy way; but, O Lord, hold me up! I am like a horse that needs a careful driver, else I shall trip and fall, in rough places or in smooth. ‘Hold up my goings in thy paths,’ for I may fall even there. There are the sins of my holy things, so ‘hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.’ ”

6-12. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Many godly men have such cruel enemies as David had, so they will do well to pray as he did:-

13-15. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me,-

“What do I possess? What is my portion? Am I full of substance, like the men of the world, or have I little of this world’s wealth? It is of small consequence, for, ‘as for me,’ ”-

15. I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

That is our portion. God grant that we may prize it more and more! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-196, 18 (Version II.), 719.