We believe that, in the latter days, according to the Word of God, men will flock to Christ, and to his Church, in far greater numbers than they have hitherto done. At present, we have to go to them; but, by-and-by, they will come to us. Now, we have to search them out, like lost sheep in a cloudy and dark day; but, in those days, they will feel a gracious drawing towards their God, and his Church, and they will come in vast multitudes to worship with the people of God;-yea, they will themselves become the people of God, and bow down before the feet of Emmanuel, the Prince of peace. Why should it not be? Why should we not expect it, and why should not the expectation greatly encourage us in labouring on through these weary years, being well assured that they that sow in tears shall one day reap in joy?

Yet, even at that time when, through the full preaching of the gospel, and the effectual working of the Holy Spirit, men shall come flocking to Christ in troops, even in that hour the Church will be astonished at the result. She will lift up her hands, and say, “Who hath begotten me these?” She will cry, in the words of our text, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” For, alas! God’s people are often very unbelieving. We have seen something of this spirit even in our own time. There are certain good old Christian people who, if they see a convert added to the church now and then, are pleased and satisfied; but if there should be a score added in a month,-if there were to be a hundred,-they would hold up their hands, and say, “This cannot be the work of God; there are too many, it is all excitement;” and they would take counsel together, and try to stop it. “Surely,” they say, “it cannot be the work of God, because it is so great.” Now my argument is that, if we are to judge of a work by its size, I should say that a little work was not the work of God. My method of reasoning would be this,-the greater the work, the more likely is it to be of God. I do not insist upon that being always the case, because God is in the least conversion, if there be but one, as much as in the conversion of thousands; but, still, if a brother begins to throw discredit upon a work in any place because large numbers are converted, I am ready to meet him, and to prove that he is wrong. Pentecost was not the conversion of some one old woman in a chimney corner through reading a sermon,-Pentecost was not the bringing in of one dear child of a deacon, one who had been in the Sunday-school all his life,-but Pentecost was the conversion, there and then, of three thousand sinners of every sort, through the preaching of the Word of the Lord. And I expect that, where God is specially manifested, and where he gives his churches Pentecosts, we shall have thousands born in a day, multitudes flocking to Christ as the doves to their windows.

Let us begin to enlarge our expectations. Already, in this house, we have had the prophecy fulfilled on a small scale. See how, these many years, the multitudes have pressed and thronged to listen to the gospel. What other attractions have we had? We have not even that wonderful box of music with which men praise God with wind; we have nothing but the plainest possible singing. I am certain that the crowds do not come to hear that; and as for the preaching, I have purposely laid aside all the graces of oratory that I might have had, and tried to make my message as plain and simple as possible. One good man, who is going away from us, said to me, this morning, “I shall miss the plain preaching to which I have been accustomed here. No doubt, there are some rich people, who would like to have it put very finely; but, you see,” said he, “I have no education; and I am glad you have preached so that I could understand you, because the other people can do the same if they like.” Ay, and they must, too, if they come here, for I never will get away from the simple preaching of Jesus Christ, as plain as ever I can make it. My one work is just to talk of Jesus Christ, and of his blessed gospel, as plainly as I can; and is there anything like it, in all the world, to draw the multitude, to hold the multitude, to impress the multitude,-ay, and to lead them to fly, like doves, to Jesu’s wounds, to find salvation there?

Now, coming to our text, I think that the passage refers, first of all, to the Israelite who sees multitudes coming to Jerusalem to worship the one living and true God. He stands on the top of Carmel, and he looks across the Mediterranean, and he sees the ships of Tarshish coming in such great numbers across the sea, scudding along before the wind, that he says, “Who are these that fly as a cloud?” Seen from a distance, the great fleet of vessels seem like a cloud; and as they come nearer, those long lateen sails which we, who have been along the coast of the Mediterranean, remember so well, suggest to him the second figure, “Who are these that are flying like doves to their dovecots?” It was the promise being fulfilled, “the ships of Tarshish first,” the men from the far-off lands hurrying up that they might worship with the multitude that kept holy day in the sacred city.

Now we may leave both these figures, and use the text as the exclamation of the Church of God when she expresses her wonderment at what God is doing in the conversion of sinners: “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?”

First, who are they that they should be so many,-that they should “fly as a cloud,” like doves in flocks?

The answer to that enquiry is another question,-Why should they not be many? There are a great many sinners in the world; why should not a great number be converted? When many souls are brought to Christ, they are only relatively many. Usually, alas! they are relatively small. We have sometimes rejoiced greatly when we have had as many as a hundred added to this church in a month; yet I have gone away, and said to myself,-“What is that hundred, after all? It is not sufficient to keep pace with the increase of the population.” It makes us very sad to know that the increase of sinners far exceeds the increase of the converts to God. At present, they do not “fly as a cloud.” They come in scores, perhaps, and we are thankful for that; but they do not come as a cloud, and like a flock of doves flying to their windows. But why should they not do so one of these days? Why should they not do so very soon? If the gospel be but faithfully preached, and the power of prayer be fairly and fully tried, and the Spirit of God be working mightily through the gospel, why should they not come like a cloud? There are plenty of them all over the world. Look at the millions all around us in this nation-city,-scarcely to be called a city,-for it is a very world for multitude. Think of the millions of inhabitants in the British islands, who still remain unconverted. There is no fear of our nets being drawn to shore empty because there are no fish. We may be bad fishermen, but there are plenty of fish. When we fire in among the birds, the coveys are large enough. There is no reason, except bad marksmanship, why we should not hit some among them, for there are plenty of them. When I hear of a minister fearing that his congregation will suffer because another chapel is brought near his, I feel ashamed of him. Go and build a whole street of chapels, if you like; if the gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully preached there, you will fill them. If it is not, you will not. You need not fear however many preachers come near you in such a city as this, so swarming with people as it is. And why should they not be converted in swarms, as there are so many of them? Why should they not “fly as the doves to their windows”?

Has not Christ brought into the world a great redemption? When I see him dying upon yonder cross, I cannot sit down, and watch his amazing sufferings, and then think that he died only for a few, and that, as the result of the travail of his soul, there will be just a few very respectable people redeemed with his precious blood. If you can believe it, you must; but I cannot. I claim for Christ a great reward; I expect that his Father will so abundantly reward him that, when he makes him to see of the travail of his soul, and to be satisfied, it will be with unnumbered and innumerable millions of redeemed men, and women, and children, who shall look unto him, and live. Up till now, the passion of Christ has only been very partially rewarded. The cross has not, as yet, brought forth its full crop of blessed fruit. Jesus-that precious “grain of wheat” that was cast into the ground to die, and so to bring forth fruit,-has not yet yielded the wondrous harvest which shall surely come of that marvellous seed-sowing. O beloved! by the blood that fell upon the sterile earth, and made it fruitful, look for great sheaves and abundant harvests, and begin already to sing the harvest home song in anticipation of that great ingathering. Yes; Christ’s converts must “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows,” for he has bought, with his precious blood, a multitude that no man can number. They must come in great multitudes, because he has attractions which they cannot resist. Let him but be made known to them, and they must come to him. Well has it been said,-

“His worth if all the nations knew,

Sure the whole world would love him, too.”

“But they are blind,” says one. I know they are; but cannot he open their eyes? “They are deaf,” says another. That also is true; but cannot he unstop their ears? “But their hearts are hard,” says a third. Yes, so they are; but cannot he soften them, or take them away, and give them hearts of flesh? Oh, with such a Christ as ours, I must believe that sinners must come to him in vast crowds. He must have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. God always works according to scale; he never made a great cause to produce a little result; and when he himself becomes incarnate,-when he himself bleeds and dies,-when he gives himself up as a sacrifice for sin, I must expect that men will come to him “as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.”

And why should they not come in crowds when the Spirit of God is quite able to lead them to come? That same Holy Spirit, who converts one, can just as easily convert a hundred. The gospel, applied by the Spirit of God to a dozen souls, can manifestly convert a thousand, or a million. Spiritual force is like fire; give me but one spark, and I can set a city all ablaze. One little lamp, overturned by a cow, caused Chicago to be swept away in flames. One match could cause a prairie conflagration of almost immeasureable extent. There is, practically, no limit to fire; and there is absolutely no limit to the power of the Spirit of God. He has but to work, and the same truth, which converted one soul to-day, can convert ten thousand or ten millions to-morrow. Why, then, should he not make them willing in the day of his power, so that they should “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.”

Once more, let us reflect that heaven is very great, and the preparations which grace has made are very large. That is a most gracious sentence in Christ’s parable of the great supper, “Yet there is room.” If we could enter heaven, at this moment, I warrant you that we should not hear the angels or the redeemed from among men talking of the place being overcrowded. If we went down its shining streets, we should see many mansions furnished and prepared, and the destined inhabitants must occupy them. There is many a sacred joy laid up in store, and those for whom it is intended must have it. Heaven is not a place prepared in vain, which will, at last, prove to be a failure. You may build a city, but you cannot fill it with inhabitants at your own pleasure. I saw, in the South of France, part of a city, with street after street of well-built houses, with fountains, and a cathedral, but the streets were green with grass, the fountains were full of filth, and the houses were inhabited by the poorest of the poor, or else were standing empty. But heaven, at the last, shall not be like that Oh, no! the wedding shall be furnished with guests. At the great King’s banqueting-table, there will not be one empty seat; no David will be missing in that day. The Lord shall gather in all his elect from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South; and they shall “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.”

As scuds the light cloud before the breath of the tempest, so they come to Christ. As fly the doves, with swift wings, to their cotes, so do they speed to the Saviour; but why do they come to him in such a hurry? These new converts are not to be kept back. Old saints preach patience to them, but they will have none of it. They tell them to wait awhile, but they feel that they cannot wait; so they “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.” Why do they fly?

The first answer is, they fly to Christ, because they are driven, and cannot help flying to him. When the Spirit of God lays hold upon a man,-and, like the wind, he bloweth where he listeth,-I warrant you that that man must fly to Jesus. He can hold out no longer; he must repent, he must believe, he must have Christ, and he must have him now. See, there he is, on his knees! He cries to God for mercy; and he adds many tears to his earnest entreaties. He cannot wait for the blessing, and he will take no denial; he cries, “Give me Christ, or else I die.” And well he may, for the blessed Spirit, like a strong North wind, is blowing behind him, and making him to be one of those who fly like a cloud.

Why do they fly? They may well fly, because they are in danger. Do you wonder that a man is in a hurry to escape when he sees the gulf of hell yawning before him? These sinners, who are in such haste to fly to Christ, are like doves pursued by a hawk. Satan is after them; sin is pursuing them; death is drawing near them, and hell is close at their heels; so they are rightly alarmed and distressed. Do not tell me about seeking Christ calmly and quietly; you cannot do it if once your conscience is thoroughly aroused. If you realize that sin is upon you, that God condemns you because of your sin, and that, by-and-by, you may be where hope and mercy can never come to you,-

“In flames that no abatement know,

Though briny tears for ever flow,”-

why, you must fly then! That is not the time for roosting or resting; you must fly, like a dove to its dovecot, when you have a true sense of the danger in which you are placed through your sin.

Besides that, these flying sinners have strong desires within them. The dove flies to her dovecot because she wants to be there, and she will not be happy until she gets there. I sometimes see a man throw a pigeon up into the air, that it may find its way home. It usually wheels about for a little while, as though it were uncertain which direction it should take; but, presently, its quick eye catches sight of some familiar landmark, or by instinct it knows which is its way home, and then, away it goes. There is no turning to the right hand, or to the left; but, straight as an arrow shot from a bow, it flies towards its window. So is it with a soul that the Spirit of God has once quickened. It longs for Christ, it pines for Christ; it may hesitate, and look about to find the way it is to go to find him; but, at last, it says within itself, “There he is,” and away it goes, like the doves to their windows. Do you wonder that it does so when the sacred instinct, the holy desire, is so strong within it?

Why do they fly? Well, they may well fly, because they have such a short time in which to reach the Saviour. I cannot tell,-for I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet,-but I may be addressing someone who will never see the sun rise again. There may be an unsaved soul, in this place, who must be saved here twelve o’clock shall come round, or that soul will be lost for ever. We have had deaths, before now, while the service was proceeding in this Tabernacle; and such a thing may happen again, and strike us with sudden sorrow as well as with deep solemnity. But, in any case, mortal man has but a short time to live; and some-we know not to which among us this may relate,-have a very, very short time to live. The Rabbi’s answer to a foolish question was a wise one. When he was asked, “How many days before he dies should a man repent?” he replied, “One day before he dies; and, as he may die to-day, or to-morrow, he had better repent at once.” So, as we sang, a little while ago,-

“Come, guilty souls, and flee away

Like doves to Jesu’s wounds;”-

using all possible haste, because the day is far spent, and the night is at hand in which you will not be able to find your way to the shelter of perishing sinners which is now available for you.

A third question is,-Why do they fly as doves,-that is, all together,-in a covey,-in a flock, so that they look like a moving cloud?

Well, the first reason is, because they are all in one common danger; and, usually, when persons are in that condition, they give up their bickerings against one another, and join heartily together. Each one, as he becomes anxious for himself, also feels a similar anxiety for his fellows; so they band themselves together, and “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.” Souls convinced of sin have no time or inclination to quarrel. When a man feels that he must “flee from the wrath to come,” he does not notice that someone else is not respectful to him. No, he thinks of himself as a lost sinner; and lost sinners must not be so foolish as to stand upon their dignity, nor even to insist upon their rights and privileges. At such times, they are willing to stand in the aisle, or to be crowded up in a corner anywhere, so long as they can but hear the gospel; and they will bear anything from their fellow-men if they may but find Christ together. It is wonderful what communion of spirit springs up among them. One, who has himself been under conviction, has seen another weeping on account of sin, and he has said, “Well, if I do not find Christ myself, I hope that young man will do so. If I am never to be saved, I do hope that poor woman, whom I saw in such an agony of spirit, may soon find joy and peace in believing.” And, sometimes, when they hardly dare to pray for themselves, they will pray for one another; and when they scarcely have any hope for themselves, they will entertain very kind desires concerning those who have sat next to them, who have been under impression. They are too much taken up with the solemnities of their condition before God to have time or wish for contention; and, therefore, they do not quarrel and fight, as a number of hawks might do, but they fly together in one band, as a company of doves might be expected to do.

Besides that, they fly together, because they are seeking one common refuge. They seem to say to one another, “Are you seeking the Saviour? So am I. Are you anxious to get rid of sin? So am I? Are you desirous to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus? So am I. Do you want the Spirit of God to renew you? So do I.” So, in these various points, they are so closely bound together that they fly as a cloud. Besides, the Holy Spirit has already changed their nature to such an extent that they are all seeking that which is holy. Once, they were like the hawk, the bird of prey; they were of an angry spirit, and they strove with one another. But penitence imparts to those who possess it a dove-like character. When sin is being mourned over, pride lies low. When transgression and iniquity stare a man in the face, and humble him, he becomes gentle, and tender, and patient; he mourns like a dove without its mate, and he seeks the Saviour, in the hope that, finding him, he will also find peace and comfort of heart.

For all these reasons, convinced sinners, when God is dealing with them, get close together, and they “fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows.” I would like again to see such a cloud of them here as we have sometimes seen. When I came back from my holiday, two years ago, and met the hundred and fifty, or thereabouts, who had sought and found the Saviour during the special services, it was a pleasant thing to listen to their hearty singing, and to hear them talk in their own simple, earnest style of the way in which Christ had met with them. It was cheering indeed to my heart to see these doves thus flying as a cloud. Oh, for another such flight! The Lord send it to us speedily! Let us believingly pray for it, then shall we have it, for he is sure to grant us the desire of our hearts.

There is only one other question which I will try to answer. Let me remind you that we have already had these three enquiries,-Who are these converts that they should be so many as to fly as a cloud? Who are they that they should fly so fast, like a flock of pigeons or doves, hurrying to their dovecots? Who are they that they should fly together, so as to make one cloud, one flock of doves? Now, lastly, let us ask,-Who are they that they should fly this way? I mean, what makes them fly to Christ? What makes them fly to his Church? I can understand that, when they are in danger, they should fly, but why do they fly this way? The answer is, because it is the dovecot of souls. Christ Jesus is the owner of this dovecot; nay, more than that, he himself is the dovecot.

So, first, like a flock of doves, they fly this way, because they are seeking safety, and there is no safety for them except in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the safety that is in him? It is this. It is inevitable that God must punish sin; but he sent his Son into the world, and laid on him the iniquity of all who ever will believe on him. He punished Christ instead of them; and, therefore, he cannot and will not punish them; for, to punish the same offence twice, would not be justice. To exact the penalty of sin first at the hand of the Divine Surety and Substitute, and then to exact it again at the sinner’s hand, would not be right; and the Judge of all the earth will do right. So, because God has exacted, at the hand of his dear Son, the ransom price for our iniquity, therefore all, for whom Christ died, are for ever clear of all liability; and if thou believest on him, thou hast the mark of those for whom he died. If thou dost trust him, thou hast proof positive that thou art one of his. If thou dost rely upon the merit of his blood and righteousness, that is clear evidence that he gave his life a ransom for thee, and thou canst never be sent to hell. Thou canst not be punished for thy sin, for Christ has borne the punishment of it. Thy guilt was laid on him, and all thy sin is gone for ever; it cannot be brought against thee any more. This is the comfort of all believers; and therefore do these people come flying to Christ to get this safety. Like doves, they fly to the dovecot, that they may be in safety there.

But they want more than safety; they also need rest, and a dovecot is a place of rest to a dove. I went, some time ago, into one of those old dovecots which used to belong, by a sort of right, to large estates. A man must have a considerable amount of property before he was allowed to possess a dovecot. With my guide, I entered a square building, and I saw that, up the four walls, which were very lofty, there were almost innumerable places made for the pigeons, and they all seemed to be full. We could not stay very many minutes in the place, but we could see tiers upon tiers of nests of pigeons, all occupied by the softly-cooing birds. That is just what is meant here. When the doves are pursued by the hawk, they fly to the dovecot, and there they find both safety and rest. It is their home; there, they enjoy themselves to the full. And, oh! what a sweet rest we have in our Divine Columbarium, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! We are so protected and preserved in him, that we rest in perfect security. Jesus Christ is the “home, sweet home” of his people; we find ourselves completely at home when once we get to him. Wherever we wander, there is no place like this home. A swallow has two homes; one here, in the summer; and another in the sunny South, in the winter. I bade the swallows “Good-bye” a week or two ago; but I daresay that I shall soon see some of them again in their other home. But a dove has only one home; winter or summer, she lives in the selfsame dovecot. So is it with a believer; he has only one home, and that is his Master’s bosom. He loves Jesus, he rests in Jesus, and Jesus is therefore the home of his spirit.

Now, in closing my discourse, shall I tell you why some of you love to come to Christ’s house as well as to Christ himself? I think, first, that you like to come where God’s people assemble, because your food is there. It must be one main part of the business of the minister, on the Sabbath day, to feed his people; and if he does that, they will be sure to flock around him. Did you ever stand, in the square of St. Mark at Venice, as the clock struck two? If you have ever done so, you have seen the pigeons come flying down in such flocks that they cover all the ground; you may even walk among them, and they will not mind you. Somebody always feeds them at two o’clock, and they know it, and they come then because they are fed. I will be bound to say that, if I were to employ a musician to go there to-morrow at two o’clock, and to play on a flute to them, but to give them no barley, they would not come. And if he were to go there dressed in the particular robes adapted to St. Monday, or whatever “saint’s day” it is to-morrow, the pigeons would not come if his hands were empty; but if he gives them barley, they will come, however he is dressed, and whatever music he may play. And we love to come to the house of God because, like doves, we have appetites, and we like to be fed; and if the finest of the wheat be scattered in the form of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are sure to be there, to eat and to be satisfied.

We love to be there, next, because our companions are there. The doves fly to their windows because there are other doves there that they love; and we sing, with Dr. Watts,-

“My soul shall pray for Zion still,

While life or breath remains;

There my best friends, my kindred dwell,

There God my Saviour reigns.”

In the midst of the Lord’s people, we have formed associations that will outlast all the ties of blood; for, in that land where they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, ties formed here will endure for ever there. Fathers in Christ will still be fathers there; mothers in Israel will continue to be mothers there; friends in Christ will be friends for ever there. If the gospel had done nothing else for some of us but introduce us to dear friends to whom we are knit for eternity, it would have been an everlasting blessing to us. We fly, like doves to our windows, because there are other doves there, and we wish to be with them.

Some of us fly there, because our young are there. No dove flies so swiftly home as that mother-dove that has young ones awaiting her return; and there is, I think, no man who loves the Church of God better than he does who has young children in it. Remember how the psalmist wrote, “Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.” Blessed be his holy name, he is my father’s God; he was my grandfather’s God; he was my great grandfather’s God; he was the God of all my ancestors as long as we have any record of them; and I am glad to say that he is the God of my sons, too; so I must love him, and rejoice in him. Fathers and mothers, I hope you will all have this tie to the Church of God, for it is a very tender one, and also a very strong one. May you come to love the Church of God because your children are there!

Last of all, we fly to Christ, and to his Church, because our all is there. Mr. John Wesley used to sing,-

“No foot of land do I possess,

No cottage in this wilderness;”-

and he had not any; and when the good man came to die, all the wealth he had in the world was less than £10. When he was asked how he would dispose of his plate, he said that he had only two silver spoons, one at York, and one in London, for everything else had gone into the great cause of his Master; and we best prove that we love Christ when everything we have is given up to him, and all our wealth, and all our strength, and all our joy, and everything else is found in him, so that Christ is all, and in all. When he is all to you, you will fly to him as a dove flies to its window. God help you all to do so, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 60

This is a chapter full of good news, a prophecy of the bright days that are yet to come to this dark world. These dull days are not to last for ever. The reign of wickedness will come to an end, and earth shall have the bright sunlight of Jehovah’s presence. The words are addressed to the Church of God;-it little matters whether to the Jewish or the Gentile Church; for, now, they are all one in Christ, and there is no distinction in the message to both Jews and Gentiles.

Verses 1, 2. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

We have had abundant proof of the darkness, and of the grossness of that darkness, for these many centuries; now we are to look-and I trust that we can already see it in part,-for the arising of the Sun of righteousness, first upon the Church, and then upon the whole world.

3, 4. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Or, rather, “shall be carried as by a nurse upon her side.” The strong ones-the sons-shall come walking; the weaker ones-the daughters-shall be carried like children who need to be nursed; but they shall all come. To-day, the Church of Christ has to “go.” The message to Christ’s disciples still is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The Church must send her heralds far and wide to tell the good news; but a blessed change will be wrought when the nations will come to hear the story, flocking in crowds to listen to it, and Christ will be sought by those who never sought him before.

“O long-expected day, begin;

Dawn on these realms of woe and sin!”

5. Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged;

First, the blessing shall seem too great to be real, and the Church shall tremble with fear; but, afterwards, she shall believe in it, and rejoice in it, and so her heart shall be enlarged.

5. Because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee,-

The sailors shall come to Christ in great numbers; and when they are converted, they will be the best of missionaries. Each ship shall be a floating Bethel, and every port at which they touch shall be the gladder for the good news they will have to tell: “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee,”-

5. The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

The soldiers, as well as the sailors, shall enter the service of the King of kings. Oh, what a happy day it will be when every soldier shall have enlisted beneath the banner of peace! Then they will be able to fight the good fight of faith every day, and to be the means of saving multitudes of precious souls. According to this verse, great importance is attached to the conversion of sailors and soldiers; God grant that some of us may live to see this prophecy fulfilled!

6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;

Wealthy nations, of the Oriental type, who ride upon camels and dromedaries, and who have long been under the sway of the false prophet, Mahomet, shall yield allegiance to the Son of God.

6, 7. All they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

Pastoral people-travellers from place to place in the wilderness-shall come to Christ. There shall be no untamed nation, no barbarous people that shall continue to oppose the coming of that glorious kingdom of the blessed God in those happy, happy days. As for the Church, she shall be so astonished that she shall cry out,-

8. Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

Or, “to their cotes.”

9. Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first,-Tarshish was some country far away from Palestine; it is difficult to say exactly where it was, but the Phœnicians made their most distant voyages thither. It may have been this very island in which we live; and we know that they came hither for tin. It is a very remarkable thing that islanders have usually been the first people to be converted to Christ. If you will, at this moment, think of any places where true religion is strong and dominant, you will naturally think of islands. Then, the mention of ships shows what regard God has for sailors when he says, “The ships of Tarshish first,”-

9, 10. To bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls,-

And it is so to-day. Some, who were total strangers to God, and to his grace, have now become the most earnest ministers of Christ: “The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls,”-

10, 11. And their kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually;

No alarms of war will cause them then to shut the iron gates.

11. They shall not be shut day nor night;

There shall be free access to Zion,-to the Church,-and to Christ himself, at all times.

11-17. That men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron:

You see, it is better, and better, and better, for that is God’s way with his people;-to bless them, and then to bless them over again, and again, and again, giving them grace upon grace, grace to qualify them to receive yet more grace.

17-22. I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.

Oh, that “his time” were come! The happy period is hastening on, and it will come at the right time. We ought not to be dispirited by delays, for it will surely come; it will not tarry a moment beyond the time appointed by God, blessed be his holy name! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-436, 494, 607.

MARVELLOUS LIGHT

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, February 9th, 1902,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, October 26th, 1879.

“His marvellous light.”-1 Peter 2:9.

Everything about a true Christian is marvellous. He is a marvel to himself, and a marvel to all who are round about him. Mere professors-men-made Christians-people who have made themselves Christians by their own free will apart from the Spirit of God, have nothing marvellous about them. You can make professors of that sort by the score, and you can see them dissolve by the score, for what man made, man can unmake, and what is merely natural has its season, like the leaves on the trees; and, by-and-by, it withers away because its time to fade has come. But a true Christian is a God-made man, a twice-born man; and he is a partaker of the divine nature. He is a mass of marvels, for he is dead, and yet he is alive; he is one who lives here, and yet his life has gone away up yonder; he is one who is a citizen of earth, and yet his citizenship is in heaven. He is a true man, but he is more than a man, for God has lifted him up above the level of other men, given him a life which other men do not possess, revealed to him secrets which others do not know, and prepared for him a place into which the ungodly can never enter. The longer he looks at himself, the more he wonders at God’s grace, and at what God’s grace has done, is doing, and will yet do for him. He is a riddle to himself,-an enigma made up of a thousand enigmas. Probably, he does not fully understand all that has happened in any single day of his life, and there are certain days in which God’s dealings with him quite stagger him; and though faith seeth all things to be plain, yet, to mere human reason, things often appear to be in a snarl, and intertwisted, and he knows not what to make of them.

Everything about a true Christian is marvellous, as angels know, who often desire to look into the things which concern them, and as he knows who is our Leader and Commander,-who was a Man wondered at, and whose faithful followers are all wondered at still. He himself is the greatest marvel of all; and among the many marvels that surround him is the marvellous light in which he dwells. Those of us, who are now in Christ, lived at one time in the gross darkness of ignorance. I mean even those of us who were brought up in Christian families, and knew the letter of the gospel well. We did not know its inner meaning, and we never felt its power. We were in darkness; though, indeed, there was a certain measure of light which had come to us, which made us responsible for our wrongdoing; yet, still, our heart remained in gross darkness.

And, by-and-by, this darkness was attended with much misery. There came to us a little light, just sufficient to make our darkness visible; so that we perceived the darkness in which we dwelt, and we began to sigh and cry, like prisoners shut up in an underground dungeon, to whom light and fresh air cannot come. Then everything about us seemed to blacken, and the gloom around us deepened. We were in the dark as to our apprehensions of the future. We knew that we must die, yet we feared to die. We clung to life; yet, sometimes, we did not desire even life itself, but said, with Job, “My soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.” The prospect of annihilation would have seemed almost like heaven to us, if we could, thereby, have got rid of our sinful, sorrowful being, clouded with apprehensions of the wrath of God, and of judgments yet to come upon us. I know that I am talking about something which many of you understand. It was a thick Egyptian night in which you were then enveloped, a darkness that might be felt; and you tried your utmost to escape from it, but you could not, for it was in you. Your soul was in darkness, the light within your spirit was quenched, and all around you seemed to darken, and darken, and darken, as though an eternal midnight were surely descending upon you.

Well, at that time, it happened unto me, and I know that it also happened unto some of you, as it did to Peter, that the angel of the Lord suddenly smote us on our side, and a light shone into our prison-house, and we arose, scarcely knowing what we were doing, but we girded our garments about us, and followed our angelic leader, while the prison gates, which had formerly shut us in, opened before us of their own accord, and we found ourselves to be free, and in broad daylight, too; although, for a time, we could scarcely realize those blessed facts. We saw what we had never seen before; we enjoyed what we had never even hoped to enjoy. Ay, as in an instant, we possessed what we thought must for ever be denied to us, and we scarcely knew how to contain our joy; but we made our way, as fast as we could, to the house of Christ’s disciples who had prayed for us aforetime. And how we gladdened them as we told them the story of God’s delivering and enlightening grace, and so showed forth the praises of him who had called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. Truly, it was marvellous light to us at that time. Many days have passed since then with some of us, but it is marvellous light still; and as we look upon it now, it is not any less marvellous than it was at the very first. It is of that marvellous light that I am going to speak; and as I tell of my own experience of it, I pray God to grant that some of you, who have never known its power in your own souls, may be made to rejoice in it.

I have already touched upon the first point, of which I want now to speak somewhat more fully; that is, this light appears marvellous because of our former darkness.

Out of darkness, light comes not. Out of our dark nature no marvellous light ever shone. This light came from above; but how marvellous it was! Imagine, if you can, the condition of a man who has lived all his lifetime in a coal mine. Suppose him never to have had a brighter light than his flickering candle; and then, after a while, to be brought up the shaft, and to see the brightness of the sun at mid-day. I can scarcely picture his amazement; you may fancy what it would be like, but you can hardly realize it. Or suppose a worse case still, that of one born blind, who had heard of a thing called light, but who could never imagine what it was like till a skilful oculist took away the film that was blinding him, and his eye was opened so that he could perceive the light. It would be very difficult to describe all the emotions of one who had never enjoyed the light before; but, certainly, such a person would be full of wonder and amazement. It would be, indeed, marvellous light to him.

You who have never been converted, who never were regenerated, do not know any more about the light of God than the man in the coal mine knows about the sun, or that man born blind knows about the light of day. Perhaps you talk a good deal about it, and, possibly, you write about it; and you form judgments about it; and they are just as wise, and just as accurate, as the verdict of blind men would be concerning colours of which they have no conception. You say, sometimes, concerning the gospel, “It is all nonsense; there is no such thing as the light of truth,”-just because you never saw any, which is a very poor method of argument. I once heard a man say, “I have lived in the world sixty years, and I never had the apprehension of anything spiritual.” When I looked at his face, and especially at his red nose, I thought that what he said was very likely to be true; but I did not, therefore, conclude that there was nothing spiritual because he had not seen it. Any blind man might say, “I have lived so many years, and I have never seen the sun, so there is not any;” but you would not accept negative evidence of that sort. So, my dear friend, whenever you are going to speak about something which you do not know anything about, just keep silence, and let somebody else talk who does know. If you never knew what it was to be converted,-if you never felt the divine life go coursing through your soul,-if you never had the divine light flashing in the midst of the darkness of your spirit, pray speak with bated breath if you speak at all; and when you are going to write one of those famous articles of yours, just say to yourself, “Perhaps I had better take some subject that I do understand, for this I do not know, as I never had the light.” If you ever had received it, then you might comprehend something of the wondrous change which conversion makes in a man, and you would agree with us that the light of the gospel is indeed marvellous light.

Secondly, we perceive that it is marvellous light when we consider its origin.

Our text tells us that it is God’s light: “who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” What is God’s light? Can you imagine how that light existed before he made the sun or the moon? Light shone on this world before the sun and the moon were created, for light comes not from them except as God has stored it up in them, or continually supplies it to them. But there is always light in God. He is the great Light-Creator; yet I never read that the light which God created in the world was called his marvellous light. God made the light, but it was not his light even then. There is another light which is natural to him,-a light of brightness and knowledge, clear and heavenly,-a light such as mortal man attains not unto except as the supreme gift of the grace of God shall visit him. It is this light which rests upon the people of God. There is a light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, but God’s marvellous light comes only to his chosen, and gladdens only those whose eyes have learned to look to Jesus, and who find their souls’ confidence and salvation in him who is the very Light of God.

“Oh!” asks someone, “can a man have this light? I do not believe it.” Again I tell you, my friend, that I did not expect you would believe it. He who has never had any experience of it may well doubt its existence; but he who has ever had the light of God shining into his soul is as conscious of becoming a new man,-as conscious of seeing after another fashion than he ever saw before,-as a blind man would be if his eyes were suddenly opened. I know that this world is not to me now the world that it once was. All things were then seen, if seen at all, as in a mist so thick that I took the transient to be the eternal, and I highly prized trifles while I despised that which was most precious. I put light for darkness, and darkness for light; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; for my foolish heart was darkened, and I knew it not. But, now, such a change has come to me that all things have become new; and in speaking of my own experience, I am also telling of the experience, not merely of some of you, but of hundreds of you upon whose hearts the divine light has come changing all things around you. They are not what they seem to others to be, for they are all now seen in the clear white light of God himself, and you know even as you are known.

Thirdly, this is marvellous light, because of its excellence over all other light.

This light, which God gives to his people, is far superior to the light which comes of education, or of meditation, or which can be produced by any human effort. When you have gone through a street lighted with the electric light, I have no doubt you have smiled to see, side by side with it, the gas lamp with its little yellow attempt at showing that it could not shine. But how bright was the electric light at the side of it! Yet, if it is left to burn at mid-day, how dim it seems compared with the sun; and how the sun must smile at all our attempts to light up this world without him! Well, now, the best light that a man ever gets by his own unaided effort is no better than that of a candle, or, if you will, than flickering gaslight; but the light-the marvellous light, is the illumination caused by the Holy Ghost shining into the inmost recesses of the soul in full meridian splendour. It is the light of God, and there is no other light that is like that. He who has but a spark of that light may not know so much about some things as the worldly-wise man knows, but he is well acquainted with many things to which the other man is an utter stranger. Cowper said, as some of you may remember, when contrasting the infidel Voltaire with the poor, godly lace-maker, she-

“Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,

A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.”

Perhaps you smile, and think within yourself,-“That is not knowing much.” Ah! but, to know the Bible to be true, to live in that Bible truth, and to have it all round about you, peopling the air, filling your own soul, filling earth and heaven with wondrous things that the spirit’s eye can see,-this is truly marvellous. He who sees even the most of this world has but the same sort of eyes that birds and beasts have; but he who knows his Bible to be true, and who realizes the truth of it in his soul, has another set of eyes that can peer into another realm altogether. He sees spiritual things, and around him there shines a light which is indeed marvellous.

Fourthly, this is marvellous light because of what it reveals, for that man, who has the light of God shining in his soul sees that which is invisible.

“O utterer of paradoxes!” cries someone. Yes, but I cannot otherwise express the truth. This illuminated man sees God, whom ordinary human eyes can never see. He looks back into the ages past and gone, and he sees God making all the worlds that ever existed; while those, who are reckoned as wise men, but who are without that light, spin ingenious but worthless theories about how those worlds grew. These men have such wonderful theories that it really seems surprising that they do not themselves make a few worlds, since they profess to have found out so many ways of making them. But the opened eye sees “that the worlds were framed by the word of God,” and it sees God’s hand in all the histories of all the centuries,-and it even sees God’s hand in the things recorded in the newspaper that most startle us. The man, who has his eyes opened, sees heaven and hell, eternity and everlasting life. He sees them,-not with dull optics, like these eyes of ours which, after all, do not really see, for it is the soul behind the eye that really looks out through that window, and perceives what is to be seen; but, in this marvellous light of God, the soul sees without any optics and without any glass; it has flung away its telescope, for it has come so near the object upon which it is gazing that there is no need of any intervening medium. It walks and talks with the angels; and, what is far better, it speaks with God himself. This is indeed marvellous light which has made us to see the things that, to ordinary mortal eyes, are invisible.

And it is such marvellous light because it enables us to see them so clearly. To the man who has this light, God does not appear to be sitting like the heathen Jove is represented, upon a distant Olympus, and sleeping while the world is troubled. He who lives in this marvellous light sees God here, there, everywhere; within him, and about him, he feels the presence of God, he has an immediate consciousness that God is with him. And, better still, such a man as that sees God to be reconciled by the death of his Son, he sees God to be his Father, for he is made a partaker of the divine nature, “having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” It is indeed marvellous light that enables us thus to see God.

A further characteristic of this light is that it enables us to see right into the heart of things. By this world’s light, you only see that such-and-such a thing is, you see the appearance it presents; but this light lets you see into the innermost heart of truth; and, what is better still, it brings the truth right into your soul. By this light, you not only see the doctrine of election, but you also know yourself to be elect. You see the great truth of redemption, and you know yourself to be redeemed. By this light, you see regeneration, and you feel the pulsings of the life of God within your spirit; and, though mortal eye hath not seen heaven, neither hath the ear of man heard its rapturous harmonies, nor has the true conception of heaven entered into the heart of man, yet the Spirit of God brings heaven down to us, and raises us up to heaven, so that we sit among the heavenlies in Christ Jesus; and “our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” All this proves that it is a glorious light, does it not?

The man, who has not this light, may believe there is a God. Yes; and he believes that there is a Cham of Tartary, but he does not care about him. He believes that there is a heaven, but it never enters as a factor into his life to operate upon him. He believes that there is such a thing as sin, and he says, “Oh, yes, yes, yes! we are all sinners, no doubt.” But he, who has this marvellous light, sees sin so as to tremble at it, and to hate it. It is a present thing with him which he abhors; he also sees the atoning blood of Jesus, and knows that, by it, he is cleansed from sin, and he rejoices in this as a blessed matter of fact.

“Oh!” says someone, “that is all fancy.” Of course it is only a matter of fancy to you; did I not tell you so when I began my discourse? To a blind man, a picture by Raphael or Titian is all fancy. You say to him, “How splendidly the colours are laid on there! Do you see that wonderful effect of light and shade?” but your wise blind man says, “I do not believe a word of it.” Of course he does not; we cannot hope that he will do so all the while that he is blind; and, in like manner, he who knows nothing of God’s marvellous light, will ask, “Who is he that bears witness concerning this strange thing?” “Well, sir, he is one among a great number who have as much right to be believed as you have, for he is as honest a man as you are.” Hundreds of us, thousands of us, can bear witness concerning the phenomena of grace,-the mysteries of the new creation,-the putting into a man of a new life,-and we have as much right to be believed as gentlemen who bear witness about the backbone of a fish, and who would feel insulted if we said that they told us lies. We have never examined their fish, but we believe their testimony, because we know they have studied the question of which they speak. They have never looked into our inner life, but they have as good reason to believe our testimony as we have to believe theirs; and this is our witness,-that there is such a thing as God’s marvellous light, that the light of divine grace has broken in upon our souls, and brought us to see a new heaven and a new earth, and to live in a new creation altogether, waiting for the time when Christ shall come to take our body, as he has already taken our soul, into that new world, and make us perfect with himself for ever.

Fifthly, this light is marvellous, because of what it produces.

I have already shown you its marvellous character in that it reveals a new world to a man, a world he once despised,-and it makes him value it, and live worthy of it. Thus it produces a great change in that man, for it makes him love the things he once hated, and hate the things he once loved. I heard someone say, “ ‘Take care of Number One,’ is a capital rule. Self-love is the first law of nature.” But, when this marvellous light breaks in upon a man, that law of nature ceases to operate, and he says, “No; the first law of my new nature is that I should honour my God, that I should do that which is right, that which is just, that which is true, that which is loving, that which will be like the life of Jesus Christ my Lord.” If you carefully watch that man, you will see him beginning to give up many of the pursuits that once delighted him. Perhaps you will say, “Poor man, he is denying himself;” but he will answer, “No, I am not. I could not enjoy those things now; in fact, I hate them. They were very pleasurable to me once; but, then, I was a blind man. Now that I can see, they give me no pleasure.” Such a man, before his conversion, may have enjoyed a spicy song which had just a little touch of what should not have been in it; but, now, if he hears the sound of it in the street, he is ready to stop his ears, for he cannot bear it. “Sing us one of the songs of Zion,” he says now;-the very songs that he used to call “Methodistic cant, Presbyterian hypocrisy,” and all sorts of evil names. There are new tastes developed now that he has the new life within him.

If this were the proper time, I could tell some remarkable stories of marvellous changes that have been wrought in some people whom I know. I am sure they would not recognize themselves if they were to meet their old selves as they were five years ago; or, if they did, they would cross the road, and get on the other side of the street, so as not to come into contact with their old selves. They would say, “Thank you, no; I would rather not walk with you. You are not good company for me. I hoped you were dead and buried, and I never wanted to see you again. I am dead with Christ, I have been buried with Christ, I have risen from the dead in him, and I am a new creature in him.” This marvellous light makes a wonderful change in a man’s character; that is to say, if it really comes to him; because, you know, there are some who go into the enquiry-room, and kneel down, and cry a good deal, and all the good that can possibly do is to take away some of the superfluous fluid from the brain, for there is no heart in their repentance; it is mere excitement, and nothing else. But it is a very different thing to have the light of God,-to have the Holy Ghost really shed abroad in the heart. Do not any of you be satisfied with saying, “I am converted. Happy day!” Mind that you are converted; be sure that it is heart-work, soul-work, and that the Spirit of God has wrought it,-not the preacher,-not an excited evangelist,-not a book you read;-but that God himself has come to you, and made you a new creature in Christ Jesus; for, unless this is the case, I shall not be able to speak of the change as I have spoken, and which, to my intense joy, I have seen in hundreds, and in thousands, who have passed from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan into the kingdom of Christ.

One change that always takes place, as the result of receiving this light, is great joy. The joy is not always as great in all to whom the light comes; but, still, it does bring great joy wherever it shines. Talk of true happiness; it is nowhere to be discovered till the light eternal breaks in upon the mind and heart; and, then, heaven has begun below. Some of us have our full share of pain of body and depression of spirit; yet, in our worst moments, we would not change places with the happiest worldling that lives. Not even when most depressed and weary, would we exchange our position, even for a minute, for that of the greatest emperor in the world who does not know that inner light. I can truly say, and so can many of you,-

“I would not change my blest estate

For all that earth calls good or great;

And while my faith can keep her hold,

I envy not the sinner’s gold.”

Lastly, it is marvellous light, because it will never go out.

As it is the light of God, the devil cannot blow it out. If all the devils in hell were to try to blow out one single spark that is in a true believer’s heart, they might puff till they died of puffing, but they would never put that spark out. God has lit it, and they cannot quench it. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” If you do not keep this everlasting life, it is quite clear that you never had it. If you really have eternal life, it must be eternal life, and it shall abide with you for ever.

But, what is better, not only shall you never lose it, but it will continually increase. If you have God’s marvellous light, though it seems only like starlight now, it will be like moonlight soon; then it will be daylight, and soon it will be noontide; for, to whomsoever God has given a little of this divine light, more is sure to follow, for the light of God, which is given to us by the Holy Ghost here, is the very light of heaven; it has only to be fully developed. You have all the elements of eternal happiness within your own spirit now, if the Holy Ghost has truly enlightened you, and made your character like that of the Lord Jesus Christ. As to death,-well, at the moment of death, you will leave your body behind, and you will leave with it all tendency to sin. The root of eternal blessedness is in you now, if the Lord has really looked upon you in love, and you have looked to Christ by faith. You have the upspringing plant of grace; some of you have leaves and buds; so, all that will happen to you in heaven is that the buds will open, and the flower will be perfected, but it is all there now. Christ said, “I give”-not, “I will give,” but “I give unto my sheep eternal life.” You have eternal life if you believe in him; the same life that will develop in glory is in you now.

“I did not know that,” says someone. Well, did you think that you were going to be born again a second time? That can never be. To be born again, is mentioned in Scripture; but to be born again, and again,-I never did read of that in the Word of God; though I have heard certain people talk about falling from grace and being restored; as if they could be born again, and again, and again, and again, no end of times; but there is nothing like that in the Bible. The great change takes place once, and that change is final. If you are born again, you receive the life that you will live in heaven. Just think of this; Christ has gone to heaven to prepare a place for you, but he has left within your bosoms now the life that is to be in heaven. Pray God to develop that life; entreat the Lord to increase it. Think a great deal of it; value it highly; suffer not your body, which is its temple, to be dishonoured by sin. God dwelleth in you; the life divine is within you; so, I beseech you, live as those should live who are not only heirs of heaven, but who have the life of heaven already abiding in their hearts. Come, my brethren and sisters, let us rejoice and be glad as we thus think of this marvellous light which is to be our light for ever and ever; for, up there, the Lord God giveth them light, and he giveth light to us even now; and it is his light, and there cannot be any light better than his; so, in it let us rejoice, and magnify his name.

I wish that some here, who have not this light, could be set a-longing for it. Mr. Bunyan says that, even if we do not invite the sinner to come to Christ, if we spread a good table before him, it makes his mouth water, and that is the next best thing to an invitation. Does any poor soul begin to say, “I do not know anything about that light; I am not going to deny that it may exist, but I should be a fool if I were to go upon negative evidence; I wish I did know it”? Well, you may know it. Do your soul this piece of justice,-go and pray to God to make you know it. Go and bow before him, and say, “Lord, if thou dost indeed reveal thyself to men by thy Spirit in Christ Jesus, reveal thyself to me.” He will hear you; I am sure of that. Even if he did not, there would be this reflection on your mind, that, having listened to the testimony of one who has no motive for deceiving you, you have at least given enough credence to it to try it, and test it; and you will feel all the easier in your mind even if the experiment should fail. But it will not fail; for never did a soul, in honest, guileless heartiness, seek the light and love of God, and seek in vain; nor will you do so. Go, then, to God through Jesus Christ, and this marvellous light shall break in upon you. God grant it, for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 PETER 2

Verses 1-3. Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

When the apostle describes us under the character of “newborn babes,” he would have us lay aside all that is inconsistent with that character. Newborn children have no malice; they have no guile or craftiness; they have no hypocrisies, nor envies, nor evil speakings. They are clear from all these evils; would God we were as clear as they are! It would be better to be infants, not speaking at all, than to be among those who speak evil. It would be better to begin life over again than to live long enough to have gained a treasure of malice, and a hoard of cunning, and to have learned the tricks of hypocrisy. Let us be as simple as little children, as guileless, as harmless, as free from anything like unkindness as newborn babes are. And inasmuch as we are to follow them in what they have not, let us also imitate them in what they have. Let us desire ardently, as for our very life, the unadulterated milk of the Word. Let us cultivate that combination of hunger and thirst which is found in a little child, that we may hunger and thirst thus after God’s Word. We have done more than taste the Word; we have tasted that the Lord himself is gracious. Let us long to feast more and more upon this divine food, that we may grow thereby.

4. To whom coming,-

That is, to the Lord. We are always to be coming unto him. We began our spiritual life by coming to Jesus, and we are to continue coming unto him: “To whom coming,”-

4. As unto a living stone,-

We are to settle down on him as the stones of a building settle down upon the foundation: “To whom coming, as unto a living stone,”-

4. Disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

Christ always was disallowed of men, and he always will be, until the great consummation of all things. Some disown him in one way, some in another. Some boldly blaspheme him with something like honesty; others pretend to be his ministers, yet all the while are undermining the gospel which he lived and died to preach. It matters little that Christ is “disallowed indeed of men,” for he is “chosen of God, and precious.”

5. Ye also, as lively stones,-

Or, living stones,-

5. Are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

You must have noticed, in reading the New Testament, that you never find the officers of a church called priests. Whenever that term is used by way of illustration, it is applied to all the people of God. They are all priests; but, under the Christian dispensation, there is no set of men who have any right to take that title above their fellow-believers. All those who believe in Jesus Christ are priests, every one of them as much as all the others; and the assumption of priesthood under the Christian dispensation is most truly the repetition of the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, though the men who commit it usually try to lay the guilt of that sin at the doors of other people. We ministers are no more priests than all of you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are; we shake our skirts at the very thought of such wickedness; and cry, “God forbid that we should, with unhallowed hands, try to steal away from God’s people what is the right and prerogative of them all!” “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

6. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

Put all your trust in Jesus, for you will never have cause to regret doing so. The text, in the Old Testament, from which Peter quoted, says, “He that believeth shall not make haste;” he shall not need to be in a hurry, he shall enjoy the holy leisure which springs from a quiet confidence where confidence ought to be placed. O beloved, stay yourselves on Christ! Rest your whole weight on him, for then, “you shall not be confounded.”

7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious:

“He is an honour,-he is your honour, your glory, your boast.” It is an honourable thing to be a believer in a Lord so glorious as he is, in a gospel so reasonable as his gospel is, in promises so certain of fulfilment as his promises are, in an atonement so effectual as his atonement is, and in a Master so omnipotent as he is: “Unto you therefore which believe he is an honour:”

7, 8. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

This is the distinguishing mark between God’s chosen people and the rest of mankind. His elect receive Christ, and rejoice in him; but as for the ungodly, they wilfully reject the Saviour, and so he becomes to them “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.” Christ is the great touchstone of humanity; by contact with him, the precious are discovered, and the vile are discerned.

9, 10. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people,-

Who were you, and what were your ancestors when the apostle wrote these words? Our forefathers were, in Peter’s day, uncivilized and barbarous tribes at the utmost end of Rome’s dominions. We “were not a people,”-

10, 11. But are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;-

If you are priests,-as you are if you are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,-take care that you are clean before God. Let no impurity stain your body, for sin committed by the body grievously befouls the spirit, and defiles the heart: “Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;”-

12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers,-

As they are sure to do, for none are so certain to be slandered as the pure; and the more clean you are in God’s sight, the more will you excite the animosity of ungodly men, and they will show it by slandering you: “that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers,”-

12-14. They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

True Christians give no trouble in the State; they are not law-breakers, but they strive to do that which is honest and upright. Where the laws are not righteous, they may cause trouble to bad law-givers and lawmakers; but when rulers ordain that which is just and righteous, they find that Christians are their best subjects.

15, 16. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free,-

What a grand word that is, “as free”! Byron wrote,-

“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves besides.”

But we may alter that, and say, “He is the true freeman whom his Lord makes free.” “As free,”-

16, 17. And not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

A great deal of stress is sometimes laid upon that last precept, and I would lay just as much emphasis upon it as the Scripture does; but recollect the earlier command also: “Honour all men.”

“A man’s a man for a’ that.”

Whatever his condition may be, honour the manhood that is in him. Do not despise him because he is poor, or because his coat is not so fashionably cut as yours is; for, perhaps, he may be a better man than you are: “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”

18-25. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-170, 465, 257.