C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, July 1st, 1877.

“Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the livers a wilderness: then fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”-Isaiah 50:2-6.

We spent this morning at the foot of the cross.* I hope that some of us, at least, were helped by the Spirit of grace and of supplication to look unto him whom we have pierced by our sins, and to “mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son.” I thought that, as we then found it so good to be there, we would go there again, the more especially as we are afterwards to gather around the communion table where we shall be again reminded of the sacrificial death which the sacred supper so clearly symbolizes. Let us come, then, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, very near to our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that the Spirit of Christ may aid our meditations while I try once more to speak about his glorious and matchless person, and the wondrous condescension which made him undertake such gracious offices on our behalf, and bear for us such awful and shameful griefs.

I shall need no further preface to my discourse except to say that in my opinion, these verses run on without any break, so that you are not to separate them, and ascribe one to the prophet, another to the Messiah, and another to Jehovah himself; but you must take the whole as the utterance of one Divine Person. That Jehovah-Jesus is the One who is speaking here, is very clear from the last verse of the previous chapter: “I the Lord” (“I, Jehovah,” it is,) “am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” It is Jehovah, as the Saviour and Redeemer of his people, who is here manifesting himself to us; and we must take the whole chapter as being uttered by him.

So, then, to begin with, let us behold the Messiah as God: “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”

I ask you again to link this 3rd verse with the 6th: “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.… I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” He, then, who suffered thus, and whom we regard as redeeming us by his death, and as saving us by his life, is no less than the Almighty God who clothes the heavens with blackness, at whose rebuke the sea is dried up, and the rivers become a wilderness.

I think the first reference, in these words, is to the miracles which were wrought by the plagues in Egypt. It was Jehovah-Jesus who was then plaguing his adversaries. It was he who stood by the border of the Red Sea, and dried it up. In a later chapter, Isaiah says that “the angel of his presence saved them;” and who is that great “Angel of his presence” but the Angel of the covenant in whom we delight, even Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour? It was he who smote the rivers of Egypt till they began to stink, and the fish died from thirst. It was he who called for an unusual darkness,-even darkness which might be felt,-and which lasted three days and nights, a supernatural darkness such as had never been known before. Think of the greatness of that God who can darken the great orb of day. The strongest eye of man cannot bear to gaze upon the sun, for fear of producing blindness; yet Jehovah-Jesus doth not only look the sun in the face, but he lifts his hand, and shuts the light of the sun from off the face of the earth; and bids the sun-“which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race,”-to take off his bridal attire, and to put on the garments of mourning, for thus saith the Lord, “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” This mighty miracle, which was wrought of old, was wrought by that same Jesus who, in the days of his flesh, was despised and rejected of men. Learn this lesson, and adore the Lord who is so great in power, and as gracious as he is great.

But we must not restrict the text to that which happened in the land of Egypt, for it has a far wider reference than that. All the great wonders of nature are to be ascribed to him upon whom we build all our hopes for time and for eternity. There are channels of great rivers to be found that are now perfectly dry. Travellers tell us of vast lakes and riverbeds that have become mere pans of salt. How came they to be dried up? “By the action of the laws of nature,” some people say. But laws have no power to act by themselves; they need force at the back of them to make them operate; and whose force is that? It is the energy of God; and that self-same energy dwells in the adorable person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When the storm-clouds come hurrying up, driven by the winds, and the crash of heaven’s dread artillery is heard, and the flashes of forked lightning follow each other in rapid succession, we tremble at the power of the Lord who thus makes the earth to quiver before him. But who is he that is thus driving in his conquering car? It is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. All the elements of nature are under his control, and he ruleth all things according to the good pleasure of his own will. He sitteth at the right hand of God, even the Father, being himself very God of very God.

The last miracle recorded here, namely, that of covering the heavens with sackcloth, was performed by our Lord even when he was in his death agony. We read that, at high noon, the sun was veiled, and there was darkness over all the land for three black hours. Wonder of wonders, he who hung bleeding there had wrought that mighty marvel! The sun had looked upon him hanging on the cross, and, as if in horror, had covered its face, and travelled on in tenfold night. The tears of Jesus quenched the light of the sun. Had he been wrathful, he might have put out its light for ever; but his love not only restored that light, but it has given to us a light a thousand times more precious, even the light of everlasting life and joy.

I cannot preach worthily upon so sublime a doctrine as this, so it is no use for me to attempt to do so. I always feel, when I begin to speak of the Deity of our blessed Lord and Master, as if my heart were too full for me to give utterance to my deepest feelings and convictions. My heart is indeed inditing a good matter when I am speaking thus concerning the King; but I cannot say that my tongue is as the pen of a ready writer when it has so vast a theme to dwell upon. What I want to bring before your minds most clearly is the blessed truth that you are not depending for your salvation upon a mere man. He is man,-certainly man,-man of the substance of his mother; but he is just as truly divine. In trusting him, you are resting your souls upon One who is infinite and almighty. Nothing can be too difficult for him to do. It is he who asks these questions in the second verse: “Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?” You may depend upon it that you are absolutely safe in his hands. What you commit to him, he will securely keep, rest assured of that. Even when you draw nearest to him in the familiar intercourse which he graciously permits to those whom he loves, never think of him as being less than the Eternal God; so worship him, so trust him, and so rejoice in him.

Now let us turn to the next verse of our text, and behold the Messiah as the instructed Teacher: “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”

Our Lord veiled his Godhead in the robe of manhood, and he came and dwelt here, among men, that he might proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound. He came, in fact, as it was foretold concerning him, that he might save his people from their sins. But ere he began to teach, it was needful that, as man, he should be prepared for his work. I call your special attention to the condescension of our Lord in coming here on purpose to care for the weak,-to speak consoling and sustaining words to them; and also to the fact that, before he performed that service,-he learned the sacred art from his Father. It seems, according to this verse, that his chief work was to speak words in season to the weary ones. How sweetly he has learned that blessed lesson, and how graciously he has turned it to practical account! Have not many of you found his words to be exceedingly seasonable to you when you have been weary? When you have been most depressed, have not the consolations of Christ been more precious to you than at any other time? Have you not, often, in seasons of sorrow, wiped away your tears at the sound of his cheering voice? As for you, who have smitten upon your breasts in deep contrition of heart because of the burden of your sin, has not Jesus removed your load from you when you have heard him speak? We do well to treasure up every sentence that he has uttered, for there is not even a word that has fallen from his dear lips, by way of promise and encouragement, but exactly suits our experience at some time or other. Whatever our distress or difficulty may be, he knows how to speak a word in season to everyone who is weary? To us he says, as he said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” He knows, even to perfection, the blessed art of consoling the sad and sorrowful.

The most condescending part of this truth is that he received from his Father the power to deliver such words of consolation. He says, “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” He became a disciple, sitting at his Father’s feet. For thirty years, was he learning much in Joseph’s carpenter’s shop. Little do we know how much he learned there; but this much we do know, for Luke records the fact, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” And afterwards, when he entered upon his public work among men, he spake with the tongue of the learned, saying to his disciples, “All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” All through his time of teaching, he was still listening and learning. Notice the words in the 4th verse: “He wakeneth (me) morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” The Lord Jesus was often up early in the morning;-even when he had not been all night in prayer;-that seemed to be the special season in which he communed with his Father. He first went, and enjoyed most intimate fellowship with the Lord, refreshing himself by talking of heavenly things, and receiving new strength for service; and then, with the dew of heaven fresh upon him, he came forth, and taught the people. They, very likely, were still sound asleep; but he was awake early, receiving renewed inspiration in prayer and fellowship; and then he came forth, fragrant with the savour of his intercourse with his Father, and the sweet odour of his consecration was shed abroad among the sons of men through the blessed truth that flowed from his lips. I ask you again to think of this wonderful condescension, that he, who clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering, should, for our sake, stoop to learn in his Father’s school. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience;” and though he was “over all, God blessed for ever,” yet did he increase in wisdom and stature, as a boy and as a man, and he condescended to be a learner that he might speak as the learned, and know how to utter words that should be in season to us when we are weary.

Now I want you to go down a step lower, to the next verse, in which we behold Jesus Christ as the Servant of the Lord: “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” He stood upon earth, not like a prince, but as the servant of God. He was made to be under the law, and in all things to be subservient to the Father’s will.

Notice that, first of all, he speaks of himself as being prepared by grace; for he says, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear,” as if there had been a work wrought upon him to fit and prepare him for his service. Yes, and so it was; and the same Spirit, which rested upon Christ, must also open our ears. It often amazes me that our Lord should have been willing to be baptized in Jordan; even though that baptism was attended by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him; for, albeit that he was truly human, we know that he was also just as truly divine. Being found in fashion as a man, he received of God the Holy Spirit the same anointing which is now bestowed upon his people. God forbid that our tongue should ever speak a word concerning him that should confound his Deity and his humanity; but, still, we do assert that he did need that the Spirit should rest upon him; for, otherwise, the Spirit would not have come, for he never does anything unnecessarily. This is matchless condescension on his part, that he should, voluntarily, put himself into such a condition of necessity for our sake.

Being thus prepared by grace, he was consecrated in due form, so that he could say of himself, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear.” Brothers and sisters, there was never another such an ear as Christ had. He heard the faintest whispers of his Father’s voice. He never neglected the will of God, nor needed to be reminded of it, or to be pressed and persuaded to do it. See how different it is with us. Our ears are dull of hearing; or, if the precept is plain to our apprehension, we often do not yield obedience to it. There are some professors who do know their duty; they have been wakened to know it morning by morning; but, nevertheless, they pretend not to be aware as to what is required of them. The sound of God’s voice has only reached their outward ear, it has never penetrated as far as the inward ear; their heart has not perceived its divine force and power. But it was never so with our blessed Lord. Whatever his Father willed, he at once rejoiced to do. He could ever say, “I do always the things that please him.”

That is the next point, for he not only heard his Father’s voice, but he was obedient to it in all things. He says, “I was not rebellious.” I cannot find anything in the life of Christ that even looks like rebellion. From the day when, as a child, he said to his parents, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” till the hour when, on the cross, he cried, “It is finished,” he was always obedient to the will of God. “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” His obedience was absolutely perfect in all things. Think of this, and remember that this is the same Divine Being who clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering when so it pleaseth him.

In that obedience, he was persevering through all trials. He says that he did not turn away back. Having commenced the work of saving men, he went through with it. He steadfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem, though he knew that he was going to his death. He asked not that he might be delivered from completing the work that he had undertaken. There was a time when, in the horror of his spirit, he cried, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet he never flinched from any suffering that was necessary to our redemption. It was human weakness that spake for a moment, but his inmost soul was fully set upon the work of redeeming his people unto himself. He set his face like a flint, and he would not turn back. Even in his direst agonies, his thoughts were all for others. He saved others; himself he could not save, for it was impossible for him to draw back from the work which he had once undertaken.

You know all this, beloved. I do but remind you of what has been familiar to you ever since you have believed in Jesus; but I pray you to think of it again and again, for it must have been a matter of the utmost amazement to the angels to see their Lord acting as a servant,-to see him, without whom was not anything made that was made, here below, dressed in a peasant’s garb, and, as a humble, wayworn son of poverty, sitting on a well to talk to a poor sinful woman about the water of life. You know what lowly service he rendered, even to the washing of his disciples’ feet. There was nothing too menial for him to perform; yet, all the while, he was truly divine. Oh, this is a truth that needs to be mused upon by the hour together, and to be considered again and yet again. This is one of the things which angels desire to look into; and we may try to look into it as long as we will, for, beyond and above all controversy, great is this mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.

The last step in this wondrous ladder is revealed to us in the next verse: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Behold the Messiah as the peerless Sufferer. And this Sufferer, on whom man spat, was the Eternal God.

Scripture sometimes speaks concerning Christ in such a way that fastidious critics seek to correct it. There is a hymn, by Dr. Watts, in which there is this verse,-

“Well might the sun in darkness hide,

And shut his glories in,

When God, the mighty Maker, died

For man, the creature’s sin.”

lt has been asked, “Did God really die?” No; for God cannot die, yet he who died was God; so, if there be a confusion in your mind, it is the confusion of Holy Scripture itself, for we read, “Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” He who purchased the Church with his own blood was indeed God. There are clever men, who could draw up this particular truth as clearly as Athanasius drew up his Creed, and finish it up with a curse as loud as his; yet those men, nevertheless, might make a great blunder; while another, who might not speak exactly according to logic, would nevertheless hit the mark which they missed. How are we to speak upon such a wondrous theme as this? How can we speak upon it? It belongeth not to mortal man to comprehend Deity; and if Deity complicates its own incomprehensibility by taking into alliance with itself our humanity, who is he that may not be made an offender for many and many a word, and yet, for all that, may not have offended against the truth? He who was a prisoner in Pilate’s hall, accused of sedition, was the King of kings;-he who was taken from that hall, and covered with an old red cloak, and set up in a chair as on a mimic throne,-he who had a reed put into his right hand, was none other than the Almighty Lord who said, “Light be,” and the light flashed forth out of the darkness. And he, upon whose sacred shoulders fell the cruel flagellation of the Roman scourge, till the ploughers made deep scarlet furrows down his blessed back,-he was that God who created, and who still sustains, the heavens and the earth, and all things that exist, or ever have existed. He was a suffering man; but, at the same time, he was the Son of God, and he is the Son of God to-day, and God the Son, too. As you think of his pain, couple with it the thought that he bore all that agony voluntarily that we might be saved: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Even if God becomes incarnate, yet none can touch him unless he permits them to do so; but Jesus said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.… No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” No man could have scarred that blessed back of his unless Christ had been willing, out of mighty love, to suffer thus on his people’s behalf. None could have plucked his hair unless he had put himself into the position to have it plucked, in order that he might redeem us from all our iniquities. Many a martyr has suffered much, but he could not avoid it; for he was bound, and he was not able to smite his foes, or to escape. But here sat One, to be spit upon, who could, if he had willed it, have withered into nothingness all who stood about him. With one glance of that eye of his, had he but grown angry, as he well might have done, he could have burned up their very souls, for it was he who dried up the river, and who clothed the heavens with blackness, who was thus despitefully used. Blessed be the majesty of that omnipotence which controlled omnipotence,-that mighty love which bound the Godhead so that it came not to the rescue of the manhood of the suffering Saviour!

In addition, however, to the pain, we are asked, in this verse, to notice particularly the contempt which the Saviour endured. The plucking of his hair was a proof of the malicious contempt of his enemies, yet they went still further, and did spit in his face. Spitting was regarded by Orientals, and, I suppose, by all of us, as the most contemptuous thing which one man could do to another; yet the vile soldiers gathered round him, and spat upon him. It is almost too terrible to think of or to speak of; but what must it have been for Jesus to endure it? I think you can realize the utter uselessness of human speech in trying to describe this scene. If the divine thought of the text could leap out among you, like some mystic fire, then you might feel it; but as for our poor words, they cannot convey the sacred flame to you. But there stands the mysterious truth. Enlarge upon it as we may, we can never fathom it, nor half fathom it,-that he, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, here declares that he hid not his face from shame and spitting.

I must again point out to you the beautiful touch of voluntariness here: “I hid not my face.” Our Saviour did not turn away, or seek to escape. If he had wished to do so, he could readily have done it; but he hid not his face from any of the contempt that the most malicious and wicked of men wished to heap upon him. Even when he came to die, and they brought him a drink which was customarily given to criminals,-a strong, stupefying draught, which would have somewhat assuaged the pain; when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink it. The vinegar he did taste; but that wine mingled with myrrh he would not drink, because he did not come here to escape any pain or any shame that his people deserved to suffer. He must go through with it all to the bitter end; and, therefore, he will not, in any sense or way, endeavour to escape. “I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Oh, splendour of voluntary condescension, and of marvellous love, on the part of him before whom the nations are as a drop in the bucket, who taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and to whom time is but a span compared with his own eternity! The express image of his Father, yet he bows to shame and spitting; blessed be his holy name for ever and for ever!

I will close when I have noticed three combinations which the verses of my text will make. I will but mention them, and ask you to meditate upon them at your leisure.

First of all, put the first and the last together, as I have already done: “Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.… I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Those verses together show you the full ability of Christ to save. Here we have the God and the Sufferer. What a wondrous Christ he is,-divine, and therefore able,-human, and smitten and suffering, and therefore full of compassion! “It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren;” and see how like his brethren he is, yet he is God. The ladder that Jacob saw had its foot upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. It would have been of no use if its foot had not been upon the earth, for what man on earth could have climbed it? It would have been of no use if, with its foot upon the earth, it had not reached to heaven; there would not have been any connection after all. Behold, then, in the humanity of Christ, how the foot of this ladder resteth upon the earth; and see, in his Deity, how the top reacheth to heaven. Happy are the feet that tread the rounds of this celestial ladder; they shall climb into eternal rest. Glory ye, O believers, in the divine and human person of your Lord, and rest in him in confidence and peace!

Now put the two middle verses together: “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,” and so on; and then, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious.” Here you have the Teacher and the Servant, and the two together make up this truth,-that Christ teaches us, not with words only, but with his life. What a wonderful Teacher he is, who himself learned the lessons which he would have us learn! Let us take his yoke upon us, and learn of him. Let us study his precepts, but also imitate his example. His track I see; I have not merely a map of the road, but his footsteps show me which way I am to go. Watch ye in all things that ye follow Christ; for he still says to his redeemed ones, “Follow me.”

Now put the whole text together, and think of Jesus Christ in all those various views which I have so feebly set before you; and I think the result will be-at least, to God’s people,-that they will say, “This God shall be our God for ever and ever; and it shall be our delight to do his bidding at all times.” It is a high honour to serve God; and Christ is God. It is a great thing to be the servant of a wise teacher; and Christ has the tongue of the learned. It is a very sweet thing to walk in the steps of a perfect Exemplar; and Christ is just that. And, last and best of all, it is delightful to live for him who suffered and died on our behalf. Those wounds of his have marked us as his own. That scourge, those bleeding shoulders, and that face so marred, have won us altogther to him; and, henceforth, for us to live shall be Christ, that to die may be eternal gain. The Lord grant that it may be so, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ISAIAH 53

This is one of the chapters that lie at the very heart of the Scriptures. It is the very Holy of holies of Divine Writ. Let us, therefore, put off our shoes from our feet, for the place whereon we stand is specially holy ground.

This fifty-third of Isaiah is a Bible in miniature. It is the condensed essence of the gospel. I thought that our beloved friend, Mr. Moody, answered with extreme wisdom a question that was put to him when he came to London some years ago. A number of ministers had come together to meet Mr. Moody, and they began to discuss various points, and to ask what were the evangelist’s views upon certain doctrines. At last, one brother said, “Would Mr. Moody kindly give us his creed? Is it in print?” In a moment the good man replied, “Certainly; my creed is in print, it is the 53rd of Isaiah.” It was a splendid reply. How could a man come closer to the very essentials of the faith than by saying, “My creed is in the 53rd of Isaiah”? I trust that many of you, dear friends, can not only say, “This is my creed,” but also, “This is the foundation upon which I have built all my hopes for time and for eternity; this is the source of my sweetest consolation; this is the sun that makes my day, and the star that gilds my night.” In these twelve verses there is everything that we need to teach us the way of salvation; God, the infinitely-wise Teacher, has revealed to us, within this short compass, all that is necessary to bring peace to troubled spirits.

First, the prophets speak:-

Isaiah 53. Verse 1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

This is a cause for sorrow upon sorrow,-for the prophets to have God’s message to deliver, and yet for men to reject it,-for them to have to tell it, but to tell it in vain. Yet, dear friends, this has been the lot of some of God’s most faithful servants in all ages, and we must not complain if it should be our lot also. I should not have voluntarily chosen to be Jeremiah, the weeping prophet; yet, methinks, no one of God’s servants deserves greater honour than he does, for he continued bravely to deliver his Master’s message even when none believed him, and all rejected his testimony. Isaiah links himself with all the other prophets who had been rejected, and he says, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground:

This is why Christ was not received by those to whom he came,-and why the testimony of the prophets concerning Christ was rejected by those to whom it was delivered,-because he was not revealed to them as a towering palm-tree or widely-spreading cedar: but, like the humble yet fruitful vine, he was “as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.”

2. He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

To carnal eyes, there was no beauty apparent in Christ,-nothing of the æsthetic, as men call it, and nothing of the pompous, nothing outwardly attractive. He came here in the utmost simplicity. Remember the angel’s message to the shepherds: “And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” There was nothing of pomp or show about him: “no form nor comeliness.” He made no display of scholarship, no pretence of deep philosophy, nothing that the carnal mind hunts after; but the all-glorious Deity, revealed in human form, spake simple but sublime truth, and therefore men rejected him.

3. He is despised and rejected of men;

This was written long before he came to earth: “He is despised and rejected of men;” and, truly, though he is now in heaven, I need not alter the tense of the verb. I do not say, “He was despised,” though that would be true; for, alas! it is still true, “He is despised and rejected of men;”-

3. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

What a wonderful expression that is! Our blessed Lord had made the acquaintance of grief; he knew it, understood it, was familiar with it,-slept with it,-rose up with it,-walked the livelong day with it; and, hence, my brother or my sister, he knows your grief, and he can meet it; he is such a master Comforter because he was such a mighty Sufferer.

3. And we hid as it were our faces from him;

Shame upon us that we, who have been redeemed by him,-we, whom he has loved from eternity,-we, who now delight in him,-“we hid as it were our faces from him;”-

3. He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Even we, to whom now he is all our salvation, and all our desire,-we, unto whom he is now most precious,-“we esteemed him not.”

4. Surely he hath borne our griefs,-

Can all of you say this? Can every one of us unite in the reading of this sentence, “Surely, he hath borne our griefs”? If you have truly learned that he bore your griefs, you may indeed bless his name, for it is the best news that ever reached your ears. Go and tell it out to your fellow-sufferers: “Surely he hath borne our griefs,”-

4. And carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

They thought that God had smitten him, and so he had; but they wrongly supposed that there was something of sin in him that caused God to smite him, whereas he was “holy, harmless, undefiled;” and he was only stricken and smitten because he was bearing the sins of his people.

5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Milton, Shakespeare, Cowper, and the whole of the poets that ever were or are, all put together, could not write four sentences like those in this verse. There is more meaning, more deep philosophy, more music, more to charm and satisfy the human heart, in those four sentences, than in the sweetest of merely human language. Let me read them again; and as I do so, let every one of us take each line to himself:-“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

6, 7. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

These words have been the means of the conversion of multitudes. You recollect, in the Acts of the Apostles, what that rich Ethiopian said to Philip when he read these words: “I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” If we read this chapter over and over again, and so read it as to find Christ there, it will indeed be a blessed thing for us.

8, 9. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

All that he suffered was not because he was guilty, but because he was innocent. The only crime which I have ever heard rightly laid to his charge is that which the poet sweetly describes as “found guilty of excess of love.” It was indeed so. He loved us beyond all measure, and because of that love he died for us.

10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:

The Lord was at the back of it all. Not Pilate, nor Herod, nor Judas, nor Jew, nor Roman, but Jehovah bruised him.

10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Here the strain changes altogether. From the depths of woe, we begin to rise with hopes of a glad result of all the suffering and sorrow and shame. Glory be to the name of Christ, he has a mighty right hand, into which God has placed that work which is according to his own good pleasure,-even the work of saving guilty men; and that work, in his prolonged days, until the end of time, shall prosper in the hand of the Christ of God.

11. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:

Christ did not die at haphazard, as some seem to think. A sure and glorious result must come of “the travail of his soul.” Such precious blood as his could not fall to the ground at a peradventure. Whatever the design of his cross was, it shall be accomplished, I could imagine failures in creation, if so it pleased God; but never in redemption.

11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

That is the top and bottom of it all: “He shall bear their iniquities.” The red line of substitution runs through the whole chapter.

12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-282, 269.

STARTLING!

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, April 26th, 1903,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On a Lord’s-day Evening, in the summer of 1861.

“And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel.… And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?”-2 Kings 8:12, 13.

I suppose that none of us can doubt that Hazael acted with perfect freedom when he became the murderer of his master. No one, surely, would dare to suggest that any constraint was put upon him. The glittering prospect of wearing the crown of Syria was before his eyes. Nothing stood between him and the kingdom but the life of his master. That master lies sick of a fever. A wet cloth is the usual remedy. He has but to select one that shall be thicker than usual, and take care, in spreading it over his face, to place it so that the man is suffocated, and, lo! he comes to the throne. What wonder is it that Hazael easily puts his master out of the way, and then mounts the vacant seat? None of us will imagine for a moment that he was under constraint, unless it was Satanic; and yet, while he acted as a free agent, is it not quite clear that God foreknew what he would do, and that it was perfectly certain that he would destroy his master? The prophet speaks not as one who hazarded a conjecture. He foresaw the event with absolute certainty, yet did Hazael act with perfect freedom when he went and fulfilled the prophecy of Elisha.

I believe, my brethren, that it is quite as easy to see how God’s predestination and man’s responsibility are perfectly compatible, as it is to see how divine foreknowledge and human free agency are consistent with one another. Doth not the very fact of foreknowledge imply a certainty? Is not that which is foreknown certain? Is not the fact sure to be when God foreknows that it will be? How could it be foreknown conditionally? How could it be foretold conditionally? In this instance, there was no stipulation or contingency whatever. It was absolutely foretold that Hazael would be king of Syria. The prophet knew the fact right well, and he clearly descried the means; else, why should he look into Hazael’s face, and weep? God foreknew the mischief that he would do when he came to the throne; yet that foreknowledge did not in the least degree interfere with his free agency.

Nor is this an isolated and exceptional case. The facts most surely believed among us, like the doctrines most clearly revealed to us, point all of them to the same inference. The predestination of God does not destroy the free agency of man, or lighten the responsibility of the sinner. It is true, in the matter of salvation, when God comes to save, his free grace prevails over our free agency, and leads the will in glorious captivity to the obedience of faith. But in sinning, man is free,-free in the widest sense of the term, never being compelled to do any evil deed, but being left to follow the turbulent passions of his own corrupt heart, and carry out the prevailing tendencies of his own depraved nature. In reference to this matter of predestination and free will, I have often heard men ask, “How do you make them agree?” I think there is another question just as difficult to solve, “How can you make them differ?” The two may be as easily made to concur as to clash. It seems to me a problem which cannot be stated, and a subject that needs no solution. It is but a difficulty which we surmise, and theoretical dilemmas are always hard to deal with, and difficult to disentangle. When we look at matters of fact, the mist that clouds our understanding vanishes. We see God predestinating and man premeditating; God knowing fully, yet man acting freely; God ordaining every circumstance, yet man manœuvring to compass his own projects; in short, we see man accurately, but unconsciously, fulfilling all which was written in the wisdom of God, and that without any impetus of the Almighty upon his mind constraining or inciting him so to do. You will observe, in this chapter, three or four distinct instances in which both the foreknowledge and foreordination of God are distinctly proven; and yet, at the same time, the free agency of the creature is conspicuously set forth. That point, however, I have merely adverted to by way of introduction. My subject, on this occasion, as more immediately suggested by the words before us, is the common and too often fatal ignorance of men as to the wickedness of their own hearts.

Let us expose and expound this ignorance.

Our ignorance of the depravity of our own hearts is a startling fact, Hazael did not believe that he was bad enough to do any of the things here anticipated. “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” He might have been conscious enough that his heart was not so pure but it might consent to do many an evil thing; yet crimes so flagrant as those the prophet had foretold of him, he thought himself quite incapable of committing. He could not believe that such wanton cruelty lurked in his breast, or that such barbarity towards women and children could be perpetrated with his sanction. Not yet, perhaps, was the ambition that aspired to the throne of Syria, or the treachery that issued in the murder of his master, fully ripe.

Ah, my brethren, the ignorance of Hazael is ours to a greater or less degree! In our natural state, we are oblivious of the depravity of our own hearts. How commonly we hear men deny that their hearts are depraved! They tell us that, though man be a little injured by the Fall, he is still a noble creature. His high and glorious instincts make amends, they would persuade us, for his low and beggarly vices. Such foolish conceits we impute to ignorance. Men account crimes revolting when they hear of their comrades being convicted of committing them, but they do not know the innate plague of their own heart. They have not yet learned that their own heart is base and depraved. Hence they challenge the doctrine when we state it,-because they are unconscious of the fact. We do not expect a man to accept it as an axiom merely upon our testimony. He had need have some experience himself before he will be able to lay hold upon a truth so humbling, so self-abasing, as that of total depravity. The baseness of our hearts has barely dawned on our apprehension, though we have a faint gleam of suspicion as to our real condition. Conscience is sensitive enough to let us know that all is not quite right. We feel that we are not pure, that we are not completely perfect. We do admit that we make some mistakes, though we set them down to weakness rather than wilfulness; we apologize for our infirmities, and rather excuse than accuse our own hearts. Most of us, however, I trust, have enough light to discern that there was something wilfully wrong with our hearts before the Spirit of Christ began to deal with us. We would frankly and freely confess that we were not all that we desired to be, that there was some radical evil that defied our capacity to search it out. Ah, but how pale was that gleam! It was mere starlight in the soul,-not like the sunlight which has since shone in, and shown us the blackness of our nature.

We were ignorant, then, of the fact that our nature was totally corrupt; we did not know that it was essentially tainted with iniquity; we could not have endorsed that saying of the apostle, “The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” We could hardly understand it, when we heard the Christian minister say that the old nature was positively irreclaimable, and must be crucified with its affections and lusts, and that a new nature must be given to us. If we ever heard a preacher speak of the fountains of the great deep of our evil heart being broken up, we thought he exaggerated; at least, we said, “Surely, this might be true of some notorious criminals, or it might be even alleged of some ill-bred people who had seen an ill example from their youth up,” but we could not imagine that this was actually the case with ourselves. Ay, but, my brethren, we were, to a great degree, cured of this ignorance when the Spirit of God brought us under conviction. Oh, what a view of ourselves he then gave to some of us! I think we could say, with Bunyan, that we thought the most loathsome toad in the world to be a better creature than ourselves. We have been led, when under conviction of sin, to sigh and wish we had been made a viper, or some reptile that men would tread upon, and crush, rather than that we should have been such base, such vile, hell-deserving sinners as we felt ourselves to be. No discourse, then, about human dignity, could have pleased us; it would have been rubbing salt into our sore to have told us that man was by birth a pure and noble creature. In vain might they have attempted to persuade us then that, though we were a little awry, a diligent pursuit of some orthodox plan or prescription might easily restore us, and lift us up from the position into which we had been cast by Adam and by our sin. No; we felt that divine grace must new-make us, that there must be a supernatural work wrought in such beings as we were, or else, surely, we never could be fit to stand before the face of God, and see him with joy, and greet him with acceptance.

Thus, I say, brethren, that much of our ignorance was taken away; but, alas! how much remained! We did not know even then how depraved we were. When Sinai’s lightnings were flashing abroad, and all our hearts seemed lit up with its dread fire, that lurid flame was not bright enough to show to us all our baseness. While we stood trembling there, and the law was thundering over our heads, we bowed to the very dust; but we did not cower even then, as we ought to have done, in penitent humiliation. We were rather awed than melted, for we had only just begun to decipher the black letters of that volume of our total depravity.

We knew more about our moral obliquity afterwards, when Jesus came to us, and, by his sweet love, bade us be of good cheer, for our sins, which were many, were all forgiven us. Oh, how we saw the baseness of sin as we had never seen it before; for we now saw it in the light of his countenance. The love of his eyes flashed a brighter light into our hearts than all the lightnings of Mount Paran. Horeb’s burning steep never gave us such illuminations as did Calvary’s hallowed summit. Calvary might be the lesser height, it may not have seemed to stand out with such majesty and awe, but it exerted greater power over us. In its tender flush of mellow light, our eyes could see more clearly than in all the fitful flashes that had scared us hitherto. I think we saw, then, to as full an extent as it was possible for us to bear, how vile, how desperately evil was our nature! When we perceived how great must be the sacrifice which, by its virtue, could atone for sin, how vast that price of our Redeemer’s blood which only could provide a ransom from the Fall, we had lessons once for all taught us, never to be forgotten. And yet, since then, methinks we have learnt more of the evil of our own hearts than we could at first apprehend. We said, then, “Surely, now I have come into the innermost chamber of iniquity;” but often, since that day, has the Spirit said to us, “Son of man, I will show thee greater abominations than these;” and we have been led to see, in the light of God’s continual mercies, his perpetual faithfulness, his unfailing love,-we have been led to view, in that light, our continued wanderings, our idolatries of heart, our murmurings, our pride, and our lusts, and we have found ourselves out to be worse than we thought we were.

I appeal to you, Christian men and women, if anyone had told you that you would have loved your Saviour so little as you have done; if any prophet had told you, in the hour of your conversion, that you would have served him so feebly as you have done, would you have believed it? I appeal to you from the dew of your youth, from that morning blush of your soul’s unclouded joy, if an angel from heaven had said to you, “You will doubt your God, you will murmur against his providence, you will kick at the dispensations of his grace,” would you not have replied, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this evil thing?” Your experience, I am sure, has taught you that you were not aware, when you put on your harness, how much of a dastard was the soldier who then did gird himself for the battle. But mark this, we none of us know, after all, much of the baseness of our hearts. Some of you may have had more drilling in it than others have had; you may have made proof of it by sad backsliding, your lusts may have outwardly betrayed their inward vigour, you may have been discarded by the Holy Ghost for a little season that the Lord might show you that you were weak as other men, that he might prove to you the hollowness of all your self-confidence, and wean you from all trust in your own integrity; but the most sorely exercised among you have not learnt this lesson fully yet.

God only knows the vileness of the human heart. There is a depth beneath, a hidden spring, into which we cannot pry. In that lower depth, there is a still deeper abyss of positive corruption which we need not wish to fathom. God grant that we may know enough of this to humble us, and keep us ever low before him! Yet hold, Lord, lest we should yield to despair, and absolutely lie down to die under the black thought of our alienation from righteousness, our naturalization in sin, and the deplorable tendency of our heart to rebel more and more against thee, the faithful and true God! Show us not all our wretchedness. As for the most of us, who cannot talk of this experience, let us not think ourselves doctors of divinity; let us sit down at once on the lowest form of the divine school. We have only begun to know ourselves in part; albeit we do know something of the Saviour, blessed be his name! That something is exceedingly precious. Yet how much more there is for us to learn! We have hardly begun to sail on that unfathomable sea. We have not yet dived into its depths. We know not its marvellous lengths and breadths. I have often been startled-and if any should say, jeeringly, “The preacher speaketh by experience,” they may,-I have often been startled when I have found in my heart the possibilities of iniquity of which I thought I never could have been the subject, in reveries by day or in dreams of the night. All at once, a blasphemy foul as hell has started up in the very middle of offering a prayer so earnest that my heart never knew more fervour. I have been staggered at myself. When God has called us into the pulpit,-we thought, at one time, we never could be proud if God so honoured us,-this has seemed to quicken our step in the black march of our depraved heart. Or, when a little cast down and troubled in spirit, we have wished to leave the world altogether, and have been like Jonah, trying to flee to Tarshish that we might not go to this great Nineveh at our Lord’s bidding. Little did we reck that there was such cowardice in our soul. We have thus found out another phase in our own nature.

Does any man imagine that his heart is not vile? If he be a professing Christian, I much suspect whether he ought not to renounce his profession; for, methinks, any enlightened man, who sincerely looks to himself, and whose experience leads him somewhat to look within, will surely find, not mere foibles, but foulness that literally staggers him. I question the Christianity of that man who doubts whether there are, in his soul, the remains of such corruption as drown the ungodly in perdition; or whether, though a quickened child of God, he hath another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind. What! hath he no such battle within that the things he would do he often doeth not, while the things that he would not do he often doeth? Hath he no need to be in constant prayer to God to deliver him from the evil in his heart that he may be more than a conqueror over it at last? I do assert, once more, and I think the experience of God’s children beareth me out, that, when we shall be most advanced, and when we come, at last, to sit down in God’s kingdom above, we shall find that we have not learnt all that there is to be learnt of the foulness of our nature, and the desperateness of our soul’s disease. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Perhaps, if we knew more of this terrible evil, it might imperil our reason. Hardly could it be possible for us to bear the full discovery and live. Among the wise concealments of God, is that which hides from open view the depravity of our heart, and the corruption of our nature.

But now I turn to the practical use of our subject, looking at it in two ways,-what it forbids, and what it suggests.

The depravity of our nature forbids, first of all, a venturing or presuming to play and toy with temptation. When a Christian asks, “May I go into such a place?”-should he parley thus with himself? “True, temptation is very strong there, but I shall not yield. It would be dangerous to another man, but it is safe to me. If I were younger, or less prudent and circumspect, I might be in jeopardy; but I have passed the days of youthful passion. I have learned by experience to be more expert; I think, therefore, that I may venture to plunge, and hope to swim where younger men have been carried away by the tide, and less stable ones have been drowned.” All such talking as this cometh of evil, and gendereth evil. Proud flesh vaunteth its purity, and becomes a prey to every vice. This is the conception of iniquity; only let it be nourished, and it will soon bring forth in hideous form every development of sin. He who carries gunpowder about him had better not stand where there are many sparks; he whose limbs are out of joint is in danger of falling every moment, and he had better not trust himself to walk on the edge of a precipice. Let those who feel themselves to be of a peculiarly sensitive constitution not venture into a place where disease is rife. If I knew my lungs to be weak, and liable to congestion, I should shrink from foul air and any vicious atmosphere. If you know that your heart has certain proclivities to sin, why go and tempt the devil to take advantage of you? Satan will surprise you often enough; why then should you borrow fuel from his forge for your own destruction? Why will you go forth to meet him instead of trying with all vigilance to elude his insidious attacks? You have quite enough temptation already.

It is an ill thing for God’s people when they leave their proper quarters, and visit the localities where sin abounds. Were you an angel, were you sure you could never fall, then you might securely pitch your tent in the pestilential swamp, or frequent the haunts of sensual attraction, whose house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death, without apprehension of harm. But you are so prone to evil, so susceptible of contagion, that I warn you not to trifle with it. Were you hard as adamant, your duty would still be to keep out of the way of temptation, to go as far as possible from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But you are not as strong as adamant, you are a creature whose moral power is weak, whose bias to evil is extreme; I implore you, therefore, as you would honour your God, and stand in his brightness, not to go where the temptation to sin is glaring, and flatter yourself that you will come out guileless. There are some of us who are such poor soldiers that I think, if we had our choice, we should rather be where there was least danger. It is right for some brave men, when duty calls, to go into the thickest of the battle; but every Christian is not meant to be in the front rank. There are some men who have to deal with great sins, who are to seek to pluck sinners as brands from the burning. There are those who, like the physician, must go into the midst of the plague, that they may try to save such as are smitten with it. Some men’s calling necessarily demands that they should be in the midst of sin; yet they have need to keep a special guard over themselves, lest, while they seek to pluck others from the fire, they be like Nebuchadnezzar’s men, who, in going near the furnace, were themselves burned. Let them take heed, then, to themselves, who seek to take care for others. In some of those charitable missions, in which you, my dear brethren in the church, are daily engaged, take care lest you yourselves, exposed to temptation, should so slip and slide, that Satan may have to rejoice that, instead of smiting the lion, the lion hath smitten you, and you are lying at his feet. Oh! keep out of temptation’s way, or invade it armed with the entire panoply of God. Not many of us are called to expose ourselves to it. Keep as far off as you can. You had need be watchful.

But, again, knowing how vile we are by nature, knowing indeed that we are bad enough for anything, let us take another caution. Boast not, neither in any wise vaunt yourselves. Presume not to say, “I shall never do this; I shall never do that.” Never venture to ask, with Hazael, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” My experience has furnished me with many proofs that the braggart in morality is not the man to be bound for. I would not like to stand security for his virtue. He professed to hate drunkenness, he was certain he never could be intoxicated, and yet he has indulged the vicious taste when his companions have lured him on, and stained the character that he vainly affected. If not that particular sin, yet there has been some other even more terrible, perhaps, more fatal to the soul, which has smitten that man down to the dust who has dared to vaunt his integrity. He has said, “My mountain standeth firm; I shall never be moved;” and in that very point where he thought his firmness lay, or in some other which was next-of-kin to it, he has proved his weakness. Lo! the mountain tottered to its base, and was cast into the midst of the sea. There are no men who are in such danger as the men who think they are not in any danger. There are none so likely to sin as those who say they cannot sin.

I remember a story, told me by a dear brother, who is present with us now. A tradesman, who held office in the church, asked him for a loan of money. Though rather inconvenient, he was about to comply, and would have done so had not some such inducement as this been offered, “You know you may safely advance this money to me, for I am incorruptible; I am not young, I am past temptation.” Thereupon, my friend promptly declined, as he did not like the security. The result justified his shrewdness. At that very time, the borrower knew he was on the verge of bankruptcy, and, ere long, was actually a bankrupt, and yet he could pretend to say he was above temptation. Above all, avoid those men who think themselves immaculate, and never fear a fall. If there be a ship on God’s sea the captain of which declares that nothing can ever sink her, stand clear, get into the first leaky boat to escape from her, for she will surely founder. Give a ship the flag of humility, and it is well; but they that spread out the red flag of pride, and boast that they are staunch and trim, and shall never sink, will either strike upon a rock, or founder in the open sea. Pride is the mother of soul-ruin; self-confidence is next door to self-destruction. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Boast not, though thou be never so strong. Boasting becometh not any mortal. Neither the stature nor the strength of Goliath could furnish a pretext for his arrogance. Goliath never seemed so little as when he said to David, “Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.” Leave thy boasting until the battle is done. Do not begin to glory till thou hast trodden all thine enemies beneath thy feet. Wait till thou hast crossed the Jordan, and hast reached the shores of the promised land. Do not begin to say yet, “I am out of gunshot; I am beyond the reach of sin.” “Oh!” saith one, “I have so grown in grace that I cannot sin.” Brother, I would not have thee think so. “The man after God’s own heart” sinned foully. What if thou also art after God’s own heart, why shouldst thou say, “I cannot sin”? Think of Lot,-just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, into what sin he was betrayed. Art thou as wise as Solomon? Yet Solomon was an arrant fool. Mayest thou not be, in thine old age, a fool, too? Art thou a believer? So was Peter, and yet Peter denied his Master. Mayest not thou deny thy Master, too? Let the fact that many of God’s saints have fallen where they seemed to be the strongest,-Moses the meek failed in his temper, Abraham faltered in his faith, patient Job waxed irritable, and so forth,-let their example teach thee to take heed to thyself, lest thou also be tempted, and be cast down.

And let this fact, that we do not know our own baseness, teach us not to be harsh, or too severe, with those of God’s people who have inadvertently fallen into sin. Be severe with their sin; never countenance it; let your actions and your conduct prove that you hate the garment spotted with the flesh, that you abhor the transgression, cannot endure it, and must away with it. Yet ever distinguish between the transgressor and the transgression. Think not that his soul is lost because his feet have slipped. Imagine not that, because he has gone astray, he cannot be restored. If there must be a church censure passed upon him, yet take care that thou dost so act that he, in penitence of spirit, may joyously return. Be thou as John was to Peter. Shut not out thy fallen brother, for the day may come when men will shut thee out, and when thou mayest need all the pity and all the help which others can give unto thee. Distinguish, I say again, between the sin that thou dost condemn and the sinner whom thou must still love,-the child of God over whom thou must still weep. Ah, sirs! there may be some of you here, who speak with bitter contempt and scorn of those who, notwithstanding their frailties, are better men than yourselves. God may have suffered some sin to attain a great predominance over them for a season. Perhaps, if all were known, you might be proved to be worse than they; and, oh! were the Lord to take his bit from your mouth, and the bridle of his divine providence from your jaws, you might run to greater excesses of riot still. Who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou hast not received? Say in thy soul, “By the grace of God I am what I am;” but stand not up with the self-righteousness of the Pharisee, and say, “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are.”

Leaving now this point of caution, let us consider, by way of counsel, what positive suggestions may arise. If we be thus depraved, and know not the full extent of our depravity, what then should we do? Surely, we should daily mourn before God because of this great sinfulness. Full of sin we are, so let us constantly renew our grief. We have not repented of sin to the full extent, unless we repent of the disposition to sin as well as the actual commission of sin. We should deplore before God, not only what we have done, but that depravity which made us do it. See how David repents. He does not merely mourn for sin, but he says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” He makes it a part of his confession, that iniquity was in his inward parts, and that his soul was tainted from the birth. So let it be with you; weep over your sinful nature as well as over the development of that nature. Weep not over the fountain merely, but over the deep spring from which the fountain gushes; not merely over the coin of sin which has been minted into outer acts, but over that base bullion of iniquity which lies uncoined in your heart. Every day expose this, as well as the sins you have committed, before God. Lay before God, not merely thy crutches, but thy lameness; not merely thy ceremonial defilement, but the deep leprosy that is in thy skin and in thy bone. Yea, mourn over it, and beg him, by his grace, to cleanse thee, that thou mayest enter into his kingdom.

And when thou hast thus done, take heed that thou walkest every day very near to God, seeking daily supplies of his grace. Brethren, I charge you, and specially do I charge myself here, let us look up to God, let us hourly depend upon him, feeling that yesterday’s grace is of no use whatever for to-day, that the grace which saved us seven years ago is not the grace that can save us now, but we must have fresh supplies. There be many, I think, who sit down, and say, “We did once know Christ.” That is not enough, brethren; we must know Christ each day, we must have fresh grace each hour. It is not once to be partaker of the divine nature, but to be daily a partaker of it. Doth the tree bear the fruit by the sap of seven years ago? Is it not the sap of this year which will produce the seed of this year’s fruit? And must it not be so with you? Must you not have a daily influx of the divine influences of the Holy Ghost? Must you not receive from Christ each hour that life without which you must droop and die? O brothers and sisters, let no day pass by without commending yourselves to God; let no hour be spent without resting under his wing. May our daily habit be to cry unto him, “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.” My dear hearers, there are some of you who think you are not vile. That is because you have never had your eyes opened to learn your depravity. Let me tell you this, that you are so depraved that, except you be born again, you cannot even see the kingdom of God. You may reform, you may go and seek to make yourselves better, but you cannot do it. Think of the old proverb, “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” Ay, our nature is so base,-it is so depraved and so vile,-that there must be a radical change of our whole self. How, then, canst thou change thy nature? Canst thou renew thine own heart? God forbid that thou shouldst be so vainly infatuated as to imagine it possible! No arm but the eternal arm can make thee what thou shouldst be. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Canst thou make thyself a new creature in Christ? Thou canst not create a fly, or a grain of dust, much less canst thou create within thyself a new heart. But there is One who can. The Holy Spirit is able, and Jesus Christ is willing to do so. Dost thou say, “Oh, that he would renew my heart to-night”? Methinks, he has already begun the work; that desire of thine, if sincere, would prove it. Remember that what he bids thee to do is to trust him. If thou hast longing desires for him, cast thyself down at his feet, and say, “Lord Jesus, thy salvation is brought nigh to me; I trust in thee to make known in me this strange, this God-like grace. Work in me the new heart, the divine life, the new nature; save me, save me, Jesus; put my feet in the narrow way, and then guide me all the days of my pilgrimage, and bring me to thyself, that where thou art, in heaven, there I may be with thee.” Sinner, he will do it, he will hear thy cry, and answer thy petition, and thou, in the heights of heaven, shalt sing of the mercy which received thee when thou wast not worthy to be received, of the love which loved thee when thou wast wholly unlovely, and of all the grace which changed thy nature, and made thee meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. God grant that we may not, any of us, be as Hazael was, the perpetrators of crimes of which we never suspected ourselves capable; but rather, feeling that we are men and women of the same kith and kin as the vilest sinners that ever trod this earth, may it be our grateful surprise and our happy lot to be justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus! So shall we be numbered with his saints both now and throughout eternity. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

1 KINGS 19

Verses 1, 2. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.

She was too fast in uttering her threat; and it often happens that malice outwits and overleaps itself. If Jezebel meant to kill Elijah, she should not have given him notice that she intended to do it.

3. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

He did not feel safe even in the adjoining kingdom; for he fled through Israel, and then went almost the whole length of Judah, right into the wilderness. Note that he “left his servant there,” at Beer-sheba. Even in his anxiety about himself, he had tender consideration for others; and, besides, he wanted complete solitude.

4. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Having presented this passionate and unreasonable prayer, he laid himself down to sleep,-the very best thing that he could do under the circumstances.

5-8. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him. Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

When he was hungry before, ravens fed him; but now an angel ministers to his wants. God uses all sorts of messengers, and means, so that his children may be provided for. This man’s one meal lasted him through a fast of forty days and forty nights; and, dear friend, if God giveth not bread to thee, he can take away thy hunger, so that thou hast no need to eat and drink.

9. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there;

There was something congenial about the rugged sides of Horeb, the mount of God, making it a suitable place for a man of Elijah’s spirit; the very gloom of the cave gave him some sort of miserable comfort.

9. And, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

“Why hast thou run away?”

10-12. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

A mystic whisper, and God was there, as he often is in little things.

13, 14. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous-

He stands to what he had said before, and now repeats his assertion:

14, 15. For the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And the Lord said unto him. Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:

It must have been a great comfort to Elijah to have some more work to do. It often takes the mind off very pressing sorrow if one is sent on some new employment.

16, 17. And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.

God heard the prayer that Elijah had prayed against Israel, for it was really a prayer against the people who had forsaken the Lord their God. There are times when men, who are most tender of heart, feel as if they must take God’s side against sinners. But the Lord also comforted Elijah with good news:-

18. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

LOWLY SERVICE

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, May 3rd, 1903,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, August 12th, 1886.

“This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens: and they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tabernacle of the congregation, his covering, and the covering of the badgers’ skins that is above upon it, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the hangings of the court, and the hanging for the door of the gate of the court, which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and all that is made for them: so shall they serve.”-Numbers 4:24-26.

This is the gist of the whole matter: “This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens: and they shall bear: … so shall they serve.” The Gershonites were part of the tribe of Levi, which God selected, instead of the firstborn of all Israel, to serve him in a very special manner. They were to act as the representatives and substitutes for all the firstborn, who were set apart as the Lord’s in a very peculiar sense. The Levites were, therefore, to be regarded as the firstborn,-a name which is applied by the apostle Paul to all the regenerate when he speaks of “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” Jesus Christ is the true Firstborn, and all believers are predestinated to be conformed to the image of him who is “the Firstborn among many brethren.”

The chapter we read tells us how the Levites were to be consecrated to their service. They were to be sprinkled with the water of separation, and both their bodies and their clothes were to be washed with water. “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord,” is an injunction that is still binding upon believers. We need to have both the water and the blood applied to us to prepare us for our solemn life-service as the consecrated Levites of God. “Ye are God’s clergy,” says the apostle, according to the original. All who believe in Jesus, all the twice-born, all who are washed in his precious blood, all who are set apart by the Holy Spirit, are God’s clerics, dedicated to his service even as the Levites were of old.

Besides this, the Levites had all the hair of their bodies shaved off, as if to show us that, in the day when we are consecrated to God, even our external life becomes changed. That which appertained to our old flesh is taken away; and if there is to be, in the future, any beauty or ornament to our manliness, it must be a new growth, springing out of that body which has been dedicated unto God; but all our old comeliness is turned to corruption, and that wherein we once gloried is altogether removed.

Judge ye, my brethren and sisters, how far ye are true Levites unto God. This is what you should be, and this is what you are, unless, indeed, ye be reprobates.

It is worthy of note that these Levites, although they were all equally consecrated, had not all exactly the same work to perform. God is not the God of uniformity. There is a wondrous unity of plan and design in all that he does, but there is also an equally marvellous variety. He did not command all these sons of Levi to carry one particular vessel, or order them to bear one special curtain or board belonging to the tabernacle; but he divided unto every man his own work, and one had to do this, and another had to do something else.

There are some of the Lord’s servants whom he raises up to teach, and preach, and exhort, and guide. These may, for the moment, be compared, in a certain fashion, to the sons of Aaron, though the type must not be pressed too far. But the Lord has also a large number of his own dear children who do not open their mouths to speak for him in public, and who could not fulfil the duties of leaders in his Church. Shall they be left without any service? They have but one talent; they have a shoulder, which is strong enough to bear burdens of the Lord, though they have not much power in their head to think, or a fluent tongue with which to speak. Is there no office for them to fill? Shall all the body be a mouth? If so, what a vacuum there will be! Surely, there must be, in a well-ordered body, eyes, feet, hands, shoulders, as well as the open mouth and the speaking tongue. So God hath appointed to many of his servants a position and a work like that of the Gershonites: “They shall bear: so shall they serve.” I must not, however, forget to remind you that all the servants of our King are burden-bearers. None of us may hope to go to heaven unless we are willing to take his yoke upon us, and to learn of him; but there are some, who are not called to speak or preach, but whose special function it is patiently to bear the burdens of life, the burdens of the sanctuary, the burdens of the Church of God, and so to be accepted of him as a living sacrifice in that particular way. I am going now to try to speak of such and to such burden-bearers.

My first remark is, that many of the Lord’s own people are simply burden-bearers, like these Gershonites.

Let none of them be discouraged or dissatisfied because that is all they are, for the Lord still needs burden-bearers, even as, in the days of his flesh, he sent word to the owner of the ass on which he wished to ride through Jerusalem, “The Lord hath need of him.” If the tabernacle is to be moved through the wilderness, all the holy vessels and furniture must also be moved. There must be somebody to carry them; and happy and blessed is that man who willingly yields his back to bear the burdens of the house of the Lord, and counts it an honour that he is allowed to do so.

Well now, among the burden-bearers of the Lord, the burdens are very various. There are some of his servants who are called to bear the burden of a very laborious life. I am sorry for some of my brethren, when I get an opportunity to speak with them, because the hours of their toil are so long, and the strain of their service appears to be bringing them to a state of extreme feebleness of body; and sometimes they also get to feel despondency of spirit by reason of the excessive weariness which their almost incessant toil entails. I know some beloved brethren, to whom the Master would not say a single angry word, if he even saw them asleep in the Tabernacle. I have often thought of what he said when his disciples slept, not when he was preaching, but when he was doing even more than that, when, in Gethsemane, he was praying even unto a bloody sweat. He did say, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” Yet, in his amazing pity, he added, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It is so still. It is a pity that our present-day society, adapting itself more and more to a killing pace, works many men far too much as a general rule; and upon some of them the stress of labour comes so heavily as almost to amount to actual slavery. Yet, my brethren and sisters, albeit we would sympathize with you to the greatest degree, if, in the order of providence, you are called to bear that burden, you will find it to be the part of wisdom to accept it as a burden from the Lord. I know it may sometimes be looked upon, and justly so, as the oppression of men, and in that light it is crushing; but if you can see, at the back of that oppression, the eternal purpose of God, it will tend greatly to lighten your heavy load, or it will strengthen you to bear it. The poor Christian slave, in the olden times, although he might long to be a free man, yet often found, in his little hut at night, no small comfort by saying, “If, in the providence of God, I am a slave, and cannot escape, I will bear even this as being permitted by my Heavenly Father, and seek to glorify God even as a slave.” So, you see, there are some who have to bear the burden of labour. They might, perhaps, escape from it if they did wrong; but they dare not do wrong, they scorn to do it; and so, their burden becomes a burden from the Lord.

How many others there are who have to bear the daily burden of pain! Oh, how many daughters of pain do I know, and sons of affliction,-perhaps even from their birth the subjects of some grievous infirmity which has cast a shadow over their whole lives! There lies, at Dundee, at this present moment, a man who has been confined to his bed, I think it is now fifty-six years. I have his photograph at home, and the friend who sent it to me wrote, “I send you the likeness of the happiest man in Dundee, and one of the most useful, too, for he is a great soul-winner though he cannot raise himself from a constantly prostrate position.” He talks so sweetly of Christ and of the upholding power of divine grace, that he leads many to put their trust in Jesus Christ. All over this land there are bed-ridden men and women who are the saintliest among the saints. It is an atrocious lie that some have uttered when they have said that the sickness is a consequence of the sufferer’s sin. I could not select, out of heaven, choicer spirits than some whom I know who have not for twenty years left their bed, and they have lived nearer to God than any of us, and have brought to him more glory than any of us. Although we deeply sympathize with them, we might almost covet their suffering, because God is so greatly glorified in them. All over the world, there is a brave band of these burden-bearers. I think, sometimes, that they are like soldiers who are on night duty. The sentinels must not sleep, lest the enemy should attack the camp unawares. The altar must never lose the glow and heat of its holy fire, and the lamp of the sanctuary must never be permitted to go out; so these sufferers, as they lie, night after night, watching the long and weary hours, keep the lamp of prayer brightly burning, and the incense of intercession perpetually ascending to the Most High, so that never is the earth without the sweetening influence of saintly supplication. Their main business, like that of the Gershonites, is to serve God by bearing burdens.

Need I describe all the burdens that the saints on earth have to carry? There are some who bear the burden of poverty. A very large proportion of the excellent of the earth can be found among the poor of the earth,-poor in spirit as well as poor in pocket; and “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It is their constant portion to struggle and to toil hard to provide things honest in the sight of all men; but it does seem, with some, as if they could never rise out of a condition of bitter, grinding poverty. Well, if it must be so, let them feel and say, “As it hath happened thus unto us, we are like the families of the Gershonites, whose service was to bear burdens.”

Some children of God are called to bear the very heavy burden of reproach. They have done no wrong, and yet they are the subject of the jests and jeers of the ungodly. They have been faithful to Christ and their own conscience, but they are misunderstood and misrepresented. Their little peculiarities, which are scarcely faults, are exaggerated into crimes. A word which fell from their lips, perhaps too hastily, is caught up, and echoed and re-echoed against them a thousand times. Men make them offenders for a word, and eat them up, as David says, “as they eat bread.” I have known godly wives suffer thus from ungodly husbands; and, oftentimes, a dear girl, who is brought to the Saviour, finds herself as a speckled bird in the family. All that can be said against Christians, and all that can be said against hypocrites who are, unhappily, too often found in Christian churches, will be contemptuously cast at her; and she has to bear it all, patiently enduring reproach for Christ’s sake. If this is God’s will concerning us, we ought not to endeavour to avoid it; but say, “Well, be it so. If somebody must be smitten for Christ’s sake, here is my cheek ready for the smiting. If there is a handful of mud that is meant for a Christian, let it fall upon me. If the saints of God are to be scoffed at and scorned, why should I be allowed to escape the insults?” There was a king of the Crusaders, who, when they wanted to crown him in Jerusalem, spurned the golden coronet which they set upon his brow, for he said, “Why should I wear a crown of gold where my Lord and Master wore one of thorns?” Happy will you be if he shall enable you to say, as you look up to him,-

“If on my face for thy dear name,

Shame and reproaches be,

All hail reproach, and welcome shame,

If thou remember me.”

There are some who have to bear this burden, so they had better bear it without wincing, for this is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve by bearing burdens.

I believe that some of God’s people have to bear the burdens of this wicked world. In the order of providence, their lot is cast in the midst of the ungodly. Even in their own home, they can scarcely eat a meal without hearing blasphemy; and if they go down the court or street in which they live, especially of an evening, they cannot help being vexed with the sight and sounds of sin. There are some of us, who can be very glad and merry, for we have naturally great elasticity of spirit, yet we are bowed down, day after day, by the apostacy of the professing church of this present age, and by the way in which everything is followed after except Christ. Every kind of false doctrine is popular nowadays, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is derided as old-fashioned and out of date, and I know not what. Sometimes, the very bread we eat seems bitter, and the air we breathe is contaminated, because of the sin that is everywhere around us. Well, dear friends, whenever you feel depressed and burdened on this account, so that you go like one who misses the light of the sun, say to yourself, “It must be so; this is what must happen to those who are of an earnest, burning spirit. They must be consumed with grief by reason of the iniquities of the times, for it is appointed unto the families of the Gershonites that they shall serve by bearing burdens, and this is our burden.”

I might say much more upon this head, but I will not, for you all know that the burdens which God puts upon his children, or allows others to lay upon them, are very many and very varied. But this is the comfort of it, their burdens are all for the Lord. If they are in a right state of heart, this burden-bearing is true service for the Lord. Remember how Peter wrote, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye 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.” If the buffeting comes upon you for Christ’s sake, you are, in some sense, made partakers of his sufferings, and you shall also be partakers of his glory. A true child of God lives wholly for God. He is not merely a Christian when he goes up to the place of worship, and sings the praise of the Lord, but he seeks to live for God as soon as he opens his eyes in the morning, and until he closes them again at night. It is for God that he eats and drinks, and for God that he buys, and sells, and works, and gives, or saves, or does whatever it is right for him to do. The Levite of old had no business to do in the world but the business of God; and the true Christian is in the same condition; for, though he keeps a shop, or ploughs the fields, he keeps shop for Jesus, and ploughs the fields for Jesus. He is not his own master, but he is the servant of Another, even the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is his joy to labour faithfully as a steward and a servant on behalf of his Master. I wish all Christians realized this truth. We have far too many professors who make their religion into a kind of off-hand farm. They cultivate it a little during the odds and ends of their time, but their chief business lies with the world. Brothers and sisters, there is no good to be gained by a religion of that kind. If you give God only the apple-peeling of your life, he will give you simply the parings of religion, and they are generally very sour; but he who gives the whole fruit of his life to God shall receive from God the wines on the lees well refined, the choicest juice of the richest clusters of Eshcol shall be set to his happy lips. Blessed is the man whose very heart is in the ways of the Lord, and who has God’s ways within his heart. May each one of us be such a man, for he is a happy man,-a burden-bearer, but all his burdens are for his Lord.

And notice further, under this head, that the burdens, which are borne for the Lord, educate the bearer. I should suppose that the man who carried the golden candlestick knew more about that candlestick than anybody else did; at least, it ought to have been a hint to him to study its typical meaning. As he bore that precious burden, it should have been his desire that his brethren should know what it was that he was bearing, and also what was its spiritual significance. And in the service of God, this I know, whatever may have been the case in the typical instance before us, it is a fact that, whenever God puts a burden upon the shoulders of any of his children, it is an educational process. We always learn much more by our griefs and woes than by anything else. God has often produced in us much richer and sweeter fruit by pruning than by any other process of his divine husbandry. Take care, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, and the burdens of the Lord, that ye cry unto him, “Teach us, Lord, by this affliction; make this pain or this poverty to be a means of instruction to us; make this burden to be the means of our growth in grace, part of our spiritual training for a better world.”

There is much more that might be said upon this point, but I must pass on to the second head, which is, that the Lord has made appointments concerning these burden-bearers.

First, he thought upon them, though they were but burden-bearers. Here is a whole chapter about them, and there are other chapters about these Gershonites, and Kohathites, and Merarites. The Lord directed Moses to write all this about them. Possibly, you have been thinking that the Lord only recollects apostles, and great leaders in his Church; but it is not so. He remembers the burden-bearers; the rank and file are dear to him. “The Lord knoweth them that are his,” whatever position they may occupy; and though some of you may have to go from this service to a very poor home, and though others of you have only crept out from your bed for a little while, and will soon have to be back there to endure new pains, and though you feel as if all that you had to do was to lie and suffer,-well, the Lord knows all about it. He is thinking of you burden-bearers who are so much like his Son, the great Burden-bearer; if he could forget all others, he would not forget you. You have to take up your cross daily, as your Lord took up his cross; and God takes delight in you, for you are very dear to his heart. Do not think that it can be otherwise, but comfort yourself with these words, the Lord remembered them.

More than that, the Lord had appointed each of these burden-bearers. You take up an old coin, and you read on it, “George IV., by the grace of God, king of Great Britain,” Well, I really do not think that the grace of God had much to do with that appointment; but, if any one of you Christians sweeps a crossing, you might say, “Thomas Jones, by the grace of God, crossing-sweeper;” or if the poorest Christian woman goes out washing, she might say, “Sarah Smith, by the grace of God, washerwoman;” for, if you are in your right position, and bearing the burden which God has allotted to you, then you are in your place by divine appointment. It makes a person wonderfully happy if he knows that his occupation is according to divine appointment. It has been well said that, if there were two angels in heaven, and God had two works to be performed by them, and he said to one of them, “You go down to earth, and rule a kingdom,” and to the other, “You go down, and sweep a crossing,” the angels would be equally pleased to do their Master’s will, for it is their delight to “do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.”

If any of you think that a very prominent position-a place of great usefulness and responsibility-is much to be desired, well, I would not recommend you to covet mine. I am satisfied to occupy it, for I believe the Lord has called me to this position; but, sometimes, when I go home with a very heavy heart, through the many crushing cares of this great church, I cry unto God, “Woe is me that ever I should have been called to such a post,” yet rejoicing all the while that I can say, with the apostle Paul, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” If you, my brother, have a little company of about a hundred people to deal with, be perfectly satisfied. Or if, my sister, you have a class of ten or a dozen girls to teach, be content with that number, and do the best you can to glorify God in your own proper place. Depend upon it, if you changed your burden for mine, you would not be able to bear it, and if I had yours, I dare say it would not fit my back so well as my own does.

Not only did the Lord appoint the man who was to bear the burden, but he also appointed the burden for each man to bear. In the 27th verse, we read, “At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens, and in all their service: and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens.” They had not to choose for themselves what they would carry. One might have said, “I will carry the golden candlestick,” whereas it might have been his part to carry some of the curtains or hangings; at all events, they had nothing to do with that matter. They had simply to do what they were told. One word that the Christian Church needs to spell, in these days, for she is very apt to forget it, is the word “subjection.” Be ye brethren, subject one to another, and be ye all subject unto Christ. But we do like to pick our work, and choose our burdens. One says, “I like to do my work in my own way. I do not intend to drop into any kind of order and regulation.” I do not know that I am speaking personally of anybody here. As far as I am concerned, I am quite satisfied with you, but I know that, in many places, Mrs. So-and-So won’t do this; she would have been quite willing to do something else; and Brother So-and-So is hurt because he is not called upon to do that. Now, if Brother So-and-So would only be eager to take the lowest place, we could readily accommodate him; but his great ambition is to be over all the rest of his brethren, and he is not at all qualified for such a position as that. Let us all ask the Lord to cast out that evil spirit, and then to tell us what he would have us carry. “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Down goes my shoulder ready to bear the God-appointed burden. “Send me to the top of the mountains, or to the bottom of the sea, only say what thy will is. It is all thy work, and I will gladly do it. My cry is, ‘Here am I, send me,’ before I know where I am to go, or what I am to do. If I am but fitted for thy service, Lord, send me.” Oh, that we all had more and more of this spirit!

Beside the divine appointment of the man, and the divine appointment of the burden for him to bear, there was also the divine appointment of the time of each man’s service. These Gershonites were to be numbered “from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old.” I am not going to say to any of you, “Wait till you are thirty years of age before you begin to serve the Lord.” No, no, no; you can do a great deal of good work long before you are thirty, and long after you are fifty, let us hope; but this is the lesson for you, you have only to carry your burden for a certain length of time. The God, who appointed you to bear it, also determined when you were to begin to bear it, and when you are to leave off bearing it. When God says you are only to have ten troubles, the devil cannot make eleven of them; and you cannot reduce them to nine. Every particle of bitterness that is to go into your cup is dropped out with all the care of a qualified dispenser, and there will not be one drop more of bitterness in your cup than the Lord knew was necessary to make the medicine just what it should be. I do delight in this truth, and I hope that you also do. It is an old-fashioned doctrine, and this is an old-fashioned verse,-

“Plagues and deaths around me fly,

Till he bids, I cannot die;

Not a single shaft can hit

Till the God of love sees fit.”

Everything is appointed and determined, not by blind fate, but by an all-wise predestination. The wheels of providence do not crush the believer, for they are full of eyes; so that, as they revolve, they work our lasting good, and never do us harm. I hope all the burden-bearers here will believe this blessed fact, that the Lord has appointed to all his burden-bearers the burdens they are to bear, and the time they are to bear them.

III Lastly, and but briefly, each burden-bearer must feel the sacredness of his office.

All these Gershonites, though only bearers of burdens, were ordained by God. There is a great deal of fuss made nowadays, about “ordaining” a minister. I was never “ordained” by mortal men, for I did not believe in having their empty hands laid on my head. If they had any of them had any spiritual gift to impart to me, I would have been glad to receive it; but, as they had nothing to give me, I could not accept it. I believe that every true Christian is ordained of God to his particular work; and in the strength of that divine ordination, let him not bother his head about merely human forms and ceremonies, but just keep to his proper work, and shoulder his own burden.

But they were all to feel that this ordination by God made their service a very solemn thing. He who carried a pot, or a pair of snuffers, or a flesh-hook, was to feel that what he carried was sacred, and that he was carrying it in the name of God, and, therefore, that he was to do it in a solemn manner. So the first command to the burden-bearers was, “Be ye clean.” They were to wash themselves, and to wash their clothes. O sirs, if you mean to be foul, go and serve the devil! If you want to behave dishonestly, or lewdly, or selfishly, or unkindly, be a servant of Satan, because you will not do him any discredit; but do not pretend to serve God with those dirty hands of yours. What have you to do with touching that which is “all of blue” when you are all black? What right have you to drink out of the holy vessels of the sanctuary when your lips are leprous with iniquity? This is the most horrible thing about the Church of God,-that there should ever be in it unworthy men. I have thanked God for Judas Iscariot many and many a time. I am glad he got in among the apostles, because we should have given up all our church life if we had not seen that, even with Christ for the Pastor, and with his twelve apostles around him, one of them was a devil. It will always be so; but, oh! I do beseech you who are burden-bearers for Christ, be ye clean. Go again every day to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and wash there, and may the great Master take the basin and the ewer, as he did for his disciples, and wash your feet, that you may be “clean every whit”!

They were not only to be clean, but they were also to be very reverent in their service. It was not to be a kind of happy-go-lucky, hit-or-miss service, they must never lift up a corner of the covering to look curiously at anything that they carried; nor must they, even by their actions, seem to say, “We can carry these things anyhow.” Oh, no! but there must be real reverence about all their service, and one man must take one part, and another another, with many a prayer and a continual looking up to that God whose holy vessels they were to carry, on the behalf of his people, through the wilderness. God still desires to have reverent servants; may he deliver us from a flippant Christianity! Oh, that he would save us, not from holy mirth, but from the careless handling of divine things! It is an awfully solemn thing to be a servant of the Lord of hosts. Jacob said, “How dreadful (how awe-full) is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” He felt that the presence of Jehovah was something that filled him with awe; and for us to stand before the God, who is a consuming fire, is no subject for trifling.

At the same time, although their service was to be reverent, they were always to be ready for it. They could never tell when they would have to take up their burdens, and march. Sometimes, at break of day, the trumpet sounded, “Up, and away,” for the cloudy-fiery pillar was moving. At other times, they may have been sitting at their noontide meal, and as they looked up, they perceived that the pillar of cloud had begun to move, so, as soon as ever the priests had taken down the coverings, they must pick up their burdens, and then, each man in his appointed place, the load was to be carried till the cloud stopped. The special thing for us to remember is that they were always to be ready. Our friends, over at the Southwark fire station, some of whom are members of this church, tell me that they are always ready to go off to any fire that may break out. I have asked them, “When are you off duty?” and they have replied, “Never; if we come to the Tabernacle, or go anywhere else, we are always to be on the watch for the signal that would tell us that a fire is raging. No matter what we are doing, at dead of night, or in the dawning of morning, eating our bread, or even if we are asleep, we must be up in a moment as soon as ever the call is given.” I have heard of a certain parson, who was out hunting, one day, and someone said to him, “It does not look right for a servant of Christ to be wearing a red jacket like yours.” “Oh!” said he, “you see, I was off duty at the time.” But when is a Christian minister off duty? When is any Christian off duty? We are never off duty, and we are to count it a high privilege that we are always to be ready, at the summons of our Master, to take up our burden, and bear it wherever he pleases.

Finally, they were to do it cheerfully. It is not recorded, in God’s Word, that any one of these sons of Gershon ever complained that his load was too heavy. I do not even read that one of them said, “Look, Moses; I am a full-grown man, yet Ithamar has bidden me carry only a tent-pin. I think I ought to be allowed to carry one of the boards of the tabernacle, at the very least.” There is no record that any one of them ever talked like that. Their load was neither too heavy nor too light. In like manner, brethren, let us drop into our proper places. He, who has redeemed us with his precious blood, and made us to be the firstborn among men, calls us to this service or to that. It is not our place to reason why, or to make reply, but to obey our Master’s orders at once, and to do for him anything, great or small, which he may command us.

I greatly fear that some of you are not the servants of my Master. Then, you are serving another lord, and his burdens, though they may seem little or nothing to you now, will grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, until they sink you into the bottomless pit for ever. Have you never heard of the man who served a tyrant master? The tyrant called at the man’s smithy, and said to him, “Make me a chain; find your own iron, and out of it make a chain for me.” “How long shall I make it, your majesty?” “Make it as long as you like, and keep on at it till I come here again.” He worked for twelve months, and forged a long, long chain. When the tyrant came, he gave him nothing for what he had done, but he said, “Make it as long again.” So the poor man had to go on hammering away at the chain; and when he had finished it, what do you think was the payment he received? The tyrant said, “Bind him, hand and foot, with this chain, and hurl him down into the abyss, bound by the very chain that he has himself forged.” That is what the black prince of hell will do with you who serve him. Therefore, fly from him while you may. “I will think about it,” says one. You will never get away from him if you act like that. The only way to escape from the devil is to run away from him without giving him any notice. Just as you are, at this moment, escape for your lives, look not behind you, for the only hope for you is to flee at once from the wrath to come. Do as the prodigal son did; say, “I will arise and go to my father;” and then, like him, rise up at once, and go. He who deliberates about such a matter as this is lost. It is now or never with you. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” The Lord help us all to escape, this very hour, for his dear Son’s sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

NUMBERS 8:5-22

Verses 5, 6. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.

These men were to be the servants of God; they are the type of God’s elect,-a people set apart unto divine service, to be zealous for good works. “Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.” That is just the way that God the Holy Ghost takes Christians out of the mass of mankind, and cleanses them.

7, 8. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock with his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering.

There are still, typically, these three things in the cleansing of God’s people,-the blood, the water, and the razor. There is blood, the emblem of the putting away of sin by Christ’s atoning sacrifice; the water, typical of the Holy Ghost, by whom the power of sin is overcome; and then that razor, cutting off that which grows of the flesh; that which was their beauty and their glory is all taken away from them. There are some of God’s people who have not felt much of that razor; but if they are to serve God perfectly, it must be used. “Let them shave all their flesh.”

9-12 And thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congregation and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together: and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites: and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord. And the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullocks: and thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, unto the Lord, to make an atonement for the Levites.

There is no true way of serving God without the atonement. Leave that out, and you have left out the vital part of the whole. What service can we render to the Most High if we begin by disloyalty to him whom God has set forth to be the propitiation for sin, even his dear Son?

13, 14. And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the Lord. Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.

We are to offer up to God our spirit, soul, and body, which is our reasonable service; and if we be indeed God’s children, we are to feel that, henceforth, we are not our own, for we are bought with a price. We belong wholly to God; all that we are, and all that we have, is to be his through life, and in death, and throughout eternity.

15. And after that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: and thou shalt cleanse them, and offer them for an offering.

An offering must be presented for us before we can offer ourselves as an offering unto God.

16. For they are wholly given unto me from among the children of Israel;

Listen to this, you who trust that you are made like unto the elder Brother, and the firstborn from among the creatures of God:

16-18. Instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them unto me. For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself. And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the children of Israel.

God’s people are the elect; they have escaped from death. In that day when the sword of the Lord was drawn, they were shielded by the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the lintel and on the two sideposts; and, henceforth, because they have been thus preserved, they belong unto the Lord.

19-22. And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make an atonement for the children of Israel: that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come nigh unto the sanctuary. And Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, did to the Levites according unto all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did the children of Israel unto them. And the Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes; and Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them. And after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron, and before his sons: as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them.

How instructive all this is to us! We are not to begin blunderingly to serve God while we are yet in our sins,-before we have been sprinkled with the blood,-before we have been washed in the water which flowed with the blood,-before we have felt that razor that takes away from us all our own pride and glory. No; but when all that is done, then there is to be no delay: “After that went the Levites in to do their service.”